"Hey, are you okay?"
He turned to look behind him. No, he was not okay.
"Yes, I'm fine,"
His guild mate shrugged. Sure, Natsu was pretty dense sometimes, but he could always tell when someone was lying. "Well if you need anything…" he said before walking back to the request board.
Jellal sighed and turned back to the wall in front of him.
Eight years.
Eight whole years and the pain still felt like it had happened only hours before. He was only eleven at the time but he still remembered every minute-every second-of the worst day of his life.
"Did you brats really think you could get away that easily? You're all going to be punished big time for trying to pull one over on us," the guard grunted.
The children shuddered in fear. Jellal, being the leader of the group, was slightly in front of the other kids as if it would protect them.
"Now now, normally I would agree with you, but we can't afford any more delays on the R-system. If you tell us who came up with your escape plan, we'll just take them and leave the rest of you alone. That's pretty nice of us, don't you think?" the other guard commented.
"Speak up! Which one of you was it?" the first guard commanded.
Jellal looked behind him. Sho was crying because it was his plan, but deep down he must have known he wasn't going to be the one punished for it. Jellal was the leader of the group and the oldest. He was going to protect Sho and the others if it costed him his life. Just then, another voice behind him whispered. It was Erza.
"I was-" she began to say.
"It was me!" Jellal interrupted her. There was no way he was going to let her take the blame. She was too innocent, too fragile to have to go through whatever the guards had planned. "I came up with our escape plan, it was all me," he said with confidence.
The guards exchanged a look. Jellal knew that whatever they were agreeing about, it wasn't anything good.
"Well aren't you brave…" the leaner guard taunted, "but I know it wasn't you. It was the red-head!" he accused.
Jellal saw Erza's eyes widen in shock.
No.
No, no, no.
It was supposed to be him.
"Take her away!"
"No it wasn't her! I swear it was my idea!" Jellal shouted. "She didn't do anything!"
Simon, the second oldest of the group, stood up next to Jellal in protest."Yeah, let her go!"
"That's enough!" the guard demanded while shocking both of them with his magic staff.
"Please, don't worry about me, 'cuz I'll be okay," Erza whispered.
Okay? She won't be okay. She's going to be hurt. Jellal was fuming. He hated the guards, he hated being a slave, he hated that Erza was going to be hurt. He just wanted to be free, and he was so close. "Erza!" he yelled out in frustration. But the next words she said, he never would have predicted.
"It's just like you said Jellal…" Erza said as a nervous grin started to form on her face, "There's nothing to be afraid of."
"Erza…" he gasped. "They won't get away with this!" he called out to her as if he were making a promise saying 'I'm going to save you'. And he was determined to keep that promise.
Jellal stood up from the table he was seated at and walked to the large guild doors. He pushed one open and took a single step outside.
"Come back soon, don't go too far," he heard Mirajane's voice behind him. Very few people in the guild knew about what had happened. Mira found out last year when she found him passed out in a bar on the other side of town. Jellal wasn't much of a drinker, so she knew that something was wrong. Eventually he told her and the usual 'I'm so sorry's and 'I'm sorry for your loss's came just as they had when he told other people his secret. They didn't need to feel sorry. They never even knew her bright smile that could light up the world even when all hope was lost. They didn't know that he felt guilty that she was gone, like it his fault. To him, it was his fault. Simon, Wally, Millianna, and Sho never blamed him but he always would. He couldn't save her. He didn't keep his promise.
Jellal continued walking through town, faking a smile whenever someone that recognized him would wave to him. He would never be truly happy, not without her. Jellal recalled the places he had gone previous years: the bar, the forest, the park, and anywhere else where he felt like he could be alone. But he realized that there was still one place he had yet to visit. Eight years is a long time, he would have to go there eventually so why not today? Feeling determined, he walked to the edge of town where the shore was. It was a long ride away, so if he wanted to get there by nightfall he would have to leave now. Jellal quickly paid a man for boat rental and starting sailing to his destination.
Eleven year-old Jellal had been pacing in his cell for what seemed like hours. The guards still hadn't come back with Erza yet. Trying to escape was rewarded by huge punishments. A few months ago, or what Jellal thought was a few months-he didn't have anything to use to help him count time, another group of adults had tried to escape the tower. The next day, he found about half of them dead and the others severely beaten.
Dead.
They wouldn't kill Erza, would they? The guards said they were on a tight schedule; losing workers wouldn't benefit them at all. But Jellal couldn't afford to not consider the possibility. Jellal grasped the bars of his cell and looked at the ground.
"I have to save her," he mumbled to himself.
"Don't do it Jellal, you'll only get yourself killed," Simon's voice came from behind him, "They'll bring her back soon. They have to."
Although it seemed like Simon was trying to comfort Jellal, the wavering of his voice told him that Simon was worried too. Everyone was worried about Erza, she was like a big sister to the younger kids and Simon and Jellal had both fallen in love with her.
"I can't just sit around here and do nothing," Jellal admitted.
