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And the Gray Between (2)
"Are you sure?" Happy asked as he clambered onto Gray's shoulder and peered dubiously at the dark maw of the mine just ahead of them.
Gray nodded as he surveyed the black hole framed with rotted wood and set into the side of a gently sloping hill. It was a long-abandoned coal mine a few miles outside of Hargeon, and although it didn't look like much from the surface, they'd been told that there were miles of tunnels snaking underground.
"Pretty sure," he said. "At least seventy percent sure. Most of our leads point here."
"Not that that's saying much," Lyon muttered.
Gray shrugged. Good leads hadn't been easy to come by, and he and his friends had spent the better part of four days tracking down whatever they could. The fruits of their labor added up to a hodgepodge collection of little bits and fragments of information, most of which weren't particularly useful. This Death-Shadow character didn't leave behind much evidence and only appeared for seconds at a time, so he was a pain to get a read on. Gray and the others had already poked around in a few other potential hideouts without any luck, but he had a good feeling about this one.
"Why do bad guys always pick dark, scary places to hide in?" Lucy asked with a sigh.
"Because they think they're good hiding spots that no one will run across." Gray shrugged again. "Something secluded and dark and out of the way means that random people are less likely to just stumble across them. But they rarely think it all the way through. It's the most stereotypical hiding spot. It might be out of plain view, but it's the first place anyone is going to look if they find one or learn one is in the area.
"But this guy actually has a better reason for it than most. This place isn't really known for being safe, and it's easier for one person to sneak around and not collapse anything than it is for a group of pursuers to get through without causing a cave-in. It's not going to be easy terrain to walk in the dark, so pursuers will have to bring in a light source which will give them away. But most importantly, this place is dark as night and filled to bursting with shadows. He'll be especially powerful here. If I were in his place, this is where I'd set up camp."
There was no guarantee that they'd find their man here, but it was too good a possibility to pass up.
"Geez, you guys talk so much," Natsu said, rolling his eyes and starting forward. He grinned and rubbed his hands together in anticipation. "Let's go beat this guy up!"
Gray grabbed his impulsive friend's arm and tugged him back. "Idiot. Let me go first."
"But I have fire!"
"Yeah, yeah, but I have the advantage. This is my kind of territory, and I suspect I'll have an advantage even over our upstart little shadow mage. You come behind me and give us some light. We'll need to be careful of where we put our feet. Mines can be treacherous places."
Gray stepped into the mine and opened his mouth to draw in a breath and taste the darkness in the musty air. He stared unblinkingly into the pitch darkness, probing at the shadows and testing their currents.
Grumbling under his breath, Natsu followed. Fire sprang to life somewhere behind Gray, casting the tunnel in a frightful whirlwind of dancing light and shadow. The shadows encroached on the circle of illumination bathing Gray and the others, bleeding into the light to bend toward him.
"Well, our shadow mage is here," he murmured.
"Huh?" Natsu asked. "How do you know?"
"Look at how the shadows stir. They are still awake. Someone has been tampering with them recently."
"Awake?"
Gray glanced back to give the dragon slayer an apologetic smile. "Not like that, exactly. But…yes. Some mages create their elements—we create our own ice or fire—but other mages only manipulate what is already there. For the most part, shadows are to be manipulated, not created. We animate them with our power, and sometimes echoes of that linger for a short time after we've released them. I can feel the disturbance."
He smiled thinly as the shadows swirled about on the ground and tentatively brushed against his feet. "It is too bad for our friend here that his shadows like me better than him."
His own shadow stirred at his feet and uncoiled to chase off the newcomers and send them skittering back, but the point was made. The shadows were interested in him because he too had the power to bind and control them, but also because he was more powerful than the killer who had awakened them in the first place. That in itself was not horribly surprising. Mages these days only seemed to scratch the surface and use their powers shallowly.
Not that he was really in any place to judge, given that he'd been unable to use his own powers at all for hundreds of years.
"If you say he's here, I'm sure he's here," Erza said confidently. "Let's keep going. There's nothing we can do about the light, but do try to keep as quiet as possible, everyone."
Gray started forward again, careful not to stray ahead of Natsu's light in case he tripped over the uneven ground or debris littering it. He didn't mention that any shadow mage worth his salt would be able to tell that someone was infringing on his domain, as long as he was paying attention. To be honest, Gray wasn't convinced this was a particularly powerful foe, and he doubted their killer either knew how to take advantage of this wonderful nest of shadows to set up an alarm system or was paying enough attention to notice the disturbance even if he did.
But to Gray, who had become religiously attuned to the darkness even though he'd spent so many years trying to fight it off, the shadows were a veritable wealth of information. He could taste the acrid flavor of the other mage's magic lingering in the shadows, sense the web of spells that had been woven into them and left to fade. He didn't pay it too much mind for now, figuring that he could get a better read on it when they were closer to their opponent and the spells were fresher, but he took note.
