AN: Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima!

Thanks everyone for the follows and reviews! ^_^ I was almost late with this, I got sidetracked with sketching, sorry! 0:) I only had one lecture today so I got back early ^_^ So, here's chapter four! Hope you enjoy it!

Chapter Four – The Grim Reaper

Gajeel found himself surrounded by the bodies of twenty crushed dark guild members scattered around the destroyed guildhall and a passed out Plant Mage. He looked desperately around for Shrimp and the other pup, as well as the remaining three known dark guild members. He spotted the dark cave towards the back, and ran towards it, praying that he wasn't too late to save Shrimp while silently complementing the Plant Mage for his draw against the large group of normal-level dark mages that made up almost the entirety of the dark guild. That wouldn't have been easy.

He reached the inside of the narrow, barely lit tunnel and felt a presence closing in around him. The shadows within the cave started to condense in front of him into the shape of a tall, eerily pale-faced woman. He'd heard of their female shadow mage known as the 'Nightmare Shadow Queen', but he hadn't thought he'd ever actually meet her. He'd heard of how she got into your head, causing your worst nightmares to seemingly come true. The mage under her spell would bleed to death, desperately clawing their own eyes out while they tried to rid themselves of their horror-filled nightmares that were slowly occurring in front of their eyes. If they'd met before the Grand Magic Games then Gajeel might have been in trouble, but this was after. Now he could become the Iron Shadow Dragon Slayer; he wouldn't lose to a simple shadow woman – S-Class level or not.

Gajeel started to eagerly suck in the shadows around him with anticipation. He could see her womanly figure gliding slowly towards him, her feet seemingly never leaving the ground, creating a seamless motion as the bottom of her dress remained a part of the surrounding shadows. A dark shadow began to wrap around his legs and wind up towards his torso. A huge, evil grin spread across Gajeel's face as his whole body became covered in dark, shadowy metal scales. He slowly reached one of his claws down to grab the shadow tendril, wrapping its way up his body, the grin never leaving his shimmering, studded face. Levy would have screamed, her face showing her pure terror, at the sight of him as he viciously tore apart the dark tendrils of the shadow mage, causing her high pitched, frantic screams to echo through the manmade cave. He was the Iron Shadow Dragon Slayer, the consumer of shadows – to him they were nothing but a source of energy, and these didn't taste good. He left her body lying broken in the tunnel as he continued towards his Shrimp. He'd do anything to protect her.

Gajeel became one with the dark surrounding shadows and raced towards the end of the tunnel, ready to do the same as he had just done to the shadow woman to anyone who dared hurt his Shrimp. He would protect her at all costs, even Shrimp's trust. As long as she was safe, to him, that was all that mattered. He emerged at the entrance to a smaller cave with a roughly chiselled stone table in the centre, the walls lined with built in prison cells. Gajeel could see that the Speed Mage was lying passed out inside the one closest to him on his right, while the Guild Master and his giant, grumpy looking mage stood around Shrimp's struggling body on the table. Gajeel, still as a shadow, slipped into the cell alongside her unconscious lapdog, listening silently to the conversation of the two dark mages, while checking the other man's injuries. If the pup still had some magic, Gajeel could break him out of the cell and make him get Shrimp as far away from them as possible. Gajeel would take care of these two and grab the plant mage on his way out.

"Interesting, this little girl actually has second origin – it seems she'll be more useful than we thought for summoning Omoi Kage. Shadrika's gone quiet...Drilbitt, go see what she was screaming about. I doubt the other mage has gotten back up. He couldn't do anything to her anyway; Plant Mage against shadows – he never stood a chance!" The Guild Master cackled.

"Master." The large, muscular man ducked into the tunnel, filling it completely, heading towards where the screams had come from.

Gajeel woke Jet with a quick shake and told him what to do. Jet just stared, terror-stricken, into Gajeel's red eyes. This wasn't the Gajeel who'd beaten him up eight weeks ago – this was some desperate monster who'd come to rescue his princess, who Jet knew was the only one that could save Gajeel from himself. The longer Gajeel stayed like that, the closer he slipped into darkness. He watched as Gajeel ripped apart the iron bars that formed the front of the cell and started crunching on them as he walked towards the surprised Guild Master. Jet suddenly recalled what Gajeel had told him to do and dashed out of the cell to snatch Levy-chan from the clutches of the stunned man holding her down. He hauled her off the desk and made a break for it, his girlfriend in his arms.