"Yeah but-"
"Let him go,"
Jellal and Simon both looked to the direction of the voice. It was Grandpa Rob. The old man sensed something about Jellal that reminded him of himself when he was younger. Jellal had a spark, a fire, growing inside of him. Magic. But not only that, he had the trait of every mage in the old man's former guild. He wanted to protect his friends.
"He can do it," Grandpa Rob said with a nod. Simon opened his mouth to protest, but quickly shut it again. Jellal was so focused on saving Erza that only Simon was left to worry about what would happen to Jellal.
"Be careful," Simon said to Jellal, knowing that he couldn't stop him no matter how hard he tried.
Jellal nodded then started name-calling a guard that was positioned nearby. After the guard became angry with him, he opened the door to punish Jellal. But before he could do so, the young boy quickly grabbed his sword and hit the guard on the head with the blunt side of the weapon, knocking him out. With the cage door opened, Jellal easily slipped past the guard and ran out of the cell. Once he was out, he took one quick look back to his friends still inside. Some of them, mainly Sho, were too in shock to do or say anything. But he still received an encouraging nod from Simon. Simon's voice saying 'be careful' rang in his head. Jellal gave a small nod back, as if saying 'I will' before he darted off to save his friend.
He still couldn't see the island yet. Luckily, Jellal was smart enough to bring a map and a compass so he knew he was going in the right direction. It was hard to tell how far away he was because all he could see in every direction was the soft waves of the ocean and the clear blue sky above him. Judging by the sun, Jellal guessed it was about 3 or 4 in the afternoon which still gave him plenty of time before the sun would come down.
Jellal sighed and thought that maybe coming here wasn't the best idea. He'd had eight years to cope with what had happened but it was still hard for him to go back there. But if eight years wasn't enough time, Jellal knew that the years would just keep piling and he would never be over it. Most people try to move on, but still remember what had happened. Not Jellal though. He's nineteen now and still hasn't stopped thinking about his first love. He knew that he might never move on. It just wouldn't be the same without her. After leaving the island, Jellal had joined the Fairy Tail guild because it was where he and Erza wanted to go when they eventually escaped. The two of them promised each other that someday they would be the greatest mages in all of Fiore and be proud members of the Fairy Tail guild. But the instant he walked into those guild doors, he broke down, knowing that Erza would never walk through them and join him. He pictured her slightly older than she was eight years ago, with a guild mark shown proudly on her. He imagined going on missions with her and maybe, someday, even dating her. But he knew it was impossible because he would never get to see her again.
"Erza!"
Nothing.
"Erzaaa!"
He paused but still couldn't hear anything. Jellal was running from torture chamber to torture chamber trying to find her. He never got a response, so he figured that she couldn't hear him.
"Er-" he began to call her again, but he froze when he saw her lying on the ground in a pool of blood. He ran over to her and wrapped his arms around her small body. "Erza…" he trailed off.
The first thing Jellal noticed was the blood. Scarlet, just like her hair, covered her body and dripped to the ground. She was covered in cuts from knives, scars from whips, and maybe even a couple burns. It was hard to tell. Her eyes were closed, she probably fainted.
"Erza can you hear me?"
No response.
"Erza?"
Still nothing.
"Erza please wake up!" he begged.
She didn't move an inch. She was lying limp in his arms. Then Jellal realized that she might not have been moving at all. He quickly tilted his head down to put his ear next to her lips, hoping to hear her breathe.
But he couldn't hear anything.
Maybe he was just doing something wrong. He then placed his head above her heart. Jellal sucked in a breath and waited for the thumping of her heart to stop.
But it never did.
"Erza," his voice cracked, "Erza?"
He clenched her body tighter and started to cry. Tears came instantly, rolling down his cheeks and dripping onto hers as if she was crying too. He broke his promise. He was too late.
The sand crunched under his boot for every step he took. The island was a complete wasteland. It was covered in the chunks of the broken tower that he and Erza had spent so long being forced to build. He didn't care that it was destroyed though, in fact it made him glad. After finding Erza's lifeless body Jellal went into a rage. He encouraged the other workers to start a rebellion. During that rebellion, he unlocked his magic power and the tower was soon destroyed. The guards and higher-ups that enslaved them were either killed in the rebellion or sent to prison after Jellal and the other slaves told the Magic Council about the tower. It didn't give him any satisfaction. They were given the punishment that they deserved but it wouldn't bring Erza back. Nothing could bring her back.
Jellal continued walking further until he reached the place where the base of the tower still stood. It was barely taller than him, and the top was broken off leaving the edges jagged and rough. He sat down in the center of the structure as he remembered that day eight years ago. This is the place that she had died.
He couldn't change the past. He hoped that this pain would go away, but he knew that he wouldn't wake up one morning and suddenly everything would be okay. He had to look forward instead of living in the past, but still remember it. Maybe it wouldn't be today, or even tomorrow, for all he knew it could take another eight years. But someday, he would be able to move on from his past mistakes.
"Erza…" he spoke to himself softly.
"I'm sorry I couldn't keep my promise to you when you were taken away. I'm sorry I couldn't save you. But now I promise to-" Jellal looked down at his left arm where his scarlet colored guild mark was shown proudly.
"I promise to keep this one."