"Blegh"
"How long's he been like this?"
"I dunno. Pussy."
"He doesn't look well."
"If he's going to sleep, does he have to do it on my bar?"
"AH!" I yelled loudly, sitting up. I totally did not scream like a little girl again.
Totally.
There was a moment of silence, nothing more, as onlookers blinked in rapid succession.
"See. He's all good."
I was in Fairy Tail. Okay. Good. I was wearing my clothes. Another plus. I looked down at the small puddle of drool I had left on Mira's sparkling clean bar and grinned sheepishly.
"I dribbled on it. My bad."
The tall girl just sighed and took a cloth to the said puddle as I heaved myself up off the bar stool and smacked Natsu lightly across the head.
"Hey! What was that for?"
I shrugged and went to the bathroom to splash some water on my face.
I was so damn tried it was a miracle I was even standing up. I blinked blearily at the mirror, water running down my face and past my bloodshot eyes. I felt a bone deep weariness, creeping through me along with that sinking, shivering cold. I left me moody and tired and confused, unable to think straight. I was muddled and useless. A useless shell creeping through a tundra that grew ever colder as the Winter coiled its fingers around it. Queen Mab's cold embrace a tragic, incomparable disaster in a life of nothingness that would end with my death, a death to cold...
"BLEGH." I shouted as someone swung the door of the bathroom open loudly, making it slam. I whacked my head on the low hanging bathroom cabinet and grunted in pain, trying to steady myself on the counter. The counter was wet. I slipped on it and tumbled onto the hard linoleum floor. I landed on my ass. Hard.
"FUUUUuudgesicles," I began to moan, trailing off as I saw who had come in. Juvia.
She blinked at me.
"Gray-sama?"
"Yep," I just said. Smooth.
"This is the girl's bathroom."
"No it isn't."
"Yes," she said, opening the door again and showing me the ladies sign on it, "It is." She didn't seem annoyed. I couldn't imagine what would have happened if Erza had entered instead of Juvia. Possibly something involving my testicles in a sandwich press.
I blushed. I tried to stand up but did it too quickly and toppled over again. Juvia offered me her hand, smiling.
She really did have a nice smile.
I took it and, as her soft fingers coiled around mine, a sharp spike of what felt like electricity ran straight through my arm, spreading to the rest of my body. In an instant, the cold vanished, as well as the murkiness in my mind. I blinked and rose, grinning stupidly at her.
Huh.
That was interesting. Stupid crushes aside, what had just happened was a magical reaction. Two opposing forces meeting and cancelling each other out. I spaced out a bit, thinking about the possible implications of that. When I came back to reality, Juvia was blushing deep red. I realized we were still holding hands. I yanked mine away a bit too fast and tried to pretend I was going to finish washing my hands. But when I did that I though that it must look as if I was washing my hands because she had touched them.
Crap-baskets.
I scratched the back of my head and grinned again, almost elated that the feeling of cold had disappeared for now.
"Sorry. I just... I've been kind of out of it recently,"
"Juvia understands. Juvia does not care," She stumbled over her words before blurting out, "Not that Juvia does not care that Gray-sama is out of it or not well but that he is in the ladies bathroom..." She trailed off again and smiled at me shyly.
It was a nice moment, us alone, her smiling, me being kind of idiotic.
Until the toilet in the stall next to me flushed and the stall door opened. Erza exited, folding a fashion magazine under one arm. She was in her regular outfit, a skirt and blouse. She smiled at me, but it was anything but friendly.
I wasn't aware that you could actually make that kind of outfit intimidating. She managed to.
"Hi Gray." She said.
I may have done that screaming like a little girl thing again.
I was walking. I didn't know why, all I knew was that I had to be moving, had to be walking somewhere. Keep on moving Gray, keep on going. The cold was back. It had come back after I had left the guild. I tried to put it out of my mind and kept on walking, hugging my coat tighter around me.
The scene with Juvia had been a little embarrassing, that was for sure. I was usually pretty calm around her but I had been taken off guard. The cold was getting to me, slowly forcing its way into every pore until I wasn't even myself, just a frozen shell.
I kept on walking, my mind hovering in a stupor that I couldn't break out of. Maybe I would die? I could just curl up at the corner of the street or at the bank of the river and sleep. They wouldn't find me until I had frozen to death. Maybe that was best. Maybe it was me?
Was it me? If this cold got to everyone else, everyone I cared about...
