Because you're all awesome, double update this week. I took some liberties with Chapter 488, so if youre not caught up... quit dallying! For real though! You're missing out!!
I do not own fairy tail or any of the dialogue i manipulated for how Gajeel Redfox reads in my head. SPOILERS SO YA KNOW DONT MOVE AHEAD UNLESS YA DONE READ 488 YO. Much love, fam. Yeah I said fam and im in my 30s. Come at me bro.
*
Chapter 13: Confession
Fog.
Black fog.
"-ay thE HELL AWAY FROM ME!"
A voice far off in the distance. His voice.
"IT'S TOO LATE FER ME! MY BODY… HNGG…" Pain strained his voice, the syllables sharp in the blackness. "IT'S ALREADY BECOME NOTHIN' BUT'A MASS'A MAGIC BARRIER PARTICLES!"
Destructive noises rang out into the endless night.
A choking noise stuttered, a bloody effort-filled cough. "If ya touch me… then you'll also.."
"I DON'T CARE ABOUT ANY OF THAT!" A feminine voice roared, much closer.
"LEVY!"
"NO! YOU'RE COMING BACK WITH ME NO MATTER WHAT!!"
Darkness gave way to a blurry projection, the picture clouded and wet. Heavy breathing huffed all around, the picture of smoldering wreckage heaving, growing unsteadily shorter from an advanced height.
"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING, GAJEEL!??"
The picture swung toward the sound; A distressed blue-haired woman strained against shackles holding her wrists taught to a boulder.
"You left me no other choice…" the second voice sniffed with shame, the picture rounding on him a second later. A swirling vortex of evil grey black swallowed Gajeel to his chest, his head hung, shivering and convulsing in despair.
"No!" A deep bass boomed around empty seats. No one was there to witness the labored nature of the projected gait, the anxious hurried breaths that rasped over the woman's angered screams.
"I'LL HAVE YOU KNOW, I'M NOT THE DAMSEL IN DISTRESS I WAS WHEN YOU FIRST MET ME!" She bellowed, using her free swinging leg to sculpted letters in the air in front of her and sliced the boulder behind her with another well-placed sweep, freeing her to move once again.
"LEVY NO!!" The bass shouted, water and dust clouding the visual as the picture leapt foreward, trying to catch up.
"I'M BEGGIN' YA TA STOP!" Gajeel cried fear gripping him from the collarbones up, the only parts of him able to be seen through the mad swirl of hell around him.
In desperation the viewer made one last pounce and caught a face full of hair the color of sky. The locks thrashed, and the picture took a moment to adjust before it stabilized. Levy beat her fists against the black fur and muscle enveloping her, the details obscuring quickly with more salty tears.
"UNHAND ME, LILY!!!" The script mage trilled, clawing and scratching, doing everything she could to fend off the strength holding her in place.
"I must refuse your request," The view sank to their feet, Levy's kicking restlessly against his shins. The view went black, the bass pinched through gritted teeth, "...lest you be dragged in too."
She shrieked with all she had into the left side of the projection, her voice deafening and beginning to lose strength in places from overuse, "I DON'T CARE! LET ME GO!!" Her head must have connected purposely with the side of his face, when that unique noise that only came from head trauma sounded. The picture flashed open for a moment to focus on her animal-wide eyes pouring tears before the picture went black again with a sorrowful male sob. "AT THIS RATE," Levy choked on her words, "GAJEEL WILL…"
"Levy…" His voice came, but velvet soft and full of regret. "Back then I really was just a degenerate scumbag…" he sniffed and heaved a heavy, wistful sigh through his tears, "...But... then I met you and ya were able to bring out all the best parts of me…What little there was, anyway."
Levy had gone silent through the blackness, save for her irrate hiccups and sputtering. He sort of chuckled rhyly, "Ya taught me what it means ta love…" Gajeel paused, possibly to observe and acknowledge his own confession for the first time, "...and for that, I will be eternally grateful."
"Gajeel…" A whisper of a voice shook close in the darkness, followed by shifting clothes. Lily's eyes opened enough to locate the crook of Levy's neck and promptly bury the picture in it, the view once again going dark.
