"Wendy's been taken?"

Erza could feel her heart sinking into her stomach. Wendy had been kidnapped by a member of Oracion Seis with the ability to mimic other mages and their powers. She slumped on the ground next to the couch she had laid Natsu on. She had been depending on Wendy to heal Natsu.

'No. I won't clutch at his hand and cry like a little girl. I am Erza "Titania" Scarlet. I'll rescue Wendy and return her to base so she can heal Natsu.' Determination and strength flooded her veins. 'Just stay here and rest, Natsu. This time, it truly is my turn to save you.'

Erza marched out of the villa, looking for the one in the trio of Blue Pegasus boys that used Archive Magic. Anything they had learned he would know so, hopefully, he would have knowledge on the whereabouts of Oracion Seis and where they had taken Wendy. She wondered why such a strong Dark Wizard guild had taken a girl like Wendy captive. Just by looking at her you could tell she was still a child, unable to fight for her life. And they certainly couldn't have use of her skill set.

Or did they? Did Oracion Seis know that Wendy Marvel was the Sky Dragon Slayer? That she was capable of healing magic? But if they did know, who did they need her to heal?

Erza was more determined to find Wendy. Not only did she need the girl for Natsu's sake, but whatever Oracion Seis planned to use her for spelled bad news.

Hibiki wasn't as helpful as she thought he'd be. The only thing he could tell her was that Oracion Seis had made their base in a ruined city. A ruined city that was swallowed by the Woodsea Forest and he had no clue where it was located.

It frustrated her that he couldn't provide exact coordinates. Natsu's life was in danger and she would be wasting precious time scouring the forest just to find them. She whirled to face the forest and came face to face with Gray and Lucy.

"We're coming with you, Erza. We want to save Wendy and Natsu too."

"Flame brain's not getting out of our match this easily."

Of course both Gray and Lucy would come with her. They also cared for Natsu, although if he and Gray were still fighting she would have to do something to correct that. But Erza was quite glad they would both be accompanying her. It would be just like another job for Team Natsu, if she ignored that Natsu wasn't joining them and the whole point of this job was to save him. It warmed her heart to know that she had such great friends, friends that were willing to risk their lives for her and help her when she needed them to. She had been so wary and tentative of forging new bonds and making new friends with the other members of Fairy Tail after Jellal's betrayal. But having friends was truly the greatest thing in the world.

"Right, let's get started. We won't find Wendy and Oracion Seis's base by standing around." Erza ordered Gray and Lucy to get moving and strode into the forest first using the time the two scrambled after her to wipe away the few tears that had gathered in the corner of her eyes.

Finding the ruined city turned evil doer's secret hideout was harder than Erza had anticipated. Not that she thought it would be terrible easy. But she definitely thought they would have found something after two hours wandering, more like storming really, the forest. The lack of success was a constant concern for her. She didn't want to imagine what purpose Oracion Seis would have for such a sweet and gentle young girl like Wendy, and every minute they searched without results sent a stab of panic to her heart. What if Oracion Seis's plans to find Nirvana succeeded? What if they were too late to rescue Wendy? What if Wendy wasn't truly capable of healing Natsu?

Erza did her best to push those thoughts aside and not think them, but they floated across her mind untethered, coming and going and increasing in tone of despair and depravity the longer they searched through the Woodsea. To keep her mind off her, in her mind anyway, apocalyptic thoughts, the scarlet haired mage focused on praying for Natsu to hold on until they returned and that she, Lucy and Gray found something soon.

No sooner had she thought about something interesting happening when a group of wizards bearing a strong resemblance to monkeys surrounded them. Erza wasn't worried about the lackeys. They were low leveled, undistinguished, untrained, groupies that had no skill other than brute force and pathetic intimidation by trying to look like gorillas. She wasn't even worried about Erigor, who had appeared crouched on a tree branch shrouded in a slightly tattered cloak and wielding a giant scythe laid over one shoulder. Natsu had beaten him once before so she was confident the three of them could handle him.

