updated 15/11/2024, replacing chapters 17, 18, and 19

Guest, Twinkle twinkle little star, Guess I've really set the bar, Up above the world so bright, I must admit I adore this site, Twinkle twinkle little star, Jellal will have to go quite far. Chapter 21! Here it is! Whoo!

Phoenix(1), well my readers were counting on me what else could I do? Aw, I hope your family is alright. It sucks when a family member is hurt and you don't know if they're gone be ok. Hey, anything for a friend. (Even if that friend is now a tomato.)

Phoenix(2), whoo! So you were! Look out people we gotta number 100 on our hands here! Congrats!

Otaku789, welcome to this… chaotic thing. Eh. It took me a second to realize you didn't mean a Natsu dating Lucy twist… (I haven't been reading too much slash what are you on about) We're sorry, Jellal is out of his mind right now. Try again right after the little blue haired girl. Ooh, I haven't thought of that actually. If I did it'd probably be on a separate story, and I've have to make it so people could read it without getting spoiled for this but I could give it a go(except I'm really bad at writing down what makes a character a character I usually default to 'nice'). Hm. I could set up a poll- you know what imma set up a poll for that. Thanks!

Phoenix(3), **turns to camera** **dramatic whisper** she knows

How did you access my notes they're not even on the Internet they're in a small black book at the back of my cupboard. If I got the tomato magic you got some sorta freaky foresight thing going on there. Whoa. As it stands, it's not set in stone that that'll be what happens, mainly because I'm tryna figure out what the conflict would be, or if there would be a conflict at all. (Though I gotta admit Natsu, Wendy, and Gajeel vs the king of Edolas in his dragon suit thing is one of my favourite fights.) ((WAIT I GOT IT I GOT IT OOH THIS IS GUNNA BE GOOD)) but man I'd love to see my Natsu interact with canon Natsu. But seriously though that there was pretty much my thought process like how did you even. How- what. Uh, anyway, Phantom Lord is clo~ose~ so very close. Oh yeah, Grand Magic Games is my favourite too. (Might have said that before earlier I don't exactly remember. Eh) well I mean I dunno if the council is after Natsu then I mean maybe having him compete in a tournament meant to be watched by the entirety of Fiore would be kind of a bad idea but then again it's Fairy Tail so… yeah I actually mentioned Hetalia to one of my friends and she was like 'oh I watched 113 episodes yesterday' and I was like 'excuse me what' so she's got me started off (y'know I never had troubles with keeping up with subtitles before but that was chaos). Unfortunately I've been struggling to write anything lately but I'll overcome this writers block even if it, well, not kills me but y'know.

Phoenix, may Jellal rest in peace. Shu too, all things considered. I knew it! That was way too close to what I had planned to be coincidence! Uh, anyway, I'm honoured that you actually put time into thinking about what I might do for a plot line. Mr. Heartphilia may or may not give up. (Cause I mean he let Lucy go in the anime cause she's his daughter and he loves her, but Natsu is just some random kid he found in a bush so…) perhaps. I mean, who knows who was in that card. It just might end up being something big… **wheels to camera** ** even more dramatic whisper** she knows. Hey, family is important. My dad fell off his motorbike once. He skidded off the roads and into a blackberry bush where a homeless guy offered him blackberries, and then two big dogs ran by and a guy in a truck chased them down. The dogs, that is, not my dad and the homeless guy. …weird things happen to my family. Thanks for the advice! Personally, for me, writers block is less of a 'what should I do, I don't now what to do' and more of a stiffness in my mind that carries down to my fingers that makes it hard to think and type out what I'm thinking. (I've found that watching the episodes is typically a bad idea because then my brain is like 'oh no you're going too far off canon!' And then I have to fight myself) OH THAT REMINDS ME I listened to On My Own and got some intense inspiration for this chapter. Thanks! (You flatter me so)

Guest, row row row your boat, gently down the stream, now this plot has been set on course, this certainly isn't a dream. Thanks for the advice! I'll not give up!

