Natsu unleashed his Fire Dragon Roar, blowing a hole in the shadow armies ahead of him. He ran through, making sure that Happy was following. The cat was still flying above Natsu, keeping an eye on the rest of their friends in case anyone else needed a rescue.
That was how Natsu knew to be heading towards the forest in the first place - Happy had flown down to him and Jellal and told them that he'd seen Gray get stabbed, and just barely get rescued by Erza. They'd retreated to the forest.
As soon as Happy had told him what had happened, Natsu had fought off the familiar sick, worried sensation that he always felt when Gray was injured. But honestly, as horrible as it felt, it was nothing new. Natsu had seen Gray get stabbed more times than he wished to think about, and Gray always ended up fine. This time couldn't be any different.
Before the battle, Erza had outlined a few worst case scenarios. All of them had involved closing their ranks, with their heaviest hitters stopping before reaching the forest and guarding the group's rear. If someone got hurt, especially if that someone was Gray, it would be mostly Jellal, Natsu, and Erza's jobs to ensure that the fighting stayed far enough back from the forest that Wendy could cut her way through to heal. Erza was with Gray, according to Happy, so she probably wouldn't be helping to carve a safe path for Wendy. But that just meant Natsu had to do extra. He could channel his worry for Gray into roasting more bad guys faster, and probably before long Wendy would get to him and Natsu could stop worrying about him anyways.
And then, Natsu heard a voice in his head.
It wasn't an unfamiliar voice. It was Warren, instantly recognizable because he had spoken in Natsu's head plenty of times. But the words he was saying were unexpected, and it took Natsu a moment to process them.
"If you can hear me, pull back to Erza. We'll be extracting your team in less than a half hour. Pull back to your defense position, and wait for backup."
Pull back? That didn't sound right. Natsu had been listening as carefully as he could while Erza had explained exactly what they were supposed to be doing, and she had made it sound like this was very likely their only chance to get Magnus. They shouldn't pull back under any circumstances. Not only would that mean they'd failed, and Magnus would be able to take over more guilds, it would likely be a death sentence for their team. Surely Happy or Carla would have let him know if something had happened to Wendy, so where was she? Why couldn't she break through and heal Gray?
But Warren's magic wasn't exactly easy to fake. So both because it was his orders, and because he was really starting to get worried about Gray, Natsu fought his way towards the place they'd agreed to meet.
Even when Natsu was pretty far away, he could tell he was the first one there. He could see Gray lying on the ground, Erza sitting at his head. Gray's head appeared to be in her lap. Damn, where was Wendy? Natsu was almost tempted to push back into the fray to try to find her, but he wanted to check on Gray first.
As Natsu got closer, he felt his heart rise in his chest. Gray looked terrible. His face was pale and bloodless, lips almost translucent. His eyes looked hollowed out somehow, his cheekbones unusually stark and deep. His hair was pushed back, mussed from blood and sweat. His breath was rasping in and out of his mouth like it pained him, and the only thing that proved he was conscious was his fingers loosely curled around the sword at his side.
Then, Natsu remembered that Gray had looked pretty darn terrible before the battle had even started. His finger had been hurting him a lot, so he hadn't been able to eat much and it had been hard for him to sleep. Porlyusica had told him not to get it wet, so it had been a few days since he'd bathed. He looked worse now, certainly, but the difference wasn't like night and day. Gray was just…going through it.
Natsu dropped to his knees beside Gray, reaching out for his hand. He remembered Gray's missing finger just in time, and redirected his hand towards Gray's face, where he laid it against his cheek.
"Hey snowflake," he said softly, and Gray's eyes flickered open, brightening ever so slightly at the sight of Natsu.
"Hey," Gray mumbled, and his voice sounded weak, but not quite as bad as Natsu had expected.
Natsu let his fingers linger on Gray's face for a second or two more before redirecting his attention to whatever wound had dropped Gray. Gray was shirtless, which wasn't surprising, and it made it easy for Natsu to find the wound. There was a neat patch of reddish ice in the center of Gray's stomach, the skin around it blistered and cracking from the cold.
