A/N: This story was written after chapter 509 of Fairy Tail. This is my first story, so constructive criticism is very much welcome!

Grief barraged Fairy Tail on all sides. Many had witnessed Gramps make the ultimate sacrifice. Though golden light had bathed his body while he was performing the spell, Fairy Law had drained him of his life, his vitality, and now left an albino husk behind.

As if Gramps' death wasn't enough, Juvia, Gray, and Natsu arrived at Fairy Tail's temporary camp unconscious and seriously injured. Porlyusica and Wendy hovered around them, while the rest of the guild prepared a temporary grave for Gramps.

Erza was missing, trapped in a fight with a red-haired Spriggan.

Mavis was strangely quiet and was unable to meet anyone's eyes. She sat dejected on the ground, unmoving. Happy sulked beside her, feeling too guilty to speak to anyone.

Juvia woke up first. She rejoiced when she saw Gray lying next to her, mostly healed. The news of Gramps's death shattered her mood like a hammer.

Gray awoke next. When he laid eyes on Juvia, he burst into tears and wrapped his arms around her, his heart melting like ice in the spring.

Natsu did not wake up. Not yet.

Gildarts called a meeting. Everyone reluctantly left Gramps' body and gathered by the boulder on which Gildarts stood.

"This has been the darkest day Fairy Tail has seen," he said. "We've lost our home, our spirit, and our much beloved Master. But Fairy Tail will live on. Gramps will live on. As long as we can remember Gramps…he will never truly-" his sentence was cut off as sobs shook his body. Everyone was crying, even Brandish.

"I wanted to wait until Erza gets back and Natsu wakes up before we give Gramps a proper burial," Gildarts said a few minutes later, sniffling. "But we don't even know if Erza will come back."

A bunch of fearful murmuring broke out, until a steady voice rang out, saying, "She will be back," The voice belonged to Lucy. She had wiped away her tears and now stood up strong. "We cannot lose faith in our comrades. We'll take back the guild hall, and then we'll give Gramps a proper burial. We're going to defeat Zeref. Once we do that, we can properly mourn Gramps. Until then, we cannot rest until Zeref receives justice for what he's done."

She held up the number one in a classic Fairy Tail salute. The rest of the guild followed her, leaving Brandish standing there a bit awkwardly. No one noticed that Happy didn't join in.

Meanwhile, Natsu slept on, oblivious.

"Now," said Gildarts, "we need to discuss our next guild master and we need to come up with a plan for defeating Zeref."

"Why don't you be the next guild master, Gildarts?" asked Levy.

Gildarts shook his head. "I was hoping it would be Laxus or Erza. What do you think, Mavis?"

Mavis was staring off into space, a helpless look on her face.

"Mavis?" Gildarts said again.

Mavis blinked. "Huh? What?"

"Are you alright?" asked Mirajane.

She shrugged miserably. "It's my fault Makarov died. I should have stopped him!" She buried her face in her hands.

"It's not your fault," Cana wrapped her arm around Mavis. "You couldn't have stopped him, no one could. You-"

"I hate to interrupt, but I'm afraid I have bad news," Porlyusica interjected.

Silence stole the words of comfort from Cana's mouth. The whole gathering froze, unable to bear more heartache.

At first, no one dared to speak. No one wanted to know what tragedy would befall them next. At last, Wendy braved the question. "What is it?"

Porlyusica's eyes were shadowed, her appearance haggard. "It's Natsu. He might die."

At first, the words didn't register in Lucy's brain. They were a meaningless jumble, like the nonsense sounds a baby makes. But even if her brain didn't understand the words, her heart did, for she felt a sharp pang in her chest, and her eyes brimmed with tears. "What? What did you say?"

The older woman looked at her with eyes that had seen many tragedies before. "I'm sorry, my child, but Natsu might not wake up."

Lucy felt her knees buckle. All she could think was NO. NO-NO-NO-NO-NO.

"Lucy!" Levy exclaimed, pulling her friend back to her feet.

"What do you mean he won't wake up?" growled Gajeel.

Porlyusica sighed and crossed her arms. "When Natsu fought Zeref, he developed a tumor. At first I thought it was an anti-ethernano tumor, but now… now it's something much worse. I'm afraid the tumor is something demonic. Instead of attacking his magic, it attacks his very soul."

"It's all my fault!" Brandish cried. "If I hadn't restored his tumor to its original size, none of this would've happened."

"No, what you did changed nothing. The outcome would've been the same, it just would've taken longer," Porlyusica scowled.

"What do you mean Natsu has a demonic tumor?" shouted Gajeel. "Did a demon give it to him or something?"

"But when did Natsu come into contact with a demon?" asked Levy. "Did he get the tumor when we were fighting Tartaros?"

Gray opened his mouth to reveal what Invel told him. The words were there, staring him right in the face. All he had to do was reach for them. But he couldn't. His fight with Natsu was like a fever dream. The thought of Juvia's death had blinded him, and in his rage he only sought to inflict pain, to have someone feel the pain he felt. He still didn't trust Natsu, but at the same time…he couldn't bring himself to believe that Natsu was E.N.D.

"I don't know how he got it," Porlyusica said. "Only Happy would know, since he's the only one who witnessed the fight.

Everyone stared at Happy, who immediately looked guiltily at the ground.

"Happy, is there something you know, something you're not telling us?" accused Gray.

"Gray, how could you say that!" reprimanded Lucy. "Of course Happy's told us all he knows!"

"It is a dark day when one cannot trust his own friends, Gray-sama," Juvia said. "Is something wrong? You can tell Juvia anything."

"Nothing's wrong, it's just…" he trailed off, covering his eyes with his hand.

He was lying.

He knew it.

Juvia knew it.

They all knew it.

Fairy Tail was falling apart.