"I wonder what he's going to tell us," Natsu said to Gray and Gajeel as they walked to the broken bridge.

"I don't know, but why did you bring your cat?"

"So what if he brought his cat?"

"Oh right, you both brought your cats."

It was true; Natsu had brought Happy along and Gajeel had brought Pantherlily along. The two cats were both currently meowing at each other as they walked behind their owners.

"You're just jealous because you don't have your own cat, Gray," Natsu said childishly.

"I am not jealous of --"

"If Gray-sama wishes to have a cat, Juvia will gladly become Gray-sama's cat. Meow!" Juvia appeared out of nowhere, latching onto Gray's arm.

"I suppose the girls are here," Gajeel said indifferently to Natsu as Gray was dragged away by Juvia.

"I suppose that as well," Natsu said to Gajeel in the same tone as Gray began yelling for help. "Come on, Happy."

They jogged to the bridge, where the girls and Gray were waiting for them.

"It's about time," Erza said with her arms crossed. "Now we just have to wait for Jellal."

As if on cue, three hooded figures walked towards their group. 

Natsu raised his eyebrows at the approaching trio. Either Jellal was one of those three or this was a trap. As they continued walking towards them, though, Natsu felt the slightest sense of deja vu.

Finally, the three strangers, and Natsu and the others were only a few feet within each other. At the same time, the trio raised their arms and lowered their hoods before looking up and making eye contact with them.

"Jellal. Ultear. Meredy." The names tumbled out of Natsu's mouth before he could stop himself. It was like previously in detention, when he and Heartfilia had performed their small exchange of excitement. However, after looking around, no one seemed to have heard his sudden outburst.

"You must be Natsu Dragneel," the female with long dark hair said when she made eye contact with him. Her red lips curled into a half-smile. "I am Ultear Milkovich."

"Milkovich?" Gray stepped forward, a strange look on his face. "What was your relation to Ur Milkovich?"

"She was my mother," Ultear replied smoothly. "Yes, I remember you, Gray Fullbuster, although tonight's topic does not concern you. Perhaps another time."

Natsu glanced in his friend's direction. His face seemed calm, but his eyes showed a different emotion. However, he couldn't help but notice that Gray seemed to slightly relax when Juvia patted his back gently.

"Jellal, who are these two?" Erza asked. She had a suspicious look on her face, although Natsu wondered why.

"Ultear already introduced herself and the little one here is Meredy, like Natsu said previously," Jellal said, motioning to the pink-haired girl behind him. "I work with them at Crime Sorciere." He, and the two others, lifted their jackets to show them an emblem on their skin. 

"I had told you that, after the Tower of Heaven closed down, I went somewhere else," Jellal continued. "But I didn't tell you that I did great things. Or good things in general."

Erza narrowed her eyes, but she didn't say anything.

"For a while, I was temporarily . . . crazy. I did a lot of bad things, which led me to jail. Real jail, not some juvie kind. By the time I regained my senses, it was too late.

"I thought I would die in there, until one of the guards came by, Mest, I think. He took me, Ultear, Meredy, and seven others to a place called Crime Sorciere. It was a place where we could atone for our sins, in exchange for bring free."

"Obviously, the three of us agreed," Ultear said, taking over for Jellal. "But only six of the others also accepted. Their leader tried to fight and was eventually killed, although I don't think anyone, especially the ex-Oracion Seis members, really cared."

"Wait, the other five members are Oracion Seis?" Gajeel asked with much emphasis on the last two words. "I heard about them when I was at Phantom. Remember, Juvia?"

"Juvia also remembers the stories," Juvia said. "Oracion Seis, Tartaros, and Grimoire Heart were three of the most evil and dangerous gangs in Fiore. Oracion Seis was the most powerful, Tartaros was the most demon-like, and Grimoire Heart was the strongest. They had created an alliance to not fight against each other, although Juvia does not know what happened after Oracion Seis was arrested and Grimoire Heart disbanded."

"The alliance broke off with Oracion Seis after they were arrested, and it completely dissolved after Grimoire Heart disbanded and two of its members turned themselves in," Meredy answered.

"I wonder why they turned themselves in," Natsu thought out loud. "They're probably going to die in jail."

At this, Ultear walked next to Meredy and put an arm over her shoulder. "Yeah, that's what we thought, too," Ultear said, "but this one here said she wanted to turn herself in for the 'bad stuff she did,' and I couldn't let her go alone, could I? But it's not so bad for us, since we're out now."

There was silence for a while, until Levy finally asked the question that was on the Fairy Tail students' minds. "Um, so you two are the members who turned themselves in from Grimoire Heart?"

Meredy nodded. "Yes. And we know we wouldn't be able to pay back all the lives we took, but we can at least do our best to stop others from doing so."

"I-I see."

As Levy took an obvious step away from the girl who casually talked about how she had killed a lot of people, Erza took an obvious step forward.

"What do you mean by what you said?" she asked Meredy. "How do you 'stop others from doing so'?"

