A/N: I'm busy all day tomorrow, so enjoy an early chapter!

"Yay, the pool is so much fun!"

Seph didn't want to be here, no matter how nice the water felt on her little feet and around her ankles. Being in a swimsuit wasn't fun and didn't feel nice, so she ended up with a pair of shorts and a t-shirt… although, even then, she felt a little too exposed. She couldn't even swim, but this was to cheer up the First Master and to stay close to Laxus. This place was crowded, after all, and the city was dangerous after night even if she was going to stay in the hotel room until he got back. She… didn't really want to be alone, honestly. At least Laxus was letting her rest her head against his leg. That was nice.

"What are you doing?"

Seph moved her gaze to find Lucy and Erza, in which she gave the pair of girls a quick smile before going back to watching how the water in the pool moved to keep itself as closed off to air as possible. It wrapped around her ankles when she had her feet submerged in it and, to be honest, it kind of tickled. It tickled in a good way, of course.

""What", you say?" The Master asked, looking like he was channeling his inner peace at least five feet away from her and Laxus.

"We're doing just what it looks like." Laxus replied with a sigh, in which Seph sat up from having her head resting on his leg.

"We're keeping the First Master company." She added to help Lucy understand a little more. She couldn't say anything else without going into detail, so she honestly hoped that it was enough.

"Right…" Lucy agreed shakily before Mavis suddenly popped up from underneath the water again.

"Oh no, I'd forgotten something important!" She told them before climbing out of the water and going over to a clear spot, starting to do different types of stretches. "We need to warm up before swimming! Come on, everyone! Let's do it together!"

Makarov immediately got up and joined them and Laxus ended up joining when Makarov told him to just do it. Seph wasn't going to swim anyways, so she didn't really bother… She wanted to talk to Erza anyways.

"U-Um, Erza!" She called out before the red-headed Mage could walk away with Lucy. They both turned back nearly immediately. "… Th-That's your name, r-right?" Erza nodded, in which Seph sighed in relief a little bit before continuing. "U-Uh, you did r-really g-good during the e-event today!" That was lame, but Erza smiled anyways upon noticing the small Exceed's blush.

"Thank you. It wasn't much, though." She stated, causing Lucy to nearly choke. Seph swallowed a little heavily before nodding and going back to watching her feet move in the water, feeling a little dumb for not being able to say anything else. Erza was just so cool.

Nonetheless, Freed and Bickslow showed up and joined in on the warming up, which Seph found herself giggling at a little bit. It was good to just relax and have fun for a little while…

Seph ended up leaning against Laxus' leg like a pillow as she laid down, half-tired and half-bored. He only shifted to grab a towel for Mavis because she started to feel cold, somehow, and that was when Seph realized that things were going downhill. She really should've expected it with how things were in this Guild… Gray and Lyon ended up freezing the whole place over and Seph found herself being leaned over by Laxus to be protected from rubble as Natsu exploded the place. He was just trying to unfreeze the place, but he did it all wrong and screwed up the whole thing…

Laxus didn't stay long, as he had to go knock around Natsu and Gray to keep them from running away so the Master could give them a harsh lecture, but Seph stayed on the ground anyways. This Guild was insane…

But it was really fun.

The competition part for day four of the Grand Magic Games happened to be a battle inside a huge water sphere, and they called it the "Naval Battle". Chelia from Lamia Scale, Jenny from Blue Pegasus, Risley from Mermaid Heel, Juvia from Team B, and Lucy from Team A were competing along with a woman named Minerva from Sabertooth that gave Seph a really bad feeling. She also noticed Rocker from Quatro Puppy in the water even though they didn't announce him.

The water was made of magic that allowed the contestants to breathe inside of it, which was a good thing… honestly; it wouldn't work very well any other way. The rules were also very simple. If you were to leave the water, then you would be out.

Almost immediately when the Naval Battle started, Lucy brought out Aquarius and attacked, in which Juvia counter-attacked and brought their attacks to collide head on. Jenny kicked Rocker out of the water sphere and brought Quatro Puppy to an unfortunate out before Aquarius left Lucy to… go on a date. Seph couldn't help but let out a snort when hearing that because Lucy had quite the relationship with the Celestial Spirits, and she just hadn't seen it before then. Lucy summoned Virgo and Aries to help her out as quickly as she possibly could to repel against Juvia.

