Not much in the way of action this time. We're picking back up three days later, because I want to give things a little bit of time to get moving, and if I chronicled every day in its entirety I would still be working on season one this time next year. I've set all of the scenes in approximately chronological order; there may be some overlap, but their beginnings are in the correct order. I've tried out some different ways of writing scenes here. If anything catches your eye (good or bad) please let me know so that I can figure out what I'm doing well and what I'm failing at.
Also, this chapter is over 8000 words long. If there is something that is obviously a mistake, please, please, PLEASE tell me about it. My self-editing is unlikely to catch everything. Now, on with the show.
Chapter Three: Moving Forward With Determination
"I think your parents suspect something's wrong."
Nanoha twitched.
"And I know for a fact that your friends have figured out something is wrong."
Nanoha remained stiffly in her position, eyes closed as she ran a Wide Area Search. Yuuno exhaled heavily.
"And… well, I'm worried too. You need to relax more."
Nanoha twitched again.
Backtracking, the boy (currently in boy form) tried to make amends. "Not that you're really tense or obsessive or anything. It's just… you've been kind of moody lately, and I was wondering if you wanted to talk about what's on your mind?"
Again, Nanoha did not answer. Yuuno wilted. "I don't mean to assume that you'd confide in me or anything, I mean, it's okay if you don't, I've already caused you a lot of problems and I keep messing things up…"
Still getting no response from his friend, Yuuno walked over to the edge of the roof and stood next to her, and stole a sideways glance at the focused girl who did not seem to acknowledge him.
"…I've just heard it helps." He finished lamely.
"…"
"…"
"…"
"…"
"Awww!" Nanoha whined, pouting cutely. "There aren't any Jewel Seeds here either? Where are they? And I saw Fate again, but she's still avoiding me! She takes off every time she sees my search spell!"
Spinning around, Raising Heart's master frowned slightly at the sight of her friend in shock from the mood whiplash. "Are you alright? You've been a little down lately, is something wrong?"
"N-no, nothing's wrong…"
"Oh, good!" Nanoha beamed. "Oh, and sorry for ignoring you while I searched," she said sheepishly. "I'm having trouble paying attention to my surroundings while I use that spell. Did you say anything?"
"…Nothing important. Uh, you're looking very happy, considering that, um, never mind. Did something good happen?" Yuuno probed cautiously.
"Raising Heart and I are finished with the first design for our new attack! It was tricky, since I couldn't figure out how to control the loose magic at first, but Raising Heart suggested using a variation on the adaptive equations that help her channel poorly matched magic through her systems, so that even people like you who are poorly matched can use her a little…"
Yuuno wilted a little at the reminder. It wasn't his fault! Well, maybe he should have tried to see if he could actually use it properly rather than just assuming that the device would work well with him, but who put an intelligent device in a box labeled 'sealing equipment' anyway? Seriously, he was lucky that it even had a sealing mode given that little mislabeling.
"…It actually turned out to not work that well, but it gave me somewhere to start, and it's kind of tricky but it works. And then once we did that I had the idea of making collecting it easier by squishing it into little balls and controlling them like lots of really tiny Divine Shooters, and that worked, but it was really hard, and it gave me a headache, but we realized that I didn't need to guide them like that, so we took out the guiding and put in aiming and that way I just need to set a destination, and that was way easier…"
Seriously though, he was a good mage. It wasn't his fault that his magic was… specialized. He was really good at barriers, and binds, and shields, and fields, and healing, and analytical spells, and he was better than average at flying and moving stuff around (like telekinesis, but magic, as Nanoha said, whatever that meant) and he had an unusual ability with movement magic and dimensional transfer spells. If Raising Heart was a sealing device rather than an intelligent device favoring beam attacks that just happened to have a sealing mode, he could have actually used it. Wait, hold that thought. What?
"…but I can't compress it all the way to a single point, so we had to change it to a big sphere, which is pretty good, and we think we can make it smaller if I practice compression, and-"
"Wait, uh, can you run that by me again?" interrupted Yuuno, wide-eyed. "Because I thought you said you could manipulate magic that you don't produce yourself, magic that is outside your body?"
"Yeah!" Nanoha nodded, beaming. "Isn't it great!"
"Great? Nanoha, there are shooting mages who can go their whole lives without managing to do that!"
"Eh?" scrunching her face up, Nanoha looked at her friend in confusion. "But it isn't that hard once you figure out how to make it go through your linker core…"
"Don't worry about it, I'm not exactly an expert," Yuuno said quickly, following the principle that if you didn't think about it too much it would hurt less. "But really, that's quite impressive. Could you tell me more about the spell?"
