Fairy Tail was preparing for their monthly trip to Lucy's grave and ask for her forgiveness once again.

Things changed a lot in the past year after she had died. No one knew when or how she did it, but Lucy had touched so many hearts in Fairy Tail. Yet, the people who held these hearts, were some of the ones who drove her to the other side.

Everyone in Fairy Tail went through a great deal of regret, depression and sorrow for the first few months Lucy had died. Those were Lucy's closest friends. Team Natsu mostly stopped doing anything at all. They beat themselves up to the point that they stopped eating and working.

Luckily, they moved on and little by little, they started to work again and decided to work and use the reward money to keep Lucy's apartment. It was then, the guild decided to see Lucy's apartment. Despite the warnings from Wendy's team.

When the guild saw the apartment, most of them nearly puked. But, they remembered what Wendy's team told them about the bathroom and didn't in the end. They fixed up for at least 2 or 3 months.(A/N: You already know that)

During those past months, Wendy's team lightened up on everyone else and just helped them try make it up to Lucy. Even though Laxus and Gajeel gave them the cold shoulder from time to time, but they also forgave everyone in the end.

"Okay everyone..." Mira said as she trailed off.

Everyone turned to her with their flowers in hand along with some kind of card attached to it. The girls wore white while the boys wore black. They didn't want this visit to be depressing, they wanted to also celebrate Lucy's life while trying to get her forgiveness as usual.

"Get all your stuff ready and then we'll head to Kardiac Cathedral."

Everyone nodded and started making their way to the entrance as Makarov was the last one to leave, looking back at his guild hall and remembered all the happy times. When Lucy was alive before this all happened.

Meanwhile, a little earlier near noon at Kardiac Cathedral, someone sat proudly on the celestial mages' gravestone. It was sunny and the breeze was just perfect. The almost afternoon breeze blew her shoulder length hair softly as she held the pictures of Jude and Layla Heartfilia, a small smile on her face.

She wore a blue sleeveless top with a white collar, white shorts that went up to her thighs, tied to her his was a fleece sweater with a brown belt on her shorts and black knee high boots. Covering the entire outfit was a long brown cloak that went up to her feet.(We all know who this is)

After staring at the pictures, she placed them back as they were and jumped off the gravestone. Pulling her hood up so it covered her face as she looked at the sunny sky, smiling like never before.

"Never thought I'd come back here with a smile on my face." She said as she started leaving to get familiar with the area once again.

"I've come back... Fairy Tail."

She giggled as she looked back at the gravestone and stared at the piece of paper under one of the pictures. Then, she left to see her home.

Soon, Fairy Tail arrived at the gravestone, surprised to se that it wasn't raining unlike the other occasions they had come during the past months. But, nevertheless the fairies were still sad.

They approached the grave as they placed their flowers one by one making sure their was room for everyone else's flowers to be placed on the grave.

Once everyone had placed their flowers down, everyone bowed their heads as Makarov proceeded to say something about the celestial girl, the guild and the normal part where everyone wishes to be forgiven after what they've done to her, not noticing the note just yet.

"My dearest child. It's been a year now. I wonder how long has it been since I saw a smiling face upon you. I hope you're doing well on the other side. Just know that we will always remember you forever. I just wish that we could've said a proper goodbye to you. We miss you sweet Lucy and we all love you. I hope one day, you can forgive this guild of mine."

Next, Levy stepped up.

"Lu, I'm very, very sorry. You have no idea how much I miss you and how I want to make it up to you. I was a bad best friend to you. I made you suffer and I was stupid to have said what I did. I'm sorry Lucy. I really am."

After, Cana started speaking.

"Lucy, I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I treated you the way I did. You were just being nice to me and I brushed you off like every beer barrel I've ever drank from. You deserve better. Deserve a better friend than me. You were kind to everyone, sure you'd get mad at one point, but you got mad with reason and forgave us right after. If you could, I hope you can forgive us just one more time."

