Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Crisis

Chapter 7: The Past Revisited

Xx~~*~~xX

Groggily, he slowly opened his eyes. For a moment, he thought that the head resting on his bedside belonged to Nanoha, but after he rubbed his eyes and took a better look, he realized he was mistaken.

Arisa Bannings lifted her head due to the movement in the bed, blinking her own eyes open, then sat up quickly. "Yuuno-kun! Are you okay!? How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine, I think," he replied, rubbing the back of his head. "How long have you been here?"

"Suzuka and I have been taking turns watching over you, until Nanoha gets back," she replied, then smiled coyly at him. "She was really worried about you! You gave us all a scare."

He blushed a bit. "Sorry, didn't mean to." He tried to change the subject. "But you being here, must mean you got into the mage training course?"

She grinned, nodding. "Yep! I'm D rank, but I hoping to make C rank after I complete it. But what about you? What were you up to out there that got you attacked?"

Yuuno closed his eyes as his mind drifted back, then opened them again. "That's something I'll need to discuss with everyone. Can you see if you can arrange to gather Nanoha, Fate, Hayate and whoever else they think needs to come?"

"Sure, I'll go now and make a call," she stated, standing up and heading to the door. She paused and turned back. "Did you want me to bring back anything like food or drink?"

"Uh, some water would be good, thanks!"

As she nodded and left the room, Yuuno began putting together what he would say in his head, then opened a few search windows connected to the Infinity Library. There was something he had to make sure of first.

x~~*~~x

"How did he escape?" Fate demanded to know.

Nanoha was only half-focusing on the conversation, as she was still bothered about that ninja she and Signum had fought. She couldn't shake the feel there was something more to him then a guard for the lab, which is what Signum thought. Something about his eyes.

"We're still not sure," Chrono replied in the view screen. "One moment he, and the three cyborgs were in their respective cells. In the next moment they all disappeared. It apparently happened shortly after we deployed to investigate those two research facilities. And there's one more thing odd about it."

Another screen opened, showing the view from the security cameras trained on the cells. As he had explained, the the figures vanished almost at the same time.

"Illusions!" Teana exclaimed, recognizing the way they faded out. "But how could all of them be illusions?"

"The prison staff is unsure," Chrono replied. "They were verified to be real during their last delivered meal. From the style of illusion, it appears to be Quattro's Silver Curtain IS, but they were positive that they deactivated that system in her. She shouldn't have been able to reactivate it, nor broadcast it to the others."

"Unless they were all connected somehow," Fate offered, thinking. "We know that the cyborgs weren't magical, and the prison system is mostly designed for magic users. We must have missed something in our examinations of them."

"That seems obvious now," Chrono agreed. "I'll get back to you when I have more."

As he signed off, Nanoha gazed at Fate, concerned, noting the clenched fist and the tightness in her jaw. "What are you planning, Fate-chan?"

"I'll find him and drag him back in," the golden-haired Bureau agent declared solemnly.

Nanoha's visage softened as she placed her hand on her friend's shoulder. "Fate-chan, I-"

A view screen popped up, interrupting her. "This is Vita. Is Fate there?"

"Yes, I'm here."

"I'm sorry, but it looks like Erio and Caro have disappeared," she told them. "Zafira and I are still looking, but we found signs of battle, and Zafira can no longer track their scent." Her face hardened. "I'm really sorry we didn't get there in time, but I promise: we WILL find them."

"Thank you, Vita," Fate replied calmly, although Nanoha could see she was anything but calm; she could read the signs easily by now. The other girl's eyes were slightly wider then normal, quivering the tiniest bit, the eyebrows narrowing. She knew what Fate was thinking.

"Yes, thank you, Vita-chan," Nanoha added. "We know you two can do it." After Vita signed off, Nanoha could feel the inner rage inside the normally calm Fate via the barely contained shaking from where her hand rested on Fate's shoulder.

Nanoha briefly met Teana's eyes, and the younger girl nodded and excused herself, walking ahead to Yuuno's room.

