"Ten thousand years. Not too long for a rest cure, whether you're the one who wakes the dead, or the one who's woken."
-Attributed to Nanoha Takamachi
Chapter One
Stand By, Ready
The girl ran. She could hear them behind her, the shouts and calls from her pursuers as they gave chase. Their voices echoed through the trees as her toes dug into the loam, struggling for traction.
I have to escape! Have to get away! I can't let them use me!
Her bare, abused feet kicked up twigs and leaves, each pained footfall leaving its mark in blood behind her. But when she fell, it wasn't the pain from her feet that forced her to the ground. White-hot agony flared into her mind, crawling in blazing pins and needles down her neck, taking root deep in her chest. She screamed, clawing at her forehead, nails scraping bloody furrows into her brow, but she couldn't rid herself of her tormentor.
The burning in her chest reached a crescendo. Her back arched forward as a horrid choking fit overtook her, spasms wracking her to her hands and knees. She coughed weakly as the fit passed, struggling back to her feet and staggering on. The voices were closer now.
I have to run! Faster, like a bird, like lightning!
She ran on, the marks of her passing left behind in bloody footprints. Where she had fallen, a small sphere remained behind, glowing with green malevolence.
Waiting.
"Whisk, did you find her?"
Whisk didn't turn around, still staring at where the green glow had sunk into his right hand. He heard footsteps approaching behind him, dry leaves crunching underfoot as his squad leader ran up. "Whisk, what is it? The boss is gonna give us -hell- if she got away! Did you find her?"
"No, I did not. I will keep looking. She cannot stay out here." It is not safe for her.
A hand grabbed his shoulder. "Hey, snap out of it. We gotta get moving and bring her back."
Whisk turned around to look at the hand's owner. Borent had been his commanding officer ever since he'd joined up with the mercenary group, some five years ago. Everything he had learned about the job had been from Borent's mouth, under Borent's guidance. Whisk owed almost everything in his life to the man for taking him in. "No. We will protect her, Borent."
"The hell are you talking abou-" Those five years of guidance didn't stop Whisk from flowing his right arm into a metal blade, shoving it up underneath Borent's ribcage to pierce his heart. The spike exploded outward into a fascimile of a hand, ripping his superior's organs to shreds.
His former life died in front of him, impaled on his arm. It mattered not. All that mattered was her. Whisk opened his mouth, spitting a glowing green sphere into his free hand and placing it against the corpse's chest. It sunk in without a sound, and by the time he pulled his right arm free, the body was standing on its own.
Borent's eyes met Whisk's, blank understanding in his gaze. "The rest of the squad will try to return her to the lab."
"We will stop them. She must be kept safe."
"She must be kept safe."
She ran on. The trees had given way to a rugged field, long and narrow and bordered on both sides by jagged, broken cliffs. Twice she had fallen in agony, her body's renegade processes forcing up her purpose, and those glowing spheres were clutched tightly in her hands as she tore through the waist-high grass. She had already left one behind, and felt it activate. Could feel it even now, as it spread out into a dozen hosts, following her with the relentless strength of machines.
Machines, or the dead. I won't let them use me! Never again!
Her last awakening, however long ago, had been the first time she had ever felt hope. She remembered blue hair and a kind smile, being held in strong arms. Hearing a beating heart under the whir of damaged servos, the smell of blood and ozone. "Of course you can change your purpose. I was made for war, but I save lives now. Even the Sankt Kaiser has changed who she is."
Teeth gritted, every forced stride on the torn ribbons of her soles putting tears in her eyes, she pushed herself further, faster than before. The glow from her forehead flared with each panting breath; a sharp, clean light in contrast to the greasy luminance coming from the marble-sized orbs she clutched. Her eyes were half-shut from exhaustion, and she never saw the ground fall away underneath her feet.
She yelped as she fell, red hair streaming behind her like the tail of a comet, before the curved wall of the massive crater swept underneath her like a demented playground slide. She tumbled, scrabbling for purchase but finding none as she rolled over the ancient, glassy surface.
A pained groan worked its way past her lips when she finally cape to a stop. Just as she tried to stand back up, the white fire burned through her again. A gurgling wail burst forth, bloodied froth accompanying yet another green core as it fell from her mouth and clinked against the ground.
