The stupid part about basements was the stairs. Gray did not like the fact that there was no way to get out of this dumb basement without making his way up the stairs. He decided right then that if he were ever going to design a house, he would put the basement on the same floor as everything else.

Maybe that was the blood loss talking. Gray knew he'd lost a lot. He'd seen the sizable puddle left on the ground when he'd managed to get to his feet, and the ice he'd put around his stomach was reddish and streaky. He was honestly shocked he was still on his feet. But he was somehow even more shocked that Natsu was on his feet, so Gray didn't want to complain too much.

Intellectually, Gray knew that his body simply wouldn't have let him eat and sleep much before the trial - he'd even tried to eat a full meal, and ended up puking into a trash can. But he knew the wringer he'd put his body through these past few days certainly wasn't helping him now. Maybe if he hadn't already been operating from such a bad state of affairs, he wouldn't feel so helpless now. Maybe….

But then again, there wasn't exactly a way to make a stabbing less horrible. If you got stabbed all the way through your stomach, you were gonna lose a lot of blood. No matter how you sliced it, it was going to hurt.

And it hurt, a lot. It hurt to breathe, and it hurt to move, and it definitely hurt to be walking up a flight of stairs. Not that Gray was really walking - he was more being pulled along by Natsu, who seemed to be muscling his way up the stairs through sheer stubbornness.

That was embarrassing. Gray shouldn't be relying on Natsu to get him up the stairs, he should be able to do it himself. He could see the tension in Natsu's jaw, and the pain lines around his eyes. The dragon slayer might not want to admit it, but Gray knew he was in agony.

"Gray? You with me?"

Gray wasn't entirely sure that he was, but he managed a nod. "With you," he echoed back.

"Where's the bad guy?" Natsu whispered into his ear. He sounded breathless, but probably more cognizant than Gray was.

"Umm…." Gray took a breath and forced himself to remember. "Top floor. We gotta…get up these stairs first."

"Alright, popsicle. Let's get him."

Natsu pulled Gray up another step, and Gray's fingers slipped off the banister he was holding onto. For a terrifying moment, he thought he might fall, but Natsu didn't even seem to notice. Apparently, Gray had been taking even less of his own weight than he'd thought.

"Sorry," Gray whispered, pulling himself upright, just to double over again as searing pain lanced through his gut. He retched, feeling a little more blood run down his chin. "I…."

"Shh," Natsu ordered. He was whispering too, probably to avoid alerting Rinel, and Gray didn't hear him so much as feel the vibration of his voice against his skin. "We're almost there."

They were not "almost there." By the time they finally made it to the top of the basement stairs, Gray's vision had faded to a blurry swirl and his wound was throbbing in time with his heartbeat. Every time he breathed, he was sure that he was going to pass out.

"Just…. a little…. more," Natsu gasped into Gray's ear. He sounded like he was in pain, and Gray didn't want that. He tried to stand a little taller, but his legs didn't seem to want to respond to him.

Natsu took another step, towing Gray along with him, and staggered. Gray's eyes flew open as his stomach erupted in pain, and he stared dully down at his feet, trying to breathe through it. There was a cracking sound as Natsu stepped forward again, and Gray blinked at the ground as the ice splint he'd put around Natsu's leg shattered into pieces.

They went down hard, and fast. As soon as Natsu's hands on his waist stopped supporting his weight, Gray's legs crumpled and he was falling. He slammed into the ground, and whatever breath he had left his lungs in a rush.

A heartbeat later, Natsu landed on top of him. What little presence of mind Gray had left vanished. His lungs tried to expand. They couldn't. Black dots started to gather at the edges of his vision. Gray tried to blink them away, but he couldn't tell if his eyes were open or closed. He thought he lost time. He wasn't sure. He wasn't sure of anything.

He knew it wasn't Natsu's fault. Natsu couldn't stand either. He never would have dropped Gray or fallen on top of him if he'd had another choice. But god, it hurt. It hurt.

Finally, Gray's lungs reinflated. Without any conscious decision on his part, he drew in a breath to scream.

And instantly, Natsu's hand was clamped down over his mouth. This somewhat brought Gray back to himself, and part of his brain realized that screaming would be a very, very bad idea. The other part of Gray didn't think he had a choice. So he attempted to scream through Natsu's hand, and Natsu just pressed down harder. The screaming sounded tinny and muffled even to Gray's own ears.

Gray tried vaguely to relax his breathing, but that made the wound in his stomach shift again, and then he just kept screaming. The agony in his midsection was so bad he was almost choking on it.

"Gray, Gray," Natsu whispered. He shifted slightly, and Gray distantly realized that when they'd fallen, Natsu had clamped a hand over his own mouth as well. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry…."

Gray still wasn't sure he could talk without shrieking. But slowly, slowly, his breathing started to even out again. Natsu managed to roll off of him with a heavy, uncomfortable-looking movement. That made the pain spike for a split second, but once Natsu wasn't on top of him, things were a lot better. Gray realized Natsu's hand had left his mouth, and he still hadn't started screaming, so that must be a good sign.

