After his confrontation with Jose's shadow, Gajeel couldn't face Levy. He decides to leave and ends up meeting Rogue.

.:: Disclaimer ::.

I don't own Fairy Tail or its characters, Hiro Mashima does.

"Shit, with all that crap, I almost forgot about the games..." Gajeel thought.

He felt guilty about letting Levy behind but he couldn't face her right now. Maybe he'd try to talk to her later. Or not.

He heard someone laugh.

"Oh, great, what now?"

It was Rogue.

"Ryos," Gajeel said.

Rogue seemed surprised to hear that name again.

"So did you manage to get rid of that shadow? And why were you laughing?" Gajeel asked.

"Well, I didn't think I would see it one day. The great Gajeel Redfox losing face in front of someone. A girl, what's more."

"Don't look down on her. She's tough. And you didn't answer my question, what happened to Master Jose? Did you really beat him?"

"I wouldn't have succeded if it were the real one. This time, I just needed to know the nature of his magic to annihilate it, because he didn't have all his power."

It seems it worked the same way as charm spells : whenever the mage realizes he was duped, like Rogue was when he was possessed, he could destroy that magic. It made sense, Gajeel thought.

"But if it were the real deal," Rogue continued, "If it was Jose Porla with all his abilities, not only his shadow, I guess only someone who holds the title of Magic Saint could have beaten him. You should watch your back when he's released from prison."

And Juvia too.

"You have grown up," Gajeel simply said.

He wasn't the nostalgic kind, but it was hard to believe that the man in front of him was the same kid he had met two years ago. Oh right, it was actually nine years ago.

"I didn't think you would remember about me," Rogue said.

Of course he did.

Year 782

"Tchh, I can't stand those idiots anymore."

Gajeel Redfox was sitting by a pond, chewing a piece of rusted iron he had found on the way from the guild, watching the frogs jump from one water lily to another. He didn't know how much time he had spent there since he joined Phantom Lord. But whenever he felt like he needed some time alone – usually because he was about to beat the crap out of his so called 'nakamas' – he came there to calm down.

"It's been five years already, huh."

He looked at the sky. Since Metallicana left, he wasn't used to being around people, and that didn't change when he joined the guild a few months ago. But as long as he wasn't with them all the time, he didn't need anything other than the money he got from the jobs he took.

"Those stupid brats who don't know anythi... What is that noise?"

Gajeel froze. Someone was coming. He wasn't ready to face people at that moment, he feared he may not be able to refrain from hitting another human. He hid behind a bush.

"Hope it's not the rain woman..." he thought.

The person was crying. It was probably that Juvia who had just joined the guild. When he wasn't the one leaving the headquarters to be alone, it was her. It wouldn't be the first time they ended up hiding at the same place. The last time, she had spent an hour crying, while he was next to her, not knowing what to do. He couldn't leave at that time – Metallicana wasn't what we call a 'gentleman', but he had taught him that a female's wrath was quite similar to a breath attack from a dragon, so even if he didn't care about getting along with the guys from the guild, he tried not to anger the women. But this time, she hadn't seen him so he decided he could silently leave.

"Here..." a voice said, sobbing. "You can come back to your home, and have some rest."

Gajeel turned around. It wasn't Juvia.

"Of course, it's not raining this time, I should have known it was someone else," he thought.

A little dark-haired boy, who wasn't more than ten years old, was sitting by the pond, a few feet away from where Gajeel had been some minutes ago. He had apparently dug a little hole in the dirty soil, and had put something in it. Now he was recovering the hole, still sobbing.

"I'm sorry, little frog," the boy whispered.

He gently patted the hump and staid there. Gajeel didn't move either until the boy stopped sobbing. Before he realized it, the boy stood up and saw him.

"Who... who are you?"

Gajeel could see the boy was afraid, and he was quite pleased with it: it was a proof he was still scary and hadn't softened up despite spending all that time with humans.

"I can use magic!" the boy said, trying to look threatening.

"Good for you," Gajeel mumbled, about to leave.

"Shadow Dragon's roar!"

Gajeel froze, once again. The attack reached him but he didn't even stagger.

"You are also a..."

The boy was shaking.

