Darkness - Chapter 1

A/N: Hi! So this is a story from my old account but I re-wrote some parts of it and I think y'all will love it!

Enjoy!

"Mommy!" A young girl screamed as she backed into a corner, attempting to make herself as small as possible to hid from the brooding men who advanced on her small form. This was how it always was, but this time seemed different, these weren't the usual men she saw. No. . . But this time her mother here and she could stop it! Probably. The girl had faith in her mother, proved by how she continued to scream for her as the men closed the distance between her and them, their cloaks sliding on the floor behind them. They were just playing with her now, shown by how slow they were walking as they closed in on her, provoking her to completely curl into a ball, whimpering and having no more strength left to call for her mother as fear radiated off her shaking form.

"Lucy!" Shouted a furious woman as she opened the door to her daughter's room, responding to her daughter's pleas for help. She took one look at the scene in front of her and her eyes widened a fraction before narrowing dangerously at the men closing in on her helpless daughter. Indescribable rage took over her features as she ripped her dagger from the sheath attached to the waist of her dress and sprinted forward wildly. Lucy whimpered and shook as two men grabbed Layla from behind and grabbed the dagger from her hand, holding her back. The third man continued to advance on her, so close she could smell his disgusting breath.

Another whimper escaped Lucy's lips as the man grasped her wrist and yanked her to to her feet, throwing a glace at Layla's unpractised moves in an attempt to save her daughter. He grinned as she was thrown to the floor and a knife held to her neck, her blonde locks in the hands of the second man, using it as leverage. Then, with a slight nod of his head, and a swift movement of the man's wrist, Layla's blood was spilled to the floor, making Lucy give out a strangled cry as her knees gave out. With a growl, the men grabbed Lucy as she stared down at her mother's corpse, heart-breaking sobs escaping her mouth, and dragged her out of the window, dropping down into the bushes before her father came to investigate the distressed cries from his wife and daughter. As expected, once they left, a shout and a strangled cry was heard from a distinctly male voice as he dropped to his dead wife's side, resting his knees in the pool of blood of crimson blood that surrounded her. Lucy's wide eys turned to her captors, who dragged her into the dark streets, moonlight shining down upon them.

She tried falling to her knees in an attempt to slow them down so someone could hear her cries, but apparently that didn't work and all it granted her was a rough kick to the abdomen by the irritated men before she blacked out and the darkness consumed her, welcoming her.

"Laxus! Get your ass over here!" Demanded a powerful red-headed mage as she glared over to the corner where the lightning mage sat, sending a vicious shiver down his spine as her stared seemed to burn a hole through him.

"What do you want demon?" He shouted from the other side of the guild hall, still not wanting to move from his table where he comfortably sat with his team, drinking beer. Said 'demon' growled at his blatant disrespect and equipped a sword from her vast inventory, already thinking of the different torture methods she could use once she subdued him. Sensing the imminent threat emanating from Erza, Laxus shivered again, more violently this time, and got up, abandoning his pride with the stomach he left at the table with his team.

"What the hell do you think you're doing Laxus?! Driving out guild members just because you think they're weak? I thought you knew better! Much better than to get rid of people with so much potential." Erza shouted at him, brandishing her sword dangerously close to his face as she ranted, forcing Laxus to flinch back so as not to wound his face.

"This guild doesn't need the weak to bring it down." He stated simply, turning and walking out of the guild hall, leaving Erza to stew in her own rage and the rest of the guild hall in disbelief as Erza took out her anger on Natsu and Gray who knocked her during their brawl. In an instant, his team was by his side, walking alongside him with frowns on their faces due to the outburst Erza just had. Bickslow and his 'babies' cackled as soon as they reached the edge of town, the serious look on their faces forgotten as they left Magnolia and no longer were the townspeople staring at the S class mages. Evergreen reprimanded him as she saw the irritated look on their beloved leader's face whereas Freed just shook his head at the duo while Evergreen beat Bickslow with her green fan.

"There's a job for us to do, Laxus." Stated Freed as Evergreen and Bickslow continued to bicker childishly, "It's to capture a rising dark guild on the outskirts of Shirotsume Town. Apparently all the mages are at least our level so it should be a good fight for you to handle Laxus, considering your strength and power." At this point, both Evergreen and Bickslow were snorting with laughter over Freed's choice of words.

"Nice Freed, kissing his ass again." Bickslow chortled while Freed's expression turned indignant and a pink blush spread across his face.

"I was not! I was complementing him! You should do it too, He's our leader!" Freed retorted with a burning face as Evergreen continued to laugh whereas Laxus looked disinterested. As they continued their bickering, Freed joining the fray, Laxus grabbed the discarded job request on the floor. Quickly scanning it before seeing the reward of $6000000 jewels, Laxus zapped the trio with his lightning making them stop their bickering and shriek in surprise before looking to Laxus, who teleported them to the border of Shirotsume

Lucy cried silently as she sat in the dark, she had no idea how long she'd been there, only that as soon as her celestial magic replenished, it was stolen from her once again. It was agonising, she was only able to guess how long she'd been there from the changes in her body and how often she's given food. But this time, it seemed like forever since she was last fed, and it's killing her, literally.

