If you're curious what the soundtrack to Signum going berserk is in my head, youtube "Kurayamino Variation"; the sort of quiet, controlled rage Rob Dougan is so good at conveying encapsulates how I see her anger pretty well.

Human Again

"One last group of Wolkenritter. You're closest." Hayate told Signum. "The area is temporarily blind to teleport, probably because of their ripper. Buy some time."

Signum nodded and closed the holowindow, then allowed herself a wolfish smile. Agito, along for the ride via Unison, noticed a subtle shift in Signum's thinking and had a sudden premonition she wouldn't like where this went.

The Reinforce clone died before it ever realized it was in danger. The others were registering the sonic boom and shockwave battering them as the Shamal clone died as well. The Vita, no hat and in loose-fitting black like all of them, got her weapon up and blocked the cut meant to kill her.

Levantine responded as if offended. It had slain emperors and princes. It would not be stopped by this pale imitation, this petty mercenary. Flames raced down the blade, the sword acting of its own volition as it drew on her and Agito for power. The Vita clone's weapon held for a second and then broke, and she had just enough time to realize doom was upon her before being sliced from shoulder to hip.

The second was too long. The Zafira and her clone were on top of her and she couldn't get her sword into a ready position fast enough. She parried the blow from the false Levantine with her armored vambrace, just as she had thousands of others. A Wolkenritter was never truly defenseless, and anyone who made the assumption they were rued that thought.

Levantine came up, not quick enough to stop the punch that rocked her head back, but took the arm off. Not enough to stop the Zafira but enough to keep it distracted for at least a few seconds.

Agito normally didn't mind Signum's manifest skill in the craft of death because of how the Wolkenritter approached it. The senior Wolkenritter was all calculated precision; Agito wouldn't even call it cold, because that implied emotion factored.

Today, however, as the fight went on and Signum caught her opponent's blade in a bind that resulted in both of them losing hold of their weapons, emotion was increasingly factoring. A hatred as cold as ice slowly rising from the depths of Signum's mind, urging her on.

Kill. Kill! She was a Wolkenritter. She had her hands. It was enough. Agito's warning about the unsoundness of attempting to strangle another Wolkenritter fell on deaf ears.

Behind her, the Zafira clone went for a Levantine and made the mistake of choosing the wrong one. Levantine was having none of its shenanigans and fired the cartridge currently loaded, intoning "Schlangeform!" and taking the Zafira's head off.

Things had gone, relatively speaking, well. The invasion stage of the operation was over, and the Bureau honestly had no intention of moving in and holding the territory, merely denying its usefulness.

Samuel shook his head. They were still looking, but so far there wasn't anything of more than peripheral use to this sort of war. The planet could probably make cases for a Device or starship hull plating, but nothing that actually made a weapon tick. The technology level was just short of being able to make shoulder-fired rockets that could reliably hurt a mage.

He hadn't heard much about the locals. They had stayed out of the Bureau's way, but then they would if they knew anything about mages. He'd only seen thirty or so of them so far, despite currently being posted to an urban area. Team Seventy stood guard while non-mage specialists examined the workings of a local police station, trying to get a feel for how the New Belkans interacted with the populace. The local cops had, rather wisely, vacated the building the moment Bureau personnel walked in.

The lack of people even coming to look at the new owners of the planet was unnerving. Unnatural. He made a mental note to ask if anyone had conducted a population count. Something was very wrong here.

"Seventy," he heard, but didn't actually hear, "relief in three minutes."

"Three minutes," he told his team. "B-One, when we're out of here you're with me."

"Understood sir." Bei replied.

The replacement team was a minute behind schedule due to a screwup involving the teleport scheduling; nothing worth even getting upset about, in the grand scheme of things.

"Carolyn." Samuel said softly.

She wasn't a girl anymore. Seventeen for a week, looking more like a woman, and twice wounded badly in action. Her burns were serious enough that she would spend at least two weeks in regenerative therapy for all that skin damage.

She tried to salute him, even from a hospital bed, but it would have tugged on her IV so she stopped. "Sir."

