Endless Waltz

By: Daishi Prime

-12 – Wolves on the Prowl-

Noriko paused halfway into her seat as Laura, on the other side of the table, jerked in surprise and whipped her PDA into her lap. The furtive look on Laura's face confirmed Noriko's suspicions, and she dropped into her chair with a thud. "Laura, we just got back, you're grounded until winter break, and you have to work with Mercedes two hours a week on countering illusions. Please don't try anything now, you'll just get in more trouble."

Laura grimaced at her, then fished out her PDA again, "You're such a stick in the mud, Riko-chan. I'm not going to try anything... my minions are! Besides, I'm not grounded, I'm just not allowed in the workrooms outside of class."

"Like I said, grounded."

"Ah, no, 'grounded' means restricted to dorm room, library common room, and classes. Trust me, I've been grounded around here often enough to know. Hayate-sensei just refused to let me in a workroom without supervision. And the pranks," Laura shrugged, "Hayate-sensei just gave me a bigger challenge is all."

Noriko choked at that, fearing for just a second that Laura was going to go even more overboard. "What?"

Laura grinned, obviously amused by her discomfort. "It's not what you're thinking, Riko-chan. Hayate-sensei didn't tell us to stop pranking each other, she just set an upper limit. Now I have to try to prank Mercedes, without pissing off Hayate-sensei. See? A challenge!"

"You're serious, aren't you?" Laura nodded eagerly, and Noriko shook her head. "Be careful, Laura, please? You're too good at magic to get expelled, but Hayate-sensei will do something like that, if you anger her enough."

"Yeah, I know. It's a challenge, not impossible. I'm thinking I'll mess with Mercedes' alarm, next. Set it to go off at weird hours, or something. Anyhow, this," she shook her PDA, "is not prank plans. It's just not something else I want to have to explain to Sensei."

"What are you hiding from her now?"

"Not hiding, just..." Laura hesitated, then looked around, verified no one else was close enough to overhear, and shrugged. "She's been asking me about the Wolkenritter again. Not asking if I want to join, but hinting at it, you know?"

Noriko nodded, filling a little thrill of excitement for her friend. She had helped Laura look into the Wolkenritter a little, and just the invitation to join the small elite order was an incredible honor. "You should seriously think about it," she said. "You would do very well with them, even before you graduate."

Laura grimaced, and shook her head. "Yeah, maybe, but... I don't like it. The Wolkenritter are them, you know? Hayate-sensei's family and Knights. They're the best, what we're all supposed to live up to. I haven't."

"Signum-sensei thinks you have," Noriko countered, "and so do Vita-sensei, Shamal-sensei, and Zafira-sensei, since all four of them had to agree to extend the offer."

"Yeah, but take a look at them. They've been together for centuries, Noriko." Laura waved one hand, "Okay, okay, they don't remember most of it. But they still have that connection, that long history together. I'd never be able to match that. Even if it wouldn't be wrong, pretending to be one of them."

Laura's obvious discomfort with the idea was a little disappointing, but Noriko was not really surprised. This was the most Laura had ever said on the subject at once, but she had used all of the arguments before. "So, what are you doing that's related to that? Trying to find a way out?"

"I found a way out, I'm just going to keep saying no. I already told Sensei I don't think I'll ever say yes, so hopefully she'll take the hint eventually."

"But?"

Laura's grin was far closer to normal this time, "but she'll back off if I come up with something else. Something that gives us both what she wants, me under some kind of control, but not intruding where I don't belong. Thing is, I think she'll shoot me down, unless I've got it all set before she finds out about it."

"I think you're being paranoid," Noriko said. "You would be perfectly welcome amongst the Wolkenritter, but if you don't want to, all right. However, I need to study, and would appreciate a little company while I do that."

Laura sighed, "As in, I need to stop playing, and help you keep your second place rating."

"I wouldn't object to first place." Both of them chuckled at that.

Contrary to her reputation, Noriko found studying with Laura to be no more difficult than studying on her own. Laura was quicker to talk, and not always on topic, but usually related. At the very least, her non-sequiturs provided memorable moments that made remembering the information in question easier. So for half an hour or so, the two of them worked in companionable quiet, occasionally trading comments or explanations.

That quiet was disturbed by the appearance of the twins. The materialized at the end of the table so abruptly, so silently, Noriko wondered for a moment if they had figured out Allison's Cloak of Shades, or if Laura had taught them. Then she got another surprise.

"Good afternoon," they said in unison, before one added, "Senpai."

Noriko and the other twin stared at the vocal one for a moment, before Laura laughed, "Ah, that's cute, Ruin-chan, but you don't need to be that stuffy. Laura's fine."

That was Rhys, Noriko realized, then frowned. Laura had told her that Rhys was the twin that most disliked her, though Laura seemed mostly amused by that fact. To hear either twin use such a respectful term, especially that twin towards Laura, was shock. But on further thought, she supposed it could be a side-effect of the Seed attack. Both the twins had been a little odd since then, odd for them.

Saeryn stopped staring at Rhys, to ask, "Are you free, Sims-san? We have questions concerning our devices."

Laura blinked at them, "You two talk to Allina and Niranjana already?"

"Yes," the twins answered.

"They were unhelpful," Rhys added.

