Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Annie was having the time of her life. Sure, it started out with three kids barging into her home demanding her to stop so much of her energy but after they left, she could not have been happier. It was not until the three kids, two girls and one boy, one of the girls having blue, left her house that she started examining the blood samples that she got from them. Using both her computer and her magical use of manipulating technology that she was able to see that there was more to them then she would have ever thought possible.

She is still looking for any irregularities in the boy, currently unresponsive, Annie will need to run further tests on his DNA. After that she went on to the blood sample of one of the girls. As she was searching for anything out of the ordinary, she discovered that this blood sample contained DNA of a witch with two normal human parents. Knowing that only witches can use magic was basic knowledge and you usually end up with more witches if you two were to get together but having to normal human parents and still having the DNA of a witch is truly a rare find.

And that test was for the normal looking girl, it was the blood sample from the blue haired that has gotten her excited. Annie thinks that the name of this girl was…Gilda. It did not matter what her name was, the only thing that was important was what she found. If her findings were, and they usually are, then this girl that appears human is not actually a human at all, but rather a magic construct. When you think about magic constructs you usually think that they will appear as plants or rocks or anything like that, but never human.

If this girl really was a magic construct, then she may just be the only of her kind that appears as a human. Annie was certain of this, but she needed to know more, which is why she needs to speak to the Committee of Three immediately. The Coven should have all the materials she needs to conduct her research and then some, she just hopes that they will listen to her this time.

“ZIRCON.” Annie shouted hoping to get her robot companions attention.

Luckily, he was still running on a full battery right now and showed up in record time. Annie, however, did not count on the floating metal ball holding a bag of popcorn on his head. “Oh good, are we getting back to watching Kamen Rider?”

Annie pinched the bridge of her nose at that question. “No Zircon, I need to make a quick call to the Committee of Three, it is important. Also, you are still being punished for watching that without me so if anything, we will be watching Ultraman.”

“But we are so close to the next series.” Zircon said as if he was begging.

“Correction, you are closer, I need to catch up since you kept watching without.” Annie retorted. Zircon was about to say something about when Annie raised her hand to stop him from talking. “But like I said right now is not the time this is important.”

Shaking the popcorn off his head Zircon responded, “You do know that they are more likely to not care about what you have to say, right?”

Waving her hand Annie said, “Yeah, yeah got all of the notices from them and everything, but they are going to need to hear what I have to say this time.”

“Didn’t you say that before when you claimed to have found a new type of meditation stone and they said that someone in the Coven already discovered it before you?”

“That was my discovery, and they know that very well.” Zircon was about to add something with Annie stopped him again. “This time I am more than certain no one discovered what I have so just hurry and make the call.”

“One moment.” Zircon said getting into position.

Zircon’s center eye started glowing blue as he was setting up a holographic video feed. Annie heard a ringing noise meaning that the call is being made right now and she made a quick move to brush her hair to make herself look more presentable. After a few seconds her call finally came threw and presented in hologram form were the Coven’s very own Committee of Three, the most powerful of all witches.

The first one on the right had short hair that was red on her left side and white on her right side, her name was Emily. The second one on the left had long flowing hair that was red on her right side and white on her left side while also had what looked like black make-up running down her left eye, though was sure that, that was something else entirely, her name was Caroline. The third one in the middle, who Annie was fonder of, was shorter than the other two, had brown hair with red steaks on both sides and had what looked like a blue bird on her left side, Annie not 100% sure if that is a real bird or just a clip on, but she did not want to ask, her name was Cassandra.

Looking upon the one that was calling them Caroline was the first to speak up. “Oh, it is you again.” Emily looked satisfied with her response to the call, but Cassandra did not really like it. Out of the three she seemed to be the only one that enjoys her calls, but she hardly ever shows it.

Annie bowed before them and said, “Dai iinkai go aisatsu.” The Committee looked confused at what she just said for they knew very well that, that was not the language of the withes. “I said ‘Greetings oh grand committee’ in Japanese. I am calling you to discuss an issue of utmost importance.”

Emily pinched the bridge of her nose. “Not this again.”

“Before you hang up on me just please listen.” Annie said to them. The Committee did not say anything, but they were not currently trying to hang up the call allowing Annie to continue. “I have discovered something that could change the very foundation of magic all together. Well not sure about it being all together but why get into that.”

Cassandra seemed a little intrigued by this even though the other two were starting to get annoyed. “And what would this discovery be exactly?” Cassandra asked.

“I’m glad you asked so get ready for this.” Annie paused hoping to create a dramatic effect. “I found a new type of magic construct.” She looked around at the three witches to find a look of stunned silence but only saw regular silence. “How is this new you may be wondering well it turns out that this magic construct is in the form of a human. Everything about this construct appears human, skin, hair, blood, everything. I do not know who made it, but this construct is simply one of a kind.”

