When The Lights Go Out

Chapter 5

Revenge

Every muscle in his body tensed. He tried to tell himself that it wasn't real. That the hag was imitating Levi like she imitated the kid. But the scream filled his bodiless ears. There was no way it couldn't effect him. He'd heard the same thing before.

When he was the one doing that fucking shit to her. When he was the one making her scream.

His breathing (if he was breathing) sped up; sweat gathered in his armpits and back; it rolled over the studs on his face. He could feel it now. Feel his arms and legs, and he realized something.

That 'sweat' was blood from a shallow head wound. From the night-black spikes around his arms. From a fight he couldn't remember.

But he remembered the position. He could never forget. The lack of solid support under his feet. The pain in his stretched arms. The bruising he felt on his stomach.

Crucified.

"This is what she wanted for you. To feel as she felt," said the hag. A light, which started as a pinpoint, grew far away. He recognized the hair. The legs. The swing of her hips that was probably not even on purpose. Probably. He had a bet with himself about that back in reality. Wherever that was. He recognized almost all of her. But not the expression on her face.

Levi would never look at anyone with such hate. Even if they deserved it. He knew. She had never looked at him that way.

"Oh she has somehow learned to forgive you and move away from her own pain. But even her recent memories show her crying in her bed in the deepest recesses of starless nights. And buried deep, deep within her mind is a seed of pure, shining hatred. Merciless and beautiful. Just waiting to boil to the surface."

Levi … the not-Levi, it couldn't be her dammit! … walked to him. Put up one of her tiny, perfect hands. He could feel her magic. It felt like her, and that alone would have driven to his knees if the bolts through his arms would let him.

She wrote a word, sharp and glinting in the light of her skin, and he read it. He read it and felt his pupils dilate to the point he knew there would be no red left over. It looked like she meant to fix that, though.

"Pain." It was her voice. No hint of the hag who had to be directing her.

"Shit," he whispered because he couldn't speak any louder. Her eyes were crystal. Bright. Hard. He swallowed, licked his lips, but his mouth was bone dry. If only the restraints were metal he could free himself, but they were a part of the shadow.

The word cut into him, and his skin split under its power. And the shadows coiled around his arms slithered into each wound. Burrowing under skin and wrapping around organs. He grit his teeth. He did not scream. His chin dropped to his chest in an attempt to stay strong.

The eye was on the ground; illuminated by the light of the not-Levi. It watched him. Watched him as he gasped for breath. Watched him as he could no longer stop his moans. Joy flashed in its depths.

He held on for as long as he could, much longer than he thought he could. Longer than probably anyone else, he had his pride after all, and pride was important. But pride was also stupid. It made the torture last longer than it would if he had let go of his glare and his tension earlier. He couldn't. He couldn't and still be him. And … and he kinda hoped she'd stop before it got that far. She didn't. 'Pain' cut into him. Crushed him. And he didn't make any sound louder than a moan for a long, long time.

But even he could only handle much – Wendy, Levi, the pain; fuck the pain – he had reached his limit.

His screams tore at the darkness. But it did not fall.

Levi was smiling as the black and shadow took him.

He came to with the hag's voice in the air; her breath touched his neck. Goose bumps raised the studs on his arms. He could feel them now. He could feel everything now. His nerves were practically on fucking fire with the sensitivity.

They wanted it that way; Levi and the hag. He narrowed his gaze and struggled to growl when the pain lessened … though it only lessened a little. A very, very fucking little. He tried to roar, but he was almost drained of power. The whirlwind was weak, and his shrapnel disappeared when it touched shadow.

Levi stood watching. The goddamn eye watched him. The sticky sweetness of the woman's breath touched his ear and filled his nostrils.

"Bleeding shits," he croaked out, "when I get free-"

"When you get free what?" Levi's once sweet voice cut into him. "My nakama freed me. You have no nakama here. Erza has been returned to her home, and I have destroyed the spell that caged them. They do not search for you." That mouth smirked, and the tiny bitch laughed, "They barely think of you."

"Lily would," he sneered at what he knew was a shitty lie. "Juvia would." He spoke no other names. Only two; he could only be sure of two.

"Would they?" she asked with her Bookworm voice. With the certainty defined by her intelligence. "Pantherlily was suddenly freed of your childish and often violent need for him, and is now at the side of the only woman he ever loved." That expression did not belong on her face. That sly scorn … "The only person he ever loved.

"And Juvia … do you honestly think she would make much of an effort with Gray there to comfort her in her grief?"

"They would search for you," he was quiet with the heavy weight of questions he had thought of himself. Why would they come for him?

"And they do. They work hard to look for me while they have forgotten you. They love me. They hate and fear you."

She made so damn much sense. But he hid the way it cut at him. Her words were her power, and she was strong, but he would not fall a second time.

She said a word, and he flinched. 'Vanish' appeared in front of him, and for the first time he felt true fear.

But the word did not touch him. It stayed in the black between their bodies. And the black faded to gray around it.

What Gajeel first took to be ghosts filled the space around them. Then color, washed out but still color, defined the ghosts. And he could no longer call them that.

