Chapter 14: Kyousuke Watanabe

Right before their eyes was the mystery that had been in their reach all of this time. A blue, humanoid creature that took Kyousuke's form stood there trying to become aware of its surroundings, coming to terms with where it was. It looked around analyzing the room like an animal while Gajeel and Dr. Evo stood there and watched the creature. Gajeel was unsure of what to do next as Dr. Evo scanned the clone from top to bottom. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. Dr. Evo claimed he was cloning Kyousuke earlier, but as much as Gajeel tried to put it together, it just wasn't adding up.

"Whatever the hell it is, it isn't Kyousuke." Gajeel calmly stated, looking at the thing in shock and slight disbelief as Dr. Evo chuckled in response. It only took his shape, it didn't even act like him or seem human in any way. For a clone, it wasn't anything like Gajeel imagined, but Dr. Evo didn't seem to agree.

"It's clear that you don't really know him as well as you think you do," Dr. Evo explained, catching his attention as Gajeel pressed for answers.

"What the hell are you saying?" Gajeel questioned, clenching his fists as he wanted answers. However, things took a turn for the worst as the clone went after the two of them out of the blue. It went straight for Dr. Evo and attempted to grab him by stretching its arm straight out for him, only for Dr. Evo to vanish out of thin air as he did with Gajeel earlier. It was as if the clone had infinite elasticity; it could stretch out and morph into virtually anything. At the same time, the clone held up a hand towards Gajeel and fired a plasma beam from it, aiming to target Gajeel as he rolled to his right and dodged the attack. In turn, he tried attacking it with a direct hit from his Iron Dragon's Club, successfully hitting it. However, the creature suddenly morphed into a sort of liquid, attaching to his Iron Dragon's Club and sliding down it straight for him.

"What the hell is this thing?!" Gajeel spat in shock. In that instant, Gajeel realized the incoming danger and immediately retracted his Iron Dragon's Club, only for it to still get to him and bind him down. Suddenly, wrapped up in the liquid as it covered his body except for his upper torso and up, Gajeel found himself slowly coming to a halt. As he tried to pull it off of him, his hands went through it like some sort of liquid, the clone slowly wrapping itself around Gajeel. It could materialize into any form it needed; nothing he did stopped it from wrapping itself around him and binding him in place. "Dammit, I can't get it off of me!"

"That's the nature of the being, looks like you fell for it." Dr. Evo explained. He acted as if the process of binding itself around Gajeel and immobilizing him was perfectly normal. He only watched as it bound Gajeel enough to make him fall to the ground on his right side, struggling in the liquid as his arms were restrained by it. The liquid slowly crawled up against him as he fought in it in frustration; Dr. Evo watched it happen as if it was bound to. "You only have yourself to blame; if it wasn't for you interrupting the process, it could've been a perfect clone. Now the clone has been structurally unstable, and therefore it's much more difficult to control." He further explained. Gajeel could only look back in frustration as the clone soon hardened, leaving Gajeel on the ground stuck inside of the structure. In the process of doing so, it split itself from Gajeel, going straight for Dr. Evo as it flew across the ground like some living liquid. Dr. Evo had to play his cards well against it, as he could only teleport to so many locations, and the clone was going after him as well. As that ensued, Gajeel struggled to free himself from the hardened clone. Nothing he could do would help; he found himself helplessly fighting against the inevitable.

"Dammit, I don't have time to deal with this! Get this crap off of me!" Gajeel yelled, trying to break through it by any means possible, to no avail. He rolled around, tried using brute force, nothing. Surprisingly enough, it didn't try to kill him, it just immobilized him. Whether or not this was intentional is unknown, however, as it still went after Gajeel in the first place. As he helplessly struggled, the clone soon managed to get ahold of Dr. Evo, taking advantage of his teleportation by being in the right place at the right moment. It grabbed him by the leg as he slipped and fell to the ground, struggling against it as it pulled him up and left him dangling upside-down. Dr. Evo kicked about in frustration as he couldn't teleport away from it now. Gajeel watched as he realized he wasn't its only target, and maybe it wasn't trying to kill them.

