The Blood of the Fairy

by Mega Ghost

While out on a job just to pay the bills, Fairy Tail's strongest team picked up a new addition to their guild. It was a welcome occurrence given the state of things since they'd returned from Tenro, but their new friend isn't the usual breed of fairy. He doesn't talk much and keeps to himself. Will his mysterious past affect their chances in the games? And what magic does he have?

10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

A/N: As a special treat for all my readers, I have a small surprise. I'm going to start commissioning some fan art to go along with the story to illustrate certain moments, and the first one is already done. At the following link, you'll find a picture of Erza's Weapon Empress armor from two chapters ago. I hope you guys love it as much as I do and that you'll enjoy the chapter.

imgur-dot-com/gAXzBw6

OOO

Natsu, Lucy, Gray, Erza, and Logan all walked together up the path to the back entrance for the Domus Flau coliseum. There were only two hours until the Grand Magic Games started, but the members of Fairy Tail had decided together to arrive then in an effort to avoid having to deal with any of the other guilds before things officially kicked off. They wanted to save all their energy.

On their way up, they'd seen what almost looked like a mass migration of humanity all standing in line, waiting patiently to file into their seats. Gazing upon the sheer, staggering numbers of people who'd be watching them in the stadium, not to mention the rest of the country through lacrima-vision, set Logan's stomach to rumbling in the worst way. He was quite thankful that the planning committee had erected an enchantment along the competitor's path so that none of the spectators could see them.

"Wow! Would you check this thing out?!" Lucy declared as they sunk into the building's shadow. "It must be at least five-hundred feet tall!"

"If you want to include the summit of those statues, I'd call it closer to eight hundred." Logan said, trying to distract himself.

"Wonder how much firepower it'd take to knock this sucker down." Natsu snickered, grinning devilishly.

"Oh, please. Not even you could destroy something this big on your own." Countered Gray.

"We're approaching the officials now, so everyone behave. That means you, Natsu." Erza commanded, adding strong emphasis to her final words.

"Oh, come on! Like I'm really gonna embarrass us just at the check-in desk! What could I even say?"

"You could say you want to fight the king of Fiore if we win the tournament." Gray offered.

"You could get mad at the check-in procedure and smash their table, forcing us to have to apologize to someone before we can even go in." Suggested Lucy.

"For your information, I wasn't thinking of doing either of those things!" Natsu screamed.

"You could shoot off one of your new explosive combos and decapitate one of the statues in a poorly conceived attempt to show off our team's power before we even get in the doors." Logan said.

Natsu blanched, his mouth agape, staring at the former bounty hunter with unbelieving astonishment.

"How'd you know th-"

"NATSU!"

Erza turned on him in a flash, grabbing him up in her metal clad hands and easily lifting him off his feet. The ferocity of her eyes alone was enough to convey to the dragon slayer why that plan was not in his best interest.

"Okay! Okay! I won't do it!"

Erza put him down gently.

"Very good. Now, let's get this done. We should get inside, find our section and prepare." She said with a pleasant, easy smile.

Inwardly, Logan had felt some real pleasure at watching that debacle that almost was. There was something reassuring in the fact that they were about to embark on this massive competition that would affect the entire guild, and his friends weren't acting any differently than they did at any other time.

At the entrance into the stadium itself, they found a tournament official waiting by the side, sitting at a table with two nasty looking guys obviously working security standing on either side of him. He was a medium sized man in a dandified suit that looked far too prim and proper for the circumstance. Erza stepped boldly up to the table and spoke in her usual, clear and confident baritone.

"We're the wizards from Fairy Tail, here to check in."

"Of course, miss. If you'd all please just state your names so I can match them to my records."

They each said their full names one by one.

"Right, that's all in order." The official said. "Now, before we can actually let you compete, you'll each have to sign one of these."

The man slapped down a small stack of papers in the middle of the table.

"What are those?" Gray asked.

"Release forms. As you know, the Grand Magic Games are televised throughout the country on lacrima-vision, and these forms give us permission to project your image and share your names and affiliation, while also stating clearly that you, the signer, are not being paid or otherwise compensated by the games planning committee for appearing."

"Is that really necessary?" Lucy asked.

"It's quite standard, I assure you, but I should also point out that we can't allow you to compete without this written consent."

"If that's the case, than we'll gladly sign." Erza decreed.

She bent over and quickly scribbled her name onto the top sheet. The official took it back as soon as she was done.

"Thank you, Miss Serc- Sal- Scrarley- Scureli-"

For some reason, the guy was having a hard time reading her name.

"That's Scarlet! Erza Scarlet!" She said with a quiet frustration.

Logan detected something of a slight tremor in Erza's voice that he'd never heard before, and noticed she wasn't staring the official down menacingly like he might have expected. He wondered what could have possibly made her act that way.

In contrast, Gray and Lucy had no problems in their signing, although the man did take a second or two longer deciphering Natsu's. When it finally came to Logan's turn, he couldn't help but hesitate. How long had he spent as a nomad? How long had he spent wandering, never staying in one place for longer than a week? How long had he spent on his own, keeping his head down, talking to as few people as he could get away with? Fiore had a population of around seventeen million people, and if he signed that paper, so many of them would all be watching him. They'd be scrutinizing him, wondering about him, trying to analyze his fighting techniques and discover his magic. Everything he was would come out sooner or later, he felt sure of that. It was a complete inversion of everything his life had been for as long as he could remember.

