Chapter Twenty - The Tower of Heaven

Erza held the blade that was Konata in her hands, and her heart set as she considered the clear implications of Konata's idle thoughts. It was clear to her that the girl had access to precognition, including events that involved some of her most shameful and private memories. "Why do you say that?" Came the voice of Konata, sounding as if she was only halfway paying attention to such things. Erza couldn't blame her - it wasn't as if being a sword struck her as particularly interesting. "Glad we understand each other so well."

"I am concerned about the individuals you named. Millianna. Sho. Simon. Wally. Is it truly the same ones I knew?" Her heart felt heavy in her chest. They were good and decent people, who she had left alone with Jellal, who she knew was unwell, and... transmitting her thoughts to Konata was doubtless as unpleasant for her as it was for Konata.

"Thanks for caring. Lucy just thinks it's a good way to interrogate me."

"She should treat you with more respect," Erza agreed idly. "Juvia. Lee." Levy had been left behind. "Our opponents are four in number, and Konata has a strong intuition as to their abilities. If her information is correct, then Sho's magic allows him to capture people in cards; Simon's is responsible for this darkness; Millianna allows her to bind anyone who lets her wrap around them; and Wally can teleport himself, as well as being armed. Sho is a dark-skinned boy, Millianna is a girl obsessed with cats, Simon is a titan of a man with a metal jaw, and Wally is... quite rectangular."

Informing her allies done, she began to rush forward, hardly paying mind to if Lee and Juvia were keeping pace with her. The darkness made it hard to maneuver, so she held her sword in front of her, using it to guide her to turn or spin at an appropriate point. Her ears picked up the sounds of struggle, the distinctive noises as Natsu struggled with some foe, the occasional gust of fire that brought with it no light against Simon's magic.

Simon... Simon. She grit her teeth. Was it truly her old friends here? Konata seemed quite certain of it. "Yep. Be a real big surprise if it was somebody else." She had to trust her comrades, harsh as it was. She would talk to Sho, to Simon, to Millianna, to Wally - she was glad to hear they were safe and well enough to leave the island they had been captured on. "You know they're trying to kill Gray, Natsu, and Lucy right now, right? You're way too nice."

Erza let out a small laugh. "Perhaps. But I would never abandon a friend. I hope that you will be much the same, when you're called to act that way."

"Probably not," Konata mentally replied, and it was then that the pair arrived in a room where there was a great bang, echoing in a way that left Erza with no doubt as to its point of origin. Hefting the blade that was Konata, she rushed forward, slamming it with titanic force into whoever it was that was at the spot she struck.

"Ow!" It was Natsu's voice ringing out as the flat of her blade struck heavy flesh and sent his spinning into the air, colliding with a wall a moment later. "What the hell? It's not enough I get shot in the face, I gotta get my ass beat too?"

"Natsu, I apologize," Erza said, even as her eyes circled the invincible darkness here. "I was attempting to deal with the aggressor. Did you get a good look at him?"

"Some blocky headed dude talking about being a Dandy. He shot me with a gun!" He declared, and she could hear the burst of flame and rage that accompanied his words. "He was asking about you. I didn't tell him anything."

"I know," she said. Natsu was as loyal to his comrades as she was to hers, a rare and admirable trait. "Thank you."

"A touching reunion. Sorry we're gonna have to cut it short, but we've got to collect you, Erza."

"Collect me?" She asked, continuing to spin in the perfect darkness that enveloped her like a coiling beast.

"Jellal wants you to see the Tower of Heaven. We finally finished it."

"Oh, right," came Konata's voice in her head. "Zeref isn't the one manipulating Jellal, it's actually Ultear."

"What?!" Erza asked, though she wasn't entirely sure to which statement she was more startled by. "You finished it?"

"You know, if we act fast enough, maybe we can keep Jellal from going to prison forever?" Konata mused. Erza grit her teeth at that thought. Jellal... he... truly had been manipulated by some foreign force... but it wasn't Zeref. It was a force she had been mere feet away from, not that long ago. She should have encouraged Ur to push further on her daughter's love. She could only stew in regrets, now, and consider this just punishment for letting love wither. "You take waaaay too much responsibility. You have to beat up the bad guys before they'll accept they're wrong. Those are the rules." Erza couldn't help but smile at Konata's simplistic way of viewing the world. "Accurate. The word you're looking for is accurate."

