Levy heard the call in her blood- all the way down to her bones. A shrill excitable scream pounding in her veins. Thumping in her ears. She found it difficult to concentrate on anything that wasn't the thought of finding Gajeel. Not the smoke of the dying fires still burning her throat. Not the sounds of pained, fearful shouting. Not the cries or the thunderous bellow of battle still raging all around. None of it seemed to matter anymore, not when Gajeel was so close. As if she could just reach out her hands and touch him if she tried. Levy made herself stop and take a shuddering breath. Reminding herself for the tenth time that Wendy was also here. Laxus. Lily and Carla. They were all in danger. The objective was more than saving just him.

You really are somethin' special.

Gajeel whispered reverently in her ear, his voice a soft purr as Levy ducked through an open doorway watching as three Knights darted passed. She avoided where she could - concealing herself with magic where she couldn't, but Levy didn't need Freed telling her that in a fight she was at a disadvantage. Her leg was still stiff, her reflexes more sluggish than usual and then there was the anxiety - the sickening roll of her stomach at the very thought of blood. The image of a grotesque, broken toothed smile grinning down at her. The shudder that wracked through Levy made bile creep up her throat. She knew she would need to be smart about this. It didn't need to be said for her to know she had to pick her battles with care.

"You're moving," She said out loud. "It's erratic. How big is this place, anyway?" there were three floors above ground, but the stairs went down. More soldiers appearing up from their depths like ants.

Moving is good. Means I'm free. Erratic targets are harder to catch. She could tell Gajeel would have been grinning at her. But you're probably gonna hit the fightin' eventually. I ain't known for my ability to run from a brawl. You should leave now. I'll find you.

"No. You could be hurt. How do I even know you're walking under your own power?" She felt herself grow angry. "Stop being stupid," She bit out, rubbing at her eyes. "And yet here I am, arguing with someone who isn't even here."

Gajeel only snorted. And apparition or not, figment or otherwise, Levy's face went red with frustration.

"Insufferable," She hissed loudly.

"Hey! You there?!"

The man's voice made her almost stumble and trip on the frayed edge of the singed, upturned carpet. Levy flung out her arm to brace against the wall, her nose brushing soot stained wallpaper.

One of the most important rules of any infiltration.

Silence.

She spun faster than she thought would be possible in her condition and chains appeared at the behest of her still nimble fingers, coiling like a snake around him as he rushed her drawing his sword. The Knight immediately lost his footing and fell face first to the carpet - immobilised and snarling. Weapons clattering into the darkness. He pulled and struggled, roaring and rolling on the floor.

"GET THESE THINGS OFF ME!" He screamed.

It took a moment for Levy to realise his words were fueled more by fear than anger. His wide eyes. Tear streaked cheeks from too much smoke. The building was still on fire in parts. The air thick and poisonous. And if she chose to leave him like this, he would surely die.

"So you can do what, exactly?" She questioned him, calm, composed. A ruthless disregard in her voice that would have made Phantom Lord Gajeel proud. Despite the fact that it was now her that was secretly panicking. Could she leave him to die?

The man stilled, considering.

"I'd... I'd..." The thought sputtered out in his head. "I have a wife, two little kids. I just wanna see them again."

Don't do it.

Gajeel was frowning at her from the darkness. Her head snapped to the shadows where he waited, leaning casually against the wall.

"You don't get to tell me what I can and can't do. My Gajeel would never just leave an innocent man to die," She said firmly.

He laughed at her. Openly laughed. His eyes seemed to glow red hot in the dark.

No one here is innocent. Only takes a look to know he's lyin'. Don't be stupid. He tilted his head to the side, running his tongue over a canine. And I've left plenty to die, shorty.

"You - he isn't that person any more," Her voice strained.

Then were the hell did I come from, then?

Levy had no response for him. Was there anything that she could even say? Anything that would be worth saying to someone who wasn't even there? Ghostly fingers traced her cheek and she felt her eyes well, tears burning, and not from the thickening air.

The man at her feet was staring at her with a new type of concern plastered across his dirty face. Once white coat blackened. She couldn't tell what colour his hair had been under the layer of ash.

