Takamachi Nanoha of 2814

by Shadow Crystal Mage

Takamachi Nanoha is the chosen Green Lantern of Sector 2814. She's beaten Precia, but now a new enemy is targeting not just her, but every mage and magical girl on Earth. The Battle Lines are drawn. The Linker Cores War has come to an end. X-over

28. Evening's End, Journey's End, War's End

A/N: Yeah, it's been a while. Hopefully the wait was worth it. One more epilogue to go!

...

Takamachi Nanoha of 2814

by Shadow Crystal Mage

Chapter 28: Evening's End, Journey's End, War's End

Disclaimer: I own none of the characters in this story. If I did… well, this would all be canon. WARNING: MAY CAUSE HEAD EXPLOSION!

...

"Hayate…" Vita breathed as her eyes began to sting. "Hayate-chan?"

Crying, Vita threw her around Hayate's waist, burying her face in the girl's chest. "Hayate! Hayate! Hayate!"

Hmm… Hayate smell… Vita thought.

Hmm… Hayate thought, ruffling Vita's hair and taking a deep sniff. Vita smell…

Shamal shuffled nervously. "Um… Hayate-chan, we…"

Hayate raised a hand. "It's fine. I know what happened. Reinforce-chan told me."

The knights all blinked, Vita actually pulling away from Hayate to do this.

"Who?" Signum asked.

Hayate pointed at the Book. "Reinforce-chan. That's her new name now. Say hi, Reinforce-chan!"

There was a mental cough. Um, hello. I'm… Reinforce. Nice to meet you…

There was a brief awkward silence that Hayate obliviously power-smiled through.

"Um… okay…" Signum said slowly. "We're cool with that…"

Hayate nodded, smiling at her other knights. "Welcome back, everyone…"

High above them, Nanoha sniffed back a tear. "It's so sweet…" she said, dabbing at her eyes under her visor with a glowing green handkerchief. "Such a wonderful family reunion! Ah, it's the little things like this that make me glad to be a Green Lantern and Magical Girl."

Fate sweatdropped, looking over her shoulder at where Rin, Illya, Kuro, Miyu, Sailor Uranus, most of Ala Alba, and what looked like a heat-seeking missile that read 'From Tomoeda, with payback' were all caught in the giant spider web Nanoha had made. "Still, Green Lantern-chan," she said, sweatdropping, "Maybe you should let everyone go…"

"I'll make them pay for killing Archer!" Rin cried. "I was going to do that, darn it!"

"They hurt sensei!" Ala Alba cried.

"They messed with my women!" Sailor Uranus cried.

Sailor Neptune sniffed. "Someone certainly wants to sleep in the couch tonight…"

"Can someone please point this away from me?" Miyu said, pointing at the missile next to her.

"MY BERSERKER DESERVES JUSTICE!" Illya roared. Everyone jumped, heart thumping.

Nanoha didn't even so much as flinch

Fate boggled at her. "Green Lantern-chan? You're not affected by Kaleido Ruby at all?"

"I have the ability to overcome great fear, Black Reaper-chan," Nanoha said beatifically. "It says so in my resume. Such a fear effect has no power over me."

Inwardly, she thought, Oh, good. I managed to keep from peeing myself that time too…

"What is this?"

The slightly cold, confused question came from above, and Nanoha turned, looking up at a bemused Chrono. "Shouldn't you be wearing a mask?" Nanoha asked, pointing at his face.

Chrono touched his face, scowled. "Look, I really don't think–"

"You do want poor Black Reaper-chan's identity to become public knowledge just because you're too lazy to wear five square inches of fabric?" Nanoha pressed. "Think of what the media could do if they found out you're–"

"All right, all right, I'll put on a stupid mask!" Chrono roared, making a gesture and adding it to his Barrier Jacket. "Happy?"

Nanoha blinked at him behind her visor. "Why would I be happy? The automated defense program is close to going berserk."

Chrono strangled a scream and pretended it was Nanoha. "Well, shouldn't we be doing something? After all, aren't you responsible for this planet?"

Nanoha gave him a scandalized look. "And ruin such a beautiful family reunion?"

Chrono looked at them. Hayate, for lack of a better word, was apparently molesting Vita's hair. "I think you should arrest them for public indecency."

Nanoha frowned. "Why? They have their clothes on…"

Chrono facepalmed. Of all the things she'd know about…

Nanoha turned to her prisoners. "Now, if you all promise to calm down, I'll let you go. I'm sorry, but as a member of the Green Lantern Corp, I cannot allow you to harm my prisoners. They are under my protection!"

"They killed Archer!" Rin roared.

"Um," Shiro said hesitantly, "didn't Archer say in his video will that they didn't kill him–?"

"Oh, will you PLEASE stop remembering every little thing!" Rin snapped.

"They killed Berserker!" Illya roared. Everyone promptly had a panic attack. Even the Wolkenritter reunion party looked up, though Hayate didn't stop feeling up Vita's head. "I want JUSTICE!"

"Okay," Nanoha said.

Illya blinked, abruptly derailed. "Huh?" she said, back at her normal tone.

"I'll see that justice is served," Nanoha said. "If they murdered Berserker, than they will be charged appropriately."

"Point of order," Ring-chan said. "Entity 'Berserker' released his 'Linker Core' voluntarily. At worst, the Wolkenritter are accessories to suicide."

Illya stared at the Power Ring. "W-what?"

"I was there," Ring-chan said. "I was forcibly hijacked off my assigned Green Lantern and–"

Nanoha slapped a hand on top of her ring. "We'll discuss this later. Right now, we need to deal with the current problem. Now, please behave."

"Everyone, do as Green Lantern says," Negi said as sternly as he could. The girls groaned, but nodded.

Sailor Neptune gave Sailor Uranus a look of womanly disapproval, but the look she and the other Outers directed at the Wolkenritter were hardly any better. Still, they remained silent, and Sailor Uranus grumbled something that sounded vaguely affirmative. Miyu just followed Illya's lead.

"Does anyone know who this missile belongs to?" Nanoha asked.

"I think it belongs to Tomoyo-san," Luvia said.

Nanoha blinked. "Tomoyo-san has a missile?"

"It likely came with her attack helicopter," Negi suggested.

Blink. "Tomoyo-san has an attack helicopter?"

Chrono sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "I miss Mid-Childa…"

...

"Ah!" Hayate exclaimed as Nanoha, Yuuno and Fate approached. Vita tensed, while Signum's hand instinctively dropped to her blade. "Nanoha-chan, Fate-chan, I'm really sorry. My girls have caused you so much trouble…" She grabbed Vita's nose in chastisement.

"Ow! Ah, I get it Hayate-chan, I'll be good, I'll be good!" Vita whined.

Zafira coughed.

"Oh, yes, and Zafira-kun too!"

Zafira slumped. "Why am I mentioned like some kind of extemporaneous add-on?"

Yuuno debated it, and decided this sort of problem crossed all legal boundaries and into pure Bro Code. He patted the Guardian Beast on the back in commiseration. "Don't worry, I get treated like that all the time. It'll pass. Eventually they'll remember you're there…"

Zafira gave him a nearly pathetic look. "Really?"

Yuuno nodded. "Sure," he said, then conscientiously amended, "Most of the time. Probably."

They both slumped down in despair and sighed.

Nanoha, meanwhile, was answering Hayate with an easy laugh, waving a hand dismissively. "Not at all!" she said. "It's fine…"

Behind her, several glares said otherwise.

"By the way, I have to place you guys under arrest, since you guys did do a lot of illegal stuff after all," Nanoha said off-handedly.

Vita tensed. Signum's hand began to drift towards her sword again…

"Oh, sure, that's fine," Hayate said breezily. "Now Vita-chan, if we go to prison, you'll be my bitch, okay?"

Vita head snapped around so fast she nearly had whiplash.

"Okay then, it's settled," Nanoha said, clapping happily. "You're under arrest. You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney…"

"Green Lantern-chan," Chrono said with stretched patience. "While I understand your devotion to your duties, can we leave your recitation for a time when we're not under a time limit?"

Next to Hayate, the Tome of the Night Sky clicked. She frowned at it, puzzled.

By now, Sakura was recovering, managing to sit up straight on Pegasus' back. Nanoha, seeing this, helpfully created a large platform for them to land on, then expanded it so that everyone else could step off their flying mantas. Her armor had collapsed when she'd lost consciousness, leaving her in the clothes she'd started in, albeit with her hair bleached pale silver and her eyes still crimson.

Rin, after a fierce glare at the Wolkenritter, turned and stomped to her sister, giving her a quick once-over. "Well, you're not dead or burned out," she said, making it clear she considered the latter the worse fate. "Don't do that again!"

Sakura blushed. "Yes, onee-chan…" Straightening, she turned towards Hayate. "Um, excuse me, but I couldn't help but notice that you bear a coincidental resemblance to someone we met recently who's no longer with us, and I was wondering if you knew anything about it?"

Hayate blinked in befuddlement. "Huh?"

"I knew it!" Illya cried, still in her normal tones. "I knew it wasn't just me! You think there's a connection between this Yagami Hayate and the other one too, right?"

Sakura blinked, turning to Illya. "Her name's Yagami Hayate too? Wow, that's a REALLY big coincidence."

"Oh, coincidences don't mean anything," Eternal Sailor Moon chimed in as Tuxedo Kamen helped her off the Vimana, which Gilgamesh wasn't deigning to allow to land. "Back when we were starting out, we coincidentally kept meeting these blond guys who all looked like each other, and whose names all kinda sounded the same. But it wasn't really anything."

Sailor Mercury sweatdropped. "Um, Sailor Moon, those guys were all Jadeite. Every single one of them."

It was Gilgamesh's turn to stare at her so fast they literally heard something crick. "What?-!"

Eternal Sailor Moon blinked. "Really? It wasn't just a freaky coincidence?"

Sailor Mercury and Tuxedo Kamen shook their heads.

"Then maybe it's not just a coincidence after all!" she gasped, turning to Sakura.

Lancer leaned to Luvia. "This is the leader of the forces that protect your country against evil?"

"It's not my country," Luvia denied. "But, yeah. I'm sort of surprised it's still standing…"

"What are you implying?-!" Vita demanded, hefting her mallet. People tensed.

Hayate reached over and grabbed Vita's nose. "Vita-chan! Bad Vita-chan! Good girls don't threaten people like that!"

"Ow! Hayate-chan!" Vita protested nasally.

"Is that really the smartest way to treat a powerful, battle-hardened knight?" Assassin said, sweatdropping.

Rin turned to glare at him.

Assassin sighed. "Never mind…"

"A-HEM!" Chrono coughed. "I hate to rain on this parade, but we have more immediate matters to attend to. The discarded defense program will go berserk soon. There's not much time. We have to stop it by any means necessary!"

"Oh god, it's happening again!" Sailor Venus cried, clutching at Sailor Jupiter. "We're going to need to die again, aren't we? I'm going to die a virgin! Again!"

Nanoha blinked. "What's a virgin?"

"ASK YOUR MOTHER!" Yuuno, Fate and Chrono cried.

Negi frowned. "But, what's—?"

"DON'T THINK ABOUT IT!-!-!-!-!-!" Ala Alba chorused.

Sailor Venus turned to Negi. "Erebus-kun, comfort m-!"

"LIKE HELL, BITCH!-!-!-!" Sailor Saturn, Sailor Mars, Sailor Jupiter, Sailor Pluto, and Ala Alba all cried.

Chrono closed his eyes, counted to ten, and decided that he still shouldn't kill all the annoying Earth people. "Right now, there are two plans to stop it." He held up a card. "The first is to use extremely powerful freezing magic."

Fate frowned "That seems a bit… underwhelming."

"It's REALLY extremely powerful freezing magic," Chrono said. "It's so extreeme, in fact, it's misspelled."

