"Who exactly are you?"
Lucy jumped in surprise at the unknown voice that had come from behind her. Turning around she came face to face with who she figured must be a descendant from one of those warrior goddesses or something.
The woman in front of her was intimidating to say the least. She had to be at least six feet tall and the heels she was wearing had to add at least four inches. Her red hair was tied up in a neat bun and the expression she wore was all business. Based on the size of her arms Lucy figured this women could bench-press her, wait, she had red hair which Natsu said belonged to..
"Are you Erza?" Lucy asked, completely forgetting about the question the other woman had asked her.
The woman raised an eyebrow as she said "Yes, I'm Erza Scarlet, but that doesn't answer the question I asked you. Who are you?"
"Oh, I'm Lucy Heartfilia. I'm working with Natsu on his case and he wanted me to help you with the interrogation."
"I see" Erza said as she looked Lucy up and down. "You're the scientist right?"
"Yes, I look over the bodies" Lucy said as she twiddled her fingers, this woman had an imposing air to her that made Lucy feel three inches tall when standing near her.
"I figured" Erza said. "Well I'm not one to turn down help so I suppose I'll accept your offer."
While her help hadn't exactly been an offer, Lucy sure as hell wasn't going to tell Erza otherwise. "That's great, though Natsu didn't really explain why he's making you do this interrogation for him. I would've figured he'd want to do it himself considering how…thorough he is." Lucy had decided it was best to make conversation with Erza instead of standing around awkwardly and thinking about how Erza could probably snap her like a twig if she wanted to. It was probably best to befriend the women rather than shying away from her.
"While it is definitely true that Natsu is very intense when it comes to his job, for some odd reason he has always preferred for me to conduct his investigations" Erza said as she pushed down a pair of glass that had been previously perched on her head down onto her nose. "He claims I'm more intimidating then him and could make a hardened criminal cry."
"Oh" Lucy said, slightly taken back, apparently her previous notion that Erza was descended from a warrior goddess was most likely true.
"Yes I know, he makes me sound like some kind of demon" Erza said with a huff as crossing her arms, she suddenly didn't seem as scary.
"I'm sure he doesn't mean it like that" Lucy said; glad to see that Erza's edges weren't so sharp since she had started talking to her.
"He's called me the demon interrogator before" Erza said, her edges hardening once again as she stared hard at the air in front of her. Natsu should count his blessings that this woman hadn't killed him yet, or at least hadn't snapped him like a twig.
"Ah, well, I'm sure Natsu didn't mean it like that" Lucy said as she tried to come up with something to calm Erza down before she was put in a small room with their suspect , it probably wouldn't go well if she was too pissed off at Natsu to actually carry out the interrogation. "Maybe he meant it like you interrogate demons." Lucy was grasping at straws now and Erza had to know this as well.
"Really?" Erza asked, her anger simmering off. "You really think so?"
"Yeah of course" Lucy wasn't sure how Natsu had the actually balls to pull off calling Erza a demon, but she was going to ask him after she punched him for making her help Erza work through her temperament issues.
"You're really nice Lucy, do you know that?" Erza asked her as she pulled her into a bone crushing hug.
Lucy was honestly beginning to wonder if Erza was really this scary interrogator with how many different moods she was just gone through in the span of two minutes.
"Thanks Erza, that's really nice" Lucy said as she patted the other women's back. "But um, do you think you could let me go? I think we should go over a plan before we head in."
"Oh that is a good idea" Erza said as she let Lucy out of her iron grip. "I'm thinking that perhaps I start off by giving him a sort of quiet treatment before telling him that he knows why we brought him in. Then I'll ask him about the call he made to Seilah's phone before showing him it. Then I'll ask him about the purchase he made at a gas station outside of town, which by the way was a disposable phone, and then I'll show him the test message-"
Lucy nodded along with Erza even though she soon began to tune it out once she brought up the fact that Marde had purchased a disposable phone. While it's not like that could back up anything, it did make something squirm in Lucy's stomach. Would she be able to look at Marde when he entered the room? Or would she feel sick to her stomach like she was when she looked at Seilah, would she even be of any help to Erza if she couldn't bear to look at the man who ordered for her death?
"Don't you agree Lucy?"
Erza's question brought Lucy back to reality as she looked up at her. She hadn't heard a single word Erza had said in the past minute but she would just have to agree. "Yes, that sounds like a great plan."
