Rouge had to wait until he calmed down. Bee! Seriously. Why hadn't he ever thought of that. He couldn't help but be impressed by Lucy more and more. The girl was literally being held together by sure will power, some tape, and maybe a paperclip, but she was still here, functioning, making jokes, and doing her best to remain alive and human. He could only imagine what would happen to him. Hah! He knew what would happen to him, he'd had a front row seat to the shadows that would consume him if he'd gone through only a sliver of the pain Lucy had. And all that happened just form losing his cat. Granted Frosch was practically his entire world apart from Sting… and Yukino. Maybe he'd give her a call after speaking with Gajeel. To check on Frosch, of course.
Rogue refocused on the communication lacrima and sent his magic into the crystal in an effort to contact the heavily pierced iron dragon slayer. His surprise was quickly masked when a head of blue hair popped into view.
"Hey there Rogue! Gajeel said you might call. He's in the shower!" the solid script mage smiled at him. "Oh wait…" she turned her head to the side listening, "The water just cut off. If you could hold a minute, I'm sure he'll be anxious to talk to you."
Rouge just nodded, barely hiding a smirk. The lug head had finally made a move, it seemed. Rouge was happy for the closed off dragon. The iron slayer was seriously emotionally stunted, more than Rogue ever was. It was a miracle the man had finally admitted to himself that there was something between himself and Levy. He wondered how long ago the two had finally stopped dancing around each other.
His lacrima showed a view of an empty room since Levy had dashed off to inform Gajeel of his call. A minute later, the gray and black exceed called Lily jumped up into view.
"Good morning Rogue," the cat greeted solemnly. "I assume that you have news of what is happening to share with Gajeel."
"I do, Lily. Things are not good," Rogue gave the small creature a half hearted smile.
"Gajeel will be here shortly. He is getting dressed."
The short blunt clips of information were curious to Rogue. Frosch tended to act so childlike and Lector was as immature as Sting. Seeing an exceed who acted like a mature adult was weird to him. He wondered where Gajeel had found Lily. Rogue had never asked, but the curiosity was killing him. How come Lector and Frosch couldn't transform all humongous like Lily did? Rogue tried to picture his tiny, frog obsessed Fro turning into a giant battle ready monster and the image had him holding back laughter. It was so unlikely. Frosch growing and ripping out of his frog suit like some sort of monster only to sit and cry because his suit was ruined.
Rogue was roused from his day dreaming as Gajeel's serious, gruff voice filled his ears. "Okay shadow-farts, tell me what'cha got."
"Huh," Rogue responded, "must be a Fairy Tail thing." Here he thought Shadow-Farts would be a nickname claimed only by the lightning slayer, but apparently more of the guild had taken on the moniker than he'd realized.
"T'ch, come-on kid, what'd'ya find out," Gajeel replied annoyed at Rogue's hesitation to brief him on the situation.
"Is Lu-chan going to be okay?" Levy called from the background.
"Oi, Shrimp, I thought I told you to get lost!"
The blue haired, curvy woman, glared over at Gajeel with an aura of danger radiating off her petite form. "I will NOT be leaving. This is about Lu-chan. I can help."
The determination and downright evil glare focused on Gajeel made Rogue shudder. Yukino just didn't have it in her to be that terrifying and he was glad. He had see Lucy look that way at Sting to get her way and wondered if there was a training camp in Fairy Tail that focused on turning their female mages into demons.
"T'ch," was Gajeel's only reply. Levy smile triumphantly and moved closer to the communication lacrima and stared intently at Rogue.
"Well!" she demanded.
"Right. I don't know everything, but I have a good ideal about what has been happening at your guild hall and how it relates to Lucy," Rogue started. "The shadows that took over your guild hall are physical manifestations of Lucy's negative feelings. From what I have been able to piece together, Lucy has suffered from a severe psychotic break, and somehow, before she could self destruct from the pain, all of the negativity was ripped from her and trapped inside the guild hall."
"Oh my god, poor Lu-chan," Levy whispered to herself. "Those shadows have been gathering in the guild hall since we rebuilt it when the guild was reinstated, before Alvarez made their move."
"That long?" Rogue sputtered. "H-how?"
"Shrimp! What'd'ya sayin'? I never saw them until recently."
