Natsu ran his fingers through his hair as he cursed under his breath. Even with the notes added to the file he could still barely understand exactly what the report was saying. He had managed to get Makarov to give him a copy of the file that contained all the information that had been found so far on the bombing last night.

He had already put a request in to Gildarts for the file on Jackal and was hoping he'd be able to get it by the afternoon. So far all he had been able to decipher from the file was the kind of bomb used, so all he had to do was compare the makeup of the recent bomb to the ones that Jackal had used. If they matched up perfectly than it most likely meant it was the same bomber since according to experts each bomber added their own kind of mark or signature to identify themselves. Hopefully the recent bomb matched up with the old ones to connect the two cases.

From there he'd have to start his search for Jackal by investigating any of the old suspects and then he could go from there. Even if he arrested them for the bombings, rather than being part of a gang, it was still better than nothing. It would get him out of Tartaros' war and then all he'd have left was to convict Marde which was beginning to look like the hardest part of this case.

He hadn't talked to Lucy since last night, and honestly he was a little worried for her. If he wasn't so busy with looking over all these damn reports he would have gone done to the lab to keep her company. She has texted him earlier to tell him she planned on looking over the autopsy files again to see if she could find anything.

Leafing through the file again he wondered if he should just google up some of these terms rather than just ignoring them, it would give him something to do rather than just waiting around for the Jackal file. He was just turning around to face his computer when Gray came by and dropped something onto his desk.

"Gildarts asked me to drop this off to you when I went down there earlier" Gray said as he flopped down into his chair. "That's a pretty old file you're looking at, how do you think it's going to help you out?"

"I don't really have time to explain" Natsu said as he opened up the file, sitting on top was a picture of the exploded parts of a bomb. "But I think the guy that bombed city hall last night is the same guy from this case."

"Okay" Gray said, drawing out his answer. "But what does it have to do with your little investigation? You're not on the bombing from last night so why are you looking at it?"

"Like I said it's too complicated to explain everything, let's just say that this bomber might be a suspect in my investigation, okay?" Natsu said as he got to the page that explained the make-up of the bombs in the old attacks.

"Geez fine, sorry for asking" Gray said as he turned away to Natsu and back to his desk.

Opening the file Natsu read over the contents that the older bombs consisted of and compared them with the recent one. From what he could tell they had the same chemicals in them, though if he remembered anything about bombs it was that chemicals such as chlorine were common in bombs. But what did stood out, or at least he figured it should since it was circled in red pen, was the type of insulation used in constructing the bomb.

It was a type of insulation called Tibson; it was composed of a mixture of plaster, lead and asbestos. At least this meant Jackal was most likely working out of an old building if both of these bombs had the same type of insulation in them.

Turning to his computer he searched to see if there were any buildings in the area with this type of insulation. There was only one street in Magnolia that had that type of insulation in the buildings and almost all of them were abandoned, this would be the perfect place for Jackal to construct his bombs and perhaps it was close to the base of Tartaros as well. He needed to show this to Makarov.

Pushing back from his desk he grabbed the two files and headed to Makarov's office. Knocking on the door he barely waited for a response before he barged in.

"Chief I found something" Natsu said as he came to a stop in front of Makarov's desk.

"And what is it that you found that is so important you had to come barging in for?" Makarov asked as he folded his hands.

"Listen chief, I found a connection between the bomber case from four years ago and the one that happened yesterday" Natsu said placing the two files on his desk before he folded his arms behind his back.

"I see, please tell me how you found that connection when you're not even assigned to that case?" Makarov asked as he glared a hole through Natsu.

"Because I believe that the bomber from the old case is a possible suspect in my investigation, so I decided to compare the bombs from the old and new case to see if they were the same" Natsu said as he began to tap his foot nervously, he knew what the next question would be.

"While that is a good find, remind me again what exactly you're looking for in your case?"

"I am examining the numerous gang related deaths with the help of a local anthropologist. I believe that this bomber is a part of the gang, which I will tell you in detail how I came to this conclusion in the report I send you tonight" Natsu said as he continued to stare straight ahead.