"I'm glad you think so" Erza said as she clasped her hands together. "If I need any help I'll signal you, which means I'll just look over at the glass that separates the rooms. If Natsu calls with any helpful information just tell me, although he might call me rather than you." Erza tapped at an earpiece she had on which Lucy figured was how they were going to communicate.
"So am I going to talk into a microphone or something that's connected to your earpiece or what?" Lucy asked, moving the conversation away from the long descriptions that apparently all the agents liked to give before doing anything.
"Oh that's right" Erza said as she took out the earpiece in her ear. "The one I had in was for my phone, I'll have to get a different one so you can talk to me. I guess that means I'll also have to get my phone as well."
"Okay then, you go do that and I'll just wait here" Lucy said, Erza was beginning to come off as a bit different then Lucy had predicted but it made her more human than the image Lucy had begun to have of Erza in her head. Leaning up against the wall Lucy watched as Erza left the hallway before focusing her attention on her surroundings.
She had only been in the building a grand total of four times and neither of those times did she take any time to take in her surroundings, not that there was much to take in. The walls were plain other than the few simple paintings that had been placed sporadically on the walls as if the person in charge of decorating the building had just been handed typical paintings found in any office and had been told to just throw them on the walls.
The rug that was placed in front of the elevators was a simple oval shape and had the agency's symbol on it. There was little else in the hallway type room though it might be more like a type of foyer or a waiting room type area. It definitely didn't give off any warm feelings; though Lucy figured it wasn't supposed to since potential criminals were brought through this place daily.
Erza came back quicker than Lucy had expected, popping up behind her with little warning before she began to speak to Lucy. "Are you ready to set up? I've been told that Marde should be here in about five minutes."
"Oh, of course" Lucy said, recovering from the sudden shock of Erza's voice before she was being escorted into the little room adjacent to the interrogation room.
/
Marde had only been brought in seconds ago and from Lucy's spot behind the glass she could see that he wasn't fazed at all. He was sitting casually in one of the metal chairs in the room, looking at his nails as he glanced over at the door every few seconds.
After he had been sitting alone for a minute or so Erza opened the door, well more like she slammed it open but that just seemed to be how she opened doors.
Erza closed the door swiftly behind her before walking over to Marde. Standing in front of him with only the table to separate them, Erza threw down a file onto the table with a soft thump.
"Marde Geer" Erza said as she looked him up and down, her gaze cold and hard. Lucy felt a shiver of fear crawl up her spine as she watched the women. Lucy would soon realize quickly why Natsu had wanted Erza to interrogate Marde for him.
"Yes, that is my name" Marde said simply as he brought his attention away from his nails and up to Erza's face, not even flinching when he met her eyes.
"I must say Geer" Erza said as she placed her hands firmly down onto the table as she stared down Marde. "It's quite brave of you to have not called in a lawyer, perhaps you have a reason why?"
Marde sat back in his chair, folding his hands onto the table he said "Well Miss, I am a politician who is running for mayor; I don't want to stir up any malicious rumors if I were to call in my lawyer while I'm at the FBI agency. Plus, this is all one big misunderstanding; I'll be out of here soon once you realize you've wrongfully accused me of something I didn't do."
"So you know why we brought you in then?"
"Of course" Marde said as he crossed his legs. "You think I'd let you bring me without knowing the charges your bringing against me?"
"So you understand that you could be potentially charged with attempted murder?" Erza said, not letting her glare waver what-so ever as she kept her eyes firmly on Marde.
"No, I believe I was brought in for something to do with being a possible witness in the attempted murder of Lucy Heartfilia" Marde said, his voice smooth, not missing a single beat. He seemed to be unaffected by Erza's presence.
"Is that what you think you're in here for?"
"I'm pretty sure that is what I'm in here for. Should I be telling you what I know about your suspect, or what my relationship is with the victim's father, or-"
"I want to know why you were called the perp from your office at city hall, at two this morning. A little suspicious, don't you think?" Erza said as her hands left the table, her eyes didn't leave him though.
"I suppose it would come across rather odd, but how can you be so sure I was the one who called this person?" Marde asked as he followed Erza with his eyes. She had taken to walking around the table, circling him like an animal stalking their prey.
Lucy noticed Erza falter slightly as she tried to think of a way to counter Marde's claim, Lucy luckily knew how.
