AN: Well, it seems that the issue with my computer has been fixed for now, so I can now update from home instead of going to the library every time I want to do something on this site.
For some odd reason, I moved from One Piece to Fairy Tail. Even I don't understand my brain most of the time! How are those anime even connected?!
By the way... those of you who have read 'Death's Mistake' know that every 100 reviews I get I post TWO chapters instead of just one. But that doesn't apply to just that story; it's for EVERY MULTI-CHAPTER STORY I POST! So far, 'A Skylar's Song' is closer to getting a double chapter than any of my other stories. But you're my cute little readers; you know how to remedy that.
Read and Review!
Chapter Six
The farther they walked into the forest, the more nervous everyone got; the grass and other greenery vanished so suddenly, it was like something had drained the life out of them and the vegetation all crumbled into nothingness. The only sound the group heard (besides Cobra) were their footsteps, oddly loud in the unnatural stillness. Even Natsu didn't dare open his mouth.
And in time, they came across exactly what Jellal had told Natsu: an enormous, majestic-looking tree that glowed as brightly silver as the Moon. The group stopped very quickly except Jellal, who walked right up to the tree's roots. He looked up and seemed to study it, until the Wizard Saint nodded.
"This tree hides great evil from the world."
As if in response, said tree glowed even more brightly.
"You mean... that is what hides...Nirvana?" Lucy whispered. She doubted even Grandpa Crux had seen something so intimidating before! The tree looked beautiful, but the sheer darkness that thing was emitting made her skin crawl! Especially since as a Celestial Spirit Wizard she was more sensitive than most to changes between darkness and light. "Why does it feel so dark?"
"Nirvana was built 400 years ago," Hibiki answered, looking up from the Archive screen. "By a tribe that was neutral in the horrible wars that occurred during that time. From the records I've been able to find, it seems Nirvana was made to switch light and darkness in people's hearts. But shortly after Nirvana was built and the wars stopped, the tribe that built it vanished. After that, Nirvana itself was sealed away. Many archaeologists and historians made theories on where and why it was sealed away."
The whole group felt sick. So that was what the Oracion Seis were planning? The slaughter of every light guild in Fiore?
"Do you know what Brain is planning? Where he's going to use Nirvana first?" Erza asked Cobra sharply. The man shook his head, still gazing at the tree with awestruck eyes. "No... I've never been able to hear Brain's thoughts, and he doesn't share details of his plans with anyone."
"What else have you found out about Nirvana, Hibiki?" Jellal asked, eyes on the Blue Pegasus wizard. "I'd like everyone to know everything we need to know before deciding what to do."
"Once activated, Nirvana has three stages. The first looks like a black pillar of light, and it searches out anyone teetering between darkness and light. Once that happens, they're switched to the opposite of their usual nature. But it only happens to people in between good and evil, and I don't know if they can revert back to their usual self once Nirvana changes them. The second stage is where the the pillar changes from black to white, and as far as I can tell it doesn't really do anything except prepare for the unsealing. The third stage is where it's fully activated."
Everyone, even Cobra, was feeling nervous now. All that power was in the hands of a megalomaniac that wanted to destroy everything good in this world.
"You know," Jellal said, "I've never trusted what history says. After all, it's written by the winners, and the truth can easily become lost or distorted. That's why I feel like Brain might be a bigger threat than the Black Wizard Zeref ever was."
"What?!" everyone yelled. "But Zeref's done so many horrible things!" Erza shouted.
"So have I," Jellal said. "I destroyed the Magic Council, I made them fire an Etherion blast. I killed Simon and tried to kill you and Natsu. And because of that... will the truth in my situation be lost when our deeds are passed into legend? I cannot help but wonder if Zeref had a similar situation happen to him."
Erza looked at Jellal, thinking about what he said. Even if what he wondered was true, though, Zeref was long gone. Only his works, like the Lullaby flute and Deliora and the Tower of Heaven, remained.
