Recommending Melting Hours by EXNativo on Fanfiction. Also incomplete (unfortunately). This is what helped inspire me to have someone encourage Lucy to work on holding open multiple gates. I was reading it and thinking...yeah, but he could go to Lucy and Wendy in his free time and tell them that he has info for them to learn - like giving Lucy keys or Wendy the things Grandineey gave Porlyusica...and it led to where we are now.

Very, very funny. Almost crack!like.

Also, chapter's kinda short and I apologize for anything that doesn't make sense. It's Yom Kippur so I'm still fasting and I've sort of just been typing all day. It seemed to make sense to me, but...

Chapter Fifty Nine - Droy

Droy took the news better than Jet did.

But that doesn't mean he took it well.

I never really thought of Jet and Droy much, in terms of each other. I guess I always thought they were on the same level; or even that Droy seemed a bit more mature. But for now at least, it seemed as if Jet was taking responsibility as the older one and providing comfort; even if he was only older by a few months.

Droy seemed to look up to him, just a minuscule amount, which I suppose was a good thing.

Maybe he won't get fat this time around. That nearly caused him to die several times over.

We left the sleepover house, leaving behind a worried mother, who was calling everyone else's parents to see if they were alive.

They were, and that stung for Jet and Droy.

"Droy, where's your house?" I asked, leaving with the boys.

They led me through town to the other side, where it was luckily unpillaged.

"Alright," I said, on the stoop. "Do either of you have a key?"

"No," Droy muttered. "But I can get one." He walked around the house and came back with a key moments later.

"We keep it buried," he said, handing it to me.

I wiped some dirt off of it and used it to open the house.

"What do you guys want to take?" I asked them.

"Can we take everything?" Jet asked.

I shrugged. "If you want."

They took me through the house, requipping away rooms as we went. Jet stopped as we went through the Master's bedroom.

"This was my Da's," he said softly.

Droy and I turned to him, and I saw him holding the same hat he wore in the future.

"He had forgotten it here last time we were over," Jet continued in his soft tone of voice. "And uncle was supposed to bring it over with them, but he forgot it too."

"They used to joke that there was some sort of gene that made them forget," Droy added. "Since they were brothers."

I brought both of them into a hug. "Jet, the hat probably won't fit you now, but when you're older, you can wear it whenever you want."

He looked up at me. "Promise?"

I nodded. "I'll even see if we can stitch runes into it to keep it in good condition. And to keep it on your head, so you don't end up accidentally losing it in a fight or something."

He relaxed and handed it to me. "Thank you."

"You can hold it if you want," I told him.

He shook his head and handed it to me. "You already have the jacket it goes with. They should be together."

I took it from him and requipped it (even if I wasn't quite sure where I put the jacket), and we continued through the house, taking everything they wanted to take – even if I didn't understand why they wanted to.

"Do you guys have everything?" I asked.

They nodded, and each had a bag filled with their most important things.

I locked up the house and shut off the electricity.

"I'll take care of both houses after you guys get settled," I told them. "Do you want me to sell them or put them up for rent?"

The boys exchanged a look, and Jet spoke up. "Can we keep this one and sell the other one?"

I was surprised by that, but shrugged. "Why not? I should probably talk to the company supplying electricity and water, so it doesn't cost so much."

They exchanged another look, and both nodded. "For now," Jet said.

"Are you guys ready to start your new adventure?" I asked them.

They nodded, and each grabbed onto the bag they were holding, before grabbing one of my hands with their free one.

And I teleported us out of there.

Jet had gone to the Rune Knights and gave them the memory of that night on one of Cana's cards. No one, even Jet himself, stuck around to watch it. I communicated with the mayor in their town, got the burnt house cleaned up and suitable (and up for sale) and made sure to ask for an alert if Jet's friend came back. Jet had created a file on his missing neighbor, and I passed that along to the Rune Knights as well.

I should have opened the file. I really should have.

But I didn't.

I also sent in a report to Toma, telling him about the incident and the lack of any sort of Rune Knights or authority (as well as the dick in the morgue, who either a) was a slacking off Rune Knight or b) someone trying to pass off as a Rune Knight). From his reply, it was easy to tell he was quite ticked off, and I really wished I could have been a fly on the wall for the council meeting he went to.

Like in the last timeline, the boys attached themselves to Levy.

I'm not quite sure what it was, but when they heard about the bandits and about how she learned magic to protect herself and to try and stop it from happening again, they threw themselves into learning their magic.

Not that they did a very good job. But they tried.

Unsurprisingly, they were leagues behind everyone else.

Unfortunately for everyone involved, they joined the boy band, which got more and more annoying over time.

Especially when Laxus's voice cracked a week later.

Which was hilarious, but caused me to panic.

I hadn't noticed, but Laxus was slowly growing over the summer, and he looked older than he was, almost like how Natsu looked at fifteen, before he lost Lisanna.

Laxus had sprouted, and was already nearly six feet tall.

And I was not right.

"Porlyusica!" I screamed, bursting down her door.

She tensed, grabbing her broom and swinging it around. "What did I tell you about bursting in here, you damn brat!"

