Hi guys! I don't think either you or I expected to ever see this chapter, but here it is. First of all I would like to apologise for the sudden hiatus this month and last month, this chapter was suppose to have been written at the beginning of August but because of the mass amount of schoolwork I've been given due the ending of my third term at school, this chapter was pushed back to the end of September.

I would also like to apologise for the quality of this chapter, in my opinion this chapter is neither the best or the most interesting, the style of writing in this chapter isn't exactly consistent to the one I've been using since I started this story either, but that's up to you.

I'm very sorry if you're disappointed that this wasn't some big surprise I was working on since August, I've really just been busy with a lot of things recently and couldn't write it until now. I would also like to mention the ending of this story, ever since chapter 30 came around I've started telling you guys about the loss of interest in this story - this chapter has been the hardest so far.

I'm not the kind of person who just discontinues a story because as a former reader I know the disappointment a person goes through when they find out a good story is discontinued, it's just a huge waste sometimes to see good plots and good writing go down the drain like that. But at the same time I would like to acknowledge the reasons behind these discontinuations, which are usually - the lack of interest.

And it happens, people move on from certain fandoms and for me in particularly I feel like this fanfiction has been chaining me down to only one certain fandom for a long time. This doesn't mean Fairy Tail isn't good anymore I've just gotten all I've could out of this particular anime, it'll always be special in my heart but that doesn't change that Im just not into it anymore.

I've still continued to write these last few chapters though because I'm devoted to you guys. As I've repeatedly said, it's because of you guys that I continue to write these chapters and I'm really happy you like them too, but I'm afraid my lack of interest will sooner or later effect the quality of my writing which will eventually result in half-assed chapters, which I refuse to post because I think you guys only deserve the best.

As to the future of this fanfiction it's up to you, whether you think it's better to just end it here or to continue is all up to you my readers. If you have any other suggestions please don't be afraid to tell me.

Thank you for sticking with this story for so long, you don't know how gratefully I truly am to every single one of you.

Chapter 38 (The Past We Regret)

Erza's POV,

The voices wouldn't stop calling out my name, each one of them unique to their own mix of terror, pain and desperation.

You could hear the almost tangible emotions in their screams as they all begged for me to help them, but when I didn't react they gave up and ran, running and running into empty streets that would eventually lead to a dead end, there was no escaping death, no escaping Zeref.

The whole time as I stood there corpse after corpse piled up on the streets and the heavy scent of spilled blood and sweat filled the air. I could recognise some of the horrified faces that begged me and many more I had never even see before, but this was the reality of it - the decision I have made will result in the death of thousands maybe even millions of innocent people.

It is not like I'm not being punished for this either, I will loose beloved people as well, they are not the only ones. But that doesn't change the fact that I was unable to stop evil from destroying this city. A massacre was all that I envisioned for Crocus, soon it will be nothing more but a wasteland of rotting corpses under the red moon. All because I was unable to stop her, Lucy Heartfilia.

Normal POV,

Erza was sat shaking on her bed, her back against the metal railing of her bed and the cold wall, her eyes closed as the voices of regret in her head tortured her to death.

All she could hear was screaming, the invisible screaming of her beloved family, innocent people and finally herself. She wondered in the middle of all this if she was going insane.

She was an hour late, a single hour and she would have made it, the thought of it almost made her laugh. A single hour and it made this much of a difference, doesn't that just show how fragile her situation was to begin with. What was she to think it was all going to work out anyway?

The digital clock's red numbers seemed to be burnt into her skull, no matter how many times she blinked her eyes they wouldn't leave her sight, as of they were burnt into her own eyelids.

Erza couldn't remember the last time she felt so little, so helpless. As if she was a child again and was locked up in her overcrowded cell in the Tower of Heaven awaiting the next day filled with endless pain and sorrow. She felt defenceless again because just like back in those days, there was no escape to this, no way to change anything.

It was simply too late.

For once Erza had lost all hope, all confidence in herself - thousands of deaths would be on her this time. She could only find comfort in the idea that maybe she would die along with them, that would be their only justice.

She could feel hot tears staining her thin white hospital clothes, the tears hitting her skin with a sound almost deafening in the silence of her room. The voices had stopped now she realised, now it was even worse - just plain empty silence.

It was as if the was world was angry at what she had done and rightfully so. The bandages the others had wrapped around her pulsed angrily around her wounds, some deeper than the others burnt her skin, making the room seem colder by comparison.

She shivered and scowled at the bandages, furiously ripping at them and leaving her wounds exposed to cold night air. She threw the ruined bandages to the ground in violent fit before falling down onto her bed, too tired to continue crying anymore.