Pressing down on the microphone's power button she spoke into it. "City hall has an alarm system as well as a night guard watching the place. First someone would have to get passed a guard who is watching cameras all around the perimeter. Even if they did get pass the guard they'd have to get through the alarm system which only the people who work there know how to disarm."
Erza gave a small nod in Lucy's direction before turning her attention back to Marde. "To get into city hall at night you have to get through a guard, cameras and a security system. You could easily get passed a guard since you work there, and you know the password to disarm the alarm system. If anything I think it would make sense that it was you who made this call. The only question I have is why?"
"How can you be so sure I was there this morning? Do you have anything that supports that? Have you even bothered to consult the guard that was on duty last night to ask?" Marde asked, easily listing off questions that rebutted Erza's arguments. He was prepared for these kind of things.
Erza choose to ignore those questions but looked towards Lucy's direction. She gave a small nod at her before turning her glare back at Marde. "Can I ask you about a recent purchase you made?"
Marde gave Erza a pointed look but choose not to mention anything about her ignoring his questions. "I suppose, though you might find it rather boring. I bought one dozen eggs, a loaf of wheat bread, a head of-"
"I'm not asking for your grocery list Geer, I want to know about your recent purchase of a disposable phone which you bought at a gas station just outside of town." As Erza grilled Marde, Lucy pulled out her phone and dialed the only number she could think of. Luckily they picked up after the first two rings.
"Heartfilia" came Natsu's voice, muffled slightly by the background noise. "What are you calling me for? Is Erza giving you trouble or something?"
"No, she's in with Marde right now but we ran into a little bump in the whole claim of him calling Seilah from his office this morning. If you're at city hall can you try to get in touch with the night guard and ask him if Marde went into city hall last night or morning or whatever?" Lucy asked as she glanced over at Erza who seemed to be showing Marde the picture they have of him buying the phone.
"Uh, yeah, sure I'll go down and ask. I'll call you once I get the answer."
"Thanks" Lucy said before quickly hanging up and turning her attention back to Erza and Marde.
"Do you still have the phone or do you at least remember the number that went with it?" Erza asked, she still hadn't backed down at all. She was still staring Marde down, Marde didn't seem too affected thought.
"Sorry, no to both of those questions" Marde said as he offered her a small smile "I'm afraid I can't be of much help."
"Well it's a good thing I found out the serial number of that phone then, huh?" Erza said. She sat down for the first time and stared coolly across the table at Marde who for the first time was showing some sort of emotion, panic.
"And how did you manage to do that?" Marde asked, a slight waver entering his voice.
"Well first I called the gas station that you bought it from and asked them to give me all the serial numbers of their most recent stock of burner phones that had been bought. One of them matched the serial number that belonged to the phone that texted Seilah. I then proceeded to go through all of them, which wasn't much, only about five, and I found that only one wasn't on anymore was the one that had sent the text. Now all the other phones I was able to find the owner of, except you weren't the owner of any of those phones that were on. Do you see what I'm getting at?" Erza leaned forward, a cold smile on her face as she stared down Marde who was beginning to fidget ever so slightly.
"So, what if I contacted this person twice! You haven't even told me who this person is that I was contacting according to you" Marde said, anger flaring in his voice. He was beginning to get defensive.
"Well this person that you contacted twice was known as Seilah and she was the one who attempted to murder Lucy Heartfilia last night" Erza said, her eyes hardening as she kept her gaze on Marde, trailing his every move. "Plus, the text you sent to her on your burner phone suggests something completely different."
Erza pushed the picture of the text across the table to him. As Marde read over the text his face paled slightly.
"How can you be so sure that this was me though?" Marde asked, trying to regain his cool exterior.
"It was your phone, it's a little hard to push the blame onto someone else in this situation" Erza said as she got up once again.
Standing behind Marde she asked "Tell me what that text says."
Marde sat silently as he stared down at the table, he was avoiding Erza's gaze now.
"I see" Erza said as she let out a sigh. Lucy hadn't been sure what she was going to do next but it surely wasn't what she did. Erza pressed her hand to the back of Marde's head before pushing his face down until it was centimeters away from the paper.
"A girl almost died last night and you're just going to sit there like a lump! This is human lives were talking about here, and you just went and asked for someone to murder that girl for you like you were hiring someone to do yard work! Do you have such little regard for human life, or did you just not want to get your hands dirty?!" Erza snarled as she kept Marde's face down despite his efforts against her.
