Chapter 29

"Siegrain?" Yajima looked mildly surprised "This is my private office. How did you get in without me noticing?"

"Not important. We need to call a meeting. Now."

"You found some serious information. Good for you, finally taking the job seriously." Yajima reached for the switch that would alert all the members of the council that they needed to meet. Siegrain grabbed his hand "You said to call a meeting"

"We need to tell the others. Ultear can't be involved."

"Is Ultear behind this?" Yajima sounded alarmed.

Sieg/Jellal sighed and resigned himself to his fate "Help me gather the others. Exclude Ultear. Afterward… afterwards please arrest me. I only request that the details not be made public"

Yajima stared at him long and hard "Fine. I'll get the others. Let's hear what you have to say."

XXXXX

The members of the council sat back and listened with increasingly grimed expressions as Siegrain explained to them the R-System, who all had been involved, who all had been duped, who else worth arresting, how it worked, what he'd been doing on the council, and what was going on at the time. He left out his suspicions about Ultear's involvement in his involvement. Any claims like that made now would only get him into more trouble.

Finally, Rage spoke "So Ultear and your younger brother were trying to revive Zeref?"

"That's no reason to arrest you" Yajima scoffed. The statement brought surprised looks from the other members-they had not heard this request.

"I don't have a little brother" Siegrain said flatly "He's me. I'm him. I'm, Jellal. I'm a psychic projection. I confess all this freely and, furthermore, would like to make a request"

"That is…?" Yajima prompted

"Not to laugh."

Yajima thought for a second "You're in your… ah… 'situation' from using lost magic… aren't you?"

"Yup. Messed up a chant. Didn't take out another pillar though." Siegrain could admit this without blushing, but back in the tower on his bed Jellal was bright red.

"We don't have much choice but to take your word for it. Ultear will be arrested immediately. We'll have the tower marched on-since taking it out from a distance doesn't seem to be possible. How many people are inside?"

"Several hundred. I couldn't name most. To me they're just faceless members of a false cult. They helped construct the building. There are also six noteworthy wizards. No… four."

"Let's hear all six"

"Sho uses cards. He seals people inside. That's all there is to it. If you know that it's not too big a deal-easy to avoid. Wally… Wally isn't really worth mentioning as a wizard. He does some weird… block magic. Just don't let him shoot anyone. Miria's a threat. She makes a rope that can cancel people's magic. At the moment everyone thinks she's canceled mine, actually. There are also the three members of trinity raven, who I hired to defend the tower. You should be familiar with them."

"We are" Okou sighed "We may want to bring in a guild for this"

"I'd recommend Fairy Tail" Siegrain said "Not just because they're known to destroy buildings. Erza Scarlett is also involved in this-though she's not responsible for anything happening there at the moment."

"Explain, Jellal" Michello said very sourly, as if he ought to know by now not to leave out any details.

"Erza and I… both worked there as slaves on the tower. She started a revolt to earn everyone their freedom. I took advantage of her wiping out the priests there and took over. She rejected the idea, so I had her sent away. The others all followed me after… a few white lies."

"Such as…?"

"Not important." Siegrain insisted.

Yajima look up at the ceiling and said very slowly "I think… Fairy Tail would be a good idea. They've proven to be useful numerous times before. And if one of their members is involved it would be unfair to exclude her. Besides, they do have a knack for destroying buildings, and that's what we want here."

"Where are you?" Okou asked Siegrain.

"Right here" duh

"Within the tower?"

"The top floor" duh again. Where else would he be if he ran the place? "The third room on the left from the stairs. My door's locked. There aren't any windows"

"Why's your door locked?"

"If it isn't people constantly barge in"

"How long have you been there?" Yajima asked out of genuine curiosity "I mean, in the tower, total."

"About… eight… nine… maybe going on ten years? I don't know the exact date that I was first brought there. And, of course, I was dragged out for a little while and stayed with Erza."

"I'm surprised she didn't try to cut off your head when she saw you. It sounds like the two of you have a very poor relationship" which was a sort of a stab in Jellal's heart

"She did try" Sigerain assured him "But you'll have plenty of time to go and question the little details of my personal life while I'm in prison. You really did pick an interesting time to finally care."

"We should've done that background check on you"

"You should have"

XXXXX

"He is there?" Erza pulled out a massive sword "When I get a hold of him I'll cas-"

"He isn't there by choice" Simon told her "Someone ordered him brought back by force. He even had his magic suppressed while I spoke with him and-"

Everyone went silent when Makarov stepped into the building. There was an ominous look on his face.

"Master?" Mira asked "What's wrong"

"There has been… a sort of upheaval. No info as been released to the media yet." Makarov sighed and took a seat on the bar table, running his hands across his face and sighing again "Ultear has gone missing. She won't be back. The council has listed her as a wanted criminal. Siegrain-or Jellal-as well. He's turned himself in. In fact, I believe he caused this with a confession or something. It was several days ago. It's been very busy for the guild masters. That tower, the one Erza mentioned, it's going to be torn down."

"Wonder-"

"We've been selected to do it"

Erza didn't finish her one word sentence. She just glared at whoever she'd been looking at a second before.

OXXXXXO

Rune Caster: I decided on what to do with the rest of the story. I'm working on the epilogue at the same time I'm writing this chapter. It's not a happy go lucky ending, but it's not horribly tragic either. Here were the two ideas I rejected, in case you were curious.

1) Erza and Jellal become utterly in love and live happily ever after with their little baby
-The problem: It's to sappy and happy go lucky

2) Jellal returns to the tower with the baby and raises it alone, sparking a sequel where the child (whose name, appearance and personality I actually figured out a while ago) searches for and gains the acceptance of his mother, who would then be married to either Natsu or Gray
-The problem: Jellal loves Erza, even if it's not totally mutual. He wouldn't run off of his own free will.