Final chapter: What a life...

(by the amazing Pacifique)

So... this is it.

To tell the truth when I am almost sad to update, it means I finally put an end on this story myself, even thought the story wasn't mine to begin with. But hey, I guess I can't keep you waiting forever ^^'

Thank you for all the faves, follows and reviews. They made me feel like someone worthy. Seriously, this isn't disagreeable. Love you all!

After this chapter, you got a message from Pacifique. She wanted to write something to you english readers, so here it is!

Enjoy this last chapter! And then go to bed (like me) ^^

I only own the translation. Sick belongs to the great and mighty Pacifique (^3^). Fairy Tail belongs to Mashima.

X_x

And he had surrender. It was almost noon when Levy awoke and he wasn't here anymore. He hasn't awoke her, he hadn't left anything. So she crossed Litanie empty hall sadly with a heavy heart. No one said anything as they saw her go, but their eyes were encouraging. She took the train for Crocus, trying not to think. In vain.

If he would be taken away from her, Gajeel would die, she knew it. They would accuse him of his faults again and again, put them before his eyes until he broke and died. Or until he turned bad again. For a moment she wondered how people could consider such a thing as fair. She also wondered how she could possibly live without him, if she would have the courage to go to see him in jail and watch him die a slow death, she wondered what use it would be if not hurting them both. She had the feeling she had imagined the worst when she walked on the platform of the train station.

She was wrong.

An incredible raging crowd was gathered at the door of the Council.

'No Lawless Area'

'Kouria: 80 people killed how many more?'

'The snow won't cover all the crimes.'

It was the words she could read on the panels the crowd was brandishing. A stunned and incredulous Levy walked to the first person she could talk to.

"Excuse me. What's going on?" She asked weakly.

"You don't know? Today it's Gajeel Redfox trial."

"Gajeel Redfox?" Levy repeated shocked.

"Yes! He was the mafia's boss of Mara, the cruelest of history! I don't know why that stupid Makarov canceled his complain for murder yesterday, but apparently he surrendered himself this morning. He certainly hopes now that no charge would be held against him and that he's just going to clear his hands… anyway one thing's sure, we won't leave until he paid for his crimes. His true crimes. The one he's committed in the North. We scared them apparently right? They organized the trial as a matter of urgency. They didn't even took the time to search the kid he'd apparently kidnapped. Anyway we can thank the source of the journalist who revealed the whole story this morning on the radio… Dexter I think that's his name…"

The sun was high and shining too brightly this morning. The screams, the hateful slogans, the confused movements of the mass were too much. Levy's legs buckled under her.

"Miss, are you alright?" The man asked as he pass his streamer to someone else. He held out his hand she grabbed weakly. Suddenly the emergency swelled in her mind. Gajeel was judged at the very moment, behind those walls. She had to keep fighting absolutely. It wasn't over yet but it would be in a few hours. Time was almost out.

"I… I…" She stammered. But since she was too shocked to talk, she moved and pushed through the crowd with all her weak strengths to reach the doors. Not knowing how to act, she talked to the guard who was protecting the entrance from the crowd.

"Sir!" She called above the shouts, with all her desperation "I must go inside!"

"There's no way, young miss." The guard answered as he instinctively gripped his magical spear.

"No, you don't understand. I have nothing to do with this demonstration. I'm a witness, the two mages who were killed were my friends. I was there when it happened, please, let me in."

"I'll see what I can do." The guard eventually said. A small lacrima on his wrist lightened and he whispered something during long minutes. As she waited, Levy felt like fainting again. The man came back to her.

"They say it's not useful. With the mayhem here, they're going to condemn this guy to a heavy sentence for murder with intend."

Levy gripped the bars to restrain herself to scream in pain or cry. She breathed deeply.

"That's the point!" She yelled with despair. "I have some information that can change this! It wasn't a murder with intend! I was there, I saw everything! Let me in! What's this justice that care more about the crowd than the real circumstances?!"

