Home stretch of the GMG ! With Lamia Scale defeated, the last opponents Fairy Tail has to beat are Minerva and Sting from Sabertooth. We are finally about to know who will win ! Did future Lucy really tell the truth about the outcome of the games ?

Note : after having thought about it for a while, I decided not to be influenced by the manga chapters, so from now on, this story (which I wrote before the last chapters came out) will completely differ from the original.

.:: Dislaimer ::.

I don't own Fairy Tail, fortunately because if I did, it would be totally messed up XD Hiro Mashima does.

"Gajeel is still up! Incredible, he was down but now he's all right thanks to Shelia-tan!" Chapati Lola said.

"Well, it seems that team Fairy Tail is still in competition -kabo," the pumpkin said.

"But isn't that against the rules? He was down, right now, shouldn't he be eliminated? What do you think, Yajima-san?"

Yajima took a very massive book that was apparently at his feet.

"Well... Apparently," he said, flipping through the pages of the book, "the rules say that if one of the competitors is rendered unable to fight because of an exterior event or person, but manages to get back on his feet before the end of the game, still thanks to an exterior event or person – and not to one of his teammates – then he can still be considered in competition."

"I should have read the rules..." Chapati Lola said. "Then it's settled! Go for it, Gajeel-tan!"

"Gajeel-tan..?"

"Apparently, there's only you and that White Dragon Slayer left," Erza said.

Minerva didn't seem to care.

"Do not think you will defeat us easily, Titania."

"Oh, I never said it would be easy. I know you trust your guild's strength, but so do I. My family will never give up."

Minerva laughed.

"You say 'family'? I never said I trusted them. Neither did I mention a bond such as 'family'. Weaklings don't belong in my guild. Fortunately, I am still here, and so is Sting. I would not say he's stronger than the rest of us, but he is right now experiencing what you seem to constantly rely on. 'The power of feelings', is that so? The loss of his best friend can be useful to my future guild that will be purified from those who are weak. I can use him the way I want. But if he proves to be unworthy of the name of Sabertooth when the death of his little cat is revealed, I will have to eliminated him as well."

"The death of... What do you mean?"

"They are called Exceeds, aren't they? That useless blue cat is one of them as well. My father killed Sting's Exceed. And I used that as an opportunity to increase his power. I made it so that he thinks the cat is still alive."

Erza couldn't believe her ears. She knew mages from some other guilds didn't have the same relationships as they did in Fairy Tail, but that woman was the worst.

"You say those who are not as strong as you don't belong in your guild? But how can you know about something like that? You don't belong in a guild at all. And defeating you will be all the more satisfying."

She charged, but something happened before she could reach Minerva with her sword.

Minerva was on the ground. Defeated.

"What the..."

Then she saw him. Sting Eucliffe was before her eyes, crying.

"You heard everything," Erza simply said.

She was feeling sorry for him, but still on guard.

"I should have known. I'm so stupid..."

"No, it's not stupidity," Erza said. "It's hope, and that's something we all need to be able to live in this world."

"I just wanted my friend back... my only friend..."

He fell on his knees.

"I... I don't want to fight anymore. I give up."

They remained silent for a while.

"You may think it's over," Erza finally said, "but you'll find a reason to live. You have to, because your friend, even if he's not there anymore, wouldn't want you to stop hoping. Someday, when you think about him, it won't hurt anymore. Don't try to forget in order to feel better now, because when that day comes, you'll want to have good memories to remember about when you miss him."

She thought about her parents, about Simon. Also about Jellal, even if he was still there. Sting looked at her.

"I'm tired," he said. "I did everything for the sake of fighting, and the only thing that made me happy was sharing it with him. I dropped everything else. Now, I don't have anything left to hold on to."

"Fro doesn't think so."

Frosch and Rogue had just arrived. Frosch seemed sad but he was smiling.

"I lost a friend too. I feel lonely now that Lector isn't there."

"I did too," Rogue said. "But he was not your only friend. We all are. We thought that friends didn't matter, but we didn't know it was already part of us. I learnt it the hard way, and you did too. Let's live on, Sting. Like Lector would want us to."

