We'd say sorry for the cliffhanger, but we really enjoyed it ;) Now Gray and Midnight's demon powers have kicked in and the others have to snap them out of it.
Dragonlover89 : They're are adorable when they're jealous. And all will be revealed, though you'll have to be patient...
AsDarknessSpreads : Hehe, you're close with your guess. And Gray was saying a list of names. Jun, Kyoko and Atsuko.
Vedra77 : Thank you, and their fighting is going to be a lot more advanced.
Guest : We love cliffhangers and were happy that you enjoyed Erza's P.O.V. About your guess, you'll find out this chapter :)
Disclaimer : If we owned Fairy Tail then it would be a yaoi. It is not a yaoi.
Natsu felt his horror mounting up as his friend stared at him with cold black eyes, not even a hint of recognition within the ebony depths.
The magical pressure in the room was overwhelming. Natsu had pretty much never felt auras this strong before.
Gray's chilly eyes fixed on his.
"You need to leave this city." His tone held no true inflection, the simple warning holding no signs that Gray was his friend.
And it hurt.
It hurt to see Gray like this.
The demon slayers stepped down gracefully so that they were standing in front of their friends.
Small patches of ice sprang up with every step, as Gray walked forwards to be face to face with Natsu.
Midnight's steps caused shadows to pool around his feet as he moved to stand in front of Cobra.
"Gray..." Natsu desperately scoured his friends face for any sign that the pain in the ass ice block that he was used to was still in there.
"Leave." His friend ordered. Gray and Midnight stared at them, judgingly.
"We aren't leaving you to face this alone." Cobra blurted out, and Midnight and Gray laughed cruelly.
"We aren't alone..."
"...Because we are working together." Rage flared up inside of Natsu. Was Gray choosing Midnight's help over his own?
The demon slayers exchanged a look, and their lips tilted up harshly.
"In fact, you could say that us working together..." Midnight began, moving closer to Gray.
"...Is destiny." Gray looped his arms around Midnight's neck. Cobra hissed, and Natsu snarled.
The girls were muttering behind them, trying to figure out what was causing this bizarre behaviour.
"We are connected in a way that you can never hope to match up to." Gray sneered, pulling Midnight closer so that their bodies were flush together.
"We're the last survivors of this village..."
"...The only souls to survive..."
"...So I guess that you could say that we're..."
"...Soul mates!" They finished this speech together. Natsu's body was instantly engulfed in flames, though his hand remained encased in ice.
Blood splattered onto the rotten floorboards as Cobra unconsciously activated some of his magic and his nails grew into claws, digging into the soft skin of his palms.
"WHAT!" Lucy almost choked at those words. Erza had summoned a sword, and her grip tightened on it.
Even Happy had realised the gravity of the situation as he didn't make a pun about them liiiiiiking each other.
"What the hell are you babbling on about?" Natsu knew that his voice was dangerous, but seeing this demonic version of his friend wrapped around Midnight triggered dark and possessive feelings in Natsu.
Gray was his rival, his guild mate and his best friend.
From the angry growls that Cobra was emitting, Natsu knew that he was thinking similar things about Midnight.
"Why do you have a problem with that? It's not like we're dating or anything." Gray's tone was mocking as he hugged Midnight. Midnight wrapped his arms around Gray's waist and pressed himself even closer to Gray.
"Midnight..." Cobra's voice was broken, and sad, his face a mask of confusion.
Natsu took a shaky breath. He was pissed, but if he didn't control himself soon then he would collapse even more of the floor. His flames died down slowly, but it was an immense struggle, especially with Midnight's arms draped over the waist of his best friend.
"Gray, we're your guild mates. We're your friends. We've been partners on so many missions. Why wont you accept our help?"
"All we need is each other." Midnight's voice was spiteful, and Cobra flinched.
"Yeah, you are nothing to us." Natsu felt the same way as he had when Igneel had disappeared on him, someone immensely important to him was giving him up like he was nothing.
He clenched his teeth in an attempt to refrain from punching Gray's lights out.
And then something even worse happened.
One of Gray's hands moved from Midnight's shoulders, tilting his head up gently. Midnight gazed into his eyes before their lips met in a gentle kiss.
Time seemed to stop as the demon slayers embraced, lips joined together.
Natsu felt as if the ground had fallen out from underneath him again.
Cobra was spluttering whereas the girls were shrieking. Happy was wide eyed, gaze moving between the lip locking mages and the dragon slayers, worry apparent on his face.
They drew back from the kiss after an eternity of hell. Their eyes were satisfied, and they glanced at the shell shocked mages.
"We only need each other." Gray repeated Midnight's sentiment from before. Midnight giggled eerily.
"So don't bother coming after us again." The space around them rippled and distorted, and they vanished in a glow of purple.
Natsu and Cobra both sank to the floor. Natsu buried his face into his hands, in shock. Tears shone in Cobra's eyes.
Lucy watched the two boys crumple to the ground with muted horror.
She couldn't wrap her head around the fact that Gray and Midnight had just kissed. To be honest, she had always thought that there was something... strange about Gray and Natsu's relationship, and Cobra had seemed to be the same way with Midnight.
Lucy scrambled to find an explanation for this behaviour. Could their new demon slaying magic have really warped their personalities this much?
And then it clicked.
This magic had been gifted to Gray and Midnight to save this city, and only those two had been figured in as part of this plan.
