FATE
Summary: Fate brought them together and Fate gave them happiness. But Fate just had to be cruel and take the girl away, seperating them. Still, the girl comes back. How will she survive against the game of Fate?
Main Pairing: StiCy (a bit slow -_-)
Rating: T for SafeT and Character Death
Genre: Romance, Drama, Humor, Hurt/Comfort

DISCLAIMER: Fairy Tail is the property of Hiro Mashima.

Chapter 11: Collosal Aquarium
"Don't think too much."

Previously in Fate...

"We would join this year's Grand Magic Games."

"It's my duty, as the Guild Master, to protect and care for the wellbeing of my guild."

"You had died some time ago. And you were just recently resurrected."

"This would be a great opportunity to cool off, to enjoy... And move on."

"Guess I still have a long way to go..."

- ~ ~ ~ -
Crocus City, Fiore
End of June X792

Normal POV

"Hurry up, slowpokes!" Lucy called after the team as they ran from the station into the bustling streets of the Capital.

They caught up to her in no time. No surprises there, though. In her view, she was the weakest link in the team.

But I'm not going to let that bother me now, she thought.

"What have you eaten this morning that turned you like this, Luce?" Kaze muttered with disdain.

Lucy raised an eyebrow at him. "You got a problem?" She flashed him a sweet smile.

He paused for a second before sighing. "None, ma'am."

"Good."

"If the both of you are done with whatever you're talking about, let's go before we get lost," Rain intervened. He was about to walk ahead already but stopped and glanced back, causing the both of them to stop midway in arguing. "On second thought, cut the crap and get a move on," he said, his tone of voice sending shivers crawling down Lucy and Kaze's spines.

The three of them caught up with the rest of the team in no time. Right now, they were standing in front of a huge building with its name plate saying 'Hibiscus'.

Anna looked at them as they came to a stop beside her. She nodded to the entrance, signalling all of them to enter. Inside, the building was simple and didn't involve anything fancy. The woman at the counter greeted them with a warm smile before giving them (mostly to Anna) a brief orientation of the inn.

"So that's a wrap." Anna breathed out a sigh of relief as she sat down on her bed in the room she and the girls' were sharing. "All of you go out and wander about in the city for a while. We still have time before the preliminary rounds start tonight."

The rest of the team only stood at their places. She raised an eyebrow at them. "What are you doing? Get out," she commanded.

And so they did.

Finally alone, she inhaled the smell of the room and eyed her surroundings. "Not bad," she muttered. Finally deciding that there wasn't anything interesting or strange, she laid down on the bed, not even thinking about changing.

"Stop. Now." William gnashed his teeth in annoyance as he sat on a chair inside a special salon somewhere in the city. "Shante, I said stop."

The girl behind him moved her head down to his left and grinned. "No way," she said as she stuck her tongue out at him.

"One," he warned.

"Two," she sang.

"Shante."

"William~!"

Giving up, said young man sighed. "You're impossible."

Shante laughed. "Thank you." As a rather comfortable silence enveloped the two, she started to softly hum a song to herself as her hands did its work on William's hair. After a few minutes, she whistled and rested her hands on William's shoulders, startling him. "Done!" she chimed and swiveled the chair William was sitting on around to face the mirror behind her. "How'd you like it?"

William stared at his reflection. His usually neatly-gelled dark purple hair was sticking out in all directions. It made him look like a sea urchin.

He heaved out a sigh. "I should have known," he said, his tone indicating annoyance yet with a tinge of amusement.

"You didn't answer the question," Shante persisted.

This girl is just-! William just shook his head slowly, a smile painting his lips. "I don't like it," he said. He stood up and turned around to face Shante, his tall figure forcing her to look up at him.

The young Guardian Ace giggled. "You say that, and yet you're smiling," she teased and punched his chest. "Just admit it, William."

William raised a hand to block her second punch.. "Alright," he said. Shante's face brightened, causing him to unconsciously smile. "It's horrible." At this, Shante used her free hand to throw a punch to William's gut. The young man winced as he clutched his poor abdomen. "You're still as violent as ever, Shante."