"You sealed it?" Natsu asked, in some surprise. He knew from past experience that freezing a wound shut provided a quick way to stop blood flow, but it ended up damaging the surrounding tissue more in the long run. Even so, the wound didn't look that bad. Gray had definitely had worse. Still, if Wendy had been here quicker, Gray wouldn't have had to freeze it himself, and the recovery process might have been faster.
"I-"
Natsu raised himself onto his knees, peering through the gaps in the trees and expecting to see Wendy on her way towards them. "Why hasn't anyone got Wendy?! Where is she? I can go get her really quick, and she can fix this up!"
Natsu was half on his feet before Erza's hand closed around his wrist, and he looked back at her. "What? Erza, let go of me, I want-"
"Magnus had another copy of Oblatio." Erza's tone was flat, and she wasn't looking at him. "That's what he used to stab Gray."
For a second, Natsu didn't understand what she meant, or why she was stopping him from going to find Wendy. The Sky Dragon Slayer had healed much worse than this, after all, and if he could just get to her, Gray would probably barely be hurt at all.
And then Erza's words fell into place in his mind, and the world around him went silent. All Natsu could hear was his heartbeat echoing in his ears, and he was nearly deafened by the sound of his own panic.
"We called for an extraction, and they're on their way. Porlyusica was able to help Gray last time, so if we can just get him out of here, it's possible - probable, even - that she can stop the bleeding, or find some way to pack the wound to minimize the damage. Natsu? Natsu, can you hear me?"
Whatever Erza was saying, Natsu couldn't hear her. He could see her mouth opening and closing, but he felt like he was watching her from a very long distance, and one of them was a little out of sync with the world.
Magnus had hurt Gray. This wasn't the kind of wound Wendy could just heal, Gray could just shake off. This was….
"I'm going to go get him," Natsu said.
"Natsu, you're going to…what? You can't…."
Natsu snatched the sword out of Gray's unresisting hand. He realized then that he hadn't actually touched it before - he'd been expecting it to feel light or heavy or something, at least, but it just felt like a normal sword.
Natsu straightened up, whirling towards the battle as he tried to lock eyes on Magnus.
"Natsu, no!" Erza screamed behind him. That alone probably wouldn't have gotten his attention - he was too focused on ending Magnus before he could do anything else to Gray. But then, Natsu heard Gray moan.
Natsu looked down, and saw that Gray had gone deathly white. His eyes had fluttered into his skull, leaving pale strips beneath his lashes, and he seemed to be laboring for breath.
"He needs the sword!" Erza yelled. "It's giving him energy!"
A wave of horror washed through Natsu. "I-"
"Give it back!"
Natsu knelt again, and pressed the sword back into Gray's limp hand. A faint hint of color appeared in Gray's pale cheeks. He stirred slightly, groaned again, and then managed to force his eyes open. He seemed worse now, though. Not as aware of Natsu's presence.
"I'm sorry," Natsu whispered. "I'm sorry, I didn't know. I won't-"
Gray still looked half-gone, and his eyes betrayed a panic that hadn't been there before.
"I won't take it again," Natsu said softly. "I didn't know."
He brushed a quick hand down Gray's cheek, and Gray seemed to relax slightly at the touch. Natsu closed Gray's fingers back over the sword, then just held on for a moment, savoring the familiar coolness of his skin.
If Natsu could have, he would have actually held Gray's hand, the one that wasn't holding the sword. But if he could have held that hand, probably, Gray wouldn't need to be holding onto the sword in the first place. That would mean that none of this had happened.
Mostly, Natsu wished Gray still had his ring on. Ever since they'd gotten engaged, Natsu had liked to hold Gray's left hand in his, and look at how their rings looked laid side-by-side. Now, Gray's was on a chain around his neck, which was nice but not the same.
He wished none of this had happened. Natsu looked at the wound in Gray's stomach, the one that was never going to go away, and shuddered.
Gray moaned again, and Natsu glanced up to find his knuckles tightened around Gray's, grinding the ice wizard's hand into the sword hilt.
"Sorry," Natsu said miserably, and jerked his hand back. "I'm sorry, Gray, I didn't mean to hurt ya…."
With what seemed like an effort, Gray wrenched his eyes open and locked his gaze onto Natsu's. He smiled with one corner of his mouth, an expression that was obviously intended to calm Natsu down.
