Ch 4 - FIGHT

Hermione had always felt herself quick on her feet, fast to solve a puzzle, above average in the intelligence department… This situation was a little above average on its own though. To start with, unless you were a certain bespectacled friend of hers, it's not everyday one dies and comes back to life. Throw into that the circumstances surrounding her 'death' and it was no wonder it took the witch a moment to fit all the pieces together. Especially with the painful growth spurt her body was forced through and her new… appendages. To say Hermione was a little thrown a little off-kilter would be the understatement of the century.

Because of this, she was trying to cut herself a little slack. She had at least Started to regain the use of her faculties. She caught onto the fact they were stuck in a time loop and the skeleton man was somehow involved, as well as the… insane preteen. Feeling a little more herself with a conundrum to conquer, she straightened up and made to start fresh with her would-be ally. As she reached out to take his hand, she tried not to let the blush return at the thought of her last contact with the baritone voiced 'monster'. Composure Hermione! Good fir… er, second impressions and all that.

Just as he reached out to accept her handshake, he suddenly attacked her with his magic! Or, at least, that's what she had assumed for a split second before the knife flew past her face. That deeply disturbed child had tried to kill her!… Again! She realized in short order that the skeleton monster had saved her.

Both of them turned to look at an angry as hell, red eyed, demon child. "I will kill you both," the preteen seethed. "But I'll start with you." They pulled out a gun, an actual freaking gun!, and aimed it at her with a twisted smile.

Hermione held up her wand, but hesitated. She wasn't as drained as she had been before this… time loop, stared over, but her whole being had undergone significant stress and was still short on magic. Would she be able to adequately cast a protego? The choice was taken out of her hands though. Her unlikely ally used his magic to push her further away. This time she ended up behind a pillar that blocked her from the line of fire.

"hey," skeleton man drew the demon's attention from her, making himself its target, Merlin bless him. "it's a beautiful day outside. birds are singing, flowers are blooming... on days like these, kids like you..." he drew them into a FIGHT. "...should be burning in hell." The deep, deadly tone of the monster's voice set her hair on end and made her battle hardened danger sense stand to attention. Hermione wouldn't admit it, but it even made her duck further behind the pillar to be out of his line of fire as well.

'Oh Hermione, what have you gotten yourself into this time?' She thought to herself with a shiver. Just as the battle in the hall kicked off, the loud boom from the monster's magic and pop from the gun startled her, causing her new wings to flutter in reflex. This in turn startled her even more as she had forgotten about them in all the excitement.

She glanced over her shoulder at her new wings, wings that shimmered like multicolored gems. Suddenly her mind's eye raced back to her department at the ministry and a very familiar jar. One with a tiny hummingbird caught in a never ending cycle of life and rebirth. Her thoughts turned then to her "death" blow and the strange glitter like quality of the blood pouring from her chest. "Oh shit…" She had guessed right then. The knife had shattered through her Time-Bubble Generator, causing the liquid time she took from the crystal bell jar to infiltrate her bloodstream and infuse her very being with its essence.

Before she could even begin to panic about the implications of Liquid Time! changing her biological makeup, a resounding humming sound accompanied a bright light filled the hall. It was followed shortly thereafter with a massive Boom of an explosion.

Right! Existential crisis later. They were in a battle right now and a fat lot of help she was being.

She reached beside her to grab her ever present satchel and only ended up patting her hip. Panicked, she glanced around the pillar to see it laying where she had previously fallen. It must have slipped off during her brief time as a child. She was lucky to have kept her clothes on.

As she was about to dart out to grab her pack, a bullet pinged off the pillar, throwing debris in her face and shaving a few years off of her life in fright.

"Come out and play Bitch!" Came the manic voice of the red-eyed psycho. "I've yet to repay you for your attack!"

"hey kid, you're FIGHTing me… ReMemBeR!" Bones exploded in every direction, causing the demon child to dodge or be impaled.

Saved again. 'Go Skeledude!' Hermione cheered in her mind, but quickly went back to her previous task. Checking the kid was thoroughly occupied, the witch made a mad dash for her bag.

"no! wait!" Came the warning baritone just as she reached her bag.

Hermione looked up intime to see the gun point at her again.

"Protego!" She shouted in desperation. The shield charm flickered to life just in time to deflect the bullet heading for her. As the spell fizzled out of existence, using up most of her remaining magic, Hermione felt something grip her chest like a vice. Her vision darkened around the edges and filled with tones black and white. Suddenly there was a pulling sensation followed by a sense of vertigo… A warm glow of yellow gold light filled her vision.

"What in the world…" She began to reach out towards the yellow hued, upside down heart, drawn like a moth to the flame. The little heart was, for lack of a better word, enchanting. It was both familiar and foreign at the same time. Imperfect, if the red hairline cracks were anything to go by, but all the more beautiful for it... Like kintsugi…

"hermione!" The skeleton monster's use of her given name startled her back to reality. He was there beside her, grabbing her hand from touching that lovely heart. He glanced at the glowing object briefly, a blue hue tinting his cheekbones. He quickly looked back to her with his flickering yellow/blue eyelight. "i need you to focus. can you do that for me?" At her nod he continued. "you've been drawn into our encounter. a monster FIGHT. when it's your turn, make it count," he ended in all seriousness.

"Bad call, Sansy!" cackled the kid, "wasting your turn on Talking." They had a heart too, a red one.

A gunshot rang out and her ally, 'Sans! That was his name!', appeared to teleport out of the way quicker than any apparition. The bullet ricocheted off the marble floor at the miss and the sound reverberated in the grand hall.

Hermione was suddenly aware of her ability to ACT again. Like magic, the words seemed to play on the periphery of her senses. Ghostly images binding her magic and actions to a specific set of rules and regulations. Ones she had never consented to, thank you very much! But she was bound nevertheless. Well, she was useless at present. Even if she successfully conjured her shield, it wouldn't hold up to any meaningful attack. So… ITEM it was. She quickly acquired her last vial of invigoration draught and downed it in an instant.

As she finished swallowing, rows of bones flew past her. They caused her hair and feathers to ruffle in the breeze of their violent passing. Their target, the demon and their heart?, narrowly dodged most of them, only getting clipped here and there. Hermione then nearly screamed as large wolf-like skulls appeared next to her and Sans, firing freaking lasers at the kid.

The demon gave Hermione and her boney partner a bloody smirk despite the vicious onslaught they had just gone through. "My turn!"

The gun turned on her. She raised her wand…. And nothing happened. Was it because it wasn't her turn? The kid looked gleeful and she turned panicked eyes to the skeleton monster. "Sans?" Sweat formed on his brow and his sockets widened as his flickering eyelight shot to their adversary.

The awful bang of the gun went off and she flinched, expecting to have been hit. When the pain didn't come, she peeked open her eyes… to see the back of a blue hoodie infront of her and her little yellow heart.

The skeleton collapsed in a clatter of bones on marble.

"Sans!" She dropped down next to him, her wing instinctively unfolding to shield him.

His boney hand gripped at his white shirt which was quickly staining red. "heh, you remembered my name after all, huh angel?" His eyelights, now back to their original white dots, turned fuzzy. "Hey, be a pal and," he coughed and that awful red flecked Hermione's face and leaked out between his teeth, "...and let Papyrus know I'll be… at grillby's." He turned his hazy eyelights towards the warm glow of her golden heart. "heh, beautiful." His eye sockets went dark and the monster in her arms started to crumble. In a flash he was naught but dust in her arms.

oO0Oo

Thanks for reading…^_~