Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or any of it's characters. All rights belong to Hiro Mashima. I do, however, own my OC, Troy.
So, without further adieu, onto the story, duh duh duh!
When Levy awoke the next morning she found herself alone. Cursing the males for ditching her she decided to look around and check out the area, maybe even scavenge herself some food. Sure she had brought her own but it wasn't the same as finding and catching or gathering your food in a forest like place. Grabbing her bag with her pen and pad she set out, heading in no particular direction. However, just as she passed by the third tree to the right of where she slept, there was a loud thud behind her. Pulling out her pen and paper she spun around quickly only to have her hands seized immediately.
"Oi! Watch where you point that thing Shorty!" Gajeel grumbled, loosening his hold on her wrists. Levy glared at him, her cheeks puffing out angrily.
"Don't sneak up on me, I thought we made that clear." She growled, placing her items back in her bag.
"Well, you look like a lemming when you're angry, I thought we made that clear. Plus, I made a thud, that can hardly count as sneaking up on you. Gihee, it's impossible to beat me, go on... try it." Gajeel retorted, ruffling her hair with a chuckle. Levy sighed resignedly.
"Fine, whatever..." She said, blowing the air out of her puffed up cheeks. Gajeel grinned down at her but his face then formed a frown quickly afterwards.
"What's wrong?" Levy asked, returning the frown.
"Don't leave camp alone. Preferably, don't leave my side. You're small and not very easily found. Well, I could track you by scent but it's easier if you don't disappear in the first place." He stated agitatedly, pulling his hand away. Levy giggled.
"I'm sorry... and I remember when you first used that on me back at Tenrou. But I won't do it again, I promise." Gajeel stared at her for a moment before deciding that she was telling him the truth and gave her a smile, once again sticking out a hand to ruffle her hair.
"I'm holding you to that and you're right... I did say that, didn't I? Hm... that's funny... but it still remains the truth." Levy let out a small gasp.
"You... you really want me to stay by your side then?" She asked hesitantly, a hint of incredulity in her tone. Gajeel nodded and took a step back, stretching and looking around. "Uhm, and what were you doing in that tree?" She asked, remembering where he had come from. Gajeel offered her a confused frown before remembering and letting out a snort.
"Nothing bad I promise you." Gajeel started, making Levy blush. "Gihee, you have perverted thoughts, read romance much?" He continued, deepening her blush. "Thought so... anyways, I was up there cuz I needed a lookout spot." Levy's face morphed into an expression of understanding.
"Ah... see anything? Also... where did Troy go?" She asked looking around and even up in the trees.
"Nah... not really and he went out scouting, said he'll be back later. Before sundown I suppose, that's when I told him to be back for anyways." Levy nodded quickly and offered a suggestion.
"Want me to put up a protective rune barrier?" She asked, tilting her head. Gajeel nodded and pulled away his hand, walking over to the nearest tree.
"Yeah... maybe put up a few different ones, including some traps if possible. But don't over exert yourself, you'll need magic for later." He replied, jumping up to the lowest branch. "Do you figure we could hang our stuff from the next branch up so it doesn't get destroyed?" Gajeel asked her, eye balling the distance from the ground to where he was and the ground to the next branch up. Levy looked up at the branch and nodded, pulling a tarp out of her backpack at the base of the tree Gajeel was in.
"Here, we can use this to protect our stuff from the battle. It's fireproof, waterproof, doesn't rip, tear or puncture and can stretch pretty far if we need it to." Gajeel grinned at her.
"You really think of everything, eh?" Levy smirked.
"I try." She sang, tossing him the tarp and getting started on the runes.
(^.^) (^.^)
A few hours later Gajeel was sitting on the grass with his legs crossed and his hands behind his head. He had finished hanging their supplies long ago and was currently engaged in his favourite pass time, watching Levy work. Although... He thought to himself, leaning back against the tree. That could be tied with eating iron, especially Levy's iron. It had a sort of flowery smell which was very soft and an almost cinnamon like taste to it. While Gajeel was daydreaming about Levy's iron he didn't notice Levy stand up and walk over. He did notice, however, when Levy poked him in the cheek to gain his attention.
