Endless Waltz

By: Daishi Prime

-13 – Thunderhead-

Hughes leaned back in his chair and studied the ten men that filed into his office in silence. When Schuster came in, Lieutenant Addler glanced at Hughes, and at the Colonel's gesture, removed himself and closed the door. Once the door clicked shut, Hughes made them wait a little longer, noting that they all staid at a loose parade rest, and the only one who fidgeted was Law. Schuster, for his part, looked perfectly calm, leaning against the closed door, impassive face not quite frowning.

"Suppose one of you children," Hughes began after a minute, "tells me why I have fourteen men and women of various Central American nationalities in a Florida safehouse, swearing up one side and down the other that they were kidnapped by American soldiers? Suppose one of you tells me what, precisely, you were thinking the night before last?"

He could not tell if their expressions shifted to discomfort or amusement, but they mostly remained silent. Uriel shrugged, "I cannot comment on any kidnapping victims in Florida, sir. As for last week, we were conducting a training mission when we stumbled across a group of Revenant mages engaged in activities prejudicial to the Circles' security. We thought you might like to ask them a few questions and convinced them to join us."

Hughes glared at him, "Don't try that bullshit with me, Thorngrave. Your 'training missions' do not include active-duty US Military personnel and equipment, do not include Ghost resources, and do not take place outside the state of Nevada!"

"We were outside Nevada? Duuude I thought we were in Vegas." That comment caused a few suppressed laughs, even if it was not clear who whispered it.

"Cute," Hughes commented, then reached down into an open drawer and pulled out a stack of paper. It was only a half-inch thick, but it slammed onto his desk with a most satisfying 'bang'. "That, gentlemen, is the hard-copy annotated version of Miss Yagami's surrender terms from March. Those are the the terms that keep her from slaughtering all of us in an afternoon. And you idiots just violated the most critical tenant with this stunt! Congratulations! You may very well have destroyed the Circles, because you couldn't be bothered to follow procedure!"

"All due respect, sir," Thorngrave said, "but the Witch isn't about to complain about Tuesday's mission. We hit the people who are most dangerous to her, and never went within a hemisphere of her people."

Hughes snorted at that, "Work on your observational skills, Thorngrave. You're obviously deficient. Akira, you mentioned that you had a critique of their performance you wanted to share?"

The pseudo-being faded into existence through Thorngrave, strolling across the room to stand at the windows to one side, hands clasped behind his white-clad back. "More of a series of observations, Master Adept."

"Feel free," Hughes agreed, mentally noting that Thorngrave had not even twitched when Akira walked through him. The entire team, including Schuster, were now on-edge, though, out of their easy rest and shifting very slowly to surround Akira. It would have been impressive, especially since about half of them seemed to be moving to shield him, if Hughes had not been certain Akira could handle all of them, with their weapons elsewhere.

"First, your monitoring was sub-par. I was never more than ten meters from you, Thorngrave, yet you never so much as thought of me. You rely too much on your hardware. A little heat magic, and all that ammunition you carry will kill you just as thoroughly as it will your enemies. Your attack was professional enough from a purely military stand point, but utterly lacking from a magical standpoint. Against a competent opponent, your lack of magical defenses would have left the lot of you unconscious the instant you hit the building. Finally," he turned around, glaring at Thorngrave, "if you slip your leash again, puppy dog, I will put you all down, permanently, regardless of your target. We noticed your departure from your little 'base' in Nevada, and my Master very nearly authorized me to slay the lot of you, before we determined you were bound for Mexico City. You violated the truce. My Master and My Lady understand that this was done on your own childish initiative, but you nonetheless violated the truce. Your next mission will be fully reviewed by us before you are permitted to undertake it, and one of us will accompany you on that mission, to make certain you remain honest. Give me any reason, and I will slaughter you like a dragon amongst the sheep." He vanished without a sound, just a ripple of wrong that left a queasy feeling in Hughes' stomach, like riding a boat in rough weather.

"And that, gentlemen," Hughes said, "is half the reason I am contemplating shit-canning the lot of you and throwing them in the stockade for a few years for insubordination. You knew about the requirement to warn Miss Yagami, you know how vicious and powerful Akira and Takashi are, and yet you still pulled this stunt. What the hell were you thinking?"

"Pretty much what I'm thinking now," Thorngrave commented. "He can threaten all he likes, the Witch is too savvy to do more than complain if we 'slip up' and don't warn her about a couple of ops half the world away from her stomping grounds." Then Thorngrave's face hardened, "But we've mostly proven that no one on my team is the leak that screwed us in Shanghai. That was worth a risk."

