Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. Hiro Mashima does. This story was made for fun, and not for cash. (How unfortunate.)

Chapter 26: Boldness, Retaliation, Surprises, and Karma

The sight of Natsu jumping down to the sandy battlefield from the booth where Team Fairy Tail A was located had certainly came as a surprise to many of the spectators. Even his own team was shocked to see that the fire dragon slayer had made flames engulf his fists while he looked angry, and Gray had wanted to go down there to help out Lucy. However, Erza wanted to see how her blonde friend and her boyfriend would handle this situation. If they could not handle this, then Erza would feel that joining in on this was necessary.

The spectators were certainly surprised to see that someone from Fairy Tail was trying to ruin the closing ceremony of the Grand Magic Games, and some of the people on the other teams had to wonder why Natsu was doing this. His team had tied for second place with Team Sweet Melancholy, for god's sake, and Natsu should have considered himself pretty lucky to not have made the higher-ranked Fairy Tail team get a spot below third place. Seriously, what in the world was Natsu's problem? He needed a major attitude adjustment, that's for sure.

As Lisanna saw Natsu stop in his tracks while Lucy and Sting both noticed his presence, the white-haired mage gave Natsu a pretty disapproving look. He was acting like a sore loser and a spoiled brat put together, and it was really deplorable of him to be making his own guild look like a bunch of jerks who could not accept a fair defeat. Lisanna had seen how Natsu went down in the survival tournament against Lucy, having been pulled into a strange shadow while she stood across from him, but that was not breaking any rules. Lucy had not appeared to have done anything to make Natsu lose, but a loss was a loss.

On top of that, his behavior in the Grand Magic Games was really upsetting to Lisanna. Prior to the tournament, he agreed to her deal of throwing challenges and helping out Team Fairy Tail B. They would have probably won the entire tournament, and Natsu would have won Lisanna's trust back. However, he only threw one battle and did not even try to help out Mira in the event on the second day when she was being pulled into a shadow. Erza had forbid Lisanna from being in the survival tournament, but Natsu never needed an alliance with her to look anymore foolish than he already was.

The fact that he had been in a tag-team battle with Erza would definitely put a strain on him to uphold his deal with Lisanna, but she was more angry with how he acted towards Lucy in the fight. She was beating him down with her spells of Heavenly Body Magic, definitely proving her strength, but Natsu still refused to accept it like a man. He even had the audacity to knock Lucy's book and perfume out of her hands. The perfume had spilled on to the book, and Thorn had been released. At least Lisanna could thank that evil woman for giving proper karma to a dirty antagonist.

"You're going down, you book-wielding little bitch! How dare you kiss a guy like Sting! You know how much I hate that damn jerk, Lucy, and you knew that he was my rival! Do you actually think that I'll let you be in Sabertooth with a guy like him, after how you've shown so much power in the Grand Magic Games! You should just see that a weakling like him does not deserve you, you traitor, and I'll make you burn to a crisp when we get back to the Fairy Tail guild!" Natsu exclaimed angrily while looking at Lucy, before jerking her left arm and trying to pull her away from her new friends.

However, what happened next was sure to surprise everyone. Lucy freed herself from Natsu's grip, and simply inhaled all of his flames with the non-spell ability of Fire Magic in her spell book. Then, she simply burped in his face while glaring at him. She had definitely eaten all of his flames, feeling much more powerful, but she was not going to start a fight in the Domus Flau. She was not thinking about the fact that it would make her look just as uncouth as Natsu, but this was not one of the official matches.

She replied in a harsh manner to the fire dragon slayer, cold feelings of bitterness entering her cocoa brown eyes, "How dare you try to act like you own me, you stupid idiot. I don't take orders from people like you, especially since you're nothing but a backstabbing user who kept me and Lisanna from being friends. You got so much happiness from bullying me, happy that you replaced me with Lisanna to supposedly strengthen your team, and now you suddenly want me back because I'm strong and you don't approve of my new relationship? Natsu, just shut up. You're the most immature guy on Earthland, and I regret ever falling for garbage like you."

