14. Ice-Make: Betrayal

"This wouldn't be a betrayal to his master but as he caught Natsu glaring at him, he realized it would be a betrayal to his guild."

It was only a week since Gray learned the truth behind the casting of the Eliftis spell, but it felt like months. Every minute he had to sit in that guildhall with the snow falling incessantly outside and his friends pondering over the strange weather phenomenon was killing him. He wanted to refute their ridiculous fabrications so badly, to say their guesses were completely wrong, to just give them the honest truth. The urge to enlighten the guild was deafening, like his guildmark was pounding on his chest urging him to just spit it out.

No, it was forcing him. Forcing him to tell his friends, his teammates, his guildmates, his family.

But he couldn't.

Back in Pelphides' "prison," Gray had told him he would try and buy him some time. Apparently, a spell reversal required a lot of magic power, more than the immediate power surplus that came along with initial onset of the Eliftis. That was a shock to Gray, as Pelphides also told him the Eliftis was so powerful that at the moment, he alone did not have the power to cast it. Instead, it was a joint casting between him and the four remaining members of the Konungaris Legion.

But obviously he only told Pelphides that to lead him astray. While his motives weren't inherently evil, Gray didn't fully agree that his methods were right. What he did was selfish, even if it was for someone else. Surely he didn't have to freeze the entire world just to reverse one spell. There had to be another way.

The Eliftis has to be lifted and I have the information to do that. He couldn't let the Konungaris Legion get away with this. It just wasn't right. Then why can't I tell them the truth?

"Hey, ice princess! Want to take a job with us?"

Not now, Natsu! I'm in middle of having an internal conflict. "Sure, we haven't done that in a while."

"That's probably because there aren't many options to choose from." Lucy complained as she stood by the nearly empty mission board. The unexpected winter was slowing down business, and on top of that, the snow made it a lot more difficult to travel to the few job requests that they did have.

"How about this one?" Erza suggested, pointing to one on the board. "It might take a day or two to get there with all the train delays due to the weather, but it's something."

Please someone say no. I can't take a job right now.

"Two days of motion sickness for that little pay?!" Thank God for Natsu. "I don't think I can do that."

Lucy frowned. "Yeah, I think Natsu is right. It's just not worth it."

Now was his change to support the opposition without feeling guilty. "I have to agree with the rest of the team here, Erza. It is a bit much."

"I guess you guys are right." Erza said, much to Gray's satisfaction. "I know the Magic Council is dealing with this whole Eliftis spell, but I don't know how much longer we can live with this."

It sure was hard to keep his mind off his Eliftis dilemma when it was all people talked about. He couldn't blame them though because like Erza said, it was really effecting their daily lives and not in a good way. He had no idea what the Magic Council was planning, but whatever it was he was sure it wouldn't be enough. However, if he told them about Pelphides and the Konungaris Legion then they might be able to pull it off.

But on second thought, he'd rather keep quiet. What if the Magic Council wouldn't understand their intentions? They were only trying to undo a spell to save their friends, Gray could relate to that. The Eliftis gave them the power to do that, to change what had happened, so they couldn't pass that up. Though, if he were given the chance to undo the past, would he take it?

"I still think we should take some action ourselves." Natsu said, slamming his hand on the table for emphasis. "The Magic Council isn't gonna take care of it."

Lucy sighed. "But Makarov told us to lay low. Whatever the Council is planning requires us to stay out of it."

Gray couldn't let them have this discussion. "Lucy's right, Natsu. For once, why don't we just let someone else do the dirty work."

"What? You're agreeing to this?" Natsu asked. Gray didn't miss the betrayed look on his face. "You hate the Council too. You didn't want them involved before."

"I guess I changed my mind."

It wasn't a complete lie. He still wanted to deal with it without the Magic Council, but also without the rest of his team. He couldn't let them start investigating and he definitely couldn't tell them what he knew. If they found out about the Konungaris Legion, they would make them lift the spell immediately. They were just trying to save those they cared about and even though it went against Gray's whole philosophy of keeping the past in the past, he couldn't help but empathize with them.

