If anyone doesn't remember Grylmark very well (because it's been a while since he was here, and it's been quite some time since I uploaded that chapter), feel free to flip back to Chapter 7. Hopefully things make slightly more sense by the end of this chapter, though.
Across the formidable length and scale of the compound perimeter, TSA forces were concentrating on repelling the attacking mutants that had risen up against them from every outward point. There seemed no end to their numbers as more and more of the creatures reared up over the bodies of their companions, slain by the dozen with a few shots or a simple mage spell.
Although the Bureau's defending forces were just as spread out, the situation seemed far more to their advantage and morale was significantly increased with Hayate leading them. A lot of the attackers were illusions or simply clones, easily dispatched in one blow. They weren't even getting close to the wall, despite the horrific snarling mess of eyes, teeth and claws that confronted the mages on guard.
The dragon Fried ascended high into the air above the fighting as its two riders swiftly assessed the situation upon the battlefield. Caro's boost device, Kerykeion, had been glowing softly ever since the attack had begun some fifteen minutes ago, indicating the presence of active summon magic in the area close by.
There was no doubt in Tiana's mind about who was responsible for all of this. Although this time the mutants were no real threat, their numbers seemed near infinite. So they were being summoned constantly again and again, re-cloned and possibly made into illusions to attack the Bureau. In any case, the summoner would still require an incredible amount of stamina to keep up an onslaught like that of such magnitude.
"We need to find the summoner's location," she said. It was the only thing which kept the mutants from constantly coming back and renewing their attack. The rest of the TSA was forced to remain at their posts to defend against any sign of retaliation from the enemy, and thus unable to investigate the source of the summons. "Caro?"
The pink-haired girl nodded decisively. "I can direct Fried to follow where Kerykeion is giving off the strongest reaction." The nodes flowing down to her wrists and hands flashed sharply in response. "Fried. Follow my lead."
The dragon bowed its head and gave a piercing howl as it took them away towards the south-eastern border of the Bureau, away from the sounds of battle completely and heading in the direction of quieter skies. Caro concentrated for a few seconds, the pink light in the back of her hands a faint glimmer which grew gradually stronger as Fried ascended to roof-level. The roars of the monsters on the ground were filtered out by the whirling winds around them, until the atmosphere seemed almost tranquil.
Fried continued flying straight ahead from here for a few minutes, then decreased altitude slightly to land on the edge of one of the reinforced guard posts further out across the perimeter. It was currently unmanned and used mainly for communications and scout reports. With the appearance of the mutants, all soldiers here had been ordered to the main perimeter much further north.
"Here," Caro said softly, as Kerykeion's light blazed brightly across her hands.
Strangely, the place seemed to be deserted. There was no sign of life at all, which would be normal at this altitude, but there should still have been some indication of why it contained such large traces of summoning magic.
Frowning, Tiana dismounted and walked to the edge of the roof. The wind was fierce and icy at this height, streaking across her face and blowing her hair back unpleasantly. She chanced a look over the edge and immediately regretted it – the few people on the ground looked like ants from here. It was a long way down.
Her thoughts were interrupted by the animalistic growls that came at once from out of the semi-mist around her. Slowly, three grotesque and misshapen creatures came stalking towards her from the edge of the roof, crimson predatory eyes all fixed on her.
"Tia!" Caro cried in alarm, moving Fried off the roof quickly to take action.
"It's all right, Caro," Tiana replied, barely glancing at the mutants approaching her, raising her weapon in her hand. "They're not going to hurt anyone."
Her gut instinct stirred up within her, and the sharpshooter turned to the right and fired Cross Mirage into seemingly empty air, nowhere near any of the creatures. Yet as the shot rang out, all three of her opponents shuddered and stopped moving immediately, before fizzling out into nothingness.
The mist in front of her began to part, revealing the familiar figure of an old man, hovering in the air before her. Snow-white clothes clothed him down to his feet, so that he didn't seem to be really there at all. His eyes were alive with the same concentrated fervour from their last encounter, however.
"Grylmark," Tiana whispered, not lowering Cross Mirage from his face. "I knew this was your doing."
