A/N: Hello universe! Thank you to all the people who commented on and read this story or any of my stories. I know I've said this a few times before but it makes me happy that people like my work. And I keep saying this because it's true.

And to all you people who were telling me to continue: Did you really think I was going to stop? I loved this story ever since I came up with it, I'm going to the end :)

I want to warn you all in advance that at the end of the month I'll be attending a Con so I won't be able to update from the last few days of July to the first few of August because we gamers have a saying in Cons: "Eat, sleep, game. Pick two". And unfortunately that doesn't allow any time for Fanfic writing :(

However, when I get back to it I'll get cracking on as many chapters as I can to make up for the absence and the cliffhangers I'm most likely going to leave you off on. You all know I'm going to do that *evil laugh*

Now enough rambling and back to the story!

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Chapter 2: 10 years past

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Rosemary village was bustling as ever. The events that had transpired there 10 years ago were nothing more then a Chinese whisper, but one person never forgot. Her name was Erza Scarlet. She had long since made more friends after Jellal's disappearance, but she never went a day without wondering where he was or if he was still alive. Two silver necklaces hung around her neck ever since she found it discarded in his room. The sword and fairy necklace that he gave her for her 8th birthday and the matching star and fairy necklace that used to belong to Jellal.

Immediately after she found Ms. Fernandes's body she alerted the police and they did a full search of the surrounding areas, but since the trail was 2 months old they quickly gave up. Erza didn't give up for 6 more months, but came up with nothing of significance and came to acknowledge that her friend was gone but that didn't mean she accepted it.

Erza was 19 years old now and had grown up beautifully. Over the past 10 years she'd become more mature, her scarlet red hair had grown to waist length and her sword skills had been sharpened to the point of mastery. Erza had even discovered her skill for a magic called Re-quip and had quickly developed the unheard of skill of Re-quipping armor. For Erza, armor was less of a battle tool and more of a fashion statement. It was a rare occasion that the scarlet haired woman was seen without armor.

Her thoughts wondered back to her childhood best friend. Erza wondered what he would look like now. She hadn't seen him since they were both 9-year-old and he was already strikingly handsome for his age.

However, Erza's thoughts were interrupted by Kagura's sheathed sword struck her in the side of the face.

"Erza are you spacing out again?" she asked.

Erza rubbed the now bruised spot on her cheek. "Sorry."

"Was it about him again?" Kagura asked sitting on the grass of the hill, her usually stony expression softening for a moment.

Erza sat down next to her and nodded, fiddling with the twin necklaces that hung around her neck.

"Jellal can't be gone forever." she whispered.

Kagura sighed, "I don't want to believe it either, but if he is still out there we have no leads to go on."

Erza sighed and rested her chin on her knees and stared out at Rosemary village, sprawled in the valley below like an unrolled map on a table. She'd grown up here with her friends Kagura, a fellow swordswoman and mage like her; Simon, Kagura's older brother who Kagura has told Erza has a little crush on her; and 10 years ago to the day...Jellal.

Kagura stood up again, sword in hand. "You want to continue?"

Erza stood up and removed her own sword from the ground and brandished it in front of her.

"Yes." she replied, "And I would like to request that we go all out."

"Magic too?" Kagura raised an eyebrow, questioningly.

"Yes. My Re-quip verses your Gravity Change*." Erza said, equally stone-faced as her friend, "I will not be distracted this time."

Kagura nodded and stood in a fighting stance, also brandishing her own sword, Archenemy in front of her. The auras of their magic swirled around both swordswomen and the air itself vibrated as rocks levitated off the ground. Suddenly the stones stalled and clattered back to the ground and both mages exploded forward.

"Re-quip: Heaven's Wheel!"

Ezra's whole body glowed and said armor appeared on her along with two swords in her hands. She charged past Kagura, blocking her on coming attack with one sword and nailing her in the stomach with the pummel (the end of the handle) of the other. While Kagura was stunned, Erza thrust-kicked her in the back and she stumbled but quickly recovered with a one-handed backhand spring.

"Circle Sword!" she shouted, "Dance, my blades!"

