Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail characters

Part Two

The Diamond Wyvern roared angrily at two little figures at its feet and attacked furiously with one of his two monstrous wings, at the same time destroying some part of the cave where two mages found the creature not long time ago. It was so fast attack that Sting and Rogue barely managed to escape from the unimaginably hard body and the sharp shards of rocks. At the side Frosh and Lector were cheering them up quietly enough to be unnoticed by the beast.

"What is that thing?!" Sting shouted with irritation, sending his White Dragon Roar at the enemy.

"Wyvern…"Rogue sighed, not sure if he wanted to joke or really thought he had to explain such an obvious fact.

"It is not what I mean, dammit!"

Rogue looked at the thing. He knew exactly what his friend meant. The creature in the front of them was definitely the Diamond Wyvern, the strongest and the most intelligent among its species. But as long as he knew, this certain kind shouldn't be so big, so monstrous and physically strong. It seemed to be more like dragon than wyvern and at some point Shadow Dragon Slayer expected it to have dragon's roar as well.

Not to mention that this one emanated with really huge magic power. With aggression. And visible intent to kill. Something unusual for this kind of wyvern.

"You know, Rogue, when I wanted to pick a job, I thought about some slight job we could finish in a few hours…" Sting started, preparing one of his attacks.

"How should I know this thing would be so hard to find and so hard to defeat?!" the black haired mage busted with frustration. "For you to know, the Diamond Wyverns usually are much smaller and easier to capture!"

Another Roar of Sting, mixed with Rogue's had no effect on the hard body of beast.

"If someone requested to kill it, then you should figure it out that this would be problematic…"

"So, it is now my fault?!"

Sting laughed. He loved to tease Rogue all the time, just to see his gloomy companion loosing this usual and sometimes really irritating composure.

"Just let's kill it already. I think we would get many jewels for its scales," he said with smile.

Rogue sighed and smiled back.

"White Drive," Sting invocated, and with his transformation he attacked the creature.

"Shadow…" Rogue started, thinking there was no point of holding back, if Sting levelled up now.

'Rogue… Merge with me…' the voice of Shadow reached him suddenly, echoing in the cave.

The black haired wizard gasped strongly, looking around shocked and checking all the shadows around him. He certainly heard this voice, just now!

But in the sight he saw nothing suspicious. Every shadow looked as commonly as shadow could be. Nothing serious, nothing dangerous…

The Wyvern roared at the attack of little, white silhouette, that tried to do something to him. The muscular, mutated arm of the creature sent Sting flying back through the whole length of the cave.

"Rogue, what are you doing?" the blonde shouted at his confused companion, who still was looking around with hesitation and uncertainty inside his eyes. "Watch out" he added as the big, diamond tail with many sharp horns attacked his black haired friend.

Rogue jumped out of the way just in time to see it heading straight at Frosh and Lector. For a short while he froze from terror, but then he moved as quickly as he could, trying to get two Exceeds from the spot they were standing right now. He knew however that he would be too late…

The big tail hit the wall few meters above two little creatures, sending the rocks and parts of destroyed wall at them. The crumble was big enough to smash even a well-build human. The mage tried to not imagine what would be left from his small companion…

"Frosh!" Rogue screamed desperately, seeing fear inside the honest eyes of Exceed.

White streak appeared in front of his eyes and pulverized the falling rocks, at the same time Sting caught two Exceeds and escaped from still falling remains of the crumble. He put them at the exit of the cave.

"Go outside, you two," he murmured, watching them running quickly to the world outside. "What was that, Rogue?" the white Dragon Slayer also asked his friend, who was still fixing his eyes at the point were Frosh just a minute ago could be smashed.

Rogue looked at him with wide opened eyes.

"Thank you, Sting…" he whispered weakly, feeling his hands trembling form the shock and relief.

"Is everything all right?" Sting asked quickly, avoiding the wing of annoyed beast, that started to rampage more and more inside the cave, slowly destroying everything around.

The Shadow Dragon Slayer only nodded. What else he could do? Tell his friend that just while ago he heard the voice of shadow? Of something that should be gone long time ago?

Sting frowned a little and after a while sighed.

"Then what are you waiting for? Let's kill that bastard!" he smiled to him, waiting for his friend to activate Shadow Drive.

