*Violet's POV*
I felt my heart accelerating to panic mode, I rose from my seat so fast I knocked it over, reaching for the danger hiding under my belt and pulling it out. The Fairies tensed behind me, all of us waiting for the others to make the first move.
"You have good instincts." Topaz said calmly, "I would expect nothing less."
I realized that neither one of them planned to attack me. Even if they had been trying to block my magic, that was something that I would have noticed. I did a quick scan of the room, assuming there might be other attackers hiding around us. But we were alone.
"What-"
"It appears that we were a bit rash." Topaz said, "I should have shown mine first."
She reached down and removed a rather large bracelet from her wrist, then extended her arm to me across the desk. As soon as I saw it, the last piece sank into place, but the completion of this puzzle only told me that there were several more to complete before I was done.
"And what the hell is that supposed to be?" Grey said, "We're gonna trust them over some burn?"
But Topaz paid him no mind. She, as well as Kaze, was looking at me. The felt the fairy's confusion boiling up behind me, but it was as though they didn't matter. As thought Topaz Kaze and I were the only ones in the room.
"It's not a normal burn." I said.
"What do you mean?" asked Lucy.
"It's a brand." I said, turning my head away. I didn't want to look at the red and damaged skin any longer. "They give it to deserts before execution, right over their guild mark."
To my relief, Topaz put her bracelet back on. Several of the fairies behind me had the sudden urge to vomit.
"How did you escape?" I asked. "I didn't think anyone got away after turning traitor."
Topaz flinched at the word, but she didn't hold it against me. "I had just just become a senior officer." she said, her eyes looking at some point that the rest of us couldn't see. "Kaze and I teamed up with another pair to take out a client's political rival in some town up north."
"Four of you for one man?" I asked. I'd heard of advanced operations like that, but never for something that small.
"He was paranoid, tons of security. All of us had to go deep cover. We were there for over a month. I'd posed as a governess to watch over the men's two kids. His son was older and didn't need much help, but his younger daughter and I drew rather close."
Deep cover. Just like August and I had been doing at Fairy Tail.
"Finally it was all set up." Topaz said, "We had all been invited to a dinner party a few nights before the election. It was just going to be us, the target, and his family."
She looked down at the desk in front of her, and Kaze continued where she'd left off. "It was the only shot we had. The job needed to be done before the election or things would get even more messy. The only problem was…"
"No witnesses," I finished. The same words I had assured myself with when holding a danger to Happy's neck less than a week before.
"It was our only shot. The Commander told us to take it, so we did."
"We drew straws." Topaz said, finding her voice again, "all based on difficulty for the man, his wife and two kids. Technically I won. She was four."
I swallowed.
"I watched her all through the dinner, helping her fix her plate. I knew I couldn't do it. I made a plan. As soon as the fight broke out I carried her out of the house and told her to run. By the time I came back her family was dead. A moment later one of the others came at me from behind with chloroform. I didn't stand a chance."
"We went back to the guild that night, and Topaz was branded and scheduled for death the next morning." Kaze said, "I went along with the others and turned on her. The commander wanted it used up quickly. He ordered me to tell Takashi to deal with her. I said I would. And then we ran."
"But how did you get her out?" Grey was asking, "surely they would have known you were on her side when you came for her latter."
"They would have," Kaze said, "but I didn't come for her."
confusion reached out to everyone but Topaz, and then Kaze closed his eyes. When he opened them, his form had changed, his clothes hung loose on the more slender body of Takashi.
It had been the first time I'd seen him since my failure in the woods. Even though I knew he wasn't really there, his gaze made me shift uncontrollably in my seat.
"You're a wizard." Erza said, and I sensed that she had guessed that as soon as they met.
Kaze changed back into his real body.
"Did Takashi teach you too?" I asked. He seemed too old to be in the same program as August and I, perhaps that's why he had been paired with a non-wizard in the end.
"No," Kaze said, "it was something I had learned before joining. They never knew I had it. They still don't."
The gears in my head were turning, but there was no telling if I was making progress. It didn't help that I could feel all the others processing around me, trying to connect the dots in their own way.
"You're still there." Grey said coolly.
"A spy." Kaze agreed, "after turning in Topaz I was permitted to fly solo."
"The highest honor." I told the fairies. To not need a partner, it was the most any of us hoped for.
"But I avoid doing most of my jobs. The thing I want most is to see the guild shut down."
"Then why not go to the magic council?" Lucy asked, "the rune knights could-"
"Do you think that I would be spared from prison?" Kaze asked, "do you think that she would?" he pointed to me and Lucy's argument died. "It's not that simple." he said not unkindly, "but I do what I can, destroying job requests, sealing money, little things here and there. That's how I saw your job."
"And so you called me here." I said.
"To try and make you reconsider," Topaz said, "but by the time the request had made it to the Fairy tail guild hall we knew you didn't need our help for that."
Suddenly I realized something was wrong again. They had known that I was on good terms with the fairies around me. If they had known that I had turned traitor then…
"Relax." Topaz said, reading my expression, "the commander has no idea, Kaze took care of the spy that was meant to check to see if the Salamander was really dead. No one at Justice Valkyrie knows you're here."
I felt so relieved I could cry. "Thank you," I whispered. Behind Topaz the night had fallen, but it seemed that the inky blackness was an old friend, rather than a mist made to conceal my fate.
Ever since that night in the woods with Natsu I had felt more alone than ever before. My secret had been revealed to the targets that I respected. My failure turned me traitor from the comrades I feared. Separated by necessity from the only person I trusted, I had turned in on myself, knowing that I was all that was left for me. I was alone, and the world I knew stopped just past my nose, anything beyond it was strange and new and threatening.
