Chapter Eight-Two
Wendy took a deep breath and tried to push past the voices she heard, trying to find Flare's. Flare's metrics were being read off by Alfie and Wendy didn't like any of them. The girl had internal injuries, and there was venom from the draconics running through her blood. She opened her eyes and looked up at the sky. She focused on the darkening sky, spotting stars and focusing on them. She lowered her gaze, feeling her power surging. The voices quieted slightly as she started to focus again on find Flare in her own mind. She wasn't sure how long she searched when she stopped and inhaled deeply. She turned her mind's eye and saw it. A small figure the same color as the pale hues of Flare's mind. She reached out to it with her healing magic and watched as it visibly shook.
"Flare. Are you still with us?" Wendy asked softly and waited. Her magic spreading out through the tools and her connection in the mind. Sending healing energy as strongly as she dared. "Flare?"
Lucy bit back a sob as she watched Wendy hovering over Flare, her hair turning to a shade of pink as her Dragon Force started to come out. Flare wasn't moving and Alfie's metrics reading was not encouraging. Natsu had his arm around her waist and his warmth was the only thing keeping her from breaking down. The dried blood on Flare's face, running down her neck and staining her clothes were searing an image into her mind she wasn't sure she'd ever forget.
She made herself look away from them and towards Gray. The new Gray. The demonic Gray. The one currently facing off against four wary draconics. He had stopped and was standing there, looking bored as they circled around each other; eyeing not only him, but looking behind him to Wendy, Flare and Jellal, and then whipping to look over at Juvia, Ultear, Meredy and Erza. He sighed and the draconics slowly focused on him one by one. Lucy swallowed.
"Be careful Gray. Please be careful." She whispered and waited, her hand finding Natsu's and gripping it tightly.
"Gray…These are new draconics. Be careful." Juvia called out, the one closest to them slowly turned to stare at her and she flicked water at it. The drops grazed its head and it shifted and gave a garbled snarl. She stepped forward; putting herself between the other girls and them. But then, there was a flash of that black lightening and she was staring at a back. One filled with tattoos; tattoos that were swirling within the skin, as if they were alive. She inhaled, startled, and faintly caught the scent of Gray; but there was something else; something she wasn't sure she liked. She looked up, but he never turned to look at her.
The other draconics turned, scrambling as they turned into one another as they weren't small enough or graceful enough to turn without running into one another. The first one; who Juvia had insulted with her water attack, charged. Gray moved slowly, his left hand lifting from where it had been hanging next to his thigh. Ice started to form under the draconic, dark black ice that appeared smooth at first. The draconic started to slide sideways, and then he twisted his wrist and brought his fingers into a semi-closed claw position. The ice followed his movement and spun up in a tightening spiral and the draconic found itself surrounded and unable to move. It's angry gaze honed in on Gray.
"Die." He muttered and closed his fist. The ice instantly closed in on it; and they watched as the inside of the ice because a murky mess with the blood and internal ooze that made up the creature that had just been alive but was now gone. He turned his head lazily toward the last three draconics. Each staring at him slowly. One shifted a little to the right and opened its mouth,
"Impressive attack, from an impressive Dragis. To think…an Ice Demon Dragis Form. I have never even seen one. You are truly a living legend of your kind." The voice that came from the draconic was cold and laced with a mocking tone. Everyone around shivered.
"I feel violated and I only heard that through the comms." Cana shivered as she said that and everyone in the shuttle agreed, as did everyone in their small bases and groups.
"Mard Geer." Natsu snarled, his fangs strong as the voice caused Lucy to turn into him.
"Come to my side. I can treat your powers with the reverence that they deserve." Mard Geer's voice was laced with a nearly sweet tone to it. "You could be a god among ants by my side. Imagine it. The carnage your demonic powers can wreck, unchecked. No need to contain it; make deals like in the old ways. I could help you be the most power demonic force in all the universes."
