Face Your Fears (Fairy Tail Fanfic)

Siblings Clash

{LEXI'S POV}
Reiki rams the palm of his hand into Rose's nose, inverting cartilage and creating a mini geyser of blood. Rose uses the shaft of her spear to pull Reiki's head down into her knee.

Reiki throws himself onto Rose. They tumble to the ground in a tangle of limbs. Reiki manages to pin her, punching her face repeatedly. Rose brings her knee into his groin. When Reiki flinches, she kicks with both legs to launch him ten feet in the air.

Reiki regains his composure midair and lands in a rolling crouch. He runs and grabs his twin swords off the ground where he dropped them in the center of the arena, raising them just in time to meets Rose's charge. Sparks fly as metal clashes.

Rose's and Reiki's bodies blur, too fast to track. They're only visible for the seconds when they lock spear against swords.

Reiki unexpectedly drops his swords again. He grabs Rose's spear, grappling for it with one hand, using all his strength to stop her from impaling him. He grabs a clump of her hair with his other hand and pulls.

Rose shrieks in pain and reflexively yanks her head back, but Reiki doesn't let go. He rips out some long scarlet strands of hair.

Reiki leaps onto Rose's back while she's reeling and locks his legs around her neck in a choke hold. Rose grabs his shirt and pulls his face down into her fist over and over, trying to force Reiki to let go.

Reiki squeezes until Rose's skin turns blue, but she manages to pull him off. Rose lifts Reiki's body up off her shoulders and over her head, slamming him head first into the ground beneath her with a sickening thud. Reiki coughs blood.

Rose holds him down by the neck, squeezing. Reiki claws at her eyes and pulls at her scarlet hair, kneeing her repeatedly in the groin and biting at her hands. Reiki requips a six-inch dagger and thrusts it into Rose's gut through a chink in her armor.

Rose yowls like a bobcat and retreats, pulling the dagger out and throwing it on the ground. Her red eyes glow with anger. She stumbles forward, breathing harshly. Reiki pants on the ground, dazed from the headshot and oxygen deprivation. Rose raises her foot, aiming to stomp on him repeatedly.

An alarm rings.

"Tha-Tha-Tha-Tha-Tha-That's it! Fairy Tail's Reiki Fernandes and Sabertooth's Enigma—or should I say Rose Fernandes—have run out of time! It's a tie! The third day is now over!"

For a horrific second, I think Rose isn't going to stop. She hesitates, poised to stomp the life out of Reiki.

Rose huffs and lowers her foot gently. She stalks in the opposite direction, back into the Sabertooth tunnel, and I allow myself to breathe again. Reiki takes a moment to collect himself. His eyes track her disappearing figure, blazing with anger and hatred.

The final scores for the third day are calculated and projected on the giant lacrima screen.

Fairy Tail: 43
Sabertooth: 39
Mermaid Heel: 38
Lamia Scale: 26
Blue Pegasus: 24
Quatro Cerberus: 10

I barely bother to look at it before sprinting to meet Reiki down in the Fairy Tail tunnel. He collapses into my hug, exhausted and in pain. His arms shake as he squeezes me tightly.

My chest feels wet and I realize he's crying. Ugly broken sobs lurch from Reiki's throat as he clings to me like he's four years old again.

"I hate her. I hate her. I hate her!" Reiki wails.

My knees give out and we fall together. I wrap my arms around him and try to shield him from reality.

"I hate her! I hate her! I hate her! I HATE HER!" That chant continues for a long while.

Aunt Wendy appears after Reiki composes himself. I think she was listening and waiting. She says nothing, just heals Reiki's visible wounds.

That night, Reiki sleeps in the same room as Aunt Erza and Uncle Jellal instead of in the competitor's dorms with us. They have a lot to talk about.

The guild's attitude is somber at first, but it slowly begins to lighten up as the night wears on and the alcohol keeps flowing. Rose is alive, even though she joined another guild. That's welcome news for most.

I turn in early. It's been a long day.

The fourth day starts bright and early. Reiki apologizes for losing his cool and bows his head to ask me, Nashi, Storm, and Avery if he can participate in the fourth day special event. Of course we agree.

This event apparently isn't going to be storybook based. Yajima-san said it's being brought back by popular demand. In other words, our parents competed in it and now the audience wants to see how the next generation will fair.

So basically, it could be any of the events from the past twenty years. That sure narrows it down.

We head to the arena. Before we even enter Domus Flau, Nashi spots something rising up over the colosseum style seating. Excited now, we race to the Fairy Tail guild box. Now I can fully see how massive the mystery structure is.

It's a colossal tower made of glowing purple metal, shaped like multiple cylinders stacked on top of each other. There are various pathways leading into and around every cylindrical room like planetary rings, open to air with no railing so one slip up and you fall.

The base is the widest, with a giant staircase leading up into the darkness.

Several lacrima-vision screens are set up, likely to display the inside of the structure to the audience while the contestants are within. What is this massive thing for? Tag? Hide and go seek?

Aunt Erza's eyes are rimmed with red, but she perks up when she sees the structure. She smiles. "This brings back memories. Can it be?"

"A day no one could forget." Aunt Levy says.

"Sure looks like it's that event." Aunt Cana agrees, grinning. "And Reiki is competing!"

Us kids look around at each other, utterly stumped. None of us remember seeing this weird building in any of the GMG that we've watched. Which means it must've been in a GMG before we were born. And Aunt Erza competed in this event.

"Can you tell us about it?" I ask hopefully.

Aunt Cana shakes her head. "Hey now, that would be cheating which is a big no-no. Reiki has to figure the rest out himself."

The other guilds arrive and people start filing into the audience seating, chattering excitedly when they see the giant mystery structure.

Rose is standing in the Sabertooth box. She's completely done away with the armor, instead sporting a pair of jeans and a heart kreuz t-shirt. A bright white bandage is taped to her nose.

Nero kisses Rose on the cheek—short but full of emotion—which shocks me because I saw them together a lot but didn't realize they were actually romantically involved, and exits the guild box. Presumably to head down to the arena.

Diana spots her brother leaving and immediately jumps up, shouting something I can't hear to her guildmates. She lets out a joyous cheer, so I guess Reiki will be facing both Cheney siblings.

Reiki leaves, and the next time I see him is when he enters the arena along with Emilia, Rum Groh, and Gianna Akatsuki. Like always, ten year old Gianna cradles a rabbit doll almost as big as she is.

The six contestants have been decided. They look like they may be arguing, but what's important now is figuring out the game.

Mato-kun doesn't keep us waiting long. "Welcome to the fourth day event-kabo! You all loved it during the Grand Magic Games many years ago, so we decided to bring it back to the Storybook Games-kabo! The event that shocked us all, Pandemonium-kabo!"