RadiantBeam and myself do not own these characters.
What If Yuuno didn't survive?
Ending A:
Signum simply chuckled, smiling slightly.
The smile on her face faded as Shamal came out onto the training grounds. "Shamal? What's wrong?"
Shamal just shook her head helplessly before tackling Vita, hugging her tightly as she collapsed into deep, body-shaking sobs.
Vita's eyes widened. "No," she whispered hoarsely. "Shamal, no."
"He passed away in his sleep. We tried, we tried so hard to save him. But, we couldn't. We couldn't stop it." She sobbed out, trembling. "His body just... Just gave out on us."
Something seemed to go out in Vita's eyes. "He's dead," she said weakly.
"He just... it was so quick." The tears wouldn't stop falling. "He stopped breathing, his heart stopped, it was over before we could do anything."
Wordlessly, Signum undid her transformation and stalked out of the arena. She summoned a contact screen within a few moments, nearly snarling with frustration when Raising Heart blocked the communication. "Dammit, let me through," she snapped. "This is important."
"My master has stated that no calls shall be passed through unless they are absolutely impossible to ignore." The device said to her calmly.
"Here's a call for you." Signum resisted the urge to punch the innocent screen. "Yuuno Scrya is dead. Get your damn master and give her a wake-up call, or I'll find them both myself!"
Raising Heart was silent before the screen flashed, indicating that Signum would get audio only. "Signum", Nanoha's voice was tired as she heard it, "what's going on? Raising Heart said it was important."
"Takamachi... Yuuno Scrya just passed away." She said, waiting for a response. She didn't need to wait long.
"Signum, if this is a joke..."
"It is no joke. Wherever you and Testarossa are at, get back to the hospital, right now." She said, closing her eyes and sighing. "Shamal will give you all the details."
Signum didn't even wait for the screen to close as she exited the area, once again heading out to the training grounds. Vita was on the ground, looking as she'd been hit by a car, only to have that car go into reverse and hit her again.
Shamal, for her part, was still crying quietly. Wordlessly, Signum ran a hand through Vita's hair before she knelt beside Shamal, gently lifting the blond into her arms. "Come on." Her voice was soft, almost gentle. "Takamachi and Testarossa will be here any minute."
Vita nodded and mechanically walked into the hospital. "What... Vivio... What... How can I tell her that it's my fault that her papa died?" She asked, her voice incredibly weak. She still couldn't believe it. She felt like she was dreaming.
Signum said nothing, simply sighed. She wasn't looking forward to dealing with Fate or Nanoha about this.
After a minute, Shamal squirmed slightly. "I can walk."
"Shamal..."
"I have to tell them." Shamal's voice was dull. "I'm the one who has to say he died. I can walk, Signum."
Quietly, Signum lowered Shamal to the ground and let her lead the way.
"How can you be so strong?" Vita asked Signum, who shrugged and sighed.
"I'm not strong." Signum said softly. "I just have a hard time feeling any emotions sometimes."
"... That's worse, isn't it?"
"Yes. Yes, it is."
Shamal sighed. "They're here already," she murmured.
Vita knew she was talking about Nanoha and Fate.
The looks on their faces... It took everything that Vita and Shamal had in them to not break down crying right then and there.
"Shamal, please... Please, oh PLEASE tell us that Signum was just joking to get us to come back to the hospital and that Yuuno's not dead." Fate said, as she was the only one coherent enough to speak between the two of them. From the speed that the two had gotten there, it was obvious that they had sped the whole way there.
The looks on Vita and Shamal's faces was more than enough to answer the question. Fate went stiff, her face pale as Nanoha collapsed to the ground, bawling, Vita at her side a moment later to keep her from hurting herself and her babies.
"How?" Fate asked, trembling and if Signum hadn't grabbed her, she might have followed Nanoha's example and collapsed to the ground.
There was no point in lying, not now. It wouldn't change anything in the long run. Shamal took a deep breath and straightened up slightly.
"We missed it," she said softly. "He sustained damage to his Linker Core. He never even fully recovered because his body couldn't stabilize itself." She closed her eyes. "He relapsed not long after you two left. It happened so fast... he just died." She blew out a long, ragged breath. "He never even opened his eyes. He just closed them and never opened them again because he stopped breathing, his heart stopped functioning."