As Nanoha happily expounded upon advanced mathematical concepts and their application to massive destruction, Yuuno found himself wondering just what Nanoha was planning on using this for, and as he smiled and congratulated her and wondered if maybe, just maybe, he had created a monster…
But if he had to go back to that night when he first called out for help, and do it all over again, he didn't think he could have picked a better ally… or a better friend.
Momoko Takamachi pulled the door to Nanoha's room closed with a soft click. Quietly, she padded into the kitchen, where her husband waited for her with a cup of tea for each of them.
"She's asleep, for now at least." She murmured to her husband, accepting the cup from him. She leaned against the counter, content to simply soak up the warmth of the brew through her hands for the time being.
"She seemed more upbeat today." Shirou offered. "Perhaps she resolved her problems?"
"I hope so," Momoko whispered. "But what if she hasn't? She's more upbeat… but she isn't happy. And she's trying to keep us out of it, like she always does."
Shirou set his tea down on the counter and moved closer to his wife, hoping to provide some measure of comfort. Momoko unconsciously leaned into him, but continued to fret.
"We failed her, back then," Momoko said after a long pause. "Back when you got hurt. I've always been proud of her, of how smart she is, of how mature she is, of how she is always stepping up to take responsibility, but back then… she was so little, she couldn't help us, she would only have gotten in the way. But she knew that. She was four. Four-year-olds aren't supposed to understand that their family has to leave them alone so that they can earn enough money to get through the hard times until daddy gets better. Four-year-olds aren't supposed to stay out of the way and learn to be self-sufficient. But she did, because you couldn't take care of her from the ICU and everyone else was so busy at the café… we left her alone. And now that she has her own problems she feels like she has to handle it herself."
Shirou pulled her close, letting her let it all out as she choked up.
"She's nine, and she thinks she has to take on the world alone. She should be able to rely on us, but she's so capable that she doesn't need to most of the time, and at times like this, when she needs someone, she doesn't turn to anyone. She's hurting, and I don't know how to make it better.
"I don't even know what is happening to my own daughter. What kind of mother am I?"
Shirou reached up and brushed away her tears with hands still rough and calloused even after so many years of peace. "A good one. You're not perfect, true, and you've made mistakes. And you know what?" he said, taking her cup from her and setting it aside. "It doesn't matter. Why? Because you care. You care that your daughter is hurting; you care that you can't make it all better. You're a good mother because you want the best for your children, and you try your hardest to give it to them."
"But I can't make it better," Momoko choked out. "I've failed her! And now she sneaks around, dodges my attempts to find out what is going on, and comes home exhausted, depressed, and limping."
Shirou cracked a smile. "Just like Kyouya when he was trying to impress Shinobu, hmm?"
"It isn't the same!"
"No," he said, serious again. "No, it isn't. But that doesn't make you a bad mother. And I think that deep down, you know I'm right. We can't protect Nanoha from everything. All we can do is be there for her, and make sure that she knows we're here when she needs us."
"I know. I know that all we can do is wait for her to come to us. Anything would push her away. She's too much like you were, back when I first met you. Too stubborn for her own good. I'm scared, Shirou. Scared that she doesn't understand that we're here to help her. Scared that she'll get hurt before she comes to us."
"And if she was coming home bleeding rather than scraped up, I'd have forced it out of her for her own good, and dealt with the fallout later." Shirou admitted. "But she isn't, and we need to mend our bridges, not make ourselves the enemy by putting her on the defensive. She has to want our help. All we can do is be ready to do all we can to help her if, when, that time comes."
"But why does it have to hurt so much?"
"Nothing related to the pain of our children is ever easy," Shirou murmured. "It's just part of being a parent. Sharing joys and sorrows alike." Kissing his wife on the forehead, Shirou smiled gently. "We'll get through this. Besides, she really did seem less down tonight. Perhaps her troubles will be over soon. And if not-"
"If not, we'll face it together, right?" Momoko said, sniffling slightly, but cheered.
"Well I was going to suggest finding the problem and putting my sword skills to good use, but that works too." The ex-bodyguard joked.
"Ha, ha. Very funny, dear."
"Yes, you're right. Kyouya needs the practice."
"Just for that, you're doing the dishes tomorrow. Now come on, I want you to wash my back."
"Oh?"
"And nothing else. Honestly, it's things like that that make Kyouya embarrassed to bring Shinobu over!"
"Understood, ma'am. But I must insist you wash mine in return!"
"Fair enough! Don't forget to close the door."
Forgotten in the kitchen were two cups of tea, slowly cooling.
And in the darkness of Nanoha's room, a ferret laid awake, greater-than-human hearing leaving him with plenty to think about.
