Hawk
Chapter Ten
"Levy?" Pantherlily was obviously confused. There were no answers she could give him that would not violate one of the many layers of control Gavin had around her.
She pressed her hand to her lower back, where the hilt of STEEL was tattooed. She called it by name and unsheathed it from her skin. Blood flowed where STEEL was removed, but Levy did not flinch.
There was no time, no time to explain, to catch him up, to make sure he understood. Lily was smart. It was all she had, all she could rely on. Lily was smart, and she would he...she would hel...help! in any way that she could.
"I am to protect Gavin. I must protect Gavin. I guard him. You cannot kill him with your sword. I cannot kill him with my hands. Only words. It is only words that can pierce my GUARD, and you cannot make words." She trembled against the tightening grasp of the maroon charm, "Through your guild mark, all of Fairy Tail is awake, now. They will come, and soon. Hold him back, if you are capable of such a thing. I will fight you," her nails clawed at the flesh of her neck, trying to stop the words, the words that violated her protection. "Kill him if you...if you," she almost screamed. Must. Please. Please. Save me, Lily."
She touched her thigh, thinking of her brother. Then her stomach. "ANCHOR," she said and pushed it through her skin to his. "ANCHOR," she said a second time, touching Lily.
Her brother could not escape. Her brother could not throw him from the room.
The exheed took the hilt of STEEL and – before she had time to give into fear, or Lily had time to react – she thrust her trachea onto the point of the blade. Lily's eyes were saucers. But she needed to stop her voice. And she needed the pain to disrupt her mental control over her powers. If she were whole, she would protect Gavin and kill Lily.
Weak and wounded, it would be up to them.
Levy fell, bleeding. No longer did her body conceal her actions. No more deception. Her brother could see. Her brother could understand.
Gavin realized her betrayal of him. Her second betrayal. Her worst betrayal. Deliberate. The one with most potential for fatality. For both of them.
"Levy!" he roared - no more dove, no more sister, and in tone that echoed with bitch - and Lily looked to his enemy. He shifted into his warrior body and warrior stance, holding her SWORD high, and launched his attack.
Though Levy had no voice to command him, Hibiki remained at her side. Propping her up. Putting a hand over her bleeding wound. Her murmured soft words of support, his breath was warm and sweet. Right now, he belonged to her. It was wrong, so wrong, but she leaned on him. She needed him.
The world grew hazy.
Lily's sword (Levy's sword, which Lily wielded) pierced GUARD, as she knew it would, and Gavin waved his hand in a manner that should have proceeded teleportation. He remained in the room. In the path of the blade. How he stepped out of the way, how he avoided the blow, Levy could not tell. It was a close thing. A close thing, and Lily's hissing curse confirmed it.
Her head was heavy. It rolled sideways onto Hibiki's shoulder.
"Lady? Would you like to rest? There is the bed you made. I can lay you down here."
"She shook her head. She would pass out soon. Too much blood and pain. Until then, she would watch the fight she had created. Called it into existence with the power of her words. She would watch the exheed she had thrust into battle, all her hopes on his shoulders, fighting her battle for her. She owed him that.
Lily's swings were sharp, and there was such strength behind each move, but Gavin was not losing ground. He was quick. Rushing Lily to get inside his guard and attack him. Flesh to flesh.
Lily took several body blows, and Gavin was able to get low and then thrust up, upsetting Lily's center of gravity. The exheed tilted sideways, his swing briefly wild enough that Gavin was able to snatch the Musica sword from Lily's back.
And now her brother was also armed. Levy knew that Lily was an above-average swordsman, but Levy had read sword skills in Gavin's past. And he was no beginner. No amateur. He had killed with a sharp-edged blade equally as often as with his magic.
Little blue-haired girls, butchered.
Steel met STEEL, and a violent clash echoed in her temple. Over and over again, they met, and neither made a single strike connect on the skin of the other.
Then one did. And it was Gavin. And Levy hadn't planned on that. Lily was … Lily was drooping! Overslept. He hadn't eaten, and she was sure that the sleep had not been restful. Body stressed too quickly. Lingering magic. Levy wanted to give him help, but there was no question now that to help him meant hurting Gavin. She could not … could not...
