A/N: Much shorter than I anticipated, but that always seems to be the way my final chapters turn out. Yes, this is the final chapter. However, don't kill me when you get to the end; there is still an epilogue to come. (: And, believe it or not, the final scene is where this whole sha-bang came from. I had a picture in my head of Gray executing a powerful spell and you got this whole story as result...
Ch. Notes: Uhm... One section in italics is a memory/flashback. Enjoy this final chapter. (:
Lang. Notes: None here either, for once...
Special Thanks: For Reviewing: sereneskydragonslayer, xxHoshinoSoraxx, rewinsan, ElodieKumari94, and SnowKawasagi. For adding to alerts/faves: April Hawkeye, fanssss, and deedeeroki. To everyone, everywhere, for reviewing or adding to faves/alerts or just simply reading my story, THANK YOU! I love you all. (:
Disclaimer: I re-watched all of Sword Art Online this past week... If I owned it, believe you me, I would have written the next chapter of the manga by now.
Mood Music: For most of it, I really couldn't find just the right music. Something between They Fought as Legends (Zach Hemsey) and Warrior's Lullaby (also Zach Hemsey) and Final Front (?) and A Hero Will Rise (Future World Music). However! If you read it the same speed I did as a proofed it, the final section can be perfectly timed! Right after Gray's memory/flaskback/whatever-you-want-to-call-it, play Zach Hemsey's See What I've Become. (:
Chapter Nine – The Last Stand
February 4th, X785 – 7:01 AM
Zeref chuckled, a smirk twisting his lips. "Do any of you truly believe you can stand in my path? Such stupidity! Is that boy in there really worth your lives to protect when he cannot even save you? Surrender yourselves now and perhaps we can reach an agreement other than death."
"And how would that agreement," Erza scoffed, "be any better than death? I would rather die a thousand deaths than submit to the likes of you!"
Laughter boomed across the open space. "You know as well as I that he possesses the power – I can sense it, and so can you!" Yukio countered. "And it only continues to grow every moment; are you afraid, Zeref? It would be well if you were!"
The Black Mage's smirk turned to a scowl. "I will destroy him just as I destroyed Loriel. There is nothing that I fear!"
"Except for Gray, apparently," Natsu smirked. "If you weren't afraid of him, then you wouldn't need to destroy him!"
"I do not fear him now," Zeref stated plainly. "I only fear his potential."
"So you admit to being afraid!" Natsu's smirk widened.
"Enough of this! I tire of you all."
"Just try to destroy us," Makarov taunted. "Then you will see what a Fairy Tail mage is made of!"
7:04 AM
Gray looked up, startled as Loke suddenly appeared to his right, battered and bruised. "Loke!"
"I cannot stay long, Gray," the spirit breathed. "But I had to warn you before it's too late! I don't have much strength left, so I will only be able to say this once: I hope you have learned enough of that spell by now to execute it. If you haven't… Well, this is the end of the line. Zeref is front of the guild now. Everyone tried to stand against him still, but they all have fallen now, Gray. He is coming for you. He will kill you. He will kill them. You have to hurry. We're counting on you, Gray; we know you can do it!" As he shattered into light, Loke smiled and held high the Fairy Tail sign. "Good luck, my friend!"
The Ice Mage could only stare on in horror after his departed friend. He swallowed harshly. He still wasn't at all sure he would be able to pull it off. Especially after that dream he'd had… If it came true like the others had, he would fail.
Clenching his fists at his sides, he moved towards the door. Did he really have a choice, after all? It was either death or failing with the spell and then death. He had to at least try. Maybe it was just his stubborn nature, but he refused to die without a fight. He refused to give up to a monster. It wouldn't happen today, or any other day.
As he pushed open the door of the guild, his resolve almost left him at the sight that lay before him. Half of Magnolia lay in ruins, the once-great Kardia even a pile of ash. He stopped abruptly in the door way, staring out, the scene all-too familiar for his liking. And there, in the center of it all, his red eyes shining with victory, was the one responsible for it all.
Movement to his left caught his attention. That was when Loke's words hit home. "They all have fallen now…" Lying in the debris of what was left of the town, were his nakama – all of them with nothing more to give. Something in him snapped then. No one – no one – hurt his nakama and got away with it!
"Ice Make: Lance!"
Zeref simply smirked, a hand rising before him. At the flick of a finger, the ice shattered.
But Gray would not be put out so easily. "Ice Make: Saucer!" Once again, it disintegrated before his very eyes.
Gray unconsciously took a half step back. How in the world…? Clenching his teeth, he set his resolve. He was not going down. Not here, not now, not ever to this mage! Without a second thought, he rushed forwards towards the Black Mage. If he couldn't take him down with magic, maybe he could take him down with shear force.
However, when Gray was within a few feet, Zeref simply flicked his wrist to the side, a wind whipping out of nowhere, sweeping Gray off his feet and sending him flying. Gray didn't waste any time in picking himself back up again. He couldn't take Zeref with magic; he couldn't take him on with brute force, either. What did that leave him with?
Dark Ice, a voice in his mind whispered. You have to use Dark Ice!
Zeref turned towards him. "Was that supposed to intimidate me, little Mage?" he taunted. "I hope that isn't all you've got or my sister was truly and sadly mistaken of your abilities."
Gray tried again. "Ice Make: -!"
"I wouldn't waste your energy," Zeref interrupted boredly. "As all of your little friends have already discovered, magic is of no use against me, the creator of Destruction! Anything that can cause destruction, I can control. Just give up now, Ice Mage, and I will spare you from a painful death."
"Obviously you've learned nothing from battling my nakama," Gray spat, "so let me spell it out for you: We. Don't. Give. Up!"
