Natsu hadn't known it was possible to fall asleep on your feet. He would have thought there was no way, especially since he usually loved walking. He and Happy would play travel games, and even though it usually devolved into Happy insulting random pedestrians, it certainly wasn't boring.

The caves, on the other hand, were extremely boring. Natsu felt kind of bad about that. He figured that he should probably be too sad to be bored, or too stressed. And this morning, they'd gotten the news from Erza that Jellal was awake, and he was going to be okay. He could even be too happy to be bored.

But Natsu worked through most emotions pretty quickly, and soon enough he kind of forgot to be feeling them. It wasn't that he wasn't sad, or stressed, or upset, because he was certainly all of those things. He was just also bored. Usually, he would be talking to Gray, but his partner was plainly still exhausted. He didn't want Natsu's help walking, but he didn't really want to talk, either. Eventually, Natsu had stopped offering. For now, he had to content himself with walking a half-step behind Gray, ready to catch him if he stumbled or fell. He wondered if the caves would end before Gray wanted to talk to him again. That was kind of a hard choice to make, because the caves seemed to be going on forever, but he knew that they had to end sometime. Theoretically, Gray could be too tired to talk to him for much longer than that.

Natsu drifted a bit closer to Gray, sort of on accident and sort of not. His fingers brushed Gray's elbow, and he was rewarded by a brief, exhausted smile from the ice wizard. He didn't say anything, but a smile was better than nothing.

Natsu stayed close to Gray and glanced absently up the endless tunnel. Erza was in front, as usual, striding down the path with her typical energy. She probably wasn't bored. Knowing Erza, she was probably thinking about how she could collapse the whole cave system in the fewest amount of hits. Natsu had tried that, but he realized pretty quickly that he didn't know that much about caves, and it hadn't held his interest for long..

Wendy was behind Natsu and Gray, and Laxus was a little behind her. Ostensibly, Laxus was supposed to be acting as some sort of rearguard, so Natsu and Wendy could be focusing on Gray, but Natsu wasn't sure how much he was actually doing that. There hadn't been anything that they had needed guarding from in…forever, it felt like. At this point, Natsu wouldn't be surprised if the next fight they had was against Magnus himself.

And that was when Erza froze.

Natsu very nearly ran straight into her. His reflexes were fast enough to stop himself - barely.

"Back, back," Erza hissed, shooing them backwards along the tunnel.

"What-?" Gray started to say, and Erza slammed a hand over his mouth. Gray's eyes widened, but he did shut up.

Silently, Erza hurried them back at least a hundred yards along the tunnel before she seemed to decide they could relax.

"What is it?" Laxus asked as soon as she stopped.

"Magnus's soldiers," Erza said shortly.

"No…." Wendy put a small hand to her mouth. "It's not…it's not Lamia Scale, is it…?'

Erza quickly shook her head. "No. It's the same type of forces he had when we first attacked him. Laxus, you didn't see them, but they were…." Erza faltered.

"Kind of like shadows?" Natsu offered.

"Solid shadows," Wendy clarified.

"A bit like shadow robots," Gray said solemnly.

Laxus blinked.

"They were dummy soldiers that he created with some sort of spell," Erza said. "Individually not very powerful, but quite formidable when faced altogether. He had…I couldn't even begin to guess how many stationed in the tunnel up ahead. They didn't seem to be…activated yet. But I imagine they're primed to start fighting as soon as some sort of threat appears. And I'm sure they're meant to function as some sort of alarm system as well. He'll know if we fight them."

"So can we…sneak past them?" Wendy asked cautiously.

Erza shook her head. "The tunnel only goes forward right now. There are no alternate paths for us to take, and I'm sure that they would become aware if we got too close to them. Even if we were to backtrack, and try to find a different path through the tunnels, I'm sure there will just be more soldiers waiting for us. We're getting nearer to Magnus."

"So what do we do?" Gray asked. He looked down the tunnel towards the shadows, and Natsu had to look away for a second. Gray's jaw was set, but his eyes carried a look of defeat that Natsu was worried he'd never be able to forget.