What worried Erza was the distraction this battle caused. While half of her was overjoyed to finally see some action, which had to be a response from Oracion Seis, because it meant they were getting closer to their goal of finding and rescuing Wendy, she absolutely did not want to waste any time dealing with a single one of the weak and untalented wizards in front of her, even if she could take them out with one Re-Quip. They were so close to saving Natsu; she did not want to be stalled for even a second.

Gray seemed to have developed a new ability to read her mind. "We'll take care of the goon squad. You go find Wendy. We have to be close."

Erza gave him a grateful look and Re-Quipped into her Flight Armor and sped off, greatly outdistancing any that tried to follow her. She trusted that Gray's and Lucy's abilities would be enough to defeat the battalion of hulking brutes and Erigor. She almost turned around when there was a shout behind her, but Gray created a giant ice wall that prevented Erigor, who had tried to give chase, from engaging her in a battle that would only waste their time. She gave her teammates a smile that said she would let them take care of this situation and dashed through the foliage.

It wasn't long before she came to a cliff. Normally that would have signaled she made a wrong turn and had hit a dead end, but, at the bottom of the cliff, was the ancient ruined city Team Natsu had been searching for. She switched her Flight Armor, which she mused as she faced the cliff, was misnamed because it did not grant her the ability to fly, for her Black Wing Armor that was composed of a black bikini covered by black plating with a silver trim and some decorative silver crosses. The most important part of this armor was the wings attached to her back which would allow her to fly down to the crumbling city.

She entered the largest intact building cautiously. Up to this point, they had seen neither head nor tails of any member belonging to Oracion Seis, and despite being an S-Class mage and one of the strongest in Fairy Tail, she was no match for five extremely powerful wizards from a dark guild, and she knew that. Her best chance of saving both Wendy and Natsu was to sneak in unnoticed and get out the same way.

However, Erza was met with no resistance. Suspicion curled in her stomach. While not encounter all five Dark Wizards, not seeing at least one guarding the girl they had captured made her uncertain. It should not be as easy as strolling into their base unannounced and walking out again unscathed. There should have been at least one member of Oracion Seis present.

But there was no one to be seen. Erza made her way through the abandon city unfettered. It wasn't too hard to find the room where Wendy had been held captive. All she had to do was follow the sobs. It wasn't likely that anyone in Oracion Seis cried like a little girl, which was fine because that was what Wendy was and it was acceptable when she cried. Erza would have thrown down her sword and returned to Magnolia if her enemy cried like Wendy was prone to.

She was hit by a blue haired missile as soon as she cleared the doorway. Erza consoled the girl, who was trembling in her arms as tears literally fell down her face like a river. Wendy was attempting to tell her something, but it was hard to understand when every second word was pierced with a wail. What little she did decipher, seeing the boy who had saved her and brought her to Caitshelter and finding out he was dead, she couldn't understand the importance.

"And then Brain made me revive Jellal. But they were calling him by Zeref."

Erza's body froze. Her mind replayed the first sentence like a broken record. 'revived Jellal.' She felt as if she had been petrified. Her first love, the boy that had betrayed her and utterly smashed her heart into miniscule pieces, the man that Natsu had killed to save her, the reason that Natsu had risked his life and was believed dead for seven weeks, was alive. If she could have focused on something other than her childhood friend turned worst nightmare, she would have realized that Wendy was still talking about Oracion Seis's plans, which involved using Jellal to find Nirvana so they could revive the Dark Wizard Zeref in his body.

But she couldn't. Erza didn't hear any word spoken by the young girl after she mentioned Jellal. All at once the barriers she had rebuilt around her heart upon Natsu's supposed death shattered. She was seized by a torrent of emotions, not the least of which was terror, fear, worry, doubt, and unease. She and Natsu had barely beat Jellal the first time. Her anxiety, a feeling she wasn't accustomed to, climbed as she tried to think about how to tell the rest of the Alliance, especially Natsu, that Jellal was still among the living. Or back amongst them anyway.

Erza brutally ignored the small part of her brain that whispered that she now had a third chance to change Jellal for the better.

After all, third time's the charm, right?