WARNING: This fanfiction is NanoFate and it is rated M for strong and/or violent content and situations, as well as intimate scenes between two women. If this type of content is not to your liking, please do not read it.
DISCLAIMER: MSLN Characters belong to their rightful owners. All the situations and characters presented in this work are fictitious, any similarity with real, historical or present situations or individuals, it is not intentional.
TRANSLATOR'S NOTES: So last week, we received several comments asking us to work faster on the translation and we were very motivated to do it, so we are bringing two chapters this weekend, and considering the one published yesterday ends in such a cliffhanger, we did not want to make you all wait another week. So thank you for reading, and especially to Sammie-chan (!), Miniberto, duckie, Sylph-kun, Forum Explorer and anonymous guest for reading and leaving your reviews.
Anyways... on to the story now...
"Till the End of Times" by Aleksei Volken
Chapter 7. ENCOUNTERS
"And now, you will be mine as well."
Nanoha was petrified, unsure if it was really true she was awake and if he was actually in front of her sitting on her bed.
With a quick move, she got off the bed on the opposite side of him just to find him again, smiling in front of her. She was not dreaming and Veyron was very real.
"Oh, yes, please. Fight back. I love it when they resist."
Nanoha could feel her heart beating fast and a cold oppression swamping her chest. She quickly glanced at the doors of her bedroom and the cold oppression increased when she noticed that both were closed from the inside.
"How the hell did this asshole get in?" was one of the flashing thoughts that rushed her mind even though she knew it was useless; she had to think what she was going to do. As soon as Veyron had told her to resist, she did her best effort to concentrate and keep calm and collected.
She was not going to give him the satisfaction of looking frightened.
"Get out of my room right now," she ordered with a confident, and even to her surprise, firm voice.
Veyron laughed, closing in with slow steps, staring directly at her. Very quickly, he caught Nanoha's chin in the exact same way he had done then they had argued in the yard, but with much more strength, while pushing her towards the closest wall.
Imprisoning her against the wall with his body, he whispered to her ear, "Who is going to rescue you now, princess?"
Something inside Nanoha broke loose from her after hearing his words, somehow she twisted in his grip and sank her teeth with all her might into the hand that held her face, pushing him just enough to free herself.
Veyron howled and Nanoha, spitting blood, managed to slide away, but was not able to even take two steps away before he yanked her hair, which she left loose to sleep, and pulled her violently, throwing her to a nearby table.
The table, its contents, and Nanoha ended up on the floor with a loud clatter.
"You will regret this, bitch," Veyron said through clenched teeth, pulling from her nightgown to make her stand up, ripping it in the process.
Nanoha managed to escape again, moving like her siblings had taught her on the rare occasions she had agreed to train with them and shot a desperate hit towards Veyron's nose, who unfortunately for her missed its mark. Veyron's answer was a violent slap that shook her vision and sent her back to the floor at the foot of the bed.
Somehow, she raised her head and looked at her assailant with fury. Up until that moment she had not screamed for help. Would someone be able to do something if she did?
With all her strength she called for Hayate and Shamal.
Veyron laughed out loud.
"Scream all you want, no one is coming for you," he said scoffingly. "Shout! I want to hear you cry for help. Help!" Veyron yelled for her. "Someone help the princess!"
"I want to hear you cry for help," Veyron repeated in his normal voice now and bent down to take her in his hands again but Nanoha took the opportunity to kick him violently on the groin and dashed towards the door.
She made it to the door but could not open it, as Veyron had bolted after her and crushed her with all his weight against the heavy door. They struggled violently, one against the other until a punch to her stomach left her bent over and gasping for air.
She felt her legs going weak and how she was held forcefully against the wooden surface. WIth Veyron's arm pushing down her throat and the effect of the blow, she could barely move but she could feel his sweaty throbbing body tight against hers.
"Oh, you have given quite a fight, but you can't win," he said with a warm breath and arousal in his voice, pressing more against her. Nanoha felt his erection in her abdomen and the bile rising up her throat while he kept talking. "But you can still enjoy it."