The walls of the mine glistened faintly in the firelight, damp with fetid moisture and mildew. An old, rickety track started up near the entrance, rotted wood and twisted metal tracing out the path that mine carts had once traveled. He even spotted an overturned cart in the mouth of a tunnel that branched off from their route to burrow deeper into the mine. Its metal sides were blotted with rust and its wheels jutted uselessly into the air, while its load of black rocks—coal, presumably—lay scattered underneath. Occasionally an abandoned pickaxe or other tool was strewn about carelessly, and the ground was rocky enough even before considering the tracks crisscrossing it.
Gray walked alongside the track, careful of his footing, but paused to peer at a rotted wooden buttress framing the wall and ceiling.
"Are you sure this place is safe?" asked Lucy's disembodied voice from somewhere behind him.
"Not entirely," he admitted. "It's old and hasn't been maintained, and the supports are probably going. Our murderer friend has probably been hiding out here for a while now and is still alive and kicking, but then again, we've got a big group while he's one person. Just be careful not to knock into anything, and be extra careful if and when we get dragged into a fight. It wouldn't be hard to cause a cave-in."
"Actually, it would be a great place for a trap," Erza muttered.
"It would be. But we don't have too many options besides continuing on. Just be on guard."
Gray followed the restless, magic-touched mass of shadows congealing along the passageway. If the darkness felt too still and lifeless when a new passage opened up, he went the other direction. On three separate occasions, he walked past the mouths of tunnels that were blocked by heaping piles of broken stone. This did not reassure the others, but they stayed quiet as mice, aside from the thumping of their footsteps and the faint clattering of pebbles underfoot.
They came to another fork in the path, and Gray paused once more as he considered his options. Both sides had faint flutterings of magic, but the left felt more alive. He was fairly confident that left was the way to go, but it didn't hurt to be cautious.
"Hey, love," he murmured into the darkness. "Why don't you make yourself useful and see if he's down there?"
That was all the prompting his shadow needed to peel itself from his feet and dart off down the left branch to investigate. It disappeared into the darkness, blending in perfectly with its less evolved kin, and Gray waited.
"What are you doing?" Natsu asked, kicking the back of his foot impatiently.
"Chill out," Gray muttered. "I just sent my shadow up ahead to double-check that our quarry is over there. I'm pretty sure he is, but I don't want to go running off on a wild goose chase and get lost down here."
"Can it do that?" Happy asked doubtfully.
"Of course. She's not the brightest, but she can gather some information for me if I need her to."
And Gray was also more than capable of gathering some information himself. Now that his overly possessive shadow was gone, he reached out and let the shadows of the mine coil about his hands and arms. He studied them more carefully now, sounding them out and following worn threads of magic to recreate his prey's actions and spells and footsteps.
It wasn't weak magic, to be fair. Some of these shadows had been released from their bindings days before but still possessed the faintest traces of magic. Nothing mindblowingly powerful, but strong enough. Clumsy, though. There wasn't a lot of finesse to these spells, which were crudely woven and purely utilitarian in nature. They were more like his own rudimentary manipulations of the shadows back when he'd first started using them, except with far less power.
A shape hurtled from the encroaching darkness, black with fury, and pounced on the intruding shadows. It scraped through them viciously and sent them scurrying off again to the safety of their undifferentiated kin. For good measure, it also lashed at his hand none too gently, and he yanked it back with a muffled yelp.
"Geez, you're so damn possessive," he growled, eyeing his shadow darkly as he nursed his throbbing hand. "Thanks a lot. Now, you want to tell me what you found?"
It curled around him and crept up to whisper into his mind, relating what it had discovered even though he could already sense most of it.
"You alright, ice block?" asked Natsu.
"Yeah." Gray shook off his shadow. "Well, our girl's close. She's not too far ahead. I guess it was silly to assume the killer would be male."
There were, after all, plenty of psycho women out there, with levels of insanity skyrocketing far above Juvia's. In fact, some of the most vicious enemies he'd ever met were female, even though there were, in general, fewer female than male criminals.
"Doesn't matter," Natsu grunted. "I'll beat up women too. I'm an equal opportunity beater."
Gray twisted around to give him a funny look. The girls, who had been walking side by side behind the dragon slayer, exchanged glances and then narrowed their eyes at Natsu.
"…I take your point, even if you worded it pretty badly."
Natsu looked confused. "What? What did I say?"
Lyon sighed. "You're an idiot. Just keep going."
Gray bit back a laugh and started down the tunnel again. He sobered quickly. They were getting close now, and it wouldn't do to be distracted.