Signum was the only reason that Fate didn't collapse right then and there as the pink-haired woman held her tight, pulling her into a hug, rocking back and forth softly as Shamal stood there, trembling in sadness. For all her battle abilities, this was one thing that she couldn't fight off.
The best she could do was to make sure that both Nanoha and Fate didn't try anything stupid.
After a moment, Shamal cleared her throat.
"We haven't moved him yet," she said quietly. "If you two want to say anything in private or... he's still there."
Fate nodded and Vita helped Nanoha to her feet, both walked slowly to the room, Signum and Vita there with them each step of the way to keep them from hurting themselves or anyone else.
Shamal followed after a bit, giving them some distance. Right now, she wanted to find a bottle of alcohol and drink herself stupid. It wouldn't help, she knew, but she needed to do something to get rid of the pain she felt in herself.
Shamal paused when Signum and Vita came out of the room. "Is it all right to...?"
Signum nodded. "They won't do anything," she murmured. "They need to be alone right now."
Vita scowled, but Shamal could see the pain in her eyes. "Hey, Shamal, you know a good place to get drunk? I could really, really use it right now." She closed her eyes, only to see the broken, shattered look on Fate and Nanoha's faces.
"Dammit..."
Shamal sighed and just left the area, Signum and Vita following. They didn't know if she was going to get drunk or just take a walk. They just didn't want to be in the area right at that moment.
(---)
Fate looked at Yuuno, he looked so peaceful, so quiet, like he was going to wake up any moment now and tell them that they shouldn't worry. "Yuuno..." It couldn't be true, it just couldn't be.
Nanoha was the first to move, timidly stepping to Yuuno's side as if she expected him to wake up and look at her at any moment, as if any small movement she made could jolt him into wakefulness.
It didn't.
"Yuuno-kun?" Still timid, Nanoha reached out and gently brushed his cheek, biting down hard on her lip.
It didn't feel right. He still felt so warm beneath her fingers; he still felt so alive; weren't the dead supposed to feel cold to the touch?
"Come on, please, Yuuno-kun... You're still alive, right? Right?" Nanoha asked, her eyes tearing up as she trembled. "You can't be dead, you're still warm. You... You promised us you would be alright, you promised us! What about Vivio? Or your babies, don't leave them alone!" She bawled out, losing it and putting her head on his chest, crying.
She hated feeling like this, and she had done more crying since Yuuno had gotten hurt than ever in her life.
Even as she wept, she knew, deep down, that he was dead; she couldn't feel his heartbeat, couldn't hear it gently pounding the way it always had in the past.
Fate still hung back. Part of her wanted to give Nanoha the time, the space she needed to grieve for Yuuno, but another part of her was still in denial; she believed, somehow, that if she didn't move to Yuuno, didn't see him up close or touch him, she could believe this was all a bad dream, and Yuuno would still be alive when she woke up.
She put her hand over her belly, it wasn't right, it just wasn't. He had to be alive, he had to be!
Time ticked on, Nanoha hadn't stopped grieving as she lay on top of Yuuno and Fate, after a long time, had walked forward, tears falling down her face that picked up and started to fall faster and faster as she got closer and closer. In the end, she had given up any control she had as she sobbed while standing over Yuuno's body. She still couldn't bring herself to touch the body, but she hurt, a lot, over it.
Sniffling, wiping at her eyes, Nanoha stepped back slightly from Yuuno and gently took Fate's hand. She gave it a quick, hard squeeze before she rested Fate's palm against Yuuno's chest, over the silent place where his heart had been.
Fate's eyes widened. She didn't feel anything beneath her palm; even though Yuuno's skin was warm to the touch, his heart was silent.
"Fate-chan." Nanoha sounded so helpless, so pained, even as she collapsed into sobs again.
"N...Nanoha!" Fate walked around Yuuno and pulled the grieving woman into her arms, holding her.
"Fate-chan..." Nanoha cried into Fate's chest, her body trembling as she was held. She didn't notice as Fate cried silent tears that splattered into her hair. She didn't notice it, all she knew was that Fate was there, and Yuuno... He would never be there for her again.