"Their designs remain separate," Saeryn said, "however communicative. They share the specific systems, but could not advise as to their applicability."

"How politely did you ask," Noriko asked, "or did you ask?"

The two frowned at her, almost glaring, "we asked, politely. We spoke with them for half an hour or more."

"You mind, Riko-chan?" Laura gave her a half-apologetic, half-pleading look, "I did promise to help them."

Noriko shook her head, "No, I don't mind. Would you like my assistance as well?"

"Sure," Laura said, interrupting the twins, "they'd love to have your help."

"Senpai," Rhy complained.

"Shut it," Laura interrupted with a grin, "Noriko may see what I'm missing. She's got all those crazy notes on Deva magic, which is all about deep bonds between mage and device. So drag up a seat, and let's see what you've got so far."

The twins continued to frown at Noriko for a few more moments, then shrugged and went to sit on either side of Laura. They patched their PDAs into hers, quite deliberately sharing the device design document with Laura and not Noriko, only to grimace as the first thing Laura did was send it to Noriko. Unsurprisingly, there was only one design, a fairly basic Velka pattern. It only took Noriko a few minutes to review the design, noting only one oddity. "I'm guessing," she said, interrupting the quiet debate across the table, "that you want your devices to connect to each other more completely than Allina and Niranajana plan theirs to connect, but at the same time, you do not want anyone else to be able to connect to the devices?"

"Yeah, they're tired of not being the Corsican Sisters," Laura said, "so they want their devices to be linked like that. Permanent, free-flowing communication and power."

"The Circles teach all their mages to work in concert as much as alone," Saeryn explained, "to accomplish that with devices would be prohibitively difficult without linking the devices."

"My sister and I are a team," Rhys added, "we will be the best team it is possible to be."

"You're going to be worse than that," Noriko said, shaking her head. "This is risky, girls. I know you two like to think you're the same person, but you're not, and your devices will be different. Two people cannot trade devices, not without wiping the old programming. What you're trying... risky, definitely risky. You'd probably be safer to build your basic devices, then work on combining your magics outside the devices." When the twins did not reply, Noriko glanced up to find Laura trying not to laugh, and the twins giving her the flat non-expression they adopted in place of more usual mulish intransigence. "What?"

"Hayate-sensei already went over that," Laura told her, "ripped them up one side and down the other. Right up until they demonstrated how they cast a spell together. Turns out, they always merge their magics in themselves. Which shouldn't be possible, according to Hayate-sensei."

"It is how we learned to do it," Saeryn said, "before our parents taught us. The way of the Circles is what you think. Our way is more efficient."

"That's what they said about rocket engines in the forties," Noriko said. "Doesn't mean they're safer." She knew the twins would not stop, they were too much like Laura for that. The question for her was, as with Laura, how to keep them from going too far too fast? "I'll help," she said after a minute, "but only with conditions."

Saeryn shook her head, "Thank you, Noriko-san, however we can manage well enough on our own."

Noriko quirked an eyebrow, "I'll admit Laura can get the devices working without my input. But get them communicating? On top of the Velka systems and programming? Laura knows the Velka systems backwards and forwards, but there are only three people on this campus who have any idea how to do what you're trying, and Niranjana and Allina aren't going to help you if you don't agree to my conditions. You're smart, so you can probably figure out how to do it... next year sometime. Whereas, with my help, you can probably manage it before year end. But you will agree to my conditions, if you want my help."

"Whoa, laying it on a little thick there, aren't you, Riko-chan?" Laura ruffled the twins' hair, "They're not that crazy, not like me."

"What are your conditions," Saeryn asked.

"Not that bad. First, you do not try co-casting any spells with your devices outside of precisely controlled workroom conditions. Not class, mind you, but independent tutoring sessions with one of the teachers. Understood?" The twins nodded, so she continued, "Second, you do not, under any circumstances, try to patch over Allina's and Niranjana's hacking protocols. They're building their devices on Midchildan programming, and none of us know either system well enough to monkey around with porting programs. Allina compared it to translating Linux programs to Windows – the output may look the same, but the background's radically different. Finally, you don't share this with anyone else. You two have some idea how to merge your magic, none of the rest of us do, but several of us are dumb enough to try it. Yes, Laura, I'm looking at you for a reason."

"We can agree to those," Saeryn said over Laura's laughter. "We intended to be cautious all along, Noriko-san."

Noriko highly doubted that, but took her victory and ran with it. "Well, in that case, let's look at the design, then, shall we? The hardware should not be too difficult, it will be the programming, both enabling the system and protecting it from attack or abuse."

00000

While Hayate had originally planned to have the entire device-construction project done as a class, two factors convinced her to break it up into two groups. The first was simply size – there was only one workroom large enough to contain the entire class's devices prior to activation, the main workroom which was also the best option for almost all of the classes. She was still occasionally shocked at the sheer number of students she already had, and had never planned for more than ten or so students in any particular class. The second factor was one she had not foreseen, but made the actual division easier – Yussef's Myrmidons. Given how well the boys worked together and how similar their devices were, it just made sense to stick them together and let them run with it.

