Celestial Dragon

by Silken Ink

What if – instead of Natsu bringing Lucy into Fairy Tail, it's the other way around? This is the story of a Fairy Tail celestial mage who stumbles across a red burning key…one that summons a celestial fire dragon. Nalu pairing. It will be a slow burn romance with eventual fiery lemons. ;D

46. Chapter 46

Author's Note:

It's Sunday! And you know what that means! A new update! Yay!

As always huge fluffy heroic thanks to all my wonderful amazing reviewers out there! Big hugs and kisses to my repeat reviewers: Anna5949, stranger1999, Donthedarkdragon26, quidditchChick6, SunnieDayys, Syfenos U, valerioux, Firefly9917, TheJSmooth, The Age of Awesomeness, Leomae2.0, and Lucinda. Equally big hugs and kisses to my newest reviewers: mikeczajk12, ThatOneGuyUpstairs, sakshishetty3003, and dani-yell10.

Also, as a side note I've had someone ask about why Lucy isn't getting pregnant, which is an excellent question. I won't answer it here, but I'll be sure to put in an explanation somewhere in the story. ;D

Alrighty! On with the show! And you know the drill about the sneak peak. ;D

---

Eventually, Lucy and Natsu left to head back to their hotel – after Lucy regained the ability to walk…mostly. Everyone else was either still busy doing what they had been before Lucy and Natsu disappeared, or else had gone back to the hotel, leaving them to head back alone. Happy was nowhere in sight, so Lucy assumed he went back to the hotel with Carla and Wendy.

Cana called out to them on the way out, "How was it?"

Lucy just laughed and responded with, "Eleven out of ten. Goodnight!"

Cana raised her glass in a toast and they left her to it. Bacchus had rejoined her, and it looked like they were still busy competing.

As for Lucy and Natsu, after exiting the pub they headed down the street at a medium pace hand in hand.

She had just looked up at Natsu, smiling at the slightly dopey expression still stamped across his face, when she ran into someone… quite forcefully at that. Both parties fall back onto their butts, Lucy's hand being ripped from Natsu's rather roughly. After wincing and muttering, "I'm fine," to a perturbed Natsu, she looked over to see Yukino sitting across from her…and she looked like she'd been crying.

"Oh, hey Yukino. Sorry. I wasn't watching where I was going…. uh, are you okay?"

"It's okay. It was my fault…I'm sorry…" Yukino sniffed and wiped her eyes, doing a really bad job of hiding her tears.

"You don't have to apologize…but seriously, why are you crying? Did something happen?"

"I…n-no…I…"

Mid-sentence, her face scrunched up and tears started to flood down her cheeks. She mumbled something that sounded like cusses under her breath as she desperately tried to stem the waterworks, but no matter how much she scrubbed her face, it didn't seem to make a difference.

"Hey, hey…it's okay. Come on…let's get you somewhere where you can sit and maybe have some tea." Lucy soothed to the best of her ability and reached out to wrap an arm around the other girl's quaking shoulders. Her gesture only seemed to make Yukino cry harder though, and Lucy sent Natsu a somewhat desperate look.

He just shrugged and shook his head to say he had no idea what to do either. So they just led her back to their hotel where they situated her in a comfortable chair in the bar downstairs and offered her some tea to sip on. Thankfully things were pretty quiet tonight, so they had the place mostly to themselves. Eventually she managed to calm down, and in halting humiliated tones she explained what had happened and why she was crying.

"I…because I bet my life and lost…Sabertooth kicked me out. Master said he didn't have any use for someone as weak as me…" she paused to sniffle and take another sip of tea.

It took a moment, but eventually she continued. "He made me strip…in front of everyone…it was so humiliating! All of my pride…everything I've been working towards, stripped off in an instant with my clothes…and then he…I had to…erase my own guildmark!"

At that, Lucy gasped. To have your guildmark erased was bad enough – when the guild was your family, it was like being disinherited. To make a person do it to themselves was even worse…unimaginably cruel. Instead of just getting a painful divorce, it would be like forcing someone to cut their ring finger off. Only the master of a guild could give and take away a guild mark, so to do it yourself meant you basically had to damage the skin somehow or simply strip it off along with the guildmark.

Before she could say anything, Natsu cut in. "Where the hell was Rogue?! How could he let this happen to his mage?!"

She sniffled. "Rogue and Sting weren't there. They'd left earlier to go get some food."

"But why didn't he teleport to you when he felt your distress?!"

"He tried to, but I ordered him back and closed his gate."

Natsu started to say something else, but Lucy interrupted him. Her first priority was making sure Yukino was okay. "How did you remove your guildmark? Do you need medical attention?"

"I asked Ophiuchus to do it. But she didn't have a chance to stitch it up after…" She gingerly raised the edge of her shirt and showed a bloody patch of raw flesh that vaguely resembled the Saber Tooth guildmark.

"Oh…ouch. Come on, let's get you looked at. I can have Porlyusica dress your wound for you."

"Thank you…" Once again, tears dribbled down her face, and by now Lucy was beginning to understand why her acts of kindness only seemed to make Yukino sadder. She was probably wondering why her own guild couldn't have been like this, and why she had ended up in a family that didn't want her.

As she tugged on Yukino's hand and led her up the stairs towards Porlyusica's room – who was also staying in this hotel – they were interrupted by Sting, Rogue, and Lector bursting in through the doors.

"Yukino!" Sting called as they ran over, both out of breath as if they had been running full tilt to get to her.

"Why did you send me back?!" Rogue gasped as they screeched to a halt in front of her.

"If you had intervened, Master would have kicked you out too." Yukino softly murmured, averting her eyes. "This was my mistake… and my punishment. I didn't want you to get dragged into it too."

"You're out of Sabertooth, and that means I'm out too as your spirit. Right?"

He looked really torn though, glancing back and forth between her and Sting, who was grinding his teeth. It seemed that the dragon slayer still didn't want to leave the guild, even after it treated his supposed girlfriend so badly, but it was clear that he was indecisive about it.

Seeing this, Yukino sighed, softly saying, "No…you should stay with Sting. You have that ability with your mark."

"You should stay too!" Sting finally barked, making Yukino jump a little. "I mean…I know you can't be a part of the guild but…I don't want you to leave, so…stay…please…" His voice grew softer and softer until it was nearly a whisper by the end, and then his eyes slid to the side and he flushed a little, reaching up to scratch the back of his head awkwardly.

Lucy shot a look at Yukino to see her reaction and wasn't exactly surprised to see more tears slipping down her cheeks – though these looked like happy tears. "Yes…I'll stay."

Rogue's shoulders seemed to go slack with relief. "Good…and maybe someday we'll…find a new family together…"

Sting's fists clenched, as did his teeth, but he sighed through his nose and nodded sharply. "Maybe…I dunno, but…I'll think about it."

Even Lector, who was just as gung-ho about Sabertooth as Sting, looked hesitant and worried about the whole thing.

By now, Lucy was a little confused by these interactions. Something was different here, but she refrained from asking them about it right this minute, holding her tongue until later. For now, she needed to get Yukino to Porlyusica, and she turned and herded the shorter woman off with her, shooing the two boys away.

"I've got her for tonight. You three go back to your guild…something tells me your master is the kind who wouldn't be happy about this little meeting."

Rogue, Sting, and Lector all winced and nodded, before turning to head out the door. Before they went though, Rogue reached back and grabbed Yukino's hand, squeezing and meeting her eyes for a poignant moment, and then turned to join Sting, who was looking back at the interaction with something unreadable in his intense gaze. Then they left.

As the two girls turned to continue up the stairs, Natsu conspicuously lingered behind. When Lucy turned to look at him, his expression told her that he was positively livid. Yukino's story had obviously struck a nerve, and Lucy had the sinking feeling that she knew what he was about to go do.

"Hey Natsu, you coming?"

"No…I've got something to do first."

Pursing her lips, she met his serious black eyes and made her decision. "Fine. But don't go too crazy okay?"

He flashed her a brief smile and then disappeared out the door. He easily tracked Sting and Rogue by their scent, and quickly caught up with them.

"Natsu? What are you doing here?" Rogue asked as he popped up beside them.

"Neither of you can avenge Yukino right? So I'll do it for you." he said with a dark grin, and a fiery fist punched into his open palm.

Sting grinned. "No way man, I'd never let you attack my guild." His words and actions didn't line up though, because he waved his hand in a gesture to join them and turned to continue walking.

"Oh, uh-huh…and you're not leading me there, right?" Natsu chuckled back, catching on quick enough.

"No, we would never do that." Rogue responded deadpan.

Lector just snickered.

When the three walked into a hotel, Natsu followed, and then veered off when Rogue subtly pointed at a large pair of doors off the big lobby. Meanwhile, Sting and Rogue headed up a set of stairs…back to their room probably to wait out the mess that was about to go down. A vicious grin split Natsu's lips, and he chuckled darkly as he spun to look at the doors that had been pointed out to him.

Cracking his knuckles, he stomped over to them, and then knocked them in with a solid punch. "Sabertooth! Where's your master?! I've got a bone to pick with him!"

