Disclaimer: I am not the owner of Fairy Tail or ROTG
After the picnic, Lucy, Erza, and Natsu had to head back to town to inform the mayor that they had completed their job. Jack and Gray were off on their own, letting the others deal with the man for now. Gray wanted to show Jack a few things before they got to the guild, so they were starting his training now. "Alright, first thing first. Take off your shirt." Gray ordered, stripping down once more in front of Jack.
"Huh? Why would I do that?" Jack asked, watching as Gray stood calmly within the forest. They were back where Jack had been found, where the weather was still a bit cooler as his magic wore off from the town. It was heating up steadily, but it took time to return to normal weather after Jack brought a snowstorm anywhere.
"You need to learn to become one with the cold. This is what Ur taught me, what I will teach you." Gray explained, still looking indifferent to the slight chill in the air. Jack laughed at his idea, knowing that he already had no issues with the cold.
"I'm already good with the cold. Trust me, it's heat that I have a problem with. That's probably what woke me up anyway, Natsu was way too warm for me." Jack stated, before realizing how weird that sentence was.
"Then why do you wear that hoodie all the time? If you hate being hot, try wearing lighter clothing!" Gray said, looking frustrated with Jack already. With a sigh, Jack caved in and took the shirt off, trying to make up for disagreeing with his instructor. He felt uncomfortable like this, but luckily no one else was here to see him.
"Ice-make magic is very useful, but its strength depends a lot on you. You can create anything you can imagine, so your mind is your only limitation outside of actual magical power." Gray informed him, before adjusting his stance in front of Jack. Jack watched his legs space out slightly, while his hands were clasped together by his side, one in the shape of a fist and the other open, palm brushing against his fist. "Picture what you want to happen…then invoke your spell with words. Feel the magic build up within you and never forget to use both hands. One-handed ice make magic is unstable and imbalanced. Your creations will fail you when you need them most." he continued, as Jack watched his hands begin to glow blue.
"Ice-make: Shield!" Gray yelled, while Jack jumped back in surprise. The wizard had made a large shield in front of him, blocking his body from Jack entirely with ice. "This is a basic spell, one that almost anyone who practices maker magic can use. You can make this magic your own with your own style, but certain spells are required for everyone. A shield is the most basic means of defense, and it will be the first thing you learn to make." Gray told Jack, while the winter spirit sighed, realizing just how much work this was going to be. It wasn't fun like he wanted it to be, like he always tried to make his magic. In the end, this was necessary, though. He had to get stronger, to defeat Pitch and everyone else that sought to experiment on children to find ways to strengthen magic in others.
As he continued staring over at Gray's creation, Jack slowly began to frown. As far as fighting styles went, this one seemed rather boring. Sure, you could get creative and use a bunch of different attacks, but it wasn't really his style. Besides, the shield in Gray's grip looked weak, not nearly enough to withstand many attacks. Seriously, it was ice, how strong could it be? To test is theory, Jack reached out towards it, drawing on his magic as he pressed his hand against Gray's shield. "What are you doing, you idiot? Try making one yourself, don't just mess around with mine." Gray argued.
Jack shook his head, smiling as he got an idea. Things could be a lot more fun if he did his own thing with this lesson. Keeping that in mind, he walked away from Gray, putting his hoodie back on with a smirk. "Sorry, this just isn't my thing. I'm more snowballs and fun times, you're making this far too much work." Jack argued. Gray stared at him with a glare, looking irritated with Jack's antics. To annoy Gray even further, Jack blew a stream of cold air towards his shield, trying to prove what he had noticed earlier. "Besides, this thing can't really protect you. Watch this, I'm gonna shatter it in seconds." Jack told him, smirking as the shield seemed to grow even colder than before, the temperature dropping severely enough to shatter in Gray's grip.
Gray's eyes widened, staring at Jack in disbelief. "What the hell? Did you just freeze my shield?" he demanded, clearly not believing it. Jack smirked over at Gray, glad that he apparently could do something even his teacher couldn't do. Even if he had never used his magic for fighting, he still had a few tricks that he could use to defend himself. If not, there was always one last fallback to use, though he didn't always like it. Controlling people's emotions wasn't all that nice, even if all he ever did was put them in a fun-loving mood.
"That's impossible. Man, I didn't realize just how much magic power you had." Gray commented, shaking his head as he ran a hand through his hair. "Just what else can you do? Maybe we'll figure out a way to work with that, since you don't seem too inclined to learn ice-make magic." he asked, turning towards Jack.
