Chapter 29

All Gray could hear was their groaning and pleas to stop all of this and try to talk it out, but he knew that there was no going back now. He couldn't just turn on the plan the others worked for because he caved in and he could see the strain Freed was going through trying to keep his barrier up beneath the Moon Drip's effect and Levy's attempts in breaking a sentence here and there. He couldn't bear to look at them as it would only serve to remind him what Ur was feeling as she was melted away by the spell, which was a thought he could only wish to disappear from his mind. It was all the ice mage was willing to do until two small hands began to shake his arm rapidly and Gray looked down at the worried face of Wendy who was trying to voice out her concerns for her friends.

"Gray-san why are you doing this!? It's hurting them!" She cried, trying her best to pull him over to her trapped friends in an attempt to see the error he had caused but he wouldn't budge an inch.

"I know Wendy, but it's for their own good." Gray solemnly replied, keeping his attention on her rather than what was happening behind her.

"How is this for their own good!? You are hurting your own friends for no reason at all!" Carla cried out as she had finally passed her stunned stupor of her vision coming to fruition and watched in shock of how close Wendy had been to being trapped alongside them.

"There is a reason!" Gray raised his voice, but reeled in his raw emotions as he had plenty of time to vent them out beforehand and lowered his tone back to a neutral one. "We are trying to free them from being under a spell's influence."

"What?" Wendy questioned since she had no clue to what he meant by a spell, but Carla began to piece everything together rather quickly once he said that they were trying to free them.

"All of you planned to use the punch for your first attempt." The white Exceed said aloud and Gray nodded to her as the events throughout these past two weeks were starting to make sense to her.

"I don't know if you've figured it out yet, but this wasn't how it was supposed to end. It should've been a done deal back at the guild although not all plans are always going to succeed on the first go." He replied to her and Carla saw how the guild's actions and their responses to Gray had all began, while the ice mage himself was busy creating a way to break the spell they were under.

"But what of Levy? She drank the punch at the guild." Carla said as she remembered the conversation the group was having and the look of realization dawned on Gray's face as he looked up towards the sealed group.

"Oh Mavis..." Gray quickly rushed to the barrier, standing in front of the petite blunette who had beads of sweat running down the side of her face as it was taxing her to continue her efforts in dispelling Freed's barrier under the Moon Drip. "I'm so sorry Levy, I completely forgot that you're no longer affected!" She could hear the worried tone in his voice and looked up at his face as he traced across the area in which she was currently working on.

"What do you mean?" Levy asked a little short of breath, for the strain on her was becoming evident the longer she stood underneath the purple beam of light.

"I'll tell you about it later, for now just stay conscious." Gray was sure she would be the first to fall as her eyes were becoming dreary and she was already swaying slightly. "Freed try to lift your barrier up for me to grab Levy!"

"I'm not so sure about that Gray, if you're not careful my barrier would collapse and it is already enough of a challenge trying to maintain it!" The green haired man called back as at the moment he couldn't think of a reason behind Gray's motives of grabbing the blunette.

"Just trust me Freed, I know I can grab her before it becomes too much of a strain for you or is one of the members of the Thunder Legion not as tough as he claims?" Gray knew that amongst all of them in their group, Freed holds the strongest regard for the Thunder Legion and Laxus' name so he's hoping that he could play on that for the situation. Cheap, but effective as the long haired man looked at him a little disdainfully.

"No one belittles a member of Laxus' Thunder Legion!" Freed cried out as the ice mage took notice of the broken sentence Levy was working on slowly disappear and took it as his chance.

He reached in as fast as he could for Levy's arms and pulled her to him, but just as he finally managed to get her out he noticed the person behind her. He momentarily froze at the sight of Cana struggling to keep herself up from the cave floor, the ice mage cursing to himself at realizing his second blunder. Cana was already cured as well from the original strain of the antidote, but she was slightly further away from him and he had to decide a course of action fast. He called for Wendy telling her and Carla to take Levy from him while he prepared himself to run dead on inside the barrier.

With a few more breaths he charged the barrier, going through rather easily although he prepared for the second aspect of it. Once inside and under Moon Drip's light he could feel the immense pressure of having his magical energy slowly depleted away and fought against his weariness to scoop Cana into his arms, pushing his strength in into his legs to get back out. Gray was close, just another two feet and he'd be in the clear until something latched onto his leg causing him to trip yet he did his best to push the brunette out of the barrier before he made it to the ground. The ice mage looked down at his feet to see Natsu clutching tightly at his ankle, struggling to get to his feet as Gray got right back up once he shook his hand off of him.

