Fate groaned as Nanoha massaged her lower back as they relaxed in a steam room. She had just finished today's physiotherapy and Nanoha was rewarding her.
"You managed a whole lap around the hospital today! That's a pretty good milestone," Nanoha said, as she rubbed a stubborn knot. Fate hummed appreciatively. "It's only been a couple of months too. You've beaten my record, that's for sure."
"You were in a coma for nearly a month though," Fate protested, sleepily, lured into a doze by the heat and Nanoha's eager fingers. "And you were doing much better than I was with magic."
"If by better, you mean proving to Shamal that I couldn't be trusted without a limiter, than sure I was," Nanoha said, chuckling. Fate smiled. "Don't worry too much about your magic. Shamal told me that you've just got to learn to access it again. It's all still there, just in a different location."
"I'll try harder. I won't let you down," Fate vowed, quietly.
"Don't worry, you could never do that," Nanoha reassured Fate, giving her a loving smooch on the top of her head. "You just relax and let your body heal naturally. There's no need to rush things."
"Mmm, but I don't want to," Fate murmured, too quiet for Nanoha to hear as Nanoha kneaded her back.
/*/
Hayate, Nanoha, and Fate were sitting at the hospital's cafeteria, eating lunch. Fate had a light salad, Nanoha was eating the soup, and Hayate, having developed a weird taste for hospital food during her youth, was having the microwaved spaghetti and meatballs with the frozen pudding.
"See, the key to hospital life is the food. If the food isn't making you miserable, you might be tempted to stay. So they load it up with cheap preservatives to make sure it tastes bad. Also it makes the medicine not taste like garbage by making you think regular food tastes awful too," Hayate lectured, pointing at them with a spork.
"I believe it," Fate said, glumly poking her limp salad with her own spork. "This lettuce is sad. I didn't know vegetables could be sad. But this salad makes me want to cry."
"That's why you go for the soup," Nanoha said, nodding as she imparted her wisdom. "It's hard to mess up a soup, and you can always adjust it if they do. Too much salt? Add water. Too much water? Add crackers."
"Truly you are the Ace of Aces," Hayate said seriously, before cracking up. Nanoha and Fate giggled as well. When they got themselves back under control, they were all smiling. "So I suppose congratulations are in order. I heard you set a new record for grievous injury to release date," she said.
"Not exactly a record I'm proud of," Fate said, with a twisted smile. "And I'm still struggling with my magic anyways."
"You're making progress though!" Nanoha said, cheerfully. "And I'll bet you make more when you aren't stuck inside all the time."
"Speaking of which, that's another thing I've got to congratulate you both on. You're finally moving in together. That's a pretty big step," Hayate said, eyes twinkling as she rested her head on her hands.
"I-it's not that big of a deal," Fate said, blushing and looking away.
"Nonsense! I know Sakura is absolutely beside herself with planning your housewarming party. The way things are going, it's going to be the event of the year," Hayate said.
"Well we are going to be neighbors," Nanoha said. "Plus it has been a while. I'm sure she's just excited to see us again."
"In any case, we'll have to make sure we don't stay too long. We won't want to get in your way of properly breaking in your new bed," Hayate said, her smile turning sly.
"Hayate!" Nanoha and Fate yelled, their faces crimson as they shot up. Hayate cackled like a witch and gestured for them to sit back down.
"Seriously though, what are your plans for the future?" Hayate asked once she finished laughing. The pair glanced at each other.
"I'm not sure. I think I'm going to stick with the TSAB, but I don't know which division I should go for. I mean, I can go into pretty much whichever one I want, so it's all about which will let me do the most good, and which suits me best," Nanoha said.
"As for me, my plans to be an Enforcer are finished. And now I'm really not sure where to go from here. I'm still eligible for most positions in the TSAB, but I'm really not sure what I want to do from now on," Fate said, a troubled look on her face.
"That's fair, there's no real rush to decide," Hayate said, before sobering up and leaning forward. "Now my bosses would absolutely kill me for suggesting this; but have the two of you considered retiring?"
"What?!" the pair yelped.
"No, seriously," Hayate said, all humor drained from her face. "You aren't even twenty yet, and both of you have suffered horrific injuries. Both of you nearly died, you've saved entire worlds multiple times now, now to mention the dozens of lives you've changed for the better. No one can say you haven't done your part."
"But I can still do more," Nanoha said, immediately. "Plus if I retired, I wouldn't get to fly nearly as much."
