-Disclaimer-
Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha's anime is licensed by Geneon Entertainment; its studio is Seven Arcs. Anime is directed by Akiyuki Shinbo. The manga is illustrated by Koji Hasegawa. Characters, Locations, and other intellectual property from the Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha universe is to be attributed to the above as warranted.
Fan-Original content includes:
Characters Attributed to Rimshooter: Ame Yagami and Hinode Seitsu. Hark, Secele, Destiny, Eternity, the Apparition
Characters Attributed to Taeniaea: Iriai and Hiruko Seitsu. Yumeko Seitsu, Priri. Raven
Locations Attributed to Rimshooter: District III Civilian Hospital, Lonely Soul's Orphanage, Unknown Location, Temple, Seitsu Residence.
Factions Attributed to Rimshooter: Unknown Faction
Concepts, Events, and Items Attributed to Rimshooter: Red Sky Incident, Way Cranaagan is divided into Districts, Ame's 'Magic' Sight, Secele's Device
Concepts, Events, and Items to Taeniaea: Memory of Dawn and Hope for Dawn, Priri's device, Priri's spells
...And several other things that we don't really care about enough to mention, which brings us to:
Rimshooter:Sorry for the delay...
Taeniaea: ...there were so many things that kept us distracted that we couldn't seem to get anything out T.T
Rimshooter: Too bad we couldn't crank out more.
Taeniaea: I wanted to put in more, but...
Rimshooter: I figured that the current cut-off point would make a better ending for this chapter. Besides, this is the second part of Breaking of Chains, so it kind of works out in the end.
Taeniaea: We kept trying to add Nanoha's part in, but writing about Nanoha blowing up mindless drones repeatedly didn't seem to flow very well. As an apology, there's a brief OMAKE at the end.
Neyr Deus
-Story of the Four Birds-
Past to Present Thirteen: Breaking of Chains 2
-Tea Lanster
When Tea entered the infirmary after delivering her verbal report (which was unnecessarily long – there wasn't much to tell, only conjecture and recap), she half-expected to find the eldest Seitsu dead.
Fortunately for her nerves, this wasn't the case, though the comatose mage was linked to roughly the amount of monitors she'd guessed. There was only one medical officer on duty at a time... and only four on-board, so it wasn't too surprising that there was only one other person in the room.
"Enforcer Lanster." The medical officer intoned as she entered, eyes firmly in place on the readouts in front of them.
Teana knew many of the ship's crew by now, but she hadn't visited the infirmary very often, or for very long, so it wasn't that much of a surprise that she didn't know the officer by name. Most likely, he had been briefed about the circumstances behind Hinode's arrival. "...how is she?"
"Short answer?" The medical officer asked rhetorically, "...Bad. Very bad... she'll live, but..."
"...but?"
The officer turned from the screen, "...she's strained her linker core far past its limits – I'm surprised she's even alive, to be honest. She should be dead... I don't think she'll be returning to duty anytime soon, potential charges notwithstanding – she'll be lucky to have regained full motor skills by the end of this decade."
'...like Nanoha... except Nanoha was able to make a near-full recovery in at least a quarter that time... maybe less. Just what was she trying to achieve, being so reckless?'
-Secele
Secele took in the scene before her, face a mask of steel.
Pink beams of energy rained from the sky – testaments to Nanoha's efforts to thin the numbers of the forces Hark sent. Other various spells flew from the other TSAB forces more sporadically, peppering the world with light as the drones' mass weapons tore through the shields of those mages foolish enough to rely on their magic alone.
Oh, there was a reason mass weapons were banned in TSAB space...
'If Takamachi-san is distracted, the Bureau forces below will be overrun with ease... but...' Secele glanced to Destiny's mask, red visor reflecting the light of the battle ominously. 'That's not our objective... and I'm not going to be the one to tip the tides unless I have to...'
"We're going to blow through the battlefield." She stated, "...we should be able to mask our presence fairly well – worst comes to worse you can teleport me away."
Destiny simply nodded, arm-blade extending and becoming sheathed in a bloody-red aura.
'...Caretaker... more like watchdog.'
A white seal appeared below Secele. '...here we go.'
She vanished in a flash of white light, Destiny flickering out of existence behind her.
-Ame
Something had gone irrevocably, terribly wrong.
Ame was well aware she had little idea what she was doing; however it was fairly easy to see what Shamal had been trying to do and emulate it, using her sight to grasp hold of Priri's magic. What to do from there, however, Ame didn't know.
She didn't get a chance to find out either, when suddenly the room exploded with magic – golden energy and white energy coming from a place unknown and clashing with each-other. Both energies wrapped around Priri's, tossing it back and forth wildly in a chaotic battle of tug-of-war. It was all Ame could do to avoid getting caught up in the tides.