She felt like her stomach was eating itself and she could guess she had gone about three days without food, or water. Her tongue was numb and dry, her throat scratchy and painful and overall she felt terrible. Lucy had already guessed that she had been there for about seven years and honestly, she was sick of it. She often wondered why they neglected to bring her food or water, considering they seemed to think she was special in some way. However, the fact that she was precious did nothing to stop them from torturing her.

Then, Lucy began to hear sounds coming from above her, meaning she was underground after all? Then Lucy curiously began to stare at the ceiling, as if the sounds would get louder and she'd be able to hear them clearer. However, it's not like she could actually see what was happening up there anyways, having thought this, Lucy laid back down on the little hay bed in the corner of the roomand fell asleep, falling into the darkness once more.

"Lightning Dragon's Roar!" Bellowed Laxus as a pillar of pure electricity shot from his mouth and bombarded into the dark mages who stood before him, effectively knocking them to the ground and subduing them to a twitching, steaming mess.

"Dark ecriture! Pain!" Freed shouted as he cast his runes on the people surrounding them, also knocking them to the floor into a screaming, quivering mess. He looked over at Laxus and grinned in triumph as Laxus nodded his head in acknowledgement, making Freed blush slightly as a pink hue took over his cheeks.

"Fairy Machine Gun! Leprechaun!" Shouted Evergreen with a fierce look in her eye as hundreds of small light bullets shot from her palm and subdued the leering men who opposed her, forcing them all to dive to the floor and get impacted by her attack.

"Babies! V formation!" Bickslow cackled as all of his totems arranged themselves into a 'V' shaped and shot individual beams of light out of their bodies, combining into one attack to leave his opponents a burnt and shivering mess, much like Laxus'.

"Lightning Dragon's Sparking Fist!" Shouted Laxus as he encased his hands in lightning and attacked the last dark mage in the guild hall, the Master. His fist connected and the large, bulky man flew across the room and buried himself into the wall, knocked out.

"Dang, he's gonna feel that in the morning." Bickslow said with his tongue hanging out of his mouth, in the middle of tying up his enemies, ready for the council to collect.

"Shut up Bickslow." Laxus grunted as he sniffed the air, searching for another potential fight. The sweet scent of strawberries and vanilla invaded his nose, making his eyes widen and then sniff the air desperately in an attempt to catch the scent again. Having found the scent, he followed the trail to wherever it originated until the coppery scent of blood began to burn his nose slightly, making him scrunch up his face and shake his head violently.

"Laxus?" Freed called as he watched his leader go down the stairs to what seemed like the basement of the guild hall and made to follow him, Evergreen and Bickslow not far away as they descended the steps into what looked like a dungeon-like place.

Lucy, now hanging from the wall as the guard came in to chain her to the wall while they went to investigate the noises coming from upstairs, shivered as cold bit at her porcelaine skin. Once, Lucy had been chained to the wall for three straight days while they left all the lacrima lights off. Top be honest, she welcomed the dark, it was more of a reprieve to her, the only time she was able to be at peace. However, that was nothing compared to the punishment she received when she actually did something wrong, like struggle or speak disrespectfully towards the Master of the guild, the gashes on her front and back proof of this. Then, as if someone had pushed a button, pain lanced through her body, having been electrocuted by the chains. The chains had a soul link to the master so, whenever he feels like she is no longer of use to him, he would have the ability to murder her. He had threatened her with this form of punishment before but she had done nothing to warrant her death so she didn't understand the reasoning behind this attack.

Lucy's thoughts were brought to a halt as she screamed while her body twitched in pain and pure agony reverberated through her body as she felt her heart slow, before coming to an abrupt halt.

As Lucy inhaled her last breath, and as her screams ceased, light flooded into her cell, as if some unearthly creature had heard her plea for the pain to stop, and four figures came into view, none of them seeming like the guards who usually guarded her. Lucy allowed her last breath to escape her, tears filling her eyes as she watched them all file into the cell. Unable to make out what they were saying, Lucy succumbed to the darkness and began her long tumble into the abyss as her body quivered and twitched still.

"Freed! Do something!" Laxus shouted as he rushed to the blonde's side, unable to hear a heartbeat. He looked over to Freed who broke out of his stupor and pulled out his rapier, pointing it at the chains. He drew some runes and the metal cracked before disintegrating and allowing the girl to fall into Laxus' arms. Laxus laid her gently on the ground and placed his hands directly over her heart, letting a small charge of electricity enter her chest and he began to perform CPR, pushing down on her chest over and over before reluctantly placing his mouth over hers and breathing a large breath of air into her lungs. Laxus repeated his actions multiple times before the blonde sucked in a deep breath of air and her heartbeat returned, however faint it might be. Laxus sat back and grunted, looking down at the girl's distressed face as she slept.

"Let's get out of here, it stinks." Laxus stated, removing his coat and wrapping it around the small blonde, lifting her into his arms before walking past his awestruck team members and exiting the cell, unable to look at the blood stained walls and floor, or breathe in the scent of blood any longer.

"Damn, man." Bickslow said as he whistled before turning to follow his leader up the stairs, Evergreen and Freed following suit, awestruck.