This is the first of four stories that will make up the complete "Fragments of Hope", sequel to my previous story "The Golden Angels". Each of the four sides will take place in a different setting, with fairly minimal direct contact with each other, which is why I am doing it as four different stories, instead of a single larger one. They will be Crossover stories, like "The Golden Angels" was, though with fewer series each, but more members of each cast.

We'll see how this goes...


Prologue: Dream and Departure

Four lights gleamed in the darkness. Red. Yellow. Green. Purple. The lights were all that stood between her and the darkness. If the lights faltered, the darkness would overwhelm her. Overwhelm everything.

The lights began to dance, fighting against something she could not see. She wanted to go to them, add her strength to their fight, but something held her back…no…it stood in her way. She could not get past the invisible barrier. The dancing battle of the lights intensified; though she could not make out what it was they fought against.

Hope lit within her, they're winning! They have to be! As though the thought were a curse, the yellow light suddenly winked out. The green light shot towards where the yellow light was extinguished and moments later went out as well. Only the red and purple lights were left. They fought harder and harder, dancing amid the darkness. After an eternity that seemed to pass in an instant, the red light flared brighter so bright it should illuminate the darkness, but no matter how bright it became, nothing more could be seen. The brilliant red light vanished as abruptly as it had flared up, leaving the purple light to continue its fight alone.

The purple light was alone, a barely visible beacon in the darkness. Despair fell over her as she realized that it alone could not stop the coming darkness. Its battle continued, she prayed, to whom she could not say, that a miracle would occur, that the purple light would succeed in its fight. It was not to be. The purple light flared, much like the red light before. As it flared brighter, it turned lighter, from deep purple to brilliant pink. For a moment it seemed like it would work, the pink light pushed back the darkness; she could almost make out what the lights had been fighting. However strong the pink brilliance was, it was not strong enough and joined its companions in death. With the lights gone, the darkness grew. It pushed towards her reaching out to pull her into its abyss. The invisible barrier shattered before its might, tentacles of malice reached into her mind.

No! This can't happen! I won't let it happen! I have to be able to do something! She screamed in her mind. Let me help! Let me stop this from happening!

The darkness reached her, overwhelming her and…

0225
Uminari City
Harlaown Residence

Fate jerked upright with a gasp. She was covered in sweat, her eyes wide, all traces of sleep banished. That dream. She'd never had a dream like that, so real, yet unreal at the same time. Not like the nightmares which had plagued her as a child, nightmares which were still not completely banished from her. No, this was different. Less a dream more of a vision, or a prediction. A warning. Precognition was a recognized talent, but not one Fate had ever demonstrated, she was no Carim Gracia after all. As her mind raced, the warmth in the bed next to her shifted.

"Fate-chan, what's wrong?" Her wife, Nanoha, slurred her words as she crawled back to wakefulness. As her eyes began to focus, she took in Fate's nightgown plastered to her body with sweat, her wide eyes and still rapid breathing. "Fate-chan!" The worried exclamation banished her own sleep. "Did you have another nightmare?" Nanoha's tone was worried, it had been a long time since Fate had had her last serious nightmare, and Nanoha had never seen the worst ones, the ones that had wracked her nightly as a child. Nanoha pushed herself upright, reached a hand over to caress Fate's cheek.

"No, not a nightmare…it was…it was something else." Nanoha's soft touch helped her sort her thoughts, fully brought her back from the darkness she still remembered so vividly. She was not alone. She would not face this, whatever it ended up being, alone. "We have to go." She twisted under the covers and slid out of bed. "Its hard to explain, but I think I just had a vision, or a precognitive dream. I don't know why and I don't know how, but the more I think of it, the more I understand what we need to do." She walked over to the door leading out of their bedroom.

Nanoha still sat in bed, looking at her wife, standing at the door to their room. She was filled with questions, but not doubt. Never doubt. She slid out of bed herself, "do we have time for showers?" she shucked off her nightgown as she spoke, leaving her wearing nothing but a pair of light pink panties, her brown hair cascading down her back.