Brrriiingg. Brrriinnnngg. Brrrr-
Turning off the alarm on her phone, Nanoha rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and stumbled her way through her morning routine with a bizarre combination of natural grace and tired stumbling. Get up, get dressed, tie her hair into its usual position, check her appearance in the mirror, make sure she has Raising Heart, grab her phone from under the bed where she had accidentally knocked it, open the door-
"Nanoha, do you think we should tell your family?"
Close the door.
"When I first asked for your help, I thought that this would be over in a week or two. I never expected that finding the Jewel Seeds would take this long, or that we would encounter opposition."
"Alright, that's it! I've had enough of your stupid moping and your stupid distractedness and-"
"Please, calm down, Arisa! It isn't-"
"No!" snapped the blonde, "I've had enough! You were finally cheering up, after weeks of moping, and now you're all pensive again! What is going on with you?"
"Given my expectations, it seemed that there was no reason not to comply with the standard policy of my society, and so I asked that you keep magic and our mission a secret from everyone on this world, including your family and friends."
"Arisa-"
"Not this time, Suzuka! She needs to get it into that thick head of hers that we're her friends! I'm not going to stand for this! Now, look at me Nanoha!" Arisa snapped, yanking on the girl's hair to enforce her demand. Suzuka cringed and fidgeted beside them.
"Things have gotten complicated now. And dangerous, much more so than before. There is a very good chance that you will get hurt, and I can't guarantee that I will be able to help you. And, as much as I hate to say it, there is a possibility that you might die. Under the circumstances, it might be wise to tell your family, and possibly your friends, what you are doing."
"S-sorry Arisa," Nanoha stammered out, "I just-"
"Don't you start apologizing! You're here to listen!" Arisa snarled. "You are our friend, got it? That means we care about you!"
"There is always the risk that they'll stop you from helping me, or at least try, but they seem reasonable enough. And given the circumstances, they might even be right to stop you."
"I've told you before: I'm seeing this through to the end."
"We care about your problems! We're happy when you're happy! We're upset when you're upset! That's what it means to be friends!" Each statement was punctuated by a jab of Arisa's finger and a flinch from Nanoha.
"For you, for Fate, for everyone that could be and has been hurt by the Jewel Seeds, I will continue to help. I can't take the risk that they'll try to stop me. Things could go really badly if I'm not there."
"Nanoha, I don't want you to have to choose between myself and your family. Your parents would understand, I'm sure of it. I just think that, if the worst happens, they shouldn't be left wondering what happened to you. I'm worried that you'll regret it if you don't tell them."
"Why can't you understand that, you-"
"STOP!" Arisa and Nanoha turned to Suzuka in surprise. The dark-haired girl panted heavily for a moment before continuing. "Please, just stop. She- She understands. Right? You understand?"
"Y-yeah." Nanoha stammered out.
"I can't tell them. Things are already too complicated. If I tell them, things will never be the same again. If they knew what I was doing, then even if they let me go, they'd worry for me every time I was out of their sight. Keeping it a secret will save them from that."
"They're already worried. And they have every right to be."
"So please, can we just go back to how we were before?" Suzuka begged. "All the yelling, it- I- I'm scared one of you will say something you can't take back and- and-"
"Suzuka…" Nanoha murmured, looking with widened eyes at her friend. Arisa flushed and averted her eyes. Suzuka almost never spoke up like that. You could count those instances when she did on one hand with fingers to spare. Nanoha didn't know what the state of Suzuka's family was, as she had never met any of them except her big sister Shinobu, but… seeing Suzuka almost in tears she suddenly could guess.
"They're your family. They love you. They already know something is wrong, Nanoha. They aren't stupid. They just don't know the details. Your family, your friends, they would support you if you gave them the chance."
"They can't help us with this. They don't have magic."
Words Had Been Spoken, like Arisa had with her. And Things Had Changed. And it was an Unhappy Ending. Details weren't important. What mattered was her friend was hurting and it was her fault. She couldn't erase it, or go back to the past, but she would do her best to make things better in the future.
"Just because they can't fight doesn't mean they can't help. You'll run yourself into the ground again if you keep pushing so hard and trying to keep up appearances. I guess what I'm trying to say is that you don't have to do this alone."
"I'm not alone. You're here with me, aren't you?"
"Of course. Like you, I'm here until the end. But you deserve more. Just… promise me you'll think about it, okay?"
Almost simultaneously, Arisa and Nanoha reached out and pulled their friend in close. And, as they whispered apologies and dried tears, their eyes met. As Nanoha talked about how she was worried about Yuuno, and thought he might not be sleeping well, the Unspoken Problem festered. This had been Going On For Too Long. It needed to be fixed, and soon.
"I'll tell them later. When this is all over, I'll be able to tell them everything, and it won't be a problem. You and I, we'll tell them everything together, okay? Maybe we'll get Arf and Fate to help us tell the story. Wouldn't that be nice?"
