I really wanted to upload this chapter last week but I ran out of time before I had to go out of town! Sorry it's a little late and thanks everyone for the kind new reviews! This chapter doesn't hop around as much but you do find out a new twist.

As always I do not own Fairy Tail, it belongs to Hiro Mashima and I thank him for it's use in my own creative expressions *bows*

It was a quiet drive over to the Black Dog Bar where the meeting with Quatro Cerebus was supposed to take place; the bar was a renovated boarding house on the northern edge of Magnolia so it was a quiet area for the Dogs to do their business. Gajeel pulled his truck into the nearly deserted parking lot and saw that Laxus was already there and waiting. He reached down to unfastened the gun holster from his ankle and then stuck it in the glove box, he was pretty certain that no one would bother his truck here.

He climbed out and joined Laxus. "Is everything good?" The other man asked while leaning casually against his car, Gajeel nodded. "Good, you left your gun?"

"It's not on me," Gajeel admitted but didn't explain further. "But I still don't like it."

"We don't have much of a choice," Laxus replied. "We need to get the most information we can out of them. I don't expect we will have trouble unless they are the ones who killed Zoldeo."

Gajeel nodded again, it that was the case then they would be sitting ducks even with their weapons. They walked towards the large wooden front doors, passing by the dozens of motorcycles parked as close to the building as they could get; there was old style rock music playing inside and the sounds of people having a good time. The Black Dog was technically open to all patrons but most people in Fiore knew better than to hang out there without a good reason. As far as the city gangs went Quatro Cerebus was pretty low level; this was why it didn't make sense that they would run a hit on a big player like Grimoire Heart. They were dangerous in their own way but they didn't have the resources or the man power to really hit them without even worse retaliation. Laxus paused when they reached the door and then knocked, it opened slowly and a skinny man dressed in scruffy jeans and a black leather jacket poked his head out.

"Are you Dreyar?" He asked them nervously.

"I am," Laxus answered in his usual unsettling cool demeanor.

"Who is he?" The man asked eyeing Gajeel.

"He's with me."

The lookout frowned uncomfortably. "The boss said you were supposed to come alone."

"He's going to want to hear what he has to say, trust me."

The man frowned and shut the door on them without another word.

"That was so helpful," Gajeel muttered, Laxus just grunted a response.

After a few minutes the door opened again. "The boss says you can both come in, but no tricks."

Like most bars the front doors opened into the main room and as Gajeel followed Laxus he studied his surroundings shrewdly. It looked pretty typical of the few biker joints that he had been in before; hardwood floor and white plaster walls dotted with posters and framed pictures in no particular order, light streamed down from the low hanging lamps but the room was still dark enough to make shadows. There were scattered small round tables framing the walls on either side of the dark wooden bar near the back of the large room; the majority of the space was taken up by the biggest pool table Gajeel had ever seen. A couple dozen men in black leather biker gear were standing all around, waiting for them to show up Gajeel guessed and it was hard to tell what they were thinking since they all had the same scowling expression on their face. The crowd parted for them as they approached the bar, the noise level lowered and someone turned off the music and by the time they reached it the room was almost silent.

"You made it." The speaker stood up from where he had been sitting on a bar stool; he was tall and narrow, people might have mistaken him for scrawny except for the rippling muscles across his bare flat abdomen. His longer black hair was pulled up in a messy man bun on top of his head, dark eyes flashed and his expressive face was in a huge grin; Bacchus Groh was the Vice-President of Quatro Cerebus and the one who handled most of the day to day business for the club. He also had a very close tie to the Dragons.

"Laxus!" The only woman in the room turned towards them on her bar stool. She also had dark hair but it fell in waves down to her waist, she wasn't wearing biker leather but in a tight black t-shirt, jeans and heels.

"Cana, nice to see you," Laxus greeted her as she stood up and gave him a brief hug and kiss on the cheek. Cana Alberona-Groh had grown up with Laxus in the same children's home that they were now using as a safe house, two years ago she had married Bacchus and had become one of the QC by association although she was still close with Mira.

