Winter's POV

The world came back into focus gradually, the same way it went out of focus what felt like just a few minutes ago. Groggy, uncertain of what had happened, of where I was, I tried to press a hand to my throbbing temple, hissing a moan from between clenched teeth. Only, my hands were bound behind my back, so the effort was useless.

The sharp memory of Candor's scream tore through my consciousness, then, and I bolted upright, my breathing erratic, chest heaving, wide eyes searching for a flash of bright green hair, of cold, calculating eyes. 

He wasn't here. 

Actually, I didn't know where here was, so there was that to consider.

I shifted, drawing my legs up beneath me, trying to ignore the pounding thrumming through my skull. I hadn't hit my head, so I guess this is what the after-effects of basically drowning were like. Great. I probably had internal bleeding or something.

I started sorting through my memories, wanting to know the last I'd experienced. There was Juvia and Sol, Lucy kidnapped, me getting kidnapped, and... Candor, being turned into stone.

Oh God. Candor, turned into stone. Did I imagine that? Oh God, please tell that was just some hallucination brought on by the fact that I literally had no oxygen getting to my brain. Please. That kid cannot... I refuse to believe that he's...

I didn't cry, because Badass Winter didn't cry. But mostly because I didn't have a free hand to wipe away my frustrated tears and that would be a hassle for me.

Oh, and on top of that, my chest ached like a bitch, more so than my head, and I was just mentally cursing out Juvia and Sol and the whole goddamn guild of Phantom Lord before I figured out that I wasn't alone in my apparent cell.

Luce was here, too. Lucky me. My sister got kidnapped, and when I attempted to save her, I got locked up with her instead. I should've gotten one hell of a medal for my stupidity.

"Yo, Luce," I mumbled, scooting closer to her so that I could gently nudge her side with my foot. She remained unresponsive. I sighed. She made me evil sometimes, she really did. Mumbling under my breath, I rammed my heel into her spine, to which she promptly shot up, a yowl ripping from her lips.

While I sat back, wriggling my wrists, trying to undo the fancy knot holding them together, I watched as Lucy collapsed back to her knees, morosely rubbing at her now-bruised back, shooting quite the death look at me. I shrugged, unapologetic, and asked, "Any idea where we are? Or why we were captured? Cause I'm at a loss."

She forgot about her back. "Phantom Lord!" she gasped, looking around the cell with new eyes. 

"I gathered that," I sighed. This was bad. I couldn't even keep myself focused on the situation at hand. My thoughts kept drifting to Candor. I'd left him in the streets, by himself, possibly transformed into a garden sculpture. He may not have liked me much, but he probably trusted me to make sure he wouldn't be shoved off to a topiary garden. "So you're about as useful as I am then."

"Hey!"

"Oh, you're awake, after all, Miss Lucy Heartfilia. And Miss Lucy Heartfilia Number Two."

Lucy and I jerked back as the door slammed open and in walked... a clown. No, literally, my first reaction was that we'd really been kidnapped by circus performers. The guy was reasonably tall and decked out in a pair of bat wings and a pointed hat. So, not circus. More like a cult nabbed us.

"I'm Phantom Lord's guildmaster, Jose," he said, by way of an introduction. Or an explanation. It more or less worked as both.

Hearing his name, though, my blood ran cold again. Jose... I'd known he was the head of Phantom Lord; it's all anyone had been talking about since the attack on the guild. But I'd thought the name sounded familiar even before that, and it wasn't the fact that Lucy and I had briedly considerd joining Phantom Lord before we ran into Natsu.

This man - in his outrageous and impractical costume that made me want to point and laugh at him hysterically - was one of the Ten Wizard Saints.

Like Master Makarov.

Which meant we were screwed if we were thinking of escaping. 

"I'm sorry for tying the both of you up and putting you in this filthy jail... But you're still captives. Please try and understand."

"Yeah, right," I spat, straining against my binds as I leaned forward, giving him the full force of my snarl. "Like I'd ever sympathize with the bastard who hurt Levy and the others! Ya sick freak!"

"She's right!" Lucy shouted, for once backing me up (it was really rare of her to agree with me, so I was internally fist-pumping). "And who's a captive! Untie us right now!"

He brushed us off, not even deeming us worthy of a response. "Depending on you attitude, we might treat you as VIPs instead of captives."

