Breaking the Looking Glass
When Akko got lost in Wonderland, Diana went looking for her. Now, it's Akko's turn to go save her friend after Diana gets trapped in a parallel world, and to finally lay to rest the unresolved questions about the friendship between them. Sequel to Take me to Wonderland.
Chapter One: Through the Talking Mirror
A/N: Took a while for this sequel to come out.
Through the looking glass we go
Risking everything for what might be
All the things you used to know
When your heart was young enough to see- Through the Looking Glass, Wonderland
Diana was avoiding Akko, and for once, it wasn't Akko's fault that there was bad tension between them. No, for the first time in her perfect life, Diana had messed something up, something that she feared was beyond repair.
Several weeks ago, while the school had still been undergoing major repairs after the great battle held in it, Diana and her friends, along with Akko and her friends, had been having a picnic by the river. A rabbit had appeared from the bushes and ended their fun by stealing Sucy's prized mushroom. Akko, being the darling friend she was, had raced off to chase the animal down, and Diana, the cautious person she was, had gone after Akko knowing of the young witch's affinity for getting into trouble. Yet, it had been Diana who had gotten into trouble. She'd ended up in a wondrous landscape of nonsense and deep revelations through twisted tongue. She'd gone through peril after peril until she'd finally procured and secured Akko's safety. They'd then been able to leave the world and just as they had been about to leave, Diana, imbued with confidence from her success in saving Akko, had blurted out her true feelings only to come awake.
In front of Akko, who had heard everything.
Mortified, Diana had taken to avoiding Akko with vehemence and by utilizing every skill under her belt. She couldn't stand the thought that Akko knew Diana had a crush on her. Diana herself hadn't known she was crushing on the brunette until her own mind had told her she was. Which was odd. How had her mind been able to create such a wildly complex world? A world where she saw familiar faces which lead her to places of discovery. Why such a dream? Why did it take that to notice her own feelings for the troublemaker?
Diana had taken to researching on dreams and on Wonderland and while her studies had taken her closer to the magic properties of dreams, she hadn't yet discovered the exact issue she had encountered. And there was no way she was going to ask a teacher. If she did, she would have to tell them all the details of the dream and that was something that wasn't going to happen.
So, it was research on her own until then. Good thing she had permission from her professors to enter the restricted parts of the archives were highly secretive and ancient magics were found. That was were she spent most of her afternoons at because it was the one foolproof place that Akko could not find her at. She swore the girl was trying harder and harder each day to reach her. Diana had been hoping that Akko would give up after a while, but she should have known better. The girl was as stubborn as a mule. After all, how many times had Diana downed Akko only for the brunette to get up from where she had been trampled down to the ground and stand tall and proud in her beliefs and efforts, even if she was in error.
Diana found herself having to employ magic in avoiding Akko. She'd cast invisibility spells, teleport herself places, and even done cheap tricks on Akko, such as leaving a banana peel for her to slip on when she chased after Diana. But Akko was getting better at anticipating Diana's tricks and Diana was running out of ways to well, run from Akko.
Sooner or later she'd be forced to confront Akko, as Lotte and Sucy liked to point out.
"She's sad, you know, that you won't talk to her. That you're avoiding her," Lotte had pointed out timidly and Diana sighed out guilty. Too busy avoiding Akko, she failed to avoid her friends.
"I'm not avoiding her," Diana said, though she clearly was. "A Cavendish does not avoid their problems."
"Why is Akko a problem?" Lotte asked and Diana cursed herself for slipping up stupidly.
"I didn't say she was. You're imagining things. And I think you should make better use of your time than to come up with false scenarios,'" Diana said rudely, turning up her nose.
Lotte shook her head sadly but moved on, dismissed. "What happened to you, Diana? Why are you so mean?"
But Diana merely stood there, not looking at Lotte leave. She wouldn't let Lotte make her feel bad. Diana had to avoid the brunette or else her shame would be put on display.
Sucy was harder to deal with, only because the witch's tongue was sharp like ice and poisoned like a mushroom. "You're being a coward. Refusing to act smartly about this- I thought you were supposed to be the smartest witch here, but clearly you're the dumbest one. And they say Akko is dumb, but at least she's true to her heart."
"Don't you dare insult me!" Diana shot back, haughty anger filling her features. Her mortification of being reminded about this situation turning to anger about their insistence that she deal with it.
