Laxus stepped off the train, threw up into a trash can a few times, and began heading towards Fairy Tail. Usually, he avoided trains under all circumstances, but when the old man had called him back, he'd said it was an emergency. Laxus had caught a train back to Magnolia as soon as he possibly could.

He still wasn't clear on why Makarov had ordered him back, or what could possibly be a bigger emergency than the whole Lamia Scale situation. For the past few weeks, Laxus had been in charge of the effort to stop or contain Lamia Scale before they could do too much damage to themselves or to the rest of Fiore. Recently, the whole Guild had begun marching towards Sabertooth, which had the potential to make their current odds much, much worse.

Fighting had been difficult, since Laxus couldn't use his usual strategy of just beating the enemy into the ground until they sobbed and begged for mercy. He'd considered that, but most of the rest of the Guild had told him under no uncertain terms that Lamia Scale was not their enemy - at this point, they were essentially helpless bystanders. Bystanders that posed a very great risk to the entirety of Fiore.

Laxus had listened, however grudgingly. Since an all out attack was off the table, he and his squad had mostly been resorting to guerilla-style raids as Lamia Scale marched, trying to delay them with traps, steal their food, even knock them briefly unconscious if they could do it without hurting them too badly.

Some of Laxus's team had been better at this than others. Cana had proved to be surprisingly sneaky, and he was reevaluating her ranking on his list of Fairy Tail wizards that he shouldn't piss off. Gajeel was kind of destructive, and kind of loud, and kind of bad at listening to orders, but he'd brought Pantherlily along, which pretty much made up for it. Gildarts needed no explanation. Elfman and Evergreen were powerhouses, and Bickslow was too, although the presence of the rest of the Thunder Legion made Laxus really, really miss Freed. Makarov had said he'd needed to stay behind to help "research," or something. Laxus didn't understand why they couldn't just have Levy do that. Freed was good at research, but he was also really good at fighting, and they had desperately needed more fighters. Especially ones who were that good at setting traps. Laxus hadn't seen Freed in weeks now. They'd barely had time to even talk.

Juvia could be really helpful, since her water body made her pretty much impossible to attack, but she was kind of hamstrung by the fact that she was dating the master of Lamia Scale, Lyon. No one wanted to hurt any of the members of Lamia Scale, obviously, and every time they so much as tripped someone little like Chelia, Laxus felt a pang. But it was different when you were fighting someone you were dating, obviously. Juvia was very clearly holding back, and she would get argumentative if she thought they were planning something too dangerous.

Not that it would have really helped much if she wasn't there. It seemed like half the Guild had been in love with Lyon at one point or another. If Gray had been on the front lines with Lamia Scale, he probably would have been just as precious with the other ice wizard, and they weren't even together. Gray was the kind of soft that was going to get him killed some day.

Their efforts had been going a bit more smoothly lately, at least. Lyon, as well as a few others, hadn't seemed to be around. Laxus didn't know where they'd gone, or what Magnus was planning with them, but they hadn't shown up near Sabertooth. That had the potential to be bad, Laxus knew, but he wasn't exactly sure what he was supposed to be doing about it.

Laxus finally arrived at the Guild Hall. The hall itself was weirdly empty, which made sense but was still strange to see. There was no one there to greet him or anything. The sound of him opening the door must have been louder than he'd realized, though, because about fifteen seconds later Makarov emerged from the top of the stairs that went down to the library.

"Laxus," he said. "You're back."

Laxus had been gone for what felt like an eternity at this point, so he'd been expecting and hoping for a bit of a warmer welcome than that. He was exhausted and dirty and hungry and scared, and he wanted…well, he didn't know what he wanted. But more than that.

"You called me," he said.

"There's been a change in our situation here, and we needed you to step in," Makarov said. "We need to launch another attack on Magnus."

Laxus nodded - Warren had conveyed to them that the first strike on Magnus had failed, which was why the Lamia Scale situation wasn't any better. Although that still didn't really explain why Laxus was needed here.

"Jellal is…injured might be putting it too lightly. He's being hospitalized right now, in a coma. And none of us know when, or if, he'll wake up."

"W-what?" For a moment, Laxus was sure that he couldn't have heard correctly. "He's…what?"

