Battle of Fairy Tail Commences

"Hey Naruto. You've been out of it lately, you doing okay?" Kurama asked the blonde, who was very tired and kept drifting to sleep, only to stop himself each time his head drooped.

"I-I'm f-fine. I think eating that Lacrima is making me t-tired." Naruto yawned out and finally fell asleep.

'He mentioned achieving Dragon Force. Using a Lacrima empowered by Etherion as power source unlocked it for him. Soon he'll be able to access it without an outside power source.' Kurama thought but they were stopped as he himself felt tired and joined Naruto for a nap.

(With Mirajane)

"Don't overdo yourself Elfman. Those wildebeests that ran you over did a number on you." Mira pretended to play dumb and told Elfman that the assault by the Thunder Legion was just a dream.

"Are you sure Big Sis? It felt too real, and these injuries don't feel like I've been run over by wildebeests." Elfman questioned his sister, but Mira gave him a small smile.

"Do not worry about Elfman. You've almost made a full recovery anyways and I'm just asking you to be careful from now on." Mira told him with concern for his well-being.

"Well, if you say so Big Sis. I guess I'll see you at the guild." Elfman got up and left the still smiling Mira. After he was gone from her sight, Mira's smile faded, and she looked down.

"Please forgive me for what I'm about to do, everyone." Mira sniffled for a moment before she gained a cold look on her face, unlike her usual cheerful demeanour. 'If Elfman fights, they promised to only incapacitate him. They better keep their word.' She prepared herself for what was to come.

(Fairy Tail Guild, sometime later)

The Miss Fairy Tail contest was underway, with some of the female wizards of the guild already making their mark. The only noteworthy person who did not participate was Mira, which surprised many but they did not dwell on it long. Levy, Bisca, Cana and Juvia have had their turn, with the latter two using their magic to change into their swimsuits and Bisca already in hers for a shooting showcase. Erza just dazzled the audience and Re-Quipped into a Goth Lolita attire, getting the most cheers.

"So unfair! But I can't give up now!" Lucy wore a blue cheerleader outfit, all fired up as Natsu would say. However, as soon as she was announced by Max, she told him not to say her last name.

"My adoring public, I have returned." A voice called out, revealing Evergreen in a stylish dress with her hair tied up and a smug smile. She then held a fan over the lower half of her face.

"Hey! I don't who you are, but you need to wait your turn!" Lucy dropped her pompoms and yelled at the new arrival.

"My, aren't you a pretty one. So, you're the Lucy Heartfilia girl Laxus mentioned. You can wait your turn!" Evergreen took off her glasses and Lucy saw her eyes glow, only to suddenly to turn into stone. This shocked everyone in the guild, with Natsu immediately getting up from his seat, seeing Lucy turn into stone brought him out of his weakened state and his anger revitalised him.

"Lucy!" Natsu rushed towards them only for Laxus to suddenly appear and it made him stop. "Laxus?"

"Laxus! Did you order Ever to turn Lucy into stone!?" Gray glared at the blonde.

"Oh, not just her." Laxus had Evergreen undo the curtains to reveal the more prominent female wizards also turned to stone, including Erza. "Ever. You can head out now and have fun." Laxus told her, making her smirk widen as she summoned wings and flew out of the guild. Before a lot of the members could give chase, Laxus spoke loud enough for the whole room to hear. "Listen up! I decided to spruce up the festivities by making a fighting festival. If anyone wants to save these lovely ladies, then you guys just need to find my Thunder Legion and take them out. Now let the Battle of Fairy Tail commence! Go and fight!" Laxus had an evil look on his face, though he only fuelled their fire, with most of Fairy Tail running out to save their friends that have been turned to stone.

"A fighting festival? I see what you're doing there Laxus. You're only being dramatic just so you can start a fighting festival, you should of just said it and I'll happily join in." Natsu exclaimed in happiness, not realising that this Laxus' plan to remove the people he referred to as weaklings.

"Oh, didn't see you there Natsu." Laxus said with a smirk, which annoyed the pink-haired youth, and he cursed the older blonde man.

"Laxus! What are you planning?" Makarov glared at his grandson, only for Laxus to retain his smug smirk.

"Wait and see old man. I'll be back soon, but just enjoy the show." Laxus faded into nothingness, revealing himself to be a mere Thought Projection.

"That foolish boy! I'll take care of him and his little group myself!" Makarov ran for the door, joined by Gray and Natsu, only to hit an invisible wall. "What the?" Makarov saw that it was barrier made from Freed's magic. "Runes? It says that no one over 80 can pass through this barrier….Damn you Laxus!"