"Not interested." Gray said sounding bored and blew out a breath; his lips puckering more than necessary. Juvia felt the artic air whip around her and him and fly at the draconic with a speed that was blinding. The draconic was hit by the artic air and knocked off of its feet and when it crashed to the ground; it shattered into a thousand pieces. Its body had been frozen solid in the span of seconds it took for the air to hit it and it to crash back to earth. The other two draconics started to move in irritation until one opened its mouth.
"That wasn't nice. We were having a conversation." Mard Geer's voice was low and dark now. His anger evident.
"No. You were having a conversation. I was bored." Gray said and rolled his head on his shoulders and blinked lazily.
"Bored? You aren't listening. I am offering you a chance to become more powerful than…"
"I don't want power." Gray cut him off. Juvia tensed, pressing herself closer to his back, something in the air making her feel uneasy. She looked around in the sky, turning her eyes over the buildings. Trying to understand why she was uneasy. It wasn't Gray just upsetting Mard Geer. Something, something was watching them. She could sense it. She didn't like it. She turned her head and saw a glint off to the left. Was it the setting sun hitting some glass? Or perhaps metal? What could it be? Nothing? An enemy?
"What do you want then? I can grant it. Join me, help me get back what that Fire Dragis has stolen from me, and I'll give you whatever you want."
"As much as Match-for-Brains annoys me; he hasn't stolen anything from you. We both know that." Gray said. "Lucy has chosen to be with the idiot; he makes her happy. And she makes him happy."
"Happy? Chosen? Are you hearing your own words?" Mard Geer asked as the two draconics shifted in anticipation of something only they knew.
"Yes. I am." Gray tilted his chin and a cocky smirk lifted the corner of his mouth. "Are you?"
"Don't get lippy. I am still Mard Geer the most…"
"Long winded asshole I've ever had the misfortune of meeting; and that includes Gajeel who can monologue with the best of them." Gray interrupted him.
"I do not monologue!" Gajeel growled and felt his ears warm up as Levy's giggle reached him but he clenched his fists as more laughter reached him through the comms.
"Last chance to show the respect I am owed; and join me." Mard Geer's voice was as cold as the ice that was covering parts of Gray's body.
"I am Gray, the Ice Demon Dragis of Fairy Tail!" Grays' voice was loud, echoing off of the empty shell of building around them. "My loyalties are with my Guild. My family! My power isn't from the Demon I aligned with. It's from those who came before me and who stand beside me."
"Self righteous poppycock…learned no doubt from that old man you called a General." Mard Geer sneered. "Don't say I didn't try."
As the draconic closed its mouth; its companion opened its wings and shurikens flew out which Gray managed to destroy with black lightening. But before he, or anyone else registered it; Juvia pushed him. He spun away from her, catching himself in a spin on ice forming under foot and he turned to scold her when he watched as something metallic struck her square in the chest before it turned to water; and her blue blood erupted from her back as she jerked backwards and then stared down in shock. Slowly she looked up, her face paling even as she pointed her hand at the far off building.
"Water…pistol." She shouted and the water shot out and they watched as something jerked in the fading light at the roof of the building then fell off. Gray watched as Juvia dropped to her knees, her hands going to her chest, her blood pumping through her fingers.
"Dangerous metrics. Dangerous metrics!" Alfie was screaming as Erza rushed forward and grabbed Juvia by the shoulders and laid her down. One of the draconics used the chaos to leap forward but Ultear sent a spell out and it flipped tail over claws and landed on its back on some of the iced remains of its brethren-dying instantly. She and Meredy rushed forward and knelt beside Erza and Juvia.
"Juvia? Hang on." Erza was screaming as she pulled off pieces of her clothing and pressed it against the gapping wound in her chest.
"Is…Gray….safe?" Juvia asked, coughs breaking up her words. Erza turned and saw the darkened expression on Gray's face, but didn't see any injuries.
"Yes…you saved him."
"Go..goo…good." She gasped. "Pro…prote…protect…L…Lu…Lucy. Gr…Gray. Prote…protect…her."
