A/N: Thank you for all the comments and reviews, both here and in private!

In case you're wondering, the reason why I don't write Nanoha's laughter as "nyahaha" is that I feel I'd be copying some older writers from the fandom who started this trend.


Out of Time II

"Hold on tight," Signum said with her eyes focused on the monster charging at us.

She revved the engine and we shot forward with a screech.

The car slipped right under the massive body, knocking its legs off the ground. The black mass crashed against the roof, cracking the windshield with its weight. It then fell back on the road, rolling for another few meters before going still.

With another screech, we came to a halt right in front of the hole in the asphalt.

When we got out, the creature was still down. Its limbs and claws twitched, twisted awkwardly in all directions, making loud, sickening noises of bones grinding against each other.

Transforming, Signum drew her sword and strode toward the beast, then swiftly cut off its head.

The twitching came to a stop and a trail of red blood flowed down the street.

"Looks like that settles it," she said, shaking the blood off and sheathing the blade. "I wonder how many of these is after us. We'll have to look for the injured one later."

With Bardiche at the ready, I stepped closer to the corpse, far enough to stay out of reach of the claws.

"Seeing anything interesting?" Signum asked when I kneeled down to take a better look at it.

The cut-off head looked much like one of a giant dog's, with a long, pointed muzzle and pointy ears. The eyes were black, with gold rims around them like some elaborate makeup. A straight line of fur on the forehead had a similar golden hue.

"I've honestly never seen anything like it before," I commented, watching the subtle patterns on the fur. Around the severed neck I spotted another gold-cast pendant, also eye-shaped.

As expected, the shackles around the ankles had them, too. I scanned the rest of the thick golden chain wrapped around the body.

"Testarossa, we should be on the move. It's like they came out of nowhere."

"Wait," I said, edging closer. I found the fourth pendant around one of the wrists. The fifth one (assuming they were symmetrical) was nowhere to be seen.

What I thought to be the missing chain was hanging down the beast's broken arm. The rest of it disappeared somewhere among the fur. With my heart almost in my throat, I hooked my finger around one of the links and gave it a tug.

The chain's end fell out, a part of its last link looked cleanly cut off.

"Signum? Do you still have that chain piece?"

"Yes, why?"

"I don't think there's any more of-"

The arm twitched.

I scrambled back in shock when the corpse started moving again. "Signum!" I warned, getting up on my feet.

She immediately had Laevatein in her hands.

I tied the flailing limbs up with a bind and she plunged the fiery sword into the body but the blade sank in the asphalt when the headless monster rolled out of its way.

The bindings broke with a shockwave that sent us on our backs. In a flash, the beast was upon us again, its head back in place.

We dodged to the sides of the road, getting pushed further away by the impact as it crashed into the car.

"We can't let it rampage here like that!" I shouted, shielding myself from glass and shrapnels when the fuel tank exploded.

"Any ideas?" Signum shouted back from behind her own shield.

"Bardiche, Wide Area Force Field!"

"Unable, Sir."

But we could use magic-! "I'll use a stronger bind! Cut it down before the AMF is back!" I didn't wait for her confirmation and loaded the first cartridge into my device, then lowered my shields.

Bardiche flashed in my hands. "Lightning Bind!"came with it

Four golden rings caught the monster's limbs and stretched it out in the air. To my left, Signum jumped out and slashed her sword twice across the beast's body.

The chains rattled when it broke out of the bindings again, dodging both attacks. It raked its claws at Signum's side, throwing her at the ground.

With Bardiche in its Zanber form, I joined the fray, aiming at the exposed back of the beast. It spun around before I reached it and the back of its arm hit me in the shoulder, sending me at the nearby building.

Bouncing off my shield, I loaded another cartridge and slashed again.

The hilt nearly slipped from my hands when my opponent trapped the blade between its claws, then yanked and threw me to the side. My body connected mid-air with Signum's and we both fell into the hole in the road.

Before I even moved, it pounced again. I raised my shields, deflecting the attacker. The momentum sent the monster further down the road.

"We have to get it out into the open area!" Signum was back on her feet. She swept her Schlangeform Laevatein toward the beast, forcing it back and out of her sword's range.

"I'll lure it out," I said. "This thing is after me."

I braced myself and took off, relieved that the AMF was still down. As expected, the monster immediately lost interest in Signum and climbed the nearby building in just a few leaps, then pounced at me.

It aimed too high and I managed to speed up at the last moment, avoiding its claws. Still keeping track of its position, I meandered in the air in random patterns, drawing it closer to the edge of the city.

