Cana smirked as she struggled on her wings, trying to stay upright was hard even if Freed took all the responsibility of navigating. She spotted both Levy and Evergreen break through the rune barrier around the boat, but that was to be expected. That was always part of the plan.

"Get ready to get cast that barrier as soon as we land, Evergreen's pretty close behind us."

Freed nodded. He had already prepared most of the magic he would need, the one sticking point was going to be making a barrier strong enough to prevent Levy rewriting it until Cana had divined which path to go down. He was pretty sure she knew the language he was writing these runes in, but hopefully in the time it took for her to figure it out Cana would have had more than enough time. Cana had already drawn cards from her bag, shuffling through them and giving them just enough magic to tell her what they needed to know.

"I know what I'm doing. Just make sure you get those cards read as soon as possible, whatever I do isn't going to hold Levy for long."

The first runes had already started to fall when they hit the ground, Cana immediately skidding in the dirt and starting to throw down the cards that her magic drew her to. They scattered across the floor, and she instantly started to read.

Freed knew that the first runes only had to be strong enough to hold back Evergreen, her team were bound to be the first to arrive with her powers of flight. That would give him time to reinforce them before Levy arrived, and even then he wasn't expecting them to hold for long. He could write runes to keep the script mage out permanently, but they would use up far too much of his resources so early on in the day if he did.

Cana started to pore over the cards as Freed came to stand over her, drawing his sword while he continued to mutter under his breath.

"Why not set up a rune barrier that will keep Levy out around the boat?"

Freed's smirk was pure evil, and suddenly Cana was glad they were on a team this time around.

"Just you wait and see."

She didn't need to wait long, as suddenly Elfman came flying towards the barrier, already in Lizardman form with fist extended in front of him. Cana screamed as the ground shook with the impact, scattering her cards on the ground. Freed bent his knees as he anticipated the impact, maintaining his balance perfectly. Elfman landed in a crouch just outside the area, Evergreen fluttering to the ground next to him and hammering on the barrier with her fists even though she knew it was pointless.

"Freed! You filthy fucking rat!"

The Rune Mage's grin was feral as Evergreen sank to the floor, Elfman looking at her incredulously.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Rewrite them!"

Evergreen glared up at him, eyes narrowed to slits as she ground out her words.

"There's no fucking point, idiot. These are different runes, I don't know how to work with these ones and that bastard knows it."

Cana's teeth worried her lip as she studied the cards in front of her. They had moved in the impact, and now were showing two possibilities for the serenity path. She could do another reading but…

"How long do we have, Freed?"

The man scanned the edge of the forest, and she could almost hear the cogs turning in his head as he calculated. A few moments passed, both of them ignoring the bickering coming from outside their barriers, before Freed spoke.

"I give it two minutes until Levy gets here, and another three or four for her to break through the barrier. Why?"

Cana swore out loud. She wouldn't have time to redraw the cards completely, she would have to deal with what she had. At least she had gotten their chances to fifty percent from the fifteen-ish that it had been.

"Elfman fucked up the reading. I don't think I'm gonna have time to redraw it now."

Elfman laughed, not knowing how he had messed up their plan but glad that he had anyway. Freed cursed as well, at least she guessed that he did but it was in a language that she didn't know. He started to pace the perimeter, contemplating adding rune traps to some of the entrances to the trials before deciding against it. It wasn't really breaking the rules of the trial, but it was still bending them quite a bit. There was one thing he could do though…

Levy and Gajeel had gotten there by the time he had finished. He felt the tug on his runes as Levy started to rewrite them, and moved over to Cana to look over her shoulder.

"How are we doing? Two minutes and counting."

Cana groaned, hands hovering over the cards on the floor as her eyes darted backwards and forwards. Freed took a look over his shoulder, watching Gajeel, Evergreen and Elfman whisper between each other as Levy worked her magic on the barrier. No matter how much he strained his ears, he couldn't make out what they were saying.

"It's a close draw between two of them."

Freed gritted his teeth. If all three of them attacked them, he didn't know how long he could hold them off for.

"Well, it's better odds than we had originally. We're gonna have to pick one. Less than a minute left, and you gotta pick up your cards."

Cana cursed. It was such a crucial thing to forget. She started to scoop up the cards, choosing the path that she was sure the cards had been more certain about.

"C! We gotta go for…"

Her voice was cut off by the almost comical pop of the runes dissipating, and turned just in time to watch Gajeel and Elfman hurtling towards them, surrounded by a barrage of Evergreen's fairy bullets. She started to curl up to protect herself, but paused when she watched Freed.

Elfman hadn't bothered to switch forms, and a well placed elbow to the face as Freed dodged to the side sent him sprawling backwards as the Rune Mage's rapier blocked an Iron Dragon's sword from the right. The impact sent a clang across the clearing, and Freed staggered backwards as he tried to keep his footing. Her eyes were momentarily blinded as all of Evergreen's fairy dust combusted at once, and she got to her feet to try and help her teammate.

