A/N: It's been a while! With a string of coincidences and large amounts of insanity I managed to actually update! If anyone's actually waited for this to come out and managed the patience I sincerely thank you from the bottom of my heart!

Disclaimer: I don't own the Nanoha franchise...if I did their update speed would be terrible.


The next day…

Stern and Levi both did as they were told, no questions asked. They teleported up to the transport ship, and right afterwards their teleport pads exploded in a fantastic fashion. Despite the staged explosion being rather large, little to no damage was actually caused. Now they only had to get the TSAB to believe that they were who they claimed to be.

"W-What's going on!?" former officer, currently captain, Allex was expecting to see Nanoha and Fate again. He happened to be just a bit more than surprised at what came out of the teleporter.

Stern turned to face Levi and gave her a look that said, 'keep quiet, and I'll do the talking' despite not actually using her telepathy. Levi nodded in agreement afraid to oppose Stern.

"Ah, Allex-san it has been a while." Stern was fully intent on exploiting the mandatory nametags on the uniforms. "It is a pleasure to meet with you once again."

"W-W-Who are you!?" Allex backed away and was rather shocked at seeing what looked like Nanoha and Fate at the age of nine with minor color alterations.

"Hm?" Stern looked around and pretended to be surprised. How she managed to look surprised with a dull look on her face is still a mystery. "I see, something must have gone wrong during the transition from Earth to this ship. It seems that Fate-chan and I have switched bodies with our Material counterparts."

"Material counterparts? What are you talking about? Explain yourselves, please…" Be it as it may, Allex was still the newly appointed captain of this ship. He had to make sure.

"The Materials are in essence, what one might call dark counterparts to me, Fate-chan, and Hayate-chan." Stern was improvising with a straight face when she came up with her next course of action. "The incident took place right after the Book of Darkness case and only few people knew of what actually occurred."

"…I see so what exactly happened to you?" Allex while still skeptical couldn't argue with the fact that he had seen Nanoha back when she was only nine, and that this face was almost completely identical. He just couldn't believe how such an emotionless and blank expression could be on the bright and hopeful Nanoha's face.

"On occasion we the originals, connect with the Materials mentally due to our shared genetic information and magic. I believe that when the teleporter failed it may have tampered with our connection and resulted in a body switch." Now all Stern had to do was make sure of the timing.

"I see, so this means that you're Nanoha, but you're now in your counterpart's body? Then that body belongs to…" Allex gestured towards what he thought might've been Nanoha.

"Yes, I am now in the body of my wiser, calmer, and more peaceful counterpart, Material-S, also known as Stern the Destructor. I believe it should wear off in about one to two days time…" This was her chance! "However, to avoid any further confusion please refer to me as such and call me Stern instead of Nanoha. Considering that I am now in possession of her body, I wish to respect that and be identified as such."

"Uh…okay? But mind if I ask, why are you talking like that? Nano-…er Stern, your expression hasn't changed despite all that has happened?"

"From what I understand, the Material of Wisdom lacks the ability to change her facial expression. It also seems that everything I say or do will take on her traits, quite possibly due to our connection with one another."

"…I see…" Allex usually wouldn't buy into any of that, but this girl claiming to be Nanoha not only looked remarkably similar, but the fact that her face stayed the same throughout the entire conversation unnerved him to no end.

He was still extremely skeptical about believing who the two claimed to be, but he just wanted to get away from those deep emotionless eyes. So he searched for an excuse to look away and turned towards what he thought looked like a nine year old Fate with aqua blue hair. She was extremely quiet just like Fate normally was, but seemed to be fidgeting. He thought it looked suspicious. "So, Fate…you've also switched bodies with your Material counterpart as well?"

"What are you talking about? I am a Mater-!"

Stern suddenly embraced Levi and passionately kissed her to prevent Levi from blowing their cover. Right afterwards she shot a look at Levi that said 'I will punish you later, however for the time being please refrain from any further unnecessary actions' Levi was extremely unnerved at how Stern could keep doing that without using telepathy.

Ignoring the blushing Allex, and staff members in the back, Stern went on to explain. "Yes, Fate-chan has sadly switched places with her counterpart Levi the Slasher. She seems to have adopted Levi's trait of spouting nonsense at certain points in time as well."

Looking at her blank eyes, Allex then came to a conclusion. 'Scary eyes, randomly kissing Fate for no reason, threatening aura bordering on killing intent directed at Fate…No matter how you look at it, that's definitely Nanoha!' "Alright I'll believe your story…Stern…"

"Thank you very much" Stern bowed and suppressed a grin. 'Infiltration successful, more importantly there's now a legitimate reason to call me Stern despite pretending to be Nanoha!'

The rest of the ride to Mid-Childa was quiet and surprisingly quick. The new technology made travel considerably faster through the usage of some kind of hyper drive technology. Stern wasn't complaining though, she proceeded to bow at Allex and get off with Levi only to find four TSAB mages awaiting them holding up a sign that said "WELCOME BACK!"


Meanwhile...

"C'mon Fate-chan~ geh I thought you loved me!" Nanoha was struggling heavily under several Lightning Binds. "Just one quick Divine Buster, Einheart-chan won't even know what hit her!"

After stalking or "being a concerned parent" as Nanoha put it, Vivio and Einheart's "training session" for a good hour, the two younger girls decided to take a break and buy ice cream. Einheart, however had unknowingly made a fatal mistake in dropping her ice cream. Being the good child that she was, Vivio decided to share her ice cream with her friend.

"Um...Nanoha, won't that be because, Einheart will be unconscious by then?" Fate continued to pour more magic into her binds while making new ones to compensate for the ones that were being broken. 'She's not even in her barrier jacket and she's still breaking my binds!'

"Naive Fate-chan..." Nanoha's face took on a dark look, her lips curved upward in a smirk, as her eyes became distant and merciless. It was something that Fate could only describe as somewhat like that purest form of evil and sadistic joy. "...Making my daughter pay for her own ice cream on their date and then eating it herself...when I get through with her she'll be wishing she were unconscious..."

Fate could only watch in horror as Nanoha snapped another eight binds apart with pure physical strength alone. Deciding that it would be impossible to hold Nanoha at bay any further, Fate decided to take a gamble to save her daughter's potential love interest.

For a split second Fate lowered the concentration she had on her binds by just a bit. Paying no heed to the twelve binds that Nanoha broke in that instant, she stepped forward and immediately yelled "Overdrive! Shin Sonic Form!"

"Wha-!? " At those words Nanoha immediately knew what Fate's plan was and furiously tried to get the rest of the binds off of herself before Fate could succeed. In the end it was a futile endeavor.

Using all her forward momentum, Fate tackled Nanoha and wrapped her arms around her best friend as tightly as possible. In the next instant they were gone, with Fate pouring as much physical, mental, and magical energy possible into flying away from there. 'You owe me one for this Einheart!'

Nanoha continued to struggle against Fate's grasp, they we're already flying above miles of ocean. "Geh! It'll take more than that Fate-chan! I'll be back Vivio!" Nanoha could only yell as they both crossed beyond the horizon.

All the while, Einheart and Vivio finished their ice cream and went back to sparring, unknowing of the events that transpired.


A/N: I want to apologize in advance, but with classes in my way, my update speed will only continue to decrease. All in all I really do want to thank anyone who's reviewed, followed, or just read this story. I hope I can inspire others to write more about the Materials, so until next chapter!