Thank you again, User312308102004, for the inspiration! It's planned for a little later ;)
On a different note, I published a 100YQ Jerza one-shot if anyone's interested (because waiting for the new chapters about the main cast makes me impatient... :D).
For some reason, I didn't get a notification for this chapter's upload. Feel free to let me know if you received any or not.
Enjoy some drama...!
"Their identities are still unclear. They confessed to us their connection to Hara, but so far, we haven't had any witnesses identify them as the same men who conducted the robberies."
"And the device?"
"A fraud from what I can tell. At least not magical. They're having a technician look it over."
Erza nodded. Patting Rosemary's back, she rocked her lightly, walking up and down. By the time Jellal emerged from the bathroom, Rosemary was drifting off in her crib. Jellal glanced from the crib to the bed.
Ambrose had lectured them on early education. No one could be around 24/7 to do her every bidding. Jellal hadn't taken the hint. "She won't look for solutions on her own and thus become frustrated quickly," Ambrose had said, finally swaying Jellal with the image of his daughter saddened. Slightly. The entire weekend, he had had to admonish them like dogs – sit! – whenever Rosemary complained without reason.
On Tuesday, she had rolled onto her side, finding her pacifier on her own without anyone fetching it for her. Jellal had knelt in front of the crib, holding the bars, tears in his eyes as she had onerously manoeuvred herself. Growing up too quickly, he called it. More time for good behaviour rewards, Erza called it.
Good behaviour rewards for Erza, that was.
She had been so good in fact, that the Council had invited Jellal to join them and Ambrose and a few other select colleagues for dinner.
Jellal left his tie untied on purpose, and Erza jumped on the chance to do it for him. "Now you be mindful. We both know you can't hold your liquor." She fumbled, always more than necessary, a vagabond finger or two tracing the inside of his collar, brushing the love bite on his shoulder.
"We're eating dinner, not going out for drinks," he laughed. "They'll probably order a bit of wine for the entire table. And you know I don't drink."
"Your reading interests speak a different language." She didn't have to look at the corner next to the bed to know that half a dozen books on wine and vineyards were still there. Having received the invitation on Wednesday, he had binge-read everything the local library had to offer over the past two nights.
"I like to be prepared."
"I doubt you'll speak about wine or work. You could've done without reviewing every case of the past months."
"And maintain a healthy sleep cycle? You know me better than this." He grinned.
She pulled on his tie, but her scold melted into touching noses and lips. "You'll be great." She was confident about that.
Her confidence waned with the rising moon, but she forced herself to relax. A hot shower, a bit of cake, a bit more cake still before cuddling into bed. Rosemary roused with the rustling of the sheets but didn't complain. Erza harked. "Did you say something, love?"
Nothing. A sleepy exhale – a sigh?
Erza shuffled over to Jellal's side of the bed where the crib stood. She peered through the bars. No reaction. Rosemary nodded off peacefully. Lonely, Erza thought, poking her head under the canopy of the crib, rocking it. By accident, of course.
Uhn, Rosemary hummed in her sleep.
"You do want to sleep with Mama." Erza picked up her baby, unequipped her shirt and lied down on Jellal's pillow. "Don't worry, I'll tell him it was a last-ditch attempt." She smiled.
And waited.
Rosemary was asleep and eating and back asleep by the time Erza gave up on waiting. She got out her lacrima. Half past midnight. No restaurant was open for that long, right?
Who was she kidding, of course they were. He must have been having a good time if he hadn't texted… at all.
Erza put the lacrima away. When was the last time she had slept apart from him? The past few weeks in Era, she had been his mental support, his bad-dream catcher. She hadn't realised just how much it had made her cling to him, how gladly she had gotten used to it.
If there was no Jellal to mother, there was still Rosemary. But if Rosemary was learning to become more independent… Erza felt the urge to requip. Fill the void of no one to pamper with battle cries. She could find them a nice mission – yes, a nice mission with fighting and tactics and Jellal to hold at night.
