Harry had apparated to different towns to start his search, letting his point me spell direct him in each case to see if he'd moved closer to or further from Jellal. It took some time to narrow down a general direction he needed to head. It took even longer to search once he was limited to line-of-sight apparation.
He'd pick the general direction his point-me spell landed in, focus on the furthest point he could see with clarity, and then apparate there and repeat the cycle. He had to admit it got a bit easier once he was out of the forests that dotted much of Fiore. Then he'd moved out of even the plains of endless grass and into a weird rocky area of the uninhabited pieces of the country. Canyons and mesas dotted the area with equal abundance. The lack of any real features to the landscape certainly helped with picking out distant points to apparate to, but it also meant Harry was completely turned around.
Harry could tell he was getting significantly closer thanks to the drastically reduced spinning time of his point-me spells, but he'd completely lost sense of which way was North about seventy apparitions ago. His first real clue that he was close was a scream of pain in the distance. The area was deserted, completely devoid of any human life that he'd been able to pick out in the last two hours of searching. What were the chances that this wasn't the person he'd been searching for, or at least related to him in some way?
Harry brought himself closer to where he was certain the voice he echoed from. Sure enough, there was a group of people crowded around in the canyon below where he stood. The pop of his apparation was apparently lost to the sound of the wind or perhaps the conversation that was happening in shouts. Harry drew out his card to let Cana know he'd found Jellal. He pushed the slightest bit of magic into the thing the way Cana had explained to him. There was a barely audible ringing noise that stopped rather abruptly.
"Hello?" he said after a moment with no sound.
"One second." Cana's voice came out, just a bit muffled as if she were talking to someone else. Harry held the card closer to his ear like he recalled muggles doing with telephones. He regretted it a moment later when Cana's voice rang out more clearly and with enough volume to make him nearly drop the card. "Harry?"
"Oh good, it works." Harry couldn't keep the relief out of his voice despite the grimace he sported as he rubbed his ear. "It's so weird talking to a playing card. Anyway, pretty sure I've got a visual on Jellal. Just wanted to give you guys a heads up. Might be some… issues. He seems to be arguing with some people."
A beat of silence followed this and Harry tried not to let the fear that something else might've gone wrong seep into his mind. He couldn't help Jellal and every other council member simultaneously. He was one person. The voices below took a spike in intensity as if in response to his thought about Jellal.
"I'll try to keep you appraised of the situation." He offered, forcing a little bit of casual amusement into his tone to hide the worry. "I don't think I need back up though. They don't feel like anything spe… okay gotta go."
Harry quickly cut his magic from the card and shoved it back into his pocket. The heated argument had gone from words to blows beneath him and that wasn't great. He hadn't agreed to deliver Jellal to Fairy Tail in pristine condition or anything, but he knew that Erza cared about the man down there and he'd be damned if he watched someone get their ass kicked by no less than five people anyway.
Harry popped into place between a foot and Jellal's head. He caught the appendage and delivered a kick in return. It landed solidly on the man's abdomen when he froze in shock at Harry's arrival. The man hit one of the rocky walls of the canyon a second later. Other than the settling rock and the man pushing himself up with a groan everything and everyone in the canyon froze in place at his abrupt arrival.
Harry blinked, eyes scanning the people present. He was pleasantly surprised to see he had indeed found Jellal and he was mostly uninjured. He seemed just the slightest bit scuffed up from the few blows that had fallen on him while Harry had been talking to Cana. Just behind Jellal was the pink haired girl who had accompanied him during their brief encounter at the jail break. The rest of the people he couldn't say he quite recognized although they were certainly vaguely familiar somehow. It was the feel of them. Their presence prickled at the back of his mind like a word he couldn't quite remember.
"Good afternoon." He offered with a mild smile in Jellal's direction. He was pretty sure it was about midday. He gave the other group a less warm welcome, smile fading. "You wouldn't happen to be with Tartaros would you?"
That had everyone sputtering. He supposed that was sort of an answer on its own, but it certainly didn't explain why they'd been laying in to Jellal. So, he wasn't sure he was satisfied.
"Of course, we're not Tartaros!" A man with purplish maroonish… a man with a weird hair color yelled at Harry looking livid. "Who the hell are you?"
