Xion could only groan as she tried to get up, but felt like her entire body was multiple times heavier.

A new side effect of her armored form, but it was better then fading away once again.

"Maybe going berserk on Natsu wasn't such a good idea." Xion groaned out.

"I'd say, that was rather impress though." A voice said as the Replica's vision cleared up and saw Mickey looking over her. "Still did you really had to go Erza all over him with that giant armor?"

"I would let you know if when I met this Erza you all keep talking about, but yes I did. He broke my Thalassa shell, he deserved it." Xion said, getting Mickey to shudder.

"Yup, just like Erza with her cheesecake. Anyway the rest of the team is back and they are currently with Roxas." Mickey says while pointing towards the side. 

With a groan Xion turned her head in the side to see various members of Fairy Tail working on fixing the field, a battered looking Natsu eating fire, Cana distributing the bets and once again downing a barrel full of alcohol, and finally she saw Roxas with Levy and Lucy talking with two other people, with Wan nodding along.

The first was a tall, incredibly buff man in his early 20's with black hair, orange pants, and blue fingerless gloves.

The second was a short dark skinned girl with blond hair and blue eyes who was wearing an orange cat had, a pink and purple sleeveless zipper vest with the word 'MONSTER' embroidered on the front with a white shirt underneath, and black knee length boots. Around her neck was two necklaces, one with a ring, the other with a large stone surrounding a white crystal.

They were the other two members of Mickey's team, Joey Fullborn and Chico C. Hammitt.

As the two of them were talking, Chico summoned two spirits with her magic startling the Nobody and getting him to step back in shock and causing the rest of the team to chuckle at his actions.

"I see that they are getting along." Xion said as she turned her head to face Mickey.

"That's right, also can you do some more improvements on Chico's necklace. She made it about 50 yards from Magnolia before the warming kicked in." She said, getting Xion to sigh.

It was a project she was working on with her new friends.

Chico's magic was extremely powerful and versatile if used correctly with one major drawback...it only worked in Magnolia and it would take her days to restore herself back to full power after wards.

So a simple necklace enchanted with bits of stones from everywhere in the city could turn into a sort of mini Magnolia and let her keep her full power without all of the souls escaping.

Still needs some work it seems.

"I'll work on it tomorrow. Once my magic is fully recovered. That form really takes it out for me." Xion stated, as she tried to get up but failed.

"Do you need any help?" Mickey said, getting Xion to sigh.

"Yes..." She groaned out.

"It's that bad huh." Mickey said while picking Xion up.

"It is." Mira said as she walked up with Elfman behind her. "After she did the same thing against Elfman for breaking her shell and punched him into a crater, she couldn't really move for about 3 hours."

"So your basically nothing more then then dead weight at this point, no offense." Mickey said, getting the Replica to roll her eyes at that. She couldn't do much else at that point.

"None taken." Xion said, before a streak of light zipped past the mages. Shocking them all but Mira, before it back tracked and landed next to Elfman.

Who let later deny letting out such an unmanly scream and falling on his ass in fear. Because that wasn't manly at all.

"You alright Xion?" Roxas asked as helped the downed Strauss sibling up.

"I'm fine Roxas, can't really move for a few hours but I will be alright. But still , did you really need to rush over here like that?" Xion questioned.

"Sorry, I still do not have full control over that, and besides as soon as I noticed that you were awake I had to rush over to make sure that you are alright. I'd hate to have to lose you again." Roxas said, getting Xion's cheeks to flush a little.

"It's alright Roxas, then again if you were in the same predicament as I was, I would have done the same." Xion said, noticing the teasing glint in Mira's eyes and tried not to blush even harder.

Damn this heart, it has been only a week since she had it but she still can't properly control these new feelings!

If it wasn't for the fact ripping it would would piss off Ultimecia, void their deal, and erase them both she would get rid of them. So for now she would have to deal with this.