"Logan?" He heard Lucy ask.

He looked up from the desk, and saw that they were all staring back at him. Logan could see it in their eyes that all four of them knew what was going through his head. That one look was all it took to sway his misgivings. All the months of training, all the preparation and hardship, and most of all, Logan's own promise that he would come through for the team, it'd all be worthless if he couldn't just get over himself. Much as he felt the desire to be selfish, Logan knew he couldn't betray his friends. Then, there was Wendy as well. Whomever had attacked her would almost certainly be in the games, and Logan felt a burning desire to express his displeasure for that. He bent down and signed his name with a flurry.

"Everything's in order, so you may now go in. An attendant inside will guide you to your guild's locker room."

Logan stepped over to join the others as they headed for the door.

"You almost had me worried there, pal." Natsu said cheerily, leaning an arm on Logan's shoulder.

"Told you that you guys can count on me. I didn't let you down last night, I wasn't about to today."

Logan made his face a little more stony than usual as he spoke, trying to conceal how nervous he was.

"Hey, man, we may not know what's in your head, but we know what you're like. We got some idea of what it means for you to have agreed to that." Gray said.

Lucy then leaned forward past Gray, turning her head to look at him.

"Don't worry, we won't let anyone know that you just put your friends ahead of yourself." She teased good-naturedly.

Right at that moment, Logan was feeling an odd and utterly alien sensation. It was a strange combination of apprehension for the coming week, and reassurance from Lucy's joke. If he weren't still so nervous about everything that was about to happen, he might have detected the corners of his mouth microscopically twitch upward for the briefest hint of a second.

OOO

Instead of following the attendant to find their changing room, the first thing the team did was to head for the infirmary. Wendy and Carla had already been moved there that morning, and they all wanted to check on them before doing anything else. When they arrived, they found that Lisanna, Elfman, and Happy were already there, looking after her.

"How is she?" Natsu asked.

"She's been a bit in and out, but a nurse came by and examined her before. He said there isn't anything wrong with her, physically, at least." Elfman reported.

Wendy's face then suddenly scrunched up a bit, and a small groan passed her lips.

"I think she's waking up!" Lucy exclaimed.

"Hey, kiddo, you with us?" Gray asked gently.

Wendy opened her eyes, turning her head to look at all of them.

"Hey, everyone." She said weakly. "Where are we?"

"The infirmary of the Domus Flau coliseum. Can you remember anything?" Erza asked.

"I..." Wendy struggled. They could see she was searching for the answer. "I don't know. It's all just a big blur. I'm so sorry."

Wendy then suddenly grunted, her face contorting with pain.

"Wendy?!" Logan gasped.

"She appears to have magic deficiency syndrome." A voice said from behind.

They all turned, and Logan saw a much older woman with pink hair and a red cape standing in the doorway. He had no idea who she was.

"Porlyusica." Lucy blurted out.

"Who's this?" Logan asked.

"She's a healer from Magnolia and an old friend of Master Makarov's." Erza answered.

"I came as quickly as I could after that running fool showed up at my door last night with that note. Now..."

Porlyusica bent down and placed a hand on Wendy's forehead, checking her temperature.

"A moment ago, you mentioned magic deficiency syndrome." Erza said.

"Yes. It's a condition of weakened physical strength brought on by an acute case of magic depletion. They've both had nearly all of their magic power sucked out, but don't worry, they'll both fully recover with enough bed rest."

"Who did this to you?" Natsu asked Wendy.

"It's still a big blur for the most part. But, I can remember seeing a weird, black animal." She said.

Just then, Wendy's mind flashed back onto a fragment of a memory, and she had the vision of something with a sinister outline and glowing red eyes pouncing upon her. Wendy gasped in shock and fear. She pulled the sheets of the bed up over her face while turning away from the group. She began to cry softly.

Wendy sobbed out, "I'm sorry. I let you down. I trained so hard to help you, but now... I'm just useless!"

Her cries were bitter, calamitous, and heartrending. The agony of emotional pain and self-reproach she was feeling was palpable in Wendy's voice, and it tore at Logan's heart. Before he even knew what he was doing, he'd stepped away from the others and circled Wendy's bed to kneel down in front of her covered face. With a pressure that was insistent, but not forceful, he pulled the sheet away to look directly into her eyes.

In a voice both gentle and serious, he said, "Now you listen to me. This was not your fault. You did nothing wrong. You're not letting anyone down, and no one is disappointed in you."

Wendy's tears didn't stop. She began to cry even harder as she reached out and latched her arms around Logan's neck, pulling herself close to him and resting her chin on his shoulder. Logan hugged her in return, applying a reassuring pressure to her back.

"It's okay, Wendy. It's okay."

No one said anything for five whole minutes. They merely let the scene play out until Wendy's sobs exhausted themselves to the point where she let go of Logan and laid back down in the bed. He pulled the sheets back up in place and tenderly tucked them under her chin before returning to the rest of the group.

