Stephanie McMahon: The Newest Case of Chrysalis Syndrome?

Stephanie Woke Up.

Stephanie did not want to Wake Up.

But she did. And it takes a moment for all the memories to hit.

Punk-rocks-zombies-Ambrose-loopingloopinglooping-HUNTER—!

And then the new memories hit. Memories of another world, memories of what just happened to her, what she needs to do. She heard the sound of stomping feet, and knew what it meant — Induction.

She was in the Scholomance. And if she had any hope of finding another looper, she needed to head to Cafeteria right now.

Stephanie followed the crowd, reviewing her memories along the way. She was Stephanie McMahon, an indie kid from a prominent American independent wizard family that lived in Connecticut and did frequent business with the New York enclave. But not enough to actually get into the enclave, which was one of her goals here. Her older brother Shane had been lucky enough to graduate from the Scholomance two years ago and it had drummed up a lot of good will with New York. Stephanie's ultimate goal (other than survival, of course), as instructed by her parents, was to schmooze up some more with the New York enclavers in hopes of finally securing a spot for the family.

But Stephanie didn't care about that. That didn't really matter in the end. What mattered was finding another looper so she didn't flounder and die early in her first loop. So she didn't lose her freaking mind. She was a thirty-seven year old woman stuck in the body of a fourteen year old and yet she felt as a helpless as a newborn. It was stupid and ridiculous and she felt so embarrassed and there was nothing in the world she could do about it.

She made it to the cafeteria and found herself huddled into the group of freshman, handed a glass of water to help calm herself down. After she had gotten her fill, she called out names for messages, tapped as the one-time go-between for these long-time Scholomance students and the outside world. Out of five, only one showed up. Stephanie tried not to think too hard about that.

As soon as that was done, she glanced around, searching, until—Punk. He was younger, his hair longer and blonder, but it was unquestionably him.

Stephanie saddled up to him, clearing her throat and pulling at his arm. He turned around, blinking when he saw her. "Stephanie?"

She hesitated. Maybe he wasn't Awake? But she didn't have anything to lose if he wasn't. She'd just search for someone who was — after all, she was long-established as not the Anchor of her loop, so somebody else, another looper, had to be instead.

So, she scrounged up her courage, and spoke. "You were wrong. I do remember. I remember it all."

Punk stared at her. And then he sighed, putting a hand to his forehead, and said, "Oh, Stephanie."

Once they're through the lunch line, Punk brought her to a table, where she immediately recognized everyone else she saw last loop: Dean Ambrose (or Mox as he liked to be called these days), Randy Orton, Christian, Becky Lynch, and Sami Zayn. Mox, Lynch, and Zayn were all conversing quietly together over their food, while Orton and Christian were remaining staunchly silent, eating and looking everywhere but each other. At least, until Punk and Stephanie arrived.

"She's looping," Punk explained as his way of introducing her to the group, before sitting down next to Randy. Stephanie gave everyone a small, awkward wave to everyone before sitting down in the seat across from Punk, next to Christian.

"Don't worry about telling me about Yggdrasil and stuff like that. I'm from the loop where Christian was Initialized and there was some kind of zombie apocalypse going on."

Everyone stared at her. "Oh Palaestra, she has Chrysalis Syndrome," Becky announced, looking half-fascinated, half-horrified.

Stephanie was confused. "Chrysalis Syndrome?"

"It's when a looper is Initialized from a variant, and they mistake that variant for baseline and have a hard time adjusting to the actual baseline. Named for Chrysalis of the My Little Pony loops, whose first loop was a dystopian variant where she was married to Shining Armor, only to have a baseline loop right after where she learned she was actually a major villain and Shining Armor was married to Prince Cadence of the Crystal Empire."

Now everyone was staring at Mox. "What?" Mox asked, looking a bit offended. "I'm your Anchor, I'm supposed to know these things. And besides, Stephanie's not really a case of Chrysalis Syndrome, because she's well aware that she came from a variant. She just doesn't have any knowledge of baseline, since she hasn't had a baseline loop yet."

Sami frowned. "Speaking of loops, does anyone know where we are yet? I've never heard of the Scholomance."

"That's because we're a relatively new loop."

The entire group turned to the other side of the table to see the newest interloper. It was a young girl around their age. She was of Indian descent, and had mid-length long hair and ominous air around her. Next to her was a boy that was slightly taller, with platinum hair, blue eyes, and a big, beaky nose that he would probably grow into the next couple of years.

The girl snapped her fingers, and suddenly the entire room froze, with time literally standing still. It was an amazing feat of power, one that left Stephanie gaping and everyone else at the table impressed, with Randy giving a slow whistle of appreciation. "Galadriel Higgins," the girl introduced herself, "but you can call me El. The Anchor of the Scholomance loop. This big lug right next to me is my boyfriend and fellow looper, Orion Lake."

"Jon Moxley, Anchor of the Professional Wrestling loop. You can call me Mox, though. I'm also known around the loops as Dean Ambrose, though I don't go by that name these days outside of my baseline."

"Becky Lynch."

"Sami Zayn."

"Randy Orton."

"Christian."

"CM Punk. Just call me Punk."

Stephanie flustered as she felt El's gaze land on her. "Stephanie. Stephanie McMahon."

"Most of those don't sound like real names," El noted.

