Loke walks outside of the restaurant to look for Haruhi, and it is only by chance that he happens to glance down the street at the women trying to lift the man into a carriage. It only takes a moment for Loke to realize it is her and assess the situation before dashing towards the carriage. "Haruhi!" A ball of light blue light hits the middle of his chest and stuns him, knocking him to the ground. Loke is only able to look onward helplessly as they finish loading her to take her away. Immobilized on the ground, Loke is only able to see an emblem on the back of the carriage before it goes off and he commits it to memory. He struggles with all of his might to move, hating the feeling of powerlessness as he tries. Back to Fairy Tail. Move. Come on.
It takes a while, but he is eventually able to peel himself off of the ground and starts toward the guildhall he knew as home for three years. When he finally gets through the doors, he collapses onto the ground as his strength leaves him. The sudden intrusion and situation kicks up a fuss in the main hall. "Loke! What are you doing here?"
"Haruhi...gone...taken..." His words are halted as he tries to breathe, the throbbing in his chest making it harder than he would think it would.
"'Taken'?" Lucy cries out while everyone gathers around. "Why would anybody want to take him?"
"Dunno-" he gasps and his hand clutches at his heart as if trying to rip something out of it while it burns. "Got to...find him."
"Hey man, you feeling okay?" Natsu asks, eyeing the perspiring man gasping for breath on the floor.
"What...do you think?" Loke hisses at him, not pleased with his lack of observation skills at the moment.
"Mira!" Lucy calls out, and Elfman lifts him up to take him to the infirmary.
"Time's...wasting," he protests, trying to fight him off before his chest makes him hiss again.
"We have to fix this!" Lucy counters him, "how much help will you be to him in this condition anyway?"
They get him up the stairs after that and Mira gets the chance to look him over before opening the front of the shirt where Loke's hand has a deathlock and it stops them all with a collective gasp. There is a blue heart emblem with a single eighth note inscribed in pink on top of it that seems to pulse with magic. "What happened?" Mira demands.
"Haruhi was taken...then I was-" he hisses and reaches up again while everyone else watches the mark glow a bit. "I was hit...by a light and...dammit this hurts. I couldn't move." He tries to take a deep breath, but it's shaky. "Hour ago...maybe."
"Did you see the attackers? Did you recognize them?"
"Not really...and no. Stuffed in...carriage." He looks over to Lucy. "Tried going back...to heal?" She nods and he looks worried as he continues, "couldn't...go." His eyes search hers for some kind of answer.
"We'll get you back Loke, don't worry," she promises.
"Call...Aires." So Lucy calls Aires for him and Grandfather Crux to look at the mark to give Mira an action plan for working wth a celestial spirit. She shows up, apologizing like always, and breaks down into tears seeing Loke. Crux gets the situation from Lucy and sets to work while sawing logs in the corner. "Tell them...I'm fine,okay?"
"But why don't you?"
I'm needed. Here." His fists clench as he holds his breath, not wanting to relax in front of Aires.
"You need to come back now and be healed of this. Come back with me to get you better. You can always poof over here again when you get healed."
"Tried that. Go tell. Time's wasting." With watery eyes, she disappears in a puff of pink fluff. A minute later, Crux yelled himself awake and started reciting.
"The mark upon the chest of Celestial Spirit Leo the Lion belongs to the Siren's Song guild, a completely female group made of dark wizards. The mark isn't a guild marker, as those are taken willingly, but a stamp of magic to incapacitate you. It was made by a wizard named Melody, and can only be removed by either her hand or her death. That mark is exactly one hour and frty-seven minutes old, leaving you forty-five hours and thirteen minutes left of your power and life left.
"Where is Haruhi?" Loke demands from the bed.
"There is no one named 'Haruhi' in my records."
"Crux, what does this guild do?" Lucy asks.
"Siren's Song is a smaller dark magical guild made up of women. Recently strange occurances have happened with the name, such as reports that have their name linked to several disappearances throughout Fiore. No other news to report." He then disappears in smoke altogether while everyone sits in shock.
"Forty-eight hour time clock?" Lucy finally speaks up. "Less now?"
"He isn't in his system? Thought the old man knew everything," Natsu says, shocked.
"He's not of our world, Natsu. Remember?" Loke laughs bitterly at Mira's reminder to Natsu, thinking about how it connected to earlier.
"Where is this group? The nerve of them take one of us!" Natsu looks ticked as he says it, even if Haruhi had only been a member there for two days. A member's a member: honorary or not, Freed thinks, remembering Loke as a member before he came out as a celestial spirit with Lucy. He gave up his full-member mark and got one like Haruhi's in it's place because he had to be more devoted to Lucy than the guild itself as he was her spirit.
Loke sits up in the bed. "Since I won't...get better without that...witch...let's move out."
"You aren't going anywhere," Mira says, easily pushing him down.
"I might have to...be there for her to...take it off-"
"Death is an option, right? I'll handle her," Gajeel speaks up, "you Fairies aren't used to blood spilling, yeah?"
"I have to get ahold of the Master if we're challenging a dark guild. We act under him and reflect him, so lay low for now," Mirajane takes control of the people as Second. She leaves the room to contact him and Loke takes as deep of a breath as he can to test his lung capacity. Aquarius could probably get him now. If I could just get back...Lucy looks at him with worry, and it just ticks him off more. This Melody's going to pay.