"You think Scaglietti is responsible," Nanoha said when Teana was out of range. It wasn't a question.

Fate didn't even nod as she stared into space at something only she could see. "He'll pay for this."

Nanoha placed her other hand on Fate's other shoulder, turning the girl around to face her. "We'll do it as a group, Fate. We're in this together."

Fate seemed to soften a bit, meeting Nanoha's eyes and seeing the concern, kindness, and solidarity there. Nanoha knew her feelings had made it across, as always.

The pony-tailed girl smiled. "Now come on, let's see what Yuuno-kun has to say, and we'll figure out a plan of action!"

Fate seemed to accept this, letting Nanoha take her hand and pull her into Yuuno's room.

x~~*~~x

"Are you sure you're up to this?" Nanoha asked, sitting by his bedside. Arisa was in the room with them, along with Fate, Teana, Arf, Subaru, Signum and Agito.

Yuuno sat up in his bed, letting Nanoha help him with extra pillows to sit back against. "Yes, I want to explain what I know to everyone as soon as possible. I think it might be important."

Nanoha lightly patted his hand, then activated a view screen. "Okay, are you ready to start recording, Hayate-chan?"

The girl on the screen nodded. "Ready when you are, Yuuno-kun."

"When I was attacked, I was doing a search for an ancient city on un-administered world 83," Yuuno began. "The few natives there have a legend, about a group of travelers that showed up there a long time ago, and that these visitors had amazing powers and could perform many miraculous feats. It's a legend I've come across a few times in my archeology studies. On another world, I found the jewel seeds amongst the ruins of one of these cities of travelers.'

He paused for a moment, sharing a knowing look with Fate and Nanoha.

"So I've been wanting to find out who these travelers were, as I've found common markings on several different worlds," he continued, bringing up screens showing the markings. "Each time it was the same; the city of the travelers had some great disaster befall it. This time was no different; if the city was there, it was buried by a volcanic eruption many centuries ago. Only this time, due to the attack, I ended up deep underground and thus was able to find where it may have been. At the end of a long tunnel, I think I found where the traveler's city was... only it was gone. Only a large hole remained."

"The city was blown up AND covered by a volcano?" Subaru asked.

Yuuno shook his head. "No, I don't think so. There was a cavern and the edges were rather smooth, as if it had been buried first, but had some sort of barrier up. And then it was the removed. Here, I'll show you; I've uploaded some of memories of it." He opened several windows of his viewpoint, looking at the giant cavern that curved up and down in almost a giant oval or circle.

"The whole city?" Signum inquired. "Was it teleported out? That would require a lot of magic."

"That would be my guess," Yuuno admitted. "All that was left was a stone that had a plate with a few symbols on it. Before you all arrived here, I did a search of the library to match those symbols. It's an extremely old dialect that hasn't been fully translated, but the best I could make out, was something like 'place of danger' or 'peril' or 'hazard.'"

He took a deep breath. "Other than a very few of my archeology digs, I came up against the same language one other time: during one of my searches through the library on Alhazard."

The sharp inhaled breaths and gasps from some of the people in the room were expected, but as he opened his eyes, he noted some had confused looks on his face.

"What's this alhazard place?" Teana voiced the question for those who didn't know.

Yuuno was going to explain, but was surprised when Fate spoke up first.

"An ancient lost city from long, long ago, even before the age of the Belka," she said quietly. "It supposedly became too technologically advanced and destroyed itself. My mother was looking for it, convinced the secrets there could... help her achieve her goals."

Apparently, Fate hadn't told some of the specific reasons, but he could see Nanoha place her hand on Fate's and squeeze it.

"The planet itself was destroyed, from what I gather," Yuuno added. "But one of the cities is somehow supposed to have survived. I'm not sure it's an actual city, but there had to be survivors, which I think may be these travelers. I should mention, that I partially started this line of study because of the Precia incident. Both as a matter of scholarly interest, and to see if there really was any truth to the rumors, or to Precia's reasoning. Admiral Lindy initially asked me to look into it."

