Wishfull-star: Especially Marco. He'll feel so guilty.
Ace's face was red and splotchy, cheeks covered and tears and snot dripping down his face. He didn't scream, knowing Marco was probably in there somewhere, beyond Ace's visions. He had visions that he knew could possibly be memories, or expected memories. Illusions of his life before Magnolia, before Fiore and Earthland.
Visions of watching a faceless little boy perish. It was Luffy, his little brother. But Ace didn't know his face, so all he saw was a faceless figure, falling down, then rotting into the earth like a sick, sick nightmare. Then there were the visions of being strapped down and injected with all sorts of things before being force fed an orange, disgusting fruit.
He saw himself burning alive by his own fire. Saw himself suck out all of Sabo's magic energy on accident and ruining his life as a wizard. He saw Laxus killing him, saw himself, burnt to a crisp and gruesome, walking towards him. He was scary. It was him, that was him, but he was destroyed.
It was terrifying, the worst. Seeing himself as being scary. Then that figure lit on fire and walked close to him, burning his face away. Ace finally screamed as he imagined pain. As he felt pain from the intense hallucinations. He couldn't see Marco anymore, but he had to be near. He was so nice, he'd feel horrible about this.
Ace wouldn't hold a grudge, it wasn't like Marco was doing this by his own will. So he'd wait it out, even if it was becoming increasingly worse. But finally, the illusions shattered like glass, and reality was back. He was still tied to the tree and awake. Marco was knocked out on the ground. Ace was shaking, and freed himself of the binding.
Walking towards Marco, he ripped the man's shirt off, and blindfolded him. It might keep him unable to use his magic on Ace. He couldn't bring himself to steal away Marco's magic energy in case he needed it later. He was shaking, still seeing horrible things in his mind's eye. Tears still came down his face. He would not forget some of those hallucinations, and would have nightmares. It was inevitable. Ace had no idea what knocked Marco out, but was glad for it. Hopefully that never happened again.
Ace met up with Gray and Lyon, along with the woman, Sherry. Both Gray and Lyon were shirtless. "Whoa, what happened?" Gray asked. Maybe Ace looked abnormal. Or he was bleeding form biting his inner cheek too hard.
"Nothing. Marco just started acting weird," Ace said simply. "We got separated at some point, and then the bright light came out and he started acting weird." Gray said it was from the Nirvana. It probably turned Marco evil. "I'm surprised you weren't effected, with how sensitive you are to ethernano particles lately."
The freckled teen agreed. Apparently those who had negative thoughts were more likely to fall to the darkness. Marco had been upset with his guild mates. That much was clear. That must have been why he turned dark for that time. "Are you really okay, Ace?" Gray asked, seriously sounding worried.
"I'm okay, now," Ace replied. Gray glanced to Marco again, and his blindfold, but didn't ask. He let it go, which Ace was glad of. They were standing in the clearing right before Nirvana's white light, which changed while Ace was hallucinating, exploded, and they all heard the earth shifting below.
On either side of them, huge cylinders, tubes, came out of the ground, and in the middle looked to be a castle. "That's Nirvana?" Shelly asked. "I didn't expect it to be like this!" Lyon and Gray grit their teeth.
Ace felt Marco jerk on his back, and fall off, ripping his blindfold off. "You okay?" Ace asked, reaching his hand down to help him up. But Marco looked lost in horror about what he'd done. Maybe he was remembering what Ace looked like while hallucinating. His magic could be truly terrifying. Truly.
"It's okay. It wasn't your fault." But tears of shame and regret dripped down Marco's cheeks. "No crying right now, we have to stop that thing." Lyon and Shelly said they'd work on weakening the bases of the thing, while Gray and Ace, joined soon by Lucy and Natsu, climbed the legs. They vibrated, which made it hard to hold on.