"I was surprised when you asked for this meeting Dreyar and I've been trying to guess what it is you want from us."

"Information," Laxus answered cooly. "And I have some."

"Is that so?" Bacchus' face turned curious.

Laxus looked around at the group of men who were all watching intently. "Is there somewhere more private we could talk?"

"If you have something to say about my club you can say it in front of the club." Bacchus motioned with both hands to those surrounding them. "We are one big happy family here."

"Trust me Bacchus, you are going to want to hear this alone first," Laxus replied firmly.

Bacchus seemed to think it over for a minute before nodding. "Fine… What about Blacksteel? Or is he just here as muscle and a pretty face."

Gajeel scowled but didn't take the bait. "He is the reason we are here, do you want to know what we have to say or not?" Laxus answered.

"My office." Bacchus turned to his wife. "Stay here, we will be right back out." Cana looked like she wanted to argue but didn't say anything as Bacchus led them to a door in the back marked STAFF ONLY. Even though he wasn't wearing a shirt underneath his Quatro Cerebus leather vest Gajeel noticed the small gun in a holster clipped onto the belt of his jeans, probably every man in the room had one on somewhere. Past the door there was a staircase that led to the second level, Laxus and Gajeel followed closely behind and Gajeel could hear at least two men following them, he didn't like being boxed in like this with no easy way out but there was nothing he could do about it. The top of the stairs leveled into a hallway with three identical doors on either side and one at the end, Bacchus went to the second on the left and opened it.

"Now that we are alone, do you mind telling me what the hell it is you want," the man asked. The room looked more like storage than an office; instead of a desk there was just a card table littered with empty beer bottles and three open backed stools around it, boxes were stacked against all the walls.

Before answering Laxus looked at the two men that had entered with them and catching his concern Bacchus ordered them to stand outside by the door with protests. When the three of them were finally alone Laxus faced the dark man. "You heard about Zoldeo from Grimoire Heart getting killed a few days ago."

"Of course I did and why anyone would want to off a waste of space like that is beyond me but I don't know what it has to do with my club."

"The person who shot Zoldeo was riding a motorcycle and wearing your leather." Gajeel answered, it was the first time he had spoken since they came in.

Bacchus' smile faltered and he raised an eyebrow at him in surprise. "How the hell would you know that?" His tone was low and dangerous.

"Because I was there, I saw the whole thing go down."

"Bullshit, why would my club kill Zoldeo? He was nothing but a clown trying to be a gangster."

"We were hoping that you would tell us," Laxus cut in, crossing his arms.

"I'm telling you that you don't know what you saw, and if you're so sure that one of my guys killed him then why isn't one of your cop friends here right now questioning me? Wait, I forgot, you're not a cop anymore because they kicked your ass out."

If Laxus was affected by Bacchus' words he didn't show it, the insult seemed to slide right off him. "Because we don't think you did it, like you said what reason would you have to go after Zoldeo? So my next question is who did you piss off enough to set you up for murder?"

"How the hell should I know?!" Bacchus sat down on one of the stools and hit the table with a closed fist, making the glass bottles shake and a few of them fell over. "You're telling me that somebody is trying to pull us into a war with probably the most powerful syndicate in the city? We've gotten into some scraps in the past but this is way more than normal retaliation, this would bury everyone."

"Could one of your men be acting alone? Had a personal beef with Zoldeo he needed to resolve?" Laxus slipped back into his ex-cop interrogation mode.

"Not that I know of but if I found out that one of my guys put the club at risk like this I might kill him myself." Bacchus looked at Gajeel again. "You didn't see a face? A name patch? He didn't say anything?"

"Nothing but a couple bullets in my direction, but you should know that I was tipped off to be in that alley."

"What do you mean?"

