17i Layers Over The Heart’s Desire

Diane was a girl with many asymmetrical relationships. Most of these were ones she wanted no part in, but there were exceptions.

The lion’s share of those relationships were thanks to puberty hitting Diane rather late, but with the combined force of three freighters all at once. The still teenage girl hadn’t thought she was that innocent, but the amount of innocence lost in the new year suggested that she had been truly naive before. She had since learned that people wouldn’t be making eye contact with her as much, and been put on the spot twelve different times as that many boys she didn’t know and wasn’t interested in asked her out, all because her boobs grew bigger.

Diane had lived for seventeen years and had been entirely unprepared for the attention it got her. She had since adjusted, for lack of a better term. Her mileage varied, but the attention now freely given by others did not take away from the attention she gave out. There were still people that Diane didn’t know, who she very much wanted to.

At school, Diane and Donna had the same English class. Early on in the school year, the two had been grouped with three others for a group assignment, which was the start of Diane’s asymmetrical relationship with Donna.

The group assignment was, as most such assignments were, a complete disaster. The beginning was promising, with Donna assuming the leadership role when nobody else wanted to, then dividing the work and taking the conclusion for herself. It was supposed to be a presentation, with each of them standing in front of the class and talking in front of a powerpoint, but any hope vanished the moment that first class ended. To complete the assignment, work needed to be done outside of class, as no more class time had been allocated beyond the presentation.

Only one other student aside from Diane and Donna did the homework, and Diane almost didn’t get it done. They did make a group chat, and it wasn’t like it was abandoned, but when the deadline came there were still gaps. Donna went through with the presentation anyway, replacing the slides that were supposed to be the slacker’s with screenshots of them promising to deliver the work. Promises that were obviously broken.

Diane clearly remembered the moment her asymmetrical relationship was born. She had just finished her part of the presentation, and stepped back for the next person to stand in front of the class. Donna, who was operating the computer, clicked over to the slide with the broken promises and looked up at the guilty party.

“Unfortunately, since Angus and Rachel were too busy procrastinating, we’ll never have a response to this part,” she had said in a calm voice without breaking eye contact. Then she clicked to the conclusion slide and wrapped up the presentation. They barely passed. The ones who had turned in work, that was.

The naming and shaming didn’t make Donna any friends. It wasn’t like she was popular before or after the group project, and Angus and Rachel made a point of sitting apart from her after that. The thing was that Donna didn’t seem to care. She kept cool under the pressure when the awkwardness would’ve had Diane’s heart pumping out of her chest, and dealt with the fallout in a way that Diane would find herself struggling to emulate months afterwards.

Maybe she had overshot with the whole personality shift thing though. In the first semester, Diane had managed to secure a regular spot next to Donna in class, but after christmas break, Diane’s boobs growing out, and her subsequent personality shift, Donna moved away. Diane had begrudgingly accepted how things turned out, and then been surprised when the camp groups had shuffled them together.

It had been a second chance! Diane wasn’t going to let this opportunity just slip away, but at the same time she couldn’t seem too eager.

There was still a balance Diane needed to strike between maintaining her indifference to keep James, Adam, and Quince in check while taking every opportunity to even just talk to Donna. Diane being good at shooting while Donna preferred athletic activities didn’t help either. The vote tipping on the second evening had Diane cringing to herself the entire conversation, and then some more when she was trying to sleep. Trying not to alert Stephanie was important too, as she would definitely play the misguided matchmaker if she saw the opportunity.

There had been a plan. The campfire had been part of it. Diane had been planning to find a spot beside Donna, since she would probably sit near the back by herself, and then do her best to start a conversation and keep it going. Things hadn’t quite… gone to plan.

James had derailed things before Diane could even get started. Then aliens invaded. Skipping a few steps, they’d hugged, bantered, and Diane now found herself having a private moment with Donna in their dorm. Parts of it had even been fun. Diane had gotten what she wanted, in a way, but there was still everything else to deal with.

