BROKEN AND BRUISED
CHAPTER 24
Completing the sky labyrinth wasn't easy. It had many guilds all vying for a spot in the eight slots, which made the competition quite difficult. But after defeating several of the said guilds and using Lucy's spirit Pyxis to find the exit, they were able to pull through.
"Ah~" Lucy stretched her arms as they neared the finishing line. "That sure took some time."
"It doesn't matter, we were amazing back there," Gray said as he cracked his knuckles.
Natsu chuckled. "Heck yeah we were, and we were fast as well. We could even be the first ones to pass!" he exclaimed happily as they passed the finishing line.
At once, a light shone at them and Mato appeared. "Congratulations on completing the sky labyrinth. Your team is now officially qualified to participate in the Grand Magic Games."
The team cheered as Natsu asked the pumpkin head a question. "Were we the first team to qualify?"
"No, you are the eighth team. You barely made it. But congratulations nonetheless." Mato said with high spirits not noticing the shock on everyone's faces.
Gray sighed as he crossed his arms. "That thought was too good to be true."
Lucy, noticing the way the atmosphere between them changed, called out to them. "Come on guys, cheer up. It just means we have to do better in the main event. We got this! We never back down from any fight, we are Fairy Tail after all."
Erza put her arm around Lucy and brought her into a side hug. "Well said Lucy." she gazed at the team before her as she cleared her throat. "Like Lucy said, it just means we have to do better in the main event which starts tomorrow. So let's go and get some rest in the meantime."
Mato announced that the sky labyrinth was now closed and that all the guilds that didn't make it in the top 8 slots were disqualified.
"As for the teams that did make it, you will all get to know them tomorrow so stay tuned for our first day in the Grand Magic Games!" Mato's voice echoed in the dark night as each team prepared to sleep.
Soon after they reached their room, all of the members crashed on their beds save for one person who couldn't sleep. Erza looked out the balcony at the empty, dimly lit streets with one thought crossing her mind.
"Where are you Wendy?" she whispered into the night.
"You should be asleep."
She jumped at the sound of the voice that came from the balcony next to her and swiveled with her sword in hand. At the sight of the blue hair and red mark on the person's face, her heart calmed down only for it beat faster for a different reason than fright.
"Same could be said about you, Jellal." She replied as her sword disappeared back into her pocket dimension.
Jellal sighed. "I couldn't. Too many things on my mind."
"The plan?" Erza asked.
He nodded. "That, and another thing I noticed today."
This piqued Erza's interest. "Oh? What is it?"
Jellal opened his mouth to answer before he shut it and shook his head. "Nothing, I might just be too tired. Goodnight Erza."
He got up and entered his room, leaving her baffled about this whole conversation. She sighed as she lowered her head and whispered. "Even now, I can't understand you. But I wonder, if she can?"
Her gaze drifted to the sleeping blonde on the bed next to the balcony. Erza hoped, with all her heart, that Jellal had found someone he could confine in. And she didn't care if she wasn't that person, she just wanted someone to be there for him. But, if he allowed her to be by his side, she knew she would accept in a heartbeat.
She groaned as she laid her hands on the railing of the balcony. Who was she kidding? Her heart and mind were always in a disarray whenever it came back to him. She wanted to be that person, saying that she doesn't care if she wasn't was outright preposterous. But feeling jealous of Lucy is outright foolish as well, they spent more time together. Lucy helped him through things that Erza didn't believe she would have been able to help him with.
She stood by his side and defended him against the council. She bought him his freedom. She gave him a home and a family he could return to. Comparing them both is absurd because she could never win when it came to the blonde. Lucy would always be more important and it's something that Erza needed to accept.
Her mind drifted back to the moment they shared on the beach that night when they were back at the villa. They almost kissed, they were so close, so intimate but suddenly he pulled away and told her he couldn't be with her. That he had a lot on his mind with Lucy's condition and that he still hadn't completely forgiven himself for the things he had done previously.
