Chapter 2: Purgatory
White, an endless sea of white.
Link drifted through the sea of white, a profound feeling of peace in his soul. He looked about the sea of white with lazy eyes, untroubled by anything. He wasn't sure why he felt this way, but it felt good.
"Am I dead?" wondered Link briefly. But no, he didn't really think so. He wasn't quite sure how he knew, but he did. However, so deep was his well being that he did not even feel any alarm at the idea that he might be dead.
"Link..." whispered a voice from behind him. Link's eyes flew open as the voice sent a thrill of fear through his gut, even though he hadn't the foggiest idea why. Link leapt to his feet, landing on some ethereal floor. He looked about wildly, searching for the source of the voice. "Link... over hear little rascal." said the voice in an eerily familiar tone.
"Where!" he cried, panic rising. "Where are you! Are you a demon?! A Monster?!" he demanded.
"Look behind you lunkhead." laughed the voice, quite clear now, and very familiar. Fear and panic left Link and was replaced by a blank feeling of shock, for he knew instantly who was talking. It was the same voice that had told him stories by candlelight when he couldn't sleep. It was the same voice that soothed him when he was sick. It was the voice that belonged to the man that Link loved with all of his eight-year old heart.
Link turned and saw all six feet, one-hundred and ninety-four pounds of wizard that was Tiberius Clive, Iron-Blood Mage and father of Link and Aryll Atreides. He was dressed as he had often been in life, in a maroon jerkin and black Gi-pants, and his permanent grin of confidence was fixed on his face.
"D-d-d-d-..daddy?" said Link, tears coming to his eyes.
"Who did you expect? Santa Claus?" he laughed. "Of course it's me you little rascal."
Tears freely dripped from Link's face as he beheld the father he had lost to death's cold embrace. For a single shivering moment Link felt uncertainty in his heart, fearing some sort of cruel trick. but then the moment passed, and sobs ripped from his chest as he ran forward and embraced his father. Tiberius squatted and caught his son up in a tight hug. "Oh Goddesses, you got big boy!" laughed the Mage as he lifted his son up in his embrace. Tiberius felt tears in his own eyes as he clutched his little boy tighter to his chest. He reveled in the familiar weight of the boys body and the warmth he exuded.
Link couldn't speak as his voice was choked with emotion. He buried his head into his father's chest and inhaled the familiar scent of crushed pine needles and rusty metal that his father always reeked of. "I-I-I thought you were DEAD!" cried the little boy.
Tiberius's face fell, his grin disappearing and a somber one replacing as his son cried into his shoulder. "I... I am Link." said Tiberius in a quiet voice.
Tiberius felt Link stiffen against him and he withdrew his head. He leaned back, away from his father, a thrill of fear in his azure eyes. "A-are you a ghost?" asked the little boy, a mixture of fear, hope, grief, and suspicion in his eyes.
"No." answered his father. "Not really. I'm dead, but I'm not on Earth."
"Am I dead?" asked the boy nervously.
"No, no, no." assured Tiberius. "You're alive. You're just... visiting." he said after a moment.
"Oh." said the boy. "Then It wasn't a dream. The bomb, the fire, the pit." he said in a voice quivering on the verge of hysteria.
"Yeah, it wasn't" said Tiberius in a grieved voice.
There was a long moment of silence between father and son. Link seemed to be absorbing the information. Tiberius was silent, letting his son absorb and process the fact that he was in the arms of a ghost. "Father, why am I here?" he asked in a nervous voice.
"Link, I'm here to tell you that you WILL get out of here." he said gently.
"This... spirit realm?" asked Link, looking up at his father with red-rimmed eyes.
Tiberius shook his head."No, out of the prison you're in. The one the bombers took you to."
Link gave a cynical scoff, one that made Tiberius's heart break at the idea of any child making it. It was a scoff of hopelessness, a bitter laugh of a jaded soul. "How, how am I to do this?" spat Link.
Tiberius sat his son down and grabbed him by the shoulders and looked his straight in the eye. "You need to keep faith Link. That above all. Keep your faith and you will be given a way out."
Link felt tears returning. "How do I keep faith? How in the hell I have been thrown in."
