A/N I don't know if Luke's Mother was given a name so she's just called Luke's Mum all the time. This is set somewhere after the first series. It's not brilliant, but they could make an episode out of it. Hopefully Luke angst, if I've written it any good. Enjoy…

If you had to choose between your best friend and your partner, which one would you pick?

This is the situation Luke had gotten himself into, choosing between Mina, his girlfriend or Ruby, his best friend. He wasn't exactly sure who they were, but in his heart he knew he cared about both of them. His head feet like it was a balloon it would have been a hard choice, but the fact he was now dizzy and on the verge of consciousness didn't help. He was holding out for there last hope, that Galvin would find them in time.

**

Luke was angry, he had made other plans for the night, but yet again he had ended up killing lower grade demons with Galvin. His social life was rapidly deteriorating. Luke was using this particular session as a release for his anger, he wasn't letting any get away tonight. So when one ran off round the corner he followed close behind, not knowing he was being led into a trap.

He rounded the corner blindly to run into an outstretched, slightly green coloured palm, slicing towards his throat, it was to late to move out the way. He was hit with great force in the throat, he dropped his gun and fell onto his back gasping for air looking around for his unknown attacker. Then seemingly out of nowhere a greenish manky looking demon appeared, he leaned over Luke's face and released a breath in his face. Luke inhaled the breath and passed out, no time for remarks about getting a toothbrush, no time to call for help, no time to fight back. He was taken away to the demon's lair.

**

Galvin returned to the car, he huffed, Luke had not yet returned and one of those stupid demons had ripped his favourite coat. Galvin had been waiting around an hour for Luke to return before he actually decided to get out the car and look for him, he wasn't picking up his phone and Mina and Ruby hadn't seen rounded the corner where he had last seen Luke run. He couldn't see anything, he carried on up the road for a bit and found nothing. He started to get an uneasy feeling and headed back to the car, on the way back he spotted Luke's gun discarded in the shadows 'where are you Luke?' he thought.

**

Luke woke up on a cold surface, he tried to sit up but found his whole body was wrapped in rope, he rolled to the side, only now discovering that he was on a raised table he landed on the floor rolling with the impact. He hard laughing and looked up to see the manky green thing standing in the corner, "something funny?" Luke asked

"Oh Luke, no need to be so… cold, we've just met, wouldn't want you to make any judgements to soon would we?"

"Of course" Luke replied sarcastically "you already seem to know my name, I don't know yours, and if you'll untie me I'll even consider shaking hands" he continued.

"I have no name, I have no grade, I don't even exist, and no you can stay tied up, at least until the fun begins"

"Then I shall call you…Meredith," Luke said in return "Meredith the manky monster"

**

Galvin returned to the stacks to find Mina and Ruby having what looked like a civilised conversation, but as he got nearer he heard that it was just Ruby expressing her thoughts on Luke and Mina's relationship. Galvin tossed his and Luke's gun on the table in front of them, "couldn't find him" Galvin said, "nothing to even show he was there apart from the gun, might not even be a demon, might be human, might have to get the police involved" he said starting to speculate in his head. Mina stood up and walked around the table, she reached out for Luke's gun.

She saw Luke twisting around on the floor, it looked like he was in pain, the space he was in was empty, just him a table and some rope laying on the floor. The image changed, a demon slightly off colour wearing a dirty tux, laughing. Then Ruby and herself tied to chairs with Luke on his knees in front of them looking distraught and in pain.

Galvin saw Mina coming out of the vision she stepped backwards, Galvin guided her to a chair, by the time she sat down she was paler than normal. "What did you see?" he asked her,

"Luke he was hurting, it's a demon, not one I have come across before, and then near the end me and Ruby were there, we looked fine, but Luke… he looked distraught"

"Any clues to where he might be?" Galvin asked,

" It was an empty room, no windows that I could see, nothing relevant inside"

"The demon, what did he look like" Ruby asked,

"He was tall, slightly green, wearing a tux"

"Doesn't ring any bells," Galvin muttered, "let's check the books for any idea of who this demon might be"

**

Luke was bored, he was working his way out of the ropes and they were getting looser. Meredith had gone a while ago and had not come back, Luke wasn't sure if he was just going to be left here to rot. He contemplated what Meredith had said before he left, something about showing Luke what he could do to measly humans. Luke had laughed at that and said "bad breath isn't exactly a special talent, and measly human could get back at you with that one."