Rogue stretched his hand and after a second of hesitation, Sting took it.

"What an incredible twist! Minerva defeated by her own teammate!" Chapati Lola said. "What will we do about the points?"

"Moreover, Sting just gave up," the pumpkin said.

"What?"

"He said so himself, 'I give up', right now", the pumpkin continued. "So if we summarize, Sting won five points by defeating Minerva, which makes 60 points for Sabertooth. And since Laxus beat Jura, and Juvia beat Shelia and Lyon from Lamia Scale, Fairy Tail currently has 58 points. However, we can't say Sabertooth is the winner."

Everybody seemed lost.

"Well, it's true, but what about Minerva, and the points you're talking about?"

"It's the rules," Yajima confirmed. "Even if one of the competitors is defeated by his guildmates, the points still go to its team. I'm just quoting the rules, but I don't agree with it because it encourages fights among members of the same team."

"Yes, I remember that rule," Chapati Lola said, pensive. "It's not that bad, because in a real battle, if you have to eliminate one of your guildmates to protect the rest of them, it can be a relevant strategy. However, this rule doesn't apply if the last competitors left are members of the same team, because it would be easy to defeat your own leader to get five points once everybody's out, if you realize you don't have enough points left to win."

The audience seemed lost, some of the people wondering what was happening. Most of them didn't have a clue about those rules, but all of them wanted to know who won, now that Fairy Tail was the last team in competition.

"However, since Sting just gave up, the only competitors still fighting are Fairy Tail!" Chapati Lola said. "It's incredible, for the first time, we have all the members from one guild who haven't lost a match, but they still don't have enough points! We had never faced such an outcome, what are we going to do?"

"Well..." the pumpkin said.

He started to take his pumpkin head off.

"What are you doing? Your head, it's... A helmet?"

"A mask..." Yajima said.

"I have the honnor to announce the winners for the Grand Magic Games," said the pumpkin, but everybody could see he was actually a little old man.

"It's... The King!"

"And for the first time in seven years, we have two winners," the King continued, "Fairy Tail and Sabertooth! I will be more than pleased to welcome the winning teams in my castle, tomorrow, the 7th of July, in honour of the winning teams!"

"I... I guess that's it for today..." Chapati Lola finished.

"Why would I lie to you, Arcadios?"

Arcadios remained silent. There was something fishy. The only information he had about that girl from the future was what the princess had told him. But that girl's version was different. Either that girl was lying to her friends, or Hisui had lied to him. Who should he believe?

"You're the only one I trust, and I thought you trusted me as well," the princess said.

She didn't seem hurt, but Arcadios knew it was because she was used to not showing her emotions.

"That girl wouldn't endanger her friends, so I don't see why she would have lied to them," he said.

"Unless lying to them was the only way to protect them. But it doesn't matter anymore. Because now, we know that she cannot be trusted."

"What do you mean?"

"The 'incredible outcome' of the Grand Magic Games she predicted," Hisui explained. "I was waiting for the end of the Games to know whether I could trust her or not, to see if that outcome she talked about would happen as she said, and make sure the appropriate action is taken. But did you hear that, Arcadios?"

Arcadios suddenly realized, the words of the King who had just pronounced the names of the winners echoing in his mind.

"Both Sabertooth and Fairy Tail won the games."

That girl was lying.

Ohayou minna-san !

I'm glad I finally updated the story, the decision was difficult because I'm not satisfied with this chapter, especially the parts about the rules (by the way, I hope what I wrote was clear enough :/ ) but I needed to post that chapter to continue writing the story and provide the upcoming more interesting moments ! I was waiting for the last chapters from the manga to come out to know if I should adapt or not, but in the end, I didn't change anything (so yes, I "predicted" Sting would give up but not for the same reasons at all... whatever)

For once, the chapter is not too long, at least I hope so. I already wrote the next one, I'll update as soon as possible ^^

Don't forget the reviews, onegai shimasu !