Numb.
That's how she felt.
This was not a foreign emotion for her. Rather it was a feeling she knew too well. You do not survive years of fears and loneliness if you do not become a bit detached, at least.
Sometimes she felt like she was seeing her body move, fight, living, while she was just hanging above there, waiting for something to happen and start her life.
This was exactly what happened when she met Gray. She saw how life was out of her anesthetic world, out of her constant rain that made every odor smell the same, every landscape seems the same, every person just a faceless stranger.
When she met Gray she saw the sun, she saw colors, she saw kindness and she made bonds. Everything was new and exciting. She had a home. She felt accepted., exalted, happy.
She felt alive.
But then he left her and everything went black again.
With an exception, when you had seen the colors you cannot stand their loss. She tried to fight the coldness hand of the depression that was knocking at her heart but it was too noisy when she was alone. And she was left alone.
Juvia felt a painful burning in her stomach.
She cried in pain not knowing where she was and what was happening. She could only feel pain.
"I told you not to hurt her, idiot!" someone said
"I did not, I swear, I just gave her a little shock so she'd return to her normal body"
"Maybe you used too much electricity!"
"I did not!"
"So why is she curling like this?"
"I don't know, could she be sick? Maybe something about you women being delicate as flowers"
"Oh just disappear from my sight, idiot or this flower will kick your ass!"
Juvia tried to focus. When the pain passed she felt strangely comfortable. She tried to move her hands but she felt something metallic prevent her movements.
"Anti-magic handcuffs!" a male voice said, obviously smirking
"Sorry about that but I need to keep you in your body!" another, female voice said
"A masterpiece of a body if I can say, such a pure vision"
Juvia forced her eyes to open. She saw a snow-haired young guy, something in his face was strangely familiar. He had a pair of glasses and by the way, he was sitting, stiff and polite he kinda remind her of a Prince, oddly similar to...
"My lady, you should stop staring at me like that or I'll take you straight to the first church. Do you believe in love at first sight? My sweet lady, I'd like to introduce myself, my same is Invel "
LYON. That's who this guy resembled.
"Excuse this idiot," the green haired girl said.
She too was oddly familiar but in a very different way. Like she knew her from another life.
"Let me go," Juvia said
The girl seemed in an inner struggle with herself "Sorry! I can't! I need you to stay there for now!"
"My lady I would do everything for you" the boy said taking one of Juvia's hands in his "but we can't allow you to run away, furthermore Zeref is already in a mood and if he sees guests around..."
Juvia went pale at the mention of that name. Zeref. Had she been really this stupid to get caught this easily?"
"You know," the glassed guy said "he goes like YAY Guests! Let's have a party! to GUESTS?how dare you intrude my property I'll annihilate all of you! He is a bit of a lunatic you know?"
Juvia was not listening anymore
Zeref.
That name brought at her mind his dark eyes. The way they were unfocused and cold when he saw him straight before her on Tenrou. The easily way he could have killed her that day.
She remembered that moment so clearly, all she could think about was "Please I want to see Gray sama again"
This last thought made her feel sick
Another burning pain in her stomach and the world all around started to tremble.
"What have you done to me?" she managed to ask coughing.
The rage was so thick he wasn't even able to think clearly, he needed to focus but Juvia seemed to be always the exception for his cool demeanor, he needed to stay lucid, to stay calm, but he could already sense the anger trying to spread from the bottom of his soul to his surface, covering his body with black marks that consumed his judgments.
When he was like this he could only fight, no reason, no plans, just vengeance's thirst and fighting instinct.
Silent and dangerous like a shadow he moved from corner to corner in the big building.
It was almost amusing the lack of guards in this castle. Probably Zeref had already sensed his presence but he didn't care at all. He just needed to find her and if this meant to face the devil himself he was ready to cover the hell in his ice.
He had left his friends outside trusting them with the task of finding a strategy but he couldn't wait one second more.
He saw a guard, leaving his position and going up a stairs ramp. He surprised the man behind a recess of the wall putting one hand on his mouth and his arm around his neck. The right amount of pressure, just a little bit more, would break easily his bones. The guard probably sensed this intention in his eyes and decided against moving.
"Scream and I kill you," Gray said growling
The guard just nodded "Please I have a family"
Gray looked at the man, he seemed a good guy, few years older than him, probably not even a mage but he had no time to wonder why Zeref, the black mage, had this kind of good people to work for him
"Where do you take the prisoners?"