"Aww isn't that sweet." Mira said, getting Xion to silently groan.

"Honestly I have to agree." Mickey said with a a grin, getting Xion to actually groan. 

Not her too.

"I see that you are awake now Xion." Makarov said as he walked up to the group. "How are you feeling?"

"Tiresome, but alright. Can't move for a few hours though." Xion said, getting the guild master to nod.

"I see." He said, before turning to Roxas. "Do you wish to postpone your match with Natsu Roxas?"

"Of course, I would rather see that Xion was alright then fight a flaming battle maniac any other day of the week." Roxas said, getting to once again gaining a teasing look and Xion trying to steady the beating of her borrowed heart.

She wished that she could curse him for saying something like that, but she didn't have the will to do so.

"Wait!" Natsu said as he rushed over to the group. "I thought you agreed to fight with me Roxas?"

"Don't do it Natsu, I heard he beat the scary lady!" Happy said while flying and trying to pull his partner away from said scary.

"That just wants to actually make me fight him even more, so fight me Roxas!" Natsu demanded.

Roxas was about to say something, but Xion beat him to it.

"Roxas just go  ahead and fight him already, from what I heard is that he will not stop asking no matter what. Besides I literally won't be moving much for a few hours anyway." Xion said, getting nods from everyone else there, including an eager one from Natsu. 

The Nobody figured that was enough indication that this was not going to stop until Natsu got his fight.

And he just figured out a way to do so and still have plenty of time to catch up with Xion. And by the look she sent him, she had figured it out at the same time.

"Tell you what Natsu, we will fight in 10 minutes sounds fair?" Roxas asked, getting Natsu to grin.

"Hell ya! Now I'm all fired up! You better keep your word Roxas!"  Natsu shouted, before running off with Happy.

"I better inform the guild of this, just try not to ruin the field this time. It is going to take quite a bit for it to even be fixed after what he and Xion did to it." Markarov grumbled out as he walked after the Dragon Slayer.

"You chose to fight Natsu good, just know that he will continue to ask you to fight even after this." Mickey said, getting the Nobody to sigh. He really should have expected something like that. "Still, do you really need that much time to prepare?"

"Not really, it should be enough time to prepare something for Xion and the rest of you." Roxas said with a smile, confusing them and getting the Replica's cheeks to redden a little.

Once again, damn this accursed heart!

(7 minutes later)

"Are we sure we shouldn't be stopping her?" Lucy asked Mira to her left as not that far away Cana was drinking up a storm, already finishing off her second barrel.

"No it should be alright,  she drinks about 30% of our annual supply of alcohol after all and it takes a lot more then what she has had so far today to get remotely buzzed." Mira explained helpfully, causing the blonde to sweat drop.

"Is there anyone normal around here, besides Levy that is." Lucy muttered out quietly.

"Not really, perhaps Joey is the closest to normal out of all of us. But what is considered normal is a bit overrated anyway." Levy said, mortifying Lucy as she noticed the guild members around here nodded in agreement...minus Xion.

She still wasn't a guild member yet or move her head all that well.

"Don't worry about, we've heard worse. Besides some of us will take it as a compliment." Mickey said, getting the rest of her team nod in agreement.

"Most of us in the guild have been here for most of our lives, so what you would consider a bit chaotic we consider normal. But is part of the charm of Fairy Tail I suppose." Joey said with a small smile getting Wan to nod beside him.

"Even for those of us who grew up outside of the guild or spend most of their time elsewhere, being around each other is the best part of the day." Chico said softly.

"And despite the fact we usually cause a mess or fight with each other, all of us at Fairy Tail are like family and we wouldn't trade it for anything in the world."  Wan said, shocking the rest of the Fairy Tail members. "What?"

"Nothing it's just this is the most that you have spoken in the past month, and the sentence was the manliest thing that I have ever heard you say." Elfman said, wiping a tear in his eyes at his guild mate's supposed manliness.