The winter spirit shrugged, getting rather bored with this already. Lessons had seemed like fun at first, now they were just work. "Anything related to winter, basically. Snow, ice, frost, I can do it all." Jack insisted. "In fact….why don't we have a bit of fun right now instead of this lesson? I think I've changed my mind on learning from you, Gray, you don't seem to have much to teach me after all." he continued.
Gray raised an eyebrow at the winter spirit, clearly interested yet somehow, he still managed to look annoyed with him. "Seriously? Is that all you can think about? You're almost as bad as Natsu, you've gotta learn this stuff if you're gonna be in a guild." Gray told him, while Jack frowned, glancing over at the ice wizard.
"Why? I mean, don't get me wrong, I understand that the purpose of a guild is for wizards to find work and stuff, but what makes that something I have to do? It's not like I need to earn money, and I have no intention of going out and working if I'm being completely honest. I'll just be there to hang out and have fun." Jack stated, while Gray narrowed his gaze over at Jack.
"Sometimes, you can't just sit back and ignore the battle in front of you. Sometimes, the enemy will come to you." Gray told him, still focused on teaching Jack at least something about defending himself.
The winter spirit sighed, seeing that he really wasn't going to be able to convince Gray to stop this way. "So? Tell you what, if I prove to you that I can take care of myself, will you just move on from this? I'm sure I can find a way to have some fun at least, if I'm testing the limits of my magic." Jack told Gray, watching the ice-make wizard look at him like he was crazy.
"Do you seriously think you could win against me? Even if you can freeze my shield, that little stunt of yours took way too long to be of any use in battle. I've been working with magic ever since I was a child, I'm practically a master in ice-make magic and I still learn more every day." Gray told Jack, but he was moving into his stance to create something anyway.
Jack grinned over at him, seeing that he was at least getting the chance to try. Sure, his last attempt at freezing Gray's creation had been slow, but that was intentional. After all, if it froze and shattered immediately, it wouldn't have had quite the same impact as a dramatic explosion, which was what he had created. "Alright then, let's see just how much cold you can withstand." Jack stated, watching as Gray raised an eyebrow at him. This was going to show this wizard to keep his clothes on, Jack thought, as he began to bring forth a blizzard far stronger than the one in Garnelia City had ever been. Neither of them could see anything that wasn't directly in front of them, and the temperature had dropped dramatically. Anyone else caught within this storm would have frozen over completely, something that could be determined from the sight of the frozen trees and grass around them. Even small animals were frozen, though Jack was unaware of that fact as he moved closer to Gray, wanting to see just how well he was holding up in this storm.
"Ice Make: Lance!" he heard, a shout that warned him of an attack coming his way. Jack moved quickly, jumping aside with ease after years of practice from snowball fights. Who knew that they would be training him to dodge actual attacks? Grinning, Jack decided that he still could have some more fun with this.
He swung his hand out in front of him, a wave of snow flying forward and colliding with Gray. The ice-make wizard was pushed back, flying into the tree behind him. Jack winced slightly, realizing that it must have hit him harder than he planned. "Oops." he whispered, hoping that Gray was alight. Still, the half-naked boy got back up, glaring over at Jack as he stepped closer.
He smirked as he noticed something about Gray, something that he had missed before. The other wizard was actually shivering in this weather, a feat anyone should be proud of. "Well, looks like you're alright. Want to keep going, because I think I've already shown you that I'm perfectly capable of having fun while keeping myself alive." Jack told Gray, while the other wizard took up his stance again, preparing another creation.
"Ice Make: Hammer!" he yelled, a massive hammer appearing above Jack and dropping down. Seeing that he would not be quick enough to dodge, Jack dropped the temperature around it even further, freezing it instantly as he reached out and touched the creation, shattering it within seconds.
"I told you before, your ice isn't all that strong." Jack commented, watching as Gray continued staring at him with wide eyes. "I know, I've got something that'll prove to you that no one will ever be a danger to me. Sorry, Gray, but I've got no other choice to get out of this stupid lesson I agreed to earlier." Jack commented, creating a single snowball in his hand that he began tossing into the air.
The ice-make wizard frowned, watching as Jack stopped for a moment, breathing over his snowball. The color changed as the snow seemed to freeze over, turning an icy blue. "Let's just see how you handle this." Jack said with a smirk. He tossed the snowball at Gray, watching as it collided with his face, blinding him temporarily. That was enough for him to utilize his other ability, an ability that could be used for dark purposes, if someone felt like it. That was why he disliked using unless absolutely necessary. Getting out of a boring magic lesson certainly warranted it though, right? Grinning, Jack found himself looking forward to how Gray would react with this, watching as blue flakes danced around his eyes..
