Natsu saw the vicious spear of ice from the corner of his eye. Lyon didn't - he was focused on the fight in front of him. And that would have been a death sentence, because the spear was aimed straight at the back of his head, too fast to dodge.

"Watch out!" Natsu shouted, moving on autopilot. He didn't even really know if he was talking to Gray or to Lyon. He shoved Lyon to the side, launching a bolt of fire to meet the ice spear midair. With a hiss, the ice began to melt, and the rest of the spear clattered to the ground behind Lyon.

It had to be an accident. Gray had been acting weird ever since Natsu had smelled Lyon, and he had honestly thought it was strange when Gray had agreed to fight his friend without putting up any kind of resistance. The fight must have just messed with his head, and that had messed with his aim, and Gray had gotten careless.

"Gray!" Natsu yelled. "You almost killed him."

"Yeah," Gray said. His voice was quiet, and he sounded exhausted.

"That's Lyon! You can't go hitting him with an ice spear!"

"Oh," Gray said.

"What-"

Natsu turned to look at Gray, ignoring Lyon for the time being. He was pretty sure he'd be able to stop any ice attacks that came near him in time.

Gray…didn't look very much like Gray. His jaw was set. His eyes were blank, half-lidded, and he was staring at Lyon. One hand was on the sword. He was swaying lightly back and forth, like he would fall if he was pushed the wrong way, but he was still up.

He looked wrong. He looked empty and angry and scary. Natsu didn't know exactly what was up with him, but what he did know is that he was officially freaked out. Something had shifted inside Gray. And Natsu didn't even know exactly what it was, let alone how to fix it.

Natsu didn't like Lyon very much - he had pretty clearly had a thing for Gray at one point, and on top of that, he was annoying. But he certainly didn't want Lyon dead. And he definitely didn't want to be the person who killed him.

But it seemed like that didn't matter to Gray anymore. And for Gray, who actually did like Lyon at the best of times, that was pretty freaking worrying.

"Gray, are you-?"

"I'm fine," Gray hissed. "Just let me-"

Gray's hand tightened on the hilt of the sword. And just like that, everything clicked into place. The sword, which had corrupted Erza and Jellal almost instantaneously, which Gray hadn't let go of in…days, probably, was finally getting to him. It was making him think he should kill Lyon.

It was making him into someone that wasn't Gray.

Acting pretty much purely on instinct, Natsu shot a ball of fire at the tip of the sword. As he had hoped, this heated the blade, and then the hilt. Gray dropped the sword with a small yelp.

And then, Gray's knees crumpled beneath him, and he keeled over sideways.

"Gray!" Natsu screamed. He'd wanted to get him away from the sword, but he hadn't expected that. Gray stirred fitfully, but he couldn't seem to sit up. Natsu didn't even think he could open his eyes. A hand stretched out, probably searching for the sword, but he couldn't seem to find it, thankfully.

Natsu would have run to Gray, but apparently Lyon had tired of watching them talk. He shot a spear of ice at Natsu, which Natsu barely managed to dodge. He somersaulted out of the way, coming up from his roll to see Gray's hand scratching weakly at the ground, getting nearer and nearer to the sword.

He couldn't let Gray pick Oblatio up again. This fight would be hard enough to get through without worrying what Gray would do, and possibly ending up defending Lyon from his strikes. Natsu lunged towards Gray, grabbing the hilt of the sword and dragging it away from him.

Hopefully, the sword wouldn't affect him. Natsu was pretty sure he remembered Erza telling them that the sword was bound to Gray, and he was the only one who would be able to receive the benefits of its power. Natsu was banking on the same being true of its downsides.

He would have dropped it, just to be sure, but he didn't want Gray to end up anywhere near the thing. But he'd fought one-handed before, and he could do it again. Natsu gritted his teeth and darted away from Gray, sending a burst of fire towards Lyon in answer to his latest volley of ice.

Lyon's aim was good, and it was hard for Natsu to get in close. At least until Lyon sent a bolt of ice over Natsu's shoulder, one that wasn't even close to touching him. Natsu took the opportunity and began to dash forward and close the gap, when he faltered.

Gray was behind him, lying semi-conscious on the floor. Lying right where Lyon had just aimed.

Natsu turned, heart in his mouth, and saw a fleet of icy eagles heading right for Gray. The ice wizard twitched faintly, as if he sensed the danger, but he couldn't get himself to move.

