"Gray . . ." Lyon stared at his friend helplessly. "I . . . I'm sorry . . ."

For several moments Gray just stared blankly, as though he didn't understand what was going on. Finally he nodded. "Let's get out of here," he croaked. He walked back to the spot where they'd dropped their groceries and started picking them up.

Not knowing what else to do, Lyon followed and did the same.

The walk back to their camp seemed to take much longer than the walk there. It might have been because they were walking slower, but Lyon thought it was more likely because of the uneasy silence that was between them, instead of the companionable silence, punctuated by short conversations and laughter that they'd shared on the way there.

Once they'd reached the ice house, Gray dropped his groceries on the table that he'd made out of ice the same day he made the house, tore off his shirt, then stormed back outside.

"Gray –"

"I don't want to talk. Leave me alone."

Lyon didn't speak again but followed Gray outside.

Without warning Gray screamed. An ear splitting cry that rang out for miles, full of pent up rage, and frustration, and despair, as well as Gray's very life force and magic. It nearly brought Lyon to his knees and he had to clap his hands over his ears so that he could continue to stand. "Gray!"

The air around them had gone from frigid to ridiculous in less than three seconds as ice magic permeated it. Above them the skies went from blue with a few clouds to white so quickly that Lyon would have thought it impossible. And throughout it all Gray kept screaming.

"Gray! Stop it! How are you even doing that?" Lyon tried to get closer to Gray but the force of Gray's magic kept him back. It was like trying to walk through a violent wall of arctic wind. The snow dusting the ground around Gray was all blown backward, leaving the earth bare around him. "Gray! Stop!"

Before Lyon's very eyes, he saw Gray's body start to become translucent. No, transparent. Like ice. He was actually glowing with a blue light the same color as his magic as his skin tones were leached away. The color was even drained out of his hair, which soon looked like it had turned to glass. This wasn't quite like Iced Shell. Lyon didn't know what the heck this was. All he knew was that it was dangerous, and that he had to stop Gray, or else it was likely that his kouhai was going to die.

"Gray! For the love of God, stop!" Lyon tried his hardest to get closer but was knocked off his feet by the force of Gray's power. "Damn it! Gray!"

Amazingly, Gray's scream hadn't lost a bit of power. If anything it had gotten louder.

"Doesn't he need to stop and breathe?" Lyon wondered, scowling. He didn't know how to deal with this. This magic was beyond anything he'd encountered so far in his life. If Gray had unleashed this on the Oracion Seis during their first encounter then that would have been the end of everything. Likely, Gray didn't even know that he had power like this. "So this is the power of the only person ever to survive being hit by one of Deliora's breath attacks?"

The light around Gray was getting stronger now. Brighter. More dangerous.

"Gray, stop!" Lyon tried once more, but now he couldn't even hear his own voice over the roar of magic power. "I won't let you die like this you idiot!"

And so since he couldn't walk forward, Lyon began to crawl.

It wasn't easy. The typhoon of magic crashed against him, trying to sweep him back, making him fight for every single inch. Lyon had to dig his fingers into the frozen dirt that had been exposed when the snow was all pushed back. He could feel his hands getting cut up, but he didn't care. He pulled himself forward using all the strength in his arms, bracing with his legs so that he didn't lose any ground, slowly, much too slowly, closing the distance between himself and his friend.

"I swear, I am going to kick your ass for this, Gray," muttered Lyon as he dragged his body forward.

He tried to grab Gray's pants leg when he reached his friend, but got a brutal shock. The material of Gray's pants crumbled when he tried to grab it, breaking away in tiny flakes of ice. Several inches of bare calf were revealed, though they were barely recognizable as part of a human body. They looked as though they were made of glass, lit with the light of Gray's magic. And to Lyon's horror, they were shot through with tiny cracks. Gray's body was starting to give out, no longer able to contain the magic that had been called forth through it.

"Damn you, Gray! I won't let it end like this!" Lyon grabbed Gray's knee, ignoring how it made even more of his pants crumble. From there he was able to pull himself high enough to grab Gray's elbow, then Gray's shoulder, until finally he was standing in front of him. The skin on Lyon's hands blistered wherever they made contact with Gray's skin, but Lyon didn't care. He grabbed Gray by both shoulders. He would have liked to have shaken him and tried to get through to him like that but he was afraid of shattering his friend completely. The same with punching him in the face.

Gray's eyes were completely transparent now. It scared Lyon more than he could say. Looking into those blank, completely empty eyes, he felt himself begin to fall into despair. Gray was beyond his reach, he realized. Beyond anyone's reach.

"NO!" Lyon screamed. "GRAY! NO! Snap out of it!" He grabbed Gray's head with both hands. "Stop it right now!" It was his last ditch attempt at saving his friend. He knew it was hopeless, but he'd still had to try. "OKAY THEN! FINE!" Lyon felt his eyes tearing up, and not just from the extreme cold, as he moved his face in front of Gray's, so close that their foreheads were touching. "FINE! If this is how it ends then so be it! We'll go together! Come on, little brother! It's time to meet Ur again!"

Something swirled inside of Gray's eyes. Lyon only was able to see because his eyes were right in front of Gray's. They darkened suddenly, irises shading in, everything transparent suddenly clouding to white. And then there it was, a spark of recognition. Abruptly, the screaming stopped.

"L-Lyon . . ." Gray's voice sounded like ice cracking.

"We're a family," Lyon said hoarsely. "If we go down, we go down together."

"L-let g-go. G-get b-back."

"Shut up."

"D-don't . . ."

"It's okay." Keeping his forehead against Gray's, Lyon lowered his arms so he could wrap them around Gray's back.

"L-L-Lyon . . ." The magic around them was dying down, but Lyon hardly dared to hope that this would really end with both of them still alive. At least until it suddenly all died out like a candle being snuffed into oblivion. The air seemed to pop as all the magic dispersed. The light disappeared, and Gray's skin went from transparent and glowing to opaque, yet deathly pale in the blink of an eye. His hair was once again blue-black, the same color as his irises, though Lyon only had a split second to see them before they rolled into the back of Gray's head and his knees buckled.

Lyon caught him before he could fall, then lowered him to the ground, very carefully, and very, very slowly, worried that some part of Gray might still be as ice, and might break and shatter if jarred too hard.

"Thank God." Lyon blinked rapidly and felt the tears dripping from his eyes, warm against his skin. He shook his head, accidentally spilled a few of them onto Gray's face, and quickly wiped them away, then let his hand rest on Gray's forehead. "The things I do for you, little brother."

Next chapter, by request, will show how Fairy Tail is dealing with Gray's leave of absence.