Alexander levelled the two unconscious mages before him with considering looks, hands folded behind his back in a relaxed position. The cellar was cold and musty, buried under more then fifty meters of rock and earth. He turned towards one of the men beside him, gesturing to the girl lying on the floor with her hands bound by thick, metal handcuffs, a capsule of white powder attached to both rings. "Get her up." He instructed, catching sight of a small head movement from the male raven, chained against the wall with his hands stretched above him, the cold steel chains biting into his shirtless torso.
Alex was slightly impressed that the male Ice Mage had managed to fend off the dark mages he had heed for as long as he had, no given a clear view of the mottled black and purple bruising covering Gray's side as well as the obvious shift of bone when the Mayor pressed a hand against the wound experimentally, eliciting a low groan from the male.
Crystal's head fuzzy as she was coming to. Something smelled musty and damp, and it was colder than it was outside, not that it bothered her. 'Where am I? What happened? Oh right.' She was captured by the fire mage while she was protecting... Gray. Her mind started racing with endless questions and possibilities about what happened to the ice mage. Then she heard them. Voices, fuzzy at first, but then began clearing. 'Get her up.' 'Alexander', Crystal wanted nothing more than to destroy the bastard for hurting Gray. She heard footsteps coming towards her, probably the one following orders. That's when she heard a sound that gave her hope, a low grunt that she recognized clearly. He's alive.
The man Alexander had sent forwards grabbed Crystal roughly by the back of her shirt, heaving her upwards and pushing her down into an old wooden chair, facing Gray upon the wall. Alex stooped down to look into her face, eyes searching her features before a resounding *slap* echoed through the cellar. "Wake up, Crystal dear."
Crystal's face was forced to the side with the slap. She hissed, then glared up at Alexander. She then saw Gray hanging from the wall, and stared at him.
Alex grabbed her chin and thrned her gaze back to him. "Enjoying the commercials?" He smirked.
'C-Commercials?' Crystal reset her glare on Alex, "What the hell do you want?" she hissed.
The man stepped back, letting her chin go. "Well, mostly I would like to see you two suffer. But then, I also want...information." He smirked as he walked over to Gray, giving the Ice Mage a considering look before he casually put a hand over the raven's injured ribs. "Would you be willing to part with a little information, Miss Fullbuster?"
Crystal held her glare, "Information on what?" she said steadily, trying to keep her voice from shaking.
Alex smiled slightly, stepping away from Gray to pace around his two captives. "Information on your guild." He answered, a slightly feral smirk spreading on his lips. "And don't bother telling me you don't know anything, what you don't know, he will." He continued, jerking his head in the unconscious raven's direction.
"We don't give out information. What kind are you looking for anyway?" She asked hoping Gray would wake up, but at the same time hoping he'd stay asleep. 'Who knows what he'll do if they do something to me.'
Alex snorted, "I didn't say you had a choice." He said, moving back towards Gray. "Information on your members, specifically the one we all know as Salamander. I would also be interested in finding out everything you would so willingly part with about THE Erza Scarlet."
He stopped before Gray, giving him a considering look. "I'd say your brother has slept for long enough, wouldn't you?" And his fist found a home in Gray's side. Gray let out a choked cry, pulling against the chains wrapped around his arms and torso as his eyes snapped open, a tortured gasp leaving his lips as Alex stepped back, looking satisfied.
"Gray!" She called as Alexander's fist collided with Gray. "Natsu's a pyromaniac and Erza turns into a psychopath if you touch her cake, and they are two of the strongest wizards I know. Why do you care?" She yelled.
"More SPECIFIC details, miss Fullbuster. Don't make poor Gray here suffer." He smirked, turning back to face her as he flexed his hand.
"Look I don't know what you want, just leave him alone." Crystal said teeth clenched.
Alex's face took on an angry look. "I TOLD you what I want! Any information you have on the Salamander and Titania!"
He whipped back around, smirking cruely whenGray's eyes focused slowly and then widened upon seeing Crystal. "Crys- gah." He cut off, eyes clenched shut as the repercussions of Alex's blow to his already damaged ribs grated.