The Committee started looking towards one another likely sharing a conversation between each other. Annie truly wished that she could cast a spell to read their minds, but she sadly lacks that type of spell. Finally, after about a minute, Caroline spoke up.

“This had better be joke.”

Annie really did not like that response at all. “WHAT? No this is not a joke I swear I really did discover something brand new.”

Emily laughed mockingly at that. “Like the time you ‘discovered’ a new meditation stone.” Emily said using air quotes on the word discovered. “Only to find out that someone already beat you to it.”

“That was never proven.” Annie said defending herself.

Caroline decided to add more to this conversation. “Or the time ‘thought’ you could use your technomancy to open portal to another universe.” Caroline said putting air quotes on the word thought. “Only to open a portal to the ocean and flooded the entire archives.”

“For all you know that could have been a universe where the entire planet is nothing but water.” Annie said still trying to defend herself.

Cassandra spoke up next. “There was also the time you were making one of your robots using crystals we gave you to power it up only for it to level an entire mountain region.” Cassandra did not use any air quotes for her words but still thought that Annie understood.

“That…was a funny story.” Annie is now being convinced she cannot defend herself anymore.

“Every time you claim to discover something it always ends up a disaster.” Emily said.

“Not all the time.” Annie said trying to defend herself once again. Emily was about to say something about what Annie said but spoke up again. “I mean I did not do anything bad to the witch you said really discovered that new meditation stone.”

“You set her entire house on fire.” Emily said getting agitated.

“No, I didn’t, that was just incredibly unfortunate timing.” Both Caroline and Emily rolled their eyes at what she said, and Cassandra had a look on her face that told Annie to please stop talking before you make things worse. “Besides, I rebuilt her home, it’s as good as new.”

“Yeah,” Caroline said. “And you filled them with hidden surveillance cameras.”

“You never know when you might make a discovery that is worth documenting. Honestly, she should be thanking me for not doing that sooner.”

Caroline and Emily both realized that this conversation was getting them nowhere and they had to quickly put a stop to it. Emily was the first to speak up. “Look just tell us what it is that you want from us so we can discuss it.”

“I just need go to the High Tower to back up my research, I will be needing use of the Alchemy Lab as well as few other essentials. Once that is done, I will bring the magic construct in to do a final analysis and then we should be good to go.” The three witches looked shocked at Annie’s bluntness to bring in someone to the High Tower. “So, what do you say, shall we get this started.”

The three witches turned their back on Annie to have a conversation that she could not hear. Annie wished that they would not do that she believed that if they just give her another chance than they will not be disappointed. Finally, after all the time she has been in the Coven she will finally get some recognition, sure she has only been in the Coven for about a year and most witches would have to wait many years to get recognized but with all her research she was more than certain that all the witches will finally praise her. After a few minutes of waiting for their answer the three witches finally turned back toward Annie. Caroline and Emily motioned for Cassandra to be the one to talk to her. Annie always liked Cassandra, she was relatively the nicest one in the group, she will surely have her back.

“I’m really sorry Annie, but the answer is no.”

Just like that all hope that Annie had in her eyes just vanished right then and there. “What?” Annie desperately asked.

“Hold on Annie just listen; it does not have to do with your past actions.” Cassandra said trying her best to reassure her.

“Yes, it is!” Caroline and Emily said in unison.

“It mostly is.” Cassandra said looking at Caroline and Emily telling them silently to keep quiet and let her talk. “But there is also the fact that you are willing to let someone who may be a non-witch into the tower.”

“Well, I can’t just grab all the things I need from the tower and do my research outside it, can’t I?” Annie asked but then had a thought. “Wait, can I do that?”

“No, you can’t, all our equipment remains in the tower, no exceptions.” Cassandra answered. “We can’t just let you bring someone into the tower like that, doing that could expose us.”

“I understand that, but-”

“But nothing,” Caroline stepped in cutting Cassandra off. “The main reason the Coven was formed was for it to be a safe place for all witches in Trollberg. More people around the world become more afraid of us every day to the point of hunting us down. This is the only safe place for us, and we will not risk that safety just for you to do some research on something that may have been nonsense.”

“But it’s not nonsense I promise you.” Annie started feeling tears fall from eyes. “Just give me a chance.”

“NO!” Caroline shouted making Annie gasp and take a step back. “Every single action you take brings us one step closer to being exposed to the world and that will not be tolerated, you will not be using our labs, in fact you are forbidden from being anywhere near them.” Annie was about to say something with Caroline cut her off. “End of discussion.”

“Also,” Emily decided to step in. “If you are caught anywhere near the labs or have anyone try to get in there for you, we will also banish you from the tower as well as the Coven.” Annie’s sure she just felt her heart stop right there.

Cassandra thought to intervene. “Come on now we don’t need to resort to such actions like that.”