When he had met Jellal, back in Fairy Tail's first Grand Magic Games victory, he'd recognized the other wizard's sheer power. Laxus had guessed, even then, that he was one of the few people in Fiore that could challenge (possibly beat) him in a fair fight. At the time, and also kind of now, that had rubbed Laxus the wrong way. He and Jellal had what some (Freed) might call a tense relationship, but the dark wizard was one of Freed's closest friends, and Laxus had almost started to tolerate him.

Makarov sighed, looking down. "That's right. The two of you are close. I'm sorry, Laxus. I have a lot on my mind right now."
"We're not close, but that doesn't mean I want him in a coma," Laxus snapped automatically, trying not to think about the Guild Hall without Jellal's snarky, overly-intellectual commentary. "What the hell happened to him? I honestly figured he was unkillable at this point."

Makarov rubbed his fingers across his forehead, a gesture Laxus recognized from his childhood. The old man had a stress headache, and this time, Laxus was pretty sure he wasn't the person who had brought it on. There was more bad news to come.

"What is it?" Laxus asked, trying not to growl but not doing a very good job of it. "Spit it out, old man. Seems like we don't have much time to waste."

"Gray…died."

Makarov looked and sounded way too calm for what he had just said. Laxus blinked at him, uncomprehending, listening to the roar of blood in his ears. Makarov was saying something else, but he couldn't hear. This…this wasn't….

Gray had gone and gotten himself killed. The angry little kid that had driven Laxus crazy for years, the spiteful teen following Natsu around like a lost puppy, the surprisingly powerful half-demonic adult he'd become…gone. And with Gray, their hopes of defeating Magnus.

"Why the hell did you call me back here, then?" Laxus yelled at the top of his lungs. Don't bother grieving, just get angry. That had been his motto for years, and it was still his first reaction when he was caught off guard. "Lamia Scale is still a threat, and without…without Gray, they're gonna get to Sabertooth! Is that what you want? We're going to-"

"LAXUS," Makarov bellowed, loud enough to cut through even Laxus's voice. Laxus shut up despite himself, closing his mouth and looking down at his grandfather.

"Listen to me," Makarov snapped. "As I told you, Gray died. And was successfully resurrected, by Jellal and Wendy. That's…that's why Jellal is in a coma."

"So he's fine now?!" Laxus yelled. Even if the situation was…well, definitely better than it had been five seconds ago, Laxus had already gotten pretty worked up, and he wasn't sure he would be able to stop yelling. "Why'd you tell me like that, old man?"

"Because you keep interrupting me when I'm trying to speak!"

"WAIT A SECOND!" If anything, Laxus was getting louder. He saw the door at the top of the stairs crack open - they must have been having a meeting down there. Well, Laxus didn't care. "JELLAL CAN'T RESURRECT PEOPLE! I WOULD HAVE KNOWN!"

"Well, he…previously couldn't. But…he can now. He was able to learn. Over the course of…the week."

"WHAT WEEK?"

Makarov opened his mouth to say something, closed it again, looked down. Out of the corner of his eye, Laxus saw Freed emerge at the top of the stairs. But he was too caught up in this to focus on reuniting with his boyfriend now too.

"WHAT WEEK?" Laxus yelled.

Makarov sighed. "Gray was…dead for a week. Before Jellal was able to figure out the resurrection. He died during our initial strike on Magnus. We had a funeral for him. We didn't want to say anything to our frontline team, because we knew there was nothing any of you could have done about it and it would have only posed a distraction. The rest of the guild was under strict orders not to tell you. And now…he's back anyways, so it doesn't really matter."

Laxus was about six seconds away from shrieking. He didn't know exactly what he was going to say, but he knew it was going to be loud. Gray was a kid he had known for…what, fifteen years now? Since he was just a child. And he had died, and been dead for a week, and they had had a funeral. And no one had told the frontline team, because it was more important that they weren't "distracted."

"DOESN'T MATTER?" Laxus screamed. "I-"

And then all of a sudden there was a small, cool hand on Laxus's bicep. Laxus looked down at the shaky-looking, worn out form of Freed.

"Laxus," Freed said quietly. He sounded like he had aged a thousand lifetimes since Laxus had left. "Don't shout. It wasn't anything against you, or anyone else in the Lamia Scale team. We just thought-"

"You knew too," Laxus said coolly.

Freed looked like he'd been slapped, which immediately made Laxus feel terrible. Not quite terrible enough to back down, though.

"We didn't know what to do," Freed whispered.

