I know, I know, I haven't updated in months, I'm a horrible person. But between vacations and visiting relatives and unmotivational feelings and the simple fact that this chapter was really hard to write, it just took forever. It's not very good, tbh. As I couldn't really find anything for Meredy to do, it's really just a retelling of the second day from canon. I tried to make it as exciting as possible, but I'm not sure I did that great of a job, especially after last chapter. Anyway, the next chapters will be better and faster, I promise!

Meredy sat cross-legged on the bed she had been assigned to in Team B's room, watching her teammates sleep. A bit creepy, she knew, but she couldn't help it. Years of night watches and ambushes under the cover of dark and escaping through the shadows of twilight had given her one of the weirdest sleep schedules possible, making her practically a vampire. I should get red-colored contacts and some of those candy fangs and scare Jellal to death. she thought amusedly. For such a powerful mage, Jellal could really be a scaredy-cat at times.

Speaking of Jellal, I would have hated to be him during my fight with Jura today…..She winced on instinct. Ultear had probably been flipping out from wherever the two were watching from. She was just glad she hadn't been totally destroyed, or else her foster mother might have marched down there to kill someone, and Meredy seriously doubted Jellal could stop her. Ultear was an unstoppable tidal wave of pure terrifyingness when she was angry, as had been demonstrated by the fates of the multiple dark guilds who had attempted to kidnap Meredy (Ultear had literally grown a tree through one of them. It was a very bloody sight.)

"Of course I love you, Grey-sa-" The last part was cut off as Juvia rolled over onto her stomach, smothering the rest of the sentence. Meredy giggled, figuring her friend was on another dream date with her eternal crush. She was truly happy to spend time with Juvia again, after all, the blue-haired girl had been the first to make her feel anything other then a crushing sense of vengeance and coldness. Probably because her sense of revenge was greater then mine, ironically enough. Meredy thought wryly. She had resolved to pay Juvia back by getting her together with Gray. So far, efforts had been futile, but she still had several more days to try!

She also found it adorable how Pantherlily curled up next to Gajeel while the two slept. It was obvious that Gajeel was totally a sucker for his cat, and Meredy found that absolutely hilarious. Cana was sleeping in nothing but her underwear, having been dragged up from the bar by a giggling Mirajane and exasperated Laxus at one in the morning. It was obvious the brunette didn't care at all about who saw her wearing what, and Meredy had to respect that. Said Take-Over mage and Lightning Dragonslayer were relatively peaceful, not moving or making any sound, though every so often a slight electric charge from Laxus would cause the hair on her arms to stand up.

She wondered how Team A was doing, especially Wendy. The poor kid- Meredy's face convoluted into a scowl. Those Raven Tail bastards obviously really wanted a beating. If they kept this up, Meredy was going to find some way to convince Ultear that they were the cause of the strange magic power and sic the Arc of Time mage of them. She sighed, flopping back on her bed and causing Cana, whose bed was next to her's, to roll over and wave an arm in the air.

Knowing Fairy Tail, though, Raven Tail was definitely going to get their comeuppance, and probably be just one more obstacle in the former strongest guild in Fiore's path to reclaiming their former power.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"So who'd we send out for this one?" Meredy asked, leaning on her elbows on the stone railing as she observed the rowdy crowds collected in the stands. It was rather nice that each mage team had its own balcony, though it was annoying that they weren't supposed to leave their respective areas unless they were going out for a competition or battle. She supposed this was to cut down on cheating, but how was she supposed to go and get candy? Sure, she had just come back from buying twenty separate packages (Laxus had given her a concerned look), but what if she ran out? That would truly be a tragedy.

"Gajeel-kun's competing," Juvia cheerfully informed her, before her expression changed to a more unamused one. "But I didn't know he got motionsick…."

Meredy glanced at the lacrima screens and grimaced. Unsurprisingly, Natsu (competing for Team A) looked like he was ready to fall over and die. However, to the apparent surprise of most of the arena, Gajeel and Sting Eucliffe of Sabertooth were both also staggering along, barely managing to keep on their feet. Turning an eye over to the Sabertooth balcony, it was obvious that they were also fairly unamused with this turn of events. Well, there isn't anything we can do about it now...