"W-Why are you doing this ice p-princess?" Natsu asked haggardly trying with everything he had not to fall onto his face, while Gray too was trying to keep his strength together and get out.

"Because it's the thing that'll help you, flame breath." Gray replied as he began to take a few steps back nearer to the edge of the barrier with its slight hum giving him the distance he was to freedom. "Just take it for a bit longer and it'll all be over."

"No way I'm giving up on you Gray, you and me will be together." The dragon slayer was nearing his limit as the pressure was becoming too much and he could tell that Gray was feeling the drain as well. "You said so yourself that you love me." He continued with a hopeful smile, but the ice mage didn't return it.

"I never said I loved you Natsu." The dark haired young man told him the truth and he was soon met with the look of distraught from Natsu as his imaginary world collapsed. "Sorry to burst your bubble, but nothing and I mean absolutely nothing will ever be between us on that sort of level."

Natsu felt crushed that the ice mage actually said that to him, he did so much in the name of getting Gray to be his own and now it was all for not. He didn't want to believe it when Gajeel said it since he could have been lying to him to get him angry, but the iron dragon slayer was telling the truth and now it hurt more than ever. It hurt a lot, more than any punch he had ever received although the pain didn't last long before he became angry. His anger came from all the things he had to go through only to be told off in the end, what completely odd experiences he shared with the ice mage that he believed to be memorable to just be one-sided. The pink haired slayer wanted to fight, but all this information was too much for him to bear and he had the odd sense of no longer really caring before he allowed his eyelids to finally close and let gravity pull his body to the ground.

With Natsu finally on the ground, Gray quickly made his way out of the barrier and watched as the remainder of his friends slowly follow after the dragon slayer's example. A pang of guilt tended to beat against his heart as he watched them try their hardest to break out of the barrier, now without Levy's help, and it saddened him to see Lucy try desperately to call upon her spirits to help but Loke had explained to them that they could not interfere for Lucy's sake. That didn't mean that they liked it without question as he could only think of how some of her spirits were trying desperately to come to her aid while the others did their best to hold them back. It was nearly complete, the time limit to how long they were allowed to be exposed by the beam of light coming ever so fast, but it was the struggled grunting of Erza that drew Gray's attention.

He was positive that amongst them all, that Mira and Erza would be standing tall however Mira couldn't hold her own like Erza and succumbed to the Moon Drip's draining effect. She rested against Elfman's form while Erza placed a hand against the barrier, her brown eyes looking deep into Gray's dark ones. She stood with all her willpower to look at her beloved ice mage and a smile crept onto her face as he placed his hand against the barrier on hers. The dark haired young man was filled with the swirling emotions that he held for his best friend, only equalled to the ones he felt for his first ever love and the newly made one in Lucy.

"I can't and won't give up Gray, you must understand my feelings." Erza said through a bit of labored breathing, her grip on her consciousness fading in and out with every second that passed them by. "I've been so afraid of those who would get close to me and how much we both meant to each other, but I know that there isn't anyone else that I want to be by my side."

"It's...It's great to hear that Erza," Gray's gaze fell towards their hands, the barrier only separating them by a measly inch before they could even hold each other. "But I learned that what you feel for me isn't the love that belongs to you. Your heart doesn't belong to me, it goes out for someone else that I don't think I could measure up to in your eyes."

"What are you saying Gray? You've given me the things I had always thought I'd never have again, there isn't a person out there that you yourself can't compete with." Erza could tell by the way he was acting that the ice mage was trying to distance himself again, to seal himself off from the joys he's been so wrongly denied of and she wasn't going to let him do it again.

"I wish that was true Eza, but reality is a cold world and I think...I think I've managed to fit right in." Gray solemnly replied as he let his hand drop from the barrier, turning away from it as he placed his hands into his pockets.

"Gray, don't walk away from me! Please!" Erza shouted, banging against her entrapment with whatever amount of strength she could muster as she was witnessing herself failing to get Gray to understand. "This is our fairy tale, it shouldn't have to end like this." Her strength was leaving her as she slowly slid to her knees, using the barrier as a form of support to lean against as her eyes struggled to stay open, but she was able to see him come back to her and kneel in front of her.

