Two figures stood atop Domus Flau, the main arena for the Grand Magic Games. Their view of the stadium, its occupants, and its events, was unobstructed. One of the figures wore an olive green cloak with the hood drawn, covering the top half of his face. A bandage covered left arm was exposed through a few holes that the owner had not bothered to get fixed. The other figure wore the traditional white officer's regalia of the Rune Knights. His long dark hair had been neatly pulled back into a bun, keeping it from getting tangled in his glasses.

"I've held up my end of the contract, Rune Knight. Void Surge has been eliminated along with all of its subordinate guilds." The cloaked man's voice was deep and showed some signs of irritation. "Are we done?"

Lahar took in the figure before him. He had noticed the man's left arm looked less human and more like it had once belonged to a demon. He frowned internally as he began trying to work out how the man's arm had changed so radically in a span of only two months. The Rune Knight captain quickly shrugged the issue off to the corners of his mind for the present.

"I'm aware of your actions in Stella. I'm actually impressed that no civilians were caught up in it. Even more so given that a handful of their branches were in major cities." The Rune Knight replied with a slight smile. "And seeing how you saved a countless number of lives, yes. We are done. Go enjoy the rest of the games with your guild."

The man in the dark cloak turned his back to the Rune Knight, giving a wave with a right arm possessing a handful of scars and descended a nearby flight of stairs, blending in with the crowd filling the stadium. The Council official stayed in place while searching through his jacket's inner pockets for a few seconds before pulling out a small communication lacrima. He tapped it with his index finger three times and it began to hover in the air at an arm's length away from his face. The lacrima soon began to hum as it began pulsing with magic energy. A projection of the meeting chamber for the heads of the Magic Council appeared in front of the Rune Knight. He bowed as a show of respect to the members of the Council that could actually be seen.

"We just received your full report, Lahar. You did well in dismantling that dark guild so fast." The voice was coming from outside of Lahar's field of view. It was aged, rough, and oozed an air of authority. "But there is a question that a couple of us are wanting answered."

"And what would that be, sir?"

"How did you get this Fhlosten guy to go along with it?" Another voice asked. This one was feminine but the source was still unseen.

"I essentially gave Fairy Tail a pass on a good chunk of future property damage they will cause."

"You didn't." The female voice asked with disbelief. "Do you have any idea how much damage they cause when they already know they'll have to cough up the money for it!?"

"Given the gravity of the situation they helped to thwart, I felt that it was appropriate." Lahar responded coolly.

The voice of the leader took his turn to speak. "Fine. But they'll have a one-time limit for destruction. After that, then it's back to business as usual."

The Rune Knight nodded in acceptance. He quickly made a mental note to relay the information to the Fairy Tail master as he dismissed himself from the conversation and turned off the lacrima. He looked down at the arena floor once more. Mages from the guilds that made it through the elimination round were gathered in the center while the referee began to explain the event that was about to take place. The voice of the announcer could be heard echoing across the stands to sounds of cheers from the stands. He was quickly able to spot the person he had sent to Stella for the past two months as the cloaked figure was circling around just over the level holding the competing guilds. The cloaked man was nearing his destination as he shot sidelong glances at the arena floor. His eyes caught a head of flowing red hair that cascaded down a breastplate. He smiled at the sight as he continued to where the rest of the Fairy Tail mages were in attendance.

None of the members there seemed to pay much attention to the cloaked figure approaching them with the exception of the one Fairy Tail mage on the arena floor and the elderly man with the unenviable task of keeping one of the country's most destructive guilds in line. The grizzled master was the first to greet the approaching man.

"Welcome back to Fiore, Kazro!" He said with a smile while beckoning him to join. "Are you just getting in?"

Kazro pulled down his hood, revealing the top half of his face and his long black hair pulled lazily into a loose ponytail. A rare smile crept onto his face as he greeted Makarov.

"Yep. And I'm guessing Lahar filled you in on everything?"

Makarov's face took on a temporary aura of seriousness as he nodded. His face quickly reverted back to the jovial air that was surrounding the rest of the crowd in attendance.

"What event is this?" Kazro asked as his attention drifted to the arena.

"Supposedly it's going to be a labyrinth of some sort with the finish line in the center."

"Should be interesting."

A gust of wind blew through the stadium, exposing the Exorcist's left arm bandaged from the shoulder down to the Fairy Tail master. The hand on arm in question didn't look quite human, but almost claw-like, as if it had been taken straight from a demon. Makarov quizzically raised an eyebrow but quickly turned his attention back to the event about to get started. A purple magic circle that spanned the entire arena floor flashed into existence. All the mages that were gathered to participate vanished as smaller circles appeared under them. While the mages were nowhere to be seen, the ground underneath the arena wide circle began to shudder as stone walls began to rise into a labyrinthine arrangement with multiple levels.

