City of Azravaya, Planet Karzag, Epekkus System, Umbral Dominion, Edge Space

The sizzling of cooking eggs and meat filled the apartment and Natsu found himself salivating at the scent. He was sitting on Aleena's couch, watching Juvia and Aleena as they finished preparing breakfast. They were working fast, Juvia setting the food on plates as soon as Aleena finished cooking them.

"Thanks for the help, Juvia, but please, I have this in hand. Take your plates, I'll bring out the tea in a moment," Aleena said as the tea kettle already started whistling, "You'll need to eat quickly. We don't have much time."

"Understood, thank you for breakfast Aleena," Juvia bowed her head slightly, taking the three plates in as she sat opposite from Natsu. She gently set down her and Happy's plates, the little Exceed eyeing up the food greedily, before roughly tossing Natsu's plate at him. He scrambled from the couch to catch it, breathing a sigh of relief as he did so, before giving Juvia an irritated look.

"Really? You just had to throw it?" he asked in an agitated tone as Juvia looked at him and shrugged.

"Juvia figured you would have just opened your big mouth and caught it," she said in a disinterested tone as she started to pick at her breakfast. Happy looked between the two humans warily as he took a bite out of his sandwich.

It is way too early for them to still be fighting, the little Exceed thought tiredly in his mind, Can't they just go back to flirting with each other?

Natsu huffed, before scarfing down his meal. Breakfast as it turned out was a buttered dark bread with some kind of sausage on it, next to scrambled eggs that were lightly seasoned with salt and some kind of local herb. Natsu cleaned his plate fast enough that he didn't really taste it. It wasn't very filling to him either.

Happy wasn't far behind him when Aleena brought out cups of tea for everyone, the same black tea from last night.

"Alright, I'm going to go over our infiltration plan again. As soon as you are done eating, we're moving," Aleena said as all three nodded at her. She started eating too, talking in between bites.

"The train station is heavily guarded, but they do get deliveries everyday. I have a holo-emitter that I'm going to put on my speeder, so it will look like one of the delivery vehicles. I have a disguise and some fake packages to go along with it. You three are going to hide in the trunk," Aleena said, finishing her breakfast as Natsu silent fumed. He still thought the train was a bad idea.

"Once I get us through the gate, I'll park up next to shipping and receiving and distract anyone who's outside. When I do, you need to make your way as stealthily as you can to Staging Area G and use this," she set a metallic scanner down, "to unseal one of the ration crates. Make sure you go in one that has a P7 on it, that's the rations for the inmates. After you're settled, wait until you get loaded on, then send me a comm burst so I know you're okay. I'll be leaving the station as soon as you get out of sight of shipping and receiving."

By this time both Happy and Juvia had finished their meals and the three were getting up as Aleena grabbed her keys.

"I know you said you're not a fighter, but what will you be doing while we're on our way to Belsenkov?" Natsu asked as he followed Aleena out the door.

"I'll be doing tech support on my end once I get back to the apartment," Aleena said quietly as they passed by a few other tenants, who all did their best to avoid each other, "I'll be guiding you through Belsenkov as best as I can. I have a backdoor into the Dominion network and though Belsenkov is isolated, I found a workaround by pinging my signal off of their patrol drones. I'll be able to unlock doors, shut off lights, that sort of thing."

He nodded as Happy jumped on his shoulder and they exited outside, Aleena fiddling on the inside of her coat as they did so. It was early morning on Karzag and the snow was still falling, though Azravaya's roads were free of any build-up. As they approached Aleena's parked speeder, Juvia decided to ask Aleena something.

"Aleena, once we have your family out, what are you going to do?" Juvia had thought about this quite a bit this morning, "You can't bring them here. The Dominion is going to look here first." Aleena gave her a sad smile.

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it, but I think our time in the Dominion is almost over," she said, before taping a few buttons on her datapad and the three Fairy Tail mages watched as her family speeder transformed into a large delivery vehicle, complete with a company logo on the doors. She popped open the trunk and did a quick scan of the area, before motioning for the three to get in.

"Hurry, I scrambled the cameras and the coast is clear for now!" Aleena said as Natsu and Happy piled into the trunk, followed by a hesitant Juvia. She carefully got in and aside from a muffled protest from Happy, everyone seemed to fit okay.

Okay Juvia, this is it, Juvia thought to herself as Aleena closed the trunk and the world went dark, Just a few more hours and then Juvia we'll have Gray back again!

