Chapter Text
“He said two!”
“No, he said three!”
Ace and Deuce continued back and forth, as Krista tried (and failed) to tune them out. For as well as they got along sometimes there were just as many occasions of senseless bickering that made Krista wish she could take her ears off and ignore them entirely. Maybe someone could find a spell for that.
“He said two,” Ace continued to squabble, before reaching past his and Deuce’s cauldron to poke Krista’s shoulder. “Tell ‘im that I’m right.”
“Be careful,” Krista rolled her eyes as she moved away. “Don’t knock that cauldron over.”
“Lab safety is important,” Deuce added, backing up Krista.
“Can it,” Ace stuck out his tongue. “I don’t need to listen to someone who can’t even count.”
“I can count!” Deuce threw his arms out to emphasize his point, jostling the cauldron in the process.
“What did I just say,” Krista turned around, planting her hands on her hips to glare at the pair. “Professor Crewel said one. So put one in and for the love of my sanity pay attention.”
“Bossy,” Ace grumbled at the same time Deuce chirped “Thanks!”
“Why’d ya wake me up,” Grim yawned, sitting up on his and Krista’s shared table. Krista pointedly ignored him, so he rolled over and went back to sleep. That was fine by the Ramshackle prefect. Anytime the other member of her dorm decided to ‘help’ in alchemy something went wrong. An explosion here, temporarily dyed hair there, and by this point of the year both Ramshackle students were on thin ice with Professor Crewel.
As much as her friends may complain about the instructor, Krista really did not mind his teaching. Crewel was fair and respected the effort students made for his classes. Not only that, he taught the only class Krista could fully take part in. If Krista were to be completely honest with herself, attending Night Raven College without magic was boring and more than a little pointless. Of course, the school’s entire curriculum is built around training mages to be proficient in magic; Krista understood this, after all it is a school for magic. That did not make it any easier to- on top of being trapped in a world far from home- be regulated to watching the interesting part of an arcane academy. Sure, freshmen focused on the theory of magic, meaning they spent less time actually casting spells, but they would eventually be able to apply that knowledge. Krista could pass every examination and be no closer to having a use for her information. The history of magic was more than a little interesting, but faced the same issue as magical technique: a lot of really interesting information that Krista could only ever scratch the surface of. She could, of course, take classes like biology and mathematics; but she could have taken those just as easily at a non-arcane school.
Krista had even been permanently banned from magic based activities in PE. One too many trips to the school nurse had assured that. Mr. Edward Bayard had grown tired of seeing her face after mishaps (honestly, Krista respected him for putting up with her for so long), so he had complained to Headmaster Crowley. In his kindness, the Headmage decided that Krista could participate in activities if they were purely physical- though she argued the fairness of having her against Jack in a foot race- but she would have to watch the rest of class the moment magic was involved. She wasn’t even allowed to let Ace or Deuce take her up on their brooms anymore.
But alchemy was entirely different. Though some recipes required a little infusion of magic, most could be accomplished through the proper ingredients. Finally, something with applicable magic she was capable of. Standing here, toiling over the cauldron, Krista felt like she was just another student. For a blissful moment, she was not trapped in another world. She had grown up in Twisted Wonderland. The only concern was this class and whether or not she would pass. Nothing else mattered.
Then the bickering behind her began again.
“Can you two please give it a rest,” Krista said after taking a deep breath.
“Sorry,” Ace said, entirely unapologetic as he glared at Deuce. “But this idiot is changing the recipe!”
“I am not!” Deuce defended.
“What’s up?” Grim grumbled, still mostly asleep.
“You both need to calm down before Crewel comes over here,” Krista scoffed as Grim leaped to Ace and Deuce’s work table.
“But Krista,” Ace whined and rolled his eyes. “He’s spouting nonsense!”
“Just read the book, it's not hard,” Kirsta said, unimpressed as she turned back to her project. “And stop acting like children.”
“I’m not acting like a child,” both boys answered at once, throwing their arms down in their protest. As they did this they both hit their cauldron, sending its contents tumbling forward.