Caroline would not have any of that. “Cassandra,” Cassandra looked at Caroline as she spoke. “The safety of the Coven comes first always. Don’t let your emotional attachments get the better of you, or have you forgotten that?”

“No, I haven’t.” Cassandra answered.

“Then act like you remember.” Emily said to Cassandra. “The last thing we need is another Victoria Van Gale, especially since this is her granddaughter.”

“Annie is nothing like Victoria.” Cassandra said.

“She’s closer to being like her, the next thing she will do is preform black magic.” Emily said. “There is a reason Victoria was banished from the Coven,” Emily pointed her finger at Annie. “And if you are not careful with your actions than the same thing will happen to you. Is that clear?”

Annie just slumped her shoulders in defeat, she now knows that there is nothing she could do to convince them. “Yeah, it’s clear.” Annie answered with zero emotion in her voice.

“Good then,” Emily said retracting her finger. “This conversation is over.” She turned to the other two witches. “Now come one let’s try and contact Kaisa again.” The three witches vanished from sight as the holographic call ended there.

After the holographic call ended Zircon blinked and hovered toward Annie. “Tough break Annie, sorry it ended like that.” Annie walked over to her computer ignoring what Zircon said. “Annie, are you alright?”

Annie just stared at her computer motionlessly. That went on for a few seconds when she made her hands into fists, tears fell out of her eyes and she slammed her fists into her keyboard, screaming while doing so. “AAAAAAGH!!! IT’S NOT FAIR!” Annie kept slamming her fists into her keyboard breaking it in the process. “WHY DO THEY KEEP DOING THIS TO ME?!” She kept slamming the keyboard even though it was completely broken, but after a few more hits she fell onto her knees and cried.

Zircon carefully hovered toward his companion and tried his best to reassure her. “Oh, come on now Annie, you don’t need them. You can do great work without them.”

Annie sniffed and looked at Zircon. “It’s not just that.” Annie said with tears still falling. “I just want them to not look down on me all the time.”

“They’re just a bunch of strict losers, they look down on everyone. Besides Cassandra does not do that, if anyone appreciates you it’s her.”

“But it is not just them, they’re just a few of the people who do. First it was friends from school, then my parents, and now them. Isn’t there anyone who likes me?”

“I like you.”

“I built you, you’re supposed to like me.”

“True, true, but what about your grandmother?” Zircon asked hoping this will get her out of her slump. “She hasn’t thrown you out yet, I’m sure she likes you.”

“Yeah but,” Annie then stopped herself when she just realized something. “Wait, my grandmother.”

“Exactly,” Zircon said praising himself for lifting her spirits. After a few seconds he then said something else. “My point isn’t what made you think about her wasn’t it?”

“No, I’m sure you’re right but I just remembered, she might have all the things I need for my research.” Annie laughed victoriously. “My quest for research isn’t over yet.” Annie got up and moved to another part of her home to grab some things she needed. She grabbed bag full of research equipment, a face mask that covers her entire head from top to bottom, and a pair of sunglasses. “It’s times like this I curse the sun. Come on Zircon we’re heading out.”

“Are we really going to go see Victoria?” Zircon asked already knowing the answer.

“Yep, that’s the plan.” Annie opened her front and stepped outside. She made a quick check that she was not exposed to the sun light in anyway, for if any sun rays hit her, she will burn. It is not she will literally catch fire; she just really hates the sun. “But first we need to find that blue haired girl.”

Chapter Text

It was a day like any other for Peter Ostenfeld, the landlord of the apartment building that Hilda and Johanna lived in, after he got up and had breakfast, he checked outside for any packages that he had ordered. Opening the main door of the building he looked down and saw, to his delight, there was a package for him, the items in said package was a whole load of copies of this one magazine he once read fifty years ago. No one asked why he would want so many of them and if anyone did ask, he certainly was not going to tell anyone.

Reaching down to get his delivery he picked the package up, but when he looked back up, he saw something rather peculiar. Right in front of him was a floating metal ball with a glowing blue eye. His first instinct was to freak out but, with his knowledge of weird this going on, especially with all the magazines he collects, he then figured not to be completely alarmed by this. Still though, even for him, seeing something like this was strange.

“Excuse me sir.” The metal ball said making Peter know that it can talk. “This is going to sound very weird, this coming from a robot, but have you seen a little girl with blue hair?”

Peter took notice of what the thing said it was now knowing that it was a robot, he never saw anything like this. The closest thing he saw that was anything like this was a design of sorts for a machine that can ring all the bells in the city. He then remembered that the robot asked him a question. “Um…she’s one of my tenants.”

“Really,” The robot looked surprised. “Well, that was lucky, you’re literally the first person I asked.” The robot then to its right side. “HEY ANNIE, THE GIRL IS THIS WAY.” The robot shouted making Peter drop the package and cover his ears. “NO, I SAID THIS WAY.”