"Honestly I'm just surprised at the sound of his voice." Xion said, getting Lucy to sweat drop and Levy to pat her back in sympathy.

This was going to take a while to get used to the quirkinesses of the guild.

But this was the path she chose and what she had always wanted.

And she wouldn't change it for anything.

"Besides Wan is right on the family bit, for a good portion of us Fairy Tail is the only family we ever knew." Mickey said wistfully, getting a good portion of the guild to nod somberly it.

Lucy could only watch in slight sympathy and sighed.

She knew that feeling as well, but unlike them she did have quite a few people to fall back on while her surviving family all but gave up on her existence after that day.

She did feel a little guilty for running away and leaving them behind, but she couldn't take it anymore and left.

Though she supposed that she could have left on better terms, but she had a feeling that everyone back at the Heartfilia Residence would be happy to know that she was following her dreams.

Lucy was broken from her thoughts as the sound of grinding earth before looking over and saw an exhausted looking Roxas  next to a perfectly carved stone chair and a large flat stone like a table.

Like the exact same ones that She, Xion, Levy, Mira, Elfman, and Mickey and her team were sitting in.

He had originally used his magic to construct one for Xion, but had decided to do so for the rest as they were friends of either Xion or himself now. That and he figured that it was a nice thing to do for them.

"That should be the last of them." Roxas said as Cana placed her now empty barrel on the table.

"Why thank you Roxas, finally a man with some class in the guild." Cana said as sat down onto the rocky chair. "You know, this is actually surprising comfortable."

"I can agree." Xion said, a part of her content with the rocky throne.

Either it was from Ulitmecia inhabiting her, Roxas making it for herself, or both she would never know.

"Still do you think it is a good idea to fight Natsu like this Roxas?" Levy questioned. "You probably wasted a lot of magic creating these just for us."

"I wouldn't worry too much, Roxas did take out an entire yacht full of thugs and one hell of a sleezeball mage all by himself last night." Lucy said, before sighing. "Then again Natsu did beat Bora first, while wrecking part of Hargeon of course."

"I had heard about that this morning, they didn't have any proof that it was Fairy Tail but the Council tried to blame us." Mickey said with a sigh. "Luckily Bora was reported to have a concussion and most of the thugs were defeated by what I believe to be Roxas from what you said Lucy. So they have no one to pin for that mess this time."

"Also meaning that instead of Fairy Tail paying for this mess, the Council is paying for the damages with their own pocket." Joey said with a grin. "You hear that Master?"

"Of course and I'm glad for once not being the one paying for a mess you brats made!" Markarov cried out from the other side of the field, tears of joy streaming down his face.

Before they disappeared into a look of anger directed at Natsu.

"You're lucky that the Council hasn't pinned it on you this time, but that doesn't mean you have escaped my wrath! Natsu meet me in my office after this match!" The guild master ordered, getting the salmon haired mage to gain a defeated look.

It wasn't going to be a pleasant meeting for him.

"Why did you have to tell him that Lucy?" Happy questioned as flew around Natsu. "Was it because I said that you were heavy?"

Dead silence rolled across the field as several men including Natsu stepped away from the flying cat.

"That was an unmanly thing to say to a woman cat!" Elfman called out as he prepared himself incase he needed to bolt as Lucy stood up.

"Roxas do you mind-" The blonde was interrupted when she felt a small rock crop up from underneath her foot. "Thank you."

"No problem." The Nobody said, figuring what Lucy was going to ask. He had learned from Larxene constantly beating Demyx about how not to piss off a woman.

"On no." Happy said, trying to fly away.

Only for Lucy to throw the rock and for it to hit him right in his head and crash into the ground.

"He had it coming." Mickey said as Lucy let out a small smile. 

That had felt surprisingly cathartic for her.

"Roxas it has been nearly 10 minutes, so are you ready?" Makarov asked, getting Roxas to nod.