The man didn't answer, he shrugged, and focused on his lacrima again. But around her, the crowd had heard everything. People began to glare at her. Levy turned around to face the human mass ready to pounce on her.

"Bouh!" An angry woman screamed from behind the panels.

"BOUH!" The crowd chanted as a single man. People advanced on her. She stepped back, waving her hands, tears streaming down her cheeks, panic tearing her throat, her heart pounding as if it was about to pierce her chest. People advanced again like an oil slick, ready to swallow her like a quicksand. She was deafen by the shouts. For a split of second she thought she was going to die there, submersed by the crowd, before she could do anything for Gajeel. Then she was pulled back and lifted. The following second, the titanic door of the Council closed behind her little body.

Here, it was colder and silent. The doors were so thick that the noises from outside couldn't pass through. It was as if she couldn't go back out now that she was in. Levy shivered.

"This way." A guard declared, showing a corridor. She followed him without thinking, unable to gather her wits. They had to walk along two corridor, climb three stairs before they reached another door so big it seemed to lean over those who wanted to pass it. The guard opened.

"What's the meaning of this?" The adviser in charge of the trial rebelled immediately. "I thought I had been clear. No one should interrupt this trial!"

"But Sir, she's a witness for the case and…" The guard defended himself.

"Well…" The adviser sighed "Now that she's here…" That man looked deeply bored, which was nothing good. The huge room was almost empty. There was the adviser who sat at the top behind his solid wooden desk, the two lawyers standing, but no plaintiff. Handcuffed to an immense piece of marble, Gajeel was standing unmoving. He turned on her a gaze full of reproaches and she almost didn't find the courage to advance. Her footsteps rang under the vault.

"We're listening." The adviser almost sighed when she reached the end of the interminable path between the empty chairs. "Raise you right hand and say 'I solemnly declare upon my honor and conscience that I will speak the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth'." She did as she was told, her voice small.

"Tell us, Levy." The look of Gajeel's lawyer gave her some hope. He seemed curious to hear her, unlike the two other men who seemed to be in a hurry to leave. Summoning the whole hope left somewhere inside her, she started talking, from the beginning. Suddenly, she had found the madness typical of Fairy Tail, the conviction that if she did what she thought was fair so things will get better by themselves. She was surprised when she realized no one was interrupting her as she talked about the destruction of her Guild H.Q, or about the magical degeneration. She surprised herself when she dared talk about how Gajeel had more or less kidnapped her, but also how she never had considered herself as his hostage.

This morning, when he saw the growing crowd gathering before the Council through the window of his cell, Gajeel had lost hope. Worse, he had accepted this. He had almost been relieved to see that thing were following the order he knew somehow. What he cared about was taken away from him and the worst was happening. It was his life, deep down. He had prepared himself to lose everything once again, so the pain seemed bearable. He didn't even wonder if Makarov knew about this the day before. He didn't wonder how his past had become a public case. Things had turned bad because it was the natural order of his world. It always ended badly. He just had to think about a way to survive a little longer. The biggest obstacle didn't seem to be the prison, or the accusations, his own face everyone knew, or his planned flight which seemed impossible. There was something he knew he could never win against however, wherever he'd go, whatever he'd do: the wound left by Levy's absence.

He would have wished she wouldn't come, so the worst would have already happened, so he could begin to say goodbye to this time, the time he believed naively he could get something else from life.

But she began to talk. And through her words, through the light shining in her eyes he could see the only thing she kept hidden from the Council. She loved him. She loved his despite everything. She believed he had a chance, or rather they had a chance, together. Because of this, he didn't have the right to give up, to abandon her, alone, while he would go die somewhere. He wasn't alone anymore now, he was responsible of the bond she was sustaining between them. As he listened to her, he was regretting bitterly to have left without a word this morning. On the contrary, now he was realizing there was another life which could replace the silence, a life he definitely couldn't refuse so easily.

