A/N

The moment where I got the idea for Fae's character came in this arc. So I will naturally be overthinking everything I write for the next several months. Enjoy the first (sort of) event of the Grand Magic Games!

At the sound of the first bell, there was a mass rush for the steps. The inn where the three Fairy Tail teams had been staying had a corresponding path for each floor that they had been staying on. Team B on the ground floor, Team A on the second, and Team C on the first. They all started together, but they didn't stay together for very long.

"Swift Winds that roam the heavens: Vernier!"

There came a rush of fast moving air and Freed felt a light breeze that was the result of a massive wind from overhead as Wendy completed her enchantment. He glanced up to see Fae and her team practically flying up their pathway almost faster than it could form ahead of them.

Not almost. They are outpacing it. Functionally, they can all fly. Add Wendy's speed enchantment and Kagura altering their gravity to fall in the correct direction, they'll be the first to enter the maze by a landslide.

In comparison, his team would start at a disadvantage. Most of them wouldn't be able to make up for that initial burst of speed. More unmolested time in the main structure meant more time for Fae to plan a long term strategy. They could still make up ground, but it would be tough.

Natsu, being among the more athletic, was taking the lead as he charged headlong for the maze with a broad grin on his face. Close behind him was Gray, and on his other side Lucy. Freed ran shoulder to shoulder with Erza, who while she wasn't lagging behind, did have her armor to contend with.

"A maze." Erza muttered, glancing overhead briefly. "We're going to have our work cut out for us."

Freed agreed but Lucy spoke up, tone ringing with confidence, blond hair bouncing over her shoulders as she ran.

"We got this!"

If he recalled correctly, Lucy had been the one to solve the riddle on Tenrou that would have secured Cana an S-class promotion. Freed didn't doubt that it was the Celestial Spirit Mages observation and deduction skills that he would be relying on to get their team to the finish line. Though all intelligent in their own way, only Lucy had the kind of intellect for tackling these problems.

Gray, Erza and Natsu would be there to handle more straightforward issues. He chuckled, feeling the weight of his sword pulling at his belt as the path they followed rose swiftly up to their entry point of the labyrinth with several more minutes of hard running.

"Oh no doubt we are prepared for such a challenge, Lucy. But remember who we are competing against."

She thought for a moment and groaned.

"Fae's gonna have that place memorized within a few minutes, isn't she?"

Freed glanced ahead, his eyes burning purple as he scanned for the enchantments in the maze itself as they drew closer to it.

"There appear to be some wards worked into the structure to lessen the potency of divining magic. So it depends on whether the organizers knew to be ready for her."

They hadn't made it to the maze yet, but there was already yelps and yells from other teams and wizards who had misstepped or were slipping off their paths for some reason-.

Shifting his vision to register Curses rather than magic, Freed saw the distinctive hue of Kinana's power coating several paths that Fairy Tail Team C had flown over. She had either weakened their pathways or rendered them difficult to navigate with one of her multitude of customizable venoms. Removing sections of the floating pathways or rendering them too slippery to traverse at speed. Their own path seemed to be entirely safe, he was relieved to note. Gray added his two cents, speaking easily and never flagging in his pace.

"I doubt that they would be. There's no precedent for Fae to participate even if they did know the first thing about how to block Story Magic."

Freed conceded the point.

"If they didn't, they may as well have handed her a map."

The leader of their pack laughed, the ambient temperature rising slightly.

"Good! Fairy Tail's got three teams in the mix, at least one of us has got to take first in this!"

He had thought initially he would want to either stand with Fae as an ally or with Laxus. But during the strategy talks with Mavis and the guild leadership, Freed had noticed he was falling into the same trap he had before. Of limiting his world to the Thunder Legion.

The consequences of doing that had been severe. It was a mistake that he still regretted to this day

So he put his name forward to aid what was known these days as Team Natsu. Three of four members of the chaotic unit had adopted Fae before she had even chosen her name. She returned the loyalty and affection even though there was little in common with them. They had welcomed him with open arms and boisterous good cheer. And Freed had found them enjoyable company. He could understand why Fae adored them as she did. He could see his apprentice got her fierceness and loyalty from watching how Erza kept her eye on and took care of her team. Gray's quick wit and creativity had elements of Fae's own swift reasoning and boundless resourcefulness. And when she was at her wildest, her most exuberant and energetic, she had the exact same smile as Natsu. The same spark in her eyes. Even Lucy, thoughtful, kind and eager to make connections, had left her mark on the young Rune Wizard.

They passed through the two sections of wall and into the labyrinth. He felt a flash of alarm as he saw the distinctive marks of Fae's handiwork strewn across multiple pathways. They would be invisible to the naked eye and difficult to discern even to an expert. It seemed she had used the time that her team had had alone in the maze to leave a number of surprises for their competitors.

"Woah, what is that smell?!"

Natsu sneezed and avoided stepping on an invisible rune that, if Freed was reading correctly, would trigger a shock of lurid, yellow power that would give off an overpowering smell of dandelions and cause a cloud of dandelion seeds to follow the target for 20 minutes. Other surprises included invisible trip wires, ball bearings that somehow didn't roll until they were stepped on, and tanglefoots, obnoxiously sticky stuff that would trap unwary feet or shoes. Thankfully, this mostly seemed magical rather than alchemical. So with the right runic counter, Freed was confident he could negate most of Fae's mischief.

Others would not be able to do the same. And he did not envy them in the slightest.

-vVv-

The path was formed piece by piece, leading to the main body of the giant three dimensional maze that would where over 100 of the guild teams would get sliced down to eight. And every step I took on that path was one that gave me more, and more information.

The way the maze would rotate. The twists and paths. The sections of altered gravity or trick steps. The false walls and trapdoors. The wonderland doors that led to bizarre places. Morgana had begun drawing the map we needed long before we got to the labyrinth.

The moment we were inside, I slapped my hand on my book as it raced alongside me.

"Story Magic: Naruto Uzumaki, Son of the Yellow Flash!"

