October 1, x775

'The last few weeks sure have flown' I thought to myself as I walked through the guild, deftly avoiding a thrown tankard as Fairy Tail devolved into a brawl.

I had gone on a few more jobs over the last few weeks, a couple more pest exterminations, some ingredient gathering with Cana and that magic shop job, but nothing exciting. I was saving up my money for the future at the moment, it was really easy to build a nest egg when your food was cheap and your room and board were free.

Well I say free, but Gray had shown me his and Cana's system for living at the orphanage; it wasn't required, but they had been sneaking around ten percent of their job money into the charity box at the orphanage ever since they'd lived there. It wasn't much, but it helped keep the lights on for Father Brock and the kids, and that was enough for us.

Still, that saved up money of mine was going to go to good use in a few years, I had plans that would need quite a bit of savings built up to ensure I didn't go bankrupt over any periods of time when I couldn't go on a job.

Clearing my thoughts, I smiled as I approached the bar, where Cana was playing around with her cards and Gray was… brooding?

That kid is way too young to be doing that.

"Did you guys hear?" A wizard who's name I hadn't learned yet asked as I sat down. At our confused looks, he smiled widely before continuing, "Gildarts will be back soon!" With that, he grabbed Gray's mug and chucked it at someone's head before disappearing into the brawl.

Gray looked somewhat excited, smiling a little for once in his life, while Cana…

Cana looked like she was going to vomit from anxiety as she quietly shook against the bar.

"You alright Cana?" I asked, wrapping a shoulder around her. She nodded and gave me a shaky smile that wouldn't have fooled a blind man.

"Y-yeah, I'm f-f-fine, w-why wouldn't I be?" She tried to say innocently, Gray and I both looked at her with a raised eyebrow. She looked away from us nervously, "I-it's nothing…" I saw Gray narrow his eyes but he didn't say anything else.

I squeezed Cana's shoulder and smiled at her, "We're your friends Cana, you know you can talk to us whenever you need to, right?" She gave me a watery smile before throwing an arm around Gray and I and pulling us into a hug. "

"You guys are the best." She said quietly, I noticed Gray quietly grumbling, but he didn't try to escape the hug. I hugged her back quietly.

'What should I do?'

'I wonder how Cana's doing', she was pretty shaken up about Gildarts coming back' I thought to myself as I walked out of the bathroom the next morning; brushing my hair out of my eyes. 'Gonna need a haircut soon…' I sighed as I rubbed my eyes before heading out the door, barely avoiding knocking into Cana…

"Cana?" I asked surprisedly, "What are you doing up this early? Are you alright?" The "You look terrible" was left implied, as I had enough sense to not say that aloud if I wanted her to speak to me for the next week.

Cana rubbed her eyes, her hair, usually kept up in a ponytail, was unkempt, and her dress was wrinkled and backwards. She looked up at me with tired eyes, blinking heavily before finally answering. "I-I wanted to see your exercises?" She said in the most unconvincing lie I'd ever heard in my life.

"Cana, it's seven thirty, I've already done my exercises." She blinked a few times, before finally balking.

"Already?!" I rolled my eyes before deciding to help my friend out, taking her by surprise as I gently grabbed her arm and led her out to the yard where we could talk without waking up anyone else, or risking anyone but Father Brock (the sneaky old man) eavesdropping.

Sitting her down against the lone tree behind the church, I looked around for anyone else before plopping down beside her and crossing my legs. "What are we doing?" Cana asked curiously as I closed my eyes.

"I'm going to meditate, if you want to, you're free to join me." I said before I began my breathing exercises, "If you don't know how, just do as I do." I murmured as I began looking inwards, feeling my magic flow through me before paying more attention to the sounds around me over going deeper.

Cana tried her best, it was obvious someone had taught her how to meditate, but it wasn't long after her breaths evened out that they became soft snores. I opened my eyes and smiled at her before beginning to actually meditate so I wouldn't disturb her.

My senses told me it had only been an hour before someone came out the door and pulled me from my meditation. I opened my eyes to see a shirtless Gray looking between us with narrowed eyes. I quickly shushed him before he spoke, pointing to Cana, "She's asleep." I warned him in a soft voice, he nodded irritably.

