Warnings: PTSD, semi-unintentional self-harm, night terrors, aftermath of torture
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Porlyusica had treated the two mages who had been brought to her covered in knotted skin. It had taken a lot of pain and a week or so, but she had managed to pull it back, all except for a thin line that ran along the girl's left collarbone. She had been irritated when they had arrived, but had warmed up to them, especially the girl, as she hadn't to anybody else in decades – arguably ever.
It was a rainy day, the kind that pours as though the oceans had replaced the heavens, appetent to return home.
Someone knocked on the door, and, grumbling, she threw her pestle down and answered; it was the pink haired Dragon Slayer, Makarov, and two young mages.
She scoffed and turned back in. "Don't drip all over the place!"
"We're not wet!" the pink haired boy retorted.
"Not wet, ridicul-" She blinked. All four were, indeed, dry. After staring for a couple of seconds, she moved on. "What do you want now?" she demanded of Makarov, hands on her hips.
Casting a glance at the two unknown mages, he muttered, "These two have some… scars, which need to be removed."
Porlyusica snapped, whacking him over with a broom. "You're bothering me for aesthetics?!"
"It's not for aes-tetics!" the pink haired boy bristled furiously.
"You two," Makarov grunted, pushing himself up and shaking his head, "just show her. It will be quicker than explaining,"
The two nodded, pulling off their gloves and shoes first, then their jackets, and finally removing their pants so they were only wearing boxer-like shorts and, in the girl's case, a tight fitted crop top.
As they stripped, wincing all the while, Porlyusica felt the blood leave her face. She had never, in all her years healing the idiotic Fairy Tail mages and others, seen anything as abhorrent. "What happened?"
"They were subjected to torture," Makarov supplied when neither answered.
"I keep saying, 'were tortured' is correct, but it wasn't 'torture,'" the scarred girl grumbled, staring at the floor, "it was a ritual. Pain was a byproduct, not the objective."
"And I keep telling you, she did try to cause you pain!" the pink haired boy shot back.
"Shut up," Porlyusica snapped, not wanting the headache of a shouting match. The pink haired boy eyed her fearfully, but the girl simply nodded. Porlyusica pointed at the bed, and the two disfigured children sat down on it. Her eyes softened ever so slightly. "How long ago was this?" she asked, kneeling in front of them both. The boy sucked in a short breath as she took his leg to examine it, but was otherwise silent.
"About two weeks," supplied Makarov.
She nodded. After a minute, she barked, "Get out already!"
The scarred children blinked at her, but Porlyusica ignored them, glaring pointedly at Makarov and the pink haired boy.
"Come on, Natsu," the former said, turning to the door. "The First Master is waiting, too."
The girl twitched.
"I ain't gonna leave 'em!" the pink haired boy fumed indignantly.
Porlyusica stood, grabbing her broom. "I said, get out, boy!"
"'N' I said I ain't-!"
He made a squeaking sound as Makarov's fist crashed down on top of him. Makarov, nodding to her, picked the boy up out of the hole in her floor. "Thanks, Porlyusica."
"You had better repair this floor!" she griped after him. After the door had shut, she turned back to the two. "I trust you know this is going to hurt."
"Yes," they answered dispassionately.
She frowned. Standing, she moved around the little cabin, gathering materials and mumbling irritably. "Honestly, why do people always feel the need to fight all the time? After all of history, they still insist on killing each other. You too, no doubt!" she added, pointing at them with a pestle.
They looked down ashamedly. "We've probably caused more needless suffering and deaths than anyone," they admitted quietly.
She snorted. "You two are young and naïve; you don't realize how high that bar is."
They blinked at her. "We're Zeref-"
"-and Aki."
Her armful of supplies tumbled to the floor. The girl sent some magic out, catching the lot and lifting it back up to her arms. "You're Zeref and Aki?"
They confirmed her question with a morose bob of their heads.
She shook her head wearily. "Well, you might be right, then." As she dumped everything onto the bed, both cringed from her. "I'm not going to hurt you," she grouched, arranging the items.
"We know," they whispered, "we- we…"
Porlyusica glanced at them. Their eyes had died; no light reflected in them, just an endless void, a helpless absence. "You what?"
