Endless Waltz

By: Daishi Prime

-08 – Before the Storm-

"This is a bad idea, sister," Rhys muttered in Latin. She would not admit it, certainly not to Aria-sensei, but it was clearer Latin than they had managed just a few weeks ago.

"Yes, it is," Saeryn agreed, managing to be just a little short, despite being very tired of this conversation, "but the other options are worse."

"We could be patient. Yagami-sensei has yet to make a decision."

"She will not, one way or the other, until we prove our determination." Saeryn paused in her work to give her sister a questioning look. "Was this not your idea in the first place, sister?"

Rhys grumbled wordlessly, and slumped into her chair. "I just do not like pushing like this. It is dangerous, sister."'

Saeryn turned back to her PDA, "Everything here is dangerous, you know that. You heard Journeywoman Sandoval, what Mother said, Father's warnings, just as I did. If we are in danger anyway, we may as well use that to our advantage. Mother will understand the risks we take, see the proof of Father's choice. What is a little danger compared to that?"

Rhys grimaced, but held her peace, allowing Saeryn to return to wending her way through the school's network. She had only the vaguest ideas as to what she was doing, or what she was looking for, but she thought she had enough. Several nights of research on various data-retrieval and search methods had given the two of them several methodologies, and she could practically feel the rightness of it now.

Her concentration was broken again when Rhys asked, "What about Laura? Do you think..."

Saeryn tried to keep working, but figuring out her sister's trailed-off question was diverting. "I think she is being honest with us," she answered after a second. "She will help, if we receive permission. She will also turn us in if she catches us."

"I meant..."

"I know," Saeryn interrupted, "but I do not know how I feel about her intrusions. Given that, how can I tell you how you feel about them? She is annoying, pushy, overly certain, and impolite. Yet she is also right, and we could learn a great deal from her."

"She's so loud, and violent," Rhys complained.

That made Saeryn smile slightly, "I am the one who should be complaining of that, sister."

"I have never hit anyone," Rhys replied primly, "I am not violent."

"But you are more so than I," Saeryn countered, drawing another mumbled grumble from Rhys. "You are right, though, she is loud and violent – uncouth, as mother would say. Typically American. Yet look at what she can do, Rhys."

"Hime-sama would be better to apprentice with," Rhys argued.

"True again, but you remember her response, yes?"

They had initially tried to enlist Noriko's aid in escaping Laura's clutches, or at least to see if she would be an additional 'mentor', only for her to amusedly decline to do either. "Laura's the best of us for the two of you," the princess had told them with a smile, "she'll set you right. Eventually."

Needless to say, they had not been pleased by that response, not least because, at the time, Laura had still been pushing them to help her with her first prank on Mercedes. Rhys had suggested asking Laura about her device in exchange for their help, and that had proven disastrous, though Saeryn was willing to admit, just between the two of them, that their approach to the offer might have been the problem, rather than the request itself.

Rhys grimaced at the shared memory of Noriko's 'reassurance', "Must she keep using us for her pranks, though?"

Saeryn shrugged fatalistically, "It is either help her or become her target. Better to avoid her wrath and learn what we can from her. I wonder, though, if perhaps we should not approach Signum-sensei for martial arts lessons. Perhaps with her teaching us, we can avoid the Al Khan boy's games."

"Yussef is not that bad."

"Yussef thinks too much of himself," Saeryn replied tartly. "He thinks only of battle and weapons, of turning us into more blind soldiers to follow his will."

"He's trying to teach us how to protect ourselves, sister," Rhys countered, "of course that focuses on battle and coordination. Look at how well we did that first day."

"You mean how well he let us do," Saeryn countered. "You know he had almost all the second-years in that maze. They had more than enough capacity to eliminate us as soon as they found us, yet they toyed with us for several minutes. Because he decided to make a point." She practically spat the last sentence, feeling the same insulted anger she had felt when she realized what Yussef had done. Saeryn refused to be used, hated to be toyed with, and had made that abundantly clear to any number of tutors over the years. The fact that Yussef had utterly ignored her efforts to make that clear to him only made her dislike him more.

"Still better than Laura," Rhys muttered. "At least he isn't going to get us grounded again."

"But Laura can be manipulated," Saeryn said, then sighed and gave up on tracking down the much-referenced 'device design manual' she had been looking for. She turned her chair to face Rhys sitting in front of her own desk. "We have been over this, sister. Laura is loud and violent, obnoxious and arrogant, but she is our best route for accomplishing our goal. The teachers will hold us back, the other students will watch us too closely, be too wary of us. Why are you still upset about this? I thought you agreed with me."

"I do," Rhys grimaced, shoving out of her chair to stalk over to the bunk-bed Hayate had installed specifically for them, "It's just, she makes me nervous. I keep getting this feeling whenever she's around, like the world's about to fall on us, and it's her fault. Nothing is ever on balance when she is around. She makes me nervous."