Or maybe that was just a normal nod, Gray always seemed irritable to me.

"What's she doing up so early?" He whispered to me, I shrugged.

"I think she had a nightmare or something, there were bags under her eyes, and they were bloodshot." Gray pinched his nose.

"She's having nightmares again?!" Gray grumbled, I looked at him with an eyebrow raised before he explained. "It's happened every now and then since I joined the guild, probably before then too. She'll wake up in the middle of the night and be real scared and sad all day afterwards. She won't tell me what's bugging her, not that I wanna know or anything!" He quickly denied, huffing slightly as I looked at him flatly. He rolled his eyes at me, "If she doesn't want us to know, we'll never know, unless you want to spy on her as she's sleeping or something."

"Maybe we cou-"

"Dad! No! Please!" Cana shouted out as she roughly awoke, her head whipping around wildly as she began to realize she was awake. I leaned over and placed a hand on her shoulder, her eyes were wild for a moment before she blinked and suddenly remembered where she was. "D-did I fall asleep?" She asked embarrassedly, I nodded. "Sorry Helio, I didn't mean too…"

"It's not a problem, Cana," I assured her before turning completely towards her. "Are you alright? That sounded like some nightmare you just had." Cana looked away for a moment, tears shining in her eyes as she thought something over.

"You can tell us anything, you know that right? Gramps isn't just spewing crap when he says the guild's a family you know." Gray cut in, his head turning away from us as he spoke. Cana looked up at the two of us, obviously conflicted before she nodded to herself.

When she spoke, it was in a sad tone, her voice wavering slightly, but it was clear that she was determined to say her piece. "My mother died when I was little, she told me to come to Magnolia and find my dad here." She shook slightly with suppressed sobs as she spoke "He's a member of Fairy Tail, and everyone loves him, but I can't tell him who I am! I'm not good enough yet!" She took a deep breath before she continued, "It's Gildarts... "

Gray did the appropriate response of jaw dropping and "Whaaaa?!" I just blinked and shrugged before standing up and holding out a hand to help Cana.

"You're taking this way too well Helio…" Cana said warily as she took my hand. I shrugged again as I pulled her up and into a hug. She melted into it as I patted her on the back, rubbing slight circles as she suppressed what sounded like a muffled sob.

"A rose doesn't decide where to grow, and a child can't choose their parents. If Gildarts is your Dad, then we should tell him. Whether you feel good enough or not. If he's as awesome as the rest of the guild thinks he is, then he'll be a great Dad, no problems whatsoever!" I was of course cheating with my knowledge of how Gildarts reacted to Cana being his child, but hopefully Gray and I could get her to tell Gildarts before she let it simmer for another nine years.

Cana shook in my arms slightly, but I couldn't tell if she was crying from the support I was giving, or fear that Gildarts would hate her. Luckily I didn't need to find out as had finally rebooted and was working again. "Yeah! Helio's right Cana! Gildarts will love you!" He sounded slightly forced, likely because Gray has trouble being anything but broody or irritable, but he at least sounded sincere enough.

"Thank you…" she whispered, just barely loud enough for either of us to hear it. She nuzzled into my shoulder and hugged me a little harder.

Cana shook again, and this time I tried to lean back to see her face, only to realize that the shaking she was doing wasn't crying, but rather snoring as she'd fallen asleep again. I looked up at Gray with a flat expression.

"I hope she remembers this, because I am not staging another one." Gray simply grumbled and stomped away.

Luckily, Cana was light, and thus I didn't need Gray to help me carry Cana back to the girls' room and after a silent point by one of the others, I had her laid out in her bed.

Deciding that Cana would probably be out for the next few hours, I scribbled out a note and placed it on the edge of her bed before I headed for the guild. I needed to try to get a concrete date on Gildarts' return, and maybe see if I couldn't find a job for Gray, Cana and I to do so we could talk about it without risking anyone overhearing.

Thankfully the walk to the guild was quick, and Master Makarov was alone on the bar, which made it easy enough to ask him about Gildarts' return without anyone but him being curious.

