Disclaimer: I do not own. The image used as the story cover does not belong to me.

1. At Death's Door

April, X784
Two days ago

The air was freezing cold, the temperatures dipping well below twenty degrees celsius. The forest clearing had been transformed from a lush, colourful setting in spring time to a mercilessly arctic landscape in winter. The snowy surroundings glittered brilliantly under the afternoon sunlight, the ice resisting the sun's heat and persisting in retaining its solid form.

"This... is the true power of ice; solid and unyielding, even in the face of the hottest fire." Coal-black eyes flicked lazily to a body lying prone and motionless on the snow-covered grass. "The real form, the ultimate form of ice mages, was something even Ur had never discovered. Even though there were plenty of hints about its existence throughout our journey. I'm sure you know what I mean. Your hot-headed friend is one example of the fire mages' ultimate technique."

Ice-blue lips curled into a victorious smirk. "At long last I have achieved my goal. I have undoubtedly surpassed Ur beyond even my wildest dreams." Bare arms flung out to embrace the blazing sky. The cold, swirling winds around the man increased in speed and velocity as he drew on his full power.

"Behold, the ice dragon!"

The wind shrieked and howled, whipping snow and ice into the air, morphing into a full-blown blizzard. The force of the winds flattened trees almost horizontal and the pelting ice shards digging into any object it made contact with. Plants and animals shrivelled and died as the temperatures dropped even further, beyond habitable conditions. Dark sapphire eyes narrowed against the lashing fury of the winds, straining to see what was hidden within the snowstorm. As the winds began to disperse, it slowly unveiled the silhouette of an immense being crouched in the heart of the blizzard. The dark sapphire eyes widened. Could it be...?

A tremendous roar shook the entire forest and dislodged icicles from where they hung from the tree branches, sinking deep into the snow. The force of the roar dispelled the remaining snow and ice that was swirling around, finally revealing the titanic creature for what it was. Its shimmering white scales shone in the bright sunlight, while ivory fangs and talons gleamed in all their deadly majesty. Translucent white wings unfurled and extended towards the spring sky as a slender, tapering tail lashed out, smashing straight through a copse of pine trees like paper.

"Behold the mighty ice dragon, my soon-to-be-deceased little junior." The introduction was accompanied by a toothy smirk that show-cased the ice dragon's impressive array of fangs arranged in its enormous maw.

The boy sprawled on the snow stirred and slowly, painfully, propped himself up on his elbows. Then, using his hands, he pushed himself upwards until he was in a sitting position. His dark blue eyes were no longer wide, but were half-lidded and emotionless. Looking unflinchingly into the ice dragon's cold eyes, he said, "Lyon, you are an incorrigible bastard, you know that?" Then he was up and running towards Lyon. Despite the countless wounds all over his exhausted body, the boy cocked his fists and leapt at the great beast.

A huge paw swung out with blinding speed, catching the boy square in the chest and sending him crashing into the frozen undergrowth a good thirty yards away. There was a small crunching sound as the ice dragon calmly placed his paw back down on the snow and regarded the fallen boy. "As weak and pathetic as before, I see." His voice was deeper and rougher than usual, as befitting the titanic and deep-chested dragon form he had taken on. "And here I thought I would be in for a good fight. You have not improved much since Oración Seis. I could say you've gotten weaker instead, Gray Fullbuster."

Gray crawled out of the bushes, teeth gritted against the pain. He struggled to his feet, finding an inevitable need to lean against a tree trunk for support. His throat and stomach suddenly felt like they were aflame, instigating him to double over and retch out the contents of his stomach. Blood splattered obscenely against the pristine white snow at his feet. Wiping blood off his mouth with his fingers, his cheeks burned at the shame of this show of weakness he was giving to his former classmate.

The ice dragon laughed, a great rumbling sound. "Tsk, tsk. Just a short flight into the dirt and already you are wounded? You disappoint me, Gray. I expected more."

The raven-haired teenager looked up, eyes slitted with anger. "You disgust me, Lyon. Your dragon form against a boy – how honorable a fight is that?"

Lyon the ice dragon only clicked a talon against the scaly back of his other paw. "Then make it honorable, Gray." He answered, a mocking edge to his gravelly voice. "Take on your dragon form."

At that, Gray found that he was suddenly unable to meet the other's gaze. His hands clenched into fists.

Lyon roared in laughter. "You cannot, am I right? You don't know how. You didn't even know about the ultimate Ice technique!" His voice was dripping with derision. "You are a weakling and an ignoramus, Gray. It's really too bad, but you'll just have to suck it up."

Gray clenched his fists even harder as the other spoke, his blood boiling with anger at the dismissive words. He was not a weakling, damnit. But this fight... the odds were greatly against him. Then his pale lips curled into a grim smile as a thought entered his mind. Since when had he ever stopped to consider the probability of losing to Lyon? It was preposterous. Less thinking, more fighting – the master's and everyone else's lives were at stake. He had to stop Lyon before he entered Magnolia Town.

"Ice-make: Ice Blade!" Two white-blue blades fashioned out of ice materialised at his arms and he dove forwards, heading for Lyon. "Seven Slice Dance!"

Please work... this attack has to land!

Lyon spun around with lightning speed. Gray had only time to register a blur of movement before a sturdy tail slammed into him, disintegrating his ice blades and sending him flying face-first into the snow. When he braced himself against the ground and tried to rise, a jolt of pain paralysed his right side. With a howl of agony his arms gave out, causing him to flop back down on his stomach. Shit, he thought. Lyon's tail got me real good... I must have broken a rib or two. He raised his head slowly, glaring murderously at his adversary.