A red and white coat that I had prepared for such an instance appeared on my body, flaring as I ran and formed the distinctive cross symbol.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

I only made half a dozen clones, but they bounced all over the labyrinth, their ability to walk up walls letting them treat gravity as a suggestion.

Naruto's best features were his unpredictability, his stamina and his clones. I was invoking a different aspect of his story today, however. The Yellow Flash, Minato Naimkaze, his father, was a renowned Seal Master. And had been shown to be able to lay down some seals with no more than a touch of his hand. And that was what my clones were doing. Laying down a number of seals, see also rune traps, on every available surface that they could. I flickered around my friends, laying down a very special seal on all of them. The clones would be good to lay down 6 or 7 traps before their energy would be spent and they'd dispel. I'd make a second wave if I felt the need once we were underway.

"I don't know if we'll need it, but it's there in case we do."

Morgana, what's our course?

She had some more very pertinent information before she got into the details.

The hard deck of the labyrinth extends about 10 meters below its lowest point. The absolute ceiling extends almost 5 above the apex of the structure. There are foyr set exit gates that will permit access to the colosseum on the exterior of the maze and another two exits free floating within it. Another four exterior gates are accessible at a time depending on the positioning of the interior labyrinth in relation to the outer shell.

So it's like a gyrosphere. The inside rotates in any direction it wants while the outside access points remain fixed.

There are also pocket dimensions enmeshed in the structure with multiple doors leading to different places. These change either once a threshold of magic has been dispelled inside the dimension, or a certain amount of time has passed.

That sounds like a massive time sink. Some people are naturally carrying more ambient magic than others, so the doors will change the moment they walk through.

It is intended to lengthen time spent in Labyrinth. Plotting course to exclude these.

So with that in mind, Morgana's proposed route took us right off the end of the course and in a free fall of about 20 feet before we took a sharp turn to the left in mid air to avoid a distortion that would have added 10 minutes to our overall time, and then briefly flicked outside the shell of the labyrinth to get onto the optimal course for one of those special exit gates. It would not be immediately accessible, but would be in about 27 minutes. As long as we got there in time, there were extremely high odds that we would not only finish the course in the top 8, but finish in first place.

Yeah, 1st place in this race was no different than 8th place when it mattered. But it would feel so good to pull off! I conveyed this to everyone else. Kinana sighed and shifted into full snake form, Erik stepping onto her back easily.

"Lead on, princess. Don't be too good of a guide though. The little pumpkin head said anything goes and I want to be able to use that offer while it's still good."

-vVv-

Morgana flagged whenever someone triggered one of my clone delivered surprises. Nothing harmful, considering there was a floating disc spell to catch any unlucky enough to fall from the labyrinth. Inconveniences were just as devastating in this round as actual lethal force. It was all about the time running on the clock. Time you lost was another team getting the chance to pull ahead and potentially take your name out of the running.

We saw one team fail to save one of their members by virtue of not even trying. And all of them got disqualified. Violently. The path they were standing on flipped them off into the open air. We might have gotten flung off too, but Kagura hurriedly expanded a gravity bubble, so all we dealt with was a disorienting view as we remained firmly on the underside of the still viable pathway.

"This isn't just weeding out the incompetent. It's also making sure the teams are functional in working together."

Kagura observed as the last scream of instinctive terror faded. My observation was slightly different.

"If one of us gets taken out of bounds, our whole team is out of the running."

The whole point of the labyrinth's enchantments was to equalize everything. Dragon Slayers motion sickness wouldn't interfere with their ability to perform. Those with vertigo wouldn't be bothered by the extreme heights. Likewise, Wendy's ability to scent and Erik's range on his hearing was limited. So in theory, no matter which gate you entered from, you had the same odds of being able to reach an exit within the same time. Not accounting for the other teams.

We were not taking the pre planned route for our gate but improvising our own.

23 seconds taken off the optimal time. 28 seconds. 15 seconds.

Morgan's kept saying the running tally of the time that was saved by our alternative route in comparison with other teams. Sabertooth was just behind us in my mental estimate.

I heard some distant shouting as we dropped from one path onto another. There was a flicker of violet scales as Kinana took Erik to engage another team, the Poison Dragon Slayer practically giddy with the prospect of a fight. Between his devastating blows and Kinana's coils being placed just so to trip and hinder them, the Echochamber' Guild's team took a plunge.

"They were taking notes as they went. They had the beginnings of a map here." Erik reported, hanging by his knees from Kinana's back as he grabbed them just before they fell out of reach. "You need these Fae?"

"Couldn't hurt."

I accepted them and held them for no more than an instant before I had assimilated their knowledge into Morgana's mental map of the place.

In a sense, this was a game of roulette and chutes and ladders. Some free standing doors led you exactly to where you thought you should end up. Other's transported you somewhere else entirely in the maze. Kagura grunted as a blast of altered gravity tried to take us all off our feet and she clapped back with a palm strike of the same type of energy to neutralize the area of effect.

3 minutes, 5 seconds saved, proposing an alternative route.

"...If we retrace their steps, we'll get taken to a connected doorway that will get us onto a better course. Lock down your magic, Kagura, otherwise this could turn into a net loss of time."

And little else needed to be said

Someone is tracking our movements.

Is it who we thought it would be?

Rufus Lore of Sabertooth.

As we expected.

-vVv-

Since we were entering the games without the safety net of a reserve team member, I was insistent on sitting everyone down and talking strategy. I didn't want to micromanage anyone, but I wanted all information to be available and well circulated.

So we met Eric and Kinana's apartment, with its low furniture and open planes of space for the woman of the house to be comfortable no matter which skin she chose to wear. And we were going to discuss prospective problems.

"Sabertooth is going to be our biggest problem."

"In general or personally?"

Eric asked lazily, chewing on some red berries, deadly nightshade it looked like.

"Both" Wendy answered firmly. "They've been in these games for years, with several different competitions. They'll have a better idea of what to expect. And we've spent years with Sting and Rogue. They know us inside and out. Sting even knows a lot of Fae's totems since she's tested so many of them on him."

"And there's that issue with Minerva's little grudge."

