Without Kurapika's Archive, Erza had to do a lot of guesswork in order to find her way through the dome. She had sharp senses, so she could sense some lingering magic energy up ahead. That meant there was still another enemy in this corridor. She chose pathways judging on where she could sense the most magic energy.

Her intuition had been correct. In the next room she entered, there was a women looking bored, leaning against one of the walls. It was as if she had been waiting. Word of intruders must have gotten around.

The minute the woman saw Erza, she grinned, "Sweet, I get a target all to myself!"

Erza quickly got into a fighting stance, summoning one of her swords. The woman seemed to get more excited. "And you seem to be a warrior. Even better!"

"Well, you seem eager." Erza said. "And how exactly do you plan to defeat me?"

"Oh, I'm not doing it." the woman said.

Suddenly, something appeared next to her. It was a beasts, around the same size of Erza, but extremely long. It growled. The woman seemed very pleased with it.

"That will do it."

Erza smirked. "So you are all talk after all."

She requipped into her Heavens Wheel armor.

"Unfortunately for you, defeating monsters is my specialty."

"Well, that was easy." she said. The SIA members were really not that much.

Erza looked hesitantly at the next pathways in front of her. She had defeated the enemy so there was no magic energy to follow. She would really get lost.

And despite her trust, Erza was getting worried about Kurapika. His opponent was no joke, she could sense it. What drive did Kurapika have to be able to take her on, one on one?

Considering her options, Erza ultimately decided to retrace her steps. Going ahead would just delay her, it would be easier to find Kurapika and use the Archive again.

Getting the image of his red eyes and aura of vengeance out of her head, Erza turned around and went back.

After getting almost halfway back to their original point, Erza finally found Kurapika.

He was typing something in the Archive and he didn't look to be injured at all. Under normal circumstances, everything would have looked fine.

Except for the fact that Kurapika's eyes were still red, and he looked... so sad.

Kurapika had wasted no time getting out of the room after his talk with Machi. Her thread was now attached to his finger, leading him to the hidden room. He noticed that he was unable to update the more complicated route to the Archive and therefore activated Emperor Time in order to use his full Manipulator capability.

But even without Emperor Time, his eyes would have still stayed scarlet. He was nowhere near calm enough in order for them to fade away.

All he could see was red as his meeting with Machi played in his head over and over again. He had done the right thing, he knew that.

But the chance he had lost still hurt.

The Phantom Troupe... the group who had destroyed everything he loved. He would kill them no matter what it takes.

But never would it take betraying his friends. The Troupe knew that. They exploited it before, and now, they did it again.

And Machi's answer to his last question...

"Dang it!" He stopped, desperately needing time to collect his thought.

He slowly began to think again. The Archive. Right. He needed to update the route now that he had Emperor Time on. He pulled the Archive out and got to work.

Erza soon walked in. She must have sensed his current mood, so she laid off on a lot of questions. However, Kurapika quickly explained the details of the power sources's location.

Erza used his communication lacrima to talk to Warren. The telepathy quickly broadcasted the news to everyone. All it did was remind Kurapika all over again about what he had to give up for this to happen. He vaguely remembered Leorio asking him a question but didn't answer. The call quickly finished.

He and Erza ran in silence. However, it was impossible not to sense how much curiosity she was reigning in. Finally, Kurapika broke the silence.

"Let me guess, you want to know what happened during the earlier battle."

Erza was taken aback. "Y... Yes. And..."

"Why my eyes are this colour?" Kurapika completed her sentence.

Erza sighed. "I'm not going to force you. But... I know from experience that locking everything inside doesn't make anything better. It only makes you worse, it doesn't take away any of the pain."

Seeing her sad expression, Kurapika was painfully aware that everything Erza was saying was true. What had she gone through to know all of this?

At this point, Erza was the one who deserved an explanation the most. And she... felt like a person who would understand.

"In my world, in the Lukso Province... there was a clan called the Kurta clan..."

Kurapika told her everything. The massacre of his clan, the Phantom Troupe, the Scarlet Eyes, what happened in the battle... Erza only listened. He stopped just short of telling her about the real power behind his chains and Emperor Time, considering the fact they were in enemy territory.

"Dang it..." he said again. He clenched his fist. "There was a Spider here... right here..." He looked so distraught.

Erza only smiled sadly. "I know how you feel."

"And how would you know that?" Kurapika asked.