“I HEARD YOU THE FIRST TIME.” Peter looked to where the robot shouted at and saw some mysterious person all covered up and wearing sunglasses.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING OVER THERE THEN?”

“I THOUGHT I SAW AN ULTRAMAN FIGURINE.”

The robot waited a few seconds to say anything and finally shouted, “WELL DID YOU?”

“NO, IT’S JUST A REGULAR MODEL ROBOT.”

“Ugh model robots. They always give us regular robots a bad name.” The robot looked back at Peter and saw what he had dropped. “What’s with all these old magazines?”

“That there is none of your concern.” Peter said getting defensive.

“Rude, I was just making polite conversation.”

Peter was about to say something about that when the mystery person came up to them, short of breath. “I hate running.” The mystery person said through short breathes. She took a deep breath and asked Peter, “You know where the blue haired girl is?”

Peter pointed at the top of the stairs. “She’s right up those stairs.”

“Thanks.” The mystery person said while regaining her breath. “Come on Zircon, scientific breakthrough awaits.” She walked past Peter and went for the stairs.

“Right behind you Annie.” Zircon said following Annie. Peter looked at the two as they moved up the stairs now knowing the one covered up is named Annie and the robot is named Zircon. He, however, did not find this concerning and went back inside his office with the old magazines in tow.

Up the stairs in a certain apartment housed the blue haired girl, Hilda and her mother Johanna, along with their pet deerfox Twig and companion Alfur. Ever since yesterday when Alfur broke some profoundly serious news to the mother and daughter neither one of them slept well, the new information hovering over their heads every minute.

The information that Hilda was not a human, but a magic construct in the form of a human. A part of them did feel excitement at this, ever since they knew each other Hilda thought that Johanna had adopted her, and Johanna thought that Hilda was abandoned by someone in the woods. With this information both Hilda and Johanna know that Hilda is Johanna’s biologic daughter. Both had hoped that this would be the only thing they would take from this, but sadly that was not the case.

The one thing that had plagued their minds all night was the fact that Hilda was not a human after all, she never was, she only looked like one. In their defense anyone can look at Hilda and assume that she was a human, even the most knowledgeable witch could have mistaken Hilda for a human. It was only after Alfur discovered this, after hearing Johanna’s story about her and her friend, a part of him wanted to keep this to himself, but he thought that it was not right to do so. If this information was about Hilda than Hilda and Johanna had a right to know.

Alfur kept thinking of that over and over as he walked into the living room and climbed up the dining table to see Johanna and Hilda. To his luck both were there but one glance and anyone could have mistaken them for zombies. Neither Johanna nor Hilda had slept well, in fact it looked like the two had not slept at all. Johanna was trying her best to stay awake with a cup of coffee, but that was only doing so little. Hilda, however, looked much worse than her mother, it was understandable, spending your entire life thinking you are a human only to find out later that you are not could do that to you.

Hilda had dark bags under her eyes and her eyes were bloodshot red. Alfur thought she may have been crying, but saw no dry tears under her eyes, so he assumed that Hilda had literally stayed up all night. There was a slice of pie on her side of the table, but Hilda was not reaching for it, Alfur looked at Johanna’s side to see another slice being ignored. Johanna did not have any energy to make breakfast and only brought out some left-over pie, but neither had the energy to take even a single bite.

Alfur looked at Johanna and Hilda back and forth and one thought came to his mind. “Well, this is awkward.” Not wanting to listen to nothing but silence for much longer Alfur spoke up. “I’m really sorry about all this, I just thought that you two should know.” Alfur looked up to see if they will speak, but they did not. “Can one of you please say something?”

That got Hilda and Johanna to look at Alfur for a few seconds, only to look at each other afterwards. Both wanted to say something but could not think of what to say and the sight of each other only made the silence more eerie. Johanna wanted to comfort Hilda and say that no matter what she was Hilda will always be her daughter. Hilda wanted to comfort her mother and say that she is delighted to know that she is her mother and that she was not adopted after all.

Both wanted to say those things, but they were scared to. They were afraid that even the smallest sentence could make them feel uncomfortable, make them angry, or resent the other. Neither wanted that to happen so both kept up the silence. The silence, however, was broken at the sound of someone knocking on the door, making Hilda, Johanna, and Alfur turn toward the door.

“Hello, is anyone there?” Hilda could almost recognize the voice, but she could not put her finger on who that voice belonged to. “Are you going to open the door?” The voiced asked as the knocking resumed.

Johanna got up from her chair and moved toward the door. Her movements were slow due to the lack of sleep she got and the only energy she had was from that cup of coffee. She got to the door and opened it only to come face to face with a robot with a glowing blue eye. Johanna screamed at what she saw making the robot scream right back.

Johanna stumbled backwards and the robot floated backwards away from the door. Taking the opportunity Johanna rushed back to the door and closed it, locking it in the process. Alfur looked toward the door and back at Johanna. “Um Miss Johanna, who was that?” Aflur asked.

