Kidnapping Erza

By CrimsonStarbird

Chapter Twenty-Five: Erza Shines

Someone's certainly had a good go at taking out Laxus, Erza observed, as she hurried through the cathedral's ruined vestibule. To say it looked as though an earthquake had hit it would have been an insult to those architects of old – Kardia Cathedral had endured just fine through centuries of the tremors that hit Fiore every once in a while. No, only a member of Fairy Tail could have done this much damage to a national heritage site. And though Erza didn't know who it had been, the sight gave her hope. Her guild was still fighting.

"LAXUS!" she roared, a defiant challenge, as she charged into what remained of the cathedral's great nave – only to stop in her tracks.

The enemy in question had his back to her. It wasn't that he hadn't noticed her arrival, but that he considered it of little importance. He kept studying the runes floating in front of him as if nothing had happened. Though not even he could read most of them, two things jumped out: the large, eye-catching number '298', and, just below it, a timer counting down the last few minutes until Thunder Palace's detonation.

"What is that old fool playing at?" Laxus snarled under his breath. "How can he be this stubborn, with so many lives at stake?"

Unhappy, he turned at last to face Erza. At least a battle would help pass the time.

But fighting seemed to be the last thing on Erza's mind. She was staring at a point over Laxus's shoulder: the altar of the once-grand cathedral, where, just for a moment, she thought she had glimpsed the last person she wanted to see; a person whose mere existence brought back all the memories she had been trying to suppress for the sake of the Battle of Fairy Tail.

You're imagining things, she told herself fiercely; a cold strike of logic breaking through the turbulence picking up once more within her mind. He isn't here.

The hand which held her sword trembled.

He's probably halfway back to Era right now.

Her vision was strangely misty.

I hope he stays there. He doesn't belong in this guild. I never want to see him-

Pain exploded through her entire body. Caught unprepared, she screamed out loud. Shivers of lightning wormed their way through her armour and down to the ground as she fought to stay upright.

Laxus slowly lowered his arm, sparks still buzzing around his fingertips. "You're not paying me the least bit of attention, are you?" he marvelled. "First the old man, and now you… well, you'll both realize your mistakes soon enough."

The pain of that attack had helped ground Erza back in reality. She gave her head a vigorous shake, sending her scarlet hair fanning out. Sunlight from the enormous hole in the roof glinted upon her raised blade. "I'm going to beat you and stop Thunder Palace, Laxus," she vowed.

"Mystogan said much the same thing," the lightning mage smirked, perfectly at ease. "It didn't get him far, did it?"

See? Some dazed part of Erza's mind spoke up. It wasn't Jellal he was fighting. It was Mystogan. Stop overthinking this, and focus on the task at hand-!

That thought came as a reprimand rather than a warning, for Laxus was already moving. Panic set in – a panic that she had not known since she had become a proud S-Class mage of her guild. She felt like a child again, scared and lost and alone, as eight years of experience fled her mind and all she could think about was Jellal-

Lightning Empress, Lightning Empress, she told herself furiously.

She pulled off the Requip in time, but it would have been better if she hadn't. Laxus had anticipated her automatic reaction; eschewing his magic completely, he delivered a powerful uppercut straight to her chin. Cloth enchanted to absorb electricity offered no protection against a physical blow. Darkness swam in her vision as the floor dropped away beneath her and the world inverted on its axis-

A vision of falling from an airship flashed before her eyes. She remembered the friends who had come to save her on that day; who had given her so much support when she was struggling to come to terms with her feelings for Jellal; who she knew in her heart would be even more supportive when they heard what had happened between her and him today.

Screw Jellal and his selfishness. As long as she had her guild, she would be able to move on. But if Laxus was allowed to destroy her beloved Fairy Tail, she would never be able to forgive herself.

Her resolve kickstarted in mid-air. Her feet found purchase on a broken pillar; it toppled to the ground as she launched herself straight back at Laxus, Requipping as she did so. Flight Armour, her greatest speed-enhancing armour, took shape around her. He hadn't been expecting so impressive a recovery from her, nor so quick a reaction. Her flashing blade drew a line of blood from his upper arm.

