Endless Waltz
By: Daishi Prime
-15 – Devil's Due-
Hayate had wanted to meet with her knights privately, in her office, to discuss the feed from the observation satellites. But the final pulse of magic out of Egypt had been powerful enough to wash across the entire world in the visible spectrum. Even if, by some miracle, her students had missed that, the fact that her phone would not stop ringing would have made discussion in her office impossible.
So instead, everyone on campus was once again crammed into the Library's common room, even the Kobayashis were present, holding hands in the back of the room as they tried to understand what had 'their little ones' so worried. Most of the first-years looked almost as confused, though they were patently less worried. It was the second-years that most impressed Hayate, and watching them as they absorbed the information on the screens and listened to their teachers debate that information, Hayate began to understand some of Fate's more cryptic comments about the students. 'Scary calm' indeed, especially Yussef, Noriko and Laura.
The worst reaction, by far, was Tai-yu. The somewhat nervous, highly disciplined, occasionally contrary woman had taken one look at what was hovering over Egypt, and passed out in a screaming faint. Ever since coming to, she had been sitting at a table, staring at nothing, muttering to herself in Cantonese and Spanish. Shamal was with her, trying to break her out of her trance, but it was taking a while.
"Hayate-sama, they've got some sort of barrier up, but it's not affecting visuals too badly. The orbitals can compensate, at least. I can see hundreds of lost logia in that thing, and that's just the big stuff on the surface," Vita complained. Then she blinked at a chime, leaned forward into the terminal she was using to detail scan the city, "Oh, crap, look at this!" She flashed up a new main-screen, focused on one of the vehicles that seemed to hover about the floating city, showing its forward slope. "See that glint? Just inside the windshield?" The focus tightened again, and a hazy diamond-shaped blue glow appeared, "That's a jewel seed! A jewel seed! And those lunatics are using to power a mini-van!"
"It's not a mini-van," Signum corrected her, "it's some sort of levitated cargo or mass transit vehicle. But that is a lost logia, and the frightening part is, it's hardly the most dangerous we've seen since that... city... popped up. What is wrong with those people that they would use those things so profligately?"
"It is Atlantis," Tai-yu rasped without looking away from her table-top. "The Lords of Light have returned, with their city and their heresy."
"All due respect, sensei," Yussef said, "I don't think it really matters who they are. Al Hazred, Atlantis, some collection of crooks that found a bigger relic than usual... they have the gear and apparently know how to use it. What's a problem now is, like it was last year before the Circles attacked, is what are they going to do with it? I guess why are they trying to do it here would be good to know, but really we just need to know 'what'. If they're going to cause trouble, we need to counter that. If they're just passing through, or some sort of refugees, we should see about making room for them somewhere. Without that knowledge, we can't do anything."
"Actually, the problem last year was figuring out who the Circles were," Hayate reminded him. "Had we ever known that, we could have dealt with them directly and cleanly, instead of getting attacked. But you are right, here. Who they are is less important than what they want and what they are willing to do to get it. Still, given their obvious use of banned magic, I am inclined to be very cautious. I need to speak to Hughes first, but I am going to talk to them. They may be, as Yussef mentioned, refugees. They may have found some way to traverse time, or been cast through time in the Al Hazred or Terran cataclysms. Or they could be pirates, hoping to use an artifact of such power to conquer themselves a world the Bureau might be hesitant to touch. So I will speak with them, and find out. Signum, Zafira, you will go with me, and I will try to get Takashi as well, if he can be pried away from this 'project' of his. Are there any other questions?"
Laura raised her hand, "Got one for you, Hayate-sensei. Any objection to more 'special classes' like Yu-chan's? These yahoos are making me nervous, especially since the Circles are going to go ape-shi… sorry, insane over this. All us second years could use some toughening up, and I've got an idea. Sort of like Yu-chan's little club, but without their focus on despotism and tyranny and communism and the like."
"It's a class in tactics and teamwork, Laura," Yussef said, "not politics."
She waved calmingly, "Sure, sure, sorry, didn't mean to mess up your propaganda or anything. But, would you mind, Hayate-sensei?"
Hayate thought it over for a moment. The idea of Laura offering such a course was problematic, mostly due to the girl's energy levels. On the one hand, Laura could very easily go over-board with the class, and was very much a lone-wolf personality. On the other hand, she had shown in the twins and in assisting her classmates with their devices that she was capable of tutoring, at the least. The problem would be keeping her focused on the task, and not turning the class into 'prank central' or worse. "You'll have to present a lesson plan and the like," Hayate decided, "subject to Signum's and my approval. Agreed?"
Laura bowed, but the formal gesture was ruined by her smirk, "Sure thing, Hayate-sensei! Noriko, Allison, Juliet, Megan, Saeryn, Rhys, Kaemon. Meet me in the second study room upstairs once we wrap up here."
Hayate cocked her head as she contemplated the lack of nicknames, but let it slide. Laura's plans were secondary, at the moment, and Signum was no doubt keeping a close eye on her. "Vita, Zafira, please continue scanning the city, find out everything you can. Shamal, Lieze, Aria, please see about getting at least some of the afternoon classes going today? Signum, put together a plan to contact our new neighbors and how to go about making sure we can leave after our visit is over. I'm going to contact Hughes."
Heading back upstairs, she could hear her phone ringing even through her office door, and gave a more exasperated sigh. Then she turned around and headed back down stairs and out the front door. The answering service she had hired after February did well enough, but too many people had the direct line to her office that bypassed that service, and there was no way to forward that line to the service – a mistake she had just made a note to fix. So she side-stepped that issue and went up to the house, to use the private line.
That phone was ringing as well, but Hayate let it roll over to the answering machine. Noriko's parents could wait a little longer, important as they were. Once the ringer went silent, she picked up the line and dialed Hughes' number from memory. It was a little sad that she could do that, but it did make things simpler.
Hughes picked up on the third ring, "Good evening, Hayate."
He sounded harried and tired, so she did not ask how he knew it was her. Who else would be calling him from Japan at this hour, after all? "Good afternoon, Gareth. You're aware of Egypt, from the sound of it?"
"I have a flight in to Washington in half an hour," he told her. "I have the dubious distinction of telling my president that I have no god-damn clue what to do about this."
"Tai-yu is certain this is Atlantis. How sure of that are you?"
