Hey all! We have (at most) three chapters left after this! *gasps, cries, screams, etc.* This chapter is a little fluffy, a little short, but it gets the point across.

See you at the bottom!

~ Diana

Lyra woke up because she was finding it hard to breathe. She blinked her sleepy eyes open and felt the sudden drowsiness that came after a big M.E. lunch. Where was she? She glanced around the room to find herself in an infirmary. To her right lay a bandaged but sleeping Orga. To her left lay nobody. On her bed lay Sabertooth's Twin Dragons, and their Exceeds. Lyra immediately realized why she was finding it hard to breathe, said Exceeds lay on her chest, their heads on her breasts, one each. The weight of the cats was making essential things, like breathing, difficult. Their tails were also curled around them, every now and then waving into Lyra's face, making the Void want to sneeze. She wanted to move to make her breaths easier but the boys on her bed were sleeping so soundly, it was adorable!

Lyra carefully and quietly shifted upward as she tried to sit up. The Exceeds rolled over in their sleep, and down to her lap. Sting didn't wake up and kept on snoring. Rogue, however, blinked a lazy eye open, sat up, cracked his back, and yawned. He looked around the room, and massaged his neck.

He smiled when he saw Lyra awake and Lyra smiled back.

"Morning." Lyra whispered, not wanting to wake one of her Dragon Slayers and her Exceeds up. Wait. Hers? She analyzed what she had just thought. Though it was true that Sabertooth was not a family as much as a hierarchy of ruthless mages, she did feel as though a lot of them were her family. Or not her family as much as they were hers. Just hers. Especially the boys she had spent to last eighteen or so days with. She considered them to be hers, much like the way that a Dragon would consider something that belonged to them, theirs. The Twin Dragons of Sabertooth, the Minstrel Who Sings To The Red Moon, the Lighting God Slayer, and the Exceeds belonged to her. But just as much as they belonged to her she belonged to them, at least she belonged to the Dragon Slayers, which was why they were currently by her bedside.

"Morning." Rogue said in his normal tone. Lyra opened her mouth and Rogue cut her off. "You can speak at a normal decibel. Sting has slept through an earthquake, you won't wake him."

"OK." Lyra said louder. She wiggled her arms out from under the blanket and stretched. "What day is it? What happened?"

"You've been out for like seventeen hours." Rogue explained. "Today is the day that Lamia Scale and Blue Pegasus play. Last I heard, Blue Pegasus was winning."

"Did we make it into the finals?" Lyra asked.

"With the way you beat Kagura? We better have. Do you remember that?"

"My memory goes a little fuzzy when it gets to me taking my jacket off."

"You almost completely drained her. Mermaid Heel wouldn't allow her to be in the same room as you, and the medics are working non-stop to try and save her from Magic Deficiency."

Lyra sighed. "I didn't mean for the fight to go on that long. I told her I would win, she didn't listen."

"Yeah, well…" Rogue trailed off before leaning forward and resting his hands on the bed. "How're you feeling?" he asked.

"Like I gotta go to the bathroom." Lyra answered truthfully. She shimmed her way out from under her Exceeds and Sting and realized that she was barely wearing any clothes. She wore a white tank top that someone had dressed her in and black shorts. Guess I gotta be careful then. She thought to herself as she walked down the hall, looking for a bathroom.

When she came back she found that everyone in the room was awake and another person was in there too. The woman put her hands on her hips and a sick smile plays her face.

"I heard you passed out."

Lyra crosses her arms. She glared at the little princess of Sabertooth. "You heard correctly."

"He won't be pleased."

"Just because he hates you doesn't mean he hates everybody." Lyra spit out the words before thinking them through and Minerva reached out to slap the girl, Lyra caught her wrist and the two glared at each other. Minerva had never liked Lyra. Lyra had never liked Minerva. It was as simple as that.

"What are you doing?" The rumbling voice broke the girls apart and they both bowed as their master walked in.

"She started it!" Lyra said first and Minerva glared at the Void.

Jiemma ignored the trash before him and turned to the weaklings in the back of the room. "Get over here." He hissed at them. They scampered towards him like the pathetic beings they were and he grabbed the two who had failed him by their necks. The Lighting God Slayer and Shadow Dragon Slayer struggled to breathe, fear in their eyes. He almost grinned. He loved the fear in their eyes; fear showed someone exactly why they were weak. Jiemma did not fear anything, therefore he was not weak, at least that was how he saw it.

"You failed." Were the two words that reverberated around in the Slayers' heads. Rogue's lungs began to burn, he couldn't breathe. Master Jiemma dropped them on their asses and Rogue and Orga choked in luscious air.

