Hello there everyone! Back again, after a month and some change. Time flies, huh? I probably could have gotten this chapter out sooner if I was able to figure out whether I liked the ending to Attack on Titan. Won't spoil it for anyone obviously, but, if you know, you know. Still haven't figured that one out.

Enjoy!

"H-Hey! Didn't we warn you guys not to come closer?! Stop it!"

"He's still going, huh?" Drake asked as he rubbed at his forehead. "Surely he knows it's in vain."

"He does," Michael mumbled, he's just being a pain about it, I guess."

"He's just a kid," Steph replied, "Can we go a little easy on him?"

"Depends on if he makes this hard for us," Gray replied, hands in his pockets. The group rounded the corner up ahead, finding themselves in another passageway. This one had countless doors on either side of the corridor. Drake moved up and took a peak inside, but all he could see was some decaying sheets on the floor and the very faint smell of straw.

"I think these were rooms at one point," he said as he held his nose shut in an attempt to shut out the smell. "Bedrooms, I mean."

"Who the hell would want to live down here?" Natsu asked as he checked another one. "It creeps me out." That much was true. Drake got a very eerie feeling from this cave. He didn't know what exactly used to go on down here, but he felt like demonic rituals wouldn't be too far out of the equation. That was very much creepy.

After passing through the barracks or whatever they were, the group came upon a fork in the tunnels, one leading left and right.

"Should we split up?" Natsu asked.

"I'd advice against it," Gray replied. "Splitting up here gives us no advantage, we'd just be separating ourselves unnecessarily."

"That's, uh, not true!" Ben's voice said, "You need to in order to find the girls!"

"That right?" Drake asked, "I guess we should then."

"Yeah, that's right! You need to-hey! What the hell are you guys doing?! Some of you go left! No! Stop! Argh! This isn't working!"

Completely ignoring Ben's angry comments, Drake and the others walked down the right pathway without a care in the world. He couldn't tell if one way was better than the other, so for now staying together was best. After walking down the bedroom hallway for a while, the passage opened up again into another small room. This one had an inactive fountain in the middle, but lacked the carvings on the walls. Another few passageways opened up from this one, making Drake frown.

"I feel like we're going to get lost in here," he said.

"We can just blow our way through the walls," Natsu offered.

"And have this whole thing cave in on us?" Gray asked, "Try again, dumbass." Natsu looked irritated by this, but he didn't say anything.

"We could split up," Steph offered, "but I feel like that's what the kid wants."

"Are we scared of some kid?" Natsu asked.

"That kid of a Demon Lord takeover wizard," Drake offered, "I don't think a fight would be a walk in the park for anyone here." Natsu grumbled at this.

"What the hell are Demon Lords, anyway?" He muttered. "Honestly, no one's ever told me." Drake was about to answer, before he realised he really had no idea either. He knew they were the guardians of the Underworld, and to some extent the afterlife, but what were they really? Were they Gods, technically? Why did they choose takeover wizards?

"You have man questions, my friends!" Ben's worried voice said, "Perhaps we have the answers you seek!"

"What's the square root of 32?" Michael asked.

"...What?" Ben asked weakly.

"Oh, nothing," Michael said, "I figured I'd ask you a question directly, see as no one was talking to you before." Drake let out a snort at this. For a life or death mission, he wasn't feeling very afraid. Ben could be heard gritting his teeth at the joke.

"Well, perhaps you'll want to talk to me when you hear this!" He shouted. Drake made a face, wondering what he meant.

"Aaaaagggh!" The voice of Nashi or Luna echoed through the halls, making his stomach drop.

"That's the sound of your girl being split into another Shade!" He shouted, "Hurry up, heroes! Lest we prevail!" Drake grit his teeth at this, trying to prvent from stomping forwards.

"He's baiting us," Gray observed.

"It's working," Natsu muttered.

"Don't play this stupid," Gray hissed at him. "Listen up, all of you. Here's how this is going to go down. Natsu and I are going to go after the kids. If they fight us, well, there's nothing we can do. We'll need to beat them down. Michael, your holy light can stop their magic from reaching you guys. At least, that's the hope."

