Before anyone reaches for their knives, I can explain. Well, sort of. I was on vacation a couple states away for a week and staying in a house with the shittiest wifi (do you think I swear too much? I think I might swear too much) that I have ever experienced. I was regularly kicked off for no reason and half the time couldn't even connect in the first place. It was hell (I need internet to survive) but I lived, and I'm back, and obviously that does not completely excuse me since I wasn't on vacation the whole time I wasn't updating. I'm really sorry, I just wasn't feeling it. But I think this chapter is decently long, so here's hoping that makes up for it. I should really go to bed before I become nocturnal (I haven't gone to bed before midnight for the past week or two at least) since school starts in two weeks, and that would be troublesome. I will try to finish this before school starts, but I can't really promise anything since my promises are worth crap anyway.

So before I kill you all of boredom with my rambling and excuses, feel free to move and actually read the chapter. Oh yeah, before you go, I feel I should acknowledge the very sweet review I got from somebody not logged in asking if I'm okay (as you can see, the answer is yes). Thanks so much for your concern!

Okay, for reals this time, enjoy the chapter.

Sometimes it is better to be clueless about what is happening around you than to know every bit of information that would silently kill you. - Unknown

Isn't it funny how obvious and oblivious are so similar? - Unknown

He seemed as oblivious to it as he probably was to the meaning of the word. - Melody Malone

Gray hadn't even realized he had started to shake until Jace grabbed his arm. Jace's grip was very steady compared to Gray's trembling limbs, and a little bit of sanity returned to him as he calmed down. He lowered the mirror carefully and put it back where he had found it.

"No, it was my fault," he said, struggling to keep his voice from cracking. "I apologize for my behavior."

Jace's iron-tight grip loosened.

"Okay, well, Gray and I are going to go see the sights, visit some places, get some dirt," Levy announced suddenly, her voice too loud for the small room. She sidled in front of Gray, took hold of his free arm, and tugged him toward the doorway with a gentle insistence and a strength that belied her toothpick-thin wrists.

"What?" Gajeel frowned at Gray, as if this was his fault. Well, in a way, maybe it was. "I'm coming with you."

Levy shook her head, biting back a satisfied smile. "No you're not. You get to stay here and talk to Rose for a bit." She waved cheerily. "Bye!"

The door shut behind them before Gray even realized they were out of the room. Levy kept a firm grip on his arm, not quite pulling him through the house and onto the street. "Levy?"

"Yeah?" She didn't turn back to look at him, focusing entirely on a piece of paper she held in front of her. She paused at a street sign and peered at the writing on it for a moment before taking a left. "What's up, Gray?" she asked when he didn't say anything. He wasn't even sure what he had wanted to say.

"Um… Could you let go now? I feel like a little kid getting dragged around by his overprotective mother."

Levy glanced back at him to give him the full effect of her dramatic eye roll. "I don't trust you not to run off the first chance you get. It's not bundles of fun for me either."

Gray sighed heavily. "I swear not to leave your side without your permission. Is that good enough?"

She huffed impatiently. "Yeah, yeah, alright. As long as you promise. For Mavis's sake," she grumbled, releasing Gray's wrist and clenching and unclenching her fingers. Gray massaged his wrist as he sped up a little to walk side by side with the smaller mage.

"So where are we going?" He looked over her shoulder at the hand-drawn map in her hand. Levy folded it and stuck in her pocket.

"A flea market. We're almost there – it's just around the corner."

They took another left and stepped into utter chaos. Stalls lined the street on both sides, indicating that this flea market was a step up from your classic picnic-blanket-on-the-ground fun-family-outing type outdoor flea market. Merchants roared at the top of their lungs, desperately trying to reel customers in. Throngs of people filled the street like a living wall, jabbing and shoving each other out of the way as they jostled for enough space to breathe. More than one shouting match broke out between the sellers and buyers as they haggled over prices.

"What the hell is this?" Gray choked breathlessly, having failed to deflect the elbow shoved unceremoniously into his gut by a portly woman bustling past. "Are all flea markets this bloodthirsty?"

Levy laughed, slipping effortlessly between two men arguing loudly with a stall owner about the price of a decidedly hideous pot. "Of course not. Come on, you're going to get trampled if you stay there!" This was sufficient motivation for to Gray to push his way through the encroaching crowd after her, desperately trying to keep her bobbing blue hedgehog spikes in view.

