Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. Hiro Mashima does. This story was made for fun, and not for cash. (How unfortunate.)

Chapter 16: Realizations, Suspicions, and Confusion

Three more days had gone by, ever since Lucy had fought physically and verbally with Shelly and Cana in Mintochoko Town, and she had been improving her physical strength to help her spells of Earth Magic gain some more support. She had also tested out the other types of magic, wondering how they were doing when they were not in use, and Lucy was very surprised to find out that her four other types of magic were much stronger than before. A single Viridian Tornado could make many large air currents blow in different directions, and the many gusts that were created had resulted in a few green blasts of energy.

Every single green blast of energy from the Wind Magic had made the initially struck object shine in accord with a green glow surrounding every piece of it, and Lucy had remembered the chain power of her Wind Magic. When seven blasts had transpired, that caused the power of a spell like Aerial Palm to be increased exponentially. Spells such as Wind Cannon and Sky Tower had grown a lot without the chain power as well, making Lucy become more and more intrigued about the kind of spell book that she was using. Those spells had truly blown her away, right?

Her Water Magic had also improved a lot since the time that she last used it, and spells like Aqua Ball had become incredibly powerful. This spell had changed from creating a little puddle of water, now making quite a big splash when it struck something, and the many puddles that it left behind would result in a few blue blasts of energy. They were now powerful enough to be used in the clouds as well, meaning that Lucy could fire an Aqua Ball up at a cloud to make it pour down raindrops that would explode down on her opponents. Shelly's Water Magic had made Lucy think outside the box like that, and the blonde mage knew that being unorthodox with her skills came with many perks.

Lucy's Fire Magic had grown by three levels, unlike the Wind Magic and Water Magic that had respectively grown by five and four levels to be on equal footing with the other types of magic, and the blonde mage had found her Fire Magic to really be capable of causing quite a blaze. She had been testing these spells out on a volcanic island near the country of Fiore, and Lucy had been very surprised to find that some attacks like Fire Trick had considerably increased in power. Throwing the attack into the volcano while it bounced around the rocky walls seven times, however, had been a bad move. When Lucy's attack landed in the magma, its effects caused flames and lava to rise up out of the volcano with intense heat as an added bonus. The volcano's eruptive explosions had made big news around Fiore, but Lucy and Sting had left that island before they could get hurt.

Finally, her Lightning Magic had ascended in power by two levels. Lucy had noticed that all of her lightning spells had not only grown larger in size, but they had also gotten faster as well. Even Electric Vortex had become faster because of the lightning and earth seals now being broken, and its power could probably even rival a defensive spell like Jura's Rock Mountain. Lucy's Earth Magic had obviously grown by only one level, since it had only been around for a pretty short time, but the orange spell book had made all five types of magic be at the same level for perfect synchronicity with their master.

Due to the tense event that had happened back in the town of Mintochoko, Lucy and Sting had not gone back there because it really made things awkward. Lucy had not wanted to talk about the fact that Cana's battle with Shelly, combined with the blonde mage assuming that the villain had been the black-haired woman, had really intensified the conflict between the two girls. It had certainly reached the level where Shelly had given Sting a romantic kiss on the lips while she had been blushing, clearly making Lucy really jealous, and she swore to not let her second boyfriend be stolen from her in any way. Lucy knew that Sting was loyal to her, but would he criticize her actions from that day?

The duo had sat down at a table while enjoying bowls of chocolate and peanut butter ice cream for breakfast, really loving the sweet taste, and they had actually gotten all this ice cream because Sting took the large chocolate bar from the museum in Mintochoko as the compensation for Cana's card slamming him against the rough foil. He had told Rufus to use his Memory-Make Magic to create a replacement of the large bar of chocolate for the museum's patrons to enjoy, effacing the issues of theft or drama, and Sting smirked in a flirty manner at his girlfriend while she had loved how the white dragon slayer was such a great strategist.

While Lucy had been glad that Sting did not enjoy the kiss that Shelly gave him, the blonde mage narrowed her brown eyes while feeling bad about how she had gone after Shelly in such a biased way. After what Cana had told Lucy while she tried to apologize, stinking from the fact that Shelly showed Lucy how her old friend reeked of desperation, Lucy knew that she had to have better judgement. After all, in that incident, the enemy in her second conflict had actually been her ally against her enemy from the first conflict. Besides, Lucy smiled a bit as she giggled softly at the fact that Shelly unleashed her gassy weapon on Cana. A good rival had to be admired for being good at making former friends smell putrid, wouldn't you agree?

