Natsu was impatiently tapping his foot up and down as he waited for the elevator to reach the fifth floor. Lucy was standing next to him with her hands knotted together as she looked around elevator, not like there was much to take in though. She had followed after him when he had ran out of the lab to go check on a file on his computer, she had insisted on coming along since according to her if he could follow her she could follow him if she was interested.

He swore he had seen that tattoo before, and from the way it seemed to be burning in his mind made him think he had seen more than once before. It could only belong to jail gang if it was one he could find on the system, but it might give suspicion that this case may be more than an accident.

The elevator dinged and Natsu hurried to his desk with Lucy close behind him. Turning on his monitor he wiggled the mouse until the screen lit up. Clicking the file folder, he scrolled through looking for one that stuck out. He knew it was on one of these files but he couldn't remember it for the life of him.

"What are you looking for exactly?" Lucy asked as she looked over his shoulder at the screen.

"Not too sure" Natsu muttered as his eyes slid over all the file names until he saw the one that stuck out among all the others "Possible Linked Cases?", he never said he was good at naming files.

"What?" Lucy asked, not hearing what he had said, as Natsu clicked on the file. Up popped a file that he had been working on for about six months now, and on it was sixty-seven separate cases of body dumps that the FBI hadn't considered linked. Natsu had another theory. Scrolling down a few pages he found it, the tattoo, and numerous pictures of it. Glancing over the notes he had left he felt a cold chill run through him, he remembered now why he had been keeping this file up to date. All of the people on this file had that tattoo somewhere on their bodies.

"That's the tattoo" Lucy murmured from behind him, she wasn't one hundred percent sure what was going on but she had a feeling that it didn't bode well.

"I knew I had seen that tattoo somewhere else before, sixty-seven other times to be exact" Natsu said as he stared hard at the screen. The notes he had on the page were little, it was mainly filled with all the pictures of the tattoos. It didn't seem to need to follow a certain color or placement. They were a variety of colors and only a few were even in the same spot on the skin.

"What exactly is all of this?" Lucy asked in barely a whisper. Natsu looked around the office and was relieved to see that almost no one was left, even though it had only become five o' clock, it was a Friday which somehow also led to most people leaving by then. At least he could talk to Lucy about it, if someone overheard him and decided to be a dick and tell the chief he might get himself another lecture for various reasons.

"This was…..a possible connection I was looking at" Natsu said as he rubbed the back of his head as he tried to figure out how to explain exactly what had brought him to document all of this.

"Well I can see why you thought it was connected" Lucy said "If they all had the tattoo who knows what it could mean. It could be an underground organization that is being slowly picked off, or maybe it could be some weird type of mass suicide."

"If it was a suicide don't you think they would die on the same day?" Natsu asked "These bodies have been found sporadically spread around town for the past 6 months."

"So what did-do you think it is?" Lucy asked.

"Honestly at first I didn't have any idea, for a while I thought maybe it was a serial killer that tattooed their victims like they were branding them. But then I couldn't find any tattoo artists that matched to that style. Someone told me it was probably someone who was self-taught and didn't work in a shop" Natsu said with a sigh, it was around that time when he has run into trouble.

"So you hit a dead end?" Lucy asked, resting her chin on her hand as she continued to scan the monitor.

"More like I was forced into one" Natsu said as a laugh managed to escape from him, he had just remembered how he had been forced to stop actively working on case, it hadn't been the first time and it wouldn't be his last "My chief found out I was actively pursuing the case during work hours without his permission. He made me come to his office with all everything I had collected and after looking over it he told me that I was practically chasing my tail in circles and that I couldn't base something on one thing that was the same."

"Isn't that technically what a connection is?" Lucy asked, confused on how Natsu's theory could have been shot down so quickly.

"Yeah, but when I was presenting it to him there were only ten bodies and they had all been killed in different ways, so that means no serial killer. All of the victims were criminals so the higher ups didn't really care about brushing it all off to the side. So I was shut down from continuing to pursue my hair brained theory" Natsu said as he sat back in his chair, at the time he had been so enraged that the possible connection could just be brushed off that he had almost handed in his badge that day. But he had soon realized that quitting angrily wouldn't do something, so he had continued it in secret on his own time.

"But I take it you didn't since you have all of that" Lucy said as she gestured at the monitor.

"I collect all of this on my spare time, I had to bribe a few police officers and some other agents to get some of the files for this but I figured it be useful some days" Natsu explained, glad that his theory and hard work had payed off.

"So what do you need to do with all of this now?" Lucy said pointing at all of the pictures on the screen.

"I'm going to have to figure out what the tattoo means or what it's connected to" Natsu said as tapped his finger to his cheek "I might have to meet up with someone to find out for sure but I do have a theory I want to investigate."

