A/N :
Aaaaand another chapter, yaaaaay ! It took more time, because...well, because it's hard. Me, lazy ? Noooo. :p
Thank you so much to bonesxbreak, yukiyuuki, eries, darkvalk, XxLinhxX, liz, vampangelus, toolazytolog, K-n1n3, Sandanio, Heart's Cross, kris-tim (wow, three in one go !) for the nice and kind reviews, I feel... read ? And even my story appreciated ?
Soooo, about the chapter...
-I assumed Hayate was close to the commander rank...or something ?
-How old is Vivio ? o.o I made her act like a small child, but she'd normally be around 9 here...? Hewww...
-There is one picture that helped me describing the cemetery scene... http:/ nanofate. us /content/57045690ub5jpg [delete the spaces] (I guess you all know the website, and I did crap compared to Yuki in the comments below, but heh...) I had the idea, and this picture appeared...not the contrary !
-I thought about putting Arisa and Suzuka in it, but... that would be way too much characters to handle. Damn, there are too many, I even have to put some away !
Warning : OC appearance, it is for the need of the story, and I tried to stay in tune with the anime, so... hope it doesn't spoil ?
I know the title is lame, I had no idea for this chapter, but I started with the prologue and decided it would be cool to continue like this... Anyone got a better idea ? I'll change it...!
With this said, enjoy...? :3
Farewell
"A word you wish you'll never have to tell your beloved ones"
They were all reunited in the cemetery, TSAB members wearing their uniforms and civilians black suits that matched with the reigning atmosphere. They even made so that the sky would be clouded, like if it was going to rain. Nanoha was here, standing beside her fellow workers, and Vivio with her 'grandmother' Lindy, who held her hand, a few steps away from the soldiers...and the grave.
She had to lie for the first time to her daughter, but she didn't have the courage to tell the truth right now.
...
"Fate-mama is in a world reaaaally far from here, and she can't go home because they need her there, and you know you mama, she couldn't say no to people who need help... And because it is so far, we can't talk to her." She was indeed too far from her reach, she thought wryly.
The little girl cocked her head to the side, her mismatched eyes showing incomprehension.
"But, mama, Fate-mama will come back some day, no ?"
"We don't know, but it can last very, very long, since they really have huge problems..."
"But, but... she can't even come back for holiday ?"
"I'm sorry, Vivio, but when it comes to work, you know your Fate-mama, she won't come back until she finishes it all."
"She loves her work more than mama and Vivio ?" Tears already began to appear on the corner of her eyes, and her mother hugged her tightly to console her.
"Of course not, Vivio, Fate-mama loves us very much, but she has important things to do, and some day we'll rejoin her, okay...?" Still sniffling and gripping her mother tightly, the small girl replied.
"Okay..."
…
Nanoha fixated the name carved on the headstone, and felt a shiver running down her spine. She didn't know if she would be able to stand all of this, this official funeral and all the military process that obliged her to stand up straight the whole time, not able to be with her daughter and her friend's family. She smiled lightly at her daughter, who returned her smile and waved at her. The little girl had been told that it was a farewell party for her mama, but being already gone it would take place without the main protagonist... Being accustomed to military weird ceremonies, she believed it.
"Are you going to be okay, Nanoha ?" She looked at Hayate, standing at her left, who gave her a meaningful look. She smiled again in response. "You know you're not alone." The smaller girl added, squeezing the other's hand lightly to transmit her feelings, and looked at where her guardians were. They were all clad in their military uniforms, Zafira even in his human form. She remembered when she told them the news, how they all reacted differently, Signum the worst. The woman simply left the room without a word, and soon after fighting noises could be heard coming from the training room. When she finally got out, they discovered a quite slashed place, and even with the sweat on her face, it was clear she cried. But they left it at that, knowing too much how much the woman cared for the young enforcer.
She returned back to reality, hearing her friend talking telepathically to her.
"Yeah, I know, Hayate... Thanks."
She smiled lightly and nodded, then they looked ahead again.
Few seconds later, Nanoha patted her pocket to feel the shape of a triangle. Bardiche.
