AN #1: (IMPORTANT!) In the last chapter, somehow, Wendy's alias somehow turned from "Sora" to "Aria"…and a brief sentence where she is Sky (Ch 20, A Fairy Amongst the Wolves). I have no idea how that happened. But just to clear things up, she's Sora.

AN: I just want to clear things up a bit before we begin. I can't think of anything for the plot of this GMG chapter, so this chapter is like a mini-crossover with another game. But it is still the fourth game go the GMG. You'll probably recognize the game later in the chapter.

Lucy's POV

"Weak"

Laxus

"Useless"

Freed

"Ugly"

Evergreen

"Traitor"

Bixlow

"Everything that happened was your fault"

No. Not Wendy too.

"It's your fault. It's all on you."

Even Romeo?

Dirty sneers, harsh glares, and insults were thrown at me Though this insults are nothing new, it still hurts. Even the smallest wound could become a deadly injury and it is hit too much.

More and more insults were hurled at me, staring from mu guildmates that left Fairy Tail with me, then going in order from people who joined the guild. I bit back a scream, clutching my head in pain as those emotionless dead eyes stared at me. The mocks, the insults, continued, and despite my best efforts to block them, their words still echoed in my mind. As the last member finally finished, the entire guild materialized in front of me, eyes hollow and bloodied- some even with missing limbs.

"It's your fault we are all dead. Our blood is on your hands."

And then I was splattered with the blood of my friends, my family….

Screaming, I woke up. When I finally came to my senses, I panted heavily, the horror from my nightmare still lingering in my mind.

"Ngh…Lucy, what happened?" her roommate slurred sleepily. I turned to my left to see Flare rubbing the sleep out of her red eyes as she pushed herself into a sitting position.

I smiled at her, though it is painfully obvious that it was fake "It's nothing, Flare. Just a bad dream" I reassured "Sorry I woke you."

Flare smiled nostalgically, gazing up at the blank ceiling. "You probably don't want to talk about it, but when I had nightmares, the giants would always tell be this," Flare said quietly "Never tell yourself that you are alone. You will always have companions with you to fight those nightmares together. A nightmare will only haunt you if you are afraid if it. So don't let it live. Be brave and face it to turn your worst nightmares into dreams."

Lucy thought about it and snuggled deeper into her covers. "Thanks Flare" she said softly, only to get a incoherent mumble in reply. Giggling quietly, Lucy closed her eyes once agin.

'I will protect them with my soul. I swear on the 88 heavenly stars….."

"Today, we are going to play a fun game of dodgeball!" Mato announced excitingly while the crowd cheered on. "Whoops, wrong game, but its similar. Today's activity is Warfare! Please select four people from each team like usual! First, let us reveal a hint for this game!"

With that, Mato threw reached into his cloak pockets, drawing out a notecard. He slowly unfolded it, and the crowd leaned forward in suspense. Then, Mato nodded and threw the card up in to the air.

"And the hint for this game is…." Mato paused dramatically "GUNS! Now, everyone has five minutes to come up with your team"

Immediately, teams huddled around each other, choosing the participants

At Wolves' Eclipse corner

"Okay, since the game is gun-related, I say it is safe to assume that Bisca and Alzack are going for Fairy Tail. I don't believe anyone else that is considered a threat in the other teams uses guns magic…" Freed mused. Next to him, Evergreen nodded in agreement. Midnight glanced at Cobra, who shook his head. "There's too many people to focus on the thought of any specific people"

Sho raised his hand and shouted in order to gain attention, but failing. A tick mark appeared on his head as he was ignored and drowned out by the other discussions. Reaching into his pockets, he pulled out a deck of cards, jumped up, and threw them, each card narrowly missing everyone's heads, and some actually hitting. Everyone's attention turned to the smirking blonde when all the cards returned to his hand.

