Jellal

Alex dragged the still struggling Erik and sleeping snake to the rest of the tied up group. Throwing Erik unceremoniously to the floor near the others he went to check on Jellal. Jellal was almost completely healed but was very low on mana currently and didn't seem to be waking up anytime soon.

Alex poured a little bit of mana into Jellal's mana pool to increase the speed he would wake up, before he sealed Jellal's magic, though he didn't bother binding him. He then turned his attention to the struggling and panicked group of mages all trying to ask a question of their own.

They were all in various states of chaos and confusion and all talking over each other. "SHUT-UP!" Alex snapped out, silencing the group. "Don't heal him for too much longer, he is almost completely healed and your magic is getting low again" Alex said to Wendy.

Wendy and Mira were having a quiet conversation when Alex was dealing with Erik, but had stopped when Alex called out. Wendy nodded to him and Mira started paying attention to the group of bound hooligans.

"Okay. Before I start burning people alive for kidnapping my sister, does anyone want to explain what hell is going on here?" Alex started in a dark tone. He wouldn't kill them, but he wasn't above hurting them for making Wendy cry.

Angel/Sorano was the first one to get their bearings. "We were approached by Jellal at our guildhall, he came to tell us he was being mind controlled during the tower of heaven incident and Brain was using us to commit atrocities. Saying Brain had linked all of our magic to him and was subtly influencing our minds through it. It made it feel like our actions were correct and wouldn't have any consequences." She said sadly, her tone laced with regret.

'Well that's interesting. I didn't know about that part, but I guess since they were all given to him as kids it would have made sense to "influence" (brainwash) them.' Alex thought as she finished speaking. "I take it Brain didn't take this very well?" Alex asked.

"That would be putting it mildly. He instantly started attacking Jellal calling him a traitor and liar. We would have joined him in attacking but Cobra was able to tell Jellal was being honest. So we all sat out of the fight." A new person, Midnight/Macbeth spoke.

"Brain Lost his temper because we refused to assist him and started attacking us too, so we fled the battle still not wanting to choose one side or the other" Racer/Sawyer spoke up.

"Oh yes! We watched from a distance as they completely demolished the guildhall. Money!" the big man, Hot-eye/Richard commented. Alex didn't know what money had to do with the situation but knowing this guy's personality from the Anime he just shrugged it off.

"What did you do to Cubellios?!" Erik/Cobra growled. Alex ignored him and turned to the others "Continue" he said simply.

"When the fighting died down we headed back to what was left of the guildhall. By the time we got back, Brain was Dead and Jellal was in critical condition. We were able to stabilize him and get him to shelter, but his condition wasn't improving so we needed a healer." Angel continued.

"How did you learn of Wendy?" Alex asked curiously, though he had an Idea already.

"She was already part of an ongoing plan Brain had and he had learned of her through Archive. We were going to use her to set a trap for you" Sorano said with a gulp. The entire group didn't look pleased with her words, though if they were upset at her for saying the words or upset at themselves for targeting Alex and/or Wendy, was unknown, though they didn't offer any comments on the subject.

Alex glared at the group until they started to squirm under the pressure of his stare. "So instead of going through with the baiting, you used the already collected information to kidnap Wendy so she could heal Jellal?" Mira asked, adding her own question for the first time.

"Yes, we felt like we didn't have a choice. Healing Wizards are very rare and we couldn't let Jellal die before we figure out what is going on here. Brain is already dead, so there isn't anything we can do about that but we still needed answers." Sorano said, actually starting to shed tears.

'Guess it would be pretty fucked up to learn all that about yourself after being forced to do some horrible things' Alex mused. Their personalities right now were a bit different than he remembered from the anime.

Alex knew the body link magic Brain had applied to all them as children would have long since been dispelled by his death, and if it somehow stayed active after death then it was gone now that their magic had been sealed. If it did have some sort of compulsion linked to it then they would currently be free from it.

With this in mind, he didn't really have any reason to not believe them. He had been monitoring their heart rates during the conversation and could tell they weren't lying. He turned to Mira and Wendy, who were both just watching quietly from behind him.

"Thoughts?" He asked, not really sure what his next steps should be.

"They seemed sincere and they haven't been mean to me" Wendy chimed in before Mira could respond. Alex and Mira smiled at the Kind hearted girl, she had enough reason to hate these guys but was the first one to forgive them. Alex wondered if that would change when she found out this was the wrong Jellal, though he doubted it.

