Later that day as Juvia was swimming home from her garden, she noticed that a lot of merfolk were staring at her and she could hear them once again whispering about her. Although this time they didn't hold back or even care that she could hear them.

"Just when we thought she couldn't be even more of a freak." She heard one mermaid mumble.

"I knew she was odd but I never thought she was actually insane." She heard a merman mutter.

"Poor Gajeel, imagine having such a spiteful and insensitive girl as a sister."

"This shame will follow him for years."

"Well perhaps his other sisters or his future children will help erase that shame."

"What are they talking about?" Juvia thought to herself. "I know they never thought much of me but this is a little brutal even for them."

"I just can't believe that a sea princess of the sea would actually save a human from drowning." An older mermaid whispered.

"What?!" Juvia accidentally gasped out loud upon hearing that last remark. "Oh no...No he didn't."

In a great haste, Juvia swam back to the palace as quickly as she could to seek out Panther Lily. She found him just outside the throne room looking terrified and guilty.

"Tell me that you didn't. Please tell me that you didn't tell anyone about Gray." Juvia asked him, though his expression couldn't have made it anymore clear.

"I'm sorry." He said regretfully.

"Oh my God! Lily how could you?!"

"I didn't mean to tell! It was an accident!"

"How many people did you 'accidentally' tell?"

"I only told one person."

"Then how does everyone else in the kingdom know about it? Unless...No! Oh Lily, you didn't really tell my brother, did you?"

"It really was an accident! I swear!"

"Great!" She huffed. "If you just told him, then no wonder everyone else knows. He was probably screaming about it to the top of his lungs! Oh I knew I couldn't trust you!"

Juvia thought that she was going to have a heart attack. Now that Gajeel knew her secret, what was he going to say? What was he going to do? She knew very well that once he confronted her about this, he wouldn't be calm or rational, and definitely wouldn't listen to her side of the story. He'd just lose his temper like always.

"Can this get any worse?" She thought out loud.

"Yes." Lily stammered. "Your brother wishes to have a word with you."

The young mermaid almost looked ill when she realized what that meant.

"Right now?" She asked nervously.

"He wishes for you to come immediately and without delay."

"Oh...Okay...Tell him I'm coming."

Panther Lily nodded and re-entered the throne room to inform the sea king of what Juvia said. At the moment, the queen was at his side trying to soothe his anger and serve as his voice of reason.

"Now Gajeel please keep your temper under control." Levy said. "Do not say or do anything in anger. You know that it always ends badly for you. You must remain calm."

"Calm? Calm?! You expect me to remain calm after what I've just heard?!"

"First of all don't ever raise your voice at me like that." She said sternly. "I'm your wife remember?"

"I'm sorry. I just can't believe this! I can't believe it! She has done some crazy things in her life but this!"

"Gajeel, remember your blood pressure. The royal physician wouldn't like how you're behaving right now."

Then silence filled the throne room as Juvia finally entered. Gajeel looked upon her with rage while Levy looked upon her with sympathy.

"Levy, Lily, I would like for you to leave us to speak in private." He said.

"Yes sire." Panther Lily said swimming away.

Levy was more reluctant to leave because she already knew her husband was in no condition to have a reasonable conversation. But there was not much she could do. He was the king after all.

Poor Juvia, her brother loomed over her like a shadow and she could tell by his eyes that he was nearing his boiling point. Only his love for her kept him from going off immediately.

"You wanted to see me Gajeel?" She asked him.

"Juvia." He said to her. "I've made it no secret how I feel about this fascination you have with the surface world. You know very well how much it upsets me."

"Yes I do."

"However despite that I allowed you to visit that world on your 17th birthday with only one condition. That while you are up there you make no contact with humans. Do you recall when I told you that?"

"Yes."

"Now I'm certain that you can agree that was a reasonable request, yes?"

She nodded.

"I thought so, which was why I was sure that my sister would heed my word but apparently I was wrong."

Her body began to tremble.

"Is it true Juvia?" He asked. "Did you save a human from drowning?"

She looked down at her fins, unable to answer while looking at his face full of rage.

"Yes I did."

"Juvia I told you to stay away from humans!" He shouted. "You were not to go anywhere near those barbarians! You could have been hurt!"

"Nothing happened." She replied. "I came home safe."

"But what if you hadn't? What in the seven seas were you thinking?!"

"I had to save him. He would have died if I hadn't."

"One less human to worry about."

"Gajeel that's cruel!"

"Humans are cruel! Humans killed our parents! And that human you saved probably would have killed you in a second given the chance!"

