Archive of Our Own

- “Hell no !!” Mirajane had been fuming around the guild hall for a while now, but her temper didn’t falter.

- “I’m not really asking if you agree Mira.” Makarov answered, unaffected by the teenager’s fury. “I’m telling you to go. Plain and simple.”

There was hardly a better mage for this mission. S-class, with the ability to absorb demons. Seemed fitting, for an S-quest asking to defeat a demon terrorizing an entire region. Mira knew this, of course. It didn’t prevent her from making a fuss, her high heels black boots clicking on the waxed parquet.

- “I will go ! But why do I have to go with her ?!”

- “None taken,” grumbled the armored mage standing arms crossed next to her. If Mirajane heard her, she did a fantastic job at pretending she didn’t. Without so much as a glance at Erza, she kept arguing with the old Master.

- “I can do this on my own! If this is about hunting a demon, I don’t need back-up!”

- “Our client insisted that this is a dangerous mission.”

- “Yeah well he’s a politician, what does he know…” she scoffed. Master Makarov’s voice got sterner.

-“Mirajane, this Sitri demon has been destroying and burning villages all around. It is not a light threat.”

- “Then let Elfman and Lisanna go with me! We always work with each other! They’ll know how to help me without getting in my way!”

Erza’s brows furrowed. She sure hoped this wasn’t a dig at her, because right now, the only person getting in the way of the mission was more white-haired, goth-ish and ill-tempered than her.

- “Elfman and Lisanna aren’t ready for a mission like this. It would only endanger them.”

Makarov kept his firm look, but he knew, as much as Erza, that he made his point. Mira would never dare to put her siblings in danger. They were the most – and maybe the only – important people in her life. This argument was over.

Mira had her fists in balls, and her half-ponytail swooshed when she turned around.

-“Fine. Whatever.”

Their train ride was silent. Not that it disturbed Erza, of course. She was used to working alone. Quietly, efficiently. No need for any noise or conversation to fill the silence that she was, obviously, ok with. She would even say that she preferred it, over the ruckus and the mess that working with other mages – namely, Natsu – could be. It was just that she wasn’t really used to Mira being silent. Or, more precisely, she wasn’t used to Mira being silent with her. This, maybe, was unsettling to her.

They didn’t speak before the mission either. They met at the train station, took the train Makarov told them to. Mirajane was there before her, and simply rolled her eyes when she saw the amount of luggage Erza brought with her. The redhead mage was expecting a snarky comment, something that she could reply to. She was ready to argue that they couldn’t come unprepared: they were representing Fairy Tail, they should honor the guild’s name! And after all, if they needed swimwear, skis, the complete encyclopedia of magic, or even a full set of bedsheets, mattresses and pillows, Mira would be glad to have them! But the demon mage entered the train without another glance, and Erza felt a strange feeling of outrage and disappointment creeping up on her. Being brushed off apparently felt worse than arguing pointlessly. Who’d have thought…

And so, their travel hadn’t been any different. They sat face to face, Mira looking absent-mindedly at the window, Erza looking at her. With only the rolling of the wheels to fill the void between them. Erza was ok with the silence. It was fine. But… simply a bit weird. Yes, weird. That explained the uneasiness in her body and the unpleasant realization that she didn’t know what to do with her limbs.

To satisfy an itch in her, and hoping it would make her feel comfortable again, she called out to Mira:

- “Hey, could you move your legs? I don’t have any space for mine.”

The reaction she was expecting – definitely not hoping for, expecting – didn’t happen. Mira’s eyes didn’t leave the window, and she simply brought her legs back to her. Erza felt stupid now. She didn’t know what to do with all this space that her fellow guildmember didn’t care about filling.

Of course, they had grown, both of them. Their relationship had changed. They were older now, they didn’t bicker and fight like they did when they were thirteen or so. They both fought for the S-Class title and won. They were great wizards. They were getting famous, across all Fiore. People even started to give Erza a nickname: Titania, queen of the fairies. She couldn’t care less about it, but Natsu, Gray and Cana thought it was so cool, and Master Makarov told her to see it as a reward, proof that she was becoming a greater wizard every day. That her reputation preceded her, that her power was getting known across the continent. So she supposed she should feel flattered.

