This chapter turned out a lot longer than intended, and didn't get through as much as originally thought. Sorry about that, but I promise in the next chapter, we will get back to Fairy Tail characters and their action.

As for now, it's just Juvia stuff. Also, don't expect her to be making any big moves right now, she is kind just going with the flow, living pretty depressed.

She should have known the escape from Fairy Tail had been too good to be true. People didn't just get to pick up and relocate so easily. There was no escape from a past life.

Back in another small empty room, she leaned against an ashen brick wall, staring at the purple mural across the way. It looked like an eel eating a wafer if one turned their head horizontal. The painting consisted of a crescent turned on it's backside, with two short conic horns angled downward, and in the middle of it's jaw a simple tiny dot. From its central back sprouted a tail that made one sweeping curl over itself. The picture was large, covering the entire wall's face in thick, rich violet paint. Although, it didn't sparkle as Fairy Tail's painted exterior had.

It was symbol, the crest that Sol, Totomaru and Aria had worn inked into their skin.

She had been seeing it ever since moving into the Oak city district, in graffiti, scratched onto the walls of buildings, sometimes when someone's shirt or outfit slipped and exposed too much skin, sometimes in plain sight. There had never really been any hope of avoiding the mark, a point made clear by how it now stared her down in that barren room. This was probably what her captors wanted.

And, yes, there was no denying the intimidation. Fairy Tail had just been the precursor. It was as if the ones she had been running from all along had finally caught up. She had wondered when this was going to happen. By now, surely it came long overdue.

Juvia sighed, scraping her fingers in small circles across the coarse brick, lost in confusion. She was bored, tired of standing around in this room. But, a strip of shredded cloth, something of her dress' hem, lay at her feet, a memento of what would come the moment company arrived.

What the hell was she thinking? Every second of isolation should have been taken with gratitude. She should have been scheming, there had to be something better to do in this prison.

She wasn't strong enough to do it though. Whatever it would take to break free, ha, she'd die laughing just imagining herself trying to get more than a couple of steps down the hall. She'd been blindfolded when they brought her in, so she didn't even know which way led out, what awaited in the rest of the building. There was stairs, three or four flights she figured, a couple of left hand turns, some noises that sounded like bathrooms. Where did that leave her? Not well off. Even if she did take the risk, there wouldn't be time to back track, not with a sure fire crowd swarming her.

Best just to wait, she told herself, enjoy every spare second you get. Still, she couldn't, and the minutes dragged on until Juvia was certain her fingers were digging a ditch into the brick. She didn't even have the courtesy of hallucinations to keep her distracted. Apparently, that fuel tank had been dried up back at Fairy Tail.

A click sprung into the silence. The door along the adjacent hallway squealed and slowly turned inward. She had been waiting so long, it almost seemed reasonable for her to be relieved to have a visitor. That's the only thing that made sense…

...since when had she made sense?

Never before, so definitely not starting now. The second the noise sounded, Juvia's fears alighted. She changed minds, ever the hypocrite, wishing once more for that solitude.

Yet, on the other side of the door stood a man, not the first to have invaded this private holding cell.

Hollow blue irises swung slowly to meet small beaded ones.

This guy had thick slant eyebrows, she noticed, and a gaudy Fu Manchu mustache. He seemed to like manicured hair, combining these features with the crimped charcoal ponytail atop his head. However, that was not important. The state of dress provided a better hint of his status. A fancy red neck scarf cinched together a loose fitting cream blouse, dark dress pants tucked into a pair of tall boots. Over it all, he wore a cape like trench coat, the same color of the mural on the wall behind. Juvia had always thought she dressed old fashioned, but this guy outshot her by centuries.

He looked like some sort of conquistador the Spaniards had sent into the future, especially with his burnt skin. Maybe he'd been transported by some of those extraterrestrial friends of the Nazca. It was unfortunate that she did not quite believe in aliens, otherwise her mind might have taken off on that tangent.

"Evening dear. Hopefully you've been accommodated." He hummed like a maître d, strolling, with elegance, inside.

Juvia glanced around perplexed, just to make sure the cell hadn't been some sort of five star luxury suite. Of course it wasn't, but where did this man find a reason to exude such charisma. It didn't fit.