"It isn't right." Nanoha was babbling now, talking without even knowing what she was saying as Fate held her tightly, still crying. "He... dead people are supposed to feel cold, and he still feels so warm, Fate-chan! Yuuno-kun doesn't feel like he's dead!"
Fate had her eyes closed as she shook her head slowly. "He... He does still feel alive, he shouldn't be dead, I know."
"Why? Why is he dead? He should still be alive! He's a father, he's going to have babies soon, he shouldn't be dead!"
Fate had nothing to say to that as Nanoha cried out her sadness and anguish. Fate was hurting too, but she knew that Nanoha needed to vent.
Maybe Fate was setting herself up for worse pain in the future, she knew she should be venting like Nanoha was, but, she also knew that Nanoha needed someone strong for her right then and there.
If Yuuno had been there, it would have been easy enough; the two of them could have given Nanoha all the support and love she needed, while also having the freedom to let out their own emotions from time to time.
But Yuuno wasn't there, not anymore; not the way he'd always been there. He was dead, and nothing could change it. No one was strong enough to bring back the dead.
No one...
Fate laughed hollowly. "I think I understand it now," she whispered hoarsely. "I think I understand why Mother became so obsessed with bringing Onee-chan back to life."
Nanoha looked up at her, blinking away her tears. "Fate-chan?"
"It's so easy to see." Fate said softly, her eyes closed as tears silently fell down her face. "It hurts... It hurts so much to lose someone you love deeply that you would do anything to bring them back, anything at all. Even become a monster to do it." She trailed off, remembering the whippings that she had gotten at the hands of that woman. It hurt a lot at the time, it hurt more because she didn't realize why she had been getting whipped, she just thought she had deserved it.
Now though? She had a perfect understanding into Precia's mind-set. It... It was scary.
"Fate-chan." Nanoha pressed closer to her female lover, trying to wipe away her tears even though she herself was still crying. "Don't. You know Yuuno-kun would never..." She swallowed hard. "It wouldn't be him, not completely. Even if there was a way, we could never... we'd never to totally bring him back."
Chrono had said that, hadn't he? You could lose something, and even if you got it back, it was never the same as it had been before you lost it.
"I know that. I know that, but..." Fate buried her face into Nanoha's hair, trembling. She'd still thought about it, though. The moment she'd seen Yuuno, the moment she'd touched him and known he was dead, her mind had flashed back to every detail Precia had studied to bring Alicia back to life.
"I know, Fate-chan, I know." Nanoha sniffled and held onto Fate tightly, the two of them grieving, for Yuuno, for each other, for their children who would never have a father.
It hurt so much for them.
It would be hours before anyone came to check up on them.
Walking into the room, Hayate, dressed in her brown military uniform, sighed sadly as she looked at the scene, Nanoha and Fate were passed out against the wall, seemingly unwilling to leave Yuuno, at all. She walked up to them and looked closely, just to be sure.
She sighed as she saw them both take a breath in their sleep.
"Hayate..." Rein said softly as she and Agito floated into the room. "Are they?"
"They're alive, I... I don't know if they will be okay at all though." She said softly, her shoulders slumped.
Rein cautiously drifted closer to the pair, gently reaching out to touch Nanoha's hair; the Ace barely even stirred at her touch.
"There has to be something we can do," Agito said, hating the helplessness she felt.
Hayate shrugged tiredly. "We can give Yuuno a funeral. I could arrange counseling, sic them on the superiors if I really wanted to see some bloodshed." She shook her head. "But I can't do the thing they want most. I can't bring back the dead."
There was what Scagiletti had done to Zest, but Hayate wasn't going to do that, since Zest's body had broken down eventually and stopped working anyway, Hayate wasn't going to go that route at all.
"But, Meister..."
"Agito, please... It's hard enough..." Hayate sighed and walked over to Yuuno, before closing her eyes and pulling the sheet over his face, covering him. "It... It feels like I just... Just closed off the door." She sighed, slumping. It was times like these that she wished she had someone to hold her right now. She could use some support.