"You put me down this instant! You're only here because of me! I am your master, you listen to me this instant!" Dr. Evo yelled in a desperate attempt. It picked him up and covered him in the same substance, analyzing Dr. Evo in its human form as it stared at him while holding him up. Even while holding him up the liquid form wrapped around him and bound him up too, making it impossible for Dr. Evo to escape. Gajeel watched the strange phenomena ensue and realized that this wasn't what Dr. Evo had in mind.

"It kind of looks like him, but it acts nothing like him. It can't even function normally; how the hell is that supposed to be Kyousuke?!" Gajeel questioned, unable to piece it all together. A simple error in the cloning process couldn't have possibly made this big of a change in his structure. Despite being stuck on the ground, he focused on the creature as it analyzed Dr. Evo, watching the doctor struggle while it looked at him from multiple angles. It was like watching a baby play with a new toy; it was trying to understand it. It even took the doctor and shook him up and down too.

Upon further watching the creature, he realized something that was crucial to this moment. "Wait a minute, this ain't the first time I've seen it," Gajeel remembered. He realized that it was the same strange substance that came out of Kyousuke when he had been blasted with the shotgun, and it also was prevalent when Kyousuke flew into his rage back when they were caught the first time around. He also remembered something else...

"I've had similar nightmares for years Gajeel; this has been going on my entire life. Dreams of this blue creature trying to kill me and going on about being trapped and restrained in some way. I don't even know why." He remembered Kyousuke saying. Seeing this clone here, it looked exactly the description Kyousuke gave. At that moment everything just clicked.

"That thing came from inside of him, but how did it get there in the first place?" Gajeel questioned, unable to figure out why. Seeing Dr. Evo in his helpless state, Gajeel knew that it was now or never. "I have to get the hell out of this thing and get to the control console before he has a chance to stop me," Gajeel decided, trying to take advantage of the situation. However, he still couldn't get himself unstuck from the substance. "What the hell is this thing made of?!"

"Condensed ethernano composite combined with a physical form. I'd be genuinely surprised if you had the strength to break out of it Iron Dragon Slayer." Dr. Evo commented, dealing with the creature shaking him from side to side as he talked. He felt increasingly nauseous as the creature toyed with him, already having trouble with being upside-down the whole time. However, he gave away the answer to breaking out of it in his comment.

"That moron just told me how to break out of this," Gajeel though to himself. He had to resort to another method, and luckily Dr. Evo gave him the perfect idea for it. He equipped his Iron Dragon Scales, trying to force himself through the matter by counteracting it with his own magic power. Luckily, it worked in his favor; he broke out of the liquid's strong bond and went straight for the console. In the process of doing so, the substance materialized at the right time to burn his right arm, leaving a strange burn mark on him. It hurt, but he ignored the pain it caused as he had only one objective on his mind. As he shattered through the hard-substance, it quickly reverted to the liquid form it had previously and returned to the clone with Dr. Evo, whose attention was on Gajeel as the latter went for the console. Dr. Evo saw his attempts and furiously yelled out in response.

"Stay away from that console Gajeel, you don't know how to operate it!" He yelled out angrily, "make one wrong move and you'll end his life! You don't want to be the one who kills him, do you?!"

"Shut the hell up!" Gajeel shouted, racing for the console and completely ignoring everything he was saying. When he made it to the console, Gajeel was quickly overwhelmed by the number of input commands on the console. "What the...how the hell am I supposed to operate this?!" Gajeel spat in frustration. Multiple keys were numbers, letters, and other key-codes that functioned like a DOS prompt. Seeing the console only frustrated him more; he had to make a choice now. Dr. Evo recognized his stress, watching from afar as the clone dropped Dr. Evo and went for Gajeel.

"You'll never figure it out! Just give up; you'll never free him!" Dr. Evo exclaimed, getting up from the ground as the clone went for Gajeel. He pulled out a strange black device out from inside his lab-coat, waiting for the right time to use it. In the short amount of time that took place, the clone instantly went straight for Gajeel as Dr. Evo aimed the device at the clone. Gajeel, within mere seconds, quickly hit the "EJECT" command on the console, which seemed like the most appropriate thing to do at the time.

