Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail and it's characters, Hiro Mashima dose.
After hearing the King's speech on the coming attack of over 10000 dragons and his plea for help in protecting the country, the guild masters, together with some team leaders who represent their absent guild masters, immediately came together to form a strategic group to discuss the arrangement of the counter-attack.
While waiting for the plan to come out, other members had formed different circles with either their own guild mates or with members of other guilds, to discuss the current situation they were in with an attempt to figure out what they could do to deal with possibly the biggest thread faced in their life and by the country.
For Fairy Tail's members, their feelings were in particular mixed. One moment, they were worrying about the safety of Lucy who was caught by the King's army and that of the rescuer team. Next moment, they were overjoyed to become once again the number one guild in Fiore. And now, they were filled with shock to learn about the coming attack of the dragons.
But after all, they were Fairy Tail. The fearless and strongest guild who would stand to take up any challenges come at them. It only took them a few seconds to focus their mind now only on how to defeat the dragons.
"Are you feeling alright, Gajeel?" Levy asked with a concerned look. The head and body of the iron dragon slayer was now nearly all shrouded by bandages. He was kind of looking like a living mummy.
"Of course I am feeling alright! Are you looking down on my power as a dragon slayer, shortly?"
"I never meant that! Just…"Levy turned away her head, avoided looking directly at Gajeel. "the fight tomorrow…it would definitely be a hard one. I am just thinking you might need some rest before that."
Gajeel noticed a little tremble in Levy's voice and a flash of worry crossed her face.
"I am a dragon slayer and unlike last time at Tenrou Island, I will defeat the dragons this time!" Gajeel responded while patting Levy's head. "I promise."
Levy nodded with a little bit of relieve.
A few steps away from where Gajeel and Levy were standing, Erza was watching the duo with a gentle smile. Turning her head to the other side, Erza founded another pair discussing.
"Juvia will join with Gray-sama again to fight against the dragons tomorrow!" While speaking with a slight excitement, Juvia tried to grasp Gray's hand, but she failed. Gray quickly hided both of his hands inside the trousers pockets before Juvia's hand reached his.
"No," Gray looked at Juvia. A disappointed and sad look was now evident on her face. One side of Gray's lips curved slightly upward. "it will require all of us to join hand in hand to defeat the dragons, if our future is to be protected."
In a mere second, Juvia's face was replaced by a big and warm smile. She wrapped her hands around Gray's forearm and landed her head on Gray's shoulder.
"Of course! Juvia agree wholeheartedly with Gray-sama!"
"STOP THAT! I am not your pillow!" Despite of his protest and the uncomfortable expression on his face, Gray didn't push Juvia away in the end.
Seems there is finally some progress in their relation…that's good. Though Erza. Then, a bitter smile surfaced at her lips when she started to think of her relation with a certain bluenette.
No. She closed her eyes and reminded herself silently inside her head. The only thing I should focus on now is the battle with the dragons. Besides, we already had our answer, hadn't we? There will not be any new development in our relation.
"Erza, are you not feeling well?" A familiar voice speaking with a baritone woke Erza up from her deep thinking.
"No, I am fine, Laxus."
Laxus stared at Erza with an expressionless face for a few seconds after hearing her reply. Erza could tell that Laxus was considering whether to believe her words or not.
"If you said so." Laxus shrugged and started turning away, but stopped when something white on the ground caught his attention. "Is it a pigeon?"
Following Laxus' eyesight, Erza lowered her head to look at the ground. A pigeon was standing beside her foot and looking up at her. She kneed down to have a closer look at the pigeon and found a small roll of paper attached to one of its legs. She unknotted the paper roll and unfolded it. Seven words were written on the paper:
"Erza, meet me at the South Gate."
There was no signature but Erza knew immediately who wrote it. She recognized the handwriting.
"It's from Je-, from Crime Sorciere." Somehow Erza didn't quite want to mention the bluenette's name to make thing looked like personal. "They may have found out some new information to tell us. I will go now."
Laxus looked at Erza's right leg and the stick she was now using to support her standing.
"You are going alone?"
"I can go on my own. I have told you I am fine."
Laxus figured out that he better respected Erza's decision. After all, she's Titania. She should know better than anyone did if she could handle the situation alone.
"Just be careful."
"I will." Erza nodded and started walking away from the crowd and heading to the South Gate of the park.
After around ten minutes of walking, Erza could see that the South Gate was no more than hundred meters away from her. She started to feel a mixture of feelings building up inside her. She hadn't heard from him since their encounter at the Ryuuzetsu Land. So she was glad that she now got a chance to see him again. But not knowing his reasons of wanting to meet her also unsettled her. Did he have some good or bad news to share with her? Or did he only want to enquire about if there were any new findings from her side? Did he know about the coming attack from the dragons? Would this be their last meeting in life if future repeated itself tomorrow?
Now she was finally standing in front of the South Gate but she could see no one. She looked around and then behind a tree at her left hand side, a human figure slowly emerged from the darkness.
"Erza…"He took off the hook of his cloak covering his head while calling her.
