TO MY READERS: Thank you so much for your incredible support! I do apologize for not having updated in a while, but something happened which prevented me from writing for the past week. I promise I am back on track and will be working to have a regular uploading schedule. Thank you again for showing so much love for the beginning of this story and I hope you'll all stick around 'cause there's plenty more. Enjoy!

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWNany of the characters or places mentioned in this story. It all belongs to the original creator, Hiro Mashima.

Two

"What do you mean you don't know where Zeref's base is?" Gildarts shouted. Zancrow flinched away at the officer's tone but he shrugged when he realized he wasn't going to do anything.

"That's why we even offered you the deal, Zancrow," Erza said sternly. "Are you saying you lied to us?"

"Look, I'm only part of a specific faction," Zancrow explained. "There are factions all over Magnolia and thousands more all over the kingdom. Only the people Zeref really trusts and his whores go to the main base and no one knows where it is except for the faction leaders. It's a very intricate system."

"Intricate my ass," Gildarts growled. "So where's your faction then? We can find the leader and get him to tell us where Zeref's base is."

"Good luck doing that," Zancrow snorted. "The leaders are barely around. They always have jobs to do throughout the day."

"Then how do we find your leader?" Erza demanded, coming towards the table and leaning towards Zancrow.

"All I know is that before you nabbed me, our faction was planning on gathering a drug shipment from Hargeon. It's coming in two days so if you want to find my faction's leader, you'll find her there."

"It's a woman?" Erza asked.

"I thought all your women were given to Zeref," Gildarts said.

"All except this one," Zancrow said. "I don't know her name but I've heard she's not to be fucked with. I doubt she'll be an easy one to capture."

"I'm sure we'll be able to handle her," Erza said, rising up from her position and motioning for the group to head out. "We'll be back when we need more from you." As everyone headed for the door, Zancrow stood up, clanking his cuffs against their restraint.

"Hey, wait a minute!" he cried out. "What about my new room?! We had a deal!" Erza turned her head as her detectives left the room, narrowing her eyes.

"Our deal was that you would give us information about Zeref's base," Erza said. "Frankly, I believe our entire deal needs to be overlooked, considering you don't even know where Zeref lives. We'll still have some use for you, but I doubt the same agreements will stand considering you lied to us about your knowledge."

"But—"

"And I suggest not making that mistake again, Zancrow," Erza suggested, her eyes cold as stone. Even after Erza and the group left, Zancrow stood, his gaze lowered the hard metal table which would still act as his bed until further notice.

"Well that's great," Cana said, crossing her arms. "So even though we have a guy from the inside, he turns out to be completely useless."

"Not entirely," Levy interjected. "We may not know where Zeref's headquarters is but we have a lead: the drug shipment in Hargeon. And that's something."

"Levy's right," Natsu said. "We now have to focus our time and energy on figuring who this woman is that leads Zancrow's faction. Then, once the shipment is ready to dock, we'll be ready." His teammates nodded their approval and Natsu felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked to his left to see Gildarts smiling at him.

"Alright, everyone," Erza said, already walking down the hallway. "Once we get back upstairs, I want you all to focus on finding any other possible leads. If you have something both Gildarts and I agree might be significant, we'll return to Zancrow's cell. Until then, keep working."

Once the group arrived back in the department and settled inside the meeting room again, Erza and Gildarts stood back at the front of the room but the projector was off. It was now time to focus on the details of the case: the briefing was over and the time of action was upon them.

Alright," Erza said, crossing her arms over her chest, "once I let you all go, I want you to start your research. Get together, find solutions to the problems, gather and link your findings. Teamwork is going to be key in this case. And don't just focus on this drug shipment. Try to find information on Zeref's base, the missing girls, anything else that could be pivotal to our investigation. If you come across anything you think is good, come to me in my office and we can discuss the whether or not it's usable."

Looking around the room at her detectives' faces, Erza smiled as she said, "Dismissed." Everyone collectively stood up and headed out the room, already planning in their heads how they would start their inquiries. As soon as the door closed behind them, Natsu signaled for them all to follow him. Since he was leader of the group, he wanted to kick it off on a good note. Brainstorming and answering any of their questions about why he was part of the case seemed ideal. Heading into his office, Natsu waited until everyone was inside and closed the door, walking up behind the desk to get everyone's attention as they chit-chatted away.

