The dungeon guards were at least smart enough to have the only torch in the vicinity of Natsu's cell be one far beyond his line of sight at the entrance to the entire facility. The guards were not of any division but were devoted solely to Mercurius itself, as it attached to it as an entity. They were cloned copies of the Executioner Death Squad, put into anti-magic armor developed by the Emperor. The prison was designed for only the worst of the Empire's enemies, and there weren't many still alive in there.

It was meant to be a psychological nightmare. Oppressive darkness, food churned through hundreds of yards of tunnel muck and waste, and water that was even more disgusting. The only way to get out was fealty to the Empire or death. None could escape, not even a legend like Natsu Dragneel.

"Bring the torch," Yukino said as she arrived, alone, at the entrance to the hallowed dungeons. "I want to see where I'm going."

"You might feed him, General," the guard said.

"And then what? He'll have a light snack and I'll still have more than enough power to put him down if he gets any ideas," Yukino said. "Grab it. Let's go."

Yukino followed the broken guards into the dungeons, moving well into shadow, cold, and despair. She wondered how many that she'd captured had been forced into the dungeons. Sorano was brought in early enough that she wasn't subjugated to it. Would she have been put in the dungeons? Sting and Rogue?

One skeleton was still pressed against the bars of his prison. Yukino ignored it and focused instead only on the footsteps of everyone's boots as they marched on, eventually reaching a level area where a set of chains crinkled.

Yukino held her hand out and grasped the torch from the guard. She glowered at them, her face basked in light and shadow.

"Leave us."

"General Eucliffe…"

"Leave."

They had no voice over hers, no sway. Guards of this domain, but not its masters. They turned and stomped away. Yukino waited for them to vanish before setting the torch down, rolling it toward the iron bars that kept the hungry, dirty, yet not at all pathetic form of Natsu away from her.

"You're suffering a fate far kinder than the rest of your Fairies have, you know," Yukino said. "The Empire must have some incredible interest in you."

"Got any food for me?" Natsu asked.

He was sitting against the side wall, his arms folded over his bored knees. Yukino tossed the torch at Natsu, who caught it and consumed its flames in seconds.

He opened and closed his fists, testing his strength against the chains.

"Anti-ethernano chains are something of a standard we like to keep in our prisons, you won't be casting spells any time soon," Yukino said.

Natsu tried once again.

"And I'll incapacitate you if you try."

"Think you can?"

He roared and leaped to his feet, straining against the chains drilled into the wall. He stopped, huffed, and was about to give it another chance when Yukino held her hand out for the torch.

"Tell me what I want to know and you can have more. I'm sure you're hungry. The muck they give you down here hardly counts as sustenance."

Natsu halted. A dog knew to stop when food was around. He stooped and picked up the torch, gesturing at Yukino.

"Sure."

He flicked to her. She caught it between the bars.

"When I was a little girl," she said, staring at the barren torch. "I wanted to be as powerful of a wizard as my sister was. It seemed like she could do it all, and she was tough. Not gonna let anything get her down. So, I set to learning. I set to become stronger."

A fire ignited on the torch.

"I've become the greatest Celestial Spirit Wizard the world has ever seen but here I am with only a rudimentary understanding of elemental magic," Yukino said. Beyond the flames, Natsu stood still, probably confused as to why she was sharing any of that information with him.

However, Yukino was quite confused as to why she was sharing that information as well.

"And look at that," she said as she threw the torch back to Natsu. The Dragon Slayer ate the flames right up in a blink. "We're both here. A master of fire and a pathetic user of it. In this prison."

"You're not the one behind bars."

Yukino nodded. "A prison doesn't need bars to trap you, Natsu."

Natsu dropped the torch and then slumped against the musty stone wall. "So, what, just came down to check on me or something?"

"I want to know what your opinion of the Empire is," Yukino said.

"It sucks."

Yukino shrugged. Dragon Slayers were always going to be quite blunt, weren't they?

"I'd say that, if you knew more about it, you could change your mind." She and Natsu met eyes when she then said, "But it's responsible for the massacre of your guild and your home. Of course, there's no coming back from something like that, is there?"