"We fight 'em." Natsu wasn't even sure that it was the correct answer, but he couldn't stand for Gray to look like that a single second longer. "If we hit them all at once, they won't have a chance to set off an alarm or whatever. We can take them out. They aren't that hard, not for wizards like us."

"Natsu…." Wendy trailed off, then cleared her throat. "We may not be able to fight our way out this time."

"Natsu's right," Erza said to the surprise of everyone, but most of all Natsu. He blinked at her, wondering if he'd heard correctly. "We will all strike them at once. Prepare your spell with the widest radius of damage, and on my count, we'll release them at the same time. The only way through is to take them out cleanly."

"Really? I mean, yeah, totally! I knew that." As subtly as he could, Natsu glanced towards Gray, hoping some of the life had come back into his eyes. To his surprise, Gray was already looking at him, with something kind of like a smile playing around his lips.

"Nice plan, flamebrain."

"Erza liked it," Natsu pointed out. "What spell are you gonna do?"

"You'll see," Gray mumbled, but he sounded a bit more like his usual, petulant self, rather than someone who was too tired to even speak at a normal volume.

"I bet I take out more than you," Natsu said, cracking his knuckles and letting a flame spring up around his fingers. "Like, twice as many."

"You wish," Gray said shortly, but this time, he actually did smile.

"If you two are done," Erza interrupted, but she was smiling too, and her tone wasn't as sharp as it usually was. "After everyone readies their spells, we'll advance quietly as far up the tunnel as we can without being seen. Then, on my mark, forward and release. Any questions?"

"More of a comment," Laxus said from the back. "I just wanna remind the two losers in the middle that I'm going to be taking out the most shadows. Probably the most of everyone here combined."

"Dick," Gray muttered.

"Focus," Erza said, and now she did sound sort of angry. "Also, that is blatantly false. I shall be taking out the most shadows, with my Heaven's Wheel Armor. The rest of you may fill in the gaps where my swords do not pierce. Now, are you ready?"

Nods all around. Erza held a finger to her lips, and everyone quieted. Natsu fell into place a few steps behind her as they made their way back down the tunnel. Erza paused just before the place where she'd stopped last time, and checked once more to make sure they were still following closely behind. Natsu nodded at her for good measure.

Erza held up three fingers, breathed in, and started the countdown.

Three, two, one….

"Now!" Erza screamed. All five of them rounded the bend of the tunnel and surged forward.

Natsu blinked. Erza had done a very bad job conveying the sheer number of shadowy soldiers that were lying in wait for them. He had been expecting a good-sized clump. Instead, it was rank-upon-rank, row after row of silent, shadowy soldiers just waiting for them to attack. As soon as they turned the corner, they all came to life as one, stiffening and seeming to draw themselves upright. Maybe Gray had been right before - they did kind of act like robots.

Luckily, Natsu's brain and his body did not need to be on the same page for his body to start working. Before he'd had time to so much as think that there was a chance they were very much out of their depth, he was moving. He'd missed the whole fight with the hydra, and it seemed like it had been ages since he'd really been able to open up. A rush of flame consumed a huge chunk of the soldiers, burning them to ash before they had enough time to even react.

Off to one side, Natsu saw Gray taking down enemies with his ice lance, casting one-handed so he wouldn't have to set down his sword. Laxus's lightning attack was similar to Natsu's - not a ton of accuracy, but it could cover a huge area. Erza was in her heaven's wheel armor, surrounded by at least fifty whirling swords.

Natsu wasn't sure if these guys could talk telepathically to Magnus. If they couldn't, that should be fine. Whatever it took, the team could keep any from leaving this room. But if they could…that was definitely less good. They were taking them out fast, but there was just so many of them. Even their no-holds-barred instantaneous strike wasn't quite…instantaneous. Natsu thought he had been barbecuing different clumps of the soldiers for at least thirty seconds now, although it was a little hard to tell. Honestly, Natsu wasn't even totally sure how many were left at this point.