She believed him when he told her about Lucy, but his other reasoning… she didn't believe. He was always a bad liar, his brows would crease and he would flit his eyes to the side repeatedly. To her it sounded that he was just giving her excuses, and she should have listened to his invisible request that he doesn't want to be with her but she couldn't.
And now she was stuck in this situation with him, where they were both walking on eggshells around each other if they weren't talking about anything concerning the guild or Lucy.
She exhaled as she looked at the stars. They were dimmer this night than the previous one. She didn't know if it's because they are in the city or because they feel her melancholy.
"It's stupid isn't it? These feelings of mine? This irrational part of me? I know it is, I just don't know what to do with it…"
"Maybe you should stop talking to yourself like a complete psycho."
For the second time this night, Erza jumped and swiveled at the intruder that was as well on the other side of the balcony, with her sword ready in hand. "Cobra? Shouldn't you be sleeping?"
"I would if I could. But someone decided they would like to battle their feelings and give monologues about said feelings right beside my bed, so I can't really sleep with you blaring your thoughts like that."
She grimaced at the words he used and then widened her eyes when it completely registered in what he said. "You heard… everything?"
He nodded and she immediately hung her head down in shame. "I…"
"Save it. I don't need your excuses. It's not your fault really, it's Blueberry's. He just doesn't know how to express himself and he was most likely lying to you back then that night." Cobra stood on the balcony, his body leaning on the door that lead back inside with his arms crossed.
She looked up at him tentatively. "Then… what should I do?"
He took a deep breath and closed his one eye. "I'm not really the one you should be asking this. I don't know anything about this and most likely never will." The hurt lacing his words was evident only briefly. "But, I would suggest you talk to the person that you both have in common."
"Lucy?" Erza widened her eyes. "But-"
"She would understand. Trust me, she would." He opened his eye. "She has this ability, where she can understand you with just a few words. And help you through whatever you're facing."
Erza looked him in the eyes. "If that's the case, why won't you ask for her help?"
His eye hardened. "Because, that's the only thing I don't want her to understand." He gazed past her, at something she couldn't see. As if he was recalling something, and whatever that was it wasn't pleasant.
"Cobra-"
"You should sleep. You have a big day tomorrow," he briskly said as he went inside his room.
Erza looked back at the blonde that was sleeping peacefully on her bed unaware of what just happened. "Maybe I should…" she said but then shook her head. Lucy had enough on her plate at the moment, Erza didn't want to add her own personnel problems on Lucy now. "Maybe when everything is better, I could talk to her."
Erza would soon come to regret these words, for nothing would be better after this.
XXX
Lucy woke up the next day to the sound of knocking on the door room.
She looked around her to see all beds were empty. On the table next to her bed laid her uniform for their team.
"Just a second," She shouted as she got out of the bed and walked towards the door.
Her fist on the doorknob, she twisted it and was welcomed by the sight of a breathless Gray.
"Gray? What's wrong?" she was immediately next to him and helping him inside the room.
"They- they found Wendy," he said between gulps of air. "She was found on the streets passed out by Lisanna and Happy." He took a deep breath and continued. "Elfman is going to take her place in the meantime. Erza told me to come and get you so we can enter the arena. We are up in 20 minutes."
Lucy immediately stood up. "Fuck I'm late!"
She ran to the bathroom and freshened up before she hurriedly put on her uniform which was made of a short black skirt that ended just below her thighs that came with shorts under it. Her tank top was violet and had the Fairy Tail logo on her chest. She wore fishnets that were fitted into black boots to hide the scar on her thigh. She put her hair up in a ponytail and strapped her whip and key ring to her belt.
"Okay ready." She gave Gray a thumbs up and he returned it.
They walked outside of the room and met up with the others. Lucy checked in on Wendy before she joined the rest of her team.
"How is she Porlyusica-san?" she asked the pink haired woman as she gently patted the sleeping Wendy on the head.
"She'll be fine. She just needs rest. What happened to her was probably due to a great loss of magic, she'll be fine before the tournament ends." Porlyusica explained as she set to work on some mixture of herbs.
"Great loss of magic?" Lucy wondered to herself. 'What could possibly force her to use all her powers in the city?'
