Forging A Bond With My Tsundere Friend

*Found within the Special Features of The Big Team Season 3 DVD Box Set is a selection of unfinished and unreleased content. Included therein is a scene entitled "Forging A Bond With My Tsundere Friend". The timeline code on it shows it takes place right after the recording of a fragment of another special feature wherein records several Big Team members in order to cheer up Rhiannon.*

## June 3rd 2019, The Big Team Base

After Mini gets GAIA to shut off the video recording, Gwen takes a deep breath. "Well, I hope that all works for you. I can't promise it will help. Rhiannon has gotten moods like these before and only comes out of them at her own pace." She shrugs with a sad smile. "Mark of the family, I suppose."

She gets up from the couch, putting aside a small magic tome entitled Carlotta's Forging Handbook that gives a remarkably loud "thump" on the table for its size. She stretches out and rubs her eyes. She'd been somewhat caught off guard by Mini catching her in the rec room of the base and asking her to say something to Rhiannon on camera. Still, she wasn't going to be snappy with Mini simply for being Mini, certainly not when she was trying to help someone, doubly so when that person was Rhiannon.

She looks tired. In the past few weeks she's been taking more care to dress nicely, instead of formless second-hand hoodies being a staple of her wardrobe as it had been until Angel had taken her shopping and she had had money to spend. Now, she was back in her old clothes. Stay-inside clothes. Don't-meet-people clothes. Dark markings around her eyes that aren't quite enough to make her look like she was Trevor's sister.

"Do you want anything to drink?" Gwen yawns as she walks in the direction of the kitchen.

Mini shook her head, but rose from her seat to follow Gwen into the kitchen. She cast a furtive glance over to the stove. She'd only cooked in here once, and recently. It was unlikely she would ever cook in here again. Mini shook off the memory, and peered into the fridge as Gwen scanned for what she wanted.

"Nah, I'm good. And yeah, thanks for saying something for the camera. I hope it makes Rhi feel better."

"Yeah, no problem."

Gwen stands still in front of the opened fridge for a while, before she reaches for a bottle of pineapple juice and pours herself a glass. She sits down on the kitchen countertop, legs dangling over the edge as she sips her drink.

"I just hope that whole Montreal trip won't make things worse or take ages. At least in space we had an idea of how long travel would take."

"Oh yeah. I keep forgetting you went to space. We got to, but the League had a portal system in place. No ships. It was super convenient, but i'll admit to being disappointed."

Mini closed the fridge and leaned against it. She crossed her arms over her chest, and jiggled her leg as Gwen had her drink. "I wish someone would tell those fishy fucks that an alien invasion is coming. I get that doesn't make their immediate problem go away, but it SHOULD adjust their priorities."

She shrugged and shook her head, looking for a new topic of discussion. "Anyway..."

"Yeah well, if the Risganjans do show up, I guess we can have ourselves a Space Jam." Gwen said. The sarcasm was thicker than usual.

"Hey," she swivels the glass around with a last sip of pineapple juice remaining, "you use magic and got a magic book too, right? Or is that just... powers or whatever?"

Mini raised her brows, curious about Gwen's sudden interest in her abilities. "I, uh... I'm a witch of sorts, by faith, yes. I can cast spells, but only in my Sanctuary. Alastor complicates things. I'm not like your cousin, if that's what you had in mind. She's... amazing." A little bit of pink showed on Mini's cheeks, but she turned to snatch a bottle of water out of the fridge, and hopefully hide her face from Gwen.

With Gwen's eyes on Mini, it was hard for her not to have noticed the blush creeping into her face. *Oh God, not her too?* She stifled a groan and shook her head, then downed the rest of the juice.

"Unfortunately my cousin's... not the person I'm interested in, in this case," she tries to shrug it off. "What kind of magic can you do? Anything... crafty?"

Mini choked down half the water bottle before turning to answer Gwen's next question. "Some stuff? But like charms, blessings, wards and the like. And again, only inside my sanctuary. I can't conjure stuff except with ectoplasm. Although I think I could conjure an object out here and THEN bring that object into my sanctuary without losing it. I havn't tried though."

