Author's note: Alright, this chapter is going to be more-so a shocker chapter. Enjoy! I apologize to everyone seeing this now. I posted it on Friday; but the website loves screwing with me and it refused to put up I posted a new chapter.
"Have you ever watched a crab on the shore crawling backward in search of the Atlantic Ocean, and missing? That's the way the mind of man operates."- H. L. Mencken
Chapter 9: Conflictions and the Truth about Levy
Lucy looked out to the skyline from the balcony that was part of her beach house. She eagle-eyed the ocean for some sign of her best friend. She tightened her grip on the railing and looked harder out to the sea. She was surprised when she saw a mug of green tea being gently placed on the railing. She looked up and saw Natsu giving her a solemn smile.
"Figured you'd want this." he admitted. Lucy smiled and wrapped her hands around the mug, feeling the warmth that radiated from it.
"Thanks." she whispered before taking a sip.
"Heard from the police?"
"They said with barely any evidence of where she could've gone, there isn't much they can do." Lucy sighed. Natsu was silent for a moment before looking out to the sea with his girlfriend.
"Wish my dad was here." Natsu admitted "He'd know what to do."
"Considering he's head of Magnolia Police Dept., he probably would."
"Just what are we going to do about this? I would call and ask my dad to have him send a few of his men to help; but since this is out of his district, there's little he can do." Lucy was hesitant for a moment before she came up with a conclusion.
"I guess just scraping the beaches again for some sign of her." Natsu looked at his girlfriend with concern, ever since Levy disappeared she became obsessed with finding her. Don't get him wrong, Levy was his friend too; but he would like to see his girlfriend just take a breather before she became engrossed with this case.
"Lucy," Natsu tried to comfort "It's been almost a week since Levy disappeared. Don't you think we should just try and calm down and let the local police do their job?"
"No. They don't know anything about this! We have to find her ourselves!"
"But don't you think you're becoming obsessed with this?! I know she's your best friend, but eventually we have to draw a li-" he was stopped when Lucy firmly gripped her boyfriend by the shoulders.
"We can never give up." she said with clenched teeth "She's out there! I know she is!" tears began to pour from the blonde's eyes. Her grip soon changed to his shirt and she began to break down. Natsu grabbed his girlfriend and held her tightly against him as she wept into his chest "Oh God Levy, where are you?"
"They got away?!" Metalicana hollered. Gajeel and Levy returned to the throne room after managing to save most of the schools of fish from whatever Tartaros had contrivanced. While most of the fish got away, a good amount were taken hostage by Tartaros.
"There wasn't much we could do!" Gajeel defended.
"Three hundered fish are now missing because of your carelessness!"
"It was either that or risk the exposure of your people!" Levy bulwarked "If Tartaros got a hold of Gajeel or one of your people, who knows what they could've done!" Metalicana's eyes widened when he actualized that Levy was right. It was one thing that they got their hands on the fish; but if they got their hands on one of his people or Posiden forbid Gajeel, he never would've forgiven himself.
"I agree." he sighed "You did the right thing, if it meant exposing our kind, we had no choice. However, I am not letting this go unpunished." a pregnant silence filled the room "You're to clean the archive room. Reorganize the old missions that have taken place and reorganize them into either successful or failed. Do this and I'll forget about all that happened."
"Are you fu-" Gajeel tried to protest but was interrupted by Levy.
"As you wish your Majesty." she cut. Gajeel was just about to say something, but instead held his tongue. Noticing this scene, Metelicana suddenly smirked.
"Looks like I finally found something to keep ya in line." beamed Metalicana "Maybe I should keep this land-dweller here after all if it means controlling ya."
"Don't get any ideas ya old sea dog." Gajeel hissed "We're going." he pulled Levy's hand and headed straight for the archives.
The Archives room was nothing but a room filled with file cabinets from floor to ceiling. A good portion of the papers were sticking out of the overstuffed file cabinets.
"My God." Levy aforesaid shocked "How long has this been going on?"
"Probably a few years." opined Gajeel "We haven't had a filing Mer in Posideon knows how long."
"We're gonna be here forever!" Levy suddenly felt her vim drain out of her body.
"Don't be such a guppy." he patted her on the back "I'll take the successful ones, you get the failed. Deal?" she beckoned and then made her way to the failed missions section.
"Let's see.." she murmured to herself "The Prevention of Over Fishing Mission from x689 was a success so that goes to the success pile. The Act of War between both Land and Sea in x737 was a failure..." Levy was looking through all these pieces of paperwork for what seemed like days when it was only three hours. So far, she managed to get a small dent of progress done. There were so many papers and files that needed to be reorganized it was uncanny "Jeez, whatever happened to the old filing Mer, I hope he's happy with where life took him. Ugh, I better get these files over to Gajeel in the successful missions area."
She swam over to a pile of paperwork that she created that were meant for Gajeel to re-file. As she picked it up, her fingers slipped and she dropped all of the papers.
"Damnit!" she grumbled. She bent down to try and clean the papers up when one caught her eye. Levy picked the piece of paper up, not even recognizing this paper. Her eyes skimmed the piece of paper and began to widen as big as saucers.
"Hey Levy!" a voice called out, it was Gajeel of course "Dinner is almost ready, ya coming?" Levy didn't reply "Levy?" still no reply "Hey! Shrimp! What the fuck ya reading?!" she snapped out of her trance and looked at Gajeel in surprise.
"Gajeel," she swallowed "I need you to read this." she handed the Prince the piece of paper she was reading and he began to read it in silence:
" Year: X768
Operatives: Michael and Elaine McGarden
Mission: Spying on the Surface World. Live as a normal human family and report back to the Kingdom.
Status: Failed. Operatives were killed in an accident in X776.
Other Info: Michael and Elaine gave up their lives as Merpeople and chose to be transformed into Humans for this mission. They have a daughter who is their only surviving relative was also transformed into a Human as well."
Gajeel finished reading the piece of paper before looking at Levy with confusion.
"What the hell is this?" he cross-examined.
"Gajeel," Levy replied "Michael and Elaine McGarden were my parents."
