Last chapter before the heavier content warnings come up.
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Jellal stared down at Titania in his arms.
Inadvertently, he was sure, Erza had fallen asleep. But she hadn't fallen asleep like a normal human being – no, that wouldn't be like Erza at all. No, she had, in fact, been wide awake, listening to him, one second, the next falling sideways towards the metal hinge on the window. He had lunged forward to grab her before she hit her head and was now holding her up, sitting/standing awkwardly across the space between their seats.
"Oh, couples these days," he had heard someone say as they passed by their compartment, and his head whipped around. The door was shut, but the curtains weren't, and the stranger now out of sight had apparently taken it upon themself to make certain Jellal was as incapable of thinking as possible.
He stared back down at Erza, hating himself for how much he wished it were true. She was light. She didn't need any more darkness then she already had – than he himself had already given to her on a bloodied, rusted platter.
As more and more of his discomfort turned to pain, he recalled what Lucy had explained to the guild about the 'curse' that the two Black Mages had been afflicted with. If it were true, it would explain why she seemed to have taken everything as a game, and why she had flip-flopped personalities so easily. She wouldn't care about the lives of game pieces, so she wouldn't accidentally kill them. It also fit with what Ultear had told him about from the time she had met them on Tenrou:
They seemed angry at us for causing trouble and strife. They said they didn't intend to do anything in this era and didn't want to see more death. They seemed to go out of control, screaming about 'it' coming; I think they said the 'Predatory Death.' Even as I walked up to them after I incapacitated them, they were whispering 'don't do it,' and 'please stop.'
They obviously weren't awake.
Yes, that was what they had decided; that they hadn't been their true selves. They were just 'asleep' like Precht – Hades – had said. No other way would those words and actions make sense coming from the two most evil people in all of mage history; people who had murdered hundreds of thousands, inadvertently through the creation of demons who ravaged the land and dark magics that cults sought after, advertently by just killing people randomly or for whatever reason they chose to justify decimation with; people who had created schematics for devastating machines and spells that 'followers' then chose to build at the cost of others; people who had lived for centuries, inspiring countless stories of their own evil, used as monsters in children's tales.
Yes, that was what they had decided, that they weren't their true selves, for what other reason could there be?
But now… Perhaps that had been their true selves, and the one he had met during the Grand Magic Games had been the mask.
Jellal shifted uncomfortably, then decided he would have to take the chance that she would wake up so as to lay her down on her seat. She didn't stir as he let her down, but she didn't let go of him, either. He pried himself away from her as gently as he could, but when he finally got to freeing his hand, Erza frowned. His heart clenched as he recalled with vivid accuracy how she had use to hold his hand back at the Tower of Heaven when they slept, their group all huddled together for comfort and warmth.
He sighed, sitting back down on his own side and leaning forward on his knees, placing his hand back into hers. As her expression cleared up slowly, he felt another painful stab of remembrance from the nightmares they had had at the tower, and he wondered how his presence could bring her any sort of comfort after all he'd done. Sure, he had been controlled, but that didn't mean that he hadn't killed Simon; hadn't forced her to live eight years thinking it was because of her that her friends suffered; hadn't tried to sacrifice her for Zeref and Aki's revival.
He grimaced.
Zeref and Aki… if they really had been cursed, was it not alright that, barring, perhaps, forgiveness, they were given a chance to live and atone for their sins like he had been? Actually, if they had been cursed by a deity, was it really even their fault? He had fallen for it. He had been controlled because he had been weak, so easily letting hate into his heart. They had had it forced on them after resurrecting their dead brother. They hadn't given in – they had been crushed by an enraged deity.
And if that was the case, was it their fault at all? He wasn't sure anymore.
He snorted. Anymore. As though he had been sure about anything since he had woken up seven years ago and tried to destroy Nirvana. He knew he was the last person to be handing out 'righteous judgement.'
… Still, if they were true in their repentance and weren't tricking them and hadn't kidnapped Natsu and Wendy and hadn't forced Wendy to say they were alright and weren't planning on using the two as hostages and weren't torturing them for fun and hadn't already killed them and weren't totally lying about the entire thing… didn't they deserve a second chance?
He snorted.