Samuel shook his head, hard. "None of that, Carolyn. Not here for that sort of conversation. This is the second time you've nearly been killed." The Bureau recruited young. Carolyn Altima had come into the Navy at age fifteen, full of fire, and spent a year in training before being posted to Team Seventy. It wasn't enough to be a good leader when you lead a Mage Team. Sometimes you had to know how to be a parent too, and a host of other things.

You were the authority figure. People would look to you for...well, everything. He'd been the one Carolyn turned to for advice about her first boyfriend and her first breakup. "I'm told you've put in for augmentation."

They hadn't worked out a term for Combat Cyborg conversion yet, or at least the lexicon hadn't standardized; "augmentation" was as good as any. "I did. I want to stay in the unit, if I can."

Samuel closed his eyes and shook his head, then opened his eyes again. "Carolyn, I wanted to ask you to take a transfer out of the fleet before your mother has me killed. You've heard about the CCDD diagnoses." The Bureau medical community, like most, abhorred it when things they had to treat went without a name. The malady that had afflicted Private Sylvia Laurens and three others of the Bureau's new cyborg detachments, causing them to go catatonic and their implants on emergency protocols, had been given a name almost immediately; Combat Cyborg Dissociative Disorder.

Carolyn smiled. It must have been a terrible effort, between the painkillers and the fact her legs were currently encased in a tissue regenerator, which Samuel knew from experience always felt downright bizarre. "Not a chance, sir."

Samuel reached out and, carefully, gave her unburned arm a squeeze. "All right then. I'll back you on this, but I reserve the right to send you in first when Lauren Altima calls me on the carpet for this."

Carolyn tried to laugh, winced instead. "Yes sir."

Samuel turned to find Vita waiting at the entrance to sick bay. He made his way over and acknowledged her with a nod. "Dame Vita."

"So have they scheduled an awards ceremony yet?" Vita asked, falling in step next to him.

Samuel's eyebrows went up. "For what, exactly?"

"Jackass." Vita muttered, then spoke louder. "You took on a Wolkenritter, one on one, face to face, with their weapon of choice. A proper duel. Nothing held back, intent to kill. And you won. That hasn't been done in six thousand years. You make only number twenty to do so. Do you get it now? This is, and you are, a big fucking deal."

Then, to his surprise, Vita stopped in place, turned towards him, and snapped to attention with Graf Eisen manifesting in her left hand. The Iron Knight brought her left arm up, held across her chest to thump her left fist and her weapon against her right shoulder.

The salute of one Belkan knight to another; a gesture of respect, of equality, of brotherhood in the lack of a better term.

It was several seconds before Samuel returned the gesture. He wasn't sure what else to do. How, exactly, does one respond to being judged an equal by what amounted to an immortal demigod?

Into the awkward silence flew Agito, who headed directly to Samuel. "Signum told you, right? About what happens when two Wolkenritter are in skin-to-skin contact?"

Samuel nodded slowly. "Why do you-" Then, quite abruptly, his face contorted as though trying to show many emotions at once. "Signum killed one of them with her bare hands, didn't she?" Agito nodded her reply, not trusting herself to speak at the memory. She had felt it; felt, just as Signum had felt, every sensation of the both of them. To feel as both the murderer and the murdered was an experience the Unison Device never wanted to repeat.

Samuel's next remarks had a tone that suggested they should have been prefaced with profanity. "Does Hayate know? Does the Admiral?"

"I'm not sure." Agito replied.

Samuel swore, and surprised both Vita and Agito by adding some uncomplimentary remarks about Signum's intelligence. "You two are coming with me." Agito grasped it at once and almost hit herself for not getting it before; all the classified knowledge Signum had ever heard or seen was now at risk.

Vita raised a hand, having not yet gotten it. "Look-"

"I need a witness for the Admiral who's also Wolkenritter, you're here, nobody else suitable is, and I have rank on you Captain." Samuel's voice had gone hard, and he was technically correct; he did have rank on her. "This is not up for discussion."

Signum found herself at attention in the conference room aboard the Circe. In front of her, at the far end of the table, was Chrono Harlaown. He was not sitting. To her left and slightly ahead of her was Samuel al-Faddil, whose purpose for being here she had not yet discerned. Behind her and to her right Vita fidgeted uncomfortably, recognizing that Chrono was intensely displeased.

