On the first night of Chanukah, narnia gave to me:

a new chapter, yippee!~

...It's been awhile. No promises, but I'll try to get something up for the last day of Chanukah. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, everyone!

Also, PS, I'm not good a fight scenes, and this is a bit of a cliffy. Just a heads-up.

Written to the song Frankenstein by Rina Sawayama

*****

Chapter Five - Dominoes, Part Three

Laxus wondered how long it had been since Elle had showed up.

It couldn't be more than an hour, right? And the skies were darker than when she walked into the guild. And then there had been reunions, then discussion and encrystalment (?) of Zeref, then the thing with Cait Shelter...

Maybe two hours, then?

Elle had said she'd woken up yesterday. Has she even been back a full twenty-four hours, yet? And in that time, she'd come maniacally back in his life like Gildarts walks through walls.

He already had one – he glanced at Zeref, then Wendy and Carla – three new guild members. He's already learned a ridiculous amount of both Gray and Natsu's 'backstory', which sounded like something out of those dramatic romance books Freed and Mira try to hide. (Oh, the drama!) Then he'd met a demon, for real, and now...

Now he was gonna see Elle fight.

Laxus could admit...he was a bit excited.

Even as a child, Elle was...well, a menace, in a fight. He knew she pretty much bluffed her way through Macao and Wakaba's fight, and she had certainly done a series of things strange for kids her age. (Kidnapp- eh-hem, rescuing, children – also literally anything they did involving the fight with Gildarts.)

After feeling the growth of her magic...yeah.

This would be a treat.

*****

"Hell, yeah!" Natsu shouted, fired up. "We get to see her fight!"

"Natsu!" Lucy cried, glaring at him. "We want this to end diplomatically. We don't want Elle to have to hurt Gray's dad."

"Why not?" Natsu said, shrugging. "They have to heal him anyway, right? 'Cause he's dead?"

Gray glared at him before turning back to the screen, unsure if he wanted to punch Natsu or thank him for actually having a point in his dumb logic.

As I raced towards him, Silver created a large sword of ice. I smirked and took advantage of it, jumping on it and using my weight to slide down it towards the hilt. As I got closer, I balanced on one foot, and powered my other with Mars, using it to kick him in the face.

The flaming foot knocked him to the side as I flipped off the sword and over him. With a slash of my arms (still upside-down in the air), Saturn dented his armor and ripped off his cape.

I landed and slid backwards, plowing my hand into the ground and summoning Earth, liquifying the ground underneath him.

"Holy shit!" Cana yelled ecstatically. "Go Elle!"

There was more whooping and cheering from other members.

"Elle's nothing, look at Laxus!" Bickslow laughed.

Everyone's attention pivoted to Laxus, who was staring after Elle with heart eyes.

Silver, now sunk into the ground up to his waist, froze not only the ground around him but the entire set of ruins. "Just how many elements do you have?" He hissed, cracking the ground around him and leveraging himself up.

"More than you," I shot back, jumping to the side to avoid a blast of ice from him. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Laxus grab Wendy and Carla and jump over the wave of ice that froze where he was standing. Zeref and Keyes were unaffected.

But while I may have more elements than Silver, I was starting to lose them. I couldn't use Uranus, he'd just eat it, and I was nervous about using Venus. Light magic can counter dark magic, but considering that necromancy was the only thing keeping Silver connected to reality right now, I was worried about severing that connection before we got his heart restarted. So that took out Venus as well.

And be freezing the ground he's taken away Earth from me.

That left Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and the dwarf planets.

Wait...dwarf planets?

And when did I learn Uranus or Jupiter?

My thoughts made me freeze, and Silver's next hit landed, flying me back a few yards and skidding on the ground...which didn't actually hurt that much, since Silver had frozen it over. Ha! Take that, Silver!

"Elle!" Laxus called.

"I'm fine!" I shouted back. "Just realized I have a much bigger repertoire than I thought."

Meeting Laxus's eyes, I could see that he understood what I meant. He smiled back at me.

