Chapter 31: The Truth

"We rose up for our freedom, and to save Jellal." Erza continues, her back to the others as they continue to listen her. The rebellion had begun, and the prisoners were beating back the guards, everything was going well, until the Magic Troop came. Simon lost his lower jaw when they first arrived hence wh he wears the metal jaw, and they began killing many of the prisoners as everyone else began to retreat since they were no match for them. Erza tried to rally everyone back but they didn't listen, one of the prisoners even knocking her down while he was running. As she was about to be killed by them, Grandpa Rob, on old-man prisoner who was close friends with Erza and the others, appeared and blocked the magic as it turned out to be a mage from Fairy Tail as he then uses his magic to destroy the magic troops. However, by doing this he had apparently used up the last of his magic which was also his life force. Before he died, He reminded Erza about the time he told her about magic and he turned to dust and disintegrated. The guards and more magic troops were on their way, her friends tried to tell her to run away, but it was in that moment, so much anger and sadness coursing through her at the dead of Grandpa Rob that she awakened her magic, allowing her to telepathically pick up all the weapons and tools scattered around her hand launch them at the guards and the magic troops. Effectively putting an end to them and giving the slaves hope that they could now win and earn their freedom.

Erza and the others fought and eventually forced the guards to retreat, Erza headed off to go save Jellal while everyone else took the boats and prepared to finally leave. When she got to the room he was being held in, she knocked aside the two head guards and cut him loose. However, when he had started to speak, she noticed that he sounded different. Such as the fact that he was now saying they no longer needed to leave the island, that there was no freedom in the world, saying they needed true freedom, Zeref's world. He had somehow gained magic himself and used it to kill the guards, Jellal then tried telling Erza that they needed to complete the R-system to resurrect Zeref, she refused and he blasted her away. He then told her that she would be allowed to leave, but everyone else would have to stay so that the 'Tower of Heaven' as he now called it, could be completed, and warned her that if she ever came back to the island or tried to warn the government about the place, that he would kill everyone, including their friends. The next thing Erza knew, was waking up on a shore in Fiore in the middle of the night and crying for what had happened.

Hearing this shocked and saddened the others, that she had to endure such a terrible past before she joined Fairy Tail, and not to mention what had happened to Jellal and her friends.

"I… will fight Jellal." Erza says, crying as tears dripped down from her left cheek.

"Wait a second, Erza. That Zeref that was in your story…" Gray trails off.

"Yes, you should know Zeref too." Erza says wiping away the tears.

"I'm pretty sure they called that monster that came out of the Lullaby one of Zeref's demons." Lucy says thinking back to the Lullaby monster.

"That's not all. I suspect that Deliora was also one of Zeref's demons." Erza says shocking Gray.

"And Jellal is trying to resurrect this Zeref person?" Juvia asks.

"But why?" Sakura asks.

"I don't understand his motive. Sho… one of my friends in the past… He said something about when the resurrection was complete, they'd become rulers over heaven." Erza says turning her head towards them.

"But what I don't understand is why your past allies turned against you. Wasn't the traitor Jellal and not you, Erza?" Lucy asks.

"He must have indoctrinated them some after I disappeared." Erza says and looks down. "But I left them here for 8 years. The fact is, I did betray them."

"But It was for their sake!" Lucy points out.

"That's right! Jellal was going to kill them if you did anything to try and save them!" Sakura agrees.

"Enough, Lucy, Sakura. If I can defeat Jellal, this will all be over." Erza says.

"Nee-san… That story…" Everyone turned to the doorway to then see Sho there, his eyes widened with a shocked questioning look on his face. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Sho…" Erza calls.

"You tried to get sympathy from your palls with that tall tale? Give me a break! That's not even close to the truth! You blew up our ships and ran away yourself! If Jellal hadn't noticed your betrayal, we would have all sunk into the sea! Jellal told us that was the fate of those who didn't learn the proper way to use magic! You were drunk from the power of magic! You tried to rid yourself of all of us and your past!" Sho angrily states.

