AN: Oh my god, you guys' reviewing is making me so inspired! This is my second chapter update in was many days! *Borat voice* HIGH FIVEEEE!

Notice: I may or may not have listened to "Monster" by Skillet twenty times before writing this. You've been warned.

Seriously, you guys are the absolute bomb dot com. Thank you so much for all your kind words. It really means the world to me. Enjoy!

Notice: I own nothing, for I am not Hiro Mashima. Amen.

Chapter 4: Keep Me Strong

The way Rogue felt was both familiar and foreign. He was embedded inside a shadow in the ground- that wasn't unusual. He'd been able to turn back and forth between shadows for almost as long as he could remember. The unusual part was how he felt bound to something- that almost never happened before. Instead of his body becoming a shadow, immaterial and free, only his soul had been changed, and had become the shadow of his body, chained to a mortal vessel. He'd only felt this once before- when he had fought Gajeel. But if my soul's in this shadow, he thought, then who's controlling my body?

It had to be him. Rogue's shadow contained a deeply evil spirit that came out to control him in times of extreme danger or stress- when his body and soul were at their weakest. Rogue tried to retake control of his body, but it was no use. Shadow had complete control and didn't even pay attention to Rogue. All Rogue could do was watch.

"St-stay back, dude! I'm telling you, the girl's gonna get it if you don't back off!" Shinai's voice was trembling. Kagura looked terrible. Her arms and legs were turning purple from the poison. Her eyes were barely open. The only thing keeping her semi-upright was Shinai's rough grip on her hair.

Rogue heard himself laugh. "As if I could care. Just try it. It'll make it more fun for me."

Before Shinai could do anything, though, Shadow disappeared. He traveled through the ground in the form of a silhouette, faster than the eye could follow. He burst out of the ground with a Shadow Dragon's slash right across the face, sending Kagura slumping to the ground, straining to lift her head. Rogue screamed her name and reached out to her, but Rogue had no mouth to make a sound and no hand to reach out with.

Shinai rebounded and a magic circle appeared. Twenty poisoned daggers sped toward Shadow, but he disappeared as they neared their mark. He reappeared at close range. "Shadow Dragon's Waxwing Flash!" Ribbons of night curled from Shadow's fingertips and wreathed around Shinai's body, binding him to a nearby tree. Rogue watched helplessly as Shadow tilted back Shinai's head, placed his left hand under his chin, and his pointer and middle fingers of the other hand on Shinai's forehead.

"Tell me, Shinai. Do you have a dark soul?"

Shinai was unable to answer. His babbling was completely incoherent.

Shadow smiled. "You're afraid. Yes, that is good. Fearful souls are always tastier."

"T-t-t-tastier?"

"Of course. I am the other half of the Shadow dragon slayer, after all. I eat the shadows. Do you have any idea how long it's been since I last fed? I couldn't feed on Gajeel because his soul wasn't dark enough. But you- yes, you'll do just fine."

Shadow flexed his jaw muscles in anticipation. "Dragon slayer's secret art- Dark Soul Extraction!" He slowly drew his right hand away from Shinai's forehead, then placed it back again and repeated the motion. A dark cloud of magic energy started to stream from Shinai's mouth, slowly at first and then faster and faster. Shinai screamed in pure, saturated agony as Shadow started to suck up little streams of his humanity down his throat, moaning in pleasure. "Oh, yes, this sensation… how I've missed it…"

"Stop!"

Rogue and Shadow both wheeled around to see Kagura, now standing, leaning on her sword. Her voice was hoarse, and she looked about to collapse, but Rogue could still feel the raw pride and power rolling off her. "I know this isn't you, Rogue. You would never do something so wrong. Now, I want you to get back under control, you hear? If you don't you'll have to answer to me."

I wish that I could, Rogue thought ruefully.

"Fro thinks so, too!"

Rogue's eyes widened. Frosch had left his hiding place in the woods and was marching towards Shadow. "Fro thinks you should get out of Rogue's body right now!" Rogue was doing his best to look brave, and it was honestly probably the bravest thing he'd ever done, but Rogue could tell he was scared.

