AN: Thanks Goku275, NinjaFang1331, AliceCullen3, AshBladeHentai, scoolharis, and Username6166. I apologize for taking a bit longer than usual to write a chapter. I got distracted by the holidays.
Username6166, I did not change the name of Natsu and Millianna's daughter. I can see why you think that, though, since I only briefly mentioned it in Chapter 16. 'Blaze' is a nickname for Erza Dragneel, since having two Erzas would be too confusing (something that didn't occur to Blaze's parents until after they named her). Similarly, their son — who has an admittedly small role due to his young age — is Igneel 'Iggy' Dragneel.
I hope I have made things clear.
"A toast to our victory and defeat!" announced Makarov. He was joined by all of the others, excluding the children and some parents.
Shortly after the day's events ended, the members of Fairy Tail went to a bar to drink. Even the Fairy who didn't feel like celebrating had come along, though he was still not in the best of spirits.
Interestingly, this person was neither Gray nor Lucy, who had let their losses motivate them to try harder the next time they were chosen to take part in an event. No, the mage who was in the worst mood was Rogue.
"I… I lost control against that Raven," thought the dragon slayer grimly. "What if 'Hidden' had not ended? Would I have continued until he was dead?"
This thought made Rogue shudder. He had been so full of rage, so unbothered by the idea of doing whatever it took to get revenge. It was like when he fought Torafuzar.
"What if… my shadow is still alive?" Dread filled the dragon slayer, and he wished that Skiadrum hadn't fallen ill and needed to be put down. His father would have known what to do, or at least been able to help come up with a plan.
"Are you alright?" asked Frosch, snapping Rogue out of his negative thoughts. The Exceed looked at their partner with concern. "Fro was worried earlier. You almost stopped being you during 'Hide-and-Seek.'"
Not wanting to worry Frosch, Rogue put on a fake smile. "I am fine. I just let myself get a little too heated."
"Okay," accepted Frosch so easily that Rogue felt a dagger go through his heart. They walked off a smile, joining the other Exceeds.
"Can't believe you lied to them like that," spoke a voice behind Rogue, startling the dragon slayer. He turned around, putting himself face-to-face with Gajeel. "With the way you chased after that asshole, I'd think you were possessed!"
"In a way, I may have been," replied Rogue, causing the Iron Dragon Slayer to raise an eyebrow. He then explained himself, revealing his theory about Shadow Rogue still existing.
"So what are you going to do about it?" asked Gajeel.
"Later tonight, I will be searching myself for any signs of him," answered Rogue, determined. "I would appreciate it if you could keep me company as I do this. I could use the help if things go wrong."
"Don't worry," replied Gajeel with a wave, understanding his guildmate's fears. "If Shadow Rogue shows up, I'll beat him black and blue until he goes back to just being black! Gi hi hi hi!"
Despite rolling his eyes at Gajeel's words, Rogue couldn't help but smile. This time, he wouldn't be making the mistake of taking on a dangerous situation alone.
"Should you really be drinking?" Mest asked Natsu. The dragon had a beer in hand as he watched his kids reenact his battle with Jura. "You just fought a Wizard Saint."
"Eh, dragons are tough," dismissed Natsu. "Only that one spell really hurt, and Porlyusica gave me some medicine to help me heal. I only passed out because I used up a lot of stamina and Magic Power."
Mest opened his mouth to ask another question, but, before he could, Happy flew over in Exceed form. "Natsu! The guild master wants to speak to you in private!"
"Gramps? What does he want?"
"No," said Happy, shaking his head. "The first guild master."
"The ghost girl? Wonder what she wants," spoke Natsu, curious. Before leaving to meet with her, he turned to Mest. "Sorry, but I guess our conversation's over. See you later."
Natsu walked over to the relatively empty corner of the bar where Mavis was sitting (how could a ghost sit?), beer still in hand. She greeted her fellow ex-guild master with a nod, then began speaking.
