Sorry for the cliffhanger last chapter.

There was a shink. Juvia looked down in shock as a sword stuck out from her stomach before the eyes rolled into the back of her head and she collapsed. There was a gasp as the attacker, hidden in shadows, quickly ran away with heavy footsteps before anyone could react.

There was a slight pause of shock and fear. Then:

"Juvia!" Gray shouted. He let go of Elfman, making Natsu support the Strauss brother so that he could run over to Juvia's fallen body. "Juvia!"

"Gray...sama..."

"S-she's still alive?!" Lucy exclaimed, frozen.

Gray moved to pull out the sword, but a sharp "No, Gray," from Erza stopped him. Instead, Gray shook the arm of the Rain Woman as blood pooled around her - so much blood, too much blood. On his knees, Gray stared at Juvia's body with the gleaming sword sticking out of her stomach until the blood stopped coming.

"You can't take the sword out yet - it will only make the blood flow more and faster," Erza said. "We need to take Juvia to Wendy, quickly, in case there is still hope for her, although there might be internal bleeding..."

Gray quickly and carefully picked up Juvia in an off bridal style position. Natsu and Erza carried Elfman while Lucy watched carefully for the murderer, hands on Taurus' key, in case they came back to strike again. When emerging into the guildhall, they so no sign of Juvia's attacker. Gray carefully set Juvia down on one table in the middle of the guildhall, sitting down next to her, while Natsu dumped Elfman on the table next to her. Lucy started to look around for medical supplies along with a summoned Loke and Erza called out all of the members of the other groups' names.

"I'm going to look in the infirmary," Lucy said. "There's no first aid kit around here - not that it would do much..."

"You'll go into the infirmary just to be stabbed by the murderer like Juvia," Erza replied, voice slightly shaking. "We can't risk anyone else, Lucy... I am not going to risk anyone else, especially another team mate."

Then there was a noise from the guild doors. Gray jumped to his feet, head whipping around, just to relax when Laxus, the Thunder God Tribe, Jet, and Droy ran in.

"We heard your shouts, Erza," Laxus said. "What's going on? Did you find - " His voice broke off when he saw Juvia and Elfman's bodies, one with a sword and both still.

"Are th-they...dead?" Bickslow whispered, subdued for once.

"Elfman is passed out. He was in the library. Juvia was stabbed on our way back," Natsu explained as he stared at the floor. "We... we need Wendy. We need to do something."

"The infirmary," Droy said, but when Erza explained her reasoning, his shoulders sagged as he agreed.

"There must be something we can do!" Evergreen shouted. "I haven't known her for long, but Juvia seemed like a good person, even if she came from Phantom!"

"Jet can grab Wendy," Lucy suggested. "I know you talk about there being a murderer on the loose, but he can just go a bit behind the bar, where we can still see, and call out their names? They've got to be almost done searching the right wing."

"I'll do that," Jet said, nodding, and with a bit of dust in his wake the man ran to the other side of the guildhall.

Just then Mirajane's group walked downstairs, with similar reactions to Laxus' team but with the exception of Lissana and Mirajane running over to their brother before realizing Juvia's state.

"T-there are some towels behind the bar," Mirajane said. "There might also be something else. I'll get them and... and see if I c-can do anything." Lissana and Cana ran over to where Mirajane had talked about, near although slower than Jet, as they dug through old supplies.

Juvia suddenly moaned, prompting everyone to rush around her except for Lissana, Cana, and Jet. Blinking her eyes open, she looked around through a haze of pain. "Juvia... Juvia..."

"What? What is it, Juvia?" Gray asked.

"wants... Gray... -ma to hold..hand..."

His face pale and screwing his face up to hold his tears back, Gray held out his hand, gripping Juvia's. Her grip tightened until he was feeling a world of pain - almost as if she wanted him to take a share of what she was feeling. The water mage slowly turned her head slowly and painfully to face him as the entire room went deathly silent.

With a small gasp, she wheezed, "Juvia... I...love..."

Then her hand slackened, her eyes closed, and her entire body relaxed as the Rain Woman went limp.

Eyes going wide, Gray stood up, her hand falling from his. "Juvia? Juvia?" he asked frantically. "C'mon Juvia, open your eyes! What were you going to say? Please tell me - tell me that you weren't going to say that..."

Lucy, Mirajane, Droy, and Happy all burst into tears. The three members of the Thunder God Tribe looked uncomfortable, Evergreen sniffling and pulling out a handkerchief. Erza's gaze narrowed, a fierce glare directed at nobody, and Natsu's hair shielded his eyes as he grimaced. Laxus plopped down onto a table, hands going to cover his eyes as he leaned down.