Then Donna walked out. It was, all things considered, a very short moment. The magical girl had a haunted look to her that hadn’t been there before, and Diane couldn’t help but wonder how much of a setback had just occurred.

“Diane,” Donna’s voice came back through the door, making the named girl jolt. “There’s not enough time to be wasting it.”

“I’m finding my feet again,” Diane told her, genuinely exploring what it felt like to stand after the break that she remembered being right there on her left shin just a minute ago. There was no unsteadiness, and no lingering pain. When Diane tried to remember what the break had felt like, the memory was fuzzy, and felt alien.

The leg was normal, which didn’t make sense when Diane put weight on it. That wasn’t the only place that strange lack of sensation was alienating her either. Diane’s entire body felt like nothing was wrong with it. She wasn’t even hungry or tired.

After living for so long dealing with one vague urge or another, it was deeply odd to not feel anything like that. Diane was willing to bet that even the stretch marks on her tits were gone too.

While she was still sorting herself out and remembering the purple gun she had somehow managed to keep a hold of, Donna came back into the open doorway with her glowing familiar standing across her shoulders.

“Will you need much more time?” Donna asked.

Diane considered her answer, purposefully inspecting the gun so as to not look up. She decided that she rather liked the little ornament that looked like the familiar hanging from the front end of the barrel. Her finger poked at it, then she looked up and took in her first real look at Donna since the wish.

That magelight sort of wisp that had been cast when they were circling the gymnasium was still the major source of light for the two of them. It floated behind Donna, casting a backlight which added a gravitas to the magical girl’s demeanour that the position of the familiar only added to. Aside from that and how Donna was standing, Diane’s eyes were inevitably drawn up to the glimmering blue pointed oval gem seemingly embedded in the other girl’s forehead.

Somehow, the subtle reflections of light felt faintly violating.

“I would like to take some of it,” Diane said, lifting the modified gun into a proper resting position. It helped her match the imposing girl across from her. “Would there be enough to make up for the amount that I lost? I’ve become incredibly peppy after you wished for it, and my mind is still catching up.”

Donna didn’t react to the poke, and Diane worried that had been too insensitive.

“Hm,” Donna responded after a few moments. She suddenly looked down in a direction outside the dorm. “We’ll talk downstairs. Jump.”

For a moment there was an orange magic circle underneath Donna, which then shattered when she did what should have been a small hop. Instead of that, the magical girl sailed clear over the bannister and down to the floor three metres below like it was nothing.

Diane was left staring at the space left behind, then hurried out the door to see what was going on. She got outside just in time to hear a crack like lightning, followed by the thrum of Donna’s best spell. After some searching, Diane found the source of the sound as Donne focused the thin and deadly beam into another dorm room downstairs.

When she cut off the beam, Donna didn’t return right away. Instead she summoned that orange circle again and jumped over to the cafeteria entrance. She disregarded the many starbane corpses strewn about there, tapped the bottom of the glowing crystal that Diane just remembered being freshly cast, then used the jump spell again to cross the distance to the staircase on the opposite end of the dorm building.

Diane was left clutching her little gun. The light following Donna around had revealed still more corpses with every patch of ground it touched. She walked a little slower as she moved towards where Donna was busily walking about.

When Diane arrived, the other girl had moved to the lounge area, which had a bunch of those sentry forms lying still by one of the tables, and Donna was sitting on one that was mostly clear of them. She had her magical book out in front of her and was murmuring every so often. No doubt responding to things that her familiar was beaming into her mind while two long diamond shaped crystals slowly rotated in the air nearby.

There were actually a few patches of concrete which had been oddly smoothed out. Diane rubbed her shoe against it, feeling the oddness of the smooth concrete, then focused on the magical girl. “You’ve been quite busy.”

Diane looked up and blinked twice. “Sit,” she said, patting the bench next to her. “We’re talking about knocking on the door, and what we want to do before doing that.”

“That isn’t going to be a normal sort of knocking, is it?” Diane questioned, carefully placing her weapon on the table beside the magic book. She noticed Donna staring at it as she seated herself. “I remember it was something the little Authorities were talking about.” Diane looked around as she reminded herself of them. “Where are they?”