Natsu screamed, unleashing a bright roar of flame that overtook Lyon's eagles, melting them before they could reach Gray. Instead, Natsu saw a few drops of water splash onto his face, making him wrinkle his nose unconsciously.

Gray was safe for now, but Natsu couldn't let himself relax. Now that Lyon had learned to aim for Gray, he was sure he wouldn't change his strategy, and Natsu could only block so many times. He was going to have to end this fight quickly.

With the beginnings of an idea, Natsu looked down at the sword he still held in his hand. Erza had said that it wouldn't work for anyone else, right? And that seemed to be true, because he still didn't want to kill Lyon. And the other piece of the sword's magic, the whole reason they'd had to bring Gray back, was that a wound from the blade wouldn't heal, as long as Gray was wielding it.

But in Natsu's hands, Oblatio was just a sword. Still a weapon, still sharp and with the potential to be lethal, but just a normal sword like one of Erza's. And a wound from a sword would drop a powerful wizard faster than magic would, especially if they weren't expecting it.

Lyon looked at Natsu, and there was nothing in his eyes. His mouth curled. He raised his hand for another attack.

And Natsu lurched forward, and stabbed Lyon in the stomach.

Natsu really, really, really hoped that he was right about the sword, and that it would leave only normal wounds on Lyon. Because if he wasn't, he was pretty sure that he had just killed the older ice wizard. Honestly, if Natsu had misjudged even a little, or if Lyon was really unlucky, he might still have killed Lyon. This looked an awful lot like the wound that had killed Gray, and there was no real way that Natsu could tell if it would heal until he could actually get Lyon some healing.

It took Lyon about two seconds to react. For a second, he was completely frozen, and then he slowly looked down at the sword in his stomach.

"You-" he started to say. But he couldn't get the rest of the sentence out. Instead, he coughed up a mouthful of blood.

Less than a heartbeat after that, his knees started to buckle. Natsu quickly pulled Oblatio out, not wanting to even think about what damage the sword would do if Lyon fell with it still inside him. Lyon slid limply off the end and crumpled to the ground, and Natsu dropped the sword.

He was still conscious after hitting the ground. In fact, he was curling one of his hands and trying to speak. Probably struggling to get off one last attack. On one hand, that was honestly pretty freaky. But on the other hand, it was probably a good thing. Natsu wanted to damage Lyon badly enough that he would stop coming after him and wouldn't be able to contact Magnus. But no worse than that.

Natsu hated to do it, but he punched Lyon in the head for good measure. This did make Lyon instantly go still, and if Natsu hadn't been able to see the rapid rise and fall of his chest, he probably would have been worried that he'd killed him. As it was, Natsu thought that knocking Lyon out was as much for Lyon's benefit as theirs. Lyon was brainwashed, and so even if he was injured he would probably have no choice but to get up and chase them. And that would definitely make him bleed out even faster.

And he was already bleeding out pretty fast. Natsu was crouched in a puddle of blood that was slowly seeping out of Lyon's stomach, and it wasn't showing any signs of stopping. He doubted that he could rely on Magnus's troops to provide any first aid, and if anyone found Lyon, their whole plan was sunk anyway.

Natsu pulled Lyon's (surprisingly still on) shirt away from the wound, looking at the damage he'd done. It was hard to tell from the outside, but Natsu was pretty sure that he hadn't gotten anything fatal. If Natsu could just get the bleeding stopped, Lyon should be fine. He had to be.

"Sorry about this," Natsu told the unconscious ice wizard, and fire licked across his palms. Without hesitation, he pressed his hand against Lyon's stomach, increasing the heat until he could feel the flesh start to melt together.

It was a good thing Lyon wasn't awake for this. Natsu knew (mostly from other people) that burns hurt like hell, but he knew from Gray that ice wizards were especially susceptible. When (if) Lyon woke up, he would be in a lot of pain.

But hopefully, by the time Lyon woke up, Natsu and Gray would have killed Magnus and saved his ass. And at that point, Natsu was hoping they could call it even.

Natsu took his hand away from Lyon's stomach, wincing slightly at the sight of the wound. The bleeding had definitely stopped, but the burn replacing it did look pretty bad. Survivable, but still bad.

"Wish there was more I could do," Natsu said, grabbing the sword from beside Lyon's body. He turned back towards Gray, who was still slumped on the ground. He hadn't moved from the spot he'd fallen.

"Gray?" Natsu knelt beside his partner, putting the sword down behind him, out of sight of Gray. Just in case. He reached out, touching Gray's shoulder, and shook him gently.

