Chapter 1: The Untold Tale

(A/N: Have you ever wondered what exactly Jellal, Ultear and Meredy did during the seven year time-skip? Have you ever wondered how they got to where they are? This, my friends, is my take on the story . . . of the birth of Crime Sorcière.)

Faster… Faster… Gotta run faster before they catch us…

Her eyes darted around the place, scanning for incoming guards. She heard footsteps to her left, so she ran right, after collapsing the floor behind her with her magic, causing the Rune Knights to fall into the large hole. She and her partner in crime continued onward to finding the exit, carrying an unconscious man with them. For someone like him, he was pretty light. It must've been the lack of food he was given during his prison time.

No time to think about that; had to find the exit.

The stampede of footsteps approaching the trio stopped the two women in their tracks. They were going to be surrounded at any moment. Escape was not going to be easy if they kept trekking inside of the large building. But they may have found their ticket out, and it was the large open space to their left. The Magic Council shouldn't have designed the branch building like that; it was about to help wanted criminals escape from their sights once again.

"Let's go, Meredy!"

"Right!"

They leapt outside and fell from the great height, out of the eyes of Fiore's army and into the forest below. It was going to be a harsh landing, especially with someone on her back. But she didn't care. There was always a way to get out of a situation unscathed. So she used her Time Ark and flung her mystical ball into the trees below, creating a sort of soft landing thanks to the large pile of leaves that fell onto the ground.

"Get ready!"

They braced themselves.

And they successfully landed on the pile, not breaking any bones in the process. The two conscious wizards got up as fast as possible and ran into the depths of the forest, but not before the more mature woman used her Time Ark to fix the trees, returning them to the same state as they were before she smashed them into pieces. Without any hesitation, they ran with the man on their back deep into the mountains ahead.

Slowly, the man opened his eyes, and was welcomed by the warm glow of the fireplace in front of where he laid. At first his vision was blurred by the smoke, but he soon saw two figures sitting on either side of the hot fire. He groaned, alerting the two figures that he wasn't asleep anymore.

"Ultear, look! He's waking up!" said Meredy.

Ultear got closer to his face, showing to him her lack of makeup. "Jellal, are you alright? It's me, Ultear."

"Ultear…" Jellal Fernandes muttered softly. Yes, he remembered Ultear. She and he used to be a part of the Magic Council, deceiving them from the very beginning.

Wait, if I remember her, then… Jellal sat up, having realised that his memories had returned. All of them, in fact, were clear in his mind. Everything from his time in the Tower of Heaven as a child to his great gambit he pulled on the Magic Council and tricking them into firing the Etherion, was all clear to the azure-haired wizard.

"Do you remember me, Jellal?" Ultear asked quietly.

"…" He replied, "Yes, I do…"

"So your memories have returned it seems."

"Indeed."

"So are you okay?" Meredy asked. "That rock hit your head pretty hard."

"Rock…? …Ah-!" Now he remembered what happened. He was sitting in his cell until Ultear and Meredy appeared to him and broke him out. But when he got free, a rock fell on his head while the two women were escaping. Ultear mustn't have fixed the floor above them properly, but it resulted in Jellal regaining his memories, along with unconsciousness – but that last part was only temporary.

"So then . . . we're now running from the law," Jellal stated.

He glanced at the two women and noted their attire. Ultear was wearing a purple tank-top singlet with torn blue jeans and high heels. Meredy had a frilly red dress that reached down to her knees, along with high heels as well. He didn't know this, but Meredy used to have an ornament in her hair when she was a part of Grimoire Heart. But now she didn't have that, and her hair had grown a bit longer since then, reaching down to her shoulder blades.

"That's right," Ultear confirmed. "Originally, Meredy and I were a part of the dark guild Grimoire Heart. I think you already know who they are."

"What made you leave them?" he asked.

"It all happened on Tenrou Island: Fairy Tail's sacred land," Meredy explained, but didn't expect Jellal to flinch after she answered.

