SonicANIEM2010 here, bringing in another chapter to Lyrical Familiar; No chit-chats here again, I'm going right into the chapter. Usual disclaimers apply.

[Dimensional Space]
[Time-Space Administration L-Class Dimensional Cruise Vessel "Asura"]
[BGM: "Enemy Attack" Final Fantasy X OST Remaster]

Chaos; that was the best word to describe what was happening for the moment. The chaos has multiple fronts to it with a rather interesting cause and effect. The cause was from the dimensional quake that had come from the Garden of Time when Precia simultaneously activated the 9 Jewel Seeds in her possession. The effect was felt on the side of the Time Space Administration Warship that had anchored itself in Dimensional Space close to Precia's lair. The alarms of the warship were going practically haywire from it all. One must really credit the technical staff for they somehow managed to report their findings in a professional manner despite their own feelings of safety being compromised.

"Emergency!" one tech informed, "A dimensional tremor has occurred and its magnitude is increasing gradually!"

"If the magnitude continues to increase at this rate" the other tech informed just as fearfully but clearly professional, "A dimensional fault could be created in almost 30 minutes!"

"The reactors for the Garden of Time are Lost Logia themselves, and they have the same type as the Jewel Seeds!" Amy added from her seat after her readings of the scanners brought up more disturbing facts about the Garden of Time, "Precia Testarossa has engaged them, knowing full well of the risk that they might run out of control! She's trying to compensate for the power that she lacks from not attaining all of the Jewel Seeds!"

Lindy let out a gasp as she realized something from what the woman had said after breaking poor Fate-chan's heart. The woman had activated all of the Jewel Seeds in her possession for a specific purpose; it was everything or nothing for her now. There was little doubt that the power Precia had wouldn't be enough for a round-trip; it was even arguable that with all of the Jewel Seeds, there still would've been that doubt. Lindy was shocked the most when she had the feeling and realization that Precia knew that as well.

"She meant this to be a one-way trip from the very beginning!" The admiral voiced her opinion on the matter. It was the quick glance behind her that she took to inform the kids of her caution that drew her startle; Nanoha, Sonic, Yuuno, Arf and Fate were nowhere to be seen in the room, "Kids?!"

Meanwhile, with the alarms and noises acting as their distraction, Sonic led Nanoha, Yuuno and Arf, who was carrying an unconscious and "broken" Fate through the halls of the massive warship. Perhaps it was by pure coincidence, or the fact that they were running in opposite directions that drew the group of five to intercept with the lone Chrono Harlaown. Both parties stopped in their tracks.

"Chrono-kun" Nanoha decided to avoid any thought of wasting time with any awkward pause and asked the enforcer of his directive, "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to head for the Garden of Time" Enforcer Chrono, already armed in his combat attire and passively holding his device in his right hand, informed quickly, catching the hint that time was of the essence, "I have to stop that mad woman before it's too late!"

"I'm going with you!" Nanoha said without missing a beat; her tone and emotion had indicated her honesty in the matter.

"Me too" Yuuno added

"Me three" Sonic added as well. Really, did anyone expect for him to sit out and let the mages hog all of the fun?

"All right!" Chrono agreed without so much of a second thought. It was almost a no-brainer to allow these three to tag along with him. Despite any thought of inexperience, they had shown full well that they could handle themselves in a fight. Not only that, but there was something about the blue hedgehog's tone that indicated that he was almost looking forward to the idea. The enforcer, frankly put, would've had to have been an idiot to spurn their assistance, and he certainly was not one.

"Arf" Yuuno glanced at the aforementioned wolf girl, "You stay here by Fate's side"

"R-right!" Arf had to pause for a moment to let the exchange sit in before agreeing.

"Let's go!" With that, Chrono took off in the direction that he was already heading in the first place.

"Right!" The trio of Sonic, Nanoha and Yuuno followed suit. If the blue hedgehog had any complaints, it was the fact that he had to slow himself down to a jog so that way the others could keep up with him. Although it was for good reason, as all of the speed in the world wouldn't help jack if he didn't know where he was going.

"Chrono, Nanoha-san, Sonic-kun, Yuuno-san!" Lindy called them through the communication channels as soon as she had figured out what the group was up to. Instead of trying to urge the group against such an act, she fully supported it. Sonic could've also sworn on his speed that he had heard some excitement in the admiral's tone, "I'm going to head on site as well! I'll trust you to handle the arrest of Precia Testarossa!"

"Hai!" Three of the human mages had agreed instantly to the woman's orders and expressed such with a quick answer. Sonic had agreed as well, but had a different way of expressing it.

"This calls for epic theme music!" The blue hedgehog declared, only for him to quickly lament upon it, "If only I didn't leave my CD player at home…"

The stage was set for the climactic battle. Both sides had their own motives to win and they had everything to gain or lose. Who would win?