"No…no…no…" Lucy chanted, crying into Natsu's shoulder. He embraced her tightly and tried not to cry. He watched as Erza and the others tried to stop the bleeding. Her metrics were chiming crazily and Wendy looked over from Flare's still prone form. She and Jellal were speaking but for some reason Alfie wasn't transferring their conversation. That or he had gone deaf to everything except Lucy's tears.
"Juvia…" Gray stood looking down at her and she slowly turned her face to him. A smile light up her pale face.
"Gray…" She grimaced. "Tha…thank…you."
"Thank…me?"
"You…tru…trust…trusted…me….fir…first." She tried to smile again but her lips only twitched ever so slightly.
"Stop talking. Save your energy." Ultear ordered as she and Meredy were busy weaving spells over Juvia's body.
"Juv…Juvia…is…hap…happy."
"Happy?" Gray's voice was low. The ice dripping from the air in front of his mouth as he spit out the word like it offended him.
"Yes…be..beca…because…" Juvia's eyes closed briefly and she opened them partially. "Gray…is…safe."
"How sweet that the traitorous bitch is concerned for an Ice Demon who could never return the feelings." Mard Geer's voice came from the side and Gray's head whipped around to the last remaining draconic. It was focusing on Juvia. "I did have a plan to torture you personally for betraying your Guild…and in doing so; betraying me. But…I guess this will have to suffice."
"Shut up." Gray growled and the draconic scraped at the ground with its claws. Preparing to attack.
"Make me." Mard Geer taunted. "Risk the life that that water woman foolishly traded for her own. Your little Air Dragis won't be able to save her. That round was specially made to kill Dragis, dipped in the venom of a Flokgorg. Even if your little healer could stop the bleeding; the venom will kill her slowly and painfully."
"You monster!' Ultear turned and glared at the draconic. Flokgorg venom was the most potent venom known in the universes. The only thing that had ever fell a living dragon. It was said that the venom boiled the blood from within, then started to destroy the cells at a molecular level. But it wasn't quick. But there was also no cure.
"So keep trying to save her. Put her through more pain. It's entertaining for me and mine."
"Go to hell." Gray snaped and lunged forward, and the draconic's neck snapped with a loud sound as his arm, encrusted in black ice collided with it. He spun quickly, grabbed the top jaw and yanked, causing it to snap off and expose the brain stem. The body twitched as it fell to the ground and after a few twitches stopped moving. He dropped the upper jaw and shook off the blood and gunk and dirtied ice. He walked over and knelt beside Juvia and the others.
"Tell me there is something you can do?" He asked looking at Ultear and she shook her head.
"You know as well as I do…Flokgorg venom…"
"I can try." Wendy said startling them. They watched as she appeared, her pink hair standing up on end.
"What about Flare?" Erza asked and looked over Gray's shoulder at Jellal who had his back to them and was hunched over the girl in question.
"Jellal has hooked up the healing connectors to his own body. He is transferring some of his life force into her in lieu of Wendy's healing." Alfie's information was low, almost reluctant. Erza closed her eyes and then looked at Wendy. But the girl wasn't looking at her. She placed her hand on Juvia's chest and the others withdrew and felt the heat explode off of Wendy's body. Her head snapped up and back, her eyes wide.
"Grandeeney, guide me." Wendy whispered as waves of pain washed over her. Her magic rushing forward and trying to combat the venom and at the same time undo the damage that the bullet itself had done. She could feel the venom sizzle a little at contact with her healing power, but what was destroyed repopulated just as quickly. She gritted her teeth.
Suddenly a cool energy enveloped her; magic surged and she opened her eyes wider. She looked down and saw Gray's hands covering hers over the injury and she realized he had wrapped around her. The dark tattoos lifted off of his arms and reached out and wrapped around her arms and she gasped as she felt magic start to pass from him to her.
"Is that some kind of link spell?" Meredy asked Ultear who shrugged and watched as the tattoos started to turn from black to silver on Wendy's skin, and to a dull silver where it met the black on Gray's skin.
