A/N: Longer chapter here. In my first draft of this chapter, Vita turned into a version of the Hulk and the Human Torch by going around setting fire to everything because she was pissed off. It was very silly so I redid that.
Also, don't worry if some of Takamachi's parts are a bit confusing, I might have put too much in her part but otherwise I'd just have to reveal it way later when everyone had probably forgotten it.
The sound of metal crushing rock underfoot grew louder in Vita's ears as she tried to listen out for any sign that Subaru was still alive. Even the quietest whisper or cry of pain, a hand moving against the floor...that would be enough for her, just to know that her former trainee was still holding on. And yet she couldn't hear anything more as Exoria continued to construct the portal, the Time Mage constantly chanting under her breath like a mantra. When Vita attempted to home in on any sign of magical power, she could barely detect anything from outside the room where Subaru had fallen.
No. This was too much. Signum had come to rescue her, and had been forced back just seconds later by another member of Red Scorpion. Subaru had unexpectedly managed to buy Vita extra time, and she too had been knocked back. Even Srethis, as much as Vita surmised that she would never see the lizard again, had helped her too at the last minute.
She turned to face the Legion as the cyborg returned to reclaim her for good, ceaseless soldier of war that it was. She saw that its fists were stained in blood. Subaru's blood. Vita's blood ran cold as she felt something rise within her such as she had not felt for a very long time, a wild mix of emotions which threatened to overwhelm her. No. She couldn't take this any more. If anyone had dared to die for her...for her, not for Hayate or for Nanoha or for someone that everyone looked up to, instead of a Velka Knight like her who just fought on the battlefield for as long and as hard as she could...
Subaru, what have you done? What's the point of dying in vain? If this...if this is what you're going to give your life for...
The Legion's metal hand was descending towards her, reaching down to pick her up for the passage through the last portal. Vita barely took any notice of it. Her blood was boiling, fuelled by her anger as she felt an inkling of magical power take root within her. Lost in her own fire, Vita didn't even notice it. She wasn't going to be taken, not as long as she had strength within her. Subaru deserved that much. She felt her fists clench forward, feeling a strange burning sensation inside that she had not noticed before.
"You are coming with us, Guardian Knight," the combat cyborg said monotonously, clasping against the sides of the ice crystal with one hand stained red. "We must prepare for the journey to - "
A howl sounded out throughout the entire room, loud and piercing, filled with longing and fierce desperation. For a moment, Vita thought it was her, letting out her anger in the only way she could. And then she realised that it was only partly human, and was coming from behind the Legion.
Slowly, the battered figure of Subaru emerged from the doorway, her head dropping down and swaying from side to side as she fought to drag herself forward to fight. The howl died away into heavy breathing as she panted and struggled to draw breath. There were deep wounds to her mid-section and upper torso, and blood ran down from her thigh in a steady stream so that the metallic components underneath her skin were exposed. As her muscles contracted and relaxed, Vita could see the artificial fittings in her leg move up and down in response.
Subaru...?
The Legion stood holding Vita in one hand, curiosity in its eyes as it looked at the Bureau mage, barely able to stand at all. Wordlessly it raised its other hand to cast a devastating spell which would guarantee no more resistance.
Subaru's head lifted up slowly to stare forward with eyes which no longer spoke of humanity. They glowed brighter with an inner light, the other half of her body rising to take the place of her shattered human counterpart. Combat Cyborg Mode.
"Let her go," she whispered dryly, her shoulders hunched over as she took a step forward. It was a step of boldness and not of weakness, and the movement was made by the machine inside her, gaining speed and confidence. "Let...her..."
The Legion's arm flooded with energy. "Yagami Loreskill Activate - "
The blue-haired girl vanished completely, her cybernetic functions kicking in at an extraordinary magnitude as she dived forward in a blur and wrenched the Legion's other arm around its back, disrupting the spell. Vita felt herself falling to the floor again as her captor's fingers were forced open and twisted around. She felt intense heat sear the sides of the ice crystal in an explosion of energy, accompanied with Subaru's cries and the sound of metal grinding against metal, and she anxiously peered through the smoke to find out what was going on.
When she could see again, Subaru was hitting against the Legion's body armour with all her might, her combat cyborg IS ability coming into play automatically as she rained down staggering blows upon her opponent. A shockwave of blue energy was released with each attack, tearing across the Legion's torso and sending sparks flying in all directions. The Legion was struggling to defend itself as it fell back, the bewilderment in its eyes was obvious as it tried to understand how Subaru had attained such a difference in power. For once, it was on the defensive front.
"Subaru!" Vita yelled from her position, not sure if the mage would even be able to hear her. Had Subaru lost herself completely? The last time this had happened was when Subaru had seen Ginga taken away by the Numbers, looking half-dead...if there was some way of getting her under control again..."Subaru, break me out of here so I can help you!"
It was no use. The forward was deaf to her pleas as Subaru drove the Legion back into the preceding wall, smashing another metal fist directly into the other cyborg's face, then another, and another. With her human muscles no longer able to respond, her movements were purely mechanical and incapable of stopping. The Legion was trying to form a spell in its other hand, but the Bureua mage wasn't giving it the chance. Chunks of the once-powerful body armour were being blown apart as if by army missiles, until finally the cyborg of Red Scorpion was driven down to one knee.
"Give Vita back!" Subaru demanded in a voice that no longer sounded like her. She whirled Mach Calibre's blades around on the base of her feet and slashed them across the Legion's neck and tearing out its internal circuits. With another yell she heaved her weakened opponent off the ground completely with superhuman strength, before hurling them across the room to collide with the edge of one of the rock pools. The Legion groaned in real pain, jolts of electricity crackling over its body as it tried to repair itself.
"I'm right here, Subaru!" Vita yelled at the forward, but Subaru was past hearing her. Somewhere down the lines, something had happened to bring out her cyborg combat mode and unleash it with terrible consequences. What had set it off? It could only be something which hit her emotionally or -
Oh no, Vita thought, feeling terrible. It was me, wasn't it? Subaru was scared. She must have been scared to death when she realised she had to fight the Legion again. And I told her not to back down, I told her that I needed her and that she was my only chance. She couldn't stand against the Legion like she was, but...she must have wanted to save me so badly.
