T/N: Well hello everyone, I'm sure most of you already know, I'll be taking over the job of translating this story. I'm happy I was able to translate this great story and I hope that my work is good enough and meets your expectations. The first three chapters are the same ones that the author translated but I've checked them and fixed some typos. The fourth chapter was done by me, I think the writing style is pretty much the same. I'll be working along with the author and for that reason the updates for this story won't be that frequent, as some of you know I'm pretty fast when it come to updates, but not this time, sorry. But I'll do my best anyway, so please enjoy and leave some fee back, thank you. :D
P.S: I'll be updating the other two stories I'm working on, tomorrow, just so you know.
WARNING: This is a Nanoha-Fate Fic and it is rated M for strong or violent content and sexual encounters between two females. If this kind of content offends you in any way, if you are easily upset by explicit violent or sexual scenes or if you don't have the age for reading M content, please don't read.
DISCLAIMER: Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha's characters belong to their authors. Plot belongs to Aleksei Volken & Galadan. All the characters and situations described in this fic are fictional. Any similarity with real people or situation is not intentional and purely coincidental.
-X-
"El Legado" by Aleksei Volken & Galadan
The Legacy (English Version by Aleksei Volken and HikariFate)
Chapter 1. The start, is not always the beginning.
Light is the left hand of darkness
and darkness the right hand of light.
Two are one, life and death, lying
together like lovers in kemmer,
like hands joined together,
like the end and the way
-X-
Midchilda City Suburbs, 12th Day, 12th Month, 22:00 hrs.
Agent Enforcer Fate Testarossa Harlaown, leader of the TSAB's 1st Unit against Violent Crimes, forced herself to remain still in the middle of the horror that her latest crime scene was.
Just a few minutes ago, her second in command took the only survivor of the massacre surrounding her, to a safe place; IF any place could be considered that from now on to that kid.
So far, they still didn't know how big was the shit in they had in hand, but Fate was sure of something, it was dreadfully…terrible. The police officers on that the sector had called the TSAB due to the magnitude of the incident, of the tragedy in front of them and mostly due to the fact that, incredibly, there was a survivor from it. A little one…a little girl.
Fate's team and the police were still confirming the identities of the family, but whoever they were; they lived in a highly uptown and exclusive area of the city. Only the powerful and influential people lived there. That case was on the way to becoming a painful and awful nightmare for whoever was in charge…and that person was Fate at that very moment or more precisely, her boss, TSAB Colonel Hayate Yagami.
And whoever was responsible of the horror around her, surely was not counting with a potential witness. That little kid would turn out to be useful for that case.
Standing in the middle of the living room, Fate let her eyes travel around the space, trying to imagine the place as it was…before. The living room was of a traditional setting for Midchildian family houses, it was the main area where the family gathered all together after work and school to spend some time together, having dinner, playing, talking…This house living room was bigger than most, very spacious and completely equipped with the latest technological gadgets. Automatic blinds, doors, timers, big windows showing the gardens surrounding the house; and everything needed to make life easier, comfortable…safer. The walls were painted with warm, soft colors and the furniture matched the set creating a warm and cozy atmosphere. The family that lived there felt comfortable in that room, they felt safe there…they trusted they would be safe there.
But they weren´t.
That was the very place that the killer had chosen for his performance. And he took his time. Fate was sure of that, the crime scene unit was still working silently and efficiently around the scene and no results were still available but she knew it. It was still too early in the analysis to know who died first, but at that very moment four dead bodies were distributed around the living room in a way that could be anything but random. The whole setting spoken loud about a careful preparation and an implacable execution.
The first body belonged to an adult man. He was deprived of eighty percent of his skin with surgical accuracy and was hanging up from the ceiling, his body like a crucifix in the north side of the living room, just in front of the big window. Some body fluids were still dripping from the body to the pool on his feet where his blood was coagulating.
Just in front of the man, to the south of the living room; a woman, possibly the wife of the man, was strongly tied with her hands on her back and gagged. She was skewered using a sophisticated metal pole almost five feet tall; the pole was fixed on the floor with strong industrial studs. In all her years in service, Fate had never seen something like that before.
Finally, at the east and west sides of the living room, naked and tide in what seemed like a painful position, two adolescents, of barely thirteen years of age and which Fate considered as the twin sons of the couple, were killed with one deep cut on their throats. The slash was so deep that both boys' heads hung backwards in a vile angle. Their blood had spattered around them on the floor and walls, pouring forth the terrible wounds.
Fate was forcing herself to remain still and cool in the middle of that madness. During her years working as a special agent investigating and solving violent crimes and mainly, serial killer cases, she developed her own way to try to understand the horrible things that could not be understood by normal and common people, her way to get into the monster.