Meredith had just smirked and left Luke alone. The rope finally came loose enough and Luke crawled out of it. That was when the door swung open and Meredith stalked back in, "hello Lucky Luke, did you miss me?" he taunted. Luke had taken up a fighting stance, "about as much as I miss Mexico, and what do you know, I've never been to Mexico so I guess I didn't miss you at all," Luke lunged at the demon and attacked it, in the way he had attacked many demons before. They fought for a while, neither gaining the upper hand, but then the demon kicked out at Luke bringing him to his knees, the demon took a deep breath and put his hand on Luke's forehead.

Luke fell the rest of the way to the floor and started to scramble around, he could see fire it was all around him surrounding him with no means of escape, he lay on the floor trying to get in a deep breath but there was to much smoke, slowly enveloping him, winding it's way through his body until he could no longer breath. Then there was black.

**

The demon stood and watched as the boy fought his was through the fake reality. This was the demon's main power. This was revenge, Luke's father had killed his family, now he was returning the favour. Slowly and painfully he would break the boy and slowly and painfully he would the die.

Demon's didn't usually have family's, they didn't really hang round in groups either but the ones that did were considered dangerous as they had something to lose, something to fight for, a reason for revenge.

**

The stacks were now a mess, there were books strewn everywhere, each one useless at this particular time. Galvin, Mina and Ruby hadn't even come close to finding anything, Luke had been gone less than half a day but they were feeling the strain already. Mina was feeling the worst, she had seen Luke's condition in her vision, it didn't help, and as time ticked on she could feel him becoming more distant in her heart.

**

Luke woke up slowly, afraid he would see fire, but he couldn't feel the intense heat anymore, so he slowly opened his eyes, shocked to find himself back in the boring room, he wondered what happened, trying to figure it out in his head. But then Meredith the manky monster was there again, with that stupid smirk on his face. Luke was still to confused to fight the demon, but as the demon took a deep breath he shuddered in anticipation. The hand touched his forehead and once again his eyes drifted shut.

This time there was water. Really cold water. It was slowly filling the space around him. He had survived similar before and he could do it again. That's what he told himself, but the water was colder than before and as it slowly made it's way up his body. He couldn't see where it was coming from and he couldn't see a way out, it looked like a solid concrete room, no way in, no way out. He started to panic.

The water had reached his chest and he was shivering and getting weaker with the cold, but he could fight, the others will find me, he thought, the others will get me out. He almost wished he had the fire back, he needed the intense heat, but then his mind started working again telling him that was stupid, it also told him that he could die from hypothermia before he got the chance to drown.

**

Luke had been missing for almost a whole day now, Luke's mum had been trying to get hold of Galvin, but he had been ignoring the calls, eventually he picked up "yep?" he answered, "Galvin have you seen Luke? He hasn't come back since he left with you yesterday night"

"I… erm… he's not here, he's missing"

"Do you mean that as in he's gone out with friends, or you actually lost him" she asked trying to stay calm,

"I'll come by and pick you up, we need to talk" Galvin said before he hung up, he heard her screaming his name on the other end of the line.

"Mina, Ruby, I'll be back later"

"You're going to tell her the truth about all of this?" Mina asked

"Yep" Galvin said, then he left.

**

He was treading the water now but getting weaker as time went on. He had been under a few times but the cold had shocked him out of it and he found strength to kick up again, he didn't know how long he's been there, but it felt like hours even days. Luke was on his last reserves of strength, but they were lingering. He slowed kicking and went under, he tried to kick harder but he couldn't find the top anymore. He thrashed around in the water, but he needed to take a breath, he couldn't hold it any longer, his lungs screamed for air, so he opened his mouth and breathed in the water.

Meredith returned just before the vision ended, the body was shivering on the floor, this vision had no essence of time, it could of felt like hours or days to Luke but the vision had lasted 13 hours in total, now the boy was sleeping, still shivering and feeling the cold. The demon felt no compassion, in fact he wished the boy more pain.

**

Galvin knocked on the door of the Rutherford apartment, Luke's mum answered the door "you better give me some answers Galvin" she said,

"You want answers follow me," he replied. They went out to his car and drove in silence, he pulled up out side the stacks and said "you have to come in here with an open mind," she gave him a funny look and said "just get on with it, I want to see my son"

They got out the car and Galvin lead her through the tunnel to the stacks. He pulled open the door and revealed there secret to her. Her mouth just dropped open, "what is this place?" she asked stepping forwards into the room, "this is the stacks" Galvin said as he went over to the TV and VCR and set up the video, "your husband left this for Luke in case he died, this is the best way I can start to explain what's going on here" he said in his strange American accent. He put the video on and they watched in silence.