"One hundred percent. Everything about that abomination... I don't like what you do, Hayate, but Jesus you are worlds away better than those monsters. I'm guessing you're calling to tell me not to do anything?"
"I'm going to ask for that," Hayate said, "but not command, not in this case. At the very least, your people cannot afford to stumble blindly into battle. Your legends of Atlantis are not enough to plan strategy and tactics around. Give me a few days, and the Bureau will arrive in force. They cannot allow something like this to stand. For now, I am going to talk to them, to see if I can find out who they are and what they want. It may be possible to simply talk to them, you know. As it would have been possible to simply talk to me, last year."
Hughes chuckled darkly at that, "sure it could be. And if you believe that, I've got some bottom land in Florida to sell you."
"It is a possibility," Hayate insisted. "Just because your ancestors, as the victors, wrote horrible things about their monstrous warmongering enemies does not mean they were warmongering monsters. Look at documented Terran history, say the last thousand years. Your country used to say rather terrible things about the Native Americans, amplifying a few incidents into stereotyping. It is endemic to the human condition for the winners to vilify the losers. I am not prepared to do that. Especially not when the 'losers' in this case have the potential to destroy all of creation in a fit of pique. I've told you of El Hazred. This new city has enough Lost Logia in use to rival that catastrophe. It would make the cataclysm that ended the Circle-Atlantis war look like a galactic hick-up."
"I wasn't arguing against the attempt," Hughes said, "remember, last year I wanted to leave you completely alone until we knew everything about you. To be honest, I would not object to you finding some way to talk us out of this. My people might be ready to take you on in a couple years. Take on these monsters? Not for decades, yet."
"Give me some time, then," Hayate said.
"Have to do that, anyhow," Hughes chuckled, "nothing's ready to move, and even the Black Dogs aren't that quick off the mark. Go have your chat. When you get back, I would appreciate it if would share whatever you learn."
"I will do that," Hayate agreed. "Probably late tomorrow. Safe flight, Gareth."
"Good luck, Hayate."
00000
"Okay, look," Laura said as she flipped the door closed, "I've been working on something since just after we got back after the summer. Since I snagged my minions, actually. They gave me an idea for something. You all know about Yu-chan's Myrmidons, right?"
"Kind of hard not to," Kaemon muttered. "They sound pretty cool."
"Yeah, yeah, they're real cool," Laura said, "if you don't mind him setting himself up as a little tin-pot dictator warlord type. If you want to be a good little trooper and follow Yu-chan's orders and march around in lockstep with the jackboots, you go right ahead and think his Myrmidons are cool."
Allison thumped into a chair, "Cut it out, Laura. He's never been like that, and neither are his boys. You just don't like the fact that he's got people following him and you don't."
Laura grimaced, "Yeah, a little. But not enough to do anything about it, not on just that basis. I mean, followers are such a pain. You've gotta feed 'em and clothe 'em and wipe their bottoms... far more trouble than they're worth."
Juliet rolled her eyes, "So what are you bothering us for?"
"I think it has something to do with her attempts to avoid Signum-sensei's offer," Noriko said. "Something about avoiding the Wolkenritter by becoming something else?"
Laura's smile faded into a more serious frown. "Yeah, something else. Here's the thing. Whether it's the Circles, some sort of Terran problems, or these new kids, or some of the less pleasant people out there that the Bureau deals with, whatever it is, eventually we're going to get into a ruckus. Like February, but probably not that easy. People know about us now, at least somewhat, and they'll be better prepared."
"So you're thinking of turning us into another group of Myrmidons?" Allison shook her head, "No thanks. I wasn't interested last year, I'm not interested this year. Yussef's good, but he has no idea how I fight. If I get jumped, I don't want to be hamstringed by trying to be someone else."
"Don't jump to conclusions," Laura said. "Yussef's methods won't really work for any of us. We're too individual, too different in our magic and our focus. What will work for us is what Sensei did with me last year – individual training to perfect our abilities. Thing is, Sensei doesn't have time to give all of us the same attention she gave me last year. Just dealing with Saeryn, Rhys, and Kaemon has seriously cut into how much time she spends exercising with me. So we have to do that training ourselves. We work together, with magic and martial arts, and train each other to be the best we possibly can be.
"Yussef talks a lot about teaching his boys to watch each others' backs, about how you'll never face just one of them. I say Hell with that, I'm going to be good enough that I don't need anyone to watch my back. I'm going to be good enough that I don't need reinforcements. I'm going to be good enough to be perfect. Or at least, that's what I'm going to strive for, right up until the day I die, if that's tomorrow or a hundred years from now. That's what I'm suggesting all of you do, with me. We set it up on a schedule, in the main workroom and the flight-training room. We work at our spells, our bodies, and combinations of the two until we're perfect at them, until we're as good as Tai-yu-sensei is with her magic, as good as Sensei with martial arts, and until we can stand alone against any two or three of Yussef's Myrmidons."
Her audience was silent for a few moments, almost a minute. They traded looks, thought it over, pondered the suggestion. It looked to Laura like they were going to go for it, which would buy her a couple weeks before she had to have the rest of it figured out. Then Noriko went and asked the one question Laura had been hoping to avoid. "This is a lovely idea and all, Laura, but I can't help asking why? This isn't the sort of thing you would usually come up with, it's more my style. I'm right that this has to do with dodging Signum-sensei's offer, aren't I?"
Laura glared at her for a second, but could not really mean it, so she sighed, slumped into a free seat, and admitted, "Yeah, it does. Happy now?"
Noriko smiled, "Mostly curious. Do tell, please."
Laura grumbled under her breath for a second, then did as she was told. "It's like this. Sensei's being really pushy about that offer she made last year. I don't like it, though. I mean, how does a teenager like me fit in with a bunch of centuries-old war-gods like them?"
"Hayate-sensei manages it," Saeryn commented, then blinked at the shocked looks the others directed at her. "What?"
"Uh, Wrack, hellloooo?" Laura waved before pronouncing, "She's Hayate-sensei! That's how!"
"No need to be rude about it," Saeryn said.
