Three's A Charm (ch20)

EARLY RELEASE FOR MY $20+ PATRONS!

A fun Halloween chapter for Antiqua! Tried to go for a nice mix of humor on the tone for this one.

Disclaimer: I do not own Little Witch Academia.

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						Chapter 20.

A heavy storm rages through the night, swirling and thundering across the desolate land around a massive, ancient, and terrifying castle. The hissing of the rain echoes through the cold empty halls, lit only by firelight.

Down one of the longest tunnels, and down one of the most twisted stair cases, set underground at the deepest darkest level, lies the dungeon of a spontaneous witch.

Akko can't exactly remember what she'd been doing before this point in time, but all she knows is that she's super focused on her current task.

Her robes are a bit tattered, and her hair is frazzled and messy from the hours and hours of work she's been putting into her current project; a project that wouldn't exactly be considered "permissible" by any magical standards. But as a mad witch scientist, she has no choice but to follow her gut and blindly plow forward with any new frivolous idea that sparks her inspiration.

She'd shut herself away in her laboratory with her somewhat-trusty assistant Sucy all night long, slaving away over the experiment they've been slowly putting together. The room is mostly dark, save for a few floating lanterns and candles they'd cast magic on to drift around their workspace table.

While Akko has been concocting spell after spell after spell of what was most definitely taboo magic, Sucy has been assisting by offering the necessary ingredients from her forbidden pantry. They've been trying all sorts of spells and combinations of things nonstop: bat wings, mandrake roots, dog teeth, horse tails, and all other assortments of poisonous plants and venoms in Sucy's terrible collection.

Normally, Sucy was a bit reluctant to go along with any of Akko's ridiculous schemes, because Sucy herself would rather be spending her time experimenting with new potions and black market sort of supplies. But on this particular night, hers and Akko's interests had coincided perfectly, and so Sucy had been willing to assist.

After all, she'd partaken in her fair share of 'questionable' experimentations before. But never before had she attempted what her rambunctious partner had proposed tonight.

"Sucy!" Akko shouts. "Give me some more juice!"

Akko is currently hunched over the table with her wand clutched in both hands, trying to pour magic into the fruits of their labor. Random bottles and objects are floating around the room ready to be added into the spell when necessary.

Sucy puts down the jar of twitching plant leaves she'd been pawing through and slinks over to assist Akko at the table. She pulls out her wand and adds a bit of magic to Akko's spell. The weak green color turns a bit more vibrant and flows more strongly down into their experiment. Sucy takes the chance to peer over Akko's shoulder at it.

Akko's insane proposal for tonight's uncouth experiment had been to create an artificial life. Not bring the dead back to life, as that was something even Sucy would hesitate to mess with. But even though creating a new life out of magic wasn't exactly allowed by the laws of magic or nature, it didn't mean disturbing the spirits of the dead. And so Sucy had agreed.

Their product had come a long way since they'd started in daylight hours. Now, it looked almost entirely like a human being.

She was a young witch about their age, with pale white skin that the magic had sewn together, and long wavy hair the color of tea leaves. She was dressed in tattered bandage-wrap robes, and although her eyes were still closed, her body was essentially complete. All they needed now was to breathe life into her lungs and put a beat into her heart.

Akko has been staring down at her beautiful patchwork creation for quite some time now, thinking about the magic and ingredients it had taken to create her thus far, raking her brain for an idea of how to bring her experiment to life. After pouring her combined spell with Sucy into the yet-lifeless witch, Akko lowers her wand for a moment and thinks.

"She's almost finished. What else can we do to bring her to life now? Su, do you know anything?"

Sucy's eye wanders lazily back to her desk on the other side of the room, where all kinds of spell books and documents are littered about. The rows and rows of shelves around the room lined with various bottles and containers of things have been used at some point or another in tonight's endeavors, but so far nothing had brought the white witch to life.

"We tried just about everything," she mutters. "At least, everything I know of. If there's anything that can make her live, it might not be something we have."

Akko shakes her head vigorously.

"No way! We've come this far! We gotta bring her to life!" Akko struts up to the table and takes her creation's limp hand. "She's so pretty. We worked hard on her! She deserves to be alive! Oh! And I'm calling her 'Diana,' by the way."

Sucy snorts lightly.

"Diana? That sounds like a princess, not an unconventional artificial being."

"Erk-" Akko pouts and mumbles at Sucy before looking back to Diana. "But she really is kinda like a princess, isn't she? She's so pretty, and she's been asleep all this time."

"I'm not sure you can consider 'not existing until a few hours ago' as being asleep, Akko."

"It's close enough!" Akko whines. And then, suddenly an idea comes to her. "That's it! If she's a princess, then there's only one way to wake her up!"

Akko shakes herself off, smoothing her hair back out of her face a little bit before slowly leaning over the lifeless witch. Sucy raises an eyebrow.

"Akko? What the heck do you think you're doing-?"

But Akko isn't listening (as usual). She leans right over Diana and presses a kiss to her lips.

Sucy stiffens, not sure how to feel about such a method.

After a moment, Akko pulls away with a 'mwah!' and straightens up again.

"There!"

But Diana still hasn't budged even a tiny bit. Sucy sighs.

"Did you really think that'd work?"

"It should've… Oh! Sucy, you gotta kiss her, too!"

"Hah?"

"Cuz you worked on her, too! Both of us need to breathe some life into her!"

Sucy grimaces. But at this point in the game, she's come so far in this experiment that she wants to see their creation alive.

So she shoulders Akko aside and hovers over Diana, who really does look pretty much just like another normal witch, all things considered. Heaving another sigh, Sucy eventually leans down to kiss her lips, then pulls away.

