Oi. How is everybody doing ? I have a big problem. I have an older bro and I have no idea what to get him for X-mas. Anybody have any ideas? Also, for those of you putting my story on their favs or story alerts, thank you so much! Do you want me to start posting your pen names up here along with the reviewers? Speaking of reviewers:
keira-kyuketsuki: I'd first like to thank you for reviewing. I hope I have great ideas that keep the story interesting, but I can be… unpredictable;) I have said this many, many, many times, but I am open to suggestions. Hopefully you can help me out with some ideas.
GoldenRoseTanya: Purehito was the only formidable bad guy I could think off. And sadly, yes, I did kill off Lucy's mother because I wanted the story to be (somewhat) accurate. I'll try to keep character deaths to a minimum. Except for characters I/reviewers really hate or to keep the story accurate.
Erza Scarlet Titania: sorry if I offended you our discussion of tomboys, and trust me ur probably much more tomboyish than I am. Anime is the best thing in the world "Ja?"… Bwahahaha ! That word is really popular nowadays.
cely13: I'm glad someone thought I didn't make the ending too cheesy. To be honest the NaLu arc went on much longer than expected, but if it turned out okay then the extra effort was worth it. I hope to make the Jerza arc is even better. Also, thx for caring about my review comment! I didn't mean to threaten ya guys or anything and I do hate it when fanfic authors do it, but now I'm sympathetic of/with them.
Aki Vermillian: I love that you love this story! And that would've been the best team ever! I always wanted Gray and Lyon to see Ul again. Am I the only one that thinks the Princess is The "Cape Girl?"(awesome nickname by the way. Sounds mysterious.) I think she kidnapped Jellal/Gerard. Thank you for not thinking of me as greedy.
Now for the fated words…
DISCLAIMER: FAIRY TAIL BELONGS TO HIRO MASHIMA. I OWN NOTHING. (best x-mas present ever would be Gray though;)
CHAPTER 6: What the Mirror Shows
Brain had just finished his most glorious creation yet. This would show everyone the severity of what they did. Casting him out and calling him the Devil. This… now this would show them all. He grinned in a nefarious way.
A pale child from the corner of the cave called home woke from his slumber and glimpsed toward the direction where Brain stood in front of a sinister looking mirror. His lips twitched upward and he spoke. "Father, you have done it. You have created Deliora's Mirror."
Brain heard the child's footsteps get closer to him. "Yes, Midnight, now it's time to put it to use."
"This mirror distorts the supposed beauty of anything that is reflected in it. Enticing landscapes, when reflected in this mirror, look like 'boiled spinach.' Imagine how we can make God and his angels act like lunatics." Midnight started cackling. "The magic in this mirror is also alive." Deliora's Mirror roared. Midnight's eyes widened in amazement.
"Let me go, father. My magic carpet can take me up." Brain considered him for a moment.
"Hm… Yes, that will do. Be careful with Deliora's Mirror. Now go, my son."
Midnight handled the mirror carefully. He reflected everything they passed as they ascended into the sky. Deliora's Mirror roared in what Midnight interpreted as joy in the destruction of beauty. The higher they got the louder the mirror got and the mirror itself swaying in Midnight's grasp. Midnight could feel its desire for destruction. That urge made Midnight loosen his hold on the mirror as his own thoughts drifted to how wonderful Deliora's Mirror could make the world. In that moment the mirror swayed once again and started plummeting down from the magic carpet. Midnight reached out to grab it, but it was too late.
Deliora's Mirror spiraled downward getting farther away from the rug above. It growled in annoyance as it realized that it was no longer heading towards heaven. The mirror roared one last time in extreme anger and confusion in its last seconds before hitting the ground and shattering into pieces that reached the size of specks of dust. But the thing about magic that is alive is that it isn't so easy to destroy. Even at the size of specks of sand the magic still took effect. For example, if a fleck or two got into a human's eyes they would see only the ugliness of any person or thing they set eyes on.
