A Saga of Tanya the Evil/The Irregular at Magic High School crossover.

Time and Time again, Book 2.

Time waits for no one.

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.

Chapter 0: What happens in the time between, or the adventures of a pair of lost supporting cast members.

December 23rd, 1926. Five miles from the outskirts of Berun, third defensive line, bunker 208.

The 203rd had been tasked with holding back the advance of the Rus troop's for as long as possible. To that end, they had been broken into picket forces and spread across this section of the front. At the center of the defensive line was the headquarters company of the 203rd.

At full strength, that would have been three platoons of four mages each, with the 1st Platoon of 1st Company consisting of the CO, in this case Lieutenant Colonel Degurecheff with her adjutant and two other mages.

Rhiner Neumann sighed as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. The days of full strength units were long past, and even with reinforcements their company had only ten mages. The Lieutenant Colonel had used her own platoon to reinforce the other two so only Vooren Grantz and himself had full strength units.

The obvious reason was that the Lieutenant Colonel and Visha together were easily the equivalent of four elite mages on their own. Even amongst the battle hardened elites of the 203rd, no one could match either of those two.

Honestly, it was a good thing that they were on the side of the Empire.

Still, there was only so much that a small group of mages, no matter how skilled, could accomplish. Even the Argent herself could do little more than slow the tide. Holding it back was beyond even her, with all the impossible things she had done so far. Even the Devil had her limits.

The only good thing was that the Rus had purged all of their own mages, so unless they ran into the volunteer units, they at least didn't have to worry about enemy mages. Small blessings, but you take what you can.

Of course, the Rus believed in quantity over quality. That said, like the Argent was fond of saying. 'Quantity is a quality all of its own, if properly applied.' Honestly, Neumann could understand all too well why both the Devil of the Rhine and her Handmaid hated the Rus so much.

In a normal operation, Rhiner would have been in charge of the 4th Company, but the decision had been made to use elements of the 4th to reinforce the other companies, so he had found himself assigned to the 1st. He knew he should take it as a compliment, being placed with Lieutenant Colonel Degurecheff was a sign of respect, that he was respected enough to be trusted with watching the back of the Argent and her Handmaid. If it helped take enough of the load off of them so that they might find a way out of this mess, losing his command was a small price.

"Neumann! Take command! Visha has been hit!" crackled across the comms, and Rhiner Neumann's world froze for a moment before he started to react again. He could see Lieutenant Colonel Degurecheff racing towards the backlines, and could only assume that Visha was being carried with her. Neumann looked at the stunned faces of their thin line of mages, and made an immediate judgment call.

"Vooren, you're with me! All units fall back towards the second defensive lines. We are going to support the Argent and reform at the second line! Vooren and I will escort the Old Lady back to the roost. Don't any of you die while she isn't here to judge you for it!" Neumann commanded as Vooren nodded and fell in line with him as the two of them pushed themselves to try and keep up with the fastest mage alive.

Even if the Rus didn't have any mages of their own, between the auxiliaries and the Rus's air force it was not safe to leave a distracted Argent on her own, especially with Visha injured. He could only hope that Visha had not been seriously injured, for all of their sakes. She had long been the heart and soul of the unit, and potentially the one person that the Argent might actually listen to.

If they were to lose her, well, then he was not sure that the world that was left was one that he would want to live in.

Vooren Grantz nodded as he grimaced and pushed himself as he flew alongside the older and more experienced soldier. He had been part of Tanya's command company for some time, and as one of the original 203rd, he knew that he was a respected and experienced soldier. That said, at times like this he felt like a wet behind the ears maggot that the Lieutenant Colonel hadn't decided was worth the minimal effort to step on.

Just like on that day when she had pulled him from the snow after the avalanche and kicked him back to life.

That said, he knew that he had earned the trust that he had been shown, and that he had been tempered in the hellish fires of this war. Just like all of the rest of them, he had grown and changed under the hammer. He had become one of the most elite aerial mage's on the planet.

And now he had a duty to protect the two people that were the most responsible for the person he had become today.

The pair of elite mages pushed to catch up with the Argent, the bunker finally in sight. The rest of the Company lagged behind them, spread out as they all raced towards the second defensive line. Neumann and Grantz would reach the third defensive line to ensure the safety of the Argent and her Handmaid before they would rejoin the rest of the Company to buy whatever time was needed to tend to Visha.

