When Wendy awoke she found herself locked in a cage in the middle of a frightening place. It was a dry, barren, rocky wasteland, perpetually covered in a fog that was casting a shadow all around and there were skeletons of dead animals littered everywhere. It made her heart stop when she first wake up and for a moment she hoped that she was having ab ad dream, but soon she realized that it was no such thing.

"Where am I?" She thought. "Hello! Is anyone there? Jellal! Romeo!"

"They're not here child." Came a cold and sinister voice. 

From the shadows she saw a figure step out to face her. A figure whom she recognized to be her uncle. The sight made her relieved for a moment.

"Oh Uncle Faust thank goodness!" She said. "Get me out of here! Quick!"

"I'm afraid I can't do that."

"Why not?"

"Because I'm the one who put you in there."

Her relief turned to shock.

"What? What do you mean? Why would you put me in here?"

"Because I need you to stay missing for a few more hours. Then I'll just kill you."

"Kill me?!" She gasped. "Uncle Faust what are you talking about?!"

"I'm talking about doing what is best for the tribe. Everyone knows that it would be best if I continued running things around here but they still have to follow that ridiculous tradition that the first born child succeeds the chief. So that tragically leaves only one option. You have to die."

Wendy couldn't breathe. Which each word her uncle said, she felt like a black mamba was constricting her.  

"It's nothing personal. I'm just doing what's necessary to keep the tribe in order. You can't possibly be a suitable chieftess and tradition won't allow you to just hand over the position. Death really is the only solution."

"But you're my uncle. We're family. You'd kill me? Your own niece?"

He leaned in close to the cage bars.

"Why not? I killed my own brother."

"You what?!" She screamed but it came out so breathless and quiet.

"Yes. I killed him. I asked him on that hunt, separated him and myself from the other hunters, and then I stabbed him to do death." His voice had no emotion whatsoever. No sigh of remorse or guilt. "I can still remember the look on his face when I stabbed him. It was just like yours, and with his last breath he kept begging me not to hurt you. It was really pathetic."

Wendy felt horror, rage, and heartbreak build up inside of her. 

"Monster!" She screamed, clawing her uncle across the face with tears of anger in her eyes. "My father! your brother! How could you?!"

Faust drew back in pain, surprised by the girl's ferocity but was also in a full force of madness.

"My brother stole everything that should have been mind!" He snarled hatefully. "He stole the power, he stole the tribe, and he stole your mother!"

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"You stupid girl! Did you honestly think your father became chief through birthright? I'm the oldest so how could that be? Your mother was the one born into the lineage and I was going to marry her to become chief. But then my little brother had to go and fall in love with her. He didn't even care about being chief, yet he still married her!"

"Because he loved her!"

"Love?! Anyone who considers love valuable is a broken fool who should be put out of their misery! And that's exactly what I did to your father! I never loved him! I hated him form the moment he was born and I hated you too! You're just as stupid and pathetic as he was and you deserve die the same way he did!"

"You're insane!" Wendy spat.

"Maybe but it will be Jellal who they'll call insane."

"What do you mean?"

"You see Wendy, Jellal never truly believed that it was an accident that killed my brother. He always suspected that I had something to do with it and that made him a bigger threat to my plans than you were. So who better to serve as the scapegoat for when they find your body?"

"No one would ever believe that he'd hurt me!"

He suddenly tore off her wrap with a terrible force that left scratches and rub burns on her arms. Blood was drawn and Faust caught as many drops as he could on that wrap.

"They will when they find this in his hut. Just imagine, it. Wendy's beloved bodyguard, always at her side, following her around and watching her every move. Convincing everyone that he's only trying to protect her, only for us to realize that it's just a facade to hide the resentful and disgusting deviant he really is, upon discovering that he's raped and murdered the innocent girl. They won't even give him a trial. They'll have him executed immediately and he'll burn."

"You won't get away with this! The manticore won't allow it!"

"The manticore? Ha!" He laughed. "The manticore is no threat to me! I've spent years hunting and killing animals for sport and I never faced any retribution for it! And why? Because I am more powerful than the manticore and that dumb beast knows it! He fears me! They all fear me!"

"Then that must explain how anyone could ever want you to remain as chief." Wendy declared. "A monster like you could only ever lead this tribe if everyone was too afraid to stop you! None of them will ever love and respect you as they did my father! And just because the manticore hasn't come for you now, doesn't mean he won't someday! Then you'll be real sorry!"

But Faust just dismissed his niece's warning and left to set up the next part of his plan. 

...

Searching the grass lands at night was never easy. Even with a torch, things were just pitch black all around, not to mention the night was when many predators chose to hunt. Jellal kept a firm hand on Romeo's shoulder the entire time they walked through the savanna, ready to grab him and pull him close should any lion or jackal leap out of the grass to try and make a midnight snack out of them. He just hoped hyenas weren't near by. He knew Romeo was terrified of hyenas, ever since one bit him real hard on the arm when he was three, and if a hyena appeared the boy wouldn't run or scream. He would just go still. Petrified. Unable to do anything to protect himself. 