"What does she mean?" Erza asked.

"Hmm," Makarov said. "Elle is suffering from amnesia. I believe she's discovered that she may have learned how to control certain elements she hadn't gotten around to before she disappeared. So she may have muscle memory access to things she knew were available, but doesn't remember learning."

"That's my Ella-sama!" Freed said.

"Do you think Freed knows that half the things he says about Elle doesn't necessarily make sense?" Cana whispered to Levy.

"Aw, he's having fun. Let him be," Cana whispered back, smiling so hard her teeth hurt.

Elle was back.

Paying much more attention to what Silver was throwing my way, I examined the knowledge I suddenly had.

Dwarf planets; Pluto was one, which is why it had felt so weird while using it. Another one was Ceres, a poison element, and Eris, chaos magic (which included sleeping magic). And that...that was worth a try.

I dodged the next attack and teleported, right above Silver and dropping on him, a la Mantis in Avengers: Infinity War.

Come on, come on, SLEEP, I chanted in my head as I grabbed him and threw the magic in his face.

He laughed, reaching up his leg and kicking me in the chest.

Ow. That one hurt.

"You think Sleep Magic can affect me?" he asked, still laughing. "I'm DEAD! I don't sleep."

Maybe Sleep can't, but...

Using Eris again, I summoned an image of Gray.

Silver froze.

"This is Gray, now," I said. "He's...sixteen? Seventeen? Laxus, how old is Gray, I'm still trying to remember what year it is!"

"Gray is eighteen," Laxus said, sighing. "And it's X784."

"Right," I said, nodding. "He's eighteen, and I'm really bad at math."

"I can't believe Laxus knows how old I am," Gray said, mystified.

"I can't believe Elle thinks she's bad at math because she has amnesia. She's always been bad at math," Levy snorted.

"No!" Silver shouted, unfreezing (ha!) and glaring at me. "I won't fall for your tricks! And Gray would be taller!"

"What makes you say that?" Laxus interrupted, looking confused.

"We doubled his height when he was 3!" Silver said triumphantly. "That's how tall you are when you're fully grown!"

"Wha- that's an old wives tale!" Laxus stated, looking completely befuddled. "Why is that part of your argument? You're grasping at straws, man."

"Gray can't be alive! He can't!" Silver yelled, throwing a burst of ice at Laxus.

I teleported in front of him and used Neptune to create a water wall. Silver's ice froze it, which I then banished back at him. Even though the water was made from me, since he froze it, it still counted as his ice; which means he can't eat it.

The ice knocked him back a few yards, and I quietly said to Laxus, "He's getting more erratic. You might need to join in soon."

Laxus nodded. "Got it. Can you keep the pint safe?" he asked Zeref.

"I'm not a pint..." Wendy said quietly.

Zeref nodded. "You have my word."

I edged to the right, moving away from the bystanders so if Silver decided to attack me, no one else would get hurt. He flung the ice pinning him down off of him and stood back up, looking crazed.

"Alright, kiddo, hang on to this for me," Laxus said, taking his coat off and putting it on Wendy's back.

"Laxus took his jacket off!" Half the guild screamed.

"...it's just a jacket?" Lucy asked, confused.

"You don't understand, I have never seen him take it off since he got it," Gray said.

Evergreen nodded. "He sleeps in that thing."

"I!" Silver screamed. "HAVE HAD ENOUGH!" He was panting like crazy. "OF YOU!"

"Breath attack!" I yelled.

"Breath attack?" Laxus asked, dumbfounded.

"ICE DEVIL'S-!"

"No way!"

"What the fuck?"

"Is he some sort of slayer!?"

"DAD?" Gray cried.

"RAGE!"

The breath attack aimed right at me, and I summoned Pluto's Body for a bit, turning to shadows and passing through it, charging up my next attack.

Silver looked even more enraged at my unaffectedness. "No more playing around!"

"I agree," I said. "Since you've decided to start using your slayer magic, I feel like it's time to use my own!"