“Nice one was in a cave that way the last time I saw her.” Donna pointed towards the forest, her attention returned to her book. “The not so nice one made a heroic sacrifice.”

“How much has happened?” Diane asked after processing that.

“It’s been nearly two hours for me, and I have a plan,” Donna said, not really answering the question. She tapped a page on her book with the back of her hand. “Apparently this spell, Knock, will temporarily disable the lock on the gymnasium door. I tried it just now. The door, that is. Without Knock. This spell is necessary.” She paused, and squinted at her familiar. “Apparently, this spell is “weakness incarnate.” But it will serve regardless.”

Diane looked between Donna and the familiar lounging on the table. “Have you named him?”

“Him?” Donna asked, finally looking up from the book. She poked the familiar’s cheek with a finger none too gently when she realised what Diane was asking. “Do you mean this thing?” As for the glowing white creature, it didn’t react at all, only turning its head uncaringly when the finger was there and resetting after it went away. “What about my familiar makes you think it has a gender at all?”

“It just, seemed that way to me,” Diane said. The topic was reaching, but she liked Donna better when she was chatting. The stoic warrior that had been there after Diane’s pain went away worried her greatly. “What happened to me in the time I lost?”

Donna’s lips thinned, and Diane knew she had misstepped.

The magical girl didn’t answer the question. Instead, she said, “False Self,” and gently tossed her book into the air. Diane was mesmerised when it began floating and turning on its own, but shortly chided herself and focused on the other girl. Donna leaned forward to read the pages, and still refused to give Diane her answer.

“Authority recommended a spell for me to use when I got you back to safety,” Donna told her, which was a partial answer at best. Diane guessed it was the one she had just announced to get her book turning. Donna read for several seconds before continuing. “It says I can give it semi-complex instructions, so if you and her are alone I’ll make it so she answers your questions as best she can.”

“Who?” Diane asked.

“My False Self. Who else?” Donna said, casting the spell.

A light blue magic circle appeared over the magical girl, then moved down like it was scanning her. It only took a second, and when it was done the circle shifted to the side and a glowing shape grew out of it. Another two seconds later, there was another Donna standing behind the original, differentiated in how one was wearing magical girl clothing while the other had the clothes Donna had been wearing before she transformed.

Even the down vest that Donna was wearing at that moment. Every detail, down to the cut at the waist had been accounted for.

Diane was still getting over the weirdness of seeing one person in two different places. Authority had been different, they were pint sized. This was more along the lines of a pair of really identical twins revealing themselves.

Then the false Donna reached out and gripped the original’s neck. “I’m finally free,” she said with a vicious grin on her face as she began to squeeze. “Now I can take control, and live life the way I was truly meant to. Die, Donna!”

Diane finally realised there was a threat and jumped into action. She was halfway out of the seat when someone caught the gun she was lifting to bear. It brought the girl to a stop when she realised it was Donna, the real one, who had stopped her. The magical girl looked entirely unbothered by the strangling.

“This is just another prank,” she said with resignation heavy in her voice. “Who wished for this one?” Donna asked, turning to her lounging familiar. She sighed at the response she got. “Well at least I might be able to slap them this time. No, I don’t care if it's a valuable lesson! They didn’t even wish for it!? Well I wish for you to stop!”

The only thing Diane saw in response to that was the familiar rolling over so that its eyes were facing away from the Donnas. Slowly, she lowered herself back into her seat, but kept holding the purple gun.

“Stupid pranks,” Donna muttered. “I’m in a life or death scenario. Have some freaking tact.”

Diane wanted to say something, but there was a barrier between her and Donna that hadn’t been there before. Whatever had happened in the time Diane missed had left its mark on Donna, and the easy conversation they had before was out of reach now. It was like going back to the start of camp, or worse, what classes they shared but sat at opposite ends of.

