I'm back with chapter 49. Please R&R and I shall see you at the bottom of the page.

POV: Lucy

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail

The sound of running feet and ragged breathing ricochets off of the walls in the narrow alley way and the cobblestone path does little to dilute the sound. As I run I feel a sort of nostalgia from a series of past dreams that I've had. The ones where I'm chasing a stranger through alleyways and empty open spaces but never seem to reach him no matter how fast I run. The only difference from the dreams and right now is that the sky is black with darkness and we are nowhere near the ocean.

"STOP IT!"

I skid to a halt as I whip my head around trying to figure out where the voice came from through the maze of alleys I'm currently running through. I've been following that voice ever since I left the arena not too long ago and so far I've come nowhere close to reaching it. Even so I can tell that I'm close to catching up with it because the voice has gotten louder.

As I turn down a long dark alley, a loud resonating crash has me freezing in place. Mostly because the crash came from the light at the end of the alley I am currently in. There's scuffling and the sound of grunts and angry yelps along with what I presume are trashcans being thrown around.

Curious beyond my own good, I slowly make my way as two specific rules swim in my head along with the screeching warning bells.

Don't go snooping around, don't follow your curiosity, don't go snooping around, don't follow your curiosity…

No matter how much those words yell at me making my head throb I continue on forward because I had to witness this. I just had to. Maybe this way I'd finally understand how dangerous my situation really is. Kageyama's words were apparently not enough to keep me out of trouble, but maybe if I saw this, maybe if I saw this I'd finally truly comprehend his words. Maybe then, just maybe then I could finally choose what I would do next.

"WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?!" The screams have me stopping at the edge of the shadows right at the mouth of the alley that leads toward a large open space. Light from a few nearby alley lights dimly brightens the small space, "I don't understand why you're doing this?!"

My eyes are attracted to the sound of the desperate woman crying for her life. What I see has me regretting my curiosity. It has me wanting to turn around and run back to where I believe I can be safe for just a while longer, but the will to move has left me. Instead I'm rooted to the cobblestone that is beneath me and my eyes are glued to the sight before me.

It's too late to turn around. I have to see this to the end or do something about it. But running away is just not an option.

It never really was.

"We're sorry, but it has to be done," a low gruff voice says, but I don't tear my eyes from the sobbing woman. It's impossible to even try and it makes this all that much worse.

Erza Scarlet, the headstrong student body president that everyone respects and fears is a complete wreck before my eyes. Her large brown eyes that were filled with an unwavering amount of bravery and kindness are now horror stricken with tears streaming down icy pale cheeks. Instead of her usual strong persona I see a cowering mess that resembles nothing of one of my closest friends. The only thing that really resembles Erza is the fiery red hair, but other than that the girl before me is a complete stranger and it is at that moment that I realize what she is.

She is an astral body.

"P-Please don't do this. It's m-me, Erza. What have I ever done wrong?" The young woman's pleading has my heart squeezing in a way that I can't completely understand.

I hate her because she's not the real Erza, I hate her because she's a fake that has fooled everyone that cares about her, but at the same time I sympathize her. I sympathize with her because I am basically doing the same thing. I'm an imposter of the person I used to be, just like her. I was once Lucy Heartfelia, but now I'm nothing more than a dead spirit that continues living a lie and unconsciously hurting those I love.

"You're not Erza and you know it," My eyes tear away from the sobbing girl towards the pink haired boy who holds my one connection to this world in his hands, "The Erza that I know would never have let us defeat her so easily. She would be brave and stubborn against any opponent in her way and no matter what she would never cry like the coward that you are!"

For some odd reason this ticks me off.

Sure, she wasn't the real Erza, but what right did he have in calling her a coward. She's scared because she doesn't understand what's going on. How is she supposed to know what she is when she has no memory of what happened to her? How is she even supposed to know if her real body is alive or already dead? It's not her fault that this happened to her.

It's not her fault! It's not her damn fault!

It's not my fault…

Gajeel and Natsu both cock their guns toward Erza making her gasp and press her back harshly against the cement wall behind her. Her eyes widen showing me all the fear that swims through her cold brown orbs and for a second I see something that hits me far harder than a blow to the stomach. It's at that instant that I understand why Kageyama never killed me and somehow looked out for me without me really realizing it before. How could you just watch someone of your own kind be killed before your very own eyes?

"NO!" Erza screams causing me to start jumping out of the shadows to get to her.

A hand clamps down over my mouth while my arms are locked together behind my back with another large hand and I'm dragged back into the shadows. I try to struggle against their hold because I had to save her; I had to save Erza even if she wasn't the real one. She is like me and I can't help but want to protect and save her, but I can't escape the vice-like grip of the stranger behind me.

"You have to let it be Lucy."

My eyes widen as the sullen voice whispers those seven words into my left ear. I turn my gaze to the captor beside me and it is when I catch sight of a red tattoo that I'm left with despair. Burning hot tears stream down my face as I focus my attention back to where loud gunfire has broken through the silence of the night.