The occupants of the room all went into a frenzy, spouting stupid things like, "How dare you!" and, "Who do you think you are?!" Natsu ignored them as he waded through the masses, looking straight at a large man sitting calmly under some sort of fruit tree. It was pretty clear he was the master, by the confidence and arrogance oozing off him.

Some weird ninja dude with light magic attacked at a flick of the big guy's finger, and blinding light blasted Natsu … making it impossible to see. Of course Natsu didn't need to see to make flames explode from his body when he smelled the enemy closing in, and he timed it perfectly so that the idiot was blasted back and hit the wall with a thud.

That seemed to impress the master of Sabertooth, and he finally stood, walking a few steps into the center of the room to face off with Natsu. Everyone else backed off, giving him room and respect and plenty of fear. The room was sour with it, and Natsu's nose wrinkled in disgust that this guildmaster was using fear to control its members. That was just foul.

"You have spirit…more than anyone in my guild. Come then, show me what you've got." thundered the large, white bearded, scar-faced, bead-wearing idiot.

Grinning – and not in a nice way – Natsu took the invitation and attacked.

…

Meanwhile, back in the Fairy Tail hotel, Porlyusica was just finishing up with Yukino.

"Now go get some rest. And don't take the dressing off for 24 hours, it should be healed by then." the grumpy healer instructed, and then shooed them out of her room.

Once out in the hall, they awkwardly stood there, looking at each other somewhat at a loss. "Now what, Lucy? What should I do?" Yukino asked, still sounding depressed and defeated, but slightly less-so after having talked to her two male companions.

"Well…let's get you a room here. Near us if possible, since my wolves will be patrolling the area for those guys who kidnapped us before."

She nodded and the two women headed downstairs to the register, which thankfully had a night shift. Yukino was able to get a room discounted, since it was so late. They headed back upstairs and got her settled.

Inside the room, Lucy risked asking the question that had been begging to be asked, even though she knew it was incredibly rude. All she could use as an excuse was that she spent too much time with Mira and Cana, and their nosiness had apparently rubbed off on her.

"Um…can I ask a question?"

"Sure." Yukino turned and sat on the bed, facing Lucy as she fidgeted in front of the closed door.

"It's not any of my business but…what sort of relationship do the three of you have? Sorry! I know it's incredibly rude of me to ask. It's just…I was sure that Sting and Rogue were mates, the way Natsu and I are…and that's how Rogue's able to summon to him. But Sting called you his girlfriend, and the way you all interacted tonight…I just…I'm sorry, I guess my curiosity got the best of me. You know what? Never mind, the more I hear myself talk, the more I'm realizing how inappropriate it is to ask…"

Yukino cut in, forcing Lucy to stop her mindless jabbering. "It's okay. To be honest, I would like to consider us friends after all you've done for me. And friends share right?" The other celestial mage gave her a sweet, if slightly troubled and sad, smile. "Maybe it would help to talk to a friend about all this actually."

Blinking, Lucy sighed in relief. There was a comfortable chair nearby and she situated herself in it. Something told Lucy that this conversation might be on the longer side and that she'd need a parking space. When Yukino sat cross-legged on the bed it only confirmed her suspicion.

As soon as they were both settled, Lucy said, "I'm glad I didn't offend you. And I hope I can help somehow…feel free to talk about whatever's bugging you."

"Alright. Well, to start, I guess in answer to your question…it's complicated." The other girl flushed and suddenly seemed uncomfortable. "It's um…really…different, and I…I really hope this doesn't change the way you think about me…"

That was a really awkward way to start this conversation and Lucy found herself blinking as she processed it. "I'm sure it won't."

"Okay. I hope so. Um…so…first of all, yes, you're right. Rogue and Sting are together as mates, and that lets Rogue summon to him."

Lucy grinned a little at the confirmation of her hypothesis, but that still didn't explain why Sting had said she was his girlfriend. When the white-haired girl stalled out, Lucy prompted, "I thought so. And just for the record, I'm totally okay with that, I think they make a great couple honestly."

Yukino relaxed just a little. "Well that's good at least. But…this next part is what's probably going to shock you. Publicly, Sting and I are a couple, to cover up his and Rogue's relationship. But…we really were together romantically for a long time. Even before I found Rogue's key."

"Okay…so he broke up with you to be with Rogue? That had to be rough…especially if you have to keep up a façade."

"N-no…not exactly. Well…sort of…but…"

"Did you break up with him?"

"U-um…kind of? But not…not really. We never officially broke up…but…we haven't been romantically involved with each other since they got together…"

Something told Lucy there was a lot more to it than what was on the surface, and she had a sneaking suspicion that she was about to uncover something. "But what about you? It seems like you still care a great deal for Sting. Why did you give him up like that?"

"They…they're so perfect for each other. Even while Sting and I were still actively together, I could see them falling in love." She paused and blushed, then averted her eyes when she quietly said, "If there had been some way for Sting to be with both of us…but that sort of relationship just isn't normal. And I never could figure out how to make it right. With me there…they wouldn't act on their feelings for each other and eventually it became unbearable. I couldn't stand keeping them apart like that. And…we're still together…sort of…just…kind of not."

There was a wealth of pain there, and Lucy felt her heart aching for her new friend. "Okay, I think I'm getting there. Correct me if I'm wrong – you and Sting were in a relationship, then Rogue came along and they fell in love. At that point, you felt like you had to step aside so they could be in a relationship…even though you still love Sting…" When Yukino nodded, Lucy knew she was on the right track, but there were still a couple of big blanks in the story. "So, uh, what about Sting? Does he still have feelings for you? And what about you and Rogue, how does he feel about all this?"

Yukino bit her lip, looking pained. "Well…yeah, I'm pretty sure Sting still has feelings for me…but I think when I stepped aside I accidentally hurt him, and he hasn't said anything about it since." She paused for a long moment and then continued. "As for Rogue…after I made a contract with him, we became good friends and team mates. That didn't change after he and Sting became boyfriends but…I…I kind of…I wouldn't necessarily be opposed to…dating him too…maybe."

Lucy could feel her eyebrows crawling up her forehead a little. It was surprising, yes, and it took her a few moments to get over her initial shock over the whole thing. She'd heard about three-people couples before, but hadn't ever personally encountered someone in one herself.

Still…she supposed it wasn't strange, all things considered. After all, Lucy had already suspected that the reason why the other girl had been okay with her two teammates being in a romantic relationship, was because she had romantic feelings for both of them herself.

"Why do Sting and Rogue have to hide their relationship?"

"The main reason is because our master – or, I mean – their master, believes that homosexuality is a weakness. A major one. He's incredibly prejudiced towards it, and they would both be kicked out instantly if their secret was found out. Besides that… Sabertooth is a very high-profile guild, and the three of us are pretty popular. Everyone knows that Sting and I are together. If Sting and Rogue's relationship got out…things could get bad for them." Then more quietly she admitted, "And anyways… if everyone knew about them, I wouldn't have an excuse anymore to be with Sting. It would really be over between us…"

"Why?"

Yukino blinked at her, seeming shocked. "Because it's not socially acceptable to be with two people at once…"

Lucy leaned back, finally seeing the whole picture. "Well, first of all, your master is a rude, inconsiderate, stupid jackass."

Yukino weakly smiled and even giggled a little in appreciation. Lucy shared a smile, and then continued. "Now, as for you, Rogue, and Sting, I don't think you and Sting have to cut off your relationship, even if people find out about the two of them. In fact, you might want to talk with Sting about your current arrangement. I don't see anything wrong with three people who have feelings for each other being in a relationship, and – if I read you right – it really seems like there's more between you and Rogue than just 'being okay' with the idea of pursuing a relationship."

Yukino sighed and slumped, seeming depressed again. "…yeah, you're right. I'm not sure about Rogue, because we haven't talked about it, but…as for me, I…well, I really think I love him too." she haltingly admitted, sniffing a little as her eyes began to water again. "But, if Sting and I can't even really be together, then what chance do I have with Rogue? I would just complicate things…it's better if I just stay out of it and let them be happy…"

"You should really stop thinking like a martyr. Sting can't be happy with the fact that you two aren't together…I mean you said yourself that he still cares about you, right?"

"Yeah…I know he does."

"And whose idea was it for the two of you to stop being together the way you truly want?"

"…mine…but it seemed to make his decision to be with Rogue much easier."

"Well sure, but there's no rule that says he can't be with both of you fully. And if you really love Rogue, in all honesty I think it would be a lot less complicated if the three of you were all in a relationship… including you and Rogue."

"You think? It just seemed so much simpler to remove myself…" Poor Yukino was all tearful again.

"I think it's definitely worth pursuing. But maybe after your two boys get out of that stupid guild."

Yukino grinned tiredly, then yawned, and Lucy suddenly realized just how exhausted the other woman looked.

"Woah, look at the time! I'm sorry for keeping you up so long…you should really rest. Especially after that wound. How about I go now and let you get some sleep? You'll be staying here, so we'll have plenty of time to talk more. Okay?"

Yukino nodded, and as Lucy left she called out, "Thank you Lucy…you don't know how much it means to have someone to talk to about this…"

She turned and shot the white-haired mage a grin. "I'm just glad I could help. That's what friends do right?"