"Ejecting Stabilization Tubes, all contents are being withdrawn from the experiment. After this process the lab will enter a hibernation state, please be aware. You will be unable to use the Stabilization Tubes for approximately 24 hours." A robotic voice announced, ejecting the tubes as they each were drained and discarded. As that ensued, Dr. Evo used the black object to capture the clone, firing a white beam at the clone that completely vaporized it from thin air, entering the device he had in hand. Regardless of whatever objective Dr. Evo had achieved, Gajeel managed to figure out how to free Kyousuke, turning around and watching as he fell out of one of the test-tubes he was being held in, hitting the ground while still being unconscious. Gajeel saw him lying on the ground and went straight for him, only to be stopped by Dr. Evo, standing in front of him playing with the device in hand.

"If you think I'll let you off that easily, you're mistaken. I don't let my enemies run away that easily, especially not someone like you Gajeel." Dr. Evo commented with a confident look. Gajeel stood there with a focused and stern look on his face, determined to get something out of him.

"Don't think I'm done with you yet," Gajeel alerted him, "I wanna know why you're acting like you know him so well. Wherever the hell that clone came from, it's living inside of Kyousuke, and you're the one behind it."

"Well then," Dr. Evo said in amusement, looking at his nails again (must be a habit of his), "I must say that I'm impressed. It's no wonder why you're reputable for being Fairy Tail's renowned investigator and undercover spy if I must say so myself."

"Dammit, quit rambling and just get to the point!" Gajeel spat in irritation, bumping his fists together as Dr. Evo sighed in response.

"Not to mention you also have quite the temper; no one ever wants to listen to me just talk..." He said depressingly. "Though if you think you're getting that kind of information out of me, then think again!" He shouted.

"I'm gonna enjoy beating the crap out of you, pathetic scumbag." Gajeel aggressively warned, giving him a death-stare that one wouldn't forget. Dr. Evo could see the intensity and anger in his eyes; there was no mistaking them. Gajeel wasn't about to tolerate anything Dr. Evo had in store. However, just before things got started, it all took a dramatic turn. The two heard someone come out of the portal Gajeel came in from and focused their attention on the portal. With impeccable timing, Roxanne made it back to where Gajeel and Dr. Evo were, and it wasn't just to say hello. She had a bunch of documents in her hands, which she immediately tossed in front of Dr. Evo. He stood there and stared at them, Gajeel doing the same as Roxanne interrupted.

"I finally found you Dr. Evo, or should I say Dr. Namulus Evolutionus." Roxanne declared, catching his attention as he observed the documents. They were the documents associated with Project DSP, something Dr. Evo was almost surprised to see.

"Ahh, early documentation regarding Project DSP, where did you find that?"

"In your old run-down laboratory; you used it to perform experiments on Kyousuke!" Roxanne exploited, baffling Gajeel and exposing Dr. Evo as he clapped his hands.

"What the hell...you've been experimenting on him?!" Gajeel shouted in shock, Dr. Evo clapping as he went forth.

"Ahh, it looks like you're finally getting somewhere. I wonder; have you figured out what's really been going on with Kyousuke? I must say, you aren't undeserving of your status as a government spy." Dr. Evo complimented, to which Roxanne ignored and continued.

"It was July 7th of 2010, an 11-year-old child was brought into that laboratory as an experimental subject for a new artificial culmination of ethernano into a biological weapon," Roxanne explained, further surprising Gajeel as he listened on and let it work itself out. "It was a test to materialize Ethernano into a physical form, and possibly test it in militarized zones for use in combat. You've experimented on him with substances that can alter his own genetics and DNA!"

"That experiment was nothing but a complete disaster. Kyousuke was the perfect candidate for the test, but it ended in failure. The goal was to combine the mutated ethernano material into him and combine it with his own genetic structure, but the test failed and instead resulted in the substance using his body as a host. It now lives inside of him, feeding off of him and using him to survive." Dr. Evo further explained, surprising both of them.

"Don't tell me that thing has been inside of him for seven years," Gajeel concluded, to which Dr. Evo nodded in response. Roxanne wasn't aware of what they were talking about, but Dr. Evo continued on regardless.