"I am." He said before turning to Xion. "Wish me luck."

"We both know that you won't need it." Xion said with an eye roll as he walked up towards the field.

"Alright then." Cana said, before tapping the empty barrel as guild members started to gather around it. "Place your bets people!"

"500 jewels on Natsu!"

"200 jewels on the new guy!"

"800 jewels on Roxas!"

"200 jewels on Natsu!"

"They really seem more into it then when Xion was fighting him." Lucy noted.

"Of course, after seeing the fight with Xion they are going to be interested in what Roxas can do." Levy said as even more people gathered around the barrel including Mickey and her team, Elfman, and a reluctant looking Gray. "Still I wonder, who do you think will win?"

"I don't know, it was hard to tell last night but they looked to be about equal to eachother." Lucy sighed out. "Still Roxas did use his magic quite a bit recently and Natsu probably hasn't fully recovered from his fight with Xion. So it could be anything at this point."

"That is a good observation Lucy. Both seem equal, but there is one thing that Natsu should look out for." Xion said with a small grin. "Something that I didn't  use doing our fight."

"And that is?" Lucy questioned, as a look of realization dawned on Mira's face.

"Something that will be worse then going on a high speed train for Natsu." She said.

Lucy could only pray that whatever it was that at least Roxas will keep her and everyone here away from the mess that was about to go off.

(On the field)

"So are you ready Roxas." Natsu said with a grin as he stretched from a cross the field.

"I'm ready." Roxas said, summoning Oathkeeper and Oblivion.

"Alright, same rules as before. Now are you two ready!" Markarov shouted, getting the Mage and Nobody to nod. "Then begin!"

Roxas made the first move, rushing towards Natsu and turning into a streak of light. The fire mage sidestepped the attack, only for Roxas to stop and toss his Keyblades at him.

Natsu quickly closed the distance between the two and gripped Roxas's arm.

"Fire Dragon Wing Attack!" Natsu casted, blasting the Nobody away with a torrent of flames.

And then knocked into the ground by Roxas's Keyblades crashing into him, much to Gray's amusement.

Roxas quickly composed himself and caught his Keyblades and observed Natsu getting up with a groan.

He just needed to grab him and this fight would be all but done. It wasn't going to be easy judging by the fire blazing in Natsu's eyes.

The fire mage was also observing Roxas and decided it was the best to go all out like he did with Xion. 

Hell, the two were practically identical in fighting with their only difference was Xion was raw magical power and tactics that made his head spin thinking about them...or was it residual head trauma from fighting her as an armored giant? Roxas however was more direct with his attack and relied more on fighting with his swords it seems.

Still just like Xion, he could tell Roxas had a surprise waiting for him.

And the thought of it was only making this only better and better for the dragon slayer.

"Fire Dragon's Roar!" Natsu casted, breathing our a large torrent of flames at Roxas, who put up a barrier to block the attack.

The moment it dispelled, Natsu rushed at Roxas with his fists aflame. But he blocked his strikes with his Keyblades. They continued on like this at a dead even pace for a minute before Roxas felt like he was starting to strain a bit.

He probably should have downed an ether before the match, but he still had some magic left over for a few small tricks.

Like with a small tap of his foot, three small rock spires rose up and pushed Natsu back.

The mage in turn smashed his fist into one of the spires, pelting Roxas with flaming rocks. Natsu repeated with the same with the other two spires, causing the Nobody to block debris.

"Is that all you got Roxas!" Natsu challenged before light pillars began all around him, forcing him to dodge.

Roxas continued with this barrage for a about a minute with Natsu succeeding in dodging most of the light pillars except for one or two that clipped him. He needed to distract him for just a moment more as he channeled that last of his magic into the earth.

Natsu continued dodging, before his ears picked up the sounds of stone grinding against each other from behind him. He didn't have any time to check it out as he noticed a few rock spikes forming underneath his feet.