Marco was below, and Ace felt he couldn't be around the one he visually tortured. Ace forgave him, and would talk to him about it later. He had no idea how much time had passed in the nightmare, though. How much time was wasted. But Natsu soon got sick from the movement of the leg beneath them. They were already having trouble climbing without it moving, damn it!
"Natsu!" Ace shouted, trying to catch him before he fell. But he fell over the side, and it was a long fall. "NATSU!" But Happy rescued him, and Ace let out a sigh in relief. He looked back up to the vibrating and walking stone leg they were on, and the dragon slayer flew ahead on the flying cat.
"Can you take the magic away from this thing?!" Gray called over all the noise. Lucy answered for him, saying they couldn't take the risk of the ethernanos messing with him and turning him to dark. He could burn them all or the forest. It was the correct reasoning of what Ace wasn't doing such a thing, it was too risky.
When they did make it up, Ace said he wanted to find Wendy. "I promised I'd watch over her and then bombed spectacularly." Lucy said they should stick together to find her and stop Nirvana. She honestly said that she was very low on magic energy. She wanted Ace to protect her. Ace was torn.
Gray told the both of them to go look for Wendy while he continued on further. They both nodded, neither needing to tell him to be careful because there was no point. When they got out of range, they did heard the sounds of fighting, but trusted in Gray's skill to take care of himself just fine.
"What happened to you?" Lucy asked quietly. Ace looked confused. "You had dark circles under your eyes." Ace touched them, but of course couldn't tell any difference. Ace simply said he had a nightmare. "Awake?" He nodded and said nothing else of it, with Lucy not pushing, getting the message that he didn't want to talk about it.
They ran into Wendy surprisingly quickly, and she looked relieved to see them. "Wendy, are you alright?" Ace asked. She had some bumps and bruises, but was otherwise in good condition. She said she was fine, but that this place was probably heading to her guild. They had to tell the others. So they headed back. Carla asked Ace if he was injured. Did he really look that bothered?
He said he was fine and not to ask about it again. She didn't speak a second time. When they reached Gray and Jura, Natsu was there again, too. He was sick until Wendy healed him of poison he must have sustained from Cobra, a fight against him and also heal his motion sickness. "Natsu, eat up," Ace said, and tossed him some fire. Up here, he wouldn't burn down a forest.
Natsu gladly ate the fire, getting some energy back. Happy was spent, though. Ace looked down at the mastermind, who was unconscious and had become this way thanks to Gray. But Nirvana was still moving on its own. There was no cockpit or anyone really controlling it that they could see. There was no way to know who or how this thing was being controlled.
"Breaking the legs would stop it from moving, but that might not turn it off," Ace said. "It could just get stronger and stronger and pollute the forest and land beyond." Jura said that wad a big problem, but stopping it from moving was the number one mission right now. They'd focus on that part later.
"Though, before destroying it, I'd like to ask Brain," Jura suggested, looking down at the man. "Hopefully he'd know how to shut it off." Wendy muttered something about a Jellal, but Ace didn't know who that was, and she dropped it fairy quickly. Then she ran off, and Ace made to follow her. She asked him why he was going, too, though she didn't seem upset.
Ace said, "I promised I'd protect you and I failed."
"But… I'm going to see Jellal!" she protested. Ace said he didn't know who that was. Was it her friend? "Once… he might know how to stop this!" Ace grinned, and said that was their mission, then. She gave a small smile, but Carla said it would be faster for her to fly Wendy there. Ace told her he could keep up from below. Ace zipped below them as they flew all around the old and decrepit city of Nirvana until Carla got tired of flying.
Then the three ran at a normal speed. "So you were raised by a dragon, too?" Ace asked. Carla said now wasn't the time for small talk, but Wendy disobeyed her for the first time he'd seen so far. She affirmed this, but Grandeeney went missing. Just like Natsu's dragon! He wondered if they were in common. Same with Gajeel. He wondered why they all left their children, since Natsu had considered Igneel his dad.
