Chapter 8
Jellal woke up confused and with no idea where he was. He searched the room only to find it pretty bare. He seemed to be in a hut of some sort and he was lying on a bed but there was nothing inside the room. Almost like no one lived here or never decorated it. There was a set of clothes on the dresser next to him so he put them on and tried to remember what he was doing here.
It took him a few minutes to really wake up but once he did he remembered everything that Lucy had told him. He walked out of the room that they had him in and saw both Lucy sparring with what he guessed were her spirits. One was wearing a suit but he looked like a goat and then he noticed someone who looked like his twin brother sparring with a pink haired guy and there was a little girl with long blue hair who seemed to be meditating.
His eyes narrowed as he looked at the girl. Her magic reserves would grow as she grew but her magic power was extremely powerful for one so young. She would likely be a prodigy child or a user of lost magic. The guy who looked like his twin was technically an alternate version of himself. Jellal remembered Lucy telling him about Edolas but saying that they didn't talk about that world anymore. They didn't want someone to try and reach that dimension.
He knew that his counterpart would be saying that they were twin brothers and he couldn't really find it in himself to care. He never had a family. It would be nice to have a brother. Then again, this was the first time in years that he was in full control of his thoughts and actions. He owed the other man for kidnapping and getting him the help he needed. He didn't mind that they would be considered twins.
The pink haired guy was Natsu, a dragon slayer and Lucy's husband. He could feel his magic power and it was immense. That guy would probably give him a really good fight. Then again he was the guy who kicked his ass when he went totally nuclear in an alternate version of the future. He seemed to be on a much higher level than anyone he could remember encountering.
Jellal sat down under a tree and enjoyed the breeze. He knew that they were all watching him but he could bring himself to care. He supposed that if he knew someone that had been possessed and insane, he would keep a close eye on them as well.
The truth was for a really long time he felt like he was living underwater and seeing things through a dirty window glass. It was like being surrounded by noise and not even being able to hear yourself think or speak. It was like he was in a room filled with screaming people and he couldn't hear his own voice even when he screamed at the top of his lungs.
Then everything just went silent and with the silence came peace. He wanted to feel the sun on his skin and the breeze on his face and feel himself breathe. He wanted to know that every move he made was of his own free will. He wanted to watch the world with his own eyes. He just wanted a moment to come to terms with everything that he found out and his own freedom.
There were no whispers in his head, no voices telling him things that only he could hear and for so long he had fought against the chains that held him prisoner inside his own mind. He had thrown himself against the bars of a cage in his mind.
He had pulled at the chains until his wrists were raw and bleeding. He shouted until his throat was hoarse and then he just stopped. He couldn't make it out so he huddled into a corner, shut his eyes and covered his ears and just remembered Erza. She was the happiest memory that he held so held onto her with everything that he had.
Now that he was free, it was like he was discovering what it meant to be able to walk on his own two feet again. There had been moments of clarity. He knew that but as the years passed he had lost the strength to fight and those moments had become few and far in between episodes.
Jellal had no idea what to do with himself, hell he didn't even know what he actually liked and disliked. He had been a slave as a child and then he had been a slave to a voice that only he could hear. He had never made a single choice for himself in years and suddenly the world seemed like a very large and confusing place. A place that he didn't fit in anymore.
Jellal thought back to his good memories, where it had been him making the decisions and choices. The one thing that stood out clearly was the fact that he could remember Erza. When he thought of her, his heart hurt. When he realized what he had done to her and their family and he wanted to die of shame. He single handedly destroyed their family, ruined her life and probably haunted her nightmares for years afterwards and then he decided to construct that godforsaken tower.
That tower was the reason why they had all been captured as children. It was the reason why they had no families, why they were slaves who dreamed of freedom and he had kept the construction going. He had never been more horrified in that moment. When he realized that he had become the same type of person as those who had imprisoned them on that godforsaken island. He had no idea where to even begin to put things right.