She was injured and had just gotten back from a battle, she was in no shape to stop Lucy to begin with. There was no hope to begin with. Erza laid on the bed for a minute, wanting desperately to cry, to let all her tangled emotions loose but she realised with a dull jolt that she was all out of tears.

Tears weren't going to save Crocus anyway.

Erza couldn't help but think that she deserved to cry, this would be nothing compared to the pain other people would feel because of her mistakes. Because no matter whether they survive and get out of the city in time or they don't, they will loose something, either their lives or their loved ones.

No one will escape unscathed, not even her.

She stared up into the ceiling the silver moonlight casting dancing shadows across the grey painted wall as the cool night air blew at her thin curtains. Erza couldn't help but think about how calm it was now, and how the chaos that was coming ahead seemed only like a bad nightmare.

She couldn't believe anything bad would happen on a night as calm as this.

The red haired Mage turned towards the window where the full moon was shining brightly in the sky, the stars surrounded the glowing circle in clusters around it as if hung up there by fairies.

Erza couldn't help but notice the star sign Taurus in the sky and blinked, her mind suddenly remembering Lucy's old smile. She felt a sort of a hardness push against the back of her throat as the Celestial Mage's former warm smile flashed across her eyes.

In the end though she still had to remember it wasn't just the death of others but Lucy as well. Erza had thought at the beginning when she had first seen Lucy again that she was happy again, even if it wasn't them she thought everyone could move on somehow.

She wanted everyone to fulfil their promise to Lucy and somehow mend her relationship with Fairy Tail, not that she believed they deserved it she still wished that everything would end alright. But then Natsu and Sting had their big fight and everything went to pieces.

Lucy had completely lost her will to live, all her mistakes must have crashed down on her and she was thrown into a never ending deep hole of her own mistakes. Over and over again she must have blamed herself until eventually she came to the conclusion that the only way to save herself and everyone else is to give herself to Zeref.

But if she did then she would loose herself completely, what little they still had of the old Lucy when she had first entered the Grand Magic Games would disappear forever.

Erza was angry that she had given Zeref another tool to use against innocent people but she was even more angry that she wasn't able to stop Lucy from sacrificing herself in the end.

She let Lucy die, thinking her life was worth nothing even though it was enough for Fairy Tail to be still waiting for her to return back to them. She knew it was pathetic but even she was still waiting for the day Lucy would come back to their guild again, now though she doubted she would ever see her friend again. She felt sad that she would never be able to fight alongside Lucy again.

Erza was a disappointment both as a leader of her guild and as Lucy's nakama.

Suddenly the door to her bedroom opened with a creak, alerting the red haired Mage making her sit up to see who it was, in the doorway stood a familiar blue haired man, his hair messy from the cold night air outside a thin scarf wrapped around his neck.

His brown eyes took one look at the tattered and ruined bandages on the ground and he quickly walked over to Erza, he stood by her bed for a minute their bodies inches apart as their gazes met. Her swollen eyes seem to burn into his as he stepped down to her eye level, telling him automatically that the red head has been crying.

"Erza." He whispered before enveloping the Re-Equip Mage into a tight hug, his cool arms warm against her skin as she sat there stunned before finally melting into his arms.

She couldn't quite stop the tears from falling as she leaned against him breathing in Jellal's familiar scent as she sobbed. Erza's tears dampened his scarf as she leaned against him, he patted her softly on the back trying to calm her.

After a few minutes she had stopped, a comfortable silence grew between the two as Erza finally spoke, "How did you get in here?" Jellal was silent before answering, "They let me in, I wanted to see if you were hurt." Erza managed a chuckle, "I'm ok." He nodded both of them choosing to ignore the thousands of bruises and wounds all over Erza's body.

"I was too late." Jellal was silent again, "For what?" "Lucy I wasn't able to stop her." Jellal stiffened and hugged Erza a bit tighter, "Do you know where she is?"

"She went to Zeref, she wanted to hand herself over." Erza was hesitant before adding tonelessly, "I've put the entire guild and Crocus in danger, because of me hundreds maybe even thousands will be dead soon."

A cold silence came over the two as Jellal finally spoke, "Don't push yourself, I'll get Meredy and Ultear to track her down. She must not have gotten that far." Jellal started to get up when Erza grabbed him by the sleeves. "You don't get it do you?" She whispered, looking away.

"It's hopeless, there's no way we can save her or the others now... I mean do we really think we have a chance with Zeref anyway?" Erza whispered softly, her grip on his sleeve tightening. Jellal was silent before he pulled away, gently pulling her hands away.

