Erza floated in the air. She didn't know what had just happened… only bits and pieces returned to her over time. There was Jellal… screaming how he would summon Zeref back into the world, there was Natsu, giving his all in that moment where he tried to defeat the mad sorcerer… there was Simon…
Slowly but surely her memories began to weave back into a pattern. She remembered her fight with Jellal, how he tried to shove her into the lacrima, how Natsu saved her and defeated him… and eventually her own sacrifice to save everyone else.
Slowly she blinked, opening her eyes as she looked around. "Am… Am I still inside the lacrima?" she asked herself as she floated in what seemed a pure light… as slowly that light seemed to be blotted out by a giant shadow.
"No… you're not." the shadow said as it heard what she had said.
"Am I dead?" Erza asked confused at the shadow as she was unsure what was going on or who or what she was talking to.
Slowly the shadow came forward, inching closer towards Erza. It was still a blur to Erza but she slowly started to make out features. Horns of some kind… wings… it definitely had wings…
"Yes…" the shadow replied as now Erza could make out it was distinctively human.
The answer wasn't really satisfying. If she was dead… then what was this person she was talking to?
Was it an angel or a demon? She couldn't define the shadow as one… for now she decided it was both.
"You're as dead as you feel right now." the shadow said calmly as Erza gulped as she tried to move a muscle but nothing seemed to really want to move. All she could do was float… and stare at the shadow.
"Please… tell me my friends are alright…" she said softly as the shadow didn't truly reply at first as it seemed to be drawn back by this request.
"Why would you care about them?" the voice asked her as she seemed rather disdained by the fact that Erza still cared for her friends. "Was that the only reason you sacrificed yourself?" it asked again as it seemed to grow a bit agitated by that fact.
"I did this for them… a future for them for someone who never had one." Erza said calmly as she told herself that was what she wanted. A future for the ones she had loved and held dear.
The shadow sighed as finally it nodded at her. "Yes… they are alive." she said to Erza as the wizard sighed in peace and smiled finally.
"Very well… then I will gladly accept death…" she said softly as she closed her eyes and waited for the shadow to claim her and end her consciousness.
Seconds passed… minutes passed… but Erza felt that she was still not claimed by what she thought was death as she opened her eyes again as she now stared right into two golden orbs that were staring right into her eyes.
The person had moved completely out of the darkness as she now saw a horned woman, with two black long wings, a red dress that was slightly revealing and covered in multiple tattoos. Her two golden eyes stared right back in her own brown ones as she felt herself softly panicking.
"Don't be afraid of me Erza." she said as she smiled softly at the girl as she seemed to float above her right now.
"What… what are you?" Erza asked softly as the person extended one hand to grab her arm as she wanted to pull back but felt that she couldn't.
"I wish to show you your future…" the woman said as she now grabbed Erza as slowly the light they were in turned into a pitch black darkness.
Erza slowly started to panick as she wanted to struggle but felt every muscle restraining to what she wanted to do. It was just like that spell Jellal had used to paralyze her body as she quickly thought the woman had done the same.
But there were too many questions plaguing her. Who was this woman… and what did she want from Erza. Was she really dead and was this someone that wanted to show her spirit something?
As the darkness engulfed the two, Erza closed her eyes. When she opened them again she saw she was no longer floating in the light that seemed to have absorbed her.
Instead she hung now above a graveyard of sorts. She looked around seeing various statues and various people grieving at them until she spotted the woman right next of her looking down at one peculiar grave stone.
"That stone…" Erza said slowly as she felt herself slowly being overwhelmed by emotions as the woman looked at her.
"I told you… you're as dead as you feel right now." she said again as she smiled slightly as if there was a cryptic hint to it.
"But… where are my friends? Are they alright?" Erza asked confused right now ignoring the taunting of the woman as she instead demanded to know where her friends were.
"I told you, your friends are quite fine indeed." she said as she turned to look at Erza now with an expression of disgust filled on her face.
Erza didn't want to ask any more questions afraid to further upset her host as she slowly bowed her head as she and Erza floated up towards the stone to take a closer look at it.