Saeryn understood that sentiment perfectly well, since Laura made her nervous as well. "She makes everyone nervous," she said after a moment, "all of us are uncomfortable around her."

"Have you ever felt that way about me?"

For a second, Saeryn could only stare at her sister in shock, never having expected such a question. "W... what?"

Rhys spun about suddenly, almost glaring at her sister, "Do I ever make you nervous like that? You always say I take too many risks, that I'm too energetic and hyper, like we were just saying about Laura. Do I make you that nervous? Afraid?"

Saeryn had to struggle to find something to say, then rose slowly to her feet and matched Rhys's glare with one of her own. "You are nothing like Laura," she stated, jabbing a finger in Rhys' chest, "nothing at all. Have you made me nervous? Yes! Do you have any idea how easy it is to get injured playing baseball? Playing any sport? Yet you always go flitting about the field like it's a picnic, careening off everyone and everything in sight! But not like Laura. You're my twin, Rhys. I'm not afraid of you, just afraid for you. Who else am I going to talk to if something happens to you? No one here knows enough about anything worthwhile." Rhys looked surprised through most of the lecture, but when Saeryn wound down, pulled her into a hug. Saeryn returned the gesture a little uncomfortably, before asking, "again, though, what brought this on?"

Rhys shook her head, replying with a muffled, "nothing."

"Something," Saeryn countered. "You've never thought I was afraid of you before. How could you think that? You're my twin! It's insulting."

"I'm sorry," Rhys muttered, "it just... occurred to me. You're always complaining about how physical I am, just like we were complaining about Laura, and I know you don't like it here any more than I do."

Saeryn would have replied, but a faint tingle of familiar magic on her nerves distracted her. "Father is calling," she said, just as the phone rang.

Rhys practically threw her aside, lunging for the phone, switching without a thought to English as she shouted, "I've got it!"

Saeryn stumbled before catching herself, smiling a little at her sister's antics. While competing with anyone else was a waste of time, Rhys was competitive enough to turn anything into a race with her sister, even something as simple as answering the phone, especially when it was their father calling. Letting Rhys have her victory, Saeryn settled for being the first to think of the 'speaker' button, just after Rhys' excited greeting.

Their father replied with a chuckle, "Hello to you, too, Rhys, and to you Saeryn."

"Hello, father," Saeryn greeted him, trying to let him hear how happy she was just to hear from him again.

Rhys pouted, "You're guessing."

"No I'm not," he countered, "you always answer the phone first, Rhys. How are my little holy terrors?"

"Dad!"

"We're fine, father," Saeryn told him, "though we do wish we could go home." She knew his answer before he replied, just like he knew they would ask.

"Not until the situation with your mother has been resolved," he reminded them, "not until it's safer here than there. But I didn't call to go over old ground. What have you two been getting up to?"

Rhys took off in a more exuberant version of her earlier complaints about Laura, and Saeryn let her go, turning part of her attention back to her work. Father will keep her busy for half an hour, she thought. Let's see how far we can get before it's my turn. They had agreed not to tell their father anything about their plans for devices, almost immediately after deciding to make the attempt in the first place. Which still left plenty of things to talk about. Rhys was insistent that enough 'subtle' comments on how rude and crazy everyone was would convince him to bring them home. Saeryn doubted that, but did enjoy hearing his opinions on things that troubled her. It was almost as good as actually being home to ask him.

00000

Laura trotted out of the dorm after her shower, reveling in the slightly rubbery feeling of her knees and elbows. Signum had left off monitoring her for a day and actually sparred with her again, so she had been on cloud nine for a while. Now she was on her way to get some homework done, and hopefully pester Noriko again about transitioning Paradox to use Velka runes.

She hit the Library doors, and was at the foot of the stairs when she realized everyone was trying not to be obvious as they stared at her and giggled. Movement drew her attention to Marcel, who was walking towards her from where he had been standing by Yussef, a smile on his face and a paper in his hands. She frowned at him, and demanded, "What's going on?"

He hesitated a moment, then put on a falsely-sympathetic face, "I'm sorry, Laura. I understand how you feel, but... it would never work between us. You're just not my type."

That confused the heck out of her, even as she snatched the paper he was holding out. Flipping it over, she found an obviously-doctored picture. It showed her own distinctively decorated PDA, but the image on the PDA's screen was one she had never seen before. A picture of Marcel, looking a little surprised as if he was not expecting the camera, was centered under a huge pink heart, surrounded by more pink hearts and a cloud of 'X's and 'O's. Superimposed over the image was a shot quote: 'Dear Diary, how can I get that uber-hottie Marcel-chan to return these feelings of mine that make me feel all warm and fuzzy? Laura.'

