Written by: DamnHeFLy

A/N: Enjoy the read and give me comments/ideas/bacon strips!

Disclaimer: Not my characters...

Corpses littered the area. She recognized a few; Sho, Wally and Milliana. Simon was levitating, but lifeless. Erza wasn't sure she could watch anymore. But she couldn't close her eyes, as a force would pry them open anyways. Jellal was standing on a pile of corpses. The stench and fire was everywhere, making her feel ill and driving bile up her throat.

A man was kneeling, unable to stand. Panting heavily, as if he was already defeated. Except that he hadn't given up. Orange hair was the first thing she noted about the man. He turned back to her, giving her a weak smile.

"I'm sorry, Erza. I'll try my best to keep you safe." Too late.

A purple beam shot through the man's body, and a yelp was stuck in the orange-haired man's throat. Erza screamed, but nothing came out. Laughter and chuckles filled her ears, stench filled her nose, dryness filled her mouth, and despair filled everywhere else. It was hopelessness, the feeling so distant, yet so familiar.

But Erza didn't give in to the hopelessness. Old Erza would. New Erza wouldn't even think about it. She felt herself grip something. She looked down and saw a sword in her hands. Jellal was looking down on her, and Erza couldn't take it lying down. So she ran, picking up pace and courage. And she leapt, ready to drive the sword through him...

...before she woke up. Her covers were already on the floor, probably because she kicked it off onto the floor. She examined her surroundings to make sure she was still in the inn's room. Of course it was a dream, She had it every night. It was way too surreal, and even right now, Erza couldn't remember much of it.

Erza just hope Carrot-head did not find out about her nightly nightmares. He would make a fuss out of it, and Erza didn't want to add her nightmares to his list of worries. Being hunted was large enough to fill the list. She examined herself to realize that her rags were already soaked in sweat, and so were her pillows. There was nothing she could do about the covers, and since they were going to be changed by the innkeeper later, Erza wasn't bothered about. Instead, an alternate set of clothing would do her well.

As if on cue, her eyes fell on a set of clothes left on the side table which consisted of a simple white blouse and a blue skirt-pants. With no more lethargy left in her, Erza made her way to the stack of clothes and saw a note. There was a small parchment that had almost incoherent handwriting, and Erza could barely make out the words. After requiring a few minutes of translation, she deciphered the message.

It read:

Change into this new set of clothes. I don't really know your sizes but those should fit fairly well. Eat your cake and meet me outside of town. Don't eat it too quickly! It's pretty damn expensive.

-Carrot-head

Erza complied to his instructions as quickly as possible, except the part about eating the cake. She complied by eating the cake slowly, and it felt slightly torturous because the cake tasted too good. She made her way downstairs and ignored the innkeeper who was staring at her oddly. Erza simply pass it off as the innkeeper suspicious of her new clothing.

It took a little bit of mapping to find the plains Carrot-head was referring to, but she located it in an estimate of three minutes. As she approached the plains, there was only a few things in sight. There was a single tree, a bunch of meter-long sticks and a shirt on the ground. But there was only one thing Erza noticed.

Carrot-head was receiving shade under the tree. Shirtless. Her stupid female hormones made her feel hot all over. She quickly shook it off, instead noticing that he was holding an ordinary sword. It wasn't like his usual powerful ones, but it looked functional enough.

"Erza, over here!" Carrot-head waved his sword, and Erza made her way at a slow pace, staring at the ground instead of him. As she halted somewhere near him, Carrot-head stabbed the sword into the ground in front of her, making Erza's heart skip half a beat.

"What is this?" Carrot-head asked, as if it wasn't obvious.

"A sword?" Erza knew that his questions were never straight-forward, but she didn't bother guessing.

"Yes." She patted her head, and the sword disappeared in a flash of light. "Now it's in your magic space. It represents your hope."

Magic space. A storage for weapons in an alternate dimension, allowing Carrot-head to summon weapons and armor at will, Erza dug up all the information she had in her mind. Did she really possess a sword? Did she even have a magic space? Erza didn't seem to feel anything different

"Here's the challenge!" Carrot-head put on a cowboy hat, which looked really stupid, only his shirtless body making him not cross the line between attractive and weird. You're here to learn magic, Erza. Focus.

"I couldn't really find my intended hat, but this one will do. Your goal is to knock this hat off. You can use the sticks over there, or you can summon the sword. But remember, if you run out of sticks and can't summon the sword, you'll have to resort to your hands, so I suggest trying to summon your sword."

