When Julia finally dragged Akuma back to her cell with the others, her eyes widened on the sight in front of her. The room had darkened. Ruri was on her side, eyes closed and from where she was, Akuma couldn't tell if she was breathing or not. In another corner, her eyes landed on Krystal who had tears streaming down her cheeks. At the back of the room, Alyssa was hovering over a still unconscious Marcus. Meanwhile, Annie stood in between all of them with her hands on her hips and whipped her head towards the door when they appeared.

"Did she talk?" Annie asked. Julia shook her head.

"What do you think?"

Annie let out a sigh of annoyance and then moved towards Krystal, hauling her to her feet.

"Talk to her." She ordered, shoving the Exceed at Julia. "She's the weakest of the bunch."

Julia handed Akuma to Annie and before she could even utter a protest, Julia was gone, dragging Krystal off behind her. Akuma looked after their exit a long time, her breathing growing shallow as she began to wonder what Julia was capable of doing to Krystal. A bead of sweat rolled down the side of her face when she suddenly felt herself being tugged to the ground.

Her eyes moved to Ruri's body and she was more than relieved to see the faint rise and fall of her chest as she breathed. She had a bruise on her forehead, from what Akuma couldn't be sure, but the idea of them hurting Ruri sickened her.

"What did you do to her?" Akuma demanded.

"Little Bird was a little nervous." Annie snickered.

"I can see the marks." Akuma pointed out. "You hit her."

"She wouldn't stop talking." Annie informed. "I had to get her to shut up some way—she was giving me a headache. Just like you are right now. Don't make me do the same to a Mother."

Akuma stared down at her duct-taped hands.

"You don't have to do this." She reminded Annie, her eyes falling to a walkie-talkie that was attached to her belt. "Turn to channel 39 and make a trade with some of our own on the other side—let us go and we all live. There doesn't have to be a fight."

At that, Alyssa let out a scoff and moved closer to her.

"Your people are killing our people." She snapped. "Of course we've gotta fight."

"We didn't want to." Akuma insisted. "I didn't want to. I tried to suggest another way, but our Guild Master made a point. If you were coming to us, then we had to fight back. I was trying to stop the bloodshed, but—"

"Shut up." Annie interrupted. "Don't lie to me. You wanted to fight. I saw your expression last night when Krystal was about to shoot Marcus. You don't see that expression on the face of someone who's afraid to kill. You wanted to fight. Tell me why."

"Your people killed a 15 year old boy who was choosing his own path. You tore him away from his best friends—from my daughter. Your people threatened ours that day and it was that same daughter of mine who saved us, but if she hadn't, than we would have died."

"Well, damn…" Alyssa sighed. "So now we know what nearly killed our leaders… Those idiots—probably put on a big show."

Annie was still staring down at Akuma, daring her to say more, but she had already said too much. Annie licked her lips.

"Okay, fair play." She finally said. "You were just defending yourselves. Defending your children. But, see, your people nearly killed ours in Erith, right? Nearly blew them to pieces. So, why not stop?"

"We were going to, but then you threatened our town where innocent citizens live. We couldn't just stand by while you tore through the place." Akuma explained. "You all keep mentioning Xerum, so I'm guessing that he's leading this just like he leads everything else."

"And what do you think you know about Xerum?" Annie questioned, stiffening.

"He's a killer—a bully, who thinks he can get whatever he wants if he scares enough people. He killed a 15 year old kid…" Akuma murmured, her thoughts drifting to many of the members of Fairy Tail at the mention of a teenager. "If he's capable of things like that… He sounds like a maniac. We had to stop him, along with all of you. We're not going to let him kill us, too."

"Sweetie, sweetie…" Alyssa mumbled, shaking her head in disbelief. "We are all Xerum."

"What the Hell does that mean?" Akuma asked with a frown.

