Lily was in detention...
... again.
Well it wasn't 'detention' exactly, it was the 'advanced after school club', where the teacher would give Lilly very particular attention on all she had to work on in the week, improve upon it, and let her leave as soon as she had finished all the assigned tasks. As a result, Lilly was becoming intensely focused on her studies simply to avoid being in this situation. She wanted to be out there and help the magic girls!
She worked through the answers meticulously, feeling the pressure at every second knowing she absolutely had to get every answer right to earn her freedom from this. It was usually either Miss Violet or the spider teacher who would keep her in. Each time she would be at least ten questions away from finding Jenny and Artemis. Sometimes it didn't take too long, in which case they would make the questions all the more harder.
Answer to question one... photosynethesis... done... question on mathematics... done... geography... done...
Just a few more to go! Why did they feel the need to punish her like this? Why couldn't she just be allowed to go and help! She could already imagine her friends fighting, trying to find some way to force the dark things back into the 'other worlds'... but the truth is that, Lilly's stick was a very convenient method of doing it even if Lilly herself was very fragile without magical protections. The way to solve this problem would have been to relinquish the stick to one of the magic girls as Tetra suggested... but Lilly wouldn't give up the stick. It was the only thing thing she had that made her... special enough.
Finally she finished the paper and gave it.
"... hm... almost perfect Lilly," said the spider teacher. Try again."
Lilly almost cracked as she stared at her work. "W-which question is it?" she asked barely a whisper. Her fur was getting frazzled at each passing second.
The spider teacher sighed. The little squirrel girl was getting way too good at this- but Miss Violet was clear. She had to delay Lilly each day for as long as legally possible. "I'm afraid I can't tell you dear. You'll have to work it out."
Lilly fumed looking at the paper, and going through each question. She thought she had the answers! Oh... wait there! Yes! She just mi-spelled photosynthesis! She quickly finished it and showed it.
The teacher looked at it again a little bemused... so much for keeping her in. The questions will have to be harder tomorrow. "Well you completed it, I guess that means you can go-"
Lilly ran off.
"...out?"
As always, Sakura would be waiting for Lilly outside the gates. The cat gave a little meow to her owner and jumped onto her shoulder. The cat really was getting more affectionate to Lilly. It was a friendship she treasured. She didn't know where the cat came from, or what it did... but the animal accepted her, for just who she was.
"'kay Sakura, we gotta find Jenny. Yeah I know, Artemis has hidden the scent this time." She wasn't sure quite how Artemis did that, but it didn't matter. Lilly had a way to find any magic. Even if she messed up last time, she will keep trying until she got this right.
Her stick had become so small now, it was about the size of a large wand, after she had used it. She tied it carefully with a piece of her hair, into the most delicate of knots. The stick was barely supported, but it slowly started to swing into a particular direction. It aligned itself to the field it rested on. The squirrel girl placed her hand over the other end, to make sure she had the 'north' direction correct. Otherwise they would be going in the wrong direction.
"That way. Sakura? Can you do that... thing again?" she asked tentatively. She hoped she could encourage the animal to keep doing this. It helped so much.
The cat jumped of Lilly, going into the direction. Lilly followed after her. From her perspective, she watched the cat appear and disappear, moving at each step in front of her. Lilly did the same, following after her. It was as if reality were a tapestry and she was weaving inside and out of it, appearing and disappearing, in the wake of her companion. Buildings, cars, roads... they were as nothing and they could move in a straight line. They moved so quickly, as if time itself slowed down around them.
Indeed, to Sakura, Time was really just lunch.
Jon was sitting with Karyn. They had a number of candles together, and were doing some very simple tricks with the strange force that was magic unto the world. A strange idea, where reality just... at some point was forced to give up to the desires of a sentient thought.
They did not expect to see a cat suddenly jump onto their table spearing from 'nowhere', looking for it's part.. very confused, followed by a squirrel girl with two tails, wearing a school uniform looking equally confused at just where they 'jumped' into.
Jon stared. "It... it can't be!" she said staring at the blue stick.
"Where are we?" Asked the squirrel. "You are... magic girls?" she asked looking at them with confusion. where was Jenny? Artemis? Did the magic stick mess up? Maybe it was getting weaker.