"Alright. Your planet, your rules, I guess. With any luck, in a few years time we'll be able to look back on this conversation and laugh at how silly I was being."
The bell rang, and break ended.
"Are you sure this is the best way to handle this, Lindy? It isn't exactly standard." Leti cautioned her friend.
Lindy looked over her ship, the repairs moving swiftly. In a week or so they would be ready to continue their duties. "Nothing about this is 'standard'. The TSAB has suffered larger tragedies before, but none quite as… jarring as this one. Besides, I think it will work out in the end."
"Well, your request has gone through. And the Saint Church has offered their headquarters as the location."
"I suppose the easy part is done then," Lindy mused. "I'll let them know in person. It won't be the most pleasant of tasks, but I've delivered worse messages. Thanks for helping me out."
"I don't need thanks for this sort of thing. I wouldn't deserve to call myself your comrade if I had failed, much less your friend." Leti smiled at her old friend. "You really are something, Lindy. I'm not sure your way is the best way, but if it's you that does it then I can believe that it'll turn out alright."
"I suppose I'll just have to live up to your expectations then, won't I?" Lindy answered. "I'll start tomorrow. No need to make a long day even longer."
"Fate, I need to talk to Arf alone for a little while. Can you go get cleaned up for dinner while we talk?" Linith smiled kindly at the small blond, who happily did as instructed.
Arf watched over her master worriedly as she picked at her food. Yes, her master, not her charge, not her abused little sister, her master. Her master, who didn't need to be saved from That Woman, didn't have a better relationship with that girl with the pink magic than with her own- She cut her thoughts off right there. She wasn't convincing anyone, and brooding would get her nowhere.
"Fate, you need to eat! You shouldn't starve yourself, especially not before you plan to capture a Jewel Seed! You need to keep your strength up!"
"What do you want to talk about, Linith?" The wolf pup called out energetically, grinning widely, ready to play games or babble about Fate or learn super-secret techniques passed down from familiar to familiar through the centuries-
But then she stopped. Because Linith wasn't smiling.
And, soon, neither was she.
"You worry too much, Arf." Fate smiled faintly, expressing her love for her familiar in the slight curve of her lips. "I'll be fine. After all, you'll be beside me, won't you? And with you supporting me there is nothing I can't do."
Flushing with embarrassment, Arf bit back bitter words. If only that were true, maybe Fate could smile happily as she had in the time before-
"I will die soon, Arf." Linith explained to the young wolf.
"What? Why?" Arf cried out. "Are you sick? Are you hurt? What's wrong? We should talk to Fate's mother; she's your master, right? She'll be able to help you!"
But Linith just shook her head, a strange look on her face. "Nothing's wrong, Arf. I've just fulfilled my purpose. I have little left to teach you, and once I have taught you and Fate all I know, I will simply be an unwanted drain on my master's magic. I have been informed that at that point it will be time for me to go."
Arf's snarl made it very clear what she felt about that.
Linith forestalled Arf's tirade, however. "I'm not here to talk about her. She has her reasons, and while I may not always agree with them she has a right to make her own decisions, for good or ill, as do we all. But we need to talk about Fate."
Shaking away memories, Arf took a different path of attack. If Fate wouldn't look after herself for her own sake, experience suggested that she refocus her efforts.
"Oh, sure," Arf sniffed," you'll be fine. Me, I'll just be stressed out over how malnourished you are and how much of a failure I am. To think, I can't even defend you from your lack of appetite."
The sight of her familiar exaggeratedly bemoaning her troubles managed to get a ghost of a laugh from the girl. Arf made sure to be properly embarrassed when Fate scratched her behind the ears and agreed to eat a little, and she gave no sign of the relief she felt.
"You shouldn't worry though," Fate asserted. "We're going to capture a Jewel Seed tomorrow, and we'll keep capturing them until they are all sealed, and then we're going to defeat that mage, and then we'll take the Jewel Seeds to Mother. And then Mother will be able to relax, and things will get better. There's nothing to worry about."
"I want you to protect Fate for me, Arf." Linith said seriously. "I know that you are very young right now, but you will grow up much faster than Fate, so I want you to look after her in my place as best you can."
"Of course!" Arf cried out. "I'd do that anyway!"
"Arf, I don't think you really understand what I'm asking you. I know you will do your best, but there will be times when you simply can't stop her from getting hurt. Pain… physical and otherwise… there is simply no way to protect Fate from it completely. Everyone inevitably gets hurt at some point in their lives."
Arf grimaced, but did not speak. She felt that what Linith was saying was important in the primal undercurrents of her being, and the near-death experience that led to her becoming Fate's familiar was not het far enough in the past to be forgotten.