"This has to be illegal for you to do" he said back, hiding his fear poorly.
"It's illegal to murder people but that sure as hell didn't stop you huh?" Erza said as she put her head right next to Marde's. "Just give it up Geer" Erza hissed into his ear. "We have you for attempted murder of Lucy Heartfilia. All the court needs to see is this text and they'd convict you. We don't even need to know if you made that call to Seilah."
"Are you sure that be enough evidence to combat my lawyer? I have the public on my side, they wouldn't believe that one small text would be all that is needed to convict me of such a thing" Marde spat back; once again he was gaining back his levelheadedness.
Lucy was so focused on Erza that she almost didn't hear her phone going off, almost.
Reaching over she grabbed it and checked the caller id before answering, it was Natsu.
"Hey Heartfilia, I have some good news" Natsu said right after Lucy had accepted the call.
"I do hope it has to do with Marde being in his office at two in the morning" Lucy said as she glanced back over at Erza and Marde. Erza had released her grip from Marde's head and the later was glaring at the other pointedly.
"Why, yes it does" Natsu said. "The guard let Marde in at around one thirty this morning and let him out a little after two. There is also a record of someone deactivating the alarm system for a little over a half an hour as well, between the hours of one thirty-five and two ten."
"Great, thanks Natsu. I'll tell Erza" Lucy said before hanging up and switching over to the mic. She relayed the information she had just heard to Erza as the women gave a slight nod before turning to Marde.
"We just received records of you in fact being at city hall last night during the time the call was made from your office. Not only do we have records of someone turning off the alarm system, but we also have a guard that let you in" Erza said as she circled back round the table to look at Marde. "As far as I can tell Geer, you have a big fat red guilty written across your face. If I were you I'd start calling a lawyer to prepare for your trial, or you could do this the easy way."
Erza sat down across from Marde and continued her glare at him. Marde shifted uncomfortably in his seat before he opened his mouth.
"What is the easy way?"
The corners of Erza's mouth turned up in a smirk "I thought you'd ask that. The easy way is quite simple in fact. You simply confess to your crime and we can skip the trial all together."
"Isn't the whole point of a plea bargain admitting guilt to a lesser crime, not the one you actually committed?"
"I didn't say anything about a plea bargain. If you confess your trial would barely last since you've already pleaded guilty. Add in these two contacts you had with the women who attempted to murder Lucy Heartfilia and I think it be more than enough to convince a jury you called for Lucy Heartfilia's murder." Erza steeled her gaze as she watched Marde steel up as he went over his options.
"You have no motive for this attempted murder" Marde said as he returned Erza's gaze. "So why on earth would I call for her murder. She's the daughter of one of my colleagues no less."
"That means nothing, if anything it would bring forth a motive" Erza said. She sat across from Marde once again and placed her head in her hands as she gazed at him coolly. "Jude Heartfilia has no plans of supporting you in your race for mayor. Even though he and your opponent are known enemies he'd rather support her than you. Ever since he's announced that he won't support you, your ratings have dropped, putting your opponent in the lead."
"So you're saying I could've done this due to my ratings dropping? But let me ask you this, why not kill Jude, why his daughter?"
"Killing Jude wouldn't change his opposition to you, but killing his daughter would make him vulnerable. You could've appealed to this part of him to convince him to support you instead. I hear the other candidate hasn't spoken much about organized crime, but you on the other hand have been talking about it more and more recently."
"That seems like a bit of a stretch to me" Marde said. "I think your grasping at straws agent."
"Is that so?" Erza said. Before Erza could say anything else her phone began to ring.
"Answer your phone Agent" Marde said with a sly grin as if he knew he was going to win this game. "I wouldn't want you to miss an important call because of me."
Erza sent Marde one last glare before answering her phone.
/
They had already torn through all of Marde's bookshelf and files but they still hadn't found anything. Natsu had looked in the drawer that Lucy had told him about, and while he did find the picture he found the hidden compartment empty. Marde must have taken it with him that morning when he had called Seilah.
The picture that had been covering the panel intrigued Natsu though, he couldn't exactly pinpoint what it was about it but something was familiar about that picture. Natsu had slipped the picture out of the frame and had put it in his pocket, just in case it could be used against Marde.
