Alright. Calm down, breathe in and out. Try not to scream.

breathes deeply

the new anime cg had me go big sad but i totally didnt get excited when i saw kiana turn into you-know-what,, i expected void drifter in the cg like they did in the story but nahhh they did THAT and i couldnt stop screaming loudly

speaking of HoT.. i guess, it's time to go broke again, yep im sure gonna spend money on her. must complete the herrscher trio even if it means eating instant noodles everyday (not upset about that, it might be unhealthy but hey, extra spicy for the win-)

edit 10/7: attempt on CN did not work, so hopefully SEA might be something better. (HoT returnee message was cute)

okay moving on, i dont think you readers like to hear me scream anyway.

Disclaimer: I do not own Honkai Impact 3rd. Be it characters, or the main story.

This being my first time writing something out of my usual Genres, so let me know what you think.

Another Chance:

Trouble

The recoil of the impact would have almost broke the entire battleship, if not for the fact that someone was taking the blows head-on..

But that didn't last for long.

Through the smokescreen was something of a sound that was similar to a cannon blast, and a silver haired girl went flying backwards, crashing head first into the other side of the bridge.

"Kiana!"

The girl who had her name called got up from the ground and rubbed her jaw, it was a miracle she wasn't unconscious from all the damage that she caused.

"I want an explanation on where the hell did she.. Ouch.. Even get that idea to blast me in the face with a cannon!" Kiana shouted with her fist raised.

"As fiery as ever." Thought the 3rd Herrscher as Mei sighed in relief from where she was before she quickly made her way to the silver haired girl.

Though, she wasn't able to because of the unpredictable person she was with as of that moment, as Bronya turned to her, wanting to deal with the next hostile entity that was present on board.

PANG!

It was suddenly Bronya's turn to fall and she immediately dropped onto her knees, all signs of the previous unknown battlesuit disappearing from her before she laid flat down on the ground.

"Holysh-" The raven haired girl slightly paused and blinked, before taking another turn in her direction and rushed over to Bronya. "Kiana, what did you-?!"

"Payback, duh." The silver haired girl huffed, but raised her hands in surrender as soon as she felt the brief anger that emitted from her. "Oh fine, she'll be alright."

"Bronya's unconscious! You just-"

Playfulness dropped for a moment and Kiana frowned.

"It was just a well-aimed rubber bullet, please calm down Mei-senpai, I wouldn't kill Bronya even if she was kinda a brat." A pause and she slowly approached the unconscious girl, kneeling down and gently taking the raven haired girl's hand to let her feel Bronya's pulse. "Look, you see? She'll be awake soon anyways. It wasn't that bad.."

...

...

Mei sighs after realizing the girl really was fine. "Sorry, I just- I got angry at you without thinking.. Are you alright?"

"It doesn't hurt at all. It's fine anyways, we do that all the time don't we? But we can do all the sweet stuff later after we get back." She smiled reassuringly.

A few hours later..

"Ouch ouch ouch! That friggin' hurts! Easy on the pressure will you?!"

"S-sorry!"

Kiana winces from her seat as a medic cleaned up her wounds.

The door slides open to reveal a red haired woman that walked into the heavily sterlized room of white, towards the direction of where she was.

"How are your injuries?" Himeko asks.

The silver haired girl was about to shrug when she realized she had forgotten that someone was trying to patch her up. She instead gave a rather awkward tilt of her head. "Getting pummeled up by a tiny Russian girl with heavy weapons totally doesn't hurt at all!" She deflates. "Yeah, no."

A chuckle could be heard from the Major and Kiana pouts for a brief moment. It was painful to do such an action and she winces once again. The woman still chuckled at her misery.

The medic did her best to hold the Kaslana down as she was shaking back and forth, loudly yelling in her chair. "I've experienced worse, but this? She punched me in the face with like, straight on hard metallic stuff and it hurts like fu-!"

She immediately cut the girl off. "Hush, child. No cursing in the Infirmary."

Kiana sighs and slowly stands up as soon as she got the green to be able to leave. "Fine. How's Bronya anyway? I'm gonna make her apologize to me later, but I think I should do that first to her."