"Jellal…"
The warmth Jellal felt from hearing Erza's voice faded away and replaced by heartache at the second he had a glimpse of her injured body. Not that he was unprepared to see her being shrouded by bandages or even using a stick to support herself, since he already knew from the gossips spreading across the city that the team of Fairy Tail only won the tournament after some really hard battles. And when he heard the names of her opponents…he knew that the battle she fought would definitely be one of the hardest, if not the most. However, seeing her in such condition with his own eyes still caused much pain to his heart.
"I am very sorry that I cannot go to see you but have to ask you to come here..."
How much Jellal wished that he could comfort Erza with an embrace, yet he decided to give her an apology instead. He didn't want to make their meeting to be too emotional because he did have some serious business to talk to her at this moment. But an apology shouldn't do much harm to their conversation, he considered.
"It's fine." Noting Jellal's concern, Erza assured him with a smile. "My condition looks more serious than it actually is. Porlyscia and Chelia…she's a Sky God Slayer, had already taken care of all the wounds properly." Then she wasted no time to return to the real issue. "So, what are you meeting me for?"
"I want to warn you all about the eclipse and the dragon's attack."
Jellal then told Erza everything about his encounter with future Lucy, the eclipse which was the origin of the strange magic power, and another person who came from future with unknown intention.
"I knew that the King had decided to use eclipse canon to attack the dragons and had made a plea for assistance from all guilds. But I have a feel that the other future person is hiding something important from us. There are still a lot of uncertainties about what will happen tomorrow. So I want to remind you all to stay alert at your surroundings for any suspicious people or magic power while preparing yourself for the battle with the dragons."
"Things appear to be more and more complicated and mysterious..."Erza let out a sigh. "But I got it. I will tell Master and let him communicating with other guilds regarding your concern." Then she dropped him a question look. "And what is Crime Sorciere planning to do?"
"Ultear and Meredy are now chasing that unknown future person. And myself…"Jellal paused a moment, seemed unsure how to put his thoughts into words. "I am working on a contingency plan in hope of protecting more people as far as possible, in case that the scenario we face tomorrow is different from what future Lucy told us."
"Tell me more details."
"Not at this moment, Erza." Jellal said with a firm tone. "You just need to take good care of yourself, stay alert to anything suspicious around you and unite all the guilds to fight when the dragons come. I will be the only person to take responsibility for the plan, and you will know the details when it is executed."
"You are involving yourself in some dangerous situations, aren't you?"
Erza asked with a worried look. She knew. If Jellal decided that he would be the ONLY PERSON to take responsibility for the plan, what he had planned to do must be highly risky and that was why he would want to keep her away from his plan.
"Aren't you too, Erza?" Jellal's voice softened. "Isn't it dangerous too to fight the dragons? But you will do it anyway because you have to. It's same for me. And I have faith in you. So, might I ask you to put faith in me too and not to worry about my plan?"
So Jellal was actually admitting that his plan was a dangerous one, yet he still refused to explain the plan to her properly and even quoted her as an excuse. Erza clenched her fists with anger and hurt.
"You are right that there are times when we have to stand up and fight no matter how dangerous the situations are. But Jellal," Erza looked straight into Jellal's eyes. "don't lie to me that you have faith in me. If you really did, you would have told me your plan. Unless…"Tears started filling up Erza's eyes. "you know for sure that I am going to stop your plan if I find out the details because it's an unreasonable one."
Jellal had to wonder if Erza could see through his mind. But he was not going to give in to Erza this time.
"My faith in you is not a lie, Erza. I decided not to tell you the details simply because I don't want to distract your focus from your fight. And trust me, my plan IS a reasonable one." Yes, it is a reasonable one in the sense that scarification of ONLY ONE LIFE might save the whole Fiore Kingdom. Jellal told himself again inside his head. Then he took in a breath, tried his best to stay calm to continue his persuasion to the frustrated Erza. "So please, Erza, don't get yourself involved in my plan. Let me do my job properly just like how you would complete your task."
Speechlessly looking at Jellal, Erza let her tears fell down freely on her cheek. Neither could she argue back what Jellal said, nor could she reject Jellal's request, because she felt deeply for Jellal's pride and determination in carrying out his plan on his own. Even though she loved him, worried about him and was angry at him, she could not step in his way selfishly. She always respected his decision as much as she could. Just like when he let himself be taken away by the Magic Council at the end of the Nirvana incident.
Jellal felt so bad that he had caused Erza to cry once again. He stretched out his hand to Erza's face to wipe off her tears. But Erza slapped his hand away and wrapped him tightly with her arms around his waist instead, resting her head onto his chest. He patted her back softly, hoping that it would calm her down a bit.
"I believe in you and will let you do your job, but could you promise me one thing in return?" Erza asked.
Jellal considered for a moment.
"I don't' know if I could fulfill the promise, but I will try my best." He replied honestly. "Tell me what you want from me."
"Promise me not to give up your life, Jellal."
Jellal reminded silence for a moment, before placing a kiss on Erza's scarlet tresses.
"Your request is noted, Erza Scarlet." He now embraced her tightly in his arms too and whispered at her ear. "I have to go now. Good bye. You take good care too."
He placed a final kiss at her ear and then released her, turned away quickly to walk to the exit of the South Gate without looking back.
Eyes staring at his back, Erza's tears just wouldn't stop falling. When he finally disappeared in the darkness, she wiped off all her tears and turned away to return to her guild mates.
He was right. She also had a task that she must complete.
