Chapter 47

Missing

"You were right, sir," Ryn said, making her way back into his office. "That kid has a bunch of untapped magical power. I think you'll be extremely satisfied with how much we've gotten so far!"

"How full is it?"

"The chamber is about halfway full, and even that is plenty to carry out your plan," she responded, excited that everything was falling into place. "I don't think anything has ever gone this smoothly," she beamed.

Eli watched how her tits slightly bounced with each move she made and the sway of her wide hips when she entered the room. Ryn noticed the stare down and tried to ignore it, but the creeping blush on her neck and face let him know that she knew he was watching.

"And you're excited about this?"

"Yes! I mean, this is exciting, no?" She said.

Eli crossed his arms over his broad chest, a smirk still on his face. "And what's the most exciting thing about it?"

"I-I mean… well…" The brunette averted her gaze as she fumbled over her words. "I guess when I looked to see how much we'd collected…"

"That got you excited, huh?"

Ryn bit her bottom lip when he stood up from his chair and walked toward her.

"S-sir…"

She backed up slowly, eventually backing into the wall; he was getting dangerously close.

"What did I tell you?" He asked as he placed one hand on the wall next to her, halfway trapping her in his bubble. His face inched closer and closer to hers until she could feel his breath on her ear. "It's Eli."

He wanted to see just how crazy he could make her. Although that wasn't very fair to himself either, he just couldn't help himself. He wanted to touch her, but how could he without losing control?

Several seconds pass and Ryn's face began getting hot.

"Uh… Eli…?" She asked, her voice quiet.

"Mm?"

He'd inadvertently pressed himself against her, his free arm slowly wrapping around her waist and his head resting in the crook of her neck. Of course, she knew it wasn't intentional, and that it was just his body reacting to the current situation. She couldn't help but to melt in his embrace and hug him back.

"Um…"

For whatever reason, Eli was in his own cinnamon-scented heaven. It'd been years since he felt at peace like this. He, unfortunately, was brought back to reality when he felt an arm snaking around his midsection.

"Shit…" He jerked away from Ryn, not wanting to look her in the eyes. He knew if he did, there would be no turning back.

"E-Eli…?"

"I'm gonna go check on the kid," he said, rubbing the back of his neck and turning away from her. He had to get out of there.

As he left his office and walked down to the subbasement, he couldn't shake that feeling he had with Ryn. He was unaware that he had been holding her like he was until she held him back. He had to admit, it felt amazing to be touched again. He hadn't allowed himself any intimacy since he started this operation almost three years ago and there was no doubt about it; he missed it. He thought he just wanted to get in her pants, but those feelings he just felt were more than that, and if she would have told him she didn't feel the same way, he'd have known it was a lie.

He got to the door and patted his pockets, realizing the keys were still upstairs.

"Ugh!" He groaned and rubbed his face, not wanting to face his emotions again.

"Sir!"

He looked down the hall and saw Ryn coming his way, something dangling from her hand.

"You left these upstairs," she said, handing him a set of keys. "I figured you'd need these to get in there."

"Thank you, Ryn," he said as he faced the door. "Also, I'm sorry about what happened up there…"

"There's no need to apologize, sir. I didn't mind," she smiled.

He looked at her, reading her face.

"Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to bring you to the top with me," he mumbled, more to himself than to her.

"I'd do well by your side… Eli."

'God. This woman… I need to hear her scream my name.'

He put the key in the lock and opened the door, immediately enraged at the sight of broken glass and water everywhere.

"What the hell?!" Ryn said, rushing past Eli and into the room. "He was just here! I swear!"

"DAMN IT!" Eli punched the concrete wall, cracking it a bit. "Lock all of the fucking exits! This little shit isn't getting out of this building!"

Ryn ran out of the room to secure the building as quickly as possible as Eli investigated the mess. He was sure she'd brief the underlings about the current situation at hand. He was glad he told them to stay on their toes; this kid was obviously going to be an issue. A tough one at that.