It passed a while before Rogue decided to do what his friend demanded. Sealing off all his thoughts he just gave up to the power flowing through his body and trying to not think too much, trying not to be afraid of the shadow he activated the second level of his powers. He synchronized with Sting and soon the ranging beast was cornered and in result, dead at the cave where it was hiding itself for quite a long time already.

"Ugh, pathetic!" Sting sighed, looking at the dead body of Wyvern, sitting on the rock and panting loudly. "Since when we are so weak, huh? We couldn't even defeat some brainless beast without our Drives…"

Rogue didn't answer, sitting at the other side of the cave and watching carefully the shadows. He couldn't believe that it caught him off guard and in result Frosh was put in real danger. How could he be so careless?

The shadow. Rogue thought he would never have to worry about it. For a few weeks he tried to convince himself that whatever could happen, Sting was beside him. Sting would stop him. Even kill, if necessary. And he believed it, since it disappeared and seemed to be gone forever. But now the shadow returned, driving him crazy all the time. Whispering to him. Demanding his sanity.

"Is really everything all right with you?" the voice of Sting passed his thoughts.

The black haired wizard shook his head to return to reality.

"Yes, don't worry," he answered. Just then he noticed that right now Sting was pulling the diamond scales out of the Wyvern's body.

"What are you doing, Sting?!"

"What? No one said we have to deliver this thing untouched," the White Shadow Slayer smiled to his friend, getting a few more scales. "Do you know how much worth are these things? They are diamonds!"

Rogue sighed. It was right; the scales of this creature were diamonds. Wizards all over the world were hunting this species just to get hold of these precious things. But of course it wasn't easy. Till now only four mages managed to do this. The Diamond Wyvern was really intelligent beast, specialized in hiding. His body was really hard as diamond and only one spot was weak enough to allow the mages kill it.

"The major of the city never said he wants all these scales for himself," Sting added after a while. "He said that some creature was attacking people and that could possibly be Wyvern. He had no idea it was Diamond one. I bet he won't have anything against getting some of these for ourselves, since we will deliver almost untouched, big diamond just into his hands."

Well, actually this was the truth as well. The citizens, not the major of the nearby city knew what was killing people lately. This put them two into really convincing situation.

He shook his head and approached his friend, as well pulling some scales out.

They never saw someone as happy as these people of the city, when the dead Diamond Wyvern appeared on the central square. When the major requested mages of the Sabertooth, he really had no idea it was such rare thing hiding in the cave. Who actually would imagine something like that? This species never was so aggressive to attack people, and its usual size never allowed them to fight with any mages. Through the thousands years of existing Diamond Wyvern learned to avoid people just to not be caught and bereft from its scales. But the one Sting and Rogue defeated was not only aggressive but also so big, that its diamond scales – even if thinned a little by Twin Dragons – could support the citizens for a few years. Both of the wizards couldn't help but laugh alongside them at this wonderful fate. Not to mention everyone was treating these two powerful mages as some gods.

Well, not like Sting had something against being treated like that…

"You found great opportunity to be on the lips of everyone, didn't you?" asked Rogue, looking at his friend, who pleased by the praises, couldn't stop smiling proudly and more cocky than always.

"We did a good job, Rogue. If they are gonna treat as like gods, then let them be," Sting answered. "I heard they have really good food, so maybe we could convince them to make a party for us."

The dark haired boy sighed.

"You are acting like Fairy Tail's wizards, Sting. The only things they are thinking about are parties with people," he murmured, walking away from the crowd. He really hated such a big crowd of people in his so close presence.

"We can always return to the way guild was before the Games, Rogue," the White Dragon Slayer laughed at the face of his friend after mentioning 'the chase for power', how they called what the guild was doing before.

"Maybe not," Rogue sighed again.

He looked around the square. People were gathering at the center, watching carefully the creature. Some of them seemed to be afraid of it as if the wyvern could stand alive. Some of them also started to pull out the diamond scales; the major was laughing at the side, catching Sting in the talk. Frosh and Lector disappeared somewhere and he could bet the red cat wanted to go investigate the city.

And surely there was nothing dangerous. He couldn't spot any suspicious thing. He couldn't see the shadow. But also he couldn't get rid of feeling that he was watched. That something followed him the whole way from the cave. Like something wanted to trap him.

He hated this feeling. In his whole life he never experienced something like that. As a Shadow Dragon Slayer, Rogue used to hunt the prey but never was hunted himself. This awful feeling filled him with slight fear and anxiety. What if the shadow would posses him right now? And he would kill all these innocent people? What if he would kill Sting?

