Chapter 49

Blood

Lily flew through the trees with an emotional Levy hanging from his paws. He followed the path of destruction the iron dragon slayer left in his wake. 'Gajeel... I hope you haven't done anything too rash,' he thought to himself. To be quite honest, he was a bit on edge. He'd never seen his partner so angry before and feared he may be past the point of no return.

They continued to bob and weave through the canopy until the trail came to an end. Landing gently to set Levy down, he used his ears to see if he could find Gajeel.

"Lil?" The bluenette asked, still teary-eyed.

Though his senses were not as great as his iron-eating partner, he could still pick up things that humans couldn't.

"If I'm not mistaken, he should be in that direction," the exceed said, pointing west.

"Can you see him?!"

Lily flew to the treetops and raised a paw to his brow, peering into the distance as he spotted a building about a mile away. 'He has to be there.'

"Well?!" Levy asked, frantically.

"Levy," he said, floating down to be eye level with the small woman. "I think I know where he is, but…"

"Take me there!"

He was uncertain on if he should bring a pregnant Levy to what will most likely be an extremely intense situation, but he also knew that her son was missing, and she would not stop until she got him back. It was a constant battle within himself as he knew Gajeel would rip him a new one once he found out he brought his pregnant mate, but he couldn't deny the woman the right to fight for her son.

Levy saw the gears turning in the exceed's head, knowing exactly what he was thinking. After all, he was Gajeel's partner and they both thought alike and cared immensely about her safety.

"Lily, please," she pleaded. "I need to get to Zeke! He needs me!"

"I'm sure Gajeel has the situation under control, Levy. I really shouldn't be putting you in harm's way," he explained, not wanting a repeat of last time.

"That's my son! I need to get to him!"

Lily winced slightly at the sudden rise in her voice but understood why she felt the way she did.

"If you won't take me, I'll go there myself!"

Levy took off in the direction he pointed, only to be grabbed by the small cat.

"Levy! You need to calm down! I'm almost certain Gajeel is taking care of everything!"

"Let me go!" She shouted, flailing in his grasp.

"Why do you insist on getting hurt? These people who took Zeke obviously know what they're doing! Do you think they will think twice about harming you?" Lily was starting to get frustrated.

"I don't care! I'd die for him, Lily!" Tears started pouring from her honey eyes.

Lily changed into his battle form and held a sobbing Levy, trying to make her feel better, even if it was just a little bit.

"I understand, Levy. I really do, but he needs you alive! What purpose would you serve to him if you were dead? And do you honestly think Gajeel would be ok with you being so close to danger? Did you forget that you are also with child?" He asked, holding her tight.

She fell to her knees, bringing Lily with her as she clamped down on his arms, dampening his fur with her salty tears. At this point, she didn't care what Gajeel had to say. All that mattered was her son. She'd deal with the consequences later. Lifting her head, she wiped away her tears, a determined look now in her eyes.

"Take me there. I'll assume responsibility if it comes down to it."

"If you get hurt, that's on me. I really don't want to run the risk, Levy. Maybe now that we know where he is, we can wait and let him handle it to avoid further trouble."

Lily was adamant about not getting any closer until she shot him a glare that sent chills down his spine. Not having seen this look from the bluenette before, he sighed deeply and changed back into his smaller form to carry her off toward the building.

They flew for a bit until Lily saw utter destruction that was the building, noticing that a tree had been launched directly at it. He landed on the ground, surveying the area.

"Gajeel was definitely here," he said, more to himself as he examined the fallen tree.

Levy, on the other hand, equipped her pen and disappeared into the gaping hole of the building.

"Levy! Wait!" Lily flew after the woman, trying to keep her out of trouble.

Levy entered the building, loud noises coming from the floor beneath her.

"Gajeel?! Zeke?!"

As she moved quickly to find the stairs or door that would take her to the basement, she found herself stepping over several mangled bodies. Realizing it was the work of her mate, her eyes widened in shock. 'Gajeel…' she thought to herself as she continued to follow the noise, finding a similarly mangled door. She shoved it with all her might, eventually pushing it further off its hinges and letting it fall to the floor.

She raised a hand to her mouth in trepidation at the sight of Zeke viciously attacking an injured Gajeel, and Gajeel trying to hold him off without hurting him. The dragon slayer's red eyes snapped up to Levy as they widened in horror.

"LEVY! GET BACK!"

"ZEKE!" She shouted as she started running toward him but stopping short as Zeke's feral scowl was now directed at her.

"LEVY! GET BACK NOW!" Gajeel ordered as he watched her write something in the air.

SOLID SCRIPT: Push

She directed the entirety of her strength into that spell, forcing Zeke off his dad and sending him reeling back a considerable distance. Unfortunately, that only slowed him down enough for him to divert his attention solely to her. She went to speak until she watched him fall into his shadow and dart toward her, evil intent definite.

"LEVY!"

Lily came flying through the basement door at top speed, snatching her up just before Zeke got to her. That didn't stop him from sending small chunks of shrapnel-like iron in their direction once he materialized. He grinned a sadistic grin very similar to his father's when he successfully hit the exceed with some of it.

