Chapter Fourteen

The air in the tunnels was wrong. That was the only way Wendy could describe it. The cave on Mount Zonia had extended far back into the mountain, converging into a network of tunnels. The group had spent the better part of the day trying to make sense of the route.

Wendy wondered if she was falling sick. Why else would she be smelling warm meadows in the heart of a snowy mountain? She suppressed a sigh as the group found themselves staring at yet another dead end. The labyrinth was too twisted and the tunnels too tortuous for her sense of smell to be of any use. Every kink in the path trapped the air into little pockets, making the odours come from everywhere and nowhere all at once.

The group turned back, chose a different fork in the tunnels and walked on. There were too many options. Happy's stomach rumbled loudly, the sound echoing off the stone cave walls.

"Maybe we should stop and make camp," Lucy said, worriedly.

Erza stooped to feel the earth between her fingers. "No. Something walked through these tunnels a few hours ago. Not human. We need to find some place more sheltered, in case of an attack."

"Do you think it was a Guardian Spirit?" Charle asked.

"It could be anything. Natsu, Wendy, do you smell anything?"

Natsu huffed angrily. "My senses are all warped. I can't make sense of anything!"

Wendy nodded silently in agreement. An ominous feeling crept up her neck. They were trapped. Lucy had been making a map of the route they had taken so far, but they were too far into the mountain to make a quick escape. Erza was right, they needed to find a good place to set up camp. Charle was already flagging. She bent and scooped her companion into her arms.

"Let's split up," Gray suggested, as they came to yet another fork in the path.

"OK," Erza said, "Gray, you and I will take the path on the right. The others take the path on the left. If the tunnel splits, you come back. We will meet back at this spot." She fixed Natsu with a stern look. "Do not venture further!"

"Aye Sir!" Natsu saluted.

The team split up. Wendy followed Natsu, her eyes fixed on the small flame he carried in his hand.

"What's wrong Wendy? You are very quiet today," Lucy said.

Wendy shook her head and gave Lucy a falsely bright smile. There was no point in explaining to Lucy that she could not shake the feeling that something was about to go horribly wrong. "It's nothi-"

The flame in Natsu's hand began to flicker, growing and morphing into monstrous shapes. Wendy gasped and moved to shield Lucy when the flame burst forth, consuming the world around her in a blaze.


Gray scratched his neck; the collar of his jacket suddenly felt too tight. He thought that he and Erza had an easy friendship now, but situations like these always made him feel cagey. The last time he and Erza had been alone she had punched him in the neck before giving him relationship advice. Granted, the advice had been pretty useful, but he was not in a hurry to ask for more.

"Gray." The way she said his name made it seem like a command.

"Yeah?" he asked dubiously.

Erza cleared a stray boulder from the path. "How are things with Juvia?"

Gray licked his lips as he considered how to answer the question. "They're OK, I guess," he hedged. He sighed when Erza shot him a look that told him how unsatisfactory that answer was. "She is… a lot. The other day she introduced me to Juvia 3.0: Waifu Mode."

Erza chuckled. "You sound as if you are complaining."

"She tries to stay at my speed but then sometimes she just takes off and starts talking about our thirty babies. I don't even know if I want one! Last week, she tricked me into babysitting Asca-chan with her so that I could have a preview of our 'future life.'"

She gave him a genuinely curious look. "What is wrong with that?"

Gray's answering laugh was bordering on hysterical. He should have seen that coming. Erza's view of reality was mystifying. "It's too soon! We've been dating a month. We haven't even had-," Gray decided to change sentence midway. "Just. Babies are not happening for us right now."

"Hmmm." Erza cupped her chin in contemplation. "You need to hurry up, Gray. Her biological clock is ticking."

"Bio- what?!"

"You know. Women can only have babies until a certain age."

"Juvia is only twenty!"

"Still, you never know how long the baby-making process can take."

"The what?"

Erza shook her head in disappointment. "When two people love each other, they take off all their clothes and-"

"Oh my God, stop talking!" Gray clamped his hands over his ears in vain.

She rubbed her palms against each other exaggeratedly. "And rub mud all over each other while chanting prayers to the Moon Goddess. Then nine months later, a baby comes out."

"Wha-?" Gray could not believe his ears. Did she really not know? He expected this from Natsu, but this was too much. Oh God, was he going to have to give Erza the Talk?! "E-Erza," he stammered, "th-that's not how- I mean, the- when two people-"

Erza decided to put him out of his misery. "I'm kidding." She fought hard to suppress her grin. "You should see your face right now."

Gray faceplanted. What was happening? Did he accidentally take a wrong turn in this maze and wander into an alternate universe where Erza was a prankster?

"I read ecchi novels, Gray," she reminded him as she walked further down the tunnel.

A smile broke out over his face. Of course.

"You seem happier," he said without thinking.

