A fraction of a second before impact she morphed again into her giant penguin shape, which was the heaviest of her Take-Overs. And the force of the collision was enough to tear the doors out of their moorings as Lisanna punched through into the empty space beyond.
...
Lisanna gasped as she suddenly realised she was in open air, but even as she started to fall she shifted back into her bird form and flared her wings, catching herself to fly back up. Wendy and Charla came through the doors to meet her, Wendy looking around and sniffing urgently, before declaring, "Up! The smells coming from above."
"Lead on, Wendy!" Lisanna called as Charla transported the Sky Dragon Slayer up higher, followed closely by the others.
They had to weave in and out of the metal tracks that carried the lifts all around the building until Wendy pointed to another door and cried, "I think that's the one we have to go through now."
"Alright then, its Juvia's turn," Juvia curved her body over Wendy's head and streaked in towards the door, spinning herself in a vicious corkscrew with her arms out to the side and crying, "WATER SLICER!"
Multiple water blades peeled away from her spinning hands to form a rough circle of high-pressure projectiles that crashed into the doors and managed to cut their way clean through to the other side. Juvia washed through the gap that dropped out into the room beyond, settling on the ground and noting a large sign in front of her that read; 'Level 4 - Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures.'
"This looks like the place," she noted as the other girls joined her.
"I hope the others are okay," Wendy noted. "They may have run into more trouble than us."
"Well, there's really not much we can do for them up here. We should focus on finding the birds, though how we're going to get them out of the Ministry is anyone's guess."
"One step at a time," Lisanna noted. "But we'll think of something. We'll have to."
...
"Get outta my way!" Gajeel bellowed as he heaved an unfortunate Auror that had gotten in his way around by his robes and sent him crashing into three others as they made their way out of another corridor.
Gray was right behind him, creating a wall of ice to prevent several other Aurors from following them now that he's established that the girls weren't following. But he could tell that while they certainly had gained the element of surprise with their sudden entrance to the Ministry, which have been a very big help in bulldozing their way through everyone so far, the forces of the Ministry now seemed to be rallying, and were converging on their location, trying to come from all directions at once.
"Gajeel, are they close!" he yelled as several spells hit his ice wall, including one that caused a couple of cracks to appear in the other side.
"Not far away now!" Gajeel replied. "I can smell them much more clearly now!"
"But we're surrounded now!" Happy yelled from next to Gray's legs, watching as several robed men came running in from both the corridors that Gray had not blocked off. They'd found themselves at a T-junction and were now several spells of various colours came lancing in from both directions. Gajeel had no clue what any of them did but he flattened himself against a wall to avoid them and growled as he morphed his hand into a club.
"Then we'll just have to tear our way through!" he snarled.
"Oi! Gajeel, these guys aren't supposed to be our enemies you know!" Gray yelled at him, grimacing as his shield took another battering from a Bludgeoning Hex. "We should try and do this with the minimum number of horrific injuries!"
"Tell that to them!" Gajeel growled.
"Urgh, there's no room to swing my sword in here!" Lily groaned as he gripped his currently small blade. "I'll just end up slicing through the walls!"
"That might not be such a bad thing at this point cos there's no room for dodging either!" Gray called, the group of four crouching for cover from the spells around the corner next to Gray's shield even as the Aurors drew in closer. The Ice Mage whirled around, slamming his hands together and generating an Ice Cannon in his hands, which he propped up against the wall. "We'll have to be quick! Lily, take that and wait for my word."
Lily wanted to ask what he was meant to do with it when he was given the word since he couldn't exactly fire the thing himself, but there was no time so he did as bid and grew into his battle form, seizing the cannon and valiantly ignoring the fierce chill it instantly created in his hands.
"Clear a path for us, Gajeel!" Gray called.
"Geehee! My pleasure," Gajeel sprang to his feet furiously swung his fist towards the wall in front of them. The iron club that lengthened from it punched through the stonework with ease to create a gaping hole, and moments later the other arm shot up to widen the gap until it was easily large enough for people to get through.
"Now, Lily!" Gray shouted as he bounded out into the corridor to face one group of approaching Aurors and slammed his hands into the ground to call, "ICE GEYSER!" and conjuring up a veritable tidal wave of icy shards that washed down the walls and sent several of the front-running Aurors flying as it crashed into them, bowling them over. And then he spun around to face the other way, to see Lily already in position.
