I'm still not caught up on the anime yet, and I'm not comfortable using the villains without knowing their personalities because I don't want to completely botch them. The ones I do know don't quite fit what I'm working on here, so as a heads up, the bad guys in the Dark will probably all be of my own design. Or at least, inspired by non-FT characters.

: Thank you! This is actually a lot of fun for me, so it's no trouble at all to keep going. I've always loved writing, and having somewhere to post my work just helps give me the inspiration to keep it up!

Disclaimer: I will be using a lot of creatures from the D&D universe for the Dark, and I, of course, own none of them. I also don't own the Fairy Tail characters (in case I haven't said that before.)

As always, thanks for all the love and happy reading!

What is this place?

As she ran, she couldn't help but notice the similarities between her surroundings and her hometown. So many of the streets looked exactly like Magnolia, she wondered if perhaps she was back home.

As she passed an alley, several flying creatures streaked passed her, groaning and screaming as they bumped into her and then kept flying. She ducked to avoid as many as she could, but one of them remained and began to fly around her head. Eventually, she managed to hit it with her hand and it went flying back into the alley. As it began to scream, she finally opened her eyes and began to scream as well at what she saw.

It appeared to be a head with wings, a grotesque, half dead face with crossed eyes and a drooling mouth. It flopped against the ground, gradually righting itself, until it was finally upright and began to beat its wings again to take off. Her scream seemed to get lodged in her throat as she got to her feet and began to run again.

This isn't home. This isn't home.

Run. Run faster.

Must escape.

"Hey, what's going on with her heart again?" It was dark again and Lucy was once more unable to move her body.

"What do you mean?" I recognize those voices.

"I said I wanted you to keep an eye on her while I was gone. Why has her heart rate increased again?! Seriously, I can take you off this assignment faster than you can say there's a boggle under my bed. Fix it!"

"There's nothing to fix! She's been asleep, and according to the information you had me read, it's normal for their heart rate to change during certain cycles! Back off will you? You're not in charge here."

"I am in charge of this part of the facility, and if you don't want to go back to guard duty, you'd better start treating me better."

"Oh calm down, would you? I don't know who you're trying to impress, but there's no one here but us, and you know that tone won't work on me. I've known you our entire lives, so I'm not about to start calling you sir or whatever you have the other guppies here call you."

"I don't have them call me sir, but I do expect to be treated with the proper amount of respect!"

"I could be very diligent in how I show you the proper amount of respect," the other voice purred.

There was the sound of some sort of scuffle, until the higher voice finally said, "Fine, mercy!" The other person laughed. "Oh shut up. I just can't be caught by anyone else in a position like that. Now would you please keep your hands to yourself?"

"Is that really what you want?"

"Yes, now act your age."

There was another low laugh. "I'd say I'm acting exactly my age."

"Well don't do it here. You're the reason we got dropped off in this world, because you just couldn't keep your hands to yourself in public. If you don't mind, I'd like to finish my work so that we can finally get out of here. This world is no place for us."

"Fine, fine." There was a little more scuffling, then a deep breath and a long sigh before footsteps began to move away. "I'm going to go stretch my legs and check on the guards. I'll be back in a little bit."

"That's fine, just stay out of trouble."

"I'll do my best."

As the door shut, the other voice sighed loudly. "What am I going to do with him?" A hand appeared on Lucy's arm, and then something wet and cold was being rubbed against her skin. "He's not so bad, you know. Neither of us are. Our home world just couldn't seem to understand why we loved each other so much, and we were banished here because we didn't fit their cookie cutter mold of what the people should be.

"I tried, I really did, to love someone else, anyone else, but I just couldn't. Ova just understands me in a way that no one else can. We've been together since we were babies, so is it really so strange that we'd fall in love with each other?

"It's because of that love that we were shunned and banished here, but I can't find it in myself to hate him for it. If it anything, it makes me love him more. He stood up to the officials who came for us. He tried to reason with them, but they were ignorant. Everyone in our world is ignorant.

"Atleast Zalanoon understands."

Run. Run faster. They're coming.