Natsu had seen Jellal sitting under the tree and he moved towards him but Lucy shook her head, "Give him some time to think Natsu. Everything that he knows is a lie and he just heard about a war in the coming years, let him digest everything that happened."
Natsu just pouted at her. He didn't want to wait anymore. He finally decided how he was going to deal with Laxus. The only way that they could do that was if Jellal decided to get his head out of his ass and deal with everything. However he knew that usually when you drop so much life changing information on someone they usually need a moment to breathe and come to terms with everything. He just was not a patient person.
Lucy smiled at her husband and walked towards him. Jellal would need someone to talk too and Natsu was not the right choice for that conversation. Lucy took a seat in front of him, not saying a word but enjoying the breeze while Natsu and Mystogan worked off their nervous energy.
She was just there, sitting next to him not pushing him to talk or anything but at the same time trying to let him know that he wasn't alone anymore. All he had to do was ask and they would help him. He just needed to take their hand of friendship.
"I don't know what to do now." He told her after some time and Lucy smiled gently at him, glad that he decided to confide in her instead of running for the hills and hiding in the deepest darkest cave so that he couldn't hurt anyone.
She knew it sounded silly but there had been a couple of times that she looked at him and he looked like he wanted to run for his life or beat his own head in. This wasn't going to be easy for him. He had made mistakes but she had faith that he could make it right. He had done so before even if he didn't believe that he made a difference.
"You do better Jellal. I helped you now because I loved Erza like a sister and I wanted to save her a lot of pain. However that wasn't the only reason. I helped you because everything that happened wasn't your fault. You were used, corrupted as a child and then brain washed. I know that knowing that you were controlled doesn't make it much better because you blame yourself. In the other timeline, once you were sane again you spent a lot of your life seeking atonement for your sins. That might not mean much to you but it counts for something. It means that if it was your choice you wouldn't have chosen that path. Now, you can make sure you don't make the same mistakes."
Jellal never felt more out of his depth in his life. For so long he hadn't made a single choice and now there was a world of choices out there that he didn't know where to start.
"I don't know where to start or what to do." He confessed to her and Lucy's eyes saddened. The possession had done so much damage. He had just suffered that damage quietly in prison while they were asleep on Tenrou Island for seven years.
"You could go back to the tower and tell your friends the truth. You can set them free from the path that they're on and then retire from the council. You can tell the council that you're young and you want to explore the world without the burden of being a wizard saint. You can introduce the world to your younger twin brother Jellal who now goes by the name of Mystogan. You can build a new life as Siegrain, come with us and help us fight against the people that used you to hurt your family." Replied Lucy and for the first time since he had woken up he smiled at her.
Jellal had patiently listened as she painted a picture of what the future could look like. Finally he had an idea of what to do with his life and it really didn't seem like a bad idea. In fact it was a lot like finding redemption. He had done some awful things and he was finally free of the voices and the darkness. He could build his own future with his own hands and fighting against the people who used him to hurt innocent people seemed like a really good idea.
Natsu had discussed his idea with Mystogan. He was technically supposed to be Jellal's twin brother. It was only fair that he have a say in this because Natsu needed his help as well. He didn't even feel guilty that Lucy wasn't included in this part of the plan because after getting rid of his possession Lucy didn't really have a plan for Jellal.
She just wanted to save Erza a lot of pain and ensure that he didn't end up a wanted criminal because that meant that he couldn't be seen helping people which kind of limited his interference. Jellal was powerful enough to be named a wizard saint.
The fact that he wasn't able to fight out in the open meant that many times he was unable to get involved in places where his powers could have been a huge advantage. Now that he was free however Lucy didn't know what to do with him.
After all she didn't want to force him into doing something that he didn't want to do. She wanted him to choose what he wanted to do with his life not just go along with what she said because she helped him. Natsu was just going to suggest a path that he could take and hope that he went along with it.
