Chapter 9 -

Wishing upon the stars.

Finding out she was pregnant did not stop my mother from training me. She taught me what she could in her situation and the others helped her. Every members of Fairy tail helped her. At one point, I had been trained by each of them, supervised my mother whose belly was getting bigger every day. It seemed to me like they all wanted to give me a part of them so I would be sure to save their Erza. Visibly, she mattered as much to them as she did to me.

However, I had to contain myself; I couldn't show them my magic; if anybody had seen my Chariot spell, they would have known who's daughter I was and their calculations would have led them to the truth and I wasn't ready for it, yet...

The first few months, my mother seemed happy with her pregnancy; more than anybody could have thought. Natsu had told me once that he had never imagined Erza as a mother and he didn't think she'd done it either, but she seemed to adjust just fine to her condition. I could always see her caressing her belly, what was given me chills every time.

On my part, I tried not to act in an overly protective way, what had been difficult, but I had help. During the day, she was surrounded by a bunch of people and her security was well protected. However, during the evenings, she often went to walk.

During those evenings, when she stood up to leave for her walk, I used to stand up to follow her, but then somebody would grab my wrist and would tell me to give her space. At first, I listened to them, but soon I decided to follow her, but to give her some space. Almost every night, she went to the beach and looked at the moon. At the beginning, I watched her from afar then, I started to approach. One night, I sat next to her. Mostly, we didn't talk; I think we didn't need too, we were just there for each other...

One day, when she was about eight month pregnant, I followed her as she left the guild's headquarters. Not far behind her, I saw her walking to the shore. There, she put her feet in the water and seized a white bird who as calmly floating on it. At that moment, she must have known I was there because she turned herself to face me and beckoned me to join her, what I did. There, she gave me the bird that I nearly dropped. Once I had caught back the bird, my mother attached a little piece of paper on its leg. Then, she told me to liberate the bird who started to fly away.

''Help him finding Jellal.'' She whispered to the wind, closing her eyes.

Then, my mother opened her eyes and sat on the beach, caressing her belly and looking at the stars. Quickly, I went to sit next to her. She missed my father; I missing my dad too. Stuck in X808, I knew he was pissed at me for what I was about to do, but I was doing it for him, for us three...

''Our relation, to Jellal and I, has always been tumultuous. We've known each other for a long time. Kids, we were friends and we protected each other. Then, he was possessed by a dark force and became evil. He asked to leave and I did. I left all my old friends behind and I've met new ones, but I never forgot them... Years after, Jellal and I have met again in the Tower of Heaven and we fought. Good won, and I lost... After that encounter, I thought he was dead and it saddened me. However, our paths crossed again. I couldn't believe he was alive, but he wasn't totally himself; Jellal had lost his memory and had became again the good person he had been before. Once Oracion Seis defeated, wich we couldn't have done without Jellal's help, he was arrested by the council of magic. He didn't oppose himself to his arrest, but other members of Fairy Tail did. However, I stopped them and the council of magic brought Jellal away from me. Then, losing Jellal felt like somebody had torn one limb of my body. After his arrest, I thought I would never see him again, but, again, I had thought wrong; we met again, a long time after our previous encounter, a week ago. He, Ultear and Merudy, now called Crime Sorcerer, had come to Crocus to offer their help; an alternative, for our guild, to get stronger. As the others were receiving their second origin, Jellal and I walked on a hill where we had a serious discussion. Our conversation woke something in me; something that was latent since I didn't know how long. Then, I lost my balance and we fell off the hill. When we stopped rolling, he was above me. Staring at each other, we almost kissed, but Jellal pushed me away. He told me he had a fiancé. I knew him and I didn't believe him, but, after seeing him with you, I thought maybe I was wrong.'' She had told me, nostalgic.

My father had never really told me about his past. He had only told me that he had done awful things, but he had never told me the details. He had also told me that my mother had saved him more than once; his life as much as his soul, and that I was the alive proof of that. I knew he felt responsible for her death; she had sacrificed her life for his. It had made her choice as much as I had made mine...

''He will be fine, you said it yourself! Don't worry, he's okay.'' I told her, tenderly, laying my hand on hers.

Then, she took my hand and laid it on her huge belly. When my hand touched her skin, a jolt of electricity passed through me; it felt weird, but in a good way. My mother looked at me, smiling at my expression.

''This little human being growing inside me will prove him that he is the good man I see him to be.'' She said, fixing her gaze at the moon.

She really knew him and she loved him; I could hear it in her emotional and worried voice. I knew that Jellal Fernandez was a kind and caring man, but to hear my mother talking about him was a bit surreal. Even if he had always thought of himself as a bad man, we knew better.

Then, she lifted herself and I helped her to stand. Before we started to walk, she grabbed my hand, looking at me seriously.

''I want... No, I need you to save me; for my child. I want to raise him, I want to know him, I want to be his mom!'' She said, almost pleading.

The answer came naturally. After all, that's was why I had came here in the first place.

''I'll do whatever it takes to save you...'' I said firmly, smiling.

She smiled at me back and we started to walk back to the guild headquarters. While we were going ''home'', I looked at the sky, the Grand Chariot constellation seemed to be watching over us. It made me think of my dad. I was doing it for him, for my mother and for me. I was only hoping that I would have my place among the stars to witness their happiness once everything would be over...