章 7: 7. Awakenings

I led William and Bosco back towards the fray, each of them armed with a weapon that we used to take out any cultists that we could find. I kept glancing left and right looking for the sight of the redhead that was leading the charge but I couldn't find her amidst the chaos.

"I can't find the others," I yelled to William.

"They've probably rallied towards the boats. No doubt the cultists have tried to get out, so let's head to the beach," he yelled back.

A loud boom echoed in the distance that travelled through one of the corridors, The three of us ran through that same corridor to find another majority of the revolters standing around in celebration as the bodies of cultists lay around them, someone was standing at the top of scaffolding holding barrels of gunpowder used to blow up more rocks screaming at the top of his lungs, likely the cause of the explosion. Near the centre I could see Wally, Mili, and Sho. I quickly ran down to them and Wally started to wave when he heard me running to them.

"I thought we lost you back there," Wally said, giving me a grin as he put the shovel he was holding onto his shoulder, "But it seems that you've gone and caused even more trouble for them."

I just simply grinned with unabashed happiness.

"Well, we are fighting our way out of here; I figured we'd add more to our ranks and less to theirs," I said as I glanced around not seeing the other two, "Where are Erza and Simon?"

Wally pointed toward where the redhead was, her sword and shield still settled in her hands as she was talking about something with Simon as something in their conversation made the girl blush. I frowned to myself, wondering what the hell they were talking about when a flash of light was the only warning I had before the surrounding areas were blasted in a brief fiery explosion.

The two of them were standing in the epicentre of the blast and while Erza had managed to raise her shield in time to protect herself, Simon, to my horror, was sent flying away.

"Simon!" I yelled as I ran toward him with Wally right beside me.

I reached where he had fallen as a cold fear set within my skin worried that he died. Blood was trickling down his mouth as his jaw was dislocated horribly.

"Where did that attack come from!?" someone yelled in surprise.

"Everyone, look!" Milliana said as she pointed toward something in the air.

I felt dread as I looked up to see mummified looking corpses that had the cult's masks shielding their eyes. The hunched over, purple wraiths floated towards us with their jaws unhinged far wider than any maw should be.

"Magic soldiers!" one of the revolters yelled.

"This is bad…," William said, "We can't fight against magic…"

Then a fell scream started to echo off the rocks around us causing me to cover my ears as the sound began to reverberate inside my skull, then another bright flash of light was followed by another series of explosions and screams of pain and terror.

'Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck! How are we supposed to fight against that!?' I thought as my grip on my sword tightened again.

Everyone started to run away causing me to become pissed off as I stared at them in horror. They were dropping their weapons and running when we needed to fight. Sure, a part of me was scared. I was a kid. But I refused, not after getting this close to freedom, I refused to be a slave anymore.

I refused to live by the will of someone else ever again!

"Lyssa! We need to get out of here!" William yelled as he tried to get me to move.

"No!" I screamed as I wrenched my arm free from his grasp, "I'm not going back to become one of their slaves. I refuse."

"You could get killed!" he screamed back.

I glared at him with enough disgust and hatred that the young adult actually stepped back.

"I would rather die young and fighting than live to an old age in chains."

Charging forward, ignoring the yell of my name I grabbed the nearest shovel and threw it at the magic soldiers only for it to miss by a wide margin. An explosion took place right in front of me that threw me backwards, blinding me temporarily as dust and debris pelted my face and dug into my skin as my body rolled across the ruin strewn ground.

Pain rang throughout my body as I painstakingly sat up spitting out the blood that pooled in my mouth. A small hand appeared on my shoulder drawing my attention to its owner.

"Erza…"

"Lyssa, are you okay?" she asked me, the worry visible in her single eye.

Before I could answer her, I took notice of the magic soldiers approaching with their mouths open ready to kill us.

"Erza, move!"