The big Exceed had guessed what Gray was planning and was crouched behind him with the cannon pointed at the oncoming Aurors, who hesitated at the sight of the huge cat levelling the weapon at them and what had happened to the others. But Gray didn't give them a chance to recuperate, seizing the back of the cannon and generating his magic into it, firing the icy blast down the hallway to envelop several of the Auror and send them crashing back into one another like skittles.
"Thanks, Lily," Gray nodded, as he dispelled the cannon. "Molding Magic may be fast, but having it already waiting for you makes it even faster."
"Come on, let's move it!" Gajeel shot through the hole he'd made, the others close behind him.
A few more turns later and suddenly something rounded another corner and ran slap-bang into Gajeel, literally smacking into his chest and yelping as it lost its balance and toppled backwards onto its backside. Gajeel, fortunately, was quick enough to pull to a halt and found himself looking down at a wide-eyed, breathless Levy.
Even Gajeel couldn't deny the surge of relief that washed right through him at the sight of her, looking a little worse for wear but otherwise okay. His face split into a grin and he said, "Hey, Shorty. Ya miss me?"
But the grin faltered slightly when he saw that Levy was looking up at him not with relief… but with terror. Her pupils had shrunk into dots, her body was shaking slightly, her breath was coming out in ragged gasps and it looked like every muscle in her was trying to seize up on her at once.
"Oi… Levy… what's wrong?" Gajeel stepped forwards and reached down towards her, but Levy screamed and kicked up at him, knocking his hand away. Gajeel recoiled, not hurt but rather shocked as Levy scrambled backwards like a panicked animal.
"Levy! It's me!" Gajeel stepped forwards, but Levy flinched and covered her face with her arms, closing her eyes as if bracing for an impact. "What's gotten into you?"
"Stay away!" Levy shouted, shoving herself to her feet just as Gildarts, Mavis and the rest of Gajeel's group all caught up with them. Levy immediately fled back to Gildarts and hid behind him, putting him between herself and Gajeel as she clutched her head and bit her lip, quivering like a scared rabbit.
"She's just had a rather traumatic experience," Gildarts noted. "I'm not sure what happened exactly, but it hasn't left me in the best of tempers I can tell you."
"Levy…" Gajeel started again, but the mere sound of his voice was enough to make Levy flinch. She turned around slowly, peering around Gildarts to look him in his studded face, but even though he was frowning in apparent concern… she could also see a savage, sneering grin plastered across his features in her mind's eye. She could also hear his cackling laugh echoing in her memory, could practically feel the places where his iron fists had once smashed into her like a dull itch.
"Now now. No screaming. I want the pathetic trash you call friends to find out about this when they wake up next morning and not before. But there's quite a bit of time left until dawn… which means plenty of time left for some fun, don't you agree?"
Those words, which had once come from his mouth, were ringing through her brain, memories that she'd tried very hard to bury and never remember forced back up to the front of her mind by the Dementors. And now, when she looked at him… she just couldn't help but remember it all over again.
Stop it, Levy, stop it! Stopitstopitstopitstopit! Look at him, he's worried about you! You should be happy, not scared! He'd never say that to you now, never do that to you now! Look at the mark on his shoulder! He's Fairy Tail. He's a friend now, and you know he is! So why are you scared of him again?
That was what her heart and conscience was screaming at her, her instincts seemed to be trying to overrule her rational thoughts and the memories within her screaming, Enemy! Phantom Lord! Run! Hide! Fear him! Enemy! And those thoughts forced her to look away, eyes screwed shut and teeth gritted with frustration.
Gajeel himself could feel his fist clenching so hard he had to turn his palm to iron to stop his nails from drawing his own blood. His fear had practically been confirmed. Moody had said that the Dementors caused people to relive their worst memories. And despite everything that had happened since he'd joined Fairy Tail, all the progress he'd made to resolve things with the girl he'd so viciously beaten… it was like it had all been undone in an instant flat!
Of course what he did to her would be one of her worst memories. No matter how many years passed by, that would always be the case.