The white-haired old man frowned. "You remember me, child?" he said with genuine astonishment. "I must admit that you surprise me. Usually people find it exceedingly easy to forget me. And..." A weathered smile, mixed with faint annoyance, appeared on his face. "The name is Grylmark the Third. I would trust that you would remember that for the remainder of your painfully short lives."
"What's the difference?" the sharpshooter said. Her hand tightened against the trigger of her gun easily. "Call off your summons. They're already being easily beaten by the TSA's forces."
"My creations?" Grylmark said, looking amused. "They will retreat soon enough. Why, child, surely you didn't think I intended them to attack seriously?"
Caro brought Fried closer next to Tiana, pushing forward into view to see the other summoner more clearly. "You were responsible for the attack on the vaults before, weren't you?" she said quaveringly. "Why is this attack so much weaker?"
The old man's eyes narrowed as his gaze flicked towards the pink-haired girl, recognising the magical power exuding from her.
"Another summoner, eh?" he said. "So that was how you were able to find me. Yet...another child, like yourself..."
"Answer her question," Tiana ordered. "This second attack is all illusion and hot air. We're beating your summons back easily. What's the reason for this?"
Grylmark shrugged, his eyes darting back to her as he smoothed down his robes. "You know how it is when you just decide to act on a whim, don't you? There just isn't enough time to prepare everything..."
Is that all? Tiana thought. He's doing this just because he feels like it? Isn't there more to it than that? No, Hayate-san was quite convinced that it was an obvious decoy for whoever caused the explosion in the hospital. Maybe...maybe it's because for some reason, he isn't able to -
"Tell us why you're doing this," she said. "The first time was to steal the Lost Logia, wasn't it?" She tried to read the man's face, to determine truths from lies, but it seemed impossible. "The Lost Logia known as Oguba."
A shrill chuckle came from Grylmark's throat, startling the pair of them. He bent double for a few seconds, trying to choke his laughter down. It was unnerving to see him do so at gunpoint.
"Oh, children," he said finally, panting, "it seems you have it all backward as usual. Why should we steal Oguba? Takamachi Nanoha is the one to bring Oguba to you."
What? Tiana was thoroughly confused. Is he saying that...
"But didn't you try to kill Nanoha-san?" Caro asked. "What do you..."
"Oh, of course," Grylmark scoffed, shaking his head. "Not myself personally, you understand. But her past self had to die, for Oguba to exist in the present. And now that she also exists in the present, as she should, then Oguba exists in every time. And Oguba's self-preservation is quite important, you understand."
The two girls stared at him in complete and utter incomprehension. Grylmark sighed.
"But, I should have known," he said. "After all, you two are only children. You should not be expected to understand any of this."
Tiana exchanged glances with Caro and shook her head in confusion. All this could wait. The important thing right now was to take Grylmark back with them, alive. From the sounds of it, the old man had vital information. He certainly knew a lot more about what was going on than Srethis did.
"You need to come back with us immediately," she said, fixing her mind back to business. "Grylmark, I am placing you under arrest for - "
"Grylmark the Third," the old man tutted irritably.
" - the Third, then, for unlawful summoning within Bureau territory, conspiring to the act of mass-murder, conspiring for the murder of one of more TSA officials, criminal theft of a Lost Logia, illegal dealings with - "
"Now, now, let me interrupt you for a second," Grylmark said pleasantly. "Allow me to bring two important things to your attention, child. Firstly, you cannot prove that I did any of those things - "
"This is hardly the time to plead innocence," the sharpshooter said, a touch of annoyance staining her tone. "Depending on how much information you are willing to tell us, and how co-operative you are with the higher-ups at - "
Grylmark ignored her, waving her words away. "Secondly," he continued, "I hardly see how either of you children will be able to take me into custody."
The red-haired mage climbed back onto Fried's back with Caro as the dragon lowered itself down for her temporarily. Cross Mirage was still pointing right at the old man's forehead.
"Really?" she asked mildly, and fired at point-black range.
