His disguise had been more thorough, but I didn't remember it well enough to mimic, and if I got any major details wrong then they would have seen that I was only trying to look like him. Remembering the dwarf girl's comment about my eyes, I projected a pair of shades to wear over them instead. It was a nice trick, but it would be useless if I ever tried to clothe anyone else with it, and I'd have preferred to be able to change my body at will than to be able to affect what I was wearing over it.

I didn't really get what his situation was, but the only people I was concerned with keeping my identity from was the guild that he'd gone into the day before-the same one that had been hired to act as a sacrifice for Ecilan. It would have been easier if someone in Genesis could have told me flat out where the ruins were, but I'd have to settle for knowing someone who could lead me there.

When people first started coming out onto the streets but had yet to overcrowd them I made my move. What I do isn't warping per say. It's simply dematerializing and rematerializing elsewhere. I can't carry objects with me, just change where I'm being projected. He could move me around easily before I had my own mind, but doing it myself took focus. If stealth weren't a concern I'd have opted to fly instead. Or just walk.

Without a good idea of the inside of the guild hall I couldn't send myself in there. I waited until no one was looking to make a run for the front door.

A few people, people I had no information on, looked up at me in surprise when I came in.

"Where's your outfit?" a blonde girl asked me.

"Torn," I told her.

This seemed to be an acceptable answer. She showed no suspicion while she said, "Alright, but if Erza asks, tell her it happened here. She won't be happy if she learns you came here hiding only your least distinguishing feature."

That's what she thought.

But the name Erza clicked with me. It must have been something on my caster's mind the last time he tried to create me, because I found myself getting short of breath trying to recall what significance Erza had. Fortunately, the blonde just giggled at my odd behavior and explained it away for me.

"Oh, she won't be too awful, don't worry. Did you come to help Natsu? That's sweet of you. We were just getting ready to take him to the ruins. We'll get a new disguise on you and buy an extra train ticket."

I almost interrupted her four times when she didn't give me a chance to say no, but mention of the ruins shut me up. What a lucky break. I wouldn't even have to explain why 'their friend' needed to go back there. They were offering to take me.

-o-

The costume they found was a bit pink, and it was too late to change the shades to match them. I must have looked odd, but if they were laughing at how they'd dressed me up it meant they weren't noticing me acting odd.

There were three of them. The blonde, who said she was Lucy, but 'we' hadn't spoken much so she could understand me forgetting, was one of the travelers. There was also a black haired boy named Gray, who the final party member had scolded several times. He carried Natsu, the pink haired one they were hoping to wake up. A blue cat named Happy also sat by Natsu. Sitting across from me in out cabin booth was a woman with long scarlet hair. Erza. She hadn't introduced herself. No one had called her by name. I just knew. This was Erza. Beautiful. Powerful.

A wrench in my plan.

She seemed to be a friend of his. Every conversation she tried to strike up with me hinged on previous talks that I hadn't been a part of. I made a point of busying myself with Lucy. He didn't talk to her often, by her accounts, so he would be the least likely to notice if I acted oddly.

I was acting odd too, and I couldn't do anything about it. "Aren't you going to take those shades off?" the cat asked me when we were deep in the ruins. I'd have loved too, but I didn't have much of a choice until I was done with the group.

The room where the lord demon was sealed was deep in the ruins. I began to sweat as we drew near. I'd never met the other lord demon. I had no idea what to expect with them. What if Ecilan didn't like that I'd worked for Grisia's men for a few days? What if the lord demons were so spiteful that they would unravel the makeup of a poor spell just for agreeing to help people who had lied to him? What if I had some sort of Grisia taint from working with Genesis? What if Ecilan just didn't care for me enough to do anything?

"Hot, isn't it?" Erza asked.

"Yeah," I guessed. I'd felt a heat wave Grisia had created several days ago and it had scared me something awful. Unless magic was involved I had no sense of hot or cold.

I got a taste of cold when we entered Ecilan's room. The others seemed just fine, I couldn't say why. If it was already hot to them then maybe the cold was nice. My first time feeling a chill wasn't so pleasant. No shivering though. From what I'd dug out of his memories the other day, I had to act like I enjoyed the temperature.

Maybe this was a bad idea…

But the amulet was right there…

"Levy had no ideas of her own," Erza told me, "But the master thought that maybe we could-h-hey! Jellal!"

I just had to get the amulet, then I could drop the act, shiver as much as I damn well pleased, and meet the demon.

"Jellal, what the hell are you doing?" Erza shrieked as I lifted the accursed thing from its spot in the center of the room.

The reaction was immediate. It went from cold to frigid, even the humans showed sign of being cold now. The amulet had been so shrouded in magic I could barely make it out, but a gem that I could feel imbedded in it began to glow so brightly that it showed through the dark energy. The stone slab, the one I needed to break, began to vibrate.

"Jellal, put that back!" the cat cried. If it said that name one more time, I was going to gut the thing.

The spiteful look I gave them was hidden by my shades. Erza lunged for me in my moment of hesitation, but the nice thing about being from him is that his magic is good for speed. Before she was halfway to me I was at the slab, slamming the amulet against it with the force of a meteor.

For one horrible moment nothing happened. Even when cracks ran through the stone I thought I may have only hit it too hard.

Then mist seeped out. Slow at first, but as the amulet became soft the mist began to tumble out faster. When the magic of the metal in my hand started to merge with my makeup of my own magic I tried to drop it, but the artifact clung to my hand, intent on becoming one with me. As it disappeared completely inside of me the mist started gushing out, stirring up wind in the underground room and distorting my magic. I had to concentrate to keep my physical form steady, and extra details started flickering out.

