Laxus's POV

I had made my way through a fair amount of deserts during my year of exile from Fairy Tail, so the oppressive Prekt sun didn't bother me too much. I felt bad for Gray, who had shed every layer of clothing he could manage while still appearing at least somewhat modest, but I admired that he still managed to remain alert and attentive throughout the whole trial.

The trial had been one of the most bizarre things I had ever experienced. The self-control of the people to not speak at all during the entire thing had been eerie in a way and had made it impossible to tune out all of the atrocious stories the princesses were telling. As the sun slowly made its way across the sky, marking the hours that were going by, I had found my eyes constantly moving back to Phaedra's clearly exhausted body. I had to admit, it was strange how much I had grown to admire and care for this strange woman. Besides that one dance back in the Duke's castle, I hadn't had much of a chance to hold a real conversation with her. But hearing the princesses one by one explain how they had all broken under the strain of the King's power, I couldn't help but feel amazed that Phaedra, at just twelve years old, had never once given up fighting for her freedom.

As I listened to excuse after excuse from the princesses justifying their reasoning for giving into the King, I felt a weird sense of pride as my eyes once again moved over to Phaedra. Her body was riddled with the evidence of the torture and cruelties that the King had put her through, but as it came to be her turn and she walked shakily out of the magical pen and began telling her story, a felt an intense admiration for her. Phaedra was a fighter. She was someone who would never ever give in to evil, even after nearly a decade of being poisoned by a malicious king and forced to become an assassin.

Sounds of people desperately trying to hide their sobs could be heard throughout the entire audience as Phaedra explained what the King had put her through. My eyes never left her as she went through her explanation and I drank in every detail of her. Her shaking legs, her clenched fist that would occasionally thump against her chest when she was getting emotional, her hair that flowed in a tangled sheet around her back, and especially her icy blue eyes that were radiating more sadness than any single human should ever have to experience.

When she was finished, she sank into a prostrating bow towards the gathered people of Prekt and declared her willingness to accept whatever judgment they deemed appropriate. Anger bubbled inside me and I swore to myself that if they were so idiotic to actually sentence her to death, I would destroy the entire nation before they touched a single strand of her hair. Although if the people's reactions were anything to go by, I doubted I would have to go through with that pledge.

I could feel an uncomfortable pressure in my heart as the leader of the trial explained the three choices to the gathered people and they all bowed their heads, scribbling their votes on their cards. My thoughts turned briefly to the princesses that had not made it to the trial as everyone began passing their cards forward. Felina had destroyed herself, Jenizzah, and the King in front of all of us, but there was only one other princess that had lost her life during our battles.

I glanced at Gray and saw that his head was bowed and I let out a small breath through my nose. He hadn't expressed any regret when he found out that he had actually killed the princess who had fought against him... but after listening to the stories and horrors that all of the princesses had described, I was sure that he must be feeling at least slightly guilty for having killed his opponent. Honestly, I wished I had managed to kill Elektriz in my battle. After hearing her unrepentant and almost giddy explanation of how she had gladly followed the King's orders to decimate crops and even entire towns of dissenters, I felt like if there was anyone who deserved to die it was her.

My thoughts soon left that morbid direction though as I found my gaze once more focused on Phaedra. Her normally pale face looked almost translucent, making the dark bags underneath her eyes even more prominent. A large part of me wanted to bust through the weird magical barrier surrounding the princesses, pick up Phaedra, and take her directly to the infirmary to sleep for a week. But I gripped my knees, physically keeping myself squarely in my spot on the hot sand and watched silently as the tribal leaders began sorting through the cards creating piles to organize all of the votes.

I swallowed past the sweet taste of the cactus fruit juice that still clung to my throat and tried to keep my breathing even and calm as the piles became more distinct. Many of the audience members were shifting around, still not talking, but looking as anxious as I felt inside.

A soft touch surprised me into looking down at my arm. Mirajane had rested one of her pale hands against my arm and as I looked up to meet her gaze, I was surprised to see her giving me an encouraging smile. I nodded, not sure exactly if she was trying to comfort me or asking me to reassure her in some way, but it seemed that was all she had been expecting because she removed her hand and once again rested her head against Freed's shoulder.

Turning my attention back to Phaedra, I was a little surprised to see that she was looking over in my direction as well. Instinctively I felt my shoulders straighten as we held each other's gaze. Before the trial had started this had happened as well, and I had been surprised at the gratitude that had flashed across Phaedra's face as she had looked at me. Even now, I could see an echo of that gratitude from before, but even more prominent was the quiet acceptance that seemed to exude from her. My jaw clenched painfully and I wished I could yell at her to have some faith in her people, but honestly, after their non-response to her call for change before the King had broken her sealing stone I couldn't blame her for not believing the people would forgive her.