"Prepare yourselves," the former Magic Council member said. Jellal placed one palm on the glowing tree, and the light it emitted became as bright as the sun. Then, the tree vanished in a pillar of black light streaked with white, black tendrils writhing and circling in the air. Everyone except Jellal had to brace themselves, arms thrown up in front of their faces protectively.
"Holy..." Natsu gaped. A shiver ran down his spine, and everyone else's, at the sight of Nirvana's unsealing.
"And now it starts," Jellal announced. "The Oracion Seis will be coming here now that Nirvana's location has been revealed."
"Everyone, rest up," Erza commanded. "We need to defeat the Oracion Seis as well as stop Nirvana, so recover as much magic power as you can."
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o
All in all, the wait was pretty boring as they prepared for the fighting that would be going on soon. Natsu was knocked out by Erza pretty early on, so the others learned not to get too antsy unless they wanted the same thing to happen to them. Jellal continued his silent vigil in front of Nirvana, not having moved an inch since the unsealing began. Erza stood by his side, her scarlet hair whipping violently around her face.
But once the pillar changed from black to white, tensions began to arise in the group as a whole, since they knew that Nirvana (according to the documents Hibiki had found) would soon be unsealed. Natsu woke up and started pacing around the small area once again, eager to get started on beating the Oracion Seis and turn Nirvana into a pile of rubble. Lucy was nervously fiddling with the gold and silver keys on her belt, Hibiki tapped his fingers on his pant leg, and Kinana kept winding around Cobra's shoulders in her own version of nervous pacing. Or maybe she was nervous because she could smell the other Oracion Seis members closing in.
But then Jellal tensed, whipped around and shouted, "Everyone, GET-!"
Before he could finish, the ground seemed to break apart. There were screams and shouts of surprise, and the group suddenly found themselves being separated as something rose up from underneath the ground. "Natsu, grab my hand!" Lucy cried. "Happy! Where are you?!" In the chaos, it was hard for Happy, Carla, and Kinana to grab their respective wizards. (In fact, Happy missed Natsu's vest completely.)
"JELLAL!"
"ERZA!"
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o
When his vision cleared, Jellal found himself staring at a brick wall.
Understandably, the blue-haired mage blinked in confusion before registering the pain in his right arm and shoulder. Looking up, he saw that Erza had somehow managed to reach him when Nirvana was unsealed; she gripped Jellal's wrist and a small ledge above them, gritting her teeth with the effort of holding him as well as herself.
"Hold on, Jellal!" Erza called down.
"Kinda hard for me to do anything else!" Jellal yelled snarkily back. Erza, however, ignored him and began to pull herself up. Jellal dug his boots into the cracks and anything else he could find to help drag himself up onto the ledge, hand scrabbling for something to clutch onto. Jellal managed to reach the small ledge first and turned around, reaching out a hand to help the Titania the rest of the way.
The two simply sat and caught their breath for the first few minutes, tired after having to hang from the side of Nirvana for a while. The wind was bitingly cold this high up and was blowing quite fiercely, perhaps stirred up by Nirvana, making their hair fly into their faces and obscure their vision. Jellal brushed his blue locks out of his eyes and started observing Nirvana itself. He felt an excitement in his soul: Nirvana was ancient magic, incomparable to magic of today, built with unknown methods (how did it even turn light into darkness? There had never been another example of such a thing and that was exciting!) and none of its full capabilities were known. After all, Jellal doubted that all it could do was turn darkness into light, and vice versa; it should be capable of defending itself or attacking if it needed to.
"I hope everyone's all right," Erza said quietly, looking at Nirvana carefully. "It happened so fast and we were all caught so off-guard..."
"Have faith in them, Erza," Jellal said, giving a small smile. "I really doubt Natsu, especially, would allow himself to fail at doing this. He would want to destroy Brain and Nirvana himself, if possible." Even though he didn't remember Natsu and hadn't really talked with him that much since being reawakened by Wendy, Jellal wondered how much of a headache Natsu was for his guild master.