"We-" They swallowed. "We- we-"
"-not used to people-"
"-not dying-"
"-around us," they finished painfully.
"So you wish you were still killing everyone?" she demanded testily.
Both flinched, the girl answering faintly, "No, we- we couldn't control it."
Porlyusica eyed them. "Couldn't control what?" she finally asked, taking the girl's leg and sliding a bowl beneath it. The two opened their mouths, but nothing came out, their lips merely forming inaudible words. Porlyusica didn't press them. "Don't wiggle!" she ordered, taking the lid off a bottle.
She didn't wait for an answer, instead carefully, so as not to spill any, pouring the solution over the thigh. The girl shrieked the second it made contact, her leg jerking violently out of Porlyusica's hands.
"I said hold still!" Porlyusica rebuked, some of the liquid having dribbled, wasted, into the bowl.
"I'm sorry," she panted, eyes tight shut. "Hold… hold on…" She hobbled to her feet, turning around and splaying across the bed, letting the leg Porlyusica had started on dangle over the edge. "Zeref-nii." The boy got up, walking around Porlyusica and all but collapsing on the floor, holding the girl's ankle. "Ready," she grunted.
Porlyusica's eyebrows rose slightly as she resumed. It did indeed seem that the screaming girl couldn't help herself. Her leg continued to try and wrench out of her brother's grip, the twisting undoubtedly causing even more pain as the concentrated, alcohol-based potion broke apart the ordinary scabs, letting its serum seep into the reopened wounds.
When Porlyusica reached her ankle, which was even more savaged than the rest of her, she went back up to her knee and started wrapping it. The boy let his tight grip go now, gently holding her occasionally twitching foot. She was quiet now, too, only hissing every so often.
"Now," Porlyusica said briskly, tucking the gauze in on itself to secure it, "I can't do your feet until your leg is a bit better. Take a break," she added.
The girl barely nodded, not lifting her face from the mattress. The boy let go of her ankle, standing and lying down neatly beside her. The second she felt him, she curled, pressing herself against his side; he put his arm over her head, wincing.
A few minutes later, Porlyusica did the girl's other leg in a similar fashion, then proceeded to the boy's legs, the girl holding his ankles in turn. He seemed more able to restrain himself, though he howled a fair few times, too, leg spasming randomly.
"Are you able to do anymore today?" she asked, finishing the last wrap of the boy's leg. "The sooner we treat it, the better, so if you can stand it, say so."
A minute later, both still flat on the bed, they answered in two short gasps, "Yes."
She nodded to herself. "Good. Girl, sit up properly."
The girl did so, not giving an ounce of credence to her shivering.
"Sit backwards on this chair and hug it," Porlyusica ordered, pulling a chair up next to the bed.
The girl nodded jerkily and sat.
"Take off this top."
"There aren't any wounds above."
Porlyusica rolled her eyes. "Look," she started in a practiced, stern way, "modesty has no place in-"
The girl chuckled hollowly, inviting, "Pull it up and see for yourself."
Porlyusica did, expecting to find just as much damage as before, but was shocked to find nothing. "Lean back a bit." Neither was there anything on the front. "Who would do all this, but respect privacy?" she muttered, flabbergasted, easing the tight top back down.
"Cultists."
She sneered in disgust.
As she poured more of the solution over her back, the girl continued to scream, twisting slightly in place, holding on to the chair to anchor herself.
To do her stomach, Porlyusica directed her to the floor beside the bed, leaning against the boy. The girl didn't need to speak; her brother held her shoulders firmly.
"Do you have anything I could pull on?" she hissed through gritted teeth, shuddering violently.
"I'm afraid I don't, girl," Porlyusica said softly.
"Okay." She folded her trembling arms up, and he took them by the wrists, pressing them against her shoulders.
As Porlyusica worked on her stomach, which reacted similarly to her back, her hands scrabbled at nothing, arms flapping almost comically in their attempts to wriggle out of the boy's grip. Seemingly unconsciously, she pushed against the floor, shoving herself against the boy, feet flexing desperately. Her entire body occasionally wrenched, held still only by the boy's tight grip.