They arrived where Ace could hear arguing and the sounds of fighting, but Wendy had better senses than him, being a dragon slayer, she noticed first. But they kept going towards the sound. Luckily, it was safe by the time they turned the corner and saw Midnight unconscious and beaten. "Jellal!" Wendy called. Erza was there, too. She had clearly just been in a fight.
"Wendy, so you're safe. Good. Ace, are you-? No, it's good to see you, too." Ace was glad she didn't fully ask if he was okay. Ace wondered who Jellal was, and asked. He also didn't know who Ace was. "He was the main villain on a job you weren't on, so you don't know him. There's a complicated past, too complicated to explain now." Jellal had blue hair and an intricate red tattoo above and below his right eye.
"Is he still an enemy?" Ace asked suspiciously. Erza looked down and said he wasn't sure, as Jellal lost many of his memories. Ace could sympathize, even if the man was evil before he lost his memories.
Poor Wendy had a one sided connection right now, as Jellal didn't remember her, either, when she was trying so hard to find him, too. How disappointing. Carla interrupted all this by demanding to know if Jellal forgot how to stop the Nirvana, which he said he was unable to do. His attempt before already failed.
But this news was devastating to Carla and Wendy, as their guild was so near and was going to be attacked by the massive, moving weapon. But then they noticed a loud noise, and looked to the side to see right at the side of Nirvana was glowing a bright purple. Similar to the Jupiter that destroyed the guild not too long ago.
It was going to obliterate the small village right in front of them. Ace gently put his hand over Wendy's eyes so she didn't need to see it. But then the blast that was made missed, just barley grazing one of the buildings. He gasped, shocked about how lucky it was to miss before the ground tilted to the left a bit. There was the sound of another explosion as the moving weapon lost its balance. Looking up, he saw the source. The broken Christina was back up and running some how, and had fired its weapon on one of the legs, making the aim off just slightly at just the right moment.
Hibiki spoke inside their heads with his magic, and told them about what had just happened. And that was the only attack they were able to make, as the sky vessel started to fail again, and started to fall down to the ground. Before they hit, Hibiki unfortunately told them they could no longer attack.
"But I found out something right on time with my magic! Listen, I know how to stop Nirvana!" the voice in their heads exclaimed. He began to explain. "There are six legs on Nirvana, correct? Those legs are actually pipes that suck magical power from the earth! There are lacrima crystals located by the base of each leg that supply the extracted power!" The only way to stop those crystals was to get rid of them all at once. Being off by even a second would give it time to reform any damaged crystals.
"But how do we do it all at once?!" Erza asked.
"I'll try to coordinate the timing for you, but I don't think I can last that long!" Instead, he uploaded the current timing into all of their minds. They would be able to do it, he was sure. Ace hoped they didn't disappoint all his efforts. Annoying though they could be, the pretty boys could have just saved the day.
Then another voice entered their heads. The voice of Brain, which Ace hadn't heard yet. He exclaimed that he was near the lacrimas and nobody could get there to him. Claiming that he defeated Ace and Erza's other group members just angered Ace but also made him feel disbelief.
Brain's new name was Zero for some reason, now, though. But as the man bragged, suddenly he started to scream, silencing all the others in confusion. Then another voice came up. "I've got him restrained for now. Hurry up and come get the lacrimas, I can't hold out forever!" Marco's voice sounded.
By the screaming, Ace knew Marco was showing him hallucinations, but Ace wondered what they were. Encouragement was said through the telepathy to wake up Natsu, Gray and Lucy to help them defeat the Nirvana and have enough people to fight. Ace extracted himself from fighting at the bases of the legs. They had enough other people.
"Then what will you do? Is it because of the fire?"
"Yes, we're close to that guild, we can't risk a fire breaking out." Ace was the only one being careful, Natsu was lucky his fire hadn't caused any damage or started any wildfires. "I'll keep company with Marco, maybe try and remove Brain - Zero's magic. Good luck, everyone!" and he sprinted away. The others followed, and they all were planning on getting to the crystals in time, at the exact time.
