Romeo stared out at the sea, watching as the waves pushed over one another, crashing and rolling as they advanced to the shore, before they faded into the sand.

Fairy Tail was no more the happy-go-lucky guild it had been. Since the disappearance of the core members, the guild had become depressed. Their previously smiling faces turned sober and cold. Their previously loud guild hall turned silent.

Everyone was upset, with their tears and sobs and weeping, but there was one who had been the worst, and understandably so.

Lucy.

Romeo understood her pain, he understood that though they may all have lost their family and friends, they were even closer to the blonde. They had been her only family, after her mother's death and her father's neglecting, it was them who became her brother and sisters. Of course knew all the people left in the guild, but it was rare that she had spoken to them, most likely just shared greetings.

Lucy often sat at the bar, in her hands a strawberry milkshake, and she stirred it as she stared off into the distance. Sometimes, Bisca or Romeo would be sitting next to her, but more often than not she was alone, staring off into the distance as she emerged in her memories. Once Bisca pulled her out of her memories, handing the blonde a tissue to dry her tears, but Lucy had just stared at her, and whispered the fateful words.

"I'm all alone."

Everyone knew it, deep in their heart they knew they were now alone, but none of them had dared to say it, none of them had dared to speak it in fear there was some sort of chance it was false. But after Lucy had whispered the words, everyone froze, and the celestial mage had walked out of the guild with her head bowed low, in sadness or shame Romeo did not know.

Romeo worried about her, so did practically everyone else in the guild, they watched as she drowned in her sorrows. Master Macao wanted to help her, Romeo knew it was out of debt from the Vulcans that she and Natsu had saved him from, but also from kinship, because they were all that was left of their previously lively family.

But sometimes, Lucy and Romeo would sit at the doors of their guild, legs hanging off the edge as she watched people milling around the streets, most of them far away from the previously noble guild. They would talk in hushed whispers, she telling stories of her and Natsu's adventures, and Romeo her eager audience. She would tell of Natsu's destruction, her comments, which she admitted was often groans or moans, and Happy's teasing. She would tell of how much fun it was, and then she would look in in the eye and tell him the words he repeated every day to himself.

"They wouldn't die Romeo. They're the strongest mages in Fairy Tail; they wouldn't go down without a fight."

That was before…

That was before she left them.

It had been five years ago, and they could all see she was broken, but they didn't know how to fix her. Romeo had long suspected she wanted to leave, but he never asked her, in fear that her answer would confirm his suspicion, so he stayed quiet. It was his father who asked, and it was him who released her after she wept at his feet, speaking of the ghosts she saw and the pain she felt. She told him she had to go, that she couldn't continue like this.

So she left.

And she had never returned.

While Fairy Tail struggled, both emotionally and financially, she did not return. But Romeo never lost faith in her, he knew that she must be hurting too, but she didn't want them to see her pain, she didn't want them to worry.

He knew that as well as he knew that the pouches of jewels that were left on the bar counter every month came from her. Inside the pouch there was a varying amount, but it was always enough, more than they needed actually, varying from a hundred thousand jewels to somewhere around a million. Romeo told his father how he knew it was Lucy, but Fairy Tail's master always brushed it off, refusing to believe that she would do this, why she wouldn't give it to them herself. It was due to her that they still had their guild hall, the one piece of their old comrades that they had. Fairy Hills had been lost a long time ago, only Bisca had been living there before she moved in with Alzack, but they had kept a few of their lost family's belongings, and they had their own special place in the corner of the guild with all other memories of the core members.

But so far, the day had been an ordinary day, the same sadness lingering around then all like a thick fog, Romeo had his nose in a book, just how Lucy used to, and it was now that he realised what was so special about books, they opened a new world to their reader, gave them a getaway from the real world.

Then the doors were pushed open, and all eyes darted to the figures standing in the doorway.

Lamia Scale.

There was Jura Neekis in the middle, with Lyon Vastia on his left and Sherry and Chelia Blendy on his right. They looked around with smiles on their faces.

"Hi guys!" Chelia greeted, just receiving blank stares as she smiled at them.

"We have good news!" Sherry shouted with a wide grin on her features, but still no one reacted, unsure of what this good news would be.

"We have a trace," Lyon explained, "There's a possibility that they aren't gone."