Ripping away what was left of Nanoha's gown, he violently dragged her to the bed and threw her to it.
Nanoha found strength again to resist and fight even when he was over her. She struggled violently, without realizing she was screaming all the time, struggling like a wild beast even after Veyron slapped her in the face two more times.
She wanted to kill him at that moment and then she wanted to die herself.
In the middle of her frantic battle, she was able to listen to something breaking loudly and far, very far away and before she was able to even think about it, Veyron's weight over her disappeared.
The next thing she was aware of was being held by Shamal and Hayate.
Veyron was knocked down on the floor, with his slacks unfastened, covering his face with his arm as a sword was coming down to him with murderous and lethal fury and another one protecting him.
"Don't you dare touch my brother!" Cypha Huckebein screamed when both steels clashed together.
Fate did not even look at her. Her eyes were furiously darted on Veyron. With a deft move, she pushed away Cypha's sword and with the same stroke, the tip of her sword stopped right at Veyron's neck.
"Fate...!" Veyron called her desperately. "Fate… wait! It's me Veyron!"
"I know exactly who you are, you goddamned bastard… and also what you were trying to do!" Fate yelled furiously, finally kicking Veyron on the face and body.
Cypha tried to intervene again but Zafira and Vita blocked her attempt.
Fate raised her sword.
"Wait, Fate...! Wait! It was… her!" Veyron pointed angrily at Nanoha. "She has always incited me, she's a common whore Fate… you cannot do this for someone like her!"
Alicia rushed into the room calling, "Nanoha!" and hurried to the side of the redhead, who being held by Hayate was barely covered with the bedsheet as Shamal checked up on her.
"You have gone too far this time, Veyron," Alicia said somberly as she watched Nanoha and kneeled beside her with Hayate and Shamal.
Veyron cautiously stood up while blood ran down his chin.
Fate's sword at his neck kept following his every move, with notorious effort on her side, debating between the impulse of killing him at that moment and the rage of having seen her wife in someone else's arms, being that person someone she had trusted up until that moment.
"She has provoked me, Fate! Besides, you know it was the Hegemon's offer!"
"What exactly did I offer you... Veyron?"
Everyone turned around towards the deep yet modulated voice of Precia Testarossa who had just walked into the room, looking derisively around.
"What a shameful show you have put together," she said, looking at her two daughters. "Couldn't you have been any more discreet, Alicia?"
Despite being last to arrive, Alicia had been the first one to notice something was wrong with Nanoha. She and Hayate had met early in the morning after Fate's departure to talk.
Hayate had checked upon her Lady, deciding to let her sleep in. Vita was staying guard as always in front of Nanoha's door, alternating with Zafira.
Everything was in order. Or so it seemed.
Hayate wanted to show something to Alicia, but having forgotten to bring it with her, when they went back together to get it, Alicia heard Vita discussing with Cypha Huckebein. Veyron Huckebein argued he had an appointment with Nanoha and overstating his noble status and outranking Vita, he had snuck into Nanoha's room while Cypha literally sentenced Vita to death for trying to stop them.
Alicia and Hayate had looked at each other horrified. Hayate tried to run and help Nanoha, but Alicia pulled her away to a corner so Cypha would not see them.
"It will be useless," she muttered heavily distressed to Hayate's ear and without a moment's hesitation, she made a choice. "This is what you have to do."
Against all the recommendations her sister had given her, Alicia told Hayate where she would find Fate and Signum, who had not left with the group in the morning as everyone thought. In the meantime, she made a run to the headquarters of the Imperial Guard.
The guard would ignore Hayate but they would obey her, as they obeyed Fate, in the absence of the Marshal. If Hayate took longer to find Fate, that could only be Nanoha's only chance. No one but the Imperial Guard or Fate would hold authority over Veyron.
So at that moment, Fate and the Wolkenritters had Cypha and Veyron under their control in the room and an escort of six men from the Imperial Guard awaited outside, as they had been brought by Alicia.