Laura huffed, then waved the matter aside, "Look, it wouldn't work. I don't think it's that Sensei won't take 'no' for an answer, she just... doesn't get why. She also doesn't like the idea of me running around loose, I think. Then there's this issue I noticed over the summer. Once we're out of here, once we graduate, what are we going to do about going further? I mean, over the summer I came up with millions of spell ideas, even worked out a couple of them. Couldn't do anything to test them, 'cept for Molly Breaker, until I got back here. I couldn't even talk about them with anyone, because who in Rhode Island was gonna understand half what I was talking about?"
"We don't understand half what you're talking about," Juliett muttered.
"You understand more than my old friends do," Laura countered. "You understand more than my parents or cousins and so on. Look, think back over just this year so far. How much more have we learned, than over the summer? Part of that's school, yeah, but part of it's just the fact that we can bounce ideas off each other, test new spells, all that jazz. Once we graduate, who are we going to do that with? Huh? Each other? Sure, but how? What I'm planning is, instead of this being a 'class' that we all go to once a week and dutifully throw some spells around and then head off to do homework or watch TV or something, we go whole hog.
"Yussef has his Myrmidons, and we all know those punks are going to be tight for decades. We'll do the same. He's always going on about how his boys'll watch each others' backs, we won't rely on each other, but we'll still be there if one of us needs help. We teach each other tricks, help each other develop spells, train each other as hard as Sensei trains me. And we keep doing it, this year, next year, the year after, after we graduate. Once you're in, you're in for as long as you can. Not 'no leaving on pain of really horrible death' or anything, but you get the idea. The class I suggested to Hayate-sensei is the first step, but we could set up separate sessions with each other, whole class or just pairs or whatever. We'll be unstoppable, we'll be the best, we can..."
Noriko held up a calming hand, and Laura stumbled to a halt. "That actually sounds rather interesting, Laura. Short on details, but interesting."
"Yeah, well, I'm still working on it," Laura grumbled, "But the new kids screwed things up."
Kaemon took that personally, "What did we do?"
"Not you," Noriko assured him, "the people in Egypt. I think they're making Laura as nervous as they are making me."
"Probably more," Laura said, "but you're handicapped by your lack of imagination, so I'll forgive you."
"Hush," Noriko ordered. "As I said, the idea is basically sound, and would enable those of us who don't fit in Yussef's Myrmidons to have a similar support structure. But we will have to work out the rest of those details."
"I've got some of them," Laura said, "especially if we're serious about keeping this thing going beyond graduation. The thing I keep running into is, if this works even half right, we're going to be seriously powerful. Scary powerful. Like, think how scared you guys are of me, right? I know you are, even if you never admit it. You'll all be almost as scary, when we graduate. That's not necessarily a bad thing, I mean everyone's afraid the US, right? And 'cause of that, the world's been a lot more peaceful than it was."
"That's debatable," Allison said. "The US..."
Laura cut her off with a shouted, "Beside the point!" She waved it away again, "you get the idea! We'll be powerful enough to make a difference, but powerful enough people are going to be terrified of what we may do with it. So I'm trying to think of something we could do to sort of build in safeguards that won't be fatal limits or too static to last."
"There's Signum's open membership requirement, too," Juliet reminded her, "like Yussef's Myrmidons. She made him come up with criteria to join, so it won't be just a couple of them forming an 'old boys network'. She'll demand the same of you for this."
Laura nodded, "Yeah, but I don't want this to be exclusive. Only reason I named all of you is I figure you're the ones most likely to go along. Even willing to let some of Yu-chan's boys in, though maybe not his Highnessness himself."
"Share," Noriko suggested, "perhaps we can see what you cannot, for both issues."
Laura blinked at her, then looked at the others. Most of them just sort of nodded, but Allison actually spoke. "Ah, what the hell. I'm going to need some sort of practice with Gallóglaigh once it's built. I'm in."
"Well, cool," Laura muttered, then dropped her elbows on the table. "Here's what I've got so far. We need..."
00000
Arranging a meeting with the newcomers proved both more and less difficult than Hayate expected. Signum managed to locate a communications beacon in the city that was worrisomely compatible with Bureau-issue gear, but speaking with them proved impossible. Until Natalia overheard one of their replies.
Fortunately for Hayate's peace of mind, Natalia did not say anything in response to that, but let Signum know. Once Signum had muted the microphone and waved her over, Natalia explained, "They're speaking Al Hazred, sensei. This sounds like an automated challenge, though, not a person. There's something – stilted – about it. Aria-sensei should be able to speak with them."
Signum raised one eyebrow. "Not you?"
Natalia shook her head, "Not me, sensei. I'm just a student, remember? Also... Hayate-sensei is nervous enough about me as it is. I don't want her thinking I'm getting strange ideas again. Aria-sensei should be able to handle it, or Ichigo if she's not available."
"Aria is on her way," Signum replied. "I'd like you to stay and handle the communications, with her as back-up. Call it a test of your language abilities."
So Natalia and Aria managed to arrange a diplomatic meeting that afternoon, Egypt time. That gave them almost enough time to iron out the security wrinkles from their end. Signum was all for bringing the entire compliment of teachers. Vita wanted to bring Noriko, Laura, and Yussef as well. Tai-yu suggested bringing the entire US military and turning it into a preemptive strike. Convincing them to let her go with just Aria, Lotte and Signum took Hayate until shortly before it was time to depart, and even then she was half-convinced that Vita and Zafira would attempt to follow anyhow.
Per the arrangements, Signum teleported the four of them into open air several kilometers from the floating city. From this distance, the structure truly looked its size, hovering silently in the open air over the now pan-flat desert, with no trace of the null from which it had come. There was a faint shimmer in the air, indicative of a powerful barrier that appeared to surround the city in an ellipsoid sphere, stopping just above the desert floor. There was also a cloud of objects floating around the city, little moving specks of darkness that, as they closed, resolved into people, flying about the city near the edge of the barrier.
A few of those people were quite obviously guards or soldiers. They wore gray and white uniforms, and remained mostly stationary, apparently more concerned with keeping everyone else close to the city than with watching for external threats. The vast majority of the floating crowd, spread out around the city, were quite obviously civilians. They were dressed in a riot of colors and styles, all brightly clothed, and most of them were simply staring outwards in apparent wonder, talking excitedly amongst themselves as they flitted about to different areas around the city. It almost looked like an impromptu street festival.