Erza turned to look at him. The light from the torch in her hand lit her face with a gentle golden glow. "I am. Happier." She walked back to him and held out a hand to help him up. "I have been talking to Porlyusica, it is a kind of treatment where you talk about your feelings and she gives you small tasks and challenges to help overcome them."

Gray placed his hand in hers. "Was she the one who told you to prank me?" he asked as she heaved him to his feet.

"Yes. She said I need to 'lighten up.' Apparently, it has nothing to do with illumination."

"I see."

"I do not think I will do it again. Your reaction was funny, but there is nothing funny about lying to people."

His lips twitched. "No. There isn't." Porlyusica had her work cut out for her.

"I thought you had been seeing her to get a replacement eye."

Erza looked surprised that he knew about her visits to the healer. She fingered the black eyepatch over her left eye shyly. "I have decided not to get one. My depth perception is fine, and I can still fight the same." She hesitated, her mouth twisting. "Porlyusica thinks I should get one for aesthetic reasons, but my hair covers my right eye most of the time anyway. Beauty is not that important."

Gray brushed her fringe away from her forehead and studied her face. "You're still beautiful," he said bluntly. His eyes widened as he realised what he had just done. He stepped back hurriedly, his cheeks flaming.

"We should get going, it's quite late already." Her voice was gruff; the dusting of pink on her cheeks the only sign of her discomfiture. She walked on for a few metres before she realised Gray was not following. She tutted. "You are lagging, Gray. Hurry up!"

He had just opened his mouth to deliver a retort when he saw the hulking shadow move behind her. "Watch out!" He barrelled into her, the two of them rolling out of the way an instant before a bolt of magical energy incinerated the ground where Erza had been standing.

Gray's shove had knocked the torch out of her hand. It rolled to a patch of moss, setting the small green tufts ablaze. Erza requipped a sword into her hand and pointed towards the darkness. "Show yourself!" A gasp escaped her lips as the figure stepped into the light. "Jiemma?"


Was she dreaming? Her body felt as light as the air around her. She kicked out her legs and her body floated out from behind a sea of dark grey. A cloud. Where was she? She looked for clues in the landscape below her but was distracted by the translucence of her limbs. Was she a ghost?

It took Wendy a few moments to realise that she was floating above Margaret Town. Her brain felt fuzzy. How had she ended up here? The last thing she remembered was walking in the tunnels under Mount Zonia.

A flash of pink caught her eye. Cheria. She drifted over to the tree on the hill that overlooked the city. It was their special place. She saw Cheria finger a spot on the trunk of the tree. She knew what it was without even looking. The bark had been stripped away to scratch 'WM + CB FRIENDS 4EVER.' The words outlined in a heart. She and Cheria had put it there after the Lamia Scale Thanksgiving Festival two years ago. Before she quit the guild to return to Fairy Tail.

"Cheria," she said, reaching out a hand to touch her. Her hand passed straight through the other girl's shoulder. Astonished, Wendy tried again. And again. Was she really a ghost? She heard footsteps as someone else came up the hillside. No. She wasn't a ghost. This was a memory.

She watched as her self in the memory came up to Cheria and touched her shoulder, just as she had a few seconds ago.

The events had happened two weeks ago, but every detail was still crystal clear. It would still be years from now. This was not a memory she would ever forget.

"Wendy!" Cheria turned with a smile. "Do you remember the day we wrote this?"

Memory Wendy smiled back. "I was so sad that day."

"But we're still here. Two years later. I wonder, if twenty years from now we will be standing here, looking at this."

"What do you mean, Cheria? It says, 'friends forever.'"

"Yeah. Friends." Cheria bit her lip pensively.

"What's wrong?"

Cheria looked away, staring at the town in the distance. "It's nothing." She sat down at the base of the tree and indicated for Wendy to take a seat beside her. "I should ask you that. I keep catching you staring at me with a sad expression."

Wendy felt something shift inside her and she looked up to find herself suddenly looking at Cheria's face. She had entered Memory Wendy's body. "Cheria," she found herself saying. "I need to talk to you."

She was reliving the memory. Why? Why this memory?

"You are talking to me, silly."

"No. It's about your magic."

Cheria gave a small huff of irritation. "That again? Wendy, I told you, it's my choice. I'm happy. Stop beating yourself up."

Wendy tugged her skirt lower over her knees. "It's not that. Cheria, what if there was a way to get your magic back?"

"No."

"No?" Wendy got to her feet, agitated. "What do you mean no?"

"No. I don't want it," Cheria replied calmly.

"But why?"

"What do you mean why?"

Wendy clenched her fists in frustration. "You told me magic was the only thing in your life that you were good at. Why wouldn't you want it back?"

"That was two years ago. Do you think I haven't picked up any other skills?" Cheria gave her an amused look.

