I AM BACK.

Okay, I already love this chapter for one reason – this is the last time I'll be writing in Gray's POV. Geez, he's like the Saïx of Fairy Tail. (Yeah, about 99.9% of you won't get the joke.)

Anyway! This will be the last chapter focusing on just one POV for a while. The rest will be alternating between Natsu, Lucy, and Happy (for a reason that'll be revealed later) within a given chapter. And hey, this story is going to end up much longer than I originally planned. Aren't you guys lucky? XD

Anyway, let's get this chapter rolling and say our final goodbyes to our favorite stripping ice wizard!

Ch. 5: Fire and Ice Don't Mix

The next time I saw that idiot, I was going to freeze-dry him.

"What the heck is that moron thinking?!" I growled. "What kind of attitude was that?! First he tells you that we can't save him by the deadline, expects us to go and try to kill him, and then he runs off on us?! Did he just completely lose it or what?!"

"Calm down, Gray," Erza ordered sternly, and I let it go in reluctance. As riled up as I was, I couldn't bring myself to stand against her in this situation.

She turned to Lucy. "So let me get this straight. Natsu told you all this last night, and now he's gone. Because of this, you think he informed you of all this intentionally?"

Lucy nodded slowly, looking nervous. "Yeah," she said slowly. "But the thing is…I don't know if he left on his own, or if the monster made him do it."

"Well," Wendy hesitated before continuing, "if it really was the monster, then I don't think it would've left Lucy behind. You remember what it said back at the guild, right? It almost sounded like…"

Lucy immediately began freaking out at the implications that Wendy was making. "Don't even go there!" she cried as she hugged herself for comfort. "That monster hitting on me was weird enough; I don't need any more disgusting thoughts in my head right now!"

"I don't know; it's hard to tell what that monster is really planning," I said in a disgruntled tone. "I mean, it could have taken Lucy hostage if it wanted, but maybe it left her alone on purpose to get us to lower our guard."

"So you're saying that Natsu could already be…!" Wendy couldn't finish her thoughts, but she didn't have to. We all knew what she meant, and believe me, I really didn't like it. Even so, we still had to consider the worst in a situation like this one.

"Whatever the case," Erza continued, "we still need to figure out where he's gone, along with Happy. I only hope for their sakes that nothing has happened to either of them."

"Yeah," Wendy said worriedly. "I'm hoping that, too."

"So the question now is where the two of them have gone," Carla finished, crossing her arms. "Natsu didn't leave any hints on where he was going, did he?"

Lucy shook her head. "I didn't know that he was thinking about leaving."

"Then that leaves us with two options," Erza said. "One, we could go back to that dark guild you dissolved and look for clues, though considering what's happened, finding Natsu there would be unlikely. Second, we can ask Jellal for more leads."

I nodded slowly. I could see where she was coming from with this. Jellal obviously knew more about this than any of us did, and since he'd dealt with this himself before, it stood to reason that he knew how to get rid of it, too. Also, he could help us understand Natsu's behavior better, so we could track him down better before anything bad happened…though going from what Lucy told us, it wouldn't be a good idea to get our hopes up too high. Besides that, though, we had one other small problem…

"But how're we supposed to find Jellal in the first place?" I asked. "You know how that guy is. He's…you know, everywhere."

"Don't worry," she assured us with a knowing smile. "He's hiding close by. Follow me."

She immediately began moving toward the door, but Lucy squeaked, "Wait! I still need to get ready!"

So we had to wait and watch as she scrambled around, doing her hair and putting her clothes on and such, and it was about half an hour before she was ready to leave.

"So…I never got to ask before," Lucy noted as we left her house and started walking. "Did you guys find anything at that dark guild? Anything that could help us?"

I kicked a stray pebble in the cobblestone path as we kept walking. "Nothing," I grumbled, putting my hands in my pockets. "We might as well have been looking for a needle in a haystack the size of Natsu's ego."

"Not funny, Gray."

"Okay, sorry. But at any rate, we couldn't find a trace of that bracelet we were supposed to find. And we couldn't exactly ask someone if they knew where it was – all the members either ran away or got arrested, and since no visitors are allowed in the federal cells, we can't go ask them."

"Oh…that's too bad," Lucy said, her tone dripping with disappointment. "We really should've considered that sooner."

