So much yaoi! What's that you guys say? You want MORE Gratsu! Well, here you go. Chapter 4 everybody!
Chapter 4: Don't Forget Me
The festival was illuminated with glowing lanterns that lined the paths where people walked about, most dressed up and wearing masks. Natsu had his dragon mask over his face and was goofing off with a group of kids, blowing fire and running around, while the kids giggled and dodged his blows.
"Ha ha! I am the great dragon! Natsu Dragneel!" Natsu hollored as he blew a raging fire into the sky. The townsfolk around ooh'd and ah'd and clapped. Natsu grabbed the kids in his arms in a great big hug. "Now the dragon is going to get you!" The kids screamed and giggled as they tried to wiggle themselves free.
Gray laughed. "Come on dragon, we've got work to do. Enough goofing off."
"Rawr! Sounds like Mr. No-fun wants to get eaten by the dragon!" Natsu let go of the kids, who ran around giggling, and got ready to pounce on Gray. A crowd had begun to gather around, clearly intrigued with the show.
"Ice-make floor!" Gray shouted. Suddenly Natsu's feet were slipping and sliding all over the place. He fell on his butt hard.
"Oof." Natsu complained, rubbing his back-end.
"I've slain the dragon! Now that's the end of our story folks, I hope you have a great night!" The crowd clapped and cheered, and finally dispersed.
Gray reached out a hand to Natsu, who was still sitting on the ice-floor that was starting to melt from the body heat of the dragon slayer.
Natsu ignored the hand and tried to get up, but fell again. Gray sighed and grabbed both of Natsu's arms, pulling him up.
"Come on, trouble. We got to find this guy." Gray said, motioning to follow.
Natsu came over, carefully watching his footing around the bits of ice that still remained. "You know, you could have been a little nicer. I already have a sore ass from yesterday, you know. Do have something against my tush?"
Gray blushed but laughed. "No, I love your tush." And he gave it a light slap.
Natsu jumped. "Asshole!" He looked around, but either nobody noticed, or nobody cared, because everyone was just going about their night, having fun.
"Relax." Gray grinned, trying not to laugh at the slightly peeved, yet, embarrassed look on Natsu's face.
They walked past a small clock tower and Gray looked up. Already nine o'clock. They needed to find this guy quick. Alright Gray, stop messing around. Time to get to work.
"Why don't we split up? We need to find this guy. If any explosions are going to go off, it will be soon, when the festival is at its peak."
"Yeah, probably. Alright, I'll cheek the west end, you check the east end. We'll meet back here in an hour, even if we don't find anything. If we do, we'll fire off our magic as a signal." Natsu said, getting into work-for-Fairy Tail mode. When it came to the guild, he definitely showed a new kind of enthusiasm.
"Good idea. That way we'll get the location too. Alright then, let's go!" Gray nodded, impressed at Natsu's planning.
The two of them parted ways at a run. Gray ran towards the far east of the festival, planning to make his way back to the center. The way Natsu kept running, it looked like he was thinking the same thing.
Gray checked in between the shops, around the bathrooms, and around where there were performers doing acrobatics and putting on shows, but he found nothing. The clock now said ten minutes to ten. He sighed, getting ready to make his way back. He turned around sharply and accidentally hit his head off of one of the posts.
"Ouch…" He rubbed his head at the now tender spot with his hand. Some guy snickered at him and he glared at the guy, who quickened his pace.
That's when he noticed it. The flyers were clung all over the post. He looked around and saw that it wasn't just this one post, but all of them. They all were covered with brightly coloured papers that read 'Don't miss the fireworks at 11:00!"
He hesitated, hoping he was wrong, and peeled off one of the flyers and flipped it around to see the back of it. Sure enough, a magic circle with a time limit displayed brightly over the top shone a deathly glow through the night. He peeled off another flyer on another post. Same thing. There must be thousands of bombs scattered all around the festival. If they all went off at the same time, it would make an explosion big enough to bring the town off the map!
"Ice-make canon!" Gray fired a blast at all the flyers in sight.
"Hey watch it!" A man with his son complained.
"Take your kid and get out of here as fast and as far away as you can. This entire festival is covered with bombs!" And Gray raced off to find the dragon slayer. He couldn't warn Natsu with a warning blast with his magic. With this many bombs, he was afraid that a large attack like that would make the one responsible detonate the explosions early. He hoped that it wasn't too late.
MEANWHILE…
Natsu was running around looking for the bombs. He really didn't know where they would be, so he just checked everywhere.
He glanced at the people who were starting to make their way to the fireworks so as to get the good spots. He sighed. He wished that the stupid ice freak could take him to the fireworks, but work came first.