My heart was beating furiously and I was drenched in sweat.

"Testarossa, its aim is getting better," Signum communicated to me telepathically, flying directly below us.

"I know, we're almost there." If only we could lure it somewhere to take a good shot at it…

"Below you! Watch out!"

I tried to dodge by flying higher but the claw caught my leg. I felt a pull, then sharp pain exploded in my calf.

"It grew wings!" Signum continued.

It came at me again from below. Just barely dodging it this time, I cast a shield for safe measure and plunged down into the labyrinth of concrete again.

"Try to cut them off," I commanded. "I'll keep it occupied."

With my leg burning with pain, I lowered my altitude and veered right to avoid a building. The loud crash from behind me told me the beast did not.

This wasn't going to be enough to stop it. I sped up.

"Sir, your mana output is nearing its maximum capacity," Bardiche spoke up as I gained speed. "Any further increase risks damage to your Linker Core."

"I know, just a little more," I uttered back and loaded two more cartridges, then turned around mid-air. "Photon Lancer!" Still moving fast and hoping there was nothing behind me, I aimed at the black thing gaining on me. "Fire!"

All projectiles hit the target, raising clouds of smoke.

The city around me and my opponent suddenly got blurry, then disappeared completely within white vapor. Despite my momentum, the white, impenetrable fog remained around me. At first I thought I overdid it, I was losing consciousness, but nothing else followed.

"Signum?" I called out telepathically but there was no reply.

Afraid of crashing into a building, I slowed down. In the complete silence there was only the sound of my own heart pounding, and my erratic breathing. My injured leg pulsed with pain on every beat.

"Bardiche, scan the area," I panted out.

"All clear, Sir. No hostiles detected."

"Again."

An obedient blink and, "No hostiles detected."

There must have been something jamming my radar now.

The fog was so heavy I could barely see my own hands. Carefully, I descended down toward the ground. Something was off. There was no moisture in the air, neither hot nor cold.

I kept descending, or I thought I did, but my feet never touched the ground. There was not even the slightest feeling of movement.

"Bardiche, what's our position?"

"All transmitters out of reach, Sir."

We couldn't have been that far off the ground.

I tried moving in other directions, all with similar effect. "Try contacting Nanoha," I said, not even hoping for success.

"Unreachable."

"TSAB GHQ."

"Unreachable."

"Try Signum."

"Unreachable."

I groaned, giving up on that path.

For a while I just floated around, impassively playing with my hair and my cape floating along with me.

"Bardiche, what time is it?"

"According to my internal clock, it is 1305 hours, Sir."

Nodding to myself, I kept playing with my very much inert clothing. It didn't feel like zero gravity, at least not in my guts.

I took a cartridge out of my pocket, then brought it to my eye level and let go. The shell kept floating in the air.

I tried moving to its right and much like I would when flying, it moved away from me, to the left. Then I tried circling around it, keeping it as a reference point. It was barely visible but looked unaffected by my movement.

Earlier I somehow flew in here, maybe there was a way of flying out.

"Bardiche, what's our computed position?"

"Starting calculations based on recorded movement… Approximate location: 26 degrees, 21 minutes, 28.4 seconds north, 127 degrees, 47 minutes, 01.7 seconds east."

"Set TSAB GHQ as our destination and navigate."

"Starting navigation to a new destination point, Sir. Target's on the bearing of thirty-two degrees within nine kilometers range."

I reached my hand out and placed the shell in front of me again, then moved toward it. It looked like the trick was still working. I did it a few more times. When I gained a bit more confidence in the supposed movement, I closed my eyes and focused on flying straight forward.

It felt like I floated there forever. The constant sensory deprivation was starting to drive me crazy and, ironically enough, it was the pulsing pain in my leg that was keeping me sane.

Every once in a while, Bardiche corrected my direction based on his calculations.

I gave the control up and focused solely on our destination, not even daring to think what if it didn't work.

A horn sounded in front of me and I flew up just in time to avoid getting hit by a car that suddenly appeared on a dark street.

Hovering above, I nearly cried of relief when a gust of cold wind hit my face. It carried the smell of rain.

"Bardiche, what time is it?" I asked, landing on top of a nearby building.

My leg gave out immediately and I plopped on the cold concrete, but I didn't think I could hold myself up in the air for much longer either.

"0137 hours, Sir."

It was past one in the afternoon when we left. I was stuck in there for so long? Around me, the streets looked innocently normal.

