Chapter 83

It was the dead of night when Gajeel was woken by his ringing phone. He was awake instantly, answering it with a hushed voice as he tried not to wake his sleeping wife. He felt her shift and stir, and he knew she'd been disturbed, despite his efforts. But hopefully she would go back to sleep if he was quiet enough. She often did, and she rarely noticed him leave in the middle of the night.

"What?" Levy was woken by her husband's voice as he answered the phone. After being told about Jet last night, she'd cried herself to sleep in Gajeel's arms. One of her closest friends had likely betrayed the family, and therefore betrayed her. It was very possible that he was going to die for it, too. She just... couldn't understand why. Why would he betray the family, when he knew it was the same as betraying her? Did he not care about her anymore? She thought they were friends...

"Fuck." Gajeel cursed quietly, clearly trying not to wake her. "Alright. I'll be ready by the time ya get here." he told whoever was on the other end of the phone. "No, bring them both." he ordered sternly. "Call my old man, too. Tell him ten minutes." He said, and then he hung up. He pulled himself out of bed, then, and Levy knew he was getting ready to leave.

"Gajeel." her quiet voice made him pause before he reached their closet. He turned back to her, frowning a bit as he realized she was awake the whole time. Her eyes met his, and he caught her pleading, questioning look. He sighed softly and nodded, silently telling her it's what she thought it was. Jet had been found, and was en route to the mansion. Her pleading eyes had him giving another sigh. He walked back to the bed and offered her his hand.

"We need to hurry, Levy. Get dressed." he told her quietly, helping her up out of bed. She nodded and accepted a quick kiss from him before he walked off to get changed into a suit. She went to the dresser and pulled on a simple white blouse and a black skirt. It was comfortable but professional-looking... but the blouse did hug her skin and show off her baby bump. Then again, everything she wore did that these days. "Here." Gajeel came up behind her when she finished getting ready. He'd dressed in record time, and had grabbed something from the closet. He wrapped it around her, and she realized it was a large black cardigan she could use to conceal her pregnancy as much as possible.

"Thank you." Levy said quietly as she slid her arms through the sleeves. She put on a pair of black flats, ran her fingers through her hair, then accepted her husband's hand. He led her out of their apartment at as brisk a pace as he knew she could move, keeping a firm hold of her hand. She looked up at his face as they walked. He was already in work mode, his eyes stern and cold and his jaw set firmly. Even so, he was rubbing soothing circles into her hand with his thumb, knowing this whole ordeal was only going to be stressful for her.

Metalicana and Lily were already waiting outside the entrance to the basement when they got there, and they both raised a brow at Levy's presence. They knew Gajeel and Levy were trying to keep the pregnancy a secret, so why was she here, where others would see her? The cardigan she wore helped to hide her pregnancy when she held it shut, yes, but it was still obvious if you looked at her too long.

"Wait up here. Don't let anyone see her." Gajeel ordered, gently urging his wife toward his father and her guard. The two men nodded and moved Levy to stand behind them while Gajeel went downstairs. Given her stature, she was easily hidden behind the two larger men. A simple but genius solution to their obvious problem of hiding her condition.

Gajeel frowned when he got to the basement and found several people there. Natsu had told him he and Gray would be there, but not that he'd called Igneel and Gildarts, too. They were discussing something quietly among themselves, but they went silent as Gajeel made his appearance. He looked around and found that Jet and Droy were both in cells, right next to each other. Droy was wringing his hands nervously, and Jet was pacing back and forth. Gajeel looked at Natsu and raised a brow in question.

"He came to the safe house." Natsu told him. "Walked right in with his hands raised. He knew we were waiting. Came peacefully." Gajeel hummed at this and looked Jet over. He seemed unharmed and was calm despite his pacing. His surrender certainly gave him some good points, but it wasn't enough to rule out his possible betrayal. Gajeel looked around the room again with a frown. He didn't need more people than necessary knowing about Levy's condition. He knew Natsu and Gray likely knew because of their wives, but he also knew they would not tell a soul. Gildarts, however, liked to gossip, and he didn't know Igneel closely enough to know if the old man might let it slip.

"Igneel, Gildarts, go home." Gajeel ordered, his voice firm and telling them they'd better not question it. They shared a confused look but obeyed the order and filed out silently. "Natsu, Gray, you can return to yer wives if ya want, or stay. Your choice."

"And leave you alone with them?" Natsu scoffed, glaring at Jet. He was fairly certain Jet was a traitor, and he'd be damned if he left the Don alone with a potentially dangerous traitor. Gray shared his sentiments.

"Have it your way. But I ain't alone. Go upstairs and have those three come down." Gajeel ordered, gesturing to the door. Gray did this, and returned shortly with Metalicana, Lily, and Levy. Jet and Droy turned surprised eyes to Gajeel when they noticed Levy's presence. Metalicana and Lily kept her mostly hidden behind them, but she peeked around them timidly. Why would Gajeel allow her to be down here, for what was obviously about to become an interrogation? Why would he let her see him do this to her friends? They just couldn't understand it.

