Previously on…
"Listen, there's something, something I never got to tell him.", Gray murmured quietly. "I kept it secret, Ur made me promise to never let him know. But I have to.", his expression was sent in a grimace, eyes staring off into the distance but seemingly seeing something we weren't. "Ur may not be with us, but she's still alive!"
Lucy gasped, and Erza's expression was shocked. I merely nodded. Now I had one of the pieces to the puzzle, I merely needed to find out the rest.
"What do you mean?", Erza asked gently, a confused expression lingering on her face.
"It's been 10 years…", Gray took a deep breath before beginning his tale, one a boy who lost everything but came back from it, only to have it taken once again due to a prideful mistake. As he described burying his parents and how he wanted revenge, a tear dripped down my cheek. I wiped it away, and didn't let another fall. Better not to empathize with him, because I could empathize with him, but our situations were vastly different and there would be no tears if my story were to be heard. But nonetheless, I wanted to sob for that little boy crying as he laid daisies in the snow, because I knew just how he felt.
As Gray finished his story, Lucy had turned to look at the temple. "Hey guys, is it just me, or does that temple look a little crooked now?", Lucy frowned as she tilted her head, trying to see the temple correctly. I looked at it and took notice that, it was indeed of center, as though it had been tilted… most likely by a destructive fire dragon slayer.
"What happened to it?", Happy pondered aloud.
"It looks funny.", Stella commented from her position atop my head.
"My guess is Natsu.", Gray stated as he stared off at the temple.
"Me too.", Erza agreed.
"I don't know how he managed to pull it off, but he's the only one who could do something that crazy.", Gray stated and I smiled slightly. After hearing some of Gray's tale, I wasn't much in the mood for smiling. "It's a pretty great idea if he did it on purpose,", Gray continued. "Since the temple's tilted like that, the moonlight won't hit Deliora."
"I concur. Glad to see that Fairy Tail's sense of destruction can be beneficial, and not just fun.", I grinned, cheering a little at the thought of Natsu going to town.
As Lucy and Happy began to banter, I caught the flash of Erza's eyes, and heard the rustle of footsteps in the trees, along with the soft whispers of people.
"Scatter!", I roared, as I leapt into the air, Gray dodging to the left, and Erza throwing Lucy and Happy into the brush. Stella clung onto my head for dear life as I dodged the rush of knives thrown our way.
As I dropped back to the ground, Stella jumped down and headed for Happy, who had a longstanding agreement with me to look out for Stella during battles (meaning I'd shave him bald if he let her get hurt).
"Who's there?!", Erza bellowed as we regained our footing to see Lyon's minions surrounding us.
"We won't let you stop this Fairy Tail!", the leader bellowed.
"I can handle this myself.", Erza declared as she held out here hand for a magic circle to reappear. As a sword appeared Erza tossed a brief glance over her shoulder, "I'll take care of them. You go and settle things with Lyon."
Gray was stunned by her words and gave a small nod. "We'll fight with her! You just go and do what you've got to do!", Lucy declared.
"Thanks you guys.", Gray gave a small smile and turned to race off.
I caught his arm as he made to leave a forced him to look me in the eyes. "Remember what I said Gray, about living in the past.", with those parting words I let him go and he raced off to do battle with Lyon.
I turned to the minions encroaching on us and let my ice pour forth, coating the area in a layer of tundra.
"I'm hella pissed. So I'll give you to the count of one before I freeze you all solid.", I growled, ice coating my skin.
"Uh oh, she's pissed off!", Lucy gulped and moved a little ways away from me.
"One.", as the word exited my mouth, a wave of frozen magic poured off my body, freezing the front half of the crowd. The rest swelled forward though, determined to beat us down. They were determined to fail then. I cracked my icy knuckles and plunged into the fray beside Erza, and Lucy's spirit Taurus. With every punch, I imagined it to be Deliora, angry that that was the childhood of one of my friends.
As the fight wore on, with Erza, Lucy and I slowly wearing them down, I detected a shift in the air. Maker-magic began to coat the air. After hearing about Ur and how she had been turned to ice, I knew what that scent meant.
"Something's wrong, I'm going to look for Gray!", I yelled, while slamming two minions heads together before tossing them into the mass.
"What?!", Erza barely had time to call out before I turned and sprinted for the temple, praying I wasn't too late to stop Gray form making the biggest mistake of his life.
As I crashed into the hall, which had been coated with Lyon's ice, I stopped in Gray's point of entry, watching as he slid into the position of the iced shell. "It's time we accepted our punishment, together.", Gray finished stating as I watched from the doorway.
"That stance! Not the iced shell!", Lyon cried out, from where he stood poised to fight.
"The iced shell?", Natsu murmured from the other side of Gray, causing me to realize that he must have been the one fighting Lyon to begin with. His eyes widened with realization as he realized what iced shell was.
