A/N: Chapter 9 of Nanoha A's: Midnight Tome. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters except my own. Nanoha A's belongs to the rightful owner.

A special thanks to the reviewers, I truly appreciate it.

Chapter 9: Relocation

Hayate's Residence...

"Is Shamal back yet? Hayate doesn't look too well." Vita asked Signum as they knelt beside the bed. Hayate's labored breathing seemed troubled and she was breaking out in cold sweat.

"We have to be patient. Shamal will definitely come back." Signum replied, her eyes focused on Hayate with concern.

"I'm back!"

"Speak of the devil, get in here Shamal." Signum ordered as the woman stumbled in.

"Here, Hayate." Shamal knelt by the child's bed and placed the Book of Darkness right next to its owner. Feeling the comfortable aroma, the book cuddled up against Hayate and using a bit of magic, healed her completely. Hayate's ragged breathing became a lot smoother and she looked peaceful now. The rest of the family released a huge sigh and left the room quietly as Hayate slept soundly.

"Hey Shamal, do you think the enemy will come looking for us since they had the book for quite some time?" Vita asked as the knights filed into the living room for a meeting.

"I highly doubt it. However, we can't assume things here. We need to be on our guard from now on, Hayate's life is at stake."

"That goes without saying." Signum spoke.

"I'll defend Hayate to the end, no one will ever bother her again." Vita vowed.

Asura...

"Hey have you seen Nanoha anywhere?" Fate asked Arf on the next lunch break. When Nanoha and Claire returned, Chrono demanded an explanation but they refused to comply.

"We just wanted some fresh air back on Earth." was their answer before Nanoha dragged her companion to the training room and disappeared.

"I think they are still in the training room." Arf said, slurping a nice and refreshing smoothie. "Nanoha is one tough trainer. They have been in there for a long time."

"I noticed. Thanks Arf." Saying goodbye to her familiar, Fate made her way to the training room. When she arrived, Nanoha was practicing her shooting technique. Claire, in her human form, held the target board that represented the enemy. The entire room was full of smoking craters and the next attack could possibly blow a hole in the ship.

"Okay Claire, next one is a Starlight Breaker!" Nanoha took aim.

Here it comes...that atrocious attack. Claire thought as she held the board over her head so Nanoha will aim there and not at her personally.

"Nanoha, don't shoot that in the ship!" Fate rushed over, scolding her lightly.

"Oh hi Fate!" Nanoha smiled at her friend, lowering Raging Heart for a minute. "Have you come to witness my training program?"

"Well not exactly." Fate scratched the back of her head. "Lindy actually wanted to-"

"If you aren't here to see my progress then stand back. Fire Raging Heart!" Nanoha interrupted her friend and took aim once more.

[Fire] The device acknowledged and released the spell.

"Ack! You better block that Claire!" Fate ordered as the beam flew straight toward the target.

"Fate it's okay. This is just training, it's not like it's gonna–" Claire quickly ducked as the beam blew the target to smithereens and smashed into the wall, tearing a huge hole in the ship.

"Claire!"

"Oops, my bad." Claire chuckled as the alarm sounded. A few of the mechanics glowered as they patched it up while others just chided the girls lightly about firing such a massive spell.

"If you didn't come to witness our training then why did you come?" Nanoha asked Fate.

"As I was saying...Lindy called everyone to the room for a meeting. It should start in a few minutes." Taking Nanoha by the hand, all three of the girls rushed to the room where most of the members were sitting.

"Ah Fate, Nanoha come here." Luckily Arf saved them seats. "Claire you can sit on my lap since there isn't any more room."

Thanks furball. Claire huffed as she transformed and curled up in the familiar's lap.

"Ahem. Attention crew members." Admiral Lindy spoke. "Our ship is out of commission for a while. So we will be setting up a temporary operations base near the site of the incidents. Alex and Randy, you are in charge of the observation staff."

