Incarcerated Innocence, a Fairy Tail fanfic by Tsunami Storm

Chapter 7: Invalidated Injury

-A few weeks later-

"Thank you so much for volunteering to help me with this, you guys, but you really needn't have. You're so sweet!" Mira smiled gratefully as she organized a high shelf of books in the Records room of the Fairy Tail Guild Hall. It was a bit of 'Spring Cleaning', as she called it, even though Spring was still months away. More like 'Christmas Cleaning', to be honest.

"Oh, it's no problem, Miss Mirajane. We're happy to help." The youngest Dragonslayer- Wendy Marvell- answered with a beaming grin. A few columns of shelves away from her, Jellal Fernandes grinned his agreement as he looked through the various tomes. Pantherlily and Carla were helping out as well, the male Exceed in his smaller form and flying with Wendy as she dusted the ancient books and various pamphlets. At the desk, Carla was hard at work, repairing and restoring some of the older books that were falling apart, making them look nearly as good as the day they were printed. Mira was carefully rearranging books while standing on the ladder and removing tomes that Carla would need to restore next. Since the only ladder was already in use, Jellal was using his Meteor magic to hover in the air in front of the shelf which he was currently perusing.

"It's the least I can do." Jellal mused aloud as he descended to the ground level with another fragile book destined for repair. He set it carefully on the desk and smiled sympathetically at Carla, who sighed exasperatedly at all the work she had yet to do. "If I can be of service to anyone in Fairy Tail- the Guild to whom I owe so much- I will gladly do whatever they ask of me, to the best of my ability. I'd like a chance to prove myself." Maybe- He thought aside to himself- assisting my friends will help assuage some of the guilt of the past for my many sins for which I've yet to atone. Mavis knows that it won't erase them completely, but perhaps they won't be as painful anymore.

As his thoughts trailed down this depressing line, Jellal looked down sadly when his most grievous sin surfaced in his mind once again. Oh, Simon. Forgive me. He breathed mentally as he shut his eyes tightly for a moment against the tears.

"My prince? Er- I mean, Jellal? What's wrong?" Lily asked in concern, momentarily confusing Jellal with his counterpart, the current king of Edolas that had been his close friend.

Jellal looked up at the elder Exceed and smiled grimly. "Nothing. It's all in the past. There's nothing anyone can do about it now." He looked down at the floor at least twenty feet below him for a moment, then returned his gaze to the shelf where he was working.

Nobody present that day could tell afterward how it happened, but somehow the ladder rung on which Mira had been standing to reach the upper shelves suddenly snapped in half, causing the unsuspecting Takeover mage to slip backward and fall to the ground. As if everything was happening in slow motion- Jellal, Wendy, Lily and Carla all jumped into action at the same time to catch their friend and keep her from getting seriously injured or worse by a fall from that height. Coincidentally, the book Mira had been holding was falling right beside her, and it opened to a certain page just as the three mages and two Exceeds collided in midair. A flash of bright white light illuminated the vicinity for a brief second, then the Records room was completely empty, the five Fairy Tail members and mysterious volume nowhere to be found.

"Oh my goodness! That was certainly exciting, wasn't it?" Mira giggled in her perpetually optimistic tone as the other two humans and two felines sat up from their positions scattered all around the room, all putting a hand or paw to their heads as if stricken by sudden headaches.

Well, okay. 'Room' was a bit of a misnomer. There were no walls or doors of which to speak, and the structures that were still standing looked more like badly damaged crystal columns radiating a bright blue light. Sections of crystals of all shapes and sizes were crashing to the ground all around them, and Jellal had to swiftly roll out of the path of one shard to avoid being impaled through the stomach. The piece must have been at least three feet long, and at least a foot wide.

After dodging another falling crystalline stalactite, Carla looked up at her companions and asked, "Well! This is certainly a fine predicament in which we find ourselves! As usual, Fairy Tail has a penchant for causing trouble in even the safest of environments! Does anyone have any sort of clue where we are?"

Jellal knew exactly where they were, and- more importantly- when, but he was loath to mention it to his friends. This was not a time he liked to remember. Understandably.

"We've somehow traveled back in time." The Heavenly Body mage answered after a moment of internal debate. "This is the Tower of Heaven. It must've been that book that Mira was holding when she fell. It was 'Memory Days', or something like that. I only caught a glimpse of the title."

