Hey everyone! I was super inspired after reading your amazing reviews. Big thanks to everyone who reviewed/followed/favored this story! It means the world to me.

An Amber Pen : Your reviews were the push I needed to update as soon as possible. So thank you so much! :) I really hope you'll enjoy this chapter!

brendatorres113 : hehe, hope I updated fast enough. X) Enjoy this chapter!

CoSmO333 : I love this Lucy too! If you're interested in reading other fanfics on badass/more powerdul Lucy I really recommend 'The Girl With The Celestial Tattoos' by Gothic Rain. It's one of the best fanfics I ever read regarding powerful Lucy. It's not complete yet though, but I hope you'll like it as much as you like this story! :)

Warning : Things are going to get crazy from here. Get ready for some tears, confusion, hurt and anger. Mwahahaha...

Voices.

Footsteps.

They were getting closer.

But the blonde girl running away from them wasn't fazed at all. In fact, a grin was plastered to her face as she leaped over a dumpster in an alleyway. She looked behind her and saw her pursuers cursing her as they lost sight of their thief.

It has been three months since she ran away from her prison. Three months of delicious freedom. Two months of stealing and robbing. One week of starving. Five days away from leaving the wretched town they were staying in. Three days journey to reach the guild of her dreams.

Lucy laughed merrily and sprinted to a run-down motel. She ran up the stairs and slammed the door to her temporary shelter open. A hideous odor greeted her nose but she was too high on her success to care.

'Cobra! I got the money! We can leave –' her voice faltered as she realized how quiet the room was. Normally, her snarky partner would have pounced on her or tried to prank her with one of his new tricks. But now…the silence was unnerving.

A chill went up Lucy's spine and her mind went on auto-pilot. Her hand reached for her keys and sent a warning to her spirits through their bond. Her keys glowed dangerously in response. They didn't like how distressed their master felt.

Shuffle.

A bright glob of magical energy slammed into the wall on Lucy's left which was where the noise came from and she heard an audible groan. Turning to look at the intruder, Lucy transferred another batch of Aquarius's destructive water magic to her hands and was ready to give the unfortunate fellow a hell of a fight.

But when she turned around, she refused to acknowledge the sight of her best friend lying on the floor. She gasped and rushed over to him, disbelief written in her eyes. Why didn't he dodge? She knew he was so much stronger than that, so why did he let himself get hit? Why didn't he –

'I can hear you,' he whispered, a broken look on his face. Lucy glanced at him as she released an orb of Celestial Magic to heal her partner. Looking at how broken and scared Cobra was, Lucy swore she felt her heart crack. She raised her hand to cup her guardian's face to reassure him, only to be met with a flinch.

Lucy's eyes flashed with hurt as she slowly lowered her hand. She forced a smile and tried to make light of the situation, 'Of course you can hear me, you dumbass – '

'No, Lucy,' he snarled dangerously, startling the blonde. 'I can fucking hear your thoughts and I can see your goddamn soul.

'And I know you're afraid of me.'

Lucy shook her head vehemently. 'No, Cobra, I'm afraid for you. What is happening to you? Is this some kind of guardian –'

'No. I was … I was born like this.' He said quietly, finally raising his head to look at her. Lucy smiled softly at him, resting her hand on his knee – a gesture of comfort and reassurance. Cobra blinked at the action, strangely moved. He shook his head and shakily continued.

'I – I promised you that I would tell you everything one day…But at the time, I didn't even know anything,' his voice cracked and the sight of her usually sarcastic guardian exposing his most vulnerable state to Lucy made something in her snap. She swore to protect him as he would to her, and Lucy's hand tightened into a fist as she struggled not to break down in front of Cobra when he needed her.

Cobra, oblivious to his master's internal turmoil, breathed in deeply. 'Your mother and her guardian never told you…but a guardian's life is tied to his masters.' Confusion welled up in Lucy. Layla did tell her that, so did Lupus, so why – 'Please, just listen. I know you think you know everything about guardians, but you don't.

'You remember the time when Layla died?' Lucy flinched at the memory and nodded. 'Now, did you remember seeing Lupus at all during that period?'

The Celestial Mage's eyes widened. She tried desperately to recall seeing a flash of blue hair or a swish of a tail around a corner, but she couldn't remember seeing her mother's loyal wolf guardian at all.

'Your mother told you to cherish your guardian's life as well as your own…because a guardian and its master's lives intertwine more closely than you think. The moment the master dies…'

'So does the guardian,' finished Lucy, aghast at what her guardian just told her.