"That's right. Now why don't you make it easy on your friends and come with me?"

"I can't even see you," Erza countered. "So how could I come with yo- hnng!" She was struck with a bullet that hit her in the back of the head, sending her reeling forward from the force. But there was more to it than that - she began to sag, to feel exhausted, collapsing forward onto the weight of Konata as she did.

"Just go to sleep, will ya? When you wake back up, it'll be just like old times. Millianna, Sho, Simon, Jellal - the gang's all waiting for you." She felt her body weaken slowly, her breathing becoming shallow.

And then, suddenly, she was fine again. Her body remained still as she tried to understand it. There was not even lingering pain from where the bullet had struck. It must have been Lee, fixing her just in time... she would have to thank him appropriately. She wondered what sort of gift he would like. Perhaps some sexy underwear? He had purchased a few pairs for her, so he must have some interest in them. She didn't know his size, however...

"I don't think that's why he bought you sexy underwear..." Konata said, but she didn't elaborate, only mentally giggling at Erza's confusion. It didn't matter. She needed to focus on the moment.

These were her childhood friends. This was her responsibility, but she didn't know what she was meant to do, in a circumstance like this.

"Uh, rely on your friends? Yeah. You'd stand up for them, right? So why not let them stand up for you?" Konata offered. Wise counsel. Erza feigned simply collapsing onto the floor, laying her body over Konata.

"That's it, there we go," came the voice of Wally. Her old friend. Youthful exhuberance now replaced with mature coldness. "You be a nice dandy and just sleep now. I'll- hkk!" He was cut off by a fierce strike. "Oh, right, the kid's still kickin', ain't he?"

The battle that raged overhead was one of a teleporter operating in pitch darkness, fighting against Natsu - no, not just Natsu, she could hear Lee's movements mixed in, occasionally striking or pushing Wally this way and that. She heard his feet fall close to her, and her hand snapped out, grasping him by the ankle. She flipped her body up and over in a heartbeat, sending him twisting through the air and slamming into the solid floor with a mighty thump, falling unconscious instantly.

"What happened?" Natsu asked at the loud sound that echoed through the casino.

"Wally is unconscious."

"Who's Wally?" Natsu asked.

"The man who was speaking earlier," Erza explained, rising to her feet and hefting her childhood friend onto her shoulder. Where were the others? Sho. Simon. Milliana. All capable wizards in their own right, if Konata was to be believed. She was proud to hear that, but also filled with trepidation. She wished they were meeting again on better terms.

"Big Sis," came a male voice. Men's voices changed more that women's, but she could guess - Sho. "Did you really beat up Wally? How heartless... but I guess that's what I should have expected from you. You already betrayed us once."

"Myaa! How mean!" It was a female voice. Millianna. Nostalgia and regret and trepidation and so many other feelings all mixed and boiled together in a thick stew in this endless darkness.

"You can't hope to fight us in this darkness," came Simon's voice. "Please, Erza. Just come with us."

No. There was no possible way she could simply do that, abandon her friends, leave with them... she let Wally's weight hit the ground once more as she readied herself for a fight. Where was Gray? Where was Lucy? "You know," came Konata's voice, "you might be able to talk them down, since they're your old friends, and you know them so well, and what motivates them, and what lies they've been told."

She stiffened at that thought. Perhaps... perhaps she could. She had worried Jellal would kill Sho, once, but now? Now he was mere feet away, in arm's reach. Perhaps he could be reasoned with. "It isn't like you think," she began, "Jellal has been lying to you all this time. He said that if I came back, he would kill you, Sho."

She continued on, explaining her terrible exile from the island they now called home, from her point of view: finding Jellal, finding him twisted by the tortures he had received and Zeref, trying to persuade him but earning only an exile and horrid threats. When she finished her story, there was a pregnant pause.

"Myaa! Do you think that's really true?" She sounded like she was genuinely unsure, at least.

"No! It's a total lie! Big Sis is just trying to-" Sho began, and cut himself off as the room suddenly lit up once more. She saw, then, the trio of old friends she had once known, all those years ago. Sho. Simon. Millianna. Simon appeared surprised - it hadn't been he who had vanquished this darkness, so it was likely Lee.

