Chapter 30: Erza's Past
~A few hours later~
The sun begins to rise as a small rowboat that contains the Fairy Tail member with Juvia and Latias flies next to the boat.
"Hey, do you think the people trapped in the cards were saved?" Lucy asks.
"We alerted the army, so they're probably fine by now." Gray says.
"I hope so…" Sakura trails off.
"But anyways, where are we?" Gray questions.
"Perhaps Juvia's group has gotten lost…" Juvia says and Lucy turns her head around to look back at Natsu.
"Natsu, are you sure they're in this direction?" She asks, only for them to see Natsu's bloated face to be hanging over the back of the boat with this eyes blank, sweat on his face, and droop coming out from his mouth. Lucy closes her eyes and purple lines appear on the side of her body as her mouth hangs opened with an awkward look that she once again forgot his weakness to transportation. Gray and Juvia all stare angrily back at him with blank eyes with Gray having yellow veins popping out on his head as Sakura has her eyes closed and an awkward smile.
"We're relying on your nose here! Get it together man!" Gray yells.
"I will not allow you to betray Gray-sama's trust!" Juvia says.
"Damn… I can't believe that Erza and Happy were kidnapped while we were knocked out. How pathetic is that?!" Gray says in anger.
"But how did a wizard as powerful as Erza-san get defeated?" Juvia asks.
"Huh?" Gray says as he turns his head towards her, then raising his left eye and squinting his right one into a crazed, anger look. "She wasn't defeated! You don't know a damn thing about Erza!" He states.
"I-I'm sorry!" Juvia apologizes.
"Gray, calm down!" Sakura says.
"They said they were Erza's old friends. Even we don't know anything about Erza really…" Lucy says with a worried look on her face.
As Natsu continues hanging over the back of the boat, his face returns to normal as he grunts lightly and stands back up looking to his right with a raised fist.
"Something feels really dangerous…" He says catching everyone's attention and Latias goes to Sakura with a scared look causing her trainer to look at her.
"You too, Latias?" Sakura asks.
There are dark clouds with a few breaks in them allowing the sun to shine through off in the direction Natsu is looking at. Yellow birds fly overhead cawing loudly when all of a sudden one by one they caw one last time before they start dropping from out of the sky.
"The birds…" Lucy says with a worried look on her face, her right hand to her mouth as everyone stands up and looks up at the birds.
"What in the worlds is this?" Gray questions when they feel the boat hit something causing them to look down. "The fish too?" Gray says as green scaled fish floating in the water, dead like the birds but also floating among them is wooden debris from a ship.
"This is not normal…" Juvia says.
"This wreckage…" Gray trails off when they see the insignia of the Fiore Military on a yellow banner. "It's from the Fiore military ships!"
"I don't like this…" Lucy says.
"But why were military ships doing all the way out here?" Sakura wonders.
"Hey, look." Natsu says looking off in the distance at something. Not far away from them was a small barren rocky island and on it stands a very tall tower. Its body twisted with sporadically jutting sides, it looked very chaotic and asymmetrical, it was comprised of overlapping and intertwining lengths of metal tubes which wound together from the ground and straight up into the sky.
"That's the Tower of Heaven?" Lucy questions in shock and awe.
"Water Dome!" Juvia says raising her right hand into the air and summoning a blue magic circle as then water shoots out into streams from all directions into the center of the magic circle, the water then shooting out and forming a dome of water around the boat. "Let us camouflage ourselves this way and approach."
"W-Whoa…" Lucy says in awe at seeing this.
"That's right. Latias." Sakura calls and Latias nods her head before gets out of the dome and turns invisible.
"Mmph, I just can't…" Natsu groans as the sickness begins overtaking him again.
"We're almost there, sheesh!" Lucy says annoyed.
"Don't you have any sense of dramatic tension?!" Gray questions as above them, the same creature follows the group and looks at the tower before it tilts its head.
Once the group finds a hidden dock which they are able to tie their boat to as they disembark and head towards the tower. They spot a hidden staircase, but then notices it was being guarded by some men dressed in black uniforms with strange masks and hats on their faces/heads that covers all but their lower part of their mouth wielding massive spears, and a few of them had strange flying pink creatures with rows of sharp teeth but no eyes on them.
"There are a lot of lookouts…" Gray says.
"Should we bust in?" Natsu questions.
"No! Erza and Happy are captured! If we don't do this right, we could put the two of them in danger." Lucy explains.