She could see Subaru crouched over the Legion's body, her fist rammed down its throat. Blue magical energy was encircling the length of her arm up to her elbow, to the extent that it was almost overflowing. And yet...the light in her eyes were beginning to dim, so that the cold hatred of her cyborg self seemed to flicker before the need and the passion locked inside her human self.
"Subaru - "
"Divine," the blue-haired mage gasped, her body beginning to slow down, "Buste - "
Then at the crucial moment of what would be a killing blow, Subaru's body locked up and buckled over backwards as surely as if she had been struck down herself. The blue mana field was immediately extinguished, the spell dying before it could be fully executed.
Her human side must have finally regained control, Vita thought, sympathy washing over her as she watched the forward lying motionless on the floor, staring up emptily. After releasing that much power and using so much energy, Subaru couldn't possibly stay on her feet any longer. She's used the last of her resources and crippled herself.
"Will you stop making such a racket?" Exoria snapped at everyone who wasn't her. Her eyes were tightly closed as she continued to chant, bringing the faint outline of a doorway into view. She was quite oblivious to the two fighters collapsed just a few metres away from her. "I am trying to concentrate. Almost...I am nearly there...the Metaworld beckons..."
Vita cursed inwardly. In all the excitement of the Legion being knocked down at last, she'd forgotten about Exoria and the grand portal she was opening. They weren't out of the woods yet, even if the Time Mage was so pre-occupied with her incantation that she hadn't realised that she was all alone.
"Subaru!" the trapped Velka Knight called out hoarsely in a loud whisper, not wanting Exoria to hear. "Subaru, can you hear me? Are you all right?"
She held her breath before hearing an anguished groan from the fallen mage. Relief washed over her in a rush which made her light-headed, now that the greater of her worries were dispersed. For a moment there, she had thought Subaru wouldn't be able to get up again.
"I can't get up," Subaru moaned, lying on her back as blood trickled out from between bruised lips. "I think Mach Calibre's been damaged...I can't move my arms or legs..."
Vita refused to give up now. It was a miracle that the Legion had been taken down like this, but Exoria's portal was still growing stronger with each second. With Subaru out of action, Red Scorpion would still be able to re-capture Vita, even if it was just Exoria by herself. They needed to get rid of that portal now.
"Can you move just one arm?" she asked.
Subaru's eyes moved round achingly to settle on her in a half-hearted fashion. She looked as if she would like nothing better right now than to fall unconscious again.
"How much of one arm?" the blue-haired mage said wearily.
Vita squinted up at the Time Mage standing between the rock pools, mere metres away from them. Her eyes were closed and she still seemed completely unaware of what was going on. When a close-combat mage like Subaru couldn't move to initiate any kind of close combat, and you had nobody else to help you, then there really was only one other option.
"Enough to use a Divine Buster?" the Guardian Knight tried, with a nod in Exoria's direction. "She's only got enough power left for this last portal. If we disrupt her spell now, she won't be able to make another one."
Subaru groaned again and tried to lift her head, crying out with the strain of moving bones that were almost certainly broken. Pain shot across her body as she gasped with the exertion, but she gradually managed to move one arm halfway into a shooting position. Calling on her waning mana, her arm shook as she took aim at Exoria's chanting figure.
Then she fell back heavily onto her back again, unable to keep it up any longer, blinking away tears fiercely. "I can't do it, Vita," Subaru breathed. "I'm sorry. I think I need to rest before I'll be able to use any spells for a while. Besides, I need two hands to form Divine Buster properly..."
"It's all right, Subaru," the Velka Knight said, quickly hiding her disappointment but mindful that maybe she was asking too much of her former trainee. "We'll need to find another way to work around this, that's all. Is there anyone else down here who can help us? Is Nanoha coming?"
Before the forward could answer, there was a loud thump of something hitting the ground heavily. It came from right in front of them.
Slowly, and fearing the worst, Vita and Subaru turned around to the mound of metal where the sound was coming from. It was glowing with green light as electricity crackled across its surface where the Legion had fallen. A whirring, chugging sound began to start up deep within the cyborg's body, one of the metal arms twitching and flexing out its fingers mechanically.
"Backup recovery mode," the Legion's voice rang out, sounded distorted and unfamiliar. Subaru's earlier attack must have crippled even its voice components. "Restoring from excess module. Mass self-repair initiated. Memory components: updated. External body armour: repairing. Guidance weaponry systems: update in progress. Mobility components: updated. Sensory components: updated. Radius of recovery: fixed for Legion model only. Initating."
The green light expanded from the Legion's body, repairing the creature at an astonishing rate. Where circuits and components had been ripped apart from the last attack, replacements appeared in their place all over the cyborg's body. Dents and holes in the body armour began to seal up as plates of metal closed up around the crevices, reinforcing greater physical protection than before. The underlying mechanics of the Legion's metal skeleton began to reform as the repair program began to replace the damaged parts with new ones.
You have got to be kidding me, Vita thought in stunned dismay. It took forever to beat that thing and now it's just going to come back?
She turned around and received an even bigger shock: the green light had also covered Subaru's body.
For an instant, Vita feared that the magic was having a different effect on the blue-haired mage. But then she saw Subaru sit up, looking dazed as the same repair program began to restore her from scratch, fixing up her broken muscles and mending her bones. The colour came back into the forward's face as she tested her limbs warily, amazed to find herself almost reborn.
What the...? The Legion's repair program was supposed to just restore itself, wasn't it? Why is it healing Subaru as well?
Could it be because they were both combat cyborgs and the program couldn't tell the difference? Vita didn't know the answer herself, but it seemed likely that that was the case. But there was no time to think about that now. The Legion had been damaged far worse than Subaru, and so it was taking a little longer to heal...but Subaru could fight again. She could destroy the portal once and for all.
"Subaru!" the Velka Knight said urgently. "Now!"
The forward nodded tightly, then raised Mach Cailbre and took careful aim at Exoria from a distance. "Divine - "
The green light of the repair program retracted all of a sudden, as if the movement of Subaru's weapon-arm had disrupted its process in some way, and poured back into the Legion's body. The Legion raised its head with a jolt as its own healing process was doubled, and then shot forward at hyper speed with a single bound. It rammed right into Subaru's stomach and pounded the blue-haired girl into the floor.