"...What?" we breathed.

And this is when a teeny-tiny centipede wriggled onto Lucy's thigh and she threw a fit until I nudged the toe of my boot under the thing and flung it away from her. Suffice it to say, Lucy was not an outdoors person by any means.

"See?" Jose chuckled. "You really don't want to stay in this jail. If you behave, we'll move you into a suite room."

"Che," I scoffed, turning my head away pointedly. Taking a cue from me, Lucy did the same, though she returned her gaze to Jose after a moment to ask, "W-Why did you attack us?"

My ears pricked, head swiveling aroun to see Jose's reaction. I hadn't even thought of asking. I knew Phantom and Fairy Tail were never quite the best of friends, but I'd pushed the thought of why out of my mind when they attacked Team Shadow Gear. I was too consumed with hatred and the insatiable desire for vengeance to care all that much. I was giving into my bloodlust, yet again.

Another reason Candor's attitude was so much more preferable than mine.

"Us?" he echoed, seeming momentarily perplexed. But the cloud of confusion was swept off his face as it twisted into a grimly amused expression that had me swallowing my gag reflex. "Ah, you mean Fairy Tail? That was an extra," he sneered, "just an extra."

Lucy and I exchanged a quick, baffled glance.

"Our true objective," Jose went on, reveling in the theatrics of it all with that painted face of his, "was to get hold of a certain individual. That certain individual happened ot belong to Fairy Tail. So we thought, why not kill two birds with one stone...?"

As his words seeped through the blood pounding in my ears, my face went slack, realization dawning on me, tinting my cheeks a blistering red as my anger tripled in size. He'd known our last name. Our father's name. Which meant...

I begrudging tuned back in when I heard Lucy ask who the certain individual was, because I was just so goddamn exasperated with everything that I felt the need to kick her in the side. Ya know, again.

She wasn't too happy about it, but she kept from retaliating, mostly because of what Jose said in answer to her stupid question:

"You're so slow that I almost can't believe you're a daughter of the Heartfilia family. Who else could it be? Daughter of the Heartfilia Conglomerate, Lucy Heartfilia."

He cocked his head, looking between us, eyes appraising. "Now the question remains of just which one of you is Lucy Heartfilia."

"...Just Lucy?" Lucy's voice had gone awfully small in those few seconds of silence. 

I clenched my hands into shaking fists, grateful they were behind my back. I wouldn't have to hide them myself then. 

Of course it was just Lucy. It was always just Lucy. 

"Hm?" Jose hummed, tapping his long, spindly fingers at his chin. "You seem surprised. I wonder why that is..."

"She's not surprised," I growled, lifting my eyes so that I could stare a few increasingly bloody daggers at Jose from beneath my tangle of bangs. "Just pissed. I was always Daddy's favorite; Winter never really liked that about me."

I could feel her staring at me, but I didn't react. Jose's amused smile flickering at his dark lips was enough to keep me quiet. Just as Lucy opened her mouth, trying to interject, I raised my voice to keep hers under wraps. "So, Dad wants his little girl back?" My lips curled into a fierce smirk. "Just tell him he's an asshole for me, ok? Because I have no intention of ever going back. So you might as well just let us go. Me and my sis, that is."

"Twins?" he mused. "Funny. Mr. Heartfilia didn't mention anything about that."

"Pfft. No kidding." I cracked a dry smile, one that made Lucy's cheeks flame. In shame maybe? I wasn't sure, nor did I give a damn. My troubles were my own. "Winter's the black sheep of the family. Dad doesn't like her, something about how troublesome she always is, and how she doesn't conform to the Heartfilia standards. But that's why I love her. And, of course, we're twins. I couldn't hate her if I tried."

"Anyway," I drawled, leaning back on my locked wrists, legs stretched out before me. The perfect picture of relaxtion. "You really should let us go. Winter has the weakest bladder I've ever seen. One time, she drank three bottles of apple juice right before we left to see a play, and when she couldn't hold it and Dad wouldn't take her to the back bathroom, she jumped up on stage and ran into the bathroom scene they'd set up." I grinned, tilting my head to the side conspiratorially. "Well, let's just say our family is pretty much forever banned from that theater."

