Chapter 5

The group continued to walk through the hallways until they were standing in a cave among lots of destroyed rocks. There were some other children there as well, some older and some younger, all gathering up the rocks and placing them in carriages.

There were numerous guards stationed all over the place, keeping an eye on everyone.

"Stop staring and get to work already, slave!" One of the guards yelled.

Lucien glanced up and noticed one of them staring at him. He had his staff - pain stick - pointed towards him, and before he could react a magic circle had appeared beneath his feet and the pain rushed through his body again.

It was like his blood had been replaced with fire.

He yelled out in pain before collapsing to his knees. His ragged breathing made it difficult to think straight.

About a minute later, the pain stopped. So, with his limbs still shaking, Lucien made his way to the nearest pile of rocks where Erza stood.

Normally he would have tried to strike up a conversation, maybe make a joke to hide how he felt, but the pain and aching in his body just made him want to be quiet.

Cleary, Erza understood - or maybe just didn't want to bring the attention of the guards onto them for talking - because she offered him a small, comforting smile before getting back to work.

While he continued to work silently - the shaking in his libs having settled somewhat - Lucien couldn't help but be a bit bitter. 'I have one of the strongest devil fruits. One that has the aspects of logia, paramecia, and zoan. With this fruit, Marco was able to go up against Kizaru, whilst I couldn't even go up against some slavers.

Here I am, weak, worthless, a slave. Before, if someone were to cut me, I could just ignore it and the wound would heal near-instantaneously through my flames. Now though, I would bleed, which yes, is normal, but when you gain such an insane ability which pretty much allows you to ignore attacks and let them go through you, being susceptible to injuries again just feels wrong. I went from being a weak human to being nigh-invulnerable(or at least feeling nigh-invulnerable since I never got into an actual fight where I could test my magic/devil fruit powers) to being a weak human again.'

Lucien looked down at the inhibitor which blocked his magic. If he tried to mobilise his magic - like summoning his flames or exerting conquerors haki(which he still had no idea about how to) - the device would activate, and suck the mana out of his body rapidly. Thankfully, it was only if he outwardly mobilised his magic, because magic constantly moved around in the body of a mage, and if it always absorbed his magic then he wouldn't even have enough energy to stand.

'Thankfully, my magic took on healing properties, so even though I can't summon my flames, the magic in my body still allows me to heal faster than normal, though still slower than I would prefer. But it doesn't matter how quickly I recover if I can't defend myself.'

Lucien continued to brood to himself while he worked, until he was interrupted by a loud scream of pain, "Aaaahhhh!!!!!"

The scream came from near him. Looking around, he realised why. Erza had tripped and dropped some rocks, and one of the guards decided to punish her.

Lucien had always been empathetic - he would be sad when others were sad, or happy when they were happy - and hearing Erza screaming in pain really shook him. So, seeing as the guard didn't look like he would be stopping, he did something stupid.

Picking up a palm-sized rock, he threw it as hard as he could. "Bang!" The rock hit the guard in the head, breaking his concentration, and the spell with it.

"You bastard!" The guard roared, pointing his staff at Lucien. The pain coursed through Lucien's body, it was stronger than before, so bad he didn't even realise that he was on the ground. He curled in on himself, too distracted by the pain to even scream.

What felt like an eternity passed before the pain disappeared. But even with the spell gone, he could still feel phantom pains in his body, and he could still feel the aches from his muscles.

He was helped up by Jellal('I didn't even realise he was here') who thanked him for helping Erza. Lucien waved him off, not wanting to think about it.

Part of him wished he hadn't done it. He had wanted to help Erza, but he didn't think about what would happen to him. Did that make him a bad person? He wasn't sure.

He just went back to work, he also waved off Erza's thanks, telling her "it was nothing," and spent the rest of the time in silence, trying to ignore the aching pain in his body.

"*PRRRRT!!*"

The sound of a loud whistle echoed throughout the cave, causing everyone to pause in their work.

"Alright, works over! Everyone back to their cells, now!" One of the guards yelled.

Lucien followed after the other slaves.

"Is this all we do?" He asked Jellal, who was walking next to him.

"Mostly. They let the adults do all the heavy lifting," he explained. "We get given food back at our cells," he added after hearing Lucien's stomach rumble.

"Good, I haven't eaten in ages."

"You get used to it," he replied solemnly.

After arriving back at the cells, the slaves were given 'food'. It was some kind of disgusting soup, grey, sticky, and practically inedible, and that was just looks. The taste was something else entirely. Like eating chalk mixed with gone off food. It took all of Lucien's willpower to stop himself from throwing up.