"So why did you bother telling me now?" Laxus asked, hearing the petulance in his voice and watching Freed cringe away from it. He took a deep breath, struggling to push the anger away.

"We needed you," Freed finally said, and his voice was small enough that Laxus's rage mostly faded into guilt. "Magnus isn't dead, and Gray is going to try again. He'll need backup, the strongest wizards we have. And Jellal…isn't in the picture. I know you're upset, and I understand, but you're needed here. It…it wasn't an easy decision. For any of us."

Laxus carefully unclenched his fist and felt his fingers shake as the last of his anger left him. He still didn't like it, at all, but he did understand what the old man had been doing. They were pretty much at war, and in war, you needed a strong leader making the tough calls. If you wanted to win, you had to learn how to play your part.

"Fine," Laxus said, patting Freed on the shoulder to reassure him that while he was angry, it wasn't at him. "Don't expect me to like it. And the others are gonna be PISSED, so get ready for that. But I'm here, and I'll do what you need."

Makarov sighed, looking somehow double his usual age, and Laxus almost wished he hadn't said anything. "I know, Laxus."

"Where's Gray?" When Laxus had left, Gray had been very much alive. But apparently, a lot had changed since then, and Laxus wasn't entirely sure what to expect. Hopefully, something that looked a lot closer to the original Gray, and not something like the horror movies Laxus had seen with Bixlow.

There was some movement at the back of the Guild Hall, and Gray emerged blinking from the stairway leading to the library. Natsu was hovering behind him, close enough to touch, more protective-looking than ever. Laxus couldn't really blame him, in this case. Gray was pale, somehow hollow, and looked very much in need of protecting.

"Gray," Laxus said, and shoved his way through the other Fairy Tail members scattered around the Guild Hall. The younger wizard didn't move away, just watched him with dull, tired eyes.

"So you died, huh?" Laxus asked, grabbing Gray's shoulders and pushing him slightly back. He'd never been much good at small talk.

"Step off," Natsu snarled, somehow getting even closer to Gray.

"Cool it," Laxus told him. "I'm just…." Laxus didn't really know what he was doing. Checking Gray for damage, possibly. Gray had been dead, and now he was alive, and Laxus really, really wanted him to stay that way.

"It's okay, Natsu," Gray said. Even his voice sounded exhausted, and a lot less bitchy than usual. Laxus had been waiting fifteen whole years for Gray to be less of a bitch, and he was surprised to find that he didn't like it very much after all.

Laxus had a sudden, unexpected rush of gratitude that he'd been spared losing Gray. The situation was obviously a mess, but…damn. That would have sucked. Must have sucked. Laxus had the urge to put an arm around Freed, who must have suffered greatly, right there in the thick of it. Instead, he just turned to Freed, who was already looking a little bit less shaky and a little bit more like the Freed Laxus knew.

"Alright," he said, addressing Freed but also everyone. "I'm here. I'm caught up. What's the plan?"

It had taken another few days to get everything ready to leave, and Erza was getting impatient. Laxus had needed to rest - he'd been pretty nearly drained when he'd arrived. Gray had needed time to recover too, and now he was…well, anything was better than how he'd been before, Erza supposed.

Erza had spent most of the morning pretending to pack. She knew she didn't really need to bring much - this wasn't the time and place for her nineteen suitcases, and everything she really needed was in her pocket dimension. And anyways, Loke was planning to check in with both Lucy and the strike team every few hours - assuming none of them needed him to stay longer - and he could bring her anything she realized that she really needed.

But…she had known that once she was done getting ready, it would be time to go to the hospital and say goodbye to Jellal. Probably not forever. She hoped not forever.

Erza had finally finished doing all the preparations she could think of, and made her way to the hospital. She had a letter from Gray in her pocket. He'd finally accepted that he couldn't see Jellal before they left, not under any circumstances, but he'd written him a letter, and given it to Erza to leave with him.

He'd been very solemn when he'd done this. Erza hadn't wanted to invade his privacy by reading the letter, but she suspected it was more than a thank you. Gray hadn't outright said it, but it was clear he didn't really expect to return from this journey. The letter was most likely also a goodbye.

Erza had written her own letter for Jellal as well. Mostly explaining the situation - where she was, the plan they were doing, the rough timeline. She confirmed that Gray was alive - she wasn't actually sure that Jellal knew that he'd succeeded, because he'd started to seize so quickly. She reassured him that he was safe, that Lucy would take care of him, that she would be back soon.

