"Louise!" Siesta cried out.
The portal closed behind Siesta almost instantly, leaving her no time to return as she desperately reached out for where Louise just was, catching only air as she did.
She frantically surveyed her surroundings, finding no trace of her wife.
With resignation, she turned to her family home. It looked… different, somehow. More disheveled. She couldn't see all the details in the moonlight, but it definitely looked somewhat different. In a way that provoked a growing disquiet in her she elected to ignore.
Cautiously, she stepped forward, making sure she was ready to activate her psi blade at a moment's notice. Once she was at the back door, she turned the handle, finding it locked. She reached into the pocket of her pants she wore under her high-slitted skirt to produce the key she almost never used and tried it.
It didn't fit.
Scrunching her face in frustration, she sighed before trudging to the front of the house and knocking upon the door. Unsurprisingly, there was no answer. At least not at first. She could sense a presence awoken within the house was coming to her. A familiar one, yet… just slightly different.
Before Siesta could further ponder this difference, the door opened. Siesta beheld the plain white nightgown-adorned visage of her mother, looking the same as she remembered.
She breathed a sigh of relief.
Lucy, however, looked visibly confused.
"Siesta? What are you doing here so late?" Lucy asked, that confusion audible in her raspy, just-awoken voice.
Without thinking, Siesta threw herself upon her mother, sobbing in relief.
"At least you're safe…" Siesta whispered into her mother's ear between her sobs.
Lucy, after a moment of shock, embraced her daughter back, gently rubbing her back as she did.
Once Siesta had cried enough of her feelings out, she sniffled and wiped her eyes on her sleeves, not noticing the brief, scrutinizing look of Lucy's eyes on her bracer.
"Sorry for showing up at this time, mom, Louise sent me here for some reason. I guess it's her way of saying she's worried," Siesta wryly explained as she went to step past her mother, who only looked more confused as she followed her daughter's movements into the house.
"Sorry, Louise?" Lucy asked as she shut the door behind them and hugged herself for warmth.
"I know she's probably scared about what's going to happen, but you would think after all we'd been through she'd have more faith in me. In us," Siesta solemnly answered as she went to sit on the couch.
"Right…" Lucy said, as audibly unsure as she was visibly.
Siesta felt something was off. She reached out to her mother, feeling nothing but confusion at what she said.
"Sorry," Siesta twitched her mouth into a muted smile, "I know it's late but I tried to get in with the key and it didn't work."
"No, no it's fine," Lucy said, kindly smiling back as she approached the couch. "I guess I'm more confused because I haven't seen you in so long."
Siesta raised an eyebrow, "I guess? I'm sorry. It's been a crazy month leading up to everything," Siesta commented.
"Yeah. A month," Lucy commented, once again unsure.
Siesta wrote her confusion off as a product of it being so late and sighed.
"Anyways, sorry to drop in out of the blue like this. Can I stay the night? I'll go back to Louise in the morning and hope she's come to her senses."
Lucy blinked. "Of course, babygirl, but," she paused for a moment, "who's this 'Louise' you keep talking about?"
It was Siesta's turn to blink. Before she gave a mirthless chuckle, casting her gaze to the faintly moonlit wooden floor beneath them.
"C'mon mom, that's not funny."
"No, really, Siesta," Lucy said as she took a seat next to her daughter, her brows furrowed in confusion. "Who is Louise?"
Siesta felt truth from her.
She didn't know who she was talking about.
Siesta's eyes widened with horror. She could not summon the words to ask the questions she did not even know to ask. She had no idea what was going on. It felt like her head was splitting.
"And what is that thing on your wrist? Is that standard at the academy now?" Lucy, leaning over to scrutinize Siesta's bracer, innocently asked.
"Stop!" Siesta desperately cried out as she shot to her feet, a haunted look upon her face as she stared blankly forward. "I don't belong here."
Siesta's absent-minded, haunted delivery provoked visible worry in Lucy.
"What's wrong, Siesta?" Siesta heard a masculine, unfamiliar voice. The tone. The inflections. The accent. They were wrong. She slowly looked up to see a man standing on the stairs. Stocky, but not burly. Shorter. And…
With both legs.
Siesta, in a sudden rush of panic, instinctively flicked her arm, activating her psi blade. She brandished it at these people claiming to be her parents while they gasped and beheld her with shock.