He watched as Natsu and Gray, both grinning those idiot grins, took shots at each other. Erza was at a table alone, cleaning a sword. Lily was no where in sight. The old man reached out to slap Cana's ass as Gildartz, beside him, attempted a glare, but killed the effect by laughing.

The Bunny Girl … Lucy. Her name, he'd never actually forgotten any of their names, was Lucy. She sat by Levi's teammates mouthing what he assumed was words of comfort. They were both sobbing. They looked fucking awful. They were the only ones.

Juvia walked in, and rain didn't follow.

He couldn't believe it was real. He was … fuck … he was better now. And if he wasn't the most important or good guy in the guild, he'd showed over and over and over again that he was one of them. That he tried to be one of them. They didn't understand how hard it was … the Master did some, but the old bastard was one of the ones making it harder by sending him out on damned-impossible missions. And Levi seemed to get it; she walked to him instead of running from him.

He'd saved her, fought for her, and she'd done the same for him.

She was the one he hurt the most. And fucking honestly hadn't the lightening jackass and his trio of idiots done worse? At least no better.

He hurt Levi. Luxus hurt everyone, even risking the whole town. And wasn't the betrayal worse because he was also a Fairy Tail mage?

Gajeel had been part of a rival guild. Following the orders of his guild master. Sure he enjoyed it, but they were his enemies then, and he loved a good fight. Fairy Tail gave him that when Phantom Lord attacked. One of them alone took the full blast of their cannon. One of them alone defeated all the Phantom Lord sub-branches. They took out the Element 4.

Not that he'd ever let any of the bastards know, but he hadn't been so impressed since he was with his dragon. Even having a thought like that made him scoff at his own stupid weakness.

But when Makarov offered, he immediately wanted to join. Another thing he would tell no one. He wasn't a fucking pansy like the rest of them, and he sure as hell wasn't going to give them something that they might get the wrong idea from.

"You see? They're happy without you."

"Most of them look pretty fucking happy without you too."

She laughed that girly, evil laugh and flashed him a smile that was pure Levi. His heart made of steel got stuck in his throat. Almost choking him in it's unyielding callousness.

"And you see Fried and Bixlow are absent. They are attempting to trace the enchantment to its root and free me. A hopeless task," she shrugged, "but still they search."

"Wendy."

"You watched her die, and you still ask after her?"

"Watched. Saw. Those things don't make it any more true than this shit. And I saw herhere after she supposedly died." The anger made his voice sharp, and the sharp voice made him cough. And the cough made blood spill from his mouth.

"Her form is mine," the voice whispered to him. Still unseen. "Her body is with me. But surely even someone as thick skulled as you understand that a person is more than a body. I have removed her memories, her emotions, her intelligence and independence. Most of her strength. I have replaced them with selfishness, memories of pain and abuse and loneliness unlike any she faced when she was Fairy Tail's Wendy. I took away her name, her brain, her power, and I alone own her body." A barely heard chuckle, "What is that if not dead?"

"Not fucking true; that's what it is. None of this shit is." With the decrease in pain and the focus on their voices, he was starting to feel better. Think faster. "I'll ask again, and it might be worth your life to fucking answer this time; who are you? What in the hell do you want?"

"Do you realize how much your ignorance makes me want to see you hurt?"

"Then correct my ignorance dammit or shuddup!"

"No. Not when causing you anguish is so much more satisfying. Dark Son of the Dark Earth, you will realize soon enough that you belong in this place. That you deserve nothing, and that this is a gift. I am occasionally merciful." He thought she sounded savage and not merciful in the bloody least.

The not-Levi erased the word with a wave of her hand. The gray became black once more. And she was all he could see.

"Gajeel," she said his name with that achingly familiar smile, and none of it was mercy. Unless the meaning of mercy had recently shifted to mean torture.

He was tattered, bleeding, bruised, and swollen with the coiling shadows. She didn't seem to notice any of it; she didn't make a sound about the combination of dried and still tacky blood when she put a hand on his chest, cracking open a wound. He winced. It wasn't the pain he felt.

He tiltd his head down again and all he could see was that wild, blue hair. No headband. For a moment – only a moment – he wanted to bury his fingers in the color and texture. To press his face into the mass of blue. Replace the scent of blood with the smell of her.

But she had no smell in this place, and his hands were still bound by his crime, his guilt, the darkness, and the enchantment.

Her lips touched the place between his collarbones. 'She must be on her toes,' was his first moronic thought, 'because she's not tall enough to...'

"No," growled," moving past the feel of her into the truth of their surroundings. "No," he repeated, but she didn't listen. That was normal. She never fucking listened when she should.

Her lips and hands moved slowly. Almost lazily. Removing the few scraps of fabric that were still with him after the torture. Hands and lips moved again, and this time his 'no' sounded more like begging. A plea. Like failure and helplessness.

Her hard eyes of crystal and cold looked up at him, and the smile was still on her face. The pink of her lips drew his gaze even though he wanted to look away. He couldn't. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. He forced his eyes closed and turned his head away. He did what he could to move his body back away from her, but his movement was still severely limited.