[OP: "Innocent Starter" Nana Mizuki]

Sonic the Hedgehog: Lyrical Familiar
Chapter 14
The Time of the Sealing of Our Fates!

[Dimensional Space]
[Time-Space Administration L-Class Dimensional Cruise Vessel "Asura"]
[Medical bay]
[No BGM]

Arf wasted no time in getting her mistress over to the medical bay of the vessel. For the wolf girl, it was still a bit of a mental toll to see her precious Fate in such a condition. Thankfully, while there were medical hands on call for Fate's aid, they respectfully stayed back so the familiar could be with her master alone.

At the moment, Fate appeared to be lying down on a hospital bed with a plain white bed sheet over her body. However, that was nowhere close to the girl's actual condition. If one were to put it into a few terms, the appropriate ones would range from "shell-shock" to "limbo". The girl's eyes were open, but there was little light or life in those crimson irises. Thankfully, the obvious sign that she was still alive physically was the fact that Arf was still alive.

That said the wolf girl was still torn with concern and worry as she looked at the young golden-blonde girl. With realistically little that she could do under her own power to help, Arf had decided to stand by her master until whatever befell her could pass.

Whatever Fate was under, it would've been greatly preferable that she got over it soon. From behind Arf there was a television screen that had displayed a live feed from a device. Whether it was by design or accident, the feed was specifically from either Raising Heart or S2U, as it displayed Sonic, Nanoha, Yuuno and Chrono inside the Garden of Time.

[Dimensional Space]
[Garden of Time]
[No BGM]

A flash of lightning seemed oddly appropriate for the location that was the Garden of Time. It was during one of these strikes that the team of three mages plus one quippy hedgehog familiar touched down at the landing to Precia's lair. They wouldn't be able to go any further inside of the lair just yet as there was a detachment of the mad woman's robotic fleet of soldiers standing guard at the entrance. As the guard mechs were posted out there to make sure the mages would advance no further, there was little confidence that they could go on unmolested.

"There are a lot of them" Yuuno noted, the first to point of the plainly obvious fact that they were outnumbered.

"This is only the entrance" Chrono retorted as he held S2U close to him, "There are many more inside."

"Chrono-kun, what are they?" Nanoha couldn't help but voice a question to fill her curiosity

"They're machines that attack nearby targets" the enforcer replied

"I see, then there's nothing to worry about." The girl's pigtails seemed to twitch almost as if they could feel her optimism; a feeling that had her looking down toward her familiar for his input, "Ne, Sonic-kun?"

"Hai, hai; I just have to compare them to how Eggy makes his mechs; then I can have my fun" The blue hedgehog had taken the brief pause after the landing to stretch out his arms and legs a little in preparation for the upcoming big battle. It was only as he made to grip his twin kodachi from the sheathes on his back that he found Chrono's S2U barring his path

"Oy" the hedgehog had a small growl of annoyance, "What gives?"

[BGM Insert: "Scrap Brain" Sonic the Hedgehog (Genesis)]

"There is no need to waste time on foes of this level" The enforcer said as he started to twirl the black and blue staff around. There was little doubt that he had done this sort of action before as his device chimed almost in sync to the enforcer's actions and thoughts.

"Stinger Blade!" The device declared in a mechanical female voice. The head of the staff glowed a light blue that would represent the enforcer's magic color.

The young teen grunted a little as he threw a volley of blades generated by his magical energy. It was impressive that the volley of blades had taken out a whole wave of mechs before they could even react to the sudden display of hostility. What drew more of the semi-envious feelings was the speed in which Chrono had gotten the spells off.

"So fast!" Nanoha said in awe

"Hmph…" Was that jealousy in Sonic's tone? "I could've done that..."

"Snip shot!" The boy declared an incantation as he fired off another volley that took out the remainder of mechs. The only difference separating from the original wave of Stinger Blades was that this volley had much more speed behind it and took out the robots with one notable exception.

Chrono was barely fazed by the fact that the larger mech closest to the door had taken little damage from the Stinger Blade. It probably was almost to be expected, as the blades had lost power over time as they had impacted the mechs and ripped through them. No matter, the enforcer rushed through the wreckage and took a big leap out of the way as the mech tried to drive its axe down on him. From there, he used his momentum to land right on top of the robot's head and stabbed the head of S2U into it.

"Break Impulse" S2U declared mechanically as the mech suddenly imploded as the result of a point blank spell. The action further shocked Nanoha and Yuuno speechless while the blue hedgehog grumbled some more.

"What are you doing standing there?" Chrono just had to pour metaphorical salt in the wound and criticize the trio for just standing there when they could've advanced; clearly the boy had a need to work on his social skills, "Let's go"

"H-hai" Nanoha and Yuuno had to pick up their pace in order to keep up with the impatient enforcer.