Nor was she about to stop there. Still she had no need for the floor – this time, she kicked off from the enormous organ pipes and shot back towards her opponent. She Requipped once again: Purgatory Armour, all black metal and wicked spikes. There was a mighty two-handed mace in her hands, and she brought it sweeping down towards Laxus.

Anger blazed in his eyes. He caught the weapon between sparking palms, rotated like a hammer thrower, and released it, sending her hurtling through another pillar. Erza let the mace vanish once more in order to prioritize rolling back to her feet.

She was fast, but Laxus was faster. He had already gathered the energy needed to follow up that strike; a deadly lance of lightning pointing towards her heart-

"Laxus, fight meeeee!" a voice called from the rafters.

Laxus was not the kind to succumb to obvious distractions in battle, but he, like Jellal, had long since come to understand the danger of that shout. Natsu never took no for an answer, even in the middle of a crisis: Laxus barely had the chance to look up before the boy's blazing foot crashed into his shoulder, throwing his aim right off. The lightning lance missed Erza and put an end to the heroic last stand of the cathedral's final stained glass window instead.

Irritated, Laxus lashed out at Natsu like he might swat a fly, but Natsu was nimbler than he had been given credit for. He ducked under it and headbutted Laxus in the stomach. An explosion of flames flung the combatants apart; Natsu took the chance to back off a few paces and take up a fighting stance next to Erza, who was back on her feet with a sword in each hand.

"Erza," Natsu said urgently. "We've gotta stop Thunder Palace. I ran into Levy on the way here and she said something about fireworks and a biplane, but I don't think she'll make it in time. There are still nearly three hundred of those things left."

They glanced back at the runes still floating in front of a wall that had long since been demolished. It finally clicked in Erza's mind that the '298' was the number of lightning lacrima remaining: the original three hundred, minus the one Bisca had shot down, and the one that – unbeknownst to Erza – Juvia had destroyed. Even worse, the timer below read a mere four minutes and fifty-two seconds.

She glanced at Laxus, who seemed no worse for wear despite the beating he had already taken. Even if she and Natsu could defeat him, could they do it within the time limit? Not a chance.

But wasn't taking out Thunder Palace an equally impossible task? Two hundred and ninety-eight lacrima, and merely destroying one was dicing with death. Taking that gamble so many times, with her chance of survival reducing each second as she grew weaker and weaker from the recoil… It wasn't the thought of death that worried her, but the knowledge that it would come far, far too soon. Not even the strongest mage in the guild could destroy more than a handful of lacrima before the damage stopped them from trying – by physical incapacitation if not by death.

Laxus had designed his plan well. Even if she were willing to give up her life for it, she still couldn't destroy them all.

No, Erza thought numbly. That's not quite right. There's one strategy Laxus hasn't anticipated.

Laxus's plan assumed that they would try to destroy the lacrima one by one. That was the safest way – odds were, the damage would knock them out just before they reached their limit, like it had done to Bisca, and thus no one person would destroy enough lacrima to push them over the edge. But if she viewed her life as expendable from the start…

As she realized what she should have known from the moment she heard about Thunder Palace, a strange kind of calmness settled over her.

It was possible to save the guild. And she was the only one who could do it.

"I agree," Erza said. "Leave it to me, Natsu."

"You're going to take down my Thunder Palace?" Laxus jeered. "Impossible!"

"It's not impossible. I will destroy every one of your lacrima myself."

"No, you won't. Most people will fall unconscious from the recoil of just one Organic Link lacrima. Even you, Erza, will be out before you can hit your fifth."

She just smiled at him. "Then I will simply destroy all of them simultaneously."

"You'd take three hundred times the damage all at once! No one can survive that!"

"Yes," she said. "But everyone else will be safe."

For a moment, Laxus's smirk seemed to slip. "…Nice try," he said, forcing another laugh. "That noble self-sacrifice is no less than I'd expect from you, Erza. But I know for a fact that you can't destroy them all at once. That little extradimensional armoury of yours doesn't contain three hundred weapons."

Laxus was right, of course. Before he had become alienated from the rest of the guild, he and Erza had occasionally trained together as fellow S-Class Mages; he knew more about her fighting style than anyone else in the guild, save perhaps for her teammates Natsu and Gray. She only had around two hundred weapons.

