New Four

Disclaimer: I own nothing, go away please.


Days later...

"Well, I have good news." Lindy smiled as she looked at Lina and her family. "It took some time, but I'm happy to announce that we might have found your home world, Lina."

"Really?" Lina chuckled as Lindy nodded.

"Well, I can't say we found it for sure, but I think we did. We'll need you to come with to find out for sure."

Lina grimaced slightly as she thought about what was needed to do before she could go on a trip. "I need to get things set up at the shop first, and we need to pack and..."

Lindy laughed and waved Lina's concerns down. "Don't worry, I understand. There's no rush. Take your time."

"Thank you." Lina smiled, to be honest, the thought of going home was making her incredibly nervous and excited.

She wondered how things had changed since she left.

(-)

Three days later...

"Are you sure, Kyouya?" Shiro looked at his son as he nodded to him.

"Yeah, someone needs to watch the shop while you're out. Plus, well..." His face got slightly flushed and Shiro shook his head. Young love, it was a joy and a pain at the same time.

"Alright, if something happens, don't hesitate to use that number and call the ship."

Kyouya looked at the phone number dubiously. "I really don't think that it works that way."

Shiro shrugged, he didn't either. "They can call from across the universe on normal cell phones, I'm pretty sure that they can pick up phone calls in another universe."

"I still say that it doesn't work, but..." He shrugged and put the number in his pocket. "You know that there won't be too many problems." He smirked at his father. "If there are any, I'll just tell them that Nanoha would be upset." He still didn't know why all the fighting stopped when Nanoha stuck her head in, but he was glad for it.

Shiro laughed as he walked out the room with a suit case in hand. Standing just outside the door with a few bags of clothing, Lina had insisted on very little clothing, stating that it would just slow most of them down. But then Lindy had stated that they could just transport any clothing that they needed down to them, making the argument a moot point.

"Why isn't Miyuki-nee coming with?" Nanoha looked at Lina, who shook her head.

"She wanted to spend some time with Fiasse before her friend went on a quick tour." Not to mention that Fiasse had asked Miyuki to be a bodyguard, but it wasn't for too long, but she was going to miss the trip this time. Lina cleared her throat and looked at the group. "Where's Arf?" She looked at Fate, who blushed slightly.

"Right here!" The wolf girl jumped out of the tree to show off her new form. "See! I'm new and compact, even in human form." She took a pose, standing there in a white tank top and blue shorts.

Nanoha giggled at Arf's current body. "What's with that look?"

"Easier to go clothes shopping for!" Arf giggled at Nanoha. "Besides, it draws less attention than my adult mode does." Plus it didn't consume as much of Fate's magic, and considering what she had heard of Lina's home world, she wanted to make sure that Fate had as much magic as possible. After all, what would happen if one of those Mazoku-things showed up again?

"Alright, alright, so, if everyone's ready..." Lina smiled as they all nodded, she flipped open her cell phone and pushed a couple of buttons. "Lindy, here we go."

A flash of light and Kyouya watched as his family disappeared. "Have fun." He muttered to the open air.

(-)

Nanoha trembled softly as the ship came out of its dimensional transport. "That... Didn't feel good." Her whole body felt like something was surrounding her and squeezing her.

Lina looked at her in concern, but when Nanoha shook her head, she turned back to the screen as a world came into focus. Her eyes went a bit out of focus for a moment. "Well, anyway..." She narrowed her eyes and pointed to a rather large peninsula. "Focus in on that area there."

Amy nodded as the screen zoomed in on the area in question. "Look familiar?"

Looking at the display, Lina nodded, albeit hesitantly. "Maybe, but my memory's a little fuzzy..." She pointed to a place near the center on the map and Amy zoomed in on it. "That's it! Seiryuun!"

"So, this is your home world?" Fate asked as she looked at the display.

"Yep!" Lina grinned as she looked at the map. "Zoom out a little, go... here." She pointed at a place to the north and east of the first place and grinned as it zoomed in. "That's where I was born." She tapped her chin and pointed at a lake a few kilometers out of town. "Drop us off there."

"You sure?" Amy looked at her in confusion and Lina nodded.

"Yeah, I don't want to scare my mom and dad too much." Hell, if they were still alive, they'd probably have heart attacks just from seeing her alive. "Plus I need to do some testing."

"Testing?" Amy blinked as Lina winked at her.

"Don't worry, just drop us off there." She walked to the teleporter as Amy nodded.

(-)

Shiro shook his head as he materialized on the ground. "And you people do this all the time?" He asked Chrono while he felt the hilt of his sword. He knew it wouldn't be very good against those Mazoku things, but against any bandits or normal threats? Well, he wasn't the best in his clan for nothing.

"You get used to it pretty easily." Chrono nodded and looked around, before gawking at Lina. "What's with that cloak?"

Lina had a light brown cloak over her shoulders, completely with a hood over her head and a mask over her face. "Let's just say that it's best not to scare everyone right away. If I walked around as I am, people might think I'm a Mazoku or something, but first." She looked at the water and held up her hand. "Dynast Breath!" She grinned as a pillar of ice appeared in the lake. "So, he's still alive... Zelas Brid!" Energy tendrils appeared around the pillar of ice, slowly chipping it away. "Great, if she's still alive, so is the fruitcake, I bet. And now..." Lina slapped her open palm against the water. "Dolph Zork!" A torpedo of energy rushed into the pillar, making it explode. "Huh? So those three are still alive, and I'm sure that Ruby-Eyes is still alive."

"What was that for?" Chrono asked her as he and the others watched with interest.