"Hai. Hai~…" Sonic said flatly as he followed suit, he made absolutely no attempt to restrain his quip for Chrono's impatience, "Chrono... the "ojou-sama" of impatience"

"Watch your mouth, familiar" They boy shot back as he led them through a hallway that had a good portion of ground crumbling away; revealing a very ominous void of pinkish and black. His tone never lost any of its informal sense as he sought to warn the three about the floor underneath them, "Watch your step as well."

"What do you mean?" Nanoha asked; though part of her mind had concluded that it had something to do with the holes in the ground, "You mean the holes in the ground?"

"More like the plane underneath the said holes" Chrono replied, "Yuuno, I trust you know what these holes are, right?"

"Complex Space" Yuuno replied as he matched stride with Nanoha and easily avoided the pitfalls, "Space where magic doesn't work"

"I assume that includes flying magic?" Sonic asked with maybe a slight uprising of his nerves upon seeing the inclining of the Tutorial Ferret and enforcer's heads. The blue hedgehog grumbled a little at that notion, he was easily annoyed over that idea, "Great… it's like Scrap Brain all over again"

"Scrap Brain?" Chrono asked in hopes that the blue hedgehog would elaborate.

"Eggman's big base on South Island" the hedgehog replied and drew upon his memory to add to the experience, "Scrap Brain, among a few other of the zones that Eggman had taken over, included these Bottomless Pit traps that made sense for speedy fellas like yours truly. Looooooooong way down!"

"How did you avoid them?" the enforcer instantly regretting asking such a stupid question. Why did he, of all people, had to fall for the idiot bait?

"Jumping?" Sonic countered the question with a half-question-half-answer of his own. His flat and exasperated expression drew a few giggles of amusement from Nanoha and Yuuno, "I'm pretty sure that was an obvious gimmick."

"You've made your point" the enforcer said with a slight tick of annoyance, "Moving on"

The group of four continued to make their way through the hall until they came to a set of large double-doors. Said doors were closed tightly, which probably meant that whatever or whoever was on the other side did not wish for the intruders to go any further. Chrono was going to have none of that; however, as he promptly kicked the doors open forwards.

They were once again greeted by more mechs. Much like the ones before, they had a severe advantage in numbers and had ranged from heavy-hitting bulky types to the swift aerial mechs. The blue hedgehog couldn't help but draw more similarities to the variety that Eggman's robots had back on South Island.

"We'll split up into groups of two from here" the enforcer declared and turned a half-glance over to Nanoha and Sonic, "You two go up to the top and seal the reactor."

"What about you, Chrono-kun?" Nanoha asked, not that she was going to disobey the enforcer's orders, but darn her if that curiosity of hers doesn't get her far.

"Ferret-boy and I will take on Precia and arrest her" Chrono answered without missing a beat, "That is my job after all"

"Oy, lay off the ferret jokes, those are mine to heckle Yuuno with" the resident familiar glared at the enforcer in annoyance, "I should start copyrighting that..."

"I don't think this is the time for that..." Yuuno said softly; though he had a feeling that he wasn't going to hear the end of the ferret jokes.

"At any rate, I'll make a path for you and your familiar. You better be ready to take off when I do" Chrono declared rather loudly as he started to prime up another big spell of his. This one involved him standing a fair distance from the mechs and pointing the head of S2U at them.

"Flier fin!" Raising Heart declared as the familiar sight of pink wings appeared at Nanoha's feet. Sonic had answered in his own way by charging up his Super-Peel-Out dash. For him, it was rather a tossup between the Spin-Dash and the Peel-Out. At the moment, it was the advantage of freeing up his arms that led him to use the latter.

"Blaze Cannon!" S2U declared as Chrono unleashed a powerful bombardment spell of flames from the device. The mechs had stood little chance and went down in a similar manner to bowling pins. A notion that Sonic had grumbled about as he noted that Chrono had labelled two Strikes before he and Nanoha could even throw a metaphorical frame.

"Chrono-kun!" Nanoha called back as she and Sonic used the Blaze Cannon as cover to ascend up the stairs, "Be careful"

"Heh!" Was that a smirk on the teen's face? That didn't sit too well with Sonic once again.

"Showoff" The hedgehog grumbled as he took the lead in front of his master; upon hearing the brunette giggle, he shot a pouty look in her direction, "What?"

"Nothing~" Nanoha giggled in youthful amusement at seeing her familiar express jealousy over the experienced and almost arrogant enforcer.

[Dimensional Space]
[Time-Space Administration L-class Dimensional Cruise Vessel "Asura"]
[Medical Bay]
[No BGM]

While the drama at the Garden had occurred, Lindy had just left the v-berth after giving an order to her techs to set up a few barriers for defense against the dimensional tremor. All of this was watched by Arf in silence. Though she was hopeful that the mages deployed would stop the mad woman's plans, she had one more concern to deal with.

The wolf girl looked away from the screen to focus on Fate once more. There was no improvement to Fate's condition as the girl just laid there in the medical bed. Sure, all of her vitals and such indicated that she was fine in the physical aspect, and Arf could easily conclude that as well since she was still alive. It was the mental state of the poor girl that taken its toll and that was something Arf could do nothing about.