But she never received an answer. Instead, Annie moved away from her and over to examine Marcus' body which underneath a pool of blood was forming. Averting her gaze to the woman across the room, Akuma's face fell at the sight of an unmoving Ruri. The snarl of a Hebi echoing in the halls caused her head to whip towards the door Krystal and Julia disappeared through and she could only hope that her friend was alright. She had to be stronger than Julia. She couldn't give away anything.

Alyssa reached into her pocket to produce a cigarette and Akuma automatically held her breath. The only person she accepted smoking inside was Wakaba, merely because it was his Magic.

"Please, don't." Akuma pleaded. "You can do anything else—just don't smoke—or go into the other room if you have to. Please."

Alyssa ignored her and lit the cigarette. As soon as the smoke began drifting through the room, Akuma held her breath and looked away only to have her eyes fall on a pair of feet. Looking up, she had to strain her neck to look Annie properly in the eyes.

"Please?" She mocked. "I think that's the first time I've heard you beg. I like it." She let out a laugh. "You really are weak."

Annie chuckled and snatched the cigarette from Alyssa, crouching down in front of Akuma as she did so. She held the cigarette close to her face and blew the smoke towards her, grinning as she watched her squirm.

"Sucks, doesn't it?" She asked. "When your back's against a wall and there's nothing you can do."

Ashes were falling onto Akuma's knee, sizzling the fur and skin where there was a hole in the fabric. Tears were swimming in her eyes at that point and the whole situation brought her back to her horrible 14th year of living, when her Mother was lost the most and ended up relying on a man that abused the 3 lonely girls living together. He often smoked in the house, hurting Casmyr and Akuma's natural growth, and often got drunk, which ended in abusing the 2 younger girls or their Mother.

And there she was, stuck against a wall with her hands tied, forced to breathe in second-hand smoke.

"What are you so afraid of?" Annie asked. "Just breathe it in. I'm sure your lungs can handle it and if not… Too bad."

Before she could comprehend it, Akuma leaned back against the wall and kicked her feet up, delivering a solid kick to Annie's abdomen. She cried out as she flew back, the cigarette dropping from her hands as she did so, and Akuma brought her foot down, crushing the toxin to pieces under her shoe.

Alyssa glared down at the crushed cigarette and looked like she was trying to convince herself not to bash her face in with her boot; much like her so-called Step-Father had done to Casmyr after she tried to protect her younger sister. Annie, meanwhile, slowly clambered back to her feet and chuckled.

"You really are quite the fighter." She said. "Why do you still fight when you already know you're going to lose?"

"It's not over until it's over." Akuma replied.

"You don't really think you're getting out of here alive, do you?" Annie asked. "Because if you do, well… You've got another thing coming. We're not taking any trades. We'll kill you 3 before we risk our own lives."

"Then why are you still here?" Akuma demanded. "Why not just kill us and leave?"

"We can't risk your people coming back for revenge." Annie explained. "We've got reinforcements coming that'll help us take out the rest of your little group. And when that's all said and done, you'll be dead, too."

"You're willing to kill a Mother and 2 teenagers?" Akuma asked. "Who do you think you are? Don't you have any remorse for what you've done? How do you sleep at night?"

"I don't." She admitted with a shrug. "Not a day goes by where I'm not plagued with nightmares—thing is, I'm starting to find more solace in my nightmares than out here. At least in my head things are predictable. Out here in reality, there's a twist around every corner." Annie glanced down at Akuma. "You know, before I got caught up in this whole war thing, I was a secretary. What were you, Akuma?"

Akuma remained silent, refusing to tell her what her career had been in fear that she might blame her for Marcus' well-being. She wasn't always a doctor, however. When she wasn't saving lives, she was raising them. Having 3 children wasn't exactly an easy task and neither was being a Mother.

When Annie realized that she wasn't going to get a response, she continued on about herself.

