TO MY READERS: Well, I'm back! After five long months, I'm finally back with brand new chapters! I'm so happy to be writing this story for you guys again and I can't wait for you all to read this newest installment. I know it might be a little shorter than usual but I didn't want to put too much in this newest update. Hopefully, by either next week or the week after I'll have the next one up for you which will definitely get the ball rolling. I really do appreciate all of you for sticking it out and to the people who have just recently favorited the story or followed me. You all are the reason I'm still writing this stuff and I can't thank you enough. Okay, enough ranting... Here is the eighth chapter in this story! Enjoy!

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

Eight

Monday morning couldn't have come fast enough for Natsu. Even after he and Gray were finally able to visit Makarov, the haunting riddle he had given them both before he was knocked out left them scratching their heads. And neither of them wanted to bring it up to Erza for fear of repercussions. So, there was Natsu, sitting in his office, writing and rewriting the riddle on one of his notepads over and over again. He made small notes in the margins and scribbled think, inky lines under specific words of the riddle, driving himself mad trying to make sense of everything.

A sudden knock on the door to his office redirected Natsu's attention. Nervously, he threw the notepad in a nearby draw, worried it would be Erza or one of his other teammates who couldn't know about his and Gray's impromptu trip to Makarov's home. Shakily closing the draw quietly, Natsu lounged in his chair and attempted to seem casual.

"Come in," he called out. Thankfully, it was Gray who opened the door and strolled into the office. He held a file under his arm and closed the door behind him.

"Morning, Detective Dragneel," he said, walking towards a chair in front of Natsu's desk.

"Morning, Fullbuster," he replied, sitting up and reaching out for the file. "Got something for me to look over?"

"In fact I do," Gray replied. He pulled the file out and handed it over to Natsu who opened it up to find a picture of Lucy Heartfilia.

"Turns out we weren't the only ones disobeying the Captain's orders this weekend," he said with a smirk. "Juvia did some more digging and found out as much as she could about this Lucy Heartfilia and her family. She even got an address for their estate. It's called the Heartfilia Konzern and it's only a little ways out from Magnolia so maybe we could plan a visit to dear old mom and dad this week." Natsu raised his eyes.

"Wow. Juvia sure did a lot while we were away," he said, flipping turning over the two pages inside the file. Coming back to the first, Natsu couldn't help but stare at the picture Juvia found of the girl. Lucy Heartfilia was, in one word, breathtaking. Her long blonde hair was slightly curled in the photo and her gaze was so intense, it was almost as if she was staring right into Natsu's very soul. Her deep brown eyes seemed sad and empty, though, despite their fierceness. He could only wonder what made her so unhappy.

"Well, we'll definitely have to bring this to the Captain," Natsu said, closing the file. At that moment, he expected Gray to leave but he was still sitting, waiting.

"Is there something else, Gray?" he asked.

"What happened to all the files Makarov gave to us on Saturday?"

"I still have them in my apartment. Why?"

"I think you should bring them in so we could look them over. There could be something in there that could help us." Natsu leaned back in his chair.

"I already started looking and, so far, there isn't much. Most of it is about Macbeth who's dead so he won't be of much use and the rest are various notes, dates, and locations of past missions," he sighed.

"Maybe having a second pair of eyes would help," Gray suggested. Natsu shook his head.

"Bringing those files in would be too risky. What if Erza finds them?"

"You know, sometimes it's hard to believe you're our leader in this mission," Gray chuckled.

"If the Captain stops you, just say they're your notes." Natsu bristled slightly at his friend's low blow but kept his temper under control.

"Fine, smartass. I'll bring everything in tomorrow. For now, I'll go to Erza about the Heartfilia family. And maybe even Zancrow will know a thing or two about her," he said. At that, Gray stood from the chair and turned to leave. However, he stopped a few feet from the door and turned his head to Natsu.

"One more thing," he said. "Have you been able to crack that riddle yet?" Natsu sighed heavily and pulled out his notepad. He had already used up four pages from rewriting the damn thing so many times and the ink was bleeding through onto the other pages.

"This damn puzzle's got me going up the wall, Gray," he said, tossing the notepad with a thud on his desk. "I can only imagine how hard it must've been for Makarov."

"Yeah, same here," Gray admitted frustratedly. "You know, maybe at some point, we should just tell Erza and the rest of the team about our visit to Makarov. If anyone would be able to help us out with this, it would be Levy." Natsu mulled the thought over for a bit before answering.

"Maybe you're right," he said. "But I want to wait until we have something more."

"Agreed," Gray nodded. "Well, until then, just remember the files for tomorrow. We can over them then."

"Will do," Natsu replied, waving his friend out the door. Once Gray had left, Natsu opened the filed on Lucy Heartfilia again. There really wasn't much in Juvia's report, except her birthday and other details that could've been easily pulled from the Police Department's database. The second page mentioned when she first started showing up with Zeref's men around Fiore. Juvia mentioned it was only an estimation, but she guessed Lucy had been working for Zeref since she was twenty-one. According to her birthdate, she would be about twenty-three now.

