Twenty-Two - Erza Scarlet

Erza shouldn't have been surprised to see Jellal at the planetarium. She just hadn't been expecting him to show up in the middle of a fight between her foster siblings and the employees of his favorite place. He looked around the lobby at the broken furniture and holes burnt in everything. Erza could tell he was having trouble processing what he saw. Before she could even attempt an explanation, Midnight spoke up.

"Hey, Jellal is here!" he said. "Come help us fight these losers."

Jellal blinked slowly. Then he glanced at Natsu, Gray, and Lucy, apprehensively. He looked back to the employees and stared at them for a moment. Then, he shook his head slightly. He covered his face with his hands, obviously unsure of what to do next.

"Ha! As if!" Natsu shouted. "I don't know who you think you're talking to, but that's Myst! And he won't fight against us."

"Myst?" Cobra repeated. "Are you retarded? That's Jellal. He's at the fucking planetarium."

"No, that's definitely Myst," Natsu said. "I gave him that bruise on his face myself."

"And broke my rib, by the way," Jellal mumbled.

"Wow, what did you do to deserve that?" asked Hoteye, the tall guy that seemed less inclined to fighting than the rest of the employees.

"It's a long story," Jellal said. "But, I'm still going to side with them. You can't hurt Fairy Tail."

"Fairy Tail?" Angel repeated.

"Yes, they're... my friends, I guess," he shrugged, wincing at the pain the action caused him.

"But, they beat the shit out of you," Racer pointed out.

Jellal nodded. "I'm not going to pretend to know where I stand with them," he said. "But I won't let anyone hurt them."

With that, he went to stand with Fairy Tail. Erza couldn't help but notice that he placed himself directly in front of her.

"Oh, you son of a bitch," Midnight grumbled. "You brought this on yourself."

Before Erza could move forward to stop him, Midnight had punched Jellal, right in his broken rib. Jellal doubled over in pain as she ran to help him.

"Jel- Mys-" she paused, not sure what to refer to him as. "Are you okay?" she finally asked.

"Ow," he groaned. "Heh, I don't even need the planetarium to see stars. They're everywhere..."

"Hey, stay conscious!" she reprimanded as he collapsed onto the ground. She turned to glare at Midnight. "What is your problem?" she asked.

"Your boyfriend pissed me off," he said. Erza's face flushed, partially flustered, but mostly angry. "He can't just turn on us like that."

"He- he's not my- You can't expect him to side with you!" she said. "You attacked us."

"You set our planetarium on fire!"

"It was an accident!" Natsu shouted. "Mostly!"

Again, fighting broke out. By that point, all customers had fled the building. Things were smashed to pieces. Other things were on fire. It was a disaster area and it was only getting worse.

For one thing, the fire was spreading. The available fighting room in the building was quickly diminishing as the flames took up more space. Eventually, they were forced to move outside. Erza paused her fight with Midnight to help Jellal. She made a mental note to get him to the hospital or to Porlyusica as soon as possible.

When Jellal was safely out of the building, Erza returned to her fight with Midnight. He was a tough opponent, and he used a lot of dirty tricks, but she eventually got the upper hand. All of her friends seemed to have found similar success.

Jellal had even managed to help Natsu against Brain, who seemed like he was going to win at first. After that, Natsu stopped glaring at Jellal like he would like to set him on fire. After the battle was over, Jellal was sitting on a partially destroyed bench, trying to recover some energy. He seemed upset and confused by the whole situation. Wendy appeared to be trying to comfort him and he seemed confused about that.

Ichiya, one of the Blue Pegasus students, was trying to get Erza's attention, as he usually did when he saw her, but she shrugged him off. She couldn't hear what Wendy was saying to Jellal, so she moved closer. The planetarium employees were in no condition to do any more fighting anyway. Erza was interested in why Wendy, who had seemed fairly shy, was so readily interacting with a complete stranger. Erza neared Jellal and Wendy and heard the girl chatting away happily.

"I just moved here myself," Wendy was saying. "But you already know that."

"I do?" Jellal asked.

"Yes, remember, I told you in my last letter that I was moving here?"

"Uhh," he said slowly. "I'm- I don't-"

"Did you write letters to Myst?" Erza asked, coming to stand beside the two.

Wendy nodded and smiled at Jellal.

"Right," he said. "Pen pals."

"You do remember!" Wendy exclaimed in relief.

Jellal looked genuinely distressed that the girl was so excited.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I'm just a bit out of it right now."

"That's okay," she said. "I'm just glad I get to meet you in person finally. Your letters have made my life so much better."

Jellal nodded slowly. "I- I'm glad I could help," he said.

"Can I borrow Myst for a moment?" Erza asked Wendy.

"Of course," the girl smiled. "See you later!"

"I'm sorry," Jellal said, once they were alone. "For-"

"Stop," Erza said. "Ultear told me everything."

