Elfman's Lizardman moved with the force of a train, barreling right down at Erza. No sweat slicked down Elfman's scales but the wear and tiredness was clear in his face. Erza's eye twitched at the bruise on her leg as she braced herself and summoned a shield out of her armory. Elfman swung, aiming at the shield.
Just as Erza hoped.
Lurching to the side, she avoided his attack and Requiped into her Black Wing Armor. Elfman recovered fast, swinging his arm up to try and block Erza's attack but her swing cast a magic arc that slammed into Elfman's side and sent him hurtling into the far wall. Erza landed lithely, Requiping into her Clear Heart Armor. She twirled her blade in hand before landing.
Elfman maintained his Lizardman form. He'd held it for far longer than Erza anticipated, and when his hits were able to land on her, they hurt. The craters pocking the arena ground weren't caused at all by Erza. He'd almost eradicated it, making the task of fixing it for the next match a tall one.
But, Erza figured, there was power and then there was powerful speed.
Erza flared her wings. She had strength enough to fight him head-on, but if she were to be caught in his grasp she'd be in a world of hurt.
Elfman took a step toward her, then, collapsed in a heap. His body unconsciously transformed to the hulking man they all knew and loved. Erza maintained her armor set but did away with her sword as she approached her friend. The announcer overhead declared her the winner, but, curiously, did not mention or hype her fight to come against Wendy the following day.
The big lug grunted and got to a knee. Erza helped him up the rest of the way.
"That was a good fight," Erza said.
"It was very manly," Elfman said. "I thought I had you there for a while."
"You're much stronger than you give yourself credit for, Elfman," Erza said. "Your ability to shift through forms at a fast pace is absolutely marvelous. Even Mira would be jealous."
Elfman failed to hide his blush. "You think so?"
"I do. If she's watching, she's smiling at you right now."
A wellspring of relief spread from Elfman. Erza stayed with him while the two limped out of the arena, where the announcer did proclaim an extended break so they could properly address the structural damage done to the arena as well as give the crowd a break between fights.
She helped him to the infirmary ward, where Wendy happily greeted him. Since she was unable to provide magical healing to herself, she was beholden to whatever medicines and aid the Empire had at their disposal. Elfman, too, would need to rely on that while Wendy got her strength back.
"And you?" Wendy asked. "Are you okay, Erza?"
"I'll be okay," Erza said. "I would rather get back to the stands with Gray and Lucy for the next round of fighting."
Wendy smiled and nodded. Erza bid them farewell and stepped out of the infirmary.
Each time she left one of her friends behind there, she feared something would happen. That the medicines would be a trap and they would try to take the Fairies and kidnap them for something. Her face never betrayed such fears, nor did her actions. She knew better than to give the Empire a single edge against them, particularly while Lucy, nightly, fraternized with Axel.
Erza strolled through the arena, catching the gaping look of more than a few attendees. They called her by her real name, and then by her assumed name: Titania. At that, she was forced to look at who called out to her, and often, it was a despondent soul. A hopeful one.
Guards lurked at each entrance. Their presence only tightened more since Kagura's recent escape thanks to Wendy, Gray, and Racer. Potentially, too, it only increased due to Fairy Tail's exposure, and given the particular group at the games, there was a proper chance for destruction beyond the arena walls.
Erza arrived at the low part of the arena where Gray and Lucy should have been sitting next to one another, but, wedged between them sat…
"Juvia?" Erza asked, startling the group. "Shouldn't you be with Gajeel?"
"I'm taking time during our break to ensure that someone keeps her hands to herself," Juvia said and leered at a dejected, confused Lucy.
"Make sure you're back," Erza said. "We won't want to get in trouble."
"Good fight down there," Lucy said, trying to change the subject as fast as she could. Hopefully, it'd keep Juvia off her back, though the Rain Woman seemed to have no interest in that as she slowly pushed her and Gray away from Lucy. "I can't believe how well you outmuscled Elfman."
Erza groaned as she took her seat next to Lucy in the gap Juvia created.
