CONTENT WARNINGS! Torture, Trauma, self-hatred and insanity, other possible smaller triggers. To skip torture, don't start reading until "Five miles away, Jellal and Erza..." and stop at "...visual examination of the gulley." Then start again at "The world crumbled
around him..."
HEY YA'LL! I'm overly excited right now, which means my A/N's are only maybe going to be understandable!
Angsty angst, lots of hurt, bit of comfort, GLORious time for other people who love seeing their fav characters break only to finally heal like me~! Muwahahahahahahah
HOORAY LET'S GET THIS SHOW ON THE ROAD
{-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-}
"Kami-sama, we've come to get you again." Lynda walked into the cellar, accompanied by three similarly robed people. One bore a tray of food, another a pitcher of water.
Natsu growled gutturally as they approached his siblings, straining at the invisible ties binding him to the wall. "What are you doing to them?"
"Well, this time, Natsu-sama," she answered sweetly, "I believe Arcane-sama is planning to reinforce the runes and symbols."
"The Edolas are you talking about?" he demanded, desperate for an answer, desperate to know.
Lynda's grin widened. "Why, I do think we must go now," she noted pleasantly, checking her wrist. "Why, yes, just look at the time." She held her bare arm up in front of him.
"Why, you-" Natsu began furiously, but the woman seemed to have had her fun.
Ignoring him, she turned away, moving to Zeref and Aki's sides. Both were flat on their backs, teeth gritted in pain; Natsu had been yanked away from them without warning, leaving them to fall harshly backward onto the rock floor.
"Kami-sama," Lynda said reverentially, kneeling beside Aki, "we have something for you to drink this time. I am afraid it is rather hard to swallow, however."
"What are you giving them?!" Natsu demanded frantically, peeling his back from the wall.
"Not here," Zeref managed, eyes screwed shut, his chest rising and falling erratically.
"Yes, Kami-sama." Lynda stood up, glancing maliciously at Natsu before nodding to the others. She and another lifted Aki, the other two Zeref, and, ignoring their pained whimpers, carried them out of the cell and onto two carts of sorts. "Enjoy the food, Natsu-sama," she bid him, locking the cell door.
"What're you giving them?!"
As soon as he was released, he dashed to where the door had molded into the iron bars. As he yanked on them desperately, shouting with rage as he pulled with all his might, frantic to get out and save them from whatever the demented cultists were planning, the group was swallowed by the shadowy passages.
|^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^|
A few hours later, he heard people walking towards the cell, noticing far earlier than should have been possible thanks to his draconic hearing.
He leapt to his feet, grabbing hold of the frustratingly steadfast iron bars just as he felt the yank on his midriff. As the footsteps drew nearer, the force became stronger, pulling his head down to his chest, his feet flat out behind him, but his grip remained as firm as his restraints had been.
"My, my, my," Lynda's voice commented. He craned his neck to see her – and nearly let go. "Would you please remove yourself from the door, Natsu-sama?"
He didn't respond, appalled by the sight of his siblings.
They were lying, trembling and unconscious, on the carts they had been rolled away on; at least, he thought they were the same carts, but they were so sullied with blood that he couldn't tell what they were.
"The hell did you do to them, witch," he breathed, too shaken to explode with fury. He had been worried, sure, had expected them to be in pain, but this… he hadn't anticipated. Even if he had known, he was sure he couldn't have prepared himself to see what they'd done.
Aki's exposed stomach, legs, and arms were covered in shapes and letters, delicate matrixes carved in raw, red lines all over her small body. Every shallow breath looked excruciating, marks rubbing against each other, burnt skin brushing against burnt skin. What he could see of her back was blackened, frost-bitten, purple creeping along it like infection.
Zeref's rasps sounded just as painful, and the reasons were just as blatant: his exposed chest was just as covered in bruises and cuts as Aki's body was, and, guessing by the location of the marks, that several of Zeref's ribs were broken. It seemed a miracle he breathed at all. His marks were more spread out than Aki's, but similarly etched into his skin, delicate lines lacing around his body in some perverted henna.
Both their wrists and ankles were… ragged. There was no other way to describe the tattered skin covering those joints, the flesh torn up by involuntary reactions to excruciating pain.
