Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail or Scarlet Heart Ryeo

Natsu swallowed heavily as he passed six cells that contained bloodied and unmoving bodies. Some of the people inside were probably lifeless after the torture they'd been through, and he couldn't decide whether or not they were lucky for having died before they could be officially executed.

The prince probably shouldn't be feeling pity for the prisoners. It was his own father that had put them there, and justice demanded that they be killed for their crimes. But the torture that some of these people had been put through was inhumane, and seeing their mangled limbs sickened him.

The fact that he was passing by bodies which were possibly corpses wasn't the only thing that had him unsettled. He was very familiar with what it felt like to be around the dead, and he was sometimes even the cause of their presence in the first place.

There was another reason that Natsu's breaths were heavy as his eyes scanned each cell, and his heart filled with worry when he didn't find what he was looking for atop the piles of hay.

Lucy.

She was in one of these cells, and Natsu prayed that when he finally spotted her head of golden hair that it wouldn't be matted with blood.

He knew the chances of her being unharmed were incredibly small. She'd already been a prisoner for an entire day, and the punishers of Ishgar weren't the type of people to wait for an official decree to start their torture. They were cruel and merciless, just like the nation they served.

Natsu's heart dropped when he finally found her.

It looked as if she had been thrown into her cell and hadn't bothered to move after the fact. She appeared to be sleeping, but her form was shaking, and small whimpers escaped her pale lips as she clenched her fists in the bloodied hay she rested on. The red substance also tainted her once pure white hanbok, primarily around her wrists, neck, and lower legs. It dripped from a gash across her forehead and her nose as well, smearing across her cheek to drip onto the floor and into her hair.

It didn't take Natsu long to figure out what had been done to her.

She'd endured leg screw torture, the most brutal form of extracting information that the authorities of Ishgar used. One of her knees was surely fractured, possibly worse if the amount of blood soaking the skirt her hanbok was anything to go by.

She must've been beaten as well. Blood coated her cracked lips and there were bruises littering her cheeks and forehead.

Fury overwhelmed Natsu's emotions. Lucy was innocent, and he was determined to prove it to his father. He'd even managed to get Sting on his side.

But enough damage had already been done. Lucy might never recover from the mental and emotional wounds, and she may never be able to walk again because of what had been done to her knee.

He clenched his hand around one of the poles that separated him from the blonde, and the wood creaked with the pressure that he applied to it. Lucy's eyes drug open at the sound. Her brown orbs wandered for a moment before they eventually found him, and her lips quirked at the corners when she finally seemed to recognize who he was.

She shakily pushed her upper body up as he crouched down next to the bars, her lips forming a small smile and her voice hoarse as she shakily breathed out, "I knew it. I knew you wouldn't die."

Natsu clenched his jaw at her words. She managed to smile for him despite her obvious pain, and she was worrying about him when she had just endured hours of torture. It was such a Lucy thing to do, and it only caused him to feel more anger at the situation.

But he managed to give her the smallest of smiles in return, fighting to keep his voice calm as he replied, "Of course. It's going to take more than that to kill me."

Lucy's brows furrowed, "You knew it was poisoned…you must have known as soon as you took the first sip…so why did you drink it?"

Natsu said nothing in response, but the way he gazed at her was answer enough.

He'd done it to save her.

The blonde's eyes teared up slightly as she recalled the image of him vomiting blood into her lap. A small, hysteric laugh escaped her lips, "You're so stubborn, Your Highness…Who am I…that you would put your life on the line for me?"

The prince's lips quirked slightly at the corners, "You've managed to cause me a lot of trouble in the few months I've known you. Life would be quite boring without you." His grin suddenly faded, and his voice was much softer as he continued, "We've both fought to survive everything that's been thrown at us so far. That's why I know that you'll survive this, too, and we'll be able to meet outside of these bars soon."

A watery smile formed on Lucy's face, and she slowly nodded her head as she sniffled, "Then you need to survive as well, Your Highness. So listen to the doctor, and do what he says. You shouldn't be walking around yet, and you definitely shouldn't be out in the cold like this. You just said that you know I'll make it out of here, right? So you don't have come visit me again. I'll be fine, I promise."

Natsu scoffed lightly before muttering to himself, "Always lecturing."

The prince watched on worriedly as she shakily lowered her upper body back onto the hay, their eyes never breaking contact.

He would get her out of this, even if he had to betray his family to do so.

Sting followed behind Kyouka as the court lady made her way through the dark, oblivious to the eyes that watched her. The servants of the palace weren't meant to be out this late at night, and the woman's mannerisms had tipped the prince off.

She was going to meet somebody, and if his suspicions were right, the court lady had something to do with the poison that had found its way into the tea on the day of the feast. If Sting was going to help prove Lucy's innocence, he would need evidence. So he followed behind the woman as she snuck about.

The prince pressed himself against the outside of one of the palace's many buildings when he heard Kyouka begin speaking with someone just around the corner. He carefully peeked around the edge of the building, catching a quick glimpse of the court lady bowing to a figure in a black cloak.