"Sting, I'm really sorry for being so hasty on that job we did in the town of Mintochoko. I was just so ready to beat down Shelly, totally ready to show her that I was far from weak, but I guess that even all the power in the world could not make up for my huge error in judgement. If I had not taken Cana's side in the battle, then Shelly never would've kissed you. Even though I find it funny that she passed gas in front of Cana, that's still no excuse for how that vixen kissed you on the lips as her way of punishing me. She's asking for a friendship and a farce at the same time, you know." Lucy explained to the white dragon slayer with an apologetic look on her face, hoping that he would forgive her act of clumsiness.

The blue-eyed male replied in a calm manner while eating his bowl of delicious chocolate and peanut butter ice cream, smirking in a flirty manner at his kind lover, "Don't worry about it, Lucy. You only did what you thought was right, even though it ended up making you and Cana have to smell Shelly's large fart, and we got the reward of getting to turn that large chocolate bar into ice cream. Her lips made me feel like I was being kissed by a sticky vacuum, and I washed the blueberry scent of her breath out of my mouth. Look, to ease your mind about your enemies, let's just relax together today. After tension, having some fun is always the best option."

As he gave Lucy a passionate and warm kiss on the lips, letting her feel and see that his lips were only for her to enjoy, the brown-eyed girl blushed pink while kissing back to return her boyfriend's feelings of love. This moment was just as great as the time they were in Aqua Kyogre's hot spring under the museum, and Lucy had always felt cheered up by Sting. Even if one job resulted in a love triangle intensifying, worrying about grudges and tension were not good options for Lucy right now. She knew that Sting was the guy that she could trust, and her new friends in Sabertooth had been much better than her former allies in Fairy Tail.

At the Fairy Tail guild...

Lisanna and Erza had just come back to the guild after finishing a few jobs together, and they had known that Gray was out somewhere with Juvia. Apparently, she really needed his help with something that she couldn't do on her own, and Lisanna giggled a bit from knowing how Juvia loved Gray. He probably wouldn't like what she had in store for him, but it wouldn't be anything bad. After all, Juvia was a kind person. Despite her overactive imagination at times, she was still one of the nicest mages in Fairy Tail. Lisanna was glad to know that Juvia would be in good hands with Gray, no matter what they would have to do while they were spending time together.

Speaking of spending time together, the white-haired mage had begun to realize that she had spent some time away from Natsu. Lisanna looked a bit sad while knowing that she had been leaving him while he had been ordered to stay in bed, not really happy over the fact that the fire dragon slayer was wounded so badly, but Natsu was getting his karma for being such a reckless jerk to his ex. Just because Lucy was now dating Sting, Lisanna had to truly wonder why Natsu would get so upset over something like that. Really, what kind of committed guy would get mad over his ex moving on? Even if she was dating his rival, what was so bad about them being together?

Her mind went back to the day where Natsu had been acting totally idiotic when the group of fairies had gone to the guild of Sabertooth, wondering if Lucy had truly been there, and Lisanna had walked out of the guild while Natsu had started a fight with Lucy again because his actions made her feel pushed aside by him. He could've just stood by her side while asking Lucy about her current love life, but it looked like Natsu had acted like she did something wrong while he had actually cheated on Lucy with Lisanna. If there's one thing that Lucy could never stand, it was a hypocrite. Lisanna probably looked bad in the eyes of the blonde mage as well, causing her to feel guilty.

She had known about Lucy being with Natsu last year, seeing the two of them always being happy together, but Lisanna had never known that Natsu would return her feelings when she confessed to loving him. Even if he had been getting bored with Lucy, how could he just leave her in the dark for almost seven months while he was enjoying his time with a girl as kind as Lisanna? She had never meant to break them up in any way, thinking that Natsu would tell Lucy about the harsh news, but that was certainly not the case at all. Lisanna had always been more neutral in this conflict, not really getting as much hate as Natsu did, but something was odd.