Her speech to herself did little to quell the butterflies in her stomach. She really wished this bad feeling would go away.

Aleena wasn't going particularly fast, at least from what Natsu could tell. He had popped another motion pill right before breakfast and wasn't in any danger from vomiting his guts out. No, instead he was in danger of another sort.

The trunk had enough room for two people and an Exceed, but it wasn't spacious by any means. He had gone in first and after some wiggling around when Juvia had come in, he'd been forced to spoon her. He had reasoned to himself that it made him face the trunk's door, allowing him to quickly react if they were discovered. This was in theory a good idea, but Natsu had run into the issue that he had to be melded to a girl that wasn't happy with him and most certainly didn't want any physical contact from him.

That hadn't sounded appealing in the slightest, but as the holo-disguised speeder made its way towards Azravaya's government train station Natsu soon found he had another issue to contend with as he found himself in a battle of wills with his lower half.

Fuck! Dammit! Making out with Gray! A dead, rotting, bloated rhinoceros! Gajeel! Gajeel in a G-string and singing to you! He was desperately trying to think of the most disgusting things he could at the moment. It wasn't his fault! This was biology dammit!

He couldn't be blamed for how Juvia smelled like the ocean breeze, salt, jasmine, and citrus all mixing together into a heady scent that made him think of nighttime walks on the beach. Or most importantly, how in the cramped space of the trunk, her ass was firmly pressed up against his crotch.

She's got a nice one too, firm but still squishy and soft, the thought ran across Natsu's mind before he realized the grave error he had just committed, Gods fucking dammit!

Juvia herself was also trying to keep calm, focusing on keeping her breathing steady. The last person she wanted to be smooshed up against was Natsu. She had briefly considered asking to sit up front and be Aleena's delivery partner before realizing that would make her sneaking away much harder.

Juvia must endure this for Gray, she thought solemnly, This is for the greater good. Juvia just needs to get through a few more minutes, then we are even closer to her beloved...What is poking Juvia?

She shifted slightly and she heard Natsu suck in a breath. The poking only got harder and it was then that Juvia realized what was happening and she felt her face flush in a confusing, swirling mixture of shame, disgust, anger, and embarrassment.

That lecherous pig, how dare he use Juvia for his perverted stimulation! She thought angrily. She was about to voice her disgust at him, when they felt the speeder stop and the sounds of the road had been replaced with shouting voices, bestial growling, and the sound of heavy machinery. She tensed up, as did Natsu.

"Morning officers," they heard Aleena's voice, though it had a sing-song and chipper quality to it. Aleena had put on her delivery specs, hoping the data-glasses would fool any retinal scanners and showed her best smile. The guard at the gate didn't have his helmet on and looked like he needed a few more coffees before he'd be fully awake. He gave her an annoyed look before consulting his console.

"We don't have any deliveries scheduled for this hour," he said tiredly, "I don't see your company on the list either."

Aleena frowned, but had fully expected this. She shrugged. "Sorry officer, I just go where they tell me. They said that this order came personally from the commandant of Belsenkov last minute," she gestured to the pile of packages she had in the passenger seat, "Maybe there was a mix-up somewhere. I'll just head back to the office then. Sorry to waste your time, officer."

As she expected, that seemed to get a reaction out of him, his face becoming concerned at the thought of obstructing an order from higher up. He held a hand up as she went to put the speeder in reverse and she smiled as the guard waved his hands frantically at her.

"Hold on, let me see your identification forms," his voice had suddenly become more animated, "If it was a last minute request, they probably didn't log it into the schedule. That happens sometimes." Aleena nodded, pleased with herself as she handed over a holo-file, trusting her forged documents to pass the test.

"Okay Miss Taltenkov, I'm going to get one of our sniffer units over here to do a rundown, but we'll be quick. The next train to Belsenkov is arriving in forty-five minutes and I don't want the commandant's packages getting left behind," the guard said before going to his comm link and summoning several of his comrades.

Okay, going smoothly so far. I've got scramblers in the doors and a scent-blocker in the trunk. This should be nice and easy, Aleena thought to herself, Void take me, I hope I didn't just jinx this!

It wasn't long before a pair of guards came over from the left, both fully armored, their boots crunching in the snow. The one on the left was carrying a plasma rifle, but his companion was holding a leash that led to a sturdy collar wrapped around the neck of a gray-white reptilian beast. A dotchya.

