Disclaimer: Fairy Tail and its characters belong to Hiro Mashima.
It was a lot easier for the guild to trust Gajeel after the battle at Phantom. If Gajeel hadn't been there then Levy surely would have died.
However, Gajeel felt an immense guilt in his chest, knowing that, perhaps, Levy and Shrimp had only been in that situation because of him. If he hadn't attacked Redfox and tried to save Levy from him, would things have turned out for the better? The battle would have been more predictable and Shrimp never would have been involved to the extent that she had – the only reason that she had been hunted was because he had displayed his power and made it known to the enemy how important the girl was to him.
"Stop it, Gajeel!" Shrimp frowned, squeezing his wrist, "This wasn't your fault and you know it!"
"I don't know anythin'!"
"You do. What you did, you did because you wanted to protect me. And you did protect me... no matter what you think, you did save me, and I'm going to be just fine." It was the morning after and already she felt better thanks to the wonderful medication of Porlyusica. If only Wendy was there – the Sky Dragon Slayer could surely heal her to a near-perfect state!
Gajeel only grumbled, folding his arms over his chest and turning his face away. He didn't want to feel good and happy like Shrimp usually made him feel – he WANTED to wallow in his self pity to make up for how badly she'd been hurt! All because of him!
"Now don't be like that," Shrimp leaned into him, pressing her cheek to his bicep, "Who's a good dragon?"
"STOP THAT!" he growled, turning red in the face.
"You're a good dragon!"
He grabbed the pillow and pushed it onto her face, trying to shut the woman up. He could hear her muffled giggles underneath the thick upholstered object, obviously finding his flustered demeanor quite amusing.
"Excuse me," a knock on the door pulled both of their attentions away to look at Erza, who stood watching them. "I think it's very important that the two of you come and listen to this."
Did it have anything to do with what their mission was? Shrimp raised her arms and wrapped them around Gajeel's shoulders, letting him lift her easily off of the bed. He held his hands against the least wounded part of her body, cradling her and walking like he was holding a porcelain princess. He focused on not bumping her into anything, afraid that limbs and organs were going to start popping off.
Levy was already in the living room of the once Fairy Hills, having been carried in several hours ago by Elfman – she wanted to see Jet and Droy! The rest of the guild waited with her, offering Gajeel a plush seat so he could sit with Shrimp on his lap.
"What's this about?" Shrimp asked, looking around at everyone's faces. They didn't look so happy; not that they looked angry.
"Mmh," Lucy started, seeming to hesitate. "Well..."
"Lu-chan?" Shrimp tilted her head, "Is something wrong?"
"I think I might have some information about what's gone on, and what's affecting our nakama in the future."
"As do I," Erza added.
"And I,"
"Me too," Gray and Cana added in. It seemed as though several people had seen something or heard of something that might be of use – and the more information the better!
"Tell us!" Shrimp pressed, starting to squirm on Gajeel's lap. She felt his arms tighten, trying to keep her in place so she wouldn't hurt herself... but, damnit, she wanted to know!
"Well," Lucy started, opting to tell the story since she was Levy's closest friend and good at story-telling, "I noticed something weird during the battle... Before I got captured, and while I was in the Phantom guild. While I was fighting I could swear that some of those ghosts that attacked us weren't the same as the others... Just one or two, but they had different cloaks on and they moved more like humans. Then later on when I was in the Phantom guild, Natsu broke a hole in the wall," which wasn't so unusual, "And while he was fighting I was looking out... I could see a few scattered, cloaked figures running around... It was hard to see them from that far but their movements were so different!"
"And," Erza continued, "I noticed something similar. I was battling one of the Element 4 at the time so I could not pay too much attention, but I also noticed that something was off in some of the movements of our enemies."
Gray and Cana were nodding as they, too, discovered similar things.
"I don't know what you're talkin' about!" Natsu punched his fist, "All of the enemies are the same!"
Lucy rubbed the bridge of her nose, sighing, "Natsu, you never pay attention to what you do, anyways!" if something looked like it needed a beating, then he beat it!