The two had quite the pain tolerance; the two-part potion first undid most of the healing the human body did, as that was what lead to scars, essentially dissolving the scabs like a corrosive chemical. The first potion also primed it for the next by depositing a serum over and into the freshly opened injury, which would combine with the previous on the wound, restoring what had been. It was an arduous, painful process, but the only way she knew existed to heal such extreme wounds without scarring.
When Porlyusica had finished wrapping her torso, she ordered, "Eat and drink something," indicating the kitchen area of the one room tree house.
The girl obeyed, tried to stand, wobbled, and collapsed with a whimper, arm bent awkwardly beneath her. Her brother made to get up, but Porlyusica held up a hand.
"Stay sitting, boy." She helped the quietly crying girl up and onto the bed, where she promptly passed out.
"What next?" he croaked.
Porlyusica paused, watching him. "Without her holding you, you think you can stay mostly still?"
He paused – actually thinking it through for a moment, Porlyusica was shocked to note – head tilted slightly. After a minute— "Yeah."
"Okay. Sit like she did, back to me."
When she had finished his back, which took a while longer since the top was just as savaged as the rest of him, he was trembling as badly as the girl had done. Watching him, Porlyusica's eyebrows rose.
He's going to not struggle in that state?
He chuckled faintly, clearly understanding why she was looking hard at him. Holding a shaking hand up, he muttered something under his breath, and magic oozed from a fingertip, dropping to the floor in a puddle. He positioned himself against the bed, then flicked a finger.
The sludge snaked behind him, pulling his arms back, eliciting several grunts that neither mentioned.
Porlyusica's eyebrows rose a little higher. "While that works for your arms, what about your shoulders?"
"I can stop my…self… manually…"
Porlyusica considered him, then nodded. He had thought it through, after all.
As soon as she had finished, she ordered, "Get to bed, now."
He didn't seem to have heard her, covered in sweat, eyes tight shut.
Already passed out?
She tch'ed, moving to pick him up. As she lifted his shoulders, though, he grunted, eyelids fluttering. "It… done?"
"Yes." Porlyusica pointed. "Bed."
He made a jerking movement that might have been a nod, turning sideways against the bed and all but dragging himself up, the sludge that had held his arms dissolving on the floorboards.
He reached the mattress, clearly feeling half-dead, yet nevertheless began to tug twitchily at the blanket the girl was on, too weak to take it.
"There's no need to disturb her so you can have a blanket," Porlyusica snapped, brushing herself off and heading to a cupboard. "There," she added, tossing a spare blanket at him. "Let her be."
He faltered, staring at it in front of him, eyes dazed, uncomprehending. They flickered. He grabbed it clumsily, spreading it over his sister – or, clearly trying to spread it over her. All he managed was to drape it across her side, a corner trailing off the bed.
He didn't seem to notice, though, collapsing beside her and curling around her tiny figure.
Startled, it took Porlyusica a minute to move. She grabbed another spare blanket, billowing it over the both of them; his eyes seemed to twitch beneath their lids, and he curled still more tightly around the girl, who grunted softly in her sleep.
"'Black Mages' who?" Porlyusica muttered, turning away.
"What, what, who is it now?" Porlyusica growled, opening the door. "Aki," she added, startled. Noticing the circles under her hollow eyes, she added rather more gently, "What's wrong?"
Aki quivered mutely, mouth opening like a fish out of water. After a minute of incoherent stuttering, she forced out, "C-can- can I- can- can I- can…" She floundered, confusion adding to her helplessness. Finally, eyes screwed shut in concentration, she managed, "… stay… here?"
Porlyusica surveyed her. She was swaying, focused on a point that, Porlyusica now noted, was slightly to the left of where she was. She blinked rapidly, eyelids fluttering, and there was a tremor of fear in her voice that Porlyusica hadn't heard from either of them yet. "Yes," she agreed eventually, stepping aside.
Aki stumbled in and all but fell in a corner, pulling her knees up and covering her face with splayed fingers.
"You can use the bed," Porlyusica said snappily, going back to the pot on her stove. Hearing her stagger to the bed and collapse, she frowned.
