Remembrance [Ri-mem-bruh-ns] – (1) a retained mental impression; memory. (2) the act or fact of remembering. (4) the length of time over which recollection or memory extends.

Chapter 14

"Gray!"

A knock on his door.

"Gray, time to get up!"

Another knock before it left to wake up to his sister.

He pulled the covers over his head. 'Just five more minutes,' he thought as he started falling asleep once more.

"Get up!"

The covers were pulled away from him.

"All right, all right," he said sitting up. "I'm up! Now can you just give me back the covers?"

"Not until I see you downstairs."

She closed the door with a bang as he flopped back into his bed.

"Ten minutes!"

"All right!"

This was their usual routine.

He would ignore his alarm and go back to sleep, then she would come around the first time and remind him he had 45 minutes to get ready. He would ignore her and she would come back a second time to warn him he had 30 minutes. Again, he would ignore her, and by the third time, she would come in and pull the covers away from him and give him a ten minute warning for him to get ready and come down for breakfast.

Same as always, the same routine for the past seven years.

"About time you got here," she said with a small frown.

"Sorry, Ur-ow!" he exclaimed after he got hit in the back of the head by a wooden spoon.

"I've told you, call me 'mom'."

"All right, all right," he said rubbing the back of his head as Ur put her hands on her hips. "Mom."

She smiled. "All right, now eat your breakfast before you're late for school."

"Shouldn't you be doing the same thing?" his father asked her as he sipped his coffee.

"Yes, and you," she said pointing the spoon at him. "Don't forget to drop Wendy off at school."

"Yes, ma'am," replied Silver as he stood up and put his plate in the sink. "I'll do the dishes, so you two go ahead."

"Thanks, dad," said Gray as he put his dish on the sink. "I'm off."

"Wait, you didn't brush your teeth!" said Ur as she watched him rush out the door.

His school uniform was, like always, a mess.

"I'll do it when I get to school!" he said as he closed the door.

Yeah, that was their everyday routine, nothing ever changed.

"Have fun on your trip!" said Ultear as they waved off their parents at the airport.

"Take care of Wendy you two!" said Ur as she and Silver rose up on the escalator.

"We will," said Gray with a small smile.

"Bye, mom, bye dad!" said Wendy waving both her arms.

Their parents smiled back before they disappeared at the top. That was the last they saw of their parents' smile.

The next time they heard about them was two weeks later.

That day, it had been him and Wendy at home with a group of her friends (including Romeo). It had been a hot, August day, a couple of weeks before school would start. They were outside playing with water trying to beat the outside heat, unlike Gray, who decided to beat the heat by staying inside and drinking a cold glass of iced tea.

Ultear was at her part-time job in a meeting to see if she could get a promotion to help pay off her studies. While it was true that their parents helped pay her tuition, they were still recovering from the time they had to close the motel back out in the countryside.

He decided to turn on the television to distract himself from the heat, he didn't know what he wanted to watch, he just needed something to entertain himself. When the television turned on he wasn't really paying attention to what was happening since the phone started ringing. He sighed and stood up, his drink still in his hand.

"Hello?" he answered.

"We are so sorry, Gray-kun," said the voice of a familiar family friend.

"What are you talking about, Igneel-san?" said Gray with a chuckle.

"Y-you haven't seen the news, Gray-kun?"

"News? I just turned the TV on, what channel should I-" he froze when he turned around. On the television screen, the sight of a plane crash flashed in front of his eyes. The glass in his hands, forgotten, slipped through his fingers and shattered onto the floor.

"Gray-kun?"

He wasn't listening; all he could think about were the images that flashed before him.

"Gray-kun!"

"Huh? Y-yeah, I-I'll call you later."

He hung up the phone and step forward, by some miracle avoiding the broken glass. He sat down on the couch and stared at the television screen with wide eyes.

"-As you can see, these are the latest images we have received from sources around the area. The plane crash of Delta's own flight A48112 has become the most tragic incident this year. The flight left this morning, only to get a distress call halfway through the flight. Airline officials were able to locate the aircraft five minutes within the call, but were unable to help the pilot due to static and other communication problems.