He found it was starting to change his view on the matter. This Eliftis spell, as bad as it was, it gave them the chance to do that. They could reverse time and undo one's wrongs. He couldn't let the Magic Council stop it yet. He couldn't let Fairy Tail stop it.

He had to go to Isvan. That's where the frozen members of the Konungaris Legion were and he had to be there to make sure the reversal happened. Afterwards, he could order the Eliftis spell to be lifted. That's all Pelphides wanted from him, to buy them some time for their power to accumulate enough so they could undo the spell.

It wasn't going against Ur's wishes because it wasn't what she had been afraid of. She had warned him and Lyon of power hungry mages looking to live off of the immense magic power the Eliftis spell gave to ice mages. No, this wasn't what she was worried about at all and besides, he was still going to get rid of it.

This wouldn't be a betrayal to his master but as he caught Natsu glaring at him, he realized it would be a betrayal to his guild.

"What about you, Erza?" The dragonslayer asked, his anger at Gray still evident. "You think we should leave this to the incapable council too?"

Gray could usually trust Erza to make morally right decisions, especially when it was regarding the authorities, but life was always full of surprises.

"Actually Natsu, I think we should start our own investigation."

"What?" Lucy said, expressing Gray's thoughts exactly. "But the master said we should leave it to them. We can't just go against his and the Council's orders."

"Normally, I'd agree with you, Lucy." Erza explained. "But I've been having second thoughts about this and I really think that a crisis as big as this requires more than what the Magic Council can provide. As members of Fairy Tail, I think we have a responsibility to do everything we can to fix this and besides, when has the Council really solved anything on their own anyway?"

Of all times, now she had to discover her rebellious side? He couldn't let them do this. He had to say something before they ruined his plans.

"I know who cast the spell."

They looked at him incredulously, shock written all over their bewildered faces. Internally, he smiled. They had no reason not to trust him, they would believe everything he said. He could control their every move, allowing him to buy some time for Pelphides so the reversal could happen.

"We have to get to Isvan as soon as possible." Gray continued, despite his teammates still registering their shock. "I'll explain everything on the way. I should have told you guys sooner, but honestly I was still trying to process it all myself."

Again, it wasn't a total lie. He was doing the right thing. The world could deal with the cold for a bit longer just until the Konungaris Legion had enough power to reverse the spell. After that, he'd make them lift the Eliftis and all would go back to normal.

All he was doing was saving some innocent people from a past wrongdoing. If anyone could relate to that, it was him. The more he thought about it, the more it all made sense.

Perhaps the past wasn't frozen in time and maybe this Eliftis spell was just a way to thaw out the ice that had been misformed, creating an opportunity to form it again the right way.

Just so you all know, I'm not giving up on this story, especially with how far we've gotten. Updates will just take longer now that I have school and work, so I appreciate your patience.

Thank you so much CabbageGirl99 and Ro11ingThunder for your reviews last chapter. They were a pleasure to read and really motivated me :) And to answer the question regarding Gray's devil slayer magic- no, he doesn't have his dad's powers in this. I think they're really cool, but honestly I don't know much about them so I decided to just play it safe and leave them out of it.

So I hope you're all slowly starting to catch on to the overall theme of this and the reasoning behind the story and chapter titles. I kind of hinted to it more with that last line :)

And if you're getting a negative character arc vibe then you're not imagining it! I'm currently obsessed with these archetypes and that's kind of how I got the inspiration for this fanfic idea. You can attribute this obsession to animes like Death Note and Code Geass (and if you haven't seen the latter, stop reading this and go watch it right now! You are seriously missing out like on the greatest anime of all time, at least in my opinion).

I'm gonna stop rambling now because I hate writing long author's notes, but follow/fav if you haven't yet (thank you to all those who did), and leave a review if you want to make my day ;)

-britishsconesahoy