Welcomed inarguably went under the list of non-applicable words. Since being shoved into a car blindfolded, dumped into this barren room, mercilessly...interrogated..by two men, then left waiting for what felt like hours, she hadn't seen the least sense of courtesy. Not that she expected as such. In fact, the events thus far followed more along her line of thought for what an interrogation should be like, compared to what Cana had done.

Not that Fairy Tail hadn't shattered her; but then, it had mostly been the darn hallucinations and her own mental problems that did the work. Here, the Phantom Lord men more so sought to use physical methods.

"I've heard you're resisting, certainly there must be a mistake in our intentions." He circled, cape swirling behind him, and crossed his arms over his puffy chest. "We've only done what we must to protect our own family, which I'd expect you'd understand. Let me introduce myself, I am Jose Porla, head of the district."

He was tall, very tall, enough to have to look almost straight down to meet her stoic gaze. Shadows stretched over the indents of his deep dimples and eyes, and tight curled wrinkles pulled on the skin.

No wonder the gang had been named Phantom Lord, from certain angles Porla appeared much so like a dark specter. He could be a child's nightmare, that ugly sneering monster in the closest.

She was scared, unable to hide that aspect, and the bruises from earlier throbbed heatedly under her skin. Yet, there had come a point in those earlier sessions where pain didn't matter. She couldn't explain the sensation; it just didn't linger. Perhaps the heightened nerves had once more shorted out; having stood at their thresholds too long. Here stood the very man who led everything, all the crime and lives in the area, and whom held her life string in the velvet pocket of his coat, and Juvia couldn't react.

Not that she didn't know how…ah, she had ideas, several both wonderful and appalling.

She could try to appeal to him. She did have history with some of his men, not just her roommates, just one man, but well, that had to count for something right? Plus, she'd practically worked for him already. So, maybe if she acted more…ugh, womanly, as Cana had on some lines suggested… she could gain some favors. A lot of women did so, Juvia had all the ideas of what to say, how to move and….

Again, what the hell was she thinking? Was she actually planning to seduce this creep?

She'd always been a terrible actress, unable to veil her true emotions. He'd see right through the act, and then she surely would be in for worse.

What was the other option? To snarl and fight? And what could come of that? She'd already gone over the dismal possibilities of escape.

Tired of waiting, Porla patted a hand onto her shoulder. The touch rippled with disgust across her body, bringing Juvia back to present. She jerked backward, back slamming into the brick wall.

"Juvia Lockser, I don't really need the introduction." He continued on in a haughty, and honeyed, voice, ignoring the obvious repulsion. "My men always kept a good eye on you. Good thing too."

She tilted her head. Something about that thought, struck her wrongly. If he meant the men in his district, she would have expected just as much. He was the head honcho, part of that would entail keeping notified of those who came and left from his territory. She almost tried to brush it off at that, then stopped herself from thinking so naively.

Acting foolish had gotten her into this situation; she had best start owning up to the truth of her actions. She had lived with some of his top men, had worked for them. There was no reason for her not to have been monitored.

Especially, since she had also never tried to join Phantom Lord.

"I wanted to offer you a position in our ranks, and now this whole thing has gone to shit. Three of my guys are dead, our files are missing, you were seen being escorted away by Fairy Tail. You see what I mean?" He sighed irritably, hand coming to rub his forehead, as if this were more of headache for him than anyone else. He still smiled at her.

And, she did recognize the trouble she was in. But it was absurd to think of it; had he any clue of what had happened on her first hostage situation, there might not have been the earlier hostile interrogations. What else were they to believe?

The day after everything he'd said, she'd been released, seemingly unharmed, from Magnolia, and then, as if subconsciously trying to make matters worse, gone not home, but straight to Aria's bookstore. She hadn't even bothered to wonder why no one had reacted to an unconscious girl left on a park bench.

They were waiting to see how she'd react.

Once more, she had proved remarkably talented at getting herself into a worse situation. Even, here she wasn't doing too well for herself.

The hand at Porla's temple dropped, and he dropped the haughty expression, for one of a little more apathy. It startled Juvia, and still she did not speak.

