Endless Waltz
By: Daishi Prime
-29 – The Truth of Pyrrhus-
Basic recovery from the end of the battle of Hong Kong took the rest of the day, and well into that night. The PLA soldiers were in the mood to celebrate what they saw as a great victory, and for all the damage the city had suffered, it was a victory, especially for them. They had suffered close to twenty percent losses, terrible casualties for any battle, but they held the city, and despite the pre-battle demolition and heavy weapons employed, Hong Kong was remarkably intact for a battle involving such titanic forces. While there were countless shattered windows and doors, torn up streets, and a number of fires, the only demolitions had been those deliberately undertaken by the defenders, which were relatively contained. Compared to the utter devastation Szash had apparently planned, the city was practically untouched.
Hayate's kids mostly recovered from the EMP within an hour or so, though Laura remained badly disoriented most of the day and under observation the next. Aria sent the uninjured back to Hong Kong once they had recovered, to help with the post-battle tasks. Beginning to clean up the mess, locating the injured left by the initial retreat, and tracking down the stray Seed that burrowed their way into the city's basements and sewers when the rest retreated, took Hayate and her students until well into the night of the battle, fortunately for her nerves, and they stayed once more in their hotel.
Hayate managed to avoid having to tell them of Natalia's betrayal through the day after the attack as well, however much she felt like a coward for it. She did not want to have to tell them, did not want to have to hurt them like that, especially after the elation of their victory. The fact that they could not afford to take time to grieve immediately, that there was so much work to be done, gave her a good excuse, and she used that excuse ruthlessly. So it was not until they had returned to the campus, leaving the Bureau volunteers in Hong Kong, returned to meet the first years who had literally watched Natalia's attack on Cid-chan, that she finally told the second years.
Their reactions were worse than she had expected. She remembered her Knights' tales from February, Fate's stories, and expected something like that. But February had been an inexplicable though half-expected attack from an outside source. This had been equally inexplicable, but it was no unknown faceless enemy. Their classmate and friend, someone they knew, had tried to kill two of them, and the second years had never even thought about it. There was no quiet waiting, no fierce determination to set things right. Her children burst into tears, tried to argue against it, rejected and denied that it had happened, concocted ridiculous and fanciful justifications, overcome by pain and fear she could understand, but did not know how to fight.
Hayate had seen betrayal, of course, both in action and its results. But the closest she had ever come in her own experience was when the Lieze twins took her Knights from her while wearing Nanoha's and Fate's faces. That situation had been resolved within an hour, however, in the best possible way. The situation with Kriegsen and Takashi had been at a remove, a case she was personally involved in but not a party to. This was different, true and utter betrayal. Natalia had been among the quietest and most withdrawn of the second years, especially since the summer, but she had been one of them. One of Hayate's children had tried to kill another, and betrayed everything Hayate tried to teach her. Had she not been so worried for her students and Shamal, Hayate herself would have found a corner to curl up in and cry for a good day.
She stayed with the kids as long as she could, as long as she could stand it. Noriko tried gamely to help comfort everyone, as did the Lieze twins and Tai-yu, even Vita. Without Nanoha and Lindy, Hayate was fairly certain they would have all fallen apart completely. But it was going to take time to even begin to deal with Natalia's actions, and Hayate herself needed to get away, her children's pain feeding her own. So as night fell for the second time after Hong Kong, Hayate flew out of the valley, and teleported to Angkor. North of the famous temple, she had managed to acquire just enough land to build one of Sara's memorials, triplet to those at Stonehenge and T'ai Shan. She sat beneath the statue, staring out over the half-excavated ruins, knees hugged to her chest, and let the tears flow.
Hayate had been feeling the stress for months, now, since before the Circles' February attack, but that was normal. Compared to the stress she had lived with as a Bureau Enforcer, it had been minor, even the worst periods between Nimrod and her press-conference ending the official conflict. The Circle civil war had been worrisome, but had mostly been Hughes' problem – he dealt with it, and she just had to make sure they were not trying another surprise attack. But Al Hanthis' return had put all the pressure squarely on her. For weeks she had been feeling harried and worried, as the entire world came to rest on her shoulders, almost literally. With the Bureau's decision not to intervene, it felt like the entire universe was resting on her shoulders. She had been able to deal with that pressure easily enough before – she had her Knights, her friends, the children, and allies in the Moderns who were fairly reliable. She knew her capabilities, had allies, and was confident of eventual victory. Hong Kong, she had hoped, would relieve that stress. A solid defeat of Al Hanthis forces, enough prisoners to provide information and demonstrate both Hayate's power and restraint, and Al Hanthis could be convinced to back off, to talk. Backing them off would give Hayate the standing to push the Circles into bringing the Revenants fully under control, which would in turn give her an argument to calm Al Hanthis further, and so on. Hong Kong was supposed to be the start of a self-reinforcing spiral of incremental but visible victories.
Instead there had been casualties atop casualties, dead in the hundreds and injured in the thousands. Instead, the Guard had retreated in relative safety, and while they had captured many prisoners, most of the Guard, including its commander, had escaped. Instead of a victory, Hayate had only a bloody stalemate. She was tired, hurt, stressed, and now her kids were in pain and she had no idea how to help them.
Natalia's betrayal was not the straw the broke the camel's back, it was the knife that undercut the last of Hayate's strength.
She did not know how long she sat there, crying in private, before Nanoha, Suzuka, and Arisa arrived. Her friends did not say anything, just sat next to her at first, Nanoha and Suzuka wrapping their arms around her shoulders, trying to be comforting just by their presence. It had been dark when she arrived, but the moon was setting before she finally found her voice.
"I tried," she whispered, "I tried to understand her, to offer her what I could. Shamal looked at her brother so many times, always the same. We looked at her eye, but could not figure out how it worked. I tried to trust her, and watch her, and she still... she still..."
"Sometimes," Nanoha said, "people just act. Sometimes, it doesn't matter what we do for them, they want what they want, and cannot see the price of the path they follow. Sometimes, they do see it, but think the goal is worth it. You did nothing wrong, Hayate-chan."
"I didn't teach her well enough," Hayate countered.
"Bull!" Arisa glared at her, "This was not your fault, Hayate-chan! She did this, she chose to turn on you, to hurt Cid-chan and the others. She did this, not you."
Arisa's vehemence was like a slap in the face, shockingly direct and angry in the face of her pain, but after a second, Hayate could not object. Arisa was right, after all, and the blond girl had never had it in her to be tactful. Just honest.
"I still should have watched her closer, put better trackers on them," Hayate said, "or not told them about the trackers, or had Aria maintain standing teleport locks..."
"Or any one of a million other things," Nanoha interrupted gently, squeezing her shoulder, "nobody's perfect, Hayate-chan, not even Chrono-kun. You did better than Fate or I could have, well enough that most of your kids came through today with scrapes bruises and two broken bones between them. Natalia... no one could have predicted that, Hayate-chan. Certainly not that she would turn on you so viciously. It's not your fault, it's hers. From what I heard back at the school, your students are already planning how to deal with her. Funny, for all their anger and pain, they're being remarkably rational about it. They want to bring her back for trial. Well, that's what Noriko and Yussef are saying."
Hayte grinned weakly, "They can put her up there right next to Szash that way, the traitor and the one who instigated the treason."
"You gave them that, Hayate," Nanoha told her, "You taught them to be that way. To be calm, rational, in the face of crisis. To think things through. They're finding a way through their pain, thanks in part to what you taught them."