"Anyways, now that I have your attention" Sho began, shuffling a new deck of cards in his hand "We should decide on who should be out representatives in this game. Since this game utilizes guns, short distance fighters or summon magic users are not very good options." He stopped shuffling, and without looking, he pulled out a couple of cards, showing them, each landing face up. The guild glanced at the cards, and to their surprise, it showed them in the cards instead of the normal designs. The cards that there thrown were Racer, Lucy, Yukino, and Angel. "And of course, some people's magic won't be compatible with this game." Meredy's, Midnight's, Ultear's, Flare's, Freed's, Jibril's, Sho's, and Zeref's cards were thrown out. "And these people already went" he continued, displaying a couple more cards before throwing them out. "So we are narrowed down to these choices. I feel like Wally should go since he uses gun magic for as a secondary magic."

Everyone blinked in silence for a moment before it was broken by Bixlow "Okay, but what about the other thr-"

He never got to finish his sentence as Mato interrupted. "Ten more seconds to choose~"

"Shit! Wally, Evergreen, Jellal, and Juvia get going to the arena!" Sho declared in panic. The four chosen nodded and ran to the center of the arena.

Freed turned to Sho. "May I ask how why you chose those other three?" he questioned. Sho smiled sheepishly and held up the remaining cards. "I didn't. I panicked and randomly chose three cards."

Everyone sweatdropped and fell into silence before it was broken by Sting. "Hey, why and how the hell do you have cards with our faces on them?"

….

In the arena, groups of people gathered around. Like Freed had predicted, Alzack and Bisca are participating. Along with them are Warren and Laki. A couple others from the other guild were participating, but the members of Wolves' Eclipse were unfamiliar with most of them.

"Okay, our participants are down!" Mato announced "From our current winning guild, we have the Wolves "Azure", "Cosmos", "Fae", and finally, "Trigon"!" Cheers and howls erupted from the audience, most rooting for the new yet extremely strong guild. "Next, from the current strongest guild, we have the Fairies Alzack, Bisca, Warren, and Laki!" Though there is an immense amount of cheers, it wasn't as much since they weren't as popular is Natsu, Erza, Gray, and the other participants of the previous GMG. Mato continued to call out the other participants, but the only other ones that had participated in the GMG before are only Blue Pegasus's Hibiki Lates, Sabertooth's Rufus Lore, and Lamia Scale's Yuka Suzuki. Like Fairy Tail, Mermaid Heel had chosen members that previously had not competed in the GMG before.

"The rules of this game is simple: Everyone chooses a gun of their choice that best fits their magic capabilities, kabo. You charge it with your magic to make "bullets" with your team's color, so naturally, mages who utilizes caster type magic will have an advantage in this game, unless the mage wields guns as their medium for holder type magic, kabo." The participants nodded in understanding "If you get shot, you lose a point and will be teleported to your starting point, and the person who shot you gets a point. However, in order to make it back in the game, you have to answer a trivia question correctly, kabo. But, because the trivia questions may be a little hard, you are able to communicate with your teammates with communicators. And as long as your magic allows you, you can communicate with other members of your guild that are not participating in the game." Fairy Tail whooped in victory at that. With Warren being able to communicate with Levy through his magic, and Bisca and Alzack using guns magic, this game will be no problem. Meanwhile, Blue Pegasus smirked, proud of their choice to send Hibiki in. Though his magic might give him an offensive disadvantage with the game, his knowledge and archive makes up for it. Rufus pulled the brim of his hat over his eyes, already declaring victory. His magic allows him to not only attack, but also allows him to have a greater IQ because of the myriad amount of information from books and scrolls he has acquired and read.

The ground opened up just enough for a table with a mountain of various types of guns to appear. Without hesitation, the mages each selected a gun, testing it out first, and reselecting if it doesn't feel right. This process lasted a few more minutes before Mato interrupted.

"Also, for an additional three points, your team can try to cover as much area as possible with your team color, kabo. Everyone ready? No? Too bad, kabo!" And with that, the stadium changed into another arena.

Barely a minute into the game and the battlefield has already turned into a warzone. Splashes of blue (Lamia Scale), green (Mermaid Heel), yellow (Blue Pegasus), black (Sabertooth), red (Wolves Eclipse), and orange (Fairy Tail) covered the arena. A few unfortunate mages were hit, and to their dismay, the face that the questions were hard was an major understatement.

One of these mages was Blue Pegasus's Jayden. His question was "What is the molecular formula of paradichlorobenzene?"'