"We're wrestlers. We mainly go by our stage names," Sami explained. "What about you? Galadriel? That must've been quite a shock when you met the real one."

"Blame my pregnant hippie teen mom who only got out of the Scholomance thanks to my dad sacrificing his life to get us both out," the Anchor smoothly replied. "And for the record, I've met the real one — we joked about how I'm the 'love me and despair' version."

There was a beat of silence.

Then everyone except Stephanie and Orion burst into laughter. Orion had already wandered away and was attacking a frozen mal (and Stephanie shuddered whenever her mind wandered to the in-loop memories of what those things were), while Stephanie just didn't know how to react. How was any of that funny?

"Oh, you guys are going to be fun to have around," El commented, wiping an imaginary tear away from her eyes as she leaned over the table. "I'm assuming your in-loop memories already gave you a crash course on Scholomance strategy and the general mechanics of this loop, but here," she reached into her pocket and pulled out two stacks of books, "our baseline, straight from the Hub."

The books were passed around, two given to everyone at the table. Stephanie couldn't help but stare at the titles when she finally got hers: A Deadly Education and The Last Graduate. Not exactly names that inspired sunshine and rainbows.

"It should help you with surviving this loop, not that most of you will really need it. The Scholomance is both sentient and loop-aware, and it's concerned with saving as many kids as possible — it won't punish you for failing your assignments like everyone else, because it knows you can already take care of yourselves, though it'll probably filter a lot of the mals your way to protect the rest of the students." El paused, and then her gaze settled on Stephanie again. "Well, except for you newbie. You're probably going to get the full Scholomance experience, since this is your first ever real loop."

Stephanie swallowed.

"Normally when it's just Lake and me, we try to save everyone as fast as possible," El continued, "but since you're here, I guess it's better to do all four years. Make the fun last and all that."

"Judging by your book, it doesn't sound all that 'fun', if you get my drift," Christian noted, scanning through the first chapter.

"Well, it's fun in the sense it's not boring, and isn't boredom the enemy of all loopers?"

Everyone made a noise of agreement at that. Everyone except Stephanie, that is.

She just stared down at the books in her hands, and swore to read the first one as fast as she could tonight.

Stephanie digested the book as soon as dinner was over and she could get to her room before curfew. She got a few hours to spare, and years and years of practice digesting gigantic documents in a fraction of the time she actually needed, so running through a four hundred page young adult book was easy to do, especially when it may be the difference between life and death. While reading, she took a pencil and made little notes in the margins as often as she could, trying to learn everything that'll allow her to survive this loop to its end.

She's neck deep in El and Orion's daring invasion into the Graduation Hall with a group of seniors to repair the scouring equipment when there's a knock on her door. Before she could even give permission, she found her space intruded upon by Punk and El. She frowned at the sight of them and reluctantly set her book aside, crossing her arms. "What are you doing here? Don't you realize it's almost curfew?" Stephanie hissed.

"I can freeze time," El deadpanned, and oh, right, loopers — the closest thing to gods besides actual gods. The (not) heiress flushed at the reminder.

"You left before we could teach you how to ping people and open your subspace pocket," Punk said, not gently but, well, kinder than usual for Punk. Punk was always so dry and sarcastic when he wasn't cutting, when he wasn't sharp — the kindness, the real kindness was only reserved for those closest to him and for his fans. And only when he was in a good mood. "Mox sent me over here to teach you."

Stephanie swallowed. "Do I really need to learn how to do it tonight? It's my first loop and all," she pointed out.

The Billion Dollar Princess watched as the two exchanged looks, and felt her stomach drop for what seemed like the umpteenth time today. She recognized those expressions. They didn't think she was going to last long. Stephanie felt her notorious pride flare up, and she scowled. Well, she'd show them.

"Fine. Teach me. Then get out — I've got learning to do."

Valedictorian.

If Stephanie was going to prove herself, she had to aim for Valedictorian. The most intelligent, capable, and overall ruthless student of her year — the amount of effort needed to make it to the top was astronomical, because the competition was so cutthroat. On top of putting all her considerable intelligence towards studying and acing the actual material, she had to be subtle enough to keep her efforts hidden from any potential saboteurs along with committing her fair share of sabotage herself. She would need one hell of a scheme to pull it off.

But she could do it. She was the daughter of Vince McMahon, for Pete's sake — the man who monopolized the wrestling industry and transformed it into what it is today. And for all she had helped sanitize his rise, she knew full well the truth of the matter. Her father had lied, cheated, and stole to get where he was today, and now it was her turn to do the same. Just with less resources and a much diminished name.

It was just grating she had to do it at all. She was Stephanie McMahon, she shouldn't need to grovel or work for any respect or status. But no; here, the name "McMahon" meant nothing other than some barely-known indie wizard family who still couldn't hack it with the New York enclave after a hundred years of trying. Here, the name "McMahon" meant nobody. Indie kid. Loser. The very thought of that was infuriating.

McMahons were not losers. Had never been losers. McMahons were better than everyone else, a creed that had been branded into Stephanie's mind since the day she was born. It was a universal truth she had clung to when she had nothing else, during her deepest, darkest moments, and like any true McMahon, she had lashed out when someone threatened that. And here it was, not just being threatened but practically trampled underfoot, and there was nothing she could do about it.

