Takeover II
"Fate-chan?" Nanoha's voice faltered.
The polished black stone in her pendant almost seemed to be mocking me with its innocence.
"Fate-chan, what's wrong?"
"The pendant," I muttered. "Where did you get it?"
"Huh? It's… from you?"
"When did I give it to you?"
"A long time ago…"
"When?" I raised my voice a little in my growing frustration.
"Fate-chan… why do you sound so mad?"
My throat felt tense. I let go of the pendant, instantly regretting my outburst.
Nanoha started backing away slowly. "Sorry. I went too far earlier. I shouldn't have-"
"No." I caught her hand. "I'm sorry. This isn't your fault. It's all this pendant. It's evil."
She looked at me with genuine confusion. "What do you mean?"
"Ever since I saw it, things have been happening."
"But- You're losing me, Fate-chan…"
I wasn't sure if I should tell her anything more. If this too was just another dream, what was the point? At the same time, I didn't know what else to do. I wanted to scream and break this cursed thing into pieces. Goodness knows I should have.
But then Nanoha's desperate warning from that fight on the rooftop came back to me. Would I really die if I broke the pendant? I had half a mind to risk it.
Nanoha took my clenched fist and hesitantly brought it up to her lips. "Is there any way I could help? Could you at least talk to me about it?"
My resolve to keep things to myself finally broke at the concerned look in her eyes.
"I've been waking up here over and over again for days," I blurted. My throat was so tight now it hurt to speak. "Always the same scenario; I'm injured, you visit, then weird things start happening, I lose consciousness and it just… repeats."
She kept caressing my hand. "What weird things?"
"Voices, visions, people I can't understand… I can never remember why I'm here. Or how I got here. My memories don't match the world around me, or they're just missing. Before I woke up here just now, something was trying to kill me, and I don't even know why. I was injured, but now I'm fine, and I learn that it was all just a comatose dream again.
"But you still have this pendant. You always have it. You have it on you every time I see you when I wake up. I don't know if this is real. I don't- I don't even know if you're real…" I choked up, suddenly feeling hot tears flowing down my cheeks.
Nanoha embraced me, whispering soothing words into my ear. "It must've been really hard on you, Fate-chan," she said while I kept pouring all my accumulated frustration out.
Something finally broke inside me that night and, just for a while, I let myself release these feelings of hopelessness and despair that built up over the past few days.
It took a couple of minutes but eventually I calmed down and my sobbing slowly subsided. Nanoha held me through all this time, not letting go even long after I stopped. Crying alone felt cathartic, and being enveloped by her was comforting me more than I thought possible. Dream or not, at least for this moment, I didn't want to care.
With my head somewhat clearer, I gave another try at figuring it out when my mind. Nanoha's arms remained wrapped around me.
The pendant was the only constant so far. Unless the memories I had from before my incidents were fake, or missing, there was no way I could have given it to Nanoha. Those strange visions I'd been experiencing were not helping either. Until I could take a look at my mission log, calling them flashbacks felt like a stretch, so I put that possibility aside for the time being.
That still left the matter of how Nanoha came across the pendant in the first place a mystery. And why it brainwashed her into thinking that it was me who gave it to her. Not to mention trapping me here, wherever here was.
I tried to consider every option. A spell, hallucination, dream, parallel world… None of them made me feel optimistic.
And then there was the voice talking to me, nondescript, as if a thought glitched my brain into actually hearing it. At the same time, it was like it tried to tell me something. To communicate. To warn me…
Then maybe that would mean that the letters on the mirror were not a threat, but a message. And if that was correct, then-
"Hey, Fate-chan?" Nanoha whispered.
I didn't get to finish my thought but at that point my mind was already settled. "Yes?"
"You… were serious about everything you told me, weren't you."
"I was."
She stroked my hair quietly for a few seconds before asking, "What are you going to do?"
"I don't know. I want to find out why I'm here. And how to get out."
"So you think that this is all a dream after all."
I nodded.
"... I'm sorry, it's just all so hard to believe… Not that I don't-! I mean- Does this mean that I…" she trailed off, but I thought I knew what she was trying to say.
"I don't know," I confessed, putting my finger on her lips. "Dream or not, you're still Nanoha to me."
"Then… would you kiss me again? For just a little longer, I want to stay here with you."
Her lips looked as inviting as always and I reached out for them. "Anytime," I whispered before she met me half-way.
We sneaked through the empty corridors of the hospital, me still in my green hospital attire, Nanoha in her slightly crumpled uniform.
Raising Heart floated in front of us. "Turn left, Master," she said when we reached an intersection. "I do not detect any other human forms here either."
