Before I get to the tag battles, I'm going to have a chapter focusing on the war with Sabertooth and the merging of the teams. It might not sound like THAT much, but there's a lot going into it. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy!
July 4, X791
In the stadium's infirmary, Aqua was having her wound treated after her arm was severed by Minerva in the Naval Battle. Jayden was standing outside, listening to her agonizing screams of pain. Every time he heard her, his crossed arms were being clenched by his hands.
*Sabertooth is going to pay for this!* He thought.
"Jay!"
Jayden looked over to see Spiral, Sakura and Azusa running up to him.
"What's happening?" Spiral asked.
"EEEYYAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHH!" Aqua screamed from within the room.
"… On second thought, I don't want to know." Spiral said.
"I'm afraid we've got some bad news." Azusa said. "You know how Raven Tail was disqualified yesterday?"
"Yeah?" Jayden responded.
"Well, to whittle down the number of teams back to an even number, we have to merge our two teams." Azusa stated. "Phoenix Dawn was chosen over Fairy Tail because two of our team members are incapacitated."
"Man, how're we going to break this to the others?" Jayden groaned and sighed.
"On top of that, we're only going to get the points Melody earned." Azusa said.
"Seriously?!" Jayden exclaimed. "After Aqua lost her arm in the last event?!"
"Phoenix guys!" A voice shouted from further in the corridor.
The Phoenix Dawn mages turned their attention to the voice and saw both Fairy Tail teams running toward them.
"What was your name again?" Natsu tried to remember. "Jason, was it?"
"Just call me 'Jay', everyone else does." Jayden replied.
"In addition to Lucy, we wanted to see how your friend Aqua is doing." Erza said.
"Those Sabertooth guys went too far this time." Laxus said.
Wendy came in front of the group and bowed to Jayden.
"We also wanted to come by and thank Aqua for saving Lucy." Wendy said. "This is the third time your guild has helped us."
"It wouldn't be manly to leave a debt unpaid." Elfman said.
"What does manliness have to do with debts?" Azusa mumbled.
"What Sabertooth did to your friend is unforgivable!" Natsu growled. "If we didn't already have a bone to pick with them, we definitely do now!"
"Your guild physician is already tending to Hikari and Aqua's injuries." Jayden said. "That's more than enough."
"That's still not enough." Erza said. "If there's anything else you need, just ask."
"I have one-!" Azusa raised her hand.
"That's kind of you, but just take care of our friends for now." Jayden interrupted.
Azusa froze with her mouth agape, having her request rudely denied before she even said it.
"We should probably get going now." Spiral said. "With Raven Tail disqualified and two teammates in the hospital, we have to figure out who's going to be on our merged team."
"You have to merge your teams?" Gray asked. "That's gotta suck."
"How unfortunate." Mirajane simply said.
"We'll see you guys later." Jayden said. "And let us know when we can see Aqua again. I'm sure she'd like to see her friends concerned about her."
Jayden, Spiral, Sakura and Azusa walked away, leaving the Fairy Tail wizards alone.
"Hmm…" Erza started pondering.
"What's up, Erza?" Cana asked.
"… I was just thinking about how we can repay them." Erza answered with a look a genius on her face.
Sometime later, all of the teams except for the Phoenix Dawn and Fairy Tail teams had gathered in the arena to wait for the new Phoenix Dawn team to come out. The tag battles couldn't be decided until it was known who would be on the new team. Past the seats, in the area where you enter to go down to your seats, Kyo was standing against the wall muttering to himself.
"Phoenix Dawn, huh? I guess it'll be best to have their best members on the same team."
He heard footsteps and looked up to see Kyrin walking over. "You worried about those losers?" Kyrin asked. "They are not worth the effort to think about them."
"Haven't you noticed?" Kyo asked. "Every time we kick them down, they raise up stronger than before? Almost like a real phoenix."