They looked towards the ground. They knew they had punishments coming, they were ready to accept them. "Minerva." He ordered. The princess of Sabertooth flipped her long hair over one shoulder and grinned wickedly. She held out her hands and Rogue and Orga gritted their teeth as they took their punishment. The air on all sides of them became super-heated and began to burn their skin. Then it would stop, she could let them cool off but before they could lick their wounds she would burn them again. And again. And again and again. This went on for an hour, but Orga and Rogue held their tongues and didn't scream, they knew if they did Master Jiemma would probably add Sting or Lyra to the mix and their punishments would be worse. When Jiemma was finally satisfied he held up a hand, indicating for Minerva to stop. She did and he gave everyone one dagger filled glare before striding out of the room. Frosch ran up to his bleeding Dragon slayer.

"Rogue! Rogue! Can you hear me?" He cried, big, fat, wet tears pouring out of his eyes. Rogue grunted in response.

Minerva scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Pathetic." She commented. Lyra wanted to slap the bitch. But she just clenched her fist and took the jab in silence.

"Get out." A soft voice said. Everyone turned to see Sting, who hadn't spoken this entire time, balling his fists, trying to keep tears from shedding. "I said, GET OUT!" He roared. Minerva and Lyra exchanged looks. He wanted to help Rogue lick his wounds in peace, so be it. The girls left the room and walked in a hateful silence.

"Where have you been?" Lyra asked, shattering the quiet.

"A job." Minerva said flippantly.

"Master J let you go on a job during the Games?"

"No." Minerva scoffed. "I went before the Games, it ran over. Not like you'd care."

"Minerva, not this again, you know I don't have any say in how you dad treats everyone. It's not my fault he treats me better than most." Lyra whined. She didn't see the punch coming but she sure as hell felt it. She stumbled back into the wall and glanced into Minerva's steely eyes.

"If you ever say that again I will-"

"You'll what Princess, use your magic on me?" Lyra asked with a smirk. The fun-loving Lyra was gone, she always was when Minerva was involved. The girls were like oil and water, they never mixed.

Minerva tried to punch Lyra again but Lyra knew it was coming, she ducked and kicked Minerva in the stomach. Minerva stumbled backward and Lyra put her bare foot on Minerva's split skirt. One inch to the right and she would hit the girl's naked leg.

"Don't-"

Lyra pretended to ponder the warning. "Aww, why not? Is it because you're afraid I'll-"

"I said don't!" Minerva kicked upward with her shoe, sending Lyra tumbling over the other girl. Both of them screamed on contact and quickly rolled away from each other. Minerva breathed heavily and Lyra became more attuned to her surroundings, a second and a half worth of touch and she was already feeling Minerva's M.E.

"Woah…" They heard someone say. They snapped their heads over to where a boy and his father were, they had been walking down the hallway when they had come across the battling Sabers. With a twist in her stomach Lyra realized who the boy and his father were. They were Fairies.

"What are you doing here, you Fairy Trash?" Minerva hissed.

(New) Master M and his son took an involuntary step back. "Get out of here!" Lyra ordered. They turned on their heel and ran.

But in that short encounter the girls had found their right minds. They warily began walking again, realizing that fights were irrational and stupid considering Lyra had a guild to fight tomorrow and Master Jiemma would get mad if his precious Witch Hunter was hurt. But neither girl went off guard, each expecting the other to attack at any minute. That was how it usually was between the two of them, both always ready for a fight, neither willing to be the instigator.

They walked back to the Honeybone and Lyra ordered some food while she caught up with her fellow Guild Members. Minerva disappeared at some point and the Slayers reappeared, their wounds licked and mostly gone. They seemed to be OK. Rufus, however, didn't. A long gash on his head had been bound, he didn't like to lift his head up from the table because the lights were too bright, and his hands were bandaged as well. He wouldn't get up to do anything and he hadn't had a chance to buy a new hat since his old one was killed.

The day wore on and the Sabertooth Guild barely watched the screen as Lamia Scale made a comeback and became victorious over Blue Pegasus. Master B just shrugged and said "well, there's always next years." In a light tone. Yeah right, Lyra thought as she chugged a beer. Like Sabertooth'll win this year, and they'll win next year. Because we're awesome like that. The Sabertooth Guild ended up rejoicing that night because they could so obviously beat Lamia Scale and Sting ended up becoming so drunk he almost proposed to Minerva which made everyone almost die of laughter. Minerva had blushed during his advances and then hastily yelled at everyone to "shut the fuck up, get sober, and go away!"

Soon everyone was drunk off their ass and only when the Fairy Fuck-Ups came into the bar did Sabertooth begin to file out, but not without their barbs at the pathetic losers.

"Ya know, Fairy Tail is so bad, their Master couldn't even win against Toby." Someone said at one point, and from then on the Sabertooth members went around insulting Fairy Tail in the 'Your Mama' joke style.

Full, drunk, happy, and laughing-so-hard-she-might-pee, Lyra decided it was time for bed. She wanted to sober up before the Games tomorrow. She waved goodbye to her Guild who hooted and hollered back and she stumbled to her room.

*gasps* Omg, what could possibly happen now? Yes, I have introduced Minerva, yes I do know what I am doing. Like always, I'd love to hear your voices! Guest, not a guest, follower, not a follower, whatever. :) Have a great day.

~ Diana