More than mere light enveloped Sting. Gray swung his arms out, two glistening Ice-Make: Swords in his hand. The Dragon Slayer stood amidst the complete ruin of an old part of Clover Town, a part of the old world, with damage, yes, but a pure, burning hatred in his eyes.

"To think you guys could push me this far," Sting said. "But now you're going to suffer so much more than if you'd just given up and accepted your fate with the Empire!"

With ease, an ease that unsettled Gray to the point of even giving him chills, he held Elfman up by the throat. The man had long since given out with his magic power, brought down by one of Sting's Dragon Slayer Secret Arts. Sting tossed Elfman aside like a used piece of laundry, letting the big man fall in a clump to the side.

"You know, you've got a real big mouth," Gray said.

"I can back it up," Sting said. "Like this."

He raised a hand, holding a ball of light there. Gray crossed his swords.

Sting's body tensed. "Holy Ray!"

The attack launched, like before, but Gray didn't move. This time, all of the beams of light converged, moving in a singular point toward Gray. Sting wasn't quick enough to change his tactic as Gray swung his swords, deflecting the light back while also letting his swords shatter.

"Ice-Make: Ice Bringer!"

Gray sprinted at Sting, who charged back, moving with incredible speed. Gray held his hands out, and the ice remade itself in his hand. He sliced at Sting, who blocked both blades them slammed his head into Gray's gut. Gray headbutted Sting, who punched Gray away. Gray slid.

"White Dragon Iron Fist!"

The punch landed in front of Gray, as Gray had nimbly stepped back. Gray swung the swords against but Sting dodged them both. Gray had to pull his arm back, in a horrible defense, to block Sting's ensuing slew of punches that knocked Gray ultimately off-balance.

"White Dragon Claw!"

The attack landed, striking Gray in the chest and sending him spiraling. Gray recovered, but couldn't move. His instincts had thankfully taken over, and he had his hands in his Ice-Make position.

"You're dead," Sting said. "White Dragon Holy Breath!"

This time, the beam coming out of Sting was more what Gray expected, and packed a much bigger punch. Gray concentrated his magic.

"Ice-Make: Shield!"

The ice came up, and the beam collided with it. Gray roared as he tried to feed his magic into the shield to block the attacks, and, slowly, his body regained movement. When at last he could move his legs, he unlatched himself from his magic, rolled away, and let the remainder of Sting's attack destroy another foundational part of the building. More rubble dropped on them. Gray dove for a slight cover, just avoiding a huge boulder almost crashing on him.

"Ice-Make: Kite!"

Gray put his hands on the ground and a kite formed. He swung his hands up and took to the sky just as Sting had tried to attack. Sting pointed a finger gun at Gray and shot, hitting the kite. Gray flipped and landed on a firm piece of stone.

"Trying to run?"

"Ever heard of space?"

Sting propelled toward Gray, then punched through a clone of the wizard, but didn't let it startle him, as he blocked Gray's counter-attack with a hammer.

However, he completely missed the Lancer that came soaring around from the other side of Gray and rammed into Sting, slicing into his ribs and sending the Dragon Slayer plummeting.

Gray, still in the air, made sure to properly contort to get his positioning right.

"Ice-Make Unlimited: One Sided Chaotic Dance!"

He launched his great attack down on a recovering Sting, who didn't have space to dodge it and took the attack head-on, getting pummeled beneath its power while Gray touched down before Sting, who roared and broke free of his icy containment. He sighed, rolling his shoulders, letting his rage continue to power him.

Before he moved again, before Gray could think of a counter, Sting's breath caught at the sight of something fleeing the facility. Gray spared a look at it, too, hoping it wasn't just some trick.

There, flying from the facility's wreckage, went the Exceeds. Happy and Lily valiantly held a massive lacrima while Frosch and Carla flanked them, defensively.

"Wh—what is that?" Sting gasped. "What are they holding?"

"An Exceed named Lector, turned into a lacrima by you Imperials," Gray said.

