Yo! This story contains Manga Spoilers up to (halfway into) Chapter 428 and a few from beyond!

Anyway, I went all out and used the angst week prompts as an excuse to write an AU where the events of Chapter 428 didn't turn out exactly the way they were supposed to, leading to the worst case scenario for Fairy Tail (doesn't get much angstier than that!) Thus, things like Gray's situation and E.N.D. are going to be a little different...

(Rated T for implied violence, slight language, heavy themes, and DEATH- but not yet. I don't plan on going to any utter extremes, but a later rating bump is possible.)

Even the Devil Was Once an Angel

~Bonus Prompt 1: Perfect Disaster/Ever After~
.:The Festering Nightmare:.

He never thought it would be this bittersweet.

Despite the relatively upbeat feel of the celebration that was currently taking place around him, Natsu Dragneel felt hollow inside; hollow with an emptiness that was proving to be impossible to fill the more he actually tried. One would think he of all people would be able to stuff such solemn feelings away for even a little while. Especially when Fairy Tail was having a shindig. Especially when the celebration was for the much relieving defeat of Acnologia- the party being thrown by what few members of Fairy Tail Natsu and Lucy had managed to scrounge from the corners of Fiore.

It had been during that valiant quest to rebuild Fairy Tail -one that had taken weeks upon weeks and was still sort of going- that the one-armed dragon king decided to rear its ugly mug in search of a rematch against its fairy adversaries. It looked just as insatiable as it did the day it sunk them and Tenrou over eight years ago, and as ornery as it did when it faced off against and voraciously slaughtered Igneel. Of course, Natsu made damn sure there was nothing left of that wretched abomination, and thanks to his yearlong training expedition, he was finally able to live up to his Dragon Slayer name, and hopefully making his father proud in whatever dragon heaven he happened to be in.

Of course, he hadn't taken down the demonic beast alone, as much as he would have loved to soak up all the credit. Gajeel muscled in on the action, stepping away from his councilman duties under the claim that "Acnologia was a convict that needed a death sentence". Sting and Rogue had come running as soon as they'd heard, and Natsu had found Laxus again not too long before the attack. And the only reason Cobra had been around was because Erza had teamed up with Jellal's group over the past year…

Needless to say, it was the dragon attack during the Grand Magic Games all over again…but they prevailed completely this time and made sure there wasn't a single trace of the monstrosity left over. They had removed a huge threat from the world, so of course this required a party! They all had lived up to the name of the magic they practiced, and most importantly, Natsu had been able to avenge his father, and yes, it did feel pretty damn good.

He just wished all of Fairy Tail could have seen it, or at least partook in the festivities.

Sure, he and Lucy managed to gather nearly all of the Tenrou Group plus a few extras, but that was it. Bisca, Alzack, and Asuka had gone to Bisca's homeland, Wakaba and his family were living a simple domestic life, while Romeo and Macao were off traveling in the next kingdom over. Even Cana was hard to find, given that she'd crossed paths with Gildarts somewhere along the way and decided to stick with him…and after the tiresome battle against Acnologia, no one in the current group was in any condition to go the distance to collect them all. Natsu was severely disappointed, but there wasn't really much he could do about it but accept it.

Many various others –Max, Laki, Warren, and Nab amongst them- had completely started new lives, and simply wished not to return to rebuild Fairy Tail. Oh, Natsu had tried dragging them along regardless, but Lucy had talked him down from his actions, reminding him that they had no right to force anyone to do anything they didn't want to. Natsu eventually gave them all his blessing, but it still hurt just the same. The worst of all had to be when Laxus revealed that Makarov had kicked the bucket along the way, and that was what crushed any little sliver of hope Natsu had of returning Fairy Tail to its former glory. It had been hard news to swallow for everyone, but all they could do was hopefully pick up the pieces of the shattered guild and help to see it live on.

Not at the party -but at least was back in Fairy Tail- was Wendy, the only Dragon Slayer to not participate in the fierce battle against Acnologia, but that was because she was still busy tending to the worsening Juvia…

Juvia, whose condition was deteriorating and the only one with the cure was…unavailable, at best.

Natsu swallowed hard, because thinking about Juvia made him think about Gray…and that was something he didn't want to think about. They had yet to spread the news to her about his and Gray's fateful encounter –one interrupted by Gajeel and the Magic Council that allowed Gray to make a run for it- but what Natsu had managed to get out of their confrontation was that the Gray they once knew was probably never coming back. And Natsu really didn't want to be the one to break it to Juvia…but she deserved to know, next time he saw her.