"Jellal told you this?" Gray questions as he and the others all stared at him.

"Is that something the Erza you know would have done?" Lucy questions him.

Sho grunts in shock and takes a step back, his eyes now showing that he was now questioning everything.

"What do you know!? You don't know everything about us! Only Jellal's words were able to save us." Sho says as sweat and tears begin to appear on his face. "That's why we spent these past 8 years finishing this tower! For Jellal… If… it was a lie… If you are right, nee-san… and Jellal is wrong…"

"That's right." A familiar voice speaks out.

Suddenly dark mist appears behind the group as everyone turns around to face it before disappearing as Simon appears from it and stands up.

"It's you!" Gray says as he takes a step forward to fight him, but is then stopped when Juvia holds her right arm in front of him.

"Please wait, Gray-sama. Back then, he purposefully attacked your ice-clone." Juvia says.

"What?"

"There is no way a user of darkness techniques would not be able to notice. Juvia came here to ascertain his true intentions." Juvia says.

"I see Phantom's Element 4 deserves their reputation." Simon says.

"What's going on?" Sho questions.

"Sho, I put on a performance to both trick you and get them to come to this tower." Simon says as everyone turns back towards him.

"W-Why? Why would you…" Sho trails off, closing his eyes and turning his head away while lowering it slightly.

"Sho…" Simon calls approaching him and putting a hand on his right shoulder. "Everyone has been fooled by Jellal. I played the fool as well until the time was right."

"Simon, you…" Erza says as Simon turns around and looks down at her.

"I believed in you, Erza. I always did for these past 8 years." Erza looks up at him with a tear in her eyes as she raised her right hand and Simon his left and the two hold each other. "I'm glad we could meet, Erza. From the bottom of my heart…" Simon says as he pulls her in and the two hugs.

"Simon…" Erza says, the others look at the scene with saddened smiles on their faces, happy to see the two friends reunited for real.

"How… How could you believe in her so much? Why?" Sho asks as tears come down his closed eyes as he kneels down on the ground before opening his eyes up. "Why wasn't I able to believe in her?" Sho then falls forward and slams his right fist onto the ground. "Damn!" He cries out in sadness and anger as he begins to cry out. "What is the truth?! What should I believe in?!" He yells out, the others turn away from this with saddened looks on their faces.

Erza approaches Sho and crouches down in front of him. "It must be difficult to accept it all at once. But, let me say this much… For these past 8 years, I have never forgotten about you." Erza says while Sho continues to cry then stops as Erza picks him up and hugs him. "I couldn't do anything for you. I'm sorry I was so weak…"

"But now you can do it. Isn't that right?" Simon asks as Erza lifts her head a bit and nods while still holding Sho. Shimon then turns his head towards the others. "I've been waiting for this moment for a long time. Waiting for a number of powerful wizards to gather here."

"Powerful wizards?" Lucy asks.

"To fight Jellal. We'll all work together." Simon says as one by one the others nod in agreement, Erza stands up and looks back at Simon with a determined face while Sho is still on the ground with tears in his eyes and an angered look on his face. "First, we have to prevent Wally from clashing with Salamander and your friend."

"Friend? Ah, you mean Takeru?" Sakura asks and Simon nods.

Elsewhere in the tower

Natsu and Takeru come across an opened door, the door painted white with face of a cat on it as they look inside to see the entire room colored pink and decorated with nothing but things related to cats.

"What's with this room? It's kitty-city." Natsu questions as he and Takeru enter. As they look around, Natsu approaches a nearby shelf. "Ooh, I like this one! It's a helmet!" He yells out as he picks up a massive greed colored with dark purple stripes cat mask from the shelf, a pink heart on the middle of its forehead and very wide eyes and dark blue pupils.

Before Takeru could stop Natsu putting it on, he puts the cat mask on.