"Having a check-up in the other section, I'll let you know when she's out. Don't forget to go back to the dorms and study since you're done."

Kiana hummed in thanks as soon as the door opened and closed behind her. She was about to make her way to look for Bronya when suddenly her stomach grumbled.

...

She forgot that she hasn't ate, but first she has to..

"Alright! I'm hoooome..." The last syllable of the word slowly deflated as Kiana looked around the place. "Where did everyone else go?"

She could slightly make out the figure of Mei that sat at the sofa, a mug in hand that was now placed on the coffee table. "Oh, Himeko was in-charge of the mission earlier, so she went to check on you and Bronya. Theresa had some paperwork to do, and Fu Hua is training for the exams."

No wonder the place felt empty. There was this strange sense of deja vu she couldn't shake off upon realizing that thought.

"And you, Mei?"

A soft smile graced her lips. "Just thinking about things. But Kiana, shouldn't you go revise on your notes?"

"Heh, I don't need to study! I'm already a genius!"

"Uh huh. Then, Kiana-chan, why are you carrying a pile of books with you?"

The silver haired girl blinked, though it was hard to be seen due to her face blocked by the weight she had on her. "Oh. I came by Fu Hua earlier, she insisted that I at least give myself a memory-jog. Boo."

Mei nods. "You should at least try harder, you know?"

..Try harder? There wasn't really any point because she didn't go back to school anymore. It was hard to do that when the place was destroyed, and you're a wanted individual to the world after all.

Oh well, she might just at least pass the examinations to humor her raven haired sweetheart.

Speaking of Mei..

"Oh yeah, do you have some spare time later?"

"Mm, what's the concern?"

"Remember when I said I wanted to show you this one place?" The silver haired girl turned to her room, moving to put down the weight that was tiring her starving state.

"But Kiana, your studies-"

A grunting sound followed by the slamming of books on something hard. "But I'm hungrrrry~"

The raven haired girl held back a giggle. "Alright, I'll make you something to eat, just study for a bit alright?~"

Already, a few minutes in and she's carried away.

A few minutes in and she's already-

"I'm bored.." Kiana groans as she faceplants on her desk, scattering all the papers and moving the books aside.

Vrr vrr..

Her phone suddenly vibrates and a familiar sound of her ringtone blasts out from the device. She swoops it up and leans against her chair as she slowly spun around in it, seeing the call opening up.

"..Hello?" The silver haired girl stifled a yawn.

"Kiana! I need to ask you something real quick!" The sound of a familiar voice from the receiver called her, it sounded like she was tired and was trying to catch her breath.

Kiana blinked.

"I never think I'd hear the day that Aunt Teri needs something from me. Something up?"

The call revealed a haggard looking Theresa that was staring back at her.

"Yeah.." She pants, before continuing. "I.. Screwed up real bad.. And I really really need a favor from you." The Principal of St. Freya leans back on her office chair, the screen shook as she did the movement.

Kiana raises a silver eyebrow after she waited for the other to calm down. "Shoot."

Theresa fiddles her fingers and fidgets around for a few seconds before she spoke up.

"Well... You see.. I accidentally made a deal with Himeko-"

Kiana stopped spinning in her chair and nearly dropped the phone onto the ground.

Oh no.

The thought was unheard to the person in front of her.

"-and if you don't do well in the Valkyrie Examination that's coming up for your rank and above... Then she's gonna snitch on my manga collection and burn all of it and.."

There were a few other things the girl had listed, but Kiana had tuned all of it out with one thought screaming in her mind.

..Oh shi-

"Er.." Kiana piped up with slightly twitching eyebrows before going on after having her attention. "How well do you mean by, like, well?"

"Like.. Ehehehe... 'Top' kind of well?"

...

"Theresa Apocalypse. You know that is like, impossible." The Kaslana's voice immediately went cold as her eyes clouded to a dead solid blue. "..Are you asking me to die?"

"Holy- No! Please Kiana, your Aunt begs of you to do it. I'll even get you something with our funding from Schicksal to make up for it! I just want my manga to be left alone!"