When the crowd spat him out like a moldy piece of bread, he thought he had come to the end of the market and would have to go back and search for Levy. But as he looked around, he realized he had simply reached an unpopular section of the market. There were a few older people browsing through the stalls, but it in no way resembled the entrance to the street.

"Gray!" Levy called, waving at him from a stall halfway down the remainder of the road. He trudged dutifully over to meet her.

"This is what we came here for?" he questioned doubtfully, staring at the musty tomes stacked hastily on the cart's display. Levy nodded absent-mindedly, her nose already pressed into a particularly thick volume.

"I wanted to check something out, remember? That's why I'm here."

"Well, what is it? And why's it so important?" Gray lifted a book bound in aged leather from the top of a stack and examined the spine. It was covered in what looked like magic runes. "Can you even read these books?"

Levy sniffed indignantly. "For your information, I can read them. And what I'm looking for is none of your business. Just shut up and wait." She snapped the tome she was holding shut and put it back on the table. She sifted through one of the towers and then snatched the runic book from Gray's hand.

Seconds became minutes as they passed while Gray waited for her to find what she was looking for. After half an hour, he gave up and sat cross-legged on the pavement and leaned back against the cart, closing his eyes.

Juvia's never been like that. She keeps the important stuff to herself.

Gray's eyes snapped open. Where the hell had that come from?

"Hey, Levy?" he called. She didn't look up from her book. He could tell she wasn't listening.

"What?"

"Do you think…" Gray hesitated. He really didn't want to voice his sudden fear out loud. He certainly didn't want to hear her say yes. "Do you think there's something Juvia still hasn't told us? Something important?"

Levy flipped the page. "Nope."

He should have been relieved. He was, but some twisted part wanted to hear her say she thought there was. He couldn't shake the feeling that there was something big that was missing, and he didn't want to be the only one doubting Juvia.

"Gray," Levy said abruptly, setting down her book with a thump and joining him on the ground.

He looked at her, but she was staring straight ahead. "What's up?"

"Why are you so worried about Juvia? I don't understand. She's always pestering you, doing things to bother you or make you uncomfortable. Why go so far for her?"

What was there to not understand? "I'm worried because she's my friend. She's my guild mate. That equates her to family. Of course I'm worried. Why wouldn't I be worried? Actually, worried is the understatement of the year. I'm freaking out." He stopped to take a breath and thought of something. "What I don't understand is why you're here. You don't have to go this far – you and Juvia have never really been close."

Levy laughed sadly. "What, I thought that was obvious. You're denser than you look, you know?"

Gray rolled his eyes. "I'm not the only one asking dumb questions. C'mon, out with it."

"I care because Juvia is one of Gajeel's best friends," Levy said simply. "That idiot doesn't have many, you know, and Juvia is his oldest and closest. They know things about each other that no one else could. I don't think Gajeel could handle losing her." As awful as it was, the thought of Gajeel knowing things about Juvia that he didn't made Gray's intestines twist like spaghetti on a fork.

There was a long, painful silence before she whispered, "I don't want to see him… I don't want to see him get left alone like that. I have to do something."

Gray wished he could get up and walk away from the conversation. He didn't want to talk about this. He didn't want to think about it. But he owed it to Levy to be honest after she had explained all that to him.

"Truthfully, I have no clue why I'm panicking so badly," Gray admitted. "I just get this feeling… Like, if Juvia stopped showing up every day and doing her crazy shit, I'd lose my mind. If I couldn't ever see her smile or hear her laugh again, I might just stop existing. It's like life doesn't work right if Juvia's not in the middle of it screwing up the gears."

He hadn't expected the sudden bark of laughter from Levy, and he jumped. "What?" he muttered irritably. "You don't get to laugh when I say embarrassing stuff if I don't laugh when you say it."

Levy wrapped her arms around her aching stomach and gasped for air, completely ignoring him. Finally, she brushed tears away from the corners of her eyes and said weakly, "You really are an idiot, aren't you? I wasn't laughing because of what you said. I was just struck by the hilarity of your utter cluelessness."

"Wow. Thanks," Gray said sourly. "Are you done? Can we leave now?"

Levy hopped to her feet and dusted off her butt in a businesslike fashion. "Nope. You can wander around if you want, though. I hereby free you of your leash. Go gather info or buy souvenirs or something." She shooed him away from the stall like an annoying bug, flicking both her hands at him.