And that was when a terrible sound resonated through the air, like a massive sheet of fabric being torn asunder along with a terrible and oppressive weight that settled over them like a tarp made of leather. The skies turned black, and Neumann and Grantz fell through the hungry black well that suddenly spread out before them.

They fell for what was either an eternity, or a single instant. A distance that was either infinite, or the barest of steps. Neumann and Grantz found themselves in a place that was neither vast nor small, light nor dark. An ill-defined space full of uncertainty. At first, it seemed that Neumann and Grantz were alone there, wherever there was. Then, they became aware of another, a young woman who seemed oddly familiar somehow.

The young woman was dressed in what looked very much like a flight suit in white and blue, with blue-green eyes and blonde hair so pale it almost appeared white. Her features were very fine, almost delicate looking. Everything about her had this almost ethereal quantity to it, like she had been pulled from a dream and would dissipate into mist and smoke when the first waking breath was drawn.

At the same time, her eyes portrayed an unwavering strength, an unrelenting determination. A will that would not be broken, a conviction that no matter what, she was certain that she knew exactly what must be done and would make sure that it was carried out.

In other words, it was very much like staring into the eyes of the Argent herself.

Neumann and Grantz caught themselves snapping to attention before this strange, all too familiar young woman and only relaxed when she smiled at them. Even the smile was eerily familiar to them, a particular twist of the lips and cocking of the head.

"I am glad that you have arrived here safely. You may call me Tatania, if you wish. We have a great many things to discuss." The strange young woman named Tatania said.

Neumann and Grantz shared a look as they quickly exchanged words with each other. "Tatania? Does she mean Titania, the fairy queen from that story?" Neumann said in an aside.

Grantz shook his head. "Close. Visha once told me about Tatania, from stories her parents told her when she was little in Rus. A Rus fairy queen." He said quietly in an aside as the woman watched them with a calculating look.

"Regardless of the origins of my name, we still do have much to discuss. First, I imagine that you must have a great many questions for me." Tatania said as she started to lead the two men… Somewhere. They started to move to follow her without any conscious thought, an almost instinctive reaction that the Argent had drilled into them over the years.

With an amused look cast between them, they fell in behind Tatania in their accustomed spots. Neumann was the first to break the silence as he cleared his throat, and asked with that usual wry smile on his face. "So, Tatania, where exactly are we? I don't see the wonderful view of the front from here we had just moments ago."

Tatania didn't even break her smooth stride when she looked back at him. "Technically, we are nowhere. This place doesn't exist in any definition of space or time that you would understand."

"Surely we have to be somewhere, right? I can see you, and hear you. I can breathe and talk, so there must, logically, be air. There is ground under my feet, or at least a floor." Neumann stated.

"Or, your frantic little brain is trying to make sense of what isn't here, so it's filling in the blanks with things that it finds comfortable and understandable. We can communicate, so there must be air to breath, speak, and hear. You see me, so there must be light and you must still have eyes. You think that something must be under your feet, since you no longer feel like you are falling." Tatania said as she continued to walk forward. "Much of what we perceive as reality depends on these little assumptions."

Tatania stopped and faced the two soldiers. "Where we are, right now, is somewhere between the world you know, and what lies beyond it. When Lieutenant Colonel Tanya Von Degurecheff tried to save Captain Viktoriya Ivanovna Serebryakov, she broke space and time with the weight and force of her power. She ripped the very fabric of reality apart, and you two fell into the resulting void."

The pair of soldiers shared a look before Neumann cleared his throat and looked at the strange young woman. "So, you are saying that the Argent actually went and broke the world?"

Tatania nodded and walked back past the two soldiers and sat on what seemed to be a chair, even if it's exact form seemed to waver and shift as the two soldiers looked at it, with the certainty that it had not been there a moment before, along with the two other chairs, much less the table that was between them. They exchanged a look, then each sat in their own chairs. The shape didn't seem to change, but what they saw shifted between the looks of various chairs of similar sizes and shapes that they each had seen themselves over the years.

Grantz looked to Neumann, who just shrugged and nodded as the younger man shifted a little in the chair before he looked at Tatania. "So, we fell into the void and ended up here… Where you were waiting for us. I take it that you knew that this was going to happen, or were you just… Waiting here for the first people to show up? And… Now that we are here, what happens to us next?"

