A Lost Boy

Chapter 21

Little did the children know, was that no one was going home that night. On that night Captain Hades was going to put his ultimate plan into action. After the parrot told him what he had seen when following Juvia, he prepared to head straight for Gray's hideout so that he would at last have his revenge.

"Just think of it Capricorn." Hades said as his first mate polished his boots. "After all these years I shall finally rid myself of that boy."

"Aye Captain. A great day this is." Capricorn said, getting real sick of this routine.

"And I have you to thank for it." He said ushering toward Meredy who was still trapped in a lantern case, now perched on his desk.

"You lying, filthy, rat!" She cursed. "You tricked me!"

"You've got no one to blame but yourself. I ticked and manipulated you but it was your choice to trust me and you did. Ironic isn't it? That Gray was betrayed by his own fairy."

"I won't let you do this!"

"You already have. You did the very minute you agreed to lead me to that girl." He said. "But don't look so guilty, in the end I'm doing you a favor. Once he's dead you'll be free, no longer bound by love or desire. I freed myself from both when I eliminated the object of my affection years ago."

"The woman you fell for? You killed her?!"

"I didn't have to be like that. If she had only accepted me then I would have spared her but she chose that scoundrel over me every time. She loved him so much that she ended up dying for him, although her sacrifice was quickly proven to be in vain when I killed my rival that same night. At first I mourned her loss but in time I realized that by killing her and I had completely freed myself from the suffering she and her husband had put me through. Well...Almost completely freed myself. There's just one, small, bit of their love that just refuses to die and keeps me from knowing peace. Gray."

"Gray? What are you talking about? What does he have to do with that? Why do you want him dead? Why do you hate him so?"

"Let me answer that question with a question of my own my dear fairy." He said. "What exactly is born from the union between a man and a woman?"

At first Meredy was confused by his question and was too upset and angry to think about what his words meant. But after taking a moment to calm down and remember the meaning of an old fairy phrase that said: A tree of love will sometimes bear fruit, she put the pieces together and finally realized what he was implying.

"No." She said shaking her head in shock. "No."

"Yes." He said nodding smugly.

"Don't tell me that...That your former love and rival are Gray's parents?"

"When Mika told me that she was going to marry Silver Fullbuster I was devastated. Certain that she had chosen him for being more adventurous and rebellious while I was just a prim and proper gentleman. I wanted to prove to her that I wasn't mediocre so I left the navy and began my new life as a pirate. I gave up everything to impress her. My wealth, my honor, my people's respect, I became a criminal all for her and what do I find after I return to her from a year of pillaging? That she's given birth to a baby boy fathered by a man who didn't deserve her."

Capricorn took a step back due to taking notice of the insane rage building up in his captain.

"That child was the final straw. As soon as I saw the baby in her arms I knew right then and there that she'd never leave Silver so I snapped. He humiliated me and stole my woman so I challenged him to a duel. He accepted but only to protect his family from me and he feared that our duel would end in his death so he told Mika to take that squalling brat of theirs and run. She did but I warned her that no matter where she went, no matter what she did, I'd find her and she knew that. She knew that she'd never escape me. So she hid the brat and returned to commit one final act of love, throwing herself in front of Silver just as my blade moved to give him the killing blow."

Capricorn had been afraid of Hades many times before but not like this. Seeing him in this deranged state made the first mate almost petrified.

"Oh the look on his face as he watched her die. It was like he had lost the will to live, but it was his fault she was dead. If he had just let me have her then none of that would have happened so I killed him while he was in that weak and broken state. His death, unlike hers was slow and agonizing and I relished in it all."

"So you got your revenge!" Meredy cried. "They hurt you but Gray didn't! You don't need to kill him! You already killed the people you blamed for your pain! They're gone! They're dead!"

"They both live as long as he does! He's the product of their love! A reminder that my woman chose another man! I would have killed him the same night I killed his parents but his father in his final moments of life remembered a trick he learned during one of his adventures. He opened a portal to Tendrou Island and with the last of his strength he pushed me into it. Trapping me here for the rest of my life, all in hopes that I'd never be able to find his son. But then thirteen years later a boy with Mika's playful eyes and Silver's smug face came to that very same island. What a delicious sense of irony."

"You're insane! Completely out of your mind! Gray shouldn't have to die because of your jealousy!"

"Yet you believe that Juvia should die because of yours?"

She became silent and full of shame when at long last she acknowledged who was really at fault for everything bad that had happened to her. She wasn't that different from Captain Hades. She had let her own jealousy drive her to hate someone innocent, betray the person she loved most, ruin her life, and through it all she blamed everyone except the real person who was responsible. Herself.

"Oh no." She said letting it all sink in. "What have I done?"

"You've liberated yourself." He said. "Just as I liberated myself all those years ago. In time you'll understand that you did the right thing."

He put on his best coat then put three weapons on his belt. A sword, a pistol, and bottle of poison. Once that was done he left his quarters with Capricorn and made ready to leave with the crew.

"You've been awfully quiet Mr. Capricorn." He said. "Something troubling you?"

"No sir it's just that...You told me about the mishap with Mika and Sliver but you never told me Gray was their son or that in the end you killed her."

"So? It doesn't change anything does it?"

"No it's just that...I knew you were ruthless but this..." He wasn't sure what else to say. "Once you kill him what will you do with the other children?"

"What else? Kill them as well?"

"Isn't that taking things a little too far?"

"Well I'll give their little 'mother' a chance to live however not one of those boys will be left alive."

"But what do you have to gain by killing them?"

"The insurance that no child will ever dare challenge me again."