Wendy watched in astonishment as Gray's skin faded from a sickly green back to the ashy white color it had been a week ago. His body shrank slightly, the skin and tissue reforming as Jellal reversed the decomposition process.
The last thing to vanish was the smell. Wendy had been careful to breathe through her mouth, but even then, she could practically taste the stench of decay. As Jellal sat back on his heels, the glow vanishing from around his hands, the smell drifted away as though it had never existed.
"Alright, Wendy," Jellal said. "Call him."
Wendy moved towards the magic circle that she had set up for her human-modified Milky Way spell, unable to tear her eyes away from Gray. She'd thought that after Jellal had completed Arc of Time, Gray would look…better. Like he was asleep, maybe.
He didn't. He still looked dead. Even without the week of decomposition, Gray looked stiff and unnaturally pale. There wasn't any blood surrounding the wound that had killed him, not anymore, but it still drew Wendy's gaze. It was a jagged cut in the center of his abdomen, deep and lethal-looking.
Wendy took a deep breath and forced her hands to stop shaking. The wound had killed Gray once, but it wouldn't this time. She was here, and she could stop it. This time, she would save him.
Wendy exhaled, and began the incantation to summon Gray's spirit.
While she chanted, all of her magical energy and concentration were focused on the words of power that would reach Gray's spirit, wherever it had gone. So it wasn't until the incantation was complete that she looked down, into the center of the circle, and saw him.
Wendy hadn't actually seen Gray during the battle, but he looked just the way Wendy would have imagined he'd have looked right before he'd died. He was shirtless, bloody, pale as death. Also, a little translucent, and vaguely glowy.
Also, completely terrified.
"Gray!" Wendy said, before she could help herself. "Gray, don't worry, we're trying to save you…."
Gray didn't respond, didn't give any sign at all that he'd heard. He didn't acknowledge Wendy, or give any indication that he was processing any of what was happening to him. He just kept staring around the graveyard with wide, panicked eyes, a gaze that skimmed over Wendy as if she wasn't even there.
"Gray…."
This was Natsu now. She whirled around to see that he'd turned back towards the resurrection. His lip was trembling, his eyes glassy with unshed tears.
"That's him," Natsu whispered. He looked like he was thinking about getting up, but his legs didn't seem to want to take his weight. He half-stumbled, half-crawled a few steps forward. "Gray? Gray, can you hear me? Come on, popsicle, look at me…."
"This isn't really him, Natsu," Wendy said. "And we told you not to look." The body wasn't nearly as horrible to look at as it had been a few minutes before, but still, they hadn't wanted Natsu seeing Gray's dead body at all and it was pretty much right next to the spirit….
"I just…he's right…."
"I'm starting," Jellal interrupted, adjusting himself so he was sitting a little closer to Gray's body. "If you could just…both be quiet…."
Jellal reached his arms out, and placed one on Gray's stomach, close to the wound, and one in the hollow right below his neck. He closed his eyes.
For a long few seconds, it looked like nothing was happening. But then, so gradually Wendy wasn't sure if she was imagining it, Jellal's whole body began to glow. It was just his hands at first, then his face, the ends of his hair. Then, it was everything, and his skin got brighter and brighter until he was rivaling the ghostly form of Gray's spirit.
He wasn't gesturing, or whispering, or anything like that. Wendy wouldn't have really even known that he was doing a spell, except for the fact that she was pretty sure he was glowing due to the raw magic power that he was channeling. His hair started to drift upwards, as if lifted by a breeze that touched only him.
Jellal threw his head back and screamed as the breeze whipped outward. Wendy's hair lashed around her face, and the glow emanating from Jellal became the only light source as dark, heavy clouds began to gather above them. Jellal was still screaming, but Wendy could barely hear him over the wind and the gathering roar of magical energy.
She had never been around a spell this powerful. She knew that it wasn't intended to be destructive, but she still had to fight the urge to back away from the staggering amount of sheer power that was crackling in the air around them.
But Wendy was stronger than that. Instead, she staggered forward a step, just in time to see Jellal's eerily glowing eyes roll back in his head. The darkness above them built as the power in Jellal increased, burning so brightly Wendy had to close her eyes for a moment.
There was a deafening crack, loud enough to be thunder, and Wendy's eyes shot open as a pillar of incandescent magical energy split the clouds. The darkness above them began to clear, and the glow before her faded, and in the sudden silence, she heard the crumpled body on the ground inhale once.
Wendy barely had time to process what the half-heard sound had meant before all hell broke loose. Jellal made a sudden choking sound, and she looked up to find the dark wizard falling to the side, his eyes rolled backward far enough that she could only see the whites. He was seizing before he hit the ground, muscles spasming violently. In front of him, Gray's body - no, Gray - moved ever so slightly, then moaned as blood began to well from the wound on his abdomen. He choked, blood spilling out of the side of his mouth.
