AN: And now things start to really go off the rails.

Ghost of Los Angeles: Honestly, at this point I'm a little surprised everyone likes my character writing so much. Not complaining!

Guest 1: Not too hard as long as you're willing to take things off the rails. As for the storm... read and find out!

Guest 2: Now, I can't give away the game too quickly. ;)

Sunlight and birdsong streamed through the open window of Nanoha's bedroom. Her phone, set up as an alarm clock, buzzed incessantly. The bustle of her family going through their morning routine added a nice background layer. None of it mattered to the young girl, who was curled up in a blanket cocoon in her bed due to a combination of exhaustion and full-body soreness.

There was a knock at the door. After a few seconds, it opened, Kyouya poking his head in. "Nanoha, you need to get up now or you're going to be late for school," he announced.

The only answer he got was a whining groan from his younger sister, who simply rolled over and stayed in bed. Huffing out a breath through his nose, Kyouya marched up to the bed, grabbed the entire blanket-and-Nanoha bundle, and carefully dumped it open onto the floor. Nanoha flopped onto the floor like a beached whale, still groaning in complaint.

"Onii-chan, you're mean…"

After a few seconds it became clear that Nanoha wasn't going to get up on her own. Sighing, Kyouya walked back into the hall and hollered down it, "Miyuki! Nanoha needs you to walk her through getting ready!"

"Coming!" came the reply. Miyuki, already dressed in her uniform and ready to go but for breakfast, arrived shortly, poking her head in and taking in the situation. When she drew back, she had worry etched all over her features, worry Kyouya matched.

"This isn't from overdoing it in training," she said more than asked.

"I mean, it could be," Kyouya pointed out. "But even if it is we need to know what's going on."

"Right. I'll get Nanoha ready and out the door, you go tell Mom and Dad. Though it wouldn't surprise me if Dad already noticed last night."

Kyouya didn't say anything as he headed back downstairs. It wouldn't surprise him, either.

~o~

Nanoha, her head buried in her arms on her desk, groaned in raw soreness. After limping back home, she'd dispelled her magical costume before heading inside, hoping to hide the damage it – and she – had taken. The pain in her chest couldn't be hidden, but explaining that she'd overdone it in practice seemed to have been enough.

Now, however, she wasn't so sure about that. Waking up a pained lump of jelly wasn't something her family was going to ignore, not after her siblings had been forced to walk her through her morning routine. Nanoha figured she had until tonight before her parents sat her down and asked what the heck had happened. Hopefully, with the meeting with Vita set up for later in the day, she'd have some actual answers beyond "This crazy red girl with a hammer attacked me."

Of course, that raised the problem of how she was going to keep it together long enough to get through the meeting. A hot shower and an extra-sugary breakfast had let Nanoha feel human again, but at this point, one class before lunch, the rejuvenative effects of both had long worn off. So back to a groaning lump of jelly it was.

"Jeez, Nanoha, you sound like you're dying," Arisa remarked.

Nanoha briefly debated whether to tell her friends what had happened last night. She very quickly decided that she needed someone to complain to.

Peeking her eyes above her arms, she said, deadpan, "I got ambushed last night by a girl our age in a red dress swinging around a magical croquet mallet. That turns into a rocket hammer."

Arisa blinked. So did Suzuka, up to now quiet. Finally…

"I'm gonna guess you got your butt kicked," Arisa prompted.

"All over downtown," Nanoha replied, sinking back down.

Arisa mulled that over before grinning eagerly. "So, time for a cool training montage so you can get good enough to win the rematch?" she asked, punching the air.

Bleary eyes peeked up over Nanoha's arms. "No. I'm going to talk to her and try to work this out without any fighting. Like a normal person."

"Good," Suzuku said firmly, side-eyeing Arisa as she did so.

"What?!" came the defensive reply.

"Anyway-"

"What?! What'd I say?!"

Suzuka shushed her blonde friend before continuing. "When the negotiation goes well, I'd like to introduce you to a new friend of mine. Her name's Hayate Yagami, I met her at the library yesterday."

"Don't I get an invitation?" Arisa sullenly asked.

"Once I'm sure you won't bother her relative Signum. She's very intense."

Arisa threw up her hands and shut up, while Nanoha tried to leap up and hug her friend for having so much faith in her. Unfortunately, her muscles weren't cooperating, so she settled for a heartfelt, "Thanks, Suzuka. I'll be there!"

~o~

Though Nanoha didn't feel any better after school, she grit her teeth and flew downtown to meet Vita. Thank goodness for Raising Heart's robust auto-repair system; the Device was already "combat ready", as she'd put it. Anyway, the young mage had no trouble finding the café, spotting Vita sitting with a tall, dark-skinned and muscular man with blue hair at one of the outdoor tables. The two were already nursing steaming cups and, in Vita's case, a slice of cake.

