"You're not going," Lyon said simply.
Gray growled, "Like hell! I can go if I want!" He balled his hands into fists. Whatever lack of anger he'd expressed in the camp had come back full force over the last couple of weeks.
Lucy sweat dropped. "Uh, how about we all calm down," she suggested nervously as Natsu cracked his knuckles.
He grinned like mad man, ready for a fight. Erza shook her head at him and Natus pouted before sitting down again.
"Why are you intent on going back there?" Lyon questioned. Gray gritted his teeth.
"I need to. There's no danger, and I'm completely healed and I've taken my disk today, so there is no reason I can't go," he persisted.
Lyon pursed his lips, making them into a thin white line. "Why? Give me a good reason. Your magic isn't fully back yet, so I'm fully capable of stopping you."
Gray hissed, "I left someone there! Okay?" The entire hall went silent and Gray huffed angrily.
Lucy blinked. "You left someone? In the camp?" she asked gently. Gray inhaled deeply.
"Yes," he said stiffly. "He's a good friend." He looked over at Lyon. "I don't care what anyone says. I'm leaving, and that's that."
Without a word, he strode out of the hall, door slamming shut with a loud bang behind him.
Natsu got up to leave as well, though his exit was a handmade hole in the wall.
Gray sighed as the winds whipped through his hair.
He was pretty sure people would be slightly alarmed by a wizard standing and zooming by on a slide of ice, but it was the only method of travel that would get him there in back in just over a day.
Hopefully the effects of his Attor disk would last until then.
The day passed by at an agonizingly slow pace.
Trees and houses whizzed by, and eventually Gray could feel his magic levels begin to drop. His ice wasn't forming as well either.
Instead of it being smooth and well-balanced, it was sagging in some places and it was too high in others.
Damn, he thought angrily, If this keeps up, I'm going to have to walk or run the rest of the way.
Sure enough, his ice failed several hours later.
"Crap," he swore as his ice melted under his feet. When it gave out beneath him, he grabbed a tree branch and climbed down the trunk.
He dusted himself off when he reached the bottom.
Suddenly, in the distance, he heard a loud swear, followed by the sighting of a large pillar of fire.
Gray snorted, but proceeded to wait for the idiot, arms folded across his chest and leaning against a tree.
Several minutes later Natsu came stumbling through the underbrush, Happy right on his tail.
"What're you hanging around for?" Natsu asked.
Gray shook his head. "I was waiting for you to hurry up and get here, you moron."
Natsu grabbed his shirt, eyes ablaze.
"You want a piece of this? Huh?" Gray gritted his teeth.
"I'll you anytime, you fire breathing idiot!"
To the benefit of the country, both managed to calm themselves before any violence happened.
"So," Natsu began, brushing off his clothes. "Where is this thing anyway?"
Gray began walking to the East, Natsu following next to him. "It's right between the forest and the desert."
As time passed and they ventured closer to the desert, temperatures rose, battled by the coolness of the night.
The two mages kept walking, content with silence.
Natus squinted to see the big grey blob in the distance.
"Is that it?"
Gray shielded his eyes and squinted too, taking a few steps forward for good measure.
"I think so," he said slowly.
Gray created the slide again and began to move, streaming towards the building.
Natsu was behind him, on his knees and turning green.
Gray raised an eyebrow, figuring that he should've known a slide was too much for the guy.
"You need to get off?" he asked.
Natsu clapped his hands over his mouth to keep from puking while Happy patted him on the back, nodding at Gray.
"I can fly him the rest of the way," the cat told him.
Gray nodded and created another slide that scooped Natsu up and deposited him in the sand below.
The ice mage thought about it and decided that if there was a crisis, Natsu, of all people, could probably catch up to him.
Natsu gagged before gulping in air. "You okay?" Happy asked slowly.
The fire mage flashed him a thumbs up.
"I'm okay," he groaned.
Happy nodded and opened his wings before taking ahold of his friend.
Gray's slide was still there, though it was starting to melt, so Happy quickly began to follow it.
Gray landed at the ruins with a thud. Everything was so quiet.
Eerily quiet.
A shiver ran down Gray's spine and he scowled angrily at the place he'd hoped to God he'd never have to see again.
The ice mage walked through the half-beaten doors in the castle like building the dark guild had used, and turned towards the hall that held the prison block.
As he looked around, there were signs of fighting everywhere.
There were dead guards here and there, and Gray covered his nose because of the smell.
Items were knocked over and the walls were decorated with dry smears of blood.
On occasion, a silver bracelet caught his eye.
Most were melted off, just like Gray and the other's, but a few were still tightly bound around severed wrists.
Nausea bubbled in the pit Gray's stomach and he took a calming breath before pushing open the dented door.
The familiar smell of cold and damp reached his nose, and he bristled with anger.
Bodies lay everywhere. Gray carefully maneuvered his way through, making sure he didn't step on anyone.
As he passed, he inspected the faces of the deceased, and he was relieved to discover none of them were Matty.
When he reached Matty's cell, there was no body or anything.
"Lookin' for survivors?" a voice rasped.
Gray spun around to see Ben, and elderly man with white hair that had been at the camp for as long as Gray could remember.
Ben's eyes widened and he stared at Gray in disbelief. "Gray?"
Gray smiled. "Hey, Ben."
Ben blinked a few times, his mind struggling to swallow the new information.
"Everyone thought you died. That's why we started the riot."
Gray's eyebrows shot up. "What?" another voice asked. Gray glanced over at Natu's who was crossing his arms.
"You guys revolted because you thought he kicked the bucket?"
Ben nodded, shifting his arms. "Yes," he said.
Gray swallowed thickly. "Why?"
Ben smiled grimly. "My boy, do you have any idea of what you did to help us? If I remember correctly, you tried to escape sixty-seven times."
Natsu blanched. "Sixty-eight," Gray whispered.
"Ah, yes. Anyway; that gave up a ray of hope we never had before. Even when they beat you, you never backed down. To be quite frank, it was one of the most amazing things I'd ever seen. Not one of us thanked you for that."
"What I did hurt others," Gray argued. "That's why they killed Toby!"
Natsu blinked once, watching Gray curiously. Is that who he lost? Was Toby the person they used against him?
"That's why I stopped trying to leave."
Ben's eyebrows drew together. "What you did was the only thing keeping everyone going in this place! We all prayed for the day when you would escape. Toby too."
Gray clenched his jaw. "Toby would beg for me to stop. To give up. I didn't listen. And they killed him. Don't you people understand? I'm responsible for what happened."
The old man sighed. "You are a fool, boy." Both mages drew back in surprise. "Toby loved you dearly, like a son. That's why he wanted you to stop; so you wouldn't get hurt. But he always wanted you to get out, and that never changed. Not even when he died."
Ben narrowed his eyes at Gray.
"Didn't he tell you? The reason he wanted you to succeed in escaping and getting that damn bracelet off?"
Natsu turned to look at Gray again, observing how Gray's brow creased in thought and confusion.
Gray brought his hands up to cover his eyes, grimacing as though he were in pain.
"I don't remember," he said finally, voice muffled.
Ben smiled.
"Well, he always told me that he couldn't wait to see your magic."