Rias opened her eyes and found herself staring at a familiar yet unfamiliar ceiling. She slowly sat up from the bed she was in and held her head with one hand, trying to remember what had happened. "How did I end up here? Wasn't I fighting alongside everyone against Trihexa? Wait, Trihexa! What happened to–?!" She quickly jumped out of bed and exited the room. In the next room she found herself in a familiar place. It was her old apartment that she lived in before she moved in with Issei. All her stuff was exactly how it was before she moved out as well. She looked around the apartment with confusion, wondering how she ended up here of all places. Before she could get her bearings, a communication magic circle appeared near her.

"Rias? Can you hear me?"

"Akeno? Where are you?! What happened?!" she asked, her tone a mix of both panic and relief.

"I'm at my family's shrine. I woke up here suddenly. As for what happened, I don't know. Weren't we fighting Trihexa a moment ago?" said Akeno

"Good, so I wasn't dreaming it. See if you can get in contact with the others and we'll all meet in the clubroom to try and figure out what's going on."

"As you wish," answered Akeno and she hung up the call. Rias got herself ready and made a magic circle to teleport to the clubroom.

Later in the clubroom the ORC had gathered, or rather half of them had. The only ones who gathered were Rias, Akeno, Koneko, Kiba and Gasper. The first four were confused why they couldn't get in touch with the others and the only one they could was Gasper, who was sealed in his room again. Once they undid the seal, they all gathered back in the clubroom. "Any luck contacting Issei, Asia, Xenovia, or Rossweisse?" asked Rias.

Akeno shook her head. "No good. I couldn't connect to any of them. Should we go check the house?"

"It would be our best bet, but somethings off."

Kiba, knowing what Rias was getting at, asked the question on everyone's mind. "Why were we sent back to the places we lived before we met Issei-kun?"

The group went quiet, thinking about what the answer could be. Gasper hesitantly spoke up. "M-maybe we were sent back in time?"

Everyone's eyes widened in realization. What Gasper said made sense. "Back to before we met Issei…" said Akeno, a bit disheartened.

Rias decided to check and summoned her bat familiar. She sent it out the window to Issei's house. She brought up a magical display that showed what the bat was seeing. Eventually the bat made it to its destination, and they all saw Issei's old house before it was remodeled, confirming Gasper's guess. "It's true," said Rias, still partially not believing it. "But how did this happen?"

They all went quiet again, trying to remember what happened. Suddenly Koneko seemed to remember. "Weren't we about to lose against Trihexa?" she asked.

Koneko's question seemed to jog everyone's memory. They were all fighting against Trihexa, stalling for time as Issei and Asia rescued Issei's parents from Rizevim Livan Lucifer. They eventually succeeded and joined them in battle but even when they were all together, they were no match for Trihexa. Issei had also unlocked a new power in the Boosted Gear, but it was unstable and eventually his body began to react poorly. Then the last thing they all saw was Trihexa's attack and Issei calling out to them from the side. The light of the attack enveloping them before they all woke up in their old homes. "Did Trihexa's attack do this?" asked Kiba.

"Possibly. But why would it send us back in time?" asked Rias.

"M-maybe it wasn't intentional?" suggested Gasper.

"Do the others remember?" asked Akeno.

They all went quiet, hoping that the others did remember. But there was another issue they had to deal with. "What do we do now? We know what's going to happen now. Shouldn't we prevent it?" asked Koneko.

Her question made them all realize what kind of opportunity they all had now. If they were in the past, then that means they had all the information they needed about what was to come to try and stop it. There was something that came to the girls' minds immediately though. "Issei!" they all almost shouted in unison.

"We have to stop him from going on that date with Raynare!" said Akeno almost frantically.

"We can save him. We can prevent him from ever getting the trauma that prevented him from going out with us for so long," said Koneko with hope in her voice.

"We can stop ourselves from making that mistake we did when we tried to make him confess to Rias before," said Kiba.

That comment slightly brought down their mood, remembering how they had messed up and almost lost Issei because they were being selfish. Gasper tried to change the subject. "But, wouldn't Issei-senpai know to avoid Raynare if he came back with us?"

"I'm not sure. Issei wasn't close to us when the attack hit us. If Trihexa's attack is what caused this then I don't think Issei came back with us," said Rias, a bit saddened.

"If Issei-kun was left behind, doesn't that mean he thinks we died…?" asked Kiba.

The question made them freeze. They remember how terribly Issei reacted when he thought he lost Asia. How would he react when he lost everyone? They didn't want to imagine it. They couldn't bear to think what he must be feeling. Was he rampaging again? Did he completely lose hope? They all felt their chests tighten at these thoughts. "We have to prevent that future at all costs!" said Rias, determination in her voice. The others nodded resolutely as well. Rias checked the date and saw that it was the day before Issei was asked out by Raynare.

