Chapter 5

"Tell me," Loke began almost pleasantly as he moved towards Delenn, "how you found out that Lucy was responsible for taking down your little band of thieves."

The other man, seemingly mesmerized by his intent stare, said, "It wasn't hard. When they didn't return from taking the train when they should have, I went looking for answers. I found my brother and the rest of the gang hidden away behind bars, where they would have stayed until the executioner could get to them. The soldiers in town made the mistake of allowing me to talk to him, and he told me what happened. One of them mentioned her name in his hearing, so he told me who she was."

"Perhaps," Loke replied, "but that doesn't tell me how you knew that she'd come here, since she no longer lives in this area and hasn't in some years."

"You'd be surprised what a person can learn when one of the 'authorities' is in his pockets," Delenn answered a little smugly this time, still matching every step of Loke's, who hadn't once halted his slow but implacable pace. "I have several in different towns along the railroad. She'd mentioned in this one's hearing that she would be coming here to talk to her family's lawyer sometime towards the end of the month, and he told me. Greed so often turns a good man bad, doesn't it?"

The lion laughed cynically. Of course. Crooked officials. Well, it looked as though they had more people to go after. He'd have to be sure to get names and places from Delenn before killing the bastard.

"Greed doesn't turn anyone. If you're really a good man, it won't have any hold on you," Loke stated with disgust. "Only the weak of heart are taken over by the love of money."

It was Delenn's turn to laugh, though he still watched his adversary warily and countered his every move. "Don't tell me you wouldn't be tempted by it – with that pretty suit, you look like you have expensive tastes. Just think of all the things you could have if you just had the funds. I could give that to you," he added slyly. "Anything you wanted would be yours if you joined me..."

I can't believe that fool is trying to buy me!

He growled, a deep, guttural sound that clearly caught the other man off-guard with its animalistic tone.

"The only thing I want, money can't buy and you can't give me. I don't give a damn about your money or your influence or any other such pursuits, so you can keep your blandishments to yourself. They won't do a thing to save you." Loke blinked as a faint strangeness stroked phantom fingers down his spine, and absently brushed the feeling away.

The dark mage scowled at him and recoiled as if struck, sweat visibly breaking out on his forehead. "What the fuck are you? Why is my control magic not working against you?!" he shouted, disconcerted.

So that was what that odd feeling had been. Marionette. Loke grinned evilly, his elongated fangs quite visible despite the light still bleeding from him.

"Marionette works by using dark magic to sever the link between a person's mind and soul. Or... perhaps I should have said a human's mind and soul. You see, I'm not human - I don't have a soul for you to sever the link to. I'm a celestial spirit, a being of pure power that you cannot control." He bowed mockingly at the now-gaping man. "The name is Leo for those not in the know... and Lucy is my mistress."

At that, the man's eyes widened dramatically, and his fear-scent only increased. With a gleeful sense of anticipation the lion gathered himself to attack, but in an instant the situation flipped upside down and he was cursing instead, as Delenn simply vanished from sight with a defiant shout.

For a moment Loke thought he'd successfully managed to get somewhere far enough away that he couldn't be tracked, but then he turned to where his friends were all fighting, and realized that Lucy was still attacking Erza. Since that was the case the cur still had to be somewhere nearby, otherwise she would simply have collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut, much as he despised that particular analogy at this point.

His light dying down for the time being, he took a moment to see how the others were actually faring. Erza was holding her own with Lucy, only attacking enough to keep her busy and out of Natsu's way, and otherwise just defending herself. Wendy was staying back a little and providing support to her, and the Salamander was having fun beating the hell out of the rest of the bandits. Since they weren't even wizards he was just using his fists and no power, but he was a hell of a brawler, magic or no, and it showed.

Apparently, experience with all the fistfights at the guild had done him a world of good.

Seeing as they were all doing fine, Loke turned his attention back to his own prey. It was time to hunt the bastard down, and he was going to thoroughly enjoy it.

Lifting his nose just a little he closed his eyes and inhaled, savoring the different scents clouding the air and unraveling them one by one until he found what he was looking for.

And then he disappeared, moving swiftly after his mark.

~~LoLu~~

Gray and Happy heard and saw the sounds of combat long before they arrived in the vicinity of the fight, and not being a fool, the ice mage had the Exceed land so they could sneak up on the combatants and see just what was happening. He didn't want to charge into something blindly and put himself or any of his team in danger.