The snake-woman hissed with a frown, in seiza beside Erik as he lounged on the sofa. Bizarrely she found that position to be more comfortable than sitting like we were. I guess it more closely resembled her when she was coiled in snake form.

"We also can't underestimate the other teams from Fairy Tail."

"Most of them were gone for the last few years as we were developing our styles. And they'll not be interested in competing with us, just in having fun."

I cleared my throat and got their attention back.

"Bottom line: Sabertooth will be an issue and I have a reasonably good idea of what line up they'll use for their team. And how we can handle each of them."

-vVv-

'Plan Murphy is quite a simple plan, but a very fun one! Ooh, someone just found the Headhunter traps! Those were so worth the three days of writing to get it right. And- oh Freed disabled a bunch of my explosive tags. Killjoy. There are at least three other teams they could have gotten if he'd just led his team through them, but no- he had to clear them out!'

Erik chuckled as Fae's thoughts buzzed by his awareness. A faint hum of high velocity, rapid thought that practically bounced with energy, flitting through several different courses before arriving at its conclusion. He watched her clap her hands next to Wendy and launch another team off of the labyrinth in a synchronized burst of high powered air with a giggled spell. The totem she was currently wearing consisted of a headband with a metal forehead protector sewn onto it with a stylized leaf. Something he had seen before. The coat was new. Long, white with red flames emblazoned on the bottom hem and unfamiliar characters written down her back. He had yet to see her do much with it that differed from what she was capable of with the headband alone.

'Am I a terrible person for thinking that the scream sounds funny?'

Wendy's thoughts were more sedate. Softer and more direct. The tricky part for her was in interpreting the information she internalized naturally about the movement of the air currents around her and the faint awareness of the lifeforce of every being in her proximity. Senses he didn't have an answer for. Fae and Morgana's thoughts were quick and made leaps of logic that he found hard to follow. But Wendy's thoughts when she was using her magic were alien in a way that Erik found academically fascinating.

Kagura pulled on a strong line of gravity, bodily pulling a large, free floating block of the labyrinth over to their position.

'I said 'come here'.'

A straightforward thought process, one that resonated strong and sure. Erik would have the easiest time reading Kagura's thoughts, but the hardest time fighting her. He relied on precision to avoid enemy attacks. And Kagura had too many area of effect tricks up her sleeve for him to counter. It didn't do you any good to know what was coming if you couldn't stop it anyway.

A soft touch on his arm made him look down. Beautiful green eyes looked up at him with a smile and Erik caught her hand to give it a gentle squeeze. As always, her thoughts were completely silent to him. But her voice was there and her voice sounded fond and teasing.

"Always lovely when the kids are having a good time isn't it?"

Kinana would playfully tease him that the Three Furies were either their warning against having children, or practice for their chaos. It was a rarely mentioned topic. Scant months after he was out of prison. But they had time to discuss that still. If it was even an option. Regardless, Erik would cheerfully go back to prison for any one of his team.

"It's good for them to get a bit of their energy out."

'Quite a novel approach. Oh- I shall be memorizing that spell, it looks like it could be trouble.'

Erik didn't lift his hand to his earring, Fae's lifesaving gift that let him tune out sounds he didn't want and focus on specific ones. It was excellent for tracking even unfamiliar voices at a distance. He had zeroed in on the Twin Dragons that had spent so much time around Fae and Wendy, and then carefully shifted focus until he found someone whose thoughts moved in a similar, analytical pattern to the Pagemaster.

Rufus Lore if Fae's judgment was correct. The person she had claimed as her primary target for the inevitable confrontation with Sabertooth.

They were getting closer.

'4 minutes until Sabertooth is in position to attack.'

And the voice of someone he had heard and never been able to forget. Fae's alternate voice, Morgana, the part of her consciousness that controlled the vast information Story magic had put at her disposal. Who filtered and directed it so a child could make an opening and launch a devastating, uniquely personalized counter-strike against one of the most dangerous dark wizards in the country. It was Fae's voice, yet there was no mistaking that it was coming from a distinctly different person.

"Everyone, book it. We have to be in position before they catch up."

In response to Fae's order, all of them went for speed over all else. Kinana's serpentine form slid under his feet from one step to another and they were airborne. The girls nicknamed the Three Furies used a variety of skills to navigate the most absurd stretch of terrain. Fae bounced off of walls and sometimes Kagura to land where she wanted to, on the last home stretch before the portion of exterior wall that would rotate and expose the way to reach the coliseum and their finish line. Wendy soared alongside Kinana, wind rushing around her effortlessly. Erik could hear her intense focus on the speed boosting enchantments that they all bore. And he could hear Wendy was preparing to remove them entirely. She would want her full focus and strength on this upcoming fight and they had a potential leak.

Then Fae's thoughts shifted abruptly and Erik had to deal with the discordant echoes of the totem's self cloning capability. The talent to create solid, fully autonomous magical constructs that were indistinguishable from the original.

Phase one is complete.

-vVv-

"Minerva will be the hardest hitter. She has pure Spatial Magic and will use that to attack and defend. She seems to favor close range. She'll be yours, Kagura. She's also got the biggest grudge out of their team, so she'll fight as dirty as she has to in order to get a win. Do not let her have it."

The Gravity Mage gave a dark smile and nodded her understanding. Fae turned towards Erik and Kinana, eyes distant and cool as she presented her calculations.

"Their most formidable team is Sting and Rogue working in tandem. The best way to counter that is to throw an even better team at them. White magic is a natural purifier, so Sting will be more poison resistant. Rogue will be harder to hit directly thanks to his shadow walking. They have pulled off several unison raids with each other. Keep them divided, keep them distracted."

Wendy hummed, a very draconic, speculative sort of gleam in her eyes.

"So if you're taking Rufus, that leaves..."

-vVv-

Wendy smelt ozone.

"Behind!"

"12-Gauge Black Lightning!"

The bellow was preceded by a wide scattering of sharp dark electricity. Everyone avoided the worst of it, but it did leave them scattered. That was fine, they had planned for this. The Sky Dragon Slayer called on the wind to support her, spinning her momentum around faster than anyone else could. She transitioned that into Sky Dragon Wing Attack at the team behind them, angling it so she could split their tight formation. And it worked. Rufus and Orga went left, Minerva, Sting and Rogue went right. Then she fired off a second, smaller attack as she pulled back into ready position.

