Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or its characters.

-The Enchanter of Fairy Tail-

Chapter 66: Murderers And Monsters

Year: X759. 25 years till Canon begins.

Cade POV:

I took a look at my surroundings as we traveled up the stairs into the prison. Beside me were two guards that were leading me to the cell that held Trillo Woods.

It seemed like this prison was quite old as I could see the dark green colour of the stone beginning to fade ever so slightly. I noticed that every single door we passed had a metal gate above it, so that way if a lockdown occurred then they could try and secure as many as the prisoners as possible. All the windows we passed as well had thick iron bars across them as well.

We had to head up a few flight of stairs to reach the cells were the main prisoners were. I don't think we crossed any of the bridges that led to the other areas of the prison, so that would have meant that we were still in the main body of the prison.

Finally we came to a large, gated entranceway that had a few guards stationed on either side. One of the guards unlocked the gate and let us in. 'Is this where the prisoners are kept?'

We kept walking and we then came to a small square room that had a few pieces of equipment lying on a table close to me. There was a bright red line plastered on the floor that and across and acted as a warning point of sorts. Beyond the line, was another heavily guarded door that had a few guards at the entranceway.

As me and guards came to the room, both guards stopped me.

"We have to conduct a search of your belongings on you I'm afraid. Nothing personal of course." One of the guards said. "Please stand behind the red line."

"Oh right." I said as I extended out my arms. Not sure how I didn't see this coming, it's something that all prisons have to do.

The guards conducted a light search of me, patting me down to see if I had anything that might be a problem if I went any further. Thankfully this didn't take that long and the search was finished in a minute.

I lowered my arms, and I saw that one of the guards had reached to pick up one of the devices they had on the tables. It seemed like a scanner of sorts.

"We just need to check your Requip storage now." The man said as he began to hold the device to my chest and look at it. "We don't have to ask you to remove anything that may be considered a risk, it's as nearly impossible to break someone out from the inside as it to break someone out from the outside."

The guard spent a minute scanning me with the device. During that time I had been trying to think of what to say to the murderer Trillo when I saw him, yet nothing seemed to come to my mind.

Before I knew it, the scan was finished. The guard put the device back on the table and he turned back to me.

"Now then, please cross the red line." The guard said to me.

I crossed the red line with two simple steps and the two guards came and stood across from me.

"Now then, beyond this door will be criminals, many of whom have committed very serious crimes. You will not be permitted to aid them in any sort of escape, and you may not talk with them as you are walking to the prisoner that you will be seeing. Finally, you will not leave our side while we are making our way there. Do you understand?"

I quickly nodded and took a deep breath.

Despite the fact that I had fought monsters and criminals plenty of times before this, I could not help but be nervous for the next few minutes of my life.

'Come on, keep it together Cade!' I told myself mentally.

The guards then unlocked the guarded door and opened it, allowing me and them to walk through. When we entered the next block of the building, a stark difference was immediately present.

The walls were now a grey colour, and this part of the building seemed to go forwards quite a bit, with some thick steel doors to my left. I could hear taunting and shouting that was coming through the doors and was being bounced across the room due to the size of it.

I gave a light wince when hearing the shouts and screams, but I was quickly moving forwards to follow the guards as they moved to C34.

I saw that the doors of the cells were labelled starting with C1 and later C2. The numbers continued to increase in value as we kept moving forwards.

The walk to C34 felt like an eternity. I was constantly on edge and was still trying to think of how I should approach this upcoming conversation with Trillo. This was the first time I had ever done something like this.

Should I try to act tough? Just try and get it out of the way? Or should I just be myself? Thoughts like this plagued my mind, but I didn't get much time to think as we had now stopped suddenly.

We had now stopped outside a thick steel door that had C34 engraved on the doorframe. Interestingly enough, there was no jeering coming from the other side of the door.

"This is Cell 34. In here is Trillo Woods. You will be granted an hour of time to speak with him. Any attempted breakout with result in an immediate suspension of the visit and possible charge. You may end the visit early by simply knocking on the door." One of the guards said.

"I understand…" I said hesitantly.

The guard nodded and pulled out a set of keys that he then used to unlock the door and open it for me. The door opened slowly with a groan.

I took a final deep breath and stepped into the cell.

I will admit, I was a bit surprised by what I saw.

The cell that I stepped into was a relatively big one, with it being coloured grey. There was a huge and thick glass divider that came down to the floor and roof and reached the full left and right of the room. There was also a locked door that allowed people to get in and out, with a hatch to put things through.

Beyond the glass divider, there was simple necessities for a human, like a bed, a toilet and a small desk and chair. They weren't of all great condition, but it looked like they could get the job done for a person.

