Sting, Zeref, and Happy arrived at the Fairy Tail guild hall late into the next evening. Sting had contacted Sabertooth from the train and filled Yukino, Orga, Rufus, and M'Lady in on the situation. They had, of course, all been enraged that their newest guild member had been taken. None of them felt relief when learning that Natsu had managed to tag along with her captor, and Sting was chewed out three different times for allowing anything to happen under his watch. Zeref had stay silent and impassive the entirety of the train ride except to sneer at the communication lacrima every time his baby brother was bad-mouthed and Sting said nothing to counter their opinions. After all, if Natsu were to be believed, he had nothing to do with whatever had happened to Lucy.

Shortly after the three stepped into the guild hall, Natsu blinked into existence. His body fell from about three feet off the ground as the black energy orb that transported him vanished. The dragon radiated heat so intense that everyone present in the guild hall broke out in a sweat and strained to breath. The air around him pulsed as his magical energy strained to escape his control. His curse activating and feeding the fire, cycling the demon/dragon/mage through and escalating rapture of power. His body was sliding out of focus as steam rose and blocked the view of the partially transformed man.

"NATSU!" Happy called out, relieved to see his best friend alive, in one piece, and safe. The blue cat's wings appeared and within moments the furball had zoomed into the clutches of the beast that was Natsu. The surrounding guild members couldn't help but be impressed at the cat's fearlessness in that moment. Natsu looked to be more demon than man, and those who were witness were suddenly triggered with memories of END. But Happy had seen this transformation many times over the last six months. He knew that Natsu wouldn't' hurt him or any of his nakama, even when in such an out-of-control state.

With the comfort of Happy and the knowledge that he was now in the best position to get the information he needed to fix whatever went wrong, the fire dragon relaxed. The sizzle in the air and extreme heat he'd brought with him was now the low flicker of a candle's flame. Scales receded back into skin. Horns seemed to slide back into his skull. Claws dulled back into fingers.

Sting's attention left the reunion of exceed and dragon; instead, his eyes roamed through the guild until they landed on Rogue. Rogue nodded to show he understood the non-verbal communication before he shifted into his shadows only to appear at Sting's side.

"He came back alone," Sting observed.

Rogue nodded.

"You see that transformation?"

Zeref quietly interrupted, "Lucy combined his souls. He is still END, an etherious. But he is also dragon and human."

"Shit," Sting commented. "She never mentioned that bit of information."

Zeref only raised an eyebrow at the Sabertooth guild master.

"Rogue, before we start with everything here…." Sting paused as the Master of Fairy Tail jumped down from the bar top to great Natsu. Zeref stepped passed him to go to his brother and speak with the master. Sting stayed quiet as his listened to Makarov request Natsu's presence in his office.

The shadow dragon looked to his best friend in question, waiting for him to continue.

"I want to see the shadows."

Rogue looked over the blonde dragon slayer for a moment before nodding in agreement. "I think it would be best for you to know what we are dealing with. The extent of the damage…"

Sting nodded in agreement and the two headed out into the evening air. They hadn't gotten far before Gajeel stepped from the shadows holding a bewildered Levy.

"Shrimp and I want to be there too. Neither of us have been allowed inside," Gajeel's gruff voice left no room for argument. Neither Saber was surprised that Gajeel had heard their plans.

"What? Inside where?" Levy asked dumbly, the only one unaware of the destination.

"We're goin' to the guild, Shrimp. I wanna see the mess Master and them have been tryin' to hide from the rest o' us. Rogue told me some, but I wanna see it."

Levy's eyes widened and then she nodded. "I haven't been able to get in touch with either Erza or Gray since they went in, and Laxus has stayed tight lipped about it as well. He hasn't even told Bicks what happened."

"I ain't askin' Salamander about it either... Damn demon." Gajeel muttered the last bit.

Sting and Rogue simply kept walking, the Fairies falling in step with them as they marched on to the abandoned guild hall.

"So what happened to Lucy?" Levy piped up. "All we heard in the guild was the yelling from the Master's office."

Sting's fists clenched, "The job we went on was some sort of set up by an old Zeref creation. He took Lucy." It was an over-simplified version of events, but Sting was still rather sore about the whole thing (not to mention worried to the point of sickness about his guildmate).

"An old creation?" Levy questioned.

"Yeah, there is some fucked up stuff in that man's passed. More than just trying to destroy the world and all," Sting sighed. He didn't want to repeat everything he learned, but he knew that the Fairies, at least these two, would want to help get Lucy to safety. They were still her friends, afterall. He knew that.

Sting wistfully looked up at the darkening sky. He vaguely wondered how Fairy Tail mages had managed to stay so optimistic after everything their guild had gone through. He was having trouble remembering that just a few months ago, Sabertooth and their shenanigans were at an all time high. Lucy, being a new addition to the family, was quickly inducted into the prank wars that often ran amuck. But now… It was like the preamble to war all over again. Zeref's leftovers coming out of the woodworks and wanting a piece of the pie.