"I know. It is weird. It's evident that this is abnormal and could be due to an ambush of some sort, but she doesn't remember anything and it's best that she now just rests to replenish her energy. Now, should you not be leaving?" the old woman turned to glare at the blonde who smiled at her and bid her farewell.
She joined the rest of her team and they waited for Mato to start his announcement.
A couple of minutes later, his voice boomed across the arena.
"Welcome everyone to the Grand Magic Games main event!"
The stadium was packed with people cheering for their preferred guilds. Mato cleared his throat before he continued. "And now, to welcome the guilds that have made it into this year's game, let's give it up for the guild that came in eighth place, team Fairy Tail!"
The team walked out and everyone started booing them.
"Not the crowd's favorite I see." Lucy noted as they walked around the arena to where they were supposed to stand.
The crowd's booing was drowned out by the Fairy Tail members that started cheering at the top of their lungs.
The team looked their way and smiled gratefully at all the support they were getting from their guild. And then did a double take when they saw Mavis happily swinging her feet as she cheered for them.
"Who is she? I have never seen her." Lucy asked as she looked back to her team.
"That's Mavis. She must have been bored and decided the watch the games." Erza explained and Lucy stood shocked.
"That's Mavis?!" she heard the stories from her brother and the rest of the guild, about how she saved them on Tenroujima Island. But this is the first time Lucy had ever seen her. She made a mental note to herself to thank Mavis later.
"In seventh place, is team Quatro Cerberus. Following them in sixth place, is the all-female guild, team Mermaid Heel."
"Fifth place went to team Blue Pegasus while fourth place is for Lamia Scale."
"Lamia Scale fourth place? I thought they and Sabertooth were the current strongest guilds, with Sabertooth the first." Gray remarked as he watched his former rival soak in the attention that he was receiving from the fans. He locked eyes with Lyon who smirked his way before he went to their spot.
"Now, we will announce the top three teams that were the first to finish the labyrinth. Coming in third place, newly becoming a legitimate guild, Raven Tail."
Every hair on Lucy's body stood on end as she heard what Mato announced. Not only her, Makarov stood on the railing shell shocked as he watched his son's guild walk into the arena.
'What are you planning Ivan?' Makarov glared at his son that was sitting with the crowd. His son looked up at him and smirked, clearly unbothered by his father's glare.
Lucy on the other hand was full on seething as she caught sight of that despicable man in the seats.
"Luce, calm down." Natsu came up next to her and put his hand on her shoulder, as if grounding her to earth and it worked. She was able to calm down after taking a few deep breaths.
"Thanks Natsu." She flashed him a smile and he was relieved that she was better.
"Don't mention it."
He accidently took a whiff of the air around them and went rigid. He stared at the strange looking man that was with Raven Tail and took a whiff of the air again. He growled gaining the attention of the others.
"Natsu, what's wrong?" Erza asked as she saw Natsu glaring at the man with Raven Tail that had a strange looking monkey.
"That… thing. His scent was on Wendy." He said through clenched teeth and Erza immediately sent the creature a glare.
"Is that so?" Erza's quiet anger was quite noticeable. Not only her, but the rest of the team as well after this new revelation.
"In second place is… team Fairy Tail B."
"Eh~?!" team Natsu shouted as they looked at the entrance.
"What? That's unfair!" someone from the crowd screamed and others started to agree.
"It is allowed for one guild to send out two teams. It is entirely within the rules and thus they are allowed to have two teams." Mato quickly explained and the crowd quieted.
"That explains the huge amount of guilds that were participating," Lucy said.
Laxus walked out first, followed by Mirajane, Juvia, Gajeel and lastly Jellal.
"Jellal? What the hell is he doing there?" Lucy questioned as she openly gawked at the other team.
"Is he even from Fairy Tail?" Elfman asked and Lucy answered.
"No he isn't. But I have no idea what are they planning."
She shook her head with a smile as she caught the wink her brothers sent her from the other side of the arena. She was definetly going to get some answers after the first day was done.
Her heart started beating faster when a gaze landed on her that she had come to know by heart. A gaze that recently had been seeking her out a lot.