"Because..." Erza said. "I lost everything twice in my life. So I know how it feels to be angry at the world, to feel like the only one who can somehow bring justice to it." She sighed. "You have probably heard this many times before but I'll be that person to say it again. I've known people who wanted to seek revenge. It never helped them and always led them down a dark path."

"When I joined Fairy Tail, it opened me up to the path of light. I stopped being angry, stopped trying to bear the burden of this worlds' problems. This guild stopped me from taking a dark path."

She smiled at Kurapika. "But I don't think you're the type of person heading for a path like that."

"What makes you think that?" Kurapika asked. Nothing Erza could say could take him off that path of revenge, He had made that choice along time ago and he would give up anything to stay on it. His covenant on his Nen proved that.

"It's obvious." Erza answered. "Because you chose to help your friends instead of fulfilling that revenge. You know your priorities."

It was true. Kurapika remembered meeting Gon, Killua, and Leorio at the beginning of the Hunter Exams. He remembered how happy everyone was in the Fairy Tail guild and how he secretly felt so different when in it. The choices he had made in Yorknew and now were not choices he would have made before.

He was no stranger to having friends. He would never lose another.

His revenge would happen. Someday. But now, his friends were benefiting from the choices he made. That was all that mattered now.

A small smile appeared on his face. "Thank you."

Erza didn't know what exactly she was being thanked for, but it was good to see Kurapika back to normal.

He finished updating the full path on the Archive and his Scarlet Eyes slowly faded away.

Gon and Natsu were the second group to reach the room, meeting up with Kurapika and Erza. Gray and Leorio followed after.

"So how exactly did you find this place?" Leorio asked.

"Long story." Kurapika said. He undid Machi's thread from his finger. "I'll explain later."

Natsu and Gray soon got into a fight over their previously agreed upon race. Ignoring that, Gon looked around. "Wendy and Killua were closer to here. Where are they?"

His worries soon went away when he saw a shadow coming down the hallway. But something was wrong...

Gon's eyes widened.

Wendy was out cold, her arm around Killua's shoulder.

Natsu quickly realized. "Wendy!" He looked at Killua. "What happened!?"

Killua gritted his teeth. "We were dealing with poison and Wendy... she took it all in. She... saved us."

A grim mood immediately went over the room when it was realized that not everyone had gotten off unharmed by the fight.

"Killua..." Gon said. He looked so troubled.

"It's all my fault..." Killua said. "I couldn't do anything!"

Erza put her hand on Killua's shoulder. "That's not true. Wendy is a Fairy Tail wizard. She was put in a dangerous situation and she made her own choices."

"But still.." Killua said, not convinced. He pulled out the dress strip with the enemy's blood. "She collected this. She said there was a healer who could find a cure if given the enemy's blood."

Erza smiled. "Wendy's a smart one. She had everything under control, don't blame yourself." She then went to support Wendy herself.

"So how will we get back now?" Leorio asked. It was Wendy's magic that would send them back.

"I... can... do it."

Wendy had regained consciousness. She stumbled a little but she was able to stand. People immediately began to protest but she looked determined.

"I can... still use... my magic. Please... let me help, I don't want this to fail... because of me."

Killua sighed. "You're amazing."

"So I guess this will be goodbye." Erza said.

Wendy smiled at Killua. "It was nice meeting you."

Killua smiled back. "Yeah, you too. Thank you... for everything."

"You don't thank friends, remember?" Wendy said. "Right." Killua said, laughing.

Gon looked at Natsu. "Thank you for everything!"

Natsu grinned. "It was all you, kiddo. It sucks that you'll lose your fire magic back in your world, but keep getting stronger, okay? I'm sure you'll find your old man again!"

"Osu!" Gon said.

"Well..." Leorio said. "Time to hit the books again." This adventure was soon coming to an end.

The Hunters gathered around the power source. Wendy got ready to perform the enchantment.

"Okay! Here I go! I call upo-"

"No, we can't leave yet."

Everyone turned towards the source of the interruption. It had been from the person they least expected.

Yay, cliffhangers! Gotta love them. I'm sorry I haven't updated in some time, I had a tournament over the weekend and stuff (Or maybe my updates are at a good pace and I'm just being paranoid) Anyway, I'm sorry there was no full Erza fight scene. I didn't want to write a mediocre fight scene for a fight we all know Erza would easily win XD.

-Heavens Wheel