As the four of them approached the barrier, a line of blue flicked out from the edge of the city, terminating at the barrier a little below their line of approach. It split into four, the beams spreading out and beginning to rotate around their origin point, tracing a circle on the barrier about ten meters across. The beams left a circular trail behind them, and the barrier's haze faded to clarity, just before two figures in the gray-on-white uniforms moved out through it.
The two approached slowly, and Hayate held out a hand to stop her own party in place. She wanted to be sure these were the welcoming committee, before getting too close to that barrier to escape it. Neither of the two looked particularly old, appearing about Hayate's age, and neither had any sort of obvious device on them. They also looked alike enough to be cousins, slight builds with dark hair and pale skin, dark eyes with a slight slant, and some sort of cybernetics above their right eyes, strips of metal set with lights and tiny lenses.
They stopped a short distance away, and said something in a rapid-fire almost stuttering language. Hayate recognized it as Al Hazred, buried memories of Sara's implanted by Hypatia and Beaudica stirring, but she could not quite follow it. Aria supplied a translation, 'They are Journeyman Turo and Journeyman Nephan, of something called 'the Protectors'. They are here to escort us to the Lord Protector and General of the Guard.'
"Very well," Hayate said, gesturing towards the hole in the barrier, "lead on."
Aria relayed, and the two nodded. The one who had spoken started back towards the barrier, while the second waved them forward, falling in behind to bracket them. Lotte took to watching the one behind, Signum and Aria scanning more generally, while Hayate focused on following the guide. He passed through the opening in the barrier, then traveled down the cone towards the city perimeter. At the bottom of the cone a quartet of large emitters were mounted on a motorized ring, spinning about the open space, set atop the perimeter of the city. Even passing through the barrier, Hayate felt her magic, her altered linker core, reacting to something, to a pervasive sort of dimensional disturbance.
Following the young man through the ring, Hayate noted that while a few people were following their flight, or watching, most still seemed utterly absorbed in the view of southern Egyptian desert. The guide completely ignored their audience, flying towards the center of the city and upwards, aiming for an upper level of one of the central towers. Intentionally or not, he gave Hayate quite the overview of the city, with a clarity her monitoring satellites had not been able to provide.
That overview was, in many ways, far more worrisome. The first thing she noticed was the sheer number of people. For every person flying around the city, she estimated there were ten to twenty more not airborne, walking around on the 'platform' level, or on one of innumerable garden ledges spreading from the tops and sides of the towers, giving her a population estimate well north of 'millions'. Almost everywhere she looked there were Lost Logia, not only present, but in use, in common use, and utterly unremarked upon. Her own memories, those Sarah left her, and Reinforce's perusal of Sarah's notes in the Sword's library, cataloged what she was seeing, listing banned technology after disastrous mistake after dangerous configuration, all apparently as common and unnoticed here as an electric wall socket in an office building.
Further study was interrupted by Reinforce. 'Mistress, I believe I have located Admiral Aignu and her people. They are being held on a lower level of the tower we are approaching.'
'Any sign you have been noticed?'
'None, Mistress,' Reinforce replied. 'The Sword is doing an excellent job camouflaging my probes. Between us, we should be undetected. Should I attempt to retrieve the Admiral?'
'Be ready to,' Hayate thought slowly, 'but do not do anything yet. I do not want to take any aggressive steps until I must. Keep looking, though. Be as sure as you can that you have everyone.'
'Circle mages included?'
'If you can find them, yes,' Hayate said. 'They have as much right to leave as any Bureau personnel.'
Their guide leveled off, then descended slightly to land on a park-ledge the size of Hayate's classroom building. The ledge itself was beautifully arranged, five trees placed almost-randomly, boxes covered in red and blue flowers along the perimeter, and grass covering most of the open space. A small patio was set into the grass in front of a double-door, just enough to clearly mark the entrance without upsetting the carefully cultivated 'natural' appearance. Seven people were waiting there, two in the gray-on-white of their guide, six in a red-on-black uniform that was obviously meant to be intimidating.
Hayate paused where their guide landed, letting the others land and set themselves, taking the opportunity to study the figures before her. Two stood out, moving closer at the lead of their respective groups, and she focused on them. The woman in red-on-black moved with an arrogant confidence, Hayate's height but whippet thin, with a shock of white hair spiked just a little. Like the guide, she had a cybernetic strip over her right eye, but also more on her bare left arm, and another strip along her left jaw. Everything about her, from the sharp set of her face to her long stride told Hayate that this woman was a soldier, a fighter, Signum without the decorum.
The other leader was almost her polar opposite. He was taller than Signum, broad without being stocky, and his black hair was shot through with gray, giving him a distinguished, more thoughtful air. That impression was borne out by the set of his eyes, the guarded but polite smile. Like the woman, he had more cybernetics, almost a precise match for hers varying only in the set of the gems or lenses or whatever-they-were. His stance and posture were also different, less arrogant, more relaxed, but just as confident. Both of them wore metallic markings on their clothes, placed so as to remind Hayate of military insignia. The only symbol they shared was an Al Hazred character on the left collar.
Hayate let them come to her, and gave them a slight but polite bow. The woman performed some sort of salute – her left hand, clenched into a fist, snapped out forward and down, then rose to rest over her heart as she bowed her head. The man, to Hayate's surprise, matched her bow precisely. The woman said something in their language, and Aria translated telepathically, 'She introduces herself as 'General Szash Freisan', commander of the... Homeworld Guard? There is more, some family information I think, possibly political affiliations. The shadings are... not what I learned.'
'It's clear enough, Aria. Thank you.' Hayate almost spoke herself, but the man spoke first, and Hayate carefully noted that Szash shot him a quick, sharp glance. No love lost there, I believe.
'He is Lord Protector Yosho Elasesh. Again, family or political affiliations. His words are... more formal, more polite, than the General's.'
Hayate nodded when he ceased speaking, and introduced herself. She was gesturing to Aria to indicate the familiar was her translator, when Yosho held up a hand, and said in accented Japanese, "It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Yagami-san. If it would be simpler, perhaps we could carry on in your language? Your comrades who were here when we pulled through the anomaly provided it for us." Szash snapped at him, but he merely shook his head, "no reason not to be polite, Szash. This is obviously not the world we left, as I warned everyone."
"If it would not be too much trouble, this should go much simpler with fewer translators," Hayate said. "The more translations involved, the greater the chance for misunderstandings, after all."
