OH MY GOD IT'S FINALLY DONE.

…Ahem. Hey, all. Justice Tokidoki has proposed to me…two challenges! :D

Challenge 1: Write in Erza's POV, and you may include snippets of Natsu and/or Gray's POV as well. One must be a cop, one must be a criminal, and one must be a time traveler somehow connected to said cop and criminal.

Challenge 2: Start with Natsu and Gray in a jail cell together, and have one of them be insane (I love that word even more now that I've taken Psychology XD).

Since I'm awesome (hardy har har), I'm combining the two challenges into one! Okay, let's do this thing!

A Moment To Reflect

"Why did you do it?"

No response.

"Damn it, I asked you a question! I know you heard me!"

Still no response.

"Seriously, I don't understand this. You had everything. Your life was finally perfect—for once in your life! Why did you have to go and ruin what you've been wanting since the moment you were born?! Now you'll never get it back!"

"…I couldn't take it."

A pause. "What?"

"I told you…I couldn't take it." His words were quiet. "It was too much. It was all too good to be true."

"You're not making any sense. How could it've been too good to be true? You worked your ass off to get where you did! That's not a delusion!"

"No, you don't understand. It just couldn't have been real. It was all just…nothing but a pipe dream. If I got too attached to that dream, I wouldn't have been able to tell what was real, and what wasn't."

"That was real! I was there when it happened, you idiot!" He advanced on him threateningly. "Am I a dream, too, then? Huh? Am I nothing but a figment of your imagination? Is this world not real to you?!"

"You are real…and so is this world. But…she wasn't."

"What the hell kind of an excuse is that? She was real, too! She was my friend, remember? My friend! I introduced her to you, Goddamn it! You two hit it off so well together, then—and then you—" Words failed him in his brief yet intense moment of sorrow. He had to work to keep from breaking down.

"…I'm sorry."

"Sorry doesn't cut it!" He grabbed him by the collar, his own voice breaking. "Murdering her is one thing…but you—why—why did you go and—" The strength in his arms faded, and he slumped in defeat, able to do nothing but whimper. "—that time I found you…her face…you went and—and—"

"I'm sorry…but I had to." He looked away, not bothering to fight back. "It was burning itself into my mind…and I had to forget every detail."

"You bastard…!"

"I didn't mean any harm to you; I swear it. But I couldn't take being with her anymore."

"That doesn't matter!" He shook him roughly in his fury. "You…even if you did feel that way…you didn't have to go and murder her! Didn't breaking up with her ever cross your mind if you couldn't handle the relationship?!"

"…That wouldn't have been enough."

That stopped him in his tracks. "What?"

"Breaking up with her…it wouldn't have been enough. If I'd done that, I would've wanted to be with her again…other people would've wanted to be with her…and I couldn't let that happen."

"What?! How's that even—that's no excuse for what you did!"

"I know, and I'm not looking for one. I know what I did. I'm ready to pay for it." He finally stared him in the eye, and his piercing gaze unnerved him. "I only did what I did because no one in this world deserved to be with her. That includes both me and you."

"…What…what does that even mean?"

"You mean you didn't realize it? She didn't deserve to stay in this hell called earth. She was too good for it. So I sent her back to where she came from. Back where she belongs."

He had no words to respond with to this.

"So, how long are you going to stall, Gray? Get it over with. I know that's why you came here." He brushed his hand away, forcing him to let go. "Go ahead and lay down the law. I did what I felt I had to do and returned an angel to its paradise, but in the eyes of these people, I've killed an innocent girl, with no provocation whatsoever. That's reason enough in their eyes for you to do this, no matter how irrational it is. It's how people are, and you know this more than anybody."

Gray couldn't move. "I—"

He smiled sadly. "Come on. It's why you're here. I know we were friends, but that's in the past…or in your case, that's in the now."

"Natsu—"

"Don't even bother trying." He turned and stepped away. "Where you come from, I'm already dead. Besides, nothing stopped you from leaving me before, so it shouldn't matter to you now. And you know how dangerous it is to change the past. What'll happen to you if you let me live?"

