Born Without A Heart

Chapter 19

            "I'm going to fucking kill you," Gajeel shouted ahead to Rogue as he roughly pulled Levy along the narrow hallway.

Gajeel's arms were pinned behind him by one of the brutes from before, he bucked against the large man violently but his burley grip was too tight.

Rogue had only whispered a few words to Minerva when she had climbed up the stairs to meet him, but that was all it had taken. At a snap of her fingers the two strongmen had grabbed Gajeel, pushing him up the stairs to be taken away.

Now Gajeel raged at the idea that Rogue had betrayed him. He had almost thought that their past could be put behind them. Almost thought that maybe they could simply be brothers again, even if it was only half blood. It shouldn't matter. But this... this Gajeel would never forgive.

"Inside," Rogue spat at Levy as he pushed her through an open doorway into a dark room. Even in the dim light Gajeel could see Levy land hard on the ground inside.

The man holding Gajeel gave a gruff snort as he proceeded to push Gajeel through the door as well. Rogue stood at the entrance for a moment, peering in at them.

"Betrayal," he said slowly, "is always rewarded in kind."

With that Rogue slammed the door shut. The sound of a heavy steel lock fell loudly into place. Gajeel stormed the door throwing his weight against it, but it didn't budge even an inch.

"Gajeel," Levy's small voice came from behind him. He whipped around him to see her still crouched on the floor.

"Levy," he said, rushing forward and kneeling next to her. "Are you hurt?" He asked as he placed a gentle hand on the small of her back.

She rubbed the side of her head as she moved to a sitting position.

"Yes, just a bruise," she said. Her voice sounded oddly clam. Gajeel noticed her expression was equally relaxed and he narrowed his gaze at her.

"What happened? You shouldn't have come in here. What were you thinking?"

Levy looked up at him fiercely, a fire kindled in her eyes that not even the dark room could quell.

"You have no right to tell me what I should or shouldn't do," she snapped. "I did what I had to for the mission. You're signal went dark and I wasn't about to sit out in that van and leave you on your own."

"You still shouldn't have come in here," he countered. He was equal parts furious and impressed by her seemingly iron hard will. She seemed to exude a level of confidence he had never seen in her before- even more than earlier today when she had decided to proceed with this operation and go against her superiors.

"Gajeel, the whole system went dark. Besides that damn watch we had nothing, no connection for audio, video, nothing. What is the point of being undercover if we can't get the hard data we need to bring these people down?"

Gajeel dropped his hand away and rested his arms on his knees.

"Sure," he said more evenly, "but you know we're both fucked."

Levy shifted away from him at his words, her confident posture bending ever so slightly.

"Last night," she began to say, but stopped. "Never mind."

"It wasn't what you think," Gajeel said quickly, hoping she would believe him.

Levy's eyes flashed.