Hey! I'm back and I've come with a really late second chapter! Ahah...
"Jerome-san?" A women's voice called the tall man, who was now studying the unconscious mage inside the cell.
"What, Briar?" He spoke with clear agitation, hating the sudden intrusion.
She was taken a back by his sudden outburst but soon regained composure, "She is ready to start."
At that, Jerome sharply turned to see his guild mate smiling with pure excitement.
"Bring her then. Now." He ordered. Briar only nodded in response and soon walked away. As he watched her walk off, a sudden groan was heard from the cell.
This seemingly brought a smirk to the man's face. He looked over his shoulder again, and saw the pathetic sight of Juvia. She was awake, but you could tell she was incredibly exhausted, seeing as her body lay like a broken doll and she was visibly paler than her usual porcelain complexion.
"Hello there, it seems as if I'm always waking you up." He inquired, amused at her submissive state.
'Like his face was something great to wake up to'
Juvia had tried to retort, but her mouth was so dry, and her voice was raspy. Instead, she turned her face. You could tell that Jerome had known about her poor condition, which sickened Juvia to her core.
He chuckled, "Wow, it's nice talking to you without any attitude coming back!"
Juvia just stared blankly at the man with fear present in her blue orbs. She couldn't seem to yet grasp the events that were happening.
"That aside, I think that it's time I explain what is going to happen to you and your abilities. Starting off with the fact that you won't be able to control any of it, except maybe your movements.." he added.
While he was speaking Juvia's panic only increased. 'Won't have any control?!'
As if he read her thoughts he clarified, "Ah, I can see you're confused, aren't you?"
Juvia, with her attention now fully present, only nodded her head as a response. She then saw Jerome slowly take out something from his pocket, she then noticed that it was a crumpled up picture.
"You see there is someone who I know you have a lot in common with..." He began to explain.
Meanwhile Juvia held a dreaded appearance on her face, hoping that it wasn't a guild mate, or someone else..
"Gray-sama?" She whispered to herself, though immediately started coughing from the pain it caused in her throat. Jerome had surprisingly heard her quiet voice, probably due to the spacious room.
With raised eyebrows he asked, "Just how much do you think of that man?"
Juvia was taken aback by the question. Curious as to why he thought it was his business.
"However much I want to." She growled quietly to not damage her poor throat.
"Why?"
"Why not?"
Jeromes face soon turned frustrated. "You know, the fact you supposedly love that man is pitiful. You practically follow him like a damn leech while he still refuses your advances. Why haven't you just accepted the fact that you will never be loved?" He questioned icily.
With eyebrows agitatedly furrowed she responded. "I know disgusting men like you wouldn't understand, but Juvia is loved unconditionally at Fairy Tail, and even though Gray-sama may not show it the best, but Juvia knows that he deeply cares for her. He treats Juvia like a person instead of an invisible speck like many others have, he is loyal and always fights for the ones he loves. That is something about Gray-sama that I would never overlook." She paused, having to gain back her breath to finish.
"Juvia knows that his love won't come easy, but she still understands that it is possible, and that is enough for her." She looked at Jerome with pure confidence. Though she was internally cringing at the pain, she wouldn't dare show it.
Jeromes expression faltered for a moment at the unexpected speech, but was quickly swiped off.
"If that is the lousy excuse you make for not having your love returned then maybe you need to think a bit more on what you're saying..." He mocked.
"Well if you think that what you are doing is acceptable then maybe you need to think a bit more period." She shot back.
"You really do want to be killed don't you?" He questioned in annoyance.
Juvia simply looked the other way, ignoring his sharp gaze. Suddenly, he smugly opened the paper and looked it over. It was only for a moment before he crumpled it back into it's unrecognizable shape.
"Moving on from that pointless topic, the man you love isn't on this photo, rather it's actually someone you may not be so entirely fond of.."
'Well there's a lot of those..' She remembered.
"..I know FairyTail has seemingly had many victories under their name, but do you remember any that were more recent to your initiation in FairyTail?" He asked, as if testing her memory. He still sat there with the paper in his hand, keeping it hidden but Juvia could sense a revealing.
Agitated she spoke, "What does this matter? Why do you feel the need to beat around the bush when all you have done is torture me?!" She was usually patient but in these circumstances she couldn't stand to avoid the answers. She knew this was the treatment that Avatar appeared to thrive off of. Making people wait in agonizing anticipation for their sinister benefits.
Jerome's eyes held a gaze she couldn't describe, but could somehow feel. Though it didn't feel pleasant.