"Find something." insisted Tiberius. "Find someone or something to believe in." Link looked at his father, doubt in his eyes. "Please son." said Tiberius in a pleading tone. "It's your only hope."
"I... I'll try father." said Link in a strained voice.
Tiberius nodded grimly. "Good. When you do get out, and you will, you need to go to the town of Magnolia. There you'll find the Guild of Fairy Tail, that's the Guild I belonged to, and find Gildarts. Gildarts Clive. Gildarts is my brother, and he's the most powerful of Fairy Tail's mages. Go to him."
Link nodded. "Magnolia, Fairy Tail, Gildarts. Right." said Link. Suddenly his eyes lit up in shock. "W-wait. he-he's my Uncle!" he cried.
Tiberius nodded. "Yep, he's my brother and your Uncle. You need to go to him when you get out of here." Link nodded, trying his best to be brave. Tiberius smiled at his son, his pride and joy. "Have faith boy, and all paths will be revealed. But first, you have to wake up."
Link frowned in confusion. "What was that father?" he asked in a perplexed tone of voice.
"I said-"
"Wake up kid." said Rob shaking Link's sleeping form. "Wake up, it's morning kid, time to get to work."
Link blinked awake, jolting upright in surprise. The horrible reality of his situation sank into him once more as the last vestiges of his dream slipped away from him. 'Faith, sure. Faith in what?' thought Link bitterly as Rob ushered him out of the cell with the other children.
"Where are we going?" asked Link as the eight of them walked up the ramp and towards the sunlight.
"Work." said Jellal in a bitter tone. "We have to work for our cells and our gruel and our whippings."
Sho looked ready to cry and Milliana actually started to. Not real sobs, just soft whimpers and gentle tears. Simon moved up to them and put comforting hands on their shoulders. "Hey, listen here. Just stick together, we'll be okay." said the large boy kindly. "Be brave, we'll be okay."
"You, you mean it Simon?" asked Milliana in a teary voice.
"Course I do." said the large boy with a grin. Jellal scoffed to himself and Link sighed and looked down at the ground, trying to stave off the unbearable feelings of grief that threatened to consume him. 'There is no Aryll. There is no grandma. Your dream about your father was just that, a dream.' he fought back the tears that threatened to fall. 'You have no family.'
"E-excuse me." said a timid voice as someone pulled on his sleeve. Link looked behind him to see Erza with a frightened look on her face as though Link might lash out and hurt her. "Last night, y-you said you knew my family." said the small red-haired girl. "I, I can't remember them." she said as though it was something to be ashamed of. "C-could you tell me about them?" she asked nervously.
Link smiled slightly. "Um, I uh guess I could tell you." said Link sheepishly. Erza's face broke into a bright smile.
"Really! You will!" she cried.
"Keep it down you two." said Rob sternly. "Talk quietly, don't draw attention to us."
"Later." said Link to Erza in a quieter voice. Erza nodded, a small smile on her face as they exited the pit and entered the sun.
Link looked around and saw that the outside was not much better than the pit. They seemed to be in some sort of stone quarry filled with workers. Guards patrolled the quarry like they did in the pit, accompanied by the hairless hellhounds and holding long staffs sparking with electricity. Above them loomed a half-complete tower looking like a mal-formed beast reaching up to the sky with metal fingers. Link couldn't explain it, but he felt a strange sense of doom coming from the tower, an ominous sense of foreboding and evil that hung around it like an aura.
Link couldn't help but gape at how many people were in the quarry working. There were far more than had been in Link's hole, there must have been hundreds here! Link felt bile rise in his throat at the thought of how many people were here, in Hell, in shackles. His fists clenched in anger at the thought. He glanced around at the others, but saw only resignation in their eyes.
Except for one. Only Jellal had a spark of rage in his eyes. Link could see the smoldering anger, the hate at the injustice these men were inflicting.
"Alright you worthless pieces of trash!" bellowed a guard approaching their little group. "Stand up straight you shit stains!" he snarled throwing a bag of tools down at them. "Get to work! We need more stone for the Tower you sorry sons of bitches, NOW GET TO WORK!"
