~Gajeel~

Damn, I thought, over-hearing Levy and Lucy’s conversation about me. I hadn’t wanted her to find out that way. Thanks a lot, Rogue. You asshole. I looked up as I heard someone flying towards us, and spotted Lily as he landed at my side. “Why are you here?” I frowned.

“I came to give you assistance. The way you took off before, I assumed you had history with Mephistopheles, and I thought you might need help.”

I snorted. “He hasn’t gone by that name in a long time. Probably just as long as I haven’t gone by Gabriel.” The panther’s eyes widened, and his mouth opened slightly, as if he were about to say something. When he didn’t, I sighed. “That isn’t important right now. We have to focus on Rogue. He isn’t going to go down easily. He was a high-ranking angel, and now that he’s Lucifer’s right-hand, I’m sure he has more than a few new tricks up his sleeve.”

“Very astute, brother,” Rogue said, a wicked smirk on his face. “Master Lucifer has given me quite a few tricks over the last two millennia. Shall I show you one?” Before I could answer, he raised one of his arms, his fingers straight out and pointed at me. With the movement, a shadow-like figure shot towards me. I jumped out of the way just as the shadow struck, shattering the stone wall behind me.

“What the hell was that?!” Lily shouted.

“I don’t know,” I frowned, shaking my head.

“Nothing more than a shadow,” Rogue chuckled. “Quite deadly if it gets too close.”

“Shut up, ya bastard,” I snapped.

His smile turned to a frown, and he threw out his arm again, sending another shadow my way. As I dodged his first attack, he sent a second and third, finally hitting me. The shadow pierced my shoulder, fading as soon as it has hit its mark.

“Damn it!” I winced, covering my bleeding shoulder with my good arm. This is going to make it difficult to fight him.

“Gajeel!” Levy’s worried voice reminded me why I was fighting, and knocked any doubts I’d had out of my head. I have to protect Levy. I wouldn’t let Rogue or Lucifer or anyone else have her.

“Listen up, blondie,” I said to Lucy, never taking my eyes off Rogue. “Take Levy and get back inside the bus. Fix her up while you’re at it. This’ll be over soon, then we can meet up with the others.”

“I can help!” Levy protested.

“You were almost dead, Shrimp,” I said, chancing a glance at her. That was all she needed. Looking unhappy about it, she agreed, allowing Lucy to help her back to the bus. Her wounds are open again, I thought, noticing all the blood on the ground by her feet. She didn’t have much blood left, so losing any was really bad. If Lucy doesn’t bandage them soon, she might actually die this time. I shook the thought from my mind, turning back to Rogue.

“Alright, PantherLily, show me what you’ve got,” I said.

He grinned, adjusting the large sword in his hand. “Try to keep up.”

I followed as Lily lunged at Rogue, the both of us avoiding his shadows. As Lily swung at his head, I came up behind him, swinging towards his legs. If we managed to at least injure them, it would slow him down. He dodged us both, his body sinking down into the ground.

“The hell?” I frowned, looking around for him. Since when can he do that?! Not giving me time to ponder it, he shot out of the shadows at my feet. I managed to block his hand just before it reached my chest.

“Well done,” he chuckled. “I guess you aren’t as out of shape as I thought.”

“I ain’t been on vacation all these years,” I snapped, pushing him back. As he sunk back down intot he shadows, I took a chance and shoved my sword down into them. At worst, it would just cut the earth. At best, it cut that damned shadowy bastard in half.

A curse came from below my blade, and Rogue reappeared, quickly putting distance between us. Lily attacked before he could steady himself, managing to land a blow to his side. I could tell by the blood that quickly pooled at his feet that the cut was deep. Looking at him, I noticed my blade had also cut into his upper thigh.

“Lily, now!” I shouted. If we give him a second to recover, we won’t be able to stop him. He’s pissed now, so he’ll stop holding back. But if we can take him out now, we can end this and move on to Lucifer.

“It won’t end with me,” Rogue smiled, not even trying to dodge my blade as it pierced his chest, or Lily’s as it went through his abdomen.

“It will,” I told him, watching as he fell to the ground. “I’m going to kill that bastard Lucifer, and then all of this will be over.

He let out a laugh, one that caused blood to pool from his mouth and join the rest of the blood surrounding him on the ground. “You can’t kill him. You can only hope to seal him again. But even then, there will always be others to free him. There will always be others hunting down your precious Geist.” Part of me felt sad, watching as my oldest comrade fell silent. We had been brothers, both by blood and by loyalty, but everything had gone so wrong. He had grown too obsessed with power and allowed himself to be swayed by Lucifer’s fanciful promises of a false freedom and stolen power.

“Rest well, brother,” I murmured, watching as his body faded, “perhaps Mavis will take pity on you and give you a human life in order to redeem yourself.”

“We need to keep going,” Lily said, placing his hand on my shoulder.

I nodded, leading him to the remains of the bus. “How is she?” I asked, immediately.

“Fine,” Lucy answered. “I got her bandaged up again, and I gave her enough medication to knock her out for the next several minutes—just until her body has a little time to recover. As soon as she wakes up, though, she’ll need to go do whatever it is she does to gain power. She’d heal a lot faster if she did.”

“Right.” I sat in the driver’s seat, grinning when the bus actually came to life when I turned the key.

“Gajeel?” Lily questioned.

“Hold on tight,” I instructed, “we need to catch up to everyone, but I’m not leaving Levy alone again. We’ll just take the who damned bus along.”

“This is a terrible idea,” Lucy groaned, putting on her seatbelt and holding Levy tightly against her.

“Have I ever had a good idea?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

She snickered, “not really.”

I smirked, putting the bus into gear and flooring it.