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Chapter 10: Trust

The crack from his neck rang a gunshot through the dark room weighed with the oppression of the uncaring eyes looking down upon him as gods. Not gods, Natsu thought, his green eyes burning the brilliant fire of freedom from the depths.

Not gods in the slightest. He would not be intimidated again by the high-rise, the sleek black obsidian plate of wall that shouldered its ghostly eyes to false heights. The black stone which gleamed with the little light offered in the shrouded room where the dark of night reigned eternal, it quivered, soulless.

Natsu shifted slightly, the tug of his handcuffed wrists behind his back straining his bulging shoulders under his worn forest green tee. This, Natsu realized, was where he stood. The pain in his heart. The confusion of chaos in his mind. They parted to clear blue seas when he all but admitted one simple fact:

he trusted Captain Gray Fullbuster.

He loved Gray Fullbuster.

If it was to be the world or his captain, he knew the road he'd take now. If he could not trust his heart, then no matter what happened tomorrow, the sun would never rise for Special Agent Dragneel. He stood at the precipice.

Four pairs of clear, angled, eyes stared down upon him. Accusing him. Assessing him. As if they were parents ready to snuff out their child, a chill fell over the long spanning black, black table.

But Natsu smiled. He knew the bite of the cold. This couldn't even compare.

"Special agent Natsu Dragneel, I assume you know why you were called here, today." The sole woman along the obsidian picked up a thick packet of papers, dropping them on the stone. It echoed as a cannon blast. Natsu didn't need to see the file to know it was his reports on the missions. When the pink haired soldier remained unequivocally silent, she leaned forward, her already venomous eyes slitting to knives. "By your silence not only do I draw your acceptance but your guilt. How long have you been working for the traitor?"

Natsu smirked, his emerald eyes challenging, burning through the dark.

"Enough, Minerva," the young man in the center of the blackness raised his palm before ever so slowly sliding forward in his seat. His long agile fingers laced together on the flat of the empty obsidian. "He's not going to answer you." Smiling easily, the man tilted his princely face, sapphire blue hair trailing past piercing eyes. "Natsu Dragneel, it is due to you that the ghost council is devoid of one member. You're inadequacy, purposeful or otherwise - whichever is utterly irrelevant - killed the most decorated naval officer in our distinguished fleet. Do you have anything you want to say?"

Natsu's jaw knotted. His eyes an inferno. He locked onto the plain of oblivion in the nothing, staring straight ahead. "Natsu Dragneel, Special Agent, Fiori Martial Special Forces, serial number 814990."

Jellal's lips winged into a wicked grin. "I'll get right to it, then, Special Agent. It is the findings of this ghost council that Special Agent Natsu Dragneel not only did not perform his duty in protecting Fiori's most beloved citizens, but he aided and collaborated with the known traitor, Gray Fullbuster. Explain yourself."

"Natsu Dragneel, Special Agent, Fiori Martial Special Forces, serial number 814990."

"It is the official findings of this highest of councils that Natsu Dragneel personally undermined the security of the charges he was sworn to protect in order to aid his treacherous comrade.

"Tell me, Special Agent, who was it who gave the order to move Attorney General Felmann into the time locked saferoom giving Gray Fullbuster the ability to murder him?

"Tell me how it came to be that my brother was killed and was supplied with the means of escape off a secured military base?

"Tell me who was the person who had forsaken his charge at the bridge of the Leviathan, supplying Gray Fullbuster with the line of sight to kill the late admiral?"

Natsu couldn't help but chuckle. His bulging shoulders bounced.

Amusement shining, Jellal's brow winged up. "Something to say this time, soldier?"

Laughing, Natsu smirked, "actually, yes. You want me to become your scapegoat? You are a coward." His eyes scanned dangerously from face to face. "All of you are. You can't admit that there is no stopping Captain Fullbuster. You all trained him. You all created him. You all made him the best there ever was. And when you betrayed him, what did you think was going to happen?