He sniffed the air, trying to see if he could smell a wizard, since wizards always had a different scent from a regular person. They smelt a lot like the kind of magic they used. If there was anybody around here that smelled like a bomb or an explosion, he would know.
Nothing, but he could smell Gray coming his way in a rush. "Did he forget where we were meeting or that if we need anything, we just use our magic to call each other?"
Natsu leaned against one of the posts, waiting for Gray.
That's when he noticed it. A familiar scent. He pressed his nose against the flyers and the smell of destruction magic and a familiar person clung to them. He took off a flyer and stared at the numbers that were ticking down. By the looks of it, the bombs would blow up when the entire town was gathered for the fireworks. The whole population would be gathered to feel the effects of the blow. He kept his nose working as he sniffed out the familiar scent of the person who was to blame for this.
He rounded the corner to see a man in a suit with dark hair and eyes.
"Hello again Natsu." The man from the bar the day before smiled pleasantly at Natsu, as if he wasn't about to blow up a town. He still had a bruise on his face from where Gray hit him, and now Natsu was glad Gray had beaten up the man. "Zenear at your service. Want to cry on my shoulder again?"
Natsu spat in Zenear's direction. "You lowlife. What the hell do you think you're doing?"
"Oh don't be offended Natsu, I didn't betray you. I've been planning this long before I ever met you, though I had heard the stories, and dear me, they do not do you justice." He scanned Natsu's body up and down as if he was a kid staring at a piece of candy that he just couldn't wait to devour. "Delicious."
"Shut up, bastard!" Natsu lite his fists with a blazing fire and tried to take a swing at Zenear but he simply held out his hand and made a magic circle. Natsu had to dodge to avoid the explosion. Natsu tried a second attack, but the pattern repeated itself.
"Give it a rest. You can't beat me that way." Zener laughed.
"We'll see about that." He gathered his magical power in the pit of his stomach and in his mouth. Natsu's stomach swelled and he was about to unleash his attack when-
"Go ahead, but I've surrounded a bunch of bombs surrounding myself that only needs a bit of fire to set them off. And if these go off, it is not I that will blow up, haha no dear Natsu, but those at those fireworks." Natsu had just enough time to aim his attack into the sky rather than at those bombs. At least his attack wasn't wasted. Gray would see it and come to help.
Zenear continued, glancing at the growing crowd. "Look at the time now! Only half-an-hour until the big show! Oh this is exciting."
"Bombs is a cheap trick you asshole." Natsu spat. He needed a strategy, but he was coming up blank. If only there wasn't so many people nearby he could take this guy out easily.
Zenear laughed and clapped as if he had been waiting for Natsu to say that the whole time.
"What's so funny?" Natsu demanded, pissed off. Come on Gray.
"I have another trick you know." Zenear took a step forward. "Want to see?" And faster than Natsu would have thought possible, Zenear was in front of Natsu and placed the tip of his fingers against his forehead. "I'll see you when you wake up." And Natsu screamed as his mind was blinded. It felt as if his brain was burning. The last thing Natsu saw before he blacked out was Gray coming to the scene and running towards him as his body fell to the floor.
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Gray was holding Natsu in his arms, resting the pink head against his arm. Natsu body shook violently. "Hey. Come on Natsu, this isn't funny. Wake up. God dammit wake up Natsu!" Gray slammed his fist against the ground, "Damn it!" He turned his attention to the smiling man who did this. Zenear was watching the scene with an amused look on his face, waiting patiently for what will happen next.
"What. The. Hell. Did. You. Do To. Him." Gray's words came out as poison. A tear threatened to escape out of the corner of his eye from his anger and fear for Natsu, who gave another compulsion.
"I rewrote him." Zenear said simply, shrugging his shoulders.
Gray's face paled. He'd heard of this kind of magic. It was similar to Freed's magic, but instead of writing or rewriting rules, it rewrote a person's mind. Their thoughts, their personality, their memories, all of it. This magic had the power to turn the purest of people into crooked henchmen for the wielder. The magic council had banned it long before Gray had even become a wizard and all those who had used it had been arrested. Looks like they missed one.
Gray set Natsu down gently against the side of a shop. The touch of the usually blazing skin felt cold against his own. That couldn't be good. Natsu's magic power was almost completely drained from his body.
"Don't worry about the shaking. His body is just in shock from the sudden overwrite. Give him a few minutes and he'll be up and awake and bouncing about, though he might not be who you remember." Zenear clapped his hands excitedly. "Even I don't know how he'll turn out."