"That would put us at a disadvantage." Gray says.
Just then Juvia pops out from the water. "I've found a way in underwater." She says and Latias also pops her head from the water.
"Really? That's great!" Gray says.
"I've been praised! Not you, but I, Juvia!" Juvia says proudly, getting up in Lucy's face with a dark shadow on her face, purple lines going down the middle of her face and ending at her nose, pink blush marks on her cheeks as Lucy turns away with her eyes closed and sweat going down her face with an embarrassed look on her face.
"Right…" Lucy mutters.
"It's about ten minutes underwater." Juvia informs returning to normal.
"That ain't a problem." Natsu states.
"Nope." Gray agrees.
"No way! Impossible!" Lucy cries out in shock as she turns pale blue, her eye widens into blank circles with black circles around them and sweat flying from her head.
"Then put this on your head." Juvia says holding up a large bubble of water above the palm of her right hand as it hovers. "It's oxygen trapped in a water shell, so you can breathe underwater."
"Oh~." Gray says impressed.
"You're awesome! So… who are you?" Natsu asks causing Juvia to gasp in shock as she turns white with white lines appearing on the left side of her body.
"Wait." Lucy says as she looks around.
"What's wrong?" Gray asks.
"Did anyone saw Sakura?" She asks.
"I'm right here." Sakura replies making the others to turn to see her wearing a pink wetsuit with her hair tied into a ponytail and her back is strapped on her back.
"Wow! It looks great on you." Lucy complements.
"When did you get the time to wear that?" Gray asks.
"Just now."
Underwater
The group swims through the water as Juvia turns her half body into a tornado of water to propel her through it. Natsu, Gray, Lucy, and Sakura have the air bubble on their heads and Natsu, Gray, and Lucy have stripped down to their swim wear with Natsu having his scarf around his head while Sakura holds onto one of Latias' wings as she swims with the group. Eventually, they come out inside the base of the tower, a massive cavern with tall pillars holding the place up and connected by walkways, and a massive mask statue hanging high on the wall.
"So this is the base of the tower." Gray says.
"Where's Erza and Happy?" Natsu questions.
"Doesn't look like they're here." Sakura says.
"These things are pretty convenient if a bit tacky." Lucy says holding her bubble above the palm of her right hand.
Juvia then turns as her eyes begin shining. "I made yours a bit smaller, Lucy-san, so I'm impressed you made it."
"Hey, wait a sec there…" Lucy trails off as her eyes narrow and go blank as her body turns pale blue at the realization of what Juvia just said.
Suddenly there is a loud roar that echoes in the air, the group looks up to see one of the strange flying creatures and one of the guards of the tower riding it as he yells out, "Intruders!"
"Crap!" Lucy says in shock.
On the walkways, more guards armed with spears as well as magic guns appear along with dog-like creatures that almost resembles the flying ones, but with massive heads and as such massive teeth as more of the flying ones appear with riders on them.
"Who are these infidels!?"
"Well then… guess there's only thing to do!" Gray says.
"Right!" Juvia agrees.
"You asked who we are?" Natsu questions as hot air begins blowing up from beneath him. "Your allies attacked us, and you didn't even know?!" He yells and raises his right fist into the air causing his magic circle appears above his fist and then expanding outwards as his fist is engulf in a massive flame which the then slams into the ground causing a massive explosion. Seeing this shock the guards. "We're Fairy Tail, you idiots!" Natsu yells out as he and the others come out from the smoke in the air.
Natsu sends a roar blast down at one of the walkways, blasting many Tower Guard and creature. "That's hot!"
"Ice Make Lance!" Gray yells sending a blast of ice spears outwards taking out many tower guards.
"That's cold!" They all cry out.
Lucy lands knelt down on one of the walkways while the guards on it are drawn towards her due to her swimsuit as hearts appear around them.
"A swimsuit!"
"Thank you very much!"
Lucy is unfazed by their pervertness as she takes out Virgo's key. "Gate of the Maiden, I open thee! Virgo!" She yells out as a teal magic circle appears in front of her, a bell chiming as an explosion of dust erupts from it and from it Virgo appears as she stands up.
"You called for me, Princess?" Virgo asks.
"It's as maid!"
"Who needs bikini-girl now?" All the guards begin to cheer out with hearts above their heads at seeing Virgo now instead of Lucy. This causes to annoy her a bit as she turns away, a red vein popping on the left side of her head as she points towards them.