"What's the second one?" Nanoha asked.

"The second is to use the main cannon on our warship, the Asura, on standby in orbit," Chrono said.

Nanoha brightened. "Ooh, let's do that one!"

"Who's surprised, show of hands?" Yuuno said. No one did.

"Does anyone else have any alternatives?" Chrono finished.

"Um, the first one will be difficult," Shamal said, raising her hand as if she were in class. Negi almost felt compelled to check his attendance book. "As it is, the defense program is a mass of condensed magic."

"Even frozen in such a manner, that will not stop its reincarnation cycle as long as its core is intact," Signum added.

"Using your ship's cannon is no good either!" Vita cried, making a negative gesture by crossing her arms. "If you fire it in a place like this, Hayate-chan's house will be caught by the blast!"

Hayate sweatdropped. "Vita-chan, please don't prioritize things like that…"

Nanoha frowned. "But, won't it be contained by the barrier?"

No, Reinforce said from inside Hayate. An Arc-En-Ciel is a Time-Space distorting attack. It will destroy any barrier in its sights, and has an area of effect kilometers wide. Trust me, I'd know. I've been shot by one enough times.

Nanoha blanched. "No using that weapon!" she declared vehemently. "Not on my planet! Not when I'm not the one using it! I don't want to have to file a planetary extinction report!"

"They have those?" Yuuno said, alarmed.

"Okay, show of hands!" Leader Red cried. "All against using the orbital death ray?"

It was unanimous after the concept of a death ray was explained to the Servants.

"The captain doesn't want to use it either," Chrono said. "But if that thing goes berserk, it will kill more people than the cannon will, devouring all mass that it touches before it goes critical and takes the planet with it."

"I have to wonder who in ancient Belka thought making something like that was a good idea…" Yuuno said.

"There must be something else we can do!" Negi said.

"If we turn my Excalibur on it…" Saber volunteered. "I believe one shot would be enough to annihilate it completely…"

"Maybe I can purify it with the Ginzoushou," Eternal Sailor Moon suggested. "The Ginzoushou fixes everything!"

"That...might actually work…" Sailor Mercury said as she took her readings of the phenomenon below.

"I'm pretty sure you're contractually obligated to give us a shot at it first," Sailor Mars said.

"All right, everyone," Amy said from the Asura. "We have about twenty minutes before it reaches critical mass— no, sorry, twenty five… wait, what?"

"Amy?" Chrono prompted, concerned.

"Something's wrong," Amy said. There was frantic typing in the background. "The defense program is altering… it… it's gaining mass!"

"Your Majesty!" Gilgamesh cried, looking over the edge of the Vimana, which he hadn't left. "Something is happening!"

They looked down at the churning sea below. The slightly purple-tinted black sphere in the water, surrounded by several enormous tentacle-like appendages was roiling, as it something was boiling it from within. Crimson streaks were apparent on the surface, and flickers of nauseating purple lightning beneath showed disturbing outlines of monstrous body parts.

"Is that…?" Saber said, aghast.

"It's the mud from within the Holy Grail," Gilgamesh confirmed. "It's somehow forcing materialization of the base-mana of the program."

All those who'd been involved in the Holy Grail War paused to stare at him at this comment.

"What?" he demanded. "I predate your vaunted age of gods by an order of magnitude. Such simple deductions about magic are child's play." He paused. "Besides, it's the same thing that happened to me at the end of the 4th War."

"The defense program is no longer developing as predicted!" Amy reported. "Though at the rate of energy conversion, I think you have at least thirty minutes before its dimensional distortions begin to catastrophically affect the planet outside of the barrier!"

"What a conveniently round number," Yuuno said.

"Fa– er, Black Reaper-chan!" a voice cried, a call that was echoed in telepathy.

"Ar– er…" Fate grasped wildly. "Um… what was it again…? Oh, yes…! Familiar Girl!"

"Hey!" Arf cried as Sakura and Syaoran followed behind her flying on a winged pink staff. "I thought we agreed on 'Sexy Crimson Fang'?"

"Th-that's hardly appropriate…" Fate said, sweatdropping.

"Looks very appropriate to me…" Lancer commented approvingly, looking Arf up and down in appreciation. Zafira wondered if he could get away with kicking him off the platform.

Nanoha expanded the platform and Arf, Sakura and Syaoran touched down. It had been a while since she'd used The Fly Card in this configuration, but she still managed it. Arf gave Fate quick once-over as the blonde hastily gave her a quick telepathic rundown, and turned a glare at Zafira, but didn't attack the Wolkenritter.

As Syaoran turned a jaundiced look at the autographed missile Nanoha had set to one side before glaring at the Wolkenritter, Sakura looked around, intimidated. "G-green Lantern-chan," she reported. "Um, those two girls are safe with Tomoyo-chan, and she's flying them away as far from the fighting as she can."

"Thank you, Sakura-san," Green Lantern said, and Sakura blushed and bowed, muttering about how it was no problem.

"What, we're not calling her Fetishistic Mask Girl?" Haruna said, before Yue kicked her in the ankle. "Ow! Metal boots, metal boots!"

"Back to the matter at hand," Chrono said. "We need to find a solution!"

"Perhaps if we moved the defense program?" Hayate suggested. "If we lure it farther out to sea, we might be able to fire the canon without harming anyone…"

Nanoha brightened. "That's it, Hayate-chan! That's the answer! We'll move it away to where it won't hurt people if it goes off. I'll just throw it into the sun!"

There was a pause.

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHH?-?-?-?-?-?" everyone chorused.

"You can do a convenient thing like that?" Vita said.

Nanoha puffed up her chest proudly (Fate tried not to stare). "Of course! My power ring can do anything I can imagine! It's easy to imagine throwing it into the sun!"

"If it's so simple, perhaps you can just move the program into space, where we can fire the Arc-En-Ciel safely?" Chrono suggested.

Nanoha deflated slightly. "Well, I suppose we can do that too… sounds kind of boring, though…"

"Don't worry, you've just jinxed it," Illya said. "Now it's sure to somehow go completely wrong, no matter what…"

"Regardless, we'd still need to break through the defense program's defenses," Hayate said. "According to Reinforce-chan, if the program is even slightly capable of launching a magical attack, Green Lantern-chan won't be able to maintain the integrity of whatever she'll be using to send it into space."

"It'll also be best if we try to whittle it down…" the older Sakura said quietly, Rider helping her stand as she looked down below. "We can't really be sure what effect the Grail Taint would have on this thing…"

"It's an insane plan," Chrono said. "Basically, we throw it into space to shoot it? Insane." He sighed. "So, it should work right around here…"

"Amen…" Vita muttered.

"What's the attack strategy, then?" Rin asked, eager to have something to take her frustrations out on.

The defense program's barrier is composed of several layers of physical and magical protection, Reinforce said. First, we have to destroy those.

"It likely has more," Illya said. "Did you see all those crazy barriers it was throwing up through its fights?"

Technically, those would be my barriers, Reinforce said, but I see your point. Assuming it has more, we need to find a way to break through them, no matter how many it manages to raise…

"It was using Rho Aias," Kuro said. "Let me worry about piercing it's defenses…"

"After we destroy its defenses, we extract it from its location and have Green Lantern-chan send it into space," Fate said.

"We'll need to expose its core," Signum added. "It's the only way to guarantee it's been hit. Otherwise, it might just regenerate, even with the damage inflicted by a ship's main canon. "

"How do we do that?" the younger Sakura asked, looking uncertain.

"The old-fashioned way," Signum said, touching her sword. The younger Sakura looked confused, but the others nodded their comprehension.

I've analyzed the combat data the Wolkenritter have compiled in their encounters with you, as well as the proficiencies you have shown when attacking the defense program while it had me overridden. This is my proposition, Reinforce said…

...

"Such a powerful weapon, that ring is…" Lindy muttered, smiling slightly. "Can it really be done?"

Amy was crunching the numbers. "We don't have enough data to say for sure. We definitely know that Nanoha's ring has so far been able to accomplish everything she's made it do unless it was being directly attacked by magic, and we saw how it dismantled the Garden of Time, so I suppose it's possible…"

"You want to see it too, huh?"

"Oh, yeah. How often do we see something get thrown into the sun?"

"Amy, we're shooting it, not sending it to the sun."

There was a massive "Awwwww…!" of disappointment from the bridge crew as Lindy sighed in commiseration. That would have been so cool to see…

"Begin charging the Arc-En-Ciel!" Lindy commanded.

...

Illya's sudden cry of surprise in the middle of their discussion warned them.

They were still talking deployment when the dark-armored girl— "Aren't you cold in that?" the younger Sakura asked— let out a sudden cry of warning. Below them, pillars of red and purple-veined dark energy had suddenly erupted around the sphere of darkness that was the defense program, the water around it already roiling with what looked like dark tentacles.

"What's happening?" Eternal Sailor Moon wailed, clinging to Tuxedo Kamen.

"Looks like big, black and nasty is waking up earlier than expected!" Assassin said, keeping his balance with supernatural ease (to his own great surprise), and keeping Nodoka from falling.

"Scatter!" Haruna cried, leaping off the platform and onto a flying manta as the world shook, the area with the barrier disrupted. That done, she sent out other mantas for people to jump onto as Rider took flight with her Master. The people from Fuyuki leapt at the mantas fearlessly, Illya grabbing the missile off the platform. The Sailor Senshi leapt onto the Vimana, Gilgamesh yelling at them to watch the finish, it was gold, darn it!

"This is bad!" Amy cried. "It shouldn't be going berserk yet!"

"Gee, imagine that," Asuna said blandly. "Things happening before we're ready. Wow."

"Now Red-chan, nobody likes a smartass," Konoka said cheerfully. "Besides, Calculator-chan will be annoyed at you for stealing her thing."

Nanoha brought up a shield, the emerald barrier snapping up between them. "Everyone, remember the plan!" she called out. The water below heaved violently as the sphere began to tremble. With a scream, the sphere burst.

The defense program was enormous, an absolute monster. Crimson veins spider-webbed across its taint-blackened chitinous hide, which looked like it had been cobbled together by putting together chop shop parts of random kaijuu. Three pairs of wings that seemed both feathery and insectile sprouted from its armored carapace of a back. Two thickly armored pairs of legs jutted from its side, and even more heavily armored, enormously clawed forelegs grasped on either side of its head. At less three set of horns and two pairs of tusks surrounded a mouth with teeth like swords and big enough to swallow a bus whole. On the top of its head, in the middle of a wildly writhing black ruff, rose a prominent spike from which stood, like a ship's figurehead, the nude, dead-black and red-veined form of a woman, silvery hair streaming from the top of her wing-eared head, her crimson eyes as flat and lifeless as a shark's. In the waters around it, tentacles and serpentine coils writhed angrily. It roared, tentacles and coils rising and charging with energy. Beams of energy lashed towards the group, who still haven't managed to disperse completely.

Asuna roared, charging forward and throwing herself into the paths of the beams. "Anti-magic, FULL OPEN!" she cried, invisible ripples erupting around her in all directions. The beams, and the manta she'd jumped from simply ceased to be, entering her zone on total magic cancellation.

That bought everyone the time they needed.

NOW! cried Yuuno. Bind it! "Struggle Bind!"

"Chain Bind!"

"Restriction, Steel Yoke!"

"Aer Capturae!"

"Venus Love Me Chain!"

Chains of gold and magic joined tendrils of air as they lashed out, entangling the coils and tentacles, outright severing some as the Defense Program tried to move. Green and orange chains spun and simple web in the air, latching on to limbs and anchoring themselves into glowing skyborne sigils as Asuna fell into the water, spluttering, Setsuna diving down to retrieve her.

"Its barriers are multi-layered!" Sailor Mercury called out from the Vimana, fingers dancing over her computer. "Picking up 6 layers… no, 9… no, 14… it keeps adding more!"

