Chapter 5:

Jail Scaglietti was not stupid. Amoral, certainly. Creepy, definitely. Insane? You better believe it. But he was most definitely not stupid.

He had every confidence that, in the eventual confrontation between the two warring circuses, his would claim final victory. He was completely confident in Lutecia; she was his masterpiece, the ultimate expression of Clownish engineering.

But it was never a smart idea to put all of your eggs in one basket, right? And if there was another way to solve the problem… one without even the infintessimal risk that Lutecia might be out-clowned? Well, it would be completely stupid not to pursue that option.

And Jail was not stupid.

Her favorite knife securely hidden beneath her unassuming street clothes, her distinctive hair concealed beneath a short, dark wig, the disguised Due strolled toward Circus Force Six, humming a little tune as she went. She was off to see the clowns.

Vivio sighed and put the finishing touches on her makeup.

As depressed as she was, there was no getting around it: she had to go rehearse. Lutecia was her love, yes, but clowning was her life. It simply wasn't in her to skip practice entirely. Subaru and Ginga needed her, after all. She wandered towards the clown's section of the training field, passing other acts as she went.

Caro, the animal tamer, politely asking a lion to sit, which it did, purring like a kitten. Caro never used a whip or any other sort of coercive instruments; animals just listened to her. Nobody was sure why. Her maybe-sorta-kinda-boyfriend, Erio Mondial, was sitting off to the side and watching. He was currently wearing a cast on his right arm and an assortment of bandages. Vivio briefly wondered about that before recalling that Shari had attempted to 'spice up' his act.

He was lucky he only had one broken arm.

"Gooood boy! Who's a good boy!" Caro said, scratching the enormous cat under its chin. It fell to the ground and rolled over, asking for belly rubs. "Oh, hi Vivio! Are the clowns already finished?"

"Nope, I'm just running late." Vivio said, forcing a smile to her face. There was no need to bring her friends down into her gloominess, and besides, it was a clown's duty to smile. "Hopefully I'll get there in time for the third act, at least… we're supposed to use the tiny car in that act, and I always have trouble with that…"

"So how is your… Lutecia situation coming along?" Erio asked.

Vivio winced. "You… you two know about that? Was it mamas, aunt Hayate, or Vita who spilled the beans? C'mon, fess up."

Caro smiled a bit sadly. "None. You're… not as discreet about it as you think. We've all noticed the long absences, the way you get all wistful whenever anyone talks about Scaglietti's circus…"

"… the life-sized poster of her you have in your bedroom and you think nobody knows about, but that we found when we went looking for you the first time you wandered off to go see Lutecia perform and didn't tell anyone…" Erio said, blushing slightly.

Vivio blushed far more than slightly. "That's for research! Important clowning research!"

"Of course it is." Erio and Caro said in perfect unison. Almost as if they weren't lying at all.

"Oh, god, my life is over, isn't it?" Vivio moaned.

"Not yet, but soon." Said a new voice. Vivio turned to see the resident trick-shot expert, Teana Lanster, walking toward her. "Vivio, your mom told me that if I saw you, I should tell you she said you should just skip practice tonight."

"Wh-what? Why? Is she… is she upset with me? I didn't think that she…" Vivio began, her already low spirits sinking even further.

"No, it's got nothing to do with your forbidden love." Tea reassured her.

"... Wow, everybody really does know about that, don't they?" Vivio asked sadly.

"Oh, yes. Vita was the only one who hadn't figured it out, and even she knows now." Tea said helpfully.

"... ... wonderful."

"It gets worse. You see, Nanoha doesn't want you to skip practice because she's upset. It's just that… Shari was looking for you." Tea said gravely. "And she looked really happy."

Vivio's eyes widened in horror.

Erio clutched his bandaged arm as it twinged with sudden pain.

Caro hid behind her lion, distancing herself from Vivio as much as possible.

"Did… did Shari say why she was looking for me?" Vivio asked, a slight quaver in her voice.

It was a pointless question, they all knew it. Shari was the circus engineer and dealt with equipment, not performers. She would only be looking for a specific person for one reason: she had come up with an idea to 'spice up' their circus act. And she really did mean well, trying to be cutting edge and help their act flourish. The problem was that Shari's idea of 'spicing up' was a little bit unorthodox. What she considered to be a pleasant, mild sort of spice, others considered to be a shot of pure jalapeño juice applied directly to the eyeballs. Erio's shattered bones were convincing evidence of that, for any doubters.

"She wants to… improve your act. Has some bold new designs." Tea said, her tone as cold and lost as the grave.

