If you've opened this, I hope that means you're either caught up on Fairy Tail (up through the very end of the Grand Magic Games arc) or you don't mind spoilers. :)

This is based on the moment where Gray looks out of the carriage and sees the old woman, realizes who she is, and then has his own personal emotional breakdown. If he were to narrate the episode, I imagine it would go something like this.

Disclaimer: I own no part of this universe or the characters that inhabit it.

You ever have one of those moments when you just know? Like something's been bugging you for a while, and then you see something, and your gut picks up on it before your brain does, and it doesn't make sense but you just…you know, beyond a shadow of a doubt.

I guess that moment is what happens when you screw around too much with Time. First, I knew I died. Or was going to die. Or that I died, but I didn't have to. I knew there was a gaping, burning hole in my chest, right where my heart used to be. I was vaguely aware of a few more holes joining it all over the rest of my body.

I knew I'd just died to save one of my teammates, and that I was about to do it again if I needed to. But at the same time, I knew it wasn't…necessary. It didn't have to happen like that. I knew how to save us both instead of just saving her. So that's what I did.

Then I knew it was Ul. It wasn't Ul; she saved me twice and a third time was impossible. But it was her spirit, somehow—whatever or whoever had saved me (because I also knew without a doubt that I was saved) had some kind of connection to her. She was part of it.

But she wasn't.

Then we saw the old woman, and I got it. It clicked.

Ultear had followed in her mother's footsteps, sacrificing herself to her power in order to save the ones she cared about. Ul's power had been Iced Shell, and Ultear's power was Time. Hell if I know how she did it, but she obviously did because that old woman just felt like Ul. And like Ultear.

And then, I knew what could have been.

Somewhere along the way, I know I played a part in saving Ultear from herself. I don't know how big a part, or what else happened or how much Jellal and Meldy and even Juvia did to bring her back into the light, but that time we fought…I don't know what happened for her, but I know it was some kind of turning point.

But she didn't get around to forgiving herself until…well, I guess until she made her ultimate sacrifice.

As soon as I saw Ultear in that old woman, I saw what could have been if I'd saved her sooner. Or if she'd saved me in a way that didn't cost her all the remaining years of her life— staring at the old woman on the road, I knew.

It hit me as hard as the vision of my own death.

We would've been each other's family. I would have trusted her completely, and she would have relied on me to show her what it means to be family. To be more than a guild (and that's saying something). We could have lived Ul's legacy in a much stronger way than she or I or Lyon will ever be able to on our own.

But as soon as I knew, she knew too. She knew that I knew, and she knew it couldn't have happened that way. The beauty of time—the beauty of her magic—is that the changes that determine who we are can't occur if certain events don't happen in a certain way. Without her sacrifice, I couldn't be alive right now and she still wouldn't have forgiven herself. If I'd sought her out sooner, the change inside her would've been too strong or too subtle. It wouldn't have brought either of us to the place where the "if" could have happened.

And so I knew. It could have been. But at the same time, it couldn't have.

And the old woman was at peace with that.