So the results of the poll have been up for a while, but I'll reveal them right now in case you haven't seen it.

Yes, rewrite: 5

No, don't rewrite:5

It was a tie. If there are any complaints, ...PM-ing and that blue button at the bottom were invented for a reason.

Also, special thanks to The Dark Crimson Blood for beta-ing this chapter.

Chapter 19

Civil War

~Flashback~

A door was pushed open. Niebel peeked into the room, a wide grin remained on his face until he saw the person on the bed

The girl he called his older sister sat on the bed, her head was supported by both her hands as she held it and cried. Immediately, Niebel rushed to Glacia's side. "Sissy?" he asked, worried as he held a handkerchief in his hand. "Sissy, what's wrong?"

"Oi, Niebel!"

The youngest Imperial Guardian turned around to see Jigumo running towards him. "Jigumo-san?"

The spider master scratched his black and crimson hair uncomfortably. "Nieb...How about you take a break tomorrow?"

Niebel's face fell in confusion. "Jigumo-san...what do you mean—?"

"We're not kicking you off the team," Jigumo corrected quickly. "We just thought—well, that maybe you'd want to stay here when the extraction is over and see her with your own eyes. Make sure she's all right, you know?"

The younger boy relaxed a bit. "But...I thought you guys wanted to win—"

"Nieb." Jigumo ruffled Niebel's hair and bent down to eye level. "Are you forgetting that we have three other Imperial Guardians and one ex-Imperial Guardian on the team?"

"We'll be okay, Nieb," he continued. "After all, just four of the top mages of Imperial Snow are enough to bring the other guilds to their knees."

"But—"

"Niebel...would we ever lie to you?"

So there were a few changes to Sasori's terms.

On one hand, Mizuno had supplied the glass coffin with the interior walls lined with dark silk to shield the occupant from view.

Just after Mizuno presented the glass coffin to Sasori did he realize one thing: If he used his magic now, then his strength would be depleted before he would be able to cast the first spell on the upcoming day.

After much bickering, which forced Avian back to consciousness since his room was right next to Mizuno's, the Imperial Guardian of the East stormed over to Mizuno's room; only to find two of his fellow Imperial Guardians debating over what to put in the coffin.

"Mizuno, man up and just do it," Sasori said.

"Can't it wait until morning?"

"Can your nose wait until morning?"

Avian sighed. "For crying out loud," he muttered, walking over to the coffin. "Let's just put a genuine article in here, shall we?"

"There," Avian yawned afterwards. "Are the children happy?"

Mizuno sweated. "...Why didn't we think of you earlier?"

Avian sighed tiredly. "Simple: You're narcissistic, and Sasori just happens to share Jigumo's genes."

"HEY!"

"Could it really be...?" Hibiki leaned back against the headboard. "Could she be behind all this? The abductions and the corpses...everything since last year?"

"All of those kidnappings...Even smuggling those people out," Eve said. "And it all took place under one codename."

"...Shouldn't we tell Mermaid Heel?" Jenny asked.

"No," Hibiki responded immediately. "Not now, not when it's getting late. But—" The Archivist ran a hand through his hand. "Even though they have a right to know...we can't be too sure just yet. After all, it's also the name of Iceberg's capital."

"Besides, their Glacia is dead."

"Is the little one taken care of?" Sasori asked.

"Yu-pez." Jigumo leaned against the wall opposite of his older twin. "I can't believe how easy it is to manipulate the little guy."

"You can thank the ninja you caught for that." Sasori spun the cord with the ivory whistle. "Glacia is Niebel's savior. Her will is what moves him. As long as everything goes accordingly, he's ours to command."

"And, what if it doesn't? You know she won't survive the extraction, no one can—"

"It was too much for her little body to handle, anyway," the scorpion master replied dismissively. "And if she doesn't survive...well, I think the situation will turn in our favor."

8:45 AM

"We just got a message," Risley said. "All of the guilds need to have a few reserve members for the game."

"A reserve squad...?" Beth asked as she finished braiding her hair. "Why's that?"

"Does it look like we know?" Arania snapped. "They just said have four reserve members, so there."

"Then..." Millianna poked her head out the door. Several women of Mermaid Heel filed out of their rooms to eat breakfast downstairs. "I don't know anyone else who's strong."

The cat woman stared at the doll that sat smiling at her from the bed stand. "Platina...you'd fit the bill. But like this, what can you do?"