"I'm sorry," Natsu whispered again. "I'm sorry, I jus' couldn't balance, I'm sorry…."

"It's alright." Gray thought his voice sounded like he was underwater. "I'm alright."

Gray felt something wet on his face, and he was pretty sure he had started crying at some point. That was kind of embarrassing, but it felt distant too. At this point, he had so much pain radiating through every corner of his body that he felt lucky just to be alive.

"Are they…is anyone comin'?" Gray managed.

"Don' think so," Natsu said with a sigh.

"Your…your leg?" Gray didn't know if it had been hurt again in the fall.

"It's…yeah. You'll need t' refreeze it."

Gray closed his eyes softly. The stabbing had taken a toll on him physically, and at this point, he had very little magical energy left. But that didn't mean that he had none.

"I got you," he whispered, reaching his hand out. Natsu flinched away from him as Gray's fingers made contact with his leg, and Gray tried as best he could to lighten his touch with his fading fine motor skills. "Sorry."

Gray flexed his fingers, and ice spread outward from his fingertips, crackling as the splint reformed. Usually, this would have been magic as simple as breathing, but now even this small effort left Gray gasping.

"Thanks," Natsu said, pushing himself up onto his hands and his good knee, his bad leg resting awkwardly behind him. Gray knew he had to get up too, but he couldn't seem to make his body move.

"Ready?" Natsu asked, leaning forward a little until they were face to face. His eyebrows were drawn together with worry, and Gray figured he looked about as bad as he felt.

But he didn't want to worry Natsu. "Yeah," he said, gathering his strength and pushing himself up onto his elbows. "Let's go."

Natsu smiled at him, and even with as much pain as Gray was currently in, it was all worth it a thousand times over to see Natsu again, looking at him with that expression. For a moment, it was a little easier to breathe.

And then, Natsu was grabbing Gray's hand and pulling them both to their feet, and it definitely wasn't easy to breathe anymore. Gray bit his lip to avoid shrieking and stood swaying on his feet until Natsu's arm wrapped around his waist and held him fast.

"So what's the plan?" Natsu asked quietly, his lips tickling Gray's ear.

"Kill Rinel," Gray answered, shuffling forward as Natsu started moving.

There was a small exhalation of breath, and Gray looked over to find Natsu chuckling. "I know that . I mean, don't we gotta be more specific?"

Gray sighed, partially in annoyance about how good it was to have Natsu driving him crazy again. "Shut up," he mumbled. "I mean…."

Gray couldn't think of a plan. There was nothing in his stomach except maybe some blood, and the pain was hanging all around him, ready to interrupt his every thought. There was no way he was going to be able to come up with anything more detailed than "kill Rinel," but he didn't think either he or Natsu could handle an all out fight.

"He's upstairs, right?" Natsu whispered, and Gray nodded rather than attempting to answer out loud.

Natsu nodded to himself, brow furrowed in concentration. "What if we get him to the top of the stairs and jump out at him?"

"I don't think I can jump," Gray said miserably.

Natsu sighed. "Me either."

"What…what if I freeze him to the stairs?" Gray asked. He couldn't think of any reason that might not work, but his brain wasn't working too well anymore, so he might have missed something obvious. "And then we can just attack him? And he can't leave?"

"Do you…," Gray realized Natsu had gone very pale, and his voice was a little trembly. He once again remembered how important it was to get them out of there as quickly as possible. Both of their lives depended on it. He just…wished that fact would feel a little less distant. "Do you think you have enough magical energy?"
Gray considered. He wasn't really sure. But he was pretty powerful, so he figured probably. He gave Natsu a shaky nod.

"Al-alright," Natsu managed. "S-sounds like a plan then."

They made their way to the end of the hallway, and stood unsteadily at the base of the stairs. Gray knew intellectually that they probably hadn't gone more than twenty or thirty feet, but it felt like they'd walked all across Magnolia and back, possibly several times over. When this was all done, assuming Gray wasn't dead, he was going to sleep for a month.

Gray stood at the base of the stairs, looking up. The walls were whirling around him, the floor seeming to tilt beneath his feet like he'd had too much to drink. Gray knew that was the blood loss, but that didn't exactly make it any easier to stay balanced. He was worried that any moment, his legs were going to give out and he would fall.

"He…he isn't here," Gray whispered.

"Yeah. He must not have heard us."

Gray could hear his heartbeat in his ears. He was so dizzy that his head was throbbing. Honestly, he didn't even really feel like he was in pain anymore - he mostly just felt exhausted and ill.

He knew he needed to do something about the fact that Rinel hadn't heard them, and didn't know they were there. But nothing about this situation felt intuitive - he couldn't remember what he was supposed to do. He was worried he was going to mess up. Possibly, he was going to mess something up by collapsing before they could finish up their plan.

