She longed to learn who she was and only he had the answer. Problem? He was in Sabertooth and she was in Fairy Tail, two rival guilds. On the road to get answers, she finds herself falling for his partner. [StingxOC] [RoYu] [NaLu] Other pairings inside.

The Shadow's Light

Sting X Nina (OC)

Enter The Battle!

Nina sprung back to avoid one hit and sent a few more flying with the counter of hers. She was not surprised it was proving difficult, but the fact there was no safe spot for their Exceeds was troublesome. But, the had been training as well as the rest of their friends. Nina melted into one shadow and launched out of another, sending a few flying. Training with her fiancé and brother allowed her to not only have her own Shadow Drive, but it allowed her another form that mixed the Lightning she had from Laxus as well as her own Shadow magic. Even Minerva had trained her stamina to a point she was on the same level as the other two. Seeing an enemy going after Froche, she dashed before landing a hard punch to the gut, sending him flying into the others. "Stay away from Froche, ya idiots!" She warned as the cat smiled in thanks and kept to her side while Shina, in her version of 'battle mode' took out a few others.

Shina mastered the transformation technique like Carla had, but went a step beyond to merge Lily's battle mode with said transformation. As a human, Shina had blue and yellow streaked hair, with blue cat ears on the top of her head. She also had an outfit that changed with her transformations, no matter what clothes she wore. Her eyes were a pretty gold color and her tail was completely blue, blending into what ever outfit she wore. "I got your backs!"

"Thanks, Shina!" Nina said as she roundhouse kicked another attacker into another line. "Any clue where Yuki went?" She called.

"She's not too far, she's helping the other area just east of here, near the woods." Rogue answered, attacking another one. As soon as he said that, his own mate came running towards them. "Yukino?"

"We... gotta pull back!" She ordered. "There's a member of the Spriggen 12! He's the God of Death!" She informed.

Nina's eyes widened at that. 'T-The God of Death!? N-No way. I thought I was insane with feeling this murderous aura!' "Sting! She's right, pull back! We'll have to wait until our friends get here!"

"You heard the lady! Pull back!" Sting ordered, their own army doing so at his words, retreating far enough to not feel the aura as bad. He sat down with Nina right beside him. "We've taken far too many causalities..." He said with a huff as he stared at the map.

"They have too many troops..." Lector pointed out.

"Froche thinks so, too." Froche agreed.

"But we need to stop them!" Rogue said.

"Indeed." Yukino agreed.

Nina frowned and put her finger down that was being used to talk to Warren. "Our other forces have the same problem... Lyon's group has been pushed back by two other members of the 12... And... The Emperors..." She trailed off as she felt something break inside her soul. She knew Warrod was also a founding member of Fairy Tail and it was like something told her he was in bad shape as she looked in that direction. 'Warrod-sama. Please... Be alright...' "Warren said everyone's being pushed back... Huh? Hold up..." She got another report from Warren and what he said made her hand drop like it was a rock while her body began shaking.

"Whoa.. Wha... Talk to us..." Sting said.

"N-N-Natsu's... down... like... bad... According to Porlyusica-hīrā... It's an anti-ethernanos tumor..." She shook her head to try to comprehend that idea, knowing from reading that it was a deadly diagnosis. And the wild card in this war was down for the count because of it. "He's apparently recovering, but... It's not looking too good..."

"Goddamn idiot..." Rogue said softly. "He pushed himself to far with going alone..."

Sting held Nina tighter as he rested his chin on the top of her head. "That just means we gotta do something for him, too. We gotta do something..." As he spoke, he continued to soothe his girl to try to stop her from shaking.

Nina was about to respond when an all-too familiar magic suddenly appeared. "A-Are you kidding... Ac-Acnologia! He's here too... I recognize that evil magic anywhere!"

"The hell!? Wasn't he injured by Igneel?" Sting asked.

"Apparently... He's not too happy about that... But... A tiny bright spot: he might've taken out one of the Spriggan 12... Unfortunately." She then calmed down enough to use her shadows to feel out the conditions of others and had a shadow feel that Laxus wasn't completely healthy, which made her bring her magic back in. "Stubborn... Laxus isn't any better... He's still... feeling the effects... of the anti-magic particles..."

"How... Nevermind. I forgot he's the grandson of Makarov... And he's a Dragon Slayer... We don't know the meaning of 'stay down'." Sting replied. "Knowin him, he might try to be a hero again and try to save the guild again."

"If he does... I will never forgive him..." Nina said before sighing. "I need to stretch my legs for a bit... They're goin numb. And try to get some sleep, alright?" She stood up and walked to the other side of their base to a hill overlooking Magnolia and she sat down. 'You idiot, Laxus! You don't have to play the hero! I already think you are one! Sting does, too. And Rogue, Froche, Shina, Lector, Yukino and Minerva, too... Plus, I know you've always been Mira's hero and you can't leave her. It'd destroy her like it would me, but worse... She's your mate, after all. Her pain would be unbearable... Just like if I lost Sting...' Her hearing heard Sting's footsteps long before they reached her. "You should rest up." She said.

