Preface Note: This one-shot is a retelling of the events of end of chapter 516 and the entirety of chapter 517. Earlier events are summarized, and it is advised one reads chapters 515-517 for the best understanding. As such, similar moments of dialogue can be found within the source material and the retelling. Additionally, due to my dropping the series around Chapter 424, quite a bit of this was based on a summary provided by a friend, as I have only the slightest idea what is going on Fairy Tail.
In a reduced Fiore, Fairy Tail was locked in an all out-war with the Spriggan 12, Emperor Spriggan's — actually an alias used by Zeref Dragneel —personal guard of elite mages. In Zeref's bid to wipe humanity from the Earth, war had been declared against the Fairy Tail guild. Casualties were ripe on the side of Alvarez; 20% of their million or so strong army remained standing. But to Fairy Tail, they had lost something more precious — Makarov Dreyar, the Guild Master, had sacrificed his life for the sake of his "children", using Fairy Law decimate the forces of Alvarez, leaving 200,000 or so still standing.
Erza would go on to confront Natsu and Gray — the former of which had become E.N.D., and the latter of which had lost himself to anger — and restored her friend's sanity to normal with the parting words of their Guild Masters. However, when it seemed they would finally have a moment to breathe, one of the Spriggan 12 — Irene Belserion — appeared before Erza, Wendy, Happy, Carla, Lucy, and the unconscious Gray, Juvia, and Natsu. Due to timely coincidence, Lucy and the Exceed were able to escape with the unconscious bodies, leaving Wendy and Erza behind to deal with the scarlet threat.
Despite her best efforts, the majority of Erza's attacks were simply not connecting. Even her Heaven's Wheel Armor had been rendered ineffective by the power of this scarlet woman, who revealed herself to be Erza's mother, and explained the origins of Dragon Slayer magic. The fact that she was the first — and the sad tale behind her Dragonification, meeting with Zeref, and attempt to steal her daughter's body so she could live again.
Yet it was only when the small, one the Dragon Slayer girl — had revealed that not only was she an enchantress, but a Dragon Slayer who couldn't become a Dragon, that an idea had hatched in Irene's head. As Erza's final attack had strick down, destroying her head gear and causing her to bleed from the head down, Irene stood smiling. The blood should have been warm, but she couldn't feel it; the presence of liquid, yes, but warmth had been lost on her years ago.
"I understand now, Erza," said the scarlet woman, Erza's blade still resting on her head. "The truth of Enchantment, that it. When I tried to Enchant myself into your body and failed...was it because you were an infant? Did I fail because we share blood relation? Or was it simply impossible to Enchant oneself into a human body from the start? Nay; what matters most, and I see it now, is compatibility."
Erza's eyes narrowed, but she neither removed her blade from the woman's head, not slashed down like she ought to have. Confusion, perhaps? A moment of weakness?
"The young one is both a Dragon Slayer...and an Enchantress..." Irene's body began to tremble. "To think, that in such good fortune, a wonderful, young body, immune to Dragonification, would appear before me!"
It was in this moment that Wendy's body seized up, her eyes glazing over. She was unable to move, and could feel her consciousness receding into the back of her head.
"It...it can't be..." gasped Erza, turning to look behind her.
Wendy's body was exuding magical energy now, and her face broke into a blissful smile. Wendy exhaled, and when she spoke, it was indeed her usual soft, silvery voice, but the words were no longer her's. "Erza...how I've waited for this day...longer than you could ever know...my magic power might be depleting, but that is a nonissue..."
"Wendy...!" Erza could only watch in fear as the words that issued from the face she know so well terrified her.
Opening her eyes, 'Wendy' let a smile slip onto her face — her face. It felt so good to say that, but she might have to adjust to the new use of the possessive. And yet, the possession was not complete. As she took this moment to truly appreciate it for the first time in four hundred years, this feeling of a human body, of sensation, everything she had missed out on for so long, she could feel a nagging sensation in the back of her head.