The bullet whistled through empty air as Grylmark vanished for a split second and re-appeared about an inch to the left, unharmed. Furiously, Tiana altered her aim and fired again with perfect aim. As before, Grylmark disappeared before the bullet could reach him and re-appeared a short distance away.
Damn it. She fired several times in succession, trying to hit him, but this time the old man simply waited until she had finished firing, before appearing again once more. As if reading her exact moves and thought pattern.
"As I was saying," Grylmark went on, continuing his disappearing act as the sharpshooter fired again and again at him with still no luck, "you are not able to touch me."
"Stop doing that! Just stay in the same place!" She fired again a few more times, bending forward over Fried's neck angrily, and again the bullets went awry. "Why can't I hit you?!"
The old man appeared behind them on the other side of the building, looking rather bored. "I would love to tell you, child," he said sympathetically. "I genuinely would. But the time it would take for you to understand the intricacies of - "
She fired again with success. "Will you just tell me?"
"It won't help you defeat me," the old man yawned. "But the reason you can't touch me, child, is because in this time era...I do not exist. Like your friend Takamachi Nanoha, for example, although that was strictly temporary. How can you have an impact on someone who doesn't exist? Can you hurt someone who isn't there? You cannot, can you?"
"What do you mean, you don't exist?" Caro asked, leaning forward from her position on Fried. "How can you still summon monsters to attack us?"
"Ah. Slight slip of the words there." Grylmark cleared his throat and drew himself up. "I suppose I mean to say that the body you see me in now does not exist in this time era. That's putting it simply for you, child. But enough on why you fail so utterly in doing me bodily harm." He raised his robed hands to the sky above him. "I believe I should give you something to remember me by."
"What do you mean? What are you talking about?" Tiana cried, frustrated.
The old man ignored her and closed his eyes in an almost peaceful manner, magical power brewing from his fingertips. A triad of energy burst from his lean form in three directions, glowing purple, streaking black into the sky around him until it seemed to obscure his features completely.
What's he doing? Quickly, Tiana tried firing at Grylmark again now that he seemed to be concentrating on a spell, thinking that maybe she could hit him, but instead the bullets were absorbed completely by the energy circulating around him, and they disintegrated in an instant. Not fast enough...if she could only get closer to him and destroy his chances of teleporting away from them -
Grylmark's voice sounded all around them as he spoke, sounding unnaturally deep and animal-like. It didn't sound like the old man in front of them at all, but like one of the mutants down below in the battlefield.
"Rage of a lion and wings of a devil, tail of a scorpion and terror of destruction. Transmogrify and release unto this world."
Caro's boost device blazed the colour of blood as the words echoed on the wind. The reaction was undoubtedly towards summon magic, but on a whole different level.
"Devilspawn Summon: Lesser Manticore."
And out from the earth erupted a beast that rose as high as the building before them, monstrous claws that carved the air in front of them in a frenzy with a broad wingspan that enabled it to fly up into the air above them. A gigantic lion-like head moved towards them, displaying two rows of razor-sharp teeth more than capable of turning them into mincemeat in a single bite. It's torso was heavily muscled and the ground shook with its passing.
"Ta-da," Grylmark drawled.
Quickly, Caro flew Fried just out of reach of the Manticore's claws. It didn't help them much that they were riding on a dragon, because the summoned monster in front of them was roughly five times bigger. Using Beast Flare on it would probably be a waste of energy.
"Isn't that the Manticore that attacked the vaults?" Tiana shouted, as Fried concentrated on staying out of reach of the fearsome claws.
"It is, isn't it?" the old man said proudly, floating in the air next to the monster. "You remember that too, child! I healed its wounds from before and fully restored it. Now, I would like to see you try to put me under arrest. This should be amusing."
This shouldn't be too hard, Tiana thought. When the Manticore attacked the vaults, Subaru and I beat it in one hit. It's the same creature and we're in a more advantageous situation. If Caro and I combine our -
She stopped when she realised that she and Caro didn't actually have any combination attacks. They'd never fought or trained together before, not like she had with Subaru or Fate or Nanoha. She remembered Hayate's caution to her before about not going with Subaru and cursed her own inadequacy.
