Hey everybody! I have edited my previous chapters (mostly chapter 1 and 2) to give more insight into Fate's character and more Hayate-Fate interactions! I do hope you would read the new edits. When I re-read those chapters I really want to smack myself in the head for I was very unhappy with how I had started the story… I am so glad for all your kind reviews to such rubbish work that I have written. Hopefully the edit made it much better! Once again thank you for all the reviews!
Chapter 7: Bonds
Fate POV
I headed down the corridor to the familiar medic's room. Before I was even halfway there, Carim (she was a student of my mother's, frequent guest to my house, my teacher, and my close friend) had sent me a message to Bardiche. Bardiche finally pulsed and told me there were seven messages waiting for me. I glared at my device. Bardiche hasn't lighted up ever since I was in the hospital. I can't get him to read me messages even though I was awake. He would always reply that I have to rest and took it upon himself to reply for me. How I hated him sometimes. Didn't he know that he could very well destroy my social circle? Not that I needed to have one.
I opened the newest message and it read
Today 10.04am
Sender: Stupid Carim
I rolled my eyes.
Subject: Your mother
Oi oi you better call your mother (oh holy highness) back soon. She called me twice today cuz you didn't call her back yesterday night lol. How could you forget to call her! Oh please just send a message through Bardiche to her. Just send her a hologram my god. Only if you're up to it though. I fear for your life once she came back from the school board meeting overseas. She will be back tonight, along with your brother. She's happy that you have two dorm mates to take care of you.
Oh hey anyway your dorm mates were constantly guarding you while you're asleep, day or night.*snicker* I caught both of them staring at your napping face yesterday afternoon. I see your charms haven't lessened in the slightest from middle school.
I asked Shinobu to fix up your blazer and shirt since she was roaming around the hospital (note: wasting our money hiring her).
I sighed. My mother, the school Principal who goes by the name of Lindy Harlaown was the admiral of TSAB. She was until she decided to take matters into her own hands, considering my education. She had retired from her admiral job to instead take charge of the school and not her ship. All these was because of me. Ever since that day, in middle school, she had been constantly worried about me. A week after that, she just decided to take over the school from the previous Principal who was her friend. My brother, Chrono Harlaown was the high school department's Student Council President. How he became President was beyond me, though most likely he had the help of Amy who was the Vice President.
She had took off on the day of my accident, right after the entrance ceremony to attend some emergency school board meeting, dragging my brother along. Thank the gods for that. I still remembered my bloody shirt and my torn blazer.
I scrolled to the next message that I received this morning.
Today 9.33am
Sender: Idiot Teana
Fate-chan where are you now? I heard from Carim that you're discharged today. Shall I pick you up? I am even coming in clutches for you! Where the heck are you anyway! Reply me already!
Teana Lanster was my childhood best friend. Her brother, was coincidentally Chrono's best friend and the Harlaown house had my redhead friend crashing by rather frequently. Clutches? Wait don't tell me she intended to say crutches… What the hell happened while I was in the hospital?
Yesterday 9.34pm
Sender: Idiot Teana
Fate-chan! Are you asleep? Reply me soon! I missed you dearly. You didn't do anything dangerous again in hospital did ya?!
Bardiche pulsed, waiting for me to read the next message. I shook with anger. "Bardiche…"
Yesterday 3.21pm
Sender: Idiot Teana
Fate-chan are you feeling better? Why didn't you reply me?
Bardiche definitely destroyed my relationships with other people.
Two days ago 5.02pm
Sender: Idiot Teana
Did you know I spent a week in the hospital too? Hahah! Seemed like everybody were pretty wrecked up after the first mission and the Principal (Your dearest mommy!) gave all of us a week off! I haven't been able to visit you …er… cuz I broke my leg. :P hehe.
I sighed. I wondered how she was now.
Three days ago
Sender: Idiot Teana
Fate! Bardiche told me you broke your phone after I texted you like a million times. Did you really…? I am going to kill you for Alicia.
In Mid-childa, most mages owned devices. Alicia, Teana and me though, we mostly communicated through our phones. It was a special communication line just for the three of us. It also held a special kind of meaning to us. Before we got our own devices, we used to pretend our phones were mage devices and the three of us would run around in the Mid-childa hill, pretending we could fly. Alicia mostly sat out our sessions due to my stubbornness on her health, though I myself couldn't last any longer than her.
Flashback
Teana, Onee-chan and I were lying on the grassy land, staring up into the sky. "Hey when will we truly fly in the sky?" Teana wondered out loud.
Onee-chan, the smartest out of the three of us and the wisest, had replied. "One day. One day both will be able to fly in the sky." I had barely noted that she didn't include herself in.