"Tenrou Island still exists," Jura stated.

Then there was a reaction. Bisca gasped, her hand, which as in Alzack's, moved to grab him and pull him into a hug as they both let out laughs of surprise and relief, and most importantly of hope. Wakaba fell off his chair in shock, and it was Master Macao who helped him up, both of them beaming. Jet and Droy started wailing for Levy in delight as they held onto one another. Max Alors and Warren Rocko let out some sort of shout of relief and high fived one another, a beaming and crying Reedus next to them, while Laki who was behind them started crying with Kinana. Asuka was bouncing up and down on the floor in front of her parents, but it was Romeo, who had put his book down, who asked the question that everyone wasn't thinking.

"How do you know?" he asked, and Master Macao looked to his son in concern, thinking his son would have been over the moon.

"Why don't you come and see?" Jura suggested with a small smile, and everyone erupted into cheers, but Romeo did not join in.

He couldn't get the image out of his head, he couldn't get rid of his fears, that they would find the island empty, or that it would be littered with the bodies of their comrades. He wouldn't go, he couldn't, in fear of what there might be there if they weren't there.

While Master Macao was deciding who would go, Romeo just picked his book back up and went back to its world, relishing in the characters and their world of fairy tales and lies as he tried to block out his family.

"Romeo?" Master Macao called for him, "Aren't you going to go?"

"No," Romeo stated, not even looking up from his book.

Romeo was in his own world, the world of his book. Lamia Scale had left to help the search party, and now the guild was just left with excited giggles and hushed whispers of disbelief. But Romeo ignored it all, much to his father's surprise. Everyone in the guild was excited, nervous, disbelieving, except for him, the by was just reading his book with a look of annoyance on his face. Master Macao went to ask him why he was not excited, when the guild doors was pushed open.

"Hello Fairy scum!" one of them sneered, and with horror Master Macao pushed himself up and went to call on his magic as he recognised them to be Team Twilight Ogre, but then he saw the contains her carried, and now emptied on the guild floor, and froze where he was. The poured the petrol across the floor, smirked plastered on their faces as they did it.

"What are they doing?!" Laki cried, and Macao put a hand out to stop his son form attacking.

"It's petrol," he explained to his son who shot him an annoyed look, "If we use our magic the whole building will explode."

"Why are they doing this?!" Kinana exclaimed, and there was a series of cackled from the figures, but it was their leader who spoke up.

"'Cause we can!" he cried, and he turned on a fire lacrima and dropped it into the petrol, "And besides, we just don't like you Fairy scum!"

Before anymore words could be said, they dropped the cans and ran out of the guild, cackling as they went. Immediately Master Macao started shouting orders.

"Get out!" he roared, and he pushed Romeo forwards closer to the door.

Then the guild exploded.

Romeo blinked his eyes open, taking in the rubble that he realised with horror was his guild. His eyes frantically searched for the rest of his guildmates, and he saw some of them pushing through the rubble, and others standing at the sides in tears. Master Macao was supporting Wakaba as they put up, and Laki was bandaging Kinana's wounds. Reedus was pushing through the rubble, before he pulled out a heavily burned sketchbook that Romeo knew contained his drawings of their lost comrades. Romeo pushed himself up, pushing the rubble off his and he heard his father pass Wakaba onto Laki as she had finished Kinana's wounds.

"ROMEO!" his father shouted.

"I'm fine dad," Romeo brushed himself down as he stood up and walked out of the rubble, noticing the cuts and bruises that covered his skin, from the rubble and exploding glasses.

Romeo looked from the glum faces to the burnt rubble. They had lost everything, not only had they lost their family, they had now lost their home too. He felt his fists clench in anger, they had failed. They were such failures they could not even protect a building for their family to come back to, if they were ever going to come back, if they weren't dead.

"What happened?!" the voice Romeo recognised to be Bisca asked us, and he suddenly remembered she had been in the search party. Romeo spun around to see all of his family, his lost comrades and his previously sullen family.

"Guys…" he whispered, looking from Natsu to Gray to Master Makarov, "You're back!"

A tear fell down his cheek as he looked at their faces, not a day old than when they had left.

"Yeah Romeo," Natsu confirmed, before he flashed me his signature smirk, "We're back."