Fairy Tail is always caught up in the weirdest, most dangerous tails…
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"Mira, why are you so happy?" Lucy asked suspiciously. The usually peppy barista had been downright jubilant since Erza and Jellal had left to retrieve three idiots and a Wendy.
She smirked innocently. "What do you mean, Lucy?"
"I mean you are acting like you just won a chance to dare everyone in the entire guild to do one thing that they are then required to do," she said in a no-nonsense tone. When Mira just smiled, she sighed. "Mira, my team has Natsu in it; I notice petty tricks."
Mira pouted. "It's not a petty trick!"
"So you admit that you are doing something, then?" Lucy grinned.
"Well, I might admit something to that effect…"
"So, what is it?"
Mira eyed her for a minute, then checked her watch. She deliberated for a second before nodding to herself. "It's too late," she chirped, beaming at Lucy.
"Too late for what?" Lucy asked warily. Now that she was about to be told what Mira had done, she wasn't so sure she wanted to know.
"For you or anyone else to do anything about it!"
"Mira, what did you do?!" Lucy exclaimed, alarmed. She had only ever seen the barista this happy when she had won the bet that Fairy Tail Team A and Fairy Tail Team B had made, resulting in, well… a lot of… stuff. That, and the day that Lisanna had returned, though the happiness of that day was a little – lot – less mischievous.
Mira leaned over the bar conspiratorially, whispering, "I gave Erza a bit of a sleepy meal before she left."
Lucy blinked. A sleepy meal? What did that even- "Mira, no," she whispered back. "Mira, you didn't."
Mira's grin grew still wider. "I did, Lucy. It won't last too long, only enough. Don't deny," she added as Lucy opened her mouth to tell her off, "that you aren't happy about this chance I've given her."
Lucy punched her lightly in the arm. "I can't deny it, but if Erza finds out, she's going to kill you."
Mira sweat-dropped, but smiled nonetheless. "If that's the price of love, I'll pay it anytime."
Lucy groaned in exasperation at her match-making friend, but she couldn't deny that, if it worked out – and Erza found out, which she prayed didn't happen – she would join her in the reception of the beast's wrath; at this point, she was basically a coconspirator, right?
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Jellal shook Erza gently as the train pulled into Hargeon station.
She mumbled vaguely, unmoving. He tried again. Nothing.
"Erza."
"What?" Erza moaned, rolling over on, and then off, the seat. She kya!-ed, but Jellal caught her almost instantly, helping her back to her feet. She was flushing almost as brightly as her hair as she mumbled a thank you.
Jellal, tactfully acting as though nothing had happened, grabbed his bag. "Are we going to stay at a hotel or try and find a boat?" he asked.
"Y-yeah, yes," Erza stammered, staring at the ground and smoothing out her ruffled hair; Jellal couldn't help grinning.
Not until they had reached the docks was Jellal able to see that her face had turned down the tomato meter, and he tried again. "Should we get a boat or wait till morning?"
"A boat," she said firmly. "I'm worried about Wendy and Natsu. I know Wendy said they were fine, and I heard about the curse from Lucy, but I just can't wrap my head around it."
Jellal chuckled. "You can't wrap your head around four hundred and some-year-old Black Mages being Natsu's siblings who were cursed by a deity to kill everything because they had brought Natsu back to life until one of your friends went back in time to kill them as children and then accidentally brought them back to the present where they just happened to meet their future selves and got them to defeat seven dragons who had come through the same portal while also breaking their curse? Why not?"
Erza laughed, cheeks still tinged pink and her hair flying forward in the wind, the moon shining in her eyes as she talked to him so normally. Even after all that had happened she was still giving him her saving grace; grace which could come from no one else in his book.
And, as he started to say, "Yeah-" in agreement with whatever her response had been, for it didn't matter what she said, he would do his darndest to help her, he took a step forward and felt the sensation of missing a step down a flight of stairs. Instead of crumpling at the bottom, though, he crashed into water.
Spluttering, gasping from surprise, he pushed himself up only to find that there was nothing to push against. He scrabbled at the water, trying to find something to grab hold of, but he couldn't find it, and he was sinking into the water, just as he had sunk into the darkness years ago…
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Coughing, rasping for breath, Jellal came to lying on his side.