Szash muttered something else, then shrugged and smiled, "I suppose it won't hurt to indulge you. You'll learn a real language soon enough, after all."
"Szash," Yosho chided. "That was unnecessary, and far from certain."
Yosho's comment aside, Hayate did not care for the implications of Szash's comment. "Why would be learning your language 'soon enough'?"
"The Masters are debating, even as we speak, on the proper course for us to take," Yosho answered. "We have spent over fifty years trapped beyond reality, in the nothing between dimensions. Now, we are free once more, and demonstrably on Homeworld, but where we go from here is in question. Admittedly, our exit from the void was precipitous and hasty, but we are not so foolish as to make a move without information."
"That is good to hear," Hayate said, "I was hoping for such a reasonable response. You said you have been 'away' for fifty years. For us it has been many thousands of years. Entire nations have risen and fallen since your city was lost, not just here but throughout the universe. For instance, looking about your city, I can see any number of what we call 'Lost Logia'. They have proven for generations to be hideously dangerous, unpredictable at best and monstrously destructive at worst."
Szash snorted, "Of course you think they're dangerous. You patently have no concept of how magic works, how to bend it to your will. A babe in arms would have as much chance of understanding our technology as you!"
Hayate felt a spike of irritated insult at that, an irrational temptation to show the other woman precisely what she did understand of magic. But the instability of her own magic and the fact that she knew nothing of these people's magic kept her reason in firm control. "We understand well enough," she said, "you have however many years of your people's history in one city. I have thousands of years of records covering the entire universe. You may know how to safely use this technology, which I doubt given the history involved, but we have seen nothing but disaster and danger from it."
"Tche, 'history involved'," Szash snorted, "primitivists like you sabotaged one of the generators, even if you did not manage here as well as you did at Al Hazred colony. We have done nothing wrong, save defend ourselves from fanatics who would rather destroy the entirety of creation than admit that they are wrong."
Yosho cleared his throat, "We are not here to debate history, Szash, especially not history you are too young to remember." Szash sneered at him, but he held up a hand, and continued in their native tongue for a minute.
'He is commenting on her age,' Aria told Hayate, 'She was apparently a child or teenager when the city was lost. He claims to have been alive at the time of the Al Hazred disaster. There is something about that, as well. The tone and meanings are not quite right, but I think they viewed Al Hazred as... as a major colony?'
"Lord Protector, General, if we may," Hayate interrupted. "I realize you have requirements for yourselves and your city, but you need to recognize that the nations which have grown up here on Earth also have their needs. Then there are the Circles, descendants, I believe, of the 'rebels' you fought. They recognize your city, and keeping them from precipitous action will be difficult. We will all need to be very cautious to keep your return from becoming violent."
"True," Yosho agreed, "however your hopes for non-violence are probably in vain. The rebels have never been rational, and I doubt their descendants are any better, however long it is has been. That being said, we do need to know what we are faced with, before we can make any decisions. Would you be willing to give us some of that information, in exchange for our own requirements?"
Hayate had suggested a one-hour time-frame for the meeting, simply to establish contact and verify who she was dealing with. In the end, though, the three of them wound up spending closer to four explaining and debating. Unfortunately for Hayate's peace of mind, Szash's statements and Yosho's built two conflicting pictures. Yosho seemed calm and reasonable, apparently accepting the different time-frames with ease and understanding his own limits. Szash was rather the opposite, ignoring any suggestion that Terra's current nations had any right to exist, or the power to defend themselves. Reconciling those two impressions left a distasteful thought that one or both of them was attempting to manipulate her, to mislead her.
She did manage to learn a great deal about them, however. They claimed to truly be the Atlanteans the Circles so hated, but laid the entire blame for that conflict on the Circles. According to Szash and Yosho, a few fanatics so determined to return to a 'natural state' they hated all technology, magical or otherwise, destroyed the Al Hazred colony in a fit of terrorist pique, using methods deliberately engineered to cause maximum universe-wide destruction. The cataclysm so deliberately unleashed was then used as an excuse by the terrorists' fellows to demand an end to all such technology, and the damage was frightening enough to the common people that entire colonies abandoned varying levels of technology and in some extreme cases, abandoned all magic entirely. The 'madness' then spread to Homeworld, and a bloody vicious civil war erupted, until only the science city of Al Hanthis remained, purged of any rebels and sheltered behind its unique defenses. Reading between the lines, comparing their version with the Bureau's reconstructed history and the Circle's less-than-impartial legends, Hayate found herself believing something of a middle-ground. Civil wars were never as cut and dried as Yosho and Szash were claiming.
But the two did manage to make it abundantly clear that they and their people claimed Terra as theirs, and saw no reason to give up that claim of planet-wide rule. They made many claims of 'leaving existing structures in place', but made just as many claims of 'better ways'. Hayate tried to tell herself that this was a preliminary meeting, laying out positions, but the way the two different approaches the Al Hanthis representatives used meshed on the key points gave her little hope. In the end, she was left with the conviction that only direct Bureau intervention would stave off a disaster.
It was only as the sun began to descend that Yosho finally called a halt to the meeting. Szash simply stopped talking, and walked away, pulling her Guard subordinates after her with a gesture. Yosho was more polite. "I want to thank you for coming here, Yagami-san. I know we did not tell you what you hoped, but please believe me, we are no more eager for violence or misunderstanding than you are. Unfortunately, we have spent decades in the void, and decades before that fighting a bloody war against heartless fanatics. We must see to the safety of our people."
"I understand," Hayate told him, and she truly did. She had faced the same decision time and again. "But most people here on Earth will feel the same about their peoples, their nations. Please, do not stop talking with me, with the Bureau. None of us want bloodshed, but given your history and the Circles', that is all too probable."
"I can make no promises," Yosho said, "but we have no desire for bloodshed either. On the other hand, as a gesture of good will..." he held out one hand, and the double-doors Szash was heading for vanished into the wall. Szash came up short, and Hayate could not restrain a surprised gasp, as standing on the other side of it was Admiral Aignu, and her personnel. "I am afraid we found a number of mages within our perimeter when the city came through the anomaly. While technically, they are rebels and thus should be imprisoned until trial, I see no reason to do so. As they and you have both told us, it has been a very long time since the war, and I do not care to hold children responsible for the crimes of their grandparents. We can provide transport for them, if you wish."