The GHQ towers turned out to be pretty close, close enough to get there in maybe forty minutes by foot, for a healthy person. In my current condition, that might as well have been the other side of the city.

The temptation of lying down for just a moment was too hard to resist and I rested my back and head on the cold rooftop, contemplating how to go about reaching my destination. Maybe calling someone would work now.

The Universe must have listened because a screen popped out suddenly next to me.

"Fate-chan, you're finally- Fate-chan?!" Nanoha's holographic face hovered above me as I lay sprawled out on the concrete roof.

"Hi," I gave her a tiny wave, feeling myself smiling despite everything at the sound of her voice. "I'm okay. We really have to stop meeting like this."

"What are you talking about? I've been trying to reach you for so long, you just went off all radars! What in the world happened?!"

My smile faltered at her panicked voice. Her hair kept whipping around in the wind. "Nanoha, where are you?"

"I'm coming to get you, of course! We've been combing through the whole city since Signum managed to contact us!"

"Signum did? Where is she? What did she say?"

In my focus on getting out of that fog and to HQ, I completely forgot how I got there in the first place.

"She and Agito are helping with the search. She said the two of you got attacked en-route, and then you just disappeared in the middle of the chase, along with the attacker."

So that thing disappeared, too…

I sighed with relief, feeling bad at the same time about being so preoccupied with my own whereabouts that I didn't even consider what happened to Signum.

Bringing my aching hands to my face, I rubbed my temples, startling when Nanoha's voice came from behind me, "then the contact with the hospital was restored and it turns out that somehow you're being targeted by some immortal monster!" A pair of boots thump-ed softly against the rooftop. Kneeling behind my head, Nanoha soothed, "Fate-chan really has some talent for risking her life..."

She brushed the matted hair off my forehead, caressing my cheek with her other hand. Our eyes locked and her flushed face got closer, so very warm against my skin when she kissed me.

Then she pulled back and the coldness washed over me again. With the utmost care, she placed my head on her lap and put her arms protectively around me.

She looked me up and down, sighing when she saw my leg. "Shamal will be here soon," she said. "We'll take you to HQ."

We waited alone on the rooftop, her kneeling down, me with my head on her lap. Somewhere in the distance, a helicopter approached.

"-un-" I heard suddenly.

"Come again?"

Nanoha didn't reply, looking lost in thoughts, her eyes focused on somewhere far away.

"Run-" I heard it again. Much clearer now.

I sat up. Save for the two of us, the rooftop was empty. "Nanoha? I could swear someone was talking to me, but-" I broke off when a black shape collided with the approaching helicopter.

The machine went down in flames.

"Nanoha we have to go," I was dragging myself up to my feet, propping against Bardiche. "Nanoha!"

She was sitting still, her mouth slightly open.

"Nanoha!" I repeated, shaking her arm. Still no reaction.

An explosion lit up the horizon. The shape was getting closer. A sudden pop sound of the helicopter crashing into the ground reached us and echoed off the buildings.

"Bardiche, load cartridge."

The mechanism clanged and spat out an empty shell. "Sir, immediate retreat is advised, you are in no condition to fight."

"Like that's an option," I muttered, focusing on the incoming enemy.

"-dant-" That nondescript voice came again.

The shape grew larger. I had little advantage, there was no time for games.

"Pen-... -t," it said once more. "Pe-... -ndant…"

I spun around. Or tried to, then my injured leg gave out again and I dropped down on one knee. There was no one else on the roof except for the still unresponsive Nanoha.

Behind me, a shriek pierced the silence, getting closer.

"Des-...roy-"

Maybe taking the gamble was my only option.

"I'm sorry, Nanoha," I whispered, reaching into her Barrier Jacket with my shaking hand. Finding the pendant on her neck, I yanked it, breaking the chain. Gripping Bardiche tighter in my other hand, I was ready to smash the item to pieces.

The monster stopped dead in its flight some ten meters away from us.

Nanoha wobbled to one side. I tried to catch her one-handedly, before she hit the concrete, but ended up falling along with her. Bardiche slipped out of my hand. When I got up to my uninjured knee again, the creature was perched on a neighboring building ridge, watching me carefully.

It looked perfectly still, not moving even to take a breath.

"This is what you're after, isn't it?" I asked, raising the pendant in front of me.

It gave no response.

"Who are you?" I tried again, with a similar result. Not that I expected an answer.

I felt Nanoha stir next to me.

"Fate-chan…?"

She looked up at me, confused. The statue-like monster did not leave its spot.