"I had Makarov use some magic to prevent us from being overheard," said Mavis, causing Natsu to grimace. His seven years of leadership had taught the dragon that privacy rarely meant good news. "He told me about how Zeref is your older brother, and I wanted to speak with you immediate."
Yup, bad news.
"You see, the truth is that I met with Zeref shortly before forming Fairy Tail," continued Mavis. "He taught magic to my friend and I. And, a few years later, the two of us—" her face turned red as she steeled herself "—we fell in love."
"…"
Natsu was speechless. His mouth hung open for few second, and many thoughts raced through his mind. After he recovered enough to speak, the dragon blurted out a question. "Does that make you my little sister-in-law?"
"We didn't get married!" cried Mavis, her cheeks bright red. "Besides, I'm older than you, so I'd be your big sister!"
"Not true!" retorted Natsu. "With how old Zeref is, I must have been born centuries ago!"
"Maybe, but you've clearly only experienced a small amount of that time, making me older!"
"But…" trailed off Natsu, trying and failing to come up with another argument. "Tch. Fine."
The Fairy Tactician puffed out her chest in pride, having won another battle. After taking a moment to bask in the glory of victory, Mavis finally voiced the question she had intended to ask Natsu about before their conversation got derailed.
"So, do you want to know about your brother?"
"Before this conversation started, I would've said no," replied the dragon bluntly. "A guy who makes monstrous killers like Tartaros then murders them without a second thought isn't the sort of person I would consider my family. But, if he was able to care for others… to fall in love, then I guess I wouldn't mind learning more about him."
Thus, the two began talking about the man known as Zeref Dragneel. They spent a while talking and, by the end, had come to an agreement.
Once the Grand Magic Games were over, they would tell the rest of Fairy Tail about Natsu's older brother.
"So, what did you see?" Porlyusica asked a troubled Carla, keeping a neutral tone as she internally prepared for the worst. The two were sitting next to Wendy's infirmary bed, the dragon slayer fast asleep.
"Well," began Carla, hesitant to reveal her latest vision of the future. "This always seems to happen, and even when using my human transformation I can't say anything for sure, but… a white knight… and a huge magic pattern…"
"Aside from that?"
"An unbelievable sight," replied the Exceed.
"What do you mean?"
"The royal castle Mercurius being destroyed—" Carla gulped, still unable to believe what she saw "—as Natsu's beaten-up, draconic form crashed into it."
"Your Majesty," began Arcadios, kneeling as he addressed King Toma. The king sat upon his throne, resting his head on his right palm. "The first day of the Grand Magic Games has come successfully to an end."
"Mm. They were good games."
"Would you have any requests for battles on the second day?" asked the knight.
"Let's see…" went King Toma, considering the possibilities. "Obviously Kama will be facing that Celestial Spirit Mage, the one with that gravity magic spirit and the other one… what were they called again?"
Arcadios opened his mouth to give the names of the Celestial Spirits of the golden keys, only to get cut off by the king.
"Never mind, it's not important. Ah, Bacchus! We wish to see Bacchus face off against that one from Fairy Tail, the transforming one! You know! I don't remember the name, but it started with 'El' or 'Er.'"
"Erza?" supplied the knight, uncertain due to the 'transforming' comment.
"Exactly!" replied King Toma, earning a sigh of relief from Arcadios. "And how about having Jenny Realight take part in a catfight. I'll leave the details up to you."
"Understood. It will be done, your Majesty," responded Arcadios. It seemed Blue Pegasus would be battling Mermaid Heel, the only remaining team with female members (except possibly Raven Tail, depending on Obra's gender).
"Make them good games."
"If that is all, then I should…"
"Yes, good work, Squadron Chief," commended the king. "You have earned a rest."
With that, Arcadios left the throne room. As he walked down the hallway, the knight muttered to himself.
