Chapter Eleven

It had been over a year. 62 weeks. 13 months and 9 days. Six hundred twenty-seven thousand eight hundred and forty minutes to be exact. Well, now forty one. He looked the same as ever. Those determined eyes, that handsome face, the way he held himself; upright and crackling with barely contained magical energy. He had not changed at all.

"Why are you here?" Erza said.

"It is good to see you again, Fairy Tail," he replied, in the same measured tone he always used.

She had not heard his voice in so long. It felt like she had forgotten what it sounded like. In many ways it was easier to remember the boy she had loved and the adolescent she had hated. The man he had become when she had been frozen for seven years sometimes felt like a mirage. Hard to grasp. And yet, her heart clenched when she saw him.

"Erza," Jellal said, "I came across some information during my travels that I thought might be useful to you. So I travelled here to share it with you."

"I… see."

"You could have just called us," Natsu said.

"Aye! Lacrima communication technology has really advanced!"

Jellal gave a low chuckle. "I suppose you are right." His eyes met Erza's and her heart skipped a beat. He had come for her.

"So what's this information then?" Gray said, crossing the room. He sat down on his bed and began to unlace his boots.

There was a crinkle of paper as Jellal pulled a rolled up scroll from his sleeve. "This is the location of Aconologia's lair. I remembered that Gildarts had faced him on the 100 Year Quest, so I thought it would be relevant. I've marked the location here."

"Thanks," she said, taking hold of the proffered map. A loaded second passed as their fingers brushed. The others watched on in uncomfortable silence.

Jellal cleared his throat. "If you would like to, you could travel back with me to Ishgar."

"We will have to decline your offer." Erza crossed her arms over her chest decisively.

"You sure about this Erza?" Gray asked.

She nodded. "Our Quest is here. I do not think we should be going on a wild goose chase like this."

"Natsu's cure is here too," Happy added.

"Cure?"

"Nothing, for you to concern yourself with Jelllal." Erza placed the map on her bedside table. "Anyway, thank you. You are welcome to stay the night with us, if you have nowhere else to go. I can double up with Wendy."

He looked around the messy room, with its broken lights and ruined beds. "Thank you, but I have something else arranged." The corner of his mouth lifted for a fraction of a second.

She inclined her head to show that she understood. She would find him later.

He stayed and chatted for a bit and then took his leave, his hood pulled low over his face as he slipped away into the night.


"Hey, Erza." Lucy whispered in the dark. Her eyes were too focused on Erza's bed to notice the shadow that slipped away in the corner. "Are you sure you don't want to travel back with Jellal? Aconologia did complete the Quest before, there might be some useful information in his lair."

"That would be a flimsy excuse, don't you think?"

"As flimsy as him travelling to another continent to give you two lines of information."

Erza chuckled. That boy needed to get better at lying. She suspected even Natsu had seen through that explanation.

"Erza. Go talk to him."

"I will. In a while. I am waiting." Unlike Lucy, Erza had seen the shadow that had stolen determinedly from the room.

"Waiting for what?"

"Nothing, Lucy. Go to sleep."


The lightest of breezes rustled through the trees. They whispered secrets to each other, their voices too low a murmur for the boy walking below to discern. No. Not a boy. He was a man. Though to beings as ancient as the trees he would always be a boy. They watched him go with an almost parental bent to their branches. Those who walked the path of darkness would always find a home in the shade.

Jellal stepped out from the forest, cresting the top of the hill. He could see all of Tekka from his vantage point. The sleeping town was bathed in moonlight, its streetlights a necklace of gold around a pale throat. He sent a ball of light into the air. It would hang there for an hour or so. 'Plenty of time,' he thought. He settled back against a rock to wait, the night-time keeping his thoughts company.

A footstep sounded somewhere behind him. He turned expectantly but was surprised when he saw a dark head instead of a scarlet one. "Gray?"

Gray crossed the short distance from the treeline. "I need to talk to you about something."