"Don't you feel it's strange?" the woman asked her as she looked right at Erza who looked right back at her the moment she asked the question.
"What?" Erza asked confused not sure what she meant by this.
"You care so much about your friends… but where are they now?" she asked Erza as she crossed her arms as the wizard gave a slight gulp.
It hadn't occurred to her that no one had come to see the grave stone. No one had seemingly wanted to remember Erza. She didn't really want that to begin with. It would just cause more grief then she had wished for.
But this… this was an entire different scenario playing out. Now there was no one that remembered her, no one that wanted to remember her. They all had left her and here she lied… or rather, here is what was left of her legacy in Fairy Tail.
Erza closed her eyes as she felt herself crying as finally some power returned to her muscles as her hands quickly shielded her face as she cried into them.
Was she that much worth to them? She had thought that all of them were friends but now…
"No… this isn't real." Erza said as she turned to look at the woman as her eyes, still wet burned with anger towards her.
"You're showing me an illusion! My friends would never try to forget me!" she yelled out as she grabbed the woman by her dress as the woman only smiled defiantly.
"They survived but they couldn't try to heal the broken hearts you left them with. Instead, they allowed them to turn cold, turn your memories into dust, your legacy into a myth…" the woman spoke calmly as she looked right at Erza who stood shaking in fear and anger.
"No…" she said softly as she realized that what she said could just be the truth.
"You left them with a hole. A piece of family they could never replace… a friend they could never have again." the woman said as Erza slowly let go of her. "So they did what was most logical. They tried to forget… and they succeeded in that."
Erza felt her entire world crumbling around her. All this pain… all this anger… she hated herself so much right now. She thought that sacrificing herself would have helped the world… would have helped her friends. Instead it had done the exact opposite of it.
It had turned them cold and uncaring… having managed to forget her and leave everything she had done behind them. In a way she should be happy but… she wasn't. She didn't want them to completely forget her. She wanted them to remember her how she was and what she had done. Instead now they had blotted her out completely because she would never be back.
Erza slowly slid in front of the grave as she started to sob. She was unable to stop sobbing as she looked at the grave stone as the woman stood behind her.
"The years will pass… this grave will never see a visitor… until it crumbles to dust…" she spoke harshly as Erza saw her own grave start to crack, splinter, collapse and eventually nothing of it remained.
Erza felt as if she had been hit by a rock right against her head. She was sick to her stomach at having heard those harsh evil words as if the woman simply didn't care.
"Of course… that isn't completely true…" the woman spoke again in a softer voice as Erza looked up at her as the woman bowed down to her and softly grabbed her hand in her deformed purple ones.
"There is one person that still remembers you… and she is looking at you right now." she said as Erza pulled her hand back as she looked away.
"I don't care… my friends… my family… everyone has forgotten me… what would one person remembering me matter?" she asked as she hugged herself before she felt the soft black feathers stroking against her back.
"One person is usually enough." the woman said as she smirked at her own words before she sighed and nodded.
"I have watched you Erza Scarlet… from beyond your own realm I have watched you… I have seen your many acts of kindness and strength, acts of nobility and chivalry." She spoke slowly as she stood up and looked down at Erza as the wizard slowly turned to look at the woman.
"There is more to show you." the woman said as she extended her hand as Erza turned to look where once her grave stood as she bit her lip before grabbing the woman's hand.
Darkness once more engulfed the two and before Erza knew it… she was back. Back where she had 'died'. She blinked furiously, unable to believe it was back again but it wasn't a dream. The Tower had returned… the lacrima had returned just as well.
"What is this?" Erza asked as she turned to the woman as the two floated up to the highest point of the tower as at that point Erza looked in shock and confusion.
Jellal, perfectly fine and in healthy shape… sat on his throne as he chuckled, watching the last of Natsu glide into the lacrima.
"NO!" Erza yelled out as she wanted to grab Natsu but her hand just passed through him as she stared in horror and disgust.
"Your friend survived." the woman said in a taunting voice as Erza gritted her teeth, wanting to smash her face in for saying something like that. She had cared about Jellal and had tried to save him… but now…
"Why? Why is he doing this again?" she asked furiously as she looked at the lacrima now holding Natsu who was slowly being dissolved into it.
