I like Cinque. Why? She fought Subaru in the full expectation doing so would kill her. Words cannot express the respect I have for that degree of dedication (believe me, I just wasted 15 minutes trying), even if it was grossly wasted on someone like Jail. Like the last chapter, this is contemporary with chapter four of In The Service.
Also note the fanwank at why Nanoha and Fate aren't a mass of scar tissue yet.

Cinque
How does one face death? It seems like a very important question, but it is disingenuous. By the time you actually get around to facing death, it is usually too late to control your reaction to it. Cinque had already faced death twice, once in the form of Zest, the second time personified by someone she now considered a sister and dear friend. It had been an interesting experience. Believing she was utterly doomed, she had found calm. It was inevitable and there was no sense in getting upset about dying. It was Cinque's firm belief that her calm had saved her. Things had seemed so logical, so easy, then.

That calm hovered at the edge of her conciousness now as they chased a Zafira clone through the city. Cinque wished she could give some of it to Subaru, who seemed to be barely holding it together. It was probably worse for Subaru, on reflection, as she had actually seen Wolkenritter in action. Wendi even used recordings of a yelling Vita to freak Subaru out as a prank once.

The joke seemed decidedly less funny now that they had been actually been yelled at by a Wolkenritter.

The actual chasing was mostly being done by a small mob of Air Force mages, who were under orders to stay the hell away from their target. Fighting Zafira from a distance was the only way a normal mage could fight him. Anything else devolved into less fighting and more dying horribly. This was something that had already been proved.

Fortunately Cinque and Subaru were not normal. They were Combat Cyborgs, faster and tougher than a normal mage. So was Zafira, though. The last of the Belkan Guardian Beasts was…Cinque shuddered and recalled reading an account of the Wolkenritter attacking a village back during the bad old days before Hayate. If that was happening all over again, then the streets would run red. They had to be enough to stop this psychotic Zafira. The alternative was too terrible to contemplate.

Cinque gestured Subaru to lead for a moment, adjusting her grip on the knife in her hand. She was surprised to discover she was sweating. It was odd to her; she never really felt fear, and at times suspected the Doctor had made her incapable of it. But her body reacted as though afraid. Then Subaru yelled and it was past time for thought.

Cinque charged into the room behind Subaru as the Type 0 ducked a punch and slammed Revolver Knuckle into the Wolkenritter's midsection. Zafira stumbled back a step. He was not hurt; it would take more than that to do it. Still, Subaru could knock someone from their feet with a punch, and no matter how many other physical laws a mage trampled mass and velocity delivered by a blunt instrument could not be completely nullified. The fact Zafira was still standing after getting hit by Revolver Knuckle was impressive enough.

The rejoinder was a kick in the stomach that swept Subaru slighty to one side. That was fine with Cinque as it cleared her target. She threw her knife at Zafira, followed up with several more. This wasn't your typical mage, Cinque reminded herself. He would have to be worn down.

After about a minute of back-and-forth it was becoming clear that the match was roughly even. Subaru had twice used her I.S. on Zafira, but as a being of condensed magic Vibration Shatter just wasn't very effective. The wolfman wouldn't stand still long enough for something that took longer to set up, like a Divine Buster, nor could Subaru afford to leave one hand busy that long when she would probably need it to fend off Zafira.

Cinque's own knives did better relatively speaking. Rumble Detonator's shotgun approach to damage, with solid shrapnel, blast effect, and magic, made sure she would be effective against any target. The problem for her was that as a hand-to-hand combatant she left a lot to be desired, lacking both height and reach. Subaru had to do most of the heavy lifting. If Ginga had been here instead, the fight might already be over. And every time Cinque had to pull back to get out another knife Subaru got more beat-up.

"Hmmph." Zafira appeared to be considering them with a bit of amusement. "You're not bad. Pity I'm better."

The hows and whys of it would forever escape Cinque, but somehow the blow sailed clean past Subaru's effort to block it and knocked her cold, snapping her head around with a worrisome cracking noise. At that same moment, Nove charged in. Cinque hadn't really understood Subaru's reaction to Ginga being taken before, but she got it now. "Nove, get Subaru to safety."

"But-" Nove began.

"Do it." Cinque understood it now. She threw herself at the wolfman in a flurry of blows and stabs and detonating knives. Height and reach didn't matter to her anymore. She was going to take Zafira down or die in the attempt.

In the end, it was a die in the attempt. She hurt. She couldn't stand properly. The wolfman regarded her with unmistakeable respect, but the gesture was utterly wasted. "You fought well. Last words?" the clone said to her.

The wall beside her, Cinque noticed, was metal. That calm, that abominable knowledge that she was surely about to die, flowed through her. Everything became clear. A smile at the wolfman and then she slapped her hand into the wall. "Rumble Detonator."

She floated, without sensation of weight or gravity. There was no pain. Everything was purest white. Cinque wondered a moment if she was dead, but rejected that. She didn't think she particularly merited the Belkan heaven yet.

Reality, harsh and cold, flooded back into her brain. The ceiling, or at least she assumed it was a ceiling as her ears were ringing and she could not seem to tell which way was up, was pitted and scorched. Everything hurt as though exposed to a live flame. Cinque tried to scream in agony, but it wouldn't come out. Even breathing was torture.

She couldn't feel her left hand.

Trying to move produced Subaru, Nove, and what looked like a Ground Forces medic entering her field of vision. She couldn't hear the words, but she could read the lips, a useful skill the Doctor had imparted to all his daughters. "Don't move," and "Relax." That seemed like good advice at the moment, so Cinque followed it. A pricking in her left shoulder, which she noted because it actually hurt less than everything else. The pain rapidly started to abate.

Warm blackness engulfed her, and she greeted it with a relieved sigh.

"How is Cinque?" Hayate asked of Shamal. It had not been Hayate's suggestion that had seen Shamal placed in charge of the Combat Cyborg's care. The Knight of the Lake had walked into the hospital and taken it up over the objections of a half-dozen Bureau doctors, and nobody dared get in her way after she had portaled someone onto the roof for trying.

The Nakajima family crowded around to hear the news. It had been 96 hours since the attack now. Shamal politely pretended not to notice how crowded her personal space had become. "Her left hand is a total loss. Shari and I both tried but there's just not enough there to put it back together." Shamal stopped the Nakajimas from commenting by talking over them. "Subaru, Nove, you saved her life with that shield, otherwise she would all be like that. The shrapnel was all slowed down so it failed to penetrate most of her cyborg enhancements. The rest is just cosmetic and easily enough fixed. As for a complete recovery: If she were a human there would be nothing we could do. We can clone skin and muscles easily enough to repair burns or penetration wounds but something as complex as a complete hand or eye is beyond us. Fortunately, however, she is a Combat Cyborg. Shari believes she can create a duplicate of the cyborg parts and cloning the remaining tissue is well within the realm of possiblity. Cinque should be back to normal in, at worst case, three months."

Genya ran his hands over his face and sighed.