Jellal patted the grass and Gray flopped down beside him. "A while ago Wendy told me something interesting. When she was fighting the Spriggan 12 member who had control over time, Dimaria Yesta, she met Ultear."

"W-what?"

"There is a space that exists out of time. No, maybe it is time itself, as a dimension all of its own. It's where the God Chronos hangs out. Ultear's there."

His heart began to beat frantically. "That's impossible!" Jellal said, slashing the air with his hand, as though cutting down the very idea. "I know where Ultear is. She is in Fiore. Living as an old woman."

"What are you saying? Then the woman I saw after the Grand Magic Games really was-?" he tailed off, putting the pieces together in his head. "Wait a minute. You knew where she was? This whole time? Bastard!"

"She didn't want you to know. She didn't want you to feel guilty."

Gray laughed, a low sarcastic chuckle. "Well, too late for that."

"I'm sorry."

"It doesn't matter." He shrugged. "How is she?"

"She is barely there. Her mind wanders, more often than not. She exists in a sort of daze, with no sense of time. Occasionally she will have moments of clarity, but they are getting rarer."

"No sense of time?" The final piece of the puzzle slotted into place. They both looked at each other, reaching the same conclusion. "Her mind is trapped in time."

"That was who Wendy met. This… it changes everything. We could get her back."

A shadow passed over Gray's face. "There is a way for me to get her back." He paused, looking away. "But I can't take it."

"I see." His tone was mild. "Why?"

Gray took a deep breath. He was not really sure why. He had a reason but it seemed inadequate. "I can't leave my nakama. This Quest, it's dangerous. We can't do it without each other. We need each other. I can't leave them. Just as they would never leave me." He raised a hand to his forehead. It still tingled uncomfortably when he thought of it. The blinding white light, the unending darkness behind it. The arms that stretched to pull him in. And then suddenly walking backwards, back into his body. Back to life. "I am the most selfish bastard." His fingers threaded through his hair and pulled. "She gave her life for me and I can't even do this for her."

A cloud passed over the moon, casting the land in shadow. The seconds creaked past. Jellal did not know the boy quite well enough to know what to say to comfort him. An owl hooted in the woods, its ringing sound stirring a memory from the depths of his mind.

"She didn't know," he said. "When she did the spell. That you had…"

"Why did she do it then?"

Jellal sighed. "It is hard for those who walk the path of light to comprehend. For us who live in the darkness, the burden of our sins, it is overwhelming. No matter how much good you do, you will never balance out your crimes. It will never be enough. Never.

"Ultear gave her life. Her time. Not for you but for all of Fiore. It was the only way she could wash away the sins of everything she had done. It was her atonement. I… I understand it."

"That's silly. If you want to atone then you should live your life facing your demons every day. Live with the pain and the guilt."

A soft laugh escaped Jellal's lips. "You sound just like Erza."

"She's not wrong."

"She never is." He gave Gray a curious glance, as though sizing him up. "You are more alike than I thought. Unflinching in your beliefs. Unburdened by darkness. Creatures of the light. I would say you are better matched than we are."

A twig cracked. Gray and Jellal spun towards the noise. Erza stood silhouetted against the darkness is a white summer dress, her hair carefully piled on top of her head in an elegant up-do.

"E-Erza," Gray stuttered, seeing the anger marring her features.

"Leave."

He hesitated, wanting to say something, but he changed his mind and left silently. It was not for him to interfere.

Gray had barely disappeared down the forest path when Jellal spoke. "You're angry." There was an almost bemused quality to his voice.

Erza reached up and pulled out the pins holding her hair in place. She flung them away, one by one, her hair uncoiling about her shoulders, as scarlet as her fury. "What do you mean, it will never be enough?" The last pin fell somewhere in the grass, making a dull clink as it landed on a rock. She messed her hair up with fingers that were trembling with anger.