Wendy scrambled forward, moving towards Gray as fast as she could. Jellal was still seizing, and he didn't show any signs of stopping. That was bad, Wendy knew, but it wasn't a death sentence. She couldn't say the same for Gray.
"GRAY!" Natsu skidded past her, almost pushing her to the ground as he collapsed by Gray's side. "Gray, oh my god, oh my god, you're alive-"
"Step BACK," Wendy shouted, shoving Natsu's shoulder with all the strength she had. "Let me heal him!"
She didn't have time to deal with the heartbroken look on Natsu's face. Once she saved Gray, that would be enough for both an apology and an explanation. Wendy ignored Natsu beside her and channeled all her magical energy into healing as she laid her hands on Gray's chest. She could feel his chest convulsing as he coughed, more blood sliding out the sides of his mouth.
Natsu stopped pushing towards Gray, but he did start yelling. "Gray! Gray, can you hear me? He's awake, isn't he, Wendy? Why's he bleeding that much? Wait, is he going to be okay?"
Wendy ignored him, completely focused on Gray's limp body. Blood was pouring out of the wound on his side, and his finger had reopened too, and his lips were bloodless, cheekbones hollow, heartbeat slowing….
"Come on, Gray," Wendy whispered. "Please, work with me, you need to fight…."
Wendy had the horrible sense that she wasn't going to have enough energy. These wounds were supposed to be unhealable. And they were bad enough that they had killed Gray, even without that. What if Wendy wasn't strong enough, what if Jellal was seizing on the ground behind her for nothing….
But then, the bleeding started to slow. It took her a few seconds to notice, since everything was already so covered in blood, and another few seconds to really believe that it was real. But it was slowing, the wound was closing, and….
The world started to tilt around Wendy, and a moment of real fear ran through her. She was very likely going to pass out as soon as she released the spell. She had to hope that Gray would be okay. There was only so much she could do for him. But at this point, she was much less sure about Jellal.
"Erza!" Wendy screamed. "Erza, it's done! Please come! Hurry!"
Black spots started to swarm in front of Wendy's eyes, and she sucked in a deep breath.
"Erza!" she cried out again. "Erza, please-"
She had no more than a few seconds left. She pushed all the healing magic she could manage into Gray, giving it everything she had. It had to be enough.
Then, she took her hands off Gray, tilted sideways, and was gone.
Gray didn't know where he was. He didn't know what was happening. He couldn't remember….
Natsu was somewhere off to the side, yelling. He wasn't sure why. Last thing he remembered, he'd been curled in Natsu's lap.
But that wasn't the only thing that was wrong. When he'd closed his eyes, it had been a sunny afternoon, and now, it was nearly dark. Was there a kind of magic that did that? Gray hadn't heard of that before.
Had he passed out? Was that why he felt so terrible? Had they moved him somewhere? His memories felt jumbled and faded. Had he been hurt? That sounded right. And it would explain why he was in so much pain.
Natsu was still yelling. That seemed bad. If Gray wasn't in his arms, if Natsu couldn't get to him, if everything had changed around him, they must be in danger. Adrenaline, twisting sickly together with fear and pain, spiked through him. Automatically, before he could even really think it through, Gray balled his fists up in the dirt and tried to move. He couldn't get himself upright, but he at least could get a look around. His vision seemed kind of blurry, but he could make out shapes around him in the darkness.
Gray turned his head to the side, staring directly into a large, heavy, stone. A gravestone. Standing above a freshly dug pit. A cemetery? Why…why was he in a cemetery? Hadn't they been on a battlefield?
Gray blinked a few times, and the blurriness in front of him resolved itself into a name, written on the gravestone.
His name.
The memories hit him like a freight train, and Gray found himself gasping for breath. He remembered the battle, and the injury, and the wedding. He remembered closing his eyes. He remembered slipping away, and then…nothing.
Gray hadn't just been hurt. He'd died, and he was staring at his own headstone.
He curled forward and threw up hard, onto the ground. After that, everything was gone but the terror. It wormed its way up through his spine, clouding his brain with images of his skin tearing, of Natsu crying, and worst of all, the blackness he'd fallen into. Gray was shaking, shaking so hard it felt like he was going to fly apart. He wanted to get up and run, anywhere but here, but he couldn't even manage to turn away from the grave with his name on it.
Hands grabbed his shoulders, and Gray flinched away with a whine of pure terror. He was far too weak to fight them off, so he ducked his head, squeezing his eyes shut tight and shielding his head with his trembling arms. The mysterious hands started pulling Gray's body closer, and this time he tried to pull away, or to lash out, but he was shaking too hard to retain any control over his limbs.