"Where did you get that!" asked Karyn pointing to the blue stick. She glanced at Jon with some apprehension.
Lilly glanced down at the small stick held to her. it was still pointing towards Jon. "I found it," she said not wanting to give more details.
"It was part of a tree right? near a lake?" Strange.. she thought it was a much larger piece then what the girl held.
Lilly gasped a bit as she jumped from the table and onto the floor. She had to still find Jenny before they got into another fight- but this looked important. "You... know about the tree?"
"Well yes," said Karyn. "I remember it," she said. That day... it felt like it was so long ago.
"H-how?" Lilly asked apprehensively looking at the stick. She held it tightly with great concern as the others took such an interest in her magical weapon.
Jon stared at it, then at the little animal-girl. "Because... I made it."
Jeff Snr stared at what he saw. The... strange 'guts' of a clockwork. Little hinges, ticks, things, it all moved in concert and with incredible beauty. He inched closer, to the beautiful and strange wheels that seemed to have within them the consciousness of his son. A consciousness he wished to duplicate into a new perfect being to carry on his legacy. Perhaps even a copy of his own consciousness?
He had to find the secret though.. what is it that made this machine actually 'run'? What was the connection between the tightening spring, and the consciousness that radiated from this creature, that his son became? This imperfect... mockery of humanity.
He touched one of the gears that were currently not moving, marvelling at its strange movement on its pivot. How strange... what a strange little... toy.
It was a toy really. Just a toy... his 'son'. The sunlight took away all that he made of the boy, and tossed him this. Part of him wanted to just smash the contraptions inside, but he held back that thought. He thought.. he could see something 'glowing' inside. He had to move in closer. Is this the secret of the power? Or was it a trick of the light? He pressed his cold hands into the casing, feeling the strange vibration within it.
He continued to record the strange things inside the clockwork giant.
Lilly stared at the slug girl and at the stick. The strange blue stick that had allowed her to at least... in part, be a magic girl. Even if she wasn't really such. "You.. made it?" she asked, her heart sinking a bit.
Brittany gasped as she came into the room to check Jon and Karyn's progress with magic and saw the scene. She stared at the squirrel girl, as if she had seen a ghost. But she stayed silent, watching the situation.
"I- I made the stick with magic," admitted Jon. "back when... I could." She didn't know if she should let this stranger in on the stone.
"But... you can't do magic now?" Asked Lilly a little crestfallen.
Jon glanced a little guiltily. "Just.. a few small things," she said. "We're still trying to work out what we can do." Minor tricks seemed to work.. but how far could they push reality?
Lilly looked just a bit sadly as she looked at the stick, then gently held it in two hands with her paws upwards. She motioned it to Jon.
"hm?" Jon looked confused at the girl.
"It... it belongs to you. You made it,"
Jon took hold of the stick, and maybe... maybe because of her recent experience with magic, she could feel power in it. Not at all like the stone but... an echo of it. Lilly had awakened some of its potential using the embers of what the stone could do...
Lilly could feel her heart breaking just a bit. Did this mean... it was over? Without the stick, she had nothing... She glanced to Sakura, who looked at her with a bemused expression. "Sorry... guess I'll..."
"What's your name?" asked Jon.
"L-Lilly," she said quietly. "At least- that's who I am now," she said hoping... it didn't sound silly saying that.
Jon looked at the stick in her hand. She could see why it probably should belong to her. It even seemed to fit the strange robes... holding it as she did it felt... strange. Yet she saw the little animal-girl, and... something else felt even more right. She gently pressed the stick towards Lilly.
The squirrel girl seemed confused as she took the stick back, as she felt it tingle with power.
Jon smiled. "I only made it. It... belongs to you." she said firmly.
Brittany smiled looking at the scene with a faint smile. She glanced behind at Haru who was watching her wondering what the ghost girl was thinking.
"What is it Brittany?" She asked her three eyes wide as she glanced at ths squirrel girl. Should she know her? She looked familiar... she had seen her a few times. But there was something more to it.
Brittany just smiled and shook her head. "Oh... just that I enjoy seeing history cycle as it does. Merlin never could get away from a certain squirrel."
