"So, you told her off and then left?" Mira asked in amusement the next day when Ace and Marco explained their useless journey to the rich city of pet rhinos. "That seems like a very dysfunctional city. You're right," she amended. Ace nodded firmly. "So, what's the new job?" she asked.

"Don't know yet," Ace answered. "Oh, here, will you discharge these? I'm running low," Ace said, opening his little bag of glowing rings. She looked surprised that he had so many. "It was a long day yesterday."

She took them and dipped the little lacrimas into the water that sucked the magic out and transferred it into the main lacrima for the building, which regulated temperature and lighting. It was a new invention that was super helpful. Boodle's lacrimas just kept getting smarter and more useful.

He was given the empty rings back, and he saw Mira sweating heavily all of the sudden. "You should really try and do something to help with how much magic your producing. It's even affecting me," she said brightly, even if she was in discomfort. Ace hurried away, and noticed everyone around were looking uncomfortable.

He dug in his pockets and soon had a lacrima ring on each finger. He had to talk to the Master soon. When he hurried to the office he should be in, he saw Laxus was inside, sitting with his feet on the desk. "Where's the Master?" Ace asked the 19 year old. "I have to talk to him."

"Yikes, that's some serious out of control magic you got there, isn't it?" Laxus sneered. "Dunno where the old man is. Don't ask me." Ace frowned at him and left. He sniffed deeply and could tell he was in his room. It was off limits to go there, but Ace felt this was important. He knocked on the door, and heard the small old man come to the door.

Ace felt the magic pooling at his feet, and it was making him feel sick. The door swung open. "Master, I'm making too much magic," Ace said immediately. Makarov knew this and took him downstairs to the basement to the huge lacrima that they only used for holidays and celebrations.

He lead him to it, and Ace put his hands on it, letting all of his excess magic get sucked in. It made him tired, losing it all so fast, since usually it was everyone that pitched in to fill this one. Once he felt thoroughly drained and tired, he sat on the couch and breathed deeply. "This could be troublesome," Makarov mused. "How do you feel?"

"Tired. I… was thinking. That there might be a reason that so much is coming all the sudden."

"Oh?"

"What if it's getting me prepared for something? I mean, learning to change forms," Ace finally said, coming out with it fully. He would be honest about it. The Master was quiet for a moment before saying that it was too dangerous. Right, that meant it really was up to Marco and Ace to figure it out if he was going to be given no support or help.

Ace didn't reply. The Master absorbed all the magic from the lacrima, which made his skin glow, and made sure it was empty for Ace to refill. Ace said, "We have to do something about it, though," in a quiet voice, not looking at him. He felt disappointed and hurt. That he didn't believe Ace when it came to his own body.

If anyone knew how dangerous it was, how much it could hurt, it was Ace. Not him. He had no idea what it felt like to have your body contort and destroy itself. To reform. Ace felt pushed aside, like his problem didn't matter. He turned away sadly, and looked at his fort. It was gathering dust.

He couldn't help but smile a tiny smile, thinking about little him and Sabo playing in it. His heart clenched suddenly, and he was surprised with the overwhelming sorrow he felt in his heart. Sabo… Hopefully he was somewhere better. Ace stood up, and left to go somewhere private. But Marco found him there, crying.

"Ace? What happened?" the young teen asked. Ace wiped his eyes, but it wasn't like Marco hadn't seen him cry before, over Sabo, too. Though he also knew part of his tears right now were hurt and disappointment. Did Master not see his over producing magic as dangerous and annoying?

It wasn't comfortable for anybody, Ace included. "Master shot down my idea on turning into a dragon from all the excess magic. It got really bad!" Ace explained, then told him just how much he'd suddenly started making, and how it affected everyone else. Marco looked determined, and knew it was up to him and Ace to try and figure it out since they didn't get substantial help from the guild.

-x-

"This is a good place," Ace said, looking at the forest they were residing in now. He set up the big lacrimas both of them had bought on their way there. Ace siphoned off some of his magic power into them, planning on starting training the next day when it was all replenished, but he also had spare magic waiting.

They had plenty of magic medicine to treat Ace if needed. And Marco had mentally prepared himself for a grisly sight if Ace did manage to transform on his own and things were messy, like they had been the previous and only times he'd changed. But that was when it was against his will. Hopefully him doing it on purpose would make things fine.

They camped out, having painted some traced runes on the ground around their area to keep any unwanted guests out, human or otherwise. "The sky is pretty at night," Ace stated. Marco agreed. "I wonder what life is like without magic. We know parallel worlds exist, like with Naguri and his missing city."

"Probably really inconvenient," Marco said, humoring him. "And boring, too." Ace nodded. Magic made things fun and interesting, when it wasn't used badly or annoying, like it was with Ace. Ace pulled out their food, and they ate and then went to sleep. Ace wasn't siphoning off anymore magic, letting it gather in preparation.

When they woke up, there were forest vulcans outside their rune drawings, but were unable to get inside. They managed to ignore him, since they were unable to harm them in any way like this. Ace sat in the middle of the drawn magic circle to focus all his power inwards, not letting it come off of him and away.

Marco sat at the tent, arms crossed tightly in worry. Ace was sitting with his legs crossed, a blanket beneath him that had the magic circle painted on it. Being all bloody and skinless would be made worse if he fell on a dirty place. Marco didn't want to see that, but would be there for his best friend no matter what.

Ace was internalizing his magic, and felt it made his heart beat faster, kind of uncomfortably. He took some deep breathes in through his mouth and out his nose and imagined his body changing, but imagined it not hurting. He pictured his skin not tearing, but morphing into the scaled hide that he had as a dragon. While he'd never actually seen his own full dragon body, he had a good enough idea that it was four legged and black. So he just pictured the form, not the details of the appearance.