Harry squinted for a moment. "Do I know you?" He meant it to. The man looked familiar, like weirdly familiar. The man beside him was strikingly familiar too with his two-toned mullet. The last man in back and the woman weren't striking any chords. The man pulling himself from the canyon wall was unfamiliar as well. The two closest to him were ringing all kinds of bells and whistles though and he couldn't quite place why.
The question seemed to throw the man and he gave Harry a look like he was crazy.
"Why are you here?" Jellal asked, tone caught somewhere between surprise and wariness that felt more than a little unearned if Harry dared think so. All he'd ever done was… oh right. Their only interaction had been him mind wiping a young woman in seconds. Okay, wariness earned. It still stung a little bit though.
"Fairy Tail asked me to find you." He shrugged. "Tartaros is after former members of the council. They've already killed several."
To say Jellal looked surprised would be an understatement. The man paled slightly under Harry's curious gaze.
"What the hell is going on, Jellal?" the man with the reddish-purple hair barked again looking ready to restart their fight.
For some reason that was the thing that made the memory click into place. "Oh!" he clapped and looked back at the man. "You were in Crocus when the dragons attacked. You got hit by its tail when I got a hit in and you were super mad about it."
Irritation flashed across the man's face followed shortly by a confused sort of recognition.
"That doesn't explain how I know you though…" Harry said, looking at the second man slightly behind the angry one. He definitely hadn't been in Crocus that day, or at least he hadn't been in that courtyard. It had been just the angry guy and Blue Pegasus members before Harry and Erza arrived.
"Weren't you older?"
"I…" Harry's mouth snapped closed and he looked at the group in front of him more intently. They weren't familiar to look at but the magic seeping idly from them was familiar, especially the man with the two-toned hair he'd just locked eyes with. He was trying to cast some sort of illusion spell, likely to either attack Jellal or Harry. Possibly just to escape. "I wouldn't." All warmth seeped out of Harry's tone. Jellal startled beside him and the people facing them shifted from mildly cautious to full on wary. He wasn't sure what they saw in his expression, but it was enough for them to take the threat in his tone seriously.
"Your magic is familiar." Harry continued, thinking through the feeling that had been nagging at the back of his mind since his arrival. "You're the group who attempted to use the Infinity Clock."
"Indeed." The two-toned hair man offered almost smugly.
"The Oraceon Seis." Harry said the name like a curse. It had echoed in his ether from Lucy's memories and it still drug up memories of her fear. That fear cut into Harry like a thousand sharp knives. Lucy had been terrified. It sparked embers of anger in him now. These people had caused so much harm.
"Harry." Jellal's voice was a tether to the world around him, but it was far from capable of reigning in his temper right that moment. The air crackled with energy.
Harry felt twitchy like a colony of ants marched under his skin demanding release and it was only through sheer force of will that Harry kept that magic, that so wanted a release, from crossing the short distance between the man, Midnight his mind supplied, and himself and ripping into him.
"Maybe it's better if you take a step back." Jellal offered, calmly.
Harry shot Jellal an irritated glance. He'd come to retrieve Jellal because Fairy Tail believed he was in danger and he was important to Harry's friends. That didn't mean Jellal had any sort of stake in how Harry reacted to the people in front of him. He just withheld a stinging hex from flying Jellal's way.
"I didn't come here to fight." Jellal said, turning his attention back to the group in front of them. "And I didn't come here to turn you back in. There isn't even a council left to impose your sentence on you. I came here to ask you to join my guild, Crime Sorciere."
It seemed everyone in the clearing was equally shocked by that announcement. Well, maybe not the pink haired girl. Harry had forgotten her name, but she seemed far too focused on Harry to care much about Jellal's announcement. She regarded him like one might a ticking time bomb.
Harry swallowed back the rage threatening to tip him over the edge and offered the girl a steadying look. He turned his attention back to the group that had sought to use him and his home as a weapon. The group that had forced Lucy, a scared girl, to merge with the ether of the clock without any reason to believe she would ever be capable of leaving it. Looking on their faces made him feel cold. His magic itched for release.
"Join forces with Crime Sorciere. Together we will strike down our mutual enemy." Jellal continued his pitch. "Together we will bring down Zeref."
Harry's eyes darted to Jellal in shock. Zeref? Jellal was gunning for Zeref?
"You're serious?" The woman at the back of the group asked this time, sounding incredulous.