Even as the forward had the air dashed from her lungs, the spell was still continuing in her hand, widening into a massive concentration of blue energy. The Legion had knocked her off-balance, and Subaru struggled to re-position the spell before it went to completion, trying to focus on her main enemy...
The Legion's arm shafted across her shoulder, and the aim of the spell was knocked away from Exoria, from the Legion, to...
" - Buster!"
Vita found herself in a situation that very few people had ever experienced before. She found herself staring right down into the core of a Divine Buster just before it was about to blow up in her face. Subaru was trying to realign the spell towards one of the members of Red Scorpion, but she couldn't see with the Legion aiming its own blows at her. With the spell fully charged up, the energy could no longer be contained.
The Guardian Knight had a split second of horror to work out what was going on before Subaru's Divine Buster smashed into the ice crystal at point-blank range.
She felt the world explode as her entire vision was engulfed in pure blue light. Vita shielded her eyes, almost expecting to die as the massive output of energy almost brought to her knees. Seconds passed in this blinded state, and the light remained in a chaotic battle as the spell tried to break through the wall of the crystal. What was going on? Dazed, Vita pushed forward with her eyes tightly sealed against the glare of the spell to feel her way around the inside of her prison.
I don't feel anything. The walls aren't warm, even though Subaru's spell is putting huge pressure on the crystal from all sides. It's...it's not melting! Not even a Divine Buster can get through this damn prison?
It had to be something to do with what the crystal was made out of. Surely not just ice – something must be sucking away at the power of the Divine Buster and preventing it from getting through at all. Vita pounded her fist against the wall in frustration, at a loss at what to do. If a Divine Buster at point-blank range couldn't break through, then what could...?
And that's when the heat came.
It started off small at first, a pleasant tingling around her palms as Vita bashed her fists against the cold ice in vain. But with the glow of the Divine Buster surrounding her and the contact that her skin made against the walls, she felt the tingling spread out into a searing heat across her body – from her hands, her face, every patch of bare skin that the air touched. Vita mistook it for the heat of her body at first...until it began to glow with a magical spark of its own.
What the...? She stared at her palms as sparks of electricity leaped from them and onto the stubborn walls of the crystal. How can I be giving off magic? Even if the crystal hadn't sucked away all of my powers, I'm not even able to transform! It's impossible for me to generate magic like this!
It couldn't possible be her doing it, not when her transformation was sealed inside here. Was it someone else helping her? Was Subaru's Divine Buster getting through at long last...? No, that wouldn't make sense when she was giving off magic on her own...
Something else must be affecting the crystal. Who? Who's had contact with me recently to cause this? Maybe it's something that the Divine Buster set off. But nobody's been near me, except when Signum tried to rescue me and got driven back, or when Srethis helped me to -
Srethis.
She remembered the lizard injecting their precious medicine into her, into the crystal itself to be absorbed by her own body. She remembered the creature telling her that it would take a long time to develop inside her properly or have any effect. She remembered Srethis saying that the medicine would only work if she wanted to escape.
Such as a time like now, when Vita had found a Divine Buster coming right at her and had feared for her own life. And then...and then...
The tiny magical spark afforded to her by Srethis' medicine had grown throughout her body, but it couldn't have done anything by itself. No – Subaru's Divine Buster had reacted with it directly. The medicine had been injected inside the crystal too, hadn't it? So the spell had reacted with the inside of the crystal...and with Vita as well.
Vita pressed her palm hard against the ice wall in front of her. The heat rose from her hand and burned through the ice as if it were melted butter curving a narrow hole through as she felt her way around. She could feel the walls of her prison falling apart around her at last. With a fierce grin she brought her other hand into a fist and punched forward, hard.
The magic of the Divine Buster from the outside. The magic of Srethis' medicine from the inside. This is how I'm going to get out of here.
Her fist drove right through the crystal to the outside. She breathed in fresh air, ready to cry with happiness as she punched harder at another wall, piercing through in a single hit. The light around her dimmed, and Vita pushed forward eagerly as she felt her eyes welcomed by the glare of -
The light of the Divine Buster seared across her face as it poured in through the holes she had made in the crystal, and Vita fell back with a cry, shielding herself as destructive energy shot towards her. The aura had dimmed not because the spell was getting weaker, but because it was all moving back to converge at a single point...the first hole she'd made in the crystal.
It's coming right at me. I need to transform, now! Are my powers still sealed? Can I do this?
The crystal exploded from the inside as the Divine Buster wound its way through and ripped it asunder. Countless fragments of ice were flung in all directions, and Subaru and the Legion turned in surprise as the particles rained down lightly on them from above, the magic holding them together now destroyed. The cage which had held the Guardian Knight prisoner for so long was no more, but there was no sign of its occupant. Anything contained within such an explosion before a Divine Buster would not have survived a direct hit, especially from such a high concentration of mana.
And then the sound of a heavy weapon slicing through the air could be heard, followed by a weighted crunch as the great hammer of a Velka Knight swung round into the opposing wall to crush it.
A girl stood in the centre of the room, ice caught in her dark red hair as she distastefully spat out a few stray pieces where they had landed. She wore a small red beret and was clothed in a crimson dress bordered by black frills, with red and black boots to serve her down the ground. Her attire seemed childish at first glance, but the hardness in her blue eyes as she looked towards them spoke of her experience as one of the four Guardian Knights of the Tome of the Night Sky.
Fully transformed at long last, Vita swung Graf Eisen round in Raketenform to lever it out of the weakened wall and back behind her back, ready to attack. Her black gloved hands moved against the hilt of the device which she had been separated from for too long now. Now, at last, she felt like she was back in the field.
"Vita!" Subaru cried, her eyes shining.
The Velka Knight took a step forward and crushed a large chunk of ice underneath her boot. She did not want to see a piece of ice for a very long time. Furthermore, it hadn't escaped her attention that the Legion was watching her very intently indeed; perhaps it was evaluating just how much of a threat she was. Well, she'd give that metal soldier something to think about.
"Time to stop playing around," Vita said, returning the cyborg's gaze coolly. "I always knew I was going to have to fight my way out of this hellhole." A wild smile spread across her face in anticipation. "Let's get this started."