"Can you explain?" Levy prompted, bringing the white dragon out of his momentary retrieve. His blue eyes contemplated the petite script mage.

"You might as well," Rogue pushed.

Gajeel interjected, "What about Bicks and Baby Straus?"

"I'll call them. They can meet us outside the guild and we can all go in together," Levy was all business. She pulled a small communications lacrima from a small yellow bag that hung off her shoulder. "Lis…" Levy stepped away to complete her call. The three dragon slayers listened to her short conversation with the white haired Animal Soul takeover mage on the other end. They were on their way again shortly.

"They'll meet us there. Bicks wanted to take a look at everything after I told him what Gaj told me about the soul thing," Levy rambled.

Sting just nodded and the group continue to walk to the abandoned hall.

"We should be careful sending in so many," Rogue broke the silence a few minutes later. "Lucy's magic is connected to the shadows. We can't predict how that part of her soul will react."

Gajeel nodded in agreement, he knew that the Shadow Dragon would know best and had Lucy's best interest at heart.

"Her magic is connected to the shadows?" Levy asked. "You didn't mention that Gaj!" Levy smacked the larger man in the chest.

Said iron dragon only rolled his eyes in response and muttered, "I didn't know…" Rogue vaguely remembered that he hadn't mentioned that to them when he called to explain before. But, to be fair, he was only making an educated guess.

Rogue nodded and explained his thoughts, "The shadows are a manifestation of her emotional turmoil, a part of her soul almost. Lucy's essence either trapped or left behind. When the shadows are approached by someone who is a part of the emotional trauma… They are given life and react… I believe they are using Lucy's magic to do so."

"I've heard of something like that before!" Levy declared. "But it was in a fictional story about a mage who was tortured. The bad guy used the main character's emotional state against her as a means of torture. He was able to extract specific memories and forced the girl to relive the trauma over and over again. I think the memories were given some sort of physical manifestation, and magically linked somehow… It drained her magic and prevented her escape... Of course the girl's true love came and saved her…."

"Any real life instances of this torture method?" Sting questioned sarcastically. The excitable script mage was bouncing on her toes as she went into more detail about the book she had read.

Levy's bouncing paused as she thought about it. Her pointer finger rested on her lips as she mentally processed Sting's query. "No. But I'll look into it. I'm sure the author got the idea from something real. A spell or something…"

Another minute of silence. The larger-than-life Fairy Tail guild hall was now in view. The building looked dark and foreboding even in the evening light. Usually, the hall was lit up by outside lacrima that would highlight the guild insignia, and the windows would be glowing with the lights shining from within. Missing were also the sound of laughter and fighting. Missing were the comings and goings of working wizards. Missing was the warmth that usually surrounded the place like a blanket and extended outwards to all of Magnolia.

Instead, darkness and the chilling ice of Gray's slayer magic clung to the building like a second skin. A skin that seemed to move in ebbs and flows as shadows now danced across the exterior walls. The feel of celestial magic thrummed in the air. Instead of bring the light of the stars down to earth, an oppressive weight pressed down on the approaching mages making it harder to move forward… harder to breath.

"Already so much has changed," Rogue muttered. His red eyes roved over the building, taking in the swirling darkness. "They are outside…."

"Is that a bad sign?" Sting asked.

"I don't know."

"I don't want to get any closer," Levy whispered. "It feels so… wrong."

"I've never seen anything like this before," said a calm baritone. Bickslow and Lisanna walked up to meet the Sabers and Fairies. The usually excitable seith mage was oddly serious, his eyes glowing bright green as the tall Boscan studied the building. The usually masked man looked almost naked with his handsome, tattooed face exposed. Sting wasn't sure if he'd ever seen the mage in anything other than his ridiculous knight get-up and helmet. The casual look really did something for the man, though. Made him approachable. Something, in Sting's opinion, the Thunder God Tribe (or legion or whatever they called themselves) needed.

"What do you see?" Lisanna asked. "Hey Levy!" Compared to Bickslow, the white haired younger Straus sister was dwarfed in height by nearly an entire foot. Her petite form and slime build added to the weirdness of the two attempting to hold hands (Like a child to their father, rather than two lovers). If Gajeel hadn't already stolen the moniker 'Shrimp' for Levy… it would have surely been applied to Lisanna.

Levy waved happily at her friend and then looked cautiously up at the seith. She had, over time, gotten used to seeing Bicks without his helmet on, but it was rare for him to do so and have his Figure Eyes active at the same time. She wasn't exactly scared of his power per say because she knew he wouldn't harm her. Her fear was rooted more in what he would see if he turned his soul-seeing eyes on her. What if underneath it all, she had an ugly soul? It was a weird fear, she'd be the first to admit that, but she couldn't help the self-conscience feeling that overwhelmed her every time she saw his eyes glow.

"Lucy," Bickslow's voice whispered into the night, "I see so many fragments of Lucy. They're all tainted and dark."

"Well, soul doctor," Lisanna squeezed his hand gently, "can you help or what?"