"Everyone should probably leave now." Porlyusica said. "These two can't heal if they don't get proper rest."

"There's nothing more we can do here. We should at least try to focus on the Grand Magic Games." Erza said.

They filed out one at a time, the Strauss siblings included, and shut the door behind them. In her bed, Wendy was still crying softly, but far less robustly than she had before. The majority of her despair had already worked itself out.

"Now then, no more waterworks, child. Those ridiculous games go on for several days, and I'm sure you'll get to participate once you're well. And make no mistake, you will recover now that I'm here. On my honor as a healer."

Wendy looked up at the older woman, and it was the final straw needed to make her feel happy and hopeful again.

"Thanks for all your help, Miss Grandeeney."

"Do not call me by that name." Porlyusica snapped back.

Wendy chuckled and smiled to herself.

OOO

An hour and forty minutes later, Erza, Lucy, Logan, Natsu, and Gray could hear the stadium attendees roaring strongly through all the stone walls.

"Wow. Would you listen to that crowd?" Erza said.

"I didn't think there'd be so many people watching." Lucy said.

"The city's full of wizards from all over the country. Of course folks want to see them in action." Gray observed.

Across the room, while putting on the special outfit he'd be wearing for the opening ceremony, Logan heard a faint rustling and recognized what it was without looking up.

"Gray, you're taking your clothes off."

"I am?"

Gray then looked down to see that his hands were right in the process of removing his shirt.

"Ah, damn it, I am! Thanks, man!"

"You should just keep takin' 'em off, man." Natsu groaned. "Purple is so lame. I'd rather wear my regular clothes instead of this crap."

"Purple or not, you'll just have to deal. Unless you want to tell Master why you think the clothes he picked are so lame." Lucy scolded him.

"You won't hear me complaining. I think they're adorable." Erza proclaimed.

Looking at her, Logan found himself thinking that the purple one piece dress she had on with the high collar and matching gloves beneath her metal gauntlets did make Erza look exceptionally beautiful. It took him a moment to realize he was actually staring at her, focusing strongly on the lines of her face and the shine of her scarlet hair. He quickly shot his eyes back down to lacing his boots before he was caught.

Clearing his throat, Logan said, "I really couldn't care less about the color. I'm just impressed they were able to get this together for me so fast, considering it was supposed to be Wendy."

His own outfit wasn't that different from what he normally wore. It was a leather jacket stained the same color purple as all the rest. The Fairy Tail guild symbol was positioned over his heart, and he had on a plain, black t-shirt underneath and a new pair of jeans of a more expensive brand than he'd buy for himself.

"You should be sure to thank the guild for that later on." Lucy told him. "Levy told me that they all pooled their money to buy the clothes, that Jet had to run to three different towns to buy them with how late it was, Levy used her solid script magic to create the dye, and then Fried used his enchantments to make the jacket look right."

Logan was impressed by that, and his eyes displayed the fact.

"I, uh, I will."

OOO

"The person who attacked Wendy, you think he's taking part in the games as well?" Natsu asked.

He and the rest of the team were huddled side by side in the tunnel they'd be using to make their way into the grand arena. They were only waiting for the signal to make their entrance.

"I'd say there's a strong possibility." Lucy answered him.

"You think they did it just to weaken us or for some other reason?" Gray asked.

"Whatever the truth may be, we will find it out, but don't get distracted." Erza told them all.

Logan nervously gulped a lump down his throat. His nerves wouldn't stop, and he could barely keep his hands from shaking, but then he decided that was enough being anxious for the day. It was time to go to work.

"I can do this. It's just another job. Just another bounty to collect, except this time, I'm not alone." He thought.

From all around them, the fairies heard a magical loudspeaker begin the day's broadcast.

"We are just moments away from the start of the Grand Magic Games, folks." The announcer said. "I'm lead commentator, Chapati Lola, and I'll be handling the play by play, while former council member, Yajima, provides commentary. Mr. Yajima, glad to have you with us sir."

"Glad to be here."

"And lets not forget our special guest, a member of Blue Pegasus and current holder of the title 'Miss Fiore,' the ravishing Jenny Realight."

The male voices were then broken up by the light and bubbly sound of a young woman.

"Blue Pegasus is bringing home the gold this year!"

Inside the tunnel, the mood between Natsu, Lucy, Erza, Logan, and Gray was as laser-focused as any of them had ever felt their group.

"Alright, guys, let's do this." Natsu said sternly.

They walked in unison out of the shadow of the tunnel into the blinding sunshine and inescapable scrutiny of the arena.

"Now, the time has come to meet our competitors!" Chapati announced. "First up, in eighth place, a wild bunch of old school wizards from Magnolia, they had luck in the prelims, and they're looking to take back first place by force. It's Fairy Tail!"

Natsu raised his fist to the crowd in a gesture of stolid determination. The immediate booing and jeering at them by the entire stadium was not the effect he'd been going for.

"What the hell?!" Natsu declared.

"I didn't see that coming." Gray said.

"This is actually about what I expected." Logan thought.