For the great Principal of St. Freya, who was a S-rank Valkyrie and a Veteran of many long battles to use the rare funding as a bargaining chip- It must've shown how desperate she was to turn to a scarce resource.. All that seriousness now reduced to this because of her manga collection.

Everyone already knows to not make deals and dares to a fucking drunk woman who is easily pissed off in her goddamn thirties and now she just-

Kiana Kaslana, for many reasons, sighed at the plead she was given by such a person. This was gonna be troublesome.

"Okaaay.. What's this 'something' you plan on getting?"

"Well.. I was thinking of getting a bigger room and bed for you and Mei-"

A coughing fit could be heard. "Y-yeah, like that will be worth it for killing my soul with examinations-"

"-And probably an amazing super-duper luxurious vacation for the both of you.."

...

...

...

".. Okay, I must have heard that wrong, can you say that again?"

"An amazing super-duper luxurious vacation?"

"Say that again."

"A teri-fic vacation for the both of you?"

"You aren't joking right?"

"Nope! The World's Cutest always promises what she says!"

...

Kiana sighs once more.

"..Fine. I'll do it."

"Thanks! Teri will promise to get you those if you do well! Bye!"

The call immediately ends as soon as she said that.

Kiana stared at the dark screen of her phone, the reflection of her face looking back at her as if she were in a world of dark muddy water. It was only after a while that she placed her phone aside and her gaze slowly landed on the landscape of St. Freya outside of her window before she leaned against her chair, closing her eyes.

"A vacation with Mei huh.."

..Should've asked for a ring too.

Trudge trudge.

The two slowly walked on a secluded pavement, it's unused route empty to all. The silver haired girl glanced at the blue floating screen that was in front of her, looking at the marked out track that was given to her by Bronya in the middle of their previous mission.

Speaking of Bronya, Kiana hopes she's still doing fine after all that happened.

"Kiana," A voice called out behind her.

The footsteps stop. She turned around. "Mm?"

Mei slowly caught up, closing a bit of the little distance they were having and moved to her side, her violet eyes staring at the gauze that stuck onto the side of the other girl's face where it was near the jaw area, concern bled on her features.

She had kept doing that every few minutes, and the silver haired girl felt bad.

Kiana read the lines in-between and immediately held up two fingers in a 'V', "No worries, it'll heal pretty quickly~" She turned to the end of the path. "Anyways, here we are!"

The wind greeted them gently.

Beyond the small forest of trees they were once in now opened up to reveal a little clearing. The black sky was a little covered by a few dark navy clouds, but that did little to hide the many other stars that broke through the darkness with its light.

The silver haired girl instantly made her way to the edge of the clearing, where the end of the cliff they were on would lead down to the craggy and rocky rim below them where the vast ocean lapped its waves against the surface of the land.

The sea reflected the stars, and a patch of light in the sky with the colors of light blue to pink and purple that parted the dark shadows of clouds. The moon gazed upon the entire island on their far left above them.

She heard a soft inhale from the raven haired girl, before she sat down beside her by the grass. The air was salty but it didn't bother the two.

"This is.. Kiana, how did you find this place?"

"Who knows? I might be lucky with finding many other beautiful things." She couldn't hide a smile as her eyes reflected the scene before her before whispering, moving closer to interlock her hand with the other's, eyes still affixed on the place. "Beautiful people too."

"Really, who knows?" Mei softly spoke, Kiana wasn't sure whether she had heard the last part, or she was doing a great job in hiding her reaction.

Even if the sight they had was already grand enough, it shouldn't be possible for it to go even further right?

It shouldn't be.

"Kiana, look!"

Kiana did as she was told, her eyes gazed upon the sky before she raised her hand up to shield her eyes from the wind that suddenly picked up in a tad more strength, and as she did-

-Four lights slowly flew together as one across the dark sky. It was already amazing, and yet it had her thinking: Why four?

..She wouldn't question the details, but rather- should she make a wish to the shooting stars? It's not everyday where this happens.. And yet..

Kiana felt scared. Making a wish was something childish, and trying to cling onto that hope in fear of it not coming true was just..

