A/N: Hay guys! I've noticed a lot of people adding my story to favorites, but a recent decline in reviews…? Please review, but if it's too much trouble you don't have too. :)
Thanks for reading!
The Onset of Destruction
No one noticed Lucy's shudder in the crowd as the group of mages milled around within looking distance of the Dollhouse. The small shiver could have been caused by the large amount of cold air flowing around Gray in his anticipation, but Lucy didn't think so due to the super-heated updrafts blowing from her other side, due to Natsu. The hot, rising air ruffled her skirt in the most alarming of ways, and the celestial mage was forced to hold it down.
If Natsu wasn't so stupid, Lucy might have thought he was trying to pull her skirt up on purpose, but…. No. Natsu was way too thick to try a ploy like that for personal enjoyment.
The scenery around them was reason enough tremble. Dead grass as far as they eye could see, dead trees full of crows preparing to feast on the dead animals and people left in the grass around the Dollhouse…. But in a ten foot circle around the Dollhouse, the grass was green, the trees lush and full of songbirds instead of crows.
A pink painted house with colored-glass windows and cute flowerbeds, it looked… too perfect. Too perfect in the way a plastic dollhouse would look.
For some reason that thought scared Lucy.
Badly.
….
"Okay people," Shine shouted over the thirty-eight person throng. Including Happy, Charle, Shade and Shine, there were forty people in total. "We're going to enter now. There won't be any guards because it seems Lacie enjoys toying with people who wander into her dollhouse."
"Once we get in we'll figure out what to do, 'cause the interior of the Dollhouse changes… a lot." Shade said, a bit uneasily, "The entry hall and the front door stay where they are as long as you're inside. Upon exiting, even those two constant factors remove themselves."
"Wendy, Charle, Kova, Kazin, and Galice, stay outside." Shine commanded.
"But nee-chan!" the two boys protested in unison.
"But Shine-san, what if someone needs on the spot treatment…!" Wendy asked with slight panic.
"I cannot comply with that order, Shine-dono." Galice said firmly.
After much arguing it was decided that everyone was to go in, those who were severely injured to be brought out later. Not the wisest decision, but the only one that could be found in compromise.
Upon entering the perfect building, Lucy had to stifle a scream of shock. Other sounds of surprise echoed from the Fairies as they too saw what was going on.
The floor remained stable, but as the group walked, the walls and ceiling warped, changing texture and size until they stood in a huge stone entry chamber like one expected to see in a castle. Lining the walls were masks with bleeding black eye sockets and bloody grins with pointed teeth.
Lucy felt Natsu twitch with disgust beside her, his arm brushing hers in his movement.
The mages continued their walk, ignoring the gruesome decorations as they went. They then entered the next room which looked completely different from the room before.
Black walls, ceiling and floor, twenty black doors, all with a candelabra on each side, with black candles that gave off blue flames.
"Twenty doors? There's forty of us. Pair up everyone." Shade called, "I got dibs on Shine by the way."
"I want Kova!" Kazin yelped, "Since Shade-nee and Shine-nee were already taken."
"Me and Wish are a team!" Shredder crowed.
"I'll go with Elfman." Mira announced.
"I got Fried in case anyone wanted to know." Bixlow told everyone.
"Juvia will pair up with Canna."
The final team pairs were as the follows: Gajeel-Levy, Elfman-Mirajane, Wendy-Charle, Canna-Juvia, Fried-Bixlow, Gray-Alzack, Natsu-Happy, Shade-Shine, Shredder-Wish, Kova-Kazin, Galice-Azriel, Breezus-Meres, Aria-Melody, Kuma-Kiba, Zash-Vex, Zadok-Tallon, Ithiel-Beamer, Arris-Evanin, and, most unfortunately, Finny-Beyah and Lucy-Lisanna.
Not that Lucy had anything against Lisanna, but she had a little bit of…. Okay, a lot of jealousy toward her concerning Natsu.
As far as Finny and Beyah went… no one really knew why they hated each other, no one asked, it was just the way things went.
"Everyone pick a door." Shine cried.
Once everyone had a door, they entered with their partner.
"Let the games begin." Lacie whispered from the shadows.