Otaku789, I guess there's nothing really holding me up, now that you mention it. Huh. Guess I'm just lazy. Whoops. Oh gee, you really think so? Thank you! Yeah, people were commenting on how I was being too canon with this so I decided to change that with this arc, you know, mix them up a bit. And since I had so much fun with this, who knows what'll come later? Will do! And if you still feel inclined to throw that punch my way, you'll taste the Icy Dragons Frozen Fist!

Guest(2), whoops. My. Bad. Bad. My. Whoops. Huh, that didn't work out quite like I envisioned. Oops. I'm updating, don't worry! I got your back! Hello desperate, I'm Shade. Oh yeah, Dragon Force tiiime!¡!¡

Phoenix(1/2), first off, sorry for not responding to your review on chapter… Uh. 21? I checked my email before updating and it was like 'yep nope nothing to see here', and then as soon as I updated it was like 'haha! Here's a couple of reviews!' so sorry about that. Second off, thank you for reading and leaving a review on Skin Deep, ChickenNuggs was extraordinarily happy and wouldn't stop fawning over it. She was pretty much bouncing off the walls, haha. (Not unlike how I feel when I get a review from you so I'm not complaining) anyway, now I have a small horde of inspirational quotes, fear me. The writers block is about halfway gone, we're getting there! Aw, that's a shame. One of my close friends moved across the country about midway through high school. Thinking back on it, I think her and two others were the first friends I had that didn't bully me in one way or another… Uh, anyway, I'm sure you'll still have a great time in high school! (Oh no guys she's got her tomato magic back! Run for your non-tomato life!)

Phoenix(3), Whirl makes an entrance! Originally I was gonna have Ultear fix the armband with arc of time, but then there was never really an opportune moment for that to happen, so then the responsibility shifted to Lucy and Aquarius, but at the last moment I decided to drop Whirl into the mix. Yea, I didn't want to overpower him with all the elements, and I feel like just ice would be underwhelming so I'm glad to see I found a nice balance. Ooh, there's an idea. But yes! Finally! Phantom Lord! Whoa whoa whoa no tears no tears I'm fresh outta tissues! You're quite welcome! Really I don't think of this story as a matter of obligation but rather one of personal enjoyment. Goodness knows I'd be a much sadder person without you guys and your positive reviews! Yea, On My Own has made it onto my personal YouTube playlist of songs-that-I-will-listen-to-on-repeat-whilst-writing, so you might want to watch out for any… familiar… Wording in this chapter. Oh no, if the suspense kills you who'll review in your place? Can't let that happen.

Guest, the itsy bitsy spider crawled up the waterspout, I'm sure the baddies minds have been filled with doubt, down came the rain and washed the spider out, kicking ass and acting crass is what we're about, out came the sun and dried up all the rain, I must say this story isn't turning out plain, and the itsy bitsy spider climbed up the spout again! Phan-tom Lord! Phan-tom Lord! Oh, right, the Dragon Cry movie! I'm looking forward to that. I'm looking forward to rewriting that. Particularly that Natsu turning Dragon scene that we see in the trailer… Ahahaha. Darn, seems I missed the sixteenth… Maybe I'll make the nineteenth! Hopefully! Cause I mean if those Fairy Tail figures are Pop Figures I wouldn't be able to say no. Or, really any Fairy Tail figures thinking on it. (Darn, I missed it. Sorry, I've been struggling with a horrid headache for a few days ibuprofen why do you fail me.)

Otaku789, and hey, if they aren't hidden away in keys who knows where they're hiding. Thanks! Oh no! Not evil Dragon Force Natsu! I'll have to get canon Natsu in here!

Phoenix(4), actually I'm working my way through the One Piece manga right now! I think I'm on the… Uh. The arc with the blue haired robot dude. I should probably delve back in there, all things considered. The only reason I haven't read in a little bit is my library has volumes 60-65, but then jumps straight to 70, so I'm trying to locate the missing five. I think everyone is losing it for Phantom Lord. I'm losing it for Phantom Lord! No worries! (I mean if people are loosing it over a throwaway line in an authors note I have worries for when we're in the thick of things. Oh oh.)

Guest(2), I've updated! Whoo!

