"Diana." Sucy pleaded. "We need your help."
Diana could barely keep her astonishment from showing on her face. It was hardly unusual for someone to approach her after class for help with some problem they were suffering. Her reputation proceeded her, and even in the few days since she had returned to Luna Nova, students flocked to her either unaware that she had even left or simply glad to have one of the top scholars back to turn to for advice.
But to see the ever droll, unemotional, and unflappable Sucy not only come to her for help, but with obvious distress in her voice, was not something she had ever encountered. Sucy was rarely one to show deference to even her friends, and in the sparse conversations they had, she had made it clear Diana was not on that short list of people. Out of all of the Red team, Lotte was just about the only one to treat her on amicable terms. Or at least, that had been her belief until recent events.
"Of course, Sucy. I'll do what I can." Diana had something of a significant obligation to Sucy's team now, and she couldn't deny her curiosity at what could possibly have shaken the other witch. "What's seems to be the problem?"
Sucy made a motion for her to follow, and turned. "Come with me," she said simply. Diana almost didn't catch the edge in her voice.
It was a very cryptic way to act, but nonetheless, she did as she was asked, following on Sucy's heels as she led her from the classroom, seemingly ignoring the way Diana stared at the back of her head, awaiting an explanation. The behavior was so unlike her, and it was beginning to become unnerving. As they turned the corner and began heading to the dormitories, it was growing clearer and clearer this was not an academic problem. Diana's mind could only race to imagine what must've transpired.
"What's happening, Sucy?"
The witch didn't break her stride, but turned and spoke shortly over her shoulder. "I don't know what's happening. That's why I'm getting you. I was just sitting there, reading. Akko was talking with Lotte about something or other, but then there was this flash….and now she's…"
Diana's eyes widened as Sucy trailed off. She hastened her pace, stopping the other witch in her tracks. "What do you mean by flash? What happened to Akko?"
Only a few days ago, Diana would hardly have felt all that worried about Akko's distress. Akko had a serious knack for trouble. She would've simply dismissed it out of hand as her sticking her nose where it didn't belong once again, and allow her to reap the consequences of failing to follow expectations, returning to her own studies as she researched how to revitalize magic. That Akko seemed to consider them rivals in some sense despite her penchant for mayhem certainly didn't make Diana wish to stick her neck out further.
But Akko, for her gross lack of talent, tact, and skill, more than made up for it in pure passion, and Diana couldn't deny being impressed with how far Akko pushed herself through sheer determination alone. She continuously surprised her at every turn, surpassing her limitations and growing more and more into her own. Her opinion on her constantly shifted, from seeing her as a reckless blowhard to coming to believe she truly was worthy of the staff she wielded.
Aunt Daryl's treachery, ironically, came at a convenient time. Seeing Akko and the progress she made with the Seven Words of Arcturus began to serve as a painful reminder of the things Diana was not, especially when she considered how cold she treated the girl, so leaving it all behind and taking her place as the head of the Cavendish estate was far more appealing than to face the fact that she was not the one destined to save magic. Only for Akko to surprise her yet again. Despite being her self-proclaimed rival, and Diana's cold dismissal of her, she personally tracked her down, saved her life, did everything in her power to help Diana save her family's legacy, and encouraged her to live her true dreams. And somehow, against all odds and reason, she had succeeded. Diana returned to Luna Nova, with nothing to show for it but a few absences on her record and a debt of gratitude she couldn't hope to repay.
"Akko's disappeared." Sucy told her, continuing on towards her room. Diana could only mouth the words in repetition, unbelieving. "There was a bright flash of light, and when I looked up, Akko was just gone."
The ambiguity did little to ease her nerves. With Sucy, it was difficult to tell if she was simply being sparse with her words or if there was nothing else she could say on the matter, and it could end up being a world of difference. There were a number of things a witch disappearing in a flash of light could mean, and considering the circumstances, none of them were good. Diana owed Akko so much, and if she was in danger…
Shaking off her own worries, Diana once again quickened to catch up to Sucy, who continued with her story over her shoulder as they briskly walked down the hallways. "And then, there was a second flash, and then this happened."
"Yes?" She asked eagerly, waiting for her to elaborate. "And? What happened after the second flash?" She received no word in response, and Sucy remained silent until they finally reached the dorm room she shared with Lotte and Akko. Ignoring the look she gave that silently demanded answers, Sucy opened the door and allowed her inside.
Unfortunately, but not unexpectedly, Akko was nowhere to be seen. Lotte sat on one of the beds, frazzled and unsure. The room itself was a mess, even considering the team's tendency to be disorganized, with papers and books seemingly thrown about the floor at random, as though there had been a struggle of some sort, or at the very least a panic.
