Hello readers, it's Ella! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT, FAVORITES, FOLLOWS AND REVIEWS. ILY ALL~

There's only seven more school days left for me and then I can write fanfiction and listen to music all I want for all summer. ~

Sorry I haven't been writing as much lately, I still have final exams. This chapter gives a lot of background information and insight into the situation in Fiore and on the case itself. Plus, there's new characters.

I REALLY WANT TO START WRITING FLUFF BUT ALAS, I can't. Yet. ;)

Sorry if there are errors! I will go back and edit previous chapters when I'm finally on summer break.

Quick summary of last chapter:

- Natsu and Lucy made a promise to protect each other.

- Oooo dragon and princess references

- Gajeel and Lucy fight because life. (Poor Juvia)

- Gajeel, Juvia and Lucy's boss gives them a mission

- Ayeeee Makarov

- Levy, Erza, Gray, Mira and Natsu are assigned to capture those responsible

- ^^ for the Phantom Disappearances

- They get a mission at the same place as Gajeel, Juvia and Lucy. (0.0)

Anyways, lets further or do here is the story.

Chapter 6: Red Wine

"Uh, I think I forgot my map of the building at the guild." Natsu fumbled around trying to make sure that he hadn't placed it in one of his pockets by accident.

"Good going, flame brain. You already screwed up part of the mission." Gray rolled his eyes at Natsu's carelessness.

"Watcha say to me ice princess? Ya wanna fight me right now!"

"Ice princess? You little— "

Erza turned around and scowled at the bickering boys. "Be quiet both of you or I'll make sure that you won't be able to talk for days. Don't you dare test my patience."

"Yes, ma'am." Gray and Natsu responded in unison both with the fear that Erza was going to punish them after the mission tonight was over.

"That's the building over there." Mira pointed at the building that was a few complexes down from where they were currently standing.

It was a five floor building that looks recently built. Word has it that there were major problems in trying to settle whether or not it was going to be developed. The town's counsel was firm in their stance that they would not let Nifil Corporation from constructing more factories or facilities around Magnolia. However, it surprised the town when they were suddenly given the okay to go ahead and build on the plot of land.

Since it was recently built, the building stuck out like a sore thumb. It heavily contrasted the much older looking houses and shops that surrounded it and so it definitely was not hard to find. The monstrosity loomed over the various houses being twice the size of most of them.

Nifil Corporation was known for buying, selling and trading alcohol around all of Fiore. Magnolia had recently become their main source of income because of the sudden increase of new inhabitants flooding in from the neighboring towns. Supplies were scarce in many parts of Fiore however Magnolia seemed to be one of the few towns that remained fully functioning with an abundance of essential products and materials.

This would also explain the boom in the number of people found in the streets during the night partying their hearts out. As sad as it sounded, the townspeople knew that that was where people chose to drown their sorrows with alcohol and insistent dancing. It was a place where the worries that encircled the adults could be put aside or drowned out.

In turn, businesses in town gained twice the amount of customers than they had before. Business owners and workers there were forced to work longer shifts and hire more people to handle the masses. Even though there was a major economic crisis that was affecting millions around Fiore, it did not stop the citizens of Magnolia from indulging in frivolous and lavish activities.

Guilds were also hit hard with the lack of essentials in many parts of the country. Although these mages were well taken care of and supplied with items they both needed and wanted, they could not escape the consequences of this recession. Crime rate increased which meant that more mages needed to take up jobs to help stop as many criminals as they could.

The Phantom Disappearances were just the cream of the cake in terms of the number of cases of people robbing others. What made this series of robberies stand out from the rest was the fact that no one knows what they are after and how many people are involved. In other cases, the authorities had been able to say with certainty that they had been able to identify those responsible but there are no leads in the Phantom Disappearances.

The Rune Guards have questioned many suspects however they were soon ruled out after interrogation. Normally this would create panic for the citizens but because they've been able to get in and get out and not take things such as money or secret recipes, the public simply brushed off this threat. Without having many people take an interest in the disappearances the case soon went cold.

