Hello and welcome to the new chapter of The City without sound. And has anyone seen the latest episode? Why are Midnight's eyes no longer red? Kisshufan4ever is not a happy bunny over this.
Dragonlover89 : Hopefully those new questions will be answered... eventually ;)
Vedra77 : We're glad that you liked it and we are looking forward to playing around with these new powers.
AsDarknessSpreads : This story is set just after the Daphne arc, so Gray wasn't already a demon slayer. This will be explained.
IcePrinceRay : Wow, we're happy that you enjoyed the revelations. And it is going to get even more intense from now on.
.oO : You're very welcome for the update, and thank you for the review.
Disclaimer : Yeah, if we owned Fairy Tail, Midnight's eyes would still be red...
Erza was still furious at those two idiots. After all, even though he had been reasonably well behaved, Cobra was still a convicted felon and Natsu had just taken off with him like it was nothing.
She knew that Natsu could take care of himself, but he wasn't exactly known for his prowess in thinking, and she wasn't willing to leave the rescue of Gray up to two temperamental dragon slayers.
They had remained mostly silent as they raced after their wayward friends, but Erza could feel the rage bubbling up within her.
And worse still, she didn't know who to direct this rage at.
Was it right to feel anger at Gray for something that was clearly out of his control? Or was it right to feel anger at Natsu and Cobra for running ahead when she knew that they both had an extreme connection to the other mages?
Erza knew the truth. Although she was mad at her two idiot friends and the two Oracion seis members who were also caught up in this mess, she was also mad at herself.
After all, she had believed that Gray was a traitor almost instantly and she hadn't even bothered to stop and think about how out of character such a betrayal was.
Instead she had turned on her first Fairy Tail friend and with a great deal of regret and shame, Erza could recall many other instances where she had been less than fair with her friend.
Indeed, during the Deliora island incident she had ignored his clear signs of mental distress in favour of trying to drag him back to the guild with the others.
Lucy was sending her occasional worried looks, and Erza realised with shock that her cheek was damp with tears. She wiped them away swiftly, and sent Lucy and Happy a glare to threaten them into not mentioning them, but she was surprised when Happy burrowed into her hair.
"I'm scared." The cat whimpered, and Erza raised one hand absent-mindedly to pat him as she ran.
That was another reason to add to her long list of why she needed to beat up the four idiots. Gray for worrying everyone, Natsu for leaving Happy behind, and even though the other two weren't from Fairy Tail, they would be getting a beating for aiding the other two.
She clicked her knuckles menacingly, and she heard Lucy gulp as Happy edged away to latch onto the blonde girl.
Yes, they would all have to be okay so that Erza could get the master to give them that punishment. She would arrange something with the prison so that Cobra and Midnight wouldn't be left out of that punishment.
The City without sound appeared in the distance, and Erza felt a creepy smile stretch over her face.
"Found you."
Cobra had cradled Midnight's body as the mages had told their story, and he had been hyper aware of the painful shudders that wracked his friend's body as an after effect of being gifted such powerful magic.
But as soon as the tale had been told, both of the new demon slayers had forced themselves out of their friend's arms and stood before them shakily. Cobra's ears twitched as he heard the low growl from Natsu when Gray swayed, his pale features almost camouflaged into the snow. Midnight didn't appear to be much better.
"You need to rest." Gray shot Natsu a disdainful look after the fire mage said this.
"No, we need to learn how to use these new powers before taking on a demon who is using the souls of the people from our city to ascend and cause anarchy!" Gray's voice was hoarse, and Natsu was staring at him, startled at the raw emotion in Gray's voice.
Midnight wordlessly placed his hand on Gray's shoulder in a show of support, and Cobra clenched his teeth together as jealousy sparked within his guts.
And then the two mages stiffened, letting out dull cries of pain before collapsing into the unsullied snow.
Cobra and Natsu surged forwards as their friends plummeted to the ground.
"What happened?" Cobra bit out as he turned Midnight over, trying to keep the cold snow from melting into his friend's clothes. Natsu had dragged Gray onto his lap in a similar way and was desperately searching him for a pulse.
He sighed in relief when he found it, and sat back on his heels, hauling Gray into his arms, bridal style.
"I don't know what happened, but if you don't want Midnight getting sick from the cold then we better find shelter."
"Would you care to explain what is going on here?" Erza's voice caused both Natsu and Cobra to freeze up with guilt.
Their heads jerkily turned to the enraged girls (and Happy). Their eyes all widened when they noticed the state that Gray and Midnight were in. They were shivering in the arms of their respective dragon slayer, despite the fact that Gray should have been impervious to the cold.
"You can explain after we find shelter for those two." The dragon slayers nodded, and Cobra copied Natsu, carrying Midnight bridal style. They both rose, trying not to jostle the unconscious mages in their arms.
Even with all of the care taken, the mages were clearly uncomfortable as they both whined in pain.
Cobra's heart clenched at the sound, and Natsu was cussing himself in his head for causing Gray pain.