"Are you really insane?! You wouldn't dare!", Lyon cried out, his skepticism trying to disguise a layer of fear in his voice.
"If you want to live, change the villagers back to their human forms. And then leave this island and never return!", Gray thundered, never once wavering from his position. As a magic circle appeared beneath him, he said more quietly, "If you'll agree to that, I'll stop. Otherwise, this is the end."
"That so? Well, I don't believe a word of it.", Lyon, turned his back to Gray, daring him to cast the spell. "You're bluffing."
Gray's only response was to narrow his eyes and increase the magic pouring off of him. "No, I'm not.", Gray's calmness enraged me.
"Gray, don't!", I bellowed. He spared me only a glance before returning his eyes to Lyon.
"All these years, I've been lying to myself, saying Ur didn't due because of me. But she did! It's time I took responsibility.", Gray yelled, as Lyon only stared in shock. "So I will, here and now. I'm not afraid to die! If that's what it takes!"
"Stop this now!", Lyon yelled as his eyes widened a fraction in fear.
"What's it going to be Lyon?", Gray asked as cracks begin to appear on his body. "Are we going to die, or are we going to live?! It's up to you!"
"You wouldn't! You're not brave enough to give your life! You're nothing but a coward.", Lyon yelled, fear thickening into anger in his voice.
"Just watch me.", Gray stated quietly. The magic energy was almost pure white as it swirled even heavier around Gray and Lyon.
"Don't do it!", Natsu roared.
"Gray, DON'T", I screamed.
"Natsu, Aquila, Erza, all my friends in Fairy Tail, the rest is up to you. I don't want to leave you, but my time is up.", Gray murmured as he prepared to cast the spell that would take him from us forever. I however, wasn't willing to let him leave so easily.
I stepped in between him and Lyon, as he paused in the middle of his casting, causing the spell to die. "What are you doing?!", Gray yelled at me as Lyon stared in shock.
"What are you doing?!", I roared, repeating his own question back at him. "I won't let you Gray, I won't let you give your life. You told us that you swore to become the best wizard you could, to make Ur proud! How can you do that, if you waste it on a chump like this?!"
Gray dropped his stance, and stormed up to me, glaring down at me. "I've got a score to settle! I don't care if I have to die to do it!", He thundered.
I gave him the coldest look I possessed, "You are a coward, Gray Fullbuster."
The statement derailed him and he paused, "Wha-"
"You're a coward.", I interrupted him. "Dying is easy, Gray. It's living that's the trick. Take the guilt. Own it, accept it. Then move on with your life. Ur didn't sacrifice her life, just to watch you spend yours moping around. Live for her, for Fairy Tail!" I yelled at him. His betrayed shock and surprise. Our argument was interrupted when the temple shifted, the floor no longer tilted.
"This is bad. Now the moonlight can shine on Deliora.", Gray said, staring up at the ceiling that was now shifted the proper way.
"Pardon the interruption, my lord.", a man who smelled odd, almost like flowery perfume, rushed to Lyon's side.
"I should've known. Did you do this?", Lyon seemed oddly subdued in the face of his new associate.
"I did sir. The moon will be out soon, so I took the liberty of straightening the temple for you.", the man agreed calmly, seemingly not bothered by enemy mages in the room.
"He straightened the temple by himself?!", Gray cried out.
"And after I went to all that trouble to mess it up too. Hey, so what'd you do to fix it, huh?", Natsu yelled at the man. He smelt oddly, of magic and almost feminine.
The man merely let out a laugh. "I suppose I should commence the moon drip ceremony now.", and with a flourish he raced off.
"Quit ignoring me, you demon headed freak!", Natsu roared as he made to go after him. He paused however and turned to Gray and I. "I'm going to pound him a million, no, a billion times! I'll let you two handle that ice guy-
"No. He's mine. Gray you go with Natsu.", I ordered.
"No way-", Gray began to yell, yet shut up when I whipped around to glare at him.
"Go!", I yelled.
"Aye!", Natsu yelped, before dragging Gray out with him to deal with the other one.
I returned my attention to Lyon, who stood quiet in front of me, but once he had my gaze, slid his face into a scornful smirk. "What on earth do you think you can do to beat me girl?", Lyon cried out, his magic aura intensifying around him.
"I'm no little girl.", I responded as my magic began to circle around me. I yanked my hair out of its braid and let the strands crystallize as ice began to cover my body.
"Impudence, no ice magic can beat mine.", Lyon said dismissively as he assumed a battle stance, his lone hand held out in front of him. "Ice-make; Raptors!" He cried out, sending multiple birds flying in my direction. I grinned at his folly and opened my mouth wide, swallowing several birds aiming for my head, the rest shattering on my body.
"Wha- what is this?!", Lyon demanded, as I choked down the last of his disgusting ice.