"Yosho!" Szash shout cut across the clearing, as her hand cut across Aignu's approach, energy crackling along her sleeve. She shouted something else in Al Hazred.
'Szash objects to this, rather strenuously,' Aria translated. As Yosho answered with a calmer tone. 'He insists that, as they were taken within the city perimeter, that makes them the Protector's responsibility. I get the impression the Protectors are the police, while the Guard is the army, the first responsible for internal threats, the second for external threats.'
'Remember and review that, please,' Hayate responded. 'If there is a conflict there, we may need to use it.'
'Yes, Mistress,' Aria said, 'Yosho appears to be winning. The Admiral is coming. There are Circle mages with her as well.'
Aignu was utterly silent as she approached, ignoring everyone around her, and most of her crew matched that stoic demeanor. Most of the Circle mages tried to, but lacked her crew's unified training and confidence. The Terran mages were obviously too horrified by where they were to display anything but that horror. Most of Hayate's attention was on Aignu, until the Admiral made a slight gesture, and Hayate noticed the card slid into her belt – her dormant device, still on her person.
"Thank you, Lord Protector," Hayate said as the prisoners approached. "I understand and appreciate what you are doing here. We were worried about them."
"Call it a gesture of good will, Yagami-san," Yosho answered. "Will you require assistance to transport them? There are quite a few."
"No, I can handle it." Drawing the Sword, Hayate waited until she was sure everyone that was coming was out of the tower. 'Reinforce, you are going to have company soon. Please make sure no one gets into anything they should not.' Focusing on the Circle and Bureau mages, Hayate folded reality around them, "Arc of Angels."
The wash of light that covered the Bureau and Circle mages drew gasps and cries of surprise from the Al Hanthis personnel, and by the time it cleared, all of them, including Yosho, were on guard, energies gathered into half-formed spells, most of them aimed at her. From the expressions on most of their faces they were more shocked than afraid, though Hayate could not tell if they were offended by what she had done, or unable to believe how she had done it.
"Yagami-san," Yosho said slowly, "what did you just do to them? I thought they were your people."
"Some of them," Hayate agreed, "Certainly they are all my responsibility. I placed them in a pocket dimension, someplace they can be safely transported until I return them home."
"You did not destroy them?"
Hayate caught her breath, shocked herself at such a suggestion, "Of course not! It was a simple dimensional transfer spell!"
Yosho looked doubtful, visibly composed himself, then asked, "I mean no offense, Yagami-san, but in the future, could you please refrain from using... whatever that was? Despite what you think of us, we do not tear holes in reality as lightly as you just did."
Hayate blinked at him, then smiled slightly. "I did not 'rip a hole', Lord Protector, merely folded it somewhat. I admit it is a fine distinction, but my magic is somewhat unique. Your city is safe from my magic. Now, Journeyman Turo, would you be so kind as to show us out?"
Turo waited until Yosho relayed the instructions, then matched Szash's salute, before taking to the air and waiting politely for Hayate and her people to lift off. Then he lead them back to the same place they entered by, back through the ring and the opening in the barrier. This time, however, there were quite a few more people watching their departure, apparently attracted by Hayate's spell. Interest in the outsiders held the crowd's attention better than interest in their new vista, and Hayate's neck crawled at the attention. So many mages of such strength, with controllable lost logia behind them, presented a terrifying danger, even if every one of them was as peaceful as the most devout Buddhist.
As soon as they were clear of the city's barriers, Hayate wrapped her entire group up in a teleport, coming out over Cairo. Spiraling down, she told Signum, "We'll drop off the Circle mages at their building here, then bring the Admiral and her people to the campus. I need to talk to Chrono-kun soonest, and he'll want to hear what she has to say. I hope he has ships available, this is going to take more than just Fate-chan and the Asura."
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Kriegsen walked out of the briefing thinking furiously. Whoever they were, 'Atlanteans' or not, these new players were obviously powerful, obviously skilled mages. Despite the signs, he could not help wondering, Are they skilled enough? The bastard has slipped through my fingers time and again. These damn locals are useless, especially with that spineless worm, Hughes, in charge. Could these newcomers be the ones I need?
The problem was manifold, complicated, but he was used to that. Takashi was here, on this world, however difficult he was to track down. Kriegsen could not leave until the monster was dealt with once and for all, or he would inflict even more damage on the world, like that mess in Egypt. Beyond that, the problems were mostly a matter of discovery. If the Bureau discovered Kriegsen's presence, they would never stop hounding him. They had completely bought into Takashi's twisted version of events, completely ignoring Kriegsen's long and exemplary history and his manifest justifications. The local primitives were less of a threat, mostly because they had already proven completely unable to handle a real mage. Still, if they discovered him, they would force him out of hiding and probably bring the Bureau down on him. If Takashi or his new girl-toy found him, Kriegsen was fairly certain the two of them would try to kill him, and however little he thought of the girl-toy, Kriegsen was not stupid enough to face Takashi in open battle. The barbarian was good at battle, even if he was useless at everything else.
Kriegsen was used to complicated problems, though. He was a TSAB Admiral, after all, and he had been very good at his job, at every level. If I could be sure of getting the bastard, Kriegsen mused, I would be willing to go down with him. Hell, I was planning on it, at Alin Sydra and on the Novus Deva. But he's too slippery. I have to maintain my freedom of action. But anything overt will bring the Bureau's interference, before I can be certain the bastard is dead. That's what the primitives were for, but they're taking too long. He'll manipulate them as he did the Bureau, and given how backwards they are, he won't have to use nearly as much effort. But if these newcomers can be convinced to handle him... they should have more than enough power, if they truly control all those lost logia. It should be simplicity itself to convince them the bastard is an enemy, he certainly won't like any interlopers in his private playground which should give them ample reason to aid me. The trick will be keeping the Bureau out of things long enough. Much as I agree they should seize the newcomers' artifacts before something explodes, that can wait. So... is it worth giving up Triann?
That was an easy enough question to answer. Making sure there was no one hanging around close enough to overhear, He pulled out a local cell-phone, and dialed a pre-arranged number. Setting up a patch from the local comm network to Takashi's girl's relays had been difficult, especially setting up one that would keep itself hidden at the far end. But it had already proven useful last year, though that useless hack Gelcide had been a terrible disappointment, even more so than the local primitives.
