Sorry for a bit of a delayed update, but this chapter is longer than usual.

Also; angst alert!

Chapter Fifty - Hair

Yajima bit his lip to stop himself from laughing.

In all his time on the magic council - which was a good decade or so - he had never, ever seen Gran Doma or Org swear, and whatever Makie's brats had done now had brought it to a new level.

He knew that it had to be the girl, Elle. She was the only one who would know enough to pull this off (not to mention do something like this).

"-those damn Fairy fucks-"

Alright, so maybe he was better off tuning them out. After all, even though he was retired, he was still a Fairy, and if he paid too much attention he was going to start getting severely offended.

"I don't understand why you are all so upset!" Belno said. "The country of Seven has continually asked for our help in this matter! It has been taken care of now, we should be thanking them!"

While the Magic Council was centered in Fiore, they also watched over the Ten Wizard Saints - and the top four were known as the 'Gods of Ishgar' because they were measured as the strongest among the entire continent.

"You're missing the point!" Michello yelled angrily. "They're purposely showing off, saying that they can do their job better than we can!"

That's because they can, Yajima thought to himself.

"Nevertheless, we have to award them a monetary amount," Belno said.

"What? Why?" Michello whined.

"Because there is a reporter hovering in our midst and if we do nothing it will make this situation even worse," Gran Doma growled.

"Woah, this is SOOOOOOOO AWEEEEEESOOOOOOOOME!" Jacob shouted, trying to climb up on Deliora's dead body. "Fairy Tail RUUUUUUUUULEEEEEEEES!"

"Someone get the civilian off the dead demon," Org commanded, frustrated, and a series of Rune Knights went over to Deliora to pull Jacob off of it.

Jacob bounded over to the Magical Council and snapped a few pictures, blinding them all. "What is the Magical Council's response to this?" he asked, eagerly.

Gran Doma growled but was interrupted by Yajima. "Fairy Tail will be awarded a monetary sum for defeating Deliora, as this was actually classified as an SSS Class mission."

"Woah!" Jacob gasped. "What's that? I didn't think SSS was a classification..."

"It's not," Belno said. "It's generally something classified as extremely difficult, where there should be a team of several SS Class wizards banding together, perhaps with a Ten Wizard Saint included. These missions only actually surface a few times a decade, and are generally not well known because of the difficult requirements the mages need to match up with."

"And how many Jewels is Fairy Tail gonna get?" Jacob asked.

"That's classified," Org said heavily, and slightly menacing.

"Fairy Tail is SOOOOOOOOO AWEEEEEEESOOOOOOOOME! They totally deserve it!" Jacob yelled, before bounding away to take a few more pictures of Deliora.

"If you'll excuse me," Gran Doma said angrily. "I need to go write Makarov a letter."

As the council dispersed, Belno moved up next to Yajima. "It's a good thing that Crawford is out of town," she said quietly. "Who knows what he would have done."

Yajima sighed. "I should probably give Makarov a lacrima call. He'd probably like some warning."

Ur had freaked when she learned we didn't have a place to stay, and though Laxus and I convinced her that we like our tent just fine, we were still coerced into setting it up near her cabin. She also invited Silver to crash at her place, and he accepted.

Oddly enough, they didn't have beds, and instead slept on the floor on mats. Luckily, I had extra fluff, and gave it to them so they'd be more comfortable.

The previous night, after eating dinner, Laxus and I camped out under the stars, with a giant dead demon body in the woods not too far away.

"Are you okay, Elle?" Laxus asked.

"I'm fine," I said. "A little bruised up, but that's all."

It was odd, the way how every hit he made on the shield ended up bruising on my body. I couldn't help wonder what Deliora had done.

Maybe Corvus would know. He seems to know a lot of things I don't.

Jerk.

"Are you sure?" Laxus asked.

I nodded, requipping out some potions that Porlyusica had turned into lotion. The so called 'bruise paste' helped speed up healing when put on bruises, and I laid down so Laxus could get the parts on my back I couldn't reach, moving my bathing suit out of the way.

I didn't even realize I was in my bathing suit the whole time we fought Deliora.

Which totally makes it less cool. Even Ur was wearing more clothes than me.

"Hey, Laxus?" I asked as he finished up.

"Hmm?" he asked.

"How did you know Silver was in a coma?" I asked.

"Oh? It was what that guy said," he said dismissively.

"What guy?" I asked, jerking to attention.