"Oh, if looks could kill, Natsu-sama, you'd be quite dangerous," Lynda murmured in satisfaction, her cat-like eyes glinting. "Certainly more worthy of pretending to be Kami-sama's brother." She wrapped her hands around his clenched fists, leaning closer to the bars with sadistic joy. "You really are lucky that they are protecting you, Natsu-sama, or I would have flayed you alive by now. So, why don't you-"
"YOU EGGFLAPPER!" Natsu exploded with his Dragon Yell, pulling himself up to the bars. Anyone for miles could have heard him, and Lynda, right beside him, clapped her hands to her ears, face contorted with pain.
After a couple minutes, during which Natsu continued to rage, Lynda lowered her bloody hands – her own blood, now – looking at him in calculated hatred rather than amusement.
After a minute, she stepped over to Zeref's mangled self. "Natsu-sama," she said coolly, "I must ask that you stop."
"The tail I would do anything you ask!"
She sighed, shaking her head sadly, reaching over her supposed deity.
"What are you-"
Zeref shrieked as she as she raked her hand down his side; his exhausted body struggled to move, his feet curling and flexing against the bloodied metal.
"Leave him alone!"
She repeated the action. Zeref's howls of agony echoed through the stone hallways, as unheeded as his pleas of four centuries immortality.
Natsu didn't even notice the tears in his own eyes as he howled alongside his brother, "Stop! Stop it! Stop it!"
Lynda ignored him, eyes sparking with mad pleasure as she picked at loose skin, digging her fingers into torn flesh, raking her nails down raw, burnt groves. Zeref twisted in agony, convulsing, back arching, fingers scrabbling against the sticky metal.
He was struggling, choking on air; weakening, falling back against the cart, stiller, stiller…
Natsu's voice cracked as he pleaded, "Stop! Stop! I'll do whatever you want! Anything!"
Lynda paused, nails hovering over quivering, torn skin. "Well, will you be able to stop your shouting now?" she asked, nauseatingly saccharine.
"Fine!" Natsu agreed immediately. "Just stop!" She lowered her hand again, smile widening to a snake's, and Natsu panicked. "Leave him alone! I said I'd stop! I said I'd stop!"
She paused, leering at him, relishing his consternation. A finger brushed Zeref's torso, and he let out a fractured groan. She tilted her head. "Would you please remove yourself from the door, Natsu-sama?"
He didn't even think; his fingers released the bars the moment he knew what she was asking. The force was now such that he hit the wall with an impact so strong it knocked the breath out of him, fuzzy black spots blossoming in his vision.
He didn't give any mind to them as his mutilated siblings were lifted from the carts and carried into the cell, both crying out from the simple movements.
Horrified, he whispered, "What did you do to them, witch?"
He received no answer as they laid his siblings down on the cold floor. They forced the two into the tight-fitting black clothes that they had worn before – the clothes that Natsu hadn't dared pull off for fear it would hurt them. The cultists didn't seem to share the sentiment, however, as they forced the two ex-Black Mages' limbs through the tight clothing, ignoring their cries.
As they stood to leave, two of them picked up the tray and pitcher. Unease flitted excitedly in Natsu's stomach; he shouted, "Wait! That's for them!"
"I'm afraid that it was only for you, Natsu-sama," one of the masked people said, bowing in his direction.
"But-!"
This time Aki screamed – a fractured, strangled shriek rent from an already torn throat—his head whipped towards the source.
Lynda was smiling at him, hand suspended over Aki's muralled stomach. "I believe you said you wouldn't shout anymore, no?"
His eyes widened. "You can't do that," he croaked. Her twisted smile grew as she lowered her hand. "No! Stop! I get it!" he shouted desperately, but Lynda ignored him.
"Stop yelling, please," she called over Aki's shrieks, not even looking down at her supposed deity as she toyed with her.
"Fine-! Fine," he floundered, voice oddly restrained in his need to shout – in his need to stay quiet. "I'll stop! I get it!" She continued, and he barely forced his voice to stay below a roar, "Stop it! Stop it! Please, stop it!"
"I thank you for your sudden cooperation, Natsu-sama," Lynda said, standing and bowing to him. "I am overjoyed that you have decided not to treat us to your incredible voice anymore."
Natsu snarled, tears blurring his vision.