It was blindingly obvious where it came from, of course, and she could tell the rumors were going to be just as annoying as those from the last year about her and Yussef. Still, she was both happy and disappointed. Happy because, given the school's small and close student body, the prank was very well crafted and, against anyone else, would have been horribly effective. Disappointed, because it was too soon after Mercedes' first prank, and because it reflected a misunderstanding of the target. There was a world of difference, after all, between Yussef, and Yussef's flunky. So Laura put on her most pitiful pout, making her eyes wide and teary, clutched her hands together, and begged loud enough for the audience to hear, "but Marcel-chan, how can you say that if we don't even give our love a chance?"

He looked utterly horrified for a second, then huffed and chuckled, "Please don't shoot the messenger, Laura."

"You started it," she laughed back, "if you didn't want to play, you shouldn't have jumped in the game. I'm insulted, though, this is pure outright slander! I've never kept a diary!" Marcel just grinned a little and shook his head, not the laugh she was looking for, so she gave up getting him to play, and asked, "Did the Rich Witch do this, or is she outsourcing?"

"She took the picture of me," he said, "but I don't know if she did the manipulations herself or not. You know you're falling behind. She's two pranks up on you now."

"It's cool," Laura replied, folding the picture carefully to put it away, "she hit too quick, didn't take enough time to figure me out. I've got her pegged, though, and when I'm ready, this'll all be a couple of weak chuckles. Thanks for the picture!"

She made it to the top of the stairs before the urge for one last joke overcame her. She resumed her teary-eyed expression, leaned over the rail, and half-shouted, half-sobbed, "Marcel-chan! I won't give up until you admit you return my feelings!" Then she bolted for the back, smothering her laughter in her hands, ignoring Natalia's shouted order to 'be quiet'.

Once ensconced at her table, however, she contemplated the picture again. Despite what she told Marcel, it was rather vexing that Mercedes had scored again so quickly, especially since Laura's plans were only a day or so from execution. I could go tonight, she thought, contemplating that, but it felt wrong, rushed. No, too much chance the disassembler will destroy too much. It's gotta be precise, or it'll go too far, and I need another day to get it fine-tuned. No, go as planned, she finally decided, smirking at the thought of Mercedes' reaction. Let her have her moment in the sun, she'll be mortified once I'm done with her.

00000

"Thank you for this, Vita-sensei," Juliet said as she closed up the book she and her teacher had been referencing.

Vita shrugged, "Eh, it's nothing. Not like you're getting ambitious with your design. Like the name though... Glaive. Nice and intimidating."

Juliet smiled a little, nodding, "Yeah, well, I'm not as full of myself as the Trio."

Vita snorted, "No one's that full of themselves, not even those three. You good for now? I need to head up to the house to take the watch."

"Actually..." Juliet said, trailing off for a second, before asking, "could you train me? Like Signum-sensei does with Laura?" Vita stared at her for a second, visibly non-plussed, so she added, "I'm sorry to be so forward, I know it would be a huge favor, but... could you?"

Vita coughed a couple times, shaking her head, "Woo, that was a surprise. Why aren't you asking Signum? She's bigger on that sort of thing than I am."

Juliet shook her head, "Signum-sensei gave me some training last year, after Yussef's class started up, but it's not my style. It's too... over-controlled."

"Tche, that's Laura you're talking about."

Juliet chuckled, "Which confuses all of us no end, sensei. I can't figure out how she stands it."

"That makes two of us. But Signum's good. Look how well she's done with Laura."

Juliet shook her head again, "But what she's teaching Laura isn't my style. I've seen some of your fights, video footage and the like, and you fight like I do. Signum-sensei's all about the fancy maneuvers and showy techniques. You're brutal, direct, and practical, just like me. I need to be better at it, stronger."

"I think I should be taking that personally," Vita muttered, "but what's gotten you interested in this all of a sudden?"

Juliet grimaced, "I just don't like the idea of going in half-as... half-trained like I did last year. Yeah, I did fine, but that was with Yussef's boys watching my back, and they won't always be around, like this summer."

Vita matched her expression, "Yeah, I don't trust that bastard, either. Didn't when Hayate-sama first met him, like him even less these days. Manipulative punk. I thought you were getting over those nightmares, though? Shamal-baa-san said you're doing much better." Juliet coughed in surprise, almost doubling over as she gave her teacher an incredulous stare. Vita grinned and chuckled, "What? You thought we hadn't heard about what you kids call her? Please, we knew even before Cid-chan confessed. You should have seen the look on Shamal's face when Aria told us she'd overheard Noriko using it."

"We don't mean anything disrespectful by it! We aren't being mean, I swear!"

