After meeting with Mavis and future Lucy, Jellal tells his Crime Sorcière fellow members about Mavis's plan, even if he doesn't really know what she has in mind. Meanwhile, Lyon, Gray, Juvia and Shelia are still fighting, both teams trying to figure out how to win their battles, when Gray comes up with a curious strategy...

.:: Dislaimer ::.

I unfortunately don't own Fairy Tail. If I did, the battles would be boring and the romance parts would be longer, so I guess it's for the best. Oh, and Hiro Mashima does.

Back to the present day

"So that's what you meant?" Meredy said. "We have to wait for someone to come from outside? How is that going to help?"

"I don't know but what other choice do we have? We can trust Fairy Tail's first master. She, more than anyone, wants to save her guild."

"But she told only you to stay there. She never mentionned us."

"Yes, but..."

"She doesn't even know we exist, which means she only needs your help right now. Right, Ultear?"

She turned to face her adoptive mother and smiled. Ultear smiled back.

"What do you have in mind?"

"Hey, you shouldn't..."

"We're sorry, Jellal, but we have to leave you here for now, we can't just sit around and do nothing. Good luck for you mission!"

Jellal sighed. He didn't even try to stop them.

Meanwhile, on the battle front

"Don't act all lovey-dovey in front of me, Gray!"

"I am not the one acting like that," Gray answered, annoyed.

Lyon was pointing an accusing finger at Gray while Juvia was stuck to him, heart-shaped eyes, forgetting about her battle with Shelia.

"Well, this is awkward..." Shelia said. "Lyon-sama, forget about her, she's insane."

She then attacked her, making her lose her grip on Gray's arm and fall on the ground.

"Ouch!"

"Serves you right, you shouldn't have got your hands on Lyon-sama!"

"For God's sake, I didn't even ask to be loved by him!"

"See, Lyon-sama, she doesn't deserve you!" Shelia said, turning to face Lyon and blushing.

But he didn't hear, already involved in a battle against Gray.

"Ice Make Eagle!"

"Ice Make Shield!" Gray responded. "Geez, this isn't going anywhere! Juvia, are you okay?"

She quickly got up and nodded, focusing on her battle against Shelia. Meanwhile, Gray and Lyon were still fighting without anyone of them getting the upper hand.

"This is annoying."

They both stopped, looking at Shelia slowly getting more and more tired, even if she could regularly heal her wounds.

"How come is she so strong?" Lyon asked, admirative. "Shelia can heal her own wounds, how can she be losing against my dear Juvia?"

"Well," Gray said with a smile. "Juvia doesn't feel the pain, her body is made of water. She doesn't get wounded."

Lyon looked at her and smiled as well.

"She's definitely the one for me."

Gray sighed. He was getting tired of all that situation.

"I'm sorry, but we won't let you have her," he said, still looking at her.

"That's what you think."

Lyon released a different attack, with a bigger amount of magic than before, making an ice tiger appear. Gray was already prepared, but didn't have the time to dodge the attack, because Juvia had appeared between him and the tiger.

"Juvia!" Lyon and Gray both shouted.

The tiger disappeared.

"Lyon-sama, why did you make it disappear, you could have had both of them!"

"But I can't hurt her! She's my future wife..."

Gray rolled his eyes and was going to prepare to fight again, but something stopped him.

"Juvia?"

"Yes, Gray-sama?"

He was smiling, and Juvia nearly fainted.

"I have an idea."

"So, Meredy, you didn't tell me what you intended to do exactly."

Ultear and Meredy were running inside the city, using narrow streets to be out of sight from the many lachrymas that were installed to follow the games. They had put hoods on so that no one would recognize them.

"I don't really know where to go, the contestants are all scattered in the town. I wanted to warn those who know about Crime Sorcière, maybe Fairy Tail's master. Mavis probably told him but we can't be sure about it. And we don't even know if Natsu and the others will manage to get out of the King's palace, so I guess the best we could do is go and help them first."

"Are you crazy? I don't even see the point of hiding ourselves if we just go ahead and enter that castle, where half the guards of the kingdom – if not more – are protecting the place."

"Then what do you suggest?"

"I said that you're crazy, but I am also pretty insane myself. Let's go to that castle."

Meredy smiled.

"What the..."

"What's wrong, Ul?"

They were at the end of a back alley, about to take another way once they checked there was no one around, when Ultear suddenly stopped.

"Is there someone? Are those competitors fighting?"

Meredy looked over Ultear's shoulder and what she saw left her dumbfounded.

"This is..."

"Gray, this is playing dirty!" Lyon said angrily.

"No, this is taking advantage of the situation!"

"Let her go, I'm telling you..."

"Even if I wanted she wouldn't let me."

