Hey Fairy Tail Fans!
If you're here it'll be because you've already read A World Without Zeref. If not, I would thoroughly recommend reading that first! But in case you've forgotten or it's been a while since you've caught up, here is a very quick summary of the last story...
Previously:
At the Eclipse Gate, Natsu, Erza, Happy, Gray and Lucy are transported to a world in which Zeref had never existed. It turns out that instead of being brought back in time they experienced a 'ripple' in time, a preview of what would happen if they actually destroyed Zeref. In this, they found that Fairy Tail was a dark guild and constantly fighting Pixie Wing. Gray was a traitor to FT, joining his father and Ur in PW. Erza was a weak barmaid. Natsu simply did not exist.
In the latest development of the conflicting guilds, Gajeel became S-Class by killing Alzack and Bisca, and there was a race to protect Asuka and bring her to the right guild which lead both guilds to the Grand Magical Games. There, they met Mavis, who had her immortality and killing curse, and destroyed most of FT and PW in an instant. Running away, they realised that the world was unstable and a 'paradox', because the eclipse gate could not exist without Zeref. Natsu also realised that he too had gained the contradictory curse, and killed Lucy before being pushed back through the eclipse gate.
Natsu is transported 400 years back and is asked to make the choice between saving Zeref or killing him. However, by a twisted series of events, he ends up killing his past self, sending Zeref onto the path of obsession with resuscitating his brother. As they return to the world, he tells no one of this and the eclipse gate collapses. As the world goes 'back to normal', Gray reveals that the traitor he had been in the previous world is not gone and his plans to bring back the world without Zeref...
Got all that? Good. Enjoy!
The room was glittering beautifully that evening: Crystal chandeliers hung and danced light across the polished dancefloor. Morsels of food that cost more than an entire year's wages were scattered throughout the lavish tables and rested gently on the waiter's silver platters. Huge pictures of elegant ladies and gentlemen smiled subtly at the passing guests as they chattered amongst themselves and commented on the artwork and grandeur. These weren't the normal respectable guests, however. It was clear to see that some of these men and women wore their outfits with more ease than others, people from all walks of life laughing and dancing side by side with only one thing in common; they were all wizards from guilds that had participated in the Grand Magical Games. While they had all been rivals only two days previously, now that the games were over until the next year each one of them was able to turn to another with friendliness and open hearts, already reminiscing about which had been their favourite and most shameful moments.
No one was able to share the joy of the moment more than the victors themselves. Every one of Fairy Tail stood and chatted eagerly with anyone that asked. Cana flexed her 'muscles' and showed off her record breaking powers to anyone that was interested, receiving a further challenge from Bacchus and the two quickly disappeared into an alcohol-induced blur. Juvia blushed as she found herself surrounded by admirers, trying desperately to push past them and keep her eyes on the beloved as he slipped as far as possible from her. Gajeel was content simply on eating all of the food that was placed on offer, though Levy had to point out to him that the metal plates themselves probably weren't intended to be eaten. In all of the commotion Lucy stood at the centre, describing not only the events of the day but those of the impossible three days. To the celestial wizard, somehow saying it out loud made it feel like just another adventure that they had taken, yet another obstacle that they had overthrown. If she kept her mouth shut then the trauma of the entire situation would be even more horrifying. If she kept quiet, the horrors of dying and watching her nakama die around her would have sank into her soul. Right now, in front of the fellow wizards, she felt as if she was simply saying a story, yet another of her unpublished creations, yet another tale with a happy ending.
It was a story that Gray didn't like to hear the end of. To him it hadn't simply been a moment that could be forgotten or a casual jump into a foreign land. His eyes still flickered with the flames that were not intended for this world. His memories still burnt through him, memories of a childhood that had been built in the impossible world. It was easier to sink into the Fire Maker's world than his own, even with the horrors of the Grand Magical Games still fresh in his mind. The Gray from that world was stronger and right now his unweildy personality was reigning supreme without any resistance from the Ice Maker.
"It must have been horrible."
Gray turned suddenly, realising that the princess was standing right beside him. He frowned, knowing that he didn't like the patronising tone to her voice, nor that she was speaking to him so openly when there were many others around. While he had wanted to use this ball as an excuse to catch the princess and fortify their plans, he couldn't risk any of his guild hearing that he was keeping in contact with such a powerful woman. "It was," he said simply through gritted teeth.
"I have to ask…" she said slowly, looking between Lucy and the other friends that she mentioned as she continued her story for the tenth time that evening. "Is it true? Was everyone killed?"
He wanted to scream at her and it took everything in his power not to suddenly break the character of the sullen apathetic ice maker. "It is," he hissed, a gleam in his eyes as he looked at her warning her to back away from the conversation. "But it was still better than this world. Have you come up with anything?"