"Watch out!"

That was Erza's voice, and the urgency in her tone made Natsu's entire body tense. Without stopping his fire, he turned half-towards her, terrified of what he'd see even in the heat of battle.

"They're getting away," Erza shouted. "The smaller tunnel!"

Natsu turned fully around at that, and instantly saw what Erza meant. A few of the shadows had detached from the main army and were drifting towards a small hole in the rock, branching off and away from the large central tunnel. Natsu hadn't totally followed everything up to this point, but he knew if those shadows made it back to Magnus, he would know Gray was still alive. And if he knew Gray was still alive, they were all as good as dead. Especially Gray.

Natsu didn't waste time thinking. He was already sending fire hurtling towards the retreating shadows, with as much destructive power as he could muster. As he roared, lightning arced past his cheek, joining the column of flame and causing it to crackle with even greater intensity.

There was a deafening crack as the fire and lightning hit the shadows, the wall, and pretty much everything else in that general area. With a horrible grinding sound, rocks surrounding the smaller tunnel began to shift and fall, crushing the last of the shadows that had been trying to escape.

Natsu felt some of the horrible tension in his chest loosen, for a moment. And then he heard Erza behind him, low and panicked.

"Natsu…."

Natsu whirled, but whatever horrific thing he'd been expecting didn't seem to exist. The battlefield was empty, the shadows all gone. Gray was nearby him, standing, and towards the opposite wall, Erza, Laxus, and Wendy all seemed to be unhurt.

"What is it? They're dead. We got 'em."

"They're dead," Gray agreed, but he sounded hollow and far away. "But Magnus definitely heard them die."

"He knows we're here," Erza whispered.

The oppressive tension came back, like it had never left. All of a sudden, Natsu felt like he couldn't breathe. Only this time, there was nothing to fight.

"Run," Erza snapped. "Now. Gray, you have to go. When they find us, you can't be here."

"But-" Natsu protested.

"You go with him," Erza said. "Here, take the map. I have it memorized already."

She shoved the crumpled map into Natsus's hands, and he grabbed it automatically.

"But-"

"The only advantage we have is that Magnus doesn't know Gray is alive. Do you understand that? Magnus can't know that Gray is alive. You know where Magnus should be. You need to get to him, and you need to do it without being detected. If he learns that Gray is alive and has the sword, it's all over."

"But-"

"Wendy, Laxus, and I will go this way. We'll make as much noise as we can, and we'll attack any forces we encounter. We'll try to take the attention off of you long enough for you to make it to Magnus. That's all we can do."

"But-"

"Go!" Erza yelled. "Magnus has probably already sent forces here to investigate. We'll draw them off you, but you can't be here."

"But-"

Natsu felt a small tug at his wrist. "Natsu, are you listening?" Gray said softly. "We gotta go. We don't have time to argue with her."

"Stay safe," Erza said. "We'll meet you…we'll try to meet up with you before you fight Magnus. But don't wait on our account."

"Sounds good," Gray said. His face was pale and set.

"Wait!" Wendy said. "Do either of you need healing? I can-"

"No time," Gray said roughly. "Come on, Natsu. See you guys…."

Gray trailed off, seemingly unsure what to say. For a second he looked lost, but then his face hardened again, and he started dragging Natsu backwards. Natsu knew there was absolutely no point in arguing. Not with Erza, and definitely not with Gray.

Behind him, Natsu heard Laxus blow a hole through another section of wall - presumably they were going to leave that way. Gray lead Natsu to the tiny tunnel that he and Laxus had mostly closed up.

"I don't know if we can get through-"

"We can," Gray said. He bent and started shifting rubble, and Natsu's heart broke at how frail he looked. Natsu pushed him gently to the side, and started digging his way through. It took him less than a minute to get a pretty good-sized opening.

