Disclaimer: Don't own anything here.
Decisions
Chapter 4 - Answers
By Sniperk
"So anything you want to tell me?" The blonde asked, after making the routine examinations on her patient.
"I already said it's nothing. I was just tired and had a bad dream. Fate-chan was overreacting, that's all." The brunette answered while adjusting her shirt.
"Was it really only a bad dream?"
"Yes. I haven't had those nightmares in months." Nanoha sighed, working on her buttons.
"Really?" Shamal drummed her pen on the table for a few seconds. "Well, I know you probably won't do it, but..." She started to scribble something. "Here is the address of a friend of mine. She's a specialist in sleep medicine and I can make the appointment if you want. She can help you discover from where your nightmares and bad dreams come from, be it bad sleeping habits or something else." She smiled. Bending Nanoha to do something against her will needed tact. In her case, reverse psychology worked most of the time.
The brunette grunted as she took the piece of paper. "I know what you're doing." She shot a half displeased look at the doctor, then skimmed through the paper and shoved in her skirt pocket.
"I'm not doing anything." Someone could almost see the halo on Shamal's head in that moment, and a pointy tail behind her. "If you need something else, just call me okay?"
"Yeah, okay." Nanoha took a few steps to the door, then stopped. "Oh yeah, what happened to Teana?"
"She got mildly injured in yesterday's training, that's all. Vita-chan can tell you the details." Shamal smiled and waved as the other got out the door. She leaned back on her chair and started reading a few records on her recent patients when a window with a waiting call flashed at her table.
"Shamal, did Nanoha-chan passed by there?" Her mistress asked as soon as the call connected.
"Yes, but she's already gone. She should be in the training grounds by now, I think."
"I see." The other sighed. "Okay, thanks."
The doctor blinked, curious. "Hayate-chan, there's something that you're not telling me, isn't there?"
The commander looked up, eyes widening. "Shamal..." Then she softened, slumping her shoulders. "Yes, there is." Hayate decided it wasn't worth the effort to hide. "But don't ask me about it right now. I'm still processing some new informations that I received."
The blonde tilted her head, seemingly wanting to ask something but decided not to. "Okay, but you know that we'll be worried about it until you tell us what is it, right?"
"Yeah, I know, don't worry. I think that the more I wait to tell her the truth, the more she'll feel that we betrayed her." Hayate mumbled, pressing her eyelids with her fingers. "Anyway, thanks for now, Shamal." At that she cut the call.
Shamal tried in vain to piece together the last sentence. "...Betrayed her?" She asked to her empty table.
"I see." Nanoha put a hand on her chin, seemingly thinking.
"It was my fault." The red haired lowered her head. "I was in charge and I did this."
Nanoha looked up to the sky a little, then at her forwards stretching. "Subaru, Erio, Caro." Getting their attention. "It looks it's going to rain today, so we'll do just some light exercise, okay?" Upon hearing understanding noises she waved her hand as the control panel of the training field appeared around her.
"Oi, Nanoha, what about..." Vita was cut of when Nanoha extended put her index finger in front of the knight.
"All set." The training ground was set to city. "You have thirty minutes to eliminate and or neutralize all type III gadgets on the field. Ready?" The three of them nodded. "Mission start!" She said as she pressed a translucent button and a counter appeared before her. "Now, Vita-chan..." The little knight gulped. "You know where Teana is?"
"She should be in her quarters." The knight squirmed. "I think- I mean, Shamal ordered her to not do anything strenuous before she heals."
The brunette patted her index finger on her chin for a few moments, looked up, then spoke again. "Teana's a really good center, don't you think? She has the material and part of the mindset of a good field commander."
"Well..." Vita seemed to have calmed a little. It didn't seem like Nanoha was too mad at her. "Aside from her temper around the others, especially Subaru... Yeah. I can agree with you."
"Bu-ut..." Nanoha put a hand on the smaller one shoulder, not moving her eyes from the monitor, where Caro had just finished casting her alchemic chain spell. "She still didn't had any specific command training, has she?"
Vita looked at the hand on her shoulder, then at the face of the Ace, but couldn't make out what she was thinking. "None that I can remember." She answered.
Nanoha started to rub the smaller one's shoulder. "Erio, Subaru, you two can't attack at the same time while pincering the target. You'll risk hitting each other." Both of them nodded on the monitors. The brunette continued to brush the knight's shoulder, gripping a little too tightly. "I think it's time to teach Teana some of the basics in field command, don't you think, Vita-chan?" She said turning to her and smiling.