"We all heard what you said that day," Sucy said nastily and Diana flushed. "I don't know why you deny it. Maybe if you talked to Akko about it you'd find that-"
"I'm not going to stand here and let you keep talking down to me," Diana crossed her arms over her chest.
"It didn't bother you when you were the one talking down to us," Sucy pointed out and Diana closed her eyes and turned her nose up.
"I'm done with this unpleasantness." Then she strode off, fuming at the problems she had caused for herself.
Even Amanda had come to speak to her and that too had been an annoying conversation to hold.
"Hey, stop being such a bitch," Amanda's uncouth voice followed Diana as she left the library to go back to her room.
"I would watch your tongue if I were you," Diana warned, so stressed from countless restless nights and days of her shame eating at her for her verbal blunder, that she really was itching for a fight.
"Or what? You gon cut it off?" Amanda goaded.
"Don't tempt me," Diana said as evenly as she could. She really was trying to hold her temper but it was hard to do so when she was slacking on her work because of her thoughts running rampant when it came to thinking of Akko.
It wasn't that Diana didn't want to see Akko. On the contrary she she would love to spend time with the girl. After discovering her emotions she felt drawn to spend more time with the brunette than ever. She wanted to talk to her, to see that bright smile stretch the shorter girl's face, to laugh with her. Talking to Akko was soothing, like listening to a stream babble, which was how Akko talked most of the time-a stream of babbling. Even though Akko was high energy Diana liked it. Diana herself was low energy, a calmly flickering fire, yearning to consume more, and Akko was that energy to help Diana feel more upbeat and happy. And being happy soothed Diana. Thus, she was angry and cranky now because her flame was glimmering highly, not feeding her fires of ambition to do good work, but merely fueling her negative feelings and reinforcing her the pain of missing Akko. There was no water to douse it out, to relax her and let her focus on other things.
"I dare ya too," Amanda stuck out her tongue and put her fingers in her ears, before wagging both her tongue and hands. She did this all the way back to Diana's room, the blonde feeling her forehead vein throb as she tried her to best to ignore it. When she got to her room she slammed the door loudly behind her. Due to her high class breeding, she only allowed herself this small rude gesture.
"Stop hiding away you coward! Go talk to Akko before I bust your ass!"
Diana scoffed in disgust at Amanda's wording. "Rude." Then she went to bury herself into her work.
Eventually everything came to a head a week later-seven weeks in total after Diana had initially started to avoid Akko. Akko and friends had decided to lay a trap for Diana after class one day. Wands blazing magic, trap spells meant to freeze or hold Diana in place went soaring through the air. Luckily Barbara and Hannah were there too. They brandished their wands and held back Sucy's, Amanda's and Lotte's attacks while Diana flew down the hall to her room where she could barricade herself and be safe. Normally she'd stay by her friends sides and help them, but it was her they wanted and the sooner she was off, the sooner they'd leave her friends alone.
Or so she hoped. But Akko was waiting for her at the end of the hall that went to her room, so Diana took a sharp left into a detour. "Diana, wait!" Akko pleaded behind her. "I just want to talk to you!" They began a chase in a little used part of Luna Nova. This was a wing that had yet to be reconstructed after the war.
Diana didn't respond to that, merely took out her own wand and without looking backwards, blocked the flimsy spells Akko sent her way. "Diana, please! What did I do wrong? How did I offend you? Just talk to me! We're friends, aren't we?"
The pleading in Akko's voice hurt Diana's heart but the blonde didn't dare stop because than that meant she would have to talk about her feelings and she wasn't ready for that, especially when Akko only thought of her as a friend.
Diana launched an ice spell at the floor behind her and Akko let out a squeak of surprise as she slipped on it, falling to her butt. There, that bought Diana some time. The blonde ducked into a room and leaned against the door, breathing hard. She was out of shape, not used to running long distances. Akko was, and had almost caught up to her.
Diana needed a moment to recuperate and then find a way out safely. As she regained her breath, she saw she'd run into a room that was plain in decor. The walls were white, the floors gray, and there was no furniture there, everything covered in thick layers of dust. This room must not have been used in a while. It only had one giant mirror hung on the wall opposite her. She could see her frazzled appearance in it, cheeks red, hair tousled from wind. It was the only clean thing in the room, the surface shining.
As she looked on, writing appeared on the glass, in a golden script.
Trying to run and hide...
Trying to find peace from your problem...
Well, why don't you come inside...
A journey can solve them...
