A Saga of Tanya the Evil/The Irregular at Magic High School crossover.
I do not in any way, shape, or form lay claim to either of these works.
This is just a work of admiration from one fan, to those others that share the same interest.
The only characters or places I lay claim to are those solely of my own creation
Time and Time Again Chapter 47, Time flies: Echoes of the Past
Sunday, August 29th 2094. 7:30 PM
When Tanya and Visha finally made it back home, Visha still hadn't quit laughing as Tanya didn't sulk, because the Devil of the Rhine did not sulk, of course. She just waited and plotted her eventual reprisal for the indignities that had been performed on her as Tanya had found herself the butt of more than a few jokes once the pack of hyenas had their fill with Lisa and her newfound romance.
It wasn't like Tanya had a plethora of experience with romance to draw from, not in either life. When she had lived in her Japan, the salaryman she had been had never been interested in love or romance. Even sex had been a mostly mechanical thing, something done occasionally with a professional to help relieve stress. That is all it had ever been for him in that life, and as Tanya had started her life in an orphanage raised by nuns, she hadn't exactly been exposed to parental affection towards each other.. Once she had left the orphanage behind, she had been in the military mostly surrounded by officers, none of which would have ever looked at her as a sexual being. Not that they should have ever harbored those thoughts, of course. For one, there were only a very few individuals that had not lived in mortal terror of her, or called her a monster when they had been sure that she could not hear them.
Contrary to their belief, she had never minded that they thought of her in that way. It meant that they listened to her, and gave her respect that they would not normally have afforded a short, underage girl no matter how talented or powerful she had been. It had made her interactions with officers that only knew her by reputation far easier to carry out, since they regarded her with the gravitas that her position and experience deserved.
Even of those that were close to her, she had always managed to keep a healthy distance from them. Or at least, she had thought so until Visha and herself had ended up in this world, and she had realized that there was one person that truly mattered to her.
One person that she would gladly tear the universe and all of reality asunder if that was the only way to save her. After all, she had done it once already.
She had even asked that sanctimonious Being X for help.
If that hadn't proven just how much Visha mattered to her, then nothing ever would.
Tanya was pulled from her thoughts by a pair of warm, strong arms that wrapped around her from behind and a nuzzle and kiss on the nape of her neck. Tanya squirmed a little as Visha laughed and hugged the most feared mage in their World War like she was a cuddly teddy bear.
"You do know that I'm one of the deadliest mages from our time, don't you?" Tanya said with a fond and exasperated tone in her voice.
Visha laughed and hugged her girlfriend tighter. "You are also cute, cuddly and feel just right in my arms."
Tanya chuckled and decided she would surrender, this time. "So… hopefully Schugel doesn't have anything too new and patently insane for us tomorrow."
Visha thought about that as she pulled the unresisting Tanya more firmly into her embrace and sat down on the edge of their bed with Tanya settled into her lap. "Well, regardless of what the good doctor has planned, I will always be right there at your side."
"Even if she decides to throw me out of another plane?" Tanya asked as she made herself a bit more comfortable in Visha's embrace.
"Especially if you get thrown out of a plane. I do miss being thrown out of a perfectly good plane with you." Visha said earnestly, and Tanya was uncertain if she had been joking or not.
"I will keep that in mind." Tanya said then closed her eyes for a moment, then said in a quiet voice. "Do you ever wish that we hadn't come here, Visha? That we were still back in our own world?"
Visha thought about that for a moment before she hugged Tanya tightly again. "I miss the unit, yes. And… I miss my family, very much in fact." Visha kissed the top of Tanya's head to forestall the self-blame and regret that had started to well up in her girlfriends surprisingly vulnerable heart.
Tanya pulled into herself just a bit. "I wish I could send you back, both of us back, but I don't know how we even ended up here."
"Tanya, I miss all of that, but if you hadn't brought us here I would have died. We never would have been able to just be honest with each other, and ourselves. We would never have gotten a chance to sit here like this, together." Visha blushed and shifted a little bit. "And we would never have gotten a chance to sleep next to each other, to kiss each other, and all of the other wonderfully impossible things we have done and seen since we ended up here." Visha lifted and turned Tanya's chin so that their eyes met for a moment before their lips did. "And I would never have gotten to tell you how much I love you, Tanya Von Degurecheff."
Anything that Tanya would have wanted to say would have to wait til later, as one gentle kiss led to another, and another after that.
The pair slept well that night, wrapped in each other's arms and basking in the warmth of the other.
Monday, August 30th 2094. 5:30 PM. Facility One.
Tanya and Visha followed the technician into the main testing room as Dr. Schugel checked over the array of sensors and cameras again. As the two former aerial mages reflexively snapped to attention, Dr. Schugel nodded to one of the technicians and turned to face the pair. She removed and wiped her glasses before she addressed them, her attitude relaxed like some great weight had been removed from her shoulders.
"Today should be a rather boring set of tests for you, Tanya. We need some more data from the Type 95, so we will have you run through a set of processes. We should be able to replicate more of the power and functionality of the device once we have a better understanding of just how it processes your spells." Dr. Schugel said as she directed the technicians to begin getting the young magical prodigy ready for the first rotation of processes.
