The Salamander's Sister

Chapter 111: A Request From A Friend

Natsume's pov

I honestly never thought I would be seeing Jellal again so soon, after the last time I saw him, he had been carted off and sent to prison. Though, the times that I had seen him must have been after or maybe even before he was captured. The other two standing beside Jellal we hadn't seen in a while either, Meredy and Ultear were with Jellal. I never thought that I would see these three people together like this, it made me wonder what they wanted. I didn't think much of it and smiled at Jellal, "Oh my god, Jellal!! It's been a while!" I immediately moved away from the group and launched myself at Jellal, who chuckled and caught me in his arms. It seemed that he expected this so it only made him smile when I reacted the way I did, "Hello Natsume. It's good to see you too." He smiled, hugging me back. "I can't believe you guys are here." I pulled away from Jellal and walked over to Ultear and Meredy, pulling them both into big hugs. "I know. I didn't think we would be seeing you guys so soon. But here we are." Meredy smiled, I stepped back from them and took my place beside Gray and my brother. Kosuke shifted closer to me, confused about the appearance of these three people. "I'm not too sure what's going on here.. Do you all know who these people are?" He asked, "Yes, we do." I kept my eyes on Jellal, who only smiled at me. "Jellal and I met a few years ago while I was traveling to find Natsu, at the time, I didn't even know that Jellal knew my brother until we met. He's also helped me and the others when things got rough. My brother and everyone else fought Meredy and Ultear when they were on Tenrou Island, at the time, they were attacking the guild. They've helped when things got tough as well." I explained to him, "Oh.. That's why you hugged them." He muttered, "Yeah, Natsume is very close with Jellal." Gray said, sounding silently jealous. "Are you jealous, lover boy?" Satomi chimed in, "No, I am not. I know Natsume won't go after another guy, she's mine." Gray declared, I blushed in response. "Jellal," Erza started, "You haven't changed, Erza. I take it you've heard about my prison break?" He asked, "Yes." Erza said, "It was never my intent, though." He said, "Meredy and I broke him out." Ultear said, I looked at her slightly confused as to why she had broken him out when he was serving time for all the wrong things he had done. Not just to Erza but to everyone else. "I didn't do anything. It was all you, Ultear!" Meredy exclaimed. "Meredy," Juvia whispered. "Long time, no see, Juvia." She smiled.

"Jellal broke out?!!"

"They're members of Grimoire Heart!" Everyone behind us started freaking out, I could understand as the last time they saw any of these people, they had fought them in battles. But they also seemed to forget that they also were the ones helping when we needed backup on certain missions. "Take it easy," I called, there was no reason that we needed to harbor any ill-will towards them anymore and it seemed that they weren't here to cause problems. When I looked at Jellal, I got the sense that he had finally come to terms with what he had done in the past and that he was looking for a way to help us. "They're not our enemy now." Erza stated, "Right?" She and I looked to Ultear and Jellal, "Indeed." Jellal nodded, "I've committed too many sins in my life for me to atone for them all. So I want to at least bring salvation to the people whose lives I've ruined. That is my wish."

"Jellal, for example."

"It's okay. You and I were both possessed by the darkness."

"It's all in the past."

"Jellal. Your memory..." Erza trailed off, I remember that the last time we saw Jellal, he had no recollection of anything that happened in the past. It had seemed that he lost his memory and when he was taken away, we all felt very upset about him having to be put in prison. "I clearly remember now. Everything. My memory returned six years ago, while I was still imprisoned." He said, I shuffled away from Gray and stepped closer to Erza, and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Erza..." He started, "I'm... not sure how to apologize to you.." Jellal trailed off once more, trying to find his words. "I bear the blame for what happened at the Tower of Heaven. I was the one controlling Jellal. So, please, don't blame him too much." Ultear spoke, I looked between her and Jellal in confusion. Then it hit me, Gray had told me that during his battle with her on Tenrou, she revealed herself to be Ur's daughter. The one that she had lost, according to what Gray told me about his fight with her, she explained that she was locked in the Tower of Heaven. "I could either spend the rest of my life in prison or to be executed. I had accepted that. Until they broke me out, at least." Jellal chimed in. "Does that mean you have a new purpose to live for?" Wendy asked, "Wendy.." Jellal turned his attention over to her. "I should note that the Jellal you know and I seem to be different people."