The bite of pain in his shoulder draws Natsu back into himself, and he finds himself rapidly blinking at the crystal floor. Recent memory is hazy, distant. He feels terrible, but… Better than he had before.

Why does his shoulder…? Oh. Oh, that's a lot of blood.

Rapid footsteps pound away, and Natsu finds the retreating back of one of Erza's friends. That was right, he tried to put Natsu in one of those cards, and Natsu… reacted.

A cold hand presses against his shoulder, and he turns, finding a woman made of ice.

Ah. The other magic signature that had been in Iced Shell. That memory rises, floaty, distant. Like he watched someone else's hands at work.

This— not the haze, that was… well, it could be any number of things, but this— it was a potential side effect Kyu had only barely mentioned off hand. Natsu wishes he had gone into more detail.

"I'm going to freeze over your shoulder to prevent any more blood loss," the woman says. Her other hand comes up, pressing fingers of ice against his blood slicked skin.

Nothing happens.

"… what?" Her brows furrow, and she pushes against him, like he's being resistant. "I can't… use my magic."

Natsu brings his other hand up, flexing his fingers to dispel the icy knife edging his palm. A thin sheet of ice spreads from his hand, covering the wound, and she steps back, surprised.

"… Iced Shell," Natsu says, after just a moment too long. It's difficult to organize sounds back together into words, but now that he's made a start, "It has to be a side effect from Iced Shell."

She folds her arms over her torso, pauses, and examines one of her hands. "That makes sense. I suppose it's a fair trade— I never thought I'd get to live again. A body made of ice and a lack of magical power is an alright price to pay."

Again, it would have been nice of Kyu to mention any of this.

"It was you who did this, right?" She asks.

"Uh, yeah," he says, almost opening his mouth to add more before it occurs to him that saying he really didn't mean to probably isn't the best of ideas, considering he's the reason she's alive.

"Thanks, then, I owe you one. You know Gray, don't you?"

He does, even if the guy is never gonna want to see him again once this is all said and done— Natsu, actually, has no idea where Gray went. Maybe he's after Erza?

Ah, shit . He needs to get going.

The woman gives him a scrutinizing look, shifting her weight. "You just remembered something important, didn't you? I won't keep you, just— keep an eye out for Gray, alright?"

"I will," Natsu promises, aware that this might not be the kind of promise he can keep for long. He'll keep it while they're here— he's not letting Jellal get away with any of this, not if he can help it— but after that…

After is after. With a quick smile and nod of acknowledgment, Natsu takes off.

His shoulder aches and complains under the strain of moving, and he layers more ice onto it, determined. Even if he has to freeze his whole arm to his body, he's not letting this slow him down.

.•.•.•.

Jellal isn't there, when Erza and Simon burst in. Erza feels the urge to fight in her teeth, her nerves, the handle of her sword practically electric in her hand. She feels as though etherion itself would fail to stop her, like she's finding a gap between reality and conviction and forcing the world to line up, but that doesn't change that Jellal isn't there.

"He'll be back," Simon says, "and we'll be waiting for him."

"Back from where ," Erza demands, even though Simon has no reasonable way of knowing. She doesn't like this— the tower is practically crawling with people that she cares about. Jellal could be hurting any of them. What happened to etherion? To Natsu, to Shou? Erza itches with the need to know, the need to fix things, and Simon sees it in her.

"Once he had this room built, he hardly ever leaves it. He will come back here, Erza— likely with whatever dragged him away in the first place."

She wants to comb the entire tower over, but that would take time they don't have. "Fine," she relents, bitter. Requip puts her in her Heavens Wheel armour, and she sits on a hair tension trigger, ready to summon as many swords as it will take. Simon grimaces, moves so his blind eye is on Erza's side.

Eventually, he breaks the silence.

"What's Fairy Tail like?"

"It's wonderful," Erza replies, response almost instinct. "Grandpa Rob was right."

"They… they left him here, though."

Guilt pulses in Erza's heart. She— she hates. She hates . She never should have left them, couldn't have stayed. Should have rescued them, couldn't risk it.

