This little story takes place just after Nanoha&Vivio's battle in the Saint's Cradle.
Disclaimer: I do not own MGLN or any of the characters.
Crimson Tears:
Innocence is like a pure white sheet, it gets dirty so very easily. But unlike dirt, sins can never be washed away.
"Vivio!"
"Don't come!"
Nanoha stopped at the desperate sound of the girl's words.
"I can do it on my own. I promised I'd be strong."
The girl started getting up unsteadily. But this time, Nanoha did not wait, could not wait. She dropped down to the crater, running towards the little girl. "Vivio!"
It happened so fast. Nanoha was only a few steps away from the girl when a beam of green light shot down from above, impaling Vivio. For a moment, it was as if time had stopped. Then Nanoha reached the girl, who collapsed right against her, blood flowing from the wound at her chest.
"Nanoha...Mama..."
"Vi...vio...?"
The girl's small, trembling hand reached up Nanoha's face. "Ma...ma..."
"Vivio? Vivio, hang on!" Panic was welling up inside Nanoha, but Vivio seemed strangely calm.
"Hold...me..."
"Eh-?"
"Please..."
"Yeah..."
Fighting back her tears, Nanoha embraced the small body of what she had learned to think of as her own daughter. She kept hugging the girl, petting her head, until those lovely eyes usually so full of energy became glazed and that small, brave chest started moving. During her last moments, Vivio's lips moved, and although no words came out, Nanoha knew what had been said. 'Thank you.'
It was all it took to free the held back tears.
"How touching. Crying over a mere vessel."
The voice wrenched Nanoha's mind back to the scene before her. Stumbling back on her feet, she raised her eyes towards the voice. There, floating in air above the crater, was a young man with messy green hair. Nanoha's eyes narrowed as she recognized the uniform the man was wearing. It was the uniform of the TSAB's Special Air Force, SAF for short. She had never met one before, but she'd heard they were an elite unit that were only deployed under the direst of circumstances.
The man looked at her with an amused smile.
"What's with that look? That girl was never alive, not once, in the true meaning of the word."
"Stop. Not a single word more from you."
"She was a vessel, created but for one purpose."
"STOP!"
"You must've grown soft to have become attached to that thing."
Nanoha's eyes flared, and in a single instant, without any warning, she fired a Divine Buster at the man's direction. The beam of light surged through the walls of the Cradle, wrecking havoc at anything and everything in its path. The man, however, had managed to avoid being hit, if only barely.
"Hey, hey, watch it. I was only following orders. I didn't-!"
He never had a chance to finish the sentence as Nanoha suddenly appeared in front of him, Raising Heart swinging down, breaking through the barrier the man hastily put up, sending him plummeting to the floor.
Ignoring the pain he must've been feeling, the man immediately got up, just in time to block the swarm of pink projectiles speeding up towards him. But as soon as the last projectile had uselessly pounded against his barrier, he realized he'd lost sight of his opponent. Spinning around, he was, once again, a few moments too late. Raising Heart came crashing against his chest, and before he could recover from the impact, the world around him sudddenly went black for a while. When his eyes cleared and his ears stopped ringing, he found himself on his back, a long way from where he'd been just a moment ago.
Looking at the man lying on the floor, Nanoha felt no pity. All she thought was that he looked outright pathetic. Pointing Raising Heart towards him once more, she launched a few more pink projectiles, hammering the man with magic until he was spasming on the floor, grunting and moaning incoherently. Lowering her device, she slowly walked up to the man.
Binding the thrashing man into the ground, his limbs spread, Nanoha looked down, her eyes cold as ice. Then she casually raised Raising Heart up while a demonic grin twisted her face.
She had never been cruel.
Raising Heart came down with strength, crushing the man's wrist. He screamed, a wail of desperation, call for help, plea for mercy.
\Master, isn't this enough?\
The girl acted as if she didn't even hear the device's voice. Perhaps she truly didn't.
She had never wished to harm another person, neither friend nor foe.
There was a sickening crunch as the other wrist was pulverized. The man's eyes were bulging and his screeches were echoing in the room, a cacophony of insanity.
\Master!\
She had never totally lost control of herself.
It took a few blows until the girl was satisfied with the twisted figure of her prisoner's leg.
The man's screaming had stopped, replaced by gurgling sounds from his throat.
\Master...\
She had never thirsted for blood.
The other leg was finished in much the same way as the first. When she was finished with it,
the man's eyes had rolled over, his face twisted in a grotesque mask of pain.
\...\
She had never killed a human being.
As if in a trance, Nanoha stared at her handiwork. Somewhere, deep inside her head, a voice was screaming her to stop, but she effortlessly silenced it. Raising her device for the finishing blow, she looked down at the disfigured body one more time, sneering. Then she thrust down, time and time again, crushing the man's chest and lungs, breaking his ribs, splattering his blood everywhere.
It was at that moment, when the spraying blood of the man coated both the girl and her intelligent device, her destiny changed. Standing there beside the corpse of a man, a man she had killed with her own two hands, she knew her life was over. Her life was over and she didn't care.
Looking at her hands, stained in blood, Nanoha felt nothing. It was as if her emotions had died along with the man.
All there was left was an emptiness, an icy void of nothingness.
Blood was trickling down her cheeks as she kneeled down to pick up Vivio's body. Ironically, it looked almost as if her eyes were shedding tears of crimson. Tears she could never cry again.
Author's Notes:
This is the first time I've written 'Dark' Nanoha, even though I absolutely love the concept.
I'd love to continue this one, but the chances are that I won't. I love writing short scenes, but once the story
starts getting any longer, I start losing motivation. Though I might write another Dark Nanoha oneshot.