They slid through the ruined architecture on near silent feet, coming up on their friends from a slight angle. It took a few minutes, but when they finally got close enough to see what was going on, Gray scowled.

"I don't see Loke at all, even though Lucy's there fighting with Erza. And I don't see anyone that could be the dark mage, either."

"That's probably because Loke's chasing him. He's a grown-up cat, and grown-up cats usually like to hunt their prey down and play with it before killing it," Happy said solemnly, looking up at him through huge, unblinking eyes.

"Hmm." Gray was a little disturbed by that, but what could he say? He wasn't a cat. "Loke wouldn't really... kill the guy, would he?" he asked uneasily, and didn't know what to think when Happy just shrugged. Instead of trying to figure it out, he turned his attention to Natsu and what he was doing. That was safer territory.

"Well, it looks like the flame-brain's having all sorts of fun over there," he griped. "And he's not leaving any for me! Dammit, Natsu," he bellowed, running out from under cover and plowing a fist into one man that had just been flung that way by the dragon-slayer, sending him through a stone retaining wall and into unconsciousness, "I told you guys to leave some for me!"

And just like that, everything went terribly wrong.

When asked later, Gray could never say why it hadn't occurred to any of them that there might be magical traps set up around the ruins, but it hadn't until just that moment. So when the ground dropped out from beneath him he wasn't at all prepared, and it cost him a hard landing when he was thrust out of the magic in a different part of the ruins than he'd started in.

Well, shit...talk about not charging in blindly...

He groaned, then rolled over painfully and sat up to look around. The area was now almost eerily silent, and he was pretty sure that the others had been taken by surprise just as much as he had been when he'd triggered that snare. They had probably been scattered to several different locations, and now they'd have to find their way back to each other. But he was pretty sure there were other booby traps set up in different places, so they'd be forced to move much more cautiously than they otherwise would have.

Shaking the ringing out of his head, he finally stood up and tested his legs. They were thankfully okay, but he did have a nice long gash down most of his torso, where he'd landed on a broken piece of masonry and then slid down after the magic dropped him. With a muffled curse he tore off the remains of his shirt and ripped it into several semi-wide strips, which he then used to bind the still-dirty wound as tightly as he was able. It would have to be cleaned thoroughly later, but for now there wasn't much he could do about it, since there wasn't any water around.

"Only got to lay one guy out and already I'm bleeding and the team is all separated," he muttered sourly to himself as he tied the makeshift bandage off. "Fucking magical snags. Always did hate this kind of crap."

He looked around after he'd finished, trying to decide where to go, but after a moment he shook his head with a frustrated scowl and just chose a direction at random. It's not like it matters with this team. With as noisy and destructive as we are, I'll find the others sooner or later no matter which way I-

"Woah!" he shouted in surprise as something whizzed past, barely missing striking him in the shoulder, and he jumped back and looked up only to meet Lucy's blank, dead brown eyes as she snapped her whip at him again with absolutely no expression on her face. It was a terrifying thing to see, especially on the features of a woman who was usually so very animated and emotive.

You're like a ghost within me who's draining my life~it's like my soul is see through~ right through my empty eyes...*

Gray shivered. That was part of a song he'd heard just once and never forgotten. What haunting, prophetic words... It was exactly what that dark mage was – an eidolon that was draining Lucy's magic and thereby her life, if not stopped soon enough.

But now he knew exactly what Loke had been talking about when he'd described her blank gaze, and why the other man had been so anxious and upset. He could only empathize with his friend, because seeing the celestial mage like that was just horribly disturbing and totally wrong.

The blonde continued to press him, giving him no quarter as she continuously tried to trip him up. With no other options, Gray formed his ice and attempted to immobilize her with it, just like Erza had suggested he try in the carriage last night. Unfortunately, she was able to leap high enough above it to avoid any contact, and alighted on top of an old support pillar. She stared emptily at him for a few seconds, and then moved to attack again, only this time she used her power.

He was surprised not to see her summoning one of her spirits, however. Oddly, she just allowed her magic to form around her and then sent it in formless shards at him, like she was throwing knives at a target. He frowned even as he formed a shield around himself... why wasn't she using her normal form of magic?