"Myaa! There's a kitty!" Millianna completely interrupted the line of conversation and began to rush forward, ignoring Erza's presence entirely. She wore her brown hair up in a pair of faux-cat ears and had done her face up with whiskers, making her love of cats even more blatant than it already was. Erza moved her body subtly to get a better view of the battlefield, and saw Lee standing there... with Happy in his arms? The cat looked less than enthused at the rapidly approaching woman, but he didn't run away either.

* * *

There was a kitty in that man's arms! She was going to play with the kitty! Sho could yell at her all he wanted, she didn't care! It was toooo cute a kitty cat! The moment she arrived up close, she immediately grabbed the kitty from the man and wrapped it in a hug, starting to scritch its ears and coo. "What a cute kitty! Does it have a name?"

"Happy!" Came a muffled voice from her chest. A talking kitty?! She pulled it out of her body to look at it closely. The blue-furred cat (which was really really cute!) looked up at her with some note of confusion to its expression (which was also really cute!). "You... uh... should be nice to my friends!"

She couldn't deny such a nice request from such a cute kitty! "Okay!" She agreed, happily, snuggling up the cute kitty in her arms.

"Millianna! You can't just- join these-" Sho cried out from behind her, filled with rage, but she had a cute kitty in her arms so what did she care? "Just because they have a cat?!"

"It's a cute kitty! And it talks, and asked me to be its friend! Myaa!" Millianna didn't see any reason not to be the friend of such a cute kitty!

"I didn't..." the kitty began, and Millianna instantly swiveled her attention back to it, her eyes wide and excited to have a cat she could really talk to! She wondered what it was about to say! "Yes. I want to be your friend! Yay!" It was shivering! The poor thing must be cold! She wrapped it in her arms even tighter, spinning in place both in joy and to try to heat it up with the movement!

"Erza is right," Simon said, with a solemnity and finality to his words. "Jellal has been deceiving us... using us... for all these years. That was obvious to me from the beginning. Why would Erza destroy our boat before escaping? Honestly..." he turned to Erza. "Part of me thought you were simply dead. That he had gotten rid of you entirely, for good. I am glad to see I was wrong."

"This! I!" Sho was having an emotional breakdown, and Erza and Simon were hugging, and Wally was unconscious, but Millianna was distracted! She had a cute kitty!

She wondered who had given her the cute kitty? She turned her attention back to the man. He was pretty cute! He had big, broad shoulders, like a cat, and lots of muscles, like a cat, and he was wearing sunglasses that hid his eyes (which were probably like a cat's! She assumed! For some reason!). He had blonde hair like a cute blonde cat! What a cuuute man! "Hi!" She said, waggling her hand in a wave. She considered making Happy wave too, but he just leapt right out of her arms. "Kitty!" She cried out in distress as he began to flee. "Don't worry, kitty, I'll take good care of you!"

"Natsu, help! This crazy lady likes cats way too much!"

Wha? How could you like cats too much? She paused her thinking, and her movement. Was the kitty right? On the one hand, it was a kitty, so she should listen to it. On the other hand, she definitely liked cats exactly the right amount, it was everybody else who was confused.

"I can purchase a cat for you to keep as a pet, if it is what you wish," said the man. A pet cat?! "I am Lee," he said, offering his hand to her. That name was cute! It reminded her of a cat! (Somehow!) She smiled really big and took his hand, shaking it.

"I'm Millianna. Jellal wouldn't let me have a cat, since we were on an isolated island! Will you really get me a cat?"

"Yes. Whatever cat you please."

Hooray! She was bouncing up and down in place in glee! A cat! Her own cat! She hugged the man without even really thinking about it, and kissed his chest without really thinking about it (she only came up to his chest), because she was soooo happy! "Can I have that one?" She asked, pointing to Happy, who for some reason maneuvered himself behind the pink-haired boy.

"Ah... Happy is Natsu's pet cat, you see," Lee explained succinctly.

"He's not a pet! He's a friend!" Natsu declared.

"Yeah!" Happy agreed.

"Oh no, myaa! I don't want a pet cat!" She realized then, with absolute clarity. "I want a friend cat! Can I have a cat be my friend instead of a pet?"

"I... you may, yes."

"Myaa!" Millianna bounced in place happily. Some blue-haired girl appeared near Lee and seemed to glare at her maliciously, but she didn't care, she was going to get a kitty friend!