The other Fairies sent them concerned glances, and a small part of Cobra that usually remained unacknowledged within his heart felt warmth at the fact that he and Midnight were not overlooked by the Fairies.
He wasn't sure why the Fairies would even care about him and Midnight, after all, the Fairies had only let him tag along because he had important information on their precious Gray.
But something had shifted whilst he had been travelling with Natsu. When the other mage had burst into his cell, he had greeted him like an old friend, and Cobra was starting to realise that maybe having these Fairies wouldn't have been such a bad thing.
He couldn't help but wondering what the Seis would have been like if they had been lucky enough to make it to Fairy Tail like Erza had. Maybe they would have been able to fight alongside these mages as friends, instead of fighting against each other as enemies. He imagined being welcomed back to a noisy hall packed with friends and being congratulated enthusiastically on a job well done. Getting drunk and celebrating in the typical Fairy Tail style. Training with the other dragon slayers as Gray told Midnight stories about their city.
Cobra was snapped out of his reverie as they stopped in front of a relatively intact house.
"We can rest here, and you can fill us in on what's going on." They all crowded through the doorway into the spacious house.
The house was in surprisingly good condition, but the destruction was still evident in some places.
The staircase was one such place as some of the stairs had rotted, leaving occasional gaps where the stairs had fallen into disrepair due to damp.
They traversed them cautiously, careful not to trip and drop their friends.
Erza and Lucy walked ahead, with Happy flying above them. They tested a doorknob gingerly, and the door made an alarming sound as it crumbled. They clambered over the ruined door and observed the room.
It was no good, most of the floor had gave way and collapsed into a room on the ground floor. Mangled furniture was visible in the wreckage, even the glimmering of broken glass from picture frames could be seen, though no pictures had apparently survived.
They made their way further down the hall. The next door opened with a little more ease then the previous one. a partially painted room was revealed, though the colour had dulled with age. What was probably originally a pale blue had became closer to grey in colour.
The furniture was covered in dust sheets, much to the conscious mages' relief. Some of the sheets had paint splattered on them.
A childish scribble adorned one corner of the unfinished wall and Lucy was observing it sadly.
"That poor child..." She put her hand on the wall next to the drawing, and Natsu (mindful of the mage in his arms) joined her.
The picture was crudely drawn, clearly created by a very young child. You could just make out five stick figures roughly etched onto the wall. One tiny figure to represent the child and then four larger figure to represent their parents, and possibly some other family.
The child stick figures hair was a navy blue-black mess, obviously one of the pens had ran out during the drawing process.
"Hey, this bed's okay." Natsu turned to see Erza discarding one of the dust sheets from the bed.
"Woah, it's huge!" Cobra stared down at the bed in amazement. Natsu agreed, the bed did appear a little incongruous with it's surroundings.
"It's big enough for us to lay them both down on it."
"Wait, where going to put them in a bed, together?" Natsu stared at his friends as if they were insane, a look that they all mirrored except for Cobra who looked equally horrified at this suggestion.
"Yes, this house is freezing, and although Gray would be all right normally, he is shivering rather worryingly right now. Plus, Midnight probably doesn't have the same resistance to the cold as Gray and so it's probably for the best to let them share body heat." Lucy's voice was matter of fact, but Natsu felt an inkling of annoyance at the thought of Gray sharing a bed with Midnight.
"I could just keep them both war..."
"No!" Erza cut across him, and Natsu stared at her, more then a little offended with how Erza had instantly shot down his suggestion.
"You would be too hot Natsu, you would probably just make it worse." Her words hurt, but Natsu wanted what was best for Gray, and so he gently laid the ice mage under the covers of the bed. Cobra grudgingly did the same, and they both had a similar twinge of anger when the mages curled together, hands that held the demon mark entwined between them.
"How are we going to sleep?" Lucy asked, and Erza's gaze turned thoughtful.
"We'll explore the rest of the house an see if we can find any other suitable sleeping quarters. If we do then we'll use them in shifts, always having at least two people guarding over them." Natsu plonked himself down on the floor next to Gray, causing everyone to turn towards him in confusion.
"Me and Cobra will keep watch while you search." Erza nodded, and Cobra mirrored Natsu on the other side of the bed.
"But when we return, you will tell us what is going on." The dragon slayers gulped as Erza eyed them furiously, before stalking out of the room, Lucy and Happy hot in her heels.
Then Cobra chuckled, as Natsu wondered whether Erza constituted as a demon, and whether meant that it would be okay for Gray and Midnight to slay her with their new slayer magic.
They sat in silence for a few moments, content with watching their friends, but then Natsu's eyes narrowed.
"Have their marks spread?" Cobra leapt up and leant forward, observing the clasped hands. The purplish tint had spread up Midnight's arm slightly so that the band of purple was deeper, and Gray had a matching band of black around his wrist.
"How..." Cobra felt the great desire to rip Midnight's hand out of the ice mage's and to inspect it deeply, but he quelled that desire as he wasn't sure about how much of it was genuine concern and how much of it was envy.
