Chapter Text
“Shrimp, you’re awfully restless this morning,” Gajeel muttered sleepily, feeling Levy moving beside him.
Her arms kept moving, even hitting him at some point which caused him to open his eyes. The room was darker than he was expecting since he figured it was already morning, but no sun was coming through the window. In that moment he also realized that Levy seemed warmer than he expected, but that only made him smirk and pull her closer to his body.
“Geroff me,” Gajeel heard someone reply who was horrifyingly not Levy McGarden.
Gajeel shot up into a sitting position and shoved himself away from the person who was somehow sleeping beside him. He also realised despairingly that Levy had never been in his bed despite what he may want. His sleepy delusion evaporated in one sobering moment.
“Alright, Salamander, you have exactly two seconds to tell me how the hell you ended up in my bed,” Gajeel replied lividly.
“Wait, you’re not—” Natsu pulled himself back, realising he was also waking up beside someone other than he was expecting.
“I am not Bunny Girl,” Gajeel said through gritted teeth.
“Are you talking about Lucy?” another voice sounded from the room around them.
“Erza?” Natsu asked, trying to remember if he had fallen asleep at the guild last night. His mind was cloudier than normal as he struggled to remember how he had wound up here; wherever here was.
“Can someone tell me what the hell is going on?” Gajeel roared, growing more impatient by the second.
His eyesight was adapting the to pitch black room where he realised there were several others lying around him, stirring from their own unconsciousness.
“There’s no need to be so bad-tempered,” Carla remarked ostensibly, dusting herself off while feeling embarrassed that she had somehow landed herself in this particular situation.
There was no way she would ever let her guard down enough to end up asleep in a room full of other disoriented people.
“Carla? Does that mean Wendy’s here, too?” Natsu asked, squinting as his own vision came into focus.
“I don’t think she’s here,” another voice sounded.
“Chelia? What on Earthland are you doing here?” Carla asked, knowing full-well she was a member of Lamia Scale.
“Erm- I have no idea where here is…” Chelia replied uneasily.
“Wait, someone from Lamia Scale is here?” Erza asked sceptically.
“She’s not the only one,” another familiar voice spoke.
“Lyon? What the hell are you doing here?” Gajeel growled, not liking how peculiar this situation was turning into.
“That is something I would also like the answer to as well,” Lyon replied in his own steely tone.
“Sabertooth is here as well,” one more familiar voice announced; this was getting ridiculous.
“Sting, is that you?” Natsu asked.
“Yea, but I’m supposed to be at my guild. My memory is kinda fuzzy, but I don’t think I was visiting Fairy Tail,” Sting responded warily.
“No, I don’t think any of the guilds were together. This is already very strange; we must keep our guard up and look around for a way out,” Erza stated, already surveying her surroundings in the dark. No one argued against Titania taking over as leader, even if another guild master was present; no one spoke against Erza unless they had a death wish.
“There seems to be a lot of people missing,” Freed observed, making his presence also known.
“What do you mean by that? I would say there are way too many people here that I wasn’t expecting to wake up beside,” Gajeel grumbled.
“Freed is right,” Erza replied grimly. “I mean, Sting is here without Rogue, when do we ever see those two separated?”
Sting was thankful for the first time since waking up that the room was dark so that meant no one could see him blushing. “Hey, it’s just the Twin Dragons name everyone gives us, we do spend time apart, you know,” Sting sounded rather defensive even though he hadn’t meant to.
“No, Erza’s right. You two are best friends correct? And Carla’s here without Wendy… Natsu without—”
“Happy!” Lyon was cut off by Natsu’s calling out.
“The Tomcat isn’t here,” Carla cut in with her dismissive tone.
Natsu sniffed the air but knew Carla and the others were right. There were several people not here with them.
“Lucy isn’t here,” Erza said sadly.
“And neither is Gray,” Natsu added miserably although several others thought it might be a blessing they all weren’t trapped in this small room with those two always bickering.
“Well, do we really wish they were here?” Gajeel interrupted gruffly, thankful now that he hadn’t woken up with Levy beside him if it meant she would be trapped in here as well with all of these idiots.
“A real man will get us out,” Elfman piped in, having been the last one to wake up.
“Alright everyone, let’s fan out and find an exit,” Erza commanded.
Everyone agreed before moving around the average sized room to find a door. As far as they could tell it was a standard room with no furniture or ornaments. Most alarming though was the lack of any windows or doors. All of the members in the room therefore grasped at the walls looking for an exit, while Natsu bent down to start scouring the floor for a trap door while Carla obligingly flew up to the ceiling to paw around for an attic door or vent shaft.
“How is this possible?” Lyon asked, knowing by now there were no exits.
