The Fate Files

File #1: The Case of the Deadly Drone, Part 1

Xx~~*~~xX

An 11-year-old Fate T. Harlaown descended from the sky and alighted upon the wet and frozen ground, taking in the scenery around her. It wasn't he first time she had been encountered such white blanket coverage; the winters in Uminari coated the hills and trees in a similar manner, after all. However, this was the first time she had visited an entire planet covered in heavy snow. If it wasn't for her auto-barrier retaining her heat and providing insulation, it wouldn't take take long for her to develop hypothermia.

She sensed a presence land beside her, instinctively knowing it was Arf; a familiar presence in all senses of the word. The big, orange wolf shook her coat to dislodge the slowly piling white stuff, then exhaled an annoyed grunt.

"I don't know what we're still doing here," Arf complained, taking a moment to sniff the air. "I still don't sense anything unusual. Can't we go back to the Arthra and take a hot bath?" She shivered for emphasis, drawing an amused smile from Fate.

"Not until we're finished," Fate admonished her, then opened her communicator. "This is Lt. Fate T. Harlaown with familiar Arf. We've finished the search of grid D9, and will move onto to D10."

"Roger that," came the crackled reply from Chrono from his position aboard the Arthra in orbit. He had taken the mission commander position, as usual. "I have Zafira and Signum moving on to H12, while Nanoha and Vita are still in A4. Apparently they discovered some nearby ruins they want to check out."

"And still no clue on why this planet has recovered yet?" Fate inquired, taking to the air again, watching as the snowy forests and hills passed by beneath her.

"None," Amy answered for him. "I've been going over the data from the last survey team, and ever since it was rendered uninhabitable over 300 years ago during the Belkan wars, world #34 has yet to fully recover from it's nuclear winter. The radiation has long since faded, but it still seems to be locked in perpetual winter. The only clue that the survey team indicated, was that there were chemicals in the atmosphere that seemed very unlikely be naturally generated for a planet in this stage. It's keeping the cloud cover thick enough to block most of the sunlight."

"Which leaves unnatural means, and that indicates that someone or something here," Fate concluded for the communications officer.

"Yeah yeah, an that's why we're here, checking out likely spots where those chemicals could be coming from, a boring mission," Arf added in a tired voice and then sneezed, although Fate knew it was more for dramatic effect. "I do notice you're staying on the warm bridge, Chrono."

"I'm mission commander and need to oversee the big picture, you know that," Chrono reminded her, although all knew Arf was aware of that. "And however boring these missions may be, they are important, as they help acclimate you and the Wolkenritter to Bureau rules and procedures. You've been doing this for almost two years now, so you should be used to it."

Arf rolled her eyes and yapped her jaw open and closed while tilting her head back and forth in a mock impersonation of Chrono giving his lecture, causing Fate to giggle. "Well, I hope the others are doing better than we are."

"Chrono-kun, this is Nanoha, are you forwarding the images of these ruins to Yuuno-kun?" came the interruption on the communication channel.

"Yes, and he's crosschecking the data back at the Infinity Library, but so far he hasn't come up with anything," came his response after a moment. "We're still going with the hunch that a lost logia is involved, perhaps some unexploded ordinance, so be careful."

"I still think there's nothing here," Vita's dour voice stated. "I have to agree with Arf; this is boring. I don't see anything on this side of the ruins."

Fate smiled as she imagined Chrono sighing and face-palming on the bridge; in the past couple of years, she had gotten to know her new brother quite well.

"Hold on a moment, I think I saw some movement," Nanoha reported. "I'm moving closer to check it out."

"Wait up, I'll come join you," Vita stated over the channel, something almost undetectable in her tone that gave Fate paise.

"Nanoha, what did you find?" Fate inquired, coming to a stop in midair.

"I don't know, it looks like-"

Fate glanced at Arf, feeling a bit concerned. "Nanoha? What is it?"

There was a brief pause, and then, "...under... tack... fighting some kind... robot... I can... Aaaah!"

"Vita, report!" Chrono commanded, his tone urgent yet controlled. "We're getting some kind of communication interference. What's happening?"

Something unpleasant began to form in Fate's stomach. Logically, she knew Nanoha could take care of herself, especially with Vita to back her up; so why wouldn't this feeling of dread go away? Arf's gaze told her everything she needed to know in one silent word: Go. Fate silently thanked her familiar and immediately turned and took off towards Nanoha and Vita's general position.