Now during the winter of the following year…_
Jellal Fernandez and Erza Scarlet were locked onto each other in a tight hug, their eyes wide. A small window box was a few feet in front of them. It held beautiful roses with delicate red petals. Erza and Jellal worked hard together to make them grow. At that exact moment Jellal grandfather, Grandpa Rob was telling them a story. The story of the Snow Queen.
"Now, when this queen of the snow-bees kisses you for the third time," Grandpa Rob paused for a dramatic effect. He chuckled on the inside seeing the childrens' frightened expressions, "you die instantly, on that very spot." The children pulled each other tighter and screamed. Uncle Rob started laughing and walked over to the children. He crouched down near them and patted their heads. They slowly opened their eyes to look at him.
"Hohoho, do not worry young'uns. You're safe as long as you two are together."
Erza allowed a slight smile to touch her lips. Seeing her smile, Jellal's eyes softened from their shocked state. When Grandpa Rob got up and backed away Jellal whispered, "Hear that, Erza? I think my grandpa is right. I'll keep you safe."
Erza whispered back, "That means I can also do the protecting, too."
"Haha, okay, but I'm telling you that you can leave it to me."
Erza untangled herself from Jellal and crawled over to the window box on the floor. The light emitted from the fireplace perfectly glowed around each individual petal of the roses sitting in the window box. It was a breathtaking sight. The flickering flames made the light dance on the petals giving it new beauty every second. Both Erza's and Jellal's eyes were transfixed to the shifting dance of the light and shadows. Erza wouldn't tell Jellal this, but she also found beauty in the shadows that cavorted. After all, shadows were cast of by the light, weren't they? As she watched the shifts between light and darkness, one thing caught her eye.
A single petal sat with the tip of its edge fairly wilted. Erza grabbed Jellal's hand and pointed. "Look, Jellal, look." It took him almost no time to notice.
"I see, it's starting to wither…" Jellal didn't know what to say, but strangely Erza didn't look completely sad. Instead he saw a question in her eyes. "What is it, Erza?"
Erza sighed. Jellal knew her so well. "I'm just wondering, that if this single rose was to wither away, it'd make us realize how much more special the life of the other roses are. But you can't replace a life so the other roses would also lose beauty because the roses have grown in the way that they have because another rose took the place next to it. What was lost would be gained. With the death of one rose the old beauty would be lost, but never forgotten, and a new beauty will emerge, but not try to take the place of the old beauty. Does that make sense, Jellal?"
"Umm…" Jellal just blinked. He couldn't say he understood.
Grandpa Rob was shocked. When he heard Erza say that he staggered. He had always known Erza was a mature child, but this was on a completely different level. Grandpa Rob did not know whether he should be worried or proud. Proud that Erza could understand such a concept or worried what that knowledge could do to her. He remembered when Jellal and Erza first met and when they planted their roses. _
Jellal went outside to play with the other kids just like any other day. Grandpa Rob came with him as usual to watch him and the other kids play. It made him feel young again, watching them mess around."Jellal, wait for your old man to catch up!" Rob called out after his running grandson. Jellal patiently waited for his grandfather to catch up. Rob was lucky to have such a considerate grandson.
The day went fairly normal. Jellal played tag, and he was one of the fastest runners, but he let himself get caught sometimes and did not chase after the slow kids like many of the other runners do. They played catch and Jellal always thought of new games the kids loved playing. Grandpa Rob really was glad that his grandson was good at communicating with others. He got along with everybody and everybody else loved him. That was all he could ask for.
After a successful day of playing they went to get a treat as always. That day Jellal chose ice cream. Jellal ordered a waffle cone filled with a double scoop of chocolate. Rob ordered a small banana split with maple nut flavored ice. Hot fudge was poured over it with a pile of whipped cream and one huge cherry on top. Rob suggested they sit down to enjoy it and Jellal happily complied.
They spent their time cloud watching. Jellal saw a carriage where Rob saw a seashell. Rob chuckled. They always had different point of views when cloud watching. Rob finished his snack relatively quickly, but the sun was starting to set before Jellal could finish his cone, the sun was already starting to set in the sky. Rob stood up.