You deserve to live your life, I thought fiercely, surprised at the anger that was racing through me as I met her eyes. One corner of Phaedra's lips quirked up in what looked like a tired but amused expression, and I felt my eyes narrow in annoyance at the stubborn woman.

The man with the wolf head stitched on his robe that had taken the lead in the trial stood up. Phaedra's eyes moved away from me and towards him with that infuriating look of acceptance still intact. I swallowed past a lump in my throat and began planning the most efficient way to bust Phaedra out without frying the entire audience if possible.

"Thank you all for your votez and patienze. I will now announze the rezultz..." the man paused as everyone, almost as one, leaned forward with bated breaths. I flicked my gaze over to Phaedra again to see that she had closed her eyes, a picture of patience and unconcern for her fate.

Darn woman. Don't forget that you have people who would miss you if you weren't on this earth anymore, I growled inwardly at her. Wishing I could shake her.

The man pointed to the princess on the opposite side of the box that Phaedra was sitting in, who happened to be Elektriz. Calmly, and without almost any emotion, he proclaimed that she would face the Trial of the Desert. A twisted smile broke her lips apart and I could see a crazed look in her eyes as she threw her head back and laughed. The man curled back his lip in a brief look of disgust before he moved on. Dashti, Helena, Kairo, and Vayda were also all sentenced to the Trial of the Desert. Vayda and Kairo were irate, throwing themselves against the invisible barrier around their box in the sand and screaming out in their native language.

The tribal leader obviously had had enough of them, because he sent a signal and dozens of soldiers surrounded the box. They reached in without meeting any resistance and grabbed the princesses, most of whom were struggling, and began dragging them away. The crowd, almost as one, all stood up.

As the princesses sentenced to death either screamed or laughed crazily, the people around me began to bang their fists against their hips. I didn't understand the significance of the action, but after a moment I stood up and began copying them as well. The banging really didn't create that much of a sound, but I felt strangely unified with the people as they watched their guardian princesses get dragged away towards their doom.

Looking over, I was surprised to see that the remaining princesses were not joining in with the hip thumping. Zeira had her hands clasped together, apparently praying. Mixa, the one that had taken away my magic what seemed like a century ago, looked like she was about to throw up, and the dark-skinned woman next to her had silent tears streaming down her cheeks as she watched who I assumed was her twin sister being dragged away. Phaedra, however, had her brows furrowed in confusion as she watched the soldiers dragging them away.

Once the struggling princesses were dragged out of eyesight the people stopped their hip banging and they all sat back down on the shifting sand. I followed suit, noticing that all of my fairy tail friends had also joined the crowd to thump and were now sitting down, looking over towards the remaining four princesses. The man leading the trial stepped into the voice magnifying circle again and cleared his throat, bringing the audience's attention back to him.

He then pointed to Mixa and Crezila. "According to the dezicion of the people, you will complete the Pilgrimage of the Zodiac. You may chooze to face the Trial of the Desert if you are unwilling to accept your punishment."

Both Crezila and Mixa shook their heads, indicating they did not wish to take the man up on his offer, and four more soldiers came up to the edge of the magical barrier. Mixa, just like when she had first stepped into the magical barrier, turned to Phaedra and clasped her into a desperate hug. I watched as Phaedra gathered her in her arms, rubbing her back soothingly and I could see her lips moving. I wondered what she was saying to the distraught woman, but whatever it was Mixa soon let her go and gave her a watery smile. Crezila walked over and offered Mixa her hand, which she clasped into her own firmly.

The two women walked out of the box and bowed to their soldier escorts and then they bowed towards the group of people gathered. I could hear a few sniffs from the people around me as the two women were guided to one of the strange sand carriages that the tribal leaders had used to come out into the desert and were guided up into one of them.

Once they were locked inside the carriage the leader of the trial turned again to face the criminal box. Phaedra and Zeira were both looking at the man in a confused daze. Even though the man was turned away from us, I thought I saw his cheeks lift up as if he were smiling. He nodded over to the mages that were sitting near the magical barrier and with a wave of their hands the invisible barrier suddenly appeared with scrolling brown words floating in the air making up the barrier. We all watched as the words disintegrated into nothing, showing that the spell had been removed and the man reached out both his hands towards Zeira and Phaedra.

"We, the leaderz of the tribez of the Zodiac, acknowledge that you have both committed crimez dezerving of punishment," the man said, his voice carrying over the audience even though he was turned away from us. I felt my muscles tense, but the man continued, his voice tender. "But the people have chozen to forgive you of your zinz. Pleaze, return to uz az our Altizza and help uz rebuild the kingdom of Tarzish."

