Chapter Five – Always Hope

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"For longer than forever
Like no love ever known
And with your love
I'll never be alone"

The Swan Princess – Far Longer Than Forever

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She was going to get sold. Gray was restless, walking around the guild; he knew that his friends were looking at him wary of what he might do but he didn't care about them at that point. His only thought was to get Juvia back.

They could only see her face on the Lachryma, so only the gods know if she was more hurt than they thought. Juvia was tough, she could take whatever shit they threw at her, but she had a weakness: other people. If she thought that not fighting back would save others, she would take and stay. She even said that she wouldn't leave without the other girls.

The stupid wonderful woman.

Gray was feeling so angry and helpless. Master was using the Lachryma talking to a few of his friends to see if they knew how to locate a missing mage that couldn't perform magic but no one knew about it. Levy was researching on the guild's library but Gray was getting more and more frustrated. Why didn't he accept to go with her to the mission? All of that could've been avoided.

"Gray, calm down." Erza said. Apparently, without noticing, Gray started to cool the air around him. His head snapped to her direction.

"I will calm down as soon as I bring Juvia back safe and sound and I beat the crap out of whoever has her! And that's if she's alright. If they do something else to her, I'll kill those bastards." Gray growled as he made a random ice shape on his hand, just to break it. "Can't Natsu just smell her?"

"It's the third day since she left. My nose is good, but not that good." Natsu said, his arms crossed above his chest watching Gray's movements. The Dragon Slayer would never admit to anyone, but he was concerned about Gray's reactions. Juvia meant more to him that what he let appear and lose her (not that he would, they would find Juvia!) would make the guy go cuckoo.

"The sun is setting, Levy has been searching for a spell the whole afternoon and Master has no idea about how track Juvia down." Gray passed a hand through his hair and then started to remove his shirt. "We should be out there, trying to get leads…"

"Think, Gray." Erza said. "You know that separating and search for something that is probably not even there anymore is pointless. We need to act with our heads; this situation is too delicate to just run around hoping to get leads."

"I know, I know." Gray passed a hand over his face and then started to pace. "What if I don't get her in time? I can't lose her, Erza." He looked pointedly at the red haired woman and she understood. They, once, had talked about Juvia's feelings for him and that he needed to make his known. At the time, he was unsure of what he felt towards the Water Mage, but at that moment, he understood. He couldn't lose her. "Not now…"

"We will get her, Gray." Erza stepped closer to her friend and put a hand on his shoulder. "Just make sure that once we do, you start to be honest with yourself, okay?"

"Yeah…" The Ice Mage nodded and started to pace around the guild once again. Hoping and praying that they would get her in time. There was two days left. "Where's Gajeel?" He noticed the absence of the Iron Dragon Slayer. If he had been at the guild when Juvia had called, he would've made a big fuss about it. He and Juvia were best friends.

"Master sent Jet to get him. He went on a mission yesterday and you know that if he wasn't notified about the situation, he would get pissed off." Erza informed him and Gray nodded.

The bond between Gajeel and Juvia was strong and downright weird, but it was nice for them to have someone to hold on to. They have been together even before they joined Fairy Tail. Of course that now both had new bonds, but thankfully their friendship never got affected for it; if something, it got stronger.

Gray wanted to bring Juvia back to their Guild, their home, their friends. And call him selfish, but he wanted to bring her back to him.

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Later that afternoon, Juvia was taken once again to the room, where she was beaten the day before. Boss was already there when Holar put her in the same position she was before. After putting her arms up onto the hook that came from the ceiling, the big man left, leaving Juvia and the Boss alone.

"You look prettier today, my little Fairy." Boss said with a creepy smile on his face, his arms crossed over his chest. "The swollen lip looks beautiful on you and the black eye... Oh, my. I knew that I wouldn't be wasting my money when I bought this for you." He pull put a small glass with a green liquid inside and Juvia narrowed her eyes. "Oh, do you want to know what this is?

"You remember Zeref, don't you? I heard that the people from your guild have a history with him." The man chuckled. "Fairy Tail sure is something, isn't it? The man has been dead for hundreds of years, yet there he was, in an island with you people. Did you see him with your own eyes? Did you?" Juvia shuddered as she remembered how scared she felt when she met the Dark Mage.

