It's actually here, guys, the last chapter.

This has been an amazing learning journey and you'll see more of my sentimental emotional rant at the end of the chapter.

For one final time, i hope you enjoy~

Chapter 20

There were rubble everywhere, in all shapes and sizes. Some were twice the size of Erza, but most were just rocks scattered all around. But that also meant there was barely any stable foothold.

The castle walls were strong, but the explosion that occurred even stronger. Whilst the lower floors of the castle had remained mostly in place, not very sturdy, but not in peril of falling completely. The upper floors were a different matter, though, and many floors were destroyed along with the ceilings, leaving only rubble in place along with half broken walls.

For Erza, it wasn't so much that she was confident in the castle's strength as that she simply couldn't care if anything were to happen to her. Erza didn't know what exactly she was looking for, but her feet had simply kept walking, so she followed it.

She recognised the remains of the throne room before she was anywhere near it. The walls having been torn apart meant that she could see far beyond the rubble to what was once open space, now decorated with crumbled stone.

She looked around with distaste, the patterns on the walls scratched, the golden decorations scratched and a mess, and the place that had once been filled with light was marred with black scratching. Erza's stomach knotted itself as she approached. It was very possible that this was where the explosion had occurred.

Walking around a particular large remnant of the ceiling, a hand suddenly lunged from nowhere. Erza was pushed against the said remnant as a flurry of black hair appeared before her.

"I told you guys to stay away the castle," Ultear hissed, anger and- was it desperation? –apparent in her voice.

Erza wanted to back away from Ultear, but with a large stone behind her, she was trapped. "I'm sorry, I… I only wanted to take one last look before I left."

Ultear pulled closer to Erza, her hands tight as she gripped Erza's collar. "You could have died. And I would have had to take responsibility and do you know how much chaos it would cause if scandal happens so quickly after the revolution?!"

Erza looked away, tearing her eyes from Ultear's steel gaze onto the pebbles by her feet. "It would probably be better if you had warned the people and everyone. Anyone could have been nearby."

Ultear shook her head, finally releasing the knight and stepping back from her personal space. "I… didn't think there'd be an explosion. I…"

Erza blinked, tilting her head slightly, "What did you think there'd be? What were you trying to do?"

Ultear's eyes widened for a moment, before she looked away. A finger found its way into a lock of her hair, twirling subconsciously. "I meant… well… Ugh, never mind!" Ultear snapped. "It was your idea to blow up the castle anyway!"

Erza frowned. "That's not true, I just said that it would be good symbolism to show the renewal of a country if the castle could return to nothing!"

Ultear's hands flew up, as if in exasperation. "Ugh! Same thing!"

Erza sighed, her own hands clenched tightly, "You cannot shift your blame on me! What were you doing, anyway, if it wasn't the blow up the castle!?"

Ultear took a deep breath, glaring at Erza with a hint of suspicion as she shook her head. "Just an experiment."

"What's that supposed to mean? You put the people in danger with that explosion for an experiment and you won't even justify that?" Erza demanded.

"If you weren't so impatient and just waited before you started yelling and shouting then maybe I'd be able to explain," Ultear snapped back. Then after another deep breath, she looked up at Erza with a softer look in her eyes.

"The days directly following Jellal's interruptions to your execution, I'll have you know they were not just a chase of cat and mouse. There's a nice little cottage down by the seaside, just off the woods, it's obscure and the closest town is a small one. We spent a good few days there, the two of us, discussing terms and conditions that soon followed with his voluntarily following me back to the castle." Ultear paused, then, and looked up curiously at Erza. Erza wasn't sure what her own expression was like, but she's sure confusion, nervousness and curiosity must have shown through. "Anyway, I had decided when I first joined the revolution that it was for a selfish reason. I wanted a life for a life, and that was all."

"Gray," It wasn't really a question on Erza's part, but Ultear confirmed it with a nod nevertheless.

"Well, he offered his life to me, told me that I could end it as he had caused Gray's to end, and of course, I accepted," Erza felt her stomach dropping, unsure where this was all headed. But Ultear just smiled. A mischievous smile showing that she knew something that Erza didn't. "But he also offered me something else. Something else that was worth more than revenge- that was so much better than revenge. Something he said he would give me – in exchange for his future with you."

"What?" What Ultear was saying made absolutely no sense, and Erza sighed. "I don't get it, but I'm not really interested anymore. There's really no future left for any of us with his death, and I think I should just try and forget."

Erza moved to leave, but Ultear's hand flew to Erza's wrist, gripping hard. "Wait. What I mean to say is that your Jellal is incredibly selfish. You think he'd sacrifice his own life to save yours? I'd say he was much more concerned about the fact that he didn't want his love to die."

Despite the sarcasm in Ultear's tone, there was no contempt showing, and Erza's heart couldn't help but skip a beat at 'his love'. Replaying what Ultear's said over her head, she felt the depressing heaviness pulling down her heart. "I don't understand. You're not really explaining anything."

"I'll leave the explaining to him," Ultear jerked her head back towards the throne room, before making her way towards the other direction. "I hope to never see you again."

Erza makes her way through the rubble, following the general direction of Ultear's head bob. Whatever she had hoped to find, it definitely wasn't what she saw.

He was lying there, his chest heaving a steady up and down, as if he was simply asleep. Around him were traces of the black marks on the war, the scars of an explosion, and it was obvious it had all stemmed from him.

"What…?" Erza ran immediately to his side, her heart racing, daring to believe in the impossible.

She sat down next to him, one hand reaching out over her heart, the other burying itself in his messily tousled, yet soft locks. "Is this…?"

