Out of the shower, Natsu tried his hand at hiding in plain sight as he dried quickly using the ratty towel the Briar left in their room. To keep his arm hidden, he worked every trick he knew, turning his back to Lucy, hunching in on himself, using the towel as a barrier. Too late he realized that she could still see him perfectly fine through the mirror, and he wasn't fooling a goddamn soul. Her eyes were on his skin, on where the scales had shot up past his elbow and were now making the long climb for his shoulder. And then what? Up his neck? Down his chest? What would be the next thing to surrender its humanity? Traitor, Natsu thought unfairly as he looked at himself in the mirror. It wasn't his body's fault.
Lucy broke the silence. "That thing is spreading."
Having her while she faced the wall had only delayed the inevitable. Natsu imagined what Lucy thought it was. A sickness? A bacterial infection that settled in because he didn't keep the wound clean? The truth, because she was one of the cleverest people he knew: END breaking through his skin? Without offering an explanation, he pulled on his pants with one hand that barely felt and one that shook and buttoned them. Finished in record time, he made to escape. Lucy came into his space and cupped his cheek, stopping him up short. Somehow, despite the blistering shower, she was still warmer than he was. It wasn't right. If she noticed, she was too polite to say. Wrapped in her own off-white towel, she stood on tiptoe for a kiss he was reluctant to return until he was doing it. Then he couldn't seem to stop himself. She was soft and almost familiar now. And he felt he needed that.
"We'll figure it out," Lucy said between their lips. "And everything will be okay."
There was her optimism. Scarce of late, he was starting to wonder if it had ever been there at all or if he'd embellished the Lucy from his memory. Though he wasn't quite able to share her views, he put on a face and affirmed, "Everything will be fine." As soon as he made good on his promise to Zeref. You just need to remember. Cut the thread and you'll know. He would never. There had to be another way.
Lucy kissed him one final time, then wriggled out of his grasp again and entered the room, leaving him where he was. Natsu looked after her for long seconds that bled into minutes, not doing anything except thinking about not much of anything. Really, that turned out to be a lot of something. Zeref. And about this new coldness he carried. The scales. What they meant. The dreams. Everything he hadn't seen yet. Truths so true, he could only store them in memory and return when he felt he had some processing power.
Do something. Something productive. Move. Find Happy. Make sure he's okay. Find your resolve. Go bury Master Makarov. Then figure out how to tell Lucy you're leaving her again. And after? See if he could discard his humanity and find the beast he'd spent the last hour trying to smother.
Panic was a near thing. Move.
He was just pushing open the bathroom door when he heard the outer one burst open and Lucy's responding gasp. His heart went straight into his throat, his adrenaline spiked, and his fear. Paralysis tried to take him.
Lucy's voice met his ears. "Gray! You scared me." It sounded like it, too. The other man's name warbled coming out of her mouth.
Gray. It took Natsu a second for that to sink in. And then he was hit with a sensation that was more than fear. Jealousy, he realized. That ugly little monster he'd managed to avoid for most of his life. And now he couldn't seem to get away from it. Go. One foot. Then the other, because it seemed like he'd forgotten what it was to be in motion. He left the bathroom behind.
Out in the main room, the air was frigid. Unnaturally so. Natsu's breath condensed, his skin crawled, not just with the cold but a sense of dread that made him want to both run and fight. He understood the second urge, but not the first. He never ran.
Despite the need to figure out what the hell Gray was doing there, Natsu found Lucy first. It seemed like he was always looking for her. Across the room, her back against the heat register, the morning's first rays playing in her wet hair, she held tights and a pair of socks to her heart in a very startled kind of fashion. She'd only managed to get half dressed before she was interrupted, sort of covered but mostly not in a pair of white cotton underwear and a light blue long-sleeved shirt stenciled with white stars.
"Gray?"
Natsu followed her gaze and found the other man. As usual, Gray was half-naked—there must have been something going around—and undeniably beaten. Most of his face was bruised blue, there was an old cut on his cheek, his ribs were colourful and swollen, and the black mark that he'd taken from his father covered more than half of his body. It looked wrong, though. Shot through with white cracks. Ice gone rotten.