Looking through the room again Natsu was beginning to panic as he tried to come up with something, he wasn't going to leave this office until he found something incriminating against Marde.
"Sir" came the voice of one of the investigators that have been helping him search the room. "We've been told that if we can't find something in five minutes that we'll have to leave."
"Okay, thanks" Natsu said as his eyes scanned over everything. As his eyes stopped at the bookshelves he remembered something Lucy had told him earlier, something about hidden compartments in them.
He stood closer to the bookshelves and looked them up and down for any sort of seam or crack that could suggest a hidden panel. Running his hand over the wood he looked at the bottom of the bookshelves. They appeared to be solid wood at the bottom that looked to be about foot and a half.
Crouching down he knocked on the wood, and surprise, surprise, it was hollow. Running his hands along the side of the wood he found a small indent on the side. Pulling at it lightly he felt the wood move slightly. Pulling harder he pulled off the thick wood panel that had been covering the bottom.
Natsu felt his stomach drop slightly at the sight in front of him before feeling overflowing sense of relief. He had found something, and that was good. In front of Natsu was had to be about ten guns all stored in the hidden compartment, and he could tell by just looking at them that half had to be illegal.
"Hey guys" Natsu said as he turned towards the other investigators "Check all the bookshelves for hidden panels."
A few of them sent him some questioning looks but once they noticed the hole in what they thought had been a solid object they changed their minds.
By the time they had pulled off a panel on every bookshelf they had found a whole lot of firearms, most of which were either illegal or obtained illegally, and a whole lot of drugs. While Natsu hadn't bothered figuring out what kind of drugs Marde had been storing in his office, he knew in such quantities that even if any of it was legal Marde would have broken the law on how much you could carry.
Another thing they had found was a manila folder that had been slipped behind one of the piles of drugs they had found.
The folder's contents hadn't been anything amazing or something that outright said Marde was the leader of Tartaros. What it did have in it was all of Tartaros's dealings with gangs outside the city or to be more precise, it showed all the shipments of drugs that Tartaros sent to other areas to be sold through other drug rings.
The folder showed all the money Tartaros has earned and lost through these so called investments as well as all the discussions between the bosses of these rings and Marde Geer. While it didn't say he was the leader it sure as hell implied a whole lot of involvement in the gang.
Taking out his phone he dialed Erza's number, he needed to tell her everything he found before Marde walked out of that interrogation room.
/
Erza gave one final nod before hanging up, she turned back towards Marde and was about to open her mouth when Marde spoke.
"So detective, who was calling you?"
Erza hardened her gaze at Marde once again before answering him. "An agent named Natsu Dragneel."
At Natsu's name Marde's demeanor changed slightly, his smile faltered slightly and something unknown flashed in his eyes.
"Is that so?" Marde asked, but it sounded more like a statement then a question.
"Yes, and he found some very interesting things hidden in your office" Erza said as she sat back down. Keeping her gaze leveled at Marde she asked "Do you know what we found?"
"I don't know detective, why don't you tell me?" Marde asked, his smile was gone now.
"About thirty illegal guns were found as well as a large amount of drugs. We're guessing a mixture of cocaine, stimulants and one agent guessed there is even some designer drugs as well as LSD mixed up in there as well. Also it had an interesting folder that holds a lot of information on the gang Tartaros' distribution of all their drugs. Plus it also has all the conversations between you and other drug rings." Erza look at Marde through the slits of her eyes as her mouth pulled up into a smirk. "I'm afraid we've got you Geer, all I'm going to say to you know is that I hope you have a hell of a lawyer."
Marde gritted his teeth as his jaw tightened. Fear was beginning to show on his features.
"Though you could always just confess."
"To what accusation?" Marde growled, his hands were shaking now.
"Why not both?" Erza said, leaning forwards, the smile on her face growing. "It would make everyone's job much easier if you just confessed to both crimes."
Marde's hand has turned into fists as he glared down Erza. "Would you like it in writing?"
"That would be preferable" Erza said as she slid him a piece of paper and a pen.
Lucy watched as Marde began to scratch something down on the paper. She couldn't believe that Erza had actually gotten Marde to confess to everything. But he had been backed into a corner; it made sense he would just confess to avoid a public trial.
Marde slid the paper back to Erza before crossing his arms and sitting back in the chair.