To Ame, it was as if the world was on fire. Magic was swirling all about the room in thick clusters. Stray tendrils danced to and fro chaotically as the two powers quarreled over Priri's magic before, suddenly, they all stopped. For a brief moment, they seemed to hang in place.
Ame blinked, eyes burning and watering from the strain of watching the maelstrom, when the two forces resumed their struggle anew. The two forces clashed directly, wrapping around Priri's form, before Priri's magic lashed out in response. There was a flash of light, and a distinct feeling of being thrown.
After that, darkness.
-Signum
Signum winced as a sharp pain began to spread across her back. She'd just turned away from the door, feeling a buildupg of magical energy behind her, when there was a sudden explosion, knocking everything not bolted down into the nearest wall. It had caught her completely by surprise – something that irked her pride to no end. Standing, Signum called to Laevatein. The fiery sword materialized immediately at her behest, and Signum turned her attention to the other occupants of the room.
Fate was directly across from her, a shaky barrier flickering in front of her. Between them was Priri's prone form, faintly steaming and surrounded by random crackles of white, gold, and black energy. Shamal was beside her, surrounded by a faintly glowing barrier that had shielded her... unharmed, but unconscious. To the left, one could see Ame laying on top of Vivio in the corner – the former unconscious while the latter held a concerned expression. Along that wall and toward the center, Iri and Raven were in a similar state as Ame and Vivio, though Raven didn't really hold much of anything in her expression; her empty, blue eyes were as enigmatic as ever. Thankfully, the energy that had surrounded Iri had dissipated.
"Fate..." Signum began, but she was cut off by the sound of someone's footsteps behind her.
"You've other things to worry about." A voice came from behind, and Signum turned, Laevatein already batting aside an oncoming strike, only for a sudden force to push Signum back.
Before her was a man in a tattered white robe, a tan mantle with hood hiding most of his face – a blank white mask the only thing visible beneath it. A pale white aura shone around his extended palm... his only palm, Signum noted.
His entire right arm was gone.
"Impressive as that was... you're sadly mistaken if you believe it will suffice." The man spoke, waving his solitary arm tauntingly.
Without warning, a stream of fire surged forward from the back of the room, obscuring the man from view temporarily and drawing the two aces' attention to the back of the room, where Raven was standing, enshrouded by an ominous orange aura. Her red, accusatory gaze was focused solely on the the man in the robe, who'd extinguished the flames in front of him already.
"Want to play, do you, little one?" He spoke mockingly.
Raven's brow twitched slightly, before another, even larger wave of fire threatened to consume the room. "Teri, maelif!"
"That wasn't very nice." The man jeered as the flames dissipated again, revealing empty space. Raven, eyes widening turned, hand ablaze, only for him to swat it away, lone palm returning to strike her across the forehead. A seal flickered into place on her brow as she fell to the ground, glaring up at him as her eyes slid shut. Turning, the man rose his arm and a large white barrier appeared before him, repelling a combined attack from Fate and Signum, sending them both back several feet. A series of chains sprung from the barrier afterward, catching them in a band as Hark turned to survey the unconscious children around him, pausing slightly after spotting Vivio, who looked torn between protecting Ame and attacking him, before looking to Iri.
He reached down, grabbing the girl by the neck when an enraged shout filled the room, and he dropped her in shock, stepping back just in time to avoid a blow that left a sizable hole in the wall it struck.
Priri was awake.
"Completely unprecedented." He muttered under his breath.
Unfortunately Priri seemed to hear him, and already a glowing black fist was in motion, ready to take his head off... or any other part of him, really. The girl looked to be out for blood.
Sometime before Hark's intrusion.
-Priri
Priri was no longer in the empty room; it had vanished with the mirror's glow.
Now, she had no idea where she was. All around her was a fine gray mist, out of which rose countless columns.
She'd been exploring this place for some time now, discontent to sit and wait for something to happen. Unfortunately, all she learned was that her surroundings were as consistent as the mist was murky.
Already, she was tired – strange enough as is, given her stamina – and already, she was getting sick of seeing the same scenery, no matter which direction she went. Weary, and ready to simply wake up and give up on this taunting dream, Priri began to let herself fade into the mist.
It was then that she heard a voice, echoing throughout the chamber.
"Why give up?"
"Why not?" She shot back, sounding nowhere near as sharp as she'd like.
"Well," it said, "...you've tried so hard, for so long, already. You're just going to give up that easily?"
Priri scowled, her magic eagerly reaching out of her linker core with the darkening of her mood, "So? It's just a giant maze of columns and mist."
