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Everyone lost something that Christmas but being the lone survivor of the war he lost everything. His family was his everything and it was taken away from him. He swore vengeance, someone was going to pay.
Cana couldn't shake the horrible feeling, she knew something bad was going to happen. But looking around, the guild was celebrating on a Christmas eve and everyone was happy and rowdy. She just couldn't place her finger on what would go wrong. Her cards were never wrong but no matter how many times she reshuffled and picked it still kept showing the same thing.
While everyone was rejoicing and eager to open Christmas presents she sat in a dark corner at the guild. Even drinking didn't make her feel better or take away the sense of impending doom.
"You have seen it too haven't you?" She quickly packed her cards together so that no one would see the horrible predictions. She looked up and saw Carla.
"What are you talking about?" She asked the exceed, avoiding her eyes.
"I saw your card. I have seen it too."
She sighed and reshuffled the cards yet the one she picked out of the many cards in the deck still had those horrible six letters, 'Death'.
"What does it mean?" Carla asked pointing to the card on the table.
"That's death riding on a white horse." She said as she pointed to the skeleton on a horse. "The fact that it's wearing an armour shows it's unavoidable and invincible. The white horse shows it's going to purify. You see the king, the bishop and a peasant? It means no one would be spared. The banner of his flag his black meaning darkness would consume light."
Carla nodded, her eyes tearing up and her voice shaking as she spoke." I-i have seen it too.Bodies all around, an entire country laid waste to,blood that turned the snow red, the darkness that consumed light, fire that burned brightly despite the weather, the fairy's defeat and a roar of pain."
By the time she was through Carla was holding her head as if trying to stop the visions. Cana felt her blood run cold, her hair stand up at the back of her neck and her eyes fill with fear. Her cards had just been confirmed. They were doomed from the start. This was a war they couldn't win. Before she could stand up to tell the guild of her fears the door slammed open and in came the messenger of doom with a news that stopped all celebration.
As the over packed train reached Magnolia, he and everyone on the train quickly made their escape. People ran in different directions looking for a safe place to stay. Zeref forces were strong and he had finally decided to eliminate mankind. It was truly a one sided annihilation as everything in his path had been burned to the ground or destroyed. Gray had never seen so much death in his entire life. Even strong guilds have fallen; quarto puppy and blue pegasus had been completely eliminated, their town was wiped off the map and not a single survivor remained.
Sabertooth's Master, Sting had ordered a tactical retreat after many of his comrades had fallen. They and other guilds were moving to Fairy Tail to regroup and fight together. Even he wonders if Fairy Tail would come out on top this time.
No one would have suspected that war would break out on the evening of Christmas eve and Zeref sure seemed hell bent on wiping away humanity.
He could have sighed as he reached Fairy Tail but he knew even Wendy couldn't heal him. He reached here with great difficulty and held on so he could warn them to prepare for war and so that he could see her again. He was exposed to so much anti- ethranior for a long time now, he was sure his lung was beyond repair. If they could just managed to win the war and survive, his troubles won't be in vain.
As he opened the door all celebration stopped. Lucy screamed and ran over to him, eyes already brimming with unshed tears.
"What happened?" She choked out.
"Zefer. Everything on his path has been annihilated." He could hear people gasp. He gave her the news paper in his hand and as she read her hands were shaking until someone grabbed the paper from her.
He slumped to the floor and Wendy was healing him."I-i can't heal him.I don't know what's happening. I can't heal him."
"Get Porlyusica." Natsu shouted.
"Gray. Where is my dad? Both of you went on a mission together. Where is Gildarts?" Cana asked him.
He was silent for a while not knowing what to say. " Gildarts stayed behind... h-he held them off while I-i escaped b-but then there was a huge explosion. Cana I am sorry, I am not sure he made..."
She shook her head. "Don't complete your sentence. Don't you dare say it. He did, he made it, papa won't leave me behind." She cried and ran away from him.
He sighed. Cana had lost her father,who would be the next to lose something.
The pain he was feeling was agonizing, his lungs burned as if they were on fire, he wished he would just die already.
After examination Porlyusica came out of the infirmary with a solemn expression. "I am sorry there is no cure. I could only ease his pain a little but his suffering his much."
