"It's hard to say I'd rather stay awake when I'm asleep
Because my dreams are bursting at the seams"
-Owl City, Fireflies
"I have no idea…"
Erza's words felt like they should have echoed off the stone walls, so it was unsettling when they didn't. Instead it felt like the words reverberated through their minds. It sent tingles down their spines but the shivers were remarkably absent. It was an unsettling feeling.
"Well, what do we know?" Levy was the first to break the pause. As usual, there was a puzzle to solve, and she was going to get to the bottom of it systematically.
"Well this isn't a memory…" Erza stated, though even the mighty Titania appeared unsure of herself.
"We all look like we did when we were kids?" Gray said hoping that stating the obvious was somehow helpful. "Maybe like the Art of Regression magic?"
"Our guild marks, they've changed." Lucy said looking at the back of her hand.
"And not just our guild marks…" Erza said looking at Jellal. The blue haired boy blushed slightly before Natsu made his way in front of him, inspecting his face.
"Woah!" Natsu exclaimed reaching out a hand to touch Jellal's face. Jellal started to lean away from Natsu's hand and before Natsu could get much further Erza smacked the pinkette's hand.
"But what does that mean? What would cause our guild marks and Jellal's tattoo to change like that?" Lucy questioned.
"I don't know, but clearly it means something." Levy said as she began to pace.
"Does anyone recognize where we are?" Jellal spoke up. "That may help us get out of here and back to Fairy Tail."
The group looked around the room. There was nothing remarkable about it. Just stone floor, stone walls…
"Wait…" Erza commented and started walking towards the far wall. She started walking towards what could only be described as a shadow. As she got closer, details on the wall became clearer. There was a hallway. A hallway Erza didn't see when she was looking around the room before. "This is new."
Natsu quickly made his way over to investigate. The other shifted closer with much less enthusiasm. Natsu began sniffing towards the dark corridor.
"That's weird." Natsu said and scratched the back of his head.
"What is it Natsu?" Levy asked.
"It doesn't smell like anything…" Natsu mumbled. Gajeel raised an eyebrow before making his way towards the hallway. Once there, he also took a few good sniffs.
"Match-stick is right; it doesn't smell like anything…" The young iron dragon slayer commented.
"Wait, is that because you guys can't smell anything or because it doesn't smell like anything?" Lucy asked worried.
The two boys looked at each other and shrugged. Natsu and Gajeel leaned in closer to each other and took a good couple of sniffs. Lucy was reminded of how dogs walk in circles trying to sniff each other's butts. She stifled a small giggle in her hands. That was before the slight look of panic that appeared on their faces.
"Nothing?" Lucy asked. Gajeel shook his head while Natsu let out a growl. "What the hell man?"
Levy then stopped as if she had realized something and ran towards her best friend. "Lu-chan, do you have your keys?"
Lucy instinctively touched the spot on her hips where the pouch that held her keys usually rested. When there was nothing there, she looked down and around her to see if the keys were somewhere nearby. "Oh no…" She mumbled. "I can't find them anywhere..."
While Lucy began to have a mini-panic attack, Levy turned to Gray. "Gray can you use your magic?"
Gray shrugged before bringing both hands together in an attempt to access his magic. After a few seconds, Gray brought his hands in front of him and rubbed his fingers together.
"That's weird…" Gray mumbled.
"What is it?" Levy asked. She had a theory, but needed to confirm things first.
"My hands, they can feel the magic. I can feel the magic working and my hands even feel cold, but nothing is happening." Gray mumbled and looked up at Levy, who seemed excited at the news. Levy then skipped her way over to Juvia.
"Juvia, you try your magic." The water mage nodded and held out a hand to form a ball of water, but nothing happened. Levy smiled and turned to look at the group.
"I think I know where we are," Levy squealed. "I thought it was odd that Natsu and Gajeel couldn't smell each other when they were asleep, but when they couldn't smell anything down the hallway I came up with a theory." Levy was interrupted by to hands on her shoulder.
"Levy, skip to the point." Erza said. Levy nodded and Erza released her shoulders.
"We are sharing a collective consciousness." Levy said with a gleam in her eyes.
"Oh, you're right Levy that makes so much sense." Lucy said and took a deep breath forgetting her panic over her keys. Jellal nodded in response to Levy's statement, but kept quiet to himself.
"A collective consciousness," Erza mumbled thoughtfully. "For what purpose?"
"Uhm… Shrimp, can we get a translation?" Gajeel nodded towards himself, Natsu, Gray, and Juvia. Gajeel and Juvia shared a confused look while waiting patiently for an explanation. Natsu and Gray on the other hand had gone to quietly arguing over what the others were talking about. Levy giggled.