"Jellal! Are you okay?!" he could hear Erza shouting. He struggled to nod his head, causing another fit of retching, for which he pushed himself up onto all fours, his lungs apparently eager to escape his body along with the water within them.
"Jellal!" Someone, undoubtedly Erza, was rubbing his back as he expunged the last of the water from his indignant lungs. Panting, he rolled sideways onto the sand, looking up at the sky and into her worried face. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," he croaked.
She slapped him.
Stunned, he just stared up at her.
"You're not fine!" she shouted, angry tears in her eyes. "You nearly drowned!"
"I'm fine… now…?" he tried hesitantly. She glared at him, wiping her eyes.
"If you weren't not fine, I'd slap you again." Jellal laughed hoarsely and, after a minute, Erza's lips twisted up slightly, too. Rolling her eyes, voice soft again, she asked, "Why did you fall in?"
"I didn't mean to," he pointed out, amused.
Erza scowled slightly. "Obviously. I meant what distracted you so badly that you took a long walk off a short pier?"
Hoping to deflect the question, Jellal tried, "We were on a pier?"
Erza stared at him for a full minute, then burst out laughing. "You- you didn't- you didn't notice we were there? Oh my drigon! How- h-how- oh geez, how did you not notice?"
Jellal felt the heat rising in his face as he muttered, "I was thinking…"
Erza's face switched instantly from mirth to concern as she learned over him again, feeling his forehead. "Is there something else wrong?" she demanded, eyes flashing.
"I- what do you mean?"
She stared at him for a second as though trying to catch him joking, then said, "You're turning bright red."
This made him turn even redder as he realized that he wasn't wearing his cloak or head scarf – something he should have noticed far earlier. He shot bolt upright, looking around, half expecting to see a bunch of Rune Knights pelting towards them. There was nothing, however, except Erza. "Where's my cloak?" he asked urgently, anxious to put it back on lest someone see a Fairy Tail member with the infamous Jellal.
She raised an eyebrow. "Do you take me for so little?" she asked, seeming to read his mind. "I dragged you over to this area because it was deserted, Jellal. I can't very well give you CPR and mouth-to-mouth if you're covered in cloth-" She came to a dead stop, her last words cutting abruptly off, seeming to realize what she had just said.
In the exact same moment, both opened their mouths slightly before scrambling away from each other, blushing as brilliantly as anime characters.
"I-I'm so sorry, I-"
"No, no, it was my-"
"I- I'm so-"
"Don't- it's my- sorry-"
After a full two minutes of incoherent stuttering, they fell silent. Erza stood up abruptly. "Let's go find a boat!" she declared emphatically.
"Y-yes. Let's." Jellal got up too and, first receiving his cloak and scarf from Erza, followed her back along the shore to the docks.
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Erza looked out over the moonlit ocean as the port town of Hargeon disappeared. She couldn't sleep, not now…
Not after flat out kissing him.
She slapped both hands to her face, feeling the heat and wondering why it had decided today was the day to hang around her like an annoying sibling.
She was standing on the deck of a pirate ship, having commandeered it from the same pirates from which she had done before, and Jellal was somewhere on the ship. Probably sleeping, she thought almost ruefully. She had half-heartedly tried to do that, too, but hadn't been able to. She had slept so well on the train – and she knew why – but she knew she wouldn't be able to sleep now, so why try too hard?
Sighing, she leaned forward, resting her chin on her crossed arms. She had come to Galuna once before for a similar reason, now that she thought about it. Natsu, Lucy, and Gray had run off with a dangerous mission that they weren't allowed to take. Gray had originally been trying to bring them back, but had, by the end of it, been the one to convince Erza to let them stay and finish the job. She had allowed it because of the force of Gray's will, as well as how she had realized, subconsciously, that it was an important stone in Gray's path to move forward.
And now she was chasing Natsu, Wendy, and the two Black Mages that had run off to do something they weren't supposed to do. Wendy had sent them a letter to let them know that she was fine – therefore saying that she wasn't going to try to convince the others to come back, as they might have expected her to.
"Perhaps this is their step forward?" she wondered aloud, looking up at the moon. "Perhaps this is going to be their first step in the right direction…" She sighed heavily. It was still an hour until they would get there. Maybe she could try to sleep again.
