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December 27th, X777

The god before Lucy wore a wicked smile that she didn't like one bit. Not as he tipped his head just slightly to the side, gaze lingering on the scarf Natsu had leant to her. "You steal that from Natsu?" he challenged.

"No," Lucy managed to choke out, sliding back a step. She felt the immense urge to flee, to run until she found Natsu and then maybe keep running, because this man – this god, which she was still having problems wrapping her head around – was clearly dangerous. Maybe even more dangerous than the Vhalis. "No, I didn't. He…he let me borrow it." Lucy hated the touch of hysteria in her voice. She forced herself to gulp down a breath, to settle her shaking body and focus. She needed to remain calm.

The god rolled his eyes and snorted. Lucy could have sworn little shards of ice flew at her. "Of course he did," he retorted. "Where is he?"

The question soothed some of her fear. While he clearly wasn't happy to see her, he wasn't after her. He was seeking Natsu, which sparked another kind of worry in her chest. She didn't want her friend in danger. But then…if everything Natsu had said was really true, then he really was the sun god, which meant he might not be in any danger at all.

Lucy said hoarsely, "I don't know. Around. He went to scout ahead. He's coming back soon though."

The god didn't look happy with her answer. Not because of her, but because it wasn't the one he wanted. "Never where he's supposed to be," he seethed, and Lucy blanched when a piece of jagged ice suddenly shot from the earth near her feet, its glacial color nearly blending with the snow around them. Her fingers stung with pins and needles as the temperature seemed to plummet again, and Lucy distantly hoped she'd not get frostbite.

After a moment of consideration, the god shrugged. "Then guess we're gonna have to wait for him," he decided, and Lucy tried to not flinch, worried as to what that meant. She wasn't sure she wanted to wait with him for Natsu to come back. Not because she didn't know him, or because she wasn't sure if he'd decide to hurt her. He was, after all, a god. No, she didn't want him around simply because he seemed to be the reason she was so cold.

Lucy struggled to recall everything Natsu had told her about the gods, struggling to remember which one she was looking at. There was a wisp of a memory on the tip of her tongue. She knew his name. She was sure she'd heard it. She just couldn't remember it, not as he dropped to sit on the frozen earth, message clear.

He wasn't going anywhere, and neither was she.

There were two thoughts bouncing around in Lucy's head as she sat there nearly fifteen minutes later, confident that her lips would be blue if she looked into a mirror. One, she was really, really cold. Colder than she'd ever been before in her life, cold enough that she shivered almost violently despite the coat thrown around her body. Two, she was going to throttle Natsu, because unless he'd run into Vhalis, it shouldn't have taken him so long to come back.

She risked a look at the god. Her body trembled, arms wrapped around the knees she'd drawn to her chest in hopes that she'd help trap some warmth. The god, on the other hand, seemed perfectly at home in the chill. He was unbothered by it, simply sitting there with folded legs. He'd rested his chin in his palm and continued to stare at her in a way that made her uncomfortable. He was willing to wait until she withered away, regardless of her pleas, she realized.

Even more so than the cold, however, Lucy was worried about the walls of jagged, dangerous ice that had begun to form around them. A wall of it had begun climbing skyward minutes ago. Lucy wouldn't have thought it possible had she not watched it happen with her own two eyes. While the wall helped block the wind and ensured it didn't add to the freezing temperature, there was danger in the fact that Lucy couldn't see anything past it. They were sitting ducks for any Vhalis in the surrounding area.

That thought made her speak up. "Look," she said, teeth chattering. "I know you're some big scary god and all, but can you at least make sure we can keep an eye out for any Vhalis? They might notice the giant wall of ice and come looking."

Interest sparked over his gaze. "Vhalis?"

Lucy flushed. "The Vhalisvina, Vhalis for short. The creatures running around trying to kill us all the time."

Much to Lucy's immense surprise, the god lifted his chin from his hand, letting it fall against his lap. "What creatures?" he demanded, bewildered, and Lucy sputtered, raking her mind for possibilities. How hadn't he seen something? If all of the gods were really lost, scattered around the world like Natsu thought they were, they must have all seen at least one of the Vhalis.

"Vhalis? Oh, you mean them. The lost souls."

The memory struck her and Lucy was quick to offer, "Natsu called them lost souls. When we die, we become like them."