"I'm going to go to meet up with the others. They aren't actually far from here. Simon and the others often came to towns to buy supplies. I'll explain to them what happened, tell them where they could find Erza and leave them to live their own lives. After that I'll go to the council."
Jellal had made his decision and Natsu was relieved, "When you're done come back here, Mystogan will be waiting for you."
Lucy narrowed her eyes at him, "What are you planning Natsu?" she hissed at him and he just chuckled.
"Nothing bad, Mystogan and I talked about what would happen next. Mystogan will take him back to Fairy Tail so he can meet Gramps and become a guild member if he wants and then Mystogan and Siegrain are going to take Laxus on a little trip." He replied.
Lucy didn't like where this was headed. Laxus was a powerful mage even if he was an asshole at this point in time. The three of them teaming up was just asking for trouble. A mage powerful enough to be a wizard saint and two S-class mages was just asking for trouble especially with Fairy Tail's luck. Who did Natsu want them to take on? Grimoire Heart?
"You want a wizard saint and two S-class mages to go do what exactly?" she cried out in panic at the thought of the destruction that they were probably capable of and he just ruffled his hair.
"Don't know what they're going to do exactly. Mystogan might be able to get gramps permission to take a SS class mission."
Lucy interrupted him before he could finish speaking, "An SSS class mission is a 100 year quest but what's an SS class mission?"
Natsu forgot that Lucy didn't know everything about guild yet. She didn't know about the rarer stuff that isn't spoken about often, "An SS class mission is when several S class mages team up to complete a job. A normal S class mission requires only on S class mage and they can bring other mages as back up. Its similar to how Ezra took us when she faced Lullaby and how Mira takes her siblings on jobs. An SS class mission requires all mages to be S class and an SSS class mission is only rated that high due to the long amount of time needed to complete the quest and the presence of an S class mage."
"So there's more danger but why do you want Laxus to go on one of those missions with them?" asked Lucy and Natsu gave her his famous fanged grin, pulling her down into his lap and combing his fingers through her hair.
He didn't know why he kept on doing it but ever since they got back into the past every time they started discussing things he would pull her into his lap and comb through her hair. Her scent was strongest on her neck and it usually calmed him but he really just wanted to be cuddling her as much as he possibly could.
"Laxus is obsessed with power and thinks that he is only important because he is related by blood to Gramps. He also doesn't understand the guild. Jellal can train him and Mystogan can kick his ass and teach him the meaning of nakama. He just needs a bit of a reality check and two guys that can kick his ass seems like a good place to teach him some humility." Replied Natsu.
Lucy smiled at Natsu and pecked his lips. She had to admit that Laxus once he returned to the guild after being expelled had been a monster. When he defeated Jura it showed how powerful he could be and when he crushed Raven Tail she was proud of him. He defended the guild against his own father something that he once hated his grandfather for doing.
He was passionate, everything that he did, he did it because he loved Fairy Tail. He wanted it to be the best but he didn't understand why his grandfather made the decisions that he did. He was also one of the most complex, stubborn people that she had met and Natsu might have on to something with this idea.
Laxus had found himself when he went on his journey of self-discovery before being readmitted into the guild. However she knew that he needed more than just self-discovery. He needed someone to kick his ass and help him understand what it meant to be a fairy Tail mage. Natsu and Gajeel kicking his ass had brought about the change in his thinking the last time. He would need it again and his team needed some time away from Laxus, to develop themselves. They had all grown in the time that Laxus had been away. It was a perfect time to push them all in better directions earlier.
Natsu growled when she pulled away after pecking his lips and started to nibble on her neck until he left dark bruise on her. It was high enough that no collar or scarf would be able to block it and he grinned to himself. Lucy hated it when he left love bites where people could see them. It embarrassed her but he liked seeing his marks on her so he kissed her on her forehead.
