Gray's POV

Bile rose up my throat so many times I was surprised I hadn't hurled across the floor as Phaedra described what her childhood had been like under the control of King Hiz-what's-it. Guilt and remorse had seemed to leak from every pore of her body as she explained that the King had turned her into an executioner. Then her voice had tremored with disgust and fear as she described when she had realized that the King was sleeping with the other Princesses and the girls actually fought each other to be with him. When she started numbly describing how he had forced her to undress him, though, my blood seemed to freeze inside me and I had never wanted to kill someone more in my life.

The faraway look that had been in Phaedra's blue eyes this whole time slowly left as she stopped her story. Fear, anguish, revulsion, and a terrible sadness flashed across her face as she seemed to struggle to continue with her story. I wanted to tell her that she didn't need to continue, that we had been wrong to make her relive this... But I was so angry that I couldn't even get the words past my clenched throat before she cleared her own and glanced towards Wendy, who was silently crying in her spot next to Phaedra's bed.

"He, uh... touched me. In ways that I didn't know a human body could be touched," Phaedra said, pulling her arms to wrap around her stomach in what seemed like a self-conscious motion. "After he had... explored me... he pulled the enchanted knife out that he used to mark me and carved the message on my stomach."

In my mind's eye, I recalled the jagged words of "YOU ARE MINE" scrawled across her flat stomach while she had been held captive by the kidnappers. Fury swept through me and I reached behind me to grab onto the bedpost for support so that I wouldn't try to punch a hole through the wall and find the bastard that did this to her.

"After he had finished that, I thought he would be satisfied. I thought... he would stop... " Phaedra's voice was shaking and her eyelids were blinking rapidly as moisture began to swim in her eyes. She swiftly reached up and swiped at her eyes, looking away from Wendy and turning her eyes, which were still swimming with unshed tears, up towards the ceiling.

"He cut my underclothes and started kissing me. I tried to bite him, but that only seemed to make it worse. When he went inside me... I had never felt more violated in my entire life... And something inside me just snapped." Phaedra slowly lowered her eyes and looked directly at Laxus and then slid over and our eyes connected. I didn't dare look away as she stared at me with her eyes swimming with tears and I wished I knew a spell that could take away the pain that she felt.

"When I was in the cave, I let off a huge amount of light, right?" she asked in a soft voice. I nodded mutely, remembering back to the explosion of light that had knocked out her captors and herself.

"Well, imagine that times a thousand," she said with a humorless chuckle. "When I finally woke up, the King was on the other side of the room unconscious and for the first time since I was twelve, I was completely free. My body moved when I told it to, and it cried even when I didn't want it to," she said with a look of wonder at the memory.

"I pulled on the King's shirt and ran. I was completely out of magical power, but as I ran through the castle every palace guard that I ran into was stumbling around and saying that they couldn't see. I have no idea if I actually blinded them or if it was just a temporary effect of my magical explosion, but by some miracle, I made it all the way to the seaport. I stowed away on a ship of one of the Ishgarian merchants."

"But I thought you said no one remembered Prekt," Erza commented when she paused for a breath. Phaedra nodded slowly and turned to face her, and I realized that her face was even paler than normal.

"Prekt is a desert kingdom like I said, and so we can't get things like wood for building or spices that don't grow without a lot of rain. So throughout the years, we have created partnerships with less than a dozen merchants from Ishgar and we trade with them and purchase things from the other kingdoms. It's one of the Princesses' duties to oversee all of the merchants and make sure they never reveal our secrets," she explained tiredly.

"So you escaped to Ishgar when you were 18?" Wendy asked, her tears still dripping down her cheeks silently.

"Yes. When I got to Ishgar I had nothing of value to my name and I was terrified that the King would send someone after me to bring me back. So I went to the blacksmith's in the town we docked at and begged for him to come up with a way to block the magic that the king had planted inside me." Phaedra reached up and laid a hand against her collarbone, over where the layer of magic sealing stone was burned into her chest.