"What…? What happened? What about Erza? Tell me!" The truth was, Jellal was never told anything when he was in prison. No-one notified him of any of the important events that occurred outside the prison walls. He felt something bad happened to her a long while ago, but he didn't remember how long ago that was.

"Jellal, calm down," Ultear told him. "This isn't like you to be worried about someone else like that."

Jellal glared at her, the fire making him look fiercer. "You don't know the first thing about me," he countered.

Ultear admitted she couldn't argue with that. So she told him what happened all that time ago. "Grimoire Heart and Fairy Tail had a fierce battle on Tenrou Island. It was close, but in the end Fairy Tail was the victor. However, when Meredy and I defected and left the island, Acnologia appeared and destroyed Tenrou Island with one attack."

Jellal's throat choked up, preventing him from asking another question immediately. "How long . . . has it been since that happened…?"

Ultear hesitated to answer. "A little over a year ago…"

He bowed his head, his bangs covering his eyes. But he didn't cry. "I see…"

The air was silent, the burning wood popped as the three wizards sat around it, not saying a word.

"So . . . why did you break me out of prison, Ultear?"

"It's because . . . I want to atone for everything I've done." She looked at Jellal with determined eyes. "And I hope you'd feel the same way I do. Meredy and I agreed that there was one way we could redeem ourselves."

Jellal scoffed. "And what would that be?"

"We form an independent guild," Meredy answered with a serious look on her face, no kidding around apparent in her tone of voice either. "Using that, we would eliminate all of the dark guilds in the Balam Alliance, therefore destroying all of the darkness in Fiore."

Jellal blinked as he looked at the young pink-haired girl. He felt like laughing at the utter absurdity of their idea, but he found that he just couldn't. However, instead of laughing, he got up and headed for the exit of the cave. At first he struggled to walk – it had been a whole year or more since he could walk freely, after all – but he would get the hang of it soon enough.

"Hey, Jellal! Where are you going?" Ultear didn't understand what he was leaving for.

"Don't be stupid, Ultear," Jellal said to her as he turned to face her. "I'm not going to join your silly little guild to atone. I will do it my way."

"But Jellal, you can't go out there by yourself. Let me and Meredy go with you, that way we'll never be captured."

"You and I are done, Ultear. That fact was made clear to me when the Tower of Heaven was destroyed. Why would I want to join forces with the women responsible for summoning Acnologia anyway?"

"What!?" Meredy exclaimed. "Don't be ridiculous! We didn't summon Acnologia!"

"All I know for certain is that if you and Grimoire Heart didn't attack Fairy Tail, then Acnologia would never have appeared. There is no way he would've appeared if none of you tried to destroy Erza's guild!" Jellal was getting very agitated, but he stopped himself after he mentioned Erza's name. "Goodbye." And with that, he left the cave and wondered outside in the chilly night, wearing only what he escaped in.

Ultear and Meredy were dumbstruck. What were they supposed to do now, without the strongest wizard out of the three of them on their side? They couldn't let him wander off, but if they emerged now from the cave, then they risked getting spotted by someone from the Magic Council. So they dropped it. He wouldn't get very far on his own anyway, so they would look for him later.

Jellal walked along the path that led to the bottom of the mountain, only now realising how cold it was at night with only pants on. So much for that. But he wasn't going back to Ultear and Meredy now, not after what he just said to them.

He thought to himself, Was I perhaps not considering their idea more thoroughly? What if they were being serious? No, I can't agree to join them. I will repent for what I've done my own way. They can do what they want without me.

He continued his journey back to the Magic Council, deciding to stick with what he wanted to do when he first got arrested: await their judgement on whether he would stay in prison for life, or to be executed.

He was fine with either decision.

"You haven't found them yet!?"

Lahar further straightened his back. "No, Chairman, I'm afraid none of the search parties have found them at this point in time."

Lahar and Chairman Doma were standing in one of the many halls of the Magic Council Fiore Branch building. It had been two days since Ultear and Meredy broke in and then broke out with Jellal. Lahar was just telling the chairman his report.