"Let's go, Happy! Aye sir!" Natsu yells out striking different poses, making Takeru sweatdrop behind his head. "Or something…" Natsu finishes as he straightens himself and proceeds to take the mask off, chuckling himself as he tries to pull it off only for it to get struck.

"Huh?" Natsu says before then crying out in a panic. "I can't take it off!"

Takeru tilts its head in confusion thinking that Natsu put it on but he can't get it off. Then the Aura Pokémon let out a sigh as he walks over to Natsu and grabs a hold of it and begins pulling on it, to no avail. Next, Takeru pulls again with everything he's got while Natsu tries to help pulling in the opposite direction, but to no avail still as Takeru let's go.

"Damn it, even you can't pull it off." Natsu says. "Well, it's funny so, whatever!"

Unaware to the two, Wally stands at the door and raises his gun arm and grins.

The group run up the stairs that circles outside around the tower, Simon leading the way to where Natsu and Takeru would hopefully be if they were to find Happy.

"Damn it! My transmissions with Wally and Millianna are being intercepted! Now I don't have any idea where they are!" Simon says with his index and middle finger to the side of his forehead.

"Transmission?" Lucy asks.

"Telepathic Communication Magic, yes?" Juvia says.

"I remember that you used it back at the resort." Sakura says with Latias following behind them.

As the others continue running, Erza stops and turns around to see Sho slowly walking up behind her with the still mortified look on his face about everything he has just learned.

"Are you okay, Sho?" Erza asks.

"Yeah. Since you're here with me…" Sho says looking at her with a saddened smile as Erza returns it with a warm look, the two get back to running up the stairs to catch up with the others.

As the others continue running, Gray looks towards Simon, still questioning whether they should really trust him or not. "Hey, can we really trust him? I accept that he wasn't trying to kill us, but…" Gray quietly says to Juvia.

"I have no intentions of making excuses." Simon says seeming to have heard him.

"You heard me then?" Gray questions.

"Any wizards that'd die from something like that would be no match for Jellal. And I was confident that Natsu wouldn't die."

"Uh, what about me then?" Lucy worryingly asks with her eyes closed.

"You people haven't realized Natsu's true power. When Natsu obtains the true power of the dragons, he will destroy all evil before him!"

In Millianna's room

Natsu cries out in a laughter before raising both of his arms into the air and jumping from side to side on one leg.

"I bet I'll scare the pants off Happy with this! Even Erza might be surprised!" He then stops and lowers his arms a bit. "Wait… Hehehehe. I bet Lucy's reaction would be the best of the bunch!" Natsu says.

Takeru sighs in disappointment with his left palm on his face when Natsu suddenly sneezes.

"Gah! I can't wipe my mouth! Ew~! Maybe I really should take this off…" Natsu says as he begins to try and once again taking the cat mask off. "Takeru, can you help me!?"

Takeru obliges and grabs the sides of the mask once again and the two begin to try and pull it off, once again to no avail.

"Goodbye, boys…" Wally quietly says as he aims his gun at the two's back and fires.

The shot however travels just above the cat mask and impacts into the wall, leaving a square hole in it and catching both Natsu and Takeru attention.

"What?!" Natsu yells out in shock.

"Do~n't! Millianna cries out having of run in from behind Wally to push his gun upwards, causing the shot to miss as Wally is complete surprised by her suddenly appearance and what she did.

"Millianna?!" He shouts.

"It's the blockhead!" Natsu yells as he and Takeru turn around.

"What are you doing?!" Wally questions stepping back with his arm still raised as he looks down at Millianna who looks back up at him with a serious look on her face.

"Hm~, no bullying kitty-cats!" Millianna whines as she closes her eyes and starts waving her right arm up and down with red lightning marks around her arm. Wally has a small sweatdrop on the side of his head as he lowers his gun arm and points towards Natsu and Takeru.

"That's not a cat! Just look at him!" Wally points out.

Millianna turns and looks at Natsu and Takeru as the two stares back at her and Wally, when Natsu suddenly, "Meow…"

Millianna puts her hands together by her head and closes her eyes as she cries out happily with hearts flying from her head.