Gray couldn't believe his ears. "Why are you saying this?!" he cried. "I came here to rescue you, and—and you're just giving up?!"

"I don't need or want that kind of rescue. And I know why you're really here." He turned back to stare at him again. "You're here to kill me."

Gray was stunned. "How—how do you know that?"

"'How'? I'm the one who doesn't exist in your future. Don't you think my seeing you suddenly appear here in this cell looking so much more different than what I remember wouldn't tell me that?" He smiled ruefully. "It's all set in stone. You'll come in here later for a visit, only to find me shot to death. And that event will later lead you to come back here to keep this from coming true, because you never wanted me to die…but you know deep down that you can't. How else would your future exist, right? That's when the world decides that I have to die."

The handgun in Gray's back pocket seemed to grow heavier at his words. "…You're scaring me now, Natsu…I—I can't kill you. That's not why I—"

"You are. If you're not…" He offered a hand. "…then I'll end up doing the job for you instead, because I know I committed an unforgivable sin in the eyes of man. Either way, it'll end with me dead, and your future will stay intact."

"No," he said, his panic rising. "No, you're not—this isn't what I—Natsu, this is wrong—I—I can't do this; you can't do this—"

"Sure I can. And so can you." He turned his gaze to the ceiling. "You just don't want to."

Gray put his hand on his gun, to keep him from trying to steal it. "And I won't let you. This isn't right, Natsu. You killed someone, yeah, but you don't need to die for it like this—"

Natsu's response was sharp. "Don't I, really? Who says?" He slapped his hands around Gray's forearms and held him there in a vice grip, the motion wrenching his hand away from the gun. "Do you get to dictate who deserves to live or die? Is that choice up to you and your whims? You might believe that, but not everybody else. Nobody else wants me around." He tightened his grip, nearly cutting off the circulation in his arms, as he pulled him in to close the distance between them. "Her parents—they want me gone. And me…I want me gone. Even you want me gone, no matter what you say to me now—somewhere deep inside the recesses of your mind. The whole world wants me gone, Gray. That's what your future says about what the universe wants. That's how time has decided to let the world flow. And I'm not about to let you sabotage that flow just because you think that it's wrong."

"I—" Gray tried to regain his bearings. "I—I can't believe you're saying this! Have you completely lost your mind?!"

Natsu just laughed sadly. "Yeah," he answered, his voice melancholy. "Guess I have."

"You—"

The sound of footsteps shuffled outside. People were coming close.

"Here you come," he said, releasing his hold on Gray's arms and turning toward the sound, then he turned back to him, staring at his feet. "And there you go."

Gray suddenly went weightless, and his heart lurched painfully—his time was up already? He had accomplished nothing!

"It's okay," Natsu said simply, revealing the shiny black firearm in his right hand. "I'm going to do my part—and keep your future intact."

Gray's heart just about stopped as he realized that his back pocket was empty. When had he—?

"Go back, Gray," he said without any trace of accusation, raising Gray's handgun to his temple, "and tell Erza that you did what you came to do. She was her friend, too, so…it's what she'll want to hear." To Gray's horror, Natsu reached out and grabbed his wrist, even as he was vanishing—and placed his hand in the leather grip and a finger over the trigger, holding it there in an iron grip so that he wouldn't be able to pull away. "I'm going to where Lucy is. This way…I'll finally be worthy of her."

"NO!" was all that managed to come out of Gray's mouth as the world before him fizzled out into a dizzying array of color, punctuated by the peal of a gunshot at the push of his finger.

Erza finally found him standing at the end of the lounge, staring out the window.

"There you are!" she said in relief as she entered the room. "I've been worried sick! Where have you been?"

Gray wouldn't look at her, keeping his eyes on the linoleum floor. He looked…shaken.

"I went back," he said at last, his voice breaking a little and stopping her in her tracks in the middle of the lounge. "I went back to talk to Natsu…like you asked me to three months ago."