She turned her attention to them and gasped in horror, seeing the bright light appearing and probably knowing what was going to happen next. I kept my eyes open, wanting to stare death in the face as it ushered me to a blazing grave.

"ERZA! LYSSA!" familiar voices yelled from behind us.

I saw the blast of the explosion generate, but to my shock it didn't hit. Instead black smoke danced around our figures, parted by a single lone figure. The red Fairy Tail emblem was proudly displayed on his back and his long white hair swayed with the shockwave of the blast. It was impossible to mistake the figure that saved us.

"Grandpa Rob," Erza said, not keeping the shock out of her face.

The old man stood in front of us with his arms and legs outstretched, and I could feel the magic swirling around him.

"My magic may not be as good as it once was but it's still enough to protect my friends," his voice spoke with a vigour I had never heard before. It was like his words came to him as naturally as breathing and a spirit he had long lost roared within him with an ancient pride. "I will not let you take the life of an innocent!"

With a yell, flames swam around his palms as they swirled in a circular pattern in front of him with grace that didn't match the destruction they wrought. With a single attack he obliterated the magic soldiers and opened a large hole in the side of the tower. The magnificence of the attack was my first time seeing the power of magic, and the beautiful arc of flames is an image I will ever wish to forget.

The old man fell to his knees, coughing and exhausted. Erza and I quickly got to our feet to help him and I noticed, to my dismay, that his body had begun to crack and decay…

"Are you alright?" Erza asked him, ever more worried about her friends than herself.

"Yes," he answered, "I may be a decrepit old man but deep down I've still got some fight left in me. As a wizard my magic has always been intertwined with the very essence of my life, but I didn't realise how much so until I've found myself in this sorry state."

"No," I said with desperation in my voice, "You can't die! You have to see your daughter again when we get out of here! Prove to Emelia that you're alive!"

He turned to me, giving me the grandfatherly look that was always on his face when he spoke to us directly.

"I am going to meet my daughter, dear."

Both Erza and I watched as his face turned serious again as even more cultists approached. All of them were armed with staves that had lacrima upon them and floating behind them were more magic soldiers.

He started to stand up again, albeit with difficulty as the two of us grew more and more desperate and scared for his safety.

"Please never stop fighting, you two," he said as he stared the cult down, "You two have so much potential, so don't let it go to waste."

Memories of the time Grandpa Rob taught us more about magic resurfaced.

"Find it deep within your heart. The only way for you to believe in something is if you feel it within your heart. Think about it like this, magic in its purest form is very similar to religious faith, fortune telling, healing, and even prayer. You see, all of these things will perform miracles that can only be experienced by believers."

"So I just have to believe?" a young Erza asked.

"That's right. So long as you have belief in its power, have faith in yourself, and strive to live in harmony with nature you'll be able to use magic. That's what it takes to become a wizard."

"I want to use magic! It seems like a lot of fun!"

He stood there like a shining beacon of hope for our survival, shielding the two of us as the torrent of fire balls rained down upon us, all being stopped by this one single man who has given us so much hope and peace within these walls of misery. When it stopped for a brief second, he laughed.

"Your beautiful smiles have been the only thing that's kept me going while I was stuck inside this wretched place. Remember this, your freedom lies within your heart, children. Follow your hearts and your dreams of becoming a wizard will come true!"

With a flash, the magic soldiers released another explosion that he tried to shield, but what magic power he had left wasn't enough. As the last bits of his strength left him, I witnessed his body being destroyed by the blast and ripping apart through the cracks that formed through his skin as Erza and I were blasted backwards.

When the dust settled I could hear Wally and Mili calling out for us, but my eyes landed on a single shackle with a red lacrima on it sitting right where Grandpa Rob was standing. I began to curse my memory as the same scene repeated in my head again and again and again, the orange flames that he had used to protect us, the destruction of the magic soldiers, the fiery hail storming down on us, and the death of my grandpa. My gaze never left the lone cuff as regret, hatred, scorn, and utter malice burned the depths of my being as I felt the magic that had been storing itself inside my body for the past seven years finally began to move.