"How do you know? Have you explored every nook and cranny? Marked every column? Climbed one? Seen all there is to see?"
Priri blinked, wondering at the familiar tone the voice had, before shaking her head irritably. Everything in her dreams seemed familiar, so that was nothing new.
"No, I haven't. It'd be a waste of time to try."
"...that never stopped you before, did it? Waste? What a joke. No effort unabandoned ever goes to waste."
Priri's eyes widened as she turned to the sound of the voice.
The mist rolled back, revealing an endless grassy expanse filled with overgrown columns. The sky, a brilliant azure that Priri had yet to see outside her dreams, was free of clouds and lit by a brightly shining sun.
"You like saying that a lot, right?" Priri turned again to see the white silhouette of a person sitting atop one of the columns. Before the girl could say anything, the figure jumped off the column, stretching after hitting the ground. "You should try living up to your words."
"Easier said than done." Priri replied as her magic faded.
The figure tilted its head, and Priri got the impression it was smiling. "Nothing worth doing is easy – you like that one too." As Priri scowled again, it clapped its hands "You can keep take that attitude all you want, life's not going to wait for you." When the girl across from it didn't respond, it sighed. "Well, fine, be that way... wallow in self-pity and give up while the only thing left to tie you to this world is destroyed, just like you were."
Priri blinked as the field began withering and dying, "What did you just say?" She exclaimed, but the figure simply shook its head, vanishing into the air.
"You don't need me to spell it out for you – just hurry up and go already!" The voice replied, and Priri felt herself waking up.
"Be sure to hit him where it hurts, too." It added, just before Priri woke up.
When she opened her eyes, it was to see Hark holding Iri by the neck.
After that, darkness.
Hark stepped out of range of Priri's punch, a ball of power forming in his right hand before firing at the enraged girl point blank... only for her to simply punch through it, and hit empty air as Hark teleported out of the way.
As he rematerialized behind her, the girl turned with a magical bolt of her own charged.
The man barely had time to widen his eyes in surprise before the magical projectile hit his solar plexus with the force of a small car, sending him flying to the other end of the room and through the wall.
Priri wasted no time in following, jumping into the opening after him, only to be caught by the neck as an arm came from the falling dust.
"Well, well... what do we have here?" Hark's mocking voice came as he held the struggling girl. "Little puppet finally decided she wants to be a real girl?"
In response, Priri's right foot struck out sharply toward Hark's nether regions... but it barely moved an inch before Priri was suddenly slammed into the side of the wall, still being held by the arm.
"Touchy..." The man jeered, before slamming Priri into the wall again and tossing her across the room. "It looks like the heroes are about to wake up, so I'll have to be leaving now." He said, spitting out the word heroes with such disdain one might have thought he was swearing.
Priri's response was another blast of energy, which only served to hasten Hark's departure as it hit empty space.
"Bastard." The girl whispered, the black shroud around her receding to reveal numerous bruises and burns. Glancing over to Iri's still form, Priri consoled herself with the fact that Iri was mostly unharmed; never-mind that she felt like she was half-dead.
"Nice job, imouto-chan!" The voice whispered in her ear as her vision dimmed.
'Imouto?' She thought, confused, before everything was black once more.
-Secele
"They won." Secele noted from her position among the debris, a fair distance from the front-lines, holding a barrier in front of her. Destiny didn't respond, pulling her sword from its place in its opponent's gut, prompting them so fall to the ground. "...such camaraderie." The mage-archer continued.
"Her series wasn't made for its compassion." A new, familiar voice intoned as Hark materialized behind them. "They were made for their persistence to duty." He finished, casting a scornful glance to the beaten body nearby. "Unlike their predecessor, here."
He turned back toward the two nearby, "Come, then. We've other things to do."
The two nodded, vanishing alongside Hark.
On the ground, beaten and tossed aside like a rag-doll, Eternity's dull, blank eyes stared listlessly at the sky, the gaping hole in her chest slowly knitting itself back together.
o.O.o
OMAKE: Nanoha's Luck
As the last of the drones was beaten back, Nanoha couldn't help but think that they'd somehow lost this fight.
Still, the hospital was...
...not exactly in the best of conditions.
The building's windows were almost wholly shattered – the front wall showing numerous holes and craters, still tinging with smoke. 'When did the barrier drop, and how did that much damage get by?' Nanoha thought, eye twitching. It was a miracle the place was still standing.
"Hey Nanoha, is it just me or does everything blow up whenever we get into a fight?" Hayate questioned as she floated up toward her companion, a light note of humor in her voice.
Nanoha's eye began twitching even more as the front entry-way collapsed entirely.