Hayate shook her head, "I'll tell you precisely how they came up with that idea, and it wasn't me. Yussef and Noriko talked it over between them, figuring out how to handle their friends, to avoid having to deal with their own feelings. He would have brought up historical points, she would be talking about people and their classmates. Then he talked to Mariachi, she talked to Aria and tried to talk to Shamal, then both of them talked to Laura. The three of them then brought it up with the rest of the students. Yussef's boys will listen to him because he's their leader. The girls will listen to Noriko and Laura because Noriko and Laura are the strongest and most skilled of them."
"Who brought them together? Who encouraged them to grow as they have?" Nanoha shook her head, "You may not have given them the ideas, but it was you who taught them their ideas have meaning, place, and strength, taught them to act and act responsibly. Just because one student took it too far and in the wrong direction does not mean her failure is your fault."
"Nanoha is correct, Hayate-chan," Suzuku murmured. "You are only human, you are not responsible for other people's choices. Unless you turn into the sort of dictatorial tyrant you've spent the last decade bringing to justice."
"Speaking of the kids," Arisa finally flopped down, leaning against Hayate's legs to rest her head back on Hayate's knees. "How are the girls? Nanoha's been keeping secrets again."
"I have not!" Nanoha poked Arisa's temple, "I just don't have much information. I've been with the other kids, talking with them, trying to debrief them, to help them figure everything out. Laura's already done it before, but the other kids are having some trouble, especially with Natalia, and I haven't had time to check on the injured. Well, other than Ichigo, Luke, and Megan, and they had nothing worse than broken bones and seemingly-permanent scales. Aria already had them up and about this morning."
The question hurt, but Hayate had expected it. "Allina's the best off. We think she was trying to get into a Guard mage's implants, and they turned her attack back on her. HAL took the brunt of it, and all his programming and memory were wiped. Allina appears to have only taken some backlash shock. She's not unconscious any more, just sleeping, with a relatively high ratio of dream sleep. Aria thinks her subconscious is trying to process everything, but she's been awake long enough several times to prove she's mentally all there, just very tired. Niranjana and Cid-chan, though..."
"Admiral Aignu called a little while ago," Nanoha said, face serious. "They traced Saraswati's attack on the Infinity Library. Apparently Saraswati was less than subtle about any of it. She thinks that may be the 'in' Chrono-kun needs to get the Bureau to intercede, but they'll be coming for Niranjana and Saraswati."
"They won't get her," Hayate shook her head. "I'll send her to that colony Takashi's watching, they're outside Bureau space and anti-Bureau enough to make High Command hesitate about going after one hacker. The thing is... Saraswati's work saved Niranjana's life, but it was very crudely done. Niranjana is awake, and mentally fine, but she has some severe problems remembering names, or matching the names she remembers to the right faces, and her motor control is shot. Also, Saraswati's implants are the only thing keeping her heart and lungs going, her digestive system, all the automatic processes the brain regulates. Niranjana lost a good percentage of her brain, and Saraswati tried to take over as much of the lost functionality as possible. It's better than being dead, but it's going to take time for her to get back to normal, and we will need to make repairs to Saraswati to get the device functional again. The cybernetics Saraswati jerry-rigged are no longer connected to the device, they're running on their own so we can do the device repairs whenever. But the implants themselves… they need to be replaced by permanent systems, properly designed ones, but there are no cyberneticists on Earth who could replace Saraswati's work with any cybernetics, and I'm not sure there are any proper implants for what Niranjana needs now."
"Do you know how it happened?"
Hayate shrugged, "Aria was watching the monitors. She missed Natalia's attack on Cid-chan, but it was recorded and on review, it looks like a spell designed to rip apart the target's linker core. Signum knows of something like it, one of Shamal's nastier spells. Thing is, Shamal's spell requires physical contact with the target's linker core – she has to scry it out, grab hold, and then trigger the spell, which still fails spectacularly half the time. I think what happened to Niranjana is, without the direct contact, the spell destabilized randomly. Nerves are both the most energy-conductive part of the body, and the most easily damaged by such energies, so..." she trailed off and shrugged again.
"What about Cid-chan?"
Hayate started to answer, then sighed and shook her head. "I don't know. None of us, not even Shamal, are experts on healing linker cores. Shamal... she's been with Cid-chan since she brought her back from Hong Kong, and I don't think she can leave. She isn't even sparing the attention to tell us what's wrong, but we've made some educated guesses. Natalia's spell worked, mostly, on Cid-chan, and Shamal is trying to rebuild Cid-chan's linker core. The only people who might know how to fix this are some Bureau specialists, but we can't go to them or get them here. There's something, something, tickling around in the back of my mind, but I haven't been able to figure out what it is. Either way, I don't... don't know what we'll be able to do, short of sending her and Shamal to Aignu. If we even can, Shamal almost couldn't teleport her back because of her linker core's instability. And even if the Bureau saved her, we'd never get her back. There's something odd in her linker core, and then there's that powerful healing gift."
Suzuka started, "You think the Bureau would… would…"
"Hold her indefinitely for safety studies?" Hayate shrugged, "you remember, Nanoha, what they were like after the Akira incident, and when I retired. There were serious proposals to take me out of space and put me in a laboratory on a permanent basis. Chrono fought it tooth and nail, of course, and so did Lindy, but it was still suggested. There are still Bureau officers who think it was wrong to let me go, that I should be brought back, for any number of reasons. With Cid-chan? She's an injured little girl who would owe them her life. I'm not saying they would turn her into an experiment, but 'hold her for study'?" Hayate shook her head, "I can't risk it, not with Shamal's daughter."
"Sometimes I wonder if Sara's gift was really a gift or not," Nanoha said. "Ever since then – thanks to some of the responses to you, I know – you've been less trusting. Not of us, not your friends, but of... anyone else."
"Can you really blame me? I mean, nothing untoward ever actually happened to me, but look what happened to Takashi, look what almost happened to me. The Deva magic didn't bring any of that about, Nanoha-chan, or even make it worse or more obvious. It just... happened..." Hayate trailed off as inspiration struck. Thinking back over her experience with the Bureau's response to mysteries clarified the idea that had been in the back of her mind. "Deva magic," she whispered.
The others caught her tone, and Suzuka asked, "What about it, Hayate-chan?"
"It's two linker cores," she said, "the first stabilizes the second, and is balanced in turn. Even without the second, the first becomes stable enough to survive the mage. Sara's original linker core still exists in the Sword of Light."
Nanoha was thinking it over, "You're going to make Cid-chan a Deva mage? You think that'll stabilize her? Won't it be dangerous, though? You haven't done it before."
Hayate deflated for a moment, realizing she did not dare try her first Deva conversion with someone as injured as Cid-chan. Then she laughed, half amused, half sad. "Noriko," she said softly, "Noriko's all set up for my first attempt. Oh, God, Nanoha, I wasn't going to do this to anyone for years."
Nanoha hugged her tighter, "Will it save Cid-chan?"
"Probably. I'll have to talk with Aria, she's our best healer after... no, not Aria." Her tone changed, whistful hope shading into authority, "Akira, come here."
Arisa and Suzuka gave her a strange look, but a second later, Akira stepped out of nothing and bowed to her. "My Lady. How may I serve you?"
"I require Takashi's presence at the school. His physical presence. I need his assistance and experience pertaining to Deva magic, and I will not settle for a hologram."
"His project..."
"Is less important to me than my children."
