Back in Time {an SGE fanfic}

Chapter 2

Who do you think the impostors are?

A boy who looked as if he were about 15 darted toward the clearing. "Help! The school is under attack! We need help!" Isly and Agatha exchanged glances, and said in unison, "We can help." Tedros unsheathed his sword and said heroically, "I'll help." Sophie shoved the golden-haired king aside, flipped her hair in a flirty fashion at the boy, and said, "I'll help. The Witch of the Woods Beyond is here. No need to fear."

The boy gave her a raised eyebrow, as if to say "I don't know what on earth you are talking about but I'm just going to roll with it." He turned to Isly and Agatha. "Follow me."  

~~~~

There were no attackers by the time Isly, Agatha, Sophie, and Tedros arrived at the scene, but the School for Good and Evil had been reduced to a huge mountain of rubble. Students and teachers, good and evil alike were comforting each other, mourning the loss of their school. Tedros yanked Excalibur from its scabbard and shouted, "Where are the attackers? COWARDS COME OUT AND FIGHT ME!" His shouting earned him some confused looks, and Agatha gave her husband (it's so weird knowing that they are like 17 and married) a well-earned whack on the back of the head. "Shut your mouth, you dunderhead! You're drawing too much attention to us!" She turned to the boy. "How can we help?"

"Well, we mainly need help retrieving bodies from the ruins and healing people who were hurt in the attack, but you can talk to her to see what you need to do." The boy pointed to a girl who was using complicated-looking magic to lift debris off the bodies of injured students so others could reach them and carry them to healing stations. "She arrived right after the attack, and she's had it all handled over there since she came." Sophie spoke, shattering the silence of the group. "Can students even do that level magic? She looks younger than us." 

Agatha murmured, "She doesn't look that much younger.And I don't know about the magic..." "Well, we need to help, so let's just go up to ask her for jobs!" Tedros walked briskly up to the girl and taps her shoulder. Isly, Agatha, and Sophie ran up behind him. Tedros asked the girl, "Excuse me miss, is there anything we can do to help?" The girls couldn't  see her face from where they stood, but they saw Tedros stumble back, eyes wide with fear. And recognition? When the girl turned to the rest of them, only Isly remained unfazed, confused as to why her new friends were acting this way. The girl has soft white hair that is pulled back into a singular messy braid down her back, and she has piercing blue eyes that make her seem older, like she's seen too much...The stranger spoke in a soft, musical voice. "We need extra people at the healing stations, and we need more people to help unearth students from the debris. You could also go and alert people that the school has just been attacked, and that we need their help." 

Isly lead the dumbstruck trio behind a particularly tall pile of rubble. She hissed, "What was with that reaction?! She was pretty, but not quite that pretty!" "It's not that," Sophie said in a low voice. "That girl looked exactly like Rafal. You've read The Tale of Sophie and Agatha, correct? You know who he is. That girl could have been his doppelgänger." Tedros turned to Agatha, just coming to a realization. "Wait, he couldn't have used Merlin's gender-switch spell, right?" Agatha just stood stock-still, open mouthed. "You're all forgetting on very important thing- Rafal is dead." Isly pointed out. "Now let's go help."

They split up. Tedros and Isly went over to help unearth bodies from the wreckage of the school, while Sophie (albeit reluctantly) and Agatha going to help at the healing. 

Tedros and Isly began to pull students out of the crumbled towers. Isly shouted over to Tedros as he digs up an injured girl with brilliant red hair. "I'm going to check the School Master's tower, okay? I can check if the Storian is safe." The blonde king nodded distractedly. Isly ran over to the center rubble pile. She pulled off a few stones, and quickly unearthed a tanned boy with wild auburn hair wearing a blue and gold suit coated with stains and grime. Isly half drags the boy over to the healing station, and the white-haired girl is there, getting interrogated by one of the teachers. She spotted the body, and raced over to Isly. "Where did you find him?" she said urgently. Isly stammers, "The S-school M-master's tower-" The girl darted over to the mountain of rubble, and immediately used magic to lift the rocky debris up into the air. Another body lay amidst the rubble. A teacher ran to retrieve it. The girl looked nervous and stressed, but Isly saw something else in those cold, ice blue eyes...something...but her trance disappeared as the teacher got out just in time before the rubble was set down. 

The white-haired girl ran to see both bodies, her eyes holding a spark of recognition. She covered her mouth. "Oh no," she whispered. "No no no no. It can't be them. They're impossible to hurt..." She turned to Agatha, who was working at that station, and Sophie, who was supposed to be helping Agatha, but was instead was inspecting her nails. "Please make sure these two get immediate treatment and recover as soon as possible." 

Agatha looked confused, but nods. She went to tend to her new patients, but stopped in her tracks when she sees their faces. "Sophie," she said, trembling. "Could you please come here a minute?" Sophie came to stand beside Agatha, and says, " What's wrong, Aggie? Is it the new-" But then Sophie recognized one of the boys. 

There, lying unconscious in the makeshift healing station, was Rafal.

~~~~

A stern voice pierced through the darkness. "Everyone, it's getting late, so we need to set up some sort of camp. Please don't fight, we need both Evers and Nevers to get through this troubling time. Your deans are getting things sorted out now. I suggest you take this time to rest for a moment. Thank you." 

Isly, Tedros, Sophie, and Agatha stood at the bedside of Rafal and the stranger. Neither had woken up, and both remained motionless. Agatha made an attempt to break the silence. "I guess he's not dead." No one could look at Rafal any longer, so they went to help with the camp. The quartet started to set up two makeshift tents, one for Tedros and Agatha and one for Sophie and Isly.

~time skip to night~

The two girls laid in their tent, the awkward silence settling in. A voice pierced through the quiet, and it sounded like it's talking to someone. Isly and Sophie sat up, looked at each other for a second, then scrambled out of their tent, searching for the sound. It seemed to be coming from the healing stations. The duo followed the sound, and quickly crouched behind a leafy bush when they reached the source. 

The tanned boy found in the School Master's tower was trying to wake up his pale counterpart by shaking the living daylights out of him. "Rafal? Rafal! RAFAL!" Rafal woke with a jolt, relaxing when he sees his companion. "Geez, Rhian, you're always so loud when you wake me up..." Rhian looked offended and retorted, "Well, I need to be, because you can probably sleep through anything! Rafal, look around you. The school is a pile of stone and debris, and we're in a makeshift camp. We need to do something," Rafal opened his mouth to say something, but Sophie snapped a branch in that moment, alerting the boys to their presence.