The automated system picked up the other line, "Who are you trying to contact, please?"
Kriegsen debated one last time, then said, "Second Admiral Durio Triann, Diplomatic Corp."
"One moment, please."
A few seconds later, a human being picked up the other end, "Triann here, what can I do for you?"
"Hello, Durio. This is Wilhelm."
Durio was silent for a few seconds, and Kriegsen could almost hear the debate. Bureau rules would require Durio to report this contact immediately. But at the same time, Durio was a long time comrade and friend, and then there was the reason Wilhelm was calling him, as opposed to someone else. "What do you want, Wilhelm?"
"You owe me," Wilhelm reminded him, just to make it clear, "and I'm calling to collect.
"Gods, Wilhelm," Durio groaned, "you're insane! When he found out you were missing, Hallaoun threatened to murder whoever was hiding you. You do not want to know what he promised to do to you! Your actions, your escape, embarrassed all of us, and there isn't an officer alive who doesn't daydream about dragging you back in chains. Me included! Your little vendetta cost the Bureau greatly with the member worlds, set back our prestige and our ability to do our jobs by decades! And now you want me to do you a favor?"
"I'm well aware of my strategic situation," Wilhelm replied, "which does not change the fact that you owe me, Durio. Look at that picture on your wall, I know it's still there, it's too big to be moved. Your wife, your kids. You would have none of that if I hadn't hauled you out of that pit when every Bureau rule and natural instinct told me to leave you behind. Besides, I'm not even asking you to stick your neck out. You do this for me, and we are clear. Once you're done with this, you can tell anyone you want whatever you like."
Durio muttered something unintelligible, then demanded, "What is it?"
"I need you to make sure the Bureau stays off of Terra for at least the next year. They have to keep their hands off, completely, for one full year, regardless of provocation. I won't object to longer, but I need that year."
"You're going after Yagami?" Durio sighed, "Shimazu'll rip you apart, Wilhelm."
"That is my concern. Yours is to keep the Bureau off Terra for one year. Can you do it?"
Durio swore again, then said, "Yes, I can do it. It'll take me a couple days to figure out how and set it up, a few more to process through, so you'll have to put up with whoever's there for a bit longer, probably a couple weeks. Hallaoun's not going to take any interference lightly, especially not if you do something that would normally involve us, so he could slip something past me. But the Bureau as a whole? I can manage that."
"That's fine," Wilhelm said. It would give him time to generate his own revised plans, even if Hallaoun did slip something past Triann's obstructions. He hung up without another word.
That takes care of the Bureau, he told himself, now to buy a little time with the locals.
He looked around again, and found his team right where he expected, standing around outside their barracks debating the newest upheaval. A gesture got one man's attention, and Wilhelm waved him over. Once he was in speaking distance, Wilhelm moved to meet him, "Thorngrave, keep the Dogs ready to move for me. I have some contacts of my own I need to get in touch with, see what they can give me, but they won't react well if I show up with any official baggage. If Hughes calls, keep him happy. Got me?"
Thorngrave chuckled and shook his head, "I thought you were smart, Schuster. You take a vacation now, Hughes'll scalp you."
Kriegsen grinned back, "He won't, not with what I'm expecting to bring back. Just keep him from pulling the trigger before I'm back, shouldn't be more than a day or four."
"Understood, sir, and good luck," Thorngrave said.
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"I freely admit that I underestimated the entire situation. Everyone did, on all sides. The rebels underestimated us, Hayate underestimated us and the rebels, we underestimated the rebels and the extant nations, the Bureau underestimated the entire Homeworld equation. Those mistakes cost many lives, before and during the war.
"But I'll tell you true, everyone – everyone – grossly underestimated Yagami Hayate. Can you really blame us? The first time I met her, she was a little wisp of a girl, hardly old enough to be interested in boys, let alone a mage. She had a pair of Masters and a Master Adept backing her up, but we already knew that was half her trained mages, and she was considered the most powerful faction on Homeworld. It was pathetic! What could that little girl do in the face of our manifest power and superiority? Out of that entire glorious affair, that mistake alone is what I feel guilty for. If we, if I, had not so grossly underestimated her, the war would have cost far less, ended much sooner, and turned out far better, for everyone."
- Szash Freisan, General of the Armies of Terra, as quoted in a live-broadcast interview on Founding Day, Year Thirty.
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Author's Note: large parts of this chapter and the preceding two chapters were originally planned and written as a single chapter. Thing is, it wound up being somewhere between twenty and thirty pages, and dumped an incredible amount of information in a single hit. Even before I finished it, I was looking at breaking it up. So I broke it up into more manageable chunks, and combined it with a couple scenes planned for just-prior or just-after. Sorry if those felt filler-ish, I promise they're not, but the whole-chapter approach would have been painfully long, even for me. Also, admit it – you all forgot about Kriegsen, didn't you?:)
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Skyfall v2.0: The quick release of these last couple chapters is explained in the note above – the critical parts were written all at once, but too much to post at once. The basic identification of the 'newcomers' is done, but this is now about where Nanoha As was when the Bureau crew moved into the apartment in Japan. Niranjana and Allina are, admittedly, a peripheral plot point, as are all the relationships of various sorts (even Laura and the twins), but they will play a part. How each of the characters handles the upcoming crisis/crises will in large part be affected by those relationships, Niranjana and Allina especially. If it weren't for how tightly those relationships will affect later events, I would have much more fodder for Side Stories. As for Natalia meeting Fate, maybe, but given her history, any questions Natalia attempts to ask Fate about Precia are liable to backfire. Thanks for the review!
A Cannon: I'm glad you liked last chapter, here's the 'rest' of it. No real cliffhanger this time, two in as many chapters is enough for me:). I have to be careful with Allina and Niranjana, due to where I want them to end up. Same with several of the other relationships, some of which hopefully aren't clear yet, some of which should be. I am going to try to wrap up everything by the end, the trick is going to be if I can do that in a reasonable way, matching that 'tying off' with the end of major events. You are right about not all the characters getting equal screen-time, but they all have their parts. It's fun, but I think I'm going to have to sit down and plot out some more Side Stories, especially for the new kids. I won't say when, but Nanoha and Fate will also have parts in this story (the Bureau is hardly going to ignore this, after all), which is actually making me nervous since I'm uncertain of doing them justice. We'll see. Thank you for reviewing!
