A/N:Hi! I rewatched the second Nanoha movie, and this kind of popped into my brain. It was really difficult, and I'm not sure I did the characters justice but I wanted to try and write the budding humanity of these machines, while remaining as neutral as possible. Please read and review and give me a hint!
This story is also a part of the RLt Green Room challenge, choose as your fic's main character a minor character.
Enjoy!
-[1st/A's] Their masters would mourn the loss. They would wish the gone ones well, because it was a journey they could not trust themselves to take. Character study
Analysis of Tears
[Stand by, ready! Set up!]
[Get set.]
The two of them were not quite the intelligence of a Belkan living device. But they were functional, and aware of their masters' hearts and magic. Thus, they were able to claim the title "Intelligent Device", and powerful ones at that.
Thus, they knew of the pain of partings, yet they could not accept it as something meaningful to themselves. It was a triviality, yet to their masters, keeping in close proximity with others was vital.
Bardiche and Raising Heart did their best to comprehend this.
The battles that they had had with each other had produced a very different effect on them compared to that of their masters. There was no way for there to be any sort of ill will between Devices, both of them experienced a camaraderie, an understanding if you will.
Raising Heart had observed during a routine check that it had taken more time for the girls' hands to reach each other. Bardiche had agreed, emphasizing evidence of his master's denial and fear of change during the trembling of her hands.
[But we will assist them in the wishes of their hearts, yes?]
[Indeed.]
These conversations were events that only Meisters and Mechanics were able to hear, because these sorts of matters were unnecessary for their masters to be concerned with. They only needed to understand that their vehicles were ready and fully operational for combat and support. That was all that was necessary.
After all, their masters were young. It was best not to worry them with their own forming processes in understanding what was beyond their initial programming. They had things of their own to consider, such as the human concept of friendship.
And the loss of someone important to them.
Their masters were plenty prone to experiencing sadness. They would often cry, and hold each other close, and pretend they were all right.
This was something that Bardiche often criticized his master of, when out of earshot. Pretending they were all right was something that was simply put, illogical and impossible. When your functions could be easily explained by the code that made up your systems, the idea of attempting to be at full capacity when you could barely channel a tendril of your master's magic in a focused manner asked for serious harm to everything and anyone in combat.
Raising Heart sometimes pondered joining him in this regard, since her master not only pretended she was fine, she acted like she very much was and her actions demonstrated a person at full capacity all day, every day.
At some point, her master would crumble from such stress.
Yet pointing that out to her seemed a fruitless endeavor, since she seemed to actively encourage the practice of her in life-or-death combat.
Hypocrisy was not a part of her parameters as it was. She left the emotional concerns to Bardiche, for lack of a better turn of phrase. She simply followed the instincts of her master.
He did the same, certainly, but with quite a bit more henning and adjustment involved.
This was natural. His master needed to heal.
Her master needed to be mentored.
And to mentor, one day, perhaps.
First there was development to observe and someone to save.
Always, there was someone to save.
...
Just as there was always someone to save, there was always someone they could not save.
Bardiche recognized this better than Raising Heart.
Bardiche recognized human emotions much more visibly than his fellow Device. The person he was with was given to him young and naïve and too focused on visions of a grand dream that was not real. He did not understand emotions quite as deeply as Raising Heart, but he knew them better, and knew when they were simply too much for masters to handle.
His master had many more of these moments than Raising Heart's.
Not to say that the other human was not as capable of breaking as his own was, but she was certainly more hardy than most children, and made wise and stable by bearing with things that hurt.
It was also assisted by the fact that Takamachi Nanoha was of the determined sort, and would not let things make her pause.
Fate always paused, and that often put her in danger.
He appreciated her caution, being a fragile warrior of speed, but if timing was missed, they would both feel it, and that was simply not good.
But courage would come with time, a great deal of time, and a great deal of effort. Someday, his master would handle more, and accept more.
After the loss of everything she had known, however, it would not be a simple task like logging practice progress or mastering a spell code.
She would recover, naturally, and cry through her recovery.
And Takamachi Nanoha would be there.
Raising Heart would be by his side as well, to help their masters get through the hardships.
They were young after all, and Raising Heart knew better than he that hardships were something of every age.
Her coding was much more ancient than his, and suggested many masters of use, and of wear and tear.
She was used to others coming and going, and perhaps that made her as flexible as her master.
Bardiche was not so flexible, but he accepted this, in the same way Devices accepted everything that they could, including humanity.
They could not save all humans, but they would save who they could, however they could.
Raising Heart would try to stem the tears that flowed when they could not, and Bardiche would analyze them.
That was their teamwork in action.
…
Just as they could not save, sometimes they could do everything but save.
When the snow fell, the two Devices recognized the symbolism.
The humans would think the sky was crying. Perhaps it was.
There had been only a brief happiness for these ones, and a smiling life of peace. Peace was an important thing, just as important as a battle, as a mission. It was a problem when it was destroyed so prematurely.
Destroyed by death.
Destroyed by war.
By choices.
The battle to bring back such a thing took a heavier toll on a master, the Devices both knew, than losing it in the first place.
It took a sacrifice.
It was the greatest sacrifice anyone would ask of a Device. Honorable, to destroy the very self that was meant to serve the master in order to save them.
It was a noteworthy accomplishment. To gain a name and a heart, and to repay that with the ultimate duty...
Neither Device needed to have emotions to comprehend the depth of Reinforce's devotion to do so.
They did not envy her the decision either.
They knew that Reinforce would not be so willing to make the choice in another circumstance.
A circumstance where her master was alone.
That would change her mind fairly quickly. She was made like a human, and thus, impacted by emotions like a human. It was an important trait of ancient Belkan devices, and could also be a drastic weakness. They could falter, and in this situation, Reinforce's master could not survive such a decision.
They did not envy her such a choice, nor did the Devices criticize her.
All they could do was wish her well.
[Ready to set.]
[Standby.]
She had thanked them, something only a master was meant to do. And that was all right. Because in a way, she was a master too, a master of her own destiny and life.
It was sorrowful, what she would become in the end, a mere fragment.
Yet she would always protect her master, something that they could not do themselves. She would always have the knowledge that her master would be secure with her family and friends.
They could not take such a risk.
Regardless, they could not say so. That would worry her, and worry on this tearful night, was a horrid thing.
[Don't worry.]
[Have a good journey.]
They would wish her well instead, because the humans could not. They had too many tears in their bodies, and too many losses to mourn. They could not truly mourn, and for that, there was some gratitude to project.
They were machines. They were Devices.
Even an Ancient Belkan Device could not truly feel without a heart being given to them by a master.
Theirs had yet to truly beat, so they could not miss the sound of one stopping.
But they could mourn the silence it left behind.
They could study the tears mixing with the snow.
From that, they could form new theorems, create new methods of coping, and solutions to other problems. Someday, perhaps, they could understand everything about tears there was to understand, maybe even in their masters' lifetimes.
Maybe one day there would be a way to truly prevent them from being born.
Until then, they would watch and mentor their masters, until they too could mentor and wipe away the traces of crying. Until people could be saved and lost and loved, and protected by their masters.
Perhaps that was what Reinforce asked of them, in her own, unspoken way.