Natsu looked at Gray, trying to gauge whether or not the opening needed to be bigger. Gray had lost weight (a lot of it), but it would still be close, and Natsu didn't want Gray to have to squeeze past the rocks and possibly hurt himself more.

"It's fine," Gray said. "We don't have time."

Before Natsu could reach out to help him, Gray was squirming his way through the hole Natsu had made, and Natsu was pretending not to hear his small exhalations of pain. He reached down and boosted Gray through, waiting with bated breath until he heard Gray come out safely on the other side.

"Are you o-"

"Natsu, hurry!"

Natsu clambered through the rocks, worming his way into the passage he'd cleared. His shoulders were broader than Gray's, but he was strong enough to push aside most anything that was blocking his way. He emerged on the other side with a few scrapes, immediately standing to go check on Gray. The ice wizard was on his feet, sword in one hand, covered in dust from the rocks, but with no visible injuries that Natsu could see.

"You okay, Popsicle?"

"I'm fine, and we don't have time for that stuff," Gray hissed, already turning down the passage. "Don't you understand what's going on?"

Natsu didn't, really. The battle was a blur of shadows silently dying, mixed with the bright crackle of their combined spells. Everything had happened so fast, from the initial strike to Erza yelling at them to go.

Gray sighed and shifted his weight to his other leg, somehow managing to draw himself a little more upright. "The others are running ahead to distract Magnus. They're gonna attack him, so he doesn't know I'm still alive. They're sacrificing themselves for me too. And we need to get as far away as possible, as fast as possible, so Magnus doesn't find me."

"Oh."

It hadn't really hit him until now. Their situation was horrible, of course Natsu knew that. He'd gone into this knowing that he would probably lose Gray again, and possibly the rest of his team on top of it. But he'd done his best to push those feelings to the side for the last few days, and just focus on the family around him.

He couldn't do that anymore. Erza was gone, and so were Wendy and Laxus. He'd seen them for what very well might be the last time. And even though Gray was beside him now, Natsu realized with a sinking feeling that he might as well be gone, too. He'd lost Gray once, and then, through a miracle, he'd gotten him back. He had always known that might be temporary. And now, it seemed like the time of having Gray was coming to an end. The time of losing him again had begun.

Jellal was still having trouble processing everything. Lucy had assured him over and over again that that was normal. His brain was just exhausted from the magic depletion, the seizures, the coma, but there was nothing wrong with him. Not really.

That didn't make it any less frustrating though. He was still stuck in the hospital, and presumably would be for the foreseeable future. He'd tried to explain that he hated hospitals, but apparently no one cared. He didn't even know how long it had been since he'd first woken up. He knew he was still sleeping a lot, and he knew a lot of the time he was awake, he was really, really high. The result was that time had taken on a sort of fractured feeling, and he might have been here for hours or weeks, scared and disconnected and very unhappy.

He did know he was getting better though. Because now, for the first time, he was actually able to read. When he'd first woken up, letters had made little sense to him, written in characters he could recognize but not understand. Erza and Gray had each left him letters, but he'd been reliant on Lucy to read them aloud to him - he wouldn't have been able to process them if he'd tried to read them himself.

He had a vague memory of trying to write out a response to Erza, and he thought it may have involved an attempt drawing her breasts. He hoped that was some sort of fever dream.

Either way, he'd finished actually reading Erza's letter, and was now trying to get started on Gray's. It was hard for him to hold the paper - his fine motor skills hadn't really come back yet, and his strength was, if anything, even worse. He'd had to laboriously raise one knee, and brace the paper on that. The idea that he was almost too weak to hold a piece of paper was pretty embarrassing, but if he'd had any say over any of this, a lot of things would be different.

Lucy was watching him from her chair in the corner. Jellal rolled his head towards her. "Water?" he whispered. He'd been concentrating so hard on forcing the letters into meaning he hadn't realized how thirsty he'd gotten.

"Water? Is that what you want? You asked for water?"