Then, Wendy's team spoke.

"Hi Lucy. We miss you. I hope you've been at peace." Wendy started.

"Don't worry about us, Bunny Girl. We taught this guild good." Gajeel said.

"He's right, Blondie. We taught them their lesson." Laxus added.

"We hope you're doing fine on the other side, Lucy." Lisanna said hopefully.

"After all, you deserve it." Carla said laughing softly.

"All 6 of us pray that you are well and that you're happy." Lily finished.

Lastly, it was Team Natsu turn.

"Lucy." They started off at the same time.

"We are mostly sorry for all that you went through. We treated you the worst and we deserved all the pain that all this caused everyone. We were your nakama. We were supposed to protect and care for each other. We told you that together we were strong even if we thought we were weak. But we didn't even live up to that." Erza began.

"Everything you wrote on that letter was the truth. You were right. We weren't being fair to you. We entered your home through your windows, fireplace but never the door. We took your food and complained about you wanting money for rent. You have every right to hate us." Gray added.

"I'm sorry Lucy. I ate all your fish and other foods and even asked you to buy more. Which you did anyway, because I knew you cared for me. I took advantage of you. I teased you about who you liked and called you fat and heavy. I'm sorry Lucy. Forgive this sad little blue cat." Happy said as he held in tears.

"Luce... I was your partner. You considered me your best friend... and I... I broke you the most! You used to say sometimes that you felt useless, but I was even more useless! I went into your house, ate your food like crazy, slept on your bed ad I treated you like that. You gave me so much. No, you gave all of us so much! We let you down Luce! I let you down!" Natsu said as the tears slowly fell.

Everybody bowed their heads down. Even if it wasn't raining, the tears that the guild was shedding, was more than enough rain. This was how they felt each time they visited the grave. Suddenly, the wind picked up and some of the flower flew away and Natsu saw that the pictures of Lucy and her parents were about to fall.

Before he could even blink, Makarov extended his hand and caught all 3 pictures before they came in contact with the ground. Natsu turned around and saw Makarov smile softly as he nodded. Natsu nodded back and they grabbed the 3 pictures and started to fix them.

Then, as he was about to put Lucy's picture back in it's place, he spotted the folded piece of paper.

Natsu stared at it for awhile until Gray spoke up and snapped him out of it.

"Hey. What are you staring at?" The ice mage asked putting his hands in his pocket.

Natsu shook his head and place the picture back as he picked up the piece of paper and held it up for the guild to see as well, which got them curious.

"Well? What does it say, Natsu?" Happy asked.

The fire dragon slayer opened the note and when he saw what was written, his eyes widened as he stiffened and froze on the spot. Making everyone want to know what it said too.

"Well Natsu?" Erza asked.

Natsu didn't say anything to the red head. He just stared at the ground and passed the note to Makarov and when he read it, tears threatened to fall from the corner of his eyes.

"Master?" Romeo asked.

"It... It says..." Makarov stammered in disbelief.

'You are forgiven.'

When the mages heard that, their eyes widened as a certain blonde girl popped into their minds.

"Who could've wrote that?" Laxus asked. "Except..."

"It's Lucy." Natsu spoke up.

"How can you be so sure?" Wendy asked.

"Who else could it be?"

"But... Lucy couldn't have wrote it." Lisanna said.

"Besides, she's..." Gajeel said trailing off mid-sentence.

"Well, you can doubt all you want. I'm going to find Luce. She must be here."

"I'm coming with you." Erza said.

"Me too." Gray added standing beside Erza.

"If Juvia's love is going, so will Juvia!"

"Obviously I'm coming too." Happy said making his wings appear.

"C'mon! Let's go find her!" Natsu said maing the Fairy Tail sign with his right hand.

Wendy's team smiled and joined in while raising their hands too.

Soon enough, everybody either broke into groups or went individually to search Magnolia for their blonde celestial mage. Asking townsfolk if they saw her, or noticed at girl with blonde hair and brown eyes. But none saw her. But, what made everyone curious was that everybody kept seeing a mysterious person wearing a long brown coat.