The clothes had been given to me by Erza and her friends. They would last as long as it took for them to wear out. The shades were an extra bit of the magic I was projected with. They vanished.

At first no one noticed, even when the mist pulled itself into the center of the room and stopped blurring everything they all focused on it rather than me. It twisted into a humanlike form, taking on features and… no… the way its magic blurred I could almost make out features, but the mist, the part that would be visible to others, was just holding a humanoid shape.

Ecilan looked around, eyes passing between each person in the room before stopping on me.

You released me on your own?

"Yes." He looked powerful, but I'd been expecting… something a little more omnipotent. That he didn't meet my standards made him easier to speak to. That his blurring features made it look like he had clownish fins made it a cake walk. "You're a rival of Grisia's?"

"Jellal, I can't believe you'd think he'd help if we released him! Even if it could, we needed to help Natsu wake…" Erza stopped as I glanced at her, her own eyes locking in on mine. "You… who are you?"

I smiled for her, the same smile as his, and looked back to Ecilan. "I need a favor."

And you expect me to grant it? Ecilan laughed.

Yes. I did. "I want to get rid of the Genesis members loyal to Grisia," I told him. Maybe that was all of Genesis. I didn't care.

Ecilan mulled it over, then laughed again and stepped forward. I held my ground as he moved towards me, but flinched back when he reached out to touch my forehead. Whatever the mist was made of, Ecilan radiated magic. He could easily do some real harm to me, should he decide to. I was being rash, but I wasn't completely stupid.

I also wasn't completely on guard. The mist rushed forward and wrapped around me, probing my skin. Ecilan scowled when I looked at him in confusion and pulled back.

You aren't human, he said. You aren't anything.

"I'm a spell," I told him.

The mist circled around me, never touching as Ecilan inspected my body. A though projection, he mused. How inconvenient. You seem to have a mind of your own, but that does me no good. Harm, in fact. You've marked yourself as my host, but if I could make do with a body made of magic mine would work just as well. Though I must admit, you are held together with something powerful.

"Etherion," I told him. "My caster was under heavy Etherion exposure when I was created. He had me redirect it into the sky, which only increased the amount I was in contact with. After he lost consciousness it kept me from fading. He didn't wake up. There was no one to think for me. I started thinking for myself."

Etherion… Ecilan cooed, as if I hadn't said anything past that. I can't use you as a host, but that doesn't mean you aren't of use. You want a favor? Perhaps we could settle for a... mutually beneficial partnership.

At this point Erza reminded us that there were others in the room. From the looks on their faces even her companions seemed to have also forgotten that until she said, "Not a chance. Neither of you are getting out of here."

Oh?

Summoning a sword, Erza lunged at us. Her blade slipped right through the mist and dug into my arm. I winced, but the wound was starting to close up as soon as she withdrew the blade and in a matter of seconds the pain was gone. She stared at the spot where she'd sliced all the way to bone, then she turned to the others.

"Gray! Lucy!"

Gray charged first, which put me in great spirits. I saw him summon forth the energy to form ice, and I saw all the energy slip from his hands into the walls around him. He stopped mid stride and stared stupidly at his good hand, then helplessly up at Erza.

Ecilan laughed. You'd use an ice mage in the presence of the lord of ice? You'd use an ice mage in the room meant to hold the lord of ice?

Meaning Ecilan wasn't just letting me fight to prove I was of use to him. I glanced over to him, annoyed that he wouldn't have actually told me I was on my own, and missed seeing a blast of sand getting shot at me.

As I blinked away the grit from my eyes I looked over to the last girl who had to try and take me. She and the Celestial Spirit she'd summoned looked equally shocked by the fact that all they'd done was tear holes in my clothes. All three of them would take no effort to overpower. I cast a simple spell from his repertoire, one with enough force to knock Lucy and her summon back. Knocking them out would take a little finesse if I didn't want to drop the ruins on top of me.

Can you break through the ceiling? Ecilan asked.

Well, never mind then. Whatever the lord said.

I held my hand up and fired magic above me, caking myself in dust that fell from the hole I blasted. I had two more ceilings to break through. I'd be sure to fire magic at an angel the next time.

Ecilan's mist rushed up out of the room meant to block ice magic, creating another powerful gust that whipped through the room. I braced myself and tried to hold steady while he exited, but it did little good when the wind uprooted Erza and sent her crashing into me.

Spell! Come! Ecilan's voice echoed from the floor above.

I rolled over, shoving Erza off of me and getting to me feet. One Meteor spell would get me up and, now that I thought about it, was probably enough to break through the other levels too. It wasn't like I had to worry about breaking my neck on impact with the ceiling.

Yellow light glowed around me. Just launch through the hole, bust open a few more, and get out. Easy.

"Siegrain," Erza coughed. "Stop. You're… you're part of Jellal, right? Siegrain…"

Siegrain? Now that really struck a chord, but who was she talking too. There was just her, Gray, the cat, and Lucy… And me.

I had a name? That's right! I had a name! That was what Jellal had convinced everyone else to call me! That… no, that's what he had convinced everyone to call me. I had a name. I was given a name by him. I was surrounded by people who said I ought to be a part of him.

"Siegrain," she pleaded.

I took a step back, then activated the spell and blasted through the ruins. Meteor allows a person to move at a speed not possible to track with the naked eye, and even then I couldn't have gotten out of their fast enough.

-x-

STA: Huh. It did get worse, didn't it. That's odd. Well, at least it can't get any worse than this.

…

What? I mean, it's not like there are any other lord demons or a fallen angel that might somehow be added to the mess. Anyway, I finally get to use Siegrain's name, now that he knows he has one of those. Did anyone not figure it out? I feel like it was painfully obvious since before I even introduced him as a character.

Next Chapter: Zeref is on the move