Heyy! I'm really sorry I haven't been updating very often recently... I've been busy with school and stuff and haven't had any time to do this. Thank you all for wishing me good luck on my exams in November. I think I did okay with them. Anyway, I have yet another set of exams coming up soon, so I doubt I'll be uploading frequently until a few months time, sorry! Anyway, I've been planning this for ages now, I hope it all makes sense... I hope you like it! -smiley face-

As her eyes slowly peeled open. She took a glance at her hazy surroundings. She found herself lying on the ground unable to move. She recognized that she was still in the same underground tunnel as before when one of the wall lights almost blinded her, causing her to wince. It was when she felt the pain of the wounds from the previous events that she remembered what had just occurred. In a panic, she attempted to arise from her current position and stand up. Not managing to achieve much because of her dizziness and throbbing headache, she settled for a crouching position on the stone floor. She then scanned her surroundings from a new angle too see her three opponents lying on the ground... How did this happen? She was so bewildered by this that she almost didn't notice a furry, indigo exceed walk up behind her.

"Hello!~Nya!" It sang cutely, causing the celestial mage to get a fright and immediately look in it's direction. As soon as she saw the talking cat, she just managed to with-hold a yelp.

"W-What do you want?" She asked aggressively.

"...Uh... Was that you back there?" The timid cat questioned.

"What do you mean 'back then'? I didn't do anything."

"Huh? Are you sure? ~nya."

"I'm pretty sure I'd remember if I did something back there."

"Well, all I saw were my masters battling you... But you looked like a... Demon... ~nya."

"Well then, it mustn't have been me." Chrys concluded, just managing to haul herself of the floor. As she did so, she forgot about her sore head and immediately fell back to the ground in a new location. "Damn it..." She muttered as her skin touched the cold stone.

"I-I bandaged your wounds for you..." The Exceed grovelled.

"Cool." Chrys replied sternly, making another attempt to stand up and walk away. Well, that solved the question as to why she'd almost completely stopped bleeding. Although there were so many more unanswered questions that pestered her mind. Although her top priority at this point was getting out.

The Exceed looked puzzled. It couldn't work out why she was being so snappy, especially after the aid she'd just received.

"Excuse me..." The cat timidly asked.

"What now?!"

"C-C-C... CAN I PLEASE COME WITH YOU?!" He shrieked as his eyes began to water.

"No." Chrys said, attempting to speed-walk away.

"Why?! ~nya!" The indigo neko cried as he grabbed her leg.

"Get off me!"

"Why won't you let me come with you?!"

"Because I already have to put up with enough annoying little idiots!"

"I-I'm an annoying little idiot?" The Exceed looked up at her cutely, it's eyes continued watering, "W-WAHHHHH!" He cried loudly as tears trickled down it's cheeks.

"For goodness sake, shut up!" Chrys yelled, trying to shake the screaming exceed off her leg. "This really isn't doing my head any good you know!"

"P-Please let me come with you!" He continued, "I can answer all your questions!" Immediately, this perked the interest of the mage.

"Really?"

"Really! I know everything about what you're looking for!" He yelled, still in tears, and still gripping on tightly to her leg.

"Fine! As long as you shut up and tell me and the others about this when we get out of here!" She shouted in frustration.

"Yaaaaaaay! Thank you! ~nyaa! My name's Indie, what's yours?"

Completely ignoring any signs of affection, she shortly replied, "Chrysanthemum."

Finally, Indie let go of her leg and sprouted feathery, white wings to fly beside her. This increased their walking speed dramatically.

Now that Indie had stopped his loud crying, all that could be heard were the echoing of small footsteps. Luckily, Chrys hadn't traveled too far through the passageway before she got attacked, otherwise it would've been a labyrinth. Her footsteps lessened and finally came to a stop when the two reached the entrance.

"Great. There's no stairs. How do we get out?!" Chrys turned to the almost cowering exceed.

"I-I was going to fly you up... But if you don't want me to then that's okay... Nya..."

"Stop trying to make me feel bad and fly me up already." She snapped as the exceed carried out it's orders. Indie elegantly flapped it's wings and perched on Chrys's shoulders. Grabbing her under the arms, he began to flap at an increasing rate, eventually they achieved lift-off and silently flew up to the trap door. After a lot of effort, the celestial mage heaved it open and swiftly flew out. The two landed with a crunch on the frosty grass.

Chrys savored the first breath of fresh air she'd had in a long time. It was the first time she truly appreciated being outside. She turned around to get a better look at Indie since the light levels had increased dramatically. He was quite a chubby cat. His head shape looked like more of a side-ways oval than round, which was unusual compared to most other exceeds she'd seen. His long fur was a dark indigo colour, but when the light shined at just the right angle, traces of darker stripes became visible. His large, round, brown eyes stared at the mage expecting her to say something. He truly was a beautiful animal.

"Okay, Cat! Talk to me! What do you know?" Chrysanthemum exclaimed viciously.

"Ah! What do you want to know?" Indie questioned, intimidated.

"Okay, first of all, tell me who those people are. Next, what was that stone? What happened to me? Where did you come from?"

"Okay... The people you just fought where from the dark guild, Howling wolves. They're not part of the Baram alliance and their sole purpose is to gain control over the demons that you're trying to exterminate. They can do this through the use of stones, like the one that was in the underground tunnel back there. These stones are called 'Dusk stones', which as the name suggests, contain a lot of dark magic power. So much power in fact, that collecting 5 of them gives you the power to overcome a demon and control it. Although these stones are really rare and difficult to find, which is why they needed me. I was born with the unusual ability to trace these stones. I can sense this kind of magic power over large distances. They stole me and have been holding me captive since. They beat me and beat me until I told them where they could find the nearest stone. In the end, I had to give in. It hurt too much. I was hiding in the back corner when they attacked you. When they threw you against that wall, you released a dusk stone from a hole in the wall and it fell close enough to you that it activated something... I can sense it. A part of a demon is living inside of you... Yet there's not enough to control you... How did this happen? Because the amount of power that the stone emits reacted with the demon presence within you. And with the magic power that's already inside you, the total power added up to that of five of those stones. Although since you were almost defeated, you summoned the demon subconsciously and beat all three of the guild members single-handed. Because you weren't conscious when you were attacking them, you didn't remember a thing when you woke up. Whilst you were asleep, I retrieved a first aid kit from Clara's bag and treated your wounds for you."

"Wow... That's a lot to take in." Chrys then explained to Indie about how the demon has possessed her, but left part of it inside her. She then continued to explain that in order to prevent it from taking over her completely, her 'friend' Ichigo has to use a light concealment spell on her.

"I need to tell the others about this... I'm going to go find them, and you're coming with me." The celestial mage said after swiping the Exceed off the ground and carrying him away.