Disclaimer: I do not own anything with Fairy Tail.
Note: I have another Lyon and Gray brother fic here. I have thought about trying to write a Natsu and Gray fic but there are so many and not enough Gray and Lyon fics. It is also going to be slightly darker, at least I think. Also, Spoiler warning: If you haven't read up to the Tartaros arc then there will be Spoilers in here.
Time setting: Soon after the Tartaros Arc and Fairy Tail did not disband in this story.
Prologue
The doors to the Fairy Tail Guild closed behind the raven-haired mage. As the clang of the doors was heard Gray Fullbuster felt panic creeping in. This could not be happening, it just couldn't! The ice mage's knees hit the ground as the panic grew into near hyperventilation. After a few moments, the fact that the beloved ice mage of Fairy Tail was banned from the guild fully sunk in and Gray couldn't do anything but take off running, not knowing where. This was unbelievable! He was no longer consider part of Fairy Tail, his home, his family! He was alone again! He didn't mean for this to happen, another costly mistake to add to his list. This time it may have cost him everything.
The scene before him was pure destruction, the frozen rocks and rubble was painted with blood and scattered with bodies. Black marks receded from the shirtless body of the raven-haired mage and dread form in his gut as he took in the scene. What happened; what had he done? Gray, a mage of Fairy Tail, stood amongst the bloody carnage, horror and fear taking over. He stared down at his arm where his devil-slayer mark resided, it was now back to normal. His body shook as he came to the horrible conclusion that he may have caused this ruination. "Surely not," he thought, "I wouldn't do this, please tell me I didn't do this?!"
His shaking hands came up to cover his face, he really couldn't reconcile this scene with him. How did this come to be? His memory was a bit blurry. He recalled that he had been sent on a job to handle a small group of dark mage bandits. He took the job alone because he needed time to himself, having another loss added to his total. His newest loss being his Dad, who he thought was already dead. Turns out that part was true, his father was just brought back to be used in evil gains. He had to face off against his Dad, never thought that would occur. It is like fate was toying with him giving him a second chance only for it to be swiped away. So, his Father had been taken from him again and it was a bit overwhelming to him. His Dad had given him the ice devil-slayer power as he left the world for good. His devil-slayer magic was still new to him, though he had used it against Mard-Greer well enough. The creator mage could still feel the devil-slayer power thrumming through him as he remembered the rest of what happened.
Flashback:
The job was in a remote village out in the middle of nowhere. They wanted him to take care of this group of bandits that was giving the villagers trouble. When he asked around he found out that the troublesome group was located in the forest outside of the village. So, he headed into the forest to search for the mage bandits or any clues of them. As he walked his thoughts came back to his father. He was still struggling with the fact that he got to see his father again only to fight him and then lose him again. Why does he keep losing people? Who would be next? Was he going to lose everyone close to him? He has lost his parents, teacher, Ultear, and his Dad again. Even in the guild they have had close calls. Was fate just against him? It was a wonder that Lyon was still alive, though he had a close call too. Why did fate have to play such cruel tricks on him, it wasn't fair! He had been so consumed with his thoughts and growing anger and despair that he didn't realize what was going on till he was flying through the air only to be stopped by a tree. Gray managed to recover rapidly and dodged an incoming attack. He glared as he turned to face his opponents, which looked to be the group of dark mages the village wanted gone. "Lovely," he thought, "someone to take some anger out on."
One of the bandits step forward, the apparent leader, he had a tall and lean build. His pale skin glowed as he taunted the ice mage. "Well looky here, we found a pathetic, lone traveler. I doubt you have much to offer but at least we can take out our frustration on your hide."
His rage continued to grow with every word, but he hid it and smirked at the lame purple headed leader. "You know, I was just thinking the same thing."
The bandits just laughed, they seemed to have decided that Gray was easy prey. Gray let out a low growl, his devil slayer mark plusing with his rising temper. The temperature in the air started to drop slightly not that the bandits noticed or cared. The leader continued his affront, not in any hurry to mess up his prey just yet.
"You know if you just hand over whatever valuables you have now, we may go easier on you when we beat your ass."
The maker mage shifted his weight in preparation for a fight and threw his shirt off in the process. The bandits looked a each other in confusion, thrown off by his stripping. The leader just sneered and turning to his minions, stated, "I guess that is a no."
Purple hair twirled as the mage spun back around to face Gray. There was a confident laugh in his voice as he teased, "Does stripping help your chances?"
The bandits were either very confident or just oblivious because even as it got colder and the mage before them started to glow faintly, another bandit mocked, "Oh wow look," a hand raise to point at the mark on the ice mage's chest. "He is with that Guild called Fairy Tail, quite a fitting loser name."
"What is a lone Fairy doing here? I heard they usually work in groups, because they are too weak to fight on their own."
Laughter followed the leader's hypocritical comment. The lean mage's eyes turned sharp and cruel as the laughter ended, "Oh well, easy pickings." Abruptly, they launched an attack.
Gray reacted quickly, freezing most of the gang to the ground. However, two bandits out of the seven evaded. One having jumped in the air and the other had flame magic. Not flame magic like Natsu's exactly, more like Macao's. The leader had been the one to jump in the air, and using his air magic, stay there. The flame mage had reached Gray and threw a barrage of flame attacks. Fullbuster brought up an ice shield, managing to block all the attacks but his shield broke right after. As it broke he saw the flame mage come in with a fiery fist, he brought his arm up to block. The creator mage happened to look towards where the air mage was and saw him using aerial shot. A bunch of rocks rose into the air flying towards the ice mage. Gray only had a glimpse of this as the fire mage followed up his attack with a flaming kick. Gray jumped back out of the way, dodging the kick and brought up an icy shield to block the rocks. The air bandit kept sending rocks as the other bandit started to melt the ice that the rest of their gang was stuck in.