It worked, like it always did. Natsu reached out for Gray's hand again, this time closing his fingers over Gray's more gently. Gray couldn't reach for him back, but Natsu felt his fingers twitch.
"I think I'll be okay, Natsu," Gray mumbled. He was hard to hear, but his voice was definitely there. "I've had worse."
"Yeah, I know," Natsu said. He was still worried, and more than anything furious at the world in general, but he kept his tone light. "Course you will."
Gray's smile became a little more genuine, and Natsu shifted to sit a little closer to him and to Erza. He was itching to fight something, preferably Magnus, but he knew that leaving wouldn't help anything. For now, the only thing to do was to wait.
Lucy hobbled through the battlefield as fast as she could, which wasn't very fast. Every time she took a careless step, the broken arm she was clutching close to her chest sent out a nasty jolt of pain.
For her, the extraction couldn't have come at a better time. One of the actual people in Magnus's army had hit her with some kind of spell that had sent her flying, and she'd landed hard and snapped her right arm. It had been a brutal break, but Wendy had healed it as much as she could. The Sky Dragon Slayer was running a little low on magic power, since she was already keeping up a near-constant spell to counteract the effects of Magnus's attempted brainwashing, and she hadn't been able to devote much to Lucy.
Lucy understood. It hurt, but she had survived worse. She hadn't even intended to make her way to the forest, not until Carla had flown down to tell her and Wendy that Gray had been injured.
Wendy had been trailing behind her for a little while, helping as best she could to cover Lucy's retreat. Loke was at the frontlines, but Lucy didn't have the energy to call another spirit right now, not with a broken arm. She was pretty much defenseless.
But sometime between one blink and the next, Wendy had been cut off by a group of the shadowy soldiers. Now, Lucy wasn't sure exactly where Wendy was. Lucy knew that if she was really in trouble, either Carla or Happy would be able to swoop in to get her. If they hadn't, she must be doing something important, and that meant it was up to Lucy to cover her own retreat.
Lucy passed Jellal, who'd erected a huge wall in front of him with shimmering purple runes - she recognized a modified version of his self-destruction square. The shadowy armies were throwing themselves at it, but they didn't seem able to get through. A little ways beyond him, Lucy could see the smallest flashes of golden light - Loke. He was probably waiting wherever Jellal's wall ended, holding the front there.
Lucy was glad Jellal and Loke were holding Magnus's armies back so effectively. By the time the huddled group of Erza, Happy, Natsu, and presumably Gray came into view, Lucy's arm was throbbing in time with her heartbeat, and she was forced to slow almost to a walk.
"What happened?" Lucy said as soon as she was in earshot. She could see Gray on the ground now, looking pale and out of it, with an ice-encased wound in his stomach. Natsu was crouched beside him, holding his hand. "Did…Magnus isn't dead, is he?"
"He had a second sword," Erza said harshly.
It took a second for Lucy to understand the impact of this, and then everything came at her in a rush. A second sword like Gray's? So the wound on his stomach now, it would be there for…for…?
"I'm okay," Gray said weakly from the ground. "It doesn't hurt so bad."
Lucy immediately knelt beside him and started doing the checks she had seen Wendy do when someone was injured in battle - estimating his temperature with a hand on his forehead, counting out his pulse with fingers against the side of his neck, double-checking the depth of his breathing. Gray had the presence of mind to flinch away from her, at least, but he hardly seemed able to move.
"How soon is the extraction coming?" Lucy demanded.
"I don't know," Erza said. "Less than a half hour. I don't know how quickly they can get here."
"He'll be okay until then though," Natsu said plaintively. "Right?"
"I-"
Lucy looked back up to where Jellal and Loke were fighting to hold off the army. They were close enough to her that she could more or less see what spells they were casting. As she watched, Jellal went to his knees, and his purple wall flickered. The massive runes quivered and began to shrink. From the ground, Jellal shot out both hands, and the wall reformed. As he got shakily to his feet, she could see his outstretched arms trembling.
"He'll be okay, right?" Natsu repeated, the tension in his voice evident.
Lucy didn't want to answer him. If even Jellal was struggling to maintain his magic power, then there was no guarantee that any of them would survive long enough to be extracted. From their space within the trees, Lucy could see the shadow armies swirling towards them, seemingly endlessly. It made sense that Magnus wasn't letting up, since if he killed Gray here, he wouldn't have to worry about Oblatio. He was going to do everything in his power to make sure that none of them left this place alive.
