Rouge screamed in pain. The shadows wrapping around him attacking him, dragging him into them. In his mind he could hear voices. Sting's voice accusing him of killing him, his future self poisoning his mind slowly urging him to kill everyone in the room, Frosch crying for help calling for him to save him. He just kept screaming collapsing onto his knees clutching his head as the shadows swirled around him.
Sting groaned trying to use his light to fight of the shadows that were engulfing him. He had to get to Rouge he could hear him screaming. He could hear Frosch crying calling for Rouge worried. Strangely enough he couldn't hear anything coming from Jen other then growling. He couldn't see her through the shadows but he could barely make out his best friend.
Lector hovered along side Frosch keeping a grip on their tail keeping the little frog kitty from rushing into the shadows to get to his friend. Despite how scared Lector was for his own partner he knew enough not to rush blindly into those shadows. The Fair Tail mage was also surrounded in shadows but she wasn't screaming. She was silent except for occasional growls.
Suddenly images flashed through all their minds. Images scenes of a couple dying trying to protect the viewer killed by monsters, a older boy protecting the viewer keeping them safe from harm urging them to run, being hit hard by one of the monsters and sent flying into a wall, darkness all around, the viewer sobbing, a soft warm light enveloping the viewer as a short man with white hair and mustache approached, Master Markorov smiling at the viewer calming them and taking them back with him to Fairy Tail.
Small glimpses of what they now realized where memories flitted through their minds slowly driving the darkness that had been plaguing them back enough for them to find their center and steady themselves slightly. Happy warm memories of Fairy Tail, Gray and Natsu fighting causing the viewer to hide behind The Master until Erza knocked them both out, Mira tormenting Erza and the two going at it, Levy her nose buried in books as the viewer approached with caution picking up one of the books to read, avoiding Laxus like the plague crying and running away if he so much as scowled at them.
Sting fought back the dark whispers in his mind telling him Rouge had betrayed him, Rouge had killed him, he was all alone, he was a failure as a guild master, he would never beat Natsu, various dark thoughts that he had harbored deep in his mind at some point in time. Growling his light increased around him pushing past the darkness inside him. Sharp teeth fastened around his ankle distracting him from those faint whispers. The pain drove the last of the darkness from his mind allowing him to focus on something else.
"White Dragon's Roar!" Sting shouts releasing his roar breaking through the last wisps of shadows around him. Casting a glance down at his leg he saw Jen still in her wolf form with bits of shadows clinging to her fur, her jaws fastened around ankle. Seeing he was okay she released her grip on him and stepped back with a soft whine. "Thanks for that. That was you wasn't it? Those memories?" The wolf nods turning her head towards where Rogue was still surrounded in shadows.
"Shit!" Sting cursed racing towards where his friend was being consumed by the shadows. Rouge was still screaming with in the flurry of shadows. Sting reached through the shadows trying to grab a hold of his friend only to have his hand pass through him. "SHIT!" Sting cursed again, Rouge was flickering back and forth between his shadow self and his normal self; he was being devoured by the shadows by the darkness with in him.
"You said that already." A voice in his mind says softly. Sting cast a bewildered look around before looking down beside him where Jen stood her head tilted upwards looking at him with gold eyes. "You can speak in that form?" Sting says surprised. "Telepathically yes. He's disappearing in to the shadows he has to be drawn out of them or he'll completely disappear. My brother went through this before as did a friend." Sting growled fingers curling into fists at his side.
Sting backed up to get a better view of his friend through the shadows. Watching him faintly appear through the darkness only to disappear again tore Sting's heart to shreds, fear of losing his best friend foremost in his mind. With out thinking things through fully but just following his heart and instincts he dove forward when Rouge flickered into shadows.
His body blazing with a bright white light driving back the shadows, his arms coming around his friend as Rouge flickered back to normal. Sting hugged him tight clutching him to him his light driving back the darkness as the two knelt on the ground. "Rouge don't leave me please." Sting begs softly. "I told you before didn't I? I'm your light and I'll drive back the darkness and shadows anytime. I won't let you slide into the darkness, I won't allow you to be devoured by the shadows. So please don't go." He pleads desperately tears running down his face just as they were for Rouge.
