notes: So I guess the new chapters don't expand on Acnologia. Fortunately for me (and unfortunately for you all), this means that the multitude of Annalogia possibilities in my head can only multiply. Which means more Annalogia. I'm sorry, my followers.

This story kinda has a NaLu companion piece, to be posted soon!

When more than six hands rose high in the air, she finally realizes that she can't hold her secrets back anymore.

"Then it is determined by the vote then," the head of the council notes, recording the number. "It is 7 agreed to 5, which is majority. Acnologia must be killed."

After a moment, quiet murmurs rustle the Council table. No one has expected the plan to not have passed, but no one has expected such a conflicted win.

"No," she states. Her voice breaks through the cloud of whispers. "We can't."

Anna Heartfilia is well known for speaking her mind, but her abrupt interruption surprises all other 11 Council members surrounding her.

The head is firm and steadfast. "I understand that this decision may be controversial, but the vote is already in, Anna."

"I…I can't follow through with this plan," she admits, her teeth slightly clenched, her calm façade slowly deteriorating.

"You do understand your role, right?"

"Yes, but—"

One of the proponents of the plan interrupts. "The fact of the matter is that in the past we made a mistake by implementing the Dragon Slayer plan. Indeed we needed to enact Human-Dragon experimentation to protect us from these beasts, but now the Dragon Slayers are but a relic of our more chaotic past. Their time has passed. We cannot move on if we do not let go."

She bites her lip. She knows this is true.

"I'd rather not restart a whole discussion about this again, Anna. We've already discussed this for nearly a year without doing anything."

She holds her breath. She didn't ever foresee this. She didn't think it would come down to this.

But god she doesn't want to live without him. She can't live without him.

"Acnologia—rather, Patient 0—has gone completely out of control. If we let this go further, we will be destroying our future as a society, as a kind."

"I'm sorry. I greatly apologize, but I can't agree to this because—"

She tries to talk but her vocal chords are frozen. The Council members look at her with varied gazes, but all sharing the same wary anticipation.

Anna closes her eyes and takes a deep breath in and out. Her eyebrows press together, and she is scared. Scared to death about what they will think of her when she confesses her heaviest secret. Scared to death about the possibility that telling them what she has locked away in her heart for so long will not do anything to change what will inevitably happen. And most of all, she is scared to death that they will think she is selfish for thinking that they will save him for the sake of her happiness.

But then, she is struck with bold and blind confidence. She realizes that her fear is so great that she doesn't care anymore. Come what may, she cannot deny forever that he means something more to her than just a human-dragon experiment. Whatever happens, she will have to eventually confront her misgivings face to face.

Why not now?

It is her wrong for falling in love, after all.

"I can't agree to this because—"

And this time, her mind interrupts her from finishing the sentence.

A plan suddenly formulates in her head. There is a solution.

She isn't sure if it is because she is trying to save her reputation, and she isn't sure if what she has suddenly thought of is a brilliant idea, but the one thing she does know is that this is easier to get off her chest than a confession that she hasn't even come to terms with herself.

He doesn't have to go. She can be with him for the rest of her life.

"There's a better plan," she finally finishes.

The other Council members' eyes widen, and she knows that she is pulling plans out of thin air without thinking twice about it—and even though it will impact the rest of humanity, even though it will affect her people far into their futures, it all doesn't matter because her plan compromises the need to rid him from the world and her need for him to be there with her until the very end.

So she tells them of her plan, another power that she possesses as a Celestial Mage—one that involves gates and time and dedication. She guarantees that there will be no flaws if it is executed right and that this is the best plan of action.

She convinces them that they can procrastinate his death, and she doesn't admit to them her reason for not getting rid of him right away.

She is surprised the alternate discussion gets this far:

"How long do you envision it will be until the gate opens? Twenty years?"

"No," she says immediately.

Twenty years is too close. Twenty years will not be enough time for her to spend with him.

"Perhaps one hundred years would suffice?" another Council member suggests. "We know that the he is at the peak of his power right now. We can't possibly expect these young Dragon Slayers to defeat him now."

They wait for her answer.

She doesn't know the answer, but she knows that it won't be while she is alive.

Will she be ready to part with him in one hundred years?

"Four hundred years," she says finally. "He will weaken by then, and the children will grow strong."

Her words settle.

She doesn't know how she does it, but when she sees their approving nods from across the table, she realizes that her mind is so sick, that she is a terrible person, that she is far far worse than the dragon-man they are trying to kill.

She is scheming, manipulative, and worst of all, she is a coward—

A coward scared to death of confronting her own feelings. Scared to death of being by herself. Scared to death to lose the man that she loves.

So scared of death that she passes the problems of her time to the generations ahead for them to agonize over—imprisons the young dragon-children, curses her bloodline, forces the future to give up their happiness for the satisfaction of the past—while she rests back into his warm broad chest and kisses his sweet soft lips and lives the rest of her life complete but in absolutely no way accomplished.

end notes: As always, I await your thoughts~ please let this needy writer know what you felt!

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