"Did you fight anyone?" Natsu asked.

"I wasn't bothered by it," Yukino said. "I was here. Training. The Emperor had specific plans for Fairy Tail."

"How many other guilds did that happen to?"

"Have you seen any around?"

Natsu slammed his fist on the ground. Yukino didn't flinch. Natsu kept his fists tightly balled, rattling the chains binding him to the wall.

"Why? What was so wrong with the guilds?"

"The Emperor doesn't believe in independence. Everything must be folded in under the regime or it is a bug to be squashed. It is as simple as that. Guilds can waver in their strength. The Emperor wants unity in that regard. He will only have the strongest, and they must be connected to him. The rest? Toss them to the streets beneath his heel or set them to work elsewhere. Let them rot."

"Rot," Natsu spat. "Rot? Those are people! They had hopes, dreams, lives! You can't just take that from someone."

"To the Emperor, people are tools," Yukino said.

"And you agree with him? You must if you're a part of this! Yeah, I bet you and your boyfriend think the same—"

"I don't."

Natsu stopped, relaxing. Yukino shook her head.

"People can be many things. My sister may see them as tools. I see them as obstacles, weapons, strange things. You are a strange thing, Natsu. My sister, husband, and I are weapons."

"You're not."

"In the eyes of the Empire, I am. And nothing matters beyond what they think of me. Understand that, Natsu, and your time here may not be so bad for you."

"I'll get out."

Yukino stepped back so she could lean against the prison wall. "It'll be your friends that save you, right? They'll find their way into the city and then rescue you?"

"Of course!" Natsu exclaimed. "They probably have a plan right now."

Yukino inspected her nails, then her keys, before folding her arms. "You're just waiting for Erza to come get you, aren't you?"

Natsu sneered. "Think you can stop her?"

The man wore his brain on his sleeve. Yukino could relay this to Sting and increase the guard around the prison to an impossible degree that even the full Dragon Division would struggle to break into. She could turn Natsu's little cell into a supermax.

Better yet, she could dash all of his little hopes of freedom with a simple kill.

"You're very reliant on them. It was Erza that kept you and the other Fairy Tail Dragon Slayers alive in Clover Town, wasn't it? What'll you do when they're not around?"

"My friends are always there for me. And I'm always there for them."

"Not if you're here."

"I won't be here for long."

Yukino rolled her eyes. "So let's say you get out. Fine. You'll just reunite with your friends? Then what?"

Natsu bit his lip. Yukino sighed. Of course.

He had more than just his little ragtag group from Clover Town in the city.

"You'll get Lucy and Levy back. Or die trying, won't you?"

Natsu stood up. "You bet!"

How could this fire still be lit? Didn't he understand his circumstances in the slightest? He couldn't possibly be blind to what the world was anymore. Thinks like escaping, fighting for justice and freedom and glory…those didn't matter. They were snuffed out and erased at once.

Sting and Rogue would snuff out whatever glorious plans Natsu had in an instant. He had no idea what he was dealing with, what sort of beast he was prodding at. All of Fiore's strength, combined with the might of Stella and the Alvarez Empire, bore down on him. Imprisoned him. Yet he still had the temerity to gloat that he would not only become free but rescue two other people under the care of a Dragon Slayer and the Wizard King.

"You'd do anything to be with your friends, I guess," Yukino said.

"You bet. Once we're done with the Empire, things can finally get back to normal. It can be a little annoying at times, but boy do I love taking on a few jobs."

Jobs. Wizarding jobs. Yukino could hardly remember the last time she ever even thought about jobs. Sabertooth's retinue of jobs were often dealing with thugs that got a head too big for their shoulders and had to be snuffed out.

"Were you in a guild?"

"Yes."

"Which one?"

"Sabertooth."

"Oh. Never heard of you guys. I guess all of your guildmates got sucked into the Empire, too, right? What a shame."

Language like that was liable to get Natsu beaten. Yukino didn't let it hit her. A shame?

A shame.

"But it must be nice to be with your friends all the time, even if you are all evil assholes now."

"I'm not with friends. I see my husband, my sister, and my colleagues."

"Oh! You have a sister?"

"Angel of the Oración Seis."

