Divided We Stand 01

Divided We Stand, a Mystogan/Knightwalker fanfiction

---

Chapter 1: Chessboard

---

The figures on the chessboard trembled suddenly and a slender female hand paused above one, waiting for the trembling to pass. The tableau of the white knight and a waiting hand above it remained for almost a minute before the tremors stopped and the hand moved the figure into a new position.

"This one wasn't so bad," a gravely, old voice mused into the unnatural silence pervading the room.

"Nothing got spilled this time," the young woman playing with the white figures agreed. The old man sitting opposite her moved his bishop, this new move forcing her to move one of her two remaining pawns into a blocking position. He countered with his queen and after a moment of deliberation, the woman reached to tip her king over, signaling her surrender.

"Giving up so easily, Erza?"

"My mind's not on the game tonight," Erza Knightwalker admitted, her gaze unwillingly moving towards a heap of letters and parchments on the side table.

"Any news?" the man inquired as he started to put away the figures.

"A hurricane hit Louen last night. Sugarboy was sent to head the rescue and relief operations while Hughes remained behind to coordinate other actions," she was frowning, obviously displeased with the arrangement.

"What would you have done?"

"I would have sent Hughes. He comes from Louen and given how emotionally invested he can become, it would be better to have his energy directed by having him right in the place. He won't focus well, having to remain in the Royal City while his home town struggles with this."

The old man nodded in agreement before regarding her shrewdly.

"But it would be best to have you as the main coordinator, don't you think?"

Erza stiffened, her back going even more rigid than her usual military posture.

"It's not my place to question my orders, Your Highness."

Faust, the former King of Edolas looked at his companion and chuckled.

"Rumours reach even this distant fortress, Captain. And when one of the most loyal soldiers blow up at the King, accusing him of incompetence and diminished mental capacities, well, it's a talk of the day. Or month as this was the case."

Erza had the grace to blush. She knew damn well that her behaviour that day had been unacceptable. But the way he had treated her was as well. She wasn't vain. She and most of the others knew that she was the single most competent soldier in the Edolas' service. And just as the series of natural disasters had began to ravage the kingdom, the new King, still wet behind the ears, had decided to send her to this distant outpost, with a transparent excuse of keeping an eye on his exiled father.

Faust had become a changed man after his brush with the three Dragon Slayers. It was as if all of his arrogance and aspirations had been beaten out of him. He was now a mere old man, with only memories of his former glory and a slightly self-deprecating outlook on life. He was not a threat to the throne nor to anyone else. And yet, the new King had stuck her as his babysitter. It was infuriating. The King had dismissed her so casually, for no good reason and just at the moment when Edolas had needed her so much.

Two months had passed since the day the magic had disappeared and while Scarlet had been right that people hadn't needed it to live, the fact had remained that the reconstruction was going to take a lot of time.

And that's when Edolas had gone to hell.

It had begun with the earthquakes, shortly followed by tsunamis in the coastal regions. Intense storms with tornados had been ravaging the mainlands while hurricanes struck islands and peninsulas. The world was falling apart and no one knew how to stop it. The army was stretched thin in an effort to save lives wherever possible. The most stable regions were overflowing with refugees and the scientists employed by the kingdom worked around the clock to find a reason for all of this.

Because the situation was unnatural and everyone knew it.

"Erza?" Faust's voice dragged her away from her dark musings. "It's getting late and my old body needs rest."

"I'll call for your escort," she snapped to one of her few duties with a dilligence that marked all of her work. After summoning a guard and sending Faust off with him - an unnecessary precaution as she well knew - she dropped her eyes at the empty chessboard. She struggled with an urge to throw it against the wall but knew better than that. No, she would have to vent her frustrations the old-fashioned way. Shutting the door of the study, she strode off in the direction of the training grounds, the only positive thing to come out of this fiasco being her increased fighting abilities.

"Bastard," she snarled to herself, thinking of the marked face of her new souvereign for the last time that evening, before immersing herself into a kata to practice her new dual wielding style.