She quirked a brow at Gwen, equal parts troubled and curious. "No, really. Why the sudden interest? I could give you better answers if I knew what you wanted."

Gwen rubbed at her neck and looked away. "I've been trying to figure out how to forge magical stuff. Like weapons and such."

She takes a deep breath. "I... I think I want to try reforging Nimue. The sword. My sword."

"Oh. I... I want to help, Gwen. But I really think you've chosen the least talented person possible for the task. She took another sip of water and thought for a moment.

"On the other hand, I don't ACTUALLY have to make anything. I just need to recharge your sword? Or reinforce it with ectomancy? Or melt it down telekinetically?"

"I'm looking mainly for like... magical assistance, I guess?" Gwen tried to enunciate what she's looking for. "I've been studying up on the forging process myself, and I think I could handle the basics of that, but magical smithing and creation is a bit beyond regular stuff. Helping in melting it down and reinforcing it and charging it all sound helpful though."

She counted the options on her fingers and took out a block of post-its and a pen and wrote them down on it. "Hmmm. Also, I can always double-check with Gabe, he helped me a lot with the books. I think I'll first need to figure out where to get a proper forge, or how to go about melting down such a special artifact in the first place. Even with Nimue gone, I'm not sure what's... in there."

She took a breath and hopped off the counter. "Plus, after that, I'll also have to figure out what to do for armour. I haven't been able to access my father's armour since Nimue left, and it's quite different punching monsters with your bare hands than with some good gauntlets on."

Mini smiled suddenly, a little deflated, but quite proud. "Y'know... it's funny you should say that..." She hopped excitedly over to her messenger bag and produced her grimoire. "I, uhh, have been working on an idea of my own for your protection. It was supposed to be a surprise, but truth be told I'm sure I'll need your help to get it done anyway. Great minds think alike, I guess?"

“Doesn’t that saying have a second bit?”

Gwen followed Mini back to the rec room. She glanced at the small but heavy red book she’d been reading, then at Mini’s grimoire.

“I’m sure it will be surprising either way. I already am a little. What ya got, Smalls?”

Mini opened her book to the center, and ran her fingers across a page. An inky black portal coalesced from the images on the paper, and she set the book down on a stool. "I've been showing this to more people of late. I really should figure out a way to explain it first, but... fuck if I know where to start."

She shrugged, then dove head first into the book. The portal stretched her, and slurped her up like a noodle, leaving behind not a single trace. The tome lay open, ominous but beckoning, images of shadowy figures and leering faces crawling across the pages. A long few moments passed and Mini did not return. Very likely, she was waiting for Gwen on the other side.

Gwen stared at the portal for a few moments. A crinkle appeared above her nose.

*What has she been showing to more people? The thing she wants to surprise me with? Ohhh, wait, I haven't ever been inside her book before, have I? Hmmm... wait, if I closed the book, would the portal close too? Could she still get out then? Shit, if I hadn't opened the book back on Tarinia, would Jaime and Mini have been stuck inside of it? Damn. I hope I never need to find out. Shit though, what if she's in her book and we come across someone she would DEFINITELY fight, but who would also DEFINITELY destroy her? I guess I'd try see if keeping the book closed tight would keep her from getting out for her own protection.*

She looked up from her raging thoughts back at the portal again. "Right, I can always think about this stuff while doing stuff."

*Oh, YOU can,* her brain threw shade as Gwen picked up the red book and her messenger bag, then stepped through the portal.

## In The Sanctum

The journey into Mini's pocket dimension was disorienting, but brief. Mini was waiting on the other side to steady Gwen with a hand on her shoulder and an appraising look. "Let me know if you get a headache or nauseous. Jaime tends to get them in here, but I have remedies for both." Mini tucked herself under Gwen's arm, as much to support her as to hug her, and gestured at the room around them.