Jellal nodded. "Our past may be less than ideal, but our future is what we make of it." he offered a glance back at the pink haired girl behind him. "The freedom you've attained at the moment is hollow. So long as you allow the darkness to guide you, your destination will ultimately be the same."
"Jail?" the man in front scoffed.
"Death." Jellal correctly seriously. "You've fought Fairy Tail twice now and you haven't even encountered their strongest players."
Jellal's eyes shifted sideways to glance at Harry who gave him an unimpressed look. He glanced out at the group, most of whom were staring back at Harry like they were seeing him in a new light. Harry wasn't thrilled to be used like a pawn in Jellal's scheme. It chaffed. If he didn't have a promise to bring Jellal back he likely would've made his exit right then.
"Do you really think continuing to throw yourselves recklessly after goals that pit you against people like that will gain you anything?" Jellal continued. "Instead, choose to direct your anger at the ultimate evil of this world."
"You really think we wouldn't die trying to fight someone like Zeref?" Midnight mocked. "What does some child from Fairy Tail possess that would make him more frightening than Zeref himself?"
Harry watched everyone's eyes turn his way as if waiting for some horrific display to awe them. He crossed his arms over his chest and gave Jellal a disapproving look. "Two seconds ago you were telling me to calm down." He pointed out, words sounding more bitter and petulant than he'd meant them to. "I'm not going to do something stupid to prove your point for you."
To Harry's surprise that gained a laugh from the man. He gave Harry a lingering look that looked more relaxed than Harry had ever seen him in his presence. "I don't think they've put the clues together." Jellal gestured in Harry's direction. "Do you mind if I…?"
Harry shrugged. He supposed that meant Erza had told Jellal Harry's background at some point. He couldn't recall if Jellal had known when they met on the night of the jail break. Maybe that was when she'd told him. The timing would make sense. As well as his increased wariness this time around.
"What clues?" the woman from the Oraceon Seis asked, obvious confusion in her voice.
"Your attempt to awaken the Infinity Clock wasn't as much of a failure as you were led to believe." Jellal said, a hint of amusement in his voice. "According to Erza it took a mortal form once it broke apart the giant clock you interacted with."
"He, thank you." Harry said, mildly annoyed Jellal kept referring to him as an 'it'.
Jellal shot him an apologetic look. "He took a mortal form." The man amended.
Midnight scoffed. "You expect us to believe that-"
"Okay, look… I don't really have a stake in all… this." Harry waved his hand in a vague gesture between Jellal and the Oraceon Seis. Now that he thought about it, wasn't seis Spanish for six? There were only… oh… was that a dead guy on the ground in back? Did Jellal do that? "I came here to pick up this guy and take him back to Fairy Tail so he doesn't end up dead in a gutter somewhere."
Jellal looked offended at the implication he might end up dead in a gutter. Harry didn't really care at the moment. He hoped Jellal was as offended as he had felt through most of this interaction. This whole conversation was ridiculous.
"So basically, what I'm saying is that if you guys want to have a conversation about the repercussions of morality or whatever could you maybe hold off until after the group of literal demons has lifted the kill order?"
Erza and Mira had gotten lucky at first. They'd made it to the address Loke had helpfully given them and the former chairman they'd come for was still very much alive. They'd rejoiced. At least one council member was safe for now. They'd have to reach out to Cana and see if there was good news from the other groups.
They'd decided to explain the situation over tea before calling. The council member had insisted that they sit with him since they'd shown up on his doorstep completely unannounced. They'd barely gotten through their explanation to the man before they'd been attacked by Tartaros foot soldiers. They'd been easy work for Erza and Mira. Erza was certain she could've taken them on by herself.
Just when it was occurring to Erza that maybe it was weird that Tartaros would send someone so low level for a high ranking member of the council Mira had collapsed behind her. Then her own consciousness was fading into the inky black of sleep.
Hours had passed since the last relay of information. Lucy's group didn't reach back out. Erza and Mira never made contact at all. Harry didn't call again and he didn't pop into the guild with that weird magic of his, Jellal in tow. Juvia and Gray had made it back to the guild, but Lisanna and Elfman were still missing. Every minute that passed felt like an eternity of uncertainty.