"Yeah..." Vita answered before looking at the taller one. "Wait, don't tell me..."
"What do you think of being assigned during this week to specifically teach Teana the theoric basics of field command." She waved her hands, as another monitor appeared. "We can't have her wandering about doing nothing while all the others are training so hard, can we?" She leaned down. "And we don't want her to overwork herself while she should be resting, right?"
Vita groaned. "Alright, alright, already. I get it, I get it. Sheesh."
He was amazed and this didn't help when he wanted to make fun of his friend. The amount of books, papers and disks piled up in front of him was nothing short of incredible. He took a step to the side, to see the other's face. "I take that you added really anything you could think of in here."
"Anything and everything." The blonde added. "Clones, Project F, twins, data of known Logias that can create similar effects... They are all piled by category and organized by date."
Chrono frowned. Okay, maybe he did ask for this, and now that the other had really gone out of his way to collect that amount of data, he couldn't just ask for a short version of it, so he decided to try and filter a little of the information. He took one of the books and tried to browse through it. He sighed and put the book back on it's place, before taking another one.
Yuuno signaled a chair for the other man. "Here, take a seat."
"Thanks." Chrono grumbled.
"Why the sudden interest in clones?" Yuuno knew that Fate was a clone, not that it mattered very much for any of them through all these years. "Is it about Vivio or Fate? Perhaps Erio?"
Chrono frown deepened, as he read the title of another book. "Something along those lines. I just realized that I didn't know much about them till yesterday."
The librarian perked up. "Well, what are you looking for then?" Yuuno knew that he could just leave his friend alone with the information that he asked for, but something in his heart didn't let him. Maybe it was because he noticed that the other was amazed with the amount of information that he gathered before him in such a small amount of time. What Chrono didn't know was that there was a section in the library specifically for clones, and all Yuuno did was move the information from the stand to the table. Maybe that's why the librarian was feeling a little guilty.
"Well... For starters, do you know exactly how a clone is conceived?" Chrono asked.
"Exactly no. There's many ways and techniques. One of them would be by somatic cell transfer, where the nucleus of an unfertilised egg is removed and replaced by a somatic cell or a whole diploid body cell. Then you use a chemical or electrical stimulation to create an embryo. As you can see, this process doesn't require the two gametes..."
Chrono waved his hand. "Okay, okay, I get it. You don't need to go into technical details." He popped his neck moving from side to side. "This embryo... How do you create a clone from it."
Yuuno though for a moment. "Well, to be honest, if the embryo divides itself, it can already be considered a clone."
"Okay, so how do they grow?" Chrono inquired.
"Well... Let's see. There's several ways to grow a clone from a embryonic stage, but the most common would be a gestational mother or a lifepod. Given that cloning isn't an exact science, and it isn't very well viewed in most regions, all information regarding it is mostly from rogue projects. Very few people have TSAB's authorization to deal with it, and it's findings are not released to the public. I think only a few higher-ups on the TSAB know more about it." A image came to his mind. "Of course... Well, forget it. I don't think you would want to ask him about it."
"Who?" Chrono asked, and almost at the same time understood. "No, you're right. Forget it."
"Hey, I don't like him either, you know? But I have to admit that he his the most knowledgeable person in that area that I know of."
"Even then, no."
Yuuno sighed. "Okay, then."
"You said that a it uses a... gestational mother, was it? To bring the clone, right?" Upon Yuuno's nodding he continued. "Can she be considered the real mother?"
Yuuno sat back on his chair. "Well... It's rather hard to tell. In the genetic sense, no. She isn't the clone's mother because she doesn't carry any of the genes from its gestational mother. The mother played no part in conceiving it so she can't be considered her mother in this sense."
Chrono grimmaced. "I see..."
"For the effects of the law, too. She wouldn't be considered the child's mother, only a guardian or at most an adoptive one, in case she raised the kid. Of course, in this case the child welfare would be taken into account as with any other adoption, like in Nanoha's case with Vivio." Chrono's eye twitched at the mention of the Ace's name, and Yuuno noticed. "Is something the matter with them?"
"I won't lie to you." He said sighing deeply. "But, for now, don't ask anything more." Chrono knew that the librarian would piece things together, but right now he couldn't bother to explain, plus he didn't have the reports on him to prove the point, and he doubted that even Yuuno could guess what was really happening. "Continue."