"You've proven that if the leak was on your team, they were smart enough not to reveal themselves," Schuster snarled. "And now they have your trust, and will be all the more effective."

Thorngrave shrugged, "think what you like. We captured fourteen prisoners, killed three more Revenants, and deprived the Revenants of their Central American Admin headquarters for months, at best. And we did it with ten men and a handful of old contacts. A small mission, but a bloody successful one. It's called initiative, Colonel, and it's something we're supposed to exercise. That's why you chose us to be your Black Dogs. Because we're skilled, smart, and self-starting. As for a critique," he pulled a folder from the small of his back under his jacket, and set it atop the truce document. "Here is my official after-action report, including all the usual sections and notes, and some thoughts on how to improve. I'll have to review it, of course, given Akira's claims, but it is still mostly accurate."

Hughes glared at the report, then at Thorngrave, then back at the report. Any way he sliced this one, it was going to be bad. If he came down on the Dogs like he should to keep Hayate and Schuster happy, his best Ops force would develop instant morale problems, and probably try something like this again. If he let them slide like he wanted to, Hayate would be annoyed, Schuster would be even more pissed than he was, and the Dogs would take it as permission to try something like this again. God damn lone-wolf subordinates, he mentally cursed, then fixed his glare on Thorngrave.

"Schuster. Your team is moving to Fort Knox. The Army has agreed to make their training facility and personnel available to us for training, so long as we agree not to operate in US territory. Once there, all of you are restricted to quarters save during training. You don't talk to anyone but each other, you don't mingle with anyone but each other, and you sure as hell do not leave that base without my specific written permission. Understood?"

"Understood, Master Adept," Schuster replied.

"That happens tomorrow. Today, gentlemen, you are going to go over every step of this debacle, from planning through execution through clean up. I've got a debriefing team waiting in one of the lecture halls. They are all cleared for everything involved in this operation, and they have already had preliminary reports. They had some rather interesting things to say based on those, and I look forward to hearing if you can defend yourselves."

Thorngrave's blink and suddenly flat face told Hughes all he needed to. None of these men were used to large-level debriefs, certainly not strategic debriefs like this, and Hughes could not resist chuckling evilly as he headed for the door. Punishment came in many forms.

He had not even reached Addler's desk when the young man pulled the phone away from his shoulder and covered the mouth-piece with one hand. "Colonel? I have a woman calling herself Master Adept Esien, she says she is from Yellowstone Containment, and she's demanding to speak to you."

Hughes frowned, then reached for the phone. He had heard of Esien, of course, she was one of the more powerful Containment mages in North America. But Containment were playing things mighty cagey all around, and especially did not have anything to do with higher ups in either the Moderns of the Revenants. "Hughes here," he said.

"Ah, little Gareth," Esien's voice was gravelly, but amused. "Your mundane assistant is quite fierce in defending your time. Pat him on the head for me, would you?"

Hughes rolled his eyes, but tried to keep any exasperation out of his voice. "Master Adept, my aide is careful of my time because I have so little of it. What can I do for you?"

"I have been speaking with my colleagues in Containment. Your little tiff over succeeding the Grand Circle needs to end. Now. We have more important things to deal with, and this childish spat is distracting you all from your duties."

Hughes felt a rush of anger at that, at someone else questioning his decisions and efforts to save what he could. "That's not particularly helpful. I will welcome the Revenants back whenever they want to come, but we are not ready to take on Hayate again."

"That girl! Pah! She is of no moment. A fallen mortal is nothing next to the remnants of the Lords of Light. Their artifacts are stirring, Garreth, and you and your people are responsible. Your squabbling over a pretty girl is distracting us from the dangers that remain under our guard. End this squabble, or the rest of the world will pay the price."

00000

Assignment to the Shiva had been one of the proudest moments of Reian's life. While all officers held shipboard duty posts at various times, and he was the most junior member of the ship's combat mage compliment, posting directly to the Shiva, and especially to this sector, was what made it exciting. The past decade had earned it the unofficial nickname 'Demon Sector', due as much to the Badlands that bordered it as the never-ending trouble the region seemed to spawn. When Admiral Aignu assigned him to the security teams on Terra, he had been even more thrilled. After the trouble Hayate had run into, Reian had expected the sort of battle where he could really show his skill, prove his worth.

