Author's Note: I've really been trying to keep it together lately, and your comments have honestly been some of the only things that have helped, so thank you for that. Not sure what I'll do when this is over... I don't have anything else ready to post!

Betrayal. She should know by now that honour is not good business. Her father taught her that one.

She lies curled up on her bed, quiet and defeated. Because that's what this is. A defeat. A definitive one. This isn't some silly fairy tale where she's the princess, he's the knight, and he saves her when she's in a rough spot.

He has come for her and failed. It makes her wonder why more fairy tales don't tell that story, where the princess ends up a slave to the ones that kidnapped her. The ending probably isn't very nice. But it's the most realistic one.

Her knight… He tried his best, but who can fight back against an army? She certainly tried. They all did.

And now...she is back where she started. In a cell.

Branded by HawkofNavarre

Chapter 18

Betrayal

"Natsu…?"

He was dragging his feet forward when Happy finally awoke from his slumber. After Gajeel had left, Natsu had gotten down to work digging his friend out from under the rubble. The cat was out cold, but completely fine otherwise. In fact, out of everyone who had been involved in the crash as a result of Yukino's rather reckless magic use, he was probably the one who'd come out in the best shape.

After that, Natsu had placed Happy on his non-injured shoulder and gone lumbering after the massive mobile building that seemed to be Phantom Lord's guild headquarters. He didn't have any sort of confidence that he would catch up with them, but he had to try. There was no doubt they'd have caught up with Yukino and Lucy by now, and he had to help them. He'd burn down their entire building if he had to.

"What happened?" Happy asked as he groggily wiped his eyes. "Did you beat Gajeel?"

He gritted his teeth. "I would've, but there was interference."

Just the thought of the whole thing got the fire in his veins roaring again. He could have beat Gajeel. Would that have meant anything? Probably not, especially with the way Phantom Lord seemed to always have the upper hand. Natsu's own rash way of doing things hadn't worked, so he went with the slower, more rational way the rest of the guild had convinced him to go, and somehow they were still on the losing end of all this. If both methods weren't working, how could they possibly win? How could they save Lucy?

"Where are we going?" Happy asked, now fully awake. "I can fly."

Natsu opened his mouth to answer, but before he could, there was rumbling beneath his feet. He glanced around, wondering if that huge, spidery guild building was back (he would quite literally be glad to fight every single member of Phantom Lord, even if it killed him-which they probably would), but instead ended up relaxing when he set his eyes on the towering form of his own guild master. Makarov was crossing great distances with only a few strides, the rest of Fairy Tail who had come on this mission in the palm of his hand.

He nudged his cat friend into action, who quickly got Makarov's attention. It was only a couple minutes later that he was riding on the Master's hands with his comrades.

"Sending Lucy off with Yukino was the right thing to do, but there's no way the two of them could have escaped if that huge walking building found them," Erza said, her armour a little scuffed, but looking no worse for wear in general.

"I am not letting them win," Laxus said as he paced back and forth. "I'll tear every single one of them apart with my bare hands if I have to."

"Spirits, you're so dramatic," Cana groaned, taking a sip from her bottle. "You don't think Master already has a plan? This guild is full of hot heads like you, but he isn't one of them. Only an idiot would think he's just gonna go storming up to that building and start wrestling with it. Actually, I could see that happening, but still. He knows what to do or he wouldn't have taken all of us to go after them."

This was a small comfort to Natsu as he sat, letting Max bandage his wounds. His eyes wandered over to Gray who had been oddly quiet since the last time they had seen each other.

"You fought them?" Natsu asked.

"I fought her," he replied, not looking too delighted by that. "And I won. And look where we still ended up."

Natsu gave him a once over. Between them, Natsu probably still looked worse, but Gray could definitely give him a run for his money. The guy seemed as frustrated about their lack of progress as Natsu was and he felt a little bad about how much Gray had gone through in order to give them this chance. He hadn't seen Gray like this before. Juvia had really had an effect on him.

"There has to be a way to beat them," Natsu said as his hand curled into a fist.

Max tied up the bandage he was working with around Natsu's shoulder. "Well, we have Erza and Laxus, so I don't think we'll have an issue when it comes to power. It's the numbers everyone's worried about," he said, sitting back. "We don't have every single guild member with us, and even before that, we have to catch up to them. We're lucky we have Master to do this for us, but even he can't keep this transformation up forever. That building moves pretty fast. It could be out of our range in a few more minutes if we don't bring it down somehow."

"And bring it down we will," Makarov boomed suddenly, surprising all of them. "I will make certain of that myself, but I'll be counting on the rest of you to make sure this mission ends in success."

"Of course, Master," Erza replied. Beside her, Laxus was rolling his eyes.