Jellal nodded slightly. His voice had only just started to come back, and it was still hard for him to make himself be heard. Whispering hurt, and talking above a whisper just wasn't possible yet. But it was better than communicating like a ghost using Lucy's makeshift ouija board.

He wasn't sure if she was going to get him the water - Jellal was pretty limited in what he could consume by mouth after "oral hydration" had made him "vomit immediately." But apparently it had been long enough since he'd last tried drinking anything, because Lucy got up to get him a glass of water.

"I got you a straw," she said, holding the glass up to his lips. At least she hadn't asked him if he needed help, and force him to admit that he did.

It wasn't much of a win, but Jellal would take whatever dignity he could find. Carefully, he took a sip of the water, waiting until he'd managed to swallow that before he tried again. As he was right now, if he threw up, he wouldn't be fast enough to move Gray's letter out of the way, especially not with his broken arm. It would be truly mortifying to have to face Gray later on, and admit to him that he hadn't been able to read his letter because he'd covered it in vomit.

Jellal drank as much water as he felt was safe and nodded his thanks to Lucy, trying to ignore the humiliation building in his chest.

"Of course, Jellal," she said warmly, and put the glass back on his bedside table. "Just let me know if you want any more, okay?"

He nodded again and went back to Gray's letter, puzzling out what the letters meant. It didn't help that Gray's handwriting was horrible, which he supposed was something that he should expect from someone who stopped attending school at eight years old.

I don't know what I can say. Thanks, I guess. Doesn't seem like enough. I wish I could be there when you wake up, to say all this in person. I'm not great with writing.

Jellal paused, blinking as he tried to give his brain and his eyes a rest. Gray was almost comically inarticulate, but that was nothing new. Jellal had always appreciated his bluntness.

I don't think I'm gonna see you again. Pretty sure Magnus is about to kill me, for the second time. But I promise I'll get him first, okay?

Jellal narrowed his eyes and reread the last few lines of the letter, sure that he'd misunderstood. He had not saved Gray just for him to be killed by Magnus all over again. If stopping Magnus had been his only goal, he would have just broken the enchantment on the sword, rather than going to all the trouble of resurrecting his friend.

I won't waste what you did. Take care of Erza for me.

Jellal's lips twitched, which was about as much as he could manage of his usual snarl. No one had asked him what a waste of the resurrection he'd performed would be, but he would have had a very different answer for the ice wizard. If Gray died, that would be a pretty massive waste of time, resources, and magical energy. It was downright disrespectful.

"Are you reading Gray's letter?" Lucy asked, her voice full of an unexpected sympathy. "That one was…hard to get through. It was sad."
"Sad?" Jellal whispered, wishing he could shriek. "...Stupid."

Lucy blinked. "Sorry?"

"Idiot," Jellal managed, even though every word felt like glass against his throat. "Can't…die."

"What?"

Jellal was horribly uncomfortable. His throat had been scraped raw, his head hurt if he did so much as read, even drinking water made him unbearably nauseous. He was too weak to shift himself into a position that was remotely comfortable, let alone actually sit up, and also his arm was broken. He had some amount of brain damage, he would probably need physical therapy, and it was impossible to say when he would actually be allowed to leave the hospital. And to top it all off, when he did finally leave the hospital, he would probably be arrested.

Gray didn't want to waste this gift? Well too bad for Gray. Jellal had paid in blood for this gift, and he thought he had earned having some say in what Gray did with it.

"I'm pissed," Jellal whispered. His voice was way too weak for him to articulate all that, but he thought he could at least get some of his point across. "He's…wasting this. Don't…want…him…to die."

Lucy, to Jellal's surprise, laughed at this.

"Well, none of us want him to die. But I really, really hope you get to tell that to him in person, okay?"

Gray had to come back. If Jellal could have figured out a way to save Gray's life with spite, it would have already been saved. Jellal couldn't - he couldn't do much of anything right now - but Gray…Gray just had to come back.

And if Jellal had anything to say about it, if he could figure out any way to have anything to say about it, Gray would.