As much as he wanted to keep his promises to Juvia and Lucy, Natsu couldn't waste all his time being focused on Gray. There had been other members he needed to bring home, and while the handful he gathered was nothing more than "just the start"…he knew deep in his fiery gut that was more than likely as far as he was going to get. And it really, really sucked.

He tried taking his mind off his heavy thoughts by observing his old guild mates and allies actually enjoying the party at the bottom of the little hill he was brooding on, but he couldn't seem to get into the mood himself. Erza and Jellal had loosened up a bit and were sharing a dance, along with Elfman and Evergreen, while Bickslow provided the music. Mirajane and Lisanna were passing out all sorts of refreshments, which Jet, Droy, and Happy were enjoying heartily. Lily had even tricked Gajeel into a dance with Levy- with some help from Freed, who had placed a relatively harmless enchantment on Gajeel. Sting and Rogue couldn't stay long as they had to return to their own guild, while Meredy and the Oracion Seis just hung off to the sides and tried not to make any scenes.

Things were almost normal, as it was just as boisterous as any other Fairy Tail-thrown bash. But it just didn't sit right with Natsu- he missed Macao's bad jokes, Cana's drinking competitions, Asuka happily running around, the all-out fights, and Makarov himself…sure, it might have been a Fairy Tail party, but it wasn't a complete one.

And once again, he reminded himself that they would probably never get one again.

"What's wrong, Natsu?"

Natsu's eyes lazily rolled up to meet Lucy's approach, latching her arm behind her back as she gave him an inquisitive pout. He'd tried to alleviate her concern with his usual room-brightening grin, but at this point it wasn't going to be enough to fool her. She was physically fine, but she looked so emotionally worn and tired, and yet kept a melancholy smile on her face.

…hmm, somewhat like how he felt.

"It's not like you to be off by yourself like this- I figured you would have at least gotten your fair share of Mira's snacks by now."

There was a melodic chuckle to her tone as she sat herself down next to him and hugged her knees to her chest. Her hair fell freely over her shoulders as she turned to face him, but he couldn't look her in the eye. He was too busy envying the casualness in her tone, like everything was fine at the moment.

"I guess I'm just not in a party mood." Natsu merely shrugged as the admittedly forced smile started to slide off his face.

"Aw, come on!" Lucy insisted, leaning playfully into his shoulder. "You took down Acnologia! A named feared by many and seldom ever spoken…! You have to at least feel a little proud, right?"

"I'm…just…I have a lot on my mind, that's all," Natsu mumbled. "It happens."

The way she scrutinized him made his skin crawl for some reason, but he didn't complain as her soft voice returned to fill the building silence.

"…you wanna talk about it? I mean, you're always comforting me when I'm feeling bad…the least I can do is try to return the favor."

He knew she expected a quick and witty response from him, but frankly he didn't have one ready, nor the energy to whip anything up. Sensing his hesitation, Lucy delicately put her hand over his, giving it a reassuring squeeze. That subtle touch of comfort was welcome, but it didn't make him feel better, and his lack of response made Lucy grimace.

"Hey, did I…did I do something-?"

"No! No," Natsu responded hastily, shaking his head and digging his fingers into the ground beside him. "No… it's just that, nothing happened the way it was supposed to. Some of our friends have long since moved on or are dead, I don't know where we'll go from here, we don't even have a guild hall anymore-!"

He gestured at the makeshift campsite they had built, along with the raging fire placed right at the center. It was cozy enough, but it wasn't the imposing yet homey building that sat at the edge of Magnolia, making sure to remind anyone who passed by just who the number one guild in Fiore was.

"…and we may have defeated Acnologia, but Zeref's still out there, Gray's still…you know, and Juvia's bound to die from heartbreak at this rate…"

Natsu really didn't want to go on listing how bad everything was, not to mention everything bad that had already happened. It was a miracle in and of itself that anyone had the strength to forge on, but it was where some of them found that strength that deeply disturbed him…

"That's so unlike you, Natsu. Where's that positive spirit?" Lucy asked, her smile the only bright thing besides the fire raging below them. "We're going to get Fairy Tail back together, even if it's not quite the same! We're going to snap Gray out of his funk and get him to come home! We're going…to make everything right again…"

She quivered as she hit her last sentence, realizing that Natsu failed to share her enthusiasm. His eyes were weary, his body was raggedly slouched, and whether or not it was all left over from the preceding hard-fought battle he waged was up for debate.