"Wait! You probably shouldn't just barge in there! They must be expecting you!" Jade called out to the slayer as he pushed past her.

"Even better."

Gajeel powered through the forest at high speed as he bounced from tree to tree to maintain higher ground. Using his senses, he was able to pinpoint the building along with the wench that showed up at his house in the middle of the night, and she just so happened to be perched on the roof. Without thinking, he immediately covered himself in his scales and latched onto a tree, bringing forth a large iron rod that lifted him almost a hundred feet in the air, thus causing the tree to be ripped out of the ground and sent propelling toward the building. He wasn't satisfied, as he knew the wench just narrowly missed the tree, but he was content that he now had ease of access due to the amount of damage done to the building.

He continued from tree to tree, using the settling dust and debris as a cover as he positioned himself on a tree limb directly above her. He watched her pull out what he assumed was poison perfume and douse the surrounding air with it. 'So, she's got magic like Ichiya, huh?' He thought to himself as the pieces started coming together. It now made sense as to why he thought he smelled Levy when she showed up at their house last night. She had to have used a masking scent to make the scent familiar… or whatever she did. Gajeel smirked, not caring what she did or how she did it. 'Sucks for you lady. My lungs are made of iron!' He fashioned his arm into the sharpest iron blade he could muster and dove blade-first, an attempt to turn her into a human kabob.

"Oh sh—"

He heard her mutter as she jumped out of the way of his blade. To be honest, he just wanted her out of the way. He knew she would most likely have a bone to pick with Jade and finding Zeke was more important than trying to fight this… thing. His blade caused a ripple strong enough to knock several trees down and pin her down in the process. 'That should slow ya down.' He took off, his attention immediately directed toward the gaping hole in the building.

Mages of the Tribe stood on the main floor of the building attempting to investigate the large hole that was now present.

"This is fucking crazy!" One mage exclaimed as he peered through the dust that hadn't yet settled.

"We need to split up!"

"What, are you nuts?! There's safety in numbers!"

"Why? So we can get blasted all at once? If we split up, he has to fight us each individually! One of us can distract him while another hits him with a sneak attack!"

"That's stupid! What we need to do is…"

The slight bickering between the mages was immediately halted upon sensing a massive amount of magic power creeping up on them.

"Oh, shit! He's here!"

Before they could even react, an iron cylinder cone with a point sharper than any other human would be able to fabricate broke through the dust at lightning speed. The mages froze, their mouths gaping in fear as they watched their strongest wizard get impaled through the neck and pinned to the wall behind them. They stood there, staring at the slayer's silhouette; red eyes piercing through the sift, the fear rooting them in place. The slayer wasted no time, as his fist nearly went clean through the nearest mage's gut, sending him through the ceiling.

Immediately, the remaining mages let loose a combination of attacks as one or two of them set up magical barriers to slow him down. Their attempts were futile as he wasn't fazed by the various assault methods that were sure to badly injure another human being. The dragon slayer threaded through the majority of the attacks as he barely registered the ones that were actually connecting.

Gajeel was getting hit with power that would have injured him if he weren't unbelievably enraged and hopped up on adrenaline. (Un)Fortunately, all it did was anger him even more, allowing him to tear through them with ease. He didn't plan on using his slayer abilities, as he wanted to take down the people who kidnapped his son with his bare hands.

The next mage didn't even see him coming. He was attempting to set up a barrier using script magic when his head was suddenly bashed into his own barrier.

"Your barrier is weak. Much like your face," Gajeel growled in his ear, venom dripping from his voice.

The mage didn't even have time to respond as his head was now being repeatedly slammed into the barrier until his face was unrecognizable. Gajeel dropped the dead mage on the ground and fell into the shadows while grabbing another mage by the ankle and pulling him into the void with him, leaving the other mages confused as to where they went.

The mage was scared shitless and begging for mercy as the slayer broke both of his legs. He let loose a blood-curdling scream, his brain registering pain like none other. Gajeel put the now crippled mage in a headlock, each punch to his ribs gradually getting harder, the last iron punch shattering his ribcage. The broken wizard coughed up a considerable amount of blood, unable to keep his consciousness as his body went limp. 'Fuck this,' Gajeel thought to himself as he broke the mage's neck and left him in the void.

The remaining members of the Tribe were frantically running around trying to come up with a plan to subdue the iron dragon slayer before he reappeared, all the while failing miserably. Gajeel came out of the shadows with a dark blue aura encasing him, intent to kill. One of the mages was successful in sneaking up behind him and getting a sneak attack in, but it backfired immediately. He'd used his holder magic to bind him with heavy-duty chains that maybe slowed him down five or ten seconds.

Gajeel turned his attention to the roach of a mage that attempted to hold him still and easily burst through the chains with a flex of his arms. He slowly walked up to the cowering mage with a grin so sadistic, it rattled him to his core.

"Ya know, it would have been greatly appreciated if ya made those weak chains out of iron, but since ya didn't," he lowered himself to be eye level with the lowly man, his fangs on full display. "I'm gonna have ta kill ya."

With those words, he grabbed the back of the mage's head and slammed it on the concrete floor, dragging his face along it to lay him next to the dead mage that had his face bashed in.