The second burst of cutting winds impacted Orga Nanagear who rocked on his feet but kept charging his next assault, aiming for Kinana. She had flown up to avoid his wide-scattered lightning attack with Erik and were now hanging in the open air.

Oh no you don't.

Wendy had dropped her enchantments on everyone, part of Fae's long term strategy for dealing with Sabertooth, but she was still the fastest member of their team. So she blitzed forward, landing a precise palm strike on Olga's left wrist, knocking it into his other hand as he extended them to throw his next attack. She didn't hear what he called it over the roar of adrenaline in her ears. But with solid footing and a solid hit, the bolt of dark lightning he launched up went wide. Then she danced aside as the huge man made to bring down a fist on her. The movement in the air let her sense where he was aiming without needing to see the blow coming.

I will never tell Kagura how much I appreciate her.

After training for months in an area of heightened gravity, moving at this speed around the large wizard felt effortless. He would need to infuse his muscles with his power to try and hit her. And he had to build the charge slowly, otherwise it would slip out from his control. From her talks with Laxus, when fighting against a lightning magic user, once they were charged it got harder to use smaller, more controlled attacks. Meaning you had stronger hits but bled more power even if you didn't mean to. Which was what Wendy wanted. She wanted his power to be everywhere around him, and she wanted the biggest, baddest attack Orga had to be launched at her.

She saw the comical sight of a clone Fae had split off to leap over Rufus's head in a daring front flip, pushing his hat into his eyes and looping the back part of his long vest over his head with a chortle. Then she had to twist to hurriedly dodge Orga's follow-up strike.

Alright, he's committed to chasing me now.

Wendy wasn't listening to what Orga was saying, too busy following the wind and air moving around his body. Fae could carry on multiple conversations in mid-battle with little issue, but that just wasn't how the Sky Sorceress handled things. This close to her opponent, she needed all of her focus.

The feeling of Kinana slithering through the air around flares of shadow and holy light told her the Poison specializing duo were doing their part and keeping Sting and Rogue occupied. Wendy dodged a considerably larger bolt of lightning, feeling her hair stand on end in its braids. She bit down on a stray current of ionized air and swallowed it, moving the power down her throat like an over carbonated, bitter drink.

Sky Dragon Special: Read the Air.

Grandeeny had hardly taken her flying in stormy or unsafe weather. But Wendy knew that her foster mother had never shied away from her element, no matter the weather. Any element that could be found in the sky, Wendy could take in trace amounts of it to immunize herself against it. Lightning resistance from the kind of air surrounding Orga now, or cold from the frigid air of the upper atmosphere. Or from hanging around Gray.

She nipped down several more mouthfuls of the all important lightning charged air as Orga tried and failed to hit her at close range, his blows rapidly gaining speed. Wendy had to rely more and more on her winddancing to evade him.

She did hear Rufus's call though, she'd been listening for it.

"Shower of Heavenly Blessings!"

Wendy bared her teeth in a savage, satisfied grin. She saw Orga hesitate upon seeing the expression on her face and take a hasty step back. But she pressed forward, Sky Dragon Talon shooting out from a swift kick aimed at his knee. Wizards instinctively protected their organs and center mass more completely than their extremities. Her strike hammered through a lot of his shielding and made him lose focus and pour even more ambient charge into the air for her to devour. Which she did with gusto.

Just like Fae predicted.

-vVv-

"Two of our team relies on Poison magical energy. In the name of efficiency, anything that can take Kinana and Erik out at the same time almost doubles an opposing team's chances of victory. And both Wendy and I, in no small part thanks to Kinana and Erik, have made huge strides in anti-toxin research and poison neutralizing spells. Rufus is a planner so he will have thought of this. He will have done extensive research on my and Wendy's work because Memory-Make needs material to replicate. Additionally, He sees himself as an elegant and refined person. He'll think using our own team's magic against other members is a perfect strategy."

Fae's lips curved up, and Kinana felt a thrill of pride at her hatchling describing her deliberately plotted hunt. Rufus Lore would not know what hit him.

-vVv-

Wendy had engaged Orga in a comic sight. Somewhat like a large dog snapping at a bird flitting around it. She was taking in more and more electricity and building her resistance to it the longer they fought. She was doing just fine.

Kagura was keeping Minerva busy, having landed on her Spatial Warp shield with the force of a meteor and broken through the floor, and landed on the pathway below us. Morgana was monitoring their exchange in case Kagura needed an evac or some back up. The ground pitched under our feet as one of the super-powered wizards used her magic to alter the terrain to her advantage.

Erik and Kinana were working on the boys. Kinana had used Venom Transformation and sent out dozens of tiny snakes that looked identical to her, and then shrunk down to an equal size so they couldn't pinpoint her. Every tiny serpent that was destroyed released a puff of paralyzing poison into the air, giving Erik a constant source of new strength and additional resources, and weakening Sting and Rogue at the same time.

Part of Morgana's attention was also noting that Erik was resynthesizing the poison he inhaled into a new format. Kinana made the poison. Erik could reshape it internally, and push the paralysis poison into a hallucinogen, or an anesthetic. He was cooking up three different kinds.

The opposing Dragon Slayers had been taking a beating, not used to fighting someone who could read their thoughts. They were adapting to the disadvantage, and managing to score light hits, but they were also losing their stamina rapidly. The area was well lit, but had no distinctive shadows or bright light sources for them to regain their strength whereas Erik just kept taking in more and was getting stronger.

And my opponent? He was biding time, trying to see more of my abilities.

"The nerve of you, sir, to copy my magic without permission. I hope Sabertooth's got some fantastic lawyers, this is almost grounds for a lawsuit."

I told him, flinging a spray of ninja stars at him. He blew them off course with a blatantly ripped off Sky Dragon Wing Attack he had seen Wendy do not even a minute earlier.

"When I see magic so beautifully presented, I cannot help but etch it in my memory forever."