"He said a couple of weeks, but knowing Gildarts, it's probably safer to say it's closer to three than that. He's a bit absentminded at times, so he'll probably get lost somewhere along the way." He raised an eyebrow at me, "Any particular reason you wanted to know?" I shrugged at him.

"Everyone seemed pretty excited to hear the news, so I thought I'd ask." It wasn't necessarily a lie, but it wasn't the whole truth. Makarov nodded with a slight smile.

"Gildarts isn't around as much as we'd really like. He normally takes the more dangerous and long lasting jobs so he can have a bit of a challenge. He's our Ace, after all." He chuckled, "He'd be considered for the Wizard Saints if he could quit destroying things." He sipped from his mug "Keep my wallet a lot thicker too." He mumbled, I had the feeling I probably wasn't supposed to hear that part. I walked over to the request board as I turned the information over in my head.

It wasn't hard to understand why Cana felt like she had to get to S-Class to tell Gildarts, she had one hell of a legacy she felt she had to live up to, after all. Still, Gildarts had the right to know, and it would be far easier on both of them to get it out there before Cana was too old to really need her father in her life.

Granted, I don't think 9 year old Cana will appreciate the over protectiveness that much more than 18 year old Cana, but at least she'll get to experience it far earlier.

Now we just had to get her to actually tell Gildarts, hopefully without the need to do something insane to get Cana to fess up. I really didn't like my sudden idea of having to fight him to get Cana to admit the truth.

I looked over the request board, discarding the ones I knew we couldn't do out of hand, no matter how fun it sounded to go take on bandits or monsters together. A lot of the higher ranked jobs we could take were thrown out as well, we needed to talk, not be focused on fighting.

Thankfully, there were a few ingredient gathering jobs to be done, and Cana, Gray and I could handle those and get this conversation out of the way as quickly as possible.

PLANT RETRIEVAL

RANK: C

I'm looking for someone to retrieve a magical plant from the depths of the East Forest, the elusive Moon's Tear, please come see me at the Hotel Latham for details.

PLACED BY: Grammy Chira

REWARD: 50,000 JEWEL

Yes, this one would do nicely, close enough to be back by supper, possibility to fight things like Gorians, and we could talk on the way in and out. The cut wouldn't be the greatest between all three of us, but I could live with that. I'd split my reward between Cana and Gray if I needed to.

I took the job from the board and looked around for Gray, but it seemed like he was training or going clothes shopping for the third time in as many weeks, so I'd need to find him after I ate.

Thankfully, Gray was easy enough to find, training in his boxers by the shores of Sciliora Lake. He was a little uncomfortable with the idea of having to talk to Cana about telling Gildarts, but he decided to go along with it.

Cana showed up at the guild by noon, and after quite a bit of stuttering and finger twiddling, finally allowed herself to be dragged out of the guild hall and straight to our client. Cana didn't speak at all on the trip to the guild to the Hotel Latham, and we didn't try to engage her, we could both tell she was well on her way to just running off if we pushed her too hard.

Hotel Latham was a nice enough hotel, from what I could see. It wasn't some luxury resort, but it wasn't a rat's nest either, it looked clean enough as we went to our client's room.

Grammy Chira looked like a rather stereotypical hag, if I was being honest. Oh sure, she seemed nice enough, but when a woman has a wart and a big crooked nose to go with her stringy white hair and beady eyes, hag is the first word to come to mind. Her voice was rather grating as well, I decided, as she told us about the Moon's Tear and the importance of the picking method. That being a young maiden picking and transporting it without any use of magic to contaminate it.

Certainly explains why she hired a guild to get it for her.

She sent us off without much fanfare once we recited the instructions to her and shut the door rather unceremoniously.

As we entered the East Forest I finally started talking to Cana. Gray looked like the tension would drive him mad if I didn't.

"So, Gildarts will be back in about three weeks according to the Master," I said casually, looking over at the two. We had Cana in between us, mostly to keep her from bolting. Cana shivered slightly, clearly remembering our conversation before she'd passed out this morning. "I was thinking we either wait until everyone is finished mobbing him, or we ambush him outside of town to get it all out of the way as quickly as possible. I'm open for either one, personally, but I think we should get it over with quickly."

