Chapter 55: Live Together as Brothers or Die Together as Fools

A/N: Hello! Today will be shorter as well, but for good reason! I won't say why because you can always just, I don't know, read the chapter maybe? But! But I will as promised, tell you guys a secret. Lucy will be fighting even though the schedule does not say it, but she will not be fighting Mern. Now, I apologize this shout out is so late but shout out to mrady for the follow! And the regular shout out to sashaXmafuyuFORVER and brucie86, you guys rock! Now ENJOY THE CHAPTER!

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Start of Battles (Rogue POV)

I land on the roof and look at the lacrimas to see where exactly Sting is and see he is in the room closest to the exit, the room also being the smallest of them all. 'Not a very big room, it is very small actually. Perfect. Let's get this over with.' I look and find the appropriate hole and jump down, free falling towards where Sting is waiting and land right next to him, but he doesn't even flinch. "Why hello there." I said and he looked at me over his shoulder, shrugging at me. I yell and turn towards where the lacrima is, yelling, "Shadow Dragon's Crushing Fang!" Shadows come from my hand and destroy the lacrima, cutting us off from the prying eyes that were watching us. "Well, now we are all alone now."

(POV Change to Lucy)

I watch the lacrima and see everyone talking to their opponents, that is until Rogue destroys his lacrima. 'What the fuck! What is he doing?! NATSU!" I yell through the telepathic link Mern set up for us and I reach him.

'What? Where's the fire?' He asks.

'Rogue has gone, well, rogue. He destroyed the lacrima in his room, I have no way to know what he's doing.' I answer and I hear Natsu mentally curse.

'Ok, ummm. Well in reality we have no choice but to trust him. He is part of our family afterall.' Natsu said and I sighed, returning my focus to Juvia who has begun her battle with Gray.

'I hope your right. Because, I never trusted him like you did.' I think to myself and watch with great interest as the married couple dukes it out.

(POV Change back to Rogue)

"Well, now we are all alone now." I say and Sting turns around to face me a big smile on his face, "I missed you, bro."

"Me too. How was the mission? Have fun joining up with Natsu-san again? Must have brought back memories of when we all fought together seven years ago." Sting said and I smiled at the memory, the three of us fighting Mard Greer and winning.

"Yeah, but he's still as stupid as he was back then." I said and we both laughed with each other, like we had seen each other every day for the past year, which we hadn't. "How's Yukino doing?"

"She's good. Doing a good job of pretending to be my girlfriend too. We have everyone fooled, even Obra and Rufus believe us. Although Obra also believes that he can take Laxus on, one on one." Sting said and we both laughed at our guild mate's stupidity, but Sing sting stopped as he looked like he remembered a bad dream, "But we still can't find the young missus."

'Minerva. Gods, why are you such a bitch Minerva? Just come home, he clearly misses you so why do you like to torture him?' I thought to myself as I sighed and put a hand on his shoulder, "Hey don't worry, we'll find her. I promise you, and I now know she's definitely not working with a dark guild again because I would have heard about it. We dealt with a lot of shady people over the past year and none of them said they knew anything about her, so my guess is she's still abroad." It was all lies. I had heard that she had indeed gone back to her old life and it broke my heart.

He visibly brightened at my lies and smiled at me, "Good! Now, onto some business. What did you learn about Natsu-san and Lucy-san?" He asked me while sitting down, and I soon joined him on the floor.

"A lot. But none of it is good for us. Natsu and Lucy are way out of our league. WAY OUT OF IT. He killed semi dragon demons when we killed Zeref like they were practice dummies and, according to Yukino's scale of celestial mages, Lucy is on a whole new level of her own. She can summon up to six lesser spirits and can summon the Spirit King, his paladin, Loke, and another one called Aquarius all at once. It's mystifying just how strong they became. I don't even know how it happened, they won't divulge just how it happened and say very little about those missing years." I said and saw Sting slouch and pout, upset by the fact that Natsu was still way out of his league.

"What about the other members, like that other married couple?" He asked looking at me.

"Esoj and Nena, that's their names. Well, they are the second strongest duo they have, and they together were the two who actually killed Zeref. Natsu got stuck outside during the fighting and couldn't be there. Together, they could take on Natsu, maybe, definitely Lucy. They would beat us in a two on two showdown, and one on one is no good either. They are probably too much to do one on one, but the two of us together could very easily take them one by one. Very easily." I said and Sting nodded, putting that fact into his plans.

"Any others we should worry about?" He asked and I could only think about one thing, well two things or persons rather.

"Yeah, two more mages who remind me of us in a way. They both are really close, like us, and one uses light magic and the other shadow magic. But here's where the similarities end, they are both half demon. They were captured by Tartarus apparently back in the day and made into partial demons as an experiment. They were the only successes from it. Their names are Rai and Gōsuto, and they both work well together. But we could probably take them one on one if need be. They may be demons but they aren't invincible, we could take them." I said and he nodded, surprised by the parallels we shared with them.