What was happening in front of Ultear and Meredy made them totally forget about the Eclipse plan, future Lucy and the ten thousand dragons. Because right before their eyes were Gray and Juvia both fighting against Shelia while Lyon was behind them, standing and doing nothing but yelling at Gray.

And Gray was carrying Juvia on his back.

"This is cheating! Juvia is not a shield, you can't use her like that!"

"I don't feel like I'm forcing her anyways..."

Juvia was indeed ecstatic, even if she still fought seriously. Gray and her were both against Shelia, and Lyon apparently didn't want to attack them. Whenever he moved, Gray moved as well, so that he didn't expose any part of his body to Lyon, who could only see Juvia on his back.

"Put her down, I can see her... panties..." he said, his face turning crimson red. "Oh crap, I can't let you do this! Ice make eagle!"

The ice eagles coming from behind Gray bypassed him to face him.

"Juvia! The front!"

"Oh Gray-sama, whatever you want," she said, preparing to move while Gray was about to carry her, princess-style.

But Lyon made the ice eagles disappear before they could do anything.

"What should we do, Ul..."

Ultear looked at Meredy. They were still hiding and for a second, she considered leaving and making as if they never saw that scene. But now that she had found Gray, she couldn't just leave without warning them about the danger. She decided to talk to them through telepathy, like she does with Jellal.

"Gray, Juvia, it's Ultear."

Gray and Juvia stopped.

"We have a serious problem, and we need to take action right now. Will you hear me?"

"Where are you?" Gray asked, looking around. "Are you here? Don't move," he added after a second. "They put vision lachryma everywhere."

"Is Mer... Is your daughter with you?"

"What is happening?" Shelia asked. "Why did you stop fighting?"

Lyon was looking around as well, understanding someone was talking to Gray and Juvia even if he couldn't hear it.

"Who's there?" he asked. "If you don't reveal yourself, we will..."

"Cut it, Lyon," Gray whispered. "They're not enemies."

Gray gave him a knowing look, and Lyon decided to trust him.

"This looks too suspicious," Meredy said. "Ultear, tell them to keep fighting."

But before Ultear could say anything, Lyon talked out loud.

"We surrender, no one will win during this battle, our strengths are on par. We'll leave and try to defeat the others from Fairy Tail and Sabertooth. We'll let Jura crush you," he added with a smirk.

Gray winced.

"What? What do you mean, Lyon-sama!"

"Hopefully, with this, they'll stop showing our fight with lachryma vision," Lyon whispered.

After a little while, Ultear and Meredy decided it was okay to show themselves, but they didn't uncover their heads. Lyon and Shelia looked at them suspiciously.

"What happened?"

"As I said, the situation is quite serious, we'll need your help. We have some reasons to believe that Natsu and the others are still trapped in Mercurius. But there's something worse."

"What do you mean? And, wait, they couldn't rescue Lucy and the other Celestial mage?"

Ultear told them about everything they knew from Jellal and from what they saw thanks to her crystal ball.

"This is stupid," Lyon said. "I don't even know you, how could I believe it when you say that someone you know told you about a future apocalypse he heard from someone else, someone he doesn't even trust?"

Ultear hit him.

"That hurt! The only woman who ever hit me like that was my teacher, Ul...?"

She had unveiled her face.

"If you don't trust me, at least trust your former fellow pupil. I know very well the bond you share with him, even if you don't admit it."

Gray and Lyon both blushed.

"You're... Her daughter? But... That crest, I know which guild you belong to; it's-"

"Crime Sorcière."

They all turned around to see who had talked. In front of them were two mages who were wearing the Magic Council uniform.

Hello everybody!

First of all, I need to say that I wrote that chapter quickly but I still had a lot of fun writing it. However, English isn't my first language so please tell me about the possible mistakes I made here, if you have some advice, and other things to say, don't hesitate!

Also, about the piggyback thing, not sure if it was clearly written, but in short, Gray saw that Lyon didn't want to attack Juvia, so, he decided to take advantage of it, using her as a "shield" he carried on his back, so that he won't be attacked by him from behind, this way, both Gray and Juvia could focus on defeating Shelia. When I got this idea, I couldn't stop laughing, imagining what this scene would look like if it were in the manga, especially Lyon and Juvia's expressions XD And for those who watched the 4th OVA, yes, I got that idea from that Nalu scene!

I said that I would include a crackpairing in the second chapter but it will probably be in the next one. Now, which pairing do you think it will be? I'll give you one hint: as I said, it's a pairing that had never been imagined, at least in this fanfiction website. Imagine who it could be and don't forget to review to tell me which idea you came up with ^^ (I know, I feel like I'm begging for reviews xD )