Aleena swallowed involuntarily. She had always hated the long, lithe, fur-coated animals. They were repto-mammals that were native to Karzag but had since spread throughout the Dominion thanks to being the premier attack beast used by the military. The creature's face was coated in white fur over gray scales and looked like a cross between a serpent and a Mekartan wolf, elongated, fang-filled jaws snapping at the air as a tongue came out every so often taste the air, and four eyes, two brown and two orange, scanned around.

"Basic search Savchenko, she's got a personal delivery for Commandant Duskin and her papers check out," the gate guard said to the dotchya handler, who nodded, whistling at his animal partner and directing it towards Aleena's speeder.

The creature growled as it did so, clawed four-toed feet stomping into the snow and mud as both its tongue and snout went into overdrive. Aleena held a breath, praying to the Void that the measures would hold.

They were doing good until they got to the trunk. The dotchya took one sniff of the trunk, before it's long tail went rigid into the air and it's ears went back, growling at the speeder, snapping at the air, trying to lunge before its handler pulled it back.

"Woah now, easy Sasha," the guard pulled back again as the dotchya went to lunge again before looking over to his partner, "Something in the trunk is getting her excited." His partner nodded as he bent down slightly to be eye level with Aleena.

"Anything in that trunk you want to tell us about?" his question had a menacing edge to it and Aleena hoped she wasn't sweating.

Meanwhile in the trunk, both Juvia and Natsu were already gathering mana, while the dotchya's growling had made Happy's fur go rigid, the little Exceed knowing deep in his gut that the animal outside wanted to eat him.

Knew this train was a bad idea, Natsu thought darkly, I'll make sure to rub that in Juvia's face when we get out of here.

Aleena sighed and let off a laugh that she hoped didn't sound nervous. "Oh no officer, I did leave the trunk open by the office and had a snow-biter jump when I was helping a coworker though. I scrubbed the trunk, but you know how those things' stench just clings to everything no matter how much soap you use."

Please buy it, Aleena thought as the faceless soldier was silent for a moment before chuckling himself. He got up from the window and made a stop it gesture to his partner.

"She said she had a snow-biter get into the trunk. Did you feed her yet today?"

"No, not yet, was going to on my lunch break."

"Maybe do that now, she's salivating," he said before stepping out of the way and giving Aleena a thumbs up, "You're free to go in ma'am. Just make sure you really clean the smell out before coming here next time, alright? "

Aleena laughed, putting on her best cheerful and ditzy persona, "Of course officer! Thank you!"

"No problem, may the Void show you meaning," the soldier said as Aleena nodded at him.

"May you find meaning from it as well."

She put the speeder into drive and let out a breath as she drove into the Azravaya State Train Yard, driving past workers both organic and robotic as forklifts carried pallets and crates to and from different warehouses and staging areas. There were more armed guards, quite a few of them with more dotchya, along with patrol drones hovering overhead. Aleena carefully followed the signs towards shipping and receiving, stopping to let a massive speeder barge of heavy metal crates through, before pulling her speeder as close as she could to the duracrete barrier that divided the receiving parking lot from a maze of stacked crates.

"Alright Aleena, it's showtime," she said quietly to herself as she got out of the speeder, going to the passenger side and grabbing her stack of packages. She saw that there was only a pair of bored looking guards, not even in full armor, standing by the shipping and receiving building, one of them was even smoking with his back leaned up against the wall. She kept walking until she was near the building and prepared her rather elaborate and complex plan for action.

As the two guards lazily eyed her up, Aleena tripped, her packages flying out of her hands as she smacked down into the pavement hard. She grimaced, as she hadn't tried to catch herself, wanting to make it look real and felt anger and annoyance when she heard both guards laughing at her. She groaned, starting to get up, when a gloved hand grabbed her by the arm and roughly lifted her up, to where she was face to face with one of the soldiers.

"Hey there, you okay?" the soldier's voice still had some mirth in it, though to his credit he did appear to be at least a little concerned about her well being, "You should watch your step. The puddles from pipes and speeders turn into ice quickly this time of year."

"I'm okay, just a light fall," she said before grimacing, "Oh no, my packages! They are for a very important client! I hope they're okay!" She put every bit of the concerned damsel into her voice and was rewarded by the soldier giving her a small smile and waving to his smoking comrade.

"Hey Bazyli, put that out and give me a hand getting this fine lady's packages in the building!" he laughed when his friend flipped him off, before reluctantly putting out his cigarette and joining in. Aleena hit the comm-bud in her ear, sending a single burst of static, before touching the guard's shoulder.

