Fairy Tail - Twilight Empire

Chapter 80 - What Might've Been

Natsu wouldn't wake up. He spent the entire night knocked out, which made sense to everyone, especially when Irene explained the depths of Larcade's magic. It was one of the most dangerous in the entire Empire, arguably greater than even his Captain, Mard Geer's. Still, Irene had explained that there wasn't a reason why he shouldn't have woken up.

Gray hovered near his recovery area. Wendy sat helplessly at his side, with Carla beside her. Ms. Porlyusica was across from Wendy, observing Natsu.

"He should've woken up sometime in the morning," Ms. Porlyusica said. It was almost dusk of the following day. Nobody had wanted to go anywhere. Nobody had the strength.

"I can't heal him anymore," Wendy said. "Every time I try, it feels pointless."

"He's fine, physically speaking," Porlyusica said. "Something else must have afflicted him."

Gray had overheard them speaking partway through the night—he'd been restless, too, as he reflected on Deliora, Lyon...and Silver. His father.

That was yet another thing Irene confirmed for him. He and Irene didn't speak very often, but he had lamented the loss of his son in Fairy Tail as she did the loss of Erza, back when Tenrou Island was at the bottom of the ocean.

She hadn't had the easiest of nights. She attempted to console Erza, but she was impossible to reach. She only allowed Lucy, Wendy, Lisanna, and Master Makarov to see her. None came out of the tent with dry eyes.

Gray realized he hadn't blinked and finally did so, snapping back to reality a bit more. He looked around the camp—to Juvia and Cana sitting together beneath a tree eating apples, Gajeel and Lily collecting firewood, Hisui, Lisanna, and Romeo working to dig...

Elfman's grave.

"You need to rest, dearie," Porlyusica said to Wendy. "What happens to Natsu is now up to fate, I believe. I'm unsure what that demon did, but it's beyond our control, now."

Wendy hesitantly nodded and got to her feet. Gray met her halfway as she approached the small tree Erza was tucked under. He rested a hand on her shoulder.

"You did your best, Wendy. He's better. That knucklehead just has to sort out whatever's going on, alright?"

"Yeah," Wendy said.

"Have you been looked at?"

She had bruising everywhere. Her eyes were ragged. She swallowed a lump in her throat and finally nodded.

"I'm fine. I have to be."

Gray squeezed her shoulder. Of all the people to argue with, Dragon Slayers were by far the most stubborn and impossible to deal with. He let her go. Carla padded behind her.

Lucy met his eyes from across the campsite. She faintly grinned at him, and he had nothing to give her in return. She was probably hoping for answers about Natsu.

Gray couldn't imagine what it must've been like for Lucy. Yeah, he'd had his own surprises, but to get the double-whammy of seeing one of her close friends back from the dead and then getting pummeled by an opponent they had no hopes of beating?

He approached Natsu. The idiot was lying flat on his back, arms splayed at his side. He didn't have any visible damage, thanks to Wendy, but Gray knew it was all in that guy's head, anyway. His scarf was still wrapped, loosely, around him. Gray nudged him with his bare foot—where the hell did his clothes go?

"Better wake up soon, flame-brain," Gray muttered. "We don't have time for lounging. Got our asses handed to us, so you better be ready when round two comes around."