"Gray." Crystal said yanking on her handcuffs. "That is 'any information'" she sassed, knowing it wasn't a good idea but she did it anyways. "He's a fire dragon slayer, she's a requip mage. He's got pink hair, she has red. I've seen them both fight and win on low magic power. Why the fuck do you want information anyway?"
Alex sighed. "Okay. Fine. I'll resort to different tactics." He stalked last her, metal clanking against metal as he picked something up before he walked back in front of her, the thing hidden as he faced away from her. He nodded to one of te men standing beside Gray and the taller pulled a thick cloth out of his pouch, wrestling it between Gray's teeth before Alex waved his hand and the other promptly doused the Ice Mage with a bucket of frozen water, ice cubes and all.
Crystal tilted her head slightly. 'D-Did he forget we were ice mages?' She was confused.
Gray barely flinched at the water, giving Alex a slightly disbelieving look before he froze as a crackle of electricity shot through the air, making the hair on his neck stand on end. "I will ask once more, Crystal. What do you know?" Alex threatened, turning back to face her and revealing the glove on his hand, energy crackling between the fingers through special conductors. Behind him, Gray shook his head frantically.
Crystal's eyes widened at the electric glove. She was pretty sure Gray's been struck with Laxus' lighting before but... not while he was wet. Her eyes shifted over to Gray as she clenched her fist and let out a huge sigh, and kept her eyes locked on Gray's. "I don't know what you want."
Gray let out a breath. There was relief in his eyes, bordered by fear. Alex sighed and shook his head. "So be it." He turned and studied Gray for a moment before he moved, grasping one of the three steel chains wrapped around Gray's body.
The screams echoed in the empty cellar.
Tears pressed through Crystal's shut eyes, as Gray's screams rang in her ears. She wanted to cover her ears, she wanted to stop this torture, she wanted to go back in the past and stop them from going on this mission. She wanted to take Gray away from here. She wanted go home.
"The information, Crystal!" Alex snapped, not moving his hands from the chains as Gray's entire body tensed and jerked with the electrical current.
"No!"Crystal just shook her head and hung it as she continued to shake and tears poured out of eyes. "I'M NOT TELLING YOU ANYTHING!" she yelled.
Gray's scream cut of with a guttural gasp, his breathing coming in uneven, laboured swallows. Alex stepped away and moved behind her, his face showing fury. "Get her up. Split the cuffs." Ten or so men iced into a circle around the two mages while the one beside Gray stepped forwards and yanked her up, tapping the side of the anti-magic cuffs to make them split in two, one on each wrist. Alex appeared before her then, a thick leather whip in hand.
"I've decided we'll play a little game. You have two choices." He nodded, and one of the men roughly grabbed Gray's shoulder and jerked him around so his back faced Crystal, each heaving exhale pulling on wet, glistening skin. "Either you use this." He proffered the whip in his hand, "Or he uses that." He nodded to the man beside Gray, holding a thick, wire whip. Barbs decorated its surface and at his nod, the man threw it forwards at Crystal's chair. The whip dig into the chair and physically blew it apart, wood chinks flying in all directions. Alex SMILED. "Your choice, dear."
Crystal's breath got caught in her throat, "Y-You want m-me to...?"
Alex smirked. "Or he could do it. If you won't give me what I want. I WILL break you." He held up a hand, fingers splayed. "Five." He dropped one finger "Four."
Crystal quickly snatched the leather whip from Alexander with a glare. "You sure it's a good idea to give me a weapon?" She questioned him.
"Oh I'm very sure." Alex said with a smirk as the Earth Mage from before formed an Earthen dagger at Gray's exposed spinal cord. "Or it won't be worth escaping." Gray let out a low growl. "Do it." He ordered, half turning his head to reveal an...angry? Expression. "Or are you too weak to even to even try. You're a disgrace."
Crystal raised an eyebrow at her brother. She knew what he was trying to do, but really? "You can ditch the dagger." She said as she stretched out the whip, "Bastard wants to be cocky, fine." Crystal smirked before swinging the whip in a full circle above her head, and flicked it Gray, hitting his back with a resounding smack.
Gray grunted, the whip leaving a long welt across his back. "That the best you can do? I'm disappointed in you. You don't deserve to be a part of Fairy Tail."
"Shut up, Gray." She said as she swung the whip harder.
The harder blow elicited a pained groan from the Ice Mage. "I should have just left you! You've done nothing but make my life harder! You're just as pathetic now as you were back then."