"All this just seems too convenient," I complained, sighing heavily. "The dark guild is totally empty, the bracelet is next to nowhere, and Natsu is missing. We can't even get any reliable leads or clues. We're stuck in a huge rut and it makes no sense to me at all."

"So you're saying…all that is connected somehow?" Wendy asked, her voice skeptical. "But isn't that stretching it a bit?"

"Even if that's the case, we can't rule out any possibility," Erza warned her. "We can't afford to."

"Oh…" Wendy immediately looked contrite. "Right. Sorry."

We walked on in silence after that, and I wasn't really paying attention to where we were going – Erza didn't elaborate for us, either. I was aware that we were in a woody area, but I had no idea where we were actually headed. I was about to ask when a new voice broke in.

"YOU GUYS!"

We barely had time to be surprised when something blue came whizzing down from right above our heads and came to a hovering halt in front of us.

"Happy?!" Lucy exclaimed in surprise. "There you are! Where have you been; we've been worried sick!"

"That's not important right now!" Happy cried urgently, flailing his paws frantically. "Something awful's happened!"

"What? What's happened?"

Before Happy could answer her, another figure rushed through the trees.

"Jellal?!" I said incredulously as he emerged covered in loose foliage. "What're you doing in a place like this?"

"This is where I'm hiding out," he explained hastily as he plucked a twig out of his blue hair. "I've been doing some investigating on my own around his house."

"His house…?" I looked ahead, and saw the hints of a familiar gray stone building through the thicket of trunks and branches. "So you were hanging around Natsu's place? Isn't that the riskiest place to hide out of all the places you could've tried?"

"I'm sure I could have picked out a different place under other circumstances," he said, "but now's not one of those times. While I was doing some observing, I ran into the cat in the middle of it. Your timing couldn't have been more perfect; we were just about to leave for the guild when you showed up."

"So you heard?" Lucy asked desperately. "Happy already told you that Natsu's gone missing again?"

Jellal's expression was dark. "Yes, he did. But that isn't the entire story." He looked to Happy, who looked like he was about to cry. "He can tell you more."

We all turned to Happy.

"First and foremost, what's happened to you?" Erza asked sharply. "Where did you get those injuries, Happy?"

"Injuries?" I echoed in confusion. I took a closer look at the blue cat, and I was shocked to notice all the nicks and scratches on him. He looked as if he'd flown through a dozen mouse traps. Even his satchel was ripped in some places. It was so bad that I was surprised I didn't see any blood on him.

"What the heck happened to you, Happy?" I asked heatedly. "Who did this to you?!"

"I keep telling you; now's not the time for that!" Happy insisted in a choked voice. "We have to go find Natsu before things get worse!"

"How can things get any worse?" Lucy asked fearfully. "Natsu's already gone; what else could…"

It dawned on her before she could finish, and I could tell everyone else realized the gravity of the situation without her needing to say it. Both Jellal and Happy were looking on sadly.

"No…" Wendy gasped through her tears, covering her mouth in horror. "It can't be…there's no way…I thought…"

"You mean…" Lucy's voice shook so much, it broke. "We're already…too late…?"

Erza was too overcome with shock to do anything, much less speak. She'd already accepted the situation, which somehow made this situation all the worse.

"H-hold on just a damn minute," I demanded shakily. "I thought we had until evening to sort all this out! If this is a joke, it's not funny, Jellal!"

Jellal said nothing to defend himself. He just kept that grim expression on his face, which was pissing me off immensely. I was about to open my mouth to say something else, but Happy interrupted by tackling my chest and punching me there with his small paws over and over.

"Stupid Gray!" he sobbed hysterically. "It's not a joke! Jellal would never…he'd wouldn't joke about something like this! He's not a bad guy anymore!" He wouldn't stop punching my chest in his grief-fueled fury, but I wasn't about to stop him. "Stupid – stupid – stupidstupidstupid! YOU'RE STUPID, GRAY!"

My blood turned to ice as I finally accepted the truth. I looked to Jellal again, and this time I saw burning regret.

"So it's all true," I said, and it wasn't a question. My voice sounded disturbingly hollow, even to me. "It's really happened, then."

Jellal nodded reluctantly. "The deal was cut off," he informed me bitterly. "There's…nothing else I can do now. It's too late."