The ice dragon looked down at him disdainfully. "What a boring fight. But I guess that's expected of a born loser." The massive white head turned in the direction of Magnolia Town. "However, I'm sure your master will provide me with adequate entertainment." Again came the wicked, toothy grin. "Now, watch me as I raze your town and guild to the ground. Watch me as I surpass Ur again and again!"

Gray had barely been listening to the other's nonsense. He had surreptitiously slid his hand down to his right side of his ribcage and fused the broken ribs together with ice. It was only a temporary measure, but there was no time to lie around. As Lyon ended his speech, Gray sprang to his feet, ignoring the twinges of pain he felt. His dark blue eyes shone with an icy determination. "Lyon!" He spat. "If sacrificing myself is really necessary to stop your madness once and for all, then so be it!"

"Ice-make: Freeze!" Gray roared, plunging his bloody hands into the snow. Thick, solid ice crackled into existence, spreading rapidly from his hands in Lyon's direction. The ice cut a glittering path straight towards Lyon, attaching itself to his four paws and climbing upwards steadily, beginning the encompassing of his draconic body. "Ice-make: Prison!" An elaborate cage made of ice crashed down around Lyon, trapping him within it. With the ice dragon momentarily frozen in place, Gray swept both arms forward, crossing them at the wrists. Breathing in deeply at what he was about to do, he murmured, "Farewell, my friends. Natsu, Erza, Cana, Lucy, everyone... This is the last thing I can and will do for all of you."

"Ice-make: Ice Shell!"

Immediately the winds picked up speed and created a mini vortex around him, with him in the centre. He cried out as the spell activated, his overwhelming and unshakable will to destroy Lyon was consuming his magical energy at a critical rate. Still, he forged on.

Lyon swung his serpentine head down towards him, peering from between the white-blue bars of the cage, his huge black pupils dilated with fury. "Fool!" He roared. "That cannot kill me!" With a mighty heave, he broke free of the ice restraints and shattered the cage. His massive white wings flapped downwards as he leapt into the air, zipping upwards into the sky.

Gray screamed as the increasing distance between his spell's target and himself caused his magical energy to decrease drastically. More, some more! He poured all his power into the spell, desperately trying to form Ice Shell before Lyon flew out of range. A terrible, sky-shattering roar told him he had succeeded in what he was trying to do; encasing the other's wings in ice and preventing him from flying any further. Bolstered by this fact, he mentally flung himself into the spell, giving himself up for the completion of Ice Shell.

This is for you, Ur.

He could feel his body melting away into ice for the spell. The pain was crippling his nervous system, sending him to his knees. He soldiered on despite that, putting his all and his will into the spell. His eyes fluttered shut as his body begun to wither, his life force draining out of him.

"GRAY!" Erza, and Lucy.

"YOU IDIOT!" Natsu.

A body crashed into his, sending him sprawling on to the snow, breaking his concentration and the spell. There was cool, rigid metal pressed against his skin. "Hard," he mumbled, dazed. But he felt strangely disappointed that Ice Shell had been interrupted; now Lyon would escape and be free to continue with his insanity. Arms locked around him and drew him into multiple embraces. He tried to speak but found that he was unable to.

"You stupid idiot," growled Erza's irate voice at one ear. He did not know which, though – his brush with death had left him half-delirious. "G-Gray!" sounded Lucy's trembling voice at the other ear. A burningly warm hand grasped at his, its grip strong and unwavering. He almost smiled.

Natsu.

The pair of armored arms withdrew and Erza said, "I will beat that damned dragon to death now." Gray felt her presence disappear as she shot towards her fleeing target with incredible speed. He knew by instinct that she had donned her Ice Empress outfit, her most suitable armor against Ice beings. At a whispered word, the second pair of arms also retracted, only to be replaced by an inferno of warmth and comfort. He did not have to see to know who it was.

"Natsu," he tried to say, but his lips only moved and nothing emerged.

"I've got you," came a familiar voice roughened with relief and torment. The owner of the voice tightened his hold around him. "I've got you now, droopy-eyes." Fingers ran through his hair and stroked his ebony locks gently. The edges of Gray's lips twitched slightly as his ravaged nervous system tried to send a neural message to his mouth to smile.

He was at death's door and he knew it and he couldn't have cared less. With some effort, he managed to crack both eyes open. He stared up at Natsu's and Lucy's tear-stained faces. Again he tried to speak and again he failed to. Part of his body had already been sacrificed to the Ice Shell spell as ice. When he met his best friend's gaze he felt saddened by the grief he saw in those onyx eyes. He wanted to say that it would be fine, that he would not have died in vain if Natsu would help Erza defeat Lyon. Natsu in his dragon form would be a fearsome opponent, maybe even more powerful than Erza now. He wanted to make sure Lyon could never endanger the lives of his friends again.

Natsu's eyes widened as he realised Gray was trying to tell him something, but was unable to for some reason. He looked up at a distraught Lucy. "Get Warren, hurry!"

The blonde girl nodded distractedly and took off in the direction of Fairy Tail, activating one of her keys at the same time. "Open the Gate of the Golden Bull! Taurus!" Summoning one of her Celestial Spirits, Taurus, she ordered him to quickly carry her back to the guild.

When Natsu glanced back down at Gray, he was worried to see how pale his best friend had become. His lips were bloodied and his body was shivering slightly, despite being an ice mage. Hesitating briefly, the boy cupped his friend's face with a hand and increased the temperature of that hand by a few degrees celsius. After a moment's thought, he hugged his injured friend closer to his chest. Hopefully his body heat would help warm Gray up and delay his body from deteriorating further.

"You stupid idiot," whispered Natsu, taking in his friend's bruised and broken form. He buried his face in soft, black hair. "Don't you dare die on me, Gray."

Gray closed his eyes and slipped under the darkness.

So, this is my first Fairy Tail fanfiction and I'm not sure how good it really is. If you think it has potential, review and let me know! :D