"I'm serious, Cheria. You could have it all back. Please. Take me seriously."

Cheria stood and levelled her gaze at Wendy. "Fine. At what cost?"

"Do you want it or not?"

"At what cost?"

"What does that matter, Cheria!"

Cheria laughed incredulously. "What does it matter?! I'm not an idiot, Wendy. Nothing comes free. What would you have to give up for this?"

Tears sprang to Wendy's eyes. "Please. Let me do this for you."

"But I don't even want it, Wendy."

"Why not, Cheria? I don't understand."

"It means more to you than it does to me." Cheria paused, trying to swallow the lump in her throat. "It has always meant more to you, Wendy. Your magic is a gift from your mother. It's all you have left of her. It is who you are. Who you have always been. A Dragon Slayer." She held her arms out helplessly. "I am just a girl who found a book."

"It's not fair," Wendy sobbed, "I was supposed to help you. To protect you. Instead, I took your future. I… I never wanted that."

"It was my choice."

Wendy shook her head, her lips trembling with emotion. "What about my choice? I chose to give up my magic, but you took that away from me. Why did you do that?" She rubbed her eyes to stop the tears that just wouldn't stop falling. She jerked with surprise when she felt Cheria's hands cup her face.

"I did it for love."

Her tears stopped abruptly as the blood rushed to her face. "Cheria…"

Cheria rested her forehead against hers. "Because I love you, you cry-baby. I am in love with you. Because I found something more important than being a wizard. Love is stronger than anything magic could offer."

Wendy placed her hands over Cheria's, gripping them as she leaned into her touch.

"And I would do it again," Cheria continued, "And again, and again. Every time. I would do the same thing. Every. Time. That's why I don't want it back. Because it was a gift of love. Given freely to you.

"You're going to do great things, Wendy. I'm moving forward too. You need to stop looking back. I don't want to be the reason you- I don't want to hold you back. Ever."

Wendy sniffed. "How can you hold me back when you are already so far ahead of me?"

Cheria chuckled, letting her go. "Come on," she said, turning to leave, "let's go back to the guild."

"Wait!" Wendy caught her hand. "There's something I need to do first." She pulled Cheria to the tree and ran her fingers over the trunk, healing the scratches in the bark.

"WM + CB 4EVER," Cheria read, her voice choking. She turned to Wendy with a hopeful look in her eyes. "Does this mean-?"

Wendy nodded. "I'm in love with you too." She laced her fingers through Cheria's. "Can I kiss you now?"

"Yes!" Cheria burst into a laugh, unable to contain her happiness. "Yes."

Wendy slid her hand up Cheria's jaw and pulled her face closer to hers. "This is going to be so much easier when I'm taller," she grumbled, standing on her tiptoes.

"Can't wait," Cheria replied, closing the gap between their lips.

Suddenly Wendy was flying out her memory self and up into the clouds. A shadow crossed the land as the memory reset itself and played out again.


It played out again. And again. And again. By the fifteenth time Wendy was starting to get twitchy. Was purgatory just a repetition of her happiest memory? Over and over until she was sick of it? What kind of twisted punishment was that?

Her memory self reached out to touch Cheria on the shoulder.

"Wendy!" Cheria said turning. "W-W-Wendy!" The image stuttered, Cheria's face shifting amorphously. "Wendy! Wendy!" she repeated like an automaton. "Wendy, wake up!" Cheria slapped her face. No, not Cheria. This was Lucy. With a gasp, Wendy regained consciousness.

"Wendy!" Charle exclaimed, jumping into her arms.

"Wendy, are you OK?" Happy said, worriedly.

She rubbed her throbbing head and tried to stand. "What happened?"

Lucy helped her to her feet, putting an arm around her shoulders when Wendy failed to hold herself up. "There was a fire," she said.

Wendy belatedly noticed the scarf around Lucy's face.

"Horologium rescued me in the nick of time, I asked Scorpio and Gemini to help put the blaze out."

"We are!" the duo of Celestial Spirits said.

"You see that deep red moss in the corner? It's called Poppy Moss. It's incredibly rare in this climate and illegal in many parts of the continent. Smoking it puts people in a stupor. They are said to relive their happiest memory over and over. People can die if they overdose on it."

"A sudden draught blew Natsu's fire out of control," Charle explained, "The tunnel was lined with the plant. They all caught fire. The smoke knocked us out." Charle and Happy had escaped much of the smoke by virtue of their short stature. The hot smoke had risen towards the roof of the tunnel, leaving the air near the ground easier to breathe.

Wendy turned to see that Natsu was still lying on the floor. "Natsu?" she croaked.

Lucy shook her head anxiously. "He ate most of the fire trying to save us, but now he won't wake up. Please, Wendy." Lucy clasped Wendy's hands in hers. "Please help him."

Wendy stumbled over to Natsu, aided by Lucy. She knelt by his body and tried to focus her blurry mind.