A loud, relieved sob, breached the silence of the moment and I glanced over to see Wendy and Shararu both openly weeping. Moving my attention back to the princesses, I saw that Zeira had fallen to her knees and she was weeping just as openly as my young friends, although her tears didn't seem to be stemming from relief. Phaedra had not moved an inch as she regarded the outstretched hand of the tribal leader with a look of disbelief and awful guilt. Slowly she looked away from the man and moved her gaze out towards the people watching. She didn't meet my gaze this time, instead, she slowly moved her eyes across all of the people gathered.

For a brief second her eyes focused on Wendy and the rest of us here from Fairy Tail. I saw sadness and what looked like regret go through her face, but she closed her eyes and let out a long sigh as if she were trying to expel decades worth of sadness. She then squared her scarred shoulders and opened her eyes, meeting the tribal leader's gaze, who hadn't moved from his position. I watched as she reached down, looping her hands under Zeira's arm and gently pulled her up. She stumbled to her feet, wrapping a steadying arm around Phaedra's waist as she swiped at the tears streaming from her eyes.

The two women, obviously both harboring so much guilt it looked like it was a physical burden weighing down their delicate shoulders, walked forward together and placed one hand into the tribal leader's waiting palms. The audience all burst up, the strange silence broken by their cheers of happiness and relief. Glancing around I saw everyone, including my fairy tail friends, hugging each other and cheering in excitement. As I watched the shows of excitement though, I felt a knot forming in the pit of my stomach.

"Pleaze, return to uz az our Altizza and help uz rebuild the kingdom of Tarzish." The words of the tribal leader repeated over and over in my mind and as I looked at Phaedra's exhausted but determined expression... I knew that she had understood what those words meant.

Wendy's POV

"But why?" For a time I had honestly thought I had cried the last tear of my life. But after hearing what Phaedra-neesan had just said I wasn't sure I would ever be able to stop crying. "Why aren't you coming back with us?" I choked out, trying to stave off my tears.

Phaedra-neesan stopped her already slow pace to turn and look at me and Shararu. Only two days had passed since the trial, but so much had already happened; the most gruesome being a freak sandstorm that had blown directly over the Desert Trial site. It had raged for hours on end and the next morning all of the soldiers came back to the palace to report that the five princesses sentenced to the Trial had perished that night. I didn't exactly understand the religion of the Prekt people, but I knew that if I was a citizen that would have seemed like a pretty obvious sign that the Gods definitely didn't forgive the princesses.

Shuddering slightly at the memory I focused back on Phaedra-neesan, who was looking at me with obvious sadness in her expression. Her hair was once again in her customary braid pinned into a bun at the back of her head, but instead of the black leather clothes I had grown used to, she was wearing a simple blue dress that hung to her ankles with a layered effect of dark to light fabric from the waist down. Most of the dress itself was covered by a large blue poncho that hung down covering her arms almost completely. She was wearing open-toed brown sandals with blue straps going over her feet, covering the majority of her scars, but as she slowly leaned down so that we could be at eye level, her poncho shifted, showing off several H-shaped scars wrapping around her shoulder.

One of the first things that Zeira-hime had done when she had woken up was come to find me and ask for my help. She had taken me to Phaedra-neesan, who had still been asleep, and we had combined our power to lift the curse that Zeira-hime had placed on the king's knife when he had cut Phaedra-neesan. With the evil enchantment lifted, the scars would finally begin to fade, but I wished that there was a way for me to erase them immediately so she didn't have to live with the constant reminder of the King's cruelty to her.

"You know that I want to go back with you, Wendy," Phaedra-neesan said with sadness that seemed to cause her entire body to slump with fatigue. "But as much as I want to leave, I can't leave my people alone after their entire world was turned upside down. The people they were supposed to be able to trust the most have betrayed them and they have been left with hardly any semblance of normalcy. They are going to need help learning how to live without a dictator of a King. And it's my duty to help them through that."

I bowed my head, desperately trying to keep myself from crying as Phaedra-neesan said what was on her mind. There was nothing that I could do to argue against her when all she was doing was being selfless... but I had never wanted so badly to be selfish and tell her to just leave them to figure it out on their own.

"I could stay too then..." I began to say, but almost immediately Mest-san and Levy-san's faces flashed through my mind. It wasn't a surprise either when Phaedra-neesan shook her head firmly.

"No, Wendy. You need to be with Levy during the trip back to Ishgar to keep her as comfortable as possible. Prekt healers don't have the same power as the people in other countries; her only chance is to go back to your country and get help," Phaedra-neesan said gently. Shararu sniffed delicately and I turned to look down at her to see that she was folding her arms and trying to give her best haughty look.