"Oh thank you so much officer!" her voice was honeyed, "It's good to see strapping young men coming to help a woman in need even in this day and age!"

"That's the signal," Juvia said quietly as she pulled on the latch from inside the trunk, rolling out onto her feet as she did so, already moving as Natsu rolled out himself with Happy. He closed the trunk, ducking low as Juvia was already scaling the barrier up to the crates.

Aleena had parked exactly where she had planned. Now all they had to do was follow the infiltration route to Staging Area G, where they put the ration crates as they waited to get loaded on the train. They didn't have much time either.

Natsu spared a look back to Aleena as he climbed up, seeing that she was about to go inside, still chatting merrily away to the soldiers. If she was nervous in the slightest, Natsu couldn't read it.

I hope she can get out of here okay, he thought as he joined Juvia by the farthest crate, waiting for a forklift to pass by before shooting over the warehouse across the street, We're counting on here for support and direction once we get to the prison.

From the warehouse they slunk low, pass stacked up drills, excavators, and other mining equipment bound for the Dominion mines out in Karzag's mountainous regions. All was going good until they heard the growls and barks of a dotchya, followed by shouts of alarm.

The three looked back as the same dotchya from before was running straight towards them, it's leash fluttering in the air behind it as it's handler chased after it, shouting for it to heel.

"Oh shit, not that thing again," Natsu growled as Happy started to shake on his shoulder. Juvia looked panicked, until she followed where the dotchya's four eyes were looking at.

"Happy, it must have still caught your scent again, it's after you!" Juvia said as the three ran, ducking low, the canine-like reptile hurrying after them. They detoured through a machine shop, passing by robot workers and a few welders who were too busy working on one project or the other to notice them or the dotchya as they passed through.

This isn't good, Juvia thought as they turned a corner, trying to get back on track, We have to lose that thing before we get to the staging area, otherwise we'll be caught for sure! She knew what they had to do, but she also knew Natsu wouldn't stand for it.

To her surprise she didn't have to voice it, as Happy jumped off of Natsu's shoulders and started running on all fours the opposite direction as them.

"Happy?! What are you doing?!" Natsu stopped, skidding across the pavement as he did so as his furry little friend booked it.

"Go to the staging area! I have to lose this thing or we'll be caught! I'll catch up!" Happy said, before letting off a terrified scream as the dotchya turned, it's forked tongue out as it started sprinting after him. He fled into an alleyway separating two large buildings, the dotchya close behind him.

"Shit! Hold on-" Natsu went to follow after him, only for Juvia to pull him roughly to the ground out of sight as the creature's handler came running by with his partner.

"Sasha, I said heel! What the fuck is she chasing?!" the handler yelled, his helmet's faceplate retracted, his pale face red from the running as his partner growled behind him.

"Looked like some kind of animal, probably a damn snow-biter. This is why you're supposed to feed her before taking her out on patrol, so she doesn't run off after vermin!"

After the two guards passed by, Natsu wrenched his arm out of Juvia's hand and started to go, only for her to grab him by the shoulder hard enough to spin him around.

"What the hell Juvia?!" He yelled before realizing how loud his voice was, "I have to go after Happy! He's in danger!"

"Happy is fine, we need to keep moving," Juvia said, her voice cold and focused, "We're going to be cutting it close on our timetable."

"Listen, you may only have Gray on the brain, but my buddy is in trouble and I'm going to get him!" Natsu shot back, only for Juvia to turn around in an instant and he felt a hard impact hit his face as Juvia slugged him hard.

"Juvia has the mission on her mind, not just Gray!" she seethed while dragging him by the shoulder to a more secluded spot, "Happy does too, that's why he's leading them away for us! If Natsu goes after him, all of this planning will be for nothing and they might kill Gray and Aleena's family if we are discovered! Now shut up and follow Juvia, Happy will be fine!"

Natsu rubbed his jaw, more shocked than anything, idly noting that the bluenette had a hell of a left hook. He glared at her, but knew she was right. He didn't say anything else, just motioning for her to go, which she did without hesitation. As he crouched down and zig-zagged his way to the train station, he clenched his jaw when he heard the growls of the dotchya and the yelps of Happy.

Hurry up and get back here little buddy, he thought, I can't afford to lose you.