After a little, kinda weird, chat about switching Lucy out with Wendy due to Chelia, the fight that had been paused came back full-force with Lucy still around in the water sphere. Jenny from Blue Pegasus left the sphere, then Chelia from Lamia Scale, and then Risley from Mermaid Heel, bringing in the points and the ranks slowly. Minerva and Lucy were fairing pretty well against Juvia, Lucy with a little more trouble, and the attack seized to leave behind the three of them, Juvia looking proud…

However, Juvia got distracted by looking at Gray and ended up falling out of the water sphere, leaving behind Lucy and Minerva. Juvia brought in six points for her team, though, which was amazing! Now, because of Lucy and Minerva being the last ones, the five minute rule was in place. If either one of them dropped out of the sphere in those five minutes, they'd be pushed into last place… Seph had a feeling that Lucy wasn't going to let that happen, but Minerva wasn't going to give in either.

Seph felt awful upon witnessing Minerva blast Lucy around like a doll, using her magic to heat the water around Lucy. It made her side burn just looking at the water nearly go red just from the power of the heat, making her clutch at her shirt as if that would subdue the pain. It didn't. Minerva had stolen Lucy's keys, after all, and that meant that Minerva could do whatever she wanted.

She could do whatever she pleased.

The five minute timer went off and Seph thought that things would be okay. Lucy could just get knocked out of the sphere and come in second, and Team A would get eight points! But… That didn't happen. Minerva attacked Lucy mercilessly, going so far as to knock her back into the sphere to torture her more. Seph felt her breathing going shallow and her eyesight got fuzzy, but she was so dizzy that she couldn't find out where she was supposed to sit down if she needed to. She couldn't feel properly aside from the tears streaming down her face. She heard very little and felt merely a little bit a pressure when someone helped her sit down, and she couldn't pinpoint their voice very well, but she thought that maybe it was Lily. He had been helping her so much that it didn't even make sense to her, not after… not after what happened… back there…

She heard the bells ringing to end the match, but she still felt near throwing up. She was so dizzy, so messed up, so unprepared for all of this… However, Lily gently rubbing her back and giving her instructions on deep breathing just like all of those other times was really helping now. The deep breaths grounded her and helped give her brain more oxygen to calm down and start functioning properly again, which helped her eyesight. Lucy came in second place, but she was terribly wounded by Minerva. The worst part of it was that she acted within the rules of the event, technically, so she would be able to get away with this. Minerva would get away with torturing Lucy, just like… just like he got away with doing things to her…

Seph didn't like that. She didn't want anyone to get away with things like this anymore.

Fairy Tail Team A and Team Sabertooth were standing against each other on the battlefield and no one could really do anything about it, Wendy and Chelia working together to give Lucy emergency treatment to help her stay alive.

"This isn't an official match. If they really do this, we'll go out there, too." Lily said, gaining nods and cheers of agreement from the other Fairy Tail members. Seph paused, taking one last deep breath and nodding. It was only if they had to, because Carla didn't like the idea. They had to try and stay calm right now in order to get Lucy help and keep the games stable. If all of the Guilds started to battle it out like crazy in the arena, innocent people could end up getting just as hurt as Lucy was.

Erza took a stand, stopping Natsu from starting the fight and giving Sabertooth a warning before they quickly moved Lucy to the infirmary.

Seph met up with Laxus along the way to the infirmary to go and see Lucy. The moment he saw the tears in her eyes and the tear stains on her cheeks, he picked her up and carried her the rest of the way to give her comfort, which she appreciated much more greatly than he might've thought. When they got to the infirmary, Lucy was sleeping in a bed with her team around her in worried states.

"So, how is she?" Gajeel asked after the door closed, in which Porlyusica replied immediately.

"Thanks to Wendy, her life isn't in danger." She explained, but Wendy shook her head.

"No, it was because of Chelia's emergency treatment." She insisted.