The Wizard Counsel took a sudden interest in the group of unknown robbers who have discretely been terrorizing the town. It wasn't known if those responsible are regular townspeople or if they are mages gone rogue. If it so happens to not be magic users, then the Wizard Counsel would not have jurisdiction in the matter and would be forced to drop the case.

This meant that Levy, Mira, Natsu, Gray and Erza weren't entirely sure as to how to take down the criminals. If they were magic users, then it would be fine to have an outright brawl with them but if they weren't then the mages would have to be careful to not hurt them when apprehending them. The only way to know for certain who they were up against was to see how they fight back to try to escape.

"Okay so here's the layout of the building." Levy pulled out a blueprint of the building that she had obtained from the town's records earlier.

"There are five floors so to cover the most ground we need to each take a floor and guard it." Levy studied the blueprints and pointed to the different floors.

Mira raised an eyebrow. "Is it the best idea to split up if we don't know how dangerous these people are?"

Gray leaned against the wall. "We have no idea of knowing what floor they'll be on 'cause we don't know what they're after."

"Not knowing where they'll attack gets me all fired up!" Natsu practiced his hand-to-hand combat by swinging at an imaginary person right in front of him.

Erza looked at Natsu with a serious look on her face. "Natsu, you better stay on your guard and don't mess around in there. The moment you don't take this mission seriously I will be forced to remember to punish you in front of the whole guild tomorrow."

Natsu gulped and nodded, agreeing to obey Erza because he was way too scared to even dare and go against her word. He may be clueless when it came to how to act in front of others but he knew when it was best to just stay quiet and listen to what he was being told.

"I'll take the first floor, Mira the second, Gray the third, Erza the fourth, and Natsu the fifth." Levy nodded thoughtfully and placed the blueprints in her trusty bag.

Erza got prepared to climb up the escape ladder on the side of the building. "Keep your eyes open for suspicious activity."

Natsu scratched his head in confusion. "What exactly are we keepin' our eyes open for?"

"At this point, I think we should just be prepared for anything." Suggested Mira as the five of them split up to guard their assigned floors for the next couple hours.

"Master, the group from Fairy Tail has arrived at the scene." The servant walked up to the man sitting in a chair near the giant windows in the dark room.

The mysterious man grinned mischievously at his servant. "Excellent, they're right on time."

"Should we inform the Arcanes?"

"No, this is a test of how well they can avoid the annoying fairies. Let's see how they handle this situation."

"And if they don't make it?"

"Then we send out the others. We have plenty that are eager to be in their position so fear not. We would hardly have a shortage of manpower." The man said nonchalantly as he signaled another servant to get him a glass of wine.

"But sir, they are our best trained members. If we lose them then we'll be in trouble."

"If we lose them then we didn't train them hard enough and we will have to correct what we did wrong with the training of the new recruits." The other servant came back with the glass of wine his master had asked for and handed it to him.

"Five of them have been training with you ever since they were little kids. The only one that I thought was still a bit iffy was the new girl."

"Then this test is mainly for her. Let's see if she truly will give up the morals she stands for in order to support this cause. I still find it hard to believe that she wouldn't have a problem with any of this." The man took a swig of his glass of wine and began impatiently tapping his fingers on the armrest of the chair.

"She isn't an impressionable girl."

"Which is exactly why she must prove her loyalty."

"If she fails the loyalty test then what will we do with her?"

"We get rid of her, simple as that. I'm in no position to house people who won't respect me, the great and powerful master. It would be a personal attack on me if one of my own were to be defeated by the likes of the fairies. Do you realize how embarrassing that would be? It would destroy my reputation and that bastard, Makarov, will once again be praised."

The man's grip on the glass tightened. "I should be the one to get recognized as being the leader of the most powerful guild in existence! I use both mages and regular people to my advantage and I've succeeded so far. I'd be dammed if I get humiliated by the counsel because of Makarov."

"He will pay for everything he has done to me. He has taken away the most important things away from me like my status, wealth and influence. It's time for him to feel the humiliation that he made me feel when he had the audacity to brag about his members in front of our colleagues. He will suffer just as I did and I'll begin by hurting the thing he scares about most: his precious children from his guild." The man angrily vowed to get revenge as the glass of wine shattered from his tight grip and the red wine dripped down his hands like blood off of a killer's hand.

