"Bernadetta?! What in the world has gotten into you?" Edelgard questioned in bewilderment at the sight of the shorter girl dashing out of her room at the speed of sound. Alas, Bernadetta was long gone before the future empress could even think about getting another word in. "She looked like she'd just seen a ghost…"

"This is bad this is bad this is bad!" Bernadetta rapidly exclaimed as she rushed through the school grounds of Garreg Mach. Everywhere she looked, her surroundings were jarringly different than she last remembered them. There were no signs of damage to be found on any of the buildings, students clad in familiar uniforms roamed throughout the campus, and even the sky itself seemed clearer than it was during the war. In her panicked state, she ended up tackling one unfortunate student down a flight of stairs when her attention began to falter.

"I- I'm really sorry!" Bernadetta hastily apologized before taking off in the opposite direction, catching the attention of many confused onlookers along the way. The sheer surreality of the situation was getting the better of her.

Her body was instinctively moving on its own, actively shutting out all the murmurs and strange looks directed at her from every direction. The shriek of a cat upon having its tail stepped on was enough to spook the purple haired girl into opening the nearest gate she could find and holing herself up inside a secluded garden on the eastern side of the monastery.

"Let's just… think things over for a second, Bernie…" she panted, having long run out of breath from all the crazed running she had been doing for the last five minutes. "There's gotta be a reasonable explanation for all this, right? There's no way any of this is real…" Bernadetta tried to reassure herself, still panting heavily as she made her way towards a nearby pond in an effort to refresh herself.

The image she saw reflecting on the surface of the water only served to panic the girl even further. "What the- is that me?! Why do I look so much younger?! And what am I doing in my old school uniform?! This doesn't make any se- WAAH!" Bernadetta's panicked rant came to an abrupt end when the girl accidentally tripped over a pebble, sending her on a direct course for the pond below.

She closed her eyes in anticipation of the unwanted bath that was sure to follow, but much to her surprise, she didn't feel a single drop of water on her.

"Would you PLEASE calm down for just a moment?!"

"Wh- what…?" Bernadetta wondered aloud. This was a voice she had never heard before. When she opened her eyes, she found herself in what appeared to be an endless void of darkness, with nothing but a single mysterious throne emanating a faint green glow in sight. Perched atop it was a small, green haired girl with a look of annoyance spread across her face.

"Now that I have your attention-"

"AH! Stay away from me!" Bernadetta recoiled in fear before the girl could finish her sentence.

"Excuse me? Is that any way to talk to-"

"You can't fool me! I know exactly what you are!" Bernadetta shouted, suddenly standing up straight and pointing an accusatory finger at the mysterious girl. "You're the specter of Death itself, taking the guise of an innocent young girl to lull me into a false sense of security! Well, I'm not about to let you take my soul!"

"No, I'm only here to stop you from making an even bigger fool of yourself than you already have." The unknown girl flatly stated, creating what looked to be a magical portal with a flick of her wrist. Within, Bernadetta found herself, suspended in midair mere moments before collapsing into the water.

"Now do I have your attention?" the girl asked, eliciting an obedient nod from Bernadetta in response. "Good. My name is Sothis."

"Sothis? As in the Goddess herself?!"

"The one and only… or so I've learned." Sothis placed a hand to her chin in deep thought. "That doesn't matter. Look, I'll spare you the details, but I've been inside your beloved professor since before you two have ever met."

"R- Really…?" Bernadetta furrowed her brow in realization. "I had no idea he was already seeing someone else all this time…"

"Ugh, no! Get your head out of the pigpen, that's not what I meant!"

"Er- sorry!"

"Surely he must have told you this much, right? When Byleth was born, the Crest Stone of the Sword of the Creator, my heart, was planted within him."

"Well yeah, he just never told me he had a little girl living inside his head! I just thought the Goddess would have looked a lot more… mature than this."

"Well EXCUSE me for not living up to your lofty expectations!" Sothis stomped her foot in frustration.

"Ack! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to offend you, oh glorious Goddess!" Bernadetta began to plead, getting down on her hands and knees to prove her fealty. "Please don't cast me into the pits of Ailell!"

"Pick yourself off the ground; you're embarrassing both of us!" Sothis ordered with a sigh of dismay. "Look, I'll just get to the point. I don't know how… I don't know why… but when Byleth died protecting you from Nemesis, my spirit somehow ended up in your body."

"So it wasn't just a nightmare… He's really…" Bernadetta muttered, now sporting a downtrodden expression.

"I'm sorry. I know you're still in pain over what happened… I can feel it." Sothis started as she slowly walked over to comfort Bernadetta in her grief. "I'll admit, my memory still feels hazy, but I can tell you one thing." She raised a finger to the air to signal for attention. "I have power over time itself. I've never turned the clock back so far before, but when you fell down that cliff, your mind and soul were thrown back over five years into the past. Before the war. Before you met Byleth. And before the world was struck with tragedy after tragedy…"

"Really? But what does any of this even mean?"

"It means you have a chance to alter the course of destiny itself. You can prevent any of these tragedies from ever coming to pass and earn the happy fairy tale ending you've always wished for."

"I don't know if I can do that!" Bernadetta quickly shook her head with tears welling up in her eyes. "What if I just screw everything up and make things worse?"

"Nothing's going to change if you just lock yourself up in your dorm to mope all day!" Sothis sharply reprimanded. "I'm going to turn back time to the beginning of this day. This time, you'd better not scream your head off and start running around the monastery like a headless chicken, all right?"

"O- Okay." Bernadetta nodded, taking a moment to clear her eyes.

"Good. I'm growing rather tired as we speak, so we'd better wrap things up." Sothis yawned, creating a magical glyph in front of her that gave off a radiant golden glow. "You shall drift through the flow of time to find the answers that you seek…"


Upon her awakening, Bernadetta made sure to stay silent to avoid attracting any unwanted attention to herself. Now armed with full knowledge of the situation at hand, she stepped out of the safety of her dorm room with a clear goal in mind.

A feeling of nostalgia washed over her as she slowly wandered the grounds of the monastery. It all looked so much more vibrant… more beautiful than it had been since the war with the Empire began. The joyous atmosphere in the air put much emphasis on just how much had been lost to the flow of time. The smiles on the faces of all the students surrounding her helped Bernadetta feel more at ease as she continued to make her way to the main building.

But the sight of what turned the next corner immediately stopped the young girl in her tracks. Her mouth hung open for only a second before her she instinctively rushed forth to envelop Byleth in the tightest hug she could possibly muster.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Sothis suddenly chimed in, a protest that fell upon deaf ears as the monastery's newest professor rose his arms up in confusion.

Undoubtedly surprised by the sudden invasion of personal space, an alarmed gasp escaped from Byleth's lips at the sight of the bed of purple hair embracing him in the middle of the hall. "...Have we met before?"

"You fool! He doesn't know you yet!"

"I know that..." Bernadetta tightened her grip on her lost lover. "Just, please… let me have this." She silently pleaded; paying no mind to Byleth's stunned reaction and the judgmental stares of the students that passed them by.

"I can't just keep using my powers on a whim, you know..." Sothis sighed. "I'll let you have all the time you need, but I'm resetting the day again as soon as you're finished. We can't afford for you to get distracted every time you lay eyes on him."

"Thank you, Sothis..."