Jellal made it clear to Erza - there was no plausible method to save Ultear from her fate. It was a path she had chosen for herself. Perhaps the decision of hers was her own way of atoning for her mistakes.
What Erza could not appreciate was the effect Ultear's death had on Jellal. It felt so out of place to see Jellal in such a weak state.
"Meredy deserves to know", he whispered from her neck. Erza shot up from her reverie as soon as she heard Jellal's voice. The man leaned back only to expose his bloodshot eyes and a pitiful look that did not belong on that beautiful visage.
She was worried about the pink haired girl. She recalled the times she had spent with Meredy and fondly remembered the times she would gush on and on about Jellal and Ultear.
"Ultear is like my mother and Jellal is the older brother I have always wanted"
Erza remembered the very words she spoke, and she knew that the news would objectively crush her feelings - it was akin to losing one family member to another.
Jellal got up, and Erza could only wince at his suddenly decrepit form. She grabbed onto his arm instantly as she felt his legs falter.
"You can't leave right now. Not looking like this. I will let Meredy know of this, and if she truly is the friend you treasure, she will know what you did was right - for the both of you. It might take her some time to come to terms with it, but trust her, Jellal"
Erza's silver tongue could mull over quite a few, but the man in front of her was just as headstrong as wise as he was. She knew that there would be no chance in hell he would go down without a plausible argument.
"No...not to her. What if I have second thoughts tomorrow? I will be doing to her whatever Ultear was doing to me. I have to let her know...in person, and I will fight you if you try to stop me"
He unleashed a vicious amount of aura from his body as his tears flowed freely down his cheeks. Erza could hear the birds instantly flapping away and the sounds of a few animals scurrying away from the place.
Unfazed by his murderous aura, Erza stepped forward and faced him. She could feel his magic all over the place, but showed no sign of backing down and met his eyes.
"Do you really believe you stand a chance against me at this state, Jellal? The magic you are exuding...it is so obvious it is not even a quarter of your true strength Even if you do manage to beat me by a miracle, do you think I would give up?", she whispered as she cupped his cheek.
Jellal gritted his teeth in response. It was painfully obvious. The aftereffects of his battle with Ultear, along with the mental toll he bore made him pitifully weak. He knew it very well, but a part of him was in denial.
Erza was not angry at him, and neither was she disappointed in him. She leaned in and kissed him with no hesitation, driving her fingers into his wavy hair.
Jellal was not as responsive to her passion, but he melted into the kiss, pouring his grief and insecurities into it.
As their lips split apart, Erza caught his chin and made him meet her eyes.
"Let's go home"
Jellal begrudgingly agreed to it. Every part of him knew she was in the right, but a major part of him still wanted to go and tell Meredy.
The nod of Jellal was more than enough for Erza. She grabbed onto his hand and dragged him towards the pathway.
He was silent as Erza talked about her day, talking about Natsu's and Gray's annoying shenanigans, and some of the gossip Mirajane spread around the guild just for fun.
"I just told you I killed Ultear. Are you not afraid of me? Are you not angry at me? Not even a hint of disappointment?"
Erza shut her eyes as soon as she heard it. With a sigh, she turned to face him and grabbed his shirt.
"Did you kill her for fun? No. Did you kill her without reason? No. Did she deserve to die? I am extremely biased. So, for putting you through all of that, I say...fine, it's still no. I know Jellal! I know you did not have a choice.
You did NOT kill the Ultear you loved, you killed someone who had lost control of herself - someone who could hurt countless people unconsciously, and someone who could go through something you went through"
She knew that he was insecure about his past of having Simon's blood on his hands.
The moment she knew of the truth, she recalled breaking down in tears, cursing herself for trivialising his pain.
"I trust you, Jellal. Not just me, you have so many people around you who love you", she whispered as she buried her face into his chest.
"I know...and I am scare-"
"It's fine to be scared. When I asked you to depend on me, I did not limit it to fights alone. This...depend on me when things like this happen"
She did not let go of him until she felt him nod his head. Breaking into a soft smile, she grabbed onto his hand as she lead the two of them to her apartment.
Erza felt him freeze on the spot when they stepped out into the open.
Jellal could feel the cold gazes of the people from all angles. He had been pardoned in public, but most of the people refused to acknowledge it.
While he was not treated like a criminal, they would often shun him. He would often feel like an exile and this happened yet again. But he would rather go back to prison than drag Erza back into that mess.
"You head back home. I will find another -"
Erza pulled him towards herself and hugged his arm, resting her cheek on his shoulder.
"Why should you? I'm comfortable with you, and you are not doing anything wrong. So why do you have to take another route?"
If Jellal even mentioned anything related to Erza's image, he knew was in for a ride. But he had to say it. While he was genuinely happy that Erza put her foot down on talking about their relationship, it would only hurt her respect.
She had worked tooth and nail to step to the place where she was, and he would be damned if he had to do anything related to bringing her down.
"If they lose respect for me just because I am in love with a reformed man, it is their loss. I don't need their respect. They can hate me until the end of time and I would not bat an eye.
But if I agreed to let you go right now, I know I will not be able to look at my face without scrunching in disgust"
A smile made its way to Jellal's face and he tapped his head against hers, as he thanked his lucky stars for the umpteenth time for helping him end up with Erza.
It was a short fifteen-minute walk to Erza's apartment. The entire time, Jellal had his eyes planted on the ground as he heard the gossip train run its course.
It took every bit of his energy to clasp onto Erza's waist. She had a calm face, but he could feel her magic rise each time he heard someone speak ill of him.
Erza said nothing the entire time as they changed their clothes. Jellal would often peak towards her direction, hoping to see her expression change. All he ended up with was her crestfallen face that tore his heart.