Laxus averted his eyes when she tried to look at him, but the faint blush on his cheeks was proof enough that he was looking her way. She giggled to herself and looked back out the arena.
"And in first place is the crowd's favorite, Sabertooth!"
The stadium was in an uproar. The cheers reached the heavens, every single person was carrying a flyer that had Sabertooth written on it, or images and cards that had the Twins faces and others that Lucy didn't know, on them. They were screaming for them and the team, once it walked out, was loving all the attention and even showing off their muscles and posing for the crowd. Well some of them were, Rogue and another man dressed in red remained impassive.
"Wow." Natsu breathed from beside Lucy.
"Yeah. I know," She replied in wonder.
So this was how much they were famous? Her eyes searched the crowd and landed on a bulky man that was already staring at her. She felt shivers of disgust running down her back as he stared at her so intently. This was him no doubt. She heard about the master of Sabertooth from some bystanders this morning while they were waiting for their name to be announced. They talked about his glory and how he made his guild the strongest of all guilds in Fiore. But Lucy doubted it, from her experience with the twins she knew there was something wrong with how their guild worked and it was very clear he was the one behind it.
"Jiemma." She whispered under her breath when he smirked her way.
She quickly averted her eyes and listened intently on the rules that Mato was listing for the first event of the day.
"Joining us today as commentator is the magic council Yajima. Please welcome him into the arena." The crowd cheered as Yajima walked to the table of the commentators and took his seat.
"Each team, please pick a contestant that will represent you for this round before we move on." Mato announced.
The teams discussed on who to send out and the end results were:
From team Mermaid Heel, Beth stepped forth, while team Quatro Cerberus selected Jäger. Nullpudding from Raven Tail was chosen while team Blue Pegasus send out Eve. From Sabertooth, the man dressed in red that Lucy found out his name was Rufus, took to the arena. Wanting to be the first to represent their guild Lamia Scale, Lyon stepped out. Gray, seeing that Lyon was the one to participate in this event, offered to go.
Now, with the eight members selected, Mato continued to explain the rules.
"The first day of the Grand Magic games is packed with events and battles. Starting out with the event, each player must find their opponents and hit them. Whoever attacks first gains a point, while the one that is hit gets a point reduced. Which is why this event is called 'Hide and Seek'. But that is not all," Mato said as he looked at the participants. "There will be clones of each and every one of you dispersed in the arena, and attacking a clone will result in a one point deduction. That is all. Good luck everyone and let the first event begin!"
The participants stepped out into the arena and were shocked when the arena turned entirely into a city. The contestants were each sent to a place far from each other so they were unaware of each other's location.
Gray, thinking that it would be best to lay low and score a few points on the safe side, started playing it safely and searched for some few members to take out in order to garner some points. But it soon became clear that Raven Tail had Fairy Tail in its sights as Nullpudding repeatedly went after Gray.
The ice mage huffed as he evaded an attack from one of the participants and was preparing one of this own when he noticed another one coming from behind him.
"Shit!" he cursed and was about to get hit before a water shot hit his aggressor from behind and Juvia appeared.
"Gray-sama, are you alright?" She asked him as she escaped the rest of the clones.
"Yeah, thanks Juvia," He replied as he ran beside her.
"Gray-sama, Juvia promised the master that she wouldn't lose. Even to you. Because it was known that whichever team wins is allowed to make the members of the loser team do whatever they want for a day." Juvia explained.
Gray skid to a halt. "HUH?"
Juvia stopped just ahead of him. "Yes. Did Gray-sama not know?"
He shook his head, still too shocked to say anything. From their room, Lucy looked at the master who shrugged his shoulders at the new revelation, and then at Jellal and Gajeel who smirked her way.
"Eh!" she exclaimed at the whole situation.
"Well, this is interesting." Erza chuckled as she ate a strawberry cake Natsu got her from the food market as compensation for the last one.
Back with Gray, he was still too shocked to notice his surroundings when he and Juvia got hit by Nullpudding, earning him two points.
"What the fuck?" Gray exclaimed as he jumped back and hissed from the burn of the hit.