"And that would be?" Lucy pressed. Natsu wasn't really sure why she was so interested on the problem solving of the case but her boss had said she had been interested in this kind of thing.

"The first thing I thought of when I looked at this tattoo was of the crime gang Spriggan 12, they have matching tattoos that pretty much shows their loyalty to the gang. This tattoo looks very similar to theirs" Natsu said before point at the screen at the tattoo "The only difference is this part of it." He was pointing to the insignia in the middle "The Spriggan 12 has a different symbol in it, but at first glance they look similar."

"So you think that this might be related to a crime gang?" Lucy asked, looking a bit too excited to finding out they might be dealing with a crime gang or a gang war.

"It might be a rival gang that's trying to kill them off" Natsu said "But at the same time that doesn't make sense since no other bodies have been found that could belong to another gang."

"So another dead end?"

"Not exactly, I have a friend who might be able to give me some information on these tattoos" Natsu said as he printed out a picture of the tattoo.

"So should I be doing anything to help?" Lucy asked as she shifted on her feet.

"Look over the body again, do whatever it is you do" Natsu said as he grabbed the picture "And check to see if there was anything in his system."

"Already on it" Lucy said with a nod as the two of them headed to the elevator together.

"I'll drop you off at the lab on my way to meet my friend" Natsu said as he pressed the button for the ground floor.

"Much appreciated" Lucy said though it seemed she was doing her best to contain her excitement.

"What are you so happy about?" Natsu asked almost absently, he didn't really expect much of an answer but he ended up getting more than he had originally thought.

"W-well you see" Lucy sputtered a she realized she wasn't hiding her excitement as well as she had thought "The main reason I studied forensics was so I could be in a career that worked with law enforcement and for a while I planned on being a police officer. But I soon realized that my science grades could lead me to what seemed like a more exciting route, figuring out how someone died. To me it seemed like it was a crucial piece of evidence in an investigation and I just saw it as the ultimate mystery. So I decided that I was going to take forensic anything in college. I picked the anthropology branch since everything else seemed not at all what I wanted, among other things."

"Oh, wow" Natsu said, taken back slightly by Lucy's complex answer, it was unusual for someone to pour out emotional or life changing decision to him.

"That was a much heavier answer than you planned on getting, huh?" Lucy asked as pink dusted her cheeks light which honestly made her look super cute and then four seconds later Natsu was slapping himself for thinking that.

"Not today brain" Natsu thought scornfully "You're not going to mess this up for me with feelings!" Natsu than remembered he hadn't yet answered Lucy's question "It's no problem." Real good save Natsu.

/

Natsu had dropped her off outside the lab and Lucy had hurried inside without looking behind her. She was still slightly embarrassed about how she had just went on to him about her whole choice on why she picked the job she did instead of saying something simple like "Oh I just like looking at dead bodies" or something. As much as she hated admitting, Natsu was really easy to talk to for some reason. Words just flowed from her when she talked to him and she didn't want to end revealing too much about herself to a stranger that she probably wouldn't talk to after they finished this case.

Opening the lab doors again she walked back to where the body was, meeting up with Mirajane there.

"Lucy" Mira said as she held up a file for her "I have the results of what you dropped off."

"Thank you Mira" Lucy said with a smile as she took the file from her before flipping it open.

"I hope you don't mind that I took a little peek at it" Mira said as she pinched her index finger and her thumb close together.

"You were the one who did this for me so I don't see how you already wouldn't know" Lucy scanned down the paper and there it was "Drugs present" and below it listed what had been found.

"All I have to say is whoever the heck that body belongs to, I hope they were in the hospital with some intense pain to have that many sedations in them" Mira said before walking off with a cheerful wave.

Lucy's eyes raked over all of the substances listed below, 50 mg of doxylamine, and traces of alcohol and cannabis were found in the man's system. While the other two substances were in such small quantities that it meant they were still relatively sober, the sedative proved to be a bit excessive to say the least. It was probably enough to knock out a horse since it was half the recommended amount.

This case was getting more and more curious by the second. It was beginning to look less like an accident and more like a murder. Looking over at the body Lucy decided it was time to de-flesh the bones so she could get a better look at what mysteries might be hiding from her.

/

Natsu watched Lucy as she walked into the building before he whipped out his phone; he needed to make a phone call before he went anywhere. About four minutes later he had his destination, The Tower of Heaven.

When he pulled up to the place he grimaced. The Tower of Heaven was located down by the docks and was sandwiched between many other shady bars and business, and it somehow managed to look the shadiest out of all of them. Though considering who he was meeting up with it did make sense he would pick this kind of place. It's not like he could be seen in any upstanding place without the cops being on him in seconds.

Sighing as he looked up at the half burned out neon sign that dimly read "Te Towr o Heaven" it seemed their letters h,e and f had burned out at some point. Yeah, he was beginning to wonder just what kind of people he would see in there, he hoped none of them had a grudge. These were the times he was glad he carried a gun around.