Shari gave her the device a few days ago, when they finished extracting the data from the device. She just put the golden triangle in her hand an closed it, saying that if there should be one to inherit it, it should be her. Later she even tried to give it to Lindy, but she got the same response, so she kept it and tried to 'talk' to Bardiche, inspecting the device's memory, but always getting stopped when she opened the last part of the video recording, getting a mechanical "Sorry, Sir, no data." and snow on the screen. But from this time, she would carry it with her all the time, like Raising Heart. At those thoughts, she thought again about Fate. She just didn't wanted to say her friend goodbye, and sensed that the moment the grave would be filled that lingering sensation of Fate's presence she had would disappear.
They straightened up when the cortege arrived, carrying what they knew was an empty coffin, arriving at the grave the holders slowly laid it on the planks covering the hole. Then a member of the church arrived, stood before everyone, and started to lead the memorial service. A few moments later, because of the words the priest said, some people started to cry, and sadness filled the air. In the front row, Arf fell to her knees, crying much harder than anyone, still feeling the lack of her master's magic flow in her body, and wondering why she wasn't there when Fate needed her the most. She wanted to go into the grave with the coffin, feeling like a defective familiar, but too many people kept her from doing it, needing her. One after another, almost everyone started to cry, silently or not, and muffled sounds invaded the place.
It was when Hayate looked up to the sky to prevent her tears from falling, that she sensed a small prick on her cheek...it was starting to rain. 'What a perfect weather for a time like this...' She thought wryly, then let her tears fall freely on her cheeks, washed with the raindrops now falling steadily.
At her side, Nanoha didn't move an inch, still staring at the coffin, now getting lowered into the deep hole where it would lay forever. She clenched her fists at her sides, staring blankly before her, but trying to see more clear around, when a flash of light appeared in the sky, seemingly a few miles away. Almost ten seconds later, thunder came, and rumbled loudly. She started to cry at that point, thunderstorms reminding her too much of the blonde with gentle red eyes, smiling softly at her...
Suddenly, she heard a weird hiss, and recognizing through her blurry vision missiles, she erected, along with Hayate and several other mages, a wide area barrier over the crowd, just in time to protect them all. Loud explosions came from above, as missiles crashed against their protections, and dust invaded the atmosphere as some touched the ground outside the protected area.
Almost immediately, it was mayhem as civilians started to panic, scream and run everywhere, calling to each other, falling over each other and disturbing the military trying to calm things down.
Nanoha found Vivio immediately and after a few comforting words to both her and Lindy, who still held the little girl's hand, she left them, then quickly joined Hayate and Chrono, chatting lively, screens hovering before them, and inquired about the current situation. They looked at her, sighing almost at the same time, Hayate passing a hand through her wet hair and Chrono scratching his cheek.
"We don't know." He finally replied. "All communications are cut, and with this weather we can't see a thing." Hayate continued. "This is the worst situation, for everything could happen and we wouldn't know about it." Chrono again. "And we haven't heard about any possible assault. I mean, the TSAB has many foes, for what we do, but... We watch over those, but no move have been reported recently."
At that moment, Yuuno came, and asked what was happening too, so the commander asked for her guardians to join them, as well as the forwards, now full-fledged mages, and informed them all about the situation.
"We're planning to form two groups, one heading to the headquarters, and one..." Before she could finish, another attack came, but this time accompanied by...drones. They looked at them in disbelief, knowing too much who they referred to, their manufacturing process kept secret in the TSAB. Magic barriers still in place, missiles crashed on them, but the drones passed through, but only to get crashed down by attacks coming from the former RF6, formed to stop those. Finally, the high ranked destroyed the remaining ones with one huge blow, and they all came back on the ground.
"Correction : we'll make three groups." Hayate added, a worried expression on her face. This predicted nothing good.
Soon after, two groups departed, flying swiftly to where the attack came, and also the headquarters, as the third stayed on the ground, gathering the civilians and leaving for a shelter, Chrono taking the lead, planning to rejoin the Claudia right after.
