Attention: Fairy Tail Has Been Disbanded Until Further Notice
It was an announcement that would change her life. When Levy first heard the news, she wasn't as devastated as she thought she should be. In fact, she was both relieved and (dare she say it?) thrilled. Absolutely thrilled.
Like most of her fellow orphans that she had grown up with in the guild, Fairy Tail had taken up the entirety of her life. But with her 18th birthday looming ahead, it was simply time to leave the nest, grow up, and put aside childish feelings. This included any and all unreciprocated girly crushes for the iron dragon slayer.
The catalyst for her decision was the ensuing GMG and the Eclipse Gate incidents. Her participation was limited to standing by the sidelines or sent away for her protection. Fellow mates still saw her as that helpless girl bolted into a tree in the middle of Magnolia Park. Collateral damage in the war with Phantom Lord.
Jet and Droy were allowed to move past the Phantom Lord War except for her. And if she had to be honest with herself, she unintentionally became Fairy Tail's beloved mascot. Tired with her image, Levy was more than willing to shatter status quo and any perceptions of her aside from proper mage. The only problem was that she wasn't sure on how to go about it until the Tartarus incident.
What many people had considered as a setback, Levy saw an opportunity. With the previous Council decimated, she knew the Council had to be rebuilt from the ground up. Levy also knew that Makarov, a wizard saint, would somehow be involved in its reconstruction.
All she had to do was find Makarov. 'Simple, right?' After all, the Master had left a vague note. Enough to hinge her future on,' she thought sarcastically. But she approached it with her cheerful optimism. The path was clear for her to pursue this and it's not like she had anything better to do.
In the end, it took her three weeks to track Makarov down. Makarov was surprised to find her in his offices at Era and even more surprised at the fact that she had asked for a job. At first, Makarov did everything he could to dissuade her and it only served to strengthen her resolve.
"I want to be part of the Council," she demanded. The girl in front of him looked like a child, but the determined set in her eyes reflected intelligence and stubbornness. It reminded Makarov that this was the same woman had pinpointed the location of the cube from one question.
"Council work is dirty, Levy. You need to go home," he countered, gauging her reaction. A father's job was never done. There was no doubt that she would make a great asset to his team. But sitting on the Council was a serious undertaking and the learning curve was steep. There was no room for self-doubt and insecurities. To become part of the Council, one had to have mental toughness, tenacity, and grit. He knew that Levy faltered on some of these points, but only because of immaturity.
She was taken aback, Makarov rarely told her no. He had always been the one to encourage her in the pursuit of knowledge and he fostered her love of books. Makarov had always defended her to her well-intentioned guild mates. The ones who always insisted on physical strength over mental prowess (ahem, Laxus). And the ones who were unknowingly dismissive of her abilities (ahem, Erza and Gajeel).
Defeated, she began to walk away, figurative tail between her legs. Makarov was empathetic towards her plight; however, the Council was not a place that would allow him to watch over her. "Come back when you're ready," he called.
Levy stopped in her tracks, understanding Makarov's intentions. "I know you can't watch over me," she began. "I am ready. When do I start?"
Makarov chuckled, glad that she read between the lines. "Go home and get your affairs in order. Then report for training in two weeks."
Telling her boys was the hardest part of this whole journey. The team had agreed to take a break, each of them going on different paths. Next, she broke the news to the rest of girls from Fairy Hills and finally, her best friend, Lucy. It was one of the most emotional days of her life. She had never cried so much.
She was glad that her departure was abrupt, leaving the day after the announcement for training in Era. Lucy had sent her letters after she left. Levy can only imagine how Lucy might have felt to watch the members of her beloved guild move away one by one.
Putting her worries aside, Levy was enjoying her new job and she found that she was rather good at it. She was relishing the anonymity. Among the cadets, she was just another face in the crowd. Levy had never felt so free, especially since there was no reputation to tether her to a label. Before she knew it, her training was coming to a close. She pushed forward, making it to the top of her class, and gained a few admirers and respect in the process.
Infiltration and intelligence was her specialty and her knack for making quick friends worked for her, against her, and sometimes both. As a former Fairy Tail team leader, she found that she can form teams with natural ease. She was good at this, but she found that she had to create definite boundaries for herself by creating aliases.
So Levy learned to create the pseudo identity of 'Gabrielle' for herself, portraying a lost and indecisive soul wandering from guild to guild in search of a more permanent and meaningful membership. While the name was inspired by Gajeel, Levy had based the identity on Juvia.