But she also knew something Laxus didn't. He had his back to the timer, but she could see it clearly. The number above it now read '297'. Even as she watched, it clicked down again to '296'. It was a message from her guild: we are still fighting.

How they were doing it, when most of them had already been defeated in the Battle of Fairy Tail, Erza had no idea. But she knew, with absolute certainty, that her guild would make up the deficit. Two hundred blades would be enough.

Laxus was bragging, "My Thunder Palace isn't coming down until the old man gives in and lets me be Master!"

"The Master will never give in to you," Erza told him calmly. "And neither will we. Natsu! I can count on you, can't I?"

"Absolutely," Natsu grinned.

That promise was enough for her. Sheathing her blades, she turned her back on her opponent and ran for the exit.

Her confidence unnerved Laxus. He wasn't prepared to let her escape – yet he hadn't taken more than one step after her before Natsu was upon him, a storm of fists and wildfire, forcing Laxus on the defensive. The sounds of furious battle picked up behind her and then faded just as quickly, as Erza ran on and didn't look back.

Natsu would keep Laxus contained. Everything else was up to her.

Erza came to a halt in the street outside, struck by the sudden calmness. There was no one else in sight. The lacrima above were silent and still. They gave no sign of the devastation they would unleash in four minutes and counting.

Taking a deep breath, Erza Requipped her Heaven's Wheel Armour and looked steadily towards the sky. Now that she was alone, the weight of what she was about to do hit all at once. Whether or not she managed to save the city, she was going to die.

She didn't want to die. Not now; not when things were just starting to change for her… but she wanted the townsfolk and her friends in the guild to die even less.

And when it came down to it, she had always thought she would die like this: a heroic death; a redemption, even, saving everyone that she loved.

Ten blades. Twenty. Thirty. Her power had barely dipped at all. She had used more weapons than this when fighting Evergreen. Forty. Fifty. Easy.

Over the last few weeks, she had been so happy. She had made peace with herself; laid the ghosts of her past to rest. She had become so much closer to her friends in the guild than before. Yes, it would have been nice if she'd been able to work things out with Jellal too, but some things just weren't meant to be. Perhaps it was better this way. If she were angry with him, it meant she did not have to be sad about leaving him behind.

One hundred blades. That was the limit of her ordinary swords, but she was by no means out of weapons yet. Daggers, axes, spears, maces, tridents – she was proficient in all of them, though she used them only rarely, and when she was out of those too, she would summon the unique weapons specially designed to go with each of her armours.

Up in the sky, she could see a definite gap in the ring of lacrima. At the rate it was progressing, the others wouldn't have time to destroy all of them, but they were making a significant dent in the amount of work she had to do. The sight strengthened her resolve. They may have been separated in space, but that did not stop them from fighting together; from supporting her without even needing to be asked. Yes, this was the Fairy Tail that she loved.

She had lost count of how many blades were surrounding her. She would keep calling them until she had no more. She was tired, yes, but exhaustion was nothing against her resolve.

It was her duty to protect her guild in any way possible, but she wasn't doing it just because of that.

Eight years ago, she hadn't been able to save anyone. She had run away from the Tower of Heaven, and spent every day since regretting it. Now, at long last, she had a chance to put things right. This was what she wanted. She would gladly give up her life if it meant that everyone she loved would live.

So she smiled up at the sky with its crown of lacrima, and she was not sad, because this was a good ending for her.

There was one person for whom this was not a good ending.

One person who could not accept the exchange she so gladly embraced, for she meant more to him than the lives of everyone in the guild and the city put together.

One person whose voice could cut through her concentration; whose words could cause her resolve, just for a moment, to waver.

And Jellal said to her, "Erza, you can't do this."

What Jellal had been expecting to find at Kardia Cathedral, he didn't know.

Perhaps he had thought he would encounter Laxus here. When he had seen the great magic circles in the sky above the cathedral he had headed there at once, for surely magic of that strength would only have been called in some devastating final battle. Yet Thunder Palace's persistence implied that something hadn't quite gone to plan; that Laxus hadn't been beaten and this wasn't yet over. Maybe he had come here to find out what had happened; to join in the fight.

Perhaps he had been expecting to find Erza here: Erza, still furious at him for what he had done; Erza, ordering him to put aside their differences and work together to save their guild; or even Erza, forgiving him because he had not fled the battle after all, for that was just what she was like.