When he opened his eyes, he was much higher up, and Marco was staring up at him, now. He looked down at his body and saw it had worked! He didn't get hurt or was in pain! He stood up, and felt off, and weird. He couldn't walk anywhere or he'd be locked out of the ring of runes. And standing was hard enough, he couldn't imagine trying to walk, let alone fly.

Once he got tired just standing under the weight of his dragon body, which was bigger than a vulcan, he laid back down on the blanket, and managed to tell Marco he was changing back. His voice was still that of a ten year old despite being in a big dragon body. It didn't match very well.

"Okay, be careful," Marco said in worry. Ace nodded and closed his eyes, imagining drawing the magic power form the lacrimas surrounding him to give him a smooth transition. He felt cold and sweaty once he was in his human body, naked with his clothes having been destroyed. Marco hurried over with a new outfit, and some water with magic medicine. He took all the objects gratefully, but just needed some time to recover from the draining event.

He was very tired, and Marco helped him into his new clothes, unbothered by seeing him naked, since it wasn't any big deal and they'd bathed together on jobs at bathhouses. Ace then fell asleep, head on Marco's knees. "Good job, Ace," Marco said quietly, petting his hair with a smile. Proud of his friend.

-x-

"You did WHAT?!"

"You weren't going to help me, so we did it on our own!" Ace said defensively. The Master was angry with Ace for going against his word, but Ace was feeling much better afterwards. All of his magic power was gone, it seemed, but he felt it was only temporary. He used up a lot transforming. That's what he assumed. Not that a break from it wasn't nice.

And it wasn't like he was losing something essential for work. Work would actually be easier without seeping excess raw magic off of himself that was completely useless.

Makarov was angry with Ace, really. He shouldn't be, Ace was angry at him. Erza was next to him at the bar counter, and said she had wished he'd invited her to help. "I thought you would have said no," Ace replied honestly, kind of awkwardly. She didn't seem too upset, which was good for everyone. "Besides, you just got off your long job, right?"

"That's true. But I just want what's best for you, and I think that the magic was growing too much and too strong; something had to be done. I disagree with the Master's decision." The old man was angry that it seemed everyone was against him. Not that they would be feeling this way if it had gone wrong, which it hadn't.

Ace was sore afterwards, but he hadn't lost any skin, hair or teeth. It was a huge step forward! Maybe some day he could turn into a dragon anytime he wanted! He'd be amazing. Now he wanted to try and learn to be able to only turn parts of himself into a dragon, like Elfman's beast soul. Where he could use his whole body or some parts.

Though using his whole body had ended up being part of what had harmed his sister. Ace wished Sabo was there to see him change into a dragon, but it was useless thinking and wishing for things that were impossible. There was just no point and it only hurt him. Looking to the job board, he saw Marco looking at them all. He had a great friend now. Sabo could rest easy knowing he didn't leave Ace all alone.

Suddenly, everyone started to fall asleep. Ace grew concerned, and stood up from the bar counter. Then someone unfamiliar came into the guild through the open doors. He had a bunch of sticks and most of his body was covered up and hidden. He stopped, and looked at Ace. From what Ace could see, his eyebrows were raised and looking surprised. But he could only see hs eyes, and that was it.

"Ace…" Makarov said in surprise. "Do you not feel sleepy?" he asked slowly. Ace turned to him and shook his head before he did grow tired, and fell asleep, caught in one hand by the mystery man so he didn't fall and hit his head, even if it would probably not harm him, just as the roof falling onto his head hadn't.

When he woke up, the man and his smell were gone. How had he erased his scent entirely? That was crazy! Everybody else was awake, though, and seemed unaffected. When Ace sat up from the floor, he rubbed his eyes and yawned. He assumed that it had been a sleep spell or something, since everyone was fine.

But it was weird it was delayed for him. "Ace, come with me. I want to see something," Makarov said, coming up from behind the boy. He nodded and followed the man to the infirmary room. He had a scalpel, and asked Ace if he could try to cut him. There was a magic bandage next to the bed that would fix any injury. The little knife was pressed harshly to Ace's skin, but didn't penetrate.

"Oh, yeah! When I was robbed, there was a knife in my back but it didn't hurt! I forgot about it." The Master seemed unsurprised, and said he'd always been very durable. Though not invincible, since he'd sustained bruises before. Just not severe or even slightly severe injuries. "Am I immune from magic, Master?"

"Mystogan's spell had a delayed response with you, which hasn't happened before now. You've been put to sleep by his magic multiple times," the old man replied. "I think it has to do with how durable dragons are to magic. That's why dragon slayer magic was made, because they were so strong and impervious to injuries. I don't think it's farfetched to assume you could be durable as well. After all, you were a dragon originally," he explained in detail.

Ace said, "Then Natsu can kill me?"

"I don't know, but we're not going to try. But, with your permission, I'd like to see if you are in fact impervious to others' magic," he said. Ace agreed, fine with that because he knew the Master would never do anything to put him in true danger on purpose. They went out into the main room, and Ace was soon on a stool in front of a line of the wizards with the more offensive abilities.

Ace was nervous, but unafraid. He just didn't want to look weak. "Master, is this really a good idea?" Mira asked in worry.

"We'd all like to know. And I think it could make some rest easy, knowing if it's true." She didn't protest again. Gray attempted to freeze Ace's hand, held out to him. But the ice slid off of his hand when it formed. He felt no cold from it. They were all quiet in shock, but not quite believing it.

Sothe wizards all used their magic on him in a non-violent way. Laxus and Natsu were not allowed to partake. But Ace didn't get through everyone before he passed out, caught by Erza and put to bed in the infirmary. Resisting the magic took up a lot of energy, it seemed. He could only handle so much, but it had been so much.