Gray blinked a few times, looking confused at first. That lasted for about a few seconds, until the spell actually set in. "What the—" he began, only for him to stop speaking when the spell began to do exactly as it was meant to do. Pitch had once called it Snow Slave, but Jack disliked thinking of it that way. He wasn't using it to control other people, it was simply a way to bring them a bit of joy and get them to have fun. No one seemed to need that more than Gray, the guy who was always scowling at something from what Jack had seen.
Slowly, Jack watched as Gray's cold expression faded away, his eyes growing wide as a smile began to spread across his face. Jack could almost tell what he would be thinking, that he would be wondering what the heck happened to him to make him feel so giddy. Grinning, Jack began to create another snowball, watching as Gray began to do the same. "Alright, Frost, I'll play your little game. Looks like a snowball fight might be fun after all." Gray commented.
Jack watched as Gray threw a snowball at him, the entire mood of the fight changing. Instead of attacks with powerful spells, they were now having fun, laughing as they each tried to throw more snow at each other. Jack utilized his magic to create snowballs for himself, while Gray was forced to do it the old fashioned way, making them by hand. Apparently, ice-make magic couldn't quite manage snow, so he was not nearly skilled enough against Jack in this battle.
"Come on, Gray, you can do better than that. Actually try to hit me." Jack taunted, watching as Gray smirked, laughing as he made another snow ball to throw at the winter spirit. The ball flew through the air, only for Jack to jump aside at the last second and let it fly into the tree behind him. Grinning, he created dozens of snowballs in the air around him, unleashing them all on Gray at once. The ice-make wizard was immediately buried in snow, while Jack stood over him, victorious.
Believing that he had done enough to convince Gray of his ability, Jack melted away the ice that he had utilized to freeze Gray's darker emotions. Gray seemed to snap out of his happy daze, his smile fading as he stared up at Jack with shock written across his face. "What the hell was that? How the hell….what did you do to me?" he demanded, sounding stunned as he pulled himself out of the snow.
Jack leaned back against one of the trees, shrugging as he gazed at Gray. "Something I picked up back at the Bureau. Pitch claimed it froze your heart or something, but I don't see it that way. It helps freeze dark emotions within you, allowing only happiness and joy to come through. It helps kids have fun, when they need to have it the most." Jack told him, his gaze growing dark as he thought about the last time he had used that spell. It had been so long since he had to use it, since he had found someone in need of fun bad enough to warrant controlling their very thoughts.
Gray shook his head, picking up his shirt and swinging it over his shoulder as he turned to leave the forest they had been practicing in. "Well, whatever it was, that was one hell of a spell. Do that next time Pitch comes for you, and you'll have no problems surviving your next battle." he stated. Jack nodded, glancing away as he thought about Pitch. That was the issue, something was wrong with that man. He had tried, long ago, to do the same thing for the man that held him captive. For some strange reason, Pitch's heart was far too dark to completely freeze over, to allow that joy to come through. Even when it did manage to break free, his sense of joy came from a far darker source, and that was something Jack could never change.
Just so you are all aware, I got an idea for later on that will change the timeline of this story just slightly. Jack gained his invisibility/escaped from the Bureau around the year 780 (4 years before Lucy joins the guild), instead of the year 777. This is due to an idea for Pitch and how he came to be who he is in this world. That explanation will be given at the very end of the story, or as a separate one-shot, since it will contain spoilers for the Tartaros arc and possibly the Alvarez Empire arc of Fairy Tail. Ultear was still another subject, but she was present during the years Jack was held captive and managed to escape not long after he gained his invisibility. I know, this isn't entirely cannon, but this story is already slightly AU for Fairy Tail, so I hope you don't mind.
With that out of the way, major thank you to Warmachine375 for the advice last chapter. I hope this one turned out better, and that you are all happy to see that Jack is not learning ice-make magic. Instead, he gets a stronger version of his own magic, partially based on Invel Yura's magic if any of you are aware of him. Credit for that idea goes to Warmachine375, once again, thank you for the help! For those of you that are upset with this change, let me know and I will PM you my unedited draft of Jack learning ice-make magic, though I do believe this chapter turned out better than the original one I had created. Anyone else that has any suggestions or comments, feel free to review and let me know!