They scrambled forward to grab tools for the job. Link found himself in possession of a pick-axe that must have been as large as he, and probably twice as heavy by the feel of it. Link stared down at the tool in his hand and realized that he had absolutely no idea what to do with it. He was a farmer dang it, not a miner! Link looked up at Rob, a pleading look in his eyes. Once more he felt Rob's hand on his shoulder. "Stick with me today kid." said Rob gently. "Just follow my lead, keep your head down and you'll be okay."
Link nodded, not dreaming of leaving the old man's side. Though he was physically weak and emaciated in appearance, there was something about him that exuded comfort and strength. Not unlike his grandmother. But at the same time his presence commanded a feeling of power and strength, not unlike Tiberius.
Rob sheperded his charges towards one of the walls of the quarry where the stone was thick. "It's simple." Rob explained to Link as they reached the wall. "Just use your pick-axe to chip away big chunks of rock, like this." said Rob, demonstrating with his pick-axe. "Once you have a good couple of those take them over to that pile for transport." said Rob, indicating said pile. "Got that?" asked rob and Link nodded.
Link turned to the wall, a determined look on his face. With all his strength He hauled up the pick-axe and brought it down against the stone.
Nothing happened, no stone came loose, not even any cracks.
Link gritted his teeth in frustration and hefted the pick-axe again. This time some cracks appeared, but no stone came off.
"Trouble?" asked Jellal next to him. Link nodded stiffly, a look of frustration in his eyes. "Well I like to imagine it's a sword, and I'm cracking open these bastards' skulls." said Jellal, a hard look in his eyes. Link watched as the blue-haired boy set his face into a look of anger, lifted up his pick-axe and brought it down on the wall with surprising force causing a large chunk of stone to come off.
Link turned back to the wall and glared at it. He decided to try it Jellal's way and imagined one of the guards heads in place of the wall. Link raised his pick-axe once more and slammed it against the wall, causing a chunk of stone to roll off like a decapitated head. Link gave an evil smile, a grim sense of satisfaction. He and Jellal glanced over at each other and grinned at each other.
Link looked back at the wall, ready to make more imaginary heads roll.
At lunch Link decided to make good on his promise to tell Erza about her family. So over their meager meal of gruel and moldy bread They sat down and talked. Jellal had shepherded the other kids away so that Erza could talk to Link in peace.
Link felt a growing kinship for Jellal even though the two had only known each other for a brief time. He had a good heart, and was frequently displaying a passion for the right thing.
"So... um... what do you want to hear about first?" asked Link awkwardly. He really had no idea how in initiate this conversation. After all, talking to the sister of your best friend, who was most likely dead, about the family she had not seen for five years was not something one talked about very often.
"How about my sister," said Erza quietly sitting down next to Link, bringing her knees up to her chin. "You know about her right?" she asked.
"Y-yeah." said Link, getting that same blush in his cheeks that he got when he talked to Malon (Which he still didn't understand!). "Um.. uh... you... you look just like her." he said quickly, it was the first thing he could think of. "And... uh... she's really nice. And pretty. She... uh... really likes horses. She's always around horses. Cows too, and pigs, anything with hooves really." Link was rambling at this point, spouting off random things about Malon. Her favorite color, her favorite foods, her allergy to coffee, anything. It was like the words were being sucked out of him by a spiritual vaccum.
"You said she was pretty." said Erza abruptly.
"Oh, um, y-yeah." said Link, his blush returning with a vengeance.
"Does that mean that I'm... pretty? If I look just like her?" she asked, completely oblivious of Link's discomfort with the subject.
Link hated this. All this talking about Malon did for him was bring back memories of his family and everything that he had lost. Every memory of Malon and her father was connected to a thousand of his grandmother and sister, each of those memories opening up doors even further, to his parents.
Desperate to change the subject Link looked around for anything that might draw Erza's attention away from her family. That's when he noticed him, another boy about their age with tan skin and dark red hair creeping around the edge of the quarry.
"Hey." said Link pointing to the kid. "What do you think is going on there." Erza squinted to where Link was pointing and saw the kid for herself. The kid gave a look around and then ducked behind a boulder as quick as a flash.
