Hi guys! I forgot to include my little PSA in the first chapter so here ya go!

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail. Duh

Rated T: Swearing, Violence, Adult themes. You know the drill. If you're under 14, this may corrupt your innocent mind.

Pairings: Gruvia (Obvs) but also some NaLu and other, random pairings.

Authors Note: This isn't JUST about pairings, so if that's all you're looking for, you've come to the wrong place. Also, any reference to "Absolute Zero" in this does not refer to Silver from the current arc of the Manga, who has that phrase written on his armor. I'm using the term with total poetic license here.

Anyway, enjoy!

Ah, sleep. Glorious, glorious sleep. I lay there, bundled in my blankets, no thoughts whirling in my head until I drifted away into a blissful, dark, warmth.

Well.

That was the plan.

Instead, as soon as I closed my eyes, I was in the wasteland again. Mavis, I was getting sick of this sort of thing. I had never been very poetic or thoughtful so god knows why I kept on getting sucked into these horrible, haunting nightmares. Was it some kind of messed up metaphor or something. It meant something profound. Probably.

"Right," I said loudly, "Can I please go now, so I can have a nice dream about going to the shops naked or something?"
No reply.

Go figure.

I looked around. One thing that was quite odd about the dream land I was revisiting was how real it felt. You know what I mean. You have a dream and while some part of your mind thinks it's real, the majority of it passes by in unrealistic flashes. Contorted shapes. People you knew acting out of character. There were usually pretty clear signs that it was a dream and not reality.

Not this time. The air felt real, cold and harsh against my bare skin. I was naked as well, and that felt real. I'd know, it's pretty much my default setting, nakedness. My body felt real, the heartbeat regular, the skin tingling just like it would in a snow felt real and everything around me looked just like it would if the world did come to a grisly, freezing end. The only thing that seemed too extreme, too horrible, was the cold. I dimly remembered being cold. While I had been chilly the day before, it hadn't compared to this. It was like it was when I had been training with Ur and Lyon. I hadn't been very powerful or very good at using my Ice magic back then, so the cold had been horrible. Every day, trying my hardest to muster some form of Ice magic, just enough to protect me from the bitter cold. Some days I would collapse from the strain of it. Cold isn't just a nasty feeling, something that makes you shiver. It's harsh and it drains you. You just want to curl up and sleep, to distance yourself from that biting chill. Ice sucks. Which is why I use Ice magic. Imagine that feeling multiplied and targeting you, and only you. That's the beauty of Ice magic, it is the perfect offense, for not only is it attacking you directly but it is also sapping your strength. Wrapping my arms around me, I began to feel a little guilty. How many people had I mercilessly attacked with my magic? Countless. It was all for good reasons but that didn't make the suffering they went through any less painful.

In some circumstances, that wasn't a bad thing.

"Gray." I looked around. My breath caught in my throat and I had to force myself not to fall on my ass. Yeah, the woman standing in front of me had appeared in my dreams before but never this real.

"Ur," I choked, feeling my heart rush with grief and guilt. Come on Gray, pull yourself together!

"Are you afraid, Gray?" she said. She looked the same as she had always done. Astonishing beauty mixed with an imperious sternness that in turn was coupled with a modicum of love and care. Only she didn't look caring. Her short, dark hair was ragged, frozen in parts. She too was naked and her body was slowly being frozen, bit by bit. Ice creeping up her legs from the ground, to her navel, and higher.

"Of course you're afraid. You're a coward after all." I didn't reply. Truth be told, I was afraid. I was a coward.

The thing that pissed me off was that I had no idea why.

"Gray-sama." came another voice. I knew it of course. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and turned. Juvia was in the same shape as Ur and I couldn't help but blush. Were my dreams too cheap to afford clothing or something?

"Do you love Juvia? Gray-sama," The girl said. I noticed her hands turning blue, as blue as her ragged, torn hair. Her eyes, usually a stunning deep blue, were blank and lifeless. I didn't reply, staring down at the snow. My legs too were beginning to freeze, numbing, slowly but surely.

Did I love her? Good freaking question. There was something there. Maybe.

I have the emotional maturity of a scabby horse. Sue me.

"I don't know," I muttered.

"Juvia is sad without Gray-sama. Juvia does not know why she loves him. He is worthless. He is a coward. He is weak."

I was all of those things. I knew that.

"Gray,"

Who was it now? With a heavy heart, I turned. I was greeted by many voices, all around me. Figures began to advance on me, all freezing in this wasteland. Natsu, Lucy, Erza, Happy. There was Lyon too, and Ultear. My family, long dead at the hands of Deliora, the demon.
"Coward," They all said. I just stared at my feet. "Worthless. Weak. Stupid. Useless." It repeated. Again and again, growing louder as they all chanted about how terrible I was.

Over.

and.

Over.

"GET OUT!" I screamed. I noticed numbly that I was crying, and as I roared, Ice burst up from the ground and suddenly, they were all frozen, haunting blue statues of death.

"GRAY."

The final voice was loud. It was obviously one single entity and it was just as obviously not. It had the power of thousands. It sounded immortal.
I looked up. The voice roared again, not out loud, but in my head. A cacophony of horrible, angry sound.

The figure stood above me. It was really big. It was really scary.

It was really familiar.

"Deliora." I whispered, my voice shaking with absolute terror.

I watched as Zeref's great demon clenched a huge fist and brought it crashing down upon my head.

All I could do was watch.

And wait.

While I died.

I screamed like a little girl for the second time in 24 hours. It took me a few seconds of dreamlike confusion to realize that I was fine. I was safe. I was at home.

I was still cold. Darn. I would have to do something about that at some point. I pushed my covers off me and walked to my small fireplace in my room. The room was also connected to my kitchen and the bathroom was just off the hall. Before I went to relieve myself, I peered out of the curtains. It was late morning. I had slept for a long time.

When I returned from pissing and made myself coffee, I heard a pounding on my door.

"GRAY. IT'S NATSU." I growled down at my coffee.

"AND HAPPY."

"I DON'T HAVE ANY FISH!" I bellowed back. I then walked down the stairs and opened my front door. A few years before, Natsu had tried to kick it down, leaving the metal security fittings bent. I needed to drop my shoulder and put my whole body into opening it, but I did so.
"Dude," Natsu said, looking at me in shock, "It's not past 10 yet!"

"So?" I growled at him.

"You're wearing pants!"

I looked down. So I was.

"What do you want?" I said, turning around and expecting the two to follow.

"We're going on a job. Wanna come?" I frowned at this. That was unusual. Usually, Natsu and Happy never went on a mission with just me. We'd usually end up fighting or breaking something unfortunately expensive.

"Not Lucy?"

"Nah," Natsu looked sheepish, still standing in the doorway. "We've been a bit rocky lately. Dunno what's wrong with her." I rubbed the bridge of my nose. He even talked about the celestial spirit mage like the two were in a relationship, but the stubborn idiots had never gotten close to that. I just shook my head and declined to comment.

"What's the job?"

"Haunted mansion,"

"Pay?"

"100,000 each."

I whistled. The haunting was probably nothing. We got those, paranoid customers who will pay a dime to see you chant a few words and make something go bang. Placebo effect ensues. We get paid. The one thing I like more than paranoid customers were wealthy paranoid customers.
"I'm in. See you at the town gate in half and hour."

I went to get ready, still thinking about the dream as Natsu and Happy wandered off.

I really hoped it didn't mean anything.

Really hoped.