Matter of Succession
IV
Then and Now
Erza Scarlet
January 4th, X781
The Winter Solstice had come and gone as it always did, and with its passing the new year had come at long last. Although little to nothing had really happened in the past two weeks besides partying and feasting, the country of Fiore was getting back into the swing of things as guild business finally started back up again.
With mission requests finally coming back into Fairy Tail, Erza was more than a little anxious to get back to work after two weeks of sitting around with her first mission of the new year loaming over her. It wasn't so much that she didn't enjoy the holidays but this year would be special: this would be her first year as one of the guild's s-class wizards. At the end of the previous year she had barely managed to pass Fairy Tail's s-class exam on the first try. She was the youngest wizard in the guild to ever obtain the rank, dethroning Laxus who had held the title before her.
Still, there were rules that needed to be obeyed and traditions that needed to be upheld. Given how the guild had gone into party mode upon completion of the exams, Erza had yet to actually undergo her first s-class job. Yet with the guild up and running again Erza was sat at the bar with Master Makarov who was flicking through a small pile of s-class job requests.
Looking in her direction as she grew more agitated by the second, the old man chuckled: "Hold your horses, Erza. You'll get your job. We just have to wait on Laxus." Erza, practically bouncing in her seat, nodded stiffly as she grew more impatient. In was one of the guild's rules that new s-class wizards underwent their first mission whilst under the supervision of one of the senior s-class members.
Normally Erza rarely worked with anyone, but guild rules were guild rules and they needed to be upheld lest things fall into anarchy. But with both Gildarts and the Master's own son, Ivan, out on jobs of their own the only s-class wizard still at the guild was Laxus. Who was now almost an entire hour overdue.
Normally she did not tolerate tardiness, but this was worse. Erza was stuck there with the Master until Laxus arrived, seeing as he was the one who would pick her first s-class mission from the selection Master Makarov had made. The old man who sat atop the bar surface chuckled again, shaking his head as footsteps sounded behind them, taking a sip of his drink afterwards.
"You're late, boy." Master Makarov said pointedly, but his expression betrayed his tone as he looked about ready to buckle with laughter. The old man knew Erza was more than anxious to begin but for Laxus it was just any other day. The old man seemed to think they made a complimentary team, Laxus would listen to Erza's stern rule when needed but the blonde had the uncanny ability to help her unwind when she was being too serious.
"Yeah, yeah," Laxus waved him off, looking bored as he let his pack drop to the floor and he sat down on the stool next to Erza's. The redhead gave the blonde a pointed look, one that would scare many of the others in the guild but Laxus didn't even bat an eye as he reluctantly took the three different job requests from his grandfather. "Jeez, Scarlet, relax will you? It's not like the jobs are going anywhere."
Whilst Laxus' attitude annoyed her to no end, Erza still liked to think her relationship with the older wizard was cordial, even if he knew exactly how to push her buttons and enjoyed doing so far too much. Still, Laxus was never outright cruel about it and when he wasn't playing the ass Erza, enjoyed training with the blonde. They had actually done several missions together in the past but this would be their first job together in sometime, let alone their first s-class job as a pair.
"Where'd the new bling come from then, Scarlet?" Laxus asked disinterestedly, flicking through the jobs without actually reading them, the blonde was too busy watching her carefully out of the corner of his eye. Erza could only flush furiously whilst Master Makarov winked at her – the Master had bought her the new piece of polished Heart Kreuz plate armour, their latest model, as a gift during the Winter Solstice. It was also meant to commemorate her passing the s-class exam which had destroyed her old standard armour.
Laxus of course knew all of this, he'd been there when Master Makarov had gifted the armour to her – a little too interested in her reaction to the gift for someone who was just passing through at that moment. Although the armour was still a little big for her, and it made her look as awkward as she felt. Master Makarov had explained that seeing as she was still only fifteen she had plenty of growing to do and the armour had been built with that in mind but Laxus would never pass up an opportunity to tease her. He'd made a crude comment about he looked to day when she would finally fill it out properly when she'd first tried on the plate.
"You look stunning, Erza," the Master assured her with his grandfatherly smile, and out of the corner of her eye she could see Laxus subtly nod his agreement – she'd have missed it if hadn't suffered so much time with the blonde as she had. Her face flushed again with enough colour to live up to her name, and her eyes suddenly found an interesting stain on the wooden bar top as the blonde smirked in her direction. He really did enjoy getting under her skin far too much.
