Magic Games?

When Alex, Mira and Mavis returned to the guild-hall, everyone was in a frenzy of excitement. When questioned, the members told news from the capital of Fiore that there was going to be a great tournament held between the guilds to see which one could claim the title of 'Fiore's Strongest Guild'. It was called the 'Grand Magic Games' and would start in just two months' time. The news excited Mavis and she was quick to want to learn more about the affair, much to her disappointment, nobody knew anything as it was the first time that something like this was going to take place.

Alex was less interested than his guildmates but it was still a relatively exciting time. Teaming up with Mavis they created a training regiment that would increase the strength and magic power of any in the guild who wanted to participate, and any that didn't but still wanted to be stronger could join as well. Alex only stayed personally to oversee the training for two days before leaving it to Mavis, he had a proposal to plan.

Alex didn't fancy himself a romantic man and his lack of ideas for how to make this proposal special, proved this. To pass his time and with a hope that it would inspire ideas for the proposal, he set about making a recording studio in one of his free rooms. He had once been told of a dream Mira had, she had wanted to be a famous singer and travel around to perform for people. Life always had other plans for her and she kept putting this dream to the side. Alex would undoubtedly support her if she wanted to pursue this dream, and figured a recording studio, that would allow her to play with and create songs, would be a good start for that. Alex had managed to complete the recording studio without Mira finding out as she had been busy with the group training at the guild.

That night in bed, Alex casually asked Mira if she wanted to join him on an adventure in the mountains of north-western Pergrande, saying he had found an awesome spot to do some nature activities. Mira, being as active and adventurous as Alex, agreed easily and they left early the next morning. Getting to northern Ishgar in a few moments thanks to the teleport pads, Alex and Mira began their adventure. Hiking dangerous mountain trails, Kayaking fast flowing creeks and streams, and fighting random beasts foolish enough to try attacking them. They spent the entire day in nature completely worry free, relieving a tension in both of them that they hadn't known.

When night fell, Alex pulled Mira away from their mountain-top camp-fire so they could watch the northern-lights dance across the sky. There, under the dancing lights, Alex got down on one knee and asked for Mira's hand in marriage. The proposal was relatively short, but encompassed everything he wanted to convey to her, each word spoken from the heart. Mira had tears in her eyes as she said yes and only waited long enough for the ring to be on her finger before she tackled him the rest of the way to the ground with a laugh and a happy kiss.

(A/N. Okay, that took longer to put into words than I am willing to admit, and I'm still not fully satisfied with how it turned out. I hope I at least made it seem somewhat realistic or romantic. Having never proposed to anyone, I really haven't got much to go off. That's why I didn't actually write out how the conversation went... Hopefully your imagination is good. xD)

They spent the next few days in the mountains, continuing their adventure and just getting away from the hustle of everyday life. When they got back to Magnolia, they headed straight to the guild to tell of the happy news, though it probably had more to do with Mira wanting to show off her ring to Bisca. The guild was as loud and excitable as they usually were and they threw a massive party in celebration. Mavis was one of the loudest, though she continually pouted about her immortal body not allowing her to get drunk.

The next couple weeks flashed in a flurry of activity. Alex had shown Mira the recording studio he had created for her and even showed her how to use it, she spent most of her time there playing with different tunes and writing songs. Alex spent most of his time helping to train the members of the guild. He and Mira had decided that they would not participate in the games, but that didn't mean they would let their fellow members enter at anything less than their best. While keeping true to his words that any of the guild members could join the training, he paid special attention to the five members chosen to participate. Jet, Droy, Alzack, Max and Warren would be the team that were fighting for the sake of Fairytail.

Alex put them through hellish physical training, followed by long hours of meditation to draw in more ethernano to replenish their bodies and regain their stamina. To top the training off each night he would spar with them, 5v1 to increase their team work and give them combat experience against a clearly much stronger opponent. Many of the guild members came to watch the spars each night on the beach and it turned into somewhat of a show for even the townspeople. Alex always won the fights but kept his strength at a level that they would always learn something and got to watch as their teamwork and combat sense slowly started to take shape. The guild-members would often give them ideas about what they could potentially do with their magic so they would have a better chance next time and it wasn't long before they were using their magics in very unorthodox ways. Whenever their teamwork would reach a point that Alex had to increase his own strength, he would let them know so they didn't get disheartened by not seeing any improvement.

Since Alex had his 'meeting' with the magic council after the fall of Tartaros, the council had kept their word and had stopped interfering with Fairytail. The higher rated quests started coming in and the wizards, with a new found training regiment, were able to take on harder quests than they had ever been able to before. The wealth of the guild, and the wealth of the members, started climbing back up.

Macao stepped down as Fairytail's fourth master to return the title to Mavis Vermillion. At first Mavis didn't want to be the master again and was excited to just watch the guild grow from the sidelines, but after the entire guild unanimously agreed that she had to take the seat, she relented. Her first change as master was making it harder for established Wizards to join fairytail. Instead of just accepting any who applied, she started actually having interviews with them, turning many away who just wanted to feed off fairy tales, growing prestige and proven training tactics . Everyone figured she would probably agree to let any children with a magical aptitude join right away as most of the guild-members had joined as children and had a deep bond with the guild.