"But, Meister, Zest was..."
Hayate smiled tiredly.
"Agito, I know you loved him. But what Zest was... he wasn't living, not really. He was going to break down eventually and die again, and he knew that. How could I do that to Yuuno-kun? How could I give Nanoha-chan and Fate-chan that hope, only for him to break down again a few years later?"
No one could be claimed from death. Precia had tried it, and it had driven her mad; Zest had eventually died again. Once a person died, they were dead.
Nothing could bring them back.
Despite herself, though, Hayate still felt half tempted to sic Fate and Nanoha on the higher-ups.
Agito slumped and floated slowly to the floor. "Yeah..." She knew that, it would be cruel, she recalled how much it hurt to see Zest die in front of her when Signum killed him, and how much he was suffering before-hand. "rrrrgh... Meister! Can I take Signum and lay waste to the idiots who caused all this?" Whether she was talking about the jerk who hurt Yuuno or the higher ups, Hayate wasn't sure, but still...
"I'm sorry, Agito, no... You can't."
"Agito..." Rein hugged the other Unison Device from behind and held her. "Please... You don't want to get Hayate in trouble."
Agito sighed as Rein held her, she might have had a bit of a rivalry with Rein, but the other Unison Device was a good person.
Hayate smiled slightly.
"Thank you, Rein." She looked back to Yuuno's body and narrowed her eyes. "But I could care less about myself right now. Heads will roll when I'm done with the higher-ups."
Agito's eyes widened even as Rein gasped. "Meister?"
"I'm going after them." Hayate chuckled. "I doubt I'll be the only one."
"Meister?"
Hayate shook her head. "Come on, we have to get certain things taken care of first..." The two nodded and floated after her silently as she left the room.
"Meister?"
"Agito, I won't lie, someone's going to pay for this, I'm going to find out just what the hell is going on around here. The incident with Scagiletti could have been avoided if there wasn't so many skeletons in the closet between the higher end TSAB members."
Rein hesitated. "Hayate..."
"Yes?"
"What about Nanoha and Fate?"
Hayate looked back at her friends; her eyes softened even as her heart ached. "Leave them," she murmured. "They need more time."
Rein nodded and floated next to Agito. "Agito..."
"Yeah?"
"What can we do?"
The redhead sighed and her shoulders slumped. "For all of our power, there's nothing we can do to reverse or stop the flow of time..." There were times when she felt really, really helpless, and she hated that. "Rein?" She blinked as Rein hugged her.
"I know, but Agito shouldn't be so sad... It hurts when I see you hurting."
In another place, Agito would have teased Rein, mercilessly, for what she'd just said. Now, she simply accepted Rein's hug and awkwardly put an arm around her shoulders. "Thanks, Rein," she murmured.
It wasn't much; not really.
But it was enough.
Hayate smiled slightly, at least some good was coming out of this, still... She had to talk to Chrono about funeral services, and maybe she needed to talk to Carim as well.
Hayate stopped walking in the hallway, causing Rein and Agito to blink for a moment. She hesitated only briefly before she walked back into the room and knelt down beside Fate and Nanoha, giving them a gentle shake. "Nanoha-chan, Fate-chan," she said softly. "Come on, wake up. I need to talk to you."
"Nnngh... Hayate-chan?" Nanoha blinked, her face looked horrible, blood-shot eyes with tear-tracks down her beautiful face caused Hayate's heart to clench in pain. Seeing Fate in a similar state nearly caused her to start crying herself.
"I'm here, Nanoha-chan... I... I need to talk to both of you." She said softly as she cupped their cheeks softly, rubbing them gently.
For a moment, Nanoha seemed to have forgotten where she was or why she was there in the first place; as the sleepiness faded from her eyes, clarity came to her.
Fate, for her part, remembered everything much faster and simply buried her face into Nanoha's shoulder. "What about?"
Hayate hesitated, bit her bottom lip.
"We... I need to make funeral arrangements," she whispered to them softly.
Nanoha nodded stiffly and swallowed slightly. "H...Hayate-chan." The pain was evident and Hayate felt her heart clench tightly.