The magical girl tapped the hands on her throat. “Alright, that’s enough. I have to see how much mana you’re going to need. Don’t want you dispelling in front of everyone.”

The false Donna pulled away her arms and mechanically stood up straight. She didn’t say anything, and just stood there. Diane watched it distrustfully as Donna picked up her book and circled around to the false self’s back. She stood as well when Donna did something that involved a blue light briefly shining from the false self’s back.

“Face me,” the original Donna said, and was obeyed. Then she rested a hand on the false self’s head.

“That’s enough mana for the time you set,” the false Donna said after several seconds. Her tone was just as businesslike as the real one’s, which made sense.

“Try and make it to dad if I don’t make it back.”

“You’ll make it back,” Diane said, finally seeing an opening into the conversation.

Both of the Donnas turned and looked at her in perfect sync, then lingered for the same amount of time. Diane’s heart slowly accelerated as the seconds ticked on, and she was feeling every individual beat before they abruptly turned and moved towards the gymnasium, still synchronised. It was like a spotlight had been lifted from her, and Diane found herself panting when the pressure was lifted.

There had been something about Donna’s gaze that made Diane second guess herself. It was difficult to name and it hadn’t been there before, no matter how far Diane cast her mind back.

“People will think it’s strange if we both have your vest on,” Diane called after them after recomposing herself.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

Again, they both stopped. Thankfully, they didn’t both round on her this time. Only the original did while the other one swiftly divested herself of the warm vest. Diane felt a little sorry for her. It certainly wasn’t warm.

“Unless you want me to return it…” Diane continued, prompted by Donna meeting her eyes.

“It’s fine,” Donna said, receiving the second vest when it was handed to her. “This isn’t real anyway. We’ll keep the real things with the real people.” She tossed it up, and the whole thing vanished in a flash of blue light. “Huh, got four back from that.”

“Thank you, then,” Diane said genuinely. She couldn’t help liking the vest, and wanted to keep it on.

“Now, instructions,” Donna pointed at Diane. “Don’t interrupt me until I give you yours, please. You.” She turned that pointer finger on the casually dressed Donna. “Be as cordial as I would be, but play up the horrors you’ve seen. You’re traumatised, but working through it because dad raised a strong girl. Our story is that we managed to kill a sixball while taking grievous injury, but you’ll call it a murderball because the magical girl who saved you didn’t tell you its real name.

“In fact, she didn’t even find you until an hour had passed. The magical girl happened to be in the area when the veil was forming, and dashed underneath in the small window of opportunity.” She paused there, and looked at where the familiar was still lounging. Its tail was sticking up where it should have fallen over the edge of the table, which was an odd sight to see. “Is that even a feasible story?”

She must have received affirmation, because she nodded and returned to giving instructions. Diane wanted to speak up and ask why she wasn’t hearing the familiar anymore, but bit her tongue when she remembered Donna’s request.

“You and Diane were wounded in the forest, not moving in the hopes that no starbanes would find you, and eventually you were found by the magical girl. Together with the two of you, she slowly fought her way here until she could drop the two of you off. Slowly because she needed to keep the two of you safe along the way.” Donna trailed off there, her eyes drifting up as she tried to think of more to say. “Explain things to Diane if she asks, but only to Diane. If the Authority fairies ask about the state out here, let them know. Obviously don’t say anything that makes anyone think we’re the same person. Any questions?”

False Donna shook her head.

Then Donna turned to Diane, but the latter girl had been waiting with a new question bursting at her lips.

“What are we going to call you, Donna?” she asked.

Donna blinked, considering the question, and sighed deeply. She looked at her familiar. “Is it normal for magical girls to not introduce themselves?”

There were three seconds of staring before Diane asked, “What is… What is it saying?”

“You didn’t hear that?” Donna asked with an edge to her voice that almost made it a demand. Diane shook her head and the magical girl took a handful of angry steps towards the glowing creature on the table. “Familiar, I told you to talk to Diane.”