Gray's shield held for a bit until the leader brought up a huge rock and slammed it through the shield. Icy shards scattered everywhere as the shield shattered and Gray was thrown back. Before the ice mage could collect himself the tall, purpled hair male used Aerial Phose. Swinging his hands in a circular motion, he pulled Fullbuster towards him enveloping the mage in a cyclone sphere. Gray was being beat by the winds of the cyclone that held him hostage. After what seemed like an eternity the cyclone stopped. There was an "Omph" as Gray's body harshly hit the ground. His skin was torn and bloody from the sharp wind. He jumped up as briskly as he could, ignoring the sting of cuts and the pain of his back. As he faced his enemies, he realized they really were playing with him. The air and fire mages were just waiting on him and the other bandits were now freed and closing in.
The leader stepped closer to Gray with a sneer marring his unlined face. The air mage's dark, slanted eyes gleamed wickedly. The mage jeered, "How pitiful, and here I was thinking that maybe you would actually pose a challenge."
"Well Fairy Tail must not be as strong a guild as their reputation says." piqued in the pot-bellied fire bandit. "They must lie to cover how weak they are."
The atmosphere turned into ice; snowy clouds starting to cover the sky as Gray's fury hit boiling point. The stripper glowed blue; having heard enough. Ice shot out in the form of spikes aiming towards the taunting bandits. The gang jumped out of the way. Four bandits going one way and the leader, fire bandit and another going the other way. Gray's hands formed the make magic sign and he shouted, "Ice-make: Cannon!" Quick as lighting a cannon formed on his shoulders and he pulled the trigger, aiming towards the four bandits. The bandits were sent sky high and out of sight. Right as the ice cannon disappear, a stream of fire and bullets of magic came for Gray. The ice mage cart wheeled out of the way. As Gray right himself icy lances were shot out and aimed toward the flame bandit and the other one with bullet magic. The two tried to dodge but got nicked by a few of the lances. The two were still standing and raring to go along with their leader.
Gray and the three bandits traded blows seemingly endlessly. The bandits were bruised and hurting. They were also getting low on magic, well, the fire and bullet mages were. The leader had a bit more magical power. He was getting tired of this game now. The ice mage was injured as well, torn up and bleeding. Gray was panting, he still had at least half of his magical power and had yet to use his devil-slayer magic. Though he could feel the ice devil magic pushing to let loose, his fury feeding it. The slant-eyed, air mage backed up, gaining space and let his two minions keep the annoying fairy occupied. He was planning to end this soon.
The pot-bellied fire mage cast a purple fire net, trying to catch the elusive mage. Gray easily evaded that but was hit by a barrage of magic bullets. The mage hit the ground for what felt like the thousandth time. He groaned as he pulled himself up, only to have to skirt out of the way of another combo attack. Gray was long past tired, he was exhausted but knew he couldn't stop. Suddenly, he realized the leader wasn't attacking. Too late, Gray heard the purple bastard call, "Aerial!" Gray looked for a glint of purple hair only to have his body smashed into the ground once again and the breath leave his body. As he tried to get his breath back he realized that the oxygen was being lowered. This was not good, they had him trapped.
Gray managed to raise his head enough to see the three remaining bandits jeering at him. The air bastard kneeled to his level and scoffed, "Well, guess I must hand it to you, you weren't as weak as I thought, still not much of a challenge but hey!" The leader straightens back up, "Now, what to do with you? Should we make you suffer? Or end you quickly?"
As he was talking the air was getting lower and lower, making breathing a chore for Gray much less talking. He could only manage to glare at the bandits. The leader had turned his attention to his minions mocking Gray and Fairy tail with them. Though he could hardly breath Gray felt the unchecked fury and other bottled emotions starting to flood his system again. The helplessness of his situation adding fuel to his fury. The four bandit that Gray had sent packing early had now returned as well.
The air mage grin as he saw the rest of his gang returning. He spoke towards the ice mage again, "Now that the whole gang is here we could make a decision. Though I am tempted to keep playing with you and see how long you can last. Maybe we can hold you hostage and have other Fairy tail mages come after you? Then we can have fun with your friends too."
Gray's outrage was getting harder to control, he could feel that devil-slayer power welling inside, ready to burst. He looked down at his arm and saw the mark slowly spreading. The bandit leader obliviously continued.
"I'm sure your friends are just as weak if not weaker than you. From what I hear, all you Fairy Tail people are just orphaned loser freaks that a perverted old man took in. I'm sure he had you and the others do all kinds of weird, disturbing things to stay there. Such a pathetic guild."
How dare they mock his friends and the master! The idea that they would even try to mess with his friends pissed him off. The pain of his recent loss burning in his mind, the anger, despair, and guilt all culminated into uncontrollable wrath. The level of wrath that Gray felt surpassed anything else he had ever felt. His body shook in anger now, he couldn't think of anything else but destroying these low lifes. They didn't deserve to live. Gray looked down at his arm and the last sight he had was of the devil-slayer mark spreading at impossible speed.
Gray staggered back as the memory came to an end. He was the cause of this destruction! He scanned the area again and saw a glint of purple hair and knew that he had killed these bandits. What was he going to do!? The guild had a no killing policy that he had just broke. It was basically the only rule of Fairy Tail. Before he could come to an idea he heard a girly scream behind him. As he turned he saw one of the village girls running back to the village. There was no way he could cover this up now even if he wanted too. The magic council would be hearing about this.
TBC