However, the plan to rescue Nanoha had not gone unnoticed.
And now they were all under the inquisitive stare of the Hegemon of the Belkan Empire.
"Veyron attacked Nanoha in my absence," Fate said with her teeth tight. "I have the right to kill him."
"You have the right to kill them both," Precia clarified. "If you decided to exercise your right, you cannot execute just one of them."
Fate's knuckles on her sword's handle were white from tightening them. Veyron trembled knowing he had been the most predictable pawn in Precia's game. Hayate, Nanoha, and Shamal looked at each other terrified and grimly.
"That would be the case if Nanoha wanted to participate but I think it is very clear that was not the case," Alicia intervened standing up, doing something she rarely, or ever did, confronting her mother. Especially in public.
Precia looked at her daughter with contempt.
"I have never provoked or incited that bastard in any of the ways he is insinuating! Besides being stupid and a swine, he is a goddamn coward…" Nanoha said, incapable of containing herself.
For the first time in that incident, Fate looked at Nanoha and felt the rage boiling in her chest again, together with the intense desire to kill… her friend.
"No one has given you permission to speak foreigner, watch your words since you are referring to a Belkan nobleborn and you are addressing… to me" Precia looked back menacingly at Nanoha as if daring her to contravene her and giving her the reason she needed to take care of her.
"I believe my wife," Fate intervened, gathering Precia's attention towards herself.
"Fate, you cannot do this!" Veyron was frantic and in his desperation, he risked using his last card. "You were there when Her Highness offered that the foreigner could be mine when you didn't want her anymore! You knew that!"
"She's my wife, Veyron! Not the foreigner!" Fate screamed back at the limit of her self control.
Fate cut herself off breathing heavily.
Precia looked upon all her pawns with her arms elegantly crossed at her chest, an eyebrow arched, and a sardonic smile in her face. Even if her plans had not gone the way she expected, maybe not everything was lost after all.
"What is Veyron talking about?" Alicia asked with an unnatural calm looking at Fate.
For a few seconds, everyone remained quiet until the Hegemon intervened with a melodious and innocent voice.
"Oh yes, I remember that meeting. It was before the ceremony… of marriage," the tone of disgust she imbued into the word marriage did not go unnoticed by anyone in the room. "When Fate was not… thrilled by the idea. Well… it seems you mistimed your moment Veyron. Fate does not seem to have grown tired of her wife just yet. You must have made sure she didn't want her anymore before taking her without permission."
Nanoha looked at Fate astounded, feeling something else breaking inside her.
Fate could not turn to see Nanoha. What could she tell her? How to explain to her what Veyron had said was not the truth. Not at least in the way he had. Veyron constantly teased Fate due to her wife's attitude ever since they met in Nihon. The Hegemon had in fact said to her, with her usual contempt attitude towards everything, that she would get married and when she got tired of her wife, just to give her away to Veyron who seemed really interested in her.
Veyron made a huge scene stating how he would teach manners to the foreigner but Fate never thought it would come to this.
"Now that everything is settled, I think we can clean up this disgusting scene," Precia said and started to get out of the room but Fate's voice stopped her.
"No."
Precia turned to look at Fate. As everyone else did too.
"I do not care what reasons he believed he had. Veyron attacked my wife and he will pay for that," she said and then turned to his sister who was still being held by her guardians. "And Cypha raised her sword against me. Neither of those acts can go unpunished."
Fortis Huckenein who had arrived with Precia, and had stoically stayed in the hallway, entered after hearing Fate's words.
"Your Highness," he said, addressing Precia. "I do not pretend to excuse the behavior of my family but I believe we can reach a reasonable solution. The heiress seems to be obnubilated… and I question her… sense of justice. I request to be in charge of the punishments to my brother and sister."
"No," Fate repeated firmly without even letting her mother answer.