"I'd not like to let this one blip overshadow the last years or you're contributions. Perhaps, we may have a way to sort this out." From his coat, he pulled a piece of paper and pen, extending them forward. "We could start your initiation today, if it can be proven you truly lie on Phantom's side. I assume so, as my men have clearly been your family for the last years."

Her eyes flicked from his sympathetic expression to the paper in his hands. A slight tremble in her heart nearly made her flinch. Had she really been becoming a member of Phantom Lord all along?

"All that's required of this time is you write down or dictate whatever you know of our rivals. Names, locations, descriptions of what you saw. Anything, could be useful, you may not even realize something so mundane could be a great help to our war on them."

Juvia breathed deep, bringing her own arms against her chest. The paper was right there in her grasp, but to take it meant leaping over a barrier she had not intended to cross. Joining a syndicate. A thread of longing tugged at the thought of having a real sense of purpose, of protection, of belonging. That was what Sol, Totomaru, Aria had, right? And what she semi established living with them. There was no doubt, it felt good. However, a second honest cord of truth also snapped down on the heartwarming thoughts.

Gangs were dangerous. They got into conflicts and drew their people into harmful situations. She knew this, was experiencing this right as they spoke.

Porla's smile seemed to promise no more, but Juvia's gut squirmed in disbelief. Phantom Lord and Fairy Tail were always at war with each other, a river of bad blood existed between them. She'd just started to wade into it, not noticing then, but now, she did, just as the current began to speed up. Porla was stretching out the pen further, offering for her to go deeper. That was never her intention, she'd only wanted protection, not this.

Juvia retreated, and before she could think through her response, the excuse was spilling from her lips.

"There was a blindfold, and they kept quiet. Forgive Juvia, she can't tell you a thing about Fairy Tail." She'd thought if she said anything else he'd pressure her further, and who knew what would end up happening.

But this was a blatant lie: she couldn't meet his eyes, and her voice trembled in an awkward pitch. There was no way Porla hadn't caught it. As if to confirm, the paper retreated, the peace treaty gone.

"I was giving you the benefit of the doubt dear. Don't waste it." He hissed.

She thought again, commanded herself to act more logically, but it was the same as in her interview with Cana, nothing would be fixed even if she agreed. The only difference: she wasn't protecting anyone, especially not herself.

"There's nothing to tell."

Porla, lost his smile, the sweetness in his eyes turning sour, and the wrinkles deepening, becoming sinister. Truthfully, it looked as if his face had been more made for this look than the last.

"I was offering….." He began to hiss, but the sudden bang of the door broke off the oncoming threat. Another man, dark hair, with grease covered slacks and tattered t-shirt stood at the entry. He seemed to hesitate glancing between them, then must have decided the interruption was important enough.

"Sir, the, uh, new detective squad picked up Sue, and are scouring one of our bases."

The cops had never been active before, Juvia thought, and Porla must have agreed. It was probably more of an embarrassment than anything, but, that was enough to gain the boss' attention. With another swirl of his cape, he turned from her, back to his awaiting cohort. She thought she'd be left to stew a while longer.

"Did you imbeciles at least figure out which bases they found?"

The greasy man shook his head fearfully. Porla snarled, and, as if giving the simplest orders started to plan ahead.

"Start calling ahead to give out warnings, contact our agents in the force, I want to know where they fucked up. Also, this girl's done living around here, get someone to toss her off the docks." He gave Juvia one last glinting cruel smile, while she stood stiff as glass. "Sol told me you loved to swim, he thought this would be the most fitting end, should you fail to adapt. Think of this as my favor to you."

That was it; those were Porla's final parting words, and he had no idea how true they would turn out.

He left striding, violet cape billowing; the other man remained staring at her with a mixture of wonder and disgust. Rough grit tore into the cloth of her back; she'd fallen into the wall without realizing it. There wasn't much she felt at the moment, maybe hollow, not really, more so a mixture of both empty and full. Lifeless. That was a better word.

Had Sol really told Porla that? Had he really intended to kill her all along?

