Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip-
Levy's hazel eyes fluttered open, hazed with pain and confusion. She blinked a few times, and then gasped, shooting upright. Pain lanced through her - bandaged, she noted - shoulder, and she rested a hand lightly on it as she looked around.
A sewer? she wondered, shocked as she took in the space around her. She was resting semi-upright beside a round grated entrance that, from the looks of it, could be removed if necessary. She licked her lips, remembering who she'd last seen, and looked around. Elroy wasn't there at the moment.
She hissed as she struggled to sit forward. Blood seeped into the bandage, warm and sticky, but she ignored it - particularly as a shadow appeared nearby.
"You're awake, Miss Levy!" Elroy cheerfully said, green eyes glinting in the dark.
Levy spat at him, furious. "Take me home, Elroy."
He disregarded her fury and instead stepped over, lightly grabbing her wrist when she tried to hit him. She shrieked in outrage as she was lifted into his arms with a gentle touch. She was disgusted with it. "Forgive me, Miss Levy, but we need to hurry. Someone will come looking for you soon, and I don't want you to be taken from me again. Do you?"
"Yes, surprisingly enough," she said wryly as he started forward. Her shoulder ached horribly. She wouldn't be surprised if it got infected. Not with the space they were traveling through. "I honestly hate to break it to you, Elroy, but home is sounding pretty nice right now."
"You don't mean that," he murmured, furrowing his brow.
"Again. Surprisingly enough, I do."
He ignored that and kept walking. It seemed like ages before they reached an exit to these sewers, and when they did, Levy was blinded by the sun. She threw her good side's arm up to protect her eyes. When she lowered it, her heart skipped a beat.
They were literally in the middle of nowhere. Eloy's legs were wet from walking through dirty water.
And her eyes welled with tears as the cuff on her arm glinted in the sunlight.
Because not even Natsu would find her now.
Elroy headed onwards, and Levy sniffled. His gaze dropped to look at her, nearly leaf-green in the light. Levy couldn't tell if night had come and gone, or even how many days or hours it had been since she'd last seen the horrified look on Gajeel's face.
"Miss Levy," he soothed, "it'll be alright, you'll see. You won't need to worry. I'll take good care of you, and soon, you'll forget about everything else."
"This is kidnapping," she whispered. "You're taking me against my will, Elroy!" Her voice rose until she shouted, "In what world would I even think about dating or even liking you?!"
His gaze darkened angrily. "Stop it-"
"No," she seethed. "I will never think of you as anything but as close to evil as someone can get. And I've looked evil in the eye and survived. Gajeel crucified me to a tree. And even after I've forgiven and forgotten that, he still doesn't think he's worth anything to me! If you think you're worth more than a rock to me after this, than you're a delusional psycho!"
The blow came so fast, she didn't see it coming. She cried out as a stinging pain filled her cheek. Elory had slapped her - and continued to glare at her, practically foaming at the mouth as he snarled, "Don't talk about me like that! Or him! One more word about Gajeel Redfox, and I'll make damn sure he finds your body half-rotted in the middle of the woods!"
Levy clenched her jaw and said nothing, her small chest heaving as she glared at him hatefully.
A heartbroken look spread over his face. "Miss Levy, don't look at me like that," he whimpered, and she yanked her face out of his reach when he paused and tried to touch her cheek. He frowned, unhappy. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to."
"I hate you," she seethed.
His gaze hardened. "We'll change that," he mumbled, half to himself and half to her.
Levy looked to the sky and willed herself to stay strong.
"I'm coming with you."
"That's fine." Gajeel nodded in approval the next morning at Lily's fierce words as he shoved some medical supplies into a bag for when he found his new sort of girlfriend. Nighttime had come and gone, giving him resting time that he didn't want, and now it was time to leave. The birds had begun to chirp hours before.
"I'm coming with you, too."
"...that's definitely not fine," Gajeel said, pausing and turning to look at the glaring sky mage. Wendy's dark eyes were sharp, her cheeks puffed up as she gave him a nasty look. He was impressed. "Sorry," he grunted, patting her on the head. "Mira and Erza would kill me."
"I can fight," she insisted.
"I don't doubt ya can. But Charle would kill me, too." He scrambled for reasons. "Besides. I need someone to be ready to help her when we get back. I sure as hell ain't a fuckin' healer."
She faltered. "I...I want to…"
"I know." He didn't budge on the matter, refusing. He would not let Wendy come out there after this man. Not when they didn't know what he was doing with Levy - a line of thinking he did not let himself go down. "Please, Wendy."
"Okay." She took a deep breath and then told him to hold on. She slipped out of the main part of the guildhall, where the guild had offered shelter for the injured - and for the bodies of those who'd been killed. Some in the guild were there, tending to those who needed it and offering to help others search for the missing. No one seemed to notice Levy was gone - something Makarov had wanted when he'd ordered Gajeel to leave and not return until he had Levy with him.
Dead or alive.
Wendy came back, trilling lowly in her throat. "Natsu's badly hurt. Porlyusica's with him. But...he said that if you were going to leave, to tell him. He gave me this to give you." She pressed something into his fingers.
Gajeel blinked as he unfolded the cloth. Within it was a cuff of iron - one of his own, made specially by Gajeel himself. Natsu had demanded he make it and then had carved crude symbols of luck-wishing, protection, and other such phrases.
All in Draconian.
Despite his irritation towards Natsu on a regular basis, Gajeel clasped it on his wrist and told her, "Tell Salamander I say thanks."