Personally, Erza thought it was rather unlikely that Jellal would read it. The doctors still seemed optimistic that he would wake up…someday. But he'd made no improvements at all in the past few days, and Erza simply doubted that it would be any time soon.

Erza didn't bother knocking at the door to Jellal's room. That would have been silly, because he was in a coma, and couldn't exactly tell her whether or not to come in. Erza hadn't knocked before any of the visits she'd made to her husband.

She regretted that as she opened Jellal's door and realized with a shock that the room wasn't empty. Someone was kneeling next to Jellal, back to Erza, a familiar shock of pink hair buried in the blankets at Jellal's side.

Erza opened her mouth to call out to Natsu, then thought better of it. As her heart rate lowered, she started to hear Natsu whispering something to Jellal, over and over again.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you-"

Even if she'd wanted to interrupt Natsu, Erza didn't think she could move. She leaned slightly against the doorframe, grappling with the magnitude of what Jellal had done, of just how much he had affected the lives of those around him.

She wished he could see it. She wished he could see Gray. Jellal had spent most of his adult life trying to atone for…something, and she didn't see how he could get any closer than this.

Natsu sniffed slightly, then moved his hand towards Jellal's, lying limp and tangled among the IVs. Carefully, he maneuvered around the wires and squeezed it, more gently than Erza would have thought possible for the careless Dragon Slayer.

"Thanks," he whispered one last time. "I'll tell ya again when you wake up, okay?"

Natsu stood, and before Erza could vanish down the hallway, he turned and saw her. She opened her mouth with no clear idea of what to say, just sure that she didn't want him to feel embarrassed.

"Hey, Erza," he said, nodding to her. To her slight surprise, his eyes were dry. "I'll get out of your way. Bye, Jellal."

Natsu waved towards the still figure on the bed and headed down the hallway. Mechanically, Erza placed the two letters on the small table next to Jellal's bed, arranging them so both signatures were immediately visible. The encounter with Natsu had left her feeling raw in a way she hadn't expected, and didn't totally welcome. Saying goodbye to Jellal was hard enough without feeling like her every emotion was exposed, stripped bare and tingling. She missed the numbness.

Erza sighed and sat down by the bed, in the seat Natsu had just vacated. She held his limp, papery hand in hers. For a long time, she was still and silent, not really sure what to say and not totally sure if she really needed to say anything.

"Gray might die again," Erza finally said. It was sad, but true. They all knew it. "But even if he does…you did something amazing. I hope he doesn't-"

She broke off. She still felt a little silly, talking to Jellal when she knew he couldn't hear.

"Even if all you gave us was more time with him, that is far better than what we had before. You did something incredible, Jellal. Thank you."

She knew that he always worried that he hadn't done enough good. She wanted him to wake up, so for once he could set that worry aside. Even if Gray saved the world but died trying, or even if he tried to save the world, but died before he could…that didn't mean Jellal hadn't brought him back. He'd done the impossible. He'd made a miracle for them, however this turned out.

Once that was finished, Erza kissed him on his dry, cool forehead, and disentangled herself from his side, and got up and left without another word.

Being alive was vastly, infinitely better than being dead, and so Gray didn't want to be miserable. He didn't feel that he'd earned it. But everything was stupid, and so he was.

Holding onto Oblatio was making him feel more awake, sort of. But it was also making him feel jittery and shaky - his hands couldn't stay still, and it felt like the edges of his vision were bouncing slightly. It was making him lightheaded, and a little sick.

Wendy was still struggling to recover from the resurrection, but she'd managed one more tiny round of healing on Gray's stab wound. It felt better, for sure, but still kind of itchy and raw. It still got sore if he moved too fast. And the fact that he was exhausted didn't help, the fact that he only had nine fingers didn't help, the fact that he'd hardly eaten didn't help….

Also, Gray quite liked Jellal, and he felt…somewhat differently about Laxus. Jellal probably thought that Gray was a little stupid, but he didn't act like it. Laxus did. And as much as Gray hated admitting that he was weaker than anyone, he knew he didn't stand a chance against either of the older wizards. But surprise, surprise, one of them was seemingly constantly rubbing that fact in Gray's face, and the other one wasn't. Gray wanted Jellal and Laxus to switch places. He wanted Jellal to be here.