"Okay, here's the plan," she said to Caro uneasily. "If you - "
There was a split second before Grylmark raised his arm high before them and the Manticore charged right at them with an inhuman roar.
There was no time to dodge or move out of the way at this angle. The Manticore smashed its claws down into Fried and grabbed hold of the dragon, burning its talons into him. Then with a muscular jerk of its arms it plunged the dragon – and both its riders – all the way into the ground far, far below, creating a medium-sized crater and leaving the scene in a smoking ruin in a hundred- metre radius.
Ten minutes ago, all three Velka Knights had been on their feet and fully prepared for combat. That was no longer the case, with one of their number out of action and another unable to transform. Signum was all too aware of this. The energy expended to slice her way out from underneath the rubble had not been considerable, but for a moment the tall swordswoman feared she might have been too late.
Now she stood shielding the defenceless Vita, wielding Laevatein in front of her against their mutual opponent. Srethis had already fled from the scene upon seeing that Ungore had the fight well in hand. It was essential that the reptile did not get far, and considering their skills in the art of stealth and infiltration, they might well be home-free by now. Right now, Signum was the only member of the Wolkenritter who was at full fighting capability. If there was anyone else helping Ungore out there, then this could all end badly.
"Vita," Signum said urgently, pushing forward with her weapon against what looked uncomfortably like Ungore's arm. "I'll distract our opponent. You concentrate on bringing Srethis back."
The other red-haired Velka Knight nodded quickly and sprang forward towards the nearest hole in the wall. There wasn't much of a wall left ever since the battle had started. Just an inch would make it -
Ungore narrowed its eyes, alarm registering, and whipped the remains of its mutilated arm forward as the staff rapidly sharpened into a lengthening metal spear. It punched through the air over Signum's shoulder and sliced into the brickwork just above Vita's ear as she struggled to make it through the opening.
"Impacted Radius," the alien chanted.
Purple-blue light flaked down the length of the spear and lashed out at all angles from every point of the weapon, ripping into the edges of the wall and clawing towards Signum and Vita. Quickly, Signum flipped her scabbard up to take the brunt of the blow, pushing back as the sheer force of the attack almost toppled her balance. Whiplike purple thorns had clawed at her Wolkenritter armour, drawing blood steadily. What kind of spells were these supposed to be?
"Vita!" she shouted over her shoulder, knowing that Vita hadn't transformed and might not have been able to avoid the attack. Had she made it out through the building all right?
A choked grunt in reply told her the answer to both questions. Signum understood: they needed more time. She didn't know why Vita couldn't transform anymore, but she just needed to keep Ungore busy. Would the rest of the Bureau have realised what was going on by now? Would they be sending reinforcements to help? If so -
She saw Ungore's eyes dart towards Vita's position and ran to intercept the creature quickly, slashing her sword ahead to bar its path. In a flash, Ungore's weapon shifted and changed into a whirling hammer which came down accurately on Laevatein's hilt, numbing her entire sword-arm and almost causing Signum to drop her weapon altogether. With a muttered curse, she ran after the alien into the open air.
As the walls of the doomed ward began to crumbled behind them, the two of them faced each other silently, each of them trying to read the others' intentions. A moment later, Vita climbed out through the wreckage of Ward 4X to stand next to Signum. Going after Srethis without being able to transform was evidently impossible against such an opponent.
"You two are no match for me," Ungore whispered, testily spinning its severed arm expertly in a circle with its remaining arm. "Srethis has escaped. And now..."
"And now," Signum interjected, "you have nowhere to hide. You're exposed in the middle of TSA territory. Your face and data have already been captured and relayed across our surveillance networks from the moment you stepped outside. And reinforcements are on their way right now to surround you. The same can be said of your friend Srethis."
She smiled with a confidence she did not quite feel, and when Signum detected the wave of panic that washed over Ungore's face at her words, she breathed a sigh of relief. She was bluffing. Although it was true that reinforcements were probably on their way, Srethis could transform and disguise itself easily and their chances of catching the lizard were dropping with every second they wasted here. And it was still unlikely that any useful data would be amassed at Ungore's appearance; not unless they had more concrete information.
