When The Lights Go Out

Chapter 6

The Storm that Howls in the Night

What. The. Bleeding. Shit.

Seriously. Did he fucking miss something? Because he felt like he was missing something.

Her hands still moved over his skin. Touched each bolt that ran through his body. Though she … uh, she missed a few. He clinched his jaw wondering if she'd go looking for those. Damn he hoped not; he had to figure out what he missed.

The hag hadn't responded to her words. Did that mean they were too quiet, even for the old bitch? That she was following orders and trying to fuck with him? Or did it mean she meant them. That she would free him. Get them out. Save them.

Damn. Damn. If anyone could do it. If anyone could pull that shit off, it would be her.

But how could he trust that? She wouldn't … She wouldn't have been capable of doing the things she'd done. Even to keep up a show for the darkness, the hag, and the eye that watched. Maybe the vanish. Maybe the emotional. Maybe she made a fantasy of their guild. But not the pain. Never the pain.

The Levi he knew. Any of the versions of the Levi he'd known. She couldn't do that. Even to keep up the ruse. She wasn't capable of flaying him while smiling and laughing.

Fuck he'd never even done that, and he had been a horrible shit before. Laugh afterwords, why not? The shits had already been taken care of, and he was gone. He would only scowl while he was seriously screwing them.

But he could hope. All he fucking had anymore was the goddamn hope and the fear that he was allowing something unforgivable to happen.

Her lips were moving now. She was behind him and her mouth moved in a different way from before. Like she was talking. Like when she worked out a spell. When she was destroying darkness and barriers. But then it could be any spell. He knew he hadn't seen all of them. And she could make barriers too.

Shit he didn't like thinking this hard. He wanted to punch something so much. Something like the old hag or maybe the six legged serpents that filled his b-

What?

His wounds … his wounds were empty. There were still wounds, and some of them still wept blood. But the blood was slow and almost dry.

He'd trust her. That was his decision. No more thinking.

She told him to fake it, but that was suddenly an incredibly difficult thing for him to do. Heat rushed from his feet to everywhere he could feel her. Everywhere he'd ever felt her. This was her. The real her.

Goddamn.

If it had been hard to tell his body no before, it was doubly hard now. He kept his eyes closed and his head turned away. He said 'please' and somehow managed to get 'stop' to come out soon after the please. But it wasn't easy.

He had to find that place in his memories when he was too damn guilty to think of her. To talk to her. And then way too fucking guilty to touch her. It was only after Edolas and Lily that he felt enough apart of things to take that step.

He had a lot of memories where he knew looking was as much as he could ever take. As much as he could ever get.

It didn't matter if he'd been wrong, when he felt right now; though, still guilty, and he couldn't really actually believe that this was possible. But he thought she was real.

He was deceiving two whole guilds. He had trouble sometimes believing he was a man capable of lying, since he was someone who felt more comfortable saying the awful and less awful things he thought without giving a shit of the consequences. But lying was something he was already doing.

And she was a part of that deception. He lied to her too by saying nothing.

So he managed to grit his teeth and continued to pull himself away from her as much as he could. His hands balled into fists, as much movement as he was allowed, and that would look enough like struggle. And he supposed it was struggle.

He wanted his hands on her.

He was so caught up in his fight with himself that he almost missed how she wrapped a calf around his thigh and pulled him back down to her. The soft warmth of her lips against his were eclipsed by their movement; so similar to the movement against his skin before.

"Be ready to run," she said, even quieter than those words spoken directly into his ear.

Her lips touched each eyelid and lingered on his forehead. The glow of her body increased, and it penetrated his closed eyes so he imagined he could see every curve of her.

"Freedom," was the word he heard as coated his face and moved the damp hair stuck to him.

Light flashed around her, around him and every place she touched. Every place she'd kissed him, spoke on his skin, light bloomed. The letters and words were different from before. They were hers. He recognized a few from the other spells he'd seen her work in the past.