The two glanced at each other. "Should we check it out? He might have something important." said Link.
Erza glanced around nervously. "I- I don't know Link." she said. "I-If we get caught they'll hurt us."
"Whats going on?" asked Jellal who had come up t them noticing a lull in their conversation.
"Some kid was acting suspicious." said Link to the blue-haired boy. "He ducked behind that rock over there." said Link, pointing at the rock.
Jellal frowned. He seemed to be thinking, coming to a decision about something. He looked around and saw that the lone guard was occupied with harrassing another group of prisoners. "Come on." he said. "We should go check it out." with that he grabbed Erza's hand and pulled her along, Link close behind.
As quickly as they dared, they stole across to the boulder to investigate the mysterious boy's behavior. All three of them made it to the rock and together, glanced over it. The boy from earlier was crouched facing the wall, talking to himself in a low murmur.
"What do you think is going on with him?" asked Link in a whisper to Jellal and Erza.
Jellal frowned and narrowed his eyes at the boy. "I don't know, but we better find out quick." he said in an equally quiet whisper. "If we're over here too long the the guards will catch us."
Both looked at each other and then at Erza, who nodded in agreement. Link glanced at Jellal with a questioning look. "Who's going first?" he whispered. Jellal held out his hand in a fist and Link responded in kind. After a quick game of rock, paper, scicors it was decided that Link would go first, him being the loser (paper over rock).
Link breathed in a breath and quickly vaulted over the boulder to confront the kid. "Excuse me." said Link. The kid nearly jumped out of his skin in surprise at Link's call. The boy turned as fast as he could, hiding something behind his back, his eyes wide in fear. When he saw it was just another prisoner he seemed to relax a bit, but remained on guard.
"Who are you?" growled the kid at Link. "What do you want? Why did you follow me?" he growled.
Link held up his hands to show he meant no harm and he was unarmed. "We were just curious 'cause you were acting suspicious." said Link quickly. "My name is Link by the way."
The kid glared at him. "Who's 'we'?" he growled.
Link inwardly kicked himself for the slip of tongue and quickly decided whether or not to expose his new friends or not. "Oh... um... well, me and my friends just wanted to know what-"
"We are!" proclaimed Jellal, vaulting over the rock to join Link and stand beside his friend. "My name is Jellal. She's Erza." he said gesturing upward to the red-head poking her eyes over the top of the boulder. After a moments hesitation, Erza joined them. The three children faced down the other boy who was now shifting nervously, seeing that he was clearly out matched.
"I... there isn't any food here." said the kid who had suddenly developed a great interest in the ground.
"Then why are you over here all alone?" accused Jellal. "What are you hiding?"
"Nothing! Now get lost!" shouted the kid.
There was a long tense moment of silence where Jellal and the kid stared each other down, both itching for a fight. Link looked on, not really sure which side to take in this matter.
Surprisingly, Erza stepped forward between Jellal and the other boy. "We aren't going to get you in trouble or steal anything precious you might have." she said in a surprisingly confident voice. "We just want to see if you have anything useful here."
Erza's words seemed to have a strange effect on the boy, calming him down a bit. He glanced between the three of them, suspicion clear in his eyes. "Y- you promise not to turn me in, not even if they offer you extra food?" he said in a hesitant voice.
"Yeah, of course." said Link, his curiosity burning into overdrive now.
Erza smiled and nodded. "I promise."
Both Link and Erza glanced at Jellal between them. After a moment where the blue-haired boy continued to glare at the new kid, Jellal finally sighed and nodded his head in affirmation.
The kid sighed in relief and looked each of them in the eye. "Alright, I'll show you." he said. Then, with trembling finger, he brought his hands around to the front.
It was a snake. A purple snake with a cream colored underbelly. The green-eyed serpent flicked it's tongue out at them and bobbed it's head up and down.
Link could not help but feel a terrific sense of anti-climax. He didn't know what he expected, maybe some precious family heirloom that the kid had salvaged, but not the guy's pet snake. "This is Cubellios." said the kid softly. "I found her a couple weeks ago and I've been taking care of her ever since." as he spoke the kid gently stroked Cubellios's head causing appreciative hisses to come from the serpent.