"Erza...", he called out. She silently walked towards him and threw herself onto him, placing random kisses on his chest.
"I hate it..."
"I know you do. But I'm not surprised with -"
"SO? DO THEY EVEN KNOW WHAT YOU'VE DONE F-"
Jellal cupped her mouth with a defeated smile. Both of them knew that this was a weight they would have to live with until the end.
While Jellal hid his disappointment and yearned for some amount of love and recognition, Erza was significantly more vocal about her concerns.
"You don't deserve it", she protested weakly, and before Jellal could respond, she pushed him onto the bed before climbing on top of him.
"Sleep", she murmured against his ear and Jellal scoffed.
"It is afternoon, Scarlet. How-"
"Just...stay silent. I'm asking you to grieve, Jellal. Take some time for yourself. You need it, and you deserve it. I am here for you and you don't need to be tough around me"
Neither of them knew how much time had passed. Neither fell asleep, and neither made a sound. Erza expected Jellal to give up after a few minutes, but she got through to him. He did not cry, but at times, she would hear him heave deeply, whispering something to himself.
It was already evening and Jellal still had to let Meredy know about the incident. If he had not brought up Meredy, Erza would have surely not let the man out of her sight for the night.
Promising to come back to her by the end of the day, Jellal left Magnolia. With his Meteor magic, long-distance travel was trivial but the same could not be said for Erza who walked towards the guild.
Rumours about Jellal had already begun to spread, and it took all of her strength to not break into a rampage at the spot.
As she walked towards one of the narrower streets to avoid the eyes of the people intoxicated with rumours, a random arm popped up in front of her and caught her throat, and flung her into one of the alleyways.
Requipping into her Heart Kreuz armour, she felt the metal bear a significant amount of the impact and sensed her brain rattle inside her skull.
All she could discern through her discombobulated state was white clothing and striking white hair.
As she took deep breaths, she could slowly make out the face of the person in front of her. It was a man, and he had the bottom half of his face covered with a mask.
Based on his hair and the age reflected by his exposed skin, he seemed to be slightly above middle-aged, at least in his middle fifties to his early sixties. Erza did not recall earning the enmity of someone around that age.
However, that man seemed exceptionally familiar. It was the man Jellal was fighting a few months back when Ultear cast her time magic on Fairy Tail.
"I hold no ill will against you. But this is something I have to do"
The man stretched his hand forward and pulled out a knife from his sleeve as he approached her.
Feigning weakness, Erza baited the man into approaching her strike zone, and the moment he did, she lunged forward, grabbing her sword.
The man jumped back and waved his hand, causing a few glass shards on the ground to fly toward her.
Erza rolled forward, narrowly dodging the shards, and grabbed onto a stone. Using his blind spot, she flung the stone aimed square at his forehead, which the man dodged at the last minute.
All Erza wanted was an opening, which was granted to her and she swung her sword, aiming to knock his knife away.
The man's reflexes hit again and he pulled the knife towards the sword's trajectory, but he was not in top form as the knife was deflected and turned against him, leaving a massive gash on his face.
As the man grunted out in pain and took a step back, the mask fell to the ground and he turned around to expose his face to Erza.
The Requip mage gripped her sword, ready to crush the man before he could do anything else, but faltered as she saw his face.
Horror struck her face as the aged version of a familiar face stared back at her. She had seen his face before, but perhaps he had changed it with magic. The man in front of her was someone she knew very well.
"Macbeth?", she whispered out Midnight's true name. The man was no longer in his black/emo phase as he clicked his tongue at her.
"Yes, it's me. But not the one you know, Erza"
"So you were the one who tried to kill Jellal? But that does not make sense. You were not there. You..."
"I don't belong to your time. All I needed to know was that I needed to stall you for the night"
Midnight took another fighting stance as he picked up the knife. The man in front of her was not the Macbeth she knew - this man was completely different.
But what did he mean by 'stall her for the night'? It meant that something important was happening elsewhere.
"Where is Jellal?", she whispered in a threatening tone and he sighed.
"You may hate me. You may want to kill me. But if you knew the truth, if you knew what would happen, perhaps you might understand what I am trying to do"
Moment by moment, her heart began to beat faster. The man in front of her wanted to hurt Jellal, but who was the other person or people involved?
"I will answer your question for you. Jellal Fernandes dies tonight - for your sake. Try t-"
A powerful fist stopped him halfway through his sentence as Erza's protective instincts kicked in. She grew feral, attacking him with no remorse.
Midnight was older and had more experience under his belt, but even then, it was a hellish task to keep up with the younger woman.
"Who?"
The authority in her voice sent shivers down his spine as a significant part of him wanted to scream out the person's name, but he kept his calm.
"The one person who can kill your boyfriend"
Erza's face morphed into a state of confusion as she pondered over his words. Who could kill Jellal? Nobody in their straight mind would choose to go up against him. The man's strength was almost akin to an elder being's prowess.
As she searched on and on, a thunderous sound bellowed. She shot up toward the sky and saw an omnipotent Grand Chariot being cast in the sky.
Being someone who had cast it before, the sheer strength was chilling and it was the perfect embodiment of Jellal's strength. If he was willing to use magic of such potential, who was the one standing against him?
The next moment, a second sound was heard and its sheer tenacity seemed to tear the insides of her head out as her eardrums screamed in pain.
She looked up to see another Grand Chariot, but this one bore such an incomprehensible fortitude that it made Jellal's seem like a child's tantrum.
Erza put two and two together and dropped to her knees in disbelief. Midnight bent down to look at her face and stared at her in pity.
"The only one who can kill Jellal is the person who stares back at him in the mirror. That is who he is against - himself"