The first thing she did was stand in the middle of the scene, as she was already doing; and imagining the space as it was before the crime happened, then superimposing the image of whatever horror could have happened in that space during and after the crime. But never, ever in her life had she faced something like that.
Her fellow subordinates, agents Vice Granscenic and Alto Krauetta did their best to try to…prepare her for what she would see, but their effort was in vain. Nothing can prepare you for that level of brutality and violence.
She breathed and tried again. Being able to analyze and understand a scene like that was fundamental for the future success of the investigation, Fate knew it; she had to absorb all the details that would allow her and her team to build up this case. She tried her best to do exactly that and at the same time… compose herself from the overwhelming emotions inside her.
Unintentionally, her mind went back again and again to the small blonde that Shamal had carried out in her arms not too long ago. The girl was alive and presumably unharmed but completely shocked.
Fate made a last rational effort to focus on the job that she and only she had to do there, making a mental note about what she wanted to ask Shamal later about the little survivor girl. Independently of her feelings, that girl would be an important piece in that hell of a case.
The room was still like the first officer on the scene had seen it; in complete darkness, the only illumination coming from the twin moons of Midchilda and small floating light candles; these were strategically located, almost in the way that one would use for a romantic dinner.
Fate felt a stealthy presence around her, waiting. She didn't need to ask who it was, it could only be one person. Her second in command was the only one allowed to get near her when she was evaluating a scene for the first time. She turned slightly to meet her icy blue eyes; there was no need of unnecessary words or explanations between them. Signum Yagami had been working at the TSAB division for Violent Crimes under her command for only two years, but they've known each other since several years ago; Signum was her boss' older sister and the person Fate trusted the most in her life.
"The technical guys are done, Fate. We can proceed when you order."
"Take everybody out Signum, turn all the lights off and give me a few more minutes here."
Signum was already on her way to fulfill her orders when Fate's voice stopped her.
"Signum… has Shamal reported anything…about the girl?"
Signum arched an inquisitive brow. Fate's voice was steady and professional but something in its hue caught her attention.
"Yes," she answered cautiously, "she called me a few minutes ago. They already arrived at the TSAB research and medical facility, she's still running some test but it seems the girl is…physically unharmed."
Fate didn't make any more questions and two seconds later, complete darkness and silence surrounded her, the small candles next to each body was the only illumination in the room.
Fate walked until she was facing each one of them, the victims; then she changed her position trying to see what every one of them had seen before their death. Slowly, understanding reached her. With a shiver, she had a very bad feeling about what the autopsies would reveal about those deaths and she felt a steel fist crushing her heart. They were really facing a monster.
When she got out on the street, her team was already there waiting for her. The wind was really cold at that time; it was the beginning of the winter but for Fate breathing that cold air was refreshing after that scene. Two men and three women were there, wearing identical black uniforms exactly like hers. The insignias in her chest were the only thing that differentiated her as the officer in command. All the other officers, agents and technicians at the scene knew perfectly who they were and kept a respectful distance around the group.
"Tell them the scene can be clean, Signum."
A small nod was Signum's stoic answer but she didn't move from her spot.
"Is something wrong?" Fate asked promptly. Until then, she hadn't realized her team had been waiting for her for some reason.
"While you were doing the last analysis on the scene, Zafira found something you should see."
A quick glance at her team told her that whatever that new finding was, all of them had already seen it. Alto, Vice and the youngest member of her team Lucino Liilie, looked deadly serious.
"This way," Zafira said walking towards the house again.
Fate noticed that Signum walked behind them but the other members of her team stayed on the same place.
Zafira got in the house and passing through the living room without a second look, continued all the way to the stairs and walked up to the house's second floor, which Fate hadn't visit before. The only place where the violence was present was in the living room. Nothing in the rest of the house was out of place and everything was untarnished and clean. With the exception of the air. After some hours, the whole house smelled like blood and death.
Zafira entered a room in the second floor and when she got in; Fate knew it was the room of a little girl. The walls were painted in white with details in light blue and pink, the furniture was unostentatious like the rest of the furniture in the house but there were several stuffed toys and framed pictures.
Zafira went directly to the closet, opened it and stood aside for Fate to take a look inside.
Fate stood there paralyzed. The closet was completely empty and a message was written with blood in the white wall. Some of the letters looked a little heightened and she only needed a couple of seconds to understand why.
Her breathing quickened and her heart beat out of control. The message written there was for her.
"I LET HER LIVE…FATE"
Her name was not written in blood as she originally thought but with strips of bloody skin.