Akira met her gaze for a few seconds, obviously considering, then nodded. "I will convey your message, My Lady, but I cannot command him."
"Tell him the terms," Hayate said. "Tomorrow, by sunset. If he is not at my school by then, he will be an hour later."
With a bow, Akira departed. Hayate stood up, hugging her friends, "Thank you, I mean it, but I have work to do, now."
"You had work to do before," Arisa complained. "You're doing too much, Hayate-chan. Relax, calm down, the world won't end if you take a night off. This place is pretty peaceful, just plain pretty, too. Could do with some air conditioning, though."
"But now I have a goal, Arisa-chan," Hayate countered, "something that will help my kids other than standing over them while they hurt."
00000
Settling gingerly into her seat, sore from the strain of battle and rough return, but not actually injured, Szash waved the other two to the seats before her desk. Eri was even worse, having landed far more roughly than Szash had in the emergency extraction. Gali, having 'fought' from the comfort of a monitoring station in the city, just grinned at both of them, though he politely refrained from laughing at his General. "Okay, Gali," Szash said, once she was settled, "give me the bad news."
"Well," he said, "I've got bad news, really bad news, good news, and some surprises."
"I said the bad news, and I meant it," Szash said.
"The bad news is, the Five-oh-First is out of action indefinitely. Three of their four platoons plus the two of you went to Hong Kong, seventy-seven Guard in total. Of whom we retrieved forty-three fit for duty."
Szash had known it was bad, but that still made her cough in surprise and pain. "We lost thirty-four mages?!"
Gali nodded. "Most were third platoon – they were at ground-zero for the fracture that ended the battle, and were probably killed outright, though we received no termination codes. One was from Second Platoon, he reported someone disrupting the Seed, moved to counter, and was subsequently captured. However they captured him, we lost lock and have been unable to re-establish. We believe he is dead, but he's listed as missing since we never received a termination code from his implants. The rest were from First Platoon, most of them killed in the fighting in the air, from who we did receive termination codes.
"The good news is that our injured are relatively light, thanks to the Healers. Captain Master Haen is the worst. A subtle knife tried to use Haen's implants to access the Guard's network, and the resultant confrontation backlashed through him and put him in coma. Something strange happened there, but it wiped the programming in his implants and trashed our logs rather badly and we haven't been able to puzzle it out yet. Master Haen was retrieved immediately after the connection terminated, and the Healers are confident they can wake him in a few days, but they can't speak to mental damage until he's conscious again. Other than that – a lot of bruises and lacerations, a couple broken bones from those lunatics' insistence on close combat, and one case of extreme emotional stress, all but the last already healed."
Szash frowned, curious about the last one, "Extreme emotional stress? How'd that happen?"
"Private Journeyman Raus encountered Laura Simms, one of Hayate's students, and Akira. Raus has acquired several local languages, and apparently the two were arguing whether to kill or capture him, while the girl fought him. He's suffering a combination of humiliation and terror. The healers have him in hand, and he'll be fine, but this was his first combat mission. In his defense, of the six dead in First Platoon, four of them were killed by Akira, including Raus' squad leader. Raus himself got a nasty slash across his chest, and almost lost a hand. He'll be all right, but at the moment the kid's a wreck."
Szash grimaced. She had not encountered Akira or Takashi, but had seen recordings of the former. He would not have been especially upsetting, if not for the fact that his attitude was that of a child at play, rather than the murderous soldier he patently was. "Take care of Raus," Szash ordered, "anything he needs. I'll go down and talk with him whenever the Healers clear it."
Gali nodded, making a note, then carried on. "The really bad news is, we lost about half the Seed we sent to Hong Kong, prior to recalling them after the fracture. We won't have solid numbers until they get back and we can physically count them, of course, but an eyeball count by the lighter sent to retrieve an Alpha was fifty-percent losses. I'm guessing most went in that mass-demolition towards the end of the battle. A few are probably still there, rattled by the combat enough to forget their programming, hiding in sewers and what-not, but we left a lot of dead Seed. That worries me, General, a great deal. There are precious few things that can hurt a Seed of Leviathan, the idea that the locals have something that effective..." he shook his head slowly, "scary, especially if it's something they can turn on our mages as well."
He paused, flipping through his notes. "The good news is, all our major objectives but one were accomplished, that 'one' being the elimination of Hayate and her people. The entirety of North Africa is secure, from the Sinai to the Atlantic, from the Mediterranean to the southern Atlantic coast. We did not quite have the manpower to go after the Congo region as we thought, but that was tertiary anyhow. Resistance was about as stiff as expected – rebel mages in their amplification circles, with non-mage troops. In most cases, once we seized the government offices and military command officers, the resistance folded. There are a few places – Somalia, the Ivory Coast, Libya, a couple smaller regions – where we could not secure all the government, but we managed well enough. There are a lot of conventional troops out there, though, and it seems like everyone has a weapons arsenal, so actually pacifying the area is going to take years. Losius has some ideas for using the locals who surrendered for that, but says we'll have to be careful not to isolate our supporters from the local populations. I've got him putting together an operational proposal now, but it'll take him a few days to get all the data he needs."
"Remind him to be careful. The rebels were always excellent at espionage and sabotage," Szash reminded him, "I don't want a repeat of the cataclysm."
"Duly noted," Gali said with a smile and tone of long-suffering, "mother dear."
Szash threw a stylus at him, then asked, "You said you had something surprising as well?"
"The recon team sent to Japan to study that redirection effect was mostly successful. Turns out it's an extremely complicated set of interlocking wards. Ghost wards."
Szash twitched in surprise and stared at him, but he only nodded seriously. "Ghosts? Gods above, how can these barbarians pull off Ghost wards?" The Ghosts were relics, a hold-over from the Warlords Era, when the Conclave had needed a way to meet and plan in absolute secrecy. The answer had been Ghosts, experts at misdirection and camouflage of all sorts, from mundane to magical. They had remained, in small numbers, after the last Warlord was defeated, and fulfilled their purpose for both sides of the later primitivist rebellion. Szash knew of two who had lived in Al Hanthis at the time of the Cataclysm, though no one knew what had happened to them. True to their name, they had vanished. Ghosts had always kept their secrets close, their numbers small, and whenever the Conclave needed something kept secret, they gave it to the Ghosts. "You're certain?"
Gali nodded. "The effect matches in all particulars a structure of Ghost wards named 'Wall of Wanderers'. It's actually several wards combined, and the Japanese are generating the structure from several thousand locations. Effectively, anyone approaching Japan with intent to harm Japan or the Japanese people in any way will be redirected. Teleports will be similarly redirected, the recon team tested it. They also think there's something else behind the Wall, something more violent, but did not press the wards to find out. Our initial scouts, the ones who noticed the wards in the first place, were looking for information to aid in conquering Homeworld, so the ward triggered on them.
"The interesting thing is, according to Archives the Wall is only good to cover an area of a few miles. The scout team managed to precisely map the effect's border over the eastern ocean, what the locals call the Pacific. It's not a single smooth border, but rather a series of overlapping spheres, hundreds of them. The overlap effect seems to amplify it, enough to reach out that far from the coast, but there are multiple sites. Also, the effect reaches a significantly lower altitude than we expected – still several miles, but not as bad as the coast."
"So we can't stop it with a single attack," Szash said. "Damn, I was still hoping."
Her aides shrugged, then Eri asked, "Any sign of a ZES platform? It would take more than one shot, but not many more."
