A/N- This is my first ever Fairy Tail fanfic. I really hope that you like it. R&R please! This idea popped into my head one day, and wouldn't go away, but I'm not sure if I should continue it.

Disclaimer- I don't own Fairy Tail, and never will. But if I ever do own Fairy Tail, everyone will know, because I'm a huge supporter of GaLe, and they would be together if I owned them.

Chapter 1-

I stood on a hill, watching the sun rise. I had come outside for one of the few constants in my life. The sun rose in the East. Spring followed winter. My little sister got sick. Those were my constants. Everything else could, and most likely would, change.

At the bottom of the hill, the door on a small cottage opened, and a little girl with scarlet hair to the middle of her back came out. She looked around, until she spotted me on the hill. Her small face burst into a smile, and she charged up the hill, frail body struggling to keep up with her desire.

"Nechan! Nechan!" she yelled, running towards me, "I'm all better, Nechan! You said after I got better, we could play if Okasan said so, and she did, so can we play now? Can we, Nechan, can we?"

I laughed, tucking my chin-length scarlet hair behind my ear, "Yes, Mai, we can play now."

Mai's smile grew even larger, until it seemed to take up her entire face, "Nechan, I want to be a knight! Can I be a knight? Will you be the princess that I need to rescue? You'll have to be the bad guys, too. Can we play that, Nechan?"

I smiled gently at her, "Sure, Mai, we can play that."

We played for hours, Mai defeating all of the bad guys, and slowly "climbing up the castle" to save the princess.

When Mai was about to "open the door" to the "room" where the Head Bad Guy, and the princess were, I gently suggested, "Mai, why don't we stop for now, and go get some lunch?" Mai thought about it for a minute, "We'll come back and rescue the princess, right Nechan?"

"Yes, we'll come back," I said, holding out my hand. She smiled, and took it.

Slowly, we walked up the hill, knowing our house was on the other side.

When we crested the hill, Mai and I saw, our house burning, and our parents outside, surrounded by wizards with swords.

"Okasan! Otosan!" Mai shouted in a tortured voice. She yanked her hand from mine, and ran down the hill to our parents.

"Erza! Stop her! Get Mai, and run!" shouted our mother. At her order, I charged down the hill after Mai.

Mai reached the bottom of the hill, and the circle if wizards around our parents.

The wizard that was obviously the leader said, "So you do have children, I see. Just as I suspected. We have no use for liars."

One of the wizards stepped forward, drawing a sword.

I felt my eyes widen, and saw Mai start to cry. "No!" we both screamed.

The leader of the wizards smiled, and nodded her head. The man with the sword raised and swung, coping off both of our parents heads off in one swing.

~No. No, no, no. They can't be dead. Who will take care of Mai? Who will take care of me?~ I thought quickly. It was like everything but my brain was stuck in slow-motion. ~Why did they do this? They killed them for having children. They wouldn't have known if Mai... Mai... This is Mai's fault.~

Robotically, I walked over to Mai, "This is your fault."

Mai's eyes grew huge, and her tears streamed faster. She vigorously shook her head, denying my accusation.

"Yes it is, Mai! This is your fault!" I felt the tears slip from my eyes, "It's your fault that Okasan and Otosan are dead! It's all your fault!" My legs crumpled beneath me, and I collapsed to the ground sobbing.

"N-Nechan?" Mai hesitantly said, attempting to hug me.

"No! I'm not your sister anymore! I... I HATE YOU!" I screamed at her, hoping she would hurt as much as I did.

Everything about Mai seemed to stop. Her tears, her breathing, everything. "Y-you h-hate m-m-me?" she stuttered out.

~No. Much as I want to blame you, I can't hate you, Mai.~ I glared up at her, "Yes. Yes, I do, Mai. I hate you with everything I am."

Mai crumpled to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut. She laid there staring at me in shock. It was obvious that I had hurt her, just as it was obvious that age needed someone at that moment to hold her, and tell her it would be alright. She needed me. I was the only family she had left now.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it, Mai. I'm so sorry," I crawled toward her slowly, and carefully cradled her I'm my arms. Slowly, her arms came around my neck, and she clung to be like a burr.

