Hey there guys. I'm back for another chapter. Let's get started then. No point in waiting longer than needed. I don't own Fairy Tail. Hiro Mashima does.

Chapter 23: Reunions

3rd Person POV

Natsu, Erza, and Gray rushed to where Lucy was standing, only to find not only Laxus, but Sting and Rogue blocking their paths, with Minerva standing near Lucy. Natsu, being the impatient person he always is, shouted at Sting, "Get out of the way! Lucy!"

Sting stared at Natsu and turned to see Lucy looking uncomfortable. "I'm sorry Natsu. I'm afraid you can't get any closer to Lucy."

"What are you talking about? Lucy! Tell him to get out of the way!" Natsu began to push forward, and then found that Sting and Rogue were pushing him back, away from Lucy.

Erza and Gray were about to join Natsu when Lucy's quiet voice made them all pause. "Hey there everyone… I see you three haven't changed in the slightest…"

"Lucy!" Erza began to push to reach her, but was stopped when Minerva blocked her path, "I wouldn't suggest taking another step Scarlet…"

Erza was about to respond when Lucy's cries began to fill the air, "It's okay everyone. Let them through… I knew this would happen eventually…"

While Rogue, Sting, and Minerva moved away quietly, Laxus simply moved closer to Lucy and stood protectively over her. "Laxus…It's okay. I'll be fine…"

Reluctantly, Laxus moved away slightly, but stayed close enough that he would be able to protect her. The moment Laxus moved Erza rushed forward and brought Lucy into a large hug, tears streaming down her face. "Lucy! I'm so sorry… I never wanted you to go through such pain. You don't know how much I've suffered just thinking that I could do something like that to someone I considered my little sister…"

Lucy, reluctantly, returned Erza's hug, and upon hearing the sincerity in her voice, broke down crying and said, "I missed you so much Erza…"

Erza began to comfort Lucy and whispered soothing words into her ears, but their moment was ruined when Natsu and Gray walked forward and brought Lucy out of Erza's hug. "Lucy!"

Lucy, while she looked at Gray with sad eyes, refused to look at Natsu, since it was his treatment that had caused the most pain out of the three. Gray shakily brought Lucy into a hug and said, "Lucy… Please forgive me. Ever since you joined Fairy Tail, I tried to become a brotherly figure that would help guide you, and after the whole Phantom event, I became even more determined to be a brother to you, but I failed and now I can't live with myself, knowing that I hurt you the way I did. Ever since I found out what happened… I've missed you so much, little sister…"

Lucy sobbed into Gray's shoulder and between sobs, said, "Big…Brother…"

The moment with Gray ended soon after and then Natsu walked forward, only to see Lucy move back, which caused Laxus to stand between the two. Natsu looked down and with a low voice said, "I can't expect your forgiveness Lucy… I know that what I did was wrong, and that I hurt you by doing it, and I also know that I don't deserve to be forgiven for what I did. All I ask…All I've ever wanted since finding out the truth about how Lisanna controlled us, was to find you and to tell you how much I'm sorry and that I hope that one day, we can go back to being the best friends we were…"

Lucy silently nodded and just as Natsu was turning to walk away, she said in a quiet voice, though loud enough for Natsu to hear, "Soon… But not now…" With a sad smile, Natsu returned to where the other Fairy Tail members where waiting for him. When he returned, he was received with sympathetic smiles from Wendy and Elfman, though Wendy looked like she was going to cry from seeing Lucy again. After a short talk with Wendy and encouraging her to talk to Lucy later, Natsu turned to see Erza and Gray begin to walk back, only for them to turn around and tell Laxus at the same time, "Take good care of Lucy. We leave her in your care." With Laxus's nod, the two walked back to Fairy Tail Team A's stand.

After a short moment of silence in the stadium, Chapati spoke up, "Well then! It's time for the games to begin. First, let me explain how the days will go. For the first three days, each day will be split into two parts. The first part of the day will consist of an event where teams will choose a representative from their team to participate, and depending on their ranking, they will receive a specific number of points. For the second half of the day, a battle part will take place. For the battle part, two teams will face off against each other, with event officials choosing a member of those teams to represent their team. The two fighters will have thirty minutes to try and knock their opponent unconscious. The winner of the match will receive ten points, while the loser will receive zero points. In the case of a draw, each team will receive five points. Afterwards, we'll have a day for the teams to rest up and prepare for the final two days. On the fourth day we will have another event, followed by tag battles. Afterwards, we'll have another day off and on the final day, well we can't reveal that yet."

"Now, let's start the first event! This event will be called Gladiator. Teams, choose your representative."

One by one, each team chose there representatives. From Fairy Tail Team A, Gray walked forward. From Quatro Cerberus, Rocker walked forward. From Mermaid Heel, Beth walked forward. From Blue Pegasus, Eve walked forward. From Lamia Scale, Lyon walked forward. From Fairy Tail Team B, Juvia walked forward. From Raven Tail, Nalpudding chose to participate. And finally, From Sabertooth, Laxus smirked and walked forward.

Once the participants were in the field and the rest of the teams moved to their appropriate stands, the eight participants found themselves teleported to random parts of Crocus. From a large speaker, Mato's voice could be heard saying, "In this event, each participant will begin with one gladiator statue. The goal of the game is to search out the other participants and take their statue. If someone loses their statue, they get transported to a new area of Crocus and receive a new gladiator statue. If someone has multiple statues and they lose, then they must give up all the statues that they have. Rankings will be determined by who has the most statues by the end of thirty minutes, which first place being whoever has the most statues. Now, begin!"

Once the bell sounded, each participant began to search out their opponents. After two minutes, the first two participants made contact. Gray found himself staring at Nalpudding. After a short struggle, Gray was able to outsmart Nalpudding and was able to obtain his statue, raising his count to two. At the same time, Juvia encountered Lyon, who because he was unable to raise his hand against Juvia, lost his statue and was teleported away. Meanwhile, Laxus had encountered Eve, Beth, and Rocker, who had all teamed up to take him down when they all ran into each other at the same time. Laxus smirked and crossed his arms before a large lightning bolt crashed down into each of the participants, immediately teleporting them to a different area and raising Laxus's score to four. For the remainder of the thirty minutes, teams continued to take each other's statues and eliminating each other, with the only person not losing any match being Laxus. By the end of the thirty minutes, Laxus had eleven statues, Gray had eight, Juvia had seven, Lyon had six, Eve had four, Beth had three, Nalpudding had two, and Rocker had one.

"With that, the first event comes to an end and so far, the rankings are as follows!"

Sabertooth- 10p

Fairy Tail A- 8p

Fairy Tail B- 6p

Lamia Scale- 4p

Mermaid Heel- 2p

Raven Tail- 1p

Quatro Cerberus- 0p

"It seems Sabertooth is at the top, but each Fairy Tail team is right behind them. The games just began though, so it's still anyone's game. Now, for the first match of the day! Sabertooth's Lucy Heartfilia vs Fairy Tail A Natsu Dragneel!"

AND Cut! Hahahaha! Sorry for the cliffhanger. I also want to apologize for all of the delay. I actually had most of this chapter written a long time ago, I just either kept forgetting to work on it or I had something going on. Don't worry though, the end of the year is almost here and with Summer comes more free time, which means more time to work on chapters. Stay tuned for the next chapter!