"What happened?" Lucy asked.
Gray ignored her completely and spat Natsu's name through gritted teeth. His anger was tangible and only skyrocketed when he studied the dragon slayer and realized that the black on Natsu's arm wasn't anything natural. "It's true." Conviction and shock merged in the perfect symphony of accusation.
Natsu's mouth went dry. The urge to hide the evidence was foolish. And undeniable. He edged his arm behind his back as naturally as he could and tried to think of something to say. Lucy wasn't at such a loss for words. "What's true?"
Gray deigned to look at her. "Get away from him, Lucy."
"Get away from him?" She looked the right amount of indignant but Natsu could smell the fear on her.
Gray said, "He's END. He's Zeref's strongest demon. Zeref's dog." To Natsu he said, "You make me sick." And he wasn't lying. His face was as pale as parchment, slicked in sweat. He kept clenching and unclenching his fist. With every breath, the spider's web that was his devil slayer's mark expanded a little further. His jaw tightened with every inch gained. "Do you know the pain you've caused? How many lives have been lost because of you?"
Gray's fury was only mounting. In its wake, Natsu's scales took over a little more, and more, and— "You should leave."
"Leave? Oh, no. Do you know how much you've taken from me?" Though Gray originally thought the question was rhetorical, he answered it anyway. "Everyone. My parents, my master. Juvia."
Silence.
Then, "Speak, Natsu. Can you say nothing to defend yourself?"
Like he wanted Natsu to say something convincing. To change his mind. Again, it was only Lucy that could find her voice. "Juvia? What happened? Gray?" She'd forgotten her state of dress and shock and embraced the situation. "And why is your mark like that? What's wrong?"
Gray was suddenly so furious that spittle flew from his mouth. His fists were clenched so hard, the tendons stuck out on his arm. "What's wrong is that Natsu's been lying to us this whole time, Lucy. Did you not hear me? He's END."
"Calm down, Gray. This is crazy." She said the right words, there was an uncertainty to her, though. She kept glancing at Natsu's arm, chewing her cheek, dripping worry and fear. She wasn't saying how unafraid she was now. "This is Natsu we're talking about, he's not a demon, he's—"
Natsu watched Lucy's words slide over the devil slayer. He watched Gray take another step into the room. He watched pain flit over the man's face. And then Natsu was rolling out of the way as the floor erupted in crystal clear spikes sharper than nails. The spell started out as devil slayer's magic and fizzled into maker, but Gray's intent was clear. Natsu didn't waste time screaming like Lucy did. He was up and edging toward mindlessness, angry for more things than he could rightly name. Fire came to his hand.
"That's better. If you can't speak, fight," Gray said and attacked again, swifter than he'd ever been. His magic came in fits and spurts, devil slayer strength one minute, maker the next. The sword he summoned from thin air looked as hard as diamonds, as sharp as razors, and then it was just ice. Good thing, too, because when Natsu clamped his hands around it, halting its downward swoop that would have cleaved him in two, it didn't bite through his skin like it was supposed to, it melted in the heat of his fire. Gray's responding growl shook Natsu to his core. Still mostly lagging behind, he missed the part where Gray released the melting pommel of his sword and swung a fist coated in ice. The dragon slayer took it in the jaw and saw stars. He backpedaled, then retaliated more quickly than Gray could block. The man's cheek split open all over again and bled generously. He managed to get his hands up to fend off Natsu's next blow. And then he back-stepped and got some space between them.
Several feet apart again, Natsu was able to see that Gray's devil slayer's mark expanded a little more, so now half of his face was black. The spider web's fracture lines increased. The power held beneath pulsed and manifested itself in the real world in the form of a cold that made Natsu's skin ache so badly that for a moment, he felt nauseated. It rolled over him in a wave and passed, the effect it left behind was undeniable, though. Scales burst from his skin, up his shoulder, his neck, and down across his other arm.
