Gajeel looked at his handy work with great satisfaction. It had been quite a while since he had the opportunity to blow off some steam to such an extent, so he was quite thankful that the one he'd chosen had been such a pushover. Grinning with great content, he turned around and began walking out of the park. As he neared the exit he noticed a familiar hooded-man at the gate leading to the street. He stopped immediately and watched him with great care. He felt neigh paralyzed as the man began walking towards him with torturously slow steps.

"So the rumors were true…you really did join their shit guild," Gajeel said hesitantly when the man he knew as Vile had come reasonably close to him.

"You should know by now that I don't owe anyone allegiance," he replied with amusement. "You really did a number on Gray, didn't you?" he asked, looking over at Gray's unconscious body that was hanging from a tree in plain sight. He looked beaten and battered, and from what Vile could see, one of his legs was turning the wrong way.

Gajeel looked back at his victim with a self-indulgent smile upon his face. "It was almost as if he was begging to be beaten, being so weak and all," he noted with venomous glee. "He didn't even fight back."

"Did you give him a chance to?" Vile asked.

"No, and why would I? Besides, it's not like you care about him anyway, knowing you, you probably watched me kick the shit out of him and you did nothing to prevent it."

"You're probably right, maybe I did do that, though what I did or did not do should not be your primary concern at this point. I'm certain that notice about Gray's situation has already been sent to the other members of the guild at this moment, leaving you in the middle of the rat's nest with no way out."

"Nothing's going to happen to me, at least not now."

"How are you so sure of that?"

"Because you're talking to me. It'd be real bad if they found you talking to their enemy and even worse if they found out that we've known each other for a long time."

"Are you trying to blackmail me?"

"Yes," Gajeel said, grinning defiantly.

"How are you so sure that I won't just leave you?"

"Because someone in that crowd must have seen us talking," he said, gesturing towards the people walking by on the street just outside the park.

"Which is based solely upon the assumption that they can actually see me."

"But they can."

"You shouldn't be so sure about that," he responded.

There was a short-lived silence between the two.

"So, why aren't you leaving?" Gajeel asked questioningly.

"Because I'm intending to make you vanish."

"If you were planning to do that from the beginning, why did we have to go through all of that?" Gajeel asked with a sigh.

"It's because I needed you to understand that I'm doing this out of my own volition and not because you have some flimsy idea that you could actually force me to do something."

"Yeah yeah, you and your volition, intent or whatever the fuck you wish to call it…I'm getting tired of this shit, so just get me out of here so I can be done with it."

"You should be more careful Gajeel. There's more than one way to make people disappear," Vile said coldly. Gajeel recalled a rather unpleasant memory that he'd preferred be purged from his mind. "Just because you became stronger since we last met does not mean that I became weaker."

Gajeel wasn't normally one to be threatened but when he was, he would usually confront them in the most violent way possible, but he made a few exceptions, most of which involved the man standing in front of him. His thoughts lingered in the clear memory that had much to his dismay imprinted itself onto his mind. It had been years since it happened, before Phantom Lord.

He had been walking around the country in a blind search for his 'father', Metalicana, the iron dragon. He had been searching for almost a month before he entered a city for the first time. Unfortunately for him, he'd entered the city's slums and begun asking people if they knew of his long-gone father. His prospects of success were looking quite grim, but once he'd asked for quite a while, he was approached by a man who promised to help find his father, provided Gajeel followed him to ask his master personally. Of course, blinded by childish ignorance he obliged and followed the man into the deeper and filthier parts of the slums where the roads weren't even laid with bricks, but with a thick layer of mud and the shanties looked just about ready to crumble.

It wasn't long before he grew worried as to where the man was taking him, but after having voiced his concerns, the man had quickly explained that his master was a good man, who lived amongst the poorest because he was the most humble of humans. Gajeel had trusted the man for reasons he could not explain, and yet there was still a seed of discontent in the back of his mind, wishing for him to run away. He didn't, though.

It wasn't long before they reached a somewhat large tent amidst the seemingly endless sea of shanties and poorly crafted shacks.

"Wait out here," the man told Gajeel as he stepped inside the tent briefly, only to emerge seconds later. "You can come in now," he said with a smile, holding the entrance to the tent open for him. Gajeel stepped inside, with a growing sense of discomfort. Inside the tent, there was a small, but expertly carven wooden desk, behind which sat a man with a smug-smile on his face. He was, by no means, humble in appearance as he sat there looking at him with a royal benevolence and supremacy that made Gajeel sick to his stomach. His fat fingers were adorned with rings of gold, and his lavish robe was woven with silver thread.

"Well well, who is this you've brought me?" he asked, standing up from his chair and walking around the table to look at him better.

"This one was looking for 'is father," the man explained.

"His father you say," he exclaimed in vehement surprise, which Gajeel doubted was real. "Well, who might your father be, little one?"

He wanted to stay quiet and not say a thing, but the hands on his shoulders clenched even tighter as the silence continued. He was sincerely regretting having gone with the man. "Metalicana," he muttered beneath his breath. The grasp tightened even more. It was beginning to hurt. He wanted to leave.

