Natsu thought Jellal probably should have just led with that, but sometimes the older wizard needed to explain things in a long and horrible way that made it more confusing for everyone else. It wasn't his favorite trait about Jellal, but Natsu spent a lot of his time confused anyway, so he didn't mind it too much. Besides, if he was lucky, occasionally someone else could explain things to him.

"Do you know what he was talkin' about?" Natsu asked, whispering into Gray's ear as quietly as he could. He knew it wasn't that quiet, but Jellal was staring angrily ahead as he led them out of the house, and Natsu hoped he would be too distracted to hear.

"No idea," Gray said with a shrug. "I'm just followin' him. He usually knows what he's doing?"

"The hat looks good," Natsu decided, looking at the back of Jellal's head as it marched into the forest. "Especially with the tank top."

"It woulda looked better with the other hat," Gray muttered, kicking at a rock. "It does look cool, though. Maybe Jellal should wear more hats. And less jackets."

"This hat clashes with my hair," Jellal said, not bothering to turn around.
"Awww, that's not true," Natsu said. "Happy's blue, and he wears a green backpack all the time. And it looks great on him."

Jellal made an agitated motion with his hand. "Well I don't want to be compared to a cat. That…that doesn't seem like a compliment. And anyways…be quiet. We're almost there."

"I thought you said we were definitely gonna beat Siegrain here though-"

"Shhhhhh!"

Natsu looked up, and saw a fancy-looking pasta place sitting at the end of the street - Ristorante de Olio. He hadn't recognized the name from Jellal, but now that he was actually looking at the place, he realized he and Gray had actually been there before.

Gray had taken Natsu for their anniversary a few years before. Unfortunately, Natsu had forgotten it was their anniversary, and he'd just thought it was a nice meal. The whole situation had led to a massive argument, and they'd been kicked out of the restaurant. Technically, they were banned from the restaurant, for "causing a scene." Natsu had planned a new celebration for their anniversary a few days later, but it sure hadn't involved Ristorante de Olio. Natsu thought they probably wouldn't get in trouble if they tried to go back to the restaurant now, but they hadn't tried yet.

The whole memory made Natsu want to grab Gray's hand. So he did.

"Now we need to find the ideal place to set a trap," Jellal said.

"Can't you just kinda magic the whole area outside the restaurant?" Gray asked with a frown.

"Well, no. I don't really have a spell for that," Jellal said. "And anyways, I don't think my magic can actually be used to harm him. He wasn't able to cast a spell against me, remember? But he could still push me over. I can make some sort of pressure trigger, but I'm going to have to hold him with something that's actually material. Maybe…maybe a giant cage, or something kind of like a bear trap…."

"How are we going to get those things?" Gray asked.

"I'm…still figuring that part out, but the restaurant opened less than an hour ago, so I'm sure we still have some time to gather materials…we need to figure out where we're going to set the trap first."

Jellal scanned the area around the restaurant.

"There," he finally said, pointing at a relatively quiet-looking side street. "They'll be coming from our house, so this is the direction they'll approach from. And that area's out of view of the front of the restaurant, so we shouldn't be interrupted. And we can wait out of sight just in there."

Jellal gestured to an alley that should have a semi-obstructed view of the street. Natsu frowned vaguely at the alley, until it became clear that Jellal expected someone to say something.

"Cool alley," Natsu said, hoping that would satisfy Jellal.

"I'm going to take a closer look at that back corner of the building," Jellal announced. "Maybe I can use some of the terrain as part of my trap."

Jellal set off towards the restaurant, and Natsu followed, still hand in hand with Gray. Jellal began walking slightly faster as he neared the alley, pulling away from them.

"Yes, look," Jellal called back, pointing up at the back corner of the restaurant, nearest to the side street he'd originally pointed out. "Up there. The stone molding on that corner of the building looks sharp - if it were to fall, it could cause a lot of da- AAAAAAARGH!"

