AN: This is the second installment of the currently untitled series of Crime Sorcière-centered oneshots. I literally started this story immediately after finishing the last one, so I don't have a lot to say here. Please remember to send feedback on which story idea you think I should go with (said ideas are listed in the AN of the previous chapter), and also feel free to shoot up some prompts for this collection (nothing to complicated; none of these are going to be very long, so just vague ideas or character interactions please). Enjoy! Oh, and I know Doranbolt's name is Mest. Jellal and Merudy, however, don't.

Story the Second: Assurance

As a group of wanted criminals, Crime Sorcière did not, by definition, get along with the law, which was ironic, as their guild was intended to punish evildoers as well as themselves. Even before their identities had been discovered, Ultear, Merudy, and Jellal had kept a very low profile – or, rather, as low as was possible when you spent most of your time catching criminals that even the government was apprehensive about apprehending (Merudy was the one who had decided to phrase it like that; Jellal liked to think that they 'helped the helpless').

After Ultear's disappearance, Jellal and Merudy had intended to go on doing what they'd been doing, albeit with trace amounts of misery over the loss of one third of the group, when Doranbolt – or Mest or whatever his name was – showed up before them, bringing with him an irritating reminder that some people could just teleport pretty much anywhere.

"Doranbolt-san," Jellal greeted. Doranbolt stared at him dully.

"Are you here to arrest us?" Merudy asked suspiciously. The councilman let out a ragged laugh.

"On whose orders?" he rasped, fists clenched with fury and grief. "Tartarus just blew the Magic Council to hell. I'm the only one left." Jellal's eyes widened.

"Lahar-san…" he realized. Doranbolt shook his head.

"Dead." he said simply. Jellal looked down.

"I'm sorry for your loss," he said softly. "He was a good man. Brave. I had – I have – a lot of respect for him." Doranbolt shrugged.

"I let the Oración Seis go," he said. Jellal and Merudy stared at him.

"What." Merudy said flatly.

"It was a trade," Doranbolt explained. "I gave Cobra and his friends freedom in exchange for information on Tartarus."

"I see," Merudy murmured. "That must have been a tough choice."

"They'll pay for what they did," Doranbolt hissed. "I'll make sure of it. But right now, I need your help."

"Come again?" Merudy asked, looking incredulous.

"I need your help," Doranbolt repeated. "Specifically you, Jellal." Jellal nodded, looking Doranbolt dead in the eye.

"I'll go after them," he said. "They have not yet achieved freedom, nor will they until they have been released from the darkness."

"I figured you'd say that," Doranbolt noted. "After all, it's pretty stupid to ask a criminal to apprehend criminals."

"Sounds like a bad comic book," Merudy agreed.

"If I can, I will recruit them into Crime Sorcière," Jellal stated. "They will have a chance to make amends."

"And if they refuse?" Doranbolt asked. Merudy glanced back and forth between her friend and the now ex-Councilman. Jellal took a deep breath.

"Then I will do what must be done," he promised. Doranbolt nodded.

"Good," he said grimly. "Though I don't know how you plan to pull that off."

"I'll defeat them," Jellal said bluntly. Merudy and Doranbolt stared at him.

"These guys were tough enough to give Fairy Tail, Blue Pegasus, and Lamia Scale a hard time," Doranbolt reminded him. "You were there too, I believe."

"I was," Jellal said. "But I know something now that I didn't then." Merudy and Doranbolt exchanged confused looks.

"And that is…?" Merudy prompted. Jellal's lips twitched into something that would have been a smirk had it been on someone else's face (ever since regaining his memory, Jellal had completely lost the ability to effectively produce an evil smirk, not for lack of trying on Ultear's part).

"Hoteye, Angel, Midnight, Racer, and Cobra," he said. "They were all in the Tower of Heaven. Once I remembered that, I remembered something else." He turned to look at the sunrise, before turning back to face Merudy and Doranbolt. "I know their names."