For a horrible, ghastly second, Gray was sure that this was the moment where he died again. The hands were going to pull him back, back wherever he'd been in the blackness. He felt his heartbeat speed up out of control, and his breathing accelerated to match. His blood was pounding in his ears, so loud that he could barely make out his name.
"Gray, Gray, Gray, it's me, it's me, I can't…."
Nothing, not even death, could keep Gray from recognizing Natsu's voice. The arms around him suddenly felt protective, instead of threatening. Natsu had him, and there was no way the Dragon Slayer would let anyone take him away a second time.
Gray shook against Natsu as one of Natsu's hands cupped the back of his head, cradling it against his chest.
"I got you, Gray, oh god…."
Gray couldn't tell what he was saying, but he could hear Natsu talking to him and that let him stay a hair's breadth from passing out as he hyperventilated into Natsu's jacket.
Gray didn't know what was happening, and he was terrified, and he was in pain, and he knew everything had changed. But Natsu was here, and Natsu had him, and he could almost pretend that was all that mattered.
That, and the fact that…at least he wasn't where he had been before.
Natsu could feel Gray shaking violently against his chest. He was clearly scared, and still really confused. He was pale as death, dirty, covered in blood. But he was Gray, and he was moving and breathing and making sounds. He was solid and real under Natsu's hand.
Natsu was surprised. He'd thought that during the past week, he'd felt the highest crest of emotions that a person could physically feel. He'd thought the crushing grief was the strongest feeling he would ever have.
But he would have been wrong. The overwhelming joy, the relief, the rightness that came with holding Gray against him again….
The grief couldn't hold a candle to that.
Natsu was experiencing everything at such an intensity that he wished he had time to just freak out for a second. But Gray was terrified, and Natsu knew he needed to hold it together for Gray. He never wanted to ask anything of Gray again.
Gray whimpered suddenly, and Natsu realized he had been squeezing him too tightly. Natsu was pretty sure that Wendy's healing magic had been enough to prevent Gray from immediately dying again, but he clearly wasn't completely fine yet. Natsu adjusted his grip to put less pressure on his injured partner, and started rubbing a hand up and down his back.
"You're alright, Gray," Natsu said. He could tell Gray didn't know what was going, and he wasn't sure if Gray could really process what he was saying yet, but he wanted him to feel oriented and safe as soon as possible. "You were…you were dead, but you're better now. Jellal brought you back. Wendy healed you. You've been gone for a week. You're back in Magnolia now. You're alright. I've got you. I'm with you. You were dead, but you're better now. Jellal and Wendy saved you. You're here with me…."
Natsu realized he was crying. Not a lot. He was pretty sure his voice was steady. But how could he be expected to keep from crying at a time like this?
"You're okay now. You were dead for a week, but Jellal and Wendy brought you back. You're back in Magnolia, and it's a week later. You're probably…probably still in some pain, but you'll be fine. We're…we're in the graveyard right now, but pretty soon…I'll be able to take you home…okay, Gray? You're alright…."
Gray was still breathing hard (but breathing), but Natsu could tell that he was starting to re-orient himself. Slowly, Gray's shaking fingers twined themselves into the fabric of Natsu's coat, and Gray held on like his life was at stake.
Maybe he thought it was. Natsu stifled an audible sob, wrapping his fingers through Gray's hair and pulling him closer, careful not to crush him.
"You're okay, Gray, you're here with us, don't look around too much…." Natsu was barely aware of what he was saying, but he would keep up the comforting litany for as long as he had to, until Gray came back to him. It was anchoring both of them here, in the moment.
Caught up in the rhythm of his words, Natsu almost missed it when Gray said his name.
"N-natsu?"
Natsu crashed to a halt in the middle of his sentence, holding Gray, afraid even to breathe. "Yeah, it's me, Snowflake," he whispered back. "What is it?"
Gray shifted slightly against him, burrowing his head a little deeper into Natsu's chest. He mumbled something inaudible into Natsu's jacket, then coughed and tried again.
"Am I…back?"
Natsu felt the tears start again, and this time, he knew his voice was very much not steady. "Yeah, you're really back, Gray. You're alive. You're back with me, in Magnolia…."
That was all he managed to get out before his voice cracked, and Natsu shuddered with the force of a sob. Against him, Gray let out a shaky, relieved sigh, and Natsu felt his jacket begin to get damp as Gray started to cry, too.
Gray really was back. Natsu could hardly believe it, but he was holding his partner in his arms, and he would never let anything take him away again.
And it was all thanks to Wendy, and Jellal. Natsu had been, and still was, so caught up in attending to Gray that he had pretty much forgotten their existence. The whole resurrection had been a blur of magical power surges, yelling, and the chaos of Gray beginning to breathe again. He hadn't had time to think about anything else.