He sighed in frustration, not expecting his first time in the GMG to be like this. Groaning, he reluctantly clicked on his communicator at contact Hibiki.

'Hey Jayden, need help?'

'Ugh…I didn't want to ask you for help of all people. What is the molecular fomula of parade-paradich… I give. P-a-r-a-d-i-c-h-l-o-r-o-b-e-n-z-e-n-e. What in the world is that anyways?'

'Paradichlorobenzene? Ummm…give me a second. It's apparently disinfectant, deodorant, or pesticide with the formula of C₆H₄Cl₁₂'

'…thanks, I guess'

Turning off the communicator, he grabbed his guns and wished his teammates the best of luck.

Aiming carefully, "Cosmos" pulled the trigger, and with a splash of red paint, the Blue Pegasus member….Jayza, no, Jay….Jayden! That should be correct…

Once he got teleported to the checkpoint, Cosmos turned around, shooting all over the ground. Suddenly, a splash of green filled his vision, the splatter of paint missing him by merely a few inches. He turned to see a Mermaid Heel mage. Instantly, he began to fire back, no0t noticing another mermaid heel member sneaking up behind him. Just as he finally landed a hit on her, a cold, wet sensation seeped through his clothes. Before he is able to comprehend his situation, he was teleported back to the starting point. Reaching the back of his cloak, he winced a bit at the bruise that formed (though he had experienced much worse) and glancing at his hand, he saw green paint smeared all over it, A surprise attack/revenge from Mermaid Heel. A screen manifested in front of him, displaying his trivia question.

Explain photorespiration and describe 2 adaptations that have evolved in arid plants to avoid this process. Then, give examples of the similarities those plants share.

Cosmos stared in confusion at the question and blinked. And blinked again. Sighing, he pressed a button on his communicator to repeat the question. He got silence in reply. Giving another sigh of resignation, he pressed his finger to his temple, forming a telepathic link with Freed. Telepathy was a skill he hasn't really practiced much of, so unlike Warren, he is only able to firm a link with one person at a time. Repeating the question, he heard Freed pause a but before replying to him.

"I know the answer, but it's a bit long, so please repeat after me."

Jellal agreed, and took a deep breath. "Photorespiration is the process when oxygen binds to rubisco instead of carbon dioxide, which wastes ATP and produces no glucose. This is bad for plants because it uses energy that should be used for photosynthesis. In order to avoid this, arid plants either change physiologically or structurally. For C4 plants, they split the light reaction and …

Everyone just stared at the green haired mage in confused awe as he confidently stated the answer to the question. As he finished speaking, they turned their attention back to the game, and sighed in relief. Feeling a foreign magic presence behind them, the guild turned around. Seeing a magic council member behind them, they turned their attention to Lucy, who shrugged in response. The messenger glanced at them all, before stopping his search at Lucy.

"Ms. Heartfillia, the Magic Council requests your presence immediately. Please follow me at once."

Nodding, Lucy gave one last glance at the game before telling her guild to update her if anything happens, and to continue with their current process. Then she left to her meeting with the council members.

Lucy's POV

Entering the familiar circular room, I set my removed the cloak I wear as my disguise as "Asteri" and set on the pedestal in the center of the circle of seats around me. Feeling one's glare at me, I sighed before stare back at him, meeting his glare.

"Ms. Heartfillia, I did not expect to see you here once again. However, circumstances have changed, and unfortunately, we require you guild's attention."

Suppressing a smirk from forming at the selection of Wolves' Eclipse for the supposed mission, despite it being a relatively new guild, I replied "As honored as I am, Council, I have two factors I have to point out. First, there are many other capable wizard guild that would not hesitate to accept a direct mission request, which is what I assume is what we'll be discussing, so you are not forced to choose Wolves' Eclipse. So what is your motive for selecting Wolves' Eclipse? Moreover, it is not a secret amongst all of us that I have not been in a certain council member's favor ever since my decision to defect from my position in the council."

The said council member turned towards me. "Though I still think you are a fool for quitting your position, I hate to admit it, but your guild's members are formidable. Furthermore, the members were kept a secret, so undercover missions will be easy. Most other guilds are not trusted enough, or too well known. And guilds like Fairy Tail and Quarto Cerberus weren't even an option. We don't doubt there skills and strength, but they are too….rambunctious."