'There is no cure, there is no cure, there is no cure.' Were there words that rang in Lucy's head. She couldn't believe it, she ran past Porlyusica and into the infirmary. He seemed to be in so much pain. The other guilds have already arrived and were preparing a counter attack.
She sat near his bed and watched him breathing really slowly, like it hurts. "You are going to be okay Gray, I promise."
He smiled."what have I told you about making promises you can't keep?" He said almost to quietly.
She knew his lungs hurt, she knew he wouldn't make it and he also knew that.
"It's okay. I know."
She buried her face into his chest and cried. "Please Gray don't go."
She saw him reach for something with great difficulty. It was a knife and he handed it to her. At first she looked at it with confusion, then it suddenly dawned on her what he wanted her to do. She stared at him wide eyes and shook her head, tears spilling from her eyes.
He managed to smile. "P-lease Lucy. Ple-ase."
"No I wouldn't do it... I am not going to."
"It hurts Lucy. It hurts a lot, like I am burning up inside.P-lease Lucy, it hurts" he cried. "You promised you would do anything to make me happy. You always said you won't make me hurt but now I am hurting and you can help me so please help me."
Lucy didn't want him to feel so much pain, she didn't want him to hurt so much but she didn't want to kill him either. Gray had lost his willingness to live.
"It won't be your fault. It just hurts so much.please."
With shaking hands she took the knife from him, lifting him up to hug him before crashing her lips against his one last time. And as the clock struck twelve she plunged the knife into his chest.
"Merry Christmas Lucy." He said before he went limp.
"Merry Christmas Gray. Merry Christmas." She whispered and removed the knife from his chest before proceeding to drive it into her own.
Porlyusica had given her some kind of concoction to help ease Gray's pain. She could hear sobbing as she entered the infirmary, she guessed Lucy had come to say her last goodbye.
To her horror the floor was stained red with blood, Lucy held a knife in her bloodied hands and was proceeding to stab herself. Wendy let out a blood curling scream and the door flung open as members rushed in. Natsu was the first to enter and with superhuman speed he was able to knock the knife out of her hands in time. The other members stared in horror at the sight before them. Lucy scrambled to the floor to get the knife and Natsu kicked it away holding her roughly, his eyes filled with anger.
"Why did you do it? And what the hell are you planning on doing?" He screamed.
Wendy could feel her eardrums shatter. Gray must have lost the will to live and begged Lucy to kill him and it made her emotionally unstable. She killed the love of her life. She said nothing to Natsu's questions, she just kept crying for a while.
"He begged me to do it. He said it hurts a lot. He.."
She saw Natsu-san hug her. "He came to relay this message so we can fight back not die uselessly. So don't die and fight. For Gray."
"For Gray." She mumbled
Wendy didn't know what to make of the scene before her, her mind was absolutely blank. She hopes Fairy Tail would win this time because if they didn't, it was the end of humanity.
Gray had told them not to show mercy, if they don't kill they will be killed. It was quite absurd that she who had never killed anyone in her life would have to take a life on a Christmas morning or else she wouldn't survive. There is nothing Merry about this Christmas.
She hopes he is okay, if they were going to die today she should at least tell him about her feelings.
Everyone watched as the two best friends hugged each other. The silence was agonizing and Wendy wished it would end already. Of course her wish came true, in a horrible way.
Lisanna could feel something was wrong. The way the silence continued made her worry. Gray said they swept past everything with ease and destroyed it so it shouldn't take long for them to reach magnolia unless they were already here.
"Master." Erza said with a very serious expression. "Zefer forces are supposed to be here by now?"
"Hey! Are you wishing for something bad to happen? If they are not here yet then it's good for us." A member shouted.
"That's not what I am trying to say. They should be here by now unless..." she didn't complete her sentence before she ran out to check the map. "Damn, we are already surrounded. They must have used something so we won't see them coming."
The guild became frantic, everyone was preparing for war and lisanna still couldn't shake off the bad feeling. It surely wasn't going to end well. That's when she saw him, unlike everyone he remained calm. In his hands he had the black and white coat she got him for Christmas, his dark hair sitting in a ponytail and one side covering his left eyes. Before she could turn around he caught her staring and his beautiful crimson eyes stared back into her soul searching pool of blue.