“It’s almost like the walls were built around us while we slept,” Freed commented eerily.
“How long were we actually out for?” Gajeel asked, realising now how groggy and stiff he actually felt.
“There’s no way to tell,” Erza replied, feeling even more uneasy now about the situation than before.
“Wait, everyone check their pockets, I found something in mine,” Sting announced suddenly, finding a lacrima that he had no recollection of putting in there.
The telltale ruffling of everyone turning out all their pockets filled the room but there were no other indications of anyone finding anything.
“It looks like you’re the only one Sting,” Freed replied while everyone made their over to study the lacrima in Sting’s hands.
Most people’s eyesight had adapted to the dark by now, at least somewhat. But in that moment the lacrima decidedly turned on, casting off a bright light that blinded everyone. Even more disturbing was the voice that started speaking from it once Sting dropped it down to the ground.
“Oh, Fairy Tail, you are all nothing but a bunch of inexperienced children,” the voice emitted from the center of the room, immediately rankling those in the room with the Fairy Tail emblem.
“We’re not in Fairy Tail,” Chelia, Lyon and Sting retorted back stubbornly, even though that wasn’t really the pressing issue.
“Oh, forgive me, I nearly forgot who I had all placed in here. I digress, I have been watching the three guilds of Fiore for some time and have observed several mages who are too foolish to declare their feelings for one another. It is so painfully obvious how you all feel about your dream lovers, while absolutely none of you have ever acted on it. So, instead of launching a battle I knew I could never win, I kidnapped you when you least expected it. And then, I split the so-called couples up at random to separate them. You are Group B, maybe the lucky ones in all this,” the surprise speaker explained with malice lacing his voice.
“What do you mean we’re the lucky ones?” Natsu roared angrily.
Gajeel had to agree, if being locked in a dark room with no exit, windows, or food was the good option, he loathed to think what Levy’s group was facing. He knew the man in question must mean Levy for him, because there was no one else.
“I would love to explain to you where Group A is, but why don’t I show you instead?” he asked in a cunningly.
The lacrima shone brighter in front of them and most had to shield their eyes to adjust to the brightness level. Moments later there was a holographic display in front of them showing several members from various guilds standing on pedestals in a field.
“What the fuck is all this?” Natsu growled even louder. But his question went ignored.
“Welcome esteemed guests to Fiore’s first Survival Games. I am the Game Master of these said games and am thrilled to have collected you all here” the ominous voice announced from inside the lacrima although there was no way of telling where he was speaking from.
Erza scanned quickly around the circle where the other members were standing. Although it seemed they were at least outside and not in some oversized coffin, the man had explained that their group was better off. The pit of her stomach sank when her eyes landed on her teammate first, Lucy. Beside her was Gray looking as livid as Natsu was acting. Beside him was Juvia, followed by Rogue from Sabertooth, then Wendy and Evergreen. After Evergreen was Levy, Happy and finally Laxus.
It was obvious all the members of the so-called Group A were various levels of apprehensive, confused, and livid. Laxus looked like he was about to incite a lightning storm of epic proportions but surprisingly he held off so that they could figure out what the hell was happening.
“Why don’t they just move?” Sting asked, looking frantically at his best friend just standing there.
“I’m not sure they can,” Chelia replied worriedly.
“Group A, you will be competing in a survival competition. Once the timer in front of you counts down may you step off your pedestal. Right now your feet are magically bound to your pedestals whereas the one who loves you most watches from their prison,” the Game Master explained just as cryptically.
Group B could see the members of Group A shouting but this time no sound came through the lacrima.
“Don’t move, Wendy, just stay there,” Chelia called out, looking anxiously at her best friend through the holographic screen.
It was obvious though by this point that Group A could not hear Group B through the lacrima since they were not responding to their voices, just as they couldn’t hear Group A in return.
“Now, there are nine of you competing, which means there are nine others in a secure location where they have a direct feed to the competition. My plan is simple, defeat three of the strongest guilds in Fiore by breaking their spirit that you so antagonizingly love to go on about. If even a single person has to watch the one they hold dearest die in front of them, then I am confident the three powers will fall. There is no escape from the prison cell for Group B nor is there a way out of the arena for Group A. The contest will proceed for one week. After that time, I will release Group B to go and collect their dead,” the man finished explaining before his voice cut out and Group B once again fell silent.
“A whole week!” Chelia squealed first.
“I mean, they are in a field, how bad is it going to be? They won’t kill each other and I think this guy severely underestimates how capable our guilds are,” Sting said more confidently.
“Yea, they’re all manly!” Elfman agreed heartily.
