Chapter 5

Run

By Neko Erza

Levi shot up from the couch with a loud shriek. Her breathing was ragged and she looked around disoriented. She jumped as she heard stumbling in the other room and a door creaked open.

"What the fuck, shrimp?" Gajeel growled as he entered the living room sleepily. His hair was even messier than it normally was and he was only dressed in boxers. "It's like 3 am."

"I'm sorry." Levi said as she quickly wiped an escaped tear away. "I just had nightmare, that's all." The girl curled back up under her blanket.

The dragon slayer raised one of his pierced eyebrows. When the girl didn't say anything else he shook his head and let out a deep sigh. While mumbling something Levi couldn't understand, he went back to his room and slammed the door shut.

Levi wrapped the blanket a little tighter around her, hoping it would comfort her a at least a bit. Her heart almost pounded out of her chest and a sheen of sweat covered her forehead.

She tried to go back to sleep, but the memory of the nightmare wouldn't let her go.

In the dream she had found herself in the cells where her friends were locked up. She had witnessed them being horribly treated and tortured, while she leisurely sat on an upholstered chair. She just sat their comfortably while they suffered in agony and blood dripped down their bodies. She just watched them bear the punishment they didn't deserve, doing nothing.

The dream had left her with a guilty feeling once again. She reached for the ice mage's shirt that had fallen off the couch. She pulled it closely to her chest and even though it was dirty, she could swear she smelled the welcoming scent of her beloved guild.

She wondered, and feared, if her friends would reproach her if they knew how she was treated in contrast to how they were.

Levi tried to get back to sleep but the adrenaline racing through her body didn't let her even close her eyes.

When Gajeel woke up in the morning and entered the living-room, the blanket on the couch was already neatly folded. The smell of coffee filled the house and he heard a kitchen cupboard slam closed. When he entered the kitchen, he saw the little bluenette busy with breakfast. She still wore the clothes she had picked out to sleep in; short pants and a baggy T-shirt Juvia had brought with her.

A small grin played around the dragon slayer's lips as he leaned against the doorframe. "You seem to feel at home already."

"I don't." The girl said without turning around. "I just couldn't sleep so I thought I'd get things ready."

"Grumpy." The black haired man grinned and sat down. Levi put the food on the table and sat down too. Gajeel looked at the wounds on her body and saw that the scratch on her forehead had bled again, since there was some dried up blood around it. "If you'd like you can use the shower after eating."

"Thank you." The girl said with a tiny smile while she took a sip from her drink.

After that it went silent for a while. During the meal Levi kept glancing at the man before her and after a few minutes he annoyingly put his fork down. "What?"

"I want to see my friends." The girl said straight forward, without taking her eyes of the dragon slayer's.

Gajeel raised his eyebrow on the sudden request. The girl's face was filled with the determination he had already grown to know very well. Her eyes wouldn't let go off his, waiting for an answer.

"No." The man looked away and picked up his fork again.

"Why not? I want to know how they are doing!"

"They're still alive, isn't that enough to know?" Gajeel said with an annoyed grunt.

"No! That's not enough!" The bluenette screamed as she hit her tiny fists on the table. Gajeel swore he could hear a crack when the fragile hands hit the hard iron, but the girl's face didn't flinch one bit. Anger was clearly visible on her bruised and scratched face, yet a hint of desperation sounded through her voice.

She needed the confirmation. She needed to see if they were indeed still alive and… she just needed to know if they would resent her for being treated so much better. "I need to see my friends!"

It was the dragon slayer's turn to slam his fist on the table. When his hand made contact with the surface, a large smack sounded and the heavy iron dented around his fingers. The sudden noise startled the script mage but regained her posture pretty quick. After the smack, the dragon slayer's voice roared. "No, you need to fucking calm down and know your place!"

"I want to know how they are doing." The girl continued, trying to hide that she was somewhat afraid of the man before her. If he hadn't said before that he wouldn't hurt her, she would have backed down immediately. Nonetheless her heart pounded like crazy and a pain pulsed through her head. "It's not because you barely give a shit about anyone, that I don't!"

Gajeel stood up and leaned closer towards the stubborn girl and harshly grabbed her chin. His words dripped with poison. "Don't. Push. My. Limits."

The girl slapped his hand away, not giving in to her fear. "Then don't push mine."

The man let out a loud, mocking laugh. "That would have been intimidating… if you were intimidating."

With that the girl stormed out of the kitchen and ran towards the bathroom. Gajeel heard the door slam closed.

"You're acting like a child throwing a tantrum!" The man called after her, then sat down again and shook his head. He couldn't believe that girl's persistence and stubbornness. He wondered if he had maybe been a little bit too soft on her the last few days.