Shadow wiped a few remnants of shadow from his mouth and leered down at Frosch. "So I get to take over when you die, is that right? Maybe I should speed up the process, little guy!" Shadow's fists became cloaked in darkness, their power amplified by the energy he'd derived from his soul-snacking.

Shadow's fists dropped towards Frosch. "ROGUE, NO!" Kagura screamed. The looks on their faces- Kagura's was rage mixed with the pain of watching an inevitable tragedy, Frosch's was a mixture of terror and trust, trust that Rogue would pull through, trust that his friend was still there, deep down. I'm here, Frosch, Kagura, Rogue thought with all his might. I'm still here. I'm still here. I'm still here.

Kagura watched as Rogue suddenly stopped. His fists froze in midair, the shadows around them slowly fading away. The runes carved all over his arms and face glowed darkly for a second, then disappeared. Rogue slumped to his knees, tears streaming down his cheeks. "I'm sorry, Frosch. I'm so, so sorry."

Kagura lost the remainder of her strength and collapsed. The last thing she heard before she passed out was Rogue's panicked voice: "Healing lacrima! Where'd I put my goddamn healing lacrima?"

"Will she be okay, Rogue?"

Kagura felt a cold hand on her forehead. It felt so nice there- the effect was a good kind of tranquilizing, calming. Her forehead always seemed like it was a little too hot for some reason, but now it was the perfect temperature. She opened her eyes, but couldn't see anything except the inside of the hand.

"Her temperature's going down. Maybe her fever's dropping?"

"Fro thinks so, too!"

Wait, that sounded like… wait. Oh, yeah. It all came rushing back to Kagura now. She pulled the hand away from her face and sat up straight. She quicly scaned her surroundings. She was in the same clearing in the woods, but it was now dark. A small fire blazed a few feet to her right. All the dark guild mages were bound to the surrounding trees and knocked unconscious. She rested in a small, but surprisingly comfortable bed made of moss and leaves. Directly in front of her knelt a certain Shadow dragon slayer, who was now about eye level with her. At her left stood Frosch, clearly surprised she was awake so soon.

"Are you okay?" said Rogue, clearly concerned. "I don't know if I was able to get quite all of the poison out. You should rest more."

"No, I'm fine, I think. Whatever you did, it worked. I feel much stronger already." She was avoiding his eyes. Of course, how could she not? When she looked at Rogue, she still saw the same dark marks, the same evil grin, and the same eerie dull glow in his eyes, even though all those things were no longer there.

"Look, Kagura…" Rogue started, putting a hand on each of her shoulders. "I know that must've been scary. What I don't know is how to come to terms with it. It calls itself my Shadow, and I think the spirit resides within my actual shadow and switches bodies with me when I'm weak. And that's why I need you to help me. I can't let myself ever be physically or emotionally weak, because then he'll take me over again." Rogue shook Kagura's shoulders a little bit, which he knew he shouldn't have, but it was just a product his fear and desperation. "Please, I need you to help me be strong. I can't afford to lose you now."

Kagura steeled herself, and forced herself to look into his eyes. They were the same brooding red, not the evil black. They were full of sadness, but also full of hope, full of caring- for Frosch, and… for someone else?

"Calm down, Rogue. I wouldn't let that happen to anyone if I had the power to prevent it, much less you. I'm sorry for ever doubting you."

There they were again- mesmerized by each other's eyes. Rogue's hands still gripped Kagura's shoulders, but she didn't care. It could've gone on like this forever.

Frosch yawned. "Fro is tired. Fro will sleep now. Let's go eat in the morning, okay, Rogue?"

Rogue smiled. "Of course, Frosch. Sleep well." He gently let go of Kagura's shoulders and let her rest against the bed of mosses and leaves. She was still relatively weak, and sore, sore all over.

"Is Shinai…" Kagura started, then quickly silenced herself.

