Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail, nor any of its concepts, characters, or ideas.

Author's note: This one is set during Erza's battle with Master Jose of Phantom. Sorry they aren't in chronological order, but I'm writing them as I think of them. Also, this one's a fair bit longer than the first, but I've kept it as a single chapter, because otherwise it'll get complicated. Also, it's not quite so... cruel? as the first chapter? There is more violence, but that's about all for this one. Major spoilers for the Phanto guild arc, so if you haven't read/seen that one, you might want to first. Or just enjoy my writing. If you read this, please comment; I'd like to hear your thoughts. But if you don't want to read evil or naughty fics, close this window now and save me your whining.

Dark moments: Chapter 2- Phantom Guild

Erza's body ached more than it had since she had escaped her early imprisonment in the Tower of Heaven. It had been foolish, to jump before the Jupiter beam. She had nearly died. She could feel it in her bones, the way her life had been drained away when her shield had been destroyed. Her armour had done little to protect her. Just as it was hardly assisting now.

She dodged a deadly shadow, the frozen edges clipping her side as she barely avoided the trailing ends. The effort almost threw her off balance, but she managed to stay upright as she sidestepped another thrashing shadow. She leapt forward with some of her fading strength and swung at Master Jose, making him pause in his attack and giving her brief respite.

Erza hadn't planned on joining this fight at all. Defeating the mage from element four should have been her only contribution, and truly she had been lucky the mage had been an easy conquest. Aria of the Heavens. She could hardly believe the Master had been defeated by one so simple. Natsu too. She guessed her unique abilities, so focussed on battle as they were, had helped her. The man had little soldier sense. Her anger had helped her too, certainly; perhaps her view on the battle was skewed by her inability to think clearly; she couldn't remember the words she had said during the fight. And after that her muscles had given out, and she had barely been able to keep her eyes open. She had focussed her hopes on Natsu, using his face to keep awake.

She made herself talk to him, convince him he had the strength to win. She knew the hope was slim; though Natsu certainly had the raw power, it would be many years before he could match Jose's training. Still, the others would be coming. She had blearily watched him work himself into a rage, and prayed for his luck and courage to remain steadfast. When he left, Erza had crawled to a corner, nursing her wounds. She had spent several moments gathering herself with deep breaths, trying to replenish her energy, when friends arrived. She had known they would be shocked to see her there, but there had been no way she would let the one who had harmed the Master go unpunished. Grey, Mira-Jane and Elfman had worried for her, but she didn't care. As soon as she saw them she had felt safer and stronger. With so many good people, they had to prevail, or the world wouldn't be worth living in.

She was a little ashamed that they came upon her before she could stand, though; her pride was often all that kept her standing. At least her armour had been intact.

A sudden pain in her side pierced the bubble of oblivion that was growing in her head and her conditioned body reacted twisting out of the way. They traded blows, neither landing a hit on another. Jose's mad chuckling filled the air with menace as much as his Shadows filled it with darkness.

Then Jose had come. Grimly she remembered the first touches of his putrid presence, like death itself was on the wind. It saturated each breath and chilled anyone with half a heart to the soul. Erza drew a deep breath and noticed that now she was used to the scent of death. She wondered how long they had been fighting like this.

Her hasty friends had rushed Master Jose blindly diving to their doom. He had swept them before him like ants. Mira had been taken down as she stood in panic for her brother. That was when Erza had forced herself to lunge at Jose, though he had easily blocked her first strikes. The more she fought, she caught a rhythm, and danced her pain away with the song of swords.

Thinking of her friends, Erza momentarily lost concentration, stumbling slightly as her eyes searched to see if they lived. Cold suddenly spread from her wrist, spreading a terrible ache through her, and she glanced down to see Jose's hand on her sword arm. She forced herself to remain calm, and waited for his move. He wrenched his arm back and threw her towards the ground. She went with the movement, caught in her dance, and easily landed several metres away. She stood slowly, and traced her mind along her body with the movement, identifying and accepting each piece of pain in her flesh. They faced each other from across the ruined hall of the Phantom Guild, the only sound the crumbling of stone bricks as they shattered upon contact with the ground. Erza gathered herself, feeling the warmth of the outside as a breeze blew into the hall and washed some of Jose's stench away. She took a deep breath of the purer air, and readied herself.

"You." Jose said, studying her. Erza raised her sword, prepared for his next move. He stood with his arms by his sides and looked thoughtful. "I'm pretty sure you took a direct hit from Jupiter. How is it you can stand?" His deep, gravelly voice sounded honestly curious, so she deigned to answer.