A small smile graced his lips and the message it conveyed she understood but didn't believe, although she smiled back with a small nod.
'It's okay. There is no need to fear.' He reassured her with his smile. Of course she knew there was a need to fear, he had witness what zeref's army could do first hand, he had lost a lot of comrades and Lisanna truly envied him for being so calm. She walked over to him and put her arms around him while he buried his nose in her hair. And they stood there in comfortable silence even with the commotion.
And everything went wrong from there.
Ezra didn't know what was going on anymore. She was tired, exhausted actually, hungry, her throat felt itchy and dry. She had fought soldiers after soldiers and mages for hours now. The day went by fast and she was sure it was probably Christmas evening but she couldn't afford to stop, she had to avenge her fallen comrades. She looked around and saw Wendy healing another injured person; the girl had stopped fighting to heal and increase their strength with her magic. It was thanks to her they have held on so for long.
There were so many dead bodies and the air was suffocating; she felt sick as the stench of death, blood and burnt flesh filled the air. And for the first time in a very long time she was covered in blood, red, hot and sticky. Some of it were hers, some of fallen comrades she held in final moments like Levy; Lucy is mad with grief now and most of it belonged to the enemy.
Even after slaying more than a hundred men she could swear the army wasn't decreasing. She could swear she had killed some of them before but seeing a dead person fighting is impossible, right? Surely she was hallucinating and due to lack of rest her mind was playing tricks on her.
"Ice make: Lance." she heard someone say behind her and knew it was directed at her. Not looking to see who it was she quickly moved out of the way still surprised as she had never met another ice mage other than Gray and Lyon, both of whom were dead she thought bitterly. With renewed vigor to remove the head of whoever was using the magic in a wrong way she turned around to charge. To her utmost horror there stood Gray himself. Now Ezra was sure she was hallucinating and she barely managed to dodge the next attack. The ice grazed her cheeks and it stung.
"Gray? Gray why? Why are you alive? I saw you..."
He said nothing but another attack sent her flying and crashing into a building. Ezra felt dizzy, someone was playing a cruel joke on her and she gets that person hell would break loose. She looked up to see him walking up to her.
"Gray!" She choked out and he stood there. He looked... dead, a shadow of his former self. This wasn't the person who comforted her when jerral wasn't there, this wasn't the person that listened to her problems or let her nag and fuss over him in private, this wasn't the person she had fallen in love with. No this was an imitation of Gray and she was going to end him, permanently.
It was bad enough he loved someone else when he was alive, it was bad enough that someone had killed him and now he was trying to kill her. Someone was indeed playing a cruel joke on her.
"Heavens wheel." She changed her armour and sent about twenty swords towards him but they were stopped by pink wool.
"I am s-sorry. I am so sorry." She heard Aries mutter.
"Lucy don't be fooled that's not Gray."
"B-but!! Gray? I thought... I thought... Oh my god. I am so sorry for doing that.I am so sorry." She cried and ran to him apparently not hearing Ezra.
"Lucy I said..." The words were stopped when a sword went right through her, blood spilling from her stomach just below her heart. The look in Lucy's eyes were that of disbelief, betrayal and hurt. She didn't understand and Ezra didn't blame her.
"G-gray? Why?" She said and she fell to her knees." Ezra managed to knock him away from her and catch her before she fell. "Why would he do that?" She asked in between tears.
"That's not Gray. Gray would never do that. He is... I don't know what happened but I know that's not Gray."
"Don't let others think it's Gray doing that. I don't want Gray to be dishonored. Do what you must." She said weakly.
"Wendy! Wendy! I need help here." She called but the girl was nowhere to be found.
"Let her be. Fight for us okay?" She said as Loki showed up. Ezra didn't bother listening to Loki's nonsense for Lucy to stay awake. She cried with him,he lost his master and friend and her a Friend.
She stood leaving Lucy in Loki's arms and went after Gray who was trying to impale and unsuspecting victim. She was going to kill him even if it is the last thing she does. And that was the last thing she did.