"What?" Diana hiked up a brow, intrigued. What manner of magical object was this? Diana racked her brain for anything she might have heard about a mirror that talked to people in script but nothing came to mind. Her feet took three steps forward without her consent. And, the mirror was also suggesting her to come inside it? One couldn't walk through mirrors. And a journey? What journey?
Curiosity sparked inside her. She found that she couldn't tear her eyes away from the mirror even if she tried. As she got closer and closer to the object, the writing changed.
From your problem we can shelter you...
In the coldest blue...
No one will bother you...
Not even what is a lie and what is true...
As she watched with wide open eyes, the reflection in the mirror changed. Suddenly she was staring at herself, only her clothes were inversed. Her dress was black, and her sash white. Her hair was the same color, just washed out like the color from it had been drained. And her eyes were red. She raised a hand to touch the mirror, her image mirroring her. It moved around fingers like metallic water.
Diana could hear someone pounding on the door behind her. It must be Akko. The girl had to have found her. "Diana open this door!" The knob turned but Diana had made sure to lock it. Now there was a slamming sound, as if Akko was ramming her shoulder into the wood and trying to break down the door.
"Ouch!" came Akko's pained cry as she hurt her shoulder predictably.
Diana ignored all that, the tug the mirror had on her intensifying. The image of the room disappeared as white covered everything except the image of the oddly colored Diana. A snow covered landscape appeared, complete with bare trees and a trail through the woods.
We will take pity...
On your broken heart...
Snowdrop and Kitty...
Will tear anyone apart...
Now Diana's fingers were sinking into the mirror, than her hand, as the other Diana pulled on her fingers. Walking through the mirror was like jumping into a pool after sitting out in the sun. Cold, almost painfully so. It took her breath away. She closed her eyes as she went in. Some snow from the other world landed on the floor around the mirror while wooden shards of the now broken down door landed on the other side of the room. Akko had finally been joined by Amanda who had had the bright idea to blast the door down.
"Diana, no!" Akko saw as Diana's leg was sucked into the mirror, the rest of the girl wholly on the other side. "Diana!" But that Diana couldn't hear her, her back to Akko and the real world. But the discolored Diana heard and shot back an evil grin, as if saying 'she's mine now'.
"Akko, wait!" Amanda called out as Akko charged into the mirror. The other world was beginning to fade from it's glass already as the two girls got smaller and smaller as they walked away. The edges curled into the center, wiping smooth.
"Diana!" Akko cried out and jumped head first, hoping she would make it. What was left of the image was small but Akko was just small enough. She closed her eyes on impact and went through.
She found herself eating snow as she pulled herself up to her feet. "Yay! I did it!" Akko did a cheery little dance before it dawned on her exactly what she had done. "Oh no! I did it!" she sighed out dejectedly and turned to see Amanda's worried face, screaming something as the mirror here turned smooth, only reflecting Akko once more and the several feet of snow surrounding her. She had gotten here, but she had no idea how she would get out.
Whelp, she could figure that out when the time came, like she always did. She never did have a plan for things, just went right with it.
Surprisingly it wasn't cold. In fact, it felt like an early fall day. And the snow didn't even touch Akko. It melted before it landed on her, as did the snow around her feet move with every step she took. How odd. But Akko didn't care much for this development. She had more important things to do, like find Diana. There were no footsteps in the snow to tell Akko which way the two Diana's had gone.
So Akko did the only thing she could and that was to run after them in the last direction she had seen them take, which was straight. She pocketed her wand and did just that.
"Don't worry Diana," Akko huffed, legs churning as quickly as they could. Diana might be ignoring her, and Akko knew why. It had to do with Diana's sudden confession to Akko after the blonde had fallen and bumped her head in the woods. Akko had been confused by the confession. It had been so abrupt. And Akko never in her wildest dreams would have guessed Diana cared for like that.
But after the shock had gone away, Akko had felt like she was floating on cloud nine. Diana cared for her, and in that way! Akko didn't know why the revelation made her so happy but it did and she couldn't sleep that night. She wanted to talk to Diana more about it. However, when she'd tried to talk to Diana, the witch had avoided her attempts and this only continued. Now, Akko couldn't sleep well for another reason. She lost some of her cheer, her loss of friendship with Diana hurting her greatly. She'd mope around and her friends would get annoyed. So they had devised a plan to all attack Diana with magic and get her to stop and listen to what Akko had to say.
That hadn't gone at all well. It'd only forced Diana to end up in some weird mirror world. And now, it was time for Akko to save her.
"I'm going to find you," Akko vowed to the silent world around her.
