Sometimes, he could close his eyes and see it. He could see her face, crying over and over begging him to join her in escaping that damned mountain. What he would have given to just say yes—what he could give to just at least nod once and leave with every one of them and say goodbye to that damned mountain forever.
But that's not how the memory played. He was like a prisoner in his own mind, aghast and horrified as he watched a twisted child torturing someone who even then made his heart skip a beat. He watched with a million, unheard screams begging the being with his face to stop hurting his friends, stop lying to them, stop manipulating them, stop treating them like dirt, stop secretly forcing them against their will—to just stop and let him be himself. Let him be himself and say what he's always wanted to be: free.
Maybe a god was listening. Or was it a demon? Either way, he got his wish. The resurrection for Zeref, it was tampered with, perhaps it was doomed from the moment it was whispered to his mind, but instead of the dark sorcerer the twisted sycophant envisioned, a dragon took it's place. A dragon that could devour souls. He was attacked, but was saved by one who was supposed to be his enemy?
Yet something was taken from him. He thought he didn't feel different, but then he realized it: he could feel again. The presence was gone, but the years of realization and guilt washed him over like a tsunami.
His free will returned, but the sins remained.
God, he almost killed the love of his life and his closest friends! He made a new prison out of the old one, he never escaped it!
So, Jellal Fernandes plotted. He plotted to redeem himself, to at least make up for some of the wrong he's done.
He just wasn't expecting the process to be just as emotionally taxing as the sins he committed.
"I'll kill you, Traitor!"
He also wasn't expecting it to be this darn painful. At this point he was probably better off not thinking about how things could get any worse.
Though being hit by his own attacks was starting to prove him wrong.
Jellal was blasted through a wall by an attack that he originally used against Midnight. Considering that was like the fifth time something like that happened, Jellal was quick to guess that Midnight's magic was reflective based, but some parts of it didn't quite make a lot of sense, one of that was Midnight's ability to send an invisible force to rip the air, or rather him if he didn't get out of the way.
"I knew I should have said something against you joining us, Jellal! I knew you wouldn't be welcomed here! I just wasn't expecting you to be such a coward and backstabber!" He threw out his hand and Jellal felt the shifting in the air.
With the help of Meteor, he was able to avoid being caught by the invisible force somehow twisting the air around him.
"That power of yours is quite annoying." Midnight spoke as this time, Jellal tried to rush for Midnight. The blue haired mage sped in and punched the opposing Oracion Seis member in the stomach—
(Wait a second. Something's not right—why'd he let me get in close?) Jellal's mind worked over time as he tried to figure out why Midnight would let his guard down and allowed him to strike.
His mind abruptly stopped when his arm twisted like someone playing with toy clay.
Jellal let loose a pained a scream and fell to the ground, grabbing onto his right arm that was twisted in a way that shouldn't have been possible. However, he noticed that Midnight was towards his right and somehow uninjured from that attack. Jellal had the mind to quickly retreat, but then another horrible pain came from his left leg. Soon, Jellal found that he hadn't even moved from his spot.
"I'm going to make you suffer," Midnight began in a low tone. "I'm going to break every limb, drag you to father, and then pay tenfold for whatever you've done to him."
That was something Jellal could not allow. With his left hand, Jellal gathered magic into a small sphere that he flicked in front of Midnight with his thumb. Midnight looked confused at the marble shaped light before it suddenly exploded with light, revealing it was a makeshift flash bang.
Midnight screamed as he held on to his eyes from the temporary pain. When he did come to, Jellal was nowhere to be seen.
"I'll kill you coward! Don't think I didn't sense you! You're nearby, otherwise that speed spell of yours would have alerted me in whatever direction you would have flown to!"
Jellal grunted in pain as he hid behind one of the ruined houses. "Damn, he's smarter than he looks. Not to mention, he can lock me into an illusion while breaking my body. So what the hell am I supposed to do with someone who I can't hit in long range or in short range?"
