Gajeel looked at the three bodies laying scattered across the alley. He needed to put them on display, someplace where everyone could see that Phantom Lord was truly the strongest guild in Fiore. He looked towards the end of the alleyway, he could see a giant tree, it was shining in the moonlight like a beacon. Perfect. He thought. He picked up the little mage and the man with the fish hair and took them to the base of the tree. On his way back to retrieve the speed mage he saw a small shed at the edge of the park. He walked over and quickly found a can of black paint. He picked it up and grabbed Jet taking both back to the tree.

First to go up onto the tree was Jet. Gajeel used his magic extending his legs and made quick work of attaching both of the mage's arms to the tree. Next went Droy, Gajeel decided to drape the broken seed belt over Droy's neck. Gajeel was an artist after all presentation was everything. As he reached for Levy she started to stir. He pinned both of her arms to the tree before she regained consciousness. Levy turned her head taking in the hanging forms of Jet and Droy. She suddenly realized that they were twenty feet into the air. Her vision swayed and she tossed her head back trying to clear her vision. Levy groaned as her head made contact with the rough bark of the tree. Pain shot through her head bringing tears to her eyes. She watched as Gajeel, stilts retracted, crouched down and removed the lid off of the black paint. She groaned causing Gajeel to focus back on her and he smirked, extending his hand towards Jet and Droy's unconscious bodies in a mocking display of courtesy. "Ya like?" He mocked.

"W-Why are you doing this?" Levy asked. Gajeel smiled at the fear in her voice.

"I'm making sure your senile old master doesn't ignore us again." He responded standing up. "Now hold still darling I'm going to leave him a calling card." Gajeel smirked as he touched his paint covered fingers to the soft flesh of her stomach. She flinched away from his touch instinctively every time he came close, and he grinned at the goosebumps that rippled across her arms with each stroke of his thumb. She stared in horror at the growing guild mark, the black standing out in stark contrast to her pale skin.

"Why? What's the point?" Levy asked again.

"Why? That's easy. War. And after what I've just done to you, your master won't have a choice. He will come to us just like Jose wants." He took a step back and looked at his work. Messy but undeniably the Phantom Lord's mark.

"I want war with your pansy-ass Guild. I'm gonna destroy them so that the idea of Fairy Tail ever being stronger than Phantom will be ash when I'm done. I'll take pleasure in making Titania and Salamader bleed. He leaned forward, caught her chin and tilted it up to face him, squeezing her cheeks roughly, leaving painted fingerprints smudged along her jaw. She jerked her head back, making him grin. "Just like this..." He dragged his thumb through the blood that trickled slowly from the cut above her eye and brought it to his lips, smiling hugely at her horrorstruck expression as he licked it clean off.

"You'll never defeat us. Not like that."

He stared at the small mage. She was unbreakable. She should be in a ball, an incoherent mess, but here she was hanging from a tree having a conversation with him.

Her brown eyes drilled into his crimson ones. He could feel the Dragon inside beginning to fight again. "I'll get over this. I'll become stronger and I'll have my friends to help me through. Do you have anyone? Who will help you when the guilt of what you've done takes over you?"

"Shut up!" Gajeel growled. And punched Levy hard causing her to cough up blood. It ran down the side of her mouth and dripped onto his hand.

"I'm sorry, Gajeel. I...I hope that eventually you can forgive yourself." She was fighting to stay in the present.

"Just shut up!" He punched the bluenette again and watched as her eyes rolled back into her head and her body collapsed limp against his iron manacles. He'd never given a shit about the last words of his victims before, and now was not the time to start.

He pressed his hand to her throat. His annoyance grew when he felt relief at the fact that he could feel a thready pulse beating under his fingertips. Only then did he step back and look down at his fingers, smeared dark with black paint and her blood. He looked back back at her unconscious body, and for the first time in a long time, he felt ashamed of what he'd done. He wiped his hand off on his jacket and told himself he was being ridiculous. He'd tortured chicks before, and it hadn't bothered him then, and it didn't bother him now. "But she is your mate" "zip it metal mouth and go back to your cage. I don't want to hear it" He growled at his dragon.

He turned and stalked away to report to Jose. Blending back into the shadows like the ghost he was believed to be. He fought with himself, he wanted to turn around. Give one long last look at the forms hanging from the tree. Barley winning his internal war he kept walking. He would never admit it, but in the end, he couldn't help but feel like he'd won the battle but lost the war.