It began as an intense heat welling up from the depths of my core, surging through my veins with an irresistible force. The anger transformed into an inferno, flames licked at my fingertips as the air around me began to dance with the heat. My body shimmered with an otherworldly glow as I screamed from the depths of my soul bathing the surrounding area in hungry flames that consumed me into their essence.

As my own body became one with the flames that danced obediently to my anger, Erza had a similar awakening. A majestic red glow surrounded her as the weapons and tools in the surroundings that had become coated with flame obeyed her will and flew towards them all, mercilessly wiping out the small army of cultists with a single hit.

I stood up watching my legs and arms sway as the flames they had become slowly calmed down. Erza and I locked for a few seconds after we had both realised what had happened, and the murmurs from the rest of the revolters that had survived called Erza's attention back to them. The young girl grabbed her sword and raised it.

"We have to fight for our freedom! Follow me!"

Large cheers roared behind us as the revolt was reborn with new ferocity.

We fought tooth and nail as Erza used her magic to make sure that no one had no weapon or defence using the broken lids of various objects to black the fireballs from their staves and I burned them down from range with fire of my own. When they got close enough to hit me with their own weapons the blades would go right through my body as it dissipated into flames where I was struck before reforming like nothing had happened.

After another few hours of fighting, at long last freedom was ours…

"We did it…WE DID IT!!!"

"YEAH!!!"

Roars of rapturous glee erupted throughout the tower. As my body became solid again I could feel myself burst into tears of happiness as I laughed and laughed, a joy that only grew brighter when William threw himself at me and lifted me up, spinning me around.

"We've done it," he said, "We're free. We're free!"

I laughed out loud as I stepped back from the hug, giddy at what we've accomplished. It was what all of us here had ever wanted, the thing we craved ever since we were kidnapped from our homes, from our friends and our families.

It was something we thought we'd never feel again.

Freedom was ours.

We were free to go back to the mainland.

We were free.

I stood there with Erza, holding Grandpa Rob's shackle in my hands as we watched everyone running towards the boats and raid the storage rooms for supplies to heal the injured. Erza gave me a glance as she picked up her sword.

"I'm going after Jellal," she said, "I asked around and the leaders are still with him in the torture chambers, so take care of everyone else, okay?"

"Don't worry," I said as I handed her my own sword, "We'll be waiting for you two, alright?"

She nodded at me before running up the stairs, armed with her dual swords and I turned to the large group of smiling people trying to find Bosco hoping for him to take a look at Simon's jaw.

— * —

"How is he?" I asked Bosco as he wrapped Simon's jaw up in bandages. Sho and Bosco had carried him into one of the boats while Wally and Mili were scrounging around the storage rooms.

"He'll be fine," the adult told me, "His jaw is broken but I may be able to heal him properly when we get to the mainland and get him proper surgery."

"I must say, you're quite reckless for throwing yourself into danger like that."

I looked down, locking my gaze to Simon's chest to remind myself that he's still breathing.

"I was fed up with everything. Seeing everyone run away…something inside me just snapped."

I turned my attention toward Sho and noticed that he was standing by the railing of the ship, looking toward the half finished structure with a worried look on his face.

"What is it?" I asked after walking over to him.

"Sis is taking a long time…We should have seen her and Jellal by now."

I looked at the tower realising that he was right. Erza could have easily taken both of the leaders down by now…

Then a sudden explosion drew our attention as one of the boats that were beside us exploded in a large blast of fire. Sho and I jumped away from the railing in shock.

"W-What's going on!?" someone asked.

"It just exploded without warning…," someone else said.

I looked toward the fire, completely taken aback at what was happening right now. I was as shocked as everyone else was when a young man's voice yelled out to everyone.

"GET OUT OF THE SHIPS!"

I turned toward where the voice came from and there he stood, Jellal. He was completely shirtless, covered in cuts and bruises, tired, and holding a sword.