The temperature of the air had not altered even at such a high altitude, yet the atmosphere seemed to have turned to ice. Words froze in the air before her as Nanoha looked down on the face of her younger self, her hand clenched tightly around Raging Heart's hilt. She didn't feel warmth radiating from anywhere else.
I need you to be erased from history completely.
She wanted to laugh it off, cast it aside, reject the notion and lay it to rest. This was what Oguba wanted of her? The Lost Logia of time travel? Luring her along with all of her friends to a world of timelessness and desolation, just so she could be deleted like a piece of data on a computer network? What about everyone that had followed her this far? What about Vivio, waiting for her in a moment of time which was frozen in another reality?
Takamachi didn't seem to be threatening her. The little schoolgirl had been speaking earnestly to her the whole time, seeming almost as innocent as the Nanoha from ten years ago…if not for the content of what she was saying. She fiercely believed every word that she was saying, the conviction in her tone reminiscent of what Nanoha had always carried with her. Its presence was unnerving.
There were so many things Nanoha wanted to say in response; too many questions to get out all at once. She wanted to ask how Takamachi could be sure this would fix everything, when events were already going around in a circle anyway. She wanted to ask if Oguba even knew what it was doing, in constantly accumulating vast quantities of power. She wanted to know if it was Oguba who had placed these ideas in Takamachi's head in the first place, although Nanoha had already guessed the answer to that one.
Instead, she simply asked, "Why?"
"Why?" Takamachi's gaze was intense with Oguba's glare, tinged with impatience. "I have told you why. The two of us cannot possibly exist together in the universe. We are of two different timelines and the fact that we are even – "
"Let me get something straight here," Nanoha said, her voice shaking. "You're the one with a corrupted Lost Logia living in your body. You're the one who's been going back and forth through time and making extra contracts which could do more damage and – and changing events and affecting countless lives in the balance – " She was in real danger here, more danger than she had ever been since everything had started. Oguba didn't want to kill her – he wanted to remove her entire life due to a misplaced concept of his own. She had no qualms about his ability or determination to do so. "You think erasing me from time will change all that?" Nanoha felt her voice rise, singling out the anger and hurt present. "With everything you've done, Oguba, it's no wonder that time is as broken as you say it is!"
Takamachi shook her head slowly, her expression not changing. It was evident that Nanoha's words had not affected her at all. "None of that is my concern. All I need to do is fulfil Oguba's mission and ensure that there are no anomalies present in the time-space continuum. You are an anomaly, Nanoha. You're a threat to the entire – "
"Are you even listening to me?" the combat instructor said in rising desperation. "I haven't done a thing to affect time! You've been using Oguba's powers more than anyone – you changed my time by having me killed in the past! That's when everything started going wrong!"
"I changed your time," the little girl replied with grim single-mindedness, "in order to conserve the time of all others. Without your death, Oguba could not go on; time would fall apart as further paradoxes were created. No living thing can live beyond the boundaries and limits of time itself as you have done, Nanoha." She sighed heavily. "It is regretful, of course, but in the end you must face the truth: all creatures great and small, whether they crawl upon the face of the earth or soar through the sky, are all slaves to time and the greatness of the mighty Oguba."
Unexpectedly, Takamachi put on a cheery little smile in complete contrast to the situation. "I don't see what you're making such a fuss about, to be honest! You're not going to die or anything morbid like that. You'll just cease to exist completely. Your loved ones won't cry over you at your funeral, because you won't have one. No fear of some angsty teenage idiot deciding to avenge your death, because nobody will remember you. Instead, the real Nanoha will continue on living, just as she should be."
Nanoha looked at the younger girl before her with disgust. "And I suppose you think you're the "real" one?"
"Of course I am." Takamachi laughed lightly as another strand of blue light shot up across her forearm. "I made the first contract with Oguba, after all. If anything, you should be the one calling me Nanoha, but I thought I'd let you have it until the moment you disappear. Really, it's a very clean and simple process. I would have done it already, but unfortunately I need your complete consent to absorb all of your time energy. There are more physical alternatives, of course, but then all of the energy comes out very fragmented." She winced as she thought about it. "It really is such a pain to sort all of that out, smoothing out all the creases and tying up the loose ends…you know how it is. You can imagine why I would prefer that you do so willingly."
She doesn't seem to realise that Oguba caused all of this, Nanoha thought, trying to think of a way out here. The fact that she made the first contract with Oguba is proof that she's the one in the wrong time and space here, and not me. But with Oguba living in her head for so long…no wonder she doesn't believe anything else. Is that what happens when you spend so much time with a Lost Logia? You turn into…this?
"I'm not the anomaly," Nanoha said quietly. "You are. If anyone's going to be erased from history, it should be you."
The youthful face in front of her blazed suddenly with blue light, spreading down to the tips of her hair as runes danced across the girl's skin. The grin was fierce and hard, and yet also forced.
"Erase me!" Takamachi exclaimed, her voice changing and distorting slightly. With a start, Nanoha realised that Oguba was partly speaking and controlling the girl's reactions. "Erase me, when I am time itself? You can't destroy Oguba any more than you could wipe out time itself, initiating your very own time destruction! It's a ridiculous notion to even contemplate, deleting time from itself. Why do you struggle so much with what I'm telling you? Two Nanohas in the same universe: one containing Oguba's powers, one without. The solution? Remove the Nanoha which does not belong." Takamachi's voice rose, a metallic edge to her tone as Oguba spoke with her through the same mouth. "You have stalled long enough, Nanoha! Have I waited so long for you to come to me, only to see you turn tail and flee like another weak human? You knew it would come to this, and still you defy Oguba, still you dare to oppose your fate as an unwanted paradox of the multiverse? Give your time energy to me now and be erased from the history of this time forever! The balance of the universe depends on it, Nanoha!"
