And as he watched, the shadows seem to disappear and drain out from under the machines, coiling up against the wall in a ball before slithering onto the floor in front of them. From out of the pool of shadows, there came a face, arms, torso and legs. And as the creature materialized out of the shadows, Jellal and Sweets stepped back in horror, preparing themselves for battle.

CHAPTER 10 : THE SOLDIER

PART II

It was nothing like anything they've ever seen before. A small, rounded head was topped by two long antenna like projections. Its thin, wiry body seemed to twitch with every movement, giving it a very insect like quality. In all its ghastly appearance, its face only consisted of two beady yellow, pupil-less eyes, no nose, no mouth, not even eyelids. The creature's hands and feet ended with sharp claws, and its entire body was an inky black in color, as if it was the physical manifestation of the shadows themselves.

The hallway they stood in was about ten feet across and poorly lit. To make matters worse, it was cluttered with junk, old machinery and other indescribable objects; conditions hardly befitting a battle.

The creature lunged at them, its claws clicking against the flooring. It swung its hands backwards, taking aim at Sweets. The agent only had just enough time to cross his fire sword in front of him, shielding himself from the creature's attack. With surprising strength, the creature began to push Sweets backwards, its clawed hand against the agent's sword.

Upon seeing this, Jellal summoned a ball of energy into the palm of his hand; taking aim, he sent it flying towards the preoccupied creature.

However, as if sensing the oncoming projectile, the creature turned its head towards Jellal and instantly leapt away from Sweets, vaulting itself onto the ceiling, suspending itself from the multitude of pipes which ran along its surface.

Sweets' sword set itself on fire as if absorbing the energy from Jellal's energy blast. With that energy, Sweets swung his sword in an arc and sent a circular wave of flames upwards towards the pipes, this time, managing to hit the creature head on.

The creature dropped face down onto the floor between Jellal and Sweets, incapacitated from the blow, but still conscious. With a final blast of energy from Jellal, the creature disintegrated into a puff of smoke, leaving behind not a trace of its existence.

'What the hell was that thing?' asked Sweets 'Some kind of demon?'

Before Jellal could answer, the sound of dark, malicious laughter emanated from the darkness and no sooner had they seen the many pairs of ghostly yellow eyes materializing in the black depths, more black creatures sprung towards them.

Sweets was prepared this time, slicing through one of their opponents with a quick upstroke of his sword. Dodging the next set of claws with a tumble to the right, he stabbed the sword into the belly of another oncoming creature.

Jellal sent blast after blast of magic towards the attackers, quickly losing count of how many he had struck down. But, no matter how many fell, it seemed that many more would take their place. Suddenly, one of the black creatures latched onto his right arm, and another one on his left. He felt the weight of another creature on his back, and the combined force of the three creatures sent him down onto one knee.

He gritted his teeth and focused his energy as a golden magic circle formed beneath his feet. One after another, bright, golden orbs of magic appeared above the battle field in the form of a constellation. Heavenly magic crackled and surged between them.

'Grand Chariot!' he yelled, feeling the surge of magic around him. Instantly, the weight lifted off his back. Pleased that he was not affected much by the spell, he stood up to assess the damage.

All the dark creatures had been vanquished, the ground and the surrounding items scorched from their battle. From a corner, Sweets groaned and picked himself up. Apparently, he had been thrown off his feet from the blast.

'Fernandes, You WILL warn me the next time you do something like that,' he said, crossly.

Jellal only smirked as he moved towards Sweets, offering a hand to help the agent stand. However, the man ignored it, and winced slightly as he straightened up.

'Let's move,' said Jellal 'Before those things return,'

Sweets nodded, picking up his sword and hurried after Jellal, the uneasiness filling his stomach again.

'Hey, Jellal,' he said, 'you feel that don't you? Like someone's-'

'Watching us,' finished Jellal 'I know,'

And they pressed forward, senses on high alert, trekking further and further into the darkness.

…

'How many bloody rooms can there be in a single factory?' Erza grumbled to herself.

Erza and the wolf exited another large factory room, this time, filled with stacks upon stacks of files and folders, yet again unsuccessful at locating the colonel.

Beside her, the grey wolf let out a snort as if agreeing with her. The animal was very tame; following Erza's every movement carefully, constantly keeping watch over her. A touch of fondness filled her heart when she realized that it was Jellal's desire to keep her safe that was probably flowing through the wolf's being right now.

She craned her neck upwards to look at the floors above her. She had been searching for little above an hour, and she still had three floors to go; and then, there was the building next door and the other small buildings around the factory. If those places did not yield the colonel, they might need to search the grounds of the reactor.