As the blue-eyed girl looked around the guildhall while she stood next to Erza, she noticed something that looked really odd. Natsu was sitting at a table with Marina, the teal-haired spy who had fit in easily to hide the fact that she was working for the dark guild known as Aqua Kyogre, and the two mages were happily smiling at each other while Marina had now worn a simple yellow T-shirt with a brown miniskirt to match. As Natsu had been looking into her green eyes, he was blushing a light shade of pink as his other hand was going up Marina's right leg. He was feeling her soft skin, making her sigh happily in pleasure, and she was a great actress as well. She stared back at the pink-haired male with a loving look in her green eyes, and the lovely smell of her perfume entered Natsu's nostrils.

Lisanna slowly walked over to the duo while her blue eyes remained fixed on Natsu, wondering why he would've ordered two cups of hot chocolate with whip cream for himself and Marina, making the white-haired female wonder why her boyfriend had ordered a drink that was only meant to have its sweet taste shared between himself and Lisanna. She had not been overly paranoid to think that he might be cheating on her, not wanting to jump to conclusions over something that had a high chance of not even existing right now, and Lisanna just wanted to see what they were talking about. After all, it was probably something that would go from a sly move to a slick save.

Natsu told Marina in a calm tone, smiling as the taste of the hot chocolate had made him feel very happy, "This is the best morning that I've ever had, and I wish that you were the barmaid every day. It wouldn't be good to know that you're exhausted from working, though, so at least you take advantage of your shift to make some sweet treats. You even said how Lisanna and I would be thrown a great party for our seven-month anniversary, Marina, and I can't thank you enough by hearing that you looked up her favorite foods for the party. You are so totally awesome, Marina, and you should get to know Lisanna. She's totally awesome and cool."

The teal-haired woman replied in a smart manner while looking a bit happy, noticing Lisanna on the corner of her right green eye, "I'm very glad to have lent most of my money to helping you out, Natsu Dragneel, and let's just say that your party with Lisanna will be so great. You won't even be able to forget about it, and you'll have so much fun. I hope that you've also planned to tell Lisanna about the large cake that you two will be having, and it shall be sliced apart with one piece at a time. You'll be so into the sweetness of the cake, and it will be a very good night. Just like when you told me how you and Lisanna sleep together peacefully. That's so cute."

Natsu was about to ask her for the flavor of the cake, hoping that it would be chocolate, but Marina quickly put her left hand in the cup of steamy hot chocolate while using her Water Body ability to enter the cup with ease. She had gotten herself into the cup without any problems, using this as a way to travel through liquids to reach the hot tub in her room at the guild of Aqua Kyogre, and she simply wanted to let Lisanna's paranoia or Natsu's denseness cause a rip in their relationship. After all, what's better than seeing a cheater and his girlfriend from the affair having a few minor issues?

Lisanna looked a bit confused by that ability Marina just used, thinking that only Juvia could do that, and the white-haired mage ran over to her boyfriend's side to greet him with a smile on her face. She was glad that Natsu and Marina had not been showing any romantic love for each other, not having that kind of shocking chemistry, but Lisanna did not know about the fact that Natsu was going to be in bed with Marina tonight. He enjoyed smelling her perfume, loving how she would let her body press against his while the bed would creak with their lovemaking, and Natsu was actually planning to give Lisanna an engagement ring while he had just wanted Marina to fill Lisanna's days of absence.

He had actually not wanted to cheat this time around, hoping that the same dilemma would not happen with Lisanna like how it had transpired with Lucy, and Natsu had kissed Lisanna's lips passionately when he had finally noticed her. He was only going to break up with her if things did not work out the way that he had intended them to, and Natsu also kept doing his best to get Lucy out of his head. He just could not stand the thought of her and Sting dancing together at a party, or even having two spoons in a bowl of ice cream that they were sharing. He was going to make Lucy pay for dating his rival, and the fire dragon slayer hoped to settle the score in the Grand Magic Games.