"Yeah…" Yukino answered with a grin of her own, and then Lucy left.

…

The next day, Lucy didn't have a chance to talk to Yukino much. However, she did let everyone know about her and asked if it was alright for her to go with them to the Games and stay in the booth with the rest of the guild. They all agreed that was safest, considering the attempt already made to kidnap her.

They also found out, via the news, that apparently someone had attacked Sabertooth last night, and there was a rumor that it had been someone from an opposing guild. Of course that sort of fighting outside of the Game was strictly forbidden, but Sabertooth had chosen to not expose the identity of the attacking guild. They'd simply stated that they wanted to settle it within the Game. Naturally, all eyes went to Natsu, who looked up at the ceiling innocently as if there was something extremely interesting up there.

Thankfully everyone just let it go, though Makarov did pull Natsu to the side and gave him a lecture.

After that, they all headed to the Domus Flau, and Team A headed up to their booth to await the start of the Games. They didn't have to wait long.

"Hello Pumpkins! And welcome to day three of the Grand Magic Games!" Mato bellowed into his microphone, and there was a thunderous round of cheers and applause from the audience.

"First of all, here are the standing scores of all the teams!"

A scoreboard appeared on one of the giant lacrima vision screens, and Team A all leaned forward to read it.

Raven Tail was still in the lead with 39 points. Sabertooth was in second with 38 points. Blue Pegasus had 26 points, Lamia Scale had 21, and Mermaid Heel had 18. Fairy Tail Team B came in sixth place with 17 points and Team A was seventh with 12 points. However, at least they weren't dead last any longer…. that place went to the newly dubbed Quatro Puppy, with 9 points.

After a pause to let everyone read the scores, Chapati cut in over the speakers. "Alright folks! We've got a great day planned out for you today! First up, we have the first battle set, and then we'll have the first challenge after that!"

Yajima then added, "Today's first battle match will be between Sherria from Lamia Scale against Wendy from Team B! Apparently Sherry has temporarily abdicated from Lamia Scale's team for unknown reasons."

Lucy smirked a little. Knowing that woman, she was embarrassed after losing their little competition yesterday and had hidden with her tail tucked between her legs, sending in her cousin to take her place.

Whatever the case, Lucy was sure to cheer Wendy on as their guildmate walked out into the arena. At that point, the commentary devolved into coos and stupid nonsense as Chapati exposed his love of the loli-type. So, she just ignored it in favor of watching the battle between the two wind users. It was actually pretty amazing. Sherria turned out to be a sky god slayer…whatever the heck that meant, and their powers were very similar in nature. The big difference that Lucy could see, was that Wendy could only heal others, while the new girl could actually heal herself. However, Sherria couldn't replace the magic she had lost.

In the end, the thirty minutes allotted for the match elapsed before either girl had gained the upper hand, and it was called a draw, giving both teams five points. They also seemed to hit it off pretty well and had very similar personalities from what Lucy could tell. After the fight – which was friendly, though they'd both gone all out – they helped heal each other and left after a handshake.

…

And then it was time for the first challenge of the day. This time Lucy volunteered to go for Team A, because it was her turn again, and she just hoped that it went better than the last time she did this. Her team cheered her on, the loudest coming from Happy and Natsu of course.

As she stepped onto the field, she took note of the other competitors she would be up against. Jellal had been chosen from Team B, and she wasn't looking forward to going up against him. Out of the other teams, she was least enthused about Minerva from Sabertooth. She also wasn't fond of the idea of fighting Black Snake from Raven Tail…he was bound to be annoying. The rest of the competition wasn't too concerning, she was pretty sure she could take them.

As soon as everyone had assembled, Mato popped onto the field as usual – and then a giant clear bubble also abruptly appeared from nowhere, floating in the middle of the arena about twenty feet off the ground.

"Hello Pumpkins! Today, you will be participating in our 'Aerial Battle Zone!'"

After he said this, suddenly they were all relocated into the bubble. Lucy squeaked as she began to float and waved her arms around to try and grab ahold of something… anything… to control herself. Unfortunately, there was no friction, just air to grab ahold of, unlike when you went swimming and could push through the water. All she could do was flail around with absolutely nothing good coming from it. All the other competitors were in the same boat though… nobody could control their position and just ended up floating around aimlessly.

"As you can see, this bubble has absolutely no gravity in it! The goal of this challenge is to knock your opponents out of the bubble while staying inside yourself. There is also an additional five-minute rule that pertains to the last two competitors. As soon as it's down to two, if one of them gets knocked out of the bubble before five minutes have elapsed, that person will instantly take last place instead of second. So goooood luck!"

At that, a gong sounded and the battle began.

Magic started flying as everyone tried to knock everyone out of the bubble simultaneously. As magic buffeted her from every direction and sent her spinning randomly through the air, Lucy instantly summoned Aries as her first action.

"Open! Gate of the Ram!"

With a puff of pink wool, Aries appeared with her usual greeting of, "I'm sorry!"

"Aries! Quick! Brace me with a wool ball!"

"Of course!"

Suddenly a wall of pink erupted in front of the bubble's shell – which she had been somersaulting towards. With an 'oof,' she landed face-first in the mass of pink fluff and immediately felt all the strength drain from her as she relaxed into it.

"Okay…I'm good…"

She lazily gave Aries a thumbs up, and the wool ball disappeared with a pop. Once her strength flooded back into her, Lucy gingerly felt the bubble's wall, testing its durability. It had a lot of give before her hand slid through the surface tension, and it provided a solid thing to brace herself against.

Sticking just the tips of her fingers through the wall to hook on and stay in place, she turned and braced her behind on the bubble too – basically sitting – and looking up into the battle. She was currently at the very top, so looking down and seeing the sky underneath her was very disorienting, especially as the lack of gravity meant that she felt no sense of direction.

The first person to get tossed out on his butt was unsurprisingly Toby from Lamia Scale. However, Risley from Mermaid Heel turned out to be much more competition than Lucy had given her credit for, since she could perform gravity magic. The lack of gravity was literally no problem for her, she could just recreate it to the degree she wanted, waltz right over to an opponent, and give them the slightest nudge – which would send them flying out of the bubble if they weren't careful. That was how she knocked Toby out on his butt. Jenny from Blue Pegasus was next out of the arena.

The rest of the competitors proved capable of combating the gravity magic though. Black Snake – when he was pushed by Risley – simply sent out a shot of sand that hit the ground and pushed him back into the center of the bubble. Similarly, Jager from Quatro Puppy used long green vines in the same sort of way, and sent them out to attach to the ground and also the walls of the arena to pull himself whatever way he wanted to go.

Meanwhile, Jellal was able to use celestial star magic and zipped around in flashes of golden light, as if he was riding a comet or had turned into one himself…which meant that he was completely unhindered by the lack of gravity. That magic proved to be too much for the Raven Tail guildmember, because Jellal set his sights on the guy and began to pummel him with attacks that were too fast for him to combat. Even with his crazy fast reflexes, he couldn't dodge half of Jellal's hits, and it was only a matter of time before he also flew out of the bubble. The fact that the blue-haired mage had singled out Raven Tail as his first target was obviously driven by a grudge, and Lucy felt even more fond of him as she watched Black Snake cartwheel towards the ground and hit with a puff of dust.

Lucy ceased to watch him though, because she suddenly had to deal with Jager. Out of nowhere, she was abruptly tangled up in a long green vine and was being violently flung out to the side – once again headed for the wall of the bubble. Aries was still out and about though, and she created another wool ball to stop Lucy's exit.

"Thanks Aries! You're a life saver!"

"I'm sorry I couldn't do more Miss Lucy…"

"Oh you can...catch that guy in a wool ball!"

"Yes ma'am!"

Instantly a large ball of pink fluff hit Jager square across his thick chest, and he collapsed into the comfortable cloud with a confused and dazed expression as he began to drool.

"Alright! Good Job Aries! Now…Open! Gate of the Scorpion!"

"Wicked!" Scorpio yelled as he popped into existence with a blast of sand, his tail up and at the ready.

"Shoot that guy out of the bubble!"

"Right on, Miss Lucy! Wicked!"

A huge bullet of sand beaned Jager in the shoulder and he was sent into a deadly spin – which he couldn't do anything about since he was still practically passed out on fluffy pink cloud nine. Without further ado, he popped out of the bubble and Aries let him drop to the ground by dispersing her wool ball into thin air. Shortly after him, Risley was thrown out of the ball as Jellal knocked her out in the same way he had with Black Snake. She simply couldn't keep up with the blows raining down on her, even with her gravity magic.

Finally, all that was left were Minerva, Jellal, and her. Obviously Jellal intended to save Lucy for last, and wait the full five minutes before tossing her out on her butt … unless she could somehow stand up to him. But first, they had to take out Minerva.

Jellal was the first to go after the Sabertooth mage, and she fixed him with a dull and almost bored look, before flicking her finger at him. A ball of black light suddenly appeared around his whole body, and he disappeared with a pop.

"What the…Je- eum…Mystogan!" Lucy shouted, worried about her blue-haired friend and what had happened to him.