"My friends strengthen my heart!" she said, proudly saluting the statement, and shifting her sword grip to increase the power of a strike. "For those that I love, I'd throw away this body."

An evil grin spread across Jose's face. A smile should not be able to darken a face like that, Erza thought. He spoke in a mockingly contemplative voice that rose the hairs on her arms.

"Strong, courageous, beautiful..." his grin spread to widen his eyes, "It will be such a pleasure to destroy you, girl!" Erza felt a strange pity for the man, for someone so blind to the good things in life that he would wipe them from the world so he could never see them. Still, there was no denying his evil. They reengaged in battle.

His shadows stretched out to claim her, and she dodged. She dodged, and she dodged again. Erza tried to look for an opening, for a weakness, but she could see none. She twirled around him with the grace of a ballerina and the speed of a cheetah, yet she could find no break or end to his shadows. After what seemed a lifetime, they broke off, returning to positions apart. Erza shook from head to toe. The grasp on her sword was sticky with sweat and grime, coated in painful marble splinters it had gathered from the disintegrating roof. She refused to wipe her hands, though; she stared vigilantly at Jose, waiting for him to begin again. She didn't know how she could beat him, or how she would even go about beginning to try. It was all that she could do to avoid him, and stay on her feet.

Jose looked well enough, she thought enviously. Of course, he hadn't been shot by a magic cannon that could level an entire building. She shook off those negative thoughts. He did seem to be tiring; she noted that his own skin was grimy where the dust had mixed with sweat, and the heaviness of the lines beneath his eyes. Still, there was no way she could keep this up.

Screams from the outside drew both of their attention, and the abate in their battle lengthened. They silently looked about themselves as the hall began to crumble faster, dust spreading in concealing clouds from the bases of waterfalls of stone. Erza listened as the screams turned to cheers, and turned to look at Jose to find him already gazing at her, all traces of laughter gone from his eyes, though he smiled still. She felt satisfaction well in her chest, and love of her friends and their bravery. She was right to have trusted in them.

"Our dragons have run quite amuck," Jose said, and Erza felt her stomach tighten at the seething madness behind the words. His smile had turned to a sneer of contemptuous displeasure, and he closed his eyes. Erza wondered whether he was trying to shut out the damage around him, to forget that his guild had failed. Perhaps he was simply laughing at the weakness of the others.

Erza realised she was panting. She wondered again how long they had been fighting. It felt like she had never existed elsewhere, like this fight was where she was born and where, soon, she would die.

The others hadn't awoken yet. Erza looked to them, using their need to rebuild her deteriorating spirit. She forced herself to string some words together between gasps, knowing they had the potential to anger Jose, and hopefully cause him to overreact and give her an opening.

"It doesn't seem like you accounted for Natsu's battle strength." She felt pride for her friend and guild spread strength into her, and pointed her sword readily at Jose. "He is just as powerful than I, if not more so!" Not an entire lie, after all; Natsu did have the potential to be as strong as she. Perhaps the statement would offset Jose. Her hopes were dashed as he grunted unbelievingly.

"Enough with the modesty, Titania Erza. Your magical power is indeed amazing." His tone rose as though he himself didn't accept his words. "I have never met a wizard who could hold out against me for so long. If you hadn't taken damage from Jupiter, I suspect we may have been a better match." The ludicrousness of that statement almost made Erza collapse, and she forced back an incredulous laugh. A better match? She wondered if he even realised how much Jupiter had taken from her. Of course they would have been better matched. She wasn't confident enough in her abilities to say she could have won, still, but the fight would have been much closer than it looked to be.

Jose gestured to the side and looked up at her from under angry brows. He looked unimpressed, and she deemed it an improvement over his manic smile, though the deep loathing in his voice chilled the blood in her veins. Erza felt her eyes tighten in responsive anger to his next words. "I can't stand Makarov having a wizard this powerful in his or any other guild." Jose rose a fist towards her, and Erza readied herself. Still, she was somewhat off guard when all he did was flick out his finger to point at her. She didn't recognise the attack. The condensed ball of magic flew from the finger at an incredible speed and hit her right in the forehead, long before her reflexes rose her sword in defence. She flew back into the wall, the power of the magic driving her several centimetres into the stone brickwork, creating an Erza-sized crater and numerous piles of stones. Erza gasped with the new pain that assaulted her and struggled to breathe, to face Jose and defend his next attack. She felt utterly naked, completely defenceless. It was as though he had snuck up behind her and thrown her in the deep end. She was stuck in quicksand, and she couldn't get out.

