SURPRISE MY LOVELIES!

I'm feeling very generous today, SOOOOOOOO I typed up an early chapter! As promised, it's a bit longer than my other ones (not super long though like I wanted but I can do that next chapter when I have lots more time), and I FINALLY know exactly how I want the story to work out! I mean I've known from the beginning, but it was kind of like those connect-the-dots games you get on a kid's menu. You know what the main events are and how the story finds out, but you still need to figure out all these details and stuff.

Also, I would love to thank all of you for the support I have been receiving so far! I know I'm a far ways from becoming a good writer and you guys saying you like my work is enough to move me to tears! 3

If you enjoy the story, or if you have any questions or suggestions on how to make the story better, then please write a quick review, or long if you want, because I live to please and it really does give me a lot of inspiration when you guys tell me what you think.

PLEASE ENJOY! (so many ! because I want you to enjoy it that much)

I am not worthy of claiming that I own Fairy Tail of any of it's beautiful characters, Hiro Mashima holds that great honor.

Levy woke up in a bed that wasn't hers, and a in room she didn't recognize.

She was lying down in an old, scarlet four-poster bed. The room wasn't very big, but it was much nicer than anything she was used to. The area rug that covered most of the floor alone probably cost more than all of the furniture in her entire house. There was a small table and chair in the corner, and a stone fireplace directly across from her, and a blazing fire in it.

FIRE!

She gasped and sat up as quickly as she could. A searing pain in her stomach immediately made her regret the sudden gesture. She glanced down at her stomach. She felt her cheeks flush when she noticed that her ragged dress was gone. In it's place was a crisp, clean white nightgown. It felt extremely soft against Levy's tender skin, but she felt extremely embarrassed by the thought of anyone, other than her herself of course, changing her clothes!

She heard the door creak as someone entered and immediately straightened up. In the doorframe stood a young girl about a year older than herself. She was a very pretty girl, Levy noted; with dark midnight blue hair that fell down to her shoulders in large curls and quite possibly the palest skin Levy had ever seen in her entire life.

She wore a rather plain navy dress that fell to her shins and a white apron that hugged her hips like a second skin. She had a bowl of something hot and delicious smelling in her hands, and a bundle of linen bandages draped over her right arm.

"Juvia is very glad you're awake, miss," the girl - Juvia, was it? - smiled softly at her. "If you don't mind, miss, Juvia is going to need to change your bandages."

Levy nodded, the back of her neck tightened at the small gesture, and she realized that she had bandages wrapped around her head as well. "No, I don't mind one bit, ma'am." She answered back.

The girl smiled and placed the bowl on the table before coming over to sit beside her on the bed. She unbuttoned Levy's nightgown and had her face the wall so her back was turned to her as she undid the bandages. Levy felt thankful that the girl had made her face away from her. She hugged her arms over her bare chest and listened to the sound of Juvia humming as she worked.

"If you don't mind Juvia asking, miss, what's you're name?" Juvia asked, as she unwinded the last layers of bandage.

"Oh, I-I'm Lev-EEEH!" she squeaked as the last of the bandage, which had been plastered to her skin by dried blood, was ripped away quickly.

Juvia gasped. "Ah! I'm so sorry miss! I didn't mean to do it quite so hard; please forgive Juvia for her mistake!" the girl sounded so terribly sorry, Levy immediately felt horrid for squealing like that.

"No! No, it's alright, Juvia. I shouldn't have yelled like that, it just surprised me. I'm Levy, Levy Mcgarden." She smiled at her over her shoulder, prompting Juvia to return one.

"Um, where am I?" she asked turning back towards the wall.

"That's right, you were unconscious when Sir Lily brought you in, weren't you?" she replied, pressing a fresh bandage to her back and slowly wrapping it around her.

"Um, who's Sir Lily?" she felt the name was somehow familiar, but couldn't place it.

"Well, I suppose you would know him as Sir Pantherlily, he's not one for long names though, so we use 'Lily' as a bit of a nickname for him," Juvia said, continuing to wind up the bandages. "He's Metalicana's viceroy."

Levy nodded, her memory now jogged. "Isn't he also one of Metalicana's commanders? I remember reading a bit about him a while ago."