Nothing except become Valedictorian, and prove all the naysayers wrong.

(Or at least, all the naysayers that bothered to acknowledge her at all.)

On her own, Stephanie did good for about a month.

Then someone tried to sabotage her.

In hindsight, she should have seen it coming. She was being a bit too obvious. Originally, she had tried to employ the veneer she had put up after her father had revealed himself as the Ministry of Darkness's "Higher Power", the same facade she had used as SmackDown General Manager to get the support of the fans. The innocent Stephanie McMahon, the innocent girl, the one streak of white on her father and brother's black hearts. It had been so long since she put up that act, but she had managed to fool her family for months while she was consorting with Hunter behind their backs. She was nothing if not a good actress.

But she had to put in more effort to hide how hard she was working. Every time she thought someone wasn't looking, Stephanie was diving into the books and studying like no tomorrow. Or doing her homework. Or figuring out her artifice project. Whatever assignments she had — they had 110% of whatever attention she had to spare. She couldn't afford anything less.

But she wasn't as vigilant as she should've been. Someone caught wind of how she was aiming for Valedictorian early, and she walked into her room one day to find her shop class assignment, an enchanted jar made for some special healing salves, shattered to pieces on her bedroom floor — about two hours after shop class. It took constant pleading and coaxing out of the Void to get a book with a spell that she could reasonably perform well enough to fix the damage.

Disaster had been averted. But Stephanie was now well aware of the danger; her entire game plan relied on the vast majority of the student populace not realizing she was aiming for Valedictorian. More importantly, those that were also aiming to be Valedictorian. Nobody announced themselves as a candidate this early in the game, because that just painted a giant target on your back for everyone else aiming for the same spot. She needed to figure out who made her before they spread the word about what she was doing, otherwise she wouldn't last the year, and that was if she was lucky.

When Stephanie stepped into shop later that day, her jar balanced precariously on one hand, she kept her eyes peeled for anyone who looked suspicious. People barely spared her a glance, except for one — a girl with blond hair, who had "developed" early. German. Liesel. A complete and utter tease who acted all nicey-nice like Stephanie, but also liked to flirt with all the hormonal teenage boys that surrounded them all the time. Especially the enclave boys.

Liesel's gaze, unlike everyone else's, lingered a second too long. Enough for Stephanie to catch the way it darkened when she saw the jar. The Billion Dollar Princess filed that away before proceeding to her seat, one far from the vents, not too close to the front, and had decent equipment. What luck.

Shop went by relatively well; only two people died today. It was sickening how much she was getting used to that, but she was stuck in a time loop and they'd be alive the next loop so she put it out of her mind. The wrestling industry had given her thick skin, helped condition her to expect wrestlers to die at any time. It was just the nature of the job, and it was no different here with the students. They were stuck in a death trap, filled to the brim with monsters ready to eat them alive at any moment. The sooner they accepted that, the better.

After class was over, Stephanie grabbed her stuff but lingered long enough to lock eyes with Liesel. The moment their gazes met, the other girl immediately stuffed all her stuff into her bag and tried to high-tail it without looking too conspicuous. Stephanie quickly did the same and followed her, and since they weren't trying to draw eyes, ended up catching up to her really quickly. It wasn't long before she managed to corner the German girl in one of the more secluded spots of the school. In hindsight, it was a stupid decision to make, but Stephanie was stressed and desperate and so, so angry that she wasn't thinking straight. She could only presume the same for Liesel.

"You sabotaged my project."

Liesel adopted a wide-eyed, innocent look at the accusation, looking so genuine it was almost believable. Stephanie had to admit that, for someone so young, she was a great actress. "What, me? What are you talking about, Stephanie? Why would I do something like that?"

But Stephanie refused to budge. "Quit the act, bitch. I know it was you."

And just like that, the doe-eyes were gone, and an ugly smirk splayed upon Liesel's lips. "So what if it was me?" she taunted. "What are you going to do about it?"

"You're going for Valedictorian," Stephanie pointed out. "Wonder what would happen to your chances if I spread that little piece of trivia around?"

The German snorted. "You do that, and I'll out you too. It'll be mutual assured destruction, Stephanie. I doubt either of us want that."

That was true, and it grated at Stephanie to admit. Here she was, getting played by a fourteen year old, and there was nothing she could do about it. "So what do you want? I'm sure as hell not gonna have you sabotaging my projects this early in the game, not without returning fire."

"Well, let's see…" Liesel put a finger to her lip, a play at 'thinking' about the situation. "How about we—"

Whatever Liesel was about to say was cut off by her head suddenly being engulfed by the mouth of some… some thing. The girl didn't even have time to scream before she was swallowed up, but Stephanie certainly did all the screaming for her in her stead. The thing — a mal, a quattria by the looks of it — dropped down from the ceiling after finishing Liesel off and started approaching her and she was gonna die and God she did not want to die!

Before Stephanie could even think to run or cower or do whatever that would probably get her killed, there was a flash of blue, and then lightning — lightning! — suddenly appeared out of nowhere and arced through the quattria, stunning it. Stephanie stared at the sight before slowly turning to see who had been her savior, gaping when she saw it was Punk once again. The other looper paid her no mind, instead still channeling God knows how much lightning at the mal. Once it was a sufficiently charred, twitching mess, he summoned that strange blue fire that Stephanie saw him use during that zombie apocalypse and burned it to ash.