"Thank goodness…" Mira let out in a breath of relief. Seph let out a small sigh of relief and leaning back against Laxus' shoulder to support herself, a little tired from her small episode.

"And it looks like her major wounds are gone, so I'm relieved." Erza told them, which put them a little more at ease.

"Those bastards…" Natsu started, although he trailed off because he didn't know how to word it.

"I know what you wanna say…" Laxus muttered, holding Seph a little closer to him so she didn't have to lean too much. She gave him a hum of appreciation before letting her ears twitch from hearing Lucy stir, watching as she opened her eyes. Relief flooded the entire room.

"Everyone…" She started softly. "I'm sorry." Everyone was shocked, not understanding why she was apologizing. She had nothing to apologize for! "I blew it again…" She pulled the sheets over her face, but not entirely over her head, and everyone felt really bad.

"What are you talking about!? We took second place thanks to you, Lucy!" Gray told her, in which everyone quickly hummed in agreement, her team telling her about their points and how she did well, to try and help her feel a little bit better.

Lucy got out very silently a worried plea for her keys and Happy quickly passed them to her, everyone watching as she smiled in relief and gently took them from him, falling back asleep now that they were back in her possession. Everyone felt awful because she had done so well, but she had ended up so… injured. Suddenly, the door opened and closed, causing everyone to turn around. The Master had come in, looking fairly solemn about Lucy's condition, but also about something else.

"Team A and Team B… You're all here? Good." He stated with a serious expression. "I'm not sure if this is good news or bad news." Everyone kept silent, waiting for the unaligned news. "The administrators told me that both teams must combine."

"What!?" Natsu got out immediately, almost sounding offended.

"Teams A and B have to unite?" Laxus asked as if to confirm what the Master had said.

"Why?" Mira asked for all of them due to everyone being in shock from the sudden news.

"The disqualification of Raven Tail brings the number of teams down to seven, and having an odd number doesn't work when it comes to matching up for the battle part. Therefore, both of our teams must become one and we have to choose the five members again." Makarov explained, in which everyone let it sink in for a moment. They had to do this all over again?

"What about our points?" Carla asked a little frantically, in which Makarov averted his gaze to the ground and closed his eyes.

"Apparently, the lower score will carry over." He told them, in which they all frowned. That meant… Lucy's points…

"But if that's the administration's decision, there's nothing we can do about it." Erza sighed, in which Cana jumped in to try and bring up their spirits a little bit.

"Well, looking at the bright side, we'll be able to put together an even stronger team." She said.

"But even if we decide on five people here, the remaining events will all just be tag-team battles, right?" Gray asked, watching as Porlyusica shook her head a bit.

"No. I'm sure that between tomorrow's break and the final day, there will be a battle involving all five members." She told the group. They went into deep thought at that before Natsu stood up determinedly.

"I'm definitely gonna get revenge for Lucy!" He declared with no room for arguing. "I ain't gonna let 'em get away with laughin' at one of our own!"

There was no backing down from this, not now and not ever.

Seph managed to find her way back to the stands before too long and just in time for the match-up announcements, and to see the new Fairy Tail team all come out together. Natsu, Gray, Erza, Gajeel and Laxus took the field, all of the cheering shaking the very arena itself, and Seph couldn't have been more proud. Even with her episode from earlier making her a little tired, she wouldn't dare fall asleep on them because this was important. These were more than just games for them now.

The teams went back to their stands to wait their turn and watch their two members each participate, and the first tag-team battle that was announced was Ichiya and… the Rabbit? They were from Blue Pegasus and they were going up against Bacchus and Rocker from Quatro Puppy. There was a pause as the contestants entered the battlefield. Weirdly enough, Ichiya and the Rabbit offered to shake hands with Bacchus and Rocker before the match started, in which the two wild men accepted very hesitantly. Ichiya motioned for the Rabbit to take of its head and Seph couldn't help but get very interested in who exactly was in the suit, although she had to sit down because she was still a little bit dizzy from before.

"We'll finally find out who it really is!" Happy stated, everyone leaning forward in anticipation.

The Rabbit removed its head and… Seph was a little bit disappointed to see a weird-looking Exceed. Everyone else seemed very disappointed, some of the Fairy Tail members seeming to know the Exceed on the battlefield.