"With you by my side, fer the first time I was able ta discover'n think about things that never occurred ta me before," Gajeel sounded sure, and confident when he continued, his mouth uttering the deepest pieces of him he never let see the light of day, "...The future, a family, happiness. I can't help but laugh… who would have thought the great 'Badass Gajeel' of old would actually consider acting like a respectable, competent adult??" An incredulous click of the tongue came before his sincerely quieted as if telling a secret he'd never intended to share… and maybe, just maybe it was something he'd intended to take with him.
"I really did wanna walk with ya side by side... forever." Another pause, and when his voice returned he openly cried, trembling words tumbling over one another in vicious disturbing waves. "After everythin' I've faced, havin' a future with ya snatched away from me is definitely the most terrifying thing I've ever had ta endure."
"GAJEEL!" The statement was damning, the way she screamed his name sounded like an accusation; the declaration brought out an angry edge to the echoing voice that could only be reminiscent of an internal conflict concerning the fairness of life.
"I entrust my future to ya-" A verbal pat on the head: 'You be good now…' it seemed to say.
"NO!! YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME, GAJEEL!!" A fire build in her words again, betrayal stung her consonants.
He shouted urgently, feeling his time grow short. "Ya gotta live to the fullest now, for your sake… and mine!!"
"I WON'T LET YOU GO!" Defiance smeared her voice against a lethargic jaw,the last of her fight struggling against her own body. "I WON'T LET YOU LEAVE ME!!"
"Lily," the picture flew up bright, with matted black fur glistening at the edges, focusing on the fraction of his best friend's face still visible through the swirling. His dark eyes furrowed, addressing the projection. "You be sure ta get Levy back ta the guild safe'n sound." Gajeel waited for a moment, the picture blurring entirely amidst defeated quivers.
"Swear to me on your life." He growled, his last request begging to be acknowledged.
"I SWEAR IT." The bass rumbled, the picture blinking several times to catch the sad yet satisfied half smile. The one that said what he could not.
'Sayonara.' It said.
Meaning, 'Since it must be so.'
The last they could see was that fateful grin slowly being overtaken.
"NOOOOOOOO!" She roared, the picture going dark again, a masculine cry of anguish joining hers and punctuated with the sound of their knees giving way beneath them and the harsh dirt accepting with dull thuds.
"GAJEEEEL!!!" She mourned.
Their voices began to climb over one another, steadily growing softer and softer in their solitude on the Sacred Mountain.
"I'm sorry, Levy, I'm so sorr-" Lily gasped.
"GIVE HIM BACK!!!! GIVE HIM BACK TO M-" The projection brightened reluctantly and rounded on the script mage heaving and clutching his heavy forearm in an iron grip.
"I couldn't lose you both!" The projection reasoned as if it were needed, pressing the area just over the view into her hair. "I couldn't keep him sa-"
"LILY WHY!??" She interrupted him once again, pushing the view away, her soulless eyes tired and rimmed crimson. "WHY DID HE HAVE T-"
"I...I don't know… I'll never kn-" They were hardly listening to the other before, their mouths moving automatically, but this conjured thought brought more tears to obstruct the view just below her chin.
"I never got to TELL HIM LILY!!" Her lip quivered when the new wave of realization struck a solid blow to her heart, her mind, her body… and it was all visible. All palpable in the clutching of her wrist, a tiny trinket wound around it. Always present, through it all.
A gift he'd given her. The last one.
"He knew Levy…" Pantherlily cooed to her, voice soft, attempting to draw her in to accept what she couldn't change. "… he kn-"
"SHUT UP!" She growled trying to push away again. "I NEVER GOT TO TELL HIM I LOVED HIM AND NOW… NOW he's gone!! He's just… it isn't FAIR!!
"I know… I know.." What else could he say. The picture wound it's arms around her more tightly.
"Don't TOUCH ME!!" The script mage growled, shoving half heartedly a few times before she slumped into his arms, the picture going black again.
"GODDAMN YOU, GAJEEL REDFOX!!! YOU STUPID… YOU… stupid, stupid man!!!"
A brilliant light broke through the clamped shut projection just before memory faded into nothingness.