"I knew that jackass wouldn't play fair. Don't worry Gramps, I'll put a stop to this." Gray ran through, followed by Natsu only for the fire wizard to hit the barrier, which made everyone shocked. 'W-What the? The rune only states that only someone over 80 can't pass unless Freed has a hidden rule that can't be seen?' Gray's thoughts were interrupted as more letters appeared.

"Wait. What is this!?" Makarov was shocked to see the announcement that the Fairy Tail wizards that went ahead would be fighting each other. This was because Freed laid a trap, various runes which would only allow the victor to leave. Laxus' voice echoed and announced it, with Makarov being enraged only to find out that several members of the guild were already taken out.

"Gramps. I'm sorry, but Laxus needs to be taken down. I'm heading out and I'm going to take care of it." Gray ran off, with Makarov not doing anything to stop him.

'Gray may have a chance to defeat Laxus. If Natsu can't go all out, Gray can take his place. Natsu won't admit it, but he and Gray have always been on par with each other. Naruto to…Wait! Where's Naruto!?' Suddenly, more alerts came and the numbers of Fairy Tail were dwindling. 'Elfman was beaten by Evergreen. Jet, Alzack and Droy too. This is bad.' Makarov stopped thinking when he saw a figure hiding. "Reedus? You're still here?"

"Oui." Reedus nervously replied. "I know I'm no good at fighting, so I don't know what I can do." Reedus was not confident in himself.

"I understand. But this means you can go Porlyusica's place. If anyone can find a cure for petrification, it is her." Makarov was relieved someone was left. Reedus nodded and left immediately. 'Go Reedus. I want the girls to be safe. Speaking of which, I'm glad Mira isn't here. But where is she?' More alerts came and Fairy Tail's members were reduced to a mere 20, no 18 members as two more were taken down.

"What's with the commotion?" A gruff voice spoke out, revealing Gajeel, who was sleeping through the whole ordeal. Makarov was glad to see him and explained the situation briefly to him. Gajeel agreed and made his way out, only to meet the same fate as Makarov and Natsu, comically surprising the three other people left in the building.

"Wait! Does that mean you're over 80 too!?" Natsu asked his former enemy, only for Gajeel to be indignant and state that he wasn't.

"Anyway, shouldn't you be more annoyed that Laxus guy is taking out your friends?" Gajeel asked, his concern being hidden by his usual gruff tone.

"Nah. Laxus may be a jerk, but he isn't a bad guy. He's still a member of Fairy Tail and he only set this up just because he wants to fight." Natsu said, having faith in Laxus.

'You have faith in Laxus? I wish this was a prank, but you're too foolish Natsu.' Makarov could only look down until more alerts came in. Most of Fairy Tail was almost taken down. "No! We barely have anyone left!" He also saw that Reedus was taken out by Freed, leaving only Gray out on the frontlines and only, Gajeel and Natsu inside the building, with Happy saddened that he did not count as a participant.

"Hey. Enjoy yourself old man, it is a festival after all." Laxus' voice returned, his Thought Projection projecting itself. "Oh, Natsu. Why are you still here? I thought you wanted to join the festival. You got cold feet or something?" Laxus loved to wind Natsu up.

"Hey! I tried to join but that stupid wall Freed made stopped me!" Natsu argued but he couldn't speak anymore as Laxus only laughed at him and then turned his attention back to Makarov.

"Gramps. There is one way to stop this. Resign and make me Master of Fairy Tail. You have 1 hour to make your choice, oh and your almost out of fodder." Laxus made it brief and disappeared again, unbeknownst to everyone, he was alone and looked down, feeling some shame. Makarov looked ready to lose hope after another alert came and Fairy Tail was down to three members, but Natsu only looked down in disappointment.

"Damn. Guess I haven't got a choice. I'll bring Erza back." Natsu exclaimed, shocking Happy and Makarov.

"W-Wait a minute Natsu. How are you planning to do that?" Makarov knew what Natsu was like and he panicked when he saw Natsu reach out for Erza. Placing her statues gently on the ground before igniting his hands with flames.

"I'm just going to melt the stone around her and get her back to normal." Natsu simply said to them as if his solution would work.

"Wait! She's completely stone from the inside!" Happy tried to explain.

"Well, we don't really know that. Laxus is going a little far with his ruse but Erza's the only one we have here that can stop this." Natsu had a cheeky and slightly perverted grin, with Gajeel telling Natsu to be careful and not too be too frisky. Makarov was about to stop Natsu, only to see Erza's stone body begin to crack from her face.

"She's starting to crack!" Happy stated, everyone panicking at the crack on Erza's face. Natsu asked for glue from Happy but Gajeel, also panicked, said that it would not be enough and that they should weld her back using Natsu's flames and his iron. Makarov was now extremely worried that Erza would meet her end because of the idiocy of his own guild members. Natsu just kept apologizing until the stone completely cracked and Erza is revealed to be alive. She felt hot and then blamed Natsu, punching him. Happy and Makarov were glad. Unbeknownst to them another alert came up, but the commotion caused by Erza made them unaware.