"I want to go home now." Squeaked Lucy.

"Who would have thought they'd make it this far after losing every year? Securing a spot in the prelims was no small feat for them. Will the Tenro team's sensational return help Fairy Tail become Fiore's greatest guild?" Chapati said to the crowd.

"Don't let it get to you." Erza told the others.

"I'm proud of them." Mr. Yajima said to the country. "Way to go, kiddos! Now, get out there and show them what you can do!"

"CHEER TIL YOU BUST A LUNG!"

From an enclosed enclave at the very edge of arena's wall, Master Makarov's voice could be heard even over the roar of the other tens of thousands of onlookers.

"HOORAY! HOORAY! FAIRY TAIL WILL TAKE THE PRIZE! WE'RE NUMBER ONE!"

"The cheers of our guildmates are all the support we need." Erza said.

For a second, they all looked on at their comrades in silent appreciation. It was broken by the sound of Gray and Natsu suddenly gasping in unison.

"Hey, do you see that?" Natsu asked.

"Look!" Lucy gasped.

"I see it!"

On the edge of Fairy Tail's enclave, perched atop the wall with her feet dangling over the side, sat the figure of a young girl. She couldn't have been more than Wendy's age, thirteen at the most. She was barefoot, with extremely long, blonde hair, green eyes, and she was wearing a one piece dress that was so light in shade, its pink hue was almost white.

OOO

"Hooray! Hooray! Fairy Tail is number one, woohoo!" The little girl cried.

"Master Mavis?! What in the world are you doing here?!" Makarov asked with tremendous shock.

Everyone else in the guild was staring at her with unabashed, wide-eyed stupefaction, entirely paralyzed.

"What else?" She asked with a small giggle and a delighted smile. "I came to cheer you on, silly."

"Yes, I can see that, but aren't you, you know, dead?"

"There's no way I was going to miss this. You don't need to worry. Only those who bear our guild's emblem can see me." Mavis replied.

"Yeah, well, that's not really what I was concerned about."

"I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself. It's so dull being stuck on Tenro Island."

Looking down into the stadium, she focused on the one face she wasn't acquainted with.

"Oh, I see we have a new member in our guild! It makes me so happy to see that even though Fairy Tail isn't as big as it was right now, we can still bring in new people in need of a home."

Mavis waved her left hand widely and boldly at the group down below.

"Good luck everyone! It's nice to meet you, silver hair! I'm sure we'll be great friends!"

OOO

"Ha ha ha!" Natsu laughed. "Even Master Mavis came out to cheer for us? We've got this in the bag!"

"Um, guys, who's that little girl and why does everyone seem shocked to see her?" Logan asked, visible confusion painting his face.

Erza, Natsu, Gray and Lucy looked between each other, and it only then dawned upon them that it was only natural for Logan to have no idea who Master Mavis Vermillion was. It had briefly slipped their minds that he'd only joined the guild after they'd all come back from Tenro, and there hadn't ever been a reason to mention the guild's first master.

"Well, that's not really something that's easy to explain." Gray said.

"It'll have to wait until later tonight, but just know that she's on our side, and we're glad to have her." Erza said.

Logan didn't even hesitate as he gave her a nod of agreement. If Erza was saying she could be trusted, that was good enough for him.

Unaffected by and unaware of the Fairy Tail team's sidebar, Chapati continued his introductions of all the teams.

"Next up, the team that came in seventh place in the prelims, they're the rowdy army of hellhounds: Quatro Cerberus!"

From one of the seven other tunnels emerged a team of wizards whose looks matched their name. They were all men, and the one leading the bunch had blond hair styled to look like either dog's ears or a pair of horns. Another had gone shirtless to show off his physique, but that was probably more an effort to distract how much his face looked like a dog's. Another still was wearing a poncho with a hood made to resemble a dog's head.

"Let's get wild!" The one in front yelled.

Chapati continued, "And coming in sixth is a guild filled to the brim with the fairer sex. The damsels of the bright, blue sea, Mermaid Heel!"

Entering directly across from Natsu and the rest, as advertised, were five young women. They were lead by a girl with purple hair, in a militaristic style outfit, and a severely stern countenance. The rest of them varied from one woman who looked like she should be in a circus performance somewhere, to a girl essentially in her underwear with a hood hiding her face, and another who anyone would peg as belonging on a farm.

In the enclave dedicated to the rest of Fairy Tail who weren't competing, the men were all pushing themselves as far forward as they could to ogle the incoming ladies. They were very nearly drooling.

"In fifth place, with azure wings that glimmer in the darkness, it's Blue Pegasus!"

Ichiya, all three of his younger cronies, and most surprising of all, someone disguising themselves inside of a bunny costume walked into the stadium. They each struck a needless and overly melodramatic pose.

"Hey, guys! Do your best!" Jenny cheered.

"Next, in fourth place, the goddess of love and strife, the sacred destroyer, Lamia Scale!"

Lyon, Jura, Yuka, who was a guy with eyebrows that could double as brooms, one who looked like a dog, and a girl with magenta pink hair all made their way forward. They walked together in a tightly knit group, looking strong and proud.

