First order of business, a message from my son. (It was longer but I trimmed it down to the most important points.):
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kolp;/'jkml,;./m kjmkm,ljjkijhnhjkmnbghj=-09876543ewsxfghuiop;.,mnbvcdxsaqw23456yujhnbvcfgtyuikmnbhjkl,
savwafair: You've given me some things to think about...
As always, thanks for all the love and happy reading.
As Lucy ran, all she could hear was her heartbeat pounding in her ears and her ragged breathing. It was so dark, she could barely make out the outline of the things she ran passed. Occasionally, glowing eyes would blink open and watch her as she ran, but never followed. She could feel the presence of other beings nearby, but she never saw who or what it was. All she knew was that she needed to get out.
Suddenly, she bounced off something hard and warm in her path. She landed hard on her butt, and when she opened her eyes again she found herself in a small room. Thick bars covered the walls and ceiling, and as she looked around, she had to squint in the sudden light. The door to the room was open on the other side of her cage's door, exposing the next room. A lamp burned brightly on a table on the other side, illuminating some of her room and throwing shadows across the figure sitting on the chair.
"Where am I?" she asked. The figure remained silent, choosing to watch her instead of answer. She couldn't see his eyes, but she knew he was watching her.
"Answer me! Where am I? And who are you?" This time, a quiet chuckle escaped from under the hood in response. The figure rose and took a step towards the cage with his hands behind his back. He sighed as he watched her, content, it appeared, just standing there.
Angered, she yanked her shirt up and put her hand to her skin as she whispered, "Natsu."
The figure openly laughed at that, and when nothing happened, Lucy looked down to see her summoning tag gone. "Natsu?"
As she looked up, a large hand moved through the bars and settled over her eyes, eclipsing her vision and knocking her out.
As the rescue party arrived in the Dark, the three hybrids were immediately forced to put their hands over their ears as high pitched screeches and screams pierced the air. It was so loud, even Loke grimaced and had to cover one ear. "This place is horrible," he said.
"You're telling us," Sting responded. They listened to what appeared to be a fight nearby, until a large explosion went off, followed by a high keen and then quiet. There were other noises, so many others it was hard to name them all, but they were much more manageable for the half dragons' sensitive ears and soon they were able to remove their hands.
The alley they had appeared in was filthy and dark, barely lit enough for the group to see. It was empty of creatures, for which they were lucky, but there was very little space for them to move around. "Why here?" Natsu asked.
"The few times I've been here, this alley has always been empty. I didn't want to immediately give away our presence. I need to figure out where Lucy is, and the easiest way to do that was to come here."
"So you don't want me to just start lighting everything up?" Sting asked.
"Not yet. Once we do, we'll have to fight anything that isn't scared off by the light, so I'm hoping to keep this quiet for as long as possible."
"That will be a bit of a problem for me," Rogue said. "If this whole place is like this alley, I won't be able to use any shadows to search. I need light for there to be shadows and it appears there isn't much of that in the Dark."
"There's not a lot, no," Loke said, "but most areas aren't as dark as this. Just give me a minute to search for Lucy so we can figure out where we're going."
As Loke closed his eyes, Natsu turned in a slow circle to smell the environment. It was filthy; he could smell blood, dust, rotten food, decomposing flesh, mold, and so many other nasty and pungent smells, he had to work a bit to get the smell out of his nose. "I don't think Lucy is close," he said, "I can't smell her at all. That could be because of all of the other smells, but I don't think it is."
Suddenly, he had a thought and held out his hand. As a small flame appeared, he let out a long sigh. If his magic was working, then they were at least in the correct realm. "She's here somewhere, though."
"I was kind of hoping you'd say we were in the wrong place," Sting said. "I do not feel comfortable here. My senses are going so nuts over everything, I'm not sure I could actually sense a real threat if it showed up."
"Well that's why we have a group, right?" Natsu lightly slapped his companion's shoulder. "Don't worry, we got your back."