While Lisanna had now suspected that nothing was going on with Natsu, Erza kept looking at him in a stern manner. Her brown eyes were narrowed, almost like she could tell that he was now trying to hide something, and the scarlet-haired mage wondered if he had anything to do with the foul stench coming from the women's shower room in the guild. That was actually Cana's fault, since it took a long time to get Shelly's foul stench off of her body, and the card mage had been out drinking booze somewhere. Erza had heard about Lucy did not forgive Cana, and she could tell that the blame would soon be pointed on Natsu and Lisanna. The guild had been full of conflicts lately, everyone starting to feel annoyed while being around Natsu, and Erza sighed in an unhappy manner while knowing that Gray and Juvia must've been happier to not have been involved in keeping Natsu's affair from reaching Lucy's ears.

mind.

In Gateau Town...

Gray had just finished helping Juvia with her job of buying a mint green cake, not knowing that she had bought it for him, and the ice mage didn't even care to see that the top of the mint green cake was covered in the chocolate Oreo cookies without the filling included. He had really loved chocolate, unaware that Juvia had always been tailing him when he had gone to his favorite dessert shop in Magnolia, and Gray thought that she must've been buying it for Lyon to make him finally stay away from her.

Juvia had smiled at Gray while they walked down the street that was covered in brick and cobblestone, blushing a bit while she tried to make her right hand hold his left hand, and this was like one of Juvia's greatest dreams. She had always wanted to spend some time alone with Gray, wanting to be around the guy that she was in love with, and just seeing the slightest twinkle in his dark blue eyes was enough to make her sigh happily and probably faint from the sheer happiness that her heart would experience.

Even though he was out on a job with Juvia right now, Gray could not stop thinking about Lucy. He was pretty happy to know that she was safe and sound, but he never really thought that she would have joined the Sabertooth guild. He certainly hoped that Rufus would not be using his Memory-Make Magic to brainwash her into forgetting all of her friends who were in Fairy Tail, and he also hoped that she would not be plotting a war against her former guild just because of what Natsu had done to her.

Gray had really cared for Lucy, and seeing her saddened by Natsu was really painful for him to watch. Erza had told him that words of sympathy would only make things worse in the situation, and even giving Natsu some stern lectures had proven to be pretty useless. Gray just hoped that Lucy was enjoying her new life in Sabertooth, and maybe he would see her at the Grand Magic Games. He had also heard a few rumors about the Grand Fiore League that might be held in place of the Grand Magic Games, but either tournament would make somebody win a title of some kind.

As the ice mage kept on walking, he noticed that Juvia had stopped for some reason. He turned around to ask her what was wrong, wondering if the cake had been struck by bird poop or something, and he surprisingly saw the Rain Woman clenching her teeth while growling at the sight of something or someone who was up ahead. Gray looked straight ahead in the direction where Juvia was looking, and what he saw was really a sight for sore eyes to him. He had to blink twice to confirm what he saw, and his vision wasn't playing tricks on him. The black-haired male could not believe that this chance had finally come around, but was it truly going to give him the results that he expected?

Lucy had apparently dyed her hair purple, now having it in a violet color, and she had been wearing a purple top that looked similar to the one that she wore on the first day of the Grand Magic Games last year in X791. Her pants were also black, and her flat shoes were lavender. Gray smiled a bit from seeing her here, wondering what she could be doing in this town, and he would gladly assist her with any job that she was on right now. He knew that Juvia considered Lucy as her love rival for Gray's affections, but he knew that Lucy had been distant from the Fairy Tail guild because of Natsu and Cana messing things up for the blonde mage.

Gray and Juvia had been neutral with the whole situation involving Natsu having to keep his affair with Lisanna from reaching the ears of Lucy, but Juvia had also known that Gray felt bad for not being there for Lucy in a good way. He didn't have to think about Natsu's secret, but Gray had only ignored it because he thought that Natsu would mess up and tell Lucy on his own. However, that was not the case. Also, Lucy's conflict with Cana had made her feel like the people who remained in Fairy Tail were not her friends at all. She could not being herself to trust Cana anymore, now probably wanting to follow Shelly's harsh views of thinking while still seeing her as a rival, and Gray wanted to at least be on good terms with her. Even if he was the only one in Fairy Tail on her side right now, wasn't one person better than having no one?

