Erza didn't pay mind to the erupting earth behind her as she headed in pursuit of Jellal, questioning why he was even here now and what purpose could he have for being here.
She pushed it down in quickly finding the path with the Wendy girl joining her, without her escorting guide of Carla as they headed further into the forests around them, the trees starting to die out and the ground decay before they found them, standing before a pillar of shadowy light and he turning to them as he spoke in surprise. "Erza... what are you doing here?"
"I could ask you the same thing!" Erza voiced as she nearly summoned her sword. "What are you doing here, Jellal, answer me!"
"Jellal!" Wendy called out in seeing him before Jellal blinked in speaking in confusion.
"Erza... when did we have a kid...?" All three flushed as Erza stammered in surprise.
"She's not, we didn't, this is all...!" Erza moaned with dropping to the ground with covering her face in utter surprise while Wendy fainted with spinning eyes with mumbling something so crazy as Kenith arrived, looked at the flushed expressions, before he faced Jellal.
"I feel like I missed something important..." He shook his head as he spoke. "Jellal, you know my brother Alex, I am Kenith Arcturus and the reason why we are here is to clear out the remaining Dark Guilds of Oracion Seis as they were set here to find Nirvana."
"Oh, that clears it up..." Jellal breathed with a hand to his chest in relief as he spoke. "I am too young to be a father..." He shook his head with a shudder as he spoke. "I came here to destroy Nirvana, I had found it during my... 'ego phase' and under the tutor of Brain, so I wished to destroy it before it fell into the wrong hands, it has the power to switch wavering hearts to the opposite alignment of what they were, due to Nirvana having absorbed ages of dark emotions and seeding it among the populace." Kenith nodded as Erza and Wendy were still out as he explained.
"Good, Erza here was trying to find out what you were doing here, a reckless move over clearing the Guilds, while Wendy must have come in search for you in thinking you might be an old friend of hers, he also going by the name of Jellal seven years ago." Jellal blinked before rubbing his head as he planted the Destruction spell on Nirvana.
"Two Jellals...? I don't have a twin, the only look-a-like I would have would be Siegrain and he was positioned as a seat on the Council."
"Yeah, something is up..." The ground rumbled hard with Kenith dropping to save both girls and Jellal who was flung from Nirvana in the sudden quake as Kenith tried to hail Alex. "Alex, what is going on out there!?"
"We stepped into a minefield, that's what!" Alex's voice came with a glitchy tone. "The Dark Guilds were seeding the grounds with Lacrima bombs to blow us sky high if we try to search the whole forest for them, Blue Pegasus got hit bad with trying to get the Christina to bear. Lamia Scale and Fairy Tail were able to evade most of the explosions, but now we got demos trying to level this whole forest, they got a kill switch if one of the positions does not reply in five minutes!" Kenith paled as he tried to get some more details.
"Can you get me to any of their positions!?"
"There... one due... forest..." The static was getting worse, likely kicking up some disruption to keep Lacrima channels close. "I re... due south of..." The connection was cut and Kenith stared before he growled in looking up.
"Due south... got it...!" He picked up Wendy and Jellal as he spoke. "How long till Nirvana is destroyed!?"
"T-Three minutes!"
"We got time..." Erza shook her head as he spoke. "Erza, take flight, the Dark Guilds have the forest ladened in bombs, we got five minutes before they blow this place sky high!" That got Erza going as she nodded with going Black Wing Armor and both took flight out of there as Erza spoke.
"What do the sites look like!"
"Alex couldn't say, the channel was getting too staticky for my liking!" Wendy groaned with waking back up before she blinked with a gasp.
"We've flying!"
"Nice of you to notice, now hold tight while we try to find those bomb sites." Kenith glanced to the clouds, to the sky, anything that could point him south, Jellal noticing before he reached into the coat and pulled out a compass that spun like crazy.
"No good, the compass is not going to help here!"
"Peachy!" Kenith growled in disbelief, could the interfere also be messing with the magnetic poles somehow. He breathed in calming down, getting upset would not be the right choice as he looked with his dragon eyes and spotted something out of place, a small encampment of devices and members and he did the math with the slow movement of the sun. "Due south... got it!" Erza yelped in catching Wendy as Kenith spoke with Jellal only on his shoulder. "I am going in for a divebomb hit, you follow up!"
"Wait, shouldn't I..."
"Oh, that's why you're here..." Kenith beamed as he made a nosedive. "You're the booster for a high-impact slam!" Jellal balked as Kenith whipped about with retracting his wings with his back aim as he spoke.
"RAMMING SPEED!" Jellal moaned as he quickly used Meteor.
"You are nuts, I hope you are aware!"
