When Chariot blindly refused to take the responsibility of wielding the Claiomh Solais seriously, when she had taken to calling it the "Shiny Rod" and wasted it in ridiculous magic shows, when she had been chosen by it and seemed content to simply ignore her destiny in favor of following up on the selfish dreams of a child, Croix left. She abandoned her, filled with a poisonous vengeance for the destiny she had so badly wanted, so deeply wished for that had been stolen from her by someone who claimed to care for her. Whatever she and Chariot had together, it was dead. For ten long years, she convinced herself she hated Chariot, hated Ursula, hated whatever she chose to call herself. Croix spent a decade with nothing but the shattered remains of her dreams, and the intoxicating desire to do the same to Chariot's. She would take whatever hope Chariot had and she would smash it in front of her. She would make Chariot watch as she destroyed her dreams. She would make Chariot hate her back, and when Chariot stood broken over her failed life, cursing her name for destroying her last chance at happiness, Croix would revel in her victory.

That vision of her once dear friend had drove her for so long. She saw the image of a defeated Chariot, as empty and purposeless as she had been, when she poured her life into unlocking the Triskellion. For over a decade, the thought of ripping away any warmth in Chariot's heart and smothering it as Croix stole her destiny from under her feet had been ingrained into her mind, and she convinced herself it was what she wanted, what they both deserved, and what should rightfully happen.

It hadn't happened. Croix tried, harder than she had ever done before, to hate Chariot. Even after everything she, and Woodward, and Luna Nova and everyone else had done to her, she couldn't fully commit to hating her, but she still didn't stop. Croix enacted her plan anyway, hurting Chariot's new little apprentice at every turn and in every way she could stomach. She used the new wielder of the Claiomh Solais to hurt the old one, and vise-versa. She lied to their faces and told the ugly truths when it would pain them the most just so she could make Chariot feel the same despair she had in hopes of finding purpose in her broken tears. And even after all that, Chariot didn't hate Croix back.

Ten years, Croix had wanted to hate her. And eight months later, she could no longer deny she couldn't. Croix missed her. She missed the feeling of her skin and the shape of her face. She sat alone in her guilt thinking of how much she wanted to see her, to talk as they once had. But when the chance actually presented itself, she wasn't ready for it.

"Croix?"

"C-Chariot?"

Her heart seemed to stop in her chest. It was early in the morning, and she and Keith had just been on their way to the library once more when Chariot had spotted them. She looked like a strange amalgamation between her two identities, the drab and unflattering uniform of Luna Nova professor contrasting with the blazing red hair and striking red eyes Croix carved into her memories. She couldn't bring herself to do more than look. Croix definitely couldn't bring herself to actually speak.

What the hell would she even say at this point? What words could possibly justify all that happened between them? What could clean their irradiated slate?

Chariot broke the silence first, clearly finding this as awkward as she did. "I…I had heard you were coming back to Luna Nova for research?" It wasn't a question, not really, but Chariot phrased it as such in hopes of making small talk. Croix saw it as a trap.

"I…yeah. I am. I was…I was heading to the library for the day."

"You're still trying to cure Wagandea Sickness, then?" Croix couldn't answer that. It felt almost patronizing, the way Chariot spoke to her so casually. That she could walk up and act as though things could ever go back to how they had once been between the two of them was condescending. Chariot waited for Croix to respond, to admit her faults once more, but when faced with silence, she relented and carried the conversation herself.

"I have classes I have to attend to today," Chariot told her, "but maybe when I'm finished, I could come join you, if you'd like?" Chariot extended her hand as an offer, and God knows that Croix wanted to take it, to pretend like they could even be friends again, to imagine that one day she could gaze into Chariot's eyes and not feel like she was being stabbed through the heart. It would be so easy, to simply reach out and touch her hand, like she had so many years ago.

"I…don't want you to do that." Croix wasn't that naïve anymore. "I'm sorry. No offense."

"O-Oh. I…I understand. Please don't worry." The disappointment was clear on her face, and as her chest clenched, Croix wondered how it ever could've been victory. "It was nice to see you anyway, Croix."