Natsu spluttered awake after a few moments. "What the-" he began, but then he felt the earth under him tremble. "Get out of the way!" he pushed his companions further into the tunnel just as the wall in front of them blew apart.

"Erza!" Happy cried. "Gray!"

"Everyone! Watch out!" Erza yelled, backflipping away as another bolt of energy surged out of the hole in the cavern wall.

"Ice Make: Cannon!" Dozens of ice cannons appeared in the tunnel, ready to fire at their opponent.

"Gray, no! The tunnel is already unstable from his attacks. We have to get out of here!" The first few rocks began to fall, just as a huge crack appeared in the ceiling above Erza's head.

"What's going on?" Lucy asked futilely.

"We are under attack! I will explain as we move. Hurry!"

The monster roared as he came through the tunnel. "Is that Jiemma?!" Lucy shouted in astonishment, "What the hell is he doing here?"

"Beats me," Gray replied, "He just started attacking. We have to keep going until we can find a safe space to launch a counterattack."

Erza swore as they came up to another branching tunnel. "Gray!"

"On it! Ice Make: Wall!" That would hold Jiemma off for a few moments. They could not risk running into a dead end; Jiemma's rage would either kill them or bury them under a mountain of stone.

"Left! Come on!" Charle said, the adrenaline kicking her foresight into action. "I can see it now, the way out of here." The group hurried behind her, the ones who had been drugged by the poppy fire struggling to keep up with the others.

"What happened to you guys?" Erza asked, requipping the shield from her Adamantine Armour into her hand. She held it aloft to shelter the group from the steady hail of rocks from the tunnel collapse.

"There was an accident," Lucy explained.

"Aye, Natsu and Wendy were unconscious for a long time," Happy added.

Erza turned to glance at Wendy. "Can you fight?"

"Y-yes," Wendy replied, stumbling and falling to her knees.

Erza scooped her up and threw her over her shoulder. "You are too weak to stand! You are in no condition to fight." She winced as she heard the rumbling in the tunnel grow louder. "Charle, how much further?"

"There is a large chamber up ahead, but it is still underground. If we continue a little farther, we will find ourselves above ground again!"

A bolt of magic swept past Natsu's ear. "Too late, we have to make our stand here!" The group rushed into a vast, high-ceilinged chamber, dimly illuminated by the phosphorescent rocks that lined the walls. "Alright!" Natsu said, punching his fists together. "I'm getting fired up!"

"Happy!" Erza ordered.

"Aye, sir!" Happy nimbly flew up and snapped a bracelet around Natsu's wrists.

"Sealstone? What the hell?!"

"Sorry, Natsu, but we cannot risk activating the poison in your bloodstream." Erza parried one of Jiemma's blasts, sending it crashing into the ceiling.

"This is bad!" Lucy said, "Natsu and Wendy cannot fight, and I used up too much magic putting out the fire earlier."

"Aye. And Charle and I do not even have enough eergy for our Aera."

A light shone around Erza as she requipped into her Purgatory Armour. "Do not fear. Gray and I will handle him!"

"No!" Gray yelled. "Ice Make: Gungnir!" A massive lance of ice speared Jiemma just as he entered the room. "Get out of here, the roof can cave in at any moment! I will hold him off." He gave Erza an earnest look. "You have to protect the others."

Natsu started towards Gray. "You bastard, don't try to be a hero!"

"Natsu, no!" Lucy tried to restrain him.

"Get these cuffs off me and let me fight!"

Erza tore herself from Gray's gaze. Her body glowed golden as she requipped into her usual Heart Kreuz Armour. "Understood," she said. She delivered a swift kick to Natsu's head, knocking him out cold. She threw him over her other shoulder and turned to look at Gray. "I will leave this to you. Everyone! Let's go!"

She ushered Happy, Charle and Lucy into the tunnel, forcing herself to not look back.

Lucy grabbed Charle and Happy; her longer legs enabling her to move much faster than them. "Erza, Jiemma is part demon. Gray mustn't use his Devil Slaying Magic either."

"I know."

"What do you mean, you know? We have to go back and help him!"

Erza's lips tightened. "This is something he has to do for himself."


A/N: You demanded Grayza so I have given you 1 (one) crumb. Sorry folks, this is a slooooowwww burn and I'm a sadist. One of them is about to catch feels pretty soon tho huhu.

A/N 2: How was the Chendy moment? I've never written WxW before and I was also freaking out coz they're so young (idk why, when I was 14 all I wanted in life was to kiss my crush. Now that I'm 26 I'm all like 'Anyone under 16 is an absolute baby A BABY!). There probably won't be any other Chendy moments though because Cheria is a minor character in this fic.

Thanks for reading, reviewing, faving and/or following. See you ne-... in ten minutes. This is a double update y'all!