"Your ice tastes nasty, like weakness and fear. But like any food that tastes bad, like vegetables or any such thing, it still provides energy. Meaning, I'm ready to fight you full-on now. Ice Dragon's ROAR!", I let my roar out, a blinding white ray of magic heading towards Lyon, but he dodged up and avoided the hit.
"I won't be defeated by you! My destiny is to surpass Ur!", He yelled, once again falling into a battle stance. "Ice-Make; Dragon!", unleashing a beast upon me, one nowhere near the size of a true dragon.
"Pathetic!", I said, leaping into the air as the dragon struck the ground, and landing on top of the dragon, which tried to throw me off, to little avail. I had absorbed my legs partially into the dragon, making me immovable. "Ice Dragon, Icicle tempest!", I summoned thousands of icicles into the air and hurled them at Lyon.
"Ice-Make; Shield!", Lyon threw a hasty shield, that blocked my icicles, but shattered along with them, the imbalance Gray had spoken of becoming apparent, throwing him back several feet. I shattered the dragon from the inside and landed on my feet.
"You foolish girl! You would side with Gray, even though it means your demise! You do know he is the reason our Master, Ur, had to use iced shell to begin with!", Lyon yelled, sending another fleet of birds at me, the impact shoved me back a few feet, but I recovered.
"I know! And I don't care! Gray was eight years old when he challenged Deliora! He didn't know any better, all he knew was heartbreak and loneliness that the demon had caused him!", I advanced on Lyon, removing my ice and swinging at him, clocking him on the jaw.
He staggered back, then readied himself, "If you know then, why don't you support my cause?! You owe him nothing, and he deserves to die for crushing my dreams, for killing Ur!", Lyon yelled with the vehemence of a mad-man. He landed a lucky blow on my stomach, causing me to falter for a moment. He grabbed my arm and made to swing me into the icy wall when I flipped him over my shoulder onto the ground, then pounced, pinning him to the floor.
"Ur isn't dead! She's in the ice, the ice you have been destroying with your moon drip!", I yelled at Lyon, who remained unfazed.
"I know what that spell does. But Ur is not alive in there. My master, for all intents and purposes, died when the iced shell was cast upon Deliora.", my eyes widened and my hold slackened when I realized what Lyon was saying. He had known. He had known Ur was in the ice and chose to perform the moon drip anyways.
Lyon took advantage of my shock and using his strength, kicked me off of him, slamming me into the wall.
I slowly stood, a little battered, a little bruised but nowhere near out of the fight. "I really hate it. When a child tries to kill their parent, or to kill their teacher. Or kill who's close to them. I won't ever get to meet Ur and tease Gray with her. It's not Gray I have to blame for that though. It's you and your selfish desires. You've crossed the line.", I murmured. I rose fully to my feet as ice coated my body once more. "You've hurt my comrades. You've tormented Gray, who is dear to me as any in the guild and for that, I'm done playing with you, I'm DONE going easy on you!", I yelled.
"Foolish girl. Ice-make; Snow tiger!", Lyon yelled, creating a beast lunging at me, ready to rip me to shreds.
I merely held out my hands to each side of me, palms up, like I was beseeching the heavens. Magic circles appeared over each hand, and I spoke with lethal calm. "Ice Dragon frozen blossoms.", then I began to spin, throwing out a lethal arc of razor sharp ice flowers that tore through Lyon's tiger, and tore through him. With a strangled yell, he went down and I slowed my spinning until I came to a complete stop. "No one hurts my friends, and you have done enough damage to one to warrant your death. But I'm a member of Fairy Tail and despite who I was before that, I won't take your life.", I ended the spell, and stared at the unconscious ice-make mage, wondering why he had gone so off course. I remembered the day Gray had come to the guild, and aside from Cana and I, the first of our generation of Fairy Tail. He had asked Gramps a question, but what is was and Gramps answer he never revealed.
He stayed at Fairy Tail, took our emblem and made a name for himself, yet he had always stood apart. But he knew that if he needed us he could come to us. Unlike the pathetic person before me, Gray wasn't alone, wasn't obsessed and never would be. He had Fairy Tail to make sure he never went down the path Lyon took. As these thoughts ran through my head, all I could feel was pity for the mage before me.
My thoughts were interrupted when a roar echoed through the temple. I cried out a clapped my hands over my ears. My sensitive hearing could hardly take the high-pitched frequency of the sound. With it came the sound of shattering ice and I turned and ran for the passageway to Deliora. Deliora must have been freed and by the scent of things, Natsu and Gray, along with that man, were with it. I had to make it to them, had to ensure that Gray was alright, because if I knew him as well as I thought I did, he would see only one solution; Iced Shell.
A/N: Hey Guys, I'm updating a bit early because I'm spending all day tomorrow working on my Lucy Star Dress Leo Cosplay, so I wouldn't have time to update. But regardless, I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Remember to review! Thanks!