"Okay," Gray whispered, trying and failing to take a deep breath. "Right, okay…."

"We need to-"

Something about this allowed a few pieces to click into Gray's brain. He needed to do something to get Rinel's attention. To let Rinel know he was there.

"Hey!" Gray yelled as loud as he could. That turned out to not be very loud, but there wasn't much that could be done about that. "Hey, I'm…I'm here! I killed Tony!"

Almost immediately, there was the sound of a door opening above them, and hurried footsteps. A split second later, the huge form of Rinel appeared at the top of the stairs. Fury twisted his features.

"Gotcha," Gray whispered, less to Rinel and more to himself in an effort to keep focused. He slammed his hands against the wall, and ice erupted from his fingers, shooting down the wall and racing up the stairs, turning them into a slide. Before Rinel could move, the ice froze around his ankles, keeping him locked in place.

That was good. Step one of the plan was done, and Rinel was frozen. Gray just had to follow up with another attack, and he and Natsu could be done with this forever.

But as he reached for his magical power, the empty, almost painful hollowness inside him told him that he didn't have anything left. Gray blinked, and as he did, he was falling to his knees. He reached out to stop himself, knowing that this was bad even as the situation began to blur and feel very far away. His hand met nothing but thin air, if he'd even managed to reach out at all, and his palms hit the ground.

Gray knew that probably hurt, but right now, he couldn't feel much of anything. He had to get up, and keep fighting. He couldn't afford to give up yet.

Shakily, Gray tried to push himself upright. He got a little ways off his knees when his legs gave out on him, and this time he crashed facedown to the floor.

Even through the numbing haze that was starting to gather around everything, Gray could tell that hurt. The pain felt distant, like everything else, but it was sapping the minute amount of strength that remained to him. Darkness was starting to gather at the edges of his vision.

Gray managed to turn his head, looking towards Natsu. His boyfriend was still standing, blinking down at Gray with confusion. He took a tentative step towards Gray, but even that one movement made his face go a shade or two paler.

"Natsu…." Gray had to tell him to stop worrying about him. Natsu needed to attack Rinel. If he did that, then this nightmare could still end here. Natsu could save them, even if Gray couldn't manage it.

But before Gray could get anything else out, there was a roar from the top of the stairs. Gray flinched as a wall of force, almost invisible save for a strange shimmer around the edges, shot past him and cannoned into Natsu. The Dragon Slayer yelped as he was shoved backwards, disappearing through an open door behind them. Gray couldn't do anything but watch helplessly as the door slammed shut with the ominous click of a lock.

"Natsu!" Now, Gray was yelling. "Natsu?!" Struggling, he tried to push himself to his feet once more, but he couldn't even make it to his knees.

As his cheek hit the floor, the full gravity of the situation sunk in. Natsu was gone, and Gray was completely drained. He couldn't even sit up, and he was alone with Rinel, at the nonexistent mercy of a murderer.

Gray felt an involuntary whimper slip out of his throat. There was nothing in the world he wanted more than to close his eyes. He was so tired he felt sick with it, so scared it hardly even felt like fear….

Gray was no dragon slayer. He didn't have the same endless reserves of energy and strength that his boyfriend had. But that…didn't mean he was weak. Far from it. Gray didn't know where he would find the energy to cast another spell. But for now, Rinel was still trapped at the top of the stairs, and Gray and Natsu's life depended on Gray being able to cast. Gray would just…find the strength to do it. He would just dig a little deeper, and make it happen.

Gray was just starting to force his numb hands into one of the complex positions required to cast maker magic when the energy in the room shifted again. Rinel made a slight movement. Before Gray had so much time to blink, another one of Rinel's shimmering walls of pure energy was cannoning towards Gray.

Gray wasn't nearly fast enough to move out of the way. He wasn't even sure that was possible anyways.

An instant later, Gray felt a horrible pressure at his throat. Rinel still hadn't moved, but for all the world it felt like Rinel's hand had closed around Gray's throat, and was slowly choking him.

A second after that, Gray felt himself being slowly lifted, dragged into the air as if by an invisible hand. It was all Gray could do to stay conscious as his body slowly uncrumpled and his feet left the ground.

Gray drew in enough breath to scream. He knew that wouldn't really help, and in fact, he probably shouldn't be wasting air. But Natsu was gone, Natsu couldn't see him, and maybe if Natsu knew he was in trouble, Natsu would be able to fix it somehow….

The scream ended in a choked off gasp as Gray felt the pressure around his throat tighten. Black spots started to crawl at the edges of Gray's vision, and Gray started to get the horrible, pouding, dizzy feeling that came from having not enough oxygen reach his brain.

Gray didn't have the energy to cast. He didn't have the energy to fight. At this point, he didn't even have the strength to move his hands. And even if he did, the force around his throat was invisible and intangible - there was nothing for him to attack.

Rinel was going to kill Gray, and there was nothing that Gray would be able to do.