She didn't want to tell Natsu that. There wasn't really much they could do, at this point. They had to stay here and protect Gray as best they could, and hope that it didn't come to a last stand.
Natsu made a small, agonized sound, and Lucy looked back at him. The Fire Dragon Slayer was staring out through the trees, also watching the battle.
"How long did you say it was until the extraction was coming?" he finally asked quietly.
"Maybe twenty minutes," Erza answered. Her voice was blunt, which Lucy knew meant that she was scared.
On the ground, Gray twisted slightly, cutting his grunt of pain off halfway through. He gritted his teeth, looking up at Natsu.
Natsu looked down at him, his bangs falling across his face so that Lucy couldn't make out his expression. She didn't think she would have wanted to see it anyway.
For a moment, they were all quiet. From his place beside Natsu, Happy whimpered softly, fluttering his wings to stay in the air.
"I don't know if any of us are gonna make it that long," he said.
Lucy clutched her broken arm to her chest, turning to look back at the battlefield. Jellal's wall had grown a little smaller, and he looked like he was barely on his feet.
"We'll be okay," Lucy said, trying to sound like she believed it. "Won't…won't we?"
Natsu had been in plenty of terrible situations before, but usually, he was fighting his way out of them. This was different. Right now, the only thing he could do that seemed to be any help at all was to hold his fiance's hand and hope that they all made it out alive.
It was a little stupid, he knew that, but he wished he wasn't holding his fiance's hand. If they were both going to die, Natsu wanted to go out holding his husband's hand. They'd been engaged for months and months, but they'd hardly even started planning the wedding - both of them had assumed they would have all the time in the world. Now, Natsu wished he'd gotten it done sooner. It was just like him to put something off and put it off again until eventually it came back to bite him in the ass.
Everyone knew there was a chance none of them would make it out. Maybe Jellal and Loke could hold off the army until the extraction team arrived. They'd made it out of tons of scrapes before. And Mira was coming - what army could hold their ground in the face of Mira?
But Natsu wasn't stupid. The chances that they would make it out of here alive were okay, but the chances that Gray would be with them were…decidedly less good. Everything had always been fine, each battle up until this one. Maybe things would be okay. But…but….
And since Natsu was an idiot, he'd never even gotten to call his best friend in the whole world his husband.
"I wish I'd gotten to marry ya," Natsu said.
Gray's eyes had closed, but they flickered open at the sound of Natsu's voice. "What?"
Natsu realized that had sounded genuinely more morbid than he'd intended. "I wish we were already married," he clarified. "I want…I want ya to be my husband."
Gray sighed. "I want that too."
"I am an ordained minister," Erza said suddenly.
Natsu hadn't realized she'd been listening. He looked up at her.
"No you're not," Lucy said.
Erza looked affronted. "Of course I am. One never knows when they'll be called upon to play an irreplaceable part in a last-minute wedding!"
Natsu knew the sounds of the battle raging around him hadn't gotten any quieter, but in that moment, everything else seemed to fade away. He looked down at Gray.
"Hey. Do you wanna get married?"
Gray considered for maybe two seconds. And then, he nodded. "Can we?" he whispered.
Natsu found it suddenly hard to speak, although he didn't really know why. "Yeah."
"It would be my honor!" Erza said loudly.
There was a very small part of Natsu that was worried about how quickly Gray had agreed. If he really, really thought they would all make it out of here, wouldn't he have wanted to wait, to follow their original plan?
But then again, if Natsu had been sure they were all going to survive, he wouldn't have even suggested the wedding, right? There was no point in getting married right now if he knew they had a guaranteed chance of survival.
But…. As stupid as it was, Natsu couldn't quite wrap his head around the idea of one of them dying when they were married. The Universe just couldn't possibly work like that - it might be cruel enough to take Gray away from him before Natsu could marry him, but nothing and no one would be cruel enough to take his husband. He couldn't imagine existing in a world like that.
"Okay," Natsu said, looking down at Gray and squeezing his hand, very gently. "Let's do it. Let's get married."
