A few days later Natsu was fully healed and back on his feet again, shocking the hell out of Rissa since she couldn't exactly recall a time she'd ever see someone mend so quickly. Yet the second Natsu was on his feet again, he handed her off to one of his friends and wrangled a promise from her not to leave said person's side for anything then left.

That was almost a week ago and while she had a fairly good idea of where he'd gone off too, she wasn't all that comfortable with the red headed woman dressed in armor that she'd been handed off too.

It wasn't that the woman was mean or even violent- actually she'd been pretty nice and appeared to be pretty level headed until Rissa had seen her knock a fella through a solid brick wall just because he'd been drunkenly singing off key.

Natrually seeing someone fly through the air after being hit by such a dainty and pretty woman, scared the hell out of her which was why she more or less started tip-toeing around the woman.

She was pretty sure that if Erza had hit one person then she'd hit another and she wasn't looking to be knocked through a wall for any reason. Nu-uh. No way.

She probably wouldn't survive if she was knocked through a wall anyways. And there was the fact that if she did survive Natsu would never trust anyone with her again. He'd hover and worry like he had been since the beginning and keep doing so until he drove her batty.

She was so engrossed with her thoughts that she didn't notice Erza walking up in her nightgown with a bowl of popcorn and a couple of drinks in both hands. The red head sat down next to her, causing her to jump and quickly try to climb over the couch.

"Jeez, Luc. You act like I'm going to eat you alive or something-" Erza said in a teasing tone as she grasped the back of Rissa's borrowed sweat pants and pulled her back down next to her on the couch and pushed one of the drinks into her numb fingers and set the bowl between them. "Calm down and try to relax. Natsu will have a fit if he comes back to find you had a stroke or something."

Rissa blinked and gave the woman a nervous looking smile and quickly uncapped her drink and took a long swig of it as Erza grabbed a hand full of popcorn and popped a few kernels into her mouth and chewed as she studied Rissa for a moment before frowning. "You seem different." She said out of the blue after swallowing what was in her mouth.

Rissa got a slightly panicked feeling and looked away, uncomfortable under the woman's scrutiny. But Erza was having none of that. She reached out and caught Rissa's chin in her fist and made her look at her again and frowned a little more before asking, "How's your memory? Is anything coming back yet?"

"N-No."

Erza hummed and dropped her hand away from Rissa's face and looked sad. "I see. Natsu said that you were having some issues with adapting and such. And then there's the fact that you don't seem to recognise anyone when you look at them. It's been a little over a month...you'd think that something would change."

"I-I'm sorry."

Erza waved her hand at her and shook her head as she grabbed another handful of popcorn. "Don't apologize Lucy. It's pointless to feel bad over something that you can't control. I just wish I could sit and talk to you like I used too without frightening you." Rissa opened her mouth to tell Erza that she wasn't scared of her per say, she was just scared of being knocked through walls for no reason at all. However she never got to say anything.

Erza gave her a knowing look tinged with temper and Rissa abruptly asked if there were any scary movies on Tv that they could watch. She suddenly didn't want to talk anymore.

Erza found them a nice movie, which was just ghastly in Rissa's opinion. Then as soon as the movie ended Erza set the empty bowl and soda bottles aside and stood up and stretched. "Wow that was great." She said as she put her hands high over her head and arched her back a little bit.

Rissa simply nodded her head mutely as the older woman turned the TV off then looked at her. "Do you want me to leave the hall light on for you so you don't freak out later?" Rissa wasn't sure if she was teasing or not, but she decided to treat the question as merely playful picking and shook her head no as she slowly stood up.

Shadows and dark places didn't scare her. She wasn't a small child after all. Later that night, she'd regret that choice when she had a nightmare.

The world around her was red.

The deep scarlet dripped from the walls, the ceiling, pooled around her ankels. There were bits and pieces of things that were chalk white. She could tell what they were at first but then they began to take form and she could finally make out the curve of fingers, the pale skin of a forearm.

Something brushed around her left ankel, sending a shiver racing down her spine as she slowly looked down. Her face draining of color as her eyes widened in horror as she saw a severed head floating next to her ankel a second before she heard a vaguely familiar voice whisper, "What are you doing here?"

She looked away from the severed head and looked towards the source of the voice and started hyperventilating when she saw herself as she was now, blond hair, green eyes and all, stained in blood. Clothes torn and a coal black scarf around her neck.

She stood there for a second just looking at herself when her other self smiled, her lips curving up in a cruel smile as her other self cocked her head. "My, my, the soldier returns. I didn't think I'd be seeing you again for another hundred years or so."

"W-Who are you?"

The blood stained girl smirked, her lips stretching over sharp jagged teeth as her eyes turned jet black with crimson. "Don't you know who I am?"

"No."

"Awww, that's just sad. Especially when I know so much about you-" The other girl moved then, so fast that her actions were a blur. One minute she was standing a good twenty or so feet away and the next she had Rissa by the front of her shirt, snarling. "And you shouldn't be here!"

She shoved Rissa back, making her fall into the crimson where she disappeared beneath the surface with a terrified scream.

The next thing Rissa knew she was being shaken and two sets of voices were calling her- no not her name but the other girl's name. Part of her mind recognised them as Erza and Natsu. But part of her mind was still wrapped up in the nightmare she'd just seen and was completely unaware of the fact that she was still screaming.