Present Day
Even though Erza knew they had a massive advantage against Magnus in the form of Gray's sword, she couldn't help but feel that they'd been pretty much outmaneuvered at every turn. Many of Fairy Tail's strongest were still fighting to contain Lamia Scale, but because of the risk of Fairy Tail members being brainwashed by Magnus the same way as the other guild, there was another set of strong members left in reserve at the Guild Hall. Most of Wendy's efforts during this battle were going towards fighting the brainwashing with her healing magic, but if that failed, these members would be prepared to stop the Strongest Team.
Erza had known their strike force was small, but that hadn't seemed to matter - as far as she knew, Magnus only had a couple minions outside of his newly brainwashed guild. But what she hadn't banked on was the fact that he could summon armies of shadow soldiers. They weren't particularly strong, and they couldn't use magic, but there were just so many of them. All Magnus had had to do was find a secluded spot, hidden inside a ruined fortress at the top of the hill, and watch the battle unfold beneath him. So far, the Strongest Team had pretty much just been focusing their efforts on breaking through the shadowy forces, instead of dealing any damage to Magnus.
But Jellal had made an opening. And Erza wasn't going to let it be wasted.
Erza had watched Gray use ice to skid through the gap Jellal had made. She followed him, cutting down enemy soldiers that tried to attack him from either side. Behind her, the gap Jellal had made closed, leaving Jellal and Natsu surrounded.
Erza was worried about Jellal, but she tried not to think about that - she couldn't really afford to be. Jellal could take care of himself, and if he couldn't, Natsu could take care of him. Wendy and Lucy had already been cut off from the group farther away from the main battle, and the only reason Erza wasn't worried they were dead was that the cats were circling overhead, and they would have told her if something had happened.
Erza and Gray arrived at the base of the structure Magnus was using as an outpost. There was a shallow set of stairs leading to what looked like it might have once been some sort of watchtower. Now, much of it was crumbled and weather worn - it was little more than a wide stone platform.
Erza turned to Gray. "Get up there," she said. "End this."
"But-"
It seemed to only be a token protest. Gray looked terrible - he hadn't really recovered his health since he'd lost the finger, and she assumed the sword was taking a toll on him too. She couldn't imagine he'd been able to eat much, and she was sure he hadn't been sleeping. He was pale-faced and trembly and always looked vaguely ill, even when he was in the middle of battle.
The only bright spot was that Porlyusica had been able to get the wound to mostly stop bleeding through a combination of herbs and a tight pressure bandage. His whole hand was swathed in white, but Erza was sure that was a small price to pay for Gray to be able to keep his blood on the inside of his body.
As Erza watched, Gray seemed to harden. He gave her a small nod, and then started towards the structure. "Cover me," he said.
"I'll be right behind you if I can." Erza didn't have the blade that could kill Magnus, but she could still hold her own. And if she needed to, she could distract Magnus until Gray could get the killing blow.
But before she could start after him, the temperature dropped around her, and another wave of the shadow soldiers closed in. She looked around for Gray, hoping the things hadn't cut off his escape, but he was already shooting up to the top of the structure on a column of ice, skipping the stairs entirely.
Erza summoned another sword and faced the shadow creatures. She would finish them off as fast as humanly possible, and then she would join Gray.
The shadows were no match for Erza's fighting skills, but their sheer number was tiring. Erza cut a swath through to the center of them, fighting to get a little further away from the platform, so she could see Gray at the top. She whirled, cutting through the middle of the soldiers around her and clearing the air enough to catch a glimpse of her friend.
Steel clashing against steel reached her ears, and she strained her eyes to see the battle raging on top of the platform. Gray's back was to her, his shirt having vanished at some point during the fight, and he was trading blow for blow with Magnus. Erza couldn't see the dark wizard behind him, but with every flash of Gray's icy sword, she felt more hopeful. Gray wasn't as comfortable with a sword as she was, but he really was an excellent fighter. She'd been worried about his ability to use a one-handed sword, since she knew he preferred two smaller blades, but those fears may have been unfounded. For the first time since she had seen Gray holding the sword, Erza felt like she could breathe.
And then, Gray turned to block, rotating his body, and Erza saw Magnus for the first time. He was younger-looking than she'd expected, maybe Jellal's age, dressed like a warrior in leather armor. His head was partially shaved, and his face was painted with some kind of ancient runes.
