21

"Aren't we going to do something about the intruders?" Yuka asked.

The Cold Emperor didn't say anything for a moment, and then answered, "Go and destroy the village." Harry and the rest of his team were shocked at what they heard. He heard a growl from both Natsu and Gray, and wonder which of the two are going to pop out of their hiding spot first.

Gray shot up from behind the broken wall and cried out, "LEON!" Harry, Natsu, Lucy, Happy, and Fawkes' eyes all widened; they weren't expecting Gray to know the man that calls himself the cold emperor. But now that Harry thought about it he remembers Gray's intake of breath the moment they heard this Leon's voice. He turns his Avada green eyes to meet Fawkes' with a raised eyebrow.

Fawkes noticed the silent question and said, {Why are you looking at me? I don't know any more than you do.}

Harry sighed, knowing that his familiar has a point. Why would he know how Gray knew this Leon guy?

"You know him?" Lucy asked Gray in surprised. Both Gray and Leon ignore her and the rest of them.

"What are you three waiting for?" Leon demanded Yuka, Sherry, and Toby. No one from Fairy Tail even noticed that they stopped when they sprang out of their hiding spot. "Go and annihilate the village!"

"But they have nothing to do with this!" Harry exclaimed in rage followed by Fawkes' angry cry.

"I won't let anyone stand in my way," the Cold Emperor said coldly.

Gray gritted his teeth together. "Yooouuuu!" he growled, and then charged. He brought both his hands together and placed them on the ground creating sharp, jagged ice that trailed from him to Leon. But before it could reach him, Leon placed his one hand on the ground and did the same thing Gray did. The two trails of ice met and morphed into each other.

"It's been a long time, Gray," Leon said.

Gray ignores him. "What do you think you're doing?!" he demanded.

Leon followed Gray's example, and ignored him too. "I'd never thought that the townspeople would send you. Did you know, or did we meet today by coincidence? Well, I guess it doesn't matter."

Harry's face morphed into one that said he was not impressed. "I feel like that I stopped believing in coincidences a long time ago," he said quietly to himself.

{That might have something to do with Fate loving you a little too much,} Fawkes voiced his opinion.

Harry looked to his familiar. "What did fate do to me?" he asked dreadfully, but it would seem that the phoenix wasn't going to answer him.

"What are you three waiting for? GO!" Leon ordered, and Yuka, Toby, and Sherry took off. Harry and Natsu started to go after them.

"We won't let you!" they said together.

"No, Harry, Natsu don't move!" Gray shouted a little too late. Ice started to form on Natsu, and Harry tried to jump out of the way, but his leg got caught. The ice covered them both in one block; only Harry's arms and Natsu's legs as well as their heads were sticking out from their cold prison.

Natsu lost his balance thanks to the extra weight from Harry and the ice, and they rolled down the side of the temple while screaming. Fawkes follows them, and Happy was able to grab Lucy before she herself got trapped in ice like the other two.

"Happy, take Lucy and go go back to the village!" Gray commanded, and Happy followed.

"Wait what about Natsu and Harry!?" Lucy questioned worriedly. "We can't leave them behind!"

"We have to!" Happy said in despair. "If we got trapped with them, then who will be able to protect the village?!"

Lucy's eyes widened in realization. "I'm sorry, Happy. Let's get to the village."

"Aye!"

Natsu and Harry found themselves at the foot of the temple, and groaned. Harry shook his head and turned as much as he could to look at Natsu, who was behind him. "How did the ice not break from that tumble?" he asked.

Natsu tried to get up, but he needed Harry to help him do so. "I don't know. Help me get us up, and I'll try to melt it," he said.

They got on their hands and feet and started moving toward a tree. Harry grabbed it with his hands, and started pulling them both up, with Natsu walking backwards. Once they were standing, Natsu started breathing a stream of fire out of his mouth to see if he could melt the ice.

"It's not working. Maybe if I use more heat?" Natsu muttered.

Harry snapped his head around to face him. "Don't you dare!" The movement made them lose their balance again and they fell over. Harry groaned, "Okay, don't make sudden movements, or else we'll wind up breaking our necks."

"Aye…" Natsu agreed.

They tried to get up again, but they had to roll over first, and it was not easy. While they were still trying to roll over, they heard a musical chirp. Since Harry was the one facing upward, he saw Fawkes coming down from a branch.

