There, underneath the setting sun, laid a young girl soaked from head to toe. Her wavy, aquamarine hair floated in the shallow waters of the river as dry, crimson blood stained her expressionless yet beautiful face. There was no movement what so ever, the raven hair boy stared at the beauty, not being able to utter out words.
Gray P.O.V
Was this Juvia? It couldn't be right? There's no way....she'd never let herself be beaten this badly....Why can't I say anything? I've been thinking about her well being all this time...So why am I...
Normal P.O.V
He continued staring when he felt something hot streaked down his face. The pain and guilt he felt in his heart had cause his brain to go weak and as a result formed the crystal clear like pearls that ran down his face. The ice mage dashed to her side immediately and pulled her out of the shallow river waters. He held her delicate body in his arms and brought her face close to his while sobbing silently.
"Juvia..." he sniffled.
"Juvia....please....please don't let it end like this....."
"I..."
He hugged her body tighter and his tears fell on her cheeks as he tried to say what was on his mind.
"I'm sorry.....I'm so sorry...."
Gray P.O.V
Why did it have to be this way?...Why was she the one that had to....Dammit! I should have been the one! Not her! ....Dammit all!
I embraced her frame into mine, not caring that my clothes were getting wet from her drenched skin. I used my hand to pull back the strands of blue hair behind her ear and used some of the river water to wipe the stained blood away. My palm caressed her cheek, it was so smooth and cold.
"...I don't want it to end like this Juvia....please....I don't want you to leave....me...please..."
And as if hearing me, a soft moan came from her and she whispered,
"Gray...sama...."
I instantly shot up and examined her closely, she started breathing again but just barely. Her chest rose slowly as she took in little air.
Normal P.O.V
Gray had a relieved smile tug on his lips and the flow of his tears had stopped at the corner of his eyes.He needed to get to Wendy, so that she could heal her quickly, so he lifted the blue hair girl, princess style, and ran as fast as he could with her.
"Just hang in there Juvia.."
~Back to where Natsu and the Gang were separated from Gray~
"Kuso! I'll give that Ice bastard a good beating when this is all over!" the pink hair mage announced angrily.
"Save that for later Natsu, right now we have bigger issues." Scarlet reminded him.
They all followed Natsu's direction to the west, where Wendy was located. They eventually came upon the crew that had kidnapped their comrade, She was tied up and bruised with scratches. Natsu got pissed at the sight and confronted them.
"Hey assholes! you better let go of our friend if you know what's good for you!" he shouted angrily and readied himself to fight.
The others followed in his lead and the crew just looked at them and chuckled.
"I think your the ones who should know what's good for yourselves moron! Have you know Idea who we are? You'll be a total nim rod if you try to pick a fight with our guild boy!" one of the dark guild members said confidently while laughing.
"Oh ho pal, you've just taken the words right outta my mouth.." the fire mage grinned evilly and cracked his knuckles.
Erza transformed into her Purgatory armor and Lucy summoned Virgo with her Celestial Spirit magic. Natsu lunged at the villains and sent half of them flying with one swing of his fire fist. Scarlet then followed with a hard bash to the earth, with her purgatory weapon and made the dark wizards stumble into pit holes, Virgo had dug.
"Scared yet tough guy?" salamander teased the mage that had so proudly spoke about his guild's strength.
The dark mage hesitated but kept his cool and formed an odd sign with his fingers. He faced directly at Natsu and chanted something quietly. Lucy had already went to Wendy's aid and helped her out of her bind. The sky maiden tried to get her concentration back together and when she did, she saw the dark mage forming the weird sign and looked at Natsu who was a distance away from him, but still was facing his direction, which made Wendy gasp in fear.
"Natsu! Get away! His magic messes with the minds of people!" she warned.
Natsu was too late, the man had already finished his chant and faced his hands towards Natsu.
"Now, I'm going to do the same thing to you as I did to your pretty water mage friend!" the dark mage snickered.
Natsu was going to dodge but for some reason he froze with his eyes widened and mouth slightly gaped open. Lucy and the others watched in shock because they had no clue as to why he did that.
