Hi! Long time no see. I hope everyone had been having fun during the holidays. Apologies as I admit I'm not quite motivated to write and update this fic as much as I planned to. There are just too much more distraction out there during free time. Besides, it was a finished work in Chinese gif format. To revisit it once in a while for this longest written season is quite a bit of challenge. Due to some rewrites, pardon me for any plot holes and of course, feel free to point out as I'm likely to have forgotten some details.

I'm beginning to put up some mysteries for Juvia, Erza and Kana in this chapter. I love the recent interaction between Juvia and Gray in the manga when they were both serious and no silly expression coming from Juvia. I imagined some scenes in mind between them with the setting of this fic combined with anime I had been watching initially.

Thank you and enjoy! Please read and review.

Chapter 5: Happy's Remorse

Tenrou Team split into group and headed on their separate ways. Gray and Leo were in the same team, Gajeel and Levy, Lucy and Kana, Elfman and Evergreen, Erza who decided that she did not want to stay back and cook swapped with Lisanna (objection is not allowed) and joined in the search paired up with Juvia. Lisanna was happy to stay back in the main camp with her sister. They had lots of catching up to do since she was away for years.

Gajeel was pulling Levy up a cliff, Mest and Wendy decided to stroll around while Evergreen was running after Elfman because some monsters were after them.

"Stop complaining and just run!" Elfman yelled while running in panic.

"Why did I even pair with you?" Evergreen complained feeling pissed that he would rather run than face the monster head-on.

*Erza and Juvia*

"I sure hope we can find the trespasser soon." Erza looked around.

"I will settle our score with him today." Juvia responded coldly.

"Score?" Erza asked in confusion. Gray had briefed her about Juvia's psychological condition but he did not fill him enough detail to learn what was going on. It was Juvia's story to tell. Perhaps, she could get her to talk. Erza herself had gone through enough. She had buried her painful past into the back of her mind.

Erza sighed. All the sudden, a memory of a little boy offering his hand to her flashed past her mind.

"Apple girl!" It was a nickname the little boy in a far distant memory called her by.

"That is?" Erza widened her eyes.

*Gray and Leo*

"Do you want to start searching from here?" Leo pointed to his left while Gray's mind was in somewhere else. He hoped Juvia and Lucy would be fine. He had specially requested Erza to pair with Juvia to ensure her safety. All that was left was Lucy. He had doubts for her ability to defend herself. Kana was strong enough to go for S Class. Even so, he was worried.

"Are you worried about the girls?" Leo had practically read his mind.

"I'm sorry about that."

"No, it's ok, I should be the one who is worried. Right now, we will just do whatever we can until we find that culprit." Leo clenched his fist in anger.

"Loki, right?"

*Lucy and Kana*

Lucy and Kana were running through the forest ground very quickly.

"Natsu, wait for me. We are coming for you now."

"Lucy, you are running too fast." Kana complained. Kana followed Lucy reluctantly as the mission strictly required them to conduct the search in a pair. She wanted very much to go on separate ways as there was something important she needed to do. Kana had been plagued by nightmares.

She saw herself once again having both her hands over someone's neck trying to strangle someone to death. The monotonic sound signaling flat line woke her up. Kana closed her eyes in regret. "I need to own up. I need to tell him."

*Makarov in front of the First's Grave*

Makarov was deep in meditation. This would take time. All he could do was to wait.

"I'm sorry, Elie. It's up to the kids now."

Tsuna and Happy approached the cave Gildarts was said to be waiting in. With someone like Gildarts around, Tsuna had the confidence his brother would be safe once he was found.

Despite the bright sunlight, the cave was actually not very bright. Right in the core of the cave, the huge man was really waiting there for Tsuna.

"Yo!" Gildarts greeted.

Apparently, he and Tsuna were ordered to stay in the cave on stand-by. They would not want to witness what Master wanted to do. Gildarts might have to stop Tsuna if need be.

"As you probably had deduced, Master planned to destroy the magic along with its vessel." Gildarts informed him of the worst case scenario. No one could stop him, not even your mother. His words pricked Tsuna unable to believe his ears.

