A/N: There is no friggin' way that what you are about to read will actually happen because Fairy Tail belongs to Mashima and Mashima loves to bathe in our tears. Still, consider this my Fairy Tail 416 therapy, even if it's completely AU…

Fair warning – I wrote this in like two hours, so don't expect a masterpiece or anything.

"You'll be okay. Don't worry. You know the weakness and strengths of man well enough. Continue on into the path of light, just as you've done all along. And we will walk on the path of darkness to defeat Zeref. And someday our paths might meet again. By then, I hope you will shine bright. Bright enough to erase our existence."

As she stood there, immobile on the riverbank, it took Erza about five seconds to take in the meaning of the words.

Her first feeling was thankfulness. Thankfulness because his reassurance that she would be okay despite everything Tartarus had put her through meant more the any other she had already been provided. For once, she felt like yes, she would be fine even though everything in her mind still felt bruised and battered. It wasn't a cure for the funk she'd been feeling all week but it was a start. And then…

Erase our existence… erase our existence, echoed in her mind. Erase our existence

Crack – that was the metaphorical sound her composure made as it shattered in her head. No amount of relief or thankfulness would be able to pad it.

Before she knew it, she was running – running right in Jellal's direction and before he even had a chance to turn around, she was right on him, tackling him onto the ground and holding him there, stomach down, as she straddled his back.

Although the only sound he emitted at that was one of surprise, the cloaked group standing at a distance had the courtesy of voicing his inner thought – 'ouch!'.

"Are you kidding me?!" she demanded, holding his head down sideways against the ground.

"Erza…"

"Shut up! You have said enough!" she barked back. "Erase your existence?! Are you out of your mind?!"

"I…"

"Quiet!" she shouted again and, in the clearly disadvantageous situation he was, immediately obeyed.

Not that he couldn't easily flip them over and make a run for it if he really tried – it was just that she'd probably put up a fight and the prospect of injuring her was unthinkable.

"I am done with this," she informed him in a very impatient tone. "I am through with this charade. One step forward, two steps back… I am done! And would you like to know why, Jellal? Because I got tortured. And then, I was made blind and deaf and Mavis knows what more and for a moment there, before hope came back, I actually thought that might be it for me. And then, once it was all over, my guild got disbanded – temporarily, I hope, but it stings nonetheless. And finally – the cherry on top of the cake – you swoop in, you make me feel better for a moment and then you tell me to erase your existence. Well, as you can imagine there isn't much that I can do right now about most of this unfortunate sequence of events – up until the last one, that is. So, concerning the requested erasure of your existence, my answer is 'no'."

Jellal groaned, both because she was being far too difficult and because his neck was in a truly horrible position. "Erza, it is for your own good."

"No," she repeated.

"You are being irrational!"

"No," she said again.

"Must you be so difficult?!"

"No," she automatically responses before blinking and realizing that was not the correct. "Wait, that would be a 'yes' instead."

Jellal sighed. "I shouldn't have come today."

"Yes, you should," she corrected. "I needed it. I needed you and you came. But that doesn't give you a right to stomp on it a second later!"

He closed his eyes and then fought to speak more calmly. "I understand you must be feeling revolted, Erza. I do. And I didn't mean to upset you. But the fact is that we are on different paths: you on light, me on darkness. And the purpose of light is to erase darkness. Either you like it or not, that is how it will end."

"No, it isn't," she insisted determinately. "Stop painting the world so black and white, Jellal. You may not be a saint, but neither am I. We are fighting for the same purpose regardless of how we got there – to erase Zeref from this world. That alone wouldn't put you in the path of darkness as much as it wouldn't put me on the path of light – the road ahead of us is painted in nothing but tones of grey, same as everyone else's is, either they like it or not." She proceeded to loosen her hold of him so he could, at least, turn around and look at her as she said the next part. "Which is why, as of right now, my grey road will intersect with yours."

His eyes widened as they met hers. "What?!"

"My guild has disbanded, my team is split up and I would rather keep working on our common goal instead of sitting around until they come together again. Somehow, I have a feeling that doing so by myself won't be as effective as it would be if I temporarily joined forces with a group of people who is focused on the same objective."

It was Jellal's turn to stare in disbelief. "You cannot be serious. Erza, paint this whatever color you want but at the end of the day, we are still escaped felons – if you are caught associating with us the way you plan, you will end up in a jail cell with us!"

"I am not changing my mind," she informed him, getting up and brushing the dirt out of her legs. "And I don't plan on getting caught either."

"Erza…"

"And you should also know, just so you can't claim that I have blindsided you, that as soon as we reach a town far enough that nobody will recognize your face, you…" she paused, blushing slightly as she was not as confident about that part of the deal as she was about the rest "…you will be taking me out to dinner and… and you will treat me like a lady because I have earned that much," she said, before turning around and stalking towards the rest of the group of cloaked figures. Once she was halfway there and felt confident that she was calm enough that she wouldn't stammer the words out, she looked back and placed the final nail on the coffin. "Unless your fiancée would like to speak up against it."

Judging by the way Jellal paled when he heard that, she most certainly would not in whatever imaginary world she existed in.

Meredy was the first to reach when she approached the rest of Crime Sorciére, nearly tackling the redhead with her hug. "I could kiss you right now! That idiot has been asking for a tongue-lashing like that for ages!"

"I… Thank you," Erza awkwardly mumbled. "Although I will have to decline the kiss."

"You could have at least broken him a limb," Midnight mumbled in a jaded tone. "This 'being good' thing is very boring. Could use some blood and guts."

"Erza-san! Welcome to the team!" Hoteye said loudly as Racer mumbled, in a less enthusiastic way, 'what he said'.

"Hey, if she's joining in, she has to wear one of these lame cloaks," Angel complained. "I'm not wearing one if she doesn't!"

"Stop complaining about the cloak!" Meredy shouted, fed up. Then, she turned back to Erza and elbowed her cunningly. "And don't worry – we won't let the moron dump you on the first pit stop we take like he's probably planning," she promised, glancing at Cobra. "He is, isn't he?"

"Not yet – he's too busy being a pervert," the one-eyed Dragon Slayer declared before whipping his head again and facing their leader. "You know, if having perverted fantasies about your impending time together makes you feel so goddamn guilty, just fucking think of something else, you moron!"

As Erza blushed, Jellal gaped like a fish several feet back. "I… I have no idea what you are referring to, Erik!"

By the redhead's side, Meredy just giggled. "Oh, this is going to be so much fun!"

A/N2: First sentence is a direct quote from FT 416. This chapter is killing me - I can't wait for next week!

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