As soon as he was released, he made to dart to his siblings' sides, but tripped. He kept running, though, scrambling to their sides while bent over awkwardly.
"Aki-ki! Zeref-nii!" he whisper-shouted, trembling in front of them, scared that his voice might hurt them; they looked so fragile. It was hard to reconcile the seven-dragon-killing infamous Black Mages with the shuddering, broken humans in front of him.
He lay down beside them, not willing to shift them, and draped his arms over their heads. Both whimpered, cringing in their unconscious state, twitching as though trying to move away, but he easily pulled them to his side. He wished he could give them all of his heat as he felt them shiver, crying softly, frozen, beaten, bruised, willing prisoners…
Tears continued to trace down his cheeks as he gave them ghosts of hugs. "You two idiots…"
|^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^|
Five miles away, Erza and Jellal were sprinting towards the source of a certain Dragon Slayer's familiar roar.
"That was Natsu, wasn't it?" Jellal checked, Erza holding onto his hand as he used his magic to shoot there as quickly as possible.
"Yes!" she shouted over the wind. "I doubt he meant it as a homing signal, but it's worked out like that before, too!"
Natsu's voice, while angry, hadn't sounded the least bit hurt or restrained; just desperate and, though neither were sure they had heard right as they couldn't imagine that tone in his voice, frightened. The presence of it only wound their nerves tighter.
They skidded along earthy rock, scanning their surroundings. They were sandwiched between three cliff faces covered in vines, tree roots diving in and out of crevices, a small waterfall on their fourth side, pouring into a pond of sorts.
"It's got to be behind some of these vines! Or behind the waterfall!" Erza shouted, running her hands over the foliage covered rocks.
Jellal nodded. "Right!" He dashed to the waterfall, pulling off his cape and plunging head on into the water. He had to swim to the waterfall, which, inconveniently, had no paths on its sides.
"Where is it?!" Erza growled, hands digging into any nook and cranny they came across. "Where?!"
Eventually, Erza was forced to admit defeat. There were no openings wide enough for a person to slip through. "Jellal, did you find anything?" she called, walking over to the pool of water. "Jellal?"
No response.
"Jellal!" she shouted, cupping her hands around her mouth. "Did you find anything? Jellal!"
No response.
Had this been anyone else, she would have thought that he had just not heard, perhaps having wandered too far into a cave he had found behind the waterfall. But this wasn't anybody else, and she knew that he wouldn't do something so stupid as to independently wander into a possible enemy base, not letting her know he was going, when they were searching for said base.
She picked up his cloak.
He definitely entered the water then.
She reequipped into her Sea Empress Armor, stepping cautiously onto the surface of the water. Taking slow steps, she approached the waterfall, ears straining for a sound, any sound besides the crashing of the water.
There was nothing.
She spun around at the sound of scuffling behind her to see a bird speeding out of the ravine. Eyes narrowed, expecting an attack, she circled slowly on the spot, sword raised in preparation for the fight.
But none came; all was still.
Sword still raised, she started towards the curtain of water. She paused briefly, seeing some flash of silver. "Who's there?" she called.
Nothing.
She took another step forward, then another, and so on till she was stood in front of the falling water. Taking a readying breath, she swiped her sword to the side, cutting the waterfall in half to reveal- a dead fish.
She stepped carefully into the little niche. "Nothing?" she muttered, looking around the cramped space. Besides the silver scaled fish, the cavity seemed empty.
Growling, she swiped the water away again.
If they think they can kidnap Jellal in such a confined space and not have me after them in an hour, they're sorely mistaken, she thought darkly, resuming her motionless, visual examination of the gulley.
Below the pool, Jellal had found himself dragged into a pocket of air. Gagged, magic repressing hand cuffs around his wrists, he was being dragged by the armpits by an akuma lady from the village.
"I had no idea you were Jellal," she was chattering ecstatically. "I'm so glad to have found you! Well, I'm so glad you practically walked into my hands," she amended, laughing.
He tried to speak, only managing grunts as he struggled against the restraints.
"I'm so sorry about the gag, Jellal," she simpered, "but I can't have you calling out to that pesky Titania. But don't worry," she added brightly, "Kami-sama will be killing her soon enough, so it doesn't really matter, either way."
Jellal's eyes widened, and he redoubled his efforts to wriggle free.