"You planned to kill my brother anyway huh?" Tsuna felt cold. Fairy Tail was supposed to be a warm loving guild which brought his brother up to who he was right? They treated him like the younger brother. But now, why?

"Because he is a bane to the peaceful world we are in. As long as he exists, our world is at risk". Gildarts answered firmly without batting his eyes. "To be fair to you, I offer you a challenge, defeat me and I will persuade Master to change his mind." Gildarts smirked at the pink-haired boy who put down his luggage.

"You know what my reply to your challenge is!" With that Tsuna charged to a battle to land a punch to try taking him unaware. Gildarts took it at ease. Tsuna jumped back and gave another shot and was denied once more.

"He had no choice. He had no time to waste. Natsu could be swallowed by the damn power of Zeref anytime while he was here fighting. Zeref was a magic with a personality on its own. Even Jellal had mentioned that Natsu could have been influenced by the magic which resulted in his sudden change of personality. He got to save his brother; he got to keep his promise.

*Flashback*

The young Dragneel twins were lost in the hazy forest. Natsu sighed as they had been walking in circles and not making any progress in getting out of the woods. He stopped to catch his breath.

"Hurry up, brother. It's getting dark." Tsuna shouted in annoyance at his twins who was holding on to the trunk of a tree. He could not stand at the thought of spending the night in the woods. Who knew what was lurking in there and they did not want to be eaten by some unknown monsters when he slept.

"Tsuna, will you look for me if I disappear one day?" Young Natsu asked his younger twin brother.

"Stop talking nonsense. We will always be together. We were born together, remember? Even though you were born a minute earlier than me." Tsuna avoided his brother's usual stupid question. This was not the first time his idiotic brother asked him questions which he could not be bothered to answer.

Natsu on the other hand got emotional and jumped in front of him blocking his way before tripping and falling on his butt. "Hurry up and answer me!" Natsu rubbed his aching butt.

Tsuna frowned at his brother who was worked up at his response before he finally replied, "What the hell? Ok, I promise to look for you if you ever disappear one day. Are you happy now?"

"It's a promise, Tsuna!" Natsu smiled in contentment.

*End Flashback*

"It's a promise!" Natsu's voice echoed in his mind.

"I heard that you are a genius who became an S class mage just learning magic for one year. Come at me! Let me see how much you have grown. I will not hold back even if you are Elie's son." Gildarts urged while taking punches after punches by Tsuna.

"And it is also my honour to be able to challenge the strongest mage of Fairy Tail!" Tsuna smiled feeling impressed by Gildarts' strength. But for his brother's sake, he could not afford to be defeated here. He landed a punch which was stopped by Gildarts with his palm.

"Gotcha!" He thought as explosion occurred around them. The smoke cleared. Tsuna widened his eyes in horror. Gildarts was standing there without a scratch.

"Even so!" Tsuna charged at him once more. "I can't lose here!" He spun his body blazing with fire and bombarded Gildarts with a flurry of Fire Dragon's Claw attack and caught Gildarts by surprise once.

"Hey! Watch out!" Gildarts cried out. Tsuna was the one who was ended up taken by surprise and was punched right on his head and was tossed out all over the place.

Happy was watching Tsuna closely as he reflected on the reason why he participated in this mission. Happy used to be a gossipmonger, gossiping on all the scandals he could find in the guild especially on romance between the guildmates. Alzack and Bisca were one official pairing in the guild. Happy always tried to piss Gray off by teasing him with other girls he could find as Gray was the handsome ice prince who attracted girls all over Fiore fawning over him together with the gorgeous Leo who joined the guild by their Princess Lucy's recommendation later. Juvia despite having nothing to do with Gray was dragged into it. Juvia was never Gray's and never was as she was already someone else's.