Levy held up a hand since Rogue and Gajeel were talking over each other after her declaration. "Yes that long," she said in answer to Rogue. "I'm not sure how, but I'm guessing something happened during Tartaros that she neglected to tell anyone. That was when things started to shift with her." Levy looked at Gajeel, "It was only one shadow, and it followed Lu-chan around, but it eventually disappeared. I figured it was just some sort of trick with one of her spirits, so I thought nothing of it. Then most showed up, especially after the war with Alvarez and Acnologia. I asked Loke about it once, but he wouldn't answer me."
"Aquarius," Rogue whispered.
Both Gajeel and Levy looked at Rogue. "What does Mermaid-bitch have to do with this?" Gajeel asked. His eyes narrowed at the shadow slayer, not liking the fact that someone outside of Fairy Tail knew more about Bunny-Girl than he did. He was a dragon after all, and the blonde bunny was a part of his family. Dragons were protective of their family above all else.
Rogue felt uncomfortable. Didn't they know? He couldn't remember what Yukino had said about it other than the slap in the face he'd felt knowing what Lucy had given up to save the people who turned on her. He shifted under their stares as his mind raced. If what Levy said was true, than either Lucy's break down had been a long time coming and the shadows were a self defense mechanism the girl had no control over. Or. Or. Well he could fathom the idea that someone had been working underhandedly all this time just to rip Lucy to shreds. Lucy was cool and all, but why her?
"Rogue, what did you mean when you said Aquarius?" Levy inquired loudly. Her voice sounded frantic. "What happened to Aquarius?"
Rogue let out a breath. If he could trust anyone in Fairy Tail still, he knew it was the three he was in conversation with. They had nothing but Lucy's interests in mind. "Lucy sacrificed Aquarius during Tartaros to save all of Fairy Tail from Mard Geer's Alegria curse."
"What do you mean sacrificed her? Is Aquarius dead?" Levy paled as she spoke.
"She had to break Aquarius's key in order to summon the Spirit King to battle Mard Geer and save everyone. As far as I know, at least what Yukino said, Aquarius is alive, but she is stuck in the Celestial World."
"Bunny-Girl summoned the Spirit King?" Gajeel whispered. He looked to Levy to see if his assumptions of that being rare and a mark of power were correct. Levy's eyes were filled with tears and Gajeel was suddenly way out of his depth. Crying people, cats, things… were not his expertise. He wrapped an arm around his Shrimp's waist and tugged her down onto his lap as she continued to leak fluid from her eyes.
"Lu-chan…" Levy whispered. Her hand covered her heart as a lonely tear slipped from her eye. "Aquarius was her mother's key, Lucy's first zodiac spirit. She always thought of Aquarius as a second mother."
"So, that's where this shit began, then," Gajeel said. He sounded apathetic, but he was anything but. Learning what Bunny-Girl did to save the likes of him made his heart ache with sympathy.
Rogue nodded, "I guess so. I'm sure that the guild disbanding afterwards was just the little bit extra needed to push her over the edge. We're not sure how the shadows came about, however. Like I said, her negativity was ripped out of her, but we don't know why or how. She denies knowing anything about it."
Gajeel looked like he was in thought, "So what? She did this to herself and doesn't want to admit it. Do the shadows do anything beside make the guild dark as fuck?"
Rogue shook his head, "I don't think she did this to herself knowingly. Her face conveyed surprise and stress when I asked her about it…." Rogue trailed off for a moment before continuing. "The shadow will manifest into forms of Lucy accusing people of breaking "it" and needed to have "it" fixed. From what Laxus described, it is actually quite terrifying."
"What is she talking about? Fix what?" Levy asked.
"Your Guild Master and that Mavis woman, along with myself have drawn similar conclusions, I believe. She is talking about the broken soul links she has with members of your guild."
"Soul links?" Levy questioned. "When did she make soul links with the members of Fairy Tail?"
Gajeel shrugged. "Could ask Bicks about it, I guess."
Levy nodded in agreement. "I can call Lisanna and ask her to have Bickslow stop by."