Ace knew that he would be able to stop the power in one of the legs if they didn't all need to be taken out at the same time by absorbing the magic power in the ground around the base of one of the legs, making it unable to absorb anything from the earth. But he couldn't do that with all legs simultaneously.
When he got to the wall, he exploded it open with fire, since he wasn't near the ground right now. He kicked the wall out and found Marco there, standing to the side as Zero writhed, his hands over his ears. They stood there for a bit before Ace decided to just do it, even if Natsu got really angry later.
He shot blinding hot fire at the enemy until his body was burnt to a crisp. The room stunk of burnt flesh. That's no doubt what Thatch smelled up close when he carried Ace's charred body into Magnolia. Marco released his power, and Ace suggested they go help Wendy. "What about being close to the space?"
"I think I can control it. Its inside, isn't it?"
Marco nodded, and the two left the body, not knowing he was slowly healing, since Ace didn't burn him straight to ash. Somebody else would find him. Ace and Marco hurried away to the number they knew Wendy was taking. Sprinting since they only had so much time. Ace told Marco to get on his back, even if the older young man was over literally seven inches taller. He was super tall.
Ace zoomed on his fire feet to where Wendy was, leaving scorch marks on the ground. "Wendy!" Ace called startling her.
"Ace-san! Marco-san!" she exclaimed in surprise. "What are you doing here?" Ace asid they took care of Zero and would now help her out. She did say her magic wasn't good at destruction.
"But I have one question. Can you let out fire with your magic? Or would it fan the flames?" Ace asked seriously. "In case I set something on fire. I don't believe I will, but I'll still be cautious." Wendy promised she'd be able to snuff out any small flame. Carla commented that Ace was the most sane member of Fairy Tail she'd seen so far. "Hah, or also the most uninteresting, huh? I was just joking."
Ace put fire in his hands in front of Wendy's face, and at that exact moment, she shot out a sky dragon roar, like Natsu's when he breathed fire, and the flames were propelled along with the force of the wind and decimated the lacrima, sending shards everywhere. Marco protected Wendy while the debris went right through Ace. Carla was just fine, too.
"We did it, Ace-san, Marco-san!" Wendy cheered. "We saved Cait Shelter!" The Nirvana fell, and the drop caused them all to leave the ground as it plummeted around them. Each of them hit the stone floor hard again but for Ace, the wind knocked out of them. But it was stopping moving, completely still.
They were all tired. But the fight was over. All of the Oracion Seis were taken out and Nirvana was stopped. But the stone above them started to crumble and fall. Ace blasted a hole in it, and grabbed Marco and propelled himself up and out of the hole while Carla flew Wendy out to safety, too.
Ace remained standing, even if he was tired and wanted to lay down badly. He ended up just sitting against a rock while the others laid on their backs. Luckily, this was not a comfortable place to sit, so he was still wide awake despite his exhaustion. Looking at the sky, he saw no smoke. No fires were started.
Soon, everyone was gathered, including one former enemy who seemed to be remaining on the light side. He was friends with Jura. He pulled Natsu and Jellal out of the ground, having fallen from above and the shifting dirt cover them. "Natsu, what happened to you?" Ace asked, seeing his burns and ruined clothes. When he said he fought Zero, Ace grew angry. "I burnt his body to a crisp! What the hell?!" he raged.
"Ah, he didn't look injured, though." Ace crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes. Everyone was exhausted. It was a hard battle, even before the Nirvana started wreaking havoc. Ace could feel all the ethernano seeping back into the earth. He could be power upped by it, but not healed. There was no point in using it right then.
Ichiya said their mission was to a close, now. They weren't sure what to do with Jellal, though. He was a criminal, wasn't he? Had done some terrible things that Ace didn't know about. It seemed Lucy and Gray had never met him before, even though they were on that adventure when Ace wasn't. He didn't feel much out of the loop, which was a relief.
Marco took Ace's hand, and said, "I-I'm so sorry. For what I did."