"It's Ice Demon magic…I couldn't tell you what that is." She breathed. "I didn't even know that could happen."
"It's not Ice Demon magic." A new voice said and all three of the girls turned their heads sharply, Erza jumping to her feet in a flash of light and bringing up a sword to the man standing off to the side of them. His black hair was standing up, streaks of grey around his temple. He was wearing Dragis clothing; with the Fairy Tail guild emblem on the vest he was wearing. But the clothing was old, tattered and repaired.
"Who are you?" Erza asked and he tapped the blade of the sword and she gritted her teeth as black ice, just like Gray's started to encase the blade. She flicked the blade, surprising him as it glowed brightly before changing to the Fire Empress Sword, the flames melting his ice.
"Did not see that happening." He said and eyed her. "And my name…once…was Silver."
"Silver?" Erza asked skeptically.
"Sil…ver?" Ultear asked, memories assailing her. "Not…not…"
"Yes…Gray's father." The man said and stared at Gray and Wendy, both who were unaware of the conversation taking place around them. Their sole focus on Juvia and her failing health.
"Your supposed to be dead." Ultear whispered.
"Supposed to be." Silver conceited and squatted down and stared at Gray, his head tilting to the side. "He's got his mother's look about him. Thank Fjúk for that. I'd feel bad if he ended up looking anything like me."
"Uh…" The three girls shared a look, their thoughts syncing to the belief that he and Gray were nearly identical. Silver looked up at them, a goofy smile on his face.
"The last time I saw him, he was just a little thing. Man…he's grown up so much. I'm happy to know that he survived and has thrived."
"How are…you here?" Ultear asked and he looked at her and then pointed to the black tattoos all over Gray.
"I'm the Ice Demon he made a deal with."
"What?" Ultear started to shake her head. Gray said his parents were both Ice Dragis and Ur had never said anything to contradict that.
"I was an Ice Dragis." He said as if reading her mind. "I became an Ice Demon in death. I made a deal that I regretted even as the fruit of it was worth the pain I suffered."
"I don't understand." Meredy shook her head.
"Mard Geer offered me the chance to have my heart's greatest desire in exchange to becoming one of his legion as an Ice Demon. During a battle, some years after, his hold on me broke and I wandered the universes. Then, out of the abyss I heard the call of an Ice Dragis wanting to make a deal with an Ice Demon. Imagine my surprise when it was my own son…finally old enough to make such a spell happen."
"You sided with…" Erza snarled and started to swing the blade down even as Ultear tried to block the attack. But she needn't have bothered. Because Silver caught the burning blade with a blacked claw hand, bright black scales erupting from his hand down to his elbow.
"I sold my soul to save Gray. My Mika was gone, died shielding him from Deliora's attack. He was vulnerable and alone, the rest of the Ice Dragis from our village slain. So I agreed to Mard Geer's offer, my heart's greats desire was for my son to survive and thrive, and one day help end Mard Geer's rule. For that my soul was an inconsequential price to pay." Silver explained. They blinked as he dropped his arm and let the sword come to his throat. "But I do ask you wait to slay me until they've healed this woman. She means something to Gray."
"She means something to all of us. Friends and allies are too few in this war." Ultear said looking away.
"Sure…but I think it's more for Gray." Silver said and once against squatted down to watch.
"Why are you visible and not helping him?" Erza asked watching him as she made the sword and armor disappear. He looked at her in her simple outfit with the Heart Armor over it. He turned once more to his son.
"Because I got kicked out of the connection. Apparently Ice Demons can't be parts of a Unison Raid."
"Another raid?" Meredy asked in awe, her eyes wide.
"Another?" Silver asked surprised.
"We've seen several, this is not the first with Wendy involved." Erza said and watched as Wendy's eyes brightened and a smile came over her face.
"The venom is being eradicated at a speed that it cannot regenerate enough to outrun the destruction." Alfie stated. "Juvia's metrics are improving, and the speed of which is increasing too."