"So it actually exists?" Nanoha asked for confirmation.

Yuuno shook his head again. "I'm still not entirely sure on that. It is possible, but where it is now, I don't know. In the debriefing reports I read on the interrogation of Jail Scaglietti, he claimed to have knowledge from Alhazard. His non-magical technical skills are fairly high; higher than all of the civilizations that are administered, and discovered, by the Administration Bureau."

"That was our assessment as well," Hayate added. "But outside of a few offhand comments, Jail never went into much detail about it."

"There is one other thing that concerns me," Yuuno said, switching subjects. "I assume everyone here is aware of Carim's prophecies. She's asked me to see if I could better translate them, and also help store copies of them in the Infinity Library."

Hayate nodded. "How could I forget. It was the whole reason for the formation of Section Six."

Yuuno smiled sheepishly. "Of course. Well, allow me to restate the most current one some of you have heard before:

'In the land where ancient crystals and infinite greed gather and intertwine, the wings shall revive from the holy land, beneath the dead king. The dead shall dance, and the tower of law in the central lands shall burn to the ground, but, before this, the ship of law that guards the many seas shall be torn apart.'

"If you parse that carefully, you'll note that the 'ship of law' being torn apart is actually the first thing that is supposed to happen," Yuuno pointed out. "That's something I realized after I initially translated it for her. As we have surmised, that was the Cradle. Which means...."

"Which means it's not over," Hayate finished for him, staring at the young archeologist in horrible realization. "We just assumed it was in chronological order, and attributed anything else to problems with translation."

"If I parsed it correctly, and I'm sure I did this time," the Infinity Librarian continued his explanation, "then the ship of law is the Cradle, as we all assume. Ancient crystals are the relics. I'm not sure what the 'wings from the holy land' could be, although quite a few ancient cultures reference the Alhazard mythos, believing it's existence to be holy. Infinite Greed seems to be a reference to the Jail project the council members initiated.

He paused for a moment, taking a deep breath. "So the 'tower of law' has yet to burn. You'll remember that, though it was attacked, ground TSAB headquarters didn't really burn, nor was it destroyed." He rubbed his eyes. "I still need to search the library more. I have a feeling there are more clues there."

"Section six did burn, though," Subaru pointed out. "Our rooms, training areas, almost everything suffered damage or was destroyed."

"I considered that," Yuuno replied. "But from the context of the Ancient Belkan I've translated, the word used there clearly indicates a 'spire' or 'tower.'"

Nanoha noted how tired he looked now; she had to remind herself that he was injured, and had just recently awoken. "Is that all, Yuuno-kun?"

He nodded. "I need to get back to the library, but-"

"But nothing," Fate chided him. "You're staying right there until you get better."

"I'll work on getting him any books or information out of the library," Arf volunteered, smiling, getting up and heading for the door. "I'll contact you when I get over there."

The archeologist sighed, chagrined, as he closed floating view screens. He figured his friends wouldn't want him to strain himself so soon. "Alright, thank you."

"Arf, wait," Fate told her. "There's one more thing that needs to be mentioned. Tell them what you told me."

The familiar stopped and turned around, realizing. "I'm not real sure, because the sun was in my eyes and my vision was a bit blurry, but I recognized the girl who knocked me out. From the files I looked over, I believe she is the cyborg known as Nove."

Subaru inhaled sharply. "That can't be... I mean, it felt like cyborgs when I was attacked, but I didn't think my sisters would actually be responsible."

Tea put a hand on her shoulder. "It might not be. We went over this before; there could be another explanation."

Subaru shook her head. "No, I didn't want to mention this before, because I didn't want to believe it, but I went back and talked to Ginga. We weren't able to find exact alibis for our four newest sisters, Dieci, Nove, Cinque and Wendi, at the time of the attacks." She hugged her chest and dropped her gaze, looking almost ashamed.