He had known from the beginning it wasn't going to end well and honestly it didn't. He was beyond exhausted but he still kept pushing on. They were few now, very few but they were still fighting. He wanted to crawl up to some place,shut his eyes and sleep but it wasn't possible with the war going on. He was drained and couldn't even use simple magic.
A strong beam hit him and he went crashing into the floor, rolling past several dead bodies. He just laid there with his eyes closed waiting for the end. But the he felt a body hovering over him and managed to open his eyes. Brown eyes stared at him and something was dripping on his coat. He could tell it was her blood.
"Jerral-san." She managed to say, her voice small and weak.
"Who are you?"
She looked hurt that he didn't know who she is.
"You promised you would remember. It's Wendy."
"Ha little one." He started at her and realized she was bleeding heavily from her stomach. "You are a healer?" He asked and she nodded. "Heal yourself Wendy."
"I can't. It's over. I just wanted to say i love you."
He was dumbfounded and then it clicked."I Am not my edola counterpart." he said calmly
She smiled again. "I know, I don't need you to return it, I have loved you enough for both of us."
He nodded."Then what is it you want?"
"Just one hug. That's all. One hug jerral-san"
He ignored the pain and the protest of his body and sat up anyway before pulling her into a warm embrace.
"It's Christmas Jerral-san but no one is happy."
"I know."
"Thank you jerral-san."
He tried to pull away but the he noticed her breathing had stopped, she knew she wouldn't make it yet she had come all the way to ask for a hug and tell him she loved him even though he had no idea who she is. He set her aside calmly and fell back before closing his eyes.
He had lied to her, he told her everything would be okay, he told her not to fear yet he had seen her brother fall, he had watched her cry and it hurts him. He made promises he couldn't keep, be couldn't keep her safe or happy.
His head hurts, his ear drums feels ready to explode that if they haven't exploded already from all the shouting and crying around. For once he cursed being a dragon slayer. Rogue had never felt so helpless; the fact that the sun had been up all day didn't help as he couldn't generate energy from the sun. He was exhausted already and wished it would end.
His eyes searched the field for her even as he was battling. He saw her bloodied and battered and he was surprised she lasted this long. He had underestimated his enemy and was hit in the head, sending him back a few feet. He laid there as every energy has left his body, he found out he had been cuffed with magic sealing chains. He saw her run up to him after pushing the enemy away. And managed to open his eyes so he could see those blue eyes ; they were red and puffy from crying.
"Rouge don't leave me too. Please. Please stay." She cried
Again he had broken another promise, he his making her cry and he couldn't stop her. She fumbled with the chains, be could barely hear what she was saying. She tugged at him and tried to pull him. Then she gave up and hugged him tight, so tight he couldn't breath.
He looked up and saw a building was about to collapse in them but he had no energy to transport them with his shadow and those cuffs didn't just seal his magic,they drained them.
"Leave." He said
"No, never. I am not leaving. What's the point anyway."
"I am sorry Lisanna."
He couldn't let her die with him, he wanted to keep her safe even though he hadn't been able to protect some of his comrades, this one he would protect.
Despite every muscle in his body crying in pain he managed to throw her away from him just before the building collapsed.
"Rooooouge." He heard her cry.
He woke up and to his horror she lay in his arms a knife in her back, her blood on his body. He remembered her been attacked by one of their own. She must have tried to protect him with her water body but it wasn't a normal knife, it was one that could kill her even if she could liqidify her body.
Juvia wasn't the only one that died, he looked around and Natsu saw that all his comrades laid dead around, the air was filled with stench of rotting flesh, burnt flesh, and blood. Everywhere was silent now, the war had ended and it didn't end in their favor. He let out a roar of pain, one that conveyed his need for revenge and the blood of the people who did this.
Natsu felt sick. He felt like crying but the tears wouldn't come. He was going to get revenge, he swore. He was going to make the person who did this pay and death would be too good for him.
Awwwn shoot. I admit the ending isn't very great. It felt rushed. And I am sorry. It's about 3500 without the AN.
This was written 2016 for christmas. Yes i picked a horrible theme for christmas