And with that Crystal snapped. She gripped the whip so hard the wooden handle cracked, even though her bangs covered her eyes, you could see the tears streaming down her cheeks. "So that's how it is." She said.
Gray half turned, his expression nuetral before he saw her face. His own cracked, the blank mask falling away as his voice broke. "Crys. I-"
"Shut up! JUST SHUT UP!" she yelled before drawing back and hitting him with everything she had. "Just leave me then! Leave me like everyone else did!" She said sending hit after hit, her reasoning having shut down by overflowing emotions. "If I'm so pathetic why'd I have to save your ass twice from these assholes?" She said as a combination of angry and sad tears continued to endlessly pour down her face. "If you were so miserable, why didn't you left earlier? No. Instead you told my to go to that damn school in a whole other country. And when I came back you were gone." She said gripping the broken handle harder causing her hand to bleed. "YOU ALREADY FUCKING LEFT ME ONCE, SO WHY'D YOU COME BACK!?" She said before striking him one last time before collapsing to her knees, arm soar from swinging around the heavy whip, blood dripping from her hand where the cracked wood cut her.
Gray groaned, sagging against the chains holding him up as his head fell forward, his back littered with deep gashes as welt that slowly bled, the crimson liquid collecting at his belt. "Crys. I..." He groaned lowly, "I'm so sorry."
Alex clapped his hands slightly. "Didn't think you had it in you, to be honest." He said gleefully before snapping his fingers. "Let's go. I'll see you two tomorrow." He smiled before walking out of the cellar. One of the men took the whip off of Crystal and they followed, shutting and bolting te door behind them.
Crystal sat on the floor, her face buried in her hands, as she cried, "Shit, Gray. Why-Why'd you have to say that? I'm s-so so sorry." she hiccuped as she cried. "I didn't mean any of it. Sorry. Sorry I couldn't protect you. Sorry, sorry, I'm so sorry." She repeated as she continued to sob.
"Hey. Hey." He soothed wishing he could see her properly, but Alex had left him strung up facing the wall. "It's okay. I'm the one who should be apologising. You, you have every right to think like that. I'm sorry."
Crystal shook her head as she tried to calm herself down. After her cries slowed down, the girl stood up. She looked around for something to break the chains and found a shard of metal and a large rock, she picked them up and walked over to Gray. She shoved the small part of the metal in between two chain links and started hitting it with the rock. Eventually the chain cracked so she moved the metal and slammed the rock into the chain and broke it. She then did the same with the other chain, and caught Gray when he almost fell.
The male raven slumped into her arms limply, a pained gasp leaving his lips as his side, back and ribs protested the slightest movement. He rested his head on her shoulder with a shallow sigh, wincing when his arms started to come back to life after hanging for so long. "Thank you. For everything." He murmured, reaching up to press his hand over hers. "I didn't mean any if that. You know that, right?"
Crystal nodded and sniffed, as she slightly tightened her grip around his lower waist, knowing she couldn't touch his back., she slowly lowered themselves to the gound. On sitting on the ground she burried her head in the crook of his neck. "Still hurt to hear it though, same goes for what I said."
He huffed slightly, wincing as the movement pulled on broken ribs before he reach out to return her embrace. "I know. I'm sorry." He said softly, letting his eyes fall shut. "You okay?"
Crystal let out a dark chuckle, "Your the one that just got electrocuted and whipped and your asking me if I'm okay? Yeah I'm okay I guess... Gray?"
Gray chuckled before breaking off in a pained grunt, shifting his legs to adjust his position slightly, "Yeah?"
"... What are you going to do when he... when it's my turn?" As protective as she is towards Gray, he is far more protective of her, so she was worried how he was going to take it.
Gray sighed, shaking his head softly. "We'll be out I here before that can happen. I promise." He said firmly.
Crystal nodded, "Okay." As much as she wanted to believe Gray's words we're true, she could help but hang on to the fact that they might not get out of here before then. "I wanna go home."
Gray nodded, closing his eyes as he tightened his grip around her shoulders. "I know. I do too."
A.N.: For back story of what Crystal was talking about when she snapped, read at least the first and second chapter of my other Fan fiction: Ice Make Sibling.