There wasn't much time to ponder the question, though he had the feeling the answer was important, and within moments he was in a fight for his life with his friend's stolen body. Because he didn't want to hurt her he could do little but defend himself from her attacks and try to catch her unawares with his ice, which wasn't going to be easy. If he could manage to encase her in it, though, it might be enough to keep her from causing any harm to anyone until they could get Loke to face reality, and use his power to rid her of the dark magic she literally reeked of.

You know... if Marionette is a forbidden magic, who the hell taught the guy controlling Lucy?

That was a damn good question – and a frightening one all at the same time. More wizards with the ability to use this spell? Bad news, because if there was some rogue mage out there that was teaching this magic to others, then they had a much, much bigger problem on their hands than they'd suspected.

As if the current situation wasn't bad enough.

~~LoLu~~

One moment Natsu had been happily knocking goons around, and the next he was being slammed through a thickly-mortared wall and into the ground somewhere other than where he'd been a second before. Disoriented, he struggled to sit up and look around while his mind tried to catch back up to him.

Fucking booby traps, he scowled when it did and the reason for the abrupt departure from his brawl hit his brain. This sucks... and I was finally having fun, too. He pouted, very put out with the loss of enemies to pound.

Jackknifing back to his feet, the dragon-slayer dusted himself off a little and looked around calculatingly, then let out a muffled curse. If it were just him in the area he'd simply fire up and destroy the hell out of everything in his way, but with the rest of the team scattered who knew where in the rather maze-like ruins, not to mention any other pitfalls waiting to blow up in everyone's faces, he didn't dare.

Guess I'll have to do this the hard way, he thought with resignation. Maybe I'll get lucky and find Happy. Then I can have him fly us back to that building the bastards were hiding in.

Just as he was about to pick a direction and start off, his ears picked up the distant sounds of fighting, and he immediately headed as fast as he dared in that direction. If someone was getting some action in he was going to join them, because he had a great deal of frustration to get out, and beating the hell out of those who were directly responsible for that fact was exactly what he needed to settle his nerves.

While a part of that frustration was admittedly because of the disruption to his fight, most of it was over what had been done to Lucy. The girl was his best friend next to Happy, and he cared about her more than just about anyone. And while others seemed to think he was a rather oblivious block-head, he wasn't really. He 'got' a lot more out of things than people gave him credit for, and he hadn't missed what Makarov had left unsaid – that she was in greater danger than any of them knew from this magic that had been used against her.

He also knew that Gramps had been circumspect in his words more because of Loke than anyone else.

The lion was normally a damn good man to have at your back, and in most situations Natsu wouldn't have a qualm about letting him guard his - but not in this one. Not with Lucy in this kind of mess. The celestial spirit had already proven just how single-minded he could become when it came to protecting her, and Natsu was fully aware that if it came down to it, his ultimate loyalty was to his mistress and no one else. On Loke's list of important things first, the blonde would always come first.

Natsu didn't really have a problem with that. It was just that he would fight to save everyone, no matter what, but if it came down to cases the spirit would save his keyholder and the rest of them would be on their own.

It was natural and he knew that; after all, a spirit was contracted to their wizard and was bound by stellar law to protect them above all others. If they didn't and said mage died, the spirit would end up with a death sentence themselves, as had happened to Loke once already, and only Lucy's intervention at the eleventh hour had saved him. But the dragon-slayer was pretty sure by now the fear of death really didn't have anything to do with the reason the leader of the Zodiac spirits was so very protective of his mistress.

He was also almost certain that if she died, even if it wasn't the lion's fault he would do whatever it took to follow her into the other world, though it would mean sacrificing his own immortality.

While he himself had a certain fear eating at him for Lucy's sake, he wasn't really all that worried when it came right down to it. He had faith in his fellow Fairy Tail mages, and he had more in her than almost any others. She might be lost in darkness right now, but he fully expected that when Loke finally used his light magic to chase that dark energy out of her, she would find her way back to them quite quickly.

His blonde best-friend was strong – inwardly, she was stronger than just about anyone he'd ever met, and even more determined. She always saw herself as weak, but she wasn't, because when all the chips were down she just refused to give up. And somehow, with even the smallest amount of light, she always managed to find a way.

He knew she would this time, too. He believed in her.

"Natsu-san!"

The slayer looked up and grinned when he saw Wendy and Charle flying towards him, and lifted a hand to wave at them. "Oi, glad to see you guys. Are you okay?" he asked as the white Exceed set her partner down in front of him and hovered at her side.