"I… I thought we got her back on her meds after what happened to Erio." Vivio said softly. The red-haired boy winced again. Just remembering it made it hurt more.

"We… we think we did, but there's no certainty. Not with her." Tea said. "I'm so sorry, Vivi, I know you have a lot on your mind already without this happening. Subaru and Ginga have already said they'd be willing to cut their own rehearsal short and reschedule it for whenever you… aren't in danger of too much improvement."

"Tell them thank you, but they can go on without me… I'll get the act training in on my own time, and Nanoha-mama will make sure I get my three hours of close-combat practice no matter what." Vivio said, making her way back to her quarters. She would grab mama's keys, and go hide in Aunt Hayate's bedroom. Hayate wouldn't mind, and not even Shari would look there. Besides, Aunt Hayate had one of the nicer beds in the circus, and after the crappy day she'd had, Vivio felt a nap wasn't out of order. All she needed to do was make sure that she made it all the way there without running into…

"Viviooooooo!" Said a familiar, excited-puppy voice that filled her body with dread and sent chills down her spine. God, I barely made it a five feet… She thought, sensing the approach of Disaster.

"Hi, Shari! How are... things?" Vivio said with false enthusiasm. "I really must be going, have many errands to run, practice to do, all that, simply can't take the time to talk right n-"

"Vivio!" Shario Finnenio said, clapping a friendly hand onto Vivio's shoulder and an iron clamp onto her hand. "You and I are going to make history. Follow me!"

"Bye-bye you two!" Tea said, waving to them with forced cheer.

"I liked Vivio. I'm going to miss her when she's dead." Caro said.

Erio winced again.

Due smiled. "Wow, that is so interesting."

Phillip Camisaroja smiled right back. It wasn't often a pretty girl took such interest in a simple roadie, right? He really ought to get back to work, but technically he was still on circus property, and if he stopped for a few minutes to chat up a cutie there was nothing wrong with that. "Yeah, I guess working at a circus is pretty unusual, isn't it? I mean, I only help set stuff up and take it apart, but still…"

"I certainly wouldn't know what it's like to work at one of those places." Due purred. "You're simply fascinating."

"Yeah… yeah, I guess I am! I mean, I've even done things like calm rampaging elephants!" Phillip said. Well, not really… Miss Caro had done that by politely requesting the elephant stop rampaging, then giving it a nice treat. But he'd been in the area!

"That's just amazing." Due said. "But you know what the most amazing thing is? How all of you circus workers wear the same outfit."

"Er… really?"

"Really. I mean, you all wear the exact same clothing. And you're such a lightly built man… I bet you're not much bigger than me." Due said.

"Er… that's kind of an odd thing to notice…" Phillip said.

"Why, I bet that if I pried open that manhole over there and dumped your body in the sewer, then wore your uniform, I could pass as a circus worker here." Due said, smiling brilliantly.

"… that's a strangely specific thing to think of. Ah, well, I guess it's true, though." Phillip said.

At this point, Due began to get the impression that perhaps Phillip was only a roadie because he genuinely wasn't smart enough to get any job more complicated than picking stuff up and moving it to other places.

"I," She said slowly, drawing her knife, "Am about to murder you and dump your body in a filthy sewer. Then I'm going to use your outfit to help me sneak through the circus unnoticed, so that I can murder someone else."

"Wow, isn't that kind of morbid for a joke?" Phillip asked.

"… … … …" Due said. "You know, I felt a little bit sorry about this before, since you're totally unrelated to what I'm doing here. But now? I just think that I'm doing the gene pool a favor."

Five minutes later, she walked into the Circus Force Six grounds in her new... well, slightly used... roadie's outfit.

Vivio looked down at the flower in doubt. "I don't know, Shari. The 'water-squirting flower worn on the lapel' is sort of an old stand-by for a reason: water won't kill anybody. And the last 'upgrade' you made to my squirting flower very nearly did just that."

"Trust me!" Shari said with a brilliant smile. Only a moron would, but she was just so happy. How could you say no to her? "This will be great. This flower still squirts water, just the new power source increases the range ten-fold! You can even hit the audience! They love that sort of thing, right? Participation!"

"... that's all it does? You're sure?" Vivio asked.

"Of course!"

"Well then. If you swear to me that's the case... I'll give it a try." Vivio said.

"Wonderful! That's great! Make sure you don't point it at anyone." Shari said.

"... you said it just shoots water."

"And I was absolutely telling the truth!" Shari reassured her. "Just don't want anyone to get wet."