Her attention flipping back to the lacrima screen, it seemed that those three were the only motionsick ones, as the others were in a heated race for the finish line. Currently the Raven Tail guy was in the lead (Meredy scowled at that news), but the other four competitors weren't far behind at all. The announcers were excitedly updating the audience on the changing ranks from their booth high above the rest of the arena. Apparently they had brought in one of the reporters from Sorcerer Weekly as a guest announcer- Jason or something, Lucy had glared at him for some reason as she spotted him when coming into the arena. Meredy snickered slightly at the fact that Chapati had a totally different hairstyle from the day before. He had been the main announcer for years now, and she had never seen him wear the same hairstyle twice. She shuddered, remembering the time he wore a bright pink afro. The pinkette never wanted to see her hair color used in such a horrible way ever again.

The competitors seemed to have begun using magic (except for the motionsick Dragonslayers in the back), and the Lamia Scale representative, Yuka if she had heard Chapati correctly, had just used that wave magic of his to shoot ahead of the Mermaid Heel girl and Ichiya (no one ever forgot who Ichiya was, which was unfortunate in certain cases). Unfortunately for him, Risley had easily dodged it using her gravity magic and shot ahead of him, and Ichiya had, well...stuck two vials of parfum (she always said parfum instead of perfume and it was all his fault) in his nose and totally inhibited the effects of the wave while running right past him, leaving Yuka fairly flustered. Meredy snickered. Never underestimate the tricks your opponents might have up their sleeve, she had learned that lesson well enough.

Bacchus had been hanging back until now, but of course the second the others started using their magic he totally wrecked an entire chariot, flinging the three into the air and dashing in front of them, cackling. Meredy was pretty sure that he was still under the effects of the alcohol, then again, all of Quatro Cerberus constantly acted like they were drunk. Sure enough, a few seconds later he had shot ahead of Kurohebi (the Raven Tail representative) and crossed the goal line, eliciting an incredibly loud shriek of "Wild Four!" from the Quatro Cerberus section. Minutes later, as Jason yelled about how cool Risley's gravity-altered body was, Raven Tail earned second place and consequently eight points (Fairy Tail booed).

A few seconds apart from each other, Mermaid Heel earned third, Lamia Scale was awarded fourth, and Blue Pegasus was granted three points as they came in fifth.

All that was left was the two Fairy Tail mages and the Sabertooth mage, battling it out for the last three places. Well, if you could even call it a battle, considering that when Gajeel attempted to knock Sting over for calling him a newbie, all he manage to do was squish Natsu and groan. Pantherlily looked physically pained, which Meredy actually found quite funny. The rest of the crowd apparently found the last three competitor's distress hilarious, as they were all laughing their heads off.

Mirajane suddenly looked thoughtful. "It seems Dragonslayers get sick on vehicles...hey, Laxus, aren't you a Dragonslayer?"

He just glared at the lacrima screen. "Don't tell anyone." Juvia let out a sigh. "Isn't it fairly obvious at this point?" Meredy giggled. Hey, didn't the Oracion Seis have a Dragonslayer? Cobra or something? I wonder if he got motionsick...she smiled in spite of herself. That would have probably been hilarious.

It seemed as though the Sabertooth mage wasn't bothering to push himself, while the two Fairy Tail mages were doing their best to move forward, despite being obviously unable to move very well. You could hear their conversation well enough on the lacrima.

"Don't cry about that one point later, kid!" she heard Gajeel say, as Sting seemed to decide to just give the two the battle. Meredy smirked as Sting began speaking again, dropping that line in her memory to remember for when Sabertooth would almost certainly regret not taking that point while they could. Her interest was piqued by what he was saying now, as it was a question she realized she had been wondering herself.

"Why are you even participating in this tournament? I wouldn't have believe you were the same Fairy Tail from back in the day. Are you worried about your public image? The Fairy Tail that I know did everything at their own pace. They didn't give a damn what anyone thought of them."