A silver haired girl sat on the edge of a ruined building, shadowed by the darkness, but greeted with the light of the moonlight that shined at her feet.

It was cold. It wasn't windy up here, but it was cold. Her dark coat hugged tightly around her, a camp surrounded her. She had made sure that it was a secure location where no one would've thought of to look for her, but..

It was just her, and her alone. No sign of her old man, no Mei or Bronya. No one. Just her, a ghost and a God all in her.

Once again, she was lonely.

Empty cans and plastic boxes of what used to contain food littered around her. She thought back to the times where she would've had a great life. Warm food, a nice bed to sleep in and friends around her in a school she called home.

It was truly a contrast to that small cabin in that forest. And now when she thought about it, she really had moved to many places.

How strange.. Finding a new place after that place where she first opened her eyes, and now calling a new place her 'home'. To only have it taken away from her once again, and now she had to go back to her old life of living to survive.

When people, be it Schicksal, World Serpent or Anti-Entropy are near the vicinity or even any other innocent, she has to pack up and move. She couldn't risk being found.

..Just like old times.

Here she was. In an abandoned rooftop, just her, a campfire and a poor excuse of a tent, which was merely just meant for shelter purposes, and a hard 'bed'. There wasn't even anyone she could talk to.

There wasn't any sign of rain, which was good.

Kiana wondered as gold and blue flickered across the place, the broken dark ruins of what used to be this section of Arc City, compared to the place further ahead, a bright bustling cluster. Was it better if she didn't live at all? To be lifted of this burden she held?

The pain was there, it wouldn't stop layering on top of her until it shackled her. She's used to the sorrow, she's already tired of running away, but she couldn't cry. She had to be strong. Kaslanas were strong, right? They had to be what was left of a cruelly broken hope when no one else was there.

But she, the light, her light, wavered.

Her mismatched eyes darted to the sky, her gaze meeting the moonlight, before it moved on to the stars of that hopeless night she was in.

Kiana's hands tightened around the sleeves of her dirtied coat and she closed her eyes, lowering her head to the stars as she whispers under her breath.

"Honestly, I really want to move on, but I can't get out of this broken state.

I had smiled with them before, but please at least tell the people who were important to me, the people who had given me the joy and happiness that I shouldn't have deserved-

-that I had genuinely felt happy with them, even if I had to play it off with a fake mask of emotion many times: Thanks for giving me such a wonderful life."

Don't you look back, all the footsteps you took are left in the past, afar. Even if no one will ever praise or acknowledge your efforts, don't you forget or let go of the path that brought you to where you are.

That's what she had told her before she left. All her teachings, all their teachings.

It was stupid, making a wish.. Yes, she knew. But maybe she could at least try..

It probably wouldn't hurt to do it.

It wouldn't hurt, right? So she closed her eyes and clasped her hands together, and let her silent wish pass by in a thought unheard to all except for her.

A/N:

my excuse for why this took a while was because this wasn't the actual chapter i planned to post. it was another one, i realized the placement of said chapter would be weird, so i put it aside and wrote a new chapter- this.

we already have more than 30 stories?! holy crap congrats to the community!

a big thank you to the 71 people who has favorited this story, and the 86 who are following as of this moment!

JiroAwesome: Being the time traveling trope it is, it suffers from repetition. Understandable, I've seen many kinds of this- but hey! I also already got that handle, sorta. There's gonna be a couple things you wouldn't expect from Kiana.

Of course one being the fact that Sirin and her are already like buddies; not canon, boom THIS is now different- i'm just joking, there's way more stuff that isn't supposed to be canon at all in this story.

Also thanks for saying that my writing is good! I'm flattered.

anyways, real stuff now.

i really didn't think i'd actually have people reading this when it was first a little crappy one-shot turned story that was asked by less than 10 people in reviews when this first started.. if you're one of the few and are still here, im thankful that you contributed in my decision to do this!

speaking of stories, don't be afraid to read the works of other people and don't be shy to support them too! trust me, there's a lot that is way better than mine,, i can sure name a lot of examples here.

okay enough of this embarrassing talk

Still doing my best to improve, thanks for reading!