They came here to rescue Srethis, Signum thought. They must have had a rescue plan, an escape route. If I can fool Ungore into trying to escape right now, then I can find out exactly where they came from. And because Srethis would be trying to escape in the same way, we could trap both of them and -
"Very well," Ungore said, a low scowl discolouring its features, looking thoroughly disgusted. The spines and spikes sticking out from its torso retracted into its human-like figure as it laid its severed arm onto the ground for a moment. "It seems we are all low on time."
It twisted around the arm at a certain angle, and the whole thing began pulsing bright red, like a set of warning lights. Symbols and runes shot across the arm as Ungore gripped the opposite end tightly with its free arm. A moment later, the symbols began racing across the arm faster and faster, accelerating their motion.
What is it doing? Signum wondered. Isn't it going to try and escape?
"Just what are you doing with that?" she said irritably. "Put it down and surrende- "
Ungore's blood-red eyes glittered. "It's counting down the seconds."
Seconds? Like a timer?
"Like a bomb?" Vita said disbelievingly. "You're going to turn your arm into a bomb and blow yourself up with it? Do you really expect us to - "
The alien grinned as the symbols on the arm turned into solid blinding colour, and then wrenched it forward and threw it right at them.
Uh-oh.
"Watch out!"
Signum and Vita both dived back into the ruins of Ward 4X as the severed arm spun in the air and impaled itself into the ground where they had been standing. It gave one intense beep and then exploded violently upwards at an angle, striking fixed points of the ceiling corners of the ward. The supporting wall above Signum caved in and would have buried her a second time if not for her quick reactions as she sliced her way through the plummeting stone with Laevatein.
Quickly, she manoeuvred out of the ward as the rest of the ceiling came down. The supporting brackets were still keeping the rest of the upper floor stable, at least. Slowly, she rejoined Vita outside the hospital, who was also luckily unhurt.
There was no sign of Ungore. They had used the explosion to cover their escape.
"Terrific," Vita said sourly. "Now we've lost both of them."
Signum shook her head. There was still hope yet. "Not on my watch. They're still in the middle of the compound and they can't have gotten far without being seen. Let's go, Vita."
The words of the Lost Logia filled Nanoha's head endlessly as she stood at the laboratory table, still holding Raging Heart. The orb was pulsing strongly for the first time in a while, having been completely unresponsive ever since it had been admitted to the lab for maintenance. Nanoha felt Raging Heart's will tugging at her, too – it was reacting directly to Oguba.
"Oguba," she whispered, her hand brushing against Fate's skin next to her.
The runes stirred to life and climbed to the surface of her body as she caught the blonde mage in a comforting hug, whose eyes were still half-filled with worry along with a desire to stay at her side. Nanoha felt half-formed images and distant echoes flash through her mind, triggered by the combination of Oguba's presence and her closeness to Fate. She could feel it inside her.
Good, Oguba said quietly in her mind, unseen yet undoubtedly present in the air around them. Your lover's relationship to our contract will serve as a catalyst for my reformation in your current time era. Keep her close by.
Her brunette head nodded onto Fate's shoulder, the crook of her chin pressing against the back of the other woman's shoulder.
Fate's eyes opened partway and latched onto hers. "Nanoha?" she questioned, her face a mask of hurt."What's going on?"
Prepare yourself, came Oguba's voice, clear and swift in her ears. I am about to revive you. Nanohawasn't entirely sure what he meant by that, but it wasn't going to be anything pretty. She braced herself as best as she could, putting her trust in the guiding words of the ancient Lost Logia, and the safety of her body in the hands of the one she loved, held in her arms right now.
"Hang on to me," she said in a hushed voice just moments before the runes rose out of her skin altogether for the last time, and stars exploded in the side of her head...
The scene changed. She was looking down at the body of a young teenage girl lying motionless on a hospital bed, surrounded by tubes and monitors and breathing apparatus. A girl with brunette pigtails and nostalgic loose-fitting clothes. Her chest moved up and down very slightly as she struggled to breathe, struggled to continue on living. She was close to death, that much was apparent.