"Stay back! Stay back!" Siesta desperately cried out as her eyes and blade flicked wildly between the two of them.
"Siesta, honey, what's going on? You don't show up for almost two years then you come in here spouting off nonsense and waving some strange light at us! Please! Tell us what's going on!"
"Mama, papa, what's goin' on? Is Siesta here?" Siesta faltered as she heard a small, childish voice she didn't recognize. She looked up to regard a small brunette girl, who was looking at her with bleary confusion.
"Siesta? What's that?" As this little girl wandered down the stairs, Siesta's "father" held her back.
"No, honey, it's not safe, go back to bed. Your sister's just a little confused," Siesta heard her "father" say.
Siesta's panic had her unconsciously hyperventilating as she began inching towards the door, alternately leveling her blade at her "mother" and "father" as she did. Once she reached it, she fumbled to open the door, and, looking back to her "family", she said one last thing.
"I don't belong here."
With an inhuman speed that left this Lucy and whoever that man was that was with her aghast, Siesta psionically dashed from the house, her eyes hot with tears of both desperation and confusion. Soon, she was at the hill overlooking the village. She turned to give one last look. And she nearly shrieked into her hands at what she saw. Or rather what she didn't.
The Nexus. It wasn't there.
She desperately reached out to any psionic being she could think of. Zeratul. Artanis. Vorazun. Tiffa.
She knew her thoughts were being sent. But she could also feel they were disappearing into nothing. Fading into the night to be received by no one. Her head slowly turned upwards. When it did, she beheld a new horror.
The moons.
They were colored.
If ever so faintly.
One red. One blue.
She wasn't sure how much more she could take. She simply began running. She didn't know where her feet were carrying her, but she didn't know what else to do.
Saito was up early. The light of dawn was still firmly beneath the horizon. To his left, as always, was his wife, Louise, nuzzled into him. To his right, his… friend. He did not know how to classify their relationship as anything but. But she was there. Siesta. Clinging to him just the same as Louise.
She's not gonna be happy about that, Saito wryly thought as he looked over at his sleeping wife. Slowly, carefully (the result of plenty of practice), he disentangled himself from the women, pausing only a moment to kiss Louise on the forehead.
"Saito…" Louise hummed as her mouth twitched into a faintly pleased smile.
I love her, Saito thought, matching her smile before he began making his way from the room, throwing on his usual blue jacket with white trim. One of his only keepsakes from his world. He knew thanks to his wife's world door ability they could go back whenever they wanted and he could get more clothes (and he did), but there was something to be said about the classics. He slowly opened the door of their shared bedroom, taking one last look at the women who were now unconsciously nuzzling up to each other.
Cute, Saito tittered at his thought. When they're not bickering they really do get along.
He left the room, shutting the door quietly behind him as he did.
Still.
He felt something missing as he went downstairs in this manor Henrietta had gifted him. The lightness he noticed on his shoulder gave it away.
Oh, he thought solemnly. Right.
He looked down at his rune-adorned left hand, and thought of his old partner. Derflinger.
At least he's still with me in some way, Saito thought with a muted, wistful smile before he continued down the stairs and moved to go outside for fresh air.
He opened one of the double doors, and when his eyes beheld what he saw, his mouth involuntarily fell open.
Siesta didn't know why her feet had carried her here. Her muscles ached in protest of the activity that was forced upon them for hours. Her power was very nearly drained.
As she stood before the manor that looked visibly identical, if not a little more fixed up, than the one she and Louise were gifted by Henrietta, she expended a little more of her remaining power to feel for entities within.
Three.
All familiar, but not identical to any she knew.
One that gave her a strange feeling that she was looking in a mirror.
Maybe they could help. Maybe Louise was here. Siesta hoped to any entity that may be listening that she would be.
She walked up to the door, raising a hand to knock upon it. Only for the door to open. And her eyes to behold a visage that made her face fall into a frown.
The one beyond the door, Saito, blinked hard. As though this presence before him were some kind of morning fuzziness to be dispelled. When the vision held firm, Saito's jaw went slack with shock. And disbelief.
While he gawked at Siesta, she looked him over. Noticing with a brief, sharp inhale that he still had his left hand. And he was very much unscarred. She met his disbelieving gaze with her haggard, exhausted one.
