A/N: I've thought a whole lot about what I'd say when I finally returned, but I honestly couldn't pin anything down. I've been in a serious slump. Might even be a bit depressed. I wanted to find an easy way to come back and also give you some idea how I've been feeling. So I figured out how to write a piece about it. Now all that's left is to get to the point where this will actually make sense in the timeline.

Disclaimer: I don't own MGLN and have been gone so long I nearly forgot to add this.

It's Time

"Fate-chan?"

"Hmmm?"

"Shouldn't we be going back?"

The blond didn't answer.

The two women sat cross-legged, floating slightly above the leaves and greenery of a forest floor. All around, oak trees, as grand as they were old, stretched what seemed to be impossibly far into the soft, blue sky above. Though no animals could be seen, the forest was teeming with sounds, but with a strangely distant quality.

Nanoha opened her eyes and turned to face the girl at her side. "Fate-chan."

"I-..."

"What are we doing?"

"We...we're planning our next move, of course."

"No. What are we doing in this forest? What are you doing?"

"I'm meditating."

"You're stalling."

It was Fate's turn to open her eyes, and she turned to glare at the demoness, the landscape around them rippling like an image on the surface of a pond. "What was that?!"

"You're wasting time."

"Time!?" She threw out her hands in exasperation, gesturing all around them, "What time? We're in a pocket outside of all reality! There's no time here, wasted or otherwise!"

"What are you doing?" The brunette's sapphire eyes didn't waver as she stared.

Now the blond slammed her fists on her folded knees in frustration. "I told you, I'm meditating; I'm focusing! Focusing on what comes next! Can't I just-!"

"This isn't meditation, Fate. And you're anything but focused."

"But I'm-!"

"Look around you, Fate!" It was rare for Nanoha to raise her voice, and Fate was quickly silenced by it. "Look at this forest. It's a farce of real life. Where are the animals? You've included their sounds, yet there's not so much as a mouse in sight. And what of the sky? Where does this light come from when you've neglected to provide a sun? You simply dragged the trees upwards until they were tall enough that you didn't have to think about it anymore! This isn't meditation, Fate-chan. This is an illusion made to hide you from your problems."

There was still a defiant spark left in the blond. "How is this any different than when you do it?!"

The brunette shook her head gravely. "This is not what I meditate on. Meditation isn't for running away from your problems..."

She swept her dominant hand out over the landscape and immediately it was rewritten. There was no slow coming into being, like when Fate had made up her forest, it was a jarring jolt into a scene of rampant destruction. A village, moderate in size, full of wooden houses that were either fully engulfed in flames or reduced to ashen piles, still being licked by the embers. All around were men and women, dead and dying, and at the forefront was warrior whose last breath had just pushed a bubble of blood from between his lips.

Fate couldn't tell if she was actually feeling the heat of the flames or if it was just a trick her mind played from the crushing weight of the scene.

She couldn't speak for several minutes, and the demoness offered no explanation. At last, with some difficulty, she forced herself to speak.

"What... what is this...?"

"This," Nanoha spoke with gravity, "is what I have done. What needed to be done." She took a long breath to steady herself. "Does it frighten you?"

"...yes."

"Good." The blonde was taken aback. "I'd consider you a fool if it didn't. It frightens me too."

"Then why...? Why do you return to this moment?"

"Because... this moment is everything. It's the end of a plague and of my old self. Or at least it was..." She looked solemnly at the dead man before them. "But it isn't over, is it...?"

"I don't understand. What-?"

"No." Nanoha swung her hand again and sent the scene away. They were once again floating in the white nothingness of their space between, and Nanoha rose to her feet. "Not yet."

"But-!"

"Everything in due time, Fate-chan. And right now, it's time to go back." She looked down at her counterpart and held out her left hand. "Are you ready?"

The blond looked up at her girlfriend and tentatively stretched out her and before she stopped and pulled it back. Her ruby eyes were cast downwards which, in this realm, was equally confusing.

"...I'm scared. What if... I fail? What if I let everyone down?"

"That's not a no."

"...huh?" She peered up without really lifting her head, peering through her golden bangs at the girl above her.

"You didn't say no. That's a good sign." Nanoha tousled Fate's bags lovingly and got her to raise her head. "It can't be about whether or not you're going to fail. You'll only feel worse if you never tried. But at the same time, it's okay to be afraid. To think you can't do it. And maybe you can't alone. But that's why you have people there for you. That's why you have me... Nyahahaha! I didn't mean for that to sound so..."

"Uplifting."

"Heh. I'm glad."

Fate took the outstretched hand and rose to her feet, now standing a few inches above the other girl.

"But... where do we start?"

"Wherever we need to. Maybe it doesn't all seem clear now, but I know it will in the end. Although, I think you DO know where to start."

Fate nodded slowly, but a new conviction shone in her eyes as she opened a path back to the human world.

"Yeah... It's time."

A/N: I only want to say one more thing. I never gave up. I want to keep writing these for you, probably very few remaining, people who still care. I'm sure I lost some along the way, and I regret that. But there's one promise I always make that I've never broken. The promise that I'll return. Till next time.