Michello had given as many names as he could. Unfortunately, his list crossed over with a list of those who'd been confirmed dead with eerie regularity. Levi and some others had worked tirelessly and come up with several more names that no one had checked on yet and even produced addresses after deep digging. They'd sent out distress calls and many guilds had heeded them. Bodyguards were being deployed all over Fiore. Top guilds were sending their strongest mages to find and protect the remaining council members, but Cana couldn't help wondering if it was all too little, too late.
She was kicking herself for not having Harry carry a tracker card. She could've dispatched people to his location even without him calling in. It was an oversight. Her mind was playing over worst case scenarios. Why wouldn't he have called back? Who were the people arguing with Jellal? Was it Tartaros? Wouldn't Harry have just grabbed Jellal and zapped them back to the guild hall if the threat had been that large?
The longer that went by since Harry's update about finding Jellal the more she feared something horrible had happened. He'd implied there were multiple people arguing with Jellal. Lucy's team had struggled with a single assailant. Harry was strong, but was he strong enough to take on multiple Tartaros members with only Jellal as backup? And that was assuming he'd found Jellal in a state capable of fighting.
"We made it!"
Cana's head snapped up. That was Lucy. Relief flooded through her on a palpable level. She was out of her seat and rushing toward the group that had just stumbled in. Natsu looked rough and Wendy looked a little scuffed up, but everyone seemed mostly uninjured and they'd made it back with Michello in tow.
"Oh, thank god." Cana nearly collapsed as the stress holding her upright ebbed out. That was one team out of the frying pan.
"Sup, Cana. You look like you've seen a ghost."
"You idiots were supposed to call when you met back up!" Cana yelled the answer at Natsu who took a step back and raised his hands in a placating gesture.
"We might've… dropped the bag that the lacrima and calling card were in." Lucy offered, bowing deeply and looking intensely apologetic. "Sorry."
"It's fine." Makarov had strolled up behind Cana and was appraising the group. "We're happy you're all safe."
"More importantly, what's that thing hovering near Magnolia?" Wendy butted in.
"What?"
"There's a really big cube looking thing about a mile out of town." Lucy nodded. "We figured you guys already knew about it."
Makarov pushed through the door to the guild and Cana followed. In the distance there was indeed a huge, floating cube in the sky. It seemed to be heading vaguely in their direction.
"Tartaros?" Cana asked Makarov, mouth going dry.
"I think it would be safest to assume so." The old man confirmed, deadly serious. He marched back inside. "Get everyone ready to move out. Tartaros seems to be bringing the fight to us."
The guild broke into rushed movements as people began to throw things into bags and fetch weapons.
"Elfman!"
Cana turned at the cry and sure enough there was Elfman coming through the doors with the strangest expression Cana had ever seen on his face. He looked lost, almost confused. His normal bluster of confidence was gone and he leaned forward in a way that made him almost seem to shrink in on himself. He wasn't meeting anyone's eyes. Cana felt the relief at knowing he was safe immediately be overwhelmed with suspicion at his odd behavior.
"Where's Lisanna?" Natsu asked. He hadn't moved far from the door and was giving Elfman equally suspicious looks.
"Lisanna is…" Elfman choked out and Cana felt her stomach drop. "Lisanna was captured."
Gasps rang around as people faltered in their steps to prepare for departure.
"Captured?" Natsu barked, moving forward to grab Elfman's collar. "And what did you do about it?"
"Nothing, I… I lost them."
"Lost them? Even with your beast takeover forms?" Cana asked. Natsu pulled Elfman's collar tighter and Elfman spluttered.
"That's enough man!" Gray slapped Natsu's hand away from Elfman. "You don't have to go that far."
Elfman staggered past Natsu as the fire and ice mages started to bicker.
"Elfman…"
"Sorry, I just need to rest a bit." Came the defeated reply as Elfman staggered toward the stairs to the basement. An odd place to choose to rest at the best of times. If anything she would've suspected he'd go to the newly built infirmary with Laxus and the others. There were still a couple of spare beds in the back. Porlyusica had apparently been correct in assuming they'd need a lot of them. Suspicion raised even further by Elfman's odd choice, Cana slipped after him.