More striking however, was the girl standing in the middle of the floor, shifting timidly on her feet, watching them with a pensive look in her crimson eyes. She was young, couldn't have been much older than any of the three of them, and she wore a Luna Nova uniform. Her hair was a blazing red, short and cropped above her shoulders. But Diana, for all her interactions with the larger student body, had never seen her before. And in her hands, she was nervously holding a bronze staff. After a moment, she recognized it as Akko's deeply prized Shiny Rod.
The pieces all came together to form a worrisome picture.
"You're back!" Lotte looked up gratefully as she noticed them enter. "I…we were talking and…! Y-you really need to hear this, Diana. I'm not sure what to do." She worked to keep her face as neutral as possible. As nice as it was to have the elusive Red team turn to her for help, the lack of information behind whatever was happening was doing little to make her think she could offer anything of value. She shifted her attention to the mysterious redhead in the center of the room, and in turn, the unfamiliar girl flinched as she realized all the eyes were on her. Diana watched her swallow before standing up a little straighter.
She wasn't sure what to make of the reaction, or any of the scene unfolding in front of her. She had no desire to immediately accuse a complete stranger of wrongdoing, but that she was somewhere she obviously didn't belong, and that given her apprehension she seemed well aware that this was a place she should not be, did not bode well for the fate of their missing person.
"Uh…hi." The girl spoke to her hesitantly. "Y-you're Diana, right? These girls said you could help me?"
"…Yes, I'm Diana Cavendish. I'll…see what I can do." Frankly, she had no idea what the problem was, much less how to solve it, and as nervous as this new girl seemed, Diana couldn't ignore her own building anxiety as she watched her fingers clench around the staff. The Shiny Rod, she knew. The girl now holding it, she did not.
"Oh, thank you so much! I'll take anything!" The girl bounced on her heels, too agitated to sit still. "I have no idea what's going on, and I'm sorta freaking out."
"I'm...not sure I do either." Diana admitted, silently reprimanding herself for almost 'freaking out' as well. Panic would her no good, especially when such a strange dilemma was staring her in the face. She needed to be calm and analytical about this. If she was going to fix whatever had gone wrong, she needed much more information. Right now, she had a dozen questions and not a single answer, and that was not a ratio she intended to work by.
"Who are you?" She asked plainly. No more beating around the bush. "And where's Akko?"
"My name is Chariot Du Nord. I'm a student at Luna Nova. And I'm sorry, but like I keep saying to you guys, I don't even know where I am, or who Akko is."
'This is gotta be some sorta trick' Akko thought. 'Or a prank, or something. It's gotta be, right? There's no way this could be real. I've been wrong before, plenty of times. This…this has gotta be one of them. I can't actually be here…can I?'
Her grip tightened on the Shiny Rod. She only barely understood the full power of the staff on the best of days, but even to her the idea that it could cause this was unimaginable. One minute, she had been in her room, talking with Lotte about how the Rod had been acting up lately, and then there had been a weird, undefinable light, and suddenly, she was outside. She had wondered if she had somehow unlocked some sort of teleportation ability, which would've been both exciting and convenient, but when she looked around the school grounds to assess where she was, everything was just a little…off.
Luna Nova was a nice campus, considering its budgetary problems, but as eyes had glanced over her surroundings, everything looked a little cleaner than it used to be. Signs and decorations that were newer than they should've been. All sorts of benches, trashcans and miscellaneous paraphilia that were just out of place. Even the grass seemed to be a completely different shade of green than it was this morning.
It was nothing major, but it was all vaguely unsettling. Nothing was explicitly wrong, but nothing was right either. She had paced around the school grounds, trying unsuccessfully to put her finger on what exactly was different from usual, earning her strange looks from students she didn't recognize. A lot of students she didn't recognize. She did her best to ignore it, and eventually decided she'd just head back to her room, see if Lotte or Sucy knew what was up.
And that's when she had noticed the student news board in the square. And even more shocking, the date printed proudly on top of it.
Her eyes danced frantically across the campus, hoping against all hope that she would see a familiar face and clear away this misunderstanding. Akko may be far from the most popular person on campus, but surely she would see someone she knew, even just some random student from one of her classes or from across the cafeteria. But not even a single person walking around looked even the slightest bit like someone she may have seen before. No Amanda, no Diana, no Lotte and Sucy. Not even Hannah and Barbara, or Avery, or Blair. She felt like a complete stranger, and it was beginning to look more and more like that was the case. Especially if that date was right.
She shifted nervously again, desperate for the fear on the edge of her heart to be taken off. Taking a deep breath, she approached one of the students walking by. "H-hey!" Akko called to the girl. She seemed surprised to be addressed by someone she didn't know, a feeling Akko certainly sympathized with. "Uh, sorry. This is a weird question, but…what…w-what year is it?"