"Zoldeo was a part of one of my cases, I got an anonymous message about a meet up that night; someone wanted me to witness one of your guys killing Zoldeo."

"I'm telling you it wasn't us." Bacchus shook his head. "What kind of an idiot would wear something that identifies him when doing a hit like that, it as to be a set up somehow?"

"Then how would they get a hold of one of your jackets?"

"Could be a fake, you said you weren't standing right next to him so how do you know it was legit?"

"Or it could have been stolen; any of your guys lose their jackets lately?"

Bacchus snorted. "Most of my guys would fight to the death to protect their patches; you can't just walk up to one and take it."

A thought popped into Gajeel's head. "Any of your men gone missing in the last few days?"

"I told you that it wasn't us," Bacchus ground out with his arms crossed.

"Not as a killer but as another victim."

Bacchus frowned and then stood up and stalked to the door. "Rocker!" He shouted to one of the men outside. The same man who had let them in poked his head into the room. "Yeah, boss?" Bacchus leaned over and murmured something in his ear, the man nodded and left again. "Now we wait."

Darkness had fallen outside at last and Levy was still in the living room curled up on the couch under a throw blanket; channel surfing the TV aimlessly, the glow of the screen was the only light in the room. A part of her wanted to go back upstairs and try talking to Lucy again but she knew it was no point, once her friend made up her mind there was no way to talk her out of it. She was so conflicted about her own feelings she didn't know what to do anymore, the last time she had felt this way was when her parents had been killed. Five years had passed since that time but she still felt the same pain every time she thought about them, remembered the last time she had spoken to them only a few days after her high school graduation.

Levy stopped compulsively pressing buttons and turned the TV off before tossing the remote to the side and pulling the blanket tighter around her shoulders. The more she stewed on it the more torn she felt between following her best friend's gut or her own; but when she thought about the last few days she did realize that she might have been too quick to trust in this situation which wasn't like her. Levy was usually an over-cautious introvert, preferring to be alone or in small groups of people and she never drew any more attention to herself than absolutely necessary, the idea of being the center of attention terrified her.

Ever since the shooting it was like she was constantly out of her comfort zone and it felt crazy to admit that even though it was a life or death situation she kind of liked it. Yes, in the moment she had been terrified and her life had been turned upside down but she couldn't remember the last time she had felt this alive, like there was a buzzing under her skin that just wouldn't stop and it was driving her crazy. She curled up into a ball and closed her eyes hoping that the answers to her problems would magically come to in her dreams.

Ten minutes later and they were still waiting for the other man to come back; no one had spoken and they just stood quietly with their own thoughts. Gajeel couldn't help but wonder how things were going at Gramps' and he was glad that Laxus hadn't brought up Levy, even though it didn't look like Quatro Cerebus was involved she was still safer that way.

"I still don't get it," Bacchus broke the silence from where he was still standing by the door. "Why are you coming to me with this instead of the police? How did you know that we weren't the ones who offed the guy?"

"We didn't," Laxus replied.

"Then why would you take the risk?" Bacchus crossed his arms over his bare chest. "What's in it for you? Has to be more than just a case to you."

Laxus was saved from having to answer by the ringing of a cellphone, Bacchus reached into his jeans and pulled one out. "What did you find?" The person on the other end replied and with each passing second Bacchus' face started to contort into an expression of anger, his smiling mouth became a thin line. "No, we will take care of it. I'll be there as soon as I'm done here, don't touch anything." He hit end and then looked up at them, radiating barely controlled anger. "You have to tell me everything you know about this right now."

"Why? What did they find?" Laxus asked, his eyebrows raised.

"One of my men was supposed to be gone a week and not due back until tomorrow, that's why we didn't notice he was missing. I just had them check his place; they found him dead, at least a few days, shot in the chest. His bike, leather, patches, all gone. So it's personal now, I want to know who the fuck this guy is."

"We've told you everything we know already," Laxus answered. "I was hoping that we could work together."

