xii

The sun was set, yet clouds still blotted out the sky. It was pitch dark, save for the small fire started in the remains of the camp. Figures hung about it like ghosts, bruised, beaten, but luckily still standing. The bad weather might have suggested snow, but so far, not a single flake had fallen.

After capturing all the dark guild members of what they now knew to be Avatar, Jellal left them together at the wood's edge, hoping someone would spot them soon. The toad-like man was the highest chance of not making it through the night otherwise. Now, it was out of their hands. Jellal no longer had the headspace to spare their fates a second thought.

The smoldering tension that had been building since the harrowing afternoon threatened to explode under the heat of the roaring fire. Not a soul said a word though. Out loud that is.

Jellal tried to get things moving, giving stiff but effective orders to start the fire, clean up, eat. Everyone obeyed diligently. No one talked back.

And then, they all sat around the fire, having barely touched the food hastily prepared. Shifting, fuming, watching.

The direction all of it would go depended on whoever decided to speak first.

"You cowards," Erik mumbled, looking around in disdain. "You're really going to have me go first then, huh? Not brave enough to speak out, even now? Fine." He stepped forward, his rough features illuminated by the fire, and glared point-blank at Meredy. "I'm done playing your little house game, and don't even dare think about asking me why."

Hands clutching a small bowl, Meredy sat still and small. Her legs were bandaged but still hurt from the acid attack. Still, she resolutely glared back, eyes cold.

"I agree with Erik," Sawyer was the next to speak. Meredy glared twice as hard at him, even though his eyes were closed, still stinging from their own fight. "That kid's a monster, and now everyone knows it. We can give up on her without feeling bad, no big loss to us, or her."

"…That's rich coming from you." Meredy's bitter tone spoke out. "I heard from Sorano, you intentionally provoked her. You two wanted this to happen. And now it has, and I'm sorry for that." She grits her teeth as she spoke next, "but if you think I'm abandoning her just because of this mistake, then you're wrong. Very, very wrong."

Sorano bit her lip. She'd spoken briefly to Meredy, expecting her to react poorly. The rest of the group sullenly let Meredy's words sink in.

"That makes you not only crazy but stupid. We already have enough of that between the five of us, no need to add your personal problems into the mix."

"Why is it that you can never understand how I feel?" Meredy yelled. "I knew it would be hard from the start but I kept going! I made mistakes and didn't always know what to do but I learned from them! Everything I did, I did for her! So she wouldn't have to be abandoned and experience those feelings all over again! Why…why can't you, of all people, understand that?"

Close to tears, Meredy shook under the weight of her rage. Erik stood his ground. Sawyer took a step forward, wincing from the light. "Hah!" he snorted. "It ain't about understanding or not, it's about whether or not we're willing to put up with it, and as we just said, we're not up for your weird little family game. Why can't you understand that?"

Something snapped in Meredy as she rose far too quickly than she ought to have, bowl spilling to the ground. She leaped forward, arm raised. Magic churning. Sawyer blurrily tried to step back, still too exhausted from earlier to attempt magic.

"Understand? I'll make you understand!" Before she could activate the link and reach him, a body blocked her from doing so. His hands restraining her so that she could not wriggle out. "Richard!" she cried. "I have to…teach this…guy a…lesson!"

"…Meredy, do you trust me?" She stopped struggling and looked up. His eyes betrayed no malice, yet they didn't appear especially compassionate either. Perfect neutral, a rare sight on him. The magility mage didn't know how to respond.

"I-I do." She spoke quietly. A tiny flame of hope sparked in her chest. Richard was always the most understanding, perhaps he was going to back her up.

He smiled. "Meredy, I've watched you and Ultear for several months now. I can say without a doubt that you truly love her, oh yeah. I do not doubt that anyone here would deny that love either. However," he grew quieter, "I also have seen that you are hurting because of this, and I find that concerning."

Meredy's chest froze up, a sense of dread at what was going to come slowly washing over her. "Richard, no…"

"If you continue down this path, then I'm afraid you will only grow more, not less hurt. And that does not only apply to you but everyone else here as well. My old friends, Jellal, and of course Ultear too."

"Stop…shut up! You're just like everyone else, you don't understand!"

"That may be true in part. Your love is not a love easily translatable. But, Meredy, if there is one thing I do understand," The smile turned pained for just a moment. "It is fanaticism. And that is the very road I see you on if you do not make a hard choice."

Meredy tore herself away from his eyes, those painfully sympathetic. She couldn't face it, she didn't want to look at it. For if she looked too deeply in and saw herself…

She struggled even harder to escape his grip, but he held her tight. Desperation clawed at her. Just one person, any one person, to tell her, to say to her face…

"Maybe I really have lost my edge, I no longer find your struggling face enjoyable." All eyes turned to Macbeth, who was walking towards them, his own eyes locked on Meredy's. Her eyes opened wide when she realized he held Ultear in his arms, wrapped up in a blanket and fast asleep.

"Y-You, just–" Macbeth took a few more steps forward and she flinched. His eyes never left her, even as his hands carefully held the sleeping child. She looked so peaceful, so ordinary, that it was hard to comprehend the destruction she'd caused just hours before.

"I suppose I should ask for a thank-you but I'll clearly never get it. I'll settle for you hearing Richard out for now."

"What do you want?"

He paused, then looked at Ultear. "I think you're mistaken. I don't really want anything. I only want you to consider a few things." He looked her way again. "If we're going on and on about understanding then maybe you should be the one to look at other people's points of view. Because from mine, even if it is love…it feels to me the kind where you're really thinking of yourself first, and the other person second.

"Tell me, truthfully, is this the kind of love for her you want her to remember you by? A kind that thinks of you or a kind that's thinking of her?"

Meredy's eyes wavered. Caught in the arms of Richard, and between the gaze of Macbeth, she stared at Ultear, watching her, thinking of the past few months. A wave of emotions, the good, and the bad, came crashing down on top of her. The dam broke, and the tears spilled out. She stopped struggling and cried miserably. Richard supported her, not letting go, as she cried against him. The clouds finally broke overhead, leaving the camp light bathed in one more light, that of the moon.

"I'm sorry…I'm so, so sorry."

No one asked who she was sorry towards. No one needed to.

A few hours later, most everyone else was asleep. The high run of emotions had left everyone exhausted. Two, however, were still up despite all this.

"What do we do now…" Jellal sat with a blank look in his eyes. He'd always half prayed that Meredy would agree to what he'd suggested months ago. Recently, he'd just about given up hope that it would ever happen though. Now that it had…he didn't even know what to do from here.

The other man shifted in his spot. "I might…know of someone who could help."

Jellal stared at him, baffled. "You? Know someone?"

The reflector mage glared back. "Well, I know his name and where he lives, which is more than anything any of you have." He sat back, drinking in the night air. "Besides, we're not exactly swimming in options here."

Jellal chuckled to himself. "That's for sure."

He decided to have a talk with Meredy in the morning, discussing whatever option Macbeth presented. It might not be the one they went with, but it was a start.

A/N: Pretty sure no one was more excited than me to see Richard have a cool moment but here we are anyways.