Obliviate could destroy your entire career. Lucky for you I'm being nice and putting on a show instead of actually handling this.

Rufus reminded me a lot of Freed. Same formal speech patterns, similar taste in clothing. Same build and similar hairstyle. But I still wanted to punch this man in the mouth. Green eyes traced me greedily, seeking and plucking off tiny bits of my enchantment to memorize it and incorporate it. He was an evocation specialist as far as I could tell. He had only ever copied the effects of spells and rarely ever enchantment or transformation effects. His smile never seemed to waver, like he was savoring a victory already won. I had a hunch I knew his base personality.

Sadist?

Sadist.

"As a writer, I am immensely flattered by your imitation while being deeply offended by your plagiarism."

No more shadow clones. Don't want to give him ideas. C'mon, don't let me down now boys...

He gave me a nod as he gestured a shower of ninja stars to fly back at me, the edges gleaming with biting winds as he combined their manifestation with Wind magic he saw from Wendy. The gesture felt entirely condescending. He thought he held all the cards and there was no way he could lose.

"How generous to give your courtesy to the man who will end your team's hopes of progressing to the Games."

I laughed, clapping my hands to blow the stars off course. He was heading right where I wanted him.

"Great Breakthrough".

Rufus's recently copied wind magic was no match for my more practiced version. He snapped that memory up and gleefully molded into his own repertoire.

A deep hacking cough alerted me to what I had anticipated happening: Rogue was getting affected by Kinana's air borne venom and was slowing down. Sting could pulse his magic in the air and clear it out, but that would mean weakening the effectiveness of his partner's shadows. I saw a look pass between Sting and Rufus and the wizard I had been dueling stepped back.

Minerva is the team leader, but Sting is the one controlling their cohesiveness.

I knew it.

Other than their iconic team, Sabertooth didn't put a lot of focus on working together. Otherwise, Minerva would have used her spatial magic to shield her team, not just herself. That meant Kagura's Shattering Spear had broken through the walkway and carried them both down to another level. Whereas if she had cast it wider, but weaker, it would have broken and she could have stayed together with her team. But Sting on the other hand? Sting had been on the receiving end of combat teamwork too often to underestimate it.

"This shall take but a moment, Miss Faerun. I shall return."

Rufus tossed another stronger torrent of wind up at me, and I created a clone while his back was turned and used her to leap higher and land with wall walking magic on the underside of another path up above. I could see the whole battlefield now. Rufus held his two fingers to his temple and spoke distinctly.

"Shower of Heavenly Blessings!"

Rain fell from nowhere, leaving behind a gentle, refreshing scent and erasing the poison and venom that marked the ground around where the Twin Dragons and the Poisonous Pair had been fighting.

I appealed to Morgana quickly.

Is that-?

That is it. That is his air purification spell. It was partially made by observing recordings of you using Esuna and Wendy's Poison Nullification Magic demonstrations for her students.

Perfect.

So now, I had some extra maneuvering to do. Morgana tracked Rogue making a comment that was too delicious to leave alone.

"If this is the best you have, we'll be taking your team out of the running!"

He landed a strong hit on Erik that did briefly knock him off the edge of the platform. Sting was keeping Kinana from catching her partner with an array of stabbing lights now that her own venom was diluted and weakened by the spell.

Yeah, now's good.

I palmed one of the tri-pronged Hiraishin Kunai that the coat totem let me utilize. And it connected to the Hiraishin seals I had laid down on my teammates shortly after we first entered the labyrinth.

"Crossover: Hiraishin and 'The Old Switcharoo'."

In less than a second, the entire scale and setting of the battlefield changed.

I switched with Kinana, who had positioned herself in the boys blindspot, concealed by her remaining clones.

Wendy switched with Erik. The Poison Dragon Slayer unleashed his Dragon Force, violet scales erupting over his arms and up his neck and sharp talons raking down Orga's bare chest and delivering a nasty dose of poison to him directly. And Wendy landed in a pocket of freshly purified, magic filled air. She had been switched while Erik was in midair, but this concerned her far less than it did him. A down sweep of her arms generated enough wind to hold her steady. And then she took a deep, deep breath of the freshly purified, magic rich air.

Her brown eyes lightened to rose pink. Her hair shifted from dark blue to lilac and feathers grew on her wrists and ankles as she also brought out Dragon Force with a satisfied cry. Sky Dragon's didn't have a deep roar, but a call that started low, and then built into a scream of the very air tearing itself apart. It was haunting to hear and very, very distinctive. It resonated in a primal part of the brain that something dangerous had just decided to take you seriously.

I saw Sting's face go through a myriad of emotions, starting with ultimately ending in resignation when he saw that I had abruptly swapped with Kinana.

"Shoulda known."

My face hurt from how wide my satisfied grin was.

"You really should have."

-vVv-

The stands roared with excitement upon seeing the gambit the Furies had pulled. It was midnight, so not everyone was watching. But some especially dedicated people wouldn't have missed this for the world. And as such, there was someone there to commentate.

Chapati Lola whooped, gripping his microphone, his wig slightly askew. Narrow set eyes were blown wide with excitement as he tried to not miss a thing about the encounter.

"We're trying to see what exactly Faerun did there folk, but it's a no go. That spell was literally too fast for our Vision Lacrima to follow! And they're not done! Wendy Marvell is entering Dragon Force!"

Yajima, seated neatly by his side, was more sedate but no less pleased.

"This is the first time we're getting to see a lot of these abilities from the Furies and the Naga. And Erik Krait may be new to Fairy Tail, but he's clearly got battle experience."

"You can say that again! Oh that looked like it hurt!"

Orga managed to slam Erik into the ground, but the smaller man only used that as leverage to land several hard kicks to the ribs and use sharpened, claw like nails to rake gouges into his forewarn that glowed a menacing green on the green, the long slash on his chest was a more muted blue.

"Orga's choice of fashion is coming back to bite him now. Our cameras have identified that Erik's strikes have been laced with different kinds of poison and he has nothing between him and those claws. He's on a time limit now."

"Chapati, look down there. Faerun and Wendy are about to try something else!"