Thirty minutes later, she set two bowls on the table. "Come eat," she ordered, hands on her hips.
Aki, in the same position she had been in in the corner, twitched, head turning, Porlyusica felt, more towards the sound of her voice than any visual. After a full minute of open-mouthed staring, she twitched again. "W-what?"
"Come eat!" she repeated, scowling.
The other nodded and pushed herself off the bed, nearly tripping into the chair. For a couple minutes, she just stared at the food in front of her, lips trembling, unfocused. Finally, she picked up her spoon, dipping it clumsily into the warm soup.
"Have some water," Porlyusica instructed, pushing a cup closer to her.
Aki shook her head as though to rid it of a fly, staring blankly at her, the cup, the food, then the cup again. She nodded as though only just understanding what had been said, taking the cup with both hands; in one go, she downed the whole thing. She brought it back to the table, staring, apparently bewildered, into the empty cup.
"What is it, Aki?"
"I d-don't know where- know- it went…" she whispered, staring at it as though it were the last mystery of reality. "Where…"
"You drank it, silly girl."
She nodded, though it was obvious she hadn't heard the words. After a few more mouthfuls of soup, she looked up at Porlyusica, stuttering, "Is- I- was I-… did I… enough?"
Porlyusica frowned. "Yes."
Aki bobbed her head, getting to her feet. Porlyusica noted that she seemed a bit steadier, hobbling back to the bed rather than lurching across the space.
Probably hadn't eaten or drunk in a while.
She sighed.
What is she going through now?
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The next day, Aki returned, somehow more skittish, more absent, but leaving again at nightfall.
As night had fallen, she had bolted up, causing Porlyusica to dump a solution she had meant to drip. She had glared over, but Aki hadn't seemed to notice. "I need- I'm going- home… need… go," she had managed, sliding off the bed.
After a minute, Porlyusica had said, "Okay."
The day after was a similar story, except that she hadn't heard Porlyusica's words until Porlyusica had gotten up and approached her, at which point she had jerked violently, tipping over on the bed and mewling up at her.
The fourth day, she fell asleep before night had fallen. Not minding, Porlyusica let her sleep, working on and, finally, getting to bed herself.
She was woken by a harrowing screech and the sound of breaking glass.
Scrambling to her feet, she saw Aki thrashing, screaming, her palms pressed to her eyes. The shattering had been the window, broken by a flailing leg, the offender now bleeding profusely. Aki didn't seem to notice the shards whatsoever, though, writhing on the glass covered mattress.
Porlyusica dashed forward, yelling to make herself heard, "Aki! Aki, calm down! You're safe!" She grabbed an arm, pulling it away from her face, and Aki's eyes met hers. In that second, Porlyusica saw only primal awareness – no reason within usually intelligent, albeit sad, eyes.
Then Aki threw an arm out, blasting Porlyusica backwards into a wall.
"YOU CAN'T!" she shrieked, pushing herself up against the broken window, slightly bloody hands held out in front of her as though to fend something off. "DON'T! PLEASE!"
Porlyusica pushed herself to her feet, carefully not approaching. "Aki," she said calmly.
"DON'T! PLEASE DON'T! PLEASE!"
"Aki," she repeated slowly, "think-"
"YOU CAN'T!
"Think about-"
"PLEASE DON'T!"
"-where you are," she finished, ignoring the interruption.
Aki grabbed her head, kicking the sheets away from her. "DON'T COME NEAR ME!"
"I'm not coming near you."
"YOU CAN'T COME NEAR ME! YOU CAN'T!"
Porlyusica waited, letting the horrible screeches die down. When Aki had resolved into a quivering puddle, she took a cautious step forward, pause, and another.
She approached.
A petrified eye spun to her. "No… don't come… please… stay away…"
"Aki," she said gently, sitting beside her on the bed.
"Don't… you can't…"
"Aki, where are you?"
"I don't want…"
"Who am I?"
"I…" Her mouth opened, eyes finding Porlyusica's face. "Who…" she echoed blankly.
"Yes, who am I?"
"You…" Reason sparked dimly within her, pupils contracting and dilating repeatedly. "P-Porlyusica?"