"Alright, old man," he said eventually, throwing two pieces of paper back at his grandfather before waving around a third, "we'll take the Amaryllis job. Sounds like the thing that'll give her the biggest reality shock." Laxus yawned, cracking his neck. Master Makarov nodded his approval slowly, it looked as though a part of him had hoped Laxus wouldn't pick that particular job but he could not fault his reasons for doing so.
Clapping his hands together, Master Makarov shot Erza a large smile before looking back to his grandson: "You be careful out there," he began sternly, before looking to Erza again meaning: both of you. Erza nodded, a nervous yet excited feeling rising in her gut as she looked over to Laxus who shoved the mission slip in her direction. "This request was originally sent out to several guilds and comes directly from the Magic Council. This man who is calling himself 'Stormbreaker' is not to be taken lightly – even if he is only one man the amount of destruction he has left in his wake is comparable to that of an entire dark guild. Be safe, my children."
"Would you quit your worrying old man?" Laxus rolled his eyes, looking to Erza with an overconfident smirk. He nodded encouragingly and she smiled back, together they'd be more than enough for the so called Stormbreaker. "We'll be back before the end of the week. I mean odds are this guy is just some chump whose being lucking out until now." Master Makarov gave a slight grunt of disbelief but made no comment.
"At this rate you're going to dig yourself an early grave with all the worrying you do." Laxus joked, shaking his head. "C'mon, Scarlet, we got asses to kick and names to take." Reaching down, the lightning wizard grabbed his sack from the floor, flinging it over one shoulder as he turned on his heels and headed for the door.
Erza quickly stood, snatching her own pack from the ground before turning towards Master Makarov and bowing deeply. "Thank you so much, Master," she said softly, rising out of her bow, "Laxus and I will make you proud."
Although it was faint, the redhead wizard could have sworn she heard the Master mutter: "You already have, both of you." Whether she imagined it or not she did not know, but her heart swelled with joy nonetheless. Many of the other guild members gathered waved her off as she dashed for the door where Laxus still waited for her.
"Alright," Laxus shrugged one shoulder as he adjusted his knapsack, looking towards the edge of town, "It's two days walk to Amaryllis by foot, a day and a half if we only stop to sleep so let's get going."
Erza scowled at the announcement, it was one of the things she disliked about working with Laxus: his hate of all forms of transport. Although he'd never actually told her why, she'd long figured it out. She wasn't stupid after all. This time however, she decided she'd let it go. The details of the mission sounded much more appealing than an argument she already knew she would lose.
Erza eagerly looked to the mission slip, curious to see what exactly it was that they'd be doing. It only took her a second to realise this particular slip was closer to a wanted poster rather than a regular job request. It read:
Wanted: Gale 'Stormbreaker' Belserion
Warning: Belserion is currently wanted for being responsible of multiple counts of manslaughter, with twelve known victims as of this request. He is also believed to be a practitioner of dark and forbidden magic currently outlawed by the Magic Council. He is also responsible for wanton destruction of public property and resisting arrest.
He is also suspected of holding key information in regards to the attack on Rosemary Village which occurred on the second of September in X775 and may know the whereabouts of those responsible for the attack. It is imperative this man be captured alive so that he might be questioned and punished to the full extent of the law for his crimes.
Bounty: 750, 000, 000 Jewels
Client: Magic Council Chairman, Crawford Seam
Erza hadn't even realise she'd stopped in the middle of the street until Laxus shouted her name for what must have been the third time. She was just so utterly enraptured by the image that took up much of the poster.
The young man in the picture couldn't have been much older than Laxus, possibly the same age, captured from the waist up and in magic sealing chains. The man's eyes were a narrowed, a cold and hateful shade of cobalt with a faint of patch of white in his otherwise scarlet red hair, with a distinctive scar cutting down over his right eye and cheek, teeth bared in a hideous snarl showing off his pointed canines. What's more his entire right arm was wrapped in black bandages that looked new and fresh in comparison with the dirty and worn down looking dark navy jacket and white tank the man was wearing.
This man, Erza thought, as she stared down at those hateful eyes, the eyes of a killer, knew about Rosemary? How?
