Chapter Text
Jagged rocks dug at Ace's knees, piercing through the thin cloth of his uniform and opening a new set of scars on his already beaten kneecaps.
He peered behind his shoulder.
A tuft of white hair and fur lay on the crook of a small shoulder, shaking and trembling with each sob and growl that comes out. Slightly trembling, another pair of hands lay atop the shoulder, hoping to give at least the bare amount of comfort.
There were more behind him, but Ace didn't want to see nor count them. Ignorance is bliss as they say.
Keep moving, Ace. He inhaled, marching forward in the barren land. He needed to find someone, he can't remember who exactly. Just someone who was alive, and not injured.
...Someone in front of him.
"Hey!" Ace sprinted towards a familiar blue-haired boy, throwing his arms around him, desperately trying to keep the warmth nearby, "Oh, thank fuck you're alive. You gave me a heart attack, I-"
There was something sticking onto his blazer.
Ace quickly broke the hug, staring down at his torso to find red blobs splattered all over the black fabric. And the source would be-
He eyed the boy's abdomen, a large gash at the center. The boy had long lost his blazer, and vest, resulting in his once pure white dress shirt being completely invaded by dirt, and now blood. It was filthy to look at, but the nauseating sight of more red slowly leaking out of him was somehow able to keep Ace's attention.
"You're-" Ace looked up at him, tears started to come out of his eyes, "No, this can't be. You can't just- you can't leave me. We'll fix this! You just have to-"
"Thank you-" he smiled, like any other day. His breath dissipated, slow yet inevitable, just like the fact that he was sinking onto Ace to even stand up, "-for being with me."
"Stay with me! Please!"
Ace jolted awake at the loud scream in his head, something that was equivalent to having his entire body shocked. He ended up hitting the solid wood in front of him with his head because of it.
Now despite having already opened his eyes -mostly because of the pain-, all that Ace could see was darkness.
“Where…" His hands reached out to the darkness, but he only managed to reach above his head before encountering a plush velvet lining.
Slowly, he could feel air returning to his lungs as the fog on his brain also started to clear out. He turned his head, eyes starting to get used to the darkness. Sweat had begun to pool around his own body and even as he flapped the front of his outfit, it did nothing to cool or calm him down.
“Is anyone out there?" He chuckled, as if he was on some kind of prank show. Fingers curled in on themselves as Ace banged and kicked on the wooden lid.
Silence follows.
Inside the coffin, breaths quickened, hands curling into the silken material of his outfit. Ace wouldn’t call himself a claustrophobic person, but at this moment it feels as if the walls are truly closing in on him, trapping him to his doom.
"Hey, I'm not messing around. There's a person inside here! And he's wide awake!" He said again, slightly louder. He heard footsteps nearby, that should be a good sign.
A click sounded, and the tight lid of the coffin cracked open, letting a cool gust of wind inside the –by now- extremely sweaty and stuffy coffin. Ace let out a sigh of relief, letting himself lean on the door of the coffin.
But then gravity had to play its part in the world, and as the door opened, Ace’s body leaned a bit too forward. Stumbling on his feet, Ace crashed down to the ground, right in front of a certain red-headed boy. He sighed, rubbing at his chin and pushing himself up to stand upright next to the one, and the only Riddle Rosehearts.
“Jeez, took you long enough…” Ace slowly took in his breaths, his hands slowly loosening around his robes as he fixed the hood of his own outfit.
"Cater, Trey, and I can handle it. Go help them!'
Ace flinched at the memory. A jolt of pain shot through Ace’s head as his brain ran wild. Great, now remembering things is painful. Maybe he should use that as an excuse to skip exams.
“That’s odd. Students usually wake up after the door is unlocked but-” he shook his head. “Doesn’t matter, are you alright?”
Ace dared to look into Riddle’s eyes. For once, those eyes held in them not apprehension and a cold wall of steel but worry, albeit it still swam in between the usual sternness the boy held in his eyes. Ace almost forgot to answer for a while, brain lagging behind by several minutes behind his body.
“I’m… fine, dorm leader.” Ace finally answered.
Riddle's eyes widened, then he frowned, as if Ace had said something wrong and was about to get himself a nice pair of head-lock.
"Sorry, did I say something-"
"No," Riddle shook his head, dignified. "I merely didn't expect you to recognize me as a dorm leader, that's all."
He laughed nervously, "I just… guessed?"
"Hm." Riddle glanced at the other, undisturbed coffins, "Perhaps you would like to go freshen up a bit? Your… coffin fiasco, let's say, was not the most pleasant thing to experience I assume."
He nodded, and Ace thought for a moment he saw what seemed like a flash of concern directed at him.
“But don’t you dare be late, or it’s off with your head!”
Ah, never mind then.
“Yeah, yeah, gotcha...” he turned his head and shivered, grumbling under his breath, “As if I’m gonna let that happen right now.”
“What was that?” Almost jumping out of his skin, Ace’s voice reached pitches he never knew he could reach before as his hands flailed about.
“I- I said I’m going to the bathroom!"
Slamming the grandiose doors closed, Ace ran off, leaving a mildly confused Riddle in the eerily silent room.
"Does he know where that would be?" Ace heard him mutter to himself.
Opening the tap water was an instant cathartic experience as if the running of the water had immediately cleared the noises arguing about inside his head. A content sigh escaping his mouth, he ran his hands under the water and splashed it onto his face, the cold of the water nicely contrasting the heat of Ace’s cheeks, letting him slump his shoulders as his hands fell to grip on the sink.