He pulled back, leaning against the wall again as his mind went over what he'd just seen. If Kyouka was bowing to the figure, that meant whoever it was had to be someone of high status, most likely someone from the royal family. Natsu had told him that Grandeeny was the one who poisoned the tea, so there was a good chance the cloaked figure was her.

Sting peeked around the corner again, just in time to see the figure handing Kyouka a small sack. Judging by the clinking that rang through the air as the sack settled into the court lady's hands, the prince concluded it was filled with coins.

The sound only heightened Sting's suspicions. Even if this situation wasn't related to Natsu's poisoning, secret exchanges of currency were never a good thing.

So he prepared to act, reaching up and withdrawing the metal pin that held his bun in place. It was all he had access to at the moment, but its sharp tip would be more than enough to threaten his opponents.

He lunged at Kyouka as soon she appeared around the corner, pulling her back into his chest and pointing the tip of his hairpin at her throat before she could fight back. Her hand instinctively came up to grasp at his arm, but his strength was much greater than hers. He was a prince, and if he couldn't overpower a simple court lady, then what good was he?

Sting glared at the cloaked figure, but their back remained turned to him, their stance unwavering.

"Why don't you lower your hood and show me your face? You're a royal family member, I've already figured out that much. Are you really going to let a court lady die just to protect yourself?"

He tightened his grip on Kyouka when the figure made no move, the court lady gasping when he began to dig the tip of the hairpin into the flesh of her neck, "I have my witness already, so there's no point in hiding. Must I call the royal guards?"

His jaw clenched as they finally turned to face him, slim hands reaching up to grasp the hood on both sides before sliding it back to rest on their shoulders.

Sting's grip on Kyouka loosened at the face that greeted him, his arms falling to hang limply at his sides.

It was Minerva. His once sweet, innocent little sister.

Kyouka immediately retreated a short distance away from the pair, but she remained in their proximity, knowing that running away would be pointless. There was nowhere in Ishgar that she could go to escape the King's power.

Minerva seemed angry at having been caught, but there was no weakness in her expression as she stared at her brother, "That's right, Sting. It's me."

The blonde prince couldn't bring himself to weakly utter out more than, "Minerva…why?"

The princess raised a thin brow, "Should it really matter why? You need evidence to save Lucy, so you're going to tell the King that I did it no matter what my reasoning was, right?"

Sting's hand clenched around his hairpin, his voice rough as he ground out, "If your crime is exposed…our family will be labeled as traitors."

"That's right. I'll be hanged…and you'll be exiled. Our hometown of Crocus will become a wasteland."

"Why?! Why did you do it?!"

"I wanted you to wake up!" Minerva ground out, a sneer forming on her lips. "You should be this nation's king, but you threw it away for that girl!"

"I don't want to be king!"

"Lies!" the princess shouted. She shortened distance between them, her breathes growing heavy as her fury continued to grow, "I know you better than that, Sting. When you're alone…what are your inner, most secret thoughts? What were you thinking as you watched Natsu during the rain ritual? Was it 'that should've been my seat?' Or 'those cheers should be for me?' I watched you with my own eyes. I know you envy Natsu…I know you want to become king."

Sting couldn't find his voice to protest her words.

Minerva glared up at him, her voice deathly calm, "If you say everything I've just said isn't true…then you can tell the King about my crimes, and throw me away. I knew what I was getting myself into the moment I gave that court lady the poison. I've prepared myself for death."

The blonde prince stared at her numbly for a few moments before his right arm was suddenly swinging through the air. Minerva flinched as his hairpin shot past her, flying to embed itself into Kyouka's neck. The court lady fell to the ground, futilely clutching at the pin as she began choking on her own blood.

Minerva's eyes were wide in disbelief as she looked back to her brother.

Sting was breathing heavily, his shoulders still twisted from throwing the pin. His bangs shadowed his eyes as he ground out, "You knew…you knew I wouldn't be able to throw you away. But from this point on…Minerva…I will no longer treat you like my sweet sister."

The princess flinched slightly as his eyes finally slid to connect with hers. His face was void of all emotion, and his normally bright eyes looked lifeless.

"From now…I will treat you as a debtor. You to me…and me to you. We are indebted to each other. Nothing more."

The dark haired woman clenched her jaw, "That debt…is one that I will repay by giving you the throne."

Sting walked numbly towards the building Lucy was imprisoned in. He wanted to see her. He wanted to save her.

But he couldn't. Doing so would result in Minerva's death.

So he turned his back on the prison, his feet dragging in the dirt as he stalked through the night.

AN

I hope that last bit with Sting and Minerva wasn't too confusing...but basically Sting's stuck between condemning Minerva to save Lucy and letting Lucy die so that Minerva can live.

And also what happened to Lucy...I didn't want to go into too much detail with leg screw torture, but basically they put so much pressure on your knees that they either dislocate or the bone breaks. In some cases, like Lucy's, the fractured bone can puncture through the skin.

Thank you for your support and thank you for reading!