Erza woke with searing pains in her wrists and aches all over her body. Her tear-encrusted eyes slowly opened at the sound of creaking metal, resounding within the darkened room. Erza tried to move but to no avail, the woman remained in her painful position. This feeling was so familiar somehow… The heroine had realized she had been chained to a cemented wall, the straps wrapping around her wrists with the strength of titanium. No way, shape, or form, would the requip knight be able to anything to break away from this confinement. There was a gradual pain, slowly trickling down from his wrists, to her elbows, then to her numb shoulders. Each second her heart beat a little faster as she knew nothing of what was to come.

Erza choked with a dry throat, her breathing noticeably louder than anything else inside that room. Suddenly, the sound of heavy metal crashed against her ears and caused the scarlet beauty to wince. She couldn't remember anything at all… nothing apart from the nightmares the woman had experienced incessantly.

She closed her eyes tightly, furrowing her eyebrows, and in full belief that this one was just as real as the others had been.

Cold finger tips cupped her cheek, like a splash of freezing water to the face. A rough thumb caressed her jawline as if she were a child, and continued to do so passionately for several moments. Then, the cool fingers fiercely pulled upwards to have her face meet with the figure.

A masculine, silver voice began to speak in a slow and cruel manner.

"I'm afraid this isn't a dream Erza, so I suggest you open your eyes."

Her drowsy caramel orbs were reluctant to open—she was afraid of what was awaiting her when she did. The cell was just a tad too dim for her eyes and nothing in particular could be made out, yet it all felt vaguely familiar to her. Her eyes darted to the fingers that latched onto her cheeks, finding some confusion in her situation. Several moments later, after briskly thinking it over and over again, she realized what was going on.

It took her a moment to comprehend that Jellal was standing before her the way he was…with her chained down. Erza knew this would happen… yet she didn't. His navy hair appeared black in the dimness of the cell, though his intricate tattoo remained as brightly red as her crimson hair had been. His cold face just a few inches away from hers, his menacing eyes glaring down at her with the insensitivity they had eternally emanated.

Her hands trembled in a way that her past, younger self would've exhibited. Those eyes caused a reaction in her… a truly terrified expression that he just couldn't get enough of.

She felt…betrayed.

…

'What…what the hell was that!?'

Her seemingly loud whisper ripped through the silent air. The fragile heart inside her chest was beating frantically; the woman placed her palm against her torso and held her breath for a few moments and then exhaled slowly.

The woman slumped back into the messy fumble of sheets, her hair spread about like the rays of a brilliant crimson sun, designing the bed messily. She pinched the bridge between her eyes—a habit she found herself doing quite often and slammed the back of her head into the supple, rectangular cloud. She rubbed her sore eyes. Recently her dreams had involved a lot of…Jellal… in them. It would be best to not tell him anything of this little instance or he won't stop mulling over how much a bad person he was.

Erza tossed and turned on her bed, quickly finding a comfortable side position to sleep on. The events that had taken place prior were much too drastic for her, affecting her sleeping habits in the strangest of ways. Trembling eyes shut quickly, eagerly waiting for the moments of morning to finally reach her the next instance her eyes reopened.

…

Sometime later that day, the scarlet knight found herself with legs hanging over the same wooden bench as the past evening, looking up into the blended lavender sky. The woman took several of her blades and began sharpening them with her leather razor strop, all neatly rearranged in the order of increasing size along the ground. This was the perfect substitute for sleep, as it both utilized the time she could have wasted trying to sleep, and also refining her dulled weaponry for later use.

She found herself drifting off into thought.

'There won't be enough time to train for the Grand Magic Games. I guess I'll have to make do with my current strength and hope for the best.' She assured herself.

"Erza."

Erza heard a masculine, yet softly spoken voice disrupt her thoughts.

Her heart quickened little more.

"J-Jellal! I didn't expect you to see you here again."

The scarlet knight decided to mimic his actions and survey the sky alongside her comrade. After all, it was a common ice-breaker for situations like these.

His soft silver voice continued after a while of admiration, "It's a fine morning, no?"

"Yeah…Hasn't been this calm in a while." Replied the demure scarlet beauty.

The blue mage nodded understandingly, and in an attempt to keep the fire of conversation going.

She looked at him for several moments unintentionally. He'd worn his usual navy cloak and a Crime Sorciere unformed trench cloak pridefully showing beneath. This time, though, it was a normal yet lengthy jacket with only his guild's symbol a casual form of wear she supposed. His chest plate nowhere in sight and only a white button down shirt had filled the sliver of space between the two flaps of good material. Normally he wouldn't show skin, but from what she could detect in her angle, his prominent collar bones and a fraction of his upper chest were visible. He didn't seem to be expecting any sort of battle that day, an assumption from the attire he'd equipped himself with.

The two remained in a trance of stares, caught into each other's eyes.

Erza had considered responding—had trouble responding as a matter of fact. But quickly threw away such interest and leaned forward to catch an outlying sword on the verge of skidding into a sharp drop of nothingness. "That was close…" She sighed in relief. "I can't afford to lose another one of these!" The requip knight focused her magic in the swords splaying before them and equipped them back into her arsenal; each sword emanated a lucent white shine before disappearing into another hidden dimension.

Jellal didn't mind the change of subject, and was keen on observing the weapon wielder and the short scuffle she had with her inanimate objects, his head tilted sideways as he optioned a desultory glance at the woman. The man hummed lowly, placing an index finger to what could have been his lips. "I don't suppose you've worried about the tournament, are you?"