Levi slammed the door closed and let out an annoyed grunt. She had already been sick with worry for her friends and that dream had only fuelled that worry. She thought it was unfair for her to get a comfy couch to sleep on, food, warmth… Her guard could sometimes be a pain in the ass, but overall he had treated her very well, which made the guilt even worse.

She looked up at the ceiling and stared at the rays of light carelessly lighting the day. She followed the light and looked up at the broad, but narrow window above the bathtub. Then an idea popped into her head. She had tried to open the window in the kitchen, which was locked, and she had taken a look at the windows in the bedroom and living-room and found out they were closed too. Yet she wondered if Gajeel would bother locking a window like that. The girl quickly rose to her feet and hopped over to the bath. She carefully put her feet on the edges of the tub and reached for the handle to open. When she heard a silent click her heart skipped a beat.

"It's open!" She whispered excited. She shot a quick look at the closed bathroom door, slightly expecting the dragon slayer to have caught her. To her relief she was still the only one in the room. She stepped down from the tub and went over to the shower. She turned open the faucet, hoping it would trick Gajeel into thinking she was under the shower. If he had as sensitive hearing as Natsu, this would probably distract him.

The girl opened the window as silently as possible. After that came the hardest part: climbing out of it. Levi barely had enough strength to pull herself up, but after some struggle she finally managed. Now came the problem of squeezing herself through the narrow opening. For once in her life she was happy with having a small chest, because even now it hurt when she slowly pushed herself through the opening.

She carefully put her feet down on a ledge once she was through the window. Now she had to climb down a few stories before reaching the ground. She was tempted on using magic to create a ladder, but she feared that the dragon slayer might notice the magical pressure.

Luckily, she and her team had done some basic training, because they couldn't always rely on magic. Now she was very grateful for that decision.
After a daring climb she finally reached the ground, although her hands were sore and had scratches on them from clutching the bricks of the wall. She hoped she wouldn't encounter anyone as she tried to remember the way to the cells.

The way to her friends.

"Oi shrimp." Gajeel asked. He could hear the water clattering in the bathroom, which had already been a whole while. He pressed his ear against the door, but could only hear the sound of the running water. "Are you trying to drown yourself in there or something?"

He gave another knock on the door. "Okay, I'm coming in." He waited another second to see if she'd respond to that, but when it remained silent he quickly opened the door.

When he saw no one in the room, it didn't take long to figure out what had happened. "Goddammit shrimp!"

Levi ran down the square where she and her friends had been brought a few days before. She had encountered a couple of people on her way here but managed to hide from them.

'Damn it! Which way was it?' Levi thought confused. When she was here the last time she hadn't really been paying attention and now she had trouble recalling which gate they went through to go to the cells. She ran towards the first one and peeked inside, it didn't look familiar at all so she went on to the next one. This time she saw the stairs her friends had been taken to, so she quickly slipped inside.

She carefully stepped down the stairs, afraid someone might come up. She paused every few steps to listen for approaching footsteps. When she didn't hear anything she quickly went further.

Her heart pounded like crazy. When she finally got to the bottom of the stairs, she saw a long hallway with barred cells. She hadn't been here before as she was handed over to Gajeel before they reached the bottom of the stairs.
There was no mistaking though that this was the right place. A cold shiver went down her spine as she slowly toddled through the dark, cold hallway. The girl peeked through some bars, but they were all empty. Suddenly a whispering voice echoed through the place.

"Levi?"

The girl turned towards the voice and saw Gray sitting on his knees, clutching at the bars of a cell. "Gray!" Levi quickly skipped over to the cell and dropped to her knees before him.

"Thank the stars, you're still alive." Gray said relieved, putting his arms through the bars and wrapping them around her.

"Gray, I'm so glad to see you." The girl sobbed with happiness.

"What happened to you? Your face is all covered in bruises and cuts." The ice mage asked worried as he carefully ran his hands over her face.

"It's nothing." Levi said shaking her head. Those wounds were all work of the master and since he wasn't around as much, she was safe. She didn't want her friends to worry for her since she had it so much better than them. "I'm actually being treated very nice."

"Those wounds tell me otherwise."

"Never mind those, I'm fine. Really." The girl said as she gave him a smile. "I'm more worried about you, what the hell happened?"

She backed away a bit so she could look at Gray. They hadn't bothered giving him another shirt and the ice mage's chest was covered in deep cuts and bruises. Blood still seeped out from some of them. His face wasn't any better with large cuts, a black eye and cracked lips. Even though he was covered in blood and dirt, Levi could clearly see his skin had turned even paler than it normally was.

