Aiko: Seriously, Chi? Nobody is going to understand today's chapter name! =_=

Chi: Hey! I like classic movie references! So sue me!

Aiko: I'd sue for that joke, then give it back to the 80s =_=

Chi: *goes and pouts in the corner planting mushrooms like Tamaki Suoh again* Why are you so mean to meeee…? 3X

Aiko: Do you know me?

Nat and Slouchy crept quietly into Papa's lab, making sure not to be seen. "Quiet," Nat hissed, glancing around cautiously. "We don't wanna get caught."

"What, really?" Slouchy's voice was a tad sarcastic, "I thought we were meeting Papa smurf here!"

"Don't be rude," Nat snapped. "I know why you're so upset about Sassy but that doesn't give you the right to be mean."

Slouchy sighed slightly, shoving his hands in his pocket. "I'm sorry... I'm just tired." he rubbed his eyes. "I feel like I grew up thousand years cause'a everythin' going on today... An' I don' like it..."

They searched around for Papa's spell book. "Nat...?" the smurfling in the red shirt asked softly, "do you think that... Once we find whoever did this... That things are ever going to be like they were before...?"

"No," Nat said flatly. "Things won't be the same. Harmony, Painter, and Sassette are all gone, and one of the Smurfs killed them. Things can never be the way they were."

Slouchy looked down to the ground. "I was afraid you'd say that..." he murmured in reply. "I can't find the book... maybe it's in the closet over there?"

Nat shrugged. "It's worth a try," he agreed easily, striding over to the closet and opening the door.

When he opened the door, Nat nearly screamed. Sitting in the supply closet, there was Brainy, glasses broken, arms restrained by fallen potions ingredients, papers still in his mouth.

"B-Brainy," Nat managed to gasp, turning to stare at Slouchy. "I-is he dead?!"

"I dunno," Slouchy replied, dashing over to him and kneeling down.

the red-shirted smurfling put two fingers to Brainy's throat. "I think he is... just unconscious. Maybe something fell on him."

"Yeah, right after he ate paper to get smarter," Nat said sarcastically. "FOR THE LOVE OF SMURF, DOESN'T THIS KILLER TAKE A COFFEE BREAK?!"

"Apparently not," Slouchy retorted smoothly, "I'm surprised though. It seems like once we've found a body, or found some kind of clue, he kills or attacks someone again. between Gargamel, Azrael, Painter, Harmony, Brainy" Slouchy cringed slightly. "And Sassy... that makes at least six attacks in roughly eight hours."

"No kidding," Nat sighed. "Well, at least he never actually managed to KILL Brainy... He's annoying, but I'd miss him. C'mon, we should tell Papa Smurf."

"You don't need to." a familiar, resonating voice from behind spoke, voice laced with a certain reprehensive tone spoke.

Slouchy turned around at the sight. "P-Papa smurf!"

"Uh... We were just... Looking for... A book...?" Nat tried hopefully, though he knew he was digging himself a hole.

Papa smurf crossed his arms, almost glaring down at the smurflings, daring them to lie. "We were looking for a potion," Nat caved at last. "We thought we remembered Gargamel having one."

"Come to think of it..." Papa murmured out loud, but soon looked down at the smurflings again, "we'll search the books in a moment. Nat, go and get the smelling salts from the medicine cabinet. If Brainy's still alive, he'll be able to tell us more than Tailor can at the moment."

"Tailor?! What happened to Tailor?!" Nat demanded.

"He was attacked by the killer." Papa smurf replied simply, "had Tracker been a minute later in bringing him food, it's likely he would not be here now. But he is not very useful to the case at the moment because he seems to be suffering from Post Traumatic Stress, and can barely form a coherent sentence."

"At least he is alive," Nat muttered, dashing to retrieve the smelling salts for the leader.

"Yes..." Papa smurf gazed at Brainy sadly, "although a part of me doubts that he agrees."

Nat brought the smelling salts and handed them to Papa Smurf, watching as he waved them under Brainy's nose and he slowly blinked open his eyes. Brainy coughed a few times, trying to free his arms so he could get the papers from his mouth. Slouchy rushed to his sides, and moved the fallen boxes from the smart smurf. "P-Papa smurf...!" Brainy breathed when he'd finally gotten the papers out of his mouth, "I-is that you!? I-I can't see..." The smurf used his hands to try and find the elder-who in the poor light of the closet looked like nothing more than a shadow.