A knot formed in Erza's chest at those words. So after all that persuading had failed her, he'd finally caved today and gone back in time? She'd pretty much given up on any chance of that happening after seeing his persistence.

She couldn't let Gray see her looking fragile, though, so she tried to maintain an air of calm as she asked evenly, "I see…so, what happened? Did you manage to do what I told you to go and do?"

Gray was silent again, and Erza wondered if he was hiding something from her. Something must have happened to make him this way; Gray wasn't a man that could be easily disturbed.

Then again, she thought to herself, he and Natsu were close friends…anyone would break if they'd been in these two's shoes.

She then noticed that Gray was holding his weapon—which was not like him at all. He hated the device with a passion, and he was practically forced into arming himself with it every time he went out on duty.

"Gray? Why do have your gun out?" Gray bit his lip, his eyes shadowed—his behavior was starting to grate on her now, and she asked more firmly, "Gray, tell me what happened. What is going—?"

"I couldn't do it!" Gray finally exploded, turning on her lividly and startling her. "I couldn't do it, Erza; I couldn't save him!" He punched the fiberglass window before him in his grief, his head bowed in shame. "Even after all that…even after trying to forget all the shit that he'd pulled…I couldn't keep him from stealing my own weapon, much less keep him from turning it on himself! I'm fucking pathetic!"

Erza was shocked speechless. She had no idea what to say to this. If Gray hadn't been able to do the deed in the end…all of this effort was for naught. All her careful planning would go to waste. How could Natsu have—

"Don't get me wrong, Erza," he said suddenly, his voice hoarse. His shaky words pulled her out of her thoughts. "I know what you're thinking. I said that he turned the gun on himself, but…that doesn't mean I had no hand in it otherwise."

"You…you mean he didn't kill himself?" Erza asked in disbelief. "If he didn't shoot himself, then…how did he—?!"

Gray looked pained as he turned to face her—and that was all she needed to get her answer. She gritted her teeth and turned her gaze to the floor. "I…I see."

"I don't know how he did it," Gray lamented, his jaw clenched and eyes downcast. "I don't know what kind of witchcraft he used to make my words completely fail against him…but I just couldn't do it. I couldn't convince him. He ended it by forcing me to pulling the trigger, and he was perfectly okay with it." His grip tightened on the gun so much that Erza saw his knuckles turn white form the pressure. "He knew, Erza—he knew that he was supposed to die. He knew even before I told him anything, before—before I even decided what I should do with him in the end." His hands clamped into fists. "It just doesn't make sense…how did he know that he was supposed to end up dead? How did he even know that I wasn't from his time? All that just made it all the harder! And then he—" His voice caught for a moment, but he managed to get out after a moment, "—he was the one who ended up talking me down. And since it didn't work in the end…he forced me to off him before I could do anything to stop him."

"He…he knew all that?" Erza said to herself in disbelief. "How is that possible?"

"Probably because he was insane," Gray said darkly, no trace of humor or sarcasm in his tone. "I don't know what was wrong with him, but…something let him know about this."

"…'Something'…" Erza tried to think. What could possibly have given Natsu that information? Moreover—she also had to know what made him do what he did in order to figure that out in the first place, because it could've come to him on a whim—or it could've come from an outside source...like another person from this time.

Erza shook her head lightly. No, that was impossible. Thanks to certain unfortunate circumstances, Gray was the only person who had the ability to jump through time. As far as she knew, there was no way for someone else to have gone back into the past and told Natsu what to expect, or vice versa.

That meant that they had only one course of action left if they wanted to find out the truth.

"Gray," she addressed him firmly, prompting him to look up at her expectantly, "do you have enough energy for observant travel?"

Gray straightened up in surprise. "Observant travel? You mean you're—?"

"Yes. This is a breach of the privacy code, but it's the only course of action we have left if we want answers." She crossed her arms, musing. "But of course, that is only if you're up to it. I know how much jumping through time drains you." She locked him in a firm gaze. "Well?"

Gray didn't answer for a moment, but he nodded. "I've still got some gas left in the tank."

"Good. How long can you last?"

"Well…if we go now, I'd say about twenty minutes or so."