"Thank you, Lucy. And how are you doing?"
"Back to one hundred percent, I think," Lucy said. "And I'm so excited for Natsu's fight."
"Yeah, it'll be good to see someone deck that diamond boy in the face," Gray agreed.
"Stop agreeing with her!" Juvia exclaimed. "Do you love her?"
The workers set about fixing the arena. Some of them had magical items in their arsenal to support the cleanup efforts. Erza glanced at the suites above, where the elites waited. Were they impatient for the next fight, too, or trying to calculate a way to guarantee victory? As far as they were aware, this was their first true test of the tournament.
Erza eased back into her seat, then jolted up. Gray also glanced over his shoulder, as did Juvia. Lucy only did the same in confusion.
Was…that…
"Jellal?" Erza muttered.
Lucy's eyes widened. "What?"
"No," Gray said. "Not Jellal. I thought it was Ultear."
"Her?" Juvia asked and stood up. "I didn't think—I can't remember her name, but, I thought that was someone else."
"Thought what?" Lucy asked.
The pulse struck Erza again, a gentle nudge down in the bowels of the stands. Juvia and Gray looked in the same direction. It couldn't have been Jellal, but the magic invoked…it so truly reminded Erza of him. Yet, how did Gray then sense Ultear? And Juvia yet another person? And why not Lucy?
"Stay here," Erza said to Lucy. "We'll be right back."
"Where are you going?"
"Someone wants our attention," Gray said. "May as well give it to them."
Lucy sighed, but ultimately nodded and reached for her keys. Erza stepped by Lucy while Gray and Juvia exited out the other side of the bleachers to allay some suspicion.
They wound up walking similar paths anyway as the pulse summoned the three further away from Lucy by a few sections, and then diverted them to a small corridor, almost imperceptible to a passerby, where a guard lay unconscious against the wall, again out of sight.
They walked single-file down the corridor, taking the first turn before coming into a small, practically dug-in part of the arena that led to a door fading into existence before their eyes. Erza held them up before it, even as the pulse beckoned them once more.
She summoned a sword while Juvia let water float around her hand, prepared for an attack. Gray took point, then, swung the door open. Erza and Juvia stepped through, not aggressively, into a brand new room with an entirely different look, and feel, to the rest of the arena. It was cozier, made of old brick with a single candelabra lit in the room, giving residence to long, deep shadows.
A lone woman stood in the center of the room. Beneath a blue hooded blue robe, she wore a revealing red dress and gloves with long black leggings and boots.
She raised her head, revealing a full head of long pink hair. She smiled at them, though her eyes had a particular wickedness to them.
"We meet again at last, Fairy Tail," the woman said.
Juvia gasped. "It is you."
"Meredy," Gray said, just as breathless. "You—you're Ultear's student."
Erza raised her chin. "And what does a wizard of Grimoire Heart want with us?"
Meredy closed her open fist and the door closed yet made no sound. Meredy folded her hands in front of her after removing her hood, letting her hair tumble down her shoulders and breasts.
"Nothing, since Grimoire Heart hasn't existed since you all were supposed to have died," Meredy said. "I'm not here on behalf of Grimoire Heart. On some level, you could say, I'm here on behalf of all of Fiore."
The wizards fanned out around Meredy, wary of her. From what Erza recalled of Gray and Juvia's summary of their fight with Meredy, this woman was keen with Sensory Link magic—no wonder she was able to summon them—and a dangerous one at that, capable of killing anyone she could link with.
"Where is Ultear?" Gray asked.
"Dead," Meredy said, simply. "She died almost three years ago."
"Then why did I sense her magic?" Gray asked.
"I had to get your attention somehow," Meredy said. "You think I'm as brave as Kagura to go out there and expose myself? No. And you, Erza? Same thing."
"Jellal is dead?"
Meredy's face darkened a bit. "Missing. Maybe dead but hell if I know, he's been away for over a year at this point, leaving me in charge.'
"Of?"