Her eyes were not deceiving her; his heart was beating, and once she grabbed his hands, she could feel their strengthening pulse. She looked at the man in front of her, she wouldn't mistake anyone else for Jellal – she knew him too well, the way his expression is scrunched in a frown even in sleep (or death, but Erza refused to think of that at the moment).

She traced a finger around his neck, tingling with excitement at the soft touch. She had thought it wouldn't be possible – that they would never meet again, and she still had no idea what was going on, but he was breathing.

"Jellal," she called softly, nervous at first. "Jellal, Jellal, Jellal!" But her voice strengthens with each call, increasing in volume as she allows his name to echo around the ruined castle. "Jellal!"

At first, there was no response, but then he stirred, brows wrinkled as he moved. Slowly, he allowed one eye to squint open, quickly followed by the other.

"E-Erza?" His voice is strained, his eyes a blurry mess of darkness even as Erza glares into them. His eyes widen when he sits up, looking at his surroundings. "What happened?"

"I don't know, the castle blew up! And then Ultear said a lot of weird things and now I'm really confused but then you're here and this is the best thing that could happen to me because I love you so much Jellal, and I- I can't believe it's really you! How is it really you? I saw you die? You were executed in front of so many people how did you die? What magic- Oh I don't care, you're awake and you're here!" Erza was rambling, her hands gripped tightly on her love as she knelt before him, keeping him in balance.

"Hush," Jellal murmured, "Let me try to process…"

"You died and you're alive!"

"Yes… I… Ultear, she- Did you see here?" Jellal sat up straighter as he looked around once more.

"Yes, she said some really weird things, and she wasn't happy to see me, but she already left," Erza bit her lips, "Did you want her for something? I don't think she'll be far if you want to find her."

"No, she's probably busy going to find that guy," Jellal mumbled softly, then smiled at Erza's confused glance. "But you!"

Erza threw a quizzical glance.

"I didn't have time to talk to you before, didn't have time – so let me be at least a little angry, now, because you decided to throw your life away from me! But have you ever considered that maybe my life is not worth it?" Jellal trailed off. A wry smile entered his face before he continues again, "I would have been content if you had just ditched me and ran – it seems all I ever do is hurt you and your friends."

"But then you saved my life," Erza's voice was soft and breathy, her eyes inspecting her King. He seemed changed; seemed different, but not in a bad way.

"Only because – only because I thought, if… I…" Jellal stuttered.

"Take your time," Erza hushes, pulling the helpless man into a hug. "Think it through, take a deep breath and then tell me."

Jellal follows through, taking a deep breath before he opens his eyes, looking at the girl with a weird light as he replied, "I found a library in the escape path, it looked like the old national archives. It cost me extra time in there, time that almost cost you your life, and I'm sorry for that, but then I found – there were documents on time magic that explored returning a person their time to them. I thought that, maybe, I could have used it for you, but then only Ultear would be able to wield the magic, so I had to think of something – something else to save you.

"I was selfish, Erza, I didn't want to kill myself for your life because I wanted you. I wanted to continue living with you because, Erza, I- I feel like such an idiot because I wasted all this time, where I hurt you when I could have done so much more. I could have, done so much but instead, I left you on your own, and I hurt you with words I didn't mean!"

Erza looked into sincere blue eyes, her own soft and empathetic as she smiles an encouragement at the vulnerable king.

"So what happened?"

"I gave her a trade – a life for a life. I killed Gray once-" Jellal shakes his head when Erza starts to protest that it wasn't him- "and so now she gets to kill me. But I also told her that a life for a life can also mean the return of a life, wherein if she was to revive me, she'd get to revive Gray as well."

"I'm surprised she didn't just run off with the information you found," Erza commented softly.

"It's alright because she has her own code of honour to follow – also, I told her I could be an experiment, a test, and obviously, it worked."

"You're right, it worked – and we don't need to worry about anything else, do we?" Erza closed the distance between them, their foreheads touching in their embrace. Her voice drops to a soft murmur as she continued, "I've already said goodbye to Natsu and the others, so suppose we should disappear off the map for a long while?"

"Don't you want to see where this kingdom goes to?" Jellal asked with a teasing tone.

"We can watch from afar – remember that cottage that Ultear claims you and her had stayed at?"

"Oh," then Jellal shut up, because he'd made the mistake of looking at her captivating eyes.

"That's not important right now, Jellal, and you know very well what is."

"You're right, I do."

They say nothing more as their lips touch, chaste at first, but the press intensified in strength and Erza's hands were clutching hard at her love.

Their lives were far from perfect, and the future clouded in murky grey, but as long as they were alive and breathing, with their hands intertwined, Erza will not complain.

She will simply enjoy the moments, for as long as it can last. And she hopes it will be lasting forever.

End

A/N: Ahhahhahahaahha. Wow, two years later I can't believe I actually got this done. So, for where it's due, I'd like to acknowledge and thank and MillieAshford, both of who encouraged me and supported me heaps, and even helped read through it in the beginning. To Nois, who isn't even going to see this because she doesn't follow my fic, but she's always my go-to person when I have a really weird question regarding my fics that I'm too lazy to google.

And thank you to everyone who's read and reviewed this story somewhere a long the line. It doesn't matter if you were here from the start or just noticed this from its last update. Sincerely I owe you all a million thanks, everything here would have been meaningless if it wasn't read, and it would probably break my poor, poor heart. Everyone has been wonderful, thank you thank you and ilys and I'm so happy that i'm finished.

I will have to go through a looooottt of spring cleaning, and probably fix some relationship developments and fix some loopholes and add some foreshadows and fix the tense and just a lot of things. I'll slowly eat through all that editing, but for now, I'm just going to flop to my bed and just be proud of myself.

So yeah. Thanks for reading and drop a review if you liked (or didn't like) it~!