But Jellal wasn't here. He was in a coma, and that was all Gray's fault. A lot of things were all Gray's fault. Dying, for one. If he'd been just a little bit faster, or a little bit stronger, or maybe even a little bit smarter, then Jellal would be here with them, Natsu wouldn't be looking like he might shatter if Gray touched him wrong, and Erza would be smiling at him instead of just looking distant.

Gray was getting really tired of everything being his fault. He knew that wasn't very heroic of him. In fact, he was pretty sure that even thinking it made him kind of a bad person, or at least not the sort of guy people were okay dying for. But he didn't care. He was sick of being good. He was sick of being fair. That had only gotten him killed, and here he was walking into the same situation all over again. He couldn't do anything about that, but at least he could stop pretending that he was happy about it, at least to himself.

It wasn't fair. He'd never admit it out loud to anyone, but it wasn't fair. Nobody wanted to die, Gray knew that, but he already had. He remembered drawing what he now knew was his last breath, and he remembered seeing Natsu's face right before he closed his eyes for the last time. Jellal and Wendy had brought him back with a miracle, and he wasn't even going to get to enjoy it. Instead, he was going to close his eyes for a second final time, and he was going to die far away from most of his friends.

That part was unfair, too. What was even the point of a second chance if he couldn't fix some of the things that had gone wrong the first time? Jellal was in a coma, so Gray hadn't even been able to thank him, much less tell him goodbye. He'd written a letter, but he'd never been much good with words and he knew it hadn't turned out. Lucy had been at the hospital for most of the time Gray had been trying to recover, so he hadn't seen much of her, either. He wasn't sure what to say to her, but he knew that he wished he had said more. None of his Guildmates fighting Lamia Scale even knew that he'd died in the first place, so he hadn't been able to say anything at all to Juvia, and Lyon…. Lyon wouldn't know that anything was wrong until after Gray had already died to save him.

Gray could feel the anger rising inside him, making his throat hurt with the effort of physically swallowing it down. He clenched his fist around the hilt of Oblatio, feeling the icy edge press hard into his palm. The pain helped dull the anger, at least a little, but Gray could still feel it surging inside. It just felt so pointless, dying like this for some musty old legend that Gray had never even heard of. Stupid Magnus, with his stupid sword. For about the hundredth time, Gray wished he could just fling Oblatio over the side of a cliff and have done with it. Gray had faced opponents that seemed far more frightening than some dumb cult leader, and he'd been able to take all those people down just fine with his own magic.

The only thing that Gray was pleased with right now was that it was cold. They'd left early in the morning, before the sun had even risen, and they'd finally gotten into the mountains around midday. The ground was snowy, and the air was pleasantly, comfortably chilled, and Gray was happy about that, at least.

"Bleah," Natsu said, which reminded Gray that there were perhaps other things he should be doing besides sulking. He looked back at Natsu, who was pretty cold resistant but struggling a little in the snow due to his sandals.

"What is it?" Gray asked.

"Stupid jacket," Natsu growled. "Don't like it. Don't need it. It looks bad on me."

Erza, Wendy, Laxus, Natsu, and Gray were all wearing long white jackets over their normal clothes, in hopes of keeping them camouflaged while they scaled the mountains to the entrance of the tunnel system. Gray didn't really want to wear the jacket either - he would have much rather been shirtless, able to feel the snow and ice against his chest. But Erza had said that "skin wasn't the same color as snow" when he'd asked.

"It looks fine on you," Gray said.

Natsu made an annoyed sound in his throat. "It doesn't. It looks dumb. My scarf's white. This clashes."

"I actually think that's called 'matching,' Natsu," Wendy said helpfully, from where she was struggling along a few paces behind him.

"If it makes you feel better, I would also rather not be wearing this jacket," Erza said. "I have Snow Queen armor that would be an excellent fit for just this situation, and I'd be able to traverse this terrain far more easily-"

"Erza, weren't you the one who suggested that we all wear white?" Natsu asked.

"Well, yes, but-"

"So…can we change? If you don't want to wear this stuff anymore either?"

"No!" Erza said firmly. "If I must bear this sacrifice, so must you all!"