From their own enclave within the stands, the Lamia Scale guild master shouted a derision down at her underlings for how they placed in the rankings. The pink haired girl looked up as if to say something in response over the din of the crowd, but before she could try, her face suddenly became quite friendly with the dirt. She just fell. The motion looked as if she'd tripped, but there didn't seem to be anything which could have caused her to tumble down like that.

Looking at her, Natsu said something, but more carefully than he usually would.

"Hey, that must be that Shellia girl from the file."

"Yeah, I'd say so. Just look at her. She looks like a smaller version of that girl, Sherry." Gray quipped.

"Please try to stay on your feet." Lyon told the younger girl.

"No promises." She replied while laughing at herself.

"This is Shellia. She's one of Sherry's cousins." Yuka informed Fairy Tail.

"And she's crazy strong to boot." Toby, the dog-man said.

Remarking off-handedly, Shellia said, "I need a lot more love if I'm going to compete with Sherry."

"I just praised you!" Toby rebuked.

Gray closed his eyes and smiled to himself, amused by the eccentricities of their acquaintances.

"Being love crazy must run in the family."

With a challenging posture, Lyon then stepped up close to his fellow, former pupil of Ur.

"Don't forget our agreement, Gray. If we win, Juvia becomes a member of Lamia Scale."

Gray smirked. "Last time I checked, I never agreed to that bet. Not that matters, cause you guys are gonna lose. But, hey, if you think you can win her over into joining you guys when its all over, be my guest and give it your best shot."

Sensing an opportunity, Ichiya chose that moment to slither himself in front of Erza and put on what he considered to be his most alluring and seductive expression.

"Maybe if we win, I'll take Miss Erza as my one and only." He declared.

"I'll do no such thing, you troll!" Erza countered instantly and vehemently.

Somehow seeming to change positions without moving his feet, Ichiya then placed himself directly behind Erza and proceeded to literally sniff at her butt. Before he'd taken more than half a whiff, he was cut off by Logan's boot planting itself sharply into his kidney.

"Get away from her!" Logan declared with a steely vehemence, but not loudly enough to be considered overtly venomous.

Ichiya was sent rolling for a solid thirty feet before his momentum petered out, repeating the exclamation of "man!" with every rotation.

Flipping some stray hairs over her shoulder, Erza turned to address her friend.

"Thank you, Logan. I greatly appreciate that."

"It's really not a problem." Logan said back. "That guy gives me the creeps. I mean, to be-"

Logan cut himself off, unable to say the words of what Ichiya had been doing. He jerked his head away, clearly looking a bit embarrassed.

"I just wanted to look out for you and the others, you know, with what happened to Wendy."

After that brief interlude, the flow of the proceedings resumed their normal course, and the introductions of the various teams continued.

"Now, to introduce our third place contestants. What a shocker! Swooping in from a midnight dreary, this dark and gloomy bunch made their debut in this year's games. Give it up for Raaaaven Taaaaail!" Chapati rolled the words out.

A gaggle of darkly dressed people with a several ominous aura slowly made their way out onto the field. Their combined appearance was that which you might find in a group of sinister, malefic strangers who only prove themselves to be murderous at the end of a horror novel.

"There they are." Natsu growled lowly.

"The guild of Master Makarov's son." Erza said.

"Just like Ultear's dossier said." Logan said.

"Ugh!" Lucy shuddered. "They're even creepier than I imagined."

Logan looked out at them, and the sneering, malevolent looks on their faces told him all he needed to know. He could tell instantly, after Fairy Tail, these guys were the most dangerous presence in the coliseum.

OOO

"Have you officials lost your minds, or were you just incompetent to begin with?!" Makarov screamed at the top of his lungs.

Standing at the very last half inch of the ledge of their enclave, Macao had to literally hold the smaller, older man back from falling over the side.

"You're making a scene, master!"

"He's gonna bust a vessel!" Lisanna worried.

Looking down, Mavis could easily discern from where everyone's concern was coming.

"I'm sensing intense malice coming from them." She said.

From the broadcaster's booth, Chapati spoke into his microphone.

"Allow me to clarify for anyone who may be confused. The records of the Raven Tail guild are fully in order. According to official sources, they're an old guild who have been active for over seven years, however, they were only recently approved by the magic council for official guild status."

"Hmm." Mr. Yajima grunted. "If they have official status, than they're technically not a dark guild and are therefore eligible to compete."

Master Makarov swore under his breath with savage, barely contained fury.

"Curse you, Ivan! I don't know how you did it, but whatever you're planning, I swear I'll stop you!"

OOO

At the top of the stands, a man in his mid forties and sporting a thick, black beard, stared across the stadium, smugly contemptuous.

"You shouldn't get so worked up, old man. It's bad for your health." Ivan Dreyer sneered. "I want you to live to see your guild fall."

OOO

Down in the arena, the members of Raven Tail stood face to face with those from Fairy Tail across a distance of ten feet. The one standing in the center of Raven Tail, a man in gold-plated armor and a full helmet to conceal his face, glared implacably across at them.

"Fairy Tail, I trust your friend is recovering." He wheezed out in a rasping, unsettling voice.