"Okay, guys," Natsu shouted over his teammates. They all began to settle down, leaning against the bookshelves or sitting down on the two chairs, a few others perched on the arms. "I think the best way to go about this to split into a few groups. That way some can focus on a the drug shipment, some the missing girls, and the rest can look into the makings of Zancrow's faction."

"Do you already have the teams in mind?" Gray asked who was sitting in a chair with Juvia on its arm. Taking a small notebook off his desk, Natsu flipped to the most current page he had written in.

"Gray, you and Juvia will be looking into the missing girls. Try to figure out who went missing first, if there were any witnesses when they disappeared, and if there are any connections to them.

"Cana and Jellal, you two will be focusing on finding out anything about Zancrow's faction. See if you can find anything about their leader, where they're located, anything that can be used as leverage against Zancrow in case he decides to go quiet.

"And Levy and Gajeel, I want you both to do research on the drug shipment Zancrow mentioned and any other type of shipments—either past or future—which could be targets. If any of these teams come across something interesting, let me know and we can present it to Captain Scarlet and Officer Clive. If there are no questions, you can go and start your work." Jotting some things down in their notebooks, everyone got up and headed for the door. Everyone, except for Gray.

"What can I do for you, Detective Fullbuster?" Natsu asked, pretending to fish around his desk for something. He already knew what was coming but he was doing his best to avoid it.

"Can't we drop the formalities, Natsu?" Gray said, still seated in the chair across from the desk. "I wanna talk."

"You have questions about the case?"

"No. I have questions about you." Natsu looked up and saw Gray was now standing right in front of the desk, arms crossed over his chest. His usually serious face was now soft and he looked at his friend with concern.

"I know this must be hard for you," he said.

"What must be hard?"

"Ah, c'mon, Natsu. Are we really not gonna address the elephant in the room?" Natsu sighed and shook his head.

"If you're worried about me, don't be. Erza has made it very clear weeks before that she will pull me from the case if she doesn't think I can handle it."

"I don't care what Erza has told you. Anything she says in the department she says strictly as Captain. I'm coming to you now as a friend. I just don't want you to let this investigation take control over you. Bringing Zeref in is important, but so is your health. I don't want you getting wrapped up in all this."

Natsu knew Gray was trying to be nice, but Natsu had already heard this spiel. If anyone was forced to hunt down their own sibling to only throw them in prison, it would tear them up. But what his teammates didn't seem to understand was that Natsu wasn't being torn apart about it. His brother was a dangerous man and needed to be stopped. The majority of the crimes in Fiore could be connected to Zeref and too many people had their lives destroyed because of him. It didn't matter they shared the same last name or that the same blood flowed through their veins: Zeref had made his decision a long time ago and he was going to have to live with the consequences.

"I appreciate your concern, Gray, I really do but there's nothing to be worried about. Everything will be fine," Natsu explained, making sure to smile. Gray was silent for a while before he grinned back.

"Well, just do you know, we're all here for you. No matter what," he said.

"As if I didn't already know that," Natsu laughed, walking up in front of Gray and patting his shoulder. Gray chuckled and headed towards the door of the office. Once Gray was gone Natsu returned to his desk and shifted through the mess, organizing the irrelevant files in the drawers behind him.

When he was done, Natsu stared down at what was left: a thin folder which contained the only information the MPD had on Zeref and his own notebook. Soon, though, his desk would be messy once again with every single scrap of paper anyone on his team thought was significant. Knowing his office wouldn't be clean for long made Natsu smile.

Chaos means things are getting done.

Lucy waited outside in the warm spring air, soaking up at much of the sun as humanly possible. She couldn't remember the last time she just stood out in the open. It was considered dangerous considering how close she was to Zeref's base. Anyone could spot her from where she was standing. But she wasn't the only one. Some of Zeref's men—big, burly, angry-looking men—stood in front of her as well. They were all waiting for a delivery.