She had a sense of joy go through her now that he came back, but the sad smile on his face told her that he still hadn't changed his mind. That look on Gray's face was one the requip mage believed to have etched into her memory as the sadness in his eyes spoke volumes to her compared to what he said next.

"I wish it didn't too, but I'm afraid the princess hasn't found her real prince charming yet." He watched as his words registered in Erza's mind followed by the pained look she gave him before her head began to slowly droop as her strength was nearly gone. "Your happily ever after is still out there, but this is "the end" for me."

He watched as the Moon Drip's beam continued to pour in for another minute before it began to shrink down its diameter until it was completely gone. Once the light had vanished, Freed dropped the barrier and as exhausted as he was, he let out a small chuckle as this entire ordeal was finally over and allowed himself a welcomed rest on his perch above everyone else. Gray watched the resting forms of his friends as their part in this great mishap was finished and all their lives could finally go back to normal. No later did Wendy come up to his side, as she too was relieved that all their punishment would not bother them any longer.

"Is it really over?" Carla asked once she was certain the Levy was in a suitable resting position, flying her way into Wendy's arms while the ice mage let out a tired sigh.

"It sure is...It sure is." Gray replied as he could hear the sound of approaching footsteps coming from the nearby entrance, with Juvia and Gajeel being the first ones to emerge into the large cave.

"So it seems that Juvia's mistake has been finally corrected." Juvia remarked in a thankful manner, keeping her gaze towards her guildmates rather than Gray since they still needed a bit of time to get over what had happened between them.

"Though I hardly paid much attention to what was happening, I still say that this was a nightmare to get through." Laxus said once he walked in with Bickslow and Evergreen at his sides. "But next time, cut me out in anything regarding saving the guild from something like this. Hell no if I'm getting back on my knees again."

"Yeah well, there's no need to worry about that anymore." Loke spoke out as he shimmered into existence from the Celestial Spirit World. "I've already got more antidotes under development so I'm prepared if this didn't work."

"Which reminds me..." Laxus said before unleashing a bolt of lighting upon Loke who was left a smoldering mess with his hair in many places. "That's for making me do a stupid ritual and I'm saving the one for making me a butler for later."

"That wasn't very nice." Loke commented as he coughed up bits of smoke, feeling slightly tingly as most of the electric current had yet to pass through his body.

"If you are done fooling around, I do believe Gray requires our assistance in transporting all your comrades to the village for treatment." Lyon had then appeared with Toby next to him, making his way over to his former junior under Ur and placed a comforting hand upon his shoulder. "I understand that it must be hard for you Gray, but this had to be done for their sakes."

"It's still not a lump you can swallow so easily if you're willing to put your friends through that for the greater good on their behalf." Gray replied as Lyon gave another comforting squeeze before letting go of his shoulder and assisted in carrying Levy in his arms.

Everyone began to carry anybody they could, Bickslow helped Evergreen take Elfman back up top as he was the largest of the group and Laxus couldn't assist as he was busy carrying Mira right after them. Toby picked up Natsu as Happy carried Lisanna by her shirt lifting her in the air thanks to his wings right next to Toby, the dog-like man remaining quiet as he was told by Lyon beforehand to keep his tone low. Loke had gone over to Erza, since he wanted Gray to carry Lucy, but the requip mage's reflexes acted faster than he could think as he was struck with a gauntlet fist. The strawberry blonde spirit rolled in pain as this marked the fourth time he'd been punched in the face in the past two weeks and none of them were ever soft, yet they seemed to get harder and harder.

Once Bickslow came back he had a go at it and was met with the same fate, but his helmet resisted most of the blow although it was left with a fist imprint on his visor. On the behalf of everyone's safety, they wanted Laxus to carry her however the larger man gave a big 'Nope' before he picked up Cana and walked away from the danger zone. They watched in awe as even one of the strongest men in Fairy Tail ran from the situation in a calm manner as they then diverted their attention to the ice mage.

"What?" Sure the answer was obvious, but the ice mage didn't want to believe that it was up to him to come close to Erza when she could very well knock him out by merely touching her.

"You're up Gray, last guy to try and carry Erza since Freed isn't fit to do anything after how much magic he wasted for the plan." Loke replied to him while he soothed his reddened cheek, trying his best not to look like he was really in a lot of pain.

"Fine, but I'm gonna kick your ass if this goes bad." Gray tried to lift a little spirits within him, but cracking jokes still doesn't feel right to him just yet.