For some reason, Jellal thought back to his battle with a certain red armored lawyer. "Guess I need to borrow more than one thing from that kid. It's funny how much I'm stealing from someone without an ounce of magical power, but seeing as he's still alive from whatever tries to kill him, there might actually be some merit to his strategy."
Still he had to deal with his 'crippled' arm and leg. He couldn't quite heal, but his magic would allow him to make a… 'cast' of sorts. Its just this part will require magic and cause an extreme amount of pain that will no doubt catch Midnight's attention. So before he could do that, he need away around Midnight's fearsome combo magic.
He could bend space and magic to his will, but it was obvious there were limits to it otherwise he wouldn't be alive right now. Jellal's guess that he could only use it one at a time because the illusions broke soon after those space rending attacks got to him. So there was that at least, he need an opening between his combo of spells to get a get rush attack in.
Wait, Midnight used illusions to be able to tag Jellal at his high speeds. Back when he met Brain as a young child, Jellal was taught there was a very special circumstance for illusion magic to work.
Midnight started to destroy the area, furiously looking for any sign of Jellal. "Where did that coward go?!" And then he heard a screaming coming from one of the first buildings he destroyed, along with a spike in magical energy. "There you are, Jellal!" Without another second, Midnight blasted those rocks with his Invisible Scythe spell.
Out of the ruble, before it was destroyed, was Jellal with his hood up. Midnight wondered how he seemed to be moving fine when he had crushed an arm and a leg, but noticed both crushed limbs were coated with golden energy casts. More than likely, he even stabbed magic into his own bloodstream to properly keep his bones moving properly.
Midnight activated his illusion. This time, he would be sure to crush all his limbs in this next attack—
The member of Oracion Seis stopped thinking for a moment when he was hit by a strong punch into his jaw and sent flying into a wall.
Midnight's mind, as soon as it stopped spinning, was confused. He got back up and glared at Jellal, wondering why he wasn't affected by his illusions!?
"Oh good," Jellal spoke out as he slowly moved his hand out in a wide sweeping motion. "That reflective magic doesn't work on people directly. I can work with that."
It was then as Jellal turned fully over to him, Midnight saw why Jellal wasn't affected by that previous illusion: he had ripped a piece of his clothes and created a blindfold! It was true he could make strong illusions, but they were activated through the eyes so the brain could be fooled in the first place. With Jellal suppressing his sight, it was now impossible for the blue haired mage to perceive illusions!
Midnight made a fast sweeping motion with his hands, attempting to hit Jellal who was standing in front of him. To the usually slothful mage's surprise, Jellal backflipped using Meteor, dodging the space that was twisted and meant for him.
"You're powerful, Midnight." Jellal began before Midnight used his power again, and just like before, Jellal was too fast and avoided the rending of space. "But it's obvious you have no experience fighting equal level opponents." The Wizard Saint's mind trailed back towards a beautiful red haired woman as he said that.
"Shut up and die!" Midnight cried out as he fired again, only for Jellal to activate Meteor, dodge the attack, and, within less than a second, punch Midnight in the stomach that caused a visible shockwave and caused the black and white haired man to gasp so hard drool flew off his mouth and he instantly buckled to his knees.
Jellal wasn't one to waste any more time as he shot out his hand and fired a bolt of his magic at point blank range of Midnight, blasting him through another building.
"I was worried about being blindfolded, but I was right that your magic power was so distinct that a newbie could sense your exact location a mile away."
However, what the Wizard Saint didn't know was that Midnight was still up, clinging on to consciousness like a lifeline.
"Curse… you… Je..." Midnight struggled to grab on to any of the rubble around him as his body convulsed in pain. "If only... it was... midnight then—" The black and white haired man stopped his complaint. His eyes snapped wide open and a smile appeared on his beaten form. He moved his still free hand and began to cast a subtle magic.
Jellal took a step away, getting ready to head towards the tower. However, he felt a powerful spike of energy coming from Midnight when he thought it was starting to vanish. Jellal turned back, still thankful he had enough caution to keep his blindfold up.