Vita chuckled again, waving her protestations aside, "Yeah, yeah, we know that. I'm tempted to dare Laura to say it to her face, though, 'cept Hayate-sama would yell at me for getting a student in trouble. But like she said, I thought you were over those nightmares."

Juliet would have preferred not to talk about that again, Shamal was pushy enough. But if Vita was not going to be distracted, there was no getting around it. "Yeah, I am mostly over them, but that's not the point. I need to learn how to fight without being pissed at the same time."

"Signum could teach you to control your temper better than I can," Vita commented. "You may not have noticed, but I'm not the calmest of people."

Juliet laughed at that, "Yeah, sensei, we've all noticed. But I don't need to control my temper. I need to learn how to use it, without getting used by it. Everything I saw in that damn dream was because I let my anger run wild, but I can't get rid of it. It's always there, so I'm going to have to put it to use. I figure, since you're already helping me with my device, you can help me with the rest of it, too."

Vita leaned back against the door, crossed her arms, and just stared at Juliet for a couple minutes. Juliet sat there and tried not to fidget, debating saying something more, but uncertain if that would help or hurt. Finally, Vita grumbled something under her breath before saying, "All right, I'll take you on. Could do with a challenge, anyhow. But I'm not Signum. I'm not going to teach you fancy moves and all. I'm going to show you how to fight and win, mostly by beating on you until you get the idea. Got me?"

"Understood, sensei," Juliet could not help smiling. Then something else occurred to her, "Do you think, maybe we could include Allison in those lessons? You're approach is more her style, as well."

"Oh, what, so now you're volunteering my time? Gee, thanks."

Juliet almost panicked at that, thinking she really had mad Vita mad. Only, there was a glint in the red-head's eye, so she relaxed a little, and shot back, "Well, I figured, since you've got all that time free, as your student, I should help you fill it, right?"

Vita smirked, "I've got all the 'help' I need in that area. I'll talk to Allison, see if she's interested. Anyone else you want to loan me out to?"

"No, sensei. Thank you for the help."

"Tche, don't thank me yet. You're not getting a thing until that device is done, and then you get to explain all the bruises to Shamal." Vita opened the door, "Tell Hayate in class tomorrow, I think you're ready to start building your device. She'll want to review the design, but you should be able to get started while she does that."

Juliet just nodded, and once the door was closed leaned back in her chair and scrubbed at her eyes. Man, I was scared she'd say no, she thought, relaxing a little. She had been afraid of saying something, anything, wrong to Vita, and having the volatile woman explode on her. Having things turn out so easily was a great relief, until something else occurred to her. Vita lived up in Hayate-sensei's house, and so did Shamal. Hayate and her Knights all ate together, and made no secret of the fact that they talked about their students pretty much continuously. "Great," Juliet muttered, "by sundown, Shamal-baa-san's going to be hearing how I'm not so over those nightmares. She'll be oh-so-sweetly asking for a moment of my time by breakfast, won't she?"

She could not be too mad about it, however. Despite the uncomfortable imposition, Shamal's counseling had helped her get over the remnants of Ndebele's little experiment. While nothing had ever approached the horror of his spell-induced vision, the resultant nightmares had been bad, and frequent, though they were far less intense and less frequent now. It was still embarrassing to talk about, though. "Maybe I can convince her I'm just taking precautions," Juliet pondered, packing her bag again, "downplay everything. It's not that bad, I just want to be sure, is all." Even to her, it sounded weak.

00000

"So you've settled in all right?"

Cidela smiled a little, relaxing back into the gentle pull of the brush through her hair, "Hai, okaa-san. The only problem has been convincing everyone that I'm fine."

Shamal chuckled a little at that, "Well, you can't blame them, musume. They're your friends, they are supposed to worry about you."

They were sitting in Cidela's dorm room early on a Saturday morning, Shamal slowly and carefully brushing out her hair. It had become something of a ritual over the summer as Cidela let hair grow, both of them gingerly feeling their way into a relationship neither had ever really experienced before. Cidela was uncertain why Shamal so enjoyed brushing out her hair, but for her part, the steady smooth pulling was soothing, a comforting bit of steady regularity which was especially welcome now. After a peaceful summer of nothing more intense than discussions of Circle politics, the return of her classmates and arrival of the new kids had increased the energy level and chaos quotient of the campus exponentially, and contrary to popular conception, said increases were not all Laura's fault. Mostly her fault, yes, but Cidela's classmates were all highly unique individuals, and becoming accustomed to them once again was proving tiring.

"I just wish they'd be a little more willing to believe me when I say I'm fine. Noriko is still trying to involve me in everything. I'd rather just sit back and watch."

"It helped you last year," Shamal reminded her. "You were such a scared little thing at first, but she got you to open up."

Cidela shrank a little, not liking being reminded of anything from before, "but I don't need it now. I'm comfortable enough with everyone, and talking to them all is distracting me from my reading."

