Rogue saw the dragon's wing coming at him a second too late and took the hit directly in the chest. It threw him across the street and into a building, bringing down a chunk of rubble that barely missed his head. He coughed, struggling to his feet and wiping blood from his mouth.
"ROGUE!" Sting was desperately attacking behind Scissor Runner's head, the dragon roaring angrily at him. "You okay?"
"I'll live!" Rogue called up to him, turning to face Levia once again. The dragon's face was impassive, and Rogue sighed in frustration. Their attacks had some effect, but these things were tough.
"Rogue, why do you fight me?" Levia's voice was deep, and echoed uncomfortably in Rogue's ears. "You're the only one who will survive in this wor-"
"World of despair, I heard you the first time," Rogue growled. "I'm not becoming your king". He watched Sting slide down Scissor Runner's neck and beckon to him. Sting had found him, kneeling in the street in front of Levia and arguing with his shadow, and instead of running away he had smiled brightly at his friend and pulled him to his feet.
"Accept it. There is darkness in your heart." Rogue's chest tightened. He knew that his shadow talking to him was probably not the most normal thing ever, but he knew that he would never do something like this. Would he?
"EVERYONE has darkness in their heart." Rogue snarled, dodging between Levia's legs until he was next to Sting and standing back to back with his friend, holding his hand tightly.
As long as he's with me, Rogue thought, looking fondly at Sting out of the corner of his eye, everything will be okay. He intensely ignored the part of him that whispered that Sting would have to kill him if he gave in to the darkness.
Sting, Rogue, you there? Natsu's voice echoed around them, and both dragon slayers looked up, confused.
"Natsu?" Rogue asked.
Max is letting me talk to you telepathically. Get to the fountain, we have a new plan.
"What do we do with the dragons?" Sting yelled, tugging on Rogue's hand and darting across the street.
"We will keep them busy. Go." Sting turned sharply to see a wounded Erza being supported by a blue-haired man with a strange tattoo over his eye. Erza pushed herself off of the man and grabbed her sword with both hands, levelling it at Scissor Runner.
"But you're inj-" Sting began to protest, but the man interrupted him, placing a hand on his shoulder.
"Go. We can handle this. If Natsu found something to help end this, it will be worth it." Sting nodded and turned to Rogue, who was staring at Erza. Suddenly, Rogue ran up and wrapped his arms around her, burying his face in her shoulder. She looked startled for a second, then smiled softly at him, placing a hand on his hair.
"Thank you," he whispered, and she knew that he was talking about Minerva. "Thank you."
"Thank me when we're not about to be eaten by a dragon," she said kindly, and he let go of her, smiling and turning to Sting.
"Let's go," he said, grabbing Sting's hand, and the two dragon slayers ran toward the gardens.
"We have to hold hands?" Gajeel grumbled as a young, blue-haired mage pushed his shirt aside and began to write letters on his chest. She had been quickly introduced to Sting and Rogue as Levy.
"Oh, don't be such a baby," she replied, writing faster than Rogue could see. She turned to look at him, continuing to write. "You're next, take off your shirt." Rogue's stomach dropped and he swallowed heavily, but a gentle hand on his back brought him back to reality. He smiled at Sting and began to shed his tunic.
"So who gets to be the super dragon slayer?" Natsu asked, already shirtless with glowing magic script written across his chest. He sat on the ground against Gray's legs, who was straining to hold an ice barrier around the group of mages.
Natsu had called the seven dragon slayers together after he had been thrown from Motherglare's back, fortuitously running into Freed and Levy. Or rather, landing on Freed and Levy.
"The spell decides," replied Freed, who was busy putting the script on Laxus' chest and doing a terrible job at suppressing the blush in his cheeks. "We didn't have a lot of time to research it so some parts are still rather…nebulous." Cobra scowled at that, but didn't say anything. Rogue wasn't sure what to make of the poison dragon slayer. He smelled strange, like dead leaves, but he didn't seem evil.
"What will the rest of us do once the spell is complete?" Wendy asked timidly. Levy finished up the script on Gajeel's chest, then looked at him fondly before moving on to Rogue.
"You should still be able to fight, but a portion of your magic power will be transferred into whoever is chosen by the spell," she replied, reaching out to touch Rogue's chest and noting his flinch. Sting moved to stand behind him, wrapping his arms around Rogue's waist and resting his head in the dark hair. Rogue tried to still his breathing as Levy began to write.
"So, whoever it is should go after Future…me, I guess?" Rogue asked softly. He was still trying to wrap his head around the fact that a future version of himself was wreaking all this havoc. Levia's words hung heavily in his chest, but when Sting had looked at him with that expression of complete trust, he had felt them burning away.
"If you take him out, then you need to injure Motherglare and get him to crash into the Eclipse Gate," Natsu replied. "But future you is strong. Really strong." Sting noticed Gray glance down at Natsu's side where he had bandaged a rather nasty-looking wound. Wendy had healed it as best she could, but it was still red and raw.
"All done," Levy announced, standing up and nodding at Freed, who was holding his rapier limply in one hand and staring at the ground, exhaustion written all over his face. Everyone pretended to look away as Laxus reached out and gently touched Freed's chin.
"Stay safe," the lightning slayer murmured. Freed blushed an even deeper shade of red and nodded his head.
"You too," he whispered, reaching up to grasp Laxus' hand gently before stepping back.
"Don't die, flame breath," Gray muttered, glancing down at Natsu, who stood up and grasped the ice mage's shoulder.
"You either, ice princess," he replied softly, letting his hand linger a moment before moving away.
Sting, still holding Rogue, squeezed him tightly as they watched Levy plant a kiss on the surprised Gajeel's cheek, while Wendy hugged Charle tightly.
"Are we gonna do this or what?" Cobra muttered, moving to stand near the centre of the ice barrier. Sting kissed Rogue on the cheek, then took his hand and moved to stand next to Cobra. One by one, the other dragon slayers moved into a circle and joined hands, all glancing uncertainly at each other.
Levy and Freed took a step back as the runes on each dragon slayer's chest began to glow different colours, swirling around their bodies and then moving to join in the centre. Natsu gasped as he felt his flames being pulled from him, mingling with poison, lightning, wind, iron, shadows and light. The ball of energy in the centre grew and grew, swirling in a myriad of colours, until it finally split into two smaller spheres. Each swirled around the other for a moment, then both shot down and crashed into Sting and Rogue.
"I did not expect that," Freed murmured, and Levy shook her head, puzzled.
"The spell said it would give the power to one dragon slayer," she replied. "Did we do something wrong?"
Sting and Rogue stared at each other as the energy washed over them, swirling from holy white to shadowy black. They felt a deep pull towards each other, and turned to face each other and grasp each other's hands.
"What the hell is-" Rogue started to say, but was interrupted by Sting's lips crashing into his. He moaned softly and returned the kiss, clutching Sting's hands so tightly it began to hurt. They kissed desperately as the energy swirled around them and through them.
"I love you," Sting whispered, and Rogue's heart skipped. "No matter what happens, I love you, and I always have." Rogue leaned back to look at Sting and saw that his eyes had changed colours – one white and one black. He felt that strange tugging sensation once more, and then everything went dark.