Instead, he had spent the better part of three months standing around under the desert sun watching a bunch of backwards magic-users try to do the impossible. He had expected to be fighting these 'Circle Mages', and instead was reduced to playing body-guard to make sure they did not get up to anything shady. He had been a little confused at first, as to why anyone was worried about people who were so manifestly ignorant of magic, given that all they were doing was pouring power into a null space. Everyone knew the nulls were permanent, that nothing could affect one, and anything poured into one was lost. But as he had spent time here, taking his place in the watch schedule at the four ritual sites, he had realized he was watching the impossible. His disappointment had faded, though not completely, even though he was only peripherally interested in such cerebral magic.

Then had come the Seed attack. He had not had time to do more than react during the attack, and most of that reaction had been focused on one thing – Admiral Aignu, nice as she usually was, would skin him alive if anything happened to Librarian Takamichi. Anything left over would be handed offered up as a sacrifice to Admiral Hallaoun, and anything he left would be used to placate the Librarian's famously terrifying wife. Much as Reian admired all those people, he had no desire to meet them under such circumstances.

It was only after the attack that Reian had time to be afraid for himself. He had come very close to being injured himself, and only his armor had saved him from that, when he tackled the Librarian. That had given him a very close look at the Seed, and watching them tear into the Circle's defenders had been horrific. Their claws had left long ragged wounds, though thankfully they had not bitten anyone, and the thought of suffering such damage himself had sent chills down his spine. He had been trained for combat, even trained to some extent to fight enemies with various protections from magic. But most of those had been machines, semi-autonomous robots, for all their flexibility and immunities. The Seed, for all he had been told they were artificial, had been very much alive.

Given that, he was far from surprised by how antsy the Circles' guards had become in the aftermath of the attack. The number of guards had not increased, but there had been a significant number of transfers, and the new men had a much harsher presence than those they had replaced. They had also rearmed, with patently heavier weapons, and were practicing with those weapons on a daily basis, far more seriously than they had before the Seed attacked.

The guards' new commanding officer had also been a change. The prior commander had been distant, and rather forced in his politeness, but he had been polite. The new commander, an Egyptian Army major named Tariq Hassed, was anything but polite. He had made no secret of the fact that he despised the Bureau personnel, and made it abundantly clear that he would brook no interference from them in his responsibilities. At the same time, he had made it clear that he accepted the necessity of their presence, and while he was not going out of his way to be cooperative, made it clear that any trouble between the two forces would be the fault of Bureau personnel, not his. Dealing with him was uncomfortable, which was probably why Reian was still assigned to the northern site where the entire operation was commanded. None of his seniors wanted to deal with Hassed's abrasive personality.

So when Hassed stormed out of the command trailer, given all that he had been contemplating, Reian was more than a little nervous to see the short stocky man headed directly for him. Pulling himself together, Reian managed a credible greeting in Arabic, "Good morning, Major. What can I do for you?"

Hassed stopped cold a few yards away, hands on his hips, and just glared for a moment. Then he glanced back at the stone-faced sergeant behind him, before striding forward. He grabbed Reian's shoulder, and hauled him around. "Walk with me, heretic."

Reian started at that, but gave up and let it slide. Hassed never used the term with any venom, strangely enough, but also never called any Bureau personnel anything else. Polite corrections were ignored, impolite corrections accepted as 'proof' of their villainy, and ignoring him only resulted in him returning the favor. It was frustrating, but just ignoring the term and letting the man talk usually resulted in things going smoothly... relatively speaking. So Reian settled for removing his shoulder from Hassed's grip and walking along side him.

Hassed was silent for a time, until they were well outside the perimeter, and there he stopped, staring out at the desert, hands on his hips again. "This is not something I am comfortable discussing, mostly due to the lack of solid information. But I have reason to believe that, within the next day or so, something is going to happen."

That comment took Reian from annoyed cooperation to nervous alert, "Something, Major?"

Hassed grimaced and spat, "'Something'! Don't ask what, the only information I have is that 'something' is going to happen. Given who I learned this from, I do not doubt it, but the lack of specific information is beyond aggravating."

Reian was more than a little confused by that. Annoying, provincial, and prejudiced as Hassed was, he was also thorough, direct, and practical. A warning about 'something happening' should have resulted in whoever gave that warning being verbally flayed, loudly enough to everyone at the site to quote it. "Major? What makes you trust this warning so much, if there is so little detail in it?"

