Chapter One

The Promise We Made

No One's POV

November 2nd X1,400

He met her for the first time in another life. She had the same blonde hair, the same warm smile, and somehow he remembered everything about her. He remembered the life he had with her almost six hundred years ago. That was a different age then, and we had come up very differently this time around.

She was only ten years old when he spotted her, he was three years older than her this time around, almost four, as he was thirteen going on fourteen. He was dressed in fancy clothes that he didn't care for, they choked and scratched his skin like crazy. He rode in a fancy carriage throughout the city known as Flore, in his previous life this city had gone by a much different name.

He was frowning as he looked outside, it was freezing outside and he pitied the poor fool who didn't have shelter. It was later in the day than the trip had planned for, and it was beginning to snow, building up into thick layers, like a blanket.

And that's when he spotted her.

Even in the night sky her blonde hair shone with a magnificence that was ethereal. She had a different facial structure, and her eyes were like gems, a dazzling green that could capture anyone's attention. But, it was still her and he knew it. He would never forget her presence, or her smile. But she wasn't smiling now.

He cursed his old lovers rotten luck.

"Stop the carriage immediately" He yelled to the driver. Soon thereafter the horse drawn carriage was pulled to a stop and the young man with light blonde hair jumped into the gathering snow.

She was lying there, in front of him, a mess, her eyes barely opening to see who was approaching her. The only thing that wasn't dirty on her were the keys that shone brightly at her side, and he had to smile, so those had found their way back to her, after all these years...

He studied her for a bit longer, the clothes she wore were little more than a sack usually used to keep potato's in, her feet were bare and her legs were littered with scars, as were her arms, she was disgustingly dirty, but it didn't bother the young man any.

Carefully, he picked her up and tucked her into his chest, wondering if she would be okay. She was still alive, given the fact that she had opened her eyes a few moments earlier, but she was shivering with such intensity that it made the boy's body shake right along with her.

"Prince...May I ask what you are doing with the peasant girl?" His 'keeper' said with disgust, eyeing the little girl with disdain. The teen shot the man a glare so deadly that he soon after became deadly silent and got back into the carriage, mumbling under his breath about brats and what not.

The blonde haired boy got into the carriage again and silently wrapped a cloak around the young girl, in an attempt to keep her somewhat warm as they travelled the rest of the way to the palace, the snow was falling heavier now, as if it had been unhindered after the girls rescue.

As he sat waiting for them to arrive at his home, he couldn't help but look at the blonde's face, he shoved pieces of her blonde hair away so he could get a better look at her, of course it mattered not with all the dirt that smeared across it, but he faintly got a glimpse of a scar that ran across her nose, and another that stretched across her neck. Seeing those on this girl, mind you, one that was so young infuriated him, how, and why had she gotten these? Furthermore why was she suffering all alone in the coldness of fall?

More importantly, how had he not found her sooner, he'd been searching for her for years, hoping to come up with something, he knew it was rather impossible to meet someone from a previous life, he'd met many people in his travels though, some he even recognized from his previous life, so it wasn't impossible, at least not for him. No one else seemed to remember their previous lives though, he was alone in this. The girl laying on his lap no doubt wouldn't have a clue as to who he was and why he was so familiar with her. Or rather, the old her.

He needed to remind himself that she wasn't her.

But, he had never faced a harder challenge. She looked almost exactly like her.

Through his travels across Fiore, -where he'd ended up being born again- he'd met a pink haired woman. He'd laughed at the sight of her. She was twelve years old and a fiery little thing. Had fire magic and everything, dragon slaying abilities still ran through the veins of both himself and the woman that refused to go by any other name other than Nash. The blonde knew immediately that this fiery, explosive woman had been Natsu in his previous life, no doubt about it, a shame he'd been reborn a woman though.

He couldn't fight a girl, plus it's just plain weird.

He'd yet to meet the reincarnated Rogue though, he missed his friend dearly, and even if they weren't friends, even if he wasn't alive in this future the blonde wished that the man was well.

Of course he'd met a few others. Erza for example. Actually, there wasn't anything entirely different about the woman, she was still a force to be reckoned with, scary as all hell. The blonde had only met her in passing, turns out she was a knight in training for the kingdom, so he saw her fairly often.

Speaking of the kingdom...They were nearly there.

"Prince Eucliffe, we have arrived at the gates." It wasn't truly his name, but he just couldn't go by anything else, his real name in this life had been Ethan E. Fiore, it was a fine name, but he preferred his old one better and everyone knew to call him by this name, at least in the palace anyway. His keeper kept speaking to him before sting cut him off with a request of his own, in actuality his keeper's name was Blakely, a rather bland name for a rather bland man. Blakely wasn't a friendly person, and he wondered why the people whom were his parents in this life kept him around.

"Alright, tell the maids to run a hot bath for this girl, and also to prepare clothes." The prince said in a rushed tone. Without question the man jumped out of the carriage and ran to the doors, beginning to shout orders as soon as he stepped inside.

The blonde prince was glad the man knew how to take orders, although he did feel weird giving orders to people, he didn't want to be rude, and usually he didn't ask his maids to do things for him, but this was an emergency.

As soon at the carriage stopped he saw the knight in training, going by the plain name of Scarlet this time around coming to help him down from the carriage, gasping as she saw the bundle he carried in his arms.

"Prince Sting, what implored you to bring this girl to the castle?" Scarlet asked, trying to take the bundle from his arms, Sting growled at her and glared, daring her to try taking the girl away from him. Scarlet's eyes softened and she smiled faintly.

"I see. You are very kind, prince. Shall I assist with getting her washed?" Scarlet asked, becoming as stoic as ever once more. Sting sighed and nodded his head in approval, seeing she wasn't going to be a threat anymore, and as she was helping with the small blonde he would go and update his parents as to what was going on in their castle.

He didn't fear them kicking out the small blonde, they were compassionate people, and gave help to whomever needed it, and right now it was the ten year old girl that Scarlet was currently taking to the baths.

He smiled slightly as he walked down the corridors of the castle, the same castle that he'd last seen six hundred years ago, the magnificent Mercurius castle, located in what was now known as the city of Flore. Why they'd changed the name he hadn't figured out yet.

He felt like bursting into a fit of hysterical laughter as he thought about the blonde, he wondered if her name was the same, if she was the same as she was before, of course she would be, she had to be, it was her after all, her heart was as bright as gold...

"Lucy, I've finally found you.."