"Welcome to my library, such as it is." The room was gloomy, and chill, and swarming with luminescent spirits. Row upon row of towering book shelves sprawled outward from the room's center, and each case was crammed to overflowing with books. The spot the two girls stood on was over a protection circle inlaid into the floor. Semiprecious stones form swirling mosaic patterns that kept the ghosts at bay. Three long work benches dominated the space, cluttered with all manner of mystical reagents and tools. A triad of high tech looking plasteel crates bearing Risganjan markings sat in a stack off to one side, and these were the most bizarre things here, considering how they stood out from everything else.

There was a bit of dizziness after coming out of the portal and Gwen mumbled a thanks at Mini. She looked around at the gem-filled magic circle, then up at the rows of bookcases. Her mouth fell open at the size of the place. She took it all in as she turned around and just saw more of it. She nodded appreciatively at the work benches. Finally, her gaze fell on the crates.

"Well, at least you're storing your Risganjan weapons safely and conspicuously," she remarked with a deadpan voice, raising an eyebrow at Mini. She gave a little smirk.

"So what is this place? You never told me you've got yourself a whole-ass Library of Alexandria up in here."

She gave a little laugh to Gwen's snark, appreciative of the ice-breaker. "Yeah. The formal name for this place is the Nex Sacramentum. Most of the time I just call it the Library. It's function is... complicated. There's a lot of knowledge on those shelves, but getting at the books isn't always easy. The ghosts don't take kindly to visitors."

Mini walked Gwen over to one of the benches, and clearned an area for her to sit if she wanted. "If you're REALLY curious about it, I'll tell you more, but the books aren't what I brought you here to see." She pointed with her chin at a wooden footlocker under one of the benches. It slid toward Gwen, dragged by Mini's mental powers, and flopped itself open. Inside were a familiar set of Avalonian gauntlets. Mini looked up at her with a hopeful little smile. "I asked Elle if she had anything I could borrow to enhance for you, and she offered these. I know this is not what you meant by wanting your father's armor, but..."

Gwen was still trying to take it all in as she listened to Mini. "Fuck yeah I'm curious! You've got so many books here I gotta wonder if you've got anything better than this," she said, waving her red book around. "Or if you've got any good sci-fi novels in here."

She put the book away and watched the footlocker dragged before her. She gasped lightly. The reveal was a surprise for sure. Gwen put a hand to her chest. She felt conflicted. On the one hand, would accepting a gift like this from Elle be betraying herself? She'd been torn up over the idea that Elle was here to replace her father. On the other hand, with Elle being her father's past self, these gauntlets had at one point been her father's armour, from when she was a squire. And though Gwen was recognized by some as a knight, she had never been a squire... unless she'd be counted as squiring to Nimue.

"There's um... this is... it's a lot," she said. "The words aren't coming now, but... thanks?"

Mini nodded, and gave Gwen a little squeeze. "Hey, no problem! All I did was put'em in a box. Making them cool filling them with good juju is gonna take some doing. I was gonna ask Rhiannon for help when she got back form Montreal, but it sound like you don't want to wait that long. Which, honestly, big fucking mood."

Mini gave Gwen a little space, but kept her hand on her back, trying to be comforting. She knew Gwen wasn't quite as cuddly a person as she was. "I hope this helps, but either way... sword, gauntlets, books, magic? All I got to offer you is in this place. So put me to work, senpai! What'cha thinkin'?"

Gwen pondered the offer. "I wouldn't mind Rhiannon's help after Montreal. Right now she's... not in a good place. If the gauntlets could have open palms so I can touch things and use retrocognition still, that'd be preferable. Whatever juju or special stuff you could give me would be nice."

She thought to herself and looked at the library around them. "Yeah, speaking of the books and magic bit, what do you got in here? If you've got any books on magical creation or smithing in here, that could help. And what's with all the ghosts? You've got more of them in here than Tintagel Castle."

