Chapter 4

It wasn't long after Gale returned to the guild, in trying to keep his talk with Cadence quiet he spoke with a hushed voice, however with four dragon slayers in the room all with enhanced senses the task proved to be difficult. As soon as his father had heard the words 'Boronia' and 'Layla' in the same sentence he was up in Gale's face demanding to know what was going on. Gale sighed, running a hand through his short locks, an unreadable expression painted on his face.

"Ebony thinks she saw Layla..."

The statement caught the focus of everyone in the guild and they all turned to face the blue haired teen. Igneel stood shocked; he glanced over to his parents' direction, hoping to get some sort of logical explanation from his mother, only she had the same expression he did. Shock was clear in her features, and her brown eyes were wide whilst her hands covered clasped over her face, before she could burst into tears his father placed an arm around her giving her no choice but to bury her face in his chest.

"The poor girl..." Mira whispered as she clasped her hand with her husband's, Laxus easily tightened his hold in Mira's hand, even though Layla wasn't related to him by blood he still felt that she was one of his children.

"What about Jaden...did he see her too?" Natsu asked, breaking the silence. Igneel glanced over to Jaden, his head was resting on his fist while he stared at nothing in particular, and noticing Igneel's gaze he turned to the celestial mage, sadness clear in his features as he gave a nod.

"Maybe it was just a...hallucination" Levy suggested the script mage trying to add some sort of logic to the situation. Gale sadly shook his head; he knew that the situation seemed impossible, when the small wooden box was placed in the ground, he was there, so a girl baring an uncanny resemblance to Layla was impossible.

"Ebony said that caught a sent..." Gale stated which caused many of the guild members to gasp.

"But Gale wouldn't a scent be non-existent in the area, since Layla...left us five years ago" Wendy said sadly as she pulled her young daughter closer towards her. Her daughter happily receiving her mother's embrace.

"Maybe she imagined the scent..."

"So you're calling my daughter crazy!"

"Gajeel, it could be possible...especially in this time of grief!"

"So you think that our daughter's crazy too!"

"Don't raise your voice at Levy!"

"You're not in this conversation!"

"Gajeel I never-"

Igneel sighed as the guild members started to engage in a verbal battle, all throwing theories about what Ebony and Jaden had seen. Gale attempted to offer his perspective on things, however with no luck the script mage gave up. Glancing over to furthest table, Igneel noticed that Jaden was still calmly sitting alone however what caught the mage's attention was the small purple coloured flower that he twirled between his fingers. With a sigh Jaden tossed the flower into the middle of the guild hall, causing it to land with a silent thud.

Everyone silenced once the azalea landed in the middle of the room. Wendy's youngest child, Sora ran over to the flower, picking it up in her small hands. Handing it to her mother Wendy gasped as soon as the scent surrounding it hit her as she quickly stood up, her face pale.

"Mommy...?" Sora said as she placed her hands on her mother's knees, the small girl confused by her mother's reaction. Mira instantly noticed Wendy's pale face; she sat frozen as if not taking in any notice of her worried young daughter.

"Wendy, what's wrong?" Mira asked, worry clear in her voice. Wendy pointed over to the azalea which she had previously thrown to the floor.

"I...it has her scent..." She said, her voice barely a whisper.

Natsu picked up the azalea, his eyes widening as he took in the familiar scent.

"Where did you get this?"

Wendy still sat there frozen, unable to answer the question, Sora however did.

"Jaden threw it on the floor" She said happily, whilst pointing over to the silent water mage; which instantly caused everyone in the guild to turn towards him for an answer. Jaden turned to face the expectant guild members; a mixture of emotions on his face, the one that stood out the most was his sadness.

"And I got it from Boronia"

He couldn't possibly believe what was happening as he walked out of the guild, ignoring the thought in s head that told him to turn back and listen to Jaden's explanation. He carried on walking through the night, the spring time air cool against his skin however providing him familiar warmth.

As soon as Jaden mentioned Boronia Igneel walked out of the guild, afraid to hear anymore, he knew that when Ebony and Jaden arrived back to the guild that they were acting strangely, however the celestial mage just assumed it was nothing of high importance...how was he wrong.

Coming to a stop he found himself outside of Kardia, surrounded by the sleeping. A small smile ghosted his lips as he walked past multiple graves for he knew that when he was angry upset or just felt alone, he would always end up here...right next to her.

'You know...you always did have such an impact on the guild...' Igneel sighed to himself as his hand touched the cold gravestone. Azaleas of a variety of colours lay neatly arranged around the sides, they almost threatened to cover the tombstone itself. The Fairy Tail guild insignia stood proud at the top of the stone, just above her name as a silent reminder that she would always be part of them.

Needing some company, other than the large amount of dead people, Igneel reached for his keys, fishing out one in particular a midnight blue coloured key that sparkled in the moon light. Since he didn't want to separate his mother from her friends, Igneel collected keys of his own. Whereas her gold keys allowed her to summon spirits of the zodiac, Igneels midnight keys allowed him to summon spirits of the stars.