I nodded in agreement, but inwardly winced, mentally recalling how many times they had to get Ultear to fix the guild for them. Pushing the thought aside, I turned towards the council members and stated the second factor. "I am not the master of the Wolves' Eclipse guild. Decisions like this should be brought up to the master of the guild, not a member, or even a co-master. Laxus Dreyar is the master of my guild, not me, so he's the one you guys should be talking to."

A council member sighed in exasperation "Miss Heartfillia, I'm not sure if you understand, but this is an urgent situation that we have here, a situation that must be addressed immediately."

I just smiled and replied "You don't need to be associated with Laxus to know that he could literally get here as fast as lightning."

The chairman just resigned, knowing fully well that I will not back out and called for a messenger to get Laxus Dreyar over to the meeting room.

While waiting for the messenger to relay the message to Laxus, I began to ponder on the situation. Contrary to the council members' beliefs, I actually have a skeleton of an idea on what the topic of this meeting is about. In fact, this was one of the reasons that I resigned from my council position.

Flashback

I walked away from the infirmary, pondering about what Fuyu, Miyu, and Kaito told us about their attackers. From what I heard, it could easily be a dark guild, but to take out water dragon slayers AND god slayers so easily? That's a nearly impossible feat itself. Laxus walked beside me, wondering the same thing I was.

"Lucy, these people are no ordinary mages. In fact, later on, this may become a huge threat in the future. Moreover, I looked into them to see if there were any more attacks, but from what I found out, there is a pattern in these attacks, but I can't figure out what their motives are."

I bit my bottom lip in stress. Laxus is right. I recognize the signs of a threat from my Fairy Tail days. Before Laxus and I could discuss this potential threat any further, we were stopped by the Black Mage himself, who, to our fear, looked just as worried as we did.

Zeref rubbed the back of his neck in frustration and stress before speaking to the two blondes. "I sense a dark presence around, stronger than the dark guild Tartaros, and it seems to be growing stronger."

I looked straight into Zeref's eyes, fully aware of the power that Tataros holds, and the evil just the name holds. "Zeref, are you able to pinpoint the location where is this presence is?"

If possible, these questions seemed to have placed Zeref in further silent distress. "That's the problem. It's impossible to pinpoint a specific location because this presence is well….everywhere."

This caused a wave of dizziness to hit me as I took a step back. Zeref was no doubt powerful and extremely capable of sensing magic, so I believe him. If it was any lesser mage, I would just assume that they meant in the city, but unfortunately, Zeref isn't any "lesser mage." Laxus's eyes widened as he opened and closed his mouth, gaping in disbelief. Finally, after repeating this multiple times, he said something.

"Oh shit"

I nodded in agreement and closed my eyes, trying to formulate a possible plan. However, as I do not know much about who, or what, we are facing, I was unable to come up with any solution, but one.

"Right now, investigating the enemy to find more information about them is our top priority. Zeref, I'll leave that to you. However, don't tell the other members about this new threat yet. With this being a relatively new guild and the GMG, they have a lot on their minds already. I don't want to put anything else on their shoulders anytime soon."

Laxus and Zeref nodded in agreement, completely understanding my reasoning. Laxus added further on to my plan

"After this, we should talk to Jellal, Ultear, Meredy, Midnight, Racer, Angel, and Cobra. I know they aren't wanted mages anymore, but they might know something."

I nodded in agreement before speaking again, firm about my next decision. "I'm going to resign from my position in the council. Right now, I need to focus on Wolves' Eclipse and this potential new threat."

Before Laxus or Zeref could say anything else, I raised my hand, signaling them to stop. "My decision is final. And remember, for now, this stays between the three of us, got it?"

The two just sighed and nodded. The three of us just walked back to our respective dorms wearily, the toll of all this finally hitting us.

Flashback Ends

Feeling a familiar buzz of electricity in the air, I looked back at the council members, smirking slightly

"See? Like I said, as fast as lightning."

They just ignored me as Laxus appeared beside me. Not bothering to address the council members, he turned towards me, his gaze asking if we were addressing that problem. I just nodded and turned back towards the council members, not serious.

