Hi everyone! The main series of Our Magic is rated teen, but this chapter contains some unpleasant parts that I think are necessary for the story. I've posted it separately with the M rating.

This chapter takes place in-between Chapters 16 and 17

There's some unpleasant territory ahead for Croix and Chariot. If you're worried about triggers, then please message me and I'll spoil the chapter for you so you can decide if you should read it or not, but otherwise I don't want to say anything else. Since it's M, I would be remiss if some of the parts that are usually behind closed doors aren't out in the open, so when it comes to a certain coupling, some more will be shown than usual.

Also, please note that this chapter is almost entirely Croix. Any scenes that aren't Croix I will post in the next normal chapter of Our Magic (which is already up). If these things are triggers for you, you can just skip to the next chapter, you just won't know what exactly happened to Croix when she was captured by Ana (which you know, might be a good thing).

Our Magic!
Episode 05: Tremors
Part II

Croix was strapped to what appeared to be a table prop from Frankenstein. When Ana tied her, the evil witch was surprised to find Croix displeased. "Are you not into this sort of play?"

"Was that a dig at my outfit? You think I don't get that all the time? What I do with Chari is none of your business."

"It is my business. Looks like this Chariot is a much more interesting partner than I took her for."

"Stay away from her," Croix growled out.

"Let us divulge you of these strappings, my dear." Without seeming to cast any spell, Croix's clothes began to dissolve, accelerating until she lay naked on the table.

"What a trick, you must be so popular at parties." The table tilted up until Croix was hanging from her manacled wrists. I seriously will never own an evil lab again. I can't believe I did anything in the same neighborhood as this bitch to Akko.

"Akko? You and Akko? Oh, you are referring to that business trying to forcefully break open the Gate of the Grand Triskelion. I have had my eyes on you far longer than that, little girl."

How long? Little girl? The cave? When I became the Moonlight— Croix's thoughts were interrupted by shocks of pain in her hands in feet.

"We do not need these pesky manacles any more when I went through the effort of bringing silver nails, do we?" The alabaster-skinned, raven-haired beauty daintily wiped the dripping blood before it could run down Croix's arms. Running her fingers across her lips and kissing them before smiling.

"You're trying to distract me," Croix said coldly.

"Oh Croix, if I was trying to distract you from remembering our first meeting, I wouldn't take your clothes off." Croix tensed as Ana idly traced the nail of her finger across Croix's ribs, following the contour of her stomach, and lightly scratching at the inside of Croix's hip. Involuntarily, Croix bucked her hips. "How do you stay in such shape eating the sort of things you do?"

"You sound like Chariot," Croix couldn't help but smile at the thought of her red-haired lover.

"Have we dispensed enough with the pleasantries? Become mine and you do not need to suffer."

"That strike a chord with you? Does the thought of sounding like Chariot infuriate you? Chariot is far better than you could ever be. She is the love of my life and—"

"And you betrayed her over and over again for your own vanity. For your own desire to be a hero. Let's wait, shall we? Let's wait for Chariot to fly her way over here and . . . oh, that's right. She will never fly again. Why is that again?"

"Chariot is ten times the witch you will ever be."

"And just think what she could have been if she had never met you? Twenty times the witch? One hundred times the witch? Just how much has associating with you hindered her? How much pain have you caused her? How much magic have you stolen from her?"

"I—"

"No. Don't speak. Let's play a game. You think of a time you hurt Chariot du Nord and I will give life to your pain."

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"The spirits didn't know anything we didn't know already," Lotte began.

"Even Takeminakata?"

"Him and the rest of the great spirits are gone."

"Then the only thing we can do now is find Croix," Amanda said while eyeing their professor.

"If it's Croix, she can probably figure something out," Sucy agreed in a rare cooperative tone.

Jasminka hmmed and said, "She's one witch I am glad is on our side."