"What does he have up his sleeve that could take down that whole building?" Gray asked.

"It doesn't matter," Natsu said as he worked his arm around, wincing as the tissue in his shoulder protested the movement. He would not be in peak condition for this at all, but like hell was he going to be left out of it when he was this close to fulfilling his word to Lucy. "If the old man can do what he says he's going to do, I'll be there to close up shop."

"I could wager a guess on what his plan is," Erza commented as she looked on into the distance.

Gray was starting to look impatient. "So? Tell us."

"It's risky, but if it works, I doubt Phantom Lord will be a problem for us much longer," she said. "If it doesn't work...then we'll be at a disadvantage. Even for Master, the spell he plans to cast is probably going to use whatever magic he has left."

Natsu's eyes widened. "You mean…"

Erza nodded. "Right. I've never seen it cast before either."

"I want to get Yukino and Lucy out of there too, but isn't that kind of extreme?" Gray asked skeptically. There was an underlying anxiety that was unspoken in his words when Juvia was one of the people thrown into the mix.

Laxus snorted. "Extreme? These people almost killed three of our own and now they probably have Yukino. For once, the old man and I are on the same wavelength. He's pissed, and we're done messing around. Once we catch up to them, their lives are forfeit."

What could she do?

Some people might say that she had let Lucy get to her, and they would be right, but only because there was merit to what she'd said. If they'd made a mistake, then she had to fix it. The problem was… fixing it meant going against her entire guild, and when this was the only place that had ever accepted her for the perpetual gloominess that followed her, it made the decision to do what was right much more difficult.

Juvia shook her head. It would be foolish to let the words of two people sway her so easily, especially after one of them had been playing her for so long. Although she didn't hold any sort of grudge, it was a tough argument to let herself trust Gray again. This… This was silly. Morals weren't her issue. That was why Gajeel did so well in the guild. He did what was best for all of them by following Jose's orders. Maybe it was better if she took on that same type of mentality.

Sighing, she glanced out the window where she was standing in the hallway. Something on the horizon caught her eye. Juvia squinted, trying to identify it.

Her eyes widened a moment later. That was... a man!

At first he looked tiny, but as her brain started processing his image from this distance, she realized he was probably huge. There wasn't even a question as to who that was or why they were here; this was Fairy Tail—their Master, judging by his appearance at the docks—and they were coming to retrieve their own. It was in this moment that Juvia knew what she had to do.

An alarm sounded, the one that never went off telling them to get ready for an all-out guild war. Juvia rushed down the hallways towards the dungeon until she saw Gajeel stubbornly heading to his station even with all his injuries. She grabbed his wrist as he passed by her.

"What are you doing?" Gajeel demanded.

Juvia's grip only grew tighter. "This isn't right, Gajeel-kun. We shouldn't be doing this."

"What? Following orders?"

"Forcing a girl to go to a place she ran away from."

Gajeel looked at her like she was crazy. "She's seventeen! You don't think her own father knows better?"

"That's barely younger than you and me," she retorted. "Fairy Tail is coming, Gajeel-kun. We don't have to fight with them."

"That fucking guy really got to you," he growled, pulling his arm out of her grasp. "You're asking me to go directly against Master's orders."

"Haven't you ever thought about more than what's right for the guild?" Juvia asked heatedly, truly upset by his blindness now. "What you do for our guild does not make you a good person, Gajeel-kun, and Juvia isn't going to make excuses for you anymore. Hurting people in the name of Phantom Lord is still hurting people. Even if you do it for the guild, it doesn't change whether it's right or wrong."

He stared at her, stunned, obviously not at all prepared to have been called out. He was clearly searching for words and failing to find any.

"Gajeel-kun can still be on the right side of this. Just please help Juvia," she said, pleading with her dark eyes. "Make things right with Fairy Tail. They have never instigated anything with us. We don't need to fight a war against them."

Instead of saying anything, he simply nodded. Juvia offered him a grateful smile in return. Out of everyone, he was really the only one she would call a friend in the guild, and right now, she needed him on her side. If the looming giant figure of Fairy Tail chasing after them wasn't a sign of something bad to come, she didn't know what was.

"Come on. We must free Lucy-san and the girl from Fairy Tail." Juvia waved him in the direction of the holding cells and he followed after her. If he was feeling at all apprehensive about this decision, he certainly wasn't showing it.

When they arrived, however, Boze and Sue were still there doing exactly what they were supposed to be doing, and this somehow seemed to aggravate Gajeel immensely.

"Juvia? Gajeel? What are you two doing here? This is our post," Sue asked.

Juvia was about to make some excuse when Gajeel stepped in rather impatiently.

"Master sent us to replace you because you suck at this," he growled coldly. "Now get out of my sight."