"He promised you… he promised he would try again… and again… just as many times it took to do it right." the woman said calmly as Erza felt something sinking into her throat and clogging it up as she stared in horror.
Was this really the future? Had her actions amounted to nothing but the death of the one she had tried to give a future? She couldn't fathom this… none of it…
"Is… is this really going to happen?" she asked turning to the woman as she sunk on her knees looking at her pleading her to tell her different.
"This is a possibility if you wish to accept death…" the woman replied coldly as she looked down at Erza as she shook her head.
"Then I don't want to die! I want to live and make my friends happy and protect them at all costs! I would do anything for it!" she said as she furiously shook her head and began to cry once more.
"Anything?" the woman asked as she looked down at the sobbing Erza as she smiled kindly seeing the moment was finally at hand.
"Anything…" Erza confirmed again through her tears as she looked up at the woman who slowly extended her hand and put it on her head.
"Your friends have abandoned you… and yet… you still wish to sacrifice everything for them…" she said again coldly as slowly something in Erza's head started to click.
There was some form of truth forming in it. That her friends had abandoned her, that they had continued what she had forbidden them to do… that they had forgotten her… She looked at the woman in front of her as she looked at the only one that still seemingly cared.
"They won't care… even if you return they will forget what you have done here today… another page in a book, torn out and folded… locked away…" the woman said coldly as she pulled her hand slowly back at Erza nodded… it seemed to make sense somehow…
In her head she tried to tell herself different but after having seen this… having seen Jellal not change a single thing, having seen her friends abandon her, having seen them doing what she had tried to prevent…
"Do you still wish to live?" the woman asked as she looked down at Erza, their eyes once more locking together as the two stared at each other…
"Yes…" Erza said after a brief moment of silence as she hung her head in front of the woman as she still was on her knees. Slowly the dress she had been in, the silken white one, seemed to disappear and change back into the clothes she had used in the moment of her sacrifice.
"Good." the woman replied as she put her hand under Erza's chin and rose her up as slowly darkness engulfed the two once more.
When it cleared, they were no longer in a familiar place that Erza knew. Instead they were in a grand gothic like, throne room with a throne far up in the room. She knew without a doubt this was where the woman lived as she turned to look at her. Slowly she felt life return in all of her muscles as she bit her lip, a stinging pain return as she wobbled on her legs and next fell over into the arms of the woman.
"Welcome home Erza…" the woman answered as she smiled, spreading her wings out now as she grinned.
"Thank you…" Erza said as she blushed slightly having not gotten the name of the one that had taken her here… away from everything that hurt her so badly… away from her traitorous friends… away from the friend turned enemy.
"My name is Ultimecia." the woman finally said as she smiled granting Erza her name as she softly rubbed her back, holding the girl against her.
"Now… do you wish to live Erza and in return become my chosen knight, to forever protect the one that loves you for all eternity and will remember you forever?" the time witch spoke as she smirked at the girl that softly rubbed her head against her chest.
Erza felt some resistance of her old self that this wasn't what she really wanted. Somewhere far away she heard a voice calling her name as if her old friends tried to save herself from making a mistake.
But there was no mistake in what she felt. She felt loved and adored by this one person that had promised to remember her forever. She would never be forgotten by someone she had loved.
Perhaps, one person was indeed more than enough…
"I do." Erza said softly as she wrapped her arms around Ultimecia as the witch smiled in triumph. It had been easy to trick the girl with some fake illusions and send her brain into the right direction of thinking.
She wasn't remorseful she had done that. She wanted Erza for herself. Having found the girl adrift alone outside her own realm by the sacrifice she had made… it was a golden opportunity for her. One she gladly took.
In Fiore, the fairies cried… they cried for many days without an end to come as they had to cope with the fact one of them would never return. That she was forever lost and gone and that they had not even a real place to honor her.
In truth, Erza lived… and they would never know. For the witch never gave up what she wanted. She had made a promise to love and remember Erza forever… and so she did… and in return the girl served her.
Love is cruel at times… especially when the wicked fall in love with the pure.