The god stilled, his face twisting into a wrathful look. "Oh?" he purred, rocking forward, and Lucy had to fight back her urge to cringe away from him. "Since Natsu seems to know so much, care to tell me why all of my souls aren't where they're supposed to be, lady?"

Gray. The name shot through her like an arrow. This was Gray, the god who ferried the dead to Hel. The one Natsu blamed for the Vhalis and apparently had a problem with. Lucy considered whether or not it would be a good idea to tell him what else Natsu had said regarding him and how he might be at fault for the Vhalis. Probably not, given the way it hurt to breathe, it was so damn cold.

It didn't seem like a good idea at all to tell Gray about the nasty things Natsu had commented about. The last thing she needed was for the situation to get even worse.

"I don't know," whispered Lucy, "and neither does Natsu. It's something he's been trying to figure out."

Gray scoffed, but before she could answer, there was a shuffling, scraping sound that broke through the silence outside of their small enclosure. He paused to listen, and Lucy yelped softly, throwing her hands over her head when something cold showered down over her head. Ice shards, she realized. Warily, she looked up and froze. Gray followed her gaze, perhaps expecting Natsu, or something else.

Lucy didn't think he was expecting the Vhalis to be peeking over the edge of the ice wall at them – at her. Its long, blackened fingers curled over the edge of the ice wall, bones poking through rotten skin. Its fanged mouth told her it was in the last state of evolution, that it had become the monster of Lucy's nightmares.

And it was smiling at them like a child at a bakery's window.

There was a brief moment in which Gray sputtered, clearly at a loss as to what he was looking at, before the Vhalis suddenly hurtled itself over the side, screaming it seemed to crawl down the ice. Lucy hurtled herself away from the section of wall it clung to with a scream, and Gray cursed loudly as she crashed into him, sending him sprawling. Gray slammed a fist into the frozen earth, and Lucy could only stupidly gawk at the glacial spikes of ice that shot up and curled around them like a moving shield. One twisted and slammed into the Vhalis, throwing it into the wall it had crept down. Acidic, reeking blood spattered against the snow.

Its fury turned to fear as Gray suddenly rose to his feet, glowering. Lucy pressed her back against the ice wall behind her, hoping he could shield her from the Vhalis's dangerous claws and teeth. She sputtered when Gray tried to offer the Vhalis a hand, as if he thought it might accept it, but the Vhalis only lashed out, dragging its talons across his flesh. Golden, sticky liquid struck the snow, mixing with the black.

Gray's gaze darkened and he lurched forward, fearlessly dragging the Vhalis to him by an arm with frightening ease. It shrieked, baring its sharp teeth, but Gray ignored it. Instead, he wrestled it to the ground, muttering, "Oh, hush." He pressed his palm over the Vhalis's face, unafraid of the fangs it sported. Lucy blanched at the way his fingers slid over rotten flesh. Even as his touch roughened, however, Gray took on a soft, almost kind look that looked at complete odds with everything else.

"Be at peace," he murmured, and Lucy's eyes were as wide as saucers as rancid flesh fell away from the Vhalis in sludgy chunks, as if melting from the bone. For just a moment, Lucy thought she saw an exhausted old woman kneeling before him. The old woman blinked gratefully at Gray and smiled before vanishing into thin air, leaving only a slimy black mess to signal she'd ever been there. Gray frowned at that mess, studying the way the Vhalis's flesh seemed to sear at the earth and snow beneath it.

Lucy sucked in a ragged breath, feeling a little dizzy. "They're…they're avoiding you. They have to be if you haven't been able to find them before now. They want to stay the way they are."

Gray glanced over his shoulder at her, mouth set in a hard line. "No one wants to stay like that." He raked a hand through his frost-laced hair. "Whatever drives them…no one would want this. The longer they're like that, the less likely I can help them. Eventually, they'll turn into demons rather than lost souls, and I won't be able to do anything. They're closer than I'd like as it is."

Gray tore his eyes away from what remained of the Vhalis, taking in Lucy as she huffed and puffed, throat aching from the frigid air. "How much does Natsu know about this?"

Lucy glared then. Had he not been listening? "Nothing more than what I've told you," she retorted, wondering if she ought to figure out how to control bits of her temper. They were gods, after all. "He's as confused as the rest of us about what's going on."