It could hurt them. It could be me making it and I wasn't even aware of it. I couldn't let the others die for me. It wasn't fair. Juvia, Erza, Happy, Lucy, Wendy, even Natsu! They were all my friends and what kind of friend would I be, what kind of comrade would I be if I hurt them?
It was the only option. There were so many ways to do it. I went with my way, the most personal way I could think. It was fitting, I thought.
I would kill myself.
I was staring at the guild from my favorite place in town. The middle of the river, suspended above it by one of the beautiful bridges across the town. The guild with all its banners and its glowing golden windows. I could just imagine them all laughing, cheering as Cana beat Macao at a drinking match for the millionth time. I loved them so freaking much. I never showed it but they were my family.
I loved the town. Magnolia was my town, so happy and friendly and warm.
Warm.
It was a warmth that I couldn't bear to take away from them with the cold that followed me.
"Ice make sword..." I whispered, almost too quiet for myself to hear. The crunch of ice forming into a blade in my hand echoed through the empty streets.
It was the perfect place to do it. I could be happy as I pushed the blade through myself and ebbed away from reality. I would see them again, all of them. I was sure of it. After all, there had to be something after death, right? Oh the beauty of it, a place at peace where I could dream until the people I loved came to join me, hopefully, blissfully in a long, long time.
My friends.
My people.
Who never gave up. Never said never and fought until they couldn't stand and that didn't stop them fighting some more.
Juvia hadn't given up when she had no one, nothing but the rain. Erza had fought for her life to escape a legacy of terror and evil and she lived to smile about it. Wendy was so strong, stronger than any 12 year old girl had any right to be, worthy of the name dragon slayer. Lucy, who was always there to pick us up when going on was impossible. Happy who was always grinning and fighting, not a cat but a lion.
Lyon, my sworn brother who had found the light and was just as much my family as Fairy Tail was.
Ur, who had died so that we could all live.
Natsu.
What would Natsu say if he knew what I was doing?
And suddenly, as if the lights in my stupid, thick head had been turned on to 200%, I realized something.
It wasn't me thinking about suicide.
The foreign voice in my head felt my realization as my mental barriers shot up and disappeared. But it was just a bit too slow and, extending my senses, I felt the magic humming through the air.
To the man standing on the other side of the bridge.
"Oh dear," said Daro, "That won't do will it."
Long coat, the sleeves cut off to reveal the guild mark on his shoulder. Blank, mindless face tat sucked in the light and glowed darkness. Horrible blue eyes that his blonde hair wasn't long enough to cover.
My heart seized up. I clenched my teeth as anger flowed through me. Whatever this thing was, he was no ice mage.
The sword in my hand hummed as I pointed it at the mage, who grinned wryly at me and bowed.
"I thought you would have said hello before now, Gray Fullbuster." he licked his lips which, while annoying, was also really really wrong. "After all, we ice mages must stick together. There are so few these days." He frowned at his own words and, as if he was trying to remember if he had left the stove on, muttered. "Although, that's mostly my fault." He grinned again. "Sorry."
I was steaming. Literally. The ground around me was frozen and mist rolled off me in waves. A sudden burst of rage swept through me and the sword, which had been the size of a regular blade at that point, morphed into Cold Excalibur. Energy crackled as, unwittingly, I let power free and the river beneath me froze solid.
"Someone's a bit ticked off." Daro snickered.
"You." I said, my voice deadly calm, "You are no ice mage."
"What makes you say that?" He chuckled again. He raised a hand and whispered something and frost began to foam through his fingers, a delicate but complex spell.
He was a mind mage. I knew that. He had been inside my head, influencing my thoughts and my moods over the last couple of weeks. He might have been warping my sense of sight, making it seem as if he was an ice mage.
"I know what you're thinking," he said, his voice devoid of the snark it had previously had, "I control the minds of my enemies, so this could be an illusion, right?"
I didn't offer a response, but slowly stepped towards him. He did so too, until we were circling one another on the bridge as the frost began to condense around us into sheets of furious cold.
"Wrong," he said, and the frost in his hand suddenly shifted in a violent explosion of mist. When it had cleared, he was gripping a sword, identical to my Cold Excalibur but for the ice, which was a horrible black.
Black like the wasteland.
"What are you?" I asked, keeping Excalibur pointed at his chest. He was obviously not a normal mage. It seemed as if his ice magic was boundless, as if he had more than one form of it, which was odd for a mage. We picked a single magic and stuck with it.
Not him. Was he even human?
Then the smile on his face came back.