"Don't tell me you were just standing there WATCHING!" Harry cried out, and the two trapped friends heard another trill from the phoenix, but this one sounded like a laugh. "You were, weren't you?!"

{Yes, I was. I couldn't help it; you both were trying so hard to get up that you even crab-walked. It was the funniest thing I've seen in a long time!} Fawkes said while trilling and flapping his wings happily.

Harry muttered to Natsu, "If he wasn't a phoenix, I would have told you to roast him when we got out of this block of ice."

"Maybe we could get a bucket of water to dump on him," Natsu whispered back, making Harry grin.

"I like that plan."

Fawkes grabbed them and pulled them up so that Natsu was standing again. {We should get moving. Lucy and Happy are already on their way to the village,} he said.

"Let's go then," Natsu said while he started to waddle toward the smell of the village.

{Try not to fall. ~} Fawkes said mockingly, and if he could, he would have sneered.

Harry growled, "I'm going to drown you." He also told Natsu what his familiar said.

"I'll be more than happy to help."

Gray was happy that his friends were far away now. Now, he can fight his fellow student without any worry.

"It would seem that you're still reckless, Gray," Leon said with a smirk.

"Leon, you're no longer Ur's student, and yet you still act like you are," he mutter the last part under his breath.

"Neither are you. After all, Ur is no longer alive."

"Ur lost her life to seal Deliora! So, why are you trying to undo what she has left us?!"

Leon took his mask off. "Stop lying to yourself. You're the one that killed Ur, Gray," he said with a hint of anger. "How can you live with yourself knowing that?"

Out in the ocean, there is a pirate ship. Everyone on it, except for the captain, were knocked out. The captain of the ship turned to look at the one who beat up his crew from his steering. "Why do you want to go to Galuna Island? That place is scary!" he asked.

"There are those that need to be punished on that island, and I'm going to make sure they get it when I drag them back to the guild by their hair. It's as simple as that," said Erza Scarlet.

Gray didn't say anything to what Leon said; he knows that he is responsible for Ur's death, which is why he never told anyone about how he wound up in Fairy Tail. The only person who knew was Makarov.

"Just saying your name is enough to make me sick!" Leon shouted, and sent ice like a jet of frozen water at him. Gray didn't or couldn't dodge the attack. It hit him, sending him through the air and into a piece of a wall. Leon smirked. "What's wrong? Feeling too guilty to counter-attack? If so then I'd advise you to stay out of my way, so I can revive Deliora."

Gray glared at his once fellow student with anger and self-loathing. "I won't let you!" he growled out through gridded teeth.

This seemed to only make Leon amused. "That's the spirit. Let's have a match like we did in the old days." The two stared each other down for a moment, and in a blink of an eye ice is flying everywhere. "Ice-Make, Eagle!"

"Ice-Make, Shield!" Gray blocked Leon's ice eagles just in time; however, he only blocked the ones in front of him. Two of the ice birds flew around his shield, turned around, and hit him in the back.

"You're good at making object Ice-Make, but my Ice-Make is that of living things," Leon stated. "Did you forget that my ice can move around?!"

Gray cried out in pain, and admitted silently to himself that yes he did forget that Leon's ice can move around like the animal it takes the form of. He Jumped out of the barrage of eagles, rolled on the ground, and while on his back, he called out, "Ice-Make, Hammer!"

A hammer appeared above Leon's head, and went down to strike him, but he lifted his hand and blocked the attack, freezing it with his own ice. After doing so, he shattered the hammer in tiny pieces. "You're still using both hands? How pathetic," he said with a sneer. "Ice-Make, Ape!" He sent an ape at Gray who was able to smash it, but barely.

"That is how Ur taught us," Gray replied calmly. "She told us that one-handed molding is incomplete and unbalanced."

"Maybe for you, but I surpassed Ur a long time ago."

"Don't think too highly of yourself."

"I'm going to throw those words right back at you. Did your ice even hit me once?"

"I'm just worming up," Gray said while clapping his hands together. "Ice-Make, Geyer!" Huge spikes of ice shot out off the ground, right where Leon was.

Gray thought he finally hit him, but then Leon came out of the mist that his ice made. "You haven't changed one bit, Gray." He lifted his hand into the air. "We may have gone our separate ways, but time was still frozen around you," he said. "Ice-Make, Lion!" A lion formed below Gray, which bit its jaws down on his leg and threw him up into the air. "Ice-Make, Dragon!" The ice dragon followed him up and slams him in the back, nearly braking bone.

