Levy told herself to keep calm. To be quiet and wait. Feed into the image that the Council no doubt had of her. What with her shy, small, meek demeanor, her soft voice and wide, tear filled eyes. She spoke to herself, using comforting words invoking patience and the need to plot. Reminded herself that Gajeel and the others were okay. Confined to a Council cell, yes, but otherwise unharmed. They wouldn't be mistreated. The council were already treading very fine ice as it stood and it would be likely easy enough to appeal to the King and have him intervene on their behalf. The Magic Council would also probably find themselves in a great deal of trouble for this.
That of course was what Levy told herself, even as Jet was pulling her off the Knight she'd tackled, all while she yelled and cursed enough to make him blush. Levy felt herself watching this from above, no longer confined to her physical body, witnessing the spectacle as a small blue haired woman that barely resembled what she remembered looking like, knocked an official to the ground and pummelled him with hard fists, blood spraying as shock rippled about the room. When she'd been finally separated she came back to herself, a strange mixture of satisfaction and self-disgust as she found herself staring down at the Knight currently glued to the ruined wood floor and bleeding profusely from a very broken nose. The blood on her hands, no longer a source of revulsion or fear.
"I'm fine, Jet, I'm okay," She snarled, ripping her trembling arm free from his hands as she turned to stalk off, her limp still evident. She gripped the edge of the nearest table to steady herself, calm her breathing while Knights tried prying the target of her rage off the wood. She couldn't even remember what he'd said to her to push her over the edge. It seemed almost dreamlike. Her fingers throbbed as her nails bit into the wood. Levy was sure some of the blood on her hands was her own; the skin on her knuckles having split.
She stared at her hands like they belonged to someone else. Her body no longer her own. So much violence; she had to remind herself how much she abhorred it. Had to make herself remember that, because it was so easy an outlet. Levy felt genuinely surprised by how much it made her feel better. There was a relief in being able to release some of that darkness she felt soaking through her.
A brief stab of guilt washed down any pleasure she'd taken in attacking that man and she felt her breathing strain.
This wasn't who she wanted to be.
Jet appeared with ice from the bar wrapped in cloth and pressed it over her swelling fists, not bothering to ask her how they were. He could see them clear enough. Her bruised and bloody fingers. It would be a new nameless pain in a few days.
Did she even remember what it was like to wake up without something causing her one agony or another? An aching. Or burning. Bile rose in her throat and she swallowed it with force.
The anger Levy felt was entirely foreign. A curling, rippling beast in her chest, raging under her ribs for all the things she'd lost. For everything that had been taken away from her. Her peace of mind. The ability to pass a reflective surface without flinching at the disfigured woman mirroring her movements. A ghost of who she'd once been.
A small piece it seemed of her sanity.
But she truly hated them for taking Gajeel; taking the others. Genuine hatred for splitting her family. For even daring to. The tears she didn't shed had scorched a fire in her soul; pain had morphed into a dark desire she didn't think she'd ever felt before and it was frightening.
Levy pressed a hand into her ribs, an ache there at the thought of Gajeel and how much she missed him already. An almost physical pain at his noticeable absence. Another one.
He'd been the sole reason she'd held herself together as well as she had and it terrified her a little to imagine spending even a second without him.
After everything they'd done and suffered and sacrificed. None of this was fair. It wasn't just. Wasn't right. In her mind Gajeel seemed to whisper to her in that soothing timber of his, a ghost of a breath in her ear, reminding her that life simply didn't work like that. She was a Fairy Tail mage; she didn't need to be told how true that was.
The Knights had brought the others back to the guild to wake up from their sedation in familiar surroundings. Probably in the hopes of reducing the liklihood of retaliation. They'd seen that their injuries and wounds were bandaged and weren't life threatening. They'd gone to considerable effort to ensure they were okay... but Gajeel, Wendy and Laxus weren't with the others, and on top of it all, Makarov had yet to wake up. Some contraindication with the medication he took for his high blood pressure interacting with the potion. He'd likely be unconscious for days yet, according to an apocalyptic Porlyusica.
"We're all angry. Believe me! But beating up some stupid grunt isn't going to bring any of them back," Jet kept his voice low as Lisanna took up Levy's vendetta against the Knights, one manicured finger poking sharply into the nearest white emblazoned chest. A foul look marring her normally sweet features.
"It won't fix this," It was wise and reasonable council that Jet offered her and yet it made Levy sick to her stomach to even admit that to herself.
"I know that, Jet. It's just... it's. .." Her voice wavered and his gaze softened as he pulled her into a hug.
Despite how much she wanted to, Levy couldn't find it in her to cry again, so she allowed herself some small comfort in the otherwise meaningless gesture, because try as he might, Jet just couldn't understand the true extent of it. Levy didn't want him to, either. Wouldn't wish that kind of suffering on anyone, least of all her closest friends. So she closed her eyes and let herself just breathe for a moment, held tightly.