Lily stumbled, but her worry for him was quickly replaced by pride in her brother's skill. Lily was talented, she knew. Even tired. He sparred with Erza, and that was no easy fight for anyone. Yet Gavin was doing more than holding his ground. Gavin was pushing Lily into a corner.
"Arg!" Lily took a wound. A sharp slice to his side. Bad place. It would slow him.
She didn't want Lily to die. Sure, Gavin had said he wouldn't kill Lily, but that was before he was attacked. He could very well change his mind.
And Lily had made no such promise. Lily could kill Gavin. He was still talented, even when tired. Still powerful, even when tired. Still a warrior, even when tired. He was recovering...kind of...
"You bitch!" Gavin cursed her without shifting his watchful gaze from his opponent. "You were meant to protect me! So do so!"
Lily could kill Gavin.
It was her charge to protect her brother.
Protect him. She touched her thigh. The chains. SYMPATHY. It was time.
Standing was difficult. She had lost much blood, not a mortal amount, but she was weakened, and Hibiki was moved to encourage her to rest.
"Lady, no! You're injured! You must not get up! Please, please, Lady, stay."
She could not command him, but the steady look in her eyes and somewhat obvious strength in her posture held back further entireties. He radiated concern, but he helped her to stand. Her will was his desire.
Briefly, Levy considered using him. Of making him do what she was about to do. But she rejected the thought immediately. Too, too cruel. A master should be kinder to her subjects. That was the way to win loyalty. She wished Gavin could learn that.
She kissed Hibiki's cheek, and he blushed prettily. Ignoring any further protest, Levy walked – shuffled … stumbled – to the fight. Both men were too caught up in the struggle to pay attention to her.
The same GUARD that had protected Gavin, still protected her. As it should, Gavin's stolen blade (Lily's Musica sword) bounced harmlessly off of its surface.
STEEL, solid script formed by her own power and wielded by the hero she had gifted it to, did its work. The solid-script sword cut through her protections like they were little more than air. And cut through her flesh like she were little more than mist.
Left shoulder to right hip, she was cut. Severing the blood-red circle that bound her to the service of her brother.
SYMPATHY held, different rune writ by different magic, and Lily's direct hit on her translated to her brother. Gavin cried out behind her. With no vocal cords whole to scream, the alien sound she made resounded through the temple as an eerie compliment to her brother's pain.
Gavin collapsed. She collapsed over him. Their blood mingled.
There was a crash at the door. She knew that. She heard that. She had been waiting for that. But had hoped for it to come sooner. Vaguely, she registered the frantic call of Lily's voice. Words, indistinct and melting stabbed what was left of her vision.
There was one word larger and sharper than all the rest. A name. It shone like black silver ore, and she longed for it.
In her role as the White Knight, she had awoken her many distressed damsels, who – in her secondary role as Witch – she had cursed with sleep. But real life was not always as smoothly plotted as old tales. Old tales spoken sweetly in the voice of her dearest love. Sitting next to her in bed and risking punishment just to make her happy.
No. In those tales there were joyful endings. This didn't feel joyful. It felt complex and pained. A knot too tight to unravel, and coated liberally in grief. So much blood – under her, on her – could not be happy.
Black hair. Dull metal. Worried expression. He shook her. Spoke words even she could no longer decipher. Crawling with language she could no longer read. As consciousness faded, she thought again;
No. There's no happiness here.
x
Gajeel was on his knees beside her, having pulled her away from the dying body of the creature she had referred to as family. "What happened?! What happened?!"
There were other people there. Important people. People who were trying to help. As much as he wanted to push everyone away and take her into his arms, he held himself back. Letting them do their work. The cut was so deep. Identical to the one on her brother's body. So deep. Exactly the same.
So deep.
So much blood. He was no coward. No newbie wuss. He was a fighter. A killer, even. Blood held no surprises for his eyes or his emotions. The smell could not turn his stomach. Not even the taste made a mark on his composure.
He wasn't the smartest man alive, but he knew a little something about blood. Knew it well. Knew when there was too much outside of the body.
There was too much outside of her body.