"What do you mean you don't know?" Gray demanded. He didn't know everything about this magic, but he did know that the castor chose how the victim was rewritten.
"You see," Zenear explained. "When I was still in training, my teacher was arrested for using the rewrite magic. I managed to escape, but as a result, I was never able to choose how a mind was rewritten. Even when my teacher escaped and came back for me, I still remained unable to master it." A twisted and evil smile clouded his face, making it look somehow infinitely more menacing than before.
"How did you not improve if your teacher came back?" Gray could only imagine the kinds of things Ur could have taught him if only she could come back to him in the flesh.
"Well you see," Zenear took a step forward and threw his head up to the sky in laughter. "I killed him! Drove him mad! Ah, it was so intriguing. My powers were so random that even I didn't know what they could do. The way his face looked after I used my magic on him? Beautiful! The way he took his own sword, with tears crawling their way down his face like a slave crawling on the ground in mercy at his master's feet, and pierced his own flesh. Ah, what a beautiful sight. The thrill of being the main factor, yet still leaving everything up to chance. How wonderful a feeling! Tell me don't agree."
Gray swallowed back the bile in his mouth, leaving an aftertaste that burned his mouth and throat. This man… killed his own mentor. Deliberately and purposefully murdered him in cold blood. And now he laughs about it? Calls it wonderful? Gray only wished he punched the guy harder the first time. "You sick son of a bitch." Gray's voice was a mere whisper from the horror he felt at what this person had done.
"Sorry you feel that way. I was hoping that we could get over our differences. I was even willing to forgive you for punching me the other day." Zenear walked over with a nonchalant stride. "Oh well. It probably wouldn't have happened anyway. You see, we are both after the same person." He nodded his head at Natsu. "I've taken a liking to him. His skin looks so smooth. But I couldn't have him as he was, loving you and all. No, he needed to be made a new. However he turns out, it doesn't matter. It's his body that intrigues me anyways."
"Ice-make canon!" Gray pointed the weapon straight at Zenear's head. He'd never been so ready to shot anybody as he was now.
"My oh my. What an intense look." Zenear whispered thoughtfully to himself. "You know, you're quite the looker yourself. How about you forget this whole thing and come along with me?"
"Fuck off. And while you're at it, stop those bombs." Gray fired the canon, aiming straight at Zenear's head, who dodged it easily.
"Oh, those bombs weren't real. Just something to lure some unlucky folks such as yourselves. You see, it's not very exciting is you already know the fate of others. I knew they would hire somebody to track me down. It just so happened to be you two."
"Ice-make floor!" The ground under Zenear's feet became a deadly skating rink. He lost his footing and fell to the side. Gray wasn't taking anymore nonsense. This guy just wanted to torture Natsu, then probably kill him. And that was something Gray would never allow. "Ice-make spear." Gray slid over to the man who struggled to get up, but to no avail. Gray stopped right in front of him and glared down at him.
"Are you going to kill me? You have murderous eyes when you're angry, has anybody ever told you that? Beautiful. The same look that those who have gone insane under my spell have."
Gray brought the spear down, staring straight into the insane eyes beneath him.
But Gray only used the spears point to pin the psychopath to the ground. "Shut up and stay there and rot. Bastard" He stood up and took a deep breath. "Ice-make handcuffs! Ice-make cage!" A heavy set of cold hand-cuffs formed around Zenear's hands and a thick cage surrounded him. He turned around and picked Natsu up on his back. Just like before this terrible mission had started.
"He's not as far gone as you think he is." Zenear said.
"What?" Gray turned around, despite himself.
"My magic has a way to reverse itself."
There was a way to fix this? "You better not be lying."
"Of course not. And you know, I won't even ask you to let me out."
"What kind of game are you playing at, you psycho." Gray needed to get Natsu to a hospital. No more of these games.
"Nope, what I want, is to see what he turns into when he wakes up." He stared at Natsu as he shuddered. "Stay for a minute longer. You can't say you aren't curious to see what will happen."
"I'm not. I'm not twisted like you." Gray reached over into one of the abandoned shops and pulled out a phone. He dialed a number and waited as it rang. "Hello minister. My name is Gray Fullbuster of the Fairy Tail guild. I have a pick-up for you. Get to Seirion town fast. We're at the festival. Send up a flare when you get here and I'll point you in the right direction." He hung up the phone and glared at Zenear evenly. "You have until the magic council gets here to arrest you."
"You certainly are an interesting one." Zenear shifted his body as best as he could, seeing as he was still pinned to the ground and handcuffed. "Not exactly the best seat in the house, but it will have to do."