Gray thought it over, and then shrugged. The ice walls fell away with a flick of his wrist, crumbling into nothing along with the tendrils of ice that had fended off the Vhalis. Even the air seemed to warm a little as he asked, "And have you seen any others like us?"

"Gods?" Lucy checked, her frustration melting away as she took another slow, steadying breath. "No. Just Natsu. And…and you, I suppose." Lucy was unsure of what to do now. She wanted to run screaming for the hills, or at least, her instincts did. But Natsu would hopefully be back soon, and then he could help her or deal with Gray.

Gray thoughtfully looked around himself, debating something he didn't share. Stars above. If Natsu was actually the sun god like he'd been claiming…she was incredibly lucky he hadn't fried her like a fish for all the times she'd been so rude to him. Lucy wrapped her arms around herself, thinking back on all of the things she'd pushed past since meeting him. From the heat he seemed to practically radiate, to the way his eyes shone just a little more than most people's did, to the legitimate confusion he'd experienced regarding human necessities.

Lucy felt sick and furious with herself. She'd done one of the very things she'd laughed at others for doing: she'd pushed away the obvious reality in her determination to remain blind to the truth. I'm a hypocrite! she thought, putting her face in her hands as panic set in and she began heaving for air, even as she tried to fight it back.

Gray cleared his throat awkwardly, unsure of what to do with her as she tried to stop herself from hyperventilating. "Err, you good, lady?"

She choked on a nearly hysterical laugh. "No! Not at all! And it's Lucy, since you never asked." Her voice came out sharper than she intended, and she forced herself to breathe deeply and evenly as her body fought to do the opposite. Voice muffled by her hands, she pleaded, "Please stop making it so cold at least. I'd rather not freeze to death before I can come to terms with how stupid I am."

Gray snickered, which made her want to hit him. "I stopped a while ago. That's just how cold it is."

Lucy wondered if all of the gods were so exasperating.

She was still sitting there, hiding from the world behind her hands like a scared child, when there was an abrupt change in the air. One moment, it was cold enough that she could still see her breath. The next moment, the snow had melted into a sopping puddle beneath her. Lucy didn't bother to get upset about wet pants and how dangerous that could be in a cold environment. Why do so?

Apparently, she'd been traveling with the sun god.

"Don't give me that look," snapped Gray, disgusted. "I didn't touch her. You're the idiot who decided to tag along with a human when you know fully well what Mavis said about that."

Had Lucy not been so busy trying to settle her racing thoughts, she might have expressed more interest in that statement, but she simply said tiredly, not bothering to look as she felt someone couch beside her, "I think we're on good terms with him. I haven't decided yet." She sucked in a breath and let it out slowly, not daring to lift her eyes. She couldn't look at Natsu just yet.

Natsu muttered back, "You sure about that, Luce?" He seemed almost hopeful. As if he wanted Lucy to give him permission to pick a fight with the other god. Lucy wasn't surprised. With the way Gray often complained about Gray, it was obvious there was some kind of rivalry between the two.

"Yes. He helped with a Vhalis, even if he put us in a bad spot in the first place." Lucy finally forced herself to look up. She could see Natsu's concern. He'd not often looked quite so serious, except for when they'd come across the shade. Sure enough, his eyes burned like tiny little suns, glowing in a way she'd dismissed time and time again as a trick of the light.

Lucy ripped her gaze from his and pressed the heels of her gloved hands over her eyes, the breath ripping raggedly from her chest. She hated how fear slammed through her. She had no reason to be scared of Natsu. God or not, he'd stuck with her. He was her friend. Natsu huffed, demanding, "What'd you do, Gray? She was okay when I left."

"Like I said. You knew better." Gray sounded nonchalant, as if he didn't give a damn. Lucy suspected that he likely didn't. "Good luck. You're gonna have to explain all this to Erza."

Natsu shifted anxiously beside her, and that drew Lucy away from her spiralizing realization of how ridiculous she'd been over the last few weeks. "Wait," she rasped, voice hoarse, "why?" She might have been willfully oblivious, but she remembered hearing about Erza.

She didn't want to be on the same continent with Death.

Natsu was apparently thinking along the same lines as she was because when Lucy risked another look at him, he looked particularly nervous, rising to his feet. He offered a hand to Lucy when she looked up at him, but she guiltily ignored the hand and helped herself up, trying to brush the melted snow from her wet clothes and shivering at the chilly breeze.

