Sorry for the long wait! I'm very sorry if this chapter doesn't make any sense to you - if any facts or things described/said in this chapter are wrong, then please review telling me this.

The team consisting of Mirajane, Lissana, Cana, and Max looked around in certain areas in the left wing of the guild. None of them had magic they thought they could use to catch an intruder so they used their eyes and hands to look around.

In the storage room, Mirajane and Max searched together while Cana, who had found booze somewhere and was drunk again, and Lissana looked on the other side of the room. After about ten minutes, they went onto the next room, and then another ten minutes later the library.

Mirajane entered the library first, looking around before starting in the first row of bookshelves. Cana stumbled over to the nearest wall, which was covered by the bookshelf, and walked down that column of shelves there. Lissana and Max did the same as Mirajane but with different bookshelves.

Minutes passed, and Mirajane found no one. I'm not sure if I should be relieved or frustrated, Mirajane thought - after all, if they found no intruder then either they weren't searching hard enough...

...or one of their friends was the murderer.

She happened to pass by Cana, who gave her a tipsy wave. "Heyyy, Mira," Cana started. Before she could say whatever she was about to, she tripped over a book in surprise. Somehow, she managed to grab onto a book on the shelf behind her, which was leaning against the wall. The book and several others near it fell down onto the ground, some onto Cana's feet. The drunk mage yelped in pain and surprise.

"Cana! Are you o-" Mirajane stopped to stare at the walls behind the books. This area of the library that they were in was one hardly touched, Mirajane could tell, from the layers of dust on the bookshelves Cana hadn't touched. However, behind the books was not the wooden back of the bookshelf, but what looked like red wallpaper, and quite a few yards away from the shelf than where the wall should be.

Hold on...

The waiting room's wallpaper was the same shade of red.

Mirajane frowned, and pulled a few more books off and set them on the table behind her. Wasn't that the couch she could see?

Feeling that she wasn't pulling off books fast enough, Mirajane instead turned into her Satan Soul form and moved the entire bookcase behind her, narrowly avoiding Cana's head in doing so. Cana and Mirajane both gasped as this happened. As there was no back to it, several books fell out as she swung it behind her floating form.

Max ran from behind another bookcase. "Whoa, Mira! What are you doing...? " he stopped in his tracks when he saw what was behind the bookcase.

There was no wall - the bookcase had stretched and touched the ceiling. Instead, there was a very short walk to the waiting room down a tiny hallway about the length of a desk. Something about the same size as that desk seemed to be blocking half of the entrance to the waiting room. Above whatever was blocking - it was dark in the hallway, making it impossible to tell what - was what seemed to be empty space.

"It's a... a secret passage!" Cana exclaimed.

Mirajane reverted back to her normal form and took a step forward into the small and dark hallway, uneasy and foreboding feelings settling in her stomach. Cana and Max stayed were they were, both turning around to greet a confused Lissana. Then, the other three followed the Demon Mirajane.

Something seemed odd about the space above the object. It just didn't feel...right. Upon reaching it, Mirajane put a delicate hand to what she thought was empty air, but instead the fingers felt glass.

Mirajane frowned, and pushed on the glass slightly. It seemed to budge a little - although that might have just been Mirajane's imagination. She pushed again, harder.

The glass creaked as it fell onto the ground in front of the blocking object, out of Mirajane's view. Mirajane felt the strange object to feel wood. Trying to remember the layout of the waiting room, she realized that it was a half-bookcase in front of her.

Then...

Once again in Satan Soul form, Mirajane vaulted over the bookcase and onto the floor of the waiting room, ignoring the other three's yelps of surprise. With a smug grin similar to those she wore as a teenager, Mirajane glanced around the waiting room where the stranger was supposed to be using the communication lacrima...

...and the large smirk faded into pure shock.

The team consisting of Lucy, Natsu, Happy, Erza, and Gray had finished looking around their area, confident that no intruder was hiding there - with the combination of Gray's determination to catch Juvia's killer, Natsu's nose, and the help of Lucy's spirits Virgo and Loke, there was no doubt that they were alone in the right wing of the guild hall.

The five emerged into the main room, deciding to wait for the others there. None of the other groups seemed to be done looking.

Lucy sent her spirits back to the spirit world before sitting down to talk to Erza in hushed tones. Gray sat down on the other side of the girls' table, moping, while Natsu and Happy laid on yet another and waited.

Suddenly, Natsu sprang up onto the table. "I smell Mira, Lissana, and their group!" The other members of their small team also stood up. Unlike Natsu, however, their feet were firmly planted on the wooden floor.

There was no scream for help, no horrible sinking mood that Natsu could hear or tell. His spirits rose - maybe there were no intruders, after all?

However, Max and Mirajane soon emerged carrying something.

A body! the others thought in horror.

Is it Lissana? Natsu thought, heart sinking.

Cana? Gray wondered, frowning.

Luckily, the boys were wrong as Mirajane, Max, Lissana, and Cana all walked out into the guildhall, safe and sound. However, it was the stranger that Max and Mirajane were struggling to carry who would never wake up.