Yes, that was probably it. He had been expecting to meet Erza. He had been expecting to be roped into helping Fairy Tail one last time.

But not this.

Never this.

"Erza, you can't do this."

He spoke those words without thinking. He had not announced his presence, nor greeted her; he saw her flinch at the sound of his voice. Time had stopped. Her shroud of weapons, which every steady heartbeat of hers had summoned, ceased to grow, as one, two, three seconds went by in the outside world and did not go by for them.

Jellal took one slow step towards Erza, and then another, skirting around the halo of steel and death until he was standing within her line of sight. Her gaze remained fixed on a point somewhere over his shoulder. The perfect stillness of the swords held aloft by her power only emphasized the trembling of her body, brought on by the arrival of the one person she did not know how to deal with.

Yet it was nothing compared to the fear pounding within his own head, making rational thought impossible: the fear that came from possessing something so fragile; something over which he had no control.

"Erza," he repeated, lost and bewildered, and his hands were raised in surrender, as if he were the target of those blades. "You can't do this."

She looked at him and smiled, for rather than convincing her, the absolute truth he had given to her had simply been turned away. "I can," she told him softly. "And I will."

"But…"

He blinked once, twice; unable to comprehend why she was talking like that. Maybe she wasn't aware that Thunder Palace was protected by Organic Link magic. Maybe she mistakenly thought that using telekinetic blades would stop the link from forming. Maybe she believed that Organic Link would only inflict pain, and would not kill.

She wouldn't be acting like this if she knew it was going to kill her. She wouldn't.

So he said to her, to make things clear, "If you destroy that many lacrima at once, you'll die."

Yet the soft smile upon her lips did not change. "I know. But it is the only way to save my guild and my city, so that is what I am going to do."

No.

No, Erza, don't.

He took a step forwards. What action lay at the end of the path he was setting foot upon he did not know; he was simply acting upon the impulse that had gripped him. But Erza knew what he was going to do. She had gleaned it from the lost look in his eyes, that rash denial, and he had not taken more than that single step when a blade flashed into existence, its tip an inch away from his heart.

"Don't come any closer," she ordered him.

Jellal tried to turn the sword away, but it would not budge. Blood began to drip from his palm. The reality of that pain brought home the reality of this situation, and the impossibility of reaching her like this.

He took a deep breath. He forced himself to focus; to push away that terrifying sense that he was standing on the edge of a precipice, where a single wrong move would mean far worse than mere death.

"Erza," he said, and his voice was stronger than before, and saner. "You have to stop this."

"It's the only way," she reiterated.

"No, it isn't." He pointed towards the sky, to the slowly growing gap in the lacrima's snare. "We know how to destroy them without anyone getting hurt. Levy, Gray and I came up with a plan. Look, Erza – they're doing it right now, your guild; they're fighting so that you don't have to die. There is no need for you to throw your life away like this."

"So you were helping," she murmured. "I did wonder why you had come back, and I hoped… I'm glad." She smiled again, so heartbreakingly beautiful. "Thank you. But the guild can't destroy all the lacrima. There simply isn't time."

"I know they're not moving very quickly at the moment," Jellal argued, feeling his heartbeat pick up again for all the wrong reasons. "But they're just getting started. I'm sure they are. As soon as Levy makes it back with the plane, they'll take down the rest in no time at all. They can do this without you, Erza!"

"Even if Levy arrived right this instant, she still would not be able to destroy all the lacrima. I know you know this too, Jellal. I can see it in your eyes."

She was right; of course she was right. His worry had been mounting with every passing minute. Levy's journey was simply too long, even for a motorbike; the Rune Knights too uncooperative, too distrustful of guild mages. He should have gone himself. He shouldn't have listened to Levy. He shouldn't have come to find Erza.

Jellal clenched his fist, feeling the blood of the cut bubbling between his fingers. Still, he tried, "You're the one always telling me to believe in this guild – so why can't you, right now? They'll make it in time, Erza, I know they will!"

A gentle shake of her head, as if to a child. "Don't lie to me, Jellal. Not now. I am grateful for what you have done – you and the guild have made saving the city possible. Now, my blades and I are going to finish the job."