So when they had their twice-a-week 'construction days', the class broke up into the two largest workrooms after the main. Yussef took his boys to 'their' room, while Lotte accompanied Noriko and the girls. She would move between the classes through the period, but usually spent more time with the girls and their more varied designs. For his part, Yussef was not looking forward to this second construction class, not after reviewing the tapes from the last one. A week back from Kyoto, and he was going to utterly ruin Ichigo's day. At least we're still early in the process, he comforted himself, this would be far worse later on.

Unlike when Yussef had built his own device, they were not getting the components all in one huge pile. Instead, the teachers were providing components 'as needed', just the basics to start with to get the processor core built. According to plan, as the devices came along, parts would be delivered to the workrooms for each day. That simplified organization and finding what part to attach next, and also kept the room from being too crowded right from the start. On their last – and first – construction day, they had separated to work individually, after a brief reminder from Lotte of the safety rules they were working under.

Today, however, Yussef stopped the boys just inside the door. "Gather around guys, before we get started, there's something that needs to be gone over again." They did not look worried, just confused, though Toushiro looked overly-resigned, probably expecting a repeat of the safety lecture. Instead, Yussef walked halfway across the room to one barely-begun device, looking far less impressive than the nest of cables and tools around it, and rested a hand on the core. "Ichigo, my apologies for picking on you, but you're the first one to make this mistake, so you get to play object lesson.

"I didn't catch it last time we were here, but did yesterday, looking over the tapes with Lotte-sensei. About a third of the way through the day, you stopped using the tools provided to bind, seal and charge the parts. The binds aren't such a big deal, they're no different from welding metal, according to Lotte-sensei. But the seals and charges are a whole other problem. The problem Noriko, Laura and I suffer from." Yussef paused a moment, looking over the boys. Most of them looked suitably worried, but Ichigo was actually looking angry. Well, contrary, he isn't quite at angry, yet, Yussef decided.

For his part, Ichigo protested, "It's not that bad, Yussef. You three manage well enough."

"True, we do. On the other hand, the three of us are still working our butts off learning how to compensate. Admittedly, it's down to one session a week instead of the 'every-free-second' it was last year. But, if you'll all check your PDAs, you'll find you now have links to the video of our last session Monday afternoon. So now you'll all know why I'm so tired after one of those. You also all remember how badly injured Noriko was last year.

"The simple fact is, the three of us share a permanent vulnerability that we cannot truly compensate for. Anything that happens to our devices will be reflected in us. Judging from Noriko's injury, if the Circle mage had successfully destroyed Senbonzakura, he would have cooked her brain at the same time, literally. Arf-san would have brought a corpse out for burial, not an injured student for medical attention. We will always be that vulnerable, Ichigo. Shamal thinks we cannot even disassemble the devices without injuring ourselves, possibly permanently. Do you want that? Do you want the vulnerability, the massive workload, and the constant worry, all for a three to four percent boost in efficiency? If you do, too bad. None of us are willing to let you.

"So, now that you know why, here's the really bad news."

"I have to disassemble everything and start from scratch," Ichigo said with a grimace. "Dammit, man, that's gonna put me two days behind!"

Yussef gave him a semi-sympathetic grin and reached out to shake his shoulder. "I'm not trying to hammer you, Ichigo. You're not alone, for instance, just the worst offender of the lot. Marcel and Noah are both going to have to disassemble their devices. They weren't as flagrant about it as you, but they both included too much personal energy and attention last time." He let go of Ichigo and looked at the others. "I know I'm being a little heavy-handed, guys. I'll be honest, all Hayate-sensei insisted on was that the parts be completely de-charged, not disassembled. But I can't drive home hard enough how dangerous our devices are for us, so all three of you are stripping your devices back down to basic unpowered components. I'm not letting my men inflict the same vulnerability on themselves that I suffer from. Understood?"

A chorus of assents came back, so he nodded, "Come on, Ichigo, I'll give you hand getting this thing stripped down again. Marcel, Noah, you two get started taking yours apart, I'll be over once Ichigo's done. Everyone else," he grinned and jerked his head at another table, "quit loafing and get to work."

He and Ichigo managed to get the nascent device disassembled in about twenty minutes of the class's forty-five, shortly after Lotte slipped in from getting the girls started. Ichigo grumbled, generally whenever anyone else was in earshot, but did not seem too serious about it, mostly concerned with catching up. While talking to him, Yussef decided that, prior plans or not, he would offer Ichigo some after-hours help after dinner. They were not supposed to work on construction outside of class time, in case of precisely the sort of mistake he had brought up today, but exceptions could be made. He had originally planned to leave Ichigo to recover the lost time on his own, to drive the point home, but Ichigo was taking it well enough, Yussef decided to give him a break.

Noah was almost as calm about it when Yussef went to check on him, not happy, but not sulking or snapping either. Marcel, on the other hand, was actively pissed. He was calmer about it than Yussef was used to, about where he or his brothers normally were on a 'bad day'. But Yussef knew Marcel well enough by now to recognize that the Frenchman was livid, about where Yussef and his siblings started hitting things and yelling.

Yussef considered that for a minute, before stepping up to lend a hand, saying, "Marcel, I know it's embarrassing, and annoying, but trust me, this is better than the alternatives. I'm sorry I had to come down on you, but everyone else will learn the lesson better for having an example. It's not like I didn't make any mistakes. Even with Akira's help halfway through, I still wound up having to go back and redo a week or so worth of work."

