Levy woke groggily and slapping at hands running over her body that she instinctively knew didn't belong to Gajeel. How she knew that she didn't bother to question, she just knew. The touch was rough, impersonal and searching.
Managing to keep her eyes closed in order to appear still knocked out, she took stock physically. Foggy. Must have been drugged in the explosion and there was a lingering acrid aftertaste on the back of her tongue that let her know magic had been involved. She remembered charging into Phen and Shagon's resort guest suite and having a moment of chagrin to realize how much fancier it was than her and Gajeel's room.
That thought had been quickly wiped away when she'd seen poor Pantherlily out cold and being held by his tail, limp and motionless. Her heart had literally skipped several beats as she tried to ascertain if the Exceed cat was breathing, only to realize her own breathing was pulling in a strangely scented mist and the man holding Pantherlily was wearing a magical filter mask.
That was it. Her memory just stopped right there.
One rough hand patted her rear end and she couldn't escape the groan of protest and slight flinch of her body in protest.
"She's coming around." A voice. A familiar voice. Damn it, Gajeel would never let her live this down. "Make sure she and the child are properly secured."
Levy's brain tripped mentally as she struggled to understand. Child? Oh, right, she was supposed to be pregnant.
"I can't find any weapons on her." The guard's voice was gruff and raspy, almost painfully so and he still had his hands on her. If he'd established she was unarmed, why was he still touching her?
"Get your hands off the lady." The voice was calm but full of threat. Unfortunately, it wasn't Gajeel.
Levy's breath wooshed out in a silent relief. Pantherlily. He was alive and able to speak, thank goodness.
"Don't worry kiddo, she's unharmed. For now. If Papa does what he's supposed to do, then all will be well." The man sounded supremely arrogant and condescending, though he did toss Levy onto what seemed to be a cot that smelled musty and old, the fabric scratchy and rough from what she could tell while pretending to be out of it.
Levy frowned. Okay. Several things wrong with that sentence.
"Smile." The familiar voice again. The horrid Mrs. Milestone. Their employer, which really didn't make much sense. Why would she hire guild wizards to investigate people disappearing when she was the culprit? Unless, she … wanted to capture wizards? Did that make any sense?
"You can stop pretending, Mrs. Fairy Tale." The older woman spoke sharply. "I used to be a nurse and I know the effects of the gas used. You're awake."
"And you're a hag." Pantherlily's voice dripped with disdain.
"Language. What do they teach youngsters these days? Wizards. So high and mighty but so very low class. Especially Fairy Tale."
Levy's eyes snapped open with temper and she sat up, straightening her skirt which had been ruched up, exposing far more than she was comfortable with. The guard's eyes followed her movements and he even frowned in disappointment. Jerk.
"So. The plan was to capture two wizards?" Levy asked, her tone cold as ice. Without being obvious, she took in her surroundings.
She was in a prison cell. Stereotypical. Many of her favorite stories had rooms like this. Stone walls, not built but natural, like a cavern. Iron bars were set deep into the stone and looked very sturdy, and old. The sound of the ocean was dull and not close, but the air was damp and the walls fairly sweated sea water. So? Low tide maybe?
Levy was sitting on a cot with a leg that was wobbly and held together with wire and tape. No blanket. The male guard was in the cell with her, large and with his arms crossed over his chest. He was older than she'd expected, but still strong. Brutish looking and with a nose that clearly had been broken more than once, so bulbous was it and misshapen. Mrs. Milestone, wrapped up in a fine wool stole was outside of the cell and staring at her with disdain, as if smelling something rotten.
And there were runes. Levy's fingers twitched, but she didn't have her light pen. Or did she? There was one in her purse, which was actually lying next to her cot. How careless. The runes surrounded their cell just outside the bars. Grimly she wondered if Gajeel was in a similar cell, because he'd make a meal off those iron bars. Then she noticed there were also runes separating her cell into two halves. One for her, and one for the cat.
Not just in the cell, Pantherlily was also in a second smaller cage, his paws around the grill that he was peering out of and he looked angry. Levy gave a short-lived smile of appreciation. The Exceed was not breaking loose, which he could do easily, he was waiting to gather more information. She'd expect no less.
On that thought, she glanced around and saw no sign of Gajeel. Nothing. Her lips thinned out as she pressed them together.
"Your husband is being kept separate. His wife and child being held to assure his good behavior." Mrs. Milestone cackled, her laughter dry and without any warmth.
Levy's hands balled up as if to fight, her muscles tensed and words sprang into her head that could take on a very real form through her particular brand of Letter Magic. Solid Script spells were very ….solid, and effective.
"Good behavior? She obviously doesn't know Gajeel well, does she?"
Levy paused on the edge of attacking, her heartrate racing and her face turning bright red for a moment. Pantherlily's calm voice having the desired effect. Forcing herself to bite back her instincts. Silently she chastised herself, she'd been about to act more Gajeel than Gajeel.
"Where are the other couples? Where are Phen and Shagon?"
Levy sighed, her face now heated not from temper but embarrassment. Pantherlily was asking the important questions. The Dragonslayer could take care of himself. She bit her bottom lip, but what if the gas they'd used had been more effective on him? Surely not.
"Children need to be seen, not heard." Mrs. Milestone clucked her tongue annoyingly.
Levy's face scrunched up. Child? Papa? Maybe the earlier comment about a woman and child weren't in reference to a faked pregnancy. "Lily isn't …." She stopped, appalled. No giving information to the enemy. Ever. Rule number ...well, the rules weren't exactly numbered, but it was important!