"Excuse me, could you please repeat that?" he said, leaning in closer.

"I said his name is Metalicana," Gajeel said loudly and tried to shake himself loose of the hand that was firmly gripping the back of his neck. It remained.

"Metalicana...I'm afraid I've not heard of such a strange name around these parts, boy. Do you perchance remember your father's profession?"

"He's a dragon."

He laughed, much to Gajeel's annoyance. "A dragon you say! Well, that's a new one," he said, composing himself. He turned around and walked back to his desk and with a dismissing gesture of his hand, he said with a newfound phlegmatic malevolence; "Throw him into the cages with the rest of those bloody guttersnipes...no, actually, clear out the one of the pits instead and throw him in there. This one gives me a bad feeling."

The grip around his neck tightened significantly and he was pushed towards the back of the tent. Gajeel was done with the whole situation and resolved to the only apparent option. He carnalized what magic he could feel into his fist and saw with self-satisfaction how it slowly and surely morphed into metal. That satisfaction was nothing compared to the feeling of swinging his arm and having it land directly into the man's face. He yelped in pain as he let go of Gajeel who quickly took a step away from him, though was careful not to go too close to the fat man with the fancy clothes whose attention had now directed itself back towards him.

"Would you look at that…he's a mage! It's been quite a while since we had one of those, hasn't it?"

"Shut the fuck up!" the other man shouted back at him, trying to fix his nose that had been broken. Blood was trailing down his face.

Gajeel, now free from the grip, began edging towards the exit while making sure to keep a close eye on the two of them. It proved quite troublesome considering one of the two was behind him.

"Listen kid, you have a decision to make now. Either you choose to comply, or we will force you to, simple as that really."

"You can't force me to do anything."

The man seemed almost surprised by his statement, emitting a short chuckle. "No matter how many times I hear that, it never seizes to amaze me," he said with a content sigh. "Now that I think about it, I reckon every brat with the slightest speck of magic has said the exact same thing…curious thing, isn't it?"

"Clam it, he's getting away," he muttered through his hand that was still covering his nose…he hated this part. Granted, any part that didn't involve or lead to the involvement of the local whorehouse was to him a living nightmare which rightfully should end as soon as it possibly could. The thing was, his affection for the brothel didn't prevent him from hating some situations more than others, and as such he found himself deeply regretting his decision to work for the fat, ostentatious slob that only ever got around to doing anything until it was nearly too late. What angered him the most was he always succeeded. If he had to hear the words, 'you say', one more time, he was going to inflict some serious damage on an innocent fence that couldn't 'suspend' his pay. He felt nothing but contempt for mages, especially the mage that was currently using his undeserved magic to strangulate a child without even batting an eye. It was despicable, and he could do nothing to stop him, not that he actually wanted to do so, since the kid was a mage as well. That fact at least soothed his mind.

Gajeel was clawing at a collar that had materialized around his neck that was now ever so slowly becoming tighter, almost as if it was squeezing the life out of him. He was desperately trying to tear it off him, though it became increasingly difficult as he saw his vision blur and his head become light-headed. It was to no avail regardless, since every time he tried to grab hold of it, his fingers slipped right through it and he ended up scratching his already strained throat. It wasn't long before he finally gave up. He slumped down, struggling for air in a quiet, pathetic wheezing.

"See?" The collar loosened. "I can make you do exactly what I want you to do, that is, if you don't want to die of course."

Gajeel gasped for air as it flooded into his lungs.

"Do you want to die?"

Gajeel, after having finally recuperated and regained control over his respiratory systems, shook his head slowly and hesitantly.

"Good! Excellent even. Now, if you would be so kind as to follow Magnis, that would be great," he said, motioning towards Magnis, who at this point had 'fixed' his nose and wiped the blood off on his sleeve. He grunted with dejection as he stared at his bloodied sleeve. He knew from experience that blood was hard to get off one's clothes.

With an exasperated expression engraved into his face, he grabbed hold of Gajeel's arm and dragged him to an exit at the back of the tent, through which they entered a sizeable, albeit worn-out shanty. Their entry elicited a low murmur from the many guttersnipes whom inhabited quite a few large iron cages on each side of the room that was split down the half by three holes barred with wood. Gajeel counted three cages on either side of the room, though the number of kids in each seemed to vary, he figured it'd be somewhere between seven to nine. Per cage.

They were all illuminated by two wavering torches that were standing perpendicular in their own respective aisles. In spite of that, the room seemed to be submerged in eternal shadows, mostly because of the darkened wood that had been used to construct the walls along with the ceiling, the dark-iron bars of the cages and the kids who, with certain degrees of filthiness and withered clothes, seemed almost natural in the shady room. The rain pattered violently and the wood creaked beneath their feet as Magnis dragged Gajeel over to one of the cages.

Magnis let go off his shoulder and Gajeel considered bolting, but it seemed as if the mere thought of running brought along a tightening in the collar. As a result, he stood still and watched Magnis snatch a bundle of keys out of his pocket, fiddled with them, found the right one, yelled at the kids to back off and unlocked the cage, after which he promptly pushed Gajeel into the cage.

