Chapter Four: Nightmares
Natsu's POV
Natsu began to walk back to the guild once he decided he wouldn't tell anyone about his fading. The fact that it was spreading a lot faster then usual worried him, and he couldn't help but worry that it would go past his wrists before he went home. If that happened, he would run the risk that someone in the guild would see it.
With that thought, Natsu resolved that he would take a job once he got back to the guild. As he walked to the guild, Natsu felt eyes of the townspeople in him, and whispers coming from them that the dragon slayer couldn't make out. Although this was going on around Natsu, he ignored it and continued on to Fairy Tail.
After about five more minutes of walking, he made it back to the guild. When he walked in, many worried glance were thrown at him, but nobody asked any questions. I'm surprised I never noticed how worried they've been about me. I guess they really do care about me Natsu thought.
As soon as the dragon slayer thought he in the clear for being asked questions, Gray walked up to him and asked," Can we talk? I want answers."
Everybody currently in the guild got quiet, listening intently to what was being said. Natsu noticed this and said,"What answers? There's nothing to ask."
Although the pinkette looked calm on the outside, and fooled everyone with it, he was, in truth, panicking on the inside. He noticed Gray shaking, most likely with rage, and his eyes were covered with his bangs, so Natsu couldn't see his eyes.
Gray's voice was dangerously calm when he said,"What the hell does that mean? I want to know why you've changed so much. You used to be so happy and you would smile all the time, but now you just mope around the guild and go on jobs alone. What happened to how we always fought together? What the hell has happened to you?"
Natsu just stared wide eyed at Gray, but the shock soon wore off. The dragon slayer didn't say anything, only stared at the ground, his mind working overtime.
I don't know what to do! Should I tell them? No! I can't tell them but I can't just run away again either! What do I do?! Natsu thought, panicked.
Natsu's world started to spin, and his calm mask started to slip. Then everything went dark.
Gray's POV
Gray wasn't sure what was going on in the pinkette's head. He had this calm, blank look on his face, and he stayed like that for about a minute before Gray saw panic on his face. Soon after that, Natsu passed out.
The whole guild rushed over to him, but the ice mage was the first to reach the dragon slayer. He quickly picked Natsu up bridal style and dashed up the stairs to the infirmary, with the rest of Team Natsu following behind him. The master told Jet to go get Porlyusca and bring her to the guild.
It took about fifteen minutes for Porlyusca to arrive from her house in the forest. She was quickly ushered up to the infirmary. Gray and Team Natsu had been by his side the whole time, and couldn't see anything wrong with him that they could see. Then a horrible thought came to Gray's mind What if I caused this? I probably put too much stress on him when I started asking questions. Gray's train of thought was interrupted when Porlyusca walked into the infirmary.
Team Natsu was forced out of the sick bay while Natsu was examined. Worry began eating away at him, and he could only think of the worst possibilities of what was wrong with Natsu. His thoughts continued like that for half an hour until the door opened and the master and Porlyusca came out with grim, and somewhat confused, faces.
"What's wrong with Natsu?!" Gray and the rest of the team asked.
"You can go in and see for yourself. It should be easy enough to see," Porlyusca said, still holding her grim mask.
Confused, the team rushed into the infirmary, and to Natsu's bedside. At first, Gray couldn't see what was wrong. Natsu's breathing was slightly uneven, as if he were having a nightmare (hint hint), and there was a shiny sheen of sweat on his skin, but other than that, he couldn't see what was wrong.
Then his eyes traveled to the dragon slayer's arms, and he knew what was wrong. Natsu was slowly disappearing from the hands up. The fading had reached almost to his elbows. Beside him, Gray heard shocked gasps and muffled sobs.
"W-what's happening t-to him?" Lucy asked.
***FTFTFT***
Natsu's POV
A nightmare. He was having a nightmare. Natsu had been having nightmares for awhile now, since he had started fading, and all of them had been pretty bad, but this was the worst of them all.
He was inside the guild hall, but something was off. Everybody in the guild was sending him hateful glares, and the person giving him the worst glare was the man he loved, Gray. Just that was enough to make Natsu's heart break.
One tear traced its way down the pinkette's face. This simple action seemed to set the whole guild off, even Happy. All of them attacked him at once, and when Natsu tried to raise his arms to defend himself, but found he couldn't move. When he tries to call out for them to stop, he found the he couldn't talk. All he could do was stand there as his family moved to attack him.
Then he felt the first attack meet his gut, and saw that Gray had been the one to land the blow.
"I hate you. I have always hated you. All of us have. We only kept up the act of caring about you so we could use your power for ourselves. We have always hated you and always will!" Gray yelled harshly. Hot tears fell from Natsu's eyes. If his heart had been broken before, it was nothing but dust now, never to be fixed.
After Gray's statement the rest of the guild assaulted him with magic and harsh comments.
***FTFTFT***
Gray's POV
"We know what's happening to Salamander," a voice said behind them. The group turned around to see Wendy and Gajeel in the doorway.
"Tell us then!" Gray practically yelled.
"Well," Wendy began, "when a dragon slayer feels strongly about being unwanted or unneeded, their existence begins to fade."
"When it does," Gajeel explained,"everybody that dragon slayer knew will go on with their lives as of the dragon slayer never existed in the first place."
***FTFTFT***
Natsu's POV
The scene of Natsu's nightmare changed. He found himself in complete and total darkness. When he yelled for help, the only thing that answered him was an echo of his voice. The dragon slayer couldn't tell which way was up or down or left or right. All he knew in that place was darkness.
After only a few minutes, the darkness had become suffocating and unbearable. Where am I? What the hell is this? Natsu thought, trying not to let the panic rising in his chest swallow him.
After what felt like an eternity, Natsu saw a bright light he had to shield his eyes from. When his eyes got used to the light, the pinkette could make out a silhouette, though he couldn't tell who it was.
All of a sudden, in a flash of bright light, the darkness turned into a white walled room about one hundred meters across in either direction. Natsu discovered that the silhouette he saw . . . was Gray. And the look on the ice mage's face was murderous rage.
That look made Natsu's heart break all over again. He froze both in shock and fear.
"I'll kill you, flame-brain," Gray hissed in a dangerously low voice that sent shivers down the dragon slayer's spine.
And then anger replaced Natsu's fear, giving him an adrenaline rush. His whole body lit up in flames, shocking dream-Gray. Once the ice mage got over his shock, he said,"Ice Make: Lance!"
As the ice lances shot through the air, they somehow made it through the pinkette's raging fire and pierced him. Three stabbed Natsu through his right forearm, the left side of his lower abdomen, and the last hit him right below his right collarbone. The dragon slayer cries out in pain. He began crying, not from the pain, but from what Gray had done to him, even if it was just a dream, As if Natsu had been fighting for hours and not seconds, all the energy drained out of his body.
It was then that Natsu woke up, feeling strangely week. A shocked gasp came from his right side.