Erza took a brief second to imagine a sword materializing out of thin air, but nothing happened. She tried several times, trying to imagine the sword in more detail, but there was no sword in sight."How am I supposed to do that?"

"A sword in your magic space is your hope. A sword in your hands is strength. Figure it out."

She didn't like it when Carrot-head spoke in riddles, so she figured she would attempt with a stick first. Carrot-head mentioned about running out of sticks, but Erza didn't think it was possible to "run out of sticks". If she were to use the stick like a sword, it would work the same way and she could strike the hat off his head.

It was not until she picked up a stick and swung it when she realized what Carrot-head was talking about.

As quickly as she could, Erza sprinted to the stack of sticks, picked one up and attempted a downwards swing to the hat. Carrot-head didn't even dodge to the side or change his stance. He simply gripped the stick. Erza pushed down harder, but Carrot-head didn't allow the stick to budge. A creak was heard before...

The piece of wood was squeezed so hard that the part where it was gripped exploded into fragments of wood, splitting the wood into two prominent sections and a hundred splinters. Back-stepping cautiously, she looked at the man who displayed nothing less than monstrous strength. So that was what he meant by "running out of sticks".

Erza picked up another stick and observed Carrot-head. His eyes were staring straight into hers, as if reading her like a manual. She swung the stick with both hands from the right, but Carrot-head caught it with one hand again. This time, he simply pulled and it slipped out Erza's hand. Using both of his hands, he snapped the sturdy stick like a toothpick. No instruction was given and no mistakes were pointed out. Only staring came from Carrot-head.

The following hour was spent by Erza trying different ways to knock the hat off. Dual-wielding didn't work, and neither did lunging or stabbing. In one way or another, he broke the sticks into splinters or simply flung it away. Erza was on her last stick and possibly on her last breath, searching desperately in the depths of her mind.

"A sword in your magic space is your hope. A sword in your hands is strength."

Erza gripped tightly onto the stick, concentrating on reading between the lines. Carrot-head gave me the sword, so he gave me "hope". How do I turn hope into strength? Erza closed her eyes, thinking of the things that Carrot-head had mentioned to her.

",,,protect who you care about."

"...some beliefs are worth fighting for."

"...your motivation must feel like more of a need than a desire."

"...find something worth fighting for."

"You gave me hope, Carrot-head." Erza muttered, but the man continued to scowl, as if observing her and readying for an incoming attack. "I will repay you, and I will be stronger to do so."

Her grip on the stick tightened, and creaks came from the wood. "That is my...motivation!"

Dragging the stick on the grass-littered ground, Erza dashed forward, scrapping the stick as she ran. As she came close, Erza leapt into the air. With every inch of muscle in her arms, she swung downwards similarly to her first attempt. Like previously, Carrot-head gripped on the stick, and a creak escaped.

But before it broke into splinters, a glow surrounded the stick timely. Carrot-head continued to tighten his grip, not before the glow burst into the surroundings. For a moment, Erza wanted to drop the stick to rub her eyes. But it was no longer a stick. Sticks weren't this heavy. Sticks weren't shiny. She was holding a sword, the one Carrot-head gave her.

Carrot-head removed the grip of his sword, dropping his hand to the side, allowing Erza to examine the sword. The sword she summoned. Bringing her eyes back to the man who made it possible, she saw his face break into a smile. To say Erza was elated was the understatement of the year. The guards back at the tower had thought she was powerful. Wait till they see her prowess now.

"Good job, gaki. Keep the sword. We'll call it a day and get some lunch. Cake in the morning probably isn't enough." Carrot-head shook the hat off his head before put his shirt back on awkwardly with his left hand as he said.

"But I want to practice! I haven't complete the challenge!" Erza may have whined, but anyone in her situation would understand. The thrill of using her newly-acquired magic could not be contained until the next day.

"Erza. I just gripped a sword. I think I deserve a break to go get some bandages." Erza stared at her sword to see it coated in a little blood. She must have openly shown her shock, as Carrot-head chuckled lightly at her. Without so much as a warning, her mentor turned on his heels and walked, Erza only noticing seconds later.

As she ran after, she noticed the sword glowing and disintegrating into nothing, and she could feel the sword feeling up an empty part of her. This sword would stay with her for a long time, evidence that Erza had regained hope.

Evidence that on this day, a once hollow red-haired girl was given the ability to fight. By a certain orange-haired man.