It's been twenty years since Lucy joined Fairy Tail and some changes have taken place.

For starters, her and Natsu are now happily married. Yes married. With a fourteen-year-old son named Ian and a thirteen-year-old daughter named Lyla Heart. (Lucy wanted to name her after her mother). Gray got married and had a son too. His name is Alexander (Zander for short even though Gray refuses to call him that). And to the astonishment of everyone in Fairy Tail (and by everyone, I do mean everyone) Erza got married and had a daughter too. Sadly no one really ever met her husband because after a year he took a job (because he too was a mage) and died on the job. Shortly after that, she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl named Akane.

Like I said, some things have definitely changed in twenty years.

But now our story starts with an twelve-year-old Akane Scarlet leaving her home, her comfortable life, and her mother to go into the world and join the infamous mage guild Fairy Tail.

/

Akane sat on her bed looking at the packed suitcase that sat on the floor by her feet. She would be leaving her home in Harujion within the hour. Do I want to go through with this? she thought. Mom would be all by herself and based on the stories I've heard about her past she seems to have a lot of enemies. Akane sighed. "Then again, now that I've told her I'm going, she won't let me change my mind on account of her. And it's not like her enemies will come back to kill her after all this time," Akane said reassuring herself.

"How right you are."

Akane jumped slightly at the unexpected voice soon to realize that it was only her mother. The famed Erza Scarlet.

Titania Erza.

Akane looked at her mother, then turned her head away and looked out her bedroom window at the grass outside. "What makes you think I'm talking about you? I might be talking about Lilly for all you know," Akane said stubbornly.

"Akane, Lilly's a dog. She doesn't care if she has enemies," her mother retorted. "But if you want to stay with Lilly a little longer, I can teach you re-quip magic. You can have my old armor and-"

"No mom, I'm good with the magic I have," Akane said cutting off her mother. She took her eyes off of the outside world, folded her hands on her lap and watched them carefully as if they would get up on their own and run away. Akane let go of her hands and dug her left hand into her pocket to retrieve a silver coin about the size of a quarter. She held it in her hand for a bit then proceeded to flip it over her pointer finger. Erza sat down on Akane's bed and hugged her, both doing their best to hold in tears. She's only twelve, but there's nothing I can do, Erza thought. She wants this more than anything right now and she won't let me stop her. Erza grabbed one of Akane's white ribbons and turned her daughter to braid her hair. Letting her go would be one of the hardest things for Erza to do and they both knew it. First she lost her husband unexpectedly and now she had to watch her only daughter leave to go into the world that he died in.

"Mom, don't worry about me. I'll be safe at Fairy Tail. And you won't be alone really, you'll have Lilly," Akane said giggling quietly to herself.

"I know. I'm not worried about you. I'm worried about the idiots that will try to oppose you," Erza hugged her daughter tightly, "I know you're a great mage and I can't wait to read about you in magazines as Fairy Tail's all-star."

Akane hugged her mother back and then stood up from her bed and grabbed her suitcase. "Well, my train will be leaving soon. I better get down to the station," she said as she began to walk out of her room past Erza.

"Akane," Erza suddenly said stopping her daughter in the doorway. "I want you to take this with you. You most likely will need it." Erza handed Akane an envelope containing 200,000 J. Akane gave it back, "I'm not taking that much from you."

Erza gave her a look that she knew far too well. That look said, 'you will do what I tell you to missy or you won't be doing anything for a month!'

Akane lowered her head in defeat and took the envelope back and continued walking out the door.

/

The two Scarlet women stood on the platform waiting for the train to Magnolia to pull in. "Now the first thing I want you to do is to go to the apartment that we called to get yourself settled and then when you feel up to it go to Fairy Tail and talk to the master about joining. I'm not sure who it is but chances are who ever it is knows me so just-"

"Mention your name and everything will be set. I know what to do mom. I'm not five," Akane interrupted.

"Yeah, not sometimes at least."

Akane looked up to her mother, "That's mean," she said giggling. As she looked back out the train to Magnolia pulled in and passengers got off and passengers got on. Akane gave Erza one last hug before boarding the train.

She sat down next to the window and waved to her mom as the train pulled away, and once she was sure Erza couldn't see her, she began to cry.

/

A lot has changed for Fairy Tail in 20 years, but for Akane, she went from the "it" girl of Harujion to the newbie of Magnolia.

In just 20 minutes, Akane Scarlet's whole life changed and as the train pulled away from the station, Akane felt the change was for the worse.