-vVv-

Our eyes met from either side of the battlefield. Wendy dove for Sting with a Wing Attack of pure wind magic, not a speck of light for him to devour and use. I pounced on Rogue from behind, pushing out a quick Body Flicker to cross the distance.

I crossed the fingers of one hand and three Shadow Clones appeared. One one them quickly made and passed a swirling sphere of tightly controlled energy into my hand. Another two started on making a larger one between them even as we darted away from the Dragon Slayer who I was relatively certain could eat the magical light.

"Rasengan!"

I heard a grunt as I delivered Naruto's signature attack to the small of Rogue's back before he managed to turn around and he flew forward. There came a bright flash from behind me as Sting popped into his Dragon Force just to not get completely overwhelmed by Wendy's assault. He managed to lay down a paralyzing Stigma on Wendy at some point during their exchange while in midair.

He's made Stigma ranged? That's good to know.

One of my clones caught her as she was falling and dispelled the White Rune and herself with a puff of smoke. I ducked down to run along the underside of the pathway, making another four clones to keep the boys busy while we regrouped. I pulled myself in a single person Hiraishin to land by Wendy's side. The air hummed with energy around her from her Dragon Force as she got her full range of motion back again after her temporary paralysis. Morgana murmured she would be able to sustain this state for another six minutes.

"Are we doing it?"

"Of course we are!" I plucked the Great Ball Rasengan from the clones I had making it, pouring a touch of my own into it to stabilize it. "Shall we?"

Wendy held out her hands, tiny streams of Wind aligned magic being spun into the magical construct I held. With the ease of practice, she put in just the right amount. I scarcely needed to do more than top off the energy to make our contributions precisely equal. The glow of the sphere increased and it gained a quartet of swirling wind blades around its middle.

"Hey boys!"

I called to Sting and Rogue as they managed to dispel the last of my clones. I knew I was grinning like a maniac and Wendy was matching me. With our magic merged and our intents combined, speaking together felt effortless as we hurled the formidable weapon forward and ever so slightly down.

"Unison Raid: Rasenshuriken!"

-vVv-

"And another bold combo from Fairy Tail Team C!"

Chapati cheered, leaning forward, watching as the rubble from the Unison Raid rained down onto Kagura and Minerva.

"Unison Raid's are no easy feat to pull off. A wizard can go their whole lifetime without ever seeing one. Those two would have been in trouble if it hadn't worked."

"Mr Yajima: I have only one question on my mind right now and it's not a 'what if'."

"And what's that?"

"If this is what this team is willing to demonstrate for the preliminaries: What else do they have in store for us?"

-vVv-

Even an ordinary Rasengan could deal some major damage. But the Rasenshuriken ripped a spiraling trench in the magical stone pathway as it made its way towards Sting and Rogue. Sting grabbed his partner and launched himself upwards with streams of light pouring from his feet to get out of the way. The spiraling, nearly invisible winds that were ripping off of it messed up his trajectory and they crashed into the walkway he'd been aiming for rather than landing smoothly. Rogue inhaled and spat a Shadow Dragon's Roar at us to keep us at a distance. Wendy whirled her arms in a precise pattern, kicking up a downscaled version of Shattering Light: Sky Drill to meet it and counter the spiraling breath weapon.

Rogue's will win. Also, jump.

I grabbed Wendy by the arm and leapt off the walkway as it crumbled to pieces and fell. Kagura intoned her spell from below us.

"Meteor Swarm!"

Morgana noted in quick succession that Minerva had erected a Territory Drain, making it so any magic spent in a given area would be funneled back to her. Kagura had answered this by using Gravity Well to force Minerva to expend all the magic she was gaining just to be able to keep moving. Their battle had mostly been physical, Minerva's space-matter hands against Kagura's whirling spear. But it looked like Kagura had deflected one of Minerva's explosions, literally making air expand rapidly in a small area, or a large one, upwards.

The entire terrain we had been fighting on was now in pieces. Rubble was floating and falling everywhere. Erik was flying back after Orga managed to land a glancing blow on him. Rufus was getting the confusing readings his magic was likely getting off of Kinana.

Nice to know I was right. He can't use Memory-Make Magic on Kinana's abilities because they're technically stemming from a Curse.

"Time to get back to our old dance partners."

"Got it." Wendy affirmed, eyeing Orga. "I think he's still charged enough."

I gripped the tri-pronged kunai again and rapidly spoke.

"Crossover: Hiraishin and the Ole Switcharoo."

I replaced Kinana in less than an instant and came in swinging on Rufus. There were a few holes in his vest and the brim of his hat from Kinana's venom, but he looked thrilled.

"That attack was magnifique, Miss Faerun. But it was a little hard on the terrain."

"Don't ditch a girl on the dance floor. You never know if she'll bring the roof down or raise it."

I threw back pertly, blocking a swift attempt to grab hold of my arm with a burst of shielding.

"If such a spectacle is your reply, being a churl is much more appealing. Now: what was it you called that again? 'Rasenshuriken'?"

I did my utmost to hide my grin as Rufus lifted his hand to his temple, green eyes bright with focus, gazing at Erik and Kinana from the corner of his eye.

"In your honor, I shall remember this dance: Memory Make: Salute the graceful tempest."

I didn't attack, I didn't move. I just waited with a smile breaking over my face...Rufus likewise waited. For about three seconds. Then his eyes widened as he realized something had gone very wrong.

"A sweet gesture. But since I don't want to deal with lawyers any more than necessary, I really have to insist on you not plagiarizing my work anymore. Or any of my friends work. Rasengan."

I used both hands to whip up another Rasengan, slamming into his center mass and sending him flying back.

That worked beautifully. Ok, I'm happy now!

-vVv-

Wendy dove back into her battle with Orga. Erik had been listening in to her and Fae's discourse and fight, so he had been maneuvering to set up her final scheme against the huge Lightning God Slayer. He had done so quite well. Wendy popped back into his place as he finished his chant.

"457 Black Lighting Chain!"

