"It's hard to love someone more than you can miss them."
- Anonymous
A few days had past since the funeral, but the dragon slayers were still consumed by grief. Most doubted that it would ever go away.
Whenever anyone attempted to speak to them, the dragon slayers would lash out, so everyone just avoided them now. In their own little secluded corner of the guild, Natsu, Gajeel, Laxus, Sting and Rogue were drinking away their sorrows.
Suddenly, the pink haired dragon slayer stood up and headed for the stairs, for the second floor, for Master Makarov's office. A path was cleared as he and his fellow dragon slayers trudged up and into the office without any hesitation of knocking.
After the door closed on them, the guild breathed a collective sigh of relief. The tension dissipated a bit, but guilt still hung thick in the air like a blanket; it was suffocating, oh, so suffocating.
--
One word was all it took for Natsu, Gajeel, and Laxus to disappear from Fairy Tail forever. Sting and Rogue had already left Sabertooth, so now they were all independent mages.
As the five descended the stairs with slightly happier looks on their faces, the guild watched curiously. Wendy timidly walked up from the cluster of people and tugged on Natsu's scarf. He flinched, but didn't react as she was a dragon slayer.
"Natsu-san, where are you, Gajeel-san, Laxus-san, Sting-san and Rogue-san going?"
The only answer that the small girl received was...
"Somewhere."
--
A while after the five had left the guild hall, they were grabbed by something -- someone -- and whisked off in a black hole.
--
"W-Who's there?!" A certain pink dragon slayer yelled as soon as they landed on solid ground again. No, he wasn't scared. His motion sickness was just kicking in.
"Brother, did you miss me?" A voice laughed, and a hand ruffled Natsu's pink hair while he was at it.
"H-Hey! Zeref-nii, stop! I'm not a little kid anymore!"
Despite the situation, all the six managed to laugh.
"So," the black-haired mage started, his tone turning serious. "As you may have guessed, I'm not here to chat with you over a cup of tea. Though, that wouldn't be such a bad idea." Zeref rolled his eyes as they all chuckled. When they had all stopped, the mage with obsidian black hair continued, his expression darkening. "I know what you've been through," the temperature on the room seemed to drop a degree. "But I'm not going to patronize you and say 'I'm sorry for your loss'." Some of the tension dissipated as relief flooded the features of the five boys. Seeing this, Zeref relaxed as a grin too, slid onto his face. "I'm here to help you move on, to help make your dreams a reality." And with that, he finished off, letting the offer hang in the air.
Natsu suddenly felt a weird sense of déjà vu. 'Huh?' The pink haired dragon slayer wondered. 'When have I seen this before? Oh well, whatever.'
Confirmation wasn't a hard thing to come by with the boys. Simultaneously, they agreed, ready to accept.
"And," Zeref continued once he saw the looks on their faces. "You can also make your own guild. You don't have anywhere else to go, am I wrong?"
Ouch. That was blunt and kinda harsh, but it was the truth. With tints of red on their faces, the dragon slayers agreed.
As newfound hope bubbled up from the depths, millions of thought raced through the minds of the brothers -- Zeref, Natsu, Gajeel, Laxus, Sting, and Rogue -- as grins stretched out on their faces.
'She's gone and never coming back, and dwelling on the past will constrict the future.'
'No one will suffer like we did.'
'This is the first step to protecting Fiore.'
'From the heavens, watch us. We'll prove that we can be more.'
'The Fateium will be your guardians.'