TAINTED. GRUVIA

09*

忘れる forget;

Juvia 水

I watched as a purple liquid was poured onto the back of my hand. It sizzled, accompanied by an overwhelming sense of burning pain. My cries came from deep within my chest, and I screamed until my throat was sore and my larynx started to fail me.

Finally, it stopped, and I started coughing violently until I coughed up a splatter of crimson blood. My breathing was ragged and heavy—it was a miracle I could still breathe properly.

"Poison," Scales admired the curvature of his nails as he spoke, "draining it from my nails is quite bad for them."

"But it's for good use," Urania added.

Of course she would think that. Urania hated me—it was obvious. Although hot white flashes burned the back of my eyes, I could tell she was avoiding the glare I was sending her.

"I still think this is a little extreme," Kalio admitted. Finally, a voice of reason spoke.

"No, this is necessary," Alexe said. "Gray this, and Gray that. It's getting annoying."

"What the hell are you talking about, asshole? I joined this guild to get away from him and I was getting over him," I hissed through gritted teeth. "If you would leave me alone and stop being a jealous prick-"

"Listen here, you," Alexe began with a growl. "You don't have any position to even speak!"

Indira sighed. "She has a point. Let's put a stop to this. We have other matters to attend to."

As much as Indira and I seemed to not get along, I was glad that she put an end to the meaningless torture. I was a powerful mage; being treated like a pig infuriated me. I had already proven my allegiance—I even killed Gray!—what more did they want?

"First of all, Fairy Tail," Indira began, "they are our main target, more specifically, Natsu Dragneel."

"The Dragon Slayer?" Scales questioned, raising a brow.

"Exactly," Indira nodded as she ordered Kalio and Urania to untie me from the splintering wooden chair I was tied to. Before Scales could question her, Indira continued, "and now I have a question for Juno: Is Gray really dead?"

I stood up, rubbing my wrist to soothe the wounds of my struggle. "He is dead."

Alexe seemed unsatisfied with my answer. "How dead?"

"You... you can't be more or less dead."

"Enough, we are going to believe Juno on this. Now let's move onto more important matters," Indira and the rest of the team headed to the briefing room. I followed closely behind Kalio, the only one I trusted slightly more. Indira watched as we all sat down and spoke, "another scum from Fairy Tail has tried tracking us down. She's locked up in the dungeons for us to execute her."

"Another Fairy Tail brat?" Urania scoffed. "When will those fools ever learn? They've already lost three of their powerful mages. What makes them think they aren't going to lose more?"

"Anyways, Juno, you're going to complete the execution," Indira nodded at me.

"Why me?" I protested. "Juvia has... I've killed four people—do you still not trust me?" I asked calmly, yet my anger was rising. "I changed my appearance, I changed the way I speak, I've killed my friends, and it's still not enough?"

"Don't get mad, Juno," Kalio said while mindlessly braiding a small lock of her chestnut hair, "you're the newbie so of course we're asking a lot from you."