Bickslow's eyes returned to their natural dark red as he glanced down at his petite girlfriend. He then looked back the the Fairy Tail building contemplating what he had seen. It was different and way worse than what he'd observed inside Lucy before she vanished from the guild a couple weeks back. Lucy's soul had been broken. The bright light it had given off dimmed. But what he was seeing in front of him suggested that part of her soul was in fact missing from her body. That the missing part had splintered into fragments of varying size, and instead of casting a warm glow they were black. That wasn't all, oh no. Each black and fractured bit had some sort of magic embedded in them that did not originate from the celestial mage. He had no idea what type of magic it was or why it was present. Without knowing more, he wouldn't want to do anything to 'fix' the current problem.

Bickslow relayed his thoughts to the group as concisely as possible.

"Can ya at least test cleansing a fragment? See how it reacts?" Gajeel prodded.

Bickslow shrugged, "I would prefer Levy look into some things first with Freed's help."

Sting was thrown into contemplative thought. He shared a look with Rogue and knew that they were on the same page. Lucy had not done this to herself, the secondary magical signature attested to that.

"This happened over a course of time," Rogue whispered to Sting, voicing the thought on both their minds. At least since Aquarius and the Fairy Tail's disbandment. Maybe longer.

"She was targeted?" Sting questioned softly. "Someone just chipped away at her…"

"Oi! Whatcha two sayin' over there?" Gajeel pipped in. The iron slayre had heard their hushed voices just fine, but he knew the others hadn't.

"Who?" Sting wondered, ignoring Gajeel.

"And why?" finished Rogue, his wine red eyes flashing. "No offense to Lucy, but I can't understand her role in any of this."

Sting nodded. Lucy was beautiful, she had a big heart, and was a well equipped mage, but otherwise she was hardly remarkable. No 400 year old Dragon Slayer - Demon set to curse the world at a black-hearted mage's behest. Sure her magic was rare, but what did breaking her so thoroughly really do for anyone. What was there to gain?

"I'm going to get closer," Sting announced. "I want to see if the shadows react to me like they did you," he glanced to Rogue. The shadow mage nodded agreement.

"Wait!" Lisanna called as Sting labored through the oppressive atmosphere to get closer to the now pitch black guild hall. "Do you think that wise?"

Sting didn't turn to answer, instead he moved forward towards the locked front doors of the hall. Rogue answered in his stead, "When I approached the shadows, there was not an outpouring of negativity like there was when Laxus, Gray, Erza, and Natsu approached. Bickslow, perhaps you should observe what happens using your Figure Eyes."

The seith mage's eyes began to glow green as he observed the white dragon approach the building.

"Send out a bit of your magic, Sting," Rogue called softly to his partner. "Make sure your intent is clear when you do."

"Why did you tell him that?" Lisanna asked. Levy nodded in agreement as she too wished to know the answer.

"It calmed the shadows when I interacted with them."

Sting approached the building cautiously. The weight that pressed at him was heavier and harder to bare the closer he came to the guild entrance. Breathing felt like he was pulling in a thick cloud of dust into his lungs. Was this due to that secondary magic Bickslow mentioned? Was it tainting Lucy's soul so thoroughly that her Celestial Magic brought this… darkness?

As he neared the building, Sting encased his hand in light and held it up so that he could better see the way. He knew there were stairs around somewhere and would prefer not to trip and look like an idiot. The visibility his magic gave him had him halting at the base of the stairs, however, his brain barely comprehending what he was seeing. On the walls, doors, in the windows… there were swirling masses of liquid ink. Formless, yet connected. Slipping around and through each other while undulating to a silent beat. They were more than shadows, that is for certain. While looking directly at the roving ink spots, Sting swore what he was seeing was a two dimensional image, like something on a lacrima screen. But, out of the corning of his eye… the forms were peeling themselves from the wall, looking rounded and solid.

The visual was confusing on his eyes, making his feel a bit dizzy. But he needed to see what Rogue had seen, so he pushed forward despite the disconcerting feeling. Sting was face to face with the locked doors. Inky blotches slithered and converged in front of him. Tendrils of darkness wrapped around each other in a cobra's dance, the image solidified as an angry 'Hisss' echoed from everywhere and nowhere.

"God…" Sting whispered. "Oh Lucy…" the white dragon held out his glowing hand and with sorrowful confidence placed it against the door. "I miss you," the man's voice cracked.

At his words a wail of anguish roared from the gathered darkness and Sting could feel his heart shudder with guilt at the sound. He should have helped her more when she'd come to Sabertooth. Maybe some of this could have been avoided. "I'm sorry, Lucy," he whispered as the form of his missing guildmate seemed to grow out from the wall's surface.

He could feel her magic brush against his as a shadowed hand was place over the one he'd held against the door. The touch was brief, the shadow feeling like a liquid being held in solid form. Cool. Soft.

"Help me."

It was Lucy's voice. Whispered against his ear like a cold breeze.

He turned swiftly, the feel of her magic so close against him that he was sure if he turned fast enough he'd catch a glimpse. But there was nothing. The shadows moved away from him and his hand, the door now starkly normal compared to the rest of the building.

"I promise, Lucy."