Chapter 6,

Into The Past

Absolute silence followed Kiseki's proclamation.

I was busy trying to wrap my head around all this. Everything in my mind was telling me that it was impossible, but at the same time I wanted so desperately to know that it was true. That it was possible for the dead to come back to life. I suppose even now, I still wanted to make my mother's wishes come true. But by the sounds of things, Precia had made it to Al-Hazard without my help.

I was still a little unclear as to what that meant exactly, but I couldn't bring myself to ask just yet.

I think that learning that Kiseki was the universe's first human to be revived from the dead had struck us all dumb.

"Wait, hang on!" Nanoha finally blurted, breaking the silence. "Al-Hazard was destroyed centuries ago! How can you possibly still be alive after all this time?"

Kiseki smiled wryly.

"Oddly enough those are both of the reasons as to why I am classified as a Lost Logia in the first place." she chuckled softly. "I died almost a thousand years ago in my early twenties. Chiyo brought me back to life ten years later... on the very same day that Al-Hazard met it's end."

"That still doesn't answer either question." I pointed out.

"I was getting to it." Kiseki replied patiently. "I was born with the unique ability to absorb any kind of energy into my body, Make it my own and use it at will. That skill also includes the absorption of diseases. I was hailed as a cure for any disease, however there was no curing the disease, all I was doing was transferring the disease from the patient to myself.

I gave my services to the hospitals of Al-Hazard, and spent the better part of my teen years seriously ill with everything from pneumonia to cancer. Since I could recover on my own, I was rarely ever given any treatment unless I worsened to being on the point of death."

"How the hell would you survive something like cancer?" Natsuki demanded incredulously.

"My Linker Core was naturally built to be able to change or neutralize the properties of the energy absorbed into my body." Kiseki explained. "Whenever I absorbed an illness my Linker Core would produce magically enhanced antibodies which could fight off just about any disease. I would be stuck in bed for a week or two, depending on the illness, but I would always recover.

The more I absorb an illness, the stronger and more efficient those special antibodies get. Eventually they will get strong enough to completely eliminate the illness the very instant it entered my body. I've absorbed so many head colds over the years that I don't even get them anymore!"

"That certainly is impressive." I admitted, trying very hard to keep the impatience I was currently feeling out of my voice. "But is there a point to all thi-"

"So is there any disease that can kill you?" Kyouko interrupted, her red eyes shining with interest. Kiseki's golden eyes rested on me for a moment, giving me an expression that said 'in due time.' I crossed my arms, leaned back against Nanoha and pouted grumpily. Nanoha's airy laughter ruffled the hair on the crown of my head.

"Patience Fate-Chan." she whispered soothingly, rubbing the tension out of my shoulders. My pout immediately turned into a very dopey blissful smile. (Drool not included.) Kiseki noticed this, her eyes twinkling mischievously before continuing.

There is one disease that can kill me, certainly more efficiently now than a thousand years ago. Anyway, the only disease that can truly kill me is..." Everyone leaned forward in anticipation. Kiseki paused, frowning as her forehead wrinkled in concentration.

"Is..." We all leaned forward a little more, awaiting the dramatic reveal.

"You know what? I can't even begin to pronounce the name," Kiseki laughed, sheepishly scratching the back of her head. Immediately killing the tense atmosphere. "So how about I describe it instead?"

(Kiseki's Note: This is just an excuse, since the author can't come up with a name for it that isn't ridiculously corny. So instead, she's just gonna make me look like an idiot. That said, any clever suggestions would be welcomed.)

"Please do." Mami requested eagerly. Clearly she wasn't feeling the anti-climatic let down that the rest of us were.

Kiseki glanced back at me for a moment. I guessed that she was seeking my permission to continue. As impatient as I was to get to the true meaning behind all of this, I had to admit, I was very curious.

I nodded. Kiseki nodded back and cleared her throat.

"It is a virus that attacks and destroys a mage's Linker Core first, before it goes after the immune system. The more magic a mage uses, the faster it'll attacks the Linker Core. A mage can slow the process by reducing the amount of magic used. In my case, since my Linker Core produces magically enhanced antibodies automatically, it can kill me much faster than it could any other mage. Either way, once you have the disease, you're essentially dead."