"This is Lt. Fate Harlaown and Arf, en route!" she announced to the channel. "We're closest, so we'll find out what's going on!"

Chrono didn't respond, his way of allowing the change of orders. Still, agonizing moments passed in silence, as Fate got nothing but static on the line. And then suddenly, it all cleared up in one horrifying announcement.

"Shamal, get your medical team down here NOW!" came Vita's incredibly desperate voice, making Fate fear the worst. "Nanoha has been injured, there is a lot of blood!"

"She's on the way," Chrono assured her, keeping his voice calm although Fate knew him well enough to sense the barely perceptible worried undertones. "What happened down there? Vita? Report!"

But apparently Vita was in no frame of mind to properly respond, as she babbled something about a robot before going silent. Fate could physically feel the twisting mass of fear growing in her gut; something awful had happened, she just knew it. Nothing else could shake the normally unflappable hammer knight like this.

"[You're faster than me, don't hold back!]" came Arf's concerned telepathic message. "[Don't wait for me, go!]"

Fate sent back her thanks again, and began shifting all of her magic into going as fast as possible.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU MEDICS DOING!" came the panicked shout. "GET DOWN HERE, NOW! SHE'S GONNA DIE, HURRY!"

Fate grit her teeth and poured on every bit of speed she could muster, praying she wasn't too late.

x~~*~~x

"They'll know I'm here now!" the white-frocked and bespectacled scientist blurted in a near-panic into the subspace audio link as he rapidly began transferring and deleting data while packing as many belongings as possible. "I have to get out of here!"

"Calm down, Dr. Hardell," came the calm and lackadaisical response over the channel. "You won't accomplish anything by panicking now. What's done is done."

"You have to help me!" Dr. Hardell insisted, turning toward the screen, even though there was no picture. "If they get me, they'll be on to you, too! All that research on drones you had me do... they'll trace it back to you!"

"My dear doctor, you'll find there is very little I have to do," came the condescending reply. "You, my dear Gren, were the one who set that drone on the Bureau; it's your mess that you have to clean up. Although it might prove a bit of an inconvenience to me, this little setback you have cost me ultimately won't mean much. The Bureau can't touch me... not when I have something they want."

Gren stared, almost unable to process what he was hearing. "But...but... all that work I did for you! You assured me everything would be okay, that no one would bother with this planet as long as I made it look like it was still in nuclear winter! Those Bureau mages were about to find one of my secret entrances, so I had to unleash the drone to take care of them!"

The voice sighed and then assured him, "Oh, but I will take care of you. You're one of my foremost experts on ancient Belkan robotics. Collapse the entrance and destroy the lab, and then head to the rendezvous point where you should be fine until my underling can reach and evacuate you. She'll help set you up in another locale I've prepared just for you."

For the first time, Gren exhaled in relief. "Thank you, doctor."

"Don't thank me yet, Hardell," the voice clucked. "You're just lucky I still have some use for you. However, my patience is limited. If you screw up again, you are on your own."

As the line went dead, Doctor Gren Hardell swallowed nervously, and then returned to his preparations with considerably renewed vigor.

x~~*~~x

This wasn't right, Fate decided.

It hurt so much to see her like that, much more than the time she had been laid up due to having her linker core drained. Fate only barely paid attention to the conversation behind her, as she stared into the one-way window and beheld the small form on the hospital bed in the dimly-lit room.

Nanoha was a strong, confident girl. The mage that had steadfastly confronted Fate on multiple occasions without a hint of weakness. She was the girl that had stood up to the Book of Darkness's defense program alone, and managed to wound it enough to free Fate and Hayate from it. Time and time again, it was Nanoha's strength that had seen them through.

And now she was just a small, vulnerable form, barely hanging onto life. Unconscious and hooked up to the breathing mask and other equipment, she couldn't appear more frail and helpless.

Fate allowed her hands to ball into fists for the hundredth time. [This isn't right!]

"There were multiple puncture wounds, here, here and here," Shamal was explaining while pointing at a chart on a holographic screen. "One of her lungs nearly collapsed, her linker core was disrupted, and she had severe internal bleeding due to rupture of her lower intestines. But the damage I'm most concerned about is to her lower spine. We're just lucky we got to her when we did."