"I'm... I'm much stronger than that," the boy said. "It's just that now..."

Gajeel understood he was about to cry again. He didn't know if it was because it would have annoyed him to hear his cries, or if he had softened up, but he headed towards the pond, caught one of the frogs that were next to the edge, and, trying not to squeeze it too tightly, he gave it to the boy.

"I think they eat bugs, you can feed him with that," Gajeel said.

And then he left.

"Gajeel, who is that annoying bug following you?"

"What?"

Gajeel turned around. The dark-haired boy was there, the frog on his shoulder, smiling at him genuily. Ever since he met him a few days ago, he had been followed by him around the town. But it was the first time he had entered the guild.

"Oh crap," he thought.

If the others thought he was taking care of a kid, they would probably stop being scared of him.

"So it's true?" the boy asked. "You're Gajeel, the Iron Dragon Slayer?"

The boy seemed amazed, which flattered Gajeel, even if he would have never admitted it.

"I'm also a Dragon Slayer!"

"What? This brat, a Dragon Slayer?" someone from the guild asked, doubtful.

"My name is Ryos, and I'm the Shadow Dragon Slayer!" he said proudly.

The guild members laughed.

"I don't care if you don't believe me!" the boy said, facing the others.

Gajeel thought he had some guts, standing up in front of a room full of mages. He liked it.

"Gajeel believes me, right?"

He turned towards Gajeel.

"I want to be your disciple."

Everybody laughed again, which annoyed Gajeel. He looked at the boy with threatening eyes. The boy cringed.

"I don't think you're ready for that," he said, smiling evily.

The boy was apparently thinking very fast. He was still scared but one second later, his expression changed, and became more determined. Everybody was waiting for Gajeel's answer.

Gajeel's smile widened.

"My name is Ryos," the boy repeated happily, mistaking Gajeel's smile for a sign of sympathy.

"I don't care about your name," he answered, leaving the room.

When he arrived at the door, he turned back, and addressed to the boy who hadn't followed him.

"What are you waiting for? Training starts right now."

"Are you crazy? I can't do that!" Ryos said, panting. "I'm gonna die!"

"You sure you were raised by a dragon?" Gajeel said with a smirk. "Because the dragon I know wouldn't want to have you as a kid."

Ryos's expression darkened.

"Ouch! I thought we had taken a break!"

Gajeel had just hit him with another attack. They had been training for a week, and whenever he mentionned the dragons, Ryos would remain silent. The only way Gajeel found to break the silence was to use his fists.

And it worked.

"Dragons don't take breaks, brat."

Gajeel got near him, an evil expression on his face.

"You want to get stronger?"

Ryos stopped breathing, surprised by the proximity of such a source of evilness.

"Y... yes..."

"Then, you need to have a goal. When you reach it, find a new one. And so on. What is your goal, frog?"

"My... my name is Ry-"

"I don't care about your name."

"It's..."

Ryos closed his eyes and tried to gather some courage.

"My name is Ryos and my goal is to defeat you!"

"Good."

Ryos opened his eyes.

"Then you won't need to find a new goal for a long time."

It had been two weeks since they started training. His pupil was already quite strong for a kid his age, and Gajeel managed to increase his power. Lately, Ryos was even able to inflict some pain to his teacher with his attacks, but Gajeel didn't show it – he was quite pleased to see how much fear he could provoke and didn't want that to change.

"Gajeel, you idiot! I told you to stop doing that!"

"Who are you talking to like that?"

Gajeel arrived earlier that day, intending to attack Ryos by surprise to see if he could defend himself.

"Ah, you're here! I wasn't talking to you, it's the frog," Ryos answered, smiling brightly while showing him the frog Gajeel had given him the day they met. "I called him Gajeel, because he-"

Ryos's smile vanished when he saw his teacher's expression.

"I... I didn't mean to..."

"You think you can use my name like that?" he said, articulating each word in a menacing tone.

"He... he kinda looks like you..."

Gajeel punched him in the face, sending him flying.

"I don't mean that you look like a frog!" Ryos said, standing up, already prepared to fight.

"What could 'he looks like you' mean, then?"

They had started the training.

"He's my best friend, and you are my best friend too, so..."