Gali shook his had, "No. There are indications of a couple of hundred caches of machines on Homeworld itself, but those are almost all in rebel hands. A few at the bottom of the oceans, but those would be too difficult to get to until the war is over. There are some indications the old moon installations are still there, and, of all things, an old distant early-warning platform out past the last planet is still live. It's blind and senile with age, mind you, and there shouldn't be a planet that far out on that weird an orbit at all, but the DEW's still there and responded to the general broadcast query."
"The DEW platforms were designed to be autonomous and rugged," Szash reminded him, "not entirely surprising that one would last this long, but it's useless to us at the moment, even if it was fully functional. Stuff on the moon could be usable, if we can get past the Bureau."
"Master Adept Wahsi is putting together a remote survey team to try and figure out if anything is worth going after," Gali said, "but nothing that's responded is large enough to be a ZES platform."
"So Hayate's safe in Japan, and likely to remain that way for the foreseeable future," Szash said.
"And we got hammered, hard," Eri added with a grimace.
"Not hard enough to affect the next operation, though," Gali said. "Should we go ahead with the next wave?"
Szash considered it for a few moments, then shook her head. "Not just yet. Ask me again in a few days, when we've got a better handle on what it will take to pacify the new territories. If they'll submit as easily as projected, we'll go ahead, but if there's serious resistance, we'll need to modify and slow down the plan to account for that. Wouldn't make much sense to get so far ahead of ourselves we lose control of home base."
00000
Noriko found Ichigo in one of the smaller workrooms shortly after Hayate returned. Despite possessing a series of impressive bruises from his rough landing, he was working. He had up a series of targets, and was practicing sword-work and buster spells with Masamune. Mostly, she knew, he was trying to burn off energy, tire himself out, avoid thinking. A lot of them were doing that, in their own ways, and Noriko was self-aware enough to realize she was doing it to. She was talking to everyone and anyone, helping them deal with their emotions, rather than dealing with her own. But her friends needed her help, and she had a plan to deal with her own reactions later.
Noriko watched Ichigo for a couple minutes, then cleared her throat. When he turned to her, she said, "Hello, Ichigo. How are you feeling?"
He grimaced, and turned back to the targets, though he did not resume his attacks. "How do you think I feel?"
"Hurt, confused, angry," Noriko answered, moving up to stand next to him, "roughly the same as the rest of us."
He snorted once, then shook his head, "Hurt, yeah, more than angry, but I'm not confused. You heard Hayate-sensei – Natalia went straight from Hong Kong to Moscow, kidnapped her brother. I know exactly why she did this, there's no confusion. But angry... Hell yes, I'm angry. At myself! She told me! She fu... told me she was going to do this, the night before."
Noriko flinched a little from the rage in his voice. Ichigo was far angrier than the others, which she had half-expected. "How did she tell you, Ichigo?"
"She said the battle would not turn out like anyone else expected, that not all of us would return. We talked, while I got dinner, about the school and the battle and everything. She said she would be 'taking care' of Cid-chan, and that she did not think we would all return to the school. She told me what she was going to do, and I completely missed it."
Noriko put a hand on his shoulder, making him look at her, "Ichigo, she did not say she was going to betray us. Natalia's assigned mission in Hong Kong was to take care of Cid-chan, to guard her against Al Hanthis mages, Circle betrayal, and her own gift. She could very easily have been right about not all of us returning, not because she expected to betray us, but because we could very easily have died. Laura was almost burned out by the EMP, Megan still has scales from the untested dragon form, and Zafira-sensei took a nasty hit from a guard mage. All of us were injured in small ways, and any of those could have been far worse. Nothing she said would have made you think she could or would betray us, Ichigo. It's not your fault. The only people who could have had reason to suspect that were Shamal-sensei and Hayate-sensei, who both saw Natalia as hurt but healing. If neither of them realized what she was planning, how could you have? From a conversation any of us could have had with each other, worrying the night before a major battle?"
"I knew her," Ichigo insisted. "Natalia never worried about anything happening to her, it was always her brother, always her grandmother, always the people around her. She never got depressed about her own fate, just about seeing everyone else's. She was as good as telling me..."
"That she thought she would die? That she thought you might? We were going into battle, Ichigo, and not a surprise raid, either. We all knew Hong Kong would be different from February, and we were all worried. If any of us, even the teachers, had heard her say that to you, or to us, we would have assumed like you did, that she was just worried about all of us surviving. Especially her! She sees death, Ichigo. If she told me anything about 'not all of us will return', I would have started getting everyone to fill out wills and write last letters home."
Ichigo started to say something, then paused and sighed, shaking his head. "Makes sense. But it feels wrong. I knew her better than anyone, I should have known, should have heard it in her voice."
Noriko almost sighed herself, in exasperation. Boys, she muttered mentally, why do they all have to be so stubborn? She had said her piece, however, and knew he would think over what she had sadid. Giving up on convincing him for the moment, she decided to try distraction. "Hayate-sensei is back."
He looked up, almost smiled, "Is she okay?"
Noriko giggled at the look on his face and worry in his voice. "You realize how ridiculous that is? Us, worrying after her?"
He shrugged, "She's Hayate-sensei. Is she okay? She was looking really rough before she headed out."
"She's better," Noriko told him, "though I don't know how well, or why precisely. But she's better. And don't go on about how she disappeared – Nanoha-sensei and I had to practically hit her over the head and tie her up to get her to take some time to herself. She needed it as badly as you did. "
Ichigo actually smirked at her, "Do you realize how ridiculous that sounds, you manipulating Hayate-sensei into taking care of herself? What about you, though. You've been looking out for all of us, who's looking out for you."
Noriko waved that aside, "I can afford to put it off for a bit. In a day or so, Laura'll snap over this, lose her temper over something, and that'll set me off. She'll be so busy trying to make me feel better, she'll get over her own hurt and anger by the time I'm feeling better."
"A little manipulative, don't you think?"
Noriko shook her head. "I know my friends, Ichigo, especially Laura. She won't face Natalia's betrayal directly, but when I let go she won't be able to resist trying to help me, which will force her to face it as well. It's manipulation, yes, but not underhanded or mean-spirited. It's how I care for people. But for the moment, Yussef would like to talk you as well, but he lost Chen-chi's coin toss again."
Ichigo actually flinched a little at that, "Ah... about what?"
"About Hong Kong, of course," Noriko replied. "You're the last of the Myrmidons to be debriefed, and he wants to know everything you did during the battle. He's especially interested in that teleport you and Toushiro worked out, how you got it done so fast."
"The short range eliminates almost all the variables and simplifies the rest, including time and power needs, but we didn't..." he trailed off, face falling again, "Natalia figured it out. Flying's actually faster, for most of us, it's the unpredictability that let the Hail Mary work."
"You'll need to explain it to all of us, then. It's too useful to keep to yourself."
Ichigo left off venting, and followed her back out of the classroom building and across to the library. They talked over the battle a little, carefully avoiding the subject of Natalia, focusing on Ichigo's and Toushiro's efforts. When they reached the library, where most everyone was still gathered, Yussef waved them over to the table he was using.
When Noriko went to leave the boys to talk, however, Yussef held up a hand, "Wanted to ask you about something we just saw." He waved to the small screen in front of him, turning it for her to see. It was displaying a paused video clip, Master Adept Hughes at a podium in front of a small crowd. "Hughes held a press conference," Yussef explained. "Most of it was just giving the news people the basics of Hong Kong, first reports and all that. But during the questions period, he said something that's bothering me."