Oh, how he wanted to cheer up and agree with Lucy's words on the spot, trade a reassuring high five with her and laugh about all the great things to come to be. The future should have been bright for all of them, and Natsu hadn't lost hope that things would be okay again, but he couldn't act ignorant forever either. Reality was a cruel thing, and it was becoming painfully obvious that Natsu's ideal vision of the future was progressively slipping out of his fingers all the time.

"What's wrong with me, Lucy? Why's everything suddenly so hard?" There was genuine melancholy in his voice, and it broke Lucy's heart just to hear it. "What did any of us ever do to deserve to go through such a hell? You, me, Gray-"

Gray.

Seriously, nothing stung worse than such blatant betrayal. He might as well have taken an icicle and stabbed everyone right in the back! Natsu's whole body tensed just at saying that deceitful name alone, and thinking back to that day left a horrible taste in his mouth. Even if they'd both been holding back during their brief fight, it was the emotional hostility that wrecked him from the inside out.

Cut the buddy-buddy crap? Quit the BFF routine? Fairy Tail no longer exists?! Bullshit!

That arrogant snowman assumed that merely removing his emblem was going to nullify everything they'd gone through together? That the experiences they shared, the times they spent together, the battles they waged through, and everything else was just supposed to evaporate like it hadn't mattered?! Not just Juvia was waiting for that bastard; Lucy had been worried to tears about him, and Natsu himself…he couldn't lie and say he didn't care.

After all, that brainless popsicle with the IQ of an ice cube was someone he subconsciously called his best friend.

"…he deserved that slap you gave him," Natsu grunted through strained teeth, driving his fingers angrily into his folded arms. "Whether he's possessed or his magic's messing with him or it's of his own accord…everything he's doing is not okay."

"Ever since Avatar was captured and Gray escaped, it's been even more impossible to keep tabs on him," Lucy added, shaking next to Natsu. "I just can't believe…Gray…would say things like that…"

Her eyes were locked onto him, and it made his heart skip a beat when her look met his. He could see all over her face that she was doing her best to keep it together just like he was- they'd both gone through one hell of a time those last couple of weeks, and honestly? Lucy probably had it harder.

"B-but…" Lucy trembled, latching her arm around his bandaged one. He bristled at the close contact, but made no effort to move. "…comrades 'til the end, right?"

"Of course."

There wasn't the slightest bit of hesitation in his reply; the statement was dull, just like he felt, but it wasn't a lie either. Gray could be the manifestation of all evil itself –if Zeref didn't already own that title- and Natsu would still proudly call him nakama. To Natsu, simply changing sides or abandoning Fairy Tail could never change the bond they forged. Strain it? Perhaps, and Natsu certainly wasn't going to hug anything out the next time he crossed paths with the loser…but he'd be willing to make amends eventually.

"It just…blows my mind…" Natsu knew he needed to quit talking about this, especially when this was supposed to be a happy time, but with Lucy lending him an ear he found that he couldn't stop himself. "He always seemed so strong-willed before…how could just up and ditch Juvia, throw all of us away, and let himself get swallowed up by darkness like that? But all that does is make me think…Fairy Tail doesn't need Gray…"

He fisted his hand and thudded it against his chest, right over his heart as he squeezed his eyes tight.

"…Gray needs Fairy Tail."

There was a pregnant silence between the duo while the far more exuberant group before them released joyous laughs into the night air as everyone spun about the fire. Natsu almost envied them for their ability to shed their problems and embrace the days one at a time. He'd been like that once –heck, he still found time to dance in the rain, but…

He clutched at his bandaged arm with the opposite hand, making Lucy twitch against him. Natsu took another look at her as she gazed at the party below, and simply exhaled deeply.

…ya know, some things changed when you least expected them to, and when you really didn't want them to.

"…I needed it too."

Lucy's voice cut through his thoughts again, and Natsu found she was no longer looking at anything in particular, her softened eyes instead taking interest in an insignificant blade of grass.

"They're my family…a family I got to have because of you," she whispered quietly. "I've already lost all of my biological family, so they were all I had…yet everyone just split, and no one…no one batted an eye over me."

Natsu could feel every tremble that wracked through her body at this point, and she was like a blonde volcano trying its best not to erupt. But the emotions were bubbling to the surface, and all Natsu could do at this point was just let her get it all out at her own pace.

"I can't resent anyone for it, and I understand that they had their minds on other people. I mean, Gajeel and Levy joined the council together, Gray willingly moved in with Juvia for six whole months, and even Erza found her way back to Jellal again…and just about everyone had someone to stick with after the breakup…" Natsu winced at her implications as her hands fisted in her lap. "…but I was alone. Do you know what being abandoned by your family is like...?"