"Isn't what, dear?" Mrs. Milestone stepped up to the prison bars, but carefully not touching anything she clearly felt was beneath her. "Be a good girl, and we'll let your child stay in your site. If you help with our endeavors, we might even let her out so you can hold her."
Pantherlily's eyes widened. "Her?" He said in a baritone voice.
"Child?" Levy's own eyes widened and her voice rose in question.
"Clever of you to shield her this way, disguising her as a cat." Mrs. Milestone rolled her shoulders and shrugged. "I should have suspected this when the cat had her own train ticket."
"What makes you think I'm a her?" Pantherlily didn't sound insulted so much as astonished.
Levy though, was noticing the runes surrounding her prison. They were anti-magic in nature. But specific, and much better written than the spell sheets that the villains had used before. These would be effective, very much so. Strong. "Nice rune work."
Mrs. Milestone preened. "Paid a lot for those. Took longer than I would have liked." That thought made her frown, but she perked back up. "But once I realized who you and your husband were, it was necessary."
"Who we are." Levy parroted. "We didn't hide, you have all our information."
The resort owner scowled. "Fairy Tale once had a more fearsome reputation, but not for the past seven years. And the names you registered are of guild members known to be missing."
"We came back." Pantherlily pressed his face up against the grill of his cage in order to glare better.
"Rumors." Mrs. Milestone waved a hand in dismissal. "No. Only a few premier wizards left in your guild. We were hoping to get someone lesser, really, with magic more in line with our needs. You and your family have been difficult, but we caught you."
"Yes." Levy agreed, lying through her teeth. "We are caught."
Mrs. Milestone poked her finger in the direction of their lone guard. "Find out what magic they have that can be helpful, but don't be tricked. We need those items found, we've wasted too much time on this endeavor."
"Items?" Levy echoed, needing more information.
Mrs. Milestone didn't respond, instead, turning and walking away in a stilted gait over the uneven flooring of the natural cavern.
"So, little lady. What you got beyond guns?" The guard sneered at her.
"Guns?" Pantherlily looked confused.
Levy sighed. "The runes are specific. Anti-magic in general, requip magic in particular. No spatial magic allowed." She waved a hand at the runes in general.
"Requip?" Pantherlily sounded confused as he shook his head. "They don't think any of us are Erza do they?" He sounded skeptical at their stupidity.
"No." Levy shrugged, ignoring the guard was making him edgy and he shifted his weight but didn't do anything else. "Husband and wife and child. Runes against spatial and requip magic. And guns magic."
Pantherlily blinked and shook his head, disbelieving. "Your hair isn't green."
"And my name isn't Bisca." Levy smiled and actually chuckled sadly, thinking of the other woman's stupendous figure.
Pantherlily stopped cold. "That would make me who? Asuka?" He sounded slightly put off now.
"Do you think …" Levy licked her lips. "Gajeel will react well?"
The guard, listening avidly, shook his head. "Once we realized how strong you two were, we knew you had to be the Fair Tail Guild's top team. It's well known they always work together, though I didn't know you brought your kid along on your jobs. Tough luck for you. Stupid really."
"Stupid?" Levy almost choked on the word. "You'll be eating those words as quickly as Gajeel can eat through those bars."
Lady, your husband is well and truly caught and can't escape."
A roar of animalistic rage filled the cavern along with the sound of creaking and protesting metal.
The guard jumped and spun, but the bars around their cell were intact and nothing could be seen down the dimly lit hallway. But sounds carried extremely well with the natural acoustics.
Pantherlily sighed. "No. He won't react well."
"The bars are iron." Levy said deadpan.
The Exceed nodded calmly. "Good fuel for him."
"Lily? They locked Black Steel Gajeel in a cell with iron bars."
The Exceed nodded, then pictured in his mind what was probably happening right now and he smiled, then chuckled lightly. Levy began laughing and between the two of them their humor increased until they both were wiping tears from their eyes.
The guard was staring down the hallway, wincing and backing up. "What is going on down there?" He muttered, yelling out various names that no one responded to at all. Another roar had him shaking in his boots.
Levy sighed. "You know these runes your mistress bought and paid so extravagantly on? You shouldn't have. They're not tamper proof."
The man startled, turning slightly only to be met with a giant word spelling out PUSH. He barely had time to read the word before an implacable and unseen force roughly propelled him against the iron bars and knocking him out cold.
Pantherlily sighed and broke open his cage, stepping out into the larger cell with her. He eyed the blue-haired wizard as she twirled her light pen in her right hand.
"Solid Script Markings." Levy intoned suddenly, twirling and giving a shake of her left hand and a twitch of her right thumb. The movement and words giving shape to the Letter Magic as it bent to her will.
Pantherlily gave her an odd look as V shaped symbols filled the hallway, glowing in the darkness and lighting a path straight to their target. "Gajeel could have found us by scent alone." He twitched his nose to emphasize his point.
"We don't need rescuing, but he might appreciate more iron." Levy said a bit on the snippy side. "I could break those bars or melt them, but they're far more useful as fuel."
Gajeel's roar sounded closer this time and Levy smiled in anticipation. Suddenly she groaned and dropped her head.
Surprised, Pantherlily looked around for something new or threatening. "What?"
"The villain was Mrs. Milestone. Gajeel's never going to let me forget he was right."
Pantherlily chuckled. "You're on your own for that one."