"You better not be hiding anything from me Dragneel" Makarov said as he scanned Natsu's face for anything that would show he was hiding something. "You better include in your report you send me tonight everything you've found in great detail. This is important Dragneel; you can't hide information from me because you don't want to be taken off the case. It is in your best interest not to lie to me if you want to keep your job."

"Yes Chief" Natsu said with a curt nod. "Before I go I was hoping if you could tell me who the suspects were in the old bomber case, it wasn't included in the file I received."

"I wouldn't think so" Makarov said "The only suspect we ever found disappeared before we even talked to him. We figured it meant he was the bomber; he left behind no trace at all. It was like he just disappeared one day. He never told his landlord or his boss he was leaving, one his friends filed a missing person's report for him. We never were able to find him, the police didn't put him under suspects since everyone who knew him believed he had been kidnapped or something."

"So what was the suspect's name?" Natsu asked.

"His name was Jeremy Nico, a local who had worked as a construction worker" Makarov said "There's not much else I can say about him that will help you out. He's in the system, so if you want a picture you can find one in the database."

"Thank you Chief" Natsu said before he took to cue to leave the room. He headed back to his desk and noted that Gray was gone, at least he wouldn't have to listen to that popsicle get yelled out for breaking dress code, which was something he did about every day.

Typing in Jeremy Nico into the system brought up a picture of a tan freckled man with blonde hair that Natsu couldn't help but wonder if it was dyed. Nothing stood out about him; expect maybe the mean look on his face.

At least now he probably had a face to pin to Jackal, he was wondering if he should send the picture to Gajeel to see if he could confirm it. Figuring it wouldn't hurt, he sent Gajeel the picture without anything else, didn't need for someone to see it that shouldn't and jump to conclusions.

His next step should be either figuring out where Tartaros' base was located and to see if he could get any farther with his hunch on Marde. City hall was going to be busting today considering what had happened the night before, so that would be off the plate for a while.

Tapping his fingers against the desk he figured he might need to go undercover if he couldn't find someone who knew where Tartaros was based out of. His best bet for this would probably be Jellal; Gajeel mainly kept his nose in Phantom Lord and didn't worry too much about the other gangs.

Natsu knew by now that Jellal would have changed his number again, he did it about every few days, so the only way he'd be able to get in contact with him was if Jellal called him.

Taking his phone out of his pocket, he placed it on his desk and stared at it while continuing to tap his fingers against the desk. No one ever knew what number to use to get a hold of Jellal until he called them, so Natsu was screwed unless Jellal could somehow sense that Natsu wanted to call him. Turning back to the computer screen he figured he could worry about it later and that he needed to worry more about matters that he could actually investigate without causing Makarov to kick him off the case.

A few minutes, as if his hopes had been heard, his phone went off. Picking it up he saw it was an unknown number, maybe he was going to get lucky and it wasn't a telemarketer.

Picking up he answered. "Hello."

"Hello Natsu, I have some information that I think might be useful to you" Jellal said. "I forgot to tell you about this the last time we talked; I hope you're not busy right now."

"Jellal" Natsu said. "You're just the person I wanted to talk to."

"That's one of the nicest greetings I've gotten in a long time" Jellal said. "Anyway, I found out where Tartaros is probably operating out of."

"Probably?" Natsu asked as he leaned back against his chair.

"Listen, I know for sure the area they work in but not the exact building their operating in. Who knows, it may be more than one building" Jellal said.

"So where are they then?" Natsu asked as he took out a pen and paper.

"Do you know the street that's right next to the docks? The one with all the old abandoned buildings, that's where their hideout is located, somewhere in one of those buildings" Jellal said as Natsu wrote it all down. If he was thinking of the same street as Jellal, than that might mean the mystery bomber was building bombs on the same street that Tartaros was located which couldn't be a coincidence. It looked like he had a link to put together the bomber Jackal and Tartaros.

"Thanks Jellal, this is a big help" Natsu said as he placed his pen down.

"No problem, I figure once you figure out where exactly it is you're going to storm the place" Jellal said.

"Something like that, though it'll probably be my chief who decides to do that" Natsu said. "Anyway, thanks again Jellal."

