As I warned previously, if you want the story to stay nice then stop here. You've been warned.

Seven days later, along with the rest of Fairy Tail, the three friends all wore black. It was the day of Lisanna's funeral.

As the teary eyed Strauss siblings walked past with their sister's body, as the many friends and nakama that had been created along the way gathered to pay respects to the smallest and sweetest of the takeover wizards, Gray, Loke and Cana held back, standing in a short row and unable to process the emotions that ran through each of their minds. The fortune telling was in each of their minds, Cana's cards blazing across their thoughts and blurring the trauma of losing a companion into something far worse.

"That was the mission-…" Cana murmured under her breath.

"Don't," Gray hissed. "Don't you fucking dare."

"Don't talk to her like that!" Loke stepped forwards, gritting his teeth and grasping his hands tightly in an anger that never should have been directed at his friends.

"If we'd been there…" Cana's head bowed, her beautiful brunette hair falling over her face and sticking to the tears still left on her cheeks.

"I said don't," Gray repeated, knowing that his voice had been raised just a little too much and that they were starting to get people looking back at them. Luckily, everyone was so self-absorbed in their own grief and the worried glances towards Mirajane and Elfman to pay the three of them much more attention, but Gray still took a step backwards and turned his back on the rest of the Fairy Tail members, making a mental note to keep his voice down.

Cana's words were already barely a whisper, her heart feeling as if it would break if she tried to give any more strength to them. "If we'd been there we could have saved her…" she said finally, unable to stop until she had finally spoken her true concerns out loud.

"No, we wouldn't have," Gray hissed once again, his eyes glaring and too filled with pain to have even a single tear. "If we'd gone on that damn mission then we'd all be dead too. You do not fuck around with demons or beasts or whatever the fuck that thing ended up being."

Loke looked between them both, realising that before his eyes their friendship had never been so close to shattering. They were a trio made up of secrets and dark pasts, but they were friends that had come together to enjoy life despite it all. They simply weren't built for this kind of confrontation and the strain was already clear. "Gray, you can't know that for certain…" he said, pushing his glasses back and trying to think of anything but Karen. If he had only been by her side on her very last mission, if he had swallowed his pride and concerns and accepted that to a celestial wizard they would never be anything more than toys to be abused until broken, then maybe she would have been alive. Once again he had blood on his hands for simply not being there. Walking on Earthland rarely hurt as much as it did today.

"I do," Gray fired back at him, digging his hands deep into his pockets. Even if he could come to terms with the idea that they shouldn't have been there, he could not bring himself to think that there was nothing more he could have done. They had seen the fortune and foolishly thought it was only responding to the scenario where all three of them had gone to face the demon. In the end, it hadn't even been a demon, it had been a Beast, not that Gray was going to back down on his convictions and admit he was only afraid because he had been reminded of Deliora. There was still a part of him that wanted to reach back into the past, to warn the takeover wizards of the fortune that they had seen.

"Someone needs to tell them…" Cana said, lifting up her eyes to Mira and Elfman.

"Are you crazy?!" Gray said, his eyes wide.

Loke sighed, knowing that once again he wanted to punch Gray for the way he was treating Cana right now, but he had to admit that he took his side this time. "Gray is right. If we tell them what we saw it'll only rub salt in the wound. There's nothing more that we can do now…" he said, his words slowing with every last syllable as they twisted through his regret.

"Besides, if they find out that you had that S-Class mission then the master might punish you. It might even risk your chances at the next S-Class trial…" Gray continued, trying desperately to think of any kind of argument that would seep through her reasoning.

"I don't care about that," she shook her head, pulling back her hair tightly until it hurt and brought fresh tears. "I don't give a fuck about any of that. If being S-Class means leading people you care about to death, then maybe I don't want it," she took a staggering step back. "I need a fucking drink."

Gray and Loke both looked at each other uncertainly. "Cana it's only midday…" Loke felt the need to point out.

"I don't give a flying fuck," Cana said, stepping backwards. Though she had a reputation already for being a heavy drinker, she was always seen as the party animal of the group. Her dependence on alcohol and daytime drinking was something that had only been dreaded before. She was shaking, feeling as if she would break at any moment and with a desperate need to go back to the guild and do another fortune telling. She wanted her father by her side, she wanted to run into his arms and cry and admit defeat, even if she knew she wouldn't ever have the strength to do that even if he was standing right in front of her. She just wanted to know he was safe. "I have to go. I just have to go," she shuddered, taking several more steps back before turning on her heel and running.

"Cana…!" Loke called after her.

"Leave her," Gray said stiffly, recognising the look on her face as he put an arm on Loke's.

Loke quickly shook him off, turning his glaring towards the male companion, angry fire burning in his eyes. "You were a real jerk to her," he hissed.

Gray could only shrug his shoulders. If he'd been true to himself he would have admitted he'd been less than warming to Cana, but he didn't feel particularly warm right now at all. When he had first reached Fairy Tail he had been broken and traumatised, and he had struggled at times to speak to anyone with kindness. He had never intended to hurt anyone, and for the majority of the time he was a sweet if slightly strange boy, but it had taken years to learn to speak to people with consideration to their own personal struggles. There was so much hurt inside his soul it was so difficult to let anyone else's inside, and while Cana, and later Loke, had helped melt his chill away, even after all of these years it was all too easy to put up his icy defences.

Loke could barely believe the way the Ice Maker was acting. He knew that people reacted differently to death, and as an immortal he had known that it was an emotion he could never truly understand. In a moment he was painfully reminded that he was no longer immortal, that his time was severely limited in this world, and hated the idea of seeing this same cold look in Gray's eyes and the fractured friendship between the card and ice mages when it was his turn to disappear. He had tried to defend them both, but all he could see was a smugness from Gray, knowing that Gray had been right to not take the mission, as the celestial wizard became blinded to his inner sufferings. "You're being a real jerk in general," he told him, pushing back his glasses and walking away.

Gray didn't watch him as he went, lost somewhere between memories of a huge beast destroying a town and the guilt that rested more heavily in his chest than ever. He was cursed, he decided, not wanting to even look at his friends as he considered what could happen to them. He had been friends with Lisanna, he felt sadness sweeping over him at her death and he was desperately trying to work out if guilt or grief was an easier emotion to deal with. Grief was simpler, guilt was familiar, both were horrific and both felt endless. Both filled him with a creeping fear that this wasn't the end, that one by one every person he cared about would suffer because of his actions.

He glanced up, looking through the dispersing crowds still gathered around the grave as it continued to be filled with dirt. He knew there were people that he should have been speaking to right now, people who needed comfort far more than he did. Mirajane and Elfman were surrounded by people, but he knew that if he could only bring himself to say a few words to Elfman then maybe he could have some of the blame lifted from his own shoulders. Erza had her arm around the dragon slayer and his cat, and Gray knew that he should have been offering his own awkward sentiments to his training partner. He knew that he should have been there for them, knew that to walk away now could irreparably damage any hope of friendship between himself and Natsu. And still he turned his back before Natsu could even notice he was looking at him, knowing that he couldn't break open his cold heart for even just a moment. Not right now.

"This sucks. Why are we focussing on this bit? Why not when we hooked Gray up with that drag queen?"

"That didn't happen."

"It should have. Can we skip all of this tragedy crap now, please? Ughhhhh… I really need a drink just seeing this."

Thanks for reading, and as always especially the reviews.

This chapter is really short. I wanted it to be longer but again, the quicker I could get them away from this day the better.