One More Chance Chapter 5, a fairy tail fanfic

The same way it had been passed down to her children, the mark had suddenly appeared on her left breast - to be precise, right above her heart the night they had consummated their relationship.

"Why is it different?", he asked her as he turned towards her and stared at the mark. Erza blatantly failed to hide her blush as the man she loved was openly staring at her naked chest. But she was not surprised with his reaction.

The mark started to randomly grow when they were separated and a small mark that just covered a small part of her breast had now spread to a good amount of her chest. The most important part of the growth was the two elongated lines reaching out from the centre. One line almost naturally traced the outer curve of her breast and went down to the upper portion of her stomach ending with a beautiful pattern right above her navel.

Jellal grabbed her left bicep and raised her arm to see the second line, which went to the top of her shoulder before dropping down, softly tracing the top of her breast before making a left cut and finally settled with a similar pattern on the centre of her left bicep, just above her armpit.

"I haven't seen anything like this before", he mumbled before he turned back to his previous position.

"I can't exactly say that this has hurt me, but it is a bit surprising", she replied. Whatever the mark on his face meant, it was surely related to his birth, and it seemed like a source of power. Perhaps one of Jellal's parents too was a dragon. Erza's thoughts started to run randomly, and before she knew it, she was in the sweet embrace of sleep.

The Next Morning

Jellal was nowhere to be found, but she was confident that he had not run away from them. He had promised after all that he would be there for their children.

Stretching her arms, Erza woke up and switched to a normal set of clothes before heading to the washroom. The shower was filled with steam and his blue coloured brush was wet.

Was she so tired that she did not recognise Jellal brushing his teeth and showering? Moving those thoughts away, she decided to wake her children up before somebody knocked on the door.

Expecting it to be Jellal, Erza rushed towards the mirror and brushed her hair as fast as possible making sure to keep a good appearance before answering the door, but it was not him.

"Mrs. Fernandes, I presume?", a woman standing in front of the door answered. Erza's smile dropped and she started to scan the woman's body language causing her to break into a soft giggle.

"My apologies, I have yet to introduce myself. I am not at liberty to give you my name, but I was your husband's mental health counselor back at...you know where. Would you mind if I have a word with you?", she asked while showing an identification card as she adjusted her rimless glasses and Erza nodded as she let her in.

"Before you worry, I am not here to talk with Jellal. I need to talk to you, Erza Scarlet, I mean, Fernandes"

"Me? But why?", Erza asked with a bewildered expression on her face, as she offered the woman a cup of tea and a well known slice of strawberry cake.

"Lots of things happened inside, and I am here out of my own free will. Jellal was...I mean is one of my most favourite patients, as he was a good source for my study on behaviour", she explained and started to dig through her bag and pushed a piece of paper towards Erza.

"And this...this is?", she asked without looking at the paper.

"This was Jellal's mental state during his first year at the place. Before you read it, make sure that you want to see it, because, it...it is crushing. If you are not willing to do so, no harm done. I will leave and will give you my word that I will take this to my grave", she said with a frown on her face and Erza's heart began to hammer against her ribcage.

"I...I have to know. I have to know how I hurt him and how I can...how I can make it up to him", she stated with determined eyes and the woman nodded with a gulp as she deftly avoided Erza's eyes.

"For the entirety of the first year, he was tortured, beaten up, humiliated and well, many other things", she said and Erza shot up. His scars were proof of that, but she presumed that he had earned them during fights.

"I know what you want to say, but no. That place...you don't know how it is. The guards have to be satisfied if they are able to leave the place in one piece. It is not a matter of physical strength, it is purely mental. The first year, even though he went through all those, I didn't think he broke", she continued.

"What do you mean by that? I...I had already broken him that day", Erza whispered as she stared at her hands with contempt.

"Not exactly. He was angry, and extremely disappointed with you, sure. But I do not believe that he resented you to the point of no return. Then, we heard a rumour that you were engaged to another man. That...That shattered him. He...", she explained and licked her lips before avoiding Erza's eyes yet again.

"What did he do?", she whispered, but her intuition was begging her to stop. Her curiosity however, won the battle and the words slipped out of her mouth.

"Eleven attempts of suicide in two weeks", she whispered and Erza dropped down to the floor. Her hands wouldn't stop shaking, tears would not stop flowing and incoherent words started to spew out of her mouth.

"He...He wouldn't. But...But he isn't that weak. He...", Erza started and the woman bent down to her level to pick her up.

"I...I don't think I am brave enough to tell you what we had to do to subdue him and prevent further attempts"

"How did he..."

"I don't know", the woman cut her off, and placed a cassette in front of her. She recited a small lacrima based spell and the cassette began to play.

