"Nothing ever ends poetically. It ends and we turn it into poetry. All that blood was never once beautiful. It was just red."

I found the red-headed mage alone and on the verge of being overrun.

"Erza!"

"Alexandria, no, there's too many of them!"

Naturally, I ignored her warning and charged directly into the throng of newborn dragons, blasting my magic at the creatures left and right and praying that they would ignore Erza long enough for me to save her.

I aimed an attack at a nearby wyvern and shouted in her direction, "I told you to get some rest! You've got a broken foot for gods' sakes!"

"I couldn't rest when there were lives to save!"

"Oh will you stop playing the hero for once in your life?" I blurted, throwing the creature I was struggling against down against the rubble, and watching as its head split upon a stray rock.

"You don't honestly expect Erza to stop being a hero, do you?"

I swiveled around, my wild eyes landing on Jellal, who was stooping down to scoop my comrade up. A scowl darkened my features, and with a final wave of my arm I destroyed the remaining dragons.

"Nice of you to help," I snapped, and he opened his mouth to respond.

We were cut off by a gasp to our left, and Jellal's eyes widened.

"Millianna. It's you."

The cat-like woman curled her mouth into a bloodthirsty grin. "I finally found you!" I didn't know her well; I'd only seen her appear a few times in the Games. However, for some reason it appeared that she possessed a rather nasty grudge against Jellal.

The leader of Crime Soircere tried to defend himself, "Millianna I-"

"Listen to me!" Erza interjected, causing Jellal to place a warning hand on her shoulder.

"It's okay Erza, leave it be!"

She shrugged off Jellal's arm and continued addressing the other woman. "No it isn't! I've forgiven Jellal and so should you, Millianna!"

"How could you ever forgive a monster like him?! Did you forget he murdered Simon? He has to pay! He's a liar and a murderer! I can't forgive him! I'll kill him or die trying!"

I minded my distance, keeping myself far enough from the trio to avoid any drama, but close enough to step in if need be.

"I know where that path leads," Erza blurted. "A dark and empty place! Killing him won't bring back the dead!"

"So I should just pretend everything's okay?!" Millianna cried. "I won't do it; this is wrong!"

"Yes, I agree. This is wrong."

I was the first to gasp. Ultear was the second, upon realizing that it was me who had made the sound. The others followed suit.

"Ul, why are you-"

It took her a moment but she composed herself. With a wave of her hand she ignored me and addressed the bickering bunch around us, "You can't blame Jellal for the things he did back then. He wasn't in control." Millianna seemed confused both by her appearance and her words.

"Wait who are you?"

"I'm the girl who was pulling the strings the entire time," Ultear said, and I felt myself bristle. "See that's the kind of person that I really am. There's no point in fighting it. No matter how hard I try to play the hero, the truth of it is, I'll always be rotten at the core."

"Ul, that's not true and you know it!" I blurted, and she scoffed.

"Stop trying to turn me into something I'm not, Alexandria. I am not, nor have I ever been the good role model you wanted me to be."

"Ultear, you're a good person. Sure, you've endured some terrible things, and maybe you've done some terrible things too, but you've more than redeemed yourself. Think of everything you've-"

"Alexandria, I don't want to hear your pitiful excuse of a defense. It is not your place to advocate for me, especially in front of these innocents. You're better than me, certainly, but you're still rotten. Doing the things Hades made us do... It'd turn anyone into a monster."

I shook my head. "No. No, I refuse to believe that. We've got a dark past, but-"

"Dark? The pages of our pasts are soaked, dripping with blood. Do you ever think we'll be able to wipe away that much blood?"

"Ultear, stop it! You can't control what happened to you; you can only control how you react to it!"

"But what if you're the one controlling what happens to others? What if you're ruining their lives? What then, Alexandria?" She inhaled sharply and continued. "Anyway, now isn't exactly the time for us to stand around chatting. This area's still crawling with that dragon's offspring. We should split up and wipe them out." Ultear paused, turning to Erza's friend. "And one more thing, kitten. I alone am to blame for your friend's death. As a matter of fact, I was the architect of the tower of heaven. I'll give you a shot at revenge once this is all over. So if that's what you want you'll have to survive."

Ultear turned on her heel, leaving us to stare after her in unbridled surprise.

I did the only thing I knew to do and chased after her.

At first I followed from a respectful distance, moving as quietly as I could over boulders, rubble, and overturned buildings. I kept what few newborn dragons I did come across away from my sister, and she kept her steady pace. We moved along like this for quite some time, with me trailing along behind Ultear's wake.

Only when she collapsed did I run forward.

"Ultear!"