At that moment, perched upon the shoulder of another of the formerly dark wizards, a devilish, imp like creature magically transformed its face. It converted itself to look like a miniature of Wendy, and then mimed her falling down in pain.

"You were the ones who attacked Wendy?!" Natsu demanded.

Gray, Lucy, and Erza all glared at their newfound enemies with stern, but controlled faces. Logan was another matter. The others felt it even before they turned to look at him. His jaw was clenched, his fists were balled, his knuckles were white, every muscle in his body seemed to be tensed, coiled, bulging beneath his clothes, ready to spring into action. His face was set in a rictus of merciless antagonism. The unrelenting hatred emanating from Logan was of such cyclopean propensity that it looked like it could be genuine blood-lust.

Erza placed a hand on his bicep, intending to calm him down. Before she could speak, the first thing her mind registered was how his muscle felt closer to tempered steel than the give of human flesh. She found herself momentarily wondering just how much power he'd developed in that tissue.

Erza whispered in his ear, "Logan, calm down. We all want to avenge Wendy, and we will, but in the games. Believe me, I understand. There's nothing I'd like better than to beat them to the point they'd be invalided and completely paralyzed the rest of their lives, but if we give in to that, than Fairy Tail will be disqualified. I'm asking you as a friend, as a personal favor to me, don't do what you're thinking of doing."

It took a few seconds longer than Erza would have expected from her most controlled teammate, but Logan's muscle finally seemed to relax, and his face retreated from murderous to simply irate.

"Yeah, fine." He growled lowly.

Even though he didn't budge an inch, Erza kept her hand where it was just in case, just to reassure him.

The man in the golden armor than chuckled wickedly.

"The festival is just getting started."

"Hold on, everyone! We've still got two more teams who made it through the qualifiers!" The announcer proclaimed.

"You know, one of these last two teams have to be the one tied to Zeref." Gray speculated.

"That's if Crime Sorcière's assumption is correct. Either way, we'll know in a moment." Lucy replied.

"And now ladies and gentlemen, in a surprise twist no one saw coming, this year's competition just got a whole lot more interesting! Coming in second, our first place runners-up are none other than Fairy Tail Team B!"

In a flash of lightning, Laxus, Mirajane, Gajeel, Juvia, and someone Logan could instantly tell was Jellal, despite the mask over his face, were standing quite near them.

"What the?! How is this fair?!" Lucy shouted reflexively.

In a way, the unexpected development served to even Logan's mood. The sudden appearance of more of his guild mates caused the hostility he'd been bathing in to mellow into a combination of consistency and exasperation.

"Hold up! I need some answers! What the heck's Mystogan even doing here?!" Insisted Natsu.

"It can't be. Jellal, is that you in there?" Erza asked quietly.

"Of course it's him." Logan said heatedly. "Of course its all of them. Why doesn't this surprise me even a little bit?"

While he may have been unfazed by the arrival of his guildmates, the other teams were most certainly shocked by their appearance. The Raven Tail man in the armor even gave a contemplative little chuckle.

Chapati said, "Mr. Yajima, I think the newly implemented rules may have left our audience a bit perplexed. Care to explain?"

"Sure thing. The committee in charge of the Grand Magic Games permitted each guild to enter two teams this year, which they felt would make the preliminaries more exciting."

"You know, I'm really not sure the committee thought this new rule through. I mean, this is a team based competition. Won't having two teams from the same guild kind of stack the odds?" Chapati asked.

"You worry too much. To be honest, I don't think it'll be a problem."

"Well, it's totally unfair if you ask me." Jenny said. "Let's say there's an event where each team chooses a member to compete against the others in a battle royale. There's nothing to stop the Fairy Tail members from teaming up with each other."

"It does give them an advantage, but I guess that's their reward for being the only guild out of one-hundred with two teams in the games."

"Ha ha! You certainly have the upper hand. Way to go, Maki!"

Makraov cackled at the top of his lungs.

To the whole stadium, he declared, "Ya like that?! That's how the Fairy Tail guild takes care of business, baby!"

"Huh. So that's why so many teams entered the tournament." Lucy thought aloud.

Suddenly ablaze about something, Natsu threw himself in front of the secondary team from his guild.

"That's a huge load of crap!" He fervently publicized. "Being in the same guild don't mean jack! If I fight against any of you, I'm not pulling any punches! As long we're in this tournament, you're my enemies and I ain't gonna lose to any of you!"

Gajeel got right up into Natsu's face, his demeanor dripping with gleeful animosity.

"I wouldn't have it any other way. I'm looking forward to making you eat dirt, Salamander."

A few feet away, Logan was asking a question he felt was necessary.

"Uh, Mirajane, I hope this doesn't come off as offensive, but can you even fight?"

Mira smiled broadly with a slight tilt to her head.

"Oh, don't you worry about me. I'll be fine!"

Next to him, Erza asked Jellal, "So, what are you even doing here? This is wrong."

"Your master is a very understanding person. Once I explained the situation, he gave my plan his blessing."

"You said it was impossible to get near the coliseum."

"It was, until this opportunity presented itself."