"You know, Jellal," Midnight seemed to get back up, his voice much more energetic than awhile ago which only confused Jellal greatly. "I think I get what you mean by fighting equal opponents. Brain once taught me that when people have the same magical abilities, the deciding factor for victory comes to how a person uses their abilities."
"W-What!? How are you back up!?" Jellal screamed as he went back into fighting position.
Midnight chuckled. "I just said Brain taught me that using my magic in different ways can be the deciding factor for the victor. If I couldn't lock you into one of my illusions, who is the only other person I can cast illusions on here in this fight?"
The former council man was confused at that question. They were the only two there… wait! They were the only two there! "No, you used an illusion on yourself!?"
Even though he was blindfolded, Jellal could feel Midnight smile that still sent shivers down his spine. "Correct, Jellal! I used an illusion on myself to get rid of my own pain! I admit, it's kinda faulty, and now and again I can feel the phantom pain coming and going, but now I don't feel as hurt or weak from your powerful attacks a while ago. And here I always thought the Placebo Effect was stupid!"
Jellal sensed the spike of magic power coming from Midnight, indicating he was about to attack. However, As Jellal made a move to avoid the spot he was, he felt Midnight's attack some distance to his right, hitting nowhere near where he was—
The Wizard felt something—somethings hit him his right side. Not only did it hurt, the pain from his casted right arm returned tenfold. Jellal's mind could feel the strength of what struck him, it wasn't magic, it was a bunch of rocks!
"You thought you were so clever, stopping my illusions by just blocking your sight." Midnight's voice began before once more he used his magic. Jellal moved, but once more, he heard the sound and sensed Midnight's attack in a different direction and then half a second after an explosion, Jellal felt himself pelted by fast moving rocks that knocked him down from the sky and made him land like a shot duck. "But you just gave yourself another weakness: the fact you can't even see right in front of you! All I have to do is use my reflector magic to manipulate the rubble all around us and throw them at you at high speeds!"
Jellal grunted before he felt another spike of power. He figured that this time, he could avoid the cluster of rocks coming his way by angling himself away from where the attack was sensed. However, as he tried to move away, he still felt pelted hard by around a dozen rocks. This time, the speed and power they were launched made some rocks pierce through and stick to Jellal's skin.
"Hahaha!" Midnight laughed as Jellal fell back down. "You know how shotguns work, right Jellal? They have cartridges that shoot a pack of pellets that can cover a larger area than just one bullet. That's essentially what I've done with all the broken steel and stone around us! You can try to avoid the attack, but my attack now has an area of effect! It too spread out for you to dodge and even for your speed—you can't get out of it's range quick enough!"
Jellal forced himself back up. While inwardly regretting calling Midnight untrained, the black and white haired mage was more than making up for it with creativity. He tried to blast a magic laser right for Midnight, who only easily deflected it, showing that impenetrable defense was still there.
Midnight retaliated fast, sending his reflector magic some distance away from Jellal again. This time, the Wizard Saint tried to adapt by putting up a magic dome barrier around him. The Barrier worked to stop the rocks coming his way, but an instant later, he felt the familiar pressure of Midnight's Invisible Scythe crushing through his shield and sending him flying again. The barrier weakened the effect of Invisible Scythe, but Jellal still got hurt from the attack.
The Wizard Saint realized at this rate, he wouldn't even win. He could try to escape, but that was problematic with too many factors such as Midnight might still be able to catch him in his attempt to flee. Which meant that there was only one option: to end it now.
With a burst of his magic, he used Meteor to close the distance right in front of Midnight. Jellal could sense the slightest movements coming from Midnight in his Meteor state, but before even he could finish a twitch, Jellal let loose a flurry of punches and kicks with the intent to turn Midnight into that of rag doll. He finished off the heavy assault with left handed punch that created an even bigger shockwave than the first punch on Midnight's stomach and slammed him into the ground.
Jellal gasped for breath as he took a step back. There was no way Midnight could keep up his self casted illusion and the pain form before added into the new pain he just unleashed should be more than enough to knock him out unconscious.