Opening the bar doors he was hit with the scent of alcohol and a sour smell, he could practically feel the odor absorbing itself into his clothes, he'd probably never be able to get the smell out. Surveying the bar he saw only few people around, most were sitting by the bar with some kind of alcohol in front of them and one man seemed to be passed out at one the booths. The man he was meeting with would have stood out anywhere else, but people like him were a common sight at places like this.

So it was no surprise it took him a few seconds before pinpointing him. He was sitting in the farthest booth from the door. He was had on an overcoat and a hat that hid his face, if anyone not involved in the underground walked in they would instantly guess he was an informant. Not that that was far off from what he did, but it was more of a side job for him.

Sliding in the seat across from him he placed his hands on the table and waited for the other man to talk first. The only part of his face he could see was the familiar blue tattoo that covered the man's face.

"So what exactly did you call me for Natsu?" the man asks "You didn't really explain anything on the phone except that you needed to ask me about some things."

"Sorry, I was in kind of a rush to get some info" Natsu apologized sheepishly as he twiddled his fingers.

"I could tell considering you meeting me here at six when normally right now you would be home with your cat" the man said with mirth in his voice.

"Hardy har" Natsu said, he knew he really shouldn't be making small talk and get to the point, but he hadn't seen the guy for a while and they were friends of sorts, well it's more like they had mutual friend but still.

"So what is it that you need?" the man asked as he sat back in the seat and crossed his arms, waiting for Natsu's request.

"I need to ask you to tell me anything you can about this tattoo that has been turning up on too many dead bodies lately" Natsu said as he took the picture out from his jacket. Sliding it across the table to the other man he waited as for the man's answer.

"This doesn't look so good" the man mumbled as he shook his head before looking back up at Natsu and asking "How many people have you found dead with this tattoo recently?"

"Sixty-seven in the past six months" Natsu answered, this wasn't going to be good if he was getting worried.

The other man made a noise of surprise before saying "This tattoo belongs to one of the many branches of the Spriggan 12 gang run by the infamous crime boss, Zeref" the man looked Natsu straight in the eye as he added "But you already knew that, huh?"

Natsu grumbled at that unneeded extra comment. This was quickly turning into the worst possible situation; hopefully it wasn't one of the bigger ones. "Which branch is it from exactly?"

"Tartaros, you probably haven't heard much about them, at least in the news, they're a large drug ring. They mainly sell and produce drugs, but since they're the second strongest gang under Zeref's control this means they end up doing some of his dirty work that he doesn't want to risk giving the Spriggan 12. So the only times they really show up in the news is after they've done one of those jobs. Because of that they're not a group to you'd want to get on their bad side, they've been known to do some pretty grisly things" the man said before shaking his head "This doesn't look too good Natsu, you might be biting off more than you can chew."

"You don't have any right to tell me how to live my life or how to do my job considering how at any minute I could let some information slip about you and I'm sure they police would be happy to get it considering they've been trying to arrest for about ten years now" Natsu said, he normally wouldn't threaten something like that to the man considering everything the man knew about him. The man knew plenty of things about Natsu that if he told any law enforcer, well who knew what they'd do to him but he defiantly wouldn't have his badge anymore. Though he supposed this is why they had formed an unlikely partnership and friendship. Natsu kept him from being captured and locked up and he in return kept his mouth sealed about Natsu's past and occasionally helped him on cases.

"Was the earlier comment a bit too much, I can see I hit a nerve" the man said with a chuckle "But here's a bit of information, from what I've heard on the streets Tartaros has been having a bit of trouble lately."

"What kind of trouble?" Natsu asked, his brow rose as he leaned forward.

"Internal" the man said with a small nod "Spies from other gangs have been infiltrating their ranks and they've had about four drug busts on them in the past two weeks due to members and the spies tipping off the police. Their pretty vulnerable now, they don't know who to trust so I'm sure all these dead bodies turning up must have something to do with that. But that's all I know at the moment."

"Thanks" Natsu said as he slid out of the booth "How much do you want?"

"Nothing" the man said, shaking his head before Natsu could take out any money "Just tell Erza I said hi as payment."

"Sure" Natsu said with a chuckle before shaking his head sadly "But don't you think you should be telling her that?"

"You know I can't" the man said, sadness obvious in his voice.

"You can, she might slug you for ignoring her for this long but then she'll be so happy to see you I'm sure she won't arrest you" Natsu said before turning away from the man.

"I'll do that the same day you face your past" the man said.

"Well than I guess you're never going to see your lovely Erza ever again then" Natsu said as he shoved his hands into his pockets before making his way for the door.

"I suppose not" the man said quietly before watching Natsu go out the door.