A/N: A bit on the shorter side this time around, but I didn't want to leave a major time gap between chapter 7 and 8. I'm trying to update on a more frequent basis, as best I can! Unfortunately, that may mean shorter chapters here and there, but I'll try my best to make them a bit longer each time!

Here's chapter 8, enjoy!

Contains a bit of profanity here and there. Nothing too major.

As the scarlet hair slowly returned to white, Lucy let out with wide eyes, "Erza?"

Angry and panic stricken, the white haired woman quickly got up, needing to get rid of her two companions as soon as possible. "We're leaving, now," she instructed loud enough that Scarlet woke up in the process, rubbing her eyes, confused.

"Already?"

"Yes, already," Knightwalker glared, turning around, grabbing her things and beginning her fast paced march. She tried her best to empty her mind and forget the touch of the blonde. She could not go back to that. Not again. Possibly, not ever.

Lucy chased after her with a frown, asking her to stop. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to upset you! But I know you're Erza!" She was positive. If there was one thing she'd been the most positive about in her life, it would've been this. She didn't want to think about what it meant if this woman was Erza. Who had she been sleeping with? Who had she been reunited with beforehand? No. None of it mattered. This woman trying to kill her beforehand didn't matter either. All that mattered right then and there was that Erza, her Erza, was in front of her and she was denying it. She had to find out why.

Having quickly caught up to the two whose climb had slowed due to the treacherous mountain path, Scarlet let out, "What the hell is going on?! We're not even being attacked!"

"Nothing!" Both her counterpart and her blonde friend yelled simultaneously.

"Oh, yes. Clearly, this is nothing. Let's wake up just as the sun begins to rise and start a march right off the bat with no breakfast. Let's not forget the need to be super bitchy for no reason at all," Erza waved her hand, rolling her eyes. She had no idea what was going on with Knightwalker, but she definitely knew that something WAS happening.

Before she could further pressure either one however, snow started slowly covering the ground. Knightwalker stopped, glaring, trying to find her enemies.

"What's going on?" Scarlet eyed around as well, cautious due to her counterpart's behaviour.

"Snow bandits. They're amateur snow mages constantly trying to steal from the Cave of Truths. Whenever they spot travelers, they try to mug them instead."

"So we eliminate them," the red haired requip mage took out two swords, shrugging. A few bandits couldn't do much to professional mages.

"Absolutely not!" She, however, received a glare. "Though we're on a mountain, the earth is incredibly unstable. Any attempt at force could cause the ground to crumble beneath our feet."

"So what?! We just stand here and let them take our stuff?!"

"We run."

"What?"

The snow turned into a storm as a dozen men began slowly surrounding them. "I said, we run!" Pushing Scarlet & Lucy ahead of her, she yelled, "Head to that opening! It's the entrance to the cave!"

"W-wait! Erza, what about you?!" Lucy called out.

"I am NOT Erza!" She roared, running towards the group of bandits. Closing her eyes a brief instance, she opened them once again, feeling power going through her spear. She hated this. She hated the demonic powers that had corrupted her magic, but she'd make good use of them whenever she could. As the tip of her spear turned ragged and curvy, shining a particular red, she yelled out, "Explosion!"

"ERZA!" The blonde screamed as the snowstorm and fire from the spear blinded her vision after having made it to the cave. Right as her heart threatened to be filled with grief, a swift, unnatural wind went right past her and Scarlet.

"Woo. Too dangerous," the familiar partially demonic voice said as Lucy turned around to look at her. The red tipped spear had become triangular, with an arrowhead-like head.

"Silfarion!" Lucy smiled, glad that the woman's super speed had saved her, having feared Explosion would have done damage to her along with the bandits.

As if knowing what the blonde was thinking, the woman shook her head, returning her spear to its original form, "Explosion does no harm to the wielder. I didn't use Silfarion to escape the blast. I used it to escape the crumbling ground." Turning around, she continued. "I brought you to the cave. There is no reason for us to stay together after this."

Before she could walk away however, Lucy let out, "Your arm, it's injured! Did it happen during that fight?" She walked a bit towards the woman. "Erza, are you okay?"

The anger growing ever bigger, the peeved woman turned around, rage and frustration in her eyes. "None of this. NONE of this would have happened if I didn't take you with me. For the two hundredth time, I am NOT Erza! Why don't you go back to your girlfriend already?! You know, the one who almost killed me?! You seem to be super happy with her already! Is it so hard to go back to fucking her and leaving me alone?!"

Her hands balled into fists, she tried to control her rampaging feelings, but she couldn't. This was one of the downfalls of being partially demonic. She didn't know how Kyouka did it, but she had a very difficult time keeping her feelings in complete check. She tended to get overwhelmed quite easily. She was angry, frustrated, annoyed, jealous, confused...but most of all, she felt ashamed. She didn't want Lucy to see her like a broken demon. She wanted Lucy to see her just as the day she'd left seven years ago.

"I'm not...Erza," she let out quietly, trying her best to stop the tears that threatened to fall. She would not cry. Not after having said something repeatedly at least five times.

"'I'm not Erza,' the fragile, corrupted human claims in my domain," a sound echoed throughout the cave. It wasn't a particular voice...No. It felt more like the cave's own thoughts.

Knightwalker's eyes widened as she realized what she'd just done. She'd lied within the cave of truths, and it wasn't an ordinary lie. Lying about your identity, denying who you were was one of the biggest lies a person could have done, especially since it wasn't a selfless one. Erza Knightwalker didn't want to admit who she was for fear of the disappointment and disgust that would be shown on Lucy's face. Her heart ached every time she denied who she was. But it hurt. Lucy had slept with that other Erza without even knowing about her existence. She'd thought the Erza in her bed was...her. But it wasn't. While Lucy was busy sleeping with that imposter, Erza was busy being toyed with by Kyouka. What she would have given to go back in time and stop Lucy from ever going on that S-Class exam trip with Cana.