"Elfman, you're acting…" she trailed off as she made it to the bottom of the stairs and spotted the large man kneeling on the floor with a lacrima in front of him. "What the fu-"
"You can't interfere!" Elfman cried, lunging at her. She was just barely able to get her feet up to keep his momentum from driving all the air from her lungs as they crashed down backwards. She grappled with him a moment as he continued to babble about her interrupting. She didn't need a magic ability to tell her that Elfman wasn't in control right now. The loud mouthed, but incredibly gentle man was nowhere to be found in that vacant stare.
Cana moved a hand, wincing as Elfman's hand moved to wrap around her neck in response to the adjustment. She could barely breathe as those massive fists pressed down, but she forced herself to focus through the increasing dizziness. She withdrew a blank card.
"So..rry… in… ad…vance…" she managed to get out before forcing out the spell she'd used twice in trials. Elfman was quickly sucked into the alternate dimension of her cards. With the sudden pressure removed from her wind pipe Cana was able to force in ragged breaths and she looked at the lacrima Elfman had been fiddling with. Her eyes flew wide. "A bomb…" she got out in a slightly raspy voice.
She didn't take time to stop. Even as she tried to drag in stabilizing breaths she was pushing herself back up the steps to the main guild hall. People were still bustling about. "Into the cards!" she yelled, throwing he deck up and scattering the cards. She cast the spell again willing the cards to carry their magic to every corner of the guild. No man left behind. "All cards back to my hand! Salvage!"
The cards returned in a flurry of movement to Cana's outreached hands this time containing her trapped guildmates who were complaining in a loud cacophony of voices. "Carla, Happy, Lily!" She threw them all pieces of the deck, intending to put herself into one of the cards as soon as she explained the situation. "The guild's about to blow. Get us out of here. If that's Tartaros up there then that's where we need to be!"
The cats nodded, taking their burden as the building began to rumble. Cana used her magic to slip into the deck in Happy's hands. For a few minutes all she knew was the darkness of the cards as she found herself in the same dimension she'd trapped her guildmates in and she prayed she'd been swift enough.
Lisanna was alone. She was scared. But perhaps worst of all she was naked. At some point between when she'd seen her brother and now she'd been knocked out, stripped, and thrown into a cell with her arms locked behind her back with some weird sort of metal that seemed to be negating any magic she attempted.
The last thing she remembered was talking with Cana on the lacrima device. Then her memory was a complete blank. She curled in on herself and tried to think of something to do. She didn't know how long she'd been locked in here, or why she had been at all. Wouldn't it have made more sense for them to have just killed her?
She sat there listening to the soft hum of something that lurked beneath the stone she sat on for awhile. She tried to puzzle her way out of her current situation, but no matter what she tried to think of she was stumped by the manacle on her wrists or the lack of a second person in the cell to plot with. When she was on the verge of giving up and just sitting back to wait for something to change on its own that's exactly what happened. The whole room vibrated harder and harder. Then it began to shake violently and Lisanna was doing her level best not to hit her head with every bump. Lisanna found herself pressed painfully against the bars that ran the length of her cell as another bump shook her that way, but it was fortuitous that it happened. Sitting near the bars edge was an oddly colored sword. Without another thought Lisanna latched one knee around the bars and stretched her leg out as far as she could get it. She could just barely tap the pommel.
Another bump sent sword skittering her way. She would have ended up plastered to the back wall if she hadn't been hooked onto the bars. Lisanna kicked the sword under the gap where the door was and latched onto it with her hands immediately. She twisted it awkwardly in her grip to put a sharp edge against whatever was binding the two manacles together. It cut through like a hot knife through butter, and she nearly took her own hand off in shock. She brought the weapon in front of her now that she had the ability to do it.
The sword had sheered through a dark black metal that looked identical to the one touching her wrists. It couldn't be a normal blade. She tested it against the bars holding her in the cell and sure enough it cut through as easily as breathing. She looked skeptically at the cuffs on her wrists that were still holding her magic at bay. She grit her teeth and lowered the sword to her arm and pressed.
The sword slid through the cuff, and then it slid through her skin before she could stop it. She barely managed to pull back before she'd taken the whole wrist. The cuff fell to the floor with a clang and Lisanna dropped after it, clutching her arm and suppressing the scream of pain that threatened to overwhelm her.