"Cana! GO!"

As the explosion dissipated Cana could see a rune barrier perfectly cutting off her and Freed, concentrating Evergreen's attack on the two men who were currently trying to recover from their new positions on the ground. He didn't need to tell her twice as she turned on her heel, and sprinted towards the tunnel. Freed followed not far behind, and she could hear the thundering roar of their opponents as they tried to get off one last attack before they were blocked off.

The clanging of the metal grate behind them told her she was safe, and she collapsed onto the wall, Freed taking up a similar position opposite her.

"Whew. That took up more of my magic than I particularly wanted it to."

Freed grimaced at her words, it was obvious he'd expended more than he had strictly wanted too as well. He took a deep breath, trying to mellow himself out before jumping to attention as he heard a rock fall from further up the path. He turned his head to look at Cana, narrowing his eyes and whispering so whoever it was couldn't hear them.

"Are you sure that this was the serenity path?"

Cana grimaced. It had been half and half between the two options, and it was just her luck that she would choose the wrong one. She whispered back, getting some of her attack cards ready out of her pack. They were generic cards, but she could pick more specific ones as soon as they knew who they were facing up against. She knew that she could do another reading, but that would use so much more energy than she currently had access to.

"It was one of two, I told you that. Even if it's not the serenity path it should still be the easiest out of all the others. You ready to start moving up?"

Freed nodded, drawing his sword and holding it in front of him as he slowly crept forward towards the other end of the cave. Cana had been in this route before, and she knew that the battle arena was inside of the cave, no open air which could be difficult if the two of them needed to fly. But then again, their opponent may be hindered just as much as they were if they needed to fly too.

They inched forward, keeping to the edges of the tunnel in order to try and get a good look at the person before them. Freed could still feel the pull of the runes around the boat, so it was either one of the S-Class wizards, or one of the teams they had already gone up against. And he was sure neither of them would have managed to get around him that quickly. None of the options were looking particularly good, at this point.

They stopped behind a rock, Freed casting runes to make them more difficult to spot. It wasn't invisibility, exactly. More they stopped any onlookers from wanting to look in that place for too long, their eyes just jumping over them. If anyone was particularly determined to see them, they'd be there, the same with if they moved up to start attacking. But if they stayed still, they should be okay. A touch of silencing runes added everything else they needed, and he was ready to poke his head out to finally catch a glimpse of his opponent.

"Well, fuck."

Cana watched him slump back down next to her, tilting his head back so it rested against the stone.

"What? Who is it?"

Her voice was hissed through clenched teeth, but he didn't even bother opening his eyes to look at her.

"Mirajane."

Cana turned her full body around to look at him, shaking his shoulder as she did. What the fuck was he talking about?

"Well I mean… it could be worse."

He shook his head, opening his eyes and staring at her, one turquoise and one a purple swirl of darkness. Oh. That wasn't good.

"We may have… maybe… well…"

Cana stared at him. It wasn't like Freed to lose his words. She waved her hands, gesturing him to spit it out.

"On Tuesday we had a fight. Kinda a big one. We were both stressed, and it escalated, and I told her to get out and we haven't spoken since."

Cana looked at him in shock, mouth opening and closing for a while before she began to speak.

"What…"

It came out louder than she had been anticipating, and Freed rushed forward to cover her mouth with his hand. She nodded, checking over the rock to see if she had alerted Mira, but the woman was still staring at the entrance of the cave, in her Satan Soul Form, and the silence runes had held up well.

"What the fuck, Freed!? And you never thought of mentioning this to me?"

Freed groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose as he stared at the ground.

"I didn't think it was relevant."

"Not relevant? Freed she…"

He waved his hand in her direction, and she shut up. He was right. Fighting among themselves would do them no good now.

"What were the chances of us facing her? We were gonna go down the serenity path, win the trials and then I'd talk to her when it had all calmed down."

Cana sighed. Technically they didn't have to fight her, but the route they met her in would make it particularly difficult to sneak past. Well. All they could do was try.

"If we can get around there, I'm sure we can go straight on through to the middle and meet up with the guys on the other side. The Master never said we actually had to fight. Can you keep us covered with runes?"

Freed shook his head, sighing before poking back up over the rock they were hiding behind.

"These kind of runes can't be made portable without hiding us each from the other, and that's not gonna go well if one of us is spotted. We'll have to sneak around of our own volition. Be silent, and ready to attack if things go wrong. Her demon has very sensitive ears. Dark Ecriture: Absolute Shadow."