"And what do you intend to do then? You can't honestly tell me that you intend to use Dark Ice, do you? Because that would be very, very stupid on your part. Do you want to know why no one has ever attempted it before? not even Loriel herself? Because there is no one in the world who can control it! It will destroy you, Gray Fullbuster; you know that as well I do."
Gray felt cornered, the dream playing over and over again in his mind. His head fell forward in defeat.
"There is nothing you can do for yourself or for them. All of this has been futile. Had you just handed yourself over quietly, I would have been merciful and killed them all quickly. But, that wasn't to be. Now, I shall have to make it long and painful for them. And you, Gray Fullbuster, shall watch, knowing you are completely helpless to stop it. What will you do then? What will you do when there is no one left to save you, no one left for you to fight for?" Zeref fixed his piercing, red gaze on the frozen Ice Mage before him.
"What will you do, Gray Fullbuster, when your back is up against the wall?"
He couldn't answer, couldn't move, couldn't breathe. Would this really be the end of everything? This certainly hadn't been how he pictured his life ending. Dying of old age, sometimes; dying on an S-class mission while protecting those closest to him, most definitely. But never this way. Never while standing by, unable to do anything! And it hurt. He had lost his parents, watching, powerless to stop Deliora. He had lost Ur, as well, watching and powerless to do anything. And now he was going to watch, powerless, as he lost his third family.
"You do not know?" Zeref asked quietly, breaking through Gray's morbid thoughts. "Then I shall tell you. You will die, not a hero or a martyr, but a worthless, helpless, weak mage."
"But… I'm not strong like you are, Papa…"
"Not strong? Who says you're not strong?"
A pause. "Everyone."
"And that's why you hit him. To prove you were strong?"
Another pause before a quiet answer. "Yes."
"Did it work to prove your strength?"
Yet another pause before a quiet answer. "No…"
"Let me tell you something, son." A sigh. "Strength and being strong are two completely different things. 'Being strong' as you've said I am, is only a physical characteristic. Strength, on the other hand, is what's on the inside. Strength, rather than being physically strong, is what allows a mage to stand in the presence of a demon and not fear the battle that is to come. Anyone can be physically strong, but not everyone has inner strength. My point is, Gray, that I would much rather you be so strong on the inside that you don't have to be strong on the outside."
"Yeah, but people don't see strength on the inside…"
"Maybe not, but the will of a man is certainly more powerful than the muscle! You've told me how you want to be a mage. Always remember, if you do chose to follow that path, that magic bends to the will, not to the might. In the world of magic, inner strength is what matters more. If you have the strength to stand, and you tell yourself 'it's not over yet!' then you will not fail.
"The strength of a mage is always determined by his will to fight – not his ability to fight. Remember that, Gray, and you will always be able to protect those whom you care about."
Zeref turned to move away from Gray and in the direction of where the mages of Fiore were scattered. Seizing the scarlet hair of the first mage he happened upon, Zeref continued. "Whom shall I kill first, Gray Fullbuster? How about the beautiful Titania?" He clucked his tongue. "Such a waste…"
"You disgust me," a now-conscious Erza spat. She was still alive. Then… the others must be too? The thought was confirmed as mages began to stir in the rubble.
"I do?" Zeref spoke in mock sadness. "That's too bad… I'm still going to have your life, though…"
Gray had had enough. Clenching his hands into fists at his sides, he stepped forward.
Seeing the movement out of the corner of his eye, Zeref's attention was immediately drawn back to the Ice Mage. "Not finished trying to fight after all, eh?" he muttered to himself.
"You're wrong," Gray ground out from between clenched teeth.
"Excuse me?"
"A mage is only as strong as his will to fight," Gray continued. "When my back is up against the wall, Zeref, I will do what Fairy Tail mages have always done, since the very beginning of the guild: I will stand, and I will fight." His eyes rose to meet Zeref's gaze, dark orbs filled with undaunted determination.
"And I. Will. Not. Lose."
Zeref cracked a slightly nervous grin, releasing Erza's hair, causing the mage to fall back to the charred earth. "You have no magic that is capable of surpassing mine except for Dark Ice – and we've already discussed why it is you cannot use that. I don't see how you can win."
"I will win," Gray growled dangerously, "simply because I refuse to lose. You say I am weak, Zeref, but I just don't agree." Planting his left foot slightly behind him for balance, he moved his arms straight out from his sides, palms out, fingers pointed towards the dark skies above. Almost instantly, white-blue magic began to pulse around his being. "The strength of mage, Zeref," Gray spoke as magic whipped around him, "is measured by his motive. And I have plenty of motivation."
"And if it backfires on you," Zeref inquired, "what then?"
"It won't."
"You sound so confident." Zeref grinned, raising his own hand out in front of him. "But you forget one minor detail: I can control anything that is capable of destruction." He flicked his wrist to the side to dispel of the magic around Gray's being – and frowned deeply when nothing happened. The blue-white sphere continued to grow.
"As I've said," Gray smirked, "it won't fail." As he continued, his voice took on a double tone, a woman's voice layering over his. "What you have done, and what you were about to do, is unforgivable! And, for that, you will pay the ultimate price!" As magic continued to pulse around Gray's form, his eyes fell closed in concentration. His voice started out quietly, but quickly grew in volume and intensity.
"Hārṭa himmata
Vila saṅkhyābaḷa
Bhaya nī ūṇḍā'ī
Pāvara nī ūṇḍā'ī
Vadhu nathī!
"Samaya amāpa
Mējika najanmēluṁ
Bhāva thījī
Kyārēya jāgr̥ta
Ḍārka ā'isa!"
A blinding blue-white light filled Magnolia.
Then: Nothing but black.