"Alright, alright, I'm going already!" he grumbled over his shoulder at her, slouching away into the seething crowd of shoppers.

Luckily for Gray, more than a few people had already left, freeing up enough space that it wasn't a necessity to guard his stomach from stray elbows. He squeezed through the crowd, stopping here and there to peer over shoulders at trinkets and tchotchkes. After a time, he noticed a stall that didn't have a single customer. Undeniably curious, he headed for the cart to check it out.

An ancient, wrinkled woman sat hunched on a stool behind the cart. She looked more like a prune than a person. "Um… Hi," Gray said, unsure if she was even awake. Or alive, for that matter. Her bulbous, purplish nose twitched, and rheumy grey eyes webbed with cataracts snapped open and she stared at him for a long moment. Then her thin lips spread wide in a delighted smile, revealing pinky-grey gums and exactly three yellow teeth.

"Well, if it isn't Danny!" she croaked happily. "How've you been? I haven't seen you in such a long time."

"Uh, ma'am," Gray said, afraid she might tackle him over the counter, "I'm not Danny."

She blinked. "You're not?"

"No, I'm not."

"Then who in Lordy's name are you, and what in the devil do you want?" she snapped, her lined face settling into a comfortable scowl. Gray stared at her.

"I just wanted to take a look at your…" He glanced down at the display of roughly-carved wooden somethings. "At your wares. You are selling, right?"

The old woman snorted. "Course I'm selling. What did you think I was doing, picking daisies?" She muttered to herself, "Youngsters these days."

"Right. Okay," Gray said. "Well, I'm just going to go now." He turned away, but a clawed hand shot out and grabbed his shoulder.

"Hold it," the old woman commanded imperially.

Gray twisted around to frown at her. "What?"

"You never told me your name. I wanna hear it. I always get the names of all my customers."

Gray thought about arguing that he wasn't a customer since he hadn't bought anything, but decided it was easier just to tell her. "I'm Gray Fullbuster, Fairy Tail mage. Can I go now?"

"Fairy Tail? You are?" The old woman looked him up and down, clearly unimpressed. "Humph." Gray resisted the urge to point to his Fairy Tail insignia and stick out his tongue like an eight-year-old. Instead, he stuffed his hands in his pockets.

"Look, it doesn't matter if you believe me or not. You wanted to know who I am, and I told you. I gotta go now."

"Slow down, child. I believe you. Stay a while, look around. You were interested, weren't you?" She pushed forward what looked like a half-melted monkey's head carved out of wood. "This one's a rare talisman I got from a wood-molding mage forty years ago. Cute, isn't it?"

Gray attempted a smile and picked up a wax doll. "What's this one?"

The old woman beamed at his question. "That's a voodoo doll. With the right incantations and one of your target's hairs, you can do anything to that doll and it'll be mirrored on your target's body till you undo the spell. Pretty handy, those things. I have at least a dozen of 'em at home."

Gray shivered and put the doll down carefully. Grisly images of what Juvia would do with a doll like that were dancing through his mind. "I don't think there's really anything I'm looking for here, but thanks anyway." He started to turn away and then paused. "Actually, you might be able to help me. Have you heard of a tribe that used to live around here called the People of the Rain?"

The old woman looked taken aback. "You know of 'em?"

Gray nodded. "I'm researching them to help my guild mate. She's…sick."

The old woman settled back on her stool and crossed her arms. "Well, I doubt anything you find on the People will help your friend get better."

"Why?" Gray asked, leaning forward. The monkey head fell off the cart and clattered onto the street, but both ignored it. "What makes you think that?"

She shrugged, her eyes focusing on a spot just above his left eyebrow. Gray wondered if she was going blind. "The People weren't medicinal folk. In fact, one could hardly call them a tribe. They were more of a cult, really. I doubt they had any sort of healing spells or recipes at all, certainly nothing rare or special."

Gray dismissed this statement easily. "I'm not looking for medicine. I just need to get anything I can find about these guys. Please, if you know anything, tell me." The old woman frowned.

"If you don't need medicine, then why–"

"Old lady, I'm begging you here. Please."