Erza looked half-interested, half-frightened of the beast. She took a couple steps forward, glancing nervously at the creature. "D-does she bite?" asked Erza in a nervous tone of voice.
The boy shrugged. "She's never bitten me." was all he said.
Erza hesitantly reached forward, gently stroking the creature's head and quickly snapping her hand away. The reptile failed to react to her actions.
"I think she like's you." said the boy with a small smile.
Soon enough Link, Jellal, Erza, and the boy (who introduced himself as Erick), were chatting pleasantly while Cubellios curled peacefully around Erick's arm.
As it turned out Erick was from a land far to the South and had been brought to the Tower as a toddler. He had been here most of his life and barely even remembered his parents.
Jellal revealed that he was once a member of a travelling gypsy band with his mother Esmerelda, he didn't know who his father was. His mother had been a dancer and Jellal had been the one to collect money they threw. If times were really hard he would pick pockets, anything to keep food on the table and blankets on their beds. Jellal had been kidnapped in his sleep by the Dark Guild who ran the tower. He didn't know what had happened to the others of his band, and he wasn't sure he wanted to.
Link told his story as well after Erza told her's, sensing the growing bond between the four children. He wanted to be part of... whatever was happening between them, and felt that by sharing his story he could.
Almost the moment Link finished the bell for the end of lunch rang. "Right on que." said Jellal in a slightly amused tone. "Come on, we need to gt going." Jellal scrambled over the boulder first, followed by Link who helped Erza over. Erick was last to come over, tucking Cubellios away.
As the four marched back to get to work, Erick spoke. "Um, guys, do you think... would you guys like to visit Cubellios again tomorrow?" he asked.
Link grinned. "You bet man."
"Me too." chimed Erza.
Jellal smiled. "Why not."
Erick smiled a broad smile. "Great! See you tomorrow friends!" he called as he jogged over to his own work group.
Link smiled to himself. Maybe, with friends like these, he could survive this place after all.
But questions continued to run in his mind. Who were the slavers here? Why did they want to build this tower? What was the tower for? Nothing was making sense in Link's mind, but what he did know he didn't like.
Link decided to make it his business to find out what was going on around here, for better or for worse.
Later that night, when the work was done and they had been sent back to their cells, Link noticed something on Rob's back. It was a curious pink tattoo, showing boldly for all the world to see.
Curious, Link decided to inquire about it after the other children had gone to bed. "Rob, sir." asked Link, walking up to the old man. "What does the symbol on your back mean?"
Rob chuckled, a strange sound in the abject despair around them. "Oh that old thing?" he asked. "That's the symbol of my Magic Guild that I joined when I was a young man." Rob's face became wistful. "Oh yeah, I remember those days. It was a life of adventure and fun. Me and my team, we were never in one place. We traveled all over Fiore, seeking out adventure." The old man sighed, his shoulders sagging. "I miss those days."
"What happened, to your team I mean?" asked Link, sitting down across from Rob.
Rob sighed. "We got old, that's all. We all went our separate ways in the end. I just couldn't accept that, so I went out on some hare-brained adventure that landed me here." he scoffed. "Just my luck huh?"
"What Guild did you belong to?" asked Link, becoming more and more interested.
Rob smiled, remembering some far off idea. "We belonged to the greatest Guild in Fiore, Fairy Tail."
A cold shiver ran up Link's spine as he heard those words. He remembered his father's instructions. To find Fairy Tail where his uncle supposedly was.
It had to be a coincidence, wasn't it?
"Um, Rob?" asked Link nervously. "Was a man named Tiberius Clive ever a member of Fairy Tail?" asked the boy.
Rob stroked his chin. "Now that you mention it, yes. Right about the time I set out on my little quest a teenager named Tiberius Clive did join up, along with his brother. Gildarts I believe his name was." Then he frowned. "Link, are you alright boy, you're pale, and you're shivering."
Link nodded slowly, a feeling of realization creeping over him. "Y-yeah, I'm okay. I just need some rest." Link walked away and laid down before Rob could object. This time, he hoped he would dream. This time, he believed that he might just recieve instructions.