"I am so stupid." She laughed quietly. Bitterly. "It is funny. I have never been angry at you before. I have loved you, hated you, mourned you more than once, but I have never really gotten angry. I should have. It burns away everything else. It is all so clear to me now."

"Erza…"

She raised a hand, cutting him off. "No. Let me speak. I believed you, you know? When you said you had to walk the path of darkness. That we could not be together because of it. That you sought, no, you needed redemption. I believed you." Her voice was shaking. She clenched a fist, hoping it would help steady her. "I thought to myself, foolishly, that when you were done. When you were satisfied. You would come for me and then we would be together.

"But now I see. You are never going to be satisfied. You have been pardoned for your crimes. You helped defeat Zeref and Aconologia. You saved my life. Milliana has forgiven you. Kagura has forgiven you. I forgave you. But it is not enough is it? You still cannot forgive yourself. Why? Does it not suit your sense of martyrdom to just forgive yourself and be happy?"

He flinched. It stabbed her heart. Maybe that had been harsher than she had intended. But she wanted him to feel the hurt she had been feeling for the past year. The heartbreak. The sheer futility of it all.

"That is what I thought anyway," she said, her voice growing quieter. "I realised it a few months ago. That there was nothing stopping you from being with me but you. It was not that you did not want me, but that you did not want me enough to be with me. I was deluding myself with the romantic fantasy that we were tragic and star-crossed. But we are not, are we? We are just two people who could not get it together to be with each other.

"And once I realised this, I got tired of waiting for you." Her voice cracked, barely able to speak the lie.

Jellal's lip twisted. He wanted so desperately to make her feel better, but he could not deny the truth of what she was saying.

"You cannot even find it in you to come visit me without contriving a pretext," she carried on. "Who was the excuse for? No one cares if you just came to see me. No one but you.

"I cannot keep living like this. Not knowing when I will see you next. Not knowing if I will see you." She stopped, suddenly losing steam. She was tired. Tired of the situation. Tired of him. She felt defeated and humiliated. "Maybe it is my fault. I have hung upon your every word for so long, treating you like an untouchable God, that maybe you forgot to see me as your equal. You always get to choose what will or will not happen between us. But not anymore. Because you do not get to decide anymore. I get to decide. And I decide not to be with you.

"If you think you will never atone for your sins. If you want to keep walking the path of darkness, then fine. You bear no obligation towards me. I set you free."

She angrily wiped the tears from her eyes and turned to walk away. Finally, as though waking from a slumber, Jellal moved. His arms wrapped around her shoulders as he embraced her back. "I'm sorry." His voice wobbled. "I am sorry, Erza. I could not give you what you wanted. But more than anything, I am sorry I was not honest with you. I-I was not ready. I am still not ready and you are right. I will probably never be ready.

"I have done so much wrong in my life, Erza. More than you will ever know. And no matter how many times I wash my hands, they will never truly be clean. The only thing I have ever done right was to love you, and I made a mess of that too. There is too much history between us. Too much bad blood. I could never forgive myself for the things I have done if I had you, a reminder, staring me in the face every day.

"I see it every time you look at me, the things I have done. I may have been brainwashed, but it was still me in there. Making those decisions. Choosing to hurt people for my cause. And every time you forgive me, I hate myself a little more. I was too much of a coward to tell you. No. I could not even admit it to myself. There is no redemption for me. I will never deserve it.

"I love you, Erza. I cherish you and I always will. You will always be special to me." His voice shook as he spoke the last words and he felt grateful that she could not see his face.

She rested her hands on his arms. Arms that were clinging so tightly around her shoulders. "I know. Thank you. That was all I needed to hear."

"I'm sorry." His voice broke on a sob. "I'm sorry."

He said it over and over because he knew they would never be enough. His tears seeped through the back of her dress. Erza patted his arm soothingly. It was almost ironic to her that she was the one comforting him in this situation, but she had always been the stronger one. They both knew it. That was why she had had to be the person who pulled the plug on… whatever this was. Had been.