Johanna blinked a couple of times and said, “I…don’t know.”

After she said that the robot knocked on the door again. “Hello, sorry for the scare there. However, can you open the door again, I feel weird just talking to the door.” Johanna was hesitant in opening the door after a few seconds she unlocked it and slowly opened the door. “Ah thank you.”

“No…problem.” Johanna said confused about there being a robot at her door.

“This may sound weird but keep an open mind this is robot saying this stuff after all, which makes it kind of funny if you think about it, which no, no one thinks about that. Still though think about it, a robot hovering right in front of you saying that what I have to say sounds weird.”

“Is this what you wanted to say?” Johanna asked hoping that the robot would get to the point.

“Oh, right sorry lost track there. I am hoping you have seen a blue haired girl recently and know where she might have gone.”

At the words ‘blue haired girl’ Johanna looked shocked and started thinking that she should lie about where Hilda was. However, at the same mention of a blue haired girl, Hilda looked at the door and finally saw the one talking to Johanna. “You!” Hilda called at the sight of the robot.

The robot looked and saw Hilda sitting there making him overjoyed. “Ah there you are, we have been looking for you for a while.” Johanna and Alfur looked shocked when the robot said ‘we’ Hilda on the other hand knew what he was talking about since she met both the robot and his creator recently. “She’s right over here.” The robot called over to a person on his right.

Johanna looked and saw someone climbing the stairs. The person seemed short of breath. “Although, I think climbing stairs is worse than running.”

“Oh, come on it couldn’t have been that long a climb.” The robot said.

“I live in a single-story house with no basement. What did you expect?” The mystery person said to the robot. “Also, you have no room to talk since you hover around everywhere.”

“Just saying.”

Johanna saw that the mystery person was covered from head to toe with clothing, full face covering, and sunglasses. She was a bit skeptical about talking to this person when she took off her face covering and removed her sunglasses to show her pale face, blue eyes, and white hair. She stood tall and said, “Good morning ma’am, my name is Annie, and this is my companion Zircon.”

“Hello” Zircon said.

“We were hoping that you might have some…information concerning a blue haired girl.” Before Johanna could say anything about that Annie looked inside Johanna’s home and saw the blue haired girl right there. “Ah Silva there you are.”

“Hilda,” Hilda said looking irritated. “My name is Hilda, and what are you doing here?”

Annie walked into the home and said, “I’ve come to gather you for some scientific research.”

Johanna pointed a finger at Annie and said, “You can’t just barge into someone’s home and demand to take someone for research.”

“I kind of feel like me ‘barging in’ is justified.” Annie said using finger quotes on barging in. “Since she and her friends barged into my home just yesterday.”

“I knocked on the door several times and you opened the door to let us in.” Hilda said defending herself.

“Debatable.” Hilda pinched her nose at that, trying not to start an argument that she knew would go on for a long time. Annie looked back at Johanna and said, “Don’t worry miss, it won’t be for long, just need her for a large portion of the day, and once I’m done, I’ll give her back.”

Johanna did not look convinced. “You expect me to believe that you will return her to me after your research is done.”

“I don’t know where you come from that makes you think that but when I promise something, I keep my word, after all I did promise her and her friends that I would stop using so much power.” Annie said pointing at Hilda.

“Yeah, after you found out that if kept going than more people would show up.”

“Exactly, if it involves me or anything, I do than my promises are never broken. So, for the sake of science and magic I need that girl for my research.” Annie said making Johanna confused at that last part. Realizing what she said, Annie covered her mouth. “Wait does you know anything about magic?” Annie asked hoping the answer was yes, because if it was not than she would be in big trouble.

“I would say yes she does.” Alfur said making Annie turn towards him.

“Ah there’s an elf here, guess you do know about magic.” Annie wiped any fear sweat off her head. “What a relief.”

Hilda looked surprised. “You can see him?” Hilda asked to which Annie nodded her head. “So, you’ve signed the elf paperwork?”

Annie looked confused at that. “Elf paperwork?”

“You know the paperwork to sign so you can see elves.” Hilda explained.

“Yeah, I have no idea what you’re talking about, I never signed paperwork like that before.” Hilda was about to ask Alfur how that was possible but Alfur gave her a look that said he would explain later. Johanna, however, knew what that meant, since Annie could see elves naturally than that would mean that she was a witch.

Johanna still did not look convinced. “I still don’t know if I can trust you.”

Zircon decided to step in. “Ma’am, if I may.” He waited a few seconds and then a piece of paper popped out of his left side. “Go on, grab it!” Johanna grabbed the piece of paper and it had a number on it. “If you want to check up on us than just call this number and I’ll pick.”

Johanna looked down at the number and felt a little relief that she could contact them if she needed to, but she was still a little concerned. “Where exactly are you going?”