The bespectacled man tried again to read his friend for a few moments before giving up. "Well, a gestational mother is still a mother in her own way, even if she wasn't the one that conceived the child, she was the one gave who birth. Of course, and this is controversial as much things in these cases, the kid could act as if both the genetic mother and gestational mother were real mothers or pick one of them."
"So it would be up for the cloned kid to choose his mother?" Chrono rose an eyebrow.
"As I said, is controversial." He took a deep breath. "But the real problem in this case would be if the kid choose the genetic over the gestational mother."
"Why's that?" The raven haired shifted in his seat, leaning closer.
"Well, she would be like an Angel Mother." Seeing question marks all over the other's face, Yuuno explained. "An Angel Mother is a mother who had a child with SADS, sudden antenatal death syndrome. This is more commonly known as stillbirth." When the other nodded, he continued. "Imagine what'll happen with the psyche of a mother who carried her baby during forty weeks, give or take a few, and discovers that she will not be able to hold her child, nor hear his cry, nor breastfeed him. She'll have nothing aside the empty feeling of loss." He sighed. "A loss that she couldn't help. I think that a gestational mother would have a similar feeling of emptiness. That's one of the reasons that the best would be for the genetic mother to be the same as the gestational mother. In this case, there's nothing to worry about. But, since insemination In Vitro was researched and perfected mainly thinking about those women who couldn't have children of their own, things like this happen a lot with surrogate mothers."
"A gestational mother would feel the baby is like a part of her, even if she isn't the one who conceived it."
"More or less. I'm no expert in this area, so I can't really tell aside from what I read."
"I see." Chrono leaned back against the chair, looking again to the titles of the books on the table, not that he was interested anymore. His friend was a much more reliable source of information than any website search engine. "Thanks for the info. I think that's enough for now." He got up from his seat.
"Aren't you at least going to take some of the books with you?" The librarian got up from his seat.
"As I said, for now what you told me is enough." He took another step to the door. "But I would study more closely this subject if I were you. I have a feeling that you'll want that knowlodge." At this he turned and got out of the library, leaving an irritated Yuuno behind. Now he was starting to understand what Verossa had meant.
Her blonde hair waved from side to side as she walked briskly through the alleys and corridors of that detention facility. She could hear some of the prisioners holler and whistle at her, but that didn't matter. The smell of urine and sweat didn't bother her either. What bothered her the most was the fact that she was going to encounter someone she thought she would never see again after his trial. She never wanted to see him again in person.
She stopped at one of the security doors, waiting for one of the prison guards to open it. She adjusted the tie on her uniform, and double checked to see if there was anything else with her aside from her device. The door opened and she started walking again, thanking the men as she passed through the gate. Her forced smile still sent flutters back in her direction, but inside she was raging with anger. A few more steps and she was in front of the interrogation room. She took a long intake, trying to steady herself and try to put her emotions in order before entering it.
The inside of the room was a cubicle, like many other interrogation rooms she's been before. White walls being iluminated from seemingly nowhere, as if the walls glowed by themselves. On the wall across from the door, a mirror took over good part of the upper half of it, and in it's reflection she saw the face of the purple haired man, grinning as she closes the door.
"Hello, Enforcer Fate Testarossa. What did I do to deserve the pleasure of such a visit?" He said, smiling at her through the reflextion. His hands were binded to the chair he was sitting, and the chair fixed on the floor.
"Don't give me that, Scaglietti." Fate said, while walking to the other side of the table. "You know where you are right now."
"Oh, I know perfectly well." He started to rant. "Dimensional Prison number 42, the most advanced and secure dimensional prison in all TSAB's monitored planets. Codename, Arapuca. Once you get in, you can't get out. Or so they say."
"What I meant is where you are right now." Fate said, red eyes squaring every inch of the man's face, before taking another deep breath. "I have a few questions for you."
"Oh... I get the honor of being questioned by one of my children?" He chuckled. "I couldn't by happier in my entire life."
"I'm not one of your children." Fate repressed the urge to smack his head against the table.
"You'll have to humour me, Enforcer Fate Testarossa." Scaglietti tilted his head, then straightened it. "We don't get much fun around here, if you know what I mean."
Fate decided to let the matter go, then called. "Bardiche." Several windows appeared around in the table. "Seven years ago, you were the one that sent those drones to attack Vita's unit. Until now, we thought that it was a simple test run for your creations..."