On the days Alex wasn't tortur... Training the guild members, that were going to participate in the games, he spent his free time helping Mira with her music. She had a beautiful singing voice and was even a gifted songwriter so all he could really contribute was setting up the recordings and processing the songs. In his free time, he partnered up with the merchants, making and selling his vehicles, to build radios that could receive a signal and play the broadcasted music/programs. Alex had created a couple proto-types to give them but hadn't given them the way to transmit anything yet, just the speakers to receive.

He had tested the distance the 'communication' lacrima could receive a signal and found out they could reach every corner of Fiore. They were a much cheaper copy of his own communication devices that currently didn't have a limit, though these ones were only designed to receive. The devices were completed relatively easily and spread out to different businesses for free. Alex currently had the only transmitter at his house set on a cycle of music that would change genre's every 8 hours, though the only music with lyrics was music native to Earthland. For just music without lyrics, he had a vast compilation of artists. He only had the music on a cycle to keep the businesses interested in the devices he gave them, and while they were given a run-down on what the product was actually for, it was still in a trial phase. Alex knew he would eventually have to set the transmitter up in its own building and hire people to run the 'radio show' or people would lose interest, but for right now the only thing on his mind was to promote Mira's music and possibly broadcast the first ever grand Magic games.

'Yup, doing this for the civilians. Totally not trying to undermine the authority of the magic council or for my own personal gains.. Totally innocent intentions!' Alex chuckled to himself.

On the day of departure to Crocus, the entire guild had packed up into a caravan of magic vehicles to come and support their fellow guild-members. Leaving the convoy in the capable hands of Macao and Wakaba, Alex took Mira, Mavis and team fairytail in his airplane to go on ahead and register for the games and hotels.

Circling around Crocus, everyone stared at the flower blooming capital. It was truly a marvelous sight to behold from the sky. They were eventually contacted by the royal guards and asked to land.

When searching for hotels for the groups not part of the team, Alex was truly happy they had come early. The hotels were being sold out fast with the influx of people wanting to enter the city to view this historical event. Alex left Mavis to do the logistics and paperwork as he and Mira snuck off to go on a date within the flowery city. The atmosphere was lively and magic was everywhere. Going from gardens to restaurants, Alex and Mira truly enjoyed their time relaxing.

During the tour of the palace grounds, at the closest point between the colosseum and the palace itself, Alex and Mira both froze. "Are you feeling that too?" Alex asked, having felt Mira tense up.

"Yes. It feels like curse magic reminiscent of Tartaros. Do you know what it is from?" Mira responded.

"Not sure, it seems to be trying to suck all the magic out of this area, though it is very slow", Alex said while scanning the area.

"Sucking the magic. Really? All I can feel is the similarities between this and the demons", Mira said, slightly confused.

"Wasn't totally sure until I checked it with mana-sight. It is incredibly slight, but I think that's just because we are so far away from whatever it is that's causing this", Alex responded. "Whatever the case, it strongly resembles Zeref's magic so we can't leave this be", Alex finished. Mira simply nodded to his words, and they moved out of the palace courtyard to a place less crowded where they could enter stealth.

Sneaking into the palace under stealth and taking any path that headed closer to the ominous feeling magic, it took quite a while to find their way into the basement of the palace. There they found a gigantic doorway with a very elaborate design. Symbols of the sun and moon could be seen covering its surface and it even had twelve areas that seemed to be missing.

'The eclipse gate! I completely forgot about this thing', Alex mused to himself.

"What do you suppose it is? It has Zeref's signature all over it!" Mira asked in slight awe.

"If memory serves me correctly, it is called 'Eclipse'. A gate that can connect two points in time that the gate has existed. I think there is some rule about only being able to open it on the day of an eclipse, and also the celestial spirits are involved somehow. Created by Zeref almost 400 years ago in an effort to go back in time and save his little brother, he later abandoned it when he realized it could only connect points that the gate itself existed in", Alex explained what he knew of the magic gate. "I don't have the slightest clue why it has been activated to start collecting magic, but it seems like these games would be the perfect reason to get a great deal of mages into a city and start flinging magic around", Alex said, summoning a fireball and throwing it at the gate. He could feel it try to pull all the magic out of his body, but his control was higher than that of the gate, and he could use a curse shield that the gate couldn't get through.

"The gate absorbed your fireball!" Mira said in alarm.

"As it will a portion of every spell cast near it or in the stadium. I think the monarch of our fine kingdom, or at least someone in his court, is dabbling in black magic", Alex said seriously. He knew the reason for the gate being charged and wouldn't allow it to be used as it was intended, but he couldn't destroy it right now.

"We have to report this. As much as I don't want to deal with the council, they need to know", Mira said seriously.

"Naw. Let's just destroy it ourselves. But not right now, we have to make sure we have an alibi, something nobody will be able to dispute. Like say.. Being present in a crowded colosseum with hundreds of witnesses", Alex said with a wry smile. Mira chuckled at his words but agreed all the same, they quickly made their way to the hotel to prepare for the games that would happen in the next few days.