"No, Erza! You can't do something like this-"

"Can't I? So it's perfectly acceptable for you to bait a murderous Jose while completely defenceless, but I'm not allowed to offer up my own life in battle?"

"That's different!" Jellal protested, desperation rising in response to her argument. "I never intended to die on that day! I knew there was a chance that Makarov would arrive in time, and I gambled everything on that! But if you do this, Erza, you cannot be saved! There is no magical loophole that can prevent the damage; trust me, I know these things! All the determination in the world can't bend the laws of magic! Even if your resolve could somehow miraculously push you to survive the recoil from twenty lacrima, you're facing ten times that here! If you destroy those lacrima, you will die!"

"Then so be it," she said, for he told her nothing she didn't already know. "I have already made my choice, Jellal. Please, understand that."

She looked at him, and he looked at her, and if there was a part of him that did understand, it was drowned out by the thunderstorm of emotion that rejected her decision with every fibre of his being. "No," he said coldly. "Do you really think I'm just going to stand here and watch you die?"

"Then leave. Leave Magnolia, or go and help Levy and the others, or… or fight Laxus alongside Natsu. I know you do care, deep down. I know I can rely on you to protect the guild in my place."

"I won't." Something sparked in Jellal's eyes: no longer fear, but anger, reacting to her stubbornness. "You're not going to die here. I won't let you."

A shimmer of light at his palm was the only indication of his intentions. He seized hold of the blade targeting his heart, wrenched it from her control, and hurled it aside. And he was already running towards her-

Again, he got no further than a single step. Erza made a slight gesture and every single weapon was suddenly pointing directly at him, blade's edge or spear's point or axe's head.

"That isn't your decision to make," she said.

They regarded each other again in the silence. One wrong move and she would skewer him.

She would not be stopped by force. She would not be stopped by reason. She had chosen her path.

Somewhere, in a faraway universe, a timer entered the last two minutes of its countdown.

"No," Jellal told her.

This wasn't right.

Erza belonged to him. From the moment they had met in the Tower to the day she had not come for him, and he had given up on her; from his decision to let her escape, through all the years he had spent watching her from afar, to the day he was reunited with her here – he was the one around whom her world and her decisions and her memories revolved. Not this city, and certainly not this stupid guild. Him.

He was, and always had been, the only one who was allowed to take her life.

"It is my decision."

So if he decided he wasn't going to kill her, then she was not allowed to die.

"Because you are my…"

Sacrifice?

Had he really, really, been about to say that? After everything that had happened, did he really want her to live through this day just so that he could kidnap and kill her himself?

"…mine," he finished numbly. "Because I want you to be mine."

"Jellal…?" she wondered.

"You have to come back with me, Erza. You and I, we're supposed to be together. A world in which I live and you do not has no meaning. What has it all been for, these past eight years, if you die as soon as I… as I finally reach you…?"

A clammy hand had closed around his throat; he continued without breath. "You have to come back with me," he repeated, with twice as much feeling. "You're the only thing that matters. You can't die, because you have to stay with me."

It was only then that Jellal realized he had been staring at her feet while he spoke, fists clenched nervously, heart hammering, and he finally looked up to meet her gaze – and some distant part of him registered a vague surprise.

There were tears in her eyes. Her lower lip trembled. After what seemed like an age, she spoke.

"Jellal, I…" Erza began, swallowed, and started again. "I would give anything to be able to respond to your feelings. Any other time, any other place… and I would have been so happy to hear those words. But…"

She wanted to look away, but her conviction overruled her shyness, and her words were steady and strong. "I'm sorry, but I can't be with you like that. I love you, Jellal, I really do, but I don't belong to you. It isn't up to you what I do with my life. I am going to save my guild, and no one has the right to tell me I can't, not even you."

Jellal stared at her and could not speak. She smiled; she understood. "I want to go back with you more than I can say," she admitted. "But I want to protect my guild even more. This is my decision."

Raising one gauntleted hand, she tried to wipe away the tears glittering upon her cheeks. "Ah, I wish you hadn't come back. I was content before, and now… now I feel as though I'm leaving so much unfinished. Jellal, if I can ask one thing of you… please, stay in Fairy Tail. I know it might take a while, but I truly believe you'll be able to be happy here again, in time. You have friends here who will care about you even when I am gone."