She hesitated, looking down suddenly as she twisted her fingers around her golden bracelet awkwardly. "I'm not sure. I think so. But there will be several things that we need to succeed."
"Such as?" he snapped impatiently.
She looked back at him questioningly, trying to remember every image she had seen of the Ice Maker on the lacrima while they had fought in the Games. While she couldn't say that she trusted him, and he had certainly warned her not to even try, she wanted desperately to at least understand his motivation. "The 12 Zodiac keys, and a powerful celestial wizard to use them," she said, both of them turning to glance at Lucy as she absorbed herself into some of the more pleasant memories, the small blue cat occasionally jumping in and reminding her of all of the joy that she might have left behind (mostly in the form of fish). "It took us seven years to gain enough magical energy to open the Eclipse Gate before. Every year is more powerful than the last, however. I think another year like this one will be enough this time."
"A year?!" Gray exclaimed, barely able to keep his voice low.
Hisui frowned at his impatience. She had already waited seven, he could certainly put up with one more year. "That's if it's possible at all! Besides which, the Grand Magical Games is the only real opportunity we have to absorb magic in this kind of scale. The Games is our only chance."
Gray cursed under his breath. An entire year. He had known that it wouldn't be easy to get to back to his own world but had never feared that it would take quite so long. He dreaded to think of what a desolate landscape his entire world had already become, what would become of the empty guildhalls of Pixie Wing and Fairy Tail and how much would have changed by the end of a year. "If you can create the Gate… can you take it back to whatever time you want?" he asked, his eyes fading into deep thought.
The princess frowned. Time was running against them and she knew that she couldn't keep talking to the ice mage without gaining suspicion or an audience. But she also knew that this may be the last chance they would have to talk through this plan for some time. "I'm not certain," she admitted. "Although we spent seven years working on the Eclipse Gate there's still so much that we don't know about how it works."
"We need to find a way," he said, gripping his hands into tight fists. "We need to go back to before Mavis destroyed the guild. Before Mavis entered Crocus. Your capital and my guild rest on that."
She nodded and sighed a little breath of relief, realising now that Gray was not so cold-hearted as he may have appeared. While he was betraying his friends by recreating the Eclipse Gate, he still was doing everything in his power to protect them from the new world they were creating. "I can't see why we can't, but it may take even more power than we had anticipated. I'm not even sure if Time Magic is possible…"
His eyes grew wide as the realisation dawned on him. "It is…" he whispered, knowing that he had seen the lost magic before. "I know someone who might be able to help us…" he thought, cautiously trailing through memories and trying to remember if he had met the beautiful young woman in this world as well as his own. The lines between the two worlds were so blurred he found it nearly impossible to pick the memories apart, and even harder to purposefully find something in the more painful shattered history of the Ice Maker.
"I hope that you're right," Hisui told him, watched him carefully as she stepped back away from him, preparing to gracefully approach the next closest victor and announce her gratitude to them as well. As she stepped away she heard Lucy describing the reputation of the traitor Gray had become, vividly describing the feelings in the guild as he had disappeared with Arganon and Pixie Wing. She frowned as she stared into his eyes, giving her dutiful bow to the victor, deciding that she would keep her suspicions to herself.
Just as the princess thought she had convinced herself what had happened to him, Gray held out his hand. He pulled his energy to the palm of his hand as it grew suddenly cold, twisting and turning into an iced Fairy Tail symbol. "A gift," he explained. Slowly he bowed his own head politely, partly to respect her royalty and partly to hide his smirk. Ice magic was not impossible for him, even with the Fire Maker firmly in the driver's seat of his mind. He had memories of his father teaching him the skill, Lyon and him excitedly comparing fire and ice. It was clear to see as he looked back into the princess's eyes, however, that it had more than helped falsely convince her that he was not the traitor that Lucy was describing.
She blushed deeply, obviously instantly regretting her assumptions and finding herself lost in more curiosity. "Thank you," she said, accepting the iced figure within her hands. "And once again, congratulations on winning the Games. I look forward to seeing you again next year," she said meaningfully, gliding across the dancefloor towards Erza.
While most of the guild had barely battered an eyelid at the maker wizard and the princess's exchange, there was one who had noticed it with increasing curiosity. While Juvia had stolen Lyon's attention for the majority of the evening, swanning over her victory and the wonderful display of strength that she had given, as he glanced over to his fellow student he had not expected the frown that crossed his face. Without a word he pushed past the water woman, receiving the blankest of confused expressions as he moved with heated purpose towards Gray. Firmly he placed a hand on his shoulder, hissing "We need to talk," into his ear and pushing him as hard as he dared without drawing too much attention out of the ball.