"I see…in that case, go home and rest up for today." She walked up to him and clapped him on the shoulder before he could voice a retort, giving it a light squeeze. "We're going to need all the energy you can get, because we need to be there for as long as you can keep us there. The more we find out, the more we can be sure of the circumstances. Understand?"

Gray looked like he still wanted to argue, but he eventually thought better of it, and simply nodded.

"Good. I'll take your gun off your hands, so go home and rest. I'll be at your house at seven A.M. sharp."

Promptly at seven in the morning, Gray and Erza were meeting in his bare-boned living room.

"Are you ready for this?" Gray asked her. "I've never actually done this with another person before. I don't know what'll happen."

"I'm ready," she said firmly. "I'm confident that we'll both be fine, since we won't be interfering with that time period."

"Well, alright, then," Gray said, holding out a hand. "Hold on tight; be sure not to let go."

Erza stared at his hand briefly before taking it. "Thanks for the warning."

"Here goes." Gray closed his eyes, and then they both went weightless before their surroundings fizzled out in a whirl of color.

When the colors and shapes rearranged themselves, Erza and Gray found themselves at a completely different place—a city street bursting with activity, sound, and color. People bustling about, cars screeching and honking, bright lights blinking everywhere.

"Where is this?" Erza asked herself in surprise, staring around in awe. "Are you sure this is the right place, Gray?"

"I'm positive," he said, turning back to face her. His skin was somewhat paler than usual, but he looked none the worse for the wear. "This is where Natsu spent his kid days."

"Well, then; where's Natsu?" Erza asked. "How can you expect—"

"Over there," Gray interrupted her, pointing over her shoulder. "That's where he is."

Erza turned around on his prompt, and was shocked to see the younger self of Gray's friend sweeping the front of a restaurant with his back to them. He couldn't have been more than eight.

"Child labor is against the law!" Erza remarked, beside herself with fury. "What is this place thinking?!"

"It's not like he has a choice," Gray said then, his words somber. "By this point, he was adopted by the restaurant manager and had to work without pay. It's the only place he had left after losing his parents in a fire barely two years ago as of this point in time."

Erza looked to Gray, stunned. "How do you know this?"

"I was his friend, remember? He told me all about this; I practically grew up with the guy. I was the only person he ever told…besides Lucy, I'm guessing."

"Is that right…" So Natsu had been orphaned at a really young age…something that was new to her. But that didn't explain everything. "But there's something I don't understand. Being orphaned as a child doesn't necessarily mean that that was when Natsu started acting strangely. Any orphaned child can adjust."

"Of course you'd think that," Gray said, his words surprisingly hostile. "But I'm not done. This was just the start. Losing his parents was only the start of it."

"What?"

"You didn't know him as long as I did, so you probably don't know this," Gray said darkly, "but he'd been messed up since day one. He had honest-to-God mental problems, but it was never something that really worried me because I just figured, well, that's the kind of guy he is…you know, just a guy with strange quirks. But all he would talk about was losing things, not having things…whenever something good happened to him, he would get rid of it himself, or just deny that it even happened. After it got really bad, he had to go into treatment, and it seemed to help…but his pessimism would always come back even worse than before. It was like—like all the events in his life hard-wired him into thinking that he needed to lose anything and everything important to him in order to even call himself a person."

That thought horrified her. How could someone grow up with such a twisted mindset?

"But it's not like you could really blame him, right?" Gray gritted his teeth. "He lost his home, he lost his family, he lost all of his friends—including me. That was the point where it got bad."

Erza looked to him in surprise. "He lost your friendship?" she asked incredulously. "But I thought you—?"

"Studying abroad," he interrupted her, his words harsh. "I'd signed up for it way in advance, and I never told him about it, so he didn't get to see me off. I was gone for years. I just disappeared on him. For him, that was the last straw." He closed his eyes in denial. "Even after I came back and explained it all to him, I don't think he ever completely believed me…he was a totally different person after that. And that was before you and Lucy met him."

