Gajeel POV


Levy brought me to what I assumed was the house that she was talking about earlier.

"Is this the place?" I asked, turning my head to look at her.

"Uh-huh," she nodded in confirmation. "Could you go in first, though? I'm kind of too scared to go in myself."

"Sure thing, scaredy cat," I teased her playfully.

I opened the door to the house and walked inside, my footsteps creaking on the oak floor. It was a pretty normal looking house from what I could see, with nothing out of the ordinary inside of it.

"Shrimp, you can come in," I told her as I walked further into the house. "There's nothing here."

When I didn't get a response, I stopped and looked over my shoulder to see her standing in the doorway with her eyes being shadowed by her blue hair. But despite that, I felt as if she was staring directly at me.

"Shrimp?" I asked, swerving around to face her fully. "You alright?"

She didn't say anything, instead tapping her foot against the wooden floor of the house. I didn't understand what was going until the floor beneath my feet changed into a liquid substance, cool and fluent like water.

"W-what the hell?!"

I tried to get free, but it was no use as I sunk down to my waist, before it hardened and became like wood again. But that didn't stop me from trying to get free.

"Got you~!"

I looked up, only to see that Levy had moved to stand just out of arm's reach of me. Her eyes were no longer shadowed, instead now a lambent turquoise, and her teeth were deadly sharp.

"Hey! You're Paw!" I realized, quickly getting angry.

"The one and only," she smirked at me with her shark teeth.

"You bitch! Where's the real Levy?! What the hell did you do with her?!" I yelled, trying to get her with my arms but I couldn't touch her. "And what are you doing here?! I thought ya said you were gonna see bunny girl!"

"First, that's for me to know and you to never find out," she answered smugly. "And secondly, I was, but I used my powers to put her back to sleep...I can't have her awake and wandering around when I'm busy taking care of you all~"

"Let me outta here you shady bitch!" I snarled, glaring at her furiously.

"No, I don't think I will," she replied with a cocky smirk, "How about you stay here for a while? That way I can, 'take care' of the rest of your friends."

"You stay the hell away from them!" I growled, struggling more vigorously to get free. "Especially shrimp! If you go anywhere near her, I swear-"

"Awwww...does someone have a little crush? That's adorable, it really is!" she flashed me a mock smile. "But don't you worry, I won't lay a hand on her...until maybe after I'm finished with you and the other Fairies. I might just get attached to her, after all!"

She headed for the door after that, but stopped and stood in the doorway.

"Be a good boy now, okay?" Paw smiled as her eyes and teeth shifted back to looking normal.

She didn't wait for a response as she shut the door, leaving me alone with only the sunlight streaming through the paper windows for illumination.

I can't let that happen. I told myself as I struggled. I have to get out of here before that wench kills them all!

I struggled as hard as I possibly could to get free, and tried to use my magic too, but to no avail.

"Holy shit! What is this floor made of?!" I asked no one as I continued my attempts.


Erza POV


When I made my way back to the area where all of us were supposed to conven, I saw that Lisanna, Juvia and Gray were already there, casually talking with each other.

"So, I'm guessing that you couldn't find Erza?" Gray asked Lisanna, frowning.

"Afraid not. Did you two find anything useful?" Lisanna replied.

Juvia opened her mouth to respond when I spoke up.

"Guys!"

They turned their attention to me as I stopped in front of them.

"Hi Erza," Lisanna greeted me. "What is it? Did you find anything?"

"Yes, I did, and it was the fact that the Levy with Gajeel right now isn't real."

"What makes you think that?" Lisanna frowned.

"I saw the real Levy earlier. I know that it was her because she was wearing a scarf like the one Wendy's wearing. Her papers were with her as well," I answered.

"Then who the hell is with Gajeel?" Gray asked.

"It's Paw...it has to be Paw," I replied, clenching my fists. "I know that she's going to do something bad to Gajeel, I just know it."

"What are we going to do?" Juvia asked, her eyes showing her concern for her friend. "We have to help Gajeel, but we have to save Levy too."

"I'll go and help Gajeel, you guys save Levy," Gray told us.

Without waiting for a response, Gray left to go search for Gajeel and Paw.

"So where's Levy?" Lisanna asked.

"It's this way, follow me," I responded.

I led Lisanna and Juvia to the building where Levy was being kept. Putting my hand on the doorknob, I looked back at them.

"Are you guys ready?" I asked. "We might have to fight."

"I'm ready when you are," Lisanna answered. "What about you Juvia?"

"Juvia is ready," the water mage nodded.

"Then let's go," I looked back at the door.

I opened it, but to my surprise saw that Cana, Jet, Droy and Kinana were bound with rope. Levy stood in the middle of the room, facing away from us. However, she wasn't wearing a scarf so I immediately knew it was Paw.