But no one hear her. No one ever did.
….
"This is… interesting." Gray murmured, Alzack at his side as they wandered through their door. From a huge black room to a small closet-like space with mirrors all around.
Alzack made no reply; he seemed to be in a slight panic. They came to the end of the mirror room to see a dead end, with a tiny music box sitting on a glass pedestal. Looking in the mirror above the music box, Gray had to stifle a cry. For an instant he thought he saw a young girl with peacock green hair grinning at him from beside Alzack. He blinked, and the figure was gone.
"Don't open the box." Alzack whispered hoarsely.
"Why not? It's too small to hold anything dangerous."
"Just don't, this place isn't right, the rules of outside don't apply here!" Alzack's voice had risen from his whisper to a franctic speaking tone now. "Things happen in this place that are enough to drive a person mad! Bisca was-" He stopped short.
"What?" Gray asked, no longer looking at the music box, instead looking at Alzack. However, when the box began to tinkle its little tune, he looked back in horror, feeling something cold and wet gushing over his bare toes.
"Mother heard her Children scream,
So she threw them in the stream,
Saying, as she drowned the third,
'Children should be seen, not heard!'"
The voice of a young girl gurgled up through vast amounts of water that were rushing out of the box, the mirrors were becoming doors that swung open and released torrents of murky stream water dark with tannin, a small hand as pale as a fishes belly clutched at Gray's wrist from inside the music box before he batted it away…
The room would fill up in seconds, and Gray lost sight of Alzack. Focusing on his own survival, Gray formed a shell of ice around himself and then pushed the water out with more ice crystals, sealing himself in a water tight bubble. Limited air, yes, but air none the less.
After a while, Gray felt his ice shell tap the floor, and cracking it open slightly, he found the room to be damp, but no longer flooded.
No sign of Alzack.
Gray cursed under his breath.
Being separated in a place like this could mean something worse than death.
…..
"Which ones should we invite to tea?" Minnie asked softly from behind Lacie.
"The blonde, the one with the white-haired girl… that woman with long green hair…. And the dark skinned woman in the gray sweater! Then we can hold a proper tea party, and play dolls together, and…. And…" Lacie trailed off.
"What is it?" Minnie murmured in concern.
"That boy… he didn't drown when the music box opened."
"His name is Gray Fullbuster, ice mage, age eighteen, trained by ice mage Ul. He holds a grudge against Deliora, has strong ties to Erza Scarlet." Minne said crisply reporting her knowledge in her piping voice. She knew everything that went on in her dollhouse, and knew everyone who set foot in it better than they knew themselves.
Minnie could peer into thoughts people shoved to the back of their mind or the bottom of their hearts, and she could dredge up emotions people didn't realize they contained.
"He knows Erza-kun? He knows her well?"
"Yes, as does Lucy Heartphilia, Natsu Dragneel."
"He knows Erza-kun. He'll try to take her away!" Tears welled in Lacie's eyes, "Erza-kun and I were having fun! I want to play more!"
"Why don't we send Scarlet-san to meet Gray Fullbuster? After incapacitating him of course. Shall I set memory bonds on him?" Minnie's voice was grim, but her eyes showed the same vague glee drug addicts derive from taking their various substances.
"Yes. I want to keep playing with Erza-kun. And if killing Fullbuster-san is the only way, then I'll kill him a thousand times over." Lacie looked at Minnie. "I don't want to be lonely anymore."
"You won't ever be lonely again as long as long as I'm here, Lacie. I promise."
….
Gray halted, feeling a bit strange. On one hand, he could see the stone-flagged floor and gray walls of the room his was in, but on the other, images that he thought he had drowned out long ago were dredging themselves up to waver before his eyes.
Heat singed his face, and he felt small. Looking at his hands he saw the hands of a child, smeared with soot and blood, and suddenly he had the sensation of diving, falling through the floor…..
"Jaylek!" he screamed above the roar of flame, the roar of Deliora, the roar of death itself, "Jaylek, where are you?"
He couldn't find Mama, he couldn't find Papa, his house was burning, and Jaylek, gentle trusting Jaylek was trapped inside.