"Officials have not given a proper statement yet as to the number of survivors and the deceased number of people has yet to be identified. We strongly advise family and friends to send information about their loved ones to help identify-"

He stopped listening and turned to look out their backyard. His little sister and her friends were laughing and messing around with some water balloons, oblivious to the events he had just heard about. He stood up shakily, unsure if he should tell her the news himself. He didn't know what to do next. He only knew one thing, he needed to know if his father and Ur were alive. He walked slowly to the phone and with shaky hands dialed one of their phone numbers.

The phone kept ringing and ringing, but there was no answer. He tried again with the other number. The same response. He kept trying, again and again, desperate to hear their voices. To hear that they were all right, but nothing…just the sound of their recorded voices from their voicemails.

He let out a shaky breath before dialing one more number. He didn't know if she knew or not, but right now he didn't know what to do with himself.

"Come on, pick up, please."

He was just about to hang up when she picked up. "Gray, I'm kind of busy right now-"

"-Ultear, I need you to turn on the TV-"

"-Gray, I-"

"-Please, it's important."

The other line stayed quiet for a moment.

"All right."

From the other line, he could hear her asking someone to turn on the television for a brief moment.

"Oh my God…"

She stayed quiet. For a minute, he thought that she had hung up but then he heard her gasp.

"U-Ultear?"

"Y-yeah."

He took a small shaky breath. "I-I don't know what to do," he said. "W-what am I going to tell Wendy? I mean I-"

"Gray, listen to me," she said cutting him off and stopping him in midsentence. "I need you to take a deep breath and wait for me to get home."

"Ultear-"

"-Don't worry, I'll be there as soon as I can. In the meantime, don't tell Wendy anything. Not yet, okay?"

He nodded. "Okay."

"Okay, I'll see you when I get home," she said. He was about to hang up the phone when he was stopped by his older sister's voice. "And Gray?"

"Y-yeah?"

"They'll be okay."

"Y-yeah," he said and put the phone down.

He let out another shaky breath. He could do it; he could wait until Ultear got here, yeah. He turned around, about to walk towards the couch to turn off the television, and he stepped on something.

"Ow," he murmured.

He looked down and saw the broken glass he had been holding moments before he had seen the news on the screen. He kneeled down and started picking up the pieces as his mind reverted back to the time he had lost his mother. The first woman he ever loved in every sense of the word.

He remembered that time ten years ago when his father had sat down with him and explained to him why his mother was not going to come back from the hospital this time. He remembered not understanding very well, and when he did, he did not speak much for a while. Luckily for him, he had managed to meet Natsu Dragneel during that time to help cope with his loss by focusing on beating the younger boy at every competition the salmon-haired boy set for them.

Soon, Wendy's friends started leaving as their parents came to pick them up, each giving their condolences. He made sure that Wendy was out of earshot when they did and quietly told them not to mention anything to Wendy until further notice.

When Ultear arrived, he didn't know what to do, how to act anymore. She noticed that and pulled him aside, assuring him that they would be fine. They simply needed to let Wendy know what had happened and the possible outcomes to what it could mean for them. He didn't know how they would be able to tell her. Seeing the look in his face, Ultear once again told him to relax, and that she would handle most of the talking.

"Why?" he asked.

"Because it's my job as your older sister," she simply replied.

She walked back out to the living room and called for Wendy.

He would never forget the look on his little sister's face when she was told that their parents might not come home from their flight this time. It was that same look that would bring him out of his darkness months later. He had never felt useless until that moment. He could only watch in agony as his older sister comforted her with soothing words.

He couldn't do anything.

Wendy looked towards him from the other side of the couch. She reached out to him, as if she knew that even though he couldn't show it, he too, was suffering on the inside. He moved closer as she wrapped her small arms around him. That's when he felt it, his little sister was crying, and there was nothing he could except wrap his own arms around her. He had vowed that day that he would everything in his power to protect his little sister from such pain.

That had been what he had vowed, but he never knew that by trying to protect them, he would also put them in danger.

Seeing the live feed projected onto one of the screens, he tried typing faster and faster, but his hands wouldn't move any faster than they already were. His eyes flashed once more to the screen on his left. He could see his sisters enjoying their lunch with his girlfriend, Juvia, unaware of the cameras that had been placed on their home to ensure that he would do his job.

"You don't have to do this," said a voice behind him strongly.

