Juvia's eyes are blurry when she first opens them. Her head is pounding as things become clearer. The first things to come into focus are the dim golden bars portraying as doors of the room, they are starting to rust each bar halfway gone. The next thing she feels is the cold ground, a mix of stone and earth while the walls are completely stone.
Slowly pushing herself up into a sitting position, Juvia grabs her head and takes deep breaths to try and stop the dizziness. The dryness of her throat makes the bluenette wonder when the last time she even had a drink for simple hydration. She used to get asked why she would drink water when she is water, the simple truth is: Juvia sees the water she is made of as a normal person would view their blood. And who would drink their blood for hydration? (Well, she is certain that Natsu and Happy would if it was told to them by fact or possibly by dare-and even then, she is certain they would do it, because why not?)
Recalling Natsu has Juvia missing her Fairy Tail family. It has been a year since she has seen everyone. She lived with Gray for half of that time before he just up and left one day. Never coming back. She had kept her hopes up for a while that he would return shortly and explain where he had gone. A month after his disappearance her hopes of seeing him quickly started to disappear. A little drizzle started one day when the sun was still shining in the sky, at first she did not think that she was the cause of it; they were in a deserted town after all, so any news of what the weather might entail any day was a mystery. Still, she waited. Even out in the rain. She did not care about her health. She ate regularly, but she knew the rain would eventually affect her; but during those long months-feeling-like-years her only priority was seeing Gray.
Then just a few days ago, half a year after Gray left, Natsu, Lucy, Wendy, and Carla showed up. From the distance and due to her sleepless nights, she heard their cries. Natsu's being the loudest. At first she mistook them for Gray until she saw them. She was glad to see them, but it still did not settle her heart when he was not with them. Her tiredness and fever finally got the better of her and she passed out.
When she woke-up, Wendy and Carla explained everything to her as they went to go and find the others and this mysterious guild known as Avatar. They came to a path, one that emitted dark aura while the other was more peaceful. Juvia wanted to go down alone, not because she did not think Wendy could handle it (she can and did), she wanted to let out her anger and frustration. But Wendy had insisted on going with her (must be a Dragon Slayer thing, stubbornness).
The sound of footsteps brings Juvia out of her thoughts. As they get louder, closer, she sees the shadow of a man appear. When they stop, the footsteps and the shadow belong to a man standing right in front of her cell. He has light blue-hair, similar to her own but a little bit darker but not by much, grey framed glasses, a white collard shirt with a dark blue tie, long light coat with dark blue on the left shoulder and right leg, a loose yellow belt keeping it shut, dark blue pants and black shoes.
Juvia grits her teeth, tightening her fist in her skirt. This is the man that kidnapped her and told Wendy to inform Gray to come and find him. She wants to punch this man so hard. She restrains herself, wanting to find his true motives for wanting Gray and kidnapping her.
"Hello, you must curious as to my name. It's Invel. Invel Yura, faithful servant and general to Lord Zeref." Juvia refuses to acknowledge him. "As to why I brought you here, to simply put it: I need Gray Fullbuster to unleash his full rage to defeat E.N.D. or at least the Book of E.N.D. while he still can."
Juvia feels the water in body freeze over as cold as a northern sea. The Book of E.N.D. The same book Silver wants Gray to destroy, and the same one she is sure Gray would want to destroy whether his father wants him to or not. The same book that Gray has spent all those months training to destroy. Yes, he wanted to get stronger but she knows his main driving force had been destroying E.N.D.
But what does kidnapping her have to do with getting Gray at his full rage? They are friends now, she is certain both will admit, but they are nothing more than that. (Even if Juvia wants them to be much more.) She is patient in waiting for him, because despite the words he says to her about not being interested his actions, on the other hand, have proven to her otherwise. At least, she can admit, that she understands that he only sees her as a friend.
"Then why bring me here," Juvia says, bangs casting a dark shadow over her eyes. This catches Invel's interest, she can feel his gaze on her. "Why me specifically? Why not just another of Gray's friends? He would be just as equally angry if you took Erza, Natsu, Lucy, Cana, Gajeel, so why me?"
A cruel smile forms gently on Invel's lips in a thin line. "Tell me, are you by chance hungry and/or thirsty?" The Winter General wonders. "Tell me everything you know about Gray Fullbuster and I will reward you with food and drink."
Juvia grips her the skirt of her dress even tighter that her knuckles are turning white that is visible on her already fair skin. "My thirst and hunger are of no concern to you. You could make it feel like Hell has frozen over and still, I will not tell you even the most minor and obvious of details to you about Gray! You could torture me by boiling me alive and I still why not say a thing! And seeing as you work with Zeref, I doubt that you will release me to go back to my friends so why do you not just kill me and get it over with?"