"You do realize that the more your insistent whining continues so will your discomfort?" He didn't wait for an answer.
"..Just a piece of advice. We want to keep those little pipes in shape. I also have someone awaiting my presence so I'll just cut to the chase. Since your obviously not up to the little "game" I have you playing." He stood and advanced his way towards her, his body becoming almost larger by each step. Juvia would be lying if she said she wasn't even a bit intimidated, or that her body didn't tense against the wall.
His degrading eyes had moved from her form and onto the photograph in his hand. His fingers reshaping it back to a frame for her to see. Finally, he soon turned the picture around to show the motionless mage, and in return he was given an awe-struck expression.
"Now this must be a nice surprise isn't it?" Jerome asked. Though no response was given as Juvia remained still, then she chuckled.
As soon as the sound was released from her lips, Jerome's plummeted into a confused frown. He didn't seem to appreciate this sudden mocking that was directed towards him. Juvia didn't seem to notice as she continued to giggle with the sound vibrating off the stone walls.
"What the hell is so amusing to you? You do realize that I'm essentially going to brainwash you!?"
Though the only response that was given was the sound of laughter. Jerome immediately thought that maybe she was just going insane, but it almost appeared as if she was laughing at him. With this thought in mind the man just became more furious.
Juvia continued with her laughter as if the funniest joke was told to her, but soon the only sound that was heard was a loud SLAP!
The room became as quiet as before, with Juvia's face pushed to the right from the assault aimed at her. Jerome's place remained in front of her while he carried a look of what could only be described as murderous. He snatched the paper from the floor where it had fallen from hitting his victim and ripped it into shreds as if it was light work, after throwing the pieces to the ground he merely just stared at the shocked women who remained still.
"I'm going to take your amusement lightly since you obviously don't understand the severity of your situation." He growled. Juvia only stayed silent, realizing nothing she did was going to help her at the moment.
"Now, do you know who that is miss lockser?" Juvia gave an affirmative nod.
"Care to explain?" he egged her to continue.
She reluctantly obliged. "Mary Hughes, a previous member of Legion Corps. Fairy tail had defeated them though, I should know as I was there." she stated in confusion.
Jerome chuckled, "Anything else?" he asked, knowing there was more to say.
"I was there when her own guild mate had fought her, I also remember her leaving on good terms with fairy tail." Jerome gave an almost mocking clap of appreciation.
"Correct! Which means you also remember her specialty is command magic.." Juvia awaited for better clarification on how she was going to, like Jerome said, apparently brainwash her. He seemed to acknowledge her confusion with a smile.
"..Miss Lockser I'll have you know that I have incredible access to a lot of people, places, and most importantly information. With the use of that I was able to find Miss hughes and have a little talk with her aswell." She really did not like the sound of this.
"When we finally did I asked her questions about her experience fighting the infamous fairy tail guild, which she barely had any negative feeling towards.." Can this man ever get to the point? Juvia thought.
"That is until I killed someone who she truly treasured." Juvia's face visibly paled. He said it with such ease that it almost sounded casual for him.
"Her own husband!" He cackled in such a disturbing manner. Juvia stared horrified at this murderer, this..monster only inches in front of her.
"What was even better though, was to blame it all on the one and only..Juvia lockser! Logically you could understand that she wasn't too pleased about this information."
"How dare you! How could you even prove that it was me?!" Juvia yelled, not even caring if he would harm her. If he would go these great lengths to damage her name, then it was only deductive he would go even greater to damage her Gray.
"Well I'm glad you asked. First, I killed her husband, which was farely simple, and then placed him at the lonely home you once shared with Gray. From there, all I had to do was gain her trust by simply stating we were assigned to find you for the crime, show her the body, and claim you weren't there due to you being detained by avatar for your inhumane actions. After that, it was a done deal." Juvia was frozen from the menacing yet scarily genius plan to make her look like a criminal. He hadn't even gotten to the part where Mary would be involved and it was already sinister.
"Y-You are a monster!" She sobbed, only terrified of what was to come for her. Better yet Gray, who he has barely mentioned in his plan yet.
"That I am Miss. Lockser, but not to worry. Soon, we will share that title." he spoke with promise. This only made Juvia cry more, hating this feeling of vulnerability, of not being able to do anything but listen.
"Now I don't want to spoil too much Miss lockser, seeing as i have a guest expecting me and you seem to be taking this news very hard..." She almost wanted to laugh at how horrid he sounded. As if her reaction was too much.