Natsu watched in frozen, perplexed horror as Jellal stepped under the corner of the roof, and a magical sigil flared up beneath his feet. A matching one appeared on the stone overhang of the roof, and the stonework began to crumble apart. As it fell towards Jellal, it did look awfully sharp.

Natsu had a split second to regret his lack of long range or protective magic before Gray's hand disappeared from his grasp. Gray was now somehow in front of him, and a shield of ice was forming between Jellal and the falling spikes. There was a confused muddle of sharp cracks as the spikes collided with the ice, sending a cloud of ice shards and fog into the air, and Natsu brought up an arm to shield his eyes.

"Did any get through?" he called to Gray, who was now a blurry outline in the icy fog before him.

"I dunno," Gray yelled back, worry evident in his tone. "I hope not, but I may not have been fast enough. Jellal?! Are you there?"

There was a fragile-sounding clatter on the pavement from inside the fog, and Natsu peered forward as it began to clear. He made out Gray first, still standing ready to cast, frigid air pouring off his hands. A few seconds later, the rest of the fog dissipated, and Natsu blinked in dismay at the empty patch of pavement before him.

"Uhhh, Natsu?" Gray asked, and the confusion in his voice immediately discounted any idea that he'd somehow made Jellal vanish. Natsu had expected, at the worst, to be greeted with the sight of Jellal lying prone on the ground, skewered by endless stony spikes, but he didn't even see Jellal's body. What had Siegrain done to him?

"Crap," Natsu said softly, still unable to believe what he was looking at. "Gray, I think we lost Jellal."

Erza and Jellal had ordered drinks, and were waiting for their waiter to come by and take the orders for their meal. Erza had finished her first basket of bread and was starting on her second.

Jellal seemed to be in an oddly good mood, especially for someone who had spent the better part of the day at a tedious armor fitting for his girlfriend. It was nice, but it was also making Erza a tiny bit nervous. Was there something she was forgetting? It couldn't be their anniversary again, right? She was pretty sure that had been less than six months ago. But still, she had the nagging suspicion that she was somehow about to disappoint Jellal.

Erza had a piece of bread halfway to her mouth when there was a loud noise outside the building. This was almost immediately followed by a second, even louder noise. Erza had spent enough time with Gray that she thought she recognized the sound - it sounded like the shattering of ice.

But even if Gray were here, for some godforsaken reason, there was no way it was him, right? The only reason he would be creating ice was if he were in combat.

Someone outside the restaurant yelled something. Erza looked around at the other patrons. Some of them seemed to also be aware of the commotion going on outside, but were pointedly ignoring it. Some were continuing to eat, but now looked a little scared. No one got up to investigate.

Normally, Erza would have already been outside, trying to figure out what had happened. But Jellal was acting weird, and she was still worried she'd forgotten it was his birthday or something. She didn't want to do anything to stress him out.

"What was that?" she asked delicately.

"Must have been a car backfiring."

Erza frowned. "It sounded more like Gray. Destroying something."

Jellal's eyes narrowed slightly at this. "I'm sure it can wait until after dinner," Jellal said. There was something in his expression that Erza couldn't place. But then he grinned. "Shame you don't have your new anti-Gray armor to fight him."

Erza smiled too. "It's not anti-Gray armor, it's Ice Empress armor."

Jellal shrugged. "It's functionally the same thing. All I'm saying is that I know you must be eager to try it out."

Erza was eager to try it out. Unfortunately, Gray didn't challenge her to fights very often anymore. She supposed that she would get her chance sooner or later, the next time Gray did something really stupid.

"If I did have the Ice Empress armor, it would hardly be a fair contest," Erza announced, finishing her bread and starting on the wine that had just arrived.

"It wouldn't be fair at all," Jellal answered. "You'd crush him in seconds."

Erza blinked at him. They both knew that if it really came down to it, Erza would definitely defeat Gray. She was an S-Class wizard, after all. But they'd had this argument many times and in many forms before the Ice Empress armor, and Jellal would usually spend a while needling her about her friends' power before admitting her clear superiority.