"Yeah. It was nice to run into you." Croix couldn't tell if she was lying to herself, to Chariot, or if she was lying at all. She didn't want to wait to find out. She hastily walked away, retreating to the haven of the library, leaving Keith stunned behind her.

She briefly wondered if he would yell at her for not waiting for him. She almost wished he would. Instead, he sped up to walk at her side, the worry etched onto his face serving another cruel reminder she didn't need.

"Are you okay?" Keith asked her. His hand hovered above her shoulder, as though he had suddenly remembered how much she hated being touched. She hated all the gestures and words of comfort and the encouragement everyone spent on her.

"Fine." She practically spat the word. "I wanna get some work done."

He didn't press the issue, and they continued to the library in silence. She grabbed the book she wanted, and made her way to the table where they sat yesterday without even a single look at her escort. She opened the textbook, and spent five minutes staring blankly at the text before her mind could even organize the letters and characters into coherent sentences.

Keith watched Croix sink deeper and deeper. In truth, this exact situation had been his main argument against allowing Croix back at Luna Nova. It would do her mental health no good to be so close to where everything had gone wrong, and it was obvious to any who assessed Meridies that Chariot Du Nord was a sensitive topic for her. Meridies had spent the last fifteen minutes looking down at her book without even touching the page or her notes, and he suspected she wasn't able to read it, too content to simply slip back and be swallowed by her guilt once more. He debated trying again to convince Holbrooke to allow them to take the books off campus for a short while, to at least allow Croix this reprieve she had asked for without putting her in this volatile environment. If nothing else, he needed to remove her from campus before she became completely unresponsive, or anything else happened.

"Oh, so you are here." As if on cue, a dry voice had drawled its way into their corner of the building. Looking up, it was another girl he recognized from Meridies' inciting incident almost a year prior. She had pink hair and a long cloak on, moving like a shadow with a bored expression on her face.

"Sucy." Meridies addressed her. Keith hadn't actually expected her to react to the girl's presence, especially so soon after her encounter. He needed to keep a close eye on this, in case Meridies' emotional state took a turn for the worse. "What do you want?"

The girl, Sucy, didn't seem at all taken aback by Croix's rude introduction. "Heard you were here. Thought I'd come talk to you." Croix rolled her entire head, not hiding her distaste for this conversation at all. Keith felt himself tense. He really wanted to give Meridies the benefit of the doubt, but he couldn't risk the student's safety. Fortunately, Croix didn't move from her seat.

"Why do you all even want to associate with me?" She bitterly asked the younger girl. "Did you forget that I, I don't know, tried to maim your friend?"

Sucy simply shrugged. "So? You didn't actually manage to do it, so why should it bother me?" Croix seemed surprised at that answer, and Keith had to admit she wasn't alone.

"You aren't at all bothered by the fact that I tried to kill Akko?"

"I try to poison Akko every other week. Join the club."

"I have…several concerns about this conversation." Keith interjected. Both parties ignored him, continuing in their discussion as though he, an officer of the law, was not present and listening to them.

"Every other week, huh?" Croix snorted. "That's persistence."

"Akko's pretty hard to kill."

Croix just scoffed. "Don't I know it…"

"Please stop talking about killing Miss Kagari." Keith cut in again.

"Hey," Sucy turned to him, finally acknowledging that he was here. "It's something she and I have in common."

"Well I don't do that anymore." Croix waved her hand. "So don't lump me in with you." Keith did his best to continue to be professional and hide his growing irritation.

"You know I write all these interactions down in my reports, right? I don't want my boss to have to question us on why you talked with a student about child murder."

Sucy shrugged. Again. "You think about it too much. Akko's my roommate." From her tone, it seemed like she believed this to be an obvious explanation for her behavior.

"That's not…" He honestly couldn't tell if she was being serious or not. Not once had her face faltered from a detached blankness. He didn't have it in him to argue the ethical implications of murdering roommates with a minor. "Look, did you want something?"