It was only when she came back from a pretty long mission, that she ran across Mira on her way to report to the Master, that the white-haired mage looked at her with one of her rare smiles, and that she told her “Ah, I see you’re back, Titania”, that Erza felt some kind of pride regarding her nickname. She couldn’t explain exactly why she felt a fuzzy feeling in her entrails, or a flush to her cheeks. It was such a simple sentence, more of a statement, really. But it was said genuinely, without malice or sarcasm, and with an honest smile. Somehow, it meant a lot. Especially from her. She supposed that her nickname made the guild proud. She hoped secretly that it might make Mirajane proud too.

So yes, they grew. Any sincere compliment from Mirajane would have been unbelievable years before. They got more mature with time. They weren’t on the lookout for the slightest opportunity to pick a quarrel with each other anymore. It happened naturally, really. With the S-Class title, they went on more complicated missions, longer ones too. Erza never lost her serious attitude, and even started to reprimand older guild members for their recklessness. She felt a duty to keep them in line somehow, to make sure that Fairy Tail’s name was never tarnished. Jokingly, Levy once called her “the Fairy Tail police”. She was fine with this role. Someone had to make sure the guild’s honor was safe.

She never had to reprimand Mirajane, though. Despite what she believed when they were younger, when Mira was going around breaking guild hall tables just because she was annoyed, she was actually very careful in her missions. Pretty secretive, too. She either went on S-Class missions alone, or took other, easier ones with Elfman and Lisanna. If anyone wanted to know how the job went, they’d have to ask her siblings. She usually came back to the guild, reported to the Master, rested for a few days and went back on the road. It was weird, when she used to gloat over the hard missions she took, that were clearly harder and more dangerous than the ones Erza could ever take. They used to argue over who took the riskiest jobs, before. They didn’t argue much anymore now.

Erza never heard anything bad about her, Mira stopped bragging, and so she didn’t have anything to pick a fight over. They spent less time in the guild anyways, and when they did, they were too tired or too occupied to care for pointless fights. They didn’t abstain from making a snarky comment, a cutting remark or a slight criticism every now and then. But – and the rest of the guild members were glad for it – it didn’t compare to their heated quarrels and endless rivalry from before. Sometimes Erza wondered if Mira missed it. She wasn’t sure if she missed it herself. She supposed it was for the best. This was growing up, they couldn’t act like kids anymore. They were older, they were valued mages, they had to set an example. The guild had already enough to deal with, with only Natsu and Gray.

It didn’t mean they liked each other. But Erza thought – or at least she did before Mira threw a tamper tantrum at the idea of going on a quest with her – that they had a sort of mutual respect for each other. On top of their harder jobs, Makarov relied a lot on them. With Gildarts always away on long SS-Quests, Mistgun never staying in the guild hall for more than 5 minutes and Laxus being… well, Laxus, they were the only two powerful mages he could count on. She thought it meant something to both of them. Erza accepted this role with honor. To her, it was impossible to see it as anything else. The Master trusted them. Trusted them to carry on dangerous missions, trusted them with concerns about the guild, trusted them to make Fairy Tail proud. She realized now she didn’t know what Mira thought of it, but she never discussed his commands. Well, usually.

She thought Mira got more mature, like her. A treacherous part of her brain whispered, as she was watching the white-hair mage leaning on the window, that Mira certainly matured in some parts, the physical ones at least, and she cursed her own mind. Now was not the time to act like a perverted old man. She quickly turned her head to hide her upcoming blush that Mirajane wasn’t paying attention to anyway. She risked a glance her way again, and reluctantly admitted to herself that her perfidious thoughts were right. It wasn’t hard to notice, as Mirajane kept the same skimpy gothic style. It suited her, of course, even though she would never admit it to her face. In a way, Erza admired her for it. She herself was unable to wear something other than an armor, provided she felt weak and uncomfortably exposed to the world. But Mirajane didn’t seem to have this problem, and Erza was almost jealous.