"A collective consciousness is kinda hard to explain. So normally when everyone is together in the guild hall, everyone experiences things a little differently because we see things differently. We don't know what anyone else is thinking or feeling because we aren't in their head. But a collective consciousness is like if everyone had the same experience like if we were all in the same head." Levy tried explaining in the best way she knew to the other members of the group.
"You lost me." Natsu said looking at Levy with a blank stare. Lucy let her palm hit her forehead and slowly slide down her face while releasing an audible sigh. Gajeel still shared a look of confusion with Juvia. But Gray's face lit up as if he had an epiphany.
"So like when Warren uses his telepathy magic and we can all communicate with each other without being near each other." Gray said trying to clarify.
"Not quite," Levy said trying to think of another way to explain. "It's like if all of us were in the same dream. Well, if we were all dreaming the same dream."
"Oh Gray-sama, you are dreaming of Juvia?" Juvia swooned and blushed before she looked around the room at the others and thought love-rivals!
"Woah, I don't want to be in frostbite's dream world! How do I get out of here?" Natsu yelled. Gajeel lowered his head and pinched the bridge of his nose with his fingers and mumbled something that sounded like "idiot".
"Guys, we aren't in Gray's dream." Lucy yelled trying to get the group's attention. "We aren't in anyone's dream. We just aren't in our bodies anymore."
"Exactly!" Levy smiled continuing her explanation. "That means that these aren't our physical bodies. We aren't really kids again. But wherever 'here' is, it needs some representation for our bodies so it just makes us look like kids."
"Our inner child," Jellal said with a chuckle.
"Well I hadn't thought of it that way, but sure you can go with that." Levy mused. "Anyway, that's why Gajeel and Natsu can't smell anything. Their heightened senses use their bodies, and we aren't actually in our bodies."
"But I could feel the magic in my fingers," Gray said.
"Yes, because we are still connected to our bodies, our consciousness is just somewhere else. So wherever our bodies are, your hands are probably icy, just not here." Levy reasoned.
"So we don't have our magic here…" Natsu grumbled.
"Well that's good news for you flame-brain," Gray smirked. "Means you and metal face didn't actually end up spooning." Gajeel let out a growl towards Gray at the reminder of the embarrassing situation he woke up to.
"What was that snow-cone?" Natsu growled and was in Gray's face in less than two steps.
"You heard me." Gray retorted while imitating Natsu's aggressive posture. "Did waking up with iron-freak get you 'all fired up'?" Various members of the group had already moved to try to break up the fight before it came to blows. Levy already had taken Gajeel's hand, something that had increasingly prevented him from getting involved in fights. At the same time Erza was making her way to put Natsu and Gray in their place.
"Well at least I can get someone to sleep next to me," Natsu started his response. "You can't even get the girl that likes you in your bed."
"Natsu!" Lucy yelled to try to get Natsu's attention, but Natsu's focus remained on the dark haired boy.
"I mean hell snowflake, you can't get a girl to stay in your life, forget about getting in your bed." Natsu yelled. The punch that Gray delivered was so fast that Natsu never saw it coming. It knocked Natsu to the ground. Before he could get up to return the punch, Gray had started running. There was no real place to go except down the dark hallway. He didn't care; he just needed to be alone.
"Natsu!" Lucy yelled at the pink haired boy. Erza grabbed Natsu by the shoulders and pushed him back to prevent him from going after Gray.
"That was uncalled for, Natsu." Erza scolded.
"He started it!" Natsu complained and crossed his arms in front of his chest.
"Seriously, Natsu!" Lucy said and gave the fire dragon slayer a smack to the back of the head. "Now is really not the time to be fighting, can't you just chill out until we figure out what's going on?"
Natsu was about to say something back, but the look of disappointment on Lucy's face was enough to shut him up. He couldn't stand that look and instead looked away from the blonde.
"Should someone go after him?" Jellal asked. Erza shook her head in response.
"Gray knows where we are, he just needs some time alone."
"Stupid Flame-brain, no way am I staying in the same place with him until we get rescued," Gray huffed as he trudged down the hallway. His long steps echoed and the voices from the previous room started to fade. "Fucking… flaming… hothead… DUMBASS," Gray shouted clenching his fists. As his anger flared, he could feel the cold of his magic come to his fingers and a difference in temperature could be felt in the air.
Gray stopped and scrunched his eyes closed. He took a deep breath, dragging his hands through his hair. The chill from his hands was mildly comforting. He let his hands rest on the back of his neck and he leaned up against the wall, trying to gain some kind of comfort. He wanted something that would ground him, to help him forget that he was stuck in this child-like body. Anything to distract him…
"That really is what you want…" a girl's voice echoed off the walls.
"Who's there?" Gray turned around, startled and looking for the owner of the voice. The voice was vaguely familiar, but he couldn't place it.
"Forgotten about me already?"