"Gate of the bright star: North!" he shouted, a bright silver/white light appearing before the white/blonde haired spirit was summoned. Her eyes, like silver coins brightened as she smiled at her master. Once the light faded she took a step forwards she gasped, noticing the soil around them and started to dust the soil off the bottom of her dress...only her efforts were in vain as with every step she took more soil tainted her silver dress.

"Master, why did you summon me here, it's so...dirty " She said before flicking off more soil from the bottom of her dress. He inwardly chuckled at the spirits germ and dirt phobia, however despite this she was one of Igneel's favourite spirits, her key was the first of the midnight keys that he had collected, the bright star was always reliable, strong and just someone to talk to.

"It is a grave yard, North" Igneel pointed out, which caused North to involuntary shudder.

"You know how I feel about dead people" She said with a shudder, spotting his saddened expression her mood softened and she placed a pale hand on his shoulder.

"Igneel, what's wrong?" North asked softly

Igneel sighed, twirling North's key between his fingers, he lifted his head to look up at her before he sighed.

"Ebony said that she saw her..."

North raised a brow, confused for a moment before Igneel gestured to the grave behind him. a silver light was emitted from her lifted hands, illuminating the dark stone to show the name on the grave.

"No wonder you're upset..." She said sadly, once she realised that the grave belonged to his younger sister. North never had the chance to meet Layla, since Igneel obtained her key not long after her death however this never stopped Igneel from talking about his sister to her or his other spirits.

"Yeah" He sighed

She tilted her head to the side with curiosity, usually her master was so easy to read; when he was happy he smiled, sad he frowned but now his brows her knitted together, his lips in a tight line and arms folded as he continued to stare at the grave.

"Unless..."She whispered

He turned to face her, one of his brows raised wondering where the spirit was heading with the conversation.

"Unless what?"

"...You aren't upset, you're jealous" she concluded, as she placed her hands on her hips.

His silence confirmed her suspicions as he turned his back on her once more to face the grave.

"You're jealous that Ebony saw her, yet you didn't..." she stated. Igneel just stared at her with a blank expression on his face, for he knew she was right.

It wasn't fair. He felt selfish that the thought even crossed his mind. He was angry. Angry that Ebony...even Jaden got to see her, even if it wasn't her, even if it was a hallucination like Levy had suggested, it was something. And it was something Igneel wanted to see.

"..."

Sensing her master's reluctance to talk North placed a hand on his arm, a small smile on her face once Igneel turned towards her.

"Igneel, it's okay, you can talk to me I am your friend"

"I know...I just don't feel like talking now" He sighed sadly.

She opened her mouth to speak once more, however the voice of someone familiar shouting his name caught both of their attentions.

"Igneel!"

Turning to face the direction of the voice he spotted Ebony running towards them her dark hair streaming behind her in the process. She came to a stop in front of the pair, a hand was placed flat on her chest in an attempt to calm her rapid breathing and her eyes closed. Once her eyes opened and her breathing was normal, her red tinted eyes and cheeks didn't go un-noticed by Igneel, giving her the appearance of having just cried however Igneel never questioned it.

"What are you two doing out here?" she asked, folding her arms over her chest.

North turned towards the pair, realising that the two needed to be alone and talk some things over.

She gave him a soft smile "Just summon me if you need me" and with that she disappeared back to the celestial spirit world.

Once North had left the two mages alone, Ebony turned to the older mage her lips were drawn in a tight line and her brows lowered.

"I guess Gale told you about Boronia..." She sighed.

"Yeah..."

There was a short pause as the mages silently stared at the grave.

"What did she look like?" Igneel asked.

"What" Ebony said Igneel's earlier question catching her off guard.

"What...did she look like?"

Ebony sighed before she took a step beside Igneel in front of Layla's grave, a silent tear leaving her eyes before dropping to the ground below.

"She looked a lot like your mom, but the hair ...just screams Uncle Natsu" She said, the last part with an added chuckle, which caused Igneel to smile at the comment.

"Igneel, do you think I'm crazy?" Ebony asked, the question causing is eyes to widen. He thought Ebony was a lot of things but crazy wasn't one of them.

"No...why?"

She sighed, running a hand through her wild raven hair "Gale seems to think that it was a hallucination...and Jaden doesn't think that it was her"

Never before had he seen the dragon slayer look so...broken. Even at Layla's funeral she had kept strong, never shedding a tear, never showing sadness. The way seeing Layla had affected her he had no doubts that what she saw was real.

"Ebony...I believe you"

She froze; the statement took longer that it thought for her to process.

"Y...you do?"

He nodded

"There's no use trying to find her now...if she was smart she would have covered her scent and tracks" Ebony explained, a frown playing on her face.

Igneel sadly nodded in agreement, even though Ebony was right part of him wanted to find her and bring her back to the guild...to bring her back to her family.

"Then we should head back to the guild...everyone's probably worried" he sighed as he placed a hand on her shoulder. He started to usher her towards the direction of the guild, however Ebony stopped and then turned to face him, one of those grins she used to wear as a child flashed across her face, which usually signified that the dragon slayer had a plan.

"But that doesn't mean that we can't search tomorrow..." she said, while she still sported the grin. Igneel nodded in agreement, liking the sound of this idea.

:)