With a great deal of relief she saw him reappear on the ground outside the bubble, holding his hooded head and looking very sick to his stomach. That did not bode well for Lucy in the slightest and she turned back to Minerva with a good deal of dread clenching her stomach. A bell went off, signaling the start of the five-minute timer, and Lucy couldn't help but feel like she was probably going to get tossed out before it went off.

Firming her resolve, she determined she wouldn't and sent both spirits back to the celestial realm in preparation for a new attack. Before she could launch it though, Minerva suddenly asked her, "You're that fire dragon's summoner correct?"

"Um…yes. Why?"

A malicious grin curled the edges of her opponent's mouth. "Then I hold you fully responsible for his actions last night. And I intend to punish you for it."

Lucy swallowed hard and gripped her keys, readying for an epic fight. Strangely no attacks rained down on her, at least not at first. Instead, Minerva continued to talk. "I will give you a choice…jump out of the bubble now and take last place…or deal with me for the full five minutes and let me beat you to smithereens. If you choose to stay, I won't show you any mercy."

Gritting her teeth, Lucy made her decision easily. "I'm not going anywhere! The only one who's going to leave this bubble is you!"

At that, Minerva began to laugh. "Oh please…like you could possibly fight me."

So saying, another black ball appeared, right behind Lucy, and it felt like she'd been kicked by a horse with scalding feet. She screamed in surprise as she was sent head over feet through the air. The wall of the bubble approached too fast for her to do anything about it, but before she could get tossed out, another black ball appeared in front of her and burst, sending another massive impact and blistering pain through her entire shoulder and ribs. Once again, she found herself cartwheeling through the air, helpless and cringing from the pain.

Based off the scorching sensation of the bombs – or whatever they were – Lucy made a relatively easy choice. It was only natural to go for water, especially when she felt her skin blistering and desperately longed for the cool touch of the ocean. She couldn't summon Aquarius, not without water, but she could still don her star dress – even without her presence.

So, she did her best to focus solely on the salty oceanic magic that was Aquarius's. Every time another black ball went off, her concentration was jarred, and it took far longer than it should have for her to equip the mermaid's star dress. Eventually though, she felt the shivery sensation of her outfit rippling over her skin. The experience was like having cool water trickling down her body in a wave from her crown to toes.

As soon as the star dress had fully manifested, she put up a wall of water between her and the next bomb, using the salty wave as a shield. Considering the fact that she was somersaulting through the air at the time, it was a minor miracle she managed to do so. The bomb went off, spraying water everywhere and sending Lucy spinning in the other direction – but at least this time it hadn't hurt.

Without the crippling pain, she was better able to orient herself and managed to erect another shield between her and the next bomb. Thinking fast, she remembered how Black Snake and Jager had been able to use their magic to move themselves in the zero gravity, and so she followed their example, shooting a jet of water at the ground to stop her out of control momentum.

As soon as she stabilized and was facing the right way, Lucy grabbed a fistful of keys and started summoning spirits while Minerva was still surprised.

"Open! Gate of the Lion! Leo!"

Even before the golden flash of Leo had finished solidifying on one side of Minerva, she was already onto the next one. "Open! Gate of the Bull! Taurus!" A second golden flash appeared on her opponent's other side.

Suddenly Minerva was sandwiched between two very powerful spirits. For once, Lucy didn't waste time greeting her spirits…she simple didn't have the time to spare.

"Take her out!"

"On it!" Leo shouted, all business like her.

At the same time, Taurus turned to face their opponent as well and lowed, "Count on me Miss Luuucy!"

Her spirits attacked in unison, giving Minerva very little time or space to counter it. Actually looking a little worried for the first time, she quickly spun and created a black ball that surrounded Leo and transported him outside the bubble. However, that still left Taurus, and she only barely managed to dodge his swing by transporting herself out of the way. It still connected though and left a shallow cut along her shoulder which began to bleed freely. Drops of blood started to float through the air, which Lucy did her best to ignore, though it was pretty disturbing.

As soon as Leo was transported out of the bubble, Lucy had closed his gate, and at the same time that Minerva transported herself, Lucy was already summoning another spirit. "Open! Gate of the Archer! Sagittarius!"

He appeared beside Lucy and began his normal polite greeting. "Hello Miss Lucy! What can I do for you today!"

"Shoot her out of the bubble!" Lucy rushed to say, almost talking over him, and he instantly snapped to attention.

His bow was drawn within a second and he had taken aim. Minerva had just transported Taurus out of the circle, and Lucy closed his gate as Sagittarius loosed his first arrow. None of her spirits could move any better than her in this atmosphere, so she just had to summon them to the place she needed.

Unfortunately, Minerva saw the arrow and managed to deflect it with another black orb…which Lucy was starting to think were black holes or something. To her horror, the next black hole sucked in Lucy's keys before she could summon another spirit, and Sagittarius disappeared with an apology. Even worse, Aquarius's star dress flickered out of existence, leaving her bare and defenseless.

"Shit…" she hissed, and then watched as Minerva manifested the keys into her hand and grinned.

"Without these…you're powerless correct?"

Lucy growled under her breath, ticked off beyond belief now and a little bit scared. She was afraid of Minerva of course, but also of Aquarius's wrath when she found out that her key had been stolen…again.

She had to get them back pronto. The only good thing about this situation was that Minerva was underestimating her.

When another black ball popped up in her face and burst before she could get away, Lucy was sent flying once again as pain radiated through her face, neck, and chest. However, despite the pain, she focused on Natsu's magic, and easily pulled it into her veins. Unlike Aquarius's star dress, it didn't take Lucy any effort at all to summon Natsu's…by this point their magic was so intertwined it practically felt like it was a part of her.

The change rippled across her form, this time feeling like fire licking her skin from top to bottom. The second it was stable, she summoned fire to her feet, screeching to a halt inches from the next black hole bomb. With a blast of dragon fire, she managed to put enough distance between her and it that the explosion didn't tear her a new one again.

"Not powerless…no." she answered Minerva's previous question.

Her opponent scowled, looking both confused and displeased, but she quickly rearranged her face into a mask of smug indifference. "How quaint. But no matter how you struggle, it won't do you any good."

"Just keep telling yourself that." Lucy growled, and then fired up her feet again and launched herself at Minerva in a rescue attempt.

At that moment, a loud bell went off, which signaled that five minutes had elapsed. So at the very least, Lucy was now safe from getting last place if she did get tossed out…but she had to get her keys back first.

Naturally, as soon as she got even remotely close, Minerva transported herself out of the way, and Lucy had to put on the breaks or go flying out of the bubble under her own power. That would have just been embarrassing. Thankfully she was able to flip around and stop her forward momentum with fire coming from both hands and feet.

While she was distracted, Minerva took the opportunity to pop another black hole next to her, and suddenly she had pain blasting her whole side as she was sent careening across the space of the bubble again. Apparently her opponent was less interested in defeating her and more interested in beating her to a bloody pulp, because instead of letting her cartwheel out of the bubble, Minerva made another black hole to knock her back into the ring. She hadn't been able to stop herself from running into it this time, and the fresh blast of agony across her senses didn't do much to help her reflexes.

She was thrown back and into Minerva this time. The other woman snagged her by the hair and then lashed out with a vicious kick that caught Lucy in the back. That one hurt, and she couldn't help but yell as she felt her spine pop in some very disconcerting ways. After this she was taking a trip to see Porlyusica, that was for sure.

Her hair was released only for a fist to be shoved into her solar plexus, and all the air was forced out of her lungs. This was not going well at all, and Lucy had to try and think fast through the oxygen deprivation and shards of pain. The answer came in an instant, and it was so simple that Lucy almost laughed, but ended up choking instead.

Heat filled her body, and she built it up as high as she could before releasing it all, right as Minerva went in for another blow – this time a knee to her gut. It never landed though, because flames erupted all over Lucy's body and Minerva fell back with a startled shriek. She could vaguely hear a dragon's roar from the stands and allowed herself a grin.

Taking advantage of Minerva's shock and recoil, she twisted and launched an attack of her own, managing to slam a fist coated in fire and reinforced with tough scales into her face. This time it was Minerva who went careening towards the wall of the bubble, but she managed to teleport herself at the last second before being knocked out.

"You might want to put your hair out." Lucy advised, before dashing forwards and going for another punch.

Naturally, Minerva teleported out of the way again, much to Lucy's irritation. To her amusement though, when she turned around, Minerva was indeed patting her hair to snuff out the flames still making a nasty smell radiate through their fighting space.

It seemed that she was pissed, because her attacks abruptly became vicious and deadly. Before Lucy could dodge or get out of the way, another black hole thing appeared and sent her flying one way, and then second one appeared almost instantly after the first to knock her back. Over the course of the next few seconds, she was hit repeatedly, knocked back and forth like a ping pong ball, with no hope of recovering. Pain became the only thing she could feel as the repeated impacts battered her and that strange scalding heat burned her skin.

Less than a minute later though, all the blows ceased, leaving her shaking and close to passing out. "Wha-?"

When she looked up through blurry eyes and a film of sweat, she saw a lightly glowing green barrier now circling her on all sides.

"Yo. You okay?"

She glanced back to see Bartolomeo standing behind her with his arms crossed and a thoroughly pissed expression on his face. Those shark-like teeth of his were hidden behind tightly pressed lips and he was glaring daggers at Minerva. "She got your keys huh?"