"Hey, Lucy! Listen, I just want you to know that I'm sorry about what happened with Natsu and Lisanna. It was really unfair of me to not help you out when you needed to have someone by your side, but you don't have to hate all of us because of one person's actions. Natsu is a total idiot, which is the truth, but at least be my friend again. I know that an apology won't make up for not being there for you, Lucy, but I refuse to see you feeling hurt by what happened in the guild. I understand all the pain and anger that you must feel, so let's just talk about this!" Gray told her with an apologetic look in his dark blue eyes, having the intention to reach out to her.

Lucy, or whoever he thought was her, had replied in a stern manner while turning around to face Gray and Juvia with an evil look in her amethyst purple eyes, "That sounds like a really emotional speech while you want to be her friend, but here's a little plot twist that shows where you messed up. I am not Lucy, you fool. How dare you mistake me for that sniveling little clown of a mage! I'll have you know that I'm a member of Aqua Kyogre, one of the most infamous guilds in Fiore, and you were unlucky enough to come across one of the Elite Four as well."

At that moment, Gray and Juvia both gasped in shock at what they were seeing. This person who looked exactly like Lucy, except for the violet hair and amethyst purple eyes, was not the blonde mage that they both knew? Gray could see the harsh look in this girl's amethyst purple eyes, an evil look that Lucy could never really have, and he had to wonder why this girl looked so much like Lucy. She had never spoke of having a twin sister, nor did she ever seem like one had actually existed somewhere. On top of that, the presence of someone from Aqua Kyogre in this town was not a good sign.

Juvia also looked a bit startled, getting a pretty strange vibe from this girl, and she didn't like it at all. Her magical power seemed to be different from Lucy's, much fiercer in some way, and it made the Rain Woman look alert while also knowing that she could not just leave Gray alone with this lookalike of Lucy. After all, Juvia couldn't stand to think of what this girl would do to the man that she loved with all of her heart. She glared at the violet-haired girl, who smirked at the Fairy Tail mages for mentioning Lucy's name. Upon hearing that this girl was having the job of keeping watch in this town, Juvia had to wonder why a criminal would act like an authority figure.

"Tell me something, then. Have you seen Lucy Heartfilia lately? I'm just wanting to know if you destroyed her, that's all. Some of the jobs that she's done may not have made big news to the papers in this country, but doing things like using elemental types of magic that affect nature is something that we can't tolerate. Let's just say that her Fire Magic was sensed around the same times as a few heat waves, and her Earth Magic caused some sandstorms to blow away our secret bases. Messing with us is something that is intolerable, and I'll ask you again if you managed to defeat Lucy." The mysterious girl asked and told Gray in a calm tone, seeming like she knew Lucy from somewhere.

Not wanting Lucy's current whereabouts to be told to someone who had unknown and possibly dangerous intentions, Gray simply told the girl that he and Juvia had supposedly battled against Lucy in the mountains when she was using the orange spell book. However, he made up a lie and said how she was strong enough for them to settle things on a draw and end the fight because he didn't want a rock slide to occur for the people of Pewter Town to be in danger. Gray also informed this girl that Lucy's spells had tripped him up majorly, and he looked stern while hoping she would believe this lie.

However, his explanation only caused this girl with violet hair to snicker in a vicious manner. She could only see Gray's words as pure garbage, and she told him and Juvia to not even try joking around with her about Lucy. She let the ice mage know that if he had to be thinking that Lucy was powerful in her current state, then him and Juvia must've been the weakest team on Earthland. She had even brought up the fact that Aqua Kyogre had individual files on every mage in Fiore, including the file with data that Shelly had been updating on Lucy, and this girl with the purple eyes told Gray that Lucy was only surviving because she would eventually have to join Aqua Kyogre in their dark plot.

This comment greatly offended Gray, who knew that Lucy would not want to be used like a tool in any way, and the ice mage now glared at the girl who stood before him. She had talked about destroying Lucy, most likely for Aqua Kyogre to get their hands on the spell book of Molding Magic that the blonde mage had wielded, and the ice mage could tell that they were probably just waiting for Lucy to complete the book. Then, they would simply take it out of her hands. That seemed like a very predictable theory, but let's just say that his assumption was way off. Lucy was actually on the side of Aqua Kyogre in a way, since she now agreed with Shelly that Cana was more of an enemy than a friend to her.