Hassed grimaced again, then sighed and rolled his head back to stare at the sky. "The man who brought it to my attention is an old comrade. He and I have worked together, in the Circles and the Army, for many years now. His family is an old one, they claim unbroken lineage to the original Lords of the Circle, the great heroes who destroyed Atlantis. Whether that claim is true or not, they have always been... uncanny, by Circle standards. Jamal has never fallen into an ambush, for instance, not even down south, with those Sudanese smugglers and their love affair with their guns and traps. Whenever I have heeded his warnings, I have not been disappointed. Whenever I have ignored them, I have regretted it. This morning, he woke me against all precedent and insisted that 'something' is going to happen in the next day or so, and that whatever it is is horrible."

Hassed paused and shook his head, "Jamal is always right, heretic. That's the only reason I am talking to you about this now. Something is going to happen, and if we do not prepare, that something will kill my men. It may do that anyhow, but I am not willing to lose more of them to pride. I have already ordered reinforcements, altered my deployment plans and put my force on full alert. I suggest you do the same, though I seriously doubt you'll have any luck with your superiors. I've got over a decade of exemplary performance and 'local sources'. But you pass on this warning, kid. And you bloody well better live up to your kinds' reputation when the hammer comes down or, Allah as my witness, I will crawl out of Hell itself to avenge my men."

Hassed spun about and marched back to the perimeter without another word, leaving Reian to stare after him in confusion. At least it was something new to worry at, and Reian turned out to study the desert himself. Out here he would be left alone to think it over, figure out what he was going to do. On the one hand, a warning that was so vague was not something he wanted to pass on to anyone else, let alone his superiors. They had insisted he did the right thing helping Librarian Takamichi get everyone out, instead of fighting, but it was still embarrassing, and he had no desire to test their patience again. At the same time, everything he had seen about Hassed so far said the man was too direct, too much a perfectionist, to pass on such a warning lightly.

Eventually, one simple fact decided him. He had received a vague warning of danger, but he was too junior to actually take action on it. So he reached mentally for the Shiva, 'Comm Officer, this is Ensign Reian, Terran Security detachment. Is Commander Tessai available?'

Issa answered immediately, 'Hey, Reian, enjoying your vacation down there? I'm afraid the Commander retired for the night an hour ago, though. Is it an emergency?'

Ignoring her half-joking, half-insulting question, Reian turned it over. It was not an emergency yet, but Hassed's warning had been 'today', and Tessai would not be back on duty, probably not even awake, for hours yet. 'I don't need him specifically, but if the Duty Officer is available?'

'Sure,' Issa chirped, 'just a moment.'

He barely had time to register the mental hiccup of being redirected, when the Duty Officer answered, 'Admiral Aignu, go ahead Ensign.'

Reian choked on that for a second, suddenly utterly terrified that he was making a horrible mistake. But he had started the contact, so, 'Ah, sorry to disturb you, ma'am, but... the local garrison commander just passed on a... rather odd warning, and I'm not sure how to respond to it.'

'Trouble from the locals?' She seemed almost amused, 'I would think they would know better, after how Hayate and her kids handled them. What was the warning, Ensign?'

'I don't think it's a threat from the locals, ma'am,' He said, 'Hassed doesn't like us, but he knows what would happen if his people did try anything. He's also worried about his own men, about how this 'something' is going to affect them. Unfortunately, that's the warning – 'something' is going to happen today or tomorrow. He claims one of his men has some sort of vague precognitive ability. I wouldn't believe it, normally, but given how strange everything else around here has been, and how much trouble we've already had...'

'Understandable, Ensign, and you made the right move calling the ship. There was nothing specific in the warning?'

Reian shook his head automatically, 'No, ma'am. Hassed was rather upset about that himself. Says he has already called in reinforcements of his own, and...' he turned back to the camp, and sure enough the guards were moving, almost all of them, '... he's put his entire force on alert. Whatever this is, he's taking it seriously.'

'Be very careful, Reian,' Aignu said, and Reian's eyes widened in surprise. He had not even thought she knew his name, and she had never used it. 'He could very well have told you that to get you to overlook his preparations for an ambush. I want you on your guard. The other Terran Detachment personnel are contacting us now, probably similar reports. I'm going to activate the rest of our mages, you'll have reinforcements shortly. Don't tell anyone in the Circles, but Shiva will be in orbit in... fifteen hours. You're right... given how odd things are on that planet, this bears looking into. Stay calm, be careful, we'll be there soon. I'll come down to talk to the Major myself.'