He ripped his hands free, and felt a floor under his feet. She grabbed his hand, turned him away from the eye that had never moved and never stopped watching. "Go." she demanded. Clutching at the hand she held and pulling him to what he hoped was an exit.

Light broke out behind and in front of them. Brighter than the light on them. Brighter than a light in the dark. Brighter than the sun. His eyes ached with it, and his ears rebelled against the old hag's shriek as they ran through the doorway and hit the stairs, running as quickly as either of them could manage.

The serpent shadows lingered in the fading brightness as the stairs ended and they entered the next room, but they didn't land on them. Did not attempt to take them. Did not touch them, knowing instinctively that they would be killed, destroyed., made into nothing if they reached any further into the darkness that lingered around Levi's light.

The real Levi.

It felt like forever, reaching the other door. It felt like an endless run as the bright began to descend further into shadow. It got closer and closer and closer.

But it never touched him. It never touched her.

Her skin still glowed.

Seriously, when the fuck were they going to make it to the other room. "What the shit is going on, Shrimp."

"She had me, and ..."

"Not that," he growled exasperated. "That can come later. What's up with this room being so damn big. It's not this big in our world."

"Oh," her voice was a weak whisper. "It's like the opposite of a barrier. It's opened up this layer to us, and stretched it beyond what we know. Like I said before, she's capable of bending reality. Altering the physics. Defying the laws that should be infallible."

"Can you make it stop?" He hated to ask; she was gasping. If he weren't in such hellashish shape he would have carried her. But at the moment they ran at the same speed. And he wasn't slowing so she could keep up.

"No. Not if I want to open the gate. I'm tired Gajeel. I still have to get you through. Then I have to find the others and pull them through also."

"Like hell. You are not staying in this hell place on your own. I'll stay and we'll both find the sword woman and the little girl." He didn't mention that Wendy might be lost to them. That even Erza might be lost. "You told me you sent them back; was that true?"

"I … I did, yes. For Erza. Wendy … Wendy will be harder."

He stared at her briefly and huffed. "Don't lie to me, Bookworm. You're a horrible liar. You didn't send either of them fucking anywhere. If they were ever here, they're still here."

"Please," her whisper was only slightly louder than the spell she used to free him. "Please let me get you somewhere safe. She wants you so much. Only you. I can't keep you here. I can't let you stay. Please … for … for me. Please go."

"The hell I will. You look like you're going to pass out and sleep for a damn year. What if you do that after I'm gone. We'll never get you back."

"Fried -"

"Can't do shit or we'd be out already. This is on you, and I'm not running away and leaving you here to fight on your own."

Her eyes closed and he could feel the flutter of her eyelashes as if he was touching her face. But he wasn't. He almost stopped in his shock. The fuck?

"I'll change your mind. But I'm too tired now."

And she was. He could tell by the limp fall of her arm under his hand. Being wounded didn't stop him this time; he lifted her, still moving, and kept running. Though he did grunt once when her hand hit a wound that hadn't closed quite yet.

Her legs were trembling. He could felt her lungs sucking in air and letting go faster than they should. "Take larger breaths. Calm down. Sleep if you can. Who knows how fucking long this is going to continue."

With her face pressed to his still bare chest and her finger gently tracing over the wound she had disturbed before, tears rolled down his skin. Maybe that's why she was breathing so rapidly. The sensation of eyelashes moving against him was real now.

"How could I sleep? After that. After what I did to you, while … I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I could see, but when I was hurting you … I … I couldn't stop it. The anger, the hate … what I did … I'm-"

His arms tightened around her, "Forget about it. It's not like I won't heal. Some shit like this won't kill me, you should know that by now. And if you weren't you, why would it even matter?"

