After what happened earlier, the group continued their journey with Lucy using Natsu as her support while she kept on limping.
"You sure you don't want me to carry you again?" Natsu smirked with his hand ready to snake around her waist.
"No, thanks," she smirked back. "Not after you said I look fat before," she huffed and he responded with a laugh.
"Never thought Lucy would be the type of person to fall for that pink idiot," Gray confessed to Erza.
"Your shirt is gone by the way," Erza pointed out. Instead of looking down, he groaned thinking she was right. Erza just wanted him to look down so he'd miss the tree and hit it. Unfortunately for her, he avoided it, but fortunately for her, he believed her. That doesn't seem so fortunate, though.
Her mind suddenly remembered a past conversation she had with Zeref and Natsu. They were talking about their relationships before the apocalypse and Natsu had mentioned the name Lisanna. She knew it seemed familiar, so she asked, "Did Lisanna and Natsu started dating after I left for college?"
"Not really. Although it was obvious to everyone that they had feelings for each other, they never confessed. Even after we left for different colleges," he told. "But if I'm not wrong, they got accepted into the same college, so they probably went together."
"Natsu told me about his girlfriend before and he said her name was Lisanna."
"Really? Did they break up or something, because she's not here."
"She. . . she turned. . ." When Natsu said she turned before, she didn't feel anything, but now, after knowing who actually turned, her heart pained. All of those things the kind girl did for them.
She remembered that she had two siblings, though they didn't go to the same school for some reason.
"Oh. . ." he responded not knowing what would be the appropriate reply.
While they were conversing, Zeref was eavesdropping. He really wanted to meet this girl, but when he turned his head around, he was met with smiling faces from the blonde girl and his brother as they laugh about who knows what. They didn't look too bad to him. Maybe Natsu had one more chance after all.
"Where are we going exactly?" Sting asked the dazed black haired man. "What's our destination."
"I don't think we have one," Yukino replied.
"If you want to find Mavis, we can just go to Australia," Natsu said.
"Do you think it's easy? From here to there is a 14 hours flight, how long do you think it will take if we walk?" He shook his head, not knowing and Lucy sighed. "And since when does your brother have a wife?"
"We just never told you. She had to go work there for a few months, but. . . you know?" he replied referring to the plague.
"If you're going to Australia, I won't be following. I still have to find Kagura here," Erza stated. If they do have to split, she knew she would be upset, but she also knew that everybody had different plans.
"No, we're not going to Australia," Zeref told. "We're going to keep walking and see where this path takes us," he smiled, but behind it were doubts. He yearned to see his wife again, but he didn't want to regret it later when he visits her and she's gone. Instead of discovering whatever the truth was, he would rather believe that she was alive.
●●●
Immediately after finding a bench, Freed led his companions to it as Mira sat down with her brother carefully massaging her feet. Her eyes were tightly shut whilst she tried to ignore the pain below her stomach. Evergreen had also attempted to try and soothe her worries by massaging her shoulders-- which was strange, because she doesn't show her kind side often.
"Are you feeling better?" questioned Freed out of concern. And also out of fear, because he guaranteed that if they stayed in one place for more than a hour, the outcomes of it would be awful. Such as zombies attacking them while they had a pregnant lady. Although they had weapons, they would eventually have to run, but Mira couldn't run as fast as she could when she was in high school, and that's a problem.
"A little bit," she replied with a smile. It was a lie. She had to. She didn't want to feel like a burden to them, being pregnant and constantly getting tired-- she couldn't bear the thoughts of her being the reason for holding them back.
"Isn't it a waste to leave that place and then go back?" Gajeel commented.
"Listen, you may not be close to them, but Laxus and Bickslow are our dear friends, and we cannot leave him behind," Freed replied with a glare. "How would you feel if we waned to leave your girlfriend?"
"That's enough, Freed," Evergreen scolded. "Now, are we going to walk there? Because that could take a day."
"Well we can't find a vehicle, so I guess we have to," responded Elfman.
"Come on, we need to start walking now," Levy said, and they quickly moved up their pace as they walked back to the direction of Mira's father-in-law.