"Oh! I remember Natsu and Lucy telling me about that book!" Wendy interjected excitedly. "They, Erza and Gray all used it to somehow travel back ten years into Magnolia's past, when they were all very young. I don't remember the details, but I do remember that they needed to be in contact with the person whose memory it was to get back. And the spell only lasted for about six hours."

"If that is truly the case, then I am the link back to the present, considering that none of you have ever before been in the Tower of Heaven. We probably need to bring the book back as well." Jellal mused to himself and to the others.

"What happened to the book, anyway?" Lily asked worriedly as he looked around himself, observing their surroundings and jumping out of the way as another shard of lacrima crashed to the ground two feet in front of him.

"I'm not sure. Maybe we could split up and look for it?" Jellal suggested, then added with widened eyes, "Just make sure you stay out of sight. Remember that Erza and the others are here too. You know the rules of time travel. You can't let anyone recognize you." He warned them vehemently, and everyone nodded, knowing full well the gravity of the situation.

"That won't be too much of a problem." Mira smiled sweetly once again. "Transformation magic is my specialty. I'll just turn into one of my more inconspicuous forms and look for the book. I'll find you when I have it, okay?"

Jellal smiled slightly and nodded, acknowledging the Takeover mage's plan as a sound one. With that, Mira transformed into her strongest Satan Soul- Sitri- and flew off, scanning every inch of the crumbling Tower for any sign of the critical opus. With that blue and white outfit, she would blend in fairly nicely with the blue of the lacrima.

A shocking thought just occurring to the former sixth Wizard Saint, Jellal gasped audibly and looked toward the center of the Tower, causing his three remaining companions to turn to him in confusion.

"Wendy." Jellal smiled, and the Sky Dragonslayer blushed shyly at the inexplicable expression of pure wonder on the young man's face. "You truly are a gift from the heavens. I know that you've been wondering about a possible way to help me to deal with my mountain of sins of the past, and I just thought of a way to erase one of them from my past completely. Do you think that- remember when you saved me?" He changed the subject so abruptly that Wendy was confused at the whiplash.

"Um- I think so?" The Sky Maiden nodded, very confused as to why Jellal was talking about this all of a sudden.

"During the first confrontation with the Oración Seis and Nirvana, you used your Sky magic to heal me at Brain's behest." Jellal confirmed for her, and the young Dragonslayer nodded. She did indeed remember that.

"Well- you didn't just heal me. You saved me." Jellal smiled at the child with endless gratitude shining in his hazel eyes. "I wasn't in a coma induced by the Etherion, as Brain told you. I was gone. But you brought me back. As I said before, you are truly a miracle from Heaven. I owe you my life, Wendy."

At Jellal's declaration, Wendy was sure her jaw would have dropped right off her face had it not been attached with a hinge and muscles. The Heavenly Body mage didn't give her much time to gape at him as he continued.

"My point is, do you think you could do it again? Could you take Lily and Carla over there to that large area and save the life of the innocent whose sacrifice never should've happened? You won't be saving just one life, but many. In saving him, your noble action will help Erza, the rest of our friends from the Tower, and also his loved ones. Not to mention myself as well." He asked- no- pleaded with the angelic maiden that knelt before him.

Wendy gasped at the titanic request that Jellal asked of her, uncertain if she could change Fate like that a second time, but then Lily put a paw on her knee and gave her a thumbs up with his other paw. On her other side, Carla also put both paws on her knee and smiled at her closest friend in this world, putting all the love she could muster into her chocolate-eyed gaze. Empowered by these two gestures of encouragement, Wendy nodded brightly in acceptance and dashed off to the heart of the Tower, searching for Jellal's friend that needed her help.

"Thank you, Wendy." Jellal breathed. "You truly are an angel." He smiled once to himself, then quietly stood to his feet, glancing around for a specific inhabitant of the crumbling cage that had been his home for nearly ten years of his life. Off to the side and out of the corner of his vision, he spotted a figure clad in white pants and a black vest pulling the arm of another human being out of a blob of lacrima with all his strength. With a jolt, Jellal realized that it must have been when Natsu rescued Erza from the sea of magic energy and brought her back to their Fairy Tail family on Akane beach. That being the case, he didn't have much time left at all. Activating Meteor, he shot off in the opposite direction to find his younger self. The Etherion must not be allowed to explode outward, and the Heavenly Body mage knew that the only one still capable of controlling that massive energy was himself. He just needed to wake him up first. That was going to be fun.