"Until next time Natsu" Jellal said before hanging up. Slipping his phone back into his pocket Natsu pulled up a map of the street that both Tartaros and Jackal were working out of. The fact that all of the buildings in the area used Tibson as their insulation didn't help narrow it down for Jackal, but Tartaros was a large group of people and they would need a larger space to work in. That at least got rid of three buildings, all of which were one story and half destroyed. So that left him with about eleven buildings for him to look through, at least now he had a game plan for the rest of the day.

Getting up out of his chair he headed outside. He was just getting into the elevator when his phone rang again. Taking it out of his pocket he stifled a groan when he saw the caller id, Gray, what did that popsicle want to talk to him about.

"What do you want Fullbuster?" Natsu said after accepting the call.

"Geez what the hell got under your skin today?" Gray grumbled. "Listen, the chief told me to call you if something like this showed up."

"If what showed up?" Natsu asked as he pushed the button to take him down.

"I got called in to look at a crime scene because what was found was definitely a murder, what happened here isn't exactly something you do on accident-" Gray said before Natsu interrupted him.

"What doesn't happen on accident Fullbuster, you gotta be clearer when you're trying to explain something" Natsu said as the elevator dinged open.

"The guy was chopped up into tiny pieces and then spread throughout a local park" Gray answered, deadpan as usual.

"Oh" Natsu said as he headed outside.

"Yeah" Gray said "Anyway I was figuring I was going to be looking for a real sicko when someone found a tattoo on one of the pieces or whatever. Anyway I remembered it from somewhere and called the Chief to ask him what he thought of it. He told me to call you and that this case was now yours."

"Well that makes the death toll at seventy one" Natsu said. "Thanks Fullbuster, what park are you at?"

"West Side Magnolia" Gray said. "So will you tell me now what kind of case your own."

"Goodbye Fullbuster" Natsu said before hanging up, ignoring Gray's cries of protest. Maybe if he was still there when Natsu got there he would tell him the gist of what was going on.

Getting into a car he dialed Lucy's number, hopefully she wouldn't be angry at him for interrupting her even though by now she had probably read through the reports three times already. She picked up on the second ring.

"Hey Heartfilia" Natsu said as he backed out of the parking lot. "We got a body, it's at West Side Magnolia. You want me to pick you up on my way."

"Oh, um, yes that be nice" Lucy said. "Finally a new body to look over, I thought I was going to lose it looking over the same bones over and over."

"Okay then, I'm on my way, be there in five minutes. I'll pick you up out front" Natsu said as he pulled onto the highway.

"I'll be waiting" Lucy said before hanging up.

/

When they arrived at the park the scene was still filled with a large amount of police, technicians and nosy citizens straining to get a look at what was going on.

Getting out of the car Lucy headed straight for the technicians, not waiting for Natsu. By now she had gotten comfortable enough to be on crime scenes without being a few feet from Natsu.

Pulling on a pair of gloves she crouched down with the technicians as she looked over the pieces they had found so far. Picking one up she examined the cut of it and noted that it wasn't just flesh, but bones as well. So the killer must have hacked up the entire body then instead of just certain parts as she had thought when Natsu had explained to her what he had heard so far.

The cuts were clean on both the flesh and the bone, so whoever did this was careful and meticulous, not to mention well practiced in the field which might mean that…"Did you find a head?" Lucy asked, turning to one of the technicians.

"Yes" she said before pointing over to a black bag by an officer. "They made us put it in a bag real quick though, they said so it wouldn't frighten the public if they saw it, but I personally think it freaked them out."

"So it was a decapitated head then?" Lucy asked.

"Yeah but the eyes were gauged out and the tongue was cut out as well" she said.

"They're probably around here with the rest of the body parts, we should keep our eyes out for them as well" Lucy said as the technician nodded before turning back to her work.

Turning her attention back to the body piece she decided she knew what kind of person did this. Turning around she saw Natsu standing by what looked like another FBI agent, waving her arms at him to get his attention she motioned for him to come over when he had noticed her.

"I'm pretty sure a doctor did this" Lucy said once Natsu had reached her.

"Really, how can you tell?" Natsu asked as he crouched down next to her.

"The cuts on the bones and flesh are clean, and I have a feeling that we'll find the victim's organs around here somewhere but not cut up like this" Lucy said as she showed him the piece.