Marcel's grumbling cut off when Yussef started speaking, and only blinked for a second. Then he frowned, "You think I'm mad at you?"

"Aren't you?"

"I'm mad at myself," Marcel snarled, resuming disassembly. "I know everything you went through last year, I know every step you took, every mistake you made, everything. And I still screwed up because I wasn't paying attention! I didn't even do it deliberately like Ichigo, I just wasn't paying attention!"

"Calmly, Marcel," Yussef said, feeling a little odd about that. It was usually Marcel's job to calm him down, not the other way around. "We all make mistakes. We're not perfect. Even Hayate-sensei makes mistakes, just look at what the three of us managed last year. All the senseis are still upset over our devices."

Marcel grimaced and shook his head, "Yeah, I know, man, it's just... it was a stupid mistake, and I'm seriously not used to making those. It's ridiculous!"

Before Yussef could reply to that, there was a massive snapping sound, followed by a surprised shout from Luke. The Australian stumbled back from his device, shaking one hand vigorously and staring at the smoking stack of components in distrustful surprise. Yussef shook his head, then grabbed Marcel's shoulder before he could move, letting Lotte respond to Luke first. "Relax, Marcel. We all make mistakes, and I guarantee someone else will make the exact same one you just did before we're through. Just make sure that 'someone' isn't you. Now come one, let's go see how much damage Luke did to himself."

00000

Noriko sent a sympathetic look to Yussef as he was dragged off by the boys, but he apparently missed it. She knew full well what he was about to do, and was just as glad none of the girls had made that mistake. Yet, she reminded herself, Allina will simply forget, and I think Juliet will try to slip something like that in. I'll have to check the recordings tonight, see how Yussef handles it.

In the privacy of her mind, she could honestly admit that she actually envied Yussef his Myrmidons. The boys were used to working together, used to following his directions, to listening to what he said. While Noriko was generally the 'leader' of the girls, that was mostly because she was the one student everyone went to for help. The girls had never been organized like Yussef's boys, and they still were not, militantly so in a couple of cases. Even with only one day's experience, the construction class left Noriko feeling like she was herding cats.

Not such a bad analogy, she thought, watching Juliet and Allison crossing the workroom, not quite stalking. Those two had become much closer this year, not like Niranjana and Allina, but a deeper friendship. There was no sense of superior/inferior, or united purpose, just commonality of personality and interest, and watching the two of them reminded Noriko of a pair of hunting tigresses. Combined with Megan's feline forms, and the total independence of each of the girls, 'herding cats' was definitely and apt description.

"All right, ladies," Lotte said once the door was closed, "remember the safety lectures! Careful with the tools, don't use your own magic for anything, and don't charge any components until they're fully attached. Noriko, Laura and I have a few corrections for you, which we spotted while reviewing the tapes, and a few more the other teachers noticed while inspecting your work. We'll stop by and let you know how to fix them. Don't get snippy, or we'll make it worse!"

Noriko shook her head at Lotte's final sing-song warning, and went to talk with Niranjana. They were working separately, officially, but Allina kept 'lending a hand', so talking to Niranjana would draw the other girl. Which was another thing Noriko reminded herself to check up on – Allina was becoming positively clingy where Niranjana was concerned, except where Niranjana could see it. All while still vehemently insisting they were 'sisters' or 'just friends'. Niranjana, for some reason, was being rather coy about her opinion of their relationship, but Allina was patently having trouble. What had been amusing and cute last year was looking rather more serious this year, and not in a good way.

Still, this was hardly the place for such a conversation, so Noriko settled for shaking her head when Allina abandoned her own set-up to join her at Niranjana's work-bench. "You two have not made a mistake yet," Noriko told them softly, "probably because you keep back-checking each other. But we're all still uncomfortable with the communications systems, so I'd just like to go over your programming with you, make sure the base is solid."

"Certainly, Noriko," Niranjana said, "we are being careful. The communications arrays will be the last components we install."

"Come on, we're doing this so we can mess with other systems," Allina protested, "we know how to keep anyone else from messing with ours."

Noriko shook her head, "It's not just other people attempting to disrupt your device. The communications systems you two are including have never been used in a device before. They're portable arrays Hayate-sensei acquired specially for you two, normally part of the deep space teleport and communication relays the Bureau seeds in their territory. Something new like this, even without hostile intent… any number of things can go wrong. So," she smiled gently, "please indulge me?"

She was exaggerating Hayate-sensei's concerns about the components, but did not feel too guilty about that. The idea of them being able to access and even influence – let alone control – someone else's device was frightening enough, but Noriko had noticed almost immediately that they would be making their own devices more vulnerable to the same sort of inimical interference, and wanted to be as certain as possible that they were well protected.

Checking the already-assembled parts and programming did not take long, but did reassure Noriko. While Niranjana and Allina were not as far along as some of the others, their slower more cautious work would save them endless rebuilding and reprogramming, and Noriko was looking forward to the two of them finishing first in the entire class. Once her own concerns were reassured for the moment, Noriko let them get back to work and stepped back to consider where to go next.

