The collaboration arc continues! And sorry this one took so long. My classes just started and I've still been wrapped up in games such as Tales of Xillia 2. Not to mention I just got a PS4 with Destiny. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy!

LordsoftheRoses: Review below! Let us know!

Jason stood across from Kyo, staring him down.

"You little shit!" Kyo snapped. "I'M gonna RIP YOUR HEAD OFF!"

Kyo's speed allowed him to close the gap in a second, swinging his fist with full force. Jason moved swiftly and subtly to dodge Kyo's strikes.

"FIGHT ME YOU BITCH!" Kyo snapped. "QUIT RUNNING LIKE A PUS-"

The crystal ball, carried by Jason's wind, smacked Kyo in the face and he stumbled to his left. When Kyo lifted his head the crystal ball smacked him again. Without even waiting to recover, Kyo swung his fist, striking the crystal ball and sent it flying back at Jason. The wind allowed the ball to slow down and land in Jason's hand, while the steel around Kyo's fist cracked and a chunk around his middle and ring finger fell off.

"I figured you out." Jason said. "Your Steel Body is as hard as steel. Simple enough. But making full force contact on something harder than steel cracks you up."

"Screw. You." Kyo growled.

The fighting distracted the attention away from Ultear allowing Meredy to run to her side. "Ultear!" she shouted. She attempted to get her out of harm's way, lifting her up and doing her best to carry her away. Meredy then thought, *She's still breathing. That's good.*

Kyo glared at Jason while he was simply using his wind magic to twirl the crystal ball above his hand with a cocky smirk sprawled across his face. Yukino was surprised that Kyo actually took noticeable damage from the crystal ball striking him in the stomach.

*Is this my fault?* Yukino thought. *It was my words that made Kyo lose himself…*

Sakura than jumped into the fight next to Jason.

"Alright!" Sakura snapped. "Let's kick his ass!"

"Sorry, Sakura, but I'd rather you stay out of this fight." Jason said.

"What?!" Sakura exclaimed.

"I know you're strong, but there's no way you can hurt this guy…" Jason said.

Flora flew by next to Sakura. "Jason has a point. Maybe you should sit this one out…"

"… How about this?" Jason asked. "If I don't manage to beat him, you can take him on. Does that sound good?"

"… As long as I get a chance to wail on him later." Sakura replied while looking away from him.

Kyo charged at Jason, ready to slam his Steel Body arm into him and Jason ducked to avoid the attack. Jason then used the wind around him to hurl the crystal ball straight into Kyo's stomach. The force of the blow sent Kyo skidding across the ground for several meters and Jason noticed that there was a crack in the Steel Body armor where Kyo's stomach is. Jason shot the crystal ball toward Kyo, but he charged right toward him and leaned to the side to dodge it. While Kyo kept running toward Jason, he used a blast of wind to propel the ball back toward Kyo and it struck him right in the back. The blow knocked him down to the ground and another crack appeared in Kyo's Steel Body. Jason used wind to shoot the crystal ball upwards and then down toward Kyo's back again, but he rolled out of the way, held out his arm and shot a blast of bluish white energy from his hand at the crystal ball, reducing it to pieces.

*Crap!* Jason cursed in his head.

Kyo got up and shot another blast of that bluish white energy at Jason. At first Jason was sent rolling along the ground from the blast, but he held out his arms and skid across the pavement on his hands and feet until he stopped.

"That's that attack from the lake!" Jason said. "That 'White Dragon' attack. What is that really?"

Kyo reached into his pocket and pulled out small blue crystal. "Do you know what this is?"

Jason shook his head.

"This is Ether Nano." Kyo explained. He opened his palm and the crystal melted into energy and hovered around his hand like his attack. "And this is Ether. Elemental Magic In its purist form. Fire, Water, Earth, Lightning, Air, Iron, Poison and so on. Every element under my command." The ether then thinned and disappeared within the cracks of Kyo's Steelbody. "The Armor protects against regular magic while the Ether protects me from Elemental magic." Kyo's arm began to glow. "AND I CAN ATTACK WITH IT AS WELL!" He fired another blast of ether at Jason.

"So THAT'S why my attacks barely did a thing to him!" Foster muttered under his breath.

"Ultear, please wake up!"

Foster turned to see Meredy trying to gently shake Ultear awake, but she was still unconscious. He looked at them for a few seconds before something came into his head.

Kyo kept up the attacks, mixing it up between brawling with his fists and blasting away with the Ether. Jason kept dodging the blows and eventually jumped up with the support of the wind to boost him up toward the top of one of the nearby abandoned buildings.

"Stop running away and fight me!" Kyo shouted.

"Why would I do that?" Jason asked with a cocky smirk. "I'm at a complete disadvantage if I fight you up close."

"That's because you're weak!" Kyo shouted.