That, or she could make sure her finest dresses were all clean and pressed. For no reason. None at all.
She slapped both hands to her face again. Jellal's just sleeping, and here I am making a fool of myself, she thought frustratedly.
Unbeknownst to her, being obliviousas she was, Jellal was most certainly not sleeping – was, in fact, acting out a similar pattern of thought about her as she him.
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As soon as they arrived, Erza, followed by a somewhat exasperated Jellal, leapt from the ship, hitting the sand with a loud clanking of armor.
"We will find them and bring them back!" she told – ordered – him as they began to sprint towards the only village on the island. She was back in territory she was used to, and she felt it.
"I don't think it will work out quite like that, Erza," Jellal pointed out. When she turned a fierce glare on him, he added, "I think, if one or both of the Black Mages don't want to leave, or don't want one of us to, either, then we probably won't be able to."
She glared for a minute as they dashed around, under, and over the uneven forest. "True," she conceded unhappily. "But what would you suggest?"
"I'll try talking to Aki. If the curse being lifted hasn't stopped her love of making games out of everything, then I might be able to deal with her…"
…hopefully.
Erza considered him for a moment, then nodded.
They were soon shouting up at the village gates to let them in. When they got no response, they tried again. Nothing.
As Erza started reequipping to break the great wooden gate down, Jellal suggested that he might just use a bit of magic to fly up and over the wall. He would check out what was going on, and they could decide what to do afterwards. She grudgingly agreed, and he was soon poking his head over the wall surrounding the little village.
A lance came out of nowhere, aiming straight for his face, and he dodged downward, letting himself fall back to the forest floor next to Erza. "Why aren't you letting us in?" he shouted to them, trying to forestall Erza's destruction of the gate.
"Why would we let you in to attack us?!" a voice shouted back, and both felt their stomachs drop.
"My name is Erza Scarlet!" Erza called immediately, reequipping back into her normal armor and showing her guild mark. "I came here to retrieve some of our wizards! I was here before, during the Moon-drip incident!"
There were footsteps, and a shouted, "Wait there a minute!"
Jellal looked tentatively at Erza. "Should I go…?" he asked, not the least bit unsure about leaving, only about how to convince Erza to let him do so.
She shook her head. "You're wearing a hood and face mask, they aren't going to recognize you."
He shook his head, thinking privately that Erza was being shortsighted. If one of them did recognize him, Fairy Tail would have an Edolas of a lot more problems, and it would be his fault. Again. But it was too late to do anything now, as the gates swung open and Erza ushered him forward, probably sensing, or guessing, his urge to skip out.
As they entered the village, they found most of the assembled villagers were still holding spears, eyeing Jellal warily. An old, stooped, purple akuma stepped forward, shaking hands with Erza.
"Hello, Chief Moka," she said respectfully, nodding around at the rest of the villager's. "What's going on?"
The Chief watched her. "And who's that?" He nodded at Jellal, who's hand Erza was holding, preventing him from backing out.
"That's J-Jay," she stammered confidently.
"J-J?"
"No, J'jay," she said firmly, and Jellal internally face-palmed – little did he know that she was as good at lying as he was, eh, fiancé man?
{{Still bitter. Forever and ever.}}
"I see. I assume you've come to pick up your injured friend, then?"
"Injured?" Erza demanded, stepping forward urgently, "Where are they?"
He blinked in surprise. "She was attacked. This way."
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"Erza…" Wendy muttered, struggling to focus on her.
"Wendy!" Erza all but shouted, leaning forward anxiously. "What happened to you?"
Wendy winced, eyes fluttering. "Aki and Zeref…" she mumbled distractedly. "Natsu… they hurt…"
Erza felt a string of panic. "Wendy, where are they?" she asked, forcing herself to remain calm.
"They attacked us," Wendy whispered, eyelids drooping.
"Where? Wendy, where's Natsu?!"
"They took… before I could see… up in the sky…"
"Wendy! Wendy, stay awake!" Erza urged, her heart racing. She had to find out where Natsu was before the Black Mages could do anything to him; or anything more, as it had been more than a day, she realized with a flutter of panic.
"…gonna take… power… revive…"
As Wendy trailed off, Erza felt herself shaking. So they had been lying this whole time. She should have known better.