Gray would have started needling Erza too - that was one of his favorite activities, after all - but he was finding that he needed to expend too much of his energy just on walking. Normally, walking in even deep snow would be no problem. But right now, it took quite a bit of extra effort just to keep from falling over. Gray knew he had pretty much the best excuse in the world - he'd been dead just a few days ago, after all, but he was still embarrassed. He was an ice wizard, and he couldn't even walk in the snow? He didn't even want to think about what Lyon would say if he could see him now.

The imagined mortification stung, but thinking about Lyon did actually give him an idea. Back when they had been Ur's students, after one particularly nasty blizzard, Lyon had frozen the top of the snow and run across it, rather than trudging through the drifts. Gray hadn't wanted to admit it at the time, but he'd thought it was cool.

Quietly, without even really thinking about it, Gray motioned with his hands and sent a thin sheet of ice over the top of the snow in front of him. He stepped up, on top of the bank, instantly letting out a sigh of relief. The ice held his weight, and it was way easier to walk on. Even uphill, if Gray couldn't walk on ice, then he might as well give up now, turn around, and go back to Magnolia.

For a while, things were better. Gray could ignore the added weight of the coat now that he wasn't trekking through snow up to his kneecaps, and at least the air was cold. For almost the first time since he opened his eyes, he was able to let his mind slide away from what was facing him and just focus on the feeling of the wind against his skin.

Until there was a loud crash, a thud, and the familiar sound of Laxus swearing.

Gray whirled around, hands up and ready to cast. He saw Erza and Natsu doing the same, Wendy following a half-second behind. He looked around for whatever was threatening Laxus, but all he saw was the Lightning Dragon Slayer sprawled out on his ass in the snow.

"What happened?" Erza demanded, summoning a few swords and glaring at the empty snowscape. "Whatever it is moves quickly, but it won't be moving for long!"

"No," Laxus said shortly, getting to his feet and scuffing the ground slightly with one shoe. "I mean, nothing's out there. There's ice all over. Slipped."

It took Gray a few seconds to figure out why both Erza and Laxus were glaring at him.

"Gray…." Erza was using the same tone she had since they were kids, the one that told him he was about to be in trouble. It had scared him when he was younger, but he'd seen a lot worse than even Erza's disappointment now.

"So what?" Gray asked, petulantly. "Laxus can just be more careful. I wanna walk on ice."

"This was noisy," Erza hissed. "And we can't afford any missteps. You are perfectly capable of walking through snow, but the rest of us could slip on the ice you lay down."

Gray crossed his arms and looked down, trying to decide if losing his pride was worth winning the argument. He didn't really feel like telling Erza that he was so weak he couldn't even make it through a snowdrift, but he was also tired and he hated losing. He took a half-step - meaning to keep going - but he almost fell. His stupid legs felt like stupid noodles.

"Gray, are you having trouble walking?" Erza asked.

"Aww, nah, that doesn't sound like Gray," Natsu said from behind her.

"Natsu, shhhh. Gray is very weak right now, and he can't do all the things that he normally would."

"'M not weak," Gray said, and kicked a snowdrift. Based on the expression on Erza's face, that was apparently not enough to prove his point.

"Laxus, can you walk in front of Gray, and try to clear a path for him? Gray, you can follow in Laxus's footsteps."

"Sure, yeah that works," Laxus said.

Gray would have protested, but he was still pretty exhausted, and he had to admit, it did sound nice to walk with less effort. Especially if he wasn't allowed to use ice anymore. So he sighed and started following along behind Laxus. Gray felt stupid, but he did think each step was a bit quicker.

Natsu caught up to him. "Hey, you okay?"

"Yeah." Gray answered Natsu without really looking at him.

"Do you need…uh…something to eat?" There was the sound of Natsu rummaging through his pockets. "I have some beef jerky…oh wait, I think this might be an old piece of fish, yuck. Maybe not that. I have…uh…I'm pretty sure this was a protein bar, but the wrapper's gone, and…yeah…I think these are nuts."

Gray almost, almost smiled. "I think I'm okay, Natsu."

They walked in silence for a few moments, side-by-side, Natsu forging his own way through the snow while Gray stumbled through Laxus's slightly-too-far-apart footprints.

"Ya know, I don't think you're weak. I never did. You're just tired."

Gray was pretty sure he was more than just tired - the resurrection seemed to have taken a toll on him that he couldn't quite describe, and he wasn't sure if he would still be on his feet if it weren't for Oblatio. But…it was still nice for Natsu to say.

"Thank you, Natsu."