"Add all it wants!" Gilgamesh roared, a strangely-shaped device in his hands. He raised it over his head. "No power can withstand my treasures. Noble Phantasm! GATE OF BABYLON!"

A delicate crimson tracery shot into the air, growing upward and outward like an inverted mountain, growing in complexity into a wall of delicate lines, seeming almost like circuitry. It dissolved, and suddenly the sky filled with glowing light as behind Gilgamesh a seemingly endless wall of glowing circles came to life, and from each disc extruded a single perfect, beautiful weapon. "Be ended by the Treasury of Uruk, the Legacy of a Kingdom that spanned the stars!"

Prototype Noble Phantasms began to fall, a radiant, glowing rain of light.

Everyone stopped, staring at the glory of it all. Even Saber, her soul tinted by the Grail's darkness, found it in her to gasp in awe and wonder. Facing Gilgamesh as she had in the last War, and the chaos of their recent battles with each other, she had never had time to appreciate how beautiful it was. It seemed an endless waterfall of gold simply appearing from out of the night, a rushing river that only hinted of the endless flood behind it.

"Whoa…" Shiro breathed, his eyes seeing only a tiny fraction of every sword, yet knowing he looked upon weapons that rivaled Excalibur in glory and power.

The very air around the Defense Program shattered a thousand times over as its barriers stood against the punishing rain of destruction. It was a battle of overwhelming force and immovable object, and the object wasn't as immovable as it seemed. Multi-colored barriers in many forms– domes, plains, interlocking hexagons– shattered like glass. Layer after layer broke before the seemingly endless onslaught.

"It can't be this easy," Illya said, hanging upside down from the manta Kuro was on.

"Silent Wall…"

The invisible shield sprang into place as the last barrier fell, stopping the golden stream like a dam.

"I'm really coming to loathe that spell," Yuuno said, one eyebrow twitching.

"You're just pissed you don't have a shield that tough," Arf said dryly, then yelped as the Defense Program seemed to spasm, the movement jerking their binding chains. It convulsed its entire body, shearing off the binds on it with pure mass.

"Trace… On…"

Kuro began to swear as the air behind the invisible barrier still holding off Gilgamesh' stubborn attack began to ripple. From out of the air congealed swords, hundreds of swords, each, to Kuro's exacting eye, almost as good as the ones Gilgamesh was throwing. The shield dropped as the swords flashed forward, slamming to Gilgamesh's attack and causing mutual annihilation, it took three seconds for even an untrained eye to see that Gilgamesh was going to be overwhelmed by sheer output. Gilgamesh roared, summoning shields from his treasury, trying to change tactics as Eternal Sailor Moon cried out and clung to Tuxedo Kamen, but even his own shields were destroyed by multiple hits, slowing the inevitable.

He was serving as an admirable distraction, however.

"Fire!" Chrono commanded.

"Create Construct!" Green Lantern cried as glowing shapes of green light came into being around her. "Emerald Danmaku!"

The hundreds of spheres of green plasma descended like rain, slamming into token barriers and detonating explosively. The air was filled with a roar.

"Show off…" Vita said sourly as she sent Schwalbe Fliegen.

"Thunder Blade!" Fate cried, sending her on glowing electric swords.

"Sapphire!" Miyu called, beginning to swing her wand. "Full penetration abilities! Maximum point concentration! Maximum power!" She swung. "Armor Piercing Shot!"

"Jovis Tempestas Fulguriens!" Negi and Yue cast simultaneously.

"Approach from beyond, mistletoe branches, and become spears of the silver moon! Pierce it!" Hayate cast. "Stone Spears, MISTELTEIN!"

A wave of magical energy slammed into the Defense Program's flank from them and others, tearing apart its form and causing it to roar, turning its attention towards them, though the barrage towards Gilgamesh didn't relent. The King of Heroes was down on one knee, clearly strained by the effort of maintaining his attack.

The counter-attack was swift and nearly killed them all.

The defense program screamed.

It wasn't a bestial cry of fury, but rather a high, keening cry, a note of pain drawn out and sustained. It slammed into them and seemed to tear at their very minds as they let out their own cries. A few wobbled from where they were standing, in very real danger of falling to their deaths as a sonic boom suddenly rang through the air. Gilgamesh's attack faltered as he was forced to clamp his hands over his ears, even as Sailor Uranus, blood trickling from her ears, threw herself at the control throne and barely got the Vimana out of the way of the oncoming swords that suddenly had nothing to stop them.

Nanoha tried to cover her ears with her hands, an exercise made awkward by the fact she was still holding Raging Heart, when suddenly there was only dead silence and a phantom ringing in her ears.

"Incapacitation-type sustained aural attack countermeasure protocols initiated," her ring announced. "White noise generation commenced. Alert! Massive counter attack imminent!"

"Auto Guard," Raging heart announced helpfully as a circular shield appeared in front of Nanoha as the sound dropped to bearable levels, fluctuating strangely but no longer debilitating.

She didn't have time to recover from the ringing in her brain, or try to make sense of Amy's frantic cries through the open communications link. She forced her mind to coherence, to take in the situation and respond even as the Defense Program redirected its rain of swords at the now incapacitated targets, all still reeling and clutching at their ears in pain. "Ring! Auto track and respond! Anti-weapons fire, charged plasma projectiles, FIRE!"

Gun constructs like Artoo-Deetoo with machine guns stuck in front surrounded her and began blazing away, shooting down the copied Noble Phantasms with absolute ruthlessness as Nanoha honed her mind and willed the protection of the people around her, willed her constructs to shoot fast enough, move quickly enough, and track each projectile moving towards someone perfectly and shoot it down. Her constructs might break under sustained magic, but they didn't have to last long. Just long enough to get the copied weapons to detonate and explode.

Suddenly large circular shields snapped into being, protecting clusters of the people around them. Nanoha picked out Yuuno, face twisted and still pained but wearing a pair of glowing green construct earmuffs. His brow was knit in concentration, and she realized the barriers were magic, not constructs. Not for the first time, she felt envious of her partner. Ah, to be like him. Her skills with magic mostly lay in shooting and hurting people. She wished she were like Yuuno, able to use her magic to heal and protect so many so seemingly effortlessly.

She hardened her grip on Raging Heart, and felt uncannily aware of her ring, burning around her finger, her constructs, sending shaped will in all directions. Ah, well. She'd just have to protect everyone another way.

Her anti-missile fire and Yuuno's shields gave others the time to recover a little, to try to fight through it. The cry was too debilitating to be mere sound. It was some kind of magical attack...even though it sounded like a crybaby bawling her lungs out. The green-haired Ala Alba girl was already moving, thrusters jets erupting from her back and legs as she dived to recover a few who'd fallen from their mounts, leaving a glowing contrail behind her as she flew downwards.

"Silent Card!"

The sudden cry that cut through the scream followed a total, unnatural silence. Nanoha turned to see Sakura— the younger— wings on her back and clutching her wand with a glowing circle beneath her feet, a woman standing in midair next to her. The woman held her finger to her lips in a hushing gesture. Nanoha raised an arm to wave her thanks… when suddenly proximity alerts exploded across her visor, all of which amounted to "LOOK OUT!".

Nanoha dodged frantically, even as a dark energy flashed through the space where she'd been. She spun in the air, snapping up pink and green shield that shattered on impact but bought her time to get out of the way.

With the sonic attack nullified, others were rallying, finding their balance on the mantas and facing the new threat. Nanoha let out a soundless cry as she sent Divine Busters at the tentacles shooting the energy, tracking data appearing over her visor as data flew between Ring-chan and Raging Heart. She saw others reacting with deadly swiftness. Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune fought together on the Vimana's deck, one covering the other. Erebus floated in midair, moving with literally-lightning quick reflexes, too fast to be hit. Saber, Black Archer and Lancer held their ground, swatting away the blasts as best as they could with their weapons, though the way their sleeves smoked showed that they weren't coming out of this completely unscathed as Kaleido Sapphire protected her other teammates as best as she could. The sky flashed, soundless lightnings snapping forth, and soundless balls of light—

We've lost the initiative, Reinforce said, voice level and calm even as she helped Hayate direct a storm-like swarm of blazing white Divine Busters around her. We need to redirect fire back at the Defense Program.

Everyone, brace yourselves! Nanoha warned. Sakura-san, whatever you did, you need to undo it! We need to hear it coming—!

Just like that, sound rushed back as if someone had flicked a switch, and some people flinched, surprised at the sudden loudness. The Defense Program was still screaming shrilly—

"Voice Card!"

— and then fell mercifully silent.

"Sorry!" Nanoha heard Sakura call. "Should have thought of that earlier!"

"Useful girl," Chrono mused, them swore.

Below them, the Defense Program was spreading enormous wings, the edges extended by glowing magic. Slowly, it began to lift from the water, trailing innumerable tentacles…

"GRAVITAS!"

Nanoha felt her stomach lurch as gravity abruptly went away, leaving a momentary sense of nausea, one that doubled as gravity came back. The Defense Program suddenly pitched to the side as if horrendously unbalanced, one side slamming back into the water. There was a wheeze as Assassin fell to his knees on his ride, clearly spent, and Rin swayed slightly at the sudden loss of prana.

"Durandal," Chrono said, raising his new device. "Let's do this."

"Okay, Boss," Durandal said in a deep, vaguely mafia-ish voice.

"Permafrost, construct a frozen coffin and deliver eternal sleep unto this beast," Chrono incanted solemnly as a circle appeared beneath him, snow suddenly coming together out of the air as the temperature began to plummet like a rock. "Freeze! ETERNAL COFFIN!"

The water around the Defense Program exploded outward in ice as the temperature dropped well below freezing. Frost crept up its body, covering its limbs. The tips of some extremities shattered as cold overcame them, others shattering as the program tried to continue moving.

"The Program is down!" Sailor Mercury reported. "Fire at will!"

They obliged.

"EXCELION BUSTER!" Nanoha shot, her attack cry becoming lost in the sudden deafening explosion of light and sound as people stopped holding back. Copied and Prototype Noble Phantasms fell like rain as Kuro, Shiro, Gilgamesh and Hayate opened fire, everyone's hair standing on end as Sailor Jupiter, Fate, and Magus Erebus let loose with everything they had, the air becoming ionized. Signum, her sword and sheath now a bow, sent fiery arrow after fiery arrow. Illya threw the missile she'd grabbed from the platform like a spear, its form already warped into something resembling a demonic javelin, exploding with a strangely thermonuclear blaze on impact as Yuuno's shields blocked the Program's attempts to retaliate. Pieces of the defense program shattered, exploded, plunging into the sea. The black sludge over the water, partly frozen, partly liquid, erupted in flames, seeming to scream like the damned.

Damn it! Amy's voice cried, panicked. The progression's rate has altered again! You need to send that up here immediately! The progress has accelerated, it's about to go berserk any minute!

"Yuuno! Arf! Shamal-san! Zafira-san!" Nanoha called out, sending shot after shot of antimatter plasma from her constructs at the Defense Program, breaking off physical aspects and exposing more and more of a sickly purple light. "Prepare the teleport!"

The body of the defense program shattered, and from its ruined torso came a dark mass of pulsating flesh, a chaotic, unspeakable, blasphemous, unholy, Lovecraftian, Meyeresque monstrosity of eyes, fangs, nostrils, horns and what looked vaguely like a glans until the slit parted to reveal rows of shark-like teeth. Tohsaka Sakura shivered, barely suppressing a mewl as tentacles erupted, prompting various cries of distress as instinctive Magical Girl reactions came up. Surrounded in fire and ice, the Defense Program, still muted by what Sakura had done, fuzzed, became an indistinct cloud of darkness as onlookers hearts began to pound in unnatural fear even as it seemed to fade away.