'How the fuck did the kid get out of the tank?!' He looked around. 'The glass shattered, but why?' He looked around for a few more seconds and decided it wasn't important how he got out. His main focus was on finding the kid and continuing the extraction. 'Speaking of extraction…' He walked to the collection chamber and saw that is was indeed half full. 'Ok, so not all is lost…' He left the room and closed the door to lock it when he noticed the keys were not in his jacket pocket. 'They must have fallen out of my pocket when I punched the wall,' he thought to himself as he opened the door again, finding them on the floor. As he went to pick them up, he noticed the word 'quiet' written in tiny letters all over the floor and realization dawned on him. 'Shit… we've got a problem…'

Gajeel sped through the forest, bringing down every tree that crossed his path. 'Levy! I gotta get ta Levy!' He felt a white-hot rage in his chest, a feeling he hadn't felt since his days in Phantom Lord… a feeling he eerily welcomed. 'I'm gonna rip every single one of those fuckers to pieces!' He brought large iron rods from the ground, uprooting trees in sheer anger as he continued his trek to Levy. As he neared the forest edge, he felt Jade's presence. Something was off about her magic, but he was too angry to care. He was sure she had something to do with his son turning up missing and he needed answers immediately.

Jade was on her way to the dragon slayer's house to try and convince him to make up with Levy before the Tribe put their plan in action when she felt the ground shaking beneath her.

"What is this?" She asked herself as she looked around. She finally saw trees falling in the distance and iron rods shooting into the air. "The slayer? What is he doing?" She felt his power heading her direction at a quick pace when all went silent.

'What?' She thought to herself in confusion just before she was suddenly slammed into a tree.

"WHERE THE FUCK IS MY SON?!" Gajeel growled, a large iron hand around her neck. He thought back to a few days ago when she showed up at his house in the middle of the night telling him they weren't safe. Did this bitch threaten his family and take his son?

"YA SENT HER TA MY HOUSE DIDN'T YA?!"

Jade's eyes widened when she realized what he was talking about, but as soon as she was about to say something, his grip on her neck got tighter.

"TELL ME!"

She knew that the dragon slayer wasn't in his right mind at the moment and she also knew that he wasn't going to give her the time of day, either. So, she did the only thing she could do at that moment.

"Get ahold of yourself!"

Gajeel stumbled back in response to being slapped pretty hard in the face.

"You need to listen to me!" She exclaimed, holding him by his shoulders.

Gajeel grabbed her wrists, wanting so badly to break them. "Ya got about five seconds ta talk before I crush 'em!"

"I know where your son is!" Jade blurted.

There was a brief pause before he seemingly became even more enraged, her wrists dangerously close to being crushed.

"YOU FUCKING…!" He threw her to the ground and turned one of his arms into a giant iron hammer, gearing up to smash.

"I didn't take him you fool!" She exclaimed as she used all the strength in her legs to kick him into a boulder.

She could have easily taken him out, but she knew why he felt the way he did, and her goal was to help, not fight. She just needed to quickly get it through the slayer's thick head.

"I know who has him," she said, standing and walking over to him. "I can take you there. Now pull yourself together!"

With those words, he took it down a few notches but was still very angry.

"BULLSHIT! This is another one of yer little traps!"

"What reason do I have to lie to you? I tried to warn you when I came to your house the other night, but you wouldn't listen!"

Gajeel was still going crazy, but he had to think about his son. He didn't want to risk ignoring her again, just in case the wench really knew where he was. He would do anything to get his son back, no matter what. Even if it caused him to revert to his darker days just to accomplish that goal, so be it.

"We need to go, now!" She said frantically as she stood up.

"Not without Levy."

"There's no time. You have to follow me now."

"Didn't ya fuckin' hear what I said?" He said, snatching her up by the collar. "Not. Without. Levy."

"You don't understand! Do you know what he's doing to your son? He's trying to extract his magic power and use it for himself and his underlings!"

"What? Who?!" He snarled as his crimson eyes widened. 'They're trying to become dragon slayers?'

"The leader! If their plan succeeded, then they got him in the middle of the night and they've already begun the extraction. Hence me saying WE NEED TO GO!"

Gajeel didn't know what to do. He really didn't want to keep Levy in the dark, especially over something so serious, but Jade was right. He'd been taken in the middle of the night and depending on what type of magic they used to kidnap him, it could have gone smoothly. After all, Zeke was only eight. They've probably stolen most, if not all of his magic power already… by then he would be rendered useless to them. 'What's to stop them from killing him then?'