I slid to the ground in front of her, the cloak she'd given me hitting the earth and stirring up great clouds of dust around us.

Ultear released a soft laugh.

"I knew you were following me… You were always terrible at sneaking around." Her voice was strained as she spoke, and I found my brows knitting together, both in confusion and concern. My hands found her own, hanging loosely at her side, and I intertwined our fingers.

"Ul, what's wrong with you?"

She responded with a question of her own. "Do you know what I did, Alexandria?"

"I—no. What did you do?"

"I stopped just short of murder."

"What?"

"That Rogue boy. I was going to kill him. Kill him now so that he wasn't our problem in the future. Kill him now so that the dragons wouldn't come. So that no one would die," She took a shaky breath. "I didn't go through with it, but… that isn't the problem. The fact is that I would've done it. Without a second thought I would've killed an innocent man."

"Ul, you were trying to protect everyone."

"Why would that be the first place my mind would turn?" She blurted, tears shining in her eyes. "Tell me, Alexandria, why?"

"Because you care. Because you wanted to save everyone else."

"Unless… some part of me still craves it. Who am I fooling? I haven't changed a bit. Crime Soircere! What a joke. I could never atone for the sins of my past."

"Don't you dare talk like that! Don't you dare. Think of all the lives you've saved! The people you've helped!"

"Alexandria, we can blame it on a lot of things, or we can just admit we were shit people."

"No, Ultear. Maybe you did some horrible things, but you're one of the strongest people I know. You deserve redemption just as much as the rest of us, and-"

She removed her hands from me own and shook her head. "I've lived my entire life in the shadows, ruled by darkness. I thrived on deception, contempt, rancor, and death. But still I received forgiveness and compassion. You tried to help me escape. Gray allowed me a second chance at life. I wanted to atone for my sins so I founded Crime Soircere. A witch's crime. But I will never find salvation. I'm not like you. At my core I'm still the same. A witch crumbling under the weight of her own crimes. One who'd still, to this day, take the life of an innocent. I can't see the best in people, and I'm unfit to love or be loved in return. Perhaps that's because I myself don't deserve to live."

"Ultear you do! Please, listen!" I cried. "You're so smart and lovely. You've defended the weak and fought for those who can't fight for themselves! Everyone needs you; I need you!"

"You don't need me. You never have. I've only ever hurt you. You are corrupt because of me."

"I am corrupt because of Hades and because my own mistakes! You've only ever shown me the love a sister!"

"No. I was cruel and callous. And at this point I will gladly pay. If giving up this life of sin and sorrow—if that can truly set the world as it was, then so be it."

She pressed her palms against the ground, and I saw her aura slip from her, illuminating her body in a brilliant blue light.

I was screaming a hysterical, maddened scream.

"NO! UL, NO! I won't let you do this! I won't let you die!"

But it was useless. I was flung back by her spell, crashing into a nearby pool of rubble. She was shouting the incantation, and I couldn't stand. I was flattened under the force of her magic.

Tears poured from my eyes, and all I could hear were her shouts of agony, her screams piercing the night and making me claw at my ears. On and on and on it went. The bloodcurdling cry ripping into my senses and making me shiver.

And then it stopped. And I was standing alone on a street crowded with rubble.

Ultear was not beside me.

I shouted and ran in the direction we'd gone mere seconds before, tearing into the clearing formed by toppled buildings and deserted roads. The nauseating smell of burnt flesh filled the air, and my stomach turned as I crunched across the ground.

There was something... A crumpled figure that lay among the rubble, limp and unmoving. I rushed forward and glanced at the body—little more than a scorched hunk of meat donning Ultear's clothes. I set my jaw and scooped up the body, the astringent scent further permeating my nostrils.

She was heavier than I expected, and lugging her to one of the few houses in the heart of the city that hadn't been destroyed was more challenging than anticipated. But I managed, the adrenaline and fear that filled my body was enough motivation.

Once inside a semi-safe building I was able to examine her body. My hand darted underneath her jaw, pressing into the flesh there. After a moment of searching I found a pulse, a faint pulse, but a pulse nonetheless.

My arms went around her again, managing to carry her body up a flight of stairs with some Herculean strength I never thought myself capable of before. After only a moment of searching, I found what I was looking for. A bathtub lay in a lonely bathroom, the alabaster surface smiling at me as I approached.

I settled Ul's body in the tub—lacking any and all grace as I did so—and I raked my eyes over the burns. Her skin was a patchwork of white and red, covered in bloody blisters and destroyed tissue. But, miraculously, I saw little to no blackened or browned tissue, and her skin was moist and sticky, not dry and stiff, which meant that the burns could be treatable without a trauma mage.