"Fate-chan, what's- No, Fate-chan, you can't!" she screamed suddenly, lurching at me to get a hold of the pendant.

Her reaction startled me but I managed to take my hand away before she grabbed it. My wrist burned from the scratches her nails left. "Nanoha, calm down!" I held her with my other hand.

"Fate-chan you can't destroy the pendant!"

"Easy, Nanoha! I wasn't-!"

She kept thrashing in my one-armed hold, almost knocking me over. "You'll die if it's destroyed!" she started crying hysterically.

"Nanoha…!"

The monster lept toward us, reaching out for me with its claws.

I let go of the pendant and raised my shields instead but it broke through them one by one.

A blazing bolt hit it just before it reached me.

I squinted my eyes. The creature shrieked in front of me.

In a pirouette of flames, Signum slashed at it, setting it ablaze and dragging it away from the spot where Nanoha and I were.

The chains rattled against the concrete as the creature burned and thrashed around. When the last ember scattered, Signum landed next to us and went out of unison.

"We should stop meeting like this, Testarossa."

"Is it dead…?" I asked, weary from all the adrenaline that was slowly starting to leave my body.

"Doubt it. It disappeared before I got to finish it. Agito," she turned to her Unison Device. "Secure the area."

"Yes, Ma'am," Agito said, saluting before flying away.

Signum knelt down next to me and the still-weeping Nanoha, and gave me a questioning look.

I imagined that seeing Nanoha cry was unusual in and of itself. Seeing her bawling like she was now in the middle of a battle must have been straight up shocking.

I tried soothing her, shaking her at one point, but she just wouldn't calm down. Eventually, I shook my head in defeat, picking the pendant up from the concrete.

"Testarossa, that eye-"

"I know, I'll explain later," I said. "Keep your guard up, I don't know what's going to happen." I reached out and put the pendant back around Nanoha's neck, tying it clumsily.

As if I flipped a switch inside her, the weeping died down almost instantly and she fell forward. I caught her in my arms, properly this time.

When she started stirring, Nanoha sat up on her own and asked, "Ahahah, where are we?" as she looked at me and then at Signum.

Her expression slowly went from listless to perplexed.

"Fate-chan… What happened to you?"

Signum placed her hand on Nanoha's shoulder. "Do you not remember what happened?"

"Do I… Huh? I feel like I was asleep…"

I turned to Signum, "We should get back to the HQ, maybe Shamal will know what to do."

"Reinforcements should be here any minute," Signum said. "Put some pressure on that wound, Testarossa. I'm amazed you still haven't bled out."


We were transported to the infirmary at Ground Headquarters. Inside, we passed several other mages being patched up by doctors, including a very much pissed-off Vita, also with a few bandages on her own (Shamal told me later that she was on-board the destroyed helicopter).

I made sure that Nanoha, despite, or rather precisely because of her confusion, got her own treatment first.

When Shamal finally got around to take care of my injuries, I gave in to my exhaustion.

I woke up some fourteen hours later, according to the doctor. I say that because, coincidentally, the clock in the GHQ infirmary wasn't working as well. At least not in the way I would expect it to work, constantly displaying "43:11".

It also seemed that I was the only one having trouble telling the time. Nanoha woke up before me, about six hours ago, she said. She also brought me a meal - the MREs served in the infirmary were pretty bland, but at least I was already used to their taste.

"Signum told me more or less what happened," she said while I was devouring the second portion she brought. "It's weird, I don't remember it at all. I don't even remember talking to you, or finding you on that rooftop…"

For a moment, I contemplated whether to tell her what I saw in that dream of mine back in our bedroom (I settled on calling it a dream for the sake of my sanity). Deciding against adding to her confusion, I squeezed her hand. "We'll find out what's going on," I said instead.

All the while, the desperation in Nanoha's voice at the rooftop echoed in my head.

My medical follow-up with Shamal later that day revealed my injuries to be more or less fully healed, so I got moved from the infirmary to a private room. The scar on my leg was probably there to stay.

All I had to do now was get some rest.

"By rest, I meant not working," Shamal scolded me after she found out that I had requested all information on ancient Egyptian eye symbols be sent from the Infinity Library to my device.

"Come on, Shamal, this cannot wait," I argued back. "You saw Nanoha and that monster, something's definitely up."

"I know, I've already assisted Signum in making her report to start the investigation. After the damage that thing caused, I'm expecting half of the Midchildan branch to be mobilized."

"Then why can't I start when I already know where to look?"