Mira’s beauty wasn’t a secret. To Erza, it never really had been. She had caught herself noticing it multiple times before, when the demon mage was busy getting on her nerves. But recently, it had started to get increasingly noticed, as she started to take modelling jobs in between missions. Erza would have never imagined her as the model type, calm, collected, obedient. She believed, like the rest of the guild and even her siblings, that Mira would end up setting the studio ablaze. But when she saw the Sorcerer’s photoshoots, she didn’t have anything bad to say anymore.

(She bought the magazine. Secretly, of course. It was hidden behind piles and piles of clothes in her dorm at Fairy Hills. If any of the girls were to stumble upon it, she would insist someone put it there, and deny ever reading it.)

She thought of looking away before Mira noticed her staring, but something caught her eye. In her hand, the one closest to the window, Mirajane held a sort of thread of big wooden pearls that she was fidgeting with. Erza furrowed her brows. Upon looking more carefully, she realized that the leg Mira brought back to her at her demand was bouncing repeatedly, without a noise.

Was she… stressed??

That, Erza didn’t expect. Was going on a mission with her that much of an issue? Did she do something wrong? It was highly improbable considering they barely interacted, yet even talked. But shit, she was definitely supposed to say something now, wasn’t she? She couldn’t let Mira’s stress affect the mission. And Fairy Tail’s reputation with it. She considered scolding her, ordering her to keep whatever anxiety she had under control to protect their efficiency and their success. Which immediately reminded her why talking wasn’t her strongest suit.

To be honest, she didn’t understand her. But what else was new? Whenever Erza felt stressed, she took on a job, fought some bad guys, made justice prevail, and felt better. She did exactly that a few weeks ago, when she learned about the new Council member, a so-called Siegrain, who happened to be a very upsetting carbon copy of Jellal. Went on an S-quest, focused on the job and solely on the job, did her best to make the name of the guild shine, forgot anything from her past that wasn’t relevant to the mission, defeated a dark guild, took the money, bought a strawberry cake and went home. Healthy, adapted, effective. She obviously never thought about Siegrain or Jellal again. Ever. Not even now. And if she ever did, well she’d just have to take on a more challenging quest.

The point was, she couldn’t understand how going on a mission could be stressful. And as always, she felt frustrated at the fact that Mira and her couldn’t be more opposite. How could they work together if Mira didn’t keep her stress under control, and if Erza couldn’t even help her with it?

Well, maybe she could try. At least for the guild’s honor. But if this attempt was anything like the last she tried to have a semblant of conversation with her, she wasn’t expecting it to go very far. Blue eyes kept following the fast-passing landscape, and black painted nails were squeezing wooden pearls even harder. Erza went with the best honest thing that crossed her mind.

- “What’s this?”

Mira jumped slightly, like she forgot Erza was even here. Apparently, she had been ignoring her so much since this morning that her presence ended up vanishing from her mind. Flattering. The white-hair girl looked at her with a puzzled look, and Erza simply pointed at the wooden pearls with her chin. Mira’s hand automatically closed, and she hid the object by her side.

- “It’s nothing.”

Expected. However, Erza let her curiosity take the best of her.

- “No seriously, I don’t think I saw something like that before. Is it a necklace or something?” Mira looked at her like she grew a third eye.

- “You never saw a rosary before?

- “A what?”

Mira frowned and held the not-necklace in her palms. Erza noticed the sort of upside-down lily flower symbol attached to it. Probably deciding that Erza was not faking her ignorance, she elaborated a little.

- “It’s a religious thing? You use it during prayers.” Erza felt heat creeping to her cheeks.

- “Oh I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt y-”

- “I wasn’t praying.”

Right. So there was another thing it was used for then? Her narrowed eyes must have betrayed her confusion, because Mira sighed and shifted in her seat.

- “It’s more of a family heirloom, really. It belonged to my parents. They liked Zentopia’s dogma a lot, so…” Her manicured fingers lifted, making the rosary shift in her hands.

- “Zentopia…” the name ringed a bell, but she never had been much into Church, or any religion for that matter. If a god did exist, and they let children be slaves, she didn’t want to worship them anyway. “What’s their thing again?”

Mirajane suddenly felt like a robot in front of her.