"Yeah…" Lucy groaned as she heaved herself to her feet, sort of. They were still floating, so it was more a matter of uncurling herself from the ball she'd tucked her body into. As she did so, she absentmindedly noticed that red scales coated most of her skin now, probably in an attempt to keep her in one piece.

"I can help with that." A new voice sounded, and Lucy looked to the side to see Amy appear in a flash of light. Relief flooded her now, and new hope filled her body with strength. It didn't hurt either when she felt a fresh wave of fire pour into her from Natsu as he lent her his strength.

Minerva had paused temporarily in her blasting to stare at the spirit who had appeared behind Lucy, but this time she didn't bother to question how he had appeared. Instead, she restarted her bombardment, doing her best to make a ball appear inside Bart's shield. It didn't work though, his shield was impenetrable by all things physical and magical, so all she could do was hit it and send them flying like a couple of hamsters inside a hamster ball. Really, she probably could have just teleported them and the shield completely out of the battle zone, but apparently she was still intent on toying with Lucy.

"Shit!" Bart snapped, holding the barrier in place but helpless to stop their spinning momentum.

Amy hopped out of the shield and bubble entirely, circling from the outside to get at Minerva's blind spot while she was focused on knocking Lucy and Bart around. She managed to prowl close and then pounced, her jaws closing over Minerva's hand where she was holding Lucy's keys. Minerva screamed, and Amy came away with the key ring clamped in her teeth while Minerva's hand was left bloody.

In a fit of rage, a huge black ball appeared in the center of the bubble, and Amy hightailed it back to the turtle shell shield. She made it seconds before the black hole bomb detonated, sending a wave of power out through the whole battle zone and definitively knocking them clear. Thanks to Bart's shield, they weren't damaged, however the velocity at which they were flung out of the bubble sent them flying towards the wall of the arena at a deadly speed. Bart managed to slow them down somewhat by grasping control of the shield, but they were going so fast that he couldn't entirely stop them before they slammed into the wall with a jarring crunch.

Lucy grunted as they all piled into each other and then fell to the ground. By the end of it, they were all breathing heavily and wincing with bruises.

"Wow! What a fight Pumpkins! And that concludes this round of the games… In first place is Sabertooth!" Mato exclaimed.

Lucy squinted up at Minerva – who was hanging out of the bubble with only her feet and hands still inside – and met the other woman's glare head on. She got the distinct impression that this wasn't the end of this particular feud. However, there was now a glint of respect in those previously derisive eyes, which made Lucy hope that maybe there would be a chance to make peace with them…eventually.

Her attention was pulled away though when a loud bang sounded and shook the ground. She glanced over to see that Natsu had just leaped out of their balcony and landed on the ground with a crash, and from the smoke that drifted up from the now cracked dirt, he had only slowed himself a little with a blast of fire at the last second. Happy was hot on his heels of course.

"Luce!" he yelped and ran over at top speed, coming to a screeching halt that covered them all in a fine layer of dust.

"Yeah…I'm fine…" she said, waving her hand through the air a little to disperse the dust that hung around them now.

"You don't look fine…" Happy whimpered, looking up at her with big teary eyes.

Natsu seemed to agree. He squatted down and squinted his eyes, giving her a major hairy eyeball as if to determine the validity of her statement. She squirmed under the intense stare, and was almost grateful to have something distract her. Amy gently dropped her keys in her lap, and she grinned tiredly at the loyal white wolf.

"Thanks Amy. You too Bart. You guys are amazing."

Bart flushed and uncomfortably turned his head away while scratching the back of his green hair. "Yeah well…you should have called me sooner."

That made her blink. "I thought you didn't want me to summon you at all."

His cheeks flushed even harder and he scowled, sending her a slightly sharp look from his maroon eyes before instantly averting his gaze. "W-well…I guess you can call me every now and then."

"Really!? That's awesome. I'll look forward to working with you more then."

She sent him a broad grin, and he cleared his throat – flushing even harder – before turning away. It seemed he was going to say something else, and made a few awkward noises and starts to words, before he apparently gave up and simply went back to the celestial realm with a flash of green fractured light.

Natsu snorted. "He's such a fanboy."

"Huh?" Lucy asked, confused by the strange comment.

"You're pretty famous among the celestial spirits Luce. You've got ten of the twelve zodiac keys…plus three mythics. You're a freakin' celebrity. And he's sorta... got like a crush on you or something."

"A crush? So that's why he gets all flustered and blushes?"

"Yep."

Happy naturally chimed in with, "He looooves you…" and snickered loudly in amusement.

For a moment Lucy chuckled along with her blue companion, and then a slightly sobering thought caught up with her. "Does that bother you?"

"Huh?" His head cocked and he looked at her with confused eyes, before he seemed to get it. "Oh! You mean that he's got a crush on you? No! Don't be stupid! I think it's hysterical! Besides…it's just a fanboy crush, nothing serious."

"Oh. Good."

A few seconds later, Wendy came running over with Sherria in tow. "Lucy! Are you okay?"

Natsu scoffed. "Yeah, that's the question isn't it? She told me she was just fine."

Wendy stumbled to a stop, doing a faceplant inches from Lucy's knee. Sherria performed the same trick right next to her, and Natsu, Lucy, and Amy all sweat-dropped. Happy's cheeks puffed out, trying not to laugh.

Barely fazed, both healing mages peeled themselves off the ground and scooted over to Lucy, instantly looking her over for serious injuries. That was a little difficult, given that she was still coated in scales that hid a lot of her skin from sight. At their request, she let Natsu's star dress slip from her form. Everyone sucked in a deep breath at the sight revealed to them and Happy's eyes started to water again.

"Woah…this is bad…" Sherria murmured as she stared at the damage.

What almost looked like burns – raw bloody patches of flesh where the skin and several layers of tissue had been blown off – covered Lucy's body. Paired with the bruises that were already starting to turn dark purple, she was sure she looked anything but 'fine.'

Wendy looked majorly distressed. "We need to do some emergency treatment here and then we'll all go to the infirmary."

"I'll help too." Sherria offered, and Wendy shot her new friend a relieved smile of thanks.

They instantly started, their hands hovering over her and sending cool relief through the sharp pain still assaulting her senses. Now that the adrenaline from the battle was wearing off, all the aches and pains were getting worse, and so she was grateful for the relief. As she sunk into the sensation, Natsu scoffed again.

"Yeah…fine my butt." he chided, reaching over to tug on a chunk of her hair gently.

She just sent him a tired smile and then zoned out as the two healers made quick work of her injuries. The worst of the torn skin was treated first, and by the time they let her walk out of the arena, she wasn't bleeding any longer. Then, they carted her directly to the infirmary for even more treatment.

By the time Lucy had been bandaged up and was declared fit to return, the next fight had finished. Thankfully, with Wendy, Sherria, and Porlyusica all treating her, she had mostly been healed – aside from a few scabs and bruises here and there. They had also checked for any internal damage and made sure her spine was all right after that brutal kick. By the time she came back out onto Team A's balcony, she was feeling like she could actually participate again, after a little bit of rest.

"Welcome back Lucy!" Erza exclaimed as she saw her. "Are you feeling better?"

"Yeah, between Porlyusica, Wendy, and Sherria, I feel great actually. Still a little sore though…"

"Understandable. You were beat up pretty badly."

"Yeah…but you really held your own out there Lucy. We were all really impressed." Juvia added, sending her a happy grin.

"Thanks!"

At that point, Gray stalked past her and got up into Natsu's face. "And you! You can't just go disappearing every time Lucy gets hurt!"

Predictably they got into a slight scuffle, but as soon as the scores from the last battle disappeared – Milliana had won, giving Mermaid Heel another ten points – Mato came on over the speakers and the two ruffians stopped to listen with the rest of them.

"What an exciting battle! All right! Now, on to the next Game! Each team is to choose 2 players this time."

With a shared look, all the girls sent Gray and Natsu down to participate in this round. Wendy and Gajeel made sort of an odd pair, but they also walked down onto the field. The rest of the teams were Sting and Rogue, Kagura and Arana from Mermaid Heel, Ichiya and Hibiki, Rocker and Warcry, Obra and Alexie – the two members of Raven Tail that they hadn't seen yet – and finally Sherria and Lyon.

Once all the teams were assembled, Chapati addressed them all on the lacrima speakers. "Alright Contestants. This game is called 'Blinders.' You will all be placed in a maze, and your sight will temporarily be taken away with a spell. Your goal, of course, is to escape the maze first."

At that point, Mato took over. "Simple right? Let's get started Pumpkins!"

A gong sounded, and suddenly a huge hedge maze popped up to fill the entire arena. Each of the contestants was teleported to a random spot, and the teams were split up so they were each on their own. It was obvious to see that the removal of their sight threw them all for a loop, and they all froze for a while as they got their bearings. Most reached out to touch one of the sides, but of course Natsu just barreled straight forwards blindly. When he came to the first barrier, he met it with a flaming fist, obviously just planning to plow through the maze. However, the hedge didn't catch fire or burst apart under his blow, instead he bounced off it.