"Stop it," Lucy said from somewhere far away. She didn't sound exasperated like she normally did when they fought. She was scared. Instead of dousing the tension, her fear helped fuel Natsu's resolve. He gathered cold and unfamiliar power and hit Gray again. On contact, he felt the presence under his skin push harder to be let out. The fracture Zeref left him with spread wider, he got colder, his fire burned more violently until the dingy carpet was smouldering and the ceiling was blackening and the fire alarm was wailing and Gray was spitting curses and convictions and gathering up a huge breath of air, condensing his power into a breath attack. However impossible, Natsu imagined he heard crack whatever was containing Gray's power. He certainly felt it, another nauseating wave of magic that was meant to dig beneath his skin and pick apart whatever was fueling his fury.
"Stop," Lucy said again just as Gray released his magic, a colder than Hell breath that froze everything it touched. Natsu didn't need to be told that it was life-stealing, he could feel it somewhere deep in his bones. It was coming for him. And suddenly Lucy was right in the way. She'd dropped her tights and socks at some point and now she held out her hands like that would be enough to catch the spell and stop it. For Natsu, time slowed. He saw the moment of realization hit Gray, and the horror that took him. The moment he tried to call the spell back but could not, a force of nature in its own right.
Cut the thread. Cut the thread. Cut the thread. He didn't think there'd be enough left of Lucy when Gray's spell was through to even hold her like Zeref held Valentina. No. Do something.
The fracture tore wider and the beast made another debut. It was far too late, though, the spell hit.
Wendy let her magic go and wiped a hand over her brow. It came away damp with sweat. Healing hadn't taken so much out of her in a long time. She knew part of it was because she was still recovering from her own injuries, but mostly it was because Juvia's lungs had stopped taking in oxygen and her heart was beating its last when Cheria started. It was so much harder to call someone back from the very brink of death. Even now, the water mage was breathing, but shallowly. So, so shallowly.
Cheria did most of the work, picking up the slack where Wendy left off, bringing more and more colour to Juvia's cheeks, and didn't slow until the girl began breathing on her own. Wendy stood, her magic all but useless now, and slipped her way over the icy floor to the washroom, determined to still be useful in some way. From the rack over the bath tub she grabbed a faded green towel and turned to the sink. The taps were coated in frost and the water coming out of the pipes did so in between great blasts of air. It too was icy cold. The temperature didn't truly matter, Wendy decided. This was just a temporary fix between this and getting Juvia back to their room so they could take better care of her there.
Out in the main room again, she went to Juvia's side and folded away the ruined blanket and started cleaning the sick and blood off Juvia's face and neck. She had no response until Wendy touched the bite mark on her throat, then Juvia's eyes fluttered and a weak whine came from her mouth. It was still several seconds before she opened her blue orbs. Wendy made sure she had a smile primed despite her surety that Juvia wasn't truly looking at her. As she suspected, Juvia did not return the gesture.
"Wendy…"
"Hey, Juvia." Wendy brushed the towel over Juvia's bare chest, cleaning up the last of the mess. She'd need a shower, but this was good enough for now.
"What…?"
"Don't try to talk. You were hurt. Cheria's taking care of you, though," Wendy promised. She rose and searched the room. It took a while, but eventually she found what she was looking for: clothing. A black dress that was also covered in ice crystals. Wendy picked it up and shook it out. She helped herself to a duffle bag at the end of the bed next. It was Gray's, she was sure. She chose a black hoody at random and returned with both.
"Can we dress her?"
Cheria stopped her healing efforts and rocked back on her heels. "Yeah. I think she's okay for now."
"Help me then," Wendy commanded, channeling a bit of Erza as best she could.
Juvia's movements were uncoordinated and choppy, however, with every passing second more of the dullness seemed to leave her eyes. As it dissipated, her breathing elevated. So did her franticness. "Where is Gray-sama?"
"Relax," Wendy said as she slid Juvia's arm through the arm hole of her dress and got it over her head. Juvia's hair clung to her forehead. She was sweaty even though it was so cold in the room, her teeth chattered.