Lucy peeked her head around the corner of the hallway before she decided it was safe to move on. They had infiltrated the building minutes prior and each of them were on different floors. They didn't know which floor the information was on and so they thought it would be best to split up and search floor by floor. The flaw in that plan was that now it would be harder to fend off anyone who catches them in the midst of finding the papers.

They knew that they had to be extra careful because there would be mages on guard roaming the hallways. It frustrated Lucy that yet again she had to encounter mages in a situation where it could prove to be very inconvenient. She wasn't entirely sure what they were up against which caused her to be more on edge.

Out of the entire group that goes around looking for the information, the only one with experience handling the Fairy Tail's mages is Gajeel. He hasn't spoken about when or even how he has encountered them but whenever they are brought up in conversation he visibly becomes more tense. He is one of the most intimidating people Lucy knows and it worries her that they manage to make him lose his cool.

Lucy moved along the halls as quietly as possible to listen for any movement that wasn't her own. In order to track the item, they were looking for each group member had a device build by Lucy that used sonar which somehow worked because of the lacrima it contained.

Unfortunately, she was still working on her engineering skills so her device wasn't exactly accurate. It was better than nothing at least and it gave the general direction of where it was located.

She checked the device to see if she was nearby. The dot was around thirty feet from where she was. She was so close but she had to careful with where she was going. Lucy came across a giant door with inscribed symbols that beautifully adorned it and decided that she would take a chance and explore this room.

She waved her hand over the door handle and then slowly opened the door. The room looked like an office that belonged to one of the workers of the company. It wasn't the CEO's room because that room is located on the fourth floor which she wasn't on.

The room had two different cabinets and she looked through both of them. It was annoying that both of them were full of tons and tons of papers pertaining to the company's expenses. Next she tried to search through the desk that was littered with more unorganized papers and junk. She grew more and more frustrated with the disorganization because it was making her job ten times harder.

If I were hiding papers were would I hide them? Lucy looked over to see if anything stood out. And then she had a sudden realization. A safe. She turned around and looked in the area near the desk. Sure enough, there was a hidden safe underneath the window sill. Lucy smiled to herself because she was proud of herself for finding it.

Without much trouble she was able to open the safe and looked through its contents. Underneath a loaded gun there was a stack of papers. She rummaged through the papers until she found the one she was looking for. She folded it and shoved the paper in her pocket quickly. Before she closed the safe she noticed that there was also a stack of money tucked away in the corner.

Her eyes widened and picked up money while carefully inspecting it. She counted how much she had in her hands. She estimated that there was around seven hundred thousand jewels which was a huge load of money compared to how much she makes per month. Lucy's monthly rent was seventy thousand jewels and it was another nine thousand jewels to food and other basic necessities weekly. This would definitely help her out with taking care of Romeo and Wendy.

Lucy frowned and looked at the money in her hands. This would make things so much easier for her and yet she was still very hesitant to take it. She took the wad of jewels and placed in back into the safe and closed it. I'm a bad person alright but even I have my limits.

She stood up and was ready to press a button on her gadget to signal the rest of them to get out of here but she froze. Lucy was absolutely sure that she made hardly any noise when she was sneaking around in the hallway but there someone was, standing in the doorway blocking her exit.

"Put back whatever you stole you hooligan."

It was a woman with beautiful and long red hair that was heavily suited with armor and an frightening look on her face. Lucy did not move from where she was and began weighing her options of how to escape. Her defiance of the woman's request angered the woman more than she had been before.

"How dare you ignore my orders. You shall pay for not heeding to my request."

The woman lunged at Lucy pushing her up against the wall. She had seemed satisfying that she was able to pin her target swiftly but she underestimated the mysterious figure. Lucy took the opportunity of her lowering her guard to kick under the woman's legs, knocking her off her feet. Lucy stumbled to the door and ran out into the hallway.

She clicked the button on her device to signal her comrades that their mission had been compromised. Hopefully her partners had better luck evading the mages than herself and she continued running down the hallway looking her an exit. Behind her, the red-haired woman was following in hot pursuit refusing to let their only lead escape.