Lily lost his impressive size, holding a luminous sword – one which Gajeel didn't recognize – away from his body. "I cut her." His cat was trembling. "She stepped between us, and I couldn't stop in time. And I cut her."
"So that you could cut him," an unfamiliar voice said.
All of the guild members in the … he supposed it was a temple turned at the sound of the foreign voice. There was a gasp or two at the sight. Gajeel recognized the face. The dirty blond hair. But the name was lost to him. And he didn't give half a shit about taking the time to remember it. Names didn't matter.
"Explain," he spat at the somewhat-familiar mage who was stroking a feather tattoo on his cheek.
"She took me a day ago at his command," he nodded at Gavin. "She made me hers and shared with me some of her power. As well as some of her pain. He controlled her, and through her, me; though, he never spoke to me directly. She was commanded to protect him. She promised to protect him. She had no choice but to try. But she fought in the way that she could," he walked from the bed beside the golden chair, to a small space at her side. "She shared her self with him, chained him to her. What power she had, he could have drawn on, had he known, but the connection would work both ways. Had Pantherlily killed her brother, it would have killed her, too. Gavin was winning. Lady Levy stepped in, taking the blow to injure her brother before he could further injure Pantherlily. And you see, she succeeded."
"Succeeded?" Lily asked, looking like he wanted to throw the blasted sword away, but also unable to let go. His grip would tighten and loosen, tighten and loosen.
"She fought his control enough to give Pantherlily the sword, but she did as ordered to protect her brother. She protected him from Lily. So that Lily didn't kill him. She did. She killed him herself. The one thing he never made her promise. Stupid fool."
Gajeel licked dry lips and tried to pay attention. Tried to understand. Tried to...
"Is he dead?" someone, Gajeel was not focused enough to tell who, asked while over the bastard's body.
"No," that was Salamander. "He's breathing. Not much, though."
"As long as she's alive, he will be, too."
"I still don't understand how she broke through." Lucy was on Levy's other side. Her hand on Levy's pale shoulder. His own was touching that beautiful blue hair. Tangled. Sweat darkened. Beautiful. Still beautiful.
"Again, I'm extrapolating from limited information," the … Gajeel focused, he had to focus, where was... Oh! the Blue Pegasus mage said, "but my guess is she was trying to kill him. That killing him was her way of saving him. And that taking the hit herself meant she took the pain. She wasn't hurting him. She was protecting him."
"It hardly seems possible," Lucy whispered.
"She could have done almost anything with the amount of power she was holding at that moment," name... name... name... ah, right... Hibiki's eyes glowed. "She is the closest thing this world now has to a god-in-flesh."
Gajeel smelled Wendy enter the building. He, he of all people, wanted to sob with the knowledge that the dragon slayer healer had come to save the day.
With far more calm than he had managed, the kid sank to the floor beside Lucy and studied her patient. It was clear from the expression on the girl's face that Levy had become a patient and not a dying friend. That she had separated herself from the situation. Her face was professional.
Wendy moved her hands over the weeping red wound. He didn't ask if the young dragon slayer thought she could save her. That Wendy was trying meant that Wendy had hope. Though, even in Fairy Tail "hope" didn't always equal "success."
"I'm going to heal organ, vascular, and deep tissue damage. I would rather not use up any magic on non-emergency actions, like surface bruising, small cuts, stitches, and the like. If someone could sew-" she stopped and looked at him, "or staple. Staples instead of stitches. Can you do it?"
He marveled at how calm the girl became when in such a desperate situation. A deep, emotional part of his own self was screaming. Screaming no at the thought, at the word, at staple. His practical side nodded his head. The sword cut had been smooth – Lily had made the slice clean. Sharp sword. All the skin intact. Clean. Clean cut. Deepest at her shoulder and clavicle. Clean cut. Easy to staple. He just had to ignore exactly whose skin it was.
Do the damn job, you fucking sap. Do the fucking job. Save her life.
"Where do you want me to start?"
"Her shoulder. It's deep there, but no underlying damage. I need to see to her intestines before you close her stomach."
Ah. So that's what that smell was.