Now what? Hell, what do people even do after narrowly escaping death? And a follow-up question, was that all real? It felt real to Ace; judging by the fuzzy memories, and the most obvious would be-
“Everybody get down!” a gruff voice barked, followed by a painful, painful yelp. Ace desperately wanted to turn around, pick himself up, and call for a retreat, but just as Ace’s head turned the slightest, another voice immediately yelled back at him and several others, “Leave Jack to me! I’ll take care of him, you guys go ahead!” The team headed onwards, reluctant to leave yet also believing in the boy’s abilities.
But with them heading onwards, they also have left the two to their own fates.
Death.
“Human! Get out of the way!”
Ace was able to make out distant gasps of horror and screams as he himself was dodging thorns spouted their way. Several missed, but several more grazed his cheeks and body, creating scars along the trails they followed. As he turned to his side he could spot two figures slouched against one. He could catch glimpses of thorns peeking out from beside the two figures.
Ace wanted to run.
He just wanted to leave this all behind, forget about everything that’s happening right now. The blood trickling down his forehead did not make it any better. Not even-
“Hey.” A fuzzy figure placed a hand on his shoulder, “Don’t die, ok? I’ll be right back.”
Looking into the mirror, Ace was faced with his own features, smooth, silky, and devoid of any scars. There wasn’t anything. No grime that he picked up, crawling across the dirt and mud of the battlefield. Just the phantom pain of it all.
The last thing he remembered other than having his friend dying in his arms would be-
The weight of his magic pen grew heavier in the robe’s pocket, prompting him to grab and examine it in his hands. The red gem shone underneath the bathroom’s light, flickering its shine to Ace’s eyes. An incantation danced in Ace's memories. Something he vaguely remembers casting, before everything reset.
Reset...
Either everyone is playing a cruel joke on Ace.
Or he can actually manipulate time.
“Huh.” He hummed, touching his now smooth face while looking at the mirror. Slightly afraid that with a light touch, he might rip it all open again, “Not bad.”
Stepping back through the two grandiose doors, Ace was greeted with a myriad of voices clashing and merging with each other. He sighed and scratched his head as he moved towards the front, standing just beside Riddle.
“Told ya I wouldn’t be late!” he smirked, crossing his arms as Riddle just shot him a blank look.
“It’s mandatory to follow the rules, nothing to be proud of.” Ace let out a small ‘tch’ as Riddle gestured to where the other first years were standing, “Go on and wait until it’s your turn to get sorted by the mirror.”
Under his breath, Ace grumbled as he made his way over to the bunch, reciprocating the greetings of several passing students, “Jeez, I forgot he used to be a huge pain in the ass, with all those rules.” He took his spot near the back, a place where he’s able to watch the ceremony unfold with relative peace.
It was... bizarre, to say the very least, to hear the exact same words uttered by the same exact person in a different situation. Unsettling is an understatement, the feeling crawling up Ace’s spine and sending shivers down his whole body and it wasn’t at all because of the nonexistent cooling devices. Ace looked around as the ceremony droned on, the mirror assigning the same dorms to the same exact student. On the other hand, it was also boring him to death (ha!). Knowing everyone’s dorm quickly ruined Ace’s game of ‘guess where this bozo is getting sorted into’.
Lavender-colored hair appeared in his field of vision, one that would most definitely belong to Epel, still looking as miserable as ever after being sorted into Pomefiore. Skipping the ceremony, however-
Ace shook the thought away. No, he should focus on the big problem right now and more importantly, how to solve it. Or why exactly all of this is happening, and how it started.
Just as his aching head was figuring out what exactly he should do, a certain blue-haired student entered his vision, walking determinedly forward to the mirror. Those exact strands of deep blue hair, the glistening bright blue eyes staring deeply into the mirror, some sort of determination simmering beneath the calm blue eyes.
His mouth hung open, watching as the no longer dead student worked his way over back to his place after being pronounced a Heartslabyul student.
Ace didn’t know if he had meant to grab at his wrists or if he had meant to tug on it. He didn’t know why he had done it, really. To see if this was all real, to wake up from this long nightmare. None of that did matter in the end. He didn’t bother to dig for any more reasoning when his hand had finally grabbed a hold of his wrist.
Warm. Alive. Beating.
Safe.
Deuce Spade was very much alive, and is now tilting his head at Ace.
“Can I help you?” He asked, not a single trace of familiarity in his voice.
“Erm," Ace let go of his wrist. So many lies running all over his head in those few seconds, so many things he wanted to say. “Your hood. It’s crooked. Sorry, just wanted to tell you that.”
"Oh!" Deuce quickly stood beside him, flustered as he fixed his hood, "Thank you."
"S'fine."
"You're a Heartslabyul student as well, correct?" He continued the conversation, much to Ace's surprise.
"Yes- yeah, I am." Ace scratched the back of his neck, "I guess that makes us dorm mates?"
Deuce nodded, "Then I hope we share a room together- if you want to of course! I mean, you can't exactly pick it yourself- oh, I should shut up right now."
The words 'no, don't' almost left his mouth. Deuce doesn't know him, not anymore. Ace should act accordingly. It should be easy, no? Pretending to not care about someone because let's face it, Ace's number one priority should be not dying for the second time. But it feels empty without his friends' company. Like they're strangers all over again.
This is the price he learned for every use of his newly acquainted unique magic: Ace will never be remembered for as long as they have to die at the end.