Chapter 11

Fake

They walk through the tunnel quietly, Levy providing light for them along the way.

"How did you guys get down here? I just found this entrance in the kitchen," Levy asks.

Gajeel grunted.

"What's wrong?" She asked, concerned.

Gajeel says nothing, so she looks at Lily. "Lily?"

Nothing.

Frustrated, Levy grabbed Gajeel by his wrist, stopping him. "What's going on?" She asked sternly. She looked at him, eying his face and peering into his eyes –or at least trying to. There was something off about those two, and she couldn't put her finger on it. When she touched him, she didn't get that same electric feeling she usually got. When she tried looking into his eyes, they were emotionless and blank.

"We need to keep going until we find an exit," He finally responded. He pulled his wrist away from Levy and kept walking.

When Gajeel and Lily had gone out to fight the enemy, they realized he was very tricky. After he told Levy to stay inside, he slipped into the shadows to try to sneak up on him while Lily distracted him.

"You can't slip around me," The guy said as he easily saw Gajeel's shadow and stepped on it.

"H-How..?" He sputtered, materializing back into his human form.

"This is my world! My universe!" The guy says lifting Gajeel up.

"Guess again," Gajeel growled, turning his body into iron and landing a solid punch to the enemy's face.

Lily ran toward him in his battle form ready to attack but vanished into thin air at the snap of the enemy's fingers.

"What the hell?! Lily!" Gajeel yelled.

The man chuckled. "Don't worry, he's not dead…yet. But he was getting bothersome," He said, standing up and brushing his clothing off.

"Bring him back," Gajeel said, glowing a dark blue aura, ready to kill.

"I'm sorry, I can't do that," He started. "You see, there's something that I want. And your pretty, blue-haired friend has it, or them I should say."

Gajeel knew what he wanted, but he wasn't getting them. He punched the ground, making six iron rods come out of the ground to trap him.

"Oh please," The guy says breaking through his barriers. "This is child's play." The man grabs Gajeel by his collar. "You must not know who I am." The man steps back and snaps his fingers, freezing Gajeel in place.

"I am Remo! The controller of all space and time that is this universe. I can alternate between universes, I can make you think something is real," He gets in Gajeel's face. "When it's not."

He circles a struggling Gajeel. "What you see here, is an alternate universe that I've created. My magic rules over all others in this world, giving me the upper hand. Being in this particular universe drains all magic energy slowly, except mine, of course."

Gajeel was worried about Lily and Levy. Lily was gone as far as he knew, and Levy was somewhere in the cottage, but there were only so many places to hide.

"Where's Lily?" Gajeel grunted, trying to move any part of his body.

"Oh, the exceed? He's off in another universe," Remo pulls a blade and holds it to Gajeel's chin. "Slowly running out of oxygen."

He watches as Gajeel's face contorts with anger. "Don't fret, soon you will join him."

"Over my dead body," Gajeel snarls.

"Don't threaten me with a good time," Remo smirks.

A delicious scent filled Gajeel's nostrils. He looked down and laughed. It was the blade.

"Ya know," Gajeel starts with an evil grin. "You really should choose your weapons wisely."

Remo looked slightly confused and in a split second, Gajeel had taken a huge bite out of his sword, the magic from it replenishing his health. The dragon slayer now had the upper hand, because in that second, he broke free from a distracted Remo's hold and had him up by the neck.

"Bring Lily back, NOW."

"Like I said," Remo snapped those damn fingers of his. "I can't do that."

Gajeel looked around, but nothing seemed different. Everything was still drained of color, the weird energy was still there. There was no difference… that he could see. Gajeel strengthened the grip on Remo's neck, almost killing him.

Remo was getting fed up. He did have a weakness. He could only change the current universe he was in so many times before his own magic source was depleted. He slipped up and got distracted and that ruined his plans. He had no choice but to send Gajeel away with Lily, even though that meant risking some of his power. He wasn't sure how strong the girl was, but they were from Fairy Tail. He knew he has to stay on top of his game when dealing with ANY members.

What Gajeel didn't know, was with that last snap of his fingers, Remo created a fake Gajeel and Lily. He made it so it would be almost impossible to detect that they were clones. He placed them in the tunnel below the cottage so Levy would have a nice surprise when she ran into them.

Gajeel had a sadistic grin plastered on his face when he knew he could out the guy like a light. Turning his hand into an iron blade, he pulls his arm back to gain momentum, until he blacked out.

"There's a light!" Levy exclaimed as she saw dim light coming from the end of the tunnel. She didn't know why she said anything. He or Lily hadn't said two words to her the whole time, making her think she had done something wrong. But her question was, how did they get in the tunnel? Surely they hadn't gone all the way around. That didn't make any sense.

She was still behind them, but she slowed down. She wanted to analyze everything. It was strange that Gajeel didn't immediately rush to her when they were reunited, but to the tablets, and Lily would usually let her know what was going on, but he hadn't said anything either. A truly insane thought danced across her mind. 'Maybe it's not who I think it is?' She brushed the thought away, thinking it was stupid.

She wanted to make sure Gajeel was really Gajeel. She was almost one hundred percent sure, but he was acting strange. She would get him to talk one way or another. She came up with an idea. Suddenly, she trips and falls.

"Ow!" She fakes. "I twisted my ankle. I must have tripped on something." She rubs her ankle, hoping he would fall for her tricks.