"They never stopped looking," Erza replies, words heavy. "Not until I showed up. They just… didn't know."

"I guess a lot of people didn't know," Simon says, after a weighty pause.

There is no response to that other than a low, angry laugh.

They wait in silence. Magic power erupts from under them, the tower fractures into crystal, and even though Erza feels the need to move, to fight, in her teeth — they wait.

When Jellal arrives, he brings the sun with him. Body alight with heavenly magic, he fills the room with radiance, vanquishes any shadows that Simon may have tried to call on, and turns Erza into a shining beacon. This does not give her pause. Jellal has maybe a heartbeat before enough swords to stock an armoury pierce the air where he stood.

"Oh, there you are," he says, nonplussed about the blades that spin and chase after him, Erza not reacting beyond an angry shout. Jellal, of course, is faster. A row of swords stab into the ground, chasing his heels, and with a snarl Erza switches mid-attack, flight armour cloaking her as she blurs into motion.

The clash is as brutal as it is brief. They meet blow for blow, magic for magic, twin sides of a coin. Neither side is stronger than the other. Neither side is winning.

Jellal takes a step backward, and shadow lashes up, springing from the blades that Erza left in a grave row. Simon materializes, hooks his arms under Jellal's shoulders, and at once Erza's blade sits under his throat.

"I should kill you now," Erza snarls.

"You're too late," Jellal says. "The tower is complete. Zeref is waiting— can't you feel him?"

Wind rustles through the open areas of the tower, cold and touched with salt.

"Besides. I count two of yours already dead, a third dying, and the rest to be glorious sacrifice for Lord Zeref."

Erza tightens her grip on her weapon. The cutting edge presses against Jellal's throat, drawing a thin line of red. She says nothing.

She says, "You lie."

Jellal grins wide, presses against the blade. Erza has to draw it back a little, lest it cut too deep. "What's the matter?" He asks, "Afraid of the truth? Afraid of me?"

Simon pulls Jellal back a step, tightens his grip. "Erza," he starts, warningly, but he never gets further than that.

Jellal goes totally slack in his arms. Is Simon didn't have such a good grip, Jellal would be hitting the floor right about now. Erza's blade keeps his chin up, and his eyes are wide and vacant.

"What do you think you're doing," Erza snaps, and while she doesn't press the blade in closer it's a near thing.

Jellal reacts to her voice, recoiling into Simon. His eyes find focus again, locked on the wet red length of the sword at his throat and he looks— he looks terrified. Carefully slow and still he looks up, eyes tracing up the pommel to her hand, up to her elbow, her shoulders, her face.

The terror melts like snow under sunshine. A slow smile builds across his face, tears pricking at the corners of his eyes, and when he speaks it's only her name. "Erza?" In the softest, most hopeful tone, and he sounds— he sounds like her Jellal again. Her blade dips. Simon's grip loosens.

Jellal steps forwards, moving like he's surprised that his body is obeying him. "You're okay? Thank— thank the gods, you're okay, you're okay…"

"What is this?" Erza asks, and finds that her tone is just open, honest confusion. "What are you doing?"

She does not stop Jellal as he pulls her into a hug.

"I don't know," Jellal says, "are we— are we safe? Are we out?"

Erza makes eye contact with Simon over Jellal's shoulder, finds the same complete lack of comprehension in his face. It's a trick, a ploy, it's obvious— it's Jellal. It's their Jellal. Somehow loosed from the madness that had gripped him.

Erza, tentatively, hugs back.

Everything is okay.

For a moment, that statement is almost true.

Jellal goes tense in Ezra's arms, "no, no," he writhes and Erza lets go— immediately he's stepping away, hands coming up to press at his face. Erza catches the edge of a mad smile, realizes what's happening, tenses.

Can't move.

"You make it so easy," Jellal says, "you make it too easy. Sorry, Scarlet," he drops his hands, reveals the same twisted expression that had taken him as a child, "you lose."

He's gone in a blink, and Simon vanishes with a cry and a crunch— Erza can't turn to see what Jellal has done, and rage floods her, hot and fuzzy. She can't even work her jaw to scream at him.