He held up metal hands. "Salamander. Get your ass over here and sterilize these. Last thing we need is to make Wendy deal with an infection, too." Inside, his head was buzzing; body and thought were drifting apart. Had to drift apart. He hurt inside. Hurt. And hurt was useless. Worse than useless. Hurt was a weakness that would keep him from doing what needed to be done, and doing it properly.
So body and mind parted ways. For the job. To do the job. To save her. He had to save her. No. No. Wendy. Wendy had to save her. He forgot. He was forgetting that he had done nothing. Could do nothing. Had left her. Had slept while she suffered. Wendy would save her, but he'd do anything he could to help.
He swallowed a sob, the last piece of emotion he allowed himself.
"I could cauterize the wound," Natsu suggested while surrounding Gajeel's arms with flame.
"No," Wendy answered, fingers soft on the bleeding hole that opened her internal self to the outside world. "Too much added tissue damage if you burn her. No need to create more problems, like Gajeel said; I just want her closed up quickly."
"What about her throat?" the blond across from him asked.
Wendy shook her head, "After her stomach."
"Her back is wounded, too," Lily said. He held up the sword, "She pulled this from her back, and it bled."
"Again. After her stomach. Gajeel, close the wound for me. Then, then I'll get to the rest."
Gajeel was careful. He'd done this before. With his own wounds. Never caring how it looked or felt. But he thought she might care how it looked. And he knew he cared about how it felt. How it would feel when she regained consciousness and had to spend days to weeks recovering.
Conscious. Awake. Herself. Herself, again. With them, again. Whole, again.
One-by-one, he pinched closed a small amount of skin, and pierced it with a thin needle of iron. Needle inserted, he then twisted and tied the piece like it was wire, or thread. Closed and secure, he moved down half an inch, and repeated the process. Over and over again. Left shoulder to right hip. There was a long pause just below her breasts and above her stomach – almost in the center of a large red circular tattoo – as it took Wendy longer to heal her internal organs than it took Gajeel to work his way down. But as soon as she was done, Gajeel stitched the remaining wound closed.
Finished, he rocked back onto his heels. Brain, body, and heart snapping back into place, he sucked in air like a man come up from drowning. He had sweat through his clothes and his skin burned as if Salamander had lit the whole of him on fire.
For the first time since he saw her, Gajeel looked away from Levy and gave his attention to her brother. "Are the bastard's wounds healing, too?"
Salamander rolled the body over so that Gajeel and the others could see. "Stopped bleeding and doesn't smell so bad, but no, your stitches didn't fix him the way the sword wound cut him through her. Wound's still there."
"Why?" He looked at the Blue Pegasus pretty boy. "Not that I want the asshole healthy, but why?"
"Perhaps because the rune that gave Gavin control of Lady Levy was bisected. But the chain of SYMPATHY is still whole," he pointed to the long chain tattoo that wrapped around one of her thighs. "Mmm, but … it could be an active spell, so that it broke when she lost consciousness. I thought it was passive, since it held on me while she and I were parted. I knew that Gavin hurt her, even when I couldn't see it happen. I felt her pain, took it into myself. Had to be passive," he opened his magic and began typing, "but it no longer holds … why?"
Gajeel stopped caring. A noise. He'd heard a noise, and it came from under his hand. His hand that was covering her throat, waiting for Wendy to get to her throat. Her eyes opened, and they shouldn't have. They absolutely shouldn't have. Her skin was far too many degrees too hot; fevered. Her body dangerously low of blood and nutrients. Likely dehydrated. And the pain, even with Wendy healing her, there was so much to do. It wouldn't be perfect. There had to still be pain. There were still wounds, there would be pain.
But her eyes were open.
And her broken voice was screaming. He could feel it vibrate through his bones.
A shaking hand – pale, good god so pale – raised to touch his nose. Her thumb brushing over his lips. Then moved to tap the same chain tattoo that was bothering the archive mage. The eyes on her hips. She grunted. The stars on her breasts sparkled and the arch there glowed.
'Gajeel, tell Hibiki that I still hold my brother.'
