Yang stood out in the back of the stage, adjusting her swimsuit. Mirajane, Erza, Lucy, Nora, Weiss, Levy, Cana, Juvia, and Bisca stood with her. They were preparing for the Miss Fairy Tail pageant, but also chatting casually.

"Ruby isn't participating, I see," Cana said.

"Does she ever?" Bisca responded sarcastically.

"She isn't one for this kind of thing," Erza defended, "Besides she's getting ready for the Fantasia Parade, you know how much she loves it."

"Yeah, that's fair," Cana said.

"And first up, is the beautiful card dealer who always gives you a straight, Cana Alberona!"

"That's my cue," Cana said, flashing a smirk before disappearing on stage, "See you all with the prize money."

"And what's this, her cards are swirling around her, what could she be doing? She changed into a swimsuit! Next up, a beauty rain or shine, Juvia Lockser!"

Juvia left backstage, and the announcer announced her transformation into a swimsuit too.

"And now, Fairy Tail's own centerfold that needs no introduction, the Fairy Queen Mab, Mirajane Strauss!"

Yang heard the roar of the crowd before they suddenly went silent. Looks like Mira had gone through with tricking them.

"Here comes a blond bombshell with a heavenly body, Yang Xiao Long!"

Yang strode up on stage, Meteor crackling around her, and pulled a fist back. Launching it upwards above the crowd she unleashed a burst of heavenly fire to the roar of the crowd. She then moved to join the other girls who had already gone.

Next came Weiss, who sang for a bit. Yang would admit, she had a very nice singing voice, and it made the crowd strangely silent until she was done, where they burst into applause. Then came Erza, who transformed into a black and white gothic lolita dress, causing even more raucous applause and cheering.

Bisca came out, smirking as she pulled four coins out of… Somewhere, given she was wearing a bikini, and tossed them into the air before requipping a rifle. Aiming down the sights, she shot true and punched through the center of all four coins. In the crowd, Yang heard Alzack say, "That's hot!"

Levy came out next, showing off some solid script magic, but otherwise not doing anything to rock the boat too much.

"Next up is one of Fairy Tail's newest members, Nora Valkyrie!"

Nora stepped on stage, before beginning to crackle with lightning. Her muscles bulged, and she flexed, drawing appreciative whistles from the crowd.

"And finally, another relative newcomer to the guild, Lucy Heartfilia!"

Lucy walked out on stage, ready to do a cheer routine when suddenly a voice called from behind them. They all turned and-

—

Ruby was humming to herself happily, doing some last minute work on Fairy Tail's float, when a sudden feeling of dread washed over her, a buzzing in her ears, a prickling on her skin. Something was wrong, was wrong, was wrong.

She pulled herself from under the float, only for a thought projection of Laxus to show up, "Ruby."

"What did you do?" Ruby growled, eyes glowing.

"Just starting my plan," Laxus said smugly, before throwing out her arms, "The celebration of the lifetime, we're gonna crush the weaklings out of the guild and make it a place where only the strong are. Everyone will learn to fear the name Fairy Tail by the time the Battle of Fairy Tail ends!"

"So you finally lost your damn mind with your obsession about strength?" Ruby spat, the feeling getting worse.

"Hey, hey, I wouldn't be like that, not when I got your girlfriends and sister's lives in the palm of my hand."

Ruby locked up for a second, before her eyes hardened, "What. Did. You. Do."

"Let's just say Evergreen made it a bit… Hard to reach them," Laxus chuckled, "Which is to say she petrified them. If you can't finish the Battle in three hours, we'll start crumbling them to dust."

"You…" Ruby growled, "Laxus, this is going too far! Fairy Tail is not, and has not, ever been what you thought it was and you need to get that through your thick skull!"

"You sound just like the old man," Laxus laughed, "If you think it's too far, beat the Thunder Legion and me in three hours, it's as simple as that."

The projection faded, and Ruby growled, throwing down the wrench. Storming out of the garage, magical energy pouring off her in waves, she began to spread her senses out, looking for Evergreen. She was going to release the girls.

And if she refused to, Ruby knew for a fact death undid the spell.

—

Jaune was running through the streets, looking for Laxus or the Thunder God Tribe. He didn't think he could take them down, but he had to try for Nora's sake.

As he reached a crossroad, he met up with Pyrrha, panting, "Found any of them yet?"

"No, I-" a beam of light shot over their heads, "What was that?"

"Looked like Ruby," Jaune said, "come on, we have to keep looking- Ow!" Jaune was cut off by running face first into a barrier, staggering back and holding his nose, seeing barriers had risen on each side of the intersection. Don't tell him…

Pyrrha was looking down, hands shaking. She didn't have Miló on her, just like he didn't have Crocea Mors, if there had to be a fight according to the rules Laxus had laid out… maybe, just maybe he could win. He didn't like it, he didn't want to win, but he didn't want to lose either.

"Ready, Jaune?" Pyrrha asked softly, heartbrokenly. Jaune nodded, setting his fingers into claws. Pyrrha swept her finger in a familiar motion, and Jaune dodged out of the way as a cut of spacial magic dug into the barrier, "Space Cutter!"

Jaune jumped off the corner of the building, forming a bunch of orbs of ash around him and launching them at Pyrrha, "Corpse Devil's Laughter!"