Even after dividing into the two official classes, the girls had divided again, not out of any dislike, but simply due to interests. Noriko had Niranjana and Allina, Cid-chan, and technically Natalia. Laura had Allison, Juliet, and, surprisingly, Megan. The first two were there for her expertise with the Velka systems they were using, and Laura was using them to help her convert Paradox to the Velka runes and programming. Megan, for her part, claimed she had merely asked Laura a question while Noriko was busy, and, in her words, "never escaped the crazy-girl's clutches." Noriko was fairly certain Megan hoped Laura would help her figure out how to insure her device was as physically malleable as she was.

Natalia was worrisome, simply because Noriko had only the most basic notion what she was doing. Natalia had put together a basic programming and structure of her device together on the basis of the Al Hazred runes she could use, and that had resulted in some very strange twists to her device. It was still essentially Midchildan in structure, but the way the components were going together, and especially the way its programming was coming together, were even stranger. Noriko did not think there was anything inimical in there, and Hayate-sensei and Aria-sensei were watching Natalia like hawks, but the feel of the device was just so strange it made Noriko uncomfortable. It also, unfortunately, limited how much help anyone could give Natalia in building her device.

Cidela was relatively easy, by comparison. Shamal's foundling was perfectly content to work quietly on her own building an essentially normal device, and had the not inconsiderable advantage of Shamal's advice, available to her at will. Still, during class itself, Noriko was easier than Shamal to reach, and she was frankly curious about Cidela's device. So once Niranjana and Allina were well under way, Noriko headed over to Cidela's work-bench.

Rafiq was curled about Cidela's torso and shoulders, and Noriko could not help chuckling as she reached out to gently rub his head. "You're getting huge, Rafiq. Are you going to be relatively as big in human form?"

"He's not that big," Cidela protested. "He's not even two meters!"

Rafiq just hissed lightly, mouth open ever so slightly in a reptilian grin, "Probably not, Noriko-san. Size is immaterial, though. Mistress is not so large, after all."

"True, look what a mistake the Circles made with that thinking last year," Noriko agreed, carefully not showing her amusement at Cidela's conflicted face. She patently wanted to defend her familiar from any possible slight, and at the same time was insulted and complimented by Rafiq's comment. Physically, Cidela had grown the least of all the students, still a small compact girl, and getting a little sensitive about it, but she was also one of the strongest in terms of raw magic. "How is your device coming?"

Cidela ducked her head a little, embarrassment winning as usual, "All right. I'm not moving as quickly as some of the others, but I want to be careful."

"Mistress is too cautious," Rafiq said, nudging Cidela's chin gently, "less to fear here than in Okaa-san's lessons."

"This is going to affect you, as well as me, Rafiq," Cidela said. While her hands were busy picking up tools and components again, she managed to return Rafiq's nudge with an odd motion of her head. "If I make a mistake with this, you will suffer, and I cannot allow that."

Rafiq hissed slightly, but Noriko spoke before he could. "Let her worry, Rafiq. She needs to worry at something, after all, and despite how slowly she's moving with her device, she'll probably be done quicker than most. She probably won't make any mistakes, after all."

"True," the snake agreed, then grinned at her again, "that is going to be an interesting day."

"Noriko?" Lotte's voice almost made her jump, but Noriko managed to convert that into simply turning around. "I'm going to go lend Yussef a hand. You girls are all moving along nicely, but he's got to have several unhappy boys over there by now."

Noriko nodded, "That's fine, Lotte-sensei. If we run into any trouble, I'll call."

"Good girl," Lotte said, then chuckled at her slight grimace. "I'll just be down the hall."

Noriko watched her go, then turned back to Cidela. "Would you mind if I took a look, Cid-chan? The regulators Shamal-sensei is having you use are interesting, and I'm wondering if I might be able to use them in Senbonzakura to mitigate the difficulties of my link."

"I do not think they will," Cidela said, but handed one waiting component to Noriko. Shamal was having her build several into the device at various points, to further assist with keeping her still wild healing gift under control. "They act as… governors… on my power, nothing more. They do not alter what I do, only how much power I can draw on to do it. From what Okaa-san said, your link is too deep, too thorough, for that to have an effect. The regulators would probably sever your link to Senbonzakura." Cidela frowned, "Which would be bad. Don't try that."

"But the principles may still be applicable," Noriko countered, ignoring the oft-repeated warning, instead studying the part in her hand. She was willing to look into almost anything, if it showed promise of attenuating or removing the deep link with her device. Much as she loved Senbonzakura, she never wanted to go through another injury like what she had suffered in February again. Just as important, she did not want Yussef or Laura to suffer the same fate. "Even if this won't work, maybe it will point me in the right direction. Thank you, Cid-chan."

00000

Arlain paused as the speaker in his ear crackled, "One-One, this is Three-One, status."

Dropping completely behind the knee-high brick wall, Arlain swore mentally, before triggering his throat mike, "Three-One, One-One. Twenty seconds to position."

"Roger that, be advised we have movement on the neighboring roof, north of target."

"Fuck," Arlain snarled, picturing the approach. His team was closing from the east, and the building to the north, while across a wide street, was higher than the entire approach. Anyone standing up there would be able to see them clearly, and if they were associated with the target or just 'good Samaritans', there went the element of surprise.

"No kidding," Thorngrave said back, sounding amused, "can you get around or bypass?"