Two years she's been working with Zeref. But why no missing person report?

Tired of only coming up with more questions than answers, Natsu stood from his desk and grabbed the file. Hopefully, Erza would be able to give him, Gray, and Juvia permission to travel to the Heartfilia Konzern at some point that week.

Hopefully, it wouldn't just lead to another dead end.

Lucy drank furiously from her water bottle during her break from training. She ripped off her gloves and used her towel to dry off her sweaty forehead and hands. Elfman stood beside the boxing dummy, his eyebrows raised.

"Wow," he said, watching Lucy with concern. "You seem…stressed." Lucy let out a bitter laugh at that.

"I think that's the understatement of the year," she said, taking another swig of her water.

Zeref was away on "business," leaving Lucy completely to herself which hadn't happened in a long time. Grateful for his absence, Lucy decided to get back to her training. She normally didn't have much time to do it when Zeref was around seeing as she was only used as his personal plaything or assassin. But whenever he disappeared, she liked to take advantage by training with Elfman. It was an incredible stress-reliever and everything she learned always came in hand while on a mission. However, because she could never really be consistent, her stamina varied from session to session and a lot of the time, she found herself winded.

"I'm also pretty impressed," Elfman said as Lucy continued to drink the last of her water. He stepped forward and placed a hand on her shoulder, looking at her with kindness. "You've become quite the man." Lucy rolled her eyes and laughed.

"Thank you, Elfman," she replied, patting his hand before he let go. "I would never have been able to learn any of this without you."

"It's the least I could do," he said, scratching the back of his head. "Especially after everything you've done for my sisters. I can't tell you how much that means to me."

Though Lucy knew he meant well by mentioning Mirajane and Lisanna, her mind instinctively went to that horrible night when Zeref forced her and Mirajane to partake in a threesome. Lucy and Mirajane were very close—being forced sex slaves and assassins really bring people together—but after everything Zeref did to both of them, and what he made them do with each other, it still made Lucy's skin crawl.

She hadn't even seen Mirajane since that night and she was afraid something in their friendship might've changed. She wasn't sure she could bear losing someone as important to her as Mirajane to Zeref. It would just be something else he would've taken from her. Mirajane and Lisanna were the only girls in the entire compound that didn't look at her strangely. The only two girls who actually cared about her and appreciated everything she did to try and make their lives less miserable while they were all trapped under Zeref.

Lucy's eyes began to brim with tears at the thought of being left utterly alone with only Zeref. It was a pain she didn't ever want to imagine.

"O-oh, I'm sorry, Lucy!" Elfman stammered, noticing Lucy was on the verge of crying. "I didn't mean to upset you!" Lucy sniffled and shook her head.

"No, you didn't upset me, Elfman," she said, wiping away the water from her eyes. "I just—sometimes it's a lot…"

Suddenly, Lucy felt a rush of anger and sadness swirl around inside her. She was no longer tired from the boxing she had just done earlier and she now had a new surge of energy running through her body. She hastily strapped her gloves back on, not even minding how tight they were, and began her boxing again. She threw jabs, crosses, hooks, uppercuts, front kicks, side kicks, and a strong back kick that knocked the heavy dummy right to the floor.

Just as soon as the rush went through her, Lucy's left leg crumpled out from underneath her before she could even stand up straight from the back kick. She tumbled down to the floor, her kneeing crashing hard on the mat. She let out a howl of pain that brought Elfman sliding next to her.

"Lucy!" he shouted, staring at her left knee as she cupped her leg and rocked back and forth. "What happened?" Through the sweat dripping into her eyes and the new tears brimming from the pain, Lucy could only focus on the awful nausea she felt as the pain slowly began to leave her body. She knew the fall wasn't serious enough to have broken her leg, but it would leave a nice bruise.

Nonetheless, she found herself giving into the pain, fear, and anger she felt and she started wailing at the top of her lungs. She continued to rock with her injured leg pressed up against her chest, but it wasn't because her knee hurt. It was a sort of soothing motion. Yet she still cried.

Not knowing what to do, Elfman just sat in front of Lucy and watched as she cried and rocked herself forward and backward. Though the fall must've hurt, he had a feeling it wasn't just her knee that was bothering Lucy. After a few minutes, she stopped rocking, her leg slide down, and she brought up her sweaty gloved hands to her face as the tears continued to fall. Unsure of what else to do, Elfman crept closer and took her in his large arms, holding her as tightly as he dared without scaring her.

Glad to have someone there to comfort her, Lucy let go of her legs and gripped to Elfman's shirt as if she were clinging for dear life. Eventually, her wailing turned to soft sobs which turned to sniffling. Then, she fell quiet, simply enjoying the feel of a friend holding her close.

Little did Lucy know that Elfman's face had become wet with his own tears.

A/N: Don't forget to leave a review for my newest chapter!