Stronger Than You (Graylu)

A Year Without Them

A/N: Sorry for the massive time skips in this chapter, I just dont want to give you the step by step of how they train for a whole year, cause that's boring, hope you enjoy!xxx

The Guild was hysterical. A whole week had passed since three of it's members had gone missing. Juvia Lockser, Cana Alberona and Lucy Heartfilia. Their faces were everywhere. On posters, billboards and the front cover of every issue of Sorcerers Weekly along with an article. Missing mages. Affiliated with Fairy Tail. If seen please contact Guild Master Makarov. It seemed that everyone in Fiore had seen their faces but no one had actually seen them. 

"You okay?" 

The woman who had spoken was none other than Erza Scarlet. She had taken the role of manager of the situation at hand. She had been the one to contact the newspapers and she'd organised the posters to be put up. Taking control was one of the things in life that Erza was good at, although she never saw herself having to take control of a situation like this. She never wanted to organize search parties for her comrades.  

The man she had been talking to shook his head and didn't talk. He hadn't been doing much of that over the past couple of days, talking. Erza knew how tough the situation was for him at the moment. Both the girl he loved and the girl who loved him were missing, not to mention one of his first ever friends in the guild. It was tougher on him  than anybody else and naturally he was worried sick. He didn't smile or laugh or eat. The corners of his mouth were constantly pulled down into a frown, and Erza didn't even want to think of what he was like when no one else was around. 

Without a word Gray Fullbuster stood up from his seat. "I'm not coming back until I've found them" he said defiantly. 

"Gray, you cant-" 

"All of them!"

It was raining outside. That reminded him of Juvia. The stars were out. That reminded him of Lucy. And Cana? The whole place reminded him of her. Mangolia was Cana's town, she was there before he ever was. I'm gonna save you one more time Lucy, don't worry, he thought. I'm gonna save all of you. 

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*two months later*

The guild hall was warm but quiet. Everyone was looking at the figure who had entered, looking completely defeated. Two people and a cat approached him. 

"I thought I'd better check, in case they'd come back" the one who'd just entered said. 

A pink haired dragon slayer shook his head. "There's been no sign of them, I don't understand it" . 

"So you haven't found Lu-Chan Gray? Or the others?" a blue haired mage asked. Gray didn't answer Levy, and looked down at his feet, fighting back tears. Levy couldn't manage to fight hers back, turning away from the scene. Gray made his way painfully towards a chair. He moved slowly and heavily, as if being pulled back towards the door he with shackles. He was chained to the task that he had set himself, to find his comrades and keep them safe. 

He was about to sit when he noticed something. Three faces, painted and stuck to the wall next to a large map. Areas all over the world, not just in Fiore, had been crossed out. Some had been circled them crossed out again. Very few spaces remain blank. Gray went over to the map. 

"What's this?" he asked, more for confirmation than anything else. 

"Where we've looked" Erza answered, coming up behind him. "We've been welcoming international missions in the hopes of finding them, handing out fliers, putting up posters and just generally asking around." She explained.  

"What do the circles mean?" 

"They are places where we thought we found something, but all of those have been ruled out. Like in Flores, Gajeel thought he found Cana's scent, so we started a search party there, but it turned out that it was only a mile from where they produce her favorite alcohol. Or in Liber someone said they saw a masked female with Celestial keys with two other masked people, but it turned out Yukino, Sting and Rouge were on a undercover job there."