Chelia fidgeted. "They're not back, Jura-san."

"..." The Wizard Saint could do nothing.

"This isn't good," Yuka muttered. "Obaba's going to spin them to death."

Lyon glanced around the dining hall. Indeed, the old woman was very grumpy, but the ice mage was more concerned with a substitute.

"Toby!"

"What do you want?!" The doggish wizard shouted across the room.

"What about it?"

"Why did you guys...try to end the project?"

"...You said you got in here because you read Avian's journal, right?"

"Wait...That was the clown's?" Sherry exclaimed. "I thought it was that scorpion guy's—"

"Sasori was part of the faction. But Avian was the mastermind. TI-26A8 was his childhood experiment—"

"To exterminate Acnologia, right?"

"...it took us five years to learn that was a mistake," Dobengal said. "One, it was unstable and two, the Council had gotten wind of what we were doing. If we wanted to get off with a simple slap on the wrist, we had to end the project. But what surprised me was the fact that Avian agreed with us. He even destroyed it himself."

"...quit lying," Sherry snapped. "I read the journal. I know Avian didn't end the experiment, he wrote it himself. He persuaded Glacia to—"

"He did what?"

It finally occurred to Sherry that her guild mate was indeed telling her the truth. "The clown guy's journal," she said slowly, "He wrote that he injected...whatever it is...into Glacia. And he altered her memories too."

Something clicked in her mind;it was obvious because the Doll Play mage began to shake in her bonds. "You guys did it...Didn't you? It's not a Dragon Slayer 'thing'; it was just her, wasn't it? You guys made her..."

10:00 AM

No matter where one looked within the stadium, all that was visible were multiple banners, posters, or even confetti from above.

"Hello~! Welcome to the fifth and final day of the Grand Magic Games!" Chapati winked. "With your charming host, Chapati! Our commentator, Yajima-san—"

"Pleasure to be here," the elderly chef smiled.

"And today's guest judge, the master of Lamia Scale, Ooba Babasaaaama!"

"Hn!" Ooba twirled her fingers. "No offense, but the other guilds should just bow out while they still can. Lamia Scale will win this year!"

"And you say that when your guild is in fifth—"

A vein throbbed in Ooba's temple as she pointed her finger at Chapati. "Just spin you old coot!" she scolded while spinning the host.

"Anyways," Yajima cleared his throat uncomfortably. "Let's introduce the guilds once more, shall we?"

"I-indeed," Chapati mumbled dizzily as he fell in his seat. "In eighth place...Hades' hell hounds, Quatro Cerberus!"

Bacchus pumped a fist into the air. "Wild—"

"FOUR!" The rest of Team Quatro Cerberus roared.

"...eh..." That was the only sound made for the underdogs. Ever since the first day, it had occured to everyone that they were only wasting their Jewels by betting on Quatro Cerberus.

"In seventh place, the azure wings of the sky! Blue Pegasus!"

The Trimens—Ren's vision was slightly off, but he could still see—blew kisses with the exception of Ren, who insisted that he was only doing it for Sherry. Jenny posed sexily, earning a wave of whistles and cheers from the male population. Ichiya—poor Ichiya.

"Sixth place: Fairy Tail B!"

"Fifth place, Lamia Scale!" With Toby as their substitute, Team Lamia Scale entered proudly.

"Tied for third place, Fairy Tail A and Imperial Snow!"

Imperial Snow followed after Fairy Tail A. Next to Lamia Scale, Imperial Snow's lineup had changed the most. Jigumo and Niebel were gone, replaced by two hooded figures, one of whom sat on a litter like royalty.

Mizuno no longer had a gauze attached to his nose and it looked like it was restored to its former glory. In this case, it was.

"Second place, Mermaid Heel!"

The women of Mermaid Heel strutted in, with Platina replaced by Risley.

"Hey, sea chicks! Where's the silver girl?" Gajeel shouted.

Lisanna glanced at Porlyusica, who had treated Platina yesterday. "Porlyusica-san, didn't you help Mermaid Heel yesterday?"

"The only reason why I bothered was because the girl wasn't even human. What a relief," the old woman responded.

"But if she wasn't human, then what—"

"A doll," Porlyusica and Bixlow said together. The latter happened to overhear the conversation.

"Bixlow, how would you—" The Seith mage tapped his visor twice. "Oh right," Evergreen remembered.