She closed her eyes and smiled for him, one final time. "Goodbye, Jellal."

Ten seconds to go, and ten seconds would be enough to save her guild. She raised her arms towards the sky. Two hundred weapons soared out in all directions, shooting stars in reverse; signs of salvation for most and death for one alone.

And Erza faced her death with a smile, because, in dying to protect everything that she loved, she had no regrets.

With the storm of blades no longer threatening him, Jellal was free to move – for all the good it would do him now. He could not stop her. She was about to die and he could do nothing, paralyzed not by magic or by fear, but by her words.

There were tears in his eyes and he did not know how they had got there, for they and the cold bite in the back of his throat were new sensations for him. She was so beautiful in that moment. So pure; so brilliant; a goddess with the power and the will to save everyone.

He looked at her and he understood just how wrong he had been.

Erza belonged only to herself. Not to him, not even to Fairy Tail. Those she met could guide her, but they could not dictate her thoughts; her feelings; her choices. Not even he, who was more important to her than any other human being, had that right. Befriending him, forgiving him, loving him – her choices had always been her own. In a world where he had never been born, Erza would still be Erza, graceful and kind and shining brighter than anyone in the long, cold night.

I was a fool to ever think I had the right to sacrifice her.

A single tear ran down his cheek. He might even have smiled.

And a sudden thought struck him.

I don't want to live in a world without her.

He had said it earlier, but earlier he had still been clinging to the hope that such a world would never come to pass, and only now, as it became his reality, did he realize just how much he had meant it.

In that moment, just as she had made her choice, he made his. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision, and like all spur-of-the-moment decisions, it was irrational and passionate and truer than any decision he had made in his life.

We'll die together.

He didn't recall moving. All he knew was that he was there and she was there, together, and he kissed her as the world ended. She understood, and so did he. In the last few seconds of their lives, she drew him closer and kissed him back, warm and gentle and fierce all at once.

She was everything, she was everything, the whole universe and more. Their thoughts were one, their desires aligned, their dreams shared; their magic connected and came alive, bathing them and all two hundred blades in glorious red and gold. They would protect their guild together. They would share the recoil from the lacrima. And together, they would die.

Explosions filled the sky. Shards of broken lacrima glittered like confetti in the sunlight. There was shouting, and yet it wasn't in pain and fear, but in awe. Someone had set off a whole load of fireworks, and the resulting blaze painted the city in every colour imaginable. They filled the world with the sound of celebration: a festival of victory with him and Erza together at its very heart. It was the perfect moment.

Alright, Jellal thought. I'm happy. I can die now.

But they did not die.

They were still there, the two of them, holding each other and waiting for the pain to hit, but time passed and still it didn't. The sound of the world ending faded to a distant ringing in their ears. The last of the fireworks burned out; their glorious surroundings returned to their normal sunlit state.

Granted, there had been some irregularities in the passing of time over the last few minutes, but even so, Jellal thought that dragging out ten seconds this much was pushing it a bit.

Clearly Erza thought so too, because she took a step away from him and glanced towards the sky, confirming that all the lacrima had been destroyed. "Are you hurt?" she asked him, and he shook his head numbly. "No, me neither. I don't understand."

"We destroyed them together," he murmured. "Even sharing the effects, we should be…" Then his eyes widened, and he exclaimed, "Unison Raid! It's just like Levy said! Our combined power confused the lacrima, so the Organic Link was never established!"

"We survived…" Erza breathed. "We really did… we're both alive…"

They both seemed to realize the implications of that statement at the same time.

The intense moment was gone. The world was back to normal. But there was one thing that had changed forever, and all of a sudden, they could no longer meet each other's eyes. Erza had suddenly become very interested in a flock of birds. Jellal was staring at the cathedral door with such intensity that one would have been forgiven for thinking he could see straight through it to Laxus and Natsu's fight.

Both were red-faced, and very, very, embarrassed.

A/N: Twenty-five chapters, twenty-five weeks, all leading up to that one scene. I hope it was worth it. Short chapter, but this is the right place to stop I think. Tune in again next week as I attempt to keep the final battle against Laxus to a similarly sensible length (spoilers: I fail). Thanks for reading as always, and I hope you enjoyed the chapter! ~CS