Arlain thought it over for a minute, but saw no way around it. The buildings south and west of the target were all lower, one- and two-story structures. The target was four stories, their current route five, and the buildings across the way five to ten. Looking at the situation, he did not think they could get past the person across the street. "I'll send One-Three to handle the observer. Twenty minutes."

"Roger that. We'll be in position in fifteen."

Arlain let go the trigger for his mike, then looked back towards his team. He held up three fingers, then waved, and a moment later Jubal materialized next to him. "You heard?"

Jubal nodded, smirking slightly, "North of target, 'cross the street, up ten flights, eliminate watcher, then return. Here or IP?"

"Bounce across to the roof when One-Two and I go over," Arlian said. "We can't wait to long, so you've got fifteen minutes. Need rope?"

"On these buildings? Please, your grandmother could free-climb these things."

"My grandmother would never be caught dead in this city. She hates hot weather and thinks the Americas are still uncivilized wilderness. Get moving."

Jubal moved out fast, rising to a crouch and running forward to the western edge of their current building, rolling over the side the building into the alley. Just as he had claimed he could, the Frenchman free-climbed to the ground. Arlain gave him ten minutes, then rose back to his crouch and proceeded to the wall himself. A glance back showed Law right behind him, and the two of them nodded to each other. A carefully shaped spell turned their low jumps into long glides, enough to get them over the alley to the next building, and then they were down again.

They paused in the shadow of a roof-top air conditioner, both of them looking for the 'movement' that Thorngrave had reported. Neither of them saw anything, however, and Arlain was unwilling to wait. Seven minutes of careful crawling later, they were at the western edge, crouched down with only their eyes above the wall, watching and waiting. As reported, there were two guards on top of the roof, standing in opposing corners, patrolling opposite walls of the building.

"Take the far one," Arlain whispered, "but be ready to take mine. I'm going to try Gershaw's new toy."

Kevin Gershaw, the Dogs' heavy weapons expert on Team Three, was something of a tinkerer. After Shanghai, he had pulled a rabbit out of his hat, to replace the under-slung tazers teams One and Two used. Those were fairly standard tazers save for the housings, using packaged wire loads that could be switched out after each shot, but were still limited to the reach of the wires. Gershaw had gotten his hands on some sort of tazer engineered small enough to fit into – and be fired like – a shotgun shell. He had cut down a single-barrel shotgun, removed the stock, and fitted it with top-rails, creating a three-shot tazer launcher. Not as much range as a normal shotgun, but better than a normal tazer, and with the same flexibility.

Now, as Law shifted sideways to get a clear shot at the guard in the far corner of the front of the building, Arlain took rough aim at the man in the near corner at the rear. The range was short, not even fifteen meters, but visibility was poor, and the tazer-launcher was hardly an accurate weapon. Triggering his radio again, he announced, "Team One ready."

The response was immediate, "Launch."

"Roger that." Arlain did not quite rise completely, just enough to get his rifle over the lip of the wall. His target noticed something, probably the fast motion, and began to turn towards him, but Arlain was set first, and pulled the trigger. The shotgun blast was louder than normal, less energy expended in the barrel and less containment of that energy, but also less kick. He was on his feet a moment later, as his target vanished. A glance showed Law on his feet, already backing up.

The two of them backed up a couple meters, then took a running start and repeated their jump spell. This time their landing was accompanied by wards coming to life, but by then there were other problems for the building's occupants to worry about, and with the top-cover down, no one to stop Team Two from going in the back, or Team Three from going in the front. Blasts mere seconds apart announced the rest of the Dogs breaking in by way of old-school LAWs. Arlain and Law hit the roof, and a moment later Jubal came plummeting out of the sky in a far less controlled landing.

Zip-ties secured Arlain's prisoner, who was on hands and knees, but too surprised and disoriented to resist, as well as Law's target, who was non-responsive. Neither Dog took time to check for life-signs or try first aid, the longer they took here the more likely casualties would be higher. While he took care of that, Law laced a charge on the roof access door, and blew it while Arlain was coming over. They cleared the top landing, then Arlain tapped Law, "You, Jubal, me, go."

Their task for this mission was, in many ways, the simplest. The target building had only a single central staircase, right next to a single elevator shaft. They were to progress from roof to ground level, check each floor in turn, secure or eliminate any occupants, then hold the ground floor. Team Three was responsible for securing the ground floor against external interference, while Team Two got the unpleasant task of securing the basement levels, where the most resistance was expected.

At each floor, Law and Jubal fanned out, scouting the collection of offices and storerooms. There were no contacts on the fourth or third floors, but Jubal encountered three Revenants on the second floor, and promptly proved Arlain's concerns about him rather well founded. Jubal insisted they resisted, Arlain figured he did not do more than make one attempt to get a surrender.

The first floor was a different story. The elevator and stairs let out into the main lobby, where every piece of glass was shattered and the doors were twisted and scorched. A scorched spot was smoldering on one wall, off at an angle from the door, where the explosive jet had dissipated. Light warhead or not, the door had patently not been as reinforced as Thorngrave had feared. Gershaw's massive bulk was dug in behind the reception counter, SAW resting on its bipod aimed out the door.

Arlain dropped into a crouch across the elevator hall from Gersahw. "Any movement?"

Gershaw shook his head, "Few civilians, nothing armed yet. Won't be for another twenty, thirty minutes. Not for this building, in this neighborhood."