"We can't say it refers to you," Signum said with a calm voice as if reading Fate´s mind. "That word might have several other meanings."
Fate knew Signum was right and with the passing seconds she could feel gaining her control back but still a chill traveled down her back by just looking at her name written with human skin.
"Have the forensics been in this room?" she asked with a controlled voice finally.
"No yet, Zafira just showed it to me a few minutes before you met us outside."
"Okay…" Fate gained confidence again, "we need a detailed and deep check up of the whole house, an extremely careful one. This means that the killer knew about the girl."
"It seems like so…" Signum said carefully, she was one of those people who always needed to be one hundred percent sure before making any judgment.
In normal circumstances, Fate would have had the same opinion but this time her instincts were telling her that this case was a lot more serious than any other case they had seen before.
"I'll go back to the office with the guys," Fate said, "You and Zafira stay here and make sure everything is done properly. We have to apply a strict media control. There is no way we can avoid the news about the murder but no one, absolutely no one, should know about this room."
Signum and Zafira nodded their heads in agreement.
"We'll meet at the office when you're done. Maybe Shamal might have something about the girl by then."
"That's another…thing we have to mention, Fate…" Signum said calmly while Zafira took, with gloved hands, one of the framed pictures and handed it to Fate.
It was a family photo and Fate recognized the man, the woman and the young boys smiling, already dead at the living room.
"…The girl Shamal took with her is not the girl on these pictures."
Something suddenly clicked in Fate's mind. The girl Shamal took with her was blonde, like her…the girl that was smiling at the picture had pink hair like the grown woman. The father and the boys had red hair. Fate looked at the other pictures. None of them had a blonde girl.
Fate gritted her teeth. That little girl had probably seen hell itself at such a young age…just as she did.
"Let me know when you're done here and in your way to the office," she said more harshly than she intended but couldn't avoid it and left the room.
It was almost midnight. Signum and Zafira looked at each other knowing that it would be a very long night.
-X-
Midchildian University Suburbs 24:00 hrs.
Three young women laughed cheerfully while walking on the empty streets towards the apartment they shared near the University.
The University of Midchilda had promoted the creation of urban areas surrounding the complex, and several researchers and academician lived there. The luxurious apartment buildings there, were too expensive for regular students but this particular group of friends, worked diligently, convincing their wealthy enough parents that they were reliable enough to handle their own apartment. So, putting together the money from their first jobs and their parent's money, they had rented a big and comfortable apartment during their last year in college.
That had been their first apartment and their first time trying to live "all by themselves." Five years later, they were no longer a bunch of money constrained students but respected university professors and researchers, and no longer needed help from their parents to pay for their apartment.
Now they had other problems. Like their parents saying they were already grown up women, very capable of living alone. Meaning, each one of them living alone, settling down, being responsible, getting married and having a family. But they, at their twenty eight years of age, were perfectly happy living as they were and didn't see any reason to change that.
They lived in an uptown, classy neighborhood; in a luxurious building, and putting their incomes together, they lived easily with no concerns or problems. They could do whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted with no explanations to no one. It was really heaven on earth for any young and smart woman.
A husband? A family? Why the heck did they need that?
However, neither of their parents shared that logical and rational point of view.
That was the topic of their conversation while slowly walking down the street despite the cold around them.
"…So, it seems that YOUR dad has been talking way too much with my dad lately, Nanoha-chan!" The young blonde that had been talking nonstop for the last ten minutes finally finished making her point, pocking at her friend's shoulder in protest.
"Mou…Arisa-chan…That's not fair, I could say the same thing!" the alluded fought back pretending to be offended by the implication, "It was your dad the one who gave us the speech about responsibility and being an adult."
That night, Nanoha's parents had invited her daughter and friends to the family restaurant for dinner. Midoriya started as a small cafeteria close to the elementary school were the three had studied and befriended more than fifteen years ago. In the present time, it was a well-known gourmet restaurant of international cuisine.
"Arisa-chan…" called a dark haired girl closing the group, "Nanoha's parents are the most, let's say, open-minded ones. They're not pressuring us every time they see us with the 'make something useful with your lives' you know?"
"So Suzuka, the question 'Do you girls already have a SERIOUS relationship' what the hell was?" the blonde asked boldly.
"Well, that's a bit your fault Arisa-chan…you talk about a different guy every time we see them," Nanoha said mischievously.
"That's just because a girl needs to be sure about the right guy! You know what they say, one has to kiss many frogs to find the prince," Arisa straighten up to make her point.
"Well, I certainly prefer to find my prince within my own specie," Nanoha counterattacked.
They were already very close to their building so Nanoha started looking on her purse for the digital control that would unlock the building's security system.