"And what makes you think that it wasn't?" Deep yellow eyes tried to pierce through her.
"...But it wasn't, right?" She ignored the question. "At least one of the drones had genetic material in them. An embryo to be more exact."
"Oh... Really?" He smirked, waving his head to the side, to take off a lock of purple hair that fallen.
"And since it was so long ago," Fate cursed mentally because of what she was about to say. "We can't examine them to be certain of this."
"And you thought that I would answer your questions because...?" He said, almost singsonging.
She grimmaced. "Because you're the one who created them, and you're the one who started the Project F."
"Just for that?" He looked at her, mocking a shocked expression. "You have to be fair here, my child. I'm already locked up. I don't have anything more to loose, do I?" He cackled.
Fate slammed her hands on the table, getting another mocked shock from the man. "Sorry for even thinking that you could have a conscience." At this she shot up and started walking to the door.
"You know, Enforcer Fate Testarossa," He started, as if the name was made of sugar. "I was starting to wonder when someone would come to me and ask the right question."
Fate stopped and turned to the man, looking directly at him, while he looked at her through the mirror. "And what that would be?"
"It wouldn't be interesting if I told what the question is, now would it?" He laughed.
Fate stomped another step in the direction of the door and opened it.
"Oh, another thing, Enforcer Fate Testarossa." Fate stopped, still with her back in his direction, waiting for him to continue. "Has it been already more than two thousand hours since I was locked up? They don't let me use a watch here, so I don't know."
"You don't need one. You'll be locked up here till you die of old age."
He started to cackle again.
She slammed the door behind her, but not before hearing him cackle some more. She couldn't bear anymore being around that man so she continued to walk away from that room as if her life depended on it. Her eyes twitched as every word he said started playing again in her mind. She didn't want to admit, but he was right. He had nothing more to loose, and she had nothing on him to force some answers. She hated herself for a moment, before finally stepping out of the corridor and the sight of the desolate plains came to her. The fresh air burned her nostrils, as she took another deep breath. She turned and walked, coasting the wall to the exit, each step feeling better than the one before as the thought of getting out of that place filled her with more energy.
After a few more minutes, she was sitting inside the ship that took her there, after a fast teleport from the penal colony. The images of her last battle with Scaglietti came to her mind as she tried to think of something to use against him. An inkling feeling that something wasn't right.
"...you can't stop my dream from coming true..."
"So much for that." She tought. "Only if your dream was to be locked up for life."
"...Precia Testarossa was a incredible mage that managed to complete the Project F. Even if she thought that you were a mistake..."
"I already got over this." Precia was a kind mother that just broke after loosing her precious child. Fate had already seen that happen countless time in her time with the TSAB, so she had already settled herself with her past, and loved her mother despite everything.
"...Let me tell you what the Project F can do when used right. Each and every one of the cyborgs carry a embryo of me. If I die here, you'll need to get every single one of them, otherwise, in a month I'll be back with all my memories intact..."
They already had removed all the embryos from every cyborg, and the ones that wished to repent explained the remaining procedures to destroy what was left of it in his hideout.
Still, something wasn't right. Scaglietti was locked up. Vivio was, one way or another, Nanoha's daughter. She still wasn't certain what the brunette would do once she heard about the story. The fear was that Nanoha would go on a rampage after the Admirals and Scaglietti, but she had a gut feeling that Nanoha wouldn't do such a thing. Not the Nanoha she knew. Not the kind and sweet girl that fought along side her during the Book of Darkness Incident. The girl who would always go out of her way just to make sure every single one of her students was doing well in their new assignments. She knew that the Ace of the Sky would go to hell and back just to make sure any of her friends was okay, but... How would she react when something of that magnitude was done against herself. Fate still didn't had an answer for that question.
She thought back on the time they were fighting each other for the Jewel Seeds. Ever since their first encounter Nanoha would always go after her, trying to make her see the truth, but Fate didn't want it. All she wanted was that Precia recognized her until that fateful day when her mother said that she was a failure, that she wasn't useful anymore.
At that moment, Fate's eyes widened as another memory of the confront with Scaglietti came to her mind.
"...this body already reached its uselfulness..."
Then the recent conversation that she had with him.
"...has already been two thousand hours since I was locked up?"
"Bardiche." The device blinked in response. "How much time has passed since our combat with Jail Scaglietti in his hideout?"
"Eighty three days, sir."
