Olivia

“So what do we do now?” I asked, glancing between Rachel and Red Heart - whose real name I’d need to get at some point, I realized, but I wasn’t sure we were quite on that level of trust with one another

 Then again, she did know mine.

“I think we should stay together, today,” Rachel said, raising her hand. “We don’t know if they’ll be able to track us here, or away from here - there’s a chance Heartly’s lying about how much they do or don’t know, and even if she isn’t we don’t know for sure that White Heart and Violet don’t have their own ways of figuring out where we went.”

“I wasn’t lying, for the record,” Heartly said, almost sounding hurt. Maybe she was hurt? I… wasn’t really sure what to think of her. I mean, she’d been an enemy until recently - but she also hadn’t exactly been sentient until after we corrupted her, so was it fair to hold her past actions against her?

My feelings on Red were even more complex - she was supposed to be a hero, not a maniac with a butcher knife who stabbed people in the heads! And yet… was that really her fault? The crystals were the ones who’d forced her to repress her true nature until it had turned into this, as if they were turning some coal into some form of nasty diamond.

“Is something wrong?” Red asked, causing me to take a step back as I suddenly realized I’d been staring at her

“S-sorry,” I murmured, not quite able to meet her gaze. “I was just… thinking. Uh. I should probably text Clarissa, and tell her what’s going on. Assuming the crystals can’t, like, intercept that somehow?”

“Shouldn’t be an issue!” Chrys promised me.

“Right, then,” I murmured, pulling out my phone. I wasn’t entirely sure what to say - how to sum up everything that had happened that day - but after a moment, I just shrugged and sent her a simple text. Things went weird, but I’m safe. Staying over with friends tonight. Will explain more later.

The fact that she replied pretty much immediately - with a series of question marks and exclamation points, no less - left me feeling a bit bad. I’d obviously been worrying her, and I still was, but I wasn’t really up to telling her how screwy things had gotten over text. I knew she’d have plenty to say over me trusting Red with literally anything right now, too, but Rachel seemed to think there was some good in the girl and that was enough for me.

It totally wasn’t just me still wanting to believe my heroes were good at heart or anything. Nope. Not all!

“So what are we doing tonight?” I asked the group, instead of dwelling on those totally irrelevant thoughts. “Just… hanging out until the danger’s passed?”

“How about a game?” Rachel asked, glancing at Red who was currently muttering to herself about ‘being a good girl.’ “Truth or dare?”

“Don’t you think that might get a bit problematic?” Heartly asked. “I’m pretty sure you all have secrets you’d rather not share.”

“And I think that’s the problem,” Rachel said. “We’re all in this together now, right? So we need to be able to trust each other.”

“I’m not so sure a party game’s going to be able to solve that problem!” Chrys chimed in.

“Well, we have to start somewhere don’t we?” Rachel insisted, clearly exasperated.

“I agree,” I said, wanting to give her my support. Not because I was a hundred percent convinced this was a good idea, but because she’d been there for me and helped me out so much I felt like I needed to give her a chance. Besides, how bad could it be?

“How do we decide who goes first?” Red asked, shaking herself free from… whatever had her in such a tizzy. Her own psychosis, I guess?

“You can pick,” Rachel said, before I could offer any ideas. “It’s your house.”

“Really?” she asked, biting her lower lip. “Well, if you’re sure… Olivia? Truth or dare!”

“Me?” I asked, blinking. I mean, I guess it made sense I’d be the one she was most curious about. She didn’t know me at all, for all that she seemed a little obsessed with capturing me. “Uh… Truth, I guess?”

“Do you have a crush on anyone?” she asked, with a dangerous gleam in her eyes - and suddenly I was all too aware that she could turn into a super-powered magical girl with a cleaver for a wand. 

“Not really?” I replied, wincing a little when Red narrowed her eyes. Rachel was giving me a funny look too, for that matter, but I didn’t feel like this was quite the time to worry about that. “I mean, it’s sort of hard to think about romance with everything that’s been going on, you know? Like, I’ve barely had time to get used to the idea that I maybe like being a girl, what with the constant threat of being caught and killed hanging over my head, and all.”

Now Red was giving me a confused look, for some reason, while Rachel looked almost guilty. I decided it was time to push on.

“My turn to pick, right? Uh. Rachel, truth or dare?”

“Me?” she squeaked, seemingly surprised at being chosen. “Dare, I guess? The better to keep things interesting, right?”

“Sure,” I replied, trying not to grimace as I realized that now I’d actually have to come up with a dare. “Maybe… kiss one of us on the cheek?”

“Wow, weak dare!” Chrys commented.

“Yeah? Well, I’d like to see you come up with anything better,” I replied, blushing a little.

“It’s fine,” Rachel said, her own cheeks tinged pink as she glanced between me and Red before finally settling on the latter. There was a flutter of something in my stomach at that - almost like disappointment, which was weird, because what in the world did I have to be disappointed about? It was just a kiss on the cheek between friends! A chaste one, too - just a quick peck before Rachel backed up again, her cheeks deepening in her color, and her eyes darting towards… me? Was she looking for a reaction? Approval?

