The song above is my inspiration for this chapter! ^^

~ ~ ~

In an alternate universe, he was a happy boy.

"Mr. Fullbuster, is there a reason you're sitting on the filthy floor?" Professor Ivan Dreyar asks, his lips curling with disgust.

Gray's eyes fly open and he realizes, guiltily, that he had briefly dozed off.

"Oh!" exclaims the raven-haired boy. He leaps to his feet and for a brief moment the world blurs; he manages to remain steady despite his grogginess. "I was waiting for the principal."

"She's in a meeting," the man says tartly.

Gray mumbles a curse under his breath. "I've got to call the FBI then," he whispers, fishing his cellphone out of his pocket. 

He didn't conquer life, he let life conquer him.

"We're almost at the end!" I whisper, my voice trembling with excitement. For the first time in hours, I notice a change in the metallic walls of the labyrinth- rust is beginning to make an appearance, and where rust is present, water exists, and where water exists, life-

"You mean the middle. This is a maze," Jellal replies. The boy's pace has slowed down considerably, and his crisp voice is tinged with fatigue. 

"The middle is the end." I rush ahead because we're so close to finding what lies at the end of this metallic monster, so incredibly close to finding Lisanna's murderer...

But what if this has nothing to do with the case?

"Maybe," I agree quietly, "but even so, Jellal and I have discovered another mystery." To Jellal I say, "This is going to look great on our resumes!"

Jellal's laughter echoes throughout the enclosure. "On your resume, maybe."

"What do you mean? Why wouldn't it look good on yours?" I slow down to allow him to catch up.

His smile fades. "Being on this Lisanna case makes you want to be a detective more than ever, right?" I nod vigorously. "For me, being on this case does the opposite."

I find myself at a loss for words. "You...don't want to major in criminal justice?"

"Not anymore. I can't stand it." He heaves a sigh. "I don't want to figure out why a person died. I want to prevent a person from dying in the first place."

"You can't always do that. Like with Lisanna, a doctor would've been useless because she was already...dead."

"True." He doesn't say anything after that. 

I'm not going to lie; I'm disappointed. But...

"A doctor and a detective. I think that makes a good duo, don't you think?" 

And when he made up his mind to remove himself from this world forever, he found he could not do it alone.

"Ul, where are you going?" Meredy shouts breathlessly. She has to sprint to keep up with her dark-haired friend. "Class starts in seven minutes!"

"Not now, Meredy," Ultear says, "something terrible is going to happen, I can sense it."

"What? I swear to god, Ul, that Lisanna case, or whatever you call it, is messing with your head! You haven't been the same!"

The two girls stop abruptly at the entrance of Heartfilia Garden. Gray Fullbuster, Ivan Dreyar, and a few policemen are crouching over something.

"They went down, they went down," Ultear mutters, rocking back and forth on her heels. "Dammit, dammit."

"Ul-"

"I hoped they wouldn't find it, it's too dangerous!" She jogs over to the manhole where the group is gathered.

"Five hours, I think," Gray tells one of the policemen. "I told her not to go down there."

"Did she go down there alone?" one officer asks. He holds a pencil and a notepad.

"I think so-"

"No," Ultear interrupts, "Jellal Fernandes is down there too."

Gray stares at her in shock. "Wh-"

"Is the FBI here yet?" she asks impatiently.

"Two minutes away."

"Listen up," says Ultear, rounding on the officers. "When the FBI gets here, tell them to wear oxygen masks. And bring rope and weapons. Lots of weapons." She nimbly climbs down the manhole (with neither a mask, rope, or weapon) and lands gracefully at the bottom.

"See you on the other side, Fullbuster. Meredy."

He found a partner, a girl no older than himself. Together, they would leave this treacherous world.

The middle of the maze (or the end, whatever you want to call it) looked to me like a box. Rust crept along the walls, and it could've been a dead end hadn't the sign "The End" been put up on one of the walls.

"The end," Jellal murmurs. "This is the end."

"I wish," a pitiful voice replies.

We whirl around to find a dark-haired man standing at the entrance of "the box." He has a gun in one hand and a pink ribbon in the other.

"When someone points a gun at you, do what they ask," Professor Dreyar had said. "Don't argue, just do it. That is tactic number one."

"What do you want?" Jellal asks, eyeing the handgun. 

"Talk to the attacker. Tell them how you feel, who you are, your plans for life, anything, and everything. Make them feel normal. Make them feel like a good friend. That is tactic number two."

The man ignores him and instead turns his wild eyes to me. "Eileen? Eileen Belserion? Is that you?"

I smile brightly. "Yes. How are you doing?"

"Not very well," he says, his soft eyes turning teary. "I miss her."

The boy found love in the girl and together they grew strong. They navigated the darkness of the world together, until...he came. 

"Where the hell are they?" Gray roars. Lucy and Natsu have now joined the little ensemble, and both look equally agitated. 

"A few minutes," the officer repeats.

"You said that half an hour ago!"