Tanya and Visha exchanged shy smiles and wistful looks before Dr. Schugel coughed and shook her head. "You two are going to be in the same room, so can you please stop looking like you will never see each other again?" Dr. Schugel turned back to her console as she took a drink of her coffee and muttered under her breath. "And this is why I never wasted my time on romance. It turns even the most capable and grounded of people into sentimental idiots."
After Tanya coughed self-consciously and Visha stepped back to stand next to Dr. Schugel, the technician who had been assigned the task of keeping things on schedule nodded to Tanya and read off the first task on the list.
"Okay, Tanya. We are going to run you through a full rotation today. We will start with a low power field, and work our way up from there.' He looked at the clipboard in his hands, and checked to make sure that both his and Tanya's copies matched. "So, the first process will be at ten to one rate of entropic collapse, for a duration of one minute actual, and six seconds subjective. Once you are ready, we will see you in six seconds." The technician said, then grinned. "That is, if your girlfriend can stand being away from you for a minute."
Tanya and Visha both had the good graces to blush at that as the laughing technician stepped back to his console. "Okay, synchronize your timepiece, please. The test begins in three… Two…. And one. Initiate!" the technician said as Tanya vanished from sight as the event horizon of her spell created its usual sphere of utter blackness.
"Clock is running. Field looks stable." The technician said, then an alarm started to blare.
"Report!" Dr. Schugle said as she moved to the console to see for herself.
"The field is not holding at a ten to one ratio! It's growing exponentially!" The technician said then looked up at Dr. Schugels pale face. "Ma'am! We can't shut it down from out here! The dilation is increasing!"
"What is happening inside the field!" Dr. Schugel yelled as Visha clutched at her chest and stared helplessly as she felt things slip farther and farther out of control.
Inside the field, Tanya watched her watch as one second, then two passed before she felt something shift in a fundamental way as the magical energies that flowed through the Type 95 started to spike and surge. After another two seconds with no sign of the field coming back under control Tanya initiated a purge. Another second, then two passed as the Type 95 continued to run out of control.
At six seconds Tanya moved swiftly to perform a manual purge as the field continued to grow stronger by the moment. As her thumb rested on the button, she felt a presence that she had started to get all too familiar with. "This is your doing, isn't it? What is your game, Being X?"
"Game? Why, my Doubting Thomas you wound me. Why do you always doubt my Grace? My benevolent love towards you and all those others that I have enveloped under My sheltering wings?" Being X said in his usual grandiose manner.
Tanya turned to look at her nemesis, and confirmed what she had known. Being X wore the form of Technician Greene, the senior technician responsible for overseeing Tanya and Visha while they were within the facility
"I don't understand why you continue this little game, Being X. I will never worship you, or believe in you. I will never follow some entity that claims to be a god." Tanya said as she moved her hand from the Type 95. With Being X's interference, there was not much she could do to break free until that malicious entity released her.
"You still doubt me, after all I have done for you. Did I not bring you and that woman here? Did I not help you in your time of need?" Being X said with a malicious grin that distorted the rather plain features of the technician's face.
"For your own purposes, I'm sure. I won't fall for your poisoned words, no matter how much you coat them in honey." Tanya said vehemently.
"Why won't you let me into your heart, my little lost lamb? That heart that is barred so tightly? Or is it because you think that you love that woman? Is that why you have denied me?" Being X said with a rare touch of anger
Tanya gritted her teeth as she snarked at the self-proclaimed Creator. "You leave her out of this."
"What do you know of love? You, who has so much blood and suffering on their hands? And I don't speak of just this life. How many people did you destroy before? How many lives did you leave in ruins? How can you not accept me, who has given you a new chance to cleanse your hands of your sins?" Being X said as it moved to stand Tanya, and the shapeless expanse that surrounded them began to flicker with images from both of Tanya's lives.
As Tanya watched the scenes unfold before her, she felt a twinge of regret, maybe even sympathy. Perhaps even the barest tinge of guilt for what she had done. It would seem that in opening up to Visha, she had also opened herself up to these feelings, as well.
"Could anyone else accept someone who has so much blood and misery on their hands? That could do such things with not a hint of regret or hesitation? That could even blame the events that led to the downfall and ruination of so many on the very people that you destroyed?" Being X said as he held his hands out wide. "Accept me! Let me into your heart and I shall grant you peace."
"I have no interest in your idea of peace." Tanya said vehemently.
"You hesitate because of that woman, that foul temptress. If she was not in your life, then you would accept my generosity, the love and acceptance I have to offer. The freedom that only I can give you." Being X said as he gave Tanya a look that could only be described as hungry.
"Leave Visha out of this!" Tanya yelled as she started to take a step forward.
"You know, that is an excellent idea." Being X said right before Tanya felt a surge in the entropic field as the indicator for the ratio of dilation started to rise rapidly.
"What are you doing!" Tanya screamed as she developed a horrible feeling for where this was going.
"I'm leaving her behind. Now, if you accept me, perhaps I will let you see her again. In 80 years or so." Being X said maliciously as time rushed by.