Disclaimer: I don't own anything besides a few OCs.

Warnings: same as in previous chapters.

Enjoy!


Bacchus smirked at Juvia, who stared back blankly.


"You can do it, Fairy Tail!" a man in the audience cried out.

"Yeah?" a woman from beside him said. "Because I'm not too sure about that…"


"Hey…" Bacchus said. "What do you say we make our own bet, like those last guys did?"

Juvia raised an eyebrow. "Continue."

"You're a smokin' hot number…"

Juvia's eyes widened slightly in surprise.


Gray glared at the Quatro Cerberus mage furiously.

"Your point?" he grit out with narrowed eyes.

From behind him, more than a few people snickered.

Oh, Juvia would have loved to hear that!

He could deny it all he wanted, but sometimes it was easy to tell that Juvia's affections weren't quite as one-sided as they had initially thought.

If only she could get over that fangirlism, he'd probably give her a chance…


"If I win the match…you keep me company tonight." He smirked lecherously.


"Scumbag." Asuna, Charlotte, and Sinon hissed angrily.

"That is seriously messed up!" Happy protested.

Evergreen shook in fury. "What nerve!"


Bacchus set aside his guard, still sitting on the ground. "Now it's your turn. If you win?"

"Not happening." Juvia cut him off, settling into a battle stance. "I'm saving myself. That's hardly something I would gamble anyway."


'Saving herself for Gray.' All of Fairy Tail (besides the man in question) and Lyon thought in unison.


Bacchus scowled in disappointment. "Cana, then."

He quickly found himself on the receiving end of a terrifying glare.

"Juvia will NOT sell her friends!" she hissed.


Cana smiled sadly, remembering how Juvia had sacrificed herself while the two of them were stuck in Freed's rune trap back during the Battle of Fairy Tail.

Still, Evergreen was right…the NERVE of that horrid man!

Oh, yeah, try and win her in a fight and take away her free will?!

Even if there was a world where Juvia agreed and he won, there was no way in hell she would ever consent to that, so he'd be a rapist.


Bacchus scowled. "You've got nothing I want, then."

He could've listed any of the beautiful Fairy chicks next, but the resolve in the blunette's eyes was obvious. He wouldn't get anywhere.

He had to withhold a shudder at the glares he was getting from every woman in the stadium, Fairy Tail, Blue Pegasus (which was mostly made up of women), and Mermaid Heel especially.


From the infirmary, Natsu sat up with a yawn, finally recovered fully from the Chariot event. "I slept like a log."

He noticed that the infirmary was empty. "Hello? What's the deal? Did they all take off or something?"

The pinkette sniffed at the air suspiciously before standing up. "Somebody else was in here. I can smell 'em."

He ran out, tracking the intruder by scent as he went.

"HEY, YOU!" he shouted, seeing…four masked men carrying Wendy, Romeo, Porlyusica, and Carla in their arms.

"Ah crap!" one of them cried. "It's that guy from Fairy Tail! We must've woken him up!"

"Stop right there!" Natsu shouted, lunging towards them angrily. "You're not taking them anywhere, ya here?!"

"Run!"

"Hurry!"

"I TOLD YOU TO STOP!" Natsu bellowed.

"He's crazy fast!" one of the men panicked.

"What?!" another cried. "Seeing him in that last game, I didn't think he could run at all!"

"I got this!" another snarled, pulling out a gun. "Let's see if he can outrun a bullet!"

Natsu punched him in the face before he could shoot, knocking him out. "Get outta my way! Get back here! I won't let you take them!"

"He's catching up! This guy is insane!"

"What do we do?!"

"We've got to dump these other four!" another realized.

"Idiots! We're supposed to grab the girl in the infirmary!" the leader shouted.

Natsu's eyes sharpened at the information.

"But this old broad, the brat, and the cat ain't girls!" one protested.

"Then why did we take them?!"

"Who hired you to do this?" Natsu asked darkly, suddenly right behind them.

"AH!" the group cried. "We're doomed!"

Natsu kicked their butts, the resulting dust cloud remaining unnoticed as the audience at the Domas-Flau coliseum watched the fight.


"Woah!"

Juvia hummed absentmindedly as Bacchus tried yet another attack, only for her to once again remain completely unharmed by using her Water Body.

"Juvia can stay like this far longer than the 30 minutes she has been given." The Rain Woman said calmly, tilting her head slightly. "In fact, she can end this at any time…"

Bacchus growled at her.