Gajeel stopped for a second, which gave Ryos the time to attack him.

"Ouch!"

"Haha, gotcha!"

"Stupid..." Gajeel mumbled.

He got up and gave him a quick punch.

"You're still weak."

Ryos seemed annoyed.

"But you might be useful. I'm going tomorrow on a mission. A very dangerous one. You think you can handle it?"

"R... Really?"

Gajeel had never seen Ryos so happy.

"Don't think I'll be there to watch your ass, and don't think I'll give you half of the reward. You'll only have ten percent."

But he didn't seem to care.

"Then, it's settled. But first, you have to become a member of the guild, and for that, you have to ask Master Jose."

"Yes!"

An hour later, Gajeel was waiting for Ryos outside the guild. When he got out, the smile he had on his face all the way to the guild had disappeared.

"I am not a part of the guild," Ryos simply said. "Master Jose refused."

Then he looked at him coldly.

"Whether you think I'm strong or not doesn't matter. I won't be restrained by you anymore. I'm gonna be a part of the guild someday, and I will defeat you."

"What the..."

But Ryos left without further explanation.

Back to year 791

"You called me 'Ryos' earlier, you remembered my name," Rogue said.

"Well, you kept repeating it, I'm not dumb. What's with the 'Rogue' thing anyway? Why did you change your name?"

"I wanted to forget about that past."

Gajeel smirked.

"Which is obviously the reason why your goal of beating me never changed, brat."

"I don't want to hear that from you," Rogue mumbled.

Gajeel wanted to ask how he had lived for the past few years, why such a cheerful boy could have become such a dark man. Was it because of Jose's words? Of Sabertooth?

"I've held a grudge against you for so many years," Rogue said as if he had guessed what Gajeel was thinking, "and my grudge intensified when I joined Sabertooth, a place where anything that can make you win a battle is welcome. Now I don't really know what to do now anymore. I failed, I didn't beat you. Is it the time for me to 'find a new goal'?"

"I'm not your teacher anymore, only you have the answer."

"Well, you were never a teacher, anyways. Or maybe you were, but a crappy one."

"How dare you..." Gajeel said, but he was smiling.

"I guess I was deceived by Jose twice - when I wanted to join Phantom Lord and just a few minutes ago. But it doesn't matter anymore."

Gajeel didn't say anything.

"Just so you know, I haven't given up on beating you," Rogue added.

His former teacher smiled again

"Bring it on whenever you want."

After a moment, Rogue decided it was time to leave. He started to walk away, but stopped after a few steps and looked back at Gajeel.

"Congratulations," he said. "It seems Fairy Tail is going to win."

Hello everyone !

I was supposed to update earlier but I was waiting for the last chapter (322) to be released, and I have a lot of work right now... About the chapter, don't know if you have read it and I don't want to spoil you, so I'll just say that I was waiting to know how the games would end before I decide what to do with my story. Except that if I do that, it's not funny anymore, and I will never finish it so you have to know that it will probably be different even if the plot is, at the beginning, the same as the real story. Anyway, it doesn't really matter ^^

More important : Thank you, all those who follow the story, I'll try my best not to disappoint you guys x) and thanks for the reviews, also!

To Double Cheese : about Jose's reappearance, I have to admit it's a theory I read somewhere on mangafox forum, but I was unable to find the post again... I found that theory plausible and interesting, because it would have enabled me to add a storyline about Juvia and Gajeel, but I didn't have the time to do so, maybe in another fanfic ^^ As for Levy in the arena, well... I counted on the fact that they are not in the arena anymore but in the whole city - as it was stated at the beginning of the last day - to make it plausible, even if it's not. It's difficult for me to think they evacuated the whole town for the games, so there could be people (but not Levy since she's cheering on FT) but it's still possible they did forbid anybody to be there because it's dangerous. Anyway, about Gale, it's not over yet, there'll be a part about them later ^^ Oh and it's always great to find out you took the time to leave a review, so thanks a lot for that ! PS : my crackpairing will be back as well, but I still need to find how to make Doranbolt and Lahar react about Eclipse...

To everybody : as usual, let me know if you like the story by posting a review, and tell me if you have some ideas about what will be next x)