Rogue shook his head. "He's gone," he stated emptily. "Sure, he wasn't a nice man, and he tried to kill us, but… No one deserves that. No one."

"Rogue." Rogue knelt down to her eye level again. She took his hand. "You cannot- I repeat, cannot- blame yourself for what happened to that man. It is in no way your fault. Do you understand? Repeat after me."

"Why would I do that?"

"To get it through your thick skull. Now, repeat: What happened to him was not my fault."

"What happened to him was not my fault." Rogue paused. "You know, you were right. I do feel better now."

"I'm always right," she said matter-of-factly.

"Yeah, yeah." Rogue mumbled. "I'm going to go replenish the firewood. I'll be right outside the clearing. Call me if you need anything."

Kagura nodded, and Rogue left. He was gone for far too long. Kagura started to get agitated. She almost called his name several times for no reason, but had to restrain herself because that would've been embarrassing. The soreness in her body, especially her shoulders, just kept gnawing away at her stamina.

When Rogue returned, Kagura heaved a humongous sigh, her body letting loose a hugely coiled spring of tension. Rogue looked at her strangely as he dumped the firewood next to the fire. "Something wrong?"

Kagura blushed. "No, no, nothing at all." She paused. "Hey, Rogue."

"Yes?"

"My shoulders are really sore."

"And?"

"Could you… massage them?"

Rogue's face instantly turned as red as a beet. "Uh… I mean…"

Kagura looked down. "Never mind."

"No, no, no! I mean, it's fine, I'd be happy to… I just wasn't expecting it. Here."

Rogue sat down behind her, and Kagura scooched backwards so she was sitting on top of his outstretched legs. She leaned her back against his chest. Rogue gingerly put his hands on her shoulders and began to squeeze in rolling motions, rubbing the stress out of her muscles.

"That's not hard enough," she instructed. "It won't do anything." Rogue pressed so hard she could feel her shoulder blades starting to dislocate. "Ack! No, that's too hard!"

"Geez, make up your mind already, Kagura!" Rogue chuckled. They continued to bicker about it for a while, but soon Rogue got the hang of it and they just sat there in silence for a while, both secretly enjoying the mutual intimacy that didn't need to lead anywhere. Rogue's chest was like the perfect backrest- soft and supple, but firm, with enough support that she didn't have to do any real work holding herself up.

"Your hair is beautiful," she heard Rogue say out of the blue.

Kagura was glad Rogue wasn't able to see her blush.

"What do you mean? Why say that, all of a sudden?"

"Oh, I was just thinking- it still looks purple, even in the dark. I mean, everything else looks black. My hair always looks black. But yours- still purple."

"That's probably because there's light from the fire."

"Oh, shut up! Here I was saying something poetic and you had to go and ruin it!" Rogue said teasingly. He began to tickle her relentlessly.

Kagura was extremely ticklish, but fortunately she was pretty good at suppressing it. "Hey," she said, giggling and snapping her fingers. "Massage!" Rogue grumbled and went back to her shoulders.

More time passed, some indeterminate amount of time that would be forever lost to the world. It could've been ten minutes, it could've been ten seconds. The actual amount of time would have been irrelevant to those two, as long as the other was in that same time frame.

Finally Rogue stopped rubbing her shoulders. "We'd better get some sleep. It's a long walk back to town tomorrow."

Kagura agreed. They both lay down on their sides, each of their backs resting against the other's. Right before Kagura fell asleep, she wasn't thinking straight and just said whatever popped into her head at the moment.

"Rogue, I think I love you."

Rogue snored. Kagura smiled and closed her eyes.

There would be no dreams that night.

Wow. I really hope this gives you guys goosebomps the way it does to me. That's how I know I did my job right. Anyway, thanks so much for reading. Don't forget to rate and review! Let me know your thoughts, and get free advertising for your own endeavors in writing. As always, guys, have an absolutely wonderful day. That's an order. Seriously. Even if your day sucks, make it an awesome one. If life gives you lemons, kick life in the balls and say "Ha! I got your lemons."