'Understood, ma'am, and thanks. I'll be here, we'll be ready.'

As the connection faded, Reian found himself relaxing for a few moments. He had passed on the vague warning, and not been ridiculed. Not only that, but he was getting reinforcements, friendly faces to deal with Hassed and whatever the major was so worried about. That thought ended his relaxation, as new worries surfaced. He was no longer going to be on his own, sure, but now he was going to be under his superiors' gaze again, and they would be watching and analyzing his every move. If he screwed up now, even a little, they would know and remember it. Worse, the Admiral was aware of his existence, and for someone of his rank, that was either a harbinger of great and wonderful things, or his career's death sentence.

Sighing at his own ability to find the cloud in any silver lining, he muttered, "Great, I can't win for losing. Well, time to get to work. Don't want the major's boys panicking when the boss shows up."

00000

Sunday afternoon, when the rest of his classmates disappeared into the main workroom, Didier slipped into one of the secondary workrooms just a minute late, but cringing mentally in fear of being yelled at. Sure it was just Shamal-sensei and Cidela, but a teacher was a teacher, and late was late, even if this was an 'ad-hoc' class.

Shamal just smiled at him, however, beckoning him over. "Good afternoon, Didier, did you have a good morning?"

"Um, yes, ma'am," he said, still nervous.

"Good," then she frowned slightly, and waved again, "come over here, Didier, I don't bite. You're going to have to be close for this lesson." He nodded, sucked up his courage, and closed the distance to stand next to her, just beside Cidela. Shamal smiled again, "Good.

"Now, we've been working on your shields and your speed with them, Didier, but today I'd like to try something rather different. Cid-chan and I are going to teach you a very specific spell. It's small, uses very little energy, and is very precisely targeted and thus limited in scope. It is actually a training exercise, rather than intended for general use, but it will be a good place for you to start, and for Cid-chan to practice."

Didier nodded, "It's a healing spell, right? Why does Cide... Cid-chan need it?"

"Practice," Cidela told him, "I can heal major wounds very easily, but I go overboard on smaller ones, use too much energy, use it inefficiently. Last year I tried to heal some papercuts on Noriko's finger tips, I wound up healing days of built up stress and muscle fatigue, a slew of minor strains, and accumulated stress on her linker core. When I was trying not to fix some paper-cuts."

"You're getting better," Shamal told her, giving Cidela's hair a caress, "it's just a matter of practice, which is what this spell is for."

"Yes, okaa-san," Cidela said with a long suffering smile. "It just gets frustrating."

"So," Shamal turned back to Didier, "we'll start with the spell. As I said, it's a training exercise more than anything," she gestured with one hand, and a screen formed, filling immediately with the details of a spell. "It is the magical equivalent of a band-aid..."

For a few moments, Didier tune her out, studying the spell on the screen. It was significantly more complex than anything he had tried yet, a delicate structure of magic meant to interface safely with living organisms. That made it a challenge he could comfortably contemplate, not like the busters and shields and augmentations Lotte's class was covering, but he was confused on one point.

"Um, Shamal-sensei? Not that I mind but... isn't this supposed to be about defending myself?"

"That is part of it, yes. You're wondering how healing can be defensive? Musume?"

Cidela nodded, "Healing in battle, as okaa-san does, can make the difference between victory and defeat, allowing a small number of mages to act as many times their number. Treating and repairing wounds in the midst of battle will allow the injured mage to continue fighting, where without that healing they would be eliminated, weakening their fellows' efforts."

"One reason, a good one to think of given our own circumstances," Shamal told her, "but not the only one. Are you familiar with paramedics? A paramedic generally rides in ambulances or with firemen, and is responsible for stabilizing injured people at accidents, fires, disasters of any sort. I've spoken with some Japanese paramedics, after February, and every one of them would love to have even this simple spell. Even if you choose to never go near a battle, there are still places in every-day life where magic such as this, or shields, or a teleport, or almost anything we teach you to do with magic, will be useful."

"A buster could be used to clear debris from trapped earthquake victims," Cidela said.

"Or a shield used to keep the building from collapsing," Shamal said. "A strong enough shield could even put out a fire, starve it of oxygen. The scrying magic can find people trapped by fire or collapse, and direct rescuers to those in the most dire straits. Or all of it can be used simply to run a clinic, to function as a 'normal' doctor, as Cid-chan wants to. So, I will not teach you buster spells, or force you through team exercises, but what I will teach you will have applications in battle."