The dark sparks were accompanied by a blisteringly fast downward blow. And if she hadn't been building her lighting resistance since the fight began, and if she hadn't been high on Dragon Force, Wendy might have regretted her decision.

But in a split second, she decided that she wanted to definitively state that she was a dragon too. And demonstrate what that meant.

She caught Olga's fist pinning it against her side with one arm, feeling her muscles scream under the additional pressure as lightning rippled through her body, drawn and neutralized by the identical energy circulating through her. It was a strain to hold onto Dragon Force, but she managed it. The air around them was pushed aside by Orga's magic, and Wendy upped that outward push by expelling all of the black lighting she had accumulated. For a split second, they were both in a partial vacuum. She couldn't have been heard even if she had spoken aloud. So Wendy kept silent.

Sky Dragon's Revenge: Thunder Clap.

Then Wendy placed her free hand on Orga's chest, just below his rib cage and directed all the returning air to return exactly to that spot. Her ears popped even with her magic insulating her, the enchantment settled just so to prevent herself from getting too much blowback. The Lightning God Slayer was unprepared for that sensation and gave a gasp as all the air from the usually soundless thunder that his slow lighting formed coming back at him with a loud crash that sent him flying backwards where Fae had just tossed Rufus.

The outer wall of the labyrinth started to move. Wendy heard a loud hiss of pain and she glanced over to see Sting had managed to lance Kinana's right wing with a series of sharp needles of light, finally managing to locate her among her clones. But she had nipped his leg so he couldn't fly up on his jets of light and follow them. The Naga was already heading for sturdy ground, up to where the exit would be accessible in mere moments. Wendy flitted up, converting what remained of her Dragon Force into healing energy to temporarily patch Kinana's wings so she could make it. It would still hurt, but she could still fly. Wendy looped an arm under Erik to ease the weight on their teammate.

"Fae, let's go!"

"I gotta get Kagura!"

-vVv-

Erik, Kinana and Wendy had all passed the gate and are the first to the coliseum.

I skipped along the floating rubble of the Labyrinth. It had been a gnarly fight all things told. Kinana's venom had melted holes in the ground that weakened it, then Minerva and Kagura's fight down below and further destabilized it. Their fight had even spilled over onto the outer shell and weakened it in some places. A good bit of force could make an additional gate if you were dedicated. I was more impressed that there hadn't been any other casualties from the fight.

About a quarter of the entire Sky Labyrinth has been affected by your fight. And 1/6 of it is completely unusable, including the exit.

Required property damage has been administered.

I gripped my Hiraishin kunai and scanned for Kagura's token. It was still whole, hidden on her back. She was embroiled in another scuffle with Minerva and seemed to be having a fantastic time. She would be very unhappy with me for spoiling her fight. But we had a race to win. And Morgana was tracking that Lamia Scale was getting close to the exit. And I was unwilling to surrender 1st place after the stunts we had managed to pull.

"Hiraishin."

As far as teleportation went. Longer range teleportation required more tokens that I usually had time to set up. But for the labyrinth? I could go anywhere I had put a seal down. I appeared at Kagura's back.

"Sorry Kags, playdate's over."

"I'm busy."

She snapped, keeping her eyes on Minerva. Sabertooth's second in command looked more or less unruffled, but I noted she was breathing a bit faster than she had been before and her eyes looked a bit wilder.

"Too bad. We're ready."

Kagura gave a scoff of irritation.

"Neither of you are going anywhere."

I felt Kagura tense as she prepared to use Gravity Magic to slice through the Spatial Twist that Minerva cast around us. Trapping us in a giant fishbowl. The air instantly felt a little more stale as she cut us off, intending to suffocate us into submission.

So I naturally ran my mouth, squeezing Kagura's shoulder to keep her from acting out.

"Even when you can use magic to try and stop me, Minerva, I still get the last word." I held up my kunai and grinned, feeling extremely petty and proud. "And that word is: Hiraishin."

The world twisted as my spell sliced through her tiny prison, using the anchoring seals from our three teammates to pull us through space to rejoin them. Minerva didn't see the need to put much energy into creating that bubble around us. Underselling that would stick in her craw for years if I had any say.

Kagura's feet impacted the small bit of land that was left outside the door. Erik, Kinana and Wendy were already there, with the healer of the ground inspecting the tiny punctures on the snakewoman's wings. When my feet touched down, a thought projection of Mato, the Games announcer appeared, dancing and cheering.

"Wowza, was that something to see! Erik Krait, Kinana Violet, Wendy Marvel, Kagura Mikazushi and Celeste D Faerun! Congratulations! You've reached your finish line and are the first team to qualify for the Grand Magic Games!"

No one would ever believe me if I told them this was the king.

I thought mildly as he swung the door open before us and we entered a brightly lit spotlight in the Coroza Coliseum.

The stands weren't packed, but they definitely weren't empty given the wall of noise and applause that hit us as we stepped through. Mato skipped alongside us, no taller than Makarov in his preferred form, chatting happily.

"In a daring display, Fairy Tail has put forward not one, not two, but three teams to participate in the Grand Magic Games for the first time since their founding. And tonight, they have not disappointed! Coming up on the heels of Lamia Scale, we see another team of Fairy Tail Mages is racing for 2nd place!"

It was Fairy Tail B, led by Laxus. It looked like Jura was shuffling the walkways underneath their feet to push them back from beating his team.

Well they did say anything goes, I guess that means even a Ten Wizard Saint like Jura isn't above petty rearrangement of the terrain.

There were screens floating around the coliseum, showing what had been going on inside the Labyrinth. Sabertooth's team was regrouping and making their way to the impassable gate, using Minerva's Territory to create a bridge to walk on. The woman herself looked apoplectic with rage. I spied Erza booting what I believed to be a Twilight Ogre member off a steep ledge without mercy. There were playbacks of my team's face off with Sabertooth. The highly cinematic moments, including a few times when Erik and Kinana had been able to line things up so Sting accidentally hit Rogue instead of one of them with an attack. It was spliced to be dramatic rather than as comedic as it had felt.

I took hold of my book, feeling my heart rate start to come down after the excitement. It flipped open to the appropriate page.

"Reshelve."