Funeral plans can wait. Hayate thought before grabbing Nanoha and Fate and hugging them both, letting them grab onto her and hold her tightly. "Nanoha-chan, Fate-chan... I'm so, so sorry." She said softly to them.
Hayate had seen Fate and Nanoha when they'd first come in, and she'd believed they couldn't cry anymore than they already had. She was proven soundly wrong as she felt them tremble in her arms.
"Meister." Agito's voice was soft, unusually timid; Hayate tilted her head slightly to look at the red-haired Unison Device, and saw she still had an arm along Rein's shoulders. "You got a call from the higher-ups..."
"What about it, Agito?"
Agito and Rein exchanged nervous looks. "It's Yuuno-kun," Rein said softly. "They... they want to... look at him." She faltered. "They want to study a damaged Linker Core to... to understand its effects on mages."
Hayate twitched, she could feel Nanoha and Fate stiffen in her arms. This is too much. She frowned, granted it would be a great way to figure out how to help people in the future, but it was too soon.
She understood, and she didn't want such a problem in the future, but it was too soon.
Sighing, Hayate took a deep breath. "Tell the higher ups that I will get back to them."
"They said that they were on their way."
Okay, I'm going to hurt them now. Hayate twitched, if it wasn't for Nanoha and Fate holding her tightly, she would have unisoned with Rein and gone outside to lay some hurt down on those idiots.
For a brief moment, Agito wondered if she could go find Signum; but Rein was leaning against her, and there was one more piece of information she needed to share with Hayate. "Meister?"
Hayate sighed. "They said more?"
"Yes." Agito straightened up, feeling the rage burn at her even as she hated what she was about to say, knowing how it would hurt the women in Hayate's arms. "They said they won't take no for an answer. They said if you don't hand the..." Here, she had to choke back her fury. "If you don't hand the defensive mage over, they'll take him by force."
At that, Hayate stiffened.
"Defensive mage?" Nanoha asked weakly.
"They aren't even calling him by name," Rein whispered. "It's horrible. I heard some of them muttering in the background while Agito was talking to them. They never called him by his name, not even once. They said things like 'defensive mage', 'damaged goods', 'specimen'. No one's calling him Yuuno."
Hayate frowned heavily, Signum! Vita! Shamal! Zafira! I don't care if you four are having sex, drunk, stoned or asleep, get to my location now! She commanded, using her link with the Wolkenritter to talk to them over a distance and get them to move. "Nanoha-chan, Fate-chan..." She said softly, trying to get them to calm down. She didn't want them to hurt themselves or the babies by trying to knock some sense into the people on their way.
Rein and Agito echanged looks. They both knew when Hayate needed a private moment with her two best friends to try and calm them down.
"I'll go look for Signum," Agito decided, releasing Rein. "She feels close by."
"I'll find Vita." Rein nodded resolutely. "She's close, too."
With that, the two tiny Unison Devices departed.
"They... Can't... Even... Give... Yuuno-kun... His proper respect?!" Nanoha's eyes were practically glowing as she said each word through gritted teeth. "I... Can... NOT... BELIEVE THIS!"
Hayate knew she was stronger, knew that her friend needed to calm down, knew that Raising Heart and Bardiche wouldn't let Nanoha or Fate risk injury, not right now.
However, she also knew that Nanoha was a pregnant woman who had just lost the father of her children and was still grieving.
Fate was a lot quieter, but there was a glint in her eyes that made Hayate gulp despite of herself.
Hayate never cursed the original Reinforce, it wasn't her fault that she had become the way she did.
She just wished that she had been given access to spells that didn't have a long start-up time. Great for area bombardment, not-so great when trying to deal with two very upset and emotional friends.
"Nanoha-chan, Fate-chan." Knowing her spells wouldn't work, Hayate resorted to words to keep her friends at bay. "Think of the babies. You go after them now, you risk hurting your kids."
"They aren't even calling Yuuno-kun by name, Hayate-chan!" Nanoha was worked into a fury that even the devils would fear. "They just see him as... as... they don't see him as a human being!!"
Fate was still silent; she still had that deadly flare in her eyes. Hayate was worried for both of her friends, but Fate's tranquil fury scared her more.