"Are you feeling okay?" Erza asked him. "Have you had too much wine?"

Jellal frowned down at his mostly-full glass, then at her. "What? Erza, they just dropped this off, how would I…. No! I meant, of course it won't be a fair fight, because you have Gray-neutralizing armor."

"Right," Erza said. "And you're not going to talk about how Gray is fast enough to get a hit in anyway, and how I'll be trading off the possibility of matching his speed for increased ice resistance?"

"It's not my fault that I'm dating the strongest member of the strongest team," Jellal said with a small smile that Erza couldn't help but return.

Whatever Jellal said, Erza decided that he really must have had too much wine. She also decided that she didn't mind. She liked where this was going.

Gray stared at the unblemished patch of pavement, blinking frantically in the hopes that eventually, he would stop imagining things and finally see Jellal, safe and unharmed among the debris of fallen rock and ice. Unfortunately, that didn't seem to be working, and Jellal did not appear.

"What happened?" Natsu asked, elbowing in front of Gray to look at the nonexistent mess.

"I killed Jellal by being too slow, and I guess now we're stuck with Siegrain forever," Gray answered. He could hear the frantic tone in his own voice, which meant that

Natsu could too, but there wasn't much he could do about that. He rounded on Natsu, grabbing his boyfriend by the front of his scarf and yanking him closer. "You can never tell Erza, got it? We take this secret to our grave."

"No, wait!" Jellal's voice said from somewhere in the vicinity of the empty pavement. "I'm not dead!"

"Huh?"

"Siegrain must have cast some sort of illusion spell to hide my body. I'm not dead."

A bloody hand appeared on the pavement. It was attached to a bloody wrist. A second hand appeared, and then Jellal's head and shoulders. Jellal flickered in and out of focus uncomfortably as he left the area of the illusion spell, visible one second and gone the next.

Gray heard a familiar groaning sound beside him. He looked over to see Natsu looking rather green, one hand pressed against his mouth as he swallowed hard. The weird way Jellal was moving in and out of focus must be triggering his motion sickness.

"Hurry up and get him out of there," Natsu moaned. "Otherwise I'm going to puke on your shoes."

Natsu gave an uncomfortable-sounding hiccup to illustrate this point. Gray lurched forward and grabbed Jellal under the arms, quickly pulling him out of the spell's area of illusion.

"Thought you were dead," Gray said as he helped Jellal up. "Glad to see you're okay."

Jellal grimaced. "Well, I don't know about okay, exactly…."

It was then that Gray realized Jellal was bleeding badly from a vicious hole in his shoulder. He was bleeding from a few other various scrapes and scratches on his face and arms, but nothing else came even close to the wound on his arm. As Gray watched, Jellal started to waver on his feet, and Gray realized that he was trembling.

"Damn it," Gray said softly. "Sit down again, sit down-"

Almost without needing to consciously think about it, Gray found that his shirt was in his hand. He pressed the fabric to the wound in Jellal's shoulder, wincing as it rapidly turned red.

"Sorry," Jellal gasped out. "The ice shield…it saved my life. And there were a few I was able to dodge as well, but…not this one."

"We're just glad you're not dead," Natsu said, squatting down beside Jellal and helping Gray apply pressure to the wound.

"You'll be fine," Gray said, hoping he sounded more reassuring than thought.

"Just…just get the bleeding to stop," Jellal mumbled, letting his eyelids flutter closed. "Then I can…figure this out."

"Hey," Natsu said, poking Jellal's cheek gently with his free hand. "None of that. You gotta stay awake."

Jellal's eyes drifted back open, looking dazed, but he at least seemed able to focus on Natsu's face. "Awake," he whispered dreamily. "Uh-huh."

Gray pressed his shirt onto Jellal's shoulder a little harder, eliciting a sharp gasp from Jellal. His lips had gone an ashy, pale shade, and he was still trembling. Beneath Gray's shirt, crimson streaks were wrapping around Jellal's arm, pooling gently on the ground below it.

