A/N: Thanks so much for reading! Reached 1,000 views today. This chapter is a lead-up chapter to my Grand Magic Games arc. That will only be one long chapter, trying to speed things up.
CHAPTER 26
The pain of the third origin still lingered in my joints as we walked back to our hotel on the beach, tomorrow we would head back to Magnolia then off to Crocus, the capital of Fiore.
I winced as pain as the third origin made its presence known in my arm. Sharp pains would seem throughout my body.
"Are you alright?" Natsu asked, his pain subsided long ago.
"Yeah...it`s just the third origin." I said, comforting my arm.
I practically fell into bed, I felt exhausted. I barely felt Natsu climb into the other side of the bed. Barely felt the kiss in my cheek.
I felt Natsu hand gently shake me awake. It felt like a slept for only a minute.
"Uhhh..do I have to get up?" I groaned, rubbing the sleep from my eyes.
Natsu let out a laugh. "No I don't think so. Erza would kill you if you're late,"
"She doesn't scare me.I've killed worse..I mean yeah I`ll get up." I said trying to compose myself. Natsu gave me a look, a look that wanted me to go crawl under a rock and die. "Sorry..it slipped out." I said, my face red.
In a matter of minutes we were on the road, back to Magnolia. The sun creeping up into the sky. Seeing Happy and Carla fly ahead, made me miss Fozana. She would have loved to see Crocus. Worry was afire in my stomach, back in Serpents Shard only once was I caught for murder, it was when I killed an army general. But that was almost ten years ago, what if they found out? But I never gave them my name, just Sea Viper.
Natsu hand on my shoulder stopped me in my tracks, I was so engrossed in my thoughts that I didn't realize that I was about to run into a tree.
"Sorry," I said sheepishly.
"So what are you thinking about?" Natsu asked.
"Nothing." I said, quickly.
"Tell me." Natsu said.
I sighed, knowing that Natsu would just keep asking me about it, it would go on for hours. "I`ll tell you later." I said.
"Later than," He gave me a wink, telling me without words that he would not forget to ask.
The train ride to Crocus, was short only two hours, I excitement and fear fought for control in my stomach for seeing the capital again. Natsu sat next to me, he drank the motion sickness potion again, so he wasn't losing his lunch. Lucy sat across from us asleep as was Wendy who was also asleep. Only Natsu, Happy, Carla and I were awake. I looked out the window, watching the countryside go by.
"So, have you ever been to the capital?" Natsu asked me.
I turned to him, there was no use hiding it from him. "Yeah about three years ago, well ten if you count Tenrou. It..it was a mission for Serpents Shard." I said.
"Oh. So about earlier. So what were you thinking about." Natsu said, he knew that I didn't like talking about my past.
"Well..it was about that certain mission in Crocus all those years ago." I said.
Natsu nodded asking for me to continue.
"It was the usual, assassination mission, to kill an army general, General Macarthur was his name. And..when I..did the deed, I got caught. I barely managed to escape from prison. They put me in a place under the palace called Hell`s Palace. It`s a large cave network. When I escaped back to the guild Rivori was there, he knew that I got caught. That was one of the worse ones." I said, my voice strained.
Natsu said nothing just taking in the small amount of information about me.
"Do you..do you ever feel guilt?" Natsu asked. "You don't have to answer." He said later, realizing that he made a mistake.
"No it`s fine. No secrets right?" I said. "Anyway, no I don`t feel guilt. Guilt removed by training and torture. I never experienced guilt until recently. Since Riviori had control of our minds he would know when we would express guilt. It only happened once or twice." I said.
"I`m sorry you had to go through that." Natsu said, putting an arm around me. I put my head against his shoulder and drifted to sleep, trying to banish the painful memories.