Overlooking the aspect of your post you realise is risky ..

I doubt anything 'ate' your level 9, I suspect it's sitting happily on the world you created it on, while your friend's character and the second one you created exist on whatever world was the default world at the time you created them.

Scroll through the world list and look for one with '1' character on it, the 'other' one from that your '2' characters are on.