Kyrin gave him a look with a raised eyebrow. "What's with you? You shouldn't worry about those weaklings. You saw what the lady did. It was beautiful."
"Beautiful?!" Kyo snapped. "Mutilating your SISTER is beautiful?!"
Kyrin walked right up to Kyo and shouted in his face, "WE ARE SABERTOOTH! WE DON'T WORRY ABOUT THOSE WEAKER THAN US! But you know about weaklings, don't you? Like that stupid Yukino girl. That bitch was nothing but a waste of life. Only thing good about her is that sexy body of hers. I should find the little whore and give that perfect ass of hers exactly what she deser-"
A fist of cold steel hit Kyrin in the face. Kyo's punch broke Kyrin's nose and fractured the right side of his skull with a single blow. Kyrin fell backward and landed on the cement. Kyo went over and grabbed him by the throat, choking him out.
"DON'T YOU EVER TALK ABOUT YUKINO AGAIN!" Kyo shouted. Several bystanders watched this fight unfold as a few went to get security. "STOP CALLING OTHERS WEAK! DON'T YOU GET IT?! WE DON'T HAVE THE COMRADERIE THAT GUILDS LIKE PHOENIX DAWN HAVE! OUR GUILD IS ABOUT ABUSE AND LOATHING! IF THAT'S WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A SABERTOOTH WIZARD THAN WE ARE THE WEAK ONES….And I want no part of it!"
Kyo threw Kyrin back down onto the ground, making sure his head hit the ground. Kyrin coughed to get air back into his lungs. He looked up to see Kyo walking away, as he did Kyo was peeling the steel body off his shoulder and tossed it to the ground. The peeled sheet of metal he ripped off, dripping in light blood, removed the Sabertooth mark from his body.
"Ungrateful jackass!" Kyrin sneered.
"Someone's coming!" Chapati shouted over the microphone.
"I wonder whatsh Phoenixsh Dawn'sh new team will be." Yajima said.
Proudly stepping out of the stadium were Spiral, Sakura, Jayden, Melody and Frost.
"Here's Phoenix Dawn's new team!" Chapati cheered.
The audience applauded the arrival of the Phoenix Dawn wizards.
"As exciting as this is, we're still waiting on Fairy Tail before we can officially start today's battles." Chapati said.
"What's keeping them so long?" The fourth day's guest commentator, Rabian wondered. "Thank you very much."
"I think that's them coming now!" Chapati said.
Another group of people had stepped into the arena. This time, it consisted of Natsu, Erza, Gray, Gajeel and Laxus. The sight of them confused both the audience and the other teams.
"Um… Where are the rest of them?" Chapati questioned.
"If Phoenix Dawn has to merge their teams, we're merging too!" Erza proclaimed.
Everyone started gossiping.
"Are you sure this is the right idea, Erza?" Gajeel asked.
"Yeah, wouldn't winning the games be a lot easier if we were still two teams?" Gray asked.
"It wouldn't be fair for Phoenix Dawn." Erza said. "We DO owe them, and we'll still win this."
"Did Fairy Tail justh merge teamsh, too?!" Yajima wondered.
"She couldn't let a debt go unpaid, could she?" Jayden muttered to himself.
"My, my, this is interesting…" Kara said.
"Uh, well, this isn't really our decision." Chapati said. "Referee Mato, what's your call?"
"Hmm…" Mato thought about it for a few seconds. "Well, the King has enjoyed Fairy Tail's matches throughout the course of the games… And the audience has taken a shine to them, too… But how will we decide on the tag battles?"
"How about a lottery draw?" Spiral suggested.
"Why didn't I think of that before?!" Mato asked.
*How can he not think of something so obvious?!* Spiral thought before speaking. "It's simple. Put seven identical balls in a box, three pairs of a certain color and one more. Teams who pick the same color have to fight each other and whoever gets the remaining flag gets an automatic five points. Will that work?"