"That's Jellal," Sho started, "But…where is Big Sis?"

That was what I was asking myself, too. Where was Erza?

Suddenly another explosion echoed as another ship was caught in a blast of fire and that was the signal for all of us that were still on the boats to get off of them, terrified as to what was happening. I turned back to see Bosco carrying Simon off of the ship prompting me to follow.

More explosions followed afterwards as the ships were destroyed one by one. Sho was sitting beside me crying once again as he tried to process what was happening.

"Do you know what's going on?" Wally asked as he and Mili showed up.

"I'm as clueless as you are."

"I don't know. We should find Jellal and ask him. He was the one that warned us about the boats."

The four of us walked over to where the rest of the former slaves were gathered and Jellal was standing with them too, his sword still in hand.

"Jellal," I called my voice stone and cold not at all pleased that our primary way of escaping is now gone, "What happened back there and where is Erza?"

Jellal looked away as if something terrible had happened and the group beside me seemed to go unusually quiet.

"Jellal," I started again with my voice slower and my eyes narrowed, "What. Happened."

"Erza…she left the island."

"Sis left?" Sho called shocked, "But why would she leave us behind?"

"Her magic…got too powerful for her to control," Jellal said as he turned to us, "I tried to reason with her but she attacked me, knocking me out for a few minutes, when I came to she was gone but I remembered her muttering something about the boats and came down here as quickly as I could."

Everyone else grew shocked by this, but I only got suspicious. While the book I read was supposed to be for beginners, it was extensive. I read it front to back repeatedly and remember every word and every drawing perfectly, and spontaneous insanity wasn't something magic could cause without outside interference. And another thing set me off, Erza had always felt like herself even while fighting, she's an honest and caring person and even her mannerisms and voice shared those qualities. Jellal shared those qualities, and while it looks like Jellal and sounds like him, the boy in front of me just doesn't…feel like him.

Something wasn't right here.

"When the first boat exploded," Jellal continued, "That's when I became aware of what she had planned to do. I yelled at you all to get off the ships before you were killed."

"But why would big sister do this?" Millianna asked, "After everything that we have gone through together…"

Jellal looked away, his blue hair shadowing his face.

"That is the fate of the person who has no control over their new found powers," he mutters, "Erza had abandoned us out of nowhere…and destroyed the ships so that we can't leave…she is no longer the girl we once knew…"

He was right about one thing, we were stuck here without those boats. As far as we know, there weren't any others planned to leave. I was worried though, not because of the ship having been destroyed. No, we could potentially find a way around that. A makeshift raft for instance. But the mutterings of the others talking about Erza's abrupt insanity had quickly turned towards questions of my sanity. The fact that I was enjoying the massacre didn't help and the smoke that started to rise from my feet burning the ground from my frustration with everything only further drove the idea in their heads.

— * —

Night had fallen a while ago and everyone's spirits had fallen when they learned that the girl who led them to freedom betrayed them and their guards had begun to rise towards the other. Sho, Milliana, and Wally were all eating fresh food for the first time in a while yet sadness was evident in their eyes. William and I were sitting in the corner of the cell near the still unconscious Simon.

"He was lying."

Hearing William say the obvious made me sigh a breath of relief.

"Yeah…" I said in kind, "But everyone else is still desperate for an answer. And it doesn't explain Erza's abrupt disappearance."

"You're going to confront him, aren't you?"

I smirked at the exhausted twenty year old who was messing with his own illusion magic, making his missing pinkies look not-so-missing and changing the texture and colour of his skin.

"You know me so well~"

I stood up drawing the attention of the kids towards me.

"Big Sister, where are you going?" Milliana asked me.

"I'm going to speak to Jellal," I told her, "I'll be back soon."