"You're okay with the new students, as well?"

That made Cidela frown, and she could not help a little head shake. "Not so much, no. Oh, there's nothing wrong, but... they all seem scared of me, for some reason."

'I think they are scared of me,' Rafiq corrected, looking up from the book he was reading. He was curled around his stand, a pillar of wood with multiple dowels coming off it at angles, which Cidela and Zafira had built for him over the summer. It sat on her desk, giving him a place to lay when Cidela was studying, or when he had his own reading to pursue. He continued once he had their attention, 'The Spanish girl, in particular, seems uncomfortable with my presence. Her eyes are always on me when we are near, not on you, Mistress.'

That hurt, the thought that anyone would be afraid of Rafiq. "That's ridiculous! You wouldn't hurt a fly! How can anyone be afraid of you?"

'Because I exist in the form of a snake,' he answered, rotating his tail through a circle in his own equivalent of a shrug. 'Humans fear foreign things, and there are fewer things more foreign to the human form and eye than a serpent. They will learn, as your classmates have.'

"He has a point," Shamal offered. "Rafiq is the most obviously strange person here, given his obvious sentience in a non-human form. Speaking of which, have you tried shifting to humanoid again?"

'No,' the snake replied, 'nor will I, until Hypocrates is completed. It puts too much strain on Mistress.'

"I can handle it," Cidela countered defensively, "it doesn't require that much more energy."

'No.'

"Better not to push him, musume," Shamal advised. "He is supposed to help you control your magic, and to protect you. Perhaps he senses something you do not? Also, it's never a good idea to make your familiar angry with you. You've started putting Hypocrates together, it will be finished in a month or so, that's not so long a wait."

"No, but... I'm getting tired of being coddled, okaa-san. I have control now, should I not be using it?"

"Yes, to some extent," Shamal answered. She traded the brush for a pair of ties, "I was thinking one braid, this time? Simple and straight, since last week's collection was so complicated?" Cidela nodded, and Shamal began separating the long black strands before continuing, "You do have control, and you should be testing the limits of it, but we have to be careful, Cid-chan. Your native strength is almost as great as Hayate-sama's was when we first came to her, but it is very wild. Healing gifts are rare enough, one as strong as yours is almost unheard of, and we do not want to risk you with unnecessary experiments. Also, providing Rafiq the energy to support a larger form would not test your control, only your strength and endurance, which you demonstrated quite well back in February."

"But it's not fair to him," Cidela objected, "he shouldn't be stuck in that form all the time, just because we're worried about me."

'The familiar in question happens to be quite comfortable in this form,' Rafiq replied, 'though I am getting a bit big for you to be lugging around. I'm almost as long as you are tall, Mistress.'

"I like carrying you," Cidela objected, frowning at him, "you aren't heavy, just long."

'Thus the argument is settled,' Rafiq said. 'If you do not object to carrying me around, I see no reason to rush into being my own transport.'

Cidela sighed, but let it go. She and Rafiq had gone through the same argument before, and after one unpleasant attempt in July, he had flatly refused to consider attempting to transform until after she had her device up and running. She had hoped Shamal would back her up, she really did think it was unfair to Rafiq to leave him so dependent on her to get around, but that was manifestly not happening. "All right, I can wait another month or so," she allowed, then leaned back into Shamal's braiding.

Shamal's next question surprised her, "I was wondering, what do you think of Didier? He's sat in on two sessions, now, and doesn't seem to have a problem with Rafiq."

Cidela had to think that over for a minutes. Didier had sat in on her tutoring sessions, and seemed quite comfortable there, in contrast to his usual shyness. He paid attention, was very polite, and his questions were usually good ones. But beyond that, she found she had no real sense of him. "I don't know," she finally admitted. "He's polite enough, but doesn't share much. A very quiet boy."

"Like someone else I could mention," Shamal said with a smile, "you're a very quiet girl."

"Yes, but I don't know why he is. He's polite enough, but until I actually get to know him, that's all I can say."

"Too bad, I was hoping you could draw him out of his shell."

"Have Noriko-chan talk to him," Cidela suggested. "She's very good at such things, and she enjoys doing it."

"I was hoping you would, though. You need more friends, Cid-chan."

Cidela shrugged, "I have enough friends. Noriko-chan, Laura-chan, Niranjana-chan..."

"Well, so long as you are comfortable," Shamal allowed doubtfully. Then she sighed slightly, "I'm glad you've let your hair grow out. Hayate always preferred short hair, as it is easier to maintain, but this is fun."

"It's relaxing," Cidela replied, "and I always liked long hair. Easier to keep it out of my eyes. Different from Egypt, nicer."