Gajeel lifted the tiny girl from his lap and then she dashed out of the room. Gajeel and Rogue sat in silence. Lily was perched cutely on top of Gajeel's head and the image of the grumpy slayer with a kitten resting on his was almost too much for Rogue. Despite the serious nature of their conversation, the image of the cat and dragon were just too contrary to Rogue's imagination that he could help the half smile that tugged at his lips.
A minute later Levy was back. "Lisanna says that Bicks is out with the Thunder God Tribe but that he'd be back later tonight."
"Shit timing," Gajeel mumbled gruffly.
"Rogue," Levy stated, "how is Lu-chan? I want to come visit her soon, do you think she'd be okay with that?"
Rogue genuinely smile, "Lucy is on a job. Sting is with her in case her magic goes berserk again. Zeref and Natsu are trailing them. She would lov..."
"Whaa!? Zeref and Natsu are with Lucy?" Levy question loudly. Here brown eyes were wide.
Rogue cleared his throat, "Uh. Yeah. Zeref is determined to not let Lucy out of his sight, it seems, until he can get her back to Fairy Tail for a, and I quote, experiment," Rogue shuddered at the thought of Zeref getting his hands on the blonde. "And Natsu doesn't trust Zeref to be alone with anyone, so he is following along, bickering, I can only assume."
"Does Salamander remember Bunny-girl?" Gajeel questioned.
Rogue shook his head, "It is honestly hard to tell. He seemed annoyed with her and was blaming her for stealing Happy. He generally seemed to treat her as an unknown threat to himself. I don't know if that is because he knows something the rest of us don't or if it is because he doesn't remember who she is."
Levy seemed puzzled. "This whole thing with Natsu losing his memories is just weird. I wonder what caused it?"
Rogue looked surprised, "She didn't talk to you about it before she left?"
"Hmm? No. I didn't even realize that something was wrong with Natsu until he came back to the guild a week ago. Why? What do you know?"
Rogue wasn't sure if he felt pleased that Lucy seemed to trust Sabertooth more with her secrets than her old guild, or if he felt guilty that some of her closest friends were left so in the dark. Did he have a right to tell them any more than he already had? He kind of felt bad spilling the beans about Aquarius, did he have the right to say anything more?
"Shadow-farts, if I find out you're hidin' things from Shrimp here…" Gajeel started. He looked menacing as his pierced eyebrows scowled and his arm subtly spouted scales. The treat was clear.
"Lucy was the one who erased Natsu's memories about herself," Rogue spat out before he could regret it. He winced as Gajeel blew a gasket and Levy screamed back, "YOU'RE LYING!"
Gajeel was now covered in his iron armored scales as his anger at Rogue's revelation caused a crack to form in the communication lacrima from the magical surge. "Bunny-Girl would never betray nakama like that." Gajeel's hard glare met Rogue's unwavering stare through the communication device. Gajeel's denial battled the truth that was plainly shining in the shadow dragon's eyes. Gajeel's teeth ground together. "Explain," was the only thing the slayer was able to spit out.
Rogue felt like shit now. He was airing his friend, his guildmate, his nakama's dirty laundry. It wasn't right. If Lucy hadn't confided in Levy and Gajeel, then what gave him the right to keep spilling out her secrets. Too late now, he supposed. He needed to learn to keep his mouth shut, but Gajeel had been such a major influence on his childhood that he couldn't help but follow the larger-than-life iron slayer's orders. Although, it wasn't like he knew everything himself. Afterall, he only knew second hand what Rufus and Minerva had pulled out of the blonde before shit hit the fan. Giving the highlights of what he knew wasn't really all the personal of a breach.
Rogue nodded to himself after deciding what to say. "Look. I don't know everything, just the highlights."
"NO!" Levy yelled again. "I DON'T WANT TO HEAR THIS!"
"Oi, Shrimp!" Gajeel called after Levy as she stormed out of the room. Rogue couldn't blame her. Gajeel turned an even fiercer glare towards Rogue, the iron scales coating his body seemed now leaked whips of shadow. "Tell me what you know quickly."
"Basically, all I know is that Natsu said some pretty serious shit to Lucy. It was bad. When Lucy had the chance while rewriting Natsu's book, she omitted herself to some extent so that he would no longer remember her."
"Book?" the word in association to the flame-headed idiot seemed to spark something in Gajeel's mind. A shadow of a thought that was just out of reach and too miss-formed to truly be meaningful whipped through his mind before melting into nothingness.
