"Three of my children. Three of my children in only two freaking nights and those damned cops don't have any clue what's going on." Makarov sat atop the bar at the guild staring out at his grieving children. He was trying to stay composed and ready for anything but the death of Mira really had taken its toll on the Master of FairyTail even more than anybody else. He had watched her grow up from the fiercest girl in the guild to the sweetest, yet still just as terrifying, to straight back. He had known about her and Freed since their first date and they had come to him for advice on the subjects of housing and other things that the young folks of this age worried about. The tears welled in Makarov's eyes as he remembered last week when Freed had come to him, pretending that he was the father of Mira and asking him for the right to marry her. There was a ring hidden in Makarov's desk upstairs, now never to be used by either of the young children that he had taken care of for so long. It was too late now though, he needed to focus more on the living than the dead at least until this murderer was caught and given his punishment.

"Dragon Slayers, form up!" Natsu, Gajeel, Wendy and Laxus all came together in front of him. Teary eyed and sniffling they were the most pathetic looking he had seen them since Lisanna's supposed death. "I want you four to head over to Freed's house and figure out what the hell happened. Check every nook and cranny of the place. Leave nothing un-sniffed and don't come back until you have even the smallest of leads into who did this! Freed and Mira were in the same place at the same time and they both got taken out so whoever did this is gonna be a bigger problem than the police can handle. Supposedly some of the anti-magic unit is coming down to Magnolia to help but it'll take those blundering idiots at least a week to get here so until then it's our chance to do something. Now go, and make sure that those Exceeds continue to stay with their own kind for now! If this person can take out mages then some cats will be no problem." The Dragon Slayers nodded and left without saying a word, moving silently through the sniffling mass that was now the FairyTail guild.

"Jet. I understand that you're still grieving with Levy, but I need you to start doing laps around the city, at least 5 in a single day at regular intervals you here me? Anything out of the ordinary you report it back. Understand?" From the other side of the room Jet gave a thumbs up and disappeared through the doors leaving nothing but dust in his wake. From the table that he left Levy sat not moving, staring at an untouched cup of coffee that had been placed in front of her hours before. "Wakaba, head over to the Strauss' house and check on Lisanna and Elfman. If they want to let them up in FairyHills with the other girls, though of course Elfman will need his own wing. Past that everybody else stay safe and don't go out at night in large groups and keep close at all times." The guild nodded and muttered their understandings before going back to their sorrowful mourning.

The Dragon Slayers moved cautiously through the burned down house, sniffing and watching carefully for anything that might give them a clue as to what was going on. The bodies of Freed and Mira had already been moved away to the coroners office which would soon be their next visit, but first the Slayers needed a good feel for what had initially happened. Stone faced and silent the Magnolia police kept everybody else out of the house for the half-hour that the strongest in FairyTail had requested. When they had first arrived there was no question that they were going to go in but the main concern was for how long. Wendy being the only girl and, in the eyes of the police, absolutely adorable in her white dress and long pigtails, had secured them what they needed while the three monstrous young men shadowed her. Because of the stability of the house they couldn't go upstairs to check the rooms but they didn't want to anyways, they knew just from the smells of the place where the murders had taken place.

"Wendy, Gajeel. Check the perimeter. See if you can find what caused the explosion. Natsu you're with me. The police said there's a chance that an ember or two are still burning and I wanna know what kinda fire this was." Nobody, not even Natsu, argued with Laxus as the commands were issued. Gajeel led a teary-eyed Wendy out of the house to inspect where the police thought the fire had originated from as Natsu and Laxus moved around inside. Natsu carefully watched Laxus as he sniffed his way through the crime scene. Two of his oldest friends had died here not 12 hours ago and even though Laxus was putting up a good fight with his emotions but Natsu knew he'd lose sooner or later.

Laxus had known Freed and Mira since they were kids and even longer. The guild without either of them would never be the same but as somebody who had grown up not just as the grandson of the current guildmaster but as a part of the guild his whole life, the death of his closest friends did nothing more than destroy his heart. Walking through the burnt remains Laxus found one of the many sketches that Freed liked to draw in his spare time. It was one of his newer ones, from the last mission they had gone on together and had gotten back from the night before. In it were himself, Bickslow and Evergreen, all sitting cross legged around a campfire at night. Freed must have drawn this the night they had left a couple weeks ago, they all looked so happy since they hadn't gone through that terrible mission yet. Something in the background caught his eye and Laxus went to pick it up to get a closer look. Kneeling in the ashes of his old friends life, their smells swirling around him, Laxus finally broke. He didn't wail like Natsu had the other night but he did allow for the tears to flow freely from his eyes. With the sketch held tightly in his left hand he raised his right and smashed it into the burnt wood beside him, leaving a hole for his tears to fall into. Laxus quickly wiped away the tears so that he could inspect what had first caught his attention about the sketch in the first place. His now bloody right hand went to his mouth as he started crying again when he realized what, or rather who, it was. In the sketch, just over Laxus' right shoulder, was the perfectly drawn figure of Mira. She was half hiding behind the tree, staring past the three and right at the person looking at, or drawing in the case of Freed, the sketch. Freed had captured every detail of her beautifully even if she was just something snuck into the background, even her eyes. Crying even more Laxus tucked the sketch into his coat right by his heart, promising to keep it safe forever.

Natsu turned away from the heartbreaking scene and continued to sniff around the main level of the house. It wasn't all that big, the main hallway, living room and kitchen were all pretty much the same space and since there wasn't much furniture movement was easy. A crater sat malevolently where the closet that housed the furnace used to be, staring at Natsu like the eye of an ugly cyclops. The wind shifted suddenly and a new smell came to Natsu. His nose went into overdrive as he tried to find the source of this smell and the other Slayers who had all noticed the smell as well, were quickly at his side doing the same. It only took a minute to find the source of the strange smell, a single burnt hair lying in the middle of the room right where Mira and Freed had died. Mira's body had been outlined with chalk and there the hair sat underneath a plank beside where her body should have been. Natsu picked it up and took a long slow breath through his nostrils, cataloging the smell before passing it to the others so they could do the same.

"This isn't a hair from Mira or Freed. It's familiar though, to familiar." Laxus felt a tear trickle down the lightning bolt scar on his right eye as he looked at the place where his friends had died, realizing at that moment what was going on.

"This is the smell of somebody we know. Somebody in FairyTail is the murderer."

The coroners office is next as the Slayers continue their investigation! New revelations abound for next week!