Nanoha stopped dead in her tracks, her face white as Oguba's words washed over her. Blue mist poured from Takamachi's mouth to envelop her, the same mist which had emptied out of Raging Heart earlier, choking her with strange thoughts and memories which filled her mind and senses. Images of Fate, Vivio, Hayate and her other friends poured out, scenes of them chattering away and urging her on with encouragement. She couldn't tell if they were real or not as the pictures flashed rapidly from one to the other. She tried to claw her way through the smoke, dashing the images away from her mind…
What if you do agree to have yourself erased from history? It would save the universe, wouldn't it? That's all Oguba wants. He doesn't wish you harm or distress. He doesn't know how to. All he wants is for everything to be in its rightful place. To conserve the balance of time itself.
The voices and thoughts kept coming, and now Nanoha relented at last and let them in. Yes, why not? Why not let herself be erased? She was the wrong Nanoha, after all…she wasn't supposed to exist…
Yes, Nanoha. That's good. All you have to do is give your agreement and let Oguba absorb your time energy in full. You won't feel any pain or anything at all. Isn't that great? You might even find yourself feeling happier?
She smiled dreamily at the thought and stumbled forward through the obscuring mist, raising her hand forward as Takamachi eagerly reached out to take it, a mound of blue light powering up in her palm…
But then something hit back at her, hard. Without even thinking, Nanoha withdrew her hand, forcing herself backwards as far as she could go, a sickly feeling in her gut rose within her. Something else, a spin of other memories which rose up to block away the illusions in her mind.
Vivio. My daughter, the reason I made the contract with Oguba in the first place. And it wasn't exactly consensual either, was it? Not when I was about to die. She's waiting for me out there, waiting for the second that I leave this terrible place. I made a promise with her, didn't I? Do I even remember which of my wishes Oguba granted anymore?
She felt Raging Heart moving in her other hand, powering up and sweeping away at the repulsive blue mist, scattering it away like dead leaves. She heard Takamachi's hiss of disapproval as Oguba's powers retreated back into the schoolgirl's body. She breathed in fresh air into her lungs, rather than another fake memory.
Fate. We're going to be married. Is this something to give up? Even if losing it all would save the universe, am I being selfish by wanting to keep all of this? Maybe I am. Does that matter at this stage? No. I know what I'm doing now. My thoughts are clear.
Nanoha swept through the last of the mist and pointed Raging Heart straight at Takamachi's throat. The little girl stiffened, still alight with a pulsating blue aura. She wasn't smiling anymore.
"Did I hear you say you wanted my agreement willingly?" the Ace of Aces asked. "What part of what happened there was "free will"?"
Takamachi stared up at her, blinking as her smile slowly came back onto her face. "What matters is the end result."
"Then I have my answer, Oguba." Nanoha pulled Raging Heart away from the girl's neck, standing it back upon the ground as the two of them faced each other at the top of the tower, the wind whirling softly around them. "As Oguba, you lied to me more times than I care to count. You've manipulated the people who helped you, and blinded yourself to the consequences created by your own actions. You probably won't think this counts, but you've indirectly hurt a lot of people." She thought of how Fate and Vivio had reacted when they found out she was going to live after all. She thought of what might have happened if Hayate hadn't been able to return from the past at all and had been stuck there forever. She thought of how half of the entire Bureau had almost been killed as a result of Red Scorpion's efforts, just to get hold of her. "So maybe this is just how I feel, from my own intuition, or maybe it's just what everyone around me has been telling me the whole time: I don't trust anything you say, Oguba. I don't think the universe is really in that much danger, and if it is then it would be better off without you in it."
"What are you saying, Nanoha?" Takamachi's eyes were a dark glitter of indigo so that even her hair had lost all trace of their former colour. "You think I don't know what I'm doing here? You think I wouldn't know if something wrong was going on with the universe like it is?"
"You probably think you're saving the universe," Nanoha responded with an added shrug. "The truth is, you're not, and erasing me from history isn't going to make things better. I haven't been making anything change – instead, changes have been happening to me, and usually for the worse." She set her jaw as she stepped forward to look down at Takamachi decisively. "So here's my answer, Oguba: I'm not giving myself up to you to be absorbed, no matter how many more mind tricks you use to try and get your way." She felt a grin of her spark across her face to match that of the little girl in front of her. "If you want to remove me from history so badly, you're going to have to fight me for it!"
For a long time, there was a cold silence as Takamachi gazed towards her with hard eyes. Her smile cracked for an instant and Oguba's blue light began to fade away from her body, almost as if it were leaving her behind completely. But then a wild chuckle erupted from her mouth, turning into a sudden laugh, and the schoolgirl doubled up as if in pain, a stream of silent giggles releasing from inside her. She took several deep breaths, exhaling twin streams of glowing blue energy.
"F…fight?" Takamachi gasped, still holding one of her sides as she wheezed with laughter. "Oh, Nanoha! This isn't about winning and losing. You're serious, aren't you? You're really not going to give Oguba your time energy? I knew you were strong, but so were the other two, and look what happened to them…Now, Nanoha, there's still time to change your mind! You're the third and last person I need to absorb, and then everything will be perfect!"
What? What was she talking about? "The last person?" Nanoha repeated suspiciously. "You mean you've done this before?"
"Of course! Do you think this is the first universe in which this has happened?" the little girl said happily, clapping her hands together. "There were two other cases just like this one, but instead of happening to you, why, they happened to Fate and Hayate!"
She felt herself go cold. No. This didn't make sense. Fate was all the way at the bottom of the tower, and Hayate was alive and well back at the Bureau…
"But relax, Nanoha, relax! I said they were other universes. The same situation happened, but you weren't at the centre of it all, you see? In the first universe, it was Fate that Oguba possessed, guiding her towards me. In the second, she was replaced by Hayate. And now…it's come to be you! As Oguba, I exist across all time, including every possibly universe, so it wasn't too difficult a feat. Would you like to know what happened to the two of them?" The tiny little voice was excitable with glee. "They accepted, and let me absorb them! It wasn't too hard to persuade them at all, but of course, there were many weaknesses to be exploited, just as with you. Humans will always be human, after all."
"How could you – " Nanoha was almost speechless. This had happened before, and to one of her best friends and her lover? Somewhere out there, in a similar universe, a different Fate and another Hayate existed, and they had both been wiped from history by Oguba in a similar fashion…Was this how Oguba was able to possess such an extraordinary amount of power? By absorbing the energy of other mages like this?