The downcast professor shook her head, "I realize what you all are doing. You don't need to. You are correct that we should find Croix as our next step, but we also need to sleep. The Kagaris cannot really hold all of us, so let's set up at a hotel farther into the city, get some rest, and then plan our search for my—for Croix."

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Jasminka hmmed to announce her presence to Amanda, who was reclining in the large recessed window of one of their hotel rooms. "She left then?"

Amanda looked up from watching the outside. "Yes. Gone to find her girlfriend, I'm sure. She just crossed the street now."

Jasminka sat in the chair next to the window and proffered the bag of cookies in her hands. Amanda waved her hands in denial, causing Jasminka to frown. "It's not good to go without eating, Amanda."

"I just don't feel like eating right now. Why doesn't Chariot want us with her? She knows that Diana is out there too, not just Croix. It's kinda' selfish, dontcha' think?"

Jasminka shook her head. "I think she's trying to be selfless right now. She meant it when she said we need to rest. We are all exhausted. Traveling is exhausting on its own, but first Akko collapsing and now all of this. Everyone's tired."

"I'm not."

Jasminka smiled sadly, "Amanda."

"I'm not. I'm not. I'm not."

"I think you are very brave, Amanda. It's one of the reasons I agreed to make you the leader of our team. Not just because of Constanze's shyness and that I work better in the background. Being a leader suits you. It helps you make the right decision."

"What if I don't want to make the right decision?" Amanda turned away to look out at the city again.

"Then I would support you even if you did that," Jasminka smiled. "But I don't think you'll do that."

"I want to. I want to so badly," Amanda whispered.

"I know, hun. I know." Jasminka set aside her cookies and joined Amanda in the recessed window. Amanda threw herself into Jasminka's arms. "There, there. Everything will be daijoubu."

"Daijoubu?" Amanda asked between sobs.

"I was trying it out since we're in Japan? Doesn't suit me?"

Amanda laughed as she was crying, and shook her head in Jasminka's chest. "Not at all!"

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"I did not expect you to resist this much."

Croix coughed out a laugh, blood dripping from her mouth. "Chariot will find me and when she does, she will destroy you."

"Oh?" Ruby red lips curved into a smile, "Weren't you trying to protect her from me?"

Another cough, "More like . . . protect her from having to get her . . . hands dirty."

"Your petulance is amusing in its own way. Have you not figured out that your thoughts are exposed to me? Humans are so weak when it comes to torture. I expect my servants to at least be able to think while being tortured. We shall have to continue your training."

"Chari . . . will find me."

"Ah, the healing is starting to falter," Ana sounded pleased.

"What?"

"Magical healing can only be used so much, darling. Once your body develops a resistance it starts to reject it."

"Scar tissue."

"But to come so far in only a few hours. I thought you had never been healed before? Maybe humans are also weaker than they used to be."

"You say that . . . like you're not . . . "

"Human? Maybe once. Maybe twice. But you are one of my children, so the human moniker does not exactly apply to you either."

"Children? No. Not related."

"It flows in your very veins, my dear child. My little girl. Doesn't reach quite so far to us here though. You are a child of one of the great witch families. I am your progenitor."

"Insane."

"It's not my blood that flows through your veins, silly. It's magic. Witchcraft."

"No."

"I am the mother of all witches," at Croix's wide-eyed fear, Ana's bell-like laughter resounded, "Oops. That gave it away. You've figured out my identity. I'll have you forget that now, darling."

Croix's screams echoed, but did not escape the magically sound-proofed room.

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Chariot was frantic.

It was like a part of her that should be there, wasn't there. Her hand had been cut off, or her heart had been gouged out. Where is it? Is it here?

Croix.

They say the fastest speed a human can run is 28 miles per hour and only for a few seconds.

Chariot was a witch.

She zoomed through the city with her magical senses on wide alert, exerting all of her power to find the hint of the one she loved.

Already finding Diana and realizing she was safe at the Kagaris, but in no shape to speak, she continued her search for her love.