Thankfully, someone else does it for her— Lucy, riding a giant eagle, arrows through one of the gaping windows carved into the side of the tower. Lucy drops, hits the ground in a roll, comes up to her feet next to Erza. The eagle shrinks to normal eagle size, and throws a bolt of lightning at Jellal.

A binding enchantment, Erza thinks at Lucy as hard as she can, and she can feel it now— burning leylines across her body, the heat supernova on the back of her neck. Where one of Jellals hands was pressing.

"Shit," Lucy says, "we're getting you out of here." She hooks her arms around Erza's, starts dragging her backwards. Erza can do nothing but watch as Jellal forces Lucy's spirit (because that's what that eagle must be) back into the celestial spirit realm, and turns his amused attention towards them. She aches with how hard she's fighting the enchantment, can do nothing more than blink.

In the space of that blink, Jellal's expression changes from smug amusement to vague annoyance. "I thought I got rid of you already," he says.

"Hey!" Lucy snaps, and Erza recognizes mixed annoyance and relief.

A cold hand presses to the back of her neck, and then Erza is erupting forwards, her body her own again. Jellal skirts out of the way, but Erza doesn't let go of him. In glimpses she sees them; Lucy and Natsu, heroes arriving in the brink of time.

Jellal throws a bolt of energy at them, and Erza flings herself in the way, requiring a shield that scatters the energy across its surface.

She doesn't realize that it's a trap until a second later, as, in a vacuum of feeling, she suddenly finds herself staring up at the world from the flat surface of a card. Damn it all! She's being too sloppy. If Jellal harms either of them, history be damned she will burn him.

Lucy catches her, looks at the card with alarm. "How do I get you out!" She shouts, turning the card around like there will be instructions written on the back. Erza sees Natsu, sees that his gaze is fixed on Jellal, somewhere between apprehension and fear. His shoulder is a bloody mess— did Jellal do that to him?

"Disappointing that you're still making a problem of yourself," Jellal says. Lucy swings the card around again, brows drawn in frustration.

"What's going on," Erza demands, and Lucy blinks like she's seeing her for the first time.

"Oh, sorry," she says, flipping the card again, such that Erza can see both Natsu and Jellal.

Jellal is holding something that he raises in the air— something circular, blue. An armband made of water. It cracks, shivers, and the delicate enchantments holding it together break apart.

.•.•.•.

Somewhere dark and quiet, a dragon shifts, awareness bubbling to the top of sleep. One green eye opens, squints. Sleep drags heavy fingers through her, and with a great sigh she lays her head back down, eye sliding shut once more.

Her fading thoughts, if they were to be heard by anything at all, would be simply 'oh, Natsu…'

.•.•.•.

The fact Natsu is on his feet at all is nothing short of a miracle. This is a fight he should have been out of more than once, by now, but he's not thinking about that. He's watching the water drop from Jellal's hand, forming a puddle at his feet.

It's gone. All he had of Whirl, gone. He had thought, maybe, he could make his peace with it, but thinking that and being faced with the destruction of the armband are two, very, very different things.

Magic wisps around his fingers, but he can't even scrounge together enough for a punch. He takes a step forwards and his legs give out— he catches himself on one hand, the other still frozen, immobile. Lucy is saying something, Erza is saying something.

Natsu is staring at the ground.

At pure ethernano.

What he does next isn't very smart.

One of Ezra's clashes with Jellal had broken up parts of the floor, and it really isn't a problem to find a fist-sized chunk within reach. To pick it up. To take a bite.

It tastes like he's being punched in the mouth, and some rumbling, screaming part of him wakes up as magic floods back into him— more than what the Reflection Shield had taken, more than Jellal had given— maybe more than he's ever had. Kyu's magic is a blizzard inside of him, a raging storm slashed through with the others— chunks of earth, blinks of fire and lightning, pulses of water.

He doesn't see what happens to his face, his arms, but Erza and Lucy do.

Scales develop, long and pointed. They curve around his eyes, point back towards his ears. A crest of them on his forehead, pushing his hair back. On his arms, a brace of them, sharp icicles protruding from his elbows, frozen claws.