"We've been going around stopping gangs, arresting criminals, investigating what no one in the government is willing to do," Jellal answered. "The case we're working on right now is about someone at Fairy Tail. I'm pretending to be a student there so I could find out who the suspicious person is. All the staff already know and the heads gave their permission."

"So when Natsu and I walked in on you in Exit 7 that day, you were talking with Ultear and Meredy?" Lucy asked.

Jellal nodded. "Yes. I have an earpiece that allows me to communicate with them at all times."

"What about with Ms. Na?" Natsu said. "When you saw her a few days ago, you called her something."

"Cubellious," Jellal told Ultear and Meredy when he saw the confused looks on their faces. "The one you all insisted also be added when I wasn't 'getting anything done.'"

Ultear rolled her eyes. "It was the others' idea, and a pretty good one, too. You seemed to have forgotten all about the mission when you found out your childhood crush was here."

"I was your childhood crush?"

It was starting to get dark, but it was obvious that Jellal's and Erza's faces were both red.

"Okay, that doesn't really matter right now, does it?" Natsu waved his arms between them when Jellal only stammered in reply. "You're both dating, now, so whatever."

"Right." Immediately, the shy schoolgirl expression on Erza's face was replaced with a frown. "Thank you, Natsu. So you pretty much lied to me ever since the first day?" she yelled at Jellal, who jumped back in fear.

As Jellal and Erza tried to work things out, Natsu and the others, including Ultear and Meredy, stepped away from them.

"Do you think we can leave now?" Natsu asked Gajeel as they watched the others break off into pairs.

Gajeel only shrugged in response. "I don't even know why I came in the first place."

Natsu scoffed. "The same reason why you show up to every single detention and every single class you have with Levy McGarden."

"Oh please, I feel the same way for Shrimp the same way you feel for Bunny Girl."

"Bunny Girl?"

"Heartfilia, you dumbass."

"How does that make me a dumbass? She looks nothing like a bunny! You're the dumbass."

"Oh, you want to see who the real dumbass is?"

"Yeah, I do!"

However, before either of them could find out who the real dumbass was, their cats dragged Lucy and Levy between them. When Natsu looked down to glare at Happy, who had pushed Lucy, Natsu imagined him saying something which caused Natsu to laugh.

"What's so funny?" Lucy asked suspiciously. "Why are you laughing?"

Natsu struggled to calm himself as he answered her. "Oh, no reason." There was no way he was telling her he had imagined telling Lucy to lose weight. She would kill both of them.

"Oh wait, this is the cat I saw in my dream." Lucy bent down and lifted Happy onto her lap. "Are you Happy?" she asked him in a baby tone. "I think you're Happy. Do you like fish?"

Natsu opened his mouth to tell Lucy Happy would probably throw up because of the way Lucy was talking, but he could only watch as Happy purred and rubbed against Lucy's sweater.

"Oh, your cat is so sweet," Lucy said in her normal voice as she petted Happy. "You should learn from him."

At this, Natsu quickly tried to snatch Happy away from Lucy. "Come here, you stupid traitor," he hissed to his cat, who avoided Natsu easily. Sighing, Natsu faked defeat, drawing his arms back. Right after, though, he reached for Happy with both hands and finally grabbed him, or so Natsu thought.

The sudden image of Natsu holding Lucy's breast in his hand came to mind, until he suddenly felt pain.

"What the hell, you pervert!"

Once the dark spots cleared from Natsu's vision, he saw his right hand grabbing onto something he had thought was Happy, but clearly wasn't. 

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Natsu immediately withdrew his hand and stepped a great deal away from Lucy, although this didn't stop both of their faces from turning a bright red. "I'm sorry!"

"You freaking pervert!" Lucy yelled. She had her arms crossed against her chest as she glared up at Natsu with a deadly expression. "You did that on purpose, didn't you?"

Natsu's eyes widened. "No, it's all his fault!" He pointed his finger at Happy, who only seemed to giggle in response before slinking away.

"What are we blaming the hothead for? Count me in." Gajeel and Levy appeared between them.

"Gajeel, we have to separate and calm them down, not encourage them," Levy hissed to Gajeel, who began waving his finger at Natsu.

Suddenly, a high-pitched scream could be heard from somewhere, forcing everyone's attention to that direction.

"What was that?" Natsu asked.

Lucy got up from the floor, although she still glared at Natsu and had her arms across her chest. "Let's go, Levy." She and her bookworm friend went off in the direction of the scream, leaving just Gajeel and Natsu.

However, one glance between the two was all that was needed for the two of them to see who would get to the scream first.

Natsu had managed to beat Gajeel by a second, and both were now on the ground, panting heavily. Natsu could just barely make out Lucy shaking her head at him, not that he had any energy to react. He looked past her to see a pink and blue blur on top of one of the trees.

"What -- what's going on?" Gajeel asked from next to him. "What're the pink and blue things?"

"That is Meredy and one of your classmates." Ultear and Gray walked over to them, both with disapproving expressions on their faces. 

"Juvia?" Levy asked. "What are they doing up there? Who screamed?"

