Another Other Marona
by Cyberchao X

Disclaimer: Phantom Brave is property of Nippon Ichi.

Summary: Carona tries to return to the Ivoire she had previously visited in order to see her friends again, but ends up in a different alternate Ivoire…namely, that of the main game. The timelines…don't quite match up.

"Marona? Marona, are you here?" Carona searched Phantom Isle, and though she recognized the phantoms outside as being some of Marona's generic partners, she didn't see the girl herself. "Maybe she's inside." She knocked on the door of the lone house.

"Who is it?" asked a voice that did not sound like Marona's.

"It's Ma…Carona," she replied, remembering that in this world, she went by the alternate name to avoid confusion with this world's Marona.

The person inside looked out the window and opened the door. "Marona didn't tell me she had a little sister," Castile said.

"Ca-Castile?"

"Hm, I guess she talks about me, then…not that I should be surprised." The girl giggled.

"No, it's…" Carona sighed, suspecting that something had gone wrong. This Castile looked older than she was. "Never mind. You're looking quite well."

"Marona takes great care of me," Castile smiled. "I'm almost completely better, though I still get tired out easily."

"That's…good to know." "The Castile I know hasn't responded to treatments nearly this well," she thought sadly. "But why aren't you on the Island of Healing Waters?"

"Well, I was for awhile. But now I'm well enough that I can move in with Marona."

"Move…in…?"

Just then, this world's Marona arrived home. "I'm back, Castile!" she said, then noticed the guest. "Wah! Who are you and why do you look so much like me?"

"Yeah, I…definitely ended up in the wrong Ivoire. Marona, how old are you?"

"S-sixteen…"

"A year older than me. The Marona I met there was a year younger than me." She sighed. "I look like you because I am you from a parallel universe. One year ago, I went to another Ivoire and met up with another Marona, one who was a little younger than me, and ended up helping her to defeat Sulfur. I can tell by the peacefulness here that he's been defeated in your world, as well, but…" She paused. "Well, regardless, I had wanted to come back for a visit with my friends there, but I ended up here instead."

"Yeah, the battle against Sulfur was three years ago," Marona replied, "so I guess if the Marona you met was a year younger than you, she would have been thirteen when she fought Sulfur as well. It was a tough battle…but everyone helped out, and that's when almost everyone started to accept me."

"Except for my brother," Castile cut in.

"He's just jealous because I took better care of you than he could," Marona replied.

"It…it doesn't have to be a competition," Carona said, but was ignored.

"I don't want to just be taken care of, though. I want to be able to go with you on missions," Castile said.

"Not that I wouldn't love having you with me all day, sweetie, but…what would you do? You can't fight."

"I'm learning magic. Tanya's been helping me." (A/N: The autoname given to my starting Witch character in my file of Phantom Brave.)

"Offensive magic? I would have taken you for more of a healer."

"I've tries learning them, too, but my healing spells aren't very effective," Castile said, "their strength is based on resistance, remember? And a frail girl like me has no resistance to speak of. Intelligence, on the other hand, is the one area where I easily outclass you."

"Hey!"

"Admit it, Marona: who was the one who figured out how to communicate with the Putties?"

"You were."

"And who ended up being crucial to the battle against Sulfur because of her bond with the Putties?"

"You were."

"Damn right I was." She embraced Marona and gave her a big, passionate kiss. "So don't doubt my ability to contribute."

"Am I…interrupting something?" Carona asked. "I'll go."

Outside, she ran into Ash. "Mr. Ash…you're in this world, too." Ash looked confused, and Carona explained it all again. "So I guess things worked out fairly well in this world, huh?"

"Yeah…Marona doesn't really need me to take care of her at all anymore. I'm still her top companion when it comes to fighting battles, but back here on the island, I'm just another phantom. I mostly just leave her alone so that she can have private time with Castile."

"Yeah, I kind of…noticed. What's up with that?"

"That's just how Marona is. I was so happy for her when Castile returned her feelings…and I suspect some of the female phantoms were, too, although a few of them were a bit envious of Castile at first."

"Uh…"

"Marona used to get very intimate with her female subordinates. This is probably better for her."

"Yeah, that's what I thought you meant…I was just hoping that I was mistaken."

"…Sounds like you don't share this Marona's love of women."

"…No, and seeing her with Castile of all people…really freaked me out." She returned to her home dimension.

"Marona! You're back!" The Marona that we know as Carona leaned over to allow her dimension's Castile, one year Carona's junior, to give her a hug and a peck on the cheek.

"Yeah, I am…"

"So how did your visit with your friends from that other Ivoire go?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm curious about that, too," said Walnut.

"I ended up in the wrong Ivoire, and met a Marona who was a year older than me…and a Castile who was the same age as her."

"And a Faded, too?"

"It's 'Walnut' now," Walnut replied.

"You'll always be 'Faded' to me, big brother," Castile replied. Walnut grumbled.

"No, I don't think they were on great terms with their world's Walnut," she said. "It was…weird. A little disturbing, actually. Castile, how do you feel about me?"

"Huh? You know I love you, Marona. You're like a big sister to me! And you and Faded, I mean Walnut, are working so hard to try to find a cure for my illness."

"Yeah, you're like a sister to me too, Castile. The Marona and Castile in that world, though…they didn't love each other like sisters."

"Huh?"

"Marona, you don't mean…"

Carona shuddered. "I do. It really weirded me out, seeing an alternate version of myself with my boyfriend's little sister."

"'With'? Wait, do you mean like…like the way you and my brother are together?" Carona nodded. "That's…definitely different."

"You're not freaked out?"

"Well, it makes sense, doesn't it? As difficult as he can be sometimes, my brother and I are a lot alike, so if this other Marona is attracted to girls instead of guys, she probably sees a lot of the same qualities in the other me as you saw in him."

"That's…a possibility."

"And if I were attracted to girls, I know I'd want a girlfriend as strong and as cool as you." The girl smiled.

"Castile…"

CCX: Yeah, I'm a fan of Marona/Castile. How could you not be when the official art disc has a rather suggestive picture on it? I don't remember how I came up with the idea that Carona would end up getting involved with her world's Walnut, but they do share a common goal (helping Castile), so it only makes sense that they should put aside their differences and work together. Ja ne!