"Well, Jellal, it's time to get a move on. Come on, you can finish your ice cream on the way home." Jellal took one more lick before getting up. Rob reached out his hand and Jellal took it. They started walking home together.
Rob was contemplating whether he bought too much ice cream for Jellal or not. He still hadn't finished by the time they neared his house. All of a sudden Jellal stopped walking and looked up. Rob looked behind him and asked, "Why did you stop Jellal?"
"Who's that?" was all Jellal said. Grandpa Rob looked in the general direction Jellal was looking and saw what a Jellal saw. On the roof of the house next to theirs (which was about ten minutes away from their house) sat a girl around Jellal's age, with hair which almost blended in with the scarlet sunset. "I'm going to go talk to her" Jellal said before running off. Grandpa Rob raised his hand to stop him, but then lowered it. He wanted to see what his grandson would do.
Jellal had trouble making it onto the roof. Even without holding his ice cream cone he would have trouble getting up there. When he finally made it up he saw that the girl was sitting there anymore. He started walking over to where the girl was sitting when he slipped. Jellal saw Grandpa Rob running towards him, but it would take his grandfather at least ten minutes, even if he ran. Jellal barely was able to grab onto the railing of the house. He had to let go of his ice cream cone to do so, and it splattered beneath him. If he fell he would at best only break a bone or two. At worst… Jellal didn't want to think about it.
His fingers were slipping. "I-I'm not able to hold on," Jellal thought despairingly. His hands slipped off and he started to scream. He clenched his eyes waiting to hit the ground, but then he jerked. Jellal looked down and saw he was floating in midair. Then he looked up and saw the scarlet haired girl gripping his wrist. Some stranger just saved his life.
Slowly and with much effort, the girl heaved Jellal up onto the roof and continued to pull him to a part of the roof where there was little chance of either of them slipping or falling. They both gasped for breath. It was an awkward silence. Jellal tried breaking it.
"So…um… Thanks, I owe you one."
The girl said nothing.
Jellal tried again. "What's your name?"
The minutes ticked by before she responded, "Erza."
Jellal smiled at this and continued to ask, "What about your last name?"
Erza responded faster this time. "I don't have one."
Before Jellal could say anything else, Grandpa Rob shouted, "JELLAL!"
Jellal turned his head in his grandfather's direction and exclaimed with glee, "Grandpa Rob!"
Erza helped Jellal off the roof and they met Rob at the bottom. Rob dragged Jellal into a tight embrace. Tears were streaming down his face. "Gran-Grandpa…! You're choking me!" Jellal wheezed, trying to squirm out of his grandfather's hug. Erza was watching all this silently. Rob finally let Jellal go.
Erza looked startled when Rob turned and bowed at her. "Thank you. Thank you so much for saving my grandson!" Erza turned her head away, trying to hide her blush.
"…You're welcome."
Grandpa Rob chuckled. "Our house is over that way," he gestured toward their house, "feel free to come over anytime you want." He and Jellal started walking away. Then Jellal spun around and shouted-
"Scarlet! Erza Scarlet! That can be your name! It's the color of your hair!" Then Jellal turned around and resumed walking home with his grandfather. Erza just stared at them as they walked home. When they were out of sight Erza allowed a faint smile to brush her lips and ran her fingers through her hair.
Jellal woke up earlier than usual the next morning. He met up with Grandpa Rob when he was in the kitchen making breakfast. "Well, well, good morning, Jellal. What are you doing up this early?" Grandpa Rob asked while frying some sausages.
"I'm going to go to Erza's house and see if she wants to come and play with the other kids from the village with me."
"That's nice of you Jellal, but-," Jellal ran out the front door before his grandfather could finish. Rob sighed. "- you might want to put on more clothes besides your boxers." He chuckled.
Jellal quickly jogged to Erza's house so he made it there in five minutes. He knocked on the door. He heard footsteps getting closer and a lock being undone. The door opened to reveal Erza.
"Hey, Erza, wanna come play with me and some other kids today?" Jellal could smell the scent of scrambled eggs that came wafting through the open door.
Erza looked like she was considering it. "Okay, but I have one question."
"Sure, anything!" Jellal was thrilled that she said yes.