"So we just wait and watch you guys fight?" Drake asked. Natsu nodded.

"If those two make a copy of you, you all are in danger," he said. "There's no room for risks here. Gray and I are plenty powerful on our own. We can take them." Drake had no doubt of that. He knew the two were strong. But he wanted to help somehow. So far, it seemed he and Steph were on backup duty.

"All right," he said, "Let's do this."

Ben winced as the girls screamed in agony. He tried not to look, but he felt his eyes glued to them all the same. Making a Shade was never pretty, especially if the person was conscious.

It was even harder watching Zoe watch them gleefully.

"I can't wait to please Master Hades!" She said excitedly, bouncing up and down near the circle the girls were in. "I love the work he lets us do!" Ben wanted to help Hades as well, but sometimes the things he had to do turned his stomach. He didn't the exact reasons, but, he knew that Hades needed the power in this girl. He and his sister were to create a Shade containing all of it, and send it to him if they could. Hades had emphasised the 'if' in this instance.

"Don't overwork yourselves," He'd said to them. "If you can do it, then do it. If you can't, then don't. It matters not. It's not as important as you both staying safe."

Ben didn't want to disappoint him. He and his sister had worked so hard to please him the last year or so. Even if he said it wasn't completely necessary, he wanted to win. He needed too.

"Stop glaring at them so much, Zoe," he told his sister. 'It's creepy."

"You're creepy," Zoe hissed back at him, glaring at him. "I'm just making sure that we didn't mess up. It's not often we use the old tongue to make a Shade." Well, she had a point there. Usually the two worked together to create a Shade, but this time they'd used the Primaglyphic language to write runes that carried out there will.

"You will need to fight them," Hades had said, "use the runes, fight while they work." Ben didn't like drawing the runes. They made him feel sick to his stomach when he drew them. But it worked well with Zoka's magic, so he needed to do it.

"They near," As if on cue, Zoka spoke in Ben's mind. He sighed and got to his feet.

"I figured they would get here soon," he said. "Let's do this, Zoe!"

"In a minute."

"No, now! Stop drooling while you watch them!"

"Don't tell me what to do!"

Drake figured their dramatic entrance by exploding the door of it's hinges would look cool, but instead they were practically ignored as who he assume was Roka and Ruli argued.

"You're so insufferable!" Ben shouted, "Just help me hold the line!"

"I'll guard the girls!" Zoe shouted back. "You do whatever you need to do!" Ben cast an eye over to them, and paled.

"They're here!" He shouted, "Okay, we need to stop arguing now, deal?!"

"..."

"Deal?!"

"Fine! You're buying me pizza after this!"

"No, I am NOT!" Ben growled angrily at this as he turned to them. "Listen up, Fairy Tail! If you want your friend back, you'll have to fight through us!"

"That can be arranged," Gray replied as the temperature in the room dropped. Speaking of the room, Drake was finally actually seeing it as his tunnel vision wore off.

"Where the hell are we?" He asked weakly.

The room Zoka and Ruli were in was unlike the rest of the hideout completely. It was a large, square-shaped room with a high roof. If that were it, it wouldn't be a problem.

The problem was the completely insane amount of writing on the walls. None of it was in any language he understood, every corner of the wall was painted in these symbols, some of which towards the top didn't even look like the same language.

"There's so much writing," Steph noted.

"There is," Ben said from the other side of the room. "The writing here is from ages long past, perhaps some of your ancestors wrote it.

"What does it all mean?" Michael asked.

"No one alive today actually speaks any of the languages of these walls," Ben replied. "Some still have meaning, but not as an understood tongue."

Who cares what it says?" Natsu demanded. "Last chance kid, give me my daughter back or else."

"Or else what?" Zoe demanded tauntingly.

Drake winced in pain as Natsu's magic exploded outwards, heating the room up from above what was comfortable or liveable. Gray reacted quickly and cooled them all down, but his magic had to work hard to counter Natsu's. This barely seemed to affect Zoe, who bounced on one foot to the other.

"Oh goodie, a fight! Ben, let's take them on!" Ben looked thoroughly exhausted with his sister, but nodded all the same.