"Yeah, Papa's here, and Slouchy and me," Nat replied, looking Brainy over. "What happened to you?"

Brainy cringed visibly at Nat's voice, bringing his knees to his chest and covering his face with his arms. "I... Oh, God... I w-w-watched..."

"What? What did you watch?" Nat inquired, cocking his head to the side in confusion.

"I should've stopped him..." Brainy whimpered, curled up in a ball, trying to make himself seem as small as possible, "I should've gone and done something... I should've saved her..."

"You mean... You saw who killed Sassy?! Brainy, who did it?!" Nat demanded.

Slouchy stood there, his mouth hanging open. Brainy saw who killed Sassette, he could help bring him down! "I C-cant..." Brainy whimpered scaredly, "H-he'll s-smurf me t-too..."

"He can't if he thinks you're dead," Nat said. "He probably thought that shoving the papers down your throat and shoving you in the closet did you in. You NEED to tell us; Tailor can't and he's the only other person who didn't die!"

Brainy tried to curl up tighter, desperately trying to tune them out. "Y-you d-don' know what it's l-l-like-!" his breath shuddered, "i-it's l-like he was talking to someone, someone invisible-!"

Slouchy glanced at Nat. "We didn't even consider a partnership. This smurf could be doing the dirty work, and someone else is calling the shots."

"Yeah. But Brainy, they can't hurt you now! You have to tell us so we know who we have to catch! You can't let him get away with killing Sassy, can you?"

The usually bespectacled smurf cringed visibly, and his voice became even less than a mumble. "J...Jokey..."

"...Jokey...?" Nat murmured, before sighing. "We should have known... Especially with all the pranks he Smurfed this morning..."

"But even that doesn't mean he'd intentionally HURT somesmurf, right Papa sm-" Slouchy had looked over at the elder for support, finding him looking absolutely pale in the face. "Papa smurf?"

"WOULD he intentionally hurt somesmurf, Papa?" Nat asked, feeling confused.

Papa shook his head slightly, eyes to the ground. "I don't know, Nat." he replied, exhaling deeply, "now I want you two to take Brainy to the infirmary to make sure he doesn't have any other injuries. Go out the back and keep to the forest. We can't let the killer know we found Brainy, or else his life could be in jeopardy."

"Bu' what're you going t' do, Papa smurf?" Slouchy asked, eyeing him suspiciously.

"I have to speak with Greedy." he said plainly, turning off a few of the burners that had been left to boil potions, "Remember... STAY in the infirmary."

The group snuck towards the infirmary along the edge of the forest, keeping to the shadows.

At last they entered the mushroom, finding Tailor lying in a bed while Dabbler looked over his injuries, Tracker sitting beside him and cooing soft words of comfort to him. "Who's there?" He demanded, sensing their presence.

"Nat, Slouchy, and Brainy," Nat replied, directing Brainy to a bed. "Brainy was attacked too."

Tailor whimpered as they passed by the bed, hiding his face in his pillow, facing away from Tracker, just as he had since they brought him to the infirmary.

"Dear smurfness!" Dabbler shook his head, "At least he got away... give me a minute to finish disinfecting and wrapping these, and I'll go look at him next."

"No need, I'm fine." Brainy mumbled hiding his face away from the dimming light. "Just a migraine... he didn't do any damage with the papers, though."

Slouchy and Nat left Brainy's bedside to where Snappy still sat vigil for their fallen friend. "Hey..." Slouchy mumbled unenthusiastically.

"Hey," Snappy replied dully. "Find anything?"

"Naw," Nat shrugged, "just the name of the killer... Brainy says it was Jokey."

Tracker's ears pricked at the name of the Smurf that ha done this to his beloved mate, but he ignored it and continued murmuring his soft words to Tailor. "You're gonna be okay, Tai," he cooed quietly, watching the Smurf sadly. "I promise I'll help you through this... You won't be alone, I swear, Tai."

"There's something weird about all this though," Slouchy glared at the ground, deep in thought. "Brainy said that it was like he was talking to someone else... like. someone else was invisible and was giving him the orders..."

"Weird..." Snappy said. "Like, he's gone crazy?"

"That's certainly a valid theory," Nat sighed.

Slouchy shook his head. "I can't say for certain yet. But it's a possibility that he really IS being controlled by someone. There's spells for invisibility, you know."