He did a quick loop around the area, killing a few more hidden, smaller mals, before turning his attention to her. Punk gave her a quick lookover, before putting a hand to his forehead and sighing. "Good thing I followed you after Shop, huh?"

Right. They shared Shop together. Somehow, she had forgotten that.

Stephanie doesn't refuse Punk's proffered hand; she was too shaken up to not cling to the closest familiar person she could find. Punk pulled her up gently, giving her a more critical onceover. "You don't have any classes after this, right?"

"Not until after lunch."

"Good."

And with that, he guided her away from the scene. Neither of them looked back.

The Freshman Dorms were on the top floor of the overall residence hall, which would normally be a blessing except the workshop was at the bottom of the Scholomance. Nonetheless, Punk managed to expertly guide her there anyway, avoiding as many students as possible, killing any attacking mals on the way. Stephanie supposed she should be grateful, and she is, but part of her is still too rocked by watching a teenage girl get eaten alive in front of her before she could even react, and despairing at the fact that she didn't do anything about it. That she couldn't do anything about it, because she was so terrified out of her wits and paralyzed with fear to even move.

She was weak. So, so weak. It was pathetic, and unbecoming of a McMahon, and she couldn't believe it happened again. The whole point of becoming Valedictorian was to become strong and yet when she was put in her first real life-threatening situation, she trembled like the little girl she physically was right now. If her father could see her right now—

"Stephanie, please stop with the self-deprecation. I can practically see the dark cloud hanging over your head right now."

The Billion Dollar Princess snapped out of her thoughts to glare at her companion. That was rich, coming from the eternally glum and cynical CM Punk. But the man in question wasn't moved by her hard gaze. Never had been. That's probably why she had ended up disliking him so intensely; he had never really cared for authority unless he could get something out of it, until he eventually stopped caring about authority in general. That had to led to the Pipe Bomb, something that even now left her fuming.

"Where are you taking me?" she asked instead of giving the wrestler a piece of her mind. As much as she hated him, Punk had still saved her life even though he had been under no real obligation to this loop. Unlike with the zombies, Stephanie wasn't signing any paychecks here, least of all his. "To my room?"

"No. To someone else's room. Someone who, hopefully, can talk better sense into you than I can."

They walked down the hall, heading to a comparatively nondescript room with no real decorations on its door other than a small sign with a polar bear on it. Punk knocked on it once, twice, before it opened to reveal a scrawnier and shorter Dean Ambrose/Jon Moxley/whatever the hell was calling himself these days. It seemed he had been sleeping, because he was rubbing one of his eyes when he welcomed them inside.

Once they were in, he closed the door, looked them both over, and sighed. "What happened?" he asked, directing the question to Punk instead of her.

"Some girl named Liesel figured out she was going for Valedictorian and sabotaged her project. Stephanie cornered her and confronted her, I followed, a quattria showed up and ate Liesel, and I killed it before it could do the same to her," Punk summarized succinctly.

"You guys knew I was going for Valedictorian?" Stephanie gaped.

Both men gave her flat looks. "Steph, you might be a good enough actress to fool a bunch of teenagers, but not us," Mox told her bluntly. "Of course we knew. We were just wondering when you were going to tell us and ask for help."

The words spilled out before she could stop them. "Why? Because I'm weak? Because I can't do anything without one of you holding my hand?" she snarled out.

Rather than get offended at her words, both men just stared at her, clearly unimpressed by her lashing out. Stephanie's anger soon turned to embarrassment, though she was still very red in the face.

"No," Mox said once the awkward silence had extended long enough. "It's because it's tradition for the newest looper to get to decide what the group does for their first loop. If you want to be Valedictorian, then we'll do everything in our power to help you get there. That's all there is to it."

"Like hell it is!" Stephanie screeched, all restraint gone. "I see the way the rest of you look at me. All of you hate me, resent me! The Boss's Daughter, Daddy's little princess, all fallen and alone and you must be reveling in the fact that—"

Boom.

Stephanie stilled as she saw Punk summon a silencer from his pocket and aim it directly at her head. She closed her eyes, waiting for the end to come, but instead she felt the bullet graze her air and hit something else instead. Blinking, she turned around to see a dying Mimic behind her, having evidently been masquerading as one of Mox's throw pillows.

Mox nonchalantly snapped his fingers, and almost immediately the Mimic burst into white-hot flames, its body incinerated within seconds. Once the corpse was gone, the fire was doused with water, leaving a small scorch mark where there had once been an eldritch monster. Stephanie had once again been saved from a brush with death and an abrupt end to her first loop.

"Nobody wants to lord anything over you, Stephanie," continued Mox, as if she hadn't just almost died. "Of course you're not as capable as the rest of us yet — this is your first loop. We've all been before where you are right now. We're just trying to include you into the group, help you understand that you can trust us."

"Like it or not, Stephanie," Punk followed up, ignoring how she was again open-mouthed at them. "These loops are not ending any time soon. Or at all, for that matter. We're stuck living our lives over and over again forever, and together. So unless we all want to live the rest of eternity miserable, the only way to make this work is to make sure we all get along."

"Randy and Christian—"

"—have worked something out," Punk cut her off, ending her one and only argument. "They still hate each other and live rent-free in each other's heads, but they won't try to fucking murder each other every single moment of every single day."