Porlyusica nodded, giving a faint smile.
"P-Porlyusica…" Aki repeated dazedly. "What- what are you here?"
She chuckled gently. "You're actually at my house."
"Your… house?"
"You fell asleep."
"Your house…"
Porlyusica made to move closer. "Aki, what's-"
"Don't!" Aki burst out, pushing herself against the wall again, the animal taking over.
Porlyusica froze, then slid back to her previous spot. "What's wrong, Aki?" she asked carefully.
A shiver ran up the other's spine. "You-you'll d-die…"
"I'll die?"
"Everyone does… d-did…" Aki shook her head hard. "Again… again… always…"
Porlyusica considered her. "What do you mean?"
"Everyone… everyone, always… around us…"
"I won't die if I get near you, Aki."
She shuddered, tears spilling down her cheeks. "Don't- don't come closer… Please… we've killed enough…"
Porlyusica's eyes narrowed. "Killed what?"
"Everyone…"
"Why?"
"Kills everyone…"
Porlyusica contemplated the meaning of the distracted mutters. Eventually, she asked, "What kills everyone?"
"The-the predatory death…"
Her eyebrows furrowed. "What is 'the predatory death?'"
Aki shook her head, moaning, "No… don't… don't want…" Fingernails raked down her cheeks, leaving long red marks; Porlyusica leaned purposefully forward. Aki noticed instantly, shrieking, "DON'T!"
Porlyusica paused, but didn't retreat. "Don't hurt your face."
Scrabbling hands paused, wild eyes finding her again. "Don't… don't hurt… me?"
"Yes. I won't come closer if you don't hurt yourself."
"Hurt… me?" Aki repeated, face contorting as though she had been asked an extra hard question on a quiz. "We don't hurt… we don't ever… we don't die…"
"What do you mean, 'don't die?'"
"We can never die… no matter what we do…" She choked on a sob, biting her lip.
"Why can you never die?"
"The curse…"
"What curse?"
"The- the curse…"
"What curse?" Porlyusica pressed.
"Kill everyone…"
"What is the name of the curse?"
"Can't think… can't hurt… kill… hurts…" Her eyes screwed shut as she groaned, "No…"
Porlyusica thought for a second, then changed tac. "What else?"
"Think wrong… backwards… everything- everything, always, dies…"
"What else?"
"Dies…" she muttered distractedly, nails hovering millimeters away from her face. "Dies… all dies… dies… don't-! Don't die!" she burst out suddenly, attempting to push herself further away. "Please! Don't die! I don't want everyone to d-die again! Please! Don't- don't come near me!"
"I'm not coming near you."
"You're too close!" she cried, looking frantically around the small treehouse. "Everything d-dies! You need to g-go! Please, I don't-! Please! Please, please, go…"
Porlyusica closed her eyes. 'It kills… please don't die… everything dies… too close…' A curse… 'I don't want to kill… we can never die…' A curse that kills everything, but keeps the bearer alive, affecting them both? 'Please, please, go…'
She opened them; Aki was in her same position, staring around the room as she mumbled to herself. "Too close… she'll die… why… why… don't- don't- want to- to die… want die…"
"Aki," she interrupted steadily, and Aki's gaze snapped instantly to her. Emphasizing each word, she stated, "You are not cursed anymore."
"I-" Aki whimpered, shoving herself back against the wall instinctively. She twitched to a halt, staring, wide-eyed. "W-what?"
"You and Zeref are not cursed," Porlyusica repeated clearly.
"But- but everyone d-dies…" Aki gave a strangled cry, fear that threatened to steal reason flashing through her eyes once more as she covered her head with her arms.
Porlyusica shook her head slowly. "They are not going to die anymore."
"But… But they always d-die… I don't- didn't want- don't die…"
"They won't die," she reiterated firmly. "I will not die."
Aki paused, staring at her. Eventually, after a few minutes of silence that Porlyusica carefully didn't interrupt, she whimpered, "You- you won't?"
"No."
"R-really…?"
"I will not die."
"But- but everyone at the aca-cademy… and for centuries…! Se-Selen-" She whimpered, curling into a bar, arms tightening over her head.