Each of the eight participating mages was sent to different starting points scattered across the edges. On the top level of the labyrinth stood a banner with the word 'Finish' written across it in bold lettering. A large projection appeared on the screen and was split into eight sections, each one following a different mage. Kazro's eyes quickly zeroed in on the mage with a blue Fairy Tail mark poking out through a gap between two sections of her armor. His silver eyes darted over the projection, taking in the faces of the other seven competitors. A lean man with spiked ice blue hair and another man with a heavily muscled build and long, wild turquoise hair were the first two that stood out to the Exorcist.

"Vastia and Nanagear, huh? This really could be interesting." He muttered to himself.

His eyes reached the last section and stopped.

"No. It can't be." A smirk began to pull at the corner of his mouth.

Displayed on the last section was a man with pale skin and shaggy blood red hair that streaks of white toward the ends. His eyes were green with thin brows resting on top of them. A hoked nose rested over a pair of thin lips and a narrow jaw with a small scar running longways along the right side of it.

"Something catch your attention?" The question was enough to jerk Kazro's eyes away from the screen and to Makarov.

"That man with the red and white hair. He's not your run of the mill mage. What guild is he in?" Kazro's eyes drifted back to the projection.

"I want to say he's in Honor Shield." The master replied, still unsure of the sudden unease in the Exorcist's voice.

The section of the screen showing the subject of their conversation zoomed out to show the rest of his body. A white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows covered his lithe frame and was tucked into a pair of black dress pants. A pair of shiny black shoes finished off the ensemble. Kazro focused his attention on a guild emblem on the inside of the man's right forearm. A dark blue outline of two swords crossed over a shield.

"Has he fought yet?"

Makarov shook his head and answered. "It's only the second day. And this year's format will be different. All the guilds are saving their strongest for the last two days. Is this your way of saying you want to participate?"

Kazro nodded and turned back to the projection with the same smirk from earlier still on his face.

"And... BEGIN!" The voice of the announcer rang throughout the stadium and was easily heard by all the mages in the labyrinth.

The turquoise haired man, Orga Nanagear of Sabertooth, was the first to make an attempt at using magic. He extended his arms out in front of him and dropped his stance as black electricity began to crackled around his body. He yelled an incantation and aimed his palms up to the ceiling above him. A torrent of black lightning shot forth from his hands and managed to blow a hole through two levels of the maze and off into the sky. The attack quickly dissipated, leaving Orga in the same stance but with a slight grin on his face. The Sabertooth mage paused to grin at his handiwork before jumping up through the holes that he had created in the maze. His emergence at the top level near the finish earned a round of raucous cheers from the crowd with a handful of boos and jeers. He was the first to reach the goal, earning his guild a quick win and the accompanying points to go with it.

A column of black ice pierced through the labyrinth on the other side and quickly receded, giving way to a handful of mages locked in a struggle of impeding the others. Amongst them were Lyon Vastia of Lamia Scale, the pale skinned man from Honor Shield, and Erza Scarlet, who was rapidly catching up to the other two. Lyon began trading blows with the other man, but was half a step slow as he received a swift kick to the ribcage followed shortly by a hook from the Honor Shield mage's long, sinewy arms. Lyon assumed a casting stance and produced a flurry of ice familiars shaped as a flock of eagles. The man from Honor Shield dodged easily but grabbed one of the ice eagles out of the air. His dark green eyes pored over the icy figure before snapping off a wing and placing it in his mouth and chewing. A look of grim satisfaction crept across his face as he made eye contact with one of Lamia Scale's top mages.

"He's eating his ice? What the hell is he?" Kazro looked to the source of the question and found Gray with a look of shock on his face.

"That man is Oleg Federov. He's known by many as the 'Ice God.'" Kazro replied flatly.

"Ice God? How have I never heard of him?" Another question from Fairy Tail's ice mage.

"He was one of the Council's best kept secrets. Any time a dark guild needed to be crushed and the Council needed it done quick and quiet, they would send him." Kazro answered. "I've had to work with the bastard several times."

Makarov overheard the answers given and could easily sense a mixture of disdain and begrudging respect in the Exorcist's voice. A small chuckle lodged itself in his throat.

"It seems the boy has picked up a bit more fire in the two months he was gone. This could end up being one hell of a good time." Makarov thought quietly to himself.