Yussef started the clip, and a muffled voice asked, "Grand Master Hughes, I've heard reports through the medical community that one of Miss Yagami's people attacked two others during the battle for no reason. Did this attack happen, and why? Was it treason, as some are suggesting, or something more complicated?"
Hughes grimaced, shaking his head, "It is not the policy of the United States Department of Defense or the Mage Circles to comment on covert operations, ongoing or otherwise. Next question."
Yussef paused the video again, and raised an eyebrow at her. "That bug you as much as it bugs me?"
Noriko nodded slowly, sinking into a chair. Hughes' comment was hardly subtle, but at the same time so out of left field and incomplete that it would be believable. A man under unaccustomed pressures facing unaccustomed media attention letting slip something he should not have. Al Hanthis would trust it, as much as they did anything Hughes said. "It's damage control," she said. "Al Hanthis will have to suspect Natalia of being a plant, a double-agent. Now, Hughes has almost admitted that she is, in a 'slip of the tongue'. We may not have to deal with Natalia at all, if they believe him enough. At the least, Al Hanthis will have to question everything she tells them."
"That bastard," Ichigo whispered, face pale and tight with renewed anger. "Who the Hell is he..."
"Ichigo," Yussef said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "This isn't last year, man. Natalia made her choice, now she's going to have to live with the consequences. If we get her and put her on trial, that's great and I'll be happier for it. But if they decide to do something..." he shrugged uncomfortably. "I know I shouldn't listen to the bedouin in me, but in this case, I'm not going to feel bad about anything that happens to Natalia. Nothing at all."
Noriko gave him a sad look, a little disappointed but not really surprised, and shook her head. "You foreign barbarians and your vengeance obsessions."
"The Forty-Seven Ronin," Yussef countered immediately.
Noriko waved that argument aside, "Oh, please, that is a glorious tragedy about devoted samurai redeeming their fallen master's honor. That wasn't vengeance, it was honor." The grin ruined the haughtiness, but that was the point.
Both boys chuckled at the joke, though Ichigo's was a little forced. Yussef let go of his shoulder, then leaned around him to talk quietly. "You heard Laura's latest twist?"
Feeling a sinking sensation, Noriko said, "No. What's she doing now? Is this about Mercedes' latest prank?"
Yussef shook his head, though he did grin. Laura had been in the infirmary until after everyone else returned from Hong Kong, so they had all been there to witness, or at least to hear, her reaction to Mercedes' artistic efforts – turning everything in Laura's room, down to her clothes and carpet, painfully girlish shades of pink. Mercedes had been mortified when watching the battle impressed on her just how serious Hong Kong was, but had not been able to get the time to undo the spells before Laura's return. "No, not that. Her latest twist to the Natalia situation. She wants the rest of us to promise to avoid Natalia, if we run into her. Says she's the only one who won't kill Natalia, and we need her alive to put her on trial."
Noriko frowned slightly, "We're hardly going to kill her on sight."
"I think she's worried about the heat of battle," Yussef said with a shrug. "And to be honest, I think she's right. The teachers, sure, they won't let their anger at her lead them into going too far. But us? Come on, Noriko, we're good, especially for our ages, but so is Natalia. Could you take her down without killing her? If she seriously fought back? With Cid-chan dying back here while Shamal-baa-chan works herself to exhaustion trying to save her?" He shook his head, "No, Laura's the best to do this. The Myrmidons won't touch Natalia, not unless she surrenders outright."
00000
Allina finally woke up completely two days after Hong Kong. She had vague memories of being partly awake, of dozing while hazy figures moved about her, but she did not truly wake for any of those incidents. Waking presented its own hazards, as Aria insisted on running a seemingly endless series of tests to verify that nothing permanent had happened. The tests took until shortly before dinner, but beyond HAL's entire programming being wiped clean, nothing showed up in Aria's tests beyond a little residual instability that was fading naturally.
Catching Allina up on everything took until some time after dinner. News of Natalia's betrayal hurt, news of Cid-chan's injury was bad, but it was not until she heard what had happened to Niranjana that she broke down into tears. Aria was nice enough to hold her through that and whisper meaningless promises, until she got herself back together again. "H-how... how bad is she, really?"
"She'll be fine, eventually," Aria told her, "but is very similar to a severe stroke victim. Natalia's failed spell damaged large portions of her brain, and the components Saraswati used as implants were not properly designed as replacements. She can't see out of her right eye, and her fine motor control, especially with her right hand, is atrocious. She has trouble speaking as well, especially if she speaks quickly. All of which can be handled with therapy, though it will probably take her years to fully recover. She'll need all the help and support we can give her, especially from you."
"Whatever she needs," Allina promised, feeling her heart twisting with worry.
"The worst part," Allina continued, making Allina cringe, "is her memory. The most obvious sign is, she has trouble with names. She has Lotte and I confused, and she called Zafira 'Arf' – you should have seen the look on his face. The changes are always related, but she mistakes everyone. I'm already working on her with it, but it's going to be difficult. Her general memories are very spotty, as well. While she remembers the members of her family, she does not remember who is who, her memories have some surprising gaps throughout her life, and she remembers nothing of Hong Kong or the days before it."
Allina froze at that, turning to look at Aria in horror. "N-nothing? Of the nigh... the day before?"
Aria gave her a sad smile, "I'm sorry, Allina, but nothing. Whatever you two talked about – and yes, despite your blush, we all have a fairly good idea what that was – Niranjana does not remember it."
For a few seconds, hearing Aria's certainty, Allina actually relaxed. She doesn't remember it, it didn't happen. We can go back to being friends, and I won't have to worry about hurting her again. She'll never even... No. No, she'd know. Someone will tell her, or she'll ask again. "Can I see her, sensei?"
Aira considered that for a moment, then nodded. "Her parents are here, staying up at the house, but they just left her for the night. She isn't up to walking yet, she has to relearn how to balance, but there's no reason you can't go see her. Actually, it's high time you moved back into your own room. Tai-yu thinks some of the clothing-drifts may be growing things. She's in workroom nine, it's still set up as an infirmary adjunct from after Cairo. I'll leave you to get dressed, but I'll be just down the hall if you need me."
Allina got dressed as quickly as she could manage, then stuck her head out the door. She was in another workroom, number eight from the placement, and there was no one else in the hall. From there it took her a full two minutes to work up the courage to knock on Niranjana's door. It clicked open a moment later, the shields releasing, and Allina nervously pushed the door open and stuck her head inside.
Niranjana was sitting up in bed, a book on a stand open on the rolling hospital-table over her lap. She was looking at the door, and her face lit up, even if the right side of her face hesitated and dragged. Then she spoke, half-shouting, "Hal-tsan! You wake!"
Allina almost fell over, not so much at the tone, as the fact that Niranjana thought she was her device. Slipping into the room, she answered, "Uh, yeah, 'Jana-chan, I'm awake. But I'm not HAL, I'm Allina."
Niranjana's face fell, then she slumped slightly, "Sow..." she cut off with a grimace, then Allina heard her mental voice. 'I am sorry, Hal-chan. I cannot speak properly anymore, though telepathy works, and I'm getting everyone's names wrong. Saraswati's implants do not interface properly between my muscles and memories. Aria-sensei says I will get better, but... well...' she shrugged. 'I will get your name right sometime, too. It is just... Saraswati did not really know what she was doing, so a lot of corruption crept into my memories.'
"It's fine, you can call me Hal," Allina said, pulling the visitor's chair over to the bed, "but you realize, you're talking about yourself like you're a computer?"