"How can you say that? You don't even know him!"

"Neither do you! Have you forgotten the horrible pain and grief that his kind inflicted upon us?!"

"No, but he didn't kill Mother and Father! He didn't do anything to us! He's completely innocent!"

"Don't be so naive! There is no innocence or goodness in human beings!"

"Mother and Father believed there were!"

"And that got them killed didn't it?"

"I don't believe that! I know humans can be dangerous Gajeel but they can't all be bad. Our parents tried to make peace with humans and they wouldn't have done that if they were all as evil as you say they are! I'm positive that there must be some good in humanity and that the prince was-"

"Prince?!" He said. "The human you saved was a prince?"

"Yes."

"As in the prince of Verdenshav?"

"I'm not entirely sure but I think so."

Gajeel's rage continued to rise dangerously higher. What Juvia did not know was that it was a Royal Navy ship of Verdenshav that had crashed into their parents and killed them. That made him hate any member of Verdenshav's royal court or the royal family, more so than any other human on earth.

"Should have let him drown!"

"No!"

"He deserved to die! Him! His family! His entire court!"

"Gajeel I've never heard you say anything so horrible!" She cried out in terrified shock. "He had nothing to do with what happened to Mother and Father! He was probably no older than I was when they died! He was a child! He's done nothing to earn your hatred!"

"Not yet."

"He has a good heart and he wouldn't hurt us! I know he wouldn't!"

"How could you possibly know that? You were only with him for a short amount of time. The only possible way you could have learned what was in his heart that fast was if-"

"We kissed?" She finished.

Her brother became speechless for a moment as her words hit him, and he internally prayed that what he suddenly feared in that moment was not true and merely nothing more than paranoia.

"Juvia, don't tell me that you actually-"

"He kissed me." She confirmed. "When he came to he was very delirious and he gave me my first kiss, which allowed me to see into his heart and bond with him. It allowed me to see that he was a good person, but he feels like an outcast. He feels like no one really likes him because he's different. He feels...He feels like me and I...I love him."

She finally looked up to face him and found that horror had completely taken over the merman.

"Have you lost your senses completely?! He's a human! You're a mermaid!"

"I don't care about that."

"Do you have any idea what he would do to you if he ever really saw you?! Do you have any idea how I would feel if I were to find my sister slaughtered in the same manner that my parents were?! I forbid you to have any tender feelings for that creature!"

"You can't control my heart or how I feel!"

"I can forbid you from ever going to the surface again!"

"No you can't! I'm not a child anymore!"

"Then for once in your life act like an adult instead of a threat to our family!"

Now it was her turn to become speechless by his words. A threat? Is that what her brother saw her as? Something dangerous? Something so different from all of them that it could harm them?

"I'm a threat?"

"No." He said quickly realizing his mistake. "No not you! Just your behavior! Your carelessness, your recklessness, and your interest in the humans could expose us all to them and put our lives at stake! Did you ever consider what kind of danger you could be putting us all in when you act like this?"

"No." She answered. "No I never did."

"Well maybe you should start thinking about that! Before you cause a death in our family!"

Juvia couldn't listen anymore. But by the time he had finished his sentence, she had already swam away from the throne and out of the palace. She swam away to her garden in hopes that maybe it could cheer her up a little. Help her calm down her sorrows and try to think rationally. She just needed a moment to herself.

But when she finally arrived there, her sadness was only increased because she found that her beloved garden had been destroyed. Her flowers up rooted and crushed, her shells shattered and thrown all around, the images she had worked so hard to make now erased, even the painting Lucy gave her was ruined. From a distance she could hear the merfolk responsible for this vandalism laughing to themselves,

"Maybe now the freak will finally act normal."

Juvia felt a great sorrow well up inside of her. This was truly the cruelest act anyone had ever committed against her. Gossiping about her and insulting her hurt, but she could deal with that. She had spent many years learning how to do that. But destroying her garden. Her special place. The one place where she felt that she could really be herself without anyone judging her, having it destroyed became too much for her to bear.

She started to cry.

"I don't belong here." She sobbed picking up the remaining petals of one ruined red flower. "I never have.l. There's no one here who can ever accept me for who I am and what I like and what I do."

How alone she felt at that moment. Believing that her family was threatened by her and that her own kind viewed her as a mockery. Everyone would probably be a lot better off if she just swam away from here and never came back. But where would she go? What place existed where a mermaid with love for a human and his world, could be accepted?

Little did she know that answer was coming in the form of the eel Nebaru, who had been following her since his mistress had told him to. It was time to put the sea witch's plan into action.