Erza laughed softly. "You're right, Jellal. They're all strong."
"Of course I'm right, I'm always right," the Heavenly Body Mage joked. "But I think we need to get moving; the Oracion Seis are probably up there somewhere, along with our comrades. And I will not leave them to deal even more damage than they already have." Erza nodded in agreement and so the two began a long, treacherous climb.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o
Miles away, Happy soared through the air while he searched for Natsu and Lucy. He felt really, really bad that he hadn't been able to grab onto Natsu when the ground broke open, and he hoped that they were all right.
But as he looked upon Nirvana, he wondered how they were going to be able to beat this thing. It was a walking city with six legs, so huge that he thought Magnolia might be the same size as Nirvana! And how was he going to find everyone?
A glimpse of blond and pink caught the little blue cat's eye, and Happy turned to one of Nirvana's legs. When he flew down closer to it, he cried out with relief: it was Natsu and Lucy! Along with Gray!
"Happy!" Lucy called, waving to him.
"Lucy! Natsu!" Happy cried. "Are you guys all right?"
"Yeah, little buddy," Natsu said, giving one of his many grins. "I'm glad you're not hurt."
"Well, we might not be hurt but everyone's scattered," Gray noted. "And you guys said that the rest of the Oracion Seis are probably in the city by now? We won't be able to defeat them separated like this; Lyon, Sherry, and I had a hard time with the three of us taking on Racer."
"Right, and we can't communicate with Jellal and Erza anymore..." Lucy said worriedly, making Gray choke on air.
"What do you mean, Jellal?!" Gray yelled. Lucy and Natsu stared blankly at the Ice-Make mage until they remembered that Gray hadn't been with them when Jellal had reappeared; he'd already been fighting Racer at that point and Natsu hadn't encountered his rival after that.
Lucy quickly explained what had been going on and everything they had found out about Nirvana to the stripper while Natsu sniffed the air for any sign of their friends. He thought he'd smelled Jellal and Erza but he couldn't be sure because of the wind. "We need to get moving," the pink-haired Dragon Slayer said. Lucy and Gray fell silent and turned questioning eyes onto their guild mate. "After all, everyone else is going up there to stop Brain and Nirvana. I don't wanna be left out of the action." Lucy sighed; of course Natsu would want to jump directly into the fighting.
Natsu started sprinting up their "leg" of Nirvana, leaving Gray and Lucy no choice but to run after their crazy friend with Happy following in the air.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o
Jellal and Erza stood together after their really, really long climb. But now that they managed to make it up to the top, Erza was wondering if it had been the smartest decision they'd made. From the looks of it, there was an entire city on Nirvana for some reason (perhaps the tribe that built Nirvana 400 years ago felt homesick?), but it was nothing but ruins now, crumbling and decayed from the passage of time. Perhaps there had been beauty in the architecture once, Erza thought, but it had been twisted somehow. And the wind howling through the holes of the buildings and through the streets did nothing to lower the creepiness level.
Jellal narrowed his eyes as he observed the buildings and streets around them. "Something terrible happened here..." he said. Erza looked at him. "I can sense Death... so much of it, fueled by anger, hatred, envy...even now, their pain screams out to those that might hear..." He shuddered, the Deathly Hallows mark pulsing softly. "It's a good thing we're planning on destroying this place."
Before the red-haired Titania could respond, both of them felt the touch of telepathy on their minds. Hibiki's voice rang out, 'Everyone, someone, respond! Is everyone all right?!'
"Hibiki!" Erza cried out, surprised. She hadn't known that the Blue Pegasus member had telepathy magic like Warren.
'Erza!' Hibiki sounded relieved. 'At least your safe. Anyone else?'
'We're here!' Natsu's voice yelled. 'Me, Gray, Happy, and Lucy!'
'Man!' Obviously Ichiya, unless Elfman decided to join the coalition while no one noticed.
'Me and Carla are fine,' Wendy's young voice chimed in. 'I can't believe how massive Nirvana is...'