Though why Cobra would be envious just because that damn ice mage was lying next to his Midnight whilst holding hands, he didn't know. Or he did know, but he refused to even think about that.
This situation was strange enough even without Cobra suddenly experiencing an existential crisis.
The other returned to the sight of both Natsu and Cobra hovering over the prone forms of their friend's and glaring at their hands.
"Erm..." Lucy's voice caused them to spring back, a liberal coating of red dusting their cheeks.
"They liiiiiiike them."
"No I don't!" They both shouted, causing Erza to hit them.
"Don't wake them up!" She hissed, and the dragon slayers nodded, rubbing their heads painfully.
After the others got comfortable on the floor (or on Natsu's lap if you were Happy), they informed them on all that had happened up to now.
When they had finished, Lucy was trembling.
"So this house could be haunted!" Her teeth were chattering as she hugged herself, warily checking out the room as if a ghost was just waiting to pop out at them.
Natsu was tempted to spook her, but his guilt from leaving them behind earlier prevented him from doing so.
"I'd assume that all of the spirits are currently with the demon, except for the three resistors and this puppet slayer." Erza shot a perturbed glance at the mages lying in the bed.
"So these marks have spread?" Lucy's fear of ghosts had been replaced by a more serious mindset, and she examined the boys' arms herself.
"They do seem to have spread a little bit." She concluded eventually, biting her lip in distress.
"I wonder what this magic is doing to them, and who is this puppet slayer anyway?" Cobra shrugged in frustration, angry that they didn't know the answers to any of Erza's questions.
All of the mages (exempting the unconscious duo), sat in soundless contemplation, but the silence was broken when Lucy pointed out that it was getting dark.
"We found three other doors on this floor. One wouldn't budge no matter what we did, the ceiling must have collapsed and the debris must be blocking the entrance. But the other two open, yet all of the furniture has rotten away. We did find a cupboard with some spare blankets and things, though they're a little moth eaten." Lucy explained.
"Okay then, you two girls and Happy can take the bedrooms and we'll stay here with them." Erza stare turned harsh.
"You two need to get some rest, we'll watch over them for a while ."
"We'll take first watch." Natsu insisted. They bickered for a few minutes before Cobra sat resolutely next to Midnight. The girls sighed before capitulating, leaving the room.
Happy hovered uncertainly between the door and Natsu.
"Go ahead and sleep, buddy. We'll be fine." Happy deliberated for just a few more seconds, before he flew over to Natsu, hugging him tightly.
"Look after Gray." He mumbled into Natsu's chest.
"I will." Natsu whispered back, patting the exceed's head reassuringly.
Happy then flew after the girls, leaving Natsu and Cobra alone with their sleeping friends.
Everything remained calm for about an hour.
Natsu and Cobra were alerted to a problem when a high pitched keening noise was emitted from Gray's throat.
The pink haired dragon slayer's head whipped towards the bed, and he jumped up in terror when he noticed that Gray's entire arm was black. Midnight's was likewise purple.
Tears were racing down both mages cheeks, and Cobra and Natsu stared at them in despair.
They became thrashing around on the bed, and the dragon slayers tried to restrain their best friends.
"Mummy! Daddy!" Midnight yelled, struggling in Cobra's grip, and as he wiggled the marks spread from his shoulder to splay across is face.
Gray was in a similar state desperately choking a list of names.
"Daddy, mummy, Jun, Kyoko, Atsuko!" He wailed, and Natsu felt his own eyes well up at the childish voice that Gray was using. He didn't sound like Natsu's overly confident rival. He sounded like a frightened child, and it wrenched Natsu's heart. This fear was compounded when Natsu noticed the way the black demon marks were creeping insidiously across Gray's skin.
Lucy, Erza and Happy burst through the door.
"Are they all right?" Lucy inquired in a panicked tone.
"Do they look okay?" Cobra yelled as he practically sat on Midnight. That was when Midnight's magic kicked in, and tossed Cobra onto the floor, face down.
Gray's magic also activated at that moment, freezing Natsu's hand.
Said fire mage drew back with some colourful expletives, trying to melt the ice on his hand, but no matter how high he rocketed his body temperature, his hand remained frozen.
"Natsu look out!" Happy screeched, as the floor collapsed, Natsu's flames had weakened the already slightly unstable floor.
The blue exceed managed to catch him just before he tumbled through the new hole in the floor.
Cobra scrambled back from the bed as the it became encircled by two different types of magic. Dark, shadowy tendrils wrapped around a solid wall of ice, obscuring Gray and Midnight from the group.
The magical aura was terrifying, Gray and Midnight had been powerful before, but this was on a whole new level.
Then, as abruptly as the magic had flared up, the barrier fell.
Standing on the bed, where Gray and Midnight. Their bodies had been completely taken over by the marks. Their eyes had also changed. Gray's eyes were a stormy and tumultuous black. Midnight's were a sickly, glowing purple.
Their expressions were blank as they delivered a chilling message.
"You're in our way."
Yay, angst and demonic Gray and Midnight. We'll see you next time :)