"Yeah, that's true," Nat nodded. "We can't ignore any possibilities."

Slouchy hugged his sides, turning away from the others. "What CAN we do, though?" he asked, "It's not exactly like we can just go up and talk to him about it. We can't watch him, either. There's no way we can tell what exactly's going on without putting ourselves in his line of sight.

"We can make sure the others know to etch out for him, and not to stay alone," Nat suggested. "It looks like he only targets Smurfs who are on their own."

"I guess, but it can't be some big announcement." Slouchy put a hand to his chin. "I know if this was me, and everyone found out I was a killer, the first thing I'd do is run."

"True; we'd have to find Smurfs in groups and tell them privately," Nat agreed.

"Course there's still another issue..." Slouchy glanced down at himself. "We're smurflings. Nobody's going to listen to us."

"That's true," Snappy said dully.

"We gotta find a way ta MAKE 'em listen!" Nat declared.

"How're we supposed t' do that?" Slouchy shrugged, "Papa isn' gonna admit anything. We're too little. No one listens to Brainy. And Tailor can't even talk that good... how're we supposed to warn everysmurf?"

"We'll think'a somethin'," Nat vowed, glancing at the still form of Sassette.

Slouchy's eyes followed Nat, to the still form of their friend. "Yeah..." he murmured, sitting next to Snappy. "I... I wish she was still around... she came up with some'a th' best ideas..."

"Yeah," Nat said softly. "I know how you felt about her, Slouchy."

Slouchy seemed to blush very slightly for a moment, but turned his face again. "I dunno what you're talking about." he said simply, hesitation in his voice. "She was one'a m' best friends... yours n' Snappy's too. We liked 'er the same."

"You liked her just a little bit more than Snappy and me, in a different way," Nat corrected softly.

Slouchy opened his mouth, as if to protest, but turned towards Sassette sadly. "There's no point now," Slouchy shook his head. "She's dead, and I'll never see her again. She probably didn't even like me back anyways."

"I think she did," Nat replied quietly. "Why else would she always agree with you if we got in a fight or something?"

"I don't know..." Slouchy shook his head, laughing slightly, feeling tears in his eyes. "I always just figured it was cause we agreed on stuff..."

"Naw," Nat disagreed. "Sometimes I could tell she knew you were dead wrong and she took your side anyway."

"I guess cause we were f-friends..." Slouchy wiped his eyes childishly with the back of his hand. "L-let's not talk about it right now... we still have to figure out how t' warn the others."

"Right," Nat agreed, sitting beside his friend.

Tailor whimpered again, curling up around himself more and cringing at every daub of antiseptic from Dabbler. "Ch-changed m-mind... A-Ahuvi..." he muttered, voice muffled by the pillow.

"Wait, 'changed your mind'?" Tracker asked, confused. "Changed your mind about what, Tai?"

Tailor cringed at the sound of Tracker's confused voice. There seemed to be almost a twinge of sadness to it. "B-baby..." he murmured sadly, barely audible through the pillow. "I... baby... n-no... h-hell..."

"What do you mean you changed your mind about the baby?" Tracker asked, confused. "What does she have to do with hell, Tailor?"

Tailor had to bite back tears. Tracker sounded so hurt, so confused... "B-baby... V-village..." he murmured, "H-Hell... Going to... I..."

"Tai, I can't understand you," Tracker said softly in a calming voice. "Just slow down, okay? One word at a time. Now, try again; what's wrong?"

Tailor took a deep breath. "V-Village...H-Hell... I'm going to... baby... H-Hell..." his thoughts were still so muddled by fear and mood tranquilizers the smurf could barely form a coherent sentence.

"Tai..." Tracker said slowly, "are you telling me you think you're going to hell? And it has something to do with the baby?"

Tailor whimpered. "V-village... t-two smurfs..." The smurf shivered. "I... Hell... living... couldn't die..."

Dabbler carefully pulled the thin blanket up to Tailor's shoulders, covering most of the fresh bandages. "Tracker, I don't know if he's in the right state of mind to talk about this right now." he said softly, "you might want to save it for another day."

"Alright." Tracker nodded slowly. "We'll talk about it when you're feeling better, okay, Tai? Now just rest."

"D-don't go..." the scared smurf reached behind him, feeling around for his mate's hand, then pulling it back up to his chest once he'd found it. "N-need you..."