"I need to see him," Juvia said. "Right now. I need to see him. Where is he?"
"Juvia, calm down," Wendy replied. "You shouldn't be—" She trailed off as a gash on Juvia's cheek formed and started to spill blood. Her lip went next, red streaming down her face. Juvia sucked in a startled and pained breath. A bruise bloomed on her chin. She jolted and grabbed her ribs next, then curled in on herself and started to cry.
Wendy grabbed the girl's wrist. "What's happening?"
Juvia wasn't in any sort of state to answer. Wendy turned her eyes to Cheria. Cheria looked on, wide-eyed and scared.
Juvia wailed. Wendy's heart went into her throat. She reached for her magic again though it was an almost dry well, and tried to fix what she could. Cheria joined her. Somewhere down the hall, a blast shook the motel to its core. Wendy shoved it aside, believing that this was more important. Juvia had other ideas.
Wild, she pushed Wendy aside and lurched to her feet. Half vertical, she stumbled barefooted out of the door, moving faster than Wendy thought she could. The motel rumbled again, and then north wall burst out in a swirl of flames. Juvia's skin seared. She screamed, but didn't stop.
Erza was stepping out of the shower, a towel wrapped around her breasts, when the hole-in-the-wall window opened and a visitor wearing a dark cowl slipped through without ceremony. There was no containing the startled squeal that took her. It fizzled out in a weak gasp of breath when she realized it was Jellal. He wasted no time in saying hello. He grabbed her around the waist and tugged her through where the wall had been only seconds ago. Now there was only broken brick and dust and splintered wood. Freefalling, she clutched her towel, she clutched Jellal's cloak, and she waited for the ground. In the seconds it took her to fall two stories, she was nearly cooked by an errant ball of flame. On its heels was a blast of air so cold, her hair froze.
Then there was cracked concrete. Hitting it knocked the wind out of her chest and Jellal's. She lay there, dazed. It passed with the groan and crack of the motel collapsing. She gathered the dexterity to look over her shoulder and watch it fold in on itself like failed bread. The culprits emerged from the dust. She wouldn't have recognized them, though, if it wasn't for the clash of fire and ice.
With her first breath she asked, "What the fuck?" Wendy. And Carla and everyone else that was in that motel. She hoped that no one was hurt.
"We have to stop them." Jellal pushed Erza off his chest unceremoniously.
That was all the initiative she needed to scrabble to her feet and don some proper clothes. And her armour while she was at it. Heart Kreuz was her forever backup, but as the surrounding area to the north was hit first with enough fire to melt and fuse metal, then blasted with cold so bitter that the same metal broke apart, she wondered if adamantium would be better.
"Hurry," Jellal snapped. He was already moving and there was no time.
Erza rushed to catch up, arms pumping, leg muscles straining to keep her level with his longer steps. "What's going on?"
Jellal spat a quick and inadequate explanation. "Meredy and Gray made a sensory link last night. Something's preventing her from breaking it. He's killing her."
Erza ran faster.
Stuffed into a box Lucy had never considered a coffin but couldn't stop thinking of as that way now, she breathed stale air and pushed frantically at the oak grains. Caught in Gray's breath attack, she was thrown for a wild ride, spun so quickly that she was dizzy. Then she hit something hard and unforgiving. A wall. The box—faintly, she knew it was Horologium—splintered. The wall gave out. She was spinning again, faster than before this time. Down, down. Gravity was calling and it was saying the ground missed her.
She hit hard enough that Horologium cracked and spilled his cargo on the pavement. Lucy kept spinning long after she was free of his body, stopping up short against a brick wall. Her head was protected by a warm body slamming into place behind her seconds before she collided and was split in two like a melon. She had the opportunity to look up and see through all the grey air shot through with sunrays that it was Loke that had materialized at the last second when he realized that Horologium failed.
Dust drifted to the ground. Screams filled the air. And then the smashing continued. Without looking, Lucy knew Natsu and Gray and brought the fight outside. Her heart beat faster. She pushed herself out of Loke's lap and almost threw up on his feet; she was so disoriented and dizzy.