Those retaliating words from Lucy had certainly made Sting smile calmly, glad that his girlfriend knew how to not stoop to the level of a dense idiot who was really undeserving of her, and her other teammates from Team Sabertooth smiled as well. Yukino also looked happy to see her new friend stand up for herself, and the woman with light blue hair heard the applause and cheers from many people in the audience. Clearly, they also did not like how Natsu was acting like a sore loser who thought that he could have his way with anything.

Lucy's worst enemy could only growl in frustration, knowing that there was no way for him to counter that, and he was about to try and run towards her in attempt to burn her spell book into smithereens. However, Erza and Gray quickly came down from the booth where Team Fairy Tail A was located. They knew that the most important part of a battle was knowing when a person had beat their opponent or had been beaten, and they also did not want Natsu causing more of a spectacle. Hikari had secretly recorded the event on a Lacrima Surveillance Crystal, so Natsu would probably end up infamously going viral as the egotistical flaming maniac.

While Natsu was taken back up into the stands by Erza and Gray, Lucy breathed a sigh of relief while looking happy at the fact that they had been around to keep the fire dragon slayer in check. She did not want any drama to be caused today, since Sabertooth had just won the Grand Magic Games, and things seemed to be looking up for Lucy. Seeing as the members of her team had nothing better to do at the moment, and with the party being held later tonight, why not use these hours to have some fun? Relaxation was certainly better than tension, was it not? Team Sabertooth walked out of the stadium, and the other teams in the order of the rankings soon followed them from highest to lowest in the Grand Magic Games.

30 minutes later, in Crocus...

After doing some last-minute shopping at some of the fancy stores in Crocus, Cana and Lisanna were heading to the limo that would take Team Fairy Tail B home to the town of Magnolia for everyone to congratulate them. Even if they had gotten fourth place at the very end of the tournament, they would still be lauded for their brave efforts. They could have gotten more points and outdone the other team competing for Fairy Tail, had Lisanna's little deal with Natsu gone through. He would obviously be trying to get her back once again, since Lucy had coldly shot him down.

Lisanna just wanted the fire dragon slayer to return to how he was, become how he acted before using her to make Lucy jealous, and that was the guy who Lisanna had fallen in love with. She did not like how Natsu had become such a mean, egotistical, self-centered jerk these days, and even blackmailing him could not make him learn his lesson. The white-haired mage sighed a bit while sadly looking down at the ground, as she walked beside Cana, and things were seeming pretty hopeless in Lisanna's love life.

She had wanted to find Lucy before Team Sabertooth had left, wanting to officially be her friend, but it looked like Sabertooth's light white limo had already left Crocus. Lisanna had hoped that she would eventually run into Lucy again one day, which probably would happen at some point in the near future, and all that she could do was simply sigh about the unfortunate events that Natsu had made both of the girls go through. Lisanna really wanted him to change his ways, and she honestly had to wonder if Natsu was secretly seeing other women. If that was the case, wouldn't he be bragging about it?

While Lisanna was having her thoughts about Natsu, Cana could not stop thinking about what had happened on the fourth day of the Grand Magic Games. She and Mira had gone up against Karen and Mable from Team Sweet Melancholy, and the opponents against Fairy Tail had easily emerged victorious. However, the match that followed that one had made Cana become concerned. She was a bit doubtful of this theory at first, but it began to make some sense when she put all the pieces together in her head.

Bottles of perfume had never contained liquid that would have shadowy powers, and the dark substance in that bottle had certainly made Lucy show her darker side against Erza and Natsu. Cana could only figure that a user of shadows, either Karen or Rogue, had given that strange bottle to Lucy. Cana had never talked with Lucy during the tournament to ask her about where she had exactly gotten the bottle from, but Karen was a pretty suspicious person. She also seemed to be very strange, having used a shadow to throw Cana out of the area instead of fighting properly.

She suddenly asked Lisanna, hearing the sounds of groaning nearby, "Hey, is something wrong with your stomach? Do you need to go to the bathroom or something, Lisanna?"

