The whole world seemed to be blurred, just spots of color, smudged shapes and red and blue flashing lights that seemed hazy and dull.
Lucy stood firmly rooted on the sidewalk outside of her apartment building; a blanket had been wrapped around her at one point, she thinks it must have been Natsu who had done it. She stood content with watching the blurs move about and listen to their incoherent, muffled talking.
Eventually the shock and fear began to reside, and soon things began to take focus once more.
The first thing to come into focus was a large black bag that was laying on the blacktop not too far from her. She had seen those bags enough in her career to know what it was, an irony of sorts that the first thing to come into focus would be the bag contained the person that had caused her all of this fear.
A voice in the back of her head whispers "You almost died tonight."
Lucy wanted to swat that voice away but her gut just sank as the harsh reality finally hit her, she could have died tonight if it hadn't been for Natsu showing up so suddenly. She could have died tonight for doing something that wasn't her job; she should've just stayed in the lab. Investigating was part of Natsu's job, not her's.
"Now then" said a voice from behind her, causing her to jump slightly. "Lucy Heartfilia, correct?"
Lucy turned around to face the agent that was standing behind her. She opened her mouth to answer his question only to have her throat clench up. She gave him a nod instead.
"You're helping Natsu on the case he's on, right?" the agent asked as he took out a pad of paper and a pencil.
Lucy gave another nod.
The agent wrote something down before asking "So, exactly how involved are you in this case of his?"
That needed an answer, Lucy willed herself to talk. "I deal with the bodies." Her words came out scratchy, as if she had just inhaled smoke. One thing she knew for sure was that her throat felt like it was on fire.
"I see" the agent said as he scratched something down. "Anything else you might do? Like go with him talk to people, or investigate things for him?"
Luc shook her head. She wished this agent would just leave her alone; all she wanted to do was curl up in a ball and go to sleep and maybe drink a gallon of water to calm her throat.
"Okay then" the agent said as he looked at her from over the pad of paper. "Did you know the person who attacked you?"
"She told me her name was Seilah" Lucy said as the agent wrote more down on his pad.
"Okay Lucy" the agent said as he flipped his pad closed. "You're going to need to stay at another place until this case is over. It's too dangerous to let you stay here if the people after you know where you live. Do you have anywhere you could stay that's safe? Like a friend's house or your parent's?"
"Oh, well I guess I could stay with my father" Lucy said, her father had gotten released by the hospital earlier that night when they had been sure he was truly uninjured. He probably wouldn't mind her company. Plus his house was probably the safest place she could be with his fenced property and a security system.
"I don't think that's a good idea" came Natsu's voice.
Turning her attention to where Natsu's voice had come from, Lucy saw Natsu standing at the top of the steps.
"Oh?" asked the other agent, not even bothering to turn and look at Natsu. "And why not Dragneel?"
"It's case sensitive information" Natsu said as he made his way down the stairs. "And last time I checked Fullbuster, you're not on the case."
"Well guess what, I'm involved in the case of the potential murder of Lucy Heartfilia. So if you know something that could be detrimental to her safety then you have to tell me" the agent, apparently named Fullbuster which seemed to be a rather odd name to Lucy, snapped.
"Damn fine" Natsu said as he rolled his eyes. "One of the main suspects in the case is someone who works with Heartfilia's father. So if she isn't in her apartment then the next place he would look is at his house, which I'm sure wouldn't be too hard for him to break into."
"So you're telling one of your main suspects is a politician?" Fullbuster asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Yes" Natsu said all while Lucy tried to figure out where else she would stay. She didn't have many close friends except maybe for Levy and Mirajane. She really didn't want to intrude, but she didn't want to die either.
"You're fucked" Fullbuster said with chuckle.
"I know it must make you so happy to know I'm going to have to work my ass off for this case" Natsu said as he rolled his eyes at his coworker's apparent joy at his pain.
"Oh it does" Fullbuster said with a smirk before turning to Lucy. "Okay then, where else could you stay?"
"Ummm" Lucy said as she went through her small list of friends in her head as she tried to figure out which one she should call at one in the morning to sleep at their place.
"She can sleep at my place" Natsu said, breaking Lucy's thoughts.
"Really?" Gray asked as his brows went up to his hairline. "Is that appropriate?"
"Okay listen weirdo" Natsu said. "If she's at my place there's already less of a chance that they're going to attack, and even if they do I'm there with a gun so I think it's pretty safe. It'll just be up to Heartfilia."