They were closer. She felt the first one leap over the edge of the cliff, plummeting after her, eating up the distance with voracious appetite. She scooped up the sphere, staggering to her feet and running on. She could see something in the distance, tall and white and pure, something that promised an end to this terrible hunt. She could hear that voice in her mind as clearly as if it was yesterday, urging her onward, lending her faltering steps strength.
She beat them to it, for what it was worth. But it wasn't salvation of any sort. It wasn't a bastion to hide inside. There were no doors, no windows. An ivory pillar stretched to the sky above, tall and solid and useless to her. She sagged to her knees, trying to ignore the approaching footsteps of her pursuers. Guardians. Jailors. Puppets, whose strings I cannot pull.
There was something at the base of the obelisk. A plaque, darkened by dust and grime. She reached forward with a trembling hand, wiping away the accumulation of the ages. Licked her dry lips, murmuring the words.
"Not all devils are evil, not all kings men of prosper." Would that the aid of a devil could save this miserable king from herself.
Her eyes squeezed shut. A shifting of metal and flesh behind her; her pursuers, as one, kneeling down. She hardly heard it, remembering the voice of her savior of old. Of course you can change your purpose.
Forcing herself to her feet one last time, Ixpellia cast a hateful glare back at her Mariage, before hurling the three cores birthed of her own essence at the obelisk. They shattered in bursts of sickly-green smoke, wisping away into the wind as the wayward Flame King of Hades backed away from her own creations. They rose as one, reaching for her as she screamed.
She drifted.
There was no past to remember, no future to concern her. There was just the moment.
She drifted, feeling the ebb and flow of the sea around her, through her, beyond.
Nothing touched her. Nothing bothered her. She was at rest.
She drifted.
Something touched her mind. She shifted, relaxed. There was nothing here.
It touched her again. She ignored it, but it lingered, like an itch. She found herself worrying at it, like she would press her tongue into the gap of a missing tooth when she-
When I...? When I what?
What am I?
She no longer drifted. Something had caught hold, roused her. She floundered, searching for...
For what? What am I missing? Who am I? Why am I here?
Alarm. There was no longer calm. She reached out, and found nothing when there should be something. Found she had nothing to reach with. Alarm became panic. This isn't right! This isn't what I'm supposed to be! Where am I? Where is everyone?!
She wanted to scream, but she had no lungs with which to draw breath. She wanted to cry, but she had no eyes with which to shed tears. The empty sea, so long her comfort, began to strangle her, dragging her under.
She flailed without arms, feeling the miasma claiming her... and just before she was lost, she felt it.
"Initialize Protector Program: God-Devil In White."
A beacon.
A friend.
She knew this presence. It had been with her for so long that it was part of her. Before, and even now, even in this nothingness. She clung to it, feeling the first wave of warmth flooding through her.
A pulse against her very soul, burning away the fear, bringing clarity in its wake.
A voice in her mind. Her friend, her comrade, her sister-in-arms. "Distress signal received. She needs our help."
Such a simple phrase. But it woke the last remnants of her dormant mind, reminded her of who she was. What she was born to do.
"Then we can't stand around and do nothing, can we?" She laughed, feeling the answering surge from her companion, her heart.
"Stand by. Ready."
Ixpellia fought. There was power at her fingertips like she'd never felt before, that sharp glow on her forehead flaring when she drew on that alien strength, and her magic surging in response. Glass cracked, and chains erupted from solid ground to wind around the first of the Mariage as they reached for her, chains made of smoke and fire and her own desperate fear. A shove at the air sent forth a wave of force that knocked more of the dead men off their feet. Ixpellia felt her back press against the ivory monument, struggling to draw forth more power to throw at them.
It wouldn't come, instead pain flared through her veins. Offensive magic was never her forte, and even bolstered by that strange light, she just wasn't skilled enough to make use of it. The Mariage regained their feet, tore free from their binds. Ixpellia's legs gave out in dejected misery, leaving her curled at the very base of the obelisk. The one in front moved closer, opening a metal-etched hand and reaching for her. She looked away. Not like this. Not again, please! Help me! Anyone!