'All that time training to master my fighting style…' he thought angrily. 'And it doesn't do a damn thing against this chick! This is so not wild!'


"She's got this in the bag." Gajeel said contently with a smirk, leaning against the wall.

"He's more on your level than hers, Titania." Laxus grunted.

"Yes…" Erza smiled. "I might be able to beat Juvia with my Water Empress Armor, but Bacchus is helpless to land a hit. And Juvia wasn't even fighting seriously against me during the S-Class Trials. Of course, he's only just getting started…but I'm not sure even his secret weapon will help him here."

'She wanted me to get promoted.' Gray thought uncomfortably. 'So she didn't really try, even if it cost her the title. I really wish she wouldn't do that…'

Erik raised an eyebrow in the Ice-Make mage's direction.

Was that why he hadn't given her a definitive answer?

He wanted Juvia's first priority to be herself, not him.


"She still hasn't landed a single attack…" Charlotte mused.

"Neither has he." Ultear smiled. "The difference is that he's trying and failing, while she isn't bothering at all."

"He's tiring out." Itachi added quietly, watching the fight with his red and black Sharingan eyes. "Juvia, on the other hand, isn't even sweating."

Meredy smiled at her blue-haired friend proudly.


"I've never seen this before!" Chapati said, stunned. "No offense to Miss Lockser, but I had thought that this would be a rather one-sided fight!"

"It would appear that you underestimated her." Yajima chucked. "Juvia Lockser was formerly of Phantom Lord. She was a member of their strongest team, the Element Four."

"Three guesses which element, and the first two don't count!" Chapati laughed, eyes wide. "Wow! I didn't know that. But what is she using?"

"A technique of hers that is rather unique." Yajima explained. "She calls it Water Body. As you can see, it causes her entire body to turn into water. She used it during the Hidden event, too."

"Can all water mages do that?" Chapati wondered, impressed.

"SO COOL!" Jason cried, before turning towards the other two. "She isn't a water mage."

"What?" Chapati asked, wide-eyed.

"She uses Water much like Toph Beifong of Fairy Tail Team A uses Earth." Yajima told him. "They aren't the same style of elemental magic, but for comparison's sake, their mastery over their respective element is quite similar."

Jason nodded with a beaming smile. "Juvia agreed to let me interview her after she joined Fairy Tail. She's SO COOL!"


"He hasn't changed a bit, has he?" Gray said, sweat-dropping.

"Nope!" Lucy laughed. "Still as loud and enthusiastic as ever!"

'I think you mean annoying.' The rest of the guild thought.


From the stands where Toph's friends were sitting, Katara, another Water user (her style was more alike Toph's than Juvia's was), looked on in interest.

"I wonder if she'll agree to teach me that!" she said with a smile, clasping her hands together as her blue eyes gleamed.

Aang, Sokka, and Zuko eyed her warily as Suki snickered at them.


"What's with the way this guy moves?" Gajeel wondered, eyebrow raised.

"His style, surprisingly enough, is part of an extremely rigorous technique, focusing magic to his palms." Erza explained. "He's very methodic. He uses this style in conjunction with a very specific style of martial art he's mastered, known as Chop Hanging Palm. This particular art style specializes in devastating palm strikes, all delivered from that unique stance he's taking."

'Devastating, huh?' Gray wondered with a frown. 'Good thing his attacks can't hurt Juvia, then.'

Erik rolled his eyes with a groan.

Geez, for someone who was so Tsundere, Fullbuster sure thought about Juvia a lot.

"Bacchus has taken this a step further." Erza continued. "He's modified this technique into his own method of fighting, one that he calls Drunken Chop Hanging Palm."

"He's drunk?" Mirajane asked, surprised. "He doesn't look like it."

"This guy gets hammered when he fights?" Gray asked. "Sounds like Cana."

"TAKE THAT BACK, FULLBUSTER!" the Card mage screamed from the sidelines.

Gray ignored her.

If she could call him out on his stripping habit, he could call her out for her alcoholism.

"That's right. The Drunken Hawk's moves are unpredictable." Erza said. "The alcohol also increases his destructive power and dulls his sensitivity to pain."

She sighed. "Of course…he hasn't had a drop to drink yet."

Gray's eyes widened in shock.

The guy was this powerful (the attacks might not have been hitting Juvia, but from how he'd destroyed the Chariots and the damage the arena floor was taking now, no one could deny his power) without his 'juice?'


