~BASED OFF OF @Beachyblu3s (VentiDeluxe)’S FANFIC ON AO3!~

After the harrowing events of Round 7, a stray bullet from a careless alien guard causes another unexpected tragedy on stage: Mizi’s death. But just as the world dims around her, she makes one last wish to make things right—and wakes up several years in the past, well before her friends’ upcoming rounds. However, saving her friends won’t be easy, as Sua’s already noticing her change in attitude, and Ivan’s being…well, Ivan. Despite that, she’s willing to go above and beyond for her friends.

There was something tickling at Mizi’s sides, itching at her face. She could almost swear it was grass, but… the rebel base didn’t have grass, just a dusty dirt clearing that Hyuna affectionately called their ’lawn’. Dewey had planted one flowering alien plant in the corner, a scraggly thing that somehow held on despite the infrequent waterings it got. Isaac was always larping on him to water it in the mornings; their petty arguments are what Mizi often woke up to. She lay still, eyes slowly opening as she gathered her bearings. Her ears feel numb, ringing from misuse. How long had she been out? Wait. She shouldn’t even be waking up from losing consciousness. She shouldn’t be breathing, thinking, or feeling anything. For all intensive purposes, she should be—

“ —Dead! “

“ Do we need to call the medic? She’s been out for over five minutes now, ” a worried, and very familiar voice fretted right next to her ear.

“ I don’t think dead people move their eyes like that, ” *a boyish voice replied to the first, voice calm as if he experienced this daily.k

“ Shut up Ivan! I wasn’t asking for your opinion. Learn to read the room, ” the first voice hissed at him.

Ivan? But he…he was dead. Mizi had known since the moment she saw Till up on stage, competing against Luka. She didn’t see how he had died, exactly, but she knew her friend had lost that round. Mizi groaned, struggling to open her eyes. It took a while for her blurry vision to clear, but when it did, she almost wished it hadn’t. Because those purple eyes, that choppy black hair she used to thread her hands through so lovingly— it could only belong to one person, the person she had lost so many months ago.

Sua.

“ Mizi!” She called, that voice as sweet as she had remembered it. Mizi squinted at her, trying to gauge if this was some sort of Luka-induced hallucination. When Sua’s purple eyes didn’t fade to pale yellow, confusion swept over her. Sua seemed a lot shorter than she last remembered. Younger, with a lot more energy. Without the blood splattering her neck.

“ Jeez, don’t scare me like that, Mizi! That’ll teach you not to climb up trees so carelessly, “ Sua chastises gently.

Mizi stares blankly at her, sitting up. Grass. There’s grass under her feet, and a tree casting its shade overhead. She looks up—an artificial blue sky looms above, its clouds scheduled to float across every few system hours. Her eyes flit back to Sua, then to the black haired boy sitting beside her, unbothered from her scrutinizing gaze.

“ You know what, I think she might have some sort of brain damage, “ Ivan muses, and Sua jabs an elbow into his ribs, hard.

She tears her gaze away from the two squabbling, and it settles on something equal parts terrifying and incredible; a pair of teal eyes behind bangs of silver watching her from behind a tree, averting uncomfortably when they meet hers. Till. Till is here. That’s Till, alive, fidgeting like he always does around her. Mizi doesn’t know whether to laugh or scream or rip her hair out, maybe all at once.