However, his hopes for victory were dashed when he heard a cough coming from where he unleashed his last attack.
"I," Midnight coughed, while still on the ground. "I won!"
Those words caught Jellal off guard. They didn't sound like something out of delusion, even though he put up some good hits into Midnight's head.
Midnight, while still on the ground, turned to Jellal with a victorious smirk despite how bloody he looked. "I knew you'd resort to close combat to win. Before you attacked me, I placed another illusion on my self to lessen the amount of damage I received! I need to withstand your assualt, so I could do this!"
There was a small blip of magic that Jellal wasn't expecting near his head. It felt more like a tickle than an attack, a mere moment later, the Wizard Saint saw—he could see again! Midnight had used a subtle form of his Invisible Sight to cut the cloth around Jellal's eyes!
"Now!" Midnight screamed faster than Jellal could react, his voice filled with power despite laying there on the floor. "I cast illusion on both of us! I cast an illusion where we both believe it to be midnight!"
The sky rapidly changed into that where the moon was full and over their heads. Jellal looked around in fear, realizing that he was trapped in an illusion. He made a move to finish off Midnight then and there, but he was suddenly stopped and uppercutted into the air.
As Jellal got back up, he saw Midnight, looking as fresh and untouched as they had first met. Jellal's mind went a mile a minute, Midnight had just shouted he was dragging them both into an illusion, but why did that hurt like the real thing!?
"Thanks to you, Jellal, I've grown stronger than I ever thought before." Midnight spoke as he seemed to look at his hands as if they were not his own. "There's no point in hiding it since I just shouted it, but this is an illusion," He looked back down on Jellal and smiled in such a way that seemed impossible even for an illusion. "My illusion. At midnight, my illusion powers become so strong that it's like imposing another reality on my victims. In other words..."
Midnight vanished in a puff of smoke. Jellal slowly got to his knee before he felt Nirvana starting to shake—no, he felt like the entire world was shaking! Large pillars seemed to entrap the edges of Nirvana—wait no! Those weren't pillars, those were fingers!
A booming laughter came from above and Jellal was beyond horrified to see Midnight, now able to make the giants of Sun Village look like ants, his face like the size of a mountain and carrying Nirvana in his hands, his own two hands!
"I AM A GOD!" Midnight's voice moved like a sonic boom, even blowing away the rubble around Jellal in this fake world.
Soon the earth around him swallowed and trapped Jellal and shot him up to the sky. Jellal tried and tried but he couldn't access his magic in Midnight's illusion world.
Laughter came from the massive Midnight, and even that threatened to burst Jellal's eardrums.
It didn't take long for Jellal to realize that he was among the stars with the very planet of Earthland down below him while he was still trapped among rocks. Midnight appeared in front of him, no longer a giant, but wearing extravagant clothing that was similarly styled to that of Brain.
"As you can see, the whole point of that fight was so I could remove your blind fold. As long as you had that, I couldn't use my most potent magic against you. After all, illusion magic is still technically an eye magic where you need direct contact with your opponent's eyes to make it work." After making superfluous hand gestures, Midnight put a hand on his chin and looked down with contemplation. "Hmm, I wonder if people with artificial eyes would be affected by this? Bah that doesn't matter."
Midnight summoned a staff similar to that of Kloda and used it to whack Jellal across the face. He did this several times, each time more painful as the last. When he stopped, Midnight grabbed Jellal's bloody and beaten face by the chin.
"I have to admit, you've done well to make me use this. I can't bring you back to father any more, so for pushing me this far, I'll kill you in a way that's fitting," Midnight's face became distorted, like that of an inhuman beast as his smile seemed to go beyond that of human muscle and his eyes became like that of empty voids. Even the stars above and the earth below was swallowed whole by an unending darkness. "I'll kill you with your own worst nightmares!"
Jellal suddenly felt his weight shift and he started to fall at an alarming rate. As he screamed in his fall, Midnight could only laugh, his laughter was the only thing in the universe Jellal could perceive…
Until he reached hell.