**

Luke was coming out of it again, he felt like he was buried in snow with just shorts and t-shirt on. He coughed expecting to choke up water but it was just a weak cough, no water. He was weak overall, he hadn't eaten on the day he was taken, and he felt that he had been gone a while, he was also cold, dizzy and disorientated.

He didn't really know what was going on due to the fuzziness in his head, his memories were patchy in places, as the demon stepped in the room, Luke felt an overwhelming sense of fear. This demon was the one that was making him see these things, they were so realistic, they felt so real, now he was awake he could still remember what happened as if it was real.

Meredith was back with new ideas, the next vision was different from what he had done before, but first he wanted a bit of fun. Being a demon one thing he got pleasure out of was human pain, there was what you could call traditions for causing human pain there was beating and there was torture. Luke was already undergoing mental torture; he just needed to feel the physical side of things. So the beating began, Luke was now standing in the middle of the room swaying from dizziness. Meredith walked up to him and used some of his supernatural strength to punch Luke in the abdomen and he kept the punches going. Luke was a skilled fighter, as the threat came so did the adrenalin, the haziness was pushed aside and Luke got defensive, after he had taken a few, he started to fight back.

**

Luke's Mum was now helping Ruby with research, she hadn't said anything since she found out the truth apart from "I just want my son back."

Galvin and Mina had gone back to the place where Luke was last scene to see if she could get a vision, she was worried about Luke, they hadn't been together for long and she wanted it go on for longer, he couldn't die. She could still picture his face from the vision, it helped her carry on, he had been gone for 2 days now, and she needed faith. Once they were at their destination they got looking, Galvin took Mina to the area where Luke's gun was found. She crouched on the floor and brushed her fingers over the ground.

She saw Luke get hit in the neck and fall hard on his back gasping for air, she saw the room again, then was dragged inside Luke's head, she saw him drowning and struggling to stay alive, then she saw Luke fighting with the demon but he went down to easily, she could see he was weak, then she saw Luke and just Luke, all around him was white, for as far as she could see was white. Then the vision changed, her and Ruby tied to the chair again, both unharmed, but in this vision Luke looked weaker than before, he was looking between the both of them, unfallen tears in his eyes.

The vision ended and Galvin helped Mina back to the car, "what did you see?" he asked her.

"nothing has really changed, but he looks worse when Ruby and I are there, I saw him drowning, then I saw him in… I don't know where he was, it was just white everywhere" she was upset now, her boyfriend was in trouble and there was nothing she could do to help.

**

Ruby was scanning through Luke's Dads old journals to see if there was any mention of the green demon. She read over a bit that made her pause and go back over it, she had possibly found them a lead. She picked up her mobile and called Galvin while motioning Luke's mum to come over when Galvin picked up she told him what she had found, "Galvin I found mention of a green skinned demon in one of Luke's dads journals, says he killed the family but one got away, wearing a tuxedo. Also mentions the demon threatening his family before he left, Luke could have been taken for revenge, even if it has taken a bit of time for him to get round to it"

"Did it say where the fight went down?"

"All it says is out the back street of the local"

"Has he graded it," Galvin asked,

"Nope" Ruby said,

"I'll drop Mina off at the stacks and go find us some answers" he said, then hung up

Mina came down 10 minutes later, " Galvin said we should go home, there's not much else we can do until he gets back"

"Can I stay?" Luke's mum asked

"If you really want" Mina said "just don't get to wound up, we'll get him back"

Mina and Ruby left the stacks together, when they reached the top they found that there was some demons waiting for them, they fought but were out numbered, they were taken down and taken to the 'leader'.

**

Luke was to weak to fight for long and soon he dropped to the floor in a bloody mess, "no more" he said quietly, the demon stopped as if to show mercy but then his hand went to Luke's forehead again and Luke went limp.

His eyes opened to whiteness, he waited to let then adjust to the new light, but they didn't all around him was white, there was no light but no dark either. He stumbled to his feet, he felt back to normal strength again, he was just disorientated by his surroundings. He started walking in one direction to see if he could find a wall or something.