- “You mustn’t hide your sins but recognize them, and atone for them by helping people in need without asking for anything in return. Remorse and feelings must be put aside in order to make the right decision.” she stated, mechanically, eyes looking through the cushion Erza was sitting on. When the redhead thought of asking if she still was there, Mira blinked and lifted her head. “They don’t really worship a god, it’s more of a guideline. They do believe in evil and in a form of apocalypse, though. That is prevented as long as everyone recognizes the evil inside them and repents.”

Erza wasn’t sure if she felt awe, surprise or suspicion. Probably a mix.

- “I didn’t know you were religious…”

- “I’m not.” came too fast from her mouth. “My parents were. This… thing,” she said as she raised her hand slightly, “it’s mostly a habit. I tend to have it with me when I go on jobs, but it doesn’t mean anything. It keeps my fingers busy, that’s all. Don’t read too much into it.”

As if to mark her point, she put the rosary back in her bag and turned her face back to the window. Erza wondered if her last sentence was supposed to be advice or order. She crossed her arms and tried to get some sleep for the rest of the trip. Before closing her eyes, she noticed Mira’s leg bouncing twice as fast as before.

The sun was setting, flooding the surrounding hills with an orange glow when they finally stepped out of the train. Their client, currently the mayor of the main city of the region, was waiting for them on the platform, apparently too impatient to let them settle. He raised an eyebrow at Erza’s luggage but kept any criticism he might have had to himself. Wise.

- “You’re the Fairy Tail mages?” he asked, shaking their hands before waiting for an answer. Erza nodded and he stalked towards the train station’s exit, motioning them to follow him. Someone was in a hurry…

Erza forbade any comment to fall out of her mouth and tried to keep up with Mira’s strides. Obviously, with only a handbag, she was quicker than her. She didn’t complain though, because it meant at least one of them was able to listen to the mayor’s confused rambling about how urgent this demon matter was.

She barely had time to look at the lovely brick houses or the paved roads she was walking on, as the mayor hurried them to the town hall. Erza supposed he would have been running if it was socially acceptable. They followed him to a richly decorated salon where he rashly pulled two red velvet armchairs for them to sit on. A maid had brought tea, and he motioned them to have some. Only after he drank his first sip did he settle down and relaxed into his chair.

Erza made a mental note to ask the maid for the recipe. Maybe this magic beverage would be able calm Natsu down…

To her surprise, Mirajane leaned forward in her seat and started to question the mayor with a professional tone she never heard, nor imagined she could have.

- “So, what can you tell us about this demon?”

- “There isn’t a lot to say… Its name is Sitri, it’s been burning forests and villages all around for a week now. It’s ruthless, really, and it’s coming towards my town faster than I want it to. If we let it, it’ll destroy every town and village in the area, and God knows when it’ll stop.”

- “Do you know how this Sitri came here? It’s rare for demons to just… appear.”

- “If you’re asking who summoned it, we already found him. It was a young cleric who decided it was smart to read any book he found in the church’s library out loud.”

- “And that was enough to summon it?” Erza was surprised a demon that dangerous could be called to their realm that easily. That being said, she wasn’t exactly an expert in demonology, and Mirajane barely raised an eyebrow.

- “He was very clear about it when we arrested him. Well, as clear as he could be while crying. Said he started to read pages in a foreign language, that he couldn’t stop reading them, and that before he knew it, flames came out of the book, burned everything around him including the church, and that a demon was standing at the center.”

From the corner of her eye, she saw Mira twitch in her seat. Her hands held her cup to her mouth with an almost imperceptible trembling. The tea appeared to soothe her, however, because she quickly regained her composure that only Erza saw falter. She decided to slightly derive the subject of the conversation.

- “You said he was arrested?”

- “Arrested and put in jail, yes. He wasn’t judged yet, but if I can do something about it, he’ll stay there ‘till the end of his days.”

Erza tried her best to keep her brows from furrowing. Being locked in a jail for life for a mistake seemed a bit harsh to her. Especially one he only seemed half responsible for.

- “And how long is that?”

- “Oh, definitely a long time. Kid must be 14 or something,” he chuckled, and Erza found him quite antipathic. But then again, locking children away and forbidding them freedom never seated right with her. Wonder why. “But I’ll be damned if I let his age be an excuse. Everyone must own up, no matter how young. Because of him, people died and half of the area is on fire. I don’t care how young he is.”