Remo was smarter than people gave credit for. His clones weren't perfect, but to someone not really paying attention, they could easily be mistaken as real. He could at least create them with recent memories, but the more energy he'd put into a clone, the more magic it took from him.

Levy was unfortunately apart of his false universe, and he could see through the clones' eyes if he needed to, and right now, his focus was on the tablets. Maybe he could steal them without her knowledge. He still didn't know how powerful she was and he didn't want to risk it. Not if he could take them so easily.

He watched through the eyes of his clone of Gajeel, as the girl tripped and fell. If he wanted those tablets, he was going to have to make it look real.

"Here," he said as he reached out his hand. He could see all of Gajeel's most recent memories. He knows this girl was his weakness so that probably had to be vice versa, right?

Levy grabbed his hand and her eyes darted to his arm. 'When did he get another stud in his arm?' She thought to herself, remembering he had four studs in each arm, not five. She brushed it off thinking it was the way the light was reflecting.

"Can you walk?" He asked gruffly as he helped her up.

"Y-Yes, I'll be fine." Levy didn't notice anything too unusual, so she kept about her business. But something definitely wasn't right. 'Why did he tell me they were gone?'

They continued down the tunnel and Levy kept quiet. Remo was extremely relieved when they got outside. He was hoping that his clone was good enough to pass as real to her and it looked like he succeeded. All he needed to do now was bring her back to the real universe. The only problem with that, was her. If she'd even translated one of the tablets, he'd be in big trouble. She seemed so naïve. But in reality, she was just analyzing. Levy McGarden was nowhere near naïve.

Levy noticed the color and energy was still weird when they finally made it out of the tunnel. Everything was dark, so it was hard to tell the color was still gone. She put the bags down to rest and instantly felt weak like she had no magical power left. Her eyes dart over to Gajeel, and she notices the extra stud in both of his arms. The color drained from her face when she realized what was going on.

"You're not Gajeel," she whispered.

A slow clap coming from behind startled Levy.

"Congratulations, you've figured it out." A man with long orange hair appeared.

Levy turned around, prepared to fight.

"Relax, I've already gotten what I want," he motions to the tablets in between the two on the ground. "Besides, you don't have enough strength to fight me," he says as he begins walking off.

Levy wanted to cry. She wanted to yell and scream but she knew that wouldn't solve anything. She needed to be rational.

"Where are they?" She asked calmly. He stopped walking and turned around.

"Almost out of oxygen," he said with a chuckle. "Would you like to join them?"

"Fuck you!"

"Oh," Remo winced. "Such nasty words from a tiny girl. Tell me, do you kiss your mother with that mouth?" He grinned evilly.

Levy was at a loss for words. Earlier in the window, she thought she saw her mother. Her mother died in an accident when Levy was seven. She remembered her mother's face so clearly. She wanted to etch that into her brain forever, but she had to focus. 'I know Lily and Gajeel were most likely transported somewhere else, but where?' Levy knew they were in danger. There was no time for her to get distracted now. She needed to get them out of wherever they were, and quickly.

She knew that the only people that could create clones like that were mages of time and space due to all the books she read, which made sense to Levy, remembering how the scenery changed around them while they were in the cottage. 'He's pretty advanced, but he can't be able to do all of that without a charm of some sort.' She remembered one of the books saying a lot of spatial mages that hold significant power need a charm or lacrima to keep their powers under control. She had to find his charm. She needed to muster up what little strength she had. They were counting on her.

Solid Script: QUICKSAND

The words made out of sand quickly spiraled to his feet, trapping him temporarily, but long enough for her to get close enough to grab the tablets… she thought. He latched onto her arm as soon as she got close, visibly angry. That's when she found his charm. There was a small braid in his hair with a bright green gem at the end. It looked like it was woven in to keep the braid together.

"When are you dumbasses going to learn? This is MY UNIVERSE!" He dissolved the quicksand and everything slowed down, going fully black and white.

He cackled uncontrollably, still holding Levy by her arm, finally at his snapping point. He was going to kill the girl. Screw what his master wanted him to do. He threw her violently to the ground as he held a finger to his head and created several clones of himself that surrounded her, ready to kill.

Levy was scared. She didn't know what to do. Here she was again in a terrible situation that she felt was her fault. And this time, she really thought she was a goner. Until she realized she had just translated some powerful spells and committed them to memory, one of them being a spell that could nullify spatial magic.

Levy was nervous, never having used a spell so powerful before, but she had to do it. Hopefully, it would bring Gajeel and Lily back. She didn't know, but she had to try.

She started mumbling the spell under her breath as clones started to disappear.

"What the hell is this?!" Remo asked frantically. Levy kept reciting the spell as she scrambled for the tablets on the ground. She managed to grab them before finishing the spell, slowly gaining her strength back.

The orange-haired wizard was pissed off. She actually managed to pull it off. He didn't plan for this. He made one last attempt to reach for the tablets until a bright light blinded him temporarily.

Before too long, the color was back and the weird energy shift was back to normal. Remo had disappeared, and Levy was exhausted. She scanned the area, clutching the bag that held the tablets. "He…. vanished…."

But where were Lily and Gajeel? It dawned on her. They were probably in the place where they were right before they got teleported. "The cottage!" She left the luggage but took the bag with the tablets and took off back through the tunnel.

After a few minutes of running, she made it back to the cottage entry and climbed the ladder. Everything looked normal as if nothing happened. It was just another normal day to a random passerby. She ran outside and saw the two of them lying on the ground.