More importantly, she saw the sword he carried. It was one-handed, made of a strong looking metal that shimmered faintly in the daylight. It was the same as Gray's in every respect, save for the hilt, which shone with an almost mesmerizing blackness.
Erza opened her mouth to shout to Gray, slashing apart the enemies at her back as she turned towards him. She could reach him, she could warn him….
She spun, the words on the tip of her tongue.
Amd Magnus's blade buried itself in Gray's stomach.
Gray had taken worse. That was his first thought as the sword dug into his stomach, biting deep but not deep enough to hit anything vital. It hurt, of course it hurt. But it wasn't anything compared to the injuries that had left their mark on Gray in the past.
That was until he looked down, and finally got a good look at the sword that was buried in his stomach. He couldn't explain how he knew - perhaps something about the sheen of the metal, or something in the faint magical hum that surrounded both swords, or even the cold radiating throughout his body, but there was no doubt in his mind. Magnus had just given him a wound that he would carry for the rest of his life.
Somehow, Magnus had made a second sword. And now, it was inside Gray.
Gray looked up at Magnus. He didn't look excited, or triumphant, or anything like that. He mostly just looked impassive, which was somehow worse than anything else, because it meant Gray hadn't posed much of a threat to him in the first place.
The pain came slowly, spreading out from the wound like ice melting in the face of a fire. Time seemed to slow down.
Magnus yanked the blade out. Gray hadn't realized it was the only thing holding him up. But it was, and he slid slowly to his knees.
Gray was somehow still holding onto his own sword. If he could just get to his feet, maybe he could….
He planted his left hand on the ground, but even that much movement sent a wave of dizziness and nausea and pain through him. His muscles refused to engage. He couldn't even get his elbow to straighten.
Magnus seemed to be in no hurry at all at this point, which was horrible. Gray knew he was beaten. He just…he just wanted this to be over.
As if in slow motion, Magnus raised the sword over his head. His expression was still cold, almost bored.
Gray bowed his head.
But instead of the instant of pain that he was sure would accompany his head being separated from his shoulders, there was the clang of metal on metal.
Gray looked up, and saw that Erza was standing above him. She had a sword in each hand. One was hovering about a foot and a half above Gray's head, parrying Magnus's sword and keeping his blow at bay. The other was buried in Magnus's stomach.
For a second, Gray felt a swoop of joy - somehow, against all odds, they had won after all. But then he remembered that that was why they'd gotten Oblatio in the first place. Nothing else could kill Magnus.
But a stab wound could, apparently, slow him down. Gray watched as his blade lifted off Erza's, and he stumbled back a step.
That was all the opening Erza needed. In a movement way too fast for Gray's eyes to follow, she requipped into her Black Wing armor. Then, before Gray could so much as draw breath, she had him under her arms and was flying him off the platform.
As soon as she lifted off, Gray had to fight to stay conscious. True, he'd had worse stab wounds in his life, but he hadn't been expected to fly with any of those. The greaves on Erza's armor were cutting into his chest and stomach, making it even harder to breathe, and blackness was beginning to creep into the edges of Gray's vision. His fingers started to loosen on the hilt of the sword, and with an effort, he forced his hand to tighten. If he lost Oblatio, it really was all over.
"Hold on," Erza told him, and increased her speed.
The wind whipped around them, and Gray grabbed at her arm with his left hand, trying to ignore the jolt of pain coursing through the place where his finger had been. He gulped down nausea, put his head down, and waited for the flight to be over. He knew that Erza must be heading for the forest that was nestled at the bottom of the hill, behind Magnus's armies. Before the battle, Erza had looked at maps of the terrain and decided that was the best location to fall back for a more defensible position.
Gray also knew that they couldn't have been flying for that long. The forest was right at the bottom of the hill, and it wouldn't have taken that long to cover the distance even on foot. But now, it felt like an eternity.
Finally, Gray saw brown and green flickering in his blurry vision, and he knew they'd made it. Erza landed with a thud, and Gray tried and failed to choke back a groan of pain. As soon as she released him, he fell to his knees, and only Erza's hands stopped him from slumping sideways to the ground.
"How are you?" Erza asked sharply, lowering him carefully to the forest floor and holding out her hand, summoning a first aid bag instead of her typical sword.
Gray stayed as still as he could, glad to be on the ground instead of half-slumped over Erza's spiky armor. He closed his eyes, trying to sort through the overwhelming sensations of having been stabbed and determine how bad off he actually was.