The mage all but flopped into a chair, groaning openly. To her satisfaction, an embarrassed expression flashed across Vita's face.

"Ugh, I did not think this through…" she muttered. "Zafira, can you heal her enough to actually sit upright?" A nod from the blue-haired man. "Okay, Nantoka-"

"It's Nanoha. Na-No-Ha," Nanoha mumbled out.

"… Right. Nanoha, does Zafira have permission to use a healing spell on you?"

"Please," Nanoha moaned.

"Physical Heal."

Magic washed over Nanoha, sweeping away the soreness. She immediately perked up, and all but threw herself across the table, pinning Zafira with an acquisitive stare. He flinched back. "How can I learn that?" she demanded.

"Sit down, Cannon Girl," Vita said to some sputtering from Nanoha. "You learn that only if this deal actually works."

Pouting, arms crossed, Nanoha flopped back into her chair. After a moment, she asked, "Is the cake good?"

"Super sweet, I love it," Vita crooned, carefully carving off another piece of cake and sticking it in her mouth.

Something in her face must have looked longing, because Zafira flagged down a waiter. "Waiter," he told one of the men in suits. "Another slice of the chocolate ganache, and…"

"Uh, just a cup of green tea," Nanoha told the waiter. Nodding, he scribbled the order down and left, leaving the young mage shifting nervously. Once he was gone, she blurted out, "Um, who's paying for this?"

"I am," Zafira rumbled. "Our Master gave us the money when we told her we were meeting a friend."

"Our Master is great," Vita added, before taking another bit of cake. "And we weren't technically lying." Grimacing, the redhead dropped her fork on her plate with a loud clatter. "I'm frankly sick of even that, let alone the straight lies. That's why Zafira and I are here: we want to finish our mission so we don't have to keep lying to-" Her mouth abruptly clamped shut.

Let it not be said that Nanoha couldn't read between the lines. "She didn't order you to collect mana, did she."

Vita looked away, shamefaced. Zafira's stoic expression didn't change, but he did sigh explosively out his nose.

"What do you know of the Book of Darkness?" he asked.

"Absolutely nothing!"

Zafira nodded, as if he'd expected the answer. He leaned back, seemingly unconsciously, the weight of a storyteller settling over him.

"The Book is… a record. A record of spells. Of magic. And don't ask about its origins," he added at the curious look on Nanoha's face. "That answer is long lost to us. Anyway, it bonds with a master, and in exchange for the power to wield all the spells within, the Book must be filled with magic. In practice, this means the Linker Cores of other magical beings."

Nanoha tilted her head. "What's a Linker Core?"

"You don't even know that?" Vita asked, bewildered. "Sankt Kaiser, now I'm even more glad I didn't take yours.

"The Linker Core is a magical organ that is the source of a mage's power," Zafira smoothly explained. The precise metaphysical origins of the Linker Core are-"

"You were gonna take my magic?!" Nanoha abruptly shouted at Vita.

"You're young, you would've recovered!" A pause. "Probably."

"Probably?!"

"Ahem."

Nanoha, out of her seat and leaning aggressively at Vita, froze. So did Vita as well.

"Children," Zafira intoned, somehow managing to loom while still seated. "Sit down and stop making a scene."

Chastened, Nanoha sat down again. The waiter picked this moment to return with her cake and tea, and she took the distraction in the form of a bite.

"Where was I?" Zafira mused. "Ah, yes, our role in this. We – that is, Vita, myself, and two others – are artificial constructs stored in the Book and awakened to act as the guardians of the current Master."

"The whole person thing's kind of new, by the way," Vita added while Nanoha gaped.

"Yes. Previous Masters would treat us as tools," Zafira continued, his voice still even. "To be used and discarded as they saw fit. Our Master… doesn't see us that way. To her, we are people, and as such we are to be loved and cared for rather than used." A smile quirked onto his lips. "It's a… refreshing change."

"He means we love her to death, he just won't admit it," Vita interjected, slugging Zafira on the arm. He glared at her, but otherwise didn't react. "Anyway, when we brought up filling the Book she said no, and we were totally on board with that."

Nanoha, currently taking a sip of tea, frowned at the emphasis. "But not now. You're filling the Book now, right?"

Both Vita and Zafira grimaced at that. "Yes. The Book seems… determined to fill itself. It is draining her own Linker Core." The wolf-man's fists clenched. "And it is killing her."

Nanoha gasped, hands flying up to cover her mouth and tears shimmering in her eyes. Vita chuckled mirthlessly.