"This is more than just making sure she has clean clothes and healthy food. You will have to dress her wounds, reassure her when she's frightened, stand by her when her hopes are crushed, and support her when no one else will." Linith explained quietly. "It can't be just a duty or a task. This is something that will take everything you put into it and more, and even then you won't always succeed. Truthfully, I hope that Fate's mother will step forward and love her like she should, will help Fate achieve her dreams and grow up happily, but I can't be certain of that…" Linith gazed off towards Precia's laboratory before turning back to Arf and meeting her eyes.
"Beyond that, I want you to promise me something, Arf. I want you to promise me that if it ever becomes necessary, if a situation ever gets so bad that you know from the center of your being that you have to do something about it even if Fate orders you to do nothing… I want you to promise me that if you ever find yourself in such a situation that you will do whatever it takes to protect her. No matter what… or who… tries to stop you."
If Arf had been a human, she would probably have been too young to understand what Linith meant. Or if she had understood, she would have been horrified.
But, of course, no matter how human a familiar might seem, no matter how much more advanced, how much more civilized a familiar might be than their normal, wild counterparts… they are also animals. And Arf was a wolf.
"I promise."
"I hope you're right, Fate." Arf said eventually. Then she grinned toothily. "But somehow I think that no matter what happens it'll turn out alright for us in the end."
She would make sure of it.
"So how strong do you think it will be?" Yuuno asked, yawning.
"I'm not sure. It depends on how much compression I can get and how much magic I can collect," explained Nanoha. "I've been able to do it on a small scale, but I need to try it out for real to start setting the safety moderators so I don't kill someone by accident. If you set up a barrier and set up some shields I'll fire off a few Divine Busters, and then we can start experimenting."
"You'll be careful, right? I mean, mana compression can go badly. As in, explosively badly."
"What's the worst that can happen?"
"Okay, new rule: never, ever say that again. And let's try it without the compression first, so that we have a baseline."
Yuuno's barrier came up, tinting the sunrise and bringing silence to the clearing.
"Again."
S2U complied with his command, the storage device interfacing with the screen in front of him and returning to the beginning of the visual data sequence stored in its memory. The card-shaped device glowed a dim blue as the miniscule quantity of magic needed to process the command and accomplish its goal flowed through its circuitry. As the video began again, S2U's glow subsided, fading to a faint iridescence.
"Stop. Rewind one frame per second… Stop… Enlarge upper-right quadrant…"
Chrono stood before the screen, arms behind him, left hand clasping his right wrist at the small of his back. It was tempting to squint or approach the image, but he had discovered during the course of this… project… that, rather than helping, such actions would only result in eyestrain and headaches.
Eventually he was forced to admit that there was nothing of use to him, and he stored the image in a separate file. Perhaps one of the technicians would be able to get something from it, but what he was looking for- a glimpse at what was hidden away behind the distortions- failed to materialize. Not that he was going to give up; he still had the rest of the recording and then a fair number of others made by various sensors and technicians.
To be honest, it was not a promising activity. Each recording showed exactly the same thing as the one before it, albeit from a slightly different angle and, if he was really lucky, a different filter or analysis to break up the monotony. At this point the odds of him actually finding something useful by just looking at the images were not worth mentioning.
But he was not going to just sit around uselessly while waiting for the Arthra to be fixed! Grinding his teeth, he moved on.
"Still slaving away, Chrono?" A soft, slightly teasing voice called out to him from the doorway. Pausing the recording once again, Chrono turned to the doorway, suppressing a small smile at the familiar sight of his… a quick glance showed she was wearing her blue navy uniform… comrade. The brunette showed her usual lack of respect for appropriate emotional control and pouted at her failure to surprise him.
"I've learned my lesson, Amy," the 14-year-old enforcer responded primly. "When you are around I take care not to leave my back to a doorway."
Amy stared hard at him, which was a bid unsettling he had to admit. He'd expected some sort of response, something suitably Amy-ish. Chrono shifted uncomfortable at the attention from the distressingly taller teenager.
Without warning, Amy perked up and started violating protocol (and his personal space; when did she get so close?) treating him like some sort of stuffed animal, (like one of those 'teddy bears' that Admiral Graham's familiars liked so much) proclaiming how cute he was when he tried to act all serious and proper. Just when he was about ready to put her in a struggle bind, she backed off, although she didn't stop smirking.
Trying to ignore his flushed face, Chrono regained his composure. "I assume you're here for a reason other than to torment me?" he groused, avoiding Amy's eyes.
Amy nodded, hiding a grin behind her hand. "Your mom asked me to tell you to go see her."
"Admiral." Chrono corrected automatically.
"She's your mother, too." Amy said, rolling her eyes. "Her being in uniform doesn't suddenly make you adopted." She paused. "Although that would explain a lot…"
"Amy!"