The small girl nodded and I made my way through the hallways of the tower, a situation I felt odd in as I was usually chained up when going through these halls. I glanced down to my wrists that were wrapped in bandages, something I had to wear as the cuffs I had as a ten year old were the same ones I got when I was five. The labour made my arms grow even further with age causing my skin to wrap around the cuffs. Around my neck was Grandpa Rob's cuff, something I refuse to lose and the large dent that caved it inwards that distinguishes it amongst the rest. It was supported around my neck by a white rope, a desperate but easy and sturdy solution.

When I reached the door to the torture chamber that Jellal had insisted to use I could hear the ground sizzle underneath me as my anger resurfaced upon just being in its presence. I saw my hand shaking when I reached to open the door, forcing me to take a deep breath before I opened it.

The large crystal in the centre brought back unwanted memories forcing me to look around the room looking for the boy I came here for. I took note of the strange markings on the walls that I couldn't decipher but recognised the magic nature of them. Eventually I found the blue-haired boy just as he noticed me, and I immediately saw that he had changed clothes to something cleaner while most people hadn't even seen any clean clothes. Because trust me, I looked.

"Jellal."

"Lyssa, what are you doing here?"

"Simple, I wanted to talk to you."

He blinked and nodded.

"Okay, umm, what is this about?"

"The fact that you're terrible at lying."

His eyes widened in shock as he stumbled over his words trying to say…something. But I interrupted him.

"I know quite a bit about magic. Sure, I'm no master and haven't had any formal teacher, but I know more than most of the people in this tower. So I know that someone won't just go insane with a powerlust just by awakening magic. That would only happen when an outside source corrupted their awakening or if they had that lust for power already. Considering I'm confident I was the one most angry at the time when both of our magic awakened I feel like it would be reasonable for an outside source to try and corrupt me since it would have been much easier, and the only reason Erza would lust for power is because she would want to protect her loved ones, a similar reason for me as we were both influenced by Grandpa Rob and you, both people that sacrificed themselves for the people they care about."

"Maybe it just…I…"

"Then there's the question of how the ships exploded in the first place. Again, it would be easier to explain if I was the one to have been turned insane considering my magic seems to be fire based but Erza seemed to simply have a manipulation over weaponry, again, a likely manifestation over her desire to fight but that's all there is to it. No explosions. Sure she might have used the gunpowder barrels to blow them up but we would have seen her plant them onto the ships, and if she threw them onto the ships then we would have seen them being thrown. She might have found a way to drift the barrels under the boats and they could have detonated there but she would have needed much longer than the time frame from which we last saw her to find out a way to blow them up and the likelihood of her finding out how to in the first place is low already because, lets face it, none of us got an education and she isn't the brightest already. And in order to blow them up in any way she would have had to have been near us and someone would have noticed her if not saw a boat leaving at all and none did. There is literally no explanation I can find to make your story make sense so please do try and explain your blatant lie." (Yes this is me calling Jellal's explanation for how a ten year old blew up several ships because she went insane utterly stupid.)

Jellal just stared at me in shock before he stared at me in a way that only made me angrier as time went by without him saying anything. Then to further test my patience he started to laugh, causing the smoke coming from my feet on the stone ground to turn darker and thicker as my frustration grew. He was holding his stomach as he was bent over in his own hilarity.

"Oh, Lyssa, I knew you were smart but this is a pleasant surprise."

He looked back up to me and I could feel a primal part of my brain telling me to prepare to fight or run when his left eye had changed. The pupil had morphed to form a twisted Z like shape with a small oval in the centre. A black phantasm with several red markings started to ooze out from around him and my body and clothes flared into flame on instinct.

"Who are you?"

"Oh it's still me, Lyssa. But you wanted to know what happened to me?" he asked as a twisted smirk grew on his face, "My eyes were opened to the truth of the world. To the knowledge of what true freedom is."

"True freedom?" my voice carried within it derision as the knowledge that something bad had happened set in, my gaze drifting to the large hole in the wall that drops out into the sea.