Stephanie bit her lip. It was clearly a foreign idea for her to accept any help that she didn't somehow coerce from someone. That's just how things worked in wrestling — nobody aided anyone without getting something in return; there were exceptions, like Cena, but for the most part everyone was out for themselves. Seemingly, that had changed for her employees, but how could she trust them? She wasn't one of 'the boys', and never had been; there was no way they would ever trust her.

Or maybe they would. What choice did they have, when they were facing eternity together?

"Fine," she finally decided. She looked at them both. "Now how are you going to help me?"

"A bodyguard? Really?"

"You need someone to protect you while you're leveling up, and I don't give a shit about getting good grades beyond making sure my assignments don't attack me," Punk flatly stated as he trailed next to Stephanie down the hallway to the cafeteria. Going in as late as they were, it was unlikely they were going to get anything good, but that was okay; apparently the loopers kept food in their pockets for situations like this, things a million times better than whatever they served in the Scholomance. "Guarding you keeps me from getting bored and keeps me sharp. It's a win-win for both of us."

Stephanie shot him a look but didn't argue. Honestly, she didn't really mind the idea of a bodyguard. Like Punk said, it was the best way to achieve her goal of becoming Valedictorian without having to worry about a knife in her back. The only issue she had with the situation is that it had to be Punk with her. Sure, the man had saved her life several times, and she owed him more than one favor for that alone, but God, he could be such an aggravating asshole. Whatever sympathy he had for her, he had also made it clear that he was under no obligation to actually like her as a person. Just as well, she was under no obligation to like him, and it seemed they were settled into some kind of agreement of mutual tolerance, but still.

"Why are we even going to the cafeteria? It's not like we're really going to eat anything there." The food there was barely edible to begin with, considering the mal infestations, and hardly that appetizing. Every looper currently Awake (with the exception of herself, she noted with no small amount of resentment) already had storehouses worth of food stored in their Pockets that they were subsisting on instead. Since Stephanie didn't have a large Pocket of her own with such amenities, she had been graciously allowed to borrow food from everyone else — something she abused relentlessly.

"We need to tell El about Liesel," answered Punk, arms stretched and hands resting behind his head. "See if she was anyone was important in baseline. If she was, then El will have to figure out something to cover for her absence."

Stephanie clicked her teeth at the mention of the girl that had tried to sabotage her project. Some part of her felt sympathetic, as being eaten alive was a horrible way to go no matter how you sliced it, but mostly she felt numb. She didn't know Liesel well at all, and by all accounts the girl would be alive again when this loop reset. But the fact that she could be so cavalier about that, that everyone here could be so cavalier about it, and just… move on, as if it was just a minor problem instead something completely horrific…

It just felt wrong. She didn't like it at all. Nor did she like the idea that she'd one day be like them too.

They made it to the cafeteria, and snag the bare minimum as possible without looking too suspicious. Most of it was going to be dumped once they got to their table anyway, once El put the glamour up. Stephanie tried to ignore the hustle and bustle, tried to focus Punk. Even though there's no way anyone is looking at her in particular, or cared about the latest loser freshman to be served up to the Scholomance as a sacrifice, she still felt like an exposed nerve with every eye on the world on her. The quattria had been her closest brush with death since she nearly gotten her brain eaten by a zombified version of her husband, and it made her feel vulnerable.

"Liesel?" El blinked. "You saying she's dead?"

"She sabotaged my project for shop, so after class I confronted her over it in an empty corridor. Except it turned out it wasn't empty, there was a quattria, and…"

El held up a hand. "Say no more. Is the quattria dead at least?"

"Electrocuted and then thoroughly torched," Punk claimed. "Cleaning up the scorch mark is probably gonna be a part of some kid's maintenance shift."

"That's good to hear, though Lake is gonna be miffed he didn't get to kill it himself." The hosting Anchor shook her head at her boyfriend's antics. "But whatever. Important thing is Liesel."

"I take it she is important in baseline?"

"She was supposed to be our year's Valedictorian," confirmed El, frowning. "She's also pivotal in the big graduation stunt at the end of our year. It should've been in the books I gave you."

Stephanie's mouth fell open a bit. "You mean she was that Liesel?"

"Well, there's only one Liesel in our year, so yeah, it had to be her. I should know, I've long since memorized the names of everyone who's at the Scholomance the same time as I am at any point. Seeing as you've both read the books, I take it you now know why this is such an issue?"

Of course they did. Liesel was the one who was supposed to lead the effort to getting the entire Scholomance out on Graduation Day. She was the one who organized the students, shouted out orders, and all-in-all acted as if she were the commander of some massive army of pubescent, hormone-filled magi. If El had been the symbol that everyone put their faith in and Orion her knight and guardian, Liesel had been the one to use that symbol to make everyone go where they needed to go. So yeah, she was important — super important.

And Stephanie, indirectly or not, had gotten her killed.

It shouldn't matter. It didn't matter. Even if everyone in the Scholomance today died right here, right now, in this very moment, it wouldn't matter. The loop would just reset and they would all be alive again, and only they would be any wiser. Just as with Liesel.

So why did she feel so much guilt in her chest?