"I'm worried about those kids, so I'm going to help them out for a little while" The wolf girl was quick to explain her reasoning and justification as she leaned forward to talk to Fate. She had a feeling that she was probably talking to a wall, but that didn't stop her from speaking in such a hopeful manner. With that hope still with her, she softly placed a soft hand on the girl's cheek "I'll be back soon; and when everything is done, it won't matter how slowly it happens, but we'll bring you back to the real Fate that I loved so much; the gentle, kind Fate who saved my life.

"From now on, you're free to use all of the time you have" Arf had said her peace and stood up. Even though she had the feeling that she would've had better feedback talking to a wall, that didn't stop her from trying. The wolf girl slowly turned and walked away from the girl, only pausing once to give the girl one last glance before she left the room.

It was only a manner of seconds prior to Arf's departure that light and life returned to the crimson eyes of one Fate Testarossa. The girl still kept silent as she slowly took in her surroundings. It wasn't the first time that she had awoken in a hospital room; she had plenty of that back when she was just awakening at the Garden of Time. Her glance was drawn to the visual screen that had displayed the feed of the mages engaging her mother's forces.

[BGM Insert: "Daijoubu da yo" Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha OST]

'Kaa-san never paid any attention to me, not even once.' Fate reflected upon her memories, finally accepting the grave truth that she had been oblivious to up until this point. Oblivious, or ignorance, it mattered little the cause; all that she wanted was to make Precia smile to her, but not once did it happen, 'It was Alicia that she missed, not me. I'm nothing but a failure to her. Maybe I should never have been born.'

The girl glanced at the screen that had included her rival and Arf's counterpart of a familiar. Were the circumstances slightly different, she might've felt the amusement that Nanoha had in watching Sonic not only hold his own against the robots on the screen, but also make them look comically stupid with his childish, but effective antics. She had little reaction as she saw Arf, her own familiar, join up with the two.

'Arf… and that girl…. What was her name again? She made sure that I knew…' The blonde slowly sat up in her bed as if to watch with more interest. As she watched, the white-clad girl, the memories of their battles and rivalry came to her mind.

'We fought again and again. I did some terrible things to her' In her memories, Fate was ever-so self-critical in the way that she treated the girl. And yet, there was an irony that confused her, 'And in spite of that, she spoke to me. She called me by name...'

'Again…' Fate glanced slightly away from the girl and felt tears roll down her face, 'And again… and again… and again…'

The familiar flicker from the side of her bed drew Fate's glance further from the screen and toward the table. The familiar noise and glowing yellow light emanated from Bardiche. Without so much of a second thought, the girl walked over and held the device in her hand.

"Bardiche..." Fate spoke softly to the device, "My story. Our story. They haven't even begun yet."

The device, despite in its damaged condition, shifted to its scythe form minus the blade. It looked the worse for wear as it was cracked all over the frame, blade and shaft. With baited and short breath, Fate watched as the device tried to set itself back to Axe form. Bardiche seemed to represent Fate's own spirit as it did so.

"Get set." It took a lot of effort to do so, but the device had set itself back to Axe form. Its master broke down into tears once more.

"You've been at my side this whole time; haven't you, Bardiche?" Fate asked amidst her crying as, in somewhat of a dramatic fashion, one teardrop landed on the cold, hard, floor and made a resounding drip. Bardiche, the device that had the honor of being Fate's life-time partner and assistant in magic, had been with her the whole time and the girl could almost sense its feelings.

"You hate the idea of things ending like this too." The girl said, softly forming a question that probably did not need to be answered to her device, "Right?"

"Yes sir." Perhaps it was the default tone of the male voice from Bardiche, but it almost sounded happy to stand by its master and serve her through thick and thin.

[Song Insert: "Don't Be Long" Nana Mizuki]
(Oh! There is an optional alternative for this song! It was in the original series. "Take a Shot" also by Nana Mizuki. I went with the former because it was awesome to listen to with the backdrop of the Nanoha movie. Purely optional for your preference)

If her small smile was of any indication, Fate seemed to gain strength from her device and held it much like she usually would. Her resolve had been steeled and her strength had been replenished. Cast aside, if only for the moment, were her doubts of confidence.

"I don't know if we'll be able to pull it off" The girl let her doubts and feelings show, but didn't allow them to drag her down this time, "But let's both give it our best!"

The girl focused a small fraction of her magic into Bardiche and mended the cracks. As the device seemed to represent her own will, Fate's resolve had also sealed up the cracks to her heart and body. In no time, the device's recovery was complete.

"Recovery complete!" Bardiche declared.

"We haven't even lived our lives yet." Fate opened her eyes with that strong, revitalized resolve and watched as her familiar red and black cloak appeared and set itself upon her back and her body glowed a bright yellow as her Barrier Jacket clad itself over her body.