The rest of Fairy Tail, especially the ones sitting in the stands, looked nervous waiting for Natsu and Gajeel's response. Meredy didn't blame them- what was a proper response to that? Then again, she should have realized exactly what Natsu would say. After all, she had witnessed first-hand the devotion Fairy Tail held to their guildmates.

"For...our friends..." the crowd was holding their breath now, "who waited for seven years...all that time...they were waiting for us. No matter how painful, no matter how sad...they held on. They held on...they protected the guild...for their friends...and now we're gonna show everyone...the proof that Fairy Tail's been holding on all this time!" Natsu shouted, and Meredy could feel the tidal wave of emotion hitting her from the balcony where the members of Fairy Tail who weren't participating in the games stood, crying unabashedly. She didn't blame them- she herself was tearing up, though they may have partially been the fault of said emotional tidal wave. Sting looked stunned as the two continued pressing on, obviously not expecting a response like that.

Natsu collapsed across the finish line, earning two points for Fairy Tail Team A (the first points they had received) and Gajeel soon followed, getting Team B another point to add to the ones Mirajane and Juvia had earned.

She glanced around the crowd, listening to the whispers and murmurings coming from the crowd, some of whom were even crying, "They're tenacious, I'll give 'em that!" "Who are these guys?!" "Fairy Tail, eh? I kind of like that..." "I'm even a little touched!" "First the pink-haired girl yesterday and now these two..I'll cheer them on!" Applause began resonating around the arena as they announced that Sting had received zero points for dropping out. Sabertooth looked distinctly disgruntled. She figured he was going to get some smack for that. Good thing she didn't care.

Now that that's over...taking a look at the leaderboard, she saw, and the announcers confirmed it (with another "COOL!" from Jason, was that guy annoying, no wonder Lucy had been glaring) that Raven Tail currently held first place. And Sabertooth was in second. The Sabertooth members looked even more annoyed now, and the two Exceeds in the front row looked nervous. Meredy decided she didn't like the red one, but the frog one was adorable.

Watching as Lucy dragged Natsu off to the infirmary and Gajeel tiredly made his way back up to their stands (where Juvia instantly tackled him with a hug and sang "Gajeel-kun, Juvia was absolutely touched!" "Salamander said all that, not me! Get off!"), they announced the next battle

"Toby Horhorta of Lamia Scale! Versus! Kurohebi of Raven Tail!"

Gajeel quit fending off Juvia's hugs to glance out on the arena floor. "Raven, huh?"

"I hope we see a fair fight." Yajima noted from the commentator's box as Jason continued to yell how cool it was that Toby looked like a dog (and seemed to have the intelligence of one, too, Meredy noted wryly). Her gaze drifted over to where Fairy Tail A stood, seeing that Lucy seemed to have come back from the infirmary, which meant Natsu must be fine. The Crime Sorciere mage figured she wouldn't be here if he wasn't. The blonde's face had suddenly turned to one of sadness as she glanced at the Raven Tail balcony, which was blocked from Meredy's view. Wonder what that's about...

She didn't have any more time to wonder as the soldier holding the giant gavel struck the gong to signal the beginning of the match, and Toby instantly extended his claws, yelling out his battle cry.

"What kind of attack name is 'Super Paralysis Claw Mega Mega Jellyfish?'" Meredy questioned her teammates in general in amusement, which caused Mirajane to giggle and Gajeel to crack a smile.

"Well, if it beats up the Raven, Juvia doesn't care." Juvia answered, a note of resentment hinting its way into her voice. Meredy could tell even without her power to sense emotions that Juvia still held a slight grudge for both her and her beloved Gray-sama's humiliation at the hands of Raven Tail's mage during yesterday's game, and she doubted the bluenette would mind if this Kurohebi guy was utterly destroyed out there. Unfortunately, so far he had been dodging all of Toby's clawed swipes before vanishing into sand, disappearing entirely.

As Toby had a moment of panic, Kurohebi reappeared, hissing "Sand Rebellion!" and sending his opponent flying into the air, though he wasn't nearly defeated yet.