Happy let off another squeal as he barely leaped out of the dotchya's jaws, so close he could feel the heat of its breath, jumping up to some scaffolding along a train car repair bay. The alien predator let out a dissatisfied snarl before leaping up to Happy's position.

"No! Go away you ugly thing!" Happy screeched as he ran as fast as he could, his heart beating so hard that he was sure it was going to erupt out of his chest. The dotchya was faster than he was and it had almost caught up to him when he jumped off the scaffolding, activating his wings just long enough to let him glide down to the street.

He couldn't even breathe a sigh of relief as the creature jumped down after him, catching itself on a stack of pallets before springing forth to the pavement below, not even twenty feet away from him. Happy started to run again, over train tracks and dirt patches.

I can't shake this thing! He thought in a panic as he ducked into a broken wooden crate, It's too fast and it just keeps coming! I know I'm cute enough to eat, but I'm not dinner! He took a few rapid breathes, his muscles were on fire and his lungs were begging for air. He just needed a few minutes to catch his breath.

Minutes he didn't have, as the already broken and discarded crate had one of its sides smashed into splinters, the gray scaled maw of the dotchya coming through, snapping as it went. Happy yelled, backing up as the creature tried to ram itself through, taking the box forward with it as it did. Happy kept backing up, his tail and feet almost getting caught in the sharp ivory teeth as he did so.

"I said go away! I'm not your dinner!" Happy yelled at the dotchya, which roared back at him, hot globs of sticky saliva splattering Happy and the inside of the box. They hit a bump, the dotchya having rammed the crate into a wall and as the box cracked and splintered Happy acted quickly and punched the dotchya in one of its four eyes as hard as his little Exceed strength could muster.

The reptilian beast let out a whimper of pain, withdrawing itself from the box. Happy wasted know time, booking it past the dotchya, only to almost crash into the dotchya's human handler, who had finally caught up to his wayward animal companion. Happy let himself skid by, running past him and the other guard, heading back towards the crate they were all supposed to sneak into.

"By the Void, the hell was that thing?! It was blue!" Happy heard the other guard shout as the handler finally got ahold of the wayward leash and brought the dotchya back under his control.

"Void take you Sasha, you stupid animal! You made me miss my coffee break!"

Happy didn't stick around to hear anymore, running as fast as he could to Staging Area G. He didn't bother to hide himself, startling a few workers and armed guards but no one did anything more than let off a surprised yelp

Eventually, he made it. Staging Area G was a hundred by hundred foot square, stacked with dozens of slate-grey hermetically sealed crates, all of them full of supplies bound for Belsenkov. A loud siren in the distance told Happy their train was on its way and coming in fast.

Okay, focus Happy! I just need to find a crate with P7 on it, he thought as he frantically started searching each of the crates. After a few desperate minutes, he found several, before going to a pair that were stacked on top of each other.

"Hey! Natsu! Juvia! I made it! Where are you?!" He tried to whisper, though it came out more like drunk trying to whisper something. He let out a cry of surprise as Juvia popped up from the top crate and whipped a Water Cane at him, wrapping it around him and yanking him towards her. She caught him and ducked down quickly, Natsu moving the crate's top back into position.

Happy didn't have time to speak as Juvia squeezed him tight, holding him close.

"Juvia is glad Happy made it back safely!" She sounded sincere enough but Happy pried himself away trying to breathe but Natsu grabbed him instead.

"Are you hurt little buddy? Did anyone follow you?" His voice came out as a sob as the Exceed got another bone crushing hug.

"Okay! Enough with the hugs!" Happy pried himself out, taking a deep breath as he got a sense of where he was.

The inside of the crate was cold and Happy saw there was light and air coming in from several imprecise holes that had been cut into it, probably by Juvia's magic. It wasn't spacious, as they were all sitting on packages of MRE rations, though the crate was only a quarter full. It wasn't cramped either and Happy saw Natsu and Juvia were sitting as far away from each other as possible.

"I'm fine, I gave that furry lizard-dog a Happy knuckle sandwich!" He shook his fist triumphantly, "And nobody followed me. I think. I was running really fast to get here. The train is just about to pull in."

"Good. That means just two more hours till Juvia can be with her beloved again," Juvia smiled softly, listening as the sirens went off again and the sound of a braking train deafeningly echoed throughout the station.

"Yeah good. You know she made me leave you behind," Natsu shot a venomous look at Juvia, "I wanted to come save you, but she made me stick to the mission. She even punched me!"