"Look at that. Just like his mom…helping those around him reach new heights." Silver whispered as more white filled Wendy's eyes, the swirls taking over more of the blue.
"It's the Fairy Tail way." Erza murmured and Silver nodded.
"That's Gray's old man?" Laxus stared in surprise.
"You know him?" Freed asked surprised and Laxus stared at him dumbly.
"Know him? He's the Silver Mist. The best spy that Fairy Tail ever had. They said he could disappear and travel by the very mist of an exhale." Laxus shook his head. "I didn't think to consider that that twerp came from such strong stock."
"I think it may be time to consider all of the younger Dragis come from better stock than we thought." Freed murmured lowly. "And maybe be prepared for them to hold it over us."
"Damn it." Laxus swore, shaking his head with a wary smile.
"Does Gray know?" Ultear asked looking at Silver solemnly as both Dragis continued to heal Juvia of her nearly fatal wounds.
"Know what?"
"That you are his father?"
"…No…That didn't seem…" Silver sighed, "…Fair to him. Sorry to put that on your shoulders to bare."
"You don't want us to tell him either, do you?" Erza asked and Silver shook his head.
"No…he may decide he hates me for the choice I made; and never call on me again. I can't undo what I've done. I hate the acts I committed while under the service of Mard Geer, but I also can't hate the result of that price. My son is alive and spiting that bastard. Fighting to bring him down so no one else suffers like he did. Like our village did. Our planet. Perhaps, in time, my sins can be washed if I help him."
"Then we won't tell him." Erza said and everyone stiffened. But they could see the tightness of her jaw. The determination and they didn't want to argue with her. They wouldn't win…because even if they told Gray, she'd kill them. And they all liked living a little too much to go against her.
"Thank you. Thank you all." He smiled. "I'm really glad that my son found such a good family in the midst of all this war. I think Mika can rest easy with that being the case."
"Mika is a beautiful name." Levy murmured and sniffled. There was a moment of silence and then Lucy nodded and she reached out and put a hand on Levy's shoulder. She gave it a squeeze.
"What is Jellal doing now?" Romeo asked and both Lucy and Levy turned back to the screen and stared.
Jellal was racing over, Flare in his arms. He laid her down next to Juvia, Wendy and Gray. Her skin was a multitude of pale pink and gray as if life and death were warring over who would claim her. The tools that connected him to her were flickering, their power fading. He looked at everyone.
"I don't know what to do. The connectors started to make a weird sound and then flicker. It's like they're dying or something."
"It's a default setting to prevent the donator from killing themselves to save the patient." Alfie stated. "You cannot donate anymore of your life force or you too will run the risk of dying. The fact you managed to move her over here is outside the predictability models."
"Damn it." He swore and looked at Flare's face. She looked serene, considering she was on the brink of death. He pulled off the tools and looked over at Meredy. "Do a life link spell. Me and her."
"I can't." Meredy shook her head.
"Don't say that. You did it for Ultear."
"Jellal, I can't. You don't have the energy to save her. You heard Alfie."
"You didn't have the…"
"That was different!" She snapped and looked away. He started to speak but Erza held up her hand. She looked at Flare and then to Meredy.
"Would you use the spell on me?" Meredy's eyes shot up to Erza's brown ones and she stared at her. Silver was listening, enthralled. Ultear was biting her lip.
"I could, but if Alfie says your metrics are too low, I'll dissolve it. We can't lose you too Erza."
"I understand." She said and dropped to the ground and held her wrist out to Meredy. Meredy wrapped her hand around her wrist and focused on the spell. She then reached out and pointed at Flare. But before she could finish the spell; Wendy reached out and grabbed Flare's hand. Everyone whipped their heads to her.
Her expression was calm. Sure of herself and her actions. Gray was still wrapped around her, his gaze still on Juvia. "I'll take it from here. Gray and I have enough power to help both of them now that the venom is gone."
"Both of them…" Silver whispered in awe. Then giggled. "Unison raids are so awesome, and my son is part of one. Gah…I'm envious of my own son."