Nightmares assailed Gajeel. He felt his very bones rattling, his limbs quaking as a nameless figure clawed at his body. Around him things fell to the floor of his dreamscape, knocked off shelves and tables as it chased him while he crawled under chairs and piles of wood to get away, too terrified to stand and see what it was that hunted him. Forced by fear to keep moving, even as it pulled pieces of skin and flesh from his legs in greedy swipes.
When he finally woke up it was to Levy's concerned voice, a soft, gentle hand on his forehead. They'd already slept the morning away having been up all night and it was now just passed midday. The sheets of Gajeel's bed could have been wrung they were so soaked with sweat.
"I didn't sleep either,"
Levy looked miserable as well. Dark circles under her eyes. She seemed shaky. Gajeel took her hand.
"Nightmares?"
"Yes, I think so. But I don't really remember and the more I try, the more it fades. I think," her face screwed up in concentration, "I think - I think I was burning."
And Gajeel knew then and there that it wasn't Levy's memory that was haunting her. It was his.
There was no doubt in Levy's mind that it had been the right choice. The visage of Gajeel that had followed her like a ghost, had vanished. Even with barely a few hours sleep he looked better than he had the day before and though so very far from the man she remembered, they now stood a chance of evading Porlyursica's wrath when she came looking for him. Levy had done her utmost to occupy her the day before, telling her Gajeel was uninjured, but she knew had the old healer seen him herself she'd have not thought the same. But Gajeel had needed space. And while Levy didn't know the extent of what they'd done to him, she knew he wouldn't have wanted more poking. More tests.
Though she struggled to remember it clearly, the nightmare rattled her enough that she couldn't quite bring herself to drink the coffee Gajeel made. The cup far too jittery between her fingers. Instead, she watched him wander around the apartment with a cloth, taking up the dust that had settled everywhere, all the while pinching his nose like a child. Dragonslayers and their sensitive noses. Levy laughed but she knew that if Erza had made contact with any of the Saints last night, they would be expecting visitors in mere hours. The guild was hoping to hand over their prisoners, but Levy also knew they'd staged an assault on a Council funded operation and though they weren't exactly the Council, the Saints would be soon, and they would be charged with upholding the law. The law Fairy Tail broke, broke and danced a jig on.
The knowledge made her stomach do flips. Anxiety, trepidation, anger Levy couldn't be sure if there was a difference anymore. These days, she felt everything, or she felt nothing. They'd stolen Gajeel and the others from them, they'd hurt their master, experimented and tortured and murdered people. Yet, Levy knew the chances were high that Fairy Tail would be punished for bringing that to an end. If they were lucky, it would be Warrod that came. He would be lenient she knew. Of all of them, he had the strongest ties to Fairy Tail.
When they arrived back at the guild, Levy found it was spotless. Not so much as a crumb on the floor or dirty tankard in sight. The decorations and streamers had been taken down. The tables had been washed. The drunks rolled out back to sleep it off in the grass, under the dying sun.
Everything it seemed had been prepared; with Makarov still unconscious and Erza as defacto Master, she was doing her best to present an image of order.
As the moon began to rise, three heavy knocks shook the front doors of the guild, eliciting a squeak of shock and surprise out of Lucy who almost ended up on Natsu's lap with fright.
They waited with baited breath as Erza opened the doors and Jura Neekis stepped through, flanked by three men in Council uniforms, all four faces looking grim.
Jura took a glance around the room taking it all in. His first time in Magnolia and Makarov's now infamous guild. He likely knew what had happened the last time there were Knights in the guild.
"Humble wood and stone," he said with appreciation. "Though the circumstances are unfortunate,"
"Jura," Erza extended her hand but the hand that grasped her back was wrapped in thick bandages and the relief she felt at his resiprocated courtesy, crumbled when she felt the weakness of the grip. The tenderness of what was likely a severe and recent wound.
The others waited by the door as he followed Erza in and was offered a chair and tea.
"The others would have come but they're otherwise occupied at the border. Your message was most... unwelcome and ill-timed. We've been fighting on and off for days, and now find ourselves having to take over the running of Fiore as well? Noc..."
"Is currently sitting in chains. He's a murderer," Erza bit out coldly, interrupting him.
"Perhaps," Jura it seemed had yet to pass judgement on that. "But he also kept markets open, kept trade routes with the few Kingdoms not actively trying to destroy us. While the rest of Fiore's leadership evaporated and the land fell to turmoil, he stepped forward."
"And look what he did with that power. None of it can excuse what he's done,"
"I don't disagree with you, Titania. But it is now a reality that we govern, or fight, but Saints doing both will be next to impossible," he set down his cup but declined Mira's offer of more. "I will speak with Gajeel Redfox, Juvia Lockser, Laxus Dreyar, Wendy Marvell, Levy McGarden and Elle Maxol," he announced. "I will speak with Perido and Persival Noc when I'm done,"
"In that order?"