Lucy kissed Natsu when he pulled away from her neck. They both chuckled when they heard Wendy 'eep' and hid her blushing her face when she accidently walked in on them while Carla simply huffed. Lucy didn't know if it was in exasperation or anger.
Carla had always been protective of Wendy but this time she made her disapproval of the young girls choices very clearly. She didn't like the fact that Wendy was willing to trust Natsu and a whole bunch of other people that she hadn't seen in years or met before. She was glad that Wendy was growing more into her powers but at the same time she didn't want her to be so trusting of strangers. All in all it was what Lucy expected from the she-cat.
Happy was more like Natsu's best friend. They got into and out of trouble together. Panterlily had been Gajeel's partner but Carla was more like a mother/big sister to Wendy. She had always been overly protective of the young girl and a little bit bossy trying to make up for Wendy's timidness. This meant that she was not very fond of the strangers who arrived and had Wendy use her healing magic on a kidnapped man for days.
For a moment Lucy wondered what happened to Panterlily. He had come to Earthland with Mystogan and the exceeds had left to go find somewhere to build their new village. She hadn't seen him for days. In fact, she was pretty sure that he was gone as soon as Mystogan arrived safely into their home. Happy hadn't even met him as far as she knew. When she voiced the question Mystogan simply replied that he wanted to travel for a little while on his own.
Panterlily was curious about the differences in this world and the one from which he had come. He promised to come back soon but he had been a solider for so long that he never really had a chance to take a vacation and explore the world and now he had a land filled with magic to discover. Mystogan had only been too happy to send him on a holiday. He was happy to see him making decisions for himself. Besides, the exceed could take care of himself and if he needed help then he knew where he would it.
Panterlily also knew about the alternate time line and decided to see if there was any information that he could find. Mystogan had given him a list of the enemies that Lucy told him about, warning him not to get close to them. They didn't upset the timeline any more than they already had. Mystogan assumed he would travel for a couple months maybe look for Gajeel or something and then come home. At least he hoped that he would.
Jellal had left a few minutes afterwards to face his friends that he had been lying too and set the record straight. Then he was going to go send the council his resignation letter. He would be back in three days so Mystogan decided to wait with Wendy while Natsu and Lucy went back home. They had been gone almost two weeks and people would soon wonder what happened to him if he didn't show up soon. It was good thing that Erza wasn't around because she would have hunted him down by now.
Happy had been spared the journey by going on a fishing trip and then choosing to stay home. Natsu assumed that he had been feeling a little left out lately since he had been spending so much time training Lucy. He decided that once he got back, he would take Happy on a job just the two of them, like the good old days.
He didn't want the little guy thinking that he was abandoning him. He had just been a little caught up in Lucy. He also hadn't wanted Happy to meet Carla just yet because it would break his little heart when they would have to go home without her.
When he mentioned it to Lucy she just smiled and told him to have fun on their job. She was still trying to learn some stuff from her spirits so she didn't mind that he wouldn't be around to spar with her. Happy was important to Natsu and just because they got married didn't mean that he couldn't spend some time with him. Happy did think of Natsu as his father. It was only fair that he make some time for him.
The guild had been quiet for nearly two months and Master Makarov was suspicious. He knew his brats better than anyone and he knew that while they were all passionate in their journeys as mages. They were also highly destructive.
Fairy Tail mages were never quiet and they never just followed someone around weakly. They blazed their ways to the future with fire and passion in their eyes. They didn't care what anyone thought of them. They lived life by their own rules and anyone who didn't understand that wasn't one of them and thus their opinions were deemed unimportant.
Erza and Mira had contacted him every two weeks since they had gone off on their training journey and he had to admit he was at first skeptical of what they wanted to do. Mira had to come to guild ashamed of her powers and afraid of it. People didn't understand it or her and so they feared her. In turn it made the young girl fear herself but once she had come here and she learned how to control her powers. Mira had become one of the youngest most powerful people in the guild.