"NO!" Illya roared, dropping down almost to sea level, nearly invisible herself in the gloom. "No, darn it! I won't let you! GREEN LANTERN! LIGHT!"

Nanoha snapped up her ring, bathing the area Defense Program in harsh, pure green light. It appeared in stark relief, no longer fading but still unnaturally vague in its outline. The attackers, tired but still determined, poured it on, but it was obvious they were weakening. Shiro was holding Saber back, keeping her from using her sword again, and Negi was down to weaker spells, most of his students already exhausted. Kuro had collapsed, exhausted as a reluctant Miyu flew to her to renew her prana. Only Hayate, Gilgamesh and the Senshi's attacks hadn't slackened, but they were spread thin, and even Gilgamesh was swaying, nearing his limits as well.

"No! We're running out of time!" Amy cried. "Dimensional distortions are rising. It will break the barrier soon! Leakages are already causing tremors on the outside!"

"It won't stop regenerating!" Chrono snapped back as Sakura stared, horror-struck. "Freezing it isn't enough!"

Shadows writhed in Green Lantern's light as the Defense Programmed continued to rebuild itself even as it prepared to destroy itself and everyone around it once more. It began tracing patterns in the ice and water, creating a gigantic circle, its inside sketched with runes.

"It's using Negica Magia Erebea!" Hayatecalled out as Negi stared in horror at the sight of his own creation beginning to absorb his spells. "Switch to mass attacks! Someone disrupt the circle!"

Suddenly there was a roar, and from out of the dark the long, shark-slick form of a missile flew, slamming into the Defense Program's hide and detonating with blinding brilliance. Syaoran, panting, spun from where he was floating on a manta close to Sakura, staring towards land. "Daidouji!"

"Ah, I hope I'm not interrupting," the innocent voice could be heard over loud speaker as the slight sounds of Meilin, Alisa and Suzuka scrunched up in the cockpit echoed softly, more missiles and other similarly modern weapons of mass destruction flying by as she spoke, all detonating with eye-searing light. "But it seemed like you needed a little help. I'm SO sorry about the tactical atomic missile that got loose earlier, I really MUST check my weapon's system when I get home."

Syaoran rolled his eyes at the blatant lie. "Oh, please…" he muttered.

The Defense Program heaved as it threw itself to the side, tentacles and assorted limbs extruding from its pulsating flesh as it tried to move away.

Bind it! Bind it! Green Lantern-chan, keep it in place! Amy was calling

"I'm trying!"Nanoha called even as she, Yuuno, Arf, Zafira, Shamal, Sailor Venus and Hayate did what they could, but it had learned. Limbs and points on the beast that they managed to anchor down broke of, allowing it to keep moving, preventing them from concentrating their attacks on any one place, much less the core.

"I CALL THE BONE IN YOUR SWORD!" Black Archer's voice cried out. She stood proudly on her manta, while next to her Kaleido Sapphire sat with her eyes closed, clearly exhausted, cheeks flushed. "Soft is my body, calling the fire in your blood! I have created over a thousand lolicons!"

"Does she realize the words that are coming out of her mouth?" Chrono said, too thrown to be aghast.

"Everyone on this planet is crazy," Vita asserted.

Kuro leapt, letting gravity bring her to the defense program, not ceasing in her… questionable… aria. "Unknown to thermodynamics, regardless of physics, I SCREW REALITY WITH MY FREUDIAN BLADES!"

"Yuuno-kun, what does—?"

"Ask your mother, Green Lantern-chan," Yuuno said tiredly.

"For my flesh burns with unfulfilled desire! And thus I sublimate… UNLIMITED BLADE WORKS!"

Flame burst into being beneath her just before she hit the ground, the world changing around them all into a field of blades, a sky filled with gears and thousands of rifts glowing in rainbow hues, in glowing light of dusk— or was it dawn?— as flower petals floated but never fell. A cry and a gesture from Kuro, and every sword on the ground ripped themselves free, rising into the air. Another cry and gesture, and suddenly the swords fell like rain on the monstrosity, even as more materialized above to take their place.

In the heat of the moment, Gilgamesh missed the fact many of the weapons were copies of his treasures.

The swords, spears and knives— really, it was all a matter of size— plain, Noble Phantasm or Prototype, tore the Defense Program apart in a rain of light, ripping chunks out of its mass. It tried to retaliate, but copies of Ensis Exorcizans kept neutralizing the blasts as Kuro's knees shook.

"Need… more… Mana!" Kuro choked out. "Can't… use Unlimited…"

Abruptly, she fell to the ground, the battlefield disappearing, and Kuro fell into the freezing cold water.

"Black Archer!" Illya cried. "Someone catch her!"

Green lines snapped into the water, and a giant hook literally fished a coughing, shivering Kuro out. "I've got her Ruby-chan!" Green Lantern called.

"S-so c-cold…" Kuro shivered as jets of lava began to erupt from the water. "I m-might need to r-rethink this outfit…"

"It's still regenerating!" Chrono cried, sending spells ineffectually at it. "Scrya, send it up to the Asura!"

"It's still too big!" Yuuno shot back as he sent chains saws to literally tear the program up, but it regrew faster than he could cut it.

"Hit it with everything we've got! More Dakka!" Vita cried as a cartridge detonated. "Roaring Smash! Gigant Crusher!"

She slammed the giant hammer down on the mass, which pushed it down beneath the water and splattering the bay with muck.

Sakura stared in horror, hearing the words that had haunted her nightmares as the water erupted in more lava and waves as tremors began to tear the city apart.

"I'm out of ordinance!" Tomoyo reported as her helicopter began to back away from the scene as the last of her rockets ran out. "I knew I should have put in more of the nukes!"

Sakura's blood ran cold.

"No!" Illya cried. "We're so close! My Berserker will have JUSTICE!" A beat "BLACK ARCHER! STOP MOLESTING SAPPHIRE-CHAN!"

Black Archer came up for air, half-supporting a swooning Kaleido Sapphire as she materialized her black bow and an arrow. "This is for Archer nii-sama, bitch!"

"Berserk reaction imminent!" Amy cried. "You need to get it up here quick!"

"Amy… Captain…" Nanoha said quietly. "If… if we don't make it… we'll need you to shoot the Arc-En-Ciel into the planet. Better we save some than lose everyone."

"… understood, Nanoha-chan…" Lindy said quietly.

"…" Nanoha said. "That was the unspoken plan all along, wasn't it?"

"Kinda…"

Nanoha sighed as dimensional distortions caused vibrations that she could feel even all the way from the air. "Raging Heart, prepare Starlight Breaker!"

"Warning: estimated charge time might complete only after berserk reaction occurs."

"Then we'd better start now, don't we!" Nanoha cried.

"Yes, my master."

"… we need more time…" Sailor Pluto said, lowering her hands as the Senshi on the Vimana desperately tried to do as much destruction as they could as Tuxedo Kamen finally got Gilgamesh to stop before he exhausted his power and ceased to exist, the prince holding one hand to the Servant's forehead to try and transfer some of his power. "We need more time!"

"Pluto…?" Eternal Sailor Moon said, pausing in going through her extremely long-charging energy blasts that for once weren't as instantly decisive as she was used to.

"Princess…" Sailor Pluto said, trying to convey sorrow and thanks.

Eternal Sailor Moon paled, realizing what she planned to do. "NO! Don't you dare!"

Sailor Pluto smiled sadly. "As you all say, we need more time…"

"NO!" Eternal Sailor Moon snapped. "I'm ordering you, NO!"

"Good bye…"

"Stop her!" Eternal Sailor Moon screamed, leaping at Sailor Pluto and grabbing her shoulder.

"Time… Sto–"

"TIME CARD!"

The world turned yellow.

Eternal Sailor Moon blinked. "Pluto?"

"It… wasn't me…" Sailor Pluto said. "Someone beat me to it."

In the bright yellow world, someone waved.

"Um, it looks like time was stopped by… Fetishistic Mask Girl?" Eternal Sailor Moon said. "Are we still calling her that?"

For some reason, Sakura felt like drooping.

"Um… What happened?" Hayate said, blinking and looking around in surprise at the monochrome yellow world.

Time seems to have stopped, Mistress, Reinforce said, doing the device equivalent of rifling furiously through her spellbook to find out what the heck is going on. We are apparently immune due to… an interaction with the Lee Syaoran data and the Sailor Pluto data? The second is obvious, but I have no idea why the first part is relevant.

"We can ask later," Tohsaka Sakura said from behind them, hovering shakily on small black Flier Fins.

Hayate blinked, looking behind her. "How… ?"

Sakura patted her a little patronizingly on the head. "We can talk about that later too. Right now, we need to use what little time we've stolen. I don't think she can hold it for long." She pointed at the smaller, younger Sakura, who was obviously struggling to maintain her time-stop. "You go move Green Lantern-chan into time, let her finish charging her Starlight Breaker, I'll try to get someone equally lethal."

Hayate frowned, but nodded. "Get Black Reaper-san. If Reinforce-chan is remembering right, she has quick casting times." Sakura nodded, turning until she saw the girl, and they rushed off.

"What do we do?" Eternal Sailor Moon called out.

Sakura pointed down. "Start charging."

Both Senshi looked down a moment and nodded.

"I might actually manage a killing blow," Sailor Pluto said. "I… don't think that's ever happened before."

"Wanna see if we can make up a combined attack somehow?" Eternal Sailor Moon asked.

"Really?" Sailor Pluto said, the eagerness in her voice almost childish.

As the two tried to figure out if they could pull it off, Hayate flew to Green Lantern, who looked very weird washed out in yellow. Hesitantly, she grabbed Green Lantern's shoulder. Immediately, color flooded back to Nanoha, including the bright pink ball of magic she was gathering.

Green Lantern started "Hayate-chan?"

"Nanoha-chan…" Hayate said, smiling. "We've got a reprieve." Quickly, she summarized. "Do you think you can finish charging your Starlight Breaker in stopped time?"

"Raging Heart?" Nanoha asked.

"All things are possible, my master," the Device said, sounding slightly cheery.

"We'll make it happen," Nanoha said. "Even if I have to collect the magic myself!"

Hayate nodded. "Stay in contact with me, or else you'll fall back into normal stopped time." She blinked and thought a moment. "That's such a weird sentence."

Nanoha smiled. "Welcome to my life. I hope you stay a while. Gather, light of the stars…"

Spinning her staff, a thing she didn't have the manual dexterity to do mere hours ago, never mind the skill, Hayate smiled. "Well, it has everyone I love in it, so I guess I'll have to hang around and see what happens. Resound, Horn of Judgment…"

Across the battlefield, Tohsaka Sakura grabbed her own target. Fate started. "What's going on?" she asked, confused.

Sakura smiled. "Black Reaper-san. I heard you can do things with lightning?" Sakura gave her the quick details.

"Hurry!" Kinomoto Sakura's voice carried over the still air. "I can't hold it much longer!"

"Release it!" Nanoha cried.

Sakura let out a grunt and relaxed. The Time Stop collapsed. Sounds and colors besides yellow rushed back into the world.

"STARLIGHT… BREAKER… EX!" Nanoha cried, her suddenly enormous ball of light coming as a shock.

"RAGNAROK!" Hayate cried out, her own spell blasting forward, one hand still on Nanoha's shoulder.

"PLASMA ZANBER!" Fate cried, swinging her blade as Tohsaka Sakura drifted away from her.

"Dead… Scream…" Sailor Pluto invoked.

"Silver Moon Crystal Eternal Power!" Eternal Sailor Moon cried, trying to aim one-handed while holding on to Sailor Pluto.

The five streams of power slammed into the Defense Program, overwhelming it, tearing it apart. It tried to scream, but Sakura's card was still firmly in effect, stifling its voice even as it tore apart, dark fragments seeming to rip themselves from the main body as it was engulfed in a Technicolor explosion. From the center of the mass began to glow a sickly purple light.