With that figured out, the current scores are as follows:
White Valkyrie 48P
Sabertooth 46P
Fairy Tail 42P
Phoenix Dawn 40P
Lamia Scale 39P
Mermaid Heel 18P
Blue Pegasus 15P
A few minutes later, a member of each team came forward as Mato held out a hollowed box to them. Those members were Jayden, Erza, Ichiya, Minerva, Jura, Kagura and Kara. Jayden and Erza glared at Minerva with rage in their eyes, but kept their emotions inside for the meantime.
"Since White Valkyrie is in the lead, they get to make the first draw." Mato said.
Kara reached into the box and pulled out a red ball. Mato then went over to Minerva, who pulled out a blue ball. Erza then pulled out another blue ball and she glared at Minerva, who returned with a sinister smirk. She made Jayden's blood boil as he pulled out a second red ball. Both Jura and Kagura pulled out a yellow ball and Ichiya pulled out an orange ball.
"Looks like we know which guilds are going to battle!" Mato said. "Since Blue Pegasus pulled out the lone orange ball, they get an automatic five points! Please wait until we decide the combatants."
The air for the next few minutes was so thick with intensity it could be cut with a knife. That silence was broken when the commentators spoke.
"Sorry for the wait, ladies and gentlemen!" Chapati said. "We've finally decided on today's battles!"
The first match was a tag battle between Lamia Scale's Lyon and Yuka and Mermaid Heel's Kagura and Millianna. It was intense, but time ran out and the fight ended in a draw, earning both teams five points. Next was perhaps the highlight of the day's battles: Fairy Tail's Natsu and Gajeel versus Sabertooth's Sting and Rogue. There was a constant ebb and flow in the battle, but once it was taken to underneath the arena since there was now a hole caused by their fight, Natsu had managed to defeat both of Sabertooth's Twin Dragons simultaneously.
"I don't think anything could top that battle, but let's continue on anyway." Chapati said. "Our final tag battle for the day is White Valkyrie's Sora and Bryant and Phoenix Dawn's Sakura and Frost!"
"YES!" Sakura pumped her fists. "Finally!"
"I've been itching for a fight, too." Frost said.
"I hope that itch is between your boobs." Cole flew over toward Frost until Flora pulled him back by his ear. "Owowowow!"
"Perhaps you can get it later, pervert." Flora scolded. "Why are you so attracted to humans when you're a cat, anyway?"
"Because boobs are fun no matter what animal you are!" Cole replied.
Sora and Bryant heard their names get called.
"Think you can fight against two ladies, Sora?" Bryant asked.
Sora examined Sakura and Frost for a few seconds. "… Could you handle the blonde one, Bryant?"
"I guess not…" Bryant murmured.
"But I can at least take on the other girl."
"That's good to hear!" Bryant gave Sora a very hard pat on the back. "Let's go have some fun out there!"
"What the hell, Bry?!" Sora shouted. "You almost snapped my skull off my spine!"
"But I didn't, did I?"
Leah just leered at both of them like they are both idiots.
"Don't think low of them because of their behavior." Kara said to Leah. "I know you don't agree with everyone on everything, but that's what makes us individuals. You've been with us for only a few months and yet you still have difficulties grasping human culture." Kara then gently petted Leah on the head. "As long as we are enjoying each other's company, it is a learning experience and our differences do not matter. What's important is the bond we share."
Leah sulked her head down, pondering Kara's words of wisdom.
In the arena, Sakura and Frost stood next to each other and across from Sora and Bryant. Sakura was cracking her knuckles while Frost cracked her neck. The two duos stared at each other in anticipation of the fight's beginning.
"… Begin!"
The gong sounded throughout Domus Flau and the battle was about to start.
A/N: This chapter was actually originally supposed to be Fairy Tail and Phoenix Dawn in opposite positions, but with two teammates out this idea made more sense. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy! Also, I'm actually going to end this story after the Dragon Invasion and start a 'sequel' story when the manga nears its end. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed! Stay tuned for next time!