Silver was supposed to be alone.

"After I shocked him and he wouldn't wake up, this weird skeleton guy came out and said he was in a magical coma. The way he moved kinda reminded me of Juvia…"

Keyes.

I gripped his arms tightly (which didn't really work because of his size). "He let you go. Just like that?"

"Yeah…" Laxus looked puzzled.

I threw my arms around him and hugged him.

"Elle?" he asked.

"Just shut up and hug me," I said quietly.

Gently, he wrapped his arms around me, and though he bothered my bruises I didn't really care.

"Elle?"

"What?" I asked, not letting go of him.

"Who was he?"

I let out a sharp exhale. "That was that guy that brought Silver back to life. He's another demon from the Books of Zeref."

Laxus stiffened a bit, seeming to realize the danger he had been in. "Oh."

"Yeah," I whispered.

Awhile later, before dawn, I left and put a nice, big present on the magic council's doorsteps. I also hid several recording lacrimas around it from different locations, in order to get a good view of the spectacle.

I was still giggling when I got back. This was gonna be huge, and hilarious. I hoped that Jason – no, that Jacob – was all over it.

At that thought, I left him a message on his desk telling him to go there.

After a few days with them, it was clear to me that the Ice Brigade all had some issues of their own.

Which wasn't really surprising, considering.

Ultear was still recovering from the Bureau. Silver seemed to be in some sort of daze, though, he did lose his entire family to Deliora, was brought back to life by a demon, trained by another demon, and then magically woke up alive again next to his presumed-dead son. Gray seemed to be the happiest, and extremely carefree. There was still a bit of a shadow looming over him, but it was nowhere like it had been before.

Ur seemed to be evaluating her life, which wasn't surprising considering she technically tried to kill herself.

And Lyon? Well, Lyon seemed troubled in more than a few ways.

"You're being stupid, you know," I told him.

He jumped, before turning to look at me from where he sat in the snow. "What the hell?"

"You're being stupid," I repeated.

He got up from where he sat and faced me. "What do you know?"

"You should join them," I said. To celebrate the defeat of Deliora, Ur had given everyone the week off and the rest of the Ice Brigade were playing in the snow.

Lyon didn't move, before quietly saying, "They look like a family," subconsciously tugging on his silver hair.

I turned back to the scene, watching the four of them trying to build a snowman.

"Maybe," I agreed. "But one, even though they'd make a cute couple, you have no clue if Ur and Silver will even get together..."

Though I hope they do. I ship it.

"But more than that," I continued. "If this is about your hair, when Ur and Silver get old, their hair will get white, and then they'll match you."

Because with the exception of Lyon, all of them had dark hair, and that was what was obviously bothering him.

He began to smile, "Thanks, Elle," and skipped along to join the rest of them.

Ur insisted on mothering both me and Laxus, and was unfortunately taking it pretty seriously. Which meant-

"But I don't like salad," I said.

Ur glared at me. "But you need vegetables!"

"I already eat plenty of veggies!" I said. "But I don't like salad."

"Well, have you tried dressing or lemon juice?" Ur suggested.

"I don't like dressing, and I hate lemons."

"But-"

"The only thing lemons are good for is dying hair," I interrupted. "Lemon juice can lighten hair if it's in the sun. That is, quite literally, the only good thing about lemons."

There was more arguing, but eventually, Ur gave up, because she wasn't actually my mother.

Of course, this lead to another problem...

"What did you do, Ultear?" Ur sighed.

"I wanted to look more like Nee-san, so I used lemon juice to lighten my hair!" Ultear said happily.

Oh.

Ultear's hair was actually purple, but much much darker than mine (you can actually tell my hair is a deep purple color). Ultear wanted lighter hair like mine though, and so dunk all her hair in lemon juice and waited outside in the sun.

Except now her hair was a lavender color.

Even though I'm pretty sure it's not supposed to work like that.

"Have you looked in a mirror, yet?" Gray asked. Ultear's hair was still short enough that it wasn't really in her face.

"No," Ultear said. "Why?"

"You don't look like Elle, that's for sure," Lyon snorted.

"Lyon, don't be rude to your sister!" Ur scolded.

I sighed. "I have a friend who can fix it. Come on, Ultear."

I have no idea how that happened - considering that it wasn't supposed to work like that, but it was an alternate universe, so...

Fuck you, Mashima.

We ended up visiting Lucy, who was extremely happy to get to see me for absolutely no real reason.