Both she and Akko stand back as Diana's eyelids suddenly begin to flutter. Her mouth opens slightly, and her chest jolts with an unsteady movement, unfamiliar with the function of breathing. She makes a slight choking sound, and her fingers curl into her robes.

And then, all at once, her eyes fly wide open as she gasps, sitting up sharply.

Akko shrieks, and even Sucy is shocked by the success of their methods.

"Holy crap!" Akko blurts out. "It worked!"

"No clue how… but it did…"

The two mad witch scientists marvel in awe at their creation.

Diana leans forward, looking over herself in confusion, still gasping awkwardly as she breathes for the first time. While Sucy is amazed and cautious, Akko is absolutely bursting with excitement. She rushes forward and grabs Diana's hand, eyes shining.

"Wow! You're alive!"

"Akko-" Sucy says with a hint of warning. "I wouldn't get so close-"

"Can you understand me?" Akko babbles. "How do you feel? Does anything hurt? Hi! My name's Akko and this is Sucy! Your name is Diana! It's nice to meet y- WAH!" Akko's greeting is cut off with a yelp as Diana suddenly lunges off the table at her, teeth snapping. Akko scrambles backward into Sucy.

"Hey! That's not very nice! No biting your creators!"

But Diana doesn't listen. She wobbles onto her unsteady legs before understanding her balance, and then begins to stagger toward the other two witches. Sucy moves back, using Akko as a shield.

"All right, we had our fun. I think it's time to put her back to sleep."

"What?! We can't do that!"

"She's too unpredictable, Akko." Sucy draws her wand and casts a spell that should have immobilized Diana. But the magic doesn't have any effect on the white witch. She simply growls and continues advancing toward them. Sucy clicks her tongue.

"Magic doesn't work on her-?"

"Haaaah?!"

"Guess we gotta run."

"What-?! Sucy-!"

But before Akko can finish, Sucy has already turned and fled out the door. Akko wails and scrambles to follow, frantically shutting the door behind herself. But Diana pulls it clean off the hinges and pursues them with frightening speed.

Akko takes off after Sucy through the maze of a castle as the storm continues outside. Screams and shrieks fill the halls as the two witches try to no avail to flee from their creation. More than once, Sucy tries to sacrifice Akko and save herself, but Akko shrieks and runs even faster to avoid capture.

Diana chases them all throughout the castle for hours until at last, Akko and Sucy find themselves cornered. Exhausted and without magic to help them, they have no choice but to accept their fate.

"Just take Akko first," Sucy mutters. "This was all her idea."

"Hah?! Well, I mean, you're kinda right… But still-! Su, how could you?!"

Diana staggers toward them, hair white hair wild and loose around her shoulders, arms outstretched toward them. Akko knows Sucy is right, that it's only fair that she be the first to accept her fate since this was her idea. Akko tiptoes forward, bracing herself…

"Gah! I can't do it after all!"

And then in one swift motion she grabs Sucy and tosses her into Diana's clutches instead.

"Hey-" Sucy snaps. "Akko, you little-" But she's silenced when Diana pushes a hard, long kiss to her lips, one so unexpectedly passionate that Sucy blushes and Akko squeals out loud.

"What the-?!"

It certainly isn't what either of them had been expecting. Akko had been under the assumption that Diana wanted to eat them like some zombie. But this. This is…

"Kinda cute…?" Akko mutters the comment just as Diana pulls away.

Sucy is left swaying and collapses limply back against the wall. Akko can't tell if Diana had drained the life from her or if Sucy was just in a daze. But either way, it's clear that Akko is next.

Diana approaches her, reaching out toward Akko who is now frozen in place, unable to do anything but babble nonsense. Diana steps closer, and closer, until Akko can feel her breath on her lips.

And it's only right then when she realizes she'd never taken note of it before. Diana's eyes are blue…

"-Akko!"

At the call of her name, Akko's eyes fly open. She finds herself staring directly into the exact same shade of blue, though the face accompanying it now is ten times more beautiful.

Akko blinks, finding herself not in an accident castle dungeon, but back in Diana's bedroom at the Cavendish estate. She and Sucy had come over to visit during midterm break, and the three of them had cuddled up in Diana's spacious bed that night.

Now, Akko's strange dream fades away as she realizes the truth.

Behind her, Sucy is still snoring, and in front of her, Diana is staring with equal parts concern and exasperation. Akko's mouth is still agape from shock and from the silent scream she'd been uttering in her dream, but now it withers into a tiny wheeze.

"D…Diana…?"

Diana - the real Diana - heaves a sigh as she inches closer to Akko on the bed.

"Thank goodness you're all right. You were doing quite a bit of squirming about. Did you have a bad dream?"

"Ahh… I'm not even sure if it was bad or not?"

Diana quirks an eyebrow, but doesn't push any further.

"Well, I suppose that's all right, then." She lifts herself up a little to peer over Akko's shoulder at Sucy, who has now turned over to glare her one eye at them.

"Diana," she grunts. "Can you shut her up, please? Some of us are trying to sleep."

"Hah?!" Akko yelps, offended. "What's that supposed to- oomph!" She's silenced by a soft, but sweet kiss from Diana, one that's more wonderful than she ever could have imagined - even in her wildest, craziest dreams.

Akko lets the images of that dream fade away now in favor of kissing Diana in return. She sighs against her lips and flops back into the pillow, and she even feels Sucy scooch a little closer to her back. Diana smiles, wrapping Akko in her arms before closing her eyes again.

"Goodnight, Akko."

"Yeah…" Akko sighs dreamily. "Night…"

This time, she sleeps soundly.

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A/N: The prompt was for Frankenstein Akko and Igor Sucy to create Monster Diana who then chases them all around the castle haha! I got big Scooby Doo vibes from this idea!

Happy (still early) Halloween!