“Well since I don’t have access to the necessary labs, I need we will be going to the next best option. To my grandmother’s place of business.” Annie said hoping that, that will ease Johanna’s mind at least a little bit.

“Your grandmother?” Hilda asked. “Victoria Van Gale?”

“She dabbles in science just like I do, hopefully she will have the necessary equipment I need.” Annie grabbed Hilda’s hand. “We’ve wasted a lot of time already; we must get going right now.” With that Annie fled to the door with Hilda in hand. Zircon made a bowing motion to Johanna and left along with them.

“Wait I haven’t told you; you can go.” Johanna called out to them, but it was too late. They were already heading out of the building. Just then she heard footsteps and saw Twig come out checking on the commotion, giving Johanna a thought. She kneeled and said, “Twig listen!” Twig looked up at his master and listened. “I need you to follow Hilda and if there is any trouble bring her back to me. Can you do that, please?”

Twig nodded yes at that making Johanna pet his head earning her a small sound of approval. Twig then headed out the door. “Wait,” Alfur called to him making him stop. “This could be good research for my report let me come with.” Twig did not see a reason why Alfur should not go along and allowed him to ride on his back and out the door they went.

Johanna was left alone in her home once again, hoping beyond hope that Hilda will not be in too much danger as she looked down at the piece of paper with the number on it. To think this day started out with an awkward silence between them to having this happen. A thought suddenly came to her. With all the things that they have been told she was too busy thinking about Hilda that there was still someone that needed to know this.

Her best friend and girlfriend Maven, this information concerned her as well. Johanna did not know anyone else that knew magic more than her, if anyone can help with this than certainly, she can. Suddenly another thought came to her, since Hilda was a magic construct and is Johanna’s biologic daughter, that would mean she was also Maven’s biologic daughter as well.

“Oh geez,” Johanna said to herself. “This is going to be awkward.”

Chapter Text

Victoria Van Gale, always busy with her weather reports, always busy with her studies, always hateful toward the Committee of Three for always rejecting her proposals. She didn’t hate the entire Coven, just those three witches, sure the type of magic that she was using was considered by many, even witches alike, to be the most dangerous type of magic there is, but what’s the point of being a witch without taking a few risks. Even though it is literally called black magic. Victoria hated that the Committee of Three outright banished her for using such magic only once, but she didn’t see any negative effects, she only wished that she could have a chance to prove them wrong. Oh well, at least she still has her weather tower.

She was also grateful to the Coven for allowing her granddaughter, Annie Van Gale, to enter even though they knew that they were related. It was true that witches look out for one another…unless you cross them in some way, that’s what Victoria thought when she heard that Annie’s parents, one of them being Victoria’s son, threw Annie out of the house for practicing magic. The only reason they didn’t do it earlier was because they thought that she was just doing science experiments, which was understandable. Most people believe that technomancy wasn’t magic at all, those people don’t know anything, technomancy is magic that allows the witch to manipulate machines, what was so confusing about that.

When Victoria heard that Annie was kicked out she swung at the chance to take her in, she should’ve known that people like Annie’s parents would never understand people like her, which was the main reason the Coven was formed, to be a safe haven for all witches. Victoria just hopes that Annie is being treated properly. But before she could think more about that Victoria heard a knocking on her door, which she thought was strange, she hardly ever got any visitors.

Opening the door she saw her granddaughter who was still wearing her face mask and sunglasses, one of her robots, and a blue haired girl standing right outside. “Annie? What are you doing here?” Victoria asked confused and also building in anger for thinking that the Coven did something.

“Grandmother, I wish to use the lab here for my research.” Annie answered. “I have the biggest discovery ever.”

Victoria was confused by this. “Doesn’t the High Tower have the type of equipment you need?” Annie looked down at what she said making Victoria know why she was here. “Wait, don't answer, of course they would bar you from the labs.”

Annie sounded like she had tears in her eyes but no one could see them. “It’s not fair, I don’t understand why they would do this.”

Victoria pinched the bridge of her nose in disgust, she’s gonna have a word with the Committee of Three about this. Just then she acknowledged the blue haired girl. “Who’s that girl next to you?”

Annie looked down at Hilda and responded. “This is-”

“My name is Hilda.” Hilda interrupted Annie since she knew that if Annie continued then she would get her name wrong again. “It’s a pleasure to meet you ma’am, I’m a big fan of your weather reports. They are always so accurate.”

Victoria beamed at the praise she got. “Why thank you, not everyday people say something nice about my work.”

“They really should.”

“I know.” Victoria said softly so no one can hear. Victoria then cleared her throat and looked at Annie once again. “Anyway, Annie you may use my lab, just try not to touch anything related to my work, please.”

“I won’t.” Annie said, grabbing Hilda’s arm and walking into Victoria’s weather tower with Zircon in tow. “Dōmo arigatōgozaimashita!”

Victoria will never understand how and why Annie speaks Japanese.