"Serves you right," she pouted and crossed her arms, turning away from him halfway. "You shouldn't have said that."

"You told me to admit it."

"I told you to admit it looked good."

"Why should I lie?"

"...do you want another punch?"

William shook his head and raised both hands up in the air.

Shante rolled her eyes. "Good," she said. She meant to say it with annoyance, but she couldn't help the smile forming on her features. She glanced at William and caught him staring at her with an amused smile. She took a deep breath and turned away from him to hide her pink blush. "A-at least I saw you smile again." She could practically feel William's questioning look, so she quickly continued. "Ever since we set off from Galdmiore, you seemed to be always out of place, so I thought of these different things to help you enjoy your time."

After a few seconds, she turned around to look at him. Wrong move, she thought. The bright yet small smile that was rarely seen on the face of William Vincent Athlasia made her feel uncomfortable and awkward, but in a weirdly good way.

"Shante?" William said, noticing that Shante suddenly became quiet. After he spoke, she seemed to have woken up from her stupor and blinked. Her reaction was too cute in his eyes, and he had to control himself from laughing.

Shante cleared her throat. "You still haven't talked to most of the members, right?" she inquired, getting no immediate answer in return.

"Yeah," was his answer after a few moments.

"Why?"

"You of all people should know why."

She didn't speak for a while. "...still, why?" she continued on.

William glanced at her awkwardly. "It's hard to just get along with the people you've been helping to hunt down for the past few years. Just like that," he said.

"Wlliam, we've been talking 'bout this for months already. You should just try. No one will bite you," she calmly said, turning to look at him this time.

Running a hand through his hair, William sighed. "Look, you really shouldn't worry about me, Shante. You don't have to."

"But I have to!" she said back, her voice raised a little. "I saved you."

"I know that, but that doesn't mean you should be responsible for me, Shante. I'm fine, really." William walked towards the exit, not planning to continue the conversation.

Shante stared at his back for a good few seconds before sighing in defeat. Shrugging in defeat, she brisk-walked to catch up with William. Just then, she noticed something.

"William!" she called after him. "Your hair!" She snickered to herself as William combed his hair and attempted to fix it himself.

Geez. Stubborn idiot.

"How many restaurants have we gone to already?" Kaze asked Lucy, his eyes gleaming in hunger as he, Lucy, and Rain strolled about in the Central Square.

Lucy's eyebrow twitched in annoyance. "Three," she hissed.

Kaze raised an eyebrow at her in return. "Why are you so angry?" he said, making the blonde fume.

She raised her fist, about to sucker-punch him when Rain caught her fist. Her anger simmered down a bit when she saw Rain's blank stare. Her curiosity rose above her anger when she noticed that Rain wasn't actually looking at her. Kaze wasn't, too.

Confused, she looked behind her, only to get more bewildered when she caught sight of Fairy Tail nearby, surrounded by a growing crowd of fans.

The blonde guy and his companion from back then was there, too. He was a member of Fairy Tail?!

To her shock, the blonde guy caught her staring and smirked at her. His action made her blood boil. "Bastard. Blondie," she muttered to herself.

"Luce?" Kaze said beside her. "You okay?"

His voice made her pull her eyes away from Sting's. She looked up at him and gave him a tiny smile. "Yeah, that blondie's just annoying," she said, refering to Sting. Kaze looked at Fairy Tail. Upon seeing the 'blonde' guy she was refering to, his eyes widened a bit and he stiffened.

Lucy raised an eyebrow at Kaze's reaction. "Oi, Kaze?" she said, waving her hands in front of his face. He snapped back from his thoughts. "Are you okay?"

Kaze ignored her and shrugged, turning away from the blonde girl. Just when they were about to leave, the least expected happened.

"Hey, I've never seen you guys here before." The three looked back to see Fairy Tail heading towards them, lead by some pink-haired guy. "Are you guys new?" His bright and big grin made it hard for the three to ignore him and leave right then and there.

Lucy answered him, "Yes, it's our first time here in the tournament."

The other group was about to say more when Kaze grabbed Lucy's arm. "Let's go, Luce," he whispered to her ear.