"Wasn't that a biological weapon created by the people of Al-Hazard for use in warfare?" Nanoha asked, and I silently agreed. I had heard many horror stories as to how it could slowly kill any mage in the most painful, complete way imaginable.

"It was created by Al-Hazard scientists, that much is true." Kiseki confirmed. "However it was created to keep me 'under control' as it were.

Years before my death, I had threatened the lives of several of their staff, for… certain reasons. As a manipulator of energy, it was not beyond my capability to drain life energy from anyone, my 'employees' were no exception. The virus was created in retaliation to my little rebellion, calling it a biological weapon for military use was merely to obtain government funding for the research and development.

During the time spent working on this virus, I had met Chiyo. With the help of my special antibodies, she was able to develop true cures for just about every disease that I had ever absorbed. We spent a lot of time together, and grew very close.

Since my services were no longer needed, I was allowed to return to a normal healthy life. It also meant that the researchers could no longer make money off of me, thoughts of using the virus for control, were abandoned in favour of using it for revenge."

"So they just killed you?" Eila demanded sounding utterly disgusted. Kiseki smiled grimly.

"If only it were that simple." She sighed sadly. "You see, by the time the virus was ready, my own life was not what I cared most about. So they figured; may as well kill two birds with one stone. Chiyo was the one who had rendered me 'useless' after all. Either way no matter who they infected, we were both going to suffer. No matter who got sick, they knew I was going to be the one to die.

So they decided to do it in the way which would cause Chiyo to suffer the most."

"By infecting her with it right?" I guessed.

Seems like the so-called 'Paradise' of Al-Hazard had its share of dark minds.

"Indeed." Kiseki agreed. "The virus works very slowly, and in a way that can make it difficult to detect. It was only when Chiyo's health started to decline that I noticed that something was up. She refused to tell me what was wrong, and she even 'broke up' with me for a while just to make sure I couldn't heal her. I refused to leave her to suffer alone, and she eventually let me back into her life, so long as I swore to her that I would not attempt to cure her. So I had to resign myself to watching her die a slow painful death. She made me promise to not heal her, she never made me promise to do nothing once she died... Probably because she didn't know I could do something once she died."

"You could do something once she died!?" I exclaimed, shock quite evident in my voice. "Like what?"

"I told you didn't I?" Kiseki replied with a question of her own. "That I can not only absorb energy, but I can transfer it to someone else if I so desire. My own life energy was no exception. It is not an ability that I had ever intended to use, but Chiyo was more important to me than my own life, and so I gave it to her. At the same time that I was draining my own life into Chiyo, I was also absorbing the remainder of the virus from her body. Chiyo's heart had barely been still for a minute before it started back up again. My life ended shortly afterwards. Things only got worse for the both of us from then on."

"What happened?" Sayaka asked curiously.

"My death changed Chiyo. J-"

"There's no need to sugar coat it!" Nao interrupted loudly. "You mean she went nuts, wacko, insane!" I was overcome with an urge to smack the redhead upside the head for being so inconsiderate. Thankfully Natsuki, Mai, and Midori took care of that for me. One after the other.

Thwap!

"Ow! Hey! Watch i-"

Smack!

"Ouch! Seriously guys! What the fu-"

Thud!

"AUGH! Damn it Kuga! You did it that hard on purpose!"

"Moron." The three girls sighed as Nao cradled her now thoroughly abused head.

"Is Yukki-san through with interrupting?" Shizuru asked sweetly. For some reason I felt a shiver run down my spine, judging by the expression on Nao's face, she was feeling something similar.

"Fine Fujino, I'll be good." Nao complied grudgingly. "Just keep your rabid mutt and her giant paws away from my skull!"

"Are you saying my hands are big?" Natsuki demanded angrily. Nanoha cleared her throat loudly, something that never failed to stop any conversation in it's tracks.

"Kuga-san, your hands are perfectly feminine." she assured, impatience tinging the edge of her voice.

"Thank you!" Natsuki replied gratefully."...Hey, wait a minute!" Nanoha merely shot her an annoyed look, and any other words seemed to die in the bluenette's throat.

