Dream (11 years ago)

5 year old Erza was sitting in the backseat playing with her stuffed red bear. Her father was driving and her mother was sitting in the passenger seat. They were on the road but Erza wasn't sure where they were going.

Her mother would look back on her from time to time as if to check on her and Erza would smile.

"Dear, we should stop at least to have a break from traveling."

"I'm fine, Irene. We don't need to stop and besides Erza is wide awake."

"So when she starts to get tired you'll stop."

"Yeah."

Erza looked up to see her mother reaching to pat her head making her giggle.

Her mother looked away to look at the road again only to see that there wasn't anyone else on the road but then she looked at the sky only to see that the sun was starting to go down.

"Look Erza, do you like the sunset?"

Erza looked out the window and smiled.

The sunset was the perfect scarlet color.

"It's red, Mommy. Just like our hair."

Her mother smiled and rubbed Erza's head again then caressed her cheek.

Not long after that Irene noticed something gleaming up ahead the road.

"Dear, get into the other lane."

"Irene, I have to stay on this lane in order to get off at the next exi-"

Her father didn't finish because suddenly there was an explosion and everything had went black.

Present day

Erza Scarlet was in the Foster care system. In Erza's case she wasn't always in the system but from what she knew she was involved with a major accident when she was too young to understand. She never knew what happened to her parents.

Right now she was a teenager, a second year in high school to be exact. In both her elementary years and Middle school years she was in the Fairy Tail foster system but then a family wanted to take her into her home.

Any child without a home would be somewhat happy but the family that took Erza in didn't treat her like they treated their own child. In fact the parents awarded their own child with amusement parks and parties if they did as they were told while Erza just got cake and pat on the back. If the child got in trouble they were just given a scolding. If Erza had gotten into trouble a scolding wasn't going to fit in her case so the parents would send her to her room which was a normal wooden floored small attic that had a small window but big enough in case if Erza ran away which she did and that's how she ended up in a new foster home system.

Erza woke up to see that she was in her foster care room. She sat up on her bed and lowered her head.

"That dream again…"

Erza looked at the time and saw that she had n hour to get ready for school. She got ready for the day and left out of her room.

When she got outside she saw that the head of the foster care home had his head down.

"Mr. Dreyer, is something wrong?"

Makarov Dreyer looked at Erza.

"Erza, go back inside and gather your most valued things."

Erza blinked.

"What's wrong?"

"Just get your most valued things."

Erza nodded then went back inside of the foster care house.

As she was in her room she didn't have much of what one would call value but she had a necklace that she treasured greatly. The necklace was a scarlet gem with a red rose inside. Erza also got wallet and the extra money that she had put away. After getting that she left out of the foster care building and went to school.

For the whole day that Erza was in school she wondered why Makarov seemed troubled about something but it wasn't just him.

The same was happening at her school. All schools in the area had been let out early. Teachers and students who had homes rushed out of the schools and out of the city.

Erza and the other foster system kids rushed back to their foster care home only to see that it was locked but Erza saw a note that was left on the door for them.

Everyone,

I'm so sorry that I couldn't do more for you. You may not understand this but all foster care homes, shelters and hospitals are closed for the next two weeks. You are on your own until then. I hope that you will be safe during this new Purge. All I can tell you is to stay out of sight and not to trust anyone because they will hurt you.

Good luck to you all.

P.S. The New Purge starts at dawn you have until then to find a place to stay safe.

Erza blinked in question then she turned to leave while other foster kids ran away.

As Erza was running she saw that people in the cities were also preparing for this New Purge.

In Erza's case it was the first time she had ever heard of such a thing called the Purge. She went to the Bookstore to see if they knew of anything. When she got there she got a dictionary first and looked up the word.

Purge

Verb

Rid (someone) of an unwanted feeling, memory, or condition, typically giving a sense of cathartic release.

An abrupt or violent removal of a group of people from an organization or place.

Erza was still confused about it then she saw the store worker.

"Excuse me, what is this Purge that's soon to start?"

The man's eyes widened.

"You never heard of it. The Purge used to be 12 hours then they increased it to a day. This new one is called the New Purge and rumor has it that the New Purge will be roughly a month at most. That means if you don't find a place to stay safe with food and supplies of all sorts then you're a goner."

Erza nodded then left out of there.

It made sense now.

This New Purge was the reason Makarov told her to get her valuables and why the schools were all let out early. However she didn't understand why shelters, foster care homes and hospitals were closed for the time being. In the meantime Erza had to get supplies and find a safe place to live in for a month. She only hoped that she'll be safe during this New Purge.

AN: Well there is the first chapter and I will update when I can! I will NEVER ACCEPT what had happened to Irene in the manga!