Summary: For a moment it had looked like Erza Knightwalker hesitated before she tried to kill Lucy, this is my head cannon as to why.
Pairings: Edo-Erza/Edo-Lucy friendship, implied Erza/Lucy friendship, and some implied Edo-Natsu/Edo-Lucy.
Author's Note: Thank you so much for giving me thirty one hundred reviews! And so quickly too! It was only just Sunday I had been thanking you for three thousand, you guys spoil me XD
Erza Knightwalker did not like to think about her past.
She was on the righteous path at last, she was clean, good, justified, and obedient, she didn't like to think of the days were she was the daughter of gangsters, and knew just a bit too much about the black market and just how it worked.
She didn't like to think of that sweet, little, blonde girl that she had been charged with the care of. The mob father's daughter, Lucy Ashely, her best and dearest, and sweetest friend….it made her stomach curl to think of it.
They had been on the same path once, the path of being criminals in a long family line of them. It was in their blood to be bad, it was their legacy to pass onto their own children one day, and Erza was revolted by it.
Byro and the others helped her stamp out the badness inside her, made her a soldier of justice, a law enforcer, one of the good guys, and she was determined to make the world right to show her gratitude to the light they had shown her.
She went down the right path.
Lucy, however, carried down on their path until she took a worse turn and went down a darker path.
They were both caught in the same crossfire between two gangs, and Erza remembered holding Lucy as she whimpered pathetically against her chest, and Erza trembled herself as she thought this was it, they were going to die because of their parents' selfishness, when suddenly the Royal Guard and Fairy Tail came to the rescue.
Erza cannot remember for the life of her how she and Lucy got separated, but she remembered the empty feeling in her arms, her own screams for Lucy, and then the sudden agony of being shot in the eye with magic, and as she fell to the ground, she vaguely remember seeing a chubby, greying, man in black leather drag Lucy away.
Both the Royal Guard and Fairy Tail had apparently been there for the same reasons – to stop Erza's and Lucy's parents – and they both left with different girls, the Royal guard fixed Erza, they put her on the mend, they replaced her eye, they taught her to read and write, to fight properly, to know the law, and to be good.
Fairy Tail taught Lucy how to fight dirty, use magic illegally, and become an annoyance.
Erza became the Fairy Hunter when the guild was finally outlawed, and she mostly aimed to capture them in order to make them face justice, but some were really sneaky, and before she knew it she had to kill them or be killed herself.
(A small part of her took great pleasure in killing that chubby, grey, man in leather that had taken her friend away. Bob-san, she could remember the other fairies screaming as her spear sank into his fat stomach.)
The war between the law and the criminals worsened, and then one day, finally, she encountered Lucy again.
They were so different now. Erza was the strong soldier, and Lucy was the tough, leather-wearing, criminal. There was nothing left of that sweet, innocent, child, and she was sure when Lucy looked at her she saw nothing of that weak, nervous, wreck of a girl.
"It doesn't have to be this way, Ashely," Erza tried to plead but a furious snarl escaped her when Lucy managed to catch her side with her whip. "You can give yourself in, repent, and I'll make sure you won't be punished harshly. Who knows, in five years you can be free woman again, making an honest living."
Lucy tried to punch her which Erza blocked with ease but she took advantage and suddenly Erza found her feet kicked out from beneath her, and Lucy hovering over her like an avenging angel. "Screw you!" she spat out. "Do you think I'd ever want to be near you after what you have done? Do us a favour and go to hell, Knightwalker."
Something broke inside of Erza at that, and she let out a furious battle cry before she leaped up and dived to attack her old best friend with a twisted sword.
She didn't get far, there was a strange screeching sound, and she soon found herself back on the floor as a hideous, illegal, car with red flames painted on appeared between her and Lucy. "Lucy!" a pink-haired boy cried out. "Don't stand there like a lemon, you weirdo! Get in quick!"
Lucy didn't need any more encouragement, Erza watched stunned, as the blonde girl dived into the car, flung her arms round the boy's neck, and before Erza could snap back into action, they drove off quickly, leaving her to cough in the dust left behind.
Whatever friendship they had was truly lost now, and it was Fairy Tail's fault. It was magic's fault, and its evil influence, and Erza became even more determined to destroy it. Stamp it out. Regulate it like it should be. Punish all the wrongdoers.
And so, when a girl from another world with Lucy's face appeared, and she hung on the very edge of Erza's spear, at her mercy…..Erza couldn't help but hesitate. The wide, pleading eyes, were so similar to that little girl.
"How dare you!" those eyes narrowed to a similar angry and bitter look that Lucy Ashely shot her the last time they had an encounter, back when Erza managed to catch the pink-haired boy in the leg with her spear… "How dare you!" the fake-Lucy shrieked. "Say those things with my friend's face!"
And that was when Erza lost it.
How dare she say that with her face, her old friend, that criminal, the traitor, and think she was in the right when she was clearly in the wrong. She was the invader. She was the criminal just like Lucy Ashley was, and she thought she had the right to scold Erza Knightwalker?
She knew nothing!
And so, with a hardened and righteous heart, Erza Knightwalker flung Lucy Heartfilla off of her spear and into the air.
No one had the right to look at her so righteously especially with that face.
(She tried not to slump in relief when those two Exceeds catch the Earthland Lucy and bring her back to safety. But it had been present, and was a burning reminder that perhaps not everything from her past had been completely stamped out. And that made her furious.)