"I'm not going anywhere," Tracker promised gently, stroking Tailor's face gently. "I'm staying right here... I'm not going to let anysmurf hurt you again."

Tailor sighed softly, giving Tracker's hand a squeeze and pressing his knuckles to his cheek. "Ahuvi...love..."

"I love you too, Tai. Always will." Tracker smiled gently, thanking god that his mate had survived the heinous attack.

"Hey, I know!" Nat said brightly, "let's see if Greedy will believe us! If he will, the whole village might!"

"Yeah!" Slouchy smiled for what seemed like the first time in at least two days. "Everyone trusts him! Come on!"

Nat lead the way, jogging toward the kitchen with Slouchy and Snappy in hot pursuit. "Jeez, More- RUNNING!" Slouchy puffed.

"Oh, it's worth it!" Snappy snapped.

As they started getting closer to Greedy's kitchen, a terrible, disgusting stench hit their noses, nearly causing Slouchy to loose his lunch right then and there. "OH my smurf, what is that smell?!" he asked, covering his nose.

"I don't- AUUUGHH!" Snappy shrieked.

Greedy was slumped over his stove, face on the burners. Suddenly it was quite clear what the smell was; it was that of Greedy's charred facial features.

Slouchy fought the incredible need to vomit, and quickly rushed to where Greedy half laid, half leaned, and half stood, three different knives in his back and the floor around soaked in blood. The smurfling tried to move the large smurf from the burner, if only to give the poor guy a shred of dignity and combat the terrible odor. "Look," something in the smurf's back caught Slouchy's attention. "Isn't this letter opener Painter's?"

"It is," Nat said, staring at it. "I think we just found the murder weapon for Painter, at least. We don't know for sure that one killed Greedy."

"I don't know If I WANNA know for- eh?" Slouchy had been starting to walk out of the mushroom for fresh air when his foot nearly sailed something across the mushroom floor. "it's a pill bottle," he stated, picking it up. "What would this be doing here?"

"No idea," Nat shrugged.

"Say, what did Papa want to talk to Greedy about?" Snappy inquired. "Think the bottle could have something to do with that?"

"I think it did..." Slouchy thought aloud, "Let's go get Dabbler to take care of Greedy, and go smurf Papa smurf some questions..."

"Okay," Snappy agreed.

"Yeah," Nat said, casting a sad glance in the direction of Greedy.

After alerting Dabbler to Greedy's death, the Smurflings that remained dashed to Papa's lab to confront him.

"Greedy's dead," Nat announced to Papa. "And we found this in his kitchen."

Snappy silently held up the pill bottle they had found at the grisly scene. Papa smurf looked positively pale in the face. "Great smurfs..." he murmured.

"What IS it, Papa smurf?" Slouchy asked, almost demanding with his eyes.

"A medication bottle, Slouchy." Papa replied carefully, "You're a smart boy, you know that."

"If I'm so smart, how come the names are in Latin so no one else can read?" Slouchy crossed his arms.

"Tell us what's going on," Nat demanded. "You can't keep doing this especially if Greedy was killed over this."

Papa smurf tensed noticeably. "Smurfness... When did you three grow up without the rest of us knowing..." he murmured, glancing at the smurflings, "Fine... But I have to warn you. This is a secret that's been kept for many years. Longer than any of the other smurfs can remember. And it's a secret that MUST be kept if we are ever going to restore balance to the village."

"Fine," Nat said.

"Tell us!" Snappy ordered.

Papa smurf carefully took the pill bottle from Snappy's hand. "This pill bottle USED to contain Quetiapine. It's an antipsychotic medication, used on those that have mental illnesses."

Aiko: *keeps smacking Chi and laughing* WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?! XD

Chi: with ME!? What's wrong with YOU?! XD

Aiko: A lot of things, but that's beside the point!

Chi: Anyways… big things will be happening soon! We are getting closer and closer to our conclusion! Anyone excited? :3

Aiko: *waving hand around excitedly* ME! ME! ME! ME! Rivvy was super eager to write the part that happens first in the next chapter! :3

Chi: Yeah, I remember. She suggested it almost every time we came to a timeskip! XD

Aiko: Hey, can I help it?

Chi: No… but back to the point, reviews are awesome! Keep 'em coming, we'll keep more dark stuff on it's way! :D

Aiko: See you next chapter!

Chi: Hasta la Pasta! :D