"Oh, relax, Chrono, I'm just messing with you. Now get going!" Amy commanded, airily waving him out of the room. Shooting her one last half-hearted glare, Chrono complied.
Once he was out of sight, Amy turned to look at the image.
A blur of color stood frozen on the screen, the true form of the object hidden behind folds and loops and whorls of distorted time-space.
"Run, hide, flee," Amy growled. "It'll do you no good. We'll find you, whoever you are, whatever you are. And when we do…"
A finger jabbed a touch screen viciously. The image disappeared.
"…You'll spend the rest of your existence wishing you'd never hurt us."
"Uh, oops?"
"Oops? Oops? You almost broke through my barrier! I thought that we were keeping a low profile! A giant pink beam mysteriously appearing in the middle of the park would not be low profile! I thought you weren't going to compress it!"
"I didn't compress it! And I didn't expect it to be so hard to aim!"
"…You can try one more time, then we're practicing binds for a couple of hours so that my blood pressure can return to normal levels. No compression until I work out a stronger barrier. And this time please hit something other than the barrier, okay? The ground, one of my shields, something less likely to reveal us to the world at large if it gets broken."
"Yay! Alright, one more time Raising Heart."
"Yes, my master. Super Ultra Awesome Divine Buster."
"You know, I'm not sure that name works. Maybe we can name it after the charging sequence? It's pretty distinctive. Hm, how about we call it 'Spark Strike'. No, wait, that sounds like what Fate would call one of her attacks. Yuuno, name something small that glows!"
"A will o' wisp?"
"No, that doesn't work. Wait, those are real?"
"Of course. Dragons are, too. I don't think I've ever seen a unicorn though. You know, it's weird; your legends seem to suggest that magic used to be a lot more prevalent on Earth. I wonder what happened."
"I asked Dad about that once. He said that people realized that you can't patent spells, so all the businessmen started using technology instead. I think he was joking though."
"Ready."
"Alright, here goes!"
"Wait, I'm not-"
"I'm so sorry! I thought you would have a shield ready."
"…" Yuuno glowered at his friend as he used Physical Heal on himself.
"If it makes you feel better, I've figured out part of the name. 'Breaker' seems to fit."
"Excellent choice, my master."
"Okay, seriously, what did I ever do to deserve this?"
The chaotic, mutating dimensional sea calmed as the Garden of Time settled into place 'above' Earth. Fortunately for the occupants, the existence of the large three-dimensional asteroid's mass momentarily attempted to enforce a set of three-dimensional physical laws on the imaginary space around it, and the instant before the dimensional sea overrode them a set of barriers slammed into existence, solidifying them in the correct form for human life to survive and allowing the three-dimensional object to be unaffected by its surroundings.
The field would be nearly impossible to set up in normal space, but in high space-time defining which way is 'down' and what the force of gravity on the contents of the barrier was not only possible, it was absolutely necessary. And then there were all of the other little things that couldn't be taken for granted in this realm. Fluid mechanics. Light reflecting and refracting properly. Inertia. Electrostatics. Thermodynamics.
Precia Testarossa chuckled mirthlessly as she dropped her own barriers from around herself and Alicia. She was not too proud to admit that she would have had difficulty inventing the spells used to allow access to and travel across the dimensional sea. In spite of her dabbling in dimensional magic and her attempt so long ago to test her 'Hydra' hypothesis, she had never been much of an expert on the dimensional sea itself. Three dimensional spells could not function properly in imaginary space, so Precia, like most mages, based her spells around a number of four-dimensional spells that had been created by long dead researchers who had been genius enough or insane enough to grasp the true nature of the dimensional sea. Only a rare few had both the understanding and the desire to innovate in that area these days.
It was a pity really. Over the years she had become less a scientist and more of an engineer. There had been a time when she would have run experiment after experiment using the equipment she had now, intent on unlocking the secrets of reality. But her first priority was her daughter now, as it should be.
In keeping with that, she attended to her eternally sleeping child. As she clinically ran through her checklist, Precia silently thanked whoever had originally constructed the Garden of Time for their thoroughness, as the failsafe that had been created to reconstitute the life-sustaining systems had saved her the thousands of hours it would take to 'hardwire' the associated spells into the structure of the asteroid. The TSAB's method of including such spells into their ship's components during the construction process was undoubtedly the superior method, but Precia was simply thankful that she had what she did. The Garden of Time had not been built to move; that it did was a testament to hard work, caution, and judicious risk-taking.
'Sometimes,' Precia mused, 'it is simpler to reboot.' Coughing harshly, as she did more and more often after casting magic, she wryly considered how many of her problems could be solved if people worked like that.