"What is it Shorty? And why do you keep poking my cheek?" He greeted her lazily, rubbing his cheek with a thumb. Levy grinned at him.
"Cause it's fun and easy. Also, I'm all done. I just finished setting them all. They won't attack you, Troy or me. There are three barriers that all do different things as well. Barrier one, which is surrounding the trees right around the edge of this clearing, won't allow enemies to enter from below or above us, I can't protect the sides however. Barrier two, which is surrounding the creek, will suck in everyone except us and kick up the creeks current to sweep them far away from us and hopefully drown some of them too. Finally, barrier three, is a large 12 meter by 12 meter square between here and their main camp that activates once a group of ten or more enters it and they must fight to the death, last one standing is released. These runes will not die, they will keep repeating what they are supposed to do until I release them." Gajeel grinned at her.
"You are fucking brilliant Midget!" He hooted appreciatively, his grin growing wider. Levy blushed and continued on with her explanation.
"Now, on the other hand, we have our offence. This consists of five separate traps. Trap one is around the base of the tree with our supplies. Should anyone manage to somehow make it that far the ground will open to reveal an eight foot deep pit which will make them fall in. Trap two is much like a regular hunting trap. It is a snare that will never miss if someone walks above it and, once it has caught something, gives the prisoner three options. One, wait and get turned over to the Magic Council. Two, get killed. Or three, allow your magic power to be confiscated by the snare and be released. It is three meters long and stretches across four trees near the creek. Trap three is located under a pile of dead leaves by a tree on the left side of camp, when someone steps on it the tree spews fire at them. Trap four is another tarp covered by leaves at the back of camp. If a group of five or more steps on it then it curls in upon itself and doesn't open again until I release it. Finally, trap five is an innocent pool of water. If you look into it you will see your hearts desire and can't do anything except walk until you find what it is that your heart wants." As Levy finished they both heard clapping off to their right.
"Very well done, all of this was completed in the time I was gone? Quite amazing if I do say so myself." Troy said breezily, strolling towards them. "So it's almost sundown and I got information from my scouting earlier." He stated calmly, smirking slightly at Levy. Levy gave him a confused and slightly scared expression before backing up two steps and asking for him to continue.
"Well I was right about them just raiding during the day. Plus they have ditched the two camps on the outer edges. Now there's just their main one and their medium one left. The twenty extra men have split up so there are now forty-five men at their main one and forty men at their medium one. We can start the ambush tonight if you'd like, or I could lead the main camp here and you, Gajeel, could head off to the medium one. That way Levy won't be left alone." He finished with a uncaring shrug. Gajeel watched him for a minute, seemingly studying him, before finally agreeing to the plan.
"Good. Now if you don't mind, I'm going to get them to chase me now, see you soon!" Troy exclaimed, waltzing away. Levy just watched him go incredulously. Did he just... waltz away? She wondered, not noticing Gajeel walk up beside her.
"Oi, Shorty." He said gruffly, shoving his hands in his pockets. Levy looked up at him with a smile.
"I... err... I want ya to know that if ya need me just shout or sumthin'. I'll come help ya. This Troy guy... I don't know... I suppose he's alright but still... be careful would ya?" He asked her, shuffling his feet around and making different patterns in the dirt below him.
"Always." Levy murmured back, hugging Gajeel around the waist. Completely caught by surprise, Gajeel let out an incoherent mumble before entwining his fingers in her hair and pulling her close for a hug.
"You'd better, or after I'm done saving yer ass... I'll beat you." He told her with a chuckle. Levy laughed, tickling Gajeels stomach in the process.
"I know... and you better be careful too. If not then I'll have to save you and then beat your ass!" She exclaimed, pulling back slightly to punch his arm. Gajeel smirked at her.