"Er... okay..." Vivio said. Realistically, she knew she shouldn't. But if she didn't, Shari would do it herself. At least this way she could make sure nobody was in the area.

Looking around the clearing, Vivio made sure that nobody was anywhere nearby, pointed the flower at empty space, and prepared to squirt some 'water'.

Due slipped between the tents and trailers like a ghost.

She preferred it this way. The disguise was a nice backup, but if she could avoid being seen at all, it was a mark of pride.

The little clown was off by herself, now. Just the target and one other woman; easy prey. Finding her had been almost too simple, really; nobody bothered to hide anything in this place. Everyone was yammering about how Vivio had gone off with Shari and the direction they'd gone... didn't these people know how to lie, hide information, and misdirect? You know, like normal people.

Hiding behind the last remaining structure between her and her target, Due smirked. She'd have to kill both girls, of course; she really shouldn't wait here any longer than she had to. It would be quick, clean, and efficient.

She slid her trusty knife into her hand noiseless. Sorry, kid. Just business. She thought.

Then, quick as a striking snake, she leapt from cover and went on the attack.

Vivio wasn't quite certain what happened, really.

She pressed the flower that 'totally just squirted water', and what emitted from it was a beam of coherent light, bright red and so hot she could smell her own hair slightly singe.

A woman dressed in a roadie's outfit appeared suddenly, like a ghost, from behind the nearest tent, and charged straight at Vivio. Straight at Vivio, from the direction that Vivio herself had been looking. The direction that the flower had been facing, specifically.

The woman stood for a few seconds, a knife in her hand, a look of shock on her face, and a neatly burned hole in her chest.

She fell, then, and silence fell with her. Briefly.

"Huh. Guess the laser works after all." Shari said.

"Oh God! Oh God! Oh God!" Vivio shrieked. "I killed her! I killed her! I killed her!"

"Don't be silly, dear." Shari said. "The laser killed her, not you. Which means it probably isn't safe for use in your real act… darn. Well, at least now I know. Good thing I told you it shot water, eh?"

Under better circumstances, Vivio would probably have asked what value a laser cannon could possibly have been to a clown act. Instead, however, she said, "Oh, God, I'm a murderer… I think I'm going to be sick…" Vivio whimpered.

"As long as you don't throw up on the flower, there. If it destabilizes the power source, the explosion could wipe out three-quarters of the continent." Shari said.

Vivio instantly pulled the flower from her chest and threw it to the side as if she been bitten. "What the Hell did you put on me?"

"Careful, careful!" Shari cautioned, gingerly picking the thing up off the floor. "You really don't want to screw with this power source, I'm telling you."

"What is it? What exactly is even more dangerous than what I already know about the death-weapon you strapped to my chest?" Vivio snapped.

Shari considered this. "Well… um… technically it would be incredibly illegal for the battery to be antimatter, so it totally isn't antimatter." Shari said very loudly. She then winked.

"Antimatter? Like that stuff that explodes if it touches anything, from all those books and sci-fi shows where things explode? You strapped that to me?"

"No, no. I said that's not what I did." Shari said, loudly and obviously, as if she was afraid that someone with the authority to shove her into a padded cell might be listening in. "I would never do something like that. That would be insane. Yes… they would call me mad, were I to toy with the primal forces of creation and destruction like that." Shari said, still loudly but now with a slightly odd tint to her tone.

"Um… Shari, I realize I should have asked this awhile ago, but have you taken all your pills today?" Vivio asked nervously.

"They would call me insane. So, I would never hold, in the palm of my hand, the raw unfettered strength inherent in the polar opposite of the very universe. There is absolutely no way that I would conduct unsupervised private experiments using an unregistered particle collider to harness the unstoppable power to be found in the very antithesis of existence." Shari said.

"… … …" Vivio said.

"I would never do anything like that." Shari said, her voice dropping to a soft whisper. "No matter how much it made me feel like God."

"Aunt Hayateeeeeeeeee!" Vivio screamed at the top of her lungs. "Shari is off her meds agaaaaaaaain!"

"Dammit!" Hayate's voice sounded in the distance. "Everyone, check to make sure you still have all your limbs! I'm going to call the police and the fire department, and then we're going to make her take her damn pills if we have to force-feed them to her!"

Shari pouted. "Nobody here understands me." She complained.

Author's Note: For those keeping score? This chapter officially marked the point where even I am not completely sure what's going to happen next. I have the ending in mind, but how I get there is sort of a mystery to me. Which means things might get... odd. Odder.

Just a friendly warning.