Her clothing had to be cut away; not only because she'd had the brilliant idea to wear a skin-tight bodysuit, but also because the swelling had already progressed too far for me to remove it any other way. I carefully turned on the faucet and allowed a thin layer of water to fill the bottom of the tub, and after a quick search of the house I turned up with a legion of wash cloths and towels that I wet and placed atop her wounds. I left her for several minutes, allowing the cloths and water in the tub to cool her body down while I scouted around the house for any stray dragons. After dispatching two I returned to the building I was borrowing and barricaded the door.

Removing my own cloak, I washed my hands with soap and water in the sink and prepared to set to work on Ultear. I rinsed the burns several more times before I used the same soap on Ul's body, being careful with any blisters that'd already broken. It was a tedious process, and I hated it with every fiber of my being. I hated Ul for doing this to herself, and I hated myself for not being able to fight alongside my comrades against the dragons. However, there was nothing I could do about that now. I had to help Ultear. She was not going to die—not if I could help it.

After draining the tub and drying her burns as delicately as possible, I did another sweep of the house and rounded up a box of bandages as well as a half empty tube of ointment, which seemed to disappear as soon as I started applying it. I grumbled and searched the house again, finding no other salves or creams to use, and nothing in the way of painkillers. Great. The only thing available for treating her wounds was a jar of cloudy honey, and nothing could be found that could treat the pain that would undoubtedly follow. Whatever, I'd have to use what I had to work with.

I almost tripped as I was climbing up the stairs to the bathroom, a great earthquake causing me to slip on the steps. A series of creative swears whizzed from under my breath as I finished my hike. My patient still lay unconscious in the tub, though she seemed more responsive than she was earlier. In fact, when I applied the honey to the remainder of her open blisters, she almost pulled away in pain. Thankfully she didn't, because I don't know how I'd be able to manage a cognitive, writhing, and agonized Ultear.

She continued to stir as I bandaged her body, her tossing and turning intensifying and a soft murmur beginning to spill past her peeling lips. Realizing she was on the brink of consciousness, I darted downstairs again, swiping a glass from the kitchen and, on second thought, grabbing a bottle of cheap whiskey from their cupboard.

Ultear was still out cold when I returned, and I didn't feel like lifting her limp body out of the tub without any help on her part, so I set my scavenged items down and explored the rest of the upstairs. There were two bedrooms, both cramped, and one obviously intended for a child. Upon my entry into what must have been the master suite, I found the spare closet and removed a set of clean sheets from the shelves. I stripped the bed and dressed it, tossing the dirty sheets in the corner of the room.

I exited the room and returned to the bathroom, finding a dazed and disoriented Ultear trying to find her bearings.

"How're you feeling?" I asked, my voice calm as I kneeled beside the bathtub. She blinked several times and coughed before she responded.

"Alexandria? W-where am I? You're not dead, are you?" Ultear asked, and I felt my heart catch in my throat. Never before had I heard her voice waver. Never before had she sounded so terrified.

"Ultear, no, relax. I'm okay. You're alive."

"That must be why it still hurts."

I winced at her words. "I'm sorry, Ul, but you're going to be in pain for a bit longer. You've got second degree burns across your whole body, third in some places. I've treated you the best I can, but I need you to hang on a little longer before you pass out again."

"I'm not going to pass out again."

At least she was feeling well enough to be defiant. "Okay fine, you won't," I replied. "Now I need to know, can you see anything?"

There was a pause before she answered me. "Yes, but it hurts to open my eyes."

"Okay. Alright," I gathered myself. "Here, how about you tell me how many fingers I'm holding up real quick, and I'll let you shut your eyes again." I lifted a hand near her face, wiggling my fingers in front of her.

"Three fingers."

"Wrong. Two fingers and a thumb."

A rasping sound that might've been a laugh came from her chest and sent her into another coughing fit that I immediately felt guilty and responsible for. She winced in obvious pain, and tears began to leak from her eyes again. Impressively enough she didn't cry out, but it was clear that she was suffering.

"Sorry, I shouldn't have-"

"No," Ultear replied. "It felt good to smile."

I sighed and spoke again, "Right then. We need to get some fluids in your system." I rose and filled the glass with water, and although she insisted on holding the cup herself, I refused—her hands were too bandaged to do much of anything with. I lifted the glass to her lips and poured the water into her mouth a little at a time. Apparently swallowing hurt, so we'd have to start drinking in small, spaced out increments.

The processes of drinking made her even more miserable and exhausted, and the growing fear of her passing out again danced around my mind. I decided to go ahead and move her.