Core exposed! Reinforced cried.

"Yuuno, teleport it NOW!" Nanoha cried.

"Coordinating!" Shamal said, locking onto the core.

"Extreme Long Distance Forced Transfer!" Arf cried.

"Target locked! Sending!" Yuuno said,

Below, a large circle inlaid with runes surrounded the core and as many of the fragments around it as possible, and there was a flicker as they were consumed by the forced teleportation effect.

Hayate sighed. "There it goes. It's out of our hands now, right Nanoha-chan… Nanoha-chan?" She blinked, looking around rapidly as she realized she was alone except for Reinforce in her head as a fading green contrail pointed straight up into the sky.

"Darn!" Eternal Sailor Moon cried. "Our attack didn't combine!"

...

"Core transfer in progress!" Amy announced on the Asura's bridge. "It's regenerating in transit!"

"Well, at least it's nice enough to make itself a big and unmissable target," Lindy commented, as she hefted her activation key. "Initiate barrel expansion!"

"Arc-En-Ciel barrel expansion, commencing!" Amy said, her fingers tapping on her terminal with a speed that made one wonder if Fate was as fast as she was cracked up to be.

"Firing Lock System, open!" Lindy commanded. "Confirm firing lock and ship position! Let's not make Green Lantern-chan have to fill out a planetary extinction report."

There was nervous laughter on the bridge as Lindy inserted her activation key into the firing system.

"It's going to be close…" Amy announced. "The program is already going berserk!"

Lindy's grip tightened on her key. "Then we hit it as soon as it gets out."

"Egress in three… two.."

"Arc-En-Ciel, FIRE!" Lindy announced, turning her key.

"One!"

The Defense Program emerged into real space a fraction of a second before the wave front of the Asura's main cannon slammed into it straight on.

And then there was light.

...

Everyone on the bridge of the Asura waited with baited breath.

"Target destroyed!" Amy cried, practically cheering. "All objects in the firing zone completely vaporized! No reincarnation reactions detected!"

Cheers broke out across the bridge, some people finally remembering to let out the breath they'd been holding.

"We did it, everyone!" Amy sent down to the surface. "We did it!" Over the open line, they could hear the cheering starting.

"Congratulations, Admiral Lindy!" Nanoha's voice came over the communications system. "That blast… that was amazing!"

"Ah, did you manage to see it all the way down there, Green Lantern-chan?" Amy said, sounding smug.

There was a knock on the window. Amy blinked, them ever so slowly turned around. On the other side of the transparent panel, Green Lantern waved excitedly, giving them the thumbs up.

Amy, Lindy and the rest of the bridge crew slowly waved back. "You know, I've forgotten she could just fly up here," Lindy said, slightly exasperated.

"Naturally it slipped all our minds, what with all that 'throwing it into the sun' business," Amy said, slightly out of it. No one ever expects to see anyone outside the window in this place, after all.

"I'm going to check out the firing zone, scan for debris," Nanoha said. "In case there are microscopic particles your equipment didn't pick up."

"Of course, Green Lantern-chan," Lindy said. "We'd be grateful for the confirmation."

As Nanoha flew away, leaving a glowing green trail behind her, Amy sighed. "There's goes one scary little girl."

Lindy crossed her arms. "That's not the scary part," Lindy said, somehow managing to sound both tranquil and tense. "The scary part is, going by what she said, she was up here to see the Arc-En-Ciel fire."

"So?"" Amy asked.

"Amy, Green Lantern-chan, the creator of the Million Her Starlight Breaker Rain, just saw what our main gun looks like," Lindy said. "How long before she makes up her own version?"

There was dead silence on the bridge.

"Oh, crap," Amy said succinctly.

For a while, horrified silence filled the bridge as they considered the thought of Green Lantern with her own Arc-En-Ciel, or reasonable knock-off thereof(though knowing her, it would probably come in burst-fire, full automatic, and Gatling gun multi-barrel hi-speed firing versions).

"Really glad she's on our side," one of the other members of the bridge crew said.

A beat.

Amy frowned as she became aware of what she was hearing on her earpiece. "Captain, it's the kids on the ground. Apparently… Yagami-san has fallen unconscious."

"Prep the medical bay!" Lindy cried, suddenly all business and tense. "Tell them to be ready for anything! Coordinate with those on the ground, get that little girl up here now! It's the least we can do…"

...

Somewhere in Uminari, a dark, very cool and stealthy-looking helicopter landed along the walkway surrounding the bay. The canopy opened, to the satisfied sigh of a job well done by the pilot, and a lot of bitching, some in Japanese, some in Mandarin, from two of the three girls crammed into the rear seat. "TES-TA-ROS-SA FA-ATE!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!" Alisa cried dramatically, shaking an ineffectual fist at the sky as she struggled to get out of the confining seat. "I have a bone to pick with you!" She tried to stomp out of the rear cockpit. And realized the hard way helicopters weren't made for stompy exits unless you knew what you were doing when she tripped and fell flat on her face on the ground. "Ow…"

Tomoyo smiled, leaned back, and filed the name away for future reference…

...

Hayate, it turned out, snored like a chainsaw badly in need of oil, cleaning, several new parts, and possibly removal from the hunk of steel it had been lodged into.

"She's just exhausted," Maga Alba said, summarizing the diagnosis of the Asura's chief medical officer, Shamal, Yuuno, Sailor Mercury, Sailor Saturn and Valkyrie Black. "It's way past her bedtime, after all, and this is the first time she's used magic so extensively. I'm surprised the poor dear hadn't fallen asleep sooner."

"I'm surprised she isn't waking herself up," Chrono said from where he has standing next to Hayate's bed. The room was filled with Wolkenritter crowded around one side of the bed, the various people in each group that new anything about healing and medicine, Green Lantern and the Enforcer. "Seriously, is something wrong with her nose? She can wake the dead!"

Vita glared at the criticism of her lady and mistress, but said nothing. Possibly she was realizing it wasn't wise to piss off one of the people who could influence her trial, but more likely because she didn't want to be noisy and wake up Hayate.

"In fact…" Yuuno said, waving around a combination of his ring and some diagnostic spells, "for a girl with paralyzed legs and semi-paralyzed internal organs, she's in pretty good shape. I'm already seeing a reversal in the status of her vital organs– those pains she's been having shouldn't be a problem for much longer– but her legs could take a while. They've got years' worth of damage to recover from, though on the bright side at least there's no sign of atrophy."

"Thank goodness…" Reinforce said from where she was standing at the foot of Hayate's bed. Nanoha, to her credit, was very good at not making it look like she was standing guard over prisoners. "Still… even with the Defense Program destroyed, it's only a matter of time before I regenerate a new program and begin to go out of control again."

Chrono tensed, a stream of nightmarish images already cascading before his eyes. And that wasn't even counting the inevitable paperwork that would result.

"Can't you repair it somehow?" Shamal asked.

"Impossible," Reinforce said. "Even though I can do so with my administrator rights now active, I have no idea how to affect repairs. The original undamaged data has been corrupted or lost."

Sailor Mercury frowned, and began to tap her lips thoughtfully…

"The only way to protect Hayate is to completely disconnect her from the Tome of the Night Sky," Reinforce said.

The other knights' shoulders slumped, ever so slightly, clearly resigned.

"Is that possible?" Green Lantern said, tilting her head curiously. "From Yuuno's briefing, I thought the Book and its Master were bonded for life?"

"We are," Reinforce said. "However, now that the regenerative Defense Program has been removed, it should be a much simpler matter to destroy the Tome of the Night Sky…"

Nanoha blinked, pausing a moment to consider those words…

The next thing Reinforce knew, her hands had been cuffed behind her back as several signs that read "Suicide Watch" glowed and blinked around her. "Over my dead body," Nanoha said cheerfully, her smile wide and sunny.

"Na– Green Lantern-san, it's the best way to ensure Hayate's safety," Reinforce said, her eyes sad. She made no move to struggle against her restraints. "Your entire world's safety. For her to live, to ensure the threat posed by the cursed 'Book of Darkness' never rises again, the Tome of the Night Sky must be destroyed."

For a moment, Nanoha was silent. She stepped forward, leaning towards Reinforce, voice level. "No. Too many people have died. Worlds have died. Chrono's father was taken from him. Hayate had to live alone most of her life."

"That's exactly why I must do this, Green Lantern-san," Reinforce said quietly. "Too many people have died because of–"

Nanoha cut her off before she could finish. "Too many people," she said, voice quiet, soft and gentle, yet completely immovable, "have died so that you may live. Archer-san, who I've only met once… Berserker-san, who died before my very eyes… they gave their cores to you, freely and of their own will, knowing they would die, yet gave them to you anyway, so that you could be completed. So that you and Hayate may live. Their deaths gave you life." Nanoha lay a hand over her own chest. "My core is a part of you, Reinforce-san. A part of me helped give you life. You are my responsibility." Nanoha's visor dissolved, and the gaze that met Reinforce's eyes were hard. "How dare you think to repay all those sacrifices with your death, Tome of the Night Sky? How dare you?-! Too many people have died to give you this life. I refuse to allow you to make all those deaths, all our pain, all of the knights' suffering, Hayate's loneliness, be in vain. For the sake of all those who've died, Tome of the Night Sky, you are going to live. You are going to live and bring the happiness and joy they weren't able to bring to the world. You are going to live and give their sacrifice meaning. You are going to live, and be happy with those you love, in memory of those who cannot be, to enjoy the life they gave you at the expense of their own. And if I ever hear any of this nonsense again…" At this, Nanoha's voice actually gained a touch of menace. "I'm telling Hayate-chan."

Reinforce couldn't help it. She gulped.

Nanoha examined her, as if weighing the soul looking back at her through those crimson eyes, and nodded in satisfaction. "Good! I'm glad we understand one another."

Behind her, there was a small round of applause as Chrono, Konoka, Sailor Mercury, Sailor Saturn, Yuuno, and the Asura's chief medical officer all clapped in approval. Konoka held up a small scorecard with 8.9 on it.

"Still…" Reinforce said quietly. "What do we do?"

Now Green Lantern smiled. It was a fond, indulgent smile, the kind a parent gives to a child that says something insightful but incomplete. "Now, we're going to do what you all should have done at the start of all this," Nanoha said, letting the handcuffs and signs fall away as she began to lead Reinforce out the door. "We're going to the cafeteria, where everyone is waiting, and we're going to tell them your problem… and they are going to set aside how angry they are at you and help you. Because they're good people… and they'll help you if you only ask and give them a chance to."

Sure enough, there was an uproar when Nanoha announced the dilemma and proposed solution in the cafeteria. The general reaction was along the lines of "Are you nuts? That's a stupid idea. Come on, sit over here so we can come up with a real answer".

They talked long into the night.

...

That morning, when Yagami Hayate woke up from strange dreams, she found herself not transformed into a monstrous vermin. She lay on her slightly sweaty back on a strange bed, in an unfamiliar room, and if she lifted her head a little she could see her Knight Armor and Vita's head. Normally, she'd be a lot more concerned, except Vita was curled up at her side, fast asleep and still wearing the clothes she'd worn yesterday. That meant all was right with the world.

She pushed herself upright slowly, mindful of the sleeping loli at her side. She could just make out Zafira curled up on the floor next to the bed, while Signum was more visibly passed out on the chair next to her. Of Shamal, there was no sign.

Hayate suddenly winced, bringing a hand up to her chest at a sudden pain. Strangely, it wasn't as sharp or as long as it had been recently. When it passed and Hayate was able to breath normally again, she lay back and contemplated, one hand idly stroking Vita's hair. Memories of yesterday came to her, and she had no doubt it wasn't a dream. After all, if she could accept she'd suddenly gained a family that came out from a magic book one day, then it was fair to say she wasn't the sort to knee-jerk deny everything just because it was weird. She narrowed her eyes almost shut, aware of new warmth within her, of a sensation of heat and oneness and fiery pain waiting to happen, of a tingling along her limbs and insides. Every breath felt she was taking in more than just air.