Juvia nodded and spoke cheerfully. "That's exactly right; he's actually Metalicana's best commander, though he'd never admit it, the stubborn man."

"So does that mean that I-I'm in the castle? I'm so sorry if I'm troubling any of you! I promise I'll leave as soon as possible!" she felt awfully embarrassed. All these people who were probably already busy beyond belief and here she was; a burden who took up more of their precious time.

"Please, Miss Levy, you're a guest, and a horribly injured guest at that. It's important that Miss Levy gets rest and lots of it. And when you've made a full recovery, and Juvia means full, then we can talk about what arrangements must be made to ensure that you're safe and well-cared-for." Juvia soothed, trying to calm her down.

Juvia finished applying the fresh bandages on her stomach, and buttoned her back up. Levy noted that the Phantom Lord emblem was still clearly on her, but Juvia reassured her that even if it would probably scar, it wouldn't been very noticeable. She worked on her shin and forehead; unwrapping and rewrapping bandages, and was extremely careful not to rip them off if they were stuck to her wounds.

"Juvia has some food if Miss Levy is hungry." Juvia gestured towards the table in the corner.

Levy's mouth started to fill with saliva at an alarming rate, nearly drowning her teeth and tongue. She swallowed and nodded. She slipped off the bed to walk over to the table. As soon as her feet hit the floor a horrible pain consumed from her feet. She gasped and staggered, and probably would have landed on her face if Juvia hadn't reached out to grab her arm and pull her back onto the bed.

Levy's face flushed as red as the quilt in her embarrassment. Juvia smiled at her and went to bring her the food. Levy felt like such a child; could she do nothing without this girl's help. Juvia handed her the bowl and a small spoon. Levy took a small bite, and her hunger immediately began to multiply itself to the point where if she didn't eat more she thought she would surely die. She nearly inhaled the whole thing. It tasted of herbs Levy couldn't name, and she was sure she tasted oxtail in the meat.

"Um, Miss Levy, Juvia is sorry to ask but I'm just curious, why did Phantom Lord brand you?"

Levy choked on the last bite of stew, and Juvia rubbed her back comfortingly. "It's quite alright if you don't wish to talk about it, you've been through an awful lot."

But Levy actually did want to talk about it. There was something about this girl that made her want to tell her. She stared down at the empty bowl. "No, it's okay, Juvia. It's kinda nice having someone to talk to," she smiled at her. "I can tell you, if you really want."

The night of Phantom Lord's attack...

Levy tried desperately to squirm away from the knife, but only succeeded in having her forehead slashed. Before she could even cry out, she was held to the ground by the man and she could feel him pulling her dress up. She cried and kicked her legs out, thrashing and desperately trying to get away. It was no use; these men were just too strong for her.

She screamed as she felt the knife meet the soft flesh on her stomach. She sobbed and begged the man to stop, but he and the others only answered her with cruel, sadistic laughs. The man began to draw the knife along her skin; making her scream even louder and cry even harder.

After a while, one of the men stuffed a foul tasting rag into her mouth which muffled her terrified screams into whimpers.

"Now, my dear," the man hissed into her ear in a sweet, sickening voice. "I want you to know that I have no plans to kill you, however there is no possible way I can promise you that you will live. Whether you perish from the blade of my knife or the cold of winter, it doesn't matter. However, if you do live I have a message for you to deliver to your king." He spat out the word, as if it left a vile taste in his mouth.

"Tell Metalicana that we are giving him five days to hand over the Kingdom of Kurogane to The Phantom Lord Legion. If His Majesty refuses to our terms then we will have no choice but to release our armies and take Kurogane by force." The words slithered out like venomous snakes from the man's mouth. Levy's eyes widened and the snarling man's lips curled into a sneer, a rather truly revolting sight.

He then told her about what a beautiful scream she had; how it sounded like the deaths of a thousand angels, and tore the foul rag from her mouth. He then continued to carve into her and, despite her desperate struggles to keep them concealed, screams tore themselves from her throat. When he had finished with her stomach, he started pressing the knife into the skin of her face. They weren't large incisions at all, but they were enough to make Levy whimper and cry harder than she ever thought possible.