Loke's eyes suddenly flashed so bright, they illuminated the whole alley around them. "Okay, we're in one of the cities here, and it seems like Lucy is being held in an underground labyrinth of some sort way south of here. That's actually good news for us. There will be a finite group of creatures in that space that we can piss off with Sting's light, so we should have an easier time getting through, not to mention we'll be able to move around fairly freely with Virgo's abilities." The still silent angel gave the others a small nod at Loke's words but continued to not say anything.
"Is the whole world like this? Just a big run down city?" Sting asked as he pinched his nose.
"Have you never been here?" Loke asked.
"Neither Sting nor I have ever been here," Rogue answered.
"Or me," Natsu said. "Never had a reason before now."
"I suppose you're all still young yet. No, but there are a lot of areas like this that look like rundown towns and cities. This world used to be more like the humans' world, with day and night, and inhabited by many different races. Unfortunately, there was some sort of natural event that wiped out all the people and living creatures on this world, virtually overnight. The impact of whatever it was caused a tear between this world and the others, and the less desirable races saw an opportunity to take over. Many came from the Inbetween and lots of dark corners of the other worlds, and tried to start lives here.
"Once we figured out what happened, the angels came and fixed the crack, stopping the leaks. Unfortunately, for those who had already come here, the effects of whatever destroyed the living continued to get worse, and eventually, the sun was blotted out, leaving the entire realm in darkness. After that, the other worlds that had the magic to do so, began using this as a dumping ground for the worst of the worst, and those who should never see the light of day. There are a lot of evil beings in this world, which is why people don't visit. The worst part, is once you've been here a while, you develop a sixth sense about who should and should not be here.
"The people stuck here are always waiting for someone to visit the Dark so they can force them to use their abilities to get them out of here. This is not a good place, so we need to leave as soon as we can."
"Well get us to wherever Lucy is so we can bust her and the girls out already then!"
"Stick close," Loke said as he put his hands together. "This might take a couple jumps."
Sting, Rogue and Natsu all took a couple steps forward, and then they were being pulled along again by Loke's magic.
Panic.
So much panic.
Lucy tried once more to bring her heartbeat under control, but it felt like it just kept beating harder in her chest. Not only that, she couldn't seem to move any part of her body, and her feet and hands were numb. Her breathing was coming so rapidly she began to feel dizzy, and she hated that her body refused to obey here.
"Something is wrong," she heard a voice say. "I don't think a human's heart is supposed to beat that fast."
"Isn't it?" a deeper voice answered. "I thought it was too slow, so I gave her something to help."
There was some humming and clacking of what sounded like a keyboard. "Yep, it's definitely too fast. It should be closer to 70 beats per minute, not over a 100."
"Are you sure? That seems rather slow."
"According to the archive, we need to slow it down, so just do it, would you?"
"Fine," the deeper voice said, and then Lucy could hear movement nearby. A needle was shoved into her arm, and almost immediately her heart began to slow. "There, down to 73, happy?"
"Yes," the first voice said. "Now I have to- what is going on with her extremities? Why are they turning purple?"
"I strapped her down, duh. What was I supposed to do?"
"You idiot!" There was a loud slap and then hands began roughly unstrapping one of her feet. "Humans are not that strong, and you have the sixes on her. There is no way for her to break through, so keep them loose enough her blood can circulate, or we're going to have to amputate you idiot! The less there is of her body, the less there is of her blood, especially if we have to do surgery."
Shortly after, all the restraints had been loosened and Lucy could finally feel her hands and feet again. Once she heard them walking away from her, she tried once more to open her eyes, or even just move around, but her body continued to disobey her commands.
"Obviously you were a poor choice for this task," the first voice said. Lucy began to assume she must be a leader of sort. "Here. This is all the information we have about humans. Read it while I am gone. I should be back within the hour. I need you to stay here and monitor her while we figure out what to do with the others."
As the higher pitched voice spoke, they walked away. There were the sounds of something being unlocked and then the groan of a door. "If something happens to Ms. Heartfilia while I'm away, I will hold you personally responsible and punish you accordingly."
With a slam, the person was gone.