He half-tumbled into the cage, for some reason unprepared for the sudden push. The cage was locked even before he managed to turn around to look at his captor. Magnis had already at this point moved on, going over to a crate, and that was when Gajeel simply stopped caring about what he did. He sat down in the somewhat cramped cage and sighed. He looked around at the other unfortunate children. On every face he could see, bar one, was dejection, fatigue and hopelessness. The one that defied this pattern sat in the corner by himself, slowly rocking back and forth with his legs hugged against his chest. He didn't look very old to Gajeel, he was probably a few years younger than him, conjectured from his size alone. He seemed to be lost in a world of his own, as he sat there, gazing at the empty wall, though it wasn't long before the kid eventually noticed Gajeel's gaze and returned it. Gajeel looked away in response, but regardless of that, the kid stood up and walked over to him. Some of the others groaned.

"My Papa will come for me," the kid said with a burning sincerity Gajeel had never seen before. "Papa will definitely come," he continued, looking down at Gajeel with a self-reassuring smile. It was almost as if the boy held the fact that he would be rescued by his 'Papa' over everyone else, as if it put him on a pedestal above the rest.

"Don't let yourself be bothered by that one, he's a bit bonkers. He's been here for five days and after the first two days, he begins to think that his father will come for him…must be nice to be so delusional," Magnis noted offhandedly whilst tying a robe to a hook, just over one of the pits.

The kid heard none of this, as he'd already returned to his former position in the corner, wholly absorbed in whatever was going on inside of his mind. The others looked at him spitefully, yet stayed quiet about the whole ordeal. They had gone used to it over the last couple of days, most of them anyway.

Gajeel didn't say anything either, not that he could because the collar prohibited from doing so. He returned to what he had been doing in the first place, which was to look at the other prisoners in the cage. He noticed two things, one being that none of them had collars on and the second being that they all didn't seem to care the slightest about him, not even glancing at him.

"Weird thing is, the man this kid says is his father died some time ago. I even told him when he was having one of his...fits, or whatever you want to call it. Didn't stop him in the slightest, hell, one might say it even agitated him even more."

Gajeel looked back at the kid with sympathy, but he was still far-gone. He heard a click and looked back towards Magnis, who had just opened up the pit over which he had tied the rope. He threw an astounding length of the rope down the hole and started a quick descent down into the pit. He returned after a minute, and after having come back to the surface, he began pulling the rope up. The end of the rope, which emerged from the depths of the pit, had been tied to a bucket, which Magnis promptly untied. He grimaced slightly. Gajeel lost interest again.

The door unlocked and opened. "Get up," Magnis ordered Gajeel. He stood up, only to have his arm grabbed and he was dragged to the pit. "This'll be your home for the next couple of days." Gajeel looked down and realized he was unable to see the bottom of the pit. Not necessarily because it was very deep, but because it was void of any and all light. "This bucket'll be your best friend," Magnis said, handing him a bucket, which smelled utterly foul.

Gajeel looked at the bucket, and then back up at Magnis, his facial expression begging the question, 'why'.

Magnis smirked in response. "You'll see soon enough what you're going to use it for."

Gajeel shook his head and kept looking at him.

"What?"

He opened his mouth with great caution, and felt the collar tighten ever so slightly. He decided to ignore whatever survival instinct was telling him to keep his mouth shut, and asked the question that had festered in his mind for quite a while. "Why are you doing this?" he managed to say, as fast as he could. Immediately afterwards, he felt the collar tighten immensely and he found himself gasping for air on the ground again.

"That," Magnis said, motioning towards the pit, "is for the unruly who think they have power, or at least that's what that bloody mage told me to say in case anyone was stupid enough to ask…I reckon it's just a powertrip, but hell, what do I know? For everything else, well…he told me that if you're not strong enough to own yourself, then we are. That sounds like bullshit to me too, so I guess it's just because he's greedy. As for myself..." he stopped. "I like to think I don't really have a choice, but that's not true…maybe it's because I'm worried someone worse might replace me…although that's not it either…I don't really know. No one ever asked me why I'm doing this, and I guess what you meant to ask is 'why are you doing this to me'…" he sighed.

"Just get down there," he said, handing him the part of rope. "Hold on," he muttered, after which he gave him a push, sending him out over the pit with the rope in one hand and the bucket in his other.

Being unable to hold on properly, Gajeel slowly slid down the rope. He clenched his teeth in pain as he felt the rough rope burn into his hand. The descent was brief, but somewhat terrifying as the light began to diminish as he slid down into the depths of the pit. When he finally reached the bottom, he released the rope with a sigh of relief and put down the bucket. It was dark, frighteningly so. He couldn't see the ground he was standing on, nor the rope that was slowly sliding up as it was being pulled by Magnis. He looked up and was briefly blinded by the light, but as his eyes readjusted, he could see the rope disappearing and then subsequently the hatch fell in place and blocked out the light, submerging Gajeel in absolute darkness.

For reasons he could not understand, there was only one thought circulating inside of his mind as he sat in the perpetual blackness.

'Papa will come for me'.

And another chapter draws to an end. As always, I hope you enjoyed this slightly different chapter and feel free to leave a review to share your thoughts.