"We have them under observation for now," Hayate told her in a comforting tone. "I'm having direct interrogations held back at the moment. If the cyborgs are involved, they'll lead us to Jail. If not, I don't want to risk stirring false charges up against them. I'll also see what else I can dig up regarding Jail and his connection to the council."

"What about the girl we found?" Teana asked, switching the subject to take focus off Subaru.

"Shamal is still handling the examinations," Hayate answered. "She's supposed to report to me either later today or tomorrow. Hopefully that will give us a few clues. All I know for now, is that they have to keep her sedated to keep her from going wild. Is there anything else?" When no one responded, she continued: "Alright, get some rest, Yuuno-kun, and everyone else as well. We'll talk again when we have something critical to report. Take care everyone!"

Fate stood up as Hayate signed off. "Teana, Subaru, Signum, Agito, could I see you in the hall for a moment. Arisa, you too, please."

Nanoha started to stand up, too, but Fate gently placed a hand on her shoulder and pushed her back down. She nodded and smiled in thanks.

x~~*~~x

After everyone but the two had left the room, Yuuno took the opportunity to apologize again. "I'm sorry for worrying you and everyone. I shouldn't have gone exploring in that area alone."

Nanoha shook her head, then took his hand. "I should apologize. I realized over these past few days, that I haven't made enough time to visit and talk to you. The most we seem to see of each other nowadays, is when Vivio visits you. Perhaps if I had kept more in touch, I could have gone with you and protected you."

Yuuno gently patted her hand and smiled. "It's alright, I know you're busy. You have a lot of responsibilities, between your duties in the TSAB and taking care of Vivio and Fate."

She lowered her heard. "I still should have made time. I remember that conversation we had all those years ago, on the Asura, about how I always wanted to continue having those talks with you, and somehow I just forgot to."

"Nanoha," Yuuno said quietly, reaching out to lift her chin. "It's fine, really. Smile, okay? You look better with a smile."

She quickly wiped her eyes, realizing they had begun to leak, and then tried to smile as he wanted her to. "Hey Yuuno-kun, let's go out and have some fun when you get better, okay? I want to talk more with you then."

Yuuno's cheeks reddened slightly as he smiled back. "I'd like that."

x~~*~~x

Once outside his room, Nanoha leaned back against the wall next to the door, wiping her eyes again and remembering Agito's whispered words:

"While he was unconscious during our unison, his subconscious thoughts were strongly focused on you; he loves you."

It had caught her by surprise, and for awhile she couldn't believe it was true. She had always considered Yuuno a precious friend, but never suspected he might have felt that way about her. Now she was left with the problem of what to do about it.

[Do I even feel the same way?] she asked herself. [What if Agito is wrong? Or what if she's right and he says something? What would I say back?]

She shook her head and lightly slapped her cheek, noticing that they felt warm. The one question she was scared to even internally, was how things might change, for better or for worse. She couldn't, and didn't, want to think about this now; and given the current situation, the distractions she wanted were conveniently available.

Pulling away from the door, she took a deep breath, straightened her uniform, then walked down the hall to join the others.

x~~*~~x

"Well, hello there!" Shari exclaimed. "What brings you two by?"

Suzuka smiled, as a small form holding her hand peaked out from behind her at the other woman in the chair. "I'm taking care of her for this afternoon, while Nanoha and Fate are busy at work, since it was a half-day at school for her. So I'm showing her around where I work."

Shari lowered her face to look at their small guest. "And how is school going for you, Vivio?"

The girl started to open her mouth to reply, but then suddenly ducked back behind her temporary guardian in fright.

"Vivio-chan, what's wrong?" Suzuka asked, curiously. "You've met Shari before, haven't you?"

The senior technician looked puzzled, but then understanding dawned on her. "Oh shoot, I think she's afraid of what I was studying." She indicated the red crystal on the table behind her. "She had a rather traumatic incident with one earlier a year ago, during the JS incident."

Nodding in understanding, Suzuka turned around and bent down to face level with her charge. "It's not going to hurt you, Vivio-chan. We'll never do anything to you that you won't like, we promise."