The exchange that was occuring between the Lyon and the man known as Oleg was getting more intense as Fairy Tail's Titania joined into the fray. The three way skirmish was slowly making its way to the goal on top of the multilevel stone structure that housed the event. All three mages were attacking and dodging two different ways with each flourish drawing a chorus of oohs and ahhs from the crowd. After a frenetic couple of minutes, the three broke away and landed in a triangle formation. Lyon was the first to turn his back, launching himself to the finish line in an effort to be the second to reach the end. He was stopped by a column of black ice shooting up from the ground in front of him and an armor covered hand grabbing his leg at the ankle. Erza yanked her arm back, pulling Lyon with it. Oleg had since caught up to the two and caught Lyon across the chest with an ice enhanced lariat.

The two mages that remained on their feet quickly exchanged glances, looked to the finish just over two hundred meters away, then back to each other. After a brief hesitation, they both launched themselves toward their goal. A flash of light enveloped Erza and faded just as quickly as it came to reveal her in a suit of black armor with a set of wings on the back. She picked her feet up and willed her magic power into the suit, boosting her speed dramatically. Oleg the Ice God wasted no time in summoning a burst of speed to match the Knightess. A sheet of black ice appeared under the Honor Shield mage's feet as the two racing participants began to exchange a flurry of blows. Spell names could be heard over the growing din of the crowd as the two drew closer to the finish line at a breakneck pace. The noise of the crowd reached a climax as the two mages crossed the finish line in a tie, leaving Lamia Scale's participant to settle for finishing in last place and earning no points for his guild.

The mages all exchanged courteous nods before returning to their respective guilds. As they exited the arena, a pair of magic circles appeared above and below the now broken maze. The area between the two circles glowed brightly for a few seconds then disappeared, taking the few intact pieces of the structure as well as the debris with them. A puff of smoke in the center of the arena drew the attention of all the spectators. When it had cleared, a man wearing a pumpkin outfit could be seen striking a series of poses meant to invigorate the already roaring crowd.

It lifted a microphone up to what would pass as its mouth. "Ladies and gentlemen! That is all that we have for you this morning. Come back in the afternoon when we'll have day two of the battles!"

The sound of footsteps and thrums of conversation filled the arena as throngs of people filed out of the stadium. The main topic was the let down of Fairy Tail and Lamia Scale finishing so far back in the maze event but still marveling at how climatic the end had been.

The sound of boots impacting the ground with an accompanying sound of metal brushing against metal could be heard steadily approaching the members of Fairy Tail. As Erza approached, she could see the same people who were there before she had jumped down into the arena plus another man just over a head taller than her. The black hair and the edges of the mark on his neck that she recognized to be the same as hers gave away who this man was.

"Kazro?" She asked while a smile began to appear on her face.

Kazro craned his neck to find the owner of the voice that had just called his name. The tone and timbre was instantly recognizable to him. He turned his body slightly to get a better look at the source and offered a smile to the armored redhead that had made herself known. The Exorcist had little chance to offer a greeting as Erza was instantly mobbed by her guildmates. Some of them offered congratulatory remarks for giving a herculean effort while the small number that did not fear her wrath began ribbing her over not being the first one to finish. She eventually managed to break free of the crowd of Fairy Tail mages who had all decided to go as a group to grab something to eat for lunch. Only three of the Fairy Tail mages remained.

Erza was the first to speak. "Sorry I was unable to win, master."

"Nonsense, Erza. You gave the crowd a hell of a show at the end, and that's what the games are about more than actually winning." Makarov replied with a jovial grin. "Now come on, you two. We can't let the rest of those brats eat the entire city clean!"

The elderly master bounded off the wall he was sitting on and took off after the rest of the guild with a speed that betrayed his advanced age. Kazro placed his right hand on Erza's shoulder and motioned with his head to catch up to the rest of the group. The two began walking at a leisurely pace, neither of them in too much of a hurry to deal with the crowds that they would inevitably reach once they left the stadium.

"I think you owe me a meal, Kazro." Erza teased while nudging the Exorcist with her elbow.

"Heh heh. I think you're right. I honestly didn't think you'd remember." Kazro teased back while rubbing the back of his head with the unbandaged arm.

"How was that little trip, and what happened to your arm?" Erza still had the same warm smile on her face.

"So you noticed, huh?" He replied as his tone became more serious before reverting back to what it was. "I wouldn't be able to fit the whole thing in over lunch. How about tonight, after half the guild tries to start out drinking each other?"

"Considering tomorrow is the day off, I don't see why not. How does eight sound?"

Kazro only smiled back at the Knightess. The nonverbal cue from the Exorcist was all Erza needed to see as the two arrived at the path that led back into Fiore's capitol. She would not admit to it, but she could feel something flutter in her stomach slightly as she thought ahead to the night.


A/N: So this chapter ended on a bit of a weak note/letdown, and yeah, I know. OCxErza fluff is probably what a lot of people don't like. Jellal is a punk. Deal with it.