Loke followed her upright and grabbed her arms, keeping her away from the ground again when she started to go down. "Are you okay?"
Lucy took in the first dust-filled breath since she was thrown from Horologium. Her lungs hurt. "I'm fine. We have to stop them." She wriggled from his grasp and lurched toward the fighting. It was hard to see through all of the fine particles in the air, the smoke and the bits of ice spray, but every now and again fire would act as a beacon, pulling her toward Natsu. Natsu? A tremor took her recalling the burst of scales, the coldness that filled his eyes.
I'm not afraid. Those words felt much hollower now than they had as she was standing in the tub, gearing herself up for something that seemed so mild now in the face of this calamity.
Loke grabbed her wrist, tugging her up short. "You can't go over there."
"I have to." Lucy twisted out of his grasp and was on the move again.
Loke growled out something that she missed over the din of a building smashing apart.
Erza was hit with the aftereffects of a spell that made her skin burn. She felt like a crab stuffed into a boiling pot in her armour. She switched it out for her flame empress. It didn't truly save her from the heat. It helped, though. Not that it did much for the responding cold. She entered the battleground as she did always: with abandon. When she was moving quickly, she wasn't giving herself time to worry. She wasn't giving fear a foothold. She was doing, she was acting. The only time she ever felt more alive was when Jellal was touching her. That was a long way off, though.
Through a cloud of smoke, she saw her quarry. Natsu, bent-backed and grabbing his bleeding side, somehow still furious and devoted, Gray, upright and righteously angry. Both were focused on what they were doing, neither noticed her approach, or the destruction or the screaming around them, Erza would bet. Faintly, she catalogued Natsu's bare arms. And his hands. Neither was right. Not quite human, her brain supplied when she could not make the pieces line up. And Gray. He was a mess of pale skin mixed black laced with spider web fractures.
Erza's heart turned with something that she, at her least brave, would call fear. Quashing it like a bug, she strode forward and made it there in time to deflect Natsu's coming punch, and Gray's vicious response. Both of her palms went numb with the impact. In one hand was cold, the other hot. Erza clenched both fists and held them, pushing against the driving force with all her might. It was barely enough to keep them at bay.
"Enough," Erza said. No one seemed to hear her or even notice that she was there. Gray pushed against her, determined to get at Natsu, and Natsu made to tear out of her grasp. In the most dangerous way she had, Erza squeezed their knuckles until she felt their hand bones grind together and hissed, "Stop."
It didn't seem to matter. Gray's devil slayer's magic rose up, as poisoned as it had ever been. Erza attempted to draw breath and couldn't. Distantly, she heard Jellal call her name. She felt one of his spells rise. She wondered if he would let it loose and risk hurting Meredy, or if he would hold it and watch her get flattened by Gray's magic. She clenched her teeth. "Stop and listen. You're hurting Meredy, Gray. She can feel everything through your sensory link."
Gray's responding (and incomprehensible) snarl was shortened to a weak grunt as a new figure separated herself from the settling dust. Her sapphire hair, even caked in drywall film, was unmistakable. He fixed his gaze on her just to be sure. She walked unevenly, staggering more than drifting as she usually did, and there was blood on her skin. But there was no mistake.
"Juvia."
"Gray-sama!" Her rising voice and Erza's joined response, a lift of her head in Juvia's direction, affirmed that he wasn't hallucinating. The closer she swayed, the more clearly he could see her. Her cheek was split and puffy. Like his. Her knuckles were raw and red. Like his. She clutched her ribs. Like he wanted to. Erza's words finally trickled through his rage. You're hurting Meredy. And Juvia. Juvia, who was no longer lying limp against the wall, soaked in blood and vomit. This time, when he prodded their connection he felt everything. Her fear and her doubt and her worry.
"Gray-sama, stop.."
Her words resonated in his mind. The magic he held died in his hands, along with his will to fight. His devil slayer's mark shrunk so fast he swayed back, dizzy and nauseous all over again. Erza let him go; Juvia came for him, taking up the redhead's place. She still smelled vinegary. Gray didn't care. He clutched her to his chest.