"The year?" The student tilted her head. Akko nodded vigorously, almost afraid to hear the answer. 'Please be wrong, please be wrong…'
"…Yeah, it's 2007." She said it plainly, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Akko could only stare despondently.
The student was giving her a sideways glance, which only grew as Akko stood there blankly. "R-right!' she finally managed to stammer out. "It's just…l-long day, you know?" The student nodded her head, feigning agreement as Akko waved goodbye, doing her best to keep her composure.
She almost wanted to find some other person, hope that the first girl had just been joking, but even she realized it would be a waste of time. It was all too elaborate to be a trick, no matter what she told herself, which left her with only the most unsettling explanation. Ten years. Ten years. 2007 was ten years ago. No matter how much she wished to, she couldn't deny it anymore.
This was the past. She was somehow a decade into the past, and she had no idea how she got here. And worse still, she was completely stuck. She looked around, praying that some answer would just appear in front of her. 'What am I gonna do?' She thought frantically. 'How am I supposed to get home when I don't even know how I left? Can I even get home?' If this is really ten years ago, then none of my friends are gonna be here! None of them even go to school yet. No one here is gonna have any idea who I am…' She was utterly alone, and trapped in a world she shouldn't even be in.
Catching herself pacing back and forth, wearing tracks into brighter grass beneath her feet, Akko stopped and forced herself to take a calming breath. 'C'mon Akko! Just…think of it like an adventure.' She thought to herself. 'Yeah. Yeah! An adventure! You have fun on those! You're time traveling. Lots of great witches have probably had time adventures. For all you know, Shiny Chariot could've traveled through time once or twice too! Heck, maybe this is some sorta weird magic test to unlock one of the last Words!'
It eased her thoughts, if only slightly. Usually she had Lotte and Sucy to back her up, or at least another ally she could turn to, and it was unnerving to think that none of them could help her now. But Shiny Chariot wouldn't just give up, and if Akko wanted to reach her level and prove that she could wield the Shiny Rod now in her hands, she couldn't either. It was unexpected, sure, but she's dealt with plenty of surprises so far.
'After all, if I never know what's going on, then I'm always dealing with the unknown. If anyone can handle this, I can, right?'
She bit her lip, looking around the once-familiar school. So if the Shiny Rod was testing her to find the last of the two remaining Words, where did she start? Even if she accepted that she was stuck in the past (and she was still not sure she was ready to admit that to herself yet) she had no idea what to look for. She could hardly think of any pattern connecting the ones she had already found, so there were no clues there. And there was still the fact that she had no one to turn to. Being alone made this so much more terrifying. It would be nice to have a friend to help her out here. Someone on her side that she knew she could trust.
"Hey!"
A loud shout split the air, and Akko whipped around. A girl, about her own age, with glasses and purple hair, was marching toward her. Akko looked around, and as far as she could tell, the girl was yelling to her. Akko gave an unsure wave. 'She looks kinda grumpy. What could she be mad about?' Akko absent-mindedly thought. 'It's not like I've been here long enough to do something wrong. Maybe she can help me figure out what's going on?'
And then the purple-haired girl yanked out her wand and pointed it right at her throat. Akko's hands shot up instantly, and the Shiny Rod clamored to the ground as it fell from her hands. "Augh!" She shrieked. "Whoa! What?! Huh?!"
"That's not yours." Scary-purple-haired-threatening lady said in a low voice. "Where did you get the Claiomh Solais?"
"…I d-don't…the what now?"
"Don't play dumb with me." Scary-purple-haired-pointing-a-magic-wand-at-her-face lady glowered. "I wanna know how you managed to steal that staff, because I know it doesn't belong to you."
The tip of her wand began to glow threateningly, mere inches from her face. It had only been fifteen minutes and already she found her life was in peril. Had she been somewhat less scared out of her wits, Akko might've huffed.
Just once, for a change, it'd be nice to not have everything go wrong for her.
A.N. It's the prologue, so not much happens yet, but things'll pick up fast.
In terms of the timeline, 2017 takes place just after Akko brings Diana back to school, and before Croix reveals her true colors. In 2007, it takes place when Croix and Chariot had obtained six of the seven Words, and just before Chariot starts using the Shiny Rod to perform magic shows.
Naturally, both of these facts play a big part in what happens going forward. I felt like writing something with a bit more action and intrigue, as opposed to all the introspection and shipping I usually seem to do.
Next! "Akko and Croix" We stay in the past for a little bit and see an odd friendship unfold, as Akko lets a few things about the future slip to the mysterious girl she's talking to, especially when she realizes she's the cool new professor at Luna Nova who's always looking out for her! What will result of Akko and the young Croix working together?