"Major, if you weren't actually indispensable I'm fairly sure I could have you teleported into space and nobody would say a word." Chrono's voice had the mechanical evenness of a man who has mastered his anger but is wondering if he should bother; still from experience Signum knew that his anger was not real. But Chrono was intensely displeased if he was even simulating anger. "Do you have any idea of the kind of damage you've probably done? The magnitude of the security breach you've caused?"

Signum's attention stance had been, ever so slightly, not perfect. That changed instantly. "No, sir, I do not believe I have caused one."

Chrono regarded her with a coldness that even Signum, who had been coldly regarded by many people truly skilled in the art of looking at her as though she was subhuman, found unpleasant. "Major, you're not delusional. Explain that statement and be aware that the quality of your explanation will decide how badly I recommend you get busted for this."

"We were both in connection with Hayate's Book at the moment she died, I directly and she through me. We know, based on past experience, that they will attempt to use the Book of the Night Sky for coordination and reincarnation in preference to whatever their own source is." Signum paused. "I felt her die. I felt her core processes try to connect with the Book to reincarnate and I know they failed. She is either permanently dead, or possibly trapped in storage in the Book of the Night Sky."

Chrono continued to regard her coldly for nearly a minute. Then, he leaned back in his chair, slowly. "You are positive of this."

"I cannot state anything with perfect certainty, Admiral. Examination of the Book of the Night Sky should confirm or deny this." Signum replied.

Chrono made a short, sharp nod. "This was not something you knew beforehand."

"No sir." Signum's voice was sharp, and clear. She was aware of her mistake in that regard.

"Admiral, if I may?" Samuel's voice. He'd moved to face the Admiral at some point and she'd missed it. Chrono raised an eyebrow, but nodded. Samuel turned to Signum. "There is something else, Major. Specifically, the fact you disobeyed orders from Colonel Yagami-" Vita's sharp intake of breath and the way that Signum looked shocked indicated that he'd struck a nerve, "and also in the fact that you chose to risk your life in a very foolish way, when she could have called her Levantine to her hand and cut you in half. You let your personal hate for your opponent get in the way of doing your duty."

Chrono looked both amused and somewhat stern: his subordinate had spoken out of turn, even with permission; still, he would dress the man down in private if that was necessary. Signum actually looked...physically ill, as though in serious pain in fact. Vita's mouth had fallen open.

"Major." Chrono said, reasserting control of the conversation. "You are dismissed. Consider yourself confined to quarters until this issue has been investigated, and if you learned anything from her, that information has been digitized and submitted to me and Bureau Intelligence for review." A pause, then he spoke as Signum turned on one heel. "And visit the medics. You look in a bad way."

Chrono glanced at Samuel. "Commander. Was that necessary?"

"The basis of shame is that everyone knows you screwed up, sir." Samuel replied. His tone shifted, becoming more formal. "My apologies, Admiral."

"Accepted." Chrono glanced back over his shoulder. "You can come out now, Agito. I have no objection to your decision to attach yourself to the Commander in the interim. But if you intend to stay, I have to insist you get the proper uniform."

Agito emerged from behind Chrono and glanced down at her brown Ground Forces/Headquarters class As. "Uh..."

Chrono didn't actually smile, but somehow gave that impression. "You don't make Admiral by being unable to read people, Agito. Commander, Captain, you are also dismissed."

Vita drifted over towards Samuel on the way out.

"There was a time where Signum, where any of us, would have killed you where you stood for making that accusation." Vita's tone was soft, almost haunted. "Duty was all we had then."

"Fair. But was I wrong?" Samuel replied. He was apologetic, but not prepared to concede his point.

Vita shook her head. "Not going to say anything about that." But that in itself was an admission of sorts, and Agito knew it while Samuel suspected it.

"And no more practice sessions either." Vita added. "Today just sucks." Samuel raised an eyebrow at her, and Vita sighed. "Throw a punch. Like you mean it. Not at anything in particular, just at the air.