Happy and Lucy both winced, and the blue cat murmured, "Ouch."

Lucy nodded and scowled. "Yeah, that's really weird. I can't imagine how…"

Before she even finished her statement of confused shock, the question was answered for them.

"Oh, I should mention that the maze itself is immune to all physical and magical attacks. And there's a barrier over the top, so you can't fly out or climb the walls." Yajima said over the speakers.

Natsu hopped back to his feet and glowered blindly around him, looking mightily peeved. Eventually he just started stomping forwards again and then turned down a random pathway, obviously sulking.

As for the others, some did the same sort of thing and seemed to wander around aimlessly, following the walls, but a few were approaching it logically. Gray, for instance, methodically explored and left a trail of ice along the wall behind him so he would know where he'd already been. Whenever he reached a dead-end, he marked it with a spike of ice and doubled back to pursue a different path. He coated the path next to the wall with ice and skated along at a brisk pace, always keeping his hand on the wall to guide himself, and he was making pretty quick work of it.

As for the others, Ichiya was using his parfum to mark a path, while Hibiki was making a map using archive, which apparently he could use even though he was blind. He must have uploaded it to his mind directly so he could see it with his mind's eye. Mermaid Heel was performing similarly well – Kagura was methodical about her search, while Arana used webs to mark her way.

Meanwhile, Lyon was doing something similar to Gray, only he was being more aggressive about it. He completely blocked off every path he came across – marking which ones he had been down, and dispersing the ice only when he needed to try a new path. He also coated the floors completely with ice instead of just a strip along the walls. Gray had taken the simple approach probably to avoid giving his opponents too much to go on, while Lyon was going in the opposite direction and had turned his entire area into an icy trap.

However, Lyon's partner – Sherria – wasn't doing so well. Her wind magic didn't seem to really help her in this particular event. Similarly, none of the members of Quatro Puppy seemed to be having an easy time of it either. And as for Raven Tail…. Lucy honestly didn't know what they were doing. Both members just stayed put where they found themselves.

As for the dragon slayers and dragons, they were all acting the same way and were using their sense of smell to make their way through. They didn't really run into walls because they could tell when one was coming up, and none of them – except for Wendy – even bothered touching the walls to guide themselves. Gajeel was the only slayer who left markers in the form of iron posts that he stuck in the walls and ground. The speediest of them though was Rogue, who amazingly transformed himself into shadow and zipped along the walls with blinding speed.

The next part of the challenge became apparent when people started to run into each other. Sometimes it resulted in nothing but a few exchanged words, while other times a battle broke out. Lyon and Gray got into it when they ran across each other, and it was amusing to watch them blindly send magic flying willy-nilly, which more often than not simply blasted against one of the hedges or careened down the pathway. Then that particular fight became even more amusing when Natsu found them and got a face-full of ice.

"Oi! That's my face, ya Pervy Popsicle! Where are you?! I'm gonna shove my fist where the sun don't shine!"

"What the…Natsu?!" Gray shouted back, and then burst out laughing, probably at the thought of Natsu getting blasted with ice.

A short three-way battle commenced, which was quickly put to a halt when Lyon got knocked silly. He ended up stuck between Gray and Natsu – who were aiming for each other's faces, but ended up both punching him instead. When he passed out, they seemed to realize that they were teammates, and after a few last wild swings, they set off to try and find the exit.

Gajeel ended up running into Sting, and they also had a short fist fight… which got significantly more interesting when Rogue showed up. Gajeel had already managed to break Sting's leg, so it was mainly between the iron dragon slayer and the celestial shadow dragon. At that point, they both turned to shadow, and started the strangest fight that crawled across the walls and floor of the maze.

At Happy and Lucy's exclamations of shock, Erza informed them that while Lucy had been in the infirmary after her incident with Flare, Gajeel had gone up against Rogue in a one-on-one duel and ended up absorbing some of the dragon's shadow powers, which apparently turned him into a dragon slayer with two kinds of dragon magic.

Lucy didn't know why Gajeel hadn't used the shadow powers to whisk around the maze and find the exit the way Rogue had… unless they were just so new that he'd forgotten about them. But whatever the case, his impressive new abilities still didn't prevent him from having his ass handed to him. Rogue was a dragon after all. He put up a good fight, but in the end Gajeel was knocked out.

As soon as he was out of commission, the shadow dragon went back to retrieve Sting and they started heading towards the exit he had already located. They had to go at the light dragon slayer's pace though, so even though Rogue knew where the exit was they were still slow getting there.

Only a few moments later, Sherria stumbled over Gajeel, and ironically Wendy ran across Lyon only a few seconds after. Then, they ended up bumping into each other, and naturally the two healers were very helpful and told each other how to find their teammates.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the maze, Alexie from Raven Tail abruptly started walking and unerringly made his way to where his teammate still stood unmoved. Then once again he stopped and stood there. Neither seemed to be talking, they just stood there doing nothing, which was exceptionally weird, and Lucy just knew they were cheating somehow.

As for Quatro Puppy, Bacchus had somehow managed to find Warcry, and they were running around together looking for the exit. They were actually in the general vicinity of it, so there was a slim chance they might accidentally stumble across it before anyone else.

Sherria and Wendy both reached their teammates at the same time and healed them. Gajeel instantly popped up and set off, following Rogue and Sting's scent since he knew they were heading for the exit. On the way, they ran across Arana from Mermaid Heel, who tried to pick a fight. With a combined wind and iron dragon roar, they ripped through the webs she tried to catch them with, and she got knocked out cold. Simultaneously, the stands erupted in exclamations as Quatro Puppy somehow found the exit and took first place out from under everyone who actually knew where the exit was. Their win was pure luck, but in a way, it worked in Fairy Tail's favor. It was certainly better than one of the high ballers scoring another 10 points.

Gajeel and Wendy soon caught up to Sting and Rogue and barreled right past – following the scent of Quatro Puppy drifting on the breeze to find the rest of the way. Sting and Rogue shouted obscenities after them, but Gajeel just laughed and jeered – saying, "Geehee…nice limp ya got there!"

"That's because you broke my leg Asshole!" Sting shouted after him as they blew past.

Wendy called back, "I'll heal it on the other side of the finish line!" which left Sting dumbfounded and gaping after her in shock. Apparently her offer to heal him had been the last thing he expected. A few moments later Team B scored eight points, bringing them up to a total score of 36.

Meanwhile, Team A was also zeroing in on the exit quickly as Gray raced ahead on his ice while Natsu barreled along following his scent. They whipped past Ichiya and Hibiki who were also getting close to the exit, and Gray nearly bowled them over in passing. Natsu finished the job as he plowed through the two Blue Pegasus mages, shouting a laughing, "Sorry!" as he did so.

"Maaaaaan!" Ichiya groaned as he peeled himself off the ground and dusted himself off.

Team A snagged third place while Blue Pegasus followed in fourth. Both teams passed Sabertooth as they limped towards the finish line, shouting at all the passersby. They eventually made it and got 3 points for their trouble.

After that, suddenly Raven Tail began to move and made their way to the exit without taking any wrong turns… as if they could see. They exited a few seconds after Lamia Scale and only received one point, much to Fairy Tail's cheers. Mermaid Heel received zero points because by the time Arana woke up everyone had already scored.

After that Game, the scoreboard read: Sabertooth: 51 – Raven Tail: 42 – Mermaid Heel: 32 – Team B: 36 – Blue Pegasus: 30 – Lamia Scale: 28 – Team A: 26 – Quatro Puppy: 22

Looking at their ranking, they were all optimistic about their chances… up until Sabertooth beat Blue Pegasus in the next battle and zipped up to 61 points. But Eve didn't have a chance against Rufus and his memory make magic. It was lucky he even survived after Rufus summoned spikes of nearly molten rock and turned the earth almost to magma right under his feet.

After that, it was going to be hard to catch up to them, but the Fairy Tail teams were determined. So for the next challenge – called 'Pandemonium' – Erza volunteered to go. Laxus joined her, along with Olga from Sabertooth, Jura from Lamia Scale, Ren from Blue Pegasus, Nalpudding from Raven Tail, Milliana from Mermaid Heel, and Nobili from Quatro Puppy.

As soon as they were assembled, Mato popped up in front of them to explain the rules of the game. A huge upside-down castle suddenly appeared in the center of the ring and a ramp extended to slam down in front of them as he explained that the castle was full of monsters. There were 100 total monsters, their power level ranging from D to S-Class. There were fifty Ds, thirty Cs, fifteen Bs, four As, and one S-Class monster. Each contestant could choose the number of monsters they wished to fight and the monsters would be chosen randomly. Each monster would give the player one point, and whoever had the most points once all the monsters were defeated would take first place. However, if a player was defeated, their score would automatically be zero.

Once the rules were explained, Mato held out sticks and they all drew lots to see who would go first. Erza's stick glowed for a moment and then displayed the number one.

"I see. I go first then." the redheaded warrior murmured contemplatively, a dangerous spark in her eyes.

"Yes indeed! Please choose the number of monsters you wish to face!"

"I choose…a hundred."

Mato and the rest of the contestants spluttered – aside from Laxus who just busted out laughing. It took a couple of times of her repeating herself before the referee seemed to believe her, and then she calmly walked into the castle to battle all 100 of the monsters available.