The two flying groups then separated, Hayate's heading towards the headquarters, hoping to find information there, and Nanoha's would head to the dimensional teleportation office, then split into three to go check on Unhabited Worlds #6, #9 and #17, where Scaglietti and his faithful numbers remained.
When Hayate and her team arrived to the headquarters, she could hardly believe her eyes : the building was assaulted by what it seemed an army constituted of humans and drones, both protected with AMF barriers, thus advancing on the defenses set up and wreaking havoc in the military ranks. Several small spaceships were firing at the building, but placed under a huge one, firing much powerful attack, although at a lower pace. When one of the missiles touched the ground, they understood it was not a thunderstorm they saw and heard back in the cemetery, but those attacks attaining their target. They got completely fooled.
Immediately, the commander raised a wide area barrier, stopping the attacks for a short time, and bawled her orders to her troops to be heard under the downpour.
"Shamal, Zafira and squad number three, I want you to search for injured soldiers, then gather them in the building for further treatment ! Squad number one and two, go help the rest fighting the drones ! I'll stay up, and summon several barriers and offensive spells. Go !" Everyone departed, and she started to gather her magic, closing her eyes in her concentration. When she reopened them, a gigantic spaceship had appeared right in front of the building, right in her field of vision, more armed people and drones coming out, attacking the already crumbling magic shield. It was with disbelief she saw mass weapons canons, aiming at their direction, and firing, explosions filling the air. She could sense the impact on her barrier, and braced herself, shivering. 'What the hell is going on ?' She looked up, to see crackles appearing on the white veil that hovered above her, and instantly put more magic in the spell to reinforce it. 'How can I protect everyone if I can't even stand those attacks ?' She started to anguish, her already light blue eyes growing paler with the magic rush, and her breath became shallow.
"Damn !" She shouted, and started to summon a powerful attack on the ship, her book's pages flapping furiously, when a small voice popped up in her mind. "Calm down, Hayate !"
"Don't stop me, Rein, if I don't do this, then..."
"You'll create a disaster if you do this ! Look at what lies beneath !"
She looked, and saw lodgings, with people out, staring at the ship hovering above them, unknown to the situation. She lowered her staff, to point toward the small army, and began to shoot at them from her location, saving several military in the process.
The defense set up was a complete failure, for AMF barriers did stop the military attacks and passed through defensive spells, then the mass weapons didn't leave any chance to the soldiers, bullets and chemicals weapons being far more offensive than magic. The medical team found itself quickly overwhelmed, and the huge protective barrier finally completely crumbled. It was at that moment that a screens popped up about everywhere, showing the council, fear in their eyes, surrounded by armed humans aiming their weapons to their head. The man who seemed to be their leader spoke up, advancing in front of the scene.
"We hold your leaders, so drop your weapons or we'll shoot. We allow those of you who want to leave without attacking, however, those who decide to stay will be eliminated or, if you call for it, accepted in our ranks. We allow you five minutes, counting from here, to retreat."He added, almost staring at her through the screen."And that stands also for you, general commander Yagami."
She noted mentally they held all communications in their hands, then send a telepathic message to her guardians.
"Shamal, Zafira, wait for me, I'm coming to help you evacuate everyone." She got an affirmative response from both, then arrived at the base of the office block to find a carnage on the ground. She hovered above the corpses, passing more or less injured soldiers trying to get out of here as fast as they could, helping each other to stand or simply running away. She arrived at the hall, covered in groans from the wounded, and knew they wouldn't evacuate in time. Shamal came to her, worried.
"There are too much injured, I can't teleport them all in one go, I need at least fifteen more minutes...!" Her master looked around, calculating the size of the barrier they would need.
"Alright, start now, I'll give you this time." She raised her staff, whilst the protecting mage started to create a teleportation circle under a part of the room. "Rein, I'll need your best support here, do you think you can do it ?"
"I think, but fifteen minutes will be difficult, we can count on physical attacks and..."
"Great, that's all I needed to know, let's do it !" She said merrily, a whirling magic circle appearing under her feet.