Levy for all appearances was talking to herself. Culminating with the fear that she'd leave him to die was the worry that she was genuinely insane. But she'd already made up her mind. Despite what Gajeel would argue, she just couldn't do it. Wouldn't. It wasn't who she was.

She stared at the Knight, gaze softening.

"Get out of here," Levy swiped her hand over him and his chains vanished in a blink, as though they'd never been there at all. They vanished into smoke and nothing.

The Knight remained unmoving for a moment, confused and Levy felt the pressure on her shoulders lighten. There was a line between what was necessary and what was wrong and as blurry as the rest of the world became, she knew that border. Knew she would never be willing to cross it.

But her feelings of moral superiority were quickly short lived. With a glance down the smokey hall to check for others, the dark Knight kicked out, Levy's weakened knee buckling as she cried out in pain. Staggered by the impact, he swept his other foot across her ankles, taking her legs from underneath her and she hit the floor with a dull, rattling thud. Disorientated, Gajeel's patented snarl echoed in her head. It was seconds. Barely a few heartbeats. Just a moment before the Knight was on her, rough palms pinning her hands over her head, practically sitting on her as Levy thrashed, struggling to breathe.

The weight pressing into her was immense. She hadn't noticed before but he wasn't a small man. Slightly overweight, breath heavy with garlic and only maybe an inch shorter than Gajeel. Every inhale that followed her initial wet gasp of shock and fear grew shorter than the last, as less and less air made it to her lungs. They burned in her chest, clogged with burnt wood and terror.

His lips were cracked, teeth black from the fumes and ash when he grinned down at her, hands releasing her wrists to wrap around her throat, and for just a brief second of panic his face was replaced with Braca's. Levy's head was spinning as memories of the library assaulted her. She wanted to scream but couldn't. Suddenly able to recall the stomach turning stench of blood and decay. Head swimming as her consciousness slipped away from her, crushed under his squeezing grip. One oozing yellow eye staring down from above. And Gajeel - the image of Gajeel silently glaring at her from over her assailants shoulder, face grave. Jaw tightening as his lips pulled back in a silent snarl.

If Gajeel had survived this place - if he'd fought and suffered for her, she needed to do the same.

Time to fight, Lev.

The face over her settled back into view. Two brown eyes, red, dirty cheeks. Human. Just a Human man. No magic that she could sense. He was nothing special.

Levy steeled herself and kicked her feet with all she had, eyes wild, pulling desperately against the grip, grasping at thick fingers, but brute strength was against her and no matter how much she struggled and twisted, she couldn't move more than an inch. Couldn't get enough air passed her lips. He angled his face away when she raked her clawed hands for his eyes. Grunting when her knees collided with his back throwing him off balance.

Gajeel's presense was suddenly gone and she felt that absence almost as much as the air. Had he abandoned her. She wanted to cry. Scream. With one last grunt of effort she drove her knee up and the Knight tipped to the side as her blow finally managed to hit home, and while it wasn't enough for him to release her completely, she managed to gulp down a breath of precious air.

Her vision cleared just enough to form a coherent thought and with a desperate cry Levy twisted her head and sank her teeth into his wrist, drawing blood and forcing him to pull back with a wounded yelp and a curse. Solid script words for all their straightforwardness were actually rather complicated spells. They required concentration and focus. Neither of which Levy had in abundance.

But there were always cheats. Simple runes to summon certain basic things. Quicker, less exacting but harder to direct and control. Levy traced a rune in the air.

It had been the first combat rune that came to mind. Something solid and heavy to knock the man off her, give her the time and space to get up and run. The magic surged and manifested but the Knight didn't move, except to sit back a little. Watching her with a stillness that frightened her.

The face above her was expressionless as he cocked his head to the side, looking as if it was the first time he were seeing her. The Knight opened his mouth as though to say something but silently, a stream of blood trickled down instead. Blinking furiously now, he coughed and more sprayed out, drenching her.

Levy finally released that pent up scream as he toppled to the side, a blade of crude iron the length of her forearm penetrating right between his shoulder blades. He hadn't made a sound. Nothing more than a gasp of air before he fell.