Her heart sunk slightly as the prospects of finding him before dawn became slimmer and slimmer. What if they couldn't find him? What then? Would they have to give up on the mission? What other leads did they have? Who else could they turn to?

What if they got caught in the explosion? What if one of them ended up dead? What if no one knew where they were and no one came to find them? What if Grimoire Heart and White managed to succeed in whatever they were doing? What would become of the world then?

Erza placed her hands on the rusted metal railing on either side of the walkway, taking deep breaths, trying to calm herself down.

Think, Erza, think! She chided herself.

There had to be a faster way to search. There just had to. So much was at stake right now, so much was hanging in the balance, and they just did not have time to play hide and seek with arsonists.

Something seemed to have caught the wolf's attention, for it suddenly peered into the darkness beyond the both of them and started growling.

'What is it girl?,' asked Erza, approaching the animal, 'What do you see?'

She let out a horrified gasp as she finally saw what the wolf was growling at. The light from her utility belt illuminated the frightening yellow eyes of an unearthly black creature with long antennae protruding from the back of its head. It was about a foot shorter than her, its limbs twitching this way and that; and from the way its head slowly turned towards Erza, it appeared to be studying her.

The creature took one step towards them when suddenly the wolf started howling and barking at it. Immediately, the black figure recoiled and –to Erza's amazement- melted into a puddle of shadows on the floor.

It fled, the puddle of shadows slithering across the floor ahead of them, and Erza was somewhat relieved that the creature was gone. However, the wolf would not be deterred. It took off after the shadow on the ground, giving chase in the impenetrable darkness.

'Wait!,' Erza yelled, although she knew it was near useless. What were the chances of that happening?

But she would not relent. Taking in quick breaths of air, she sprinted after the wolf. Up two flights of stairs, down the hall, through a series of corridors, left, right, right, and left again until her mind could not keep up and she decided that she would worry about backtracking later. Her legs felt like giving out, her lungs were on fire, and then finally, she saw it.

The wolf was standing in front of a massive set of metal double doors. Currently closed, they bore the royal Symphonia seal as well as the universal symbol for danger: a skull and crossbones. The black shadow creature appeared to have disappeared, but the wolf still stood ramrod straight in front of the doors, growling lightly.

Deciding she might as well check it out, Erza approached the doors. Stopping to pat the head of the wolf, she whispered,

'Shh.., down girl,'

And Erza heaved all her strength into opening the large door. With a mighty creak, whine, and groan, the rusted old hinges swung open.

The room beyond the door was large and circular. Nearly a hundred feet across with a raised platform in the centre, it looked more like some kind of ceremonial chamber than a laboratory. However, as Erza paced through the room slowly, taking note of the stacks of books, papers, equipment and electronics lying haphazardly around, she concluded it was the latter. Unlike the rest of the factory, the room was abnormally well lit. Strings of light bulbs cris-crossed overhead, adding to the glare of the multitude of fluorescent lights and spotlights

To keep the shadows out. Erza concluded.

She approached the platform in the middle of the room. From the moment she had entered the room, her eyes had been drawn to the object sitting silently on the raised dais. Two large metal columns stood about five feet apart from each other, and between them, several thin metal spires extended from the pillars, curving into a circular frame before meeting each other at the centre. It looked like a tall mirror, only without the glass in the centre.

She reached for her earpiece, tapping it lightly, she spoke

'Guys? I think I've found something. Can you come and find me?,'

There was only the sound of static at the other end of the line.

'Hello? Jellal? Sweets?'

She told herself to calm down; probably the connection was bad, or their devices might have dropped out during a fight or something.

There was the sound of scraping behind her. She turned and saw that the wolf was pawing at some papers on the floor. As Erza knelt down and began to look through them, she noticed that the documents were quite old, Most of them written in a script she couldn't recognize. Many of the letters, however, were written on custom stationery. On the top of each page were the words "National Armed Forces of Fiore". She laid those papers down and then started picking up several strewn photographs. They were pictures of soldiers, all of them men, generally in their late teens.

'They were my comrades, all of them,' came a familiar voice from behind her.

Erza wheeled around in shock, equipping her sword and pointed it at his chest. She wondered how he had managed to sneak up on her like that. He stood at a considerable distance from her. His stance relaxed with his hands in his pockets. The brightness of the room brought out the weariness in his appearance, the shadows under his eyes, and the gauntness of his face.

