Finding Forgiveness {Jerza}

Fragile Heart, Fragile Mind

"Aye, Sir!" Happy chimed.

"I'll leave you all to catch up," The nurse smiled before quietly closing the door behind her as she left.

There was a brief silence as Natsu continued eyeing me.

"You didn't answer my question." He stated, "Who did this?"

My eyes fell to the ground, wondering where to start.

"The guild leader we were looking for.... She found us first." I spoke, my hands clutching the fabric of my clothes tightly, "...And she brought backup... One of her guild members, and..." My voice trailed off, remembering the fear that was instilled in my heart when I saw Simon that night.

"...It's okay if you don't want to talk about it right now," Lucy said placing a hand on my arm, "We're just happy to see you, okay?"

"Thank you, but it's okay. The worst is over, I should at least muster up the courage to tell you what happened..." I stated, trying to become emotionally detached from my own thoughts. "Jellal took on the guild leader all by himself and... I don't even know if he's alive..." I choked out.

"Erz-" Lucy tried to tell me to stop but I held up my hand,

"No, it's okay," I spoke, resuming my story. "He ran off ahead of Meldy and I. If he only waited for us, maybe he wouldn't have ended up the way he did. But he's an idiot, and he runs into things without thinking."

"So as he left us behind, one of her guild members stopped Meldy and I. He had white hair, and red eyes. He said his name was Tick. He brought someone with him.... He... Brought Simon with him..."

All three of them took in a sharp breath, "Simon? Your friend?" Lucy asked carefully with wide-eyes,

"Yes.."

"That can't be possible, Simon died!" Gray shouted, his eyebrows furrowed and teeth clenched.

"Tick... Couldn't have been the one to salvage Simon, he was too young. But somehow, someone most likely in their guild, placed something else's soul inside of him. It had an incredible amount of dark magic energy... Simon attacked Meldy, and then me... I-I couldn't d-do it, I couldn't hurt Simon!" my voice cracked as I kept my eyes on my lap. Drops of water fell from my eyes to the cloth, creating dark circles where they touched.

"I'm gonna KILL HIM!" Natsu growled, his fists now clenched and dropped to his side as he jumped protectively off of the wall, "NOBODY MAKES ERZA CRY- NO ONE!"

"Natsu..." I said under my breath calmly, steadying my gaze on him. When he met my eyes, his gnarled expression quickly dropped and he relaxed slightly.

"It's not fair," He muttered, frowning bitterly as he looked away.

A silence came over the group, before Lucy's voice broke in, "I don't know if you want to hear this right now, but Levy told me to tell you she discovered the name and location of the guild you're looking for. They're called 'The Damned', and their guild hall is in the mountains in between this town and the next."

"Thank you, Lucy. When you see Levy, tell her I'm extremely grateful for her research." 

"Hey Erza?" Gray called, stepping closer to me.

"Yes?"

"You alright?" He asked, placing a thumb on my cheek and looking at the bags under my eyes, "It looks like you haven't slept in days. And you're paler than usual, have you been eating?" He inquired.

"I can't... Not until I know what happened to Jellal..." I replied, gently removing his fingers from my skin. I looked out the window once again and watched the rain fall delicately.