"I'm glad she did! You coming after me would have been stupid!" Happy retorted before he frowned, "You two still haven't made up?"

Both of the humans pointedly looked away from each other as Happy sat down on a ration pack and sighed. This was going to be a long train ride.

"Commandant Duskin, would you mind explaining to me why the low ranked prisoners have not been disposed of?"

Yuri Duskin sent a quick prayer for himself up to the Void. What he was about to do was probably going to get him killed, but priorities were priorities. He leaned forward on the wooden desk, putting his hands together as he did.

"Your Excellency, I have put a halt on that order after my XO brought it to my attention that most of these inmates have been promised to several of the deuteurium mines on Karzag. They're anticipating a reduction in the workforce with winter coming and we-"

"Deuteurium mines and the wants of the Mining Ministry do not concern me, Commandant," Zeffia's tone was pure ice as she stepped closer to the Commandant, who suddenly felt that his XO's desk was a touch too small, "Those prisoners are petty heretics and criminals who are a risk to the security of this site. I want them exterminated. Now."

"I'm afraid I can't, Your Excellency," Duskin said with a bit more steel in his voice as he stood up in his seat, "High Priestess you may be, but I answer to more in the Dominion than just you. I know how Void Priests work. You can glass a whole world with no repercussions, but someone always answers for those extravagant actions. And that someone is usually a hard-working, loyal member of the Dominion like myself."

Or you could swallow your damn pride and do as she says, the voice in his head told him as Zeffia's alabaster face contorted from sinister beauty to absolute rage. He knew he would pay for this, but he would not be thrown to the dotchya over the High Council's paranoia.

"You would do well to watch your tongue and know your place Commandant!" She hissed, her veins turning black as tendril of pure shadow flowed out of her wrists, turning jagged and rough. It shot out, coiling around Duskin's neck, the sharp edges biting into his skin but not hard enough to constrict him.

"I am a High Priestess of the Void. I speak the wisdom of the Void. I AM the Void!" She narrowed those midnight black eyes at him, "You think because of your service that you are special? That you are exempt from the laws of the universe? You are an insect. A wriggling, slithering worm. I could rip your head clean from your shoulders in a blink of an eye and the universe would not care. All but the chosen few are worthless to the Void. And you are not one of the chosen Commandant. You are a worm and I am starting to suspect you may be a heretic."

"Worm and bug I may be, but I am no heretic," Duskin narrowed his own icy blue eyes at Zeffia, "I am very aware of what you can do to me, Your Excellency. I know that my death, like all others, would be meaningless. I have sat in the cathedrals on a dozen different worlds. In fact, I think that a woman who is as enlightened as yourself seems to think that her wants and orders have any impact or priority in the face of what our grand Void-blessed Dominion wants….well that seems a little suspect to me."

"Do not ever think to spout philosophy at me, you bastard! I have undergone trials that would have seared your soul! I have earned my position!" Zeffia's shrieked at him and Duskin chuckled in his mind. If he was going to lose his head, at least he had riled the bitch up in the process.

"I'm sure you have, Your Excellency. The point still stands. I'm not going to execute thousands of inmates and deprive the mines of their labor. Mines that provide the material that our warships are built from, I may add. Until you or myself can confirm to me beyond a shadow of a doubt that any sort of attack, break-out, or rescue attempts are coming, I will not kill a single prisoner. Should I get even a shred of evidence pointing to otherwise, I'll slay every inmate in here myself."

Well congratulations Yuri, you stood up to the big bad Void Witch. They might put Brave next to Fucking Idiot on your tombstone, Duskin thought as he braced himself for pain, only for the shadow tendril to withdraw back to its owner. Duskin could feel liquid running trickling down his neck, blood or sweat, probably both. He grabbed a tissue off of this desk and dabbed his neck gingerly, seeing dots of crimson staining the white.

"You must have a death wish," Zeffia's voice was oddly playful and Duskin felt himself shudder at that, "Your attitude is annoying and borderline treasonous, but your faith is strong. Only the truly devout could dare to stare into the Void when it's priestess has her talons around your throat. Very well. The inmates shall live... for now."

She started to turn out of his XO's office and quarters, which after Zeffia had stolen the Commandant's quarters, he had taken up residence here. She stopped as she got to the doorway, turning her head back to Duskin as she put a slender finger to her lips.

"However, your guards performance in the riot drill was pitiful. I do not trust them to hold back a tide of blind and limbless Imperial heretics, much less the hardened scum in here or any would-be rescuers. I'll be flying my own troops down from the Eviscerator. They've slain sinners and monsters alike and are as stalwart as stone. Your guards will report to them from now on."