Kyo jumped up toward Jason and raised his fist. Just as Jason jumped out of the way, Kyo punched the roof of the house and the entire structure came crashing down. Just as Kyo was standing up, a whirlwind of black leaves began to surround him.

"Forest God Coffin!" Foster shouted as he clasped his hands together and the whirlwind he created collapsed itself onto Kyo.

The attack barely affected Kyo due to his Ether Magic and he simply turned his head to look at Foster.

"Hm?" Kyo said as his attention turned to his feet.

He could feel pressure building up from underneath him and a burst of wind sent him rocketing into the air. While he was airborne, Jason jumped up using his Zephyr Magic and surrounded his arms in gusts of wind.

"Zephyr Cannon!"

Jason blasted the gusts of wind at Kyo, point blank, and sent him crashing into the ground. As Jason landed on the ground with the help of his wind magic, he could see through the cloud of dust that Kyo was getting up with barely a scratch on him. All Kyo did was crack his neck as he turned his attention back to Jason and charged up an orb of Ether Magic in the palm of his hand.

"I'm going to end each and every one of you… once and for all." Kyo growled.

While Kyo kept charging the orb of ether, Jason looked to the side quickly before his eyes went back to Kyo.

"I'll prove to you that I'M NOT A COWARD!" Kyo screamed as he was ready to fire the charged ether blast at Jason.

Jason braced himself for the oncoming blast and Kyo shot it at him. Before the ether blast could hit Jason, Foster got in between the two and shielded Jason from the attack. Even though Jason took a couple of hits from the blast that went past Foster, the protector took the brunt of the force and once there energy died down Foster fell to the ground.

"FOSTER!" Meredy screamed.

"YOU SHOULD'VE STAYED DOWN!" Kyo shouted. He charged his arm ready for another attack. "I'll bury you!" He tried to move his arm, only it didn't.

Kyo's body began to stiffen again and his Steel Body armor was starting to rust. Ultear had regained consciousness and was using her Arc of Time to keep him in place.

"Go!" Ultear shouted.

"Right!" Jason nodded.

Jason began running toward Kyo, who wasn't able to move with his armor completely rusted and stuck. Jason surrounded his right arm in a gust of wind as he was raising it for the finishing blow.

"Zephyr…"

Jason's fist made direct contact with Kyo's face, cracking the rusted armor and punching him in his normal face.

"LAUNCHER!"

A powerful burst of wind sent Kyo spinning and hurdling across the pavement and through about a dozen houses until he stopped when he hit the outside of a brick house.

"DRGH!" Kyo groaned in pain.

Kyo was lying propped up against the wall and Ultear used her Arc of Time to make it collapse over him.

"Looks like he ran out of ideas." Flora said. "Like he hit a brick wall. Huh? Huh?"

There was an awkward silence for a brief moment.

… Cough…

Kyo's hand came out of the brick pile, no longer in his Steelbody armor, and he pulled himself out. His body was bruised, beaten, bloodied and he had a black eye.

"I hate you people!" Kyo growled.

He tried lifting his arm for another ether attack, but he could barely raise it above his stomach.

"I'll win this fight… Or I'll die trying." Kyo said.

Before Kyo could launch an attack, Yukino grabbed his arm and gently pulled it down.

"Stop it, Kyo." Yukino said gently.

"Let go." Kyo growled.

"Kyo, look at yourself." Yukino said. "You'll die if you keep this up. You don't have to do this."

"Yes, I do." Kyo said. He then looked up at his opponent. "Look at them. They are mocking me."

"No, they're not." Yukino said. "Now just stop."

"I can't." Kyo said. "If I stop, they'll just keep on abusing me. They'll never stop, not until I'm stronger than them." He gently moved Yukino aside and pointed at Jason. "Don't you move!"

Jason just stood there as Kyo limped his way over to him and Jason kept looking at him.

Kyo was now standing face to face with Jason. "You… are not stronger… than me."

Kyo punched Jason once in the face, simply forcing his face to turn, and then Jason punched Kyo back in the face. Kyo returned the bunch, Jason returned the bunch and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth.

*I need to be strong!* Kyo thought. *… I need to!*

(Flashback)

Many years ago, Kyo was just a young boy at an orphanage. Just outside the orphanage was a tree and Kyo would climb onto the branch and curl up into a ball alongside it as the other kids would throw rocks at him.

"Get down here, you big baby!"

"What a scaredy-cat!"

"Hey, try to knock him out of the tree! That'd be hilarious!"

*Ever day… every day they would mess with me. Bullying me. And I just took it.*

One day, the kids would just call him names, other days they'd dump toilet water on him and on other days they'd just lock him up in a closet.

One day at lunch, all the kids in front of Kyo had gotten food and left nothing for him.

"Haha! Kyo's gonna starve!"

*Ignorant little bastards…*

Kyo spent that lunch curled up on his bed and crying his eyes out.