Those words clinched it for me. My flimsy fantasy excuses couldn't hold up anymore.

The deal was cut off.

We had lost the game.

So to answer Lucy's previous question…yeah, apparently things could get worse.

"What the hell's going on?" I demanded. "Did we miscalculate somewhere along the way or something?"

"No, you were keeping your end of the bargain," Jellal said through tight lips. "It's that demon who double-crossed us."

"We really should've seen something like this coming," Carla said fervently. "This is a monster we're dealing with, after all…how often do you meet one that is honorable?"

"There's no point in worry about that now," I said quickly. "What do we do? Should we try to find Natsu, or let the guild members know before that so that they can all help?"

"No," Jellal said immediately. "The guild can't help you. Not in this case."

"What?!" Lucy cried. "What are you saying? If anything else, everyone else should pitch in to help! And the master's worried sick about him! It's not just us!"

"I'm well aware of that, but we can't run any risks here," he said sharply. "True, we might be able to locate him more quickly if everyone helped to search, but the consequences of one of your lesser wizards running into him is much too risky."

"Risky?" Wendy echoed. "But Fairy Tail has lots of powerful wizards!"

"That's not the point I'm trying to make," Jellal said. "Wendy, you won't be able to take this concept properly into mind, but a certain someone here can." He turned to Erza with a knowing expression. "Erza, you know better than anyone else here what it was like when we were on opposite sides. Natsu will be many times worse than that. I'm sure you know what is at stake, and what it is that you need to do."

Horror flicked across her features for a brief moment before she composed herself. "Yes," she said softly. "I do. Thank you for all that you've done…Jellal."

Jellal nodded wordlessly and raised his hood in order to cover his face. He turned to leave, but he'd only taken a few steps away before he paused and turned his head slightly so that he could look at us.

"If I may leave even the smallest shred of hope with you," he said evenly, "I can deduce why Natsu left you the way he did that night, Lucy."

Lucy flinched when Jellal addressed her. "Y-you can?" she asked doubtfully.

"Yes. He could have easily been aware of the demon's plans, given that the two are sharing the same body. He probably left to distance himself from you – to keep you and everyone else safe."

Okay, I got that Jellal was only trying to cheer us up, but something in that reasoning didn't sit right with me. "Hold on, that's crazy," I protested. "That goes against everything Lucy told us! We can't exactly help him when we don't even know where to find him! If he wanted that, then shouldn't he have stayed somewhere close by?"

"Gray," Erza cut in sternly. "I know Natsu might act empty-headed sometimes, but he's no fool. If he'd stayed nearby, there would have been untold collateral damage to the citizens of Magnolia even before we found him. I think it's a safe bet to assume that he went somewhere remote in order to minimize that possibility."

"Okay, okay," I said irritably. "I'm sorry."

"But the six of us can't possibly find Natsu on our own, right?" Wendy asked. "We should at least have a few more people who can help us!"

Jellal turned around to face us again in full. "So you're saying that you have others in your guild who can withstand his power?" he suggested matter-of-factly. "In this situation, the best you can hope for are people who are able to survive. I know very well that Natsu himself wouldn't take things to such extreme levels, but the demon won't hesitate. If you aren't careful, there will be deaths by its hand."

Now that shut us up pretty good. It was so implausible that we had trouble believing it. Natsu killing somebody? There was no way. Zeref could be an exception, but…this was all kinds of wrong. How much more was this demon going to torture our psyches until it was satisfied? It had already crossed the line by possessing him in the first place, but now it was tearing right past it at breakneck speed with this prospect.

I gritted my teeth and tightened my fists in anger. That demon was now in for all sorts of hell.

"…Alright then," I agreed reluctantly. "But we should at least let the guild know about what happened. They can't stay in the dark about this. Especially not the master."

"And we need to spread the word," Erza added firmly. "Our guild is already extremely well-known as it stands, and we can't let something like this tarnish our name. Nor Natsu, who is already infamous on his own. I refuse to have our guild become ridiculed for being the product of a monster, and I won't tolerate this monster hurting our comrade any further!"