"Your Highness," Fortis insisted without looking at Fate," they should at least get a trial, and be absolutely sure that what Veyron is not telling the truth, in case he is…"
"Absolutely not," Fate replied in a cold composed voice. "And I will tell you why. With their actions, these imbeciles have not only attacked me and my wife, but also the interests of the empire. I was not supposed to be here. For every practical purpose, I was not in Dinsmark. Everything that I planned so it would seem I had left with this morning's caravan has gone to hell..."
Fate looked at Veyron deeply angered. "And because of you! You were supposed to be in the goddamn group, not here assaulting my wife!"
Veyron was and looked trapped. Fortis bit his lips together and narrowed his eyes looking at Fate with a glint of rage.
"Signum," Fate called. The warrior shot a last look at Veyron's sister who was looking at everyone with contempt and resentment, before walking close to Fate to receive instructions. "Cypha will remain in the dungeons of Stier Castle."
"You cannot do that, we are a noble family…!" Cypha interjected but Zafira's sudden grasp quietened her.
"... and Veyron," Fate continued without paying attention to the interruption and looking at him with wrath in her eyes, "will be taken to the Tower. His final punishment will be decided later."
Veyron and his siblings trembled upon listening to Fate's intentions.
With one signal from Signum, a guard came in and took Veyron away. He kicked, yelled, and resisted until four other elements from the Imperial Guard that Alicia had brought with her, dragged him away. During all his way until he could not be heard anymore, he continued yelling at Fate telling her she could not do this to him.
Then Signum and Zafira left, taking Cypha with them, who did not resist but shot everyone with murderous looks.
"Veyron and Cypha are right, Fate. We are one of the most well-known noble families in the empire, we have rights. The other noble houses will not see with good eyes this decision," Fortis looked at her threateningly while making his point.
"And that is the only reason those idiots are still alive," Fate answered harshly. "Give thanks for that."
Fortis turned to Precia with a silent request.
Precia shrugged her shoulders. She was actually furious with Veyron. All her plans had gone down in flames due to the poor execution of that moron. Even as a pawn he was useless. He was supposed to destroy Fate's fleeting illusion with the foreigner and he had to remove the obstacle Nanoha represented for her.
"You have to accept Fate is right in her words, Fortis, you were aware of the importance of this mission," she said turning around and walking out the door giving her final sentence. "She will decide the punishment for your siblings."
After a few minutes had passed, only Hayate, Shamal, Alicia, and Vita remained in the ransacked room with Nanoha and Fate. The latter standing still next to Vita, who was awaiting instructions, paying attention to how Hayate tried to clean up the mess in the room, to how Shamal diligently cleaned up Nanoha's face who was swelling in some places already, and to Alicia…
Alicia was sitting by Nanoha's bedside, taking her hand in her own, her arm gently around the shoulders of the redhead with words of encouragement for her. Alicia spoke softly to her telling her she would be fine, they had arrived on time and nothing like that would ever happen again.
Alicia was comforting her wife.
Fate with her head down felt out of place and completely useless. She had not been there to avoid the disaster from happening and she had not foreseen Veyron's damned intentions. She had not been able to protect Nanoha as she had promised.
She could not even comfort her wife just as she had not been able to kill Veyron as she should have.
"That would have risked Nanoha being sentenced as well," Fate thought, although it did not make her feel any better. Belkans did not punish just one of the adulterers. Both were. That way acts of vengeance and unnecessary lies were avoided, although it came with a lot of injustice as well.
At that moment and almost as if she had felt it, Fate turned her head up to meet Nanoha's eyes. Her wife looked at her with deep bewilderment, as well as… almost disappointment.
"It's understandable," Fate thought. "She must think I sold her."
It was true her mother had said those words, one of the times she expressed her rejection towards marrying the heiress of Nihon. "It does not matter the way you wed her, if at any moment you are tired of her, Veyron will surely take over."
And then, thunderstruck Fate realized that she had not been protecting Nanoha just because she had promised Shiro Tamakachi She had been protecting her because she really wanted to. Even if she had miserably failed in her attempt.
And now Nanoha was looking at her with disappointment and she knew she deserved it, in more ways she could explain.
