This fic is gonna be long, folks. I enjoyed the opportunity to play around with several aspects of how Fairy Tail's redemption arcs are handled. This is going to be mostly a commentary on that, with a villain that really, really does not want anything to do with Fairy Tail's brand of acceptance.

Another shoutout to Raijindork for helping me edit.

This is dedicated to iammamadragneel on Tumblr, who requested this pairing which then exploded into... this.

Boots clicking down the stone hallway, Juvia nervously cast about the cold underground. The prison beneath the Magic Council was by no means a pleasant accommodation, and the lower she went, the more she shivered. She had left the cells of the minor criminals - those there for only a brief stay - behind long ago. But her destination was a long ways off yet.

Juvia wondered if this had been a good idea, after all. Something about the place set her on edge, and her instincts were screaming for her to return to fresh light and air. Instead, she set her jaw and looked determinedly forward, intent on reaching her goal.

Eventually, the guard leading her stopped in front of a nondescript door and held up a key in his webbed fingers. "This will take you to the special holding cells," he explained. "I'm only authorized to take you as far as the door. Your next escort will be on the other side and will take you to the prisoner." He waited for her nod of understanding, and then he tapped his knuckles on the door. When a muffled voice on the other side responded, he rattled off a complicated series of authorizations that Juvia couldn't follow. Then, finally, he unlocked the door and ushered her through.

As soon as she had cleared the door, she heard it shut behind her with a firm snick of the key in the lock.

No turning back now.

The new guard bowed slightly to her. "Please follow me." Once he was certain of her cooperation, he turned on his heel and strode down the hall at a brisk pace.

Struggling a little with his long stride, Juvia kept close to the guard. She briefly noted that the floor sloped downward as far as she could see.

"You will not be taken directly to the cells themselves," her guard suddenly spoke again after a long period of silence. "For security reasons, you understand. A visit by a civilian such as yourself to a prisoner on this level is highly unusual. But since the prisoner has been otherwise uncooperative, and you were sponsored, you've received special dispensation. Instead of the cell, you will be brought to a... visiting chamber."

His slight hesitation led Juvia to think that maybe that wasn't its chief purpose, and she repressed a shudder. There were only so many possibilities, and Juvia had an active imagination. "Juvia understands," she replied, her voice small.

"Good."

Juvia lost track of how far they had gone, and how deep they might be - the ever-sloping floor and slight twist in the hallway keeping her sense of direction and balance off-kilter. Shivering in the chill air, she rubbed her arms, trying to coax warmth and her gooseflesh back into them. Unwillingly, her eyelids became heavy - drowsiness forced upon her by the temperature, the unchanging scenery, and the small magic circles she spotted discretely etched up in the seams where wall met ceiling.

Suddenly the guard halted in his tracks, Juvia nearly running into him. He tapped on the wall - the staccato of his knuckles on the stone echoing strangely in the hall. Then the wall let out a groan, stone shifting slightly to reveal a pulsing, violet magic circle. "Please step through."

She hesitated for a moment, and then reached out to touch it. Her hand passed through with only a slight resistance - like she was pushing through shallow water. Juvia lifted her foot and stepped through the gateway, emerging into a bright space. Eyes squinted against the harsh florescence, Juvia observed that the room was painted a dark, dull gray, and divided into two parts by a glass wall with a metal table bisecting it in the center.

Cool, padded fingertips touched her elbow. "Ms. Lockser," yet another guard stated formally. "The prisoner will arrive soon. Please take your seat."

Juvia allowed her to steer her towards the table. Unlike the hallway from which she'd come, the room was... not cold. But Juvia wouldn't say it was warm, either. Nor was it the perfect balance of neutral. Although uncomfortable, Juvia counted it a small blessing that the metal chair at the table wasn't freezing as a result. Normally the cold wasn't so much a problem for her, as she could not get frostbite thanks to her water body. But it could make it difficult to move or freeze her legs to the chair; which would be problematic when next she tried to stand.

Her nerves on complete edge from the whole experience thus far, she felt she could hardly be blamed for jumping in her seat when the door on the other side of the glass suddenly opened, and a bedraggled prisoner was escorted in. Cheeks slightly reddening, Juvia observed the man being seated across from her.

Pale hair stringy with grease framed a gaunt, severe face. The dark circles under his eyes were stark against his skin - washed out by the harsh lighting. His glasses were nowhere in evidence. Juvia thought she remembered them getting smashed by Gray, but it was clear that The New Era had not seen fit to replace them. A pale yellow, fading bruise marked his jawline, and his brow was pulled together in a glower. Which he leveled squarely at Juvia while the guards fastened his cuffs to a hook on the table. Once the guards were finished, they retreated to the far corners of the room, taking up a watchful stance.

Before coming here, Juvia had thought maybe she'd feel fear, looking at him. Now that he was across from her... she found that he bore only a passing likeness to the man that had pitted her and Gray against each other. There was something in his countenance that was alien to her memories. And yet... she couldn't put her finger on what, precisely, was different.

