"There you are…" I muttered as I took a few steps toward him. He didn't even notice me. "Jellal!" I yelled his name, causing him to turn to me. "I've come for you!"
"It seems everyone else has as well," he said monotonously as I dashed toward him. I charged up my fist in white electricity and shoved it toward him, only to be knocked back by an invisible barrier.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you…boy…" a deep voice came from the cave, where a large cloaked man with tattoos all across his face came out. "We still need this one for a while yet."
I stood, creating a mini-thunderstorm around myself. "No! He's not leaving without facing his punishment!" I snapped. Jellal turned to the man. Without saying a word, he sent a potent magic spell at him, sending him flying backwards, before starting to walk away. "What? Get the hell back here!" I yelled, but didn't get a response. I clenched my fist tighter. "I said stop!" Still no response.
As I was about to assault him, Natsu beat me to it, diving down on the cat, right toward the blue-haired demon. However, before he could do anything, the snake-flyer knocked him away letting Jellal escape.
I helped Natsu up, but he shook me off with a look of equal-to-my rage in his eyes. "Get back here, bastard!" he yelled after Jellal, sprinting after him.
I was about to follow, when Erza and another girl came stumbling out of the cave as well, distracting me further and allowing the cloaked man and the snake-flyer to escape. Erza stumbled to the ground. "Whoa, hey!" I called, kneeling beside her. "Are you alright?"
"I don't…things are fuzzy. What happened in there, Wendy?" she asked.
"I…revived Jellal…and then you passed out," the small girl answered, clearly shaken. "They said that…things would go back to the way they were," she exclaimed.
I took a deep breath, trying to calm my own emotions. I then chuckled in an attempt to ease the tension. I put a hand on the small girl's shoulder. "Wendy, was it? Trust me; I know what it's like to want to go back to before…but…look at the world around you and you'll see that there's so much t learn about and explore. Hell, a lot of your time will be spent meeting a lot of wonderful people, and going on adventures with them," I spouted words of encouragement before standing. "Now, back to the matter at hand; Jellal."
"Why do you need Mr. Jellal?" she asked, standing as well, Erza sitting down to rest her head.
I turned to her, with a new devilish look in my eye. "I'm going to kill him," I said bluntly, causing both of them to look at me in horror.
"What?"
"You can't!" Erza snapped, standing and facing me. "I need to talk to him, and then he's being turned into the Rune Knights so he can-"
"So he can what? Get out and cause more chaos? I would've been happy to know he'd be stuck in the Tower of Heaven forever, but right now, he's up and about and I need to go stop him from killing anymore of my family!" I yelled, shocking the two (no pun intended). I shook my head, once again trying to clear my thoughts. "I…you didn't need to hear that. I need to get going. See you, Fairy Ta-"
"Wait, I'm coming with you," Erza stated.
"What?" I asked. "You know I'm going to-"
"You can…do whatever you want with him," she said reluctantly. "…After I talk to him. I need to know a few things."
She gave me a steely gaze, as if daring me to argue, but simply nodded. Erza turned to Wendy. "Go back and help Gray and Lyon. We'll be back with Natsu and then we can come up with a plan, alright?" she asked, to which the younger girl nodded and ran off. "Alright, let's go."
We followed where the main guys went and soon found Natsu and that snake-flyer duking it out in the skies. "Who's that?" I asked.
"That's Natsu fighting Cobra, a member of the Oracion Seis," she explained as we continued running. "Natsu can handle it; we need to focus on catching Jellal and Brain."
"Is he the tattooed guy?" I asked, to which she nodded. "Anything else I need to know?"
"That depends, are you going to help us stop the Oracion Seis, or just Jellal?"
"That depends," I mimicked her. "What's in it for me?"
"You won't have the deaths of thousands on your head if we fail without you," she offered.
"…Fine, whatever. Sure, I'll help. What are we up against?"
"The Six Demons as they're called, the Oracion Seis, a Dark Guild, part of the Balam Alliance. Four of the strongest guilds have sent mages to form the Light Alliance to combat them, and as you can see…"
"You've totally succeeded, right?" I asked sarcastically. "But what are they doing here? Shouldn't they be…I don't know, destroying a town or something?"
"Apparently, they're after something called Nirvana; an extremely powerful magic that bends light into darkness and vice versa. I suspect they plan to use it to do much more than destroy a single town. This is a threat to guilds and mages the world over."
I nodded, soon seeing a bright blue glow above the trees, and when we came out to a clearing with a large crystal at the center, Jellal was standing there, a blank expression on his face. He turned to us, giving a pained look.
"You two…can you…tell me who I am?" his voice was soft and sincere.
Erza looked shocked, while I was unconvinced. "W-what?" she questioned. "You don't…"
Jellal put a hand to his face, a tear running down his visible eye. "I'm not sure what it is…but everything is just blank. There's only one thing that woke me up. Tell me…who is Erza…and why does their name sound so familiar?"
Erza herself stepped forward. "Jellal…I'm Erza. We were best friends," she explained, to which he smiled. "You protected me as a child, but…"
"You caused the deaths of countless family and friends," I finished for her, a lightning bolt forming in my hand. "Including Simon."
Erza turned to me. "How do you know about…" she trailed off, turning back to Jellal.
This made him even more pained as a wall of magic runes began to line the glowing crystal. "What is that?" I demanded.
"It's a…destruction spell," he said blankly.
I clenched my fists. "Tch, it's just like a mass-murderer to forget who he kills…but to forget that he even killed at all…is unforgivable!" I yelled, dashing forward at him, about to run him through with only my fist, but I stopped right in front of him, seeing a magic circle form in front of his chest.
He stared at me with a single tear running down his eye. "You're right…it's unforgivable…I'll save you the trouble. I've cast the same spell on myself…for the things I've done in the past."
Erza rushed past me, prepared to catch the blue-haired demon as he fell from the pain. "Wait! No, you have to live!" she cried. "You have to live for everyone who you've hurt; you have to amend. Dying is the coward's way out! Don't you dare die now!" she yelled, her voice breaking several times as she herself shed tears.
"My, my…what a pitiful sight," Brain's voice came from behind us. As we all turned, he used his magic to fling Erza and I away from Jellal and the crystal. "An S-class mage and a former Council member sharing such a sappy, uneducated moment. But fear not; your worst nightmares have yet to come true," he said as he waved his staff. The runes surrounding the crystal disappeared, as did the ones on Jellal himself. "My boy, don't you remember that I taught you that spell?"
"W-what?!"Jellal demanded, weak now from casting the spells and having one drain the life away from him. "You can't-"
"Now behold, children, Nirvana at phase two!"
