WE ARE CAUGHT UP TO THE MOMENT AT THE BEGINNING OF THE FIRST CHAPTER. ARE YOU READY?! (After this there is only one more chapter to this story, and then onto part two!) So tell me, what should the next story be called:

1) Feel So Cold

2) Losing Control

3) Breaking Apart

Please vote in your review!

Held between heaven and hell

As they're dancing,

As they dance over and over

Over

The first thing she registered was the cold. It seeped into her flesh and bones, and it almost burned through her body, waking her at once. She coughed upon opening her eyes, there was something stuck in her throat. Her breath exhaled in a white cloud, and as she spat onto the ground she found that Jellal's punch had dislodged a tooth in her mouth. She felt around with her tongue, but the tooth was near the back and wasn't really important anyways.

The next thing Erza looked for was Gray. He had been with her when she was knocked out, and as he wasn't in good shape at the time, she wanted to make sure he was all right if he was here with her.

There just wasn't one person though; there were four, all slumped against the ground as she had been prior to waking. She recognized the rosy shine of Natsu's hair, the golden blonde that was Lucy's, and a dark head that must be Gray. The other person had long blue hair that was almost like Wendy's—but it couldn't be Wendy she reasoned, this other girl was much to tall.

She scooted towards the dark haired blob, grabbed his head as gently as she could, setting it in her lap, and then slapped him across the face.

He woke with a start, gasping, fists swinging, but she caught at his hands so he wouldn't hurt her. At the sight of her he stopped his motions, but didn't withdraw his hands from hers, so they kept them held tightly together, even as he sat up and removed his head from her lap.

"Where are we?" he asked her, as Natsu and Lucy began to stir. "Why are they here too?"

"Oh my darling shirtless boy," said a cold voice that was vaguely familiar from somewhere. Erza's head whipped around, and watched as a woman stepped into the room from a door she hadn't noticed before, shutting it tightly behind her, "That is such an excellent question. You're in a rather special room of mine. Now lets get this over with quickly so I can have some…words with Jellal."

"Get what over with?" Erza demanded, standing up—still holding Gray's hand.

"Answer her question," Natsu growled, apparently awake and kicking as he stood as well, his onyx eyes glaring at the woman.

"Your deaths," the woman said pleasantly, "You see, it's time for you to die. Oh, and don't expect a recuse—nobody knows where you are."

"Kill us?" said a small voice from the floor, and the tall girl who simply couldn't be Wendy stood up, almost as tall as Erza herself.

"You look so nice as an adult," the woman tapped her chin, "It's almost a shame to kill you."

"Why do you want to kill us?" Lucy asked shakily, her arm wrapping around Natsu's.

"Because one of you got to close," the woman pouted. "To close to revealing my secret to the rest of the guild. Seeing as this person was close to the other four, you threatened contaminating the rest."

"Who got close to what?" Erza asked slowly, and the woman smiled.

"To remembering who you really are, and you got close my dear."

"I did?" Erza's mind was spinning, remembering who she really was? Didn't she already know—

All inner speculations were shoved to the side as the woman raised a gun.

"Now if you cooperate, and die nicely, I might let the rest of your friends live," she said, cocking her head to the side. "Try and fight, and I promise you I will win. Not only am I all-powerful, but also there are men lining these halls. One word from me, and they take you out."

"Fine," Erza stepped forward. She didn't know what the hell was going on, but one thing was for certain. If this woman was certain on killing her friends, she couldn't let her get away with it. She would have to die if that was what it took.

Her Mother had once told her one day that there was always a moment in a person's life when time stood still, when even your heart stopped it's insistent beating in your chest. That, she had said, is when you know your life is about to change forever.

She herself had taken the words as a sign of romantic longing, a special circumstance for when you met your other half like the girl's in the storybooks she had once read. But she didn't have that reaction when her eyes fell upon Gray Fullbuster, sitting next to her on the school train without so much of a greeting, sketching her picture. She saw him as how everyone else did, that is to say—all at once and very fast, like time was supposed to move.

Their whole relationship had been fast, she realized, even though they had known each other for a year. It was astounding how in three hundred and sixty five days, one person could change your life so drastically with one 'See you later Scarlet.'

Now she realized she had misinterpreted her Mother's careful words. Time could stand still even when something was going to change your life for the worse. Even if you willed it to speed up again, because that moment is the most terrible moment of your life, and it's taking hours for her just to shut her eyes, to be prepared to take her last breath as the Duchess raised the gun, as she stepped in front of the group—as the other's called and yelled for her to stop.

She knew that they didn't have time to prepare a plan unless she did this. If she did this, the others could find a way to get out of here (wherever this was) and get back to the academy, safe and sound. She could buy them some time.

The Duchess's slim fingers close around the trigger, and then fired the bullet with a bang that she thought could be heard all around the world. The bullet should be moving faster, she thought, her eyes still closed. It should be sinking into her chest or stomach or head by now, not traveling as though the air was made of molasses. She shouldn't be frozen in place like this, all muscles locked like there is nothing she can do. Because she doesn't want to die, she realized. She wanted to live.