"Laxus Dreyar, Master of Wolves' Eclipse, us council members have a confidential mission for Wolves' Eclipse. Before we reveal anything, would you accept the mission or not? After you accept, attempting to back out of the mission would be considered treason and Wolves' Eclipse shall be labeled as a dark guild."

Hearing this caused both Laxus and I to tense up. To accept a mission without being 100% sure of what the mission is extremely risky, especially when your guild is on the line. Taking a deep breath in, Laxus then stepped forward before I could stop him, his eyes flashing dangerously.

"If what you are addressing is the rise of an extremely powerful dark guild causing a threat through their attacks, then we'll gladly accept the mission. However, if it's not, I'm afraid our hands are full, so we'll have to decline."

The tension of the room increased tenfold after Laxus's declaration. My eyes hardened in seriousness and daring them to protest.

The chairman placed his chin onto his folded hands, staring down upon us. "It appears that you guys aren't as ignorant as you appear. Luckily, we seem to have come to an agreement. Yes, we call you here to investigate this dark guild. More and more attacks have ensued, and some ancient artifacts have been stolen by them. You see, these artifacts rather unknown and seemingly useless, but that all makes it more suspicious. After all, they won't be sold for a lot of money, and I'm sure you have noticed a pattern in their actions." I clenched my fists. I have been aware of their attacks, but not about their thefts. We'll have to look into that with Zeref after we get back to the inn.

Noticing that we were waiting for him to continue, the Chairman continued "Your mission is to find out as much about this threat as much and as quickly as possible, and eventually, dispose of this guild." He stopped and made a signal, and packets were passed onto us. "Inside this packet is all the information that we were able to collect on the guild. You guys may start whenever you want, and a handsome award will be given after the guild is taken down. Any questions?"

Laxus examined the packet before looking back at the chairman. "you have said that this mission in impossible. In that case, we might have some problems."

The chairman just raised his eyebrow, prompting Laxus to continue talking.

"You see, sensing how big this threat is, I have called for a guild master meeting with the rest of the guilds that are participating in the GMG and asked for an alliance after discussing this threat. Some of the guilds were doubtful, but after a bit of 'convicting,' all the masters, excluding the master of Sabertooth, agreed for an alliance to take down this guild. However, as of this moment, only the masters know, and most of the regular members of the guilds don't know." Laxus paused a bit and mumbled about how Fairy Tail might be an exception to this before continuing. "This also applies to our guild. Only Lucy and I know, along with Zeref, who had sensed the dark presence. We do not plan on addressing it until after the GMG."

The chairman nodded, knowing that not much could be done. "Very well. In that case, unless you have anything else, to add, the meeting is adjourned."

Bowing, Laxus and I walked out, looking over the information in the folders before placing it away. By the time we exited the building it was dark out.

"Laxus, what do you think of the new found information?"

He didn't look at me and just continued walking, but still answered. "I can't draw any conclusions until we find out the significance of these items they stole. We might need to talk to someone about this first. Also, how are you going to get back to the inn?"

I stopped, realizing that the messenger who teleported me is most likely off duty by now, and the distance between here and the inn that we are staying at is too far away for Laxus to use his Lightning Body to travel with two people to. Plus, Laxus already used to today to travel from where the messenger teleported to (it was too far to teleport all the way) to the meeting room, so I don't know if he could make the complete trip back. I was about to just call one of the my spirits to take us to the celestial world and then to the inn, but there is the time difference to consider, when I sensed the presence of a certain mage.

Continuing walking, I turned a few corners; Laxus following close behind, before bumping into a pair of Rune Knights.

"Lahar, Mest, long time no see. So, how are you guys?" I greeted cheerfully

Lahar nodded stiffly in greeting while Mest seems to have a few questions.

"Lucy, from what I heard, you are a member of Wolves' Eclipse now? What happened? Why did you leave Fairy Tail? Did Wendy join you guys?"

I smiled a bit at his questions. "Hello to you too Mest. Yes, I'm now the co-master of Wolves' Eclipse, which Wendy is indeed a member of. And as for you other question, that's a story for another time. But now, may I ask for a small favor?"