"Why am I such an idiot?!" she growled, covering her face in her hands. And here I was believing them, falling for it hook, line, and sinker. Did I really think the two Black Mages would have any interest in starting fresh? Caring for their brother? Repenting for all their evil deeds?
Lucy, you must have been blinded by their younger selves. They are evil…
What was she going to…
Dear dragon, Natsu.
Her eyes snapped open and she whirled around, barely registering Jellal's presence, let alone his questions.
When he grabbed her wrist, she glared at him so that he almost let go. "Erza, we've got to-"
She shouted over him, "I have to find Natsu before they use his power to- to… Edo!" she burst out, practically dragging Jellal behind her as she bolted out of the hut and through the village, ignoring the villagers and their questions.
"Erza, what are we doing?" Jellal shouted behind her. "We need a plan to deal with-"
"They're trying to revive Deliora!" she snarled, dashing through the gate. "They didn't come here to retrieve the book for safe keeping! They came to resurrect it!"
Jellal blanched. He knew about Deliora through Ultear, and he wasn't at all eager to see the dragon thing resurrected – at least, not anymore. "Where are we going?" he asked instantly, letting go of her wrist to sprint beside her.
"The temple! It's the only place I can think of!"
It wasn't much, but at least it was a start. Now that he understood what the Black Mages were trying to do, he was just as eager as Erza to stop them. They could think of a plan on the road.
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EeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE JERZA ~\(≧▽≦)/~ ヾ(≧▽≦*)o o((≧ω≦))o (/≧▽≦)/
Also, aaaauuuuggghhhh Jellal why do you say such cliché thingssssssss aaaaaaaaaaaa
This is Erza and Jellal we're talking about, so don't expect them to, heaven forbid, communicate. Don't worry, I hate miscommunication and won't be using it romance wise; I just don't think they would blatantly say what they feel after all that's happened. Jellal, especially, would probably need to be half-dead before admitting that he was hurting, and Erza doesn't want to kill him – at least, not entirely – so it isn't happening. Erza blatantly loves him, but he's the linchpin of not being able to accept her. GAHAHAAHSFSDJENVJNDS it's so frustrating!
I enjoyed writing Aki when a 'villain,' it was really different. I tried to weave in statements that, at the time, seemed like they could only be an evil person's psychotic cruelty, but, knowing they were cursed, turn into an almost pitying awareness. The part when she mentions how many people are in the plaza—she notices everyone and anyone, run away, run away, don't care, don't kill—or when she says that it took a long time to not kill everything in sight—can't control, can't control, don't think, think, think—or how it comes off as disregard when she says she could kill them accidentally in seconds.
Oh, and I am not Japanese, but I've studied the language for several semesters now at college, so that's where the Japanese spell came from. I thought it would be fun! If you want to see how it is pronounced, I'll add it. I've also found a neat English to katakana converter, if anyone's interested in that. (I have a [your name in Japanese] kind of series in my fanfics that are a single chapter, but I don't just use the katakana converter for that. I don't entirely trust it, and I want them to be as accurate as possible.)
Next chapter is going to have some content warnings, just FYI.
Also, I'm really way too excited to post this fic in its entirety haha (ˉ▽ˉ；)
Previous Question! Who would you least want to be friends with? (No 'bad guys.' As in, no one you view as a villain, not necessarily who is or is not canonically a villain.)
My Answer: Carla. She's so judgmental and just, a jerk.
Then, Larcade because his magic is obscene, Evergreen because wow she's judgmental and annoying, Frosch because all she does is say "Me too!" {I admit, she gets less annoying late on} and Lector because he's so Edo stuck up and, again, judgmental. Are there types for people you want to punch in the face, just like there are for people you want to date? 'cause I know mine.
These I separately judged because it felt right to do so: most of the Spriggan Twelve, Aquarius, Taurus, Virgo, and Capricorn. They all just seem like such unpleasant people or mildly concerning (don't even try to defend Virgo you know as well as I do).
New Question (V)
Which villain do you hate the most? (NOT objectively. Choose the one that gives you the strongest feelings of anger/hate/disgust/etc. don't worry, I won't judge you. {Unless it's Zeref or Jellal.
Ο(=•ω＜=)ρ⌒ }