●●●
Jellal kept thinking about his mother, as he drove. With all the thoughts and regrets filling his head, his ears had blocked out the sound of the girls talking to one another. He kept wondering about what ifs-- and damn, he missed mother. He would do anything to get her ba---
"Jellal! Look out!" Without a warning, Kagura had her hands on the steering wheel as she turned a hard left, avoiding the giant tree Jellal almost hit. When Jellal regained his composure, his hands were back to controlling the steering wheel.
"What happened?" Juvia asked.
"I. . . I'm sorry. I got distracted."
"Maybe you should let me drive. You've been driving for hours and you seem tired," Ultear offered.
"Wait no," Kagura stopped her. "We have been driving for hours, and from what I remember, the time we took to leave the mall wasn't this long," she pointed out. She had her hand on her chin, as she wondered what was going on.
"Hey, what's that?" Meredy questioned, looking at the big billboard above. It wrote, 'Cirque De Clowns' with a face of a clown on the side. Though what made it suspicious and horrifying was with how the clown looked. It didn't look like your usual birthday party clown.
It had black eyeliner, it had its eyes in red, yellow teeth, and blood red lipstick that went all the way over to its cheeks to create a large grin. Although Meredy had never been one to be afraid of clowns-- in fact, she had a liking for their humour-- but this one didn't look like any of the clowns she had posters of in her room.
Jellal's hand was holding onto the steering wheel tightly, cursing himself. He fucked up and took a wrong turn by accident. He couldn't turn around now, the mall is probably so far away.
'Dammit,' he thought. It was his fault that Kagura can't get back her treasured weapon, it was his fault that they're probably going to get killed by whatever they're walking into, it was his fault that their mother died, it was his fault that Ultear thinks it's hers.
Out of a sudden, the car stopped causing the girls to go forward and hit whatever's in front of them.
"Jellal, what the hell?" Ultear complained. But he didn't respond. Both his hands planted firmly onto the wheel, but his eyes were looking down. His bangs covered them as he breathed heavily. "Jellal?" his sister called with concern. "Jellal, get out. I'm driving."
Soon after they switched seats, Jellal was at the back with Meredy and Juvia. As the car moved forward, he watched the things they past by, but not really paying attention to them. His mind had him replay that unforgettable memory over and over again. Although it hurt, he couldn't stop.
8 years ago. . .
FLASHBACK
"Mama! Mama! Look!" A young blue haired girl, under the age of seven ran to her mother. With proudness in her eyes, she showed her mother a drawing she made of the family. Her mother smiled at picture. Each and every one of her children were there along with herself.
She never bother to show Wendy a picture of her father, because he left when she was just a one year old. After 12 years of marriage, she couldn't believe him. But she had her children with her and that was all that mattered.
"Jellal, honey! Can you bring me one of your magnets? I want to put this on the fridge." Jellal came to her quickly with a bunch of magnets in his hands. Jellal was known to be a collector of stuffs and that made him unique. He had all sorts of stuffs in his room. From different shapes of rocks, to different types of everything, really.
"Pick one," he told her and she picked the one that was shaped as a house.
"Thank you," she said with a smile before pinning the drawing onto the fridge. She watched him as he left the kitchen. She couldn't help but feel happy with how much her son has grown. In just three years, he was going to be leaving for college and she will definitely miss him.
Meanwhile, her oldest daughter was already searching for colleges. Ultear was a girl who loved going out, but she also cared about her studies, and her mother couldn't be more proud of her.
And then there were her two other daughters. Juvia and Meredy. One was 12 and the other was 10. They've been closer than ever, sharing about all their secrets and interests, their mother was just glad managing rooms for them has always been easy because they would always want to be together.
"Dinner is almost ready!" she yelled and she finished up the fish curry she was making. "Ultear, help me set the table!"
*DING DONG*
"And can somebody get the door?"
"On it!" Jellal walked over to door and pulled it open. He was met with a man he couldn't recognize, but somehow felt like he knew him.
"Hello, Jellal," the man grinned at him. "Have you forgotten me? It's only been five years."
Jellal then saw a marking on his face, his birthmark was rather similar to his own. "Dad?"
"Ah, so you haven't." Without a warning, his father grabbed his neck and squeezed him. Jellal could feel his breath kept being stuck, as his lungs started to hurt-- he was struggling to pull his hand away.
"Jellal-San? Who's at the do--" Juvia had her eyes wide open. "M-Mom!" she could only scream. She was too shock to move. Her mind was telling her to move and help her brother, but she couldn't move a limb.