Cana shivered slightly as she nodded along. "Are you sure we should tell him now, though?" The poor girl sounded so terrified that I almost wanted to call it all off and let her keep her secret, but that would just be worse. I pushed through my hesitance at the pitiful look on her face and nodded resolutely.

"Yes, the sooner he knows, the better, in my opinion. If you keep pushing it off further and further, you'll regret it for the rest of your life. You never know when one of you might not come home, after all." Cana looked stricken, and Gray looked pained. He'd been quiet except for when he had almost mockingly recited the instructions to our client, but he spoke up now.

"Helio's right, Cana. You need to tell him." His voice held a cord of steel, without any of the harshness I'd come to associate with Gray's voice. I looked at him in surprise for his sudden interjection, but he was stubbornly facing forwards.

Granted, I suppose I should have seen that coming, who knows how many things Gray had wanted to tell his parents or Ur before they'd died?

Oh shit, that reminds me, I have to find Lyon. Preferably before he starts fucking with Galuna Island.

I shook my head and focused on the now, I could deal with those problems in the future, after I'd dealt with this one.

Cana was silent for the next few minutes, her brow furrowed as she stared at the ground, only Gray and I's gentle nudges and pulls keeping her from tripping on the underbrush. We were near our destination before she spoke once more. "You guys are right." She said, her near whisper echoing through the clearing. Gray and I both turned to look at her, she still sounded so terrified at the prospect that I wasn't sure she meant it, but her eyes flashed with determination when she looked up at us.

"I'll tell him when he gets back, I will!" Her gaze flicked between us for a moment, "You'll both be there for me, right?" I met Gray's gaze around Cana's shoulder and nodded at him. With a small grumble, he threw an arm around her shoulder as I grabbed her in a hug.

"Cana, you didn't even need to ask."

"Be a pretty bad friend if I wasn't."

Her smile was nearly blinding, even in the dimness of the deep forest, and I could just make out Gray giving her an actual smile.

Our huddle was broken a few moments later as we realized we really needed to get a move on if we wanted to get this job done before dark, but Cana kept that small smile on her face the whole time.

Finding the plant wasn't hard at all. The drawing had been spot on, almost down to the last detail. The Moon's Tear looked more like a jewel than a plant, a teardrop shaped thing with a sapphire glow.

Gathering it had been easy enough as well, for all that we'd been made to recite it over and over to the woman before we'd been dismissed. Cana, after handing me her cards and the little handbag she kept them in; had simply picked it like one would a cabbage.

It had been simple really, a simple pickup and away we were; making sure Cana was between us the entire time in case we were attacked. We were making great progress too, the sun was still well above the horizon, and then it happened.

"That was too easy!" Gray had innocently bragged, and as if Murphy himself had been listening from on high, that was when disaster struck.

"Woooomaaaaaaan…" Came a dark, gravelly voice, accompanied by the sounds of something very large moving very fast. For a long, terrible moment, we were all practically frozen in place before Gray and I were pushing Cana between us as we circled around her, scanning the bushes for our pursuer.

"It's a Gorian!" I whispered urgently. Cana was shaking, the plant in her arms wobbling back and forth like luminescent jello. "Cana, stay between us, unless you can set that thing down where it won't be destroyed, you've got to stay where we can protect you, okay?" She nodded unsteadily.

Unfortunately, before we could properly strategize, the Gorian descended from the treetops in an explosion of movement, massive hands already stretched out and reaching for Cana.

"WOMAN! YOU'RE MINE!"

"Flare!" I fired it straight at the beast's face, blinding it slightly as the attack made contact, and the smell of burnt hair wafted over us. "Gray! Try to keep it still! We can't let it get Cana!"

"Got it!" He called back, wisps of ice already emitting from his clenched hands. "Ice Make: Ice Geyser!" Unlike my journals' recollections, his attacks took a moment to form, instead of near instantaneously. Gray seemed to know how much he needed to compensate though, as it still trapped the Gorian's ankles as it ran over the magic circle that the geyser had burst from.