Fate was too professional to be distracted by her wife's naked body, having come a long way since their first experiments in high school. "That should be fine. I'm going to go wake up Teana and Subaru. We'll need them as well." Nanoha nodded in response and strode towards the bathroom, moments later the sound of running water filled the air. Fate had already left down the hallway to the room shared by their two subordinates.

She stood outside the door, smiling at the sign that still hung on it. "Chrono". This was the apartment she grew up in. Her life had truly begun here. The child Fate Testarossa had become the woman, Fate Testarossa Harlaown due to the experiences centered on this apartment. Her old room was just down the hall, also still bearing its sign "Fate-chan". It had been made by Nanoha, as a Christmas present, though given to her a bit late, that had been a very eventful Christmas. Shaking the irrelevant thoughts from her head, she pushed open the door to her brother's old room. She flipped on the lights, revealing the two forms on the bed. One was curled up in the blankets, facing the wall, breathing softly. The other was sprawled out messily, one arm laying over the edge, a leg hooked over the body of the other. Her short blue hair was mussed up, and she was wearing nothing but a pair of boy-style boxers. Moments after the lights came on; her eyes snapped open, instantly awake, incongruously to her sleeping habits. Of course, Subaru didn't sleep the same way a normal person did.

In the years since the Jail Scaglietti incident, Subaru, Ginga and the other emancipated Combat Cyborgs had learned more about their abilities, and some of the more interesting repercussions. Subaru only needed an hour or so of sleep per night, and unlikely a normal human, she really could 'store up' sleep. Most nights Subaru only slept for an hour or so, and spent the rest of the night in a much lighter suspended state. Mostly she did this so she could be with Teana at night. On most missions she only slept for an hour, staying awake the rest of the time. Her all time record for going without sleep was three weeks, during a particularly treacherous rescue mission, though afterwards she'd spent three straight days in a calibration pod. The stripe Teana tore off of her when she finally got out was almost legendary, though served as the final straw to get the two of them together officially, much to the relief of their friends and family.

Subaru sat up and looked at the older woman, making no effort to cover her breasts. "Wake up Teana, shower, and get dressed. You have 20 minutes." Fate spun away from the door and headed back down the hallway, the sound of Subaru getting her girlfriend back to consciousness chased her down the hall. As she re-entered the master bedroom, Nanoha was just exiting the shower, naked except for the towel around her head. Fate nodded to her and then entered the bathroom herself, dropping her sweat stained nightclothes in the hamper, then rapidly washing herself under the shower. Stepping out, she dried herself with a towel and headed back into the bedroom. Nanoha was already dressed; her white and blue instructor's uniform looking great on her. She had also laid out Fate's black enforcer uniform, which Fate quickly donned.

"What about Vivio-chan and Einhart-chan?" Nanoha's quiet question broke the silence. The six of them, Nanoha, Fate, their daughter Vivio, Vivio's friend Einhart, Subaru and Teana had all come to earth to visit Nanoha's family for Nanoha's birthday. That had been several days before and they were scheduled to return to Midchilda in two more days. The six had been staying at the Harlaown's old apartment, since Nanoha's brother and his family, along with her sister, had also been in town. This night however Vivio and Einhart had stayed at the Takamachi residence, while the two older couples used the apartment for some intimacy.

Fate thought about the question for a moment, as she sat on the bed to pull up her stockings. "No. We aren't bringing them." Somehow she knew that they shouldn't come, just as she knew that Subaru and Teana need to. "We'll leave a message with Sacred Heart, to be delivered in the morning. We'll explain we were called on an emergency mission, and they are to stay with your parents until we return. Nanoha nodded in agreement. She wished she could clear it with her parents first, but they doted on Vivio, who's place as sole Takamachi grandchild had only just been displaced with the birth of Kyouya and Shinobu's first child a year before.