From what she could deduce, the spirits of the town had tried to separate Gray from the guild with the whole Daphne episode. Midnight's guild being incarcerated had been a lucky coincidence.
But they hadn't given up on their friends, and the spirits hadn't really expected them to follow them.
So they had devised a new way to try and prevent other people from interfering. They had targeted Natsu and Cobra, the two who had been most dedicated to pursuing their friends by forcing Gray and Midnight to act like that.
But that wouldn't work unless... Lucy glanced at the two dragon slayers. Cobra was crying softly on the floor whilst Natsu looked as if his world had shattered.
If the situation hadn't have been so dire right now, Lucy would have squealed at this confirmation.
And her theory didn't work exactly, that mysterious woman had helped them to find the city so she obviously wanted them to help Gray and Midnight.
But who else could be manipulating Gray and ...
"Guys, we have to find them, now!" Her voice was alarmed, and Cobra nodded, wiping the tears off his face as he stood up. But Natsu shook his head.
"Natsu?" Erza's tone was inquisitive and the fire dragon slayer's head whipped up so that his angry eyes met hers.
"Screw him." Lucy gasped at Natsu's harsh words. She had never seen Natsu give up on anybody, ever, much less Gray.
Natsu's entire countenance was angry and hurt. Lucy realised that Natsu hated being abandoned more then anything, and it looked as if Gray had just left him.
He evidently hadn't caught on to what was happening.
"The demon's controlling them!" Lucy exclaimed, and all eyes flicked towards her. Erza nodded thoughtfully.
"That makes sense. As demon slayers, they are technically host to a low level demon, or at least they become a somewhat demonic entity similar to the dragonification. As they are new to this magic, the demon might be manipulating them."
"You are correct, young mages." Everyone jumped and turned to see the same woman from the woods hovering in front of them.
"The children are vulnerable to the demon's presence right now, their magic is new and volatile. When they learn to control their new powers, they will be a formidable foe for the demon, but at the moment they are easy prey. The demon sought to upset you, to push you away from your friends so that they had no hope of regaining their senses. However, the demon was not able to completely control the boys and he spirited them away to a place where his spirits can lead them to him."
"So... that wasn't really how they felt?" Natsu's tone was hopeful, but it also held guilt. Lucy knew that he was regretting his words from earlier.
"No, in fact, it was far from how they feel about each other." The words "each other" were said with a knowing smile.
"Dragon slayers." Cobra and Natsu snapped to attention. The lady drifted to a halt in front of them, and her ghostly hand floated over Natsu's frozen arm. The ice disappeared.
"You may be the only hope to wake your friends before the demon claims their souls. Good luck." She shimmered out of existence, but Lucy observed the woman mournfully looking at the scribbled picture on the wall before she faded.
They stood for a few minutes, before Happy piped up.
"Guys, we need to go."
This prompted the mages to exit the house. The two dragon slayers were trying to locate the mages scent. Luckily, they caught it quite quickly this time, and they were soon racing in the direction of their errant friends.
They tore through the abandoned streets, knowing that this mission could not be failed. Not just for the safety of their friends, but also for the sake of their entire country. Because if the demon rose, no place would be truly safe.
They arrived, breathless to see Midnight and Gray's limp bodies being dragged by a collection of spectres.
Their friends' eyes were open, but glazed. That was until their captures noticed the arrival of the group.
Lucy gulped as the evil tint returned to the demonic eyes, and their friends stood.
"It looks as if they didn't understand our message." Midnight folded his arms, fake disappointment displayed on his face. Gray tsked, shaking his head.
"Looks like we'll just have to drive the point home." His hands glowed with magic, and Erza shouted that they shouldn't let the ice touch them.
Lucy remembered the way that the frost had remained on Natsu's arm despite his flames, and she jumped back to avoid letting the cold magic touch her skin.
Unfortunately, she had forgotten Midnight, and the illusion mage teleported behind her, kicking her to the ground mid leap.
Lucy crashed to the floor, her head bouncing of the ground. Her vision went black.
Natsu howled when Lucy was taken down, and Erza clenched her sword.
"I'm sorry." She muttered under her breathe, before lunging towards Gray, sword outstretched. Gray turned to her and made no effort to move away from the weapon.
It was to late for Erza to adjust her swing, she had anticipated Gray dodging the sword.
The sword slid into Gray's stomach.
A great crack was heard, and Erza jolted away from the weapon as the sword froze inside of Gray's gut.
"Got you." Erza turned, but it was too late. Gray was behind her, ice cannon at the ready. She managed to evade the projectile weapon but Gray's icy laugh caused her to freeze momentarily.
A fatal mistake. Erza's last moment of awareness had her looking up as a giant ice hammer fell from above.
Happy flew towards Gray bravely, hoping that maybe he could wake the ice mage up. His tail was suddenly grasped, and he was flung into a wall by a smirking Midnight.
Now only the slayers remained.
Midnight teleported so that he was standing next to Gray again.
"Pathetic." He sneered.
"We didn't even have to use our new powers to take them down." Gray chuckled.
"No, but you're a different story." Midnight watched them curiously, as if they were interesting specimens to be dissected.
"You might actually be a challenge."
The battle between the demon slayers and the dragon slayers commenced.
Naughty Gray and Midnight, upsetting their dragon slayers like that. The other boys will just have to knock some sense into them.