"Re-equip: Master of Death!" The Guild Master yelled in fury. Death's torn, black cloak wrapped itself around him, replacing the garish clothes he had been wearing, the hood covering his orange hair as the gothic scythe appeared in his right hand, his re-equip oddly suiting his creepy stature and glowing yellow flecked bright green eyes, "how dare you walk into my guild and interrupt my plans! I'll just have to sacrifice you instead!"

"Gihahahahah! I was hoping you'd say that!" The evil, sadistic grin grew crazily across Gajeel's face, making him look completely demonic.

Gajeel vanished, causing the Guild Master to look around him confused by his sudden disappearance. A scaly shadow claw grabbed his leg, pulling him hard towards the floor, his head smashing against the solid stone. An iron pillar shot out of the shadows on the far side of the room, making contact with the base of his spine, shattering it. He yelled out in pain and anger. He couldn't see the continuous onslaught of attacks – the iron and shadow attacks were just too fast, even he, the Guild Master with the reputation of being Death himself, didn't stand a chance. Who was this demonic madman, set on breaking every bone in his body?!

"Gajeel!" A shout reached the Iron Shadow Dragon Slayer's ears. He looked down at his victim from his current position on the shadowy ceiling of the cave. He studied the battered body below him and remembered the shadow woman in the tunnel, neither would walk again. He remembered he'd come to protect Shrimp and dropped from the ceiling. Releasing his Iron Shadow Dragon Slayer form and walked out into the tunnel towards the direction of the shout. Shrimp and her pup stood over the unconscious shadow mage, watching Gajeel's face as he approached, covered in his iron scales.

"Gajeel, what have you done?!" Jet's voice was shaking.

"Huh? I did what I had to. I can still hear her screams, she deserved it. No-one touches Shrimp, not even you." Gajeel stared down at Jet, the evil smirk still playing on his lips.

"What did you say?! I've had enough of your attitude, Gajeel! Who do you think you are?! You're supposed to be a Fairy Tail mage, not some sick, sadistic monster!" Jet shouted at him.

"I am a Fairy Tail mage; I just happen to be a little over protective, that's all. I like the look of fear in the eyes of the fools that hurt the people I'm close to, what's wrong with that?!" Gajeel grinned. His tongue came out, tasting the shadows. He could feel the threatening aura coming from the pathetic pup. He could take him, but maybe this time he'd just make sure Shrimp's lapdog knew not to try challenging him again, ever.

"Ga...Gajeel, let's just go home. If we leave now I'm sure we can just make the next train. I'll even try what Lu-chan does for Natsu-san when he's feeling travelsick to you if you want? Apparently it really works? I've already dealt with the giant man that was here. Jet dragged him out of the tunnel so that we could escape. He was so big that he filled the whole tunnel. Since it was the client that had just attacked us, I'm guessing that the mission was a trap..."

"Shrimp?" Gajeel interrupted her rambling, his expression softening and his scales fading away as he looked down at her hunched figure as she tried not to cry.

"Levy-chan's right, let's report this to the local authorities and just go home." Jet stated, then decided to be the 'bigger man' so to speak, "thank you for your help, Gajeel, it was much appreciated."

Dun dun duun! The client was 'The Grim Reaper', but what had happened before Gajeel rushed in?! How will Levy feel about facing him again after being forced to witness his terrifying Iron Shadow Dragon Slayer form again?!

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the start of our twists and turns! ;D And I feel very flattered by Ice and Thunder's review! Thank you so much! XD And I still can't believe how many people liked 'My Unison Raid', so thank you so much to anyone who read that! XD It did come out on Sunday, not Monday – sorry! This Sunday, I will be starting to post my multi-chapter One Piece story, 'The Life of the First Mate', since I currently don't have any more one-shots 0:)

Hope you're enjoying 'With Someone Else', and the next chapter will be up next Thursday! ^_^