[X784, Skies above the Tower of Heaven]
— Ultear Milkovich —
"There it is."
Wind howled around her as she stood at the open edge of Grimoire Heart's Airship. Her long black cloak fluttered behind her, snapping in the gale. One hand gripped the railing. In the other, she held her focus orb, a conduit foci for the Arc of Time.
The sky was crimson with the setting sun, and below her was the massive—now crumbling—remains of the Tower of Heaven. A once-majestic structure now reduced to a ruin. Smoke still clung to its shattered base.
A presence appeared to her left as Master Hades stepped beside her.
"There," he said, pointing to a sliver of sky just above the ruined tower. "The center of the Etherion's detonation. If anything remains, it'll be there."
Ultear nodded and stepped forward, raising her hand. Green magic flared from her palm, misting outward in long, curling threads.
The arc of time was a powerful magic that she could only have learned due to Master Hades. Time itself was in her fingertips, to turn it back or push it forward. It took time and effort to master it, enough to earn the title of Wizard Saint in Ishgar. It was the power she would now use to bring back the man whose death had tilted the scales too far, too soon.
Jellal had served his purpose as a puppet, but that doesn't mean his job was finished. Not yet.
The orb shimmered in response to her intent. She focused the spell. The very air warped before her eyes. Dust began to coalesce. The charred remnants of matter realigned. Particles were pulled backwards in time, regressing from ash and ruin into something whole again.
Then the figure began to form.
From the air, inch by inch, bone knit to sinew, skin followed, hair reformed. A shape floated there now, suspended—his shape.
Jellal Fernandez.
Ultear clenched her jaw, her brow glistening with sweat. Time magic demanded more than energy—it demanded focus. It required quite a lot to bring back someone as powerful as Jellal, dead as he was. She pushed harder, drawing the flow of time backward, threading the moment just before the Etherion turned his body into dust.
Once Jellal was reformed, Hades made a pulling motion, the body jerking towards the airship by an unseen force.
Ultear caught the body, before putting him down. She frowned however, when she realized the body wasn't breathing.
"What's the problem?" Hades asked.
"He's not…" Ultear said confusedly. "It's just a corpse, Master Hades."
Hades frowned, his shadow falling over her. "I was under the impression that your Arc of Time allowed you to reverse death."
"It does," she snapped. She forced her voice steady when she remembered who she was talking to. "I've used it before. I've done it before. Short-term death. I brought them back."
"Then why not now?" His tone was analytical as Hades stroked his beard. "If the body is here, but remains unliving, then perhaps the soul was tampered with. The Etherion is quite the magical wonder after all, we still don't know what it's fully capable of."
"Perhaps…" Ultear said hesitantly. She doubted it, she had intensively read the readings and capabilities of the magical weapon. Powerful as it is, it wasn't something that interfered with the soul.
The death hadn't been long enough to fully sever the tether. Etherion was destructive, capable of destroying matter to its smallest form, but it was not a soul-rending weapon, not by any documentation she'd studied.
'Something else did this…' She realized. 'Or someone.'
…
[4E 201, Dannis's house]
— Dannis Martell —
"Arise."
The moment the word left his lips, the air turned heavy with spiritual density. A dark mist coalesced, slowly forming the shape of a man. His body was vague and spectral, but his features were unmistakable. The red pulsing mark over his right eye was enough for anyone to realize this was.
The Wraith of Jellal Fernandez.
He was currently in the backyard of his home, private enough to do this without disturbance. Behind Dannis, Laxus crossed his arms and Mira tensed slightly. They were here as a safeguard, just in case the soul of a former Wizard Saint didn't come quietly.
It's been a whole month since the Tower of Heaven. Dannis had intentionally waited that long for the soul to consolidate into his control. If Jellal's soul proved aggressive, three S-Class mages should be enough to subdue him if it came to it.
Jellal was killed when he was sandwiched between the Etherion and Laxus' spell. Despite his body being nearly atomized, the soul still lingered, and Dannis didn't hesitate to snatch out of the air.
The wraith merely stood there, his gaze leveled. Showing no signs of aggression.
There were no sudden movements. No surges of power. No tug-of-war of will. The soul didn't even flinch as it entered his control.
The tension in the air bled out slowly.
"That's it?" Laxus asked.
Dannis frowned. "Yeah. That's it."
The lack of resistance didn't feel right. Souls were never this docile. Especially not one with as much power as Jellal.
It was too easy. The feeling of subjugating a soul is similar to a tug-of-war. There was part where dominance was necessary. It was the only reason he had masterful control of them.