She waited till his breathing was a bit calmer before she loosened his grip on her. As she turned to face him, she saw that the sun was coming up. A new dawn was breaking.

She reached up to touch his face. "Thank you, Jellal. For everything." And she did feel thankful. It had been her first love. Her first heartbreak. He had given her these beautiful memories. Memories that would make her stronger. For the first time since she was a child, she felt like she could step forward into the future with no baggage. It was liberating. She felt as light as the cool morning breeze swirling around her skirts. She stood on her tiptoes and placed a gentle kiss on his cheek. A goodbye kiss.

"Goodbye Erza. May we meet again on better terms."

"I would like that."

He watched her go, her red hair dappled in sunlight until she disappeared into the trees. He hated himself for it, but he felt a bit relieved. The weight of her hopes no longer rested on his shoulders. No. It had been the weight of their intertwined destiny.

He took a deep breath and turned to watch the lightening sky. It was a new dawn for him too.


Natsu felt sick. There was something deeply wrong with his stomach. What else could explain the sudden rumbling he felt in his nether regions? "Yo Lucy! Get out of the bathroom already!" he yelled, "Oh no, too late, I'm gonna-"

"You're sitting on the communications lacrima, idiot," Gray said.

"Oh?" Natsu looked down and realised that he was sitting on the communications lacrima. It was vibrating vigorously. Someone was calling. He placed it on the bed so everyone could look in and swiped to answer the call. "Hello!"

A bright pink flower filled the screen, a smiley face drawn across its yellow centre. "Hello! Am I speaking to Natsu and the others?"

"Woah! Come see this Happy. A talking flower!"

"Ho ho, yes indeed, I am a talking flower! How are you?" The flower suddenly jerked off-screen, replaced by a familiar craggy face. "Kidding! Just kidding! Plants can't talk!"

"Is he sure about that?" Charle whispered in an aside to Wendy. Warrod Sequen's arboreal looks were confusing at best, nightmarish at worst.

"Here Natsu, the bathroom is all yours," Lucy said, stepping out in a towel.

Onscreen, Warrod's eyes perked up. "What's this Lucy, you have an ugly red pimple on your bum!"

Lucy gave a little yelp and stared twisting around to see, before she realised that her butt was covered by her towel and that the biggest prankster she had ever met was onscreen.

Right on cue, Warrod said, "Kidding! Just kidding!"

"Don't answer the phone when I'm in just a towel, moron!" She flung a pillow at Natsu and hurriedly pulled on a robe.

"Pardon me, Warrod-sama," Erza interrupted. Gray watched her out of the corner of his eye. She had been unusually happy since she had gotten back in the early hours that morning. "What is the purpose of your call?"

"Oh that's right! Silly me. I wanted to invite all of you to an event that will be held in Crocus in one month's time."

"Sorry jicchan, but we are on a job here," Natsu said.

"Oh, there's nothing to say you can't take a little break. It's a long job after all. Besides, you didn't even hear what the event is!"

"Oh? What is it then?" Erza asked.

"I am to marry!"

There was a strained pause as everyone waited for the punchline. Finally, Charle ventured, "Kidding, just kidding?"

"Ho ho ho. No."

There was another pause as everyone processed that bombshell.

"WHAT?"


"You know," Gray said over dinner a week later, "I've been thinking. Maybe a holiday is not such a bad idea after all."

Wendy looked up from the book she had borrowed from Tekka's library earlier that day. She had spent the past week looking up poisons, hoping to find a clue to permanently cure Natsu. The skin around his neck was still dark and grey, though his scarf covered it up for the most part. "Hmm?"

"Why would you say that?" Erza asked.

"Just. We've been on the Quest for two months now. That's way longer than any of the jobs we've been on before."

"Speak for yourself, Erza's been on lots of six month jobs," Happy pointed out.