Mini nodded and pulled out her cell phone. She made a list of Gwen's requests even if she did type at grandma speed. Let out a soft sigh at Gwen's question as she typed. "Yeah, about that... the ghosts ARE the books. Or, rather, each book in here has a ghost linked to it. The books are records and ledgers. An accounting of their lives."

Right on cue, one of the damned souls collided with the invisible barrier the circle provided. It hissed and gnawed in their direction like a slavering zombie. Mini just rolled her eyes and continued adding to her list. "So books on those topics? Maybe? Probably, I'd say. But the trick is finding which one of these people were a smith or a sorcerer, and then sifting through to the parts of their life that involves those activities."

Gwen considered that--ghosts being books, ghosts being dead people who hadn't moved on--and her eyes grew wide.

"Oh my God, is that what this all is? All of these books? All people's lives, accounting for all that they did?" The realization of the extent to what this means hit her. She shook a little, as if a feeling of power came over her.

"Holy shit, Mini, you've got a treasure trove here!" She grabbed Mini by the shoulders, a mad grin on her face. "Anybody else might take ages to go through a book, but if I can retrocognize it then it virtually happens in the fraction of a second! If you've got sorcerers and smiths in here then... then... I could learn about everything they've done! Everything they were capable of!"

She let go of Mini and paced around, running a hand through her hair and tugging at her ears. She gestured at the books and ghosts. "If even one of these people was as powerful as anyone on the Team, or... or... or... or the smiths of Avalon, or magic people like Merlin or Whitelight or Morgan le Fay... holy shit, this is HUGE!"

Gwen was generally kind of unpredictable, but this was NOT a reaction she expected from anyone. Fear, or disgust, or pitty. Those were typical reactions. Mini wasn't sure how she felt about elation in this context. "Um... that's an interesting way to look at it. I hadn't even considered that..."

She gave Gwen an uneasy look, but offered a weak smile so as not to steal her thunder. "There's... a LOT of books. As in over six billion of them. And a lot of these people did very bad things. We can use some, but... be careful what you use your powers on."

“Six ***billion***?! Holy shit, that’s ama—“ Gwen stopped, seeing the look on Mini’s face, and sucked in a breath. “Right, right, should... be careful. I should... control myself. Sorry.”

Mini grinned, her uneasiness giving way to amusement "Not gonna lie. It's a LITTLE creepy how jazzed you are about the place. But also, you're the first one to see a silver lining in it, and that makes me feel a lot less shitty about my... situation."

Mini closed the armor footlocker, and stowed it under her table again. "Also... it's real fuckin' cute to see you excited about stuff. I wouldn't mind more of that." She giggled at Gwen an tried not to stare. Even saying something just now would likely invite snark and rebuttal.

Gwen was still looking out over the endless shelves of books, no longer entranced, but still with curiosity burning below the surface. One ear twitched and she crinkled her nose briefly at the comment, but didn't offer a retort right away.

"Well, let's see how we can make other situations less shitty, shall we? Gotta do what we can do."

Gwen thought for a moment. "Perhaps I should get Nim--the sword in here. Then we can figure out what magic is still in there, since you can only use yours in here. I could also try using my powers on it, since I never actually wanted to before. Figure out what the situation is before trying to take it apart and put it back together, y'know?"

Mini nodded, pushed away the giggles to get her head in the game. "Alright. Sounds like a plan. I'll leave the way open for you while you get your sword. Might be easier for you to just bring my book with you. I'll clean up and get ready in here, so we can get started as soon as you get back."

Gwen nodded and hopped back through the portal, leaving her messenger bag and the red book behind on one of the tables.

## The Sword and the Book

She took a moment to collect herself from the dizziness of going through the portal, then walked to her room. She lifted her sword from the top bunk bed where it lay tucked in, the hilt on the pillow. She lightly brushed her fingers across it as she looked it over, a worried look on her face. There were some small patches along the blade--not rust, but something... off about it.

Some screechy noises turned her attention away from the sword, to her nightstand. She opened up the door and smiled at Rushmore, the baby hydra, who greeted her with a yawn--one head after the other. She scratched one of the heads' chin, cast a look at the Risganjan gun the critter was curled around, double checking that it was locked to its safety mode.