"Ellie-nee!" Lucy yelled excitedly, before jumping on me.

Ultear managed to top me from falling (which was good, because my back still sort of hurt), and I put Lucy down, hugging her. "Hey, sweetheart. Listen, we need your help."

"Okay!" Lucy said happily. "What do you need?"

"This is Ultear," I said, gesturing to Ultear, by my side. "We need to fix her hair."

Lucy nodded and summoned Cancer, who immediately reset Ultear's hair.

"But I want it to look more like your's, Nee-san!" Ultear complained.

I sighed. "We want it to look like your mom's, Ultear."

As she opened her mouth to complain again, I cut her off. "How about a compromise, alright? Cancer can put streaks in your hair my color. How about that?"

Ultear brightened and agreed, and also had Cancer grow her hair out a little more so it was longer, and looked like mine - except mine was wavy and I didn't have bangs.

"What about yours, ebi?" Cancer asked.

"Hmm?" I asked. "What about mine?"

"I want to make it longer," he said. "And maybe add some bangs-"

"No bangs."

He pouted. "Can I make it longer, ebi?"

I shrugged. "Alright."

Cancer grew it out a lot and cut it into layers, making my curls pop up a bit more. It also made me look a bit older - around Laxus's age. With the growth sprout I'd get in two years, I'd look old enough to pass for a teen - like I had in my other life.

We thanked Cancer and said goodbye to Lucy before returning to the North, where Ur was much happier with Ultear's hair.

Laxus noticed mine. "Cancer did yours, too?"

I nodded.

He held up a lock of hair, and smiled. "I like it."

Laxus and I went back to the guild a few days later on the 8th, in order to celebrate Macao's birthday, in which we weren't really able to celebrate because Master was busy yelling and crying at us because of the 'Deliora Incident'.

Everyone else was busy laughing, though.

It also turns out that they awarded a large sum to Fairy Tail, and when Makarov asked what to do with it I had him put it aside so Ur and the others could easily buy a place when they got there.

We spent most of the time watching what I had gotten off the recording lacrimas, and reviewing Yajima's memory of the council's reaction.

Though, by the end of it, when we left, I could only imagine the type of trouble that everyone was going to get into. More than a few people were offended by some of the things the council spewed, and I had a feeling they were all going to go around 'doing the council's job's for them' for awhile.

Training started back up again, and I joined the other kids as Ur taught them Maker Magic. Silver was being taught by Laxus on how to be a Slayer, though they sometimes switched so Laxus could be taught by someone who was taught by the real thing. Gray's tattoo had vanished once Silver woke up, and it seemed he couldn't get it back anytime soon. Ur also mentioned that we shouldn't do the magical transfer again, as he probably wouldn't be able to handle it – he'd have to build it up. It was amazing he hadn't gone into shock.

"Why don't we just go to the guy who trained him and turn them all into Devil Slayers?" Laxus had asked.

I had wanted to punch myself for not thinking of it, but Silver beat me to the punch. "Because he's dead."

"What?" Ur asked.

"Keyes – the demon who brought me back to life…he knew that I wanted to destroy demons, and in order to do that I had to be a devil slayer. He knew an ice devil who wanted to die and sent me to him to get trained. His name was Zelroth, and he died by my hand, at his own request. He is gone, now."

I couldn't help wondering if that was why Silver's card had gone off – because he had finally killed the demon that was his sensei.

Later that night, when everyone else was asleep, Laxus asked me something. "Why don't you depend on us more?"

I sat up. "What? What are you talking about?"

"You don't really…include us, Elle. If you told us some more about the timeline…I dunno, I just feel kinda left out."

He looked away.

There was silence in the tent, before I whispered, "I'm sorry."

He looked back at me.

"It's just…I'm trying, dammit, I am!" I shouted, already in tears. Fuck, I was crying again. "Last time…in my last life I WAS ALONE. I was depending on myself, and I was the only one I could depend on. I don't know what I'm doing! I'm trying! That's why I told Master I was from the future – I didn't want to be alone here and I'm trying to include you guys but I don't know how."

I broke down, whispering, "I'm trying."

Laxus wrapped his arms around me, and wiped away the tears that escaped. "It's okay, Elle. I'm here now, and you're not alone anymore."

I swallowed, and took a deep breath, trying to recompose myself. "Laxus, you know I was older in my other life, right?"

"Yeah," he said quietly. "I kinda figured, with the psychology stuff. Usually eleven year olds don't know so much."