With Gray's shrinking devil slayer's mark, the pressure Natsu felt digging into the fracture inside his chest eased. Like someone flipped a switch, the cold he'd been courting shrank and shrank, taking with it his new scales, until only his right palm was blackened. He felt hollow like he did before, standing over Fairy Tail's ruined guild hall. Exhausted. And aching. This time, when he wrenched out of Erza's grasp, she couldn't keep him.
"Natsu!" Erza called. "Where are you going?"
To find Lucy. What was left of her. Do you really think you're going to find anything at all? Hit with the full strength of a spell like that… Anger came again, so potent he was choking on it. The beast that lived in that fracture peered through the darkness, longing to step out into the light, if Natsu would let it. He bit his tongue until it hurt and imagined a scenario where he had any sort of control over it. It wasn't his. Not at all. He'd be a fool to imagine it was. It felt wilder than the Ethernano he'd dared to eat in the Tower of Heaven, more dangerous than the void Hades banished him into. More frightening than all of the Tartarus demons consolidated into one beast. Even more poisonous than Achnologia, whom Natsu often thought of as fear itself. Clutching his ribs didn't stop the tremor rolling through him. it didn't hide it from anyone else, either. He could feel Gray tense and wondered if they'd start again.
You heard Erza. He's linked with Meredy. Calm. Be calm. Sucking in breath after breath after breath didn't do anything. And then he heard her voice.
"I don't care, Loke."
"You should. Listen to me."
A frustrated grunt. "Close, Gate of the Lion."
That wasn't enough to convince Natsu, he'd seen plenty of girls as of late that he imagined to be Lucy. Her scent came to him, the one that was particular to her. He stalled and huffed. Strawberry and dirt and celestial elements. She stepped out of the dust next, damp hair no longer golden, but caked in filth as they all were.
She identified him a millisecond later. "Natsu!"
Her voice was the splash of cold water he needed to put a damper on the beast within. Natsu watched her skitter over rocks and other debris. She didn't seem to care that she wasn't dressed. She didn't seem to care that her feet were getting battered by broken bricks and glass. She didn't seem to care that she'd seen the creature he was. She approached with abandon and stopped only when she was leaning into him and examining. Cool fingers pressed into his sore cheek, his swollen lip, his black and blue chest. Natsu was more damaged than he'd ever been after a fight with Gray, and he'd never felt it less.
Lucy wicked away the blood at his lip. "Are you okay?"
He caught her wrist and leaned away. "I'm fine." Just cut loose and feeling bland. Detached. Except for fear. That was in sharp focus.
Another figure came out of the rubble, a short man with a balding head and a cap of tightly curled red hair. His nose was redder than a cherry, as was his throat. He opened his mouth and Natsu understood that he wasn't drunk or ill, he was furious. He only glanced at Lucy in her peculiar garb briefly, too mad to think that seeing girls in their underwear was strange. "What have you done to my motel?"
Natsu didn't know what to say. What does it look like? That'd go over well.
"You've ruined me." The owner didn't need a response. "Everyone said, don't let Fairy Tail stay. You won't have a place left. But I decided to take the chance. What is a man to do in this economy?" A vein popped out on his forehead. "Lose everything," he answered himself. With the last word, he gave his frustration a physical outlet and lobbed a rock their way. Natsu wasn't fast enough to dodge it; in fact, he didn't even see it in the man's hand until it was in the air, he was too out of it. It hit him in the chest and bounced off. He supposed it hurt on some level. Or it would, eventually.
"Hey!" Lucy raged. "Don't—"
The man stooped and picked up another piece of his ruined motel. A hand closed around his wrist and squeezed before he could throw it, punishing him until he dropped his prize.
A new voice said, "You'll be reimbursed for your losses." The dust cleared a little more. Gajeel looked annoyed, as always.
The motel's owner wasn't intimidated; he was too angry for that. "And who's going to pay for it?"
"The Magic Council." Gajeel threw around the name like it was commonplace.