Sting's eyes widened, and the dots connected immediately for Gray.

"Frosch!" Sting shouted. "Bring Lector back here, now!"

Frosch paused, bumping into Carla, who urged Frosch to continue. Frosch stared down, confused at Sting for a moment, before looking back at Lector. The world paused for them, as they waited for an easy answer to appear. Maybe they remembered a different Sting than the one Gray fought. But that Sting was gone, and with him, his Exceed companion.

Unless Frosch had something to say about it.

Frosch flew off, something twinkling behind them as they pursued the Exceeds.

Sting's fist trembled, and he reared it back.

"Bring him back!" Sting roared.

"Ice-Make: Cold Excalibur!"

Gray launched at Sting before he could shoot his attack, drawing Sting's attention away. His ice sword hit Sting in the side, blasting him into the ground below while Sting recovered fast and tried to get his attention back on the Exceeds but Gray, already exhausted, refused to give the man an inch.

Dozens of automaton bodies lay broken around Erza, who drew slow, concentrated breaths through her nose and then roared out of her mouth as she manipulated and deflected Kiyl's Sea King Dragon magic to obliterate another charging set of Fourth Generation Dragon Slayers.

Kiyl managed to sneak by her defenses and attempt a strike but Erza blocked it and parried him away. He skirted back.

The soldiers kept coming, in waves of their own, striking at Erza from either a distance or from up-close. She'd let several blows in, taking in many to get them close enough for a powerful attack in near range.

Wendy had snuck around, sitting behind a boulder for cover to let herself recover. There was a clear line that Erza was not letting the Fourth Generations by—Natsu and Gajeel remained unharmed, save for their fight and Kiyl's initial sneak attack.

Kiyl barraged Erza with several different attacks. Erza was able to dodge around or block pretty much all of them but they each led her toward a platoon of Fourth Generation Dragon Slayers who didn't care as much for Erza's armor set. She sliced through one with her Crystal Sword and plumed water at another duo with her Sea Empress Sword. Erza lugged her swords around.

She was the shield of Fairy Tail's Dragon Slayers, of her friends. She could not leave this place, could not abandon them, yet could not see an end to the carnage and the fighting. Did Gray and the others really have no idea what was going on? She had no means of getting a message to them.

Erza was trapped, completely locked in the battle where she and Kiyl could not hurt each other, but he could wear her down and eventually out of her armor by the onslaught of soldiers.

She stumbled, tripping over Natsu, but blasted away some automatons in response while Kiyl made a direct attack on Natsu. She kicked him away, spurring blood from his nose. He crumpled and the armor replaced him. She knocked down a few, but two more slipped by, blitzing Gajeel.

If she changed armor she could make it, but open herself to Kiyl's attacks! Erza steeled herself, preparing to throw her sword, when a powerful blast of wind obliterated the soldiers, sending them careening away.

Wendy, huddled over herself yet still standing, valiantly, gave Erza a thumbs-up. Erza slid in between her and Kiyl as Kiyl moved to attack, then punched him hard across the face.

"Do what you can," Erza said.

That little girl shouldn't have had any magic. She was exhausted beyond belief, watching as an army greater than they'd ever faced marched on them. But she wouldn't back down.

"Bring them all on," Wendy said, her voice soft and tired. "We'll beat 'em!"

Axel dug his heel into Juvia's back. She was still awake, and alive, but incapacitated from Axel's beatdown. Lucy could hardly move, either, given the soldiers holding her against the crowd.

"Just let them all go," Lucy said. "What have we done?"

"You embarrassed me," Axel said. "You embarrassed my Captain. You have to pay for that."

"We didn't do anything," Lucy said and slumped her head. Hair tumbled in front of her.

"Things simply didn't go the way you expected, but have gone the way they always should have," Axel said. "The Empire always wins, Lucy. The fairy tale you believed in before is gone. You have to face reality."

"It's a nightmare."