"Siesta? How did you-?" Saito cut himself off as it was his turn to look her over. She was visibly exhausted, red-faced, sweating, wearing a dress and cloak that Saio had never seen before. And with a glint of some golden bracer on her left wrist.
Siesta, for her part, cast her gaze down and sighed as only one thing to ask occurred to her.
"Is Louise here?"
Saito twitched in a startle, rapidly blinking himself back to the conversation as he looked up at this New Siesta.
"Of course! Why wouldn't she be?" Saito wondered, audibly bewildered.
Siesta felt a prick of hope at his answer while she met his gaze once more.
"I need to see her." Siesta's declaration was made as she attempted to step into the manor.
"Wait," Saito said as he blocked her path, provoking a furrowed brow from her that he reciprocated. "Who are you? Really? There's no way you changed and got outside that fast."
Siesta's own jaw went slack. "I'm-?"
She was interrupted by the creaking of stairs beyond them. They both snapped their heads to the source of the sound.
Siesta's eyes became saucers upon beholding what she saw.
"Saito? What's with the shouting? Who's-?" The other Siesta blearily asked as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes, cutting herself off once they adjusted enough to behold what she was looking at.
A pindrop-worthy silence fell over the trio, with Saito whipping his head back and forth between the two Siestas in confusion.
The relatively New Siesta, feeling a rising panic from the two, took it upon herself to break the tension.
"I… think I can explain," New Siesta began, "but you must listen with an open mind-"
"What the hell is this?!" the indignant voice of Louise cried out as she beheld this scene.
Siesta snapped her head to the one who looked identical to her wife, briefly getting a flash of excitement that she stomped down.
No, it's not her, none of this is mine, Siesta solemnly thought before she continued what she was trying to say, her eyes still lingering on Louise, "-and an open heart."
Another silence fell over the group as New Siesta gently pushed past a speechless Saito and looked into the eyes of her twin.
"You have tea, yes?"
The Original Siesta of this world was roused from her stupor, causing her to blink rapidly before nodding.
"I'll make some," New Siesta offered as she excused herself to the kitchen.
Once she left, Saito and Original Siesta looked after her, their confusion now becoming tinged with worry.
Louise, however, visibly fumed.
"Saito…" Louise, her tone heavy with ominous threat, drew out her husband's name at the same time as she drew out her wand, crackling energies manifesting upon it alongside an unseen gale.
Saito looked at her with a trembling fear in anticipation of what he knew was going to happen.
"Wait! Whatever you're thinking, you've got the wrong idea!" Saito desperately stuttered in his pleading.
"One boob monster maid wasn't enough? So you got another one? You…" Louise stuttered and snarled as she leveled her wand at him. "YOU STUPID, SHAMELESS DOG!"
New Siesta, in the kitchen, heard the insult and felt an explosion from the entrance hall. She cracked a wry smile.
That settles it, she thought as she waited for the water to boil, that's not nearly as powerful as the ones from MY Louise.
The four of them adjourned to a large study room, where Original Siesta, Louise, and Saito, in that order, sat upon a couch while New Siesta, after pouring four cups of tea, sat across from them in a chair. New was regarding her surroundings, and how relatively clean they were, before turning back to the trio before her and feeling she needed to break the tension once more.
"You've really cleaned this place up," New observed, "It's good to know how this will look when we do."
The three before New looked at her with growing confusion.
"Right, sorry, I should probably explain," New shook her head, "I'm… I…" she struggled to say it aloud again. She took a moment to take a deep breath and steel her countenance with conviction before continuing.
"I don't belong here."
"Obviously." Louise scoffed.
Despite New's knowledge that this was not her Louise, hearing and seeing that palpable disdain from this Louise was enough to make her flinch.
"What she means is," Saito struggled to say, his words softened with a kind diplomacy. "We're gonna need more than just that."
"How much?" New asked as she reached for her cup of tea.
"Huh?" All three faintly asked.
New sipped at her tea, feeling the warmth of it bring a trickling calm to her before she regarded Saito once more.
"How much do you need to know?"
"Uh… I'm not sure-"
"Everything!" Louise suddenly shouted, interrupting Saito as she slammed her fist on the table before her and scowled at Siesta. The action caused some tea to splash on her hand, causing her to yelp and recoil.