"Yes Ma'am." Both of the workers responded, their expressions were that of determination.

"The command post will be manned by Enforcer Chrono, Enforcer Aid Amy, myself, and Fate. We will work in three rotating shifts. And in order to conduct our mission while securing Nanoha's safety, we will locate the command base near Nanoha's house." The last part surprised Nanoha the most as she smiled at the thought of having Fate around.

Back on Earth...

"Amazing! This is really close to home!" Nanoha exclaimed as she stood against the railings of the new base.

"Really?" Fate asked.

"Mm-hm." Pointing with a finger, "You see? That's it right over there." Inside, Amy was busy unpacking the boxes and other packing material.

"Huh? Yūuno,Arf and Claire? You have to look like this when you're in this world?" Instead of seeing a boy and two girls, she sees a ferret, a wolf and a cat with their tails wagging.

"I'm a puppy now! It's my new form!" Arf proclaimed happily.

"We have to be in these forms when Nanoha and Fate's friends are around." Yūuno explained.

"You guys sure have to go through a lot of trouble."

"Naturally." Claire answered as she licked a paw. "It's called being undercover agents."

"Arf, on my gosh, you're so tiny. What happened to you?" Fate's voice interrupted them as the girls came back from the outside.

"I'm cute right?" Arf jumped up to lick Fate's face.

"Yeah!" Fate smiled. Later that day, Arisa and Suzuka dropped by to welcome them and meet Fate for the first time. They walked to the Cafe for some sweets while Lindy talked to Nanoha's parents.

"Yūuno, I haven't seen you in a long time." Suzuka petted the ferret with happiness. Arisa on the other hand just stared at Arf with puzzlement.

"I think I've seen you somewhere before, but I can't put my finger on it."

That's because you've met me in my large form but since I'm in this form you can't really tell huh. Arf thought. The others just smiled as they chatted. Fate was to attend their school the next day so Nanoha, Arisa and Suzuka were quite happy for her.

"The school's great! We'll have such a fun time together."

Somewhere...

"They are here." Signum said as the Belkan Knights reformed after a hunt.

"The Administration Bureau is starting to move. Things won't go like they have been so far." Shamal worried.

"We're going to have to travel a bit further. We'll absorb powers in other worlds."

"How many pages have we completed as of now?" Vita asked curiously.

"Let's see..." Shamal propped open the book and flipped through it. "Three hundred and forty pages. We got quite a bit from the girl in white the other day."

"All right! We're over half-way done with this book. Let's hurry up and grab the rest before they know what hit them. Once this is done, we can all go and live quiet lives together with Hayate." Vita stated, eager to get it down. The rest agreed and parted ways to gather more power.

Back at the base on Earth...

The communication phone rang as Amy came out from the kitchen with a glass of juice.

"Hello, this is Amy. What can I do for you?" She answered, touching the answer button.

"Oh, Miss Amy." The small screen buzzed to life and a woman's face appeared. "This is Marie from the Main Office Maintenance Staff, sorry to bother you."

"That's okay. Is something wrong?" Amy sat down on the couch to listen to the report.

"It's about those two Intelligent Devices that you entrusted me with before you left. They're acting kind of strange... We're done with all the repairs and part-exchanges that were called for, but the error codes don't seem to wanna go away."

"Error code? Which type?"

"Umm...They say that they still lack necessary parts. I'll send you the data right now." A little message box popped open and Amy scrolled through the content.

"The missing part is...what!?"

"Yeah...ah..this is some kind of mistake, right?" Marie looked worried. "Both the Devices are stuck on this message, and won't accept any commands no matter what we tried." So we're in kind of a bind..."

Raging Heart, Bardiche...are you serious? CVK-792...A Velka-style Cartridge System?! Amy scowled as the message scrolled to the bottom. The word Please shined big and bold as both devices stubbornly made up their minds, regardless of the consequences that would follow.

A/N: Done with this chapter, I hoped you enjoyed it.