When did she get here? She didn't remember making it to this alley, or ever being here before. Lucy quickly entered the door to her left and closed it behind her. She listened for the sound of anything that may be coming after her, but heard nothing.

She was exhausted, so she looked around the room and when she saw a bed in the far corner, she immediately moved to sit on it. It wasn't the most comfortable, but it was better than the rotten looking chairs and moldy boxes around the room. Leaning back with a sigh, she continued to listen for any strange noises as she sighed and let her body relax. Surely she could afford to take a little break, right?

The pillow on the bed was so soft, and despite the surroundings, smell fairly good. As her body continued to relax, Lucy reached over and pulled the blanket over her. A nap was a good idea. There was no one else here after all. If she wanted to continue to move, she was going to have to get some rest, and maybe find some food.

She pulled the stiff fabric over her and sighed again as it slowly settled around her. Fading fast, she didn't immediately notice when the blanket began to slide under her body. By the time she did, it had wrapped around her tight, pinning her arms to her sides.

Lucy began to jerk around and thrash her body as much as she could, trying to escape the fabric wrapped around her. Her arms barely made any headway before she was wrapped up so tight she couldn't get out.

Run. Run faster.

Must escape.

Must get free!

ESCAPE.

Natsu…

Natsu was positively vibrating with energy as they sank into the ground around Virgo. "Remember to hold your breath," the pink haired spirit said. The other four with her immediately made a show of taking a deep breath. "Alright, here we go."

Suddenly, they were being sucked down, fast. Natsu felt a lot of pressure from every side, but it didn't feel like he was being pulled through dirt at all. It all felt smooth, like a slip and slide. Soon, he was dropped onto the cold, hard ground, along with the others.

He managed to keep from groaning, as he immediately opened his eyes and began to check the area around him. They were in some sort of stone hallway that was lit at even intervals by torches. Natsu sniffed the space around them as the others rose to their feet, but couldn't smell anything. "I can sense the presence of other beings, but I can't smell them."

"Me either," Sting said. Rogue seemed to be having a similar problem.

"So where is she?" Loke asked.

"Here." Virgo held both hands palm up. They began to shimmer in a pale pink light before a large image projected from her hands. A series of hallways and stairs appeared as a hologram in front of her, all in a pale gray color. "There are four levels, all rather large, and I believe Lucy is somewhere on the bottom floor. I couldn't pinpoint a location because of the distortion of the surface, even though it seems to be weaker underground. There seem to be a large variety of creatures roaming the hallways, except this section of the third floor." Virgo lit up a section of the third floor in green. "And the bottom floor. The third floor seems to have more stationary guards and there were a few presences on the fourth floor that felt odd. I can't say for sure how, just that it doesn't feel like they should be here."

"Maybe those are your other friends," Sting said.

"They were acting more erratically than the ones on the upper floors, so if it is them, my guess is something's been done to them, so we may want to be careful when we get down there. This section in the corner," she said as a few hallways lit up in blue, "doesn't seem to have more than a few beings in it. The odd presences on that floor never entered that area, so my guess is it's blocked off. I could only get a feel for the interior, since you didn't want me to reveal my presence."

Loke sighed. "Alright, I think it might be a good idea to get an idea of how many creatures are roaming around on these upper floors before we move." He looked towards Rogue. "There are lights down here. Do you think you could scout out the hallways?"

"Sure," Rogue said. "Do you want me to do all the floors?"

"I think that would be best, but I'm mostly looking for a head count for the upper floors. My guess is Lucy and the girls are on the bottom floor and whoever is in charge is in this section of the third floor. Mostly I need to know if you and Sting could handle the top two floors so the rest of us could go directly to the bottom two."

"It will take me a little while, but-"

"Shh!" Natsu's head whipped around. "Other side of that corner, something is coming."

Loke whispered, "Virgo."

"Got it." The pink haired angel immediately sank into the ground.

"She can handle it. How long Rogue?"

"I'd say no more than fifteen minutes."