"Nichiya?!" Lily yelled in a sort of questioning way, seeming very bothered by the fact that… that exact Exceed was here. Happy couldn't even speak, he just let out a yell, and Seph didn't know what to do. She was… a little shocked, but she didn't know the Exceed very well, so…

She also really didn't want to hear the story of how Ichiya and Nichiya met, so she blocked that out by chatting with Levy quietly until the story was over, which it was quite obvious when it was because Bacchus has attacked Nichiya. Oh, yah… This was a battle. Seph had honestly nearly forgotten. Ichiya pretty much got beaten down to a pulp before standing back up, but Seph didn't get to see how he won because Lily had covered her eyes despite her struggling to try and get him to let her see. What was she to him, a child!? What happened with the fight!? From what she could hear, Ichiya had won in the two against one battle, but when Lily allowed her to have her sight back, the second match was starting. She gave him a very strong pout and he only crossed his arms over his chest with a disturbed look still plastered on his face.

They moved onto the second match pretty quickly, bringing forth Lyon and Yuka from Lamia Scale to fight against Kagura and Millianna from Mermaid Heel. After this match, it would be a battle between Fairy Tail and Sabertooth at last. All they could do was have faith in whoever was paired up… The time limit was thirty minutes as per usual and Kagura was going to hang back, leaving Millianna to fight on her own for as long as she was able to. Lyon tried to pull Kagura into the battle, but Millianna defended her and continued on with her attacks. They must have been really confident, one of theirs against two of Lamia Scale's…

Yuka made a quick decision to just fight back, but despite the speed of his attacks, Millianna was much faster. She created a fake-out attack in order to get close, punching Yuka multiple times over before scratching both Lyon and Yuka across the face with her nails. It made sense… maybe? Nonetheless, Millianna didn't stop there and went to attack again, but by then, Yuka had figured things out and used his wave to nullify her magic. Beforehand, they had been surprised by her quick, cat-like movements, but now that they had an idea of her power and such, they were able to figure out a couple of strategies to use against her.

After she had backed them into a corner, Lyon made a mouse out of ice… and Millianna actually ran after it, turning her back on her opponents. It was only for a moment, but it gave Lyon enough time to relax and come up with the idea to make a blizzard, chilling Millianna to the bone. They set out a kotatsu, somehow… and she disappeared under there for about a minute or so before throwing it, yelling at them for insulting her intelligence. They stood there for a moment before Lyon created a snow tiger to run after Millianna, who didn't pay too much attention to anything but running away from it and ended up crashing into one of the battlefield walls.

Seph didn't know whether to be impressed or to be dumbfounded by how this was going.

Kagura had to step in and Yuka attacked right away with a wave, but the problem with that… It worked well against people who were actually using magic. Kagura wasn't using magic; she was using her sword at the moment… Yuka's waves were useless if his opponent wasn't using a magic attack and Kagura ended up getting to him, knocking him down and leaving it as a one-on-one match between her and Lyon. She was an expert with a sheathed sword, huh… but why leave it sheathed? Perhaps it would be too much during the tournament if she had it unsheathed?

Kagura and Lyon had a conversation for about a minute before the man let out his first attack, Kagura being so fast that she moved through his dragonflies made out of ice to try and get to him and take him down. Lyon quickly brought out another attack, but by then, Kagura had made her way up to him and smashed his ice eagle whilst sending him flying backwards as well. However, he got to his feet as quickly as he could in order to summon a snow tiger once again, but this time, he also summoned a snow ape and a snow dragon of all things. All three of them went straight at Kagura, who jumped into the air to avoid being trampled even though she ended up being hit from left by the snow dragon anyways.

She didn't waste a moment as she altered gravity to lift Lyon and his creations up in the air, leaving them to her disposal. She cut through his ice creations and found herself above Lyon, who wasn't prepared as she came down to strike him… and he was saved by the bell. They had brought it to a draw, which was certainly lucky for Lyon because Kagura would have probably won if it wasn't for the time limit.

But, at long last, the time had come for the battle everyone had been waiting for due to many different reasons: Fairy Tail against Sabertooth.