~ ~ ~

"So what your saying is...you miss this girl...named Mavis? Mavis Vermillion?"

Zeref nods. Jellal and I exchange confused looks.

"Mavis died and left me all alone. I suppose I deserved it. She didn't like me very much," he says in a small voice. I notice the hand holding the gun trembling.

"Aww...I'm sure she liked you."

"We were going to commit suicide together. But then we became friends and decided not to." I remain quiet. "We were supposed to rid the world of evil, but she decided to found this stupid school and teach kids." He snorts. "She got angry at me. It's all Spriggan's fault. He told me to say teaching insolent children was useless.

"Wait- Spriggan? Is that you?"

"No, I'm Zeref. He's Spriggan."

"Who?"

"The man in my head."

"Come again?"

"The man in my head," Zeref repeats through gritted teeth. The hand with the ribbon clenches the fringe of his loose shirt.

"He's schizophrenic," Jellal says in a hushed voice. I nod in agreement.

A tear trickles down the man's pale cheek. "Stop talking like I don't exist. I do exist, I do, I do!" Jellal takes a cautious step back. "I just wanted to find Mavis. Spriggan was going to help me.'

"How?" I ask, thoroughly confused. "You can't, though, Mavis is dead."

Zeref points the gun at me. "How dare you defy my word!" 

"What? I wasn't-"

"Mavis and I were supposed to fix this wretched world together. Now, Spriggan and I will tear apart the world so I can find her!" His gaze wavers. "Although I must admit, I have no clue why Spriggan-"

His dark eyes dilate and he hunches over, crying in pain.  

I run up to him. "Zeref, are you okay?"

"Stay away from him!" Jellal hisses.

Spriggan. The little voice in the boy's head. Spriggan drove the boy to near insanity; he insisted the world needed to be destroyed, not fixed. The girl, angry and confused, left him to complete her own destiny.

"Oh, Eileen," Zeref chokes out, looking up at me from behind his dark bangs, "I've been so terribly lost without her."

"We can help you," I say gently, reaching out to gingerly touch his shoulder. He breathes a sigh of relief. "Come with us and we can get rid of that evil voice...Spriggan."

"Thank you."

For a moment everything seems to be fine.  I help him up and we walk back down the long hallway. Jellal follows us reluctantly, his eyes never leaving the gun held by Zeref. 

"No."

We freeze. "Zeref? Are you okay?"

"No. We must carry on, Zeref. Don't let the foolish child goad you out of doing it. This world took Mavis from you. Now, you must avenge her death," Zeref shouts.

"Please," Zeref whimpers, cradling his head in his hands. "Make it stop."

It happens so fast. I open my mouth to comfort him, and then there's a bang. It takes me several seconds to register that I've been shot.

Shit.

"NO!" Zeref and Jellal scream. One male flees from the scene, the other clambers toward me and drops to his knees, trying so hard to put me back together again.

The scarlet blood pitter patters against the ground as it leaks from my lonely heart.

When she died of a disease known as takotsubo cardiomyopathy, the boy gave in to the demon completely. He had nothing to lose, nothing to fight for.

"We're going down," one of the masked detectives tells Gray and Meredy as he tests the dangling rope. "Please remain on the other side of the yellow tape."

"Please hurry," Meredy begs, swiping away stubborn tears, "before something really bad happens."

~ ~ ~

"That bastard," Jellal cries, fumbling to remove both of our masks. "Dammit, where is all this blood coming from?" He removes his shirt and attempts to mop the gore away.

"It doesn't hurt," I say blankly. "Is that normal?"

"Shh," he whispers, "you'll be okay."

"Will I?"

"You were shot below the heart. Don't move okay?" His voice is shaky. He pulls my hair away from my neck and unbuttons my shirt. "I think the bullet went right through."

"J-Jellal.."

Jellal claws at the body tape. I want to stop him but I can't feel my arms- or anything for that matter; the fear of him discovering what lies beyond the body tape scares me more than dying. Never mind, I think dying is scarier. Or is it?

"Dying isn't scary, strawberry. It's like...falling asleep." 

"But you'll never wake up!"

Who wants to?

"Stop," I gasp.

He recoils immediately. "Am I hurting you?"

My throat constricts in response to the stinging sensation building up within my chest. The blinding, white-hot pain snakes through my body and I shake uncontrollably.

"Hang on," he says and removes the tape without further conversation. Violet light spills out into the darkness and illuminates his worried face. 

"Sorry," I choke out. I close my eyes and pray to god that I pass out. 

I'm not strong enough.

A tear trickles out from under my eyelids and joins the bloody mess my body has become. 

Navy blue? Lime green? Violet? I screwed up so bad.

"Don't! Don't sleep, Erza. Please!" Jellal shouts, shaking me ever so slightly. "Are you breathing? How do I do CPR? Wait, do I? Erza! No! I'm not angry!"

When the darkness comes, I nearly cry out in joy.

He was just a shell of the kind-hearted boy the world once knew.