"Louise!" Both Saito and New cried out in harmonized unison as they both went to check her hand, with New shooting up from her chair and dashing to her side at a speed that everyone but her regarded as inhuman. Seeing the way Saito looked at Louise, and the way she looked at him as he tenderly checked her right hand… just as she'd done the first time they met… it cut.
New felt a prickling sting of tears as she looked down at this display and slowly went to sink back into her seat, with Louise giving her a suspicious look.
And Original giving her a look of sympathy.
New felt she'd have to explain more, so opted to just… talk.
"I'm from a different world," New plainly stated, prompting a round of muted gasps.
"Like… me?" Saito asked with audible and visible wonder.
New shrugged as she quirked her lips in uncertainty, "Maybe? I don't know your story. But what I mean is… I'm from a world almost identical to this one. The details, though, they're… wrong."
Another moment of silence as the trio looked at her with a growing concern.
That was when New remembered something. She shot Original a furrowed-brow look of conviction, causing her to jump and point to herself in disbelief.
"You should go home more often," New Siesta declared.
"Yeah, me and Saito need time alone together, you know?" Louise jabbed.
New visibly winced.
"What's wrong with you?" Louise asked derisively.
"Just the idea of you two together," New cast her furrowed-brow look to the floor, "It's… instinctively gross."
Original let out an involuntary, muffled snort that caused Louise to glare at her.
"The idea of you," New returned her gaze to Original, breaking the original's mirth, "being with him is also gross."
Now the dirty looks were focused entirely on her.
"What are you saying? That's rude!" Original said, indignant and defensive.
"Yeah, he may be a stupid dog but you have no right to talk like that to him!" Louise cried out in the same tone as her maid.
New gave an exasperated sigh, reaching up and rubbing her forehead.
"Sorry, different world, different rules. I get it. Or, at least, I'm trying to. Can't you understand this is a struggle for me?"
Saito was the first to give New a sympathetic look, "Yeah. I can."
It was New's turn to give an involuntary, derisive snort as she shook her head, "Sorry, the idea of you being comforting and understanding just feels wrong to me."
"Why do you keep talking about him like that?" Louise demanded.
"Because where I come from?" New shot him a scowl, "He was… horrible. Wicked. He tortured me in my dreams. He tried to kill my sister. He constantly hurled slurs at me and Louise while he tried to kill us, he attacked my family. My home..." She paused while the trio before her gasped and gave horrified, disbelieving looks, "I know he was abused the same as Tabitha… But I still have trouble letting it go. It was a lot."
New's hands fell to her lap, wringing them much the same way her wife would.
"Did you," Original asked, curious, "also spend a lot of time with Miss Valliere?"
New paused her involuntary hand-based actions and cracked a wry smile before looking at her twin.
"I remember when I used to call her that." New briefly glanced at Louise. "It seems like a lifetime ago. I guess… in this world… your relationship never changed beyond that?"
"What do you mean? Changed how?" Original cocked her head in confusion.
New looked down at her rune-adorned left hand. And the silvery ring from within Khaydarin that she had not removed since Louise put it there in Gallia. She reached over and fiddled with it, a wistful smile on her face.
Without New seeing it, realization dawned on Original's face as she observed her twin's actions. She blushed as she stole a glance at Louise, finding it impossible to look at her for any longer than a moment.
Louise furrowed her brow in confusion as she looked at the two of them, "What's going on with you two? Why are you acting like this?"
"Miss Valliere, uh, she's implying… well…" Original found it impossible to speak it aloud.
While Saito was still profoundly lost, Louise, after what felt like an eternity, put it together as a scandalized look came upon her face and she turned a brilliant red.
"No way! That's perversion!" Louise sputtered out in disbelief.
New immediately shot her a glare as she leapt to her feet, startling everyone else.
"I'm more than done with hearing that," Siesta growled, "We've fought. So hard. Against her parents. Against Joseph. Against the church. To be accepted. To hear it called perversion from your mouth? I…" New's glare faltered, pierced by sorrow that tearfully reared its head, "I can't bear to hear it."
New went back to fiddling with the ring as she carefully sat back down.
"What's going on? I'm still lost," Saito said innocently as he blinked.