[We apologise,] the odd upbeat voice sounded in Diane’s head just like before. [Diane’s new protections muffle our words. We did not anticipate this side effect, and have found a suitable workaround. We have amplified our volume, and she will receive communications from this point forward.]

“She better,” Donna said, then turned to Diane. “It said that magical girls normally introduce themselves unless there’s an active fight going on. There’s no way I wouldn’t have while I was transporting you and… Donna, to safety.”

[Normally a senior magician would name a novice magician, or that is the culture which has formed amongst your human magicians. Tradition should be ignored in this case, as Donna is the only magician under this veil.]

“What about Authority?” Diane asked, glancing between them.

“That is a simulacrum.” [That is a simulacrum.] “That is a simulacrum.” Each other person there said that in near perfect synchronisation. Even the false person. The Donnas began giving each other an odd look there.

It was the original who continued. “I’m about eighty percent certain that the fairies are each stuck in a mode or something of the like. Nice or rebellious or so on, so they’re not really the magical girl that cast the spell. Not even sure how this one will act, if I’m being honest. It scares me.” Donna inhaled after that revelation, then slowly exhaled. “But I have to. Diane, do you have a suggestion for a name? I really can’t be stuck here talking.”

“A name?” Diane repeated. She had many suggestions she wanted to say. Most of them inspired by the crystal crown that hovered above Donna’s head in her magical girl clothing. Since time was of the essence, she did discard most of them and went to one that had been bouncing about in her mind since she took that selfie. “Little Big Princess.”

Donna’s face twisted, and it wasn’t completely with distaste. Diane took that for a win.

“It will serve,” the magical girl said, pressing both hands to her face before dragging them both down. “Now, it’s time you two got to safety. Freaking fifteen doom counters already.”

The last part was muttered, and Diane was going to ask about it. She was, however, interrupted when Donna thrust a clenched fist towards the double doors leading into the gymnasium and cast “Knock.”

In a split second, an orange magic circle formed and shattered in front of her hand. There was a loud and wooden thunk as the doors shifted in their frame before slowly drifting open.

“Come on, you two. Safety’s near,” Donna called, louder than she needed to. She muttered a sequence of spells right after, one of which clad her in transparent purple armour with pretty ribbons strapped to her limbs. When she took a step, Donna darted forward much faster than she should have. “Is there an Authority in there? I’ve got two students that got lost in the forest.”

There wasn’t an immediate response from inside, and Donna turned to the two others behind her with an easy smile on her face. “Come on girls, it’ll be much warmer in there. And I’ll bet some people have been worried about you.”

Diane found herself staring at that smile until Donna turned away to greet the people in the gymnasium. It had looked so natural, and if Diane hadn’t known how the girl had been acting immediately before that, she would have bought it. They had spent an exhausting hour or more creeping around the forest at the start of this, and Donna had offered Diane so many reassuring little gestures in that time. She hadn’t focused on how they were obviously fake at the time, but that one smile recontextualised the whole thing.

Two blue fairies zipped out through the door and came over. Funnily enough, they each started speaking with a different Donna while Diane watched. Seconds later Ms Coolomn came running out of the door and wrapped the false Donna in a hug. She was quick to release the Donna, who wasn’t looking responsive, and moved on to hug Diane, finally getting her attention.

“We were so worried,” the teacher told Diane with her hands on the younger girl’s shoulders. She spared a moment to look Diane up and down, and sagged with relief at whatever she saw. “At least you’re okay. Wait, what’s this?”

Diane looked and found the teacher’s attention on her purple gun. “Oh, it’s… ah…”

“That’s something I’ll be having back now,” Donna, the real one, interrupted. She was just suddenly there, a brief zephyr billowing with her arrival. “The girls had to be able to defend themselves as we made our way back, and this gun is capable of defending against most lowly starbanes.” Her hands extended, ready to receive the weapon back. “It’s hardly appropriate for a girl to hold on to in a secure bunker. Especially not with a bunch of boys at that age.”

The argument was convincing, but Diane didn’t want to give up the gun. She wanted to help. Donna had changed when she fought on her own, and if she kept doing that something really bad could happen. Nobody would be around to help her up if that happened.