Tatania smiled as she placed her hand to rest on a strange looking box that had not been there a moment before. "I knew that I would find you here, yes. And I was waiting for you to arrive here so I could pass along what you need, before you are dropped into what lies on the other side of the void that the Argent opened. What you will need is right here, in this book. It will help you fit in, and find the path that you will need to follow to achieve that you have always wanted."

Neumann crossed his arms over his chest and looked at Tatania. "And what do you think we have always wanted, hrm?"

Tatania smiled that familiar smile. "Why, being of use to the Argent, of course. What else has driven you for these last few years, through what many would consider to be an endless hell?"

Neumann settled back and laughed at that. "Well, you got us there. You knew ahead of time that all you had to do was dangle that particular carrot in front of us, and we would go along with whatever scheme you have laid out for us." He rubbed the bridge of his nose and sighed. "You remind me a little too much of our dear Argent."

"I will take that as the highest form of compliment. And I want to help you, both of you. The world you will be dropped into is similar to the one you knew, but… Also very different. For one, the organized practice of magic, or even the existence of it, are basically unknown. And that is one thing that can not be changed. If you can not agree to keeping that true during your lifetimes, then your journey will end here and now, as will your chance to help Lieutenant Colonel Degurecheff and Visha. When they arrive, the support structure that they will need, will not be there for them." Tatania stated in a tone of voice that squashed any doubts.

"What do you mean, when they arrive? Aren't we going to be right there with them when we end up where the Argent sent us?" Neumann said as he leaned forward.

"The two of you will be on your own, but part of your duty is to find the Argent and Visha, and to ensure that everything will be in order for when they are able to act on their own once again." Tatania said as she gently pushed the box towards them.

Grantz took possession of the box, and examined it for a moment before he handed it to Neumann. "I imagine that everything will be clear, when we do as you have requested of us?" Grantz said as he watched Tatania intently, then looked away with a nervous look on his face when the strange young woman met his gaze with an intense one of her own.

"Once you arrive, the box will open, and you will be able to see what it holds for you. I will tell you this, some of the items in there will not be usable for a very long time, but when they are needed, the instructions for what to do with them will be made available." Tatania said as she sat back.

"You mentioned a book with some sort of instructions for us? I take it that it will be obvious what we are to do, and that by reading all of the book, we will know what we have to do?" Grantz said as he looked anywhere but at Tatania.

"Yes, but don't worry. You will only be able to open the parts that are relevant right now. As time passes, more of the book will be available to be read, and the path will continue to be laid out towards when you two can have done your duties fully." Tatania said, then stood up and walked towards them. "Let me see your computation gems."

The pair of aerial mages hesitated, then handed over their gems. "What, are you just going to take them, and keep them here with you?" Neumann asked as he looked at the computation gem.

Tatania shook her head, as the pair of intricate devices in her hand aged and crumbled even as the pair of stunned mages watched. "They can't be allowed to exist, I am afraid. Only one computation gem will ever be allowed to have existed in the world that you are going to."

"The Argent's Type 95." Neumann stated and nodded, then looked at Tatania. "Not even Visha's Type 97?"

"It was lost during the attack that should have killed her, if not for the actions of the Argent." Tatania confirmed.

"So… They are alive, then? And… They will survive?" Grantz said, and the tone of his voice clearly shocked even him.

"I will say this, that the actions that you two can take over the years will save the lives of both of them." Tatania said as she gave Grantz an oddly sympathetic look.

The two former aerial mages looked at each other, then nodded and looked at Tatania. "We stand ready to commence our mission." Neumann said.

"Very good. The world you will be entering has just finished its own great world war, so be prepared to see the aftermath of the war. One where the Germania of this world has lost." Tatania said with a wry twist of her lips. "But at least you don't have to worry about the Rus overrunning this Germania. This Germany."

The pair of mages nodded, even as they noticed that the space they were in seemed to be crumbling, and had started to collapse. They had one more good look at the strange young woman before they found themselves falling once more.

The pair found themselves laying on the ground, in a field that was pockmarked with trenches and the still smoking craters of shells, and the cold and snow of an European winter. An all too familiar sight to the pair of former members of the 203rd. They looked around for a moment, then made their retreat from the battlefield that they had found themselves on.

That was November 12, 1918 according to the calendars of the world that they had found themselves in.

*A/N*

And thus begins the second book of Time and Time again!