Found & Forgotten

Chapter 15

Levy raced back down to the lobby of the Tosho Sekai, searching desperately for Erza and the others, trying to avoid the librarians and soldiers from the Army who were still milling around, and clutching a book tightly to her chest. Finding herself at the top of a flight of stairs, Levy practically threw herself down them, taking them three at a time. She only realised that this was a mistake when she saw a familiar head of bushy black hair at the foot of the stairs.

"Gajeeeeeel!" Levy shrieked in warning, a split second before she crashed into said dragon slayer.

Gajeel blinked, disoriented, as he registered his new position sprawled on the ground with Levy on top of him.

"Ohaiyo, Levy," greeted Panther Lily.

Levy glanced up. She hadn't noticed the exceed floating above them at first.

"Oh, ohaiyo, Lily," she answered, then jumped up as she remembered what she was meant to be doing. "We need to find Erza!" she exclaimed, attempting to drag Gajeel off the floor.

"Woah, shrimp, slow down." Gajeel told her as he brushed off her ineffectual tugging and got up by himself. "What have you found? Why do we need Erza?"

"I think I've found the answer to stopping whoever it is who has the SunSphere!" Levy chattered excitedly, racing off again.

Gajeel ran after her. "What, in that book?"

"Hai!" Levy nodded, which almost caused her to overbalance again.

"Why do we need Erza so badly?" Gajeel asked again.

"Well, we need Gray as well, now that I've already found you two." Levy answered, taking an unexpected sharp right.

Gajeel, having slid a few metres along the floor before stopping himself and catching up with Levy again, was not taken as off guard as she sprinted left along another half concealed corridor between books in the library.

Levy, who had not realised that Gajeel had been left behind, albeit only for a few seconds, was in mid-sentence. "-to read this book," she was saying. "It holds the answers to everything, but we need to be ready to start moving immediately! The location we need could be anywhere in Fiore, and I'll bet whoever took the SunSphere will soon be coming back for this book, and we need to be long gone by then- hey, look, it's Gray!" She broke off her incessant babble as she spotted the ice mage.

"Levy, Gajeel, Lily," Gray nodded his head in greeting as they slowed to a halt in front of him. "What's the rush?"

"Have you seen Erza?" Levy asked urgently.

Gray was just about to shake his head, when he saw a flash of the red hair on a level just below them. "Erza!" he called, and the red head stopped in her tracks, hastening to join them once she located the little gathering above her.

"Erza, we need to move out," Levy quickly explained. "I've got exactly what we need right now, but we need to go before the theives come back to look for it, and I'll need Lucy's help to analyse this, it's harder than I thought..." she trailed off as she flicked quickly through the book she was holding.

"And I," said Erza grimly, holding up a piece of paper, "have found a note from our thieves. Right, let's get going back to guild. We'll have a quick stop at the hotel to gather our stuff, but we need to be on the next train out of here."

"Agreed,' said Panther Lily.

Gray and Gajeel didn't answer verbally, but both nodded, although Gajeel shuddered slightly at the thought of having to board a vehicle again so soon.

Within half an hour the group was on a train, heading back to Magnolia and to the Fairy Tail guild. Erza had shown the others (apart from Gajeel; he was again completely out of it with his head on Levy's lap, something the bluenette was most definitely not complaining about) the note from the theives she had found. It consisted simply of a guild name and mark.

"Shin Uchu." Erza stated simply.

"New Universe..." Levy shivered, almost inexplicably.

The name itself wasn't anything to be afraid of...it was what they wanted the SunSphere for that worried her. From what she had been able to gather from the book she had found - well, book was a loose term for it, it was more like a manual - the SunSphere should have been destroyed a very long time ago. It was capable of terribled things, which she knew most people these days would think impossible. She was jerked out of her reverie by Erza.

"So what is this important book you've found, Levy?" she asked.

"It's the key to the SunSphere," Levy replied, briskly.

"What do you mean?" Erza enquired, eyes narrowed slightly in a gesture that could have been anger, or curiosity, or a mixture of both.

"I, uh, I'm not sure..." Levy faltered. "I mean, the language is not one I'm familiar with. I'll need my books at home before I can fully translate it. And I'd like to talk with Lu-chan as well, input from a celestial mage would be much appreciated, and would probably make more sense of this than I alone could."

"Oh, I see," Erza nodded.

Gray, sensing that the serious conversation of the journey was now over, jumped in with a question that he knew both he and Erza, not to mention everyone else in the guild, sorely wanted the answer to.

"So, what's the deal with you and Gajeel?" He asked Levy, nonchalantly.

"Gomenasai, what?" Levy spluttered, turned a shade of red that clashed horribly with her blue hair.

"You heard." Gray smirked.

Erza knew she should scold him for teasing Levy, but, to be frank, she wanted to know the answer to Gray's question as well, so she let it slip. This time.

"Um, well we, I mean I, I mean..." Levy began, flushed, and tripping over her own words.

Erza and Gray exchanged an amused look, and settled into their seats to hear out Levy's stammered excuses and feeble reasons.

Ohaiyo minna-san!

I'm gonna keep this real short, as I have four minutes to post this before I've missed the Monday deadline.

Back to makeshift Team Natsu this chapter! Comment what you think!

Also picture (that will hopefully go up) is from the latest Fairy Tail episode...they're starting the new arc finally! XD

Matta ne, minna-san!

AA

P.S. Just beat the deadline by two minutes! Yes, it's 11:58pm where I live...I should probably go to sleep now!