"Proceed with the punishment, please…" Lucy says in an annoyed tone.
"As you wish." Virgo says, the outline of her pupils shining red as then in blinding speed she makes her way through the enemy soldiers sending them all of the walkways crying out.
Down below, Juvia is surrounded by a group of soldiers but appears unfazed as the left part of her body as well as her left arm are water as if someone tried to cut through her which they failed at.
"Damn, what is she?"
"Watch out, blades don't affect her!"
"Take this!" A guard yells out as he along with a group of other guards all begin firing their magic guns at Juvia as all of the shots travel through her, changing her body into water as she remains unfazed by the attacks. This shocks them as they all cry out in panic.
"What the heck is with her?!" One of them yells.
"Drip, drip, drop…" Juvia says as she swings her right arm across her chest turning a bit as she throws it out on an arc. "Water Slicer!" She yells summoning up a black of water which sends all of the guards flying.
Latias helps Sakura fight them using Psychic which she makes them to fly backwards into the wall.
Sakura puts a green plate on her glove which turns the same color, and she puts her hands together and forms a green ball of energy in between them. "Energy Ball!" She yells then brings her hand forwards and fires the ball at the guards causing them to cry out in pain.
Natsu engulfs both of his fists in fire and launches himself forward talking out more tower guards, Gray creates a massive block of ice which he slams down onto another group of enemy soldiers sending them flying, Lucy has Virgo takes out a few more enemy soldiers as she grabs two tower guards and sends them flying, Juvia traps a few enemy soldiers in Water Lock bubble making it hard for them to breathe, and Sakura, already switch her plate into Zap Plate, and Latias blast the enemy soldiers around them using Thunderbolt and Dragon Pulse.
"It appears we're mostly finished here." Juvia says as everyone regroups.
"Seems like it." Gray agrees.
"After making all this noise, do you think we'll be… Oh who am I thinking…" Lucy says covering her face with her hands.
"Do I need punishment?" Virgo asks.
"We did make a lot of noise…" Sakura adds and Latias agrees.
"Where's the blockhead?" Natsu questions an unconscious tower guard holding him by the collar of his coat.
Just then, the eye of the right closed eyes and the three pupils on the left eye of the statue head begin glowing red, then the its mouth opens up as a long ramp begins to descend down to the ground in front of the group catching their attention.
"And…" Natsu says.
"They're telling us, 'Come on up'?" Gray questions.
Meanwhile
In the Throne Room of the Tower
Two people watches a live-footage of a surveillance lacrima on the gray magic circle. The room they are in is big and circular, in the middle of the room are sharp crystals protruding through an opening in the ground as it touches the ceiling, there are drawings on the wall, and around the throne chair are writings on the walls.
One of the man was a mildly muscular man of average height distinguished my his extremely long black hair, which reaches down far belong his feet, is parted in the middle and has two bangs reaching down below his waist framing his face. He has a large hooked nose and hairy eyebrows pointing upwards in spikes and wears a sleeved shirt paired with plain armbands, pants, gloves, and shoes.
"Jellal-sama, why are you inviting the intruders inside?" The man asks the person sitting on the throne chair.
The man known as Jellal, the hood of a dark blue coat covers his face he was wearing, his other clothing consisted of a white shirt with a blue tint under the opened coat, two strings with shield-shaped pendants hanging down from the hood and a prominent golden symbol on the left part of the chest reminiscent of Fairy Tail's mark, plus simple, loose, dark pants tucked inside laced boots.
"I told you, remember? This is a game. They have cleared a stage. That is all. This makes thinks more interesting." Jellal says.
"Bu if we don't hurry with the ceremony… The Ships we sunk the other day mean that the Council has already…"
"Vidalus, are you still worried about that? They can't stop me. Not those fools on the Council, that's for sure." Jellal says lifting his head up as his face is finally revealed. Part of his blue hair is shown under the hood and a red tattoo above and under his right eye.
"Blockhead!" Natsu yells out.
"Don't yell like that!" Lucy complains.
"We already made such a big mess downstairs… There's no reason for us to be sneaking around anymore." Gray says as he, Natsu, and Juvia are eating at a long table covered with an assortment of foods as Natsu chows down on whatever he can get his hands on while Gray and Juvia eat calmly as Natsu and Gray back into their normal clothes with Gray shirtless.
"Why are you eating?!" Lucy yells with her eyes bulging out.