Niranjana grimaced and shrugged again, 'I cannot help it. Saraswati does not appear to have interfered with my thought processes, but language is as much memory as thought, and I keep seeing things in computer terms.'
"Is Saraswati tied into you, now?"
Niranjana shook her head, 'No. She separated the components she implanted, in case of an attack on her. But part of her will always be with me now.' She pulled her right hand out from under the sheet, and held it up. It was twitching, slightly, like a slight tick.
Allina could not help gasping in surprise. It was recognizable as a hand the fingers and thumb were still there, but Saraswati's alterations were painfully evident. There were silvery filaments tracing in her skin, and seeing them in her hand, Allina realized there were more tracing up the back of Niranjana's neck and under her hair. Worst of all, however, was the fact that a long chunk of Niranjana's forearm was metal, from just below her pinky, to half her wrist, tapering down to just short of her elbow. The merger between metal and skin was smooth, unnoticeable save for the color and reflectivity.
"God, 'Jana-chan," Allina whispered, reaching out to touch the metal gently. It was warm, not cold like she expected, but definitely metal. "Does it hurt at all?"
'Not there, no, the metal is numb, but the implants are not properly calibrated. That whole arm feels strange, and... nothing feels right. Scratchy is feathery, and painful is pleasant, and vice versa, but not always. Hot is still hot, but I put my hand right through an open flame without realizing it while Aria-sensei was testing me.'
"Are you going to say yes to any question I ask you?"
'Yes, but only if you ask the right one.' They grinned at each other for a moment, then Niranjana looked away and blushed. 'Um, Hal-chan... everyone who's come to see me, except Rana... Father and Mother... has hinted that we, um... talked... just before Hong Kong, but... I... do not...'
For just a moment, Allina almost denied it, almost tried to weasel out of it and go back to the way things had been before. 'Before' was comfortable, safe, she knew how they worked together. But that would not have been fair to Niranjana, and... Whatever she needs, Allina reminded herself. "You asked me out," she whispered, blushing herself, then suffered through having to explain it all again.
00000
Uli was one of the brightest young girls ever. She knew this for a fact, because her parents never failed to tell her that whenever she showed them one of her accomplishments. They had been telling her that for years, though sometimes, recently, she thought they were lying. Well, not lying, so much as not meaning the same thing they usually did. For example, there was a distinct difference, she knew, between how impressed they had been with the light-sculpture she made for class, and her effort to reprogram the apartment's locks to recognize them by mage-print instead of by key-code. Both incidents were mere weeks old, yet her parents' reactions – almost word for word the same – had still been very different.
Uli was really sorry about the lock thing, and had been feeling especially guilty the last few days. Her father had left for almost a week just after it, and her mother had been worried the entire time. None of the other kids at school had known what all the parents were worried about, but everyone's parents were worried, which made all of them worried. That was the downside, she realized, of having all her friends and classmates be fellow Guard Brats.
But now her father was back, safe and sound, none of the barbarians had managed to stand up to him. Other children had not been as lucky, Uli's father had made that clear, but she could handle that the next day, when she went back to school. For now, she was happy to see her father, though he and her mother had just disappeared to have some 'alone time'. So Uli retreated to her own room, triggering her implant to bring up the communications network. She wanted to find out if any of her friends were having as good a day as she was. Instead of one of her friends, however, as soon as the network screen opened, a line of text appeared.
-Hello?
Uli started, surprised someone was already trying to reach her, especially without voice or video. "Um... Hello? Who are you?"
-I'm... I'm not sure. My memories are jumbled, strange. I remember... a lot of names. I seem to have misplaced my body, as well.
Uli started at that, giving the screen a weird look. "Misplaced your body? How did you do that?"
A voice kicked in, finally, but it was strange, fluctuating between soprano and bass, as if the screen's speakers were not properly calibrated. "I was in the fighting over Hong Kong, all my memories agree on that. I was... doing something involving hacking, but... I don't remember what, precisely. Whoever I was fighting, they surprised me, and when the chaos finished I was... here, wherever here is."
"You're in my computer," Uli said, "Yrth Arn Tower, four hundredth floor, apartment seventy two. We're right in the center of the city in one of the lowest apartments, so we can see all the whole world now."
"Four Hundredth floor?! Nowhere in the... world... has... This is Al Hanthis, isn't it?"
"Well of course it is. Where else would it be?" Whoever this was, they were very strange, and Uli was a little scared – strange people did strange things, Uncle Haen was a shining example of that. But whoever it was, they were only in the communications network, it was not like they could do anything to her. So she ignored the trepidation, and indulged in her curiosity. "You aren't one of the barbarians from Outside, are you? Outside is scary, it's so bright and there are so many weird things out there, and no one has any protection from the Void... are you from out there?"
"I... I guess not, not if I'm here, but my memories must be more messed up than I thought. I remember... I don't know, it's hard. I don't suppose... you wouldn't be willing to try to help me figure it out, would you? Who I am and where I'm supposed to be?"
A new project, yay! Something Mom and Dad'll be happy about this time! "Of course I'll help! I'm Uli. What's your... oh, you said you don't remember your name. What should I call you?"
"Well, I remember several names, but... call me Allina. I like that one the best, it sounds like home."
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Author's Notes: Yeah, I know, it's been forever, and for that you have my apologies. I was mugged, mugged, I say! Crazy broad with a hammer, called herself 'Inspiration' or some such, started ranting about these crazy theories and threatened me with unspeakable tortures... or something like that. In all honesty, I think I got a little worn out with the Deva Series – not that I'm giving up on it, far from that, but this is been my 'major project' for almost three years now. Also, I had a whole slew of idea for several other stories, and a couple of them seriously got under my skin. I know it's scant consolation to those of you patiently waiting, but... well, I'm fairly well along in the next chapter of Endless Waltz already, thanks to the same bout of diarrhea of the fingers, so it should only be another weak or so for that chapter.
Also, regarding Szash's scene above, yes, Al Hanthis and the Circles both refer to their more secretive services as 'Ghosts'. It's not plot relevant, beyond being yet another referential connection between the two. In the Circles, the Ghosts are an intelligence force, gathering and distributing information, as well as watching the Circles for signs of infiltration or heresy – roughly analogous to the CIA and the FBI counter-intelligence, or the old Soviet KGB. In Al Hanthis, the Ghosts are a much more specialized and operational group, dedicated to providing security and secrecy to select locations and meetings. It's possible that the former evolved from survivors of the latter or that the former borrowed the name, or that mutual habits of secrecy and invisibility garnered them the same name independently.
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Baughn: Here's the new chapter, at long last, excuses above. The TSAB is not going to be happy with Niranjana on several levels, but their response is going to be tempered by Al Hanthis' presence. I won't say what that response will be here, as their response plays a role later, but they're not fully informed as to precisely happened – i.e., they know they were hacked, but not who was in control of it. You are right, though, that the Bureau would be of the opinion that it would have been better for Niranjana to die than to have created a device as rampantly independent as Saraswati – they were willing to hit Uminari City with the l'Arc en Ciel, after all, the Bureau has never struck me as squeamish about collateral damage for the 'greater good'. As far as Saraswati turning evil though, that would depend on Niranjana – Saraswati is very much Niranjana's creation and willing subject. Remember how closely devices identify with their masters, Saraswati is no different in that respect, only in regards to the freedom of action it has to pursue that loyalty. And yes, re-reading a story (even my own stories, sadly enough) to catch things I've missed is a fun past-time.