"Natsu! What's wrong!? Move!" Erza shouted but her efforts were futile.
"Natsu!" Lucy shouted afterwards.
His body was immobilized and his hair bangs covered his eyes. He didn't speak, all he did was stand still like a statue.
"What did you do to him you fiend!?" Erza demanded an answer.
*chuckles*
"I simply just erased his memories and made him my slave darl, no harm done. I was going to do the same thing to your water mage friend but sadly she fell off a cliff and perhaps died in doing so," he shrugged it off like it was no big deal.
The three female mages listened to his words and it felt like a dagger had just ran through their hearts. Titania (Erza), clenched her teeth and tightened her grip around her weapon, ready to pulverize the villain, but then a sudden icy crack was heard out of know where and the feet of the dark mage began freezing. He looked dumbfounded at the element that solidified itself around him, and in the blink of an eye, he was completely frozen to the nape of his neck. His head was exposed and he looked terrified. Lucy and Wendy heard footsteps getting closer from behind them and saw that it was Gray! He was holding Juvia in his arms. The girls held their mouths and ran to him,
"Gray is she-..." lucy was cut off when Gray placed Juvia in her arms and walked towards the dark mage.
Lucy had to fall on her knees cause she wasn't strong enough to hold Juvia up like Gray did, but she made sure to rest down easy as to not hurt the injured water mage more. The ice mage stepped up to the villain and stared at him with a blank, emotionless face.
"Are you the one who did this to me punk!? you better let me go before I screw you!" the villain complained.
Gray cocked his head to the side and gave him 'are-you-serious-when-your-in-that-position-?' look.
The dark mage was getting pissed and he called out to Natsu who was still standing motionless.
"Oii pink squirt! Here my command and get rid of this loser!"
Natsu didn't move, he still stood still and the mage gritted his teeth angrily.
"Hey! are you listening to me flame brat!"
Gray smirked and the dark wizard noticed.
"What are you grinning your ass for twit?!"
"You really think your mind tricks can work on a total dope like him? Your more foolish than you look." the ice mage said bluntly.
The dark mage twitched and looked at Natsu more closely, he was definitely not under his spell, because he was sleeping! Nani!? All this time Natsu had just been snoring away!? He really is a dope!
(To be honest I love that about Natsu >///u///< Kyaaaa~ ...*clears throat* anywho back to the story!)
Lucy and the other female mages sweat dropped and lowered their heads in disappointment. Then again its Natsu, so what did you expect?
"So your the one who hurt her huh..." the ice-maker said in a monotone voice.
The dark mage arched and eyebrow at him,
"What are you saying punk?"
"Tch...pathetic.." he replied and grabbed the dark mage's face with his hand.
Gray looked through his bangs that fell over his eyes and darkened them. He then froze the rest of the man's exposed head and with the removal of his hand, it shattered into bits of pieces. Erza, Lucy and Wendy were amazed that Gray would go to such lengths, even scared at the thought.
"Oii pyro, how long are you gonna sleep..." he questioned annoyed at the salamander for falling asleep during a battle. The snot bubble that hung from his nostril popped and he awakened in a confused state.
"Nani? What...what happened" he said looking around frantically. Gray just sighed and let the armored mage who was walking up to Natsu take care of it. She smacked him on his head, causing it to steam up and lectured him. Gray on the other hand walked back to Lucy and Wendy with Juvia by their side. He knelt down and looked at her with soft eyes, Something you'd never see Gray do. Lucy realized his eyes had been a bit red and puffy. Was he crying!? she thought it was so uncommon to see Gray this way but it also seemed a bit relieving, knowing that he did care for Juvia.
"Wendy....can you.."
Wendy shook her head and lowered it sadly.
"My magic power has been drained....so I can't heal her until we get back to the guild...gomenasai.." she sniffed and was already on the verge of tears.
Gray patted Wendy's head to comfort her and then lifted the bluenette into his arms once more.
"Lets get going then..." he said while walking off.
The others soon followed after him and were on their way back to the guild.