A/N: Merging the stories might be a bit tricky from here on out. We'll see how I manage it! Thanks for all of the support!
DISCLAIMER: Mashima made Fairy Tail and its characters.
Gajeel was beyond livid. He didn't know at who or what, but everything pissed him off. His mate was nowhere closer than he had started out. Stupid Jet! Didn't know how to give proper instructions… If he had been a little more logical at that moment, he might have realized he had not really asked for specifics at the time. It didn't matter though because her scent was driving him mad. It was everywhere yet nowhere and therefore completely untraceable. Where was she? Where? She was so close, but he couldn't find her. It was complete hell and his worst nightmare. She was forever outside his grasp and no matter how desperately he searched for her, she eluded him.
Grunts of anger and frustration grew louder as the first day passed, then another. By the third day he was beyond reasoning. Rocks became his enemy, the air whipped around, distorting the traces he got of her. Madness set in and his boiling point was exceeded.
"LEEEEVY!"
Deep inside her cavern, Levy was preparing for the battle ahead. She meditated quietly, face raised towards the moonlight that was streaming in through the cavern's roof. Slowly, her arms raised up in the arc of an angel as a smile spread across her lips in a zen-like motion. She inhaled slowly, deeply before dropping her chin back to level. Blue eyes opened with a frightening focus.
"He's here," she whispered. The voices erupted into a cacophony of chatter. An arm swung up in a demand for silence only to point its finger at the entrance of her fortress. The doors rumbled in protest, but finally gave to her command as fresh mountain air flooded the cavern. "Come to me, Gajeel Redfox. Levy is waiting," she said cryptically.
Gajeel had felt the low vibrations running through the ground as if fleeing from some terrible force. It was her! It had to be her because the scent had taken on a potency he had not inhaled in ages. Forgetting anything else, he sped headlong for the source, striving to move faster. He lost remnants of any human movements and adapted the quick leaps and bounds of a beast unleashed from a cage. He felt the scales pushing against the surface of his skin as the dragon threatened to consume him and he welcomed it with a fanged grin. She was HIS!
With a victory growl, he burst through the doorway only to stop at the mouth, staring at the otherworldly figure at the end of the path, drenched in her moonlight. He had to admit, his mate struck quite an alluring pose. It was tasty. Silence enveloped the air as everything suddenly leapt into movement.
Not a sound erupted as Gajeel sped headlong down the path towards his goal, the one he sought for so long. The energy she shot forth burst and destroyed whatever it touched, missing him by mere millimeters. He didn't even flinch as his smile grew upon drawing closer. Blood red eyes stared into bright blue ones. Using two hands, Levy let loose another round of blue light, nearly taking off Gajeel's head. With ease, he flipped into the air. More silence. He was almost upon her. Rolling to the side, he leapt from one boulder lining the pathway to the other; always within a hair's breathe of plummeting down below. He might as well have been only a few feet above solid ground, not a bottomless pit.
There! He made it! He leapt at her with his claws extended, teeth baring down on her. Levy's arm raised up as time slowed. He grew closer and closer, blood was his intent. She would never leave him again. He would subjugate her and bring her home. Just as his claws grazed her cheek, her hand shot forward and grasped him around the throat. He was frozen in shock. With one arm, she had single-handedly stopped a dragon's attack. She held him aloft, staring up into his face. Gajeel was still lost in his storm of instincts, but one thing struck home. The tears. He saw them streaming slowly down both sides of her face in stark contrast to the look of deadly intent.
The silence was shattered with the following explosion and burst of chants that filled the cavern.
"Gorrumdi no et na'aku venci! Cuane fon alanpak tu ve! Mut mor noram do nova grrrrra!" Gajeel's scream rang throughout the cavern only to be engulfed and surpassed by the chants. Empty no longer are our stomachs! Come forth to us your life force! Maiden bring the Nova link!
"Aaaaargh!" the pain was excruciating as he was unable to catch his breath. It was as if the very air around him was being sucked away and along with it went his energy and magic. It was a bottomless hunger that pulled at all of it and he fought magnificently against the hand that gripped him. Somehow he continued to fight desperately, now simply for his very survival. He looked down through his pain, the blood red eyes faded to their original rust as he reached up with his fingers. They spasmed violently as he brought them to the small cut that was bleeding down her cheek. Gently, he wiped the blood away. The tears down her cheeks increased. The maiden's mouth moved involuntarily.
"G-Gajeel…" he was suddenly released from her grip, crumbling into a pile at her feet. The maiden threw her arms up, clutching at her head. Her scream ripped through the air, piercing Gajeel to his heart. It was the most terrible sound he had ever heard and all he could manage was to fall backwards off of the platform, resting his back against a nearby fallen rock, watching as his love fought with herself. She curled over as if in extreme pain. Only for a moment was she able to look at her dragon lover.
"R-Run, Gajeel…" She flinched. "RUN!" Another scream rendered her unable to finish. Just as abruptly, the scream died out. Levy's face contorted into a vicious smile.
"My my, she does have some spunk doesn't she?" Gajeel heaved where he lay, staring hatefully at the being that had taken over Levy's body as she approached him with cat-like movements. "Oh, don't look at me like that," she said jovially as she squatted down next to him, running a finger along his chin. He jerked away from her, feeling the evil rolling off of her. "This girl was hard to come by. She's smart, she has a well-built soul, and she's strong. Why do you think I'm referred to as the Trinity Maiden?" It was obvious Gajeel could care less. With the sudden loss of his energy so had his overwhelming instincts that had overtaken him disappeared into that terrible void. He was thinking clearly finally for the first time in weeks.
"Let Levy go," he growled.
"Oh, now you can tell why I can't do that, can't you? Her life force is so tasty! It's the perfect channel for everyone else's too. And now, thanks to you, I have enough energy to move on to the next step." The iron dragon slayer's breathing was labored as he stared helplessly as she turned back to her platform. "What's the next step, you might ask? Well here, my dear man, let me show you."
Her white hair slowly rose up, as if gravity stood no chance against her. Then her feet left the ground as she slowly floated upward, laughing up at the moon.
"We shall feast upon this world once again," she said throatily. Gajeel was momentarily blinded as the moon's light increased a hundred fold. The chanting was unbearably loud now. Blue script snaked its way upward through the portal of light, converging into a single point, building, gathering and finally peaking. At the acme of the energy influx it burst forth through the cavern's opening bursting over the landscape and spreading to the far reaches of the horizon. Seconds went by of nothingness then suddenly came the first moan, followed by another and then another, until the room was filled with the chorus of pain and suffering found from those whose souls were ripped from them in their sleep.
Levy laughed as though in pleasure as the three boulders behind her began to glow a hazy blue.
"Yes, more! I need more!" Pausing in her pleasure quest she turned back to Gajeel and smiled perversely and licked her lips. "I'll be back for seconds from you, my good man. You are a tasty treat. But first, I must drain this town of its life force." Gajeel's eyes widened. She was killing a town! An entire population in just a brief moment, she was wiping it from existence. And she was doing it with Levy's body, and Levy's voice, and Levy's smile! Rage poured into him, roiling and twisting into something he had never experienced before. His move to attack the maiden once again was stopped as the sounds of footfalls echoed across the cavern. Slowly, he turned his weakened head back towards the entrance and his eyes widened. There stood, the strongest team of Fairy Tail. Erza, Gray, Natsu, and Lucy… oh and Happy too.
Levy smiled seductively as she lowered her arms and body back to the platform, the wail's stopping immediately.
"Ah, it looks like my main course has arrived," she said hungrily.
A/N: Short, but hope it got the juices going for a good fight! Here comes the fun part!
