The Red Dragon

Chapter 30

"That's not true. I'm the one that sped up his transformation. If anyone should pay the price for what happened to Natsu, it should be me."

"Atlas, I've lived a long, happy life. I found my soulmate, fathered a child, watched him grow into someone I'm proud of. You know this, you were always right beside me. I know this is hard for you to accept, but I want to do this. Natsu doesn't need me anymore, but he needs Gray. This current arrangement they have, you know it's hurting them both. Besides, it's time for me to return to Porlyusica."

"If you do this now, you'll never be able to reunite with her," Atlas announced, "Acnologia has a portion of your soul trapped inside of him, if you die before he does, your soul will disintegrate into nothingness."

"I was hoping you hadn't figured that out," Igneel grimaced, even as his shoulders sagged, "but that still doesn't change my decision."

"You know, and you're still willing to go through with this? This is madness! At least let me go after Acnologia. Once I kill him then we can do this," Atlas pleaded, "You've waited for so long, what's a little longer?"

"We're only going to get one shot at this, and Natsu can't know about it before it happens. He'd never agree."

"You can't just leave him like that, Igneel! He's already lost so much," Atlas pleaded, clinging to anything that could change his brother's mind.

"I've already said my goodbye to him," Igneel said simply, giving his brother a sad smile. "Please, don't make this any harder than it has to be."

Atlas refused to let things end like this for his brother, so while Igneel continued to work out the specifics of the spell they were writing, Atlas began the long process of poring over every single tome and scroll in their library. Searching for any scrap of information regarding soulmates and soul bonds, anything that might help him keep his brother from suffering a fate that he knew would be worse than death.

0-0

"Okay, what the hell is going on with you?" Lyon demanded, sitting down at the table where Gray was eating his lunch in the Village Guard's dining room.

Gray turned his head to the side, surprised to find his brother next to him.

"Huh?"

"Exactly that. You've been out of it for days," Lyon pointed out before shoving a heaping spoonful of mashed potatoes into his mouth.

"Oh, just have a lot on my mind, I guess," Gray chuckled nervously, not having the first clue on how to explain to Lyon the thought that was always on his mind.

Would you give up the life you have now for a chance to live together as a pair of mated dragons?

Lyon would think that the stress of his situation with Natsu had finally driven him mad, and Gray couldn't blame him. The whole thing was insane. Deep in his heart, Gray knew what he wanted to do, but he also realized it was selfish to even consider it.

The same excuses repeated themselves in his head. There were plenty of people who needed him - Lyon, Erza, Anna, even Juvia. They all cared about him, and he would hurt them if he vanished from their lives, this time for good. Then there was the promise he'd made to protect the village from danger, which he took seriously.

He'd still spent hours training his astral projection, remembering Igneel's warning. The more he practiced, the easier it became to separate his soul from his body. At first, he'd only thought about getting good enough to have Atlas teach him how to reach the astral realm so that he could talk to Natsu.

Then he realized that would be a mistake. How would Natsu respond to seeing him there? To know that despite Gray possessing the soul of a dragon, their situation hadn't changed. He couldn't do that to his mate, not until he had finally decided.