"I fetched coffee for her boss and made him feel good about himself. I spent most of my days reading stupid emails." She said. "There was this one inspirational email that kept going around—a young woman was having a hard time and told her Mom she wanted to give up, so her Mom went into the kitchen and started boiling 3 pots of water. She put a carrot in one, an egg in another, and ground coffee beans in the last one.
After they boiled for awhile, her Mom said, 'Look, all 3 things went through the same boiling water. The carrot went in strong and came out soft. The egg was fragile and came out hard. But the coffee beans changed the water itself'." Annie glanced down at Akuma once again. "You're supposed to want to be the coffee beans, Akuma, but I don't think you are… What do you think you are?"

Akuma pursed her lips.

"I'm all of them and none of them." She whispered.

"Do you think that's a good thing or a bad thing?" Annie asked. Akuma mumbled something, but it was incoherent and Annie smirked, realizing that she was getting to her, slowly and surely. "What was that?" She taunted.

"I don't know." Akuma admitted. "I don't know… I don't know."

"Oh, you know." Annie sneered. "You're just scared of the answer… That's what you're afraid of. You're afraid of yourself. Afraid of what you've become—afraid of what you'll be. Afraid to live, but not afraid to die. Only, you can't die because you've got too much baggage to leave. You're stuck here, whether you like it or not."

Killing gets easier. Akuma remembered those exact words she had said to her older sister over 14 years ago. She missed her older sister with everything she had to miss her with. If she thought back hard enough, she could still feel her soft hand in hers as she killed herself after catching a deadly illness with no known cure. What Akuma wouldn't give to have Casmyr beside her now.

But killing doesn't get easier. Each death just stacked higher and higher onto the tower you've built and all towers come down eventually. Akuma's tower was cracking and shaking, much like Arrine's watchtower had done just before it fell, causing devastation to everyone and everything in its wake. That was her. Akuma was a ticking time bomb and she didn't want to hurt anyone. She didn't want to kill anyone.

The more you kill, the easier it becomes to distance yourself. The more you distance yourself, the less you will hurt. The more easily you can bring yourself to hurt others.

"It's the things we love the most that destroy us." Annie murmured, ripping Akuma from her thoughts. "Don't you agree? That's why you can't love anyone. You can't love a husband, a child, a friend… They'll just get you killed in the end."

Akuma shook her head.

"You're wrong." She disagreed. "They're the reasons life is still worth living. You can't make it alone. You'll go insane."

"We're all insane." Annie replied, placing her hands on her hips. "How many people have you killed Akuma?"

"Too many…" Akuma murmured. Annie frowned.

"Too many…?" She repeated. "There's no such thing. See, that's how I'm not like you. I'm not weak like you. I'm not afraid to kill. I'm not afraid to go to sleep at night. I'm not afraid to look in the mirror. I've lost everything and it's only made me stronger. You know what it's made you?"

"Human…" Akuma hissed, her throat closing up as her eyes grew glassy with tears.

"Wrong." Annie snickered. "It makes you a dead woman." She frowned. "Why are you crying?"

"Because I don't want to kill you…" Akuma murmured, tears slowly making their way down her cheeks. "But I'm beginning to think that I don't have a choice."

"You can't kill me." Annie whispered. "You're not strong enough."

"You don't know anything about me." Akuma snapped. "I'm not like you and I'm damn well glad for it." She pursed her lips. "Yah, I'm not afraid to die—but you are. You're going to die today. You will die. Unless you figure something out. Unless you go through with a trade. You think there's a way out of this, but you're wrong. You don't know my people. They're not going to stop until you're all dead unless you give them a reason to spare you."

"Are you going to kill me, Akuma?" Annie asked slyly, tilting her head to the side as she looked down at her.

"For your sake…" Akuma mumbled. "I hope not."

Annie stared down at Akuma, contemplating her words whilst she just looked at her hands. What she would have done if they weren't tied, Akuma didn't even want to imagine. She didn't want to kill Annie, she didn't want to kill Julia, and she didn't want to kill Alyssa. She wanted to walk away from this alive and never see these bitches again. She just wanted to live.