"…it'll be a pain, but we'll manage," El continued speaking, completely unaware of Stephanie's ongoing existential crisis. "It's not the first time she's died early, and we've always managed to figure something out. A few more people will probably die this time around, but…" She shrugged. As if it wasn't a big deal. Perhaps to a girl, a woman, who had lived this life a thousand times over, maybe it wasn't.

"Alright. Though if you need any help, just tell us," Punk spoke for them both, crossing his arms.

"I will," promised El. "So, tell me — how's the loop going for you so far?"

The years passed quickly, and at the same time, not at all. Punk and her quickly settled into something of a routine, one that persists past their freshman year because of the sentience of the Scholomance had apparently deemed it prudent for them to share as much of a schedule as possible. That was what was best for her education, as El put it the one time Stephanie asked her about it. So she swallowed whatever protests she had, and went with it.

Finding her niche had been easy enough. El had told her the Scholomance would be good for figuring out her specialty as a looper, and she was right. By the middle of her first year, she already an ongoing theme in her assignments: healing. Her alchemy assignments were always salves, her shop assignments always had to do with something medical-related, like splints, and her language/incantation classes always involved healing spells. She used her first one healing a cut on Punk after a nasty encounter with a Sirenspider.

Everyone had been pleased when they found out; apparently, nobody in their loop had specialized in healing. Mox had the most experience with it, though his talents were more geared towards technology and programming; now that she was around, designated medic duty was now permanently her position until they got another looper who specialized in the same. Which was not going to be a for a while, by the looks of it, so Stephanie just nodded and doubled down on her studies.

She wasn't the only one. It seemed everyone had taken to the idea of improving their skills this loop; even Punk, who had originally been assigned to be her bodyguard because he didn't really give a damn about school. When she asked him about it, he posited it was because this loop was a school setting and since they had no intentions of leaving the place anytime soon, it only made sense to 'go native', as it were. It wasn't like there was anything else to do, anyway, without terrorizing a bunch of teenagers or messing with things they had far less knowledge of than the local loopers. Not even guarding her all the time had done much to dent his own freetime, so he might as well turn to studying, right?

Punk had sounded bitter when he spoke of it. Bitter and resigned. She supposed it had to do with his speciality — being good at murder and deceit was certainly not something to be proud of, even for someone of Stephanie's low morals. The memory of learning that still haunted her; it took her over a week to be comfortable around him again, though he never said anything against it. That, more than anything, showed how much he understood, and how much he agreed with it.

The others were much more satisfied in their own teachings. Randy, owing to him immense talent as a wrestler, was a fighter, a soldier. He excelled at combat-oriented spells, and got along famously with Orion Lake, mal-slayer extraordinaire. It also did well for him in that kept him away from Christian, who was more than happy to focus on the incantations that helped him expand his mind powers. The two of them still couldn't stand each other, sniping at each other as often as they could.

Becky got into dancing, waving spells into her movements, and that endeared her to a fellow student in their year named Cora. Sami went down the creative writing track, making new spells and translating old ones into new languages. It suited him well, for a man who had been so good at bending the laws and rules to his whim. It also made him spend more time with them, because Punk was on the incantations track, learning new languages to learn new spells. Said spells involved killing quickly and efficiently, but again — resignation.

And Mox… well, he dabbled in a bit of everything first, but eventually settled upon the path of an artificer. Already, he was trying to create some kind mana-driven wi-fi connector to the outside world. How he was going to manage that when they were in a pocket dimension, Stephanie was not sure, but he was determined if nothing else. It, along with the planned mana-computer, were probably going to be useless outside of this loop, so maybe he would just give it to El before the loop ended on Graduation Day. No point in keeping it around and letting it take space up in his Pocket.

So yes, the years pass and pass, and before she knew it, their junior year was closing in on its end — and the day this loop's baseline officially began was fast approaching.

That, understandably, was when everything went to shit.

"We have a problem," El declared to them during a rare, looper-only study session. Which was now clearly not a coincidence.

Mox arched an eyebrow. "What kind of a problem?"

Instead of answering, the sorceress simply jabbed her thumb behind her towards the door of the library, which was subsequently busted open and destroyed by a rampaging maw-mouth. The present students screamed their heads off and began scurrying around like cornered rats, while Orion heroically summoned his sword and attacked the monster. There was flashes of differing colored lights and roars and screams, and it was an epic scene that entranced those brave enough to watch.

For any other school, this would be the climax of a grand heroic tale.

For the Scholomance, it was Saturday.

El absentmindedly put up a domed shield to protect them from the nasty flying bits of maw-mouth, and continued on with her explanation. "We've saved too many of the students. The mals down in the Graduation Hall are getting starving, and they're being even more persistent in trying to get up here."

"You think one of the seniors will try to bust up the Scholomance again to let the mals feed on the rest of the students so they can have an easier time with their Graduation Run?" Becky asked for all of them.

"I do. It happens every loop. Except, with you guys here, the number of students that have survived have gone up exponentially. The mals — relatively speaking — have been barely able to feed at all for the past three years. Hence the increase in attacks."

That made sense, Stephanie thought. While her fellow loopers were still too cavalier to the idea of death for her taste, that didn't mean they were ones to let kids actually die in front of them if they could help it. She couldn't count the number of times Punk had gone out of his way to protecting other students when he was protecting her, and she imagined the others were the same. Hell, even Stephanie herself had saved a fair share of lives with her healing, once the danger passed. There wasn't any reason not to; she wasn't under the same pressure they were, so there was no harm in being a little generous with help.