Grinning under her mask, Lina walked up to him and flicked him on the forehead. "Just testing. Black magic needs a source, those three spells draw upon three different Mazoku Lords."

"Lords?" Nanoha gasped, looking around and Lina sighed heavily. "They're going to be like Death Bringer and torture me and try to..."

"Nanoha!" Yuuno grabbed her shoulders. "Come on, calm down."

"But, there's three beings like that Death Bringer guy and they're all really strong and Chrono-kun doesn't have any Jewel Seeds this time and I might just..."

"Nanoha!" Lina put a hand on her shoulder, causing her to look up at her mother. "For one thing, Shabranigdo's in several fragments, not in one spot like Death Bringer thought about Chaotic Blue. Secondly, as nasty as Mazoku can get, the Lords tend to stay out of human affairs unless it can directly benefit them. So, unless you're a fragment of Shabranigdo, which you're not, they'll probably just ignore you." Lina knew that she, on the other hand, was more likely to catch their attention, especially now that she was back. "Besides, there are actually Gods and Dragons running around here, there's more for them to do around here, okay?"

Nanoha nodded, though she was still shaky.

Lina shook her head as she looked at the rest of the group. "Well, we won't find anything just standing around here, let's head to Zephilia, you can meet my mom, dad and sister."

The group nodded and started following Lina, though Shiro made sure to walk by Nanoha and squeeze her shoulder.

"Dad?" Nanoha looked up at him. "...Is it okay to be scared?"

He nodded at her. "Your mother won't say anything, but she's scared too. She wants to see her family again, she's worried how they'll take her now, and she's scared for you."

"She is?" Nanoha blinked as he nodded and knelt down while the others went ahead.

"Yeah, your mother worries about you so much after what happened to you." Heck, after those events on Mid-Childa, Lina was a nervous wreck, always checking on Nanoha every couple of hours, just to make sure that she was okay and not screaming out in terror and pain all the time. "So, she's just putting on a brave front for you, you need to do the same for her, okay? Your friends will make sure nothing happens to you."

Nanoha smiled and hugged Shiro. "Thanks, dad."

"HEY!" Arf yelled back at them. "Move it or lose it!"

"Coming!" Nanoha yelled as she turned and ran towards the small girl, Shrio following right after her.

(-)

Lina turned back and smiled as her daughter and husband hurried up and caught up to them. "I wonder..." She trailed off and blinked as her group was suddenly surrounded by people in various tattoos, ratty clothing, unkempt hair and short blades. "You have got to be kidding me."

"Give us any goods ya got on ya!" The one in front of her, obviously the leader advanced on the group and waving his weapon threateningly at the group.

"Better put that away before you hurt someone." Lina said dryly as he took a step forward.

"You bitch!" He raised his weapon up as he tried to strike her.

A flash of blades later and the man found himself on his butt, his hand bleeding and his dagger in pieces around him as Shiro stood above him, his sword sticking out as he looked down with narrowed eyes that promised extreme pain to the bandit.

The leader looked at Shiro with a mix of anger and fear. "GET 'EM!"

"Hey, mom, we're done here." Nanoha spoke up and the leader gasped as he saw all his men covered in pink, yellow, orange, green and blue chains and wraps.

"What, is it Christmas?" Lina chuckled and looked at the leader. "Now then... As you can see, we're not harmless travelers." A sphere of fire appeared in the palm of her hand. "It's been a long time since I've killed a bandit." Seeing the man's eyes widen and water up, Lina smirked, not that anyone could see it. "But, I MIGHT be willing to let you go... If I was feeling nice."

"Dammit!" The bandit leader groaned as the sphere of fire got bigger. "And we all thought it would be safe to be bandits again since that Bandit Killer died!"

The fire gutted out and Lina knelt down to look him in the eye. "Tell me more."

"W, well, word got out that the Bandit Killer, Lina Inverse, died awhile ago and without her running around, it's been a golden age for Bandits!"

"How long ago was this?"

"How should I know?" The man screamed out. "Last I heard about her, Seiryuun was having a giant funeral for her."

Lina frowned behind her mask. "...Wait, that means she didn't die that long ago." Something about this wasn't right. "Come on, we should get to Zephilia." She turned to her group, and they nodded to her.

"Hey, mom..." Fate asked softly as they moved towards the city in question. "What about them?" She pointed to the bound up bandits, before pouting as the leader of the group started to run off.

"Huh, forgot about them..." She shrugged at Fate. "Eh, leave them for now."

"What about the one who's running away?" Yuuno asked her.

"Nanoha... Why don't you..."

"On it!" Nanoha giggled as she called out Raising Heart to shooting mode. "Divine Flame Buster!" A white-hot gout of flame erupted from the tip of her staff, racing towards the fleeing bandit.

As the spell connected with the bandit, Chrono sweat-dropped at the explosion. "Don't you think that was a bit much?"

"Don't worry!" Nanoha grinned at him as Raising Heart became a gem again. "I had it on stun."

"A Divine Flame Buster with a stun setting?" Yuuno sweat-dropped as Nanoha laughed, rubbed the back of her head and stuck her tongue out. "Nanoha!"

"Hey! It could happen."


The whole "Stun Setting" thing with the person using it and going "Hey, it could happen." is a shout-out to when Brianna Diggers of Gold Digger used a 50-mm vulcan cannon and said it was on stun.

And now, we're on the red staff, Lina's homeworld.

What kind of crazy insanities will happen?

What kind of plot arc is coming?

And why are there tacos trying to eat a Chihuahua?

...

Best not to think on that last one too much.