The drain on my magic lifted instantly as I stowed the ninja totems in my spellbook for use another day. I felt goosebumps run down my arms as the weight of the coat lifted and my forehead was damp from the exertion of it under the headband.

What's the cool down time for what we put it through?

Recommended cooldown and recharging time is: 7 hours.

Hiraishin might look effortless, and impressive but as with most Teleportation magic, it could gulp down magic power like nothing else. But it had done its job well. Throughout the whole fight, we had been prepared and fast enough to keep Sabertooth from digging in and bringing the worst of their skills to bear on us.

Speaking of, I need to have a chat with Rufus.

We weren't waiting for more than a few minutes before the Sabertooth team entered the coliseum. They still got a loud cheer for being such old favorites of this event, but from how Minerva was glaring at me, it was not enough. She had still lost, she knew it and she hated it.

Heedless of the eyes on us, Sting and Rogue approached, both of them looking none the worse for wear.

"I shouldn't have hit anything major. Are you ok?"

He addressed Kinana first, the snake shrugged out a wing. The membrane was inflamed and clearly irritated even with Wendy's soothing healing magic on it. But it was whole.

:it was well hunted, Wyrmling. I shall heal soon enough with my Sky Hatchling's aid:

The band around her throat was her Parseltongue translator, and throughout the battle, she had set it to only be understandable by Erik to add another layer of obscurity and confusion to their fighting. If they had been good as a team when they couldn't understand one another, now it had been practically flawless.

"Yeah, you will want to get your ribs checked. Rasengan can be really nasty."

I told Rogue somewhat sheepishly. He grinned, dark hair tousled but looking very content. His eyes drifted to Wendy.

"My ribs are fine. And it was well worth it to see what you had planned."

He means Wendy's Dragon Force.

Has he never...?

No.

That's strangely romantic.

"So, 'Rasenshuriken' is your and Wendy's Unison Raid?" Sting was radiating glimmers of delight. "Pretty cool, and hugely damaging. Very ok with not being shown that in town somewhere."

I giggled, feeling a current of mischief rising in me.

"It's our Unison Raid, while I'm wearing that totem."

The White Slayer's face went still...then a new current of excitement.

"You normally only get the one Unison Raid with one person."

"Whenever I use a totem, I am often half becoming another person. So the Unison Raid has the potential to change every time. I am going to get all the data!"

Erik tapped my elbow and I turned to see Rufus was also approaching our party, leaving a somewhat bemused and a very obviously unhappy Minerva with Orga.

"Miss Faerun." His tone was markedly different from how he had first spoken to me. The condescension was gone, and in its place was rapt focus. "I cannot recall ever having had my own recollections stolen from me. May I inquire as to how this was brought about?"

And the other part of this whole plan.

I chuckled and pulled out a tuft of bright pink feathers from inside my coat. The same kind of feathers as were on Rufus' hat. The long, elaborate collection shifted almost noiselessly as he took in the sight with a small jerk of surprise.

"That is...one of mine? But I am not missing anything."

"You are, I just replaced one of the feathers with something so you wouldn't realize what had occurred. Morph, come here."

One of the feathers on Rufus's hat jerked free of the mass and floated over to me with a tiny coo, it squirmed in mid air then turned from a lovely pink feather into a tiny, floating pink blob with big, big eyes. It waved a small appendage, then dove into the pages of my book for his section so he could sleep.

Recommended Recharge time: 18 hours.

Worth it.

"Here. Reparo." I tossed the feather I had tugged out in the air and it returned to its proper place. "You couldn't use your Magic because I put Morph on you when I messed with your hat. And Morph has been holding Copyright for the last three days. I just waited until you not being able to act would be the most devastating before activating it."

The White Dragon Slayer burst out laughing.

"Copyright? You use that to keep paparazzi from taking pictures of you in public!"

"And you're the one who said, correctly, that there had to be more to it than that. And there is."

I replied, turning up my nose at him with a sniff. Rufus seemed enthralled.

"You prepared that specifically to counter my Memory Make. Everything I saw from your team, I can recall, but I cannot recreate it. Even 'Shower of Heavenly Blessings' is incomplete now."

I dipped a small, but mocking curtsey in his direction.

"You aren't the only one who knows how to plan ahead."

I meant the gesture to be one of banter and teasing. But Rufus swept his hat off in a much deeper, and entirely sincere bow.

"I shall remember this lesson from you, Miss Faerun. But not near as long as the breathtaking sight of your countenance crowned in victory. Be assured, regardless of who you may face: I shall be praying to be blessed by such a vision again."

Sting cleared his throat, steely gaze sharpening and staring hard at his guildmate. Rufus threw him a sly, sidelong glance. I had the feeling that Rufus knew exactly what he was doing.

Sting is not pleased that you may have gained another admirer. Especially in the form of Rufus. Rufus is sincere, but respects Sting too much to intrude.

But not so much that he'll back off.

No, he'll absolutely keep pursuing you if it forces Sting to take more action.

Morgana was doing a fantastic job of locking away the Stae crowd of chatter in its appropriate corner. But it would leak out eventually.

"I do believe we should return to wait with our other teammates." Rufus advised, noting Minerva's hard stare at him. She knew she couldn't stop Roue or Sting. But it was not ok with her that Rufus had come over to talk to us amicably. "Lamia Scale has finished the race."

"Well regardless of what else happens tonight, Fairy Tail and Sabertooth are for sure going to have a rematch. And no holding back this time."

Sting bared his teeth in challenge. Wendy answered it, her canines still pronounced from her Dragon Force.

"The Preliminaries aren't over yet, and there are still five spots to take. You could be dealing with a lot more Fairies than just us."

"And we'll happily take you as you come."

Kagura stated, grounding the butt of her glaive in the firm dirt under our feet. Erik followed up, casually looming over Wendy's head.

"And any time after that just for fun."

I finished, stretching my arms over my head and feeling my back crack in a satisfying manner after the tension of the running and fighting, turning towards the viewing screens to watch the rest of the preliminaries.

"Let's see what tomorrow brings. Afterall, that's when the real fun begins."