Didier nodded slowly. He had understood the point of shields, since this was supposed to be a class on 'protection'. But this... Shamal's explanation and examples settled into his mind, and he found himself for the first time thinking beyond survival, beyond an escape from home. "How does it work, Shamal-sensei?"

She nodded once, "Good. The spell is mostly a matter of delicate control, much like a binding spell."

It took a long time for Didier to get it 'right' by Shamal's standards, though he lost track of time rather quickly. Cidela managed that far more quickly, but Shamal made her go back over it again and again, repeating the spell endlessly while Didier tried to get it right. Finally, though, both of them were ready, and Shamal did something completely unexpected – she pulled out a knife, and sliced herself across the tip of one finger.

She actually giggled a little at their gasps, "Don't worry, this is just a little nick, for practice. I'm not about to cut one of you, after all! Or cut some poor innocent creature. Either of you can heal this easily. We'll start with you, Didier, to give Cid-chan some practice maintaining her control."

While the idea of 'testing' a new spell on his teacher was more than a little daunting, Didier did not let that stop him. Lotte had no problem 'playing guinea pig', after all, and he was under orders. So he tried not to think about the fact that this woman could flatten him with a thought, and focused on the spell, on calling up the energies, shaping them precisely right, settling them into the form of the spell positioned on the wound to seal it closed and bring the skin cells back into contact.

There was a moment of... awareness, for want of a better term. He was aware of the wound, the blood, the skin cells, the blood vessels, and laying over all of it, the power of the spell. It took only a few seconds for the power to weave the disparate parts of the tiny wound to the parts the knife had separated them from. It was a little nauseating, to realize that this was living flesh he was manipulating, but at the same time, it was incredibly interesting, to realize that a spell this simple, so little energy, could accomplish so much.

Shamal gave him a short critique, essentially 'not bad for a first try', then cut three of her fingers the same way. "All right, Cid-chan. You're task is to heal one of these, using just that spell, but leave the other two."

Cidela nodded, but with a stiff motion and strained expression that left Didier somewhat confused. He understood that she needed practice in fine control, that her magic was very nearly a rogue gift, but he had yet to actually see that demonstrated, before now. This looked like she was straining so hard she was hurting herself, for a spell even he could manage. Even as she reached out one finger, glowing green with the spell, she moved with painful caution, despite forming the spell in the blink of an eye. The flash of green rolled from her finger to Shamals, and he caught a flash of more green acing to the other two wounds. When the light cleared, there was no trace of the wound Cidela had touched, a pink line where the second had been, and the the third was scabbed over.

"I'm sorry, okaa-san," Cidela sighed, slumping slightly.

"That's all right, Cid-chan. You did better than I expected, better than you managed last month. It's all a matter of practice and progress, every little bit is good."

"I just... wish it wasn't so hard," Cidela said, and to Didier's shock, she reached out a casual finger and, without any sort of spell, simply erased the last cut on Shamal's finger. Then Cidela frowned, "You should have told me you pulled your back and knee. They're old... a couple days... training with Zafira-sensei, right? I could have fixed them then."

Shamal shook her head, "They were minor injuries, Cid-chan, nothing I haven't had before. They were healing just fine on their own. Now, that was a good beginning, but I think both of you can do better. So, let's run a few more practices, then we'll try again."

Shamal put them through two more attempts on the healing spell, including one deep cut to show Didier the spells limitations. As she had said, it was more of a 'band-aid', binding the wound closed and healing skin and capillaries, but note the more variegated nerves and muscles beneath. Despite that, Didier could see ways to expand on it, ways to improve on it, and found himself more and more intrigued by Shamal's idea of a paramedic or doctor.

Finally Shamal dismissed them, "Didier, practice the spell, but please don't go cutting yourself or anyone else. Cid-chan, you'll eat dinner up at the house tonight. Please?"
Cidela nodded, "Yes, okaa-san, tonight. Just dinner, though."

"Just dinner," Shamal agreed, "come on."

Didier had several more questions, mostly about just why Cidela had such trouble with control, but managed not to ask them. Partly he thought it would be rude, but he was also somewhat afraid of the answers, wondering if something similar could happen to him. Then, as they exited the classroom building, a motion on the ground caught his eye, and he froze in a moment of terror as something flashed past his feet. Before his heart started again, he recognized Rafiq, and watched the snake curl up Cidela's leg until the girl reached down, at which point the snake wound up her arm to settle around her torso and neck, flickering his forked tongue along her cheek.