"Better watch your back, fairy trash." Nullpudding laughed as he jumped away.
"Lucky bastard." Gray growled under his breath as he looked around him and noticed that Juvia was gone. She must have went back to hunting others, as should he.
From the speakers around the arena, Gray was annoyed to find out that Eve and Lyon accumulated a few points and were advancing in the ranks.
"But what is that? Rufus from Sabertooth has still not moved from his place!" Gray heard Mato exclaim and stopped in his place.
'Hadn't moved? What is he playing at?' he thought before continuing down the path.
On the roof of one of the buildings, Rufus stood still as he smirked. "This truly is too easy." He laughed as he adjusted the hat on his head. "I know where you all are. I remember it all."
Suddenly, the sky darkened and all the participants on the field started to glow a golden color.
"What the fuck is going on now?" Gray growled as he looked at his body.
He heard from above him someone laugh before they chanted: "Memory make…Night of falling stars!"
And immediately he was hit by a golden beam that took him and the others out, making Rufus in the lead of the game.
The sky cleared again and Rufus took a victorious stance with his arms spread wide. "Truly too easy, I didn't even need to hide. And if they attacked, they would miss. Because they would be attacking the memory of me. This is the strength of Sabertooth!"
The people cheered for him and his guild members looked on cockily as they heard the praise of the people.
Gray, frustrated that Rufus wasn't playing by the rules, jumped on the building next to him to punch Rufus only to be hit by Nullpudding from behind.
He came crashing to the ground. He stumbled to get up but once he did, his glare pierced Nullpudding who stood smirking in front of him.
"You again?!" Gray seethed, but before he could take action Mato announced that the time was up and the game was over. The winner of this event was Rufus with a score of 10 points while team Fairy Tail A and team Fairy Tail B were the last with Fairy Tail A having 0 points and team B had 1 point.
The crowd booed Gray as he walked back to his team.
"I knew Fairy Tail was going to suck. Always last place!" someone from the crowd yelled and the others laughed.
Natsu stood in front of Gray and was going to shout back at them but was pulled back by Erza.
She glared at him. "Don't stoop to their level. Stay above them and clear headed. You hear?"
Natsu, clearly annoyed by the whole ordeal, fixed his clothes before he walked off. "Yeah, yeah."
As Gray passed Lucy, he muttered an apology and walked away before he heard the encouragement that Lucy told him.
She sighed and left him be, knowing that he needed time to cool off.
He walked into the hallway, took off his shirt and punched the wall as he grit his teeth.
"Sabertooth… Raven Tail… I swear, I'll get you both!"
Back in the arena, Mato announced the beginning of the battles and explained their rules.
The battle will last for 30 minutes. Whoever gets knocked out will lose and gain 0 points while the winner gained 10 points. In the case of a tie, both contestants get five points.
"And the contestants of the first battle will be, Flare from Raven Tail and Lucy from Fairy Tail team A." Mato announced.
Lucy locked eyes with Flare who smirked a very disturbing smirk her way. The blonde grimaced before she took to the field, knowing that if she won she could get 10 points and tie with Sabertooth.
'I can't lose. I won't.' she knew this was the perfect opportunity to make up for what happened before in the mission. She would make them proud. She would!
They were now face to face and Lucy could feel her anger bubbling under her skin.
"Ready… Blondie?" Flare asked then laughed at the shocked expression on the blonde's face.
Her laughter died down when she saw the glare the blonde sent her way. It made shivers run down her spine.
"Oh, you're going to pay for that." The blonde said as she cracked her whip beside her. The flow of blue water and golden speckles promising Flare nothing of the tranquility they exuded.
A/N:
It's the fact that I am re-watching some episodes because I forgot what actually happens in some of these. And also, thank you Grand Magic Games wiki, XD! I could never forget how they did my baby dirty though with that stunt they pulled with Zeref meddling in the fight.
Next chapter will be Lucy vs Flare and I have been waiting for this one for a long time.
Happy reading everyone and I hope you enjoyed the chapter!
Signing out,
KAWAIINECKO!
