Chapter 61

Jude Heartfilia threw his glass against the wall with an angry shout. The leader of the mercenaries he'd hired just stared at him with a firm look, unfazed by the enraged businessman who had no more power to his name. This was the end of an empire. Jude Heartfilia was a great businessman, one of the best, and therefore one of the most powerful people in the country. But he'd finally made the wrong enemy.

"Sir, must I repeat myself?" the leader asked calmly. He'd been in this game too long, he knew where this was going. They were running low on ammo and food... and now their water rations were almost gone. They wouldn't last another two days, not with the amount of soldiers in the estate. This was a siege, a well-planned one. Fairy Tail always won. "You need to surrender, or we are all going to die."

"I'm not paying you to give me orders!" Jude shouted in a rage. His hair was a mess, his clothes ragged, and there were heavy bags under his eyes. He'd not slept a wink since the war - no, siege - began. "I'm paying you to take care of this! And what did you do?! You got us trapped in here!"

"YOU got us trapped in here, listening to that shady informant." the merc rolled his eyes. When the fighting had started, Jude had ordered them all to stay near or inside the estate, having been expecting an attack from the inside like Cobra had informed him might happen. Of course, that led to their forces retreating into the estate under pressure, where they were now holed up and losing rations quickly. "I tried to dissuade you, sir, but you listened to the rat instead. And where is he now?"

"Silence!"

"No!" the man shouted, now angry, himself. "I will not be silenced. This mess is your fault! Fairy Tail wants your head, and they're going to get it. And I'm not going down with you. My men aren't going down with you. We are leaving. Mavis have mercy on your soul." With that, the mercenary turned and stormed out of the room to collect his men. Jude could only watch in horror as his last line of defense abandoned him. With the soldiers gone, Fairy Tail would march right in here...

...and he would die.

The mansion was busy today. More than it had been this whole war, anyways. Guards were running back and forth, and council members were all over the place. Levy couldn't find the Don or Gajeel anywhere, so she had decided to get a meal in the kitchen while she waited.

"Levy!" a familiar voice called out to her as she walked into the kitchen. Levy looked up right as Lucy attacked the younger woman with a huge hug. "They got him! They got him!" Levy couldn't tell if Lucy was cheering or sobbing or both as she returned the embrace.

"Your father?"

"Yes! They got him!" Lucy pulled back slightly, and Levy could see tears in the blonde's eyes. But she was smiling. "They got him alive. They're interrogating him now..."

"Is that where Gajeel disappeared to?" Levy hummed before turning cautious eyes to her friend. "How do you feel about this, Lucy? He... he is your father..."

"The man he is today is not my father." Lucy said firmly. "When I was little, he was the best dad. I love that man. But this man is not him. This man is cold and heartless and evil and he only cares about himself and his money." She took a moment to breath before continuing. "He hasn't been my father in a very long time, Levy. As soon as I turned fourteen, he was trying to marry me off to some investor that would make him a lot of money. The guy was three times my age... Father didn't listen to reason, didn't back down. He locked me in my room until the wedding."

"H-how did you escape?" Levy asked, captivated by the story. Lucy had never told her the full reason why she'd left Heartfilia Estate and came to Fairy Tail.

"I told a maid I was starving, and that I really wanted to make myself something to eat, because I didn't trust the cook not to poison it. We had a bad relationship, and it was well known." Lucy told her. "I begged her to take me to the kitchen. When we got there, I knocked her out with a frying pan. The kitchen had an entrance to the underground tunnels, so I fled that way. By the time anyone realized I was gone, I had hopped on a train and made it to Magnolia. The first person I ran into was Natsu." she gave a small laugh at that as she remembered it. "He was on his first solo job, and I accidentally tripped into the alley he was waiting for his target in. He abandoned his job and helped me up, and Mavis I was in love the moment our eyes met." She sighed happily.

"That's so sweet." Levy giggled.

"And then he opened his mouth and ruined it." Lucy giggled, making Levy laugh along with her. She could see Natsu doing something like that. Lucy suddenly turned curious eyes to Levy, and gave a wicked grin. "Alright, Levy-chan. Your turn."

"Eh?"

"Tell me how you and Gajeel met. Nobody knows, and nobody can figure it out. All I've found is that one day he went to pick you up from your apartment to meet the don, and you just kind of stayed after that." Lucy explained, giving Levy an expecting look.

"U-um well, I'm not sure if Gajeel would want me to say." Levy tried to dissuade her, but she pressed on.

"He's not here, and he doesn't have to know."

"T-that's a dangerous line of thinking." Levy pointed out but, at Lucy's unamused look, she gave a heavy sigh. "I was on my way home from work, and I heard some noise coming from an alley. I found him there. He'd been shot, and he was bleeding badly." Levy explained as she pressed her fingers together. "I helped him to my apartment, got the bullet out, and let him stay the night. He told me I was under his protection, and wanted me to meet the Don. While I was here, the guy that was after Gajeel set fire to my apartment, so I moved in with Gajeel and you know the rest." She shrugged. Lucy had literally come into the scene the next day.

"Wow, I had no idea what to expect, but I really wasn't expecting that." Lucy said in awe. "Gajeel actually got shot. How bad was it?"

"Bad." Levy sighed, remembering that night. "He would have bled out if I didn't help him... or whoever was after him would have found him."

"Did you know who he was?"

"I had no clue." Levy shook her head. "I... I knew he was from Fairy Tail. I saw the emblem on his gun." It was the same gun she now had a smaller copy of, in fact. The Fairy Tail emblem had been facing up... but she hadn't seen the black dragon etched into the other side that night. If she had... maybe she would have fled in terror, left him be like he told her to. She was glad she didn't. "He... he told me who he was after I treated him."

"Bet that was a shock. I didn't know Natsu was part of Fairy Tail until I sought out the Don to ask if I could join... and he was there." Lucy smiled a bit. "He put in a good word for me with the Don, not that I needed it. Metalicana needed everyone he could get, because he was preparing to go to war with Phantom Lord, to push them out of the city. He was even accepting runaway teenagers like me, as long as he felt they were capable and useful. Natsu was the one that trained me, taught me how to shoot and other things. We started dating shortly after the war. Have been together since, obviously."

"Obviously." Levy repeated with a giggle. "Ne, where is Kasai, by the way?"

"Oh. Natsu's got her. He was out fighting at the estate, you know, and he just got back. Wanted some Kasai cuddles."

"How cute." Levy giggled happily at this. He was such a good dad. Levy wondered if Gajeel would be like that with their own children one day.

"Oh, there ya two are." Speaking of Gajeel, he just walked into the kitchen in search of his wife, missing his suit jacket and wearing his sleeves rolled up. Levy knew why. It was the typical way he dressed for "interrogations." Kept the blood from staining his clothes too much. "Oi, there's gonna be a meeting in like ten minutes. Y'all both need to come with me. It's time to decide his fate."

Sorry for the repeated info, but a refresher of everything is good here and there, right? Anyways, I'm posting this a day early because I'm going to be insanely busy tomorrow. You're welcome XD

Thanks for reading! Comment, please! I want feedback!

-Nerdy12