"The council. Why would they?"
"Because this accident happened while we were conducting an investigation," Gajeel replied smoothly.
"Accident? I saw them fighting." He pointed accusingly between Natsu and Gray.
"Sure. Now shut your mouth and go about your day," Gajeel warned.
"Go about my day. This is a joke, right?"
Gajeel didn't crack a smile. "Does it look like I'm laughing? The council will handle this. You'll be back in business soon. Until then, find something to keep you busy and keep your mouth shut."
The man snorted. "Even if that story did fly, you expect me to believe your part of the council? Look at you, you're—"
Gajeel dug in his pocket and came out with a badge that Natsu couldn't read at this distance. "Yeah, I do expect you to believe that I'm part of that. But please, go ahead, tell me what you think I am. Too much of a punk? Too dumb? Too—"
The motel owner's face blanked.
"You're scaring him, Gajeel," came Levy's voice. Natsu felt Lucy quiver beside him. He dared to shoot a look her way. Her eyes were bright with tears. She held them all in, stubborn to the last.
Gajeel shoved the motel owner back a few paces. "Good. Guy like him deserves a good fright."
"Gajeel—"
Gajeel barked, "I've had two buildings dropped on my head in as many days, Levy. I'm not in the mood for his attitude." To the owner he said, "Know what? Suddenly, I'm not feeling so generous. Consider the offer retracted."
"What?" the owner squawked.
"He didn't mean it," Levy interrupted.
Natsu stopped listening, distracted by another presence. Wendy, Cheria and Carla coming from the rubble-filled square, and then Happy dropped from the sky, Lily at his side. Looking at him, the dragon slayer had a sudden urge to grab the cat and crush him to his chest. He suppressed it.
"Natsu?" Happy looked at him with concern. "Are you alright? You don't look so good."
Natsu imagined smiling and laughing it off like he normally would. His stomach was too curdled for that, his chest too cold, the knowledge that Gray was just steps away, that Gray knew his secret, that Gray had the power to end what he'd become before he carried out his mission.
"Hello?" Happy sent and incredulous look his way. "Are you sick?"
Say something. Natsu felt tongue-tied.
"Erza." Gajeel had stopped arguing with Levy, dismissed the motel's owner, and now turned his attention to the redhead. His interruption seemed to distract Happy from his inquisition. Blissfully. Natsu followed the cat's gaze and saw Erza was trying to slink away, her hand tucked into...
Natsu squinted. The wind shifted, telling him what his eyes would not.
Jellal's.
Erza's shoulders got stiff. And then she was running, dragging Jellal along behind her.
"Erza!" Gajeel's voice cracked like a whip.
She wouldn't have slowed for him. The only thing that put a halt on her escape was Jellal digging his heels into the ground. She was pulled up so abruptly she fell. Her face turned white, her broken fingers bending the wrong way. Cursing followed next, a long, colourful stream that was both impressive and slightly intimidating. Jellal picked her up, his apologies the only thing blurring out her cusses.
Gajeel approached, boots digging into the debris-filled ground. "Running doesn't look good, Scarlet."
Erza faced him, defiance on her sweaty and pale face. Lucy voiced what Natsu was thinking. "What the hell is happening?"
Levy spoke. "Jellal's still wanted by the Magic Council. Me and Gajeel have been tailing his group for awhile, but they've been elusive."
"You're part of the Magic Council?" Natsu asked. "For real?" He supposed he thought Gajeel was putting on an act or something.
"Gajeel's head of the Magic Enforcement Unit," Levy said. "And I'm an officer."
"Fuck off," Natsu said, for a moment putting aside everything fucked up for some good old fashioned disbelief. Levy he could believe, she was as straight as they came, but, "Gajeel?"
"Yep." Levy's smile was small and genuine and reminiscent of everything that Fairy Tail used to be. It made Natsu's heart hurt. And then it was gone. "Gajeel…" She closed the space between them, entering the tense situation. Natsu strained his ears to hear what was said. Gajeel's deep timbre was the only one that carried any good.
