AN: Welcome back everyone! Sorry it took so long to get this chapter out. Again, I've kind of become addicted to League of Legends so I've been spending most of my free time playing, so my apologies. Thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. I know everyone is eager to find out just what the heck is going on with The Guild, Riot Force 6 and everyone else. Answers are coming. I swear.

Also, a big thank you to Timmy Sparx who offered to become my beta reader. Maybe now I'll stop taking so long to write chapters. Now without further ado, here is the chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. There. I said it.

Safe and Sound

Lindy groaned as she stretched her aching muscles. She was satisfied when she heard the distinctive pop of her bones. Being hunched over on a desk for so long was killing her back, not to mention all the late night work in general had taken its toll on her. She intended to get some sleep now that her girls were back, but that didn't mean she was going to take it easy. There was still plenty of digging to do. All the missing and incomplete files though were making it hard on her. Not to mention still had a mole in RF6 to track down. It was vital not just to her, but to the organization as a whole. She'd narrowed down her search and the most likely candidate was the one she dreaded the most, but it just couldn't be that person.

The ringing of the school bell distracted her from her thoughts, for which she was thankful for.

Switching her gaze over to the students streaming out of the school, she caught sight of her two blonde girls. The sheer exhaustion she felt from work left her momentarily, letting her enjoy the fact that the twins looked like two normal high school students heading home after a day at school. She giggled when Hayate suddenly latched on to a less than amused Alicia. The older blonde had her hand on Hayate's head; attempting to push the brunette off but Hayate had a surprisingly firm grip on her. Vita and Reinforce had to come to Alicia's rescue. It was an odd thing to see since Alicia was probably one of the last people that required any rescuing, but the fact that she allowed Hayate to do her shenanigans said a lot. Compared to Alicia, Fate had a tamer good bye with Nanoha. The auburn haired girl gave Fate a quick hug before waving her off. The twins waved to the rest of their friends before climbing into Lindy's car.

"How was school?" she asked as she pulled out of the parking lot.

"It was…."

"Good." Fate finished.

"Did you miss it?"

"More than I thought I would." Alicia admitted.

"There were a lot of things we hadn't expected to miss."

Happy with their response, Lindy asked what they did on their first day back. Slowly, the two let her know of the work they needed to catch up on for their various classes. There had been some concern as to whether they'd been given enough time to complete their assignments, but the twins assured Lindy that the time frame was fair. They were more than confident they'd get all the work done before their time was up. The three arrived home only to find surprise visitors waiting for them at the door. Chrono and Amy waved at them as they got out of the car.

"Chrono?" Lindy asked a bit confused as to why he was there. Not that she wasn't happy to see her son, but he usually only visited every other weekend. When Chrono first moved out, it took some adjusting to not only for her but for the twins as well. Lindy had known though that one day he'd end up moving out and the twins would as well. All kids eventually left home to follow their paths in life. Once the paper work was filled out and approved, the twins would be well on their way to live in new homes. It was a sad thing to think she'd be alone in this house after that happened.

"Surprise." Chrono smiled at Lindy and the twins. "I thought it would be a good idea to visit so we can celebrate Alicia and Fate coming home."

Chrono went up to the blondes and hugged the two to him. The twins didn't hesitate to return the hug. It'd been too long since the three had been around each other like this. After inviting everyone inside, dinner was quickly made with everyone's help.

"So, I hear there's a mob of people just waiting to hire you guys." Chrono said with a hint of pride in his voice. He always knew that if everyone could look beyond their pasts, they'd find two incredible people in the blondes.

"Yes, it was… odd to find so many willing to hire us." Alicia admitted.

"It's become a popular topic." Amy nodded. "I'm hearing a lot of families want to hire you, but Shiro-san has been pushing his request much more than everyone else for Fate-chan."

"He did turn in his packet to hire Fate almost immediately after the mall incident." Lindy said.

"Whoa! Someone's eager to hire you." Chrono mussed up Fate's hair affectionately. "That's amazing since you know how much of a hard ass he is."

"Chrono!" Lindy admonished her son.