And then I saw him.

He was of decent height, and his back was turned to me. He had brown hair and wore a dark gray outfit that I assumed all the prisoners here wore. He wore some grey shoes to cover his feet. His head turned slightly when the door closed behind me.

"So you're the one that accepted my cry for help in this horrible place." He spoke with a voice of intrique.

He then turned around so that we could see each other better.

When he finished turning, I saw he was middle aged with dark yellow eyes, with his brown hair coming down to his eyebrows. He had a small goatee on his chin. On his chest, there was a small tag that labelled his name and his cell number.

This was a murderer that I was seeing right now. Trillo Woods.

When Trillo saw me, he raised an eyebrow. "What? Your S-Class?" He questioned with doubt.

"That's right. Is there a problem with me?" I stated firmly.

Trillo gave a small laugh as he walked forward a bit. "You're younger than I thought. Why'd a kid like you take a job like this?" He asked with his face shifting to one of interest.

"I took it because this was the job with the lowest pay out of the others." I answered sternly and honestly.

Trillo gave a soft hum. "They get younger everyday." He remarked with a smirk. "Well who are you then?"

"I'm Cade. And my guild is Fairy Tail." I announced, as I rolled up my sleeve to show Trillo my guild mark.

"My my; I'm glad such a strong guild has chosen to come to my aid. I was beginning to think no one was coming here." Trillo said as he gave a cold smile.

"You misunderstand. I didn't take this job to help you. I'm only doing it for the reward and the experience of S-Class." I stated with hardness.

"Whatever you say." Trillo muttered as he waved a hand at me. "Now about this job…"

I made sure to listen carefully for what he wanted me to do here. It meant that I would be able to leave here sooner after all. What was it that he wanted to me to do?

"I need you to recover a photo album for me from my old family home. You can find the building to the east of here just off of Claymore Village." Trillo explained.

I blinked. That was it?

"A… photo album?"

"Yes. I wonder if that's what the warden expected me to say. He has been hounding me for months to reveal what it is." Trillo then looked up at the corners of his cell.

"So what do you think? Is it what you expected? Do you feel stupid for begging to know the answer for so long?" He said with a mocking laugh.

He then turned his head back to me. "Oh come on, we both knew that he would be listening to this. They've always had the ability to know what we are listening to. We never get true privacy here."

"Getting back on track here." I interrupted sternly. "Why do you want a photo album?"

Trillo gave a clearly fake smile. "Well I often get lonely and bored in here. It would be nice to have a look at my family from years ago before I was arrested and sent here. Plus things are so bad now with me and the company…"

"I've been having to send off money from what is left of the company to a certain… acquaintance of mine let's say, for a few months now. Because of that, my company is failing. I'm here in jail unable to save it… life couldn't be worse…" Trillo sighed deeply.

"Oh and I bet your family would love me coming in and asking to take this album from them." I growled sarcastically. "I get a feeling that they would deny me the book."

"You weren't paying attention." Trillo cut me off from continuing. "I said I needed you to recover the album, not ask for it. The building is abandoned, it has been for a few years now. You won't find anyone living there." He clarified

"Abandoned? What happened that led to the building being abandoned?" I asked with reluctant interest.

"Does that matter to the job that I'm asking you to do? No, it doesn't." Trillo muttered with annoyance. "I've told you what I need you to do, now get a move on." He ordered.

"I don't think you're in a position to boss me around like I'm one of your workers." I warned with frustration. "You're the one that's behind a glass wall due to murder."

To my sheer shock, Trillo just rolled his eyes and scoffed.

"Oh please. If that employee had just minded his own business and stayed out of my business, then he wouldn't have died." He held his head back in a laid back manner.

"You were illegally transferring and stealing jewels from your mining company to fill your own pockets! Was he just a person for you to get rid off? Would you have done the same if it had been anyone else who walked in on you?!"

"You can't bake a cake without breaking a few eggs." Trillo rebutted with a snarky tone. "When you're high up in the business like I was, you have be ready to dispose of those that may be an inconvenience later."

"You know who that guy who walked in on me was? He was a reporter! If I had let him get away, he would have leaked everything to the press – or worse blackmailed me!" Trillo snapped with anger.

"People who are in these wizard guilds like you will never understand the sorts of actions that people like me have to take in life." Trillo finished.

My face scrunched up in anger. "You're right. I don't think I'll ever understand what makes you and everyone else in here tick like that. Honestly, I'm not sure that I want to." I growled.