Nanoha stared down at the girl, knowing exactly what was so familiar about the scene. The girl was her, several years ago. The hospital...this must have been just after that fateful accident so long ago. She couldn't see much beyond that, as the blue runes etching out the mark of Oguba swirled in front of her. She had to look at the scene through them, and all she could see was a young version of herself which was about to die.
At the same time, she was somewhere else completely. She was in the future – or at least, further on in her life. Just a few days ago, when she and Fate had gone to confront Srethis in Hayate's office at the time of the first attack. When the world had seemed to cave in at all sides, how despair and fear had swallowed her up from inside, and it seemed like she had disappeared completely...
She wasn't switching between the past and the present. No, it was different than that. Nanoha felt almost as if she was there at the same time. But that shouldn't be possible.
"It is possible," said the young child next to her, stepping out of the haze of alien symbols whirling through the air, and Nanoha turned to see Oguba himself standing next to her to watch the scene too. "I will tell you something: every normal living thing in the universe will follow the flow of time, without fail. It is in their nature. And from how humans perceive it, everybody has three fixed "versions" of themselves. Past. Present. And future.
"Usually, people can only see one of these states in time," he said. "The present. But with my power you will be able to see all versions of yourselves, and manipulate them as you will. You must be very careful, however. What you do to one version of yourself will have a huge impact on every other version that exists after that point in time."
If that's true, why can't I see my future self as well? Nanoha wanted to ask. But part of her wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer. She was worried about something else too – the way Oguba was describing it, his abilities of time-travel did not sound like anything that she would have wanted to be connected with. The only reason why she might have wanted to make a contract with him would be if...if there had been no other choice...
She felt the presence of someone else in the hospital scene that unfolded before them. Frantically, Nanoha pressed forward to try and glimpse their face, but her vision turned hazy as she tried to focus through the runes. She couldn't see them.
Whoever they were, a metal hand was descending towards the young Nanoha on the bed, removing the tubes from her body that were the only thing keeping her alive. Killing her.
"Who's that?" she cried desperately. "They're going to kill her – me - "
"They do, as you know," Oguba said calmly. "You are watching something that has already happened in the past. There is nothing you can do to change it – at least, not until after you revive my powers completely in reality. How you use my abilities is entirely up to you at that point."
It didn't take long for life to depart the young Nanoha on the bed. Less than a minute after the unknown killer had done their job, Nanoha was staring at her own corpse. It provoked a sick, empty feeling to stir in her stomach. Srethis' initial claims that she had died in the past had now been proved to her without a doubt. It didn't explain why she was alive now, however...
The runes suddenly moved forward without warning, beckoning Nanoha to follow them. Nervously, she did so as the scene changed again, slightly distorted in places. It seemed very similar to what she had just watched...except...
...except that the young Nanoha was now sitting up on the bed, a greyish tint marking her face. Alive. And she wasn't alone, because a child was sitting next to her.
Oguba.
Another Oguba in the past?
"Takamachi Nanoha," the past Oguba was saying to the young Nanoha on the bed. "My name is Oguba. I am a Lost Logia, watching the flow of time. I have come to lend you my powers."
"Your powers?" the young Nanoha said, her eyes wide. "I don't understand. I'm - "
A sudden rush of pain came over her face, and her mouth opened wide in a silent scream. Watching the scene, Nanona herself understood the same emotion. It wasn't what she was feeling in the past...but what she was feeling in the present...
When she had been erased out of time, and felt as if she had lost Fate and Vivio forever...
"I'm...I'm dead?" the past Nanoha stammered, confusion and terror all too self-evident. "Fate and Vivio...but...how can..."
It doesn't add up, Nanoha thought. In the past, she must have been experiencing memories about Vivio and having died...memories which were from her own future. But how could that be possible? Had Oguba given her that information herself? Wouldn't that create another paradox of its own?
"I can help you," the past Oguba soothed her softly. "My powers of time-travel will allow you to live again. All you have to do is make a contract with me."
"Contract...?"