"Now, shall we allow Kiseki-san to continue?" Nanoha suggested. Kiseki smiled at Nanoha in thanks, and I felt the slightest hint of jealousy flare up in the back of my mind as I felt Nanoha smile back.

"Anyway, as I was trying to say; My death changed Chiyo, just as Alicia's death changed Precia." She continued, effectively proving that she had indeed met with my mother. How else would she know Alicia's name? "She became obsessed not only with bringing me back, but also ensuring that she would never lose me again. In the years she spent trying to bring me back, she also discovered a way to artificially replicate my ability to a certain extent. Basically she programmed Al-Hazard to automatically convert a certain percentage of magical energy from my linker core to life energy. Not only does this seriously inhibit the amount of energy I can absorb at one time but it also means..."

"That Chiyo knew that the device would fuse to you in the first place!" Nanoha finished. "She never intended for anyone else to use it!" Kiseki nodded.

"My heart stopped beating centuries ago." she said, a hint of regret laced in her voice. "Now, my Linker Core beats in it's place. Since my life depends on something that does not age, nor decay, I do not age and I cannot die. Unless either the pendant or my Linker Core are destroyed I will continue to live, whether I want to or not. I have wanted to return to death since the day Chiyo brought me back. It isn't worth living without her."

"What do you mean?" I asked curiously. None of this was making a pick of sense to me... What on earth did all this have to do with her classification as a Lost Logia?...Or my mother? "If you wanted to die, then why not just destroy the pendant yourself?"

I winced.

That sounded a lot harsher and crueler than I had intended.

...Stupid, irrational jealousy.

"Because if I do, I will ensure the true destruction of Al-Hazard." Kiseki explained. "So long as I live, Al-Hazard can be saved. If I die, then the lost world of Al-Hazard will die along with me."

"Wait, wait, wait!" I exploded in frustration. "What the hell are you talking about? Al-Hazard was destroyed wasn't it!?"

"It was. In a sense." Kiseki said, guilt heavy in her voice. "And I was the one who destroyed it."

...Silence

"WHAT!?" We all shouted at once. To say that was unexpected would be an understatement.

"That is why I am classified as a Lost Logia." she said softly. "I am an 'ancient weapon' of tremendous power, that is the cause for the destruction one of the most advanced civilizations of all time. I have deep ties to Ancient Belka, and I am also the only key to restoring Al-Hazard to it's former glory."

'Yeah, that about covers all the criteria.' I thought dryly to myself.

"Hold on, back up!" Nanoha interrupted. "How did you destroy Al-Hazard in the first place?"

"When I returned to the living, and realized what Chiyo had done, I fell into despair." Kiseki recalled, the memory causing tears to come to her eyes. "I lost touch with sanity. I don't remember much of what happened during that time, but the next thing I knew my device had automatically transferred me to Ancient Belka, after I had sent the entire world of Al-Hazard to the realm of the dead.

As a result the spiritual realm of the dead, and the physical world of Al-Hazard have mixed into some sort of limbo, where no one is truly alive or dead.

It has become a horrible place of eternal torture, where no soul can rest in peace. A true hell in every sense of the word.

However, due to the line between life and death becoming blurred, it has also become possible to bring a soul back from the dead without sacrificing your own life. So long as your mind is strong enough to not be broken by the horrors there. I cannot die, until I save both Al-Hazard and Chiyo. So I will continue to live, no matter how long it takes."

"I think I would have gone insane about nine hundred years ago" Hartmann commented sarcastically. Kiseki laughed wryly.

"I went insane over a thousand years ago." she pointed out. "And I whipped out my entire home world in the process. Insanity; while it's often an attractive alternative to me just isn't an option. I renamed my device to remind me of my goal. That alone has kept me sane all these years."

"So why then did you bring all of us together?" Nanoha asked. "Al-Hazard has been lost for a millenia, why come out of the shadows now? "

"I have lived for a very long time, and put my trust in many people. I have been betrayed by quite a few. Others have lost their lives for my cause. My own daughter, Olivie was sent to her death in an attempt to end the war, and take back Al-Hazard from the realm of the dead."