The Demon Mirajane they called her. Only he saw her for what she truly was and she was a young girl who had been scorned and torn down and so she locked her heart away and put on a show. She was mean and scary. She had a short temper and wore short skirts. She was cruel and loud. All those things made people look at her in different ways.
It also ensured that none of them would get close to her and if they couldn't get close to her then no-one could hurt her. She had become so powerful that she believed that she didn't need people and that they didn't matter. She was getting over confident as well, and that could be life threatening to mages who overestimated their abilities.
Mira was trying to protect her heart by acting like she didn't have one because she knew how it felt to be rejected by society. No matter who turned their backs on her, her siblings loved her and they worshipped the ground she walked on. She protected them just as fiercely as they protected her but she had just come very close to losing Lisanna.
It had shaken her confidence and shattered her arrogance. Mira had the potential to be extremely kind and caring if only she would allow herself to show people that she cared. He believed that after this accident she would calm down some.
She was getting older. Mira was already nineteen years old and it was high time that she grew up and matured out of her bad girl phase. It was time she realize that there is no shame in being kind. He believed that nearly losing Lisanna would be a good reality check for her and when she returned she would be even stronger because she would be wiser as well.
One thing that he always hated about life was that it was one of the harshest teachers out there. You get tested before you learn the lesson but by God do you learn a lesson. Experience is the only thing in this world that would be able to make you wise. Power isn't just about who punches the hardest and Mira has now learned that lesson.
He was curious to see the woman that she would become. The insecure girl was gone he was sure of that. Mira would return a woman, a wiser more powerful and more confident woman because she would have finally accepted her weaknesses.
She had realized that it was alright to have flaws and make mistakes. She had learned to work through them rather than pretend they don't exist. She finally understood that there was no such thing as perfection. The world was filled with people trying to do their best in a world where its far too easy to do your worst. Mira was finally growing up and learning the important lessons of life.
Erza was still young and she was a little head strong but he believed that all she really needed was a friend. She needed someone who would be able to see past her armor and see the girl underneath and let that blossom.
Erza just needed to relax a little but she was young and doing well for herself and he was proud of her. She always stuck very closely to the rules and while he appreciated it because she didn't cause much trouble she needed to realize that sometimes rules were meant to be bent or broken. She didn't need to be perfect either. She needed to realize that it was okay to relax and take some time off.
She would have much to teach Gray and he had a lot to learn from her. They would make an interesting team to see but what he was currently worried about was Natsu.
The boy had been different for two months now. He didn't know why or what had changed but he suddenly seemed very grown up and mature. He was very different from the person who walked out the guild one day, who had up and left with no warning and didn't even take Happy with him. Then returned to the guild and he was different.
Natsu often dropped off the face of the earth in his search for his father. It happened many times in the past but every time he went away he always came back the same way with a grin on his face. Natsu masked his pain by fighting and being energetic but he never returned like this. He had even gone so far as to tell Lisanna that he found some answers but no one knew what exactly he had found out.
Master Makarov even wondered whether someone was controlling him or impersonating him. He had been wearing those weird gloves lately and that was strange. Natsu usually didn't like having cloth cover his hands because he would often light his hands on fire but his magic was still the same. In fact his magic levels had increased by quite a bit in a small amount of time but he was always saying he was training.
He was also sure that the boy was masking some of his magic but Makarov wasn't sure if he was doing it unconsciously or not. Masking your magic was a high level technique and he didn't see any reason Natsu would have to do something like that. Someone like Gildarts or even himself would mask their magic so the pressure didn't hurt anyone or cause them to faint but Natsu couldn't have become so powerful in such a short amount of time.
Natsu still took jobs and came to the guild but he had been coming around less and less. He could also chalk that up to the fact that almost everyone from the younger generation had gone away on their training sessions. Makarov still couldn't believe that Cana was Gildarts daughter. None of them figured it out and he wondered whether or not the guild would still be standing when his brats came back.