But if there was anything that she had learned, it was that this loop operated on the principles of balance. Having a bunch of all-powerful loopers running around putting out fires and saving lives wasn't going to come without cost to the whole, and this was it. They had starved the mals, screwed with the ecosystem even more than it had been in baseline, and this was the price they all had to pay. A potential mal incursion, long before Graduation, and long before any of the school was ready to unite and figure out the solution the Scholomance wanted. Stephanie would be a liar to say she was not intimidated by the thought, even though she had long-been schooled in not showing it.

"So what do you propose?" It was Christian speaking this time.

"We need to bring up the idea of fixing the scouring equipment earlier," El told them, ignoring how her boyfriend had finished killing the maw-mouth and was now being lifted up by a crowd of his adoring admirers, who began tossing him in the air in celebration. "That'll cut off anybody thinking of busting open one of the vents to let the mals in, and hopefully begin the steps of unity the school needs to take in prepar—"

Whatever El was about to say next was cut off by another round of screams, combined with every looper except Stephanie suddenly stiffening. El whipped her head around to find the source of the sudden distress, and cursed.

Two more maw-mouths had appeared in another section of the library and were now gnawing on the students. Orion's impromptu entourage had promptly dropped him and scrammed, leaving the mal-slayer behind so he could attack these new threats — which he did with much gusto. El quickly moved to help him, but before she could, the table upon which they were studying on found itself quickly covered by a massive grogler that she had to banish. Christian acted quick and summoned all their supplies and assignments to store them in his pocket, and just as well, because the grogler was soon followed by a band of leskits and vipersacs.

Time had run out. The incursion had already begun.

It took them a better part of the hour for the collective might of the students in the library to eliminate every mal in the room, along with blocking all the potential openings for more to come through. There is still the Void — there is always the Void — but that could be easily guarded against. El took charge of the situation and directed several of the surviving students to guard against potential breakages and repair them, and to gather the dead and wounded to be healed in the center of the reading room.

Stephanie, as the foremost healer in the room, was put in charge of tending to the wounded and triaging the students — determining who to save, and who to put out of their misery. It wasn't something she particularly wanted (much like the entirety of this loop, to be honest), but there was only so much mana to go around. Not to mention the rest of the school; as soon as she had gotten everything settled in the library, she had taken herself, Orion, and everyone except Stephanie, Punk, and Mox to check out the rest of the school. Mox was left behind because he was the only one besides Stephanie that had healing experience, and Punk was left behind to guard them.

"What do you think happened?" Stephanie asked during a slow moment. Mox had ordered her to take a break after treating one too many students and running low on energy. She was no good running herself ragged.

Punk twirled a knife in his hand, expression grim. "Anything, really. There were too many desperate, hungry mals for the school to keep at bay. A couple of seniors managed to figure out what was going on and did something about it before El could handle it. Maybe even more seniors than we thought decided on the same plan. In the end, the cause doesn't matter as long as the situation isn't contained. Once things are under control, then we can figure out what happened."

Reasonable, Stephanie thought. But that's if they could manage to get the current infestation cleaned out of the Scholomance. Even with having several people that were functional gods in the building, she couldn't help but feel a sliver a doubt at the thought. Either one of the two Anchors of the loop could die before the loop ended, and considering the volatility of this universe, who knows how that could effect the mals currently roaming every inch of this school?

Several more hours passed. More students entered the library to be treated. Those that were healthy enough started building up mana for them to use to heal others. Stephanie was given a sharer to wear on her wrist so she could keep healing continuously, and was joined by a few other students who specialized in medicine like her. Others took the opportunity to rest, or check out the library for books for either their assignments or for someone to help with the current situation. Whichever worked out first.

By the time El and the others returned, it was closing in on dinner time. However, judging by how anyone yet to leave the library, nobody was really keen on actually heading to the cafeteria to eat. Once all the loopers were in the room, El signaled for them to meet up in the center of the room for a private discussion. Stephanie passed off her latest patient to one of the other healers before following Punk over to the group. The moment they were all there, El froze time, leaving only them able to move and speak.

"How many survived?" Mox asked, taking point.

El grimaced, as did everyone else that had gone with her.

"That bad?"

"The only survivors are here right now in the library," she admitted. "They're might be a few students still hiding somewhere, but other than that…"

"You're kidding," Punk said, stunned. "There's at most three hundred students here. That's not even a fourth of the school's full capacity."

He's right, Stephanie realized. There were one thousand, six hundred total dormitory rooms in the Scholomance, four hundred for every year. According to baseline, only half of every year made it to Graduation, and only half of that made the Graduation Run. Approximately one hundred students every year survived the Scholomance, and thus one fourth of the school at any point was projected to make it.

But the current number of survivors were less than that amount. And depending on what happened in the following weeks, that number would only pose to go down even more. That was…

"What happened?"

It took Stephanie a moment to realize the question had come out of her mouth. She didn't have time to marvel at that, as El soon answered it for her.

"What happened is bunch of moronic seniors figured out what was going down in the Graduation Hall and deciding rip open two massive holes to the Hall at the same time," the sorceress said, anger seeping from her couple with her natural ominous aura. "They ended up destabilizing the school and opening multiple holes into the rest of the building, too many for the Scholomance to patch up all at the same time. That led to a massive invasion of starving mals, each and every one that was able to make inside. Even with clones…" She shrugged, not saying anymore. She didn't have to.