Mest nodded, and after explaining the situation to him and Lahar, neither seemed surprise, already accustomed to our antics. Mest agreed to teleport both of us back to a park in Crocus so we don't draw too much attention, as at this time of night, not much people should be out. Putting our hoods on just in case, we said out good-byes to Lahar and a few moments later, we were in the middle of the Crocus Park, and we were thanking him as he teleported back to Era.

The two of us walked back to the inn. Not to our surprise, questions from what happened and where we've been barreled towards us. Laxus slumped down on the couch, and explained to them on how he'll explain after the GMG so they don't get distracted, and told them all to get to bed and get some rest, along with asking how today's game went.

"We took second place this time! With our strategy, we were able to answer the questions, but we didn't want to draw too much attention, like Lucy told us to, so we went easy."

"Blue Pegasus took first place, and Fairy Tail was third. But this time, Mermaid Heel pulled ahead of Sabertooth just because everyone kept away from them as much as possible, and they didn't use telepathy magic to communicate between members. Ha! Bet they didn't understand the concept of teamwork at all, did they?"

"Evergreen was pretty amazing! She was able to answer some of the questions all by herself!"

"Hmph, you don't spend that much time with Freed and not learn anything."

"We won all the battles too! Midnight didn't seem to try at all, but still won and Angel trained a lot for this! Also, Miyu literally swept her competition away with her waves!"

I smiled warmly at them all. Even though most of us barely knew each other, we were already family. Us, the rejected, the shamed, the outcasts- even with our different pasts, we were able to untie and walk forward to the future together.

Soon, all the commotion settled down as they all went to their separate rooms. Zeref, Laxus, and I went to Zeref's room in order to discuss these new changes and information. Caught up in our discussion and planning, we didn't notice a new presence in the room, overlooking the papers.

"Is there something what you haven't been telling us?"

The three of us turned towards the new voice, gulping in nervousness. Arms folded, glaring at us, was a surprisingly awake Midnight. No away around the situation, we explained the problem and mission to him.

He stayed silent the entire time, until the end of the explanation. He settled down in exhaustion, but his body was completely tense. Looking at us with his red eyes, I noticed a hint of worry in them.

"Midnight, what you know?" I questioned

Midnight just looked over the papers one again and closed his eyes. For a moment, I thought he fell asleep, and was about to wake him up before he reopened his eyes.

"From this information, it sounds like this guild is trying to unleash a major weapon, Soleil. Oracion Seis initially planned to unleash Soleil, but because of the danger and power it holds, we decided against it."

Outside, the clock struck midnight, and contrary to the tension in the room, fireworks struck the sky, signaling the fifth and final day of the GMG.

However, to me, it was a bad omen, signaling the last day of peace for us all.

Scarlet: And finished….after over a year long hiatus

Okay, to tell you guys the truth, I lost interest in this fanfiction a few months before the last update (about the time the GMG arc started) initially, I had a lot of fun with it, but after a while, I felt like I was forcing myself to write this, and I just couldn't do it. Of course, I still enjoyed writing; so instead, I took a break from this fanfic and began to write Vocaloid fanfics on wattpad under a different name. After that, I began to vent using an original story I'm working on, so yeah…. Oh god, I sound like a melodramatic teen now.

Sorry about that, I just felt like you guys deserved the truth as to why I haven't been updating. I won't discontinue this story, of course, and hopefully, a year-long hiatus won't occur again. I hope that after the GMG arc is over, I will be able to get back on track to what I originally planned for this story. This isn't the only reason, of course. Things been occurring in life, and I wanted to focus on my art for a while (lol, my friend always jokes about how I never update anything and how I'm always late. Btw, check out her art! She's known as lunasakuras and an amazing artist, along with a supportive friend! In fact, she's the one who helps me with fanfiction decisions and reminds to update!...okay, I'm off topic with the advertising now)

On one last note, Happy New Years! See you in 2017 (it's still 2016 here. After all, I gotta update at least once in 2016)

I'm at the point where in looking back at my old writing/drawings and dying inside from embarrassment. Now I really have to rewrite the first few chapters. Proof reading might not hurt either

Disclaimer

-A very sorry and much dead Scarlet

12/31/16