"In that order," he said, standing and bowing stiffly.
Levy knew these interviews would likely take all night. Though there were others who'd been present, he hadn't asked to speak to them and the only reason she could think of was that Jura already new enough.
Gajeel naturally took the longest time speaking with the Saint - nearly two hours, and while Levy didn't think he was in anyway upset when he reappeared, there was an unease about him afterward.
When it was her turn, Jura was pale. Exhaustion creeping in on him. He sat at Makarov's table. Forms and documents sprawled around him as he took notes. A white globe holding the loose pages down. Levy recognized it immediately.
"A truth sphere?"
"Yes, unfortunately I lack the time to deal with any lies,"
"I don't need to lie!" Levy snapped, already defensive. Though the globe flickered green and Jura grinned widely.
"Funny, sometimes we don't even realise we have. Sometimes we simply forget to mention everything. This isn't just to identify falsehoods, it will tell us if there's more to something. Perhaps detail you may have forgotten you knew,"
"Is that why Gajeel was in here so long?"
"No, actually. For a former member of a dark guild, he was remarkably direct and honest,"
"I don't think his former Master liked lies or gaps in intel," Jose was a bastard, but one that understood the value of information. Accurate information.
"Yes or no answers please. You are Miss Levy McGarden?"
"Yes," Levy replied and the globe on the table glowed a bright yellow.
"You helped plan and execute the attack?"
"Yes,"
More yellow. Jura reached over and tapped the orb. Frowning.
"You are Levy McGarden of Fairy Tail?"
"Yes..." Levy said, hesitating now. Unsure what was happening but this time it glowed green. Jura scratched his head in confusion.
"I apologise. It's very accurate but doesn't deal with ambiguity," he scrunched his brows. "Though I'm not sure what could be confusing it," he took up a quill. "You helped plan the attack?"
Levy took a moment to ponder it carefully.
"No, I planned the attack,"
He looked shocked when it glowed green. Looking at the small script mage more carefully. Considering her with a less prejudiced eye.
"And your magical field is script?"
"Yes,"
Levy pouted when it glowed yellow again. Realising just how long this was now going to take if it kept finding issue with her answers.
"But not my only magical field," Green. She let out a breath.
"Have you ever directly or indirectly injured or killed any member of the Council. Knight or otherwise?"
"I have," she admitted. "I broke a man's nose here not too long ago," there were others as well. She wasn't going to mention those if she didn't have to.
Jura nodded and jotted something down.
"And the rogue Dragonslayer that terrorized Magnolia, your injuries, it caused them?"
"Yes,"
"One of the town's detective's died in that attack along with several shoppers?"
Levy's throat immediately closed up and the words - the name on her tongue choked her. The memory of Saggart's death. Her final act had been to save Levy, even at the expense of her life. Accepting a terrible death in her stead, buying the time Mira had needed to get to her. Levy's eyes watered even as her lungs seemed to seize, unable to draw a breath. Jura held up a hand.
"It's okay, I don't require an answer to that," he shuffled his papers and Levy wagered it was to avoid looking at her. Seeing the crack that had visibly fissured through her otherwise unflappable composure. When he finally brought himself to meet her eye he didn't look unsympathetic. "You lead the assault to save them?"
"Yes," the word sounded like a sob.
"Was it ever a part of the plan to burn the building down?"
"No, Natsu..." was all Levy got out. Jura nodding again before his demeanor changed. The question coming was serious. Levy could tell.
"Do you know anything about Black Wyvern venom?"
She thought for a moment. Searching her memory.
"No," and the immediate yellow glow startled her. She thought again, thought hard but couldn't remember ever hearing it. "At least, I don't think I do?" she said blankly. The earth mage sighed.
"I imagine you might have read it somewhere," Jura said finally after a considerable moments pause. "You can go, I don't require anything more. This was simply to fill in the gaps. I have a soldier with a broken nose and when he said the one with blue hair gave it to him, I'm ashamed to say I instantly assumed Ms Lockser," he smiled gently at her.
Levy knew that as much as a villain their foe had been, he was also a man of science.
"Noc documented everything, didn't he? Every terrible, twisted thing he did in that place. That's why you haven't asked me about that place,"
"Yes, and what they've already pulled from the embers is more than I the strength or fortitude to digest," Jura sat back in his seat even as the orb glowed green. Unbiased in who it was scrutinizing.