* * *

It had taken some time for the group of them to settle on a plan. Millianna. Sho. Simon. Wally. Her old friends, united with her at last. Konata offered her own information, regarding how they may thread the thin needle necessary to save Jellal from himself - or from Ultear, depending on one's view. It seemed easier for the others to accept that Jellal had been under the control of another person than she would have expected. Perhaps it was because they did not wish to think ill of the person who had been treating them well for many years, despite the deceit and manipulation and threats he relied on.

Their group split into two. Lee and herself would go with her old friends to the Tower of Heaven, pretending to be their captives. Juvia, Levy, Lucy, Natsu, and Gray would go to the magic council and work to undermine, distract, or perhaps even prove the malicious intent of Ultear. So long as the magic council did not use the Etherion on the Tower of Heaven, all would be well - or, as well as it could be, at least.

According to Konata, he had hired Trinity Raven to serve as his personal guard, so the path to meet him would be no easy thing... but she had confidence that together, they could do it.

* * *

Sho had tried to capture her in a card so as to go fight Trinity Raven on his own; Lee had simply summoned her forth from that card. Some kind of owl man had attacked her and their group, but she had managed to triumph over it, again, thanks to Lee's ability to let her rapidly recover, as well as some liberal use of Millianna's magic draining whips. Now they faced off against Vidaldus Taka, a dark-haired man with a guitar of some kind.

"Normally I'd use chance, but you! Your body is just too rockin'! You're my succubus for the day!" He pointed at Erza. "Rock of Succubus!"

She was too confused, and he was too far, for her to simply close the distance to bash him before whatever magic this was hit her. She tried to move forward, but the sound hit her like a wave of force, careening into her mind and transforming her in mind and body in a heartbeat.

She felt excitement racing through her veins, a pure delight like none she'd ever known. She was entranced with Vivaldus, she was full of life and energy, the world was dark and she was darker, and-

"Undo," Lee said, simply waving his hand, and her mind came back to her entirely.

"Hey, whoa, that ain't fai-" Vivaldus managed to get out, before being clobbered across the head by the heavy blade that was Konata. He was sent careening down to the ground in a messy heap - Millianna bound him with her magic whips, and they moved on quickly.

* * *

According to Jellal, both Fukuro and Vivaldus had already fallen to the group. She had hoped that Vivaldus's succubus magic would manage to destroy them where Fukuro's brute strength had failed. It appeared, however, that both men ultimately lacked what was necessary to do what needed to be done. That was to be expected though. There were few who could equal her, and those two were not among them.

She was a beautiful woman, she knew. A pair of beauty marks beneath either eye; peach skin, red lips, pink hair let long, a curvaceous figure. Her loose white kimono had caught the eyes of a few men - a momentary distraction sufficient for her to cut past even their most well-formed guards. She moved without haste to meet these intruders that she had been hired to handle.

So it was that she stood in the path of the group. Sho. Wally. Simon. Millianna. Erza. Lee. She had taken her accounting of them all. Lee was the most dangerous of them, for his ability to heal the others, but Erza protected him most fiercely. She needed a strike that would cut both of them at once, leaving Erza unable to protect him.

"Who are you?" Erza demanded, but Ikaruga simply remained silent and still as her gaze went to Lee.

He was handsome. A figure of masculine perfection. A body as handsome as her own was beautiful, finely crafted as if by the most elite artificer ever born. Her hand went to the blade at her side. It was unfortunate that she would have to destroy something so beautiful, but-

"Very well," Erza said, throwing the great sword she carried to one side. It instantly drew Ikaruga's attention, as Erza suddenly changed her outfit, from the heavy armor she had worn to mere cloth that bound her breasts. She held in either hand two separate blades. Such a play confused her. Did she plan to show off? If she was viewing Ikaruga with contempt, she would not soon be forgiven.

It did make her job easier, however - Erza now was undefended, so she could cut past her to Lee with relative ease.

To Lee. That handsome man. It was a pity to have to cut him down, but, such was her work. Had she met him some other place, some other time -

She crossed blades with Erza, already planning to continue on to Lee, to cut him down. She felt her blade cut into the other woman's shoulder, so she fully expected her to fall and provide her the opening - what she did not expect was for her own blade to shatter into pieces in a single strike, and the force of the blow that Erza landed on her to send her tumbling to one side, aching, in agony as she lay there, unable to continue to fight. How? She had... how? She closed her eyes and knew no more.