Jellal lowered his head in consent. "Very well. We can't have the Salamander become known as a murderer. But know this" – he looked at each of us in turn with hard eyes – "things could very well get to the point where the other guilds feel like they should be involved. Whether they wish it or not, the Magic Council will eventually see Natsu as a criminal of the law no matter what we tell them, and the hunt for him will commence. The fact that Natsu is now officially unaffiliated with any guild only exacerbates this possibility."

My heart nearly skipped a beat. Damn it, how could we have forgotten that? Natsu had never put our guild mark back on, so he was an independent (loosely stated) wizard in the eyes of the law. No matter his political connections with us were severed; his history with us would still account for the inevitable charges.

Wendy covered her mouth in horror. "But when that happens…!"

"…people will die!" Lucy gasped.

"We've wasted enough time as it is, so this will be our course of action," Jellal announced. "Erza, I need you to accompany me to the guild hall. Your guildmates may not believe what I have to say at face value, so I'll need you there in order to testify for me. I'd much rather you hunt down Natsu, but…they know that you and I are acquainted. We can't afford to have any sort of mass panic."

Erza nodded. "I understand."

"Wendy and Carla, you should come with us as well. I don't doubt your strength, Wendy," he added quickly as Wendy was about to protest, "and I know how worried you are, but this is much too risky for you. And you two," he added, pointing to me and Lucy, "you will spearhead the search. Happy will accompany you as well – he'll give you at least a good head start on where to start looking."

Lucy looked admittedly rather unsettled at that. "Just the three of us? But why…?"

"I apologize," Jellal admitted, looking down, "but you three will be the bait to draw him out. Specifically, you and Gray."

Say what?!

"Bait?!" I exclaimed in disbelief. "So what you're saying is that we're the demon fodder?! What the hell gave you that brilliant idea?!"

"It's more likely than not that the demon will come for you two first. Remember its words to the two of you back at the guild hall the previous evening."

I did, but I really didn't want to. Even so, the words came back and replayed itself over and over in my head like they wanted to taunt me.

I've known you for all of ten seconds and I already want to kill you.

I love women like you. I'd love to entertain you, but…I'm not exactly as free as a bird right now.

"Thanks for reminding us," I muttered, thoroughly ticked. The last thing I wanted was to remember the fact that this demon had a spiteful vendetta against me for talking smack to it. Lucy shivered and hugged herself again at the thought. "Are you even trying to help us anymore, or are you trying to kill us?"

"Don't get the wrong idea; you are just the best hope we have at finding Natsu," he said. "I won't expect you to run into him on your first round, but stay vigilant. We will join you in the search as soon as we are able, and I won't be able to stay for long."

I waved a hand in surrender. "Okay, whatever. But if I die doing this, you can bet that I'll be haunting you beyond the grave." A smile of defeat escaped as I looked back at him. "Well, we can count on you to be reliable, at least."

Jellal then gave me a rare smile, warned us to be careful one more time, and then turned to leave, Erza and Wendy following close behind. I turned to face Lucy again. She still looked pretty freaked out, holding Happy so close to her that he looked even bluer than usual, but I knew that wasn't going to stop her.

"So, you ready for this?" I asked her. "Let's go find that idiot and bring him back."

Lucy closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath in order to calm down. She let it out slowly then gave me her determined look. "Let's go," she said. "Lead the way, Happy," she added as she released him from her arms. "Let's move."

Happy took a minute to catch the breath that Lucy had squeezed out of him, and then cried, "Aye, sir!"

He then took off in the opposite direction of his house, and the search commenced.

Remember what Jellal said about not finding Natsu our first go-around?

Well, he was wrong…sort of.

See, here's what happened: we ran around everywhere for hours looking for any sign of him, but there was none anywhere. Happy wasn't much help in the end, either. He could barely remember which direction to go, and half the time (I'm being generous here), he took us the wrong way. I'd yelled at him until my voice went hoarse, and that didn't help any because now I couldn't shout Natsu's name anymore. We were stuck in some mildly woody area when Lucy finally snapped.

"You guys!" she shouted at last in exasperation. "Won't you listen to what I'm trying to tell you?!"

I paused in the middle of pinching Happy's cheeks, and Happy stopped flailing his legs at the sound of her voice.

"Sorry, what?" I asked.

"I told you; I have an idea!" she huffed, putting her hands on her hips indignantly. "But you guys either keep arguing or completely ignore me!"

I dropped Happy immediately. Since he wasn't using his wings, he fell to the ground with a small thud.