"M. Redfox" The adviser asked when she stopped "Do you confirm everything she said?"

He nodded, and tried in vain to give a smile to the little Script mage who looked like she was about to collapse behind the bar.

"Why didn't you talk about the magical degeneration earlier, and the testimony of Méloée and Roxanne about the fight?" The defense counsel asked, almost angrily about his client's lack of goodwill to plead his cause.

"Because you wouldn't have believed me. I'd have looked like to find some excuses and so it would have aggravated my case, right?" Gajeel answered on the defensive.

The adviser sighed for the umpteenth time.

"Well… I think I've heard enough…" He concluded. "Bring the prisoner back to his cell, bring the witness into the back room. I will return my verdict in thirty minutes."

The place was so huge and empty that Levy never noticed that some guards were standing immobile against the walls from the beginning. One of them came to grab Gajeel, the other walked toward her.

She would have liked to tell something to him, hug him one last time of they had to be apart for ten years by a window, but all she got was a smile. It was enough for her, she wouldn't lose hope, not even when she saw his silhouette disappear behind the huge door.

Another huge door closed behind her, but just in time she saw a man enter by the main door and talk sharply with the adviser. She thought it was probably about the raging crowd outside.

There was no word to describe what Levy felt during the next thirty minutes. It was unbearable splits. They could get a normal life, no running again or hiding anymore, they could be together, in peace, enjoy their budding love without worrying. But they could be separated, for a long time or forever, he could not survive this, the worst might be to come, something Levy wasn't ready to face. The minutes felt like hours but this wait finally ended.

Gajeel entered and Levy wanted to hug him but a guard was still restraining him. She couldn't resolve to bet his destiny on this simple signal. She wanted to hear it from his mouth to allow herself to crumble for real.

"I've been sentenced to seven years." He spoke flatly. She would have thought that the world would be crumbling, that the sky would crush her, but nothing happened, there was just a sort of weight on her shoulders, a void in her chest, as if something was suddenly missing. She gritted her teeth, waiting for the moment where he would be taken away from her, wondering if it would be the trigger she was expecting to realize that the worst had happened.

"But I won't stay in prison, actually…" He added hurriedly. "Well yeah, at least at first... I'll remain in jail for three weeks to do a training. It would buy some time, until the journalists calm down a bit."

"A training?" Levy stammered, unable to understand what was going on.

"Yeah. They want to close the Lawless area. They want to bring me to Mara with them because I know the place and I can help to rebuild the town in a better way with my magic. After this, I would be in charge of the security of the whole area under the Council order."

The little mage was sure to master the word and yet... it was her field and yet... and yet she didn't know if the ones she heard now should give her joy or take it away. So, insecure, she let Gajeel go on.

"To sum it up… they offer me another chance. They know they can't entrust this to someone else considering I am the only one who knows the place and the Northern culture."

Gajeel looked down. 'Another chance'. Why was he looking down at those words? Would they be still apart? He seemed so sad she couldn't believe he was saved, she was sure there was something else hidden behind this good news.

"The only remaining point is… if you would come with me, up there. Because if I'm all alone… it's going to be hard…"

Levy's heart skipped a beat. This possibility hadn't crossed her mind, she was so convinced that Gajeel would be locked away from her. As her lips twitched to the beginning of a smile, the joy swelled slowly inside her.

"I will come with you on one condition." She finally answered. Gajeel straightened suddenly, his eyes shining with hope.

"We will never cross the mountain in a truck, never again." She ordered with a smile.

"I'm not stupid either." Gajeel concluded as he smirked in turn. Finally the guard let him go and she hugged her man without caring about his presence. He watched them, absolutely dumbstruck.

X_x

It had only been a week since Gajeel was in jail, and he couldn't wait to leave. The prison wasn't dirty or black as he thought. On the contrary everything was white and made in glass, giving him the feeling to live inside an ultra modern hospital. The mighty mages like him were put in a huge room where opaque glass cells were floating in the air.