"What? It's true and you know it. That man is incredibly over protective of his family."

"You can't really blame him." Amy shook her head at her bodyguard/boyfriend. "He's made a lot of enemies thanks to his business."

"Yeah, I know but that doesn't mean he can be a jerk to my little sisters."

"Have you two decided who you're going to work for?" Amy asked hoping to keep Chrono from going on a tirade about Shiro.

"Umm, about that…." Alicia began.

"What?" Lindy perked up a bit seeing that the twins suddenly looked unsure of themselves. She was almost certain that they would jump at the chance to get a job like this. "Why not? Is something wrong?"

"No, it's just; I suppose it's a very petty reason for hesitating to take the bodyguard jobs." Alicia frowned slightly at admitting that. She wasn't used to feeling unsure of herself.

"What's the reason?" Amy asked.

The twins looked at each other before looking at Lindy.

"We'd have to live apart." Fate answered, "Not only from you but from each other."

"Fate and I have never been away from one another like that. With the exception of getting arrested, we've been at each other's side since we were born. Living apart seems..."

"Unimaginable." Fate sighed. "But we know that this is important not only for us but for you as well."

"We'll fill out the paperwork." Alicia assured Lindy. "We're just having last minute doubts. It won't stop us though."

"Girls…." Lindy's gaze softened at their revelation. How could she have forgotten how depend they were on each other? "I promise that no matter where you go, you'll always have a home here."

"Ah…." The two blushed at having to be reassured in such a way.

Lindy's smile widened. "And thank you for worrying about me as well."

The blonde's blushes intensified. The two looked down at their plates in hopes of hiding their ever reddening cheeks. Feelings were complicated, but they knew that the warmth they felt from Lindy's words were the only thing they needed to know they were making the right choice.

xxx

"Today we'll be trying out something a bit different." Zafira boomed to his class. Since the exams, two classes were now always grouped together to allow them more people to train with while the non-bodyguard students did regular gym activities. Alicia and Fate were pleased to find that the class they were grouped with belonged to Carim and Suzuka. Because of this, the four bonded even more and even started to train together. Considering that Fate and Alicia only tended to pair up with one another, it was a major change for them to actually pair up with another person. In some respect, this made Hayate and Nanoha somewhat jealous at how easily the twins got along with the other two girls. Today the class had been informed they would be doing hand to hand combat again. The students sat on the sparring mats while Zafira gave them instructions for the class. So far, they'd done nothing but hand to hand combat with a partner. The twins hoped that whatever Zafira had planned for them would make the class a little more interesting.

They didn't mind sparring with each other, but that got boring after a while. They knew it couldn't be helped considering how advanced they were. There was no way they'd expect their classmates to keep up with them; Carim and Suzuka being an exception seeing as they'd been trained by their families since they could walk.

"I normally allow you to pick your sparring partners, but not today. I'll be picking them for you."

There were a few groans in the class. Everyone had all but established a routine when it came to their sparring partners, but sometimes routines created complacency. That was something Zafira did not want them to have. Not for the line of work they wanted to go into. You had to be on constant guard and take note of every change in detail in order to be proficient in the field. Zafira ignored the groans and instead looked down his list of students to determine who should be paired with whom.

"Whining will change nothing." Zafira declared. "Now listen for your names and get ready to spar."

In a few minutes, almost everyone was paired up. The twins had been observing the way Zafira was partnering them up and discovered a pattern. He seemed to be putting together the students who were better at hand to hand combat with those who weren't as good. Since everyone had been allowed from the very beginning to choose who to partner up with, most students either teamed up with someone they already knew or someone who they knew was close to their skill level. Although this did allow for some growth, they wouldn't get much better if they kept practicing with the same people over and over, especially if the people they kept sparring with were of the same skill level.

"Harlaown and Nakajima."

"Which one?" Alicia and Fate asked. Zafira shook his head for having forgotten that there were two of them.

"Fate."

The younger blonde looked over to the other side of the matt where a short haired girl with a white bandanna sat next to an orange haired girl with sharp eyes. The orange haired girl seemed to be glaring at her slightly but that didn't put her off since the short haired girl actually smiled at her. She hoped that meant the short haired girl was not going to give her problems.