"Ouchie!" he wailed, but I ignored him.

"So what's your idea?" I prompted her. "You know where to look?"

"I thought it was obvious, so I didn't say anything at first," she sighed. "But you guys wasted so much time that I tried telling you to try the place where all this started!"

"Where all this –" My breath caught when I realized what she meant. "You mean that dark guild!"

"Exactly! Why we didn't go there first is beyond me!"

Yeah, I'll admit that one was pretty much my fault. I really should've known that we should've checked there first. I mean, if that's where this whole possession thing got started, it was likely that we'd at least find something there now because Natsu wasn't in charge of his body anymore. Last go-around had been, well, a no-go, but this time might be different.

"Okay, okay; we're sorry," I said hastily as Happy floated back up again from the ground. "Let's get moving; it's gonna take a while to get there from where we are…" I glared at Happy pointedly. "…wherever this is."

"I told you I'm sorry!" he protested.

"Give it a rest, Gray," Lucy snapped. "Happy did his best helping us, you know. You yelling at him didn't help anything at all anyway! He's just as worried as we are!"

"Okay, I get it already!" I said in annoyance, throwing my hands up in the air. "I'm just stressed, alright?! Enough with the guilt trips; let's just get going! But if we don't find anything there, we're reporting back to the guild!"

A new voice somewhere above us cut through the silence: "Find anything where now?"

It didn't take a genius to figure out who this voice belonged to, but it made no sense considering the circumstances. The voice…it sounded normal. It wasn't like the first time. Was my worried head just making me hear things?

Lucy jumped visibly at the sound of the voice. "Where – where's that voice coming from?!" she cried, looking about frantically. "I thought we were alone here!"

"Oh, you were never alone," the voice said again, somewhere to our right this time. "I've been watching you this whole time. Gotta say, it got pretty boring watching the half-naked one and the blue cat fight the whole way."

"Show yourself, damn it!" I shouted impatiently, scanning the branches of the trees around us. "Enough with the games already! And what the hell's with your voice?! It sounds different!"

"Ha, don't you know already that the game is over?" it teased, the voice now behind where I was standing. "You shouldn't need to ask me that. As for my voice, well" – it shifted to behind Lucy now – "I decided that sounding like this will be much more fun for me. My last set of vocal chords was just a way of saying hello."

"You sick bastard!" I growled. "There was never any game; you're just a dirty cheater!" I kept whirling in the direction of the voice, but I couldn't see anyone there. The voice sounded solid, too – it wasn't Telepathy magic, so he was close enough for us to hear normally. I could tell that much. So where was this freak hiding?

"Whoa there; watch the accusations," the voice warned me somewhere to my left. "You've got this all wrong. Prejudiced just because I'm a monster?"

"Well, what other excuses can you even have?" I snapped derisively. "If you've got any that's even remotely credible, I'd love to hear 'em!"

"I was serious when I said that I was going to wait until tonight," it explained, his tone completely bored. "But the thing is…this moron was really putting me out. He just wouldn't stop going on and on about beating me, and it got annoying. So I decided to shut him up myself. If anything, you should be mad at your Dragon Slayer friend for making me break my promise. Not me."

"Sorry, but when you're stuck with a guy like Natsu, that's something you should already be expecting," I retorted heatedly. "You're the one who couldn't handle it! My stance isn't gonna change one bit just 'cause of some stupid sob story, you got that?!"

"Natsu! Please come out!" Happy cried desperately, darting around the branches and poking his head through every available gap. "Where are you?!"

"Ohh, again with that sharp tongue of yours?" it mocked in a sing-song voice, completely ignoring Happy. "Honestly, I'd be more impressed if I knew who you are. But frankly, I don't care."

I ground my teeth together. "If you aren't even going to show yourself, why'd you let us know you were here?!" I shouted into the tree boughs. "Is this some kind of joke?!"

"Come now; I'm not that petty," the voice chided. "Who said I wasn't going to show myself? I'm just saving it until the last minute. It's gonna be the best part, after all. Icing on the cake, if you will."

"Why, you…!" I couldn't hold back anymore. I slapped my right fist into my other palm and screamed, "Don't mess with me! I'll flush you out if I have to! ICE MAKE: BATTLE AXE!"