Natsu's expression flattened. "Oh. Those guys are in all of this, too? That's great. They were a bunch of weirdos, you know. I never met Angel, but, Lucy said she was a pretty mean woman. Tough one, too."

"My sister is tough, indeed. And it's a privilege I have every day that I can see her."

Years and years separated Yukino and Sorano from one another. A time so wide that the two almost forgot about one another. Sorano was tortured at the Tower of Heaven, and Yukino was tortured at the hands of time and Master Jiemma.

"I guess that's nice."

Yukino folded her arms. "I gave up everything once I learned she was interested in joining the Empire. I gave up everything for my family."

"So, you get it then, don't you?"

Yukino shut her eyes. Natsu approached the bars but wasn't able to get far because of the chains. Yukino sighed away a lump forming in her throat.

"Why did I come here?" she muttered.

"If it wasn't for your sister, at this point, would you still be here?" Natsu asked.

Yukino's eyes snapped open and a force of magic pushed Natsu back, sliding him against the stone. Yukino let her arms unfold.

"Stay where you are, prisoner," Yukino said, the words spraying off her tongue like poison. They were not hers, though. They were the Empire's, spoken through her. "I'm late for something. Enjoy your time here, Natsu. Submit and be set free, or continue to resist and…"

Die? Rot?

She couldn't utter the word because, as she stepped away, a feeling in her gut told her that he wouldn't do either of those things.

He'd get out. And she wasn't going to tell anyone how he planned on doing so.

She met Sorano for a scheduled lunch at one of the inner-city restaurants that was well-shaded against a roaring sun. Sorano sat with her legs folded, a mere tube top and short skirt clinging to her for dear life. She fanned herself calmly as Yukino approached and took a seat across from her sister. A drink was there for her in seconds.

"I tell you, Yuki," Sorano said, sipping from her own glass. "This is the life. Everything is catered. We're pampered to hell and back. And the food? Nothing at home ever compared. Even the food we'd take as the Seis, with that added flavor of theft? Nah. Zeref outdid himself in bringing the best in the world right here."

"I don't remember the food from home," Yukino said. "I was young when we left. When we were separated."

"Always dwelling in the past," Sorano muttered from behind her glass. She gently set it down on the table and sat back in her seat. Crocus was not so hustling and bustling as it had been in the last few days, likely thanks to the end of the Grand Magic Games. "Head in the cloud, so far above the rest of us. I envy your superiority, Yukino, I really do."

"I like our lunches," Yukino said after another moment, another pause, another lull in the conversation. "They're quaint."

"Quaint?" Sorano's grin was almost ear-to-ear. "Nobody's ever called me quaint before, dear sister. What about them could you possibly enjoy? We often sit in each other's presence and complain."

"That's just it," Yukino said. "I like having someone to complain to who doesn't bark back."

"Things are so bad with Sting?"

Yukino said nothing about it. "The world isn't perfect. It's our job to make it so, and of late, it's been an increasingly difficult job."

"It is our job, isn't it?" Sorano asked. "And yet…will it ever be perfect? What is Yukino's perfect world?"

"A calm, peaceful place."

"And there, my sister is the problem," Sorano said. "Because calm and peace come under the heel of someone else having to front all of the world's problems. I say let it loose. I say chaos is the way to run." Sorano sat back and pointed to their incoming waiter. "In your perfect world, he wouldn't exist, because what's the calm in running about having to remember a thousand different things at once, and if you forget just one you can be gotten rid of?"

"And in your world," Yukino said. "He isn't here, either. He's off doing as he pleases."

"Now you're beginning to see it."

"But in either world, only the ones in power have any modicum of freedom."

"Freedom is fought for, not due." Sorano shrugged as the waiter came back. She seized his drawers, not letting him escape. "And power is gained. Isn't that right, darling?"

The man, likely around their age, didn't whimper. Sorano dragged him to his knees, whispered something into his ear, and with a respectful nod, he placed his hands down and went to all-fours. Sorano placed her feet on his back.

"Right now, I'm living in my perfect world," Sorano said. "And he is in a nightmare. That's what it would be like if I lived in your world, Yukino. Serenity and peace are nice in concept but who protects those from aggressors?"