Erza didn't really think that there was any way that this could get worse, but of course, she was immediately proven wrong.

"I—I had no idea."

"Of course not. He never told you or Lucy about any of that." Gray lifted his head and stared at her straight in the eye. "And it was just your luck that you were stationed somewhere else on the day Natsu got arrested." His lip trembled, and he bit down on it, his next words shaky. "Do you have any idea what it's like to call the cops on your own friend, knowing that it's the worst possible thing you could do to him? That on its own nearly drove me insane, but…"

Gray paused for a time and looked down at the ground again, and Erza wondered after about five minutes if he was going to go on or just stand there and brood about his friend when a thought suddenly seemed to strike him. Before she could ask him about it, he suddenly snatched up her hand.

"We need to hear this," Gray muttered, his voice low. "Hang on tight."

Erza didn't even get a chance to demand an explanation before weightlessness took hold of her and her surroundings went black again.

When her surroundings came into focus, she was indoors—maybe an apartment building or a hotel, judging from the rows of doors that lined the hallway that the two of them were standing in. They were standing next to a door that was slightly ajar, and there were muffled voices coming from the other side.

"Gray, where—?" Erza began to ask, but he shushed her.

"Wait," was all he would say, his words strangely heavy. "And just listen."

So Erza stayed silent. For a moment, she couldn't pick out anything strange from the voices she heard. Then—

"I'm so sorry."

Those three words from behind the door, suddenly loud and clear, were enough to freeze her blood. Her heart pounded furiously in an attempt to thaw—and it was proving fruitless. Gray simply stood there silently, his eyes shadowed, and refused to let his eyes even glance in the door's direction.

"This wasn't supposed to happen…" the voice went on, breaking slightly in grief. "It was never meant to happen…I didn't want any of this; I didn't ask for any of this…I didn't deserve any of this…!"

Erza had to remember to breathe. Breathe, Erza, breathe…slowly, now…in…out…in…out…don't hyperventilate…don't panic…stay calm…

This voice was Natsu's.

"Ever since the beginning…I wasn't good enough for you," she heard him going on, his voice breaking down more and more by the syllable. "I was never good enough for you. But the world handed you to me on a silver platter just to mock me. It gave you to me to make me feel like I deserved you, made it feel okay for me to take you, made it like everything was going the way it was supposed to, even though they know that I don't, it wasn't okay, and it never was!" She could hear as he drew in a shuddering breath. "You're the type of girl that every guy wants, but no guy deserves. You're the type of girl that the world knew that I could never measure up to, and handed you to me anyway because it knows just how stupid I am. I've told you this before, remember? I told you this, all of it, about how I felt like I couldn't stay with you, how I felt that you were too good to be true…but you didn't listen to me." He was almost sobbing now, and the sound of it made Erza want to cover her ears. "You didn't listen to me…you said it was all in my head, that you loved everything about me, even everything that was wrong with me. You said you loved me, right down to the awkwardness and the scrawniness and the idiocy, and you didn't care, because you said that I was the nicest guy you'd ever met, that I was just perfect for you…!" He stopped again, this time unable to hold back the torrent of tears and sobs, but after a moment he managed to keep speaking through the uncontrollable hiccupping. "How could I go on after hearing you say that? You were perfect, you were an angel, you were flawless—whereas I was always, always losing something important to me—and you told me that I was perfect." His words were punctuated with an unsettlingly high-pitched giggle of disbelief. "You…you seriously told me that I was perfect. You seriously went and said it! To my face! And you meant it! How the hell was I supposed to take that, Lucy? Huh? That's not supposed to happen—you're not allowed to tell that to anybody less than yourself. You're not allowed!"

Here Natsu finally stopped his rant, his gasping, sobbing, and heavy breathing sporadically peppered with incredulous giggling and wordless moaning. Erza hadn't laid even eyes on him yet, and she could already tell that he was a complete mess just from his erratic speech pattern.

She couldn't stop shaking, however. Just what had she witnessed? If she could get a look inside—

A hand clamped down on her shoulder, and she froze. She realized then that she was already halfway turned toward the half-open door.

