"Where is she?" Natsu stormed into the guild. "It's been months now, how come nobody saw where she went?"

Natsu was trying to remember the last time he saw Lucy. If she had said anything or gave out some hints of what she was going to do.

"There has got to be a way that we can find her. What if she was killed or something?" Lisanna said, worried. Nobody thought of that possibility, but now, they couldn't stop thinking about it.

"Hush!" Master screamed as everybody started whispering to each other. "I don't need nobody fighting over it. We all know Lucy disappeared seven months ago. We are all worried. But there's nothing we can do." He didn't want to say, but everybody noticed the obvious. She must have erased the mark on her own. And if that was the case… "We just have to consider that Lucy Heartphilia does not belong to Fairy Tail anymore"

"But she is our friend!" Natsu screamed. "Don't we do everything for our friends?"

"Yes, Natsu, but everyone tried to find her and we didn't get anything. Unless she died or she erased the mark…" Erza said, unable to finish her sentence.

"I think she just doesn't want to be found" Wendy said.

And, with that, a loud bang on the door caught everyone's attention. Gajeel was carrying someone in his arms, they all just assumed it was someone from his mission. She had brown hair and her white skin was covered with bruises, burns and contusions. She was in pretty bad shape. Wendy immediately got ready as soon as she saw those legs hung from the air.

"Wendy, please" Gajeel said and walked into the infirmary. Wendy walked just behind him.

"Who is she?" Wendy questioned as soon as Gajeel put the woman carefully onto a bed. Gajeel didn't said a word. Wendy took a while, but she soon noticed.

Despite the brown hair and the bruises and the lack of the symbol in her right hand, she figured out that it was her. The person they've been looking for seven months. There she was, lying in the bed, unconscious, with so many wounds Wendy couldn't even imagine where she went to gather all that.

"I did my best to help her." Gajeel said. "But it was too much. She was almost dying when I found her."

"What happened?" Wendy asked. Gajeel looked the other way, ashamed.

"I don't know"

"Well, how did you find her?"

"I didn't." He answered. He ran his hand through his black hair. "She was the one who found me."

"You better tell the story, Gajeel" Erza said from the door of the infirmary. "Everyone is worried sick about her. If you have anything to say..."

"I know. I'll tell everyone. I just need to get some rest, please. It's been a long trip" Gajeel said, walking towards another bed and laying there. He was tired. Really tired. The train did not help a bit. He felt like he was going to puke.

"Are you alright?" Wendy asked, seeing how he was. Actually, he was just fine, his stomach was just… The things he saw… Gajeel needed some time to actually get over the fact that he saw a man in die in front of him.

"Yes" He said, picturing that scene over and over again. He couldn't help it. There was just so much blood… "I'll be fine"

Wendy said nothing and immediately began to heal Lucy's wounds the best she could. But, as she healed her, she noticed there was something wrong with Lucy. Her pulse was really low, her skin was cold, and she didn't move. She wouldn't wake up. For a moment she thought that maybe she…

No, that was an absurd. She was fine. She was stronger than Wendy imagined her. Wendy always looked up to her. Her kind words, her loving smile, her determination to help everyone. And her strength. Not the physical type. She was really strong mentally. She remembered hearing Lucy suffered worse, through torture and being beat up more times than she could count. But Lucy was just fine. Wasn't she? Then, why did she leave the guild? Why did she erase the Fairy Tail mark and why there was a cloth on top of her right hand?

Wendy took a strip of that cloth and carefully removed it, waiting to find just skin or even the symbol on her hand. But instead… The cloth made a disgusting sound as she removed the last piece. Wendy almost fainted, she almost screamed.

Her hand… It was just flesh and bones. You could see every muscle twitch a little bit, you could see the nerves. It was almost like she ripped out the skin of her own hand. Wendy felt her skin tingle, like she could feel it being done on her. She looked at her hand and sighed, relieved. Everything was normal. It was just paranoia.

Wendy took a heavy breath and continue to work on her bruises, focusing most on her hand. Wendy needed to do everything she could to help her friend, even if she wasn't part of the guild anymore. She was her friend.

And she would do everything for her, just like everyone else in the guild. It didn't matter if she a member or not.

She was still their friend.