A long sigh left her lungs, and the old woman smiled a little. "Call me Grandma B. And I'll tell you, so clean out your ears and listen, 'cause I'm only saying this once." She bent forward slightly, and the cadence of her voice changed into a low, soft rhythm. "The People of the Rain were essentially a cult, like I said. They lived at the very top of this hill and they worshipped the rain. To them there was nothing greater, nothing more holy, than the rain that fell on this land. They believed that if a day ever passed that the rain did not fall, all life in Earthland would wither and die. Their leader was a man named Rennar, and it was rumored that he could summon the rain. Every morning at dawn, he would descend the hill and sit alone in the sacred shrine, performing the ceremony to make the rain fall. And every day, without fail, the rain would come."

"Do you know what the ceremony was?" Gray demanded, almost crawling onto the stall in his haste. "Can you tell me how to perform it?"

Grandma B shook her head in the way old people move – steadily but creakily, and very, very slowly. It seemed as though her withered neck might snap if she moved too fast. "It was the People's greatest secret, and more closely guarded than any treasure. No one knew the ritual but Rennar himself, and no one dared to follow and watch him in his daily routine."

Levy's face pushed its way into the forefront of Gray's mind, and he blinked. "Do you know if the People might have written it in a book of their ceremonies and rituals and stuff? Could it be in there?"

Grandma B's murky eyes widened. "A book of their rituals?"

"Yeah, like a record of all their tribal practices and other random stuff. Would it be in there?"

"Where did you get that?" the old woman hissed, nearly toppling off her stool as she lunged forward so her round nose was inches from Gray's chin. Gray leaned away from her sour breath, but she gripped him by the shoulders with ancient, warped fingers.

"My friend is translating it. I think she found it somewhere in Oak. Why? What's so special about it?"

Grandma B released him and began mumbling to herself. Gray was pretty sure she was speaking in another language, because what was coming out of her mouth sounded like utter nonsense. Finally, she glanced up at him. "Where is this friend now?"

Gray jerked his thumb over his shoulder in the direction he had come from. "Over there, poking through books."

"And the book? Where is the book?"

"I think she brought it with her," he said slowly. "Why are you so upset over some book?"

"Shut your yapper," the old woman snapped. "I'm trying to think."

Just then, Gray heard Levy's voice over the blend of chatter surrounding them. "Gray! Where are you?" He rose up onto his toes and squinted as he searched for the familiar blue spikes. As it was, she spotted him before he saw her, since the area immediately near him was void of people and she was considerably shorter (and therefore harder to find in a crowd) than the average adult. Levy approached him smiling cheerfully, clutching several thick books close to her chest. But the smile slipped off her face when she got close enough to see who he was standing next to. "It's you!" she accused, unwrapping one arm from her books to point at Grandma B, indignation thick on her pixie-like features.

The old woman narrowed her eyes at Levy for a moment before saying, in a rather rude tone of voice, "Do I know you?"

Levy let out a furious squeak. Her tiny body quivered with the force of her anger. "You're the nasty old woman who tried to take the book I had bought last time I was here! You seriously have the nerve to do something like that and then forget about it?" Levy's chest heaved. "You… You hag!"

"Whoa there, Levy," Gray said, trying to soothe her and restrain his laughter at the same time. "Just calm down a sec, okay?"

Grandma B let out a harsh, gleeful cackle. "Oh, you're that impudent girlie who liked to stick her nose where she shouldn't. To think she'd be your friend, boy. Poor decision, if you ask me."

"Wha–" Levy gasped, but Gray stuck out his arm to keep her from tackling the elderly woman.

"Levy, stop letting everything she says get your panties in a twist. You need to calm down. What were you talking about earlier?"

Levy took three long, deep breaths. Closing her eyes, she said, much more rationally, "Sorry, that was ridiculous of me. I was angry because when I was in Oak a few weeks ago, this woman tried to steal the book I had just bought. You know, that book."

"Yeah," Gray muttered grimly. "We were just talking about that book. She says the People had some sort of rain-calling ceremony, and I asked her if it might be in there."

Levy's eyes snapped open, and her head jerked around to stare at him. "Do you think that book could be the key to saving Juvia?"

"That's exactly what I mean. And since we don't have any better leads right now, you need to go back to Fairy Tail and get serious about translating that thing." When she didn't say anything, Gray reached out and gripped her shoulders. She was gazing wide-eyed at the pavement as if lost in thought. "Levy, I'm dead serious. Juvia's life could depend on you doing this. Please."