"It's not yet feeding time, little ones, you can go back to sleep," she cooed. "I'll be back later." She closed the door again, took the sword, and walked back to the portal and hopped through.

Mini was already hard at work getting organized and making space. Objects floated around the workspace, every which way, finding their proper homes in drawers and bins and shelves. Several saint's candles were lit on one of the benches, and Mini had a mortar and pestle in hand, grinding away at something. And orange floated over to Gwen and hovered in her line of sight, waiting to be plucked from the air. "This is for you. It's bitter, so save some of that orange to chase it down. Coming in and out is gonna take a toll on you, so let's get ahead of it rather than wait for you to feel sick."

Gwen plucked the orange out of the air and stared at Mini. "Wait, chase what down?" She wobbled on her legs a little. "You're not gonna feed me some mystery potion just for the dizziness, are you?"

She snorted, and scraped her herbal mash into a glass, then added water and a spirit to make a tonic. She stirred the mixture as she approached Gwen. "It's not just for dizziness. It's for the Gloaming. This place is a depressant. If you plan on using a psychometric power in here, you should have an upper. And if you have to leave and come back for anything else... well, I don't want your stomach turning inside out in here. There's no runing water, in case you havn't noticed."

Mini took the orange away form her and started peeling it, since she was hesitating. She pressed the little glass into her hand, and tucked herself under Gwen's arm again, noticing her unsteady stance. "I'll take some with you, if it'll make you feel better. But it's really better if you use all of it. I don't get to witch very much on the outside, but I grew up with this stuff. I'm not a novice."

Gwen swiveled the glass around and stared into it. It didn't look very appetizing, but her mother's medicine never did either, unless she cast a glamour over it. At least she was more used to bitter tastes now. She considered asking more about the Gloaming and why it was so depressing in nature, but she didn't really want to know--not now, while they were still there. They had better things to do.

"I trust your skills, Mini. I just don't always trust your intentions. Well then, bottoms up," she said as she drank the potion. She made a face and reached for the orange, taking it and biting into it.

Mini was stung by that declaration. More so by the off handed way Gwen delivered it, as if that was just normal. How it's always been. But after the moment of watching Gwen's face twist up at the taste of her remedy... it just felt awkward to interrogate that notion now. She took the empty glass from Gwen and returned it to her work bench, then quietly began marking the work space with chalk. A smattering of Latin and Lucumí words and phrases blocked out a focal point, where the sword's latent magical energy would be amplified. Hopefully this made it easier for Gwen to read the memories tied to her sword.

The sound of shattering glass echoed all around as Gwen journeyed into the memories of her magic sword. At least, that's what *should* have happened. An inky blackness fills her vision, and a strange chill rushes up her spine. After many long moments, the sound of distant waves can be heard. And island birds calling. And a different, distinct animal call that she has no context for. Someone strums a guitar lazily, and the slow rhythm of island music is as a beacon to her in the dark.

"What are you doing here?" A timid voice asks from the back of her mind.

The inky black gives way to an island coast, afire with silvery moonlight, and the glow of a nearby cook fire. A fat, dark skinned man, wearing a broad, gap toothed smile man sits by the fire. A tiny little girl sits in his lap, and he guides her hands over the strings of a guitar.

After having done it so many times, Gwen had not yet gotten used to being shaken out of her regular retrocognition routine by outside factors interfering, but she recognized that something was wrong--if not different, at least.

She set a step forward and found herself barefoot, her toes digging into the beach sand. She walks slowly, looking over her shoulder, as if the timid voice had been behind her, then back at the man and the girl. *By fire and moonlight*, she recalled Merlin's rambling, *is when magic is best practiced.* Both of them, under the circumstances, had her very suspicious.

"Who the hell are you?" She asks, staring at the man.

The man continued to smile down at the little girl on his knee. He paid Gwen no heed, as if he didn't notice her at all. The little girl though... "What're you doing here Gwen?"