"We need to get you to a hospital," Gray said.

Instantly, Jellal's eyes flew open wide, and he looked more cognizant than he had since Gray dragged him out of the sphere of illusion.

"What?" he hissed, sounding so furious that Gray had to fight the urge to drop the bloody shirt and step back. It was sometimes hard to remember, but when Jellal wanted, he could be absolutely terrifying.

"A hospital? To stop you from dyin'?" Natsu offered.

"Siegrain is with Erza right now! You have no idea what he's doing with her. She could be in danger, and it's my fault-"

With a sudden jerk that almost, but not quite, caught Gray off guard, Jellal bucked under his grip and began trying to sit up. The effort made him gasp with pain, but he didn't stop.

"Hey! Stay still," Natsu commanded, shoving Jellal back down and pinning him with a hand on his chest. "You're still bleeding."

Jellal subsided, glaring at Natsu as blood continued to pool at his side. "Just get the bleeding to stop. And then, we'll go save Erza."

Jellal focused on the pain in his shoulder, magnifying it and letting it consume his thoughts. Better that than the guilt he felt for summoning Siegrain and inadvertently placing Erza in danger. Pain, he could manage.

As the pain swelled through him, he let the fire of it fuel his anger. Part of it was directed towards himself. He should have slowed down, he should have been more careful, he should have been able to predict what Siegrain was going to do. He should have been smarter.

And above all, he should never have summoned Siegrain in the first place. If there was one thing that Jellal really, truly knew, it was that he was his own worst enemy. He just wasn't used to it being so literal.

Realistically, Jellal doubted Siegrain would actually do anything to Erza, so she probably wasn't in danger. If all Siegrain was trying to do was be a better replacement of Jellal, he was more likely to be more kind and attentive of Erza than anything else. But still, it was gross and creepy to think of her in there with him, and Jellal didn't like it.

Also, since they were just outside the restaurant, Siegrain had surely heard the commotion when Jellal had triggered his trap. Honestly, he had probably felt the slight drain on his magic power too. So right now, Siegrain was likely operating under the assumption that Jellal was dead. Which was exactly why Jellal had to act now. This was his best opportunity to get the jump on Siegrain, and he likely wouldn't get a chance like this again.
Jellal explained that to Natsu and Gray. They both looked a little unconvinced, but at the same time, Jellal knew he was right and there wasn't really much they could say.

"Can you…move your arm at all?" Gray asked tentatively.

Jellal tried to test it, but felt himself start to black out before he could get very far. He immediately stopped moving his arm, and spent a few seconds just focusing on breathing. Eventually, the black spots cleared from his eyes, and Jellal allowed himself to relax slightly.

"Not really," he finally managed.

"Well…do you think you'll be able to fight?" Natsu asked

"Um…if we catch him by surprise, I won't need to?"

"Maybe Natsu and I should go in there alone," Gray said, sounding skeptical. "I think you're going to get yourself killed."

"You can't go in there alone, because neither of you can dismiss him. It has to be me, and I have to be touching him. I'm not sure what would even happen if you tried to kill him. I don't think it would be possible."

"Well…."

"Help me up," Jellal insisted. "I'll be fine, just…get me on my feet."

Gray and Natsu each locked an arm around one of Jellal's. Jellal could tell they were trying to put as little pressure on his injured shoulder as possible, but god, it still hurt. When they finally heaved him to his feet, he almost blacked out again, and when he came back to himself, he found that he was leaning heavily on Gray.

"You alright?" Natsu asked worriedly. "You're lookin' kinda…."

"I'm alright," Jellal breathed. He took a few deep breaths and slowly let them out, then blinked the world back into focus. Judging from how badly his legs were shaking, he wouldn't be able to stand on his own, so he didn't even try to pull away from Gray. He did try to stand up a little straighter, and he succeeded in at least keeping his head and chest fairly upright.