"Word from down below?"

"Seven so far, six to eleven more suspected."

"One-One," Thorngrave called from back down the hall, "with me. Two-One needs reinforcement for a strong point."

Arlain grunted once, detailing Law to watch the stairs, and Jubal to secure the lift. He trusted Law not to shoot him when he came back up the stairs when this was over, but had no such illusions about Jubal. Thorngrave led him down three flights to the lowest level, and there were far more signs of trouble here. Bullet holes in the walls, expended tazer cartridges, even a couple of empty clips.

The front was divided into four workrooms, while the rear was apparently storage for the more sensitive materials. Suarez was up front, where he apparently had several Revenants pinned down in one workroom. Taggart and Mahmoud were in back, with a similar situation but more numbers to play with.

Arlain followed Thorngrave up the hall, to find Suarez crouched against the right hand wall, covering the last door on the right. Thorngrave put a hand on Suarez's shoulder to warn him, then asked, "Status?"

"At least three, possibly five," Suarez said, "not armed, but they've had time to get spells up. Used a frag to blow the door before they were fully set. Stupid Mexicans have been shouting challenges to single combat ever since. I was waiting for cover before tossing grenades and going in."

"Let's see if they're fanatics or not," Thorngrave said back, then raised his voice, shouting in Spanish. "Attention, this is Adept Uriel Thorngrave, Circle Operations, on behalf of the Lords. Lay down your arms and surrender, and you will not be harmed." The response was immediate and unequivocal. A buster spell flashed out the doorway and detonated against the far wall, accompanied by shouted insults in Spanish. Thorngrave listened for a moment, then shrugged. "Well, that's that. I'll shield, you two toss grenades then open up."

"I'll cross over," Arlain volunteered. I can self cover for that, just give me a second to get set."

"Go."

Arlain checked his weapon to verify it was charged, both bullets in the rifle and a tazer round in the under-slung, then stepped out into the center of the hall carefully, covering the door in case one of its occupants had line of sight. Then he settled into a crouch, generated a heavy shield in a large disc to his right, and charged. It only took three long strides to cross the door, but two busters slammed into the shield in that time, and a third went over his head. He skidded to a halt and slammed into the wall, but managed not to bounce back.

Dropping into a crouch, he fished out one of the flash-bangs, verified it was one of those Gershaw had warded, then pulled the pin and nodded to Thorngrave. The other mage matched his nod, then gestured once. A black haze flowed over the door for a moment, then stabilized into a lower-light level, like looking through tinted glass. Arlain let the shield stabilize, then waited a second longer, looking for an opening for his grenade.

"Toss 'em," Thorngrave ordered, "shield's permeable one way."

Suarez and Arlain moved at the same time, tossing their grenades across each other, "Flash out!" Then both of them ducked back and faced away, opening their mouths and covering their ears for the blast.

The two flash-bangs detonated as one, and even with a wall in between it screwed up Arlain's hearing. Bad as it was for him, though, it had to have been far worse for those inside the workroom, and he pushed up to the door before they could react, swinging his rifle around the door as Suarez did the same from the other side. They saw a group of five men and women behind a shield, all holding their ears and blinking or squinting. They were on the ground, struggling to orient, except for one woman who still held a shield over them.

Arlain put a three-round burst into the shield, aiming high deliberately, just as Suarez did the same, and the shield-piercers worked as advertised. The first three or four detonating against the shield as the magical obstruction converted their kinetic energy into thermal energy. The fifth and sixth crashed through the destabilized shield and snapped off the rear wall viciously.

"Tazers," Arlain muttered, suiting actions to words. He nailed the conscious woman before she could get rebuild her shield, and she spasmed as she crashed to the floor. Suarez rose and moved in, Arlain and Thorngrave following behind. They took no chances, putting a tazer round into each mage, then Suarez and Arlain zip-tied the lot. By the time they were done, Taggart and Mahmoud had come forward, and reported three more captures and one more casualty, the rest of the floor secure.

Thorngrave took the report with only the slightest of smiles, "Good work. Team Two, start taking everyone up. One-One, verify the next floor up, I'll take the first basement."

"Send someone up the stairs first," Arlain warned Suarez, "remind Jubal not to shoot you as the lift goes by."

"He's not that bad," Taggart said, then looked a little doubtful, "is he?"

"There's a reason Jubal's the forward scout," Arlain said, then headed for the stairs. On the way, he triggered his radio and warned Law and Jubal not to shoot, then sent Law up to the roof to verify it was still secure. Verifying the cleared floor was done quickly, as Team Two took their gathered prisoners and casualties to the roof. Getting them up the stairs from the top floor, where the elevator stopped, proved the most exhaustive part of the entire operation. By the time the Mexico City Police responded to the ruckus, the team was puling back to the roof, and the first Sea Stallion was on its way back to the coast and their rendezvous. The second was hovering a little unsteadily at the edge of the roof, rear ramp down, and Arlain was never more relieved to get aboard.

He had his team and Team Two, with five captures, aboard the second bird, all the rest and the casualties having been taken aboard the first helo with Team One. Taggart and Law were up front, Jubal and Mahmoud in the last two seats on the left. Arlain settled into the last seat on the right, behind Suarez, and relaxed just a little, letting the others cover the prisoners. It was dangerous, being cargo in a helicopter on its way out of airspace it was not supposed to be in, but it was also out of his hands. It was the pilot's job to get them the Hell out of Dodge, and nothing Arlain did would affect that in the least. That made most men nervous, but he saw no reason to let someone else's responsibilities worry him.