"It looks like a meal has been prepared." Virgo says gesturing to it. "Shall you partake, Princess?"
"Um, look here…" Lucy says with a sweatdrop.
The room they are in, the ceiling is very high up and the room is very long as the table sit directly between the two ends. Only two very tall doorways into the room at either end.
"That door from before was operated by remote control through magic." Juvia explains as Lucy, Sakura, and Latias are the only ones not eating the food.
"Our presence is completely known." Virgo adds.
"Then why in the world…" Lucy wonders.
"Maybe they're challenging us?" Gray says.
"That might be it. Or else, we would have ended up going through traps and a lot of guards." Sakura says.
"Challenge?" Lucy says putting her right hand to her chin to think about it.
"Oh yes, Princess… Do you think it is appropriate to eat in such attire?" Virgo asks.
"Appropriate?" Lucy questions with a worried face as she looks back at Virgo and turns her body away covering herself.
Suddenly, a shadow comes across Virgo's face as her eyes turns red and she holds her hands up wiggling her fingers as she begins walking towards Lucy. "Let us change those clothes…" Virgo says.
"Right here?!" Lucy questions in shock as Gray and Juvia accidentally turn to see what's going on as Natsu stuffs his face with a whole basket of bread and complete unaware of what's going on. Gray's cheeks brighten up red and his eyes turn beady-like.
"Hey, wait…" He says in shock.
"Gray-sama! Don't look!" Juvia cries out with her eyes closed and pink blush across her face.
In a blink of an eye Lucy is now in a formal dress gown that goes down to her knees, with zig-zagging white lines going around the bottom separating the two light greens from the dark green on the rest of her dress. A design going down the middle of the upper part of the dress with purple marks going around two yellow circles with yellow and blue lines coming out from them, white ribbons around the upper part of her arms, a string around her neck connecting to her dress to hold it up as a white bow tie is connected to the collar, and finally, a green sash tied around her head.
"These are clothes from the Spirit World." Virgo says as Lucy giggles a bit before striking a pose in her new outfit, turning her head slightly upwards to her right as she puts her left hand to her hip and right hand to the back of her head.
"What do you think? I know, I know, I look good." Lucy says.
Gray and Juvia are now standing up as Natsu joins back up with them from the other side of the table walking to Lucy's side.
"That's pretty cute." Gray complements.
"Juvia is so frustrated!" Juvia complains turning away with her eyes closed and hands to her cheeks.
"That look good on you, Lucy." Sakura says now wearing her normal clothes.
"Thanks, Sakura." Lucy says.
"He l~ikes her!" Virgo says rolling her tongue just like Happy would for saying that, causing everyone but Natsu to turn white and lower their heads with white lines appearing beside or behind them.
"Please don't roll your tongue…" Lucy asks.
"Where did you lead to mimic Happy?" Natsu questions eyeing Virgo with a questionable look.
"Princess, I wish you the best of luck." Vigo says closing her eyes and putting her right hand to her chest as she begins to disappear back to the Spirit World.
"Thank you, Virgo." Lucy says as Virgo completely disappears. "Speaking of which, are you guts you want to stay in those wet clothes?" Lucy asks the others.
"We'll dry them off on a jiff." Gray says holding the left leg of his pants up next to Natsu who is emitting fire from his body to dry his and Gray's clothes off.
"Human drying machine!" Lucy cries out in shock with bulging eyes.
"There they are!"
"The intruders!"
Everyone turns around to see a group of tower guards appear from the doorway to the rest of the tower. However, all of a sudden, all the enemy soldiers are sent flying as Erza having appeared from behind and slashing through all of them in one circular swing of the two swords in her hands.
"Erza!" Natsu and Gray calls with smiles of their faces.
"You're safe!" Lucy says happy as well.
"C-Cool…" Juvia says in awe with blush on her face.
Erza however, seems completely shocked to see them here.
"Why are you here?" Erza questions.
"Why?" Lucy asks.
"Eh?" Sakura says.
"Um… Juvia is…"
"Go back!" Erza blurts out causing a shock to everyone as they look at her wondering why she just said that. "This is not a place you should have come!"
Natsu slams his right fist into his palm. "Don't so saying that, Erza! If we retreat with our tails between our legs, that'll shame the name of Fairy Tail! I'm not going to let that blockhead off that easy!" He says with an angered look.
"I said go back." Erza says once again.
"But…" Lucy says.
"Happy's been kidnapped! You expect me to leave him?" Natsu states.