"Not anymore. Your curse is broken."
Aki didn't move. Porlyusica was starting to think that she had frozen when she breathed, "Promise?" The question was a disbelieving, near-silent plea – a child's cry in the darkest of forests, surrounded by winking eyes and unplaced howls.
Porlyusica nodded slowly. "Yes."
She peeked through her arms. "I can t-touch you?"
Instead of answering, Porlyusica reached a hand out. Aki cowered, staring at it in indescribable longing – in deeply engrained fear.
The desire proved stronger, though, and, slowly, inch by inch, petrified breath by petrified breath, she reached her own hand forward. Inches away, she froze, gasping, "P-promise?"
"Promise."
She squeezed her eyes shut as her hand began to move again. They opened just before her hand reached Porlyusica's, her fingers cringing. Porlyusica could see the turmoil of the last chance to turn back – could see the desire to pull back and retreat into herself – could see the moment yearning overpowered it.
Their hands touched.
Aki immediately yelped, yanking her hand back and watching Porlyusica in morbid expectancy.
"I live," Porlyusica observed.
Aki shook her head furiously as though to rid herself of a hallucination. "You…"
Porlyusica smiled gently. "Yes, I'm-"
Aki flung herself into her, sending them both crashing to the floor; Porlyusica didn't mind.
"You're alive!" she cried, relief far too strong for words forcing her voice to a pitch of inaudibility.
Porlyusica nodded. "Yes, I-"
"You didn't die! You really didn't die! You really didn't!" Aki wept celebratorily, hugging her so tightly that Porlyusica mused, in a practiced, irritable way, that she might not survive this time. "You're still alive! You're really alive!"
She softened as Aki continued to weep over her inexplicable survival. "'Black Mages' who?" she muttered, stroking her hair.
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Around dawn, long after Aki had fallen asleep – passed out, rather, plainly exhausted – there was a knock at the door. Porlyusica, refusing to wake the girl, didn't respond.
"It's Zeref; I'm coming in," called Zeref.
As he entered, Porlyusica scowled from the floor. "Just enter my house without permission, why don't you?"
He smiled faintly. "She's asleep," he observed.
Porlyusica rolled her eyes. "Really?"
He chuckled, sitting down next to them on the floor. "I don't know how you managed to calm her down."
"It wasn't easy." Porlyusica frowned, eyeing him belligerently. "You had better fill me in, boy."
His own expression shifting to sedate gravity, he nodded. "After she wakes up."
"She is quite traumatized."
"Mn."
"You are too, aren't you?"
"I-" He blinked hard, confusion flitting across his face. Eventually, he mumbled, "I'm not sure I'm allowed to be."
Porlyusica scoffed. "You're foolish."
"There are ways to put yourself beyond redemption…"
"As long as you're alive, you can change."
"Alive, huh?"
Porlyusica scowled at him. "I suppose you don't want to be alive?"
Zeref tilted his head, then slowly shook it. "We used to long for death," he admitted simply, "but not anymore. If we can be with Natsu, then it's okay."
Porlyusica closed her eyes. "'Black Mages' who?"
"Huh?"
"I wasn't talking to you."
"Oh."
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Aki, Zeref, and Porlyusica were sitting at a table in Porlyusica's house.
"First off," Porlyusica started, "If you cannot continue, do not force yourselves." She eyed them. "I trust you to know when you can go no further, to not stop before then, and to not push past then."
Both nodded.
Porlyusica sighed. "I'll start with some questions. What is 'the curse?'" she asked, not missing how they flinched.
"It's called the Curse of Contradictions," Zeref managed eventually, Aki glancing at him. "It infects one's body with Death Magic. If the person cares for something, the Death Magic will k" —he choked, swallowing— "kill it; the only way to not kill is to forget the value of life." A deep breath. "It makes the cursed immortal, freezes their body's aging, stopping hair growth, even, and healing any damage almost instantly. It affects the cursed's mind- the cursed- cursed's… cursed…"
He trailed off dazedly, and Aki picked up, "It forces contradictions into one's mind. It takes emotions or thoughts and flips them, making the cursed think it. If one wants to help, they'll want to kill, and-" She paused, blinking rapidly. "-and a- a thousand- a thousand other things… One can't tell what they- what they want or feel or- or- or think, from what is forced into… in their mind."