They'd all lost something of themselves to this. They'd lost friends, family, a kind of innocence to the brutality of events, but the truth was that some in Fairy Tail had lost and sacrificed more than others. She didn't feel all that comfortable with Jet knowing just how much.
Across the table the Knight Lisanna was currently venting her anger and frustration on, snapped, and she found her arm suddenly in the man's painfully tight grasp. Irritation flashing across his face.
He looked like he was about to speak, a small unhappy sneer stretching his mouth into a thin line but a slender, firm hand on his elbow made him stiffen.
"Unless you'd like to find yourself missing some fingers, I'd take your hands off my friend, pal, and get you and your friends outta here before Erza finds her feet," Cana's voice purred dangerously in his ear. The normal cheer on her usually less than sober face was absent as she stared him down. The muscles of her arm flexing, her grip on him close enough to pain than it made his teeth clench.
He let Lisanna go and turned sharply to the card mage, anger lighting his eyes, but another Knight stepped between them, breaking Cana's grip and pushing his friend back before a fight broke out.
"Don't! I know who her father is, let's go. No reason for us to be here anymore," His comrades hauled him out of reach, disappearing out into the darkness. Leaving the guild to their confusion and grief. An undercurrent of rage.
"Anyone know if they tagged Natsu?" A groggy Bickslow asked, still disorientated from the concoction, but there were shrugs all round. No one but the master had heard anything from him since he was ordered to leave town.
"Natsu is the least of our concerns, besides, he's got a knack for getting out of tight corners," Cana offered, trying to lift their spirits.
"You mean Lucy... " Someone muttered under their breath from the crowd and Cana snorted, cracking a grin that lightened the pressure in Levy's chest to see. It was something. Some tiny flicker of hope that this wasn't as bad as it seemed. They would fix this. Together.
The brunette smiled. "No more crying and feeling sorry for ourselves, got it?" She very almost looked at Levy, but didn't. "Mira and Erza are out for the count, master too, and Laxus is locked up somewhere probably tryin' to convince the Council to dry clean his shirts... so you guys just got me for the minute, and I'm not just gonna sit here feeling sorry for us."
"So, what do we do?" Droy spoke up, his face pale. "We can't go head to head with the Magic Council. They'd just disband us, or worse, label us a dark guild," He whimpered.
"We petition the King," Levy's voice surprised her. It's was confident. Firm. It didn't shake like the hands she now kept fisted at her sides. "We've done enough for this country that he owes us an audience at least," She bit out.
"Sure, when he's back," Jet grumbled, fumbling over something behind the bar and pulling out a sheet of newspaper, holding it up for them to see. The King and the Princess seated at an enormous ornate table. Both wearing smiles that just didn't seem to reach their eyes.
"They aren't here?" Levy voice was nothing more than a hiss.
"No, they're renegotiating a trade agreement with Stella, Joya and Bosco," Jet added. The article was buried at least ten pages into the paper. Completely overshadowed by speculation and talk about the murders. Interviews with the families. Sightings and rumour. Lost amid the fear and the panic of the last weeks. No one had cared a damn about a trade agreement when people had been dying in the streets.
Jet offered her the page to examine and she felt like screaming.
"Two months. They aren't due back for two months," Levy breathed, disbelief in her wide eyes.
"So we break 'em out!"
As one, every head swivelled to the door as Natsu dropped an unconscious Council Knight on his face, stepping over him like he were just luggage. Behind him a very muddy Lucy trudged in; a laughing Happy flitting overhead making faces at her and it could have been the mud or the Exceed or the ambush but Lucy's expression was murderous.
"What's up with you guys?" Natsu announced offhandedly with a grin, ignoring the groans from some of his guildmates. There was soot and dried blood caked in his hair and staining his face.
It was highly unlikely Natsu had given the situation enough consideration to wait for the Knights to leave before his grand entrance, forethought was one of his biggest weaknesses, but it definitely one of Lucy's strengths. She wouldn't have let him walk them into an avoidable fight in the guild. Or given their location away. Not if they could avoid it.
Levy didn't care that Lucy was beyond filthy, she practically tackled her, throwing her arms around her friend, shaking with relief.
"We thought the worst," Levy admitted with a breathless sob.
"Yeah, well, it was close," Lucy admitted with a crinkled brow at Natsu's subsequent snort. "They popped up out of no where," Lucy said with a sigh. "Told us they had our buddies and to come along quietly."
Levy could almost hear in her head how the rest of that conversation went.
"And what, flame brain use you as bait or something?" Gray found the nerve to snicker at the mess she was in as Natsu tackled him.
"No, Aquarius," Was all Lucy said turning to Levy. And it really required no more explanation than that. "Natsu got shot with some kinda slime but he burned it away before we found out what it did."