"You stupid dog!" Louise smacked him on the back of the head, causing him to hiss in pain. "Isn't it obvious that she's saying she and… her Louise… are…" She cut herself off, still finding herself unable to vocalize it.
It still took a bit, but as Saito observed New's body language, and did his best to pick up on context clues from the conversation, realization began to dawn on his face.
"No way!" Saito cried out in disbelief. He knew that those two could get along surprisingly well when they weren't fighting over him. But to get along that well? It strained his limited imagination to a near-breaking point. Suddenly, the scene of them cuddled together in bed this morning had a new context that left him flustered.
"So, then, are you…?" Original asked as she pointed to the ring on New's finger.
New gave her a warm smile and nodded.
Original once again turned a brilliant red. This time an open-mouthed grin took over her face while she squealed and giggled with delight, which caused Saito and Louise to look at her in confusion.
"Oh I bet it was so romantic! Tell me all the details!" Original excitedly requested.
New gave her a nod as she launched into her and Louise's story.
"We first formally met the morning of the Springtime Summoning Ritual," she began, her audience immediately captivated. "She was… scared. Of it going wrong. Like how everything else had for her. She was worried she was going to be expelled. That girl… so much worry in her," Siesta gave a wistful smile as she recalled this, "she came to me, in a trance, she didn't even know I was there when she sat next to me that day, rubbing a hand she'd slammed against a wall in frustration. I snapped her out of it when I asked if she was alright. I checked her hand," New paused as the lightest heat manifested in her cheeks, "it was the first time we touched."
Original looked giddy at these details.
Saito looked… excited.
Louise looked scandalized.
New shook her head to break herself of her nostalgic contemplation, "She succeeded in her summoning. Summoning-"
"Saito?" Louise expectantly cut her off
New shook her head, "No. Khaydarin." New felt her a stab of grief at remembering them. Her face betrayed it.
"Who or what is that?" Louise asked, while the other two regarded her haunted look with ones of concern.
"A-," she wanted to cut down as many details and questions as possible, so she thought carefully on her next words, "construct from another world."
"Construct?" Saito asked, confused.
Realizing she had failed, New gave an exasperated sigh, "Suffice it to say they were not you. They were not a person. But they were-," her voice hitched with grief, causing the looks of concern for her to grow, "a friend."
"Then what?" Original implored.
New tried her best to consider what was important to say. She felt it all was. Everything about them. Still. She tried her best to relay what should have been relevant.
"It was the very next day when she stole my heart," New explained, "when she defended me from Guiche."
"No way! It was-!" Saito was unable to finish his sentence as he looked at his wife in disbelief.
"Why are you looking at me like that? It wasn't me!" Louise replied, blushing and indignant.
"After that, we started growing closer. Started training together under the same teacher," New continued.
"Which teacher?" Louise asked, confused.
"One you summoned along with your familiar. He was sent to guide you for what was to come. He… got a little more than he bargained for when he found out about me," New explained, slightly sheepish.
"You? What's so special about you?" Louise asked, incredulous.
"I'll show you," New looked at her cup of tea upon a saucer, expending the smallest effort to psionically have it brought to her hand while the trio before her gasped in shock.
"What was that?!" Original and Louise stuttered in demand as New casually took a sip of tea and psionically placed the cup and saucer back on the table.
"My own gift. My own power," New said with a small, yet confident, smile.
"That's… telekinesis, yes?" Saito asked, some understanding in his tone and face.
"Basically, yes," New nodded before she psionically reached out to him. And so much more.
Saito jumped.
"Saito, what's wrong?" Louise asked, confused and concerned.
"She… spoke to me," Saito said in disbelief.
"Yes. She's speaking to all of us," Louise replied, unamused.
"I don't mean like that," Saito shook his head, "she was able to send a thought. Into my head."
The trio looked at New in disbelief.
"Telepathy," Saito said, furrowing his brow at her in understanding.
Once again, New nodded. "I had the power of psionics. It was… new. And merely burgeoning. But it was enough for our teacher to see potential in me. And bring me into Louise's world. He taught us together while various adventures and shenanigans happened both to and around us," she felt it best not to mention the Mott thing. "Then… Albion happened."
Saito and Louise gasped. They knew this was a pivotal part of their own story, and were on edge to know how it happened for her.