"Erza," Laxus put a hand on her shoulder and she suddenly shook herself from her thoughts. Looking up, she found Laxus looking back at her with a hard expression. Clearly he knew something about the request bothered her, but from the quizzical look in his eyes she gathered he couldn't tell what.
"Sorry." she said in a murmur casting her eyes down for a moment before steadying her resolve. Focus, she ordered herself, there would be time to think about these things later. "We should get going." When she made to move past Laxus however, he held her in place firmly with his grip on her shoulder. His look was demanding at first, brows narrowed into a taut scowl but when she bit her lip nervously, his expression seemed to soften.
Laxus' hand dropped from her shoulder and he took one last look at her, before jerking his head over his shoulder. "Well, go on then," he said forcefully, folding his arms over his chest, "this is your mission ain't it? Act like it. Lead the way, Scarlet."
Erza nodded, breathing a faint sigh of relief that Laxus was going to let the matter drop – at least for now. Whilst it was true that Laxus was often rude and standoffish with most of the guild members, the idea of him being heartless like some might suggest just seemed outlandish.
Laxus had a good heart, the same heart as Master Makarov. The heart of a good man, who would one day make a great guild master. He was just much more guarded with it was all. But when he allowed others to see it, she knew it would be worth the struggle to see it.
In the end, as the pair headed out of Magnolia, in comfortable silence, high hopes for their mission, Erza couldn't help but wonder what the guild might be like under Laxus one day. After all, it was probably only a matter of time until her took over.
August 18th, X784
"You heartless bastard!" Erza shouted across the table at Laxus, fury driving her to stand without her crutch as she hobbled around the table to face the blonde properly. Thankfully it was late and most of the guild had retired for the evening, the sun setting in the distance, so there were effectively no witnesses to this particular argument. It must've been their third or fourth of the day. Surprisingly few, all things considered.
This was the worse of the lot though. To some degree she'd at least be able to understand Laxus' reasoning in most of their previous arguments. This however. This Erza could not understand, she just couldn't.
Laxus for his part shot her a sideways glance before adjusting his headphones trying to ignore her. Clearly he seemed no more willing to argue than Erza felt, but she could not let this slide. "Don't you ignore this," she screamed at him, yanking on the cord to his headphones and pulling them off. He would not ignore her. "Laxus! He was your grandfather!"
"So what, Scarlet!?" Laxus snapped back at her, realising she wasn't going to let this one go. "The old geezer is dead, just bury him and be done with it already." The way he said it so matter-of-factly struck her like a knife to the heart.
"We've got more important things to worry about than Gramps' funeral." Laxus said in a scolding tone as he yanked his headphones back from her grip, glaring at her now. "Do whatever the hell you want. Just bury the old geezer quickly and move on."
That was it. Laxus said no more, turning into a bolt of lightning and vanishing from the guild before she could even call out his name. Erza had known, everyone had known, that these days the relationship between Laxus and his grandfather wasn't a positive one. But when she'd confronted him on the matter of putting his grandfather to rest, hoping, foolishly, that they might be able to at least do that together if nothing else, there had been no anger or hate in Laxus' voice when he'd spoken to Erza.
Sure he was clearly frustrated over the fact she would not so easily let this matter drop, but when it came to his grandfather, Laxus' anger had been replaced. Instead there was only indifference. To see how close, they'd once been and what things had come to – Erza found Laxus' indifference hurt a thousand times more than his hate.
And it was as the streak of lighting vanished from sight completely that Erza realised that in more ways than one, in that moment she was completely alone. Master, she thought, letting herself drop into a seat as she looked to the frame work of the rebuilding guild, tears sting at the corners of her eyes, what do I do now? She truthfully didn't know if she could protect the guild.
"No," she hissed to herself, "you swore an oath, Erza. I won't, can't, let the guild fall." That promise was something she was beginning to wonder if she could keep however. The guild meant everything to her, and there was once a time when she had looked towards the idea of Laxus as guild master with hope.
Now though she dreaded the prospect, not because she'd be dead before such a thing happened, but what would become of those she'd leave behind without protection from Laxus' wrath. Likewise, Laxus was not likely to back down from this whilst he still drew breath. No, what truly hurt and scared her was that Master Makarov's funeral would most likely not be the only one in the coming months.
The only real question was who was going to end up lying next to Master Makarov when the dusted settled: her or Laxus?
