Disclaimer: The series does not belong to me, and I do not posses it.

Wow, it's been a while since I updated, eh? I am on break right now, so I'm trying to do as much as possible.

Anyways, although Words switched to six hyphens for the separation, I'm still sticking with the lines for everything else, unless specially notified.

Enjoy.

Nanoha rose into the air, ready to fight. Fate did the same. There was no turning back after this point. A last conflict was inevitable.

Away in the shadows, the hooded man watched with interest as both of the girls prepared their first shots.

So, I guess our girl's gotten tired of playing by the rules. Fine with me, makes things much easier.

Clenching his fist, the man continued observing the scene in front of him, trying to distract his mind for a while.

Nanoha dodged a shot just as she fired one at her opponent. After all the training matches she had "already" experienced with Fate, this wasn't exactly hard. Still, she didn't want to make it look too easy.

"This would be so much easier if I could just finish it quickly." Nanoha muttered under her breath as she dodged. "I don't want to have to use Starlight Breaker this time either..."

Blaster Three, my master?

"That's even worse..." The Ace of Aces pointed out before noticed yet another barrage heading straight towards her. Taking quick evasive action, Nanoha twirled twice and landed next to Yuuno and Alph. "Looks like I should just finish this quickly, in any way possible." Nanoha finally decided as Raising Heart got the idea.

Starlight Breaker

At the same moment Raising Heart began charging the attack, Nanoha jumped to the air and aimed towards her friend of both the future and past. After the initial shock from seeing the attack charge died down, Fate came to her senses and was about to get out of the way when she noticed that Nanoha had taken the necessary precautions and put in a bind.

The beam of energy fired off without any impediments, and hit its target just as successfully.

Panting slightly from providing the energy for Starlight Breaker, Nanoha sighed briefly, knowing that the fight was over. Before the brunette could rest completely, however, Fate started falling from the sky. Snapping to attention once again, Nanoha began flying towards the blonde. Although she knew she wouldn't make it in time to stop her from hitting the water, which wouldn't be a good thing from how high she was, she still had to try, right? Thankfully, before contact was made, Yuuno took action and created a soft spring for Fate to land on.

The moment Fate was caught and Bardiche released the Jewel Seeds, acknowledging Nanoha's victory, the sky suddenly changed color. Lighting started crashing down from the clouds that abruptly appeared. Without any previous notification, two bolts of lightning shot down. Each one aimed at a different person. Each bolt capable of doing much damage. One bolt towards Fate, and one bolt towards Yuuno.

Caught in the middle between Yuuno and Fate, Nanoha gasped when the lightning appeared, and paled when the two bolts started heading towards her friends. Since she was between the two, there was no way she could get to both of them. Pausing for a moment, Nanoha was lost in the chaos of the moment before darting off to at least save someone. Right as the bolt was about to hit, Nanoha sped up and was barely able to knock Yuuno out of the way and push him to the ground before the bolt hit him, and the girl took the strike instead.

At the exact moment the bolt hit Nanoha, the other bolt struck its target as well. The attack hit Fate directly, who didn't have enough energy to move out of the way. In one moment, an attack hit Nanoha, another hit Fate, and a spell by the White Devil herself brought some of the damage on the blonde to the brunette.

Nanoha let out a loud yelp of pain as she was hit by the lightning that Precia had sent. At the same time, some of the damage dealt to Fate was also rerouted to Nanoha. Suddenly, Nanoha's magic gave out, and the wings near her feet disappeared, making the girl hit the ground with a soft thud. Struggling, Nanoha barely managed to open her eyes and look up to the friend that she had just saved.

"Nanoha! Are you alright? Nanoha!"

Nanoha began to stumble out an answer, but before she could, coughed out some blood. Reacting quickly, Yuuno called out Nanoha's name while running to her, but just as he arrived, she collapsed. The last thing Nanoha heard before falling asleep and closing her eyes was the sound of her friend desperately calling out her name.

On the Arthra, the doors to the main room opened, where Yuuno walked in, carrying Nanoha in his arms. Behind him were Alph and Fate, with the latter having her hands locked up. When they had arrived, Precia had already fired her first round at the attacking officers. The moment everyone saw the damage done by that attack, a retreat was ordered. Seeing the officers flee, Precia smiled and turned to the person in the jar behind her.

"Yes... How was that, my dear Alicia?"

Nanoha slowly sat up in that white room. Still tired from all that damage she took, she didn't recognize the absence of the hooded man. Attempting to stand up, Nanoha put her hands on the floor and pushed up, only to fall back down from a lack of energy and the damage she still felt. Struggling, the girl tried to get on her feet again, with this time having as much success as the last. Grunting in annoyance, Nanoha mustered all her strength and stood up, and wobbled before stabilizing herself and standing upright.

When the girl started to look around for the hooded man, she was trying to stay conscious. However, since being unconscious in the white room meant you were conscious in the world, Nanoha was on the border between both. Although the area where the white room was was silent, something was happening back in the world. Straining, Nanoha managed to make through some of the voice, and identified it as Precia Testarossa.

"You're a pathetic dog, Fate. Always relying on me to help you. You're not worth anything. You..."

Nanoha was cut off from both worlds before she could hear anything more.

Blinking once, then twice, Nanoha still felt sore. However, she also felt the fright and shock that seemed to exude from Fate, and the girl attempted to set it straight.

"...can't do anything without anyone else's help!"

"Shut. Up." Nanoha ordered defiantly, standing up. "Does it look like we care? Fate is still Fate, got that? It doesn't matter what she is, she's still a kind girl with a sweet smile! Besides, you're not one to talk either! Always obsessing over one little girl, always stuck up and thinking that you can do whatever you want. Guess what? You can't!" Precia scoffed in response.

"So what, little girl? At least I can stand without anyone else helping me do anything," the woman spoke, referring to how Yuuno was holding up Nanoha.

"Hmph! Yeah right," Nanoha shrugged, "is your research entirely your own? No, you adapted part of it from someone else's, am I correct?" Nanoha challenged. She knew she was getting dangerously close to the line of revealing too much, but she didn't care about that right now. Fate was in trouble, and she had already decided to screw repeating everything again.

"How did you..." Precia stammered for a slight bit before pausing for a second and gaining a great smile on her face. "I see, so you're here because of that, eh? Well, this should be interesting. No matter! Let us begin!"

The woman suddenly started laughing uncontrollably as she used the Jewel Seeds she had taken earlier to attempt and cast some magic. Nanoha, unable to take any more strain, collapsed completely, and Fate caught her, with a slight smile on the blonde's face. Her friend was right, no matter what she was, she still existed, and she planned to take full advantage of that existence she had.

Fate was standing there, helping Yuuno hold Nanoha up, when suddenly, Chrono rushed past all of them, muttering about how Precia was crazy to try and change what had already happened. Knowing what she had to do, Fate handed off Nanoha to Yuuno before throwing up Bardiche and changing into her Barrier Jacket.

"Yuuno, take care of her. I have something I must do." Although Yuuno was cautious at first, he calmed down when he noticed how concerned Fate was about Nanoha, and came to the conclusion that it was reasonable she wouldn't be helping Precia when she went back to the scene.

So yeah, things are quite different than they should be, eh? Anyways, I'm expecting the next update to come tomorrow, but that's just me... Right?

Please Review.