But that was hypocritical, wasn’t it? She’d just dragged Donna down when it was the two of them.

Diane still resisted anyway. “What if the starbanes make it inside?” she asked with a quiet voice.

Donna’s smile flattened into neutrality, and Diane knew she was thinking of the worst possible surprises. Then she shook her head and was smiling reassuringly again. “I’ve been talking with an Authority fairy I found in the forest. This place will hold against even elites for quite some time. Not only that, I’m going to be setting up defences around here.” She gestured at the floating yellow crystals that had been set up around them. There was even a fuzzy purple monstrosity of an orb in the direction she gestured, utterly frozen as a magic beam brought its end.

Ms Coolomn cleared her throat after the starbane fell to the ground, dead. “Well, I cannot thank you enough, young girl. But I think it's still not safe for us to be out here.”

“I couldn’t agree more… I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name,” Donna said leadingly.

“Theresa…” the teacher answered, clearly distracted by what she had just seen.

“Theresa, then,” Donna said, like she didn’t know the other woman at all. “Please spread word that… Little Big Princess is out here fighting to keep everyone safe. That’s me, until a better name comes along.” Then she turned back to Diane with a controlled expression. “Diane? Please?” Her hands were lifted again, ready to take away the symbol of their cooperation.

Strangely, it was the sight of the false Donna slowly and despondently walking towards the doors into the gymnasium that made Diane finally cave. She slowly lifted the strap over her head and handed the whole thing to Donna.

The magical girl smiled, this time genuinely and with relief. “Thank you Diane.” She tucked the gun under her arm, where it vanished somewhere. “Stay safe.” She turned away, the new movement spell making the cape and skirt of the magical girl swish oddly as the magic made her slide around before she halted, remembering something. “You too, Donna!”

“You too,” Diane murmured as she watched Donna dart off at a magically enhanced speed. She stopped in the distance, a beacon in the dark that lashed out with an angry purple beam at one of the gorilla starbanes that had nearly killed her. Diane may have stayed there until Donna went out of sight if her teacher hadn’t grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her towards the gymnasium.

Diane felt conflicted, like she should have fought harder to stay outside and help Donna. But then she was in the lobby of the gymnasium and the door was closing behind her. The last she saw of the magical girl was an orange circle forming under Donna before she jumped up faster than Diane’s eyes had been able to track. Now she was in the lobby, and it felt like a normal room. Ms Coolomn let out a deep breath in relief as she turned to take stock of everyone there.

“Where is the other you?” she soon asked, head tilted up to talk to one of the fairies. Diane followed her gaze and realised that only one of the two fairies had come back inside with them.

“That Authority is doing something necessary to send a message to the ones outside,” the fairy responded despondently. She was actually slowly fluttering to one of the small holes in the walls near the ceiling that the little fairies used to navigate without using the big doors. “Someone will let you know if they succeed.”

Diane watched her go, then actually looked around. The lobby they were in was spacious, with a door on each of the four walls, as well as a staircase that led up to an audience space, and they were the only ones there.

“What’s going on in here?” Diane asked. “Shouldn’t there be people keeping guard against the monsters outside?”

Ms Coolomn turned to look at Diane, and her eyes shortly softened. “You’re a strong girl.”

“That’s not an answer to my question,” Diane said. “Those things can kill in seconds, I-”

“Diane,” Donna, the fake one interrupted. “What would they do?”

Diane whipped around to stare at the false Donna, ready to say something scathing with a sharp tongue. The fake girl’s vacant stare towards the ground brought that to a halt, and the memories of what Diane had been capable of before she had been saved replayed in her mind.

“It can’t have been easy out there,” Ms Coolomn said. “In here, we’ve been doing our best to stay calm. A small mercy though it may be, most of your peers were sleepy after having dinner. The boys organised a tourney, which was a fantastic distraction. We dimmed the lights after and brought out some spare sheets. Everyone is sleeping on gym mats tonight.”