If she cried out and someone came down here they would see she was close to escape and badly injured. She didn't like her chances of finding a way out a second time. So, she cradled her arm and rocked back and forth sobbing quietly until the pain dulled enough that she could think clearly again. She looked down at her arms. One was covered in blood that she needed to staunch the flow of soon or she'd be at risk of fainting from blood loss. The other still sported the ominous black shackle. The sword obviously could remove it, but she was more likely to maim herself again than get it off cleanly. Her injured arm was shaking so badly that she wasn't sure she could even hold the sword aloft in it, let alone control its cut. Her magic was lost to her for now then. She'd have to rely on the sword as her only defense. It was still a better position than she'd been in ten minutes ago.
Lisanna forced herself to shaky feet and sliced the lock to her door in half. The shaking in the building had stopped. The eerie quiet had returned. She did her level best to block the blood flow of her injured arm by jamming it under the other and pushing down. Blood dribbled down her exposed skin. She found a room off to the side after a few long minutes of walking. She peaked in and found the room empty so she pushed the door open and explored. The found a spare pair of pants which she quickly pulled on. They were too large, but anything was preferable to the complete exposure of nudity.
Laying nearby was a striped scarf colored in reds and golds. She ripped two long strips off for a makeshift bandage. Once she'd secured it as tightly as possible, with her teeth and spare hand, she tied the rest of the scarf around her chest in a makeshift shirt. It was tight and ill fitting, but it would work. There didn't seem to be any other clothes laying around anyway.
She took a moment to tie the pants up in a way that would trip her if she ended up needing to run. Then, feeling moderately better, she set off down the hall again with her new sword now clutched in two hands instead of just the one.
She was still shaky, but she couldn't tell if it was the result of blood loss or just nerves. She prayed it was nerves.
A scream ripped through the hallway and Lisanna flinched badly enough to drop the sword for a second and jostle her injury. She hissed, but the sound would have went unnoticed even if there were someone around to hear it because the first scream had stretched out in agony. It twisted and went higher then cut off only to start anew seconds later as if the person screaming had only paused to gather steam for the next wail. Lisanna's hands shook with fear. That was Erza.
Not only had they caught one of Fairy Tail's strongest members they were doing something resulted in that kind of scream coming from someone as steadfast as Erza Scarlett. Lisanna could feel her heartbeat racing. She swallowed dryly. She had to help, but if she just walked in she'd likely be joining Erza. She wasn't very experienced with weapons, she was injured, and her magic was still locked away.
Clamoring footsteps and voices echoing behind her forced her hand. Lisanna jumped through a nearby doorway and ducked around the corner. The people rushing by were obviously looking for her. They were yelling about an escaped prisoner and something about a blood trail. Lisanna was sure she'd left a hefty one behind before she'd gotten to bandage her wound. A door slammed open down the hall and there were raised voices, one sounding distinctly feminine. Lisanna chanced a glance out. Foot soldiers were talking with a woman whose legs ended in wicked looking talons like a bird's. She yelled something, looking irate, but she followed the soldiers as they headed off down another corridor.
This was Lisanna's chance. The woman looked formidable and she'd come from a room in the approximate location the screams had been echoing from. There was a lack of said screams at the moment as well. The chances of Erza being behind that door were high. Lisanna rushed forward. She only paused at the final corner to make sure the soldiers and woman weren't still close enough to see her if she rushed across blindly. The hallway was empty.
Lisanna pushed open the door. She almost cried in relief when she found Erza inside. She shut the door behind her and looked for any way to keep it from opening. She found a bolt at the top that she quickly shoved into place. It might only buy them seconds, but sometimes seconds mattered.
Erza hung limply in front of her. She was completely nude like Lisanna had found herself when she woke up. She looked surprisingly unharmed considering the noises she been making. Her legs trembled from the awkward position they'd been forced to stand in. Lisanna rushed forward and struck down at the cuffs keeping Erza's legs in place. At the mild clang of metal Erza stirred a bit. When Lisanna took a swing at the chain holding Erza's arms aloft the red head crashed into her body limply. Lisanna couldn't help the little cry of pain that came as her wrist slammed into the stone.
Either the noise or the sudden change in position seemed to rouse Erza. She blinked open hazy eyes and just stared for a minute, unmoving. "Lisanna?" Erza's voice was rough, likely from the screaming.
Lisanna shifted Erza who winced with the touch, but didn't protest. She grabbed Erza's ankles. They were just normal steel shackles. The ones on her wrists were the same as Lisanna's had been though. "We have to get out of here." Lisanna explained as she set the sword against Erza's wrist cuff gently. She pushed down and watched the sword glide through the material until it gave and fell off either side of Erza's wrist. She started to repeat the process on the other side.