Same time, teleportation office.
"I hope we don't arrive too late..."
The small group composed of Nanoha, Vita, Signum and the former forwards was now advancing carefully in the mess, rubble cracking under heir feet, searching for any sign of presence. Finding none, they formed three groups again, separating to go check on the three different worlds the cyborgs and Jail were.
Along with Vita, Nanoha went to Unhabited World #9, the one where Jail remained, a deserted place filled with boulders from various sizes, apart from the huge building standing in the middle of nowhere, and the smaller one they went from, where they couldn't find anybody either.
They headed to the structure, Vita still mumbling her annoyance, cursing all the Scaglietti and drones existing, at what Nanoha giggled, her friend never changing her habits. When they came closer, they finally noticed some damages made at the front gate, burn marks like it exploded, and some smoke coming from the inside. Almost at the entrance, a loud explosion could be heard coming from deep further in the building, then something flew right beneath them, finally crashing against a rock, creating a burst of rocks and dust. When the junk settled, they could see a young woman about Nanoha's age with raven hair, wearing a black damaged barrier jacket covering her slender figure, trying to get up and failing several times, seemingly having an injured leg, blood and dirt on her face and the rest of her body.
The small redhead turned to her partner.
"Do you know her ?" She received no response, but Nanoha raised her staff, asking it informations.
"I'm sorry, my master, but this person's device is not in the database." Was the metallic response.
"And what is that supposed to mean ?" Grumbled the smaller girl.
At that, the other pointed toward the girl below, and pink binds appeared on each arm and leg.
"That means she's considered as our enemy until we get to know if she's a threat or not." Which completely went against Nanoha's belief, that every unknown person was a potential friend. But those were TSAB laws, and not following them could be disastrous for her...and everyone. She slowly hovered toward the black haired girl, who was now struggling forcefully, trying to get rid of her binds, and shouted when she came in front of her.
"Let me go !" A bind cracked , releasing her right hand, but who found itself bound again, with three binds this time, and those were added on each part. The girl stared at the flight instructor angrily, still squirming, and yelled at her again.
"I said let me go, are you deaf ! I'm not a foe !" Nanoha flinched under the gaze, and turned her eyes away to avoid looking into those deep dark eyes.'What's with her ? Her gaze is...' She clenched her jacket at her heart's location, breathed deeply then replied calmly.
"I would if it depended on me, but it doesn't. Don't worry, we won't hurt you unless you try to attack us. So..."
"That's not the point here, are you stupid ? I have to stop him !" At those words, Vita stepped before her.
"Oi, you dumbass ! The girl here is trying to be nice to you, and look how you treat her ! I'm not as nice as her so calm down or..." And showed her hammer to make her understand. With no success. The strained girl sighed, rolling her eyes.
"We have no time for those stupidities ! He must be free by now, we can still stop them before they get out if you release me now !"
Indeed, at that moment a purple haired man with cat-like eyes smiled wickedly, seeing a shadow appearing before his cell.
"It took you quite some time, Zero..."
The door opened, and a small girl appeared. She was completely white, from the color of her skin to her eyes, who were almost translucent, showing wires beneath. The color was not the only thing she lacked, her face showing no emotion whatsoever.
The man got up, ruffling his hand through her mid-length hair and went out of his room to greet the remaining numbers still under his orders, Uno, Tre, Quattro and Sette, waiting for him, corpses laying around. He was happy to see them in good health, and smiled, nodding, to them, who bowed deeply in reply. He then turned to see quite an amount of armed humans holding submachine guns, looking like they were waiting for his order, and when he opened his mouth to ask, the response came from the white girl behind him.
"I took some time to prepare your return as well as your exit from here. Those men here will help us to get back to what we were before, but I'll explain more later, if you don't mind..." He nodded, patted her head again, being at the ideal high, and began to walk toward his freedom.
They headed to the exit, but when they arrived at the door, a magic barrier appeared right before them, stopping them from going further. Two mages appeared behind, which he recognized as being part of the ones who ruined his plans before.