"It seems we have no choice," he said raising his hand. "Come sister, let us-!"

Neither Nartu or Gray gave them any time. Both adults exploded forwards with lightning speed and grabbed the kids, surprising them both.

"Let me go, you pervert!" Zoe shouted.

"Put them back together!" Gray shouted as he maintained an iron grip on her.

"NO" Zoe shouted back, Takeover: Demon Ruli!"

The light in the room dimmed, but they had no time to watch. Drake ignored the swirl of magic engulfing Gray and the girl and turned to Steph and Michael.

"Let's get Nashi and Luna!" He shouted at them. They ran to the girls as Zoe transformed, but Drake found himself stopped just short of them. Looking down, he saw that they were encircled by runes of some kind, some he recognised from the walls. It was impossible to go any further, and he definitely tried. Growling, he turned to the others.

"Any ideas?" He asked.

"Aside from smudging the writing?" Michael asked, "no." He perked up suddenly, and jumped behind them with a shout. Drake turned just in time to see a wall of light negate a blast of shadow sent at them.

"Oopsie!" Zoe said from the air. "My bad! My aim is rusty!"

Zoe had taken to the air in her takeover, one that ill-suited a little girl. Her wings were midnight-black and scaly like a dragons, while her armour was black as well. The arnour had red accents on it's shoulders and leggings, one that made her look like a true demon. Zoe also had a white dot in the center of her forehead, but Drake had no idea why.

"Look at him!" Steph exclaimed. Drake turned his head as Ben joined his sister, and saw that his takeover was the opposite. Zoka's wings looked about as close to angel wings as Drake had ever seen, and white as the purest snow. He didn't wear armour, but a glowing white tunic. He wielded a sword in his right hand, one that glowed nearly as bright as him.

"We sure that's a demon?" Michael asked.

"No," Drake replied quietly. "But we don't have time to ponder. Help me figure this out!"

"Not a chance!" Zoe giggled, blasting at them again with shadows. Michael went to block it, but it didn't matter.

"Oi," Natsu hissed, his voice deadly calm. "When did I give you permission to attack them?"

"I don't take orders from you, old man!" Zoe retaliated. "Go and pound sand!"

"Zoe, please..." Ben tried. Gray smirked as he appeated next to Natsu.

"Seems these kids need a timeout," he said to Natsu as he cracked his knuckles. Natsu did the same to his neck.

"It would seem so," he said. "Try not to kill them."

"Same to you," Gray looked over his shoulder at this, "You three, free the girls from that circle. I don't like it."

"R-Right," Drake said to himself, coming to the realisation he'd never seen Natsu or Gray fight seriously. He doubted they would, but surely they weren't going to let a couple kids beat them.

And with this, both kicked off. Gray at Zoe, Natsu at Ben.

The fight was a flurry of movement, but Drake could just barely keep up. Natsu went at Ben with a kick, which was dodged, or so the boy though. Bursting flames appeared on Natsu's ankle, and he spun in the air to deliver a kick to Ben's side. The bow flew away but maintained flight, but it took Natsu all of half a second to get on him again, throwing a punch at him. Ben was forced to block it, sending him careening into the wall and smashing millennia-old writing. He got no time to breathe, Natsu grabbing him by his face and throwing him up into the roof, creating another crater there. Fire erupted from Natsu's feet like a volcano, and he flew into the boy at a million-miles a second, throwing up a plume of smoke from the impact.

Looking down in a blink, Gray was deflecting shots of shadow from Zoe like it was a leisurely sport. The ice at his feet flowed like water, snapping the shadows out of the air and slamming them into the ground or freezing it solid. Zoe flew a bit to close to Gray, who catapulted off the floor and towards her with an icy sword in his hand. Zoe dodged the blade, but not the outcropping of ice that spawned on the wall after the impact. It trailed after her, hissing like an angry snake. She blasted it away, but Gray as on her again with the sword. She parried with her arm guards, but with every strike Gray knocked away another piece of it. Soon Zoe's forearms were defenceless, so she kicked away from Gray and readied a blast of darkness at him.