Multiple swords circled in front of Erza before firing at Kagura, who skillfully dodged all of them and launched at Erza with incredible speed.

"Slashing Form!"

Kagura slashed at Erza, who managed to dodge far enough to only have the edge of her wings clipped by the attack. Erza blocked Kagura's secondary attack with her sword. Their swords briefly unlocked for a flurry of sword slashes that were skillfully blocked by both sides. They broke apart and stood on opposite sides. Suddenly the gravity around Erza increased.

"Re-quip: Flight Armor!"

The jungle themed armor replaced Heaven's Wheel and Erza darted out of the gravity zone with blinding speed and slashed at Kagura.

"Sonic Claw!"

Kagura blocked with Archenemy but was forced back. Using the enhanced speed the Flight Armor granted her, Erza attack at a different angle and sent Kagura tumbling halfway down the hill before she caught herself and launched back at the top of the hill.

"Strong Form!"

Kagura stabbed at Erza with Archenemy and connected. The force of the blow sent Erza tumbling towards the other side of the hill, but she caught herself before she fell all the way down the hill.

"Re-quip: Black Wing Armor! Moon Flash!"

The cross slash slammed into Kagura and sent her skidding a feet feet, but before she could recover Erza was on top of her and was sending a hard punch into her face. Kagura tumbled back down the hill but once again quickly recovered and launched again at Erza. Their swords clashed and they struggled back and forth until Kagrua swept Erza's legs out from under her, Erza kicked out her own legs and swept Kagura on her back then stood up. Kagura was also quick on her recovery and was up again in no time flat.

"Re-quip: Flame Empress Armor! Phoenix Talon*!"

Erza slashed her Flame Sword and a wave of fire leapt off the blade at Kagura. She dodged barely, the flames burning the ends of her long black hair. The two swordsewomen locked swords again and struggled back and forth until the sound of heavy footsteps crushed the grass behind them.

"Erza-chan, Kagura-nee! You have to come back right now!" Simon said, breathing heavily.

The two mages disengaged and faced the older boy.

"What is it nii-san?" Kagura asked.

"It's-It's about Jellal!" he exclaimed.

The mention of her childhood friend's name immediately grabbed Erza's attention.

"What about Jellal? Have they finally found any leads?" she pressed.

"Better then that." Simon said, "Come on! You won't believe it if you didn't see it!"

Simon sprinted down the hill towards the village and Kagura and Erza had no choice but to follow in suit. The whole run, Erza's mind was reeling. What had been uncovered about Jellal? Did the authorities finally figure out where Jellal was? From Simon's tone, it was good news so Erza doubted it was the body of her friend they found. Erza shivered, remembering the horrible decomposing body of Ms. Fernandes. The image still haunted her nightmares to this day.

Without even realizing it, Erza had sprinted ahead of her friends who were obviously on-route to the old Fernandes residence. The building had been abandoned since that fateful day when Erza discovered Ms. Fernandes dead in her bedroom, no doubt brutally murdered. It was still maintained and thus was in fairly good condition despite its disuse. Erza rocketed through the gates, blew up the stairs of the porch and unceremoniously threw the front door open, almost ripping the oaken door off the hinges with her unruly strength.

What she saw in the front room shocked Erza to the core. Sitting idly on the old couch reading the book that Erza had purchased all those years ago for Jellal's birthday was the one person she thought she'd never see again. He looked up at the scarlet haired mage with a look of surprise.

"Erza..."

Erza finally found the strength to speak through her shock, but could only utter a single word. The name of the man in the room before her.

"Jellal..."

A/N: I hope you all liked the little fight scene between Kagura and Erza. That was the most painful part of this chapter for me to right, I had their respective Wiki pages open the whole time to search personality and attacks. Also I'm sure that all of you are going to hate me for leaving you off on a cliffhanger, but a friend and I have a running joke that I'm more evil then Zeref, so I plan on living up to that reputation *evil laughter*

*Gravity Change= The magic that Kagura uses

*Phoenix Talon= a special attack for Erza's Flame Empress Armor that I created