Jellal said anything evil he did wasn't his fault, it was the Nirvana that manipulated his heart. Ace gave him a hug. "Don't worry about it." He asked if he'd tied Ace to a tree to do it. He didn't remember doing such a thing. "I tied myself up. I knew I couldn't get away, but I didn't want to fall. I figured I'd just wait it out. That worked, though."
"You willingly put up with it?" Marco asked. Ace simply told him he'd had no choice. Marco still looked guilty.
"You seem to willingly harm yourself a lot. Why is that?" Jura asked in interest. Ace smiled.
"I guess all of Erza's friendship lessons got to me. Both times I just wanted to help my friends." Nastu and Gray started to laugh about that. Erza did indeed speak of friendship quite a lot. Though even she was amused by Ace's words. Ace smiled, and he saw Marco let out a smile. One Ace hadn't seen during this trip.
Ace had to piss, just like Ichiya, but when they both tried to go to the bushes, they ran into invisible walls. Runes were on the ground. It was like those at Magnolia with the battle of Fairy Tail. But there was no Sabo to get them out. He looked up, and saw a crowd of uniformed people. Gray exclaimed that it was the magic counsel. What were they doing there? Fairy Tail had done nothing wrong. Though if they did, they would indeed share the blame with the three other guilds.
But they were relieved when they were told that they were not in trouble. They were there to arrest the Oracion Seis members. All of them had been defeated and would be collected to be put in jail, they'd never hurt anyone again. Hoteye, the man who fought with Jura and then alongside him, was to be arrested as well. Even if his view on life had changed greatly, all he wanted was to find his brother, but knew he must be punished for his past deeds. What an honorable guy he turned into.
Erza knew his brother, though. What a coincidence that was. But Hoteye would be going to prison, knowing his brother was alive and well. Ace smiled at it, happy for him, though did feel sorry he was going to jail right after he had a change of heart. Though he did do bad things.
But then Jellal was targeted. Ace didn't know what exactly he did in his past, but it had to be bad if the magic counsel had permission to kill him if he resisted. He was called evil, but just didn't seem that way. From what Ace had seen, he mostly seemed like a sad man. A man with many regrets. Just… sad. Ace felt sorry for him, having no negative attachments to him personally as the other four had.
Though it did seem Erza forgave him or was at least trying to move on from whatever happened. Jellal let himself be handcuffed and taken away. But Natsu went ballistic about it and attacked he counsel. Ace was shocked. They had been enemies, and now he was going up against the prospect of prison to save him.
Maybe Ace wasn't a complete Fairy Tail member yet. Didn't have their full mindset because he didn't easily forgive old enemies. Though in this case, Ace had seen nothing evil of Jellal. But still, this was a surprise. But soon, Gray was in the fight, too. Ace wouldn't fight, though. He would stay on the sidelines. No attachments and not enough motivation about it to risk going to prison.
Everyone else joined in but for Marco and Ace. Maybe they were heartless. Even the other guild members fought about it, and it was quickly enfolding into a disaster. As they screamed for Jellal to come back, for his sake and Erza's, Lahar, the leader of this group of army soldiers from the counsel, ordered for them to arrest everyone trying to obstruct justice.
Then Erza stepped in. "Enough! Stop right there! My apologies for the disturbance. I take full responsibility for everything." Ace wondered what that meant. Was she going to prison and the rest were let off? "You have Jellal. Take him away," she said, though there was a tremor in her voice. She didn't want this either, but was the most sensible between all of them.
Jellal left, but his last words were to Erza. "I remembered. It was the color of your hair. Farewell, Erza." The group of protestors, even Ace and Marco who had not moved, were all silent as the cart was loaded with the few prisoners. They were all looking down, hating this. Hating that their ally had been arrested and they were powerless to do a thing other than make a big, useless fuss that would do more harm than good.
Erza walked away and into the forest to be alone. Jellal meant a lot to her, and Ace felt for her.