Everyone stood back and watched with amazement and mouths agape as she took on each and every monster, destroying multiple at once with her heaven's wheel armor, then dashing through them all at high speeds with her flight armor. When she went up against monsters who used fire, she paired her fire empress armor with her sea empress sword. She mixed and matched her armor to her advantage, becoming an invincible force as she beat every single enemy down to one. The final, S-Class monster then revealed itself as a tiny little bug creature, which grew into something absolutely enormous. The final showdown happened on the very top of the castle – which was actually its bottom weirdly enough, since it was flipped upside down. So they had plenty of space to fight.

Using her clear heart armor – the one that looked like fiery red hakama and bandages – she wielded her fiercest sword and cut it down.

When the castle crumbled away, it revealed a beaten and bruised but triumphant Erza, and as she thrust her sword into the dusty air above her, sunlight caught the blade and made it gleam like a beacon of hope for all of Fairy Tail. The crowd burst into cheers that were so thunderous the very ground vibrated with them.

…

After that epic performance, the rest of the competitors had to settle for simply striking an MPF (a magic power finder) and they would be placed based on their score. It was incredibly dull, but everyone was interested to see how this group of contestants would line up in terms of magic ability.

Milliana went first and charged the thing with a vicious attack from her furry whips. The result was a score of 365, which Yajima explained was quite high and would put her at the level of a captain in the military. The kitty mage preened and stepped off stage for the next person to go. Bacchus from Quatro Puppy went next and scored a whopping 2271, which had everyone's eyes bugging out in shock. The judges up in the booths exclaimed in wonder and Yajima said he'd never seen such a high score.

Next up was Ren from Blue Pegasus, and he beat Milliana's score with 759 points. Nalpudding only made 620. Then it was Olga's turn, and – as expected – he shot off a fancy bit of lightning streaked with black that caused the counter to read 4825, edging out Bacchus's top score by a significant margin. Following him though was Jura, who showed why he was a wizard saint by hitting the thing with a jut of rock and so much magic power that the entire arena was whited out with intense light. His score read an impressive 8544, which left jaws hanging in shock and amazement.

Last up was Laxus, who stepped up to plate with a confident smirk. Then, throwing off his purple coat, he exposed the strange tattoo on his arm. In the guild's viewing box, Master Makarov sent Master Mavis a shocked look, and she giggled. "I decided to give it to him…so we could have a little edge."

When he shouted Fairy Glitter, and raised his fist, an enormous flash of light nearly blinded everyone, and a ring of gold settled around the whole arena, slowly constricting until it was around the MPF…which was basically fried by the ancient spell. When the dust cleared, it was left blinking 9999…as if it had run out of numbers to count what had just happened to it.

Finally, Team A and B walked away with first and second place, landing their teams 10 and 8 points respectively. Team B shot up to fourth place over all, while Team A was unfortunately still stuck in seventh.

After that show, it was once again a battle round, and judging from the line up so far, it was going to be between Team A and Raven Tail, which was either a good thing or a bad thing. It would give them an opportunity to settle the score, but it also meant that Raven Tail might cheat again. In preparation of that, other members of Fairy Tail scattered throughout the arena to keep an eye on the booth containing Raven Tail's team and also Ivan in the stands.

"And now! It's time for a rematch! Lucy of Fairy Tail Team A versus Flare from Raven Tail! These two lovely ladies got into an altercation in the very first challenge kicking this year's Grand Magic Games off! It's time to see once and for all who's number one!"

The bottom of Lucy's stomach dropped out, but she also felt fire burning in her belly, ready to show that she had what it took to beat Flare.

"All right Luce! You go show that hairy bimbo who's boss!" Natsu growled with a fierce grin and punched his fist into the open palm of his other hand.

"Yeah! Go give her a haircut! She needs it bad." Happy seconded.

At Natsu and Happy's encouragement, she couldn't help but laugh, and grinned at all her teammates who likewise told her to kick ass, and then she walked down the hall and stairs and out into the arena to meet the redheaded psychopath.

As soon as the gong sounded though, things got weird. The sky went dark and copies of Lucy and Flare suddenly separated from their bodies and went at each other, while the real Flare just chuckled and cocked her head in that disturbing manner of hers.

"Well hello, Blondie…long time no see…"

"Suuuure… wanna explain what's going on here?"

"It would be my pleasure." A new voice sounded behind her, and she spun around to see Alexie and the other three Raven Tail team members come onto the field.

"Hey! Wait just a minute! You can't be down here! Referee! Oi! Somebody disqualify them!"

"Nobody can hear you…or see us. Those two there?" He pointed at the two copies currently locked in intense battle. "That's all the audience can see."

"So this is an illusion." she summarized, looking around and noting that the other four had copies of themselves in their booth as well.

"Indeed. And now, let's have a little chat shall we?"

"What is it that you want from me?"

"To capture you. The real versions of us will be long gone by the time this battle is over."

Lucy took several steps back and to the side so she could have Flare in her peripheral. "Why do you want to kidnap me?"

"Because I asked them to." a small squeaky voice said from the blue behemoth known as Obra, and a tiny monkey-like creature hopped out. "I told them I wanted you. They wanted revenge on Fairy Tail, as well as something else from them, so we teamed up."

She fingered her keys, figuring this must be the demon. "You're a demon from Tartarus aren't you?"

"Very clever girl." the little monkey demon cackled.

Turning her eyes back to Alexei, she sucked in her breath as he took off his elaborate helmet/mask to show that it was really Ivan under there – which was also against the rules of course. "You're Ivan! Makarov's son and Laxus's father!"

"I see you already know me."

"Yeah…I also know you were kicked out of Fairy Tail for being a dark mage and using forbidden magic and endangering the guild!"

He waved his hand, seeming to blow her off with the gesture as he made a dismissive sound.

"So what else do you want besides capturing me and getting revenge on Fairy Tail?"

"We want the Lumen Histoire. And we plan to use you to get it. By holding you ransom, they'll hand it over without a problem." he said with an ugly grin.

"Of course they won't be handing you over, you'll be coming with me." the demon interjected with an equally nasty expression, showing all his sharp little pointy teeth.

This was turning from bad to worse, and she risked a glance up at the booth where her teammates were sitting. Instantly, her eyes were drawn to Natsu, who had both hands planted on the banister and was leaning over the rail with a deep scowl and fiercely intense expression. It was obvious he knew something was up, probably because he couldn't feel any of the reverberations from the hits her copy was taking.

"Alright…well, have fun trying to do all that. You're gonna have to beat me first though."

Alexei's eyes widened, as if he'd expected her to just meekly go along with them. Then he laughed and said, "Very well. We'll do it your way then."

Instantly, all five of them attacked at once. She already had her hands on her keys though and was summoning spirits before they even had a chance to get to her.

"Open! Gate of the Black Tortoise! Bartolomeo!"

"That was fast." he commented on her summoning him for the first time only a few hours after he had given her permission.

"Sorry! But it's an emergency."

A shell popped up around them and he huffed. "Yeah, I can see that. But why are there five of them and one of you? Isn't that against the rules of this Game thing?"

"Yeah it is. They're using an illusion to try and kidnap me."

His eyes narrowed. "Then it's a good thing I told you to summon me when you need it. You'd be in a sticky situation otherwise."

She nodded and smiled gratefully at him before grabbing another key.

"Open! Gate of the Crab! Cancer!"

"Hey there, Baby," he glanced around and immediately noticed Flare. "You want me to give that girl another haircut?"

"Yes please. Take her out, we've got to thin their ranks."

"I'm on it."

Cancer switched to his battle gear, with red crab-like armor coating his skin to keep him protected from Flare's burning hair and the attacks from the others as he went after her. Next she summoned Scorpio to deal with Black Snake, and he appeared right as a funnel of sand blasted them.

"Holy Wicked Shit!" he exclaimed as the sand hit the shell and slid past them, completely taking away their vision for a moment but doing nothing else.

"Open! Gate of the bull!" she called and Taurus appeared with a loud moo.

"Hello Miss Luuucy." he called and then noticed Scorpio and grinned. They had done combo attacks before, so he knew what was coming.

"Try to take out those two if you can!"

"Noooo problem!" Taurus lowed, donning thick leather armor of his own, complete with a medieval-looking helmet, to combat the sand that was about to pound across his tough hide, and Scorpio grinned. Scorpio's battle form involved red and black metal armor that made him look like a steam punk samurai biker, and his thick tinted goggles topped it off beautifully.

They stepped out to confront the sand wielder, and Scorpio launched his own sand attack. Taurus wrapped the sand around his ax, creating an eye in the vortex, which he traveled through all the way to his target. When he reached Black Snake, he mooed and his ax glowed bright gold, lighting up the sand and making a deadly typhoon that suddenly Taurus was controlling as he slammed his weapon and all that sand down on his opponent. It spun wildly around, smacking Nalpudding as well and tossing him back on his spiky butt.

Black Snake was the first one down, and then Taurus turned and smacked Nalpudding with the next great swing of his ax as he was getting back up. He went back down like a purple spiky sack of potatoes, much to Lucy's satisfaction. She couldn't help but think that Gray would be exceptionally pleased.