"He didn't miss out on anything, trust us," Bickslow groaned, head once again buried in his arms.
"Important thing was that they didn't nab you, too," Levy offered a tentative smile.
"They took Gajeel, Wendy and Laxus after the fight. We don't know where," Juvia interjected. She was calm. Focused. Her expression betrayed nothing of what she might have been feeling but the woman was always tricky to read.
"We know. That's why he's here," Lucy inclined her head to the man on the floor.
And that was a good a start as they could hope for.
Above Lucy's head, Happy was fluttering about miserably.
"I know they took Wendy, but where's Carla gone?" He whined.
Levy pursed her lips. Come to think of it, she hadn't remembered seeing the Exceed when they'd come back from the caves.
Levy hadn't seen Lily, either.
Gajeel woke up with a blinding, nauseating headache, vision swimming; the pain of it alone forced him to his side and drove the absent contents of his stomach up his throat. He tasted bile as he gagged. Legs and arms weak and aching from the fight.
"Gajeel?" A hushed voice whispered to him and something soft and warm patted him gently on the face. Careful and light and considerate. Blue was the first thing that came into focus and he might have been forgiven if he thought it was Levy for a second, but he quickly realised that it was actually Wendy that was kneeling over him, her hands lighting as the pain began fading.
Concern morphed rather immediately into a warm smile as she beamed at him. Satisfied that he was finally conscious.
"Waste of magic. Slap would've done the trick, too, " A voice that was very much Laxus' casual drawl said from out of sight and Gajeel could have laughed at Wendy's sudden frown as she looked off toward the source of Laxus' mocking voice.
"I'm beginning to understand why Mira complains about you so much," She said, sounding beyond exasperated. Who knew how long she'd been stuck dealing with a disgruntled Laxus, all the while waiting for him to wake up. Gajeel wouldn't wish that on anyone. Well... it was a small list.
"Whatever you're thinking her problem with me is, I can guarantee you got it wrong," He fired back with a smug grin that Gajeel could only guess at the meaning behind.
He managed to make it to his feet and balked a little to find himself in what looked like the livingroom of run of the mill, cabin. Two sofas and coffee table. A large hearth. Open kitchen. The smell of rock and old blood still tickling his nose. That stench of death from the cave seemed to have permeated his entire being; right through his skin.
Outside the sun was shining in an almost picturesque blue sky. Serene he would have described it but for the anxiety he felt in his gut. Turning that too-familiar bile like a stew.
As he regained his senses he finally realised what about this was so wrong. What his nerves were pinching him to realise.
Nothing.
There... was nothing. No sounds beyond their own heart beats and breathing. No animals or birds. No sound of the wind rustling outside. No scents even. Wherever they were trapped was a barren, desolate, empty place. A place devoid of life.
This wasn't real.
"Where the fuck are we?" Gajeel asked no one in particular, though a part of him was desperately hoping someone had an answer.
"Gotta assume it's somewhere the Council thinks we won't be able to cause trouble. There's running water for a shower," Laxus' hint was far fro. subtle as he glared at Gajeel, wrinkling his nose. "... And you can leave the cabin, but get too far away and the the world just stops," Laxus cast an appreciative eye around the place. "Reckon we're in a painting or photo or something," He added. "Some little pocket world we won't be able to burn or break."
"Like Cana's cards," Wendy said and the blonde nodded. Not looking particularly fussed about it all.
"Fuck!" Gajeel growled. A snarl building in his chest. He'd have almost preferred a cell to this. At least that was real. Not simply that he'd actually stand a chance of breaking out of it. No, this world was grating on him already. The very sky outside felt like it was waiting to cave in on them, choke them. Fake and nauseatingly saccharine.
"How long you think they can keep us here like this? With no charges against us?" Gajeel took a steadying breath. He wanted to yell that he hadn't done anything wrong, but truth as it was, it still felt like lies. Even after all this time. The fact that Laxus was so calm told him the man had probably already reached a similar conclusion as to the difficulties the Council faced if they wanted to keep them legally confined.
"Couldn't say. These kinds of holding cells are usually reserved for royalty or high brow criminals," Gajeel looked at him, far from flattered by that.
"Well don't I feel special..." He murmured as he ran his hands through his filthy hair before casually tapping a knuckle against the pane of glass in the window. He may as well have been hitting stone. While it might have looked like it, nothing here was as it appeared. Gajeel doubted it would smash but hit it with an iron fist anyway, just to make sure. There was a resounding thunk but not a crack.
"I don't like this place," Wendy said out loud. Wrapping her arms around her knees as she perched on the couch opposite Laxus. Anxiety and fear were rolling off her in waves. A noticeable stink in the absense of anything else.