While Gray had been doing the speaking in this chat with the lookalike of Lucy, Juvia simply told him to cease as she began walking away. She knew that if the violet-haired girl wasn't going to do anything but stand there and dish out tough talk, then there was no reason to keep fighting verbally or have this confrontation escalate to a physical level. Besides, Juvia had come to this town to buy a cake for Gray. She didn't plan on fighting anybody, and the Rain Woman had a fierce look in her blue eyes while letting this lookalike of Lucy know that there was no need to quarrel with her.

Gray and Juvia both saw no reason for fighting someone who didn't even seem tough, proceeding to walk away from this confrontation and head back to the town of Magnolia where the Fairy Tail guild was located, but this only made their new opponent speak in a darker tone of voice while her violet hair began to obscure her eyes. She let the duo know that they were both very naive for thinking that they could just walk away quietly from her without anything happening, and the female from Aqua Kyogre threatened to put the whole town in a sea of toxicity. Not wanting to let that happen, along with the stakes being too high if they were to refuse, Gray and Juvia requested that their battle be on the countryside route near Gateau Town.

15 minutes later...

After getting far away from the town, not wanting any innocent people to be hurt in this fight, Gray and Juvia stood on one side of the grassy field while their violet-haired opponent stood on the other side of it. Three large windmills were on the sidelines of the battlefield, letting their propellers spin while a breeze blew through the area, and Juvia had set her mint cake on the sidelines as well. She hoped that it wouldn't get damaged in any way, or she would definitely be teaching her opponent a lesson about messing with her love for Gray.

The girl with amethyst purple eyes revealed that her name was Janine Mitarashi, and she was one of the Elite Four that could be faced in the Grand Fiore League if the best challenger wanted to take the option of challenging the four best mages in Fiore's league while the current champion could also be battled as well. Janine really had her doubts about Gray or Juvia even making it past the first round if they entered the tournament, and she looked pretty confident about her chances of winning while staring down her opponents. If this battle would be two against one, then how could she still be so confident?

Narrowing his dark blue eyes, Gray looked stern while jumping up into the air and firing three large icicles at Janine. They wouldn't actually come down upon her, since Gray was using this as a way to test her strength. He also wanted to see what kind of book or keys would be used by this girl, since she was a lookalike of Lucy, and he certainly hoped that none of her Celestial Spirits would be as powerful as Aquarius. He smirked a bit, seeing the icicles about to land in a triangle around Janine, but something strange happened. She had a calm look in her amethyst purple eyes, simply standing in place while the ice shards came towards her, and it was like she could tell where the ice would land.

Much to his and Juvia's surprise, Janine had not tried to dodge the icicles at all. She somehow knew that Gray wasn't actually trying to hit her, and she smirked a bit while the evil look was maintained in her amethyst purple eyes. Janine used her first spell, and it was known as Shadow Ball. This move caused a purple ball to be fired from the palm of her right hand, and it appeared to be from Darkness Magic. The purple ball struck one of the windmills, obliterating it while creating a large purple blast of energy, and Juvia thought that Janine's aim was off. However, she had strategically used that Shadow Ball as a starting move into her next attack.

However, Gray quickly grabbed his friend's left hand while getting her out of the way of the falling debris. Every piece of wood had a purple aura surrounding it, and purple blasts transpired when the pieces of wood hit the ground. Gray took notice of that unorthodox spell being similar to an attack that Lucy would probably use, but him and Juvia had managed to dodge all of the debris. He knew that Janine would have to do better than that to defeat mages from the guild of Fairy Tail, and the ice mage also wondered about the other spells in her arsenal.

Janine noticed that Gray and Juvia looked happy to have dodged that first attack, but her next spell would not be something to laugh about. It was known as Dark Efiálti̱s, and this spell had worked in conjunction with her first spell. All of the violet blasts had a side effect to them, and they caused purple silhouettes of Janine to rise from the spots where her attacks had landed. They all flew towards Juvia, surprisingly passing right through her body like they were ghosts, and the blue-haired woman screamed when she felt like her stamina was being drained.

