" I know you can…" She chortled at something said. " Yes…Just a verification…hum…I doubt of it…I owe you…thanks"
" Who was it ? "
She immediately turned around taken aback.
" Blimey ! You scared me."
" Sorry, didn't attend to "
" My fault, I wasn't paying attention I should have heard you coming." Her voice was a little annoyed, she didn't like being caught off guard, especially when it concerned her private life." So what are you doing here ? "
" Needed a break "
She smiled in a sympathetic way.
" Any word from the council on the steps to take now ? "
" I have not call them yet "
" My fault, I thought it was them on the phone"
He didn't, she might not know what he had heard or how long he had been there, but he knew full well that the call had been too friendly to be a business call.
" I've known you more subtle"
"I've known you less mysterious"
She smiled. "I doubt it "
He chuckled "And you're right "
"It was Jellal "
" It is always Jellal "
" Do I heard some jalousy ? "
" Don't ask if you don't want the answer, heartbreaker "
He was going to leave.
" Don't call me like that Grey"
" You didn't like sweetheart so I change "
" But this one is cruel "
" You're not the one who is cruel "
Only your heart but that he did not say. He just gone.
" Well, we have an appointment out of city in two hours. We have to go now. "
" We take train ? " ask Wendy looking at Erza.
" No. The exact address will be sent to us on the way." Natsu was exulting, no motions " So we will rent cars "
Of course it was too good to be true.
" So how do we do ? "
They were returned in this fantomatic house. Cars waited for them in the courtyard.
" Like usual, two teams "
Lucy looked at Natsu then at Wendy and the team was formed. They would take Bluenote, and Zaito.
" I just hope he won't use magic when we will be on the road, gravity alteration could be dangerous "
" I know, I have got a sort to block magic. It works on the same way that the handcuff used by the council. But it's efficient just one maybe two hours and we only can use once. The sort is exhausting "
" Understood I will do it " said Wendy.
" You should have explained to the little girl why you didn't let her help me, she was uspet. "
" Don't talk about her "
Grey's voice remained sharp, his annoyance was palpable but the mage sat on the back seat, still took a malicious pleasure to provoke him.
" All I said is that she now think that you are heartless. How ironic, for you, the so in love boy, who tried to kill me when I dared hurt his dear and lovely… "
" I think we've heard enough now."
She hadn't meant to butt in, not with the disastrous and perverse turn it was taking. She was perceptive enough to see that she would only have aroused the misplaced curiosity of their detractor, but she could sense Grey's patience was slipping away completely. If she didn't end their discussion, Grey would surely kill him.
" Oh. So the deadly beauty speaks. "
She was displeased but not so careless and stupid as to play along with him. He could say what he wanted she cared little or nothing.
" Don't even dare to talk to her "
" Oh but the heart is changeable." He snickered. "You must be one of those lovers of love, it's a different girl every time I see you."
And that was the straw that broke the camel's back.
" Stop the car. "
" Grey " She tried to find his eyes alterning between the road and him. His fists were clenched, his jaw too. This was a bad idea.
" Erza "
She thought about it. She was against it, of course, but this was neither the place nor the time to talk about it. He continued to look at her, but she no longer read the attention with which he usually looked at her, this time there was only anger, that he controlled out of consideration for her but with difficulty. At least he was polite enough to refrain from yelling at her. However, he was not asking, he was demanding.
" What are they doing ? "
Grey was going down. Lucy frowned as Natsu slowed down. Driving helping his motion sickness.
" I dunno but Grey will definitely drive faster " said Natsu as he was parking smoothly behind the other car waiting to leave again.
"Fuck, he looks furious," Wendy turned to Bluenote, glaring at him, even though he had only spoken out loud what everyone else was thinking, the remark was out of line and unwelcome. She definitely hated this middle place, and even more so when she was surrounded by criminals.
" Maybe we should check if everything is fine "
" Everything is fine, he still look at Erza. It's okay "
Lucy looked at Natsu, stunned. She did not know he could be so meticulous, he usually was not the type to notice small things. And above all, she had a hard time believing that he actually saw these kinds of things. She was convinced that he was immune to anything that could hint at love. She was paying the consequences of his obliviousness.