"Gray, wait a second!" Lucy protested, but I ignored her.

"Duck and cover, you two!" I shouted as the frost gathered to form said weapon in my hands. "This forest is in desperate need of a trimming!"

I raised my weapon, not giving Lucy any time to retaliate some more, so she grabbed Happy out of the air and dove to the ground. I let out a huge bellow as I swung my now-fully-formed ice axe in a huge circle, slicing through the tree trunks like they were nothing but paper within a ten-foot radius. The trees fell to the ground in a resounding CRASH, but when I looked around and scanned the debris, there was no sign of any person.

"Damn it!" I cursed, shattering my ice axe against the hard-packed dirt.

"Calm down, Gray!" Lucy cried, springing up from the ground and grabbing my arm. "Losing your temper won't help anything!"

She was right. I knew that my raging wasn't really going to do anything beneficial. But I was just so frustrated with everything that had been going on that I didn't want to care.

"I know you're frustrated, Gray," Lucy insisted. "We all are. We just have to keep a level head or else we won't get anything done."

I exhaled sharply. I never thought I'd see the day when Lucy would act as my voice of reason.

"Sorry," I said finally. "I'm just really ticked."

Just then, high laughter ran through our clearing – and this time, it sounded much closer. The worst part was, we still couldn't see anybody.

"So you're an ice wizard, huh?" the voice laughed from behind us. "Things just got a whole lot more interesting!"

Then there was the sound of snapping branches behind us, and the three of us whirled around to locate the source of the noise – and came face to face with Natsu.

At first, I couldn't register what I was seeing. I wasn't sure what I was expecting now that I knew the demon was using Natsu's voice, but I didn't expect him to look so…normal. He didn't look like he was being possessed at all – there was no hint of red in his eyes like before.

Lucy gasped, though I wasn't sure if it was from horror or shock. Could've been either, could've been both. Same went for Happy, who had gasped in tandem.

"Natsu…!" she breathed in surprise.

"Natsu" scratched his head and sighed irritably. "Seriously, weren't you listening earlier? I'm not Natsu. Wake up."

This was unreal. He was acting way too affable, all things considered.

"But…" Lucy was shivering so hard I was afraid she would fall down. "You…your voice…"

"Okay, I guess you weren't listening then," he said impatiently as he crossed his arms in a huff. "Like I said before, I decided to cut our little game short because this Natsu guy wouldn't stop talking trash to me. And now, I'm using his voice to mess with you. Get with the program, Blondie. Geez, you're sucking all the fun out of this."

"And you call this fun?" I demanded. "Possessing our comrade and having the gall to use his voice in front of us?"

"Yeah, I do," he answered easily. "Though apparently you don't agree with me."

"This isn't funny!" I yelled. "And you didn't answer my question from before!"

"What question?"

"Don't pretend that you don't know, you bastard," I growled. "Why did you let us know you were here? And why were you following us?!"

"Natsu" looked a bit taken aback at the question that I'd hurled at him, a look of disbelief plain in his features. Then abruptly, he began to laugh so hard that he doubled over and hugged his stomach – it didn't even sound any different from how our Natsu would've sounded when he laughed, which just made the whole thing worse.

"You really are stupid if you're asking that," he chortled, gasping for breath. "Seriously! This is unbelievable; man, I'm dying here!"

This was so sudden that all I could manage was a blank stare. "What?"

"Natsu" straightened up after a while. "Pfft, don't flatter yourself," he said darkly, all traces of humor gone. "I wasn't following you, stripping ice wizard, sir. I was following" – he turned his head to face Lucy and grinned hungrily – "that lovely lady over there. I couldn't care less about you."

Okay, this conversation just went from weird to disgusting. Not only was this demon a huge asshole, but it was also a stalker?! My stomach wasn't ready for that reveal. I literally felt sick to my stomach at the thought.

"You – you sick little –" Lucy couldn't finish her insult, but I could guess from her flushed and furious expression that it was probably a word that was better off left unsaid.

At that moment, Lucy also lost her fear of the demon. She screamed, "YOU SICK JERK!" as she rushed at "Natsu" and kicked him in the face, which reminded me to avoid giving her the wrong idea in the future. I wasn't the one getting a sledgehammer to the face, but I still winced at the impact that sent him flying and slammed him against a fallen tree trunk – just barely missing the pointy end of a snapped branch.