"Wait, so... YOU burned the sealing stone into your chest?" I heard myself ask in disbelief. Phaedra looked over at me and some of her old defiant coldness hardened her tired eyes.

"Yes," she stated emphatically. "I got lucky. The blacksmith was an escaped Prektian and he had seen the monstrosities that the King had committed. He suggested that he could make me a removable shirt of sealing stone, but I told him I would gladly give up my magic to have the certainty that the king could never take over my mind again."

A loud sob escaped Lucy, who was sitting at the edge of Phaedra's bed. She quickly covered her mouth and shook her head in a silent apology. Phaedra's eyes softened as she looked at Lucy crying for her past pain and I couldn't even imagine willingly allowing someone to burn metal into my skin.

"But you can still use magic," Laxus observed with a raised eyebrow. Phaedra sighed heavily and nodded her head in agreement.

"At first I couldn't. After the blacksmith fused the sealing stone against my tattoo, I was completely cut off from my light magic. Even though he had already helped me so much, he let me stay with him. I tended the shop for him, learned how to haggle with even the most stubborn sailor, and even picked up a few simple blacksmithing techniques," Phaedra's eyes took on the faraway look from before as she leaned her head against the wall and continued her explanation.

"I felt happier than I had since I was a kid. But then the blacksmith that took me in got sick and within three months, he was gone. I didn't know enough to keep the forge open, so I took the money I had saved up from working for him and left. I traveled across the kingdom and became obsessed with trying to remove my scars. It was difficult to hide them and everyone seemed scared of them when they saw them, which was understandable." Phaedra raised one of her hands and spread out her fingers so she could see the H caved into the back of her hand and we all could see the letter etched into her palm.

"No matter what I did, though, they never faded. I eventually found my way into the Phoenix mountains where I met an old medicine woman while I was looking for a plant someone had said could help remove scars. She was kind to me and took me under her wing. I learned all about medicinal plants, and while I was with her she encouraged me to try and perform magic. She said that since the magic sealing stone was fused to my skin, it was possible that after so much time I would have developed a kind of immunity to its effect."

I found myself leaning forward, getting completely caught up in Phaedra's story.

"With her guidance, I was able to little by little access my magic. I couldn't go as fast as I used to, and no matter what I did, I couldn't create the light beams that the king had made me use to kill people with, but even having my lightspeed and being able to create light when it was too windy to start a fire was amazing. After I had been with the medicine woman for a year though, we made a mistake and stumbled into a pack of Ice Wyvern during mating season."

I blinked in shock at this twist, thinking back to our job and how much Phaedra had seemed to know about the Ice Wyverns. Something inside me warned me that this story was not going to have a happy ending and I folded my arms sadly.

"They attacked us. I tried desperately to save the medicine woman. I tried harder than I ever had to create a light beam so I could defend her, but instead of a beam of light that sliced through anything, a shimmering barrier burst into existence all around us. I was able to keep the Ice Wyverns away and they eventually got tired of beating against my barrier so they left. But... even though they had given up, I hadn't been fast enough. The beast's mortally wounded the medicine woman and she died in my arms."

Two silent tears slid from her left eye down her cheek and I felt like someone was reaching into my heart and twisting it. My mind jumped back to the awful memory of the day I had foolishly gone after Deliora. Ur, my teacher and the woman who had loved me like a son, had given her life to defeat the demon and save my life. I felt a connection to Phaedra that seemed unreal as I looked at her crying for this woman that had helped her when everyone else turned her away out of fear.

"So. After that, I realized that whoever I was in contact with in this country would suffer by being around me, so I stuck to myself. I became a mage-for-hire and even though the sealing stone hurts every day, and my magic is at a third of the strength that it used to be, I wake up every day grateful that I have control of my body and mind. And I also wake up hoping that this won't be the day that King Hizeah finds me."

Phaedra closed her eyes and mouth and stood perfectly still. I leaned back against the bed frame behind me and wondered how anyone was supposed to process such a terrible story. As crazy as some of the things she had said sounded, I found that I believed her without a single doubt. My fury at the King that abused her and caused her so much pain was boiling under my skin, but as I looked at Phaedra's tired and bandaged face I couldn't help but think that, more than anything, I wanted to protect her.