"Levy? Is that you?" Lisanna asked, her tone cautionary.

"Hm?" she swiveled around to face us. "Oh hey! You sure have some excellent timing, I just captured these guys! Maybe they can tell us where the others are!"

"Stop talking like that," I glared at her. "We know that you aren't real Levy, so drop the act."

"Huh? I'm not real?" she tried to feign shock. "Why would you say that, Erza?"

"Erza said that she saw the real Levy in here earlier," Juvia answered. "So we know that you aren't Levy."

"Then who am-?"

"Drop the facade already, Paw," I interrupted. "We know it's you."

There were a few seconds of silence between us, before Paw sighed, causing her eyes to melt away to turquoise and her teeth to become razor-like.

"Well, it was worth a shot I guess," she shrugged, a lopsided frown on her face.

"What did you do with Levy?" Lisanna demanded. "And where's Gajeel?"

"Sorry, but that's a secret," she grinned at us, baring her teeth. "And I don't tell secrets to wicked people who take my friends away from me and make my other ones disappear or cry."

Cana got up off the floor, causing the ropes to disappear like an illusion. She placed a hand on Paw's shoulder, causing her to glance back at the brunette.

"Master, just go," the female mage said. "You have a lot of things to take care of, don't you?"

"You're right, Card," Paw confirmed. "I do."

"Then go and take care of them," the now identified Card told her. "Let Speed, Plant, Snake and I take care of these jokers."

"Are you guys sure you can handle it?" Paw appeared a bit hesitant to leave them behind.

"Of course we're sure," Speed spoke up, formally known as Jet. "How hard can it be?"

"Yeah, it shouldn't be too difficult," said Plant. "Now get going, Master."

"Alright, but be careful," she warned. "The last thing I need is for you to disappear like the others."

Card took her hand off of Paw's shoulder and Paw waved at us before teleporting away.

Once she was gone, Speed, Plant and Snake got up off of the floor with their ropes vanishing as well. They stared directly at us, appearing to be ready for a scuffle.

"We don't have time for this," this was tedious, we were wasting time. "Come on, we have to find Levy and Gajeel."

"How are you going to find them if you don't know where they are?" Snake asked.

That stopped us from leaving.

"Listen, let's make a deal," Card suggested.

"What kind of deal?" Juvia asked, reasonably suspicious of them.

"We fight and if you beat us, we'll tell you where Levy is," Card answered. "We can't tell you where Gajeel is though, because we literally have no idea."

"And if you win?"

"Then you have to leave the dream realm and never come back," Card answered.

"You aren't going to kill us?" Lisanna frowned, confused.

"Heck no..." Speed said, appalled. "Do you think that we're murderers or something?"

"Uhhhh..."

"You think that we're murderers?" Plant frowned. "Why would you think that? We're meant to keep dreamers company, not kill people!"

"Then why do you wish to fight us?" Juvia inquired.

"We do have some fighting skill after all for a situation like this. We have to be able protect the dreamers somehow," Snake explained. "But even if you may be stronger than us, it can't hurt to try."

"So, do we have a deal or what?" Card asked, crossing her arms over her large chest.

I thought about it for a bit before deciding.

"Deal."

"Better get ready then," Card uncrossed her arms. "Because here we come!"

The four of them ran towards us and I fought them alongside Juvia and Lisanna.

It wasn't very hard to defeat them, seeing as they had all of the attacks of their real selves with a few new abilities, like slightly distorting the room and teleporting out of the way of attacks, but they only did that a few times before stopping.

With one final blast from Juvia's water magic, they were knocked to the ground with a loud thump.

"Had enough?" I asked them, smiling.

"You...win..." Card wheezed between breaths.

"Then keep your end of the deal and tell us where Levy is," I commanded.

"Also, how did you do all of those things?" Lisanna asked curiously.

"To answer the animal girl's question, we can copy the abilities of the person that we take the form of. We also have a much weaker version of Master's powers," Snake informed us.

"But how do you know what they look like?" Lisanna stopped me from repeating my question.

"Much like Master, we can see into the memories of dreamers and shapeshift into people that they know," Snake answered. "But unlike Master, who can see as much as she wants, we can only see a year into their most recent memories."

"We also like to take on these nifty little code names instead of our real ones," Plant continued. "It's cool, isn't it?"

"Juvia guesses. But why not use your real ones?" Juvia asked, making me sigh because once again, I was cut off.

"We could, but it's less fun that way," Speed shrugged. "And it's kind of a big red flag if we call each other by our real names, isn't it?"

Juvia and Lisanna both gave a murmur of agreement.

"Anyways, what was your question again, red hair?" Card looked at me.

"Where's Levy?" I repeated.