Gray turned around just as a swirling mist floated down in front of him. The mist slowed down and took the form a young girl, close to Gray's height dressed in only plain nightdress with thin shoulder straps. Her pale skin almost glowed in the darkness of the hallway. Her brown orbs showed just a hint of mischief and her dark purple hair was cut short and hung close to her head. Gray shook his head in confusion. "Who are you?"
"I'm sorry," the girl said in a sing-song voice. Despite the sweetness of her voice there was a hint of spite behind her words. "Perhaps I shall jog your memory, show you how you remember me?" As she spoke, her body began to change as if she was aging years in a matter of moments. Her legs grew long, her hips and chest becoming more voluptuous. Her dress became skin-tight, a cloak formed from the darkness of the hall and fell lightly on her shoulders. Her dark purple hair grew long and fell past her waist. Gray's eyes grew wide with recognition.
"Ultear?" Gray spoke in barely a whisper.
"Yes Gray," the woman replied. "I'm glad that you could remember me after the sacrifice I made for your sake." As she spoke, her eyes lost their mischievous light and narrowed in disdain.
"I… I'm sorry," Gray mumbled as he remembered the return from the Grand Magic Games.
"You're sorry!" Ultear laughed bitterly. "I sacrificed my life force to keep you and your friends from death and all you have to say is you're sorry?"
"N-n-no, that's not what I meant…" Gray stumbled and took a step back from the image of the woman he once knew.
"Are you really that surprised, Ultear?" Another voice called out from the darkness. From next to Ultear, another swirling mist formed a second woman. She was dressed in a simple top, covered with a tan jacket, and her legs were mostly covered with black pants. One pant leg was torn to reveal an ice prosthetic. Her dark chin length hair framed her face. The right side of her face was cracked, as if made of ice. Gray instantly recognized his long dead teacher. However, instead of the warm smile that he remembered from his childhood, her face held a scowl in his direction. "After all, he didn't change much since I gave my life to save his."
"Ur…" Gray whispered, a look of shock on his face. He took another step away from the duo and his face paled. "How is that even possible? Both of you are…"
"Dead?" Ultear said, completing his sentence. "Regretfully so, and all thanks to you, Gray."
"What do you mean?" The child Gray asked.
"Well, you see Gray" Ur started as she took a step towards her young pupil. "Both of us gave our lives for you, and what have you done with our gifts, hmm?"
"You certainly haven't done anything worth notice," Ultear continued where her mother left off. "Deep inside, you know that it's true. You put our lives, our sacrifices to shame."
"No," Gray's eyes darted back and forth between the women. Shock was slowly overcoming him. He was trying to push it back, push back the fear that this was his reality.
"You can try to deny it all you want Gray, but there's no need. There are no secrets here. We both know the truth," Ultear sneered.
"Stop! You don't mean that. You're not here. You aren't real, this isn't real!" The young Gray shouted, trying to cover his ears from the harmful words from the two women. Ur laughed bitterly, and continued to walk towards the young Gray.
"Of course this is real, Gray." Ur approached him and crouched down to be face to face with him. With a smirk on her face, she raised a hand and slapped Gray across the face hard enough to send the boy to the ground. "You just can't handle the fact that you are a complete and total disappointment."
"No…" Gray said bringing a hand to his stinging cheek. "No… This isn't real." As tears came to his eyes, he stood up and ran back down the hallway towards the others.
"You can't deny it Gray," echoed Ultear's voice down the hall.
"You can't run from the truth that's inside you, Gray" Ur's voice followed. The echoing of laughter from the two women followed him down the hall. Gray tried to wipe the tears from his eyes, while running as fast as his short legs could take him.
It's not true. It can't be true. This isn't real. Gray repeated the mantra inside his head, trying to combat the statements made by Ultear and Ur. Gray clutched his eyes closed tight and didn't notice the dark blue ring light up around the walls and floor, marking the threshold of the haunted hall. He kept running until he could hear the voices of his comrades up ahead.
"Gray?" He heard someone shout. He opened his eyes, but the haunting images of the two women stayed at the forefront of his mind, distracting him from his surroundings. Right at the opening to room, he tripped on his own feet and fell, but that didn't stop him from stumbling upright and trying to run again.
"Gray!" Someone called his name, but he shook his head and tried to keep moving. He only stopped when a pair of hands grabbed him by the shoulders. Gray opened his eyes to find himself looking at the face of a young Jellal.
"Gray-sama…" He heard Juvia's trembling voice coming from his right. "Gray-sama, what happened? Gray-sama looks like he has seen a ghost."
Gray finally took in his own appearance; his rapid breathing, the sweat on his body and the tremors that began to shake him to his core.
"I th-think I-I did," Gray replied with a shaking voice and looked at his comrades with wide eyes.