Wendy nodded. "We're fine. When those magic circles opened up and swallowed everyone, Charle managed to catch me before I could hit anything or land hard."

"That's good. Got any idea where the others are?"

"Well, we did see Lucy in the distance attacking someone, but we're not sure who. We tried to avoid her when we saw her. Since she was fighting Erza before we all got separated, that might be who she's still battling against. But we haven't seen anyone else," the young teen finished reporting.

Natsu frowned, then shrugged. "Oh, well, we'll just have to track the others down, then."

"Do you know where Happy is?" Charle asked, a light blush on her face as she asked that. "You know, because it would be a lot easier if we could just fly over all this. There are probably more traps out there, and if we flew we could avoid them," she tried to cover her concern – not that the other two were really fooled.

But the pink-haired mage was too concerned with other things to tease the white cat like he might otherwise have done, and Wendy knew her partner too well to bother commenting. Now was not the time for such things, anyway.

"Nope," Natsu shook his head, "but I'm sure we'll find him soon. In the meantime, why don't you keep flying, Wendy? That way, if I trigger a snare, you won't get caught in it."

The smallest dragon-slayer started to protest, but Charle overrode her. "Natsu-san's idea is a good one," she told her friend. "There is no point in putting yourself in needless danger by walking when I'm right here."

The fire mage gave his younger teammate one of his signature toothy grins and a thumbs up. "It'll be fine, you'll see. And this way, you'll have a better line of sight than me, so you'll be able to spot the others quicker. That'll be a big help."

"And any enemies, as well," the white Exceed added in support.

Wendy nodded reluctantly. "Okay," she sighed, though she felt kind of guilty leaving the older slayer alone on the ground like that. But he and Charle were right, so she chose to channel that feeling into doing her best to look out for their other friends as well as any of the bandits.

"Sweet! Then let's go!" Natsu grinned again before continuing on in the direction he'd been headed when the two had found him.

Charle grasped ahold of Wendy and then lifted into the air and followed along behind and just above the other slayer, both girls keeping sharp eyes peeled. Neither needed to try very hard to see bits and pieces of Lucy through the sometimes obscuring haze of her battle with whatever member of the team she was fighting there in the distance, though. Especially as they were heading right for her.

Now, if only the rest of their teammates were so easy to find...

~~LoLu~~

Erza's eyes narrowed as she alighted gracefully on her feet after the magic dropped her, and she looked around carefully.

She'd been in the middle of battling her friend, keeping Lucy busy and out of everyone's way, when she'd heard Gray shout something. She hadn't even had time to glance his way when she'd been swallowed by dark magic, and then she'd been dropped here.

Wherever 'here' was.

The area she was in now had been reclaimed by nature a little more than where they'd been earlier, stone ruins overtaken by trees and vines wending their way through once-spacious rooms and old window openings. In some ways it was quite beautiful, but it was also eerie and a little sad. After a moment, she shook off her odd reverie and leaped lightly upward, landing on the remains of a broken old wall.

From her new vantage point she could see a little better than she had on the ground, and though there were signs of some of her friends in the distance, there didn't seem to be anyone close by. At least, not where she could get a visual. Nor did she hear anything telling. But after what had happened a few moments ago, she wasn't surprised by that – they were probably all being a bit more cautious in their movements now, even the usually impulsive Natsu.

Picking the only direction she could hear unnatural noises coming from, she jumped back down to the ground and began to pick her way through the rambling ruins. But she hadn't gone more than about twenty feet when a faint sound near her had her coming to an instant halt, and her eyes narrowed again in concentration as she listened.

She spun, her sword came up, and she batted away a formless blast of magic as the dark mage she'd last seen Loke stalking stepped around a large tree with a scowl.

"Dammit, why'd I have to run into one of you bastards!" he snarled. "What, are you a celestial spirit come to free your mistress, too?"

Not being stupid, Erza figured out what he was saying quickly and didn't give him the chance to question it any further, or to attempt taking her over. I wasn't going to bring this armor, but now I'm glad I did... because with it, I can cut through the normal laws of magic. It's going to drain me fast, but there's no other choice.

"Nakagami armor," she said deliberately as she shimmered and requipped.

Then she grinned and beckoned the dark mage closer with one hand.

"Come."

~~LoLu~~

*Those lyrics are from a Within Temptation song called Empty Eyes. It should go without saying, but I don't own Within Temptation, nor the song Empty Eyes.