Mira tensed on her seat again, and brought the cup to her lips, swallowing the liquid a bit too fast. She grimaced as the tea burned her tongue. The mayor didn’t notice, and turned towards Erza with a soft expression she found fake.

- “I know you might think it’s too harsh, but I have to be firm. You see, I’m the mayor of Amaryllis, but I’m aiming to be president of this region. Elections are coming soon and I promised safety and security across all my future jurisdiction. People are scared and are starting to get angry, and if I don’t show them right now that I can keep danger at bay or punish criminals…”

He wouldn’t be elected. What a noble soul.

- “This is why this demon needs to go. I cannot let it take that election from me.”

- “How selfless…” muttered Mira behind her cup of tea. Erza shot daggers at her, but Mira smiled at the mayor, and he seemed to take it as a compliment. What kind of magic was that, exactly?

The man finished his cup and put it back on the metal tray with a noise. Hands crossed, elbows resting on his spread-out knees, he leaned towards them.

- “I asked all guilds across the continent to send me their best mages, Fairy Tail answered first and they sent you. I don’t care about who does the job as long as it’s done. So let me ask you before we all waste our time : how quickly can you get rid of it?”

It wasn’t the first time Erza met a client who was in a rush. They tended to think that because they were wizards – and even more so, S-class wizards – they could solve any problem in a heartbeat. They tended to forget, though, that no problem was simple, and that quests, especially S-quests, required time to analyze the situation and the stakes thoroughly. They were rarely a question of pure strength, they required reflection and…

- “Give us 48 hours.”

Erza snapped her head towards her guildmate. Had she lost her mind?? Why was she setting them up for failure like that??

But Mira couldn’t be calmer, her mesmerizing blue eyes holding the mayor’s stare. He smirked, satisfied, and held out his hand. As the white-hair mage shook it, she added :

- “We’ll need a map of the area and a vehicle.”

- “48 hours, are you out of your mind?? Do you need money that much?” stormed Erza when they were finally alone in the room the mayor lent them. Her guildmate seemed utterly unimpressed by her temper loss.

- “I’m not forcing you to follow me if you can’t keep up. I can do this on my own.”

Erza thought Mira had abandoned the idea of keeping her out of this mission, but clearly, she was mistaken. She couldn’t fathom why she wanted to exclude her so much. Was it a pride thing? An I-can-do-anything-better-than-you thing?

- “Yeah, count on that.” she grumbled, watching Mira tighten her half ponytail. “Seriously, how do you expect to finish an S-quest in 48 hours?”

- “Actually, I expect to finish it faster than that. I gave us 48 hours in case something goes wrong.”

- “Right. And something going wrong is sooo rare on our type of missions.”

She wasn’t usually sarcastic. But then again, Mira always seemed to make her worst traits shine through. Especially when she was being provocative. And right now, she was being so ridiculous that it hit Erza’s every nerves. And the annoyed sigh she gave her really wasn’t helping.

- “Erza, this guy doesn’t know anything about missions ranking. He qualified this as an S-Quest simply because it was urgent, because he has money, and because he wants people in his jurisdiction to see that he’s able to call the best mages in Fiore to help them. I thought you at least got that…” 

How was the passive-aggressive even more infuriating than the aggressive-aggressive? Erza never wanted so badly to go back to her old ways and smack her head with one of her swords. Or multiple swords. Or her fist.

- “And how can you be so sure? Just because he’s in a hurry doesn’t mean this is mission is a light threat.”

Mira stopped sorting her things in her bag just to roll her eyes.

- “Please, I’m sure Natsu alone could understand the logic of this mission. We find the demon, we get rid of the demon, the mayor wins his stupid election, we go back to the guild. That’s a 24-hour business at worst.”

- “How can you know that’s all there is to it? For all we know the mayor has no idea of what really happened!” she crossed her arms. “All this story about a demon this powerful simply coming out of a book because a few pages were read seems a bit too easy to me…”

Mirajane didn’t answer right away, and Erza noticed her thumb was stroking her index. The same movement she did when she caressed her wooden pearls, except the rosary was nowhere in sight now.