"Hey…!" Arisa yelled angrily, "Well, you're not exactly striving to dead looking for your prince. The brand new director of the Infinite Library had been dying to get a date with you and you have ignored him completely."
"Ah…not again, Arisa-chan. I've already told you that Yunno-kun and I are friends and friends only. Remember that…"
Arisa knew perfectly what Nanoha was going to say and interrupted her promptly.
"Yeah, yeah, we know…Yunno was our little school mate for a few month back then during elementary school like hundreds of years ago…What a coincidence!" and after a dramatic pause glaring at Nanoha, "And what the hell does that matter for you not to fuck him now!"
"Arisa!"
Both Nanoha and Suzuka yelled and hit their friend for yelling such a comment in the middle of the street. And like many other times, they stopped right there arguing like little kids and not like the respected university professors they were.
Until a deep masculine voice interrupted their arguing.
"Good night ladies, seems you're a bit lonely around here…but we can gladly fix that."
The three friends noticed just then that four men had appeared around them during their discussion. They also noticed that those men and themselves, were the only living persons on the street at that time.
The streets were well illuminated but sadly, empty. It was later that they expected and the area was very safe, but something about the guys' poses was a little menacing from Nanoha's point of view.
Arisa gave her dry opinion to the guys before Suzuka or Nanoha could say anything.
"You're wrong. We don't need any help…so get lost kid."
But they weren't willing to let it slide so easily.
"Come on, the night's just starting. You girls want fun, we want fun… so let's have fun together!" the talker was obviously the leader but the others got closer as he spoke, "So, let's start from the basics, what are your names pretty girls?"
Nanoha and Suzuka were cool and calm, Nanoha was considering calling the neighborhood security and the police but Arisa was getting pissed off with whole situation very quickly.
"Mind you own business and leave us alone."
After saying that, Arisa made a gesture to her friends and started walking toward their building but the guys quickly stepped in blocking them and standing even closer than before. The guys looked very young and certainly not looked like delinquents but like university students with not much to do, looking for troubles.
"Come on, don't be boring!" the leader insisted. This time the others also started asking for their names and offering to go some other place to talk.
"You girls can't just reject us without getting to know us. That would be unfair. Let's have some time together, talk and you'll see what a great time you'll have."
Nanoha and her friends didn't answer to any of the question and just waited for the guys to shut up.
"The answer is no…to everything, Now if you leave us alone now, we won't call the police so, move," Arisa said defiantly.
They guys laughed loudly and didn't move.
Nanoha decided it was time to intervene. Arisa's way wasn't been effective at all.
"Look guys, this is really…unpleasant. Your behavior is very disrespectful and offensive. I don't know if you're university students or not, but we work at the University and it would be best for you, to just leave us alone…now."
The group leader, who was arguing with Arisa, had kept an appreciative eye over Nanoha during the whole time and took advantage of her intervention to talk to her.
"Wow, you are really beautiful, why don't we talk of something more pleasant then…you'll see that you have a wrong opinion about me…"
While talking the guy raised his hand to touch Nanoha's hair but this never reach its target. A black hand grabbed his fingers painfully.
Genuine surprise showed in the guys' face when they noticed who interrupted them. Just the same way as the girls, they were caught off guard by three stunning figures dressing in imposing black uniforms.
The group leader looked, with his mouth open in surprise, between his hand and the face of the person holding it. A blonde woman that was even taller than him. Then he noticed her partners, equally dressed in black looking at him deadly seriously.
The next thing they heard was the woman's voice giving instructions while putting on him, restraining movement handcuffs so fast that he couldn't even fight it.
"Vice, Alto…arrest the others." The blonde's gaze while saying that was implacable. "And call the local police to take care of them."
It took less than a minute to have the four guys sitting down at the sidewalk under Vice's stern gaze.
"Are you ok?" Fate finally asked the women.
"Of course we are," Arisa answered, "Thank you very much for your assistance but we had everything under control."
"Arisa-chan!" Suzuka said elbowing Arisa to shut her imprudent friend then continued, "Thank you very much agent, the truth is…it was getting ugly. It's really rare to see this kind of situations around here and we didn't know if we should call the police or something."
"You should always call the police," Fate said seriously, "And it would be even better if you avoid talking with strangers like that, this late at night in an empty street. One never knows what could happen on those circumstances."
While her friends talked, Nanoha observed Fate carefully. It was obvious they weren't cops, she had recognized the TSAB uniform.
"Err…as I was saying," Arisa said again, a bit pissed by Fate's scolding, "thank you but there's no need for you go after us too, Agent."
