Talking to Jellal

Jellal said, "Leave the room, Simon. Marcus and I would like to talk privately."

Simon did as he bid and closed the door as he left the room. Leaving me alone with Jellal. He said, "It's been a while hasn't it Marcus. I haven't seen you since your defection."

Oh shit, he had some backstory with me. I guess it made sense he was trained by the Oración Seis and I had worked for them for years.

With us being of similar age with me being slightly older than him we were probably friends or associates. Well, I had to muddle through this now, by just bluffing.

I replied, "Yeah it's kind of hard meeting up when one of us is a dark mage and the other is now a well-respected member of the Rune Knights."

He sighed, "So it's really true then, you truly betrayed us. I thought you were just committed to this undercover mission but you haven't been responding to any of our channels of communication."

"You destruction of multiple of our associate guild and most tellingly showing up here really shows that you changed sides huh. Why turn your back on us?"

"We could've ruled the Ishgar continent together Marcus. In a few years, I would have become a Wizard Saint and you the Rune Knight Commander. We would've wielded immeasurable political power."

Oh shit, I was apparently a spy but because I lost my memory I had betrayed the Balam Alliance for real. This threw a wrench into my plans.

Now if this information was ever revealed there would always be doubt if I ever would be trustworthy crushing my chances of becoming a Wizard Saint.

So I lied smoothly, "Power is great and by no means do I disagree with that, but what I hold dearer is revenge. Ever since I was born I was fighting just to survive, to eat my next meal."

"I hated living that way, I hated my past and for a long time I lashed out against the entire world in my rage. But then I realized it is not the whole world at fault but the Dark Guilds in particular."

"I am a petty man and once I realized how much the Balam Alliance hurt me there was no question that I was going to turn against them. That is just in my nature."

This would reframe why Jellal thought I betrayed the Dark Guilds in a more understandable light. If I said I did it for justice and whatnot there was no way he was going to believe it.

He sighed, "Really, revenge? I guess I shouldn't have expected a more complicated reason from you Marcus. You were always so simple."

I nodded, "Yup, and destroying this place will be my first step in my revenge."

Jellal replied, "How did you even find this place? I know that you weren't close enough to anyone important to learn about this plan."

I said, "Believe it or not, it was Erza. I made friends with her as Fairy Tail's correspondent and she told me about this place. When I heard that you were leading it I knew I had to come."

I saw his face twist in rage, "I knew I should've killed her but my heart was not strong enough. Now I have to deal with you."

I asked, "Do you think you can honestly deal with me?"

He sighed, "No I do not. Now that your magical talents have awoken you are quickly rising to be one of the strongest combatants in all of Earthland."

"While I admit that I am good for my age, you are older and have been in more fights than me. But mark my words I will have my revenge."

I said, "Is that you speaking or Zeref's spirit talking."

I knew that he thought he was being possessed by Zeref's spirit when it was actually Ultear. But I would play to this misconception and try and see how much of the real Jellal is left.

I saw Jellal's face twitch and a fight for control before he gasped, "How did you learn of that? I know I kept it a complete secret."

I said, "Heard your story, about how you completely changed your personality after working on a resurrection tower that Zeref designed, it wasn't that hard to piece together."

"So you in there Jellal? What do you remember the time he controlled you? Do you remember all the atrocities he did with your body?"

There was a much more obvious reaction as Jellal's entire body twitched trying to fight itself as the original tried to reassert dominance over the mind control, but he failed.

Jellal was not in frenzy yelling, "How dare you!? I will have you killed for that Marcus Fulbright, killed you hear me. I have called reinforcements and they will arrive at any moment."

I smiled back, "You can't lie to me Jellal, I've picked up some Telepathy Magic to enhance my inborn Observation Magic. You remember that ability right?"

"Now I can sense a lot more than just the things around me. I now can sense how they feel and what their intentions are. I know you haven't called for reinforcements."

"You must've been too paranoid to let communication Lacrima into this base just in case you could be tracked down and that will be your undoing."

Jellal now in a rage said, "This is not the end you hear me!? The Balam Alliance see this project as essential, they will break me out of prison to continue my glorious work to revive Lord Zeref."

"With this action, you have condemned yourself, now all the members of the Balam Alliance will know that you have truly betrayed us."

"No more will you be able to walk out of the Rune Knight base feeling safe. Know that at any moment an S-rank mage may try and kill you!"

I said, "Don't worry I'll deal with that. Fighting has always been my strong suit."

With all the time we spent talking and the hysterical mood that I had driven Jellal into I had all the time in the world to get some Lacrima from my Requip space to prepare a spell.

While he was still raving I yelled out, "Grand Anti Magic: Possession Denial!"

A massive circle appeared around Jellal and I could see the magic in his body trying and resist the spell but I had been preparing for this since I got the information from Erza.

I had memorized this spell that was way above my Antimagic level in particular just for this moment. I had Lacrima that I had charged like a battery to prepare for this moment.

Even though I was not the best antimagic user, having a month of preparation made sure that even the strongest spell would falter.

And it did, I saw the strands of magic controlling Jellal start to dissipate as my magic did its work. He landed on the ground in a crumpled heap.

It seems like everything went according to plan. Attack this place as soon as possible giving only a little notice to later support of my actions so that the Balam Alliance can't respond in time.

With Jellal and all of the members of the Tower of Heaven being as weak as I thought it became easy to take him out.

The only thing that I had to deal with now was that I was apparently supposed to be a spy. I looked at Jellal's knocked-out body.

I know that in the original series he lost all of his memories and only regained them after 7 years I wonder how the less time he was possessed and the different way he got rid of the possession affected his mind.

I sat on the ground before using my Observation to try and find Simon. He was in the corridor far enough that the didn't anything we were talking about.

I used my Telepathy Magic to say, "Get in here I've already dealt with Jellal. He should be free of possession I just don't know about the side effects."

Simon immediately rushed in, "You did it, you got rid of the person possessing him."

I nodded, "Yeah his head starts by using a really powerful Anti Magic spell."

He sighed in relief and began checking Jellal over. After a moment Jellal seemed to wake up and when he looked at Simon, he asked, "Is that, you Simon?"

Simon nodded, "Yes Jellal it's me."

He responded, "Why do you look so much older? and where are we?"

Simon was surprised and asked, "What was the last thing you remember?"

He responded, "Was being taken into some room by some guards then something happened. I remember incredible amounts of pain than just darkness."

So he remembered his entire life before he got possessed. He didn't remember anything after that though so had no information about the Dark Guilds.

That was good in some ways and bad in others. It was good because that means that he can't give away crucial information to the Rune Knight derailing canon.

That also means that he can't tell me about my relationship with the Balam Alliance as it seems to go a lot deeper and more complicated than I expected.

Still, now that everything was taken care of brought out a communication Lacrima from my Requip Space to be reporting this to Barat. It was going to be a fun discussion.