The name Luce didn't escape the ears of the Dragon Slayers present there, though.

"Luce?" Sting and Natsu simultaneously said, their eyes wide. Rogue and Gajeel's eyes were focused on Kaze and Lucy. The rest exchanged looks, confusion written all over their face.

Kaze gulped. Anna and Master Sakura's constant warnings about Lucy rang in his head. "I meant-"

"What's up with my nickname?" Lucy interrupted, shrugging off Kaze's hand from her arm. "Anyway, I'm Lucino Bernhart, a Guardian mage. I'm really looking forward to seeing you all in the tournament." She smiled, ignoring Kaze's piercing gaze.

The Fairy Tail mages looked at each other, but then Mira signalled for them to just forget it. These reactions went unnoticed by Lucy and Kaze, but not by Rain. His stare hardened as he became more attentive to how they acted around her.

"Okay, it's really nice to meet y'all but we have to go," Kaze piped up.

Lucy raised an eyebrow. "We do?" she said, making Kaze curse in his mind.

"Yes, we do," he growled, glaring at Lucy. The girl froze. Something was wrong in that gaze of his. "We still have to prepare for the elimination round, right?"

"But that's still tonight!" she finally spoke. "There's no need to fret." She paused, eyeing Kaze for a while. A realization hit her. "Are you scared? Intimidated?" she said.

Kaze bristled. "What are you-"

"Stop. You two," Rain interrupted. He looked directly into their eyes, making them stop whatever argument they started. Then his gaze went to the Fairy Tail mages who looked at them with a weird face, a bit out-of-place. "Sorry about that. We'll be making our leave." He grabbed the wrists of the other two Guardians and dragged them out of the area without another word. Feeling someone's gaze on him, he glanced back. His eyes met with the blonde guy's.

Eyes mixed with confusion, hurt, and longing.

Bingo, he thought. I wonder what the Master would say about this.

"What was that about?" Lucy said, breaking the sudden silence that enveloped the three.

The Twins' eyes drifted to her. "What do you mean?" Kaze said. His tone made it clear that he still wasn't amused with whatever happened awhile ago.

"Well..." Lucy looked back at the Fairy Tail mages. She stared as they laughed at the silver-haired beauty's squeals about young love (what was shocking was that she seemed to be glancing at them). Some grunted at the woman's comments.

While she stared, she caught the eye of the blonde man. She didn't know why, but she let herself gaze at his deep eyes. None of them made any attempt to break eye-contact. Lucy felt a slight throb in her chest, but brushed it off.

"W-what was t-that f-for!?"

"You told me to make you shut up."

Her eyes slightly widened. What was that? she thought.

"Luce?" Kaze's voice once again brought her out of her reverie. "You were saying?"

Lucy turned away from Fairy Tail and to Kaze. "They just seem..." she paused, trying to find the right word. "Familiar."

Kaze's eyes widened and he looked at Rain - who, to his surprise, only looked amused. He turned to Lucy. "You're just imagining things," he said. "Don't think too much."

"Yeah, you're right. It might just be my imagination." Lucy shrugged.

"So were you all able to tour around the city?" Anna greeted them as they entered their room at the inn that night.

"Kinda," Vulcano said, half-shrugging.

"The city's so huuuge!" Coral squealed.

Anna chuckled. "Guess you've really enjoyed it."

"Anna," Rain started. The young woman raised an eyebrow, as if asking him to continue. He shook his head. "Nevermind," he said. "Later."

Kaze stared at his younger twin, but was only ignored by the latter.

"Anyway, it's almost midnight," Anna continued. "The elimination round is starting anytime soon," she said while looking out the window.

Just like what she said, a few moments later a loud voice boomed throughout the city.

"Come one, come all! Welcome to the elimination round of the Grand Magic Games!" The hologram with the weird sunflower mask's voice can be heard throughout the city. Everyone looked up at his giant hologram and waited for him to continue.

"And for this round, we have this!" With one wave of his wrist, a huge spherical globe of blue appeared in mid-air, tied to the ground with large silver chains.

"Welcome, Mages, to the 'Colossal Aquarium!'"