It was only a few more minutes before the all-consuming darkness ahead lightened to a washed-out gray that shimmered between the flickering of the lightened shadows and blackness. She was close.
Gray paused in the doorway of what must have once been some kind of storage room or base camp or gathering space. A room off the main tunnel, not exactly huge but large in comparison to the tunnels. It was lit by a number of torches lining the walls in their brackets, which set the light and shadows dancing eerily around the space. He almost wondered why the infamous Death-Shadow hadn't just brought in lighting lacrima to light the space more effectively and make the hideout more comfortable, but discarded the thought instantly. The flames of the torches were perfect for a shadow mage precisely because of their effect on the shadows.
The far side of the chamber had been made up to be as homey as possible, with spread blankets and a touch of strewn clutter and belongings.
The girl sat comfortably in her nest of blankets and rummaged through a bag. She wore a small frown as she searched, gray eyes glittering in the flickering light and hair glinting a dull copper-gold. She didn't much look like a killer.
Then again, neither did Gray.
"Good afternoon," he said, stepping inside the room so that his friends could crowd through the doorway behind him.
The girl's head jerked up and whipped toward him, gray eyes wide and startled. "How–how did you get in here?"
"Through the entrance, of course." Gray arched an eyebrow. "Would you like to give us your name, or must we call you Miss Death-Shadow?"
She froze, her body tensing up. "I don't know what you're talking about. I'm not–"
"Honestly?" Lucy asked impatiently. "It's pretty obvious."
The girl hesitated a few seconds longer as her gaze darted over the newcomers and assessed them, debating whether to continue protesting her innocence or give up the charade. Perhaps realizing that there was no graceful way out of this situation and that her best chance was to make her move before they made theirs, she flung her hands out and the shadows lunged forward. She was no longer trying to hide—her eyes glinted as cold as steel, while her mouth twisted into a scornful scowl.
Gray threw up a shield of ice, biding his time to reveal his connection to the shadows. He always had preferred to keep his cards close to his chest.
Lyon let his own ice reinforce the shield and extend it outward to catch any wayward shadows. And Natsu, bless his heart, flailed out left and right with his fire, burning through the darkness. Crude, but effective. The girls and Happy hesitated behind, tensing in preparation but realizing that this attack wasn't powerful enough to necessitate their involvement. They were on guard for the next.
Gray and Lyon let the ice fall when the shadows retreated.
"You want to tell us why you've been killing people?" Gray asked conversationally, keeping a wary eye on the girl.
She sneered right back, and he could practically see the plans she was forming and discarding in her mind. "I don't have to tell you anything."
"Well, it's not really my business, anyway. I'm just here to drag you back to the Council. Would you like to surrender and make it easy on yourself?"
"I'm not some little girl you can drag around however you want!" she hissed. "Men are such pigs."
Gray wondered if she'd been hurt by men in the past—or even the dead men in particular—and that was why she'd eventually snapped and gone on a killing spree. Then again, maybe it didn't matter. She still couldn't just go around killing people, even if he might have some limited sympathy for her situation.
"I'm afraid I would do the same even if you were male."
"I vote we fight!" Natsu said cheerfully. "Fighting is more fun than surrendering."
The girl smiled, and it wasn't pleasant. She could feel the world closing in around her and knew she was cornered, and a cornered animal was a dangerous animal.
"Looks like I'll just have to kill all of you, even the ladies. You've become too big of a problem."
She threw her hands out. Gray began raising his own hands, but realized that it was different this time. The shadows weren't coming for them, but for…
"Look out!" he cried as the shadows clawed into a weak spot in the ceiling and a section began collapsing.
The irony was not lost on him, that he had done much the same thing to the Council's courtroom only days before.
He needed to create a shield to deflect the falling rock, but something wrapped around his ankle and yanked him off his feet. He slammed into the ground hard, his breath fleeing his lungs in one painful gasp. Damn her, she'd thought this through. Gray flicked the shadow around his ankle away impatiently and grimaced as he realized that the others had been placed in much the same position.
"Get back!" he called to the girls, scraping his hand along the ground and sending ice to slice through their bindings.
It was too late for a proper shield. The girls were scrambling backward, and Natsu was burning through the shadows tying him to lunge forward and out of the danger zone. Gray rolled out of the way as a rock crashed to the ground where he'd just been, and a loud rumbling accompanied the rain of stone. Another hunk of stone clipped the side of his leg, and it was all he could do to throw himself out of the circle of destruction.
He hoped everyone was okay. And Lyon. He hadn't had time to find Lyon…
Gray coughed at the fine stone dust clouding the air and coating his throat as the avalanche finally settled. Natsu was sprawled nearby, and quickly sat up to tug at his scarf with a scowl until the corner trapped under a rock was finally freed. The pile of rocks reached almost to the ceiling, and no one else was in sight.