- “It’s more than plausible. Contrary to what people may think, the more powerful a demon, the easier it is to let it out. That’s actually part of why they’re considered powerful. Because they can use their influence on humans, especially the weaker ones, to escape their dimension and join our world easily. From what the mayor told us, I’m pretty sure Sitri used a form of hypnosis on this boy to command him to read the rest of the book. That’s why he couldn’t stop. I wouldn’t be surprised if it used some of its power to attract him to the book too…”

There was something automatic in her voice again, that Erza couldn’t really place her finger on. A detachment, a factual logorrhea that lacked something. She wasn’t surprised that Mira knew a lot about demons, it seemed fitting. She herself was considered an expert on weapons, and it felt necessary. But there was something else here. She could not inquire further, however, because Mirajane grabbed her bag again and got back to throwing things out like nothing happened.

- “Anyway, no matter how he got here, it doesn’t change the fact that we just need to find it and get rid of it for this mission to be over. I took on regular quests more challenging than that.”

- “You’re way too confident with this”, Erza digged at her. Unfortunately, it was all that she could do. She felt like she couldn’t convince Mira to please be cautious, no matter how much she wanted to. Mira turned towards her for the first time, an exasperated smile on her lips.

- “That’s because I know how politics works, I know how demons work, and I know how to make them disappear. I know how to do it quickly, and without help. Now I’m going to leave, so feel free to go buy your strawberry cakes and your heartkreuz armors, sleep, and meet me at the train station when I’m done.”

Mira got closer while talking, her finger pointed at her armor, her blue irises burning holes into her, but all that Erza could think of was that she remembered her favorite dessert and her favorite clothing brand. What? A win was a win. And who could blame her, her face up close was really distracting!

- “Master said it was a two-mages mission. Sorry but I’m coming.”

If she couldn’t make her promise to be careful, she would at least be coming with her. Mira will see, then, if her recklessness was that wise. Her guildmate exhaled loudly, grabbing the map on her way to the door.

- “Fine. But you’re driving.”

Just before she slammed the door, Erza saw the rosary sticking out of her bag.

- “Dear Mavis, did you even get your license?!” whined Mirajane, face plastered with Erza’s hair, holding on for dear life to their vehicle’s side.

Erza scoffed. Of course she did. The examinator gave it to her very quickly and without discussion right after her test. He was even shaking from how good she was driving. Mira was just complaining for the love of it.

- “Weren’t you the one who wanted to finish this in 24 hours? Did you think we could do it by driving the speed limit?”

Her SE-plug wrapped tightly around her wrist as she sped up. Mirajane kept her out of her plans to defeat the demon, so the only thing she could do was get them to Sitri as soon as possible. It was frustrating enough.

- “The speed limit is one thing, the turns that make me want to throw up are another!”

Erza rolled her eyes. Mirajane just wanted to have the last word, and she was mature enough to not care. Ha.

- “Do you even know what to do when we find him?”

And finding him wasn’t hard. They barely needed the map. They just had to follow the burned trees, the wrecked houses, and the smoke that was getting closer and closer.

- “Do I know how to get rid of a demon? Gee, I wonder…”

Great, she was infuriating again.

- “No need to be sarcastic, it’s a genuine question. We need an attack plan, we can’t just come out swinging!”

The smoke was getting denser, revealing burning flames blazing in the dark of the night. As they got closer, they could hear screams of terror and people running. Erza’s blood turned cold for a second, and she had to force herself to remember that she wasn’t the one running from the flames. She was the one who could help.

A vague horned shadow appeared behind a tree, and before Erza could say something about it, Mira was in her Satan Soul form, ready to jump out of the vehicle window.

- “Help the villagers escape, and make sure no one is left out, I’ll handle Sitri! Put out the fire if you can but do not come to help me!”

- “Wh-”

- “I’m serious Erza! Do not come near me, under any circumstances!” hesitantly, she added: “It’s dangerous and I’ll need all the concentration I can get!”

Before she could protest, Mirajane flew out the window in a rush, leaving Erza in the racing vehicle. She had to drift to stop it, not caring whether it got damaged. Magic vehicles were expandable anyway. She removed her bracelet and ignored her dizzy head from the magic drain. In front of her, houses were burning, and people fleeing.