"Are you going to put some clothes on before then?"
Jellal was confused. "Wha…" He looked down and back up at Erza, who was just staring at him. Jellal started blushing madly. "Um…uh…"
Erza tilted her head. "Is that a no?"
His blush got deeper. "Y-yeah… I mean no! I mean, you see…" Jellal sighed, thinking he couldn't be any more embarrassed. "I will put on some clothes," he muttered. Erza smiled.
"Would you like to come in for some breakfast? I have some scrambled eggs ready."
Jellal was glad she was not making fun of him or laughing hysterically in his face. He accepted her offer. When he walked into her house he noticed that everything looked plain and simple, like it had just been bought. "How long have you lived here?" Jellal asked as Erza dished some eggs onto his plate.
"Three months," she answered. Jellal nearly choked.
"That long? How come I never noticed?" he thought.
They spent the rest of the meal pleasantly talking (mostly Jellal did the talking) and Jellal explained the games they usually played. Then when breakfast was finished Erza walked with Jellal back to his house so he could put something on besides is boxers.
Grandpa Rob greeted them at the door. "Finally noticed, eh Jellal? Oh, and Erza, it's a pleasure to see you again." Erza just smiled while Jellal's face went red.
"You knew I went out like this and didn't stop me?!"
"Why Jellal, I shouted after you, but you didn't hear me. You should put on some clothes now and hurry while you're at it so you're not late meeting with the other children." Jellal ran upstairs. Rob turned to face Erza. "Erza, would you like some breakfast?" She shook her head and muttered a soft "no thank you." "What a polite child," Grandpa Rob thought. He could hear Jellal coming back.
"Okay, I'm ready! Let's go."
By the time they got to the usual clearing the kids played in, all the other kids were already there. "Hey, Jellal's here!" one of them shouted. He also asked, "Who's that?"
Jellal grinned and pulled Erza closer. "This is Erza. Erza Scarlet." Everybody accepted her without any problems. The first game they decided to play was hide-and-seek. Grandpa Rob told them he wouldn't be watching today since he had to go shopping.
Jellal could not find a good place to hide, and there were ten seconds left. He heard someone whisper his name. He spun around to see Erza on a tree branch. Her hand was held out for him to decide whether he wanted to share her hiding place or not. He accepted.
Erza helped Jellal climb to the top of the tree. The view was magnificent. "So this is why you like high places," Jellal breathed. Erza slightly nodded. It seemed like only a minute had passed when Erza and Jellal heard their names being called. As it turns out, two hours had gone by. They both started to climb down. As they reached the bottom branches no one seemed to notice them, so Jellal snuck up behind one of them and whispered, "Boo." She screamed.
"Hahaha. Just kidding, just kidding!" Jellal laughed.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" a taunting voice asked. Everybody but Erza recognized the the voice. It belonged to the town's bully, Yuka Suzuki. "Ah, yes, the little pests."
"Yah, yah," Toby Horhorta, Yuka's sidekick, nodded hishead in agreement.
Yuka started approaching them and everybody but Erza stiffened. Jellal narrowed his eyes. Yuka walked past Jellal to where Erza was standing. He whistled much to Jellal's annoyance. "I haven't seen you around before. You must be new. Why don't you ditch these losers and come hang out with me?" Yuka flashed what he thought was a charming smile. It was frikin' creepy.
Jellal couldn't stand it. He marched in front of Erza and declared, "What are you doing here, Yuka! Nobody wants you here, go away!" Everybody cheered when Jellal stood up to Yuka. This caused Yuka to scowl. He harshly shoved Jellal, which caused him to fall on to the ground. Yuka smirked as he was about to crush Jellal's face, but suddenly he saw a foot appear in front of his face. It made contact and Yuka skidded across the ground. People then applauded for the person that was now crouching on the ground in a battle pose. Erza had a very serious expression on her face.