"When will she fully recover?" Vita asked in a tone that indicated no other answer other than "soon" would be acceptable.

Shamal sighed and closed the screen. "Let me be clear: she might not even walk again, let alone fly or use magic on the same level. The life support devices we have her on are all that is currently keeping her alive while we accelerate the healing from surgery. She shouldn't have even taken this kind of damage in the first place, if her defenses were in place."

"Vita, what happened out there?" Signum inquired, her tone unreadable. "You were supposed to be Nanoha's partner. Didn't you notice anything?"

"I know that!" the hammer knight nearly exploded, slamming her hand down on a nearby table for emphasis. "How do you think I feel about all of this? She's laying in there, and I couldn't do anything! You think I wanted her to end up like this?"

Lindy stepped forward and placed a hand on the smaller girl's shoulder. "Calm down, Vita, that's not what we're saying at all. We just want to know if you remembered anything else you haven't put in your report yet. All we want to do is help Nanoha, and figure out what happened."

Vita glanced away, towards the window and the patient within. "I told you everything I know! We had separated to better explore the ruins, but I headed her way as soon as she had announced that she saw something. When I got there, the ruins were a battlefield, and she was already down." Her little hands clenched at her side. "I should have been there, I should have been faster!"

"You did all you could," Lindy soothed, then turned to change the conversation. "Chrono, what is the status on the investigation?"

Her son pushed off the wall from where he had been resting. "I sent the wreckage of Nanoha's mechanical opponent to Mariel for analysis; she promised she'd have something for me in a day or two, though. I currently have a squad of Enforcers combing the ruins, and although they found what looked like an entrance leading underground, it has been thoroughly caved-in, though all signs point to it happening recently."

"Because of Nanoha's battle?" Zafira questioned, speaking up for the first time.

Chrono shook his head. "I thought that at first, but the signs point to an internal controlled demolition."

"Which means someone was there, after all," Fate concluded, turning around and finally joining the conversation. "Someone with an ancient war machine. I read the report as well, and sensor data indicates the tunnel running to a small underground destroyed facility."

"Yes, we figure it might have been some research outpost, possibly left over from the Belkan wars," Chrono answered, nodding his sister's way. "I was about to go to the Infinity Library to check with Yuuno, and see if he's identified any of the markings. It would help to know what kind of lost logia we're dealing with."

"I'd like to come with you, if you don't mind," Fate added.

Chrono considered that, and then nodded. "It is investigative Enforcer work, and you have been making a good effort in your training in that regard. Very well."

"Alright, let's break for now," Lindy announced. "I've organized some time off for everyone until Chrono completes his investigation. I know how you all must feel, so take this time blow off some steam. I promise you that, as soon as we have something, we'll let you know. And when we find out who is behind this, I will let everyone know, and make it our next official mission. You are dismissed."

Fate wasted no time, quickly crossing the room to exit through the door right after her brother, and then falling into step beside him. She could sense Arf taking her customary position right behind, but her thoughts were mostly focused forward.

[I swear, Nanoha, I will find out who is responsible,] she told herself, and then glanced toward Chrono. But if he had any inkling of what was going through her mind, he gave no sign.

x~~*~~x

"The best that I can tell from the ruins, is that the planet was once a research outpost for a particular faction of planets engaged in the Belkan wars," Yuuno explained, floating in the zero-G Infinity Library between several stacks of books. "They developed those automatons there and used them as their primary ground troops. I haven't yet found out all their capabilities, but I do know that all the texts left behind by those that fought against them, say they were fearsome opponents. They tended to appear and disappear at will, with their very presence sapping the strength from anyone close by."

"So, are we looking at something that was randomly activated by our presence?" Chrono questioned, arms crossed over his chest. "Or did someone command it?"

Yuuno shook his head sadly. "I wish I could tell you more. But look here."

He opened one of the books and amplified the image onto a screen, where Fate could see a crab-like single automaton on a small hill in the middle of dozens of soldiers, all of whom were in various positions of collapse. Squiggly lines, possibly representing lines of force or rays, came out from an aura drawn around the robot.

"You can see from the aura drawn around this, that it somehow debilitated people without even touching them," Yuuno pointed out. "Possibly some kind of field effect or attack. I still have many more books to go through, though."