"Alicia and Lanster."

The orange haired girl stopped glaring at Fate long enough to look surprised and instead cast a timid glance to Alicia. It was fairly obvious she was anything but comfortable with her partner selection. Zafira finished reading his list and released everyone to get to know their new sparring partners. Fate and Alicia stood up and walked over to the two girls. The short haired one stood up immediately and greeted Fate.

"I guess we'll be partners today." She thrust her hand out at Fate. "My name's Subaru Nakajima. Nice to meet you."

Fate reached out and grasped the other girl's hand. She'd been taken off guard a bit with how friendly she was.

"I suppose we will be. I'm Fate Harlaown, but I'm sure you already knew that."

Subaru chuckled. "Yeah, you guys are kind of hard to miss with all the trouble you cause. It helps that we're in the same class too."

Fate and Alicia tried to recall everyone in their class and determined that yes; they were indeed in the same class. They'd never spoken to her though, but it wasn't like they just went up to people and started conversations with their peers. Nanoha and Hayate had to pull teeth to get them to talk to them after all.

"I'm Teana Lanster." The orange haired girl butted in. "Let's just do this already."

Alicia frowned slightly at Teana's behavior but chalked it up to the fact she might be nervous about being paired up with her. Nodding, she followed Teana as the girl lead her to an open area on the sparring mats. Fate turned to Subaru who seemed to be waiting for Fate to take the lead. Spotting an area not too far from them, she motioned for the short haired girl to follow her. Subaru followed along without complaint. Fate decided to start off slow and see what the girl was capable of. If anything, this is what Zafira intended for them to do. It wasn't a bad idea to have them learn from one another. It'd give them a chance to discover new fighting styles which could become indispensable in the future.

"Let's start off slow shall we?"

Slow must've meant something else to Subaru because the girl went all out from the get go. Fate barely managed to lean back from a potentially damaging right hook. Subaru though didn't stop and continued to jab mercilessly at the blonde. Fate didn't particularly enjoy being on the defensive, but decided to stick with it. This would give her a chance to see just what Subaru was capable of. After a few minutes, Fate discerned that Subaru specialized in some form of boxing with a bit of kickboxing thrown in. She couldn't spot any other form of fighting style Subaru was using, but if she had to guess, Subaru must have no formal training. If she'd properly been taught boxing, she'd have better footwork not to mention have a better defense. As she was now, she had too many openings that Fate could easily take advantage of. The kickboxing part of her style obviously wasn't big and was only being used on the off chance she could catch Fate off guard.

Having assessed Subaru's skills enough, she decided it was time for her counter attack. It wasn't long before she had Subaru on the defensive instead. Subaru tried to gain the upper hand again, but with Fate effortlessly blocking punch after punch, it seemed almost impossible. With a mighty yell, she tried to deliver a straight punch to Fate's abdomen, but Fate easily side stepped and tripped the short haired girl with barely any effort. Subaru lay on her back panting heavily. She'd spent most of her energy attacking and keeping that momentum going, but once she'd been stopped, the fatigue hit her like a ton of bricks.

"Well that wasn't what I'd had in mind but I got to see what you can do." Fate extended a helping hand out to the girl.

Subaru grinned sheepishly. "Sorry. I guess I got too eager."

"Eagerness isn't necessarily a bad thing."

"That's not what Tea thinks. She was worried about us being paired up and I just wanted to show her that I'm able of handling things on my own."

"Well, you definitely are fearless. I'll give you that much, but it takes more than fearlessness to win a fight."

While Fate explained what she thought Subaru was lacking in, Alicia was a lot less friendly teacher than her sister.

"Wrong." Alicia blocked a punch.

"Yaaaa!" Teana tried a round house kick instead.

"Wrong." Alicia grabbed hold of Teana's leg and using the momentum, tossed the orange haired girl off to the side.

This, however, didn't discourage her. Teana got right back up and continued her assault against the blonde assassin.