Later on in the day, everybody started searching for both Lucy and the mystery person wearing the brown coat. They ran around Magnolia in different places. Hoping to run into either one of the 2 people. But no such luck.

The day gradually started to end as the sun started to leave. It was still slightly before sunset and as the fairies searched all of Magnolia, the girl wearing the brown cloak watched from the rooftops of Fairy Tail's guild hall. She could see some of the mages from where she was and giggled a little bit.

"Well, I better head back and see if they will pass this little test of theirs." She whispered.

She jumped down from the rooftops with ease and landed gracefully. She then headed for the nearest florist's shop, walking on the ledge of the river bank(Or whatever you call it) while passing a certain apartment building. At the same time, avoiding the fairies until she arrived.

"Welcome."

She nodded in response and spotted a bouquet or lilies and lilacs. She went up to them and bent down to see them more closely before picking them up to buy.

"I would like these please."

"You have a good eye. Are these for someone?"

"You could say that..."

"Well, then here's your bouquet."

"Thanks." She paid for her flowers and then left.

"Better get there before they do."

She arrived at Kardiac Cathedral and surely enough there was still no one there. Then, she stared at the pictures on the gravestone of the Heartfilia family. She stared at them before looking at all of the flowers the fairies left at the grave. She bent down to look closely at the notes attached and tears threatened to fall.

'We miss you!' 'You were kind, I was stupid.' 'I want you to come back.' 'You deserved better.' 'I want to start over.' 'We love you!' 'We'll always remember you!' 'You are our light.' 'One day, I hope you can forgive our mistake.'

Then, she spotted the pink headed dragon slayer's bouquet of flowers.

'You were the best partner, best friend and fairy here, Luce! Love, Natsu.'

"Natsu..."

Back with the fairies, they had met back at the guild hall, having no luck with finding Lucy or the girl in a brown coat. They were tired but, they didn't want to give up.

They looked outside to see the sun giving off a perfect scenery. It was a mix of red, orange and golden yellow. Reminding them of Lucy's hair and how her magic glowed a beautiful yellow.

After resting a little longer, Natsu stood up, not ready to give up searching for the celestial blonde and the cloaked person. He was determined to find both.

"Is everyone sure they checked everywhere in Magnolia? There has to be one place we didn't look!"

"Where else could there be? We even checked her apartment and she wasn't there either!" Carla reminded.

"We checked all her favorite places. Even the hot springs." Mira said.

"No sign at the book stores or library." Levy added.

"Nothing at the market street." Gajeel informed.

"Not at the harbor or train station either." Juvia replied.

"If Lucy is really out there, there has to be one last place she could be in." Makarov said.

That's when realization dawned on the fairies. They had checked all over Magnolia, except for the place they started at. They forgot to check at Kardiac Cathedral.

Once everyone realized this, everybody who was still at the guild ran as fast as they can to the Cathedral before they were too late and Lucy or the cloaked girl left.

Surely enough, when they arrived there stood the cloaked girl. Still at Lucy's grave, staring at the pictures as the wind softly blew her cloak sideways. The lilies and lilacs still in hand.

(A/N: I suggest you play Mirajane's theme for this part)

The mages panted as they stared at the figure just a few meters away from them. They stayed like that in silence waiting for someone to speak. But, as Natsu was about to say something, she spoke first.

"I was wondering when you were coming. I was about to leave in a few minutes without seeing you."

"Are you the one who left that note?" Erza asked.

"Maybe. Maybe not."

"Just who are you?" Gray asked.

She didn't respond and stayed quiet before placing the flowers down.

"Tell me... what was she like."

"Who?" Wendy and Lisanna asked tilting their heads.

"Lucy Heartfilia."

The mages were hesitant before replying and was curious to why the 'mystery' girl would want to know what Lucy was like, but answered anyway.