"I was about to say the same thing to you. It's obvious you can't sleep and I can't either, knowing all this is eatin ya up on the inside." Sting stated as he stood a few feet behind her. "Just let it out. I'm here for ya."

Nina bit her lower lip and clenched her hands before letting out a shaky sigh. "I hope this is a bad nightmare... Natsu's down, Laxus is dying despite his efforts, The Thunder Legion was taken out and even the Emperors of Ishgal were no match... I just feel like I'll actually never see Fairy Tail again after this... I might be a Dragon Slayer and fought countless enemies, but... This opponent... I don't think anyone's strong enough to beat them... I'm terrified of what could happen and what already has happened..." She began tearing up before she launched herself into her mate's chest, making him stumble a bit from the force as she began crying. "I'm afraid of losing my friends, family and you in one swoop..."

Sting let her air her fears and just held her tight, knowing the feeling, but he was slightly better at hiding it. However, because of their marks, he felt every emotion she felt as he began rubbing her in comfort. "It'll be alright. I'm right here... We can do this together and we'll see tomorrow... And the day after it... You can never lose someone if you keep their memories alive... We are strong, but right now, we are just caught off guard. When we win, we'll have the biggest party in history. And you and I will get married and have many, many arguments that we'll laugh about when we're old."

Nina's tears stopped at that as she looked up to see the honesty in his eyes, which made her smile and met him in a kiss that promised the other exactly that and nothing less would do. She no longer feared the future and how she could lose everyone soon, but would focus on her moments with the man of her dreams, her family and friends. After such an exhausting day, she let him swoop her up and carry her back to their tent, falling asleep along the way.

The next morning, she received word from Warren that Laxus found the culprit for hurting the Thunder Legion. She figured if she went, it would be overkill, so she left it in his hands. They renewed their efforts against the others as she grinned, feeling the electricity in the air right before a lightning bolt struck at Hargeon Port.

"The hell?" Sting was still stunned.

"Typical weather in Magnolia, Champ... Sunny, with a chance of Laxus... And maybe an isolated glacier or two." She had to laugh at how the two were still in awe, despite having Laxus in Sabertooth for a year. One soldier tried to sneak attack, but she spun and brought her heel into his face. "Nice try, jerk. As my brother once said: try as you might, you can't catch a shadow!"

That got him to roll his eyes at his own words being used as a taunt now, seeing how she held herself more confidently than in the past and knew it was because of not only Laxus, himself and Sting. It was because she was fighting for her families, one that took her in and the other that had him in it for years. The past year alone had Rogue witness his sister become the Dragon Slayer he knew she always could be while remaining the same silly girl from their childhood.

Sting sent a few flying with a blast of his magic as he only shook his head at how Nina had changed over night. Not that he'd complain, he loved each part of her and would never judge her. Before meeting her, he always thought he had to look out for not only himself, but Lector. Now, he fought alongside someone who taught someone like him how strong a bond could be, especially between Dragon Slayers. He was glad to have not only met her, but made her his in every sense of the word while not changing a thing about either of them.

Shifting between the shadows, Nina generated shadows from her hand. "Shadow Dragon Slash!" She slammed her fist into another and the force made the person shoot away like it was a bullet from Bisca's gun. Spinning, she did the same thing. "Time to fly, asshole!" She did just that, sending the poor guy into the sky, only for him to crash down.

"That's my line, babe!"

"Mine now!" She teased, dodging hits and sending more flying. However, she had to stop when the smell of the anti-magic particles flooding throughout Laxus's system and had a bad feeling about it as she barely dodged a spear, the blade just barely grazing her chin. "Alright. That's not nice to do to a lady." She said, first kicking between the soldier's leg and, just as he doubled over, brought a fist directly into his face, wondering if she broke every bone in the dude's face as he collapsed.

"You alright, Lita?" Rogue asked.

"Just another cut. Nothin to cry about." She replied as she kept fighting, suddenly smelling that Laxus's condition had changed. There wasn't the smell of anti-magic particles in his system, plus she smelt the shift in his lightning from regular lightning to something he had explained only his great grandfather Yuri knew: Red Lightning. Laxus had explained that it changed the lightning from plain lighting to blood lightning, thus making it a technical upgrade to his normal magic. However, she was suddenly attacked by some sort of magic that she couldn't even guard against as a figure sent her into the ground.

"Nina! Damn y-" Sting was the next to get overwhelmed.