"Good thing Midchildans count as humankind," I muttered, looking right and left for any way to the outside we could use. Finally, we came upon a service exit. "I can't believe we're doing this."
"Feels a little exciting?" Nanoha chuckled, following me on the ladder.
We opened the hatch on top and found ourselves on the very rooftop. The thick blanket of clouds over our heads reflected the city lights, making the dark around us somewhat more bearable.
I shivered when a cold gust of wind rushed at us. Nanoha wrapped her jacket around my shoulders.
"Aren't you going to be cold?" I tried to make out, my jaw all tense from trying to keep my own teeth from chattering.
"I'm used to it," she mustered a smile, then took my hand. "Want me to give you a ride?" she winked.
"I- I'll be fine."
When we took off, her fingers were still tightly clasped around mine.
We flew across the night sky, with hundreds of tiny lights of Cranagan passing below us.
Maybe it was the feature of the dream itself, or the fact that I was lacking my device, but I found using magic much more difficult than usual. My body quickly warmed up just from what it took to keep myself up in the air, and soon I started feeling what seemed like the result of a three years long coma.
By the time we landed in front of our house, I was winded and lightheaded. Still, the Midchildan life-support technology was quite impressive, all things considered.
We entered quietly inside.
"Is Vivio home?" I whispered.
"She's… at her friend's."
"Oh, Einhard?"
The lights went on and Nanoha looked at me with surprise. "How did you know?"
"I've… seen it happen before."
"Oh…" A shadow crossed her eyes but she didn't ask anything more, turning away from me instead.
We walked upstairs. The door to my home office opened smoothly, revealing my desk with not a speck of dust on it. Bardiche rested on a tiny, red pillow in the middle.
The image of him breaking flashed into my mind and a huge weight fell off my shoulders at his sight as a whole.
Nanoha looked away shyly. "Hahaha… I tried to keep it clean for you, in case you…" she trailed off. "Oh! I'll be right back." She jogged toward the door and turned right.
In the meantime, I sat at my desk.
Bardiche flashed to life. "Welcome back, Sir! It is good to see you again in full health."
Still floating around, Raising Heart blinked and said, "It is, in fact, seventy-three percent health. That is still impressive, however, and I can see why you want to keep your master in high spirits."
"With all due respect," he replied, "Mana depletion was not meant to be accounted for. Estimated recovery time: four days."
"Good to see you had company, Bardiche," I muttered, running my finger across his perfectly smooth golden edges. Then, I brought up my computer screen, navigating again to the mission log.
Nanoha came back with clothes hanging over her arm. "I brought your uniform- oh, what's up?" She stopped behind me and leaned over my shoulder.
We both stared for a moment at the "Access denied" on the screen. Her breath was tickling my neck.
"Looks like I got myself another constant," I muttered. "Someone's been deliberately trying to keep me out of the remote system." I briefly explained the issue to her.
"Hmm… Oh!Maybe we should contact Hayate? Have her grant you all the permissions back?"
"I kind of tried that already- wait, you remember Hayate?"
She tilted her head. "Why wouldn't I remember Hayate?"
That was getting confusing.
"I don't know, everyone acted weird whenever I asked them about her. And her office was… empty."
"Oh," she pondered. "Thinking about it, I kinda haven't heard from her in a… while…" She brought up a call screen.
Hayate didn't pick up. I tried blaming the late hour when we caught a sleepy-sounding Rein instead.
"Get Hayate on the call?" She repeated my question. "Oh! Um, I actually don't know where she is…"
Nanoha looked at me with confusion.
"Is she still working?" she asked.
"Uhh… could be, maybe, I… don't think I've seen her recently…" A loud yawn sounded from the other side.
"That… wasn't helpful," I commented when we finished the call. "I guess I have to try the office again after all." Not that I expected to find much there, but at that point I had no better ideas. I sighed, taking my uniform from Nanoha and getting up to change. Then I halted. "Say, Nanoha, about Shamal…"
"She died protecting you," Nanoha replied. Her voice broke ever so slightly. "So did Signum."
Another pang wrenched my gut. "Signum too…?" I hoped to hell that it was all some sort of twisted nightmare…
She nodded, edging closer to me, and placing her hand on my cheek. "You're a good person, Fate-chan, but you should go back to where you came from," she said, giving me a bittersweet smile. "This place is only filled with sadness."
She ran her fingers through my hair while my mouth hung open, speechless. Back then, it made no sense to me why she'd so willingly throw away her own promise of happiness for my sake.
As if she knew what was going through my mind, Nanoha tip-toed and gave me a brief kiss on the lips. She had been doing it from time to time since the hospital and it pained me each time to think of her being left alone here all these years.
She felt so real that I found it hard to see her as just a part of the dream, and I soon found myself asking, if I managed to wake up, what would happen to her?