"Wardes betrayed her. I showed up just before he forced marriage on her," New explained, while Saito and Louise leaned in close to what was such a beat-for-beat and only slightly-askew version of their own story, "For once… I saved her. I stopped him. Permanently."
"Wait, you don't mean-?" Saito cut himself off as a look of horror appeared on his and Louise's faces.
New gave them a look of conviction as she nodded, "Something our teacher taught us felt especially relevant in that moment. 'Be wary of the consequences of mercy.' I knew if I let him live he'd come back to hurt Louise. And who knows who else? So, I made the decision that I felt was right. At the time."
Saito looked especially haunted. He did not have nearly that much conviction. Especially not then. And… she was right. Wardes did come back. At Tarbes. To try and hurt not just Louise, but all of Tristain.
"I can feel your doubt," New interrupted Saito's thoughts, causing him to blink in confusion, his horror temporarily dispelled. "I don't know where you drew your guidance from, but it doesn't make either of us right or wrong. Neither of us can see the future. We can only do what we know is right in the moment."
Saito gave her a wry smile, "More wisdom from your teacher?"
"An amalgamation of his and my own," New gave him a sincere half smile as she leaned forward to get another sip of tea.
"So," Saito drew out his word expectantly, causing New to regard him with the briefest confusion before she realized what he was trying to say.
"Did you also have something happen on Sylphid?" New observed. Saito gave a blushing, sheepish nod while Original looked enthralled and Louise once again looked scandalized.
New felt there was important context to give before confirming, however.
"Louise. She was… broken."
Upon saying that, Louise, Original, and Saito dropped their various looks to look at her with concern.
"Everything had gone wrong. The prince died in her arms. Her beloved fiance had just broken her heart. She failed in her mission," New gravely explained.
A flash of sympathetic melancholy appeared on Louise's face as she recalled her own feelings on that night. With such similar failures that still weighed on her soul.
"So… I knew what she needed. More than anything. Was reassurance. That she was loved. Genuinely. That's where my powers came in, and-," New interrupted herself, her eyes going slightly wider before she gave a small smile, "It would be better if I showed you. Please, try and relax. I promise nothing bad will happen. Close your eyes for a moment."
The trio looked at each other, hesitant. However, their curiosity got the better of them as they nodded and slowly closed their eyes.
New closed her own eyes and began letting her feelings seep beyond herself.
Each of the three could feel nothing, at first.
Then, there was a presence in their minds. It was warm. Inviting. Comforting. Like the touch of a loved one. And in each of them they felt a growing, tingling warmth.
Can you feel how I feel about her? New asked them, causing them all to twitch, but not jump, as her voice carried with it the same soothing as they felt in their minds.
When I think about her.
Fondness.
When I see her.
Butterflies.
When I'm with her.
Comfort.
When I touch her.
Ecstasy.
Open your eyes.
The trio did as they were asked. Finding their eyes awash with tears, but not remembering how they got there. Or even feeling the urge to manifest them. These feelings that lingered within them were not their own.
And yet.
It was hard to let them go.
"I… understand," Louise was the first to speak up as she gave a tearful smile to New, whose own eyes had tears within them as well.
New smiled and nodded at her.
"It's… beautiful," Original said in a trance, sniffling and hesitating to wipe away the remnants of the feelings she was gifted with experiencing. "You… really love her. To the depths of your soul. I… didn't know love could be like that."
"I say I love Louise. And I believe it, but," Saito began, also hesitant to let the feelings go, "after that? I wonder if I even know what love is." He looked to Louise, giving her an apologetic and solemn look.
There was another creeping feeling in his head that caused him to whip his gaze back to New, whose eyes were closed once more.
"You do, Saito," New reassured him before looking at a red-faced Louise, "I can feel it."
Louise's eyes became awash with new tears of joy as she threw herself upon him. After what she had just experienced, she could not in any good conscience deny that she was loved just as truly and deeply as she hoped. As she had always wished.
Original, however, looked crestfallen. New could feel why.
I'm sorry, New psionically said to her, causing her to twitch before looking at her, I just said it without thinking… I didn't know…
Original gave her a solemn smile.