Loke leaned forward to place his hands on his knees as he worked on catching his breath. Moving so many people so many times without a break was wearing down on him. He'd never moved around so much in this realm, so he had been unaware that there was some sort of distortion that messed with the distances between different places. Sometimes Lucy felt very close when they stopped and other times she felt very far away, so it was hard to judge how far he should jump each time he did it. The pull hadn't ended up behind him, though, so he knew he was still heading in the correct direction.
"Are you okay, Leo?" Loke's eyes snapped her way and she whispered an apology. As he continued to try and catch his breath, Virgo put her hand on his shoulder and leaned forward to see his face. "If you give me a distance to aim for, I could help you move these people for a little while at least."
"No Virgo, it's fine." Loke stood up as he took a deep breath. "I think we're here."
"Here?" Natsu asked as he looked around. "We're in the middle of nowhere, what are you talking about?"
They were in the equivalent of an overgrown field, surrounded by flat land filled with a mix of weeds and dead plants. It wasn't as dark there as it had been in the alley, but there was still not enough light to cast any shadows.
"She's somewhere under us," Loke said as he turned to Virgo. "Do you think you can find the entrance? It might be easier to just go right to Lucy and get her, but I also have to find whoever's in charge and have a word with them, so we might as well clear the whole place out."
Sting took a step forward, a large smile making its way onto his face. "Wait, does that mean-"
"-that we get to kick some serious ass!" Natsu finished. He was also grinning as he turned to Sting and they high fived.
"Yes, but once we figure out who is in charge, you can't kill them. I have some questions that need answering first." He turned Virgo's way to see her nod as a magic circle formed under her feet and then she sank into the ground.
Natsu groaned. "Loke, you're no fun. Can't we take just a little chunk out of them? Please?"
"No Natsu. I have orders from the king and they surpass your desire to fight. I get to face whoever is running things, got it?"
Natsu ground his teeth a little bit. "Fine, but only so long as they aren't directly threatening Lucy. If they are, I will do as I see fit to save her."
Loke glanced at the other pair with them and then cast a small ball of silence around Natsu and himself. "For the last time, Natsu, I am Lucy's guardian angel. I have more reason to protect her than you do, so I need you to stop making things out like you can protect her better than I can, or that you have more reason to. You are a demon who is contracted to her for a year, whereas I have been around far longer than you and it is my purpose to protect her.
"We are on the same side, here, and so long as you're helping me save her, you will listen to me and follow my orders, is that understood? I could easily send you back home and do this with just Virgo. I am trying to be nice by letting you come along, but this is still my job and I will not tolerate being treated like a second rate guardian, got it?"
Outside the bubble, Sting leaned towards Rogue. "So, what do you think that's about?"
"No idea," his companion answered, "and I don't really care."
"Really? How is it not eating you up inside wondering how Natsu of all beings ended up working with a guardian angel?"
Rogue didn't answer, he just continued to silently watch the angel angrily speak to Natsu. Sting sighed as he turned back to the pair. "Any idea which one he is?"
"Which what?" Rogue asked.
"Which angel. Natsu calls him Loke, but I've never heard of an angel named that before, so it must be the name he uses in the human realm. I wonder who he really is."
"Do you never pay attention?" Rogue asked.
"Of course I do," Sting scowled. "Why?"
"Isn't it obvious?" Rogue nodded towards where Virgo had disappeared. "He summoned a Zodiac angel to help with this, so he must be important if he could do that, right?"
"Yeah."
"And when we first arrived, Virgo called him by his other name. Did you really not hear her?"
"If you know who he is, just tell me already."
"He's the leader of the Zodiac, Leo the Lion."
"He's Leo?!" Sting's eyes were impossibly wide as he turned back in time to watch Natsu nod and raise his hands in surrender. "How?" he murmured.
"How in the world did Natsu get roped into working with Leo of all angels? Over a human?"
Run.
Must run. Faster.
Run faster.
FASTER.
Can't be caught.
Can't let them see me.
Kill them if they find me.
Kill to escape.
ESCAPE.
