Csilla: The second half of the climax ;D

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Chapter 11: The Longest Night (part two)

Standing a few feet from the sight before, Gray wondered how his former boss had gotten an upper-hand on Natsu but as his eyes fell: he saw it. The reason his comrade was at a disadvantage. His torso was bleeding. His bullet wound had opened. And it was all the raven's fault.

"Not so fast," Jose sneered when Gray began walking towards them before shooting once at the ground right in front of the raven.

Onyx eyes swept over the room, taking in the number of armed men that were entering the room and surrounding the three of them. Jose yanked his hand hard sending Natsu toppling onto his face, the ropes that bounded his wrist shamelessly shown before the rosette's head was grasped again and lifted.

Holding the gun his hands up, he aimed at his former boss with sound resolve to end it but the older raven's response was not what he expected it to be: "Heh, once a killer always a killer..."

A killer...? That's right... Gray was a murderer. He killed Daichi Shinagawa. He killed Purhito Hades in cold blood.

The gun shook in pale hands as guilt and grief flooded his system; slowly the gun lowered and Natsu couldn't bear to allow his comrade to fall again into despair. He had wanted to tell his partner the truth behind his first mission but a part of him couldn't bear to think about Gray going through that again. Killing someone...

"You didn't kill Hades, Gray..." Natsu confessed as he tugged hard against his restraints; the ropes tore into his wrist and stained the threads with red and pink splotches.

Onyx eyes shot over to the rosette: "Y-Yes, I did..." Gray's gun shook between choked sobs as he tried his hardest to focus on the two men before him.

Pulling again at the ropes and person that bounded him, "No... Hades died from... an abscess on his liver... he was already dead... when you pulled the trigger," it was getting harder for Natsu to speak as his captor tightened his grip on the rosy locks and pain erupted, bouncing throughout his skull.

"Wha-at?"

"It's t-true... I had E-eve l-look," Jose tightened his grip "in-nto it..." His head was beginning to feel heavy with pain.

Growing irritated with the conversation, the grip on Natsu was tightened but despite that the rosette kept talking: "Gr-Gray... y-you n-need... t-to sh-shoot-" until he was silenced with an especially sharp tug in the back of his head.

Jose was responsible for Daichi's death, if he had told the raven about the other medicine the child was on then he might have been able to grow up into a teenager. His former boss had been the one to fire and rip away Gray's status as a doctor - no one wanted to hire a man who had been labeled as irresponsible and a killer. Jose worked with Lapointe, who had shot Natsu and taken Gajeel as a hostage. His former boss was the reason, the rosette was bleeding from his side... He can't be allowed to leave this room.

Hard onyx eyes stared down Jose with disgust as he raised the gun back up as his former boss practically used the rosette as a human shield. Inhaling slowly, Gray whispered: "Natsu... I'm sorry," before he pulled back on the trigger.

White pain tore through his tan shoulder and his body fell forward onto the cement floor; blood pooled around his gunshot wound and the next sound he heard was another gunshot before footsteps rushed to his side.

"Y-You... s-shot... m-me..." His normally fiery tone was shaky and weak as he fought to stay conscious over the pain that was bouncing in his body; his old wound ached, his head was throbbing and his shoulder stung. But above all, Natsu felt extremely cold for once in his life.

There was a burn in her legs, that much she could tell as she ran down what felt like endless halls. She had memorized the blueprints of the abandoned building but that seemed like almost wasted effort. It felt like several hours had passed since she and Gray went separate ways. A smarter part of her mind noted it would easier if more people were down here searching but Levi didn't want to waste any more time. If that photo was anything to go on, Gajeel was still alive somewhere. Turning down a new corridor, she checked another hall for any rooms where he might be. Or had been. She was nearing the end of this hall when she caught a very dim-lit seeping underneath a wooden door. One window guarded with bars had been cut, the petite info broker pulled herself onto her tiptoes and tried peering into the room as she mentally cursed her short stature. Through the bars, she saw where the light was coming from: a gas lantern hung on a metal hook from the opposite wall. Brown eyes did their best to peer down but only saw a dark mass. A dark mass that had just as dark hair. Her heart leap as she backed away from the door before jostling the doorknob. It was locked. She couldn't recall either Lapointe or Jose carrying a key on them. Not that she really wanted to run back to find out. Crouching down, she slipped a hook and a pick from her pants pocket.