* * *

She was snapped back to consciousness with a suddenness she did not expect. It did not even feel like she had fallen asleep - yet every ache in her body had vanished, suggesting she had been asleep for many hours, or even days. Strangest of all was the figure before her: Lee. It was not Vivaldus or Fukuro who had saved her - recovered her? She was still in the Tower of Heaven. Had the Etherion not been called down?

No... "You defeated Jellal," she said, her voice pained. She had failed to perform her duty as an assassin. She had never done that before. She began to rise to her feet, but a powerful foot pressed down upon her back, sending her to the ground and knocking the wind out of her. Erza's boot, she realized, after only a second.

"No. We spoke to him, and Lee removed the malign influence on his mind. He is now... reconciling with our friends. Lee wished to come heal you, to ensure you did not simply die here, Ikaruga. You owe him your life."

She owed him her life... she felt the other woman's foot press her down, compressing her chest in a most painful fashion, but it did not compare to that simple realization. She owed him her life. She... what was she to do, in a circumstance like this? There was no doubt in her mind that Erza had struck a mortal wound on her - at least, had Etherion been called down, she surely could not have escaped in time. She had never owed someone her life like this. Certainly not an enemy. "I... don't... know what to say," she whispered out, her breath ragged from the force that Erza brought down on her back in that position.

"Swear to follow Lee. He believes you can be redeemed, and I trust his judgment. It is only due to his kind heart that you are being allowed this opportunity - you will not receive a second."

She had not spoken a single word to Lee. Not even heard his voice in person. Nevertheless, she nodded. "I swear. I swear to follow Lee, as loyally as any other master I have ever served."

"Your words fill me with joy," Lee said, as Erza removed her boot from Ikaruga's back.

Lee seemed so kind, in that moment. So wise. The sort of person she could hardly believe existed, one who would be generous even to their enemies. She gingerly rose, not to her feet, but to her knees, then prostrated herself before the man who would be her master from this day forward. "Thank you for taking me as your humble servant, Master. I will serve as your loyal blade until the day I die."

There was a long, trembling silence that stretched out for far too long. She did not know if she had said something wrong.

* * *

I earnestly had not expected this response from Ikaruga. I had hoped for her to be redeemed, on the standard internal logic of this universe that defeat means redemption - the fact that she had sworn herself to my service and called me Master, was an unexpected delight. I did not want to shift my body too much at the moment, due to the erection that had bloomed between my thighs, the iron wood that wished to pierce the kowtowing woman before me. A careful look upward at Erza - not moving my neck so as to disguise the movements of my eyes behind my sunglasses - revealed that she had noticed my erection, but it provoked only a faint heat to her cheeks, the familiar flush of delight she always seemed to show whenever watching me lust after another woman.

I knew her tastes largely by intuition: that she enjoyed watching me make love to other women, that she enjoyed sexual denial, that she was physically masochistic but did not want to be called names in the bedroom... I had only the vague intuition that, if I were to take Ikaruga right now, on the floor of the Tower of Heaven, neither woman would object.

I did not do that, however. I admit, I was not entirely sure why. It simply seemed inappropriate. Even if the thought of simply shifting around behind her, flipping up her kimono, and fucking her into the floor caused my length to throb, which in turn made Erza's eyes briefly glance to one side in embarrassment.

I eventually realized that I had not said anything for almost a full minute, and spoke again. "Ahem. Rise, Ikaruga, my faithful servant," I intoned.

She rose to her feet, a faint heat to her cheeks - whether from embarrassment at having to bow for so long, or arousal at it, or something else entirely. "Yes, Master. What would you have me do?"

I didn't have the faintest idea what I should have her do, at that particular moment. "Let us return to Erza's friends, now that we have taken care of healing you."

"Yes, Master," Ikaruga said, nodding quietly as the three of us began to make her way. She moved to take a position in front of me, both to protect from any attacks on my person, and to avoid me having to worry about her stabbing me in the back. As she passed me by, I stole her panties, stuffing them into my pockets as a trophy of sorts.

I don't think she noticed until after we reached our destination.