The Tower Of Heaven

"Why didn't you run?" Erza asked with slight tears while looking at Nagato who was captured alongside her. Nagato gave her a bitter smile, how could he just run away when his twin was about to be captured?

"I can't just leave you to go through this alone, I will always stay by your side, no matter what," I said softly, Erza looked at me, before looking at the other kids on the ship. in the end, she got closer to me and just hugged me. She was of course scared, I was too, and seeing how so many children were captured, I was uneasy about where they were taking us.

we didn't have to wait long as the ship soon arrived at an island in the middle of the ocean. we were forced off the ship, and those kids who were too slow to follow orders suffered their punishment, so I pulled Erza along, not wanting her to get hurt.

we quickly gained an explanation as to why were brought here. We were captured to build the power of heaven. once we were finished, we were allowed to go, something which I of course didn't believe. They were kind enough to give us time to rest, of course, it was not smart for them to have us work at night.

so, we were given cages. As we entered our cages, we found that there were other kids here, with some grown-ups who were captured. I quickly had Erza go to sleep, she needed all the energy for when they were told to work. I too took this moment to rest, which was only 4 hours, before we were forced to go out and work

"Do your best and avoid catching their eyes," I said softly to Erza, who nodded fearfully as we got to work. forced to start building, something which I looked towards as a workout, since I never bothered to train. I didn't know magic, and even then I didn't know if my talent for magic was high or low. the best thing I could do for now was wait, and look for an opportunity, if I couldn't find one, I had to create one... I refused to waste away as a slave.

we were forced to work through the morning, which many children couldn't handle, causing the masked men, who were dark mages to punish them. they shocked the person with lightning spells, causing them great pain. their painful screams were something that pushed many to work harder, not wanting to be the next person in line.

Sadly, Erza soon reached her limits, she was already tired thanks to what happened with Nagato later yesterday, and now this? She was soon unable to carry on, and Nagato seeing this panicked, and did the best thing he could do... draw all eyes toward him. bumping into a kid, the kid fell to the ground, and Nagato began to quickly cause a scene, drawing all of the work's attention towards him.

to say the least, Nagato was punished, leaving Erza frozen in her as she heard his pained screams.

"a troublemaker? use all that energy on building the tower." a dark mage said as he kicked Nagato hard in the stomach, causing him to lose all the air in his body. but the dark mage noticing how Nagato was getting up to work was annoyed. seeing this, Nagato struggled through the pain and got up.

he had bought Erza enough time to catch her breath, adding the shock of seeing him being tortured, she couldn't even feel how tired she was anymore. Nagato returned to work, plans of what he should do running through his mind. he looked towards Erza for some time, before nodding towards her and returning to work, something which made Erza bite her lips as she returned to work.

but they didn't work for long as a break was had, allowing them to eat. although the food was trash, Nagato ate it. they needed all of the energy they needed. the break was not long as after a few minutes they were sent back to work, where 5 more hours passed before they were sent back to their cage. about 10 hours of work was Nagato's guess, and he was right.

Kids would be kids, even through dark events like this, kids within our cells gathered, one of them approaching us. a blue-haired kid with a strange pattern on his right eye, I ignored him, but Erza was too nice to just give someone the cold shoulder. although she tried to pull me to try and join the new friends she made, I was not interested I wanted Erza to move further away from me. this way those dark mages couldn't use her against him.

"... he gave me a last name. Scarlet." Erza said softly while sitting next to me, her head resting on my shoulders. I didn't say anything and simply nodded, Erza Scarlet had a nice ring to it. they didn't have a last name, Nagato could still remember the events of their birth although many of the events have been lost. their mother's tears were something he never forgot.

"Nagato Scarlet... it doesn't know." She said softly, to which I shrugged, not caring for a last name. a moment of silence fell before she spoke once more.

"Don't draw attention to yourself again like that... not for my sake." She said through quiet tears, Nagato was quiet for a moment before shaking his head.

"go to sleep... tomorrow is going to be rough," Nagato said softly, making Erza bite her lips slightly. Like how Nagato could watch her suffer, the way was for her. it hurt even more knowing it was to protect her.

so, time passed. every morning they would wake up at sunrise, eat, work for 5 hours, and eat once more, before working for another 5 hours and returning to their cage. the only time this changed was when there was heavy weather, giving them a chance to have a break.

Erza's friendship with her new friends grew. her new friends were called, Jellal Fernandes, Sho, Simon, Wally Buchanan, and Millianna. I ignored all of them, only giving my attention to one person in the cage with us, a man called Rob, an old man. a Mage who was captured and a guild member of Fairy Tail. 

My memories of this world were not coming back to me as much as I wished they would, this world's memory was just a small amount of information compared to my past life memories,

Rob taught me about magic, all I needed to do was awaken my magical power. something tricky, not everyone had the power to use magical power, although there were ways to find out if a person had talent for magic, it was not like the dark mage would be going out and helping slaves like them awaken their magical power. 

so years passed, and before we knew it, we twins were 11 years old. but it was this year that Erza approached me. for the past few years, I have distanced myself from Erza, something which hurt Erza far more than the punishment those dark mages her at times, when she reached her limits, and when Nagato wasn't there to cause chaos. since Nagato was a troublemaker, he would be punished at times, locked away to be tortured, and thrown into the cage when he had reached his limit.

Erza had tried her best to stop Nagato from trying to protect her, but Nagato wouldn't listen to her words. So, over time they did drift apart, mostly because Nagato didn't sleep in the same cage as them anymore. he was kept in a dark cage, where he stayed all alone.

"... I told you not to approach me," Nagato said calmly while throwing a cold look toward Erza, which Erza easily saw through. all she saw was her brother putting himself in harm's way to protect her.

"We are planning to escape... it's a good plan, and we could leave," Erza said softly, making me frown slightly at her words. I thought for a moment before in the end agreeing. if there was a hope of escaping, he would take it. if something bad happened, I would take the blame for it all