Juvia just stood, staring blankly at the two men of her life disappearing with each other. She wasn't sure if it was horrific or alluring, frozen in her own fantasy.
The further into shadows that they disappeared, the harder Lyon pushed. He wore an expressionless glaze in his eyes as he stormed forwards, intent only on moving the fellow ice maker as far from civilisation as possible.
"What the fuck is wrong with you?!" Gray hissed at him, finally turning around and taking several steps back on his own accord. The party was a distant murmur through the darkness from her, right in the heart of the grand gardens that surrounded the royal palace. It had been at least five minutes since they had seen the last royal guard or even the odd couple trying to disappear into the privacy of darkness, and Gray was starting to become agitated. "What the hell is going on?"
Lyon frowned, realising that the anger that was emanating from his rival was only convincing him of his own suspicions. He had succeeded in at least taking him as far from the rest of the wizards as possible. "I'm going to give you one chance to come clean," he told him, a dark and dangerous glare in his eyes as he spoke. "Who are you and what have you done with Gray?"
Dammit. Gray took another step back. He had been careful, incredibly careful. He was certain that he hadn't been overheard in his conversations with the princess and he couldn't think of any other ways that he had acted differently to his iced persona. They were technically both the same person, after all. "What the hell are you talking about you, icy bastard?!" he exclaimed.
Lyon twisted his hands together, one palm against the other fist as he pushed his gesture through the air. Bright blue streams of magic erupted from his body, the ground behind him shaking as the familiar huge gorilla of ice grew. It continued Lyon's glare, diving deep into Gray's soul as he was once again forced back a step in shock. "If you're going to pretend to be Gray, at least don't be stupid enough to insult ice," he warned him, pushing his hand into a finger pointing straight to the target.
Suddenly his huge creation roared, crashing forwards and bounding through straight towards the new traitor. Gray's eyes went wide, jumping out of the way at the last moment as shards of ice sliced through the air. He gasped as the splinters scratched against his jacket, tearing it at the seams across his shoulder-blade and almost striking flesh. "Damn it, Lyon, it's me!" he shouted out, desperation now lacing his voice. For a moment he almost forgot how real Lyon was, finding himself trapped in memories of fighting his childhood friend. He leaned down, his hand pressing against the earth and encasing it in a thin layer of dazzling ice, using the slippery surface to dodge out of the ape's wild lunges.
Anger flared in Lyon's eyes. There it was again. Quickly he twisted his hands together again, another huge beast appearing behind him. The giant snake hissed through the air, twisting as it lunged forwards towards the foreigner with huge glass fangs. "Gray would never use one-handed magic," he told him, recounting the iced gift that he had given to Hisui that had been created on the palm of a single hand, a tell-tale sign that this man was not his old rival. "It's an insult to Ur to even suggest he would cast such imbalanced magic." He looked at the stranger, his eyes gleaming dangerously as he crashed both of his creations forwards. Inside he was shaking, desperate to know what had happened to his friend. Whoever the man in front of him was he was not Gray, he was nothing like the man that he had known as a boy, the man who had beaten him with his two-handed spells and his unwavering conviction in Galuna Island. He knew that meant that Gray was somewhere unreachable right now, even if he couldn't see the true extent.
A gasp left Gray's mouth as the snake and ape both collapsed on top of him, splintering into a chasm of steam. He gritted his teeth tightly, bracing himself for an impact that never came, his arms around himself and pulling on the shield spell. In a second his magic flipped, twisting to form the soul that now inhabited his body and pulling on a deep twisting flame. His eyes flickered against the brilliant orange flames as they licked the two ice beasts, melting them into defeat.
Lyon took a staggered step back, his words choking in the back of his throat. He could feel horror as he saw the fire dancing around the ice maker, feel a sickening feeling rising inside of him at the look in his eyes. Everything about it felt wrong, everything in his instincts told him that this was an enemy and this could be nothing more than a nightmare. "Fire…" he breathed the word, and with it the realisation. He had heard Lucy's story several times over the course of the night, though he hadn't paid it much notice before now. He could see Gray was standing taller, see that these were not just the simple multi-coloured fires of Flame Magic, nor the ridiculous strength of dragon slayer, but they were manipulative and twisted into impossible shapes, blade after blade whispering through the dark night so similar to the ice maker magic that he had defeated Rufus with only hours before. While the element had been different, Lyon could clearly recognise Gray's imprint on the creation magic. "Fire Maker… You're the Gray from the Eclipse world…" he breathed.
Gray's eyes glistened menacingly, stepping over the puddles that remained of Lyon's ice magic as they hissed a stream of steam. "That's right," he said, keeping his eyes pinned on his childhood friend.