"Look at me. Dammit, both of you look at me." She forced them to meet her gaze. "I know how you feel. I don't know how much it hurts," she admitted, "because I never loved Yuuno, not the way you two did. But I can understand your anger."
Fate finally spoke up. "Hayate--"
"He was my friend too." Hayate swallowed hard. "He was my friend too, and dammit, I could have done more to keep him out of this. I have to live with that for the rest of my life."
"It's not..."
"I know." Hayate interrupted Nanoha, squeezing her shoulder tightly. "I know. I know it's not the same, that I can never hurt as much as you two do right now, that no matter what, you two are going to have a hole in your hearts due to this. I know all that." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "But it still hurts, it hurts so much that right now I want to throw up, scream, blow something up and stab out my own heart, just to stop the pain from coming. Please, please you two, don't do what you're thinking of doing."
Opening her eyes, Hayate could see Nanoha's fury had cooled; not by any small degree, but enough that she wouldn't be tempted to aim a Starlight Breaker at anyone when she wasn't in the condition to handle it. Breathing a quiet sigh of relief, Hayate glanced at Fate.
She froze.
Fate didn't look calm. Her anger, it seemed, hadn't cooled in the least. The glare in her eyes promised death to anyone or anything that was unlucky enough to get in her way. For a moment, just an instant, Hayate could see a staggering resemblance to the woman who had created Fate.
Nanoha gently touched Fate's shoulder. "Fate-chan?"
Fate took a deep breath, hopefully to collect her thoughts, Hayate wasn't sure, before she spoke again. "Hayate... Make sure that those people understand our... Displeasure," she emphasized displeasure in such a way that Hayate was probably going to be forced to use a Starlight Breaker herself to prove a point soon, "to the people coming in."
Hayate could still see the anger burning in Fate's eyes, she understood perfectly, herself, why Fate was so angry, it still unnerved her. "Fate-chan..." Hayate and Nanoha said softly at the same time, both grabbing and hugging her tightly.
Hayate mentally scowled. Heads were going to roll for this, for making her two beautiful friends suffer, for Yuuno's death, people were going to pay.
It wasn't long before a trio of men, all dressed in suits, walked into the room. "Take him." The man in the white coat said, before blinking as a short brown-haired female stood in his way. "General, I'm sorry, but we need to examine the corpse."
Narrowing her eyes, Hayate wondered what was taking the Wolkenritter so long, but that didn't matter as she held up her book and cross. "You have exactly five seconds to turn around and leave before I do something that you're going to regret." It helped that Nanoha and Fate were behind her a moment later, both of them glaring at the trio.
"I see we have no choice, restrain them." The two men took a step forward, only to be stopped as they felt several white spikes press into various points on their body.
"Sorry for being so late, Mistress." Zafira, in wolf form, said as he, Signum, Vita and Shamal stood at the door, Rein and Agito floating nearby. "There were several people trying to get in our way."
Hayate nodded and in a flash was in her knight outfit, pointing her staff at the man in charge. "Listen and listen well, you will not touch Yuuno Scrya's body until you have my clearance to do so. I do not care about what your bosses or my bosses have to say on the matter, you will leave here, you will be peaceful about it, and you will not bother us again. Do you understand?" She asked, her eyes narrowing and promising pain to the trio in front of her.
"You know that they aren't going to be happy about this." The one in charge said bitterly to her.
Hayate smirked at him. "They can try, they can try."
"Very well, general, we'll take our leave for now." He looked at Nanoha and Fate and shook his head. "I can not guarantee anything." With that, he walked out of the room, the other two following him, limping and bleeding slightly.
Sighing heavily, Hayate changed back into her usual clothing with a groan. "I think that really, really pissed them off," she mused.
Vita was scowling; any grief she still felt was currently on the back-burner. "What the hell's going on?" she demanded. "We go your orders to come, and nearly got bull-dozed by several of those suits along the way."
Hayate sighed again. She wondered how she'd possibly keep Nanoha and Fate at bay when the superiors came back.
"Long story short, our dear higher-ups are looking at Yuuno like a fly caught in a spider's web. They want to use this... opportunity to study a damaged Linker Core and its effects on the body."