"Speak into the lacrima," the guard standing on her side prompted when it seemed like the silence she'd fallen into would drag on.

Flushing, Juvia leaned forward. "H-hello," she said.

The man's crystalline gaze did not waver, nor did he respond.

Juvia swallowed, and continued as if he had. "H-how are you?" She mentally kicked herself for saying it the second the words left her lips.

His curled up into a sneer. "Never better," he hissed. He lifted his arms as much as the chain allowed, and shook his manacles. "Or is that not obvious?"

Instead of flushing further in her nervousness and embarrassment, all the color drained from Juvia's face, as his sibilant voice arose from the lacrima. His voice. It was harsher than she remembered, cracking from dehydration. But it accomplished what his broken appearance had not. Juvia trembled, bile rising in the back of her throat, phantom words from months ago drifting through her head, devoid of kindness, calmly ordering her death... and Gray's. She tasted blood on her tongue, having unknowingly bit the inside of her cheek, smelled dirt, and felt fire erupt across her scar as fresh as the day she'd received it.

The overwhelming panic rising like the sea inside her chest sealed her tongue.

Irritation at her silence seemed to be the crack in the dam of his silence, however.

"What did you come here for?" he asked. "To gloat over your victory? To gawk at the prisoner? If so... well the fact that any of you Ishtarans are still around is taunt enough. Your goal is accomplished. Leave the defeated to our fate, and get on with the life you scavenged." With each syllable uttered, the more frigid his voice became.

"That's not… that's not why Juvia is here," she said.

"Then you are a new torturer? If so, this isn't going to work on me. Bringing in a woman to play upon my sympathies? To put me off guard and cajole me into revealing Alvarez's secrets with false kindness? Please, save your breath and your insults and just get back to the physical torture. That, at least, staves off the boredom."

Juvia stared in horror at him. It was one thing to guess at what was happening behind the prison walls, it was another to hear it from the horse's mouth. And with such… blasé, at that. What would make him think that she was there to manipulate him, too?

She suddenly wondered if he could even see who she was.

"Say something!" he demanded, a snarl forming on his face. "If you've got nothing else to talk about, then let me go back to my damn cell."

Flinching, Juvia shook her head as a guard made a step towards him. "Don't you recognize Juvia?" she asked him, sorrow in her eyes.

Though he may not have been able to see her with any clarity, he certainly heard the pity in her voice. "Should that name mean anything to me?"

That cut, deeper than Juvia thought it could. Something inside of her bled crimson, an ache blooming in her chest to match the one pulsing in her scar.

She felt sick.

The prisoner scoffed at her silence.

Whatever was sealing her tongue lifted, as the warmth of anger flooded her veins. Who was he, to taunt her like this? To make light of what he'd done? To forget it entirely? Juvia and Gray had taken him down before, had not allowed him to defeat them, and Juvia would be damned if she allowed him to do so now.

"Invel." His name echoed in the room, the first time it had been spoken since her arrival. The man's face scrunched up in disgust, but his hesitation was apparent to Juvia. Names had power, and somehow she got the feeling that he hadn't heard his own in some time. At any rate, he didn't heckle her, so she continued. "Juvia didn't come to hurt you."

Puzzlement clouded his countenance, the flow of malice that had previously seeped out of him temporarily staunched. "That's what they always say."

"Juvia… Juvia came to offer you something."

He stared at her blankly, unmoving in both form and interest.

"Juvia wanted to… to offer you the same thing that Juvia was offered, a long time ago." She reached out, pressing her hand to the glass that separated them. "A chance to redeem yourself, to make a better life than the one you've led. To be a part of something warm, to…"

Fury met her heartfelt plea. Bone deep, soul aching fury that chilled Juvia to her core.

"You presume much," he stated softly, hatred in every syllable. "What makes you think that I even need redeeming? What makes you think that your pity," the word was nearly spat out, "would be welcome here? Who do you think you are, that you presume to know me?" Invel leaned back in his chair, and closed his frosty eyes. "We're done here," he announced to the room. "Take me back to my cell."

The conversation effectively shut down, the guards moved to their prisoner.

Juvia stared, dumbfounded, as they began to lead him away. This wasn't anywhere close to how she'd imagined the conversation would go. When Fairy Tail had offered its hand to her, she'd been eager to take it! Even Gajeel had wanted what they had for himself, though it took him longer to admit it. Juvia had assumed that Invel would be much the same. That's the way it had always worked in the past. The defeated learned the error of their ways, and made strides to change. Eventually entering the fold.

It had never occurred to her that Invel would rebuff her so thoroughly.

"Wait!" she called out, just as they were about to leave.

His lip curling in abject revulsion, Invel glanced back at her. "What now?"

Jaw moving without sound, it took Juvia half a moment to muster up her parting words. "Juvia will be back," she finally said, determination in her eyes.

He regarded her intensely, processing her statement. "Don't waste your time."

Then he was swept out the door, and Juvia felt the heavy hand of a guard on her shoulder.