"Oh right! We've already cleared all that up!" Wendy dismissed it, I frowned in confusion as I didn't know what they were talking about.

"Purpose to live for..." Chase trailed off.

"It's nothing quite that noble, I'm afraid. We've started a guild. It's an independent Guild, neither an official Guild nor a dark guild. Its name is Crime Sorciere, or "witch's crime.""

"An independent guild?" Lucy quipped, "What does that mean?"

"That you're not a part of any alliances?"

"Crime Sorciere... I've heard of that guild before!" Satoru spoke up, "Same here." Satomi chimed in. "They've supposedly been destroying lots of dark guilds in recent years." She explained, "We have but one goal." Ultear started to explain, "Zeref... Dark guilds... And the darkness in the world... We formed our guild to purge it all. So that never again will wizards be possessed by the darkness as we were."

"Oh!"

"That's really respectable!" Levy smiled. "If only you could get the Council to recognize you as an official guild!" Lucy said, "I'm an escaped convict." Jellal retorted, "And we're former members of Grimoire Heart." Meredy stated. "Plus, as an official guild, we'd technically be unable to go after dark guilds due to the Inter-Guild-Conflict Ban Treaty. So our guild is better the way it is now. Anyway, we didn't ask you here simply to introduce ourselves. We hear you're entering the Grand Magic Games." Ultear acknowledged. "Y-Yeah." Lucy nodded, "We can't get near the coliseum. So we'd like to ask a favor of you." Jellal looked to Erza and me, "Do you want us to get someone's autograph?" I frowned at the question, looking back at Natsu.

"You idiot."

"No, thanks."

"We sense unusual magic power during the games every year. We want you to find out what's behind it." Ultear spoke. "Are you serious?" I crossed my arms, I had no clue something like this was even going on. Then again, we didn't even know about the Grand Magic Games until Romeo told us about it. "Guilds from all over Fiore gather at the Grand Magic Games, though. Some odd magic power is to be expected." Satoru stated, thinking nothing unusual of it. "We thought so too at first. However, this power is something evil and reminiscent of Zeref." I looked at Jellal and Ultear in shock, "Reminiscent of Zeref?!" A shiver ran down my back when they mentioned Zeref's name, I knew way too many bad things that happened when Zeref was involved. "It's possible our prior closeness to Zeref is why we can perceive it now. We want to know what this magic power is. It might even help us locate Zeref. There's also the competition, of course. We'll be rooting for Fairy Tail from behind the scenes, so we'd like you to discreetly find the mysterious magic power."

"It sounds like a wild goose chase, but we'll do it." Erza nodded, "Thank you." Ultear smiled.

"You sure about this, Erza?" Natsu asked. I could also see that Gray and some of the others were skeptical of this but I knew one thing, I wasn't. We need to find out whatever that power is, especially if it poses a threat to everyone in Fiore. "Given that guilds from all over, Fiore will be gathering around it, this odd magic power spells unease for us too." Erza spoke up, I nodded in agreement.

"She's right," I spoke. "You'll be compensated up-front." Meredy spoke. "Food money!" Natsu and Gray shouted, "Rent money!" Lucy smiled. "No, not with money." Jellal shook his head, everyone behind us seemed disappointed when he said that. "My advanced Arc of Time will enhance your abilities." Ultear said, "Huh?" Natsu tilted his head, "Calling it a "power up" would sound nice, but that's not actually what it is. Wizards possess something like a container that determines how much magic power they can have. Even if your container gets emptied out, your body will take in ether-nano from the surrounding atmosphere on its own, which will eventually refill your container over time. But recent research has revealed that there's a part of this container that usually goes unused. Latent abilities deep within everyone...their "Second Origin." Ultear went on to explain, "Second Origin?" I questioned, quirking an eyebrow at Ultear. "The Arc of Time can help this container grow and make a person's Second Origin usable. In other words, you'll be able to use more powerful magic for longer periods of time than ever before." Jellal finished explaining.

"Oh!"

"I didn't understand a bit of it, though!" Natsu said.

"However, the process will also involve unimaginable pain." Meredy stated, "She's got a scary look..." Lucy sweatdropped, "I don't care! Thank you! Thank you!" Natsu exclaimed, Natsu was the first one to start this so-called 'Power-up'. His screams made it extremely hard to watch and I knew that I could no longer take it but it was needed, so I went next. All I can remember about it was feeling the hot, searing pain that came with this.