Gray grinned rather smugly and told Natsu, "You didn't think I'd be the only one looking for answers about missing souls, did you, Natsu?"

Natsu looked horrified, and that was enough to make Lucy nervous, too. "Why does Erza think I know anything?!" Natsu demanded, throwing his hands up. "Go ask Mira or someone. She probably knows – how about you, Gray?! You're the one who's supposed to be helping the souls into the afterlife, so why aren't they where they're supposed to be?!"

Gray's gaze guttered with rage at the accusation, and the temperature that had only just risen plummeted again. Not wanting to freeze to death, Lucy cut into the argument tiredly. "Look," she rasped, "as fun as it is hearing you try to figure out who caused the world to be torn to pieces, can you argue somewhere else at some other time? Where there's one Vhalis, there's more, and we really need to get moving. We still need to find shelter before nightfall, Natsu."

She really wasn't inclined to invite Gray to tag along at the moment.

Gray studied her with a sharp look, but he said nothing about her. Instead, he said curtly to Natsu, "I have to go summon Jellal and Erza. There's an abandoned house three days that way." He pointed to the northwest. "We'll meet you there."

"There's no point," Natsu huffed, and there was something razor sharp in his tone that startled Lucy. Even when he was annoyed with her, he never spoke like that. "I don't want to see them."

"Too bad." Gray pressed his mouth into a hard line, grimacing. "You can either agree to meet them there, or Erza's going to hunt you down. She wanted to talk to the first god I could find – and I've been looking since everyone fell."

Natsu fell quiet at that, his face pale. Worry creased his brow. Lucy didn't need to question why. He'd been worried about the gods he considered his family before; if another god couldn't find them when Natsu couldn't, where were they?

"...fine," Natsu agreed reluctantly. "We'll meet them there." He shook off his worry, adding warningly, "And don't say a word about Lucy. It's none of any of your business."

Gray shrugged. "Your funeral." He turned his attention back onto Lucy for a few moments, as if he intended to say something to her. But he took a quick look at Natsu and decided against whatever it was he'd been about to say, instead deciding on, "See you in three days."

Without so much as an apology, he turned and walked away.

Lucy gawked after him. She could have died. She could have been torn apart by a Vhalis or frozen to death, and he didn't so much as say one simple "Sorry!"

Rather than letting anger rule her thinking, Lucy turned to Natsu, grabbing his sleeve like a child and tugged at it. She was too tired from her encounter to seethe about it. "Can we just go?" she muttered miserably. "We need to find shelter."

Natsu studied her closely, concern flashing across his face. "Are you sure you're okay?" he asked, and she felt even worse about the fear that had flashed through her. Natsu sounded so distressed about the fact that he couldn't help her with whatever plagued her.

"No," she admitted. She took a shaken breath, fighting back the sudden well of emotion. "But I will be." She didn't have a choice. Lucy needed to push on, or she wouldn't survive. "It's going to take me a while to get used to the god stuff, that's all. I'll be okay. Eventually." She would simply accept things as they came, she decided. Maybe they'd freak her out, and she'd probably be upset about it. But she would take things as they were and push on.

Natsu snorted softly, rolling his eyes as he ushered her in the direction Gray had indicated the abandoned house would be in. "Seriously? You're worried about it now? I told you–"

Despite her best efforts, a smile kicked to life. "Don't you even start, Natsu. Sun god or not, I'll kick you into next week if you say 'I told you so.'"

Wisely, Natsu decided to keep his mouth firmly shut.

Ahhhh! Gray was the correct answer (which I'm pretty sure everyone guessed)! With this chapter, we really launch into "god stuff" alley for a while.

On another note, I hope updates won't be affected too badly, but I've had a family emergency that might not be resolved very quickly take place, and I may have to stagger updates for a little while. Like I said, I hope otherwise, but I can't promise anything. As much as I love writing, SF, and letting you all into this world, my family comes first. :)

Thanks to reviewers (Saffron, fantabu, Guest #1, Rachel Maddison, 3825Doll, sonicloudaj, marn-marn, TaraPasty, Lovetoreadff, and MPRime!) as well as those who favorited and followed. It really means a lot to me, especially at times like this. :)