Once every two weeks, some delivery trucks would bring more supplies for Zeref's faction. The trucks included clothes, food, and anything else Zeref deemed necessary for his people. And Lucy was always the first one to pick and choose from the supplies. The men probably thought she was there for herself: after all, she was the Queen. But she wasn't. She was there for the other girls.

Even though Zeref had taken Lucy for his "wife," he still fooled around with the other girls at the base and allowed his men to have their way with them as well. Lucy, however, was Zeref's alone. Fortunately, being named the Queen meant Lucy was given special privileges the other girls were not privy to, including being the first ones at the delivery trucks when they arrived. So, Lucy decided to take it upon herself to act a motherly figure to the imprisoned girls and use her privileges to get them things which were in very short quantities. Despite the large number of girls who Zeref had chosen as his sex slaves, not all of them were "put to work." Half of them were mainly just assassins and weren't normally chosen when Zeref or his men were struck with desire. Those were the ones who needed the pads or tampons. And then there were the ones who were in "high demand": they required things like contraceptives and condoms. The men always had their own supply of those, but it was always comforting to have extras.

After a couple more minutes, the men and Lucy heard the sound of tired crunchy over the terrain. The men readied their weapons in case the cargo had somehow been hijacked, and Lucy made sure to stay hidden just in case. She never carried her weapon when she wasn't working. The trucks finally made it up the small incline and stopped to begin unloading. Lucy stepped out first, waiting as the drivers lifted the back of the trucks. The drivers looked to Zeref's men behind them but they nodded their heads in reassurance.

"It's okay," one of them said. "Let her finish."

Keeping in mind all the things the girls had requested, Lucy moved quickly and jumped from truck to truck. Taking a basket from the food truck, she began filling it with small snacks, extra clothing, and other items. Once she was finished, she jumped down from the last truck and headed back to the base. As she walked she kept her eyes straight ahead, blocking out any stares. Though she was off-limits, it didn't stop any of the men from ogling. Right when she reached the entrance, she felt a hand fall on her shoulder. Ready to smack it away, Lucy almost dropped her basket until she realized it was a friend. The man was tall, extremely muscular, and white spiky hair. No one would probably ever say he was related to Mirajane.

"Elfman," Lucy breathed, slowing her breathing. "How are you?"

"About as good as I can be," he said, rolling his eyes. He jutted his chin to the basket, still holding his gun. "Those for the girls?"

"I try to do everything I can for them in this place," Lucy said.

"How're my sisters?" Elfman and his sisters—Mirajane and Lisanna—were picked up by Zeref's men a few years ago. They were homeless outcasts with no place to go and they were told they would food, clothing, and shelter if they joined Zeref. Desperate, they had agreed only to find the place they were in now was worse than being homeless. Elfman became a lackey and Mirajane and Lisanna became two of the most popular girls at the base: both their skills and their bodies were considered deadly.

"Lisanna is doing alright," Lucy answered, "but Mirajane has been requested by Zeref more than usual lately. She's beginning to get worried."

"They're not…" Elfman sighed, scratching the back of his head. But Lucy already knew what he was going to ask.

"They are perfectly healthy. Nothing is wrong with them," Lucy promised. Elfman sighed in relief and smiled a little. If there was one thing Zeref hated more than traitors, it was disease: everyone, especially the girls, were checked for illnesses and STDs monthly. Lucy couldn't even remember a time someone didn't come back clean. It was probably the only positive side of things: no one was ever sick.

"Thank you, Your Highness," Elfman said.

"Please, call me Lucy," she smiled, gently touching Elfman's arm.

"Thank you, Lucy. I mean it. You don't have to look out for these girls but you do anyways because it's the right thing. That's very manly of you." Lucy giggled at his joke and he smiled.

"Alright, well, I'll tell your sisters you said hello. I'm sure I'll see you around," Lucy said, walking away. Elfman waved and turned back to his post.

As she walked back into the base, Lucy's smile faded. Elfman thought her efforts to alleviate the girls' suffering was selfless. In reality, it was the exact opposite. She was only doing it to keep her mind elsewhere in order to forget. She wasn't selfless at all.

A/N: Please don't forget to leave me a review to let me know what you think! Love you all!