"Let's go," she whispered, pulling back. Her hands slid off my shoulders. "I'm sure your friends are waiting for you, on the other side."
I nodded and quickly started changing. Without her warmth, the ever-present cold was even more difficult to ignore.
She watched me, leaning against the desk. "The Fate-chan I remember would never let me look," she commented with a sly smile.
My cheeks warmed up a little. "We're married, you know. In the reality that I remember."
Her mouth formed into an O. "That explains why you keep letting me get away with this," she chuckled. The laughter died quickly.
"... Why are you helping me leave?"
"Because you need help," she stated without hesitation.
I guess some things never change.
We flew hand-in-hand. We were nearing GHQ when Nanoha received the call.
"Captain Takamachi, we have an emergency - Enforcer Fate T. Harlaown was reported missing from the Cranagan Military Hospital, we're calling all standby units to be on the lookout."
"Roger that," she replied, then terminated the transmission.
"So, are you going to escort me back, Ma'am?"
"Who's talking about escorting?"
"You're unbelievable," I gave her an amused look and she grinned at me in reply.
I turned my head back toward our destination just before Nanoha wavered in the air next to me.
"Hey, are you okay?" I asked.
She was suddenly clawing at her chest with her hand. "I'm fine," she uttered, but her flight was becoming increasingly unsteady.
I wrapped my arm around her waist to stabilize her and urged her toward the ground.
She struggled, still flying forward. "It's okay, I'll manage."
She managed just barely. The moment we landed at the main entrance, she sank down to her knees, breathing heavily.
I kneeled down next to her, holding tightly onto the arm she placed over my shoulders. "Nanoha, what's wrong?!"
We were almost immediately surrounded by the HQ security. "Captain Takama- Officer Harlaown?!"
"Everybody calm down!" I commanded. "You, get the medic!"
"Yes Ma'am!"
Nanoha's breathing seemed to be getting better, less erracting. Still, she remained clung onto me, her fingers digging painfully into my arm. I held her, waiting for help to arrive.
Another mage walked up to me. "Ma'am! We're under orders to escort you back to the hospital-"
"Tell them to look for my AMA form," I interrupted him. Nanoha was still panting and sweating, but at least she looked calmer than a while ago. "Can you talk, Nanoha?" I asked, rubbing her back.
She nodded. "Y- yeah. Sorry…" Leaning on me, she stood up on shaky legs. "I just… felt like I was about to faint for a second… hahaha… I'm okay now."
Her hands were trembling but she quickly took them off me and clenched them into fists when she noticed my gaze.
"We should go," she said, straightening up. The mask was back in place. She waved the approaching medic off and strode inside the building.
Feeling many curious eyes on my back, I followed.
"Don't you want to rest a little?" I asked, catching up with her.
"No need."
I knew this tone. In other words, Don't try to stop me, I'm doing this anyway.
Possibly due to the late hour, no one actually tried to stop us. The guards at the teleportation pods cleared off the moment they saw the look on Nanoha's face. In a blink of an eye, we were on the other side.
We walked side by side through the corridors of the Main Headquarters. If something still was wrong, Nanoha showed no sign of it.
Other mages made space for us, some gaped at me as if they saw a ghost. Having gone through that a few times lately, I quickly stopped paying attention.
I expected to see more blurred-out people but, surprisingly enough, everyone looked and talked normally.
A few minutes later, we rounded the last corner, entering the corridor where our offices were located. If the battle from the day before had really happened, there was no sign of it now.
"Should we look for Hayate first?" Nanoha asked.
The door to Hayate's office was closed. No sound came from the other side, and yet I still felt uneasy just by standing near it. Something told me we wouldn't find her inside. "I have a bad feeling. Let's check my mission log first, it'll take just a moment."
I could feel the tension building up in the pit of my stomach when I reached out to open the door to my office. It slid open smoothly, giving us a peek into the darkness of the room behind it.
Turning the light on, we stepped inside. Nanoha closed the door while I took a seat behind my desk, powering up my in-office device. Multiple screens appeared in front of me, flashing with thousands of notifications and unread messages.
"At least now I know I'd hate my actual return to work after a 3-year long coma," I muttered, finally locating the mission log.
A credentials prompt popped up. I hadn't realized I had been holding my breath as I typed my login and password in until I felt immense relief when it got through.
I scrolled through the reports of cases that listed me as a participant, looking for anything out of place. Most were just regular Administrated Worlds cases. The couple of Non-administrated World missions I took part in were also the ones I clearly remembered.
The latest log was dated over three years ago - the Huckenbein Family case… A painful jab went through my gut again and a part of me wanted to open the report. The other part resisted.