"Mmmf," Gray whispered, but his eyes slid open. "N-natsu?"

He looked terrible. Of course, he'd looked pretty much terrible ever since Natsu had first laid eyes on him in the cemetery, but now, he somehow looked worse. Without the sword, the last bits of color had leached out of his face, and his dark eyes looked dull and a little numb. Exhaustion was in every movement he made, and this looked like the kind of exhaustion that could kill, that could sap Gray's strength until he just stopped breathing.

Natsu wanted nothing more than to give him the sword. If Gray got his hands on Oblatio, Natsu was sure that Gray would stop looking like this. But the sword was clearly doing a number on Gray, changing him into something Natsu wasn't sure he would be able to come back from. If Gray was going to….

Whatever happened, Natsu just wanted Gray to stay Gray.

"Are you with me?" Natsu asked. "You're not gonna pass out again, are ya?"

"Um…."

Gray's eyes were still blank, but he started trying to fight his way into a sitting position. "Hey, don't try to move," Natsu said. He put a hand on Gray's shoulder. He didn't even really have to try to hold Gray down - Gray had absolutely no strength left to resist him.

Gray managed to roll to the side, where he caught side of Lyon's prone body. Instantly, his face froze.

"What…?"

Natsu swallowed hard. "It's alright. He's alive."

"Did…did I do that?" Gray whimpered. "What happened to him?"

"No," Natsu said quickly. "No it wasn't you. I did that to him. I took the sword and I…I wasn't sure what else to do. But he should be alright, I mostly got the bleeding stopped. He's just passed out right now."

Gray rolled back to look at Natsu. He still seemed to be having trouble focusing - his eyes weren't quite meeting Natsu's. Honestly, if it was anyone but Gray, Natsu wouldn't have still expected them to be conscious at this point.

"Did I try to kill him?" Gray whispered. His voice was quiet, but surprisingly clear.

"Let's just say…no more sword. Sorry. I'll be keeping track of it until we reach Magnus."

"Ask them if they'll let me try to walk again," Jellal said. His voice was still quiet and hoarse-sounding, but he'd improved in leaps and bounds over the past few days, and at least now he wasn't hard to understand.

"I already asked them last time you asked me," Lucy said. "They said you needed to get some of your other motor skills back first. And that you needed to be able to eat something."

"I'm not going to fall," Jellal said.

"You absolutely will. And you can't afford a fall right now."

Jellal scoffed at her. If the situation hadn't been so serious, it would have been almost funny. Jellal was too weak to even sit up unassisted, and he was acting like she was the one overreacting.

"That's not going to change anyone's mind," Lucy pointed out. "Not mine, and certainly not the doctors'."

"This is ridiculous," Jellal mumbled. He let his head fall back against the pillows in a movement that was surely supposed to be dramatic, but he couldn't really raise his head enough in the first place to make much of a difference.

"You were in a coma," Lucy reminded him. "What do you think should be going differently?"

Jellal frowned. "I just….could be doing more."

Lucy knew that this was a translation of "I'm terribly bored here," but she had enough grace not to point it out.

"You've done plenty-"

She was interrupted by a shower of golden light, and the familiar form of Loke appeared beside her. Before she could even fully see his features, he staggered and fell just as he became fully tangible.

"Loke!" Lucy grabbed his arm as he stumbled into her, managing to guide him into a chair, rather than the floor. He slumped over the arm, and she knelt down beside him. "What's going on?"

"Sorry….to drop in." Loke sounded awful, haggard and barely able to catch his breath. He looked up at her, trying to smile, but the expression looked strained.

"Loke?" Jellal asked from the bed, and from the sounds of it, was trying to sit up again. "Is he okay? What's happening?"

"What happened?" Lucy asked, ignoring Jellal and beginning to check Loke over for injuries. She couldn't see anything visible, but from the dark circles under his eyes and his sweaty, unkempt hair, something was definitely wrong.

"I'm running out of energy," Loke admitted, hanging his head. "I don't…think I can make it between Erza's group and Gray's group anymore. Not without your help. I'm sorry…."

Lucy squeezed his hand, barely aware that she was doing it. "Don't apologize," she said, putting her other hand on his shoulder. "I'm the one who's sorry. I know all this travel in the human world is hard on you."

Loke shrugged, giving her another strained smile. "It's not so bad. Anything for Fairy Tail."