Gajeel made quick work of the Tribe, but it seemed like it was an eternity after he'd dealt with them. Toward the last few mages, he'd used his slayer abilities to finish them with ease as he was starting to feel the aftermath of the damage done to his body. In his somewhat weakened state, he showed them no mercy. He'd practically mutilated the last remaining members of the Tribe with his sword.

He knew the fight wasn't over, as he could feel waves of powerful energy radiating from the floor beneath him. Chomping on an iron pipe from the wall to replenish his energy, his senses led him to a large door he was one hundred percent certain Zeke was behind.

Instead of simply opening the door, he put all of his power into his leg and attempted to kick the door down. Much to his dismay, the door didn't open or break. Eli was smart enough to have the door super reinforced, but not smart enough to realize that wouldn't stop an angry dragon slayer. He growled, kicking it a second time and breaking the handle, allowing him to grip the door with iron hands and practically crumple it.

"Well, well, well," Eli said as the door fell to the ground. "Look who decided to make an entrance."

Gajeel quickly scanned the room with blood-red eyes, finding a few more dead members of the Tribe along with his son and who he assumed was the leader of this whole crackpot. Zeke seemed to be fine, but there was something off that he couldn't quite put his finger on, unfortunately, now was not the time. It was a weight off his shoulders that he found his son and he didn't look to be harmed in any way, but before he could truly relax, he had to deal with this smug asshole standing next to him. Not wanting this douchebag to escape easily, he lifted the mangled door and shoved it somewhat back into place.

"You think that'll stop me?" Eli smirked.

Gajeel turned around, a scowl plastered on his face. "Yer awfully confident fer someone who's about ta die."

"I'd like to see you try."

As if on cue, Gajeel was caught off guard by an iron rod that he just barely was able to dodge, not anticipating an attack from his own son. 'What the fuck?!' Zeke had gone full iron dragon mode, his claws out and all. He lunged at his dad, tackling him to the ground and clawing at anything he could get to.

"Zeke! What the hell! Get ahold of yourself, bud!"

Gajeel had both hands on Zeke's shoulders, trying to hold him off without hurting him. Clearly, he'd been influenced by the enemy, but how?

"There's no point," Eli said, walking toward the two fighting slayers. "You're too late."

Gajeel took his chance and let go of one of Zeke's shoulders and grabbed Eli's ankle with an iron grip, and was about to yank him to the ground until he got slashed in the face by his son's claws, causing him to let go of Eli. The brown-haired man laughed uproariously at the spectacle.

"You have fun dealing with that," he said with a wave of his hand as he disappeared into a room in the corner.

Gajeel's attention snapped back up to Zeke. He had to figure out how to snap him out of whatever trance he was in, but he couldn't do much while holding him off. Right as he was about to come up with a plan, he heard a loud noise as an alarming smell overloaded his senses. His eyes darted up toward the door and found Levy, his eyes widening in horror as he realized the state she was in.

"LEVY! GET BACK!"

"ZEKE!" He heard her shout as she ran toward them.

Their son diverted his attention to her, causing her to stop in her tracks.

"LEVY! GET BACK NOW!" Gajeel yelled with authority, hoping –no, praying she'd listen.

SOLID SCRIPT: Push

He watched as her attack successfully pushed Zeke off him and back a decent distance and went to speak until he saw him go into his shadow and speed toward her with obvious evil intent.

"LEVY!"

Lily came just in time and grabbed Levy right before Zeke got to her, flying her out of the room as small shards of iron was sent their direction. Gajeel winced when he saw that he had been nicked with some of it, but he was grateful that it wasn't Levy who'd been hit.

In the short amount of time it took him to get off the floor and keep his distance from Zeke, he'd almost lost his mind from being so stressed out. Everything was going wrong and now to top it all off, he just found out in the worst way that his mate was pregnant. Not that it was a bad thing, just shitty timing. Now, he had to somehow find a way to get her to stay away from Zeke, which would be almost impossible given how stubborn she was and the situation she's in, all while keeping Zeke off of him, which was even more of a hassle now that he finally knew how to control his powers.

He had to come up with a plan to somehow subdue his son. First, he needed to secure the room so he couldn't make a quick escape. He created a thick iron pillar that served as a door that would be difficult to move, even for Zeke. No matter the state of mind he was in, he was still his son, and that meant Gajeel knew all his weaknesses and strengths. The only problem with that was there was almost no time to come up with a plan. He wasn't as brilliant as Levy when it came to strategy and it took him a few minutes to come up with something good. A few minutes he definitely didn't have to spare.

Zeke geared up his iron sword and flash of 'proud father' washed over Gajeel's body. His son was using his slayer abilities almost flawlessly and it made him smile inwardly. The same smile that was cut short by his son's sword almost making contact with his face.

"Zeke! C'mon! It's yer dad!"

Gajeel jumped from right to left, seemingly playing a violent game of tag, Zeke being 'it'.

"You're not my real dad!"

Gajeel halted at those words, getting slashed across an iron chest due to his distraction. What the hell did he mean 'not his real dad?'