"So let's work to be true to ourselves" The girl said as she started to make the preparations to join the fight, "And end who we've been so far!"

[Dimensional Space]
[Garden of Time]
[Song Insert: "Don't Be Long" Nana Mizuki]

Meanwhile, Arf's joining of Sonic and Nanoha as they progressed up the Garden of Time to the reactor had made things a little bit easier. That wasn't to say that Sonic and Nanoha weren't capable of taking care of Precia's mechanical menace; they had little trouble on that front. once Sonic had got into his little "groove" that he seemed to only go into when dealing with robots.

For Nanoha, it was quite a sight to see her familiar so much into his own element. She couldn't help but feel that familiar had almost a talent for this sort of thing as she saw that Sonic's ways in taking out the robots were far from just his swords or the quills on his back. She couldn't help but giggle in joyful amusement as the blue hedgehog practically humiliated the robots with wits.

Heck when Arf had arrived, Sonic even went so far as to make it a contest out of the three to see how many they'd take out. There was nothing for the winner, well except bragging rights and pride, but that didn't stop them from drawing inspiration from the hedgehog's joyful excitement and rush of adrenaline.

"Oh, Sonic~" Arf chimed out to the blue hedgehog, "I've got 5 already!"

"I'm on 10" Sonic chimed back without missing a beat, he could already taste that pride on doubling up his wolf counterpart.

"Oh like hell am I going to let a spiny rodent outscore me!" That seemed to stroke Arf's ego enough for her to pick up the pace and immediately take on another wave of robots, "My pride will not allow it!"

"Nyahahaha~ gomen you two..." Nanoha giggled a bit in amusement in watching the familiars have their competition, but she honestly felt somewhat inspired, "But I've got 12"

"Oh C'mon!" Sonic pouted after taking out another mech. As he did so, however, his attention was drawn to another robot that had somehow escaped notice. To his shock and growing horror, the blue hedgehog had to watch as the robot had thrown its weapon at Nanoha's blindside; and there was little he could do to stop it, "Nanoha! HEADS UP!"

"Huh?" Nanoha turned and saw the massive weapon flying right for her and was far too late to react, except scream in shock, "Kyaaa!"

"Thunder Rage!" Bardiche's loud declaration and the lightning-based stunner spell that immobilized the robot had clued the three to look upward at the arrival of the cavalry; a cavalry of one. From high above the group, Fate had positioned herself with the second stage of her spell ready to unleash upon the large mech.

"Thunder Rage!" Fate shouted out and stabbed the Glaive-form Bardiche into the center of her magical glyph. The second stage of her spell had begun to pour magical lightning down upon the massive robot and had destroyed it rather instantly.

"Fate!" Arf was taken by surprise to see her master.

"Talk about clutch!" The blue hedgehog let out a sigh of relief that he probably didn't even know that he held.

Fate slowly descended down until she was at eye level with Nanoha. Purplish-blues met and locked on to crimson reds as the two girls stared at one another. Fate had realized that she had probably saved her former-rival's life, but she knew, at least in her mind, that there was no equal to the debt that she owed the kind girl in white.

Their little moment of happiness and reunion had, much to the annoyance of a certain blue hedgehog, been interrupted once again. This time, the culprit was arguably one of the largest robots that anyone present had probably faced. That was especially true for Sonic, and considering his experience with robots, it wasn't saying too much, but it was something.

The robot itself was blue in color and was tall enough to take up a good portion of the Garden of Time's almost infinitely long stairway. It had a wide body build with huge, bulky arms. The shoulders of the robot had large pointed spikes from its shoulder blades and pointed lances for arms.

"No offense, Fate" Sonic started as he, with Arf right behind him, flew up until he was even with the two girls, drawing a quick glance from the aforementioned girl, "But your mother has way too much time on her hands if she's able to create this huge thing."

"It is a big one. Its defenses will be strong." Fate took no offense to the hedgehog's comment and probably would've agreed if any part of her personality would've made her jealous that her mother could make such a huge robot but have little time for her. But she wasn't, though and was more focused on the task at hand.

The large robot, regarding the four as hostile intruders, began to charge up energy at the tips of its arms for a powerful attack to eliminate said threats. While the attack would've been powerful, it would've been much more of a threat if it didn't take almost forever and a half to charge up. This gave Fate enough time to say what she had wanted to say.

"If we all work together…" The girl said softly and looked amongst her allies; looking to see for their feelings on the matter. She had expected Arf to be on board with the idea and wasn't surprised for her Familiar to grin in confirmation of that feeling. She next checked the blue hedgehog, though she had no clue as to what he'd think. The hedgehog had given her the thumbs up sign, so that could've been taken as agreement, but she also noticed that said thumb had also been pointed in the direction of Nanoha.

Fate had found herself fighting a bit of a blush when she saw the girl in white smile brightly and full of cheer. That excited look on Nanoha's face looked too cute for words to describe alone. Not so deep in the blonde's mind, she had made the note that if teaming up with the girl in white was going to draw this reaction more often; she'd definitely be up for it more often.

"Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!" Nanoha nodded repeatedly with each word she said. She truly felt almost to be in heaven, she was that happy. She had probably almost overloaded her familiar's emotional bond with pure happiness, but neither she nor her familiar would care about that. Since when was too much happiness a bad thing?

At any rate, the mechanical boss-like robot was not about to allow the warm and fuzziness to continue any longer. The energy gathered at the tips of the lance arms had reached its peak and it was soon about to fire it off at the group of four. Time was running out for the group to make a move.

"SCATTER!" Sonic shouted as soon as the robot fired its cannons. The group of four had split up just as the blasts hit the space where they were just at.

The attack was just the opening of what would be a volley of sorts as the robot had tried to shoot down the four targets in the air. The multitudes of shots had been effective in one manner; neither Sonic nor Arf were able to get close to the robot without the fear of being on the wrong end of powerful blasts. There was one thing that the four had known for sure. The robot would not be able to keep on firing forever and they would soon get their chance to go on the offensive. Nanoha, as much of the multi-tasker that she had become with magic, had that idea in mind when she prepared a four-round volley of Divine Shooter to be fired later.

Sure enough, the robot had to stop attacking to recharge its energy and that was when the four struck. Fate too the initiative and threw the compressed mana blade from Bardiche's Scythe form at it; impacting the robot's right shoulder with the large arm. Sonic followed suit with a combined sword-and-quill spin-dash attack and created a huge gash on the opposite shoulder. As massive as the robot was, the joints were the weak point, and Nanoha had sought to use that and aimed her Divine Shooter rounds at the joints. The robot must've caught on, as it used the big arm to intercept the spell. It did the same for Arf's volley of the Photon Lancer on the opposite arm.

Despite the effort of defense that the robot had put up, it was all for naught as the damage from Sonic and Fate's initial attacks had done their job and the backing from Arf and Nanoha's shooter spells had added extra pressure that was too much for the large arms and they fell down into the seemingly endless abyss below. The robot was not about to call it quits as there were four focus points left for it to draw energy from. The only differences were that these four points were smaller than the big arms, thus it would take a little bit longer to charge up.

"Bardiche! Arf!" Fate quickly called out to her device and familiar as she prepared to cast a powerful bombardment spell of her own to finish off the robot while it was still weakened.

"Raising Heart! Sonic-kun!" Nanoha followed suit with her own preparations. It would take the combined effort from both masters and familiars to take out this massive robot.

"Get set / Yosh!" Bardiche and Arf both acknowledged in unison as the former shifted into the appropriate Glaive form while the latter had taken a position at the side of her master.

"Stand by, ready! / Got it!" Raising Heart and Sonic equally chimed in unison as the former shifted to the appropriate Cannon form for bombardment spell while Sonic had taken his place by Nanoha's side.

"Thunder Smasher!" Fate and Arf shouted as they combined to unleash the powerful bombardment spell. Despite their combined effort, their spell still found itself blocked by a tough magical barrier that supported the defense of the robot. No matter, it was almost just like the demon tree from the park not too long ago.

"Divine Buster!" Nanoha and Sonic soon joined suit and unleashed their own powerful bombardment spell. Their spell was also met with the defenses of the robot, but they, like Fate and Arf, had kept full pressure on their respective spells.

"Here we go!" The four called out at the same time and added that extra "oomph" to their respective spells. In no time, the boss robot had been seeing pink and yellow as it was completely engulfed by the massive twin blasts.

Needless to say, there was little doubt in the fact that the boss robot had met its end. The four had not only destroyed it, but probably had enough overkill to wipe out any possibility of extended family. Plus; the Garden of Time had gained a rather sizable chain of holes as the bombardment blasts had ripped their way through the garden and into space. Any other circumstance and Sonic might've quipped to Fate about possible renovation projects to fix that hole in the future.

["Don't Be Long" -ends- (No BGM)]

There was a moment of silence that fell upon the four after the damage was done and the dust had settled. The only sounds that could've been heard were the output of exhaust from both Raising Heart and Bardiche from that combined bombardment attack. Both girls lowered their devices and gave their familiars a little moment to catch their breath after all of that.

"Fate-chan…" purplish blues met crimson reds again as Nanoha softly regarded Fate with a soft smile. Fate, in turn, responded with the small, cute smile of her own that, if she would've looked on hindsight, she could've sworn she saw a little flush of pink on the white-clad girl's cheeks.

Arf, after catching her breath, finally allowed herself to give into her emotions and tackled her master in an emotional, tear-filled hug. The wolf girl finally allowed herself to let her emotions out and cried her eyes out, caring little for how her tears were making her look or anything for that matter.

"Arf... I really worried you, didn't I?" Fate kindly and softly asked of her familiar. Her answer was a couple of tear-filled nods from the wolf girl. She didn't mind that, and instead just stroked her familiar's head.