"That wouldn't be a problem if you retired to somewhere other than Midchilda," Hayate pointed out.
"That's not the point," Fate said, grasping Nanoha's hand and smiling at her. "We can both still help, and we want to help. We won't let a set back or two stop us from doing what we love."
"Alright, fair enough. Just promise me one thing?" Hayate asked.
"Sure, what is it?" Nanoha replied.
"Take care of each other. You are both absolute garbage at taking care of yourselves, but you'll move mountains to look after someone you care about, so I want you to promise me to make each other your top priority," Hayate said, staring intently at her friends.
"I promise," They said simultaneously.
/*/
Nanoha paced back and forth as she waited in the hospital lounge. Fate had only been out of the hospital for a few short months before ending up back here again. She was absolutely furious with herself. She had noticed that Fate had been upset the last few days, but rather than pin Fate down and figure out what was going on, she had decided to let Fate come to her first. And the next day they had to come back to the hospital after Fate's stomach began cramping to the point where she couldn't move from the pain of her twisting intestines.
"Miss Takamachi?" a young nurse said, a digital clipboard floating beside her.
"That's me. How is Fate? Is she going to be alright? What was wrong with her?" Nanoha asked, quickly spinning around and rushing up to the nurse.
"Everything is fine, we just needed to pump and cleanse Miss Testarosa Harlaown's stomach. It does mean that she needs to start from the beginning in rebuilding her gut flora, but all told that's a minor set back," the nurse explained.
"I don't get it, what happened?" Nanoha asked.
"Well, Miss Testarosa Harlaown can no longer effectively digest fats. She'll likely experience indigestion and other discomforts throughout her life, even on a diet with a minimal amount of fat. In this particular case though, she ate something extremely fatty, and it basically clogged up her intestines. Which caused a bunch of other problems until it built up to the point we had to basically do a hard reset on her digestive system," the nurse said. "She must have been in a fair bit of pain for quite some time for things to have gotten this bad."
"Fate," Nanoha groaned, wearily rubbed her hand against her head. "Can I see her?" Nanoha asked.
"Of course," the nurse said, stepping out of Nanoha's way. Nanoha gave the nurse a nod and headed towards Fate's room. Opening the door she saw a pale looking Fate smiling at her.
"I guess I'm in for a lecture," she said, softly.
"You bet. Why didn't you follow the doctor's orders about your diet? Better yet, why didn't you tell me you were in pain in the first place? If we had caught this earlier, maybe it wouldn't have been so bad for you," Nanoha said, sternly, her hands on her hips.
"I'm sorry. You were so proud of how quickly I recovered, I didn't want to worry you about relapsing. I thought I just had to wait for the food to pass through, and it would go away, and I would never need to mention it. I didn't think it would escalate like this," Fate apologized, looking abashed.
"Well what did you eat anyways? I know we eliminated all fatty foods in the house," Nanoha asked.
"It was a mbkml," Fate mumbled, blushing.
"A what?" Nanoha asked, taking a step forward and bending closer to Fate.
"A cheesecake!" Fate blurted out. "I'm sorry, I know I'm not supposed to have anything like that, but I was craving some so much, and this cafe was having a sale on their cakes, and it was my favorite flavor, and I'm sorry! I was weak!"
"Oh Fate," Nanoha sighed, her lips curving in a smile. She moved over to Fate and wrapped her head in a hug. "Silly girl. I get it. It's hard to be perfect for things like this. But if you're craving something like that, talk to me first. I'm sure we can come up with something to satisfy you. But more importantly," Nanoha released Fate and bopped her on the head. "Tell me if you are in pain! I can't take care of you if you won't let me! How would you feel if I was suffering and I just hid it from you?!"
"Sorry," Fate said, bowing her head to Nanoha. "I promise, I won't try and hide anything like this from you again."
"Make sure you don't," Nanoha said, sniffing and wiping tears from her eyes. "Or else I'll lecture you even worse next time. Okay?" she said, hugging Fate again.
"Okay," Fate whispered, wrapping her arms around Nanoha and giving her a reassuring squeeze.
/*/
"So you're finally getting your new Device Nanoha?" Vita asked, walking beside Nanoha as they walked home from the gym.
"That's right. Apparently there were a bunch of delays in getting it commissioned. Do you know anything about that Vita?" Nanoha asked, narrowing her eyes playfully.
"Oh that was Hayate's fault," Vita admitted, stretching her arms over her head.
"Trying to protect me again?" Nanoha asked, mildly, but with a glint in her eyes.