Before Ben hit her in the back.

Her brother made her lose her focus, both spiralling in the air a little. Both men were on them again, switching targets mid-fight. Blasts of light were deflected by Gray, Shadows consumed by Natsu's fire.

The fight had only been going on for twenty seconds or so.

"They're incredible," Steph breathed. Drake agreed but shook himself from his shock and tried to focus.

"We still have work to do," he said as he turned back to the girls. "We need ideas!"

"Can we wake the girls up?" Michael asked. "They can mess up the markings from inside!" Drake made a face. He wasn't sure about that. Both looked to be in incredible pain, unable to wake. Besides, if the explosions hadn't woken them, what would. His eyes drifted down from the girls faces to their hands, which were conjoined.

He got an idea.

"END!" He shouted, "END, can you hear me?! We need you! Nashi and Luna need you!"

She was back in Tartarus.

Resist him!

Nashi screamed louder than she ever had before. Blood gurgled out of her mouth. What was happening? Where was she? She had no idea, but what she did know was that she was being torn in half vertically. Someone was holding her by the head and splitting her up the middle like a rag doll. Her body could like it was dying slowly, all her internal organs coming to the realisation that this was it, the final moments. She couldn't scream anymore, her vocal chords had gone raw. It only came out as a mew as the pain intensified.

Nashi!...Nashi...Na...

Who was calling her? What was even happening? Please just kill her already. It was all she really wanted was to die.

"Please," she managed to croak out, "K-Kill me..." A deep voice laughed.

"Not yet, my dear," it replied. "You still have a part to play. Only after I've used you up will I give you permission to die."

"N-No, please...Kill me, I can't...I want to die!"

"Nashi, wake up already!"

Nashi's eyes snapped open in a fright, and she sat up quickly.

Which made her forehead collide with Drake's, as he was checking on her.

"Ow!" They both exclaimed, Drake falling backwards. Wait, Drake? Where was she again? What was happening?

Her sluggish brain did it's best to catch up. They were so many explosions, but she saw Drake, Steph and Michael with her and Luna.

"What happened?" She asked weakly. "I-I don't."

"Zoka and Ruli captured you guys," Drake said, but she remembered that. "They were doing some ritual on you. We couldn't get in, but I called on END to help you. When I did, she managed to force your body towards the edge of the circle and smudge the runes. It was enough for us to force our way through.

"Huh?" Nashi asked, still feeling sluggish. "But she couldn't have had enough strength, she's separated between me and Luna."

"Look down," Drake told her. Doing as she was told, Nashi looked down. She found her right hand was still tightly gripping Luna's, and she made the connection.

"That's how," she said, Drake nodding along. "So...How do you explain that?" She gestured to the fighting. Drake made a face.

"That would be Gray and your Dad," he said. "Fighting those two." Nashi watched as the fight came to a standstill, the two demons facing off against Natsu and Gray. Neither man was unharmed, while the kids were dripping blood all over the place. Wait, kids? Nashi did a double-take on the face of her captors, but the youth was evident.

"Damn it!" The girl screamed. "Ben, you said you drew the runes right!"

"I did!" The boy, Ben, said. "They ruined them, are you blind! Runes only work if they're clear, Zoe!"

"Agh! Do I have to do everything around here?! Gimme your hand, dummy, we're going with plan B!" Ben looked irritated, but nodded. They grabbed each other, and Michael flinched.

"Get down!" He shouted, surrounding them all in an orb of holy light. Natsu and Gray were too far away. Ben and Zoe were chanting something she couldn't identify, but her gut told her it was evil. A dark light erupted from them, making her shield her eyes as it roared against Michael's bubble. It took a few seconds, but when the smoke faded, Nashi saw something that she wished stunned her as much as it normally should have.

There was now two copies of Gray and Natsu, standing off against each other. Zoe giggled demonically.

"Let the real show begin!" She chanted.

Chapter could have been better, but, had to get something out for y'all! Besides, this arc is obviously kinda short, no need to drag things out ridiculously. I hope to get the next chapter up soon, so I hope you all enjoyed, leave a review! Let's try and get five!