She asked, fixing Gwen with her piercing blue eyes. She brushed strands of long brown hair out of her face, her expression both confused and familiar.

Gwen returned the girl's confused expression.

"I'm... here to learn about my sword," she said, walking slowly in a circle around the fire as she kept her eyes on the girl. Like a stalking cat having a surprise meeting with a kitten, if the kitten had opposable thumbs and could play a guitar.

"What are you doing here?" No, that wasn't the first question on her mind. "What *is* here?"

The little girl opened her mouth to reply, but her eyes moved to Gwen's foot an instant before a tiny frog hopped onto it. A smaller, younger girl, chased it and tumbled to her knees as she dropped a little red bucket over it, and Gwen's bare foot. She looked up at Gwen, embarrassed. "You're really pretty. But you shouldn't be here. He'll find you."

From under the bucket the frog made a strange sound. It matched the distinct animal call Gwen heard earlier. The tiny girl at her feet looked up at her with the same piercing blue eyes, and similar familiar facial features. She pointed behind Gwen slowly, not taking her eyes off her.

Gwen flashed the girl a confused smile. She was reminded of the times she had played with frogs, years ago. Looking for them with the same curious eyes, but a paler blue. She opened her mouth to respond, but a quiet feeling of dread crept up on her, and she followed the girl's pointing finger to where it was aiming behind her.

"Who is he?"

A middle aged woman with deep smile lines, and long turquoise hair stood behind Gwen. Her expression was gentle, but also troubled. She chewed nervously on one of her lip piercings, and gingerly laid her right hand on Gwen's shoulder. "He, is Alastor. And she's right, you shouldn't be here."

The woman reached her left hand out to Gwen, a platinum ring in the shape of a Wadjet upon her third finger. Her worry melted away for the moment, and she offered the girl a genuine gap toothed smile that swallowed up her blue eyes. "I have no memory of this, Gwen, but of course you came here. That makes so much sense. You can't stay, but... it's so good to see you."

Gwen bore a wide-eyed frown, the expression of someone shocked but processing things. *Wildly coloured hair, piercings, what she's saying...*

"Mini?!" Gwen said, incredulously. "Are you Mini? Are all of you Mini?" She stared at the little girl, then the slightly older looking one, then at the man. "Okay, probably not him." She moved to turn back, then gave the man a second look. "Then again, my father, and magic..." She shrugged, and turned back to the middle-aged woman.

"This is... quite something. I'm not sure what is going on. I was just trying to use my powers on my sword and Mini was helping me with her magic. Did we fuck up?"

*...the Special Feature scene ends there, as it suddenly turns to pencil drawings and basic animation, with no voice over lines.*

## Director's Commentary

*We were going to make this longer, as part of a series of scenes happening almost concurrently with the Montreal Limited Series, showing the actions of the characters who remained at home. One sub-set of these scenes had Gwen interacting with various teammates about trying to get her powers back, about making a new weapon for herself, and about learning to be a hero all over again without being guided by Nimue. Unfortunately, not all of these scenes were finished, and so it was a plot thread that we later changed, giving Gwen a transforming weapon instead while she was in Avalon.*

*In this particular scene, we were also going to delve into Mini's backstory and the nature of her powers, by showing Minis from the past and from different futures. We had some arguments about the amount of Minis to show, and at one point we had the joking pending title of "Mini 40,000: Gwen Darkness of the Future". We almost considered tossing in an appearance by a future villainous Gwen from one of Minis possible futures.*

*We were also going to delve into the structure of Gwen's bond with Nimue by showing the metaphysical internal makeup of the* sword *Nimue that the* spirit *Nimue had lived in for all these months. The two of them were going to be able to explore this pocket dimension of the sword, while inside of Mini's own pocket dimension, so there was going to be a bit of an "Inception" thing going on, and also we were going to have Gwen meet Alastor face-to-face, which might have been a highly tense situation. We weren't sure on how to tackle that, so maybe that's why we ended up stopping production where we did.*