"I mean, maybe a little. But I think this was more a gift that got way out of control," Vita said, thoughtfully.
"What happened?"
"Hayate decided that you'd need a Device that can keep up with you. So she made a competition to see who could make the best Device. And not content with just Midchilda, she made the competition interplanetary. Until she got pretty much every populated world in the TSAB involved. The competition got so over the top and fierce that they actually got Gilgamesh to act as the judge over the whole thing. And apparently Jail Scaglietti was too proud to not get involved in a competition to see who the best engineer in the galaxy was," Vita explained, enjoying the reactions on Nanoha's face.
"Wait, isn't he a-"
"An S-Rank criminal, yeah. So naturally the Enforcers all get involved. And I swear, it must have been all of them. And some idiot in High Command decides the best way to catch Jail is to arrest everyone, and sort them all out later. Naturally some hidebound idiot decides there is no exceptions to this and tries to arrest Gilgamesh," Vita said, grinning as she gets into the story.
"Oh no," Nanoha groaned, face palming.
"Oh yes. Luckily, or unluckily, the idiot who tried both had a bunch of friends and were all A to triple AAA in rank. Probably why he was so cocky to think he could arrest Gilgamesh in the first place. Gilgamesh goes wild, and starts throwing out Noble Phantasms everywhere. And you gotta understand, these are all really crazy engineers. Like best in their field, but you don't get to be the best if you aren't more than a little crazy. Naturally they all want to know how Gilgamesh's Noble Phantasms actually work. And naturally they don't care if they is an army of Enforcers trying to arrest them at the moment. They want to know now. So they grab the Devices they built and start casting analysis spells. So guess what the Enforcers, who are catching the backlash of Noble Phantasms and trying to detain hundreds of mages see those same mages grab Devices and begin to cast strange spells, do?"
"Try and stop them?" Nanoha guessed, her voice weak.
"Yup. Just standard stuff you know? Light stunners and binding spells mostly. But these Devices were designed to keep up with you, Nanoha, the Ace of Aces, someone who is expected to face down a world devouring Lost Logia and win. The Devices naturally throw up defensive spells automatically and begin giving their wielders combat advice. And right about here is when Jail decides to unleash a robot army. And that's when things start to get really out of control. Someone's Device somehow merged with the robot attacking it."
"What?" Nanoha said, flatly.
"Yeah, still haven't figured that out," Vita scratched her head. "But anyways, it merged with the robot, and took it over. Than it started merging with the other robots and Devices. That's when it started calling itself the Singularity and floating in the air. It declared that we should all submit to it, before attacking the biggest threat there, Gilgamesh. It's throwing dozens of A-ranked spells at him a second as it tears up the rest of the robots and Devices to grow even bigger. Gilgamesh is having fun, laughing as he fights. Hayate at this point is completely fed up, and tells me to handle it. So I hit the Singularity, launching it towards Gilgamesh, who catches it with a bunch of chains. He made some pretentious speech, before blasting it with hundreds of Noble Phantasms from every direction."
"So what happened next?"
"Well Jail escaped, obviously. Gilgamesh declared the winner to be 'whoever created such an entertaining machine' before he went off to do whatever. Shamal managed to keep the idiots who tried to arrest him alive, and pretty much every Device except one was destroyed," Vita summed up.
"Alright," Nanoha shook her head. "That's an absolutely ridiculous way to go about things, but that's Hayate for you. When can I meet the new Device?"
"Right now if you want. Hayate has her at home," Vita said, smirking. Nanoha nodded and the pair made their way to Hayate's home. The rest of the knights were still at work, as was Hayate so they had the house to themselves. Vita went up to Hayate's room, and came back down to the living room carrying a small diamond. "Here it is. Go ahead and try it out," Vita said, an eager smile on her face.
"Okay. Set up!" Nanoha glowed as her Barrier Jacket formed around her. The Device took form, turning into a heavy solid rod, the color of tungsten, with silver lines spiraling up to the tip, which formed a giant, hollow spear head, with a diamond floating in the center. "Whew, there is some real heft to you, isn't there?"
-The better to smite your enemies, Master Nanoha- The device chimed, with an enthusiastic female voice. -This unit stands combat ready! Who shall we vanquish today?-
"No one today, I'm afraid," Nanoha said, smiling. "What are her specs, Vita?"
"Oh, she's great. She's in lance mode now, but she also has an artillery mode, rapid fire mode, armor mode, and her buster mode. I've got to warn you though, she's expensive in terms of cartridge use," Vita said, talking fast and gesturing.