"Uh huh" Natsu said as he moved her hand out for his face. "How can you be so sure about all of this?"

"No random person can make such clean cuts. Inexperienced people would shake causing their cuts to be messy. Doctors on the other hand have to able to keep their hand steady so when they make a cut they're clean and don't hit anything they don't want to" Lucy said offering up the piece again for him to look at.

"Okay then, I trust you" Natsu said, now just ignoring the piece. "There is an underground doctor or something in Tartaros, Keyes I think is his name."

"Well then it was probably him who did this" Lucy said. "When I get back to the lab I'll put his DNA in to see if I can find a match in the system."

"Keyes in on Jackal's side so this guy must have been with Marde" Natsu said as he gestured at the piece in Lucy's hand. "Apparently the head is pretty messed up, the guy over there was telling me about it."

"Yeah" Lucy said, putting the piece back into the bag before standing up. "The eyes are gauged out and the tongue was cut out."

"Geez" Natsu winced. "That must've been a pretty sight."

"No I suppose not" Lucy said. "I'm going to go help look for the rest of the pieces, hopefully there shouldn't be too many left. You just do whatever it is you do."

"Okay than Heartfilia" Natsu said as he stood up. "Just come and get me when you're ready to leave." As he walked away he couldn't help but think that Jackal had planned two attacks against Marde last night and that it wasn't looking too good for Marde. He'd be striking somehow soon, it was looking like there were going to be more bodies tomorrow morning.

/

Lucy had some free time on her hands surprisingly. She had figured that since a new body had been found she would be busy. But after only an hour of getting all the pieces back to the lab she didn't have much else to do.

She had already swabbed for particulates to figure out what kind of tools were used in dismembering the body. She had then begun the cleaning process for the bones and had put the DNA into the system to see if it had found a match. Which it did, the victim's name was Jared Tesla who had been arrested a few times before for carrying unregistered firearms.

She had called Natsu to tell him this but he had seemed distracted. He had told her he would call someone and ask about the victim.

So now here she was waiting for the results to get back for the particulates and for the bones to finish cleaning. Since she had this extra time she decided she would make use of it and do a little bit of snooping too.

When she got to city hall she noted how they had covered up the hole with some type of large tarp. She honestly had wondered if anyone would even be working there. But luckily when she walked in she was greeted by a receptionist she knew quite well.

"Oh Lucy" Kira said, leaning forward in her chair and looking Lucy up and down. "It's been so long since I last saw you, you've grown."

"It hasn't been that long Kira" Lucy said as she shifted from foot to foot, at least it wouldn't seem suspicious if she showed up here unlike Natsu. Since her father had worked here practically his whole life most of the long time workers knew Lucy as well, they would just figure she was coming here to pick something up for Jude.

"Oh hush, yes it has" Kira said. "So what is the surprise visit for?"

"Oh, I um, I'm here to pick up some paper work for my father" Lucy said before adding "You know how he is, even when he's in the hospital he wants to keep working."

"Oh did he get hurt in the blast last night?" Kira asked. "I don't remember anyone mentioning his name."

"No he isn't hurt, but he was close when the bomb went off so they want to make sure he really is alright" Lucy before picking a pen from off the counter. "Do I need to sign in?"

"Oh it's fine Lucy" Kira said, waving her hand at her. "I don't have to worry about you. I'll just add you in myself when I hand in the list of visitors later today, besides you're probably going to be the only one showing up today."

"Thanks Kira" Lucy said before heading up the stairs to where the offices were. Bypassing Jude's office she went straight to Marde's. Standing outside the door to his office she wondered how exactly she was going to do this.

Knocking on the door first she waited to see if there was anyone inside. When she didn't hear so much of someone moving she tried the doorknob. Turning it she found the door was unlocked, lucky her. Opening the door more she slipped inside, leaving the door cracked open she looked around the office.

Nothing stood out, there was a desk that was semi-neat, a bunch of bookcase filled with books and awards and file cabinets lined up behind the desk. Heading over to his desk she looked over the contents on the desk.