"Phaedra-san... please don't leave us." I glanced over at Wendy in surprise as the young girl stood up, clasping her hands together.

Phaedra slowly opened her eyes and moved her head a fraction so she could look at Wendy. Her eyes widened slightly as Shararu stood up and threw her small arms around Phaedra's side, pushing her eyes against her ribs. From the way her arms and head were shaking, I thought the little Exceed might be crying.

Before Phaedra could react though, Wendy crawled onto the bed and wrapped her arms around Phaedra's shoulders. Her icy blue eyes widened and her mouth dropped open without a sound. Without waiting for her to gather her thoughts, Lucy joined the hug-fest and wrapped one arm around Wendy's and the other around Phaedra's back before she lowered her forehead to rest against Phaedra's shoulder.

I watched silently as Phaedra glanced between the three girls hugging her and then Erza moved from her spot leaning against the wall and sat down where Lucy had been. She rested one of her hands on Phaedra's knee, prompting Phaedra to turn and meet her eyes.

"We won't let anyone take away your freedom ever again, Phaedra. Come back to Fairy Tail with us," Erza said with a gentle voice.

Phaedra's eyes filled with tears and I was shocked when I felt moisture beginning to gather in my own eyes. I blinked rapidly in confusion and embarrassment as Phaedra bent her head down to rest against the top of Wendy's head. The girls all cried and hugged each other and I turned away, feeling a little bit awkward about what I was supposed to do.

As I was looking away from the emotional scene, Mest caught my eye and gestured towards the door. After pushing down a brief feeling of rebellious stubbornness, I nodded in understanding and all of the boys filed out of the infirmary. Sting, Yukino, and Rogue all looked up as we closed the door behind us and they sighed in relief when Laxus explained that Phaedra had woken up and seemed well.

We had been staying with the Sabertooth guild for the past two days and they had been more than hospitable. It was amazing that this guild used to be our enemies during the Magic Games. Everyone seemed to have relaxed and seemed legitimately happy to have us around, especially since we helped rescue Yukino.

"Hey Rufus," Laxus suddenly said, interrupting the current conversation. My eyes narrowed slightly at the very extra individual that turned around to meet Laxus's gaze. Rufus was a Memory Make mage who could replicate any magic that he saw or read about it as long as he could memorize it. He had beaten me soundly in one of the team games during the Magic Games, but I had claimed the final victory when I had beaten him during the last round of battles and gained a point for the Fairy Tail Team.

"How can I help you, Laxus?" he asked, bowing gracefully and causing the giant feather on his bard's hat to flop down over his face for a second.

"Have you ever read anything about a country called Prekt?" Laxus asked. Anger suddenly boiled inside of me as I glared over at Laxus.

"You don't believe her?" I accused with a growl in my voice, not thinking of the consequence of the challenging tone in my voice. Laxus didn't seem to notice my anger though as he simply shook his head at me.

"I believe her, but Rufus has read some of the oldest books in Fiore. If anyone would have heard of her country it would be him."

"Prekt?" Rufus repeated with a confused frown. "I'm sorry, Laxus, but I've never heard of it. Where is it?"

"It doesn't matter. Thanks anyway," Laxus said dismissively, turning his back to the mage and instantly earning a little bit more respect from me.

Just then the door to the infirmary opened again and the girls filed out, all of them swiping at their eyes as they closed the door behind them. I looked between all of the emotional girls and glanced back at the closed door.

"She's asleep, Gray. We should let her rest," Erza said quietly.

I stiffened, feeling awkward that I had been seen through so quickly by her. With a mumbled excuse, I turned away and sat down on the couch in the lounge area of the Sabertooth guildhall. My eyes wandered as my friends struck up conversations with the other Sabertooth mages. I wasn't sure what it was, but I felt restless and twitchy for some reason and I began to pace around the room.

"If you're going to pace then at least put your shirt o...."