The Tower of Hell.
He could feel the jagged stones of the path pierce his rotting and scarred flesh under the sole of his foot. He smelled that detestable iron that was like an extra limb force on to him for years until he was at last able to remove them. And that mocking, hurtful laugh of those cruel guards, it hurt just a little less than their taser staves they used on him like he was cattle.
Jellal (No Last Name) was back in the Tower of Hell as a small, scared, and powerless child.
But something was worse this time. There were no other prisoners, it was just him, carrying stone after stone up and down the spiral staircase, his feet bleeding more blood than he ever should have had, his fatigue growing and growing but his body refusing to stop or even listen to his demands, being shocked by tasers over and over with almost no chance of reprieve, and worst of all, the laughter of the guards started to change into something much, much worse.
"We believed in you, and you lied to us!" The guard whose head looked like Milliana screamed with hate.
"You made us stay and work years in that hell hole! You took away the lives we finally took back from our enslavers!" The Guard with Sho's face screamed and pointed at the small Jellal before stabbing him with a staff, sending an undesirable pain through Jellal's (No Last Name) body.
A guard with Wally's face slammed his staff into Jellal (No Last Name)'s face, but instead of being knocked down, his body still trailed up and up. "Worse! You became our new enslaver! You enslaved us, and yourself!"
"But the most unforgivable of all," This guard with Simon's head and voice stared down Jellal (No Last Name) with a gaze so piercing, it almost seemed more painful than everything he had felt since. "You betrayed her."
He was wrong, the Not Simon's words hurt more than anything before.
Jellal (No Last Name) walked up the stairs for seconds—minutes—hours—days—weeks—months—years with every aching moment of bleeding feet and staff tasers until he reached the end of the stairs. He remembered this place, it was the place where they whipped him, the place where he had met—
"Hahaha! You stupid, little boy!" Ultear, who was leaning on the crystals in the center of the whipping room and wearing her Magic Council clothes, smiled without a shred of kindness after laughing. "You know that you didn't meet Zeref in this room. With your knowledge of magic now, you know this was another illusion! A brainwashing one to be precise, but by the time you figured it out it was far too late!"
The Tower Of Hell shook with great intensity as the room was soon encased by the very crystals in the center of the room. Ultear and the 'guards' were all swallowed by the crystals and soon the entire room shattered, revealing a familiar white and red dragon.
"And what did you do when you were finally 'free'?" Logos the Soul Dragon began with a taunt as Jellal (No Last Name) could do nothing but watch in horror and pain. "You ran like the coward you were, like the weakling you were! They called you Siegrain, the Wizard Saint Prodigy! Ha! If any of them knew who you truly were they would have struck you down where you stood and it would have been as much effort as lifting a finger!"
Jellal (No Last Name) tried to scream, tried to say it was nothing like that, or to shut up. But by now his own mouth disappeared, and he could only hear the slander—(TRUTH!)— echo around him.
They all came back, shouting out slander—(TRUTH!)— from all sides, the cultists, Ultear, Logos, Brain, Team Valiant, The Magic Council, his old friends, Trinity Raven, and everyone he had ever met—(HURT/FAILED/BETRAYED/LIED/TORTURED!)— shouting and shouting the same hurtful things over and over.
Jellal (No Last Name) fell to his knees and clutched his head, tears falling from his shut eyes, begging it all to stop.
It did.
The young (Monster/Psycho/Fool/FAILURE!) raised his head and saw only her.
She was as beautiful as he remembered, even becoming more so as she grew up. But she only stared at him in disgust.
"I loved you." Her voice was so heavenly, but it made him almost want to go through his torture from before to avoid this new pain. "I loved you, and you used me."
Jellal (No Last Name) tried to say something, tried to explain himself.
But he had no mouth. It still wasn't there. Tears continued to flow down as he tried desperately to make his mouth appear once more, even using his own nails to dig into his skin to force it open. But even that was futile and useless.
"Years, I lived with false freedom, years I lived with fear and worry from my other real friends, and when I finally thought I got to you, I was betrayed and used yet again."