"…yeah…"

The word was dry and unexpectedly bitter, and it made his face sour after it escaped his lips. It pained him to even think about it, let alone openly explain to Lucy just how abandoned he felt when Igneel vanished on that fateful day, left alone in the world by the only one he could call family at the time without a single goodbye…

But that had been for Natsu's sake.

"…yeah, but when I was left behind, it was because someone had cared about my safety above all else," Natsu continue thickly, his muscles tensing. "And I had left because I needed to get stronger; I cared about your safety, and I needed to protect you and all of Fairy Tail better…and if I hadn't, Acnologia would have probably killed us all this time."

"But you have to know how much pain that left me in!" Lucy suddenly howled, jumping to her feet and standing imposingly over him with quivering eyes- a look of anguish that didn't belong on Lucy, or anyone else for that matter. "Do you know that pain? To have the people closest to you just walk right out of your life-"

"I didn't know the guild would break up, and I was coming back…!" Natsu interrupted, eyes now burning with intensity. "No one walked out of your life, Lucy-!"

"Tell me- do you know that pain?!"

The only thing that kept that cry drowned out from the rest of Fairy Tail was the droning music below, but it was loud and proud to Natsu. Every inch of her was quaking with internal agony, and she'd tried her best to keep it repressed for well over a year…and Natsu had a front seat to it, with no way out of it but to confront it with the truth.

Sighing, Natsu trembled slightly, but he didn't lie. "…yes."

"So then why…when everyone else had someone to fall back on, you thought it was fine to leave me with nothing but a crudely written letter to say goodbye?" Her knees started shaking like they were about to cave, and Natsu's face completely fell. "…so why did you leave me behind!?"

Silence, then-

"I'm sorry."

His heart snapped when she finally broke down, sinking down to the ground and only out of instinct did he manage to get her to land in his arms. Through her rain of tears she was speaking her heart out about how lonely she had been, and of how the one person she wanted to run to was out of arm's length, and more importantly had left her before the guild ever did. She raved miserably about how worried she was about him, and saying he was going to come back wasn't exactly a perfect guarantee …and as she quaked into his chest, her whole body turbulent with sobs, Lucy asked him why he couldn't have waited just one more day.

Just one more day, and perhaps he could have stopped Fairy Tail from disbanding.

And of course, that sentence had left Natsu with two heavy regrets on his conscience- one for leaving behind the girl who meant the world to him, even if he knew that it was for the best in the long run, and another for being hasty in his departure, as not a day went by since reuniting with Lucy did he not think about what could have happened if he delayed his quest but a day. Had he done so, maybe they wouldn't be in the state of utter disarray they were right now.

"I don't hate you, and I won't hold a grudge against anyone…I know you all did what you did because you thought it was for the best," she sobbed into his chest, burying her face deeper into the nook of his shoulder. "…but it still hurts, Natsu. And I don't want to hurt anymore."

He couldn't hear her words for the raw emotion fueling them was far louder. And frankly, that was all he needed to hear. This girl's heart was broken, only hanging together by the faintest of strings, and the symphony of anger, sadness, loneliness, and depression in her tone was a melody of true suffering if Natsu had ever heard one. He held her closer to his body, as if that would squeeze out the last of her tears, because he couldn't stand to see her like this any longer.

"…please, Luce, don't cry anymore," he begged into her ear, his own eyes sagging sadly when she wailed even harder. His hand found its way to her back and patted it soothingly, not really sure what else to do. "…everything may not be perfect, but I refuse to let anything get any worse. And I will do what I can, no matter how long it takes, to make this right again."

He felt a subtle nod somewhere amidst the trembling and bawling, so at least he knew Lucy had heard and acknowledged him. Her once pent-up sobs were a thick contrast to the good mood of the party right in front of them; everyone below basking in happiness while the two of them were weighed down by the heavy atmosphere above. Lucy was falling apart right before Natsu- the only thing keeping her together was the warm embrace of his arms.

Natsu meant every word he said to her, but one thing he learned over the course of those past few weeks was that words could be empty and talk was cheap; actions determined everything. Actions were what could uproot everything you knew in an instant…like walking away from a lifetime in a guild. Like writing a letter before leaving on a whim. Like stripping yourself of your family bonds and showing no remorse about it.

…If there was one thing Natsu Dragneel could have done differently...well, he couldn't pick just ONE thing. The fact of the matter was, too many things were wrong, and nothing turned out the way it was supposed to...and they were only going to get even worse.

Yep, it was a perfect disaster ever after from here on out.