"I am here with criminal number XXXX Jellal Fernandes, and I will be taking a small test to find out his mental stability. Are you ready, Jellal?"

"..."

"Can I take that as a yes?"

"..."

"My first question. What is the first word you would use to describe family?"

"...Temporary"

"Love?"

"...Meaningless"

"Friendship?"

"Betrayal"

"Promise?"

"Break"

"Death?"

"Peace"

"I don't think we need an expert to say that your views are rather Dystopian. Let us play another game. Here is a buzzer. Each time I say something you want, you have to click it, but you will lose a couple of years of your life. I want to see your priorities right now, and that would help me understand your thought process, which eventually, will help me give you the right treatment and if necessary, the right medication. Is that fine?"

Buzz

"I...I haven't started to ask any questions"

Buzz

"Please stop it!"

Buzz

"S... Security!"

"What the heck are you doing, you fucking idiot? On your feet!"

"This is what happened in our last recorded session. It was prior to his change, and while he appears strong right now, I still believe that there is this part of him that is repressed. I don't want this part to come out at all. I want it shattered from the inside", she explained and Erza's sanity began to drop every second.

"Mrs. Fernandes, your husband is hanging down a cliff, and I've offered him my hand. He has climbed up and is currently on his knees. Soon, he will be back on his feet. But whether he would walk towards you or past you is entirely up to you and him. I hope you are prepared", she said. This communication was highly one sided. Erza expected a small report on how he was hurt, and had braced herself for signs of hatred towards her, but this shattered her yet again. It was almost as if she were expecting something like this to come up, but was praying for her expectations to be proven false, which ultimately did not happen.

"Mrs. Fernandes, I will be brutally honest with you. My only aim is to improve the mental health of all of my patients no matter what the cost and no matter what I have to do to make them open up to me. For this reason, I chose not to have a family. I do believe I have made myself clear on what I do to make them open up to me, haven't I?", she asked and Erza started to read between the lines. Like a whirlwind, she slammed her fist onto the woman's cheek, but to her surprise, she blocked it.

"Please allow me to finish..."

"Finish what? Openly tell me the fact that you had an affair with my husband?", Erza sneered as the veins on her arms began to show up.

"I will admit I tried to. That is one of the only ways people open up to me, and I have been successful for quite some time, and naturally, I tried the same with your husband. But he did not see me that way", she replied and unbuttoned her shirt revealing a massive diagonal scar running from her right shoulder to the left side of her waist.

"Courtesy of your husband. At times, I have to subdue my patients, so it would not be a stretch to say that I am quite strong. However, it would appear that I had severely underestimated your husband. To give you a clean picture...", she started and focused, releasing her strong aura. Erza instantly knew that the woman was not someone she could ignore.

"If you and I were to face each other in battle, I would place my bet on you, but I can assure you that I would not go down without taking a limb or two", she smiled.

"After that, the rumours were brought to a stop and he had calmed down. For the entirety of the week, he moved around like a robot, training when he had to do so, staring at people with soulless eyes and so on. One night, something happened. I don't know what had happened, but from that day onwards, I thanked every being that watched over me that I did not receive a scar from that man. He turned ruthless to those who even dared to look at him like trash and needless to say, within a week, he was already the most feared prisoner there. At times, transfer prisoners would test their luck, and well...you did see what happened to the most recent one, did you not?"

"Jellal...", Erza whispered and clutched her hands against her heart.

"I know that I don't need to tell you this, but I would still like to do so. Treasure him, Mrs. Fernandes", she whispered and got up to pick her papers. Erza silently nodded and wiped the tears from her eyes.

"I can trust that you would not make any advances towards my husband, can't I?", Erza asked and the woman smirked.

"As long as you are alive", she joked.

"If that is a threat, I dare you to try and kill me. There would be consequences if you'd do so", she replied and the woman silently left with a nod and a curt smile, but turned towards Erza for one last time.

"Patience is the key, Mrs. Fernandes"

"I know"

A few minutes later, Jellal came back. His clothes were mildly ruffled and she saw a bloodstain on his collar.

"Nothing spectacular", he replied, expecting her question and Erza stopped him in his tracks when he tried to walk past her.

"You tried to die in prison, didn't you?", she asked him with an accusing glare on her face.

"Yeah. I'm not proud of it. But it is the truth. Things were not looking too bright, and I wasn't strong enough", he replied and Erza raised her hand to slap him before she realised what she was about to do.

"I...I..."

"Don't bother", he replied as his lips warped back to that hateful smile and his emerald eyes gleamed. "I am used to it"

To Be Continued