"Hey!" Natsu called. "Lucy? Erza? Happy? You alright?"
"Fine," came Erza's voice, slightly muffled. "We're trapped on the other side, though. We'll have to work our way back over to you."
Natsu muttered something under his breath and grabbed a rock off the pile, causing a mini rockslide.
"Be careful!" Gray snapped. But he was distracted, already turning away. "Lyon?"
He finally spotted Lyon a short distance away, one leg disappearing under the slag heap. The girl was advancing on him, the shadows twirling about her hands like silk.
Lyon shrank back and lifted his hands, but one was twisted at an awkward angle and it had been such a very long time since he'd used one-handed molding. Gray could see the unbalanced weakness of his ice at a glance, but at least he tried.
"Natsu!" Gray yelled as he lunged for Lyon. "You can dig them out later. Fight her off while I get Lyon."
He flung up a hasty shield, the transparency of the ice quickly clouded by the ghostly shadows licking at it from the far side. He kept it in place even when he heard Natsu's acknowledgement and felt the cave heat up several degrees as the dragon slayer got to work.
Gray crashed to his knees gracelessly as pebbles rolled underfoot, but he was already tugging Lyon up to lean against his chest. He peered down at Lyon in worry, his lips tightening at how his friend's face was drawn and white with pain.
"I've got you," he murmured. "I've got you. Are you alright?"
Lyon's eyes were screwed shut from the pain, but he forced them open. "Oh, just great," he managed through gritted teeth. "You know, aside from having my leg trapped under a freaking mountain."
"Sorry," said Gray, gnawing at his lip as he cradled his friend. "I should have been paying more attention."
In all honesty, he should have seen it coming. It was a convenient move, and one he might have done himself if he was desperate and faced with a handful of powerful adversaries.
"Not your fault," Lyon grunted with a pained twist of the lips. "But if you could…"
"I'll get you out."
Gray gently lifted Lyon's useless hand and frowned at the swelling and odd angle. It didn't look like a clean break, and he didn't want to touch it. That was something for a healer to look at.
It made something bitter and angry twist in his chest like a knife. Not only because Lyon was hurt, but because he'd been hurt in a way that compromised the magic he loved so much. And it was that damned human girl's fault.
"Hey, ice princess," Natsu called from the other side of the ice, "you keep yourself under control, yeah? Don't kill her."
Gray blinked at the smoky images of flame and darkness playing across the ice's opaque surface. Was his wrath really that obvious, or did Natsu just know him too well?
"Why…would you…do that?" Lyon asked around his rasping breaths.
Gray didn't answer what he felt was a very obvious question. He had bigger concerns than revenge at the moment.
Laying Lyon's hand down gingerly, he carefully wriggled out from beneath the other man and circled around to get a better look at the trapped leg. He'd have to be careful about how he performed this operation if he didn't want to cause another landslide. He began cautiously removing chunks of rock one at a time, considering every move thoroughly before making it. When Lyon hissed in pain, Gray merely murmured soft apologies and kept his unwavering concentration on his dangerous game of Jenga.
"Screw it," he muttered as he pulled out the wrong rock and set the pile teetering. He inserted an ice brace and carefully worked Lyon's leg out, leaving behind a large chunk of ice to fill in the space.
The leg didn't look too good either, definitely broken. Gray hesitated, debating how to handle this situation, but noticed a spot a short distance away where the wall of rock folded in on itself a bit and there was a small hidey-hole. It wasn't much, but it wasn't like there was anything better to do about it.
A loud crash reverberated through the cavern and Gray winced. Natsu didn't know how to hold back in fights, and he was going to bring the whole mine down eventually.
"Alright, this is going to hurt and I'm sorry."
Lyon immediately looked apprehensive. "What?"
"I'm going to move you over there where there's a little more cover."
Gray slipped his arms under Lyon's armpits and wrapped them around his chest. Hefting him up a bit, he staggered over to the little recessed area and dragged Lyon behind him. Lyon sucked in a breath and gritted his teeth as his injured leg was pulled across the ground, but otherwise made no complaint.
Gray collapsed with a huff as he reached his destination, running his hands anxiously through Lyon's hair and down his face. "You alright?"
"Stop…petting me," Lyon wheezed.
Gray almost smiled. Wriggling out from under Lyon, he crouched down at his friend's side and gingerly examined the broken wrist again. He brushed his fingers along it with a feather-light touch, letting frost and a faint sheen of thin ice cover the area to help with the swelling. Performing a less delicate form of the procedure on the shattered leg, he sat back with a sigh and raked over Lyon with worried eyes.
"I have to…"
"Go stop your dragon slayer friend from burying us all alive?" Lyon suggested.