"Prisoners? We never make prisoners!" the guard said
Ok, maybe Gray had misjudged this man and he was a freak like his king. He tightens his grasp around his neck. "What do you mean? Did You kill them? If something had happened to her I swear.."
"No" he coughs "We never make prisoners! We are pacific, our Brandish sama has a guest in her rooms, not a prisoner!Our Lord despise war!"
Now this was the joke of the century. If Gray wasn't this focus on his mission he would have probably laughed
"Do you even know WHO is your emperor?"
"kind men" he said earnestly
"No, he's a fucking psycho!"
The man's eyes widen, he truly knew nothing and Gray just tossed him on the floor punching him senseless. This was the most stupid man alive or Zeref really was the king of disguise.
Juvia returned to her sense again with a bandage on her head and a blanket on her feet.
"I'm sorry I didn't know if you were feeling hot or cold so I.." the green haired girl said mixing the sugar in a cup of tea
"I... Juvia feels.. strange"
"Juvia? You still spoke in this funny way?"
It was strange but Juvia was sure there were tears gathering at the corners of this Brandish girl's eyes.
She said nothing and turned her head, shaking it a bit before facing Juvia again and offering her the fuming cup.
"Juvia... I won't drink anything that comes from you! I have already been poisoned recently so thank you but, No thank you!"
"You did? What kind of poison?"
Juvia looked at Brandish. She seemed really concerned.
"Altromondo" She simply said not even knowing why she was trusting her enemy with this kind of information
"Oh my God! That's why you are feeling this painful" Brandish said running to her bookcase, looking for something
"No, Juvia was fine until now! Juvia thinks you gave her something!"
"No, you were not! Read this" Brandish said giving Juvia an open book
"Altromondo" she read "is a potion that appears in a bright shade of green and has effects if come in contact with blood so it is usually used to impregnate weapons."
"Yes, thank you I noticed this part and it hurt!" Juvia said rolling her eyes
"Keep reading!" Brandish ordered
"This potion is able to open a little shift in time and space that brings the target to absorb the behavior of his counterpart of a world where he is deprived of his major source of strength, making him weak"
"This is stupid!" Juvia said, " I am still me, I have my magic, how can I be weaker with my magic intact?"
"Maybe it was not magic your main source of power! However there is more written here"
Juvia looked at Brandish not liking the direction this discussion was taking " Yeah: as side effect the poisoned subject will repulse the source of his powers because the potion will provide a negative reinforcement about the perception the subject has his source of power, bringing bad memories and making the subject focused on a moment of his life where it was particularly unfavorable but if the subject will take contact again with his main source of power, he will experience high pain, confusion and if the contact persists death!"
"Fuck!" was everything Juvia said " This does not make sense! I have my powers, I am strong, I just have lost... my feelings for... AAAH!" the scream Juvia made was powerful and scary. She felt her legs shaking, too weak to sustain her weight, a cold shiver ran across her back and her vision went black. She could only feel the pulse of her veins in her head and it was like every one of them was trying to burn and corrode her from the inside.
"Hey Juvia are you ok?" Brandish said preventing her from falling " what's happening?"
"This does not make sense," Juvia said breathing hard with her heart pumping forcefully in her chest.
"I know that potion and it always works!
Brandish bowed her head surprised and smiled: "Lord Zeref you here?"
"Zeref? NO!"Juvia screamed scared. She was too weak at the moment and she felt as her body was not responding to her will, there was no way she could be able to face Zeref and have a chance to survive him in this way. She was doomed.
Gray felt his body reacting to the sound of her voice, a scream so scared, so terrified. He knew his Juvia, she was a fighter, nothing would scare her to this extent so whatever it was he must run to her.
He didn't know where to go, he just followed his instinct and luckily his mind and the dark beast he had inside were both on the same task, find whatever was hurting Juvia and crush it until nothing was left as a trace of its existence.
Gray turned left, right, right again, running fast, just following the path that was making him go meeting his deepest fear. Loosing her. Being late. See her dying. He could feel his own breath go heavier, his legs no more on his control, vengeance and fear just leading his movements and he was letting them.