"Oh no! Wouldn't that be just terrible! Getting beaten up by a shrimp!" He shuddered sarcastically, pulling away to double over in laughter. Levy joined in soon after and they only stopped when they heard a shout in the distance.
"Guess it's time..." Levy murmured, bracing herself against the supply tree. Gajeel nodded.
"Yup... see ya Munchkin." Gajeel said softly, swiftly exiting on the opposite side of camp and heading to the medium sized camp.
Levy P.O.V.
I watched him go, feeling a twist in my gut like that was the worst thing I could have done. Brushing it off I faced the main entrance, a three tree wide gap off to the left of where I was currently standing, my back pressed against our supply tree. Suddenly Troy burst through the gap and, upon spotting me I suppose, quickly sprinted over, bracing himself beside me.
"Get ready to go back to back, we've got to deal with forty-five trained wizards now." He whispered, moving his lips exceedingly close to my ear. Suppressing a shudder I turned myself slightly and took a small step forwards, lining my back up with Troys. Then, right on schedule if I do say so myself, five mages sprinted into the camp. I watched them closely, deciding upon the best attack. The men halted in front of us for a few moments, seemingly gathering their wits. Guess they didn't expect a girl, heh. Then the one on the far left whipped his hands around and shot a ball of dirt right for my eyes. I quickly put up a rock wall to block it and then blew the rock wall down with a gust of wind, successfully crushing two of the mages on the leftmost side. I smiled at my victory but it was short lived. Just as the dust cleared I noticed another group of roughly twenty men enter. Now we just had to wait for fifteen more. I saw a few of them head over to Troy and ignored them, focusing on the men directly in front of me. Suddenly there were four different attacks headed straight for me. One was a fire bolt, which I blocked with a water splash and another was a snake which I dodged and let hit the tree behind me with a satisfying crunch. The third was just a fist headed straight for my gut. I immediately stabbed the fist with my pen and kicked the man where it hurts, not noticing the other attack headed straight for my left hip. Letting out a pained gasp I fell down to one knee, throwing five random fireballs out to gain myself enough time to see my wound. Hearing pained cries and muffled thuds I assumed some of them hit their mark so I spared a quick glance downwards. I instantly regretted doing so for I found a deep, six or so inch wide gash that was a light purple at the edges, I had been cut with a poisoned blade, just great. I quickly wrote out the word fog and put on a pair of goggles, allowing me to see while my opponents stumbled, momentarily losing their sight. Two of them actually bumped into each other and fell onto the trigger of the fire tree trap and they were immediately doused in flames, screaming obscenities as they ran to the creek and jumped in, getting swept away with the current. Another of my opponents tripped over the snare and was captured. He didn't choose an option however, just squirmed and struggled against his ties, cutting his skin with the sharp wire.
"Levy duck!" Troy shouted, taking two steps to his right as he did so, leaving me defenceless from the back. I hunkered down, one leg shooting out to knock over the two opponents nearest to me and watch them fall head first into the eight foot pit.
"Thanks!" I called, jumping back up and writing out 'boulder' right above the group of six in front of me. Five of them saw it and backed up, right onto the tarp, while the other didn't see it and was crushed under its weight immediately. Just as I started to think we'd win, the last fifteen showed up. However, as I saw them start marching in I heard muffled thuds above me. Looking up just as everyone else did I noticed eight of the mages seemingly floating on air. They all had confused faces for a moment before the ground shook and my air barrier blew them all up into the air, which means they would all die from impact when they finally hit the floor. Now we had roughly twenty left to deal with. I felt a pain in my upper right arm and panicked. We had to finish this before I lost the use of my writing arm.
"Troy, hurry!" I shouted, blocking the next two attacks headed for me and taking two seconds to check my arm. I had a large, jagged cut from the top of my shoulder almost down to my elbow with a bunch of splinters in my shoulder. Just perfect. Quickly dodging the next attack I shot out three different attacks, a tidal wave that swept about four guys into the creek, a boulder that crushed two men and a fireball that singed one guy bald and burned another guys arms.