The girl. The girl was still there.
「What's this?」intoned Irene mentally, surprised to see any trace of the original Wendy still left. And hard at work, at that. 「An Enchantment of your own, I see? Sophisticated magic, girl, and it would have been a well-played trump card — if you hadn't left yourself vulnerable!」
「How did you—!?」 The original Wendy could only be surprised. She had been forced back when the Enchantment that switched their bodies had been activated, but on the spur of the moment, had tried to apply the reverse; a possession Enchantment of Irene's original body. And yet, Irene had known.
「Because this is my body now; you can't hide anything from me inside my own head!」 It was a simple reply, and one full of confidence. 「I can't leave you here and allow you to ruin this opportunity for me. I'm going to need you to drift into the eternal sleep; die for me, cute little Dragon Slayer.」 It was an incredible display of willpower, but it only went to show Irene's desperation, and her desire to live again; her presence became more domineering, and Wendy's weakened. It was nothing more than survival instinct, but her last moment of consciousness, Wendy saw the visage of a dragon before her 'eyes', and then she was gone.
Irene had won out. Within this body, only Irene remained. And she smiled once more. "A new body — a new life! A body, a body!" The word escaped her mouth like a prayer, and it soothed the soul like one as well. "There's damage to the — no, my — left leg, and bruises and lacerations throughout my body. But regardless, I am able to move."
With a twitch of her hands, she brought them to her new chest, fondling herself. "Oh my — these little breasts are just so cute!"
"B-But...what of Wendy!?" questioned Erza, who looked hopefully to Irene's former body, which collapsed to the ground with a thump.
"Oh, that?" replied Irene, glancing at her former body with disdain. "That is no more than a useless flesh doll now; you won't get anything out of that."
"Where. Is. Wendy?" snarled Erza, turning to glare at Irene. She gripped her sword with all the subtlety of a hungry lion.
"She is nowhere," replied Irene with a shrug. "In fact, you could say she is me."
"Don't screw with me!" shouted Erza, launched towards Irene like a rocket. "Get out of Wendy's body, fiend!"
Irene smirked, a look unbecoming of the child's face she now wore. "Do be silent, little girl. This is far more than a simple act of possession." She too launched forward, her new body light on its feet, quick and nimble, and slammed her leg into Erza's stomach. She saw her daughter's eyes widen with shock and pain, and realized the body was surprisingly strong physically as well. "I am Wendy now! I have become Wendy herself!"
Erza stumbled backwards, clutching her stomach as spittle fell to the ground. "You..."
"I'm sorry that Mommy went off and rejuvenated herself without you," said Irene, smiling sardonically. She raised her hand, and Erza's eyes widened, just in time to be enveloped by a powerful explosion. It was pure magical energy, exploding forward in a blast to dwarf most barn silos; the blast carved a deep trench into the ground, and Erza was thrown backwards like a rag-doll. "Isn't that pleasing to the eye? It seems my magical power is not as low as I thought it was." Smiling to herself, she continued. "This girl wasted her talents; originally, she had a lot of potential."
"Regardless...playtime is over."
"It's unbecoming of such a cute little girl like this to have a daughter, wouldn't you agree?" inquired Irene rhetorically, her face smiling sadistically. "Which means I simply have to kill you right here and now! Otherwise, I won't be able to start my new life!"" With another hand gesture, a second explosion, equally as powerful as the first, enveloped Erza.
"What was it again...? Sky Dragon Slayer Magic?" Soft wind currents began to waft around her body, circling like a cyclone. With these currents, she began to lift herself off the air with ease, achieving true flight as if she'd been doing it her entire life. "A far cry from mine...but all Dragon Slayer Magic is the same in the end!" To illustrate her point, the woman — no, girl now — swung both arms, releasing a powerful torrent of wind, laughing madly. "Not bad! Not bad at all!"
"Wendy! Please! You must chase her out of your body!" Erza called upwards, trying to withstand the gusts with difficulty. Had Wendy always been this strong? She had never been one for fighting, and so her true potential never came to the surface until now — but her magic was formidable.