Natsu pulled his face out of Gray's matted, dirty hair and turned back towards the empty coffin and the magic circles. "Wendy? Jellal? I want to thank-"
Natsu stopped cold. Wendy was lying close to the two of them, clearly unconscious. He'd had a brief moment of panic, but he could see the faint rise and fall of her chest. She must have just emptied her magical reserves completely.
Jellal…was seizing. Natsu wasn't sure how long it had been going on. His attention had been completely focused on Gray, naturally. But if it had been going on ever since he'd brought Gray back…that was probably kind of a while. A couple minutes, at least. Time seemed to have lost all meaning ever since Natsu had gathered Gray into his arms, so honestly, it could have been longer.
It looked like kind of a nasty one too. Natsu had seen Jellal seize before, once or twice over the years, but not usually this close up. His muscles were tensing and releasing with painful force, his head thrashing back and forth violently over the ground. He was making small, choked-off little gasping sounds.
Erza had told Natsu that if Jellal was having a seizure, he wasn't to be touched. He wasn't aware of himself - he wouldn't know it was happening. It wouldn't help the seizure end any faster, and it might even hurt him. If you saw Jellal have a seizure, you were to watch him, and move anything out of the way that you could, so he didn't hit it. After the seizure was over, he would be sleepy and disoriented and sick, and you were to reassure him that he was alright and turn him on his side in case he threw up.
Natsu knew that if the seizure went on for a very long time, you were also supposed to bring him to the hospital afterwards. Natsu wasn't sure if this qualified as a very long time, but either way, he wasn't sure if the hospital should be involved. Jellal had just done something very illegal, after all. If they examined him, would they be able to tell he'd just brought someone back from the dead?
And anyways, Gray was still crying and trembling in Natsu's arms. Natsu wasn't sure what to do about Jellal, but even trying would have involved leaving Gray, and Natsu just wasn't sure he could handle that. So he just stayed on the ground, rocking Gray back and forth in a way that they probably would have both found embarrassing if they'd been more cognizant of it, and ran his fingers through the long hair at the back of Gray's neck. He watched Jellal seize, and whispered to Gray that he would be alright and Natsu would take care of him.
After another minute or two, Erza came running up. "Natsu, what-"
She broke off with a pained sounding-gasp. Natsu looked up at her to see that she had paled. It took him a second to realize why, and then he realized that running up on him crying and cradling Gray's limp body probably didn't paint the best image.
"He's alright," Natsu said. "Freakin' out, but…alive. It worked. Jellal…."
Erza knelt next to Jellal, but didn't touch him.
"Wendy's down," Natsu said by way of explanation.
"How long has he been like this?" Erza asked.
"I dunno, but I think since the clouds."
Erza blanched, and pulled a lacrima out of her pocket. "I'm calling the hospital. He'll need medical attention."
So this was what qualified as a very long time. Natsu winced, pulling Gray a little closer. "Is…is he gonna be okay?"
"He told me that he would be," Erza said, looking down at her husband before turning back to Natsu. "You need to get Gray out of here before the paramedics arrive."
"Wh-what?" Sure, Wendy had done a good job healing Gray, but he'd been absolutely covered in blood by the time Natsu had gotten to him, and there was no way Natsu was risking Gray all over again. "Gray needs a hospital too."
"Hurry, Natsu," Erza said, louder than Natsu had expected. It looked like it was louder than Erza expected, too, because she made a face and looked back down at Jellal seizing next to her.
"Gray's supposed to be dead, Natsu. If he and Jellal both show up at the hospital, I don't know what's going to happen to either of them. Take Gray to Porlyusica. As fast as you can."
Natsu hadn't totally thought of that. Maybe the doctors would try to take Gray away, or put him in jail, or something else unthinkable. The thought made a shudder run down Natsu's spine.
Natsu supported Gray's back and slid his other arm beneath Gray's knees, swinging him into his arms as he stood. He didn't even bother to ask if the ice wizard could walk on his own. Gray was still shaking against him, his breathing punctuated by the occasional sobbing gasp. He was in no state to walk, and even if he had been, Natsu didn't want to let him go for a second.
Gray moaned softly as Natsu readjusted his grip, and Natsu winced. Gray was still hurt, and in distress, and Natsu would rather not move him just yet.
But he also didn't want Jellal to be rewarded for saving Gray (and indirectly, Natsu) by getting arrested the second he woke up.
"It's okay," Natsu whispered into Gray's ear. "I gotcha." Careful not to jostle Gray too badly, Natsu started across the grass, towards the path that led to Porlyusica's cottage.
Before he left the edge of the cemetery and plunged into the woods, Natsu looked back to Erza. "G-good luck."
"You need to go, Natsu," Erza said softly, without looking away from Jellal.
"When he wakes up…tell him thank you."
