Erza's hands would not stop shaking. Was her hearing all right? Did she misinterpret his words? Did Laxus mean Jellal took out another innocent person's life?
"H...Huh?", Erza squeaked out. Her heart was hammering into her ribcage and her expectations were polarized. Part of her wanted him to be innocent, while another one wanted him to be the true criminal. Her ego was unwilling to digest the fact that her husband might have been innocent.
"JELLAL IS FUCKING INNOCENT, SCARLET!", he screamed loud and clear, and Erza instantly dropped her lacrima phone and it positively cracked.
Erza wobbled back home and saw Azure on the floor helping Cerulean write his name. The little cherub on her lap got up and rushed towards Erza, hugging her legs tightly.
"Mama home! Mama home! Well home, Mama!", he squealed and buried his face into her thigh. Erza softly ruffled his hair but did not give him the usual smile or the bear hug she would give him usually.
It was almost a custom where Erza would instantly crush her children in a hug, and Cerulean would break into laughter and Azure would chide her for being too sweaty.
"It's welcome home, Lean", Azure corrected her brother but frowned on seeing her mother's unnatural expression.
"Is...Is something wrong, Mama?", Azure whispered and Erza dropped to her knees in a lifeless manner. Two pairs of worried emerald eyes stared at her and Erza dragged her children's faces to her chest.
Even when Jellal had supposedly betrayed her, Erza had not broken down completely. That moment, she cried like a newborn baby.
A Few Hours Later
Erza could not sleep a wink. It was the dead of night, and her son was sleeping on her chest.
Erza did not bother to use her extensive wardrobe, and settled with her bathrobe, and whiled away the time drinking to dull her pain while staring at the full moon that night.
"Big conlachun...pwetty", Cerulean mumbled in his sleep. As expected of Jellal's son - even his dreams were related to stars and a small smile graced Erza's beautiful face on listening to his sweet pronunciation of the word constellation.
Out of the blue, he tightly bit the soft skin of her exposed left breast causing Erza to clench her teeth in pain. All those books proved to be useless as her son still had a vicious biting strength and she stared at her hapless chest that was covered in drool and small teeth marks.
"Still cannot sleep?", a soft voice whispered from the hallway and Erza nodded her head. She pointed her chin towards the empty seat close to her.. Azure yawned and plodded towards the seat to Erza's left as she hugged her small pillow.
Unsatisfied with the current position, Azure drilled her head into the gap of her left arm and comfortably laid her head on the side of Erza's left breast.
Azure reached forward and softly stroked her brother's cheek with a smile adorning her face. The one-year-old subconsciously grabbed her finger and used it as a teether, chowing away with full force. Stifling a giggle, Azure leaned forward and gently tapped her forehead against her brother's before gently kissing his cheek causing him to erupt into another set of subconscious babbling.
"Why are you sad, Mama?", Azure whispered as she stared up to meet her mother's face, while Erza gritted her teeth before giving her daughter a watery smile.
"Mama made a huge, huge mistake Azure", she whispered while fighting her tears for the umpteenth time that night, and failed yet again.
"Is it related to Papa?", she asked and Erza nodded her head. Erza still remembered each and every time she spoke ill of him to her daughter, and yet again, her cursed memory did not fail her.
"Is Papa coming back home?", Azure innocently asked and Erza avoided her daughter's eyes.
"I don't know, sweetheart. I want him to come back home, but...but don't have any hopes, okay? Papa will be really angry with Mama and the two of us may not be very happy for quite some time, but...but you should be strong, okay? You should be strong for yourself and your brother", Erza advised her daughter, training her to prepare for the worst.
"Don't give up, Mama", Azure whispered to Erza.
"Papa...I...I don't remember much about Papa, but I remember him always smiling when he told me about you", she told her earnestly and Erza smiled at her daughter.
"People change, my darling. If your father has changed, it is entirely my fault. Even when everyone said bad things about him and hurt him, Papa did not cry. But I made him cry", she admitted to her daughter and Azure snuggled closer into her embrace.
"When Papa comes back home, tell him you are sorry. That will make him happy", the five-year-old innocently advised her mother. Children are beautiful, aren't they? The tightest of friendships began with something as trivial as favourite colours and even the biggest of mistakes were often forgiven with a simple apology.
Erza leaned forward to kiss the top of Azure's head and gently rested her chin on top of her head.
"I wish it were that simple, baby", she whispered and cuddled her children praying not to disturb their sleep with her soft sobbing.
The Next Day
"Why Faiwy Taiw?", the one-year-old on Erza's waist asked his mother causing the twenty-seven-year-old woman to kiss his cheek and deftly avoid his question.
"Boo boo cake!", he squealed, pointing towards the usual pastry joint Erza would buy them snacks and pastries from.
"Later, okay?", she whispered to her son who nodded his head, being satisfied with his own fingers.
Azure jumped and pulled his hand down before softly pinching his calf causing the child to whimper.
"Don't eat your fingers you little actor", she chided her little brother who stuck his tongue out at Azure.
Finally, the trio reached Fairy Tail, and needless to say, the atmosphere was horrible. Laxus was sitting with his hands in his face with at least seven empty beer jugs on the counter. Mirajane was in a similar state, hugging her husband's arm. The rest of the members were not present - after a long time, Fairy Tail was silent. The rest of the members took the day off for their own personal reasons or quests. That was the outer excuse they had given, but the true reason would have been to avoid the grief-stricken faces of some of their comrades. After all, who could see Laxus without his grin, Mirajane without her devious smile or Erza without an aura of authority around her?
"Took your own sweet time to answer, Er-chan", Mirajane greeted her. On any other day, Erza would have retorted regarding the nickname, but that day...nobody was in a mood for light banter.