Boom! A large explosion shook the ground behind me and I took a peek to see that Troy was standing there, no dead enemies in sight but also no live ones, guess they were just picking on me for the most part. But I noticed that he did have multiple small scrapes and bruises with a very small cut above his right eye that would not stop bleeding. As soon as I turned back to the mages though, I felt another pain in my ankle. Looking down I saw that the snake that had been launched earlier did not actually die when it hit the tree. On the contrary, it seemed to be doing better than before, seeing as how it was latched onto my ankle now. Shaking my leg violently I managed to loosen the snake and send it flying towards my closest attacker. Letting out a hoarse cry of surprise and pain, the man stumbled backwards, falling and smashing his head on the ground with a cracking sound. He won't be getting up... I thought lazily, only snapping out of my thoughts when my back suddenly felt as though it was on fire.
"Troy!" I screeched, backing up to the tree and putting a rock barrier around the two of us. Looking around quickly to ask him to check my back I realized I couldn't find him. I didn't leave him outside, right? I asked myself, having a panic attack. All I heard from outside were shouts of frustration however, not cries of pain or Troy shouting at me to let him in. Just then I felt a twinge in my back and felt my skin tearing. Letting out a scream of pain I quickly whirled around to face my literal backstabber, ignoring the extra pain I caused by doing so. I probably just made the gash larger and worse in my haste. The area was covered in shadows, I could barely see a foot in front of me in any direction. It was insane how it got dark so quickly. Then I heard a deep, condescending chuckle from what seemed to be right in front of me. I let out a scream and jumped backwards, collapsing to my knees in pain and fright.
"Levy, levy, levy... I thought you were smarter. Hmm... maybe I'm the smartest out of us two, huh? At least I make better judgements and decisions." A deep voice said, lips closing on my ear at the last word. Swallowing the urge to vomit I staggered upwards, writing out 'light'. Everything was then light up and I nearly collapsed in shock.
"Troy...?" I whispered, shaking my head profusely. "No! It can't be, I refuse to believe it!" Troy chuckled at my pitiful attempt of persuasion.
"Of course it can be and you'd better believe it. In order to gain your trust I gave you information, you gave me a great source of entertainment in the process. Also, you don't even know if the information I gave you was true. Now... I was going to kill you but I think I'll let you live. You can be mine." He told me seductively, reaching out to caress my face. I slapped his hand away, wincing at the pain it caused me in the process.
"Never! I will not agree to this! Besides, Gajeel will save me!" Troy's eyes hardened and he slapped me in the face, hard. With a muffled cry of pain I tumbled to the ground, jostling all of my gashes. Panting quickly I just laid there, aware of the anguishing truth that if I moved I'd hurt myself more. I couldn't fight nor could I run. Just then the walls I made exploded, raining down bits of sharp rock onto me and cutting any surface that was and wasn't already damaged. I couldn't even help myself anymore. I was surrounded by Troy and the last fifteen or so dark mages. There was no escape for me at this point. So, with a strangled scream, I did the only thing I could do.
"GAJEEL!" I hoarsely screamed, shooting off twenty fireballs and letting them rain down around me before blacking out from the pain. My last vision was of Troy walking over to me with a satisfied grin. My last thoughts, however, were, GAJEEL! Where are you? Come help me! Please... oh god please be okay. I couldn't save myself. I got hurt, way too hurt to help even myself. Come on Gajeel! I need you...
A/N:
So... what do you think? A little fast yes but I'm not sure how to drag it out. However, I'm not letting Gajeel rescue Levy next chapter. But she will be rescued and all will be good, right? Guess you'll just have to check back, eh? Also, yay! I updated again. And sorry to those who wanted a major Levy freak out. This was an... easier start for me. Anyways, I hope you liked it and that they weren't too OOC. Thanks for reading~! Please review~!