Trillo's face turned into one of disgust. "When I said 'people like me', I wasn't talking about everyone else in this stinking pit of a prison. I was talking about the heads of companies that try to make it to the top. I'm a far better person than some of the others in here."

"Oh shut up!" I yelled with rage. "I don't think for a single second that there can be anyone worse than you in here. You, someone who doesn't care for the value of a human life!"

Trillo suddenly took a step back. "Really? You think that?" He said as he eyed me with intrigue. "Seriously?"

'Agh, ok, he's one in over 100 prisoners. There's a high chance he's not the worse person in here.' I admitted internally. Trillo however, looked intrigued.

"How about I tell you about the worst?"

He then began to move around his cell slowly. "It was years before I was locked up in here that they finally caught one of Fiore's biggest criminals. The Plague." He said with a whisper at the name.

I narrowed my eyebrows, and Trillo continued. "Born who knows where, with some family that probably never loved him due to how he acted. What a messed-up kid he was… but no denying he was special. He had a rather rare and powerful lost magic that could bring about illnesses. That, and it was highly destructive.

'He had a lost magic?' I'll admit I was a bit intrigued by this story.

"They say that he always loved to use his magic on animals to see how they reacted. There were witnesses that confirmed that he loved to trap some animals and use his magic to make them ill with no form of treatment. But things only got worse when he started to develop his magic."

"At the age of 14 he started using his magic on his parents, which gave them a disease that ended up killing them in their sleep. But that wasn't the end of it, to everyone's surprise – including himself, the disease spread to the others in his village." Trillo seemed to wince at the details. "I bet you can see where things went from here."

"He went on the run killing using his magic as he went. It took them six years to catch him. When they did, they brought him here and threw him in permanent solitary confinement. He was sentenced here for life." Trillo concluded.

Trillo gave me a suspicions smile. "Want to hear something funny about the Plague?"

"No." I immediately denied.

"Ohhhh, it's a fun little detail. It's about how he's locked up." Trillo elaborated, as he moved to further clarify.

"The Plague… They say he had to be locked up in the tallest tower in a rotating cell."

"…A rotating cell?" I retorted. "What's the point of that?"

Trillo gave a light shrug, a smile still on his face. "I can't answer that." He further chuckled, as he spoke up again. "I get disturbed in my sleep, thinking about the fact that people like him are in the same building as me." Trillo gestured a finger at me. "So don't think for a second that I'm the worst person here."

I crossed my arms. "He sounds like a real piece of scum sure, but that doesn't make you any better of a person. You're simply a lesser evil compared to him."

Trillo moved back to stand facing me again. "I don't care what you think of me. Let's get back on track shall we? I would like my photo album after all…"

I grunted. "Alright so I have to go to this abandoned house and get this photo album. How do you know it hasn't been stolen?"

"Because I've hidden it in the house. No one else will find it except for you once I tell you where it is." Trillo elaborated.

"Then where is it?"

"It's hidden in my old bedroom. You can find it on through second floor. It'll be the smallest bedroom out of them all. When you go in, they'll be a lamp that will have a button hidden on it. Press it and viola!"

"And then I'll get the photo album. Just like that?" I questioned with doubt.

Trillo gave me a smile. "Just like that. A little secret compartment will open up and it'll show itself."

He then turned away from me. "I estimate the journey to get there will take you about… what, one day? It will then take you a day to get back here. You can just take the train not far from the wasteland out there."

"Remember. Claymore Village, old building to the east, head to the smallest bedroom, find the button on the lamp, recover the book and return here. Got it?" He asked with irritation.

"I'll be going now." I said with distain as I turned away and began to exit the cell.

Before I could though, I had one final question for Trillo. "By the way. How will I be paid for this?"

Trillo turned his head slightly. "I have several accounts and people operating them outside of this prison. I'll make sure to let them know to pay you the correct amount. Just get me that album." He said as he waved me away. "I'm a killer, but I know when to reward those who work hard."

I scoffed as I finally exited his cell and slammed the door behind me. When I did so, I lent back on the door, closed my eyes and thought back on what had happened in that cell.

'I just spoke to a murderer in there. I never thought that I would have done that in my earlier years.'

'So why did it feel like I was talking to another regular person?' I thought with irritation. 'He was a killer. I did feel anger towards him, yet I was able to hold a normal conversation with him.'

'Sure he was an evil man, talking about how he didn't care about throwing people away to benefit himself. But other than things felt… normal enough… ugh, my head hurts just thinking about this.'

Thankfully, my thought were interrupted from this line of thinking by the voice of a guard next to me.

"Excuse me, but the warden would like to see you now." He spoke.