Erza read over the piece of paper, her face scrunching up once she reached the end of is. Looking up at Marde she looked like she was about ready to reach across the table and throttle him.
"There's only one confession on here" Erza said, keeping her voice emotionless despite the aura that just radiated anger coming off of her.
"You're correct, I'm taking a plea bargaining route of sort" Marde said with a shrug. "I confessed to the attempted murder of Lucy Heartfilia. If you want to get me for conspiring for Tartaros you're going to need to drag me to court."
"You do realize that no matter how good of a lawyer you get you won't be able to escape innocent from that charge. There's far too much against you" Erza said as she looked between Marde and the confession as is she was hoping that this was one big joke.
"Oh I know" Marde said simply, his calm and cool aura returning once again. "But I'm not going to just surrender to you; I wouldn't want to disappoint Zeref."
Erza's eyes widened at what Marde just said. "You just confessed to knowing Zeref."
"Well I'm not ashamed of it, he is my mentor after all" Marde said with a smirk on his face, happy that he had managed to leave Erza speechless.
"Is that really all he is to you?" came a familiar voice. Lucy jumped in surprise at the new voice; she hadn't noticed anyone entering the other room.
All three of them turned their attention towards the direction of the voice to see the door of the interrogation room open with Natsu standing in it.
He closed the door behind him as Lucy was reeling from his surprise appearance. He had pretty much told her he wasn't going to be a part of the interrogation of Marde but here he was. Perhaps he had finished searching Marde's office earlier than expected and had showed up to see if Erza needed any help.
"If you're trying to imply that I have some sort of romantic relationship with him then I can tell you-" Marde began before Natsu cut him off with a wave of his hand.
"Oh, no,no,no I didn't mean to imply that" Natsu said with an awkward laugh as he slipped his hand into his pocket. "I guess I should've been clearer." Natsu pulled something out of his pocket and placed on the table in front of Marde.
Marde took one look at the picture before his eyes widened and he was turning towards Natsu for answers. "Why do you have this picture?"
"Well I found it while we were searching your office. It was an interesting picture" Natsu said as he nodded towards Erza. She nodded back and got out of the chair, Natsu quickly took her place and Erza leaned up against a nearby wall. She still refused to take her eyes off of Marde.
"I don't see what's so interesting about it?" Marde said as his eyes stayed glue to the picture. Lucy was trying to get a look at it when Natsu spoke again.
"Something about this picture sparked an interest with me, something about it was familiar" Natsu said before pointing at something in the picture. "This is you correct?"
Marde shoulder's stiffened, but he answered the question. "Yes, it was taken about twenty-five years ago. I still don't see what this has to do with this whole thing."
Lucy finally was able to see the picture and realized it was the one that had been hiding the panel. It had been an odd picture to her, something had told her to take a picture of it but after she had left the office she hadn't seen the whole point of even taking that picture. It looked like something about it was important.
"Can you tell me who the other person is in this picture?" Natsu asked, folding his hands as he kept his eyes trained on Marde.
"It's one of my cousins" Marde said simply, taking his eyes off the picture for the first time since it had been placed on the table.
"Is that so?" Natsu said with a smile. "I didn't realize Zeref was your cousin."
"Wha-what, how did you know that was him?" Marde stuttered out.
Lucy felt her mouth fall open in surprise, Marde had a picture of him and kid Zeref just laying around in his office and no one had noticed before?! Well she had noticed it after snooping through his office and even then she hadn't realized who the other person was in the picture.
"So let me ask again, what exactly is your connection to Zeref?" Natsu asked, ignoring the glare Marde was sending him. "I'm sure he's not just a mentor and boss to you."
Marde sat silent for a few seconds as he seemed to mull over the idea of the telling Natsu the truth. "Both of my parents were prominent people in this city when I was younger. My mother was a well-known lawyer and my father was on city council. They liked to promote themselves as some sort of samaritians half the time, and to them the best way to do that was to adopt a child as a way to promote it. At the time there were a lot of kids that lived on the streets of Magnolia. One day while driving through town my parents' saw a child hiding in an ally and picked him up. They told him they were adopting him and he could now live a good life off the streets. His name was Zeref."
Lucy sucked in air as she thought about what exactly she was hearing, this was the mob boss Zeref's childhood and who knows, they might find out why he turned to a life of crime.
