Gajeel made his way over to where Levy and Freed were working, carrying two cups of the strongest coffee that Kinana could make. Freed took it and drank it all without even looking up, however, Levy looked up and smiled.

"Give me an update, how is it looking?"

Levy took a sip of her coffee, before shaking her head.

"We've managed to find out more of the mechanics of what he is wanting to do."

Freed looked up from his notes, figuring out that the conversation wasn't just between two lovers, and that they were actually discussing their findings. He interrupted Levy, starting to explain in more detail what they had read and translated.

"Essentially, he has to get Bickslow to transfer the soul of one of the takeover siblings into his body. He will then use the takeover magic to transfer Bickslows magic into himself. The combination of the two means he can take another person's magic into him, gaining both the nature of the magic, along with the user's magic power."

Gajeel was busy scribbling all of the information down on a piece of paper, before cradling his head in his hands and sighing in frustration.

"So he can just harvest the magic power of anyone he knows about? I know Erza's team is strong, but that is a bit much for even them to deal with. How many people can he gain the magic power of?"

Both Levy and Freed shrugged. Nothing in anything they had read mentioned any kind of limit to the man's power. He could, theoretically, keep gaining power from anyone he could think of until he had stolen the power of everyone on the planet. Gajeel sucked on his pen for a second, before voicing something he had been wondering for the last couple of minutes.

"So how has he not taken us yet? We have literally met the man, and he needed more translation done by you. Why has he not stolen our magic?"

Levy thought for a second, before speaking.

"I'm not sure. I am guessing he gave me all of this translation to do because he didn't know his father's diary had the information he wanted. We still have an awful lot of translation to go through, so I am hoping we will learn more about what he is doing. I need to look up on the teleportation magic as well, to see if there's any way we can block him from taking us."

Gajeel nodded, before standing and kissing her on the forehead. She smiled, both from the attention and the fact that she knew he was giving her both permission and encouragement to get back to work.

Gajeel took his note and went to the other side of the guild. The news was just getting worse and worse, and he decided to leave the two of them to it in the hopes that they would eventually find some good news.

The atmosphere in the guild was definitely subdued. None of the members were particularly up to partying, and they all just sat around, staring into their drinks. Even Jet, who Gajeel was sure had never stood still in his life, was sat next to Droy staring into the 7 shots of espresso that he was drinking. He went up to sit at the bar and tried to work out when he needed to tell the two investigators to sleep. He knew that they would need it in order to work at their maximum efficiency, and yet he still didn't want to lose any amount of time where they weren't working. In the end, he settles for allowing them to take shifts sleeping, but they should be able to work for the next couple of hours.

He was still writing his plans for the next few hours when Happy and Carla dropped two heavy bags in front of him.

"Hey, Gajeel. We found all of this in the man's hotel, and Erza told us that we have to bring them to you. She thinks that it may help out Levy and Freed."

Gajeel looked at the huge bags, before turning back to the Exceeds. It seemed weird to be thanking Happy for something actually useful, but he did it all the same.

"Thanks, guys. Are you going back to them now, or staying here?"

Both Exceeds nodded, while Kinana bought Happy a fish. He took it gratefully and took a couple of bites of it.

"Tell her that he is using Bickslow and the Takeover siblings to steal other people's magic power. We don't know how many people he is able to take into himself, but with each one his magic capacity increases. He's gonna be a difficult opponent, and they're going to have to watch out for that."

Carla's face looked grim, but Happy still blissfully chewed on his fish. Sometimes Gajeel wished he was in whatever world the blue exceed spent his time. After he had finished, both the exceeds lifted off and started towards the door.

"Be careful!" Gajeel heard being shouted from his side and looked down to see Pantherlily climbing up onto the bar stool next to him. Gajeel placed his hand on the exceed's head, happy for his company. With Lily by his side, hereally did feel like he could do anything.

Levy smiled up at Gajeel when he deposited more papers and books on the table. This war was going to be won with knowledge, and she felt amazing that she was playing such a major part in this war. She had never translated so fast, and she knew that no one but herself would understand her notes, but that didn't matter to her. Occasional glances to her right showed her the immaculate handwriting Freed was using to make his notes, and it made her feel more than slightly guilty. Turning back to her work, she carried on translating the text. There was a lot of information about how to perform teleportation magic, including how to increase the radius of effect, but absolutely nothing on how to avoid being teleported. It was almost as if it was an issue that no one had ever thought of before.

It came as a shock when Freed grabbed her leg out of nowhere, and she looked up to see a panicked face. Sure, they were good friends, but he had never really touched her before.

"Freed?"

The man was shaking now. She had never seen anyone look so scared. His green eyes bored into hers. Levy had always thought people were exaggerating when they said that the eyes were the windows to the soul, but now she could see it was true. Freed was being attacked with a magic he had no idea how to counter, and he looked like a small boy facing his fears for the first time.

"I feel… non-existent. I think he has me. Levy, he's pulling me away. I don't want to go. I don't want to be alone"

Levy's heart skipped a beat. The more she thought about it, the more she started to panic. Her body moved almost without her willing it to, and she found herself grabbing the green-haired man into a grasp.

"No! FREED! You can fight it. You're stronger than that! You're the leader of the Raijinshuu!"

The rune mage was flitting in and out of existence faster and faster, and Levy desperately tried to cling onto him, despite the knowledge that it wasn't going to do them any good. Freed was as good as gone, and there was nothing she could do. She felt a hand on her shoulder and pulled back to see the man looking into her eyes.

"Thank you, Levy. For being here. I wish you the best of luck."

And with that, he was gone.

A/N - Thanks again for all of your support!

I know this has been a little light on the Gajevy recently, but if you're feeling left out I am taking part in Gajevy Love Love Fest this year. Warm up prompt is already up, and you'll get a new Gajevy lemon every day for the week of the 22nd.

Thanks for sticking with me through this story 3. At the end of this arc there will be mega Gajevy, I promise 3