"We'll wait for you in this area. Hurry back." The dark haired hybrid nodded and then sank into the shadows. "Until he gets back, we need to keep quiet. Let's see if there's an empty room near here where we can wait."

"You got it," Natsu said as he began to walk down the hall towards a pair of doors. Sting looked between them before following the other hybrid.

Loke turned in time to see Virgo walking their way from around the corner where Natsu had heard the noise. She was dragging a small creature by its long hair, which was also wound around it.

"Nice work, Virgo."

"It wasn't hard," she said. "Where should I put him?"

"Bring him with for now. We can't leave him out in the open."

"Fair enough." The pair made their way towards the others where they'd stopped and were checking out the interior of the two rooms they'd found.

"Got a closet over here. Not sure there's enough room for all of us," Natsu said closing the door.

"This one seems to be for storage, too, but it's big enough to fit everyone," Sting said. He walked in a ways and then lit up the room. "Oh yeah. I think we'd be plenty fine in here. No other doors or anything, so we should be able to wait Rogue out in here in relative safety."

"Then let's get in before more things show up." Loke led the other two in and then moved to sit on a large crate as Virgo tied up her catch more firmly and then put it in one of the crates. "You didn't kill him?" Loke asked.

"No. I wasn't sure if we were killing everything in here or not, so I only knocked him out."

"So I have a question," Sting said. "Why don't we just combine all our magic and knock everything in this place out with a spell or something? Wouldn't it be easier? Unless killing everything here is one of the goals, which I am totally up for."

"We're angels," Loke said, "so we're kind of big on mercy as you can imagine. Unless push comes to shove, I'm willing to let the things that reside here live. Since we don't know what all is down here, there's no way to know what spells will actually work on the creatures here or if there are any that are immune to that kind of magic, so it might not even work. I'll leave it up to you half demons to choose how you handle your fights, but Virgo and I will not be killing anyone. Especially the person in charge. We need them alive."

"I hear you," Sting said.

"You got it," Natsu added with a small salute.

After a brief silence, Sting spoke up. "So… guardian angel, huh?"

Loke looked at Sting. He was standing with his arms crossed and his head cocked to the side as he studied the other being. "Are you still trying to figure that out?"

"Still not sure how Rogue knew so quickly. You don't smell funny or anything."

"Natsu didn't know right away either," Loke said, "So don't feel bad."

"Who says I didn't?" Natsu said with a glare.

"I do." Loke turned back towards Sting. "Are you trying to get to a point by bringing this up again, or what?"

"Just curious about your work. I've never spoken to an angel before, guardian or otherwise, and definitely not one of your level."

Loke's eye twitched. "I don't know what you mean."

"Sorry to break it to you, but I know who you are."

Loke sent a small frown Virgo's way, but the pink haired spirit only shrugged in response. "I was hoping you didn't hear that."

Sting and Natsu both tapped an ear. "Dragon's have really sensitive hearing," Sting said with a smile. "Was kind of hard to miss."

Loke sighed. "Alright, what do you want to know?"

Sting leaned his hip against the pile of boxes next to him. "I really wanna know how the leader of the Zodiac ended up working with the Salamander, but it sounds like that topic is off limits."

"You would be correct," Loke said.

Natsu tuned them out as he turned to face the door. He closed his eyes and attempted to reach out with his senses. He couldn't smell anything in the hallways. There wasn't even a scent coming off the creature Virgo had caught and brought into the room with them. Even their scents seemed to be muted. They'd been in the room long enough, he was barely picking up their scent in the hall. He could sense other presences on the floor and a few below them, but nothing about who they might be or how far away they were. Whatever had been done to the structure seriously messed with his senses.

Loke watched Natsu as he spoke with Sting, worried the hybrid might do something dumb. He wanted to be ready to stop it if he needed to. As he was telling Sting about a particularly difficult human he'd once guarded, Natsu straightened from his slouch and whipped his head around. His eyes were staring hard towards the corner and his mouth slowly fell open. Before Loke could do anything, Natsu's eyes began to change, lightening until they were a rich gold.