"It would've killed him otherwise; the substance feeds off of living organisms; the only way to remove it is to have it kill the host. Even I can't remove it without letting it kill him in the process." Dr. Evo explained. Roxanne only got more upset the more she heard it.

"You monster! How can you treat him like some kind of guinea pig?! He doesn't deserve any of this!" Roxanne shouted out, only for Dr. Evo to chuckle in response.

"People are nothing but subjects to me, subjects for my experiments and my ways of gaining strength and intelligence. He happened to be the perfect subject for my biggest goal, the ultimate living being. I can turn him into the most powerful military weapon I need, and if I really wanted to I could do the same to the both of you too," He further explained. He had no regard for other's emotions or feelings; all that mattered to him was achieving his goals and using humans as scientific subjects. Not only was it bothering Roxanne, but it also grated at Gajeel the more he heard about it. Hearing him talk about people that way on top of what he did to Kyousuke only pissed him off more and more.

"You rotten scumbag." Gajeel spat, clenching his fists as Dr. Evo only looked at him in amusement. "You don't care what happens to him; he's just another toy to you. He's suffered hell because of you and your stupid experiments."

"Exactly, and that's all he ever will be to me," He commented, aggravating Gajeel. Roxanne, however, interrupted and continued on with something that she had been pondering in her mind over and over again.

"Something though doesn't add up," Roxanne stated, catching Dr. Evo's attention as he gave her a curious look. "This isn't just any ordinary substance, it contains ethernano. The host would have to have the ability to store ethernano within their own body, which means only someone like Gajeel or I would be capable of hosting the substance. However, Kyousuke is the host." Roxanne explained. In explaining it, Roxanne looked back over her life and remembered every interaction or time she had seen Kyousuke. "Never once in my life have I ever seen Kyousuke using magic power, he couldn't possibly be a host for the substance," Roxanne explained. However, despite her calculated and correct analogy, there was a missing piece of the puzzle.

"That kid's a mage alright," Gajeel stated. Dr. Evo turned to him with a further impressed look on his face, only for Roxanne to chime in response.

"What...what do you mean? He can't be a wizard!" Roxanne stated. She couldn't believe what he was saying, but Gajeel had his reasons.

"I could sense it in you and Kyousuke from the start, but not anybody else," Gajeel countered, surprising Roxanne as he went on, "That thing is living inside of him trying to keep him alive."

"But how?! It doesn't make any sense!" Roxanne spat in frustration, trying to piece it all together. No matter what angle she looked at it from it just wasn't adding up; how could he be a magic mage that doesn't have any access to his own power. However, as she thought about it, Dr. Evo eventually gave them a little dose of reality.

"I'll let you two in on a secret about him that nobody knows but me; not even Kyousuke knows this about himself." Dr. Evo explained, catching their attention as they started him down waiting for the answer. "What if I told you the truth about where he came from; how he is just like Gajeel in more ways than one."

"What do you mean?" Roxanne questioned. However, when Dr. Evo said that, it clicked within Gajeel's head the truth about him. You could see the shock in his eyes upon realizing it, clenching his fists as he pried him for answers.

"No way...you can't be serious..." Gajeel uttered in disbelief. Dr. Evo nodded in response to what Gajeel was thinking.

"I am serious; Kyousuke is a Dragon Slayer just like you."

The both of them stood there in bewilderment and awe; Kyousuke was a Dragon Slayer? But how? There's no way. On the outside, Kyousuke seemed like some teen with a screwed up childhood; not even with what Gajeel has seen has there been any sure-fire signs that confirm him being a Dragon Slayer. Roxanne couldn't believe it at first, how could she?

"You can't expect us to believe that!" Roxanne shouted. Dr. Evo seemed unfazed by her comment; he just smirked at her in response.

"Fine then, if you won't take what I'm saying seriously then let me put it into perspective for you," Dr. Evo calmly replied. Looking towards Gajeel, he pointed at his right hand, catching his attention. "Your right hand had been completely healed; nobody would possibly suspect that you got shot by magic shotgun bullets in your hand." Dr. Evo explained, catching both of them off-guard. Gajeel looked at his hand in response as he processed it, thinking over how it got healed in the first place. It was because of Kyousuke. He looked back up at Dr. Evo as he went on. "If it wasn't for Kyousuke that hand would still be ripped apart by the shotgun blast."

