Dragon Queen of the Fairies

-13-

Erza sat upright in her bed, panting momentarily as she brought her hand to her face, burying her face for a moment before pushing her scarlet hair out of her face, some of it having been stuck to her from sweat. Short, heavy breaths escaped her lips as she sat there, holding her hair out of her face.

She slowly got herself up, having to slowly make her way into her bathroom to hopefully get a calming bath. She started running her bath water, making sure it was nice and warm considering how cold it's gotten outside. She removed her pajamas, shivering slightly just from how cold the air felt on her bare skin.

Erza avoided looking in the mirror at this point, slowly getting into her bathtub, sinking into the warm water so that only her head wasn't submerged.

She closed her eyes, trying to relax, but she only got awful images in her head of Irene, seeing, again, images of herself being controlled and used to hurt her guildmates.

She then got an image of Irene, standing before them in her dragon form, a red dragon, the same scarlet color of her and Irene's hair. And shortly after seeing that form was pure destruction, chaos, and loss, as Irene roared.

Erza awoke screaming, not realizing she had dozed off in her warm water.

Realizing she was safe, she sighed softly, quickly bathing off before getting up and out of the tub, leaning onto her countertop, her head hung as she sighed softly.

She looked up as she pushed her scarlet hair from her face, looking at herself in her mirror. However her eyes widened at what she saw.

She was quick to requip, her typical armor on with her blue skirt and boot, grabbing the prosthetic leg and doing the best she could with it to hurry to the guild, although it was late into the night. She stumbled as she tried to hurry to the guild hall, falling to her knees as she was pushing herself too far trying to hurry.

Natsu, Lucy, Happy, and Gray were returning from a quest, Happy being the first to see her, Gray as well since Lucy and Natsu had stopped walking to argue.

"Guys, it can wait!" Gray said, rushing to Erza's side.

Lucy and Natsu stopped, rushing over as well.

"Hey, Erza, what's going on?" Natsu asked, seeing she was panting, and shaking. He grabbed her by her arm to try and start helping him up, however she was quick to grab onto his harshly to try and stop her shaking, and to make him wait a moment.

He stared at her, and soon Erza looked up to him, panting as she stared at Natsu, whose eyes widened.

Looking at the other wizard, the effects of what Irene did were becoming much more evident. And they weren't sure how permanent it was.

Just below her eyes, it seemed as if scales were forming, her left eye, her pupil, taking a more narrow shape.

Natsu wasn't even sure how to react, the two just staring each other down and having no clue what to do. Eventually, Natsu silently helped her up. "We need to talk to the 1st Master," he said, the five going into the guild hall, Natsu helping Erza since she was still having trouble walking with the prosthetic.

Makarov and Mavis were already speaking with each other, clearly trying to keep their voices down for the few members who were lingering, although most of them that were lingering were just drinking and wouldn't be paying attention to the two masters anyways.

The two turned when they saw the five coming in, both seeming concerned, although Mavis was sure she knew what was going on.

Makarov understood when they got close enough with Erza for him to see her face.