The training was entertaining. It was the first time of his life someone really wanted to teach him something, so he was listening carefully. His own behavior surprised himself, he thought he would be a dunce. It was certainly also because what they taught him looked useful to him.

That night he was walking along a corridor of glass cells with a guard to go back to the secure cells room. At least, he wasn't handcuffed and the guy wasn't gripping his arm. Everyone here knew he had no interest in escaping and by the way he didn't want to. Many of his fellow inmate were esteeming that spending seven years in Mara was worse than spending them in prison. But for him the difference was huge. Up there, he wouldn't be alone and he would have finally the power to make things better. Things wouldn't depending on a Guild master's will, or a Dragon's, but only on himself.

He had almost reached the end of the corridor when suddenly he caught a familiar face at the corner of his eye.

"Dexter?" The Dragon Slayer stated coldly… the tolerant guard stopped walking, but didn't say a word.

"Gajeel…" The prisoner whispered back. He stood from his bed to reach the window glass.

"I know you must be angry. But believe me, I had time to think. I'm sorry for what I did, I'm sorry for what I said… I'm sorry for the troubles I've caused when I made this case public."

"I've pulled through in the end. And then at least now this lawless area story is over." Gajeel answered. No, definitely, he didn't feel angry. He wasn't able to be angry at someone who seemed truly sorry for his acts. He was rather happy to see he'd been also able to show someone the right path. He knew how it felt not to be forgiven, he couldn't do that to someone else.

"And I'm sorry…" Dexter added brokenly "About Metalicana." He looked down, his hand on the window.

"To be honest… someone should have done it someday, anyway. He only thought about destroying things, killing people…" Gajeel answered coldly. No, definitively, he wasn't sad that Metalicana was dead. He was rather relieved. At the same time, he was sad not to be sad, he knew it wasn't normal now, it wasn't normal not to cry for his parent.

"I can't stop thinking about what he told me, just before I killed him. I think you should know…"

"Know what?" Gajeel answered tonelessly.

"Metalicana couldn't stand Igneel, you knew?"

"Yeah… he had sent me to kill him when I was a child." He was stunned. He was able to talk about it easily now. Levy was right. Everything he'd managed to say couldn't be used against him anymore.

"He sent a child kill a dragon…" Dexter commented dumbstruck. "He was damn crazy but the thing he said…"

"Well tell me." Gajeel encouraged him awkwardly.

"Somehow it's crazy to hate someone this much for all this time, for something that happened centuries ago. It's crazy he thought about that just before he died." Dexter began enigmatic. The guard never said anything, waiting patiently for this conversation to end. Gajeel was listening, fear almost crawling at his belly. Deep down, he had never wondered why Metalicana had become the monster he had known, he never thought he could have been different. It would have hurt him even more, knowing what he had missed.

"Apparently, Metalicana and Igneel grew up in a place belonging to many dragons. He told me that being an iron dragon wasn't really easy, there were a lot of prejudices. However the fire dragons were considered as perfect dragons. But Igneel and Metalicana were still friends."

Dexter paused and Gajeel was grateful. He had to accept the idea that one day, in some possible universe, Metalicana had had a friend. It was unbelievable. Completely crazy.

"One day, Igneel pushed Metalicana to go fly through a forbidden area scattered with air pockets… I don't know what was really the use but it looked like some stupid teenage gamble, nothing really serious. Igneel managed to make him do it apparently."

"And then?" Gajeel asked hastily, suddenly burning to know the end of the story.

"And then Metalicana fell into an air pocket, he broke his wings, and he couldn't fly for a while, for ten years. A dragon unable to fly wasn't considered as a worthy dragon. On the other side Igneel kept living happily, and they became estranged from each other."

There was another silence. Even the guard remained unmoving.

