A/N: Sorry this is so short, I kind of struggled getting something down today.

Sting picked up his lacrima communicator and couldn't help but grimace at the look on Rogue's face. The normally collected shadow mage looked like he was ready to combust in rage. Could what was happening at Fairy Tail really be that bad?

"Hang on Rogue, let me get Lucy over here first," Sting answered calmly. After the fire at their client's, the mayor's, home (cough Natsu cough), the mages had helped the Mayor and his odd butler find a room for the night as the local authority combed through the embers of his home in search of clues. Sting and Lucy had decided to share a room with two double beds in the same hotel so that they could continue their meeting with the client in the following morning. So, as of now, Lucy was down at the Hotel's free breakfast buffet talking to the client about the beast that had been terrorizing the lumber yards and forest surrounding the small village.

"Where is she?" Rogue asked after a few deep breaths.

"Down with the client. Our stalkers started a fire on the upper levels of the Mayor's home, so we had to wait for some legal bullshit to be processed before we finished the job review with the guy."

Rogue just nodded. He wasn't surprised to hear that Natsu and Zeref had followed them into their clients house, however he had hoped the two would have had more restraint. Maybe they were that desperate to make Lucy fail so that she'd be open to going back to their guild. Bastards.

"I'll be back in a minute or two and then we can talk," Sting added. He placed the communicator down on the bedside table that rested between the two double beds in the room, grabbed a silver room key, and then headed out the door to get Lucy.

When they had first met the Mayor the day before, Sting had been rather antsy about leaving Lucy alone with the guy. He looked young enough to be in his early twenties, freshly out of his teenage years. But his hair was white, messy, and stuck up like he just rolled out of bed. His eyes were a weird hazel-green and seemed weirdly familiar. His smile had been sharp and filled with teeth out of a nightmare. He had been about the same height as Sting. The man's build was well hidden under a tailored black suit, but if Sting were to guess, he would say the guy was packing some muscle under there. Whatever the guy's appearance was, Sting didn't truly get the heebie jeebies until he observed the predatory way the Mayor grasped Lucy's hand, brought to his lips, and kissed her. The gesture would normally come off as charming, but the Mayor had looked like he'd just gotten a hold on a prized possession. Sting had wanted to jump into the mix immediately and force the man to back off, but he knew Lucy could handle herself and would never forgive him if he stepped on her toes during a mission he wasn't supposed to be there for.

Sting hadn't liked the guys name either. Xavion. What kind of name was that? He told Lucy to just call him 'X'. Like just the letter. X. Sting rolled his eyes. He didn't like the guy. And his weird ass butler looked like some sort of caged animal. Frightened. Pleading. Beaten. Sorrowful eyes that followed Lucy like he wanted desperately to tell her something, but then a jittery glance to the Mayor would have him nearly jumping out of his skin in terror.

According to Sting's observations, the Mayor WAS the monster here.

He found Lucy just finishing up with her meeting. Xavion and his butler were gathering their files and packing the materials away into a black, leather case. Lucy was smiling nervously as she bowed her head in respect to his authority and waved goodbye. Sting waved his arm over his head to capture his fellow blonde's attention. When she saw him, her fake smile faded and instead she opted to bite on her lower lip. Sting pitied the poor appendage for the amount of abuse its owner was applying.

As she neared, Sting called, "Rogue's on the line, he wants to discuss his findings, I think."

Lucy nodded and walked a little faster to her Guild Master's side, then the two of them headed up to their shared room. When they entered, Rogue was pacing around the communication lacrima's screen. Lucy could feel his irritation through the device. Whatever he'd found at the guild must have been worse than she'd thought.

"Rogue, I got Lucy, what'd'ya find out?"

Rogue stopped and looked towards the two mages. His eyes stayed on Lucy, studying her before he shook his head as if to clear his thoughts.

"Lucy," Rogue started, "we need to know all of it now. What is happening in Fairy Tail's guild hall… Did you do that yourself?"

Lucy's eyes widened, but her confusion with his question was clear. "What? Do what?" This time she wasn't playing dumb. When Laxus and Sting had brought up her soul being broken before the infirmary incident, she had wanted to hear what they knew, so she acted like it was news. She had felt the fissures and cracks inside her for a while now, even before Tartarus, but Bickslow had confirmed how severe it had gotten when she was leaving the guild. This time, however, she had no idea what Rogue was getting at.