Outside the tower Alfur and Twig made it, only to be blocked off by the door closing on them, they were too late to reach Hilda. “Dang it, too late.” Alfur said, looking around, Twig doing the same. “There has to be another way in.” Just then he looked up and saw that there was a way in but they needed to climb up the tower and into one of the windows. “Oh jeez.”

Inside the lab Annie took off her research bag, sunglasses, and face mask revealing her pale skin, light blonde hair and light blue eyes. “Yokatta, watashi wa hontōni taiyō ga kiraidesu.”

“Yeah, but at least you can walk outside with these coverings.” Zircon said to which Annie nodded.

Hilda was confused by what Annie said since she doesn’t speak japanese, but was curious about the face coverings. “Why do you wear that stuff?”

“Because she’s scared of the sun.” Zircon answered for Annie.

“I’m not scared.” Annie retorted. “I just would rather be away from sunlight and UV lamps because the mere presence of them will make me shrink away, have goosebumps, trouble breathing, and scream loudly.”

“The rest of the world call that being scared.” Zircon said in a sarcastic tone.

“Well then the rest of the world are a bunch of clods.” Annie said while crossing her arms and turning her head away from Zircon.

Hilda, looking around the room, saw what looked like a metal skeleton on the floor. Shocked, she asked, “What is that?”

Annie looked at what Hilda was looking at and said, “That’s one of my many experiments. I was using some crystals to power it up. It was going to increase productivity in the coming harvest seasons by 200 percent.”

“Instead it leveled an entire mountain region.” Zircon said.

“We don’t know that for sure, even though it was found in the same area.” Annie cleared her throat trying to not talk about what happened with the robot. “Anyway, I brought it here and have been working on it from time to time to try and figure out what went wrong. You know what, let’s power this thing up and see the progress I made.” Annie reached for the switch to turn it on.

Powered on, the robot's eyes glowed yellow and sat straight up. “Annie, are you okay?” It said while twitching uncontrollably. “Are you okay, Annie?”

“Why are you asking that?” Zircon asked.

“She was hit by…she was struck by…a smooth criminal.” Just then it was powered down once again.

“I’m just gonna give it a few more weeks.” Annie said, regretting turning it back on. “But we’re not here for that, alright Fiva, come over here.”

“My name is Hilda.” Hilda said, walking toward Annie.

“Yeah whatever, put these on your head.” Annie handed Hilda some cables with tape straps on them. Hilda did that and waited. “Put this on your right wrist and this on your left wrist.” Hilda complied. “Now Zircon, I need to hook you up to this machine.”

“Roger dodger.” Zircon said getting into position.

“And don’t say that again.”

“No promises.” Zircon said while Annie hooked him up to a computer.

“Alright!” Annie said before she used a magic circle on the keyboard to begin her research. “This should give a full diagnostic of your DNA, magic substances, as well as some other things.”

“Is this all?” Hilda asked.

“Nope this is just phase one, we’ll get to the other ones later.” Hilda wanted to ask how many phases this was going to take but feared that Annie wasn’t going to give her a straight answer. “Alright, cables are connected, power source connected, oh and don’t move around too much or remove any of the cables or they will shock you very badly.”

Hilda was surprised to hear that. “Wait what?”

“HERE WE GO!!!” Annie announced, activating the computer.

“LET’S DO THIS!!!” Zircon announced, matching her enthusiasm. Just then they got a buffering screen that was slow moving. “Well this is very anticlimactic.”

“This is an older model. It's gonna be a while until we can get started.” Annie said.

Hilda went from surprised to annoyed to hear that this will take a while. “So how long is it going to take?”

Annie thought about it while looking at the screen that just now went to one percent. “I don’t know, Zircon, how long is this going to take?”

“About six hours.” Zircon said almost immediately.

“See there you go…wait what did you say?” Annie asked, not sure she heard Zircon correctly.

“Six hours.” Zircon answered again.

“SIX HOURS?!” Annie questioned loudly. “I thought this was a state of the art computer with multiple magic outlets and an amazing connection to make it go faster.”

“The High Tower has that.” Zircon said. “This place doesn’t even have cable. Wait a minute, don’t have the type of equipment to make this go faster.”

“I didn’t have enough room in my bag and I thought this was going to take a lot less time.” Annie said.

“Well clearly that’s your fault then.” Zircon said, making Annie groan.

“Well this was a waste of time then.” Hilda said, making an attempt to take the cables off of her.

Annie stopped her, however, and said, “I’m serious, they will shock you and it will hurt you very badly if you try to remove them.” Hilda sighed at that and sat down accepting her fate. “Guess we’re going to be here for a while, might as well pass some time.” Annie said to herself and reached into her bag to pull out several books.

Zircon looked both surprised and annoyed at what he just saw. “You had no room for equipment to upgrade this computer to make it go faster but you have enough room in that bag for your manga?”