"What is it?" the hag's voice had move. It now seemed to come from somewhere over Levi's shoulder. "I know your mind. I've read the depth of your memories. You want this one. Every time you see her you want her. As I said; I can be merciful. And it works both ways; she wants it too.

"You once touched her bare flesh in agony. You put your hands on the smooth skin of her stomach when she was trembling with fear. You put hands on her when she doubted her strength and was drowning in the feeling of her own weakness.

"Now she will touch you in fear. In agony. She will put hands on your skin, your body, when you are weaker than you have ever been before."

His chest rose and fell more and more rapidly. Goddamn. Shit. What the fuck was he supposed to do? Eyes still turned away and closed tight. His sharp teeth bit into the swollen flesh of his lip, and he tasted blood. Iron. Not that it would help. Not with the power this hag had; even more after she leached almost everything from him.

"Levi stop," and he was begging now. Was saying her name. The hag was a fucking prophet. He had been touched, flesh to flesh in pain. In fear. And now in weakness. "You have to fucking stop, Levi. You have to. Shit. Please. Please fucking get away from me!"

That head haloed by blue turned up to look at his face, but he only watched with his peripheral vision. He wouldn't let her catch him with those eyes again. One hand slid up his torso. The other slipped over his hip to touch his back and pull his hair. No.

"I can bring back the littlest dragonslayer if you'd prefer."

He went as still and unmovable as the hardest metals. "What did you say?" the words were hardly clear. If he hadn't said them he wouldn't have a clue that the words were words. They were a roar. A growl. A threat.

"If I read you correctly, and I'm sure I do, you tend to lean towards the cuter side of attractive."

"Wendy is-"

"I told you I took her name. She is Howl, the call of the wind when it looks to kill, and she will do what I tell her to. I'm offering you a choice, Dark Son. The child or the young woman you have watched for a year?"

"You fucking old, sick bitch! Let them the fuck go, and I'll do anything, do you understand? Fucking anything. I'll fucking destroy continents; just let them go."

Levi pressed up against him, body flush with his. "Why would you want me to leave." She took on tones of disappointed hurt, and he almost couldn't stand it. "I know you want me. I – wanted to touch you for so long," her cheeks were flushed. They stood out against the stark white of the light which came from her. "But I wasn't sure … this is the best way. Now you can't stop me. You can't take the want from me, and I know you want me too." The sound of her voice, the feel of her body, and if he knew she were her and doing this shit herself … fuck yes, he'd admit everything. Every goddamned thing he'd been too much of a chicken shit to say, even to Lily.

But she wasn't her. He didn't know who the hell she was, but she wasn't Levi. She wasn't the amazing bookworm who managed to solve the really complicated problems in a more calm way than he or Erza or Natsu ever managed. She wasn't the shrimp that he could carry around like she was weightless.

She was nothing but weight now. The weight of shit he'd done wrong. To her. To everyone ever. She pressed on him, and he thought he'd die of the weight.

And she could solve nothing as she was. This thing the hag had created was made to destroy and nothing else. Destroy him and everything else she came across.

No. This was not her. It was like the hag said; she was more than a body. Especially her. If Levi wasn't Bookworm anymore, then she wasn't Levi. Even if that was her body. He wouldn't kill her; he couldn't kill her. He didn't think he could even begin to try, even if she were trying to kill him. But he wouldn't let her do this to him either. Let her do something that would cause her to … to hate him again. To be terrified of him. He couldn't kill her, but he couldn't let her get away with this.

Never during the time she slashed him into ribbons of torn skin and dark-red blood did he think of killing her. Only of somehow turning her back into the woman h-

Shit no. Stop the thought there. No time for that here, especially if the old bitch could read him as easily as she claimed.

"Stop. Don't do this. Not … not like … you have to stop!" but his words still didn't pierce the control the hag had wrapped around her. She reached up to grab his shoulders and pulled him down. How she got the strength to do something like that when he couldn't move his body against the shadow at all …

She kissed him.

He struggled against her, but only so much.

Her mouth was warm. Soft.

The hand on his back slid up under his hair to grab his neck. Her lips brushed his jaw. Up the curve of his ear. Fog rolled over eyes that could see nothing but her anyway. If his hands were unbound he wasn't sure he could keep himself from reaching for her. He had his eyes closed wanting it to be real, but not fucking wanting it to be here. In whatever this plane of reality was with the goddamn hell bitch looking on from wherever her disembodied voice was now. And the eye of a 12 year old girl watching from where it fell on the floor.

He turned his head away from her mouth. "Stop it," the rumble of his voice would have sent the first Levi he knew crawling away from him. The Levi he spent the most time with would have put her hands on her hips and told him she'd do whatever she pleased.

This Levi breathed words in his ear; words so soft even he almost missed them.

"Show nothing or we die. Fake it for me. I'll free you."

Author's Note: Um yeah. I'm kinda really fond of this chapter. It has something to do with me being a horrible person, but still. I like it! I hope that you liked it as well. Please leave a review, and also thank you to the anonymous reviewers. I can't PM you to thank you, so might as well do it here!