"You know," the other man began, and Juvia barely forced herself to lift her head. "I'm actually glad to be doing this, a lot of us are really. Sol, Aria, Toto., they kept saying you were too depressed to ever join, we thought it would be best to get rid of the burden. Porla insisted he could gain your loyalty, che, looks like we were all wrong, looks like you were working for someone else."

He stood waiting for her rebuttal. Not hurt or offended, simply and obviously annoyed.

Juvia almost nodded, melting down into a puddle of murk. It wasn't true, Sol, Aria, Totomaru, they hadn't been willing to betray her all along. The idea was ludicrous; they had taken her in, lived with her on a daily basis, acted so friendly. She was supposed to feel guilty for accidentally betraying them. Right?

The man up front took her by the forearm, shoved her forward. She stumbled, not thinking about where they were going. There was no bag this time, as they traveled down the hallway, probably because it didn't matter that she saw things anymore. Her lips would be silent forever soon enough.

They'd been waiting the last couple years for this, she thought, troubling over the fact that her so seemingly friends may have been playing a scam. If it was all some sort of test, there had to be some key question or task she had missed. Some instruction they hadn't given her, maybe some clue they hadn't been operating entirely under orders. Two years, at least that's how long she assumed the scrutiny had gone on for, was a long time to be waiting under a guise.

"Turn left…" The man suddenly barked, and she found herself in a lounge of sorts with a half dozen other men and two women, all looking just as rough and greasy.

Her escort began to speak again, cutting off suddenly. "…we're… hey! Harold, snake that ass over here. I've got a job for us."

Another man, somewhere in his fifties, narrow and squared with tight wrinkles, and cropped gray hair heaved up from a couch and strode over slowly. His squinted eyes turned from her to the escort, unchanging. The rest of the room watched, a steady sense of displease washing over them, neither caused nor unaffected by her presence. They were pacing or on lab tops, already looking tense when she had arrived.

Juvia hadn't seen any of these people before. However, they appeared to at least understand who she was, likely due in part to her roommates. Their pointed grimaces reminded her of the man's accusations, that he, her roommates, and many others hadn't trusted her for a long time. Some drop of disbelief dripped into the pool of the memories.

"Yeah what is it?" The squinting man, Harold, grudged.

"Any news on the Sue or the hide outs? Tell me we at least got our radio connection patched." There was a couple of grunts from others, though the conversation was private.

"Nothing, can't even contact our men in the station. Radio's not doing so well either, it's all static, like someone's jamming the signal. Can't think those turds in the police force would have brains for a stunt like this, 'cept, our people have seen them. Not long after, once the tear gas and arrests started, everyone began runnin' like hell."

Harold sounded tired, as if he had been one of the ones running.

He made no indication if this was a routine thing, or not. The police, even useless police, had to do some work to earn their pay, and as far as Juvia knew, they had enough influence over the press to keep these sorts of raids quiet to the general public. Also, she was beginning to doubt she would have heard such a thing from Sol, Totomaru or Aria; who usually kept closed mouth on their business.

She didn't birth the hope that the cops could get to her in time. No point, even if they did, she'd be accused just the same as the result. Unlike Cana, Juvia doubted the police depended solely on a tattoo to claim gang affiliation.

There was a short bit more of chatter between the men, moving onto Porla's decision concerning her. Harold, apparently was the help, and he, nor anyone else in the room, didn't look any less than content with the sentence. Drip, drip, drop, the poisonous rain of doubt was quickly dying her waters.

She and the two men left, going out to a large dark parking lot, and into a black sedan; they talked about the state of affairs, she pried through her growing uncertainty. So many people wanting her gone made the idea that her roommates had been working with ulterior motives seem less and less fake. There had to be something to indicate if they cared, of course there always existed clues.

She went back to their last moments.

They hadn't expressed concern for her when Gray entered the apartment; had they guessed she let him in on purpose? Well, she had, but not with his intention. It had happened so fast though, she couldn't tell what the reactions had been in the last few minutes.

Farther back, she remembered how defensive they kept about their business, whenever she asked. It didn't build any favorable argument.