Thunder, from a cloudless sky. She could feel it in her bones, in her mind, resonating through her stuttering magic. The world grew dark and muted around her, around the Mariage, around the obelisk itself, as if all of the light and color and even sound were being consumed. Green mist started flowing back in, the pall from her shattered cores being pulled toward a single point.
Ixpellia realized that the hand never reached her. She looked up, sharply. There was a single place of color left in the world, a blazing red point of light hovering just above the Mariage's arm. Nothing was moving, all attention drawn to that bright star.
The Mariage's arm contorted, indentations compacting its metal-and-flesh like it was made of putty. The star flared, solidifying into a garnet pearl surrounded by a corona of pink. The pink spread down and out, expanding and defining into the shape of a hand, clamped tightly around the Mariage's wrist. Spreading further, the glow revealed an arm, a shoulder. The Mariage tried to pull free, but it was as if a giant had grabbed hold of it.
The outline of the body completed, a female figure cut out of the air in pink. The outstretched hand flexed, and the shell of energy started to crack and shatter away, revealing the living body underneath. Brilliant purple eyes opened, then fixed on Ixpellia for an instant. The woman smiled.
"It's okay. You're safe now."
She made it just in time. The slip of a girl cowered back against the strange ivory pillar, torn feet leaving crimson stains on the ground, but she was otherwise unharmed. She turned her eyes toward the thing she still had hold of, and felt the deformed material of its skin start to shift underneath her hand.
Mariage. Nanoha let go just as spikes erupted from the creature's wrist, forcing it off the monument's pedestal with a shove of magic. There were a dozen of them in front of her, nearly identical in size and shape, no longer recognizable except for the fact that they had once been male. Only the one in front seemed different; larger and more menacing. They started to advance, a bewildering assortment of blades and spikes issuing forth from their limbs.
She'd read the reports. It wouldn't do to engage the beings in close-combat. "Raging Heart, shooting mode!" She held out her hands to grab the staff when it appeared.
The garnet gem set into the back of her hand pulsed. "Negative, my Master. Mode format incompatibility."
"You're kidding me!" Nanoha threw up her other hand, a hastily formed barrier blocking the first attacks, throwing the corpses back again. "What can we do?"
"Stand by. Repurposing hardware. Skirmish mode activated."
Raging Heart's components phased in around her, forming armored gauntlets. The white plates floated and shifted an inch above her skin, pink lightning crackling between gold discharge leads. A half-dozen small, white-and-gold shields spun around her, ready to intercept any incoming attack.
"...I guess this will have to do. Close combat was always Fate's thing, though." She felt her throat close a little, like it always did when she remembered.
"Sorry, my Master. Core placement is an issue." The synthetic tones sounded a little sheepish.
That was all the time there was to talk. The Mariage surged forward, shattering her barrier. With a last glance at the trembling girl behind her, the Ace of Aces threw herself out to meet them, determined to keep them away from her.
A hand with knives for fingers plunged toward her chest, and she punched it aside hard enough to shatter the metal blades, spinning the Mariage around and opening it up for her follow-up strike. Her fist broke clean through its chest, and the entire body started to melt right in front of her.
"Layer purge." The crackling skin of energy over her gauntlet pulsed out, pushing back the oily mass and letting her leap back just before it burst into flames. The rest of them didn't give her time to recover, blades stabbing in from all sides.
The world collapsed inwards to the life-and-death struggle, a bare ten meters of space in which she leapt about like a demented dervish, crushingly-enhanced strikes punishing the Mariage with every impact. Still, melee was not her forte, and the weight of numbers began to show.
Ducking under the sweep of a blade, the edge still caught the trail of her hair why is it untied and yanking her head sharply to the side before cutting through. Pulled off balance, she wasn't able to twist away from another sword diving in toward her abdomen. One of Raging Heart's shields cut across, sacrificing itself to deflect the blow, but the blade still cut a line across her side.