"You can just rest here for a second," Lucy said. She was glad that for once, it seemed that she had control of the situation. Loke wouldn't be able to jump back to the other group until Lucy agreed to lend him some of her energy, and she wasn't going to do that until he looked a bit less likely to keel over.

"Not…too long-"

"Can I get you anything? Water?"

Loke shook his head, looking sick. "Sorry," he whispered. Lucy wasn't sure what he was apologizing for.

"Did you…see Natsu and Gray?" Lucy asked tentatively. Loke had so far managed to keep her and Jellal more or less apprised of the situation, so Lucy knew that Natsu and Gray had split up from Erza's team, and were hoping to make it to Magnus undetected. "How are they?"

"I was just with them," Loke said. He was already looking a little bit less shaky now that he was sitting down. "They're…."

Loke trailed off.

"They're alive, right?" Lucy said, suddenly panicked.

"Yeah, they're alive. They had to…fight Lyon. Natsu stabbed him. He's alive too, they think. But the sword is doing something to Gray, and Natsu won't let him carry it anymore. He's barely conscious. I don't even know if he knew I was there. He didn't say anything to me."

"How is he going to…?"

"I don't know," Loke said. "Natsu said he would try to give him the sword right as they were getting near Magnus, see if it would perk him back up. He seemed to think it would work. He doesn't want to test it though. Doesn't want Gray to become…."

"No, I get it," Lucy said. With a shudder, she remembered what Erza and Jellal had acted like when they had fallen under the sway of the sword's power.

"I can help, I think," Jellal said brusquely from the bed.

Both Lucy and Loke stared at him. "What do you think you can do?" Lucy finally asked.

"I'll give him some of my magical power," Jellal said simply. "I've done it before, you know. Never over a distance quite this long, but in the end, I don't think the distance really matters, as long as I can visualize Gray pretty clearly…."

"Absolutely not," Lucy said immediately, before Jellal could really get carried away. "No. No, no, no, no."

Jellal looked as rebellious as he physically could manage, laying down in a hospital bed. "I don't believe it's your choice."

"You can't," Lucy told him flatly. "You literally just came out of a coma, and the whole reason you were in the coma in the first place is because you drained yourself completely of magic power. If you try this, you'll die."

"I-"

"No," Lucy said, clenching her fists and willing away the tears prickling at the backs of her eyes. "I know you want to help, but…you've already done so much, and we're not losing you too, okay? It's time to let everybody else do what they can."

Jellal set his jaw in his go-to snarl that he used whenever he felt frustrated, or underestimated, or otherwise disrespected. "I'm telling you, I can do it."

"Do you want me to have to tell Erza that you said that, when she's asking me how you died?"

Lucy would have thought that she'd said that only in her head, if not for the sudden tension in the room. It only lasted a microsecond, before Jellal was opening his mouth to keep arguing, but she'd clearly gotten to him.

"Don't do it yet," Loke cut in, raising himself half up out of the chair and shooting Lucy a desperate, conspiratorial glance. "Don't do it at all, if you can help it. As of now, you'd be throwing your life away for nothing. But if things get really bad, towards the end, I might be able to manage one last jump. I'll let you know if he needs it."

Jellal paused, mouth open, and seemed to deflate slightly. Lucy wished that he'd come around to logic, rather than a fairly transparent attempt to manipulate his pride, but she would take what she could get at this point. She knew that Jellal didn't want to die, but sometimes he couldn't extricate himself from an argument long enough to remember what he was actually arguing for.

"Fine," Jellal said, sinking back into the pillows. "I'll hold off. But if Gray needs help…. Please tell us."

"If I can," Loke said wearily, and pushed himself the rest of the way to his feet. "Lucy, if you're ready?"

"Are you sure you're ready?" Lucy asked, seconds away from shoving him back into the chair and refusing to let him leave until he looked a little better. She was a Fairy Tail wizard through and through, and she was used to being surrounded by daredevils with a half-formed death wish, but this…this felt like too much. She wanted to be out there helping to fight, and it hurt that the place she felt most useful was back here, stopping her friends from running headlong into danger.

"I…don't know how much it matters at this point," Loke said. "They're waiting on my signal to attack. If I'm not there…."

Lucy nodded. She really did get it, even if she didn't want to. "You can rest for a long time after this," Lucy said. "I won't call you for anything."

Lucy expected Loke to smile or make a little joke, but he just nodded grimly. Lucy opened his gate for him, and he vanished.

Lucy wished there was more she could do. For him, for Jellal, for any of them. But for now, all she could do was wait.