"It's real. Get over it. For what you and your friends did, showing the world that the Empire can be beaten? Those sorts of things simply don't exist. They don't happen. So you will all be erased, a reminder to the world that there is no loss for the Empire, only a minor setback, if necessary. Everything ultimately comes to twilight."

She just wanted him to go away, she wanted them all to leave. Really, truly, she wanted to wake up in her bed, or on Tenrou Island, or wherever, and her friends would be there and they'd be simply celebrating surviving Acnologia and then moving on with their lives, happily. Maybe even go to the Grand Magic Games, probably get to see everyone still alive.

But the pain in her dislocated shoulder sent her screaming back to reality. The destruction and shouting and explosions and army marching on her few friends weren't going anywhere.

"Keep going, though," Axel said. "Go on. Maybe you'll convince me. I haven't heard any reason for us to stop."

The soldiers had to already have found Natsu and the others fighting, where they'd be weakened. What about Gray and Elfman? The Exceeds? Were they caught, was Lector safe?

There was simply no way out by force. The Empire wouldn't bend.

This was their strength. This was their iron fist at last coming down on the returned Fairies—breaking them, reducing them to nothing more than wizards broken on the floor in tears.

"I'll go with you," Lucy said through sobs.

Axel tilted his chin up. "Pardon?"

"Call off everyone else and I'll go with you," Lucy said. "To Crocus. Wherever you go."

Axel removed his foot from Juvia's back. Juvia, pitifully, turned her head toward Lucy.

"Y—you can't, Lucy," Juvia said.

Axel stopped, glowering back at Juvia.

"No, she meant what she said," Axel said. He took a knee in front of Lucy, picking up her chin so their eyes could meet. "Let me call off the forces, and then you're coming with me."

Lucy nodded and he didn't allow the eye contact to break between them.

"Where you will stay with me," Axel said, his voice lowering, sinking into the depths of Lucy's heart. "You'll be with me, Lucy, my beautiful little star. Right?"

What more could she do but nod, despite Juvia's cries out against it? Juvia tried to pick herself up. Axel nodded to one of the automatons.

Juvia got to her feet and swung water at it, breaking through one robot but more approached, striking her and pummeling her into the ground. Blood trickled down her nose while her hair tumbled across the ground, her fingers twitching as if the fight wasn't over.

One of the automatons picked Lucy up by the good arm. Axel approached Juvia, examining her broken body.

"Should I kill her?" Axel asked.

"You said—"

"No, I shouldn't." Axel folded his hands in front of him. "Because that would break our trust. Wouldn't it, Lucy? I made you a promise and I'll keep it. Just like you'll keep your promise to be with me, won't you?"

The automaton let Lucy go, giving her the illusion of freedom. She could run away, try and get as far as she could. Maybe even escape.

But Juvia would die. The attacks would resume and everyone would be killed.

Axel held his hand out to her. Lucy limped forward, not taking his hand, but stood next to him anyway. She took one final look at Juvia. She'd recover.

She'd live.

"Let's go," she said quietly.

"Yes," he said. "Home. We're going home, Lucy."

Erza accidentally backed into Wendy, her sword arm drooping. Her armor still held, her magic still available to her, but it was fading fast. The soldiers figured out a rhythm—surging, forcing Erza to exert great power in bursts, draining her faster. Still, their numbers were thinning and Wendy's strength was coming back, despite Kiyl's onslaught attempting to insist otherwise.

They'd come to a halt, the Fourth Generation Dragon Slayers. Several stood atop massive heaps of their robotic brethren's corpses. The area was only clear around Natsu and Gajeel, who were still out.

Kiyl held his arm up, while one approached him.

"Pull back," the automaton said. It had Axel's voice. Erza's eye twitched and she didn't let her guard drop. "We have no further business in Clover Town."

"We can kill them," Kiyl said.

"It's not worth the soldiers," the automaton said. It stood straight, perfectly still, as it delivered the message. "I'm sure Titania has lain waste to a substantial amount, no?"

"Axel…"

"I will drag you kicking and screaming, Kiyl. We're leaving now. Let's return to the Capital and assess the situation there."