The same rule applied to Gajeel as well, given that neither had he seen anything wrong with the ghosts.
"But if those people had anything to do with what happened in the future, then why wouldn't you have already known that?" he asked Shrimp, frowning a little, "Wouldn't someone have noticed it the first time?"
"Not necessarily," Shrimp shook her head. "The last time we had the battle with Phantom Lord, no one knew that anything like that was going to happen... we just thought that we were battling Phantom. Now, though, we all knew to look for something else – even if it was subconsciously. The first time it happened no one noticed because no one assumed that anything would have been wrong." This time they were looking for it.
"Also," the shrimp continued, "The past definitely changed this time around... the battle didn't go anything like it did the first time. The first time, Erza battled Jose... and lost. And in the end, Master had to beat him. Then Natsu beat Gajeel," she felt Gajeel grip her hard, still hating that he let the salamander beat him! "And the war was over. Whatever the enemy's plan was, it must have worked better the first time around."
"But what really bothers me," Lucy tapped her chin, "Is that we still don't know who the enemy is... but, whomever they are, they have to be really powerful and intelligent. They don't have anything to do with Phantom, do they?"
Gajeel shook his head, "Phantom wasn't about all that smart stuff. They just like to crush people." So Phantom wouldn't be capable of pulling that grand of a scheme!
"That means... that whomever it is, they must have been using Phantom. And that means that they must have researched them and found out exactly what Jose can do, dress themselves up like those ghosts, and find the EXACT point and time of attack!" Lucy turned white, feeling very worried.
"It's alright, Luce!" Natsu grabbed her from behind, "We'll protect you!"
"GET AWAY FROM ME!" she shoved his head back, "What are we going to do!?"
"We'll need someone to track them," Erza began with the obvious. "If we had anything that belonged to them, then we can have Natsu and Gajeel track them down, but I'm sure that no one has anything that had to do with them."
"Wait!" Shrimp called, sitting up a little more on Gajeel's lap, "They all put spells on us, right? That means that they all must have gotten close to us at one point... so they touched all of us at least once; is it possible for either of you to smell if there's a particular scent that all of us have?"
"Ehh..." Gajeel rubbed his head, "It'll be hard with all of the blood." Blood had an individual scent, but it also had a 'back-taste' that tasted all the same, so everyone smelled like blood which made that even harder.
"It won't be hard for ME!" Natsu challenged, feeling like he'd been cheated out of his Boss Battle. If his original self got to prove his strength and defeat the Iron Dragon Slayer, why couldn't he!? In a show of superiority, he started to run around the room, sniffing everyone.
"NATSU!" Lucy shrieked as he stuffed his nose between her breasts.
"Luce... something on you smells really good!"
Everyone visible cringed at the harsh slapping sound that followed, even though it didn't deter Natsu from continuing on to the next person.
"OH YEAH!?" Gajeel growled, standing up with the little bundle in his arms. He set Shrimp down on the seat, making sure she was comfortable before he followed the Fire Dragon Slayer's lead and started smelling people – against their will.
When Natsu approached Levy, Gajeel grabbed the back of his scarf and lifted him into the air like a hangman game, "YA GONNA SMELL MY WOMAN!?"
"Well you smelled LUCE!"
"THAT AIN'T THE SAME!"
"OH YEAH!?"
"Oh my..." Shrimp sighed, watching the two of them crash through the wall into the back courtyard of Fairy Hills. It seemed as though Natsu was going to get his Boss Battle, after all!
"They're going to take a while," Erza sat down, crossing her legs, "So we'll have to wait for them to finish. Would anyone like to make the tea?"
"I'll get it!" Mirajane smiled, heading over to the kitchen area to act as barmaid, without a bar.
"Do we have any of those little sandwiches left?"
"And where's my booze!?"
"Cana, Porlyusica said that you shouldn't drink on that medication!"
"She also said I shouldn't drink and have sex but that's NEVER stopped me!"
No one was going to get anywhere, at this rate, so Shrimp did the most practical thing that she could do. She tilted her head back, closed her eyes, and took a little nap in the middle of the screaming, fighting, and general rabble.