The turned their attention to Lucy who was currently drawing a blank since she had just be invited to sleep at a guy's place, who she only knew through work. To make matters worse she had recently noticed that said guy looked almost looked borderline cute when he smiled.
"Oh, um, if it's not breaking any rules then that would be…nice. I mean, it means I wouldn't have to call any of my friends this late at night to see if I can stay with them" Lucy said as she struggled to find the right words. "I just have one question though; I won't be taken off the case right?"
Natsu and Fullbuster glanced at each other and then over at Lucy. In unison the two of them shrugged their shoulders.
"You two are a big help" Lucy huffed as she shook her head.
"I know" said a voice from behind Lucy, why couldn't anyone get in front of her tonight before talking to her ? "Why do I even keep you two?"
"Really Chief?" Fullbuster asked as Lucy turned around to see Makarov. "Isn't that a decision you need to make?"
"What decision do I have to make?" Makarov asked as he crossed his arms. "What are you two telling this poor girl?"
"Sir" Lucy said as Makarov looked over at her, "I was wondering if I was still on the case after tonight."
"Oh, yeah sure" Makarov said. "As long as you want to be I don't see no reason you can't be. Now Porlyusica might sing a different tune when she finds out what happened tonight since she had been so worried about something like this happening when you were put on this case. All I ask is that you're careful and you stick close to Natsu."
"Of course sir, thank you so much" Lucy said, at least she wasn't going to get kicked off the case, at least she hoped not.
"Gray could you go find something to do, I want to talk to these two in private" Makarov said as he gestured between Natsu and Lucy.
"Of course chief" Fullbuster, whose first name might actually be Gray, said before walking towards another agent.
"Okay you two, I'm going to make this quick so you can go get some sleep" Makarov said as he looked between the two of them. "Natsu, if your apartment at any point for the rest of the case somehow broken into then the two of you will be split up and sent to different locations. You'll also both be off the case if that ends up happening, okay?"
Lucy figured there was only one response to this question. "Okay."
"Okay" Natsu said before turning to Lucy and saying. "Why don't you go up and pack some stuff, just the necessities, we can come back tomorrow and get some more stuff if we need to."
"Got it" Lucy said with a nod before turning around and heading up to the apartment. She was hesitant to open the door, she was worried what she would find inside, and taking a deep breath she opened it up and walked inside. This was certainly going to be a long night.
/
"Well this is it" Natsu said as he threw opening his door, praying Zeref hadn't decided to stay and wait for him to get back. He knew there was no way he could explain why a crime boss was sitting leisurely in his apartment.
"Thanks again for letting me stay here" Lucy said as she walked inside. "I'll ask one of my friends tomorrow if I can stay with them."
"No need" Natsu said as he closed the door behind them. "It's not a problem."
It seemed like Zeref was scarce and Happy also seemed to be off somewhere, probably cowering. At least he could hope that Lucy wouldn't wake up in the middle of the night with Happy sleeping on her face, but he was a creature of habitat and probably wouldn't take to account that his owner wasn't sleeping in the bed.
"So, um, you can sleep in my bed and I'll just crash on the couch" Natsu said as he pointed over at the couch.
"Oh, I don't want to intrude-" Lucy began before Natsu cut her off.
"It's fine, besides, this way I'll most likely be the one dealing with any intruders first" Natsu said before pointing to the first door. "That's the bathroom" Natsu said before pointing to the next one "And that's where you'll be sleeping. If you find a cat just shoo him out, if not he might cause you problems."
"Okay, well thanks again, again I guess" Lucy said. "I think I'm just going to go to sleep, I'm pretty tired."
"No problem, I am too. Besides we'll have time in the morning to talk if you need to" Natsu said before placing his hand on his neck. "So, um goodnight."
"Goodnight" Lucy said before disappearing into his bedroom.
Falling down onto the couch, Natsu let out a sigh as he considered how he should play his cards for the next few days. He had to get this case wrapped up quickly so Lucy wouldn't be forced into a pseudo sort of hiding. He didn't honestly need to worry about anyone from Tartaros breaking into his apartment thanks to Zeref, even though he hated it that for once his damn overprotectiveness was helping him; out in the field it was a different story.
There was also what Makarov had talked to him about after Lucy had gone up to her apartment. One sentence still ringing clear in his head, "I don't know what kind of secrets you're hiding from me Natsu, but I don't like them and I think they may end up costing you big one day."