Deep in his soul, Link felt the Fire of Faith rekindle in his heart.
The fat man was Dal, the thin man was Raul. Both of them were relatively powerful mages in their own right, but they were weak of mind. This weakness of mind led to insecurity, which fueled their desire for power. This desire had rotted inside them, turning them against their teachers and right into Lord Zeref's waiting arms.
With 'Zeref's' guidance, they had founded their Dark Guild, Ever-Eye it was claled, and were now in the process of building the structure necessary to resurrect the one they considered God.
However, today they spoke with the man who was funding them, the man who had brought them to the way of Zeref, the so called 'Prophet' of the Dark Lord.
Both Raul and Dal were kneeling before this man who stood with his back to them facing the window, the sunlight giving him a golden aura of sorts, or a halo that he didn't bloody deserve. Both of the mages were nervous. the Prophet NEVER called people to his quarters personally unless they had impressed him or if they had severely disappointed him. If you had impressed him, you were rewarded in some way.
The less said about what happened to those who disappointed him the better.
"Raul, Dal," said the man in a smooth, oily voice. His voice was deeper than one might expect from so skinny a man, with perfectly rounded O's in his speech. "do either of you know why I called you up here?" he asked in a casual tone of voice.
"No Prophet." said Raul quickly.
"Neither do I, Prophet." said Dal in a voice filled with thinly concealed anxiety.
"Hmmm," said the Prophet. "Of course you don't, your imagination is limited only to the here and now, never looking behind you or in front of you."
"Whatever you say, Prophet." said Paul in a nervous tone.
The Prophet chuckled to himself. "Calm down my little duckies, neither of you are in trouble... for the moment."
Relief washed over both men, and their confidence grew greatly. "My Lord Prophet, what service could we provide you with then?" asked Dal, in a stronger tone.
The Prophet stopped smiling, not that either Raul or Dal could see his facial expression. "Early yesterday afternoon, I felt a presence enter our little island. A presence I have not felt for an age."
"An old enemy My Lord?" asked Raul curiously.
"In a manner of speaking." said the Prophet grimly. "It may be the one I am thinking of, but then again it may not. All I know is his Light shines brightly, like a star among a gathering lanterns."
"Is that... bad My Lord?" asked Raul again.
The Prophet shook his head. "Perhaps, but perhaps not. That remains to be seen." Raul and Dal looked at each other in confusion. The Prophet wasn't making sense. One moment he was talking about an old enemy of his, and the next he was saying that this enemy might not be a bad thing.
The Prophet continued. "I want the source of this Light found and brought before me as soon as possible, is that understood?" he said in a commanding tone.
"Yes sir!" cried Raul and Dal together.
"Exalted." smirked the Prophet. "However, should you two fail this task, I would be most... disappointed." he said in a silky voice. One did not have to have keen ears to detect the thinly disguised threat behind the soft words.
Raul and Dal felt their stomachs turn in apprehension. They were both expendable, they knew that. The Prophet had made it very clear that there were plenty of men willing to kill their own families to have what they had. Plus, the Prophet did not make idle threats. They were always serious, and they spelled nothing but destruction and doom for those on the receiving end of them.
"Y-yes Lord Prophet." they both nervously intoned.
"Good, you are excused." said the Prophet sweetly as the two dark mages scuttled off like frightened bugs. The Prophet chuckled to himself, amused at the fear the two exhibited, as was right to exhibit in his presence.
The Prophet's mind turned to thoughts of this strange new Light. It could be just a child with an exceptional gift for magic, or one that just so happened to be able to touch the One Power, but in his heart he knew the words were hollow.
In his black, shriveled up heart he knew exactly who it was.
He slowly turned away from the obscuring light, revealing his features. He was an albino man with snow white hair and skin but bright purple eyes rimmed by purple paint. He wore a white tunic and tight white leggings. Around his shoulders hung a red cloak which covered the top of his black rapier. And his eyes burned. They burned with a dark inner hatred and evil that seemed to swallow up all hope and light that came near them.
"It has been a while, Chosen One." said Demon Lord Ghirahim.