In reality, Janine was actually using this spell to give herself more energy by absorbing every single bad thought in the heart and mind of Juvia. A purple aura surrounded her body while she could feel her magical power increasing, and she began to laugh evilly from stealing Juvia's magical power in such a cruel way. Gray attempted to hit Janine with Ice-Make: Shotgun, hoping that his thick spears of ice would hit her, but her second spell had also allowed her to use its side effect. Her silhouettes taken the attacks for her, creating violet explosions in the process, and Janine felt more power being transferred to her.

Deciding to take this battle into her own hands, most likely to help Gray, Juvia used her Water Magic to unleash a Water Cyclone down on Janine from a cloud that was floating overhead. The vortex of blue water was about to come down upon the violet-haired girl to cause massive damage, but she quickly countered with a spell known as Haunting Betrayal. This spell caused Juvia's Water Cyclone to turn purple, changing its properties to now be a spell of Darkness Magic, and the large vortex of energy was redirected by Janine to strike Gray instead! A large violet blast of Darkness Magic transpired, causing Janine to snicker viciously.

Haunting Betrayal was a spell that allowed its user to distract its prey with a little nightmare, and hit them with its biggest impact from anywhere that they pleased. Janine had imagined Gray being struck by the spell, and the purple smoke cleared up to reveal its side effect. Gray was now immobilized because of Janine making the spell have intense properties of gravity as well, and he couldn't even lift a single finger because of all the pressure that was being forced down on him. Juvia looked very concerned for Gray, wanting to help him, but the ice mage told her to run away quickly.

"Juvia will not leave Gray-sama here! She will defeat Janine, one way or another!" Juvia exclaimed with a determined facial expression, ready to try and beat Janine with any kind of spell.

The girl with amethyst purple eyes replied evilly while harshly glaring at Juvia, "I guess it's time for me to end this little battle. Prepare to see the difference between me and Lucy, or I can give you more of a demonstration."

Before Juvia could even attack with Water Slicer, she noticed that Janine's shadow was starting to change into something very strange. It began to rise up from the ground, having large red eyes and a wide mouth, making Juvia seem a bit uneasy. Janine's shadow morphed into a dark purple, bipedal creature with a roundish body. Multiple purple spikes covered its back, and it had large pointed ears. Its arms and legs were short with three digits on both its hands and feet. It also had a stubby tail, too. This spell was known as Lunar Shadow, and its effect would not be good for Juvia.

Janine's newly morphed shadow separated itself from her, and it shot out a large purple ball of energy from its mouth. This attack went up into the air, confusing Juvia, but then she and Gray both looked startled to see the Rain Woman being levitated into the air like gravity around her had been removed. She was now floating in midair, seeming surprised at what was going on, and Janine's shadowy creature laughed when it made the purple sphere come down upon Juvia at fast speeds. It had gained power on its descent, and Juvia found herself now unable to move because of the gravity immobilizing her.

When the purple ball of energy struck Juvia with tremendous amounts of force, it sent her crashing back down to the ground! A large violet blast of energy transpired afterwards, blinding Gray's eyes, and he could sense the enormous power of this attack. The sound of the explosion was louder than Juvia's scream of pain, and the Rain Woman had taken an extreme amount of damage from the gravity smashing her against the ground. When the purple smoke quickly cleared up, Gray's dark blue eyes widened in pure shock from seeing Juvia unconscious with her eyes open. The gravity was now released from him, and he slowly stood up to go over and aid his friend.

"You monster! You are sick! You intended to kill Juvia!" Gray shouted at Janine while looking stern, seeing some purple and bloody slash wounds on his friend's arms and legs.

Before Gray could make this argument persist any longer, he looked a bit curious to hear something like a transceiver giving off the sound of static in Janine's left pocket of her black pants. She could only look at him with an evil smirk on her face, mouthing the words "Fairy Tail will be crushed for being in the way of Aqua Kyogre getting Lucy and the book", and the violet-haired member of the Elite Four melted down into a puddle of purple sludge to teleport back to the guild where Shelly was waiting to give her some orders.

As the ice mage noticed that Juvia had managed to shake her head a bit, now being slightly conscious while she now had some fear in her blue eyes, Gray knew that those guys from Aqua Kyogre were pretty deceptive. It was honestly hard to tell if Janine had only been spouting lies to rile up Fairy Tail, probably as payback for how Natsu cheated on Lucy with Lisanna, and Gray could only regret the fact that he had not been a better friend to Lucy. Letting her heart get crushed by Natsu was what a friend should not have allowed, and Gray knew that he'd have to give her an apology in the Grand Magic Games.