"We may not, but we still have to try. For the sake of humanity we have to keep on fighting, it's not like you Erza to just step away from a fight like this." Erza scowled, "You don't understand at all, he would kill us all. It wouldn't even be a fight, it would be a massacre Jellal. A massacre!"

Jellal laughed softly, "Even so isn't 'dying while trying' mankind's specialty. Look Erza you may not have any regrets in life but I've done enough things to innocent people that I owe them enough to do this. If I have to die trying to save them I will do it."

"I will continue to fight even if I know victory will never come. Humans like us are stupid right? We can only pray for a victory that may never come, but at least we tried."

"Erza, don't you have anything you're fighting for?" He whispered, looking back at her with a burning gaze. Erza looked down at her lap before turning towards the window, images of what she had seen before in her head flitted through her eyes and she closed her eyes tightly.

Jellal was right - there were something she was fighting for, her guild and the innocent people who are about to get caught up in their petty little war. Erza would fight to the death for the safety of these people.

She wasn't going to just let Lucy leave either, she was going and bring her back alive so she can tell the Celestial Mage just how much her life meant to her and every single one of her friends.

Erza couldn't loose hope now.

"You're right, I have people I need to protect and someone I need to bring back." Jellal chuckled, "It may be too late to stop her but it's not late to save her." He said grinning as he took off his scarf and wrapped if around Erza's neck.

"Keep this safe for me alright, you can give it back to me when this is all over." Erza blushed as the warmth of the scarf warmed up her neck and face, the scent of Jellal making her almost dizzy as they filled her nostrils. She smiled softly as she tucked the scarf tighter around her and gazed up towards Jellal.

"Let's go save humanity."

The streets of Crocus seemed specially lonely that night as Lucy walked past and out of the main streets of Crocus, the street lights seemed to flicker the further she got out of the main part of the city and before she knew it she had walked to the dimly lit part of the bright city.

The part of the city where Zeref would be waiting.

As Lucy walked past the alleyway in between two long closed shops she stopped, the lonely sound of her footsteps stopping almost abruptly as she waited.

She had found him.

"You can come out, I'm looking for him too." She called out behind her, her tone almost empty as a small figure appeared from the dark alleyway behind her. Lucy chuckled as she turned slightly towards the tall cloaked figure, "He asked you to come get me, didn't he?" She asked softly earning a nod from her follower.

"Master Zeref would like to see you as soon as he can." A female voice whispered, a grin tugged at Lucy's lips as she recognised the voice speaking to her. "Oh? Would force be necessary if I refused?" Lucy asked slightly amused. The voice hesitated before answering, "Yes."

Lucy's grin widened and she chuckled, "Perfect." She straightened up and started to walk into the alleyway before stopping quietly, "Lead me to him, Kyôka." Her follower stopped abruptly, before smirking themselves - amused. "Yes, of course."

The room was silent around Minerva as she riffled through stacks of paperwork next to her - they were the applications she had to fill in for Lucy's reserve but as she half-hearted read through another stack she couldn't help but put it away again.

The others were still downstairs, eating whatever was left over of their dinner. She was suppose to have been down there fifteen minutes ago but she decided they would probably just bring it up for her later. Besides she needed time to think about how she was going to tell them about Lucy.

She knew she had to make the announcements soon, not just about the Lucy's absence in the Grand Magic Games or her leaving the guild, Minerva winced - it would be Lucy's death.

Her face felt unusually warm as she quickly tried to push the thought to the back of her mind, her thoughts seem to flinch away from the subject but even when she tried to distract herself with her paperwork, the black words against the stark white didn't seem quiet right.

It was like she was reading each single word without really making the sentence, she growled. She just couldn't focus.

With a sudden burst of anger she threw the stack of papers to the ground, the pristine booklets all falling to the carpeted ground with a thump as they scattered across the ground. She scowled at them, her hands itching to rip every single one of them up and throwing them away.

Just looking at them seemed to piss her off.

In the back of her mind she wondered where this anger was coming from, had she finally snapped? Was this the result of her sadness, knowing which decision Lucy had made? Or was this the result of her own decision - Minerva didn't know.

She just didn't know.

In the darkness of her shared bedroom the crumpled papers seemed to glare at her from underneath her feet, angrily yelling her name as she stared at them. Minerva closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose, trying desperately to calm down but when she opened her eyes again she was terrified.

The cruel white papers she had thrown onto the ground before had morphed into a bloody mass of red and yellow, Minerva tried to close her eyes back again but they remained open.

A cold chill ran down her spine as she stared at the bloody mass, it was so mutilated that even she couldn't tell what was hiding underneath all those layers of blood and what seemed to be blonde hair.

Not once did her brain make the connection.