Teana smirked. "And when that day comes, I would be the greatest mage alive! Fate-chan would be my servant." My sister laughed and ask whether we would bring her along to the skies. The obnoxious redhead immediately replied, "Of course! And we would leave Fate-chan behind." A stab of fear had hit me then at both onee-chan's question and Teana's answer.
"Hey stop targeting me will you. You're just angry that I stopped playing catching with you." I pouted. Teana Lanster, the greatest idiot in the world, replied with an "Hmph."
"Neh Fate-chan. would you bring me to the skies?" Onee-chan rolled on the grass and looked at me, with a sparkle in her deep blue eyes and asked me with an air of seriousness.
"I… Won't." I saw hurt creeping into her expression and continued on.
"Because onee-chan is going to fly with her on strength and be by my side." The young me had replied with a smile. I didn't understand then, but Onee-chan looked as if she was about to cry.
End of flashback
I didn't understand then, years ago why did Onee-chan made such an expression. As I grew older, I realised that onee-chan had realised her own health condition before the day TSAB took Mother away. I shook my head as I cleared the memories. Ever since the day I was revealed of my birth, I have decided to exist only for that sole reason. I existed up till now, only to fulfil that goal. Other things would not matter anymore. Time was running out. I would make Onee-chan smile again.
I scrolled to the next message.
Four days ago
Sender: Brother Chrono
FATE T. HARLAOWN! Just how did you get yourself into so much mess? I heard from Carim only your group got it the worst out of the mission. Our dear Principal gave you all a week to rest and Carim is punished for stupidly turning off trial mode. She is made to clean the Infinite Library ~
Anyway you are to stay in bed and OBEY your dorm mates. From what Carim said they seemed to care about you very much. Hehe. You have grown to be such a lady killer Fate-chan.
I closed my messages inbox and headed to Shinobu's office after replying the three of them.
Carim POV
"Fate-chan did what?" I looked incredulously at the purple head in front of me. I was summoned here by a certain furious medic.
"She did it again, while I was out of the office."
"How did you know?" Shinobu Tsukimura pointed plainly at the empty syringe case in the waste bin, then at the broken thermometer that was in it too.
"She's so clever. I had even made sure my office is clear…"
I felt my blood froze for the umpteenth time ever since I was acquainted with that retarded blonde and her family. I furiously dialled her device and tried to search for her device telepathically. Nothing came up though it was expected. Every time that retard blonde did something reckless like that, Bardiche would shut itself down and nobody could find where she was.
"Did you check on Alicia-chan?"
"Yeah. She's in better condition. Though she probably didn't notice what her sister did. She should be waking soon. She always did after her sister ran off."
"Okay."
It's no good telling Lindy. Fate would repeated do that again despite her mother's warnings. They would then have a quarrel with everybody breaking down. I sighed.
"Give me some headache pills."
Nanoha POV
Hayate and I followed Shinobu-san's direction to Alicia's room and was greeted by the sight of a dark room, so deathly quiet you could even hear the birds outside chirping, even with all the windows closed. Why wasn't the curtain open?
Both of us stepped in timidly, afraid to wake the room's only occupant up. I tried to close the door as silently as possible but the door still closed with a rather loud "click".
The person on the bed stirred.
"Fate-chan isn't here. Let's go Nanoha." Hayate whispered, though she herself was straining her eyes to take a look at the occupant on the bed.
"Don't you wanna see how Fate's sister looked like?" I whispered back.
Both of us fell silent as we tip-toed across the carpeted floor.
On the table near the bed, was flower vase that seemed to be recently filled with florals. There was a drip bag and a few tubes sticking into the flawless skin on the arm of the owner. Even in the darkness, one could clearly see that her skin was fair, perfect and flawless. Near her arm was what seemed like a few droplets of scarlet. The occupant stirred.
Both of us held our breaths as we took in the sight in front of us. Lying on the bed was a splitting copy of Fate-chan, though I did noted that her bangs were slightly different from the Fate-chan I knew. So this was Alicia Testarossa.
"Ngh…" Alicia stirred again. Hayate seemed to turn blue as she struggled to hold her breath.
The door to the window of her soul opened and blue eyes peeked out from under the eyelids. "Ngh?" She made a noise that seemed to ask a question.
Signum POV
Recently, I was out of a job. Yes, I was fired as the bodyguard of the Yagami household. Depressed and without a goal to pursue, I wandered around the school grounds, sometimes visiting the flowery garden and sometimes visiting the gym. This was not how my days were supposed to be spent!
After that incident, involving Testarossa and my mistress, they were in the hospital for a week, along with Teana Lanster and Subaru Nakajima. Hayate-chan had furiously shooed Vita and I out of the hospital room and fired us soon after.
