CHAPTER 19
"You want me to what?!" Natsu exclaimed, half in horror at the idea and half in rage, "Are you insane?"
"No." Jellal smiled tiredly, "For the first time in a long time, I'm thinking clearly." He spread his arms, "Please. Before he returns... end it!"
Natsu scowled as he straightened up and took a half step closer to Jellal.
"No!" Erza cried and raised her sword, "Natsu you can't!"
Jellal smiled, "Thank you Natsu." He breathed, "Thank you."
Natsu's eyes narrowed as fury and disgust overtook him. He rushed forward with a cry of rage and punched Jellal solidly in the jaw.
"Do it yourself you damned coward!" He snarled as the stunned Jellal impacted the wall, "And don't ever ask me to do something like that again!" He glared darkly, "If you don't want that bastard in your head then either kill him or cast him out yourself! I made a promise to Lucy you jerk and I'm not breaking it now!"
"You don't understand the strength he possesses!" Jellal cried, "Natsu!"
"I understand!" Natsu snapped, "I understand better than anyone in this room what that freak is capable of! He's the same bastard who killed my parents!" Fire erupted around him as he prowled closer, "He took my egg! He hatched me and raised me to think I was his son!" He slashed a hand to the scar on his hip, "You think I got that from a normal fight?"
"It wasn't until I met Gajeel I learned the truth about it. About him! I was a kid you spineless coward! If I can fight him then you sure as fucking hell can!" He crouched in front of Jellal, his eyes burning brightly, "You invited him in." He hissed, "Throw him out. It's your body! Not his!"
Jellal clutched his head and screamed as he struggled against his demon. Natsu narrowed his eyes and leapt back out of immediate reach, unwilling to let himself be taken by surprise if the human failed.
Behind him Lucy, who had been speechlessly watching the whole scene unfold frowned and looked at Erza, "Erza!"
The redhead shook her head a little and looked over at the blond, looking as if she'd been stunned.
"Listen to me!" Lucy hissed, wary of raising her voice given the sensitive hearing in the room, "Acnologia's had years to get his hooks into Jellal. Natsu's right, but you're the one he's closest to. The one that brought him back out. You may have to help."
Erza's expression firmed into one of razor sharp determination and she nodded, "Very well. If Jellal requires a beating to remove the possession plaguing him I will not hesitate."
Lucy breathed quietly in relief as the amazon moved to join Natsu, her eyes glued on her fiancé and turned her attention back to the lacrima, "Hold on." She murmured to it, "I've almost got this."
She wasn't sure if it was her imagination or not, but a pulse of warmth seemed to answer her.
At once Jellal seemed to explode back into action, his eyes a blazing red with fury as Erza and Natsu took up stances around him with their fists and sword raised.
He exploded into a surge of celestial magic and flung them from his person, going after first Natsu with deadly intent as Erza raced to cut him off.
"Come on," Lucy hissed, her palms closed over the orb as she tugged magically at it with all her might, "please, come loose. Come on!"
It seemed her pleas fell on the ears of the spirits, because they responded at once. Sensing she was trying to help them by pulling apart the seams of the lacrima, they all rushed up in the same direction to apply their own force to it.
A large crack appeared in the gem, the surge of magic that rushed from it enough to stop Jellal cold in his tracks. Red eyes flared onto Lucy, and before she could register what was happening, she was being dragged by the hair over the edge of the tower.
She screamed in terror at the sudden weightlessness of her feet dangling out from solid ground. Gajeel's entire body twitched but he remained helplessly trapped apart from his soul. Natsu for his part let loose a roar of agony at the sight of Lucy holding onto Jellal's hand so she wouldn't have all her hair torn from her scalp.
"Leave her out of this! I thought you wanted her!" Natsu shouted desperately at the dragon controlling the human.
"She's more trouble than she's worth. The lacrima if you would," Acnologia snarled, extending his hand out for it, "I may not even drop you if you comply."
"Never," Lucy panted, her arms straining with the effort even as her hand remained tight around the pulsing lacrima. It cracked a little more in her palm, it's shape edges digging into her skin.
Acnologia switched hands, grabbing her by the throat and shaking her violently over the edge, "Do not think because you bare a passing resemblance to Anna that I will spare you out of some misplaced emotion."
"You will die, your body broken and bloody, and I will collect your lacrima after I have devoured your soul to ensure it never moves on," he purred, "Such is the way with Heartfilia women. And their parents."
"W-what?" Lucy choked, cold fear and horror rushing through her at the threat. At the implication.
"Let her go!" Natsu roared, charging for Lucy, only to get back handed hard enough Togo smashing into Jellal's throne.
"You had your chance Little fledgling. This vessel practically offered itself to you on a silver platter but you turned it down for some misplaced sense of morality." Acnologia sneered at Natsu, who was climbing out of the wreckage, "Anna did the same to me. Making me hate what I am. What we are. You lost your chance to save your little mistress."
"and you!" Acnologia's eyes snapped towards Erza, catching the sword she had swinging towards his neck, "You seem to have changed your mind about killing this vessel. Do you truly not love him as much as you claim?"
"I love Jellal with all my heart!" Erza shouted, "But I will not see you bloody his hands with an innocent!"
"My dear sweet, stupid girl. He's bloodied his own hands. For you." Acnologia let out a roar of laughter and in a pulse of magic had her falling away and skidding right off the edge of the tower.
"Erza!" Lucy cried out, but it was no use. The red head was gone.