She watched as Freed's demon form slowly overtook him, body twisting and forming larger muscles and stronger armour than it had before. Rifling through her bag she chose the most appropriate cards for Mira, some of the holy ones should do it, and she and Freed could double up on lightning attacks which should take her down… that was if they couldn't get past.

Freed nodded, and she started to inch out from behind the rock they were hiding from, feeling a wave of tingles across her skin as she breached the rune barrier that was keeping them protected. As soon as Freed left the barrier it dissipated, and Cana wondered how much magic he managed to get back from that. She made sure to watch her footing, it would be bad now if she stumbled or set off a plume of fireflies to alert Mira to her presence. She didn't realise until she was halfway across the cave that she was holding her breath, but she couldn't bring herself to resume breathing again. She was so terrified that it would be enough for Mira to hear her. She could see the open gate at the other edge of the cave, one hundred metres… fifty…

The blast knocked her forward, completely off guard as she sprawled across the floor with no time to catch herself. A laugh filled the cave and Freed was at her side in seconds, a defensive rune barrier already up in front of him as another ball of darkness came flying towards them, flaring across the barrier before subsiding into nothingness and allowing her to see Mira behind it. She didn't look happy.

"Oh? You're trying to sneak past me, are you?"

Her voice was deep, and sent shivers down Cana's spine as she spoke. She might go out in the first round after all. Freed's fingers were moving at a lightning speed, and Cana wished she knew what he was setting up.

"Okay, Cana. We know the plan for Mirajane."

Cana nodded, and struggled to her feet. Her wrist was sore where she had jolted it badly, but she couldn't let it slow her down. She planted her feet, starting to feel the magic flow through her. The one magic spell that she knew that could take down Mirajane, and easily too. Freed's barrier held strong against the barrage of spells Mira was sending, and didn't show any sign of dropping. Her right forearm started to ignite as she held it out in front of her, black lines appearing across it as she summoned the spell.

"Gather! O river of light that guides the fairies!"

Mira didn't seem to falter in her attacks, balls of darkness slamming into Freed's barrier, if anything, more frequently than before. Did she think she was fast enough to duck out of the beam when it came?

"Shine! In order to perish the fangs of evil!"

Within the beat between this line and the next, many things happened. Mira set off her last blast, Freed waiting until it smashed into the barrier before he released it to allow Cana's to flow through. The timing had been almost perfect, and Cana saw out of the corner of her eye as Freed started to move with more speed than Cana thought possible.

"Fairy Glitter!"

The cave was filled with a brilliant light as Cana was blasted backwards, blinding her from her own magic. An almighty crash filled her ears as the rocks around her protested the attack, and she suddenly wondered if she would bring the entire mountain down around her. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea, after all. The rock groaned again, before seeming to settle as the light started to fade. Panting heavily from the excursion Cana collapsed to the ground, raising her gaze to see…

Mira was stood in the middle of the cave, exactly where she had been before, completely unaffected. Her face was plastered in a grin, and she looked pleased with herself. But then again… of course she would.

"Oh, Cana. I thought you would know that Fairy Glitter wouldn't harm a Fairy Tail wizard."

Cana huffed, trying to catch her breath so she could reply. At least Mira didn't attack her instantaneously, she was too excited to play with her prey.

"I didn't need to hurt you. I just needed to distract you."

Freed was a blur of darkness, and he was behind Mira before her face even had time to register the shock. One hand extended out, and Mira was on the floor in a heap in seconds.

Mira had thought that, now they had had an argument, Freed wouldn't exploit her weakness. There was one spot, right between her wings, that no matter what she was doing filled her with desire for one thing and one thing alone. It had been a hell of a discovery. So as her knees turned to jelly she let out an almost pornagraphic moan, before cursing to herself when she saw Cana try to smother her giggles with her hands.

"Cana! We need to go!"

Freed's voice was low. Demonic. Sexy. She saw Cana get up and sprint to the exit, but it wasn't until a second later when Freed's hand left her back that she spun around with more speed than she thought she could muster and grabbed his wrist. He jumped in surprise, starting to struggle but she was too strong.

"Freed Justine. You do not turn me on and then run away."

Cana froze, just inside the exit to the cave and looked back at her partner. Freed's face was panicked, but she really really didn't want to get in between this. Maybe in different circumstances, but not right now.

"Okay, guys. Just give me like thirty seconds to get out of hearing range and I'll…"

Mira chuckled, a sound that was pure evil and so stark to the current circumstances.

"Oh, Cana, you have a minute and you better run…"

Freed started to protest, but in seconds he had fallen to his knees, still in his demon form and taken Mira's face in his hands. Cana took Mira's advice, and started to sprint. It didn't help. The screams of pleasure found her within seconds.

I am so sorry this is so late! Writing a thesis is hard, apparently, and so I haven't had much time to write for pleasure. My thesis should be done in a couple of weeks, and hopefully we should get back on schedule. 3 teams left!