"Nothing much, the guards like to have some 'fun' once in a while." Gray shrugged with a casual tone, as if it was a normal thing to get beaten up. "I tried to escape a couple of times, which they didn't really like. How did you get away from that pierced guy? You should leave, Levi. Run and escape."

"I slipped through a window. I had to make sure you guys were fine and I'm not leaving you behind." The girl said as tears ran down her face. She didn't know whether those happy tears were from finally seeing her friends or from sadness at seeing what state they were in.

"We heard terrible stories. The man that took you with him is Kurogane Gajeel." The ice mage said. Like most people he had heard the stories about the bloodthirsty dragon slayer of Phantom Lord. Stories he absolutely didn't want to become true anywhere near his friend.

"I know, but he's not as bad as the stories make him sound." The girl explained, trying to sooth the worry.

"The master came by yesterday… he told us that dragon slayer had beaten you up and that he… raped you."

"No, no…" The girl shook her head. "You shouldn't trust anything that horrible master says. I'm really fine."

"Levi, please don't lie to me. You're all bruised and cut, so at least the beating up is true." He put his arm through the bars and caressed her cheek.

"Please, Gray, believe me. I'm fine!" Suddenly she noticed Gray's arm. She pulled back from his caressing hand startled. Starting from his wrist up to his shoulder his veins had turned a dark, purplish black. "What the hell happened to your arm?" Around his wrist hung a small casket.

"It's the magic depriver. It blocks my magic, but if I try to use it nevertheless it shoots some kind of fluid into my veins which burns like hell. I guess some kind of punishment."

She remembered Gajeel saying something about the deprivers. Seeing the misery her friends were in broke Levi's heart. Telling them she had it pretty good in Gajeel's house felt like stabbing her friends in the back. She let out a sob and tears ran down even faster.

"No, please don't cry, Levi. We'll get out of this, I'm sure of it." The ice mage encouraged. He tried to smile, but didn't manage to hide his worry completely. To be honest, he could hardly remember a situation where he was this helpless. He felt weak as he didn't know how to get his friends out of here.

"Where are the others?" Levi finally managed to get out.

"They are letting Jet and Droy do some kind of jobs around the guild, they're usually gone all day and when they come back they are exhausted. And Loke…" The raven's face went dark.

"What's wrong with Loke?" The little bluenette could swear her heart stopped beating for a moment. She didn't like that look one bit.

The ice mage let go of the bars and went to the back of the cell. While he walked, Levi got a full view of his back, which was covered with deep wounds. The flesh looked like it was slashed open, so they were probably caused by a whip. Besides that she also noticed his right leg had a very bad limp. It wasn't until the ice mage sat down next to a sack, which was probably serving as a bed, that she noticed the curled up figure of the orange haired mage. Gray carefully shook the man's shoulder.

"Loke, wake up. Levi's here."

"Levi?" A hoarse voice sounded and the man sat up. Levi let out a loud gasp as she saw the worn out face of the mage. Gray helped him up and guided him towards Levi.

"Loke, what's wrong with you?" The bluenette asked shocked. Like Gray, Loke's body was covered in wounds. The vest of his suit was missing and the white shirt was all torn up and bloodied. His cheeks looked hollow and his eyes lifeless.

"Before we left for the mission, Loke had already been in Earthland for a while, which had sucked up a lot of his life energy to begin with. Since one of the mages used his magic on us during our capture, he couldn't return to the celestial world. Next to that, due the magic depriver he still can't return. As a spirit he really needs his magic to survive in the human world… Mages' lifes are linked with their magic, without it we can't survive. That's even more so for Spirit's in the human world." Gray pointed towards the depriver on Loke's wrist. "That thing is draining his life away."

Loke sat down before Levi and cupped her face in his hands. He tried to smile, but his face looked like he could pass out any second. "Don't scare her, Gray. I'll survive. I have faith in our friends to come and get us. Lucy will soon find out and she will pull the alarm bell."

"Lucy?"

"She promised not to go on any hard missions without me around. Soon she will either grow tired of waiting or she'll wonder where I went. Eventually she will try to call me or try to force close my gate." He took a deep breath. It worried Levi that he already sounded exhausted from talking just this little. The spirit continued. ",but since this thing prevents me from returning to my home world, she won't be able to. She must know something's up."

"They'll find us for sure." Gray said as he gave his friend a pat on the back, careful not to hurt him. He was just about to tell the girl to hurry up and try to escape, even if it meant leaving them behind, as heavy footsteps sounded in the hall and a roaring voice sounded.

At the end of the hallway, a guard stood. "What are you doing here?!"

"Levi, run! Escape." The exhausted voice of Loke whispered.

End of chapter 5

I'll upload the next chapter as soon as possible, I already started writing , so normally it shouldn't take that long.

Please let me know what you think and thanks for reading!