I nodded. "I was abandoned at an orphanage. A doorstep, actually. I mean…yeah, I know it's like the 'classic thing', but who the fuck leaves a baby on a doorstep? What if they didn't see me and stepped on me? What if I got sick…I mean, it was May, but it rained a lot, so I might have gotten pneumonia or something. What if I rolled away and got hit by a car?"

Laxus ran his fingers through my hair, and I took a deep breath, calming down.

"It was a lonely place, at the orphanage," I said quietly. "Every man for themselves. I never got to play with children, or have 'siblings' or 'parents'. I never had anyone to confide in. When I got tall enough, I decided to leave; I ran away, pretending to be older than I was, and got a job. I worked at that job until I was nineteen."

"Then what?" Laxus asked.

I leaned into him some more, and my voice came out muffled. "Then I died."

His arms tightened around me, and I put a hand on one. "It's not a bad thing, Laxus. Dying that day was the best thing that ever happened to me."

I leaned back and smiled at him. "Now I have a family. And, yeah…I'm having trouble, but…"

"I think you're doing a good job," Laxus said quietly. "The kids all look up to you, and love you a lot. They follow you like ducklings."

I smiled, tears in my eyes once more. "I know…and it's the most amazing feeling. Not being alone."

Laxus leaned in and looked me in the eyes. "Listen, we'll stay by each other sides, alright? So you don't know how to do some things, so what? You can learn. And I'll be here to help you, we all will. You won't be alone again. Neither of us will be."

"You promise?" I sniffled. "You'll always be by my side?"

He smiled. "If you promise to stay by mine."

I nodded, and smiled, though my eyes were once again full of tears – but they were happy tears. "Alright then, it's decided. Side by side."

Laxus nodded. "Side by side. Now that you've got me, you're not getting rid of me."

The crying settled down and we both lay back down on our fluff. "Thank you, you stupid tsundere."

"I'm not a-"

"Yes, you are," I said. "But you're my tsundere, so shut up."

He blushed and looked away. "Fine."

And we settled in to sleep.

"Elle, you need to stop thinking so much," Ur instructed.

The other kids looked at me, and I looked at her. She continued, "There is logic to magic, it's true, but you need to ignore the science behind it and focus on the element. Close off your emotions, and focus."

The thing about ice magic was that I could do it now, but I had to be in a different frame of mind. The only way for me to get a grip on ice magic was focusing on the cold loneliness from my previous life - to turn into an emotionless being.

I was able to get a hand on the Uranus spells now, and though I had trouble with them most of the time, when I really fell back into my old persona - my previous life - it became much much easier.

The same worked for Mercury, cutting myself off from my emotions and locking them away.

Of all my magic, however, those two were still the most difficult, and I mostly worked on being able to access them without shutting myself down.

The rest of September passed easily enough, and we returned again for Freed's tenth birthday on the 30st, where we went to the magical library (where the Magic Council had to let us in because of all the wonderful things Fairy Tail had done in the last month). At that time, I abandoned the Magical section, and searched the regular section in the library (which you actually could check out), going through psychology books. There wasn't a very big selection, but I decided to see if I could learn more than the bit I know.

People in the Fairy Tail universe aren't always the healthiest (mentally), and I want to see if I can help them.

Though that's probably a little hypocritical of me...

Ur agreed to move to Magnolia in early November. Unfortunately, that meant that we would miss the Fantasia Parade, but they told us a lot about it when we returned for Bickslow's birthday on the 23rd.

They used the Argo instead of building a float.

Fucking cheaters.

"Nee-san?" came a whisper. "Can I talk to you?"

I opened my eyes, rubbing away the sleep from them. "Ultear?"

"Yeah," she whispered.

"Alright, I'm coming," I said, pulling myself from Laxus's arms (he's such a cuddler) and exiting the tent.

Though I suspected that he was awake and was using his dragon hearing to eavesdrop.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

She hesitated, fidgeting. "Was...was I evil? Once?"

I blinked at her, confused. "What?"

"You know about the previous timeline, right?" she asked. "I heard you talking with Laxus about it."

I nodded. "Yeah, what of it?"

She looked down. "Ever since you interfered - since you saved me - I've been having some flashes. But after the thing with Deliora, and I woke up my magic properly...I saw all of it. The last timeline. In my dreams."

I hugged her. "You weren't evil, Ultear. You made some bad decisions, and you were confused, but if you saw the other timeline you know how that changed."