"Oh, dear Mavis!" Wendy gasped as she dropped to her knees beside the fallen 'hero'- according to Jellal, anyway. The man was about the size of her biggest friend in Fairy Tail, Elfman Strauss- at least before his training for the Grand Magic Games.

"Well, he's certainly been through quite the ordeal, hasn't he?" Carla mused aloud as she tried not to stare at all of the young man's scars. The biggest one nearly covered his sizable chest, and the Sky Maiden could tell that this was the blow that ended his life. Without a word or any hesitation, Wendy closed her eyes and took in a deep breath, reaching for the magic deep within her heart to reverse the damage that her friend- unintentionally- had inflicted on the man with whom he'd clearly been very close growing up. Since joining the Guild a few months ago, Jellal had gradually told her about most of the things that had happened in the R-System island prison, before it was renamed the Tower of Heaven. When her hands began to glow with a turquoise light, she placed them over the grievous wound and willed her power to flow out from her palms and into the still chest of the man laying before her.

-Half an hour later-

Huff- Huff- Hahhhhhh- Wendy panted as Simon did the same a few feet away- still unconscious, but breathing steadily and evenly.

"You did it! You did it, child! I'm so proud of you!" Carla rejoiced quietly as she embraced Wendy's forearm, the highest she could comfortably reach.

"Indeed. You truly are a marvel, Sky Dragonslayer." Lily mused with a smirk when he realized the small pun he'd made with the maiden's surname.

"Yeah- I guess I did, didn't I?" Wendy smiled, slightly bashful at all the praise. But then she frowned inexplicably. "But none of that will matter if this Tower collapses with him still inside! I'm all out of magic power, and even if I weren't, there's no way in Earthland that I'd be able to carry him out of here by myself! He's three times my size, at least!" She gasped, desperately trying to refill her magic reserves by consuming the heavens as fast as humanly possible. She'd never felt this drained, not even when she'd- apparently- brought Jellal back from the dead seven years ago.

"Well that's why you've got me here, I guess!" Lily laughed. Walking up to Simon's side, he put his paws on his hips and smirked, "He may be too big for you to carry, but not so with me. Especially if I assume my battle form." Closing his eyes and concentrating, Lily suddenly disappeared with a POP and reappeared as a giant compared to his previous physique, standing an impressive six feet taller and summoning his wings with a thought. "I'll get him to shore and return in about a half-hour. And don't worry. I'll stay out of sight." He grinned as he put Simon's arm over his shoulders and one paw around his waist, then both Exceed and Darkness mage disappeared into the night sky.

Jellal of Fairy Tail found his younger self within a matter of minutes, smiling sadly when he saw that the teenager was still out cold from Natsu's final attack. Walking over to his past self, he accidentally kicked a small metallic coin with his boot and looked down at his feet. It was his old Seal that had identified him as a member of the Ten Wizard Saints back when he'd masqueraded as a member of the Magic Council, as his thought-projection, Siegrain. Raising an eyebrow slightly, Jellal shrugged his shoulders and pocketed the pin, thinking, Well, he doesn't need it anymore, anyway.

Reaching his younger self's side, The Fairy Tail wizard knelt on one knee and put a gentle hand on the boy's shoulder, shaking it slightly to awaken him.

"Jellal." The future breathed to his past. "Open your eyes. We don't have much time."

A slight twitch of his eyelids indicated that the boy had heard him, and Future Jellal smiled, if only slightly. "You are now the only one who can save her. And you know exactly about whom I'm speaking, so don't bother pretending otherwise. I know that you're now free from that evil spirit, so you don't have any excuse not to do as I tell you." He knew he was being a bit harsh with the boy, but he also knew that he wouldn't remember any of this later during the Nirvana incident.

Without opening his eyes, the younger Jellal nodded slowly and sat up, standing to his feet with somewhat shaky limbs. He had to save her, and all of his other friends that had already escaped the Tower with Erza's teammates. Millianna, Sho, Wally- With a jolt, he remembered what had befallen his dear friend Simon when he'd been under Ultear's complete control, and he put a hand over his face in a vain effort to stem the overwhelming grief that suddenly reared its ugly head and threatened to consume him. "Oh God." He breathed in horror at his memory. "What have I done?"

A voice from somewhere beside him spoke up. "I know. I know exactly what you're feeling right now, because I've gone through the exact same thing. But this is not the time for sorrow. You know what you have to do, Jellal."