Duskin bit his lip at the insult. His men and women were all combat trained and most had served tours in the Scarcean Drift. He had handpicked most of those working here. He sighed.

"Very well, Your Excellency, I will notify my staff during the shift rotation this afternoon. Is there anything else?"

Zeffia gave him a devilish smirk as she brushed a raven lock out of her eyes and Duskin immediately regretted asking.

"My field captain will need an office to coordinate from for our time here. This one will do nicely." With that she walked out, her heels clicking on the cold duracrete floors, the sound echoing down the corridors. Yuri Duskin sighed, dabbing his neck some more as he looked at the nameplate on the desk.

Drazen Petrovic. That man had been Yuri's Executive Officer for the majority of his ten year service in the Dominion Army and for the entirety of his tenure at Belsenkov. The man was capable, loyal, and one of the few people Yuri considered a friend.

He felt kind of sad that he was going to have to boot Petrovic out of the Guard Captain's Quarters into the common bunks. They were going to run out of office space if this kept up.

Natsu was used to trains being rough to ride on, even without factoring in his motion sickness. Bumpy, awkward things that you had to use all the time because your guildmates had some weird aversion to walking.

The Dominion supply train was so smooth and so fast that it put the trains back home in Fiore to shame. While Natsu was sure that if he didn't have anti-nausea medication working its way through his system he'd be vomiting, he had to say, he wouldn't mind riding on trains like this in the future.

Provided he was in a passenger car and not currently stuck in a sealed metal box with a ration pack digging into his ass, sitting away from a woman who was immensely angry at him. For almost two hours. At least he thought it was two hours. Time seemed to slip away in the crate.

Happy had tried to lighten the mood with jokes, but neither Natsu or Juvia had been in the mood and the little Exceed had given up. Well he had gotten a few laughs out of them when he had tried the Grilled Fish and Rice MRE and had nearly vomited everywhere after one bite, but that had been at him and not with him, which the little feline did not appreciate.

While they sat in silence, Juvia's mind was in motion. She had already sent Aleena another comm burst to let her know they had made it aboard the traina and the two she got in return told her that Aleena had made it home successfully. They had a plan and Aleena to guide them, but Juvia still couldn't shake that something was wrong. The fact that she knew very little about their enemies here didn't help.

But Natsu does, she thought, Even if he is a giant, loudmouthed jerk. He has been in the Dominion before. Just ask him Juvia. Maybe Juvia can use some of his information to make the plan go smoother.

"Natsu," Juvia said quietly, not expecting the Dragon Slayer to even answer her. To her surprise though, he did turn his head to her, though his face was wary. She noticed in the faint light they had in the crate that his jaw was starting to bruise.

"Yeah Juvia?" He had gone back to calling her by her name instead of the pet one he had given her. Though he was a jerk and not her beloved, she had really liked that little nickname. She missed hearing it. She sighed.

"Natsu said he has been to the Dominion before," her voice was so flat, like her Phantom Lord days, "Juvia is curious about it. About what we might be facing, about this Void people keep talking about. Juvia would like to know."

She wasn't expecting him to answer him, she had been quite mean to him, even though he deserved it. But Natsu instead rubbed his jaw and put on that slightly confused face he got whenever he would think hard about something.

"I mean I'm no expert and most of what I know comes from Lynn, but yeah I'll give a shot," he said, "Alright, well I know that the Dominion is a theocracy. Well sort of. Lynn said it's ruled by a High Council that has members from the military, the civilian ministries, and the Church of the Void on it. They all tend to bicker back and forth on who has the most power, but in practice, it's the Void Priests having the most clout."

"What is this Void?" Juvia asked, sitting up a bit straighter, "Juvia guessed that is their religion, but Juvia doesn't know any specifics."

"Well I don't know much either, but from what Lynn told me, the Void is well, kind of weird. It's treated both like a philosophy and a god by the Dominion and apparently it's all about how everything in life is inherently meaningless, nothing truly matters, and the only way to make yourself matter is to put faith and passion into what you do, master your environment, yada yada. Basically, the Void holds that everything is meaningless before it and that to even have worth or meaning, you must exert yourself on the universe."

"That doesn't sound like a particularly pleasant religion," Juvia said and Natsu nodded with her.