She nodded slowly.

I let her go and looked her in the eyes. "Also, you must promise to never ever use that spell. The one you used during the dragons."

"But..."

"No," I interrupted. "Absolutely not. Do you promise?"

She paused, before nodding. "I promise."

"Good," I said, hugging her. "Remember that that was only a possibility. It's not going to happen now, alright?"

She smiled up at me. "Alright," she said. "Goodnight, Nee-san!"

She left and I crawled back into the tent, where Laxus curled his arms around me.

Another person remembered the first timeline. Would anyone else?

It was odd, leaving the North. I think it was the oddest for Ur and Silver, though. The kids had all traveled at some point, and seemed used to it by now. Ur and Silver, however, had lived up there their whole lives.

They spent their first day in Magnolia house hunting. Ur invited Silver to move in with them, so he could stay close to Gray, who insisted he continue living with Ur (probably because he nearly watched Ur kill herself for him).

After half a day of searching, they found a house for a steal, and bought it. They spent the rest of the day moving their stuff around as I requipped it out of my storage space for them.

We bid them adieu, and (after pointing out where the guild was while we were searching through town) told them that we'd meet them there the next morning, so they could join the guild and get their emblems.

"Hey, we're back!" I yelled, kicking in the doors.

"Seriously, you have a problem," Laxus muttered, eyeing the footprint my boot left.

I could stop kicking in doors, but honestly – it was fun. And it kinda messed with Laxus.

There were multiple shouts of our names, as well as a multitude of tiny bodies that crashed into us.

"Are you back for real, this time?" Makarov asked.

I shook off the kids after hugging them and turned to him. "Yeah. Our new members will be dropping by tomorrow for their stamps."

"Oh?" Gildarts asked. "How many new members will we have?"

"Five," I answered.

"How many of them joined in the original timeline?" Freed asked.

Everyone was really paying attention, now. "One," I answered.

"Where did the other ones go, Elle-chan?" Levy asked.

"Oh, here and there," I said.

After all, Ultear and Silver were in dark guilds, Lyon went crazy for that bit on Galuna and Ur had died.

So maybe it was just better to not mention it.

After some festivities, I finally went home, which seemed odd, considering how long I've been away. Erigor seemed to have taken good care of it though, and everything seemed nice. Freed had also added rune borders around the garden in order to keep it regulated at the right temperature, which was a nice surprise.

Erigor had elected to stay at the guild a little later, so the house was empty.

Slowly, I began to unpack and curled into a ball on the bed. I was finally back to sleeping on my back, but the space around me seemed strangely empty without Laxus.

I barely got any sleep that night.

I wasn't quite exhausted the next day, but it was close.

Even Erigor noticed, but he seemed to think before opening his mouth.

We made our way to the guild and began eating breakfast as the others arrived.

I noticed that Laxus didn't look very well-rested either, and it made me feel better.

Not that I don't want him to get sleep, but it's nice to know he slept better next to me.

"What time do you think they're coming?" Bickslow asked, absently tapping on Papa's puppet.

"They will arrive when they arrive, Bickslow-san," Freed said, sighing.

The door opened and there was some muttered appreciation from it. All five of the wizards stood in the doorway, and Makarov hopped over to them, jumping onto a table. "Hello!" he called. "I'm Master Makarov! Elle says you would like to join our guild."

Ultear nodded eagerly.

"Well, where would you like your emblems?" Makarov asked, holding up the stamp.

"We can really join? Just like that?" Lyon asked, surprised.

Makarov laughed. "Yep. If you're vouched for by one of our members, we know that you can jump right into our family!"

Oh…that explains a lot about the past. And also why Fairy Tail is okay with trusting each other so easily, so quickly.

Makarov started with the stamps and I leaned over to Juvia. "Hey, Juvia, what do you think about those two boys? Aren't they cute? Especially the black haired one?"

But Juvia's eyes widened in horror and she spun around, hugging me and shielding her face with my chest. "Onee-sama, they're naked."

Oh.

Oh shit.

Right.

Sorry for not explaining properly but the poll for characters is on Fanfiction.

Also, for Dragonfan47 and anyone else who needs it:

Mercury = Iron

Venus = Light

Earth = Earth

Mars = Fire

Jupiter = Lightning

Saturn = Wind

Uranus = Ice

Neptune = Water

Pluto = Shadows

Also the next chapter might be a bit.