She wriggled her way out from under his limp legs and scurried backward, gasping, rendered mute by confusion. She'd wanted a club. It shouldn't have summoned a blade. She'd inadvertently killed him, when she'd simply intended to injure.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," She repeated the words, tears now rolling down her face, uncertain who she was apologising to. It certainly wasn't to the Knight. Apologies were utterly wasted on the dead. Perhaps it was to herself. An altogether putrid exercise in ego.

"Gajeel?" She coughed out. There was no response. The presence that had kept her sane was still absent. Levy hadn't realised how alone that would make her feel. "Please, Gajeel," Her voice was growing hoarser as she crept back from the body, only stopping when her back hit the wall.

Open eyes stared back at her from a growing pool of blood. Levy pulled at her hair, letting the sharp pain focus her. Or maybe to punish herself.

A glance down made her stomach empty onto the already ruined floor - the meagre meal Lucy had forced into her before everything went to crap with the mission. The Knight's blood was splattered everywhere. Her clothes, her hands, her hair. She touched her neck, wincing. Her throat felt like she'd swallowed glass. It would bruise. No doubt with enormous meaty prints.

Swiping the back of her hand over her face she climbed the wall to her feet and tried to get her bearings again. Look for that beacon that had been guiding her - that tenuous bond that was steadily pulling her but it too was worryingly quiet.

Levy sucked in a breath and tried not to dwell on whatever might have twisted her rune. Warped it with such a lethal precision. Gajeel, her real, flesh and blood and iron Gajeel was loose. And if she was aware of him he was likely aware of her. They would find each other.

Shouting voices drifted through the clearing smoke and Levy limped as she tried to distance herself from them. The pain in her knee was a burning agony that made her wince with every forced step. Porlyusica was gonna kill her. It was the same leg. Whether the Knight had noticed her off tempo step and specifically targeted it or not, it was the same limb Braca had flayed the last time she'd seen him. Was it vanity to be troubled by the scars that she'd always have? The limp she might never be able to hide? Levy felt foolish for thinking about it now. She already had plenty of scars. The only difference was how visible they were.

"SIR!"

The Knights hollering behind spurred the pace as she kept close to the walls for balance. Under her palms the wood and stone trembled and she smiled. If you wanted to track down a Dragon Slayer, following the sounds of fighting was a good as any.

Natsu had clearly been busy because blackened wood was all that remained of the fire that had raged. Portions of the building had already collapsed and Levy could see the sun was breaking the dark horizon, just beyond the trees bordering the forest. She spied a glimpse of red hair and white steel dart passed a broken window, back the way she'd just come and she heaved a sigh, knowing she wasn't about to be followed.

"Levy?"

A figure seemed to emerge from nothing, rushing her.

"Juvia," Levy gasped, her voice a strained hiss. Relief and fright made her legs weak.

Juvia pulled her into a hug and to Levy she smelled like fresh rain. A welcome change from the fire and blood.

"What are you doing so far from the others?" The water mage pulled back to look at her, hands still grasping her by the shoulders, as though Levy were some sort of flight risk. "It's not safe to be wandering the halls by yourself. Not all of the Knights stationed here are the good... " Juvia stopped mid-sentence noticing the red and blue marks around Levy's throat. She blinked before her gaze turned furious.

Levy broke her grip softly. Stepping back. Juvia didn't move, but it was clearly an effort not to close the distance.

"I'll help you back to the others," She reached for Levy who pushed her hand aside with a snarl.

"I can look after myself," She ground out, frustrated. Noting how Juvia's eyes fell again to her throat. To all the blood. "I've had worse. We have jobs to do."

Juvia gave her the smallest smile. Sad and distant. There was too much truth to that.

"It has been a trying number of weeks, Juvia will admit," Was the woman's only response before she gathered herself. "There were more guards than expected and with the fire put out they'll be dangerous. If I can not dissuade you, then let me at least go with you. Juvia has completed her mission, after all."

Levy nodded grimly. The fire was their distraction. With it now extinguished and Knights still roaming the Manor, it was bound to be chaos and Juvia was no stranger to this kind of madness.

"Thank you. You don't know where they might be headed?" Levy asked.

There was another rumble in the distance - the sound of wood cracking. Juvia and Levy sheltered in the arch of a doorway, looking at each other as splinters and dust fell. A grin bloomed on Juvia's face.

"Juvia has some theories."