From within her cloak, Sucy produced a short stack of handwritten papers. "I came to ask Croix about my essay." Keith could do little to hide his shock.

"You came up to Croix and her probation officer" he emphasized, "for homework help?"

"It's an independent report." Sucy drawled. "We're not allowed to ask teachers or other students for help."

Croix sat up straight, confusion evident on her face. "You're using me…to cheat?"

Sucy shrugged. Again. "It's not cheating. You got fired, so you're exempt from the rule."

Keith was far from comfortable with Croix helping a student fake her academic work, but if it kept the conversation away from Croix's previous habits of causing harm to Atsuko Kagari, he supposed he would have to tolerate it. And he needed to ensure Croix didn't bottle everything up and shut down again, otherwise there could be no telling how she'd react. If this could keep Croix from being despondent, he'd tolerate this, but he wouldn't like it. He bit back a sigh. Today's report was not going to look good on his record.

Croix snatched the papers from Sucy and began reading over them. Disinterested at first, as she flipped through the pages her eyes began to light up. "…I remember this. This is for Professor Badcock's class on horoscopes, isn't it?"

Sucy blinked at that. The closest her expression ever came to surprise. "How'd you know?"

"This looks like the exact same report she made us do. You know she was here when I was a student? Hated her class. I only really remember it because I got in trouble for letting Chariot copy off of me." She had taken the course not long after she and Chariot first started searching for the Words. While the scientist in her always cocked her head at horoscopes, after seeing her best friend take on the destiny Croix spent her life believing to be her birthright, spending an entire semester hearing someone rag on and on about the stars and how witches can use them to determine their fate felt like pouring salt on a bleeding wound.

Sucy smirked. "You did good in her class, or was Chariot just lazy?"

Croix scratched her chin as she considered her answer. After a couple seconds, she looked up at the student and smiled. "You wanna know my trick, Sucy? She never tells anyone because she's the Numerology teacher, but Badcock is a Gemini. If you're subtle about it that she doesn't notice, you can butter her up by talking about how great the horoscope for her sign is. She always rounds those papers' grades up."

Sucy blinked again. "Would that really work?"

"I passed this course with an A. It's not hard to be the teacher's favorite if you just tell her what she wants to hear."

"You have a pretty low opinion of her. You really think Badcock is that shallow?"

Croix just chuckled. "Oh yeah, back in the day, there was another professor, a Capricorn, that Badcock hated. In this same report, I threw in a few examples of horoscopes where bad things were set to happen to Capricorns. She actually read one of them aloud to the class as a good example of numerology writing."

Keith was increasingly concerned over Luna Nova's hiring standards. Again though, neither witch paid him much mind. Despite his reservations though, he watched with interest as Croix continued to explain to the girl how to brownnose her professor.

"Find someone she doesn't like, figure out when they were born, and then badmouth their sign. If you're not obvious about what you're doing, she'll eat it up."

Croix handed the papers back to their owner as the young student pondered the suggestion. "…I can think of a few people she doesn't like. Any other tips to cheat through this class?"

Croix shrugged her shoulders. "It's not even really cheating. It's just…a helpful tip. It's like learning your teacher's political views. If your homework just happens to fit their viewpoint, and they just happen to like it more, that's their own fault for being biased. You're not even doing anything wrong, really."

Sucy took another long moment to ponder this new information before she looked back up to Croix, the corners of her lips upturning in a devilish smirk. "You really are evil, aren't you?"

Croix just jerked her thump at the probation officer beside her. "That's why he's here."

Sucy took the papers back and hid them back under her cloak, preparing to leave now that she had gotten what she wanted out of the conversation. "You're not so bad sometimes, Croix. Glad you're not crazy anymore."

Croix just snorted. "Let's not go overboard, Sucy." Sucy stopped and turned back, and the smirk on her lips parted ways to release a small, genuine snicker at Croix's assessment. Sucy's laugh was a raspy cackle befitting of a true witch, and it proved infectious as Croix let out a silent chuckle as she shook her head.