Jura's deep, powerful voice spoke up, followed shortly by an unfamiliar one. 'This is Jura; my battle against the Oracion Seis member known as Hoteye was successful, and Richard is now helping us.'
'Because of brotherly love! Oh yeah!'
Everyone sweatdropped. So that was Hoteye. Or Richard. Whatever his name was.
'Cobra here with Cu-er, Kinana. Waiting for whatever the hell we're going to do now.' Cobra sounded especially grumpy, probably to hide the nervousness at the fact that the rest of his guild was somewhere on Nirvana. The mage knew exactly what they'd do to him once they found out he was sticking around Jellal and the other light wizards.
Jellal had been silent through the exchange, until Erza elbowed him in the side and hissed, "Don't be rude!" Jellal sighed, rubbing the sore spot. Why did he like this woman again?
"Yes, I'm here as well," Jellal said. "I'm glad everyone wasn't injured during Nirvana's unsealing."
'Jellal Fernandes?' Jura asked sharply. 'What are you doing here? You were presumed dead after the destruction of the Tower of Heaven.' Even though they didn't say anything, those who hadn't known of Jellal's return were listening closely.
"Deja vu, anyone?" Jellal said a little snarkily. "But before I explain... your name seems familiar, Jura."
The Wizard Saint probably raised an eyebrow as he responded. 'I am one of the Ten Wizard Saints, as you were before...' No one had to say it aloud, they were all thinking it: before Jellal and Ultear destroyed the Magic Council. 'I also sparred with you quite a bit for training. But, since you didn't recognize my name, does that mean something has happened to your memory?'
"Yes. All my memories, save for Erza's name, are gone," Jellal admitted.
There was stunned silence from Jura and Ichiya, but Jellal continued before they could say anything. "Cobra asked for our plan: here's my answer. The Oracion Seis besides Cobra, Hoteye, and Racer need to be dealt with. We'll split up and attack in small groups, two or three at most. Hibiki can contact us periodically instead of having a constant telepathic link open that will drain his magic energy while continuing to look into Nirvana and any weaknesses it might have. Cobra, Hoteye, do you have any suggestions on who would be better for certain members to attack?"
Erza stood and watched Jellal take easy, natural command over the coalition that included another Wizard Saint; Jura could easily assume command due to experience, power, and leadership skills, yet he chose not to. Jellal was smart, asking for others' opinions when he didn't have enough experience or information, and he would use that information to the fullest extent.
'Midnight's the real dangerous one, besides Brain' Cobra said. 'Me and Hoteye should take him on. Brain will be at the throne, at the top of the tallest structure here. Your strongest wizards should go face him. Other than that, it doesn't really matter.'
"What do you think, Erza?" Jellal asked her. She knew her teammates strengths and weaknesses better than he did, and she was good at assessing others' skills even if they just started working together.
After thinking it over for a few minutes, Erza said, "Natsu, Gray, and Lucy: head over to the throne and find out if Brain really is there. Jellal and I will head over in that direction to give you backup if you should need it. And I agree that Cobra and Hoteye should deal with Midnight. Everyone else should keep an eye out for Angel."
'Alright,' Hibiki said. 'I'll contact the group every 10 minutes, unless something drastic comes up. Make sure to let us know if anything changes. Good luck, everyone!'
With that, their telepathic connection cut off as everyone began working towards completing their new plan.
Well, I am exhausted. But things are finally moving forward! After this arc is when things get a little more AU, and I can't wait.
No one's asked about parings yet; Jerza of course is the main one, but there will be Nalu as well. I don't mind Lisanna, I think she's a little annoying, especially her voice in the English Dub, but I don't think she and Natsu would really work out as a paring. But romance isn't the main focus of this story, so nothing more than kissing. Heck, I've never had my first kiss yet! I would have no idea how to write anything more than that!
I'm glad you guys are still hanging in there, and I hope you guys give me some reviews!