The white-haired mage replied nicely while giving her friend a confused look, "Um... No. That wasn't me groaning at all, Cana. If we both heard it without actually doing it, then someone else is groaning."

Both girls slowly turned their heads to a nearby alleyway between two buildings, hearing the sounds of groaning, and it sounded like those people were regaining consciousness or something. Who in the world would be sleeping in a filthy alleyway, let alone be unconscious there? Lisanna was a bit afraid to proceed into the alleyway to check it out, not wanting to see the bloody wounded victims if a murder scene of any kind had transpired here during the tournament, and she let Cana check it out.

The brown-haired girl went into the alleyway, the sun giving her enough light for her to be able to have some vision in the trash-filled alley that had rats running through some dirty rainwater, and what Cana saw would definitely make anybody look pretty shocked. Pure amazement filled her purple eyes, finding a sight like this to be completely unbelievable, and she motioned for Lisanna to come and see what was so startling. This would either confirm her suspicions in some way, or leave more questions.

Lisanna walked into the alleyway to see the four girls from Team Sweet Melancholy, and their clothes had been shredded while they looked bloodied and badly bruised. They also looked very dirty from being in the alleyway, almost like they had been here for five days, but how was that possible? Cana saw Kira Kurono, Hiruda Saikuron, Mable Kasumi, and Haruka Furawa all looking pretty badly wounded and dirty. Lisanna looked concerned while thinking that they needed medical attention, but Kira was surprisingly able to stand up.

She slowly opened her eyes, shaking a bit while hoping that someone wasn't after her and the other girls, and she even looked scared from seeing Cana curiously eyeing her. Kira also looked to her left and to her right, really making the Fairy Tail girls look confused. Cana knew that Kira and her other team members had competed in the Grand Magic Games, being at Karen's side the entire time, so why were they acting so afraid? The other girls also smiled a bit from seeing the sunlight shine down on them, feeling it to be better than darkness.

Cana even became more confused from seeing that Mable's left eye was not light blue at all, and it certainly had not been a contact if it allowed her to shoot laser beams and do other things from it. Unknown to Cana, Karen had taken the shadows of the four girls in Team Sweet Melancholy and simply made their darker selves arise with the twist of having different types of magic. Then, she had sent the real girls into the shadows for a while to cover up the fact that she had some business with Lucy Heartfilia. After all, Karen's dark motives could not have any flaws in her strategies.

Since the tournament was now over, Karen and her shadowy team had to watch Lucy from elsewhere. She had released the real girls from the shadows on the first day, with the side effect of a move known as Shadow Timer. This move could control when an unconscious person would wake up, and Karen had set the real girls to wake up at the end of the tournament. They certainly did not know what had gone on, but they did manage to recall how they had been attacked by the shadows at high speeds.

One hour later, at Fairy Tail…

Erza still could not believe that Natsu would do something so humiliating to Fairy Tail, making them look like a bunch of sore losers at the closing ceremony, and she was very angry with how he was bold enough to try and make Lucy return to her former guild. Erza thought that it was the best choice to make Lucy leave, not wanting to see Natsu give her any more stress, and the blonde mage looked really happy in Sabertooth. Wendy was also there with Happy and Carla, so Erza really had no worries.

She did have worries about Natsu, however, since he had absolutely no right to talk to Lucy like that. Even on the first day of the real tournament, before the appealing event had begun, Natsu was talking trash to Lucy. Luckily, she managed to bounce it all right back at him. She did not have to put up with any form of mockery from that dense flaming idiot, and it was her choice to date whoever she wanted to date. Natsu had no control over her life, and Lucy did not want him to be a part of it.

After all, he had not shown any means of apologizing to her for all of his brash actions in the past. If he would just swallow his pride and look at this whole thing from Lucy's perspective, even for a few minutes, then maybe he would have a clear idea of how badly he had hurt her by trying to make her jealous. He had even physically abused her, verbally abused her, and he had no right to even call her weak. Lucy had beaten him when he came to look for the red book in the Sabertooth guild, and she had also beaten him in the tag-team battle.