Back out in the main hall, Gajeel pulled Levy into a hug as a clean and almost unrecognizable Elle walked through the guild in Lucy's borrowed clothes. The shirt and jeans that just couldn't look anything but ill-fitting in the face of her height and gangly shape. Gajeel had said her sister Charlotte had been taller, but Levy couldn't have fathomed it being by much; already the girl was nearly six foot and as she walked with a straight back and cold eyes, the room seemed to fall totally silent in her wake. The weight of something unspoken hanging heavy in the air. She was Fairy Tail's independent witness in all of this. The others they'd freed from the cells hadn't hung around for long after the fighting stopped. When Elle Maxol disappeared into the office, no sooner had the door shut that Cana let out a long, low whistle.
"Wow, who spilled the miracle grow?" she grinned, "If that's what dragon magic does, why's Natsu such a pipsqueak?"
There were a few muffled chuckles from the crowd and an indignant, offended 'hey, watch it, drunk!'
"Cana, now might not be the right time to be cracking jokes," Mira glared at her.
"You all look like Laxus pissed in your breakfasts this morning, if now's not the time for laughter, when is?"
Levy couldn't argue with that, not really.
The guild doors opened once more and bound entirely in chains, Erza lead Perido Noc in the front doors. Behind him his nephew walked, head down, but unburdened by the clang of iron. He limped forward on his own power. Staring at his feet even as Laxus' towering figure fell into step behind him. A quiet threat from the stronger lightning mage. The air cracked and hissed around the man.
Dozens of eyes bored into the pair. Pitying, hateful, vengeful. Percival had the sense to at least look a little uncomfortable. To be ashamed.
When Elle Maxol reappeared again, she stopped dead in her tracks at the sight of them. Percival chanced a soft smile but it wasn't returned. In comparison to the silent promises of the members of Fairy Tail, it was the look on that girl's face that broke through Noc's self delusion.
There was a nothing in her face that made him shake in his boots. Not anger or pain or pity. An emptiness waited there that would swallow the world. Jura was behind her and he rested a hand on her shoulder.
"What we do," his voice boomed across the hall far enough so that the Council Knights at the door could hear, "... and how we treat our brothers and sisters when things are at their darkest, when we are most desperate, that is a truer reflection on who we are than any other summer day kindnesses," he glared at Noc, eyes hard. "When the walls closed in and the situation became difficult, you chose the heinous murder of the Kingdom's most vulnerable, under the guise of the greater good. The Council left so much with you. Left you to safeguard the people and it is with unequivocal, irrefutable proof that I determine you to be guilty of the worst kinds of betrayal of that trust," Jura locked eyes with every member of the guild present. "To do what is right, when the road is hard is the mark of true courage,"
"Right and wrong, good and evil. You're a child, " Noc spat. "It won't matter a damn when you're all dead. So pat yourself on the back now, while you still have the chance,"
A gleaming silver sword materialized out of thin air and came to rest on his shoulder. A caution to be silent now. Behind him Erza lifted her head high.
"We risk our lives every day. If we're to die, it will be doing what's right," she came around to face him, sword still at his throat, fixing him with such a look that his nephew took a step back, bumping into Laxus. "I've seen God's fall. Crawl back under your bed if you want, coward. We are not afraid!"
Cheers erupted. Shouts and hollers ringing so loud that the walls seemed to groan with the presence of it.
Even Jura seemed brighter. A light in his eyes reigniting with those words, that energy.
"The only two punishments I can issue for your crimes are life imprisonment or death,"
"The soldiers you waste guarding him, you might need to fight," Laxus said out loud, and although everyone turned to look at him, semi shocked at the concept, not as many as Levy would have guessed seemed to disagree. Jura among them.
"No,"
The sound of Gajeel's voice calmed the crowd.
"Executions won't balance the scales, here. Yah just end up with an extra body. Besides, we need what he knows," he announced. Noc turned to try and find the iron mage, convinced that if he could see Gajeel's face it might illuminate what the man could have been thinking defending him, after everything he put him through.
Levy could see it. Could tell that all the anger and rage were gone, and that Gajeel for once may have rationally thought it out. But... she'd defended Braca once. Defended his life. And it had cost so many others.
"He deserves to die," Levy shocked herself with those words. She meant them. Wouldn't have felt any remorse or guilt if he met his end there and then. But it was at the look of hurt and confusion on Gajeel's face, however, that she found herself grounded. "But," she continued, "we don't have the right to execute him. That's not who we are," she finally said, and hoped that one day she would believe it again.
Jura seemed to understand.
"Even so injured and wronged, it gives me hope to see such compassion,"
But there was one individual for whom the idea of mercy was an impossible pill to swallow. While they'd talked and debated, Elle's eyes had never once left Noc's face. Her expression never once changed. She was a statue. Immovable and unfeeling. And without prior warning, without missing a single beat, without any hesitation, she casually stepped forward, put both hands on either side of his head and the mute girl looked him in the eyes. Trying to convey perhaps a fraction of the suffering and pain, the grief and the unrestrained rage she felt and could no longer process. And Elle Maxol took his head in her hands and from the depths of her blackened soul she screamed.