It is snowing. It always is in the northern most stretches of Fiore. He walks through the snow, it crunching under his feet. The air is cold and crisp, burning at his face. His pulls his scarf closer to face, zipping his coat up and trudging the last few metres into his home. His parents greet him happily, placing steaming plates of food on the table, smiling, sitting, eating. It was perfect.

The scene soon changes, and there is a yell from outside. It's that boy from a few houses down the street. He looks distraught, and is yelling about a monster. Gray scoffs. There are no monsters. But he's wrong. Oh so wrong. When he and his parents leave the house, they see that half the mountainside village is on fire. Lyon is crying- he hasn't seen his parents. They said they were coming, he complains. Gray's parents tell him to run. They don't know if there is a monster or not. No one can see anything from the blizzard that is engulfing the town. Lyon is still sobbing quietly. Gray thinks he needs to man up, but he is just as scared himself. He bravely takes the other boy by the wrist, and runs, despite his many complaints. Lyon's feet somehow manage to keep up, and then they're miles away, up the mountain.

They can see the entire town from here. Lyon is still sniveling, but Gray looks over the cliff edge at the village below. And then he sees it. The snow. It's no longer the pure white it usually is, but instead it's dyed red. Most of the village has been massacred, but Gray can't see this monster everyone is talking of. But then he strains his eyes, and in the distance, walking away, is a monster. It's not just a monster, though. It's twenty, no thirty feet tall. Gray can't quite tell how big it is, but it's huge. It looks like a cross between a bird and a human, and all he wants to do is run after it and kill it. But he can't. Even if he had any way of killing it, his body won't let him move. His feet are rooted into the snow, and he can feel his tears freezing on his cheeks.

The town is ablaze, and they are the standing on the mountainside, unable to help anyone who may still be alive down there. The monster is moving away, and Gray decides if they move quietly, it may not come back. It's far enough away when he pulls Lyon to his feet and they trek down the snowy path they came up, following their own footprints. Gray can't bear to go into his house. It's charred; the snow has put out most of the fires. He finds his parents in the middle of the town. Lyon can't find his family, but Gray tells him it's for the better.

They leave the town, deciding between them that they're going to do something about the monster. They find a teacher. Her name is Ur. She teaches them Ice magic. Gray isn't very good at it (or so he thinks). He makes swords, cages, and he can freeze the river with ease. But Lyon is amazing. He can make birds, mice, cats, and once he even pulled off a tiger. Ur is like a mother to them both. She has no children of her own- well she did, but her daughter died a while ago. She treats them like her own children.

She tells them about the monster. It's not a monster, which is a shock to both boys. It's a demon. It's immensely strong, and has destroyed many villages along the northern continent. Apparently it's been around for roughly 400 years, but it has only started its reign of terror recently. It's called Deliora, and Gray commits that name to memory. Both Gray and Lyon swear to perfect Ice Make Magic. They will defeat Deliora

Gray starts to garner a dislike for Lyon. He becomes obsessed with this demon. He learns abnormal amounts of magic in a short period of time. He spends all of his spare time reading; reading books about magic. He stops talking to Gray and Ur. They worry about him, but he ignores their concerns, and decides to perfect his magic. On his own.

News travels fast in the mountains, surprisingly, and Gray and Lyon are shocked to hear about the return of Deliora, a few towns over. It killed at least twenty people, and the painful reminder of their families' deaths strikes a nerve within the two boys. Ur warns them not to do anything rash, but Gray ignores her, running out of the house and running and running and running until he reaches the village. He sees Deliora. It's just as big as he thought it was when he first saw it, all those months ago.

He's about to attack it, but Lyon appears, ready to go first, he pushes him back, saying he's ready to finish Deliora off. He stands in a way Gray has never seen anyone stand for casting magic before. His feet are wide apart, his shoulders high and his arms crossed in an 'x' shape in front of him. The ground starts to glow, and Gray has no idea what's happening.

As soon as he opens his mouth to speak, there is a flash of blue from behind them, and Lyon is frozen solid. Ur has come too. She explains that Lyon was trying to use a spell called Iced Shell, and that it killed the person who used it. She explains that it is the only way to kill Deliora and save all these people on the Northern Continent. She explains that she will seal away Gray's darkness. Gray feels tears running down his cheeks. He's not sure when he started crying. He yells at Ur. Don't do it. Stop. There must be another way. But she simply smiles, that soft, motherly smile Gray and Lyon have grown to love. She takes up the position that Lyon was in only a few moments in, and the ground glows again.