You refuse to admit you can't stop him. He will be at your throat, but you move for politics. You don't want the scare that the most dangerous man alive is out there and capable? The only way it was possible was if he had help." Natsu shook his head slowly, his smirk tugging at his lips, "you don't know Captain Fullbuster. He didn't have help. He didn't need help. You can say whatever you want on your official record but it won't stop reality."

"Special Agent," Jellal returned to his speech without a single trace of Natsu's words upon his tongue. "A crime of such magnitude is of the worst ilk we can possibly imagine here in our great country. Natsu Dragneel. You are hereby found guilty of high treason."

Natsu swallowed, feeling the keen blade sliding between his ribs. He'd prepared himself since setting his heart resolute. He'd known what would happen when he'd dragged Captain Fullbuster out of the storm. Could've lied. But something stilled his hand. In that report, laying as an omen on the black slab, was the truth of that day. He knew when writing it he was cutting his headstone, his signature was an epitaph upon the grave's face. Though it still felt as wicked a knife as ever he'd known.

"You are hereby stripped of all titles and accolades of duty. You are to be executed as the traitor you are."

Natsu ran his tongue along his sharp white fang-like teeth, his face placid. With his shoulders squared, he held at attention in the center of the shadows. "Nothing you do to me will change the facts. I'm insignificant."

At that, Jellal's grin grew ever more wicked. His chin tucked under his woven fingers, eyes burning pure entertainment. "Natsu, my slow boy, you are completely insignificant. So insignificant that did you ever wonder why I chose you to head the task force to bring down Gray Fullbuster?" His poisonous smile broke with a laugh.

"Secretary J-"

His laughter caught in a second, his demon eyes slashing to his companions on the obsidian table. "Leave us."

"Sec-"

Any other man would have slammed his fist down upon the flat of unforgiving stone. He would have shown complete force, dominating. But not Jellal. His unamused eyes narrowed. And he said nothing. Natsu stood still as he felt the oppressive weight of his stare. It expunged as a twisted rancor, slicing as wicked tendrils. Wordlessly, one by one the three Ghost council members stood, slinking off into the black.

He waited silently, staring down upon Natsu. "I apologize for my colleagues." The amusement that was his alone slowly filled his eyes again. "They can never see the fun that this all is. I must thank Fullbuster before I personally put a bullet between his eyes for ridding me of one of them." His finger tapped hollow bone upon the stone. He held his jaw in the other palm. "Now where was I?

"Ah, yes, your insignificance! You are just another soldier, just another pawn on the board of play. So why would I elevate you to the level of a knight? Maybe because I already used the important pawns in the opening act. The queen's gambit has been laid out. Now it is time to sacrifice my knight to take out black's queen."

"Killing me will not -"

"You just don't get it, boy, do you?" He shook his head, a maniacal laugh escaping his thin lips. The red of his tattoo spoke of blood under a demon's gaze. "I don't want you to die! Gods, no. A live worm is always better for baiting a hook than a limp dead one. You are completely and utterly insignificant to everyone," Jellal grinned wide - far too sickeningly wide to be human. The skin stretched thin. "Utterly insignificant, except to one person."

Natsu's jaw dropped. He felt as if the floor had suddenly gone out from under him. And he was falling. "Gray."

"You'll be delivering his head to me on a silver platter. Thank you for your service ex-soldier boy."

"Why?" Natsu's burning green eyes settled into a lost sage. It was just like trying to outthink his captain. Every move he made, he made of his own accord. He dictated his own actions. But when the curtain fell, it always showed that he played exactly into their hands. The situation only ever got worse.

Jellal stood, pressing a COM under the table. "Why? Why Fullbuster? What a dumb question is that? You really do understand nothing." Jellal's lips pouted out. "What a boring existence, to be swept along without ever understanding the currents. But," he shrugged, "such is the life of the minnow. Bliss supposedly has its comforts though they elude me." The large double doors behind Natsu split with a garrison of ten armed soldiers. The harsh light was swallowed by the eternal darkness of the abyss. One of the guards grabbed Natsu by the arm, but he did nothing to register it. He stood there, frozen.