Slowly, Annie undid the talkie from her belt and held the device up to her lips, changing it a couple of channels.

"Hey, assholes!" She called smugly. "Are you there?"

Akuma stared at the talkie, praying that there would be a response and she sighed loudly in relief when she got one. The action didn't go unnoticed by Annie, but she was too distracted by Tenshi to do anything.

"I'm here. Who is this?" He replied.

"That's not of importance to either of our sides right now." Annie replied. "I'm thinking that you'd like to talk about some of your friends, though."

A moment passed before a shaky voice answered once again.

"Alright, let's talk."

"Listen, I've got a Krystal, a Ruri, and an Akuma. I'm thinking those are some people you'd be wanting back."

There seemed to be another voice in the background before the replies stopped for a moment, making Annie pace back and forth a couple of times before Tenshi returned to the conversation.

"Listen… We're going to work this out right now."

"I'm listening." Annie announced.

"This is the deal right here." Tenshi informed coldly. "Let them go and you can have your guy back and alive. That's right, we have one of yours."

"3 for one?" Annie scoffed. "That's not much of a deal. Hell, that's not a deal at all."

"You don't have another choice." Tenshi replied. "Or else you would have done something about it already. Look, I know you're going to talk it over… most likely. 3 women for one man. Just come out, we do this and then we walk away. Do we have a deal?"

Annie paused before letting out a small sigh.

"Yah, we got a deal." Annie announced.

"That's good."

"There's a large field with a sign that says 'God is dead' about 2 miles into the West Magnolia forest. There's go visibility in all directions."

"We'll meet you there. 10 minutes?"

"10 minutes."

Annie returned the talkie to her belt and noticed Akuma's look of "I told you so", which caused her to scoff once again.

"There was no static—there should have been static. They're close. They're probably already here." Annie let out a loud sigh of frustration. "Dammit. We were careful, but there must have been tracks. We can't go through with this trade. They're going to kill us either way. They have weapons now. They know what they're doing."

"No, you can't back out now." Akuma warned. "They won't kill you. You have to listen to me, please. Tenshi, my husband, is a man of his word. He wouldn't put Krystal, Ruri or I at risk to attack. Especially since Rory is with him right now."

"Then he's just as stupid as you are." Annie spat, grabbing for her gun as she turned to Alyssa. "We gotta get ready." She insisted. "Pull Julia out so she doesn't get stuck in a fight. We have to be ready to move at any second."

"What about the girls?" Alyssa questioned, motioning between Akuma and an unconscious Ruri.

"Leave them for now." Annie answered, pulling the door open the led out into the hall. "If we leave, we travel light. And if the pricks are here, we pick them off at the door. Let's go."

Akuma watched in silence as both Annie and Alyssa left the room, leaving her alone to her thoughts. Her heart was pounding erratically in her chest and she let out a deep, low breath. Her cheeks felt hot and wet from the tears, but she couldn't think about her breakdown now. Annie had gotten into her head, but she wasn't going to stay there. There was no longer any other choice. She had to kill these people.

Suddenly, she heard a deep intake of breath from across the room and she whipped her head up in surprise to see Ruri sitting up. What surprised her even more was the fact that the teen's hands were untied, scraps of duct-tape hanging loosely around her wrists.

"Took them long enough…" Ruri mumbled with a sigh, turning her attention to the tape around her legs. Akuma's jaw dropped.

"You were awake that whole time?" She demanded.

"No." Ruri admitted. "But it still gave me enough time to get free. You were a good distraction."

After several minutes, Ruri managed to work her way free and Akuma realized she had used the sharp rock that had been by Krystal's feet earlier to cut her bonds. Quickly, she crossed over to Akuma's side and freed her hands. Helping her to her feet, Ruri smiled lightly at her.

"Let's get Krystal and get the Hell out of here." She decided and Akuma nodded vigorously in agreement.

"You don't have to tell me twice."