"Why, you!" Wally yells out in anger with popping veins above his head.

Millianna then stops notices something in the room. "Where's the other one?" She asks as behind Natsu, Takeru is standing behind him since he doesn't have cat-like features.

Wally had enough and pushes Millianna aside. "Out of the way, Millia! He's the enemy, get it?! Take this!" He yells as he pulls his arms in and then throws them out as he sends out a barrage of blocks that make up his body towards Natsu. Both Natsu and Takeru separate themselves as they jump the opposite directions to dodge the blocks as they impact into the ground sending up a cloud of dust. Natsu lands back on the ground only for four more blocks to fly towards him, He quickly acts and picks up a giant-stuffed red cat.

"Cat Barrier!" He yells out using it to block the blocks as he laughs.

"The kitty-cat!" Millianna whimpers.

"I told you they're not cats! They're the enemy!" Wally yells out in anger.

Natsu and Takeru dodge more incoming blocks, Natsu still holding the stuffed cat doll to block more incoming blocks as Takeru already using Bone Rush to hit the blocks.

"The enemy? Even though one of them is kitty-cat?" Millianna asks.

"There's a person inside!" Wally angered, and annoyed states to her with a popping vein on his head.

With all of the stuff literally beaten out from it, Natsu drops the doll and jumps up to avoid more blocks as they impact where he once was, destroying a few other stuffed cat toys.

"Cat Fire!" Natsu yells out as he engulfs his fists in fire and uses it to punch away and destroys some of the other blocks. Takeru then uses Aura Sphere to destroy some of the other blocks attacking him as well, unfortunately both of their attacks cause damages to the stuff cat toys of Millianna's littered throughout the room, shocking her as her eyes widened.

Wally's head and upper body floats downwards while the rest of his body which are the blocks floating around him.

"Not bad. I can see why Jellal said to watch out for you, boy. Millia, back me up!" Wally says as Millianna's looks at the scene with an uncertain face and immediately turns to anger as she raises her fist in front of her, her eyes go blank in anger and narrows upwards almost cat-like as her hair seems to be shaking as well.

"Pretending to be a kitty-cat when you're a person? That's totally un-spiffy!" Millianna exclaims.

"You're one to talk!" Natsu points out with sweat on the cat mask as he points at her and Takeru nods his head in agreement.

Cat-ch you tubes!" Millianna yells out, summoning a magic circle from her extended left hand as two of her orange tubes whirl out from it and catches Natsu's right wrist and Takeru left.

"Excellent work, Millianna." Wally complements.

"Wally, get those imposter cats!" Millianna says.

"Just watch, Millianna." Wally says as he sends the blocks flying towards the two.

"Cat Fire!" Natsu yells out with his fist pulled back, only for no fire to appear as he looks at his fist. "Huh?" He grunts just as one of the block slams right into the side of if head/mask sending him flying back. Takeru quickly acts, ripping the tube with his mouth and jumps backwards to avoid the blocks flying at him as he lands on one hand and knee besides Natsu.

"What the, I can't use my magic all of the sudden!" Natsu exclaims as he sits up. "Is this thing's fault?" He questions as he tries to pull the tube off.

Takeru stands up and looks at Wally and Millianna before he uses Extreme Speed, but suddenly more of Millianna's tubes to come from below him and wraps themselves around his legs magic him unable to speed away.

Takeru then grunts in anger and a tube wraps around Natsu's right ankle, pulling him forward and flipping him around face forward to the ground as hen Wally has some of his blocks slam down onto Natsu's back making him cry out in pain while also doing the same thing to the standing Takeru.

"I hate imposer cat!" Millianna states as she summons more of her tubes which wrap around Natsu's and Takeru's body causing them to fall backwards. Both of them unable to do anything now as Wally puts his body back together and summons his gun. Wally then punts the gun down at Natsu.

"That's far as you go, Salamander. Die!" Wally says as Natsu turns around and begins to use his legs to crawl away like a worm with sweat running down his cat mask.