Gray couldn't do anything with the attacks hitting him so quickly, but it seems that Leon let up a little, because he's talking again.

"The reason I'm melting the ice on Deliora, is so I can destroy is. It's always been my goal to surpass Ur, and I finally find out how I was able to do that," he explained. "If I could kill the demon that Ur could not, then I would finally be able to reach my dream!" He sent more ice eagles at Gray, before saying more. "At first I thought that it would have been impossible to surpass Ur, thanks to you ruining it. Only to realize that Deliora is still alive in that ice. So, once I kill the demon, I will finally, finally surpass Ur!"

"ARE YOU INSANE!?" Gray cried out. "Do you remember how dreadful Deliora is?" he paused. "Don't do it, it's impossible to kill that thing."

Leon's face morphed into something like crazed-rage. The next thing that Gray knew was pain. Ice had shot up from the ground and started to stab, or frost-bite his body. "'Don't do it?' 'It's impossible?' you say? Funny, that exactly what Ur and I told you before you ran off to kill the demon yourself! And look where that brought you! You challenging Deliora ended Ur's life!" Gray's eyes winded in remembrance, even though he is still being bombarded with ice from every angle. "You no longer have the right to say Ur's name! DIE!"

Gray couldn't do anything against the attacks, but he feels like he deserves all the pain he is getting now. He knows that it was his fault and that he shouldn't have gone after Deliora all those years ago, but he was a fool back then.

He fell off the roof of the temple, but he didn't even notice until he hit the ground and saw the blurry outline of Natsu and Harry trapped in a block of ice.

"Wow, you look pathetic," Natsu said. "You were almost beaten to death." Gray didn't say anything, even if he wanted to he couldn't.

"Does he really look that bad?" Harry asked. "I can't see him from where I'm at." Gray heard a trill from Fawkes.

Natsu turned slowly to look at Harry. "What did he say?"

Harry turned back to look at him too. "He said that it would even take him awhile to heal Gray. He must be in bad shape."

Natsu nodded to confirm. "Yeah he is. He's not moving, but he is still conscious. Must just be his stubbornness."

Harry sighed, "Let's just grab him, and bring him with us back to the village. It was a good thing we came back this way."

"Tell me about it," Natsu said along with an agreeing trill from Fawkes.

"Fawkes, pick Gray up and place him in my arms," Harry instructed. Fawkes did as told, and Natsu had to lend farther forward so as to not fall backwards again. That happened about 3 times already before he figured out that if he just lent forward he has more balance.

"Let's get going before Lucy and Happy are stuck fighting those three, and we miss out on all the fun," Natsu said.

There was silence for a moment before Harry, Natsu, and Fawkes heard Gray speak. "Natsu, I can't blame you for anything right now… I really can't." He choked on a sob, but it was followed by more.

Harry and Natsu didn't know what Gray was talking about, but Harry heard Fawkes say that he must be talking about Natsu going on the S-Class quest when he wasn't ready. It was a guess, but it was the only one either of them could think of when Harry repeated it to Natsu.

It took Natsu half an hour to make it back to the village, but for some reason Lucy shouted for him to stop, which he did. He looks down at the ground. "Why is there a pile of grass and leaves here?" he asked.

When Harry heard that, he starts saying urgently, "Natsu, don't step on tha…" He couldn't finish, because Natsu stepped on the pile, and they fell through. When they landed, they groaned in pain. "I was going to tell you that it was a trap. A really old trap," he finished.

{Yeah, but you two are out of the ice now. So who cares it the trap is old?} Fawkes pointed out.

Harry looks down and saw that he is indeed no longer trapped in ice. He sighed in relief, and looked back to his familiar. "Can you take Gray up there first? He needs first aid." Fawkes brought Gray up to the villagers, and then came back for him and Natsu.

Both Harry and Natsu's eyes were wide, but then they narrowed in suspicion. "How did we get here before them? They left way before we did," they said in unison.

Lucy shrugged. "I don't know. I thought you were them finally, but…well…" She didn't have to tell them, because she pretty much already said it. It wasn't the enemy like she thought, it was them, and they were the ones to fall into the trap she set up.

Harry put his thumb and forefinger on his chin in thought. "What could be keeping them?" he muttered softly, so softly that only Natsu heard him.