With slow cautious steps, she came closer to them and bent down on one knee just as if she were doing reverence to be at the same height as them in the bed. Alicia did not let go of Nanoha's hand and Fate noticed that even her, eyed her with resentment. That hurt her even more than she could handle at the moment.
"I will not take any recrimination from you Fate, not right now," Alicia spoke before Fate could say any of the things she was thinking. "Yes, your precious plan went to hell. It was not my fault, nor Hayate's and least of all Nanoha's..."
"I am not recriminating anything," Fate interrupted, filled with sadness.
The two sisters looked at each other for a few seconds and Fate turned to her wife. Nanoha had a split lip, bruises on her cheek where Veyron's knuckles had hit her, and two deep cuts in her eyebrow when she had crashed over the table, along with other smaller contusions on her beautiful face. Fate clenched her fists feeling how the anger bubbled up in her again.
"He will pay for this, Nanoha," she said with a controlled voice, bringing her hand to her cheek trying to softly graze her cheek.
Nanoha jolted backward, moving away from Fate's hand.
Alicia held her tightly.
Fate was frozen, with her stomach turned into knots and pain as clear as a fist crushing her heart.
"Right now might not be the best moment to… talk, Testarossa-san," Hayate intervened, noticing the tension caused by the incident between the two sisters. It was best for everyone to take the time to recover.
Fate stood up slowly, hiding her distress behind her usual hardened and imperturbable facade. It was understandable that Nanoha would not want to be touched or that someone else was close to her at that moment.
And yet, Hayate, Shamal… and Alicia, were right next to her.
"So... it's me who she doesn't want touching her or being close to her," Fate thought, although she had already arrived at that conclusion before. "I cannot say I do not understand her."
"We will talk later," Fate said with a lump in her throat as she signaled Vita to follow her as she walked to the door.
As she saw her walking away, Nanoha wanted to say something to her, but she did not know what. She felt as if finally waking up from a horrible dream to realize it had been real. They had arrived in time to prevent it from becoming more real than it had been, but she still felt devastated, broken… and hurt.
She was not entirely sure why, but she did not want Fate to go… although she also knew she could not ask her or allow her to stay. She could not bear it if she stayed.
Even though Fate had indicated her to follow her, Vita took a while longer.
Nanoha took a few seconds to realize the fierce redhead guardian was staring at her.
"You fought well," Vita said with respect, surprising everyone, starting with Nanoha that was speechless. "If Fate said he will pay, you can be sure that he will pay, significantly."
That said, she went after Fate leaving the four women by themselves.
Linith, with a sorrowful expression awaited outside. Fate indicated for her to give them some time before going in and then turned to Vita with a strict order.
"No one. Absolutely no one can go into that room without my consent. You have the order to kill anyone who tries. Is that clear enough?"
Fate was furious at Vita for having fallen into the Huckebeins' schemes, but she also had to acknowledge she had a lot to be blamed for in the process. Vita nodded in silence.
"One more thing. Starting tomorrow, I want you to train Nanoha."
Vita looked at her intrigued.
"What kind of training?" she asked. "She looks strong and we know she can ride well, she is persistent and self-willed and knows a thing or two about weapons. But from there to actually use them there is a great difference."
"Start with the necessary so no one will be able to attack her like that, ever again," Fate answered and Vita noticed how inflexible Fate looked while giving her the order.
Vita started to suspect where Fate was going with this, but still, she brought her questionings more clearly. For her, it was also clear that what the Huckebeins' had done was despicable, but Fate would have to give her the order loud and clear.
"You cannot make a warrior in one day, Fate."
"You will not train her only one day, she will train every day starting tomorrow. She will start with you but then she will have other teachers and you will prepare her for that."
"So basically you want her to be able to defend herself," the short warrior finished, crossing her arms over her chest.
Fate gave her a long, somber, and unique look.
"No," she finally replied. "I don't want for her to only be able to defend herself, I want her to be able to kill them all and let it be known for everyone in Stier Castle… in all of Dinsmark, that she is able to."
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