"Much as I hate to interrupt your touching moment, you are both now my slaves. Come here at once," the leader said.

Quickly, I stood up, still holding Mai, "No!" I backed away from him.

Still backing away, I bumped into someone. Whirling around, I lost my balance and fell to the ground. The man that I had backed into reached for me and Mai. I scrambled away afar as I could, but had forgotten that the leader was behind me.

The leader reached down, and grabbed my arm, hauling me to my feet.

"You are my slaves. You are coming with me. Men, separate them."

I fought, but soon, Mai was taken from me and brought to the leader, kicking and biting. "They're both feisty. That's good," the leader took Mai from the wizard holding her, and gasped, "The amount of magic power this girl has. She'll make a perfect sacrifice."

"Sacrifice!" I shouted, "No! Take me instead! Don't hurt Mai! Please!"

The leader gave me a considering look, then touched my head, "No, girl, I won't take that deal. Your sister is far more powerful then you are. You are weak, girl. You couldn't save your parents, and you can't save your sister. Welcome to the world of a slave."

Mai and I fought, the entire time we were being taken to the Tower of Heaven. We fought once we got there, too.

"Nechan!" Mai screamed as we were being dragged away from each other.

"Mai! I'll save you! I promise!" I shouted back, before being hit on the head, falling unconscious.

Erza bolted up in bed, covered in cold sweat, tears running down her face. She hadn't had that dream in years. It's not that she had ever forgotten Mai; it's just that she couldn't deal with the fact that she had failed her sister. No matter how hard she tried, Erza couldn't save her. Not only had she inadvertently killed her sister, but she had killed her parents. If she had just waited until Mai was done playing, her parents and Mai would be alive today.

She lowered her face to her hands, and requiped into her armor, feeling like she needed the protection. She sat there for nearly an hour, crying without the ability to stop.

Slowly, she swung her legs over the edge of her bed, and put her boots on. She stood up, and left Lucy's house through the window. She walked towards the guild, dragging her feet.

~Why? I haven't had that dream in years. Why did I have it today? Why did I dream of Mai? There is nothing I can do to save her. She's been dead for years. Why am I dreaming of her?~ Erza thought, entering the guild. Suddenly, she stopped walking, she froze. ~Is it... is it May 17th? Could it be May 17th?~

Quickly, Erza counted days in her head. It could be. It could be May 17th. Determination in her stride, she walked over to the closest person.

"Macao, what is the date today?" she demanded.

"U-um, it's the seventeenth today," Macao said.

She felt her shoulders sag, and suddenly had the urge to get mind-numbingly drunk. Not to forget, but to ease the hurt, to make the ache weaker, "Thank you, Macao."

Macao nodded nervously, and she walked away, sitting down at the bar. Mira walked past, placing a glass of sake in front of her.

"Mira?" Erza asked, confused, "How did you know?"

"You only get drunk one day of the year, Erza. It's not that hard to remember," Mira said with a gentle smile, "Oh, and whenever you're ready, I've got a job that I think you'll like."

"Thank you, Mira," Erza said, not only talking about the job.

Mira's smile grew larger, "No problem, Erza."

"What's up with Erza?" Lucy asked, sitting down at Natsu, Grey, Juvia, and Happy's table. This was the table that they typically sat at when they were going to choose a job.

Grey looked over at Erza, "I'm not really sure, but she gets like this occasionally. About once a year she just gets so drunk that she can't walk, and spends the rest of the day crying on Mira's shoulder, and apologizing to everyone. If she apologizes to you, just accept, because she won't stop until you say you've forgiven her."

"Okay," Lucy said, wondering what could cause Erza to get drunk and apologize once a year.

Lucy was still sitting there almost fourteen hours later, when Mira finally signaled Lucy to come over to where she was sitting, holding Erza. Slowly, hesitantly, Lucy walked over to Mira and Erza.