Nina tried her hardest to reach her beloved, but a force caused her to black out. She felt her arms get tied above her head while her feet were also tied together on some sort of object. The cold air hit her skin as she felt something lock around her neck while more hits came from somewhere before she felt like she was hoisted up into the air, unable to do anything because of her limbs not moving. Her ears managed to hear Gajeel and the others in pure shock, figuring she must've looked horrible, but what could she or anyone have done against that? She then felt her body drop only to be caught by someone and brought down to the ground, but stirred when someone touched her face, finding it was Mirajane herself.

"Nina, wake up, please..." She was saying.

"M-Mira-san... Ho-How're everyone?" She said weakly.

Levy answered, having both Yukino and Rogue on her own lap. "We're winning them back! Don't worry."

Sting was next to regain consciousness at those words as tears started to fall. "W-We were pathetic... Just so pathetic... Damnit..."

Nina felt like crying herself, but she was still weak from the ambush they had suffered at the hands of those monsters. With Mira's help, she managed to get to a sitting position before slowly making her way towards Sting to at least comfort him, but barely made it a foot before her arms gave out, Mira helping her the rest of the way so she could comfort her mate, who was constantly muttering 'damnit' over and over. "W...We were overwhelmed... They have three savage monsters on their side..." She said, burying her nose in her mate's hair while he gently held tighter.

"Keh... Well, we got the Savage Six right here!" Gajeel pointed out with a grin. "We'll take your frustrations out on the the enemy, especially for Shad."

"Eh? Me too?" Levy looked as out of place as someone could be with the lineup of Elfman, Mirajane, Lisanna, Gajeel and Lily.

Nina helped Sting to sit by a nearby rock as she went to help up Yukino and the others while those five attacking. She had to admit, she was glad they were their back up and not someone else, cause Gajeel proved he was serious about beating them up for their sake. Helping Yukino over, she blinked at the glare Rogue was giving Sting. She couldn't blame him, but at the same time, this wasn't the Sting she loved, this man was apparently broken after one loss and she wondered why.

"It's all because I couldn't hold it together! I'm the master, but I..."

Nina heard enough and yanked him up to stand before slapping him across the cheek, the anger she felt at him degrading himself evident in her eyes, as well as the pain of seeing him this way. She knew the others were stunned that she just did that, but she had no option to get through his skull. "If you truly our our master... We need encouragement, not this wallowing in pity stuff... I know this isn't the man I love. He'd get back up and go again. He wouldn't give up because of a stupid loss... Please..." Her voice wavered, but she wanted to get her point across.

"Lita..."

"Only you have the power to inspire us to keep going..." She felt a slight tingle in her hand, but she ignored it until he gently held said hand in his own.

"I'm sorry... It must've hurt..." He replied.

"Not that much... After all, I did the slappin, not the other way around..."

"Still, it's gotta hurt not just because you slapped your own pathetic master, but your mate, in the face." He brought the hand up to kiss the palm in an apology while the other rubbed away his tears.

"I'm still sorry I did that..." She replied.

"Nah.. It woke me up, Nina... After all, it's a chance to grow now..." The confidence was back in his voice and it made Nina smile brightly as he wiped away her own tears. "All right! Anybody who can still fight, follow me! THE TIGERS" BELLIES ARE STILL GROWLING! THIS IS GONNNA BE OUT FIRST DINNER IN ABOUT FIVE DAYS!"

Nina felt that confidence rise in unison with the others as she whipped her head towards a group, turning deadly serious as she charged towards them. "SHADOW DRAGON SECRET ART: SHADOW DRAGON'S MAW!" The sheer scale of the attack made the entire group in front of her vanish before she cocked her head to the other ones, her eyes only red glowing orbs in the shadow of her anger as shadows surrounded her. "As for you... SHADOW DRAGON ROAR!" The breath attack took another group out.

"Welp... Now I get why her other nickname was 'Shadow Demoness'." Orga said in sheer shock.

"I've committed it to my memory... For my safety, of course." Rufus agreed.

"They humiliated my mate and made him cry... They will soon fear shadows when I finish with them." She said with such rage she was surprised it didn't break anything.

"Hear that, Cry-Baby master?" Rogue jeered.

"Eh... She can say what she wants..." Sting merely chuckled before Yukino started crying. "Eh!?"

"Not you too, Sunshine!" Rogue said in shock.

Nina then heard a sentence that led to their humiliation. "It's the god of death!" She instinctively bolted back as one of the three that hurt them appeared and went to be behind Sting, who, of course, stood in front of her. However, she smiled when a large rod of iron sent the one into a tree, almost mirroring how she and Shadow Gear had been strung up so long ago.

"How do you like being strung up?!" Gajeel said, his face pure rage. "You just made me remember the worst part of my past!"

Whoot! I hope this helps a lot! I'm also planning another few in my spare time! I'm so excited to get to rewrite some of this! And I normally don't ask, but feel free to leave comments! I wanna see how you react to the changes I've made since Nina joined Sabertooth! ^-^
~~Kiwi~~