He turned around.

She was around his age, a bit younger if anything. Her hair was tied up in a ponytail, and although she couldn't see because of the blindfold, he knew she could pinpoint his location by the sound of his fingers hitting the keyboard. Her hands were tied behind her and she wore a prestigious uniform made up of a black school skirt, a white blouse, and a gold bow topping it off around her collar.

"You don't understand," he murmured as he went back to work.

"You're right, I don't," she said. "But what reason could you have to do all this? What have I ever done to you? I don't even know-"

The screen flashed with the words 'Access Denied' on the screen. Frustrated he slammed his hands against the table.

"Can you please: Shut. Up!"

"I'm just saying-"

"-look, you think I don't know what I'm doing is dangerous? I know it is, but if I don't, then who's going to protect my family?"

She stayed quiet. He hoped that would stop her from asking so many questions and let him work.

"You."

"What?" he asked, not really paying attention to her at this point.

"You're the one that should be protecting your family. Not these scums," she said.

Even though he couldn't see her face, he could tell it had probably looked like the one Ur had given him when she and Silver had left for their honeymoon.

"I know you're going to be staying with the Vastias," she had said. "But make sure to protect your sister, okay? She might be older, but she's a still girl, okay?" He had nodded like a good little soldier.

The sound of the tapping keyboard stopped. Could he really protect his sisters without the help of these people? He could, but that would mean-

"Why did you stop working?" he heard Lyon ask as he sat down next to him. "You need help?"

He shook his head.

"Hey, Lion," he said using their codenames. "Do you think that we could stop this?"

"I don't think you should talk like that, Earl," stiffened Lyon.

"I'm just saying-"

"-hey, what's with all the chatter? Get back to work!"

Gray stiffened.

"Yes, sir," he said as he went back to work.

He was starting to get closer to cracking the code, but what the girl had said to him, kept him from wanting to figure it out. He could feel the muzzle of the gun on the back of his head as he typed away. Only a few codes away from gaining their access.

"Hey, Joey! I need some help over here, there seems to be a problem outside!"

He could hear someone screaming from the other door.

"You, keep working or else," he said before tapping him once more with the gun.

When the door closed, he stopped typing.

"I can't do this anymore," he said leaning back in his chair.

He looked at Lyon, he had the same look on his face as Gray. He sighed and stood up.

"What are you doing?" asked the girl, stiffening as they got closer. "You better not-"

"-Relax," said Gray kneeling down behind her. "We're going to let you go."

"Y-you are?" she asked unsure.

From the door, they could hear rapid footsteps. He thought that for a brief second that she smiled from the noise. He started untying her wrist, a task that had become hard due to the gloves he wore to prevent his fingerprints from being found on the computer.

When he finished she said, "You better go."

"What do you mean?"

She rubbed her wrist. "If they find you they might kill you."

"She's right," said Lyon grabbing all their stuff. "Joey will not let us go easy."

"But what about her? If they find her-"

"-don't worry about me," she said undoing the blindfold. They heard a crash. "I'll be fine. My cavalry is already here anyway."

"But what about the computer-"

"-don't worry, I'll handle it. Just go!" she said standing up and erasing everything on the computer.

"But-"

She had already started typing away and deleting everything and anything that would lead them back to him and Lyon.

"Look, if he finds you, he will kill you," she said seriously, her eyes not leaving the screen. "There's a window in the closet that leads to the fire escape. Take it and go!"

Gray flinched. He grabbed his stuff from Lyon and ran to the closet, turning back to look at the girl working fast on the computer to erase their traces.

"Come on, let's go!" said Lyon as he stepped onto the fire escape.

He nodded and followed his best friend. Years from now he would still remember the blonde girl who let them go free while she cleared the system from any trace of Gray.

But what he didn't see was the ocean green eyes of the girl waiting for her boyfriend to barge through the door and get her. Until this day, she still didn't know what was so special about the live feed of an empty house. Little did she know she would meet her kidnapper years later while trying to save her fiancé's little sister from a similar kidnapping.

I managed to finish this chapter! Yay! It's a small sneak peek into Gray's past, and although Lucy wasn't really mentioned in this chapter, I will try to bring her back again next one. Also, thank you so much for the support you guys!

~Karie