"Hm. That's true. But I often wished I could take a break."

"I miss the guild," Wendy said. The others nodded in agreement.

"I could access the books in Fairy Tail's library. I still have not found a translation for the tablet we were given by Vega. Master might even know a little about the rules of the Quest that the Tiger mentioned," Lucy said.

"And I could consult with Porlyursica-san about the poison!"

"I've been thinking too," Natsu said.

"Always a dangerous pastime," Gray replied.

"Oh yeah, you want to go, bread-butt?"

"Who are you calling bread-butt? If anyone looks like bread here, it's you!"

"Just because I'm not pasty, milk-bread-butt!"

"Alright, that's enough." Erza punched them both in the head, stopping the brawl before it started. She flashed an apologetic look at the other customers in the restaurant. "You were saying Natsu?"

"I fing fere feeng fahoad," Natsu said. He stopped a spit a loose tooth out. He held it back in place. "Heh Fendy, fiff fiff fah me."

Wendy held her hands up to his face, a blue-green glow enveloping it as his tooth settled back into his gums. Natsu gnashed his teeth a couple of times, checking the fit. "Thanks. As I was saying, I think we're being followed."

The others looked at him in surprise. He shrugged. "Think about it. They knew where we were, what kind of magic we use, what we could possibly want in exchange for quitting the Quest and every now and again, I get the feeling we are being watched." He yawned and stretched back in his chair.

Erza understood what he was up to. She gave a fake laugh and grinned at her companions, "So are we being watched right now?"

"Maybe," Natsu grinned back.

"Why is everyone grinning?" Happy asked, his teeth gritted in what more closely resembled a grimace.

"Is this why you want to go on holiday, Gray?" Erza asked.

Gray beamed at her, "Yeah, precisely. I thought we were being followed too."

"Come to think of it," Charle smiled garishly, "If we go back to Ishgar, we can check out the map Jellal gave us."

"Why? Did you foresee something?" Lucy's cheeks were hurting from all the fake smiling they were doing.

"No. It's common sense, isn't it? The Snake only injured Natsu and Wendy. They have only one thing in common. And Aconologia shared that trait too. The more I think of it, the better the idea seems."

"True. And it is not like we have found any leads here. That decides it then!" Erza exclaimed, "We are going to Ishgar!"


Lucy almost wept as she handed over the lacrima-key to the jeep. "Treat her well, OK?" She had only had the vehicle for a few weeks but she had grown oddly attached to it.

"Yeah, sure lady. Whatever," the auto-salesman said. He handed over a sack of Asteroids and unsubtly indicated for them to leave his shop.

Lucy sank down with a sigh on the footpath outside. "We still don't have enough money for passage back to Hargeon."

They had checked out of their hotel in Tekka that morning and driven down to Elmina. Her eyes had nearly popped out of her head when the bill had been presented to them. "So many zeroes," she whispered, still traumatised. The Tiger had done considerable damage to the room, and inflation meant the price for the repairs had been far higher than she had anticipated. With a snort she realised that it was a rare occasion that Natsu and Gray had not caused any of the damage themselves. 'Maybe they've learned," she thought. She saw the arguing duo go crashing into a cabbage cart by the side of the road. "My cabbages!" the man cried.

'Or maybe not.'

They had even less money left after compensating the cabbage salesman. "Maybe we can get jobs?" Wendy suggested.

"Erza, what about your secret emergency fund?" Charle asked. On their first mission together, Erza had drilled it into Wendy and Charle's heads that one must always carry some extra money hidden in their luggage in case of unforeseen circumstances.

Erza looked a bit sheepish. "I spent that on the motion sickness lacrima."

"Oh, that reminds me, did someone take it out of the car?" Lucy asked.

"Do not fret," Erza brandished the crystal globe, "I was not going to let Natsu and Wendy travel for three weeks without it."

Natsu materialised in front of her, kneeling on the ground and bowing repeatedly. "You're a Goddess! God Erza!"