"She's in the big building that looks like an elaborate library," Card said, keeping her end of the agreement. "Just continue down the road, make a right, then a left, then another right after the first right you pass, then keep following that road until you reach the center of town."

"You could have just said she was at the center of town," I frowned.

"I know," she answered. "Anyways, red hair...is something bothering you? You look upset...did something happen?"

The memory of Knight popped back into my head and I averted my gaze to the floor in front of me.

"Erza? What's the matter?" Lisanna sounded worried.

"Why don't you guys leave her here with us for a little while?" Card suggested. "She can talk about what's bothering her and then once you guys are done with Levy, you can come back and get her."

"Do you wanna stay here?" Juvia asked me, but I didn't respond. "Erza?"

After a few seconds of staring at the floor trying to get Knight out of my head, I felt a pair of hands grab my shoulders and usher me away from Juvia and Lisanna.

"I don't think your friend is gonna respond," Speed told them. "Just leave her with us."

"You have nothing to worry about," Plant reassured them. "We'll take good care of her and we won't lay a hand on her...well, to harm her anyways."

"If you say so..." Lisanna sounded unsure. "Come on, Juvia."

I heard footsteps, then the sound of a door opening, and the door closing.

"You can sit in Levy's seat," Speed told me.

I sat down in a chair and I looked up from my lap to see that everyone was sitting down in their own chairs. Once they had all sat down, they looked at me.

"So, what's bothering you?" Snake asked me.

I didn't respond as I was too busy trying to get the memory of Knight out of my head.

"You know, you don't have to be quiet about it..." she frowned. "It could help a lot to talk about what ails you."

I didn't say anything that time, either.

"Hmmm," Card hummed.

"What's the matter, Card?" Speed looked at her.

"Is it just me, or does she remind you guys of Knight?" Card asked. "Hardly ever talking, usually using a sword to fight even if the person that she took the form of didn't wield a sword?"

Before any of them could respond, I spoke up.

"You knew Knight?" my voice cracked at the end.

"Yeah, she was a good friend of ours and actually is supposed to be the leader of the area past these mountains," Plant answered, before looking at me hopefully. "Did you see her?"

"Yes, but she said that..." I trailed off, wondering if she had to lied to me.

"Knight disappeared after terrifying monsters appeared all over this place when Master caught a really bad fever. She created monsters all over the place because she couldn't think straight," Speed explained. "We stayed hidden for as long as we could, but it was no use since it was only a matter of time before they found us."

"So we made a plan to make a run for the mountains and wait there until Master got better, but on the way there, we were ambushed by the monsters," Plant continued. "Knight tried to fight them off and protect us, but it was no use. They proved too strong for her."

"When Knight couldn't fight them anymore, they attacked us and we all played dead so that way we wouldn't, you know...die," Snake continued. "I don't remember how long we played dead, but when we finally opened our eyes, we saw that Knight was gone."

"The four of us have been living in these mountains because of the area being destroyed by the monsters, and searching for her ever since because we had a feeling that she's out there somewhere," Card finished. "So, have you seen her?"

I couldn't help but look back down at my lap.

Knight wasn't alone. Her friends were alive and some of them were looking for her. But she spent years believing that they were dead and feeling guilty because she couldn't protect them. I thought to myself. What do I tell them? They've been looking for her all this time and I killed her.

"Red hair?"

Murderer...I'm a murderer.

My shoulders began to shake and I could feel my eyes stinging as tears formed.

"I'm a horrible person," I started to cry.

"What? Red hair...why would you say that about yourself?" I could hear the shock in Card's voice.

"Just because you don't know where Knight is, doesn't mean that you're a horrible person," Plant tried to tell me.

"You...you don't..."

"I think that someone needs a hug," said Speed. "Come on guys."

I glanced up from my lap to see that they were all getting out of their seats and walking towards me. They surrounded me and squeezed me tightly yet comfortingly in a big group hug.

It was a few seconds into the hug when I felt the pang from earlier in my head once again, but this time the voice that spoke to me was much clearer.

They aren't...are fake...imposters all of...punish them...ting the dead...

No! They are real, they aren't an illusion created by someone or even someone in disguise! I tried to mentally talk with them, despite my headache.

Impossible...are fake...disguised or illusion...must be...take no...an answer... The voice was louder now, boring into my skull.

No, don't! I tried to plead. I don't want anymore blood on my hands! Don't hurt them!

Fake, fake, fake, fake, fake. The voice repeated over and over again in my head.

I began to become dizzy, and it only got worse and worse with every passing second until I blacked out. The last thing that I remember was feeling was my requip magic activate, and a soft weapon appearing in my hand.


PawPrint-Writer: What's happening to Erza? Only I know the answer! But until I reveal the answer, feel free to take a guess at what's going on!

Review plz?

RevlisCharm(beta): Mank demes.