"Jellal!" He screams, or roars, and flings himself forwards.

Lucy watches what happens to Natsu with a twisting sense of dread that she isn't entirely sure the source of.

"—cy. Lucy. Lucy!" She jolts, and flips the card Erza is trapped in back around to face her. "You need to tear the card to let me out, Lucy. Quickly."

Oh. Of course. She didn't— she just didn't think of that. The card tears easily between her fingers, and Erza reappears.

"Ice Dragon's Iron Fist!" Natsu shouts, and there's a crack as he makes contact with Jellal, spiking the other mage into the ground.

"Stay safe," Erza tells her, and then she's throwing herself after Jellal too. Lucy can't just sit by and do nothing! But out of her spirits… no one would be that helpful, right now, save maybe Aquarius? She's the only one with enough raw firepower to make a dent in the fight, anyway, but it isn't like there's any water just sitting around.

Except there kind of is.

Lucy bolts for the tiny puddle as Natsu unhinges his jaw into an Ice Dragon's Frozen Roar that's shot through with fire and lightning. Erza pushes Jellal into the attack, and though he activates his Heavenly Body magic to lift himself out, he looks like he felt it.

Lucy skids to her knees next to the puddle, finds Aquarius's key on instinct alone, says a quick prayer that the temperamental spirit won't kill her for this, and slams it down.

She feels the connection between realms yawn open, feels the typical draw on her magic… but what appears isn't Aquarius.

It's a tiny dragon.

It's a… tiny… dragon?

"Um," Lucy says, as Natsu almost impales Jellal on an icy lance with a core of earth, "I think you're in the wrong place?"

The dragon (what) shakes itself off, turns narrow eyes Lucy's direction. It looks to be made entirely out of water— actually, the puddle is gone, did Natsu's armband turn into a dragon? A very small dragon?

"Um. I'm not," the dragon says. Her voice is about as tiny as the rest of her. "Well. I'm at the wrong time, I think. I was only supposed to be summoned with Aquarius's key if something went really wrong, but, um. I guess this is. Um. Bad."

Natsu slams into the ground maybe five feet from them, and they both wince. Chunks of bloody ice shatter off of his shoulder but he doesn't even slow down, or glance in their direction— a plume of frost escapes him as he snarls, and launches himself back at Jellal.

"Yeah," Lucy says, "this is pretty bad."

"Oh, no," the dragon says, "what's happened to him? Are you his friend, do you know?"

"… yeah," Lucy says, "we're, uh, guildmates." Even if Natsu had been an asshole to Happy for literally no reason .

"A guild!" The dragon says, "how novel! Um, interesting, that is. Is he happy? What's your guild called?"

This is… possibly the strangest conversation Lucy has ever had in the thick of a battle, and she's been a member of Fairy Tail since she was a child. "I think he's happy with us," she says, "we're called Fairy Tail."

"I've heard of that one," the dragon says, "your master would sometimes visit Empra. Um. Pretend I didn't say that."

Makarov did? Maybe that's where Laxus got his magic from. Lucy files that tidbit away for later, regardless of what the dragon said.

There's a strangled shout that draws both their attentions— Jellal has Natsu by his bad shoulder with one hand, other hand wrapped around his throat. Natsu is trying to fend him off with magic, but it's wild, undirected. Every time he starts to formulate an attack, Jellal digs his fingers in deeper, causing a fresh rush of blood. Erza is trying to intervene, but Jellal is keeping Natsu between them— it's a stalemate, in Jellal's favour.

The little dragon doesn't say anything. Lucy glances at her as she bears her fangs in a snarl, and a precise jet of water magic— barely the width of Lucy's pinky— streaks forwards, slices through one of Jellal's shoulders like it's nothing. He drops Natsu and then Erza is there, bringing her swords down in a double handed slash that cuts him from shoulder to hip.

Jellal drops.

Hits the ground with an awful sound. Lies still.

There's perfect quiet, for a moment. The fight done with.

Something clatters at Lucy's feet— the armband, whole once more.