"I don't know, but if they don't get here soon I'm hunting them down," he stated.

All of a sudden, Natsu, Harry, and Lucy snapped their heads to Happy, who gasped in horror, and Fawkes, who squawked loudly and flapping his wings in warning. "Guys, up there!" Happy cried. They looked up at the sky and saw a silhouette of a rat on the purple moon.

{It's them; the three mages that were supposed to be here before us!} Fawkes observed.

Harry pulled out his wand and told Natsu and Lucy who was on the top of the rat. "Can you hear what they're saying Natsu?" he asked him.

Natsu shook his head. "They're too far away."

They heard Lucy make a sound of confusion, and saw what she was looking at. "Is that gel?" she asked, but Natsu got panicked and dashed toward her, pushing her out of the way of the little drop of green gel, it missed by an inch and landed on the ground, burning through it.

Natsu got up with a snarl on his face. "That bucket they got is filled with acid," he growled out.

Harry looked worried when he heard that along with Happy and Fawkes. "That bucket is huge! It's big enough to destroy this whole village no problem!" he pointed out in a panic.

"I have an idea!" Natsu exclaimed, surprising Harry, Lucy, and Fawkes, but they wanted to know what his plan is, so they stayed quiet.

"What's the plan?" Happy asked curiously.

Natsu turned to the villagers. "Everyone, go to the center of the village." He turned to his teammates. "Come on, we got to go too," he told them.

Harry, Lucy, Fawkes, Happy, and the villagers with Gray in hand ran for the middle to the little village. Once there, Natsu lit up both his hands in flames, and waited. Harry wondered at first what he was doing, but then it clicked.

The acid was tossed out of the bucket and was aimed for the center. Natsu jumped up into the air with the help on his flames at his feet, and put his hands together, making a giant ball of fire. "Fire Dragon's Brilliant Flame!" The attack hit the gel, creating a hole in the formation, and the acid landed all around the village, but not touching the center where everyone is.

Lucy and Happy were surprised, but thankful that Natsu's plan worked, while Harry and Fawkes felt proud that the dragon slayer was able to think of something like this on the fly. The only problem was that where they all stand is untouched by the acid, the rest of the village was a crater.

"Bobo's grave is still standing," the chief's voice said in happiness, disbelief, and awe, but the grave was knocked down by Yuka.

"You couldn't just let the acid kill you in a quick, painless death, could you?" Yuka complained. "I don't like bloodshed, but it looks like you leave us with no chose but to kill you with our own two hands."

Harry turned to the villagers. "Is there a place you guys can go?" When they replied that this is a storage area nearby, Harry tells them to go there while he, Natsu, and Lucy take care of Yuka, Sherry, and Toby.

Gray woke up and tried to get up from the ground. "Let me help, I can still fight," he said weakly.

Natsu, being the brut genius he is, punches Gray in the gut, knocking him out. He gave him to the townspeople while telling the unconscious Gray that he was in no condition it fight and to leave it to them.

Sherry was told by Yuka to go after the villagers, so she hopped onto her rat, Angelica, and went after them, but Lucy decided to grab hold of the rat's toe out of reflex. When she realized what she did, she started screaming.

"Happy, follow them!" Harry ordered, and the blue, flying cat was already on it. He and Natsu turned to face Yuka and Toby. Harry pointed his wand, and Natsu lit his fists aflame. "You ready, Natsu?" he asked with a grin.

The pink-haired dragon slayer grinned back. "Yeah, let's show these guys why they shouldn't have messed with Fairy Tail!"

TBC

I tried to make the fight between Leon and Gray different. I wanted to get the speech, because it's an important part of Gray's back story. For some reason, I almost followed their real fight to a T, but I put some changes to it, but it was more like adding more spells into the mix. Other than that, I hope you enjoyed it.

P.S. Please vote! I still haven't closed down the poll, because I didn't get a lot of votes. Please give me more votes! Thank you.

Harry: So, Natsu and I are fighting next?

Enj/Dark: Yeah, and Lucy VS Sherry is in the next chapter too; however, there will be something extra in it.

Natsu: What do you mean?

Enj/Dark: Let's just say, I like Plue, but he isn't what's going to help Lucy win.

Zeref: *leans over to Natsu and Harry* I wonder what she's planning.

Voldy: *MAGI!* TURN ME BACK! *KARP!* DX

Enj/Dark: Please review! ^-^