Fate thought for a moment as she studied the open books floating around them. "You said the planet belonged to a particular faction. Do you know which planets were in that faction?"

"Those are some records I am still going over, but I can send the list to your devices along with the other data I have," Yunno informed them, opening up a holographic screen and typing into it. "Most of the civilizations were wiped out in the war, but a few are still around in one manner or another."

"But it still doesn't tell us who was behind it," Fate pointed out.

"No, and I'm afraid I might not be able to tell you that," the librarian replied with a sigh. "All I can give you is historical context, and hope it points you in the right direction."

"It will have to do, thank you," Chrono stated, beginning to float back down to the entrance. "Fate, the investigation is on hold for the moment. When I hear from Mariel, I'll let you know. For now, I think you should get some rest."

Fate nodded as he moved away, and she prepared to follow, but Yuuno called for her to stay a moment. "How is Nanoha, really? I haven't been able to get away yet to see her since the attack. Ever since I began organizing things here, requests have been pouring in from all over, keeping me busy."

Fate bit her lip. "It's... not good. I'll see if I can get Arf to help you out here some, so you can go visit her and talk to Shamal yourself."

"If there is anything else I can do to help, promise me you'll let me know," he whispered to her, and then his demeanor changed somewhat. "We've been friends a long time, so I know how this must be affecting you. Chrono probably sees it, too, but I know he wouldn't say anything."

Fate raised an eyebrow. "I'm not sure what you mean."

His mouth opened and then closed again, as if he were searching for the right words. "Just be careful, and remember we're all friends here. I know how you feel, but you don't need to take this all on your own."

"I'll keep that in mind, thank you," she told him, not meeting his eyes before floating down to join Arf at the entrance, but she found her familiar giving her a look as well. "What?"

"I heard what he said," she said succinctly, reaching up to poke one of her dog ears sticking out of her human head. "And I know you even better than he does. You'll run yourself ragged pursuing this."

Fate glanced around her, but Chrono had already gone and the area was clear. Still, she switched to telepathic communication as the pair started walking. "[Okay, yes, I'm upset. I want whoever did this to pay dearly.]"

"[Because you feel you failed in your promise to save and protect her,]" Arf stated simply. "[But even finding out who is responsible, won't change her current condition.]"

"[I know that!]" Fate replied harshly, unwilling to let on just how much it hurt her to see Nanoha in such a condition. That time with the drained linker core was bad enough. "[But I can't face her until I have something more concrete. And Chrono is acting officially, so his investigations will be a bit limited.]"

"[You're going to do some unofficial investigating on your own, even if it violates Bureau regulations.]" It wasn't a question; Arf did know her too well.

Fate stopped in her tracks and turned to face her familiar. "[Promise me you won't say anything to anyone.]" Arf appeared a bit hesitant, so Fate repeated it, almost phrasing it like a command. "[Promise me!]"

Arf finally gave in and nodded."[Very well, I promise. But I'm in this with you, all the way.]"

x~~*~~x

Vita slammed her door shut, not bothering to turn on the lights. Even then, it was only after she remembered to lock the door, that she finally stopped trying to stem her eyes from leaking.

"It's... it's not... that... bad..." Nanoha whispered hoarsely, barely audible.

Vita shook her head, so far unable to get that scene out of her head, where it continued to play over and over again. Each time, she arrived too late. And each time, Nanoha's badly injured body was in her arms. She glanced at her small hands, and for a moment, saw blood on them; blood that belonged to someone else. She clenched them angrily and reared back, smashing a post on her bed with a mighty punch.

It didn't hurt as much as she hoped it would, her auto-barrier automatically increasing to absorb the shock. Instead, she turned and punched the wall, over and over with alternating fists. [Dammit dammit, dammit, dammit!]

She almost didn't hear the door open, a part of her mind angrily wondering why her sanctuary was being violated. She quickly rubbed her eyes on her sleeve while the light switch was flipped on; it wouldn't do to have others see her like this.

"The door was locked," the hammer knight spouted testily. "I want to be alone."

"Not until we have a talk," Signum declared bluntly. "If you want to fight about it, I can reserve one of the Bureau's training areas, but we both know how that will end."

Vita seethed, but turned her head to glare at the woman who was her commander for as long as she could remember. "What do you want from me?"

"There is still something else you have not told anyone," Signum stated factually. "You have your reasons, but you will tell me. Or you will tell Hayate. Your choice."