Natsu was really nothing compared to her, and he had been acting like such a jerk to Lucy and Lisanna. He had the white-haired mage loving him for a while, until he only saw her as a tool to make Lucy jealous. Girls never liked being used by any guy, and seeing a girl as an object for a guy to please himself was a really sick way of viewing a girl. Natsu was seriously an idiot for trying to get with Lucy, especially after he had kicked her off the team in such a rude way, and he obviously knew that she was with Sting now.

He just loved to stir up so drama, and Erza really did not like that. Whether she was in Sabertooth or not, Lucy was still one of her best friends. Gray also berated Natsu for how he had been treating Lucy, since this whole thing was his fault. He was the one who caused emotional pain to Lucy, making her go through the emotional feeling of heartbreak, and that fiery idiot acted like he had done nothing. The fact that he was so arrogant made Erza think that he was almost treating this whole thing like a joke, when it was far from funny.

"You know, you are a really insensitive jerk. Natsu, why can't you just be happy for Lucy? Why did you have to go down on to the field like a sore loser, even though you mostly cost us the win? If it hadn't been for Karen forfeiting against Laxus, we would not have gotten second place! You lost fair and square, whether you like it or not, and you need to not be so immature in public! We must be the laughingstock of Fiore right now, since Lucy told you off so brutally and you froze up! You're lucky that she didn't attack you, but I will punish you." Erza lectured in a stern tone while shoving Natsu against a wall, as she became face to face with him.

The fire dragon slayer replied in a stubborn manner, wanting to have his way once again, "I could've easily taken Lucy out with no problem at all! She has no powerful spells at all, and she's no threat to me! I could've shown her stupid boyfriend how I hate losing, and I hate Sting even more! Those guys just love making me look bad, and I will show them what it means to make me lose! They're having a party tonight, and I'm going there! You can't stop me from doing what I please, and neither can Lisanna!"

Gray really wanted to punch Natsu in the stomach for being so brash, but Gajeel took care of that by angrily striking Natsu in the chest with an iron pillar after he entered the guild with Levy. The iron dragon slayer had been listening to Natsu's whining, bitching, moaning, and stubborn remarks for the past few months now. It was really starting to become quite annoying, hearing him belabor and boast about his supposed strength against a girl who was supposedly weaker than him, yet she had beaten the pants off of him every time.

Natsu looked annoyed while feeling the pain from Gajeel's attack, but he simply rubbed his own chest to heat it up and heal the injury. He did not like the fact that Lucy and Sting were becoming so much more powerful than he could ever be, and Natsu was really planning to do something pretty low. He was quite the sore loser, all right, but he was also a pretty sneaky guy when he wanted to be. He was going to pull a really low move, but could he truly get away with it? This plan of his would certainly ruin his rep even more, though.

A few hours later, close to nighttime…

Everyone in the Sabertooth guild had bought supplies for the party that Sting really wanted to have tonight, and they knew it was going to be a great night. With desserts like cookies, brownies, cakes, pies, chocolates, and snacks such as Doritos, Cheetos, and Pringles while having many bottles of Coca-Cola, this party was probably going to be the party of the year. In fact, Sting had even sent flyers to people in every town that surrounded Castelia. This would clearly be a great party, right?

Sting had bought an eight-layered chocolate cake that obviously had eight different kinds of chocolates making it up, and he placed it on the table that him and Lucy were sitting at. She smiled happily at the delicious chocolate cake, enjoying how sweet and sugary it looked, and Lucy simply cut a slice of cake on to her plate. Wendy also sat at the table with Lucy, and the young sky dragon slayer had given the position of guild master back to Sting. She cut a slice of cake for herself as well, and Wendy looked pretty happy.

For the party, Lucy had changed into a sky blue T-shirt with a darker blue miniskirt to match. She always loved to look fashionable for any kind of event, and this party was not exactly a formal one where she would need to wear a fancy dress. Sting also liked her choice of outfit as well, finding blue to really suit a calm and beautiful woman like Lucy, and the blue could also represent how she loved the blueness of Sting's calm eyes. They were so very charming, always making her blush, and Lucy loved having Sting as a boyfriend.

