Hey!
Guess what? I'm alive. Barely, but alive. School is killing me and I fear you are going to trow me to some wild animal, because my updates suck. At least their timing does. I was always a bit annoyed by those writers that don't update for a long time, but now I kinda understand them. As always I will try to update fast, however i make NO promises.
English is my third language so if there are any mistakes I apologize.
Disclaimer: I still do NOT own Fairy Tail, just the plot and Anastasia!
Our training was over, the team was chosen and once again I found myself in the capital of Fiore, Crocus. The city was full of people from all over the country that came here to watch Grand Magic Games. Sadly this trip was a bit less pleasant since we, minus Erza, still felt horrible from Second Origin.
As we were resting on the ground master and few others came. "So you finally made it…" Makarov said. "I took care of all entry paperwork. Hahahahaha... You better show me the power of Fairy Tail!" He continued, but as he mentioned the power of Fairy Tail my mind wandered to the day we came back from our training and master chose the members of the team. Frankly it was a bit weird. Why didn't master chose all S-class members for Grand Magic Games? I mean if you wanted to put together the strongest team you would make it out of strongest members and that would be Laxus, Erza, Mira, Gajeel, Natsu. Or something like that. Well maybe master wanted to put together a team that could work good, that has experience. Natsu, Erza, Gray, Lucy and Wendy often go or went on missions together from what I heard, so they have the teamwork covered… More or less. But still, it bothered me why not make a team where Laxus and Mira are in. They are strong, S-class wizards, so why are they left out. And to be honest I didn't buy that they haven't come yet. If they were told to be back, they would be…
I was pulled out of my thoughts by some random people on the street that heard master Makarov mention Fairy Tail and started laughing and mocking us. "Hey! Fairy Tail he says!" Shouted a bystander "Those chumps!?" "The perennial last place losers?!" came voices from around us and all I wanted was to show them who are they messing with, I could see Natsu wanted to beat them as well, but Erza held him back. "I'm sure you will be in last place again this year!" "And Sabertooth is sure to win!" I heard even more insults.
Natsu was ready to burn the idiotic guy who probably had no idea that if it weren't for master Makarov interfering he would need to run for his life. Luckily master was here and stopped Natsu from doing anything stupid. After that we talked a bit about the Grand Magic Games and the rules.
As our little chat ended Natsu decided to explore the city and dragged me and Lucy with him, along with that annoying blue cat. As we ran off Erza shouted if we know the name of the inn and my blonde friend shouted back "Honeybone, right?!" "Just make sure you are back by midnight! Got it?!" and with the last "Aye!" we left to explore.
While I visited the capital of Fiore before I must confess I didn't look around. So today was the first time I truly saw Crocus and it was beautiful. The children ran around freely, teenagers talked about the Grand Magic Games, the adults about business or like the teenagers about the Grand Magic Games. All in all the city was full of life and fun. People tried to make the best out of the festival, everywhere you look someone was selling something or simply giving out free gifts and samples. We walked around carelessly and wandered on the streets, taking in the all the colors and fun around us. At some point we got necklaces made out of flowers and I think I heard and saw the Trimen fly across the sky… But maybe that was just my wishful thinking and hoping they land somewhere really hard. Oh and that it would be painful…
The day soon turned into evening and we had so much fun we barely noticed.
"They got flowers everywhere in this town" said Lucy, "No wonder is called the 'blooming capital'." Answered the blue cat. And so we chatted for a while until Natsu heard something. "A fight!" It wasn't a question, I heard it too. But I ignored it, while Natsu wanted to join. "You can't have a festival without a fight! Where is it?!" Shouted Natsu. I knew he wasn't stupid, but would it hurt him to use his brain once in a while?! And so he and Happy ran off to the fight, while Lucy screamed to wait and ran after them, holding my hand and dragging me with her.
I saw Natsu speed towards the group of people that watched the fight. As me and Lucy followed him I smelled a familiar smell. It was like dragon's, but not quite as it. Oh, I knew that smell good, it was dragon slayer's smell and it could be just from two dragon slayers, Rouge and Sting. I sensed trouble and I knew that if they saw me, even if they didn't recognize me, they would be able to figure out my powers and to some extent, who I am. So I told Lucy to go find Natsu alone and that I will be right behind her. She looked at me, confused with my words, but she did what I asked and ran after Natsu. the moment Lucy turned around I made myself invisible and covered my smell. After that I teleported myself in the circle, where the fight was going on or it already ended.
"Anybody else?" Said Sting, with a mea voice. "These guys are beneath us, literally, oh yeah!" Shouted a dark red exceed. I couldn't believe my eyes! Sting and Rogue were surrounded by unconscious bodies, looking happy or in Rogue's case uncaring. I heard stories of their brutal fights and that they show no mercy to anyone, be it an evil mage or innocent bystander, but I never wanted to believe it. Sadly now I had no choice, but to do and it made me so angry that they enjoyed causing pain. They may not know it, however it doesn't make it any less true. I could see it. The joy, the satisfaction they got by being the strongest. It was psychological. They wanted to feel strong, as if to forget the feeling of weakness. It worried me and made me sick at the same time.
