Seeking Forgiveness (Jellal x Reader)

Chapter 1

Jellal was prepared for today. The day the guards had been goading him about, since the very day he had been put in this prison. Today, was the day, he was going to be executed. He had been at peace with the idea for a while now. After all, what he had done to all those people at the tower of heaven, he was ready to accept his punishment. To accept his fate. To give peace to all the people that he hurt. It was the only thing that he could give them, the last thing that he could give them.

The cell door opened and Jellal glanced up at the guards, whose faces he'd become familiar with. For over a year now they've watched him, through his trial and now to the end. Some were...nicer than others, to put it nicely on his part. But he couldn't blame them for that either.

He had realised how much he needed to give people peace after he heard Erza Scarlet died a year ago, during what is now being referred to as the Tenrou incident. All he has had for that year was his thoughts. Dark thoughts, that his mind, twisted and corrupted the more he thought and pondered, the more he wondered. He wished, now more than ever, that he could've made it up to her. That was one of the things he couldn't do.

He didn't know how he was supposed to be executed. He heard it was going to be nice and quiet. Unannounced and away from public speculation. All but a few members of the council that is, who want to witness the event. He was sure that meant all of them.

Jellal dropped his head. Both his arms were grabbed as he got dragged from his cell. He didn't fight the guards, but that didn't stop them from being rough. They dragged him, his feet dragging behind him as magical cancelling cuffs were tightly clasped around his wrists. He hadn't used magic in so long he almost forgot what it felt like.

He will never use magic again, though. It was his magic. That corruption that hurt the people around him. He was bad luck. No one could get close to him without getting hurt. Which is why this was the best thing that could happen to him. That way, no one else would get hurt.

Jellal's eyes were glued to the floor, but he could feel the eyes of everyone else around him. As he was dragged, he hoped for one last thing, a final wish, to see the sun. To stare up at the golden rays one last time, to embrace its joy. Being in the same cage without sunlight, for over a year, it takes its toll on the mind. More than beating his mind was already giving itself.

Jellal felt it before the others. The rumbling of the tunnels, the guards holding him up let him go, and he crashed to the floor. He was up quickly, however, glancing down the unfamiliar tunnel it started to shake again. This time, however, he watched as a hole was made in the wall, not too far ahead of where he was.

Sunlight streamed through and Jellal smiled. He got his last wish, that was all he could ask for really. Jellal pulled himself into a standing position and wandered towards the light. Around him, guards were still unconscious. He figured he wouldn't get very far. But after he saw the sun rays, he wanted the see the sky, the clouds that were its constant companion. He wanted to see life one more time before his was taken from him.

Shaken from the explosion, and having not done much exercise this past year, Jellal found walking harder than he remembered. A lot harder, but this urge he had to get through that hole made in the tunnel pushed him. Drove him to keep going.

When he finally reached the hole he smiled at the sight before him. Grassy fields were stretched as far as the eye could see, dotted with flowers of every shape and colour. The sky was so blue it rivalled his hair, filled with white fluffy clouds and birds that soared through the sky without a worry or care in the world.

Then he saw the sun, golden rays stretched across the sky. The golden orb itself quickly made him turn his head in the other direction but he saw it. And the urge to see life, the weight he's been unconsciously holding on his shoulders seemed to be lifted.

"Jellal Fernandes?" A voice asked, turning Jellal spotted a woman and a girl. Neither looked related, one with pink hair and the other had black. Of course, he recognised one of them, but she looked so different.

"Ultear?" Jellal asked, not telling them his name.

Ultear smiled at Jellal, "You have not changed," she commented.

Narrowing his eyes, Jellal glanced between the two, "but you have. What do you want?"

"We're here to help you?"

"Help," Jellal scoffed, "no one can help me. Not after what I've done," Jellal turned his attention back to the fields, "I deserve my sentence."

Ultear was shocked at the man in front of her. Maybe he really had changed. Not on the outside, but on the inside. She corrupted him after all. She convinced him he saw Zeref and changed him. She was here to make that right, to help Jellal right the wrongs she helped cause.

"There is another way," she reasoned, "you could help those people-"

Jellal cut her off, "they don't want my help. They want me dead."

It was Ultears turn to scoff, "of course, they don't want you to approach them personally, you idiot," Jellal finally turned his attention back to her, "there are other ways to help people."

"How?"

This time, Meredy decided to speak, "you can rid the world of the evil. Stop the wrongs before they even start!" Meredy had realised her mistakes at Tenrou and plans, along with Ultear, to set their wrongs right. Jellal was both a victim and a villain. They all were. Which is why they needed to stick together. They had no idea what they were going to do, setting Jellal free was their only plan.

Jellal stared at the two people in front of him. Though completely different on the outside they shared one similar trait, one they shared with him. The look of understanding gleamed in their eyes. A look that only one who had done so wrong could possess.

"And what exactly, do you plan on doing?"

"We don't know yet," Ultear sighed, wishing she planned ahead to make the idea of leaving with them seem more appealing, "but we do know that you could help us, help them," Ultear gestured to around the three of them but they all knew who 'them' are. People, ordinary people, how can't help themselves. Who can't protect themselves from people like they used to be, from the people they so desperately want to forget.

"If," Jellal started, the idea of leaving with them not seeming appealing but right, "I leave with you and join your..." he eyed the two of them, " 'group', we will forever be on the run. The people will never forgive me for what I've done. No matter how many times I try to right it."

Both Ultear and Meredy smiled, relief flooding them. But it was Meredy that could get the words of gratitude out, "we aren't asking you to forget you past Jellal, but use it to help push you to make the world better."

Nodding his understanding, Jellal held out his cuffed hands, "any solutions?"

Ultears stepped forward and quickly waved her hand over them. Using her Arc of Time magic she returned the cuffs to a state when they were opened and they quickly dropped from Jellals wrists.

Rubbing the tender area, Jellal turned to the two, surprised guards weren't swarming them already, "I think we should leave, whatever you did to the guards won't last long."

Meredy rubbed the back of the head sheepishly and the group turn and head down the grass field, where a forest comes in view, away from the prison Jellal was in. The trio walks in silence but it was clear that they all had a lot of answered questions. The most being from Jellal, who wanted answers more than a plan. But it was a good idea. If he could help alive, he wasn't any good dead.

"Where too?" Jellal asks no one in particular as they reach the trees, but they continued forward.

"Wherever needs our help," Ultear replies after a while.

Jellal nods and silently follows. Jellal was unsure of a lot of things, but right now he was sure about one, this decision he made, just saved his life and changed it, forever.