A lot of what you said… was why I fell in love with Saito. He saved me. More than once. He was so good to me… New could feel Original's tears shift from the loving ones from earlier to sorrowful, grieving ones.
New suddenly stood up and went before her, taking her into a comforting embrace.
I know, New said as she stroked Original's head, it's not fair. You love him just as deeply as I love. As he loves. And… it's not fair. That this is how it turned out.
Why did you have to say that? Why did you have to spoil my fantasies? Original was becoming angry, which New could understand.
I'm sorry. You're right. I acted without thinking.
Silence passed as Original sobbed into New, while Saito and Louise looked upon them, knowing and solemn.
That was when Saito noticed something on Siesta's left hand that bore a vague similarity to what was upon his own.
"Siesta," Saito said, causing both of them to look at him, he shook his head as he locked eyes with New and raised his left hand. "Are you… also a Gandalfr?"
New blinked before giving one last reassuring stroke of hair to her twin. She then held out her own left hand to him, showing him the Khalani runes.
"They look… so different," Saito commented in awe as he absentmindedly took her hand to scrutinize the runes.
"I imagine they work the same as yours?" New asked. "You can use any weapon as though you were a master?"
Saito looked up to her and nodded.
"But, if you weren't summoned… how can you be the Gandalfr?" Louise asked, confused as she leaned over to also look at her runes.
"It was a choice," New explained, causing more confusion for the couple, "Khaydarin carried different runes upon them than these. They weren't the Gandalfr. They were a vessel for its power so the Executor-sorry-Void Mage could determine who best to give it to. As a test of their leadership."
"What?" Louise was even more confused.
"What role do you serve as Void Mage?" New asked.
"I… I don't know. I can just do very powerful spells that take a long time to cast?"
"In my world it's much the same. Only you are also a leader. A commander. An Executor," New explained. "And I am not just your Gandalfr. That is not what these runes truly say."
"Then, what do they say?" Saito asked.
"Akhundelar. It means 'tip of the spear'," New answered.
"What are these words you say?" Louise asked. "Khaydarin, Executor, Akhundelar, I don't understand."
New gave a small, single breath of a laugh before taking her hand from Saito, "Shortest version is it's an ancient language from beyond the stars. Unless you want to be here for days while I explain the nuances of that, please accept that explanation."
This did seem to quell further inquiries along that line of questioning, unfortunately, it did not answer old ones.
"None of this explains why you're here, though," Louise noted.
"You're right, I still haven't explained that," New took her seat, and another sip of tea, before continuing, "I don't know the whole history of this world. But… have you two… faced calamity?"
The trio seemed to implicitly understand what she meant as they nodded solemnly.
"Are you also… Lífþrasir?" Louise asked.
"What?" New asked, genuinely confused.
"Heart of God," Saito assisted.
"I don't understand."
"Are you also Tiffa's familiar?" Louise asked, with growing irritation.
"No, that's Agnes."
"Huh?!" Saito and Louise exclaimed in harmonized disbelief.
"Look, if we get sidetracked by little askew details about where I come from we're never getting anywhere," New sighed in exasperation. "Look, my world. My reality. Is facing calamity."
"So why aren't you there?" Original asked.
"Because she sent me away!" New cried out, new tears of frustration in her eyes.
Another silence hung over the room as looks of realization dawned on the trio.
"She's-"
"Just like-"
"-me," Louise finished Saito and Original's thought.
Without thinking Louise stood up and walked over to her maid's twin whose face was contorted in helpless, tear-laden frustration. Again without thinking, she took New into a warm embrace, stroking her hair as she did.
"I understand. She was worried. Scared to death about losing you. Just like I was about Saito," Louise reassured her.
New instinctively clung to her as though she were her wife, feeling the emptiness that was left behind by her unfulfilled desire. She sobbed into this Louise, wishing, desperately, that it was hers.
"I don't understand," New said, her voice muffled by being buried into Louise, "She knows. We were taught. We don't stand alone. We're meant to stand alone together."
"I know," Louise said with understanding as she began soothingly rubbing New's back.
No matter how similar her touch felt to her own wife's… it could not feel anything but hollow to New, who just wanted to be with her again.
"She can't face this alone…" New said.
"I believe you," Louise said as she pulled back to meet New's teary gaze, placing a hand on her cheek. "Is that why you're here? To find a way back?"