"Yeah, pretty much." Gray chewed on the inside of his cheek, not liking the idea of leaving Lyon here alone. This wasn't really a well-hidden or fortified spot, and Lyon could only use weak magic with a broken wrist.
"Go on," Lyon grumbled. "You fuss too much. Hurry up and take her out so that we can get out of here."
"Yeah. I'll come get you in a minute."
A faint smile ghosted over Lyon's face despite how pinched with pain his mouth was. "I know you will. Hurry it up."
Gray stood up, brushed the stone dust off his pants, and gave Lyon one last look before stalking off to find the troublesome little bitch. He let the ice wall crumble, and grimaced as he saw one of Natsu's fireballs ricochet off the walls with a resounding boom and fine rain of displaced pebbles.
He reached out and the shadows at the edges of the room stirred, writhing and lunging for the girl. She yelped and danced out of the way.
"Impossible," she breathed, and her startled eyes met Gray's unamused ones.
"Go help the girls," Gray grunted, not even glancing at Natsu.
"But–"
"You're going to bring down the whole mine around our ears. Do be careful while digging them out."
Natsu stayed mutinously still for a few seconds before muttering something unflattering and retreating to the mound behind them. Honestly, their best bet was for Gray to finish this quickly before Natsu buried them alive.
"But you use ice!" the girl protested, still flabbergasted.
"I do that as well," Gray agreed. "I'm a man of many talents."
But this was a fight for shadows, so he let his curses sink their little needle-teeth into the darkness and awaken the wraiths. His shadows clashed with hers, the shades grotesque as they writhed in the firelight. A few of hers got too close, and his shadow lashed out and shoved them back, hissing in displeasure. Just as territorial as always.
After the first clash, when the darkness had temporarily settled and he and the girl were sizing each other up across the rocky ground in the flickering light, Gray thought he had her all figured out. Feeling her magic up close and sounding it out had given him a definitive picture of her abilities. Perhaps he shouldn't bother—he could take her out just as easily without exploring all her strengths and weaknesses—but he had to admit that he was curious. He didn't run across too many shadow mages, and there was an odd sort of kinship there…even if his wasn't really magic and she was actually a murderer.
Something sunk its claws into his shadow and was promptly rebuffed. He glanced down to see that his shadow was staying stubbornly in place at his feet, and then looked over to arch an eyebrow at the girl. She was scowling at the recalcitrant beastie, half furious and half puzzled.
"Sorry," he said with a dry smile. "You won't be able to control her. She's no normal shadow. But props for trying."
"…Wha…?"
"Go on, dearest."
His shadow uncoiled and sprang forward, fairly flying across the ground as it unfurled into the truly monstrous shape it was so fond of. The girl stepped back, but it was faster and sliced along her skin viciously, making her cry out. Gray kept a wary eye on it as it attacked the hapless girl in a whirlwind of wraithlike claws and fury. It had no sense of self-control, and it was up to him to rein it in if it went too far.
The girl summoned her shadows again, but they were no match for the shadow that was not a shadow, and she was driven back under the onslaught.
Somewhere behind him a low rumbling shivered through the floor, followed by a cascade of clattering.
"Enough," he snapped at his shadow.
Darting a glance back to make sure Natsu hadn't done anything more stupid than usual, he realized that the dragon slayer had caused another miniature landslide. Thankfully, it had only resulted in the pile collapsing slightly and spreading outward, and Natsu had gotten himself out of the way before being pelted with too many pebbles.
"Stop it, Natsu!" Lucy cried.
"It's collapsed enough that we can have Happy fly us over the top," added Erza.
Gray turned back to the girl, content to let his friends figure it out themselves. Only to find that she was gone.
He stared blankly at the spot where she'd been for a fraction of a second, and then breathed out a curse as he searched the darkness. He quickly spotted the disturbance in the shadows as they slid out of the way and then back into place, the ripple too fast for normal running. Shit, she was fast when moving through the shadows. When she was moving toward–
Lyon!
Gray was already running, his boots pounding loudly against the stone floor, but drew up short when the girl stepped out of the shadows and pulled Lyon up with her. Lyon was struggling feebly, pain seared across his face, but the girl had shadows wrapped around him and had added an extra to bind his uninjured hand to keep him from molding. Her magic helped her keep hold of a man far heavier than herself, but it was rough and Lyon's face was scrunched up in pain at the callous treatment.
"You shouldn't leave your friends behind," said the girl coolly. Silver glinted in the dim light, and she pressed a blade to Lyon's throat. Of course a girl untrusting of men—and, perhaps, people in general—would keep security weapons secreted on her person, even if she usually relied on magic.
She stared at Gray unwaveringly, daring him to make a move.
"Oh, you've done it now," Happy said from somewhere behind him. "You shouldn't piss off Gray."