"What about Mira?"
Lisanna froze. That fear that had finally started working its way out of her chest was back full force. "Mira's here?"
Erza nodded, looking apologetic, like it was her fault that Lisanna's sister had been captured while she was being tortured.
"They wanted to know where Jellal was at first." Erza said gently, eyes turned to the side. "But… she stopped asking about Jellal."
Lisanna could hear the despair in Erza's tone. Was Jellal dead? Hadn't Harry gone after him? Was Harry dead? No, Harry couldn't be dead, that didn't make sense. Lisanna knew Harry wasn't dead. Lisanna pushed back the panic for later. It wouldn't help them now and the odds were already stacked against them. She pushed through the last inch of the shackle on Erza's wrist and watched it clatter to the floor.
"We'll have to find Mira and then get out of here." Lisanna said, hoping her tone conveyed that she cared about Erza's discomfort, but that they still had to move.
Erza nodded, pushing herself up. She eyed Lisanna once they were both back on their feet. Lisanna was distinctly aware that she was wearing clothes that weren't hers and covered in blood. She must look quite the sight.
"Where do you think they might be keeping Mira?" Lisanna asked as she unbolted the door and pulled it open. "I haven't seen mu-"
Lisanna's words died in her throat. The severe looking woman who'd gone with the soldiers earlier was back and she was leering down at Lisanna like she was less than human. There was a piercing pain in Lisanna's chest as she was struck before her mind could even catch up with her situation.
"I thought I smelled a rat wandering around where it wasn't wanted."
Harry hadn't realized when he'd signed up to find Jellal that he'd unintentionally signed up to be a mediator to some spat between the blue haired man and the Oraceon Seis. It took them hours to come to an understanding. It likely would've escalated to a fight. In fact, it nearly did about three times, but Harry's presence and the clear 'fuck off' vibes he kept sending out any time one of the Seis looked ready to throw a punch seemed to make everyone just a tad more level headed. Harry honestly wasn't sure which he wanted more: for the whole thing to be done with, or for the Oraceon Seis members to throw a punch so he'd finally have something to do.
With their argument settled, and the group agreeing to come along on Harry's escort mission, they settled into the idea of tagging along to Magnolia. The Oraceon Seis would travel back with the pink haired girl, who'd refreshed his memory by introducing herself as Meredy to the other group. Jellal would be taking the express route via Harry's apparation. He'd only agreed once Harry gave Meredy his 'call Cana' card and told her how to use it. Just on the off chance that someone in the group decided to take advantage of the opportunity once Jellal and Harry were removed from the situation.
With that settled Harry had grabbed Jellal's arm and turned, pulling the man along with him to Magnolia. They landed on uneven terrain and for a second Harry thought he'd messed up somehow. He swung around to make sure he hadn't somehow splinched Jellal. The man was staring at a post just to his left that had clearly held a sign at one point. An 'F' still clung to the arched banner. Harry's mind went blank and his knees went weak.
He was distantly aware of Jellal saying something to him, but the words sounded like the soft buzz of a fan. The whole world was white noise.
This was Fairy Tail. He'd landed just outside the guild gates as he'd intended. His guild was just gone. A hand touched his shoulder and he looked up numbly at Jellal who looked serious, but not nearly serious enough. He was kneeling, when had he knelt?
"They're okay."
Hope flared, but he snuffed it out quickly. False hope hurt more than the loss did. Hadn't he learned that lesson enough times in his life? Rage flared in Harry's chest instead. It burned slow and cold.
"Will you bring me back to Meredy?" Jellal asked, hesitantly. Whatever ease he'd found in Harry's presence earlier seemed to be erased now. "We'll figure out how to proceed once we're back with the group."
Harry forced himself to legs that were firmer than he'd thought they'd be. He grabbed Jellal's arm roughly and turned. They landed just feet from the area they'd disappeared from.
"Jellal?"
A confused Meredy regarded them from a few feet away where she'd unfurled a map and was looking over it with the guy Jellal had called Erik. Meredy glanced between them and the confusion dropped from her expression. She looked scared, and if Harry had a guess it wasn't Jellal she was scared of. That might have stung at any other time. Right now Harry was having a hard time finding it in him to care.