"You may shout all you want, but it's futile," replied the reborn girl. "This girl's ego has perished; I saw to it myself!" As the winds whirled around her, forming a miniature cyclone around her small body, she made a bold declaration, practically shouting it from the heavens. "In fact, from this day forth, I am Wendy! Wendy Belserion!"
"I will never hand Wendy over to you, witch!" shouted Erza, running up the length of a torn down ruin to reach 'Wendy'. She gripped her sword, making a wide leap, ready to slice 'Wendy' with her weapon.
"Can you do it?" inquired Wendy. "Can you bring yourself...to cut this body?"
Those words stopped Erza dead in her tracks. Memories of Wendy, their time as comrades, promises they'd shared, how the girl had become part of their family, all of it came rushing back to her head in a flood. And these emotions, the tears flowing from her cheeks dulled her blade, and she could not bring herself to swing down.
Laughing, Wendy swung both arms forward, releasing powerful gusts of wind from her arms that spiraled around, cutting into Erza and shredding flesh and armor. "You're far too soft, Erza." Her body fell from the sky, but Wendy was far from through. With a motion, her hand began to glow, and a maniacal smile crossed her face. "Armor Enchantment — Fragor!" The light that was covering her hand began to envelop Erza, and in a blinding flash, she was overwhelmed by a point-blank explosion.
The light emitted was like a star, and when it died down, a charred figured shot down from the smoke, covered in burns, and wearing scant amounts of her original armor, which was quickly crumbling away, the explosion having taken more than its toll. Erza crashed into the ground, hair singed, skin darkened, and barely able to move. One of her arm's had been completely blown away, leaving a stump at the elbow down, the wound sealed from the heat of the explosion; yet still, she was alive, coughing and hacking.
Wendy descended from the sky, landing neatly on the ground next to the scorched body of her daughter, bending down and grabbing her by the next. Floating back up through the wind currents, she held Erza aloft in the sky, smiling with a sick sort of amusement. "And now look at you — Titania, wasn't it? The Queen of Fairies. And yet here you are now; defeated, debased, and ultimately, a disappointment."
Erza coughed again, but couldn't form so much as an insult. The explosion had caused too much damage to her body, and her dominant hand was completely destroyed. Strength weak, and held bare in the air, with an impostor wearing the body of her dear friend. And worse, she had failed Makarov.
"I suppose I really should get into the feeling of this," said Wendy, readying the arm she wasn't currently strangling Erza with to her side. It began to wrap itself in spiralling wind currents, and Wendy looked Erza directly in the eyes as she spoke the words. "Sky Dragon's Longsword!" With a swipe of the hands, blood spurted from Erza's side, as the "longsword" sliced into her side. With intent, Wendy forced the blade of wind through, and directly sliced into Erza's heart. With a flourish, Wendy cleanly sliced under Erza's chest, separating it wholly from the rest of her body.
"It was good quality time while it lasted, 'daughter'," said Wendy, and she let go of Erza's neck, letting it fall to the ground to meet the rest of her body. "But with this, the last remainder of my time as "Irene" is gone. I can finally start my new life!" Breathing deeply, she fully took in the sensation of this new body, this human body, once more. "I suppose I should regroup with His Masjesty; time to see through his plans as Wendy Belserion!"
A/N: So this is a story I did purely because I absolutely loathed the latest chapter of Fairy Tail (as of this writing, 517). I haven't exactly made it hidden from anyone who knows me well that I despise Fairy Tail, I despise the "nakama power" that is prevalent throughout Fairy Tail. I dropped the series around chapter 424, but my friend told me to look at this chapter since Wendy is my favorite character. So I decided to see how the "body change" went and naturally, it failed as spectacularly as I expected. So I decided to take the chapter and rewrite it, as well as vent some frustration against my second least favorite character — Erza Scarlet. I can't say everyone will enjoy this, but who knows?