She was frozen as her arm started to reach out towards the mass, her eyes widened as she realised with a sudden jolt that she was trying to touch the thing in front of her.

She tried desperately to stop her arm but she had no control over her own body anymore, morbid curiosity grabbed at her as her armed neared. Hot tears filled her eyes as she tried to look away but she couldn't, she was frozen, stuck in place when she suddenly made the connection.

This was a body and not just any body, it was her friend and saviour Lucy Heartfilia.

Her mouth was opened in a silent scream as her fingers started to feel the warm thickness that was her friend's blood, fear and disgusted terror gripped at the back of her skull as her fingers closed around a piece of the gooey mass. A shrill scream was building up in the back of her throat but something hard was stopping her - she couldn't even scream.

"Minerva." A soft voice called out to her and she turned towards it, Minerva could hear her heart beating hard and fast against her eardrums as her eyes met a familiar pair of chocolate brown ones.

"Let go of me." A noise that sounded like screaming suddenly filled the room as freedom of movement was suddenly returned to her. The screaming echoed in her ears, shrill and terrifying as she tried to get up and off her bed.

Her legs shook as she straightened up and headed for the general direction of the door but before she knew it she was on the ground again - her legs didn't seem to want to move at all. A sudden burst of fear made her kept moving again but this time she was crawling, her legs seemed to have completely disappeared from beneath her.

The screaming continued to scratch against her eardrums like nails on a chalkboard as she dragged herself across the room, her fingers shook with pain and fatigue as they caught onto the carpet, slowly moving the black haired Mage across the floor until she eventually collapsed.

Minerva collapsed in a heap on the ground, her hands tightly over her ears as she tried to block out the screaming when she realised with shock that the horrible, blood curdling scream was her own. Realisations washed over her in a wave of silence as her grip on the carpet loosened.

She closed her eyes and tried to slow her breathing, willing to do almost anything now to stop the screaming. Minerva hugged herself tightly as she took in deep breaths, trying to calm herself down when all of a sudden everything stopped.

Leaving the Master of Sabertooth in complete silence.

A sense of hopelessness seemed to wash over her as Minerva stared into the darkness, her heart still racing against her chest as a single tear ran down her cheek leaving a warm trail behind it.

A voice that she hadn't heard in such a long time echoed in her skull as she laid there on the itchy carpet - No weakling is a daughter of mine. The words she had feared so much as a little girl chilled her to her core as she laid there in the empty silence of her motel room.

Minerva had always prided herself in thinking - no knowing that her father was wrong about her and how strong she truly was, especially after Lucy had defeated her father and given her the title of Master - she had thought the responsibilities of the Master was what strength truly was.

She had thought that being a better Master than her father ever was would made her strong, maybe even stronger than her father. But now as she laid in here, in darkness and in silence she couldn't help but think how right her father truly was.

She wasn't even strong enough to go out there and bring Lucy back.

The reason, Minerva thought blankly, she hadn't just left to go straight after the Celestial Mage almost an hour ago wasn't just because she didn't was to see Lucy waltzing to her death but because she was scared of Zeref himself, the rumoured Dark Lord.

She was just like her father had said, weak.

Minerva couldn't help but chuckle bitterly as her fist tightened in front of her, she was the weakest of the weak.

The ground level of Sabertooth's inn was quiet except for the occasional clang of cutlery against glass plates filled with untouched food. No one was hungry.

At the other end of the table was two plates of completely untouched food, the absence of their Master and team member was deafening yet no one had spoken a single word about it. It was if they had all unanimously agreed to ignore it.

Not that ignoring it would mean everything was fine again.

But the more they ignored it the more apparent it became something was wrong, it was as if the two plates of food that had been prepared for them were gigantic neon signs advertising their absence. No one could ignore it.

"How are you feeling?" Yukino asked Rogue, in an attempt to break the silence but he answered with a slight nod. "Yeah I'm fine - how about you Sting?" He asked pointedly towards the blonde sitting opposite to them.

Sting was silent but Rogue wasn't taking his shitty response and waited, making Sting eventually stand up and leave, apparently finished with his meal. The Shadow Dragon Slayer couldn't help but notice that Sting's plate wasn't anywhere near empty.

Rogue sighed and got up, patting Yukino on the shoulder before walking over to stop Sting, when the front door opened with a bang alerting everyone to their feet.

The shrill clang of Sting's plate falling to the floor echoed through the dinning room as Rogue spoke to their visitors with a weird sense of reserved hostility and surprise.

"Erza Scarlet?" He asked as his eyes gazed at the pair standing in the doorway. The red headed Mage nodded at him before uttering one simple order, "We need to see your Master."