"Oh," Jellal beamed, smiling as if to a long missed friend. "And if you go ahead and get yourself killed during this mission, that would be fine by me. More than fine actually. Would save me a small hassle. So, yeah, I'd appreciate if you would make sure you're dead after...or before, honestly it makes no difference now."

"He won't fall into your trap." Natsu said hollowly.

"Ahh. He's already in it. You both have been from day one. Thank you for supplying me with the entertainment you have, but it's time to move on to bigger games."

Natsu was tugged out of the Ghost council chamber, surrounded by a small army of men. He looked up, just as he was thrown into the back of a waiting armored truck. One of ten. Each, were packed with fully trained, fully armed soldiers intent on a single deathly aim. Behind Natsu soldier after soldier climbed in before locking the truck from the inside.

He stared, his chest numb with shock, out the thin slats through the thick metal walls. Thin streams of daylight managed through the holes.

The midnight blue Tesla shot as a silent spectre down empty backstreets. They were blanketed in an eternal night by the spanning concrete overpass above. Column after column of grey supports blurred past in the maddening sprint of the silent car.

With every block that sped past, ice settled further in Gray's veins. He glanced at the clock, the pad of his thumb tracing slowly over the leather wheel. His sight lingered on the rifle sitting as a passenger. It still irked him that it wasn't his sniper. This one was pristine. Modded for their purposes.

It didn't bear the bold crest of his squad. It didn't carry the weight of Romeo's memory. His hands were too stained red to touch a weapon virgin to blood.

That rifle waited for him in the trunk. It would be bathed anew soon enough. His hand idly traced down his chest, feeling the metal buckles underneath his jacket. Then his fingers fell to his side. The scar of losing Romeo never did heal. But the pain of being shot by the Salamander was a burning tear he was crippled by.

He glanced at the clock again. Should be any min-

"Visual confirmed." The voice of Gray's past buzzed in the COM line running to his earpiece. There was going to be hell to pay for bringing that particular person into it, but he could think of no other way. He needed the best. "Counting ten strong, estimated one hundred to one hundred fifty." The voice clipped off in his ear, all business.

"We are go." Gray said calmly, his blue eyes turning to frigid glaciers. He angled the car and sped as a gunshot up an on-ramp. On the overpass, Gray jerked the e-brake. White smoke spewed a dragon's breath as he spun the wheel. The back wheels spun, whipping in a wide screeching arc. The ground marred with the breath of the burning rubber tires. He was thrown as a limp rag doll within the car, but he set his gaze as a cold-blooded target on the grill of the lead Humvee barreling towards him.

"I didn't get my ass dragged all the way out here to watch you die - you hear me?"

A normal boast or jest would have been on the tip of his tongue, but he was swallowed in the icy catacombs of the mission. Nothing would shake him from it.

Grabbing the special rifle by the hilt, Gray threw open the door. Fitting the butt of the assault weapon to his shoulder, Gray stared down its metal sights. He turned it over in his hand, rocking in his wrist to gauge its weight. Two miles back, the convoy barreled toward him. But he walked slowly, with an icy purpose. Straight down the middle of the road, he walked a man alone in the world. He challenged the beasts charging forward.

Though it was nearing the late morning, the city remained utterly quiet. No cars jammed the open roads. No civilians to worry about getting caught up in a crossfire. He glanced at the towering buildings lining the overpass, tall thin glass shells reflected the morning sun's brilliance. It cast half the world in obscene brightness.

As the lead Humvee approached, Gray fired a single warning shot into the air. The release exploded, sound reverberating off the tall buildings walling them in. It boomed as if he were in the center of a bunker, slamming against his eardrums as a bass pedal. He aimed down his sights again, firing shots into the ground between him and the vehicle closing the distance.

Holding his rifle off to the side, he fired two more warning shots, his icy eyes a demon's dare against the stampeding death. Crossing the rifle over his chest, he fired two more shots into the air. One mile.

