In Secret (Sequel to Behind the Scenes)

Conflagration

The Dragon Slayer disappeared around the last corner before the warehouse, a cloud of dust in his wake. I coughed, sliding to a stop as I cleared the building, waving a hand in front of my face. No! All I could see was a wall of flame and a flash of black hair disappearing into the building.

I started to rush forward to follow him when a pair of arms wrapped around my waist, clinging to me. "Miss Levy, Miss Levy!" Saki buried her face into my shirt, her arms shaking as she sobbed. "What do we do?!" I reached to grab her arms, pulling her away as gently as I could as I looked around, diggin in my bag already for a pen and my notebook. I saw the children huddled together in a group, many of them crying, and tried to do a headcount. There's not enough.. Who's missing?!

"Saki, you're our healer. I need you to stand RIGHT HERE in the open where we can find you. Can you do that for me?" I had to yell to be heard over the roar of the flames, crackles and crashes making me jump as the building started to come apart. The girl nodded, taking gulping breaths to try to calm herself. As I had been talking, I'd found my notebook and scribbled a hasty note to Juvia, begging her to come as quickly as possible and bring anyone who was around. I couldn't even remember if she'd been at the hall still or if she'd gone home. Nikita showed up at my elbow, holding her arms out to Saki and pulling the younger girl into a tight hug as the waited.

Having sent my message, I dropped the book back into my bag and tossed that to the side, whirling to start writing "Water" repeatedly, pouring as much magic as I could into each word. I threw several to the ground between the fire and the kids who'd escaped, trying to prevent it from spreading. "FITZ! RAT!" I screamed over my shoulder to the group, projecting my thoughts too in case the telepathic boy was free. They both showed up within a few moments, Rat's presence felt in my mind more than I even noticed him standing there.

"Rat, can you link me with Gajeel and Fitz?" The boy tilted his head, linking my mind with Fitz and himself, but I couldn't really feel Gajeel. I cannot reach him, his mind is too wild. Rat's thoughts whispered into my mind and I bit my lip, worrying about what was going on, but pushed my fears aside. Right. I've called for help. Fitz, who is missing? I glanced at him, noticing tear tracks in the soot on his face.

"James ran back in, trying to write water like you do before the flames got so big. S-Sam..." The red headed boy's words choked off, his thoughts taking over, somehow translating a mental image through Rat as well, showing us both his little sister disappearing into the building after James. Moments later the fire had roared up, catching easily in the dry wood of the warehouse. I reached out with my left hand, my right continuing to write as fast as I could, and grabbed the boy's arm to steady him. Th-the twins. And Kasai. He tried to get it back under c-control. I felt my own heart sinking, connected to Fitz' emotions that were wracking him so much that his mind voice wasn't even steady.

There was a great thud as a chunk of the wall came flying out. One of the children behind me screamed as the flames burst out, but my eyes were caught by a gleam of silver. There was a loud roar as Gajeel kicked the wall again, more debris flying out until he could fit through. I focused my efforts there, writing word after word and throwing it at the hole. The Dragon Slayer lurched out and I got a better look at him as he bellowed for Saki. His hair was singed, and there were burns down his arms. I was scrambling to figure out why he hadn't kept them scaled, the massive amount of magic power that I was using was starting to effect my ability to think. It finally dawned on me that perhaps his scales would have heated up too much to be safe for the child that he held cradled in his arms.

Their body was too covered in ash for me to be able to figure out who he was carrying, at first. Then I caught sight of a bright pink bow on the child's head. Kel... By then, Gajeel was laying her on the ground gently at the little healer's feet. I stepped towards him, holding up a hand to touch his shoulder, but he whirled away and sprinted back into the building. Rat grabbed my arm before I could follow, his thoughts sliding into my mind. The twins were attempting to help, I think their magic went awry. Gajeel came upon them as the flames exploded... It isn't good.

He sent me a mental image of Kel throwing her arms over her face, her mouth opened widely as if she was screaming, and I was insanely grateful that the memory had no sound. My knees still buckled, tears pouring down my face as I watched her twin slap his hands on the flames that were catching in her skirt, pushing her towards Gajeel as he ran up to them. The Dragon Slayer tried to grab the boy too, but Kyle lurched away, turning to search through his cards again. The girl in front of him had whimpered, and that had been enough to make Gajeel snatch her up in his arms, pulling his scales back into his skin so the metal didn't burn her.

Just as the memory started fading from my mind, I heard a thump behind me and a few of the kids shrieked. I whirled to see who had collapsed and saw a flash of red hair, its owner leaning over the body of another, laying them gently on the ground. "Sam! Sam wai-" Fitz ran forward with a hand extended, trying to snatch his sister but she just disappeared. I dropped to my knees next to the child she'd brought out, Kyle laying with his arms pulled up, cradling his hands against his chest. The burns were terrible, it didn't look like he'd be able to use his hands fully again, even with healing.

"This isn't looking good..."