She gave a half-wave goodbye to the young witch, and as she disappeared from the library, Croix returned to her book, feeling lighter than she had in a while. She attributed it to getting petty revenge. Maybe she should read more horoscopes, get a quick look at how things are looking for Geminis.

No, she'd let Sucy have her fun with Badcock. Croix still had too much to do. She studiously copied everything relevant she could from her books, compiling page after page of extensive notes on biology and magic flow. With any luck, it would allow her to finally pay her pound of flesh. No one else approached her table in the library, and the only interruption she suffered through was Keith forcing her to take a break to eat something.

The library closed at night, and Croix and her escort were made to vacate the premises once more. A part of her felt bitter that these distractions kept piling up to keep her from her work. She would only have 5 days left now. The other part of her thought of making Constanze smile and hearing Sucy laugh and felt…something. It would be irrelevant in the long run, so there was no need to define it. They were just two strange detours from what actually mattered. They made their way to the campus's Ley Line station, and Croix took a moment to reflect on what work she managed to do today. There was a lot of information here, but it wouldn't be enough. Not yet.

Flipping through her notebook, all Croix could see were the massive gaps in her research. She knew she wouldn't be able to build a cure without a foundation, but learning trivia about magic wasn't getting her closer to the cure, or her redemption. She wasn't sure if she regretted talking to Sucy and Constanze, but would she be able to do anything of worth in the time remaining if she kept getting distracted? If she couldn't set things right with Chariot, what was the point of any of it?

Croix was only snapped out of her train of thought when Keith addressed her, adjusting his broom for the impending flight. He looked her in the eyes and said, "I would like to say I'm impressed with your progress today. Given your previous record, I was worried that after talking with Professor Du Nord you would shut down again, but you remained responsive with your conversation with that Sucy girl. You held a long and civil conversation, and I believe you did a good job in this regard." He looked very serious for a moment. "That said, I ask that you not talk about those kind of topics in front of me, please. It doesn't look good for either of us."

Croix winced at the reprimand. "…Yeah. Sorry about that. She asked me for help, couldn't just say no." Keith turned and studied her, hoping he was hiding his shock at her answer.

"Hmm. You couldn't?"

"What does that…?" She noticed Keith preparing to leave. "…Are you going somewhere?"

"I have a quick errand to run. I'm going to trust you to remain in this exact spot for fifteen minutes, because you know what you'll lose if you step out of line." His tone left no room for argument, and fortunately, Croix didn't try.

"…Yes, sir. Where exactly are you going?"

Keith knocked on the door to the professor's office, and after a moment, the occupant inside opened the door to greet him.

"Professor Finneran? I'd like to ask you a question about one your students, Akko Kagari?"

The professor just let out a groan. "I don't know who you are, but I have quite enough to deal with without Kagari's nonsense. Is she causing havoc right this second?"

"What? No, she isn't, but-." The door was suddenly shut in his face. Keith stood there, dumbfounded. It took him a second to regain his senses. He needed to head back to Croix before something happened, but he made a mental note to look into who handled the hiring at Luna Nova. Because one person being callous about the child's safety was concerning enough, but three?

Today's report would not look good at all.

A.N. The next chapter is "Jasminka"! Croix asks the burning question that's on her mind, and we find out just what she and Chariot were like before she was chosen by the Shiny Rod and why she wants to go...{story title}

I feel like I should mention this chapter's tone is a bit lighter than future ones, even with Croix's colorful description of Chariot in the beginning. Now that Chariot's back in Croix's life, things start picking up. Sucy's not really that blasé about Akko's safety, but it fits with her sense of humor, and it introduces a future elephant in the room.

Anyway, I've been getting a lot of great comments, which is awesome, so I wanted to answer a couple of questions I got:

For those who don't like OCs, this is about the most significant Keith really gets. He, Chariot, and Croix are in every chapter, but right now, Croix is closed off and Keith gives a good way to reveal things about Croix quickly. He generally just observes and mediates, but Croix gets more of her own voice now that we're getting into the thick of things. It's vague whether Solis is a prison or a psychiatric hospital, which ties a lot into Croix's development and how she thinks about redemption.