"Oh, no," said the woman fretfully, "Not you, too."
Jellal grunted in surprise and pain as something dug into his side.
"Honestly, after all that you did for the Black Mages, how could you be so naïve as to go back to the light?"
The force in his side was increasing as he continued to struggle.
"Oh!" the woman chirped, "It doesn't work if you don't know the conditions, now does it? So, Jellal, the more you struggle, the more pain you will be in. And," she added suddenly, "if you still don't stop, I'll be forced to knock you out. You will wake up in the presence of the Black Mages." She laughed, a tinkling sound incongruent with her words.
Jellal stopped.
"There we go! You are much easier to shut up than that Dragon Slay- Whoopsy-daisy!" she blurted as Jellal jerked his head around. "I nearly dropped you, you know!" she said crossly, readjusting her grip. "Guess you're curious about the Dragon Slayer, are you?"
Jellal made a grunting sound.
"Well, I'm afraid that he is…" She seemed to consider. "-indisposed, as he is needed for the Black Mages. Of course, you, too, will soon be indisposed, though in a different way." She laughed again.
Jellal's heart was thumping loudly in his ears. Indisposed? What did that mean? What had happened to Natsu?
"Ah, here we are… Give me a hand!" she called. A second later, he was dropped, head hitting the stone floor painfully. "これはジェラールよ!すごいんでしょう？アーカインさまにつたえてね。これはぜったいにスティギアンドーンのかぎがどこにしてるから。アーカインさまはなんとかこいつからじょうほうをいただく。"
(("This is Jellal! Amazing, right? Go inform Arcane-sama. This one will definitely know where the Key of the Stygian Dawn is. Arcane-sama will find some way to get the knowledge from this one."))
Jellal didn't recognize the language, but he couldn't mistake the sadistic tone in which the lady spoke.
She shifted abruptly back to English, saying, "Watch him while I go and get Natsu-sama out of the way."
Natsu-sama? What the hell is she talking about?
A cloaked man appeared above him. As he was lifted onto a cart, he struggled without thinking, only to feel the same sharp pain in his side. Grunting, he stopped. He was rolled down some sort of corridor, only able to see the ceiling hewn of rough stone.
About five minutes later, they stopped. Lifting Jellal bridal style, the akuma lady ducked through a short, iron door and set him on the cold floor.
"There we go!" she said cheerfully, admiring her work.
He struggled up, examining the small prison, and felt his stomach drop.
Zeref and Aki were lying down across from him on the ground, covered in blankets, asleep.
Interpreting his stillness correctly, the lady explained, "They don't seem to mind where they fall asleep. Of course, it's because they trust us." The last few words came out as an ecstatic, strangled squeak.
Jellal's eyes narrowed. He knew the sort this lady was, had interacted with them when he had run the Tower of Heaven: They would happily commit any sort of atrocity, believing in their own glory all the way, thinking that they were the 'chosen' for being as cruel as possible. Of course, he had been the same, then, too…
All of a sudden, he was yanked backward, slamming into a thick pole. Black flowers filled his vision as his gag was wrenched out. The connection between the magic suppressing handcuffs broke, though they remained firmly on his wrists.
"Are you thinking this feels familiar?" the lady breathed, suddenly at his ear. "It should, Jellal-sama… a lot else will soon feel the same, too."
His arms were dragged backwards, and, blinking rapidly to clear his head, he twisted, gritting his teeth against the pain in his side. Another person appeared, grabbing an arm, and they forced both of his arms behind the post. He felt the cuffs link together before he could pull away, binding him securely to the pole.
"Well, is there anything you need before your session, Jellal-sama?" the lady asked, the other cultist leaving through the cell door.
"What are you trying to do?" he snarled, glaring, not at her, but at Zeref and Aki.
"I'm afraid I've no reason to tell you that," the lady answered regardless, curtsying slightly. "I shall take my leave now." She made her way towards the door, paused, hand on the bar, then left.
"Aki!" Jellal barked accusingly at the prone figure across the cell from him, repressing shudders of memory. "What are you trying to do?"
The lump twitched, a bleary eye opening, though no response was given as it searched the cell.
"Aki!"
The eye found him, and he shivered; its gaze was unnerving, pupil dilating, vibrating perceptibly as it peered at him.