Makarov had known his old man which in turn meant he knew a little about Natsu's life before he was adopted. But all he knew was the little stuff, like how he had been living on the streets before Igneel adopted him. He didn't know he had been living with a brother and he certainly didn't know what they had been doing before Igneel found him. Plus what he had been doing even after he had been adopted.
He had spent so long keeping all of that under wraps but even though he hated to admit it, he knew one day it would all come crumbling down on him.
That night neither Natsu nor Lucy got much sleep.
/
"Are you sure you're fine with looking over Seilah's body?" Natsu asked, concerned how quickly Lucy had agreed to examine the body of the person who had threatened to kill her the night before.
"Yes Natsu" Lucy said with a small sigh, she was thankful that he was concerned but she wished he would believe her when she said she was fine. Even if she wasn't.
"Okay, if you say so" Natsu said as he followed her up the steps of Magnolia's History Museum. "But if you start to feel uncomfortable or overwhelmed just call me, and we can get someone else to look over the body."
"Seilah's body is part of this case, so it would be best if it was someone who was working on the case that looked over her body" Lucy said as she reached the top of the steps, turning around to face Natsu she tried to calm his nerves one last time. "I'll be fine Natsu, but if I have any problems I will call you."
Natsu hesitated a bit before answering "Okay Heartfilia, I trust you. Let's hope you're able to find something from Seilah's body."
"Yeah, let's hope" Lucy said, trying her best to sound enthusiastic even though when she thought about looking at Seilah's body it caused her stomach to twist up into knots.
"Oh before I go" Natsu said as he took out his phone. "The identity of the chopped up body was found yesterday. The guy's name was Marcus Tempester, and I'm guessing his identity in Tartaros was the hit man Tempester. It looks like each side is now starting to focus on getting rid of the strongest players for each side."
"Is that good?" Lucy asked.
"I suppose, but only two of the strongest members have been killed. One was killed by one of Jackal's men and the other was killed by me. So it isn't exactly getting rid of the trouble of hunting down the members, but it could end up being useful" Natsu said with a shrug of his shoulders.
"Well, I'm going to head inside and start looking over Seilah's body" Lucy said, giving a Natsu a small wave she turned around and headed inside before he could say anything else to her. She needed some sort of quiet; Natsu had hardly stopped talking that morning, most likely to keep Lucy's mind of the events from the night before.
It didn't seem like those memories were going to disappear anytime soon. Whenever she had been about to fall asleep the feeling of cool metal against her neck would jolt her awake as she reached up to her neck, searching for the knife. She had barely been able to get any sleep last night, and hopefully it wouldn't interfere with her work.
Swiping in, she pulled on her lab coat before heading over to her workspace. Over the past week the amount of examination tables had grown on the platform, and a new one had been added. Even if the body was covered Lucy still felt sick to her stomach, would she really be able to face Seilah, even if it was her corpse. At least they had taken her out of the body bag; it was one less interaction with the body.
Taking a deep breath she stepped up next to the examination table. Her hand shook slightly as she pulled back the sheet to reveal Seilah's face, her eyes were still open.
Lucy held back panic rising to her throat as she pulled on a pair of gloves. She hesitantly put her hand over Seilah's eyes as she shut them, she couldn't do this if she could feel those eyes boring into her skin.
Pulling the rest of the sheet back she found that Seilah still was clothed. At least she could distract herself by examining Seilah's clothes rather than having to keep looking at her face, or the hands that had pressed a knife to her-
"No, no, no stop thinking about it" Lucy muttered to herself as she looked over Seilah's clothes. Nothing stood out, she was dressed all in black and had a few holders for, what Lucy figured, must be knifes. She had a few pockets so Lucy figured looking through them might bring some sort of evidence, or at least it would give her something to do.
The first pocket only produced an empty candy wrapper and a few coins. The second one had nothing in it. The third had another pocket watch in it, the fourth pocket though held something promising. Pulling out the contents of the fourth pocket she brought out what looked to be an old flip phone. It was scratched and beat up around the edges but she figured a gang member might not need a nice phone for what they do.
Since it was, luckily, a flip phone she didn't need a password to get into it. Flipping it open, the screen lit up to reveal a default background.
Going into messages Lucy found only one message. It was from an unknown number and simply read "Target: L. Heartfilia, will get in touch later to discuss options. If the agent shows up during the elimination use the girl against him. When you're done report to the normal location for your payment."