"Let's go stop Siegrain," Jellal said. He hoped that it came off as determined, but sounding steely was a little hard when he'd lost so much blood he could barely see straight.

"And save Erza," Natsu supplied helpfully. "Right?"

Jellal gasped, then wished he hadn't as his shoulder throbbed painfully in reaction. He hadn't quite thought through the Erza of it all, and he was suddenly horribly aware of his stupid green baseball cap that definitely clashed with his hair.

"How do I look?" Jellal asked, trying to straighten his ruined, skin tight tank top with his free hand.

"Terrible," Natsu said without a second of hesitation.

"Yea, man, you look like a horror movie," Gray added from beside Jellal. "Just, blood everywhere. It's kinda graphic."

Jellal frowned, looking down at the blood that was beginning to drip gently off his fingers and plop onto the concrete below. He couldn't really do much about his ruined clothes, or the gigantic hole in his shoulder, but maybe he could compensate for it a little, somehow.

"I could take off the hat?" he tried, but thought better of it as he saw Natsu's face. "You're right, the bandage probably won't look any better…. Maybe if I fixed my hair?"

"I think you might be unfixable," Natsu said with a shrug. "Have you seen the giant hole in your shoulder? It kinda draws attention."

Jellal sighed, letting his hand drop back to his side. "Fine. You win. I suppose I'm doomed anyway, because I have to admit that I summoned a double of myself to take my girlfriend shopping, so I might as well look terrible while I'm doing it."

"Or, you can look terrible and she'll feel so bad for you that she won't kick your ass as soon as we kill Siegrain!" Natsu offered.

"We're killin' him?" Gray asked, sounding vaguely stressed. "That's gonna be kinda weird, isn't it?'

"What? No! We…we aren't killing Siegrain!" Jellal snapped. "No one is killing Siegrain. I am banishing him, back to the void from whence he came!"

"Are you okay?" Gray asked. "You sound like you're gonna pass out…."

Jellal closed his eyes and took a small breath, trying to clear the dizziness that had come along with him raising his voice. "Yes," he said more quietly. "I'm…fine. Let's just go find them, okay?"

Jellal didn't wait for their response, just started tugging them towards the front entrance. He had the vague thought that they wouldn't be able to get in because they didn't have reservations, but how could he have known he was going to need to get into Ristorante de Olio tonight to save his girlfriend? There was no way he could have expected or prepared for this.

As they entered the lobby, the host held up a hand to stop them.

"I know we don't have reservations," Jellal said hurriedly. "But we need to get in here. I have to see my girlfriend."

"Sir, we cannot allow you to enter the restaurant-"

"Fine!" Jellal yelled. "I'll make a reservation! When is your next availability?"

"It's…we can't permit diners who are covered in blood to eat here. It's a health and safety risk…."

"But-"

The host's eyes narrowed as he caught sight of Natsu and Gray. "And those two aren't allowed to eat here at all."

Jellal shook his head slightly at this - he had no idea what it was about, but he didn't even want to ask.

Jellal felt dark power start to gather behind him. He may not be able to outright attack Siegrain, but he would absolutely be able to attack this horrible host. And he would, if that's what it would take to save Erza. If he was a smudge on the ground, he wouldn't be able to stop them from entering the restaurant, reservations or no….

"Jellal, stop!" Natsu yelled, grabbing Jellal's uninjured arm. "What are ya doing?"

Jellal remembered that he had come to the restaurant to save Erza, not to commit murder. He blinked in confusion. "I…I think I was going to smite him…."

"Well…don't! Come on, we'll find some other way to get Erza."

Jellal cast one last angry look back at the host. Normally, Jellal's angry looks were terrifying, but the baseball cap must have ruined it a little because the man glared back instead of looking terrified. Gray and Natsu dragged Jellal bodily out of the restaurant. Jellal allowed himself to slump into them slightly - it was getting hard to walk on his own.