Croix. I'll find you. Why are you here? How can I help you? I love you. I need you. Come back to me. Don't ever leave me again. I don't care what the world wants. I just want you.

Ana observed her from a distance and smiled as she listened to her thoughts.

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"I'll never give in to you. I'll never give you what you want." Croix shivered in the unnatural cold.

"Do you like the winter freeze? It is a specialty of my sister, but it is so trivial it was like learning to breathe. It is your fault for becoming resistant to healing. You have forced me to use different techniques."

"What do you mean resistant to healing?"

A rare frown crossed her face, "I have forgotten you forgot. Pay it no mind."

"Chariot is going to destroy you."

Ana sighed, "Yes, yes. Nothing new. Chariot this, Chariot that. Don't tell me I erased too much and I'm going to have to start over again? This is getting to be a bit of a chore."

"I will never give in to you."

"Such a disappointment," instantly, nine silver nails appeared in front of Croix. Two each hovered in front of her limbs, and one final nail slowly floated until it rested between her breasts and over her heart. "Let's play a game."

In a moment, Croix's biceps, forearms, thighs, and calves were penetrated by the nails. The pain was so intense she could not even cry out, but tears ran down her cheeks and she began shuddering in pain and cold.

"This is a good look for you."

"Shu-shut up."

"Choose me and I will grant you succor. You will not have to suffer. You can even choose to forget all of the pain that you caused and felt. If you want Chariot, I can give you Chariot. A Chariot free of all the wounds you've inflicted on her."

"That wouldn't be Chariot. I am in love with Chariot, not some make-believe ideal of her."

"Enough of this. You are annoying me."

"Then leave. I will never give in."

"Very well."

"Huh? What?"

"You have won."

"You're going to let me go, just like that?" Croix said with a grimace.

"Let you go?" Her pervasive laugh filled Croix's mind. "Let you go? I am going to kill you, my darling."

Croix gritted her teeth. "W-why?"

"It's simple. You're mine, not anyone else's." An hourglass appeared. "I will play a final game with you."

The silver nail hovering in front of her heart closed the distance to her skin. Croix breathed in slightly and the sharp stake blossomed red on her chest.

"I will stop hiding your presence from Chariot and give her, oh ten minutes to save you?" Croix hated the women in front of her with all her being. "Oh don't look like that. Fine, an hour. Your bitch will have an hour to save you. I will not interfere. After an hour, well, you don't have to worry about having your heart broken by that silly girl ever again because your heart will be mine."

Ana walked slowly out of Croix's field of vision. Croix couldn't stop her eyes from following the beautiful witch. "Oh, but don't move around too much, you can't blame me if you die from blood loss before an hour is up."

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59 minutes later.

Croix struggled to breathe. Her shuddering breath met the frigid air in a plume of mist.

Her exposed skin began to resemble the color of her hair.

Her swollen eyes stared at the falling sand of the hourglass in front of her. As the last few grains began to tumble down, she closed her eyes. "I'm sorry, my Chari."

The impact on the table knocked the table back to being parallel with the ground and startled Croix. This isn't exactly what I thought being staked to death would feel like. Also, what's on top of me?

Tentatively, Croix opened her eyes to see the most wondrous sight.

The flame-haired bishoujo Shiny Chariot snarled in exertion as she pulled on the silver nail with her left hand and pushed on the table beneath them with her right hand and legs. "Chariot?"

"CROIX!" Chariot exerted with all of her might to pull the nail away from her lover's chest. Finally, wrenching at the nail with both hands, Chariot was able to pull and throw it into the corner of the room.

Immediately, the nail switched directions and rushed straight back at them, this time aiming at Chariot's chest. Croix screamed, "No!"

But Chariot had spent years fighting evil. Her fighting reflexes allowed her to backslap the nail aside and upon its second return high kick stomp it into the ground. Chariot kept her boot down for a moment, then lifted it and muttered, "Where did it go?"