Kiyl glowered at the automaton, then nodded, and his magic power dropped. The automaton slackened a bit, but, with the other scores around them all, began a slow walk away. Wendy at last fell to a knee. Erza stayed stout but changed back to her base armor, her magic no longer leaking out of her.

"You got lucky that Axel is so narrow-minded in his desires," Kiyl said. He swung his arm out, bringing his cloak with him as he turned. "When next we meet, Fairy Tail, it will be to the death."

Erza helped lower Wendy to her back but never took her eyes off Kiyl and the others, in case they decided to turn around and go back on their word. Kiyl vanished around a corner, and the soldiers marched in formation behind him.

She sighed, glancing at the complete mess around her. Bodies were strewn all about the rubble, practically hidden among it, and in some cases there weren't even any Fourth Generation Dragon Slayer bits to be seen, given how thoroughly Erza had obliterated them.

Something blinked in around her, slowly. Floating lacrima, viewing lacrima, that she'd completely forgotten about slowly regained their light. As they did, a figure that'd been unconscious for much of the fighting at last picked himself up.

"What the heck did I miss?" Natsu asked, rubbing his head. "Was I drowning for a second there?"

"It's a long story," Erza said. "And I'm afraid that something terrible happened, given the way it ended."

"Hey!" Natsu exclaimed. "Who stabbed Gajeel?"

"The same one who tried to drown you," Erza said.

From a distance away, the stadium went into a massive uproar. Erza raised her eyebrow. Natsu did as well.

"What's all that about?"

Faintly, as if carried across to them from the wind, Erza heard a voice distantly declare,

"To compete for title of Ultimate Wizard this year shall be our survivors, Erza Scarlet and Natsu Dragneel!"

The stadium roared again, hardly audible from so far away. Erza balled her fist. All that mattered to the Empire was ensuring that the Games were shown. Nothing else. They would go on, unimpeded. Kiyl could've left Gajeel and Wendy for dead and the crowd would still cheer because they had no other choice.

Even Natsu didn't look happy about it as he knelt next to Wendy, grabbing her hand as she weakly outstretched it to him.

"We'll be okay," Natsu said, even sparing a glance for Gajeel, who remained passed out.

"We will," Erza said. "But we must catch up with the others and let them know the enemy has made their move."

She could only hope that the only move made was against the combatants. Yet, it was a thin hope. Something drew the enemy away. Something drew Axel away.

And there'd only been one thing he had his full attention on throughout the tournament.

Sting straightened up as he spotted a viewing lacrima in the near distance. Gray huffed and rolled his shoulders back, pretending his body wasn't in pain all over. Even Sting wiped some blood away from his face.

A creature, some sort of draconic armored automaton, approached Sting and said something to the Dragon Slayer. Sting glowered at Gray, then back to the machine, and whispered a word of affirmation.

"We're done here," Sting said. "Get out of my sight."

"Running away?"

Sting stole a look to the viewing lacrima. "You don't know how lucky you are, Gray. Don't bother coming to Crocus. If I see you there, I'll kill you right away."

Gray let more ice fleck off out of his hands. "Best of luck with that. Maybe you'll just end up running again, anyway."

Sting spat toward Gray, but bounded off anyway. Gray let the magic drop from his hands, then, after catching his breath for a second, took off in search of Elfman, who had actually recovered but was on wobbly legs. Gray caught the big guy before he could fall forward, Elfman muttered his thanks.

"You beat him?" Elfman asked.

"He left," Gray said. "Something else got their attention, I guess."

Elfman shook his head. "Can't believe I just got tossed around like that. A real man would've stayed in the fight."

"Now we know how tough this guy is," Gray said. "And maybe how to beat him."

"Yeah?"

Gray nodded. Sting had plenty of weaknesses, almost all of them coming down to his ego, his need to constantly prove himself. Getting over his overwhelming power was one thing, but using it against him? Couldn't be too difficult.