But not anymore.
The two strangers in front of me represented a movement. They
were proof that I wasn't the only one. There were others. And there could be
more. For the first time since arriving at Fairy Tail, I felt that I was finally with someone that could. help me.
As soon as Topaz and Kaze had finished their story, the atmosphere in the room had changed. Having finally understood that the reason for the job request was to extend a hand of friendship, the Fairies had relaxed, this was a territory they knew well, even though it was new and exciting for me.
"Two doors down you will find a dining room." Topaz said, "There is food waiting there for you, and we have prepared a room upstairs for you to rest until tomorrow."
At the mention of food Natsu and Happy had already risen from their seats, but I knew that Topaz hadn't finished.
"If you don't mind," she said, "We'll send Violet along a little later, I think it might be good for us to talk in private."
The others hesitated, but I had already made up my mind. I was more than comfortable with these fellow deserters, and honored that they had something they wanted to say to only me.
"I'll be fine," I assured the others, turning to look at them for the first time. "I'll meet up with you later."
Slowly, they agreed, and one by one left the room, shutting the door behind them.
It was a few moments before anyone spoke, all three of us seemed to be taking the other party in, trying to find out what made them tick. Finally the spell was broken and Topaz gestured to a plush looking couch near a coffee table to the right of the desk.
"You might be more comfortable there." she offered.
I looked over at it. Normally I would have declined, but I found myself nodding, "Yes, thank you." it was as though my body was pulling me toward her. She who had failed a mission just as I had, refusing to kill someone she had inadvertently grown close to. We were the same. I wanted to be near her.
Topaz sat a foot away from me on the couch while Kaze settled into an armchair on the other side of the coffee table. I had no idea what she planned to say to me, but the prospect of conversation didn't fill me with dread as it usually did. I was on the edge of my seat.
"How old are you Violet?" she asked, and I sensed that she was treading carefully, not wanting to offend me or overstep her bounds.
"Fourteen." I said, hoping a direct answer would relax her. There was no need for word games here. All three of us had been cut from the same cloth. They understood the briskness of conversation that I was used to. No need for extra words. No room for emotion.
"So young." Topaz sighed in spite of herself, "so you joined as a child then?"
"Yes." I said.
"And when did you start Takashi's program?" Kaze asked.
I blinked, I had never been asked this before, "Almost as soon as I came." I said, "as long as I can remember."
Kaze and Topaz exchanged a look that I didn't know the meaning of, but at the time I didn't care. "Your partner was with you the whole time." Kaze said, it wasn't a question, "his name was.."
"August," I suspected, "We've always been together."
"He came with you to the Fairy job didn't he?" Topaz said, "is he okay with…"
"Yeah I think so." I said, "we haven't had a lot of chances to talk. But I think he's fine." I briefly explained his archive magic, and what he had told me the night that Takashi came. One thing led to another and I was telling them everything, right from the moment that we stepped on the train to Magnolia. The words seemed to pour out of me as if I had been storing them up in my days of silence or one-word answers. And they listened to every drop of it, paying attention to me and only me for the better part of an hour.
When I made it to the part in the forest I found tears starting to gather in my eyes, but despite only having met the others an hour before, I did not feel ashamed when they ran down my face at the description of what I had almost done to Happy.
I rubbed at my face sheepishly, and was startled to see that Topaz's eyes were glassy as well. Kaze wordlessly stood and retrieved a box of tissues, which he set down between us on the couch before returning his seat. I talked, telling them everything, how scared I was of the fairies, and how I knew that they would never understand my fear. When I was finished, Topaz reached forward and held me, exactly the way that Erza had intended to earlier that morning.
We embraced for several minutes before I found the courage to pull away, though as I did so Topaz's hand trailed down to mine, holding it in hers carefully.
"I know it doesn't feel like it," Topaz said, "but the guilt will go away."
My mouth opened to protest, then closed again. I realized I wanted to believe her.
"You should talk to them." she said.
Now there was something I didn't want to hear. And she had known it.
"It doesn't have to be now," she said, responding to what she read in me from my hand, "but you should do it."
I looked down at my lap. I knew it was the truth.
"But not tonight." she said, "it's late, and you've had a long day. I'm sure your friends have finished in the dining room by now, but we saved some for you in the kitchen." she stood, motioning for me to follow.
I did, and we left the room with the desk, and Kaze with it. She led me down the hall that we had entered in hours before, and thought one of the doors I could hear the excited chatter of the fairies. But for the time being I did not care to listen in. I didn't care what they were doing. Topaz led me past them and into the kitchen, where a pot of soup was still warming on the stove. "Help yourself." she said, "I'm going to show your friends to your room, then you can join them when you're ready. Kaze will get your bag."
I was unsure of how to thank her when she seemed to have magically known exactly what I needed. I didn't move as she left the room, but waited for a moment walking back to the food and giving myself a generous helping. I heard the fairies walk past the closed door and up the stairs as I did so. I ate as quickly as I dared, giving myself a few minutes to process things on my own before Topaz returned.
"Are you ready?" she asked.
I nodded, and she led me up the stairs to the room where I sensed the fairies were waiting.
We bid each other goodnight, and then parted ways. I took a deep breath before entering the room. Just as they had at Lucy's, the fairies had already set out my bed roll. I noticed that they had stopped talking when I entered the room, perhaps hoping that I would fill the silence by telling them what the others and I had talked about. And perhaps one day I would. But as Topaz had said, not tonight, and I crawled into my blankets and fell asleep.