'Yes, and vice versa. Whenever a guardian dies, we lose our memories of the past when we regenerate in the spirit realm. But if a guardian defies or purposely breaks the contract binding the guardian and its master, the memories resurface much faster than the average guardian's.'

Cobra glowers at his hands and spat out, 'Your servants, your parents, your spirits…They all called me a monster,' a bitter chuckle escaped his lips. 'They don't know how true they were.'

He looked at Lucy in the eye and said, 'I killed my own master.'

Lucy's breath hitched but she didn't move away.

'Not just him. But a ton of other masters too.' Seeing the blank, 'so what' expression on his master's face, Cobra sighed. 'I murdered a child. The same age as you were when you summoned me. I killed her in cold blood just so I could escape back to the spirit world and regain my memories.

She had your middle name, you know. Ashley. But I called her Ash. Even when I wrapped my claws around and choked her…I still called her that.'

Before Lucy, perhaps the only other master he had come close to loving was Ashley. Poor, innocent, naïve Ashley, with her auburn pigtails and sea blue eyes and carefree smile. He could still picture the way she smiled with her two front teeth missing.

He should feel satisfaction at the way Lucy's hand on his knee twitched and how anger and hate bubbled up in her soul. After all that was how the old Cobra would have felt. But now, Erik was stopping the monster inside him. Cobra could hear Erik screaming at him to stop.

He could hear Erik screaming at him to stop scaring Lucy; to stop pushing the only master he ever loved away.

But Cobra couldn't stop. He had gotten too close to Lucy; fallen too deep for the dumb blonde to ever pull himself out. Lucy was supposed to be the last master he killed to get his memories back. Lucy was supposed to die a year after summoning him. Lucy was supposed to hate him when he bullied and taunted and teased her. Lucy was supposed to hate him now so that he could kill her easier.

Lucy wasn't supposed to be his best friend.

'You were supposed to die too.' He confessed, waiting for the hatred to hit him like a freight train. 'I gained my old powers back because you trusted me. If you were to die now, I could have gotten my memories back. And Cubellious would return to me.' His voice cracked as he remembered her face when they took her away from him when he became a guardian. 'A guardian should never be more attached to anything or anyone else other than their masters,' they said.

He expected her to slap him and walk away. He expected her to hate him with every fiber of her being.

He didn't expect her to hug him.

Warm, salty liquid rolled down his face.

He stared at the blonde who was burying her face in his neck in shock and affection and self-loathing and guilt.

'I understand.'

'No, you don't.' He growled.

Her chocolate eyes flew to meet his indigo ones and she glared at him hard.

'You think I don't know how it feels like when someone you love is taken away? You think I don't understand how gut-wrenchingly lonely it was when everything you ever wanted was out of your reach? You think I don't understand your pain?'

Cobra was silent.

'I would have willingly died for you if it meant you'll be able to get Cubellious back. If you had just told me, I would have killed myself so you'd able to reunite with her, you big, stubborn idiot!' she said.

The wall he'd held up for so long crumbled away as he heard her soul sing in sorrow, hurt, pain, anger and love.

He wrapped his arms around her waist and poured everything out.

All the regret and loathe he held for himself came rushing out like a waterfall.

They stayed like that, wrapped in the other's embrace for what felt like forever.

And finally, he was ready.

He was finally ready to let go of his past like she did three months ago when they escaped from the Heartfilia Mansion.

He buried his face into her beautiful golden hair and whispered.

'My real name is Erik.'

So what do you think? Like I said, this story is going to move at a very fast pace.

Just so you don't get confused, Cobra has two sides to him - one is the snarky, rude, crass Cobra that we all know and love; and the other side that he keeps hidden is Erik.

I'm not going to give any spoilers about why he hides Erik or what type of person Erik is...so let's see what theories you guys can cook up, huh? (Just kidding XD)

AUTHOR'S NOTE : By the way, all guardians lose their memories after they 'die'. Those who broke a rule in the master-guardian contract will have their memories resurface faster because in Chapter 1, it was said that Celestial Guardians are actually fallen spirits (meaning they are spirits which have broken their contract with their masters illegally - kinda like Loke's situation), so their memories of their past are most likely extremely gruesome or painful.

P.S. : Do check out my other stories and one-shots, Mercy (on-going NALU AU fic), She Used To Be Mine (Angsty one-shot), Breathe Again (LALU one-shot), Liar (ANNALOGIA Angst/Romance one-shot) and Appendicitis (NALU Sexy British Natsu/Lawyer Lucy AU one-shot)