"Rest, your Majesty? No time for that! Everything is almost complete, yet an intruder threatens to bring it all down! I can only imagine what sort of elite spy would be able to make their way past my Cherry Blossom Holy Knight Squadron and into the hidden catacombs! We must redouble our efforts in order to prevent such a dangerous foe from disrupting the plan."
"Just as good as I remembered," whispered a figure to themselves, strolling down the street with a big grin on their face. While wandering the slums, they had found a Lacrima-Vision broadcasting the Grand Magic Games and had been able to catch most of Natsu's battle with Jura.
The figure was snapped out of their reminiscence when they felt something prod their back. They turned around to see a man in ratty clothes holding a piece of pipe threateningly.
"Give me all of your valuables, or else!" demanded the man.
"Huh, a mugger," thought the figure curiously. "Why did he target me? I get that I look like an easy mark; my exhaustion from traveling back here and escaping that knight are pretty obvious, but…"
Their current clothing was just as cheap and weathered as the mugger's. For the life of them, they could not understand why the man thought they had any valuables to take.
"Hey! Didn't you hear me!" shouted the man, growing impatient. He waved his pipe around in a manner that they suspected was meant to be threatening. "Hand over your valuables now!"
"Actually, I think I'll take your valuables," responded the figure, cracking their knuckles menacingly. Unintimidated, the mugger swung his pipe at them. They grabbed it as got close to them, then ripped it out of the man's hands and threw it aside.
Drained of Magic Power or not, they could still kick some random mugger's ass.
"Thank you for your purchase," said the clerk cheerfully. "Please come again soon."
The figure left the clothing store, now wearing a full-body cloak. They still had a decent number of Jewels left. As it turned out, the Crocus mugging business was thriving thanks to the Grand Magic Games bringing a bunch of tourists (AKA easy marks) into town.
"I bet I can rent some space at an inn with what I've got left," said the figure to themselves. "That clerk said that a bunch of places are offering rooms for cheap because of the preliminaries. Guess the people who lost were too embarrassed to stick around town. Lucky me!"
Their observation was harsh, but accurate. Soon, they found a room in a cheap inn that had previously housed Team Twilight Ogre, who had checked out immediately after being eliminated so that they could get as much distance from Fairy Tail as possible.
As the figure settled into their room, they sat on their bed and thought about the past 24 hours.
"Damn, I still can't believe it worked," they muttered. "Everything is back to the way it was. Everyone is back."
As they thought about the lives that were no longer lost, a dam broke within them. Tears poured out of their eyes, both from joy for the opportunity to save everybody and from sadness for the sacrifices it took to get that chance.
Eventually, the crying gave way to slumber, the fatigue that had built up over the course of the day finally overcoming them. As they slept, the figure smiled. Their dreams were full of hope, something that was finally within their grasp after years of being as distant as the stars in the sky.
On July 7th, X791, the tragedy of the Eclipse Gate and the Black Dragon would not happen. Not if they had anything to say about it.
Omake
"Don't think you can use the fact that you both lost to try and get closer to my Gray," Juvia told Lucy in a hostile tone.
"Your imagination is running wild," stated Lucy, exasperated.
"We spent months together (with Crime Sorcière) as a loving couple, spending all of our days and nights alongside one another as we trained for our future relationship."
"That wasn't what we were training for," interjected Gray, though Juvia was too busy fantasizing to hear him.
"Even now, we're both working together to complete the mission given to us by—"
Gray grabbed Juvia, clapping his hand over her mouth to stop the water mage from spilling the beans about the secret mission Ultear and the others had given the two of them. Fortunately for the ice mage, his behavior was dismissed by the others as him finally getting fed up with Juvia's delusions.
Unfortunately for Gray, Juvia interpreted his actions as an embrace. She melted both figuratively and literally, becoming a puddle of pure bliss/water. Later that night, after Juvia recovered her senses, she would pursue her love even more fervently.
AN: Juvia probably isn't the best choice for a secret mission, not when her only partner is Gray.
That's all I have to say this time. Bye.