"I break thunder on my back, I am not crazy enough!" Jellal moaned with charging, slamming into Kenith as both rocketed for the site and crashed, the ground folding under their attack as Erza came to a slow descent and pause to see anymore foes before the dust cleared and they found the pair in a crater of Kenith's making, the guy beaming while Jellal looked dazed, it was still enough for Wendy to heal Jellal back up, Erza now knowing why she was a bit more worthy than just a simple child, but that lack of training showed as a brief healing tired her out, she was not in good shape to be healing a number of people all at once like this, she needed to get better...
Alex went in guns blazing as he brought down the next camp, the sheer rock face, ice glacier, and even an explosion of energy told that the camps were getting taken out, but they still had one left and it was coming down to the minute as he tore through them before moving to stop the bomb before getting shot at, he peering with bared teeth at the limping Gato of Naked Mummy trying to put up a fight. "You can't win this one, Wizard, if we are going down, we are taking the whole area with us!"
"Just try it!"
"I got the bigger gun!" Several more rounds came at Alex as he put his guns back in with a smirk as he reached for one of his coat runes.
"Okay, now it's a contest, and I have the winner..." He rolled from behind the devastated barrier, Gato paling at the multi-barreled beast Alex just pulled. "Eight barrels firing thousand-Jewel cartridge rounds, ninety-six rounds per second so..." He beamed as he finished to the revving motor. "It costs two million, eight hundred, and eighty thousand Jewels to fire this weapon for thirty seconds..."
"Holy...!" Anymore was lost in the hailstorm of rounds shredding through the camp as Alex laughed.
"Cry some more!" He laughed before slapping himself. "Right, the bomb!" He stashed the weapon and started to got through the settings with the seconds leaving the double digits before Alex rolled his eyes. "Screw it..." He pulled the Winchester and fired, the source shattering in a explosion of crystal. He breathed as he wiped his brow. "That was closer than what I wanted it to be, but I got two of them, the Ice Mages got one, Jura got another, and I am betting that Kenith may have used Jellal to boost him into the ground, like an actual meteorite." He chuckled in shaking his head as the pillar of light started to fade out to the setting sun, the legacy of Nirvana finally coming to an end before a frown wove itself on, it also meant the end of the Cait Shelter guild, their guardianship was now over...
The party was a bit beaten up as the Dark Guild remains didn't make it easy, even a bit tough with the lesser bombs as Lyon and Gray found a charred Ichiya at their site as he tried to be 'manly', but muck it up bad with a lack of common sense. Even the clean-up was harder than it should have as there was also the freaking assassins of Trinity Raven getting in on the action on wanting to test out the Wizards that took out the Tower, Erza getting a tough, but humbling victory against Ikaruga, Lyon worked with Gray to ice Fukuro that downed Sherry for her Puppet magic and for saving Lyon from the consume, freeing her in the process with no minor changes, while Vadaldus Taka got a harsh shower session with Lucy who freed the Trimens from his mind control through her Star Dress of Aquarius and Cancer.
They ran for it with FAR more wounds than canon, but other than that, the task was completed and they all regrouped at Cait Shelter to party and rest, Alex standing off to the side with a bandage to his cheek from a lucky hit, as Kenith joined him in watching it all go down before he sadly spoke.
"This is the end, isn't it...?"
"It is..." Alex breathed as he watched on with a neutral look. "Lucy did share with Blue Pegasus the story of Loke, but I think that Hibiki is taking it a bit harder with knowing how Karen died and who now has her keys, he can see Lucy's care for them, but it is a lot to process. Erza has seen Jellal off for-"
"Cait Shelter, Alex." Alex paused with a frown as Kenith ran a hand through his short locks as he continued. "When the truth comes out, that little girl will be broken and nothing that flying fuzzball will say will help, in fact it would only hurt more." Alex nodded as Erza served to bring Wendy into Fairy Tail and it was when she too was hurt with Jellal finally remembering her, by her scarlet hair. They were both hurting, but leaned on the other to get by with Erza happy to help Wendy out of the slums and Wendy grateful for Erza's willingness to invite her into the Guild.
But to be frank, it didn't seem like enough, there could be more done for her here and now that could help ease her pain, but what... Alex facepalmed as he moaned. "I am going to regret this, but a lacrima...?" Kenith handed him one and he rested it to his forehead, the same way that Kenith copied both of the songs onto his lacrima before pulling it away and toning into its melody to be sure, a deeper pitch to it, but it was perfect as he breathed with pocketing it. "She is going to need it and it will still be up to Erza to extend the offer." Kenith nodded as the party went on into the night, Erza catching a glance and knew that something was going to happen, enough to leave Alex frowning while his eye rested on Wendy, the Sky Maiden, a Sky Dragon Slayer and a able Healer...