"The book of END. Natsu's book," Rogue clarified. He thought back to the conversation Rufus had recited to him, Sting, and the others. He couldn't recall if Lucy had mentioned anything about altering other memories. He'd have to ask Sting about that, maybe the white dragon remembered.
"The demon?" Gajeel questioned. "What's that got to do with this."
"Nothing, I suppose," Rogue lied. "Just know that Lucy had an opportunity to make Natsu forget her and believed that it would be for the best if he did. That is really the entirety of the story."
Gajeel's eyes narrowed as if he sensed Rogue's lie even through the communication device. Instead of pursuing it, however, the iron dragon gruffed out a "Shrimp won't be happy with that" and the connection was cut off.
Rogue felt stressed and found his hands unconsciously scrubbing at his face. That hadn't gone as expected. He had assumed that Gajeel and Levy had known at least about Aquarius and the fight Lucy had with Natsu. Maybe Lucy's broken-ness had been accentuated by her inability to open up to anyone about it. But why hadn't she at least talked to Levy about any of this? He knew from Yukino that Lucy had regular get togethers with Levy and a girl named Lisanna, so why hadn't they known at least the bare minimum?
He wanted to call Lucy and Sting back and ask the girl himself, but he knew she was too busy with her job to stop and answer questions. Maybe Yukino knew. The shadow dragon sighed deeply as he looked at the communication device and debated calling the silver haired celestial wizard. He wondered how close she had gotten to Lucy? It seemed like they had become fast friends, yet it was Minerva and Rufus who had been the ones to pull any real information from the blonde. Should he call one of them?
Reaching a decision, Rogue sent his magic into the cracked device and called Yukino. Within seconds the sweat face of his dear celestial summoner was looking back at him through the lacrima and Rogue felt lighter.
"Yukino," he greeted with a smile.
"Rogue-kun!" Yukino smiled in return. "Is everything alright?" Her smile turned into a slight frown as she took in Rogue's hunched shoulders.
"Not really," he answered. He then explained his observations from the Fairy Tail guild hall and his conversation with Gajeel. Yukino listened quietly and attentively. He ended the explanation with, "I just don't understand why they seemed so clueless about what was going on with her. Even Levy, her friend!"
Yukino shrugged her shoulders. "It makes perfect sense to me," she said.
Rogue raised an eyebrow at the young woman hoping it would trigger an explanation. When it didn't he asked, "How so?"
"Well think about it," Yukino said dully. "Lucy's biggest fear is abandonment. When Fairy Tail fell a part after Tartaros, not a single member of her guild wanted her around. When she reached out to them, then never contacted her in return. She gave up and just tracked their comings and goings from news reports. They left her. They abandoned her. Her biggest fear."
"How do you know all that?" Rogue wondered.
"I ran into Lu-chan a few times out on jobs. We talked about it a bit. She was a mess. I'm pretty sure that she never trusted anyone in Fairy Tail again after that. When the guild got back together she wrote to me saying that she was happy but incomplete. Nothing was the same. She couldn't bring back the feeling of family she used to share with her guildmates."
It was like a light went on over Rogue's head as understanding dawned on him. She had given up her second mother and they left her. Even when they were all back together, she had still been scared that they would leave her again or may not even want her back. Then her fight with Natus was like a final nail in the coffin. Her faith in her family broken permanently.
"Thanks Yukino. That helps me understand better," Rogue admitted.
"You know, I invited her to join Sabertooth back then, but she refused. I was surprised but happy when she came to us. I wanted to prove to her that there was a place for her where people would never leave her behind."
Rogue smiled at that. Trust Yukino to feel so strongly about the bonds of their guild. It warmed him. Now that Sabertooth was free from Jiemma, the guild had flourished and bonded together to form something new and unique. They were stronger than they had ever been.
"Hey Rogue," Yukino's soft voice interrupted his musing. "Do you think Lu-chan will be okay?"
Rogue didn't hesitate, "Yeah, I think she will be. She's strong."
Yukino nodded, but her teeth caught her lower lip and bit down. She was right to be worried. Rogue was too, but he had faith in Lucy. "Have faith, Yukino."
She smiled back at him. "Yes. Faith."