Kell Shock: You're probably right about too/to aggressive, that's one of the uses that still gets me. The Nanoha canon combats never included short-ranged teleports, and I have two reasons why I think that is. First, teleports, even short range, take a certain amount of time to execute. In most combat conditions, that pause would give an enemy too much time to act. Secondly, because of the time it takes to set up and execute, flying at the target would probably be just as fast. The HHM worked over Hong Kong for two reasons – the Guard was deliberately avoiding (not ignoring, but avoiding) Hayate's kids to go after easier prey, giving Toushiro and Ichigo the time necessary. Second, flying directly at a target gives that target all that time to watch your approach and react, whereas there's almost no way to tell where such a short-range teleport will end up until it's over and done with, giving the teleportee the element of surprise. The traditional devices of the Nanoha-verse do draw all their power through the user's linker core, providing the control and buffering necessary to get full use of the available power. The Guard's implants and distant generators, on the other hand, use the linker core strictly for control and buffering of the generators' power-flows. The power comes from the generator, and is then contained, shaped, and released by the Guard's linker core, through the medium of the implants. Think of it like a dam – the implants are the physical structure of the dam, the water is the power from the generators, and the linker core is the flood-gates/water-intakes that control the flow of the water. The Guard get somewhat greater power (limited by implant codes determined by their rank), but are not as well protected from it as a device-mage. The Al Hanthean's implants also allow the multi-tasking of power that devices grant, but the Circles' wolfpacks do not grant. Hayate's problems with Szash were three-fold. One was power – Szash has multiple generators dedicated to her use, allowing for much more and much tougher shields. Second and most complicated, as you mentioned, Hayate is not a close-in fighter by training or experience. Yes, she's been practicing with the Sword of Light since she got it, but that's roughly three years, nowhere near the experience her Knights have, and she's not a natural like Laura. Then there's the fact that, in the past, she has had the power to overwhelm anyone who got close to her (look at what happened to Colonel Esar over Cairo). Also, I haven't referenced it in a while, but her Knights usually take steps to keep her out of close-combat, so she's inexperienced at it. The third problem Hayate faced with Szash was the fact that Szash was totally defensive – remember, until Eri managed to throw a shot into the fight, Szash was completely unable to attack, and her shields were failing. Hayate almost had Szash, but Eri did what wingmen are supposed to do, and did it well. As for Natalia, she's not possessed, she's just borderline multiple-personality – she created the 'Precia' persona based on what she could find of the original as a defense against people asking her questions. She brought it out again as a response to the pain of her grandmother's rejection. The Blood Penance will come into play in the next few chapters and will be explained there, but it is powerful, with some severe moral implications.
boomer sooner: Maunders actually 'owned' pretty much everyone, some more severely than others. But Takashi… it's less 'recruiting' and more 'drafted', only not as pleasant.
SpaceBrotha: Here's a long reply, to compliment that long review. The log from Saraswati was an experiment and a bit of playing around, for me. Like you said, a nice change of pace. The ambiguity in the log's notes on Niranjana's injuries is less due to Saraswati's lack of information, than due to my own. Also, if you look at most injury summaries (which is all the log contained) they generally don't get more specific than that, saving specifics for actual medical reports – level of trauma, part of body injured, type of injury. As for Niranjana's injuries themselves – the above chapter has a pretty accurate run-down, though she has some internal issues that no one has mentioned yet (altered metabolic rate, unnatural and irregular cardio-pulmonary rate, and the like, all due to the jerry-rigged nature of the implants). The Bureau did notice Saraswati's actions, as noted above, and I believe the above chapter also covers why Niranjana's injuries differ from Cid-chans.
Natalia did communicate, very surreptitiously, with Yosho prior to her betrayal, and her actions were moderately stupid, but more will be revealed about her in the future. How her eye works (and a few of the other, similar, things that I've hinted at) will be explained in a few chapters when she meets the 'expert' Yosho mentioned (no undead, though – Atarsamain was mostly being theatrical in the prologue). Natalia's grandmother is comfortable with the idea of dying, but more than that she was horrified by Natalia's actions. If Natalia had simply made a bargain through Hayate, been above-board and honest about the whole thing, her grandmother would have been fifty-fifty on going with her. It was the method Natalia chose that lost her her grandmother. As for the 'Precia' bit – it's not Precia herself, but how Natalia refers to a particularly thorough psychological mask she cooked up over the summer – see the Kyoto Redux chapter.
Singh's scene, like Saraswati's, was the product of curiosity, in this case how the 'normal' people would view a mage-battle and the Seed.
The basic idea of a sniper would work to combat the Seed, save for the fact that there's only one sniper rifle in the world I know of that could hurt a Seed – a Barrett .50. Other small-arms fire would simply deflect off the scales and hide. Even a Barrett is not going to get a one-shot kill, not against a creature specifically designed for non-magical physical combat. See the 'Side Story' that should be posted with this chapter for a more detailed analysis.
Regarding Megan's dragon form – she managed it well enough, it's the return that things went screwy thanks to Maunders' EMP. She hasn't shown up yet, probably won't until next chapter, but the 'scales' she is mentioned as retaining above are not temporary, or the only problem. Megan's concern about returning from the Seed form was not due to complexity, but due to the Seed's magic-nullification. If the nullification effect is caused by one of the unidentified bits and she managed to get all the way to full Seed form, she would lose the magic necessary to shape-shift back to human.
Maunders' is definitely practical before dogmatic, but even she had no idea how big the EMP would end up. Because she did not understand the difference a device makes, Maunders did mess herself up just as badly as she did everyone else. But she is capable, and I do have plans for her. With the EMP spell itself, the Seed were completely unaffected – the control input in the back of the head is within the Seed's magic-nullification effect, and doesn't rely on magic. They retreated when the Guard mages were recalled, an automatic signal incorporated into the Guard's emergency teleport.
Regarding going straight to melee with the HHM, you're half right. Remember that none of the kids except Laura were confident of taking on a Guard mage single-handed, and it was Toushiro's plan. Toushiro's a ranged fighter, he was looking to pin and disorient a target, then back off to where he's best before the target could recover.
Hayate could probably have hit Szash with Morningstar's Wrath until Szash went down, but the build-up time would have given Szash time to try something else. In my interpretation, because of how she was trained, Hayate's a ranged fighter who's capable of devastating hand-to-hand, and switches as appropriate. Against a group of targets, or while functioning as command and control, she uses ranged buster spells. Against Szash, closing gave her the chance to keep Szash too busy to counter, and took advantage of an apparent weakness in the Guard's training – the lack of hand-to-hand. With the Hellgate spell, Hayate opened a very small opening to the void, and closed it almost immediately, something Al Hanthis can do, but cannot do so casually – it's a facet of how the Deva magic works. Where a normal instability disrupts her magic, one she builds incorporates safeguards, though do remember how she ended up – Reinforce and Akira were the ones holding her up, due to a combination of soaking the l'Arc en Ciel and using the Hellgate.
The Al Hanthis mages do have a major weakness in their reliance on distant generators instead of their own linker cores, but they gain in personal safety. Al Hanthis is perfectly well aware of how vulnerable those connections are, so those connections are seriously hardened and monitored. Allina found her way into one of those, which is what resulted in the injuries she suffered. On the other hand, look what happened to the mage who's connection she hacked – in a coma with possible to probable mental and memory damage.