"How the hell do you know about that?" Gajeel questioned sternly, responding to his penetrating insight. Considering that there was video footage of the fight that went down at Kyousuke's house, Dr. Evo knew about the entire thing. He further explained the phenomena.

"It's not hard to figure out when you know the fundamentals. Take for instance your Dragon Slaying magic; not only are you an Iron Dragon Slayer but you also can use Shadow Dragon Slaying Magic in-conjunction with it, thanks to having ingested it in the grand magic games." Dr. Evo further explained. Gajeel couldn't be too surprised considering how everyone must know about him being a "fictional character" and all. Being that way meant having your entire life in the show posted all over the internet for anyone to search up; just type his name in and bingo, you have it all. "The ethernano substance I created alters and takes on the form of its host, which means that if it healed all of your wounds the only possible explanation is that it has to be a form of magic that is compatible with your own. In this case, you could exclusively use another wizard's Dragon Slaying magic with your own, not just any magic." He further explained. Putting everything into place. The vast amount of knowledge he had on the matter intimidated both of them, especially Gajeel who isn't easily threatened by anyone. Just by listening to him, they felt like they could get nothing past him. He was a step ahead the both of them mentally, just too smart. As he finished explaining all of that, suddenly things changed.

"WARNING; more unidentified individuals detected. Proceeding with lock-down phase; the facility will shut down and be in a controlled lock-down for the next seven days, starting the count-down until complete lock-down." The robotic voice said, alerting the three of them as things took a turn for the worst.

"What the..." Dr. Evo said in alarm, "Who else could possibly be here?!"

"Don't think you can take off on us just yet!" Roxanne shouted, requipping some kind of special shoes on as Gajeel got on guard himself. The doctor simply turned and looked at them with an annoyed expression as she pressed him for further questioning. "If you're going to tell us he's a Dragon Slayer, the least you could do is tell us why he can't use any magic power!"

"I sealed it off and made sure he didn't have any access to it. Good luck trying to break the seal; even I can't break it." Dr. Evo explained, suddenly teleporting away from the area as they watched it happened. Before they could do anything, Dr. Evo teleported behind them and went straight for the portal that was there the whole time. They could only turn around and watch him get away at the last minute. Roxanne stomp on the ground in disappointment.

"Of course, even at the last minute, he still manages to get away from us," Roxanne commented, standing there in disbelief. Before taking off, they both ran to get Kyousuke, kneeling down in front of him as he was lying on the ground. He was still unconscious, so Gajeel tried waking him up.

"Come on Kyousuke, snap out of it! You need to wake the hell up right now!" Gajeel shouted, shaking Kyousuke to no avail. He was still out cold, and probably would be for quite a while. Seeing him not wake up concerned Roxanne.

"Do you think he's alright?" Roxanne questioned, watching as Gajeel picked him up and carried him on his shoulder.

"He'll be fine." Gajeel reassured, "We need to get out of here before we get locked up in this place." He further added. However, before they started heading out, Roxanne looked at his right arm and noticed the burn mark he had gotten earlier.

"Whoa, what happened to you?" Roxanne said in wonder, "you've got this strange burn mark on your arm, it's all squiggly and long." Roxanne questioned in awe and wonder.

"Don't worry about it. Whatever the hell it is, we can deal with it later." Gajeel calmly responded. Roxanne was still curious about it though, she couldn't help but think about what was really up with it.

With that, the two ran to the portal but stopped right before entering it thanks to Roxanne.

"Wait!"

"Huh?"

"The last time we went through this we got split up. Maybe if we hold onto each other we'll end up in the same place," Roxanne added. Gajeel understood where she was coming from and decided to go along with it.

"Alright fine," Gajeel stated, letting her hold onto him as they went through the portal. There was more to Kyousuke than either of them thought. Now that they have him, they need to get out of this place before they get locked in. They needed to act fast and get moving.