"She was brave, strong, friendly, kind, funny, loving." Makarov listed.

"What happened to her?"

Now this really made the fairies curious. They wanted to know why this cloaked girl was asking all the questions and why she wanted to know so much about Lucy. Pus, they didn't want to remind themselves of what they had done. But, for the sake of the blonde, they told her.

"We drove her to kill herself." Natsu said.

"All of you?"

"No. These guys stayed by her side when we weren't." Levy said in a sad tone pointing to Wendy's team.

"I see."

"We've been asking for her forgiveness ever since." Cana said.

"Why?"

"Because of what we did. Lucy hates us." Happy replied.

The cloaked girl didn't reply and turned around, but the mages couldn't see her face due to the hood that blocked her face from their view.

"Tell me... do you regret it?"

"What?" They asked not understanding the question.

"Do you regret what you did?" She repeated. "Do you wish for her to be alive again? That the pain that you caused never happened? That you could've saved her before it was too late?"

The mages knew that their answer was yes. They've regretted everything they have done since Wendy's team brought Lucy's body to the guild. They wished that it never happened. That it was all a bad dream and when they wake up, they'll see Lucy happy again. But it was reality.

That's when Laxus and Lily noticed that the cloaked girl was covering her whole body as if not wanting others to see what was under the cloak and came up with a deal. The 2 exchanged glances and nodded.

"Tell you what." Lily stated.

"Reveal yourself from that cloak and we'll answer." Laxus finished.

The rest of the group caught on to what the 2 were getting at and agreed with the deal, waiting for her answer.

The girl giggled and showed her arms and legs from under her cloak. This surprised the fairies. everywhere, on her arms and legs were cuts, bruises and burns. Some of it was healed but not all of it. But then, Carla noticed she didn't take off her hood.

"What about the hood?"

"I cannot take it off unless you answer my question. That is what I was told when I got the cloak in the first place." She replied as she smiled. "So... do you regret?"

Makarov was about to answer, until Natsu cut in.

"Hold up. I'll answer this, Gramps."

Makarov looked at the dragon slayer and then stood down as Natsu narrowed his eyes at the girl.

"We do regret. We've regretted ever since it's happened. We beg her for forgiveness. We wished it was a bad dream that never wants to go away. We wanted Lucy to come back. Everything she ever said about us in her bloody stained letter was true. She was true to her word. She loved us and we betrayed her. We loved her, but we made her die. However long it takes, I'll keep trying to make it up to her. Because Lucy... was a true nakama to everybody in Fairy Tail."

After Natsu spoke, the smile that was on the cloaked girl became a sad smile. Suddenly, tears began to fall from her face and she slowly started to walk toward the mages.

She soon was very close and still continued to walk. That's when, before she walked into any of them, she disappeared as a voice echoed in their heads.

"That was the best answer you could've ever given me... my idiot partner."

Their eyes widened and realized that the cloaked girl was the girl they've been asking for forgiveness. They looked around them, seeing where Lucy went or if she was still there. Then, Natsu felt something in his hand.

He looked own to see a folded piece of paper. He wasn't holding a paper earlier, so where did this one come from. He opened it and read it and his eyes widened as tears fell from his eyes.

"Natsu!? Why are you crying!?" Happy asked.

The others noticed and gathered around the dragon slayer. Natsu handed Erza the note and she read it out loud, shocking the others and herself.

'I forgive you. No need to regret. See you soon. -Lucy'

The next day, Team Natsu, Wendy's team and Makarov told everybody what happened when they went to Kardiac Cathedral. No one was sure if it was actually Lucy that was the cloaked girl. But, they eagerly awaited for a miracle to tell them it was real and that their beloved blonde was really alive.

Everybody, with their hopes up, began to prepare to decorate the guild hall to celebrate Lucy's return and they couldn't wait for her to enter through the front doors.

Fairy Tail was once again full of life and laughter.

But, they were soon let down when it was already sunset and Lucy still hasn't shown up.