"Welcome back, Mistress," Rafiq said, making Didier shiver as he relaxed.

"Hello, Rafiq. Did you have fun while I was gone?"

"Found a mouse," Rafiq replied, "stole it from Meghan." Then he fixed Didier with a flat gaze, "Tasted gamey, though."

Didier grimaced, thinking about being the poor mouse, but Cid-chan just laughed, tapping the snake on the nose, "Don't be mean, Rafiq. He's from Africa, a lot of snakes around where he grew up."

"Not all of them were serpents, either," Didier said. "Sorry, Rafiq, you just surprised me. Don't handle those well. Plus, no offense, but you're kinda strange, take some getting used to."

"Because I made him like this," Cidela protested, "he's not strange, just different."

"Go ahead up, Cid-chan," Shamal told her, "See if Hayate needs any help in the kitchen. I'll be along shortly, I want to talk to Didier about the exercise a little more."

Cidela headed out, and Shamal waited until she was far enough away not to overhear. "Does Rafiq bother you that much?"

Didier shook his head, "No, he just surprised me. Back home... back home, surprises at ground level usually mean mines. The rebels were always fond of spring-loading them, so they'd pop up before detonating."

Shamal flinched at that, but let it slide, "Good. I've noticed many of your classmates are nervous about him. You know he's harmless, right?"

"Well, I don't know that," Didier shrugged, "but he can't be too dangerous if you let him stay with Cidela. He's probably safer than Lotte-sensei."

Shamal smiled at that, "True, but I'm glad you aren't afraid of him. He is not always present, because Cid-chan needs to learn control on her own, but he has things to learn himself, and will be present for more of our lessons, as the year moves on. But in all honesty, I wanted to talk to you about something else. While she hasn't had quite so violent an experience, Cid-chan is in a very similar situation. Her own family rejected her, when she came here. The two of you share a lot in common, and I thought you might like to talk about it. Or about home."

It was Didier's turn to flinch. "Nothing to talk about."

"Please don't lie, Didier," Shamal said, "especially not when it's so obvious. You were caught in..."

"I've already talked about it," Didier interrupted, "time and again. Father has had me talking to shrinks for over a year now. There's nothing left to say. I know perfectly well that there was nothing I could have done, in any of it. I'm not avoiding Yussef's class because it give me nightmares, I'm avoiding it because I will never risk doing that to anyone else. There's nothing else to talk about."

"There is the fact that you still have nightmares," Shamal said. "There is the fact that you still react to surprises like Rafiq as if you were in a battle zone. There is the fact that you never speak of your mother or sister."

That felt like she shoved a spike through his chest, and he almost snapped at her. Instead he pulled inwards again, folding up slightly around his crossed arms, staring at the ground. He had to swallow twice before he managed to whisper, "You are my teacher, not my father. I will never speak of mam... my mother with you or anyone else. She is dead, my sister is dead, and there is nothing anyone can do about that."

He stalked off without waiting for her answer, far too busy remembering the first and worst years of his life. He remembered growing up to the sound of gunfire, remembered his mother and father worrying, remembered being moved from place to place as his father worked. He remembered the day that move came too late, and his mother and little sister were killed. He remembered when his father found him again months later and told him it was finished, over the sound of gunfire. Remembered moving into the city, talking for endless hours to men who had no idea what had happened to him, or what it all meant. "There's nothing left to talk about," he insisted quietly, "and nothing worth fighting for."

He was not hungry by the time he got to the dorm.

00000

Shamal pulled an apron of its hook without looking as she entered the kitchen, tying it in place as she sniffed deeply. "That smells wonderfully spicy, Hayate."

"Thank you, Shamal," Hayate replied, "salsa, made with cilantro and a little oregano. Tai-yu suggested Mexican, and Mariachi found a salsa recipe for me. Cid-chan's been snitching."

Closing the oven, Cidela frowned, "I was not snitching, Hayate-sensei, I was taste-testing."

"Snitching," Hayate insisted with a grin. "So was I, to be honest."

Shamal could not resist a 'taste-test' of her own, snagging a chip from the conveniently open bag on the counter. The salsa was spicy enough, with a little twist that gave it some extra bite. "That's rather stronger than I'm used to. Good, but strong."

"Zafira won't touch it," Hayate said, shaking her head, "I'll have to try again for him another time."

"Do you need help with anything?"

Hayate chuckled, "Just cleanup, I'm afraid, though there isn't much. Cid-chan's already got most of it."