Dannis would never take in souls that didn't want to enter his service. It went against every bit of morals he was raised by. But this was a special case. They still had many questions unanswered and Jellal was the only person who could answer them.
"You have him?" Laxus repeated.
"I do," Dannis replied with a bit of uncertainty in his tone. His eyes never left the wraith. "But something's wrong."
Mira tilted her head. "Wrong how?"
"This doesn't feel like possession. It feels like…" Dannis paused, his brow furrowing, "…like permission. Like he wanted to be subdued."
He reached up, pressing two fingers to his temple.
"A soul that strong should've fought me, or at least had a token of resistance. But he didn't. He surrendered without a whisper. That kind of willful submission… It only happens in two cases—souls ready to move on, or souls that have nothing left."
"The Jellal we knew was a hateful and antagonistic man." Dannis continued, "I sense none of that from this soul. He recognizes me, knows what I tried to do by subjugating him, and just let it happen."
"Maybe dying changes a man," Laxus offered, but he didn't sound convinced.
Dannis shook his head. "Even in death, will leaves traces. Guilt. Rage. Defiance. Jellal should've been overflowing with something."
Dannis approached Jellal's wraith before putting a hand to his brow. "I need to know why."
The wraith gave him a silent look as Dannis mentally communicated what he wanted to do.
There was no resistance.
Contact.
The world fell away.
…
[Memoryscape – Jellal Fernandes' Mind]
The first image struck like a punch—iron bars. Screams. A child's voice. Blood on stone.
Dannis staggered forward into the swirling fog of Jellal's memories. This place wasn't linear. Memories bled into each other. A fractured psyche laid bare.
They all came rushing in. Jellal's time in the Tower of Heaven, meeting Erza, the day he got tortured by the slavers, then a voice he recognized.
Ultear.
Even as a child, Jellal had an iron will and powerful mental defenses. But the recent torture, especially after the slavers threatened to hurt Erza, was enough to weaken him for Ultear to manipulate his mind.
Her voice was a shadow, soft and laced with poisoned honey. She spoke soothing words, wrapping Jellal's mind in fog. "They hurt her because of you, Jellal. But you can protect her. You just have to become strong. Stronger than all of them."
She spoke of salvation, of purpose, of Zeref. And in that moment of weakness, that crack in the wall of his mind… she slipped in.
The memory flicked once more—and Dannis saw the Tower of Heaven slowly being rebuilt. His sanity corroded over time. And worse still, he didn't know it. Ultear played him like a puppet on golden strings.
The fog started to dim for a time as Jellal grew more powerful, but they came back in abundance when he and Ultear became co-workers as council members.
It didn't help that Jellal was so used to splitting his mind with the constant use of Thought Projection. Every time he split his consciousness, it thinned the veil Ultear had woven—keeping him just lucid enough to obey, but never free enough to question.
For years and years his mind was molded by Ultear to do her bidding, and it all culminated at the end when Ultear attacked the council and Jellal fired the Etherion.
Then came the moment of death. The day the Ultear's veil disappeared.
And yet—still no hate in the soul. Just regret. Grief. A lifetime of sins committed in another's name.
…
Dannis gasped and pulled his hand back, eyes wide. Sweat rolled down his neck.
"Danni!" Mira held his shoulders. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah," Dannis muttered, though he didn't sound convinced. He shook off the tremble in his fingers. "I'm fine."
"What did you see?" Laxus asked.
Dannis looked between the two of them, then at the silent Wraith who waited still.
"By Mavis…all of it was just a damn ruse," Dannis said. "From the very beginning. Ultear got to him when he was a child, after the slavers broke him. She made him who he was. The obsession with Zeref. The Tower. The council infiltration. All of it."
Mira's eyes widened. "Are you serious?"
"I saw it. All of it." His jaw tightened. "The real Jellal… never had a chance."
Laxus let out a slow breath. "Damn."
Dannis turned back to the Wraith. "He's not resisting because he doesn't want to. He's relieved. For the first time in years, his mind is quiet."
He shook his head before looking at them both.
"Come on. We've got a lot to talk about." He turned toward the guild. "Master Makarov and Mavis need to hear this. Erza too. The truth about Jellal… and the woman pulling the strings behind him."
…
AN: Jellal's life was the epitome of tragedy. A peaceful soul manipulated to do the bidding of others.
His story hasn't ended yet, I have some pretty big plans for Wraith Jellal.
Hope you enjoyed the chapter, cheers!