"This ain't good!" Natsu says.

Takeru calls out for him and tries to break free from the tubes but to no avail.

"Oops. I almost forgot to say my dandy catch phrase. From the moment you met me… your fate was sealed…" Wally says when suddenly from out of nowhere Happy flies out with a toy robot cat which he slams into the back of Wally's head, breaking the toy and sending Wally falling face forward to the ground.

"Happy!" Natsu cheers as he and Takeru are glad to see him.

"Natsu, Takeru, I'm so glad you're safe! And wait, what's with the helmet?" Happy asks.

"Whatever just help us get free!" Natsu cries out.

"Aye!"

"Why that… how dare you interrupt my catch phrase!" Wally angrily yells as he aims his gun and begins shooting at Happy causing him to cry out as he begins dodging the incoming shots.

"Don't!" Millianna cries out as she grabs a hold of his gun and pulls it away as sweat begins to fly from her head. "Don't bully kitty-cats!"

"Cat's don't fly! I'll let the talking slide, but the flying?!" Wally argues.

"Happy, now's our chance!" Natsu yells out.

"Aye sir!" Happy yells back as he flies down towards them.

"Not on your life!" Wally yells out as he quickly turns his gun towards them, a sweatdrop on the side of his head as Millianna pushes at his face. He then breaks away and rushes forward as Millianna quickly grabs Wally's scarf and begins pulling in it.

"I said don't!" She cries out.

"Let me go!" Wally angrily says as he attempts to aim his gun but is unable to as Millianna continues to pull back on his scarf.

This allows Happy to start working on the tubes wrapping up Natsu as sweat flies from Happy's head.

"Hurry up, Happy!" Natsu exclaims.

"This thing's not coming off so easy!" Happy replies.

"Damn it, I'm gonna have to do that!" Natsu says sitting upwards on his knees, catching everyone's attention as they stop what they're doing and stares at him. "Secret Move! Cat in Distress!"

"Meow…" Natsu whimpers out, Happy and Takeru stare in disbelief at Natsu as both of them have their eyes closed as the cat mask's eye seems to become real with tears streaming down them and saddened look on its face.

The background behind the three changes to pink with bubbles floating about, Millianna looks at Natsu with a saddened look on her face. Natsu's meow seems to echo out as she continues to look at the cat mask's saddened eyes with tears and tears appear in her eyes and even go down her cheeks. Everything returns to normal as just like that the tubes on Natsu and Takeru just drop to the ground.

"Whoa, it worked!" Happy exclaims in shock, his eyes open wide up and a yellow crown mark appearing above his head for a second.

"What are you doing, Millianna?! Wally yells out in shock with purple lines under his right eye as Millianna with tears in her eyes and handkerchief over her nose.

"But the kitty-cat was…"

"No buts!" Wally yells as he turns his head now having purple lines going down the left side of his face.

"All righty then!" Natsu yells out.

"Go forth, Natsu, Takeru!" Happy yells out with a crazed look on his face, pink swirls on his cheeks, his eyes widened and red cracks around his small pupils.

"Fire Dragon's Wing Attack!" Natsu shouts and Takeru shoots Aura Sphere sending them both flying into the air crying out, both of them hit the ground and are knocked out.

"My revenge on the blockhead is complete!" Natsu cheers out as he raised his arms up in victory.

Happy floats down beside him and Takeru walks over to him. "How long do you place on wearing that?" Happy asks.

Both Takeru and Natsu droops their arms down with sweatdrops appearing on the back/side of their heads.

"We can't get it off…" Natsu says and Takeru growls in reply.

In the throne room

Jellal sits at the chair with a small floating board in front of his right hand as he holds in his hand what looks like two chess pieces. One of them is a red dragon and the other one has a blue jewel casing with appendage on its two sides. He then knocks over two more chess like pieces, one a pink cat and the other a figure that looks like Wally but with a bow and arrow instead. Jellal brings the two pieces in his hand over to a white spot in the center of the strange-looking chess-like board with an eye in the middle.