She could hear various members of Fairy Tail shrieking for the Lamia Scale mage to beat up Ivan's guild as the two battling mages jumped back, acknowledging each other's strength. Meredy was fairly unsurprised to learn that Kurohebi wasn't the guy's real name (who would name their kid something that means "Black Snake"?), but she found it somewhat funny that the dog-like man pretty much flipped his shit when his enemy revealed that.

"You! If I win, you're telling me your real name!" Toby shouted as he furiously slashed with his green claws, the other mage dodging every strike.

"And what do I get if I win?"

"I'll tell you my big secret!" came the enthusiastic shout, and Kurohebi's black eyes widened with a hint of maliciousness. "That sounds interesting." Meredy tensed, feeling a slight malevolence come off the field. She quickly blinked over at the Raven Tail members, but none of them were doing anything unusual besides grinning those awful grins of theirs.

Apparently bets were "COOL!" too. Meredy was going to murder that Jason guy.

It didn't take long after the bet was made for the keening dog-like Lamia mage to be knocked to the ground and knocked out, leaving the Raven Tail wizard on his feet and the winner, earning them another 10 pts. Lamia Scale looked exasperated, Raven Tail was smugly smirking, and Fairy Tail was scowling in a state of great annoyance as the crowd cheered the victory.

"I'm actually somewhat impressed." Mirajane duly noted. "Not only did he win after participating in the Chariot race earlier, but he did it without much effort."

Her team agreed, and Team A seemed to be having the same discussion.

"They're relatively strong even without the dirty tricks. That's annoying." Gajeel added, shooting a glare at the aforementioned guild.

Meanwhile, on the arena floor, Toby was confessing his secret. As Team B had thought beforehand, it really wasn't very interesting.

"So his big secret is that his sock has been missing for the past three months?" Laxus asked, extremely unimpressed.

"It's around his neck." Meredy deadpanned, just as Kurohebi pointed out this same thing. "And now he's crying. These Grand Magic Games are extremely unusual, no?"

"Yajima-san, what do you think?"

"No comment."

"Cool! COOL!" (goddamit, Jason)

But the confused, slightly touched but also totally and completely confused air changed when the Raven Tail mage cut the "missing" sock into pieces.

The entire arena gasped, because okay that was a little ridiculous, but-

"Oh my..." Mirajane said concernedly, as Toby started crying hysterically again and Kurohebi walked off, claiming that it was his nature to want to destroy something precious.

"That's just mean." Meredy agreed angrily, crossing her arms. The Toby guy was ridiculous, but that was no excuse. "Honestly, are they trying to make people dislike them?"

"It's not like they're advocating peace and happiness, with the whole destroy-Fairy-Tail mantra..." Gajeel shrugged, though even he sounded a bit put-off by the pure maliciousness of that act.

The arena was silent except for the whispers floating about as the announcers struggled to regain their composure.

"Um..well, let's proceed to the second match!" Chapati hastily spoke through his microphone, seemingly looking at a piece of paper which she supposed contained the match lists.

"From Quatro Cerberus, Bacchus Groh!" The man wearing purple armorish clothing and a bun who had also participated in the Chariot race earlier triumphantly swaggered out onto the arena floor, waving a bottle of alcohol in the air as the crowd cheered. Meredy instantly recognized him as Quatro Cerberus's strongest mage, and the man who had crashed Fairy Tail's party the night before and stolen Cana's bra, something that immediately pointed out by Cana herself after it was announced that he'd be fighting someone from Fairy Tail's Team A.

"Someone avenge me! I don't care who, but someone beat him up in revenge!" the brunette shrieked, threatening to fall over the stone balcony as Gajeel and Meredy held her back as she shrieked.

"Elfman Strauss!"

It was instantly obvious that Fairy Tail Team A and B were not encouraged by this pronouncement. "Wait a minute, that's the guy who's on Erza's level, and Elfman's fighting him!?" Gajeel said, not looking happy about Fairy Tail's chances on this one.