Wendy appeared in front of her mind's eye. Erza couldn't wait to see her, spoil her a little. It was only fair.
She checked her lacrima again. The screen's light made her squint. Scrolling through her contacts, she soon found Ambrose. Surely, he wouldn't mind handing his device over to Jellal. Let them chat for a little, give her an update. Send Jellal home, preferably.
Her thumb hovered over the call icon. Erza bit her lip. She couldn't disturb him. He was enjoying himself for all she knew.
A loud bang sounded in the distance, like an explosion or collapsing building. And what a good time he must have been having! A true Fairy Tail Wizard. His first destroyed restaurant! She was more than proud of him.
Wandering with her thumb away from the call icon and towards the off button, Erza blinked when Ambrose's name appeared in the middle of her screen. Had she called by accident? Could he see her staring at the chat?
She hesitated, eventually picking up.
"Erza?" He sounded out of breath.
"I'm here. I'm up. Where's Jellal?" A brawl? Could she join?
"Don't let her bring the baby!" Jellal's voice, further away. A crash tore at her eardrums, distorted by the lacrima connection, doubled from outside the window. Erza winced, holding the device away. Rosemary stirred.
His tone hadn't sounded very festive.
"I am coming to your place now," Ambrose said with feigned serenity. "Until I'm there, I'd appreciate if you left everything out for me that Rosemary could need."
Erza summoned the baby bag at once. Replacing Rosemary in the crib, she requipped into her daily armour. It made a shiver run down her spine – how long she hadn't worn it!
Erza squeezed her head between her gauntlets. Focus! If Jellal willingly organised a baby-sitter, there was no telling just how bad the situation was. Those weren't celebratory explosions. She should have known – they were in Era, not Magnolia.
Hurry, old man, she thought, having to listen to him pant until he found the 'end call' option, having to wait, pacing, throwing anxious glances out the window. Fire. Roaring into the night sky, somewhere beyond the marketplace. A siren wailed. Erza could see a flash of light, soaring at high speed, then a house bursting from the ground, knocking Jellal right back down and the air out of his lungs.
Erza bit off her nail. An enemy moving entire houses? The people they had arrested weren't magic wielders. Was there truth in Hara's story? Were there Dark Mages about, blowing up shops and robbing banks? Would they target the mansion? Why the hell had Erik and the others from Crime Sorcière not mentioned them?
Erza sprinted down the stairs when seeing a figure near the house. She forgot to summon a sword, throwing the door open.
"The device was a fraud." Ambrose hustled inside. He wheezed, had to bend over his knees to catch his breath. "My guess: they have a spy… on the inside. Someone who… was there tonight and spiked some drinks."
Erza didn't have time for his suspicions, hasting for the stairs.
Crash! Something burst and crumbled in town, the ground shaking, the atmosphere vibrating.
"Erza," Ambrose stopped her. She blankly stared at him where he wasn't following. "I can find her on my own."
"Thank you!" Erza made for the door.
"Wait. Let's switch." He held out his lacrima. "I can call for reinforcements." Fairy Tail. Her contacts. "And we… can still reach each other." Rosemary.
Booming like thunder, blight tore across the city. Dust blustered like a sandstorm; like a cloud of spores combusting from within the streets to veil everything into thickness and coughs and itching eyes.
Jellal!
Erza winced. She snatched the lacrima out of Ambrose's hand and left hers, maybe in his hand, maybe in the air, falling, she didn't know. She was running, zooming from roof to roof in her Flight Armour.
Fire was sending pitch-black smoke into the sky. She dashed across a burning house. The smoke caught in her eyes and lungs. She had to stop. Coughing, blinking tears from her left eye, she squinted her right one to scan the city.
The plaza was in shambles. The chaos expanded, the surrounding buildings crushed. Water leaked onto the cobblestone where the fountain used to be. The remains of houses burned, most notably the oven of a large kitchen – a restaurant. The spiked drinks. Empty tables. So then—
Erza leapt aside when the roof beneath her was torn in half. A giant boulder, no, a block of earth sprung from the round. She sliced through it before the momentum could fling the roof across town. Sliding, the top of the pillar crashed into the plaza. The roof followed, shingles hailing down.