"Signum and Vita. I hereby command you to have fun to your heart's content. Have fun understood? And get out of the room, its crowded." Her voice rang in my ears. How cruel. I had a week of boredom.
I passed by the fountain near the school's student council room. Memories of that day flooded back to me.
Flashback
That day, a teal hair coloured woman had stood a metre away from the gushing fountain, seemly deep in thought. I was passing by it carelessly and I signed. She had sighed too and had a troubled expression plastered on her face. On hearing my sigh, she looked up and smiled.
"Had trouble too?"
"Yeah."
"Did you know? That there's a library in the academy."
"I thought all schools had one?" I couldn't help but question on how common it was for libraries to exist.
"Well yeah…" She chuckled and continued. "Have you ever gone there before? The view on the top floor is magnificent. It will take your breath away, and hopefully with your trouble in tow." She gave me a smile and walked back to the school building.
End of flashback
Well, since I have time to kill, why not? I headed towards the Infinite library. I pushed open its wooden double doors and silence greeted me. Instead of taking the elevator this time, I chose to step on the anti-gravity field and floated myself to the top floor of the library.
No matter how many times I have seen this scene, it still took my breath away. My footsteps resounded around the empty library with only books to keep my company. I sat down on the floor and gazed, just gazed at the city of Mid-childa.
"Hah…" I turned around sharply. I just heard something. My bodyguard senses was acting up again.
"Who's there?" I said, projecting my voice to the end of the corridor.
Silence answered me and I raised my device. I got onto my feet as my device readied itself.
"Hah…" It was that voice again.
I approached the corner of the shelf cautiously and swiftly, I pointed my device at the source of noise as soon as I turned the corner.
I was speechless as the sight before me took my ability to speak. Sprawled on the floor, barely breathing at all was Fate Testarossa. Her wheelchair lay abandoned, overturned, at her side. Testarossa was clutching her phone in on hand and her chest in another, lying on her left.
"Testarossa!"
"Hah…" She breathed out as she struggled to raise her head to look at me. A flicker of something past by her eyes as she lowered her head again.
"It's… you Signum. What… a coinci..dence."
"What are you doing here?"
"Hah isn't… it obvious…. I was trying… to sleep…" She gave me one of her annoying confident smirk. The intended effect however, was greatly diminished by the fact that she had to strain her facial muscles into that smirk.
"Testarossa! Are you okay?"
"Yeah…"
"I doubt so. You look very pale."
"Of..of course I am fine…. Hey… Is that match…. We promised before… still on? Wanna do… it next week?" She tried to divert the topic.
"Testarossa we are going to the hospital."
She shook her head desperately. "I only felt… a bit faint. Neh? Are… you scared that… you would lose?" She panted out the words.
"Testarossa!"
"No! …." Her face was curiously pale and her lips were nothing like the usual rosy colour. The Fate Testarossa in front of me, might as well be a sparkling vampire. A heavy amount sweat had also gathered around her forehead and her face glistened with sweat.
Bardiche, her triangular device, chose that moment to speak out. "Sir. Please rest." I stared in shock. Was the device concerned about its master's health?
"Bar…bardiche. I told you to switch… youself down. Why do you… keep ignoring my orders?" Testarossa gritted her teeth and struggled to reach for the device.
"Sir. I switched off the telepathic link. It's okay for me to wake up Master."
"Idiot device…."
"Sir…"
Shocked by the bond between Bardiche and Testarossa, I almost forgot that the said blonde was in pain.
"Testarossa!"
"I won't go … to the hospital." She glared at me defiantly.
"Fine." Shock fleeted to her eyes as I sat down by her side. I slide my arm under her neck and propped her head up just a little bit. The phone in her hands dropped onto the carpeted floor as the little energy she had, dispersed. I placed her head upon my lap as Testarossa closed her eyes. Her breathing slowed down and she wasn't struggling to breathe anymore.
"Cold…" She muttered as she drifted off to sleep. I removed my jacket and covered her shivering body. She was sound asleep in a minute.
I, too relaxed and both of us slept in silence.
Alicia POV
I was having a dream again. It's another one with Fate-chan in it. It was another memory of our precious childhood.
Flashback
I had broken into one of Mother's lab and by accident, broken one of the numerous glass jars resting on the shelf. Fate-chan had tottered behind me as she followed me into the lab.
"Onee-chan!" My little sister gasped at the sight of the broken jar. The contents of the jar was red and it spilled over the study table on the lab, nearly missing Mother's handwritten notes. Fate-chan scrambled to the table which was taller than her and climbed the nearby chair.