Erza hid her shock somewhat the following morning when the Guild Master spoke of revealing all of it, countering everything that Wendy had ever known about Cait Shelter, not descendants, but the Nirvanian himself, the last of his kind, and he made a whole guild as a promise to the 'Jellal' who dropped her off as he continued his search for something powerful.
It really drove the nail deep to see all of her home, her friends, the ones she could call family, disappearing right before their eyes before he faded away with a smile, her mark fading away as she wailed into the sky in grief. Erza biting her lip before Alex spoke. "Wendy..." The sobbing girl looked to Kenith pulling out a piano from one of the huts, its texture that of smooth stone and polished marble, and Alex taking a seat as he gestured. "Come sit with me and listen..." Wendy sniffled before Erza lightly tapped her shoulder, the saddened girl looking up as Erza lightly smiled.
"Go on..." Wendy nodded a bit with standing back up and joining Alex as he breathed in turning back and Kenith playing a lacrima, the music matching to his fingers playing, he now playing the keys as they were as he started to sing.
"You're alone, you're on your own, so what? Have you gone blind? Have you forgotten what you have and what is yours?" He smiled as they listened to the music that he played for them, but more importantly Wendy. "Glass half empty, glass half full. Well, either way, you won't be going thirsty. Count your blessings, not your flaws." The air hummed with life as he continued.
"You've got it all, you lost your mind in the sound. There's so much more, you can reclaim your crown. You're in control, rid of the monsters inside your head." He shook his head a bit as he continued. "Put all your faults to bed, you can be king again." Wendy watched as each key seemed to play out a memory for her, the others in awe to it as Lucy, Erza, and Gray smiled with a nod of their heads.
"You don't get what all this is about. You're too wrapped up in your self doubt. You've got that young blood, set it free." He smiled with rubbing her head and brushing her hair to the side as he continued. "You've got it all, you lost your mind in the sound. There's so much more, you can reclaim your crown. You're in control, rid of the monsters inside your head." He breathed with pressing on. "Put all your faults to bed, you can be king." He went to a different line of song as the images continued to sing of all of the good times that Wendy had among those phantoms, phantoms that were happy to make her feel welcome.
"There's method in my madness. There's no logic in your sadness. You don't gain a single thing from misery." He pulled her to his side, as if to copy his playing, as he sung. "Take it from me." Wendy looked to his hands and copied his movements like second nature and she opened her mouth to sing as well.
"You've got it all, you lost your mind in the sound. There's so much more, you can reclaim your crown. You're in control, rid of the monsters inside your head." She breathed as the tears flowed with bliss. "Put all your faults to bed, You can be king." Alex nodded as he resumed playing the song with his voice too.
"You've got it all, you lost your mind in the sound. There's so much more, you can reclaim your crown. You're in control, rid of the monsters inside your head. Put all your faults to bed, you can be king again." And with that, the song came to an end and she hugged his side as she spoke with a trembling lip.
"I'm going to miss them..."
"There is no shame in admitting that, you are free to feel it, this may be the end, but you carry their stories with you, the memories you made with them, those are as real as anything in the world, they cared more than anything to give you a place to call home." Alex rubbed her head as he spoke, Kenith taking the lacrima. "Would you like to join us, to be a Fairy?"
"NO FAIR!... MEN!" Ichiya wailed in defeat with a surge of tears coming from him while Hibiki teared up a bit as well, but he did the same thing as Loke, he took those memories and held them close as a remainder of the old days. Sherry exclaiming that it was lovely while Lyon hummed a bit uneasy on that motion going to him as Wendy looked before she looked at the members of Fairy Tail and answered.
"...Yes..."
"Wendy...!"
"It's okay, Carla..." Wendy smiled as she spoke to the Exceed's surprise. "I shouldn't mourn right now, I loved it here, but this is not my shelter anymore, I need to grow up from this..."
"Child..."
"It's okay..." Erza spoke with lightly picking Wendy up. "I am Erza Scarlet and I would be happy to introduce you to the Fairy Tail Guild." Wendy gave a hug back before Kenith spoke with a whisper.
"Nice song choice..."
"Thanks, and thank you for the tool." He nodded as he took the time to take the piano apart with Jura's aid carefully before they headed back to Magnolia, for the next adventure to come...
(I almost forgot, the song is 'King' by Lauren Aquilina, I used a male version of the song and went from there, I wanted to do a bit of a number as just Erza inviting Wendy in after the sudden reveal and disband is too small for my liking, to be honest.)