“Uh… well done! I guess. It’s your turn now!”

“My turn,” Rachel repeated, mostly to herself. “Well… uh… Red Heart? Truth or dare?”

“Truth!” she stated, immediately. “I have nothing to hide from my - I mean, Olivia. Or you, Pink.”

“It’s just Rachel, now,” she replied, a little grumpily. I guess she didn’t like being reminded of her lost rank. “If we’re going with truth, though - can you… tell me what you really think of me?”

“That… really is a big ask for a party game,” Red replied, and now it was her cheeks turning red. “But I guess… if I had to say… You’re like… A little sister to me?”

“A little sister?” Rachel asked, a little surprised.

“Yes. You know. Someone who gets underfoot, and in the way of your plans, and makes you really frustrated, but you can’t hurt them because you love them because they’re your sister and so all you can really do is lock them up somewhere far away from your crush so that they can’t get in the way of you… I mean… not that I intend to lock you or my crush up. Not like I have a crush in the first place, really! That would be ridiculous, right? Having a crush on the Violet Queen… who stole my first kiss…”

“R-right,” I interrupted, “maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all?”

“N-no!” Red protested. “It’s fine! Good even! I… It gives me an excuse to talk out all the things I definitely don’t want to do and convince myself I definitely don’t want to do them!”

“Things like locking me up?” Rachel asked. She sounded hurt. “I thought we were… I mean, I know you were nice to everyone, but… I thought that you at least…”

“I do care about you!” Red hurried to say. “That’s why I want to… I mean, I don’t really want to lock you up, but if I did it would be only for your own good! And so that you don’t get in the way of me maybe trying to kidnap - I mean, seduce? Seduce! My… Er, I mean, um…”

“Remind me why we corrupted her crystal instead of just outright removing her powers?” Chrys asked.

“Other than the fact that wiping her magic would have led to me heading over to the other crystals to say what’s up?” Heartly asked. “Something I’ll still do if you try to wipe her, by the way.”

“Heartly, no!” Red protested. “They’d kill you!”

“They’re gonna try either way,” Heartly replied. “Having a host is in my own self interest!”

“A crazy host?” I asked, only to feel immediately crappy about it when I saw the hurt look on Red’s face. “Sorry, it’s just… You did kinda brand me with a lust mark and try to drive me insane…”

“I am sorry about that,” Red whispered, looking down. “I… I lost control over myself. I won’t do it again! Even if I kidnap you, I’ll make sure to wear down your resistances over time instead!”

“That’s… not exactly reassuring,” Rachel pointed out, drawing a glare from Red.

“We're not stealing her powers, either way” I declared, in a tone I at least hoped brooked no argument. “She's a magical girl! One of my heroes? Someone looked up to by who knows how many girls and boys out there.”

“She's also a danger!” Chrys insisted. “But fine. I know when I'm outvoted! And as a voice that mostly just exists in your head, I don't exactly have the power to do much… but I will mock you endlessly when this goes wrong!”

“If it goes wrong, you can mock me all you want.”

“Me too,” Rachel volunteered. “I know she's a bit… much, but I don't think taking her powers away is the right solution. We're going to need as much help as we can get if we're going to corrupt all the crystals and free all the magical girls.”

“Wait, what?” I asked. “When did that become the goal?”

“I mean, what else can we do?” Rachel asked. “There’s no way Violet and White are going to let you go now that you've ‘corrupted’ Red Heart.”

“And it's not just them, either!” Chrys added. “Once they figure out that you can corrupt crystals, they'll be making you a much higher priority target.”

“So?” I asked. “They're already trying to kill me. How much worse can it get?”

“Well, for one thing, they could spread word to the other crystals,” Heartly said, speaking up for the first time in a while. “Our ability to communicate with each other long distance is usually pretty limited, but in an emergency like this… Well, they can call for a meeting if nothing else.”

“A meeting?” I asked. “What's the big deal about a meeting?”

“It's a worldwide meeting,” Chrys clarified. “In virtual space. The last time we had one of these, it was when we decided to start up all this magical girl shit. And this time? It's going to be all about what to do with you.”

I paled. “But we can stop it, right?”

“Maybe,” Chrys hedged. “If we can take the other two out before they can have it.”

“How long do we have?” Rachel asked.

“Until they call the meeting? No way to tell. But there's no way they can hold it right away, so… I'd say we've got a week? Two tops.”

“And then every magical girl on the planet will be after us,” Heartly added.

That's-” I started, before freezing as my phone went off.

“Who is it?” Rachel asked. “Clarissa?”

“No…” I whispered, voice weak.

“It doesn't have anything to do with the other magical girls, does it?” Red asked. “They don't have your number, right?”

“Worse,” I replied, trying to swallow past the lump in my throat. “It's my mom.”

~~~Author's Notes

Woo! We finally managed to write a chapter of Naughty Magic. It took a bit, in part because I had no clue what I wanted to do for it, but it's meant to be a turn your brain off and write series so... We managed!

Hope you enjoy??? MOV next. Probably today or tomorrow, but we'll see.