Title: Frozen
Type: Oneshot
Pairing:Natsu/Gray if you squint hard
Rating: M
Warning: dark!fic, torture (much emphasis on the torture: signed the beta), excessive amounts of blood.
Length: ~2440
Summary: There are some things that can make a person stop and wonder. Unfortunately none of that matters when your life starts being a nightmare.
Disclaimer: Not mine
Beta: nightslayr
A/N: This fic's probably the darkest I wrote so far. Heed the warnings, please.
The vibrations that kept shaking the ground made specks of dust and dirt fall to the ground.
The room was dark, only lit by a lamp that fell from the ceiling near the center of the room. It bathed the room in a cold, grey colour.
With a creak the door opened and two individuals entered.
The pair looked exhausted and the grayish tone of said room didn't help matters.
They headed to the covered boxes that were pilled in a corner but they didn't sit. No words were exchanged.
The slightly smaller male that had been leading the way turned to the other, his movements slow – probably due to the injuries that had his torso and arms heavily bandaged.
The taller made him sit down, a hand pressing on his shoulder. His movements were also cautious due to his own injuries.
As the first had sat down, they started talking.
"That was close."
"Well, it had its crazy moments and unexpected moves but we made it."
The one that was sitting, Natsu, placed his head in his hands and shook it slowly.
"I know but…" he massaged his forehead tiredly, "this thing now made me think."
"What? Don't tell me, you got a headache from that."
"Damn it Gray! It's not that but… today it felt too close to losing everything. I mean, death is a thing that will happen sooner or later but I usually think… I think that we'll pull through it."
"Except that there will be a time when everything will fail and that's what happens. We all know that. Life is way too ephemeral."
"It's not that I'm scared, you know? I just… I don't think about that that way. I know that the missions are more dangerous and all- It's better to charge, sometimes. I think it's better not to think."
"But your way is too dangerous. You can't destroy things and be done with it. Just think about your teammates and the troubles afterward." Gray patted Natsu's hair.
Unexpectedly, Natsu got up and leaned against the other, slumping against the ice mage – who promptly held him.
As Natsu's forehead was resting on Gray's shoulder a weary sigh escaped his lips.
"I know. But in those moments you're free. There's only the enemy and you," the Salamander grunted when Gray's hand rested lightly on his bandaged elbow.
"I understand you, Natsu, but don't forget that it's our duty to keep onwards. And now you need to go back to the room. The others were quite worried."
The fire mage's arms circled the other's waist lightly.
"At least it wasn't as bad as it could have been. The number of casualties could have been…"
Gray quickly cut him off, "Thank the gods for that. Now, come on. We have a long way to go."
After some maneuvering they were ready to go up; but before they left this forgotten room, Natsu muttered, "Gray. Thanks for that. And, don't you repeat what I just said…"
The ice mage snorted, "Me, say anything? That would never cross my mind." There was some mirth in his voice.
"You better, or else." Natsu finalized, though his voice didn't have a hint of venom.
As the door closed with a hollow sound, the dust and grayness took over the room, silently, once again.
Natsu was running, his breath coming down in quick pants. He was alone.
They had gotten separated early on this mission, having fallen in a trap right at the beginning. The fire mage had finished off his enemies and walked down the corridor.
It was dark, overall, with only a few beams of light here and there. It was also quite damp as there seemed to be running water down the walls and columns.
There was a loud crash and the floor trembled.
'What was that?' he wondered before starting to run.
Moments later he knew for sure that he was lost.
This frigging place was a god damned maze! How was he supposed to get to the end of it?
Plus, he couldn't use his sense of smell because of the surrounding mold and other decaying things hindered the process – completely.
In the course of the time he had been in this place (getting lost) the ground had trembled a couple of times more, at odd intervals. And he still didn't know the meaning of that…
As he walked by another corner he noticed a strange door, that seemed to bend slightly to the left and was covered in weird runes.
He could hear some noises coming from the other side (and they were extremely chilling) and the scent… He didn't want to be sure but… for him to be able to pick it amidst the overpowering smell of mold… it had to be in large quantities…
He had picked the scent of blood.