Erza however continued to frown, knowing it probably wasn’t going to be that easy. Whoever this guy was, he had succeeded in abducting the top wizards from three different guilds, including Sabertooth’s master, all without a hitch. Now they were all helpless in watching their guildmates try and survive for an entire week in some sort of arena where there was no doubt traps and other plans to try and kill them. Thankfully, it did look like everyone was equipped with magic since Erza could see Lucy’s whip and keys hanging from her belt.
Suddenly a buzzer rang out from the lacrima like an alarm clock, causing everyone from Group B to startle and fall silent. Uneasily, each of the members from Group A stepped off their pedestals, now having their mobility re-intact. Erza heard Chelia audibly exhale and Erza knew it might be the most difficult for the youngest mage to watch her best friend and whoever she was supposedly in love with try and survive in this competition. At this Erza frowned even more. How could this man have foreseen who Chelia and Wendy supposedly loved when they were still so young. But, even so, Erza did a quick calculation and saw that there were already unequal amounts of men and women. This made the pairs even more difficult to decipher since it seemed some of the more obvious pairs like Juvia and Gray were already rendered false. Maybe the man had made a mistake, but she doubted that as well.
“Look, they’re already coming together,” Sting exclaimed happily.
Group B relaxed a little, knowing that if all nine of them came together they would be an unstoppable force. But the puppeteer in all this must have foreseen that as well. Immediately, there was an explosion in the middle of where the nine members had all been gathering.
“NO!” several members from Group B cried out.
The lacrima screen blurred at the impact from the explosion but they could still watch as all nine members were projected back in separate directions.
“I must mention that the center of the arena is now off limits, and that other threats are coming so I would hurry off and find cover if I were you,” the announcer came back over the PA system that must now be linked into the prison and over the arena separately.
The camera panned between all nine members who somehow seemed to all be alive. Erza figured this was by design since the Game Master must want to draw this whole thing out. It did however look like people were still pairing up as they vanished into the thick trees around them. The land around the field looked like a jungle with tall trees and thick plants circling around the grassy plain where the pedestals had been.
Group A heeded the Game Master’s advice and moved as quickly as they could after the sudden blast. It looked like Lucy and Gray paired up with Happy. Levy went off with Juvia, while Rogue found Wendy and Evergreen paired with Laxus.
“They’re still not alone,” Freed said, wanting to keep calm over the increased panic in the room.
“You’re right, we have to have faith in all of them,” Erza agreed.
“But what do we do, sit in this dark room for an entire week?” Lyon asked sceptically, not at all on board with such an idea.
“Not at all, we look for a way out,” Sting automatically suggested.
“Right, we can each use our magic abilities to try and break through the walls,” Chelia said, sounding less shaky now that a plan was forming.
“We can’t let Group A be the only ones fighting to survive,” Carla added ruefully.
“I’m all fired up now!” Natsu exclaimed more happily.
Everyone in Group B were speaking over each other, trying to put all their nervous energy into doing something more productive.
“We’ll take turns using our magic since we can’t have everyone using up all their power in case the situation changes. Also, someone has to be watching the lacrima at all times to make sure we know what’s happening with Group A,” Erza commanded.
Everyone nodded in agreeance, their silhouettes seen from the light coming off the lacrima screen.
“I’ll try first,” Gajeel said determinedly, being the loudest and quickest voice among the group.
“Right, if metal head is breaking shit then I’m joining too,” Natsu said immediately, having been uncharacteristically quiet, but getting more excited now to already be forming a plan to break out of this prison by tearing down its walls. He couldn’t wait to tell Lucy that his inherent destructive nature would be useful when he swooped in to save everyone.
But Natsu wasn’t the only one who wanted in on this plan. “Let’s make it a dragon slayer tag team!” Sting added enthusiastically.
“Might be overkill, but we have to get out of here as soon as possible,” Gajeel agreed begrudgingly.
“Right, I have to admit that sounds like a good idea so I’ll watch over the lacrima,” Lyon conceded despite his own wanting to get them out of this dire situation.
“I’ll watch over with Lyon, make sure we don’t miss anything,” Chelia added.
“Right, the rest of us, stay out of the way and see if we can figure anything else out,” Erza said.
“I’ll create a barrier making sure none of us get any rebound magic attacks. Plus, I can create runes to figure out the structure of the room,” Freed added before immediately getting to work.
Everyone nodded and once Freed’s barrier was up the three dragon slayers got to work.