Mana, a part of her said. Magic. She could feel it coursing through her, flowing through her Linker Core, her Magic Circuits, her soul. It was all so strange and confusing, and a part of her wanted to faint again, just as it had that night she had been blessed with a wonderful, beautiful gift of family. She felt tears welling up in her eyes, and she let them fall. Her family… her friends…

Suddenly, she very much wanted to see the newest member of her family. Where was her Reinforce?

There was a shift in the warmth within her, and suddenly a sense of awareness blossomed. Like there was a fire whose warmth she could feel but not see, vaguely indicating a direction to her. Well… that was convenient.

Now, how to get there…

She saw a distinct lack of her wheelchair in the room, and it didn't feel right to wake up Vita and Signum to have them carry her there. The poor dears looked so cute sleeping, and they probably needed it. Still, that left her with the dilemma of how to go without her wheelchair and without waking the two. Hayate frowned as she lay there, stroking her chin thoughtfully.

Abruptly, she slapped her forehead. "Oh, duh. I can fly now." Convenient thing, magic. She smiled to herself, satisfied at having solved her inconvenience with such a simple solution.

There was a beat.

"Now, how do I fly…?" she mused. She hadn't really been paying attention last night. Reinforce had done most of the work actually…

Carefully, she sat up, gently laying Vita on the bed. She rolled her shoulders, considering, trying to recall how she'd flown. There had been wings involved…

She took a deep breath, and thrust her arms out. "Go Wings!" she cast.

Nothing.

She frowned. Maybe the was too complicated. "Fly!" she tried again, resisting the urge to flap her arms.

More nothing.

Hayate's eyebrow twitched. "Wingardium Leviosa!"

Still nothing.

"Go Wings Go!" she tried one more time. This time she did flap her arms.

She remained stubbornly bed-bound.

Hayate slumped, then brightened as she recalled something. "Ooh, wait, maybe I'm doing this all wrong. Maybe I need to think happy thoughts…"

She closed her eyes and recalled the past year as she concentrated on lifting off the ground. She thought of every dinner with her family, every skinshippy shared bath, every night in front of the TV she'd fallen asleep knowing she'd be taken care of as she clenched her fists tightly, her face screwing up in effort.

"Hayate-chan?" a concerned Signum's voice said. "Are you constipated? Do you need to go to the bathroom?"

Hayate slumped, sighing. "No, I don't need to go, Signum-chan." Darn it, why was the universe so against her being cool? "Could you pick me up? I need to go somewhere…"

...

Reinforce, it turned out, was in the mess hall.

"What the heck happened here?" Vita asked, incredulous as Hayate and Signum just stared (and in the former's case, took the opportunity to snuggle against the latter's chest).

The floor, tables and chairs were littered with unconscious magical girls. A few were sitting properly, slumped over with their head in their hands, but most were just passed out in the floor. Eternal Sailor Moon had appropriated Tuxedo Kamen's top hat and cape as a pillow and blanket. Erebus was doing something similar, passed out on the floor curled up next to Leader Red, most of the girls who'd come with him— and Sailor Saturn— asleep around him. A few still had their fists in each other's faces, showing what they'd been doing before they fell asleep. Lancer was lying on top of a table cradling his spear, while Tohsaka Sakura had fallen asleep on Rider's lap, who had herself passed out against a wall. Fate was somehow sleeping curled against an equally unconscious Arf, a cute little snot bubble coming from her nose, in mirror image of Zafira and Shamal.

The only ones still conscious were Nanoha, Sailor Mercury, and a girl in a black seifuku with demon wings and a tail— cosplay features, not actual body parts, Hayate's keen eye saw— all crowded around a slightly nervous-looking Reinforce.

"Reinforce!" Hayate cried, causing the Unison Device to look up in relief.

"Hayate-sama!" Reinforce said, moving towards her as Hayate frowned. "Are you all ehh?"

Hayate had pinched her nose. "Reinforce-chan…" she said chidingly. "You said you had all the other knights' memories… do I have to repeat that talk I gave them about calling me 'Hayate-chan'?"

Reinforce blinked in surprise, eyes darting towards Signum and Vita. They shook their heads, not even bothering with telepathy. "Ah, sorry, Hayate…-chan."

Hayate nodded in satisfaction, letting her go. "So, what are you doing here?"

"Ah, we were just going over Reinforce-san's options to prevent the Defense Program from ever becoming a problem again," Nanoha said.

"That's nice, Rein-chan, how do I fly?" Hayate said.

Blink. "Huh?"

"Me. Fly. So I don't need to be carried around," Hayate explained.

Nanoha brightened beneath her visor. "Ooh, yeah! Flying is awesome! Should definitely be the first thing you learn!"

"I know, right?" Hayate said. "Plus, it'll help me get around this 'legs paralyzed' thing. So, come on Rein-chan! Wingardium Leviosa me!"

Reinforce coughed, glancing at Nanoha. "I don't think that would be advisable, Hayate-s… er, -chan. We are prisoners under arrest, after all."

"It was all safe, sane and consensual!" Hayate said loudly. "They never touched me without my approval! It was all my idea! Vita-chan is older than she looks and totally legal! There was no coercing on their part at all!"

Nanoha blinked. "What are you talking about?"

Vita, Signum and Reinforce all facepalmed. Signum, who was carrying Hayate, had to borrow Vita's spare hand to do it, but that was the sort of synchronization the Wolkenritter had. "Hayate-chan… we were arrested for the Linker Core thing, not anything else," Signum said.

"Oh." Hayate paused. "Forget I said anything then."

"Huh?" Nanoha said.

"Ask your mother," Raging Heart and Ring-chan chorused.

"Oh, not you two too!" Nanoha whined.

Someone threw a red heeled shoe at her, which helpfully bounced off her ring aura. "Keep it down!" an annoyed Sailor Mars said sleepily, before turning over, one bare foot nudging one of the mess hall's chairs.

The door to the mess hall opened again, and Lindy strolled in, whistling cheerfully and looking tired but satisfied. The whistling died off as she saw the mass of unconscious bodies. "Well… at least they still have their clothes on…" she said. "Green Lantern-chan, could I ask you to wake them up please? I wouldn't want to begrudge anyone their sleep, but they'll be serving breakfast soon, and we'll at least need the floor clear."

"Of course captain," Nanoha said. A frying pan appeared in one hand, what looked like a wooden spoon in the other. "Up and at 'em!" Nanoha said with disgusting cheerfulness as she began banging one against the other, making a loud and obnoxious metallic ringing. "Breakfast time!"

No less than twenty shoes slammed into her ring aura. "Keep it down, we're trying to sleep!" a host of voices cried.

Kinomoto Sakura, sleeping curled up next to Lee Syaoran, jerked awake. "Uh, need to make breakfast…" she said sleepily, standing up with her eyes still closed and walking a few steps before stopping, one hand flailing at empty air as if looking for a doorknob.

Everyone conscious sweatdropped. "I can't believe these people managed to kick my ass," Reinforce said. "I was mind controlled and not really trying, but still…"

Nanoha let the frying pan and spoon disappear. She pulled out a megaphone. "Everyone, please wake up!" No response. "A giant monster is attacking an orphanage full of puppies and kittens!"

"Let Superman handle it," Black Archer grumbled, sniffing Miyu's hair.

Calculator walked over and plucked the megaphone from Nanoha's hands. "Erebus-sensei, why are you naked?" she said, voice flat and near-monotone.

Nearly everyone with a womb sat bolt upright. "Where?-! Where?-!" Sailor Venus cried.

"Oh good, you're awake," Calculator said. "Get off the floor before you get trampled by the breakfast crowd."

"That was a mean and dirty trick!" Luvia cried.

Saber, one of those who hadn't bolted upright, did so now. "What was that about breakfast?" she asked coldly.

"Get offa me, you pervert!"

And with that, Illya was awake.

...

Breakfast, of course, turned into a party.

"'We Saved The World! Again!'," Amy read off the banner Haruna had made. "Again? Really?"

"Saved it just this month," Illya said.

"Did it half a year ago," Sakura volunteered. "Kinda. Sort of. Definitely did but it's… complicated."

"Been doing it once or twice a year for the last five years," Sailor Jupiter said.

"Summer vacation," Asuna said. "Did it for another planet, but it counts."

"Do planets other than Earth count?" Nanoha asked.

"It should," Asuna said, "they're just as hard!"

The girls all nodded, exchanging looks of accomplishment.

"I'd bring how I helped too, but…" Tuxedo Kamen said, trailing off into mumbling.

"It's still kinda a work in progress…" Negi said, trailing off into mumbling.

"I still haven't finished all the paperwork for that solar flare… and that ion storm… and those quakes… and that computer glitch that set that planet's computer clocks back by a thousand years…" Yuuno said, trailing off into mumbling.

"I could have done it, but it was kinda rigged… stupid cheating ancestor…" Syaoran said, trailing off into mumbling.

"I'm not sure we saved the whole world… we saved the city, but…" Shiro said, trailing off into mumbling.

"Green Lantern mumble mumble… " Chrono said, trailing off into mumbling.

The boys all exchanged looks of commiseration.

Gilgamesh and Saber, for once, weren't getting on each other's nerves, instead staring down at the molded tray filled with healthy, nutritious TSAB mess hall food. "What…" Gilgamesh began, looking at the healthy, nutritious TSAB mess hall food on his tray.

"… is this supposed to be?" Saber finished, looking like she wanted desperately to Excalibur the healthy, nutritious TSAB mess hall food. Their expressions were a paired study in kingly disdain.

Tuxedo Kamen opened his mouth to chide him, paused, took Gilgamesh's spoon, and had an experimental bite of the healthy, nutritious TSAB mess hall food. He chewed and manfully swallowed. "Please don't blow up anyone for this atrocity," he said instead. He paused to consider. "Feed this to them instead."

Gilgamesh pushed his tray away, looking disgusted. Saber, halfway through her tray, grabbed it and added to her own healthy, nutritious TSAB mess hall food. "Disgusting slop. This swill is beneath me," she said, golden eyes gleaming as she took another spoonful. The two men stared at her.

She raised an eyebrow at them. "What? I didn't say I wouldn't it eat. Odious muck." She stuffed an overflowing spoon into her mouth.

Gilgamesh's eyebrows twitched. There was something very devaluating about watching such a treasure-worthy woman eating healthy, nutritious TSAB mess hall food. "Is there something actually edible aboard this floating space can?"

Eternal Sailor Moon walked past, stuffing her face with chocolate cake. "Hey guys, you've got to try this cake! Fetishistic Mask Girl made it with one of those cards of her!"

Elsewhere in the room, Sakura felt the urge to droop.

Someone started to tap a cup with a spoon. The ringing sound wasn't very loud, but enough people got into it to make the sound rise above the hubbub. "Speech!" Haruna cried. "Speech!"

Hayate, sharing a cake with Shamal, looked up. "Me?" she said, while next to her Sailor Mercury and Calculator were trying to analyze the physical Tome of the Night Sky.

"Yeah, speech!" Haruna called out. "Come on, we can't wrap up a world-threatening crisis without hearing an evil speech from the villainous mastermind!"

"Hey!" Vita cried indignantly, shooting to her feet.

Sailor Uranus, Sailor Neptune, Saber, Rider, Assassin, Lancer and AngelGARd reacted similarly, hands dropping to weapons.

"No fighting, no— oh, why do I even bother," Shiro said, throwing up his hands in resignation.

"Ooh, can I?" Hayate said. "I've never been a villainous mastermind before!"