In that moment Natsu crawled in the circle "What the...?!" Everybody turned to look at him, however only Rouge and Sting recognized him. "You!" Came Sting's surprised replay and even Rogue's always unemotional eyes were wide "Natsu Dragneel!" While next to dragon slayers, the exceeds had an interesting and humorous meeting, but I paid them no mind. I was focused on dragon slayers. "Who the hell are you guys?" Asked my pink haired friend. This seemed to shock bystanders. Murmurs of "Hey! Haven't you heard of Sabertooth's Twin Dragons, Sting and Rogue?!" and "They are the cornerstone of Fiore's strongest guild!" came from the crowd. This was when I registered Lucy "Then these two are…" "Sabertooth, huh?" finished Natsu. If the situation wasn't so serious my brain would think about Natsu and Lucy finishing each others sentences and how they were almost like a couple, but the situation was serious and all I could really think about was how this was going to end.
And as I thought of it a maniac-like laugh pulled me out. "Rumor has it you are gonna be in Grand Magic Games. Is that true?" Asked Sting, with a disturbingly mean look in his eyes. "You know about me?" Came the only replay from fire dragon slayer and I prayed to all gods up there that this doesn't turn into a fight. "Acnologia…" said Sting and I shivered at the name of one of the most vile creatures that there is. "You are a dragon slayer that couldn't slay a dragon, right?" There was something evil in Sting's voice and I wanted to hit him. I saw that I wasn't the only one, Natsu was ready to tear his throat out. "Are you sure you should keep calling yourself a Dragon Slayer?" As Sting continued it seemed that he wanted to anger Natsu. But Sting kept talking. "You know I used to look up to you. Incidentally, this guy was into Gajeel-san." He looked at Rogue, while the dragon slayer in question answered "I was just interested as fellow Dragon Slayer." This seemed to pick up Natsu's interest "Dragon Slayers? Both of you?!" He asked, shocked. And that was when Sting said something that made me sick.
"Maybe you oughta call us true Dragon Slayers… We would have beaten Acnologia." They were arrogant, they couldn't beat it, no way they could. Apparently Lucy agreed with me "That's easy for you to say when you never even laid eyes on Acnologia!" "It doesn't matter if we seen it or not." "The point here is the difference in our aptitude as Dragon Slayers." Said Rogue and Sting, while the dark red exceed explained about First, Second and hybrid Third Generation Dragon Slayers. "In other words, they the strongest dragon slayers!" Finished the exceed. I didn't believe in what he said. Them being the strongest I mean. It didn't matter how strong your magic itself was, all that matters is what you do with it. Let's take Erza as example. Requip magic allows you to change armors, swords, shields or even clothes, so by simply changing her armor Erza can't win. She has to train with every armor, every sword and every shield to see how they work, how to best use it and stuff like that. Magic isn't all and I knew that being hybrid Third Generation didn't make them the best. They were way too cooky!
"Did your dragons disappear in the year X777, too?!" Asked Natsu and while my pink haired friend doesn't use brains often, he does have them and by his question I knew that he came to the same conclusion, while third generation probably had some advantages, it didn't make them the strongest. I was curious about the question, Natsu asked. What happened to their dragons? "Well, in a manner of speaking…" "I will give it to you straight. The dragons that taught us Dragon Slayer Magic were slain by our own hands, so we could become true Dragon Slayers…"
I couldn't believe my ears. They killed their dragons?! A tear ran across my cheek and my stomach started to turn. My hands were shaking, my heart beating so hard that I feared it would escape. And then came anger. Red, furious anger. They murdered their own parents! "You murdered your own parents!?" Natsu was angry, as angry as me. I knew what he was feeling. We stayed without our own parents, while they murdered their own and even looked smug about it! And then they turned and left with some other mean comment. I didn't really care. I gripped Natsu's hand and while he couldn't see me, he knew it was me. After all, of all the dragon slayers I was closest to him, Wendy and Gajeel very close second. I barely contained myself, however if we attacked it would be bad and we could be out of Grand Magic Games. So I had to hold back, but we will show them, just they wait at the Grand Magic Games we will show them our strength!
At the midnight the elimination round started. I wasn't one of the teams, but I cheered for them in my heart, hoping, knowing they will get through. However something bothered me. The pumpkin man said there was 113 guilds and there aren't 113 guilds in Fiore from what I know, plus the weird dark magic that Jellal said he felt. It was truly weird, but I didn't know enough to make a conclusion yet, besides I knew that Erza and Lucy are smart enough to notice it too. And with that started Fairy Tail's first round in Grand Magic Games, the Sky Labyrinth!