"Metalicana hold Igneel responsible for what happened to him" Dexter added again. "He had promised nothing would separate them but in the end… and he wanted to think about it before dying. He was saying that Igneel should be killed and not himself, that if there was an evil dragon it was him, him and the ones who didn't have the guts to go against their rules that didn't exist anymore today…"

Gajeel released a breath he didn't know he was holding, he felt suddenly crushed by a titanic burden.

"Anyway… I'm sorry. Actually, at that moment, I didn't realize it but what you told me shook me. Metalicana never found anyone to help him and guide him to the light, he had always been alone. No wonder why he was selfish. In the end I don't think he deserved to die."

"There was nothing we could do anyway." Gajeel manage to mutter "Not me, not you. He was…"

"Yeah I know. And it doesn't excuse what you've been through with him." Dexter finished. "I admit I didn't think about it either, when I came to… find you and Natsu and Wendy… what you've been through... raised by dragons. Dragons who disappeared overnight…"

"You don't know what happened that day by the way? I've learn about their disappearance when Natsu told me. Until then for me, Metalicana was just done with me."

"I have no idea. When we talk about this day, all dragons are as silent as graves… I'm sorry."

"Not a big deal. Anyway he would never have come back…" Gajeel concluded.

"You've been sentenced?" Dexter asked just before the Dragon Slayer left.

"To 7 years. But it's alright. I'm here for three weeks of training, just long enough for things to calm down. Then they send me to Mara to close the Lawless area. If I'm doing good, they will move me there to be sure the law is respected. And you?"

"3 years. But I'm not unhappy. At least I'll have time to think about my future life, now that I know I was wrong."

"Well… good luck then."

"You too."

Gajeel paused for another second then he turned around to resume walking along the corridor. Dexter's story emerged before his eyes. He was puzzled and at the same time everything was putting back in place suddenly. The words the dragon had said again and again for all this time revealed a new meaning.

"Igneel is an idiot and a coward."

"You have to learn to live alone, this is life, you'll always be alone."

"Don't ever trust anyone, ever."

"Igneel is a dragon who doesn't take responsibility for his actions and a dragon like this deserves to die."

It was as if finally all the thing he'd said weren't directed at him anymore and that he could suddenly move on. At the same time, envisaging the true story behind that behavior made things even more painful. Deep down, hating Metalicana was easier. But he didn't hate him anymore now, he couldn't allow himself to anymore. He and Metalicana were the same because the dragon had raised him to be like him. It was certainly the worst thing he'd ever done to him. Making him insensible, selfish, violent…simply his father never had the chance to find a Levy on his path. Gajeel would lie if he said he finally forgave him, but the devouring hatred he'd felt until now had changed to a legitimate anger mixed with a strange feeling of emptiness. In the end, he wished Metalicana was still alive. He wished he would have heard this story from him and not from Dexter, he wished his dragon could see how happy he was now, see that all he'd ever taught him was not only wrong but also dangerous for himself and the others. He just had to move on now. But now he was sad, for real. Sad to have lost his parent, despite how bad he was. Sad to have been abandoned by him. He was suddenly realizing that in the end, they had shared a kind of bond. A bond implying you bending to the other's will, until you almost die, but still a bond.

"What a life…" The guard muttered before he closed the cell door.

"You bet…"

THE END (or the new beginning)

X_x

Message from Pacifique:

Hey!

I'd like to thank you all for your support. I hope you enjoyed the story. Thanks for all the reviews. Please don't forget to review the last chapter, tell me what you thought of the whole story. If you want to write what could happen next or if you want to use one of the characters I made up you can, I just want to know about it so I can see how the whole thing evolve. Thank you so much again. Thanks again to the person who made the drawings. And I'd like you all to applause our dear translator. I wish you plenty of interesting readings.

Pacifique.

Me: Kissu~! And if someone wants to do a sequel please tell me too! ^w^