Samuel paused, then did so...and realized Vita's point a moment later. The punch was accompanied by a loud sound like the crack of a whip though significantly louder, something he'd heard on occasion when watching Tre in action or some of the Wolkenritter.

A localized sonic boom. His arm had broken the speed of sound throwing a punch. With that kind of force behind it, even a Device in training mode could inflict injuries. "And of course, you've been holding back on me."

"Of course." Vita agreed, with a grin. "Didn't want to break you. I suppose we could still do a remote training setup, but that's a pain." The Bureau had never been terribly interested in the remote training functionality, having opponents in other areas represented by holograms to each other, so that no mistakes were possible. But that was never really necessary before now, and so never really used.

"You heard." It wasn't a question. Of course Hayate had heard. In fact, Hayate had a pretty good idea of the specifics of Chrono's conversation with Signum because Vita hadn't bothered to close her connection to the link shared between the Wolkenritter and their mistress.

"A deduction beneath your pay grade, Admiral." Hayate replied. Refusing to offer a salute to the senior officer was a serious insult; one, Chrono admitted, he'd earned. Signum was technically in his chain of command, and so he could technically discipline her...but going over Hayate's head in doing so had been grossly unpolitic.

"Not all problems that come before a commander are those that merit the attention of someone of their rank, as you well know." Chrono's voice softened. "My apologies, Hayate, but it was a possible crisis. I had to deal with it directly."

"I could have been informed." Hayate was not quite so easily mollified. "You could have remanded her to me. The result would hardly have been different."

Chrono conceded with a nod. "True." A pause. "Though I don't think what I said upset her nearly so much as what Commander al-Faddil said did."

Hayate crossed her arms. "Vita was quite insistent about blanking that bit, and only that bit, out. What did he do?"

Chrono sighed. "Reciprocity, Hayate. He's not in your chain of command, remember that. And to actually answer the question, he stated that Signum had allowed her personal feelings to interfere with her duty, and in so doing disobeyed your orders."

Hayate's mouth fell open. "And she didn't break his legs?"

Chrono smiled tentatively. "I think Signum might have worried I'd object." Ever since Chrono had gone one-on-one with a Reinforce clone and won, the Wolkenritter had been noticeably more circumspect around him. "She seemed more hurt than offended. I must ask though, did she really disobey you?"

"In spirit, at least." Hayate replied. "But not intentionally. She is a Wolkenritter, you know as well as I do that she cannot intentionally disobey me any more than she can stop breathing. Her actions were thoughtless, not mutinous." Hayate shrugged. "I'll have to supervise a little more closely."

Chrono remained silent, personal penance for his wrongs, for nearly a minute. Then: "And the rest of your team?"

"The Wolkenritter are aware. I doubt they will discuss it. It strays close to things best left forgotten." Hayate replied. "They will each rebuke her in their own way, draw back a little, and then close ranks with her again. The others...do not need to know, I think."

She answered the door to meet a familiar black uniform. "Dame Signum." Samuel nodded to her politely.

Signum wondered if she'd become so human to the Bureau that people no longer feared her, or if it was just him. "Commander. To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Agito wanted someone to get her things." Samuel's formal tone slipped away. "You scared her rather badly, you know. I'm surprised you could go through with that of your volition."

"There are things worth doing." Signum replied, after a moment. He had known, of course, but to hear him discuss knowing openly... It was not something most people would care to contemplate too closely. She waved him into her quarters. It was another double-occupancy compartment, though the ones on Circe were noticeably larger than those on the cruisers; the shower at the back wouldn't block getting out of one of the bunks if the door was open.

Signum made her way over to where Agito's things were kept; second cabinet above her bunk. Zafira supposedly used the other bunk, but wolf was more likely to by found sleeping near Hayate than here. She opened the cabinet and paused, turning her head to look at him. "Commander. A personal question?"

Samuel tilted his head, down fractionally and several degrees to the left, then returned it upright. A gesture of agreement, Signum thought. Or at least hoped. "What do you think of me?"