I opened my eyes, stood up straight and turned to him. "Ah of course lead the way."

The guard then escorted me through the jail some more towards where the wardens office would be. We traveled up some stairs and passed through some more jail cell blocks. As we passed them I couldn't help but think whether the people in these cells were as bad as Trillo. Were they worse?

We passed through some more guarded corridors before we came to an elevator of sorts. It seemed to lift an individual upwards while they were standing on a circular plate on the ground. I looked up and saw that the elevator shaft led upwards to the top of the building.

Me and the guard that was accompanying me stepped onto it and we were raised upwards at a fast speed.

After a few seconds the elevator came to a halt with us both quite high up in the prison now. I estimated that we were probably close to the top of the mountain now.

This area of the prison was a bit more open with a few more guards moving freely round chatting to each other. I could see a few corridors that must lead to different areas of the jail. From how loose and casual the guards were acting, I had a feeling that there were no prisoners at this level of the jail.

The guard that I was with then led me through a corridor until I came to a door that had a plaque stating 'Wardens Office'.

'Guess this is it. Wonder how long this will take. I do actually have a few questions for the warden myself.' I thought.

"Well here we are." The guard stated as he stood by the door. "The warden should be expecting you. Just head on in and I'll wait out here." He nodded.

"Alright." I nodded as I opened the door and entered.

The warden's office was the most unique office I had ever seen before. The floor was made up of a smooth stone, as were the walls. It was of decent size and there was a few filling cabinets against the left wall. The right of the office had a desk with a chair behind it. The desk had a speaker of sorts that must allow him to talk to the entire prison. The right corner of the room had a locked safe; whatever was in it, I had no idea.

But the most eye-catching and important thing about the office was that the entire back wall was entirely made out of thick glass. This showed me that we were a good hundred meters above the ground. Out of the window I could see the dead wasteland for several miles until it was no longer visible.

Standing facing the window, was a rather tall man. He seemed to have grey hair and wore a black and blue uniform. He turned to face me as I closed the door behind me.

"There you are. No offence but you looked a lot older in the lacrima when I saw you." The warden greeted.

"None taken." I said with an awkward laugh. "Nice to meet you in person."

The warden walked towards me and held out a hand. "Warden Jameson."

I shook his hand. "Cadewell Philipe, but you can call me Cade." I greeted with a smile.

When we broke our handshake I looked around the office some more. "You have a rather nice-looking office here. Never seen one like it before."

"The window here allows me to get a good view of the wasteland. I can actually see when the next train is approaching the prison. Everything else is a bonus to me." Jameson remarked as he looked around the room.

"Anyway." He began. "Are you feeling ok after your talk with Trillo? I'm going to assume that this was your first time talking with a murderer."

"Yeah I'm ok." I said as I frowned at encounter earlier. "I don't know what I was expecting to be honest. Just glad that I don't have to see him again until I complete this job."

"I'm glad to hear that." Jameson nodded. "I'm also glad to finally know what it was that Trillo wanted from all this. To think it was a photo album!"

"So is that ok then?" I asked with interest. "You won't stop him from getting the album?"

"We'll have to properly check and make sure that there isn't anything illegal or something that would help him escape the prison. But if there is nothing like that, then yes I'd allow it." He said with a grimace. "Despite us favouring punishment over rehabilitation, he is rather well behaved."

"Got it. He said that it was located to the east of Claymore Village, in some old family home of his. Have you been around in that area?" I asked Jameson.

He put a hand in his chin and thought about that. "Well I'm the warden here, so I don't get out that much. But I have been to Claymore Village a few times in the past. I think I can recall an old building to the east. I think some rich family lived there until the place went abandoned."

"I see… Do you know the best way to get there from here?"

"Well, the best route would be for you to get the next train here back to the checkpoint, after that you should board the nearest train to Claymore Village. I think it takes a few hours or so. If you were to leave now, you would be there by night fall." Jameson answered.

"Honestly that doesn't sound too bad." I murmured. "Oh yeah, almost forgot I had this." I reached into my Requip storage and pulled out the lacrima that I used to communicate with him from it.

"Keep it." Jameson said before I could hand it to him. "Use it to communicate with me as you are travelling. It'd be good if I knew whether that album of his was bad news before you brought it back here."

"Got it." I put the lacrima back in my storage before I spoke back up. "Hey, do you really think that Trillo was being honest when he said that he just wanted the album for the memories?"

Jameson crossed his arms. "I honestly don't know. Even some of the worse people here have some sort of desire to latch onto something that reminds them of their past. I think it's as a way to escape the reality of this place."