Suddenly, the doors opened and everybody looked only to see it was just Lily, Carla and Happy.

Then, they went back to their bored state.

Soon enough, it was night and everybody began to think if Lucy was actually alive and it was just a hallucination. But, Natsu insisted that it wasn't and continued to wait for her while sitting at the bar. He looked at the only proof that Lucy was there and that was the note that she left in his hand.

"Luce..." He whispered. "When are you coming?"

Suddenly, the note flashed a bright light and everyone closed their eyes, not wanting to get blind. Natsu felt the note leave his hand, but he couldn't reach out to grab it since he couldn't see where it even was with all the bright light. Then, as quickly as it came, the light vanished and everyone adjusted their eyes to the light again.

"What was that, Natsu?" Mira asked. "Natsu?"

Mira looked over to see Natsu look to the side with wide eyes as tears could be seen in the corner of his eyes. Mira was curious and looked over the bar counter to look and her eyes widened at the sight too. Everybody noticed now and their eyes widened as well as there - before their eyes - Lucy lay on the ground. Wearing the brown cloak with the hood off, her eyes closed and wore a white tank top with a blue knee length shirt with her combat boots.

At first everybody thought it was fake since Lucy had no injuries, but they were convinced when they saw the scorched guild mark on the back of her right hand.

The girls covered their mouths as small tears left their eyes, while the boys were just staring at her with wide eyes. Makarov on the other hand was just started crying, seeing that one of his 'children' that he thought was dead right before his very eyes.

Out of everyone, Natsu was the first to move.(If you cannot tell, I'm a NaLu fan, so Natsu does is the one to wake Lucy up, naturally. But not a NaLu story.) He kneeled down and carefully lifted Lucy's head off the floor and could feel her breathing. He could feel her heartbeat. He could feel her warmth. Lucy was really there. Was actually real, it wasn't a dream.

"Luce...?" Natsu asked. "Luce, wake up."

Lucy stirred and her eyes twitched and they began to open, revealing her brown eyes. Her eyes were half open and she looked around the guild hall. Seeing everybody stare at her in disbelief.

She then smiled. "Took you long enough to wake me up."

Everybody smiled and they began to cheer for the return of their celestial mage. Lucy stretched as she sat upright as Levy and Cana came running.

"Lucy!" They shouted. "We're so sorry!"

"Levy? Cana? It's okay, I forgive you." Lucy replied.

The 3 parted and then Wendy's team came running to Lucy. Even Gajeel and Laxus. They all hugged as light scolding was involved and Lucy laughed as she smiled at how Gajeel and Laxus cried.

That's when Team Natsu arrived.

"Lucy." Erza, Gray and Happy said nervously. "We're-!?

"Just shut up and hug me already." Lucy said spreading her arms wide.

The 4 then hugged - even Erza hugged gently - as Natsu started at Lucy.

They parted and then Lucy turned to Natsu with a bright smile on her face. "I'm back! Sorry I had to make you wait!"

Then, before Natsu could blink, Lucy hugged him as tears fell from her eyes. Natsu, slowly snapping out of his trance, started to hug Lucy back.

"I thought you'd hate me forever..."

"Baka... after what you said when you brought mom and dad to my grave, I couldn't hate you forever."

"So you heard that? How?"

"I had a little help from the other side."

Lucy looked up to see Mavis waving from the ceiling and Lucy winked at her before the First Master disappeared. Lucy's guild mark got it's former beauty back and Fairy Tail celebrated the night away.

"I have the best family ever!"

The end! This isn't how I envisioned this ending but, that's how it ended. I couldn't make Lucy hate Fairy Tail forever okay. At first I wanted to make Lucy come running in with her landlady chasing her since the guild didn't really pay 3 months worth of rent, but I wanted this to be a touching reunion to fit the entire story. I'm glad a lot of you liked this story and apparently some of you almost cried. Glad that my story had that effect. So, thanks again and I'm touched by the good feedback. Byee~