"Idiot! How hard is it to find a couple of women and a high-class criminal!? I didn't make you a captain for no reason, Lahar! I expect you to do your job!"

"Yes sir; I apologise."

"Captain!" a soldier called, sprinting to the two men. Once he stopped, he bent over to catch his breath.

"What is it?" Lahar asked.

"It's . . . Jellal Fernandes… He was spotted . . . by one of our search teams…! He said he was . . . willing to cooperate with us…!"

"Willing to cooperate he says? Hmph, whatever. Apprehend him and bring him to me," the captain ordered.

"Yes, Captain." He saluted and ran off.

"Are you going to interrogate him, Lahar?" the chairman asked.

"I am," he answered. "He might know where those other two crooks went. That is, if he's willing to tell us where they went."

Well, this was to be expected.

He figured that when he was captured, he would be interrogated. And when a prisoner was interrogated, he would obviously be in a lot of pain as he was asked by the interrogators, 'where is the money', 'where did you hide the hostages', blah . . . blah . . . blah.

However, taking note of all this as a boot was slammed into his face, he also reached the conclusion that when it hurt, it hurt. A lot. No mental preparation could've prepared him – or anyone for that matter – for the pain he felt. Then again, if he wasn't so weak all over, then maybe this wouldn't feel so bad.

That thought was banished when another boot smashed into his ribs. So much for hopeful thinking.

"Where did they go, Jellal?"

It was that smug captain with the glasses; Lahar. Jellal couldn't see him very well – it was too dark, save for a single overhead light shone on the azure-haired man. It made seeing things a bother. He wished he could close his eyes and just wish this painful experience away–

"Hit him again," said Lahar, and one more kick later, Jellal was clutching his stomach.

Damn those boots hurt… Jellal managed to think through the pain.

"I'll ask you again Jellal: Where did they go?" The captain didn't sound very happy. In fact, Jellal could hear a hint of agitation in there. Well, that was one thing to get out of this, he guessed.

Jellal groaned in response, indicating he was ready to say something. Lahar raised his hand to give the order to sit the prisoner back on the chair. His head was lung low and his arms were wrapped around his stomach; it still hurt too much to sit upright.

"Now then, are we ready to talk?" Lahar asked, losing his patience a little by the sounds of it.

Jellal forced himself upright, his head staring into the light. It hurt his eyes, but it strangely comforted him amidst the darkness. Maybe the light would give that dork an answer so that Jellal didn't have to.

Who was he kidding?

"I…" he muttered. "I don't know… I ran away before they told me where they were going…"

"You're lying," the captain accused. "They would've told you something. Not to mention they wouldn't have broken you out of prison for no reason. What did they want with you?"

"If they did tell me something," Jellal countered, his stomach feeling a little better, "then why did I return and state I was willing to cooperate with all of you?" He may not have wanted to associate with their plans, but the last thing he was going to do was to sell them out for no real reason.

Lahar involuntarily gasped a little and took a step back. Ha, good riddance. He didn't have an answer.

When Jellal stopped looking at the light and stared at the captain, a smile crept up on his face. "Cat got your tongue, Captain?"

"Hit him again!" Lahar snapped.

Jellal saw the world tilt as he fell off his chair and slapped the ground with a thud. He looked up before a boot got him in the chin. Blood flew out of his mouth. That was probably going to bruise later.

"Where are they!?" Lahar barked.

"They were in the mountain area," Jellal struggled to answer as he looked at where he assumed Lahar was standing. "By now they would be long gone though." He couldn't help but smirk deviously. It felt good to do that again. "You're never going to catch them by wasting your time with me."

Lahar stepped out into the light, glaring. "You better watch your mouth, scum. I could have you executed right here and now if I wanted to."

"Then do it," he dared, no longer smiling. "I have no regrets. I want to atone for what I've done, so if killing me means I can do that, then so be it."

Lahar glared for a moment longer before turning around and ordering his guards, "Throw him back into his cell and get a dozen men to go with you to the mountains. I want to find those crooks before dinner."

"Yes, Captain!" the men chimed before one of them picked up Jellal and made his way back to the prison cells.