"I'm afraid that if you kill him, I'll have to kill you," Gray said conversationally. His eyes never left hers, not even to look at Lyon. It was easiest to read someone's intentions in their eyes. "But if you let him go and surrender now, no one needs to get hurt. What do you say?"
There was a pause that stretched for an eternity but lasted only a heartbeat, and then he saw the glint of death in her gunmetal eyes. He was already moving a half-second before the knife.
"Wrong answer," he growled.
He reached out for the shadows around Lyon and tore them from the girl's grasp brusquely, his curses overpowering her magic. A tendril snaked out and wrested the knife from her grasp, sending it clattering to the ground, and Lyon also went crashing down with a yelp as the shadows supporting him turned on the girl instead.
Gray moved faster than thought, darting across the intervening space more quickly than any human had the right to, and slammed into the girl's throat. Pushing her up against the wall, he glared into her frightened eyes and let the rage uncurl in his belly. This girl had threatened his purpose and, more importantly, his friend. Unforgivable.
Her hair shimmered golden in the flickering light and, for the briefest of seconds, emerald seeped into her gray eyes. Mavis wouldn't let herself lose control so easily, and neither would he. Gray clamped down on the beast inside, chaining it once more.
"Gray, don't kill her!" Lucy said frantically. "You know you'll only feel worse if you lose control. Don't do something you'll regret."
Gray released the girl and stepped back, leaving her to sink to her knees and gasp for air as she clutched at her throat. "Luckily for you, I only said that I'd kill you if you killed him."
She lashed out with all the desperation of someone who knew they were just about done for. Gray flicked his fingers dismissively and pried the shadows out of her clutches.
"How–how are you doing that?" she asked. "You shouldn't be able to take them away from me once I have them!"
"Partly it's because I'm more powerful than you." He shrugged. "Mostly it's because you don't own the shadows the same way I do."
"What do you mean?" she demanded. "I control them. They do my bidding. How are you taking them?"
"That's your problem. You can't truly own the shadows unless you let them own you too. It's a two-way street. Isn't that right, dear heart?" His shadow wound about him and he extended his arm slightly to let it twine about and brush at his face in an almost loving fashion. He kept his eyes fixed on the girl. "You aren't nearly dark enough to own and be owned by the darkness, child."
"And you are?" she sneered.
"I was. And if you catch me in the right light, I still am."
She made one last attempt to escape while he was talking, no doubt hoping that he would be distracted enough to let her slip through his grasp, but his shadow lunged for her wraiths and began shredding them viciously before he ever had to lift a hand.
"She's very jealous of her property," Gray said as he watched his shadow almost spitting in rage while it tore through its kin. "She doesn't want your shadows anywhere near me."
While his little beastie was distracted with its rampage, he sent his curses into the darkness behind the girl and pulled them out to wrap about her tightly. His curses spread through the cavern like wildfire, seizing hold of everything they could sink their teeth into. As long as he had the girl trapped with unresponsive shadows and had control of everything around her, she'd be unable to wrest them away from him and use them for her magic.
"Afraid I don't have anti-magic cuffs, but this should do the trick," he said. She spit out a torrent of unsavory curses and insults as she struggled against her bindings, but Gray turned away to crouch by Lyon's side. "Hey, you alright?"
"Fantastic," Lyon said through gritted teeth as he cradled his injured wrist to his chest.
"We should get you back to Wendy." Gray sighed and looked past the others at the towering mound of rubble still blocking their exit. "Guess you're going to have to fly us all over, Happy."
And, with much complaining and gnashing of teeth, Happy did so. He was panting with exertion and his wings fluttered only feebly by the time he'd ferried everyone back to the other side of the roadblock, but he managed the task and flopped over on Natsu's shoulder in exhaustion.
"I'll have to carry you," Gray mused as he eyed Lyon.
A horrified look crossed Lyon's face. "What? Why? I can walk. Just help me a little."
"The terrain is too rough. You'll just hurt yourself more down here." Gray grinned, the tips of his teeth flashing in the light of Natsu's flames. "Guess I'll just have to carry you like a princess."
"No!" Lyon wailed as Gray scooped him up in his arms. "Put me down!"
"Oof, you sure got heavy."
"Hey!"
"Can you complain? You told Chelia she was heavy, poor thing. Come along, princess. Let's get out of here."
"I'll have you know that I carried you like a princess first," Lyon said in a huff, latching his arms around Gray's neck when his struggles proved futile. "Back when you decided that your great idea for a distraction was to nearly get yourself killed. And then you wouldn't wake up. Fucking Sleeping Beauty."
Gray gave him a skeptical look, but Lucy nodded as she and Natsu started down the tunnel ahead of him. "He carried you all the way out of that dark guild's hideout and back to town, and then to the guild. He wouldn't even let Natsu do it. It was so sweet."
Lyon flushed even more. "Was not!"