"For us specifically," said Zeref, recovered, "it linked our minds together so we couldn't- couldn't- we-" He shook his head, mumbling gibberish, then continued in a mutter, "It- it basically fused us together. We were one person. We- we- she- M-"
"We found a way to dampen the effect;" Aki cut in, "we could affect it because it was a weaker effect. It was just for us, not really part of the curse – at least, that's what we think." Aki forced a chuckle – one very familiar to Zeref from the past four centuries – attempting a grin that quickly fell. "We would still get confused with the other, though, when upset, or for reasons we haven't figured out the pattern of yet."
Porlyusica nodded, giving them a minute to defuddle before starting again. "And does that mean that you never intended to kill anyone?"
Aki gritted her teeth, looking tormented. "We- we don't know."
Porlyusica considered this. "Because the curse was muddying your thoughts?"
Both nodded.
"Okay. Why were you cursed?"
"For our studies in trying to revive Natsu," they said together.
"So you were cursed to kill for meddling with life and death," she concluded. "You didn't want to kill anyone. That is why you were screaming not to come close – that you didn't want to hurt me?" she added to Aki, who shrank in her seat.
"That- that's the thing," she whispered, shame clutching tight to her words. "We- we were able to occasionally control ourselves-" She gasped. "We- we could control ourselves! But we still-"
"Incorrect."
Both stared at her.
She raised an eyebrow. "I know about psychology, dears. Magic and science don't always mix simply, but they are inextricably linked – even interdependent. That curse sounds like something entirely out of your control. No" —she forestalled them, raising a hand as they leaned forward, distraught— "the way I believe it worked was that it did control your thoughts all of the time. The times you 'suppressed' it was actually the curse not affecting you as powerfully."
Two pairs of eyes widened.
"When it came into full effect," she continued, "there would have been nothing you could have done. Other times, you managed to repress it, but only because the curse allowed you to. You might look at it as a 'measure.' If the curse affected you at 'one hundred percent' power all the time, it would not have tormented you so well, as you would have been insane all the time. Instead, it varied in strength, leading you to believe that you were at fault for failing to control it regularly. The triggers I'm not sure about, but it certainly was out of your control."
Aki had a hand to her mouth, strangled sobs filling the room. Zeref merely stared at the table, trembling, hand held in front of his face.
Porlyusica's tone hardened as she said, "Now, I still have some questions, so have a few minutes to calm down."
She got up and made tea, placing the cups with some biscuits before the 'Black Mages.'
She snorted. 'The Black Mages.' Black Mages, indeed; these two are the least infuriating humans I've ever had the misfortune to meet. It may have taken them four hundred years, but I guess humanity isn't entirely helpless.
Sitting down again, she sipped her tea, observing the two crying 'Black Mages.' The two children who had suffered more than any other human ever had, and cared more than most. She closed her eyes.
'Black mages' who?
"So," she resumed, looking at them, "Aki, you have some kind of night terrors or nightmares?"
Aki seemed to cower. "Mn," she managed.
"Sometimes that's treatable, so tell me the details."
Aki blinked up at her, then stammered, "We-well, uhm, usually at inconvenient times…"
Porlyusica nodded impatiently.
"And, it starts… with a dream, like, a memory kind of… thing…" —she shivered— "I- when I wake up, I can't really, think. Uh… it… I kind of remember things, but… not…"
"Elaborate?"
"O-okay," she said, face screwing up in concentration. "Uh, l-last night, I… I knew who you were, what had hap-happened, but, the- the curse, it felt so real, like it was there. And- and other- other times, other dreams, like, like…" She whimpered, shivering, then froze. After a minute, she twitched. "I can't. I'm done."
Porlyusica nodded. "Aki, you can come here whenever you need to- not for fun, mind," she added, scowling. "I mean if you're having nightmares, and no one else is around."
She bobbed her head. "Can I go?"
"Yes."
Aki had vanished before Porlyusica had finished the short word.