After a moment, Signum cleared her throat. "I understand what's going on," she said carefully, "but what exactly is the conflict? Yuuno..." Here, she paused. "Yuuno would have supported such a thing. You know how he was."
At that, Agito grimaced. "Yeah, well, you'd have been damn pissed off if you heard how they were talking about them," she muttered.
Rein nodded in agreement. "It was horrible," she whispered. "Some of them... some of the younger ones were even saying it was good that he died because he..." She glanced at Nanoha and Fate nervously, inching closer to Agito. "Because he served his... initial purpose."
In the silence that followed this statement, you could have heard a pin drop.
Hayate rubbed her forehead, she knew Yuuno would have supported it, but she knew that Nanoha and Fate needed to have a funeral for him. "Nanoha, Fate." She said sternly as she turned to look at them, getting them to stop and look at her in surprise. "I will deal with them. I don't want you two to do something stupid right now."
"Hayate..." They both murmured, sometimes it was easy to forget that their friend was one of the highest ranking officers around.
She sighed and shook her head. "If I let you two go out there and vent, I would fail as your best friend." She smirked at them softly. "You'll get your chance to tell them off soon enough, I promise you that."
"How soon?" The anger had dulled before, but it came back to burn brightly in Nanoha's eyes. As for Fate, well... Hayate doubted her fury had cooled at all.
"As soon as I clear up this mess." Hayate turned away. "The two of you stay here. I want Signum and Vita with you, in case those men come back. Agito, Rein, you two come with me and tell me all about this... interesting discussion you heard. Zafira, Shamal, you two double check what's going on around here." They both nodded and left in a hurry.
Agito and Rein both nodded and followed Hayate out into the hallway as she walked towards the door, her eyes scanning for anyone else who might be a problem.
"Talk." The tone brokered no argument, no counter, just a plain demand on what she wanted to know.
"The men in the white coats," scientists, Hayate bitterly noted, they really needed better attitudes, "were saying that with him dead, it was the perfect chance to study the corpse and study how Linker Cores react when damaged and strained." Rein said, she could feel the anger starting to roll off of Hayate.
"The one said that it was a good thing it was someone so unimportant that died. If it had been one of the aces, then the Bureau would be in trouble." Agito added, frowning as she recalled it. Actually, that guy gave her some bad vibes... Really bad vibes... "Um, Meister..."
"Agito?" Hayate blinked as Agito floated in front of her, her head down-cast and covering her eyes.
"I think... I think that one of those men... I think I saw him before."
Hayate stopped, Agito hardly ever talked about anything from before she was with Zest and Lutecia. "What?" Rein floated next to her master, looking concerned.
"I... I think that one of those guys was one of the people who did experiments on me when I was captured."
Hayate blinked.
Just blinked.
"Agito, are you sure?"
"Not totally." The red-haired Device fidgeted uncomfortably in the air. "I mean, I didn't really get a good look at him, and all those scientists wear the same clothes."
"Then what made you think it was him?"
"His voice. Something in his voice, the way he was talking." Agito shuddered. "It sounded really, really familiar."
"Familiar, how?" Rein asked, a nervous look on her face.
"The way he spoke to the others, the uncaring tone, the way he seemed to get gleeful when the word experiment would come up... And the accent... I swear, he sounded exactly the same as the guy who put needles in me and caused me nothing but pain, Meister!" Tears started falling down her face unnoticed by Agito. "I'm not lying! I don't like scientists but I don't lie about the people that hurt me!"
Rein immediately hugged Agito, not sure what was wrong but wanting to help anyway she could. Hayate, for her part, needed no further convincing. Something that could make Agito this agitated held some weight to it, if any at all.
"Wouldn't surprise me," she murmured. "They were all licensed by a few of the older members. Someone could have pulled some strings to keep him safe when you were rescued."
Agito didn't even react to Rein's hug, she was trembling slightly as she recalled the pain she went through, of the constant prodding, needling, and the heartless comments that was thrown her way. She blinked as she felt Hayate's hand on her head, rubbing her softly. "Meister?"