"Happy?" Erza says surprised to hear this. "Millianna couldn't have…"
"Where is he?!" Natsu asks.
"I don't know."
"Okay, got it!" Natsu says swiping his nose with his right thumb.
"What do you get?" Gray questions with confused looks on his face and blue lines going down their right eye.
"Happy is waiting for me!" Natsu yells out before taking off leaving a trail of kicked up smoke behind his as Erza turns around.
"Hey! Natsu…" She says.
"Takeru!" Sakura calls out as Lucario comes out and stands in front of her. "Go after him." She tells the Aura Pokémon and he nods his head before going after Natsu.
"That idiot…" Gray says with an annoyed look as his right eye is closed.
"Natsu-san…" Juvia says.
"We're going too!" Lucy says in determination.
"No!" Erza yells out, turning around, and holding one of her swords up sideways to prevent them from going, frightening them as Gray gasp in shock with Lucy, Sakura, and Juvia yelps in fear as Latias hides behind Sakura. "Millianna loves cates above all else. I cannot believe that she would do harm to Happy. I will take responsibility for bringing all three of them back. All of you get away from here as quickly as you can." Erza says lowering her sword and turning back around to the door.
No! Not without you, Erza!" Lucy says.
"This is my problem! I do not want to get you involved." Erza states.
"It's already plenty our problem. You saw Natsu, right?" Gray says as Erza begins to walk away but stops after taking a few steps.
"Erza, what is this tower? Who is Jellal?" Lucy asks.
"We understand if you don't want to tell us… You said that they used to be your companions, right? But now we're your companions. We're on your side, no matter what, Erza!" Sakura says with a smile as she puts her right hand to her chest.
"You heard the lady." Gray says.
"Go back!" Erza says with her voice sounding more pleading.
"Erza…" Lucy says shocked to hear this.
"This isn't like you, Ms. Erza. You'd usually say, 'Follow me and no complaining!' We'll lend you a hand. Eve you get scared sometimes, right?" Gray says.
Erza then turns around, with tears in her right eye as a few flies out from it into the air, a saddened look on her face to accompany the tears ready to come out. Seeing this, shocks everyone but also worries them as to why she's crying.
"I'm sorry." Erza says before wiping the tears away. "Whether I win or lose this battle, I will vanish from this world…" Erza says turning away from them to her left as she holds her right arm and places her left hand on her wrist. Hearing this makes Lucy gasp.
"Erza…?" Sakura hesitated calls.
"What do you mean?" Gray asks.
"This is a future I cannot oppose. Therefore…" Erza then looks at them as her eyes are saddened with a forced smile on her face. "Therefore, while I still exist, I'll tell you everything." The others grunts, worried looks on their faces as they prepare for what she is about to tell them.
"The name of this tower is the Tower of Heaven. Also known as the R-System. More than ten years ago… A black magic religious cult constructed it in order to cast a forbidden spell to resurrect someone from the dead. It requires a large number of living sacrifices. Also, through the slave-labor of the sacrificial humans, they amplified magic powers they needed. I was also one of those living sacrifices when I was little." Erza begins, hearing this park makes the others gasp in shock.
"Those who tried to escaped, or rebelled… One by one they disappeared. There was no peace of mind. We lived in constant fear. Even so, I made friends who I could open up to. Even if it was for only brief moment… and one of the people I knew then was Jellal." Erza continues. Going on to talk about the day everything changed, when she and her friends attempted to escaped due to a plan her friend Sho came up with, only to be discovered by the guards. Sho was too frightened and Erza say the fear in her eyes to say he was the one who came up with the plan as the leader of the cult promised everyone else would not be hurt, only deprived from food for three days, as long as the one who came up with it came forward. As Erza was about to Jellal spoke first so that he would be taken to be disciplined for trying to lead them to escape. However, they took her instead reasoning that she must've of being the one and Jellal was just standing up for her. She was taken to the disciplinary chambers where she was tortured to near death and lost her right eye, only to then be saved by Jellal who fought through the guards protecting her to get to her. Unfortunately, he was discovered and captured as she was returned to the prison cells where the others were. That was where it all began, finally fed up with their torment, Erza started a revolt.
"For our freedom… To save Jellal… We rose up and fought. Jellal was our leader… He had a strong sense of justice and I looked up to him, But… But it was at that moment Jellal turned into a completely different person. If it is possible to call a person 'evil,' then that is what I shall call Jellal."