"Jet." Gajeel's firm voice had all eyes on him. "Make this easy for everyone here and tell me what the hell is goin on." he commanded strongly, pining the slender man with a sharp glare. "If ya work with me, this won't get painful." Jet swallowed thickly and gave a hesitant nod, approaching the cell door.

"We went out for drinks. I was, um, complaining about Fairy Tail. Mostly about not being able to work and stuff like that." Jet began his tale cautiously. "This guy comes up out of the blue, and says he'd like to hire us for a job. Says there's lots of people bitter at Fairy Tail, and says that we can work and make money and get a little revenge without ever being noticed by Fairy Tail. All he wanted was information." Gajeel nodded at this. So far, it followed what Droy had told him. He knew Natsu made sure Jet and Droy rode over in separate cars and weren't able to share information with each other. It was common protocol, so Gajeel could trust that this much was true.

"What happened next?" he demanded.

"Droy told him he'd think about it, but wasn't good with information gathering." Jet said. Again, this matched what Droy said. "But I agreed and went with him. We got in a black car and went somewhere across town. The windows were super tinted, so I couldn't see any street names, but there was this old school building that was falling apart. Across the street was an abandoned gas station. He took me into the gas station and introduced himself as Midnight. Fake name, obviously, but it's all I got. He said there's lots of people that hate Fairy Tail, and he was a representative." Jet explained to the group. "He said he needed information, and that's it. Any information I could give him. And he would pay me a very large amount of money."

"What did you tell him?" Gajeel growled. His next words would be crucial to deciding if he was, in fact a traitor.

"I told him the truth... partially. I joined Fairy Tail as part of a merger, and I was assigned to the safe house." Jet explained. "He was very happy about that. He knew there's a big computer at the safe house with a lot of information on it, and he asked me if I had access to it. I told him I did."

"What else did you tell him?" Gajeel demanded. He needed to know everything Jet told him. Everything.

"That's all I told him, I swear." Jet promised. "And that was enough for him. He gave me a thumb-drive and told me to put it into the safe house's computer. If I did that, he would make sure to drop a large payment off at the bar, disguised as a package. The bar owner's apparently in his pocket."

"Where's the drive?" Metalicana asked. Natsu pulled it out of his pocket and showed it to the former don, who looked it over. "It's got a transmitter in it. As soon as you connect this to a computer, it will start to transmit any files to whatever destination it was programmed for." Metalicana grumbled. "High-tech stuff, he's got."

"Tell me anything else you know, Jet." Gajeel demanded firmly. "I need to know what he looks like, how he dresses, any special identifiers..."

"He's a pretty unique-looking guy." Jet explained. "Tall, skinny, kind of feminine-looking. His hair's black at the top and white on the bottom and he wears black lipstick."

"Odd, but keep going."

"He's got what looks like a family crest of some sort tattooed on his right shoulder. I can draw it out." Jet offered. Gajeel nodded at Gray, who supplied a pen and a piece of paper to Jet. He drew the crest and handed it to Gajeel, who looked it over curiously. It was two odd symbols he'd never seen before.

"That's Japanese." Levy's voice had Gajeel turning to look at her. She was peeking out from behind Lily, looking at the paper curiously.

"How do you know that?" he asked his wife with a raised brow.

"Grandeeny, um... Porlyuscia. She was Japanese. She came to Fiore as a child. I found some of her books in her native language, and asked her to teach me some." Levy told her husband quietly.

"Can you read this?" Gajeel questioned, showing her the paper. She looked at it for a moment before nodding.

"It's the kanji for six, and the katakana Ma. Rokuma." She told him. "I don't know what the Ma is. It's six of something."

"Demons." a new voice came, startling everyone. They all turned in the direction the voice came, further into the basement. Jude Heartfilia had been standing at the door to his cell since everyone filed in, watching everything going on with curious eyes. He scratched his growing beard and gave them all a knowing grin before focusing his eyes on Gajeel. "The Ma stands for demons. This Midnight person is part of the group known as the Six Demons. Their other name would be Oracion Seis."

"How the hell do you know that, old man?" Gajeel demanded with a growl, marching over to Jude's cell.

"Because that man you're looking for... Cobra." Jude locked eyes with Gajeel and gave him a serious stare. "He's one of them."

I finally had time to write up two chapters. I feel bad making you guys wait while I scramble to rewrite everything I lost, so here's a nice little cliffhanger for you guys. It's still going to be a while before we get back to the usual schedule. I'm sorry. But I'm working on it, I swear.

Anyways, thanks so much for your patience and devotion. I love you guys!

And please, please tell me what you think. I love the feedback, and it really helps motivate me to find time to write. Hint, hint.

Until next time!

-Nerdy12