With a warm feeling in her heart, Nanoha watched the tearful scene with a soft smile. She was caught up in the beauty of the scene and had almost missed her own familiar latching to her waist, because, well, why not? The girl made no attempt to push her little brother figure away and softly ran a gloved hand down the quills of his head.

[Dimensional Space]
[Garden of Time: Caverns]
[No BGM]

The rumblings from the combined Buster and Smasher spells from up above could've been felt easily from Precia's location, but then again, so could've the rumblings from the Dimensional Tremor. That didn't matter to the woman, however, as she gazed at the Jewel Seeds above the life pod that supposedly held her original daughter's body; rather that was what she had wanted to believe it did. Those reports from the Bureau about being unable to recover Alicia's original body were far truer than she had wished them to be. Nevertheless, even if this girl was supposedly another failure like Fate, and never be destined to see the light of day, the woman still needed something to hold on to.

"Just a little more…" Precia thought out loud. She was in for a rude shock when the rumbling suddenly halted. The woman grunted a bit and stepped back in fury, "That shouldn't have happened."

"Precia Testarossa" The voice of Admiral Lindy Harlaown had given the mad woman a rude awakening. The chain of events had started when Sonic and Nanoha had sealed the reactor of the Garden with Fate and Arf's help, "It's over; I'm suppressing the dimensional quake"

"The reactor has been sealed. My enforcer and our allies are heading for your position" Even as the Admiral had spoken from her position on the exterior of the Garden; with Durandal at her side and mana-generated fairy like wings sprouting form her back and a magical circle at her feet; her magic powers were at work. As the admiral worked and had reached out to Precia; Nanoha, Sonic, Arf and Fate were on their way to the old woman's location and would soon join Yuuno and Chrono there.

"The forgotten capital, Al-Hazard… the secrets that lie there..." Lindy made no attempt to hide the disappointment her tone when she addressed the older woman, "All of that should have been lost long ago!"

"You're wrong. Al-Hazard still exists" The woman was defiant in her motives. "The lost path to it should exist within the dimensional rift."

"Even if that were true…" Lindy asked as the tremor settled down under the combined efforts of her own power and the successful sealing of the reactor, "What will you do then?"

"I'll get her back." Precia replied, "I'll take back my Alicia's past and future. I'll take back everything that went wrong in this world"

If the woman had wished to say anything else on that matter, she didn't get the chance to as explosions generated from bombardment spells fired off from two distinct sources had interrupted her from doing so. The woman looked around to find that from one side, the enforcer Chrono and archeologist Yuuno Scrya had made their appearance, while on the other side, Nanoha, Sonic, Fate and Arf had made their appearances known.

"Don't act so naïve!" Chrono chose to say his small peace on the matter next, "No matter what spell you cast, you can't regain the past!"

"Lady, I'll let you in on a little secret." Sonic took his turn next as he regarded the woman with some contempt for her motives, "If I had my way, or my own little perfect world, I would've had my little blue tail in the sand, sunbathing at a beach of my home island and enjoying my Chili Dogs. Unfortunately, life happens…

"I didn't ask to become a familiar or to get involved in this magic thing, and I might've done things differently if I had a second chance, but if I did, what would've happened then? I probably wouldn't have gained a family and friends that love and support me." As Sonic spoke, Arf and Fate had taken that opportunity to get closer to the woman while still listening to the hedgehog.

"Yes, stuff happens in life that you will have little control over, but that is in the past. The past is meant to be behind you. Use the mistakes and the lessons you've made in the past to improve your here and now, as well as your future" Sonic looked to be finished with his peace and sought to deliver a little bit of a vocal uppercut before giving Fate her say, "You have a golden opportunity to do all of that; right here in front of you! You can start by actually giving a damn about the girl who spent the good part of these last few months trying to get a smile on that pitiful face of yours!"

Sonic had promptly shut his mouth after speaking his mind. It seemed to have gotten the job done as Precia hadn't said a word and instead just stood there and listened to the lengthy piece that even surprised the hedgehog's own master with the kind of wisdom he could've come up with at his young age.

Precia's eyes met Fate's as the two had seemed to just stare at one another for a brief moment of time. Sadly, the old woman was given yet another reminder of her slowly deteriorating condition in the form of another coughing fit that resulted in her sickly spewing blood onto the ground before she could cover her mouth.

"Kaa-san!" Rightfully so, Fate rushed to the woman in concern for her wellbeing

"What did you come here for?" Precia asked in such a weak manner that, had she not been close to death's door, her tone would've held more strength behind it, "Get out of my sight. I've already said that you were of no use to me; you're free to do whatever the hell you want."

[BGM: "Daijobu da yo" Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha MOVIE the 1ST]

"I have something I want to say to you" Fate said her peace, unmolested and undeterred by doubt, "Maybe it's true that I'm just a failure and a fake. I'm sorry that I couldn't be Alicia Testarossa or live up to your expectations. If you want me to leave, I'll go someplace far away, but ever since you've made me, I've always wanted you… and I still do.