No time to think about Mira’s mysterious order, or about the fact that she hated receiving orders from her. She put her Fire Empress Armor on and ran to help them.

She usually liked this part, no matter how twisted it could seem. The action, the acting-before-thinking, the adrenaline. Somehow, it cleansed her mind. In the rush of the moment, in the middle of danger, the words she shouted were only commands and instructions, and nothing else existed. Helping the villagers was all that mattered. Survive, make them survive, and nothing else. It was simple, in a world that wasn’t.

So, she couldn’t tell how long it took her to evacuate everyone, take them to safety and ensure no elderly, baby or pet was left. She couldn’t tell either how long it took her to put out the fire with her Sea King Armor, but she knew that when she transformed back, she was drained. She was no water mage, and she got annoyed thinking Natsu or Gray could have extinguished these flames way faster than her. She still had a lot of improvement to do, if she wanted to honor Fairy Tail.

What she could tell, however, was how she startled, how she shivered, and how her legs started running on her own when she heard Mirajane scream.

Again, she was back in her action state, where her thoughts were turned off and only her body knew what to do. Except this time, she liked it less. Because this was the danger state, the fighting before fleeing, and the hoping-everyone-is-fine state. Had she been able to think, her brain would recall Mira telling her not to come to help, she would wonder why her voice seemed so distorted, and she would know that villagers needed her most.

She also knew, however, that even if she had been able to think all of that, she would have still ran to Mirajane. Just in case she was in danger. Just in case she needed to protect her. Just in case she needed her.

But when she arrived, all her swords, all her armors and all her determination couldn’t do nothing. She stopped dead in her tracks and her eyes widened.

How could she even begin to describe what she saw?

Mirajane was there, sure, but she was nothing like the one she knew. What Erza assumed was Sitri – a black shape lined with flames – laid on the ground, ferocious, kicking and screaming, and she was standing on top, pale hands that turned into claws that turned into scales and into hands again surrounding the demon’s neck, firm despite everything changing endlessly around them.

Her white hair flew loose above her head, horns appearing and disappearing on her forehead. Her clothes were changing too, from her usual Satan Soul attire to what she usually wore, to a dark blue Erza didn’t know. Markings crawled up on her pale skin, cracks, scales, feathers, metal, and a lot of other things Erza couldn’t recognize behind the purple magic floating around them.

The screams, the growls, the grunts, the howling and crashing noises made Erza jolt and she ran closer to Mirajane. She needed to help. She had to help her somehow, even if she had no idea what was happening and what she could do. She couldn’t bear to leave her shouting, she couldn’t stand her cries of pain, all this needed to stop!

But when she got closer, a whip of flames kept her from moving forwards. Mirajane noticed her and her eyes widened, as tears kept flowing out.

- “What are you doing here?!”

- “I heard you scream, I’m here to-” her voice faded out as she saw Mirajane’s eyes roll all over her orbit, leaving her pupil-less and mouth agape.

- “I told you to keep away!!”

Erza was surprised she still was able to talk intelligibly and seemingly see her. She couldn’t grasp all that was happening, as the purple energy around them grew denser and darker. The armored mage ignored her heart beating in her ears, and her fist tightened around her sword.

- “The villagers are safe, I’ll help you defeat the dem– Aah!” a whip of flames sent her crashing into a tree.

She leaned on her sword to get back up, but gritted her teeth as the flames rose higher, spiraling around Sitri and her guildmate.

-“Leave!” Mira commanded, her head turning on her neck at an unusual angle to face her, while her body remained straddling the demon. Her wings grew and disappeared and stretched and retracted on her back.

- “I’m not going to leave you here!”

- “LEAVE!” her voice got deeper, distorted, and Erza’s whole body felt cold. She was unsure of who was talking right now.

- “I-“ she was sent into the ground again, but this time planted her sword in the earth to not drift away.

Behind the blazing flames and dark magic, the demon was shrinking and expanding, and the screams continued, without Erza being able to understand where or who they were coming from. Mirajane – or Sitri – kept shouting at her, voice changing and cracking, almost chanting.