It was then he heard the rocking, pulsing heartbeat of stage one. It thundered in the confines of the city. Gray glanced up to find the metal belly of a morning news helicopter beaming with light. He allowed himself a small smirk, before lowering his sights back down to the Humvees. The news had been anonymously tipped off about the confrontation the night before. All he needed was watching eyes.

And to that effect, the lead Humvee's breaks screeched. That was one of the biggest gambles they had to play. It could very simply have been all over then and there if the drivers kept their feet on the gas. Not like he could do anything to physically stop them. But the public demanded heroes of its men and women in uniform. Other countries, other militaries, other governments, they were the bad guys. They were the detestables, the ones who resorted to falling into overwhelming the weak with their might. They were the ones who chose death over peace. A camera could not capture Fiori Army Humvees running a single man over on an empty highway.

At least forty/sixty. That was the best Gray could figure. But that sixty won out. The lead Humvee's doors flew open. Soldiers poured out of it as crows on a rotting carcass. In the blink of an eye, Gray was staring down the muzzles of over a hundred automatic assault rifles trained with deadly purpose.

"Gray Fullbuster," barked a slap-jaw rough military tongue through a megaphone, "you are ordered to stand down. Place the weapon on the ground, and get on your knees. You have no way out. Do not spill blood unnecessarily."

"I want to see Natsu Dragneel." Gray ordered back, his voice calm and cool despite the hundreds of glinting bullets waiting in chambers on hair-pin triggers under twitchy fingers. His own voice was amplified as well – enough for the news helicopter overhead to pick up. He'd rigged that up with the Tesla, a wireless mic at his throat fed to a small arsenal of speakers. "If you show me he is alive and unharmed I will do as you say and surrender myself peacefully."

When the commander of the battalion stepped forward, Gray raised his gun, aiming directly between the commander's eyes. To his credit, the trained soldier did not even flinch. He held the megaphone up to his mouth again. "You must first show your good faith by lowering your weapon."

"Call it insurance, Commander. Now, Natsu Dragneel."

"You of all people should know, traitor to Fiori, we do not negotiate with terrorists."

"When does a son born of a country's blood become a terrorist? How about this. You will bring Natsu Dragneel out of the truck in five seconds. Any second longer and I may just start saying everything I know about Silent New Year and Secretary of War Jellal Fernandez." Even from the distance separating them he could see the commander tense. The second gamble paid off then. It was the only card Gray held, but it did little of the Commander knew nothing of the Ghost council and how valuable that particular card was. However, being that this whole scheme was Jellal's design, he bet his life – literally – on the fact that he would put his own people in the army detail. "Of course, if I confirm his well-being, then I will surrender with sealed lips." Either way, Gray looked up at the hungry recording cameras in the hovering chopper above, the news would have its story. "One. Two."

The Commander flicked his wrist at a subordinate and before Gray could even get to four, Natsu was hopping down out of the back of the fourth Humvee.

He was passed up through the crowd of soldiers until finally he was pushed to the front. The Commander took Natsu by the elbow tugging him along toward Gray Fullbuser with a regiment of fifty soldiers on his heels. "As you can see," the Commander spoke when he was within ear-shot of the raven-haired rogue. "He is in perfect health."

"Salamander? How are you holding up?"

"Captain. You shouldn't have come. I'm sorry."

"Save it."

"Well, Fullbuster?" The Commander cocked a brow.

Gray held up his palms. Dropping down to his knees, he placed the weapon on its side on the cold asphalt. His fingers interlocked behind his head.

"Captain! No!"

"Trust me," he mouthed to his fiery-hearted subordinate. His eyes were icy cold staring up at the Commander. "A deal is a deal."

"Secure him."

Two soldiers broke past their commander. The lead grabbed Gray by the shoulder, the other moved to secure his hands.

That was when the first shot was fired.

That was when the first soldier fell.

Next Chapter: Price to Pay