"Because it does matter! It does!" Voice stronger now in her desperation. "Don't you … don't you care? She lied, she lied, over and over she lied. I swear, I swear on whatever you believe, I don't hate you. I never hated you. I … I never wanted to do things like that. You know … tha-that I was afraid once, but I never … She changed it. She … I don't know … reprogrammed my mind. But I could have … I did … I could have stopped it earlier! I stopped it … I did stop it, so I should have stopped it before!"

The crying was sobbing now. And her breath was double the speed. If that even possible. The heartbeat he could feel on the side of her knee was beating as hard and fast as her breathing.

"When did you …?" his hands were tight against her. Unable to do anything more against the certainty of her wrongdoing. They were still in the same endless room behind the great hall in the guild. It was understood that they needed to return the room they started in – the great hall itself.

"Wh-when you said 'no'. It woke me. I was confused but not confused. I could remember what I … didn't want … didn't mean to … Gajeel I am so sorry. I -"

"Don't worry about it Shrimp. Let's just get the hell out of this shit hole. You can make things up to me later by buying me every drink at left at the bar." She glanced at him. "I'm going to need it." because she was sorry she touched him. Because somehow he was going to have to forget the warmth of her, and that would mean being too shitfaced to stand.

He actually heard her lips curl in response. He heard it. "Mmm, maybe."

It took them what felt like more than forever – or at least the far side of forever – to pass the door between the 'small' room and the large one. The main one. The one where hopefully the rest of the guild was still in, in some other layer of the world. Or life. Or what the hell ever. He still didn't understand that shit.

He'd have her explain it after they made it back and everyone was safe.

Probably still not get it, though.

He was grinning. Like a maniac, he was sure. So fucking beyond glad to have made it here. There was no telling how long they'd been absent from the room, but Levi's runes still shown against the walls. The scent of her power filled the place, making this room conform to its true dimensions. And the light was still on here.

"Whado we do now?"

Her eyes jerked open. He thought she might be sleeping despite her claim that it was impossible. She shuddered with a large yawn before squirming in his arms. He wished she wouldn't. He really freaking wished she wouldn't.

"Can you set me down?"

He made a gruff sound that stood for some type of agreement and put her on the ground with maybe a little more care than he should have considering his current emotional instability.

Her eyes narrowed, and she swept the air like she was brushing away a spiderweb. Glowing words followed the path of her hand. She nodded, a sharp movement. Turned to him. Her expression was more serious than he'd ever seen from her.

The time she asked him to fight for the guild was close.

"I can send you back now."

"No." The one word was as sharp as her nod if not sharper. As sharp as his blade.

"I don't actually need your permission. The spell is under my control, not yours."

"You do need my permission if you give a shit about surviving your own return. If you make me leave while you run around this fucking awful place alone, I'll kill the fuck out of you when you get back. If you get back." His glower was more like the shape of his old face. The shape she had seen once before.

This time she laughed at him. High and chiming like a clear bell. She was a weird woman, that was for sure. "You wouldn't."

"I damn well would. What the hell do you know?"

"Quite a bit," she smirked. "Almost everything, I think."

"When did you get a swollen ego, Shrimp?"

"I'd tell you to guess," her laughing was quieter this time. More chuckling than laughing. "But I think you're too dense to figure it out."

"The hell you say?" he would have growled, but he was kinda shocked by the teasing insult.

She swept a hand at him like she had done to the air before. Words flowed to him, and he covered his body in iron and steel and a layer of dragonslayer magic. "I said no."

"And I said I don't care."

"You did not."

"Well I meant that I don't care."

"Well I don't give a flying shit what you said or what you meant; I'm not leaving you."

As her mouth snapped shut, and her eyes widened, he was filling his mind with curses. 'Shit I did it again … let my goddamn, fucking stupid mouth get ahead of my brain.'

She bit her lip and spoke in a softer voice. She didn't look him in the eyes. "I'm serious, Gajeel. She'll come for you again. I really don't want that; I can find Erza on my own. And if Wendy is actually Wendy … I should be able to tell. If she is herself in any way, I'll box her up and bring her back too. I promise I will. It will be harder for me to do these things if I have to … worry … you know ..." she gulped and the eyes flicked up to his face, "if I have to protect you too."