Meredy's little smile returned. Her green eyes flared as she leaned back on a rectangular table, one that, Erza only just noticed, had eight seats around it.
"Crime Sorciere. The last remaining guild, one that, technically, never even existed in the first place. A while ago, just before Ultear died, she, Jellal, and I created the guild. It was just the three of us for a second until we could pick up a few others."
Gray, his shirt gone, nodded. "Racer. The Oración Seis."
"Ultear and Jellal were able to get through to them. They struggled more with Jellal but when they learned that Ultear was as much a victim as they were, it helped. Plus, she killed Master Zero. That helped quite a bit."
"I bet," Gray muttered.
"What do you want with us, then?" Erza asked. "Our help?"
"Mostly I wanted to know what's going on with Hisui," Meredy said. "It can be difficult for us to stay in contact lately, and I know, for a fact, that you've been with her recently. Did she send you to the Games?"
"She sent us to train and get ready to fight the Empire," Erza said.
"She's always been too cautious," Meredy said. "Still. It was good of her to intercept the rest of you. Certainly would've been better than the rest of us doing it, given your reaction to seeing me."
Meredy unfolded her arms and braced herself against the table.
"Thought we could probably have submitted our recruitment pitch a lot sooner, huh?"
"Recruitment?"
"Yeah," Meredy said with a shrug. "For you all to join Crime Sorciere. Hisui's been a hard sell but she's kind of a stick in the mud, anyway."
Erza almost let that draw a smile to her face, particularly given how exposed all of the Fairy Tail members still had their old guild marks.
"We'll have to pass," Erza said. "However. I won't divulge any further information until you prove you're with Hisui and the rest of Fiore."
Meredy nodded. She held her hand out, where a small, white ethereal chain snaked out of a magic circle. Juvia shuddered at the sight.
"I'm sorry," Meredy said, glancing at Juvia. "For the pain I caused. But if you'd all trust me, for just a second, I can prove we're on the same side, that the fight I held to before wasn't wrong but it was vile and cruel."
Even Erza balked at the notion, yet Juvia stepped forward, hand over her heart, and nodded. That prompted Gray, and Erza, to join her. Meredy loosed the chain out toward the three of them. Erza grasped it.
"Crime Sorciere's first and foremost goal is the destruction of all Dark Wizards, and as of the coming of the Twilight Empire, that means all Imperials," Meredy said. "Our allies are committed to the light, to restoring Hisui and the guilds back to order."
Nothing but truth pulsed through the chain, and a genuine ache to restore the world to as it was. Erza felt such pain all too familiarly.
"We can't join your guild," Erza said. "But we can stand alongside you."
Meredy retracted the chain. "That's more than enough. I'm happy enough to have powerful allies like Fairy Tail on our side. It's the first bit of genuinely good news I think I've gotten in a long time, to be honest. Since Jellal left, things have been…rough."
"The Empire seems like an insurmountable foe," Erza said.
"We've done what we can but in reality, it's all just little more than disruptions," Meredy said. "We lost a couple of members to the Empire after Ultear died and we've never truly recovered. It did some of our members in for a while, to feel that betrayal. I think we've mostly recovered, if only for how stalwart Kagura has proven lately."
"She wasn't a member of the Seis before, so, how'd you rope her in?" Gray asked.
Meredy snickered. "You'll have to ask her about that." She waved it off. "I can't keep you for long. Midnight can only hold the illusion for so long before the rest of the Empire catches wind. As I said, it truly is good to see you all. Be sure not to cause too much trouble without us, understand?"
Before Erza had the chance to respond in kind, the entire room wavered, then, as if stirring from a dream, the three were left standing in an empty pocket of the arena. Gone were the furnishings and the mysterious wizard.
"Boy," Juvia said. "Meredy has changed quite a bit, hasn't she?"
"Yeah," Gray said, softly. "She reminds me of…her. Ultear."
"I'm surprised that young woman Tayaka didn't join Crime Sorciere," Juvia said.