While they were working on that, Hayate asked telepathically, 'did you have any luck with Didier?'

Shamal sighed and shook her head, 'I'm afraid not. Subtle suggestions did not work, and it appears direct attempts are going to require more... official intervention... than I would prefer. He flatly refused to discuss it.'

'He has that option, Shamal,' Hayate reminded her. 'Just because it is the wrong one, does not mean he cannot take it.'

'I know, but he needs to talk about it. Even more than Noriko and Laura last year, or Juliet over the summer...'

Hayate laid a hand on her shoulder, 'You helped them, you'll help him eventually. He's just going to take a little longer to admit he needs it. You know how proud people can be about sharing their wounds. Look at Takashi. A grown man who still can't admit when he needs help. Look at Chrono-kun... if he ever admits to being less than perfectly fine the world will end.'

'I know, but... Juliet's experience is energizing her, driving her. Noriko and Laura, all the students last year, were fighting back, were never simply victims. Didier... he was only a child, is only a child, and my pushing means he's going to have nightmares tonight.'

"Didier needs to be pushed, okaa-san," Cidela said, "he's a boy. Boy's don't ask for help, the take it when it's pushed on them. Like Yussef and Laura."

"Laura is not a boy," Signum commented from the kitchen entry.

"But she acts like one, Signum-sensei."

For their parts, Shamal and Hayate asked one another simultaneously, on a much tighter sending, 'Did you include her?' They both shook their head slightly, before Shamal turned a worried eye on her daughter. Cidela showed no signs of being aware of anything but monitoring the oven, so Shamal remained silent, while mentally scheduling another, deeper, scan. More trouble for my little girl, she thought, Kami-sama, please let this just be an anomaly. She shouldn't have to deal with something else going out of control.

00000

Kell Shock: The Corsican Brothers is a story about a pair of twins separated at birth, there's a couple movies and I think it's a book from the 1800s, a la The Three Musketeers. There's a couple variations on their different upbringings, but the big thing is, any injury one suffers, they both suffer. The trio are still stuck with their too-tight device bonds, and that is a weakness, but it's not as bad as Yussef is painting it. Still a dangerous weakness. You're right about the quote mark in the last scene – fixed! The civil war has been 'active' all along, just not 'front stage' active. Because Hayate is only monitoring, and the kids aren't involved, it's only background to most of the characters. Things are getting busy for the Black Dogs, though.

Baughn: Um, well, yeah... that was long review, and it wound up being an even longer reply. So, I bent my own rules, and shudder sent a direct reply. Gah, the horror! Seriously though, good points, as usual, and thank you.

Advent000: The Moderns' leak is a plot point, so I'm afraid you'll have to remain curious, at least for a while:). As to the trio's link, it's mostly detailed by now – anything that happens to the device, happens to them, and in return they get a small boost in efficiency (less than 5). A twist and extra boost, but not worth the price.

CrimsonDX: Yep more updates, and the next one should be quicker, it's partly written as of now. Allina and Niranjana are something of a personal experiment – to see if can I do something remotely resembling a romantic relationship, even with a peripheral plot like those two. We'll see. There will be more on the devices, but not for a couple chapters as other events overtake, but I think most of tem will make people happy. Rafiq will get a human form, it just takes too much energy for a non-device mage to safely generate (at least, by Rafiq's estimate, when Cidela's providing the power... he's a touch overprotective).

FabienLeLez: glad you're enjoying this, and liked Academy Blues. Laura's the single most entertaining character I've got at the moment, but in all honesty, a lot of the 'Laura-isms' are lifted direct from real life. My friends and family are some of the snarkiest most sarcastic people you will ever meet, which I like. Personally, though, I think Laura's too fond of mornings. A 'good' morning starts around sun-down, in my opinion. Laura has become the primary character, though in large part that was the evolution of events in the Academy Blues. She is (and was always meant to be) one of those people that dominates the area around her, but so are Noriko and Yussef (at least, they're supposed to be), they're just quieter about it than Laura. In all honesty, the characters I am most interested in for this story are Natalia, Cidela, and the twins. I've got some scenes planned for most of the students and teachers, though, that will give most of the characters their own 'moment in the sun'. Just going to take a while to get to all of them, given that they're happening at different times.

Skyfall 2.0: No problem with the long review, you had good points all around. As with Baughn, though, I'm afraid my reply was just as long, so I've sent it to you separately. Thanks for reading and for the review!

swordbunny4486: Thanks, glad you liked it!