The hammer knight blanched and continued to glare. She probably could have put up quite a fight, but then she saw Shamal step out from behind Signum. The gentle and concerned face was more than enough to melt her hardening resolve and defuse the coming contention.

"And I have a feeling I know already," the Belkan doctor declared, then her tone softened even more. "Talk to us, Vita; we're a real family now, not just battle programs. And something you know might help me better treat Nanoha. "

"What makes you think..." the smaller girl started to say, then trailed off and crossed her arms over her chest. Even through her emotional haze, she realized Shamal had a good point. "Alright, fine. Right before deployment, I noticed Nanoha seemed a little off. She zoned out and stumbled against the corridor. She tried to hide it, and I wanted to say something, but she just smiled at me and said she'd be fine." Her eyelids clenched shut unconsciously to stem the flow of oncoming tears, but to no avail. "If I had only said something... If I had stuck closer to her... she wouldn't be lying there like that!"

Shamal sighed. "I was afraid of this. Dizziness and shaky limbs would be about right. I was concerned with the readings I was getting in my examinations of Nanoha. The Bureau isn't too familiar with them, since the cartridge system isn't used much, but I recognize the signs due to my experience. Overuse of the system, and continually pushing her body and magic to the limit, have taken their toll on her linker core. In short, she was forcing more magic through her body and linker core than she was meant to handle. It's probably why her defenses failed in a critical moment."

"So you can fix her, right Shamal?" Vita pleaded, her tone desperate. "You can make her all well again now?"

The Belkan doctor took several steps forward and knelt down in front of the sniffling hammer knight, placing a comforting hand on the smaller girl's shoulder. "I promise I will do the best I can. But you can't blame yourself; it's not your fault! Nanoha was pushing herself, so this would have happened sooner or later."

Vita desperately searched Shamal's eyes for any sign that she was being lied to. "But... but... if I had..."

Rather than respond vocally, Shamal pulled the smaller trembling girl into her arms for a hug, which triggered the dam bursting. To everyone else, she was a hard-nosed battle-hardened warrior, even to her friends. But to the Wolkenritter, she was still part young girl inside, a part of herself that she hid very well. For several moments, she cried herself out, before finally pulling away, embarrassed. However, there was also a look in her eyes that promised unholy retribution if anyone else ever found out about this. She was partly relieved that Signum had apparently stepped out sometime during her outburst.

"Better?" Shamal questioned with a tender smile, holding up a tissue to dab Vita's cheeks.

Vita gave a hesitant slight nod, as she wiped her eyes on her sleeve. "A little. But I still want to be alone."

The Wolkenritter support mage knew her role well, and thus stood and nodded. "I understand. The rest of us will be waiting for you, when you're ready."

She gave Vita another smile, before flipping off the light and closing the door.

x~~*~~x

Smoke hung in the air like a mini-fog bank, and although a couple of fans spun on the ceiling, it did little to dissipate the cloudy atmosphere. Fate couldn't help but cough a few times while her body adjusted, but she took the time to scan the interior of the bar and the seedy patrons within. Some glanced her way, probably surprised to see such a young girl here, but most others ignored her.

"[You sure you want to do this?]" came Arf's telepathic message, currently in puppy form at her side.

The response was unequivocal. "[Yes. I've thought about it, and we need leads. The underground facility appeared to have been a lab, according to the Enforcer team that excavated it. Recently lived in, too, judging from the deliberate destruction of the power source, which means someone was using it. There was no garden or other indications of self-sufficiency, so it had to have been resupplied regularly. Since the Bureau has no records of any ships traveling out that way, that means it had to have acquired materials and supplies from a black market route.]"

"[And I still think you've been watching too many detective movies,]" Arf sighed, but she couldn't fault the logic. "[Still, I'm not sure if we'll find what we're looking for here.]"

"[I need contacts, and I need to start somewhere,]" Fate replied, walking up to the bar counter and taking a seat. "[This is a bar in the shipping district, which is as good a place as any to begin.]"

The bartender seemed to be trying hard to hold back laughter as he came over, eying her. "And what would you like, Miss? A Happy Meal with a Diet Vodka? I'm afraid we don't sell the former, and you're a bit young for the latter."

A couple of the patrons nearby, a man and a woman, chuckled at the attempted humor, but Fate ignored them. "Neither. I'm looking for information space shipping lanes."