'Go find the men,' Erza said to the wolf. 'Bring them here,'

The wolf hissed and pawed the ground beside her, somewhat reluctant to leave. But Erza gave it a stern look and it disappeared in a gust of wind. She prayed that it would not take too long to find them.

He heaved a sigh and brought his hands out of his pockets, displaying them in a placating gesture.

'I told you, I don't mean any harm,'

'I find that hard to believe,' said Erza, narrowing her eyes.

'You and your allies have caused a lot of harm and are planning to bring upon even more evil to the world,' she continued 'It would be best to admit what you know and be prepared to face justice,'

He paced towards her, slowly, carefully.

'Justice... Like the type you wish for your lover, Jellal?' he paused 'That is the main reason you're doing this, am I right?'

Obviously he was trying to stall.

'He is not my lover,' though a slight blush stained her cheeks as she said those words 'but yes, every man deserves justice,'

'But you're not answering my question,' he repeated 'Do you truly understand why you've embarked on this quest? Do you know what you truly want?'

At her silence, he smirked, realizing that he had gained the upper hand.

'I first met Jellal during the months leading up to the completion of the tower ; and even then, he fully understood what he desired, what he was sacrificing in order to obtain his dream,' he said calmly.

'He was possessed!' she yelled 'His mind was addled! How can you say he truly wanted all that death and destruction? Those desires were the wishes of a manipulative hag and an evil guild who did not mind toying with the lives of countless innocents to obtain power!'

There was a pause for a moment.

'If you're so sure about that, then why are you getting so worked up? Perhaps... you aren't so sure. Perhaps you are still deceiving yourself, and cannot accept the reality that the Jellal who attempted to sacrifice you to Zeref and the Jellal who saved your life from my fallen friends are, in fact, the same man,'

He chuckled as he noticed Erza's deepening frown.

'You are afraid,' he stated 'Of what has happened, of what is happening now and what will happen in the future. And that fear makes you weak,'

He said it with a great deal of cynicism in his voice and it only fueled her rage.

'My feelings have no relevance to the mission,' she said 'Let me make myself clear; you will tell us where the device is, and what it's capable of. I've played your little game, found your hideout, so now it's time for you to come clean. Or else,'

He smiled bitterly, and instead picked up one the scattered photos.

'Children these days, they fight for nothing. All running around like robots, doing mission after mission, fight after fight… All this treachery, all this heartache, and for what?'

There was a sadness in his eyes that Erza could not understand. It was not a trick of light as she had assumed earlier, but as he turned the photos over in his hands, she could not help but feel sorry for the old colonel. What had those eyes seen?

The doors to the room burst open, and Jellal and Sweets rushed into the room. They were both panting, having run the distance, but Erza also noted the presence of several scorch marks and tears on the outfits of the men.

'Bravo! ' said Vinny sarcastically 'The mighty heroes have shown themselves. Here to finish off the bad guy and save the world I assume?'

'That is what you want us to do right?' said Sweets. 'Because of White and Ultear are planning?'

Vinny frowned, taking a deep breath, he turned his gaze skyward 'Forgive me, mistress Ultear'

'It pains me to tell you this. For I believe no one is capable of stopping White once the device is up and running. In fact, it would be best if you forget this matter and return to your homes before it is too late,'

'We've come this far Vinny, we're not about to give up now,' said Jellal.

The colonel studied Jellal for a moment longer. Finally, he nodded towards the contraption on the dais.

'That thing right there, is the device, more accurately, a prototype of the device. As I mentioned earlier, the real one is at the site already,'

'What's it for?' asked Jellal

'Judging from your appearance, I'll assume that you've already had a run in with those nasty black things,'

The trio exchanged looks before Erza said 'Yeah, we did,'

'They're called Heartless, creatures born out of the darkness of the human heart. Their ultimate purpose is to infect this world by consuming the hearts of people and by doing so, plunging this world into darkness,'

'They… eat… hearts?' asked Sweets, bewildered

'Not in a cannibalistic way,' said Jellal, 'I remember now, they are born from darkness, and in essence, will drain a person of their soul, their life, until what is left is a mere shadow, a husk of their former self; a heartless,'

'And that machine over there is how White brought those creatures into our world. That device is capable of opening the corridors of darkness, allowing him to summon those creatures into this world,' continued the Colonel.

'But why?' asked Sweets

'Power,' said Jellal 'Human hearts and souls contain massive amounts of power; even those which cannot use magic normally. He wants power,'

'And he's willing to kill thousands in order to obtain it,' finished the Colonel, looking down in shame.