"Yeah, I bet you see why we're disobeying her by filling the Book in secret. And why I attacked you." She rubbed the back of her head. "Sorry about that. Desperate, y'know?"

"I-It's fine, I understand." Sniffing, Nanoha wiped her eyes on her sleeve and fixed Vita and Zafira with a determined expression. "I'll help!" she declared. "The Jewel Seeds should let you fill the Book up all at once. Though…" She looked around at the half-full café and pedestrians streaming past. "Not here."

"I agree," Zafira nodded. "Too risky. We'll contact you when all four of us can make some time."

"I'll give you my cell phone number," Nanoha agreed. Then she smiled. "Now, time for cake!"

In the end, the cake wasn't as good as Midori-ya's, but it was still very tasty. She and Vita finished up their tea and cake, swapped phone numbers, and Nanoha headed home in a very happy mood.

A mood that evaporated like a spring mist when she opened the door to find her parents both sitting expectantly at the dinner table.

"Nanoha, what happened last night," Shiro said more than asked. "And no stories about overdoing it in training."

She gulped.

~o~

Two days later

"So, so? How'd it go?" Arisa demanded as she and Nanoha walked to the Uminari Public Library to meet Suzuka and the mysterious Hayate Yagami. "You never got to tell us at lunch yesterday and you've been, like, grounded or something the last two days. Speaking of which, what's that about?"

"Nyahaha… I kinda held off on telling Mama and Papa about getting ambushed by Vita that first night," Nanoha answered, rubbing the back of her head. "They grounded me for a few days for that. I'm just glad they accepted that I wanted more information before telling them."

"On a first-name basis now, are we?" Arisa said with a cheeky grin, prompting her friend to blush. "IIIII'm gonna take a wild guess and say the meeting went well."

"Oh, it went great! Everything was settled peacefully," Nanoha replied, before sniffling. "Their story, though… it's so sad!"

Arisa quirked an eyebrow. "How sad?"

"They… They're artificial people made out of magic and they finally find a new master that doesn't use them and treats them like people but now she's dying so they have to go behind her back to try and save her!" Stream of consciousness done, Nanoha sniffed, hard, and rubbed her eyes.

Arisa wasn't exactly dry-eyed herself, though she stoically tried not to show it. "Yeah… that's pretty sad," she managed to get out.

One short cry on a nearby bench later, Nanoha and Arisa resumed their trek and shortly arrived at the library. It took another fifteen minutes to find Suzuka, because for some reason (as Arisa had muttered under her breath) their purple-haired friend was not at the planned meeting spot, but instead upstairs in the reference section.

"There you are!" she declared once they found Suzuka, stomping toward her friend who blinked in surprise. "Do you know how long it took us to find you? We-!"

"You are disturbing the other patrons."

The voice was tight, and disciplined, and both accurately described the pink-haired woman who emerged from around the bookshelf. Nanoha, after all her training with her father, knew what a trained warrior looked like. She was definitely one.

She also knew the expression on Arisa's face. Her friend opened her mouth – and Nanoha clamped a hand on her shoulder and gave her a very particular smile. Arisa paled and closed her mouth with an audible click.

"Nanoha, Arisa, this is Signum. She's a relative of Hayate's from overseas," Suzuka introduced, either not noticing or not caring about the byplay between her two other friends.

"Pleased to meet you," Signum said, bowing shallowly.

Nanoha and, with a bit of prodding, Arisa repeated the greeting. Wordlessly, Signum walked back around the corner, Suzuka following. After a moment's hesitation, the two girls did the same.

"Suzuka was right, Signum's intense," Arisa quietly commented as they walked down past the shelves.

Intense was one way to put it. Signum moved like Shiro, if Shiro wasn't hampered by old injuries. Also, Nanoha could sense the magic coming off the woman. The outer layer was faint, but a very controlled sort of faint that screamed 'suppression'. So did the deep well the young mage could feel just below the surface, too.

Nanoha resolved then and there to never fight Signum if she could help it.

Signum abruptly turned down another aisle, this one for arts and crafts, judging from the placard. Parked about halfway down was a brown-haired girl about their age in a wheelchair, a blonde woman hovering in mild anxiety next to her. Curiously, she relaxed when Signum came back into view.

"Hi, Hayate!" Suzuka said, leaning around Signum to give the brown-haired girl a wave. As if on cue, Signum shifted so she was parallel to the shelves. "These are my friends Nanoha and Arisa."

"Nice to meet you," said friends chorused.