'Why you little brat. I'm gonna have to teach you a lesson," Yuka said, spitting dirt out of his mouth. Before Jellal could say anything, Erza said, "Just try." Yuka's nostrils flared. He ran up to her and attempted a left jab followed by a right hook, but Erza jumped up and balanced on his outstretched arm before kicking him in the face again. Before he fell again, Erza gracefully leaped off his arm and landed standing up. Yuka started charging at her agai, but had an alternative motive.
Instead of attacking Erza again like everybody expected, he made a turn and ran towards Jellal and yanked him up by his hair. "Ergh…!" Jellal groaned.
"What ya gonna do now, red head?" Yuka taunted. Erza held her hands up in surrender. He started laughing. "Bwahahaha! That was too easy! Now do you see who's in charge, wimps?" Erza allowed a smirk to appear. "Huh? What ya smirking about? You lost!"
"I surrendered, but nobody else did." Just then Jellal elbowed Yuka in the gut. His hold on Jellal weakened and Jellal ran towards Erza.
"That's it!" Yuka yelled. He tackled into Jellal and the two entered into a fierce wrestling match. It was unclear who would win. They started rolling across the ground toward the forest. Erza's eyes widened. While she was hiding in the tree with Jellal she saw that part of the forest. Although it might look normal, it ended in a short, but still dangerously high, cliff and at the bottom laid a field of rose bushes.
Erza raced toward them. They were almost there and she tried to run faster. "Stop!" Erza svreamed. Jellal was startled. This was the first time he heard Erza raise her voice. He saw that Erza had almost caught up to them. Yuka took this chance to try and pin Jellal, but when he rolled over he felt no solid ground under him. As he fell he dragged Jellal with him. Erza latched onto Jellal to try to keep him from falling, but failed. All three fell.
"OW!" Yuka screamed in agony. Both he and Jellal landed in the thorny roses, but for some reason Jellal didn't feel much pain. Sure, he had a few stinging scratches, but he hardly thought it counted. He felt something soft beneath him. He tried to carefully shift his position and heard a moan under him. He turned his head to see a bloody and pierced Erza.
"Erza!" Jellal screamed with emotional pain.
"Urgh… Je-Jellal… Get onto the cliff so I can get up," she muttered through gritted teeth. Jellal obeyed her without uttering a word. With much torment Erza climbed up after him. Jellal helped her get over the edge. "Erza…" Jellal whispered. What Erza said next surprised him.
"I feel sorry for the flowers. We crushed their beauty."
Jellal didn't know how to react, but then he got an idea. With a smile he carefully maneuvered himself back down the cliff and when he came up again he was carrying an unconscious Yuka and a handful of crushed roses and a few roots. Jellal placed Yuka on the ground and Toby immediately ran over to him. Walking over to Erza he grinned and held out his hand which had the crushed flowers and roots. "We can plant these and make our own beautiful flowers." Erza laughed a melodious laugh.
When Rob got to the clearing to pick the kids up, there were none there. There was a note in the middle of the clearing though. He picked it up. It said:
"Everybody went home."
Grandpa Rob was shocked when he got home. Erza and Jellal were standing on stools pouring dirt into a window box on the table. What shocked him even more was how bloody Erza was, who still had fresh blood flowing from her wounds, and the scratches that covered Jellal. He dropped his bags. "What the heck happened?!"
Erza turned and faced him. "It's all my fault. I'll take full responsibility." Jellal gaped at her.
"No, it isn't! It's Yuka's fault! Grandpa, you gotta believe me! If Erza wasn't there, I would be as hurt as she is right now or worse!"
Rob looked at them both and sighed. He walked over to a cabinet and opened it, taking out a first aid kit. "Erza, come here," he demanded. Erza walked over to him. "Jellal, tell me what happened what happened while I tend to Erza."
Rob smiled at the memory. Since then, Erza came over more often and eventually she and Jellal became best friends.
This was MUCH longer than I expected. Sorry for the long memory. It was supposed to end about 1,000 words ago, but it didn't work out that way. I seem to hav a thing for making the girls heroines. Hope you guys don't mind. Also, I just wanna let ya know that my teachers have been bombarding me with homework so I won't be able to update as often. I have four other ideas for stories, but I don't have time to write them! I barely have time for this one. So wish me luck.