Nanoha dropped to one knee, gathering magic and slamming it into the ground, the dome-like shockwave pushing the Mariage back long enough for her to leap away again. She glanced down in consternation at the wound, realizing that instead of a proper barrier jacket she was clad in a simple white tunic, which, judging by the blood dripping down her side, was as flimsy as it looked. "Raging Heart, where's my barrier jacket?!"
"Sorry, my Master! Storage corruption. Barrier Jacket program nonfunctional."
She didn't have the luxury of time to curse. As the Mariage closed in, she managed to throw up a mass binding, wrapping it around half their remaining number as she felt the harsh pull of the spell on her Linker Core. The other four reached her, slashing with their bladed arms in perfect synchronization as she fought back. She managed to take two more of them down by the time the rest broke free, but earned herself a crisscross of gashes that had blood running freely down her back.
A double-fisted hammerblow dropped one hard enough to crater the glassy ground, the Mariage splatting into tar and bursting into flames. Nanoha stumbled back from the conflagration as Raging Heart intercepted two more thrusts, shards of gold and white composite raining down around her. She threw up her arms to try to catch the next blade, only to find her attacker yanked away, flaming chains wrapping around its throat and arms. A glance over her shoulder showed the girl standing again, a searing white glow under her bangs illuminating a mask of pained concentration. She took the opportunity presented and struck the corpse's head from its shoulders during the brief respite, before the rest closed in.
One by one, they managed to wear the Mariage down. Nanoha was covered in cuts and burns, one gauntlet shattered, her hovering shields scattered in pieces across the field, and the girl behind her was collapsed onto the ground, holding her head in agony. She turned toward the last Mariage, and realized that this one had kept back from the fray the entire time, observing from dozens of feet away. Now it raised one arm, and Nanoha watched it shift and contort, the fingers molding together and the palm deepening. "You will replace those you have destroyed, interloper." A barrel as wide as a cannon aligned on her.
There was no way to close the distance in time. "Raging Heart, do we have any shooting magics left?"
"He needs to cool his head, my master. I can be shot!"
There was an audible thunk of a round being chambered in the Mariage's arm. Nanoha grinned, snapping up her left hand and pointing. Set into the back of her hand, Raging Heart flared. Six pink orbs flared into being around her wrist in an instance, charging. "Crossfire shoot!"
The orbs discharged, spiraling around the beam of light from her finger and lancing across the gap just as the round fired from the Mariage's arm. Pink energy met explosive metal just as it left the barrel, detonating it in a flash and blowing the Mariage's arm clean off.
Nanoha didn't give it time to recover, invoking a second shot that punched through its chest like a rifle round through a rotted apple, and the last Mariage melted like wax before bursting into white flames.
Ixpellia felt the command unit die, the shock of it making her eyes open again. Her savior turned toward her, still standing but heavily favoring one leg, and limped toward her. "Are you okay?"
"Am I okay? You're bleeding! All over!" Ixpellia forced herself to her feet, running over to put an arm around the woman, helping her to the steps leading up to the monument. "S-sit down, I'll... uhm. Bandages, there's got to be something I can..."
"Sorry, my Master. No healing spells in memory."
Her voice was pained, but weak. "Do what you have to do, Raging Heart."
"Cauterize."
The woman hissed as pink outlined her injuries, arching her back as the cuts sizzled briefly. It stopped just as suddenly as it started, and she sagged. Ixpellia found herself staring at the woman's face. "...I know you...?"
Purple eyes met bright green in brief confusion, and then the woman laughed weakly. "Nyaha...ha. I didn't... make the connection until just now. Those were the Mariage. You've grown, Ixy."
The laugh was what did it, more than anything else. Ixpellia realized who had saved her, finding it disconcerting that she was nearly as tall. "You're Vivio's mother. Nanoha."
Nanoha didn't respond, at first. Instead she stared at Ixpellia's forehead as if she'd grown a third eye. "...what is that, Ixy?"
Ixpellia flinched, reaching up to rub the smooth, hard lump. "I don't know. It's been... fueling me. I've been producing Mariage cores. Not as... quickly as I did before, but..."
The Ace of Aces grimaced, reaching up to brush Ixpellia's bangs aside. The light pulsed softly, and Nanoha's expression darkened. "You have a Jewel Seed embedded in your forehead, Ixpellia."