"Of course we know that. Wendy would never leave someone who was injured alone," she said with a huff, but I noticed that her left ear twitched slightly. Even though she was acting brave, I knew that she was just as upset as I was about having to leave Phaedra-neesan.

Phaedra-neesan smiled and knelt down onto the stone floor, a ray of sun glinting off the golden circlet in her hair that marked her as a Guardian Princess. Slowly, she reached out and laid a gentle hand on top of Shararu's head. Shararu stiffened and her tail twitched, but she didn't say anything as Phaedra-neesan gently stroked her.

"Thank you for bringing everyone here, Shararu," she whispered. My normally haughty and snide exceed widened her eyes and I was shocked when they began to fill with moisture as she looked up at Phaedra-neesan.

"I... I thought I was the reason you got captured," she said in a choked voice as she desperately blinked her eyes to try to keep her tears from falling. "If I hadn't had that vision maybe you would have...."

Phaedra reached out and scooped Shararu into her arms, cutting off her words as she buried her into a hug. I could hear a hiccuping sound coming from Shararu as she held onto Phaedra-neesan and I couldn't keep a single tear from sliding down my cheek. Phaedra-neesan rubbed Shararu's back soothingly, whispering that she had nothing to blame herself for and thanking her several times. I didn't know how Phaedra-neesan had known about Shararu's vision or the awful guilt she had felt when she thought it was her fault when she had given her life to save us, but I did know that there was no one else who could have helped Shararu feel forgiven.

Once Shararu had calmed down Phaedra-neesan stood back up and opened her arms up towards me. I swiftly moved to her, burying my face against her chest and holding onto her tightly as she hugged me.

"The King forced me to murder my own family," Phaedra-neesan said, her voice quivering with emotion up above me. "But I felt like I found a family again when I met you and Shararu. Please know that even though we have to be apart, for now, I will definitely come back to you."

I blinked past tears as I squeezed Phaedra-neesan's waist even tighter. It broke my heart that I had to leave her in a place that constantly reminded her of her terrible past, but standing here with her arms wrapped around me and Shararu hugging my leg tightly, I knew that this wasn't the last time I would be with my new Oneesan.

After a few silent minutes where we clung to each other, Phaedra-neesan slowly eased her grip on my shoulders and I regretfully took a step back from her. When I looked up at her, she was smiling serenely down at me, her sadness seeming to have been lifted as a rare glint entered her blue eyes.

"I hope that when I do see you next you'll be able to tell me what it is like having a boyfriend," she said in a teasing tone. Shararu harrumphed indignantly and I felt my entire face explode with heat as she grinned teasingly at me.

"B-b-b-boyfriend? Mest-san isn't... I mean... he hasn't.... I mean..." I stumbled over my words awkwardly as I tried to explain what it was that Mest-san was. Honestly, I didn't even know. It seemed like he did return my feelings and he hadn't said anything when I always sat next to him or snuggled up next to him when I was feeling sad or despondent, but...

"That pedophile has been taking advantage of the situation to hold Wendy whenever he feels like it," Shararu huffed, seemingly back to normal after her cry with Phaedra-neesan. I felt my mouth drop open in shock at her horrible description and instantly leaped to defend him

"That's not true! I'm the one who keeps sticking by him. He's just being kind!" I argued, aghast, and to my surprise, a lilting chuckle washed through the air. Glancing up, I saw Phaedra-neesan smiling angelically, a twinkle of mirth in her blue eyes as she looked at Shararu and me.

"Don't go chasing him off and then regret it when you make Wendy cry, Shararu," she said, arching one of her thin eyebrows up at my oldest friend. To my surprise, Shararu's cheeks turned rosy and she folded her arms, grumbling under her breath. Phaedra-neesan smiled gently and then reached out and patted my head soothingly.

"I don't know much about love, so I can't really give you advice, But I do know that if he hadn't teleported you away from me, I wouldn't have been able to stop myself any longer. He saved your life, Wendy, and I don't think he looks at you like a little sister." I blinked up at her in surprise as she continued to stroke my hair kindly. Without knowing when, I realized that my lips were turned up in a smile and I nodded shyly up at Phaedra-neesan. She returned my smile and slowly looped her arm through mine, turning us back towards the path that circled the imposing palace.

"Let's finish our walk. I've made arrangements for you all to leave after dinner tonight," Phaedra-neesan said lightly. I stiffened at this news, but then felt my shoulders slump as I nodded my quiet acceptance. Leaning my head against Phaedra-neesan's forearm, we continued walking through the strange cactus-filled palace grounds.

A/N Wow. We're actually getting pretty close to the end now, guys. I'm not sure how many chapters there will be after this, but I am really grateful to all of you who have stuck with me through this fanfic. Thank you for your votes and comments and I hope the ending is to your liking :)