"It's not something you should worry your head about," Takamachi continued cheerily. "After all, it happened in a parallel universe – two of them – which aren't even connected to your own. But the point is that their time energy is still transferred to me, and I just need your own to complete it! Then things will start getting very interesting!"
"But – but – " What about the paradox? What about saving the universe? It was as if Oguba had thrown everything out of the window on just a whim. "You said I was an anomaly!" Nanoha cried. "You said that was the reason you needed to wipe me from history!"
"Oh, yes." The younger version of herself nodded her head casually. "That was the reason. It's the same scenario in all three universes, you see? But the things I could accomplish with the time energy of three of the most powerful mages of all time! It almost feels like I really could save the universe!"
Nanoha found herself looking at Takamachi in a different light. She had felt sorry for her, being led on a different path completely by Oguba, but…this was too much. The girl was dangerous, more so than all of Red Scorpion put together. Strangely enough, she still seemed completely deluded, convinced that she actually was saving the universe. She wasn't trying to gain mass amounts of magical power and time energy just for the sake of doing so, but that didn't make anything better.
What did she do to those two other universes? Maybe they're not my problem, but those are loved ones that I know in this universe! Did she think she was saving them too?
Swiftly, she brought Raging Heart up in case she needed to defend herself. The magical field coming from Takamachi was simply colossal. If I'd agreed to be wiped from history – and I almost did – then she would be unstoppable. Even though Oguba wasn't traditionally evil, he was not above killing people who he thought needed to be removed. This wasn't the kind of power that anyone should have.
"What's this?" Takamachi said suddenly, the glee springing back into her eyes again playfully. "Afraid of the truth? In fact, you needn't be. Time travel consumes the bulk of my power. The time energy I absorbed from Fate and Hayate in the other universes isn't applicable in this universe, although it does strengthen me to some degree. But despite all of that, your destiny will remain all unchanged." There seemed to be a curious warmth about her smile. "I have seen your future, Nanoha."
Nanoha shook her head, unwilling to be drawn into yet another one of Oguba's mind games. Focus. You don't know if she's going to suddenly attack you in the next second. She did say she would do anything to get hold of your time energy. Focus on where Oguba's main power is…
"Not interested? Fine." Takamachi shrugged. "It's strictly relevant, however. You see, Nanoha, I'm not just your past…I'm also your future." She grinned at the other mage's bewilderment. "Here's something Oguba probably mentioned to you at one point: humans have three fixed "versions" of themselves – the past, the present and the future. Grylmark has always understood this. Ever wondered why he calls himself Grylmark the Third? No wonder you can never hit him.
"Anyway. In order to erase you from history, I have to absorb you in every time, or it won't work. I have to absorb your past, your present and your future. I already have your past, of course. That's me." She laughed and jerked a thumb at her chest. "The future is always easy. It was simple enough to travel in time to when your life was going to end. The body is too weak to resist at all, and it yields such an extraordinary amount of time energy. It really is astonishing, I tell you.
"So, I have your past. And I have your future. All that remains…is the present. Now, Nanoha, this is where the tricky part comes in, because the present is the most important part and even with Fate and Hayate I had a bit of trouble pulling it off. After all, the present is always changing! Time is moving forward one step at a time and it's really difficult to pinpoint – "
"Will you get to the point?" Nanoha snapped, with increasing anxiety. She didn't like where this was going at all. If Oguba had absorbed her past and her future…did she have no future? Quickly, she pushed that thought from her mind. "So you've come for me," she said. "The present Nanoha."
"Right. And it can only be here." Takamachi stamped her foot loudly at the edge of the platform, right near the end of the tower peak. A massive drop all the way to the uncompromising ground below was mere inches away. "Upon the highest point of the dead world between the portals of time. Here, the present is completely unchanging, and the time energy can be extracted in full."
So that's why Oguba had deliberately lured her all the way here. It all made sense now. All this talk of anomalies and saving the universe mattered to nothing, although the girl in front of her somehow still believed part of it. What Oguba wanted was her time energy, for the benefit of a false ambition. He had been trying at every turn to get it from her, but she had thwarted his efforts each time. Now she finally understood.
Nanoha raised Raging Heart, magical energy glowing at its tip. The amount of power radiating from Takamachi's body was intimidating, but she had to try. Without the ability to fly, and no way to get down, she was going to have to fend for herself. Oguba had never intended for her to be able to leave: he had led her all the way up here just to be deleted from existence completely.
"You're actually going to try to fight Oguba?" the little girl said in wide-eyed surprise. "Are you crazy?"
"Yes," Nanoha replied, "I'm crazy. I'm also alive. Axel Shooter."
The air exploded as twelve high-power magic missiles spiralled around to connect with Takamachi's body, tearing into the close-set walls of the surrounding room with the impact. If Takamachi's magical field was anything to go by, Nanoha didn't expect any lasting damage to be done. Strategically, she should follow up with another spell to take Oguba off guard, but she elected to keep a defensive stance until she found out just how effective the spell had been.
It was mere seconds before the dust cleared. Takamachi was standing unhurt with her eyes closed, blue mist whirling around her to disperse the remainder of the explosion. Her arms were outstretched with two familiar spells active at the end of each palm. Shielding spells.
Is that Round Shield she's using? The same one I used when I was that age? Wait, if she's from my past…she can use my spells!
If Takamachi was going to use her own spells against her – her very basic and amateur spells from her past when she was just learning to become a magical girl – then Nanoha could overcome her easily. It was Oguba she was worried about. How could you go against the force of a Lost Logia?
"Staff of Oguba," Takamachi called out, "Set Up."
And then blue mist flooded out of the girl's mouth, eyes and nose in a huge torrent, forming into a small mystical version of Raging Heart which she held in one hand. It crackled with power at each end as she whirled it around like a quarterstaff. The rest of the mist expanded onto Takamachi's clothes and body, wrapping around her thickly in a protective coating of living armour. Blue light cast down across her footwear, so that when she stepped forward, her feet moved in a blur of colour under the transition of time speeding up through specific parts of her body. Tiny prickles of Oguba's power alighted onto her finger tips, so then a gentle flick of her finger sent a stream of violent time energy gushing forward around her to devour everything in its path.