"I promise, too," Shari added, smiling. "This is just a tool. It's not bad or good by itself, but it all depends on how it's used. Part of my work here, is figuring out tools like this so they can't hurt anybody. And sometimes we find that a tool that has hurt people, to actually be a way to help people if used differently. The only bad thing is to be afraid."

A little bit of understanding seemed to appear in the girl's eyes, displacing some of the fear. "It can help people?"

Shari nodded. "We think so, but we won't be sure until we figure this out."

A small dark shape suddenly leapt from a high ledge and landed gently on Suzuka's shoulder. "Oh, there you are. Have you been a good boy?"

"A kitty!" Vivio nearly squealed, all her fear disappearing. "What's his name?"

Suzuka smiled, taking a hold of the black cat and handing it to Vivio. "This is Mr. Whiskers. He's actually my device, the first one I made, but I like cats so I made him look and act like one. You can play with him if you like, while I talk to Shari."

The little girl was only too eager. "Yay, okay!" She set the cat down, and immediately started chasing it around.

"You sure that's okay?" Shari asked, watching the pair.

The purple-haired girl nodded. "You taught me pretty well. I programmed enough safety parameters into it for dealing with children. But I'm more curious in what you have going on here. What have you got so far? It looks kinda pretty."

Shari swiveled her chair back around and tapped her keyboard, bringing up schematics in several different floating screens. "Not much. We call them Relics. We studied these several months after the JS incident, but the most we could figure out is that they were some sort of magical energy storage device, created back at the days of early Ancient Belka. However, there were extra parts to them which didn't totally fit this theory."

"So there's more to it," Suzuka stated the obvious, her curiosity growing. "Why bring it up again now?"

"Hayate sent me a copy of Yuuno's report from earlier," Shari told her. "It seems these things may still have a role to play, so she got me clearance to do further studies on one of the few we had. The only other clue we have is some texts that say the Ancient Belkans merged these with their bodies for more power." She sat up suddenly. "Oh! Since you're here, this is perfect! Can you use your magical talent to analyze it?"

"Sure!" the other girl replied, more than happy. Using magic always made her feel warm.

Suzuka placed her hands on either side of the crystal. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and concentrated. With long practiced ease, Suzuka began to probe the object with her magic. Data began to pour across her closed eyelids, as the thin tendrils of magic worked their way deeper, identifying the atomic makeup and the various chemicals, crystals, and other substances that the object consisted of. She knew that once she had enough data, her magical talent could usually get a fair idea of what exactly an object did.

Then she found herself sucked in.

Gasping for breath, she felt like she was drowning in a vast ruby ocean, against a similarly-colored sky. Her desperate paddling skills were no use in keeping her afloat against the large rolling waves and rough sea, and she felt herself sinking, trying to hold her breath. She felt herself losing control of her magic as it ran wild, growing in power and intensity, but she couldn't think about that because her lungs were burning and she couldn't hold her breath any longer and....

"Suzuka!" Shari's voice startled her back to reality. "Are you okay?"

The purple-haired girl's eyes flashed open, noting Shari holding both of her hands away from the Relic. "I-I think so."

Shari released the other girl's hands hesitantly. "What happened? You were whimpering pretty badly there for a moment."

Regaining her breath, Suzuka did her best to relate what it felt like.

The senior technician leaned back. "A vast ocean, eh?"

"You know something?" the junior partner asked, sitting down, feeling her pulse and heart rate slowly return to normal. She had never felt something like that before.

"Well, there has been a theory floating around for quite awhile on the nature of magic," Shari began, pulling up a few screens to demonstrate. "Some say magic is a force left over from the creation of the universe, that now functions as sort of... lubricant to make sure things run smoothly between dimensions. If we say these two black squares are dimensions, then this red square between them is the magical plane. Kinda like a sandwich where dimensions are the bread and the meat is the magical plane."