Gajeel and Laxus had both seen the inside of their share of prison cells, but it was still a relatively new and unnerving experience for Wendy. She prided herself on her ability to walk the law abiding citizen line that the rest of them had never given a toss about in their own youth.
"How much space we got outside?" Gajeel asked her. They seemed to have woken some time before him. Had already explored their new prison rather thoroughly it seemed.
"About a hundred yards away you hit a wall. Like the edge of the world. Soooo freaky. Like we're trapped in a dollhouse," She shivered, hugging herself even tighter.
"So what? We just sit here and wait?" Gajeel asked, disbelief heavy in his tone. They could go mad in a place like this. They could end up as crazy as Braca.
Maybe that was the point. He let the thought drift into his head and find a perch. Why go to the trouble of taking them if they knew well they wouldn't be able to hold them? No doubt the others would be rallying to get them released. Truly, the only way to even begin to make a case for keeping them confined would be to prove they were an actual danger.
"Yeah, we calmly, quietly... wait!" Laxus enunciated and Gajeel huffed a breath.
"Fine, I get it," He said in resignation. Laxus had come to the same sobering thought. They were to behave.
"You doing okay, kid?" Gajeel finally asked, noting Wendy's increasing anxiety.
"I ...don't want to be here. It's like there's no air," She looked him square in the face, a sudden claustrophobia haunting her eyes. "We did nothing wrong!" She affirmed, her face bleached of colour.
Gajeel shared a glance with Laxus, noting that he'd sensed the rising agitation. As funny as it would have seemed in any other pretext, Wendy was likely to be the first one to lose it in here. Cut off from the real world. A Dragon Slayer of the wind, taken away from the sky.
The girl jolted a little as Gajeel collapsed into the seat beside her and planted a meaty palm on her head, ruffling her hair enough to leave her pigtails comically lobsided.
"Ain't the first time we've been locked up," Gajeel said to her with a tiny grin.
"Doubt it'll be the last, either," Laxus added with a smirk.
Wendy was silently looking up at him, she'd heard snippets about Gajeel and Laxus' shady dealings before she'd joined Fairy Tail but nothing substantial. A lot of members seemed to still have it in their heads that she was too young to hear that kinda stuff, despite the fact of course that she was seventeen. Not exactly what you'd consider a child anymore.
"Before I had this symbol," Gajeel tapped the Fairy Tail brand on his arm lightly. "I'd another one. A pretty fuckin' bad one," He almost laughed at the way she scrunched up her face at his coarse language. "Yeah, I did a lot'a pretty fucked up things. Some of the people I hurt deserved it, most of 'em didn't. The first time I met the Shrimp I was nailin' her and Jet and Droy to that big oak in the square," He paused feeling Wendy literally jump under his arm. "If there's anyone that deserves to be locked up, probably me."
No one had ever told her about that. She looked up to stare at him in nothing short of abject, transparent horror. Her mouth and eyes wide.
"But... but, Levy?" He knew what she was about to say. The words unspoken, still ringing as loud as a bell in his head.
But you love her? But you love Levy? She seemed to hold herself back from crying out.
You could hide very little from another Dragon Slayer, least of all one as sharp as Wendy. She may have been young, still, but she wasn't a kid anymore. Despite his continuous teasing.
"Yeah, tell me about it. Talk about fuckin' up, huh?" Gajeel remarked with a quiet smile. Wendy's curiosity smothering her anxiety for the moment as she sat enraptured by the concept that the Gajeel she'd come to know, had once been such an individual.
"So what?" Laxus snorted, completely unimpressed. "I almost destroyed the town and killed everyone in Magnolia," He added only for Wendy to snort with laughter.
"I guess some things haven't changed all that much," she said with a smile, earning herself a pillow to the head. She caught it before it even made contact, grinning wolfishly back at him. Laxus was fast. Likely faster than she was... But maybe not for that much longer. Gajeel watched the blonde lightning mage frown. It seemed to be that catching thrown cushions was a quick way to aggravate some folk.
"I resent that," He pointed an accusing finger at her. "I'll have you know that I'm waaay less of an asshole these days," He said defensively, making Gajeel chortle.
"Yeah, right, keep dreamin'" He bit out sarcastically.
Things grew quiet between them as Wendy slumped in her seat, the humour fading from her eyes.
"You really think they're going to just let us go?" She quietly asked the room.
Gajeel and Laxus stayed silent. They didn't have the heart to tell her the truth they both knew. Could feel in their bones. If they wanted to keep them bad enough, the Council would come up with a valid reason.
Or they'd fabricate one.
Question was, what were they really doing there to begin with?
Notes
The site decided to make my life hell with the formatting on this one. That and the flu.
Huge thanks for all the reviews. I wonder if any of you have guessed where I'm going with this because it's all related. Fiorian Magic Council were painted to have a whole lot of authority and power in the series. And you know what they say about power and the people attracted to it.