"Levy?" Instinctively, he moved to grasp her. To grab hold of her. To-"How are you awake? How are you talking? You need-"
Lucy and Wendy both crowded her body, keeping him away with their own desire to be near to her. "She's awake?!" They looked from his face to hers, frantic. "Levy?! Levy, you're awake?!"
"How do you feel?" Wendy asked, hands running over the staples, cupping her face to study her eyes. "Can you breathe in for me? Your lungs are intact, but your diaphragm-"
Levy pushed the three of them back, hands still shaking, so that they would keep eye contact. The touches, gentle but firm, brought instant silence.
'I feel him stirring, so I had to wake. Anchor is still attached, and he will remain asleep for another few hours. I think. I think my SYMPATHY can hold him like this, a little longer. He must be taken to the new Council, now. He must be imprisoned. Hibiki knows. Tell them about the 19 people he killed. Just yesterday. Was it yesterday? Yes. Yes. I believe it was yesterday. Tell them that there are others. I read of so many others. The Council's Knights need to arrest him and keep him under lock and key.
'Now, Gajeel. Please. It has to be now.'
She coughed and the sound was … His hands were hammers. He pressed them into the floor until it cracked.
'My part will also need to be told.' She made a weak gesture that turned his focus from her to a statue in the corner. A statue of a man he recognized. 'I don't think he's still alive. Or any of them. Maybe he, maybe they are. Maybe I can fix it. Not now, but when I have more energy. But maybe I can't. Maybe they're dead.'
Her back arched and her stomach contracted as she dry heaved. Again, his insides buzzed with her unvocalized screams. He wanted to kill. Needed-
'I'm okay. I'm okay.'
"Like hell you are! Fuck the Council; I'll break his neck and we'll be done with all this shit. What they don't know-"
'Gajeel! Do as I say! Hibiki to the Council, with my brother. Gajeel! Gajeel!' her thoughts pressed in on him, 'You can't hurt him. If nothing else, remember that hurting him will hurt me. Maybe you don't care about the law or anything else, but I know – I know – that you care about me.'
His muscles, every single muscle making up the entirety of his body, tightened. Altered on the smallest, most minute level to a substance so hard no material on earthland could break him. It did nothing to stop the anger. The agony.
Gajeel bent down so that his eyes were level with hers, "Hibiki will take the bastard to the goddamn Council. He will report on the 19 people your brother killed. As you order. I promise I will not kill the fucking asshole." His teeth, his sharp teeth clenched, "Now promise me that you will not die." His voice was stern, but the words were a plea. "Promise me."
'I will not die.' Her mouth twisted, and he suspected she was reaching for a smile. Didn't quite pull it off, but he was not great in that department either, so who was he to judge? 'Once upon a time, Gavin McGarden was all I knew of love.'
She touched the blue line that passed over her lips, and then put those same fingers to the corner of his mouth. 'He was all I knew of love, but I was nine, then, and I had very little education. I learned. Years went by and I learned so much more. About life and people and love. Now, I know a great deal about love. Its colors and textures and flavors and music and power. The way it embraces people. I know that today, what I know best about love, is you. I never want you to be unhappy.
'I am the god of language,' his mind tickled with what was likely laughter, 'and my words are truth. I love you, Gajeel Redfox. I love you, and I love our guild, and I love this world we share.
'I promise I will not die.'
x
Author's Note: The end.
I must say, I'm sort of sad. I had planned out a tiny bit of a new story that had Metalicana as Gajeel's mom (not father, as usually portrayed, even by myself) to sort of support my position of Gajeel as a lady lover, lol. He needs a harem. And it needs to be based in his contrasting love and deep feeling of betrayal of and by his mother.
But as Gajeel is likely going to give birth to an over-80 parent-dragon soon, as well … gunna have to table that.
So, now I'm looking at doing a LaLu bit, but no promises. Shit is crazy right now, IRL. (Or maybe Naxus... Natsu has such a hard on for Laxus, no kidding.)
ANYHOW! Hope you enjoyed HAWK. I'm honestly still not sure how I feel about it, but I am so grateful for all the positive feedback and support I received from you readers. Each and every review touched my heart. :) Hope y'all have a great day/week/month/year! 'Til next time!