"Really? I don't see a place to load them anywhere," Nanoha said, running her hands down the Device's shaft.
-All cartridges are kept in a sub-dimensional space. A thousand cartridges can be carried at once, and ten cartridges may be loaded per second- The Device chimed in.
"Ten per second?" Nanoha asked in shock. "That's insane! That's more magical energy than a tank uses!"
-Master Nanoha is much more dangerous than a tank. Combined, we are rated to win nine out of ten confrontations with a Grade A warship- Nanoha grinned, looking to Vita.
"I love her. Tell Hayate thanks for me okay?" She said, her smile turning softer. "Now you just need a name. Hmm. I want to honor your predecessor, Raising Heart. And the biggest spell I ever cast was the Holy Supernova. If you are built to surpass that, how about Holy Heart?"
/*/
Lancer watched as his Master flew through the sky, under the careful supervision of her girl. He was wearing a hawaiian shirt, and was currently fishing as the two danced in the air above the lake. He flicked his wrist, sending his line flying across the surface of the lake and glanced over his shoulder.
"Oye, you'll scare the fish away if you keep making such an ugly face," he said, as Arf glared at him, her lips curled in a scowl.
"Good. You don't deserve any fish," She growled, her arms crossed across her chest.
"Seriously? It's been almost a year now, and you still haven't forgiven me?" Lancer asked, rolling his eyes.
"You put a hole in Fate's chest! You ruined her dreams of being an Enforcer! And all because of some stupid desire to have a good fight! You don't deserve to have anything good anymore," Arf yelled, making Lancer sigh.
"Yeah, I get that. I crippled your Master twice over. Once through a fair fight, the other through my own recklessness. But you need to get over it," Lancer said.
"Get over it! How am I supposed to get over it when I've got to deal with you using Fate's mana every day? I feel your connection leeching off of her, and straining her. In fact, I bet she would've recovered twice as fast if you had just switched to another Master when they offered!" Arf yelled, even louder if possible.
"I doubt it," Lancer snorted. "Girl's got power to spare, that was never the problem. If anything, our bond helped her figure out how her magic had changed after her injury. And I'm not some dog who can be passed from Master to Master. Fate earned my loyalty the hard way, and I'll repay her valor with my service."
/*/
"We finally had our first full power spar the other day. I'm proud to say that Fate is basically fully recovered!" Nanoha said, cheerfully.
"That's good to hear," Rin said, on the other side of the safety glass. "Has she figured out what she wants to do yet?"
"No, not yet," Nanoha said, shaking her head. "For her health she needs a job that she can work locally. But she isn't really impressed with the local TSAB and wants something that lets her help people more directly. So she's actually started looking at jobs outside the TSAB."
"Huh. I'm surprised they'd let a mage like her slip through their fingers," Rin commented.
"Well it isn't like they can stop her," Nanoha pointed out. "Also if they tried to hold Fate against her will I'd obliterate them," she added, confidently.
-Correct Master. Any who cross us shall quake in fear- Holy Heart chimed in.
"That Mystic Code is a bad influence on you," Rin said, narrowing her eyes.
"She's a Device, not a Mystic Code, Rin. Still having trouble learning our terminology?" Nanoha corrected.
"A hammer or a shovel is a device. Something as advanced as her deserves a title with some more dignity. So Mystic Code," Rin said, stubbornly, looking away. Nanoha just giggled.
"Your research is going well?" Nanoha asked.
"Sorta. The math checks out, and I keep double checking while I wait for my request to properly see the experiment done to make its way through all the red tape," Rin said, sighing and propping her head up with her hand. "Otherwise just another boring day in prison."
"Well, have you made any new friends?" Nanoha asked.
"Not really," Rin said, arching an eyebrow. "Turns out the people you meet in prison are exactly the most savory of folks. We don't get along that well. Also please stop sending people you've personally beaten to this jail. That has got to be an abuse of power."
"No it isn't. It's very practical. I can get all my visits done in the same day this way," Nanoha said.
"That explains the fan club," Rin muttered, looking away.
"Hmm?" Nanoha cocked her head, leaning forward to hear Rin better.
"Never mind. Why do you visit criminal you catch anyways?" Rin asked.
"Well, I don't do it for every criminal I catch. It's only the ones who seem lonely," Nanoha said. "And if they don't have anyone, than I'm more than willing to lend a hand."