"She may not be strong enough yet," Erza said.
Crime Sorciere. What a curious concept. A guild of eight wizards—formerly ten-and all of whom, save for Kagura, were formerly enemies.
Wait a moment…
Erza did the math. There was one member they didn't know. Who? Erza chewed on her lip. Well, it was likely a wizard they'd not met yet, similar to that Kagura woman. Even though, in the back of her mind, Erza could swear she'd seen her somewhere before.
It was still strange, though he'd been doing such for several months, for Romeo to train in the countryside and not within small chambers or cellars, where he had to hide any traces of his magic from the Empire. Yet, being out in the open, with such great space around him, his magic would hardly register a blip. Particularly when they were already in a region of Fiore that the Empire mostly left unattended. They had no reason to look there, and no further reason to suspect that surviving Fairy Tail wizards were hanging out there.
Well, surviving wizards as well as wizards upholding the legacy of one of the Empire's once-most-wanted rebels.
Romeo, sweat pouring down his face, raised his hands to Tayaka all the way across the stricken battlefield, the same one they worked out at for hours every day. Tayaka, her hair done in a ponytail to keep it out of her face, nodded and slid off her globes. Her orb, the Arc of Time, continued to float around her head. It operated around her subconsciously, a far cry from the place she'd been when she and Romeo first started their training.
He turned, proud of the leaps they'd made over the last few days. He couldn't speak for her, but felt a fire in his belly after witnessing Natsu at the Grand Magic Games bring Fairy Tail's pride and glory roaring back into the hearts of any in Fiore who could witness it. Of course, the Empire had to be scrambling with what to do after that.
Given what they'd seen, though, it appeared as if the other Faires were just fine, still participating and fighting on.
They were heading back, as the break in the action would be wrapping up soon. Natsu had a fight coming up against an Imperial of all people!
Romeo smiled at the other wizards coming back into the village—not for training, but probably for errands. Max, Laki, and Flare were all laughing and walking back to the small cottage the five took up residence in. Romeo waved at them and they waved back.
Tayaka and Romeo, despite their sore muscles, helped the others prepare meals for the rest of the day, as well as get viewing lacrima back up and running to watch more of the Games. They bantered and chirped at one another, but all lovingly, all with such a warmth that sprung and kept a smile on Romeo's face.
Though Flare and Tayaka were not Fairy Tail wizards, Romeo imagined that, in another life, another time, they'd fit right in with the rest of the guild.
With the food made, a little extra accidentally done up as well, they headed for the basement, where, at once, the world trembled, and all the wizards froze.
A magic power they'd never felt, one that could consume the village and then some, overcame all of them. Romeo's heart beat faster and faster while he was completely unable to summon forth his flames. Something else, a power not as great yet still mighty enough to likely thwart all of them, was there, too.
Everyone glanced at one another before, at once, two figures appeared at the top of the stairs, their silhouettes blocked entirely by the light. A man and a woman.
All the wizards whirled around, dropping into ready stances.
Just then, the woman slapped the man upside the head.
"Told you!" she snapped. "Your entrances are too dramatic! You could've just knocked!"
"C—Cana?" Max asked nervously.
"Yeah, yeah, it's us."
She stepped forward, down into the cellar. Her hair was still down over her bra, yet she wore longer pants than usual, and she had more toned muscles than before, even though she'd only been away for just over a week. Cards hung about her, suspended in the air.
Joining her, much to the amazement of everyone in the room, was the source of that absolutely titanic magic power—a physically unchanged, yet clearly happy, Gildarts.
"Hey," he said. "Sorry about that. We wanted to drop by and see if you guys had a way to check in on these Grand Magic Games, sounds like a lot of stuff is going down there!"
"Y—yeah," Max said, and smiled wider. "Right over here!"
"Wow, Cana, you've gotten strong already," Romeo said. "Training with Gildarts paid off that much already?"
"We're just getting started, too," Cana said with a wink. "But we didn't want to overdo it. Say, you guys got any drinks? I'm parched!"