"So when mages perform magic, they are drawing power from this plane?" Suzuka asked, beginning to understand. "Wait, from what I understand, magic is drawn from our bodies and things around us, in the form of mana."

"That's partly true," Shari agreed. "The linker core functions as sort of a special organ, that draws magic, or mana if you will, from the plane and adds it to our bodies. Like a faucet filling a sink with water. Part of it is in this dimension, and it links with the magical plane, hence the name: 'Linker Core.' The larger the linker core, the more magic that can be drawn. So a mage pulls the gathered mana from their body to perform a spell. Most people just assume the mana is drawn from all around us, but because we can't see it, there isn't much of a way to test. But there are planes that intersect ours, being just invisible to us. If the theory is true, anyway."

Suzuka nodded, leaning back and tapping her chin. "That almost does make sense. On my planet, science tells us that energy has to come from somewhere, so it was quite hard to believe in magic even though I saw it in action. But if it's being drawn from another plane, then it makes sense; the supply would be huge. I also assume spent magic returns there when it dissipates, kinda like water in a cycle. That would explain why my mind interpreted it as an ocean."

"During the JS incident, Nanoha told me the ship informed them it was cutting magical links," Shari went on. "It wasn't an AMF, as she couldn't draw upon any magic at all. The ship may have very well somehow shut off connection to the magical plane within it's boundaries." She swiveled her chair to look at the relic again, shining silently. "And if what you said is true, I think the Relic isn't exactly a battery, but a kind of artificial linker core. Ancient Belkans must have found a way to manufacture them, to vastly increase their abilities by increasing the amount of magic they could draw from the magical plane."

"Sounds dangerous, though," Suzuka noted, thinking of the implications. "I'm not sure a body could support drawing so much magic. Unless it was handled carefully, a person would burn themselves out."

Shari nodded. "It probably has to do with specific genetics. Like the cyborgs, the young were probably modified to be able to accept a Relic as a power booster. Vivio was able to use one, but she is also a genetic descendant of the last Ancient Belkan King, the Saint Kaiser. However, the ship was also able to take control of her because of it."

The two girls stared at the relic for awhile in silence, watching it glisten and turn slowly, then Suzuka said: "Well, I better be going. I have a few more errands to run with Vivio, before I drop her off at home later."

"Well, thanks for your help as always, Suzuka," Shari told her as the two stood. "This will definitely help my research."

The purple-haired girl smiled. "Anytime! Vivio, are you ready to go?"

As if on cue, the smaller girl practically appeared at Suzuka's feet, holding the cat device. "Aww, I wanted to play with Mr. Whiskers some more...."

Suzuka tussled her hair. "We can come back another time, or I can bring him along to visit you and your mamas some other time, okay?"

Vivio reluctantly let the cat go. "Okaaay..."

x~~*~~x

Vivio had actually been paying attention to the two girls' discussion. She was chasing and playing with the cat for a bit initially, but stopped when Suzuka started whimpering. She couldn't understand everything they were saying, but she was trying to get over her fear and understand what the shiny red thing actually was.

She touched her chest, just below where it connected with her neck, knowing that's where her linker core was. That's where the red crystal had been, too. It had made her stronger, but she had feared that strength because she had hurt Nanoha-mama with it. She didn't want to hurt her mamas or anyone else like that again.

But from what she could tell, she was kinda special because she could actually use it okay. The thought made her nervous, because she didn't want to go through that again. It was painful when those people put it in her, and it was painful when her mama removed it.

But she also promised her mother she'd be strong. Maybe, if needed, she might be open to using it again sometime....

Xx~~*~~xX

Author's notes:

Lot of exposition here, so I apologize if you don't like a lot of talk. But there should be more action and combat coming up. Hoped you liked my version of how magic works in this. I connected a few dots and hopefully came up with an interesting theory, that will come into play in future chapters. In the rewrite here, I added a bit more dialogue to tie it in with how magic is perceived in the Nanohaverse. So Shari's explanation is more of an expansion on the general idea.

C&C is always welcome!