"Elfman!?" Mirajane exclaimed, looking somewhat scared. "Oh dear..."

Meredy could see Erza giving Elfman encouragement as he headed towards the arena floor, looking somewhat scared himself, but determined.

All eyes were on the combatants, Bacchus casually lying on the ground, holding a bottle of alcohol. He definitely sounded drunk, though Meredy doubted he was yet. "Hey, how about you and me make a bet, like those last guys did?" A smirk grew on his face. "Both of your sisters are lovely."

Elfman's eyes narrowed. "What're you trying to say?"

The man grinned, though it was definitely more creepy then happy. "If I win, they're mine, both of them." His eye widened. "At the same time."

Both women's eyes were wide and shaking, though whether it was from anger or disgust Meredy wasn't sure. Probably both, as that's certainly what Meredy was thinking and that's certainly what was exhibited on every Fairy Tail member's face, nonetheless Elfman's.

"Bastard..." Cana spat out through gritted teeth.

Bacchus still looked ridiculously nonchalant as he considered. "And if you win, let's see..."

Before he could finish, Elfman stepped forward, his hands balling into fists. "There are some things a man can't let pass...hound dog. I'll tear you apart!" he growled, body surging with magic power.

"Then we have a deal?" Bacchus said slyly, rising to his feet. "My soul is quivering."

As they flew at each other, Meredy frowned slightly at the explosion she spotted from above the arena, on the stone walls surrounding it. What was that...when she turned her attention back to the battle, however, the outcome looked less then favorable.

Elfman was already on one knee, clearly outmatched, especially considering that Bacchus was up without a single scratch on him. It was clearly obvious who was more powerful in this situation, and both the crowd and the announcer were acknowledging this.

Bacchus grinned that sly grin of his that made Meredy quite partial to sensory-linking this guy to one of the dark guild members Ultear interrogated. "Beautiful women, all to myself...hehe..." Elfman scowled.

"Take-Over: Weretiger!" he shouted, instantly changing into some type of sabertooth tiger and running at Bacchus again. Though he speed was increased, the other mage easily kicked and punched him to the ground again, doubling back with that same stance he was in before.

Gajeel glanced at Meredy, who was intently watching the battle. "Oi, Pinky. You've watched this guy fight before, right? What magic is he using?"

"It's Palm Magic." the pinkette answered, her eyes flicking to him for a second before turning back to view the fight. "Magic gathers in his palm and is released through his punches and hits, which is why they're so overwhelmingly powerful. Combined with his martial art style and his mastery at is, it's extremely difficult to fight."

"Elfman's more of a hands-on fighter, so that's not good for us." Cana said grimly, taking another sip of her drink.

"That's not even the worst of it." Meredy said, scowling. "If things get bad, he drinks from that flask." she said, indicating the one Bacchus had brought into the arena with him. "It allows him to use his magic, but in a style he invented to use while drunk. It makes him ridiculously unpredictable and ten times harder to fight."

The other members of her team looked alarmed. "So he's not even using his full strength yet..." Gajeel said, looking back at their fight. It wasn't going much better then before, with Elfman having just been smashed into a wall.

The announcers seemed to know what Meredy was saying, and were informing the audience of it. Jason apparently thought Bacchus's magic was COOL! Meredy wanted to punch him. She restrained the urge in favor of watching the match.

"So you're up, eh?" Bacchus was saying, as Elfman once again rose to his feet. "I guess all that repetition of Man wasn't for nothing."

"I didn't decide yet, hound dog." Elfman said. "The bet...what happens if I win..."

Bacchus laughed, looking totally unconcerned. "Since there's no chance of that happening, go ahead, whatever you want."

Elfman smirked slightly as he lifted his head up to stare at Bacchus. "If I win, for the remainder of the Games, the name of your guild will be Quatro Puppy."

There was dead silence for a second as Quatro Cerberus looked horrified and Bacchus looked like he couldn't decide whether to laugh or be like the rest of his guild and blanche.

"Puppy? Like, a baby dog? "Four Puppies?" Juvia said, somewhat confused and looking at Meredy for an explanation. The pinkette was busy laughing her head off.