"I'm disappointed in you, Nanoha!" her past self exclaimed, the robes of her transformation rippling out as a faint storm bubbled internally. "I really thought you'd understand. Aren't you the one who saves others? Aren't we the same? But if you really intend to take up arms against Oguba, you've really left me with no other choice! I dare not kill you, but I can still extract your time energy from your broken body.
"And maybe I should warn you of something, Nanoha. I absorbed your past and can use all of your beginner spells at ease. But remember: I have also absorbed your future. Thus I am able to cast every spell that you learn in the future. Every spell, Nanoha – even the ones that you haven't learnt yet." Takamachi smiled coldly, raising the blue-rimmed quarterstaff in her hands as it began to shake violently, a spell circulating around it. "You really have my respect, Nanoha. I have seen your future, and you truly become one of the most powerful mages to travel the stars. Let me show you what you can become."
Takamachi darted forward to spin the quarterstaff directly at her, and Nanoha tried to put up a protective barrier quickly or at least dodge whatever was coming at her, but without being able to fly and with her own magic already suppressed by the limitations of this bleak world...
She felt a powerful binding spell wrap around her limbs and waist from out of the air, solidifying into formidable chains of magic as Takamachi's main spell continued to power up, gathering more and more energy from the air around it. The residue of past spell energy was being collected and merged with Oguba's aura, combining into a writhing mass of energy taking form at the end of Takamachi's staff...
Nanoha recognised the spell as one of her own, sending alarm bells ringing as she tried again to form some kind of defence. And yet...there was something different about it, something darker and more powerful than had been present when the spell had formed in her own hands...
If this was what she thought it was, then there wouldn't be anything left of her body when it hit. And even if she survived the damage, the impact would jolt her off the tower completely where she would fall to her death. How was Oguba going to use this on her without killing her? Binded as she was, Nanoha couldn't dodge or try to prepare a counter-spell -
It was too late for any other action. The spell reached its peak and screamed towards her as Takamachi's voice sounded above her, speaking of her own doom.
"Starlight Breaker Eternal!"
Plasma fire cut across her hands as Fate froze in the act of retrieving Bardiche. The pain struck in deep, penetrating past the obstructing magic of the Superuser, jolting her out of her reverie just long enough for her to drag the device out from beneath the wreckage even as her knees buckled under her. As Precia's glare burned into her, sapping the last of her spirit from her, her mother's face began to glitch and change. The hologram was losing power. For a moment, Fate saw the face of her attacker as nothing but an emotionless killer droid.
The Enforcer felt her strength return to her for a precious second as the nozzle of a submachine gun moved towards her face. Seizing the opportunity, she increased her speed and darted back behind the droid as hundreds of bullets shot across empty air. Whatever magic the Superuser was using against her was still having an effect, but at least she could get her body to move properly now -
The droid turned and glitched again, and its face changed back to Precia.
Almost instantly, Fate felt her reflexes dull and her speed diminish even though she wasn't looking directly at her enemy. She was affected regardless of where her sight was aimed at, making it almost impossible for her to stay on her toes. It became harder to keep holding onto Bardiche, to the point that she almost dropped it again, and Fate knew that if that happened then she would lose it for good. It had already taken a huge effort to overcome the barrier preventing her from arming herself. Reluctantly, she put Bardiche back on Standby Form so that it reverted back to a golden triangle in the palm of her hand. If she wasn't going to be able to use it, it was better like this close to hand, rather than buried under a mountain of rubble.
"Fate!" her mother thundered, marching stiffly in her direction, firing beam after beam of explosive energy directly at her position. One of the shots got lucky and cut Fate's knees out from under her whilst she was still trying to force her body to move. The wind was choked from her as she hit the ground, another ripple of plasma cutting into her shoulder agonizingly.
She could have dodged it easily. Fate's superior speed made her one of the fastest mages in the whole of the Bureau – her agility had always been her specialisation and her strong point. But not now, not with her energy being sucked dry as her body slowed down to a virtual standstill, with Precia pummelling her with bullets and lasers as just another target...
Her Barrier Jacket felt like it was about to fall apart as Fate lay wounded on the ground. Her adversary was coming close; another barrel of shots took her in the chest, tearing through the last of her protective shields and leaving her bloodied and unable to retaliate for real. Nanoha wasn't coming to save her: the Ace of Aces had her own problems to deal with. No one was coming here to this abandoned facility in the middle of a dead planet, far away from any familiar world or time period.
It's the bullets, Fate realised too late as her vision began to dim. It was the Superuser's magic weakening her at the beginning, but the program had said it itself: Precia had been specifically designed to combat her. The droid's weapons were layered with a substance which Fate would be especially susceptible to, like a poison which entered her bloodstream and dragged her down with every step. Every shot that she took, no matter how weak the bullet, would take her further down the road to defeat.
I should have realised. I was concentrating too much on what the Superuser was doing, and on the face of my mother...that I didn't see what was hitting me. But it's too late now.
The weakness she felt now made her furious. It felt strange for her to be angry at simply being unable to get up or fight, and yet it made sense. Cheated – that was the word. Fate felt cheated at being brought down so easily by what were dirty fighting tactics. But the people she were fighting against could hardly be expected to play fair against her. To use her own mother against her, breaking her down from inside both physically and emotionally, until she was no longer able to raise her head anymore...
She felt a tremendous crashing all around her as she shook herself, trying to make one last effort to defend herself even as Precia moved in for the killing blow. Noise, noise everywhere. Nothing but endless sound, but you could lose yourself in it. Nanoha and Vivio's faces came into her head as Fate coughed up blood on the spot. She could barely breathe any more, but maybe she could lift her chin just one more time to see -
Fate did lift her head up, and looked right into the muzzle of the twin barrels of a deadly plasma rifle as the face of her mother pointed it at her. She could smell the acrid smoke coming from within the barrel which came from repetitive overuse of the weapon. She could feel her heartbeat speeding up, a tremor in her pulse as she stared up into Precia's cold, empty eyes.
"Mother," she whispered.
The droid glitched again for a second, and Precia's face disappeared to be replaced by the killer features of an unemotional machine, raising the rifle up to shoulder level to end her life -
And then the tremendous crashing sound all around her escalated to an unbearable level. The wall behind the killer droid was ripped open by a gigantic metal claw which forced itself through, surrounded by a crackling lightning field.