"Gray…?" She sounded unbelievably pathetic to herself, but she couldn't really help herself. She'd never expected something like this. "What…"

"You don't want to look, Erza," Gray muttered, his words hard, yet somehow unsteady. "It's not worth it. Trust me."

Right then they heard the unmistakable sound of footsteps on concrete—someone was running up the stairs, alone. Whoever it was, the person was coming fast. A moment later, a figure burst from the shadowy depths of the stairwell, and she saw that it was—

"…Gray?!" she exclaimed in shock. She looked to the one holding her back, who didn't seem surprised. "You—you were here—at that time?!"

All Gray did was nod in response, looking even paler as he confessed, "Yeah…but I don't remember much of what happened once I came up here. That's another reason why I brought you here…in order to remind myself without forgetting again."

Trauma-induced amnesia… she thought in horror. Gray, just what did you see in there…?!

Gray's past self didn't even pause as he reached the half-open door and yanked it open—only then did he freeze. His entire body was trembling at the sight of whatever was beyond that door. Hardly a moment after that, he gagged—he keeled over and vomited right there on the carpet. Just watching made Erza feel nauseous, but she forced herself to keep from turning away. She had to see this through to the end.

"…Is that you, Gray?" she heard Natsu from behind the walls ask. He didn't sound alarmed at all—no…he actually sounded…relieved? "I'm so glad you're here! It saves me the trouble of looking for you."

Past Gray didn't waste a second after catching his breath when he was done heaving. "…My God…" he gasped. "Natsu…what the hell…what the hell did you do?!"

"…'Do'? I stained myself with her blood; that's what I did. And her blood…" Erza heard a shuddering breath. "…even her blood is perfect…! Just look at this, Gray…its lovely shade, its wonderful texture, its tantalizing scent…it's all so beautiful! Can you believe this? There's just no flaw in her, no matter where I look! She's simply amazing. There isn't a single moment where I've ever deserved her less than I do right now." Laughter. "And to make things even better… you're here now!"

Past Gray took a step back, looking wary and tense. "What—what're you getting at?"

"Take a good look at me, Gray. I'm hideous now. I'm hideous, coated in her beautiful blood. All of me is stained; I've completely ruined her. And what's more…" He sounded so giddy and ecstatic that it was as if meeting Gray was acting as a stimulant drug. "…now that you're here, you can save me from this! Save me, Gray—and you can rightfully claim your justice!"

"You—you're not making a lick of sense right now!" Past Gray shouted, sounding panicked and terrified. "What the heck are you rambling about?!"

"…Ohh…what a silly thing to ask." Natsu almost sounded hurt. "What do you think I'm saying? Can't you see what I just did, Gray? Don't you realize what this means for me?"

As much as she tried to convince herself that she'd steeled herself to see this through to the end, Erza didn't want to know what came next. She had a really bad feeling—and judging from the look on Gray's face, he felt the exact same way she did. If he knew that, then why—why wasn't he covering his ears? Why wasn't he doing anything to stop himself from hearing what came next?

Past Gray was frozen on the spot—he'd just stopped moving. Whatever he'd just witnessed had immobilized him, the look of horror permanently plastered onto his face.

"No…" he was muttering, his panic rising with each syllable. "No, don't…s-stop—please, no—!"

His pleas fell on deaf ears. The panic in his eyes only continued to build as each second passed like an eternity, and Natsu himself emerged from the other side of the door, covered head to toe in blood that had yet to dry that made his clothes cling to his skin, his hands in particular completely soaked crimson.

Erza stifled a gasp of horror in a struggle to control her stomach.

Past Gray still hadn't moved a muscle. He was hyperventilating now, definitely not comfortable with Natsu in such close proximity in such a state.

Natsu didn't do anything for a moment. He simply stood there, face-to-face with his old friend, wearing a curiously blank expression for what seemed like ages, as if he was pondering what he should do next.

Then his countenance suddenly changed. His head lowered, and tears started streaming down his face relentlessly as he suddenly moved forward and pulled Gray into his arms, the abruptness of it choking him.