The sand tumbled the rest of the way down the hourglass and Croix breathed out in relief. "It's over, it's over. The hour is up. You saved me. Chari, you saved me."

Chariot stopped herself from glomping onto her girlfriend, and instead looked at how she could free her from her confinement. "Croix! What is all this? How did you end up here? What did I interrupt?"

"You saved me. You saved me. You saved me. You're an angel. My angel. My angel." The indomitable Croix was sobbing, hysterical. The jolt of pain as Chariot examined the nails pinning her to the table began to bring her back to her senses. "You have to leave them in. I don't want to be saved only to bleed out."

"Of course I wouldn't do that! I've taken first aid too, you know!"

"I taught you first aid!"

"Then you should have faith in my teacher!" Croix started to laugh and now it was Chariot's turn to cry. "Don't laugh, I was so scared and I didn't even know the half of what you were going through. You've been through so much."

"Chariot. I love you. I love you. I love you. I could go through anything for you."

"You shouldn't have to go through these things for me," Chariot examined the nails further.

"Just pull from beneath me, you're strong enough you should be able to."

With a lot of effort, Croix was finally freed. She collapsed in Chariot's arms. "Croix. My Croix."

"You're so warm. It was so cold and you're so warm."

"We need to bandage your wounds and get you to a hospital. Lay down here."

Croix meekly followed Chariot's order and let her lover help her to the bed. "Why is there a bed here?"

"I was hoping you could tell me that," Chariot remarked wryly. Croix laid down and Chariot began wrapping gauze around the nails still in her body. Chariot cried as she worked.

"Don't cry, my Chari."

"If I still had the Shiny Rod, you wouldn't look like this."

"Magic can't do everything, but you're plenty magical to me."

"Please don't give me lines while I'm bandaging your naked body!"

Croix laughed again, in spite of the pain. "I suppose me being naked makes them super-effective. You didn't happen to bring a spare set of clothes?"

"We'll just have to wrap you up in the sheet and get you out of here. Also, silk sheets? Seriously, what was going on here . . . "

Chariot tried her best to not sound accusatory, but could not stop herself from wondering.

"This psycho-witch was trying to make me her servant."

Chariot laughed, "You? A servant? Has she ever met you?"

"She eventually gave up. Hence, why we're safe here now. She probably thinks I'm dead by now. She didn't seem to be the type to stick around."

"I may not be able to cast Lyonne, but I can at least make you more comfortable with my magic. Please feel better!" Croix was filled with warmth and settled further into the bed.

"Oh my god, that felt good," Croix struggled to think through the pain and comforting energy, "Aren't we in Japan though? How are you casting magic? Are we at a shrine?"

Chariot smiled at her, "It's like we're in a pocket space that's not Japan. This room is full of magic. I'm not sure if you would be able to cast here, but it's not a problem for me."

"You are Shiny Chariot, after all."

Chariot smiled at her. "I love you so much."

"My Chari."

"Would it be alright if I kissed you?"

"I could never say no to you."

Chariot smile went from megawatt status to gigawatt as she leaned over Croix and kissed her. The kiss went on until Croix wrapped her hands around Chariot's back. Finally, Chariot parted, flushed.

Croix spoke softly, "Wow. I don't know what you did to me, but I'm definitely feeling no pain now."

Chariot kissed her again, parting her lips and letting her tongue lick softly at Croix's lips. As Croix began to open her mouth, Chariot dipped lower, leaving wet kisses down her jaw to her neck.

At her neck, Chariot feasted. Croix moaned, "Unh, Chari." At her words, Chariot nipped her, "Ow, babe. What's gotten into you?"

"I need you. I need you right now."

"Have you noticed we're in an evil lair?"

Chariot slowly stood up and looked around, "It's a lot more homely than some evil lairs I've been in."

"Hey! I thought you liked my lab?"

"I liked your first lab! The lab you had at Luna Nova was something else entirely!"