"Yes, Takamachi Nanoha," the child on the bed continued urgently. "To bind our agreement and make it reality. You would not have died. You will have the power to make everything in the future as if it never happened. All that I ask of you is one wish, one wish that you want me to fulfil."
"One wish?" the teenage girl on the bed said tearfully. "Then I...I wish to..."
Her face wasn't that of the past anymore, Nanoha realised. Because of what happened in the future, and the sheer emotion of the memories that were being emptied into her...she was thinking in the future. As if she really was the future Nanoha, who lived happily with Fate and their daughter. Nanoha recognised the panic in her eyes. She'd seen the same kind of thing in Fate's eyes when she herself had woken up on her own.
"I wish to wake up with Vivio by my side," the young girl whispered. "I wish to fulfil the promise that I made to her on that day, that I would be there for her."
The past Oguba nodded.
"Granted," he said simply, and laid a single finger on the young Nanoha's skin.
Runes branched out across the girl's skin immediately, soaring across the length of her body. The mark of Oguba, sealing the contract. Turquoise magical energy wrapped around her in a tornado of light, lifting her body up off the floor slightly. The past Oguba murmured words that could not be heard, an alien tongue that was incomprehensible, energy flowing from his own youthful body and into the young Nanoha. His chanting continued, filling the room with its sounds as the runes blazed brighter and slowly disappeared into the girl's skin altogether.
Nanoha, still watching the scene with baited breath, felt a touch against her clothes, and was snapped out of her reverie by the child standing next to her.
"It's time," said the Oguba standing next to her, as the runes in front of her began to disappear, the scene slowly receding from her completely. "I think you've seen enough. Now - "
The world snapped back into focus in Nanoha's eyes. It felt like a slap in the face. Her muscles had gone rigid from her experience, her arms still held tightly around Fate in a frozen embrace. Self-conscious of what was going on – how long had she been standing here? Had any time passed at all? - she quickly released the blonde mage.
But then when Fate looked at her, it was with a curious new light.
"You made a contract with Oguba in the past?" the Enforcer said in quiet puzzlement. "For me and Vivio?"
She saw it all? Nanoha thought, her mind numb. But of course. Oguba had mentioned that having Fate close to her would be directly connected to bringing everything back. Nanoha had wondered why, but now she understood. Because my feelings for her and Vivio were at the centre of it all.
"I-I'm sorry..." she murmured, not knowing what to say. "I felt like I was going to lose both of you."
Fate smiled and kissed her on the lips, a bittersweet taste in her mouth. "You don't have to apologise, Nanoha. It wasn't your fault. I understand why you did it."
But what if I regret this? Nanoha thought. Some of this just feels...forced. I didn't really have a choice. My past self was just thrust into accepting Oguba's powers because of something that happened now. Somehow this doesn't feel...right...
She'd thought that recovering her memory might have made her feel better. But it didn't. They were better-equipped with such knowledge, but somehow she just felt caged in at all sides. Why would Oguba help her? He was a Lost Logia. There was no reason why...
"Nanoha."
The sound of Fate's voice against her ear jarred out of her thoughts once more. But then she saw that the blonde mage was staring at her left hand questioningly. And now Nanoha saw that there was something in that hand – something that hadn't been there before. She was clutching an object giving off a faint turquoise glow, the same kind of glow she had seen in her past memories. Her heart racing, Nanoha slowly opened her right hand.
And in the palm of that hand, a strange rotating cylindrical object was revealed. It was made out of a metallic alien-like material that neither of them had ever seen before, a triple helix turning endlessly inside itself and brimming with contained energy. A glass-like hemisphere was formed over its curved edges, in which flakes of sand fell like rain within.
Across the blunt edges of the object, one word repeated continuously. The same word which had been written in strange blue runes on her skin. The mark of Oguba.
This is Oguba, Nanoha realised. The Lost Logia. This must have been what Oguba meant by his "revival". His entrance into the real world. And it could only happen after I had recovered my memories.
In her other hand she still held Raging Heart tightly. But as she moved the Lost Logia closer to the device, Nanoha felt the two of them pulsate strongly together, as if they were drawn together. As if this was what had been meant to happen all along.