"I won't give up. So don't give up." Sting whispers to him as his light burned brighter chasing away the remains of the shadows filling the room with the blazing brightness of his light. Rouge slowly stopped screaming his arms coming up to wrap around Sting his face buried against his friend's shoulder. "Sting..." He gasps as he came to, being drawn out of the darkness within him by the sound of Sting's voice and the brightness of his light.
Sting pulled back hearing his voice unable to keep from smiling ecstatic that his friend was okay now. He cried tears of joy now leaning his head forward so their foreheads touched, "Don't you ever do that to me again you hear?", He murmurs smiling into Rouge's eyes gently wiping away Rouge's own tears tentatively. Frosch ran up to them right then crying harshly flinging himself into Rouge's arms and burying his face against his chest.
Rouge chuckled softly cuddling his exceed against him hugging him tight nuzzling his head reassuring himself that his cat was okay that his nightmares hadn't come true. Lector hugged Sting happy that things had calmed down again. Sting suddenly jolted upright to his feet keeping a tight grip on his own exceed looking around for Amphitrite and the thief only to find them gone having chosen to flee during the commotion.
"Theey're gone!" Sting growls irritated by the fact that once again they got away from him. "Leave them Sting we'll get them later." Rouge says softly gazing up at his friend. Sting looked back at him troubled hating how they had hurt Rouge so badly they almost caused him to be eaten by his own shadows. Rouge slowly got to his feet still clutching Frosch tightly. "They left everything behind though so that's something."
Sting grinned as he surveyed the room taking in all the riches. "Hey they even left your purse behind Jen." Lector points out happily one paw pointing towards the small little belt purse that lay on the floor where the thief had been. Jen stepped forward towards her purse shifting back to her human form as she did. Sting gave a low whistle and Lector just stared at her wide eyed. Rouge blinked and blushed a bright red quickly looking away and covering Frosch's eyes as the little kitty just smiled and waved to the stark naked girl in front of them.
"Well crap this is gonna get irritating if this keeps happening." Scowling down at her naked self the girl bent to retrieve her purse causing Sting to snicker softly at the view of her naked derrière earning an unamused jealous glare from Rouge which went unnoticed by the White Dragon Slayer. The girl simply rolled her eyes picking up her purse and straightened upright seemingly unsuppressed by her lack of clothing.
Seeing that Sting was making no move to do the gentlemanly thing and give the girl something to cover herself up with which irked him to no end Rouge untied his sash and handed her his kimono, sash and the white cloth in which to cloth herself in. She flashed him a grateful smile wrapping the white cloth around her hips and wrapping the kimono then over that and securing them into place with the sash so she was now more modestly covered.
"What's in that purse anyways? You said you don't have any jewel on you so what's in there that made the thief decide it was important enough to steal? Or did he make some stupid mistake?" Sting asks focusing back on them now that the girl was covered once more. The girl simply smiled and flipped open the top flap of the purse relieving the contents inside.
Sting and Rouge peered inside at the contents in surprise. "Feathers?" Inside the small leather purse were feathers. Black feathers, white feathers and red feathers of all different sizes that upon closer examination seemed to hold traces of magic within them. "Not just feathers." The girl states happily pulling out a silver key with what looked like a small lion's head with a short mane as the bow of the key.
"A gate key? Your not a celestial wizard are you?"Rouge questions curiously distracted from his irritation with Sting. "No this is for Lucy. This is the key of the Little Lion, Leone. Lucy has the Key of the Zodiac Lion Leo or Loke. When I saw this I thought about getting it for her as a birthday present but then when I asked the shopkeeper whose key it was he said it was the Little Lion's key. I figured this spirit has to be related to the Key of the Lion in some way so it would make an awesome gift for Lucy." The girl explains smiling happily as she nestled the key back amongst the feathers attaching the purse onto the sash.
"But how did you buy it?You don't have any jewels." Sting wonders. "I traded these feathers for shopkeeper wasn't actually interest in selling it he just kept it on display for show in a fancy case and charged a ridiculously high price for the key that no one in their right minds would pay for a silver key a gold one maybe but Lucy and Yukino have all the golden gate keys. So I traded him a good portion of my feathers for it. They have traces of magic in them that can be used if one knows how to access that power."