The Boy With No Name kept crying. All he knew was this horrible pain and he didn't know how to stop it.
"You want to make things right?" The most beautiful woman of his world asked.
The Boy With No Name could only nod once before something was thrown a little ways in front of him: a dagger.
A spark of fear came across him as he knew what it meant, what she was asking him to—
"You call this unfair!? After what you've put us all through!?" She exclaimed as the others returned full force, screaming in droves of millions, all cursing his name, cursing his actions, cursing his very existence.
The insults hurt, they hurt more than the word was possibly capable off, but then they stopped abruptly because of her. "I knew it. You didn't have the guts to do the right thing after all. No matter what you do, good or bad, you will always fail. That is your life forevermore: FAILURE."
The insults stopped, but then… laughter took it's place. All of them laughing at him, his weakness, his cowardice, his dreams, and his failure.
The laughter was maddening and soon… even she started to laugh at him.
Laughter.
(It hurts.)
Laughter.
(It hurts!)
Laughter.
(MAKE IT STOP!)
Laughter would never stop.
That was it. He couldn't take it anymore. He saw everyone's faces (Midnight's faces) were all laughing at him and they would laugh and mock him for eternity.
His salvation was the unassuming dagger place right in front of him. The Boy With No Name couldn't have grabbed the dagger faster than he could.
He placed it to his neck. He took one look at her (With Midnight's Face) and pushed the blade—
"Sorry I'm late. Darn bones aren't what they used to be."
Something grabbed on to the knife to stop it from ending it all. The small child looked up, seeing someone he never thought he would see again.
"R-Rob?" The child spoke, his mouth returned as he looked towards the kind old man from this great hell hole.
"WHO ARE YOU!?" Everyone with Midnight's head roared and pointed to the skinny man wearing chains similar to that of the child.
"Weren't you listening? I'm Rob." His voice was raspy and weak, but it could still deliver a jovial smugness as if he was in his prime. The old man gave a hand to the blue haired child after throwing away the knife he took. "Come on, Jellal Fernandes, even you have spent too much time here."
"I DON'T KNOW HOW YOU DID THIS JELLAL, BUT I WON'T LET YOU—" Jellal Fernandes (My… name...) grabbed onto Rob's hand and a light exploded from their contact.
Jellal opened his eyes after the light, to find himself under a beautiful Sakura Petal Tree surrounded by serene water and beautiful archways.
"You really out did yourself with this one, Jellal" The blue haired prisoner snapped his head back to the old man staring up to the tree. "It's more beautiful than any grave I've ever seen before."
A million questions followed by a million emotions skyrocketed on the injured prison child. But out of all of those complex storm of impossibilities, the simplest ones came up first. "How… How are you here, Rob?"
The old man smiled at the little one. "On the day I gave my life to save Erza, it wasn't just her I gave my life force for. When I sacrificed my self for my final spell, I was thinking of all you children, even you Jellal. It seems a piece of my magic was able to flow into you, far away as you were. I wanted to protect you too, but it seems like it choose now to act, sorry about not coming sooner."
Jellal saw Rob smile, even back then in that place that stole dreams and crushed hopes like insects, the old man's smile calmed down Jellal. However, with that smile came regret, with that regret came realization, and with that realization shame over came Jellal at all he had done and failed.
Jellal Fernandes, Wizard Saint, former Councilman of the magic council, and feared mage by many... cried like the little boy he was never allowed to be.
"Rob!" He gasped between horrible sobs. "It's all my fault! It's all my fault!"
"You poor boy, come here." Rob went down on one knee and hugged Jellal close, allowing him to cry for the first time in a life time. "It's not your fault, Jellal, you're just a victim of horrible circumstance. If there is anyone to blame, it's me. I tried to hunt down these cultists a long time ago in a very bad emotional and mental state without any of my friends. They got the jump on me and siphoned most of my magic to power up their magical objects. With each new prisoner they brought in, including you and the others, I was only reminded of my failure and arrogance."