Her mother came rushing to her after hearing her worried voice. "What's wro-- Jellal!" Jellal's face almost had a blue hue. "Let him go!"
The man laughed before throwing his son to the ground. "Haven't seen you in a long time, honey."
Soon Ultear came along with Meredy and Wendy.
"Take them away! Far from here, go out the back door!" their mother pushed Juvia towards Ultear. She wanted to grab Jellal too, but he didn't want to go.
"You guys should go first, I'll see you guys with mom," he said, massaging his neck. And without uttering a single word, Ultear left with her sisters. She felt selfish for leaving her brother and mother to protect them, but she was also too scared to stay.
"Would you look at that, Jellal thinks he's a big boy," his father mocked.
"What do you want, you bastard?" his mother questioned with a harsh voice.
"Money. I want all of it," he said without hesitancy. He then pulled out a knife. "Of course you would say no, so I'm just going to have to kill you. I'm going to start with big boy right here."
When his mother saw his father lunging towards him with his knife, she immediately screamed, "Jellal, stand back!" but he was too late, and that made his mother took the strike instead. He watched as she stood in front of him, taking the knife in her chest. He felt hot tears streaming down his face.
"Mama!" he screamed.
"Well, this is just nice." His father let out a chuckle.
"Jellal, run, please. Jellal, my sweet boy, protect your sisters," those were the last words that escaped her mouth before she fell as she bled.
"Run?" Without pity, the man kicked his ex-wife's dead body. "I'm not letting you run, Jellal." This time, Jellal avoided his attack and quickly ran. "You can run, but you CANNOT hide!" he then chased after his son.
In the end, his father couldn't find him. He wasn't true to his words apparently. By that time, he gave up searching for the fifteen year old boy and raided their house while Jellal reunited with his sisters.
For a few years, they had a rough life, but Ultear's friend's parents were kind enough to bring them in. And since then, Jellal blamed himself for not protecting their mother, while Ultear blamed herself for not being there.
FLASHBACK ENDS
Jellal's hatred for their father only grew bigger and bigger over time. With the apocalypse, Jellal can only hope that their father has already died and turned into those zombies.
●●●
With Ivan doing whatever it was in his room, Laxus and Macao somehow managed to escape the room. Stupid guards didn't lock the door properly. Both of them ran to weapons room, cautiously avoiding guards as they picked up weapons for themselves and Bickslow.
Macao, with only one hand left, chose a knife as his primary weapon, but had a gun as a back up. Laxus grabbed a rifle and got one for Bickslow too. He heard that his friend was currently held up in another room.
Knowing every inch of the big house, it only took Laxus ten minutes for find the room. Since the lock was from the outside, they opened it quite easily. Laxus only thought that his father ought to hire new and better guards.
"Hey, come on." Handing his friend a rifle, the three of them went to the direction of the front door.
Upon reaching it, Ivan just had to be the with four of his guards. "Attempting to escape again, I see." He smirked. "When will you give up, son?"
"Not before I die. And you don't have the guts to kill me," Laxus replied without stuttering a single word as his eyes glared at his father like knives aiming at him.
"Who said that? I don't mind killing a disobedient and disrespectful child," he laughed. Macao couldn't bare the thought of killing his own son, even if he turned on him-- Ivan was truly a heartless man.
"I'll kill you first!" Laxus screamed, aiming his rifle at his father.
"Shoot!" Ivan yelled to his guards. Using their own guns, they started shooting at Macao and Bickslow, but they took cover just in time. Laxus could've been shot If it wasn't for Bickslow pulling him back, making him miss his shot.
"Bickslow you aim for the guards at the right. Macao, aim with your gun for the ones on the left," he ordered. "I'm going to kill that bastard," he said with anger.
------------------
First off, I apologize for the long hiatus. I said I wasn't going to stop but I did and I'm sorry. I just needed a break. For those who read this chapter, thank you for staying!
And my bad for making the Strauss siblings + the thunder legion scene short, but they might be long the next chapter.
Also, I hoped you enjoyed the past of the Fernandez Siblings. Of course this won't be the only time Jellal thinks of his mother, so stay tuned for more! And the flashback might've seemed rushed, I apologize.
I honestly don't have any plans for Erza's/Zeref's group, but I'll try to manage somehow.
Thank you for reading! Hope you enjoyed! Have a good day/evening.
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