"You haven't told me everything," Bacchus continued in his rage. "There has to be a reason you are going after this guy and it isn't because of a damn case."

Laxus hesitated and glanced at Gajeel, knowing that he had no other choice. "There was a second witness in the alley, a girl. We think that whoever killed Zoldeo is coming after her." Gajeel listened sullenly as Laxus told Bacchus about Levy, but never mentioning her by name or where she was.

"So we need to find who are behind this as soon as possible or there will be more casualties."

Bacchus looked at Laxus pensively, like he was considering something. "I will help you," he started finally. "But I need you to give me your word that when you find the son of a bitch that killed my guy that you will let us take care of it." He didn't need to go into it further; Gajeel knew that men like Bacchus took care of their own business and that if they found this guy first their revenge would not be quick or painless.

Laxus looked almost pained as he thought over Bacchus' stipulation, Gajeel knew his old police instincts where making it hard to accept knowing what would happen. He wanted to jump in and make the agreement himself if it would find this guy any faster; he didn't care much about the consequences but he knew that it would be overstepping, Laxus had to show Bacchus that he was in charge of the situation.

"Agreed."

Gajeel let out the breath he didn't know he had been holding, Laxus must be hoping that things would work out in a way that wouldn't make him compromise his morals.

"Alright then." Bacchus held out a hand and the other man took it after just a second of hesitation. "I will put the word out for any information about the shooting, and I'll keep it contained so that whoever it is doesn't get spooked. If you find out anything just call the bar, they can always reach me and I mean anything." He emphasized that last point as if to remind Laxus about their agreement not even two minutes before and he nodded but didn't reply.

"I would offer you a beer to celebrate our new partnership but I need to go and take care of business." Bacchus turned and walked out the door quickly.

Gajeel opened his mouth to speak but Laxus shook his head slightly, he didn't want to discuss it here so they left the room and went back down the narrow staircase into the main part of the bar. The attendance and noise level had grown by quite a bit and it wasn't a happy party anymore, the other men had no doubt heard about their murdered brother.

They almost managed to sneak out without being noticed but Cana pushed her way through the crowd and caught Laxus by the arm. "Is it true?" She asked them, obviously upset by the news. "You know the guy who killed Semmes?"

Laxus sighed before pulling her closer to the wall so that they wouldn't be overheard. "We don't know who killed him but we are looking for him too."

Her mouth pressed into a grimace, it wasn't the answer she wanted to hear but she accepted it. "Bacchus went to break the news to Goldmine himself and then he's going to go over to Semmes' apartment to look around."

There was a crash as someone threw something against a wall and it shattered, probably an empty liquor bottle. "These guys get pretty wild on a normal night; right now the smallest thing could set them off." Cana looked back over at the group of men milling around. "I should go make sure they don't do something stupid. Please tell Mira I'll call her sometime this week about setting up a play date with Justin and Spike."

Gajeel and Laxus wasted no time getting out into the deserted parking lot; the uproar from inside was still audible from where they had parked their cars.

"What do we do now?" Gajeel asked. "We didn't find out much more than we already expected."

"No, but now we won't be the only ones looking." Laxus sighed and leaned against his car while swiping a hand through his spiked blonde hair. "As much good as it might do us," he admitted. "It could make the situation worse if they realize the Dogs are on to what they did, might make them desperate."

"If they wanted to start a war between the Dogs and Grimoire Heart why would they kill someone like Zoldeo? They don't even seem to care that he is dead."

"Maybe he was the only one that they could get to."

"But then why wouldn't they do it somewhere more public? Why make me the only witness?" But he wasn't the only one; there was a second witness, someone they weren't expecting.

"I don't know," Laxus admitted. "Bacchus might have more luck than we've had getting anywhere but there isn't anything else we can do tonight. I'll contact you tomorrow with our next move, get some sleep." He climbed into his car, probably itching to get back to Mira and the kids after that meeting.