"I like that! Make 'em do it, Elfman!" Cana cheered, cackling with Meredy. Her expression suddenly turned to one of dread, however, as Bacchus picked up his flask of alcohol. "Oh, no..."

"Oh, my!" Chapati yelled from the announcer's box. "Bacchus has hit the bottle at last!"

"Now he's serious!" Juvia exclaimed, looking worried, as Bacchus flew at Elfman, movements too fast to see.

Meredy's eyes widened as Bacchus jumped away. Seven blows in one instant! That's impressive...but Elfman must have done something, because he's not down yet...

Indeed, just as she thought that, Bacchus looked down to see that the bottom half of his violet armor had crumbled and that his hands were brutally scratched. "What is this?!"

"Beast Soul: Lizardman!" Elfman had become, quite literally, a lizardman- one with extremely hard and sharp scales.

"Come!" Elfman yelled, gesturing to the Quatro Cerberus mage. "Either your hands or my body- which one will break first?"

"That's some strategy..." Mirajane muttered, shaking her head.

"It's crazy," Juvia said firmly, Meredy nodding in agreement. "Lizardman might be the perfect defense against a bare-handed fighter, but I'm not sure it'll hold against Bacchus's unrelenting attacks. Combined with the fact that Elfman's already taken a lot of damage and Bacchus has taken barely any..."

It was, quite literally, insane. Anyone would think it was a one-sided fight from the way Bacchus landed blow after blow on Elfman; but it wasn't one-sided, because getting hit multiple times was Elfman's strategy, offense, and defense. Baccus rained blow after unmerciful blow on the Take-Over's spiky scales over and over, as the crowd, Quatro Cerberus, and Fairy Tail held their breath. Pieces of armor and green and black scales flew everywhere as the clash of wills continued on and on and on, drawing everyone's undivided attention.

Finally, Elfman's Take-Over came undone and Bacchus ran out of magic, both collapsing, panting and heaving, to the floor.

Bacchus managed to breath out, "Your name is Elfman, right?" He began to cackle maniacally, standing up, which would give him the victory, as Lisanna and Evergreen (plus several other Fairy Tail members) teared up and Mirajane's eyes looked dark.

"You know, you're...a real...man." Bacchus collapsed to the ground and didn't get back up.

The arena burst into cheers as the announcers declared Elfman's victory like they couldn't believe it was happening. Evergreen was strangling poor Freed, and Mirajane had tears of joy pricking in the corner of her eyes.

Elfman raised a fist in the air and let out a roar of victory over his defeated opponent, and the rest of the arena shrieked with him.

"Elfman declared victory over a formidable opponent!" Chapati shouted through his microphone. "Does this battle roar speak of Fairy Tail's comeback!?

From above the arena, Wendy, Natsu, and Porlyusica went over the details of Wendy's apparently mistaken kidnapping. "But they- Raven Tail- were looking for another girl who was in the infirmary, not is in the infirmary!" Natsu was exclaiming, as Charle's eyes widened. "You mean Lucy!"

In Mercurius, Captain Arcadios was scolding a subordinate. "Fool! Your men had the wrong target! Well, no matter. We'll just have to move to Plan B. Where are the original perpetrators?"

"In prison, sir." the soldier said, his hand still raised in salute.

"Their cover isn't blown?"

"No, sir. They believe their client is Raven Tail, not us."

"Good." Arcadios said, sounding satisfied. "We can keep using the tension between Fairy Tail and Raven Tail like this. And while they're feuding-" and here his eyes gleamed, "we'll grab ourselves a Celestial Spirit Wizard, for the Eclipse Project!"

Next Chapter: Things Are Going Well! (It Won't Last Long)

I could have written more, but I really wanted to just publish the chapter. It really isn't that great, but I've finished it, so that's something! I hate retelling canon ugh, it's so annoying-_- Anyway, probably by the next chapter, I'm gonna start changing things so a.) Meredy can fight people and b.) so that I'm not just retelling canon. See you guys next chapter!