A knock on the bedroom door caught their attention. Nanoha walked over and opened it up, as Fate finished fastening her skirt. Outside stood Teana, in the severe black of an enforcer, and Subaru, in the ground forces brown, with the shoulder flash of the elite disaster response division. The two younger women braced to attention, but were waved down by Nanoha. "Subaru-chan, Teana-chan, sorry to wake you up like this but there is an emergency mission."

Teana nodded in assent, but Subaru was almost bubbling over with anticipation. "Is it a rescue mission? Combat?" Nanoha just smiled as she exited the bedroom.

"I'm actually unsure, let's head to the living room and receive our mission brief." She gestured down the hallway and let the two young women lead her to the living room.

Teana reached over and flipped on the lights as they entered the cozy living room, she gave Subaru a questioning glance, but the short haired girl just gave a barely noticeable shrug. They stepped over to the couch and sat next to each other. Nanoha seated herself in the matching loveseat, crossed her legs and folded her hands into her lap. Fate entered the room moments later, stopping in front of the television mounted on the opposite wall.

Fate had conducted dozens of mission briefings, and probably attended hundreds more. She'd never, ever felt embarrassed during one. But she did now. Looking at her tiny audience didn't help. Nanoha's expression was serene, Subaru and Teana's composed, but betraying their obvious curiosity as to why they were woken at this time of night. And all Fate had to tell them was that she had a dream. Giving herself a mental shake, she told them. Explained every detail of the dream, what she saw and what she felt. It didn't take very long, really. "And that is what I know. I won't blame you for feeling uncertain about this, but I know that if we don't go, something terrible will happen." She finished and clasped her hands behind her back.

"Major Testarossa-Harlaown," Teana, lapsing into proper military formalities, "you've explained what we need to do, in general terms at least, but where are we going? Did this dream give you any indication of where this battle would take place? Is it here on Earth, or elsewhere in dimensional space?" As if the question were a key, Fate felt the answer slip into place in her mind, so naturally that she almost didn't notice it happening. She also realized that it had been going on since she woke up. She'd have to watch out for that, if something had been planted in her mind. But it didn't change her resolve at what they needed to do.

"We need to go to Mitakihara City. Here in Japan." Nanoha reacted visibly for the first time at that. "Nanoha?"

"Fate-chan…Mitakihara was destroyed, twenty years ago." Nanoha shifted in her chair. "Its not something you would know about, I only know because I went searching through the Infinite Library for data on previous interaction between the TSAB and Earth. Such as with Admiral Graham, or Subaru-chan's family." Subaru shifted a little closer to Teana, she wasn't actually related to her father's side of the family, but such matters were inconsequential in this group. "I was obviously too young at the time to remember, by the time I heard of it the cover-up had fallen fully into place. I made the connection purely by accident; even the TSAB's records were…less than complete. Twenty years ago, something happened in Mitakihara City, Earth's records claim it was a storm, the TSAB lists it as an "unexplained dimensional anomaly", but whatever it was it wiped five square miles of the city out of existence. Most of the rest was heavily damaged. The survivors were relocated across Japan. They were well provided for, under the condition they never speak of what occurred. Most of them wanted to forget, so that was not a particularly onerous condition." Nanoha stood, walking over to her wife. "Something terrible happened in that city, we need to make sure that it never happens again."

Fate looked her wife in the eyes, ruby red meeting clear violet, and nodded. "The briefing is over, we're heading out." Subaru and Teana shot to their feet, Fate and Nanoha already making their way to the cleverly disguised roof access inside the apartment. Inside what looked like just another broom closet, off the living room, was actually a private stairwell to the roof, one of the reasons Lindy chose this apartment, so many years before. Exiting into the clear, cool night air, the four mages stood in the center of the roof, facing each other in a circle. Each held out their device.

A white card, with a red circled X in the middle. "Cross Mirage!"

A blue pendant, gleaming in the light of the moon. "Mach Caliber!"

A golden trianglular gemstone mounted in a metal base. "Bardiche Assault!"

A small red orb, glowing with an internal light. "Raising Heart Excellion!"

"Set up!"