When Louise left her room, she still had some hope that maybe, just maybe it was all just a bad dream. By the time she got to the dining hall for her breakfast, her hopes were mercilessly crushed by her predictable schoolmates. Still, Louise tried not to despair. After all, she could just summon Alex again and this time around not just stand there and watch the boulder hurtling through the air towards her. In fact, she could just not try to throw fireballs (which resulted in explosions without any trace of fire, mind you) at all and let her Familiar handle the situation. Major Armstrong certainly seemed to have everything under control until she decided to lend a hand.

With this in mind, Louise cheered up and decided to let everything play itself out as it had the first time around (well, technically second time, but she decided not to count the muscle wizard as a successful summoning).

When the time for the summoning ritual came, Louise braced herself and chanted the same spell she had cast when she summoned Alex, ignoring the teasing of Kirche and concentrating on her magic.

There was an explosion. Louise squinted her eyes and tried to see the familiar figure of the huge man through the smoke. Unfortunately, Alex seemed to take his sweet time appearing. Louise sighed, and went into the smoke to retrieve her familiar.

Only to bump into someone. Who was in the smoke. Who was distinctly female. Who was about as tall as Louise herself was. And who was about as lacking as Louise herself in the chest area.

Pink eyes gazed into fiery red ones. The newcomer was wearing a black cape and pink clothes with some other colors strewn in for contrast. Three gleaming red stones were placed on her wrists and the clasp of her mantle. A mane of red hair, held back by a black headband streamed down her back.

For about a minute the two stared at each other.

Then the strange girl Louise had summoned grabbed her by the collar with her gloved hands and in a way, too intimidating for someone with almost the same bodily proportions as Louise, glared at her.

"Where am I?"

Having been subject of the glare of the muscle wizard, Louise found that while still frightening, this girl did not terrify her nearly as much as Alex did when he appeared. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that the redhead was not a two meter tall giant, but rather someone the young Valiere could actually make eye contact with without craning her neck.

"At the Tristain academy of magic." Louise replied.

Sitting across from each other at a table, Louise stared at her new familiar, and she stared right back.

"So let me get this straight... Lina, was it? You are basically a mercenary sorceress, traveling around and blowing stuff up?"

"What do you mean, blowing stuff up? I'll have you know, the stuff I blow up always deserves it. And besides," Lina waved her hand in a dismissing manner. "From what you told me, you do the same damn thing."

Louise flushed at that.

"Well, maybe so, but I have yet to destroy a city!" She cried in outrage, waving her arms for emphasis.

"I told you, that wasn't me, that was Rezo!" The redhead cried back, equally outraged.

"And what about those numerous villages?" Louise inquired. For some reason, despite knowing that the girl in front of her could easily stomp even her mother into the ground, as far as magic was concerned, the pinkette found the self proclaimed beautiful sorcery genius pretty easy to get along with.

The only thing they did not agree on, was the handling of spells. While Louise was sick and tired of making things explode, Lina Inverse seemed to revel in the sensation. Then again, Louise thought, if she could cast spells as powerful as her familiar, she might get to like it too.

"Heh, accidents." Lina waved the accusation off with what seemed to be practiced ease. "After all, nobody in this world is perfect! We all make mistakes," At this point the redhead stood up and was posing dramatically with fake tears glistening in the corners of her eyes. "And sometimes sacrifices need to be made. For the sake of goodness and justice. And food." She added as an afterthought.

Louise had the strong urge to palm her face. Except her good breeding would not allow it in the presence of another noble. Well, maybe not exactly noble, but someone who would have undoubtedly been a noble, had she been born in this world.

"So anyway. Teach me that summoning spell you used. I will reverse engineer it to send me back home." Lina demanded. That was another trait of hers that grated on Louise's nerves. It did so even more, since the more time the Valliere spent with the Inverse, the more she realized how alike they were. Truly, it was a wonder they were not at each other's throats at the moment, considering both of their short tempers.

"Fine." Louise agreed. She wasn't about to let someone like Lina rampage around in her world. And that was exactly what was going to happen, if her demand was not met. That didn't mean that she would do it for free however. "A spell for a spell. I teach you the summoning ritual, you teach me one of your spells."

Lina looked doubtful.

"I can do that, hell, I can teach you a couple of spells, but what good will it do to you? You said it yourself: any spell you try tends to go boom."

Louise shrugged.

"I managed to summon you." She pointed out.

"Alright. Fine. But I'm not teaching you the Laguna Blade or the Giga Slave. That stuff is hard to control as it is. I'd rather not know what happens when you try to cast it and it goes awry."

Louise gazed dreamily at the orb of light floating above her palm and lighting up the darkened room. Lina meanwhile stood proudly by the chair Louise currently sat in, beaming at her summoner.

"Heh. Look at me. Not only am I a beautiful sorcery genius, I am also an awesome teacher! Even someone who has spent years studying magic with no success casts her first successful spell after only a few hours of training under me!" The redhead boasted proudly.

Technically it had been two days of studying under Lina until Louise was able to cast Lighting, the majority of which were spent learning an entirely new philosophy of magic use. The young Valliere scion still boggled at the fact, that humans so thoughtlessly borrowed power from demon lords, of all things. Not to mention that demons actually willingly parted with said power. Then again, the Mazoku, as Lina called them, fed on negative emotions and feelings, pain and suffering being just a few examples. If they could cause more death and destruction and by proxy suffering through the hands of humans, simply by giving them a miniscule amount of their true power, then Louise supposed it sort of made sense.

Never the less, today marked the day the Zero was officially no longer a zero. The bright orb in her hand danced around, as if rejoicing at her success with her. Lina promised to teach her a few more spells, though she did not mention which specifically. Louise didn't care. Even if they were simple spells meant to make household chores easier, even if they were completely and entirely useless, she would learn them all.