Suddenly off balance, the monster fell over, its jaw slamming into the dirt with a meaty thud. It immediately began kicking within its confines, the ice already beginning to crack.

With an urgency I'd not felt in weeks, I had my next spell prepared even faster than the last. "Flare Punch!" The heat of my spell burned off the fur around its face before I'd even made contact, increasing the stench from before, but it certainly hurt the monster far more than my first attack had.

"You…." It growled at me, the bare skin around its face and where it had once had hair was a mix of raw pink and burnt black. "I kill you first…" Then it let out a deafening roar as it broke free of the ice, sending splinters of it flying through the clearing, shattering against the trees and buffeting the three of us. I caught a glimpse of Cana spinning around to shield her front and the plant from damage as I dodged out of the way of the Gorian's maddened lunge.

"Gray! Little help!" I screamed, throwing Sunburn after Sunburn at it. I admit I might have slightly panicked, just a little, as I scrambled in the dirt, just barely avoiding its next swipe. "Anytime now!"

"I'm working on it!" He shouted, "Ice Make: Hammer!" A warhammer half the size of the Gorian formed above its head but missed and instead hit its spine, producing a mighty crack as it made impact, causing the Gorian to howl in anger and confusion as it suffered an onslaught from multiple directions.

With the pressure off, I wasted no time in pressing the attack once more, my hands lighting up the clearing as I prepared my next attack, "Flare Punch!" My strike hit the Gorian directly in its left eye, and I had to hold back a retch as I felt it crush beneath my fist. Normally an attack like that would have put just about anyone or anything down for the count, the trauma would just be too much. Not for a Gorian, though.

Luckily, it seemed Gray didn't hear the eyeball pop, else I'm afraid he would have hesitated and this fight would have had a much more gruesome end.

"Ice Make: Lance!" Luckily for me, who had just barely avoided becoming this thing's new stress ball, the attack flew true and struck the Gorian in the base of its skull. There was a soft squelch and it was over. The Gorian fell over like a puppet with its strings cut, and moved no more.

We all stood around the clearing for a moment in shock, before it finally sunk in that we'd won. All of a sudden, it seemed as though the fight hadn't happened. Where Gray and I both had been slumped slightly in exhaustion, we suddenly had all the energy in the world. We whooped and hollered and jumped around in excitement, and it was only pure dumb luck that we didn't end up crushing the plant between the three of us. Cana had joined in the celebration, but it seemed she was the only one to have a clear enough head to keep this having been for nothing.

With our heads held high, the three of us arrived back in Magnolia just as the sun began to set behind the taller buildings, casting long shadows across the streets. We returned to the Hotel Latham and proudly displayed the plant to her, wearing our dirt and scuffs like medals.

She looked at the three of us with a narrowed gaze, from Gray to I (Cana still being in the middle, of course) and with her harsh reedy voice, commanded us to come inside so she could pay our reward.

"I hadn't expected the three of you to return so quickly, so I don't have it ready quite yet…" she trailed off before suddenly turning around and cracking the Moon's Tear open over Cana's head, soaking her from head to toe in its luminescent juices. Gray and I froze for all of a second, but that's all it took for her to turn on us with a spell on her lips; and before we could even begin to defend ourselves, we were out like a light.

A/N: Not sure how I feel about splitting this arc into parts, but I feel that in order to do it justice, it's best if I do so. It's easier for me to write it if I cut it into 3-5k chapters, and it's easier for you to read it as well.

As an aside, if I had had Helio join Fairy Tail any later than this (Originally x776, or even x777 bringing Mystogan and Wendy with him) Cana would have long since found a way to better hide her problems, to the point that Helio would have had to reveal his meta knowledge to bring it up. But nine year old Cana, who only really spends time with Gray, who has problems of his own? Oh, he got real lucky to have been hanging out with her when Gildarts' return was announced.

See y'all next time!

EDIT 01/17/2022: Fixed a few inconsistencies. Sorry if you thought it was a new chapter!