"I want to make you smile, kaa-san. If nothing else, my desire to make you happy is real." Fate went further to extend out her right hand in offering; shocking the older woman in front of her with her honesty and pure intentions, "Those are my real feelings; the feelings of Fate Testarossa."

"Pathetic…" was Precia's only spoken reply, and though she was truly touched by the girl's words, she felt that it was far too late for the sentiments. The woman tapped the bottom of her staff to the ground and activated another burst of magic.

The rumblings continued once more as the Garden of Time slowly began to crumble into pieces. This must've been Precia's final trump card for if the worst had happened and if she had failed. The Garden of Time's self-destruct sequence had begun, The quakes were so bad that it even shook Lindy around from her location and she had to abandon her post.

"This is bad! The Garden of Time is starting to crumble" Amy Limietta called out to all that could hear her, "Everyone! Get out of there before it's too late!"

"Hai!" Lindy was the first to acknowledge the directive and relayed the order a second time to Chrono and the others before she teleported herself out, "You heard the girl, everyone move!"

"Hai" Chrono was next to acknowledge the order and called out to Fate to get her attention, "Fate Testarossa! Fate!"

Fate didn't so much as move from her position as she watched her mother return to the life pod that held another failed copy of the original Alicia Testarossa. Had Fate had been paying any further attention; she might have noticed a flash of light blue appear at her side while Nanoha had stopped her flight just above the group.

"I'm going… I'm going with my Alicia..." Precia declared her intentions to stay behind; even if it was a false hope, she would still hope to cling to it until the very end, "I've already told you that I've..."

Thwack!

A sharp, but only concussive blow to the back of the old woman's head had knocked her unconscious before she could say anymore. Fate was taken by surprise when she missed the blue flash that was Sonic the Hedgehog run up to the woman and knocked her out with the hilt of one of his kodachi before sheathing it behind his back.

"Baka old hag…" the blue hedgehog grumbled as he hoisted the unconscious Precia over his back, wincing a little from the weight, "And a heavy one at that too."

Fate could only watch again as the blue hedgehog, Sonic, if she were to follow what the white-clad girl had said when she shouted his name earlier; carry her unconscious mother away from the life pod, which had soon sunk into Complex Space immediately following the hedgehog's leap.

"Sonic-kun!" Nanoha shouted out to her familiar as she had to fight Chrono and Yuuno from dragging her away, "We have to hurry!"

"Why?" Fate asked the blue hedgehog as he paused for a moment in his stride.

"Like I said; life happens" Sonic replied with a shrug of his free shoulder. This was yet another one of his whimsical moments that he would maybe entertain the thought of second-guessing much later in time; however his main focus was high-tailing the hell out of the Garden.

"I would be booking it right now if I were you" the hedgehog glanced upward at Fate. His joyful mood from before had taken almost a complete 180 and he was starting to feel his patience tested, "If you're waiting for a written invitation. I can easily knock you out and make my counterpart carry you."

"H-hai!" Fate did not want to take the latter option; her mother was most likely going to be okay and she could try to make amends with her later.

She and Sonic soon joined Arf, and with their speed proving to be a great help, they rejoined Nanoha and the others just as they were getting to the main hallway. It was then, however, that the self-destruction of the Garden of Time had seemed to escalate.

"Onegai, everyone!" Amy Limietta practically prayed out into the communication channels for the safety of the group there, "Hurry up and escape!

The destruction of the Garden of Time was imminent. Time was of the essence, and the group of four mages plus two familiars and one unconscious mage had less than minutes to waste in trying to escape from the crumbling lair. Would they be able to make it in time?

[To be continued]

[Ending: "Little Wish ~Lyrical Step" Yukari Tamura]

[End of Chapter 14]

Author's Notes: Another cliffhanger! Ain't I good at stumping people? Anyways, yes, I have completely made yet another original 180 and taken a completely different route in playing out a few canon scenes. There are a multitude of reasons I decided to keep Precia. For one, what justice would it really have given Fate if the woman was just killed off there? Nothing!

I know that canon Precia is dying of something, if I could guess it would probably be the final toll for all of those powerful spells she had been messing with finally taking their final toll on her body and life. However, if I didn't feel that I had a confident and legitimate way to keep that blasted woman alive, then I wouldn't have done so. I'm giving my canon Precia a chance of redemption. Plus, there are a few other things I will be dabbling in the future as well. However, I SHALL REVEAL NOTHING!

At any rate; as this is a major plot twist and the metaphorical penultimate event in the first of many arcs for this story, I'd really like some honest feedback on how I played this one out. Everything including the ultimate team-up of Nanoha and Fate, Sonic's own version of dishing out wisdom and his actions as well as how they mix up the results of this arc; please opine on it!