Both of them were sufficiently terrified by Gajeel's grumpy attitude and didn't ask any further questions before they scurried off. He pushed into the room looking somehow irritated by their actions, which really hadn't been much of anything. Juvia followed after him, a little unsurprised he was being like this. She knew he had to be incredibly uncomfortable right now.

As soon as they got inside, Juvia grabbed the keys to the cells and tossed them to Gajeel, who began to grudgingly work on freeing Yukino. Yukino didn't seem all that pleased with this development either.

"This doesn't seem quite fitting for you," she commented suspiciously.

"This is the help you're getting," Gajeel growled. "Take it or leave it, kid."

The door opened and Yukino stepped out, glaring at him. "Don't call me a kid."

Despite their tense interaction, Gajeel immediately got to work on Lucy's cell while Juvia searched around the small desk near the door. Opening the drawer, she spotted Yukino's Celestial keys and grabbed them.

Lucy stepped out of her own cell, taking a moment to glance carefully at Gajeel. After an indecipherable few seconds between the two, she turned her attention to Juvia.

"Thank you," Lucy said.

Juvia nodded, not trusting herself to say anything more. To some degree, she felt responsible for allowing Lucy to end up in this situation. She would've been anywhere she wanted right now if it weren't for her ex-boyfriend, who she could have stopped if she'd known all of this was going on. The lone thought that she had been involved with someone who could do something so despicable made her feel ill.

"Fairy Tail is coming," Juvia said as she turned to Yukino, focusing on the task at hand, "and while that may be a good thing for both of you, this battle is going to be out of control and everyone is at risk of getting caught in the crossfire. We must approach your guild before they arrive."

Yukino watched her carefully, reading between the lines. "Why the rush?"

Juvia gestured to the narrow slit in the wall of the building which Yukino proceeded to look through. She turned back, looking a little stunned.

"Oh."

"Yes. We must stop this before it gets out of hand," Juvia replied. She headed for the door with Yukino and Lucy behind her. Lucy was clearly confused, but she didn't ask any questions as she followed. "I will guide us out. Gajeel-kun, keep watch behind us."

Juvia peeked out from the holding area, seeing the last few stragglers of their guild head to their posts. A moment later, the hallway was silent and they were clear to move. She signaled for them to follow her as she moved out of the dungeon and stealthily down the hall.

"How will we get out of this place?" Lucy asked, using her voice for the first time in a while. "If I remember correctly, this building is pretty high above the ground."

Juvia led them around a corner and down a pathway into the Phantom Lord gym area for sparring. "We have to get to the cargo area. That's where the lift to get us down is."

It was a lot easier said than done. The sparring area was empty, but the entrance to the cargo area was swarming with members. Juvia thought about her own post, much higher up on the building with the rest of the Element 4, being showcased as one of their S-class mages. Gajeel had a spot up there too, and it was undoubtedly where he'd been heading before she caught him. Down here were the grunts that were still working their way up the guild ranks. Between herself and Gajeel, they could probably neutralize everyone down here. Well, with difficulty considering their recent injuries, but they could probably do it. Still, she didn't want anyone else to get hurt that didn't have to. Regardless of her intentions, it was true that she felt this was the best way to protect her guild.

"We can't just go running out there with these two," Gajeel said as he looked through the exit door. "You get them out. I'll cause a distraction and then catch up."

"Are you sure?" Juvia asked, feeling hesitant about separating at all.

He nodded before running off without another word, leaving Juvia with no choice but to find somewhere to hide. If she were alone, it would have been no issue at all, but with both Yukino and Lucy, it was going to be a challenge to find a place they wouldn't stick out in an open gym. Her head was on a swivel as she grabbed Lucy's hand.

"Here, this way." She pulled Lucy over to the cubbies with Yukino following after them. There was hardly anything around that could conceal their presence, but she figured if they could flatten themselves against the wall enough, nobody would notice them as they went past.

She squashed herself as much as she could against the shelves and the wall, pulling her skirt tight around her legs so it wouldn't stick out. Lucy was next to her, her shorts and shirt much easier to manage in this situation, but the girl was just as chesty as Juvia was, and even with Lucy folding her arms over her chest, it wasn't actually making her smaller in any way. Yukino, who was still young and tiny, had no issue crammed up beside Lucy.

Gajeel made good on his word. Only a moment passed when a huge crash came from the hallway where they'd come from.

"The prisoners have escaped!" she heard him yell. "Get over here and find them. They couldn't have gotten far!"

Just as expected, everyone in the cargo hold ran straight towards Gajeel's voice and fortunately for them, nobody looked back. As soon as what seemed to be the last person trickled through the door, Juvia crept forward and peeked into the room. Finally, things were going her way! The cargo hold was empty, so she gestured for Yukino and Lucy to come with her.