The ice mage tentatively made his way towards Erza's resting form, slowly reaching a nervous hand onto her pauldron awaiting for her hand to take hold of his arm. He felt her shift and was ready to take back his hand, but the requip mage didn't make any other movement and the others urged him to continue. He cursed to himself as he slowly looped his arm under her knees and hoisted her torso on his free arm while she reclined on his chest. The others were shocked to see Erza slightly snuggle herself into him with a comfortable look on her face at the presence of Gray being so close to her and wondered whether or not she truly was cured. They'd figure that one out at a later time, for now they got Loke to carry Lucy and made their way towards the temple's entrance where once they arrived they were greeted by the villagers who had set up stretchers as they had been asked to do once the purple beam of light disappeared.

The others were already placed onto them, the villagers assisting in taking them back while Laxus and the now slightly stumbly Bickslow worked together to take the stretcher carrying Elfman. It took a little time for Gray to get Erza down as she seemed to grip tighter whenever he loosened his grip on her and it took everything in him not to say she was acting cute out loud, but she finally released him when he iced his body over a little for her grip to slip. He watched as the villagers carried her away and a part of him felt both relief and pain at the discovery that he broke his heart twice with two different girls he knew for nearly his entire life.

"Cheer up Gray, we'll get them back to the village and get them fixed up no problem." Lulu said as she came up beside him, placing a comforting claw on his hand as he gave a small smile towards her. "So there's no need to look so glum, now come on. You must be tired from everything that's happened and I'm sure sleeping in the temple isn't really comfortable."

"Yeah you're right, it's hard to sleep in there." Gray replied as he began walking after the group with Lulu beside him. "I'll talk to them in the morning and see if things are alright, the worse that could happen is them getting mad at me but they'll get over it in time."


The next morning was the moment of truth, Gray couldn't get an ounce of sleep the previous night over worrying about what physical damage might have been done because of the Moon Drip and hoped with everything that their health was fine. Even if the Thunder Legion, the villagers, Lucy's spirits and Laxus himself told the ice mage that there was nothing to be fussing about. He waited for someone to get up first, in truth he wanted to find out if they could even walk or were sick while the others thought he wanted to see if the potion's effects have finally been lifted. A groan could be heard coming from one of the tents that had been set upped and Gray was the first to be there, but he momentarily froze when it was Natsu who came out holding his head and trying to block the sunlight from his eyes.

"Ugh...I feel like I've been riding that death trap of a train for so many hours straight." The pink haired slayer said aloud to himself until he took notice of his surroundings and was in momentary shock discovering that he wasn't home before his eyes landed on Gray.

"Yo Natsu you alright, you look like complete shit." Gray said to him as he still remained a few feet away from the pink haired teen, but the dragon slayer merely glared at the ice mage's claim.

"I feel like it, but the nightmare was much worse." He replied as he found a nearby log to sit on and Gray took this opportunity to sit nearby and hand him a water pouch hanging on a nearby hook.

"What? So you got sick in your nightmare too?" Gray said in a tone that was clearly making fun of him, but he was trying to play it as normal as possible to see the extent of the Moon Drip's effects. "For someone who likes busting through walls and ceilings, you're a pretty big wimp in your sleep."

"Who you calling wimp, ice princess!?" Natsu stood up faster than anything and slowly sat himself down as the blood flowed too quickly to his head and he already was feeling sick before so this new feeling was totally unwelcomed.

"Care to share or are you too prideful to say that a dream got you sick?" Gray challenged and Natsu was sure to take the bait, although for the first time the ice mage noticed him falter from saying anything. "Guess I was right."

"No you weren't it's just..." He began to mumble the rest of his sentence and Gray emphasized that he couldn't here him by cupping his ear to him. "I said that it..." He did it again and the ice mage sighed at him.

"I still can't hear you Natsu, are you seriously that chicken to tell me?" He had to goad him into revealing the truth, hopefully it was one that he liked to hear.

"I said that my nightmare was about me being in love with you!" He shouted to him in exasperation and immediately shut himself up at the sight of Gray's eyes going wide. "Like I said it was nightmare and I'm glad I finally woke up, you'd be glad too if you had to deal with the things I had to."