"Why haven't we found Wendy yet?" The boy asked his elder brother. "We should have found her by now. Shouldn't we?"

"Just have faith Romeo." Jellal could only say. "Have faith."

After an hour of failed searching had passed, Jellal could feel his brother getting sleepy. He was slowing down, his steps were getting lighter, his arms were limping, and his eyes were dropping. He could barely keep going. Jellal decided that Romeo should go to bed now and that he could help him search in the morning. He scooped Romeo on to his back and headed back to their hut.

Strangely though, they found the sub-chiefs and the other warriors standing outside their hut, talking with their father.

"There must be some kind of mistake!" Macao said, looking absolutely mortified at whatever these people had told him. "There has to be! There's no way Jellal did this!"

"The evidence we found says otherwise." Ajeel said. 

"To Hell with your evidence!" He snapped. "My boy did not do this...This...This evil! He's not capable of it!"

"What's going on here?" Jellal asked waling in on the scene.

"Seize him!" Ajeel said, and suddenly the young man was roughly restrained by the warriors and Romeo was torn away from him. "Hey! Get your hands my brother! What's the meaning of this!"

"Jellal." Jura said approaching him with a calm expression and eyes full of seething rage. "You have been accused of abducting, raping, and murdering the future chieftess."

"What?!" Jellal cried out. "Is this some of joke?!"

"You see anyone laughing?"

"You all can't honestly believe that I would ever hurt Wendy! I love her!"

"Love?" He looked utterly disgusted. "You call that love? She's a child!"

"I know that! I would never touch her in that way! I love her like I love my brother! I consider her family! Not like that!"

"Then what was this in your bed?!"

He threw a bloodied wrap at Jellal's feet. 

"That's Wendy's!" Romeo almost screamed when he saw the blood.

"Dimaria found this in your bed when we searched this hut."

"I didn't put that there! This is a frame up!" 

"That's absurd." Dimaria said. "No one could have framed you. Your father told us that he's been in the hut all night. He would have seen someone plant it."

"That doesn't mean someone didn't do it! Besides I couldn't have taken Wendy! I was saving from drowning when she was taken!"

"It's true!" Romeo confirmed.

"the boy could easily be lying to protect his brother."

"My boys don't lie!" Macao said.

"Well blood doesn't lie either." Dimaria retorted.

Dimaria had moved much closer to them in that moment and it allowed Jellal to notice a amrk on the side of her face. It looked as if she had been cut with a blade. Like a knife, like his knife, and he noticed that her hair looked damp too. As if she had gotten wet, or had gone for a quick dip in the water hole. 

"Blood doesn't lie but you certainly do!" Jellal said.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Dimaria asked. "Are you calling me a liar? Do you have anyone idea how you're talking to young man?"

"Was that your plan? Distract me by trying drown my brother so whoever you're working with could grab Wendy?!  And then later when you search my hut, you plant her wrap in my bed!"

"Jellal you're out of line!" Jura spoke.

"Where is she?! What did you do with her?! Who else is on this?!"

"He's crazy!" Dimaria said.

 "Her uncle is apart of this too isn't he?! I bet he masterminded the whole thing the bloody demon! Where is Wendy?!"

"Get him out of here!" Ajeel ordered. "We'll have him burned in the morning!"

But Macao was not about to let one of his children die. He knew the risk, he knew the penalty, he was sure that he would probably be burned in Jellal's place if he did this. But to a father, no risk was too great for his child. He quickly punched one of the warriors holding Jellal and the younger man quickly take out the other.

"Go Jellal!" Macao said grabbing his spear. "Take Romeo and run!"

Normally Jellal would have stayed to help his father fight but Romeo's safety wssm ore important at the moment. So he picked up Romeo and reluctantly ran away into the dark night. 

"Father no!" Romeo cried, trying to break free from his father's grip so he could go back and try to save their father. "Let me go! We have to go back! We have to help him!"

"There's nothing we can do. There's three of us and ten of them." Jellal said. 

"But Father-"

"The best thing we can do for him now, is not get captured and find Wendy! They think I killed her, you and i both know that's not true but there's no way to prove it! Not until we find her!"

Tears were brimming in the eyes of the scared little boy.

"What if she's dead?!" He cried. "There was blood on her wrap, Jellal!"

"That doesn't necessarily mean she's dead."

"That doesn't necessarily mean she's still alive either!"

"Listen Romeo, I know you're scared and confused. So am I, but I'm going to fix this. I promise."

"What if you can't fix it?"

"You're just going to have to trust me. Can you do that?"

"Yes. I can."

He hugged Romeo close and tight, as if he were a much smaller child. One that needed constant protection until he was over age five at least.

"It'll be okay." Jellal assured him. "I don't know how exactly, but everying's going to turn out okay."