Gray sighed before answering. "As Ultear and I talked, Juvia kept trying to interfere, calling Ultear her 'Love Rival.' Meredy eventually dragged her away and the two were peacefully talking on their own, until Juvia suddenly attacked Meredy and she ran off screaming. She ran up the tree and Juvia is currently trying to chase her down, I think."

"Do you know why Juvia is acting like that?" Lucy asked.

Ultear smirked. "I'm pretty sure I heard your friend say, 'How dare you speak about my Gray-sama in that way' as she ran off."

After Natsu's breathing finally went back to normal, he forced himself in a sitting position. "Well, you know what you have to do, Ice Princess. Go tame your girlfriend."

Before Gray could reply, Jellal and Erza reappeared.

"Is that Meredy and Juvia in the trees?" Jellal asked. "We heard a scream. What's going on?"

As Ultear filled him in, Erza looked surprised. "I've never seen Juvia like that before," she commented. "I mean, I saw the look on her face when she poured water into the girls' lockers, but this is completely different."

Gajeel scoffed as he also sat up. "You're forgetting she used to attend Phantom Lord Academy," he said. "Even now, she isn't using her fullest potential."

For the next few minutes, everyone just looked up and stayed silent as they watched Juvia chase Meredy in the trees. Soon, though, Juvia and Meredy both fell out of the tree, each holding onto the other person's hair and cheek.

"Juvia!"

"Meredy!"

Jellal, Ultear, Lucy, Erza, Levy, and Gray ran to the falling girls, arms stretched out. All of their eyes were faced upwards, so only Natsu and Gajeel could see that all six of them would end up crashing into each other. Of course, neither of them bothered to point this out, and Juvia and Meredy ended up landing on the crumpled heap of people.

"Gray-sama called Juvia's name! Gray-sama wanted to catch Juvia!" Only Juvia seemed unaffected by the chaos that had just happened, as she gave the groggy Gray a big hug and dragged him away from the others.

"Shrimp! You were already tiny enough to begin with. Did you really need seven people falling on top of you to make you even smaller?" Gajeel ran to the tangled mess of human bodies and tossed aside Jellal to pick up Levy, who had been on the lower part of the pile. He lifted her up by her collar, so her feet were well above the ground, and he began scolding her.

Natsu also finally made his way to the others, stopping next to Lucy. "Your diving was very graceful," he told her. "A seven point five, maybe an eight."

Lucy only growled as she got up and brushed herself off. "I appreciate your help," she said sarcastically.

Natsu flashed his innocent smile. "No problem."

At this, Lucy's hard glare seemed to soften, and the edges of her lips shaped into a small smile.

"Just take a picture, both of you; it'll last longer."

At Ultear's sudden comment, Natsu and Lucy quickly both looked away, their smiles dropping. Unknowingly, the both of them had been smiling at each other, and Ultear hadn't been the first to catch on.

"This detention really brought us closer together, hasn't it?" Erza wrapped an arm around Natsu's and Lucy's shoulders, forcing the three of them right next to each other. "Especially for you two, Levy and Gajeel, and Juvia and Gray."

"What are you talking about?" Natsu tried to break free from Erza's grip, but it would probably be easier to destroy a building.

"Oh please, Dragneel," Erza snorted. "You don't think we've all gotten close? I, for one, would have no problem pushing you across that bridge over there to see if you would hold or not."

Natsu glanced over at the bridge Erza had referred to and automatically wished he hadn't. He couldn't tell if Erza had meant her statement as a threat or as a sign of closeness, but Natsu didn't have to know.

"Jellal, help me."

However, Jellal either didn't hear or pretended not to hear, and turned around to face Ultear and Meredy. "We should probably get going," he told them. 

"Wait." Erza finally released her death grip on Natsu and Lucy, although Natsu was the only one who fell to the floor as he struggled to let oxygen into his lungs. "Maybe we could help you. Do you know anything about the person you're trying to find?"

Jellal hesitated, but it was Ultear who answered.

"We're sorry, but we can't tell you." She stopped here to glare at Jellal. "We weren't even supposed to tell you about everything we told you today. So please do not disclose any of the information we gave."

Erza nodded, although it was clear that she was disappointed. "Does this mean you won't be coming to Fairy Tail High anymore?" she asked Jellal.

"I can count on one hand the amount of times I actually stayed in a full period of class," Jellal said, "but I will still be investigating there. I think we're almost finished; I don't think it's anyone from Fairy Tail High."

"Then it's a good thing Cubellious is in Fairy Tail Low as a student teacher, right?" Meredy asked.

"No, it's not a good thing!" Ultear said. "We have to be the one to catch this person first."

Meredy looked like she wanted to ask more questions, but didn't actually say anything after Ultear gave her a look.

"Well, see you tomorrow, I guess," Natsu said awkwardly to Jellal as the three walked off.

Lucy was the first to turn away. "It's almost six. Do you guys wanna go?"

Natsu made a face. "Why would I want to go anywhere with you?"

"I wasn't even talking to you!"

"Oh."

A/N:

Bad ending, but I didn't want to make it needlessly longer than it has to be. Anyways, now we know about Jellal's purpose!