As soon as those two were out of the picture, she closed Taurus's and Scorpio's gates to preserve her magic, which was draining fast. Bart continued to just laze around behind her, keeping the shield up and almost acting bored as she dispatched the enemies. When she chanced a glance behind her, she caught sight of him picking his nose and staring off into space.

He snapped to attention though when Flare managed to sneak a tentacle of hair under the ground and pop it up inside their shield. It snapped towards him – aiming for his neck – and he scowled before making a sharp gesture and slamming a floor onto their shield bubble – neatly severing the hair.

Cancer was making slow steady progress towards her, combating all the hair at once and easily holding his own. With a glance, Lucy could tell it wouldn't be much longer before he had beaten her back.

Turning her attention to the other two opponents, she saw the little demon monkey holding his hands out towards her and grimacing fiercely…probably aiming that magic nullification curse at her again. But thanks to Bart's shield, he couldn't reach her at all. Meanwhile, Ivan started sending a veritable tornado of weird little paper dolls streaming at her, constantly battering against the shield but making no dent whatsoever. He also seemed incredibly frustrated and incredulous as he beat against her defenses without any results.

"What is this nonsense?!" he shouted eventually, scowling fiercely and bearing his teeth in an ugly grimace.

From behind her, she heard a final shriek come from Flare, and knew the redhead had finally been defeated, so she was free to set all her attention on the two most dangerous opponents here.

"Thanks Cancer!" she called, and closed his gate.

He went out saying, "My pleasure, Baby."

Meanwhile, Ivan was throwing a tantrum. "You think you can keep this up forever?! We'll keep attacking over and over! Before the thirty minutes are up, you'll run out of magic power!"

"'We' being who exactly? Three of your team are already down." she pointed out, and for the first time since her shield had gone up, Ivan took his eyes off her to look around him.

"What the… how did this happen!?" he cried and then turned to the demon who was still trying to break through her shield. "You idiot! Why didn't you cast your curses on her spirits?!"

The demon scowled and turned to him. "I was focusing on our main target like you! Why didn't you take out her spirits with one of your Shinigami storms?!"

"Useless! If she summons any more spirits, take them out!" Ivan snarled and turned back to her. His nasty expression relaxed, and a smile formed. "It doesn't matter. You're already obviously running out of magic. It should only take a little longer anyways. Those incompetent idiots can stay behind and get arrested for all I care, as long as I have you."

It was true, she was starting to run out of magic power, especially after having used so much of it already today during the previous battle. Since she had summoned him with his key, even Bartolomeo was using up some of her magic, though he was obviously largely using his own to keep himself out here, otherwise she would've already passed out by now.

A sudden flood of familiar warmth filled her, and she glanced towards the balcony, where Natsu was staring right at her. That took her aback, and she glanced around, seeing that the copies were still in effect – so he couldn't possibly see her. Somehow though, he had found her despite the illusion. The other members of her team were looking around, and she could see his mouth moving as he gestured wildly in her direction, which suggested he was telling them all about the weirdness happening.

Her attention was drawn back to the fight at hand though, when they were swarmed by those paper dolls, a huge mass of them that coated the entire shell and crawled all over it, probably looking for a way in. It was actually pretty disturbing, although she supposed that being swarmed by anything would be creepy. Of course, all they got from Bart in response was a bored yawn as he watched them try to find an entrance with a mildly amused expression on his face.

However, Lucy wasn't nearly as disinterested and wanted to finish this up already and expose these creeps to the world. So she drew another key. "Open! Gate of the Lion! Leo!"

"Hi there Lucy!" Leo said as he popped into being with a flash of light and then looked around their doll-plastered shell with a perplexed expression. "What in the world is going on?!"

"We're fighting against Ivan…Makarov's son. You know, the one who got kicked out of Fairy Tail? Yeah…. he's attacking us with paper dolls." Lucy explained, and Bart snickered at her dry delivery.

"And he's having a really fun time wasting all this magic power trying to find a way into my shell." the celestial tortoise added with another chuckle.

Leo frowned. "Allow me to shed some light on his mistake then. Close your eyes."

Lucy and Bartolomeo instantly snapped their eyes closed, and for good measure Lucy slapped her hands over her face as well. She could still feel the warm, tingly sensation of Leo's magic though as it built and built and built some more, until it washed out over them in a wave of warmth and blinding light that she could still see vaguely even through her closed eyelids and palms. She heard a massive rustling sound as – she could only imagine – all the little paper dolls were blown away and incinerated in the immense explosion of Regulus light that Leo had just released. The enormous power of the spell even had her clothes and hair whipping around, and she staggered a bit under the buffeting winds caused by air being displaced by magic.

Two screams sounded half a second later.

"My eyes!"

"Ah!"

After a moment, she peeked through her fingers once the blinding light had died down, and she could no longer see the glow coming through her fingers. Both the demon and Ivan had their hands clamped to their face and were grimacing in pain.

Seeing an opportunity, Lucy pointed at the demon and mimed hitting it – staying silent so that they wouldn't catch onto what she was planning. Leo grinned and nodded before hopping out of the shell and dashing over to the opponent she had designated. With a Regulus coated fist, he punched the demon square in the face, and – with a sharp and shrill squawk – it poofed in a cloud of black smoke back to the demon realm…just leaving them Ivan to deal with.

He had recovered enough to squint through one eye, though he still looked to be in a great deal of pain, and wildly gestured. Thousands of those little paper dolls flooded the arena, attacking indiscriminately since he apparently still couldn't really see. Leo had to fight them off instead of attacking Ivan for a moment, but they didn't pose any problem for him and his Regulus light. He tore through them like…well, paper, and sent hundreds fluttering in tatters through the air as he made his way towards the man who was still in charge of this massive illusion.

"Can I use my whip through the shell?" Lucy asked Bart suddenly, wanting to assist Leo but not sure if she could.

"Sure." he replied in a bored tone of voice, and she unraveled her whip with a broad grin.

With a pop and crackle, it unfurled to its full blue and golden length, and she wasted no time in sending it flying out through the air towards Ivan. The paper dolls it hit posed no hindrance to its velocity, it just cut through them like a hot knife through butter and reached its mark without trouble. When the tail snapped across Ivan's cheek, he was thrown to the side with a loud yell of pain and shock.

The paper dolls instantly scattered and became less aggressive with Ivan's distraction of getting a whip in the face. Mere seconds later, Leo slammed one glowing fist into Ivan's nose and the other into his gut, sending him flying across the arena. The illusion that had still been playing tore apart, revealing them and the passed-out members of Raven Tail scattered around her.

An eruption of sound came from the crowd and the judges all exclaimed in shock at the sight.

Of course Raven Tail was disqualified, and day three ended on a slightly sour note as the members of the dark guild were all taken away in handcuffs. Thankfully Team A still got it's ten points.

The final score board of the day read: Sabertooth: 65 – Team A: 46 – Team B: 44 – Lamia Scale: 34 – Blue Pegasus: 33 – Mermaid Heel: 32 – Quatro Puppy: 25 – Raven Tail: Disqualified

Everyone left in high spirits after nabbing second and third place.

…

That evening, Fairy Tail congregated at the pub downstairs in their own hotel instead of going out for entertainment. Still, things weren't too different. Bacchus even joined them all again, mostly to have a rematch drinking contest with Cana.

Everyone else got a little tipsy too, even Yukino as she was dragged into the festivities with them all. At some point Rogue and Sting showed up too, while Lector stayed in their hotel room and kept the door locked to make it seem like they were still at their hotel. They didn't stay too long, but it was long enough for Lucy to smile and watch the three of them reconnecting.

Then her attention was taken up by Gray suddenly attempting to barrel surf and slamming into a wall. Natsu quickly followed suit, although he got sick before he even faceplanted into the wall. Erza managed to do it and hop off before the barrels ran into some tables, but she still lost her balance on the landing and ended up on the ground. Funnily enough, Jellal happened to be near her when she landed, and he ended up under her when he tried to catch her. They earned themselves some wolf-whistles and cat-calls for the intimate position, and both mages flushed fire-engine-red and leapt back to their feet.

Fro and Panther Lilly were next, though they probably would have had an easier time of it if they'd stayed in their smaller cat forms. When Gajeel hopped on board – and ended up putting his head through the window – the barrel surfing competition was called off thanks to property damage.

Amidst the chaos, Lucy managed to find Master Makarov and pulled him aside to let him know what his son had told her during the little misadventure earlier. When she mentioned the Lumen Histoire, he blanched, and told her that it was their guild's ultimate secret, and she was never to repeat the name. She solemnly vowed to do so.

Aside from that one serious moment though, the rest of the evening was spent in lighthearted celebration.

---

Sneak Peek:

"The rest of you are fairly evenly matched, so this is where things get tricky…" Makarov muttered, looking them all up and down. "However…I believe that Natsu should remain. He is a dragon after all. BUT! At the same time, he's also one of Lucy's spirits, soooooo…." Suddenly a slightly evil grin appeared across their master's mouth. "According to the rules, if we keep Lucy on the team, Natsu can still fight for her. He just can't participate independently anymore."