Finishing her inspection of her daughter's temporary resting place, Precia was satisfied as to Alicia's stability. Precia was loath to leave her daughter's side, but she forced herself to do so for a time. She walked briskly from one room to the next, inspecting equipment and defenses as she wound her way through the high-vaulted stone catacombs of her home. It took quite a bit of walking to assure herself that nothing important had been damaged, as Precia had loosely based her internal defenses on the highly successful design of the human immune system.
There were multiple 'lymph nodes', each protecting an important area, and each containing slumbering automatons and turrets whose activations were slaved to her device. While likely incapable of taking out a team of high class mages on their own, the turrets and automatons made up for their predictability and poor defenses with coordination, concentration of firepower, and limiting of the enemy forces' mobility so that their numbers were effective. Sometimes all it took to kill a mage was a second of distraction; even an intellectual like herself knew that. And there were a number of more advanced units, although due to their sheer size (a necessity, as each was outfitted with several of her earlier generators and each of those was as large as a normal automaton) their numbers were limited.
The defenses were far from perfect, Precia was well aware of that. She didn't have a good way of remedying the situation though, and considering that Jail tended to get sticky fingers around relics and unusual technology she wasn't about to allow him and his 'daughters' into her home unless there was no other choice. Still, while the effectiveness of the defenses would hopefully never be tested, normal enforcers would easily be stymied, and even S class mages would at least be slowed down. After that, it was up to her. And as an SS class mage she had pretty good odds, even if she wasn't a combat specialist.
Her destination in each of the nodes was the manual access control panel for that node's defenses. With magic, there is always the possibility of things going wrong, and Precia had seen the results of enough accidents involving Lost Logia to be leery of having the defense systems completely automated. Being indistinguishable from any of the hundreds of normal computer terminals throughout her home until the correct code was provided, the control panels were the only way to directly manipulate and monitor the defenses in their respective nodes. Furthermore, they would allow Precia to shut down the defenses in each of the nodes if necessary.
She had felt it was an acceptable gap in security at the time, and still believed that to be true. Of course, Precia had kept it a secret from Fate, just like so many other things, just in case. It would take an elite hacker protected by an elite team of mages to exploit the weakness, and that was only if they could find the correct terminals. Not perfect, but acceptable. She would have at least enough time to swoop in and obtain the collected Jewel Seeds, grab Alicia, and leave before an attacking force could break through her defenses.
It took an hour or so to finish, but the outlook was positive. There was some minor damage to the defenses near the third generator, but Precia could fix it easily enough. Good enough for now.
Precia's attention then shifted to the more external regions of her home. For the time being it was preferable to allow the generators to recharge rather than strain them by immediately reactivating the energy-eating monstrosity that had facilitated her relocation, for a number of reasons. At this late stage, she felt it better to not hide behind distorted time-space. The Garden of Time was currently what the TSAB would consider 'suspicious' rather than 'threatening', at least in the eyes of anyone who might stumble across it, which gave her an advantage in any confrontation. So recalibration of the focusing crystals while she had the opportunity was the task at hand.
Truthfully, recalibration would have been next on the list unless she was desperate, Precia admitted to herself. Her outermost line of defense was a delicate system. A single poorly calibrated crystal could result in great damage to the Garden, three or four crystals being set up wrong could tear her home in half in the worst case scenario.
There were only two ways to recalibrate the crystals, and only one of them was workable under normal circumstances. The crystals produced a hypersphere-shaped distortion, which was sometimes interpreted as a sphere by the senses and by non-specialized equipment. Two crystals were assigned to each axis, positioned equidistant from the center of the Garden of Time. They could be manipulated manually or from a central console, the latter being the method used by Precia. The manual method was, given that two of the crystals lay on the w-axis, difficult and dangerous, although not precisely impossible.
She would have to check in on Fate soon. The thought was an unwelcome one, but quite true, and she wasn't going to let her dislike ruin Alicia's cure. Soon enough the Garden of Time would once again be fully operational, and then she would have to see for herself just what the state of events was. And while it rankled that she would have to communicate with that thing, for Alicia's salvation to be lost because Fate's coordinates for the Garden of Time were incorrect…
Yes, for Alicia's sake, she would use the clone to the fullest. Waste not, want not. And if it failed, she would step in.
And if that happened? Well, she would be rid of that fake that much sooner wouldn't she?
"Sorry I took so long to get here. I got accosted by the Liese twins on the way over. You wanted to see me?"
"Yes, I wanted to talk to you privately… and unofficially. This doesn't relate to your duties. Come on in, and close the door behind you."
Chrono complied, a little pensively.
"Before I begin, I want to tell you that I am having the talk with everyone assigned to the Arthra. It concerns those who are no longer with us."
Chrono's mouth went dry at his mother's words.