Ace watched in utter horror as time seemed to slow and the incomplete spell drenched Krista. Oh, he was so dead. Looking at Deuce and Grim showed his fear mirrored in their eyes. Krista could be pretty easy going, overlooking problems and quick to forgive, but even she had her limit.
Even scarier, the yelling never began. No slew of violent threats. No angry storming out of the classroom. No threats to ignore them for the next few days. No banishing from visiting Ramshackle. The sight in front of them was arguably scarier.
Krista was completely gone and in her space stood a little girl. No older than five years old. She looked up at Ace, Deuce, and Grim before her eyes flew wide and she took a few steps back, until she could not move any further due to the table. Her mouth snapped shut, like she was about to scream but caught herself at the last moment. She wore a purple-and-white striped t-shirt with denim shorts and sneakers, as well as a NRC labcoat. However, the coat was clearly far too big for her.
“Oh no, we teleported Kirsta away and swapped her with a kid,” Deuce gaped as the little girl seemed to take in her surroundings.
“I think it may be worse than that,” Ace said, mouth dry.
“Worse than teleporting Krista out of NRC?” Grim tilted his head.
“That was an incomplete potion that was going to be used to stall time on some of the plants in the Botanical Garden.”
“So if it’s incomplete it should do nothing,” Deuce said with disbelief. “This is clearly not nothing.”
“I think we accidentally reversed time,” Ace snapped, trying to avoid Crewel’s eyes. “That is Krista.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Grim laughed. “That’s a little kid. Krista is clearly a teenager.
“But if we accidentally rewound time,” Deuce spoke slowly.
“Oh crap we’re so dead,” Grim finally realized what the other two were saying.
“Crewel is going to kill us when he finds out,” Ace groaned.
“Then Riddle will re-animate us and kill us again,” Deuce lamented.
“There’s only one solution,” Grim nodded solemnly.
All three took a deep breath before concluding: “We tell no one.”
“Grim, cover for Krista if anyone stops by Ramshackle. Say that she’s sick or something, I dunno,” Ace instructed, immediately taking charge. “Me and Deuce’ll go to the library after class and figure out how to fix this. Until then, we need to make sure Crewel absolutely does not see the random kid in his classroom.”
“You say that like it will be easy,” Grim rolled his eyes.
“I see you’ve succeeded in making a mess,” the sharp voice made the trio freeze before slowly turning to face the scowling face of Crewel. “Would you gentlemen mind telling me what is so important for you to be whispering instead of focusing on my class?”
“Ah… Professor Crewely,” Deuce startled. “We were… just… well… I…uh-”
“Sorry, sir,” Ace pushed Deuce out of the way. “We accidentally spilled our project.”
“I see that,” Crewel’s expression did not change. “And where has Miss Krista gone?”
“The nurse”
“To get towels”
“Back to Ramshackle”
All three boys answered at once, leaving Professor Crewel woefully unimpressed and understandably unconvinced.
“She went to the nurse to get towels then was heading back to Ramshackle to clean up,” Ace spoke quickly to tie their explanations together. “The contents of the cauldron got everywhere, including on Krista, so she went to clean up.”
“Don’t worry, the spell didn’t hit her,” Deuce added, earning a sharp poke to the ribs from Ace. What idiot even mentions the possibility of her being affected by the spell.
“Tell her to speak to me once she comes back,” Crewel instructed, unconvinced but also having no grounds to condemn his students- at least at this point in time. “Students may not leave class without express permission from their instructors.” And with that he continued on his rounds through the classroom, seeming to pay no more attention to Ace, Deuce, Grim, and the missing Krista than he had before.
“It’s a good thing Krista thought to hide,” Deuce let out a sigh of relief.
“Yeah, it is,” Ace nodded. “Alright, Krista, come on back out.”
No response, no movement. Almost like… like she wasn’t even there.
“Crap,” Grim muttered. “Where’d she go? How did an entire kid just sneak off? Aren’t they super noisy? At least that Cheka kid is.”
“Something about Krista tells me she wasn’t a super loud kid,” Deuce shrugged.
“It doesn’t matter how noisy or not noisy she is,” Ace butted in. “We need to find her before anyone else does or we’ll really be dead.”