"Wrong, wrong, wrong." Alicia said with every punch and kick until she unexpectedly tackled Teana to the ground and subdued the orange haired girl in a sleeper hold. "Surrender."

Teana flailed in the hold, trying desperately to break free, but it was no use. Alicia had her trapped and she couldn't do anything about it.

"F-fine."

"Fine what?"

"I surrender!"

Alicia released her from the hold allowing the girl a moment to catch her breath. She'd used up all her energy just blindly attacking her instead of trying to find an opening to attack, which she'd had plenty of since left them there on purpose to see if Teana would use them to her advantage. She'd been disappointed to see the orange haired girl didn't even notice them. That didn't even include the fact that her fighting style was all over the place. She didn't settle into one form and seemed to jump from boxing, to karate, to wrestling without trying to combine them together in any way.

"Everything you did was wrong." Alicia told her. Teana flinched at the tone she was being reprimand in. Alicia noticed her reaction. She wasn't the best at being nice, but if she was going to be teaching her classmates then she needed to be less blunt. She'd try to anyway. "But it's not hopeless. You can get better with more training."

With that, she helped her up and began showing her exactly where she was making her mistakes. Class went by faster than Fate and Alicia would have liked. They still felt like they had much more to teach their partners, but it couldn't be helped. The two made sure to tell them what to work on before they returned to the locker room to change for the remainder of their classes. Lunch soon arrived. It'd become the twins favorite part of the day. Not that they'd tell anyone that. They still weren't at the stage where they'd share their feelings openly like that.

"Your sisters not dating anyone is she?" Carim asked Nanoha out of the blue.

Everyone at the table looked to the blonde who flushed.

"Hmm, no. I'm pretty sure she's not dating anyone." Nanoha answered.

"Carim and Miyuki sitting in a tree…" Hayate started singing but was cut off when Carim glared at her. "Oh come on now Blondie. We all know you've been crushing on her since the sleepover."

"S-shut up!"

"Now you sound like my brother." Nanoha giggled. "But I think you should try asking her out. I'm going to warn you though; Daddy will try to scare you."

"He seems like the type to do that." Arisa agreed. "You'll have your work cut out for you Carim."

"Don't remind me." Carim laid her head on the table. "I remember him glaring at me during breakfast that morning. He totally knows I'm into Miyuki."

"You made it very obvious." Hayate laughed. "I'm sure even Miyuki knows you like her."

"Don't say that!" Carim exclaimed. "She can't know! I want to be able to properly confess."

"It seems like my little sister is still a maiden at heart after all." Verossa commented as he approached their table.

Carim didn't even lift her head to acknowledge her step-brother.

"Carim-chan has a crush on someone?" a different voice asked. This one was one made Carim's heart skip a beat.

"M-Miyuki-chan!?"

She immediately sat straight up as Miyuki took a seat at their table. This was the first time that the older girl had joined them for lunch. Even though they went to the same school, Nanoha and her siblings didn't really socialize with one another. The friends never really questioned what the reason for this was. They figured it was because they'd see each other at home anyway so they preferred to mingle with their own group of friends while at school.

"Miyuki-san!" Hayate greeted. "How nice of you to join us."

"What brings you over?" Suzuka asked while keeping an eye on the now nervous Carim. The blonde girl had gone almost completely pale at this point. She was probably worried about the older girl having heard about the not so secret crush she was harboring towards her.

"Verossa-kun invited me to have lunch with all of you. We've never eaten together so I thought this would be a good opportunity."

"I don't blame you for not having lunch with us before." Nanoha spoke up. "You do have your own friends and what not."

"I suppose that's true enough."

"I-I didn't know you knew Verossa." Carim managed to stutter.

"Ah, we're actually in the same class. We hadn't had a chance to talk much until we were paired up for a project in class. That's when we came to discover that we had similar acquaintances."

"It's a small world isn't it?" Miyuki smiled at Carim.

"Very." Carim blushed a bit. Off to the side, Hayate snickered at her love struck friend. "Er, umm, so I hear Fate and Alica are turning in their paperwork today." She hoped that was enough to get all the attention off of her.