Alex turned his attention to the still form of Jellal. He could tell from his rhythmic breathing that he was just sleeping now. With an evil smirk, Alex formed a big ball of water before making it as cold as he could without freezing it.

Tossing the water ball at Jellal he chuckled lightly at his sputtering and flailing form as he was rudely awoken. He reflexively tried to shoot magic at whatever 'Attacked' him but finding out he couldn't he just settled for letting out a groan as he realized how sore he was from the healing. It took him a couple seconds to collect himself and notice his situation.

"What is going on?" He asked after not being able to remember anything.

"I think that should be our question," Mira said lightly.

"Hmm? What are Fairy tail Wizards doing here?" Jellal asked quietly after taking note of the people involved.

"Jellal! What is going on!?" Sorano shouted after a few moments of silence.

"What happened to Brain?!" Jellal shouted back, ignoring her question for what he thought was much more important.

"He is dead, you killed him before passing out" Midnight said calmly.

'Midnight is taking this too well. Wasn't he supposed to be some sort of adopted son to Brain?' Alex thought, slightly confused about his casual tone at Brains death. He momentarily wondered if the compulsion was involved in that aspect too but ignored it shortly after.

Jellal had calmed down enough, now that he confirmed Brain wasn't a threat, to take stock of the situation he was in. "Why are you all tied up and why can't I use my magic?" He asked everyone involved.

The entire group collectively turned to Alex, drawing Jellal's attention to him. "Didn't really want to fight all of you with Wendy here" was the simple and only explanation they got.

"Can you give our magic back?" Jellal asked after realizing Alex wasn't going to say more.

"I could and will depending how this goes, but it will have to wait. For now, just be glad you aren't tied up too" Alex said with a small smile as Mira lightly chuckled.

"Jellal! I'm so glad you're alright! I haven't seen you in a long time! How have you been?" Wendy asked excitedly as she ran to give him a hug. Jellal just stood confused, He knew they had never met each other and didn't quite know what to make of the situation.

"Ummm. Have we met, little girl?" he asked awkwardly while prying the little girl off him.

"Hmmm? You mean you don't remember me?" Wendy asked, slightly saddened.

"It isn't that I don't remember you, but I am quite sure we have never met," Jellel replied.

Wendy was sad and confused as she described her memories of meeting Jellal in the woods. She was even more confused when Jellal told her that couldn't have been him as he was in the Tower of heaven at the supposed time of their meeting.

Wendy let the matter go, though she was visibly depressed with tears in her eyes. Mira Hugged the small girl as she tried to comfort her.

As Mira was comforting Wendy, Jellal started explaining everything he knew about what was going on. He started with when he randomly got hit with a massive Migraine one day at the Magic council that brought with it a flood of information and an outside perspective of what he has been doing all these years.

It was like watching his life from a third person PoV starting the day he was possessed. The experience sickened him to no end as he watched his body toy with all the people he thought of as friends and even pushed his love interest away.

It only got worse from there as he slowly built up the tower and infiltrated the magic council with the assistance of a Wizard from Grimoire Heart. He didn't know if Ultear was being used like he was, but her quitting the council and abandoning her guild at the same time pointed to the fact that she was.

He told them all about how he left the council and went back to the Tower. He explained the situation to all the remaining Slaves and even offered transport back to their homes on the mainland.

He told the ones he was closest to about his plans to search out the other children from the tower and get them out of the hands of the guild that took them. They wanted to join him, but he sent them off in search of Erza before he set out himself.

He explained everything he had done to track them down and even his confrontation with Brain. From his memories and previous dealing with Brain, he knew a fight was inevitable so he prepared a few surprises.

Brain's strength was higher than Jellal was expecting and It almost cost him his life, leading him to the situation they were currently in. Everyone had different reactions to his story, though the most over the top one was Richard/Hot-eye.

When he learned that his younger brother, the person he has been searching for all this time and the reason he joined Brain, was not only alive but had been on the tower of heaven the whole time, he was in a mental state best described as 'a mess'.

He was incredibly happy to know his brother was alive, saddened that he was so close this whole time and completely livid at the fact Brain knew the entire time but didn't bother to tell him. The others were also all in their own states of Anger, confusion or sadness and the whole cave had a very depressing air surrounding it.

After getting the information he needed, Alex left them to their own quiet conversations while he got caught up with Mira and Wendy. They still had to figure out what they were going to do with this odd bunch after all.