The black haired mage shook his head. It wasn't the time to let the panic control him. It could still be only his imagination. He had not enough sleep lately and he felt mentally tired. And since the Grand Magic Games ended, Rogue subconsciously avoided his powers as much as he could, in fear the shadow could get him. No wonder that this time, when Sting wanted to use their Drives to kill the wyvern his mind gave such an illusion of shadow.

He should get hold of himself, because this time the cost of his weakness was almost the live of Frosh…

"Are you listening to me?" Rogue heard the voice of his friend just before the strong hand shook his body.

Sting was now standing beside his friend, looking at him almost insistently.

"Huh? Sorry, I was thinking…" The Shadow Dragon Slayer answered.

Sting sighed impatiently and shook his head.

"The major offered us his guest's room tonight. And said we could take the bath before the party. He has the hot spring!" the blonde smiled widely.

Rogue nodded. It would be great to wipe the whole sweat after long fight with this beast. His body was also a little sore, so the long bath in hot springs could do miracles now. He didn't have to participate in the party later, after all Sting already knew very well how the black haired boy hated such noisy events. There were so many things to do later – he could walk around the beautiful surroundings of the city, or just wander between the buildings, or do nothing particularly. He could also just go to sleep, but after today's incident in the cave, Rogue was too afraid of it.

"But what about Frosh and Lector?" he asked, looking around and searching for their two little friends.

Sting shrugged.

"Don't worry. Lector won't allow themselves to be lost. They will find us," the blonde answered.

Rogue looked at him skeptically. Last time when Lector took Frosh alone for shopping, the green Exceed got lost.

"What?" Sting busted.

His friend shook the head.

"Nothing. Let's go. I'm tired already," the gloomier one said calmly, quickly looking around to see if there was no shadow nearby.

Nothing…

He still couldn't stop to think about everything, even following the major in the way to his house. Today he almost lost Frosh because of his stupidity. He let the panic control him and in result the shadow almost caught his heart. There was no excuse for something like this. His weakness caused him to hesitate. And this hesitation almost cost him the biggest prize.

Rogue sighed. If Frosh would die now, he would surrender to the darkness. He knew he would be too weak to fight it. And Sting wouldn't be bale to take him back. This darkness was still somewhere inside his mind, waiting quietly. Could it be that it wanted him to let Frosh die today so he would surrender? Could the shadow have such developed mind to take this action? Tease him all the time, so he was slowly loosing his sanity?

After a while he shook his head.

What was wrong with him? He accepted the fate of his other self after all! He promised he would never become such a monster! He promised Frosh and Sting! So how he could just give up to these sad thoughts? Everything to be done was just get hold of himself!

The Shadow Dragon Slayer didn't even notice when they finally reached major's place. He was sunk in his own thoughts, struggling with his mind, that only when Sting caught his shoulder, when the warm hand of blonde gasped on his body making him shiver, he noticed they were inside their guest's room.

It was big space, although not as big as their apartment in Sabertooth's main building. Two beds were standing at the opposite sides of the room, looking really soft and inviting. Rogue wanted to sink into this nice-looking bed and fall asleep. Or at least take a nap. Anything.

"Rogue…"Sting started, standing behind his back. "What's wrong with you, huh?"

The black-haired boy shook his head.

"Nothing is wrong with me," he answered back, wanting to take off Sting's hand from his shoulder. It was almost burning, this touch of his friend. Almost demanding. Ordering him to tell the truth. To tell everything.

But he couldn't.

"You are quiet today, Rogue," Sting added.

After a while Rogue managed to smile ironically.

"I'm always quiet, Sting. Opposite to you."

After a long while of silence the White Dragon Slayer sighed.

"Not like this. Usually you are only not interested to say anything. Or you just don't have the mood to talk. Or you just don't have anything to say. But now you are far away with your thoughts. What's wrong?"

This time it was Rogue who sighed.

"Nothing, Sting. I'm only tired after fight with Wyvern. And I'm worried about Frosh. Last time we left them two alone Frosh got lost…"

"You didn't have to remind me, Rogue," Sting snorted, for a long while observing his friend and wondering why the Shadow Dragon Slayer lied to him. "Okay, bath time!"

And he pulled slightly resisting Rogue to the bathroom and the place where hot springs was waiting for their tired bodies.