She nodded and stepped back. "Good luck!"
Gajeel nodded curtly and glanced at Lily, who met his gaze and inclined his head. He was ready.
"Alright," he rumbled. "We're gonna start around the explosion site, Lil'."
"Understood," Lily replied.
His wings snapped out and Gajeel bared his teeth in a malicious grin.
"Let's go kick that fucker's ass."
It seemed like ages before Elroy stopped and when he did, Levy felt fear race down her spine because she realized just how long he'd been planning this. Because there was no way in hell that you could set up a fully stocked cabin in just a week.
Her throat dry, she whispered, "How?"
Elroy beamed. "I payed people to come out and build it. Isn't it lovely?"
Sure. I'd love to come here. If I wasn't with a stalker.
Taking a deep breath, Levy tried to shove herself free of him. With gentle hands, he put her down, but kept a firm grip on her cuffed wrist. To make sure she wouldn't go anywhere...not that she would make it far. She wondered how high the smoke would go if she burned the cabin down.
That would be a thing to try. Lock him in, burn, and run until someone figured out where she was.
"You must be hungry and tired." Elroy suddenly pulled her towards the cabin. "Come, Miss Levy, we'll make sure you're fed and see to it that you are put to bed."
Levy pressed her lips together. Maybe she could try to escape when he was asleep? He'd have to be exhausted, too. Those shadows beneath his eyes were brutal...but he'd be waiting for attempts tonight, the first night.
Levy grimaced as she was pushed inside, taking in the space around her. It wasn't too good, thank the heavens above. It was filled with cheap furniture, a running fridge and an old stove that looked as if it would blow up at any second. She wondered if she could sabotage it?
She looked to Elroy when he chirped, "Your room is here." He pointed to a door and she hesitantly walked over to it. Any thoughts of escape left her when she found that the window within the simple room containing only a bed and a shelf of books was barred.
She hated her luck.
She freaking hated her luck.
Levy, with reluctance, entered the room and wasn't surprised when Elroy closed and locked the door behind her, calling, "I'll be back and then you can come out! They've brainwashed you so much, I know you'll try to go back. I'm sorry, Miss Levy."
When Elroy was gone, she sank to the ground, seated against a wall. She swallowed the lump in her throat, flinching at the throbbing in her shoulder - and forced herself not to cry. She would not cry.
No, no crying.
But Levy was determined to find a way out of this. Even if it meant tainting her hands and soul with Elroy's blood.
Because that may very well be the only way she could get out.
Gajeel studied the space around he and Lily. Lily was on his shoulder, using his tail to balance himself. Gajeel could see Erza heaving against some debris with Juvia and Gray, her dark eyes worried for whoever was trapped. She was streaked with ash.
They'd wandered the area, seeking any sign of Levy. He'd finally found an iron pipe that was almost entirely slicked with Levy's blood. Lily had looked disgusted - as had Gajeel as he'd breathed in that horrific and familiar scent before using it to track her. He'd gotten halfway down Strawberry Street before it disappeared.
"Fuck," he seethed.
"We'll find her," a calm Lily muttered. "She didn't just disappear into thin air."
"She might as well have!" Gajeel crossed his arms. He took a deep breath to try and calm himself, frustrated. After a moment, he drew a hand down his face, thinking. Elroy had definitely taken Levy and run. He'd caught his stench while investigating the pipe. The question was how he'd managed to get out of town without being noticed by anyone, because they'd checked and nobody had seen them.
Gajeel's gaze roved the street slowly, studying it as people worked and wailed and whimpered.
He'd been down the street plenty of times and knew precisely where everything had been before. He remembered slipping through the sewers beneath it, too, hunting for a criminal that Makarov had wanted him to detain-
The sewers.
Gajeel lunged for the nearest entrance, earning a squawk from his cat. "What are you doing?!"
"The sewers." He knelt to peer into the hole in the ground, jaw working furiously when he saw that it had flooded. Something had burst thanks to the canal. "I bet he used it to get around...Juvia!" he shouted, looking over his shoulder. The water mage paused, blinking, and then waved for a tired Gildarts to take her place.
"Gajeel?" she said curiously when she'd come over, "What-"
"Clear the sewers," he ordered, peering into the darkness. "This section flooded and I gotta find Levy. Fucker went down in 'em like a rat."
Juvia's lips parted, blue eyes stretching wide. "Okay." She cleared her throat and stepped back. "Juvia needs you to patch up the breach though."
She settled contently into a stance, eyes on the canal. She suddenly closed them - and then snapped them open as the water came soaring out of the sewer, swirling through the air and into its proper place. Gajeel went to work, creating a patchwork of iron that he nailed into the massive crumbling hole. It wouldn't hold forever, but it would hold for a few weeks at most.
"Juvia will have Gray strengthen it," she promised. "Be careful, Gajeel."
He ruffled her hair as Lily settled onto his shoulder again. "See ya later, water woman."
And then he jumped.
Sorry I didn't get all of the people who reviewed in my thanks to reviewers section last update! There was a glitch for a minute.
Thanks to reviewers (GrandeeneyMarvell, piranha pk, Typhlosion8, HummingBird742, Shadow Spears, Mizuki-Dono, Little MarshmallowAli, random-anime-gurl, NylliaDelta, Dinoadge, Crimsonlink310, RandomAnimeNerd, everythingnerd23, Mewhee89, wingedauthoress4, Where'sTheFood, sassykitten1701, Otaku-neesan, and kmmcm!) as well as those who favorited and followed!