"Really?" Nanoha asked happily.

"Yes." The twins responded.

"That is wonderful news!" Miyuki chimed in as well. "I'm glad Daddy didn't scare you away."

"I doubt these two are scared of anything." Arisa stated. "Well either way I'm glad to hear you're doing it."

"So does that mean you're going to work for Hayate?" Suzuka asked Alicia.

"Perhaps."

"You don't sound so sure." Hayate frowned slightly worried that maybe Alicia had changed her mind about wanting to work for her.

"You already have plenty of bodyguards." Alicia pointed out. "I'm sure adding one more wouldn't be an issue but is it really necessary? Graham-san might not see it as a vital thing for you right now."

"But he wouldn't have sent you the packet if he didn't think it was."

"That may be true, but he only sent it after you asked him. Isn't that right?"

Hayate opened her mouth to respond but stopped herself. It was true. She had to actually call him and get him to push her request.

"So whose paperwork are you turning in?" Hayate asked tensely.

"Yours of course."

"But you just said…."

"I know what I said." Alicia cut her off. "But that doesn't change the fact that you're the only one I'd rather work for."

Alicia was expecting Hayate to launch herself at her in happiness but instead nothing happened. Glancing towards Hayate's direction, she instead noticed the brunette smiling tenderly at her. Alicia averted her gaze quickly cursing her reddening cheeks. If Hayate looked at her like that all the time, she had a feeling her blushing cheeks would become permanent.

xxx

Lindy tiredly rubbed her eyes as she walked towards Precia's cell. It'd been awhile now since she'd even laid eyes on Precia Testarossa, but the time had come for them to have a chat again. She'd dug as much as she could with what she had. Inevitably, she hit a wall with her investigation, but what she was able to find disturbed her. RF6 had captured a handful of assassins since its inception. In the early days, many were eventually killed because of the methods they used to try to get information out of them. With those methods not baring any fruit, they'd since staved off torturing. That didn't mean it still wasn't used from time to time, but no one outside the organization was aware of this fact. Everything RF6 did was in secret because it technically didn't exist. The problem was, however, the missing files on these assassins that had been captured. These files had either gone missing or been tampered with in some form. Another curious thing she noticed was the fact all these files belonged to female assassins. It was rather worrisome to think that no one had ever noticed this was happening and if they did why would her superiors turn a blind eye to it? Not to mention the fact that a mole was still running around RF6 led her to finally give in and speak with the assassin. She was the only one providing her with any sort of leads into her situation and at this point, any sort of help was welcomed.

Lindy arrived at Precia's cell. Normally, she would have Precia sent to the interrogation room but with the mole around, she couldn't risk anyone knowing Precia was giving her more intel about them. The assassin obviously knew who it was that infiltrated RF6 and seemed to only be giving hints to Lindy about them for her own agenda. She was going to have to do things behind her co-workers backs if she wanted to figure this out. She'd made sure no one was around during this time so she'd be able to properly talk with the woman. Taking a deep breathe, she opened the door. Precia was sitting in the middle of her cell in her usual shackles. Cautiously, Lindy shut the door behind her. Precia made no move to acknowledge the agent. It was almost odd to see Precia sitting there so expressionless. Lindy had grown used to Precia being almost playful with her and certainly more talkative than this.

"It's been awhile." Lindy began.

Predictably, Precia said nothing.

"You know, I followed your advice and did some digging. The things I've found have left me with more questions than answers."

Still Precia said nothing. Lindy sighed. The assassin was really committed to her promise not to speak. Lindy leaned against the door and hoped that what she was about to do was the right thing.

"Everything I'm finding so far has increased my worry. As much as I hate to admit it, you're the only one who's been of any help to me. Please talk to me… Precia."

In an instant, the assassin went from her emotionless mask, back to her playful smile.

"I knew you'd give into me sooner or later."

"Does this mean you're going to help me?"

"I'd do anything for you my secret agent."

Lindy resisted the urge to tell her she most certainly didn't belong to her, but she just got Precia to speak to her again. It'd be in her best interest not to lose her now.