'Levy…' Gajeel decided to go with Jade. He figured Lily would get to her eventually. The sooner he got to his son, the sooner this would all be over.

"Fuck… let's go." He said as he released her, quickly following her into the trees.

"Lily? What is it?" Levy had never seen such a terrified look on Lily's face.

"Come with me!"

"What's going on, Lil?" The script mage asked as Lily picked her up and took off toward their home.

Lily didn't say anything. He just wanted to get her to Gajeel as quickly as possible so they could find Zeke. Besides, telling her right this moment wouldn't fix anything, anyway. After ten minutes or so of flying, they reached their cottage in the woods and Levy couldn't have been more relieved.

"Gajeel! Where are you?" The exceed called as he looked around at the surrounding destruction.

Levy, on the other hand, was oblivious to the severe damage done. She was more happy to finally be reunited with her mate and to share the news that their family was growing.

"Hey, Lil?" She asked, rubbing her belly. "I left my keys inside; you wouldn't happen to have yours, would you?"

"Um… it should be open." Lily was trying to not show how stressed out he was, especially since Levy was now rubbing her stomach in a way that she hasn't since before she had Zeke.

"No, no, no… not now…" he muttered to himself as he read the bluenette's face and body language.

"What's wrong? Something has been bothering you since you picked me up," she said before entering the house.

"Levy… you wouldn't happen to be… pregnant… are you?"

She looked at the small cat. "How did you know?"

Pantherlily placed a paw on his face in frustration. 'Why does this all have to be happening now?'

"Something's happened, Levy," he said with a sigh.

"What did he do now?" She asked, pushing the door open.

'You'll find out soon enough…'

"What…" She said as she stepped into the house. "What in the world happened here?"

Clearly, she knew Gajeel must have gotten angry and destroyed the house, but why? He hasn't been that angry in quite some time. She started to worry.

"Gajeel? Zeke?"

"Levy," Lily said, getting her attention. "Zeke is missing."

Levy froze. What? Did she hear him correctly? Her son… was missing?

"Gajeel woke up and he was nowhere to be found—" Lily was cut off by a screaming and crying Levy who was now hunched over on the floor.

She felt so angry and helpless. Why did she have to choose now to leave home? If she would have stayed, none of this would have happened. She felt at fault. Now, she had to somehow keep her stress levels down so she wouldn't harm the baby. How the hell was she supposed to do that? Her only child was missing, and she had no clue where to even begin looking. Should she get the guild involved? She knew they would bring everything down in flames to help their own, but at the same time, this was her problem, not theirs. What could she do?

"Levy." Lily walked over to her and placed a comforting paw on her shoulder. "I think we should try to find Gajeel. He was looking for him when I went to pick you up. I am assuming since he's nowhere to be found, he must have a lead on him."

"H-how are w-we going t-to find h-him?" Asked a crying Levy.

Of course, Lily had no clue where to look either. He wasn't sure if Gajeel would be focused enough to leave a trail, but at the same time, it is very well possible that he left a trail of destruction out of anger.

"Come on," he said, changing into his battle form and helping her off the floor. "We're going to go find him. Maybe he's angry enough that he left a trail for us to follow."

"I'm so worried, Lil." Levy said, holding onto the exceed tightly. "I'm worried about Zeke, what if he's hurt?"

"I wouldn't be too worried, he's pretty strong. I'm sure he can handle almost any situation thrown his way."

"I'm worried about Gajeel too," she said as she buried her face into his fur. "I'm worried that his mind will pull him back into his Phantom Lord days, especially since things between us are a little rocky right now. He could lose it at any moment."

Lily changed back into his small form and went outside to see if Gajeel left a trail, and surprisingly enough, he did.

"Alright, Levy. I think I know where he went. Let's go." He picked her up and followed the path of freshly cut trees.

"Oh God…" Levy said as she saw the fallen trees everywhere. "He's already gone crazy." She could just imagine both his arms turned into his sharpest blades, slicing thorough everything that crossed his path and then some. 'This will not end well…'