"That explains the craziness that went down at the bar." Wakaba realized.

"Man." Macao leaned against the railing. "Guess we really did get lucky."

"He hasn't even touched the bottle he's got down there."

"He's sober?" Cana demanded.

"Which means he's hardly even trying." Lisanna realized.


Bacchus sighed. "I wasn't going to do this…"

He made to step towards his guard.


"JUVIA!" Gray shouted, cupping his hands around his mouth. "DON'T LET HIM DRINK!"

Juvia stared at him (her beloved Gray) in surprise, but nodded, managing to stop her daydream for the time being, and turned to face Bacchus, who had paused at the shout.

"Juvia will end this now." The blunette decided, raising an arm towards her opponent. "WATER LOCK!"

A sphere of water suddenly encased Bacchus, causing the man's eyes to widen in shock.


"What's this?" Chapati wondered, turning towards Yajima and Jason.

"I…I don't know." Yajima's eyebrows furrowed in concentration. "Another unique move?"

"Water Lock!" Jason cried. "SO COOL!"


"The last time I used this…" Juvia said with a frown. "It was against Gray-sama. I was still in Phantom Lord."

Bacchus faltered, beginning to run out of oxygen.

"I don't use it often, only on special occasions." The blunette continued. "Despite your crass words…it has been an interesting fight."

'So not wild.' Was Bacchus' last thought before he blacked out.


Juvia immediately released the Water Lock, causing Bacchus to fall a few feet to the ground.

With a swift movement, she easily removed the water from his lungs and throat.

No need for him to drown, after all.


"Yeah!" Natsu cheered from where they were watching.

"It's amazing!" Romeo shouted.

Wendy beamed. "Go Juvia-nee!"

"Now, children, shouldn't you get back in bed?" Carla asked.

Wendy smiled. "I'm fine."

Romeo grinned with a nod, conjuring up a small blue flame.

"And it's all thanks to Grandineey!" Wendy said, turning to Porlyusica with a smile.

(AN: I don't think I added that scene, so for those of you who don't know Porlyusica is the Edolas version of Grandineey, Wendy's adoptive mother, the Sky Dragon. She ended up in Earthland decades before Mystogan did.)

"Didn't I tell you not to call me by that name?" Porlyusica sighed before turning to Natsu. "So Natsu, about these hoodlums…"

Flashback

"We were just doing a job, that's all!"

"Yeah, for someone in Raven Tail! We were supposed to bring them the girl that was in the infirmary!"


Natsu's fist clenched. "Raven Tail is gonna pay."

The others frowned.

"The girl who was there, past tense." Wendy noted. "That seems weird."

Romeo bit his lip, turning to Porlyusica. "Which of the girls came to visit us?"

The old healer frowned thoughtfully. "Lucy and Meredy were the most recent. Besides that, most of them visited you three at some point."

Carla's eyes widened, remembering her vision. 'Lucy?'


Deep in the castle Mercurius, a similar conversation was taking place.

"I'm afraid the operation was a failure."

"You idiot!" Arcadios said with gritted teeth. "Did you not tell them what their target looks like? How else could they have taken the wrong girl?"

"My apologies, sir." The soldier winced.

"No matter." Arcadios muttered with a sigh. "We do have a Plan B to fall back on. What has become of the kidnappers?"

"We've taken them all into custody, sir."

"Ignorant to the truth, I hope." Arcadios said with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, sir." The soldier answered. "They still believe they were hired by the Raven Tail guild."

"Luckily we can use the rivalry between Raven Tail and Fairy Tail to our advantage." Arcadios mused. "And when the opportunity arises we will have a Celestial Spirit mage in our possession."

He smirked. "To use in the Eclipse Project."


"What's wrong?" Porlyusica asked, staring at Natsu. "What's with that ghastly expression?"

"Raven Tail's dirty tricks are really making me mad." Natsu said, glancing at Wendy, Romeo, and Carla, their first victims during the Games.

"Me too!" Wendy announced with a frown.

"Isn't their master a relative of Makarov?" Carla asked.

"Yeah…" Romeo muttered.

"His son." Natsu finished darkly. "Laxus' dad."

"What does that have to do with this?" Porlyusica asked.

"I don't know." Natsu admitted. "But it is definitely personal."

And that, she couldn't disagree with. Not after having witnessed Ivan's fall firsthand.


Please review! :)

Last chance to vote on what's going to happen with Yukino! So far she'll be rejoining Sabertooth.