Due to his insensitivity, he had unknowingly hurt Natsu, the kind and innocent boy in the guild who knew nuts about his feeling about love. Happy teased the Princess, Lucy for being romantically involved with Leo who was actually engaged with another in back at home. He merely came in to help Lucy who was in distressed being courted by guys all over Fiore. Happy's words were what led Natsu to leave home, leave Fairy Tail to cool his head off. Happy would never have expected that this had caused Natsu to nearly die.

Happy and Gajeel were unfortunate to fall into the trap set by the dark guild, Kingdom Empire. They were the ones who set off to destroy the Lacrimas which was linked to Natsu through Organic Link Magic and the damage Natsu received almost cost his life after being drained of his magic. Natsu fell into a coma as a result. Since then, Happy rarely gossip about others.

Natsu was Happy's very first friend in life and they were always together. They played together, they laughed together, they ate together, they slept together and they fished together.

*Flashback*

"The fish you caught is really tiny, are you trying to starve me to death?" Baby Happy asked mockingly.

"Do you want to do the fishing yourself instead since you have so much comment?" Young Natsu retorted in a burning red face.

*End Flashback*

They grew up and gone to various mission together as the best of partners. What Natsu loved most was fly with Happy. One of the reasons was Happy was not a transportation and he would not cause Natsu motion sickness.

*Flashback*

"It feels great, isn't it?" Happy asked.

"Yeah, it had been a long time. This feeling is just so wonderful!" Natsu looked ahead as they soared through the sky.

*End Flashback*

Ever since Natsu fell into coma, Happy had been following Tsuna who was working hard on his behalf around. As Happy heard that it would help to keep talking a comatose patient to try to stimulate his brain to increase his chance of ever waking up again, he would always visit Natsu in the hospital to tell him about Tsuna, hoping that Natsu would be proud of his achievement. Happy was always looking forward to the day when Natsu would finally wake up from his long slumber.

"Natsu, I'm sorry. It was my fault that you landed to this state. Will you please wake up?" Tears fell down Happy's eyes as he tried to shake the unmoving Natsu who was sleeping peacefully with his little paw hoping to wake him up like he usually managed to when they were back at home.

Happy had been following Tsuna and got to know many things about him including his shocking family background. He could understand his feeling of wanting to find Natsu. He felt extremely guilty when he heard that Natsu was captured and was transplanted with dark magic into his body. It was all his fault. If it wasn't for him, Natsu would not have left home and ended up like this.

"Tsuna, hang in there! We will look for Natsu no matter what!" Happy raised his voice and cheered for him.

After sensing out Tsuna of his prowess, Gildarts decided to stop playing around with him. He needed Tsuna to realise that he was missing something and he wanted him to master it. He stared at Tsuna angrily and began to unleash his full power.

In a flash of light, Tsuna hesitated to attack. He tried to muster up the courage to do so for the sake of his brother, he locked his eyes on Gildarts and fear welled up within him. Tsuna eventually lost his resolve, declaring that he lost. Facing with enormous power much greater than what his teacher, Jellal possessed, Tsuna surrendered. As much as he wanted to tell himself otherwise, he realised that he could not win.

"I'm quite surprised that Mystogan no, Jellal didn't tell you when to retreat during a no-win situation even though I admired your courage, to still come at me in the face of enormous power. Looks like even your teacher has a long way to go to fully master his magic to sit on top of the magic world".

Tsuna listened to Gildarts as he continued while he was still in shock, "Those who have the courage to cease fighting are even rarer than those with the courage to go on. Fear isn't evil, but a tool that one uses to acknowledge their weaknesses and become gentle. If you can understand this, you had passed my test. I hope you understand that the fear Natsu had been battling was far greater than you can imagine. This is what I'm trying to teach you today. I hope you still have the courage and resolve to face Natsu when you find him."

Gildarts watched him and could not help but comment that Tsuna took after his late mother. "Get going now! Find Natsu after that the three of us plus Happy would go on an excursion! And of course, if you like to challenge Uncle Gil to fight again, I will be happy to accept." He said with a fatherly smile.

"Tsuna!" Happy reached out to Tsuna while crying his eyes out crying together with Tsuna who was moved to tears.