"There is no such thing as real freedom in this world," he said as he raised his hands palms upward in a preaching like motion, "Freedom in this world is nothing but a fantasy of the mind and an illusion. True freedom, however, awaits us in Zeref's world!"

I stared at him completely baffled, as Zeref is nothing more than a boogeyman in the magic world. A black wizard that is the root of all evil in the magic world, an impossibility do the natural nature of man being as fickle as legends of his existence. A convenient excuse for evil, a scapegoat. Even if he did exist there's no telling how much evil is actually his fault or the works of others.

This knowledge only made the sorry sight in front of me worse as I knew Jellal wouldn't put too much stock into stories like Zeref, let alone worship him. This wasn't the Jellal I know. I felt like I was looking at a stranger, and not my friend.

"That freedom can only be achieved when we complete the tower and call Zeref back into this world," he said looking up toward the ceiling as his smirk widened even more.

"Complete the tower!?" I said as the flames surrounding me grew brighter, "No one in their right minds will do that after all the suffering they have been through!"

"Everyone believed me when I told them what Erza had done," he said, a sinister grin growing upon his lips, looking out of place on his young face.

"It was you," I whispered as the ceiling became thick with smoke and the floor underneath me began to bubble, "You were the one that blew up the boats. You wanted us here to complete the tower!"

"I could tell you were sharp for a reason, Lyssa," he said as he stepped closer to me, uncaring of the flames and the heat.

After all that we sacrificed, after all the suffering we endured to gain our freedom…he wants us to stay here to throw away all our wishes for his own desires.

"WHAT WAS THE POINT THEN!? WHAT WAS OF US FIGHTING FOR OUR FREEDOM IF THAT'S WHAT YOU HAD PLANNED!?"

"Well, you've cleaned out the garbage for me," he said casually, "I couldn't have taken control of the tower without what Erza and you have done, although the number of lost slaves is unfortunate…"

Unfortunate.

The image of Grandpa Rob's sacrifice is permanently lodged in my mind for as long as I live, and he is casually considering it an unfortunate accident. As if someone had misplaced an object and couldn't be damned to find it.

Jellal stepped forward and took my hand into his own, something that surprised me as I thought other people wouldn't be able to touch me while I was like this.

"Help me build the tower, Lyssa. You will see…for once it's built…we will have true freedom."

True freedom lies in your heart.

Grandpa Rob's final words. The man had died so that we could live…he died because he believed that we would find our freedom…

With a clenched fist and an empty heart, I did something I never thought I would do.

"Die you bastard!"

Just as my fist swung towards his throat and the air exploded in heat, red markings appeared from my hands and wrapped around my entire body and constricted my throat. I struggled to breath, my body was paralyzed instantly, and my body turned back to normal against my will.

"So you'll refuse me as well, Lyssa," he said with a hint of something in his tone that I couldn't identify, "I must admit…I consider myself disappointed in you. With you being as sharp as you are I would have thought you'd have chosen to build the tower with me."

He floated me towards the hole in the wall, likely the same one Erza went through. I could hear the waves crashing against the side of the island as the full moon bathed everything in a silvery blue light.

"I…I'll make…you pay for…pay for this…"

A sinister grin grew on his face.

"I already have a story prepared for when they ask what happened to you. Thank you for the footprints by the way. And considering the chances of you dying aren't 0%, I have a warning for you. You take a step out of line, or the Magic Council catches wind of what I'm doing here, then I'll kill William, along with everyone else you loved here in your home away from home."

"I'll…argh…I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"

The pressure on my neck grew and it got harder to breathe.

"I encourage you to try," he said as the manic grin on him grew, "Because no matter what you try, with Zeref…I shall reach true freedom."

With that I was blown backward and was thrown from the tower and towards the water. Jellal and I locked eyes as I gritted my teeth and vowed I would free everyone from this tower one day.

As my body hit the water, the force knocked me out and darkness consumed my vision…