Yukino almost blurted, "I would," but stopped as Sorano's wicked smile flashed upon her lips, and she took another drink, emptying her glass and placing it precariously at the edge of the table. The man kept his head down, looking at neither Yukino nor Sorano.

"Things like this seem to be on your mind more lately, sister." Sorano removed her feet from the man's back, then snagged him by the collar and kissed him. Magic flashed over his face, and his body slumped. A kissing spell, one that rendered him unconscious. "Why is that?"

Yukino watched Sorano dump the body next to her. Her sister assaulted that man. Abused him. Yukino wondered if that was always in her sister's making, or if it'd been the hardened life under a Dark Guild and immediate rescue into the foremost Empire in the world that'd only hardened that edge.

"I'm beginning to lose my grip on my sense of place," Yukino said. Each word slid out of her mouth carefully before plummeting. "I'm not sure what I'm doing."

"Lack of work?"

"No," Yukino said. "It's a lack of something. I'm simply unsure what."

"Speak with August. There's work for you, there's something to do."

"I just spent several days plotting the assassination of a monster. It's work I—it's the work I expect to perform. What more can August have?" Yukino sighed, staring at her own empty glass. "I want time."

"Time?"

Yukino leaned forward at once, snagging Sorano's startled hands.

"Come with me."

"Where?"

"Anywhere?" Desperation, and for the first time purpose, clawed into Yukino's voice. "Anywhere but here, Sorano. Please."

Her sister attempted to study Yukino's face before at last breaking into a giggling mess, letting go of Yukino's hands so she could hold her belly laugh.

"Anywhere but here? We'd better have a personal retinue and everything taken care of already, Yuki. I doubt you've got all that figured out. Never took you for the spontaneous type."

"Sorano, please—"

"Everything I could ever have is here," Sorano said. She rested her arm back and flicked her wrist for a new waiter to come, one who stared down at the unconscious one but made nothing of it. "Right?"

"And what if I go away?"

Sorano swished her drink about.

"Will you still have everything?" Yukino asked.

"You have no reason to leave."

No reason but an ache, a gnawing curiosity. Yukino kept that part quiet. Kept her face dull and lifeless as she'd been trained to as an Imperial.

"What…" Yukino said, fearing the question as it rested on her lips. She changed it before it could escape. "What would you do here without me?"

"Grow bored." Sorano shrugged.

Closer. Yukino was getting closer.

"And if there wasn't an Empire?"

"Hard to imagine that. Wait, I know what I'd be doing! Rotting in prison, overseen by some hack Magic Councillor. Look at me with all my freedom."

A freedom bound to the whim and fear of August, Invel, and the Emperor. A freedom that let her stomp on others smaller than her, but a freedom that would never let her dare so much as cast a wayward glance at those larger than her. It was a balance.

Balance.

Yukino hardened her expression to one Sorano was familiar with.

"You're right," Yukino said, drawing a nod from Sorano. "You wouldn't be so free."

"Just don't leave, sis," Sorano said. "I'd be so bored, so lonely. Probably go off on tasks and errands just to kill time until you got back and that sounds dreadful."

Yukino made no promise, only small talk for the remainder of their allotted time before Sorano was off again to a useless meeting. Yukino watched her go, basking in all the freedom that carried her to a mandatory place she didn't want to be.

There was a small garden she used to frequent, one a good distance from the restaurant, the dungeons, and even the Dragon Division tower. Flowers bloomed on rising vines that curled around a small fountain that pooled with recently fallen and dead petals alike. Yukino stood before the fountain of water, watching her rippling reflection.

"You summoned me?"

Libra appeared from a shimmering light.

"Yukino?"

"I did," Yukino said. "And I need you to test something for me."

"What is it?"

"My judgment."

There was unparalleled safety in the Twilight Empire. It was one she never reconsidered, despite the atrocities that were beneath her, that surrounded her, the same that brought her to that place. And then, she envisioned Jiemma, stout not against the Empire but against a force greater than he, and she thought only of his pathetic body being warped and twisted into something he never would have signed up for.