"Please, Gray," Natsu breathed through the tears in his embrace. "You're the only one who can save me from this. I'm begging you…" He slowly pulled away from Gray when a response wasn't forthcoming, and he stared at his friend's borderline catatonic face, wearing a pleading expression so strong that it made Erza's chest throb painfully at the mere sight of it. "…please…just strike me dead. Do it now." He took Gray's hand and pulled it toward him, placing it on his own chest, over his heart, staining both his forearm and entire hand with blood, that tortured expression of his never once breaking. "Right here."

Gray nearly choked on the breath he just caught. "He…he asked me to kill him?!" he said to himself shakily. "No way…that couldn't have happened…that didn't just happen…!"

Apparently, Gray's past self was thinking the exact same thing. It had apparently been too much for his mind to take—Erza saw his eyes roll to the back of his head and could only watch as he fainted on the spot.

Natsu just caught him and held him up, unfazed by this sudden fainting spell. "I guess…it was too soon," he said to himself, his eyes disappointed. "Looks like I'll need to wait a little longer."

Suddenly, the unmistakable sound of sirens pierced through the air, and a magnified voice declared, "We have this building completely surrounded! We know you're inside, and there's no point in trying to escape! Come out to the front of the building with your hands up!"

Erza flinched at the sudden noise. Again, Natsu was unfazed.

"Looks like my ride is here," he said, the faintest traces of a smile briefly gracing his pallid features. "And I'm sorry, but I can't take you with me. You'd just get in trouble. I'll have someone come and help you out later."

Natsu lowered Gray onto the ground, carefully leaned him against the wall, and rose silently. For a minute, he did nothing but stare at him with a strangely bitter expression on his face.

"Well…we had a good run," he said at last, sounding wistful, "but it just goes show that good things don't ever last forever." He turned away and headed for the stairwell as he said, "I'll be waiting for you, Gray…on the other side."

The second Natsu turned away, Erza's blood started to flow again in the wake of the intense anxiety stemming from the overwhelming desire to not miss the following crucial moments. On impulse, she shook Gray in a hasty attempt to break him out of the shock.

"Gray, snap out of it!" Erza demanded, her grip tight on his shoulder as he gasped and his eyes suddenly refocused.

"E-Erza—!"

"Come on; we've got to follow him—we need to see what happens with him here!" she said quickly, pulling him to his feet awkwardly and dragging him along to the stairwell, desperately trying to catch up to the retreating back of their former friend.

It was hard going. Between dragging a still-bewildered and depleted Gray behind her and attempting to keep up with Natsu's surprising sure-footedness up (well, technically down since they were descending, but that was beside the point) front, it was all Erza could do to avoid losing sight of him. The stairs seemed to go on endlessly, spiraling down into bottomless blackness, and it felt to Erza that they were running down the stairs for an unusually long time.

After what felt like an endless loop, they finally reached the lobby of the building—the main entrance was already open, and police cruisers, a couple attack dogs, and a whole company of officers were waiting for them on the other side of the door—or Natsu, rather, since she and Gray weren't affecting this timeline. The officers immediately brandished their guns the minute the dogs started barking viciously, indicating that they'd caught onto the scent of blood on their target's body.

Natsu didn't even flinch as he stepped out to greet his apprehenders, his hands held up high. Erza and Gray followed him outside to get a better view of the proceeding events.

The officers present gasped almost in unison at the sight of Natsu emerging from the building he'd been holed up in, covered in his victim's blood. A man Erza distinctly recognized as the local sheriff immediately stepped forward, steadfastly aiming the gun at Natsu's chest. "Are you Natsu Dragneel?" he inquired, his words cautious and firm.

"That's a stupid question," Erza heard Gray mutter to himself beside her (she hadn't let go of him even after they got to the ground floor).

Natsu just smiled amiably and said, "Yes, sir. That's me. And guns really aren't necessary." He held out both of his arms, bared his wrists, and offered them to the sheriff to shackle, who eyed him suspiciously. "I'm not planning on running away, because I can't let myself die yet. And before you ask me," he said before the sheriff could get another word out, "everything you want from me is up on the twenty-first floor. I don't have anything to hide—your men are free to search it however they want to."