Randy ran a hand down his face. "Wonderful. What now, then?"

"There's no way we can employ the original plan, not with this many few students. And the incoming freshman for next year are sure as hell not going to be any help," the Welsh girl pinched the bridge of her nose. "Our only option is to fix the scouring equipment in the Graduation Hall, so that way all the remaining mals in the hall will be killed, alongside with those still in the school via the mortal flame. That will allow the remaining seniors to graduate safely, and the entire school to graduate safely the following year. The loop is hardcoded to end at of our senior year since that's where our current baseline ends, so there should be no need to make up a plan to make the rest of the world safer for all wizarding children like the Scholomance usually wants."

Crossing his arms, Christian frowned. "But can we even fixed the scouring equipment with the people here?"

"I've got the blueprints for them here," El replied, summoning the plans from her Pocket. She turned to Mox. "You've got technopath powers. You think you can fix it?"

Mox took the plans from her hand and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "We've still got a few weeks, right? I think I can work something out in that amount of time."

"Good. As for the rest of us, we've got the next week off from classes; the Scholomance wants us to do maintenance on the school so this doesn't happen again, along with continuing treatment for the students. Hopefully no one else will die for the rest of the year."

"Not quite how you imagined your first loop to go, huh?" Punk asked her the following day, while they're herding people into the cafeteria and watching others reinforce the patchjobs El made on the school.

Stephanie shrugged, mind lost. "Truth be told, between this and the zombies, something tells me I'm not going to enjoy looping all that much."

Punk smiled, though it didn't quite reach his eyes. It occurred to Stephanie she had never really seen him smile this loop. Or last loop, for that matter. He always looked so reserved, so unlike the Punk she knew before, the man who had such a massive chip on his shoulder. As caustic and as cutting as he ever was, but there wasn't any anger behind it. There wasn't really anything behind it at all, to be honest. He just sounded… lost.

"Don't worry about it. You just got dealt a bad hand this time around. Usually, it's much easier than this," Punk said, breaking her train of thought.

"Just about anything could be easier than this, Punk. We're about to go into a den of monsters to repair some machinery, and then last another year in this hellhole before we're finally able to get out. I'm not sure I can last that long."

"You will," he promised, and that smile turned into a grin. "You've got me around, after all."

Despite herself, Stephanie couldn't help but smile back. He had a point, after all.

Punk was right. Despite all her misgivings, she made it to the end of the year. Their little expedition into the Graduation Hall went perfectly fine, with no casualties. Probably because El opted for an all-looper team. After that, it was just a matter of waiting for Graduation and Induction and surviving their last year. Despite the severe loss in competition, Stephanie studied with all the diligence she had before, and as a result, the position of Valedictorian was hers. Not that it really meant anything in the end, but it was something, and filled her with a sense of pride.

When the end of her senior year approached, Stephanie found herself sitting in the gym by herself, within the peaceful reproduction of the Kyoto Cherry Blossom Gardens. El had decided to fix the gym right after the Incident (as the school was calling it), figuring at this point it wouldn't hurt and that they needed some kind of peaceful refuge for the remaining students to retreat to. Granted, there was still a lot of screaming and running at the sight of it, owed to years of cumulative trauma of being at the Scholomance, but eventually everyone got used to it. It had certainly been a balm for the incoming freshmen, though El had to put in some protections to make sure they weren't preyed upon by opportunistic mals.

Punk was with her, was always with her. And for a time Stephanie had resented his presence; now, she was simply used to it. He didn't really need stay anymore — she could protect herself, at least from maleficaria if nothing else. But he seemed content to just play her guard in addition to his own student workload, and really, Stephanie had no reason to ask him to go away. And though she would never admit it to him, she felt secure in his presence. Safe.

"You know, you might be on your own in your next loop," Punk commented idly. "Are you ready for that?"

Stephanie thought about it for a moment. "Yeah," she finally said. "I think I am." She turned to look Punk in the eye. "And part of that is because of you. So thank you."

Punk nodded in acknowledgement but said nothing else in return. Instead, he just laid himself down on the false grass, pulled up his hood, and rested his eyes. At this point, Stephanie knew him well enough to know that he rarely got any sleep. She watched him for a bit, before mirroring him, laying her head down on the ground and just… relaxing.

She hadn't felt like this in a long time. She hoped they'd get to stay like this for a little longer.

(Days later, when their induction portal appears right in front of them, Stephanie takes Punk's hand. They share a look together, before jumping into the next unknown as one.)

Woo. That's Stephanie's chapter done. And now we've got all the players we need for the next interlude, and then the big arc I'm planning. There's not going to be a new looper for a while, just warning you now.

For the record, this isn't going to be a Punk/Stephanie story. I considered it for a hot minute before recognizing that isn't what I wanted to do. So — they're going to have a strong bond, but it's going to be strictly platonic.

As for the setting this is based on, it's called the Scholomance series, by Naomi Novik. Great series, awesome (and hilarious) deconstruction of the wizarding school setting. I highly recommend it. The third book is coming out on September 28, so I suggest reading it now!

Well, that's it for now. See you next time!