Hayate smiled softly to her. "Agito, they won't hurt you again. They can never touch you again. You're a part of my family now, I don't let my family get hurt."
Agito nodded, tears of happiness slowly falling down her face. It was only then that she finally reacted to Rein's hugging and hugged the other unison device back. "Thank you, Meister, Rein."
Hayate shook her head. "You're family, Agito, and I always look out for my family."
Hayate frowned, lowering her hand from Agito's head. On more important matters, why would someone like that be interested in Yuuno? Unless he'd been re-assigned to another team after the incident with Agito...
She sighed.
"Hell, I'm half tempted to just sic Fate-chan and Nanoha-chan on the whole team. That'd make things a lot simpler."
"But, Hayate-chan, wouldn't that put the babies at risk?" Rein asked, frowning in confusion.
"Which is the only thing keeping me from siccing Nanoha and Fate on them." Hayate sighed and took one last look around the area, before shaking her head.
After a moment, Hayate turned away. "Come on," she said. "We have to get back."
"What about those men?" Rein asked in confusion, before she looked around, not seeing anyone.
"If they wanted to get Yuuno, they would have met me by now. They aren't coming back." Hayate closed her eyes slowly. "Come on," she repeated softly. "There's nothing more we can do."
The two nodded and followed Hayate back.
A few days later, Yuuno's funeral was held. It was surprisingly larger than even Hayate would have imagined, but for that, she was kind of thankful. At least Yuuno had a lot of people that showed up either out of respect or because they had actually liked him in life.
Hayate held onto Vivio, letting the little girl cry, she hadn't stopped crying since she found out that her Yuuno-papa would never be getting better or coming back ever again. Fate was being held by her mother and Nanoha was clinging to her sister tightly, she sighed heavily. I should have fought harder to keep Yuuno off the front lines. She thought to herself bitterly.
"You musn't blame yourself." Signum's voice was low, soft; Zafira brushed by her legs, and Vivio immediately latched onto him. "You couldn't have known this would happen."
Hayate smiled bitterly. "Try telling that to everyone else," she murmured.
Signum quietly studied them both; Fate was cradled in Lindy's arms like she was a child again, the older woman whispering to her softly, while Nanoha clung to Miyuki, her dark-haired sister quietly stroking her hair and looking ahead at nothing. "Where are Nanoha's parents?"
"They got called back to Earth about the shop. It happened before Yuuno died, and they couldn't make it back." Hayate sighed. "It's been hard..."
Signum nodded, before she put an arm around Hayate, getting the brown-haired woman to hug her tightly and press her face against the pink-haired woman's chest, shuddering as she finally let go, her emotions leaking out as she cried softly.
Sighing softly, Signum stroked Hayate's back. Her master hadn't even allowed herself to cry in the past few days. Dealing with the scientists and other idiots bothering her over Yuuno's death and wanting to use him as a research subject had taken a lot out of her.
They all looked like hell, Signum mused with a sigh. Lindy, clearly, was reliving the loss of her own husband even as she tried her best to soothe Fate; her eyes were tired, weary, and so saddened that it broke the knight's heart neatly in two.
Miyuki wasn't faring much better; she hadn't been sleeping or eating well, spending most of her time with Nanoha, and the strain showed. Still, the girl had earned Signum's respect after she'd chased off one of those grubby scientists with nothing more than a wooden practice sword.
As for Nanoha and Fate...
They looked even worse.
The pain that they felt, it was amplified and magnified through Vivio, and that caused Signum to hurt worse. At least Zafira hadn't removed himself from the little girl's side very often since she heard the news. About the only time that he did was when Hayate was around.
She took a look around and nodded at Chrono, who was walking up to deliver some words reflecting his thoughts and feelings on the fallen mage.
She wasn't surprised to see Erio and Caro there, the fact that Megane and Lutecia were sitting there next to them was slightly surprising, but all four of them looked depressed and saddened by Yuuno's passing.
Yuuno, at least you had a lot of people who cared for you. She thought to herself softly.
And that's ending A.
I don't know if Hayate can use the bomb version of Starlight Breaker, but since she had Diabolic Emission, I'm going to assume that she could still do it if she wanted to.