The woman yelled something incoherently out loud and weapons randomly appeared around her. From what Lucy could tell, they were melee weapons which meant that if she kept her distance then the furious woman could not harm her. She thought she had a bit of protection however the enraged woman began throwing swords at Lucy that were barely missing her. Guess they're not melee weapons anymore.

Lucy skillfully avoided the bombardment of weapons thrown at her and turned a corner in an attempt to lose her. Instead of gaining an advantage over her, she heard a another series of footsteps coming from behind her. It seemed that another person had joined the chase which made Lucy curse her luck.

"Salamander, they went this way!" The woman yelled furiously.

"Aye, aye Titania."

Titania? The Titania? The woman that many of the strongest mages and guilds are terrified of was chasing after Lucy. It horrified her how she literally just tripped one of the most notorious women of all of Fiore and even had the nerve to run away from her. Although it was probably quite stupid of her to make enemies with someone so powerful it gave her a surge of adrenaline. That was probably what was keeping her from running slow enough to where they would be able to catch her.

On one hand, she had an enraged woman that is type of wizard that is insanely strong. On the other hand, she had the man named Salamander after her too. She had heard the name before from Gajeel a couple weeks back. They had been discussing a plan to infiltrate a restaurant of a wealthy business man on the other side of town when he accidentally brought it up.

Gajeel had told Juvia and Lucy that this punk had confronted him while he was interrogating a boy who possibly had been an eye witness to a break in they had done. He went on and on about how the person that was likely around the same age as him had gotten on his very last nerves. Salamander had tried to lecture him on why he should pick on someone his own size and not an innocent kid.

Gajeel became so frustrated that he had pushed Salamander in the face and felt extremely satisfied. Salamander did not hold back after Gajeel had swung first and they began fighting each other in the middle of the street in broad daylight. They only stopped when one of the Salamander's friends stopped the battle and pulled the man away.

He was quite surprised at how strong the man was considering that the Salamander was only half his size. Although it was refreshing to be in a fight with someone of equal strength, he could not shake the feeling that if the battle continued he might have lost and it ha been bothering him ever since.

Maybe that had been the reason why Gajeel had been so adamant about avoiding guild members from Fairy Tail at all costs. He would be able to tell if Salamander was a part of Fairy Tail by looking at his crest if it were in a visible place. Lucy herself did not know what the crest for Fairy Tail looked like and she would have to remember to ask Gajeel or master about it.

Even with all the warnings that was given to her, here she was running away from two strong Fairy Tail mages whom she couldn't seem to shake off her tail. Lucy resorted to drastic measures and knew that her only chance to escape was to make a rather dramatic exit which she wanted to avoid but knew that she had no other option.

Lucy turned another corner and ran into the nearest door. She propped a chair against the door so that it would jam the door if someone were to try and open it from the other side. She quickly made her way to the window and opened it because breaking it would cause more problems. She stood on the windowsill and looked towards the door as the red-haired woman burst in.

The woman pointed her sword towards Lucy and slowly made her way towards her. "Give it up, stranger. There's nowhere to run to."

Lucy stared at her and Titania once again yelled at her to try to make her speak. "Why are you doing this? Justice will prevail and those who have committed transgressions against the law shall pay and be arrested for their crimes."

"If justice was truly on the people's side then the Wizard Counsel would have paid a long time ago. We're not the only ones who aren't innocent in this town." And with that Lucy jumped out the window.

Titania ran to the window ready to leap after her and realized that the person had vanished. The rest of the group from Fairy Tail ran into the room after hearing the commotion and stopped when they spotted Erza looking out the window in disbelief. That mysterious person had caught her off guard and managed to get the upper hand. That person made Erza follow her like they were having a wild goose chase. That person managed to get away without a trace. That person had earned something that few people received; Erza's respect.

The five mages that had been on the mission to investigate and apprehend those involved with the Phantom Disappearances had returned back to the guild. They were sitting at a table in the guild going over what had happened last night.

"It was a woman's voice." Erza recalled from the last time she saw the cloaked figure before they jumped out the window and vanished.

Gray turned to Erza in surprise. "So there was only one person?"

"She was the only one I encountered. I suppose there could have been more people but just not in that area."

"But it's strange that she would be alone if that were the case. If they knew what they were looking for then why wouldn't they go in as a group to go get it." Mira questioned as she took a sip of her coffee.