Shit. "Natsu?" Loke stood slowly and moved towards the hybrid. Virgo and Sting were silent as they watched.

"Natsu, buddy, talk to me." He stopped a few feet away. "What is it, Natsu? What did you find?"

"I can hear her," he whispered. Loke frowned, concerned about the half dragon still being so intent on his target. The Exceed had said that it wasn't hard to knock him out of the trance, but that didn't seem to be the case at the moment.

"What do you mean you can hear her?"

"She said my name." Natsu's hand moved to his side. He still hadn't bothered to replace his shirt, so they could see his hand settle on the summoning tag on his side. "I can hear her, but she's not summoning me. I don't know why. I can't feel her emotions either."

"Which means she's not feeling anything particularly strong, right?" Loke moved to stand in front of Natsu. "That means she's more than likely fine, right?"

"If he can hear her, then-" Loke glared at Sting and jerked his hand through the air, cutting him off. He gaped at the angel a bit, but huffed and stopped talking.

Loke turned back. "Natsu, look me."

"Why won't she summon me?"

"Natsu, buddy, you gotta listen to me, okay? We're going to get her back. We're working on a plan and we're going to get her back soon, okay? Look at me, man. I need you to focus."

Natsu looked up at him, but his eyes didn't change. "I need to save her." He scrambled a little to stand, but before he could get to his feet, Loke punched him with a glowing fist, knocking him out.

"What the hell?!" Sting said, straightening.

"Sit down," Loke said. "I needed to stop him from running off."

"Then talk to him! Geez."

Loke studied the other hybrid for a moment, but didn't say anything. If he hadn't noticed Natsu's eyes, he wasn't going to bring it up. He'd promised the Exceed he wouldn't tell Natsu about his lapses, but he couldn't guarantee the others would do the same, so as a precaution, he'd keep his mouth shut.

"How long, Virgo?"

"About five more minutes," she answered.

Loke sighed and leaned down to move Natsu into a more comfortable position. Come on, Rogue, hurry.

Rogue paused over another doorway, feeling for a gap that he could slip into. He'd found Virgo's information to be mostly accurate. There were a lot of strange creatures roaming the first two floors, but it was nothing he and Sting couldn't easily handle. The third floor guards seemed better prepared for a fight, but nothing too dangerous that he could sense. It was the fourth floor that was the problem.

There was something roaming the bottom floor, a few somethings he was sure, but he couldn't get a bead on who or what. There was something in the air down here, and it was messing with his perception of the area. He'd had to duck into a room more than once and leave his shadow to cleanse himself of the effects. He was probably due for another stop before he headed back to the others.

When Rogue finally found a gap in the keyhole, he slipped into it and through the door.

On the other side, he had to move quickly to find a place to hide. This room was more brightly lit, so it was harder to be out in the open. It was also very clean and not empty, like the others he'd checked.

In the center of the room, there was a table with a blonde human strapped down. Several bags hung off hooks near her head and seemed to be attached to various needles stuck in her skin. As he watched, the other person, a thin, blue lizard looking person moved towards her with a clipboard in hand.

"Of course," the person said, "I was a little annoyed with him, but why wouldn't I be? He'd promised me a romantic dinner, but instead, we went monster hunting. I mean, come on, how could anyone find monster hunting romantic? It's not even that difficult here. I mean, a majority of this realm's population is monsters!"

The blue being took out a syringe and stuck into the woman after wiping down a spot on her arm. After it was half way full, they removed the needle and moved towards a large console. They stuck the needle into a small hole and then pushed the plunger until the syringe was empty.

"Alright, let's see here…" They began to type and several of the screens changed. "Hmm… it seems that this concoction is closer, but it's still not close enough to work. It really is a shame it takes so long for your body to replenish its blood supply. Or that you don't have any family. With a few more subjects, this would work so much faster." They sighed. "Oh well. Zalanoon said I could have as much time as I needed to make this work, so I guess we'll just have to keep experimenting, won't we?"

Rogue felt his stomach drop as he heard the blue person speak.

Zalanoon.

He needed to get back to the others. Now.