"What's the plan, Rias?" asked Akeno.

"I'm going to ask out Issei tomorrow," she said seriously.

Her statement momentarily stunned the group before Akeno and Koneko protested. "No fair, Rias! You shouldn't hog him all to yourself!" said Akeno.

"Mhm! We won't let you hog Issei-senpai!" said Koneko.

Rias showed a small smile. "Don't worry girls. This is just the point of entry. Remember, he still wants a harem, I'm just opening the door for him, and for you. Remember, I'm the head wife, so it's only natural that I get first dibbs. But all that aside, we have to remember that this Issei hasn't been through everything we've been through. Even if he's attracted to us, we don't have that bond anymore, but we can just make it again."

The girls nodded but Kiba wanted to point something out. "But it won't be the same right? I mean, Issei-kun had helped us through all of our personal issues, so now we don't have them anymore, but this Issei hasn't helped us and there isn't anything to really help with." Kiba made a slightly sour face. "I'll have to face my past again once we have to deal with Kokabiel but for the rest of you…"

The others went into thought at Kiba's words. It was true, a lot of their problems were emotional traumas that Issei helped them heal from. But now that they have healed the only thing that remained were the people involved in said trauma, those being Akeno's father and Koneko's sister. There were also the others as well. What about their situations? Rias gave a sigh and shook her head. "We'll just have to cross that bridge when we get there. It's not a simple problem that can be solved right now. For now, we need to focus on regrouping."

As if on cue a new communication magic circle had appeared in front of her. "Hello? Rias, can you hear me?"

"Rossweisse?!" said Rias, pleasantly surprised.

"Good, you're here too. I'm currently contacting you from the Norse pantheon."

"Seems you retained your memories as well. We were just talking about how to move forward and if we could get into contact with you and the others."

"Who's with you?"

"It's only Akeno, Kiba, Koneko, Gasper, and myself. We've been sent back to the day before I reincarnated Issei as my pawn."

"Before Issei was your servant…" repeated Rossweisse in thought.

"What's your situation? Can you get here?"

"I can with your permission. I managed to explain the situation to the Allfather and he has given me leave to rejoin you."

"Odin accepted your explanation?!" asked Rias, surprised.

"His abilities allowed him to see that something was different about me, so I told him in secret some things about future events and he said it was interesting. Seeing as how his future self left me behind to help strengthen our alliance there should be no problem sending me to you early."

"Good, then that will make things a bit easier for us. Asia should be heading to Japan within the next week so we can meet up with her then. Xenovia and Irina should still be with the church at this stage but knowing Xenovia she might recklessly come here to rejoin us regardless of the situation. Let's hope Irina keeps her in check."

"Right," chuckled Rossweisse.

"So, when should we expect you to arrive?"

"I should be able to go there in a few days. I have some responsibilities I need to hand over before Odin can let me go."

"Good. Hopefully by that time we'll have Issei with us as well."

"Does he have his memory too?"

"We don't think so. He didn't get caught in the attack like we did. He might have been the only one left behind," Rias said sadly.

"... Issei-kun…" Rossweisse's voice also sounded sad.

"Don't worry. We can rebuild our relationship with him now. Especially now that we know what to avoid and how to treat him. We'll make sure he doesn't suffer this time."

"While I agree with you in my heart Rias, that might be a bad thing." Rias and the others gave incredulous looks to the magic circle. "Issei-kun became as strong as he did because of the trials that he went through. While I understand the desire to want to try and change things for the better, without those struggles he could become weaker for the conflicts that are unavoidable. If we are going to change things, we have to be smart about what we change. Us trying to prevent disaster could end up leading to something even worse happening down the line."

They all went into contemplative thought. They knew they did have to change things in order to prevent Trihexa from defeating them this time around, but as Rossweisse pointed out, simply stopping certain events from happening doesn't guarantee they will be prevented. But they knew they couldn't just leave things alone with lives on the line. "I see your point Rossweisse, but we can't just do nothing either."

"I know, Rias. We'll figure it out when we get to it."

"Alright. See you in a few days." With that the call disconnected. Rias sat quietly, going over everything that was talked about today before shaking her head. "Let's get ready for tomorrow everyone. It's going to be a long day." The group nodded and left for their respective homes.

Merry Christmas everyone! Here is my early Christmas present to you all, a new story! This one is my own time travel story. I've seen plenty of what if Issei was sent back in time stories as well as others going with him, but I wondered how the story would change if everyone else knew what was going on and Issei didn't. I also wanted this to be a bit of a character analysis on Issei himself and what kind of person he is when he's not dealing with everyone else's problems. I'm interested in what all of you think of this concept. I look forward to the comments as always. : )