Back at Sabertooth...

In an effort to help Lucy feel more relaxed while she just had to ignore any thoughts about Cana, Sting had taken his girlfriend to her room for their next date. It wasn't exactly a fancy restaurant or a movie theater, but who said that relationship partners always had to be in fancy areas? Lucy's room had smelled really good, the scent of strawberries flowing through the air, and Sting loved how this room had smelled so wonderful. He told Lucy to sit down on the sofa in her room, as he sat next to her, and Sting wanted her to let out all of her feelings towards Cana. It was never good for her to keep her feelings bottled up, you know.

He had been a good listener while she had told him about the fact that her mind could not get over the fact that Cana had totally betrayed her, never even once telling her about how Natsu had been cheating on her with Lisanna, and Lucy had actually calculated the time to know when her ex would be celebrating the awaited seven-month anniversary with his girlfriend. Cana had known about the fact that Lucy was being duped, but that was not the only thing on the blonde mage's mind. She had gone further into this subject, letting Sting know more about her issues.

Not only had she mistaken Shelly for the true antagonist in her fight against Cana, but she had actually tried to hurt the person who was actually her rival and a friend at the same time. Wendy had been able to trust Shelly, mainly because she had not gotten on the nerves of the tanned woman, but the young sky dragon slayer also did not possess the legendary book that worked well with the keys. That is what Aqua Kyogre had been after, seeing as Shelly knew that it was a great treasure, but Lucy did not know about any of that.

Her mind kept going back to the moment that Shelly had kissed Sting on the lips, making Lucy utterly shocked at the fact that her rival had punished her in the worst way. That kiss was worse than when Shelly kicked Lucy down into the museum's hot spring, making her feel like she was not good enough, and Lucy kept trying to maintain her confidence. She did not want Sting to be worried while she kept on thinking about how Shelly was better than her in terms of power, speed, strategy, sexiness, and even her muscles had made Lucy feel intimidated. She had known that tying in a battle with her rival would be seen as a draw, but could Lucy actually beat her?

Even though Lucy and Sting had done great on many other jobs, defeating many opponents, Lucy clenched her fists while knowing that she had to become mentally stronger and physically stronger. Her emotions had been stirred up in that last battle with Shelly, even though she did not know it, and Lucy looked saddened while telling Sting that she just wanted Fairy Tail to go away. She had lost all of her trust for any of them, seeing no reason to forgive them, and her cocoa brown eyes told her boyfriend that she was going to show her old guild that they'd regret ever making her feel the pain of being stabbed in the back.

"I know that you feel a lot of anger towards your new rival and your old friends, but you can't let the rage fuel your desire to win. Instead, think in a positive light. I will find a way to be on your team in the Grand Magic Games, and you won't have to face those guys alone. You forget that me, Rogue, Yukino, Lector, and Rufus would all do anything to help you out. You may feel really hurt by what Shelly and Natsu say to you, but why let them shake you up or get you angry? If you just remember that you're not alone, you'll always win." Sting explained to her in a calm manner, smiling happily as he hugged his girlfriend.

As he gave her that loving hug, Lucy blushed a light shade of pink while remembering how she had her first kiss with Sting. It was a sign of great trust between the two mages, building the love that they had for each other, and Lucy now knew what was missing. Sting had done so much for her, even saving her from falling off a cliff once, and Lucy had not repaid him for being such a kind boyfriend. She had mainly been thinking of how to improve herself with her magic, but it was bad to not include her new friends. Their growing bonds with her would make the book's magic become more powerful, giving her the will to win, and then Lucy came to realize it. Sting and the others were kind enough to help her, and now it was her turn to help Sabertooth win the Grand Magic Games.

How was Chapter 16? Did you like it? Sorry for taking so long to update this chapter, and it's the prologue to the exciting Grand Magic Games! You heard me. They will debut in the next chapter, and that's where the StiCy will reach another good point! Anyway, what will happen when Team Sabertooth is now ready to win? Will Fairy Tail stand in the way? Does Lucy's rival help her out in a few ways, since they may eventually have to team up? Standby for the update!