"You're the beginning of the Saint Kaiser's bloodline!?" I shouted before another thought struck my mind. "You have a daughter!?"

"Had." Kiseki corrected calmly. "She died centuries ago. I am in no way royalty, but the Saint Kaiser's bloodline does start with my daughter. I know that she was not originally considered to be the Saint Kaiser, but how else do you think Olivie could pilot the Saint's Cradle if she did not have the bloodline required for it. Anyway, that is a tale for another time. The point is "After a thousand long years of searching I have finally found my answer. And it rests with all of you. Section Six was reformed for the sole reason of reviving the lost civilization and returning the natural order of life to normal. I know it sounds like a lot to ask, but I will need each and everyone of you to make this possible. My power alone is nowhere near enough, so I must ask; will you all help me."

Everyone except for Nanoha and I gave an immediate 'yes.' Nanoha seemed to be waiting to see what I decided. I was just trying to pinpoint that nagging feeling that was bothering me...

Hang on... If my Mother had 'made it to Al-Hazard'...

"So when you said that Precia had made it to Al-Hazard," Nanoha asked, taking the words right out of my mouth. "Does that mean?"

"Yes." Kiseki confirmed. "The realm of the dead and Al-Hazard are one and the same. Al-Hazard can detect a person appearing in a dimension that they shouldn't be in. Fifteen years ago he alerted me to the presence of someone falling into imaginary space. When I went to investigate, I found Precia floating on the edge of oblivion, with the preserved body of her dead daughter. It didn't take a genius to figure out what she was after.

I told her that if she was trying to get to Al-Hazard, I could send her there, at the cost of her own life for her daughter's. I also warned her about the place that Al-Hazard had become; a living hell. She just laughed and said that it would be a fitting punishment for one such as her, and pleaded with me to allow her to go. She told me that she wanted her daughter to know that she had fulfilled her promise to give her a wonderful little sister. I sent her to Al-Hazard in the hopes that she would have the strength enough to return with her daughter."

I stopped breathing, this was what I had been wanting to hear.

"Alicia made it back, Precia did not."

My heart sank, but at the same time I couldn't believe it.

"A-Alicia... is alive?" I stammered dumbly. Kiseki pulled up a video monitor.

"You can come out now." was all she said before shutting the monitor off.

There was a soft hissing noise as the door closest to us opened, I got out of Nanoha's lap and turned around, feeling rather week in the knees.

There, walking cautiously out of the base, was... me... only fifteen years younger.

"Oh my god." Nanoha gasped in shock. "It really is her! It really is-"

"Alicia!" I shouted, as I took off at a run, catching my older sister in a hug halfway.

"Onee-Chan!" Alicia cried, burying her face in my shoulder. "Please help Mother! She is in such a horrible place!"

"It's alright Alicia." I comforted, this was reminding me of the dream world I had been trapped in during the Book of Darkness incident, except this time I knew; this was no dream. "It's alright."

The door hissed open again, Subaru, Teana, Aoi, Vita, Chie, Signum, Haruka, Hayate, Erio, Caro and an older woman that I had never met before stepped outside, waiting patiently of to the side as Kiseki and the rest of the group walked up to meet us.

"I must ask of you again Fate Tesstarossa Harlaown." Kiseki began. "Will you help me?"

"If I help you, can you guarantee my Mother's safety?"

"I swear on Chiyo's name." Kiseki vowed. I turned to Nanoha who gave a determined nod, I lowered my gaze to Alicia, the frightened look on her face was all the encouragement I needed. I turned back to Kiseki.

"I'll do anything."

...

*Stares at the shattered remains of the fourth wall after Kiseki shamelessly blasted through it*

AN: That's the third fourth wall I've had to repair so far! Why can't the characters just stay in the story where they belong?

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. This story is turning out to be more than the funny fluffy fest that I had originally planned it to be. There will be plenty more funny fluff to come, but now there is a point to it!

As for the poll, I might have to keep that up a little longer, since I've only had two people vote on it. Please vote! I look forward to your votes just as much as I do your reviews!

Please keep both coming, and I'll see you in Chapter 7!