"That's not for me to decide. I did, however, report that you're suffering from episodic memory loss after your accident, and we haven't even had the time to confirm that this is the only issue."

"There's nothing else."

"And how exactly can you tell? During the time of your scheduled examinations, you were being chased by a monster."

"Because-" -I've already had those in my dream and they didn't reveal anything. I stopped myself before saying all that, realizing how ridiculous that would sound.

Shamal put her hand on my shoulder. "Fate, I understand how you feel and I wish there was something I could do to help. But for your and our safety, you should rest"

I sighed. "I know. I'm sorry for constantly causing you problems, it's just starting to look more and more personal. This creature was after me, and maybe after Nanoha, too. Too many weird things have been happening around me lately."

"Weird things?" Shamal sat down on a chair next to my bed.

"Weird noises, disembodied voices, people speaking in weird languages, fake or missing memories, the list goes on."

"Fate, how long have you been experiencing those?"

"Since I saw that pendant back- in my dream," I stressed the last part bitterly. "Look, if I can save Nanoha by risking my health, then I will. If I have to, I'll ask Hayate to back me up on-"

For a few very long seconds, Shamal just looked at me in silence.

"Where's Hayate?" I asked her. "I know things have been hectic, but I haven't heard from her even once since I woke up. That's… unusual."

She kept staring at me without a word.

"Shamal? Is she okay?"

She stood up, completely ignoring my questions.

"Shamal, wait! What happened?"

"Make sure to rest, Fate," she smiled politely. "I'll reschedule the examinations for tomorrow morning, so get some sleep in the meantime."

"Shamal!" I shouted after her but she just closed the door behind her. "Bardiche, call Hayate."

My heart pounded in my throat while I waited for the call to connect.

A high-pitched voice answered eventually, sound-only, "Yagami residence, how can I help you?"

"Reinforce? Is Hayate somewhere around?"

"Ah, it's Fate! What can I do for you?"

"Just get Hayate to the phone," I blurted. "Please."

"Are you still there? The connection is kind of noisy…"

"Hayate, I was asking about Hayate."

"Fate? I'm sorry, could you repeat that?"

"Nevermind." I terminated the call in frustration, then took a few deep breaths.

I was just being paranoid. Hayate was fine, she was probably just as busy as usual. There was no way anything would happen to her without me hearing a single word about it.

So focused on my breathing, a signal of an incoming call made me jump in my bed.

"Hi, Fate," Yuuno's face appeared on the screen. "I've just sent you the data you requested. I also wanted to ask you something."

"Ask away, I'm an open book."

He pushed his glasses higher up his nose. "Why do you suddenly need all this information?"

As expected, he didn't seem to remember us having a conversation in the Library. "Just checking a hunch."

"Fate, I've heard about yesterday's incident."

"Oh."

"I also have access to Signum's report as a Chief Librarian and Archiver."

Now I was confused. "Then you must know why I asked for it?"

"Yes, and if it's in regard to the case, then I'm afraid you're wasting your time."

"Wasting-? How can you be so sure?"

"Because there was never any other source of magic confirmed on Earth. I'm amazed that you remembered anything about ancient Egypt from the time you spent there but we've already screened the planet thoroughly."

"Are you saying that the shape is just a coincidence?"

"I don't know. All I'm saying is that you're probably looking on the wrong planet."

I pondered on his words for a moment. "Nanoha said I brought it for her from one of my missions. Could it be that a similar symbol exists in some other world?" Just as in my dream, I was once again locked out of the remote system.

"Not to the Library's knowledge. But maybe it's something that hasn't been recorded yet."

"Okay. And what about the creature that chased me?"

"Nothing that matches what you described. I'll keep looking. Admittedly, some depictions of certain Egyptian gods are somewhat similar…"

"So there is a connection."

"Circumstantial, at best."

I nodded. In the end, it came down to checking my mission logs. "By the way, Yuuno? Have you heard from Hayate lately?" I asked before disconnecting.

"I'm sorry, come again? The line glitched out for a moment."

"Nevermind. Thanks for your help."

I could almost see a pattern in those replies and it wasn't a good sign.

One way or another, I had a trip to the Main Headquarters to make. Provided that Hayate was there, I could just pay her a visit. Her office was, after all, next to mine.

I glanced again at yet another useless clock in my room and shook my head. This consistency at least was nothing short of amazing. Then, I stripped from my hospital gown and started putting on my Enforcer uniform.

"Bardiche, what time is it?" I asked, buttoning up my jacket.

"It is time for you to get a watch, Sir."