I glanced down, groaning when I realized that I had somehow shucked my shirt. With a sigh, I turned to Shararu to ask if she had seen where I tossed it. But the words stuck in my throat and my mouth turned down in a frown as I looked at the white Exceed. Her mouth was hanging slightly open and she had a paw pressed to her forehead.

I took a step closer to her when suddenly she gasped and looked up. My heart stopped when I saw the look of terror that was frozen on her face and I quickly looked around for Wendy. I spotted her sitting close to Mest and loudly called out to her.

Wendy waved at me but I firmly gestured for her to come over. She quickly weaved her way through the mages milling around the guildhall. Her curious expression turned to one of concern as I pointed to Shararu, who still had the look of terror plastered across her fuzzy face.

"Shararu?! What's wrong?" Wendy gasped, picking up her partner and stroking her ears comfortingly. Shararu suddenly sucked in a breath as if she had been about to drown and then her whole body began to shiver.

"Wendy... Wendy it was awful," Shararu stammered as tears began to drip from her normally serious eyes.

"What's wrong? What happened?" she asked, her voice on the verge of hysterics. Shararu turned to look between Wendy and I and her tears continued to run down her cheeks.

"It was Phaedra... she was... chained to a moving platform. Her wrists were bleeding and she was wearing strange clothes that showed all of her scars... And then... And then there was a tall man with a green ring. He touched the stone on Phaedra's chest and she... she was screaming..." Shararu's tears fell harder and she reached up to pull her ears down as if she could still hear Phaedra's screams.

Icy fear gripped my throat and felt like it was choking all the air out of me. Without waiting to hear if there was more to Shararu's vision, I ran as fast as I could to the infirmary. I flung the door open and my eyes fell on the bed where Phaedra had been less than an hour ago. But now it was just a neatly made bed with a piece of paper on top and no sign of the beautifully broken woman I had honestly thought was going to become a part of my Fairy Tail family.

"No." Wendy's choked voice sounded behind me as I blinked in disbelief at the empty infirmary. She pushed past me, stumbling slightly before she laid Shararu on the empty bed and picked up the piece of paper. One of her hands covered her mouth as she read and her eyes moved over to me, reflecting disbelief and mortification.

Steeling myself, I walked over to Wendy and took the paper from her. Taking a deep breath I turned it over and looked at the strangely looped handwriting.

Thank you all for listening to me and for offering me a home among you. You all are the best people I have ever had the pleasure of coming in contact with. However, as much as I would love to become a member of your family and pretend that the King will give up looking for me, in my heart I know that that would be a false hope. The only way I will ever be truly free is if I go and end his reign of terror and slavery. If I am successful in my journey, then I would very much like to come back and become a part of your family. If I am unsuccessful, then I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart for teaching me what friendship and acceptance really means.

Sincerely,

Phaedra of Prekt

P.S. My dearest Wendy. I would never forgive myself if I brought pain to you or Shararu. Please know that if I could, I would never leave your side. But I cannot allow myself to stay with you when it could cause you to share the same fate as my own. Don't try to follow me. Please stay safe and I hope I will be able to come back soon.

My eyes skipped down to there very bottom of the page where a note was written in a much more cramped style, as if she had added it on a whim.

P.P.S. Gray and Laxus, I am sorry for not saying this in person, but thank you for rescuing me. I promise that I will not waste this second chance you have given me.

A strange weakness came over me and slowly my arm dropped to my side and I felt the note slip out of my fingers, fluttering to the ground. Wendy had fallen to her knees and was hugging Shararu to her chest as they both cried loudly. I looked at the two and then down at the note that Phaedra had left us and I slowly balled my fingers into a fist.

"You said a man with a green ring captured Phaedra, right, Shararu?" I asked in a low voice. Shararu turned to nod at me, tears still falling down her furry cheeks.

"Then we're going after her. I will not allow that monster to lay one more finger on Phaedra."

A/N Sigh. Sometimes I wish Phaedra wasn't so stubborn :S :S Thank you for everyone who is reading this! I love seeing your comments and also just your views make me really happy :) I hope you are enjoying the story!!