Erza practically blew her way into the room where they where keeping Jellal. "Hey kid!" The two guards came running at her. "Get out of my way!" Erza roared defiantly. She whacked them with her twin swords.

Seeing that she took care of them for now, Erza joyfully ran to Jellal. "Jellal, we won! We fought for our freedom and won! Everyone was so brave." She paused to cut Jellal's bounds. "But…" Erza continued "Simon got hurt pretty bad…. And Grandpa Rob…" Erza chocked back a sob thinking about their elderly friend who had given his life to save hers.

"Anyway, the point is we're free! Wally and the others found boats we can take to the mainland. All they're doing now is waiting for us. We can finally go!"

Erza stopped talking, waiting for Jellal's reply. To her surprise, Jellal laughed, and it wasn't his usual carefree laugh. This one was cold and full of malice. "Now Erza, why would they leave when they could stay here and have true freedom with me?"

"Wh-wh-what?"

"In fact, I'll just keep them here. Don't worry though. I'll treat everybody fairly. The Tower of Heaven will be a great place to live. But just thing would be missing: you."

Erza instantly knew what Jellal meant. He wanted her to stay with him. Erza didn't want to be anywhere near the tower. She wanted to leave this place and never come back. But then, her mind drifted to Sho and the others. Whether Jellal promised not to hurt them or not, Erza still feared for their safety. And if she left, Jellal would no doubt feed the others all sorts of lies about her. Coming to a decision, Erza spoke.

"All right, I'll stay with you." Jellal's face broke into a sadistic grin. "I'm glad you came to a intelligent decision, Erza. Let's break the news together." Erza relunticaly began to walk with him. 'I guess', Erza thought 'we'll never be free now. All we can do is wait.'