He jumped out of the way.

Only for a pillar of light to come crashing down right on top of his head, sending the dragon slayer crashing into the ground.

With a groan, Natsu picked himself up to see that the spikes were gone and served as a distraction for Roxas's main plan.

An 8 foot tall wall of stone rose behind him.

Natsu was trying to think of what Roxas was thinking of until it hit him, literally.

Roxas rammed into him at full speed with Oathkeeper and Oblivion striking the mage. Roxas continued with his course and slammed Natsu into the wall, which shattered upon impact.

Which surprised him.

Roxas thought that after hardening  the wall to be harder then normal stone and slamming Natsu into it would at least incapacitate him or probably knock it out.

Instead the mage smashed clean through the wall and recomposed himself with a groan. Natsu took a few steps before he straightened up and grinned and disappeared in a blur of speed.

"Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!" Natsu shouted as he reappeared, a flaming fist imbedded into Roxas's gut. 

The impact of it sent the Nobody flying up into the air, until Natsu punched Roxas in the chest and caused him to crash down into the ground.

"Nice shot Roxas, I have to admit that was a good plan. Still if you want to win, then you need to hit me harder then that!" Natsu shouted as flames burst off him in waves.

Roxas got up as Natsu started to chant.

"With the flame in the right hand."

Roxas tightened his grip as he steadied his Keyblades, whose tips started to glow. He might be out of magic, but his light hasn't dimmed yet.

"And with the flames in my left hand."

The tips of his Keyblades started to pulsate a bit, but he still needed a little more time to charge.

"When you combine them together..."

Almost there.

"Fire Dragon's Brilliant Flame!" Natsu casted, throwing a massive fireball at the Nobody.

Now!

Roxas let lose the building lights at the incoming fireball.

Instead of twin beams of light like he used against Bora, the lights separated into multiple spheres. The spheres spread out all over the place with most hitting the fireball, some hitting the ground beneath, and some going over and pelting Natsu.

This continued for a moment before the spells exploded, creating a massive cloud of dust in their wake.

Natsu coughed as the dust filled his lungs, and was blindsided by pillar of light slamming into him. Followed by another and another.

The  cloud lift to reveal Roxas releasing wave after wave of pillars bombarding Natsu. This continued for a while before Natsu found a rhythm to Roxas's attacks.

Unknowns to him while this was happening, a Corridor of Darkness was opening behind him. Roxas kept up the pillars for a moment before releasing a large flash of light, blinding the dragon slayer.

Natsu was pelted by multiple pillars and was pushed closer and closer to the Corridor. Eventually he recovered and noticed what Roxas's plan was as the Nobody rushed at him.

"Oh no you don't!" Natsu shouted he landed another fist to Roxas's gut and halted his advance a bit. The fire mage tried to land another blow on the Nobody, but Roxas deflected the attack with his Keyblades and pushed Natsu off balance.

Before ramming into him once again and sending them into the Corridor, closing it behind them.

(With the rest of the guild)

"Where did they go?!" Lucy asked Xion, voicing the thoughts in many of the guild.

One moment they were seeing a match that seemed more equal with Natsu's raw power against Roxas's swordsmanship and light magic before they both disappeared through some kind of shadowy portal.

"That is the Corridor of Darkness, think of it as an advanced teleportation spell." Xion said, getting groans from most of the Fairy Tail guild.

More specifically the ones who had betted for Natsu to win.

"Things are not going end well for Natsu." Levy sighed out.

"Agreed, that is an unmanly way to lose." Elfman said, getting Lucy to sweat drop.

She saw how Natsu's motion sickness was on a boat, so she didn't want to know how teleportation could do to him.

Speaking of which.

"If it is teleportation magic, then where did they go?" Lucy asked Xion, getting the entire guild to look at her.

"Well basically anywhere we've been, but due to circumstances it is limited to us. So it should open back up sooner or later." Xion said as rather corridor opened back up. "Like that."