Levy raised an eyebrow. "Unless… they aren't sure where the thing they are looking for is either."

"They're quick at finding whatever they are looking for if they're just as lost as us." Natsu was shocked that they were probably not sure where they needed to look for the mystery items.

Erza furrowed her eyebrows and silently began trying to piece together what she saw last night. Levy looked at her with a worried expression after noticing that something was bothering her friend. "What's the matter, Erza? Something bothering you?"

Erza sighed and leaned back in her chair. She folded her arms and began recalling what she had witness the woman do. "While I was on guard looking around my floor for suspicious activity I couldn't detect that anything was out of place. I didn't even hear a single noise of a person sneaking around or owning doors.

Instead of just standing around and waiting for someone who most likely wasn't going to make themselves known I began checking all the rooms. I happened to open the room with the woman looking around for something. I didn't say anything because I wanted to observe what she was doing in case that they wouldn't reveal that later in questioning. She was going through a safe and she grabbed something that I couldn't tell what it was.

What is confusing me is that she had grabbed a stack of jewels that she could have easily taken but she didn't. She placed it back and she gave up the chance to get a substantial amount of money rather than steal it and use the money somewhere else."

Mira unconsciously started tapping her fingers on the table. "I wonder why people that have supposedly been robbed haven't told authorities what has been stolen. I mean, they obviously know that something of theirs is gone and yet no one has found it suspicious that they are super vague about what's been taken?"

Natsu looked at Mira, nodding in agreement. "Waddya think they're not tellin' us or the Rune Guards? 'Cause it's lookin' like the Phantom people aren't the only ones hidin' somethin'."

The group suddenly became aware of the possibility that there could be more to these robberies than simply having shop owners or companies being victims of these attacks. It made more sense as to why there were so many inconsistencies with those who were robbed not being able to describe the item stolen from them.

It would certainly cause a scandal if the reason that these unidentified robbers haven't been caught were indirectly being protected by the townspeople themselves. If this is the case, then they will seriously need to talk to Makarov about the further complication of the investigation.

They would also need to speak with the Wizard Counsel about human interference. It was one thing for a guild to be involved in a matter where mages for the cause of the problem but if it was non-magic users because in that case a majority of mages with a decent moral compass would object to harming them. Mages had an unfair advantage and if they use magic against someone that cannot then it would be quite shameful for the mage whom went too far. There were certain exceptions to this rule however it was rare for any circumstances to arise that merited a mage to forcibly attack anyone, especially if they cannot defend themselves.

"Do we know if she's a mage?" Gray asked while placing his hands behind his head.

Erza and Natsu looked at each other. Natsu decided he'd be the one to respond when he noticed the unreadable expression on her face. "Eh, well she didn't fight back with magic or anything. She just did a hell lot of runnin' and dodgin'."

"So we still don't know if we're dealing with a mage? Can we even go to the Wizard Counsel and tell them what we saw if we don't even know if they even have the right to control the investigation?" Mira asked, not being sure if it was the best decision to make.

A silence fell over the group as they suddenly questioned the very counsel that controls so many aspects of their lives. They had never put much attention to what those powerful mages were up to because it didn't interest any of them at all. The only times that they would care would be when they'd sent a letter to their master forcing Makarov to either apologize, report to counsel or pay for any damage done by his members.

Typically, conversations involving the counsel would be complaints of how they blamed Fairy Tail's members for destroying towns while protecting them. Granted, it was true that they reeked havoc whenever they went but it was for the greater good. They may accidentally destroy a house or two but the townspeople praised them regardless of the damage for saving them.

Never had they believed that the Wizard Counsel was not the justice enforcing group of wizards that it was known for being. Perhaps they would have never basked in the glory of the elders but they never would have thought to turn their back on such an influential and important magical entity.

Erza broke the silence that had filled the area they were sitting. "You know how I said I knew she was a woman because I heard her voice?"

"Yeah?" Levy looked at Erza intently.

"It was because she said something to me." Erza began thinking back to what the woman had said to her.