"I hate this place…" He murmured.

Kyo heard the door creak open, but didn't turn his head as he thought it was more kids coming by to bully him. He heard the footsteps come closer and stop right at the side of his bed.

"Are you still hungry?" A voice asked. "I'll share with you."

Kyo lifted his head up and saw a small girl with short, silver hair. She had a small tray of food that hadn't been touched yet.

"No thanks." Kyo said, curling down.

"Are you sure?" The girl asked. "I'm really not that hungry."

Kyo didn't say anything, looked at the girl and then at the tray.

"… Maybe a little." Kyo said.

The girl smiled, set the tray on the bed and sat next to him.

"My name's Yukino. What's yours?"

"Kyo."

*She was my first friend. She was the first one to talk to me as a real person. She would talk about her sister, her home, just about anything. It was nice.*

One day, a bucket of green paint fell and spilled on Yukino. The kids just pointed and laughed.

"Unlucky Yukino strikes again! Har! Har!"

"She's nothing but bad luck!"

*But it wasn't luck. Those damned brats purposely spilt it on her. And that wasn't the only time either. They wouldn't stop messing with her and I felt something I haven't felt since I came to that orphanage… Anger.*

One day, Kyo confronted three of the bullies who kept messing with Yukino.

"What do you want?" The leader kid asked.

"Stop picking on Yukino!" Kyo responded.

"I'll do whatever I want!" The leader kid said.

"Stop it!" Kyo shouted.

"Make me!" The kid dared. "You won't do nothing, you coward!"

Kyo immediately grabbed a brick and struck the leader kid in the head with it and he went down. Kyo hovered over him and repeatedly smashed the brick against the kid's head.

*One… Two… Three… Four… Five… Six… Seven… Eight… Nine… Nine times I bashed his head in with that brick. The other two just stared in sheer terror as I abused him. Eventually one of the orphanage caretakers took me off him, but not before the damage was done. He didn't die, but he now knew his place and no one ever messed with me again. And that is when I realized…*

(End Flashback)

Jason's fist came in and socked Kyo in the chin while Kyo landed an undercut to Jason's stomach.

*I realized I need to be strong.* Kyo thought. *So the abuse would stop.*

Jason punched Kyo in the nose.

*I learned a very strong magic to overcome obstacles.*

Kyo socked Jason in the right cheek.

*I joined the strongest guild so I could get the respect I thought I deserved.*

Jason clasped his hands together and swung them upward, knocking them right into Kyo's chin and he began to fall back.

*I did it so I could be stronger…* Kyo continued thinking.

As he fell back, his barely-opened eye caught a glimpse of Yukino…

*… For her…*

… Before hitting the ground and being laid out.

*I'm not strong enough…* Kyo thought.

Jason was beaten and sweaty from the intense fight, panting heavily as he fell to his knees.

"Sakura, do you think you could come over and heal me up?" Jason asked.

"What's the magic word?" Sakura asked.

"Now's not the time for that!" Flora scolded Sakura.

Jellal was back on the ruins of one of the destroyed buildings, sitting on a knocked down support beam with his arms crossed.

"That was quite a show." Jellal said.

"Kyo!" Yukino ran over to Kyo's side and helped him lean up a little. "Kyo! Kyo, are you all right?"

"Son of a bitch…" Kyo said without opening his eyes. "That was just embarrassing…"

"Losing the fight or your temper?" Yukino asked.

"I'm too tired to decide, you do it." Kyo replied.

"Why don't you two just leave and forget about this and we'll forget that any of this fighting took place?" Jason suggested as Sakura was healing his wounds. "You don't have to be embarrassed by anything."

Just then out of nowhere, one big black circle appeared in the middle of the town, not far from where they were.

"Ah, crap, what now?" Sakura groaned.

On top of the tallest building just below the black circle, a single man wearing a hooded cloak with long, bony fingers with a painted-on blue face, but with a big white beard stood as he moved his body side to side and twiddling his fingers in the air.

"People of Rose Lake!" The man said in a flamboyant, over the top voice. "It is I, Arc Mana! After all these years I've finally returned!"

All of the wizards, including Crime Sorcière.

"… This goofball cannot be serious." Jellal simply said.

"I have finally devised the perfect plan to take over the world!" Arc Mana continued announcing. "Behold! My army of giant! Demon! Spiders!"

On cue, giant eight-legged demon spiders with black, disgusting fangs and tendrils emerged from the black circle above Arc Mana and they began to terrorize the town.

"You're doomed!" Arc Mana said. "Doooooomed! There is nothing that can save you now! Ho, hee-ho, hee-ho!"

Jason scratched the back of his head. "… This totally came out of left field."

A/N: Next time is the final chapter of this story arc. By the way, those orphanage caretakers must not be paying attention to them and terrible at their job.

Caretaker: All right, children. Just don't kill each other… Oh my God, he's killing someone!