"Porlyusica, I'm not the right size!" I yelled, waving my arms around frantically.

She paused. "What?"

"I'm not the right size, I'm too small!" I shouted.

She groaned, putting down her broom. "So you've got a delayed growth spurt, you'll grow eventually..."

"No, I mean that last time around, I was much bigger for my age!"

Porlyusica paused, and spun back around. "What?"

"Last time around," I said. "In my previous life. I could pass for maybe a fourteen or fifteen year old at this age. But instead I look younger than twelve - like I'm barely eleven. And I wasn't exactly the healthiest last time around, either. Hell, I'm pretty sure I might've been malnourished growing up; the orphanage I lived in didn't exactly get a lot of food. So why am I so much smaller?"

She glanced over me, before gesturing to the usual bed for her patients. "Sit down."

I moved over to the bed and sat.

She turned and started rifling through her potions. "Tell me, Elle, how has your Magical Overload been? Worse? Better?"

I frowned, not knowing what this had to do with anything, but went with it anyway. "I'm not quite sure. The same, I guess."

Porlyusica sighed, stopped rifling, and sat in a chair next to the bed. "Let me explain some things..."

"Magic works in an odd way. Especially if a child ends up with Magical Overload. As you know, most people decide to wait for their child to reach a certain age before they start teaching them magic, because they're scared that they might cause Magical Overload. But Magical Overload is actually quite rare."

I frowned. "It is? But I have it, Ultear has it, and didn't you say Gildarts had it?"

Porlyusica nodded. "Yes, the three of you have all had it. But can you name anyone else? Most of the children associated with the guild are younger than you were when you got Magical Overload, and they are all fine. They will likely continue to be fine, as well."

I was really confused, now. "So...what does that mean?

Porlyusica sighed. "Eventually, all mages reach a peak point where their magic is raised to an outside level - it no longer has to be contained in the body. If you were to sense Gildarts, or the Ur woman's magical aura, you'd understand what I'm saying. In fact, didn't you feel Gildarts's magical power during the Games, when he took on that foolish Phantom mage? His magic has almost completely surpassed his body. And as for your Magical Overload...It would be best to ask an Aura Mage what your aura looks like in order to figure it out. But when you have Magical Overload, it means that your magic is still tied to the physical body; it hasn't moved outside, yet."

"So...what's happening to my body, then?"

Porlyusica paused. "I spent a lot of time working studying how Magic works, especially since I do not have a magical container. But, as you know, I used to be a member of Fairy Tail."

I nodded. "Yeah, you were on a team with Master, Yajima, Rob, Bob and Goldmine."

She nodded, smiling. "Yes. And I was a perfume mage, like that fellow from Blue Pegasus. I was not much help in actual battle, but when it came to healing or support magic, or any sort of research, I was usually one of the best."

I was quiet, waiting for her to continue.

"Some people end up having difficulties with their magical containers," Porlyusica continued. "And because of that, when they are young, they end up with Magical Overload. Their magic continues to grow faster than it should, and because of that, it also slows down any sort of physical growth."

I frowned. "But shouldn't it speed up physical growth, so it matches the magical growth?"

She shook her head. "It does something else, instead. The magic will focus on trying to help you adapt to the extra magic, and so, instead it will try to merge with you."

"What do you mean by that?" I asked.

"Cell by cell, part by part, your magic will become one with you. Once this process is done, you will have a growth spurt, and likely no longer need those bracelets of yours..." She gestured to my wrists. "But for now, it has slowed down your actual growth to concentrate on properly merging with you. This is why people who live past Magical Overload the proper way usually end up strong on different levels."

But... "In the other timeline, though, Ultear wasn't that strong in the end. Not Gildarts level, or anything."

"That's why I said 'proper'," Porlyusica said. "She was tortured, deliberately releasing magic and using it in separate ways for testing purposes. While it did actively help with her Magical Overload, it will hurt her in the long run. Since you stayed her hand this time around, she will naturally become stronger, as she hadn't reached that level and still requires bracelets as you do."

I nodded, starting to understand. "So...while I could release a shit-ton of magic, repeatedly, it would technically 'cure' my Magical Overload, but I wouldn't reach my full potential?"

Porlyusica nodded. "Yes, you're starting to understand. While actively exerting large amounts of energy in the past, like when you've fought Deliora and other such instances, you've depleted it a bit, but since you haven't released most of your energy every single day, you should still be fine in the end. But right now, your magic is busy cycling through your body, merging with every part of you, and that is why you are currently unable to grow."

I sighed, finally, and released tension I didn't know I had. "Thank you. I'm glad to know it's not that serious."

"Eventually, the magically container shifts almost completely outside the body - yours is just doing so slower than usual. On the bright side, as your magic continues to merge with you, you will end up being able to withstand a lot of damage to the body."

"Thank you," I said again.

"You're welcome," she said. "Now...GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!"

She waved her broom at me, and I left.

Apology time.

Yeah, after this chapter, I'm about 100% sure that every chapter leading up to and through the Tower of Heaven arc will end with a cliffhanger. Sorry.