Gray shoved a flaming hunk of wood out of the way, ignoring his burns and scrambling up the piled debris. His brother, little Jaylek, was lost somewhere in the burning mess, but where, where?
"Gray-nii!" A thin reedy voice barely rose above the screams of the dying, "Gray-nii, I'm scared! Where did everyone go?"
"Jaylek!" Gray could have cried with relief. "Jaylek, follow my voice and come out!"
"Where is your voice, Gray-nii? It's so loud, and I'm scared… Marnell isn't moving!" Marnell was their tabby cat, but she didn't matter now. Jaylek had to get out, the house was going to collapse at any moment.
"Leave her!" Gray yelled, "Come on!"Gray suddenly saw a bobbing head of sunset-red hair bobbing as the small child clambered fearfully over broken bits of their old lives. "Come on!" Gray shouted again with renewed hope. Deliora shrieked in the distance, mad with its bloodlust.
"Gray-nii!" Jaylek looked so happy in that moment, and that was how Gray remembered him. Soot-smeared but grinning, his dark eyes shining red in the firelight, his yellow turtleneck sweater nearly reaching his knees and almost covering his blue shorts. The medallion Jayleck had gotten from their mother swung forward and gleamed crimson.
"Grab my hand!" Gray commanded. Jaylek leaned forward, unable to dismount the huge rubble tower on his own, stretched forward, their fingertips brushed…
And the building collapsed upon the tiny four year old child.
Gray stared in shock, complete and utter shock. Jaylek, who trusted Gray and hero-worshipped him, Jaylek who came home bloodied or bruised and told Gray not to beat up the mean boys because that would be bad, Jaylek who used to make paper boats and sail them in the pond with his big brother, because to him Gray was the coolest thing in the town, in the country, in the world.
Gray didn't say a word, he simply dived forward and gripped the now unmoving fingers beneath a wooden spar. He tried to move the hot wood, but it didn't budge. Using curse words that had never passed his lips before, he pushed harder, harder….
A hand fell on his shoulder.
"Papa! Jaylek, you have to get him out, he-"
"Gray! Listen to me! I'll get Jaylek, you go find your mother!"
Gray nodded up at what people said was his 'mirror-image in twenty years', whatever that meant tot adults. He took one last look at Jaylek before his father moved in and began moving wooden beams, and then ran to find his mom.
He scurried between fleeing people, searching, searching….
And suddenly Deliora was there, right there, its huge hand swinging down to destroy him- and Mama pushed him out of the way, was pierced with vicious claws, and died, right there in front of him. She had a small smile on her face, meant for him, her short red hair falling over blank eyes.
"Mama! Mama! Mama, wake up!" Gray cried until he had no tears, and sat by his mother for what could have been an eternity. By the time he had strength enough to move, it was morning, the fires burned out, the people gone, Deliora vanished to new horizons.
Gray stood up, seeking his father and Jaylek. He returned to where he left them to see his father holding Jaylek's charred corpse in his arms.
"Papa…" Gray's voice was hoarse with smoke inhalation, "Papa…." He touched the man's shoulder. Cold.
Dead.
The hollow eyes stared forevermore at his son's blackened face, dead together, one forever.
They were all together. Mama, Papa and Jaylek.
Why was he the only one left?
Gray screamed.
He screamed and he screamed and he screamed and he screamed…..
…
"Jaylek!" he screamed above the roar of flame, the roar of Deliora, the roar of death itself, "Jaylek, where are you?"
He couldn't find Mama, he couldn't find Papa, his house was burning, and Jaylek, gentle trusting Jaylek was trapped inside.
Gray shoved a flaming hunk of wood out of the way, ignoring his burns and scrambling up the piled debris. His brother, little Jaylek, was lost somew-
…..
Erza stepped into the stone-flagged room, he armored boots clanking loudly on the floor. But Gray wouldn't hear, he was too deeply immersed in his ever-repeating memories. He knelt on the floor, head down, lips moving soundlessly.
Erza unsheathe her blade and placed it on the back of Gray's neck where he sat like a man prepared for execution.
After all, she couldn't afford to miss the killing stroke.
She tried to kill painlessly on principle.