“First of all, I thought this was going to take less time, second, these aren’t manga, they're light novels, more classy.” Annie turned away from Zircon. “And you just whined yourself out of reading one.”

Zircon had to admit that if they were stuck here for a while it was better to have some form of entertainment and he thought that he should finally get into reading some of the light novels that Annie had. “You're right I’m sorry. May I please read one?”

“Apology accepted, and alright.” She pulled out more. “I’ve got ‘So I’m a Spider, So What?’ and “That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime’.”

“Do you have ‘Infinite Dendrogram’?” Zircon asked. Annie shook her head no. “How about ‘My Next Life as a Villainess’?”

“Yep, here you go.” Annie said, tossing the light novel of Zircon’s choosing to him. Zircon’s blue eye started glowing and the light caught the book making it so he could read it. Annie looked over at Hilda and saw that she looked bored. “Do you want to take a look at one of these?” Annie offered.

Hilda looked and said, “No thanks, I think I’m going to get some rest, I haven’t slept at all last night.”

“Alright then, just make sure those cables aren’t removed.” Annie said to Hilda.

“Or they will shock me, yes I get it.” Hilda said getting herself situated. Just then noticed a framed picture on a table that had Annie on it, but she was with someone else. The picture showed Annie with another girl who had blonde hair with a white hair clip, and was wearing a pink shirt with a white star on the front. The picture had the words ‘Annie + Kelly’ on it and they both looked happy. “Annie, who’s this in the picture?”

Annie looked up from what she was reading and saw the picture that Hilda was talking about. She walked over to it, grabbed the top of it, and slammed the picture down hard on the table, Hilda thought she heard a cracking sound. “No one, that’s who.” Annie got back to where she was sitting and looked at the book she was reading again. “No one at all.”

Hilda was surprised to see Annie do that, she wanted to ask what that was about, but figured that since she looked angry after seeing that picture, that she should leave it alone. Hilda laid herself down making sure none of the cables on her were coming off, closing her eyes Hilda fell asleep in a manner of minutes.

Looking around Hilda could see a bright colored area that she did not recognize anywhere, this was definitely not Trolberg or the forest that she grew up in. Strangest thing is she doesn’t remember how she even got to this place either, looking down she thought she could make sense but when she looked down she looked even more surprised. The skin she was seeing wasn’t hers, what she was looking at was light blue. She tried to say something but when she opened her mouth no words came out, not even a sound.

This didn’t make any sense, where was she, what was she, there were many questions going through her mind right now, but she was suddenly left speechless when she looked back up and saw something horrifying.

She was looking at a field of pixelated darkness surrounding her, where did this come from, when did it get here, and what was it doing. It was surrounding everything around almost as if it was eating everything in sight. Just then she noticed something just now that she should have seen earlier, she saw a rabbit getting swallowed up in this darkness. She tried to pull the rabbit out of the darkness but the grip it had on the rabbit was too strong for her and she accidentally let go.

“PIBBY!!!”

“NO!!!” She finally heard herself say as the darkness was surrounding her. “No, no, no, no.” She closed her eyes as the darkness surrounded her, accepting her fate.

Hilda woke up startled at what she saw. She looked around and saw that she was back in the lab in Victoria Van Gale’s place with Annie and Zircon. She saw that Annie had fallen asleep and Zircon was still reading. How much time has passed? “That was weird.” Hilda said to herself, trying to figure out why she had that dream. “Who’s Pibby? Why did that feel so real?” Just then Hilda heard a crash which also woke Annie up and alerted Zircon. “What was that?” Hilda asked both Annie and Zircon hoping one of them could answer.

“Don’t know.” Annie answered, moving over to the computer to look at the progress which now said 63%. Annie groaned and typed in commands to pause the progress allowing Hilda to remove the cables, Zircon however, could not leave his post or the entire thing would be ruined.

“Let me know what you see?” Zircon said, hoping that Annie will tell him this time.

Annie and Hilda moved to the location of where they heard the crash, it was beyond a door labeled ‘Do Not Enter’, of course Annie opened the door anyway to see what made the noise. Looking inside both Hilda and Annie saw the cause of the crash.

It was Alfur and Twig who successfully made it inside, but caused some damage in the process. Alfur saw that they noticed the damage and held up a small piece of paper to try and cover the damage. He, however, knew they already saw it and the paper he was holding wasn’t covering the damage at all and dropped the paper.

“What are you doing here?” Annie asked the elf.

“We were…checking on Hilda…and some things have happened and…” Alfur was doing his best to try and explain what when suddenly they heard something that sounded like thunder and saw what caused it. Right beside them was a small cloud, but it wasn’t a cloud at all. “What’s a weather spirit doing here?”

“Weather spirit?” Hilda asked.

Before Alfur could answer they heard more thunder coming from outside and saw the clouds surround the area and Trolberg going dark. “This can’t be good.”