"Kinda impressive, though," Bixlow admitted, scratching his chin. "Just by looking at her and the way she acted, you'd think she was a typical bad girl."

"Bad girl, bad girl~!" His dolls sang around him.

"Then again, Loke looked human and he's a huge playboy," he continued.

"Playboy~! Huge playboy~!"

"Hey, how come I can't turn my babies into humans?" Bixlow complained.

"Humans?" His dolls squeaked in an offended tone.

"And the number one guild that regained their throne in the games—SABERTOOTH!"

A smirk adorned Minerva's smug face as her eyes skimmed over Lamia Scale and Mermaid Heel. "How wonderful, those little upstarts have deserted their guilds."

"Now that you mention it, miss, that Dragon Slayer and the spider master aren't here either," Rufus noticed. He frowned. "Are their members forced to hide their faces?"

"Everyone here, pumpkin?" Mato did a single once-over of the teams. "So a few new faces—even if two are unknown—but everyone is here, pumpkin! I hope you remembered to prepare your reserve team, because you might wanna tag out at some point!"

"HUH?" Before anyone else could ask, the teams were teleported away to their game field: A wide open terrain surrounded by mountains, littered with boulders, and filled with dead grass.

One question invaded the competitors' minds: "Where are we?"

"Sorry, pumpkin," Mato apologized. "We told the citizens that we'd repair the city with magic, but they don't wanna listen. All of you are now outside of Crocus, but once the game is over—or if you happen to fall during—you will be warped back to Domus Flau."

"All of you are scattered, but if you would, look behind yourselves, pumpkin."

Behind each team, what seemed to be a beacon with four different buttons stood proudly.

"How should I explain this, pumpkin? Oh, right! The name of this game...—Civil War!"

A thundering applause from Domus Flau managed to reach the battlefield.

"In a real war, you have reinforcements, right, pumpkin? Except here, your reinforcements are substitutes. And your team's beacon is what allows you to switch team members. But there are rules, pumpkin," Mato added darkly. "First, your team will elect a leader. Leaders are worth five points if you defeat them, the rest are one. Second, in order to use the beacon to switch, the person or people you're switching with must be part of your guild—"

"That's expected," Mirajane said.

"You cannot have been defeated. You're substituting, not calling for more people, pumpkin," Mato continued as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. "And when you use the beacon, please note that the same number of people must be exchanged on both sides. For example, if you wish to tag in three people, you must exchange three people. Up to four people can be substituted. And the people you wish to switch out must be at the beacon. After the beacon sends its signal, the number of people that are to be tagged in for that team must run to the entrance of Domus Flau. They will then warp to the battlefield and will fight for the remainder of the game for the people they just replaced. The leader cannot switch out. Also, be careful with your beacon. It can only be used once, and then it destroys itself. Last team standing wins!"

"One more thing!" Mato grinned maniacally. "There's nothing against destroying other beacons."

"Miss, we don't have a reserve—"

"Are they fools?" Minerva spread out an arm. Behind her, Sabertooth's beacon exploded. Mechanical parts littered the ground while flames burned the grass. "Sabertooth has no need for a handicap. Understood?"

The rest of her team nodded in compliance.

"Now." Minerva composed herself, that same smug smirk lined her lips. "For starters, why don't the rest of you destroy Lamia Scale's and Mermaid Heel's beacons first?"

The litter was set down and the person on it jumped off. The two hooded figures of Imperial Snow set up dual Surveillance Lacrima as well.

Mizuno whispered quietly, "We can't have the Lacrima Vision Camera catching everything around here. Hack into the Lacrima and control what they see."

The people nodded and they went to work, their fingers flying across the keyboard.

At Domus Flau, one of the Lacrima Vision blacked out. People yelled out in confusion as they wondered why that Lacrima stopped functioning.

"J-just hold on, people, pumpkin," Mato said nervously. "Technical maintenance, just hold on."

Two minutes later, the Lacrima that blacked out began to function properly. On the screen, everyone could see Rogue approaching Mizuno.

Or so they thought.

~In reality~

Rogue separated from the rest of his team. His frustration at his two most hated opponents not being here was quite obvious. He had a very ugly score that he wanted settled—he just couldn't tell which one he could have gone for first.

Movement from the hill forced Rogue into the shadows. Then Yaeger and War Cry ran past his hiding spot. Both men were yelling as they climbed the hill.