There are no screams after the gunfire dies down. Silence, thicker than lead, fills the air around me causing even the insistent warning bells to grow silent. Not even the pounding of my own heart in my ears is loud enough to drown out the stillness. The only noise left is that of a heavy body falling onto the cobblestone floor and without another warning Erza's body just simply disappears. Even the air around us seems to change with her disappearance as if getting rid of her presence completely.

It's as if she was never here to begin with.

Natsu and Gajeel leave not soon after leaving nothing behind but a small puddle of blood. Once they're gone the arms around me slacken and I turn to look at the one man who has clearly opened my eyes. The man who practically forced me to watch one of my best friends die a gruesome death while he watched along with me.

"W-Why Jellal," I ask my voice cracking as I try to keep from breaking down too much, "W-why would you let them d-do that?"

"Because she didn't belong here, that's why."

Dead emotionless eyes greet me when I look at Jellal's face. Not a single emotion swims across his features and for a moment I believe that he looked the way when he returned from the Tower of Heaven. He looked lost and absolutely broken. His posture told me nothing and yet everything at the same time.

"How could she not belong here? That was Erza, my friend, your girlfriend," I screech causing him to wince with guilt, "You just let them kill her!"

"YOU WOULDN'T UNDERSTAND!" Jellal explodes as he harshly grabs onto my shoulders with shaking hands, "You wouldn't understand," he then whispers as he bows his head in the space between us while still having a tight hold on my shoulders, "You couldn't possibly understand any of this," but I did understand. I understood everything while he understood nothing at all.

Jellal's shoulders shake from his silent sobs and immediately all the anger and frustration I had just vanish. Watching my cousin break down in front of me was a sight that I wished I never had to witness ever again. The funny thing is that like last time he was crying over the girl he loved the most, but this time there was no certainty that she would ever be coming back alive.

"Jellal…" without warning, Jellal pulls me into his arms and crushes me against his chest.

I hug him back wanting nothing more than to comfort him, but I don't know what to say to calm him down. I'm lucky that he hasn't realized that I know about the astral bodies and the hunter society that he and a few others that I know are a part of. Nonetheless, it didn't mean that he wouldn't begin suspecting sooner or later.

"I'm sorry Lucy," Jellal's voice croaks from just over my temple, "I didn't mean for you to witness that," I hug him tighter wanting to assure him that I was fine, even if I really wasn't all that fine, "Please Lucy, please don't get sick," he mumbles more to himself than to me.

That's right. Kageyama's words about people who found out the truth usually spiraled down a path of insanity. That's actually the main reason why no one wanted me to find out about any of this in the first place. Mostly because everyone thinks that I'm still alive and can be prone to what they think of as a disease that can be contagious, a disease that had to with the mind and the mind alone.

"Come on," I say while pulling away from him, "We should go back before anyone finds out that we're gone."

Jellal nods but before following me he looks back at the crime scene with guilt ridden eyes, "It was my fault you know," he says while not tearing his eyes away from that particular spot.

"How so?" I ask looking at him questioningly.

Looking down at me, Jellal's cold eyes cause me to involuntarily shiver with regret from my own question, "I was the one that told them about her."

Without another word Jellal stuffs his hands in his pockets and retreats into the shadows that quickly swallow him up.

Looking back at where Erza, Gajeel, and Natsu had stood I replay what had happened not moments ago. Although instead of Erza facing the barrel of Natsu's gun I see myself begging for him not to kill me.

Maybe, just maybe, that is what the future held for us both.

I hope you all liked this chapter. I wanted to make it suspenseful as possible and I do think that I succeeded a bit. Did anyone see the whole Jellal thing coming? If you did then I give you props. I wonder how things will escalate from here...

Shout Outs

Great thanks to all of my Fantastic Favorites...

- yssajeq

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- Fairy Tail 4lyf

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To all of my Fabulous Followers...

- yssajeq

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- Cheals

And to all of my Fantabulous Reviewers...

- Snavej = I hope you liked this chapter. I'm also glad that you enjoyed the last chapter.

- Splendora Lopez = I don't mind at all that you say thanks in every review. I look forward to any and all reviews because they make my day. Either way it's alright if you don't review in every chapter, just as long as you say something here and there. (P.S. I'm glad you liked the last chapter)

- BeastlyTick59 = Haha, that's genius! I would put the Fairy Tail theme songs too, but sadly I'm not in charge of music of not pictures *cries forever* Oh well. At least I took a lot of embarrassing pictures of my band mates ;P

- FanFictionLeon = Nope, Erza wasn't the one who punched the stalls, but she was involved in it. Also I'm so glad that for the past few weeks they've been updating two chapters each week. Next week they say that they'll update two more chapters on the manga!

- MeGustaZeref = Not bad, it actually sounds right, haha! ;P

-HazelDragonNora = I'm glad you enjoyed it. This chapter was a little on the morbid side, but I hope you liked it either way.

- Fairy Tail 4lyf = Haha I kid you not that that happened to me with several fanfictions that I had been reading. Either way I'm glad that you're finally going to be up to date with my magnificent story and also I'm happy to hear that you're enjoying it.

Well that's all the shout outs for today.

If you are enjoying my story so far please follow, favorite, and review - remember, reviews are a writers candy - and if you have any questions or ideas you'd like to see put into this story you can also PM me and I'll gladly add it in.

Until next time my lovelies.