"I-," New cut herself off, her eyes darting around as though she were physically searching for her answer, "I didn't know where I was running. My feet just… carried me here."
"They were right," Louise smiled down at her, "I can send you back. To her."
New's eyes widened with dawning hope.
"From what I've heard… she's just like me," Louise said. "She needs you. Just like I needed Saito. No matter how hard I tried to push him away, convinced it was the best thing for him, I was so happy to see him again." Louise embraced New once more, "I know she'll be happy to see you, too."
New was moved beyond words. Without them, she opted to cling ever tighter to the woman who so resembled her wife and cry tears of relief.
Louise, New thought, I'm coming home.
After waiting for everyone to get dressed, New and the trio stepped outside, just beyond the front door, and Louise began chanting the spell for world door. It sounded so different to her. Not being in Khalani.
Another strange thing was her twin. Dressed in the exact same maid outfit she wore at the academy, but with a yellow ribbon and jewel on the upper chest.
Her observation was interrupted by Saito approaching her.
"Hey," he began, looking sheepish and solemn.
"What is it?" New asked.
"Did you… also have a sword? Called-?"
"Derflinger?" New asked, her heart immediately clutched by grief as she spoke his name aloud. Her face fell as she nodded, causing Saito to give her a look of sympathy as he reached up, without thinking, and gently embraced her. New, at that moment, did not care who was offering her comfort as she silently cried into Saito.
"I-It was so sudden… We just had a fight… then… before we could work things out he was-," New was interrupted by a sharp sob.
Saito gently rubbed her back as he, too, felt a sting of sympathetic tears as he remembered what it was like. When he lost Derfligner…
"I know… I… lost him, too," Saito confirmed, causing New to draw in a sharp breath in shock at their shared pain. "But," Saito pulled back, keeping his hands on New's shoulders, giving her a small, teary smile, "I learned… he can live on. In the Gandalfr runes," Saito raised his left hand to show her his runes. "So… maybe…" Saito said with hopeful trepidation.
New sniffed as she wiped her eyes, looking down at her own runes.
Maybe… New thought with hope. She raised her gaze and gave a sincere smile to Saito as she made an equally sincere admittance to herself. I think I can see why a version of myself might fall for him.
She and Saito exchanged nods before turning her attention back to her twin, looking her over with a wistful smile.
"Something wrong?" Original asked.
New shook her head, "Just… feels nostalgic. Looking at you like this."
Original gave a small laugh, "I understand."
New suddenly took her into a warm embrace, "I hope… you're happy. And safe."
Original, after taking a moment to recover from this surprise, smiled and returned the embrace, "I am."
At that, Louise's chanting finished, and the portal opened to reveal a familiar sight to New.
Tarbes.
As she remembered it.
Louise, Original, and Saito made sounds of awe and gawked as they beheld the golden pyramid in the distance with a crystal floating above it. And soon became horrified by the Hel-ish light of the sky that blanketed everything in deep orange.
"Well, this is me," New announced as she stepped forward, turning to give them all one last, smiling look.
"Will we ever see you again?" Original asked, audibly pleading.
New gave her a warm, reassuring smile and nod, which Original returned.
"Then… until next time," New Siesta said as she stepped through the portal.
She turned and gave everyone one last look, which reminded her of something.
"Louise," New said, causing Louise to raise her eyebrows. Just tell him. I promise you'll both feel better when you do. Siesta spoke to Louise psionically, causing her to gasp at the sudden infiltration upon her mind.
At that, the portal shut, cutting her off from everyone. She turned her attention to the village before her, briefly considering seeing her family before shaking her head.
No, now's not the time, Siesta thought to herself as she began to walk to the Nexus. You won't get rid of me that easily, Louise.
NOTE
The reason I did any more than part 1 was because I wanted to do this chapter. This concept. It took a few different forms over time, but, ultimately this was among the first complete chapters I wrote for Rondo of Rebellion before Heart of the Void Mage was even done. I've been looking forward to this upload for so long. The idea of a fanon character getting to meet and talk to their canon counterparts always excited me, and FoZ is uniquely positioned to allow that to happen.
So I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it.
There is still much more to come, of course, on the girls' path to achieve their coming happy ending not just for them, but for everyone. But they will achieve it. Have faith.