"I'm not going to fight you Gray. Not yet. When its all over, you can sit back and watch as I kill every person you hold dear. Then I will kill you."
"What do you mean?!" I roared. I was furious, so angry that I could barely stop myself charging him.
"Soon, Gray Fullbuster." He said. "Soon."
Then my mind went white, replaced by pain. Nothing but the pain.
Aaaaaand I was gone.
When I was well enough to actually take in my surroundings, the dawn was coming. My mouth was frothy, and I felt a desperate desire for water. I croaked, but I couldn't bring myself to stand or talk. I could just make noises while the pain ebbed away.
I felt strong arms take me in them, picking me up and throwing me over a muscular shoulder. I groaned. I couldn't make out who it was until I saw the flowing white scarf running down his back.
Not too sure if that was a good thing.
When I was put down, I landed in softness. That is to say, I landed on a soft couch. I was slapped a few times and I groaned some more.
"I got a bucket of boiling water ready if you don't get up," said a voice.
I sat up, glaring and muttering. In front of me Natsu and Happy stood, looking a little worried but more annoyed than anything else. I scratched my head and snarled at the memory of Daro.
Asshole was going to get it.
"We found you unconscious in the middle of the street, so we brought you home." said Natsu, frowning curiously.
I looked around. "This is Lucy's house."
Natsu looked. "Oh so it is,"
As if on cue, Lucy entered, wearing a nightie and bleary eyed from sleep. She was awake however, her face contorted and waving a baseball bat around her head in a vaguely threatening fashion.
"Who the hell a-" she stopped as she recognised us. Then she stepped forward and, in a quick 1-2-3 movement, cracked each of us over the head with the bat. Natsu yelped. Happy swatted against the wall, moaning as he crashed onto the floor. The hit actually seemed to add some clarity to my thoughts and the psychic fog began to dissapate. It was almost worth the bump on my skull.
"YOU!" She said, her voice furious. Forget Erza. Forget Daro. Lucy could be scary. She was glaring at Natsu. "STOP COMING INTO MY HOUSE WITHOUT MY DAMN PERMISSION!" she finished, swatting his arms, legs and general torso area with the bat. Natsu tried shielding himself with his arms, yelping like a puppy.
"Wait!" he cried, "Wait you psycho! Gray was hurt!"
She stopped, lowering the bat and looking at me. I sighed, somehow knowing I would have to tell the story.
So I did. I told them all about my recent chill and the effect Daro had on me. The nightmares and the fog on my mind (although I left the part about Juvia out) and finally, the confrontation when Daro had mentally incapacitated me. I left out what I had been about to do. Mental persuasion or not, that wasn't their business.
The three of them stared, each a bit taken aback.
"You sure you're not like, on something?" Natsu asked, looking a little queasy. The idea of the psychic manipulation had really shaken him up for some reason.
"I'm not high," I said tiredly. I suddenly realized how exhausted and how hungry I was.
"Got any food?" I asked Lucy.
"I'll make something," she said, her anger gone. She spoke to us from the kitchen while she cooked up eggs, bacon and while Happy buttered some toast. "We've got to tell the Master," she said, flipping an egg on it's back. I nodded, mouth watering from the smell.
"Damn straight. But I've got a thought."
The other three looked at me curiously. I explained. "He can attack me with psychic magic. Mental attacks and the like. I bet he can force people to do things he wants, against their will. Even influence their thoughts and choices. He was strong guys. Stronger than Zero or Hades I reckon."
Natsu, Lucy and Happy blanched. I didn't blame them. According to the ghost of Mavis, it had taken the newly resurrected Zeref to kill Hades, even after the entire guild had fought him.
"He must have been concealing his magical ability," muttered Lucy, looking troubled. "So not only is he powerful, but he's skilled."
"Did he say anything else?" Happy asked, stealing a small piece of bacon from the pan. It was a bit too hot for him and he juggled it until he could jam it in his mouth.
"He said 'Soon' and then hit me with the mental attack. What do you think he meant?"
Natsu shrugged. Happy looked scared. Lucy plated up the three breakfasts, with a smaller meal for Happy that included some tinned sardines from her pantry.
"Who knows?" she said, taking a bite of bacon. "For now, we need to eat. When the Guild opens, we talk to the Master. We could be in for a big fight."
We all agreed and devoured what was in front of us.
Hopefully, the Master would exile Daro for whatever he was planning on doing (and more importantly, attacking me) and I would be free of the cold that crept upon me even as I ate.
Somehow, I didn't think it would be that easy.