The fire mage felt dread fill him. Something bad had happened on the other side of the door and he… he had to keep onwards, hadn't he?
Slowly, he pushed the door open. The stench that hit his nostrils made him stumble a step back. It was so intense that he thought he might puke. But he had to go on. With two fingers clamping on his nose to push back some of the smell, Natsu finally entered the room – it was enormous. And considerably well lit.
As he took his first steps he found that his assumptions were correct. There was blood in here, in several stages of clotting. As he kept walking he tripped in something hard. He impacted hard with his knees on the ground.
"What the fuck?" he looked back. His eyes widened with shock. On the ground lay Erza. Or, upon a closer look, a good part of what used to be Erza.
Natsu took everything in, the red head's legs had been cut at the knee and her right forearm was missing. Her armour was destroyed, but the waist area remained somewhat intact, it went up and connected to the shoulder-plate that was severely dented. She had a sword piercing her; straight through the pelvis.
He forced himself to look at her face. She had a tense expression. Her lips tightly set but her eyes were bulging out in a haunted expression, everything was framed by the halo of red hair.
Natsu reached out to her, touched her cheek. It was frozen, hard and felt like stone.
This made him realize that the others might still be here.
He got up and threw a sorrowful look at her. He had so many feelings, so many things that he wanted to tell her but it was impossible now.
He wandered to the next arcade - and to his dismay found more bodies. First it was Mirajane, Elfman had fallen not too far from her; there was Kana, Wendy, Juvia… He wasn't capable of handling their pained expressions very well. His head was spinning and he had already stopped to retch. The fire mage emptied his stomach until there was nothing more but the acrid taste of bile and the burn on his throat.
As he noticed the figure that hung on the wall of the following corridor, Natsu felt his stomach flip.
Lucy was nailed to the wall by her elbows and knees . A serrated metal loop that cut deep into her waist, also kept her in place. Her head rested on a metallic high collar, in an unnatural position. A thin line of blood slid from her busted lip and had dripped to her top, staining it some more, and her unseeing eyes were frightening. Her body was nearly slashed by red lines and her right leg was covered by a black, shimmering mass. The dragon slayer was about to touch it but thought better – and touched the other leg instead. Stone… like all the others.
There was a snicker nearby – and Natsu hurried to chase down whoever it was. Maybe he was lucky and it would be the enemy.
As he grew closer the cackling sound grew louder. Natsu braced himself, swallowed and walked around the corner.
He stopped instantly, with the gruesome scene before him.
Gray, with only his boxer shorts for garment, was bound to a kind of cross by incandescent metallic shackles on his hands and feet. On his head, a circlet – also incandescent – rested. It was already possible to smell burnt flesh. It was a foul smell that made the dragon slayer's stomach revolve once again.
"Kekeke, and here we have the next guest. Now, sit tight and see what happens!" the cloaked man on the side cackled madly as he pulled something from under his robe. There was also a clicking sound and Natsu felt his feet immobilized.
At the same time he took in the ice mage's red marks – burns, he realized – that marred the whole body. His left eye had suffered some trauma as that cheek was streaked with blood.
"Oh, I see you noticed it," he lifted his left hand (the one that had seemed to be free) and opened his bloody hand. From the palm, an eyeball – that still had some of the optic nerve behind – peeked at the dragon slayer. "Gotta take something from the subject to remember…"
He laughed when he noticed the shocked and murderous way Natsu looked at him. When the fire mage regained his wits to force the bindings on his feet, the floor rose and covered most of his body, encasing him in a prison of marble.
"Tut, tut, tut," the lunatic twirled the thing in his right hand, "you need to be a good boy and wait for your turn. Now, watch me work," and he turned so that he was fully facing Gray.
Natsu wanted to yell at him to stop, stay still but his tongue was stuck. He tried to close his eyes but it felt as if something was forcing them to remain peeled open.
A muffled scream tore through him from his useless struggle and Natsu saw how the man had sliced every finger from Gray's right hand with that… that thing!... that was a bit larger than a dagger. And it had to be emitting heat if the burnt flesh smell that got more overpowering meant anything. Gray was screaming and struggling in vain, his remaining eye was tearing up and his body was shaking visibly.