The boy of X784 nodded again, finally opening his eyes to locate the nearest lacrima 'blob' with which he could fuse himself and redirect the unstable Ethernano and keep it from hurting anyone else. Trudging over to it, he grimaced in pain as he slowly pushed his hand through the viscous barrier and did the same with a foot and leg. Only after his entire lower half had been absorbed did he finally look up and meet the face of his companion, only to receive the biggest shock of his life when he recognized his own face looking back at him, albeit a few years older.

"Me?" He breathed incredulously, and his older 'time twin' smiled and pulled down the neck of his shirt, exposing his golden Fairy Tail Guild mark emblazoned directly over his heart.

"Oh, you must be Mystogan." Jellal looked down as he continued to push himself deeper into the lacrima. But the elder shook his head. "No, your first guess was correct. I am you, and a member of Fairy Tail. And let me tell you, it was the best decision we have ever made in our lives."

"Time travel?" The younger Jellal whispered to himself, but the older still caught it. He laughed once in disbelief. "Next you're going to tell me that Revival magic is actually possible."

Fairy Tail Jellal couldn't help it. He laughed too. "Well, in a way." He agreed. "But you don't have to worry about that right now. Everything will work out in its own way. Trust me. Trust our heart to do the right thing."

"Trust my heart." Jellal repeated quietly to himself as he closed his eyes and pushed himself through the barrier and completely disappeared into the lacrima. X791 Jellal smiled sadly again and touched his hand to the barrier, whispering two final words to his younger self. "Good luck." Then added mentally, I'm really going to need it over the next few years.

-Half an hour later-

"Good news, everyone! I found it!" Mira beamed as she landed gracefully among the gathered wizards and Exceeds from Fairy Tail that had reconvened at a relatively stable location after their respective 'missions' were completed.

"Perfect." Jellal smiled. "Now, according to Lucy's account of the last incident, we need to all be touching when the time-spell activates. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to be stranded here in the past. Especially not in this God-forsaken Tower. It's a cruel irony that I named it the 'Tower of Heaven', when it was nothing but Hell for all who were involved in its construction." He frowned, his guilt once again roaring in his head like an angry dragon.

Just as he finished speaking, the tome in Mira's hand began to glow, and two hands and two paws shot forward to make contact with the publication as the five travelers vanished from the waters of Caelum in X784 to their home of Fairy Tail in the year X791.

-A few days later-

Knock- Knock- Knock- Came a pounding on the oak doors of the Guild Hall as Fairy Tail was relaxing in each others' company. Jellal and Team Natsu were seated at the nearest table to the doors, so Erza volunteered to go see who their unexpected visitor was- cradling the hand with her new engagement ring as if it were a fragile, priceless treasure. The date was December 25, Christmas Day- and Magnolia knew that Fairy Tail always threw a big party around this time of year- so it most likely wouldn't be a Job Request, but you never knew. There could always be an emergency or something that suddenly came up.

"Meri Kurisumasu, Erzy-werzy!" A bubbly, female voice announced from the doorway when Titania cracked the door open to peer outside, but avoid letting in a chill as much as possible from the wintry weather.

"Millianna!" Erza exclaimed as the door was thrown open wide to admit the Fairy Queen's oldest friends as they all group-tackled the scarlet Knight in a love-filled hug. "Sho! Wally!" Erza laughed helplessly as the group fell to the floor, still hugging and beaming like it was Christmas. Oh wait-

"Erza." another voice called from the blizzard outside, one that no one who'd known this voice ever thought they would hear again. The aforenamed wizard in armor looked up to witness a Christmas miracle. Simon. Her childhood friend was here! He was alive! In the Darkness mage's hand, he held a small note with only two simple words and today's date printed on it in beautiful calligraphy: Fairy Tail, December 25, X791. At the sight of the note he'd written almost eight years ago, Pantherlily smiled slyly as he lounged at an adjacent table next to his Dragonslayer partner, Gajeel Redfox.

At the table, Jellal gasped softly for a moment, but then smiled when he remembered their accidental time-jump a few days ago and beamed with indescribable thanks at Wendy, who just turned red and smiled back bashfully.

"Simon?!" The group of friends by the door breathed in unison, utterly speechless at his resurrection.

"Merry Christmas, my friends." Jellal smiled as the group stood to include the four new members who had joined them. "Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night."

End of Chapter 7

God Bless!

Tsunami Storm