When the man, Zancrow as Meredy called him, came and started to badmouth Ultear to the little girl, Juvia wanted him to just shut up because the girl obviously had a deep bond with the woman she assumed was the dark haired one she left fighting Gray-sama. And that man looked like he was quite strong and neither her nor Meredy were in condition of fighting. And he had the person both Juvia and Meredy were trying to get custody of.

Zeref.

The dark mage himself was there. The man, who created so many monsters, spells and brought misery for other people; he was alive.

"Wait… Zeref is Ultear's future!" Meredy stopped for a moment and said in a lower voice "My future." Juvia was powerless. Her magical power was below zero at that point. She couldn't do a thing without killing herself in the process. Her mind was racing; trying to think of some plan, any plan, but the blond man looked too powerful.

"So naïve... " Zancrow smiled towards Meredy. "How long are you going to keep spouting that crap?"

"Ultear promised…" Meredy whined, looking like a child she actually was, instead of the polite serious young woman Juvia met few hours before. "If I can make it to the Great World of Magic, my town can go back to how it used to be…"

"But the one who destroyed that town was Ultear-san!" Zancrow seemed to enjoy himself very much saying this.

The look on Meredy's face was of shock and incredulity. "That is… a lie…" Juvia heard her, but she seemed to be talking to herself than anyone else.

Juvia hated it. She hated the way the man from Grimoire Heart started to laugh like he was having the time of his life while a young girl's heart was being ripped apart. The Water Mage wished she had her full power to take the grin off his face.

At that time, all they could hear were the laughs and the heavy rain. None of them realized that Zeref was awake until he spoke, barely a whisper: "Acnologia."

"Ah?" Zancrow looked to Zeref in confusion. From where Juvia was, she could see the abnormal eyes the black haired man had. She froze in fear with that look. "Eh?" It was all Zancrow was able to say before it happened.

The wave of power he sent was overwhelming.

His magic was terrifying.

Dark.

Powerful.

Deadly.

His magic was beautiful.

So beautifully deadly and unique, like Juvia never thought anything could be. She couldn't look away while happened; she was hypnotized by it and she couldn't take that much power being released. She passed out.

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Juvia opened her eyes and found herself alone in the woods. She was confused for a moment before realize what happened to her. With some difficulty, she sat and looked around.

Meredy was no longer there (Juvia hoped that the young girl found her beloved one) but the body of Zancrow was still in place. After witnessed what happened, she had no doubt the man was dead.

Juvia heard nothing around her, so she assumed she was safe for the time being, but still had her guard up. She saw that Zeref could kill without break a sweat. She thought she was going to die when it all went black.

The fact was: Zeref could've killed her the moment he wanted to. He could do it anytime and pretty much nothing she would do was going to stop him. She had no idea why he let her alive. Was it to pass some message for Fairy Tail?

Juvia's eyes widened. She needed to tell everyone about Zeref!

The Boss was looking at Juvia's face, collecting her expressions. He saw fear pass on her eyes as he started laughing, snapping her out of her own thoughts. "You did! You met him and he scared you!" Boss laughed even harder. "At least something can make my little Fairy feel fear." The Boss grabbed Juvia's jaw with a hand and whispered. "Do you have any idea how beautiful you looked? Your fearful eyes, the way you clenched your jaw…" He leant on to her and once again joined their lips. He tried to make her open her mouth for him, but she didn't let him.

Juvia didn't even saw the punch coming, but she sure felt the pain on the left side of her jaw. A few tears came out when he repeated the movement on the right side of her face. She did not plead to stop, though.

"You frustrate me, Juvia!" The Boss said grabbing her face once again; he stared at her eyes filled with tears that she did not want to shed and gave a wicked smile. "Crying is not a bad thing… I enjoy it, actually." He caressed her cheek as she tried her best to move away from his touch. "I see… Today you don't tolerate me touching you." He sighed. "At least I'll have you for longer than your stay in here." Juvia frowned in confusion and the Boss showed the glass with the liquid again. "I will let the effects of it be a surprise for you. Now, open up." He looked to her mouth as Juvia stubbornly kept her mouth closed as much as she could.

"Don't make me…" Boss said, trying to give the liquid to her. He let out a noise of frustration when she didn't comply with his wish. He, then, grabbed her jaw once again and forced her mouth open and as soon as she did, he slipped the liquid inside her mouth. She tried to spit it out, but the Boss put a hand over her mouth and nose, so she had no other choice than swallowed it.