The two maneuvered through the rubble all around them, the once proud facility and hotel completely destroyed, now left to join the rest of the abandoned district. Gray helped Elfman up over a massive wall, the two sliding down, when they found an odd clearing.

A body lay there, splayed out, a bit of blood formed around it. The blue hair caught Gray's eye, and the next thing he knew, he was sprinting for her, Elfman able to stand on his own.

Gray slid up to Juvia's unconscious body, checking her for wounds. She had some head trauma, and some bleeding from her nose and knuckles, but was softly breathing, still.

"What happened here?" Gray asked.

Bits of diamond were visible all around, but Axel was nowhere to be seen. Had Juvia really fought him? Had he done this?

"Gray!"

The voice startled him. Up ahead, rushing toward him, were Natsu and Erza, both carrying unconscious bodies of their own: Natsu had Gajeel on his back and Erza had Wendy in her arms. Elfman waved them over.

Natsu and Erza set the other two down next to Juvia. Wendy was coming in and out of consciousness but was more magically drained than actually injured. Gray moved some hair out of Juvia's face, then stood to join the others, who looked just as and as Gray and Elfman.

Erza informed Gray of what'd happened, how Kiyl interrupted Natsu and Gajeel's fight with the full intent of killing them, particularly with that army that turned out to be Fourth Generation Dragon Slayers. Then, they left, apparently upon Axel's insistence that they didn't have to be in Clover Town anymore.

"Whatever the reason, it can't be good," Erza said.

"Yeah, well, until we figure it out, we can at least rest assured Lector is fine," Gray said. "The Exceeds got him away." He folded his arms. "Turns out he's Sting's Exceed, too, and I don't think Sting even knew what'd happened."

Natsu slammed his fists together. "How could they do that to him?"

"They're all villains," Gray said. "Simple as that."

"And they're going to be expecting Natsu and I," Erza said. "We were declared winners of the Battle Royale, a farce though it was."

"If we go to Crocus, they'll probably kill all of us," Gray said. "Or, at least, try to."

"We may not have much of a choice," Erza muttered.

Natsu sniffed, looking around. "Hey, anyone seen Lucy?"

Erza shut her eyes and sighed as if she knew something. But it was Juvia who stirred, wobbly pushing herself up. Gray knelt, helping her. She grabbed onto him—of course going in for a hug—but ultimately used him to stand.

A tear slid down her face.

"Juvia?" Gray asked.

"Lucy's gone," Juvia said.

"What?" Natsu asked as Erza bowed her head.

"Gone where?" Elfman asked.

"With Axel," Juvia said. "It was the only way to get him to call off the army. She promised to stay with him if he'd call off the attack, and he followed through with it. Now, she's headed back to Crocus with him. And there was nothing I could do. I'm sorry."

She fell into Gray's arms, where he held her tight, rubbing her back.

"No way Lucy would just let that happen," Natsu said. "I bet I can track them down right now!"

"Absolutely not," Erza said. Her voice was strong, stern once more.

"So we're just letting her go?"

"Didn't you hear what I said?" Erza asked. "They're expecting us in Crocus. So we're going, and you and I are going to fight, Natsu, to appease the Empire." She trained her eyes on Gray, Elfman, Juvia, the standing wounded. "While the rest of our friends are going to get Lucy back and wipe out the Dragon Division."

"Erza, we'll be in the heart of the Empire," Juvia muttered.

"Doesn't matter," Gray said. "They have a member of Fairy Tail, one of our own. Plus, we can't let them think they won here, can we?"

"Hell no!" Elfman exclaimed. "A real man knows when to fight back!"

"We'll rest up as fast as we can," Erza said. "And then we're hitting the road."

Juvia grabbed Gray's hand as Natsu and Erza stooped down to pick up their fallen friends. The stadium grew silent in the distance as fans emptied out, their business in Clover Town completed. Fairy Tail was done with the place, too.

They had only to meet back up with the Exceeds, let Gajeel and Wendy get back on their feet, and then, they were off to the capital. Crocus.

And war at last.