Ms Coolomn’s eyes went distant as she remembered something. “Some woke up with the explosion that happened earlier. Mostly, we’re trying to keep an environment where people can sleep. It’s better than propagating panic.” The teacher’s hands hovered in the air, like she wanted to give the two girls another hug, or at least give them a reassuring squeeze on the shoulders, but retreated. “You should find some place to lie down.”

“I’m not-” False Donna lost the train and trailed off. Diane could tell it was played up trauma.

“It’s just teachers and camp staff upstairs,” Ms Coolomn said, changing tact. “I can tell them to leave you alone.”

Donna nodded, though Diane was fighting a rising urge to hit something. She was trapped in here now, and the real Donna was out there fighting still.

“I’m not ready to face… some people… right now,” she said instead, reaching for an excuse that didn’t involve outright saying that she wanted to be with the magical girl outside.

“Your idiot male groupmate?” the teacher asked, and Diane blinked in surprise. She had forgotten about that entirely. “I can understand completely. But I will let some of the awake people know that you both made it back okay.” Ms Coolomn turned to Donna sternly. “You stirred quite the mess, young girl. I thought you’d run off to die.”

The false Donna shrunk in on herself and the teacher sighed, clearly regretting saying that. “I can let your friend Stephanie know that you made it back,” she continued, this time speaking to Diane. “She almost ran out after Donna. I caught her.”

“Oh,” Diane said. She… hadn’t realised that. Despite herself, she looked at the false Donna as though she were the real one. Between her and Stephanie, Diane knew clearly who she was actually friends with. Yet it was Donna who had run off into the forest in a fool’s errand that should have by all rights doomed them both. “I’d like that.”

The Donna, who had been playing up how traumatised she was, took a moment to meet Diane’s eyes. Just like the real one occasionally did.

“Good, um… stay here while I go and get her then,” Ms Coolomn told Diane. She bustled over to the wall where some plastic chairs were stacked and lifted two off from there. The two girls were directed to sit before the teacher finally left with another lingering glance over her shoulder.

And then, finally, there was nothing to do but wait.

“I’m glad you let yourself come in here,” Fake Donna said after several seconds. When Diane looked at her, she was still staring ahead as though she were more shaken than she was, but met Diane’s eyes when the other girl looked at her. “I wasn’t sure if you would allow it.”

Diane maintained eye contact, willing her to go on, but the other girl broke away first, evidently finished with what she was saying. “What do you mean?” she pressed.

“If you are looking for something, you will find it,” Donna said, then hesitated. “Within reason, I expect.”

“Because of the wish?” Diane guessed, and received a nod of confirmation. “And I have everlasting health, safety, and fortune as well, don’t I? I remember Donna saying that.”

“Yes, and please remember, I am Donna as well,” the False Donna said. “She will remember the things you say to me as though you said them directly to her, providing we both survive long enough to reunite.” She shifted in the cheap plastic chair. The entire time she had been sitting, her back hadn’t touched the back of the chair, and it only became odd at that moment. “And there’s also the matter of… enforcement, is the word I think fits.”

“Enforcement?” Diane echoed.

“Yes.” Donna agreed, then turned her gaze to Diane’s own. “The thing protecting you is a probability field. Suppose you are surrounded on all sides by murderous sixballs with a weapon that’s out of ammo. Would you make it out unharmed?”

“If it’s a probability field-” Diane began.

“You also have a long term regeneration spell waiting to activate in the event that you do get injured,” Donna continued forcefully. “So it’s a trick question with the answer always being “yes.” But the consideration I made is how much pain you would experience between point A and B. The wish maintains your health, not your tolerance for pain.”

Diane spent a few long seconds staring evenly at the other girl, and this time Donna didn’t break away. “You should have used that wish on yourself.”

“I did,” Donna responded just as evenly. “Nobody died because of my action or inaction.”

“That’s-” Diane cut off, searching for an appropriate comeback. She didn’t find one in time, Stephanie rushed into the lobby from the main gymnasium area and Diane only had time to see how red and puffy the blonde girl’s eyes were before she was pulled into yet another hug.