Regarding Yosho… he's beginning to aggravate me. He's too calm and collected, too confident, though given where he's going to end up he can't be anything else. As for the politicians, yeah, they're endemic to the human condition, I'm afraid.
Most of your questions about reactions to Hong Kong will be handled in future chapters. Not immediately, but eventually, as a lot of those reactions are going to be spread out. As for the 'Warlords Era', it's the ill-defined period before the Conclave of Masters came to power, which was long before the Al Hazred disaster. Not sure if that will ever get more than passing mentions in future chapters.
CrimsonDX: Maunders' situation will be playing out over the next couple of chapters, should be good. Regarding the 'Emperor' and 'Dark Witch', you're trying to get me to reveal plot points, which, while amusing, wont' work:). Yosho would be a good candidate, he definitely has the political moves, but an Emperor needs more than that, either fear or adoration sufficient to influence the population. Yosho currently lacks that, though he could pick it up. You are right about Takashi and Hayate not having the right mentalities, though Takashi could become Emperor quite easily if he were interseted. Szash is not so much 'politically inept' as 'focused elsewhere'. Politics for her is a necessary part of her job, a skill set she has picked up, but you are right that she's not at Yosho's level. Natalia's obsession with 'saving' her brother was one of the hints, as was her facility with the Al Hazred/Al Hanthis language, but the bigger hints were stylistic – she had no viewpoint scenes after the Kyoto trip despite figuring in several scenes, and she was the only student not to get a viewpoint scene for her device activation. Based on the above, Allina and Niranjana are recovering, it's Cid-chan who's in danger, but unfortuantely resolution for her is several chapters off, either way. Don't worry about leaving long reviews, I've no objections to them, quite the opposite (how am I supposed to reply to a short review, anyhow?), as Space Brotha proved above. Thanks for the review!
Rathmun: The FRAG-12 rounds would be more effective than most small-arms, the problem being Seed are designed and built using materials knowledge that is beyond modern capabilities. Remember, Seed are immune to magic when complete, not while being built (and despite being a 'living' being, they are built, not born). The best weapon against a Seed, short of cataclysmic weapons, is the humble RPG, specifically the old RPG-7, which has six to ten times the armor pen of the FRAG-12 rounds. Also I highly doubt a 200m range with a shotgun, even with the fin-stabilizers. The biggest problem both the RPG-7 and FRAG-12 face is range – at their effective ranges (not test ranges, but actual useable range), a shooter will have time for one RPG or two to three shotgun rounds, which is not going to stop a Seed. Also, regarding posting time – I do this for fun, and schedules aren't fun (not for me, at least), so I post when I finish. I tend to have a lot of stories going at once (I post less than half what I write), and sometimes inspirition strikes for another story and I let this one lay fallow for a bit. Other times I get caught up in this one to the point of forgetting other stories. So I post when I post.
Jack Inqu: When you posted that review I almost changed this chapter title, almost. Hong Kong in general was supposed to be inconclusive – if either side scored a solid victory right out of the gates like that, it would have escalated things rather more rapidly than I need them to. Natalia's mental health has always been a little questionable – not 'insane', but less stable than most, largely thanks to the loss of her family. Her attempts to 'save' her brother, and failures thereof, made it worse, but she still doesn't quite meet the legal definition of insanity, as she is still well aware of the right and wrong of her actions. That being said, I have some sympathy for her, I can understand her decisions (obviously, since I came up with them), but I'm unwilling to completely abandon her. There's still some aftermath in the next chapter, and some elements will take a while to work themselves out.
A006: Battle scenes are not so much 'hideous' as limited. They're great for action and plot-altering events, but only so good for character development and interaction. I've found with the entire Deva series, I'm less interested in the fights than in the characters, so the battle scenes tend to be short and to the point. Your mention of the write-pause-write approach is a good one, actually, especially for scenes as detail-heavy as battles. The reactions to Hong Kong and Natalia from above are not complete, there'll probably be some 'remembering back' in the next few chapters, in large part because of how complex it all is, and how differently the characters will act. No comment on if Cid-chan will make it, but Wrack and Ruin's devices will be fun. With Natalia, 'Precia' is less a possession than a personality mask. As for her ability to see the future, there will be more on that in the upcoming chapters, including both how well it works and how accurate or inaccurate it is. I picked the characters I did for most of the battle of Hong Kong mostly because they haven't gotten a lot of 'face time' so far, whereas Noriko, Juliett, and some of the others have. Maunders taking the device was a desperation ploy, though it will have repercussions far different from what she expected or Takashi desires. As for where Takashi was during the battle... that's related to his 'project' that he refuses to discuss, though he's almost done with it. Hypatia and Beaudica were an answer to some background stuff that had been bothering me – namely what Takashi was doing about that colony from the Side Story Flight of the Old Dog, so I'm not sure what roll they'll have in the rest of Endless Waltz. Laura is definitely struggling to keep her oath, though Akira did teach her that she was hesistating too much. As for if the hologram was tutoring or playing, why can't he do both? As his entire purpose is to assist Takashi in keeping Hayate alive, he was present in Hong Kong as insurance. While there, he saw one of Hayate's beloved students pursuing a course guaranteed to get her killed, which would necessitate Hayate taking a risk to save her, and acted to correct the situation. The fact that he got to have fun torturing people while doing that was icing on the cake, for him. Regarding the Guard and devices, the Guard is very much like modern armies looking at pre-US Civil War armies, with their swords and bayonets. The Guard believes in ranged combat, sees close-combat as a happily forgotten barbarism, and was just as shocked by the Velka's willingness to mix it up as modern troops would be by a charge by horse-cavalry. Guard mages don't carry any sort of physical weapon, because such things are obsolete to them, and they regard their magic as proof against any such attack. If you're asking about where they get the power from, their implants channel energy from generators in Al Hanthis. Blood Penance is not a virus, it's something a lot worse, but details will have to wait. I'll work on the timeline and character list, but that really is a pain, as there is a lot of detail work and re-reading involved. I'll get to it.
The Sandman: Thank you for the compliments. Natalia is definitely broken, but not quite beyond repair, the big question being who repairs her – Al Hanthis, or Hayate? Given the oddities of the Void (or at least, my version of it), it is entirely possible that Al Hanthis could locate Precia, accidentally or otherwise, and possibly even pull her back out. Why they would want to is another question. As for a meeting between Natalia and Precia, I doubt it would turn out well – Precia is too obsessed with Alicia, and Natalia would be too interested in Precia's research to be polite or subtle, resulting in sparks, at best. While turning Natalia into a test-subject would be a fitting end, it's not Yosho's plan. He got himself a traitor to put that traitor to use, and he's going to do just that, once he's certain she's secure. HAL and Saraswati are not so much 'more intelligent' as 'better equipped'. Like all devices, though, they exist to support and protect their bearer. If Allina or Niranjana wanted to 'uplift' someone else's device, HAL and Saraswati would cooperate without heistation or concern, but they're not going to initiate such action on their own – other devices are their bearers' concerns, not HAL's or Saraswati's.
RICKDOMINATED: Read it all in a month? Color me impressed, it usually takes me longer to read through a new fic this long. I am working on having Nanoha more involved in this story, mostly as the events are more up her alley than the waiting/searching from Academy Blues was. Thank you for the compliments, and for the review.
Eternal Longing: yyeeeah... that was a seriously large number of reviews, covering a lot of ground. Thank you for all of them, but I don't begin to have space here to reply. So instead, I'm putting together a single large reply that should cover all of them. I'll send it via PM shortly.