Half an hour had passed since Jellal Fernandes' interrogation. The result was . . . mostly unproductive, Lahar had concluded. For some reason or another, Jellal wasn't giving him the information he wanted. It was possible that he was telling the truth.

But who would blindly trust a criminal like him? Honestly…

Then again, Fairy Tail tried to defend him. The band of mischievous and uncontrollable fools actually tried to defend a man who used children as slaves and deceived the Magic Council from underneath their noses. A crook like him shouldn't deserve any sort of sympathy. So then, if that was the case, why did they still insist he be let go?

"It's because they're too idealistic for their own good," he muttered quietly to himself.

"Captain!"

Oh great, now something happened again. What was it going to be this time? Did Ultear and Meredy decide to barge into the place and free Jellal again?

"What is it?" he asked, turning to face the guard who spoke to him.

"It's Ultear and Meredy, sir! They came here and started wrecking havoc!"

Well goddamn it! They went and did the stupidest thing imaginable!

"Jellal," Ultear said. "You're coming with us."

"Ultear…" He sighed. This was getting absurd. A guard was holding a knife to his throat, and Ultear and Meredy came back to try and save him. He was literally an inch away from serious injury or possible death, so whatever trick they had up their sleeve they should take out quickly, less they want to see his blood sprayed across the marble tiles. "I thought I told you: we're done. I don't want to join your little band of crime-fighting wizards who want to atone for what they did in the past."

"Think Jellal, would Erza be happy with you killing yourself?"

That got his attention. "What did you say?" he hissed.

"I'm asking you if you really think killing yourself will fulfil your atonement. If you ask me, Erza wouldn't be very happy with that."

He glared.

"If you really want to atone, Jellal, then atone by helping others in time of need. If Erza were in your position that is exactly what she would do. Wouldn't she?"

What was this woman saying? That she knew what Erza would do in his shoes? Ridiculous.

But then again, she did bring up a good point. If anything, Erza would be devastated – assuming she was alive – to hear of his execution. It was probably bad enough that he was arrested and sentenced to life in prison. Thinking about it, perhaps doing what Ultear suggested would be something his childhood friend would do.

He closed his eyes and sighed. In the proceeding silence, he smiled. "How ironic." He jerked his head back, hitting the guard square in the nose so that he was released from his grip. The knife went skittering across the ground as Jellal jumped and performed a spin kick to the head, sending the guard flying. Landing, he continued. "Me, the man who knows betrayal better than anyone else here is going to put his trust in a former ally to destroy the darkness he once took comfort in." He smirked as he looked at her. "Very well then Ultear, let's get going. Find Meredy so that we can get out of here."

"I'm already here," said Meredy as she emerged from the hallway around the corner. "We ready to go Ultear?"

She smiled. "It appears so."

And so, with that, Jellal, Ultear and Meredy escaped the Magic Council's sights for a second time.

That would make it the last time as well.

During a random conversation, Meredy asked what their guild name was going to be. They discussed ideas for a while, but none of them quite sounded right. They were stumped.

But then Jellal got a wave of inspiration. "How about Crime Sorcière? I think that has a good ring to it."

They thought about it for a bit before Meredy nodded. "Yup! I like it!"

Ultear nodded as well. "I like it as well."

"Well then, it looks like we have a name for ourselves," Jellal concluded. "Crime Sorcière it is."

The trio smiled as they walked, the setting sun in the distance shining on their backs. They could picture it now: the guild emblem proudly displayed on a part of their bodies as they worked at taking down all of the dark guilds in Fiore, and eventually all of those in Earthland. It will be a long journey ahead of them, but they were determined to see this goal through to the end.

They were determined to make up for their mistakes.

End of Chapter 1

(A/N: Leave a review and tell me what you think. Hopefully we can all see this through to the end, because I plan to write about forty-eight or so chapters – a whole season's length. But the chapters aren't going to be this short anymore. They'll be a lot longer, so prepare yourself.

They'll also be updated quite slowly... Oh well.)