"Please never say those words to Maria," Rin said, shuddering and getting a curious look from Nanoha. "Anyways, it's not like I don't have any visitors. Sakura comes by now and then, and she even dragged Shirou along last time."
"Oh so you heard the news already?" Nanoha asked, cheerfully.
"Yeah, I'm happy for the both of them. They mentioned you've been training Shirou as well," Rin said, smiling.
"Mhmm!" Nanoha hummed, nodding. "I've been finding it really rewarding, you know? Plus I think it's the answer to Archer's challenge."
"How to save everyone, right?" Rin asked.
"Right! And he was right, it's impossible for one person to save everyone. There's too much to handle, and you'll inevitably have to sacrifice someone or something in order to succeed at saving anybody," Nanoha said, smiling nostalgically. "But there's nothing saying you have to fight alone. I can teach people to save people, and still save people myself. And working together we can save many more people than fighting alone."
"Heh, yeah, that idiot would never think of that," Rin said, her lips twisting in a bitter smile. "He was the sort that would think he had to handle everything himself. I'm glad to hear that you've found a better path."
"Aww, are you worried about me?" Nanoha teased, smiling.
"Don't get cocky," Rin said, sniffing and turning her head to the side. "These visits are a nice break from all the crazies you've got locked up here, that's all. And speaking of that, looks like our time is up," she added.
"Okay. Take care Rin!" Nanoha said, waving goodbye as she left.
"Idiot," Rin said, under her breath.
/*/
Fate sat with Nanoha as their ship docked at the Gate of Eden space station. It had been years since they last stepped on Earth, and they were stopping by to visit Lindy on their way to see Nanoha's parents. Fate had completed her rehabilitation, but had left the TSAB. Instead she ran an orphanage on behalf of the Saint Church, while Lancer worked as a private detective. Working together the pair had exposed more than one corrupt individual in the TSAB and had rescued many a child.
"Is Chrono coming?" Arf asked, picking up Fate's bags.
"Nah, said he's got some big wig meeting with the Admiralty Board about trying to draft Erio," Lancer said, stretching his arms behind his head.
"They better not," Nanoha said, scowling. "I know crime has been on the rise lately, but drafting children is going too far."
"Don't worry dear, I'm sure Hayate and Chrono will stop any attempt to write such a law," Fate said, grabbing Nanoha's hand.
"Thanks Fate," Nanoha said, kissing Fate on the cheek. "Now lets get going. I don't want to be late for the reunion!"
"Reunion?" Lancer asked, looking around.
"Weren't you listening when they told us earlier?" Arf asked, bitingly. "Shirou, Sakura, Illya, and everyone else from Earth are all coming as well."
"It should be fun," Fate said, smiling serenely.
"Smells like trouble to me. Or something. I just got a bad feeling for some reason," Lancer said, frowning. A white squirrel like creature shot past them.
"Fou come back! We've got to guide the guests!" A young girl yelled, chasing after the creature. "Ah! Excuse me!" she said, slipping through the group.
"Guests? Who could that be?" Nanoha asked.
"I'm not sure, but it could be something to do with the Animusphere and their project. Apparently it was recently finished, and they are doing the first run sometime this week," Fate said, shrugging. "We can ask Mom more over lunch."
"Sounds like a plan!" Nanoha said, leading the way through the crowded space station.
Author's Notes: Okay, this epilogue got out of hand and it still didn't cover everything I wanted it to. I've got to cut back on these, because these are supposed to be short and easily finished.
Anyways, the whole Holy Heart thing just came to me in a hilarious moment. It was meant to be significantly more mundane before I asked myself why Nanoha took months to replace Raising Heart and decided that it was Hayate's fault. Holy Heart was the best I could come up with name wise. Personality wise she's meant to be a cross between the meme version of Raising Heart, and Penny from RWBY.
I fully believe that Nanoha would visit the various criminals she personally arrested, at least the ones who were more on the 'slightly crazy, lonely, and misunderstood' side of things. And that those people would become more than a little obsessed with Nanoha as a result.
I couldn't really think of a way to properly segue into Lancer becoming a Private Eye, or Fate starting an orphanage. And this epilogue had dragged on long enough, so bleh, you get a quick summary in the last paragraph. Yes, Fate ends up 'retiring'. Instead Lancer typically finds himself in a bunch of trouble, usually involving some child or another in trouble, and drags Fate into the middle of it. This does not endear Lancer to Arf, but Fate is happy as she is still saving people.