"The 'shadows' in their guild hall," Rogue was staring at her, taking in her every movement as he spoke. It wasn't that he didn't trust Lucy, but he knew that she had been only letting bits and pieces of her traumas out. And now he needed to know if what was happening in Fairy Tail was of her own doing or… something else.

Lucy glanced between Sting and Rogue. "What shadows?"

Sting took a deep breath, but there was no scent of dishonesty-no sweat, no racing heartbeat, no trembling, no rapid eye movements, just confusion and curiosity.

Sting nodded his head at Rogue to indicate she was being honest. There was a part of Rogue that had hoped she had done this to herself because that would mean that there wasn't something else at play here. If she had removed a part of herself they could slowly help her fix it, but if someone else had done this to her, well, it just made things more complex. If someone else had control over Lucy's essence being trapped in her old guild, then it was possible she would never be able to put herself back together, never heal. Why her, though? Why was it always Lucy?

Rogue did he best to put the anger he was feeling at Fairy Tail aside as he took his time to explain what he'd found in their guild hall. "Lucy, there is basically a part of you that has been broken off and trapped in that guild."

"But why?" Lucy asked. "What good does that do anyone?"

"It is hard to say," Rogue answered. "You could have done this to yourself unconsciously. Someone else could have done it to 'save' you from self destructing. Or maybe someone out there wants you to be broken?"

"Shit!" Sting cussed for the twentieth time as he listened and processed Rogue's findings. He couldn't help but watch the celestial mage from the corner of his eyes. What the hell could have created such a deep scar on her psyche? He knew of course that having the person you trusted most spit in your face would be pretty heartbreaking, but what Rogue was describing was beyond that.

"So what do we know," Sting asked trying to gather everything together. "We know from Makarov and others that Lucy's soul is broken. We now know that a part of her essence, everything dark and awful, has been somehow trapped in her old guild hall. What else?"

Lucy added, "We know that someone this had affected my magic?"

"Right, anything else?"

Rogue pondered for a bit, "Laxus mentioned something about broken chains and soul links."

Sting nodded, "Yeah he was going on about that when he was in the infirmary with Lucy and I. Lucy had a soul link with almost all the mages in Fairy Tail, apparently, and most of them are broken. Laxus seemed to think he could see the broken link between them when he was touching Lucy."

"Shit! That many soul links? How did that even happen? Lucy?"

Lucy shrugged, "I knew I had fractures in my soul, but I didn't realize they were being caused by soul links breaking. I didn't even know I could do that…."

"Who know about soul links?" Sting inquired. "Maybe there is something there that we should investigate. It seems unnatural for things like that to just appear without there being a deep bond."

Rogue nodded in agreement, "I will contact Gajeel and update him. He wanted me to keep him in the loop about what I found."

"Bickslow," Lucy said.

"What?" Rogue asked confused.

"Talk to Bickslow, he's a Seith mage. He can see souls. Gajeel?"

"Yeah, saw him at a bar last night and he was a bit pissed the old man hadn't asked him for his help. I casually inquired. Makarov said he didn't want to expose Gajeel to what was happening."

Lucy looked confused at that, but let it go. She glanced at the clock and realized that she would need to start heading out for her job soon. The client, Xavion, said that beast was the most destructive at night, but it always left tracks. She was going to see if she could get help from Loke to track it down.

"I'm going to have to get going here soon," she told the others. "Keep me in the loop."

"Uh-uh, Blondie, you ain't going off without me," Sting chided. "Don't think I don't notice what you're doing."

Lucy scowled. "I'll be fine."

"I know that, but if something sets your magic off you might need help getting back to the hotel. I promised I would not interfere otherwise, and I'll keep my word, but I can't help you if I don't know where you are."

Lucy wanted to pout, but he had kept his word so far, and she wasn't totally adverse to his company. "Fine. Bye Rogue. Get your stuff Bee, and let's go."

"Bee!?"

Rogue roared with laughter before the connection was abruptly cut.