The sheriff had a look on his face that clearly read This guy's a freakin' psycho as he ordered the other officers to check the twenty-first floor and shackled Natsu's wrists.

"Young man, I hope you realize the gravity of the situation you're in," he said as he pushed him into the cruiser.

"I do, sir." Erza watched as Natsu gave one last forlorn gaze toward the top of the building he'd emerged from. "More than anybody will ever understand," he added under his breath so the sheriff wouldn't hear.

No sooner had he finished speaking did Erza suddenly find herself going weightless again—she immediately looked to Gray, who looked utterly spent.

"Gray, are you—?!"

"I'm sorry, Erza," he grunted wearily his eyes half-closed in fatigue, "but I can't…keep this going anymore…"

Erza had almost forgotten that her presence had effectively doubled the energy it normally took for Gray to hop through time. Words of apology failed her as her surroundings blurred and faded to black one last time.

Gray would've knocked his head against his own coffee table if Erza hadn't caught hold of him.

"Gray!" Erza snatched his arm and pulled him upright before his temples could meet marble. "Are you alright? Pull yourself together!"

"S-sorry," he muttered, his head throbbing as he leaned heavily against her. "I didn't think we'd get kicked back so soon…"

"No, I…I don't blame you; it was a lot to go through," Erza said, more subdued than usual as she sat him down carefully on one of his couches. "I'm really sorry for making you do that."

Gray shook his head lightly, but stopped immediately once the pangs of aches came back with a vengeance. "It's fine," he sighed heavily, leaning back against the velvet cushions. "We both needed that experience, anyway." He chuckled wearily in a futile attempt to calm himself. "I guess the past isn't something you're supposed to mess with in the first place, huh?"

Erza let out a defeated chuckle of her own. "I suppose not," she sighed. "But that doesn't mean we should let it define us…like Natsu did."

Gray couldn't hold back the incredulous laugh that burst forth at that statement. "Ha, right. If he was still around, he'd immediately call bullshit." He drew in a deep breath. "Just like the idiot I knew him as would."

"Yes…I don't doubt that." She glanced at the clock over the living room television. "Well, I should leave for work. I have an all-day shift today."

"Don't overdo it," Gray called as she headed for the front door.

Erza smiled lightly in amusement. "I'll keep that in mind. And you should get some well-earned rest yourself."

Gray waved a hand. "Good call. Yeah, I'll do that; no problem. Later."

He watched as Erza closed the door behind her, and he immediately turned his body around so that he laid down the couch the long way once he was alone. He didn't even try getting up; his legs would definitely fail him if he tried that now.

He sighed again and stared up at his white ceiling, trying not to let his thoughts get the best of him. They hadn't seen much of what they'd initially gone to see during that observant travel…but they'd learned more than enough.

"Well…I guess we can't really have all the answers to everything," he murmured to himself, a self-satisfied smile slowly revealing itself on his face. "But you knew that right from the very start…didn't ya, old buddy?"

The cheeeeeeeeese. It BUUUUUUUURNS.

…But I still like it. :D

Sorry if this ended up boring after Gray's segment at the beginning. I'm sorry; I just can't make Erza interesting no matter what I try. She's gotten too much development from Mashima for me to work with comfortably, and…I'll confess; she's just not that interesting to me as a character. ^^; Still, I did my best with what I could. Hope this was alright. And of course, I've never worked with time travel before in my stories, so it was a welcome test nonetheless. Hope you guys enjoyed it. :)

To Justice Tokidoki: Sorry that this came a bit late, but I had stuff going on…plus laziness. *shot'n'brick'd* This may not have been in your expectations of me for this challenge, but I hope you liked it to some degree anyway. Even if it's not that good, I did have lots of fun writing this, so that's what counts, right? :D Heh, anyway, thanks for the dual challenge, buddy; I really needed it. You rock! XD