The one piece of evidence she had were the memories of regular life in that apartment: watching television with Sol, listening to Totomaru gush or practice for this or that play or social event, cooking alongside Aria in the kitchen or visiting his bookstore. It seemed too good to be fake. There was no way in the world, they'd completely hated her.

It didn't mean they wanted her though. The man in the front seat said her roommates called her depressive. If so, again, she couldn't deny, and in fact, had to hardheartedly agree. And, not many people enjoyed being around depressive others. She had certainly felt pushed off to the side or ridiculed for her emotional instability. Unfortunately, all it had ever done to do was make the problem worse.

"Damn Wise.." Harold suddenly strained, catching Juvia's attention. "You should'a seen it..no, I mean really seen them, storming the place and throwin' those little metal cans of gas around. God, even I can't believe it and, I watched them for what must have been ten minutes. I was lucky to know about the hole in the wall, back exit, you know what I mean?"

She listened half interested, watching the scenes outside the car. Of course, none of this mattered much toward her situation, but when someone spoke so emotionally, and when all else was silent, you couldn't help but be drawn in a bit.

They were making a regular pace through old blocks, which she knew led to the harbor on the western edge of the city. The car was moving slow enough she could have contemplated jumping out. She didn't; just so tired, so exhausted. Anyways, it was deserted outside, had to be sometime in the middle of the night. These men would just double back in the car, or she'd wander around in the dark until the next group took their turn with her.

"Uh, huh…I got it." The dark haired greasy man replied.

"No! Seriously, you can't unless you were there and saw it. Shoot, they were acting funny tonight, really odd. Normally, when our cops try storming even one of us, they all come in runnin' circles like chickens that were freshly beheaded; these guys were like army ants, freakin' army ants. They had lines! Lines! And man, no one was prepared for that shit."

"What, you mean these weren't our cops?" Wise asked tersely. Harold shook his head.

"Nah, I definitely recognized a few. They must have gotten trained or kicked in the ass a little. Can't say I see them moving like that normally."

She zoned out then, which lasted for the next ten minutes of the car ride. Reality only came back when the car began to jerk to rhythmic thud, as pavement turned to weathered wooden planks. She'd barely noticed the time past, but could remember the steady change of rundown townhouses to even rattier warehouses.

The docks were an intricate system, almost a maze of right angled turns, which could have parked up to fifty boats, not including the separate piers meant for the large cargo ships.

It was city project funded by the mayor years ago, in attempt to increase port usage and bring money into the district. However, the mayor had seemed to forget about the harbor's narrow entrance, made so by the large jetty that ran straight across its front. The jetty couldn't simply be shortened, or else the worst ocean storms would be capable of devastating the fleets seeking shelter inside. Some crafty and enduring engineer could probably widen one of the side banks and figure out a solution. But, the mayor, already running short of funds then, couldn't afford any of the such. Besides, the Magnolia district had a perfectly accommodating harbor that made the mayors' case near obsolete with the city council.

The car kept going, farther and farther, the paced slowed to a near crawl. Street lamps lined the edges of the docks, half of them burned out. She was too far from the dock's edge to see the water below, and farther out was only pitch black in the clouded night, with the occasional blink of buoy or boat light, beyond, the lights of the city as the shore curved around.

That darkness that rested between the city and current location, that was where she was heading. It would swallow her, like a black hole, without notice.

Juvia's hand automatically gripped the door handle; her stomach dropped. The men up front had gone silent. Jump. It was her last chance, if such a chance even existed any longer. She had to get out now, run for it before the fools realized they'd left her alone in the backseat with a perfectly unlockable door.

Though her hand tightened it didn't pull.

There wasn't really anywhere to go even if she did escape before the two goons caught her.

Life hadn't given her much the first or second times, and she expected it to suddenly get better on the third try? Hah, she would have laughed if not so freaking scared. She didn't like the choice she was making, but really, was there any other option for someone like her? What purpose did she have in a world where no one cared for her existence? It seemed it had taken her twenty two years, and the recent events to finally make a decision on this. Far too long.

And so she stayed, frozen in the seat, as the car finally began to slow. It was another forever before it halted.

Next chapter will be coming soon! (Hopefully, unless I jinx myself here).