Gray gave him a questioning look before he turned his gaze away from the dragon slayer and sighed to himself in relief, but made it look like one of unbelievability. The ice mage folded his arms, set his face into his most neutral poker face and eyed him suspiciously just to keep up appearances. If Natsu was already cured and behaved this way, then Gray was positive the others would think of it as nothing more than a dream. Well, there's hoping it was the same effect for all of them or else he had to come up with a number of responses to all of them.

"It may have an underlying meaning behind it, but I better make sure to keep my distance from you just in case." Gray replied as this was the most likely way he would've answered him if he heard it without realizing what was really happening.

"Don't!" Natsu shouted unconsciously, having no idea where that came from and drew his outstretched hand back as it was on it's way towards Gray's hand. "I mean, you don't have to be so nervous ice princess. I won't go chasing after you or anything, so you don't have to keep your distance from me, alright?" Natsu watched as the ice mage regarded him for a second before give a small nod, although he put a finger up to make a point.

"Alright I won't, but if I catch even a sense of any funny business, I will make sure a ten foot ice pole separates you and me. Got it?" One small threat like claim, but it worked in Gray's favor as the dragon slayer nodded furiously. "Good"

After that little talk Gray and Natsu just sat there for a while, letting time fly by although the ice mage was there because he wanted to see who else would wake up aside the dragon slayer. As for the pink haired teen, he believed that he had caused an awkward moment between them and the air was growing rather stale with each passing minute. He tapped on the bark of his log seat rhythmically, looking back at the scenery around them and finally found a subject to bring up when he noticed the temple at the peak of the mountain of where they were.

"So are you gonna tell me why we're on Galuna Island?" He asked to the ice mage who had decided to open his eyes, since he had decided to close them a few minutes ago.

"I thought you remembered that at least?" The dark haired young man replied as he looked out to the other villagers who had begun to get their morning routines underway. "I came here to visit my master's final resting place and left without a word, you guys got worried when I didn't make contact for two days and came after me."

"We?" Natsu echoed as he tried to think back to who else he was with until the small fragments of his memory had pieced together the Strauss', his team, Levy, Cana and Wendy. "That many of us came after you? Were we that bored with nothing to do that we decided to come all the way out here to this island?"

"Not really, as far as I know our team was the one to come after me, but you guys managed to rope the others in somehow." Gray tried his best to be convincing since this was a far better way of him understanding the situation rather than getting him to accept the truth. "All of you turned this into some sort of race to the temple and aside from the 'participants' I found it rather amusing, but no one really won."

"Oh, but why are we in the village if we were already at the temple?" To Natsu, Gray's story made sense although he couldn't really piece together some parts of the story so easily and he had questions of what happened next.

"Apparently you forgot that the temple isn't as sturdy as it once was back in the day, so the floor gave underneath all the weight and you guys ended up falling into the cave I was in." The ice mage could only hope that it made as much sense as he made it out to sound as even he knew that a floor or two might've cushioned their fall and stopped them from reaching the cave networks.

"Is anyone really hurt? Are the others okay?" Natsu asked worriedly as he remembered how the floor gave out underneath them the first time when they came inside the temple.

"Surprisingly enough, everyone came out with nothing more than a few bruises and scratches, but they fell unconscious once they made it to solid ground." One lie after the other, but Gray knew he had to come clean if someone caught on to him. "If you're wondering about Laxus and the Thunder Legion, I called them to help me carry you guys here yet I was stuck waiting for them to show up so I'm more or less tired without a night's rest."

"Well I guess I'm...uh...sorry for making you go through that." Natsu apologized in his best straight voice he had since he almost flopped over his own tongue on how foreign that word was when addressing Gray.

"Don't worry about it flame breath, it's past us anyway so it's all good." Gray replied rather calmly in Natsu's opinion, who was expecting to be made fun of for actually apologizing to him. "It's finally behind us..."

"Uhh...you alright there ice princess?" The dragon slayer asked since the ice mage had a bit of a mile yard stare for quite a while and fell silent, which kinda freaked Natsu out a little at how random it occurred.

"I'm fine, just had some lingering thoughts is all." Gray replied as the sounds of groaning began to fill the air and he knew that some others had finally woken up, hoping to speak with them before there was a chance of utter confusion spreading amongst them. "I'm going to check up on the others, I'll see you around ash-for-brains."

"Yeah, see ya..." Natsu had oddly no retort within him to get back at Gray's mocking nickname, but there was this odd sensation in his chest as he watched the ice mage's back distance himself with each step he took. "But why is that I don't want you to leave?"