Rob hugged the crying child harder. "I ask you to forgive me, Jellal, for letting a brave child like you go through all of that alone."
Jellal's crying lessened to sniffles and small sobs. He let go of that hug with Rob who, with the grace of a butterfly, wiped off Jellal's tears and smiled at him.
"B-But I'm not brave! I also did so many things wrong!" Jellal screamed, though it was obvious he was more upset with himself than with Rob. "I was weak, and many more suffered because of me! Even when I'm trying to do the right things, it's even harder than before and I'm even failing! I don't... I don't deserve..."
"And I didn't deserve this," Rob motioned to the beautiful grave around them. He looked to Jellal, his eyes may have been squinted by the boy could swear there was a wink in there. "Don't you think? This grave is a little too good for the likes of a failure like me, right?"
Jellal shook his head. "You didn't fail us, you always took care of us when we were hurt, snuck extra rations for all of us!"
"And who protected Fairy Tail from the councilmen every time they threatened to disband them? Who vouched for them every time without question no matter how many were against him?"
Jellal seemed surprised. "I-I wasn't helping them! I was keeping up appearances so it would be easier to keep tabs on Erza!"
"Oh? You were a Magic Council member by then though, with your resources, keeping track of one girl wouldn't have been hard at all, right? And if you helped disband Fairy Tail earlier, Erza would never had friends to save her from your plot in the Tower of Hell. That seems counter intuitive for your plans from the first time."
Jellal could only stare with a confused look on his face.
"For someone possessed, you still honored the dead, helped people, even sent Ultear as back up for a poor soul who believed himself an equal to one of Zeref's demons."
"Rob! No! Stop—stop saying that! I was doing all of that for evil reasons!"
Rob only gave a soft laugh and rubbed the boy's head affectionately. "Pay attention, Jellal. I'm saying, for all your evil deeds, there was traces of good in all of them no matter how subtle. You say you had no control? Boy, you've been fighting against the magic that controlled you your entire life. If it had complete control over you, your dark ambitions would have been long realized."
Jellal tried to deny it, he had to deny it. He was a horrible and weak person wasn't he? But he thought back, when he had found out about Deliora and those mages trying to unleash it, why had he sent Ultear to help them? Why did he even need Deliora in the first place if he wanted to resurrect Zeref? It seemed completely unnecessary. Come to think of it, he knew where Erza was all her life outside the tower, why did he even need to protect Fairy Tail all the time he was in the council? He could have let it be disbanded, and make Erza think it was her fault, further breaking her spirit and weakening her by the time he brought her back to the Tower of Hell.
The boy realized how easy it was for him to actually win while he was evil. Why didn't he? Was... was he still fighting, all that time he thought he lost?
"You're not weak, Jellal. Do you know what the name, 'Fernandes' means?"
The name given to him by Rob. A name like how he gave Erza her last name.
"Fernandes means, 'Brave Traveler'," Rob couldn't help but smile wider after revealing what that name meant. "You have earned that name a million times over, Jellal Fernandes. And I am so very, very proud of you."
Jellal started to cry again. Not of anguish, sorrow, or frustration, but for the first time, he cried in relief at hearing the words he never knew he needed to hear so desperately.
Rob stood up and showed an open palm to the boy. When Jellal took Rob's hand a second time, he was no longer the prisoner child inside the Tower of Hell. Now he was a grown, handsome young man with courage etched into his very soul.
"Rob, thank you." Jellal smiled as if all the weight of the world was lifted from him.
However, that happy moment wasn't meant to last as the room started to shake violently.
"What's going on!?" Jellal looked around as he saw pieces of the outer wall starting to collapse.
"JELLAL!"
"That young man has some potent magic." Rob glanced up before looking back to Jellal. "You'll need to get out of here."
"How though!? His Illusion magic traps me into a reality of his own design! He is a god here!"
More ruble started to fall and even the Sakura Tree started to crack, yet Rob remained calm. "That's not true Jellal, and you know it. Illusions are a two way street, the victim has to believe these illusions are real and even a powerful illusion like this can only manipulate your mind. In order to win, you need to do what you've been doing since the beginning: fight for your freedom."