"Well, excuse me for being an evil scientist with an evil lab."

"I have."

"Huh?"

"I have excused you for that." Chariot looked shyly away.

"You mean?"

"I love you. I need you. I want you. I don't care what happened in the past. The only thing I care about is the future. Our future."

"Are you sure? You weren't ready when we were at Corsica? I have to say, spending the entire night cuddling when I wanted to rip your clothes off was an experience."

"Of course you would bring up last time when I'm telling you I'm ready right now! And it's not like we just cuddled."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, but what about . . . " she held up her bandaged arms.

Chari blushed at what she was about to say, "Let me." When Croix widened her eyes wondering what she meant, Chariot continued. "Let me love you."

"Oh, uh." Croix stammered and nodded. "Um. Yes."

Chariot slowly climbed into bed, careful to keep her legs apart and above Croix, kneeling over her without laying her weight into her. "Croix,"

"Yes?"

"I love you."

"I love you, too, my Chari."

"Don't call me that right now."

"What? It reminds me too much of before. Call me something else."

"Oh, OK. Um. Angel."

"Angel?"

"You're my angel. I love you."

"Oh Croix," Chariot mashed her lips against Croix's and Croix willingly opened her mouth to accept her lover's tongue. "I love you."

Keeping her hands off Croix and using them to remain perched above her, Chariot worked her way down to the tips of her breasts. Lathing them with her tongue, Chariot gently sucked. "This is new."

"Unh, I know I'm usually more of an active participant, but it's hardly new."

"Usually you're absorbed with my breasts, so it's nice getting to explore yours unrestrained."

"Hey, have you seen your breasts? Can you blame a girl for wanting those?"

Chariot stuck her tongue out until it was barely touching and shook her head no, causing Croix to moan again. "You're so vocal today."

"It's been so long. I can't tell you what this means to me."

Chariot looked up from her ministrations, "You don't have to tell me, my darling. It means everything to me." Impatiently, she continued her path down Croix's body. "Are you able to open your legs a little more?"

Croix nodded and spread herself before her lover. With the slightest touch, Croix began shaking. "Already?" Croix blushed, but didn't say anything. "Then, is it OK if we . . . "

Positioning her own center against Croix's, Chariot carefully lay her right leg over Croix's left and joined together with her lover. Both groaned at the contact, and Croix began to rock her hips against Chariot's. "Shh, stop. Let me do everything."

The flexible Chariot leaned forward and deftly stole another kiss from Croix. "Let me unite us, my darling."

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Chariot returned before dawn to the hotel rooms. Exhaustedly, she sprawled out on a lounge chair.

"Professor?" Lotte asked concernedly.

"Oh, Lotte? You're up already?"

"I had a hard time sleeping. Everyone wondered where you went."

"I'm sorry, but knowing Croix was out there, I couldn't stop myself from looking."

Lotte pondered Chariot's actions, "So when you were originally reluctant to leave Akko . . ."

"Yes. I probably would have gone out looking on my own just like now." She added bitterly, "And been just as ineffectual."

"Did you find anything out?"

"Diana has returned and is with Akko, but she looked like she'd been pretty beaten up. We should go back and check on her sometime today."

"And about Professor Croix?"

Chariot sighed wearily, not letting herself cry but not being able to prevent her eyes from moistening, "I couldn't find her. I hope she's OK."

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Did anyone figure out who Ana is? I think I may have given too much away this chapter.

I had no intention of this sort of thing happening at all, but then I was researching her legend again and I realized that this is exactly the play she would make, sooooo yeah.

Anyway, I need some actual fluff and not psycho-witch disguised fluff. Where's my Diakko? Where's actual Charoix? Hell, even some H&B would be gratefully accepted after writing this. And what's going on with the Amanda, Constanze, and Sucy triangle? Hell, what about the Jasminka, Hannah, Barbara, and Lotte quadrangle?