"...c'mon..." She whispered as she recalled all the instructions Natsu had once given her when she first learned how to pick locks; Levi couldn't risk messing up.

A click resounded off the walls, brown eyes stared at the lock -had she really done it- before getting back to her feet and pushing the door open. It took her whole weight to make the wooden door budge but when it was finally open, her knees nearly gave away. Hunched over against the wall sat familiar raven hair that belonged to the one and only Gajeel. She rushed to his side, shaky fingers pushing away blood-crusted hair until she found his neck. Her brown eyes pleaded for something as she pressed her fingers gingerly against the once tanned skin. A faint throb beneath the skin did little to calm her own heartbeat. Tears welled at the corners of her eyes as she whispered breathlessly, "I knew it..."

He was alive.

Gajeel was alive.

Her hand moved up to his face, lifting it gently and with much love and affection. Her thumb brushed against faint scars as she spoke: "Gajeel... its me, Levi... short-stack," her voice slowly gaining strength with the addition of the nickname he had for her, "Hey, wake up..." Her other hand reaching up to grab his shoulder before shaking his gently.

She wasn't sure what sort of injuries so she did her best not to grab or shake too hard but when he still hadn't roused, fear quickly sank in.

"Gajeel! Hey! C'mon y-you g-gotta w-wake up, 'k-kay? Its me, Levi" She shook a little harder but still no response from the comrade she had literally spent hours pouring over data. She wasn't about to let that go to waste! She lifted one of her pale hands against his throat to double-check that she really wasn't too late - Please don't be too late!

A slow pulse had replaced the faint throb - he was really alive; relief washed over her as she somehow managed to dial a series of numbers into Gray's cellphone and after a couple of rings, there was an answer: "Loki! Please you gotta help me... I'm at the-"

"...is there an entrance near you?" His voice interrupted her and it was a few moments before she responded: "There's a window... but do you even know where I'm at?"

A low chuckle, "For someone so smart, you weren't very smart about covering your tracks... Lucy found out what you were doing and when she went to tell Natsu, he saw that Gray was also missing. It didn't take much to piece together that you two had gone alone," there was silence but Levi could pick up the faint sound of footsteps through the phone, "Which side of the building?" Loki finally asked.

Pausing to go through her steps she took to get here, "I'm on the east side of the building... in one of the rooms in the basement,"

There was a rap against the window and suddenly, "Found you~" outside of the dirty window was Loki crouched down with a small smile on his face.

"Stand back and cover him," He ordered before aiming his gun at the glass; the petite info broker did her best to cover the unconscious raven but the tearing sensation in her shoulder told her she just barely did.

When she pulled away, she brushed the glass that had landed on him carefully before noticing Loki had stretched his hand through the window. Levi wiggled her way underneath their missing member's shoulder before standing up. Or at least she tried but the difference in weight had her legs shaking. There was a sound of glass breaking again before the weight seemed lighter, brown eyes flew over to the reason and saw Hibiki and Ren had slipped inside the room. Ren had placed himself under Gajeel's other shoulder while Hibiki was holding rope by the window. The duo slowly carried Gajeel over to the window; Hibiki took her place as Levi was pulled up, despite her arguments.

Once back outside, she saw it wasn't just them that came - Lucy ran over and hugged her whispering how glad she was that Gajeel was finally found; Yukino, Ultear and Meredy were not far from her fellow info broker. She smiled relieved, if Yukino was here then Gajeel would get treatment immediately. She glanced back to see the three males had just finished pulling the tanned raven from the dim-lit room but the moonlight did little to hide just what he had gone through. Lacerations decorated his tan skin, especially around his wrists and ankles - Levi had to cover her mouth to prevent herself from breaking down completely. She felt her fellow info broker hug her, providing little comfort even with the repeated whispered chant that 'he's gonna be okay' in her ear.

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Csilla: The Gajevy portion is dedicated to my precious daughter/best friend, Michi who only seems to find depressing fics for her OTP &since I never really decided what happened to Gajeel after he went missing~ I made them have a happy ending for her :3

This fic will be ending in a few more chapter~ so BIG thanks to everyone who stuck with me and this fic

buuuuut~ I have new Graysu fics that are itching to be posted/finished/etc... 2014 is my year for 'writer surge' (aka: a crap load of ideas)