Shamal, Zafira, Signum and Reinforce sweatdropped.

"Should I stand on something, or… ooh, can I float up?" Hayate asked, looking eager at the thought.

"Ooh, here, let me help," Nanoha said, building a small stage. In deference to Hayate, there was both a wheelchair and a wheelchair accessible ramp.

"Speech, speech, speech…" Haruna began to lead the chant as Hayate slowly ascended up the stage. "Speech, speech, speech, YAY!" came the cheer as Hayate reached the top and bowed.

"Um, hello everyone…" Hayate began nervously. "I'm Yagami Hayate, the villainous mastermind. I'm sorry I don't look like it, but my Showa-era cybernetic arm and eye are being cleaned, and I left my cape in the hospital." There was a round of good natured laughter. Heartened, Hayate continued. "I'd like to apologize for all the trouble my kids have caused… They weren't supposed to do any of that. I promise to make sure they never do it again! I… I don't know what's going to happen to us from this point on, but I throw myself and my beloved family at your mercy and goodwill. Please take care of us! "

Rin frowned and sighed. "She just had to remind us they're her beloved family, didn't she."

From where Sailor Mercury and Calculator were still examining it, the Tome of the Night Sky clicked again, a soft glow emanating as a small Belkan triangle appeared in front of it. "Time lock, expired. Authorization phrases, confirmed. Releasing contents of Capture Space 01."

And from out of the triangle popped a crisp white envelope. Nanoha turned it over and blinked at the clear script adorning one side with an address. The address read, In the Presence of the United Magical Girl Association, The Asura Mess Hall, Defense Program Victory Party, High Earth Orbit.

Reinforce blinked, frowning and rubbing her head. "How… I didn't know that was in there…"

Negi looked at it and grunted disapprovingly. "Harry Potter has a LOT to answer for. This is NOT how you should address an envelope!"

Everyone stared at it.

"Well?" Haruna demanded. "Someone open it!"

There was a brief scramble.

Everyone gathered around the envelope as Green Lantern cautiously opened it and unfolded the letter inside.

"Well?" Sailor Venus asked. "It doesn't say 'Today I prepared Explosive Runes', does it?"

Sailor Mercury gave her a look.

"What? I miss that gag."

"No, it doesn't say that, Sailor Venus-san," Green Lantern said. "All it has is a salutation to 'The United Magical Girl Association' and a few marks that kinda look like those buttons they use on MP3 controls.

Asuna craned her head. "Hey, I've seen these things before. It's a magic letter! Basically, it's a letter you can record like a video. You just have to press the play button."

Nanoha looked at it, shrugged and pressed the little right-pointing arrow.

The air flickered above the letter, and a voice said, "Today I prepared Explosive Runes!"

Kuro's eyebrow twitched. "I'm getting a feeling about this letter…" she said.

A timestamp flickered. It was from ten years ago. Beneath that was a location: Fuyuki City.

"The feeling is getting stronger," Kuro said.

Saber frowned. "This was made during the 4th Holy Grail War."

"Why would you think it important to mention that?" Sailor Mars wondered.

The flickering hologram resolved itself into a dark room, obviously a cheap motel room. "- that the right button?" a voice asked, and the image blurred, shuddering from side to side. "How can you tell if this thing is working again? Testing, testing, one, two, three…"

Nanoha, Fate and Hayate blinked. "Hey, isn't that…?" Nanoha said.

"That's Rein-chan's voice!" Hayate exclaimed.

As if on cue, an enormous red eye appeared in the display. It blinked. "Um, I think it's on, Hayate-chan."

"Well, point it this way, Rein-chan," another voice said, one that had Gilgamesh twitching. The image blurred, before focusing on a beautiful woman with short brown hair, large breasts, and… two Books of Darkness? She waved enthusiastically. "Hello everyone! If you're watching this, then Archer, Berserker, Chao Lingshen, Small Lady and I have all set up and done our parts correctly and everything has gone according to plan! And if it hasn't, who are you, what are you doing with my Tome, and I swear, if you hurt my knights, I will find a way out of the Throne of Heroes to kick your ass!"

Rin twitched. "Oh, crap. It's that 'plan' again!"

The voice obviously operating the camera said, "Um, Hayate, please…?"

The woman coughed. "Oh, right. Um, I guess I should properly introduce myself. Hello everyone in the year 20XX. I'm– wait, I'm doing this all wrong." She stood up, and her image shimmered, momentarily too bright to see. When it resolved, the woman stood there in an exact copy of Hayate's Knight Armor. She threw out her hands to either side, and grandly proclaimed, "All of you, sheath your blades! Let rest your magic, and lay down your power rings! You are in the presence of a Queen! I am Yagami Hayate, Queen of the Night Sky, Destroyer of Worlds, Retired Colonel of the Time Space Administration Bureau Ground Forces, Hero of Justice, the Regina Daemonia of the Wolkenritter, Senior Knight Mage of the Court of the Crystal Imperium and the White Knight Auxiliary, and proud member of the United Magical Girl Association and Justice League Unlimited! I am of the Caster class in this, the 4th Holy Grail War. Fate has brought us together to defend the Earth! Yield to me and join the army of Justice, and I will treat you all as my friends, and we shall share in the joy of Green Lantern-chan's delicious chocolate cakes together! Nok!"

Somewhere, Al-Iskander the Great sneezed. And the sneeze was the AWESOME sneeze of a KING, ENVY OF ALL MEN!

Everyone sweatdropped. You could tell even the person manning the camera was sweatdropping.

"Sugoi!" Hayate gushed, stars in her eyes. "I want to do something like that one day!"

Kuro was sighing. "Oh, I know where this is going…"

"And you'd be completely correct, Kuro-chan!" the older Hayate said. "Yes, this is a video will just like the one Sh— er, Archer-kun had sent to you the day of his death."

"This letter going to know what we're going to say, isn't it?" Rin said.

"Yup!" the older Hayate chirped, Gainaxing. A pause. "Vita, my eyes are up here."

The red knight jerked up her gaze, blushing fiercely. "I wasn't staring!"

Older-Hayate sighed happily. "Ah, that look on Vita's face when she was being dirty. I've missed that."

There was a sound kinda like a printer, and someone handed Older-Hayate a sheet of paper from behind the camera. "I have Vita-chan's exact reaction to you telling her to stop staring at your breasts, mistress."

Older-Hayate took the sheet, looked at it, and giggled. "Ah, so cute…" she said, turning the sheet over, showing Vita's exact expression. There was even a little speech balloon that read, "I wasn't staring!"

There was an off-screen cough. "Hayate-chan, perhaps you should get back on topic before the Defense Program regenerates and dooms our audience?" Reinforce said diffidently.

"Oh, right," letter!Hayate said. "Anyway, as I was saying, if the United Magical Girl Association— and the boys— are watching this, then it means either you got REALLY lucky, or everything went according to plan. I'm afraid I cannot in good conscience reveal the full details of the plan just yet, mainly because some identities need to be obfuscated until you realize who they are. Regardless, it's very complicated. I, for my part, had to make sure the Lady Einzbern isn't killed in this war… Rein-chan, you sure Kotomine hasn't tried to kill her yet?"

"Positive, Hayate-chan,"letter!Reinforce replied. "Our Blade-Wing Worms are keeping an eye on them."

"Awfully useful, Zouken's thaumaturgical data," Hayate mused. "Anyway, aside from making sure some little girl grows up to have a mother, I still need to rescue our favorite rival, traumatize Gilgamesh with Starlight Breaker, and minimize the resulting fire." A pause. "Rein, are you sure we can't try to rescue Tracer's parents?"

Shiro stiffened, suddenly very intent.

"Our search for them has proven fruitless, Hayate-chan," Reinforce said. "Besides, history—"

"Fuck history," Hayate replied. She sighed, looking tearfully at her audience, and Shiro in particular. "Tracer-kun… I want you to know, I tried. I tried to change your fate, tried to save your family. But I just couldn't find them! But I tried, Tracer-kun, I really did. I guess… I guess you were just born to be a Hero of Justice… I'm sorry... "

Everyone turned to stare at Tracer, who'd bowed his head. Finally, he looked up and turned towards the young Hayate, who was looking stunned. "It's all right," he said. "It's all right…"

On-screen, Hayate nodded sadly. "I know you'd say that… but I had to try. And you'll try too, won't you, little me?"

Hayate started, then nodded. "Y-yes…" she said hesitantly.

"Good!" letter!Hayate said, nodding. She looked more serious now. "Now, I believe there are a few matters still unanswered. In an hour or so, I'm going to go and seal as much of the corruption of the Grail into this." She held out one of the Books she was holding. "For the sake of differentiation, let's refer to this as the Book Of Darkness. Afterwards, I shall evilly send it to you, my younger self, thus setting up the events of the last month or so and beginning what is most likely a stable time loop. I've got Sailor Pluto powers, so I'd know. Then I'm going to send my Tome of the Night Sky to my esteemed rival-to-be, to prepare her for what's to come, while I bind myself to the Holy Grail to wait until the Fifth War."

"And while I wait, life will happen," she said. "You will all grow up from little children— heck some of you won't have been born yet!— into the heroes you are today. There will be tragedies I could avert, but don't, because I need to stay here. Tragedies you yourselves will one day tell me to allow to happen. I realize you only have my word for this, and right now, as you're watching this, you don't really have that much good will towards me, but things… well, things change, as they do." She paused. "Anyway, I'm sure you're wondering how my knights found you. It wasn't hard. They cheated. Chao Lingshen told them exactly where to go."

"THAT TIME-TRAVELING BITCH!" Asuna cried.

Letter!Hayate waggled an admonishing finger. "Ah-ah… language, Twilight-chan. After all, you never figured out which girl Lingshen-chan was descended from. That could be your granddaughter you're talking about! Shame on you."

Asuna paled at the thought. "Hah! Like I'd ever get together with the brat!" she said defiantly. She frowned. "Why is she laughing? Why is she laughing?"

"That's pretty ominous," Yue said as Nodoka paled, Asuna's classmates staring at her.

Once the laughter died down, letter!Hayate continued. "A-anyway, she was also the one who generously set up those battle gynoids as a convenient distraction in Mahora. She and Small Lady have been behind the scenes all this time, moving things into place to get to this point. The hero you all know as Archer will help too, while he's there. I can't believe his cockamamie 'partial amnesia' story is actually going to work. Seriously, I still can't get over how he becomes that smart…"

Kuro hid her smile.

"Anyway..." letter!Hayate said, "that's as much as I can safely tell you now. I only have one really important thing to say." She pointed dramatically at Reinforce. "Younger Rein-chan… you can trust Calculator-sama and Sailor Mercury-chan's idea. They are not going to try and reprogram you into a weapon. And our esteemed rival can be very helpful for… advise." She smiled sadly. "I'm afraid that's as much as I can tell you. Potential paradox and stuff, you know."

She paused again, and stood. "I'm sorry I can't tell you more, but we all agreed to keep information restricted. And even if I wanted to tell you, it's been so long… I can't be certain I'm remembering things right. Even though it's happened before, some events I've only heard of second hand. I did get a letter from this hot chick from the future, but it wasn't very helpful. I can't really be sure of what's going to happen to us from this point on, but I'm trusting myself and my beloved family to you. Please take care of us!" She bowed.

The image faded away, and the paper caught fire.

Everyone slowly turned to look at Hayate.

She stared at the burning paper, then looked up as it finished turning completely to ash. "Is there still any cake left?

...

"Ah!" Nanoha said, stretching her arms over her head as she, Fate, Yuuno and Arf walked through the falling snow in the midmorning light. "All's well that ends well."

"I hope Sailor Mercury-san and Calculator-sama are successful in their plan to debug Reinforce-san," Yuuno said, looking up at the sky thoughtfully.