"Are you, or are you not, Erza Knightwalker from Edolas?" The voice continued.

She knew she was going to regret this, but she had no choice. She was too ashamed and too angry both at herself and Lucy. She couldn't admit to it.

"For the last fucking time, I am NOT Knightwalker!" She roared at the voice, disgust trailing in her words at her own blatant denial.

The ground around the three of them began to shake. All three braced themselves for what was about to come next, two of them confused while the last one reprimanded herself quietly. The vibrations under her feet began dying down, which confused her, until she noticed the ground around a certain blonde beginning to crumble.

Both knights yelled out, attempting to grab the blonde, but only one was successful. Wrapping her arms around the falling girl, she whispered, "Forgive me, for everything," as the ground above them closed, leaving only complete darkness and the feeling of a never ending fall.

"You're finally awake," she let out quietly as he groaned, rubbing his head.

"What the hell happened?"

"The ground was too sensitive for our fight. We fell quite a ways down into the cave," she let out as she searched her body for bruises.

"Happy, you doin' okay?"

"Aye sir!" The little blue exceed let out, dusting himself off.

Natsu began huffing and puffing in irritation until he noticed a very familiar glow emanating from Erza's hand. He gritted his teeth, in further frustration at not having any answers given to him, only more questions. "How the hell can you do that?"

He was however ignored.

"ANSWER ME!" He roared, breaths of fire coming out of his mouth in anger. "What is going on here?! You smell like Erza. You smell like Rogue. You smell like Porlyusica. Now I can smell traces of Wendy on you and you can heal yourself?! Not to mention that Dark Guild mark you have!"

"Didn't you already figure it out earlier?" Erza questioned as she continued healing her wounds. "You made it perfectly clear at the campfire didn't you? Or was that just an empty threat, trying to figure out who or what I am?"

Natsu glared in blatant frustration. Whoever this woman was, he knew she couldn't be the current Erza Knightwalker. It didn't make much sense. So then, who the hell was she? Was she really from the future as he'd attempted to guess earlier?

"You have no right to demand anything from me. You have no right to even look at me that way. None of you mages of Fairy Tail do. Not when you abandoned me and forced me to live a life full of fear in a place I didn't even belong in."

Natsu's face reverted to normal, with a slight frown as he waited for her to continue.

"My home was Edolas. Because of Scarlet's little drama with Lucy, Lucy ended up in my home world. Sure, I fell in love with her, but if it wasn't for Scarlet, I wouldn't have had to go through any of this. You took me from my home and then you abandoned me. Did you think that dying would be okay? Did you think leaving Lucy to save the world on her own would be okay? Did you even..." She closed her eyes, gritting her teeth as she tried to control her feelings, but to no avail. "Did any of you even think about her before dying?! Before leaving her to do everything on her own?! No! You didn't. If you had, you wouldn't have died so selfishly. Do you want to know how you died, Natsu?! Do you?! Let me entertain you then. You selfishly went to fight against a dragon alone, claiming you didn't need help from anyone. Do you want to know how long you lasted?! It took less than a minute for your bones to be broken and your life drained out of you! Do you want to know how long it took Scarlet to die? Or Gajeel? Or Laxus? Or Mirajane? Do you want to know how quickly your selfishness caused your deaths?! You took her from me! Your selfishness caused her to leave, thinking everything stood on her shoulders. It was your selfishness, your entire guild's stupidity that caused her to die!" Her tears were falling, both out of frustration and sadness as Natsu simply stared, unable to utter a single word.

It took a few minutes of silence for Erza to compose herself once again, attempting to wipe her tears away. Rubbing at her eyes as she was though, Natsu couldn't help but feel the need to comfort her. She looked like a broken child, though she was probably much older than he was now. But he knew that getting close to her wouldn't have been a good idea.

"If you want answers, go find them on your own. I have nothing more to say to you or anyone else."

Just as she thought her tears had subsided however, Happy walked to her sitting form and wrapped his small paws around her waist. It was true that Happy had always been afraid of Erza, every Erza he'd encountered, but just looking at her, he knew she'd felt a lot of pain and there hadn't been anyone to comfort her. Feeling the soft blue paws on her waist, her eyes couldn't help but water again as she held onto the only being who had tried to comfort her for the last fourteen years.

Natsu looked at her. He had questions. So many questions. He also needed confirmation. He couldn't understand much of what Erza had been talking about. Was it the dream she'd had? Was she actually from the future? If she was, why hadn't she gone back with the dragons and future Rogue? Did that mean she wasn't from the future? If she wasn't, then who was she? Why was she here? He knew he couldn't ask her any of that at the moment though, so he simply looked at her holding Happy. However, he did have to ask one thing though and hoped Erza didn't try to kill him as a result.

"Do you love Lucy?"

The redhead looked up to his eyes, "I would die for her."

He smiled at that answer, knowing how genuine it was. Just then however, a loud thud was heard, as though something had fallen from above. Looking behind Erza, they both saw another redhead, cleaning herself from her fall.

"Erza?!"

"Scarlet?!"

"Damn. Why'd it have to be you guys?"

Both Natsu and Knightwalker frowned, a bit insulted but Knightwalker asked what the dragon slayer, exceed and she were all wondering. "How'd you get down here?"

Ignoring the bloodshot eyes of the other woman, knowing full well she'd been crying, she sighed, letting out, "Let's just say, I messed up, big time."

A/N: That's the end of chapter 8. Fic will most likely be rated M next chapter as I'm expecting to add some tasteful lemon.

Reviews are much welcome, and thanks for sticking by the sequel!