"Please surrender or we'll have to use force." Was the simple sentence they said, and he laughed in response, turning to his troop.
"Please take care of them, I don't want to see their faces anymore." They started to fire at the two soldiers, the barrier rapidly crumbling, and making them step back, putting up more and more barriers, not having the time to reply.
"That's great, great !" He smiled again."An explosion for their end would be beautiful..." Then got in the small ship waiting for him at the entrance, an other for the rest of the troop.
Nanoha and Vita had difficulties standing up against real bullets, using their magic much faster than normal, but one got behind the other and shot toward the enemy, passing through their AMF and touching some. The brunette looked on her side, saw the ship departing and flew after it, shouting at the small girl behind.
"They're heading toward the girl in black, I have to protect her !"
"Damn, Nanoha, stop doing rash things like that !" Then flew backward, still shooting before her.
They overtook the ship, firing at it but the AMF was much stronger because not portable and their magic was weaker from their previous battle, then passing before the dark haired girl an explosion came from ahead so their slowed down, only to get caught in another, directly aimed at them this time.
Several minutes later, the other teams showed up, only to find a black clothed girl with now red binds straining her coughing violently, a white clothed one laying on the ground, both arms and legs spread, seemingly conscious and smiling but panting heavily, Raising Heart resting in her left hand, then a still grumbling red one, sitting next to them, her arms crossed. Signum landed right beside them, followed by Friedrich with Erio, Caro and Teana on his back, then Subaru arrived with her wing road.
"What happened here ? Are you okay, Nanoha ? And who is this ?" At those questions, Nanoha giggled lightly, but did not say anything but "Sorry", and Vita snorted with a disgruntled face, but answered.
"It happened that we completely failed in stopping that cat man, that this stupid girl laying here used all her magic and is now unable to move, and that this other stupid girl in black is an unknown person who incidentally seemed to know what was happening...but we bound her from the beginning, so..."
"What about you, Vita ?" Asked a Signum, more worried about their state than the mission, as Caro knelt beside Nanoha, trying to do something about her state.
"Me ? I'm desperate about this idiot, and a bit tired, but that's all."
"Do you have any information about what they're going to do ?" Inquired Teana, now in her enforcer mode.
"Nope, none, we didn't get any chance to talk to him, we just got fired upon with mass weapons... But that means he's got much powerful attack force now."
"Ah, but I remember seeing that white girl next to him..." The laying girl finally uttered, breathing deeply after."She was white. I mean, all white, her hair, her skin, her clothes... That's..."
"That means she's a cyborg, right ?" Chimed in Subaru, looking somber, and they looked at her sadly, remembering too much how much it hurt her to know there were more cyborgs created by Scaglietti to serve his interests.
"We have to invest more once we're back, right now without communication tools we can't know how things are going on Midchilda." Signum said, looking at the group, waiting for an answer, then her gaze ended on the prisoner. 'She hasn't said a word since we arrived... Odd girl.' But she let it go, and helped the rest to carry the black and white girls on the dragoon's back, the former staying silent all the time, and avoiding everyone's look. They had no idea what was waiting for them at the exit.
End of chapter three, thanks for reading !
About it, now that you've read it...
Was the cemetery scene sad enough ? Even it's a bit muddled, I...tried to make it sad, and again I obscured some characters because there are too many...erf, sorry, but it would have been even worse to understand.
And no Fate sudden appearance at her own funeral, that would be too predicable... ne ? I think I left enough clues about what happened and in the same time be completely vague... fufufufu~
Vivio and Signum's reaction...well, here you are, I planned Vivio, but I added Signum, you're right K-n1n3 I should have thought about her, flame me ! xP They're not with the others because they were not told 'directly', since not direct family or superior (Nanoha is a special case, Teana decided to tell her by herself)...
So, more action in this chapter (even if not well depicted), and more focus on different characters...? Especially Hayate, because she's one of the Aces, and...well, I like the character.
What more...well, I hope you enjoyed, and again if you picked up mistakes please tell me...! I'm also curious about what you think is happening... any idea ? :3
So, 'til next time~