Rob's image started to fizzle and a huge chunk of the roof fell.
However, Jellal breathed in deeply. He clenched his fist and looked determined. "I will. Again, I owe you more than I can ever repay, Rob."
Rob smiled at the boy. "If you really wanna repay me, apologize to Erza." The old man could feel Jellal tense. "You know, right or wrong, hard or impossible, it's something you must express to undo your mistakes."
"I... I don't think I'll ever be brave enough for that."
"You will." Rob said only two words but the way he said it made it sound like the would come true.
A large chunk of the roof cracked and fell on the tree, crushing it completely. With the tree gone, Rob started to fade into a gust of petals. As he left, there was something on the floor where Rob once stood. It looked like a shovel that Jellal stole to try and first save Erza until he stole a staff taser.
Jellal picked up the shovel and looked up to see the last of the roof crumble, revealing Midnight in his god-like fury as a giant.
"THAT'S IT! NO MORE GAMES!" Midnight threw his moon sized fist back that soon exploded with insane magical power coating around it. "DIE, JELLAL FERNANDES!"
Jellal stood his ground, wielding his shovel like a weapon. With a powerful scream, he charged head first towards the fist with powerful energy and smashed the shovel in to it.
The result was something no one expected: Jellal was now in a clash of magic against the giant, powerful fist with just a shovel!
"WHAT!? IMPOSSIBLE! HOW ARE YOU DOING THIS!?" Midnight cried out in shock. He sent out another fist with similar powers and strength.
Again, Jellal was somehow able to hold his ground with a shovel against both fists. He gritted his teeth and shouted a war cry, taking a step forward and now pushing Midnight back.
Midnight was beyond baffled, his magic was indeed that of something beyond understanding, but Jellal himself was doing something impossible as he continued to push forward at what should have been the power of a universe.
"HOW!? HOW ARE YOU DOING THIS!? I AM A GOD!"
The blue haired Wizard Saint gasped before pushing through with everything he had!
"What is a god... TO A NON BELIEVER!?"
Jellal swung his shovel with a force that could never be measured. Midnight's hands were repelled back and soon started to shatter like glass, following up to a screaming Midnight who kept shouting how this shouldn't have been possible.
With Midnight defeated, the illusion shattered like him, revealing Jellal, still standing over a very beaten up Midnight.
"No!" Midnight coughed, pain overcoming him at that moment with his magic depleted. "H-How did you..."
With no strength left, Midnight fell unconscious. The strongest of Oracion Seis was defeated at last by no one from the Alliance no less.
Jellal, gasping for breath and seeing Midnight finally pass out, looked up to the sky and promised, "When this is done, I'm getting you a proper grave, Rob. One way or another."
His battle with Midnight was far too exhausting, but Jellal needed to keep moving. While it was more than likely not a single second passed when locked in Midnight's nightmare, he still needed to stop Brain.
However, as he made a step back towards the tower, he felt another spike of magic that came right behind him and Midnight.
Jellal really, really, really, really, really wanted a break right about now.
{Author Notes}
Okay, I'm surprised about this chapter. I intended to send four battles across Nirvana, but as I started to write Jellal and Midnight's fight, it just was more than what I expected it to be.
And I just couldn't resist putting up that quote at the end of the Jellal Vs Midnight fight. How could I not with how I set up that fight!?
There is just so much I wanna say about this chapter, but I don't want to ramble. I feel like with the talk with Rob and Jellal just explained to myself how some plot holes could be covered. I wanna say Midnight's magic seemed like a good tool to promote emotional growth in whoever he fights.
I wanna describe how Jellal's nightmare was written not from my mind, but from my heart, and that some of those things I tried to write out wasn't fiction.
... With how I accidentally wrote this, I think it deserves to be it's own chapter, separated from everyone else.
Over all though, I had SOOOOOOO much fun writing this fight. I hope you all enjoyed it too.
Thanks for reading.