"This party is going to be the best party ever! I still can't believe that even mages from other guilds showed up here, though." Sting told her with a smile on his face, as he looked over at Lyon Vastia and Jenny Realight respectively eating some of the chocolates and drinking a bottle of soda.

"Anyone would show up to a great party that you had the idea to throw, Sting." Lucy told him with an amorous look on her face, before resting her head against his chest and sighing happily while she wrapped her arms around his neck and spoke in her sweet voice.

Sting leaned in for a kiss, as Lucy had suddenly pulled away while telling him to close his eyes, and he had wanted to feel the softness of his girlfriend's lips. However, as he heard the knife cutting a piece of the cake, Sting wondered what was going on. He thought that Lucy was going to give him a pretty sweet kiss for throwing an awesome party like this, and he instead got a different kind of sweetness from her. She stuffed a slice of chocolate cake in his mouth, and it had definitely tasted just as great as a kiss. Sting opened his eyes, and Lucy had giggled a bit at her playful trick.

Meanwhile, outside…

Natsu had been hiding behind a bush that was near the Sabertooth guild, hearing the loud party music blaring from inside, and he was planning to go in there and take out Lucy and Sting. Getting rid of one mage would deal a pretty big blow to the other one, and Natsu had actually thought about taking down two birds with one stone. He wanted to make Lucy pay for what had happened in the Grand Magic Games, and the fire dragon slayer had never liked it when anybody tried to talk trash to him.

He had actually been waiting for the right moment to enter the guild, since there were people talking outside and smoking as well, meaning that he could not successfully crash a party and leave without there being a few people to say that he was not invited. Out of all the guilds in Fiore, Fairy Tail was the only guild to not be invited to the party. That was mainly Natsu's fault, and Sting had thought that they would bring him along with them. He wouldn't even invite people like Cana, since she would drink down all the alcohol in a matter of minutes.

He was about to make his move, but something had grabbed on to his left leg with a tight grip. He looked frustrated while thinking that it was Gray trying to sneak up on him, possibly trying to prevent him from entering the party, but Natsu could not feel whatever was tightly gripping his leg. All that he felt was his left leg, but what was keeping him down? Master Makarov surely would not have followed him here, and Happy was not on his side anymore. As Natsu felt someone tap him on his left shoulder, he turned around quickly.

"Look, Lisanna! I know you're being all quiet back there, but you can't keep me from crashing the party! I'm going to-" Natsu shouted in a brash manner as he turned around, only to see something pretty scary.

Karen told him in a cold manner, evilly glaring at him like he was the biggest jerk in the world while she emerged from his shadow and made it constrict his leg tightly, "You will not hurt the blonde maiden in any way, you fool. You have done enough damage to her, and she does not need you in her life anymore. If you ever cause her any trouble again... No, wait. You won't cause her any trouble ever again. You have also caused trouble to Lisanna, and that's why I will make you experience suffering that is worse than any wound. Think of it as a way of killing you from the inside out, as payback for going against Lucy and Thorn."

Before Natsu could even say a thing, an extremely bright light flashed in front of his eyes. Shadows were being created instantaneously, forming the shadow of something, and the shadow slowly began to rise from the ground. It began to become a real person, having fair skin, and its blood red eyes seemed eerily familiar. The girl had purple hair that was tied into a side ponytail on the left side, and her top was lavender. Her miniskirt was black, and her high heels were in a violet color.

Natsu looked very afraid at what he was seeing, and the girl was not just any girl. It was actually the teenage form of Thorn, and let's just say that she was pretty deadly as a teenager. She giggled evilly while grabbing Natsu by his scarf, pulling him down into the shadows to send him all the way back to the guild of Fairy Tail, and Thorn actually had many smarts in her teenage form. Since Natsu was quite a user, this teenage form of Thorn's was now going to make the fire dragon slayer have a taste of his own medicine...

How was the 26th chapter? Did you like it? I won't reveal many details about this next arc coming up, but it will certainly be something worth waiting for. Let's just say that Thorn decides to truly help Lucy out, but she helps herself at the same time...