Dance in Time

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own thoughts.

Chapter Interlude

"I thank you, Miss Tohsaka, Miss Edelfelt, for your reports on the matter involving the Church's enforcer." A male voice said into the phone.

On the other end of the phone were two girls in their teenage years. One had black hair in twin pigtails and blue-green eyes while wearing a maid outfit and had a petite build. Next to her was a blonde teenage girl with her hair in four pigtails, all of which were spiraled into the shape of a drill, her eyes were honey-brown and on her head was a blue ribbon. She was wearing a blue dress as she looked at the phone on her desk, which was on speaker.

Unlike the maid, however, the blonde had a far more bountiful chest.

"You are welcome," the blonde said softly. "Rin," she looked at the maid, "you said you had something to ask?"

The maid nodded. "Yes, thank you, Luvia. Headmaster..." Rin said to the speaker. "During the final confrontation with the Church's enforcer, after the incident involving one Chloe von Einzbern, a magic circle formed under both Chloe and the enforcer woman and a kaleidoscope of colors erupted around them as they disappeared. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?"

The voice on the other end of the phone was silent for a few moments. "I can safely say, Miss Tohsaka, that I did not have anything to do with what you saw. But whether or not I was involved is not something I can confirm."

Both Rin and Luvia frowned in confusion. They knew that the headmaster's magic was different than anyone else's, but the details of his magic was confidential for a reason.

"I do have one question though," the man said from the other side of the phone, "how have the two girls you two have been mentoring handled seeing their friend die in front of them?"

"Miyu has been withdrawn and sullen, for her," Luvia admitted as she thought about the girl she adopted into her family. "Illyasviel has, since the disappearance of her sister, been an emotional wreck."

"It is understandable." The man said. "She was not part of our world, the thought of walking with death like a magus is a foreign concept to her." He was silent for awhile before speaking again. "Since this whole situation is because she came into contact with my sticks, I wish for you two to stick around for a bit longer. Observe the ley lines and see if they're back to normal and ensure that the young Miss Einzbern has someone that she can talk to until she recovers."

"Of course, I was going to ask if we could stay here so we could help her." Luvia said to the phone. "At the very least, headmaster, I thank you for your time. What will happen with the Church?"

"Leave that to me, for now, just focus on the task I have assigned you."

Both Rin and Luvia nodded as the phone call ended.

(-)

Across the street, in a small bedroom...

A white-haired girl was laying face-down on her bed, her body trembling as she openly cried into her pillow.

Above her was a circular pendant with a star in the center that had three wings on either side of it. "Illya, please..." The pendant said with a subdued female voice.

"You said you can't rewind time, Ruby!" Illya yelled into her pillow as she kicked her legs up and down. "Chloe's gone! Dead! And she can't... WAAAAAH!"

Normally Ruby would have felt annoyance at Illya's current antics, but ever since that day, she was having a hard time mustering feeling anything.

There was a knocking on the door, which opened to reveal a young girl with yellow eyes, black hair, which was held out of her eyes by hair clips that, for some reason, gave her the appearance of having horns on her forehead, and she was wearing a casual outfit. "Ruby," the girl said softly as she walked in and closed the door. "Has she..?" The girl paused as she saw Illya sobbing still and she walked over to the bed and sat down. "...Illya, it's been four days. People at school keep asking me questions." It was hard to even go to school or see people. She wanted to be with Illya, but felt that someone had to at least try to keep up appearances of normality.

Suddenly Illya sat up, an angry look on her face while tears flowed out of her eyes. "HOW CAN YOU GO TO SCHOOL, MIYU?! DIDN'T KURO MEAN ANYTHING TO YOU?!"

Miyu flinched and looked down at the floor. "Of course she did. She was a friend."

"YOU HATED HER!" Illya interrupted before slumping and her shoulders shaking, "she's gone... She's gone. WAAAH!"

Miyu's eyes shimmered with tears as her mind traveled back to that moment.

The image was still clear in her mind, of that woman, Bazette's arm was pulling out of Chloe's chest, holding the Archer card in her hand while Illya's dark-skinned twin had a dull look in her eyes as her body suddenly went limp, falling to the ground, where she just laid there with a dead look on her face.

Miyu still didn't know what happened to the two of them when they disappeared. She doubted that Chloe was still alive, that card had been her anchor to the world, without it...

"I suppose this would be a bad time to speak up," Ruby said and wiggled in the air, "Sapphire, can you come out too?" When Ruby said that, a similar pendant to her floated out from behind Miyu, looking identical to Ruby, except that it had blue ribbons on its side instead of pink wings. "We were talking the past couple of days and came to a realization that you might want to hear."

Illya and Miyu looked up at the two pendants. The blue one started to speak in a softer, more mechanical tone. "Yes, the color you saw around Chloe and Bazette was magic that both nee-san and I recognize very well. It was the Kaleidoscope."

"Huh?" Both Miyu and Illya asked in confusion.

"The second magic." Sapphire elaborated. "The operation of parallel worlds."

"Sapphire and I know this magic very well. After all, we were made to use part of it." Ruby said while somehow crossing its wings in front of it and nodding. "While neither of us can open portals to other realms, we do have the ability to call upon all the magical power of every version of you that exists in other worlds."

"You can do that?" Miyu asked softly and Sapphire nodded this time.

"Yes, however, only when nee-san and I are together can we pull that off. It's the reason that we're called Kaleid sticks."

"But!" Ruby said while leaning forward and pointing at the girls, "what happened to Chloe and Bazette wasn't the sliver of the Kaleidoscope that Sapphire and I have, it was the full monty."

"So then!" Illya's eyes widened and tears shimmered in them. "I...Is Kuro alive?"

"The card that tied her to the world," Miyu said softly, "was removed from her... We never even got it back from that woman. Even if Chloe," she lowered her head and her shoulders shook as she started to cry herself, "even if Chloe survived the card being taken out, she..."

"Well, there's a small possibility..." Ruby said, causing both girls to look up at her, "it's very small though, less than one percent of one percent, but, there's lots of different worlds out there. If the one who created us took an interest in what was going on here, he may have been been able to keep her alive long enough to be saved."

"But it's a very small chance." Sapphire said. "In fact, it's most likely that Miss Chloe is dead. Very, very dead."

Illya's cheeks puffed out as she gave Sapphire an angry look. "WAAAAH!" She cried while waving her arms up and down. "Sapphire's a big meanie!"

Ruby and Sapphire sweat-dropped as Miyu hugged Illya and both girls laid on the bed, crying together. The two pendants looked at each other and floated out of the open window to talk privately. "Should we have told them, nee-san?"

"I think it's important for them to know it's a possibility." Ruby said in an uncharacteristically serious tone of voice. "Even if it's very small. Part of what makes a magical girl special is hope. If she doesn't have hope, then she can never be a magical girl."

"I suppose so." Sapphire said with a nod. "Nee-san, you've been subdued with your antics lately."

"Even I can't bring myself to do anything to Illya while she's grieving. I hope she gets over it soon and can go back to school at least."

Both pendants were silent as they looked at Miyu and Illya.

The worst part, in their opinion, was the incredibly high possibility that if something did pop up anytime in the near future that neither Miyu nor Illya would be able to function at all.

End Interlude

I hope everyone had a good Christmas.