The attack flew at her, before curving unnaturally to slam into the barrier behind her. Jaune rolled away from another slash and charged her, fingers tearing into the air as he called, "Corpse Devil's Claw."

Once again the attack curved unnaturally, missing Pyrrha and Jaune fired off another Laughter, only for it to miss too. Finally, he got in range to punch Pyrrha… Only for his fist to be forced to the side by whatever force she was controlling.

"I'm sorry, Jaune," Pyrrha said, before digging a fist into his own gut, throwing him back so hard he slammed into the building corner back first. Oh, yeah. That was gonna bruise, even through Aura, "Just stay down Jaune, one of us has to go save Nora."

Jaune felt the ground under his hands turn to ash, and he yelled, "I'm team leader, it's my responsibility to save her! Corpse Devil's Graveyard!"

Before even half the ground turned to ash, Pyrrha unleashed a flurry of slashes that eventually broke through Jaune's Aura. Jaune breathed in, feeling his lunge fill with an unnatural amount of air, before breathing out a torrent of ash, "Corpse Devil's Rage!"

Only for it to curve around Pyrrha unnaturally, though leaving her on her knees and panting. She looked up and said, tears in her eyes, "I'm sorry Jaune." .

Then she seemed to push outwards, slamming Jaune back into the wall and causing him to collapse in his own ashes.

The last thing he saw before blacking out was the barrier drop… Only to immediately go back up as Alzack stepped onto the ashes and fired at Pyrrha.

—

Blake watched as the barrier closed around her and Jet, "I'm sorry."

"So am I," Jet admitted, "We both got people on the line, so we should be fighting together, but… Well, screw Laxus and his rules. So-"

Blake barely reacted in time. Jet blitzed across the gap, swinging for a kick to her gut, and she replaced herself with a clone, drawing Gambol Shroud from her shadow as she did so.

"-We gotta fight," Jet said, grimly.

Blake dodged his attacks, creating clones and waiting for the right moment… There! Blake swung, nicking Jet's Achilles tendon as he pulled back a kick.

Jet began to run around her so fast she was left seeing afterimages of him, a testement to how fast he would have been if she hadn't cut it and Blake did the only thing she could do. She sank into her shadow, leaving a clone in her place. When he launched forwards and kicked through the clone, Blake rose up and swung Gambol Shroud at him. He turned just in time that it skipped off his ribcage, and responded with a high speed kick to the head that left Blake seeing stars.

Shaking it off as quickly as she could, she watched Jet land high on the wall, his legs bundled up beneath him before he came down with a high speed dive kick. Blake threw out a hand, calling "Spider Web!"

Black strings unfurled from her hand, forming a spider web to block the kick, and even then Blake was pushed back. Gritting her teeth, she manipulated the strings to wrap around Jet's leg and slam him into a wall, watching him crumple unable to move.

The barriers dropped, letting Blake know she had won. She had to find a member of the Thunder Legion.

Yang was counting on her.

—

Ren's first fight in the Battle of Fairy Tail cane as he was charging after Evergreen, eyes trained on the member of the Thunder Legion. They had threatened to hurt Nora, they had taken Nora as a hostage.

He was going tear them apart with his bare fucking hands if he had to to get her back.

Suddenly a barrier appeared around him, and he turned to see Gray standing there, stripping out of his jacket, "Sorry about this Ren, but I need to get to Bickslow."

"And I need to get to Evergreen," Ren snapped.

"Ruby's taking care of that, I think," Gray nodded towards where Evergreen had gone, where beams of light were flying every which way, gold and black tinged white. "So do me a favor and just go down! Ice Make: Hammer!"

A giant hammer on a chain flew towards Ren, and he breathed in, calming himself the best he could and thrusting an Aura filled palm into the hammer's way and pulsing it through the construct, shattering it. He then began to charge Gray, who responded with Ice Make: Lance.

Ren dodged, bobbed and weaved through the lances, reaching in front of Gray, Ren slammed a Aura enhanced palm into his solar plexus, pulsing Aura through his body, causing Gray to fly back.

"Ice Make: Chains," he called as he did, chains binding Ren to the ground, "Ice Make: Geyser!"

Ren shattered the chains, but couldn't dodge the spike that drove through his shoulder as Gray rose up on a pillar, Ren leapt off the Geyser, smashing aside Ice Make: Arrows as he did, and slammed another palm into Gray's chest. He thought he heard something crack, but Gray grabbed his arm and froze it. Ren twisted, bringing his foot down on Gray's head. Or he would have, if Gray didn't personally shatter the pillar below his feet.

"Ice Make: Seven Slice Dance!" Bitter cold blades

ripped through Ren's clothes and against his Aura. Ren drove another palm strike down, only for Gray to grab the arm and throw him to the ground, "Ice Make: Lance!"

Ren felt his tailcoat rip as he fought against the lances. Lunging at Gray and slamming him against the barrier. Sending the biggest pulse of Aura yet, so big he felt his Aura shatter, he slammed Gray against the barrier harder, leaving him to crumble to the ground.

It was only when he walked another five steps, passed the downed Gray and towards Evergreen, that he allowed himself to collapse.

—

So by the way, we have tv tropes page, so if anyone wants to contribute, it would be appritated