"Erza!"
She spun around. The sky was jet-black, the fire swaying her vision. Her heart raced. "Jellal!"
Two earth pillars sprung from the ground. They bent, aimed to crush her between them. Erza's armour glowed. Black wings spreading from her back, she dashed away from between the pillars as they smashed together. A third came head on. A fourth from behind. The first and second twisted upwards, shooting her up, hammering against her feet as they propelled her right into the incoming pillars.
Light blinded Erza. She summoned a shield, when something robbed her breath. The shield was ripped out of her hand by the sheer force of sudden speed. She clawed at the pressure around her torso. Boom! The pillars met, shaking the ground, crumbling down. They sounded far away. The wind in her ears was too loud to hear them.
Jellal loosened his grip around her waist, tossing her up to catch and hold her properly. Her lungs were on fire, squished by the pressure of being high in the air. "Is Ambrose with Rosie?"
"Yes." She wound her arm around his neck, clinging to the remains of his tie. His suit was torn, the jacket missing, the shirt smudged with soot and dust and blood. Meteor glowed around them, allowed them to hover, overseeing what they could distinguish. "Is Jura attacking?"
"All four of them."
"The Magic Council is attacking you?"
His grip tightened on her legs and back. Erza gasped when out of the darkness, vines lashed their way. Jellal dodged. In zig-zag lines, he evaded thorns, trunks, then pillars of earth where they popped up from every direction. Erza's stomach lurched about, organs thrown every which way. Her head pounded with the speed and whipping wind. She held on tightly to at least stop bumping her head to Jellal's chin. How had Meteor's speed not yet torn his insides to shreds?
"We're too visible." He flew behind the chimney of a building that was far away and therefore intact.
The bakery from the day before. Erza's guts twisted at the thought of it destroyed.
Jellal set her down on the roof. "We need to find Draculos first. If he sees and focuses on us, he'll immobilise us for Jura to break our every bone. Or kill us – I'm not sure what his magic can do. Wolfheim uses some sort of Take Over. I lost sight of him."
"What's their goal?"
"They yelled something about strength. Demonstrating their powers. They went berserk after tea. We need to knock them out somehow."
Knock out the Four Gods of Ishgar. The by now top Wizard Saints of the country. Erza's head wasn't reeling anymore. Her blood was pumping. She took Jellal's hand.
"I have no doubts."
"I do."
A low rumble. The shingles quivered.
Jellal picked Erza up, Meteor taking them away before the bakery combusted from the inside out. Pillars of earth followed their flight, formed fists. "We can't hurt them – not too much." He set her down in an alley. "I'll be the decoy. If you can knock out Jura without being seen by Draculos—"
Vines crept around the corner at an alarming speed. They unravelled the cobblestone, grew down the roofs, caged them in. Erza requipped into her Heaven's Wheel armour. She sliced through the vines in all directions. More waited, coiled tightly around the couple. "I'll open you a pathway." She sliced again, but the vines regrew quickly. "Dance!" She commanded her blades.
A tunnel opened up. Vines grew to close it. Jellal's Meteor barely brought him out before Erza's prison was renewed, twisting, tightening. One of the vines grabbed her ankle. Erza winced. She took a step away, but her other leg was already captured, then her left arm and the right. Twirling her sword with the flick of her wrist, she momentarily freed one arm.
"My Flame Blade wouldn't be enough…" She exchanged her sword for a katakana. "High Enchant: Fire Dragon's Flames!" The katana lit up, biting through the vines with massive jaws of raging fire. They sizzled away, melted at her feet. Erza jumped to get to higher ground, and sure enough, the moment she stepped out, the burned vines were overgrown with new ones. "Where are you, Warrod?"