She pointed at the circular shape cut into the rear of the room. "The platform is over there. We just have to stand on it and hit the lever to get down, but we have to wait for Gajeel-kun to get back before we can go."

"I appreciate that he helped us, but it seems pointless to wait for him," Yukino pointed out. Her tone was more logical than the coldness it usually held when it came to Gajeel. "Your guild is too preoccupied with my Master to recognize that he's someone who helped us escape, so he'll be safe here."

For once, Juvia fixed the little girl with a stern look. She was smart, but she didn't understand the weight of what was unfolding right now. Without a doubt, Juvia and Gajeel had passed the point of no return when it came to being members of Phantom Lord. Jose would never forgive them for this, but she had chosen the path that she saw as having the least casualties and what was best for Lucy. If Gajeel didn't come with her, Fairy Tail didn't have any incentive to stop the crusade against her own guild. "We don't leave without Gajeel."

She ensured both females were on the platform before she moved closer to the door to make sure nobody else from the guild was coming. "You two stay there. Juvia will keep watch."

Yukino obviously did not approve of this plan, but stayed silent. Lucy was simply too resigned about everything that had happened to her up until this point to protest in any way. Their silence was satisfying, but watching them, Juvia remembered what she had procured in the prison. She pulled the set of keys out of her pocket and held them up to Yukino before tossing them to the young girl.

"Here," she said, turning partially back to the door. In any situation, it would generally be a bad idea to give a weapon back to people she didn't trust, but she knew just by the day's events that Yukino was exhausted magically and probably couldn't summon anything without help. Besides, she did sympathize with having to be separated from your primary magical medium.

Juvia heard the small gasp from Lucy as Yukino started to unhook the second keyring that was attached to her own. She didn't really understand what was going on, but for the first time, she acknowledged the possibility that Lucy could be a mage herself.

"I know how long you've been waiting for this," Yukino said, still fiddling with the rings.

Unfortunately, whatever Lucy had been waiting for would have to wait a little longer because just then, Gajeel came flying into the room. He blew right by Juvia and headed for the platform.

"I've sent them on a wild goose chase, but we don't have long," Gajeel said, urgently waving her over. "Get on here and hit the lever."

She didn't need to be told twice. Juvia hopped onto the platform with them and extended an arm of water to pull the lever. Juvia placed a hand on Yukino's shoulder to steady the younger girl as the platform lowered at a surprising speed.

"What are we planning on doing next?" Yukino asked as she looked back to where the giant Fairy Tail Master was striding towards them.

The platform reached just above the ground and Juvia hopped off with Yukino in tow, using her magic to slow their momentum as they touched down. Gajeel, with all his brute strength even injured, grabbed Lucy and steadied himself through sheer force of will and powerful legs. Juvia watched as the Phantom Lord building moved away from them going toward the Heartfilia estate.

"We'll wait for your guild to arrive and get their attention," Juvia replied.

"No, we won't."

Juvia glanced curiously at Gajeel who was still holding Lucy tightly against him, then edged into a combat stance when she saw the look on his face. Next to her, Yukino had also sensed the change in atmosphere.

Gajeel glared into her. He had changed his free arm into a blade, holding it up by Lucy's chin. "This is where we go our separate ways. I will deliver her to her father."

She trembled, knowing exactly what he was doing but wanting to hear it from his mouth. Of all the people to do this to her, she hadn't expected it from Gajeel. Then again, it was easy to see why he would do such a thing when she looked at what she had asked him to do in the first place. Maybe it was just too much.

"Gajeel-kun, why…?" she asked.

His eyes were hard. "I'm not blind to your plight, Juvia, but I knew this moment would come as soon as you decided to trust that Fairy Tail scumbag. You feel guilty. Fine. That doesn't mean you should betray your guild, and I can tell you for damn sure I'm not going to betray mine. I know you, and I wasn't going to be able to stop you from doing what you want, so I did my part to help you and now here we are," he said. "Before any of this shit happened, you were a good comrade. That's why I'm compromising. You take the little Fairy Tail brat and return her to the guild. I won't do anything else to her. I won't even tell Master what you've done, but that's it. I'm still going to finish this mission regardless of what you think is right."

Arguing with him would do her little good. Juvia was well aware of that. He wouldn't listen even if she told him his compromise wasn't good enough—not in regard to her, because she knew that Gajeel compromising at all was monumental—but because the very confrontation she was trying to avoid would happen anyway. They were dead set on helping Lucy, and even more so on avenging their injured guild members. If Juvia didn't show up with both Gajeel and Lucy, Fairy Tail wasn't going to stop.

"Gajeel-kun, this isn't going to end well," she told him carefully.

He met her gaze with steely eyes. "Maybe not, but my guild comes first."

And they went.