---

Jellal had been avoiding his mirror for almost a week now. He knew without looking that he had to look terrible. He couldn't remember the last time he had a full night's sleep, nor could he remember a single meal that hadn't been interrupted by the trembling ground. His lunch had ended on the ground more than once when the shaking got bad. And there was nothing he could do.

His helplessness grated on him more than he would admit. He didn't know what to do. Sure, he hadn't expected this to be easy but how was he supposed to deal with a situation that was, as far as anyone could tell, unique?

Edolas was getting torn to bits by its own environment. The nature had already caused many casualties and the damage was getting worse with every single day. Jellal prayed for a solution to be found even though part of him was afraid, despite knowing better, that this was merely a divine retribution on the proud nation that had dragged the rest of the world down with them and that there was nothing a mortal could do.

The same opinion was shared by many people out there. Their gods, the Exceeds, had left and the world remained without its guardians. Surely, people whispered, there must have been a transgression so great that they had to be punished for it, not only by having the magic taken away, but also with the destruction of their world. What exactly the transgression had been, no one knew. The more superstitious of the soldiers thought it had been the use of Doroma Anim that was the sin and though their superiors did their best to suppress such rumours, they still existed.

That was the main reason for sending his father away, unless someone took it into their head to appease the higher powers by killing the former King. But sending Erza with him was a mistake and he saw that now. Hughes and Sugarboy were competent enough but they lacked cetain of the leadership qualities that Erza had possessed. Jellal knew he should have dealt with his issues with Erza instead of sending her away but he hadn't been thinking clearly back then and now, he was too mortified to face her again.

"I'm such an idiot," he moaned as he let his head thump down on his crossed arms. He spent more time in his study than anywhere else, dealing with report after report, his hand cramped from writing and his eyes burning from reading.

"Your Majesty?" a tentative knock on the door roused him from his self-pity session. Coco had lost a lot of exuberance in these dark days but she stuck to her messenger job, doing her best to cheer him up.

"Come in, Coco," he called out, not bothering to raise his head. He knew he was a mess and Coco knew as well. There was no sense in trying to pretend otherwise.

The tiny messenger girl entered timidly, holding several messages in her hand.

"Hughes sent his daily report," she said, handing over one document which Jellal skimmed briefly through, intending to read it over more thoroughly later. "I heard a talk in the barracks," she added uncertainly, knowing that her news would upset the King greatly but he deserved to know.

"What about?" Jellal asked, his mind still dwelling on Hughes' report.

"They are thinking of petitioning you to recall Erza-san back."

Jellal froze. He had been told several times by his officers, most recently by Hughes, that they needed Erza back. He always replied he would think about it but he really didn't. Thinking about Erza reminded him of what a fool he had been and with everything else that was happening, he simply didn't have the will to depress himself further.

"Anything else?" he asked after a pause that was simply too long and Coco noticed.

"Why don't you call her back?"

"I need her guarding my father, if someone decides to attack him over the situation."

That much was true but it was a small part of the truth.

"But why guard him? You don't like him much," Coco said bluntly and with a shrewdness beyond her age.

"He's still my father, Coco, no matter how much I wish otherwise. I won't stand by and let him be killed."

"Still, someone other than Erza-san-" Coco started to argue but was interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Your Majesty, sorry for intruding," a black-haired man with a very feminine appearance and glasses perched haphazardly on his nose stuck his head in.

"It's alright, Laharl," Jellal was grateful for the interruption of the talk that was getting too uncomfortable for him. "What is it?"

Laharl Feyman, the Director of the Royal Science Academy, took a deep breath before speaking up.

"I think we found the solution, Your Majesty. We know what's wrong with the world."

---

A/N: And with that nice cliffhanger, I'm concluding the first chapter of Divided We Stand. Thanks go to Mel, a.k.a. Sidi, for helping me come up with the title. I also want to thank my regular readers for keeping their faith in me and to ask them to keep doing so. I'll finish all of my FT projects, that's a promise. See ya, hopefully, soon...