When it closed, Jellal wasn't sure he wanted it to open again.
Cursing, he pulled against the cuffs, trying to find a point of weakness; there was none. He looked carefully around the cell, trying to ignore the panic crushing his throat. The trauma fueled strangulation wasn't to last, though, as his stomach decided to shoot up in his throat. A stream of blood ran near the two Black Mages' feet, trickling slowly into a pool in the corner opposite him.
"What did you do with Natsu?!" he demanded. Both twitched slightly, but no eyes opened. "Oi!"
He shouted in pain as a magical shock coursed through him, barely managing to stay on his feet.
A group was approaching the cell. One cloaked figure raised a stick, pointing it towards him, causing a stronger, longer shot of pain to run through his body. Prepared for it, now, he remained silent.
A man, the only one with no mask, stepped through the doors and made his way over to him.
"Ah, this really is Jellal!" he observed, pleased. Lifting his arm, pain once again swallowed Jellal. He didn't make a sound, though he was twitchy as the pain relented. "So you do know how to be quiet, then?" asked the man, and another shot of pain shot through him. "Then why wouldn't you be quiet before, when Kami-sama were sleeping?" Another burst of pain. "Well, no matter, really," he sighed, gesturing to the masked people.
Natsu, completely limp, was carried into the room.
"Natsu!" Jellal called hoarsely, wanting to see the Dragon Slayer move, to know he was still alive. He grunted as a stronger pain attacked him, eyes screwing shut. When it left him, no longer standing, he raised his head shakily, ignoring the man in front of him.
Natsu was being hung up on the wall by invisible restraints, head lolling to the side.
So he has to be alive, then, he thought, relieved. They have no reason to string up a dead body.
"-even try to save him, Jellal," the man was saying sympathetically. "You'll be having a hard time dying yourself. No need to watch another die as well. See, we have recently acquired this spell of the Black Mages' creation. We've not yet had a chance to use it, but you seem like a prime candidate, what with your past." He grinned evilly. "You see, it confuses your memories of the present and past."
Jellal twitched, glaring.
The man leered, a look contradictory to his words dancing in his eyes. "That's right," he said supportively, hitching on an encouraging smile. "You will get to go back in time. The really wonderful thing, though, is that you won't know which is the current reality."
The man laughed, raising his hand towards him, another cultist holding a book from which he was reading, and everything quietly vanished.
|^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^|
The world crumbled around him, rocks falling where he had been just a second ago, seeming to chase him, determined to bury him with the rest of the ancient base.
He had to find them.
He was forced to duck as another boulder fell behind him, dust clogging his lungs.
He had to find them.
"Oi!" he bellowed frantically, straining to see through the clouds of dirt. He couldn't lose them, not now. Not after finally remembering them. Not after all they did; after how useless he had been.
He had to find them!
It was a thunderstorm of stone, small rocks raining from above, larger rocks occasionally adding their own crashes in their search for more solid ground.
He found them.
Covered in those tight black clothes, Lynda standing over them, he saw his siblings; he found them.
A great beast within him broiled, all his fury filling him like spitting, surging lava. "Why, you-!" He threw himself forward, not caring about the rocks in his way, the fire swelling around his body shattering them with ease. His magic freed, he took the madwoman down with a single hit, following up with a kick that sent her flying somewhere—it didn't matter where—anywhere away from his siblings.
Crack.
The sound of a falling rock, the instinctive sensing of danger; he lunged without looking, catching a giant boulder with his shoulders just before it could crush his sister. Coughing, blood speckling their faces, he reached over and pulled Zeref closer to Aki, guarding them both with his body.
Both lay unconscious, their breathing so faint he knew they couldn't survive a rock any larger than a pigeon falling on them; both were still trembling with pain; both were still keeping their magic silent, even though they could no longer perceive the world through their agony; both were half dead; both, because of him.
"Natsu!"
He looked up, his heart thudding deafeningly in his ears.
Erza.
Wearing her adamantine armor, she wasn't bothering with the rocks, catching them, instead, with her shield over her head. He raised an arm, choking slightly on all the dust, waving frantically to ensure she saw them.
"Erza! Over -"
"LOOK OUT!"
He blinked, dragon instincts sharpening to find the danger, the source of the fear in Erza's face and voice.
Something collided with the back of his head.