"I don't…think it's that bad," Gray said, even managing to keep his voice from shaking too badly. He craned his neck to look down at his stomach, hoping that he wouldn't be immediately disproven by the sight of the wound. He was still holding onto the sword, and he knew that its energy was part of what was keeping him going.
But the wound actually didn't look that bad. There was, of course, blood, but it wasn't enough that Gray thought he was in danger of immediately bleeding out. He could just freeze it over, like he had with his finger, and the blood would stop flowing, at least for the moment.
Erza's hand was still pressed against Gray's stomach, but she didn't respond to him. Gray managed to drag his head somewhat upright, and saw that she had a lacrima in the hand that wasn't pressed against Gray. She seemed to be fumbling around with it.
"What…what are you doing?" Gray asked.
"I'm calling for backup," Erza said bluntly. "We need an extraction."
Gray's brain seemed to be working very, very slowly. It took him a long few seconds to understand what she meant. "Wait…," he said. "I don't…we don't need that. Just…gimme ten minutes, Erza."
Erza didn't say anything, but she shifted her attention to Gray. Her eyes had narrowed, drawing her eyebrows together. Gray blinked, trying to find the words to explain to Erza why he was okay.
"I jus' need to freeze it," he finally managed. "Then I can get back out there. It's…it's not over yet…."
"Gray, no," Erza said. "You need help. Real help, from Porlyusica. She was able to get the bleeding pretty much stopped on your finger, maybe she can do the same with this. Without her…."
She trailed off. Maybe she was right. It really did hurt. And now that he was lying down, and there was nothing to distract him, it almost seemed worse.
"But-" Gray managed. He had to break off, swallow, start over. "I can do it. I need to, Erza."
"We'll come back." Erza's face hardened in the way that meant there was absolutely no point arguing with her anymore. "We need you, Gray. If we don't leave now…."
Gray knew what she meant, and anyways, he was too tired to fight anymore. He just nodded. "Okay. You call for back up, and I'll try to freeze it shut."
He heard Erza suck in a shaky breath, and then her hand was removed from his stomach. The blood welled up quickly in the absence of pressure, and Gray worked rapidly, freezing the wound shut as best he could before he could pass out or vomit. By the time he was able to pay attention to the world around him again, Erza was already on the phone with Mirajane. Gray could vaguely hear her explaining the situation, requesting backup, asking how long it would take to get here.
Gray didn't hear anything that Mira said, and by the end of the conversation, he couldn't hear what Erza was saying either. He'd let his head fall back against the grassy ground, and the world was spinning lazily around him. The pain was making it hard to breathe. Gray didn't know why he'd been begging Erza to let him fight just a few minutes before. Now, he didn't even think he could have sat up, let alone made it to his feet.
"Gray!" Erza was saying from somewhere above him. "Gray!"
He got the feeling it wasn't the first time she'd called his name. He tried to look up at her, but his eyes didn't seem to want to focus anymore.
And then, he felt the hilt of the sword being pressed into his palm. Instantly, warmth flooded him. Gray took a real breath.
"Are you alright?" Erza asked, her forehead creased in worry. Then, she winced, seeming to realize that Gray certainly wasn't. "I mean-"
"I'm better now," Gray rasped. He wrapped his fingers around the hilt of the sword, pulling it a little closer to him. He no longer felt the fear that had inundated him without the sword in his hand, but the memory of it hung over him. This wound wasn't very bad, considering it was a stab wound from a sword, but it would be with him the rest of his life.
But the sword in his hand was doing…something, and Gray knew it could have been worse. At least he was alive. At least they still had a chance to stop Magnus. They could worry about everything else later.
Erza sat beside him, pushing some of his bangs out of his eyes. Gray blinked up at her, appreciative of the gesture, since he couldn't put down the sword to do it himself, and his other hand was clumsy with the pain of his missing finger.
"Thanks," he mumbled.
Erza nodded, still looking tired and a little bit scared. Gray wanted to tell her that everything was going to be okay, but even with the sword, he was exhausted.
Erza's hand moved from his head to his shoulder, and she rubbed it gently. "Mira said help is on the way. We only have to hold out a little longer."
Gray nodded, leaning into Erza's touch. He let himself close his eyes, just for a moment. He knew he wouldn't have long to rest before he would have to keep moving.