A moment of silence descended on the group as the true horror of the situation finally set in.

'Where is it colonel?' asked Erza 'Where is the launch site?'

But before he could answer, an explosion tore through the roof above them. They immediately took cover and shielded themselves against the falling debris, Jellal covering Erza with his body. When the noise finally stopped, they stood up amongst a great cloud of smoke and rubble. Many of the lights had gone out, leaving only the four spotlights at their corners of the room. And Erza gasped in shock at the sight before her.

A herculean heartless stood outside the factory. From its enormous size, only its torso and abdomen could be seed from their vantage point. However, it looked very different from the heartless she had encountered earlier. This one appeared to be more muscular in stature, its arms were large and powerful, its face , although bearing the same featureless, haunting yellow eyes, was coiled in tendrils of dark, inky hair which sprouted from the top if its head.

'It really is hard to find good quality help these days' came an airy, accented voice.

Jellal's eyes widened as a thought projection of Mr. White appeared in front of the massive heartless. Still in his all white outfit and with his blonde hair slicked back, he looked for all the world like a mafia boss, lazily barking out commands while his minions did all the dirty work for him.

'You bastard!' yelled Erza 'What do you think you're doing?'

He smirked and regarded her loftily

'Ah, you do remember me? Excellent. Although, I must say, Blue over there did quite a number on you didn't he?' he snorted 'And I'm not just talking about the memory spell,'

'We will come for you' said Sweets, a warning glare in his eyes 'You are so done for!'

'Please, you council nitwits are capable of nothing. Just look at how easily my dear Ultear managed to tear you people apart,' he replied.

Sweets took a step forwards, drawing his blade, although he knew he could not damage the image of Mr White.

'But regardless,' continued Mr White 'this game has gone on far enough. I simply cannot allow you to live any longer. Wouldn't want you to ruin my plans now would we?'

'Enough is enough White!' shouted Vinny 'This is way over your head and you know it. Come to your senses boy!'

'On second thought, I will start with you,' he gave Vinny a foul look, 'Let's start with the man who thinks he can just drop everything and become an instant hero,'

The heartless let out an earth shattering roar behind them.

'But you will all perish in the end,' he said in a low voice. 'I bid you farewell my friends,'

He began to flicker away. But then he let out a laugh.

'Oh, and Jellal ol' chap? I lied; I honestly cannot stand redheads,'

As soon as he disappeared, he heartless went crazy. It smashed the walls of the building with its massive hands, making the ground tremble beneath their feet, and it also began to roar, making their ears buzz.

It then held is hands upwards to the sky, summoning a black pulsar of magic, the winds stirring up all around it. Erza re-equipped to her Giant's Armor and threw the Lance of Haja at it. Jellal sent a torrent of fire at the creature, trying to hinder its progress, but to no avail. A barrier of some kind protected the heartless, preventing Jellal's magic and the spear from reaching it.

Jellal focused his magic again, preparing to strike the heartless with Abyss Break when suddenly, Vinny leapt in front of him. He yelled at the old colonel to stand down, but those words fell on deaf ears. As the heartless flung the black pulsar downwards, Vinny leapt skywards, pulling his fist back in a punch as a yellow glow suffused his body. It was such a strong aura that Jellal felt its power from where he stood and was amazed with the man's determination.

Vinny collided with the black pulsar, and two simultaneous explosions of magic erupted in front of the trio's eyes. The heartless howled as it was thrown backwards slightly, apparently injured by the explosion. However, Vinny was also thrown to the ground, and Erza immediately ran to his side, helping him up.

'Go children, flee while there is still time,' he said, his breath coming in ragged bursts. 'This monster, this factory will end with me tonight,'

'NO!' Erza said adamantly 'We will not leave you here. We can help you fight!'

Erza saw the look in his eyes. The sadness was replaced by a fire. A determination unlike anything she had seen before.

'Let me do this, Erza, please. Let this be my redemption, for all that I have done. Please,'

'But…but..,' stammered Erza,

She felt a warm hand on her shoulder, and looked up to see Jellal standing there.

'Our fight is with White,' he said somberly.

Erza hesitated for a moment, taking a long look at the heartless. Sweets was currently fending it off, hacking at it with his sword.

'We'll stop the device. For sure,' she whispered.

The colonel smiled. He then shifted his gaze to Jellal.

'The device has been moved to, as you said, the place where it all began; The Tower of Heaven,'

Erza's eyes widened.