"Good, very good. Any other good bits of information? The council is up my ass on this, they want Natsu in jail, they want him bad. Anything we could use? Anything to get him to surrender peacefully?" He asked and I immediately knew what we could use, but I felt bad doing it.

"Yes, there is one thing. They recently had a baby, a baby girl. They left her however behind in Naito with some people, including two dragons but one of those dragons can't fly anymore, the fire one Igneel. They also left some spirits behind too. None of the strong ones though so the place is relatively unguarded, we could, you know go there and take the baby. Use it as leverage to get Natsu to surrender himself." I said hestitantly and looked at Sting who looked like he was deep in thought, unsure of what he should do.

He waited a moment later before shaking his head back and forth, like giving the idea a final debate in his head before saying, "I don't see a better option. Alright. Let's do it." He got up and dusted himself off, and then helped me up before asking, "How long to Naito?"

I thought about it and said, "If we use my shadow transportation technique, maybe a few hours. Maybe less if I use dragon force. What should we do, conserve time or energy?"

Sting thought about it and then said, "Time. We need to hurry up. Now are you sure this is the only option?"

"The easiest one yes, and the one that could probably end all this today. Having some doubts?" I asked and hoped he would say yes, this way was the easiest but also the dirtiest way to do this, it made me feel physically dirty to be doing this to them.

"No, just making sure. Now let's go. You know how I hate wasting time and I don't Natsu catching up with us. Let's go, NOW." He said and emphasized the last part, but I could tell he didn't like this plan either, he would have preferred a straight up fight like any warm blooded male, but as it stands this was the best option.

We both walked to the exit and walked outside, blinded by the sun for a second as the room we were in was very dark, but our eyes soon adjusted and he grabbed my shoulders. Then I became the shadows and used them to travel, going into my dragon force so we could get there in about an hour. It felt extremely nostalgic, the two of us fighting together and living by our old adage, 'Live Together as Brothers or Die Together as Fools. We really are the epitome of ting and yang, light and dark and I like it this way.'

(POV Change to Lucy)

I watch as Juvia's fight continues and have a small smile on my face, 'Perfect. Absolutely perfect. This is going according to the plan. Yes, yes keep fighting you two. Show him what it feels like to suffer and not be understood... Wait. What is that?' I looked over the roof of the arena and see Sting and Rogue, clearly not fighting but instead walking away together. 'And now they are going somewhere. What is that direction? ...Wait. No. NO! NO NO NO! THE ONLY THING THAT WAY IS... HOSHI!'

I jump up from where I was sitting and start yelling my mind, 'NATSU! NATSU CAN YOU HEAR ME?! NATSU!' But it was to no avail, it was as if the telepathic link was cut off somehow, "MERN! MERN, WHERE ARE YOU?" I yell and check the lacrima to find that his room is now dark too, Mern and Karr nowhere to be seen.

'NO! Goddamn! I need to stop them! Sorry Natsu, but Hoshi comes first!' I think to myself and begin to gather magic to teleport to Hoshi's side but stop as i hear a loud explosion. I look and see that the room Juvia and Gray were in is now missing a wall, and Gray is running away with Juvia in hot pursuit. 'Where the fuck are they going? Wait, isn't that where... Oh dear gods no. There going to where they used to live! If they go there he might be able to show her that we were lying! Fuck! What do I do?'

Then as if the gods were listening, Rai and Gōsuto came up from their rooms, relatively unharmed and bagging on each other, laughing at each other like brothers always do. I run over to them and yell, "Rai and Gōsuto! I need your help!"

They stop laughing after hearing the panic in my voice, and Gōsuto asks, "What's wrong?"

I then tell them, "Rogue was a traitor! A double agent! He was never really on our side and now he's going to Naito with Sting in tow. He's going after my little Hoshi! I need you two to follow them and stop them! I have to stay here and help Juvia, please I need your..."

I never finished my plea for help as Rai and Gōsuto both looked at each other and Rai said, "Say no more. Our families are there too you know. We will leave immediately, you still have that connected shadow dimension?"

Gōsuto nodded and said, "Yeah, we can be there in an instant, let's go!" They looked at me and nodded as I fought back the tears of gratitude that threatened to leak out of my eyes, and Gōsuto reassured me, "Don't worry! We won't let them touch Hoshi! Rai hold on!"

Rai grabbed onto Gōsuto's shoulder and a second later they were gone, into Gōsuto's shadow dimensions. 'Thank you you two. Please hurry and protect her. Gods speed. Now, to deal with a certain estranged couple.' I gripped my keys tightly and ran in the direction Juvia and Gray had run off in, hoping I wasn't too late.

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A/N: Dun dun dun! Props to brucie86 who totally called this twist! Surprised? Good. That's how I like you guys, on your toes at all times. if anyone noticed, lately the titles have seemed pretty thematic to the chapter right? Especially as of late, as I have taken to using famous quotes or quotes I have found as the title. I hope you guys like that and I hope you guys like the new summary, I know I do! Tell me your thoughts as always and,Remember! READ AND REVIEW, OR FAVORITE OR FOLLOW EVEN IF YOU SO PLEASE! ADIOS!