Nothing before that mission seemed out of the ordinary. Nothing was missing.
Just when exactly did I give the pendant to Nanoha…?
"Nanoha-" I started.
She was on the floor with her back against the closed door. Her head hung down lifelessly.
"Nanoha!" I sprang up and dashed to her side. The chair behind me crashed into the wall.
My heart stopped for a brief second before I felt for her pulse and breath. She was only unconscious.
I pulled her chin gently up to take a better look at her when her eyes shot open.
Horrible, empty eyes. She stared at me impassively, her pupils stretched so much that they nearly covered the whole irises.
"Nanoha?" I called, waving my hand in front of her face to no avail. "Nanoha, you're creeping me out," I shook her shoulder lightly.
Her hands found mine, patting them blindly, and crept toward my shoulders. When they reached my throat, her fingers suddenly clenched around it.
"Nano-...-ha!" I uttered, trying to get her hands off my neck.
She pushed me on the floor, sitting on my stomach and pinning me to the ground.
I clawed at her fingers to get them off, but they were like steel.
"S-... sto-...-p…" I pleaded, gasping for air. There was no reaction. Then the grip tightened.
The pressure in my head grew. My vision was darkening.
Something dangled above my face. A pendant. I reached out for it, grabbing the chain, and yanked it with all my might.
With a sudden, blinding flash, the pressure and the pain were gone.
I came round to the sounds of weeping and the feeling of something heavy on my chest. Breathing felt unusually hard, and the ceiling looked weird after I opened my eyes.
Seconds later what I thought was the ceiling turned out to be the wall, while I was sprawled on the floor with someone else on top of me.
Inside my mind was a mess. Then the most recent memory came back to me and my situation started making sense again.
"N- haa…" I wheezed, dragging my hand up to massage my hurting throat.
The crying continued. With my other hand, I reached out toward the source and patted the chestnut-colored head in the bottom of my vision. She pushed my hand away. I tried again.
She gave up eventually and I buried my fingers in her hair, stroking it gently.
"Nanoha," I said telepathically. "Talk to me…."
A choked-up sob came from somewhere below. I kept rubbing her head while she cried into my chest. Eventually, I wrapped my arms around her.
"It wasn't your fault," I continued. "It was that cursed pendant."
When she didn't reply, I tried sitting up. The sudden change of position gave me a pulsing headache, making me lie back down immediately. When the pain dissipated, I tried again, slower.
Nanoha backed away against the wall and hugged her knees. The broken chain hung down from between her clenched fingers - now covered with blood and scratch marks left by my nails.
I crawled toward her, resting next to her and gently making her look at me. Other than being puffy and red, her eyes were back to normal but as soon as they met mine, they were filled with tears again. I carefully wiped them away.
"Fate…chan," she uttered before throwing her arms around me. "I didn't-... I couldn't-... I-..." she was choking on her words.
Rubbing her back, I patiently waited for her to calm down before I tried again, "Nanoha, it's okay now."
She hesitantly pulled back, looking at my face, then down to my throat. Her hands fell down onto her lap. "How can you just… when I almost-..."
"Because it wasn't you." Attempting a smile, I picked her hands up, bringing her bloodied fingers to my lips. "I'm sorry for hurting your hands."
"My-…" her eyes followed mine, then looked back at me and repeated, "How can you be so calm…?"
I leaned in and kissed her forehead in reply before trying to stand up. She sprang to her feet, pulling my arm over her shoulder and holding me around my waist for support. Together we staggered toward my desk.
Sitting in my chair, I brought up my mailbox on one of the screens and scanned through the incoming messages. As expected, the one I was looking for was also nowhere to be found.
I rested my elbows on the desk, propping my forehead on my hands.
"Fate-chan…?" Nanoha asked in a small voice.
"Don't worry, I'm just thinking," I kept replying using telepathy. My throat was still throbbing and each larger intake of air resulted in terrible wheezing. "Nanoha… do you trust me?"
She looked surprised at first, but then steeled herself and nodded.
"Then I think I know what to do next. But there's something I need to show you first."
I tried standing up. She offered me a hand and caught me when I stumbled. Facing each other, we were now so close I could see the tiny beads of sweat forming on her brow.
"Fate-chan, you're confusing me…" she mumbled.
"It's okay, Nanoha." I held on to her tightly, resting my forehead against hers. We were in for a long ride. "I remember now. I remember everything."
I closed my eyes. The memories of all that took place had been rattling in my mind since I regained consciousness. Everything before my awakenings in the hospital, those dreams I'd been trapped in, all mixed and mashed into a jumbled mess in my head. One by one, I disentangled them, only this time letting Nanoha in to see.
A/N: AMA stands for Against Medical Advice.