'Impossible! The tower was destroyed! There is no way-,'

'The island is still there, and that's where White has taken it,' said Vinny, wincing as he stood up 'Make sure you give him a good thrashing when you see him again,'

It was hard to leave the Colonel, after seeing how far he would go to help them. It took much more persuading and yelling to get Erza to leave the reactor. They eventually did escape, jump into the jeep and drive away swiftly; Erza holding back her tears the entire time.

…

Colonel Vincenzo Santorini stood on the slowly collapsing structure of the Beshin Mako Reactor, his back straight, his head held high and with the wind running through his hair. He was near exhaustion now, from holding the creature back while the three young ones escaped. But he still had enough juice in him for one last attack. One final blast. The heartless staggered in front of him, having already lost one of its arms and was slowly beginning to disappear.

Vinny tilted his head skywards and spread his hands wide open. A bright orange magic circle appeared at his feet, suffusing his body once more with its power. He felt the magic flow through him, as it always had.

10…

He hoped they had escaped.

9…

That boy, Jellal, he really had a good heart.

8…

He felt bad for making Erza doubt herself,

7…

He just had to be sure,

6…

That he would be passing on his legacy to good people,

5…

For no one should repeat the mistakes of his generation.

4…

But in the end,

3…

He smiled,

2..

Because he had no regrets,

1.

The ground shook and shuddered as the explosion tore through the otherwise calm night, and by the first light of dawn, only ruins stood at the once proud energy plant. And all that the curious villagers saw when they arrived were traces of thick black smoke, drifting upwards towards the heavens.

…

Cassie sat at her desk at the Sorcerer News studios, running her hands through her hair in frustration. Her deadline was tomorrow morning at 8am, and she had nothing to present. Nothing at all! No scandals, no pregnancy scares, no divorces. Nada, zip, zilch!

She leaned back on her chair and took another swig of her coffee. It had already gone cold. It was 3 am and she was cranky, tired and damned sure she wasn't going to get that promotion she so desperately needed.

If only her fans could see her now.

The magical archive nodule blipped and whirred in front of her. Thanks to an archive mage and a technopath that their company had hired, the staff there could now use archive magic anytime they wanted.

'Fat load of help that is,' she grumbled, getting up, wanting to refill her coffee mug.

Suddenly, the screen of the nodule beeped as a communication message popped up on her screen.

'I didn't know it could do that,' she mumbled, edging closer to read the blurry text.

LyonLover766 : I have something you need to see.

Cassie's eyes widened as she scrambled to type in a reply. Whoever this LyonLover guy was, he had been a very valuable informant. Who cared if he was nocturnal? She couldn't let any of her co-workers get the scoop before she did.

Cassiegirl88 : What about?

She waited with earnest for his reply.

LyonLover766 : I have evidence tying Erza to Jellal and other members of Oracion Seis as well as that recent massacre at Magnolia Prison.

Her eyes bugged.

Cassiegirl88 : Ooh, tell me, tell me!

LyonLover766 : I'm willing to make a trade. If I give you this information, I'll need you to do something for me first.

Without even sparing a second to think of its implications, she replied,

Cassirgirl88 : I will do anything.

End of Chapter 9! It took me an abysmally long time to type this one out. I kept getting sidetracked, by parents, siblings, ect ect. But finally, this one is off my chest.

I wanted Vinny to be a good guy in the end, I see him being the kind of soldier who's tired of all the fighting, and just wants to retire. But at the same time, he's got a good heart and won't let White win.

Ah yes, the heartless are from the Kingdom Hearts series, created by Tetsuya Nomura. I just loooove the video games, and I wanted to incorporate some element of it into the story line. For those who are not familiar with Heartless, here's the one which Jellal and Sweets fought in the factory

http: / images . wikia . com/ kingdomhearts /images/6/6c/ Neoshadow_(KHII). png

And, this is the one they fought towards the end :

http : / images . / kingdomhearts / images / 9 / 9 c / Darkside .png

remove spaces please!

Although, you've gotta imagine it like, a billion times larger than that.

And if you're wondering why there are heartless crawling around the reactor, well, the answer is this : White and Vinny finally got thr 'device' to work, and as a result, several heartless escaped from the Corridor of Darkness and ran lose in the factory.

Yes, Cassie is going to make a comeback in future chapters. And no, LyonLover766 is not Sherry. :)

I hope you did not find this chapter boring, there's not much Gerza in here, but I felt like I needed to tie up some lose ends regarding the plot. I promise there will be more lime/love/Gerza in the next few chappies!

Have a great week ahead! And do remember to review!

Cheers!

Asianpearl