An hour later, when everyone else was asleep, Lucien was leant up against the wall of the cell, deep in thought.

He was scared to go back to sleep, worried about having another nightmare. So he decided to sort some things out instead.

'If I remember correctly, Lucy meets Natsu in the early X780's. Then they help Macao, burn a book, fight some evil talking flute, fight Phantom Lord, Erza comes back to The Tower of Heaven, umm, what's next?

I think Laxus picks a fight with Fairy Tail, then they get teleported to Edolas, wait, no, they fight the Oracion Seis first, then they go to Edolas.

They go to Tenrou Island, meet Zeref, fight Acnologia, and then they disappear for a couple of years. They come back, fight in the Grand Magic Games, and then they fight dragons from the Eclipse Gate.

That's as far as I watched, but I think I heard something about a war and demons.' After summing up his knowledge of the show, Lucien decided to put that aside, since it wouldn't help him right now.

He decided to think about what he could do now instead, 'The only two things I can think of learning are armament and observation haki. But, I have no idea if armament haki will activate the inhibitor, so that just leaves observation. Since it's more of a sense than a spell, it shouldn't activate the inhibitor. But it's not like I can ask the others to try and hit me while I close my eyes and try to avoid them.'

After thinking some more, Lucien came up with an idea. He would try to meditate and sense his surroundings, hoping that it would work to unlock observation haki. He was pretty sure he remembered something about Zeref meditating as well, so maybe it would help with magic too.

"You still awake?" He heard Jellal ask.

"*sigh*, yeah," he replied, equally as quiet.

"Scared of having another nightmare ?"

Deciding to be honest, and because he was too tired to lie, he truthfully replied, " Yeah, a little."

"It's alright, nightmares are a common occurrence in this place," Jellal comforted. "I get them sometimes too," he confessed.

"How do you deal with it ?" He asked.

"I have friends who help. And if you ever want to talk, I'm here. Or if you just want to sit in silence, I'm here. You just have to remember that you aren't alone here. It may not feel like it now, it may not ever really feel like it, but all of us are here for each other, and that includes you too," Jellal explained. And it really helped, as Lucien felt himself relaxing just that little bit more. "Now, we should get some sleep," he suggested.

Lucien found himself agreeing and drifted off to sleep. And while he did have a nightmare that night, and for the nights that followed, he found that they weren't as bad and that being around the others helped him to feel better.

So this routine continued. He would wake up in the morning, he would follow the others to work, and he would go back to his cell. When they weren't working, the kids would chat, and Lucien found himself becoming good friends with all of them - they were so happy amongst each other, and it rubbed off on Lucien - especially Jellal. He and Jellal became something of best friends, and it was due to the fact that they would both stay up late and talk. A couple of these times, Lucien brought up Erza, until he eventually wore Jellal down and got him to admit his feelings. Over time Lucien had come to view Erza as his sister, and really hoped he would be able to get her and Jellal together.

The reason Lucien was staying up late was his observation haki practice. He was slowly getting better and could feel that there were a bunch of people around him when his eyes were closed, but that was it so far. Strangely enough, though, they weren't white like he thought they would be, but a bunch of different colours. He had only watched up to the part where Ace dies in One Piece, and the only advanced observation haki he knew of was future sight, so he had no idea if the colours were some kind of advanced observation haki, or something unique to him. Once again, he found himself wishing he had paid more attention, and watched more anime.

The days flowed into weeks, and the weeks into months. Slowly, Lucien was becoming quieter, more introverted. He was still the same person, would still make jokes now and again, but the constant work and torture took its effect. Thankfully, he still had his friends to get him through it, or he could've ended up much worse.

Life at the Tower of Heaven continued as always. The air around this place was depressing, most people lost their hope of freedom, and while some did attempt to escape, none succeeded, and they all either died or earned some time in one of the torture chambers.

The cult that ran this place was ruthless, they treated everyone, adults and children alike, like they were nothing. If you paused in your work for even a second, you were tortured by their magic.

Lucien spent his time with his new friends or working on mastering observation haki(he would practice in his cell, or while working in the mines).

He ended up unconciously ignoring any thoughts of escape as he focused on the colours he could see and trying to figure out what they meant. They were slowly becoming more defined, he could focus on individuals and see in more definition. He had gotten it to a point where he was confident of being able to walk around with his eyes closed. Whether he was naturally talented in observation haki, or if this was a part of his gift, he wasn't sure.

So it came as a shock to him, and to the others, when one day, while they were sitting in their cell, Sho whispered to them 8 words that changed everything.

"I think I have a plan to escape."