"For the case of Trillo Woods, he is a man that definitely doesn't care about the value if a human life. Also, he has never mentioned his family beforehand. This all makes his request seem a bit suspicious if you ask me." Jameson finished, sounding suspicious.

"Yeah, I was thinking the same. Still, it's best that we confirm this just in case. There is over one million jewels that I could possibly earn here after all."

Jameson gave a small smile. "Heh, that's a good reason to do this I suppose. Did he confirm that he would be paying you by using his people on the outside?"

"He did." I answered.

Jameson answered grimly. "Anyway, if that's everything then I think you might want to get a move on. There will be a train coming here shortly to take some people back to the checkpoint. You might want to be on it. Else you would be waiting a few more hours until the next one."

"Got it, thanks Jameson." I was about to leave, but I remembered something that Trillo told me.

"Hey, before I go, I wanted to ask you one more thing."

Jameson looked intrigued. "Yes?"

"It's about that person that Trillo spoke of: The Plague."

Jameson winced a little as he folded his arms. "…What about him?"

"Wait so he's real? I thought Trillo was just making him up to scare me." I questioned with shock.

"No… he's real."

There was a brief moment of silence. "So everything Trillo said about him-"

"Is all real." Jameson said with disgust. "He actually did kill his family to fuel his own interests. He then moved onto killing several more people before we finally got him locked up here. Bastard even admitted to everything."

A horrible gut feeling was felt in my stomach when Jameson confirmed that. "Good god… How can people think like that?"

"In all my years as being a warden here I've many, many different kinds of killers. I've found that some people kill as a method that was the first to come to their mind as a solution. Some – like Trillo Woods, have little regard for the safety or value of a human life but they wouldn't kill unless they were desperate or cornered. Then there are those that just kill as a form of sport. A form of pleasure. The Plague is one of them. He's the only guy like that in this jail, and I can only hope he's the last."

"Whereabouts is he located in this jail?" I asked with some interest.

"He's located at the very top of the building in the tallest tower. We have him up there as it would be easier for the guards to mobilise against him if he got out. Also it would be harder for him to escape the jail if he is up that high."

"It helps that it rotates 24/7. Helps keep his magic in check." He nodded darkly.

"His Plague Magic, right? How does a rotating tower limit that?"

The warden struggled to get a response out. "I'm afraid I cannot say… As the true nature of his magic is so rare, the Magic Council prohibited people from learning. It might cause a few scares if people discover."

I frowned. "Ah… I understand."

'But the true nature of his magic? So Plague Magic is not what his magic truly is? Does he have a sub-category of magic? I mean, Trillo said it was a Lost Magic he had.' I thought about this some more, but I was cut off by Jameson.

"He'd be the last person on a list of inmates I'd want to be let loose in the world again. People like him are better being locked up in a tower. There is no rehabilitation for men like him. Just isolation and captivity. That's what he deserves." Jameson said as he turned his back to me.

"You're right about that. I'd struggle to sleep knowing that people like him are around the country hiding in the shadows."

"Agreed." Jameson added. "I think I can see a train coming here. You may want to hurry if you want to catch it."

I barely caught a small dust storm and a black smidge far out on the wasteland from the large window. That must be the train.

"Ah, you're right! I'll have to go now. I'll make sure to try and keep in contact with you as I'm going." I said as I turned away to exit the room.

No POV, ?:

Far across the wasteland and back into the regular lush country of Fiore, there was a deep dark forest that had a small run-down shack that was barely standing.

In this shack, sat a man in the darkness. His legs were crossed and his arms folded. He was waiting for his client to arrive. In this room, there was a small streak of daylight that just lit the place up.

Just when he was about to step into the light for a moment, the door to the room he was in opened.

In walked his client. He moved in front of the man sitting on the chair but could not see his face due to the darkness. The man sitting in the darkness however, could see his client clearly due to the small streak of daylight.

The man who walked in raised his head a little and corked an eyebrow. "This better be worth it. You have me hardly any information for this job you have. Plus you won't even let me see your face."

The man in the darkness smiled a little. "Ah, I'd rather keep my identity a secret from everyone. Now then Jones, about that job I had planned for you… It's about a book that I'm needing from an old building that's wasting away."

One Step Ahead Jones shifted his expression. "Hm, I'm listening."

There we have it. Another chapter done and dusted!

With the meeting with Trillo Woods finished, Cade is off to an old house that should have what he (or rather Trillo) is looking for. Unfortunately, it seems like this won't be an easy job for him. An old enemy will seemingly face him along the way.

Find out next week how the encounter will go. I do hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and I'm looking forward to seeing you in the next one!