The horrible sound of a bullet squelching into flesh sounded throughout the room, and she suspected to feel the burning pain, she expected to die, to experience her last moments in the land of the living.

No pain came however, and as she opened her eyes she realized how very wrong she was. The bullet gone into her body, oh no, because that would've been okay for her to go on with. It would have been better then the reality.

"NO!" the scream burst from her mouth in a terrifying assembly of pain, as Gray, her maybe boyfriend and best friend, everything good about her life, stood in front of her, his whole body shaking as blood dotted the cement floor. His legs gave one last wobble and he careened backwards, slamming against the ground.

She fell to her knees beside him, all other noises fading away. She's screaming his name frantically, a terrible feeling in the pit of her stomach. The girl who looks like Wendy darted to his side, moving Gray's hands out of the way, ripping up his shirt to see the wound. But she has no tools, no weapons, no means to save him or ease the pain.

"Please hold on," she begged, her voice cracking as his eyes focused on her face with a steely determination. His hand grabbed at her hair, ripping out a few stands as he clenched the scarlet in-between his fingers like it's precious gold. He let go and a couple pieces drift to the ground, and she feels like she's falling with them. His hand moves to cup her face, his thumb rubbing circles of blood into her skin. She can hear Lucy speaking to Wendy, the sound of people running, of Natsu screaming in rage, but all she can see is him.

"See you later Scarlet," he coughed, trickles of frothy blood spewing from his lips.

"GRAY!" she screamed, frightened to let him go. His eyes are fluttering shut now, his chest is slowing down, every rattling breath becoming weaker as his life force slowly drained away, pooling around her knees and soaking her pajama bottoms in a scarlet river.

"Be… strong," he mumbled, "My Titantia." And with that the last breath left his lungs.

"Gray?" she cried, "Gray?"

"It's no use," said the Duchess, and she saw that Natsu was lying on the ground, dead or unconscious. "I've killed him, just as I originally planned."

Gray was dead.

Gray Fullbuster.

Dead.

Gone.

Never coming back.

Erza screamed.

The world exploded around her. The guards had entered the room at some point, probably when she was to wrapped up in saving Gray to care. But now he was dead, and as they stood with swords pointed around her, they looked like perfect targets.

She felt some kind of energy pulsing through her then, energy she was sure she hadn't felt for years, lying dormant in her soul. Somehow she knew how to direct that energy, so it circled around the room, lifting swords out of the guard's hands, making them attack their owners.

Like at they had at the Tower of Heaven. The thought struck her all at once, and it was like the gateway to a flood of memories—her real memories. The ones that had been suppressed by some kind of spell.

She knew that, but none of it mattered. All that mattered was the fact that Gray was lying on the floor prone, and he probably would never move again. That was the point to all this.

She raised her arms above her head, and all the weapons in the room flew towards her, hovering around her, above her head. Lucy and Wendy looked at her with dawning realization, as if they were remembering the things she was—remembering who Gray really was.

Now he was dead, before he could remember those things too. She narrowed her eyes at her opponents, their swords had taken few out, and now she intended to kill the rest. Gray was the only one who had died, and it wasn't fair. She needed blood.

Natsu was looking at her now, and at the sight of her, weapons poised midair all around her, he whitened.

"Erza?" he said in a voice that was horrified. She looked at him, her brown eyes emotionless. "I remember—what are you doing?"

"I'm going to kill them," she said, in a flat voice, looking towards the people that had taken their guild member from them.

"You do remember who you really are now don't you?" he asked, "Like I do now."

"Of course I do," she snapped, "and that is why this is going to happen. They killed Gray, Natsu. They killed one of our guild members. They took him away from us."

"I know," Natsu said softly, and she was surprised to see that his eyes were full of tears as well. "I know they did, but this, this isn't the answer. We need to figure out what they mean, and what we need to do now. Killing people isn't the answer." Erza looked at him, and the fact that it was Natsu, Natsu who loved violence, Natsu who had always been itching for a fight, asking her this, made her turn the weapons around.

She let them go forward, but instead of cutting into flesh, of blasting people apart, they only knocked them on the heads, putting them out like a light, but not killing them.

She let the weapons fall then, her mind spinning. Gray was dead, and even knowing who she was now didn't matter. It didn't matter because Gray was dead.

"Natsu!" a voice, who Erza now knew was Lisanna's shrieked from the doorway. "Natsu c'mon, we're here to take you back to headquarters!"

a/n: Okay so basically, as I will explain as some point, Erza does have power of weapons. This was demonstrated in her past, when her Grandpa Rob jumps in front of her to protect her in the tower of heaven, she screams and the guard's weapons fly upwards. SO YEAH!

And her powers, kind of awakened the others memories? Yeah… Well leave a review please, and don't give up on Gray just yet….