Lyon and Chelia’s eyes were glued to the lacrima screen as they watched everyone from Group A limp off into the jungle to recuperate and come up with their own plans. It was already too painful to watch since they were all now injured, some more than others. It seemed Lucy was carrying Happy who looked like he had a lot of cuts and scrapes from the shrapnel from the explosion. Levy also had Juvia’s arm around her shoulder as she helped Juvia walk since it appeared that her ankle was severely sprained. The others had some rather large scrapes that Chelia worried would get infected if they weren’t bandaged up soon. And with Wendy only accompanying Rogue she couldn’t help them heal. Rogue had luckily been able to seep into a shadow when the explosion occurred which meant he didn’t even need any healing.
“So, it seems kind of strange who is in here and who is out there,” Elfman commented as he found a spot out of the way where he could still see the screen.
Despite not being on lacrima duty, he couldn’t peel his eyes away from the screen showing their friends in their severe predicament. He only wished the dragon slayers would hurry the hell up so he could go and find the man who put them all in here.
“What do you mean?” Carla snapped, being more on edge than usual over the situation.
“Well, some of the couples seem obvious, but I think this guy got a lot of them wrong,” Elfman observed.
“Does it really matter? Those are out guildmates out there,” Carla shot back.
This made Elfman pause, frowning to consider if Carla was right. “No, I guess not.”
“I agree that it doesn’t matter who this man intends for us to have serious feelings for, but we shouldn’t underestimate him. The fact that he was successful this far with his plan is unnerving. And I don’t doubt that he has somehow been watching us for some time. With whatever intel he collected, it might be useful if we try to figure out the same,” Erza replied evenly. She felt restless being on the sidelines and figured that as much information as they could gather would be better than just sitting around, especially when the other group was currently engaged in a fight for their lives.
“Alright, so who do you think is out there for you in Group A?” Carla shot back haughtily. Obviously with the context of the so-called games being based on something so personal, no one really wanted to offer up their deepest most secrets. But that was also the very principle leading them into this trap in the first place.
Erza felt bad since it was rather obvious Happy must be out there for Carla even though she had avidly thwarted all his previous advances.
“Yea, they already messed that up, didn’t they? Jellal isn’t even out there,” Elfman speculated, causing Erza to blush despite herself.
Erza could also see Carla surveying her closely and realised that this was much more private than she was letting on.
“Damn this man for toying with our emotions like this!” Carla shouted, feeling exasperated that no one here was really ready to confront their true emotions, much like the elusive man suggested.
“Haven’t they gotten through that damn wall yet?” Elfman barked, feeling he didn’t want to answer the question he had just asked himself.
Was it so obvious where his emotions lied when he wasn’t truly confident in them himself. But they were offered an alternative conversation when Freed’s diagnostics came back in his runes.
“This isn’t good,” Freed’s interruption sent a new wave of anxiety through the non-slayers on this side of Freed’s barrier rune. “They won’t be able to break through with their strength.”
The protective barrier didn’t stop the three slayers from hearing Freed’s report. “What are you talking about Freed?” Natsu asked, stopping momentarily from his next attack.
Natsu had been going all out so he was already starting to feel fatigued, although he would never admit that since they hadn’t succeeded as of yet.
“These walls, they’re made from kinetic energy,” Fried explained.
“So what?” Natsu asked frustratedly. He wasn’t good at understanding much related to science but by Freed’s grim expression Natsu had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.
“It means that with every hit we land the walls get stronger to keep us in here,” Gajeel replied with a growl.
The mood settled into another wave of panic and frustration, making Natsu want to punch the walls in anger but thankfully thought better of it.
There were a few determined to keep a more positive outlook. “Well, then it’s a good thing we have Freed with us,” Sting said, sounding more like a guild master than his typical Natsu-like self.
Erza looked over at him smiling. She was among the few others who wanted to refrain from panic to continue trying to find other ways of getting to their friends on the outside, not that they necessarily knew where the games were actually being held. “Yes, I apologize Freed, but I think your magic might be our best hope,” Erza agreed, reverberating the same amount of confidence in him as Sting.
“Lucky for me, I’m locked in a room with a bunch of heavy hitters,” Freed sighed but was used to this being the case within the Thunder Legion. He was always the strategist while Laxus, Bixslow and Evergreen were more physical in their fighting methods. He took down the barrier he had up initially for the dragon slayers to conserve energy. He then nodded before going around the room and drawing more runes onto the walls.
“Isn’t there anything else the rest of us can do? It’s not manly for eight of us to sit around while Freed does all the work,” Elfman huffed angrily. He didn’t know how much time had passed since they all woke up here but knew he hadn’t contributed much of anything to help the situation.
“It’s all we can do right now so we just make sure we keep track of what’s happening with the others,” Erza said.
“Look, it’s showing Laxus and Evergreen,” Chelia announced.
After the screen showed which members paired up, it seemed to first focus in on individual partners. First up was Evergreen and Laxus.