It's much stronger this time, the light, and Gray guesses it's because she has at least twenty times the magical power of Lyon. He's still yelling; he can't let her die, not under any circumstance. But it's too late. The Deliora stops, as if frozen completely. Huge chunks of ice slowly envelop it. And the light gets brighter, and his voice gets louder, and the Deliora gets more and more frozen. And then the light fades, and Ur is gone, and the Deliora is completely frozen and he's screaming and he's screaming and he's screaming and he's screaming and he's screaming and he's screaming-

He woke up and he was screaming. He quickly realised what he was doing, and clasped his hands over his mouth. He was sweating and had sat bolt upright when he awoke from whatever that was. The blankets were screwed up in a ball at the end of the bed, and he hears a rustling from the other side of the room. Oh dear.

"Gray-sama!" She whispers, loudly enough for him to hear perfectly. Her voice is muffled from her blanket nest, but she turned to look at him, swinging her legs onto the carpeted floor.

"No. Stay where you are. I'm fine." He looked at her, and she can barely see him through the dark, but his hair was messier than usual and his eyes were wide.

"Are you-"

"I'm okay." His voice was shaking, but she complies, curling back up on the sofa.

"Alright… um, goodnight, Gray-sama." He grunted in response.

He was too afraid to go back to sleep after that. Deliora was always at the forefront of his mind, and even though he knew it was dead, it played a prominent role in his dreams. He rolled over to face Juvia. Her back was to him, and her breathing steady, so must have fallen asleep again. He wondered if she ever had dreams like that. He knew Natsu occasionally woke up sweating after a dream about Igneel, but he didn't know about anyone else. He knew Juvia hadn't had it easy- Phantom Lord had pretty much used her for a good few years of her life.

His mind wandered to his other guild mates. None of them had had a particularly good start to life. Erza lived in that 'tower of heaven', and had spent a long time being abused by Jellal. Lucy's mother had died when she was young, and her father wasn't the kindest to her. He hadn't really talked to anyone else in the guild; he didn't want to be classified as being nosy.

Rolling onto his back again, Gray made a mental note to apologize to Juvia in the morning about waking her up. He thought it best he tried to get some more sleep- they would have no chance of succeeding in their mission if he was half asleep. His eyes shut almost immediately after this thought had processed, and sleep overcame him, proving how tired he actually was.

The next dream is different. He knows it's a dream from the moment it begins, but he can't wake up, no matter how hard he wishes. He's enclosed in a white space. It's all he can see, seemingly for miles. He can't move forward, backwards, or to either side. He can turn though, and when he hears his name whispered from behind him, he has to turn, to see who is calling him.

It's Ultear. Her hair is whipping around the air, in some sort of wind that isn't affecting Gray at all. But hey, this is a dream, so anything goes. She, along with him, he notices, is floating in mid air. Her hands are clasped in front of her, almost as if she's praying. Gray tries to reach out to her, his hand closing over thin air as she seemingly moves backwards. He tries to move forward, so he can talk to her. But he's rooted to the spot. And she looks like she's in pain. Her eyes are brimming full of tears, and her eyes are furrowed together.

Her mouth opens slowly, as if she's trying to form words. He hears her- it's quiet, but there is no other sound, so if he strains his ears, he can hear it just as clearly as any words.

Gray.

She's calling him. But it's less of a command, and more of an apology. Her voice seems shaky, and then he can't hear her. It's like the dream has cancelled out whatever she was going to say, replacing it with a high-pitched squeak. He tries to read her lips, but she's turned away from him and is facing the sky. She sinks to her knees, covering her face in her hands. Is she crying? And then he gets a sudden flash in front of him. He's dying. Shot. Through the heart, and the head. Robots? No, dragons. They're everywhere. People are screaming. Is that Lyon? And he just saved Juvia? But… he's not dead.

And then Ultear is gone. He tries calling out, but he can't see her. And then everything slips into place. She did sacrifice herself, for that extra minute. He was right. That old woman was her. She had given up everything for them. For humanity.

When Gray woke up again, his cheeks were sticky with tears. There was a damp mark on the sheets, and he shook his head. Light was streaming through the window, and when he pushed himself up, he saw that Juvia was gone. The bathroom door was open, so he assumed she had gone down to breakfast alone. He joined her after a few minutes, whispering 'thank you's to Ultear as he made his way downstairs.


AN: Thank you for the reviews. As to the fast pacing, that was pretty much intentional, as there will be a few chapters like this, where nothing much happens. I guess. Please review, it makes everything a lot easier!