I inwardly smiled at my sister's intellect. She paused, however, realising that she had nothing to wipe the table with. "Ngh?" I chuckled at her reaction. Her young mind thought of the first thing available and that was her shirt. "Ah!" She furiously started to scrub the table clean of the red fluid while I made my way to the table. I was a few heads taller than Fate-chan and Mother said I was two years older than Fate-chan.
The table was almost clean now, little Fate-chan had done a great job. She smiled at me after she was done, as if asking for a praise. "Onee-chan! It's done!" She had a tooth missing and I had to chuckle at the sight of her cute face. I petted her head and her smile widened, tiny arms grabbing my shirt in happiness. Fate-chan was five then. I was seven.
It was apparent though, how those two years of difference had set us apart. Fate-chan was still young and even though I myself was young, my mind was much more developed than that of Fate-chan's.
I noticed then, on the desk was Mother's handwritten notes that she had spent nights and nights writing. She didn't even tucked us into bed ever since Fate hit five years old. As I grow older, I felt myself grow weaker. Perhaps I should eat more… I chuckled. Fate-chan was nuzzling me with her nose, desperately trying to grab my attention.
However, I was unable to tear my sight away from the notes on the table though. Wind from nowhere had blown across and as if on purpose, flipped the pages of the notes, seemly to reveal its greatest secrets within the pages.
I stared hard at the photograph pinned at the corner of the page. The person within, was one that I was so painfully familiar with. The person was the only one I knew that would smile at me with such angelic smile and nuzzle me like a puppy. The person was only sister I had. Wine-red stared back.
"Onee-chan."
The title of the page was "Project Fate-Clone".
End of flashback
I breathed heavily and opened my eyelids as my dream came to an end. Fate-chan…
There were two figures by my bedside, frozen like statues, as if they were caught doing something bad. "Ngh?" I looked at them curiously.
They soon revealed themselves to be Fate-chan's roommates and had kindly graced their presence upon my room for the sake of finding my idiot little sister.
"She… did came by earlier. She told me she had two cute brunettes staying in the same room as her and told me about your first mission. She seemed happy to have two beautiful girls by her side." I smiled as both of them turned an alarming red.
"She…she said that?!"
"F-Fate-chan said that?"
Obviously she didn't. Honestly I always have to salvage her mess of a relationship every time. Fate-chan is so oblivious to everybody. All she cared about was… me.
I smiled and nodded my head. I felt so much better after a sleep. Dreaming about Fate was an added bonus, though the ending of the dream wasn't to my preference.
"A-anyway! It's great knowing you Alicia-san!"
"Alicia-chan." I pouted my lips as Nanoha flushed.
"Ah… Alicia-chan."
"That's better."
"Then we will be leaving now! Sorry for disturbing your sleep!" Both girls stood up and bowed.
"Hey… Can both of you do me a favour?"
"Sure..!"
"Sure!"
"Please take care of my little sister in my absence. Promise me?"
They nodded in unison.
Signum POV
Testarossa was out for quite a while. After waking up first, I realised her forehead was burning hot and she constantly shivered. You owe me one Testarossa. I carried her bridal style to my room, which I shared with Vita and plopped her on my bed. Thank god the library was only a minute's walk away from the dorms. Vita was gone, probably to shop for more hideous looking toy rabbits.
I took a towel from the bathroom and wiped her face, placing another cold towel on her forehead.
"Ngh…" She muttered in pain.
Bardiche pulsed at an alarming frequency, as if he was worried for its master. Testarossa… Everything about you is a mystery.
"No…" She groaned, sleep-induced.
"Onee-chan…" She gripped the sheets tightly as her face, contorted. Her bangs was wet with sweet and her eyebrows were knitted together.
"No… no… no…." She shook her head several times and panted heavily. Nightmare maybe? I sat myself on the bed, with my back leaning against the wood. I slid my arm behind her back (which was wet with sweat) and hugged her from behind.
"It's fine Testarossa. Everything is going to be fine."
She thrashed around and her sleeves slid down for a moment. Alarm bells went off in my mind as I took Fate-chan's arm in my hand. I rolled down her right sleeve shakingly and rubbed my eyes a few times just to confirm what I saw.
Fate-chan must have a terrible story to tell.
Nyahaha. I just had to get this story out of my system. It's 3.36am now and I am dreadfully sleepy. Pardon me for my mistakes in the story. I spotted quite a lot of my typing mistakes and my mind couldn't form any coherent thoughts anymore. This chapter was written and the chapter flowed, with random ideas that came into my mind. I had to admit I was rather proud of the flashbacks that I had thought of. The flashbacks wasn't even suppose to be this long...
This chapter concentrates more on the blonde sisters' past and their bond. (not to mention a certain yellow triangular device) Hoped you enjoyed the story and do read the newly edited chapters 1&2 ya! Thank you for taking up your time to read my story. Till the next time!