"You're not an official member of Fairy Tail, so it's against the rules. Moreover, you're endangering your own operation." Erza said with a sturdy amount of severity in her voice.

"I'm sorry?" Jellal was taken aback.

"You asked us to do this favor for you, and now you're taking advantage of the situation. This is a tournament. Can you even imagine how many possible ways that mask might come off your face at any given time, and then what will you do? You'll be arrested on the spot, and have you considered what might happen to Fairy Tail in that situation? As I see it, our best case scenario is being disqualified and banned from the games in perpetuity. The worst case scenario is that the magic council decides the entire guild is guilty of aiding and abetting a fugitive and forces us to disband. You're endangering us all." Erza spelled it out.

Jellal's eyes widened. He was speechless. Those possibilities had never entered his mind as potential outcomes. He'd been too focused on the chance to get a first hand look at the proceedings to think about any consequences.

Intruding on the talk, Laxus then came in and threw his arm around Jellal's shoulder as if they were old buddies.

He told Erza, "Hey, don't be so uptight, this is a festival. We're all friends here, right? Kiss and make up."

Jellal sputtered over his words for a moment before rediscovering his voice.

"That's right. I'll do my best, Erza. Please, try to have faith in me."

She gave a noncommittal grunt in response.

"By the way, Mystogan, you're not normally this much of a chatty Kathy, keep it in mind." Laxus informed him.

Overhearing what was going on, Logan then decided it was time to step in and give some friendly advice. Leaving Mirajane, he injected himself into the conversation.

"I don't think you two are really hearing her." Logan said in a steely tone. "Everything Erza just said is true, and I believe this current council has been looking for an excuse to ax Fairy Tail for a while now. You need to remove yourself."

"But-" Jellal started.

"No 'buts.' The rules of this tournament allow each team up to three reserve members to be alternated in the case of sickness, injury, or emergencies. Get Makarov to submit a form to the committee and leave us to do the job you asked us to do, or I'll fill it out myself and forge his signature." Logan said. He was in no mood to be in any way indulgent.

Jellal considered for a moment, then he nodded.

"Perhaps I didn't think this through entirely. I'll discuss it with your master later on."

He and Laxus then walked off to address the crowd and put on the show required for the moment.

"Thank you again, Logan. I must say, I value your support. It's a bit rare that I have someone champion my side in an argument." Erza said.

"Well, you were absolutely right. His doing this is tactically stupid in multiple ways. High risk for only the possibility of marginal benefit."

Erza smiled at him. What she had said was true, as it wasn't very often she had someone on her side in disputes. Erza had no allusions about how volatile her temper could sometimes be, but it so often felt like no one was listening to her when she was just trying to help her friends make the best decisions they could. It felt nice for someone to understand what she was saying and support her for a change.

OOO

"That hooded man down there, he doesn't seem to be a member of our guild." Mavis observed from the Fairy Tail enclave.

On her left, Makarov's face twisted into a horrible, frightened distortion of himself. The idea that he had done something of which Fairy Tail's founding master might disapprove filled him with more distress than he'd felt since he'd stopped going out on wizard jobs decades before.

"I'M SO SORRY! I HAD TO! PLEASE FORGIVE ME!" Makarov pleaded, prostrating himself and bowing his head up and down in a fervor of angst.

"I said it was a bad idea from the start." Macao commented.

"Don't think we didn't try to stop him." Added Wakaba.

Mavis looked back down at the scene below.

"I don't sense any malevolence coming from him. In fact, he seems to possess the same heart as those bearing our guild's emblem."

Happy then spoke up, "It'd take way too long to explain, but the short version is that you could say he kind of used to be a member of our guild."

"I get it now. He's the Earth-Land version of Prince Jellal." Pantherlilly said.

"Is he strong?" Mavis asked.

"Oh, yes!" Makarov was quick to reply. "It wasn't that long ago that he was one of the ten wizard saints!"

Mavis made no reaction at first. She had a stoically implacable look on her face, as if she were weighing all the various pros and cons to any number of scenarios. After a few seconds, she turned to the current guild master with a beaming smile, her eyes shimmering with delight.

"Then he can stay! With him on our team, we're sure to be number one!"

With that proclamation, the three members of Team Shadowgear shared a collective dejection, a plummeting of their spirits. It was accompanied by a weary sense of familiarity.

"Of course she's fine with it." Droy said.

"Who cares about rules when there's a tournament to win, right?" Jet said.

"We should make that part of the charter at this point." Levy finished.

OOO

"And finally, last but certainly not least, is the team that came in first place in the preliminaries!"

In an instant, the crowd whipped themselves up into a frenzy, screaming out a deafening cacophony of enthusiasm.

"That's right! You know them, you love them, so get on your feet and scream for the strongest guild in all of Fiore, the one and only SABERTOOOOOOOOTH!"

The five members of the Sabertooth guild sauntered in like they owned the place. Sting came in leading the pack, holding both his arms outstretched as if he were a rock star, egging the crowd on. Rogue entered wearing a disinterested, stoic expression, as if the proceedings made no difference to him. The third in line was the only girl of the group. She was a young woman with shortly cut, silver hair, wearing an outfit made with an unmistakable angelic motif to the design. There was than the second musclebound goon of the day who'd ostentatiously chosen to go shirtless entering the stadium behind the girl. The last one to come through was a man wearing a red, button-up, sleeveless vest with tails running down the back to his feet, over a white shirt with pleated ruffles coming out the front. He also wore a wide brimmed hat with pink feathers streaming out on his head, and a mask covering the top half of his face.