Coral's eyes sparkled at the sight. The rest stared in awe, excitement, and anticipation.

From their point of view, they could make out some bubbles appearing and disappearing within the sphere. Sea monsters also roamed the Aquarium waters. Blue 'rivers' and 'waterfalls' cascaded down from the sphere. One of these stopped at their balcony.

"The goal is for the team to reach the stadium, Domus Flau. There is one river bridge that leads to this," the 'Flower' MC explained. "It is required to accomplish this task at the fastest possible time, because only the top 8 will make it to the First Day."

A huge grin appeared on the MC's face. "Best of luck to all of you! Remember, once you fall, it's game over."

A smile appeared on Anna's lips, and she looked at her team. "So this is it," she said. "Let's go."

Kaze and Vulcano smirked and gave each other a bro fist. Rain patted his twin brother's shoulder in support. William's expression was passive as he moved forward with Shante grinning right beside him. Lucy's eyes gleamed as she took a step closer to the waters. Coral followed suit-

"Wait, Coral." Anna took the latter's wrist and pulled her away from the balcony.

Coral turned to the older female. "Anna?! What are you doing?" she said. "It's starting! Let's go!"

Anna's eyes narrowed. "You're our reserve, Coral. You don't get to go out yet unless one of us can't go."

The younger girl pouted. "But-!"

A knock stopped their small debate. All heads in the room turned to the door.

Master Sakura peeked her head in. "Sorry to disturb you," she smiled. "Can I talk to William?"

Said guy stepped forward. "Yes, Master?"

"I need you to do something." That's all she said before closing the door. William glanced at this teammates before hurrying out to Master Sakura.

Silence filled the room. A thought crossed Coral's mind and she grinned. "And now since William can't go, I can, right?" she sneered as she glanced at Anna in the corner of her eyes.

Anna sighed. "Seems so." She let go of Coral's wrist and strode to the balcony. "Let's get going. We're late."

The team, including Coral, followed suit without any word.

Vulcano smirked as he gazed at Team Guardians as they sped against the water current. "Wanna make a bet on what place they'll be in?"

Rain looked at him for a brief second before gazing back at the rest. "Not interested."

"Master?" William asked as he reached Master Sakura. "What did you need me to do?"

Master Sakura, who was sitting on a chair at their inn's bar, set her mug down. She smiled at him, her eyes glinting with triumph. "It's nothing. That was just a tactic."

William's eyes furrowed in confusion. "Pardon?"

"That was a tactic."

"I get that, Master. But what do you mean?"

The Master giggled before drinking from her mug once more. Her eyes shone. "We needed Coral in there, so I figured I'd bring you out for a while," she chimed.

The young man stared at the Master for a while before sighing. "Wow."

Master Sakura laughed. "Don't look so disappointed, William. This will only be for now."

"I'm not disappointed. I'm amused." William said. He smirked as he looked out the window, seeing glimpses of mages falling out from the Aquarium. "Nice plan, Master."

The Master smiled. "Thanks."

"Water Pump!"

"Shooting Star!"

"Beautiful Dagger!"

A strong blast of water weaved through the Aquarium's waters. Yellow orbs shot out from it's core and attacked the nearby mages. Daggers of crystal pierced those that the orbs missed.

"Nice attack, Lucy, Anna!" Shante cheered as she and the rest glided through the waters. With Coral's superior Water magic acting as their motor and shield, no one stood in their way. They didn't need to rest in the air bubbles like the other teams.

Kaze smirked in triumph. "How far is it to the goal, Coral?"

Coral's eyes shone for a brief second. Her pupils dilated. "We're almost there."

She stretched her arms out beside her, creating whirlpools of water near her palms. She spun, and these pools created another layer of water around them. She inhaled huge amounts of air and relaxed before taking into position. The rest readied themselves for another blast through the waters when a black substance surrounded them.

"This is ink!" Anna said, alerting her team. "It's a Kraken! Coral, where's it's head?"

Once again, Coral focused. Her whole mind and body merged with the water as she scanned the area. "9 o' clock!"