She sought comfort in memories with Sting and saw only their days before the Empire, she searched for any warmth in her heart and her memories and there was none there prior to the advent of the great twilight. She and Sting, tangled together in the first time they clumsily made love or even just kissed, an age so long ago Yukino felt as if she were prying into the intimate moment of someone else.

That woman staring into the fountain would be unrecognizable to the one who approached the Sabertooth guild with a dream of becoming just like her sister. In many ways, Yukino surpassed Sorano. And in many more ways, that dream she sought became a reality. The cold, merciless part of her that shoved survival over all other measures had risen and taken over.

Only then, in the dullard times of peace and boredom, could she at last stare deeper into that reflection, and with a trembling hand, hold the key of a Celestial Spirit she once knew as a friend, not merely an associate.

"Weigh the Twilight Empire," Yukino said.

Libra hesitated. "That is…risky."

"Please," Yukino said. She balled her fists. "Libra. I need this."

Libra nodded and held out her hand. The scales appeared. Yukino didn't have to look, only listen to the answer:

"There is no balance. There is no counter to the evil that has claimed this world. The evil you solemnly, loyally wear upon your breast."

"And what am I to do, then?" Yukino asked. "As a member of evil?"

Libra made the scales vanish. "I am your servant."

"And you were once my friend."

"Then I will speak to you as such. You'll wake up, Yukino. Those scales I weighed carried your soul within it, bogged by the overwhelming malice of the Emperor and his greatest servants, those eleven he brought from his western empire."

"Will you weigh my soul?"

Libra sighed. "I believe that is not my task to undertake, Yukino. It is, even now, ever-changing. Death is the only reprieve and finality for your judgment."

Another petal dropped into the mix. Yukino smiled at Libra, a wane and weak one, but one she knew the spirit hadn't seen in any form in a long time.

"Thank you," Yukino said. "You may go now."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes," Yukino said. Quick footsteps rushed toward her. She raised her hand to her heart. "I'm sure."

Libra vanished into a magic circle, one that was broken apart by Sting, who panted furiously.

"What was that? What were you thinking?"

"You heard everything?"

"Yes!"

That waning smile stayed on Yukino's lips. She approached Sting, whose entire body was tense, who looked ready to spring into action.

"Those are the words of a traitor, Yukino. What's going on?"

She stopped in front of him, resting a hand on his coat, then raising it up to his chiseled face. So handsome, radiant with the light of a powerful Dragon Slayer.

"I love you. I always have."

She lowered his chin and kissed him with lips so soft, a touch so gentle, it almost calmed Sting down. He grabbed her wrists and touched her forehead with his own.

"What is this, Yukino? What are you doing?"

"Maybe you'll understand one day," Yukino said.

It felt so good to know. To hear it from someone else. It was so obvious before her, but it was something she chose to ignore. It was like breathing. She was conscious of it, she knew it was happening at all times, and yet she didn't need to think on it.

Ironically, Yukino felt like she was taking a breath of fresh air for the first time.

"I know you saw Natsu," Sting said. "I know you spoke. What did he tell you? Did he put this all in your head?"

Yukino rested her head on Sting's shoulder, folding into his confused embrace.

"Tell me, Yukino, please!"

"Let's go. I'm tired."

Sting snarled but relented. Yukino nuzzled him a bit. He was the great Dragon Slayer, the Captain of the Dragon Division, but above all, some part of Sting Eucliffe remained. She could still love him.

Even if…

Yukino Eucliffe-Agria stepped down from the great Dragon Division tower that next morning. A single bag was slung over her shoulders. Her hair was tied back, no longer in the bob around her head to withhold any amount of sight. She had her three Zodiac keys clipped upon her belt, one she'd not worn in some time.

Confused guards watched her go in the pre-dawn light. She didn't move with haste, but, knew she had somewhere to be.

An explosion of light erupted from the tower she'd just left. A roar filled the sky. Sting shouted for her name, begging her to come home.

And she was. She knew she was.

The problem she was having was being unsure of where home was anymore. So, she set forth toward the city gates to find out.

And, maybe, find a little bit of that freedom Natsu found so tantalizing he'd even die for his friends to have a bit of it.