Lucy's look of horror was just plain amusing, as was the fact that that wasn't at all a lie. It really happened; just not to Lucy. Yeah, black sheep of the family and all that? Also not a lie. Winter Heartfilia was not a conformist, and that ticked off Daddy Dearest to an unhealthy extent. We bickered, we fought, he threatened to disown me quite a few times, the most notable being when I packed up my bags and strode out the door with Lucy, the day we decided to join a guild.

"U-Uh, she's right," Lucy mumbled, finally going along with my charade like the good sister I knew her to be. "I really have to go to the bathroom."

Jose pointed to a bucket in the corner. 

And - making me a proud sis indeed - Lucy stood, walked over and began lowering herself to the bucket's height, which did the deed and made Jose turn around (being a gentleman, believe it or not).

And so I rocketed my leg up between his thighs.

"They're called classics for a reason," I sneered as Lucy hopped over his crumpled form to exit the jail cell. "They really never do go out of style. Same with books. Not that I think you can read but... Whatever."

Only problem now was the fact that when you stepped out the door, you faced an eight story drop.

I drew in a sharp breath, looking out over the too-small scenery below us. A stiff wind tugged at my hair, swept it off my shoulder and curled into helpless tangles behind me. The glow of victory died quickly and I was left looking ashen and afraid.

Fear of heights? No, not really.

Fear of my father? Yup. You hit the nail right on the head.

"Pretty... isn't it?" Jose was agonizingly pulling himself to his knees, silmultaneously protecting his manhood from further harm. "This is our sky prison..."

Tears sprung to my eyes, gathering among my lashes as though they were ashamed to fall, to roll down my cheeks and drip from my chin, giving away all the emotions I'd locked away since coming to Fairy Tail. 

I stepped protectively in front of Lucy as I spotted Jose getting to his feet, stalking towards us, forcing us to the edge of the landing. Only open sky and a steep, uninviting drop greeted us, which Mr. Jose was only too aware of. He crept forward with derisive slowness, a languidness to his movements that set my teeth on edge and pulled every one of my muscles taut with anticipation.

"Now... come to me..." Jose comanded, a wild, crazed look in his eyes, one that only the truly insane could achieve. I knew. I'd seen it before. Bora-what's-his-name had the exact same look the moment he tried slitting my throat. "It's punishment time," he crooned. "I have to teach you the atrociousness of the Phantom."

Abruptly, I straightened myself, pulling my spine in an unnaturally stiff position it definitely wasn't giving me any thanks for. I have to trust him. "Fine," I said, all smiles and cooperation. "You can have me, Miss Lucy Heartfilia. Give me back to Daddy, punish me, whatever. So long as you don't care about what happens to Winter, that is." And with that, I hooked my foot behind Lucy's knee and pulled, sending her toppling off the landing in one fluid motion.

She didn't scream, didn't call out to me, didn't ask about what I'd done. She only asked for Natsu, which is exactly what she got. I snuck a triumphant look over my shoulder, seeing my sister sprawled out on top of Pinky the Dragon Slayer. 

I'd heard him, just the barest whisper of his footfalls carried up here on the wind. It was my chance to repay Lucy for always saving my ass when we were little, taking the fall for things I'd done and messes I'd cause, because Dad was always easier on her. 

Like I said, black sheep.

If one of us had to go back, had to give up this delicious taste of freedom we'd experienced, then it might as well be me. She couldn't leave Natsu or Gray or anyone at Fairy Tail. She couldn't live a lie anymore, not now that she'd found her real family. Me, on the other hand...

Well, it was a worthy sacrifice that I better get repayed for in the next life.

"So, ya gonna close your mouth anytime soon or are you fond of eating flies?" I quipped, flashing a cheery smile at the once again slack-jawed leader of Phantom Lord. It shut without a word as he fell to his knees, hands cradling his damaged goods.

I took pride in that, I really, truly did.

And my moment of euphoric victory would have been complete, if not for the subtle tug on my shoulder I felt in the next instant, along with the cry of, "You're coming too, stupid!" That's when Happy wrapped his fluffy tail around my waist and quite literally dragged me from the landing.

Ugh. Stupid cat... He ruined my moment!

__________________

....and there ya have it! Winter really loves being the cliche heroine, don't ya think? Ah well, I love her anyway. 

AND LOOK LOOK I DREW CANDOR! HE'S COOL RIGHT? ON THE SIDE, LOOKIE THERE!