"—extenuating circumstances. As soon as this is cleared up, though, you gotta come in, Jellal. Nothing personal."
Natsu was wrong, an angry Erza spoke loudly enough as well. "You can try to arrest him. But you'll have me to go through."
"Taking a stance like that, you're abetting a criminal, Erza," Gajeel warned. "That could be bad for you, too."
Lucy slipped her hand out of his grasp, distracted with the appearance of Virgo. Natsu kept her in his periphery while he stepped closer. His movements attracted Gray's attention. Twenty feet away, the devil slayer watched him like a hawk, breathing as of yet contained fury. Natsu knew what he was looking for: END. How much longer would he wait patiently, holding a shivering Juvia? He was satiated for now, but what would set him off next?
You can't procrastinate. You have to find Zeref and act fast. He was all indecision. Fear. Where was the conviction?
Jellal's voice brought him back to a matter that was still pressing but not nearly so dire. At least to Natsu. "Don't listen to her. She doesn't know what she's saying."
"I know perfectly well what I'm saying."
Jellal waved her off. "Hysterical."
"When did Jellal get so brave?" Natsu whispered.
"We call that stupid, not brave," Happy said. "Maybe he got hit in the head?"
"He's about to be…" Lily chimed.
"Overlook what she's saying. She's not thinking straight."
Erza, predictably, planted two hands on his shoulder and pushed him back. "No, I'm—"
Jellal stepped in front of her again. "She's been strange since Wendy was attacked. Out of her mind. Really, I was the one pursuing her, not the other way around. Any interaction she had with me was on my behest. She never participated in my happenings, she never contributed to any illegal activity. If she says differently, she's lying."
"The less you say, the less I know," Gajeel said over Erza's outraged protests. "We got more important things to think about right now. Has anyone seen the Strausses or Laxus and his team?"
"I saw them heading toward the guild hall early this morning," Happy answered.
Gajeel nodded. "Good. We should all find some place to hole up while we figure out what the hell is happening. I got a report from the council early this morning that there was a force marching across Fiore, heading this way. Every town they pass through they decimate. No survivors."
Lucy, more properly dressed in a pair of tights and not just her underwear, came to Natsu and clutched his hand hard, fingers digging into his new scales.
Gajeel said, "The council thinks with all the activity happening here in Magnolia, they're headed this way. Our own soldiers are getting geared up, but it'll take days for them to get here. We're what's going to stop them if our suspicions are correct."
Natsu's stomach flopped as his dream came back to him. There was no doubt in his mind that those soldiers were Zeref's. And they're coming for you. So many people are dying.
"Can you think of any place to gather?" Levy raised her voice, addressing the whole group.
It was Jellal that answered. "My people are gathered at the old school. It'll be large enough to accommodate us all."
"I'll get the Strausses," Lily offered.
"I'll go with you," Happy said.
"And I'll head to the guard house," Gajeel said. "Let them know what's happening. Levy, Erza, you're with me. Lily, help Jellal get everyone to the school first to make sure there's no more incidents," he looked pointedly at Gray and Natsu, "then start looking for the others. Cheria, Wendy… Get those two idiots healed up, and anyone else that needs it."
Wendy was pale when she nodded, not looking much like she wanted to heal anyone, but also not arguing about it, either. She would work until she was dead.
Gray stood taller beneath Juvia's weight. "I'm not going anywhere with him." His finger pointed accusingly at Natsu.
"You are because I say you are," Gajeel replied, stealing Natsu's chance to respond.
"Who made you in charge?" Gray asked.
"This is my investigation. If you got something to say about it, best be speaking up now."
A year apart hadn't changed Gajeel much, despite his new title and his new-found conformity. He was still a metal head looking to scrap at any opportunity.
Juvia whispered something in his ear and Gray deflated.
Jellal started walking. Lucy wrapped her arm around Natsu's waist and pulled him in the proper direction. The dragon slayer followed, one eye on her, the other on Gray at all times. He could feel the other man's agitation; it rivaled only his own. Cold rage—END—was a rancorous giant restlessly sleeping.
