Erza screamed and ran towards her falling friend. She barely got her arms around him as he landed on the ground, unconscious.
"Gray! Oh my gods Gray what happened? Gray? GRAY!" The mages eyes flew open and he looked up at her with panic streaking across his face.
"Gildarts. Went crazy. Path from the city. Please hurry." That was all Erza could get out of him before the gore covered mage passed out again.
"Erza! We heard you screaming!" The Slayers followed by Porlyuscia burst through the open doors and crowded into the house. "Holy shit is that Gray?!" Wendy fell to her knees beside the Ice-Make mage and started looking over his vitals.
"He's not injured or anything, I think he's just in a kind of shock." Her hands were glowing as she applied her magic to Gray while giving the others his status report.
"Did he say anything before he collapsed?" Natsu looked over at Erza who was now standing and staring wide-eyed at Gray. "ERZA!" The red-haired girl snapped out of her daze and looked over at Natsu.
"Yes, yes! He said that Jellal was injured and laying farther down the road. Also something about Gildarts going crazy and-" Natsu was out the door before she could finish.
"Salamander! Wait!" Gajeel and Laxus ran out of the door after him and took off down the path towards Magnolia.
"Wendy, go with them. Jellal may need immediate assistance. I'll take care of Gray with Erza here."
"Okay." The Slayer leapt up quickly and sprinted out after the others while Erza picked up Gray and moved him to the one bed that was in the house. Porlyuscia started pulling out herbs and throwing them into a pot over the stove before turning to Erza.
"By the looks of that boy whoever they're bringing in is going to be even worse off than this one so make something up using the couch alright?" Erza nodded and set to work, tears already streaming down her cheeks as Porlyuscia started wiping away the blood that was covering Gray's face.
Elsewhere
It didn't take the Dragon Slayers long to find the carnage that had been wrought by the fight. Zombies were already making their way towards where loads of magic energy had been fired off by Gildarts in his crazed state and the Slayers had already taken quite a few out along the way.
"We've gotta hurry with this. Grab Jellal and get the fuck out before we have to many of these things swarming the place." Laxus had taken the lead of the group and as soon as they reached the centre of the carnage set up a lightning perimeter. Wendy found Jellal and kneeling in the bloody leftovers of Reedus, healing him by the time Gajeel and Natsu had gotten to them after taking out some straggling zombies.
"Natsu-san. We need to get Jellal out of her right now!" Wendy looked up to Natsu but it didn't seem that he was listening. Natsu was leaning over the body of Gildarts, rolling him over to try and find out what had happened. He didn't grimace at blood that came out as he pulled the arrow from his head, only sniffed it and threw it away before continuing his inspection.
"I don't get it. It doesn't look like he was bitten or anything, so why did he lose it?" Natsu looked up and down Gildarts and then moved to Laki who had been laying underneath the mage the whole time.
"He was insane. Kept yelling 'no more' and other stuff. He attacked us first; we had to defend ourselves." A dazed Jellal tried to sit up while Wendy was still healing him but the girl pressed down on his chest and glared at him.
"You're not going anywhere. This cut is really deep. How did you even survive this?" Jellal just laughed.
"I'm a tough son of a bitch that's how."
"Well no matter what I do this is gonna scar. Like really scar. We need to get you to Porlyuscia right away." Gajeel took the hint and picked the blue haired man up.
"Come on boy. I promise I'll be gentle." With that he jumped up into the trees and started off towards his home of two months. Wendy followed closely and Laxus was ready to close the perimeter and follow them but Natsu held up his hand and signalled him over before he could.
"Laxus! Come check this out." Laxus knelt down beside Natsu and looked towards where the younger Slayer was pointing to. It was on her stomach just under her left breast where Natsu had pulled her shirt up to for his inspection. It was a small mark no bigger than his thumb, red and sitting on top of the skin like a bad burn.
"It...it looks like a snakes head or something."
"Yeah but where did it come from? It was never there before..."
"That's a pretty high spot, how would you know." Laxus grinned mischievously at the younger boy.
"Not the time or the point Laxus. I don't know why but this is important." Laxus just shrugged.
"Check Gildarts!" The two turned and checked the same spot on Gildarts, again finding the mark.
"Now that's weird."
"Not much we can do about it now flamer. Let's get back to Porlyuscia's and figure it out from there." They both stood and started down the path, incinerating some zombies that had strolled up to them as they had been playing detective along the way.
Porlyuscia's House
"Gildarts, Laki and Reedus. Three dead in a day. I thought this would be a simple walk to where you guys were." Jellal sat at the wooden table with a bowl of stew made by Erza that was surprisingly good for what she used to make. The group was sitting in their own spots around the house; Natsu on the windowsill, Laxus and Gajeel in wooden chairs by the bed and Wendy on the edge of the bed itself with Erza and Porlyuscia beside the bed itself. He had just spent the last hour explaining his story and what had happened at the guild while Gray slept peacefully in the bed that Wendy sat on. Combined, Wendy and Porlyuscia had been able to heal the slash Reedus had given him well enough to just leave a scar. "So happy you taught her how to cook." Jellal made the joke to a much too serious looking Porlyusica and was rewarded with a pan to the face from a now pissed off Erza.
"Alright despite that, what was the point in finding us?" Jellal hoisted himself from off the ground and looked towards Gajeel.
"The horde that I was following. It's coming back to Magnolia. Zeref is hell bent on destroying FairyTail and everybody in it. I Zeref thought he had destroyed it from his last attack but found out that you were all surviving. I sent a message to Sabretooth hoping that they would be able to come in as backup and join together but so far I haven't heard anything from them." Jellal took a drink of water before continuing.
"The fact is, no matter what happens between now and the two weeks that it'll take that horde to get here, we need to prepare for it and possibly even evacuate to somewhere else."
"No. We're not evacuating. The guild is the only thing we have left." Natsu's words made Jellal smile sadly.
"Then the only option is to kill Zeref. And gods know how many casualties there will be if that happens. That and the mess that will have to be cleaned up afterwards." Jellal looked down sadly at the empty bowl that sat in front of him.
"It won't matter" Jellal looked back up at Natsu. "I don't care if it's my own life that has to be sacrificed when we fight Zeref. I'll kill him for this. I'll kill him for every one of us that his damn plague has gotten."
"That may be. But first we need to let the rest of the guild know you're still alive." Porlyuscia looked at the other Dragon Slayers. "I think that it's finally time to reveal yourselves."
The time of the Dragon Slayers is finally here. How will the guild react when they show up again? The next chapter is the most anticipated moment of the story so far; the return of the Dragon Slayers (and Erza) to FairyTail! Reviews and comments are welcomed!