"There are other differences," Shamal said, an amused tone to her voice, "like having more friends. You really aren't getting any closer to the others? Yussef, or Noah, maybe?"

Cidela blushed when she realized what her mother was getting at. "Well... I... I'm not... interested in anyone, okaa-san." Running through Cidela's mind was, Please don't let her ask any more, please don't let her ask anymore.

"Oh, that's unfortunate. Here I was hoping we could talk about your first high school crush."

Cidela could not tell if Shamal was joking or not, but sighed, "Not yet, okaa-san." Much as she liked her new mother, she was terribly uncomfortable with talking about any such thing. It just was not done. "Besides, you'll find someone for me when I'm old enough," Cidela added without thinking.

Then she felt Shamal freeze behind her, and turned around to find a look of utter horror on her mother's face. "I would never do that! Not to you, not to anyone!"
"I... I know, okaa-san," Cidela said hesitantly, not sure if Shamal was angry or just hurt, "it just slipped out. It's what I expected all my life."

Shamal wrapped her up in a hug, "It won't happen here, though. You know I was just talking, right? I won't ever force you into anything."

"I know," Cidela replied, returning the hug, "but I can't help acting like how it was, sometimes, from habit." She grimaced a little, "though, I do wish you'd talk about something else. It's embarrassing!"

Shamal giggled into her hair, "But Cid-chan, you won't tell me who you're interested in, so I just have to keep guessing, and see who gets the biggest blush."

00000

Yussef watched the C-130 roll down the apron from the end of the runway, engines almost idling, then turned his attention once more to the surrounding area. All around him, and far off in the distance across the runways, Kansai International Airport was a bustling hive of activity. Trucks and airplanes, tractors and carts, people running about madly, buses hauling passengers, there was an endless whirl of motion that seemed utterly chaotic. Behind him was a rented hanger, inside that a chartered business jet, some ten or twelve people working on said plain and hangar, and two Circle mages. None of what he saw was in way calculated to make him calm.

Standing to his left and just a little ahead of him, Signum was a rock of stability, the only motion her long ponytail whipping in the wind. She was in her full armor, Levantine sheathed on her hip, standing with her hands clasped in the small of her back, a picture of stoic immobility. Imitating her appearance of calm was proving simple enough, in general, though he was uncertain how successful he was, even with Zulfiqar fixed to the back of his own armor. Actually matching her calm was an entirely different proposition.

When she first told him he would be accompanying her to Kansai, and then to Shanghai, his first thought had been to round up the guys and get them ready to go. But Shamal had informed him that he was going with her, and no one else. "This is just an observation mission, Yussef. We will not be involved in any combat, and your Myrmidons would just be standing around. You are going to see how operations such as this are actually executed, how troops handle in the field. You did well enough in February, but you need experience, which this will help provide. Leave your troops here."

Given how uncomfortable he still was with the idea of the Myrmidons, he was surprised at just how much more uncomfortable he was without them. Despite his armor and Zulfiqar's weight, he felt naked and exposed, the skin between his shoulder-blades crawling, the urge to start wrapping himself and his teacher in shields strong enough to worry him.

'Relax, Yussef,' Signum ordered. 'Nothing is going to happen here today. We won't even be flying over with them. This is just to introduce us to their team, so we'll know who to watch and they'll know who not to shoot. They will not attack us, not today.'

"Still don't like being this exposed," he muttered back.

She turned towards him briefly, and he thought her mouth quirked just a little, but then she was back to staring impassively at the plane rolling to a stop. A tow engine hooked the forward gear and maneuvered the hulking cargo plane until it backed up to within a few meters of the hangar, the rear ramp lowering as it rolled. Signum remained standing in place, so Yussef remained at her shoulder, watching as ten men trooped off the plane, carrying field packs each, and a heavier cargo-case to every two men.

Watching them march down the ramp, the easy way they carried their burdens, the ready gazes scanning the area, and the fact that only one of them paid any obvious attention to his teacher, Yussef knew he was looking at Hughes' much-talked-about Black Dogs. Despite his distaste and distrust, Yussef was impressed. Just watching them unload, he felt the same sense of unified purpose he had always admired in his countries soldiers, the same sense he could sometimes see flashes of in his own Myrmidons, and part of him wanted very badly to ask how they did it, how they reached that level. At the same time, these were the enemy, however cozy things were with the Moderns at the moment, and the thought of Hughes having forces this good at his command was chilling.

One of the men, a short broad-shoulder brick of a westerner, passed off his end of a case to one of the ground crew, then broke off to walk towards them. He had been the only one watching them, and Yussef had to work not to focus on him as he closed. Yussef was here to watch Signum's back, which meant keeping an eye on everyone else, while she handled whoever decided to chat. From the way the others all stopped and settled in place just inside the hanger, he could tell they were wary. They've got to be just as nervous as I am, he tried to comfort himself, this close to a couple heretics and not allowed to do anything about it.