There was a pause, and Signum worried she'd misinterpreted his gesture. Then he spoke, in an even, measured tone. "I could call you the stuff of nightmares. After all, you are. " The way he said it robbed it of sting; a statement of fact, not a condemnation. "I could speak of you as a goddess, and only be half-joking." Again a statement of fact, not praise. He had been examining her compartment rather than looking at her, until then, but now he met her eyes. "But honestly, I think of you as a woman still not entirely used to making her own decisions."

Kind of him. Signum wondered, as she handed over Agito's things, if she deserved it.

They had taken what they wanted from the planet and left.

They had also taken things they didn't want. The two noncombatant ships the Bureau had captured had been carrying live cargo: children, aged nine to five, about five thousand all told. No one on the planet had been willing to take them, though examination of data in the ship's logs had indicated the children had come aboard at that planet and more than a few people had reported their suspicions that the kids were local.

But nobody would take them in. It was more than a little bizarre, even unnatural. They would rather trust children, probably their children, to strangers who had invaded their world than take them in.

Perhaps, Signum thought, because they feared retribution from their masters for it. The New Belkans had treated the world with a sort of distant contempt. No real government larger than a state or province had been allowed; no weapons able to harm a Barrier Jacketed mage permitted. General level of technology was several decades short of the starfaring reach Midchilda had obtained over eighty years ago, but their medical knowledge was not far behind that of the Bureau.

Writing her report to Chrono had not taken her long. She had found it a useful activity; the military's desire to have all experience written down and cataloged was something Signum found easily familiar to her by her own desire to compose her thoughts and draw useful lessons from her battles. Some warriors never learned to appreciate the writing of reports; to Signum it seemed as natural as breathing.

The investigation had been short. It had confirmed beyond a shadow of a doubt her opposite number had failed to properly reincarnate and was currently trapped, unable to manifest, in stasis by the Book of the Night Sky. There had, of course, been an inquiry into the viability of continuing to dispose of the New Belkan's Wolkenritter clones by that method.

Hayate had utterly refused to sanction it. Aside from the obvious stupidity and danger in attacking an opponent such as a Wolkenritter with one's bare hands, Hayate would not even consider ordering her subordinates into the trauma of effectively experiencing their own deaths. And nobody really knew what amount of storage space was available to the Book.

Now she went to see the new edition to the New Belkan aresnal, the captured Agito clone. Shamal was there, as the closet thing to an expert available, watching the Agito clone to make sure it didn't hurt itself. "Signum."

"Shamal." She nodded her greeting to the Knight of the Lake.

"Signum." Shamal replied. "You're here for the basic story?" Signum nodded.

"Put food in front of her and she'll eat it, she can use a sink to get herself water, and even use a toilet," an uncomfortable-looking Shamal explained. "Give her a person, and she'll try to Unison. Beyond that..." Shamal trailed off. "She has very little cognitive higher function that I can detect. You would need to have Mariel Atenza examine her to find out more."

"You're saying they lobotomized her." Signum replied. Her tone was level, through the volume was soft.

"They probably lobotomized her." There was more rebuke to that remark than the remark itself warranted, and Signum was aware that Shamal had been looking for an excuse...just like the other Wolkenritter. "Or maybe having the person she was Unisoned with killed has damaged her psyche." Shamal replied. "I can only observe her behavior. I lack the training and the equipment to properly diagnose a Unison Device."

At any other time, such an admission would have at least taken Shamal a moment. They were Wolkenritter, and not accustomed to running into the limits of their skills. But the magnitude of Signum's own failure made admitting such a minor failing easy for now.

And it surprised Signum how much it rankled her. "A copy, like us? Dynamic reaction to Agito and myself?"

Shamal shook her head. "Not likely. There's still a great deal we don't know about the circumstances Agito came from. You remember when Chrono tasked Naval Counterintelligence to track down the project that had held her?" Signum nodded. She had never learned the outcome of that. Shamal frowned. "I was just told how that turned out." Shamal continued over the mental link. They never found it. Which could mean it was buried incredibly deeply, or...

Or, Signum completed, because Naval Counterintelligence is a frighteningly competent organization, they never found it because it was never even related to the Bureau. And Jail lied to Zest and Lutecia more than we ever thought.