Natsu seemed almost unfazed by this; he was sitting there just nodding along to everything Marde said as if nothing was surprising him. Lucy had to give him credit, by now she would have already shown some kind of shock to everything Marde was saying.
"My parents introduced him as my new brother, though he ended up being a whole three years older then me. The picture you found was taken a year after he had been brought into the family. By the time I was ten I had accepted him as my brother and I liked to believe we were rather close, though it was obvious he didn't think the same about me. He was always telling me how we weren't his real family and how he had a family that needed him. Zeref always said he wouldn't stop until he found them."
"Do you think he ever found them?" Natsu asked, showing interest for the first time since Marde had stared his whole story.
"I wouldn't know" Marde said with a shrug. "My parents passed away suddenly in a car accident when I was fourteen. The two of us ended up being separated. I was sent to live with my mother's aunt and she put him up for adoption. I lived outside of Magnolia for a few years and when I returned I searched for him. By the time I found him he had already stared the Spriggan 12 and was beginning to recruit other gangs. At the time I met up with him he was recruiting in a drug ring that needed a new leader. He told me that he trusted me to run it. At first I wasn't so sure since I was planning on being part of the local government, but once I told him that he was even more insistent on me joining him. I always had a hard time saying no to him."
"I see" Natsu said as he sat back in the chair. "You do realize you practically confessed to being Tartaros's leader."
"I suppose" Marde said with a sigh. "But I also revealed to you that Zeref has family, if he were to find out I told you that I would surely be killed for revealing a weakness of his. So in the end, while I do care deeply for Zeref, I care for my life much more."
"So you're a coward then" Natsu said, it wasn't a question, it was a statement as if he knew that it meant Marde was a coward.
"I suppose, but how would you know?" Marde asked, looking Natsu in the eyes for the first time since he had entered the room. "What is your name? You never did tell me."
"Natsu Dragneel" Natsu said, keeping his eyes leveled with Marde. He seemed to have frozen up, his body ready to move at any second if Marde said something he didn't like.
"Oh" Marde said with a small chuckle. "I see, you would know what a coward is."
Something flashed across Natsu's face, it was too quick for Lucy to figure out what it was but it was enough for her to realize that something Marde had said had hit a nerve in Natsu. The question was what though, what in that one sentence had caused Natsu to lose his cool for one second.
"So do you confess to both crimes we have brought against you?" Natsu asked, shaking off Marde's previous statement.
"Yes, as long as you can promise me that both trial will be without jury, held tomorrow and the press does not hear about it until both trials are over" Marde said, listing off everything he wanted on his fingers.
"If that's what it takes to convict you then I'll agree to all of it. I'll get your requests sent to the court before they close up for the night" Natsu said, his chair scraping against the floor as he pushed it out. "I'm afraid you'll have to be handcuffed."
"Of course, I'll make sure to be on my best behavior" Marde said with a smile plastered across his face.
Natsu nodded towards Erza who pulled out a pair of cuffs.
"Do you need me to read you your rights for the second time today?" Erza asked as she dangled the cuffs on her finger.
"No, I know I have the right to remain silent and such" Marde said. "I do work for the government."
"Of course" Erza said as she cuffed Marde. "Let's go Geer. I hope you have no regrets."
"I suppose I regret letting Tartaros fall" Marde said. "Though I wish you luck in finding that rascal Jackal."
Natsu watched Marde leave the room with cold, calculating eyes as if he was looking for a reason to take him down.
Lucy on the other hand let out a sigh of relief at knowing one of their suspects was being jailed. Now all that was left was Jackal, and who knew how long it would take to find him. He had escaped one time before; surely he could do it again. Now was not the time to worry about him though, Lucy had reports to finish. Jackal could wait until tomorrow.
/
Natsu leaned against his desk as he let out a breath he had been holding this entire time. Marde had been caught but it had seemed almost two easy, there had to be more to it but for now Natsu wouldn't worry about it.
He had slipped the picture back into his pocket before Erza could notice and take it for evidence. When he had realized why the picture had been so familiar he had rushed over to show it to Marde personally. He had half expected him to know something, but if he did he kept it quiet.
All that was left was Jackal and Natsu didn't feel like playing cat and mouse at the moment. He needed to take him down before Jackal realized what had happened to Marde.
Taking out his phone he punched in a number that he hated himself for remembering, though right now he hated himself even more for calling it.
It was picked up after only two rings.
"I have a favor to ask."