"Thorngrave," the closest said, and it took Yussef a moment to realize it was his name, "you two would be Signum and... Al Khan."

"Correct," Signum answered, "we will be observing your next operation, Mister Thorngrave. I thought it best if we introduced ourselves before simply showing up."

He nodded once, "Wise of you, though I have to question bringing a kid along, however enhanced."

"We prefer to judge someone based on their demonstrated ability, rather than mere age," Signum replied. "You might keep in mind, he planned and led our strike on New Delhi."

Thorngrave snorted derisively, "I might, if that had been anything more complicated than a glorified smash and grab. It doesn't take much skill to blow a hole and waltz through it."

That was annoying, but far less so than Laura's usual antics, so without looking away from the other soldiers, Yussef commented, "I noticed your bringing guns to a mage-battle. Are you really that worried about mundane guards, or are your own shields just as poor as those we ran into in New Delhi?" He could not help grinning ever so slightly as the 'not listening' soldiers stiffened en mass, and Thorngrave's head turned with turret-like slowness towards him. "As for my plan being simple... New Delhi hardly required any subtlety. Besides," he cocked a questioning eyebrow, "aren't you Americans the ones always harping on 'keep it simple, stupid'?"

Uriel glared at him for a moment, then smiled slowly. "Always good to know the opposition's worth the trouble," he commented. Then he turned and started into the hangar, "you brought the kid, you're responsible for him. We'll be here for another five hours, final prep, then the hop to Shanghai. Preliminary teams are already on-site, with Schuster, under cover of a business convention, they'll isolate the target once we arrive, then we'll take it down and secure it. Questions?"

"Only Yussef's," Signum replied. "What, precisely, are firearms going to accomplish against mages?"

Uriel gave her a flat look, then sighed and shrugged, walking over to one of the cases the Dogs had brought with them. He and the man who had been helping him carry it popped the latches, removing the lid to reveal a pair of assault rifles embedded in foam. Those were removed with the foam layer they were in, revealing ammo boxes beneath. Uriel pulled out one box, popped it open, and removed a pair of rounds, flipping one each to Signum and Yussef. "That's what makes them worthwhile against mages."

Yussef caught the bullet, almost bobbling it in surprise. Treating supposedly live ammunition so cavalierly was a little scary. But as soon as it was in his hand, he felt something, energy within the round. "Each bullet's enchanted?"

Uriel and the other man laughed, before the unknown responded, "Hell no, lad, that'd be a pain in the arse, magicking up every bullet."

"Our R&D types learned long ago that, if exposed under the proper conditions, certain metals and gases will retain magical properties, even through a forging or molding process," Uriel explained. "Not as refined as what you're thinking, but reactive. The bullets we use aren't plain lead and copper. They're an alloy, small amounts of those metals and gases. Exposing them to shields while the mix is still molten makes the resulting bullets react to shields. One of those bullets won't go through a standard shield, but the fifth or sixth will. Even against a wolfpack, a full clip will get a round or two through, which will ruin any mage's day."

"Theoretically," the other man added with a chuckle, "no one's ever done it in combat before. Should be nice to see if it'll live up to the boss's boasting."

"It'll work, Arlain," Uriel said, taking the two bullets back, "it'll work. New toys like this always work once. Question is, will it work a second time?"

Signum had a few more questions, mostly determining where she and Yussef would observe from. They eventually settled on overhead observation, teleporting in once the strike began to leave the Moderns the element of surprise. Uriel even admitted he was planning on their arrival being noticed, and causing confusion in the Revenants as to what was actually happening.

Throughout their discussions, Yussef kept back, watching the other troopers. For the most part, they were sitting on their crates or stretched out on the hanger floor, the largest of them actually apparently asleep. There was one oriental man who was quite obviously scared of the two device-wielders, standing as far away as he could without abandoning his fellows, fidgeting continuously as he stared at them. The rest were also watching, Yussef could tell, but being more subtle about it. None of them went to check their gear until Signum was satisfied with Uriel's answers, and the two of them were leaving.

As they walked out to a safe teleport distance, Signum asked, "So, any thoughts on them?"

"They're good," Yussef replied, then shrugged, "which you already knew and is obvious from Hughes' trust in them. If they're right about the Shanghai target, this should be a cakewalk, though they're still too dependent on large support forces."

"They have improved there since February," Signum countered, "improved rapidly, given that there are less than two hundred people involved in this operation. If they manage to keep that rate of improvement, they should be trained to field teams like Uriel's solo by next August. The Revenants are managing it, after all. Do you think you could take Uriel's team?"