Kell Shock: You're half right about who stopped Hassed – it was originally, purely from habit, going to be Reian. But remember, Reian's an Ensign, still somewhat uncertain of himself. Aignu was there, and had the authority to back Hassed down. Probably should have been clearer on that, though, I may have to rework the paragraph. Your theory about where the city came from, how it got there, and how it got out is essentially correct. The big question is, who banished the city? Was it the Circles, as Yosho and Szash claim, or did they do it to themselves as the Circles insist? As far as the Atlanteans standing up to the Bureau, remember they currently have very little information about the Bureau other than whatever Aignu, Hassed, and their people reported. So they may be capable of holding off the Bureau, or may only think they can. As for Bureau mage strength, I haven't seen anything on their averages/ranks other than a basic description of each mage-rank, but it does make sense, just from statistics, that most would be in C range. For purposes of this story, I'm not entirely matching strength to rank (Nanoha's an Admiral, but Chrono got there first, and guess who has the higher strength), but generally anyone of Admiral and up is going to be at least A rank. Which leaves the vast majority of mages at B-rank or lower. I will also say that none of Hayate's kids, not even the first-years, are below A-rank potential. They can't pass the Bureau's tests for those strengths yet, but that's where they're all headed.
bloodied cypher: Thanks for reviewing, and I'm glad you're enjoying it. At present, I have no plans for a sequel to Endless Waltz. In all honesty, I doubt there will be, beyond possibly a couple post-script Side Stories. The setting is starting to feel a little 'stretched', and given what I already have planned, it's going to be more trouble than it's worth to top Endless Waltz. I'm still fiddling with an idea for a prequel, though...:). As for the Harry Potter comparisons... I suppose I shouldn't whine about them, but GAH! I liked Gundam Wing well enough, but I'm not sure why you were asking, in relation to Academy Blues?
Ray Venn Hakubi: Actually the funny part is, Al Hanthis' return repaired the tear in reality:), even if the fact that they could come out of a null 'breaks the rules'. As for why the city never came through, that's complicated, mostly due to the fact that where they wound up does not work according to any rules human beings are at all used to. Remember Yosho's comment at the start of last chapter, about 'time only works for us because we want it to'? I don't think it'll come up, but essentially by the time the city recovered from its banishment, there were no more nulls for them to bridge through. Then there's issues of stability, detection, the fact that a null that was 'near' in the void was not necessarily 'near' in real-space, etc... essentially, a lot of things went right to give them the chance to escape that they took. I am familiar with Forgotten Realms (go read my story Flamewalker, it's set there:) I never really cared for the Netheril, though, mostly because I didn't like the survivors from the Plane of Shadows. Two one-dimensional as a race, for me. As for Laputa, from what I remember of the movie, the society of floating cities destroyed themselves by trying to turn their technology to war and conquering... sort of like the legends of Atlantis... hmmm, how about that?:) In all three cases, I think it's mostly a matter of 'common inspiration'.
Baughn: My apologies for the confusion. I wanted to intro some of the Atlanteans from the start, but figuring out how to do it without blowing half the plot was difficult to impossible. Apparently it didn't quite work. 'Outside reality' does depend in large part on definitions. Yosho's explanation above fits best – the nulls are cracks in reality that leave one stranded between dimensions, essentially what happens when you try to travel between dimensions, successfully leave your own, but don't quite make it to the next one – limbo. Most of your questions about why/when the city broke free are due, as I told Ray Venn Hakubi, to timing and luck – this was the first time a potential exit was 'close enough', 'stable enough' and 'large enough' (all of which are very poor terms for how I'm picturing it, to be honest) for the city to use. The thing with Niranjana and Allina... they aren't critical to the plot, but the growth and status of their relationship is going to affect what they do later on (together and apart). The same is true with Mercedes and Yussef, Laura and the twins, Mariachi and Cidela, pretty much all the relationships I've spent time on, romantic relationships or otherwise. Putting that scene to Niranjana's viewpoint simplified combining some of her plot-line with the initial warnings at the school. In all honesty, I would be terrified of what Laura could pull off if she understood quantum physics as well as a true physicist does, though a large part of her creativity and flexibility (and danger) comes from the fact that she does not actually know what won't work. I'm still not sure if that is going to blow up in her face or not. The interference with the generators and engines was not due to the null, but to side-effects of the Atlantean's efforts to pull their city free, and yes, it would have had catastrophic effects on any unprotected lifeforms in the area – that was what Reian and the others were struggling to protect themselves from. Best way to think of it is, the city breaking free was the 'far end' of a full-blown dimensional dislocation, assuming what the Bureau usually tries to prevent is the 'near end'. As for bringing the entire city in one shot, it may or may not have been a one-shot attempt, but what if the attempt closed the null (as it did)? Any scouts would have been 'safe' on the far side, but the city would have remained trapped. More of their predicament will be made clear in upcoming chapters, but in short, the Masters were too scared of where they were not to take the chance, risky as it was. You are correct that the Atlanteans have to have better control over their magi-tech than the Bureau ever managed, but look at Yosho's explanation for Al Hazred – he blames it on their equivalent of real-world Luddites. And the 'victors write the history books' seems to apply to both sides, doesn't it?:)
Natimus Prime: Funny, I get things thrown at me when I use the old 'Holy whatever Batman' joke. It's not fair. Things are about to get messy, for a lot of reasons, and part of that is going to be the Masters and the Bureau reacting on partial information and misunderstandings, along with everyone else. As for what sort of magic the Atlanteans use, it is fundamentally the same as Midchildan, Velkan, and Circle magic, as it is the basis for all three. Thing is, all three 'modern' types diverged from the 'original' magic in key ways after the Al Hazred disaster, resulting in the Circles staid but cooperative non-enhanced magic and the Midchildan and Velkan use of devices. It will be clarified eventually, though not all at once. Thanks for the review!
nolrai: Glad you enjoyed it so far. Niranjana's and Allina's relationship needed to be updated/detailed for future events to make sense. As for the chapter title, I like the simplicity of it, but it's also quite literal – what the City of Al Hanthis did is impossible according to every rule and theory of magic I've seen in the Nanoha-verse, so...:). Thanks for reading & reviewing!