Lyon gritted his teeth and clenched his fists tighter, ready to fight even harder if that was what was necessary. "What the hell have you done to our Gray?!" he demanded.
Gray continued to step forward slowly, realising that Lyon was flinching back from his approach. The Fire Maker put two fingers to his own head, as if pulling an invisible trigger. "Don't worry, he's right here," he smirked. "He's just letting me in charge for now."
Lyon could feel new anger rippling inside of him. If this was true then he couldn't harm this man, not without harming his true friend. Though he'd never before had much issue with beating Gray, he could tell from his aura and threatening gestures that this man was willing to make any injuries more permanent than Lyon would have ever desired. "Bastard," he hissed, finding himself genuinely as trapped as he was confused. "What the hell do you want from us!?"
Finally, the Fire Maker stopped, tilting his head to the side. Though he hadn't intended things to end up this way, he was going to do all he could to make the most of the situation. "I'm taking back the world without Zeref. My world," he hissed, ignoring the sadness that tinged his words as he thought of the place that he had left behind, of the carnage that had been in his very last moments. "And you're going to help me."
"Why the hell would I help you with anything?" he cursed, already desperately trying to think of ways to pull his friend from whatever darkness he had twisted himself into.
"Because I can bring back Ur."
Lyon stopped. It felt for a moment like his heart had stopped beating. All colour drained from his cheeks, his eyes went wide and he could only stare at his nemesis. "What…?" he breathed.
Gray smiled, realising that he had hit the exact same chords that had helped seep him into this world in the first place. Ice Makers could be so predictable. "Lucy failed to mention Ur had been one of the members of Pixie Wing, didn't she? I'm creating my world again, Lyon, a world with Ur. But in that world, she was one of the members to be taken over by "The Sudden Death", Ankhesram," he flinched, desperately trying to push back the darkness that threatened to twist his soul with every mention of the contradictory curse. Anger helped him through the pain, fuelling both his flames and his determination. "I have every faith that we can manipulate the time travel enough to prevent this is happening, to save Ur and my guild, but to do this we need to find an expert. I need you to track down Ultear."
"U-Ultear…? You mean Ur's daughter? Is she even alive?" Lyon trembled, still not quite able to process the idea of coming face to face with his old master, though the idea enticed him enough to listen closely. The images Lucy had painted of the Sudden Death were enough to pin him in fear, realising the images that his friend must have seen in the other world were even more horrific than he had imagined. Suddenly he understood why Gray had been so eager to slip and fade into the alter-ego. He knew just how hard it was to survive after watching your entire world collapse and he had himself once let the darkness lead his own steps.
Gray frowned. He could see images of the dark-haired time wizard, but those images came slower and were cloaked in a cold edge. The Gray who's body he was taking over was feeding him this information, either unable to stop himself from thinking of the beautiful woman or willingly helping the Fire Maker's quest to save his family, even if only temporarily. "She is," he nodded confidently. "Although I don't know where she is, I know that she can control Arc of Time magic. With her help we have a chance to get Ur back."
Lyon could feel his willpower wavering. All of his morals felt as if they were at breaking point, knowing that if there was a flame wizard at his own back, he probably would have let him into his own soul rather than face this ethical dilemma. He knew that he should have been running inside, should have been warning Fairy Tail and the other guilds that there was a rogue Fire Maker that was effectively trying to destroy the world. But the world that he was promising to replace it with sounded so tempting. He swallowed hard, taking a few small steps forwards and trying to find some hint of coldness in Gray's eyes, some hint that he was still hidden inside. He shook his head, realising he could see nothing, that the Ice Maker had given himself completely to the flames. In this, however, he knew that if Gray trusted this new version of himself, Lyon had reason to as well. "If you're going to keep up this charade, you're doing a terrible job so far…" he groaned, folding his arms across his chest. "You didn't have me convinced for five minutes, how long do you think your friends will last?"
Gray frowned. "Then you'll help me?" he asked hesitantly.
Lyon nodded, feeling as if in doing so he was waving goodbye to all goodness in his soul. Again. It would take some time for him to explain everything he would need to know to convince the others that this was the Gray of this world, far longer than he had, but he was at least willing to try. It would also take more than he could imagine to try and find Ultear and he had to question exactly why the Fire Maker wasn't going to do this himself when he clearly had already met her. He had no time for questions, however, knowing that he needed all of the time in the world to convince a flame to act like an icicle.
Oh, and a sidenote. Unlike the previous story, I have next to none of this already written, so posting will be slow. Especially because I'm working on three pieces at once. I am, as many of you are aware, a binge poster anyway so I don't think this will be too much of an impact. Feel free to give me a kick if you want the next chapter, and as always, please review! 3