"No… not at all." Replied the scarlet beauty in a disquieting voice, quickly realizing how easily readable she was and laughed it off nervously. She was a terrible liar. "I guess I'm just not ready to settle in my own home. Everything is a bit off, different even."

His face was enigmatic, it was impassive, yet it implied the man had some deeper hidden emotion that she could never know. His lips just barely moved in the shadows of his hood. "I see. And why's that?"

"The whole world moved on without us—without Fairytail. People were bound to receive such depressing news, so could you imagine the faces of loved ones as their hearts broke in two? Believing they would never see them again?"

Jellal knew that part of this had been a reference to him.

"It's not like it had been your fault Erza." He sighed exasperatedly, believing the tables of conversation have ironically turned.

"If only I were stronger then… we wouldn't have—" Her fists clenched into the edge of the rustic wood, hoping the pain would distract away from any useless tears. She felt like she had endlessly hounded her inner conscience for being such a weakling, and she did it as often as day and night. "What if we don't win the championship? What will the world think of us then?"

"Erza, you will be fine. You have plenty of time before the actual tournament starts."

"Yeah, but here's the thing. Everyone else had time to train while we only have a few days!"

"It isn't simply just a battle ground, you have to partake in tests of the mind as well—and that isn't something that you can learn. It's accumulative knowledge, and I, for one, believe you excel in that category."

She smiled brightly at the statement. "W-well… I'm flattered, but that doesn't account for the rest of my team. Natsu and Gray are dimwits. Lucy is the only one I can count on in that department, yet she can't function too well in the heat of a fight. And I'm not too sure about Wendy." She growled in exasperation and flung her face into her palms. "Nothing seems to work. I don't know what to do Jellal!"

"There's no point in worrying about what the world thinks of your guild, as long as the fact that you're unrivaled remains true to yourself."

"Yet there is always a possibility of being humiliated in front of an entire city." Her hands then shifted and interlocked with each other and then as a platform for her chin, her caramel-chocolate eyes glaring absently into the mass of green.

Jellal sighed. "Are you the same Erza? I never knew you to be so pessimistic."

"I'm not… I just… need to think about this more."

A sly smile developed, and tilted his head mockingly. "Are you afraid that I might enter the tournament with my own guild?"

He heard her laugh suddenly, it was a pleasant sound to hear and wasn't often that it happened. The scarlet beauty abruptly displaced her head from the resting position and turned curiously towards him on the side, pallid under brilliant sky, and a look of determination artfully designing her expression. "That's a good idea! I seriously insist that you join, and then I can finally have an excuse to kick your ass."

"Yeah? Is that a threat, Ms. Scarlet?" He playfully continued.

"Maybe it isn't, maybe it isn't Mr. Fernandez."

She passed her baton of attention back to the sky, continuing to admire such a timeless beauty.

"I'll take you up on that challenge then. But be careful, you'll get what you ask for." That smirk of his grew by the second, and Erza did not fail to notice it. She detected it to be in light of a good situation, ironically, it had been Jellal secretly raring to speed up the situation.

After a while, he abruptly stood up, digging through his hidden cloak pockets.

"What are you doing?" Erza probed, quizzically looking at the blue haired mage.

"Well, you see I have these—" His silver voice abruptly paused as his hand rustled through his travel pack. "Damn. I left them back at the camp with my other clothes. Mind waiting here for a bit?" The scarlet beauty watched him traipse along the dirt trail into what she presumed to be his hideout, a curious feeling washing over her.

…

"No way!" Her shrilling excitement was one for the books, and certainly for Jellal. "How did you even manage to catch this? I thought the place closed down, didn't it?"

Her mind halted at the thought of him actually bringing about the topic of the excursion. Akane resort was brimming with casinos, roller coasters, a pleasurable sea side beach and many more attractions. In her eyes, it will be his way of atoning for the stained relationship between them, but as she finds herself distracted with these fleeting stimulations, he would strike her down.

"Nope. Still up and running as far as I know." He decreed, thumbing the envelope and hoping that he hadn't jinxed it.

Her heart thumped frantically against her chest, threatening to jump out of her chest the longer she spent her time dawdling at her tickets. "I can't believe this. I haven't been there in so long! But I don't understand… isn't this yours? Why give it to me?"

The astral mage tried his best to appear innocent and righteous, but it would be quite a hassle to maintain that image for long. The blue haired mage turned away and adjusted his hood. "I wanted to give you chance to relax. I know you're worried about the tournament, so I just—"

Thin fingers held up one ticket and the sunlight shone through the fibers, lovely chocolate eyes quickly roving over the letters and numbers.

"Well, that's very thoughtful of you Jellal. Hey… this expires tomorrow!"

"Does it?" He took one the slip of paper and thoroughly inspected it as if he knew nothing about the date, but was well acquainted with the truth behind it all. He smiled thoughtfully to himself and handed her the matching ticket as if he had nothing to do with it. "Better get going then, if you want to get back to the tournament in time."

"But I can't go alone, I mean I just…"

"Why not ask one of your friends?" He asked, bemusedly.

"I don't think they'd want to. They're all too tired to travel right now." She sighed and clenched the ticket just lightly enough so that it wouldn't crumple.

"I'm not so sure then. I mean, what could I possibly do with this matching ticket?" He grinned, holding his twin slip delicately between two fingers and discreetly up until that point, tilting his face upward in false bemusement, and tapping the ticket on his chin. Erza half-smiled and laughed in one short outwardly exhale, realizing what the situation had come to. It was amazing how simple and easy everything transpired between the two as of late, and she sensed much relief washing over.