His eyebrow went up at that statement, but it seemed he felt like humoring her. "Well, we do have crew from ships currently in dock that come by here, but the Bureau has records of all shipping lanes in Bureau space. You'd be better off checking with them, or contacting a shipping company directly if you want something shipped."

Fate took a deep breath and tried again. "No, I'm looking for information that would be off the books. Ships that may take detours, or make unscheduled stops and deliveries."

The barkeep eyed her, a slightly more reflective look in his eye, as if he couldn't quite determine if she was serious or not. But when he didn't respond right away, someone else a few bar stools over did.

"Ooh, I think she means smuggling," a short man hinted after setting his drink down, a small smile on his face and a glint in his eye,. "Perhaps she wants to smuggle something in or out without the Bureau knowing? But that's illegal and so no one would ever do that." The humor in his town indicated that he was clearly toying with her.

"But what could she possibly want?" a woman almost hanging off of him questioned, putting a finger to her lips. The way she was sparsely dressed, let Fate know that she must have been some variety of waitress, escort, or prostitute. "A lost logia?"

"Those are dangerous items," the man stated still in mock horror. "Maybe she wants to smuggle herself off and join the slave trade instead!" The man and the woman broke into guffaws at that.

"Alright, Kergan, that's enough," the bartender ordered, and then shook his head with a sigh while he turned back to Fate. "And you, miss, should take your puppy and..."

He trailed off as Fate rose from her stool and crossed the short distance to the still-chuckling pair, which brought new humor with the realization that the young girl was approaching them. Fate sat next to the man, her head still lowered.

"So what can you tell me about smuggling?" she inquired, keeping her voice low and neutral as best as she could.

Her question must have been funny to him, because he barked out several more laughs, then wiped his eyes. "Well, smuggling is the process of sneaking forbidden items from one place to another. If I remember my school lessons properly."

"[Fate...]" Arf warned, seeing the small, almost imperceptible crackle of electricity.

Fate slapped her hand down on his wrist, preventing him from lifting his drink and taking him a bit by surprise. "Either you tell me what I want to know, or else-"

"Or else what?" he cut her off, clearly amused. "I like you, kid, I really do. You got spunk. Tell you what; come back in a couple of years and I'll set you up under the tutelage of Miss Tulip here and-"

He didn't get any farther, as as blast of magical energy knocked him off the stool and to the floor, with Fate standing and giving him a glare. "A friend of mine was hurt fairly badly on uninhabited world #34. Either you tell me what ship supplies that planet, or tell me where I can go to get that information. And it better be correct, or I'll come back."

All the amusement was gone from Kergan's eyes now. "So you're a mage, are you? You're not the only one around here. Boys, this young girl has worn out her welcome."

Three rather seedy individuals rose from one of the bar tables and headed her way, while the bartender pleaded, "Now, take it easy, Kergan; she's just a kid. You still haven't paid me back from the damage caused by the last scuffle!"

Fate allowed a grim smile to form on her lips as she prepared to fight the three on approach, but then paused as a large hand landed on her left shoulder. However, as she glanced up at the big man, it was promptly dealt with as Arf morphed into her adult woman form and laid him out with a sound smack to his jaw.

"Honestly, Fate, I guess we can't take you anywhere," Arf stated with a sigh, then put up her fists and smiled fiercely with spirit at the approaching targets. "But I suppose we can settle for some entertainment since we're here. And from the look of things, this will be a lot of fun!"

Fate noticed that more and more people from the bar were standing up and producing various weapons. She wasn't quite sure how strong any of them were, but one thing was certain: she understood exactly how Arf felt at ths moment. Fate didn't quite realize it herself until now, but she was looking forward to such a confrontation more than she knew. Adrenaline had been building all this time, and now it had a release, and thus she formed her barrier jacket and Bardiche in quick motion almost unconsciously.

Her head came up, matching her familiar's eager expression. "Bring it on."

x~~*~~x

Arf glanced at her master sitting to her side for the twentieth time as the pair sat in the back of the police van, but found Fate's expression almost unreadable. It wasn't like Arf was completely unable to tell what the golden-haired girl was thinking; she just wasn't exactly sure what to say at the moment.

"Well, at least we learned that there was nothing we could learn there?" the orange-haired woman suggested hopefully.