The world started spinning; she couldn't see clearly and everything seemed to become blurry and disoriented. Even the pain was starting to fade; it was definitely still there but it had dulled into a sore numb instead of the horrible, excruciating agony she had been faced with. The corners of her eyes darkened, and she felt herself pulled into a horrible, dark unconsciousness.

When she finished telling Juvia, her voice was shaking and she wiped away the tears that stained her rosy cheeks.

Juvia gasped and covered her mouth. "You poor thing!" she cried through her fingers, looking rather close to tears herself. "Juvia is so sorry, Miss Levy, that's horrible!" she wrapped her arms around Levy's small form, pulling her into a comforting embrace.

Juvia held Levy for a few more moments before releasing, but she kept her hands on Levy's shoulders, keeping her at arm's length. "Juvia wants Miss Levy to know that she is safe now; no one is going to hurt Miss Levy anymore, alright?"

"Thank you, Juvia," Levy said, grabbing her back into a hug. "Thank you for helping me." She felt overwhelmingly grateful for this girl's comfort and sympathy. She let go of her brought her knees to her chest. "If it's alright I think I'd like to go to sleep now."

Juvia nodded and helped to tuck her in, almost like the way her mother used to do it; pulling the covers up over her tiny frame and give her shoulder a quick pat before walking out of the room.

She smiled to herself; she was in the palace! She had never even heard of any outsiders being allowed inside, and here she was; sleeping in one of the beds with a nice girl to look out for her. For such a horrible beginning, it had an almost bittersweet turnout. Her parents were gone her home was gone, but she was alive; and more importantly.

She was safe.

Juvia's POV

Juvia closed the door behind her as quietly as she could before her hands immediately went to her back to untie the apron. How could any woman possibly stand one of these things! It was almost worse than wearing a corset. At least those tightened your whole waist and chest; while these torture devices only tightened where you tied them. So it meant you had to get it exactly or the thing bunched up by your chest or strangled you when you tried to sit.

She dropped the cloth unceremoniously on the floor and turned towards the door.

She felt badly for the small girl. She was so young, too young to be put through anything like that. And the way her eyes had faded when she asked her about Phantom Lord's attack.

A short intake of breath brought her mind back. She spun on her heel to face the breath's owner; who was leaning casually against the stone wall underneath a tapestry, wearing his usual armor and a glare in his eyes that Juvia now accepted as 'normal' coming from Gajeel.

Juvia cocked an eyebrow and settled her hands on her hips. "Was there a specific reason Gajeel had Juvia do that instead of Gajeel himself."

Gajeel shrugged, his pauldrons clinking against his breastplate. "Last I checked, the whole point of having a spy is to get answers to questions you ain't got answers to," he paused and smirked at her. "And I never said you had to dress like a damn nurse."

Juvia snorted at him. "Juvia is going to assume that Gajeel was listening the whole time."

He grunted a 'yes' at her.

"And what does Gajeel plan to do about it?"

"I'm gonna rip open the bastards, and feed their own bloody entrails to them."

Juvia's eyes widened, "Gajeel plans to take on them all by himself?" even for Metalicana's son, and Gajeel was definitely Metalicana's son, the idea of trying to take on a whole legion was a clear exaggeration of the word ambitious. 'Downright stupid, really,' she thought to herself.

His smirk quickly altered itself into a scowl. "Well what the hell would you have me do, Juvia. You heard what the runt said," he threw his arm up to gesture towards Levy's room. "I have five days to tell Jose what a bitch he is, or they're gonna release a whole army of bastards on Kurogane!"

"Juvia is quite aware of the situation, thank you, but is Gajeel sure that he should be heading off on his own? Phantom Lord may be despicable, but they have themselves in a rather good position as of now; or they wouldn't ever dared to threaten us. Next to the Raijinshuu, Phantom Lord Legion was the strongest legion in the Fioren continent.

Gajeel's lips reverted themselves back into a malicious grin, and his twin canines glowed dangerously in the dimly lit hallway. "Juvia, I would've thought you'd have learned by now; you should never underestimate the power of a dragon."