Zeref's Sister

Chapter 13: The Dark Guild

I first and foremost want to apologize to every single one of you. I am in tears seeing all of the comments on chapter 13. I never intended to be gone as long as I was. I lost my love of writing for a very long time, I thought that I lost this account, I was so scared to come back to tell you the truth. But here I am writing you this. I want to thank you all who still have this in your library, who have this in a reading list, for staying with me, for everything. Things are going to be different. Now, I am going to give you all that you want, a brand new chapter.

"So, any word on where Gajeel ran off too?" Zinnia asked Mystogan as they met in the forest of Magnolia for their monthly talk.

"No one has seen him. I've searched everywhere, I don't have any possible idea of where he ran off too." Mystogan sighed running a hand through his hair. He felt like he was failing her, it was his job to look after them.

"It's okay Mystogan, I'll try my hand at looking for him. Will you check on Wendy once again for me? I'm worried about her after she found Carla, that cat worries me." Zinnia sighed standing from her seat. "Skia ready for the guild, please." She looked over at her black exceed who nodded quickly flying around the small house readying a bag for the trip.

"Carla has a good heart, she's just... She's like her mother, the queen acts the exact same way when it comes to her kingdom." Mystogan says trying to calm Zinnia's nerves. "She's trying to help Wendy learn, whereas Lector is just boosting Stings ego more by the second."

"Oh don't mention that little redheaded stepchild of a cat. I don't know what to do with those two. Rouge is doing well with Frosh at least, he needed someone. Somehow Gajeel was the only one without a cat, I wonder." Zinnia says as they leave the house.

"There were very few eggs sent down to Earthland, who knows if they all hatched, the children all took care of the eggs they found, some might not have made it." Mystogan has a sad look on his face at the thought.

"I thought you didn't know much about Edolas," Zinnia said as they walked.

"Some of my memories are coming back, there isn't much to them, but I've pieced together enough to make sense of it all."

"That's good. Let me know if you remember anything else. Send me a bird if anything else happens." Zinnia smiled at him as Mystogan nodded before heading the opposite direction of the guild. He only came in once every few months if that, even then he made sure no one knew he was ever there. 

Zinna and Skia made their way to the guild finding Natsu and Gray fighting once again. "You got this Natsu!" Happy cheered hovering above the fight.

"Boys," Zinnia's voice boomed causing them to stop and look at her, everyone else in the guild seemed to stop what they were doing as well. Something was wrong. Zinnia rushed to Makarov's office finding him pacing on his desk.

"Master, what is going on?" She asked, there was a panic growing inside of her and it was telling her it had something to do with one of her children.

"There is a new Dark guild on the rise and I'm afraid that one of your children have gotten caught up in it." Zinnia's heart sunk at Makarovs words.

"Gajeel." She sighed knowing he was the only one who was unaccounted for. This wasn't good. "What information on the guild do we have?"

"Very little. From what I got, they are in the talks of being a dark guild. No one is for sure if they are or not. I'm about to head out for the guild masters meeting now. I'm going to have a chat with the Master of the guild." Makarov said trying to reassure her.

"I trust you Makarov, but I'm heading to that guild now, I need to check on Gajeel." Zinnia said heading for the door.

"Please, be careful Zinnia. Skia be sure to keep her out of trouble." 

"I'll do my best Master," The exceed saluted to Makarov who nodded back going back to his pacing. "So what is your plan?" 

"I'm just going to check on him, see if he's safe there, see how his magic is doing. Just the basics, if I act like something is wrong he might get angry and Metalicana was enough when he was angry, I don't want to see how Gajeel will be." Zinnia said walking through the guild with Skia right on her tail.

"Zinnia can I come with you this time? Happy and I really want to get out and explore some!" Natsu asked catching her as she was almost out of the door.

"Not this time Natsu, when I come back we can go out on a job okay?" Zinnia smiled at him, she hated leaving him behind, he was always asking to go and she never had the time to take him.

"That's what you always say, then you leave on some S-Class mission that I can't go on." Natsu huffed looking away from her pouting.

"Natsu... I promise this time, you find a good job, not too high classed and we'll go as soon as I get back okay? Happy and Skia can hold me to that. I'll only be gone for two days." Zinnia ruffled his hair smiling, he needed to get out and work on his magic away from the guild. It will be good for him.

"Yes! You hear that Happy, we're going to go on a mission!"

"Aye, sir!" Zinnia smiled at the two leaving them in their celebration to head off to this new guild.

•

"This must be it," Skia said looking up at the castle-like building in front of them.

"Phantom Lord sounds dark even. Let's see if we can find Gajeel as quickly as possible." Zinnia says pushing the doors of the guild open. Everyone stopped what they were doing to look at the newcomers. Zinnia's eyes scanned the guild hall before her eyes landed on the familiar red eyes. 

In a split second Zinnia was in front of Gajeel who sat at the table with a blue haired girl who seemed very shy. "Gajeel we need to talk." Zinnia rushed.

"Can't it wait? I'm busy." Gajeel grumbled biting into a nail.

"Now." She growled grabbing his arm.

"Ow, ow, okay, I'm coming." Gajeel pulled his arm from her grasp following her out of the guild doors. "Did you have to make such a scene? Everyone is going to think I'm weirder than I already am." He mumbled as they got far enough away from the guild that Zinnia felt comfortable to talk.

"I'm sorry, I just... I've been worried about you Gajeel. I just want to make sure that you're safe." Zinnia pulled him into her arms hugging him.

"It's not like you really care if you cared you would be here taking care of me! So don't come around every couple of weeks acting as you care!" Gajeel shouted causing Zinnia to flinch.

"Gajeel, I-"

"Don't even try. You might be the only connection that I have left of my father, but I don't need you."

"If that's how you feel, then I'll leave you be. Just stay out of trouble would you? Don't get yourself killed, your father would kill me if you did." Zinnia only smiled at the boy tears welling in her eyes, she hadn't felt so lost, so much failure until this second. One of the most important things in her life didn't want her anymore. She was going to respect that.

"Don't tell me what to do." Gajeel snapped.

"I'll be taking my leave now Gajeel." Zinnia turned on her heel not looking back as she left the Phantom Lord guild behind her for the time being. She had wanted to ask Gajeel so many questions if he had made friends there if he was happy, there were so many questions that she would probably never get to ask him. She had possibly lost Gajeel to a Dark Guild and she wasn't going to do anything about it, because he didn't want her too.