Greetings! I want to say thanks again to those who've reviewed, followed, or favorited the story. It makes me happy to know you guys like it. Also I want to apologize since this chapter wasn't properly beta'd yet. Hopefully it's still alright though. Enjoy!

DISCLAIMER: Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima.


That night Lucy laid wide awake in her bed. Though her eyelids were heavy and in major need of rest, she couldn't sleep even if she wanted to. Her mind was still whirling over the conversation she had with Natsu a few hours prior.

"You asked before if it was Brain who was behind her death." Natsu continued after a minute, surprising Lucy. He kept looking straight forward at the tv set, his demeanor serious again. "You might just have been right."

Lucy's face scrunched up in confusion and she blinked rapidly at him several times. Her stupor didn't last for long though as the reporter inside her pushed its way forward. The time to celebrate and reflect on the moment in which Natsu said she was right could come later. "What makes you think that?" She finally asked.

"Sorano worked at Brain's organization, Oracion Seis. She had been missing apparently for three days yet no one reported her as M.I.A."

Lucy shook her head in disbelief. "Yeah but even so, how does that lead you to that I'm right and Brain is really involved?"

"I don't know, you're the one who suggested he might be behind it in the first place!" Natsu counted. He shook his own head and turned back on the volume on the television. Lucy just crossed her arms and sat back into the couch she hadn't realized she had been on the edge of, too lost in her thoughts to respond again.

Suddenly the bedroom curtains illuminated with a flash of lightening and the rumble of thunder that followed shortly after snapped Lucy out of her reverie. Her eyes darted over to the red digital display of her clock and finally she couldn't take it anymore. Pushing aside the comforter, Lucy quickly retrieved her laptop from her desk and returned to the warmth of her bed. The screen of the device lit up the bedroom walls with a blinding white light as she pulled it open and Lucy winced at its brightness.

It didn't take long before the laptop completed booting up and she was on the internet. Quick as the lightening outside, her fingers glided over the keys to type her query into the search engine. Dozens of results popped up and she selected the first. The link led her to an article on the trial of Jellal Fernandes which happened four years back. If Lucy recalled correctly, the man was believed to be framed but was still proven guilty due to lack of evidence in his favor. She was about to click the article off when something caught her attention.

"'During the last weeks of the trial,'" Lucy read aloud, "'Cipherius Z. Brain, founder of the organization Oracion Seis, stepped forward to fight the allegations against Fernandes. When questioned why he was so invested in the matter, Brain simply stated that he didn't wish to see an innocent man sent to prison. His efforts proved to be fruitless however as the court ruled Fernandes to be guilty.'"

Lucy scanned through the rest of the article but there wasn't any more mention of Brain. In fact, though she looked through many articles about Cipherius Brain after that, only the first one made any mention of his intervening in the Fernandes trial. She tried narrowing her search to just the trial and Brain but again there were no results besides that one. "That's curious," Lucy said, raising her brow. She was going to try searching again when her eye caught the time readout in the corner of her screen.

"Woah!" Lucy exclaimed, jumping up from the bed with wide eyes. The commotion startled her Scottish Terrier awake who was in his dog bed on the other side of the room. He stared up at her with glassy eyes, watching her place her laptop back on the desk. "I have work in four hours, I don't have time to be reading any more articles."

She shuffled back over to her mattress and curled up in the sheets but not before patting the space beside her. "C'mon, Plue, let's get some shut eye." Obediently the dog scampered over and made himself comfortable in her arms, the two of them quickly falling into slumber.


The morning air was thick with humidity the next day. The showers from the day before had stopped shortly before sunrise but it left the whole county feeling damp. The humidity combined with the scorching summer sun, made it difficult to breathe and unbearable to be in for those without air conditioning or anyone unlucky enough to be stuck outside. One of those unlucky people happened to be Lucy as she waited on the sidewalk outside of the Oracion Seis headquarters. Beads of sweat dripped down her back, making her all the more uncomfortable, and she groaned. She could just go back to the office but at any moment a large SUV was supposed to pull up. If she'd left now, the past half-hour of waiting would go to waste.

Just as Lucy gave a glance to her wrist watch, the vehicle in question rounded the corner and lulled to a stop at the curb a few yards away.

The driver exited the car to let his passenger out and Lucy took that as her cue to approach. As she grew closer, she could better make out the man getting out of the SUV. He had tanned skin that boldly contrasted with his pure white hair, which was pulled back into a low ponytail, and he was wearing an expensive looking gray suit. "Have the car ready at noon sharp, I have a lunch meeting." Said man ordered the driver. His voice was deep and only added to his intimidating presence.

Lucy gulped and tried to work up her nerves. No turning back now. "Excuse me, mister Brain?"

Brain barely tilted his head in recognition and began walking towards the entrance of the headquarters. Lucy quickly tried to keep up, the heels of her ankle boots loudly clicking on the concrete. "I'm Lucy Heartfila, a journalist from Magnolia Press and I have a few questions concerning one of your former employees."

At this Brain, ceased his stride and turned directly to face her. "One of the press is it, then? Alright, which employee might you be referring to?"

Though his tone was personable, the chilling feeling Lucy received under his gaze made her wish he hadn't looked at her at all. "Um," she fumbled, "a miss Sorano Aguria."

The name seemed to cause something to shift in Brain outward demeanor and as he opened his mouth speak, a woman came abruptly between the two. Lucy stumbled back and for a brief moment a look of surprise passed Brain's features. "What happened to her? What did you do to her?!" The woman shouted.

"Ma'am, I do not know what you're talking about. Please you and Miss Heartfilia escort yourselves elsewhere, I have work to attend to." Brain dismissed them both and began to walk away.

He didn't get more than two steps as the woman forcefully yanked on his sleeve, spinning him around to face her again and holding her grip tight. "Sorano Aguria!" She yelled, saying the name very clearly. "She is one of your top employees. No one reported her missing and then she wound up dead. How did that happen? What did you do to her?"

Brain scowled down at the woman, his eyes flaring with something Lucy couldn't describe but his voice remained calm as he spoke. "Ma'am, I ask that you please remove your hands from my person or I'll be forced to called security."

"Not until you tell me what you had done to Sorano!" The woman harshly spat back, defiantly tightening her hold on him.

The words seemed to be the last straw and with a snap of his finger, Brain had five security guards at his side prying the woman off him. She hurled several insults in his direction but they fell on deaf ears. Somehow Lucy was made a part of the chaos as well, and both her and the woman were escorted-rather, roughly Lucy might point out-to outside front gates.

Lucy felt dumbfounded, silently wondering how what just occurred happened as she stared at the gates. All she wanted was some information about Sorano to put into her article, and perhaps maybe some kind of leads in favor of her suspicions. Well, so much for that.

Sighing, she brushed a hand through her disheveled hair and glanced a look at the woman beside her. Now that things had calmed down, Lucy could get a good look at her. The woman had a short bobbed hairstyle that appeared to be a light blue, almost white in the sunlight. She wore a simple tank-top and shorts, both a different shade of blue. She was actually quite pretty, Lucy noted.

"Hey, are you alright?" Lucy called out to her.

The woman turned her heated glare away from the Oracion Seis headquarters, giving a weak nod. "Sorry, I didn't mean to get you dragged into that, miss uh," her voice trailed off into nothing and she looked to the ground.

"Heartfilia," Lucy finished for her, "but you can just call me Lucy, if you'd like. Uhm, may I ask who you are?"

The woman nodded again and replied without emotion, "I'm Yukino Aguria."

So maybe Lucy hadn't hit a dead end after all.