Jellal chuckles lightly as he looks down at the board. On it at his end was a piece that looks like a skull king―represent himself. On the other end, was the pieces that represents the Fairy Tail mages, Sakura, Latias, Simon, and Sho, with the cat and archer as Wally and Millianna. A dragon as Natsu, Golden key as Lucy, a knight in armor with a sword and shield as Erza, Ice as Gray, an Urn as Juvia, a blue fish as happy, a Stone wall as Simon, a Card as Sho, a poke ball with a light pink Fairy Tail mark as Sakura, the blue jewel as Takeru, and finally a Soul Dew as Latias.

"Sho and Simon have turned against me. Wally and Millianna have fallen to Salamander and the creature. This is how it should be. There is mothing more boring than one-sided game." Jellal calmly says.

"Jellal-sama, let us hurry and capture Erza to begin the ceremony. There is no longer the time to be playing around." Vidaldus says as Jellal tilts his head up a bit for his right eye to be seen as he stares at him with an evil and unwavering look.

"Then why don't you go, Vidaldus?" Jellal suggests.

"Are you sure? It's our turn next, yes?" Vidaldus asks narrowing his eyes a bit. Then Jellal places three new pieces on the board in front of his piece. A blue guitar, a female with pink hair, green eyes, and a white kimono, and an owl.

Vidaldus grins and crosses his arms downwards as red light erupts from behind him, blasting his hair up as he begins groaning, raising his arms up slowly until he reaches his head and throws them outwards and cries out. His whole appearance suddenly changing into something of that which mirrors an extreme Metal musician.

His skin is now much paler, he dons dark makeup around his eyes and on his lips, he is now bare-chested with a tattoo reading 'Skeletoy' on his chest, and dons shoulder pads and arm guards covering in prominent spikes. Tights replace his pants help up by a belt with a skull-shaped buckle, and he dons boots paired with greaves decorated by flames-motifs.

Suddenly, two other figures appearing to his right, one of them a woman with long, bright pink hair which is tied on top of her head in two large buns, has a curvaceous figure, peach skin, a beauty mark underneath each eye and sports red lipstick. She wears a long, slightly loose white kimono with a red stripe in between two black stripes around the waist as well as a red triangle at the bottom on her dress, decorated by flames and skulls motifs, open black belt adorned with a horned skull. She also has ribbons tied around the sleeves, a buckled strap around her neck and traditional sandals with extreme high platforms soles.

The other figure is a male but has a rather bizarre appearance. He has a body of a man but the head of an owl as well as a rocket pack strapped to his back. His body is heavily muscular and mostly bare, with his clothing consisting only of a pair of green short tights held up by a belt, whose buckle bears a symbol reminiscent of a waning moon with a triangle pointing left in the empty part, and high sneakers bearing the same symbol. He also dons wristbands and each of his biceps is adorned by a band which has several long feathers hanging down from it.

"The Assassin's Guild. Death's Head Caucus. Vidaldus Taka." Jellal says as Vidaldus looks at him with a crazed look. His right eye squints and his left eye wide open, his tongue hanging out from his opened mouth, and his left hand held up with his index finger, and thumb held up.

"Go to hell! Hell! I'll show you the lowest pits of the ultimate hell!" Vidaldus yells.

"Fukuro." Jellal says referring to the half-man, half-owl person as he bends his head to his right and hoos like an owl.

"And their commander, Ikaruga." Jellal says referring to the only female in the group.

"Love and life are fated to be broken asunder, yes?" Ikaruga says closing her eyes and suddenly sakura petals appear from nowhere and begins to float by her as she reopens her eyes. "This eve shall be a festival. We are from the Death's Head Caucus of the Assassin's Guild. The special squad, Trinity Raven, has arrived." Ikaruga says as the three places their right hands over their chest as bows their heads forward, closing their eyes to show respect to Jellal.

"It's your turn. Go." Jellal says.