"In hours." Fate questioned again, aggravated.
"One thousand, nine hundred ninety eight hours and forty three minutes, sir." The device blinked.
Immediatly she reached for her comn. "Contact Hayate. Use the emergency mode."
Hayate paced about in her office, trying to figure out a way to do what she had to. There was no other way and she decided that she would do it herself instead of waiting for Fate to come back. It would be better if Scaglietti answered her questions, putting the final piece of the puzzle together, and they were sure of what was happening, but she still had her reservations as to what and how much he would talk. She thought about having Verossa scanning his mind, but it was too dangerous for him. One of the reasons why the Inspector had such a nonchalant behaviour was as selfdefense mechanism. It was to hide the inumerous amount of crueltys and atrocitys that passed through the minds of people that he had scanned in his career. She knew that and didn't want him to get anywhere near the mad doctor because of it.
Still, that didn't help the fact that she needed to tell Nanoha the news anyway. She sighed, as a knock came to the door. "Come in."
The Ace of Aces entered the room, still in her training uniform. She briefly surveyed the office and seeing that there was no one there aside from the brown haired girl, she relaxed. "Did you call me, Hayate-chan?" She asked, smiling.
Hayate looked at Nanoha, then turned her back to her. "H-Hmn." She stuttered. "Have a seat." She said signaling a chair for the other while walking behind her desk.
Nanoha took the few steps that separated her from the seat in question. "Is something wrong, Hayate-chan? You seem nervous."
The commander glanced briefly at her table, and the papers that were on top of it, before looking up at her friend. "I am. I'm not going to lie to you. I'm a nervous wreck at the moment."
"What happened?" Nanoha said, motioning to get up, but the other waved her hand, asking for her to be seated with the gesture.
"Oh, drats." Hayate finnaly snapped. It was now or never. She took a seat on her chair and propped her elbows on the table. "Nanoha-chan. I have something really important to tell you, but you have to promise me to stay calm."
Nanoha shifted in her seat. Hear someone saying to stay calm was almost like declaring that she should be nervous, whatever the reason. "I'm getting uneasy."
"Just promise me, okay?" She asked softly.
Nanoha nodded, still confused.
With a swift motion, Hayate stacked the papers she had on the table on a pile and prompted them to the girl to get them. "Here, look at this." When the brunette made motion to get the papers Hayate pulled them back again. "But remember. You promised." Hayate's tension was passing onto the other girl, as she saw her starting to sweat.
When Hayate was about to hand over the papers, an emergency call flashed in between them, getting a shriek from both of them as they jumped back in surprise. Hayate regained her composure moments later and answered the call. "Hayate. Run a regionwide scan for any AMF concentration." Fate started as soon as she saw Hayate's face.
"Huh...? Why?" The commander looked confused.
"Just trust me." Fate grimmaced.
Feeling the tone of the other she opened another window. "This is Commander Yagami to the Long Arch staff. I repeat, this is Commander Yagami for the Long Arch staff. Everyone, assemble in the control room on the double." Then turned again to the other window. "What's happening?"
"I'll tell eve..." She trailed off when she saw Nanoha there. "Did you tell her?"
"Not yet." Hayate's shoulder slumped. Truth be told, she was a little thankful for the sudden appearance of the Enforcer in the middle of it.
"Good. She needs to be in top form right now."
"What, what, what?" Nanoha finally spoke. "Hey, you two. Don't talk like I'm not here. What's happening? What is it that you're not telling me?"
Hayate looked at Fate. Both nodded at the same time. Then she turned to Nanoha. "We'll tell you everything after this, okay? Seems like we'll need to sortie, so can you gather the frontline team at the briefing room." Nanoha was about to interrupt again. "Please?"
The Ace snorted. "Okay, okay. I'm going." And stormed off the room.
"I'm going to the control room."
"I need permission to fly." Fate said.
"Granted. I'll contact you again from the control room." Hayate said, as she walked out of her office.
A/N: Yeah. I'm teasing at this point. If someone says that I'm enjoying doing that then all can I say is "Guilty as charged." XD Thanks for the reviews. They're like food to my poor soul. ^^ Keep'em coming.
I'm not sure if what Yuuno explains to Chrono in this chapter is completely accurate. I did a little research on the subject but I'm no expert.
As always, a round applause for F91-Raiser for beta'ing this for me. (I guess it's about time that I made this as a permanent shout in the fic.) He deserves it.