"They're not cops, Arisa," Nanoha said looking at Fate.
Before anyone could say anything, Alto approached calling Fate and taking her from the group several feet away.
"I understand your reason to intervene Fate but we can't arrest these guys. Vice is scaring them to dead and I called our friends at the police station but there's not much else we can do."
"Should we wait until we have a scene like the one we had earlier then?" Fate's gaze was hard when she looked back at her subordinate. Then she calmed down. It wasn't Alto's fault that she was over-sensitive that night. "Look Alto, I know what you mean. I just want to avoid…unnecessary losing. Let's hurry up; we have to be at the office as soon as possible."
"So…can we leave now agent?…it's very late, you know?"
Fate glared at the shameless blonde while her friends yelled at her for being so insolent. That woman was probably very problematic.
"How far away is your place?" Fate asked instead.
"It just right there, Agent, we were almost there when those guys showed up," Suzuka said pointing at their building.
It was really close but Fate walked them anyway, leaving Alto and Vice with the guys. Once there, Fate recommended them again to always call the police and be careful just in case they saw the same guys fooling around again.
Under the bright light of the building entrance, Nanoha finally had a clear view of the Agent´s features. Her face was slender and delicate but firm, engraved and elegant; but what caught her attention deeply were her eyes, of a deep crimson hue.
Fate noticed the detailed examination from the redhead and felt uncomfortable, said her farewells and left. Suzuka and Arisa got into the building quickly but Nanoha stayed there looking at the blonde walking away.
"Are getting in or will you ask her for her number?" Arisa asked her friend.
"Arisa-chan!" Nanoha protested annoyed while following her friends to the elevator.
"Well, you were practically drooling while staring at her."
Nanoha made an indignant snort, "that's SO not true!"
"She's very beautiful," Suzuka added, "and very tall."
"But she has sad eyes," Nanoha said a bit absently, her anger with Arisa quickly forgotten.
"That hasn't helped Yunno…"
And quickly restored.
Nanoha and Arisa started arguing again just as they did on the street while Suzuka watched them, amused. They finally reach their apartment at the seventh floor of the building. As soon as they got in, the automatic sensors turned the lights on and delivered their messages. The two women argued a bit more until Nanoha turned silent and thoughtful.
"And now what?" Arisa asked.
Nanoha walked to the wide window they had and took a look at the main street. The dark figures were still visible under the red and blue lights of the police car that had just arrived.
"I was thinking that we…didn't ask her name," she answered looking at the blonde from the distance.
After leaving the young women safe on their house, Fate walked back to where Alto and Vice were already with Ginga Nakajima and Tiida Lanster, police officers and good friends of them. She couldn't completely get rid of the strange feeling she got when the redhead with blue eyes looked at her a few minutes ago. The woman stared at her as if she could see through her. Very few people could see the person she truly was and the fact that a complete strange could make her feel that way, disturbed her.
Once they were ready to leave, Fate faced the guy that was leading the group and with a gaze of steel, she warned him, "I really hope that you have the common sense to never, ever in your life, bother those women again. If any of them even trips on the street and complain about you, I'll go after you and you'll truly regret it."
Tiida, Ginga, Vice and Alto were speechless. Fate had just threatened a civilian as if she were telling him the time.
"Do you understand?"
The poor guy just nodded frantically.
Fate, Vice and Alto thanked her police friends and continued their way to the TSAB office again, where they were heading when they saw the guys approaching the girls and decided to stay and watch.
Once they were in the car, Lucino took her place at the co-pilot seat while addressing Fate "I'm glad you insisted on staying Fate. Those guys could have turned nasty with those girls."
Lucino, who was still very young, had gotten worried about the girls from the first moment she saw them.
"The best way to prevent an incident is not let it happen," the incident had been a quick distraction but Fate's minds was already back thinking about the murder case. A family was murdered cruelly. A little girl had survived the horror. Had that really been the killer's intention? Why? They had a lot more questions than answers, just like every time they had a hard case. And this was one of the hardest. And this time, Fate also had two additional disturbing questions. Was it really her name that was written on the wall? And if it was, why?
"Some terrible incidents can't be avoided though," Fate said looking at the solitary streets as they passed by with the car, "They just come to us like a storm, like the darkness in the middle of the ocean…There's nothing we can do to avoid them."
Vice, who was driving that night, tightened his grip on the wheel. He knew why Fate had that somber mood. "We'll catch that bastard, Fate."
Usually, that would have been Fate's line, surely using a different noun. She truly appreciated Vice's effort to encourage her, however this time; they would have to do a lot more than just cheer up mutually.
"We have to, Vice, or many people will die."
-X-