Gray ignored the insane blabbering from Zenear. He didn't think that any doctor would know how to reverse the spell. He needed to know how to help Natsu, even if it meant giving in a little to the sadistic game.
He put Natsu down carefully on the ground. Not more than thirty seconds passed before he heard a small whimper escape from the dragon slayer.
"At last." Zenear gave a final, insane laugh as flames exploded around Natsu.
Natsu opened his eyes and sat up slowly, carefully.
"…Natsu? Are you all right?" Gray asked softly.
Natsu screamed and looked around wildly. "Get away from me! Why is there fire? Everything just go away!"
"Natsu, it's me, Gray." He spoke quietly. The insane edge that crept into Natsu's mind was terrifying.
"I know who you are! You asshole. You betrayed me!" The flames grew bigger. "Get away. Everything! The fire, the people, my thoughts, and especially you!"
"I would never betray you. And you are a fire dragon slayer. That's your fire." Gray tried to reason with him.
Natsu only shook his head. "My head hurts. Stop thinking. I need to stop thinking. I need to stop thinking…" Natsu continued his mumblings darting his eyes to every corner. A mouse scurried to an old wrapper that fell on the ground from the festival near Natsu. "NO!" He swatted his hand and the mouse barely got out of the way in time.
"Ah. So his memory has changed. And he seems to hate you. He also seems a bit traumatized. Afraid to be near anything that moves. Very interesting. Now I wonder what you did to him." Zenear smirked at Gray.
"I didn't do anything. This is all you! Now how do I fix him?" Gray slammed his fists against the cage wall.
"Nothing you don't already know how to do. He needs to relive his fondest memory. Ha ha. Now, I wonder what that could be?"
Gray thought about it. He wondered if it could be… last night. He blushed and looked at the dragon slayer, who kept glancing at Gray with a scared look on his face. It would be hard getting near Natsu when he was like that. And the one thing he didn't want to do was rape Natsu.
A flare lite up the sky. Gray smiled, "Looks like your ride's here, you crazy bastard." He brought his hands up to the sky. "Ice-make lance!"
It didn't take long for members of the magic council to arrive at the scene.
"There's your cargo. His name is Zenear. He uses rewrite magic. And he's a psychopathic killer. Somehow I doubt he'll hold back any information." Gray shuddered. "He was pretty honest about who he killed and how."
"We understand and we thank you for your consideration. Try to stay out of trouble." One of the officers said, motioning the rest of the force to surround Zenear. They dissolved the cage and replaced the ice handcuffs for magic cancelling ones.
"Whatever. Just get him out of here and do your job."
"What about your friend?" The officer went to Natsu and tried to help him up, but Natsu screamed and fell back, kicking and trying to crawl away. "What the hell?"
"This guy has a messed up magic and twisted idea of a good time. You might want to keep those handcuffs on him." Gray answered, approaching Natsu as one would do with a scared animal. Slowly and as non-threateningly as he could. "Get out of here. You're freaking him out."
"We'll leave him in your care then." They loaded up Zenear.
Before the doors closed to the magical vehicle, Zenear called back to Gray. "It's been fun Gray, let's meet again someday." The slamming of the doors and the squealing of tires was one of the best sounds Gray had ever heard.
"Don't count on it." He mumbled
He bent down and grabbed Natsu's hand, who flinched hard at the touch. Gray frowned. "This is just a bad dream. Let me wake you up from it."
"I don't know who you are anymore." Natsu whispered, expressionless. Gray could see in the dragon slayers eyes that the innocent world that Natsu had created for himself where everything worked out in the end, was collapsing.
"Don't say that." Gray said softly, trying to reach out for the dragon slayer, but was knocked away.
"Stay away! Who are you to me?!" Natsu shouted through his tears.
"I'm your friend Natsu! Your best friend! And I'm your boyfriend! I love you! Don't forget me! What we have!" Gray shouted back. He would fight the doubt in Natsu's mind. He had to. He grabbed Natsu's face between his hands, forcing him to the green eyes to look at him. "I would NEVER hurt you."
"Liar!" Natsu bent down to the floor and started to cry. Gray had seen Natsu shed tears before. Natsu had been abandoned, had seen comrades die, and hurt themselves, sometimes on his account, but never once had Natsu completely broken down. Natsu always moved forward no matter what happened. That was one of the things that Gray admired most about the dragon slayer. The one thing Gray had always had problems with.
He had to get Natsu back!
HAHA! I've successfully created a mood and then destroyed it! (Don't worry, do you seriously think I would leave like this?)
REVIEW! (please)