"Jewel Red's imouto seemed pretty confident they could pull it off," Fate said. "Chrono-kun said he'd try to arrange for the Wolkenriiter to be employed in the TSAB as a kind of community service instead of jail time." She sounded wistful.

Nanoha snorted. "Right… let a bunch of powerful convicted criminals loose in your already badly-supervised organization. No way that could go wrong."

"Eh? I thought you liked them, Nanoha-chan?" Arf asked.

"I do! I just think it is, in principle, a stupid idea," Nanoha said. "They probably going to be treated like some kind of expendable suicide squad too,…"

"No! Lindy-san wouldn't stand for it!" Fate protested.

"She can't be everywhere…" Nanoha countered.

"I'm not sure pessimist is a good look on you, Nanoha," Yuuno said dryly. "Still, you're right, it can't be a totally happy ending. "

"Chrono-kun told me most Lost Logia cases end tragically," Fate said wistfully. "A chain of sad events in the shadow of a great and terrible power."

Nanoha frowned. "Not if I have anything to say about it."

"If we have anything to say about it," Yuuno corrected. "I'm wearing a ring too, remember? Heck you gave it to me, back when this whole mess began."

Nanoha sighed. "Was it only this month? It feels like it's been years." She glanced sideways at him. "You still need to go to Oa for proper training, you know. We're lucky they let you put it off this long."

"After what you put me through, it can't be that hard," Yuuno said dryly. "Then we're off, protecting planets, people, and stopping bad stuff from happening!"

Nanoha laughed. "Yeah!" she agreed, and they tapped rings.

Fate's eyebrow twitched. Not jealous, not jealous… "I wanna join you too…" she said. "I might not have a ring, but I have experience. And anyway, I can't just let my friends go off alone."

"We can't just let our friends go off alone," Arf corrected.

Fate smiled and knelt to pat the little puppy's head. "Besides," she said. "I want to stop those things from happening too. I don't want what happened to my mother and Alicia-neechan to happen to anyone else." She looked up. "I know it was her I talked to, Nanoha-chan. The real her. Alicia."

"Stranger things have happened,' Nanoha said, not disagreeing.

For a moment, they lapsed into comfortable silence.

"So, I'm thinking of getting a new device, since my last one heartlessly abandoned me for this girl we met one night…"

"I said I was sorry!"

"Get over it sir."

"We still owe Alisa and Suzuka an explanation."

"Actually, I can think of a few people who deserve it more…

Together, the four friends walked on, leaving their tracks to fade in the snow.

...

"Those girls have a lot of explaining to do," Alisa grumbled as she savagely buttered her toast.

"So you've been saying since last night, Alisa-chan," Suzuka said as they had breakfast on the morning of their impromptu sleepover.

"Magical Girls explain in their own time," Tomoyo said tranquilly, giving a mysterious, saintly smile.

"So pass the jam!" Meilin said cheerfully. "I get to pilot the helicopter on the way back, right?"

Alisa sighed. "I need to make saner friends…"

...

Doctor Ishida was, to put it mildly, pissed when they finally got Hayate back to the hospital.

As Signum and Shamal were quite vehemently chewed out, Hayate and Vita packed up a few belongings and prepared for a slightly longer excursion. Nanoha had invited them to a Christmas party at her house, but had asked them to be a little late. Apparently she and her parents had something to discuss…

The door opened as Vita finished helping Hayate back into her wheelchair— she would learn to fly, darn it!— and the pretty, pink-haired nurse stepped into the room. "Leaving already I see," she said, smiling as Hayate put the small bag of belongings on her lap.

Hayate shook her head. "Only a little while. My treatments not done, but Ishida-sensei's said it was all right to go meet some friends… after she's given us a piece of her mind. What are you doing here, Tsukino-san?"

The nurse smiled. "Actually, I came to say goodbye. I'm leaving to go back home, you see."

"Oh," Hayate said. "Back to your family?"

"Yes," she said. "But I'm sure we'll meet again, Yagami-san."

A smile. "Call me Hayate-chan."

The smile was returned. "Good bye, Hayate-chan. Until we meet again." She turned to leave.

"Wait!" Hayate called. "What do I call you, Tsukino-san?"

The nurse paused, already half out the door, and looked over her shoulder. The smile on her face was mysterious. "My friends called me Chibi-Usa. Most people these days call me Small Lady, though."

Hayate and Vita blinked.

The nurse's smile widened. "Chao Lingshen sends her regards," she said, slipping out the door as Vita pounced, grabbing the closing knob and wrenching the door open.

The hallways outside was devoid of pink-haired nurses.

...

Nanoha opened the door that afternoon to find Suzuka and Alisa waiting. "Thank you for coming," she said. "I think I owe you an explanation."

"About time," Alisa grumbled. Nanoha seemed to shrink slightly at this, but Alisa smiled to show there weren't any hard feelings. Not much, anyway.

"Let's go to the living room," Nanoha said. "Lindy-san, Fate-chan, and Yuuno-kun are already there."

Suzuka blinked. "Yuuno-kun?"

"You'll see," Nanoha said. "Shall we?"

Indeed, Lindy was there, kneeling in a blue outfit that looked strangely like a military uniform, though from no country either girl could recognize. Kneeling next to her, Fate smiled at them with some trepidation. As they got settled in, Nanoha kept glancing towards the door and out the windows.

"Are we still waiting for someone?" Momoko said.

"He probably got held up," Nanoha said, now sounding strangely nervous. "But I suppose we can start without him."

Lindy nodded, and began to explain. Everyone listened in shocked fascination as Lindy recounted the story of the Jewel Seeds, about how Nanoha had assisted them in the gathering. Yuuno had demonstrated his nature by changing into a boy, a stunt that had made Alisa at first pale, then turn crimson in either mortification or rage.

"You were with us at the hot springs!" she cried, barely held back by Nanoha and Fate. Even Miyuki had narrowed her eyes, and she was clutching the lamp next to her like she wanted to use it for something.

"I told Nanoha bringing me to the women's baths was a bad idea!" Yuuno protested his innocence, using an amused Lindy as a human shield. "She wouldn't listen!"

"You hadn't told me you were a boy yet," Nanoha said.

"I thought you already knew!"

"What kind of girl would insist on bringing a boy to the women's baths if she knew he was a boy?" Alisa demanded.

"It's Nanoha!" Yuuno protested. "She kept going on and on about wanting her friends to have fun together!"

"Hey!" Nanoha cried, not sure but somehow sensing this was a jibe at her in some way.

"He has a point," Suzuka said, causing Alisa to simmer down to mere grumbling.

"Suzuka-chan!" Nanoha pouted, making Fate giggle.

They had all settled down as Lindy continued her story. There were shocked expressions as she related the search for the Book of Darkness, and the battles that had followed. People kept turning to stare at Nanoha and Fate, and even Yuuno at times. Nanoha's parents looked absolutely flabbergasted.

"How could we not notice this?" Kyouya said.

Miyuki, who also looked perturbed, said, "Well, it could be that Nanoha's obliviousness is hereditary."

Everyone blinked at her. "Come again?" Nanoha said.

"You how Nanoha sometimes doesn't notice things when she's concentrating on something," Miyuki said. "Like how she didn't notice me taking some of the wrapping paper when she was wrapping presents a few days ago."

Nanoha frowned. "So I did start with more wrapping paper!"

"Oh!" Suzuka said. "You mean like how Kyouya-san sometimes doesn't notice I'm in the room when he starts making out with Shinobu-neesan?"

Kyouya stared at Suzuka in horror. "When have I ever done that?"

"The last time was yesterday, when you were going to take Onee-chan on a date," Suzuka said. "I was reading in the parlor when you came in, and when Shinobu-nee came in you sort of pounced on her and ended up on the couch. I passed within three feet of you leaving the room and you didn't say a thing."

"You were in the room?-!" Kyouya exclaimed.

"Or when Mom and Dad…" Miyuki coughed delicately. "In the kitchen… sometimes…"

Momoko turned to stare at her daughter. Miyuki blushed and turned away, muttering about how she didn't see anything. Kyouya and Nanoha blinked the blink of the blissfully innocent.

"I don't miss things like that!" Nanoha declared , then looked worried. "Do I?"

Yuuno patted her on the shoulder, making the male Takamachis eye him suspiciously. He ignored it with all the nerve of someone who'd dealt with Neo-Ingvalt extremist groups trying to steal Lost Logia from his dig sites at the age of seven armed with nothing but an illegal chemical-powered, rotary cartridge feed, mass-based weapon and a whip. "You don't miss the important stuff," Yuuno said, then paused to make sure he had his shield up. "Though you sometimes forget I'm still in the room when you change your clothes."

"HOOEEEEEEEE!-!-!" Nanoha cried, borrowing Sakura's exclamation.

"What?" Kyouya said flatly.

"I leave right away," Yuuno said. "She sometimes forgets to close the door too."

"Actually, that's true," Miyuki said.

Fate stared at Yuuno, a strange expression on her face. "You… Nanoha… seen…"

"Of course not!" Yuuno said. "I'm a gentleman! And I'm perfectly aware of the fact people in this house will kill me if anything like that happens!"

"Huh?" Nanoha said, not really catching that last.

"Nothing Nanoha-chan," Yuuno said. Male eyes narrowed some more.

LIndy sighed. "Anyway, Nanoha-chan has been a big help to the TSAB," she said. "She's an excellent mage, and quite talented. I'm sure that in a few years–"

"Lindy-san, we've talked about this," Nanoha said, in the tones of someone who, indeed, has had this conversation before. "I'm not joining the TSAB. I'm quite happy with my work here already."

Lindy sighed. "A real pity. In a couple of years, you'd have been a great Ace."

"I'm fine being what I am," Nanoha said.

There was a knock on the door, a hard, firm knock that nevertheless managed to be polite.

Nanoha was up like a shot. "He's here!" she cried, hurrying to the door. Everyone exchanged confused looks as they heard the door open, and there were muffled words. There was the sound of footwear being removed, and the swish of fabric.

The person who walked in behind Nanoha, wearing slightly glowing green slippers had jaws dropping to the ground.

"S… S…" Alisa tried to say.

"S-su…" Kyouya himself tried.

"Superman-sama?-!" Miyuki finally accomplished. It came out as a squeak.

The Man of Steel smiled. "I'm sorry for being late," he said, with only the faintest trace of an accent. "There was a giant turtle blocking shipping lanes in Hong Kong. I hope I haven't inconvenienced anyone." He glanced at Nanoha. "I heard you had an interesting night yesterday."

Nanoha shrugged. "Nothing we couldn't handle."

Everyone just stared. Nanoha coughed slightly to get their attention. "Um, there's something else I need to tell everyone too," Nanoha said. She held up her left hand. A glowing green ring encircled her middle finger. "Um, you know how I'm never around when Green Lantern-chan shows up…?"

As Nanoha began a new round of explanations, Fate saw a flash of green and a glimpse of movement. She glanced sideways briefly, and her eyes widened.

At the window, a smiling blonde child, a green hood over her head, waggled her fingers at Fate in a wave. She winked one eye, blew her a kiss, and disappeared as if she were never there.

Fate suddenly felt very, very warm. She smiled, and turned back to what Nanoha was saying…

...

- Never The End...

...

A/N: I'M IN DESPAIR! MY RESEARCH FAIL HAS LEFT ME IN DESPAIR!

Apparently, Caliburn DOES have mentioned attack properties, mostly granting immortality and releasing a 'light' that burns away everything it touches. I suppose the barrier-piercing I mentioned can be a concentrated form of that, though, so no harm…

Hey, remember that crybaby scream attack of Sailor Moon's from the very first episode? No? Well, I did!

Thanks for reading! See you in the epilogue and the next series! Fill in the TvTropes page, dattebayo!

Please review, C&C welcome.

Until next time, this is Shadow, signing off.