As the droid changed back to Precia, the edge of the lightning field caught against its neck and wrenched its head from its body. The plasma rifle went off in the air harmlessly, firing on automatic before dying away.
The Manticore barrelled its other claw through the wall and tore the droid in half, roaring towards the sky with all three heads at once. The tower shuddered as the monster began to force the rest of its body through – a creature that was already the size of a skyscraper by itself. Fire and ice breath raged against the outside of the great obelisk, quickly turning the area into a blazing inferno of mana. A mighty tail swung through the upper levels of the tower and chopped through a great chunk of the frail stairway, taking part of the framework with it.
What the...?
With her opponent's demise, Fate could feel her energy returning steadily, though she was still having difficulty making any movement at all. What was that thing...and how had it gotten here? It was so big that she couldn't even see all of it – and she was lucky about that because otherwise she would be dead – and from the way it was carrying on, the entire tower was going to come down...
"Unknown enemy sighted!" the Superuser screeched, no longer interested in Fate as the Manticore's hind leg emerged about seven floors up. "Activating full battle systems! Security breach at maximum level! Destroy the intruder!"
Hidden weapon compartments opened up at each floor of the tower to reveal up to a hundred turrets all fully armed to the teeth. As the Manticore lurched forward, smashing up another side of the building and quaking the ground with its presence, the turrets began to fire thousands of volleys of energy beams, plasma-induced explosive bullets, lasers, and countless other kinds of projectiles towards the behemoth. At least half of the shots disintegrated as soon as they came into contact with the lightning field protecting the Manticore, but many found their mark, weaving in through the metal plates on the monster's body. The Manticore roared in real pain, sweeping out a gigantic claw to wipe out its tormentors.
Fate struggled to get to her feet as all hell around her broke loose. She had seen the Precia-droid beheaded just from touching the lightning field, and it was coming closer towards her. She crawled backwards as far as she could, knowing that with her magic returned and with Bardiche relatively unharmed, her Barrier Jacket could now outlast this as long as she got as far away from here as possible -
She looked up and saw the outermost edge of the lightning field descending towards her. Desperately, she tried to scramble back even further, but her back had hit solid metal. The ruins of a broken console, just another piece of rubble as the Superuser's turrets continued to rain down heavy fire upon the Manticore. If she could just manoeuvre her way over the rubble before – but there wasn't any time –
A pair of slim powerful arms wrapped around her waist and tugged her around to the left and past the broken machines. The lightning field crashed down into the centre of the room just inches away, and the Superuser's screams transformed into a midst of gibberish crackling as the last of the terminals was destroyed. Seconds later, the program had gone completely silent, so that the only sounds were of concentrated laser fire from the remaining turrets and the Manticore's roars of rage as it continued to lay waste to the tower, ripping aside attackers from every level as the rest of the facility began to come down...
The pain was easing now, Fate realised. The Superuser's magic had left her body completely, though her unknown rescuer was still dragging her out of the tower to safety, breathing heavily as if she was about to collapse by herself. Was it Nanoha...?
"Fate!" her rescuer gasped, a girl's voice riddled with extreme exhaustion. She released Fate and sank down at the edge of the hill a few metres outside the tower where she slumped to the ground, wheezing and panting for breath. "Fate, I can't..."
The Enforcer managed to turn her body round and limp to a standing position, holding one hand to her chest where the wound still plagued her. The Manticore's armour had been stripped away by the constant barrage from the Superuser's turrets, and one of its three heads now lay dead upon its body. As she watched in awe, a second head fell lifeless even as the Manticore howled and tore the upper levels of the tower down, stampeding across the rubble as the lightning field began to die.
Fate turned around towards the girl who had just saved her life. With her mind full of Nanoha, it was the last person she expected.
"Tiana?"
The sharpshooter was flat out on the ground, looking ready to throw up. Cross Mirage was clutched in one hand as if it was her last connection to life, but she managed a smile towards the older woman.
"I'm...sorry," Tiana gasped, gulping in precious mouthfuls of air. "The Manticore followed me...and I didn't think..."
From their vantage point, they witnessed the last of the Manticore's heads fall dead, even as a final jet of fire streamed forth from its throat. The great beast uttered its death-cry and began to fall upon the crumbling tower, ripping the obelisk down from the sky to fall to earth in a gigantic storm of metal, rocks and dust. The earth quaked for several seconds as the monster fell, yielding a shockwave which could be felt even from where Tiana and Fate stood. Fate shielded her face from the rumbling cloud of dust and smoke that rose towards them from the ruins of the tower, moving to protect Tiana as the sharpshooter lay unable to move in the dirt.
One thing still hadn't changed, however...the shining light which had blazed at the top of the tower. The light that Nanoha had been drawn to, as if by another force and mind. The destruction of the tower hadn't taken the light with it, but had almost incensed it, somehow...
Nanoha was up there! We still can't fly, so she's in trouble, and she needs my help! Unless she fell...No, Fate refused to believe that. Nanoha was stronger than that. She has to be up there. I've survived my ordeal, and now it's time for me to help her fight her own.
But how was she going to get up there when she couldn't fly?
"Fate," Tiana breathed, rolling over to one side, "Grylmark – he's - "
The Enforcer knelt by her as the pigtailed girl started coughing up dust violently, laying a hand on her shoulder gently.
"It's okay, Tiana," Fate said softly. "You saved my life. That's enough. You don't have to do anything more."
"But Fate – Grylmark – he stole my magic and I couldn't fight – and – " The sharpshooter blinked as she breathed in deeply, her eyes widening. "W...wait! I can feel it! With the Manticore dead, I can feel my magic coming back!" She tried to sit up, but moved her body too quickly and ended up going into another fit of coughing. "Fate, let me...help you..."
The Enforcer eased her back down. "You need to rest, Tiana. Stay here, and I'll be back for you." She stood up as the last of her pain ebbed away, feeling Bardiche lengthen out into Zanber Form, looking up at the hostile light in the sky with defiance. She knew what she had to do now. "I'm going to help out Nanoha."
A/N: Next chapter will include the last fight with Legion and a part about Grylmark.