Opening the laptop that was sitting on the desk she crossed her fingers that it wasn't password protected and lo and behold it opened up to his emails. Scrolling through them she kept an eye on the door for any movement. If anyone caught her in here she could just say that her father had asked her to get some paperwork from Marde. Hopefully that wouldn't set any red flags but she figured she could cross that bridge when she got there.

The emails seemed standard, a bunch of junk but not many to with job it seemed which was odd considering he seemed like the type who would get a bunch of fan mail.

Taking out her phone she typed in city halls website before going to "Contact Your Politicians." Clicking on Marde Geer she looked at his work email to the one that was up right now and found that they were different.

Nothing suspicious about that she supposed but still, if he had any contact with Tartaros members through this email she might be able to find something to link him to them.

Scrolling through his newer emails she found nothing, but all of them were unread. Clicking on the trash file she figured Marde wouldn't be stupid enough to actually keep any emails he had gotten from them up so her best bet was that they were in his trash.

Looking through his most recent ones she wasn't getting much luck until she found one that stood out. It didn't have a subject line and it had been sent from someone's phone. Clicking on it she crossed her fingers and hoped she would find something useful.

"Boss, it would seem like Jackal continues to act irrationally and rebel against you. I would suggest taking quick action against him as soon as possible to null his little rebellion before it grows out of hand. Also, I have a suggestion for one of your next platforms, perhaps you should talk about reducing the amount of gang activity in the town. I'm sure after this squabble is over the public will be more than frightened. -Kyoka"

Now that was definitely suspicious. Taking out her phone, Lucy snapped a picture of the email. Exiting out of that one she continued on for anymore emails only to find none. It looked like Marde was good at getting rid of anything that could be held against him. Leaving that file she went back to the original page that had been up before closing the computer.

Looking over the desk again she noticed that it had drawers. Hesitating for a second she considered whether there would really be anything in them but the whole pointing of snooping around was looking through stuff. Opening the first drawer she was greeted by manila folders. Flipping through them she looked to see if anything stood out or rang a bell but there was nothing that stuck out to her.

Closing the first drawer she went on the second one only to see the same thing. The third drawer though was a bit different. There wasn't much in it. There was a picture frame with an old picture of what looked like two young boys inside of it, while it didn't seem like much something told her to take a picture of it anyway. The rest of the content was just extra pens, paper and ink.

She was about to just give up her search and leave before anyone saw her when she noticed something off. It looked like there was a crack in the wood right under the picture. Taking the picture out of the drawer careful she found what looked to be a panel that had been partially hidden by the picture.

Prying the panel off Lucy revealed a hidden compartment and sitting inside of the compartment was a handgun. Alarms were going off in Lucy's head as she wondered whether she should just cover everything back up and run like hell out of city hall. Pushing those thoughts aside Lucy took a picture of the gun before taking a picture of its serial number.

Covering it back up with the panel before placing the picture overtop of it she closed the drawer quickly. Standing up she slipped her phone back in her pocket before hurrying to the door. Just as she was grabbing the doorknob the door flew open.

Lucy nearly ran into the person who had opened the door. "Sorry, sorry, geez I wasn't paying much attention" Lucy said, apologizing profusely before looking up at the person she had almost ran into and felt her blood go cold.

"It's quite fine" Marde Geer said as he smoothed his shirt as if she had really run into him "No one was harmed, but I must ask who you are and why are you in my office?"

"Oh um" Lucy said, rubbing the back of her head, she hadn't been prepared to run into Marde, she could feel her heart beating out of her chest and hoped he couldn't hear it pounding. "My father, Jude Heartfilia, needed me to pick up something for him. He told me if I couldn't find it in his office to check to see if you had it on your desk. I'm really sorry for intruding, the door was unlocked."

"Uh huh" Marde said as he looked her up and down with a raised brow. "So what is your name th-"

"Oh well since it wasn't in your office I'm going to go check my father's again. Sorry for bothering you" Lucy said hurriedly breezing by Marde keeping her eyes forward not even looking back at him. As she ran out of city hall she hoped that Marde wouldn't notice she had gone through his things, that she hadn't disturbed anything too much for him to notice a change.

Heading back to the lab she figured at least she had something to give Natsu to investigate for Marde.