"So," Suarez said, leaning back to be heard over the roar of the rotors, "think Schuster's going to shit-can us for this stunt?"

"There's no excuse like success," Arlain shouted back with a grin. Which was true enough, as far as it went.

Already, however, Arlain was thinking this over, comparing this mission to Shanghai and Cairo. Cairo had failed because of completely external events, the Seed attack which no one could have predicted. Shanghai, however, had most definitely been compromised, word leaked to the target. Suspicions were running rampant as to where the leak was and how much said leak knew, but the Shanghai mission argued for someone very high up, and very knowledgeable. Hughes had gone ballistic when that fact sank in, and for the first time in their history, the Circles were being vetted by an outside agency – the good Colonel had 'arranged' for the FBI to go through the entire Shanghai mission with a fine-toothed comb, and no one was quite sure what he was going to do when the traitor was found.

This mission, so close to completion, gave uncomfortable weight to Thorngrave's pet theories on where the leak was.

The building they had just emptied was a known Revenant Admin center, in one of the riskier sections of Mexico City. It was safe enough there, as were the mages that used it, thanks to a combination of their own power, and their local reputation – no one wanted to mess with 'witches', so long as those witches kept to themselves. The building was a known target, but low on the priority list, mostly because it was so close to America and Hughes' own base of support and thus probably lacking in valuable personnel or information, but also because, however valuable the information it contained, securing the area to hold the building would have required almost as much in terms of manpower and political clout as the Shanghai mission for less return.

But Thorngrave had not planned to hold the building. His op had been targeted solely on its personnel. He had put forth very solid arguments as to their value, and a plan that was just as solid as the Shanghai op. Then he had laid down one absolute law for the op – no one told Schuster or anyone outside the immediate team anything more than absolutely necessary for them to do their jobs. The entire operation was laid on using resources each of the Dogs had gathered over their lifetimes, their individual connections, some minor forgery, and a whole lot of chutzpah. They were not even flying in military birds anymore, the two Sea Stallions had been 'surplussed' years ago and were now the property of a maritime transport company that normally ferried supplies out of Texas to off-shore oil rigs. The ship they were headed for was a large yacht that used to belong to a South American Ghost, prior to said Ghost joining the Revenants and subsequently wandering into Modern Ops' reach.

The fact that the mission had not only gone off nearly perfectly, but had completely surprised the target, argued strongly that whoever had tipped off the Revenants to Shanghai had not done that for this op. That left two real possibilities. Either the leak had not found out about the mission, which argued strongly that said leak was somewhere above Thorngave in the Moderns or, worse, that the leak had known about the mission, and chosen not to reveal it, which argued that one of their own was the leak.

None of those were very relaxing thoughts as Arlain sat in the back of the Sea Stallion, as it shuddered and roared its way to the coast.

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Author's Note: Rafiq's size is mostly length (remember, he's a snake), and not all that over-blown. Egyptian Cobras, on which he is based, can get upwards of six feet in length, which while short of two meters, is close enough for government work. Also, familiars seem to be larger than their 'base animal' in animal form. Apologies for the LAW/Law confusion above – the LAW (all caps) referenced above is a 'Light Anti-Tank Weapon', a one-shot rocket launcher intended to take out lightly armored vehicles. Troops used to carry one or two into battle until better rockets and missiles came along, and may very well still carry some. Overkill for a civilian door, but not for an armored door (so long as you aren't worried about what's on the other side of that door). The SAW is a Squad Automatic Weapon, a compact box-fed machine-gun currently used by the US military as exactly what it's called – a squad level machine-gun for heavy support. Also, the tazer-shot-gun-rounds Arlain used – those are real, built to be fired out of a standard shotgun. The 'cut-down underslung shotgun' is, to my knowledge, a complete fabrication of my own fevered imagination.

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Advent000: Natalia doesn't quite have a split personality, she's fully aware of the differences and in control, but it is close. Still more of the way you have a different attitude with friends than with family, except Natalia's variance is rather more extreme – and fun! As for the grimoire and symbol, those were both detailed in chapter 5 of the Side Stories. Short version – she got her hands on one of Precia Testarossa's grimoires, managed to decipher it and construct a spell based on El Hazred magic to try and reach her comatose brother. The spell backfired, left her with a cursed eye and an El Hazred symbol beneath said eye. Also took mild mental instability typical of teenagers and made it much worse.

Seaotter: Precia's always a potential variable whenever Natalia shows up, as much because it's fun as for any other reason. As for the length of EW, that's sort of up in the air. I originally figured sixty chapters or so, but that's fluctuated from forty to over a hundred as ideas for improvements and/or variations occur to me and either work or fail. I'm still going to try to stay at around sixty chapters, though. Mollybreaker was fun, and Mercedes and Laura aren't finished yet.

CrimsonDX: Natalia was fun. I was trying to figure out how to show the dichotomy in her character without making her seem completely bonkers (she's not, yet), and the Precia act was all sorts of fun. Here's 'next' for you!