"It would depend on circumstances," Yussef said slowly. "If they got the drop on me... big maybe. Zufliqar's automatics might suffice to get me enough time to engage, but might not. Especially not if those rounds of theirs are more effective at higher calibers. Given the type of unit, at least one of those guys has to be a sniper, and a heavy enough sniper round, or a tank round if they bring up armor, could blow right through my automatics."

"If those bullets of theirs work," Signum qualified.

"True. But that's if they got the drop on me. In a straight up fight," Yussef shook his head slowly, "there's no way in hell that team could take me down in a straight fight, Myrmidons or not. They have the firepower to maybe manage it, but they would still be relying on their own native strength for shields. Without the greater power and multi-tasking a device allows, they couldn't stand up to my counter-strikes."

"What if they each led a wolfpack?"

Yussef had to think that one over for a minute, and Signum's teleport was clearing before he put together his answer. "Wolfpacks would make them much more dangerous," he said slowly, "but still not to the level of a device mage. It wouldn't be fun, and that many of them at once would probably take me down. But I think I would have a chance, if only because they can't individually multi-task. I'd have to be in perfect form, mind you, but I'd have a chance. Rather try it with the boys, though, level the playing field. Me, Marcel and Luke... once their devices are up and running, the three of us could take Uriel's team, with their wolfpacks. I think."

Signum nodded slowly as he explained, "About what we reasoned. You, Laura, and Noriko could take Uriel's team easily, but probably not if they were heading wolfpacks. Vita and I could handle them quite roughly, wolfpack or not, but you three still lack experience. Just don't go trying to take them down tomorrow. We're going just to watch and make sure Hughes isn't pulling a fast one."

"Understood, sensei," Yussef replied, then grinned, "no worries, I'm not Laura, to go haring off after a 'fun fight'."

Signum quirked an eyebrow at him, "There's nothing wrong with enjoying battle. Now I believe you have some homework to finish, ne?"

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Author's Note: As usual, my apologies for the delay. Got assaulted by Muses this month, unfortunately all for other stories. The idea for Juliet's scene with Vita above was what finally shook loose her Side Story. Originally, her summer was going to be similar to Allison's, giving her a little resolution, but I'd already done that with Allison, and Juliet's summer provides much more plot-fodder. As for the other scenes, I'm finding I have difficulty with non-action scenes, especially low-conflict ones like Cidela's & Shamal's. Anyhoo...

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Eternal-Longing: Always glad to explain, though I prefer to do it 'in story'. In this case, though, I don't think that precise topic'll come up again for a while. Laura's attitude towards the twins is based on her experience and Noriko's, and the mistakes they made. She lacks Noriko's and Yussef's maturity, but she does care about her friends and minions. As for her speech, that was also based on her experience, specifically in February, so yeah, all sorts of learning there. As with Kaemon, I'm afraid I don't think I'll be writing a scene with Yussef working on devices with the remaining second-years, not soon at least. Maybe once they're in the process of building the devices. I'm not generally a 'conspiracy' fan either, but the reactions should be fun when it's all unveiled.

Kel Shock: It probably should have been 'omniscience', but Laura's just as likely to claim 'omnipotence', just for the drama value:). Wrack and Ruin are named for personal penchants – 'Wrack' because Saeryn is the more mental of the two and more likely to try a mind-screw, while Rhys is more likely to engage in physical violence, hence 'Ruin'. Hopefully their scene above will help, though it was just them in private. Actually, even when they fought The Book of Darkness and first called Excelion and Zanber, Nanoha and Fate did not have the requisite reinforcements in their devices, which Amy warned them about. Those two are just that good. As far as 'normal' devices, everyone Noriko is working with are building Midchildan devices, they're just customizing them. The differences are like those between the original forms of Raging Heart and Bardiche – one was optimized for shooting, the other optimized for melee and capable of generating an energy blade. So, 'normal', just customized normal. The politics Hughes' people discussed was mostly reactionary yes, but that is how the worst laws get passed, after all. As for how bad the civil war is, just wait until next chapter:).

TheWhiteMonk: Yeah, Hughes is not in any sort of enviable position. The American reaction will show up again, somewhat later however. As for Laura's summer, we'll see.

notcroaker: If you want to stick to the Honor-verse comparisons, Pritchart is a good match for Hughes. Marterosian's really just interested in protecting his girls. It's a crazy world, going crazier every day, and most of the support he's used to is vanishing as the Circles destroy themselves, so he's focusing on what he can save.

Advent000: Things are progressing, yes, and actually a little faster than I originally planned. Like I told Kell Shock, most of the second-years are producing Midchildan devices, just with personal twists like Bardiche's energy-blade.

Taeniaea: apologies for not replying to your reviews for the two prior stories, had (yet more) computer issues. I'm starting to think Microsoft and AMD are conspiring against me. But thank you for the reviews, and the compliments.