"I... I can't believe it!" Lucy gasped. "I thought that he was locked up in the waiting room? How did you find him?"

"He was on the floor, with this around his neck," Max replied hoarsely as he shifted so that everyone could see the stranger's neck. There was a rope, loose around the man - not enough to suffocate, but maybe enough to be uncomfortable.

"I loosened it as soon as we found him," Lissana explained. "It's...horrible, what the murderer did to this poor man!"

Just then, Levy, Gajeel, Wendy, Pantherlily, and Carla entered. They all had mixed reactions upon seeing the dead body - all negative. Fear, disgust, and surprise were evident on the five's faces.

"Another murder?" Gajeel growled.

"This is seriously getting out of hand," Erza said, nodding.

"We're all here except for Laxus' group," Mirajane said as she joined the group - Max and she had put the traveler's body on a table behind them. "Is there a chance...that one of them in that group is the murderer?"

Gray glanced upstairs, where the blonde Dragonslayer should have been searching along with Evergreen, Freed, Bickslow, Jet, and Droy - the largest group out of all of them. He hesitated, about to speak, but found himself closing his mouth before voicing his opinion.

"There could be," Levy said, looking troubled. "But... it is easier to view this murderer as an intruder, a stranger. Now that we know that it is not this traveler... we are back at square one."

"I wouldn't say 'square one,' Levy - we know for sure that there isn't someone in the kitchen where we searched, for example," Lucy argued.

"There's no one outside, either," Pantherlily meowed.

Max shrugged, almost looking nonchalant. "We were pretty through in looking through everywhere... and we aren't the first group to, anyway. Multiple people going through the same room without finding anyone? If there is an intruder, he or she is either upstairs or very good at sneaking around."

Meanwhile, as Max talked, Levy took out her pad of paper, writing down her thoughts - who was in what group, what group searched where, possible suspects of each murder. When she was done, she looked back up at the steps - just in time to see Jet racing down them at top speed. A few seconds later, Bickslow, Evergreen, and Freed followed, Droy even farther behind them as he attempted to catch up.

The plant mage, however, tripped on the last step and fell face first. No one seemed to notice as they ran and joined the group, Jet and the Thunder God Tribe hardly sparing the dead body of the stranger a look in their urgency.

"It's Laxus!" Jet exclaimed. Even he looked slightly worn out from his race down the steps. "He went missing while we were searching for the intruder!"

Everyone jumped in surprise.

"Are you sure?" Lissana asked, startled.

"This is...wow," Cana said, unable to find any words to describe her reaction. Of course, the amount of alcohol she had consumed earlier may have had something to do with her thought processing and speech.

"Of course we're sure!" Evergreen snapped. "He's missing, and we have no idea where he's gone!"

Erza frowned. "Did he maybe go to kill the traveler, and is now hiding in the guild building?" At this, everyone gulped. If Laxus was the murderer and hiding in his lightning form, he would be able to catch anyone by surprise. He could crush all of them easily if he tried to. It was why he was an S-Class mage, and a leading factor in deciding guild events and plans.

"Or, he may have attempted to sneak past us... to get to the kitchen!" Lucy said, a strange look on her face as she created the scenario in her head, thinking of many different possible theories, each more crazy that the last as they flung through her mind and her head. "What if he wants to kill Elfman now, after killing Juvia, Master, and the stranger?"

Mirajane and Lissana were the first to start for the kitchen. Evergreen - she was closest to the kitchen doors, she later argued - flung open the doors leading into where Elfman and Juvia were supposed to be laying on the cold tile floor, side by side, one knocked out and the other dead.

Everyone crowded into the kitchen, apprehensive and frightened. They didn't want to hear the mournful wail. They didn't want to hear the gasp of surprise. They didn't want the news that yet another of their precious guild mates' lives had been taken.

Mirajane stared at where Elfman had been laying on the floor earlier. "He's... he's..."

Lissana ran in front of them. She leaned down. "He's still here!" she shouted happily. "Alive, still not awake - but alive!"

Natsu and Max cheered while several of the girls nodded or made a noise of excitement. Gray gave a soft smile that no one seemed to notice, lost in his own thoughts.

At least they didn't have someone important to them stolen...

There were a few minutes of rejoicing - Elfman was alive, Laxus was not a definite killer.

Hold on.

"But if Laxus didn't disappear to kill Elfman," Mirajane said, "Where could he have gone? Did he kill that stranger?"

Just then, they heard the man of the hour's yell.

"Lightning Dragon's Roar!"

"It sounds like the scream came from upstairs!" Wendy cried out. "Isn't that where Jet's group came from? Why couldn't they find Laxus earlier if he's... upstairs now?"

Erza faced the kitchen doors, her mouth set into a grim line, and pushed them open with extreme force as she lead the others out into the guild hall. "It's time to face the truth," she said morbidly.

Please read and review, especially if you saw a mistake with grammar or any plot holes! I'm doing my best to stay consistent and not give too much or too little away.