Jen happily patted her purse pleased to have gotten a hold of the key for her guildmate. "If you could trade the feathers in the place of jewel why didn't you do that before?"Sting demands earning a elbow in the ribs from Rouge for being so rude. "Because one these feathers are special and I don't like giving them away to just any body and two it takes a certain person to be able to access the magic in them, they have to have the same type of magic as what's in the feathers. Also these feathers only hold value to someone who is in magic as a business since they can thus be resold to another wizard who has that type of magic. The shopkeeper of the store I got the key from happens to sell special supplies to top ranking wizards including Warrod of The Wizard Saints who may find use for these feathers and likes strange unique magical items."
At that both Tigers stared at her in shock. "A Wizard Saint might buy these feathers and find use for them?!" Sting chokes out. Jen simply nodded her head. "Yep his magic matches the type of magic with in the feathers so he can use them. I've given some to Droy from Team Shadow Gear in my guild as well since he can also use them somewhat."
"If these feathers are so valuable should you be giving them away like that?" Rouge asks her. "Ohh I can get more easily enough." She states turning to observe the room. "Now what shall we do with all this loot?We can't just leave it here it was stolen after all." Sting brightened at that snapping out of his confusion from her statement. "I vote we keep some of it if not all." "Sting no. This was stolen from citizens of this town and tourists we can't just take it that's stealing making us as bad as the thieves. We should turn it over to the Mayor." Rouge argues with a sulking Sting who grudgingly agrees.
Each of them load up as much stuff as they can carry once the girl had put her shoes back on when Rouge handed them to her taking them off his neck. "Why did you take them off in the first place?" Rouge asks as they make their way down the stairs loaded down with all the loot. "I'm more comfortable barefoot and I can get better traction when barefoot and encase I need to climb or keep my footing on a slippery surface I can use the talons on the tips of my toes." Jen made clear to them as the trudged down the street in the growing slowly growing darkness.
"That reminds me how the hell could you keep running like that for so long and not get tired?"Sting grumbled irritably as they wondered back along the streets towards the center of the town it was going to be a long walk since they had taken unconventional means to get to their destination the first time. "I'm a wolf. Wolves are not sprinters but rather marathon runners. Take the cheetah for example. The cheetah is a sprinter capable of quick bursts of speed up to 75mph but they don't last long. Sprinters are only capable of short but fast bursts of speed that they use to chase down their prey and attack it before it can get away. However wolves hunt in packs and they are persistent. A wolf pack will give chase after their prey and not give up. They will continue to race after it for long periods of time capable of keeping a speed of up 35mph in shorter bursts with rest but can keep a steady speed of over 5mph, which is how fast a human can run, almost all day covering up to 100 miles. It's called a lope. So even if their prey is faster the prey eventually tires allowing the wolf who is still hunting it to track it down by it's scent and chase after it the wolf will eventually catch up to the prey and take it down."
Sting and Rogue continued to stare at her as she explained about wolves and her ability to keep up the hunt all day. "By the way my lope is about how fast you Dragon Slayers run at normal cruising speed except for your bursts of speed when you switch to sprinting much like I do the only difference is my stamina is greater so I can keep on running longer. I often go for runs with my pack not for hunting which we do do sometimes but for the fun of running and getting rid of pent up stress."
"Fairy Wolf is amazing!" Frosch cheers happily from beside Rogue. "I have to admit that is pretty impressive." Lector agrees. "Dragon Slayers or at least Natsu and Gajeel do tend to run pretty fast when sprinting. Faster then me even. It all depends on their determination Natsu once covered a good size difference in a short period of time to catch Lucy as she fell out of a tower several stories up. Gajeel was fast enough to move between Levy and a bolt of lightning that was about to strike her blocking it at the last minute. Don't know about Wendy I haven't seen her move that fast yet but she might be able to. While she is smaller she is lighter so she could probably move just as fast if motivated."
"Remind me not to challenge you to a long distance race you'd probably win." Rouge comments as they finally exit the worst part of town making their way towards the better sections slowly. Frosch and Lector trotting along beside them. "By the way you guys are invited to Lucy's birthday party at the guild. It's coming up soon that's why I got the key for her and Master and Mira are planning a huge party at the Guild Hall for her and are inviting several of the other guilds as well. Their will be a huge cake and drinks and games it will be fun Mira has already invited Yukino since she's Lucy's friend." Jen says cheerfully. "That does sound nice it will be like the Banquet that took place after the Grand Magic Games." Sting grins looking forward to challenging Natsu again. "We'll be sure to go in return for everything they have done for us." Rogue states calmly as they eventually reached the center of town at last.