Jose continued speaking as he shot out more condensed power from each of his other fingers. "Do you understand why I didn't finish Makarov off before?" he asked, as she leapt up from her personal crater to dodge, running almost entirely on her own will, her body broken and magic nearly gone. Still, she missed his attacks and jumped up to slice him. He easily defende, blasting upwards at her as he answered his own question. "Despair."

Erza twisted in the air and landed behind him, to jump again as he followed her and proceeded to bombard her. She did her best to keep her mind clear, successfully evading Jose as he clarified his answer. "It was to put him into despair." Against her will, Erza found herself recalling that that had indeed been Fairy Tail's initial reaction. She shook herself and focussed again on Jose, though he seemed caught up in the brilliance of his own plans. "When he wakes up and sees his beloved guild and his beloved guild members destroyed...How will he feel?" He chuckled darkly as he continued."Crestfallen, I'm sure." Erza stood stock still as his eyes locked onto hers. She found it extremely difficult to look away. "I'll destroy that man with despair and sadness never-ending. I will not let him rest! He'll suffer, and suffer, and suffer some more... 'til the end of his days..." He was whispering hoarsely, and Erza knew that even though he was looking directly at her, the benefit of the words was for himself, to refocus upon his goal. They angered her, though, and that was bad. Angry people didn't think clearly, and she was not strong enough to win blinded. Unfortunately, her strength of will came an instant too late. She snapped, lunging wildly at him.

"You villain!" she felt herself cry, though inside all of her wisdom and experience screamed at her to stop and think. As she had feared, Jose easily dodged, and rashness had left her vulnerable.

"Phantom Lord was always the number one guild." Erza felt frigid fear ice over her as his voice sounded from behind her. "We had the most powerful magic, the most talented people, and the most money in the country. But in these past few years Fairy Tail has suddenly gotten powerful." He glared at her as though she was the sole source of his anger. "Erza, Laxus, Mystogan... Those namew were heard even in our city, and rumours of Salamander spread throughout the country. And at some point, suddenly Phantom Lord and Fairy Tail became the two signature guilds of this country." He laughed lividly and then hissed in a mad voice as he narrowed his eye at her, glaring down at her from the very corner in hatred. "I don't like it. Especially when your guild was once crappy and weak!"

Erza was losing it. The decline of her magic was mixing with the pain and Jose's hateful words, and the whole thing was mashed with the erratic stones that fell upon her and the rumbling background noise of the Phantom Lord guild hall falling apart. Again it was as though she lost control of her body, the muscles ceasing their response to logic and following the anger in her heart.

"Silence!" she yelled as she stabbed towards him. His easy evasion only made her more angry. "Are you saying you started this war all because of some petty jealousy?"

"Jealousy?" he laughed, "of course not! I wanted to show everyone our superiority!"

Erza glowered hatefully at him, so full of fury her tongue stumbled as it tried to express it. "What a... What a worthless reason." She lunged again in a hopeless rage. He toyed with her. She loathed herself for her weakness; she knew it was foolish to give in to feelings. Still, she was too exhausted to control herself. She had already lost. It was plain on his face and in her mind, but her body and heart would not stop fighting. Her slashes didn't even nearly connect. She let loose a final flurry, deeling the last vestiges of magic and energy fade from her, and he leapt back out of reach before sweeping the sword from her hand with a wave and then scooping her up in his shadow. The dark, evil tendrils pulsed against her, squeezing tight, and she yelled as they released a tide of burning sparks into her. She was entirely at his mercy.

"I've long had a distaste for your guild, so the trigger to go to war was but a trifle." He sounded vaguely amused. "A request to return the first daughter of the Heartfilia Konzern." He zapped Erza again, smiling as she struggled in agony. The mention of Lucy made Erza wonder what had happened to the girl. Had she escaped? Jose continued, though ERza found it difficult to follow, so absorbed in her pain. "A daughter of one of the richest families in the country, in Fairy Tail? How big must you get before you're satisfied?" Again he increased the energy he sent into her and she screamed, unable to control herself. " I you bastards can use the heartfilia's money as you wish, there's no mistaking that you could gain power greater than ours. That, I cannot allow." This time, when he increased the energy, Erza knew she screamed again, but his last words had amused her enough for her to barely notice. She grinned, and was satisfied when he looked shocked.

"Making such a big deal about who's on top... It's pitiful." Erza snickered. "But it's your lack of a competent Intelligence that's laughable." Jose drew back doubtfully.

"What?"

