Um, wow. This was...unexpected, to say the least. I had not been planning to take this tack at all, but now I have a better idea of how to put plot points together.

I also realized that these chapters are getting progressively shorter. My apologies, and I will try my best to remedy that in the future.

Many thanks to Kamel2711XD, bf142128, and Thorn the Laughing Willow for reviewing the last chapter - you guys are great!

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Haven't we been over this?

LAST NOTE, Gray will be in the next chapter. At last.

Hope you like it!

Jude Heartfilia had a reputation for doing whatever it took to claw his way to the top, whether in business or personal affairs. He'd done his share of shady deals for personal gain and looking back, there were very few that he regretted.

But as he sat sweating in the dark conference room facing a man who was perhaps even more ruthless and determined than himself, he thought that he might come to regret ever starting business with Osamu Junelle.

White teeth flashed in the darkness.

"Surely you aren't nervous, my friend?"

Jude returned a tight smile, and replied coolly, "I weren't aware that we were friends, Junelle. You are attempting to buy my company out from under me, after all." He tilted his head towards the back of the room as the door creaked open. "Such a move is considered hostile in many circles."

Osamu nodded, his eyes behind Jude and tracking whomever had entered the room. "You forget, my friend," he mused absently, "That in our line of work, friendship is an abstract concept."

Out of the corner of his eye, Jude saw Junelle's dark-haired, sharp-faced son come up with a bottle and two wineglasses.

"Although I must say Jude, if you had managed to control your daughter, this whole scenario would be a great deal less...hostile."

Jude watched the boy set the bottle and glasses on the table and execute a short bow to his father. Osamu inclined his head to his son before jerking his chin in a dismissal. The boy left.

"Your son doesn't seem all that upset about his fiancée disappearing." Jude commented when the door had once again clicked shut. Osamu shrugged.

"He is of his own mind of such things. Which brings us to the crux of our problem... friend."

Jude swallowed. "Is that so?"

Osamu leaned forward, steepling his fingers. "To be entirely honest, Heartfilia, I could give a damn about taking over your company."

Jude blinked, and tried frantically to keep an impassive face. "Then what is it that you want from me?"

Osamu chuckled, and said softly, "What I've always wanted, Heartfilia. Power."

"I've worked hard to gain and keep the power my company's given me," Jude shot back, incensed, "What makes you think I'd give that up so easily?" He felt sweat roll down the back of his neck as Osamu abruptly lost his smile.

"Weren't you listening before? I don't want your company, Heartfilia." He bared his teeth. "I want your daughter."

Jude reeled back and gripped the edge of the table. "So, all of this - all of this planning, all of these threats of a takeover..." he stopped as he watched as Osamu reached for the bottle and poured two glasses of wine. "It was all to get to Lucy?"

Osamu nudged one glass to Jude, and curled his fingers around the stem of the remaining glass. "Yes," he acknowledged. He sipped the dark red liquid with apparent enjoyment.

"What could you possibly want with my daughter so much that you'd go to all this trouble?" Jude demanded, ignoring his own glass.

One of Osamu's eyelids twitched, and he set his wine down with a click on the dark wood of the table. "For the last time, you shortsighted man," he murmured, his eyes dark, "Power. It was all for power." One side of his mouth twitched up. "And you were so blind to your daughter that you didn't even realize how special she truly is."

"Lucy's just a girl," Jude interjected, fearing for the first time what would befall his daughter under Osamu's hand, "Just a little girl. She's nothing."

Osamu grinned, and again his teeth gleamed in the shadowed room. "That's where you are wrong, my friend." He stood, trailing the fingers of one hand along the polished lacquer of the table. He stopped a few feet from Jude and tilted his head. "Do you know the legend of how the Celestial Realm was first born?"

Jude nodded, tensing his legs as Osamu leaned against the table. "Layla used to tell it to Lucy when she was a little girl."

"Then you know that it was the sorrow of a human wizard that made the first of the celestial spirits?"

Jude chuckled, but stopped when he saw Osamu's intent eyes. "You're not...serious?" he questioned, thinking that surely the man had to be mad.

"Perfectly serious." Osamu reached back for his wine and took a draught, his eyes never leaving Jude's. "Spirits are creatures of soul, dear Heartfilia." He lifted his glass in a salute, "Which brings us to the subject of your daughter."

"What the hell does Lucy have to do with any of this?"

"Little Lucy genuinely cares for her spirits - loves them, even." He paused, and his eyes widened, "Do you know how rare that is, nowadays? Such a connection of emotion - of soul, one could say - well, it changes things. Opens doors that may have never opened otherwise."

"You're completely insane." Jude decided, moving to stand. Osamu's hand slammed on his shoulder, forcing him back to his seat.

"You will bring your daughter to me."

"Like hell I will. I may not have been the best father over the years, but I will hardly hand my only daughter over to the likes of you."

Osamu narrowed his eyes, and Jude could have sworn that he saw a flash of something other in the darkness of his irises. "You," he repeated slowly, "Will bring your daughter to me, or I will destroy you, little man - your home, your company, and your reputation, everything that you are will be...mine." His grip on Jude's shoulder grew until Jude heard something snap. A roar rose in his ears, and with shock, he realized that his arm was hanging limply by his side.

He gritted his teeth and tried to hold his pain at bay. "I don't know where she is, and I wouldn't give her to you anyway."

Osamu nodded in understanding. "I see. Your fatherly instinct is kicking in, even if it is too late." He released his grip on Jude's shoulder. "But I think you'll come to see things my way. Takeshi?"

Jude turned to see Osamu's sharp-faced son standing in the shadows by the door.

"Yes, father?"

"See to it that our guest doesn't remember anything of this visit - and that he has decided to bring his poor, confused daughter back home." Osamu smiled, and clapped his son on the shoulder. "To us."

Jude stood up, clutching his wounded shoulder, and shouted, "You're mad, Junelle! Mad! When word gets out about this..."

"But it won't," Takeshi said calmly, stepping around his father. His eyes flared from a dark brown to a molten gold, "You should sit down, sir."

"Like hell I will," Jude retorted hotly. He went to walk out the door, but suddenly all of the strength went out of his legs, and he found himself back in his chair.

Takeshi smiled, and Jude looked over the dark boy's shoulder to see Osamu closing the door as he left. The man gave Jude one last gleaming smile through the thinning crack in the door.

"You know, Master Heartfilia," Takeshi said conversationally as he knelt to be at Jude's eye level, "You really should have listened to your wife when she warned your daughter about the monsters in the dark."

"Fuck you."

Takeshi laughed, and suddenly Jude found himself drowning in gold.

"If you'd known the number of times I'd heard that one..."

The world went black.