- “LEAVE! Leave! LEAVE!”

Erza swallowed hard, her hands shaking. She had to keep her calm, she had to assess the situation. The flames and the energy radiating from Mirajane kept her from approaching, but maybe if she climbed a tree and jumped from there, she would be able to lend a hit on the demon. Her Fire Empress armor was still almost intact, far enough to limit the flames’ damage.

- “Leave! LEAVE! LEAVE!” Mirajane’s head was turning on itself now, seemingly indifferent to the laws of human anatomy.

Erza winced at the noise that was preventing her from thinking straight, and the anger in the voice screaming at her that froze her heart. She needed to pick the right weapon. She would probably only have one hit before the energy sent her flying again, she had to make it count. And she had to be extra precise if she didn’t want to hurt Mira in the process.

- “LEAVE!”

Sitri kept on growing, and Erza felt icy sweat dropping on her forehead. She was familiar with Mirajane being angry at her, but this was really not the moment for a pride contest, also her screams were especially chilling and…

Her eyes caught Mira’s ones between the flames and she finally understood.

It wasn’t anger.

She wasn’t angry at her for not following her illogical orders. Just like she wasn’t angry at the Master for making her come along, or angry at her for accompanying. She was scared. Not even that, she was terrified. Her blue irises were back and she was crying, silently pleading.

Against her best judgement, against all her instincts that were telling her to fight, against all her reflexes, Erza took shelter behind a tree and closed her eyes.

She couldn’t describe what happened then. She only knew the wind was blasting in her hair, the ground was trembling, the voices kept screaming, and then everything stopped at once.

When she opened her eyes again, Mirajane was alone on her knees in the center of a burned ground, catching her breath. She wasn’t moving, but her body kept transforming and changing. Her right arm was bigger, clad in a sort of metal, with claws instead of fingers. Her calves and feet emitted small flames that didn’t seem to burn her. Her hair was floating, getting longer then shorter, her tail was growing and vanishing, scales covering up her skin before disappearing one by one, and all her body shifting between her normal appearance and a mix of all the demon forms Erza knew.

She waited a bit before walking towards her. Slowly. She wasn’t really sure how to act.

- “You shouldn’t have come. I told you to stay away.”

Erza scoffed.

- “I don’t abandon my guildmates, and I certainly don’t let them fight S-class demons on their own, especially when I have orders from the Master not to.”

She wondered if Mirajane would get angry at her, throw a fit like when they were younger, but she didn’t move. Parts of her body were still transforming between flashes of purple light.

- “You weren’t supposed to see that.” She kept her head down, her long hair hiding most of her. “I’m sorry if I scared you.”

Erza blinked about a hundred times.

Scared her?? If anything she had been scared for her! Did she really think a few 360-degree-head-turning and body transformations were enough to scare her? Her, Titania, queen of the fairies, S-class wizard and strongest Fairy Tail female member??

- “Please, you think I haven’t seen worse?”

And she meant it. She had seen the horrors men where capable of. She had led a slave revolution. She had seen friends die. And after all that, she had seen her best friend becoming everything they stood against, worshipping Zeleph, and she could do nothing but flee. A guildmate bravely taking over a demon, pushing herself through the pain to save an entire region was nothing to be scared of. It was admirable.

Mirajane looked at her through her bangs, reminding her of the mysterious shy girl her age who joined Fairy Tail years ago. Erza noticed that the blue of her irises had hints of purple passing through, and that her pupils were still slightly shifting shapes.

- “I doubt that the villagers will think the same. Not to mention the mayor.”

- “Well you said it first. He’s a politician. He doesn’t know shit.” A faint smile passed on Mira’s face as she wiped her damp eyes that Erza pretended not to notice.

- “Did I just hear the oh-so great and perfect Erza Scarlet swear?”

- “Maybe” she smirked. “I guess that’s a secret you’ll have to keep then.”

Because she hoped it went without saying, she wouldn’t tell a soul what happened, not if Mirajane chose not to mention it. She believed she finally understood why she was so secretive about her missions now.

She held out a hand. Mira took it, careful not to dig her claws in her skin, and Erza left her up.

- “Come on. Let’s go back to the guild.”