She requipped into her Heaven's Wheel Armour. Soaring short distances, she fled from the vines that slung after her. They devoured houses, upturned the streets, burst pipes and cut off the streetlights' electricity. She had to skid to a halt when a house was swallowed, a woman crying on the inside.
On black wings, Erza flew the woman to safety. Thorn cuts cluttered Erza's legs and her forearms. Fires blocked her view from far away, Era trembling in the heated air that rose in waves, poisoned the citizen's lungs.
The earth pillars were thundering in the distance now. The vines didn't come after Erza, not into the outskirts. Warrod was in town. Jura was too – she had to find him quickly to give Jellal a chance. He couldn't draw their attention forever, not if they were trying to avoid Draculos' paralysing magic.
She took a different route to the centre. Keeping an eye on the pattern of rock pillars, analysing Jellal's flight, she scoured the city. A flash. Six of them. Pleiades hailed from the sky. There!
Inwardly praising her husband for his two-way strategy, Erza accepted the clear signal for an ambush. Another six rays of light. The ground quaked, humongous fists bursting from it. Right at their source—
"Nakagami," Erza tore through the earth fists, through Pleiades, through the night and through Jura's robes, "Starlight!"
He cried out. His voice croaked, faded, eyes upturning as he fell to the ground, unconscious.
"That makes—" Erza's limbs froze. In her slashing position, spear in hand, she remained like a statue. And fell. Face threatening to meet pebbles and debris, she tipped over. Her body revolted from the inside, but wouldn't move. Her heart pounded, her chest constricted, vision blackening. What is—?
"Dark Rondo!"
Air returned to her lungs. Erza collapsed onto her hands and knees, her spear clattering on the mess of cobblestone and puddles. Clutching her throat, she gasped for breath. Her circulatory system; he attacked her very body, her bloodstream, the oxygen in her heart and brain.
How in the world could they beat Draculos' Vampire Magic?
Spectres kept rushing past her, crowded the streets, the alleys, squealed and hissed as they invaded the remains of buildings in search of Draculos. His power was immense, but the air was electrified with tremendous magic power from all sides – Erza, Jellal, Draculos, Warrod – impossible to filter out.
And where was Wolfheim?
"Erza!" Jellal pulled her to her feet. Her head swayed, and it took her a moment to clear her vision. "Change."
Right. Erza's armour glowed, the draining Nakagami Armour trading for her Clear Heart Clothing.
"Not into that! It's too revealing!"
"They know we're married."
"No, I mean your chest. I don't trust baby milk from the store."
"This isn't the time for—"
The vines returned. Jellal's shield flared up, hexagonal shapes plastering into existence one after the other. With Earth Magic, he commanded Jura's leftover fists, coiled them around the shield, then set the vines ablaze for another barrier – fire.
"That was too close. You could have sliced Jura in half."
"Knockout by magic power? Unison Raid?"
"Yes and yes."
He was bleeding. Heavily. His thumb traced her wrist where thorns had cut her skin. Erza didn't know where to touch to identify his wounds. His shirt was gone now too, the undershirt a mess of blood, riddled with holes. In the dark of the night, crouching into the relative safety of their shield-earth-fire bunker, Erza wasn't sure whether it were deep purple bruises or blotches of fresh and drying blood. Dark was all she saw, dark and not good.
"You're hurt."
"They got me good. A loud noise up the mountain distracted me. Someone must have used the chaos to break into the Council building."
"Jellal—"
"It's fine." He held her shoulders, kissed her forehead. "I can get hurt. I don't nurse."
"That doesn't mean—"
A crash against the outside of the shield. Erza winced. Jellal tightened his hold on her. His eyes flitted upwards.
"We don't have much time." Boulders rained down on the shield, the earth barrier crushed. "I don't think Grand Chariot is going to cut it, not with an enemy of that calibre."
"Sema?"
"Too dangerous. The city isn't evacuated."
And she couldn't perform Sema, not even aid him in doing so. If not with Grand Chariot, how was she supposed to lend him her strength for a Unison Raid?
"Erza." Jellal met her eyes. "I'm going to teach you a new spell."