"Ul?"

"Hmm?"

"Do you need to go to the bathroom?" I asked, and she seemed to stiffen at the idea of having to be helped to use the toilet. "I need to know now before we move you."

She gave a minute and impressively proud shake of her head. "I'm alright for now."

"Are you sure you won't need to go within the next few hours? We're right here so-"

"I said I'm fine, Alexandria."

"Alright, then you're going to have to help me get you out of this tub," I announced. "I can carry you once you're standing, but I don't know if I can bend over and pick you up from where you are now."

"Okay."

"Here, put your arm on this ledge, and use the other to wrap around me as best as you can. I'll try to pull you up from under the arms, but your legs are going to slip, so make sure to cling onto me."

"Gods, I've never seen you dote on someone like this," Ultear remarked, another rasp escaping her mouth.

I rolled my eyes and, miraculously, managed to pull her up. She begrudgingly placed her balance on me, and I scooped her up bridal style. Her body seemed to weigh less than before, but it was probably because I wasn't trying to drag around dead weight.

We made it to the bedroom, and I placed her atop the sheets. She winced in pain, my touch having hurt her, and the sheets sticking uncomfortably to her body, but there was nothing either of us could do about it. I darted back to the bathroom to grab several cloths and my other supplies, and upon my return to the room I considered the bottle in my hand. She probably needed more water, but seeing her continually writhe in pain like this…

"The only thing I've got for killing pain is some shitty whiskey…"

She cut me off before I could finish speaking. "I'll take it."

"You're only getting a little," I cautioned, and she gave a stiff nod of her head. I sighed and poured a small amount in her glass, helping her down the amber liquid. She licked her lips in satisfaction, and I forced her to drink a bit more water before allowing her to lean back and relax.

I was in the middle of leaning back and relaxing myself when she spoke, "How long was I out?"

"No idea," I said with a shrug. "It felt like several hours, but that just could've been because I was so busy trying to keep you alive."

She sighed, and I frowned.

"What is it?" I asked. "What's wrong?"

"You know I only set the time back by a minute? My whole life… only worth a single minute."

I was shocked. "A minute? Are you sure?"

"Positive. It was the last thing I saw before I collapsed."

"Huh… Well, we're still alive, and other than a few tremors in the earth I haven't felt anything. So that's gotta mean something."

"I hope so."

"Listen, Ul, I think it's time you got some rest. I'll go out in a bit once I'm sure everything's safe to find a healer and –"

"No."

"What?"

"No healers. Please. You've done a wonderful job of patching me up. I'm sure I don't need any healers."

I frowned. "We need to make sure your sores don't get infected, and some of the burns looked so bad that I couldn't really treat them. I can administer first aid but I'm no professional. We're going to need someone to check you out."

"In the morning," Ultear blurted. "If I'm still unwell in the morning then you can go get as many healers as you want. But… but not now."

"Alright. In the morning. Fine."

"Promise?"

I released a huff of frustration. "Yes, fine! I promise, Ultear. Now get some rest."

She seemed pleased by my answer because she leaned back against the pillows, her body relaxing as much as it could in order to get a bit of sleep.

I shook my head and closed the door behind me, performing a final sweep of the house in search of any unwelcome guests. Ultear and I turned out to be the only inhabitants.

My thoughts turned elsewhere, to a different time and place—to my comrades. Were they alive? Dead? Had they won? I didn't want to consider the alternative…

It wasn't like my fighting would've made much of a difference, but I still felt guilty. And I shouldn't have because I'd helped save Ultear's life. But the fact remained that I'd chosen who I wanted to save and it'd been Ultear. Not my guildmates, but her.

Or maybe I didn't have a choice to begin with.

A/N: Angst, angst, angst, angst, angst! And also Ultear! I rather enjoyed this chapter and the way it turned out, and I hope you do too.

I apologize for not updating in so long, but at this point, my apologies don't really mean anything anymore. Sorry!

But hey, I just finished updating every. single. chapter. to date. That's right folks, I went through the entire length of "Ethereal" and edited, updated, added, and revised. The story should be a much better quality with fewer errors and more realism. If you have the time, I'd recommend giving it a re-read, because who wouldn't want to fall in love with Alexandria and Laxus and the gang all over again? Okay, sorry, enough self-promoting. But it's all been revised and updated, so don't be afraid to give it a looksy.

As always, enjoy this chapter, and enjoy the ones to follow! I'll be posting another one either later today or tomorrow at some point, then probably another some time next week. After that, I can't promise you anything for sure, but I've gotten back into Fairy Tail, so I'll be writing more.

Love you guys! Don't forget to R&R!