The person at the top—who turned out to be Sasori of Imperial Snow—simply yawned as he somersaulted off the litter and out of the way of Quatro Cerberus' attack. He then proceeded to lure them downhill, and they followed.

Keeping to the shadows, Rogue quickly slipped towards the litter. He came out of the darkness as he inspected its structure—even though it was a vehicle. Now that he had a closer look, what he thought was cloth covering the vehicle was in fact cloth lining glass walls on the inside. And the top looked more like a lid—

"If you're that curious, then why don't you look inside?"

Rogue spun around, his eyes narrowed at Mizuno who stood behind him, smiling. "The only way I could bring this coffin was to smuggle it into the games as a vehicle. And it worked," he said, leaping over to the other side of the coffin.

"And if it's a trap?" Rogue asked.

Mizuno simply shrugged, retaining his sly smile. "You can figure it out for yourself—after you defeat me!"

The Imperial Guardian of the South thrust his hands out and suddenly, a large torrent of water forced Rogue down the hill.

He gritted his teeth; his pride wouldn't allow him to be defeated by some narcissist. Rogue sank back into the shadows, climbing up as he slipped into Mizuno's shade.

Mizuno leaped into the air as Rogue aimed a Shadow Dragon's Claw at him but missed. Then it occurred to him that Rogue's target wasn't him: it was the coffin.

"Damn!" Mizuno cried.

It was already too late. The coffin shattered into shards and splinters mixed with shreds of cloth. Got it, Rogue thought.

In the coffin's place was a person hovering above the ground, surrounded in blue light. For a moment, Rogue froze. The scent was the same—even the appearance!—but then he remembered Mizuno's trick on the first day.

"You—have—got to be kidding," the Shadow Dragon Slayer bit out, glaring at the mirror mage. Floating above the hill was what Rogue assumed to be a copy of Glacia.

Mizuno raised his hands in defense—and fear for his nose. "But sir! It's the truth! She is the genuine!"

"Why the hell should I believe you?" he hissed.

Mizuno sighed. "Indeed. Yajima was correct to say that we used Black Magic to revive Princess Glacia. Of course, bringing her back was no mere feat. A blood transfusion here, surgery there—after all, when we found her, her poor little heart was pierced in two."

Neither of the men needed clarification on this.

"Of course..." Mizuno smiled sadly as he tugged at a cord around his neck. Sasori's scorpion-like whistle was attached to it. "Princess Glacia is complete—in all but soul. So...if I do this—" He blew into the instrument, a tiny high-pitched noise emanated from it.

"..." At the top of the hill, Glacia opened her eyes. The light faded and she fell to the ground. "Wh-where am I?"

It had been one year since he heard her actual voice—a voice filled with actual emotion, even if it was confusion. The faint smell of mint reached Rogue's nose. He didn't realize how much he had missed that scent.

Glacia looked around, her eyes found Mizuno and—Rogue.

Glacier blue eyes widened in shock, and Glacia brought her left hand to her mouth—before she coughed violently into it.

"Glacia!" Both Mizuno and Rogue stepped forward, but the latter advanced further. He stopped in his tracks when Glacia pulled her hands away from her bleeding mouth.

"...R-Rogue..." Glacia met his eyes, her own filled with pain as tears threatened to spill. "...i-it hurts...make it stop..."

He couldn't tear his eyes away from her. She was suffering so much but he couldn't do a thing. Finally, Rogue forced himself to look at Mizuno. "What did you do?"

Mizuno leaned back on his heels. "We performed surgery on her heart—but I never said we replaced it. But it seems that the surgeons did a poor job. Her heart can't function like it used to—"

He blew the whistle again, this time the sound was low-key. Glacia's eyes drooped, and she fell back. Blood stopped flowing, and she was breathing calmly now.

"If you want to save Princess Glacia—" The original Ice Dragon Slayer was then encased in water and floated away from the fight. "—you'll have to take this away from me," Mizuno said, flaunting the scorpion whistle.

The air grew colder. Shadows flocked to Rogue's side as he glowered at Mizuno, a murderous glint in his eyes.

The mirror mage smiled maniacally. "That's more like it."

At Domus Flau, everyone could see Mizuno using his Mirror Magic to create a clone of Glacia to fight Rogue.

If only they knew how wrong they were.