"Don't worry, I'll go," she assured him. "You don't need to beg. My business in Oak is done, anyway. Gajeel and I will take the next train back to Magnolia and I'll get started on translating it in earnest."

Uneasiness churned in the pit of Gray's stomach. It wasn't precisely that he didn't believe Levy – she had no reason to lie, and she wanted to protect Juvia as badly as he did. But she wouldn't look up from the cracked cement, and she wouldn't meet his eyes no matter how hard he tried to catch her gaze.

"Hey, Juvia, open the window!" Cana called, knocking loudly on the glass. Juvia glanced back at the long table where Porlyusica worked, but the old woman had fallen asleep sitting up. Her head nodded to the side and soft breaths puffed past her lips. Experimentally, Juvia placed her hand – or rather, the place her hand had once been – against the window and pushed. Nothing. The stub of her forearm bumped lightly against the glass and she stared unseeing at it for an endless moment, utter emptiness floating through her head. She couldn't seem to summon up anything to think of. Juvia had never experienced anything like it before; her overactive imagination made sure she always had something occupying her mind. But this time there was nothing.

"Juvia? What's the matter?" Cana's voice snapped her out of it. "Are you okay?"

"Juvia doesn't think the window will open. Just use the door; it should be unlocked."

Moments later, the door swung open softly and Cana stepped in, balancing a stack of books tucked between her cupped hands and her chin. "Hey," she said, with an awkward grin. "Damn girl, you have a lot of these things. How did they all fit under your bed?"

Juvia shrugged. "Juvia believes there are some things aren't meant to be understood. You can put them on the floor next to the bed." Cana went about the arduous task of setting the books down without letting the tower collapse, and Juvia looked on in silent amusement.

As Cana was stepping out the door, her mission accomplished, she turned back suddenly. "Juvia, don't worry, okay? Everyone's out looking for a way to help you. We'll definitely find a cure and save you, so just wait for us!" Her brows furrowed, and she bit her lip. Somehow Juvia was reminded of Jace as a child, when he was trying hard not to cry. "All you have to do is hang on, and let us do the rest, okay?"

"Cana–"

"That's all I wanted to say!" Cana declared loudly, flushing crimson down to her neck. She ran out, slamming the door behind her, before Juvia could get a word out.

"Juvia didn't get to say thank you," she mumbled miserably, frowning down at her missing hands. "That's not fair, Cana."

Yeah, so that happened. I don't really know what's going on any more than you people do, so asking at this point is about equivalent to asking a rock: I got nothing. Gut feelings are the name of the game, and this game will most likely continue until I've miraculously brought this story to a close. I have a decent-ish kind of idea about how it's maybe going to possibly end if I so choose, but the mean person in me wants to make everyone miserable in the exact way so many readers have begged me not to. It's really tempting, but if I get lots of support from my loving readers, I will endeavor to make Juvia and Gray happy people.

What's that you say? You want to know how you can support me as a loving reader to ensure that both halves of Gruvia end up alive–for all that is holy, everyone stop thinking. My brain waves must be clear – I am getting a vision of a way to blow all of your socks off, along with any other items of clothing you may be wearing. If you are, for any reason, not in the habit of wearing clothing while reading this fanfiction, I strongly suggest you put something on for the final chapter, just in case, or your epidermis may be ripped from your body, and I would hate to be responsible for that. A hat will do, if you're a nudist or something. Speaking of nudists, how does that work in the winter? Or really any season other than deep summer? I think I'd die of frostbite pretty damn quickly. Nudists have my respect, although I should probs admit I know nothing about nudism. Did you know that public nudity was not illegal in San Francisco in 2011? It wasn't. Oops, sorry. Off-topic. Anyway, I just got a really spectacular idea of awesomeness that I probably won't use because while it is awesome, I would in all likelihood cry buckets writing it (but, like, the good kind of buckets). Aaaaaaaaaaaaanyway, look forward to the last chapter! It's coming, I promise. Again, I apologize for the extreme lateness. It hopefully won't happen again; realistically you won't get another update on time for the duration of the publishing process of this fanfic.

Ah! Before I forget – If you want to send me your support in order to get the ending of happiness, make sure to write a review, favorite, follow, or send me a PM (or any combination of the above). Remember, if my willpower gives out, you will end up wailing and cursing my existence, so supporting me is really a very small price to pay. Loves all round!