The guild watched as Roxas walked out and set down a green faced Natsu.

"I give up..." Natsu said queasily. "Just don't put me back in there..."

The entire guild was silent, as was expected.

Natsu never gave up on anything, unless it involved any kind of transportation besides walking.

...And with that realization the shock faded into cheers from those that betted on Roxas and groans from the majority that voted on Roxas.

"Natsu are you alright!" Happy said while flying over his friend.

"No not really...that was about as bad as one of those metal death traps. I think I need to lie down for a few..." Natsu groaned out, trying not to puke his guts out. "Hey Roxas, please don't do that again!"

"I won't, not after that." Roxas said, intending not to put the fire mage through a similar situation again.

"Good." Natsu groaned out as he just laid there, gesturing for the Nobody to leave him alone.

Roxas just nodded as he walked over to his friends, politely waving to those that came to congratulate him.

Before Gray walked by and clapped his shoulder.

"Not bad, taking down the flame brain like that. I mean I could have done the same thing, but using his own motion sickness against him I will admit that was impressive." Gray said with a smirk.

"Thank you...I think." Roxas said.

"No problem, anyway welcome to Fairy Tail." Gray said before walking off, getting the Nobody to shrug as he walked towards his friends.

Only to nearly lose his balance as a large hand smacked him in the back.

"Altough I don't agree with how the fight ended, that was still a manly brawl!" Elfman shouted as Roxas found himself surrounded by his his new friends, with Xion once again being carried by Mickey.

"Have to agree with Elfman on that, you and Xion have given Natsu the best fight in a long while. After seeing him being pummeled so effortlessly for so long by Erza and Laxus it kind of gets old after a while." Mickey said, getting her own team and Lucy to sweat drop at that.

"Did you really have say that Mickey?" Chico questioned, getting Wan to nod in agreement.

"You have to admit that it is true though, that and it has gotten quite a bit less lucrative as a result." Cana said while shaking an empty barrel filled with jewels.

"Well besides that, all in all it was an impressive fight." Joey said, getting Levy to nod.

"Yes, it was. If it wasn't for that move then I wasn't sure who will win." Levy said, getting Roxas to nod.

"Honestly I was certain myself, but I was planning on using it when I could anyway." Roxas said honestly. 

If he had the full power magic back he was positive that he could have beaten Natsu, but as it was and only starting to get a hang of his new magic it could have gone either way.

But he knew one thing, Xion could have beaten him. Natsu breaking that shell must of upset her so much that she transformed and the strain had done her in. If he hadn't, then he was sure Xion would have won.

"Which I have a feeling that you won't use it." Lucy said, while pointing at the downed dragon slayer. With Happy trying to help him up.

"Definitely." Roxas said with a nod as Markarov walked up to the group.

"Well congratulations are in order Roxas. You managed to beat Natsu with minimum damage done to the fields. Along with Xion and Lucy, I can tell that the three of you will have a bright future here at Fairy Tail." Markarov said, getting the guild to cheer in agreement.

Lucy looked ecstatic beyond belief while Roxas and Xion shared a smile at that.

"Now Elfman, Do you mind carry Natsu. I doubt we can walk in his condition." Makarov said while pointing at the fire mage, who was still a sickly green and couldn't get up.

"No problem master." He said, walking away. "I just hope that he doesn't throw up on me. That would be unmanly."

"Now then, it is time to go and officialize Roxas and Xion into the guild, and then we are going to celebrate well into the night. Because now is the time to give them a proper Fairy Tail welcome!" Markarov shouted, getting cheers to erupt from the guild members as they started to walk back to the guildhall.

"You ready Roxas?" Xion asked, a smile on her face.

"Ready as I will ever be Xion." Roxas said with a smile of his own as the two of them walked or in Xion's case was carried towards the guild hall.

And towards their new future.

(Chapter 7 end)