"Though I hope this does teach a needed lesson to Mr. Fullbuster, I would like to say that Miss hughes and I have only one common goal in mind..Revenge." Juvia felt her insides turmoil in disgust at the look on his face as these words left his mouth. As if his revenge was something to drool over, he craved the satisfaction of getting it.
"Gray Fullbuster will of course feel the pain that Mary felt, and yet he will also feel the betrayal that i was given." Juvia only looked to the floor, her mind going into hysterics at having not even a sliver of control. She was only desperate for this sudden nightmare to end, wishing that this was all it was.
A nightmare.
Gray remained still, almost replicating a statue whilst anticipating a call from his lacrima. A sudden knock finally making him move.
"Fullbuster?" He quickly threw the lacrima under his bed before walking up to his bedroom door, opening it for the person on the other side to enter. Unexpectedly he was met with the face of Jerome, who he thought was apparently dealing with a member of his disbanded guild.
'Hopefully it was just another lie of Mary's', though his gut thought otherwise.
"Jerome. What are we doing here?" He spoke coldly, maintaining his act of a member.
"Sheesh. Still so hostile, are we?" He rhetorically asked. Though he was always a teaser it sounded slightly different this time. As if he was soaking in this moment like a sponge. Gray only responded with the lift of an eyebrow.
"I just wanted to stop by to see one of my most..loyal members." 'Shit' He definitely knew something. He was hoping that whoever Jerome may have found didn't spout out any new information that would surely cost him. Though he knew that if it was Juvia then it'd be a done deal.
Jerome could almost see Gray's radar go off and if he did, proving he was almost as good an actor as he was (Which was pretty good if he might add).
"What for? It's late and I don't usually expect company before lights out." He seethed. Keeping himself calm and collected.
"Well tonight will be different Gray, all of your members are waiting at in the main room. It would be selfish of you to take to take your time arriving." He snapped, almost trying to get arise out of Gray.
The said man stayed neutral, "I'll be there soon. Let me at least use the restroom though, I wouldn't want to waste anymore of our members precious time." He quickly closed the door not waiting for a response. As quickly as the door shut he had grabbed the lacrima and sent a message before it was too late.
To: Erza
They're onto me, about to have a meeting now. It's time, hurry.
Finally selecting 'send' he hid the lacrima. After flushing the toilet for less suspicion, he quickly left the room to find his "members".
"Ew Gray-sama, did you not wash your hands?" Mary giggled.
He did nothing but ignore her and sat next to Briar, who was also giving him a "Did you?" look.
Once settled the room was nothing but silent. Though looking at everyone else there seemed to be a hidden sense of information he didn't grasp yet. He decided that he hated this feeling not even two seconds before he was firmly seated. Well, as soon as he joined for that matter.
Jerome's chuckle broke the silence. "Well I'm glad that all of us were able to join today to talk about some..business i'd like to call it."
'What the hell is going on?". He just hoped Erza got his message.
"Briar, would you like to start?" Jerome asked. Though his voice sounded a little too interested.
"Yes, well two weeks ago I was trying to see where we could find connections to Zeref.." she looked at Gray with a mischievous smirk. He couldn't tell whether she was flirting or implying something because she would usually do both. Though it was never returned.
"..and in surprise I found he had a small relationship with a woman named Mavis Vermillion." She revealed. Gray's chest slightly tightened, nervous for her to continue.
Jerome soon looked inquisitively at Gray, almost waiting for his answer to the news. "Now Gray, I don't recall you ever telling us this information?"
Gray only shook his head. "This is news to me." he spoke nonchalant.
Jerome's eyes only squinted in suspicion. "Hm. I guess your previous master didn't tell you everything. Seems like a pretty selfish man to me." Gray's hands, though under the table, still clenched at the ill words directed towards his grandfather.
'Yeah this is definitely sketchy'
Erza did nothing but rush to the lacrima, knowing her time would soon be done. 'Gray may lord have mercy if you do not pick up the damn call.'
"Fullbuster here, I'll get back to you as soon as I can." Erza sighed. She awaited the beep and frantically responded.
"Gray, It's erza..they know! You need to get out as soon as you can, find help, and don't believe what you see or hear..."
The footsteps became louder with each passing second.
"..Gray, it's time for war-" the line went silent as her lacrima was suddenly smashed in pieces.
Erza slowly looked behind her, preparing for the worst.
"It's been so long Erza-san. Has it not?" Her blood ran cold.
'Juvia..'
Viola! So, yeah i tried to make it good but idk. Thank you guys so much for still sticking around or are now reading this! I hope you enjoy and shall try to bless you guys with more!
-alfy:)