Everyone's eyes widened and Mira, who was dying of curiosity, took it upon herself to integrate the redhead. "Wait what? What did she say to you? Was it something romantic? Was it a confession for the beginning of a forbidden romance between a justice-seeking mage and a criminal?"

"Don't get carried away, Mira." Gray calmly reminded Mirajane to keep her fantasies to a minimum while discussing important topics.

"Unfortunately, another one of your hopes to find a new couple to ship has been thwarted by reality." Erza said casually, not really thinking about how that could possibly make Mirajane feel.

"Don't rob me of my hopes! A girl can dream, can't she?" Mira protested, refusing to let her friends shoot down the possibility of romance for any of her friends.

"Yes, you can, but sometimes you get carried away." Levy smiled.

"Let's get back to talking about what Erza heard instead of crushing my dreams." Mira suggested to distract her friends from talking about her habits.

"Ah, yes." Erza frowned and the atmosphere became serious once again. "Before she jumped put the window—"

"WAIT, SHE JUMPED OUT THE WINDOW?" Natsu leaned forward excitedly.

"Shut up, idiot. She's tryna tell us something!" Gray yelled at Natsu.

"But that's kinda cool." Natsu mumbled under his breath and then realization hit. "WAIT WHO YOU CALLIN' AN IDIOT, STRIPPER!"

Erza glared at the two boys who were about to fight for the third time today. "Be. QUIET."

Gray and Natsu yelped. "Yes, ma'am." They yelled simultaneously.

"Please continue Erza, it's important that you tell us." Levy softly encouraged her friend to keep going.

"Before she jumped out of the window and vanished she stopped to answer me. I told her that justice would prevail and will apprehend those who have violated the law and she stopped trying to escape for a couple seconds.

She turned to me and told me that if justice was prevailing then the Wizard Counsel would have paid for what they have done already. She escaped after comparing her criminal affairs to the actions of the counsel and that's it. No further explanation."

"She coulda been bluffing to try and get us to stand against someone who is feeling really bad." Gray wearily suggested.

"It's possible that she said that to throw us off." Levy sided with Gray.

"But what if she's actually warnin' us?" Natsu countered, which surprised the rest of the group.

"Why would she do that?" Mira questioned him.

"'Cause she has nothin' to gain. What's the point of tellin' us that the counsel is evil if it hurts them?" Natsu confidently responded.

"Well they'd gain from it if they are able to distract us for a bit so they can hit up more places while we're busy being suspicious of the counsel." Gray added.

"But they probably already know that even if we try and investigate we'll find nothin'. Plus it'd be kinda stupid to tell yer enemies somethin' that could possibly give 'em a clue." Natsu argued.

"Haven't you considered the possibly that she could be lying." Gray angrily hissed at Natsu.

"I think Natsu's right." Erza said unexpectedly.

"Natsu being right about something?" Gray said in disbelief.

Levy shook her head in bewilderment. "Why Erza?"

"I can't explain it. It's my gut feeling and I listen to my gut feeling." Erza clenched her fist and held it up to her chest proudly.

"See. Erza understands what I mean!" Natsu smiled in victory.

"I still don't see how they don't gain anything from us investigating the counsel." Gray groaned.

"Look. If the counsel is hiding something then the moment when find out what it is, we can't trust them anymore. If we don't trust them then the investigation might stop and they might be able to continue doing whatever they are doing. The counsel will be against us and they probably will find other guilds to join the hunt.

The counsel thinks that the five of us and the mage from Lumia Scale is enough to stop them. If they see that that isn't enough then they'll send more and it will be much harder to sneak around without getting caught. If that might happen, why would that person even say anything in the first place?"

Mira paused and furrowed her eyebrows. "If it isn't the organization who warned us then it might just be that person. Maybe they're trying to help us. I mean, you said it yourself Erza. She had the chance to steal so much and chose not to."

"So…" Levy carefully thought over what she concluded about what Mira had said. "It's not the organization or whatever it is helping us. It's her."

"Exactly." Mira nodded in agreement.

Levy thoughtfully looked at the newspaper articles she held in her hands. "Hmm, I wonder why that girl helped us." And silence fell within the group against midst of the revelation that the mysterious figure they had run into the night before could possibly be the key to solving the case of the Phantom Disappearances.