"As you may be aware, the TSAB does not hold funerals. Given the large number of planets and the even larger number of cultures that our men and women belong to, it was decided early on that the TSAB would instead fund whatever proceedings the families would hold, and their commanding officer would attend if appropriate. However, we have been granted permission by our fallen comrades' families to pay our respects before the final, private, funerals. Attendance is not mandatory; there is no obligation here. This is a chance to say goodbye, not a mandate.
"If you do decide to attend, come to the Grand Cathedral on Mid-Childa at 1700 hours on the 17th. Regardless of whether or not you come, all of us have been given leave on that day. Spend it as you see best."
Lindy gave her son a moment or so to take that in before dismissing him. "I know that I am not giving you much of a chance to talk to me," she said, forestalling his speech with a raised hand, "but I want you to give this some thought before you say anything. If you still want to talk with me about this later, or with anyone else for that matter, I encourage you to do so. But the choice must be your own."
The young enforcer nodded, and opened the door. However, he was hesitant to leave without saying anything. Understanding, Lindy gave her son a reassuring smile.
"Go on. I still have others to talk to about this. I'll see you later, okay?"
"Sure."
Chrono took the opportunity to leave and set off for his quarters. He was going to need to make sure his dress uniform was in good shape. It was nice of his mother to be so accommodating, but there were some things that you just had to do.
He might not be able to find their killer, but he could stand beside his comrades one last time. He could do no less.
Author's Note:
As you've probably noticed there is both humor and drama in here. One reason for this is that while life isn't exactly sunshine and rainbows, there are occasionally fluffy bunnies to go with your combat and angst. Also, the majority of the characters are children, so they aren't serious all the time.
It has come to my attention that Yuuno has been suffering unduly. Unfortunately for him, he is currently the straight man (the normal, serious one of a pair of comedians). He is not being discriminated against; I just feel that it wouldn't have worked as well if their roles were reversed. I actually played with that in the first part of this chapter.
About the parents: due to the lack of information about them in the anime, I have done a mix-and-match between the Triangle Heart versions of the Takamachi family and the anime versions. I then assumed that they were pretty much on the opposite end of the parental spectrum from Precia, and started writing. In general, they are pretty good as parents go. That doesn't mean they are perfect. They are fully aware that they have to work on their relationship with Nanoha, but they don't have a magical therapy speech to fix everything. That doesn't mean they aren't trying. You may also notice that they like to talk out their problems. This is 1) because I try to keep the mind reading confined to magical characters and 2) because communication is the key to good relationships.
In the anime, Suzuka has no parents to be found, although it is suggested that they are engineers. In Triangle Heart, the Tsukimura family is made up of some kind of vampires. I kid you not. For obvious reasons, that didn't work for my purposes. The actual state of Suzuka's family is something that I am leaving up in the air for now. Suffice to say that it is sufficiently complicated and upsetting to produce Suzuka's reaction. In that section, I emphasized some words and phrases. This is because they have a heavier significance in their use here, and Nanoha knows that even though she doesn't necessarily fully understand just what that significance is.
Arf. This is me jumping headlong into something that is never really addressed. Just how human are familiars? Just how animalistic? They are sentient beings that deserve to be treated like humans, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they are human through and through. For those of you who didn't really get what was going on between Arf and Linith, go back and read it again.
Now, I have no idea how Nanoha actually created the Starlight Breaker, nor do I know how she decided on its name. I decided to throw in a bit of humor, throw in some background information, and show why it's a bad idea to show up at a fight with an untested spell. It doesn't always go right the first time. Or the second time for that matter. Don't worry, Yuuno got better.
Precia's section. Oh, boy. Well, on the one hand we have a large info dump which may or may not contain anything important. On the other hand, you should start to get more of an idea of just how my Precia's mind works. Precia is an actual character here, with her own motivations, actions, and neuroses, all of which I will attempt to bring to life just as I would for any other major character. And, much as I find the thought uncomfortable, Precia isn't precisely evil so much as insane and of dubious morality. She's a very sick woman who needs help, not the incarnation of darkness.
Is there a difference between Precia here and in the first chapter? Yes. Meet the technical side of Precia, the side the does the science. It isn't a split personality or anything; there's just a difference between how she acts and thinks when she's working like this and when she's dealing with Fate. Fate, being a living, breathing representation of her failure, is unsurprisingly bad for Precia's mental stability, not that that justifies anything that Precia does to her. Perhaps if someone could convince the obsessive SS class mage to go therapy, things might get better! Yeah, that's happening.
The TSAB section: not quite the same as a normal Earth military. Wow, who would have guessed? Anyway, sarcasm aside, that is one of the points I was making here. Also, due to the lack of funerals in the anime I will be making it all up as I go along.