The man proceeded the same way on the left hand, while saying, "No, no, no, my dear. This isn't reason for you to get like that already." He took a couple of steps to get out of the way and snapped his fingers. A battering ram descended with deadly accuracy on the ice mage's left shoulder, crushing the bones with a sickening mutated crunch.
"Now you can complain a little bit. That thing weights a lot, you wouldn't believe how difficult it was for me to put it in place," he shook his head.
With a quick twirl he plunged the tip of the dagger under Gray's collarbone and with a jerk of the hand he slashed the chest before him open to the navel.
Gray screamed again. He didn't seem capable of thinking anything, even less yelling it. It was unbearably easy to see that his whole existence was engulfed by pain.
The man, not entirely satisfied with the result, cut another line, parallel to the collarbone. Then he decided to peel the skin away.
A choked off gurgle left Natsu's throat. This was not happening. He wasn't watching his best friend being tortured to death! He was not going to let that happen so-
The skin opened perfectly, like a flap of sort, and Gray emitted a high pitched sound. He was screaming, his whole being had mustered some of the remaining energy to allow that action.
The man let out a satisfied sigh as he watched that young heart beating wildly. Looking up to the artery on the neck that was protruding and also beating wildly.
"Now, now, how 'bout we do a small race? This friend here against the one in the gift box," he broke Gray's ribs with some well aimed punches and let the bones fall to the floor, "and now that the gift has been opened we only need to try it out!"
The man produced a small dagger with a glowing, lime-green blade and used the longer one to pull the heart out of the chest, making it strain against the attached blood vessels. Then everything got into slow motion. The man slit Gray's throat and the vessels that were connected to the ice mage's heart – making it fall into the already waiting hands.
Blood started running everywhere, gushing out of the other's prone body. At first there were some awful gurgling sounds but those vanished at the same time that the twitches of the body did.
"Another job well-done. Now, us," the man threw the green dagger towards Natsu but, strangely, he managed to lean back and avoid it. However his feet slipped and he started falling.
But he could still hear the mad cackle of the man.
Natsu gasped as he impacted with the floor, the air rushing out of his lungs.
A searing pain took over his body and his reaction was to curl in a ball and try to breathe, maybe he would get the pain under control if he exerted some control over something, namely his breathing.
He was going to be alright.
As this twirled around his mind, the door of the room opened and someone entered.
"What are you doing down there?" a familiar voice huffed. Natsu's eyes opened immediately and he looked at the source. Yes, he was here! Relief flooded him.
Before him, Gray was looking at Natsu with an arched brow.
"I think that the bed is a better place to sleep on, more comfortable. Then again, that's just me."
"I fell. Help me up," grumbled the dragon slayer.
Gray nodded and placed the tumbler (did he have anything on his hands?) on the bedside table. "Got it."
Instants later Natsu was on the bed, gulping down the water and painkillers that Mira had sent.
"How are you feeling?" Gray sat in the chair and waited patiently.
"Fine, I'm better than before…" and in an unexpected move, the fire mage threw himself at Gray, hugging him tightly. The ice mage was so shocked that he didn't react at first, then his arms rose to encircle the other in a comforting gesture.
'I feel much better now that I know that it was all just a nightmare.'
A/N: Well, if you got to the end I kind of feel that I must congratulate you. But not everything was bad, it was a somewhat happy ending. ^^
Now, I have no idea why I wrote this story. It's not my style in the least but I'm feeling a lot of pressure on my end and things are going to hell, basically, and fanfiction's ultimately a place to release us from the world's evil clutches. Even at the expenses of our beloved characters. So, yeah...
Well, at first this was to be a small drabble, only the first part, but it grew somehow. Heck if I know anything…
My thanks to nightslayr for taking a look at this and saying that I had a good insane-evil-guy voice.
Anyway, my thanks to everybody who read this story. I hope nobody got badly scarred and if you didn't pay attention to the warnings, it's not my fault. I did warn in the beginning.
As usual, any feedback is highly appreciated.