Once he was sure that she had ingested it, the Boss let her go and gave two steps back, laughing as Juvia coughed. It tasted so bad. "I can't say that things with you are not intense."

"What… what did you give Juvia?" The Water Mage asked in a whisper as the liquid started to take effect almost immediately.

"And ruin the surprise?" The Boss made a noise with his tongue. "No, no, no. I just wish I could see your expression once it takes effect."

"Why do you do this?" The girl asked, eyes starting to water. Whatever he gave it to her was burning her inside out; the pain that it was consuming her at the moment was so intense that her body was starting to convulse.

"Because of things like that…" He said with a happy glee in his eyes as tears came out from Juvia's eyes. "I like to see… pain."

"You are crazy." Juvia said between breaths, as she tried to bear the burning inside her. When she thought that it was over, another wave of pain, worse than the previous one would hit her. She had no idea of how long it happened, but to her it lasted forever,

"That I am, darling." The Boss said, watching Juvia. "That. I. Am."

Juvia tried her best to fight it, she tried her best to ignore it, but she couldn't shield herself from her own body and whatever the bastard had given her, it was downright evil and strong. If Zeref was somehow involved in it, the situation had gotten worse. Much worse than she had anticipated.

The Water Mage's leg gave out when a particularly strong wave of pain hit her and she was being held up only by the handcuffs. Her vision was blurry; she was feeling nauseated and weak.

"Quite a show." Boss said with awe in his voice. "I didn't waste my money at all, given the show you just did for me, my little Fairy. That was… memorable."

The girl let her head fall to the side when the man started to open her dress again. Juvia wanted to fight him, to kick, to punch, to do anything to prevent him to touch her, but she never felt so powerless in her life.

There she was: being kept captive in a dungeon, without her magic in a place she had no idea where it was. Even when things looked the worse, even when she almost died back in Tenroujima, she still had her friends by her side.

'We're going to find you. I am going to find you, Juvia!' Gray had said earlier that day during their talk by Lachryma and Juvia could see the honesty in his eyes: he would try his best to find her. She wasn't alone; her friends were just not physically close. But inside her head, she could hear and see them as clearly as possible.

'Don't give up, Juvia!' Lucy said with a determinate look on her eyes.

'Get fired up! We are going to get you!' Natsu said and the blue haired girl could see his toothy grin.

'Ju-chan! We are doing our best to find you.' It was Levy's turn to talk.

'We are going to kick ass so you can come back to us!' Cana said, winking at Juvia.

'We are going to bring you home, Juvia.' Mirajane's sweet voice echoed through her mind.

'We'll never give up.' Erza said, her armor shining.

'As a man, I will help bring you back!' Elfman yelled and growled like the man he was, and Juvia giggled.

'Just hang on, Juvia. We will come." Lisanna said with a soft smile.

'I won't allow any other child of mine to get hurt.' Makarov told her.

'Why did you get captured, baka? Now I have to go get you and kick your ass for being stupid!' Gajeel groaned in annoyance.

'I will get you back, Juvia. I promise.' Her Gray-sama said, a sweet look on his eyes, a look that he had offered her a few times but never ceased to make her heart to cartwheel inside her chest.

Whatever the Boss was doing, Juvia blocked it out. She was thinking about her friends and now that they knew she was in danger, she could hope to get rescued. She would always hope, because, as her mind was telling her: they wouldn't give up. And neither was she.

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AN: So… what do you think he gave her? :O And Juvia is so strong. T_T When will I stop making her suffer? Bad Bonney. Baaaaad Bonney. :'(

Thanks to: Darkhope, claraa, Esthellar (BTW, essa fic não foi baseada em Salve Jorge. E sim, eu vi seu post sobre o assunto. LOL), Medaka-chan, kimberlouxxx, animegirl115, Essence97, otaku03, Professor Nebilim, heavenlyyui, BrigitteoO, WednesdaySnow, Sarapyon, CoolCat19698, Gray23Dragon, YamixTeaLover, Yukistar, Chibi Waru-Chan, xHika, mimi317, Seyrinand superduperizee, who reviewed! You are awesome!

05/13/2013 ~ BonneyQ