"What? She's a slayer too!?"

"I'm so confused!"

Meanwhile, the older group of guild members who knew the pair were laughing.

The ball of lightning fully formed, I through it at Silver – over his head.

"Ha! You missed!" he laughed.

I smiled. "I wasn't aiming for you."

Slowly, following the sound of someone eating, he turned, and watched as Laxus slurped up the last of the magic I sent him.

"Lightning Dragon-"

"Since when is Laxus a Slayer?" shouted half the guild.

"Since always! Keep up!" the other half yelled.

"Mercury's Mighty-"

"ROAR!"

"MAGNET!"

As Laxus roared his lightning at Silver, I aimed the center of my spell at him, and metal formed from every direction and encircled him. The lightning roar, already aimed at Silver, hit the metal wrapped around him, magnifying the strike.

There was silence as the attacks ended, and then Silver slumped sideways to the ground. He was obviously struggling to move, but couldn't.

I teleported to his side. Now that he couldn't move, it was time to get to the root of the matter.

"Why can't Gray be alive?" I asked, softly.

Silver let out a sob, still trying to crawl, his hands curled into fists. "Because...because it means I left him alone."

I sighed and sat down next to him, holding him in place so he couldn't aggravate his injuries.

"No, I get that," I said quietly. "I left some people I care about alone, too. I didn't mean to. I don't know exactly how it happened. But I did leave them alone. And that's what matters."

Laxus approached, with Wendy and Carla close behind him. Zeref was wisely staying away.

"I didn't like being left alone," Laxus admitted to Silver, taking my hand. "I wasn't happy that Elle left. But there were extenuating circumstances. It wasn't exactly her choice, much like with you. You left Gray alone, because you didn't know he was still here. I forgive Elle. I'm just happy I have her back. And Gray will be happy too."

"Laxus is right," I said. "Gray will be happy to have you back. And you have him. You do have something worth living for. So are you willing to let us revive you, now?"

"...yes. I am," Silver said quietly.

Fairy Tail let out a chorus of cheers.

Gray was crying, and Cana and Lucy were quick to hug him.

"Congratulations," Natsu said to Gray, and if it was a bit half-hearted, no one else really noticed.

Gray pulled him close. "I believe you'll get Igneel back, too, Natsu," he told him. "And you've already got a new brother."

This time, Natsu actually smiled. "You're right."

I finally relaxed at Silver's acquiesce, requipping out the potion Polyusica gave me and rubbing some numbing agent into my stomach. It hadn't reopened the wound there, but the kick Silver gave me had agitated it.

"When did that happen?" Laxus asked, alarmed.

"While I had amnesia, keep up," I told him, raising an eyebrow.

He sighed. "Do you remember anything about it?"

"Nope," I said, as Wendy came closer.

"Ano...what's the plan, again?" Wendy asked quietly.

"So, Laxus is going to shock him, and Keyes is going to release the necromancy tying Silver to him. Once Laxus restarts his heart, you'll heal him," I explained.

"Right," she said, nodding.

"Well, at least there's that," Laxus grumbled. "Didn't really get to do anything."

"You will, I'm sure," an oily voice responded.

The group of us turned to look at Keyes, who was smiling in a very pleased and unpleasant way.

"Keyes," Silver groaned on the ground. "What did you do?"

"Nothing," Keyes grinned, his eyes seeming to glint. "Have you forgotten why we were out here in the first place?"

Silver's eyes widened and he gasped, trying to sit up. "Shit!"

"Language!" Carla yelled, hitting him.

"Carla, please don't hit my patient," Wendy said, sweatdropping.

"Keyes..." Zeref said warningly.

"This is only the beginning," Keyes said.

And then a voice called out.

"Silver! Keyes! Where are you?"

My blood froze, and I turned to look at the demon that walked up to our vicinity. His boot tapped the ground where the ice started fading.

"Well, well, well," Jackal said, looking upon our group. "And what do we have here?"