"Then make us a practice area where we can challenge each other and get Freed and Levy to put runes everywhere." Replied Natsu and the master stared at him in shock. He didn't even realize that he had been talking out loud but the idea did have some merit.
"We are family, we don't fight each other Natsu." He responded and Natsu rolled his eyes.
"When they all get back they're going to want to test their abilities against each other. We are family and we look up to each other but at the same time we want to know the differences in our strength. We want to know how much further we have to go. This isn't about fighting to hurt each other. It's a sparring match so we know how far we have to go to reach our goals."
Makarov couldn't argue with that. Hell he couldn't even believe that advice had just come from Natsu but he had to admit that the brat had a point. Mira and Erza were always fighting wanting to know who was the stronger mage between them. Natsu and Gray could tear down the guild if they really wanted too and even Laxus would join in now and then to test his abilities against Mira or even Erza if she could annoy him enough to fight her.
He was going to have to go see Levy and Freed about some runes and a defensive barrier of some sort. In fact a training area sounded like a good idea. A lot of the younger mages were always testing their abilities and it would be a good idea to have a safe place where they could practice their magic.
A place where they could fight and not destroy the town. It would also give them a safe place to practice without damaging the town or the forest. There were only so many trees that they could cut down before people started complaining.
Natsu seemed happy enough that he had taken his suggestion to heart so he took another job from the request board and decided to spend some time with Happy. His partner had been excited to spend some time with him. It made Natsu feel more than a little bit guilty that he had been spending so little time with him. He promised himself that he would try to make more time for him so that he didn't get so involved with training and Lucy that he neglected his best friend.
Happy couldn't help but be excited that he and Natsu would be going on a mission without Lucy. He really did like her. She smelled nice and cooked them food and she always gave him a fish but he missed hanging out with Natsu. Lucy rarely went on jobs and whenever they were home Natsu would spend hours training with her and he refused to let him go to the guild. Then again most of their guild mates weren't there so there wasn't much for him to do.
Happy didn't understand why they didn't want anyone knowing that they had gotten married. Natsu was always so happy with Lucy that he didn't really care about the details but he had missed hanging out with his friend.
The two set of on their mission and Lucy made them both a good lunch and wished them luck. She still had a lot of magical training to do and she was determined to master at least one of the new spells that she was trying to use. It was harder because no one else in the history of celestial magic ever tried to do something like this before. She had a plan in case some things came to pass and she was going to get this right even if it took her all week, which was as long as Natsu assumed he would be gone.
She smiled as she passed a picture of her and Natsu on the wall. Her father insisted that they take a picture even though they weren't dressed in wedding clothes. She was wearing her pink gown and Natsu wore a suit and they were holding hands in such a way that you could see their wedding rings.
She couldn't help but laugh to herself. She had spent so long denying her feelings for him and then they ended up in this impossible situation where she not even three weeks later she married him.
When she really thought about ii sounded like she married a stranger. Technically she had only seen him twice before they married and they had known each other for three weeks. She grimaced the guild was going to lose their mind. They could try and say whatever they wanted but somehow someone would figure out that they only met three weeks before they got married. They would never hear the end of it.
In fact, she was pretty sure that they wouldn't be able to explain why they got married. Anyone that had known her or Natsu would know that there was no way for them to cross paths. He had been a mage and Lucy had rarely ever been allowed out of the mansion. Then they woke up in the past and he crashed through the ceiling and no one knew why but them. It was going to be something that they would need to think about for future reference.
Lucy thought of Mira for a moment and wondered if Natsu would want a ceremony. They had only signed a wedding certificate and even though they had exchanged rings she always wanted to buy a white dress and have a nice wedding.
She would talk to him about it when he returned and ask him if he would a ceremony or not. It would also help calm the guild down if they got to be part of the wedding. She hummed to herself as she started on dinner and decided to think about that later. She still had a lot of training to do and plenty of time to think about having a ceremony later.