Erza smiled smugly, enjoying the praise. She spotted Wendy off to the side. "You are not going to join in, Wendy?"

Wendy sweatdropped. "God Erza!" she cheered half-heartedly.

"Still, that does not solve the problem of how we are going to get the money for the journey. Say, Lucy, did you read anything about pirate ships on this coast?"

"Pirate. Ships…?"

"They are quite easy to commandeer. They are always looking for a firm hand at the helm."

"You could do that. Or you could just come with us," a new voice said. They all whirled towards the sound. "So how about it…nee-san?" A tall, muscular blond man with tourmaline brown skin leaned against the wall, tossing a cabbage playfully. A single earring dangled at his ear, swaying in the breeze.

Behind the newcomer was an unusual looking man, with a rectangular cleft chin. "Hope you have been living dandily, Erza," he said, tipping his hat.

"Shou! Wally!" She barrelled into them, knocking them over with the force of her hug. "What are you doing here? How are you? How have you been? What have you been up to all these years?"

Shou laughed, hugging her back. "Slow down, nee-san. One question at a time."

"Woah look! It's Blocky!" Natsu ran over to greet Wally.

Wendy and Charle exchanged puzzled glances. "Um, Gray-san, who are they?"

"Old friends of Erza's."

Lucy sidled up to him. "Is it just me, or was the Shou you remember much shorter than that?"

"Aye, and much less buff," Happy added.

"It has been nine years after all," Gray shrugged. Though he did have to admit, Shou had had quite the glow-up.

Erza looked over at them and grinned. "Looks like we have our ride home, everyone!"


She watched them go; standing high on a hilltop just outside Elmina, with a telescope in her hand. Her tongue flickered out to taste the salty sea breeze. The winds were blowing southerly. Good. It looked like the wizards were giving up. Hebiko packed her telescope away with a decisive snap. The dragon slayers would leave. The Quest would be reset. And maybe, just maybe, her Master would smile again.


A/N: Current scenes in my brain:-

My story outline: I am HERE

Me: OK, but Shou is here and Shou is so buff

Story outline: NO

Me: But he's cute now and much older

Story outline: he is a GUEST CHARACTER

Me: MAYBE HE CAN TRY TO ROMANCE ERZA HAHAHHAHAHA

Story outline: Am I a joke to you?

SOMEBODY STOP ME. These characters are running amok and they're stressing me out. We're only about a third of the way through the plot. It'll never end if I keep adding new nonsense. T_T. Plus I have all this Grayza fluff planned for later, including visiting one of my all-time favourite fanficition tropes (see if you can guess what that is, haha). I'll never get to it if I keep taking detours.

A/N 2: I rushed this update because I had the Jerza bit already written and also because I am being a jerk and procrastinating instead of study. I wanted to get this update out this week tho, because I genuinely do not know when the next one is coming. I like to block out 4-5 hours and then bang out 2-3 thousand words but that might not work out. Prepare yourself for biweekly updates, everyone (:

A/N 3 (sorry there are a lot y'all): I want to thank the guest reviewer from a few chapters ago again, the one who told me Gray was the worst. It made me think of why he was the worst, that's how I realised. He is a little selfish. I've pointed out that he's cowardly wrt Juvia before, but it never occurred to me that he was also a bit selfish. I think he's always a bit conflicted between what he really wants to do and what he feels he has to do. Which, I mean, Big Mood, Gray. Big Mood. (Side note: I think it's good to be a little selfish, else we'd all be sad all the time, trying to please everyone else)

A/N 4: The Jerza interaction feels mildly OOC to me because they say more in this chapter than they have in all of Fairy Tail. Sooooo much dialogue. I think it needed to be said though. Too much of their interactions are subtext. Maybe that's why they are a mess. I might revisit at a later date and make it less wordy.

Thanks for the faves/follows! Please leave a review if you feel up to it. See you next time!