"Then tell me what Jail Scaglietti has to do with all this. I've found nothing on this man in any of our files; however, if I can just find something on him, everything is going to fall into place. Am I right?"

"Very good. You are indeed right. He is what connects everything, but no matter where you look, you won't find anything on this man in your organizations files. You're superiors have made sure of that."

"What do you mean?"

Precia stood up, the jingles from her shackles echoed in the cell.

"Just what it sounds like. Scaglietti won't be traceable thanks to them. If you want to know why, I suggest you look up the reason why Riot Force 6 was created to begin with."

"That can't be right. My superiors wouldn't…"

"Do something like that? Lindy, Lindy, you of all people should know that the government has no qualms about hiding things from not only the general public, but from within its own government. For what other reason do you think Riot Force 6 needed to be created to begin with? Dig deeper my secret agent. When the time comes, I'll give you the last piece of the puzzle you need."

"Why can't you give me that piece now?"

"You're not ready for that."

"Who says I'm not?"

"I do."

"How do you know for sure?"

Precia looked off to the side as if actually taking into consideration what Lindy asked.

"Do you know why I went missing all those years ago?"

Lindy wasn't surprised by the change in topic. Precia always seemed to do this when she felt she was done talking about a certain subject. She certainly liked to keep control of the conversations. Still, Precia picked an interesting topic to shift to.

"The pregnancy?"

"Very good! My, I picked a smart one to befriend."

Friend? That was definitely the last thing Lindy would refer to them as. By no means had she ever done anything that would suggest she had accepted Precia as anything other than her prisoner. Then again, giving in and calling her by name didn't exactly help her case. She wondered if this was how Alicia and Fate must've felt like with Hayate and Nanoha were doing their best to break down their walls to acknowledge them as friends. This was different though. Precia was a dangerous assassin, but Alicia and Fate had been that as well. They were given a second chance and look where they were now. Lindy vigorously shook her head. She couldn't let Precia confuse her like this. She was the good guy; Precia the bad guy; the line was drawn between them and they could never be more than that.

"What are you getting at?"

"I never got a say in the pregnancy."

If Lindy hadn't been leaning up against the door to begin with, she might have fallen back from shock. It couldn't be possible could it?

"Look into what I said. When you discover the truth, I'll come to you." Precia turned away from Lindy, effectively ending the conversation. She'd wanted to say something to the assassin, but the words just wouldn't form. Instead, Lindy left the cell in a daze. Why had she told her something like that; something so personal? The agent steadily walked back to her office. Questions floating through her mind faster than she could keep up with. What was Precia trying to say? What else was she trying to point her to? She suddenly felt like she'd been handed something far bigger than she was ready to handle.

xxx

"Do we have an understanding?"

"Of course."

"I'm not fooling around Jail."

"I know."

"Then make sure they are taken care of. I can't risk them running around unchecked any longer."

"It will be done."

The man turned away from the smiling face of his partner.

"Don't forget who you answer to Jail." He walked out of the room without waiting to hear a response from the other man.

Jail chuckled. How typical of him to be asked to take care of the burly man's problems. He looked over the files sitting on the table the other man had been occupying moments before. It seemed the Assassin's Guild had been stepping up their attacks against his hideouts. It was impressive that they'd tracked down so many already. He expected nothing less from the elites running the organization. Still, they weren't good enough to find his true hideouts, just like they hadn't been good enough from keeping him from killing their Master. Thanks to his benefactor, it was easy for him to go as he pleased where ever he wanted, but it was true he couldn't allow them to continue their attacks without any retaliation. He frowned as he looked at one particular file. Linith would be the one to cause him grief. Even back in the days when they worked together, the brunette always got in his way. She never trusted him. In a way, she was smarter than everyone else who'd he'd worked with. She and Precia had been a formidable team once and he doubted they'd lost their touch even after all this time. If anything, he felt like he was still fighting both of them. Setting aside Linith's file, he picked up the one on her latest charge. Laguna. There really wasn't much he knew about the younger assassins but he knew enough. If Linith had trained her then he knew exactly what to expect. He wasn't too worried about an upstart who had yet to even prove their place in The Guild. He set the file aside and instead focused on the two people he really wanted.