Gray wouldn't know since he'd been unconscious, but he didn't have the heart to make fun of what had heralded the rekindling of their friendship. He shifted the decidedly heavy ice mage into a more comfortable position and followed Lucy and Natsu, leaving Erza to drag along the girl, who was still spouting vitriol and thrashing about like a wild thing.
"So much for showing me how things were done," he murmured tiredly, his voice soft as he bowed his head close to Lyon's. The girl's words echoing in his ears, he added, "Sorry for leaving you behind."
"Idiot," Lyon mumbled, burying his face in Gray's neck. "You didn't. Now shut up and get us out of here so that I can walk."
Gray smiled faintly and stayed quiet as they wound their way back through the tunnel system. It didn't take as long as it had coming in, since they no longer needed to worry about stealth. But it was plenty long enough for everyone to get tired of their prisoner's incessant caterwauling and cursing. That girl sure had a mouth on her. Erza had the patience of a saint to not have already knocked her out—which struck Gray as odd, since she had never exactly had a great deal of patience for his and Natsu's bickering.
When they were standing in the sunlight again, Gray looked down at Lyon and asked, "You want me to carry you back to town or do you want to walk?"
"Walk," Lyon said immediately, which was not entirely unexpected.
Gray carefully swung him down and gave him the chance to get his feet under him, keeping an arm around his back to support him in his hobbling. Pride was a fickle mistress, and Gray would want to walk too, regardless of what was best for him.
With that taken care of, Gray flicked one hand in a casual gesture. The loud cursing behind him was replaced with a muffled, garbled sound.
"Sorry, but you're loud enough to wake the dead," he said without turning around. "I'll unfreeze your tongue when you decide to act like a civilized human being."
"Oh, thank goodness," Lucy muttered.
They started for town, slowed by Lyon's painful limping and the girl's uncooperativeness, but they didn't get far before Erza's pragmatic side reasserted itself.
"We need to get Lyon to Wendy and this girl to the Council, but they're basically in opposite directions," she said. "The Council's headquarters are a long way from the guild. We're going to have to split up."
"Must I go back to Fairy Tail?" Lyon grumbled. He stumbled and his arm around Gray's neck tightened.
"Yep," said Gray. "If we let you go back to Lamia Scale like this, your team will kill me when they see what you got for tagging along with me."
Despite himself, one corner of Lyon's mouth twitched upward. "Well, Sherry might give you the benefit of the doubt…"
"Maybe." Gray snorted. "Well, I need to go back to our dear friends on the Council, so Natsu will have to take Lyon back to the guild."
"What? Why me?" Natsu demanded. "I wanna go rub this in the Council's face too!"
"Because Lyon's heavy and someone has to haul him around."
"Hey!"
But it was true enough, so it was decided that Natsu and Happy would take Lyon to Fairy Tail, while Gray and the girls took their captive to the Council. Still, Gray hesitated at the train station, lingering in the doorway of his train and chewing on the inside of his cheek as he watched Lyon hanging on to Natsu.
"Go on." Lyon rolled his eyes. "You don't always have to mother-hen me, you know. I'm fine."
"Yeah…"
"Geez. I'll wait for you to get back before I go home. Now go, already."
Gray chuckled and nodded as he finally boarded the train and followed the girls and their unwilling cargo down the aisle. Lyon had better keep his word on that, or there would be hell to pay.
The ride to the Council was long but uneventful, and easier to deal with now that the girl's mouth was frozen shut. She was more pleasant company when unable to speak, although, admittedly, not by very much. Even without her voice, she was a little spitfire.
Unsurprisingly, the Council's main headquarters building was still wrecked, and Gray looked over the heaping rubble with no little satisfaction. But they needed to find their wise and aged benefactors, so they set off to accost one of the Knights patrolling the area.
By some miraculous stroke of luck, Gray spotted the Executioner and the Hedgehog deep in conversation with their heads bowed together, and immediately made a beeline for them.
"Good afternoon," he said cheerily, startling them out of their discussion. "Mind helping us out and telling us where the Council might be on this fine day?"
"Why should we tell you?" the Executioner asked, eyeing him with a distinct lack of friendliness.
"We found their killer for them, just like we said we would."
The Hedgehog's eyebrow climbed up his face like a furry caterpillar as he spotted the girl they were dragging along, but he only said, "We could take her for you."
"That's alright. I'd rather do it myself."
One whispered conversation later, the Knights were reluctantly leading Gray and the others to a nearby building and gesturing to a heavy door at the end of the hall.
"But they're in a meeting right now," grumbled the Executioner.
"That's alright," Gray said cheerfully, grabbing the girl's arm and heading straight for the door.
"Wait!" said one of the Knights hovering outside the room. "You can't just–!"
