"When it was just us as the Oracion Seis, no one would say it, but Macbeth was sort of our boss…or at least the one that communicated Brain's plans. Brain would often tell us to do things through Macbeth, so it always felt like he was the one giving the orders. Sometimes…we would come back with a less-than-stellar report and Macbeth would hear it first. It might have been guilt, might have just been annoyance, but I suspect that sometimes he went out and tried to fix our mistakes to assuage Brain's wrath at our failure. Not that he ever said anything about it to us."
Mirajane's presence deflated a little as she turned to Macbeth with a stunned face. Macbeth–unsure of where exactly to look–alternated looks of bewilderment and nervousness.
"Whatever the case, I think he felt responsible for what happened to us, even though it was our own fault how a mission went." He put a hand near his dead eye in recollection. "When the Neo Seis formed, I think that feeling grew as well. He didn't force any of us to follow him. Macbeth broke us all out of prison…all the ones he was able to." Brain had been too difficult, given his status as guildleader, so they'd had to leave him behind. Richard refused to go, saying he needed to pay his penance. "He said we were free to go, but he wanted revenge, and…we all did. So we all followed him. That included following his example of sacrificing.
"Maybe he thinks of it differently. But I can tell, in the way that he looks at me, at the way he looks at all of us sometimes. That there's still a part of him that feels responsible for us.
"But here's the thing, I made that choice myself. We all did. His actions may have influenced our decisions, but they were still ours to make. You can't take that away from somebody. Lucy…made her choices. You can't act like they're yours. No matter how much you want them to be."