"I'm glad to see that you're okay Erza. But how did you return to normal?" Makarov asked her.

"I'm not sure myself, but I believe since it was a form of eye magic used to trap me, my right eye may have saved me." Erza's right eye was artificial since she lost her real eye when she was a prisoner of the Tower of Heaven.

'That's right! With Erza and Gray, we can launch a counterattack!' Suddenly, in this very moment, the members that were turned into stone were back to normal. No one expected this but then Makarov looked at the screen to see that Gray had defeated Evergreen.

(Moments Earlier)

'He's alone now. Guess I'll play with him.' Evergreen smirked as she saw Gray stand on the roof of a building. She flew and used her Gremlin spell to attack him, only for "Gray" to shatter. 'What!? That was a decoy!' Evergreen was fooled and took a closer look, only to be hit by a blast.

(Play Fairy Tail OST-Gray's Theme)

"Thought I might run into you. You fell for my trap." Gray smirked. 'Defeating her means that I can save the girls. Then Laxus will lose his leverage.' Gray was determined to defeat Evergreen to save his comrades. 'Laxus, you'll pay for this.'

"How dare you!? You dirtied my dress and injured me!" Evergreen had a few scratches on her and her dress was messy.

"Oh, come on, I gave you nice makeover. Consider it a warning, Ever." Gray dodged Evergreen's dust particles.

"You do not get to call me that! I am the queen of fairies! I am Titania!" Evergreen's anger and arrogance took over.

"Titania is Erza's title. Even though she doesn't care about it, she's more deserving of it than you'll ever be. Ever." Gray knew that Evergreen had a real ego and used it to his advantage. 'She's very vain and easy to read when she's angry.' Evergreen flew closer and launched more light-dust at him, only for Gray to jump out of the way. Unfortunately, Evergreen was fast enough to appear in front of him and attempted to use her Stone Eyes, lifting her glasses to use her spell.

(OST End)

"I've got you now Gray!" Evergreen smirked in victory with Gray appearing to be shocked until a slow smile formed on his face. Suddenly, Evergreen was trapped in an ice cage. "How!?" Evergreen wanted to know how Gray avoided becoming a statue until she saw that he made glasses from ice. 'I underestimated him! I thought he was a muscle brain like Natsu but he's more dangerous because he thinks before he acts.'

"It's over Evergreen. Now turn everyone you turned to stone back to normal or else I don't know what I'll do." Gray threatened her, only making her laugh.

"Don't make me laugh! You're all bark and not bite, Gray!" Her smirk widened. "My Stone Eyes also have another ability. Remote Control, that means if I wished, I can make those girls crumble into dust. If you don't want that to happen, kneel and release me from this cage!" Evergreen thought that she had the advantage, but this only made Gray give her a dark look. Suddenly, she shivered and found her body slowly getting encased by ice.

"If I can't save them then I will avenge them. You consider yourself beautiful, don't you? Well, if that the case, how about eternal beauty. I will freeze you and you can live a long life, staying young. But before I die, I'll shatter your frozen body so that everyone remembers your eternal beauty forever." Gray's threat was so frightening that Evergreen began to sweat, only for her sweat to freeze as well.

"W-Wait!" Evergreen's eyes flashed and she released the girls under her spell. Gray had won. "Y-You win! Please don't freeze me!" Evergreen then heard Gray laugh as he stopped his spell.

"And that is how you make threats. I wasn't going to freeze you for long, idiot." Gray smirked and saluted her.

"Y-You!" Evergreen was annoyed but realised that she lost.

(With Laxus)

"Ever lost!" Laxus was getting more desperate and decided to enact his secondary plan.

(With Naruto)

"I forgot about the festival! Dammit Kurama!" Naruto was feeling a lot better and decided to head to town, only for the ground in front of him to be blasted, preventing him from advancing. 'This magic feels familiar.' He looked up in shock. "M-Mira?" Naruto saw Mira clad in Satan Soul, a spell he hasn't seen in two years.

"I can't let you go any further Naruto." Mira's voice was serious and gave Naruto shivers. 'I cannot hesitate, I made a deal with the devil and now I must become the devil to stop Naruto.' Mira landed and looked ready for a fight.

'She hasn't fought in long time, but her magic is still fierce.' Instead of shivering from fear now, he shivered from excitement. He took a battle stance and smiled.

End. Sorry for the long update, I hope you enjoy this chapter. The order of events is different from the anime/manga, but that's because it has been a while since I saw/read this arc. However, I hope it was decent for the readers, and I hope everyone has good holiday.