Gray brushed past him without a second glance and slammed the door open as dramatically as possible. The Council was arranged around a large, rectangular table in the middle of their temporary headquarters, discussing whatever inane things they usually discussed. Since Gray rarely saw any evidence of what these discussions accomplished, he assumed they were pretty useless.
Now they all started in surprise, and odd mixes of fear and wariness and hate and anger flashed over their faces as they saw who was intruding on their domain.
"Not you again," One growled, apparently feeling a bit braver than on their last meeting.
"Hello to you too," said Gray with a grin. "As promised, I have come to deliver the infamous Death-Shadow to you. You're welcome."
"Her?" One's lip curled scornfully. "How do we even know it's her?"
"Oh, it's definitely her." Gray pushed her forward and unfroze her mouth.
"You're all filthy scum," she raged, thrashing about in her bindings. "I'm going to kill you all, you stupid–"
Gray froze her tongue again. "Nope, she's still in a temper." He glanced back outside the room at the gawking Knights and added, "Perhaps we could get some anti-magic cuffs for her?"
The Knights scampered to obey, and Gray released the shadows only when the girl was safely restrained.
"We appreciate your assistance," Two said politely. There was a slight guardedness to her eyes, but she was still the most friendly member of the Council by far.
"No problem."
"Wait, until we know for sure–" started One.
"I'll be on my way now. I don't think you'll find it difficult to prove that it's her."
"But–"
Two sighed. "Let it go. We already established that it's nearly impossible to be him."
One glowered sulkily, looking for all the world like a spoiled child who'd been denied a treat.
"Oh, and if you're planning on demanding reparations for your fancy courtroom, forward the bills to me rather than the guild," Gray added as an afterthought.
One scowled. "Do you have any idea of how prohibitively high the costs of reconstruction are? You won't be able to reimburse us on your own."
"I think I can manage."
"Perhaps we can charge you a reduced cost," Two suggested. "After all, you were provoked and have had some less than just experiences with us in the past, and you did catch the killer for us when the Knights failed."
"What?" One demanded.
"How kind of you," Gray said neutrally.
"Uh-uh." One crossed his arms over his chest and glowered some more. "We'll send the notice to Fairy Tail and–"
Gray strolled over, his hands shoved casually into his pockets, and One froze immediately. Leaning down slightly, Gray stared into the Councilman's eyes and gave him a frigid smile.
"I know I might seem like a snarky little brat to you," he said pleasantly, "but you'd do well to remember that I'm really fucking dangerous."
One swallowed hard and nodded vigorously. "We'll send everything directly to you."
"Good choice." Gray straightened back up.
"We'll charge you one-fourth of the cost," Two decided, tapping her pen on the page in front of her. "Half off for catching the criminal and one-fourth off for various other insults and injuries."
"Wait," One said, "you don't have the authority–"
"How generous," Gray interrupted. "As always, it's a pleasure doing business with you. Good day, madam."
He turned to stroll out of the room, past where Erza was fighting a smile and Lucy's face was scrunched up with the effort of not laughing, but paused and looked back at Two thoughtfully.
Perhaps he hadn't been entirely truthful, before. His demon thinking might be very black and white, but perhaps it wasn't so clear-cut anymore. He hadn't lost control when the girl had threatened Lyon, had even nearly sympathized with her for whatever had turned her into a killer, hadn't categorized her as strictly black when he should have. The people irrelevant to his purpose were supposed to be exactly that—irrelevant—and yet although he sometimes thought of them as such, he usually gave them some measure of regard these days. Even saying that he'd be marginally allies with the Council was slipping into shades of gray.
He must be changing. He'd had more problems with control before, when everything had been more black and white. And perhaps that was why he'd had so many problems with himself, too, because he certainly couldn't be white and it was hard to love himself when his heart was so black. And maybe, just maybe, he was starting to see himself in shades of gray, and that was why he was slowly becoming someone better and learning how to accept himself despite all his imperfections.
Perhaps who Gray really was could be found somewhere in the gray between. And, perhaps, that made him a little more human.
emmahoshi: Aw, but your typos are always so much fun! Ha ha, true. I can never see in those really dark movie scenes either, which gets kind of boring. If I can't see the action, why are you showing it? Ah, yeah. The next couple chapters are also pretty Gray/Lyon-centric, and then it'll go back to having the team more involved. Lyon just shoved his way into everything after being absent for so long. And he's gonna get excluded again, so let him have his day in the sun while he can XD (My pain tolerance is super low, so I handle everything like a baby :X) I quite like One, despite his annoyingness. He's such a goofball lol And yeah, we're looking for some progress here! (S'okay, I didn't read or watch 50 Shades. I heard it was basically porn, which I'm not into. And unhealthy relationships, which, if you can tell from my stance on Gruvia, I'm also not into lol)