Being Gabrielle allowed her to move between guilds without raising suspicions. She found a group of people who were as indecisive as 'Gabrielle' and wandered from guild to guild as her character. These individual became her informants, working as her eyes and ears.
Three months after joining the council, she was assigned to gain access into Cincuenta Sharone, a large dark guild operating as a light guild. It had guild halls in every major towns in Fiore as well as branches in Bosco and Stella. On the surface, Cincuenta Sharone was an exemplary guild. The dark syndicate even created a charity that helped indigent women and orphaned children in every town that Cincuenta Sharone had a presence.
Nothing about the guild seemed to be amiss and Levy was more than glad to finish the assignment. Being in the guild was creeping her out. Upper members have singled her out to be among a select group of girls to act as ambassadors of the guild. The woman were young like herself and impressionable as 'Gabrielle'. Each ambassador was required to wear revealing clothing and attend the lavish parties every night. In turn, the women were compelled to entertain guild "sponsors", all in the name of soliciting funds for charity.
Levy wasn't sure if the other woman were aware or if they chose ignorant bliss. Most of the woman came from troubled backgrounds and lacked closed relationships outside of the Ambassador Program.
She had one more day before she would report her findings to the council when she was approached by Haruhi, the Guild's second in command.
Haruhi was an attractive woman in her early twenties who ran the charitable operations of Cincuenta Sharone and its Ambassador Program for the past two years.
Physically, Haruhi and Levy could pass as sisters. Haruhi's hair was a darker shade of blue, but they were similar in height and eye color. The resemblance to one another was shocking.
Haruhi had a strong personality comparable to Evergreen and Erza while Levy was laidback and easygoing. And unlike Erza and Evergreen, Haruhi was prone to temper tantrums. She was cruel. The other girls were afraid of her and some have identified her as a bully.
Levy reminded Haruhi of her older sister. She had revealed to Levy that the ambassador group was really a front to traffic troubled young women into the sex trade. It utilized charities to launder money and supply the ambassador group with vulnerable women. The funded orphanages supplied children to its affluent, pedophilic clientele.
Apparently, Levy was the next girl on the auction block since only auctioned off a few people at a time in order to not draw attention to its illicit activities. There was a premium on her head because she was presumably a virgin and looked under the age of eighteen.
Levy's suspicions were confirmed. The guild was grooming young female recruits into submissiveness. After a woman was "broken in", the recruit was shipped off to a holding location to verify purity and auctioned off to the highest bidder. Levy was horrified to learn that there was also a premium on virgins and girls under the age of eighteen. It made her stomach churn in disgust.
According to Haruhi, the auction was to take place in two weeks. Haruhi's role was to make sure the girl would stay around long enough to be shipped off to the auction house. For the past few weeks, Haruhi was working to find the exact location of the auction house, since the location was on a need-to-know basis. Hours after exposing Cincuenta Sharone, Haruhi disappeared. Her remains were discovered years later not far from Headquarters.
Haruhi's death spurned Levy into action. Determined to bring the Cincuenta Sharone into justice. She reported her findings to the council and came up with a strategy to expose the true nature of Cincuenta Sharone.
The first part of her plan was to let herself get kidnapped and sold as sex slave as planned. A counsel person acting as a handler would be placed in the auction house. Captain LaCreed had
The Council could not afford a mistake. One false move and the case against Cincuenta Sharone would result in a mistrial, allowing the dark guild to move its operations overseas.
Nervous, Levy worked up the courage to go through with the plan. After all, this was for the greater good. Lives and reputations were at stake if she were to fail. Like with every situation that she was uncomfortable in, Levy made a mental checklist:
There'll be a support team to provide back up.
I have to stop this horrible guild from using these girls as sex slaves.
I have to succeed. I need to win.
I can't let these girls down.
She kept going over the mantra well into the next day, trying desperately to calm her nerves as she boarded the train to Margaret. Levy was engrossed that she almost missed her name being called.
"LLLLEEEEVVVYYY!"
Snapping out of her little reverie, she turned in the direction of the voice that was calling her name, breaking out into her widest smile when she recognized the voice.
"LLLLIIIIILLLYYYY!"
A/N: Hello Readers! Thanks for stopping by. I wrote the first chapter of this story before sometime after Chapter 429. So it may/may not necessarily flow with the arc. That being said, this story will adjust slightly. Still an AU nonetheless.