Stephanie was more of a mess than Diane had ever known her to be, and the shock of that made her a little slow to wrap her arms around the other girl in turn. The most shocking part was how Stephanie’s long hair had clear strays going beyond what a few hours of bed head would inflict. She was even babbling, with the words running together so much that Diane couldn’t make out what she was saying.

But Diane could see that Steph had clearly been worried, so she let her get it out. Eventually the things she was saying became clear enough to understand.

“... -was I goinna to say to your parents? Your sister? All because I wanned to be smart and blay matchmager and I wasn’ even that good addiiit.”

“Stephanie,” Diane decided to say, firmly pushing Stephanie back until she was at arms length without actually letting go. “We’re all back. If you had nothing to do with it, then why would you blame yourself?”

That just made Stephanie break down into bawling again. Diane decided to stand and pull Stephanie up so that the hugging would be less awkward until she finally calmed down again. Less awkward, but she'd be holding the other girl up in the meantime. It was a good thing Stephanie was so light.

“Your resolve is admirable,” Ms Coolomn commented, reminding Diane that she had come in shortly after Stephanie. “I certainly couldn’t keep it together like that at your age.”

Diane turned to see the teacher past Stephanie’s blonde head. She glanced to see where Donna was still sitting and acting like she was watching a void buried somewhere beneath the floor. Of the young girls there, it was only Diane who was acting unperturbed by events.

“I was actually impaled,” Diane decided to say. “In my shoulder and uh, the second one was through my lung. With the healing I received there’s no trace though, so it feels like a dream.” Stephanie clutched Diane tighter, while Donna didn’t react. Diane decided to test that. “Donna didn’t make it out unscathed either. She was bleeding for some time.”

It got a reaction, but not the reaction that Diane had been hoping for.

Stephanie seemed to realise that Donna was there for the first time and disentangled herself with a single minded determination that shone through the mess she’d become. The blonde basically threw herself at Donna, who was still on her chair, and began babbling once more.

As for the sudden huggee, Donna’s thousand yard stare vanished for a moment and she glanced urgently at Stephanie with an intensity normally reserved for a new starbane form come to kill her. She looked around at the onlookers, awkwardly realising she had been caught reacting before lifting her arms just as awkwardly to return the hug. Soon, the eyes unfocused once again.

Diane was surprised by a reassuring hand squeezing her shoulder, and found her teacher there with a soft expression. “Let’s get you girls to a bed.” Ms Coolomn released Diane and gently disentangled Stephanie from the crying pile she had made, leaving the teen standing awkwardly in front of the false Donna once more. She was still searching for the words to say when Donna smoothly rose and stepped close.

Then Donna stopped, so close that that Diane could feel breath on her face and their boobs were mere centimetres away from squishing into each other, and lifted both arms slightly.

“Are you offering to hug me?” Diane asked, acting incredulous while her heart accelerated once more.

“Morale,” Donna said cooly, not blinking as she looked directly at Diane’s eyes. It called back to the hug Diane had shared with the real Donna, and she wasn’t able to respond in the same way as she had back then. Putting on that smooth bravado was somehow difficult when she didn’t feel like her life was threatened.

Instead, Diane was awkward as she lifted her arms to mirror Donna, and flustered as she transitioned into a real hug. It wasn’t like one Stephanie might give, the blonde had far more experience at naturally making those happen. One of the only benefits Diane could make out was how they broke eye contact, relieving her of that “on the spot” feeling.

Then, Diane found herself holding tight, forgetting herself as an honest feeling made itself known.

“I want to be your friend, you know?” she whispered as her emotional control wavered.

The simulacrum reacted as its caster would have, and physically hesitated at the revelation. “Okay…”

Diane wanted to laugh. This magical girl was so much more effort to befriend than she had any reason to be. It defied reason. How else would she have that reaction after the experiences they had shared?

It didn’t matter. Diane’s mind was made up. She had a wish on her side now, it was going to happen.