"Say what?" Protect him? Protect him? He couldn't say which of those two words were more offensive.

"Well you are the target. And … um … you've already … been taken? … a few times. I'll remind you," some of her courage returned with her lecturing voice, and her spine stiffened, "that it was me who freed you back there."

She had a point, but no way in hell was he going to freaking admit it. Protect him. What absolute bs.

"And if you have to fight?"

"I can fight."

"Sure you can, Shrimp."

"I can! Don't underestimate me!" She was indignant. At least that's what he thought she was. He wasn't entirely sure about the meaning of that word. "I'm the captain of my team, and was a part of the s-class exams. Where you were unconscious for most of it, if I remember correctly. And I do."

"Yeah? Well I remember that shit too. I remember I was the one who actually knocked those stupid bastards out. And captain of those two morons doesn't exactly say shit about your power."

"Ugh! You … you jerk."

"Most of the time, yeah."

They were glaring at each other – and he was hella surprised she could handle his glare, that wouldn't have been the case six months earlier – when he heard the faintest of sounds coming from the shadows in the endless room. He threw a hand up in the direction of her mouth, which was almost lowering his damn hand as short as she was, and looked to the door. Nothing, but Levi shut up about sending him away.

Small blessings.

At the moment they needed larger ones.

They watched as Wendy, or Howl, or whoever the fuck she was, walked with confidence through the doorway. She was instantly visible in Levi's light. Her eyes...

Eye.

He clinched his jaw. Levi gasped and reached out a hand to grab his elbow. "Gajeel..." she breathed. He said nothing. There was nothing to be said. Then empty socket and the smile of something far older and more than slightly insane said all they needed to know.

"Get behind me."

"No, I..."

"Goddamn it Levi; get your fucking ass behind me!" The little girl. The little sky dragon was lifting her arms in a movement he recognized. They all roared differently, the three of them. He was glad that he'd put up his scales already. He barely had the time to move the bookworm behind him.

It wouldn't be enough protection.

"Storm wyrm's scream!"

What the fuck?

Her wind was black and cut with flashes of lightening. It rumbled with some fucking massive power. He was suddenly regretting those scales. Fuck this was going to hurt.

But he was glad Lily wasn't there to see it. Cat would pass clean out after having a heart attack.

Then it hit him. He had drawn breath to roar back, but he hadn't been fast enough. She drew her power faster than when she had been Wendy. It was like she was 10 years older. More advanced. And shit, she was going to be an ass ton more powerful than either him or Salamander when she hit their age.

All that flashing, buzzing light hit him with more force than he had felt since Luxus. It seared the flesh of his open wounds … stopped the bleeding though, he was able to be grateful for something as he gasped for breath after the storm died.

"Gajeel!" Levi tried to come forward, but he held out an arm and pushed her back.

"No. I'm fine." Not actually true. And there was no way she'd believe him while he was bent over choking on a cough.

"But you aren't. Dammit!" That made him turn to her. She wasn't one to curse. "Break!" she shuttered while pushing a hand and curling her fingers.

"No!" he choked again, thinking the word was intended for Wendy, and he didn't wan- …

But then the lights went out, and Levi was pulling his hair. Leading him somewhere.

'Well, shit." He thought with what was almost a grin. 'Looks like she was right. Again. Bitch just saved us.'

Author's Note: So... the first part was a bit sexy wasn't it? The last part not so much. What has Wendy become? What can they do to stop the little girl they think of as their nakama? Who the bleeding fuck is the old hag? Why does she want Gajeel? Only I know the answers to these questions. Because I'm awesome.

I usually pm reviewers, but it seems someone's being Anonymous … so thank you person who doesn't leave your name. I appreciate your support. Which goes for those of you who leave your name also, but again, I tend to pm ya'll.