I do not own Fairy Tail. Enjoy the chapter.
It was suffocating.
Black walls were pressing down on him from every angle. No oxygen came to his lungs as he struggled to ward off the gloom of his inner mind. A deep feeling of anxiety dug into him and it felt like drowning without water. Not a light could be glimpsed in the entirety of the black abyss. Not a star in the sky to cast down its reflection, nor a moon to illuminate the deep deaths, only eternal night.
A dark hair teen brought his knees up to his chest, a small defense from the terrors that lurked nearby. He briefly wondered about his life. Wondered if he only ever knew pain and hatred. Or if there was still somebody that cared. Only for a brief moment, then darkness would concume him one more and the fright overcame his being again.
A small group of mages sat in silence in a small infirmary located in the proud guild hall. Not a wizard uttered a word, afraid the delicate balance of the moment would shattered with a single breath. Outside the room door low murmurs could be heard from concerned friends of the one now lying unconscious on the infirmary bed. Raven colored locks fell in front of the face of a young wizard's pale complexion.
"Is he going to be okay?" A barely audible whisper came from the blonde sitting in the room. No one answered; the only room in the room to make a sound was the blue feline that kept sniffling the name of the lifeless seeming wizard.
The young, blue haired sky sorcerous had tried unsuccessfully to wake him. After a guild mate retrieving the guild's pink haired medic from her home in the East Forest anticipation of the young man waking slowly began to disappear. The medic stating he would wake "in his own time," whenever that might be. After another request to heal him from his confusion any hopes completely departed from them. The medic impassive at saying, "Neither I nor Wendy can help him. We can heal the body, but the mind is near untouchable."
Hesitantly, the oldest in the room turned to the door. The scarlet watched the elderly master leave the room, no doubt going to reassure the guild that Gray was, in lack of a better word, "stable." The scarlet sent a sweeping gaze over the others in the room. The only ones that had yet to leave the crowded room included the fire dragon slayer, his cat, and the celestial mage. All others had returned, not wanting to disturb the sleeping mage.
The scarlet felt her hand curl into a fist in her gauntlet. Luckily, the injured guild members were easily healed and restored back to their full health. Not so luckily, the man that had attacked the guild had disappeared in the confusion, leaving no one to question what hell the ice mage was going through right now. The look of hurt she had witnessed on her close friend earlier was enough to tear her heart in two. Now she wished she could at least see emotion come from the ice mage now. He only lay motionless. His face stiff and impassive in appearance. His chest was close to not at rising and falling while he breathed.
"What do you think happened to him?" Happy sniveled.
The pink haired fire mage gave a shrug. "Does it matter? He was gone after the…incident. Whatever brought him back is a mystery. But at least he's back."
"Why doesn't he recognize us?" Lucy choked out through her concerned tears.
"Perhaps…" Erza mused outloud. "When he came back he was in a sense reformed. He only reclaimed memories that were reformed with him."
"So he forgot us?!" Happy cried out.
"Maybe not." Erza tried to calm the cat. The feline may be the dragon slayer's, but that didn't mean he didn't love other mages. "Give it some time. With enough reflection on past events maybe he can reclaim what he forgot."
"Back when we were fighting he looked…conflicted." Lucy drawled out. "What was that about?"
"What you don't want to admit." Erza growled. "That damn Zeref has been manipulating his memories."
A snarl came from the dragon slayer. "He'll pay for that. No one messes with a Fairy Tail mage."
"Still…" Lucy murmured. "He didn't even know anyone. He didn't know master, or you, or even his own name-"
"That's because no one ever told me."
The three mages and cat jumped at the voice. They turned to the once sleeping ice mage and saw him staring at them through slightly cracked eyes. "You called me Gray earlier, is that really my name?"
Erza gave a small nod in response.
Gray gave the tiniest of smiles. "That's good. You have no idea how frustrating it is to have your name changed every few days." The ice mage closed his eyes again and leaned back into the soft pillow.
The mages recovered from the initial shock of the ice mage stirring, or at least the cat did. Happy let out a small cry and burrowed himself into the ice mage's chest. Erza blinked a few times to take in the fact the ice mage appeared somewhat normal. "Gray, how are you feeling?"
"Depends, are you going to kill me?"
"Huh?" the scarlet watched the raven in shock. "Why would we do that?"
"So you're not." Gray let out a relieved sigh. "That's nice. I was worried this guild hated me."
Lucy reached out a squeezed the ice mage's hand. "Did someone tell you we would?"
"You could say that."
"Do you remember anything?" Erza spoke back up.
"Faint glimpses." The scarlet nodded, she had expected as much. Albeit, for obvious reasons, her hopes for an answer in which he remembered everything was now crushed. "In all honest, you do seem sort of familiar, but just barely."
"Good enough for me." Natsu interrupted. "Now when are you going to fight me Ice Block?!"
Lucy sent a glare at the fire mage. The ice mage just returned to the guild all that was on his mind was resuming their never ending fight. "Natsu, let him rest."
The fire mage gave a "tsk" sound but didn't press the matter. "Natsu, nun." Gray muttered. "That name sounds really familiar. Who are the rest of you?"
"Well I'm Lucy," The blonde pointed a finger to herself. "That's Erza," She pointed to the scarlet, "and that blue ball of fluff is Happy."
"Nice to remeet you all."
"Is any of this ringing a bell?" Erza asked.
"Well.." Gray turned to the scarlet. "You remind me of armor, a lot of it. Some sort of changing magic maybe?" Erza nodded. "You remind me of something dealing with keys." He turned to the blonde. "I think it's summoning magic." Lucy gave a cheerful nod at her friend starting to remember.
"What about me?" Happy tugged on the raven's shirt that he was somehow still wearing. Must have forgotten about his stripping habit Erza concluded.
"Fish?"
"YES!"
"What about me?!" Natsu whined. "Did you forget about the great Natsu?!"
Gray furrowed his eyebrows in thought. "Shut up Flame Brain."
Natsu let out an annoyed yell. Lucy giggled at the thought of Gray still remembering one of his insulting names for the fire mage. Even Erza joined in on the laughter. Natsu grumbled under his breath at their enjoying this too much.
"Come on!" Natsu reached down and grabbed Gray's wrist.
"Where are we going?"
"If you have enough strength to tease me you have enough strength to meet a guild full of people."
"That's unfortunate."
"My apologies, sir, I wasn't able to control him."
Zeref ignored the man's babble. It wasn't in his plan to lose the ice mage this easily. "We'll have to see how all this plays out. With any luck I'll still be able to manipulate him. Ideally he'll just be more of an inside agent of types. After he regains his vigor we'll proceed with the full soul transplant. Dismissed."
The man in front of him gave a small bow before leaving the dark mage alone in his wicked musings.