" Seems that we can go "
Natsu smiled at Happy who was lying on Lucy's lap and had put all his energy into this observation. Erza had closed the door of the car and it had started again. Natsu didn't take long to get back on the road. Lucy looked through the window regularly glancing at the rearview mirror to see how Wendy was doing. The rest of the time she thought about Natsu mainly. She realized that she had never really taken the time to take stock of her life, until then she had never felt the need.
" You should maybe slowdown. You had already proved that you were a very passionate guy. We got it, you are angry but are you really force to make us crash to illustrate it ? "
All eyes in the back seat turned to Indel. Rustyrose was increasingly seriously considering opening the door and throwing him out, in an unfortunate fall, not because he wanted to regain general esteem or get into the good graces of his guards but because he valued his own life. But Indel by continuing his provocations was seriously interposing himself between him and his life. Unfortunately the doors did not open from the inside so he had to do like everyone else and be patient. At least Grey could channel his anger by pressing the accelerator pedal; they had no way of letting off steam.
However, even though annoyance hung over them like a cloud, the other two prisoners remained silent. Their feelings were mixed; the desire to arrive tickled them, but the dread of returning to prison did not delight them either, especially after what they had experienced there. Finally it has been Erza who brought the elephant in the room, she glanced in the interior rearview mirror, looking for Indel.
" What had happened ? "
He did not look, avoiding eye contact. Until now, he had control of the situation, he dominated the conversation, but her question had brought him back there, to that torture room he wanted to erase from his mind.
"What happen ? Really? I don't know, we're all happily gathered in a car that's heading straight to our graves, in a very interesting remake of How to Die Stupidly and Quickly" said Gaito.
" But other than that everything's perfectly fine." Concluded Rustyrose.
" Spare me your sarcasm and just explain to me why you had run away and how he finished in this state." Her gaze was still searching for Indel's "That was the initial meaning of my question "
Her voice was calm and collected, Indel had stopped his scathing remarks and Grey had finally regained his phlegmatic demeanor. He was regaining control of his emotions and had managed to dissipate the anger that had agitated him. Driving had also helped him focus his mind, the speed forced him to take a step back from his emotions. Sometimes he would look at her, silently checking if she was comfortable with the fast driving.
" Some people are convinced that magic is dangerous and source of inequality so they want to see it disappear. Even some members of the council, which is completely ironic, whatever, these people have recently developed some kind of organization with the goal of wiping out magic"
Indel had finally looked at her, she was sorry, no matter how attentive she was to his aura, she did not feel magic anymore from him. She had thought it was temporary when she had first seen him, bedridden and exhausted. He was sweating a lot, pale, she had deduced that he must be in the middle of forced withdrawal. That was why she had prevented Wendy from using her spells, his body would never have supported the shock.
In principle, draining spells were illegal as well as immoral ; the pain for a mage to be deprived of his magic when it was his life essence was nothing more or less than torture. However, she knew that similar spells were used by unscrupulous jailers as punishment or to maintain order in the rare moments when prisoners found themselves mingling with each other.
Jellal had only told her about it once. She had come to help him on a mission so that he could keep his identity a secret, at the time they were all still wanted. Late in the evening when everyone had gone to bed they had talked. She had to leave the next day. She didn't know where this conversation would go, she still had hope deep in her heart that he would find the strength to face his feelings but she had learned to stop hoping. he had already broken her heart and this time she promised herself to protect herself. She would always love him, a part of her heart belonged to him but he wouldn't be the only one, he was only the first.
Eventually, they had talked about what his life could have been like if he had stopped running. He had laughed, he couldn't imagine it anymore. And that was the problem. He had a purpose now, a mission to accomplish and he was looking for the path to peace. He had found a family in Crime Sorcière and he would never stop running across the country looking for souls in search of redemption. It was a noble purpose. He felt invested with a mission and he devoted his life to it, but there was no place for him, he lived for and through others. He would not stop.
He had told her about the torture without ever going into detail. He was too secretive to dwell on what he had suffered in some of the most sordid prisons. He did not want to risk reliving that, his nomadic and secretive lifestyle protected him. This was his reward, he didn't ask for more. She was this more.
" But they needed guinea pigs to try their inventions and we are the living dead. Condemned to prison until our last breath, forbidden to receive visitors, our fate is to be erased. No one will notice our disappearance, we are already dead. " finally said Indel.