"What?" he asked eyes widening.

"I know everything," Erza reiterated. "Even from when we were in middle school."

Jellal stared at his feet. "That was my fault too, not just hers," he said. "I was upset that you left. It was stupid. It wasn't your fault and I had no right to be upset."

"Even so," she said. "I- I'm with you now."

"What?" Jellal looked at her in surprise. "You don't hate me?"

"I could never," she told him with a small smile. "No matter what you do, I can't bring myself to. I'm with you," she repeated. His expression shifted from mere surprise to incredulity. She figured it was about time to tell him exactly how she felt. She took a deep breath. "Jellal, I-"

She was cut off by a loud exclamation from Ichiya. She was about to get angry at him for interrupting her confession, but then she saw what he was shouting about. The police had showed up. The planetarium had collapsed and firefighters were arriving to put out the flames that overtook it. The police officers were glaring at the planetarium employees.

"Are you sure?" one of the officers asked another.

"Of course," the other snapped. "These are those same gang members."

"Gang members?" Natsu mumbled. "No wonder they were so hard to fight."

"We beat them," Gray pointed out. "What does that make us?"

Natsu grinned. "Awesome," he answered.

The employees - or gang members - were being handcuffed and shoved into the back of a police van. It looked like everyone was else was going to be free to go. The officers barely gave them a second glance, obviously assuming they had nothing to do with the destruction. Suddenly, however, the officer that had identified the members of the Oracion Seis - which turned out to be the name of the gang - looked toward Jellal and Erza. His expression hardened and he began to walk over.

"Hold on," the man told the other officers. "We've got one more."

"What?" Erza asked. "Who?"

"Me," Jellal mumbled.

She turned around and looked at him in confusion. "Don't be silly-"

"Fernandes," the officer spat. "What are you doing here?"

"He's visiting the planetarium," Gray said. "What do you think?"

"Gray, don't-" Jellal started.

"He didn't do anything," Natsu interrupted. "He was trying to help stop these guys!"

"Are you arguing with me?" the officer asked angrily.

"Who the hell is this guy?" Gray asked.

"Officer Lahar," Jellal said. "He's the on-duty officer for Era Academy."

Erza was worried by Jellal's resigned tone of voice.

"Don't try to resist," Lahar said, glaring at Jellal.

"What do you want with him?" Erza asked, stepping forward.

"Erza, please," Jellal said so quietly that only she could hear. "You won't get anywhere with him. He hates me. All he wants right now is to take me in. He'll arrest all of you if you try to stop him."

"But-" she started.

"Get out of the way," Lahar said, stepping past Erza to get to Jellal.

Erza's heart started beating faster as Jellal just went along with the police officer. Why wouldn't he fight back? He didn't deserve to go to jail. She was on the verge of fighting the officer herself, when Natsu beat her to it. He jumped forward and grabbed Lahar by the arm.

"Hey! Stop!" Natsu shouted. "You can't take him!"

Lahar shrugged him off and continued, but then the others began to join in.

"He's with us, not them!" Gray said.

"You have no reason to arrest him!" Lucy chimed in.

"What about Erza?" Natsu asked. "He's supposed to be with her!"

"You can't do this!" Wendy exclaimed.

As the protests went on, they got louder and, quickly, more physical. Even the Lamia and Blue Pegasus students were beginning to join in. Erza was afraid that her friends were about to get into a very real fight with some very real law enforcement officers. She wasn't sure what to do. She didn't want Jellal to be taken away; who knew what Lahar had planned for him?

Lahar was visibly angry and shouted for all of them to be put under arrest. Her friends continued to fight and she was struggling with deciding what to do. She was on the brink of snapping and joining her friends, when she saw Jellal's worried expression. She sighed, realizing that Jellal was doing what he always did. He was going quietly so that no one else would have to.

"Enough!" she shouted. "Natsu! Gray! Lucy! Everyone! Stop!" All of her friends stopped fighting to look at her. "There- there isn't anything we can do."

"Are you kidding me?!" Natsu asked. "You're just going to let them take him away from you?!"

Erza looked down, willing herself not to cry. "Yes," she said.

"Good decision," Lahar said, straightening his uniform before putting handcuffs on Jellal. "You don't want everyone here to end up in jail tonight." He led Jellal to the van and glared at him. He spoke quietly, but Erza could still hear. "Extortion, arson, evading arrest," he said. "You're going away for a very long time. You know, some people die in prison, and you're seeming pretty injured already. You'll never see your friends again, if I can help it."

Jellal's eyes went wide and he looked back at Erza. His expression softened slightly, probably due to the distressed look on her face. Before either of them could say anything else, Lahar shoved Jellal into the back and slammed the door behind him. The van drove away, and Erza felt worse every inch it got further from her.