"Likewise," Hayate said. She indicated the blonde woman standing next to her, who now that Nanoha was paying attention was also radiating magic. "You've met Signum, and this is Shamal." She giggled. It was a very pretty giggle. "Sorry, Suzuka. I tried to get Vita and Zafira to join us, but one mention of sewing and they couldn't get out the door fast enough."

Suzuka nodded, pouting. "It was just one time!"

No further elaboration came, something that had Arisa lean in conspiratorially and whisper, "That sounds like a story. Care to share?"

As Hayate launched into an amusing story involving a great deal of excited dress-up, Nanoha hung back, considering what she'd just learned. How many other Zafiras and Vitas could there be in Japan? Hayate was the Book's Master, had to be. Which made Signum and Shamal the two other guardians the two had mentioned.

She glanced over at Signum, and shivered at the considering stare the ponytailed woman gave her. Oh yeah. Signum knew exactly who she was. Nanoha shook her head. Well, she wasn't planning on doing anything bad anyway, so it should be fine, right? Taking a deep breath, she walked up to the group and properly joined in.

Though Nanoha had already mentally decided that the Master of the Book of Darkness was a good person who deserved her help, meeting and getting to know Hayate dispelled any doubts. Despite her paralysis she was a sunny beam of optimism, greatly enjoyed coming up with elaborate costumes, and also had a mischievous streak.

Somehow, the conversation eventually turned to Nanoha's magic, which she demonstrated by means of a discrete pink ball. A wide grin spread on Hayate's face, and she'd announced, "Oh, oh, I can do magic, too! It's not as flashy as those pink balls, but… lemme just show you."

Closing her eyes, Hayate placed her fingers to her temples, and began frowning in concentration. After a moment, a yellow glow appeared on the handles of her wheelchair, much to Arisa and Suzuka's delight. Slowly, she rolled down the aisle – and Nanoha glanced over to where Shamal stood, hand wrapped around a necklace she could see but was sure was a device. She turned back to Hayate, and caught a wink from the other girl. Ah. So that was what her role was.

Hayate reached the end of the aisle, turned around, and the glow faded, the girl mock-bowing. Arisa and Suzuka clapped – right as Nanoha turned to Shamal and said "Good control, Shamal!"

"Thank you," Shamal replied.

Suzuka and Arisa stood, stunned mid-clap, for several seconds, before the blonde burst into laughter that she only barely suppressed to library-appropriate volumes.

"Okay," she said once she calmed down. "That was pretty good, you got me."

"That was mean!" Suzuka retorted.

"Yeah, but it was a harmless mean, lighten up."

~o~

In all, when Nanoha got the text message from Vita a day later that they were ready, she felt very good about the situation. It took her some time to let her parents know what was going on and then fly out to the mountains surrounding Uminari, and by the time she got there all four guardians had already arrived. She audibly gulped at the sight of Signum in full armor, a sword at her hip, and Zafira looked properly intimidating with armored gauntlets and boots and a skintight outfit showing off his muscles. Oh, yeah, Shamal was there, too. At least she looked properly wizardly?

"Well met, Takamachi," Signum said when Nanoha touched down. "I trust our Master met your expectations."

"Hayate was a very nice person who I would love to get to know better as a friend," Nanoha replied.

To her surprise, Signum bowed her head at the tonal rebuke. "Apologies. I of all the Wolkenritter have had the hardest time… adjusting to our new lifestyle."

"Signum's a total battle maniac," Vita cut in, grinning. "Just so you know, she's probably going to demand you spar with her at some points when we're done here."

"Vita!" Signum snapped, over a laugh from the hammer wielder and a whimper from Nanoha.

"If we could get started…" Zafira prompted.

Everyone sobered up, and Nanoha carefully unsealed one of the Jewel Seeds. Holding it like a live bomb, she handed it over to Shamal, who summoned the Book and opened it up.

The Seed, pulled by an unseen force, drifted over the Book's pages. A glow surrounded it; Shamal gasped. Curious, Nanoha floated over to see what was happening. She couldn't help but gasp herself when she could see: the book was writing itself, lines passing by at a dizzying pace.

"Is this normal?" she asked.

"Yes, but it's never done so this fast!"

Despite the speed of the writing it still took several tense minutes for the Book to finish. The other guardians had wandered over to watch, and all present wondered what would happen first: the Seed running out of mana, or the Book filling itself.

It turned out to be the latter. The last page filled with scrawled writing, and then snapped shut over the Jewel Seed before vanishing. Nanoha blinked, her stomach plummeting.

"Where did it go?!" she demanded, half-panicked.

Nobody had time to ask whether she meant the Book or the Seed. A flash of light from Uminari distracted them. All eyes whirled toward the city, and it was Signum who triangulated the location first.

"Hayate!"