"Got it!" Kaze shouted in affirmative. He flipped around and with one swift downward movement of his arm, he released a thin strong wind blade. The attack cut cut through the ink and the water. Shortly afterwards, a beastly shriek of agony resounded in the area. Surges of water shot around them like a shockwave, but Coral's water orb protected them.

Once the waters calmed down, they continued on towards their goal.

Anna's eyes remained alert throughout their swim. Her eyes caught sight of another team swiftly racing through the waters. Mages plummeted down to the city every time they passed by. Some even disappeared into thin air. Anna eyed the woman with the long black hair donning the blue dress. Was it her doing?

"Anna! Below you!" By instinct, she moved according to Coral's command and pierced the small monster below her with a crystal spear.

Shante put a hand on Anna's shoulder. She looked at the older woman in the eye and smiled. "Now's not the time to study other teams. For now, let's swim faster." Anna nodded in agreement.

Within the Aquarium, more and more teams fell out. As they sped up towards their goal, Coral strengthened her magic. She pushed away all mages and all monsters that came in their way.

Once they reached the other end of the sphere, a bright light enveloped them. It lasted only for a few seconds before they found themselves being swept along by a river current.

At the end of it, they reached the goal.

"Congratulations! You made second place!" the MC with the sunflower mask greeted them.

"Second, huh?" Shante said. "Guess that's okay."

"I'm sorry," Anna suddenly said. "We could have been first if I was only paying attention awhile ago."

The rest of her team stared at her. "What are you talking about?" Coral laughed. A huge smile was still on her face despite using a lot of magic.

"I say we became second because of how fast I killed that Kraken," Kaze piped in, making Lucy elbow him in the stomach. "Ouch!"

Lucy rolled her eyes. "Shut up. Coral did the most work here."

"Yeah, yeah. I know."

"Congratulations! You've made it in sixth place!"

The mages of Fairy Tail A stared at the MC in shock.

"WHAT?!" Sting, Natsu, and Gray said.

"Sixth only?!" Natsu shouted. "The heck! We swam fast!"

"Now I know how you felt last year," Sting grumbled.

Gray 'tch'-ed. "Shut up. Don't bring that back."

"It's better than eighth, though," Erza commented, satisfied.

Rogue only nodded.

The group heard a sneer from nearby and turned to see the other Fairy Tail team. Their faces showed amusement. They were clearly mocking them.

"What are you laughing at, Gajeel?!" Natsu punched said man in the face.

Gajeel rubbed his face in annoyance. "What the heck, Salamander?!"

"Cut. It. Out!" Erza bellowed, stopping their fight.

"If it weren't for me, we wouldn't be in third place!" Juvia said, her eyes fixated on Gray.

Hearing this, Natsu sneered at Gajeel. "Hah! Third!"

"Wha-! Are you mocking us?!" Gajeel yelled, about to throw a punch at the salmon-haired Slayer. It seems like they've forgotten about Erza's presence and continued on with their fight.

"But you guys were second last year, right?" Erza said to Laxus.

Laxus merely shrugged. "Some other team beat us to it," he said. Using his head, he gestured to the other team rested not far from them.

Erza followed his gaze. Her jaw almost dropped upon seeing the lavender-haired woman she met in the cake shop.

Rogue saw what she saw and elbowed Sting. Upon seeing what he was motioning to, his eyes widened. He recognized two of the faces.

'Luce' and that guy, huh. He smirked. I guess this year's Games would be quite interesting, too.

...

Next time on Fate...

"Who's that woman?"

"She's strong."

"Is that crystal?!"

Lucy smiled as she heard the numerous compliments her comrade received from the audience. Her eyes scanned the lacrima visions, until her eyes spotted a raven-haired man. He looked familiar.

"...nah. I'm imagining things again. Maybe it's a different person."

(A/N)

Crappy. Preview.

Anyway.

Was it okay? /o\\ I hope I wrote this chapter right. I inserted a little ShanteLiam (Shante-William) moment in there for you guys to know about them better, hehe ^o^v And I hope I made Coral look cool xDD

Please tell me what you think about this chapter in your comments/reviews c:

Also please do tell me if you like ShaLiam too 3 Just mention it in your reviews. ^^