Lucy felt herself go numb; it looked like she would have died no matter what last night if Natsu hadn't come bursting in. Doing her best to keep her breathing regulated she focused on what she should do next, looking up the number of the person who had sent the message to Seilah.
Writing the phone number down, she left the bodies and headed towards the nearest computer. Levy and her shared one due to all the times they had wanted to look something up and Porlyusica hadn't been in her office to look it up for them.
Typing the number into the computer she came up with nothing, literally. It seems that the message had been sent by a disposable phone, looks like they weren't going to get a lead from that.
Opening the phone again she went through her contacts only to find nothing before going into her recent calls. It looked like someone had tried to call her at two that morning. Writing down the phone number from that call she looked that one up as well.
As she waited for the results to load she prayed she would get something, anything that pointed some type of guilt towards Marde. The results finished loading and Lucy was overjoyed to see actual results even if it was a bit odd.
Apparently Seilah had gotten a call from one of the offices at city hall at two in the morning, which meant Marde could have called Seilah from his office phone, but why would he be at his office at two in the morning?
Opening up city hall's homepage she once again went to the link that said "Contact your Politician's" and looked up Marde's number. Comparing it to the number that had called Seilah; she felt her heart jump with joy. Something good had finally happened, Marde had called Seilah and hopefully that would be enough to bring him in for questioning. It had to be.
As Lucy picked up her phone to call Natsu to tell him the news she couldn't help but pause for a second. Why would Marde be so careless and call Seilah by that number? Surely he wouldn't slip up like that, but she figured everyone had to mess up at some point.
Pressing on Natsu's contact, she pressed her phone to her ear as she waited for him to pick up.
"Heartfilia?" Natsu answered, concern in his voice, he must have figured that the reason she was calling him had to do with Seilah. "Is everything alright? What are you calling for?"
"I found something that should be able to bring Marde in" Lucy said. "I'm heading over to the FBI building to give it to you. I should be there in about ten minutes."
"Okay, but what exactly did you fin-"Lucy hung up before he could finish asking his question.
/
"So what did you find exactly?" Natsu asked once Lucy had appeared beside his desk. "You hung up before I could finish asking."
"Sorry" Lucy said, she had felt a little bit bad about it after she had done it but there was no point feeling sorry about it now. "I was just in a hurry to get here and show it to you."
"Uh huh" Natsu said, as if he suspected another reason. "Okay then, show it to me."
Taking the phone out of her pocket she handed it to him. "I found this phone in Seilah's pocket. It doesn't have much in it except for one missed call and one text message."
Natsu flipped open the phone and began to look through it. "Did you look up the numbers?"
"Yes" Lucy said. "But the number that sent the text belonged to what I think must've been a disposable phone. But the missed phone call belonged to a trackable number."
"So I presume you know who was in touch with Seilah then?" Natsu asked as he closed the phone.
"Yes, it's the reason I came over here rather than telling you over the phone" Lucy said as she watched Natsu place the phone on his desk. "The number that called Seilah belonged to a phone at city hall."
Natsu's face lit up the minute he heard the words city hall. "Wait, so the person who called her was-"
"Marde's office, which in turn means it must've been Marde who called her since who else would be in his office at two in the morning?" Lucy said, cutting Natsu off.
"Heartfilia" Natsu said as he stood up from his seat. "I think we have enough to get a warrant for Marde's office, hell we should have enough to at least bring him in for questioning!"
"So what's next?" Lucy asked, was she going to get sent back to the lab to keep looking over the bones? She had asked Levy to do the autopsy for Seilah before she had left; the more she thought about it the more she realized she couldn't look at Seilah, at least not in flesh form. If she needed to look at the bones she could, but she couldn't do anything while she could still feel those eyes on her.
"We're going to show this to the chief" Natsu said as he picked the phone back up.
"We?" Lucy asked as she pointed at herself, she had figured she was going to be sent back to the lab and not be a part in bringing Marde to justice or whatever.
"Yeah, I mean, I already sent Makarov the picture and recording of Marde and Franmalth. Now while the phone call from Marde's office might help get a warrant to search it, it's not enough. But if we show him the picture of the gun and say you were in his office because of your dad and you noticed a drawer was open, you see where I'm going with this?" Natsu asked, taking a breath between his long winded explanation.
"Yeah, I understand. I'm going to be used as a witness or whatever" Lucy said, feeling slightly bad she was going to be lying but if it helped bring Marde in then it shouldn't be too wrong.