"Because," light shines on the lenses of Invel's glasses in a blinding, a cruel sadistic smirk on his lips showing his sharp teeth. "Killing you, while it may seem entertaining and an even better way to have Gray Fullbuster be consumed by his anger, I need you alive to tell me everything you know about him."
Juvia moves swiftly, her left arm extended as she uses her Water Slicer, irritation and anger boiling within her veins. The bars of the cell already have multiple scratches so it is hard to tell if her attack even damaged them; but as she looks at Invel she cannot help but smirk internally as she sees a mark on his cheek in the form of medium-sized crescent, blood coming from it. Normally, Juvia would not be happy as seeing an enemy bleed (even in Phantom Lord she did not like it), but seeing Invel bleed brings a warmth to her. If he wants to see Gray angry and wants to use her as bait then he is going to have to keep up with a better plan, because she refuses to help him hurt or anger Gray.
She takes a breath and sits on her knees, her back towards the Winter Mage. Invel takes out a handkerchief from inside his trench coat in the right breast pocket and places it over his wound. "I see. You picturing your Gray pushed to his maximum hurt or anger angers you, am I correct."
Juvia refuses to acknowledge him now, her hands coming to rest on her lap. Juvia can do this, she thinks. She let her anger out, she needs to remain calm. She needs to come up with her own course of action to get out and find her friends. Once she is back with them-and hopefully it is at the guild hall if Lucy contacted everyone she was able to keep tabs on and they all came back the minute they heard her call-and healed, she will tell them of what Invel has told her, before taking Gray somewhere private and giving him a piece of her mind for leaving her alone for half-a-year with no word of where he was or going and why. Then, she knows, she will fall into his embrace and just be happy to have him back but will be insistent that if he ever plans on leaving her again for any length of time he better talk to her first.
Even if it is for a quest with Natsu, Erza, Lucy, and Happy (Carla and Wendy tagging alone every now and again too), a vacation, or even simple errands, she will want to know about it. She could not handle it again if he leaves without even telling her of where he is going. She knows that the errands and vacation parts sound a tad bit overbearing and controlling, but it will put her more at ease than her heart freezing over with worry over where he might be and if he is all right.
"Fine!" Invel growls. Has he been talking this whole time while Juvia has been in her thoughts? "If you will not talk to me then you can freeze!"
The already cold temperature of the cell drops to the negatives, even the warmth of her wool jacket is not helping. She and Gray once did a month of training of helping the other survive in the water and ice. Gray did not like the being underwater. On the second day she sent him so far below the waves that he could not tell which way was up, down, left, or right. She had guided him and told him to feel the water, be a part of it, and by that he would be able to find his way to the surface again. He had been stubborn and reluctant about it at first. Once sunset came and he still had not popped up from the lake she wanted to go in and find him but they had come to an agreement that unless they felt it absolutely necessary, they would not help the other.
Gray, in turn, froze the entire inside of their house. Dropping the temperature of it day by day. Just a little. One day it would be fifteen degrees, the next fourteen, and so on, and by the end of the month she could survive in the negative twenties while he could find his way twenty feet underwater even if he does loose his sense of vision.
But this? This absolute torture. The temperature is dropping rapidly and to degrees that Gray has not trained Juvia to survive in. It must be somewhere near the negative thirties or forties or fifties. Juvia clutches her arms in an attempt to pull her jacket even closer to her body to try and maintain warmth. The Water Mage's already dry throat somehow gets even dryer and her empty stomach even more empty that it is growling and making Juvia almost sick.
Falling to her side, the bluenette turns to her capture. She sees something in his eyes as he looks at her in her pain. "I will not ask again, tell me everything you know about Gray Fullbuster and I will make the winter go away, give you food and drink as well."
Just as she is about to tell him to go to hell, he places a finger in the center of her forehead. A weird freezing sensation envelops her in a shocking way, her body responding to it. The coldness she feels on the outside fading away as her limbs come alive, and in twisted way her eyes becoming heavy as tiredness over takes her.
When she awakes, the small winter inside the cell is gone and replaced with much warmer weather, she turns and sees a an empty tray with crumbs and a glass with little water droplets. Juvia opens her mouth in a silent gasp in horror, hands coming to cover her gaping mouth. Did she. . . . did she eat and drink what Invel brought her? Did she really betray Gray and confide in Invel everything she knows about him?
She looks at her white guild mark on her outer thigh, does she. . . . does she even deserve to still have this?
No, Juvia does not. She tells herself as she uses her magic to sharpen her nails and goes to guild mark. She screams in pain but the blood covers the mark as she can feel it leave her. As she screams, under the tray is a piece of white paper that she does not see that says Thanks for the help, in Invel's jagged handwriting.
Now, he has everything he needs to defeat Gray Fullbuster.