The Testarossa twins.

His pride and joy; the first of his experiments to bear fruit. It was a shame Precia hadn't seen as such and instead ran away before he could even go through with his plans. It didn't matter though. She still went ahead and did what'd he'd planned. Then she had to go and get caught. By all accounts, that shouldn't have been possible. Precia was the best at hiding. It's why she was The Guilds go to person for undercover missions. She only let you find her if she wanted you to. From what he could tell, Precia hadn't intended to get caught so how did it happen? There was no way Riot Force 6 was as good as they thought they were. Still, his only concern now was getting his hands on the twins. Precia had done the work for him of raising them to be perfect killing machines and that their little reformation was nothing he couldn't undo. All he had to do was lure them with the perfect bait.

Jail reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a picture of Nanoha and Hayate. Smiling to himself, he stood up and left the room. He had some planning to do. You couldn't have the perfect bait without catching it first.

xxx

"It's done." Fate said out loud.

Alicia could only nod as the two stepped out of the office. They had finally turned in their applications to be bodyguards. All they could do now was wait for the final approval from their prospective employers. For Fate it was almost a sure fire thing that she'd get hired, unless of course Shiro had a last minute change of heart, but she was sure there was no way he'd change his mind. Alicia on the other hand, needed the approval of not just anybody. The Prime Minister would surely be a lot harder to please. Still, she wasn't one to just give up. She did receive a packet from him after all; it must mean something if he was willing to give her a chance to even apply.

"All we can do is wait." Alicia walked with Fate to the front of the school. They'd told Hayate and Nanoha to go ahead and head home without them since they needed to stay later to get their paperwork approved for submittal. Lindy knew they'd be a little late leaving and had planned to pick them up later at their request. With everything looking good though, all they could do was wait.

"Harlaown!"

The two stopped and turned to look for the source of the scream. They weren't sure who they were expecting to have yelled for them but it certainly wasn't the two standing before them. Subaru waved nervously while Teana had a determined look in her eye. The twins looked at each other before looking back at the two girls.

"Which one?"

"Both of you!"

"Ah." They answered. They couldn't help but wonder why Teana sounded so angry. They hadn't done anything to her per say. Alicia maybe since she wasn't the nicest teacher to her during class, but at least Fate hadn't done any harm to her.

"Can we help you?" Fate asked when Teana failed to say anything more.

"We want to speak with you."

"Well you're already doing that." Alicia was becoming more and more confused with what Teana wanted from them. She noticed though that her response seemed to make Teana a bit angrier at them. Alicia realized belatedly that her response had sounded too sarcastically. She really needed to work on interacting a lot better with her peers without unintentionally being a smart ass.

"I know that! I was trying to ask politely!"

The twins looked at each other again in confusion. Obviously they weren't the only ones who needed work with their social skills. Again though, they chalked up her reactions to the fact that she was nervous around them; perhaps even scared and was trying to mask those emotions with anger.

"Umm, what Tea is trying to say is, we'd like to ask you to be our teachers." Subaru spoke up.

Once again, they weren't sure what they'd been expecting out of this exchange, but it certainly wasn't that.

xxx

"Are you sure of this?"

"Yes."

Precia hummed at Snipers answer. She'd hoped she'd spend just a little more time in her current situation, but if what Vice said was true, then she couldn't afford to stay imprisoned for much longer. Jail was beginning to make his move. The pressure from The Guild was forcing him to do more than just hide in the shadows. She needed to be out there as well now to help Linith and The Guild.

"I assume you'll be checking out early?" Sniper asked.

"I'm afraid I must. It's been a lovely vacation, but I'm afraid it's time to get back to work."

"When should we expect you back?"

"Tomorrow, I make my grand exit."

AN: That's the end of this chapter. Reviews and comments are always appreciated so please leave one if you can. Next time: Precia makes her escape, the twins find out if they got the jobs, and Fate and Nanoha have a heart to heart about the events from the failed kidnapping. Look forward to it!