From across the distance, Sting and Natsu locked eyes, their newfound rivalry igniting itself afresh.

"Can't wait to take them down a peg or two!" Natsu said to himself.

Having heard him through the enhanced senses of a dragon slayer, Sting lead his group to stand toe to toe with Fairy Tail.

Sting responded with a smugly, superior condescension. "Why so serious? It's just a game."

"Ha! I always get a kick out of how puny all the members of the legendary Fairy Tail are!" The shirtless guy with green hair spouted.

That comment annoyed Logan a bit. He had to bite his tongue to keep himself from saying something he shouldn't. The arrogance coming off these guys was so thick, it could almost be seen as a vapor. It served only to reaffirm his conviction that turning down the offer to join them had been the correct decision. Logan's friends were better than these guys.

"There a reason you keep gawkin', pretty boy?" Gajeel snapped.

"Nothing important." Rogue stated.

"Well, it's not like we weren't expecting this." Gray said to Erza.

From the broadcast booth, Chapati said, "All in all, I'd say we have an impressive group of wizards here. Any comments on our lineup, Mr. Yajima?"

"Yeah. Mermaid Heel makes me pine for my youth." He said wistfully.

"Umm... thank you, Mr. Yajima! Now, we've kept everyone waiting long enough! It's time to reveal the official schedule for this year's tournament!"

Either from a lacrima being triggered by spoken keywords, or from an unseen official initiating the occurrence, a giant, thirty-foot tall monolith sprang up out of the ground in the middle of the arena for everyone to see. Written upon it in ornate lettering were eight vertical lines, each denoting a different day of the tournament, with question marks on every line.

"Heh heh! Now we're talkin'!" Natsu chirped happily.

Chapati went on, "Each one of the rounds will begin with a contest, and depending on the results, participants will then be ranked from first to eighth place. The teams will be awarded points based on how they rank in the contest. Additionally, the teams are allowed to select which of the members they want to compete. After that, we have battles! These bouts should come as quite a treat to all you loyal fans, since it was your suggestions that created these match-ups."

"Interesting." Erza thought.

"So, we get to choose who we send into the contests, but the planning committee then decides who fights." Logan surmised.

"Which means that if you don't watch how much magic you use in a contest, you could find yourself in a battle with no time to rest." Lucy finished the thought.

The monolith's writing then changed to show an entirely new layout. It displayed a general, alphabetical naming of teams, each aligned in vertical blocks, with a "vs" between each.

"The battle rules are simple. Each team will square off as shown here. The winning teams will be awarded ten points, while the losing teams get jack-squat! In the case of a draw, both teams will be awarded five points. Ready for action?! Well, then let's kick off the Grand Magic Games with the first game of the week, and it's one that we call 'Hidden!'"

The monolith changed again to boldly display the title of the game.

"At this time, we'd like each team to select one member to compete. Once your selections are made, the rules will be explained in their entirety."

One by one, the teams sent out their members. The first to volunteer was the giant guy from Quatro Cerberus, named Yaegar. He was quickly followed by Beth Vanderwood from Mermaid Heel, Nalpudding from Raven Tail, Eve Tilm from Blue Pegasus, and Rufus Lore from Sabertooth. As Rufus stepped forward, the crowd's volume increased with a fresh wave of cheering.

"They're going nuts for the pretty boy?" Natsu asked. "I don't get it."

Erza said, "Whatever the rules may be, we can determine that stealth and guile will be essential, based on the name."

"If only Wendy wasn't out of action. She'd be perfect." Lucy commented.

Thinking it over, Logan was trying to think which of their members they had at present would be the least lousy at this. All due respect to his friends, even among the chaos of Fairy Tail, they all still managed to stand out and be obvious. Either himself or Gray would probably be the most apt. He would suggest he do it himself, but he paused a beat. It just seemed too presumptive of him to say that he himself would be the best for the task.

As he was thinking, the team from Lamia Scale made their decision, and Lyon Vastia's name was announced to the country.

"Yeah? In that case, I got this one. Sounds like fun." Gray declared.

Acting on behavior so mentally ingrained it was almost a reflex, Juvia then threw herself into the fray as well.

"There we have it, folks! The competitors have been chosen, and the long wait is finally over. Grab a refreshment and get glued to your seat, cause you're not going to want to miss a single nail-biting moment of Hidden."

OOO

A/N: There's another chapter all wrapped up, and the games are underway! Everyone may have to wait a little longer for the next chapter to be available, as I'll be making it a double one, combining both of Fairy Tail's Day 1 events into a single chapter, with some big surprises you won't want to miss. As always, I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter, because I really love writing the Fairy Tail characters and trying to build on them a bit more than the show sometimes did. I'm always open to any constructive feedback, so I'd love to hear your thoughts in the reviews. Until next time!