"He is getting released this afternoon", Laxus groaned and turned towards Erza. He was groggy, his eyes were bloodshot and...it was as if Laxus had a doppelganger and that man had appeared on his behalf.
"Don't look so surprised. You don't look like a stunning diva either", he snorted causing Erza to turn towards the closest mirror. While she did not appear as groggy, her eyes were bloodshot and her cheeks were covered with tear stains.
"I'm an amazing best friend, aren't I?"
"I am his wife. Don't think your situation is worse than mine"
"Enough of this pity party. Let's... Let's just hope for the best and brace for the worst", Mirajane said and stared at the beady eyes of the two children near Erza.
"Are you sure it is a good idea to bring them with you?"
"They need to meet their father", Erza whispered and found a sudden interest in her shoes, and looked up to see the faces of her oldest friends and rivals.
"Whatever he decides to do to me, I don't want you to stop him", she whispered to them and turned towards the door, as the three of them decided to go back to the courtroom where he would be brought back.
Time Skip
"Papa! Papa! Papa!", Cerulean cheered as he innocently swung his head from side to side while Azure supported him from behind.
Erza kneeled down and hugged her children from behind, deftly avoiding the eyes of everyone staring at her.
The actual criminal was from one of the various dark guilds Jellal had taken down in his vigilante run with Crime Sorciere.
Hisui offered Erza an apology as she personally took care of the trial, not willing to send another innocent person to prison. Erza however, was in no state to listen to the trial. She just wanted to meet him...nothing else.
But she was glad in a way. The queen offered to admit her poor decision in front of everyone. Even if it was debated and many people stepped forward to be her fall guy, Hisui decided to take the blame for her own poor judgement and for rushing the process, leading to an innocent man losing his respect, his family and two and a half years of his life.
"Have his release papers been taken care of?", she asked the warden of the prison, but the man began to fidget. That moment, Erza shot up. What was wrong?
"Well, well, we were made to believe that he was truly guilty and...", he started to stammer.
"What have you done to him?"
"He...He was outsourced to another private prison - the Frozen Monastery", the warden whispered and instantly bowed down to avoid her flaring eyes.
Erza's heart almost stopped when she heard the name. When it was decided that Fiore would refuse to spend its money on high-end criminals, another private prison was built, and a few prisoners were transferred to the same. That prison was hell on Earth, and the ironic name could be considered a universal truth. Prisoners who were released were made to undergo a massive war against the strongest prisoners, and no single prisoner had made it out in one piece. To satisfy their sadistic desires, the brutal beatdown was always recorded and sold. Erza had come across a few of them in some of her raids and she still remembered hugging her children tightly that night in fear.
"Jellal...", she whispered to herself as she felt her heart bore holes into her ribcage. Her fear worsened when she saw the live footage of the so-called ceremony.
Frozen Monastery
It was set around a sort of an arena covered in ice, and there was a shirtless obese man with two near-naked women close to him.
"My two darlings will get an extra dose of fun today", the grotesque man cackled and the women mirrored his expression. The man leaned back and whistled loudly.
Three well-built men and two women with equally built bodies, each of them wielding different types of weapons walked forward, standing in front of a door.
"That brat is leaving today. And today's bounty is 500 million jewels for his head, 200 million for an arm, 100 million for a leg, 100 million for an eye, and a bonus if you wish to kill each other as well", he announced and instantly gulped a large amount of alcohol from a goblet.
"Go forth, my gladiators! Amuse me!", he yelled and started to make out with the women, running his grimy hands over their openly exposed curves. The two women shamelessly responded to his touch and Erza instantly covered the eyes of her children when she saw the man disrobing himself and the women. The camera was focused on the so-called gladiators, but one could openly observe the leader openly having a threesome with the two women.
Other than their moans and murmurs, a loud set of footsteps were heard, and the doors slammed open.
"And is this supposed to be my farewell party?", the deep voice of the aquamarine-haired man resonated through the room. His face was not seen, and his hair was down to the middle of his back, having grown rather wildly for the past couple of years.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't Jellal Fernandes", the obese man sneered while cupping the back of a woman's head as she was down on her knees with her face buried in his genitals.
"Am I supposed to know you?"
"Please don't mind me. I am sure you would be quite busy now", he smiled again and snapped his fingers. The gladiators drew their weapons and took their fighting stances.
Jellal bowed down and Erza could instantly feel it. Her hand instantly went to her left breast, just over her heart where he had marked her as his soulmate.
He raised his left hand and instantly, all five of the gladiators began to clutch their necks. Blood started to pour out from random holes in their bodies, limbs started to tear and fly away, and in less than a span of thirty seconds, the five members lay dead with no remnants to identify them.
Erza shielded her children from the horrific sight while battling her own fears. What had happened to her husband inside? The same man who would think a hundred times before heavily injuring an opponent had mercilessly killed them all.
The next second, he clutched his left fist and dragged his hand down back to its resting position.
Miraculously, the five gladiators were hale and healthy - at least physically.
"Do you know what a lucid dream is? It is a dream where you control your actions, one where you control the consequences, the right setting for a perfect dream. What you experienced was a taste of my lucid dream. With my current strength, I can dream like that only once a week, and you have obviously exhausted that ability of mine", he explained and grabbed the collar of his trench coat.
"That means that you have already been warned. If you are ready to die, then BRING IT ON!!", he roared and flung his coat away exposing the variety of scars that adorned his Adonis-like body.
Erza did not know what to be worried about - whether the fact that her husband had morphed back into a killing machine or the fact that her two children were staring at their father in awe and admiration.
To be continued...