"Lucy ran away from home. You think she uses her family's money?" Erza glared at Jose. "She lives in a rented house for 70,000 jewel a month! She does jobs and fights, together with us. We laugh together, cry together...She's a wizard like any other in the guild." Erza gritted her teeth at the insanity. "A trigger for war?" she growled. "The daughter of the Hertfilia family?" Erza shook her head violently. "As a flower cannot choose the place it blooms, neither can a child choose their parents." Erza struggled against the power that bound her. "A fiend like you knows nothing of Lucy's tears! You cannot know her!"

Jose drew back, but the look on his face was not as Erza had expected. He didn't seem disappointed, or even truly surprised. "I'll learn soon enough," He said.

Erza stopped struggling in shock. Jose grinned at her obvious surprise. "Do you seriously think I'd just hand her over to her father? If she doesn't have any money, I'll keep her... and I'll get the entire Heartfilia fortune!" Erza felt nauseated from the craziness in Jose's voice, and the manic expression upon his face. She could tell he meant every word. She thought of Lucy, all alone and brokedn, holed up with this evil madman, and struggled anew.

"Why, you..." She wrenched against the power, to no avail.

"Don't struggle," Jose said snidely. He raised palms saturated with dark magics. "It'll just cause you to suffer more." From each of his hands rose a skeletal creature of shadows, and they roared at Erza. Their gaping jaws then began to suck at the air before her, and Erza felt something unravelling deep within her, The strange feeling was so wrong, so foul, that Erza felt as though another set of nerves had been added to her body, to double the excruciating pain she felt. It was as though her very soul was being stolen. She shrieked as the beasts sucked at her stealing her life-force. Jose seemed entertained, his face lighting up at her torment. He spread his arms wider, and his grin grew.

"Now, " he slowly began, "shall we start the horror show? Let's show how you're doing to the rest of Fairy Tail." Jose walked up beneath her and laid a hand on her leg. She barely felt it through her pain. She could hardly believe she was still conscious.

" Titania, so full of pride..." He murmured hoarsely, sliding the palm down her leg gently. Despite her predicament, Jose's touch still managed to send chills down Erza's spine. "If they see your pitiful state, the rest of the trash are sure to give up."

Erza struggled to speak. "Does your wretchedness know no bounds?"

Jose clenched a fist, and one of the shadow beasts twirled an arm about her, its gentle caress searing into her like acid. It slavered before her like a rabid beast, and she drew back within her prison as it's tongue tasted the air before her. Jose laughed. "You'll be looking pretty wretched yourself in a moment."

As the beast encircled her, its touch burning through the shattered remains of her armour, and as Jose began to prepare a magical seeing screen, Erza had a single, strangely clear thought. It consumed her, filling every void of her that was yet to be filled with pain or fire. She focussed on it, testing its accuracy, and then decide it was her final option. If I'm a liability to the guild, then...

Erza's eyes swept to the corners and caught on her sword, lying forgotten towards her far right. Focussed on her ultimatum, she found herself capable of coaxing the tiny, almost non-existent thread of her final magic out into reach. She twined it deep within her, protecting it from the shadow beast's pervasive stroking with her thoughts. She cast the end of the thread to the sword, and felt it connect easily. The sword was an old friend. Old friends did like to reconnect, from time to time. Old friends sometimes die together.

Erza carefully tugged the thin strand and her sword rose. She closed her eyes and felt the sword's position. She called to it, welcoming it home. She regretted that she must die, and that her sword would likely shatter in the killing of her. She regretted, too, that she had not been able to save her friends, and that she would not see the master, or her old friends again. She did not regret sacrificing herself for her friends' peace of mind, though. Dying out of sight, so her friends could mourn her still remembering her as strong and proud was far better than leaving them with the image of her broken, mindless wreck of a body. She couldn't do that to them. Erza steadied herself and made a final prayer to whatever power existed in the heavens. Now it's up to you, Natsu...

And with that, she yanked hard on her sword and waited for oblivion.

Author's note: This ending was for those of you who haven't seen/read this arc yet... see, I didn't tell you how it ended! Otherwise, this one almost exactly followed the storyline. Sorry, kind of boring, but It is one of Erza's major scenes, and she is my favorite character. Please Reveiw, and like I said in chapter 1, feel free to mention parts you would like me to put down in words, or ideas for more fictitious works between your favorite Erza pairings (though I write straight fanfictions much better than I could write slash, probably because I have no experience in that area, sorry; I am game for just about any straight pairing, though, much easier to write.)

Thanks for reading.