Gray cut himself off with a roar. With one quick movement, he took the sword out of Juvia's body and threw it across the room - but in his grief, his aim and strength was lousy and it flew only a couple of tables before skittering on the floor. A large and gaping hole emerged from the body of Juvia. Gray sat back down, the roar dying in his throat.

Footsteps sounded as Cana and Lissana raced back with nothing to show for their trip in their hands. They hadn't been too far away and the rest of the group could see tears in their eyes as they knew that Juvia was gone.

"T-the sword... looks like the one... i-in M-master's office," Mirajane finally said. "Whoever took it... killed...J-Juvia..."

"Dammit!" Cana cursed, wiping away her flowing tears. "If only we had been more careful when looking upstairs. We might have caught the person trying to steal the sword."

Jet appeared beside them then, and a few echoes told everyone that the final group was returning. Other than flour covering their faces - although Gajeel's was mostly wiped off - they looked fine. Looks of dismay appeared on their faces when they saw the scene before them.

"We were too late?" Jet asked. No one made a movement that would suggest otherwise, and his eyes widened as he staggered over to Droy.

"What do you mean, too late?!" Gajeel growled. "It can't be - Wendy, do your stuff. Ya gotta save the Rain Woman!"

Wendy nodded through tears and quickly started a healing spell over Juvia. The blue light shone over the body but nothing noticeable occurred. After almost half a minute, it finally occurred to everyone that she was trying to heal a dead body. "Wendy," Natsu said in a gentle voice for once. "It's... you can't save her. She's too far..."

"Gone. D-dead! I know that!" Wendy cried, continuing her healing spell. "But if I had been here sooner, if I had... if I had known what would happen..."

"But no one knew what would happen," Carla said softly. "Even I. Not a vision about this dreadful night ever appeared to me."

Levy held up her notepad. "Did... anyone notice if Master's sword had still be there when we found him earlier?"

"It was," Erza confirmed. Levy scribbled a few words down, Freed walking over to her. Once the rune mage had, they started talking in hushed voices that no one else could exactly understand, although traces of "killed" and "sword" were heard.

"Then somehow, while we were searching for Elfman, someone managed to sneak away, steal Gramp's sword, and stab her," Laxus grunted.

"It could have been an intruder," Lucy argued softly. "I find it hard to believe that someone here would try to kill Juvia..."

"Did you finish the runes outside, Freed?" Max asked. Freed looked up from his discussion with Levy.

"Yes, I did."

Erza asked, "Is there any way you could... draw some more that would make us know if anyone else, like a trespasser, was here?"

Freed shook his head grimly. "I'm sorry, but I am afraid not. My magic power is running low from casting runes so large and so obsolete." With that, he went back to his talk with Levy as the two wrote down more words, drew more charts, and did other sleuth work that would help them to decide who could have murdered Master Makarov and Juvia. Most watched on with the exception of Gray.

"A sword...who is best at wielding swords?" Laxus asked quietly in a circle of Evergreen, Bickslow, and himself. The three gathered close to Levy and Freed but not close enough so that they could hear what they were saying, although with his sharper ears Laxus could listen a little.

"Pantherlily, Erza, Gray, Freed, Gajeel," Evergreen listed shakily. "That's the core of Erza and Pantherlily's strength, after all, and Gray does that ice-make sword and Gajeel the dragon-sword sometimes... Freed uses his sword for runes, but still knows how to wield one."

"Erza and Gray couldn't have killed Juvia," Bickslow pointed out. "And Gajeel's magic turns his arm into a sword, doesn't it? That's a lot different than holding one, I bet."

"That just leaves Pantherlily and Freed," Laxus said.

"Except Freed was drawing the runes, and someone almost always saw him. There was never enough time for him to grab a sword and kill Juvia," Evergreen defended her teammate.

Bickslow nodded. He said, "Although Lily might be a doubtful choice as well. He's been stickin' next ta all of those other cats the whole time."

Just then, both Levy and Freed stood up. "We've got a new list," Levy said, blinking back tears. "Those who couldn't have killed Juvia include the rest of her group as well as Elfman." She lifted a hand to wipe away a tear that had spilled.

"Possible suspects," Freed continued, as Levy was incapable of doing so, "Include everyone else." He held up the list for everyone to see.

Gray stared at Juvia's body for a moment before facing Freed and Levy, his eyes watery. "Let's see this damn list," he said, voice steadily rising. Several of the other guild members jumped in surprise as his voice leveled to almost a full on scream.

"I'm done with these murders, and I'm going to find out who killed Gramps and Juvia!"

Sorry Gray, but nothing's done yet.

Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter! If you have anything to say about it, please review telling me what you think! Also, if you like my writing and want to see more, please check my profile for more of my stories or answer my poll.

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