"And now for you..." Lucy's eyes widened in terror as Acnologia pulled her closer, his mouth opening in a way that had her struggling futilely against his grip.
"No..." She pleaded, unable to so much as budge his fingers, "Stop..."
Behind Acnologia Natsu was struggling to get to his feet, his eyes wild with fear, but there was no way he could make it across the room in time.
Lucy paid no attention to that however. Her entire vision was filled with the approaching mouth and the desperate terror she felt at the knowledge he would tear her soul apart and she could do nothing to prevent it. She was tapped out magically. Erza was gone. And Natsu would never get to her in time to stop it.
"Please stop!" She sobbed, tears streaming down her cheeks as her hysteria rose, "Stop! Stop it!"
She cringed as his lips brushed her neck, but no sooner had they done so than a bright golden light slammed forcefully into her and Acnologia. She felt a comforting warmth envelop her and a strong arm wrapped around her waist, pulling her out of Acnologia's grip.
She blinked in surprise as the light cleared and she found herself curled against Leo's chest.
The spirit was glaring ferociously at Jellal, who was picking himself up from the blast of celestial energy.
"Acnologia." Leo hissed hatefully, "You dare touch another of my chosen?"
Lucy's eyes widened at that before she belatedly remembered that Leo had contracted to Anna, and others of her line.
"Leo..." She breathed and was favored with a warm glance as he picked her up.
"Not to worry." He purred even as he transferred his glare back to Acnologia, "I've been monitoring things since Aries came back. He won't touch you again."
"Won't I little lion?" Acnologia growled, "You've never been able to protect them in the past."
"That was the past you washed up lizard." Leo growled, "Something you could never move on from." He smirked as he held up the cracking lacrima, "But I won't waste my breath explaining that to you."
"What are you doing?" Acnologia demanded with a tinge of alarm and Leo smiled darkly.
"Finishing what Lucy and the spirits you've trapped began." He replied as his palm glowed and suddenly the cracks pulsed and widened.
Lucy's eyes widened as she could feel the spirits inside straining against the cracks with renewed vigor and she gaped as it abruptly shattered like a hatching egg. She watched in awe as hundreds of spirits spilled out. Was this Acnologia's entire collection?
Surely it had to be.
She smiled as she felt the gratitude of the various spirits as they began to pass on. All but two. Her eyes widened again as they formed the outline of a pair of dragons. One a deep ruby with scars on his body and a dark look in his eyes, and one a snowy white study of elegance.
"Igneel and Grandine." She breathed, and Grandine turned her head to look at her.
The dragoness said nothing, however, as she and Igneel leapt into motion with a speed Lucy couldn't follow and dove straight into Natsu's chest.
Natsu's eyes went staggeringly wide and he dropped to his knees, his hands clutching at his chest as the two spirits took up residence in his body.
Lucy gasped at the sight and Leo swept her into his arms before ducking behind a pillar. Not a second too soon because Natsu let loose a roar as he burst into wave after wave of fire, air gusting from him hard enough to crack the pillars and send Jellal staggering back against one.
"Stay here Lucy, things are about to get a little messy," Leo hissed as he disappeared in a flash of gold, quickly reappearing a moment later with a banged up Erza in his arms.
"Found this one clinging to the side of the table. You two stay down, I get a feeling Igneel and Grandine are about to take their son on a joyride," Leo hissed as Natsu staggered to his feet.
Lucy peered around the pillar, her eyes wide as she took in the sight of Natsu. Scales had appeared along his face and over his arms. His shirt, which had been ripped open long ago showed an glittering row of scarlet scales beginning to spread over the expanse of his chest.
His eyes burned red, his knuckles cracking as a brilliant flame burned in his palm.
"Acnologia, you thought to torture my son?" Igneel's voice came out loud and angry from Natsu's throat. As far as Lucy knew, it wasn't possible for demons to be possessed, but there was something appearing on Natsu's forearm that made her think this had entirely something to do with their familial bond.
She couldn't see it though, the light was too bright from the flames.
"You stole our lives, bound our souls and then took our son! You abused him, made him fear what he was!" His voice pitched with such fury that Lucy almost cringed back from it. That was a voice carrying the souls of two furious dragons whose purpose was only to protect their hatchling.
Even from beyond the grave.
Even Acnologia looked worried as he withstood the heat of Igneel's flames.
"And you've learned nothing from your mistakes, using another for your abuse. Your vessel is barely out of his fledglinghood." Natsu cracked his knuckles as he rushed towards Jellal. This time too fast for even the Wizard saint to see.
"Wake up child!" The demons in Natsu roared, plowing his fist squarely into Jellal's gut and sending him plowing into the destroyed throne, "Your scarlet queen lives! And so do you! So live, and fight for her!"
There was a bright, burst of burning light. Of demonic flames that scorched the earth until nothing could grow. Of a purification through fire that only a demon of the same type could reinact.
The explosion was deafening, the impact of Natsu's punch taking out several floors beneath his feet.
With a scream, Jellal laid in the pit, his hands clawing at his face and hair. His body was battered and exhausted. Too weak for Acnologia to find a use for it.
"Out," Jellal whispered to no one, his celestial magic gathering within himself in a final pulse. It was assisted by the dying flames dancing around him, scorching at his clothes.
"Get out!" Jellal shouted to the demon.
And Acnologia, not wanting to perish within the human body, and too weak to fight for control...
Fled.