"I suppose," Fate responded listlessly.

The familiar grinned, but immediately winced and rubbed her bruised side. "And we gave out better than we got; they'll remember our names for some time to come. And the expression on that one guy's face when you blocked his punch with one hand and then sent him flying through the window... priceless!"

When Fate shrugged, Arf sighed and glanced out the back of the van, where several flashing lights from patrol cars were gathered around a ruined section of the line of buildings. In a way, Arf was at least glad the damage was contained to just the bar, and not the buildings connected to it. Still, she couldn't disperse the clouds of doom that hung over them now. And as Chrono nodded to an officer and headed their way, Arf was prepared to hear the lecture.

Chrono climbed into the back of the van and took a seat opposite of them, his expression unreadable as well; but Arf realized that was par for the course in his case. He studied the two of them, glanced at his noted bad, and then sighed.

"I'd ask what you two were thinking, but I suspect I already know," he stated dourly glancing back up at the two. "The Bureau will be paying to rebuild Harris's bar, as well as compensate him for lost revenue during that time. You both are just lucky he was willing to drop charges in exchange for that." He paused to gauge their reactions, and although Arf tried to appear suitably embarrassed, Fate remained expressionless. "I just want to know what made you two think it was a good idea to beat up a load of thugs in a warehouse district bar near the starport."

"I'm sorry, Chrono," Fate finally spoke. "It was all my idea. I thought I could get a lead here."

Her adopted brother studied her for a bit, and then finally sighed and said something that made the two females gaze at him curiously. "I should probably apologize, too. You were probably trying to figure out how that lab was being resupplied, and came to a similar conclusion. I should have told you that it would have been a dead end. I followed up with one of my contacts, and he said that no one in the shipping business had been making trips there, legal or otherwise. I should have shared that information with you, so you wouldn't have come out here like this."

"No, this was my fault-!" Fate began to protest.

"Yes, it was," Chrono stated bluntly, eyeing her again with disapproval. "You're not an Enforcer yet, and since you're under my tutelage, everything you do reflects on me, and by extension, the Bureau. There are rules we have to follow, since we spend a lot of our time in territory that we don't control or administer. We're not just investigators or combatants, but representatives of the Bureau. We have to be on our best behavior; it's already bad enough that we violate sovereignty to deal with lost logia cases. The worlds that know about the Bureau have so far allowed it because we've acted professionally, and because they are concerned about the dangers of illegal lost logia use, too."

Arf was upset at the way Fate's head hung. "Now wait just a minute, Fate was doing this for Nanoha and-"

"Arf, it's alright," Fate cut her off with a soft voice, laying her smaller hand on her familiar's.

"Yes, I know," Chrono replied. "And you should know that I received word earlier that Nanoha awoke for a short time not long ago. Shamal told us that odds are good that Nanoha would be awake tomorrow as well, and she'd arrange for a short visit. I think you know what you should do now." He stood up and made to exist the back of the van, but paused. "And remember, I'm your partner, currently. Check with me before doing anything like this again, alright?"

Fate nodded. "Yes, I will. And Chrono... thanks."

He finally allowed a small smile, and nodded in return, before finally leaving.

Arf let out a relieved breath and leaned back against the side wall. "Well, that didn't go too badly, at least. Although I get the feeling he was covering for us far more than he let on."

She paused and glanced down at the young girl, but still found that Fate was bottling things up again, but Arf wasn't too worried; this wasn't Fate of the past. She wouldn't be a total closed book forever, trying to do everything on her own... would she?

"What do you plan to do now?" Arf asked tentatively.

Although Chrono had smoothed everything over, inwardly, Fate was still troubled and she wasn't entirely sure why. There was still the concern about Nanoha's condition, of course, but was that all? [Why do I feel so... agitated?] But she was also aware that Arf was waiting for an answer.

"I don't know," she replied simply and honestly.

Xx~~*~~xX

Author's notes:

As you can tell, I'm going to try to weave these stories into canon as best as I can, shining spotlights on things that weren't covered much in the material, as well as generate new stories that can be told within the bounds of what we know. The cases Fate will follow will be spread out among all the material we have, even stretching beyond Force most likely. Each case will most likely consist of 2 or 3 parts, but with some cases being part of a larger overall arc. There will also be original cases that don't show up in canon.