"She's done crying now. I would really appreciate it if you would take her home with you. I don't think she should be alone right now," Mira said with a smile.

Lucy sighed, "Of course, Mira-san."

Mira grinned, "In return, I'll keep Natsu, Happy, and Grey out of your house until Erza leaves."

Lucy smiled, "Thank you, Mira-san!"

Erza opened her eyes, and then closed them again quickly. The sunlight was stabbing into her brain.

"Good morning, Erza-san. Do you need hangover eggs?" an overly cheerful Lucy asked.

"What are hangover eggs, Lucy?" Erza asked with a grimace, sitting up carefully.

"Hangover eggs are eggs made a little bit worse then normal, because you'll either throw up, and then be fine, or you'll keep them down, and you'll be fine in about an hour." Lucy asked

"No, I don't. Thank you for offering though," Erza said.

Lucy walked into the room with a glass of water and some aspirin. Handing both to Erza, she sat on the edge of the bed, "Erza, if you don't mind me asking, what made you feel like you needed to get so drunk yesterday?"

"I've never told anyone, Lucy," Erza said quietly, "I'm not sure that you really want to know."

Lucy grabbed Erza's hand gently, "Erza, I wouldn't have asked if I didn't want to know."

With a sigh, Erza took the aspirin, and started telling her, "When I was little, I lived in a small cottage with my parents. My mother had been born with an amazing amount of magic power, and became a wizard when she was about nine. She would make me look weak, that's how strong she was. My father was a freelance wizard, so he traveled a lot. My mother used to be a freelance wizard, too, but one day on a job, she got hurt badly, and she lost most of the magic power she had. My mother wasn't supposed to be able to have children after me, but four months before my eighth birthday, my mother announced that she was almost four months pregnant.

For four months, my father spent all of his time working, hoping to get enough to buy me a birthday present along with enough to take care of the baby. I had already told him that I was happy with a little sister, but he thought that I needed a real gift.

One week before my birthday, and one month early, my mother went into labor. My little sister was born extremely frail. Like my mother, my little sister was born with an impressive amount of magic power. But my sister was so strong, everyone doubted she would even reach nine. She was born with almost twice as much magic power as my mother, and she had no way to release her magic. So all of that power stayed inside until the doctors figured out that if she was sick, her magic would try to fix her, which would burn up her power along with healing her. And so, we made her sick. A lot.

One day, right after she had turned three, and just after she had gotten better, she came outside because she wanted me to play with her. I was about to turn eleven, but I was so happy that she was well that I was willing to. After a few hours, I thought that maybe she should eat lunch. She wasn't done playing, but I promised her that we would come back. So we were headed back to the house, when we saw a group of wizards surrounding our parents. Both of us were really worried, so Mai ran towards them. The wizards were from the Tower of Heaven, and they wanted to take my parents to work there as wizards. My parents, concerned about our lives, had agreed. When the leader asked them if they had any children, they had said no. When Mai came running down the hill, it proved that our parents were lying, and they killed them. I tried to take Mai and run, but they captured us, and discovered that Mai was very strong magically.

They decided that Mai would be a sacrifice, and that I would work to finish building the tower. When they were separating us, I promised Mai that I would save her. For weeks and weeks, I tried to save her. Since I was struggling to so hard to save her, and she was trying so hard to help me, they sacrificed her earlier then they had planned.

So, I killed my sister, and I killed my parents. Every year, I get drunk on Mai's birthday because I want to numb the pain. It hurts so badly, Lucy. I failed her." Erza once again started to cry, collapsing into Lucy's arms.

"There, there, everything's going to be okay," Lucy soothed.

My eyes opened, to see the same darkness that I had seen day after day, night after night. They same darkness that I had seen for as long as I could remember. But I knew that there was more then this. I knew that there was more in the world then darkness. Somewhere out there, beyond the darkness, there was a hill. And standing on that hill, watching the sun rise, was a little girl with an even littler sister, who had promised to save me.

Erza.

She would save me from the darkness.

She had promised, after all.