This time around Guiche did not dare challenge Louise's familiar to a duel. It might have been because Lina, while training the young Valliere, decided that a demonstration of the Dragon Slave was in order. A sizable part of the wall surrounding the academy was now missing. As well as a part of the forest beyond the wall. And the hill behind the forest. Yes, in hindsight, Guiche was probably not quite as dumb as he looked.

When Foquet attacked, Lina simply blasted the thief away with another one of her Dragon Slaves. Louise was proud, not only because her Familiar had handled the situation so easily, but also because before the golem was obliterated into nothingness, she personally managed to take out a sizable chunk with one of her own fireballs. Take that Kirche.

It was no big surprise when Lina was announced the winner of the familiar competition soon afterwards.

"How is your work coming along, Lina? Have you gotten any closer yet?" Louise asked from her position atop of her bed, taking her eyes away from the book she was currently reading. Well, it was more like their bed now, since Louise did not dare to suggest Lina sleep on the hay mattress that had been laid out on the day of the summoning rite. It was a blessing that both of them were girls, really.

"Argh!" The redhead retorted, throwing up her hands and messing her hair around. "The way your magic works makes this twice as difficult!" She exclaimed, then heaved a sigh and rested her back against the chair. The desk she had claimed as her own was a mess, pieces of parchment strewn about it in a haphazard manner, all of them covered with Lina's neat, curvy handwriting and strange symbols.

"Not good then." Louise summarized.

"Yeah."

Silence filled the room once more. The pink haired mage felt bad for keeping Lina here. Especially after the redhead told her about this Goury person. Sure, the words 'dumb', 'idiot', 'imbecile' and 'moron' were used way too frequently in the description, but Louise could tell that Lina missed the man.

Her sour thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Come in." Louise allowed to whomever was on the other side. The door opened and a hooded figure rushed in. Lina had turned halfway around in her chair, resting one of her arms on the back of the chair and gazing questioningly at the newcomer.

Said newcomer, after closing the door behind her, lifted the hood, revealing none other than princess Henrietta.

Louise gasped, jumped from her bed and rushed to greet her childhood friend properly.

After a short hug, the Valliere remembered her manners, however, and lowered herself to one knee, addressing the royalty as protocol demanded.

"Forgive me, your highness. I was overjoyed by your visit and forgot my manners." She uttered, staring at the floor, with her head bowed.

"Huh? What's the deal, Louise?" A familiar voice asked.

The pinkette sucked in a sharp breath. She had forgotten Lina was here!

"Once again, forgive my rudeness, princess. Allow me to introduce you. This is Lina Inverse, though you have seen her earlier today during the showing. She is a very powerful mage and someone whom I am deeply indebted to for teaching me magic that eluded me for so long."

"Ah. It is a pleasure to meet you, miss Inverse. I hope you have been taking good care of Louise and will continue to do so in the future." The princess smiled charmingly. "But dear Louise! Louise Francoise, please, I beg you, there is no need for such formalities. We are friends, are we not?" She asked, her eyes pleading.

Just when Louise was about to defend her actions, as it was fitting to act this way when someone of the royal family was present, she was interrupted.

"Yeah, what's the big deal?" Lina asked, sincere curiosity in her voice.

"What do you mean, 'what's the big deal'? This is the princess of Tristain!" Louise hissed, still unmoving from her kneeling position.

"So?" Seeing the questioning look her pink haired student was sending her way, Lina decided to elaborate. "Remember the girl I told you about? Amelia? She is a princess too."

Louise paled. Yes, she remembered. And she also remembered that this Amelia person was often reduced to a walking wallet or an impromptu punching bag when travelling with Lina.

"Please, do not treat princess Henrietta this way." She begged in a whisper.

"What way?" The redhead asked, as if treating a princess like she did with princess Amelia was a perfectly normal thing.

Louise felt faint while Henrietta tilted her head to one side in confusion.

The next few days passed by in a blur. The journey to Albion was mostly peaceful, except for the small sparring bout between Wardes and Lina, in which Louise's fiancée had his ass handed to him quite handsomely, and Foquet's short return. Still short though it may have been, it still managed to separate Louise and Lina.

This might have been the reason the pink haired mage found herself in a pool of her own blood inside a church with the prince of Albion dying slowly beside her. She could hear the enraged screams of her familiar, as she dispatched the last remaining forces of the Reconquista.

The last two times around, Louise's death, for that was what it was, was quick. This time, she literally felt the life slipping away from her. Her vision began to darken, as an orange blur appeared before her gaze.

"No! Louise!" The blur screamed. "Resurrection!" The young Valliere felt Lina's magic trying to close her wound, but it wasn't fast enough. Her life was draining too fast.

"Louise!" And then, with a final desperate scream everything went black.

Louise opened her eyes. She was in her room. The sun had just started shining through her window. There was a bird perched just outside of the window, chirping merrily.

The pinkette sat up and touched her chest, where Wardes' blade had pierced her. Was this just a dream within a dream? Or was she really repeating her life over and over again? Well, this time she had an easy way to find out.

Louise extended her arm and closed her eyes in concentration.

"Lighting." She whispered and slowly reopened her eyes. There, hovering above her palm was the now familiar orb of light.

Louise smiled.

AN: Well, I have to admit, this didn't come out as funny as should be expected of a fanfic with the humor genre. This is mostly because, as I had no choice but to notice, this crossover could have been an awesome story in it's own right. Unfortunately I have neither the time, nor the confidence to start a new story, especially since I'm currently already working on a more serious one that you may or may not get to see in the future. Anywho, hope you enjoyed.