"Lucy, you could've killed him with that!" I cried frantically. "Do you want him to die?!"

Lucy huffed like a bull about to charge. "I don't care! That pervert was hitting on me again!"

"But you know it's not Natsu doing that, right?! If you're not careful, you're gonna kill him for real!"

That was enough to calm her down, but she shot one last dirty look at "Natsu" slumped against the snapped trunk. "Fine. But I'm not apologizing."

"No one said you had to."

"Whew," "Natsu" remarked as he raised himself to his feet with a slight stagger. "Wow. That actually hurt a little."

"You deserve no less for blatant sexual harassment!" Lucy snapped.

He stretched his back and popped his shoulders back into place. "Oh, you haven't seen anything yet, hon," he grunted as he straightened himself again. "I'm not just throwing those words out to annoy you, though that's a definite plus."

"Stop using those words; it's creepy!" Happy cried, using his paws to pin down his ears.

"Natsu" spread his arms out. "Well, I've wasted enough time as it is," he said as he turned around, completely ignoring Happy again. "I've had my fun with you. As you may already know, I've got a kingdom that needs to be burned to the ground."

My chest clenched in fury. "WHY IN HELL WOULD YOU DO THAT?!" I shouted, my voice saturated in rage. "YOU'VE GOT NOTHING TO GAIN FROM IT!"

"Natsu" sighed and shook his head as he let his arms drop to his sides. "Who ever said that I had to have anything to gain from it?" he chuckled, sounding high-strung for the first time this conversation. He turned his head enough so that he could eye me, and his wild eyes flickered with crimson for a brief second. "It's simply for the pleasure."

He said that with such relish that I wanted more than anything to find a hole and crawl into it. I really didn't want to face the prospect of watching Natsu terrorize Fiore, even if it wasn't him that was in control.

"You bastard…" I probably would've said more, but I couldn't. To be honest, I was terrified. I knew Natsu's strength pretty well, and now that it was in the hands of a terrorist demon that also happened to love arson, I was afraid that he really was going to kill me down the line.

"Oh, you're too kind," he snickered as he turned to face us again. He was wearing that crazy grin from before again as he spoke. "The possibilities are endless with this one. I wonder how this nation will react when they see one of their most prized wizards burning down every city. It'll be interesting, don't you think so?"

"You…you're insane," Lucy said hoarsely, her eyes filled with tears of fear. "You're insane! How could you even…!"

"Natsu" then shot a glance at Lucy like he'd just noticed her there. "Oh, whoops. I almost forgot about my toy. Silly me."

Before any of us could react, he flashed in front of Lucy like he'd teleported there and socked her in the gut, knocking her out. I couldn't believe what I'd just seen – Natsu could never move that fast. He was a speed demon in his own right, sure, but he wasn't that fast!

Moreover, this guy had just knocked Lucy out and slung her over his shoulder like she was a sack of potatoes. Everything had happened so fast that once I comprehended what was happening, I was already too late.

"Natsu" then gave me a throwaway glance as he said, "See ya" and vanished on the spot, taking Lucy with him.

Gray's chapters are the longest. Why are his chapters the longest? It makes no sense! And the demon's starting to sound like Zero! Am I the only one who noticed?

Ahem. Confession here. I rushed this chapter (and hence this entire story) on purpose to get closer to the climax. This story has been torturing me lately with SO MANY awesome things I wanted to put in that don't come up until later, so I just thought, "Screw it" and skipped ahead a bit. Yeah, I know; I'm a horrible excuse for a writer for abandoning pacing in order to suit my own desperate wants. *sulks in corner of shame* I'm sorry. T_T SEE WHAT FAIRY TAIL CAN DO TO ME?! NOT EVEN KINGDOM HEARTS DID THIS TO ME! DX So don't call me out on the rushed-ness; I already know! I'll slow things down from here, I promise!

Also you get a taste of what the demon possessing Natsu will be like in the coming chapters. Just a taste. Things might get to the point where I'll have to change the rating to M, but…we'll see how things go. Something epic always happens in Gray's POV, though. I wonder why.

Well, hope you liked it to some degree anyway. I'll just stay over here and keep sulking until I can muster out the next chapter if you need me. *continues sulking*