"Yeah most would agree with you, considering Void worship has been illegal in the Empire for about three centuries. That's where it originally came from I guess. A fringe Imperial cult that started picking up steam rapidly, until the Empire expelled them all to the Edge."

Juvia frowned at that, "Juvia does not think the Void sounds like a good religion, but she doesn't know if she agrees with kicking them out. Why would the Empire expel them?"

"If I had to guess, it may have been because of the sapient sacrifice the Void Priests do regularly. Or the rabid human supremacy. Or the brutal attacks on other religions. Or the attempted coup on the Imperial throne. It was probably the last one there that did it," Natsu said as he put on his best thinking face, tapping his fingers to his chin and despite herself, Juvia couldn't help but giggle at the sight.

"It's been a while since I've heard that laugh," Natsu smiled at her, before looking remorseful, "Hey Juvia, I just want to say I'm sorry for freaking out at the train station."

"Juvia is not sorry she hit you," Juvia said with a small smile and Natsu nodded.

"No, yeah, I deserved that," he said, "Hell of a hit too. But I also really want to say I'm sorry for before that too. Gray wasn't the wrong person. I was frustrated when I said that. I'm glad we found him and he'll be back with us in just a little bit. I know that's what got you mad and I do take back what I said."

Natsu took a breath at the end of that as Happy watched the two, curious to see how this would play out. Both of them were confused when Juvia's smile turned into a frown. She turned away from Natsu, making sure that the side of her dress without the leg silt was facing him.

"Uhh, Juvia, again I'm sorry," Natsu said again as Juvia bowed her head.

"Juvia heard you. Juvia accepts your apology, but Gray wasn't the main reason Juvia is upset with you," she said quietly and Natsu felt himself becoming irritated.

"Okay, fine, what else do I have to be sorry for then?" He huffed as he crossed his arms, "Just tell me so I can apologize for it!"

Juvia looked at him and saw that her eyes were watery and she looked hurt.

"Natsu doesn't even know what he did to upset Juvia," she laughed, but it was a bitter one, "If Natsu can't figure that out, then he's an idiot."

"Hey I'm not an idiot!" He shot back, "Instead of being obtuse and dramatic, you could just tell me what I did wrong!"

"You said Juvia was the wrong person!"

She shouted it out and Natsu felt the fire in himself start to die

"You said it when we found out where Gray was, and when Tez apologized for finding the wrong girl, you didn't deny it to him!" She wiped away a tear and Natsu suddenly very clearly remembered both of those times.

"Juvia, I-"

"No it's okay," she sniffled, hating that she was getting emotional over this, "Juvia knows she is not anyone's first choice and she knows you would rather be with Lucy. But Juvia was starting to really think of Natsu as a real friend and hearing that you think that Juvia is "the wrong person", it hurts."

"Juvia, I have never thought you were the wrong person," he stumbled out but Juvia just shook her head.

"Please don't lie to Juvia. Juvia knows the truth, that you wish Juvia had been Lucy and Juvia was somewhere far far away. You can just say it."

"Hey, that's not true okay!" Natsu yelled, "You're acting like I'd drop you like dead weight the instant I found Lucy!"

"And you wouldn't?"

Natsu opened his mouth, only for him to stop as he felt the train brake, slowly decelerating before there was a gentle bump.

He looked to Juvia, who was already getting up, preparing to leave.

Natsu knew he needed to finish this conversation, but it would have to wait. They had arrived at Belsenkov.

They needed to get moving fast.

AN: So yeah. Still not happy with the last few chapters. Oh well. I was originally going to draw out the reason Juvia was so upset over a few chapters, but then I remembered I hate that tired old trope. I also gave Happy some screentime, I feel like I haven't done as much with him as I should lately.

Moshiyari: Gotta have some drama in here, can't have it be lovey-dovey all the time. Hope you enjoy this chapter!

Konstanstien: The Umbral Dominion draws from every evil totalitarian regime in human history, but the USSR and Nazi Germany are the two big ones and it has a lot of the Imperium of Man from 40K in it as well. Karzag is Slavic themed, but the Dominion is a bit more multicultural on its other worlds. Natsu has been doing a good job of making a lot of powerful groups very angry at him. That will come back to haunt him later.

anoyak111: I'm glad you liked the chapter! But I most of the time after I'm done writing, I feel like I must be part raccoon, because this stuff is trash man.

janeto13: Friday deadlines do seem to be helping me get into a habit for writing. I hope you enjoy this one too!