He glanced at Jellal.
"We'll find them and provide support. Fairy Tail is incapable of going down that fast. I'm sure you know that."
Anyone could die. Everyone died but Harry. That was the problem. Harry regarded Jellal distantly for a moment. He considered what it would be like to stay with this group and search for his guild mates, deliver blows on the people who'd dared to harm them. His stomach clenched uncomfortably.
Erza cared about this man for some reason they'd never had the chance to talk about. Harry was vaguely indifferent. He'd gone to look for Jellal at the request of a friend, a friend that likely no longer existed. Did his loyalty extend that far? No, it didn't.
He met Jellal's eyes. "Don't die." He said simply, and apparated back to Magnolia.
The rubble from the guild spread in front of him like mine field. Small mutters were picking up on the wind. Harry could see the townspeople littered around the clearing, further back either to be respectful or because they were afraid that whatever had happened to the guild might happen again. Harry just stared for a long moment, unsure what to do.
"You're a Fairy Tail mage, aren't you?"
Harry glanced to the side. An older woman had approached. She looked vaguely familiar. He couldn't place why. He gave a vacant nod.
"I… no one saw anyone come out." She said, voice trembling with emotion. "I'm… I'm so sorry."
Harry felt his resolve wobble. He thought he'd crushed that last shred of hope. Apparently, he'd been wrong. He felt numb. He barely caught the edge of the gate to keep himself on his feet.
He let that news sink in. "What…" he trailed off.
His eyes had lifted just barely and he spotted a familiar form standing amongst the ruin in her pink dress. Her hair was still, even in the light breeze. Mavis.
He didn't offer the woman beside him another thought. He climbed onto of the building's rubble with enough haste that he stumbled several times. Mavis didn't move. Her eyes were fixed on him like she was waiting. When he made it to her spot she nodded down at a wall that had collapsed. He vanished it with barely a thought. The crumbling remains of the spiral staircase stood before him. He glanced back at Mavis, but she was gone.
He moved down the staircase without a semblance of caution. He could barely feel his limbs right then. He stumbled a bit when he reached the bottom. Mavis was waiting for him near the lacrima that held her body. Her expression was serious, a stark contradiction to the usual light-hearted smiles.
"It's good to see you again." Mavis said before he could gather his wits enough to talk. "When the wards fell Makarov assumed the you had fallen as well."
Harry felt a twinge in his chest. "Makarov…" he swallowed back the emotion. At least Mavis was alive. "What… what happened? What wards?"
Mavis frowned. "Tartaros was aiming to unlock an anti-magic pulse bomb called 'Face'. The keys to unlock the wards around it laid inside certain council members. Is Jellal..?"
"Alive." Harry confirmed blandly. "I left him with his new group." Although he noted that Cana's card was no longer capable of much if the girl was…
"Good." The first smile of the encounter flitted across Mavis' face.
"The rest of the guild…" he couldn't say it. His throat tightened. His eyes dropped.
"Alive."
If he'd had a pulse, he was sure it would've skipped a beat right then. "Alive…?" his own voice sounded weak and disbelieving to his own ears.
"Lisanna seems to have been taken captive. Elfman was coerced into detonating a bomb in the basement. Cana was able to get everyone out in her card dimension."
Harry felt a surge of relief wash through him so strong he barely kept the emotion in check.
"The situation isn't good." Mavis continued, but Harry couldn't stop the giddy relief from filling him. Maybe it wasn't good, but moments ago he thought he'd lost everything he'd begun to hold precious to him in this life. It didn't quite feel real, but he didn't think Mavis would lie about something so serious. Maybe the situation wasn't good, but nothing was bleaker than the utter destruction of their guild mates. "The guild is on Tartaros' base. I've been trying to project there, but it's difficult. I've only garnered small bits of information since they left Magnolia."
"Can you give me a location?" he asked, emotions settling enough that he could think.
"I can." She nodded. "It hasn't drifted far from here actually. But Wendy has been sent out to stop Face with just Carla as support. She'll probably need your help the most."
Harry nodded. "Tell me where to go."
Hello!
Just a heads up I may be taking a bit longer to update either this week or next week. I have to go get iv infusions at the hospital and it takes a massive amount of time.
~Kanathia
