No one could recall when the once beautiful perky Mage began losing herself. No one remembered when the light began fading out of her brown eyes. When her bubbly laughs turned into dry, half-hearted chuckles. When her luminous, soft blonde hair began to dull.
They guessed that it was because they had better things to do. Gray and Juvia had gotten together and visited Lamia Scale quite often to see Lyon. Erza had become one of the ten great wizard saints after Makarov's passing. The three dragon slayers were continuing their search for their parents, taking their little Exceeds with them. Laxus went off on another journey, and the Raijinshuu followed after him. The Strauss siblings continued roaming around the land, searching for more beasts to obtain. Everyone was doing their own thing, because they had their own goals to obtain.
Except for her, that is.
She continued with her same life: complaining about rent, training to become stronger, and taking missions. When they were there and she offered to have them accompany her, she was shocked when they made excuses. It wasn't that they didn't want to work with her...but they just had better things to do than wrangle in a few robbers or listen to her rants. There were more beneficial things out there for them. They were moving at a much faster pace than her, and she knew it. She didn't want to become a burden so instead, slowly, she began to give up. She stopped asking everyone to go with her on missions and went by herself. She stopped complaining about her rent and let it go. It was then that she noticed that she didn't have anyone to complain to anymore.
Gray and Juvia spent more time traveling. Erza even met up with Wally and Sho and was spending some time with them. The dragon slayers hardly ever stopped by. She found herself longing to see a tuft of pink hair in her window.
Then, she fell fatally ill. She was hospitalized and she continuously stared at the door, silently praying to herself that she'd get to see someone's face.
No one came.
The heart monitor stopped. They moved on without her, and she died of loneliness.