Hey guys! It has been a while, hasn't it? I'm sorry for not writing that often, but at least you should all know I never leave a story unfinished!

I hope you like this new chapter! Also, I will upload my first Gruvia fanfiction later tonight! It's going to be multi-chaptered as well!

Thanks like always mizzyplatinum for revising the text! ^-^

Erza couldn't catch any sleep. How did she forget to continue on about meeting up? She had finally managed to gather the courage to ask him and now she had hung up without knowing whether they would really go through with this or not.

She sighed and buried her face into her pillow. How was she supposed to bring it up the next time? Judging from his weird word use he was surprised by her question. But still, he had avoided her question. Did it mean he actually didn't want to see her?

Her confidence that had been sky-high during their call dropped to an absolute minimum. "I've been too bold," she murmured to herself. She glanced over to the kitchen table, where the crimson flowers stood in a vase. Every time she thought of the events ever since she's been back to being in contact with Jellal, she felt her heart flutter.

Before this happened her life had started to get dull. At first after Fairy Tail's disbanding she was glad to have found a new place and gladly went on new jobs and made new friends in the theatre. But it just wasn't the same. She missed the mess and the clamor of the guildhall, the jobs that were performed in teams, and above all, her friends.

She had always been a distant person, closing her real self off for most people around her by pretending to be stronger than her fears. But her closest friends knew how vulnerable she really is beneath her armor.

Until a few weeks ago, the pain of missing the guild had become close to unbearable. The realization that the guild was no longer hit her in the gut more and more by the day. She earned so much with her jobs, she no longer had to take them weekly and spent all days at home and in the theatre.

Her life had become more and more empty and for some reason she couldn't bring herself to fill that emptiness by visiting her friends. She didn't even know where they resided. Just occasionally a few words on them in Sorcerer Weekly. Everyone had moved on and she felt like she didn't have the right to disturb them in their new life. But what was the point of a new life if it didn't have any purpose?

She didn't even want to think about how low she would have sunk in sadness if Cobra hadn't shown up on Jellal's orders. Jellal has been the one who dragged her out of the darkness, but he probably had no idea. He still considered himself to be in darkness until he was free of his sins. Erza knew that wasn't true. He would probably never consider himself free of sins. He just thinks he doesn't deserve to be happy after all he has done.

Tears started to well up and she felt the incoming wave of sadness form a lump in her throat. After a lot of worrying and many times of shifting into a more comfortable sleeping position, she fell into a restless sleep on her tear stained pillow.

"Jellal!" she screamed as she ran over to the motionless body. "What happened?!"

"It's what he deserved for killing his best friend," a voice from behind her said.

Erza turned around, only to find herself looking at a huge guy with a prosthetic metal jaw. A shiver travelled down her spine. "S-Simon?" she could barely speak out him name in awe. "But how? This can't be true!"

She looked back at Jellal, who didn't seem to breathe. "Wake up!" she screamed as she grabbed his shoulders. "You can't leave me!"

As she tried to lean over him, she was pulled back by a forceful grab. "It was ME who truly loved you. ME." Simon said in a contained angry voice. "But you... you only have had eyes for him. The hero. The savior of all."

She looked up at him. "I-I never meant to hurt you," she said with a shivering voice. "You have no idea how much you meant to me!"

"It's too late now," he said softly and collapsed on the ground.

"SIMON!" she screeched. But it was no use.

"I made quite a mess of this, didn't I?" she heard a woman's voice say from behind.

Erza turned around only to find herself gazing up to Ultear in all her glory.

"I controlled Jellal when he killed Simon," she said, "However, I am not to blame."

"I know that," Erza softly said. "I've never blamed you, I know you were brainwashed. You did it all for the sake of-"

She didn't finish her finish upon her sight. Right in front of her, Ultear's face started to wrinkle, her back started to bend and her pitch black hair became lighter and lighter.

"I'm sorry..." Ultear said with a cracking voice. "I stole him from you all that time." She kneeled down and slowly sunk down to the ground.

"For whose sake?" Erza heard a voice say once more. However, this voice was unfamiliar. She turned to the direction of the voice, but there was no one to be seen. She stood up and walked a few steps. Almost blinded by her tears, she looked around, but there was just one big emptiness around her.

"Show yourself!" Erza yelled.

"It was all for my sake," the same voice said from way closer. Erza turned around and froze on the spot when she saw a young man with raven hair stand between the bodies of her friends.

"Everyone will die for my sake," he said in a sinister voice. "For I am the dark wizard, Zeref!" His eyes turned red and a wave of darkness emitted from his very being.

The wave reached her quickly and she felt her life force being sucked away.

One last shriek escaped her lips.

"NO!"

She sat straight up in bed. Sweat travelled down from her back and forehead and she found herself breathing heavily.

"Just another nightmare." She let herself fall back into bed.

This nightmare has been different from the ones before. Could it be that the guy she saw really had been Zeref?

Of course she knew her dreams weren't real, but every time she had a dream everything felt so real. Especially this one, she shook her head to get rid of the image of a dead Jellal on the forefront of her mind.

The next morning, Erza had a hard time getting up. Actually, she didn't even feel like leaving her bed all day. She had barely slept after waking up in the middle of the night. Her pillow was damp and her sheets uncomfortably stuck to her skin.

Suddenly the image of Jellal that appeared in her dreams flashed before her eyes. She sat straight up in shock. Something wasn't right. She knew it was all just a dream, but what if it was a warning? What if something bad was going to happen to him?

Without a second thought, she reached for the lacrima that lay on her nightstand. She tried as hard as she could to keep breathing normally, but she found herself almost hyperventilating when over 20 seconds had passed. Finally she heard a voice on the other side.

"Erza, is there really any need to call me this early in the morning?"

For a few moments she couldn't even bring out a single sound.

"Erza? What's wrong? Are you there?"

She let out a sigh of relief. "It's okay," she said. "I'm just really happy to hear your voice."

"We just called last night." He laughed.

She took a deep breath and mustered up all her courage. "I know it's been over a year ago," she hesitantly started, "but do you still remember the place we finally saw each other again?"

No response.

"Jellal?" she carefully asked.

"Ehrm, yeah, I think I do." He tried as hard as he could to hide he had been thinking about it. "It was the one with the nice view on the sea and ehrm the... beach. Right?"

"That's the one," Erza said smiling. "You think you can make it there by tonight?"