He heard a second scream, Juvia's voice again. She was alive, he had to find her. He saw a man standing at the entrance of a door, a dark coat, black hair and the most powerful aura of magic he had ever sensed. He didn't care if he was running just to the end of his life if he would be consumed in darkness, but Juvia was there, he had to go. He knew just this.
He let his ice gleam in his hands, ready to shoot and he did, putting all his strength in his stroke but it never arrived at the target he had aimed for. His ice crashed against a shiny figure, it was as it was made of the ice itself then he heard a small laugh and a smirk appeared in front of him, ice morphing fast into a man.
The man in front of him used his finger to clean a small rivulet of blood coming from his mouth.
"I expected nothing less from you, Gray Fullbuster!" he said smirking
"Let me pass" Gray said growling low in his throat
"Let me introduce myself, my name is Invel" he said bowing
"I don't fucking care, you are just in my way!" Gray said shooting him again. This time, Invel dodged all his shots, easily letting them crash against an ice wall at his back.
"Sorry boy, I took the first one just to test your strength and I have to say I am not eager to take others, you should be proud of yourself"
"Let. me. Pass." Gray simply said feeling his blood boil. He saw Zeref turning and looking right at him, a disgusted expression on his face that didn't match his eyes.
Gray saw him enter the room and closing the door. In a mirror, he saw a glimpse of blue hair and he knew who it belonged.
"NOO" he screamed frustrated, shooting all he got but every shot was absorbed by a thin film of ice that divided the hallway.
He looked at the enemy in front of him. He just seemed pleased with himself and his creation.
"I'm very proud of my ice you know, it is so pure you don't even know where it is until you bump your nose into it"
Juvia was kept in a room with Zeref and only God know what that freaking bastard could do to her. He had to go. He had to get rid of this ice mage and his fucking wall fast.
"Usually, this potion just opens a portal to Edolas, and for mages, it brings here a version of the target that behaves as in that world, where, among other changes, magic doesn't exist.
Obviously, this is an illusion because nothing has changed in the mage's body here, but his mind thinks that he isn't able to use magic, as his counterpart, and so he couldn't. This is reinforced by the fact that just the thought of using magic scares him because of bad memories where magic hurt him and truth be told if he surpasses his fears and understand the illusion and uses magic again, he dies.
Twisted right? But it your case it's not magic that brings you strength" said the dark mage in a painfully calm and low voice
Zeref closed the door. He couldn't stand the face of that Fairy Tail mage. The face of someone that fears to lose someone he loves.
Love is horrible.
You could live a thousands of years and the worse thing you can face is love. It brings hope, it brings life and life are awful.
He looked at the girl in front of him, she looked like a fairy with her little doll face and her blue hair cascading in waves.
He couldn't stand her view either. He hated beautiful fairies.
"Your main source of power is not your magic and I think you understood at this point what it is"
Juvia nodded weakly
" Unluckily for the potion your power comes from love and Love unlike magic exists in every dimension, we are doomed to love the same person in every life and in every place, there are no universes where you don't love him, what it changes, in this case, it's not the space but the time. Humans can meet love sooner or later in their life, or they could spend their life time searching without finding it."
"That's sad," Brandish said
"That's wicked and perverse, as life is"
"No," Juvia said, trying to disagree but Brandish put a hand on her mouth going closer to her ear "if you want you and your boy to live, leave Zeref with his believes for now" she whispered.
Juvia did not understand why but she trusted Brandish again.
"However" Zeref kept explaining "in your case Altromondo brought the version of yourself that still hasn't realized her feelings. You are living now as the person you'd be if you denied your feelings for him!"
"and being her source of power if she loves him again she will..." Brandish said taking the book from Juvia's hands
"When were you poisoned?" Zeref asked
"a week ago" Juvia answered fast, feeling huge the authority that boy emitted.
"your feelings for the guy must be strong if in a week you are already falling again for him, surpassing your fears and bad memories"
"I'm not. I mean I don't.. he is just an idiot. I have no feelings at all.." Juvia said feeling her cheeks grew warmer. This Zeref guy seemed more annoying that scary in this moment.
"Do you feel pain when you think about that guy?" Zeref asked coldly looking at Juvia as he was examining a sample.
"Yes" she breathed
"Stop pretending then, the pain will only go worse until you die!"
"What can we do? Is there an antidote Master Zeref?" Brandish said
"There are two ways but my advice is to take the easiest one: kill him, Kill Gray Fullbuster"