"Exactly" Natsu said as he headed towards Makarov's office with Lucy at his heels. "First we'll show him the phone and ask if we can bring him in for questioning. Then you'll show him the picture you took and tell him the story and then I'll ask if I can apply for a search warrant."
"Okay I think I understand what we're about to do" Lucy said as they stopped outside of Makarov's office.
"Great" Natsu said as he knocked on the door. "Because there is no turning back now." Opening the door the two of them stepped into the room. Natsu closed the door behind them and then turned his attention to Makarov.
Makarov looked up at them from over his paperwork before asking "What do you two want?"
"We want to bring Marde Geer in for questioning and get a search warrant for his office" Natsu said cutting straight to the point.
"I see" Makarov said as he set the piece of paper he had been looking at back on his desk. Leaning forward and folding his hands together he asked "So what do you have to backup these claims?"
"This phone should be enough to bring him in for questioning on the attempted murder of Lucy Heartfilia" Natsu said as he held up the phone. "Heartfilia found it in Seilah's pocket."
"I see" Makarov said. "But what evidence does it have?"
"A missed call on this phone was from Marde's office at city hall" Lucy said hoping to speed it up instead of spending ten minutes going over evidence.
"I see, that is suspicious that Marde would have her number and call her. Still it's odd he would call her from his work phone. This is enough to bring him in for questioning. I'll send someone to bring him in since Scarlet is the one that's going to interrogate him, correct?" Makarov asked as he picked up his phone.
"Yes sir that is correct" Natsu said. "As for the search warrant, Lucy is the one who is going to have to explain it."
Lucy froze up for a second as Makarov turned his eyes to her. She felt Natsu nudge her arm slightly as he whispered "The picture."
"Oh yes" Lucy said as she fumbled to pull the phone out of her pocket. Opening it up to the picture of the gun she showed it to Makarov as she began her story. "I was in Marde's office looking for something for my father, who works at city hall, and I noticed that one of his drawers were open. When I went over to close it I noticed something shiny and metallic inside so I looked inside and found a gun. Natsu looked up the serial number I believe, but he never told me if he found anything of it."
Makarov nodded before turning to Natsu who said "The gun wasn't under his name; rather it belonged to our chopped up victim in the park."
"I see" Makarov said with a nod. "Well I suppose it is against the law for there to be a gun in city hall, so I will allow you to apply for a permit Dragneel. I suppose you want to oversee the search as well."
"That is correct sir" Natsu said.
"Fine, as long as you behave" Makarov said as Natsu did poorly in hiding his happiness.
Natsu was turning around, but not before he grabbed Lucy's phone, and the two were heading toward the door when Makarov spoke.
"I suppose the two of you are rather happy" Makarov said, drawing their attention back to him. "You're about to bring in your first suspect, I wish you luck."
"Thank you chief" Natsu said with a curt nod before heading out the door.
Lucy hovered for a few seconds before giving Makarov a quick "Thanks" before she headed after Natsu.
"We're going to do this Heartfilia" Natsu said as he practically shook with excitement. "We're going to nail Marde. Erza just needs to keep him occupied so we can find something in his office that points towards him being part of Tartaros."
"That's great" Lucy said, and she was generally happy that they were about to tie up this case. Jackal was still out there but if they managed to arrest Marde then they would be halfway to their goal. But that means the bodies might stop showing up once the leader was gone, and Lucy wasn't sure if she really wanted that to happen if it meant she would be sent back to looking at ancient remains.
"Hey, why don't you watch the interrogation and help Erza out" Natsu said as he stopped suddenly at the elevator.
"Really?" Lucy asked "Bu-but what would I do?"
"You'd wear an earpiece and if Erza starts to struggle or have any problems you help her out. I mean, you know more about this case then her and since I won't be here to help her out it makes sense that you would help her" Natsu said as he pressed on the button to go down. "The interrogation room is the second door down from the elevator. The first door is where you'll be. Jut wait there for a red headed women and tell her I sent you to help her."
"Okay then" Lucy said as the elevator opened.
"Well then Heartfilia" Natsu said as he stepped in. "It's been a fun time working with you."
Before Lucy could say anything back to him the elevator doors closed with a ding. She stood by the doors as she let everything soak in; Natsu was talking as if the entire case would be closed up today. But they still needed to find Jackal, just what was he planning to do?
But that wasn't what she needed to worry about right now. She needed to get ready to help this Erza Scarlet, or Scarlet Erza, out in investigating Marde Geer. They had to make sure he didn't leave until they found something that pointed to him being a part of Tartaros.