A/N: Updating early because shorter chapter.
It was a warzone up on the surface of the land of limbo. The behemoth which was the Manticore's most powerful form stalked across the ground towards its prey, smashing building-sized craters into the earth with little effort as it did so. An elemental lightning field surrounded its colossal body, serving as high protection from magic spells.
As if I could cast anything against it, Tiana thought, as she huddled in the shadow of one of the many craters littering the ruins of the altar and wondering why she was still alive.
She had no idea what Grylmark was up to or why the summoner was intent that Nanoha's forces were able to catch up to Red Scorpion. What she was very aware of was that he had stranded here, powerless without her magic, against a monster that she had no possible hope of winning against. He'd made it quite clear that he was doing the best possible job of trying to kill her.
Tiana tried to transform again, with the same results: Cross Mirage was completed depleted of all magical power. Her own physical stamina and endurance was still present, however. It was just as well, because all Tiana had been able to do was run around from one crater to the next in the hope of dodging the Manticore's next earth-shattering attack. She'd been trying to transform without success for over five minutes now.
The Manticore's lion-head swooped down momentarily and pelted a stream of infernal death at her in the form of fireballs. She rolled out of the way, weaving to and fro between the numerous holes in the earth created by the monster's passing and dodged away from the end of the wave of heat that rose up as the attack finished. For a moment Tiana steered too close to the creature, and the lightning field sprang up to blast her into oblivion; fortunately she sprang back just in time, rushing back to the crater furthest from the Manticore to gather her thoughts again.
I can't even get close to it without being fried. And that's if I don't get burned to ashes or crushed to death first! What am I supposed to do?
The Manticore didn't even need to try and kill her. It just had to move near to her before the lightning field made contact with her body and blew her away into the night sky as a sizzling comet. And the creature was of such tremendous size – Tiana had to crane her neck to see the top of its three heads when it reared to its full height – that at first, she wondered how the Manticore could even see her. She must look like a mosquito to a beast like that. She could easily hide away and wait for the Manticore to pass, then rest to try and recharge her magic again.
At least, that's what should have happened. Her brief period of hiding in the slit in-between two rocks in the gap of a crater had resulted in the Manticore moving forward in one direction...and then turning towards her exact position as if she was a homing beacon.
Grylmark did something to it. It can barely see me at all from that height, yet it can always detect my exact position. Grylmark said he'd made some "changes of his own" to the Manticore from last time...he must have put some kind of reprogramming inside it so that it always goes for me.
Unless it was something else, like infra-red vision or something that would only identify her? Tiana didn't see how body heat had anything to do with it. The Manticore was spitting out enough fire already.
For a moment, she rested her device lightly against the tip of a rock as she tried to think. Unexpectedly, the Manticore's body tensed and drew up, hissing in response.
Oh no, Tiana realised. So that's what it is. It's zeroing in on Cross Mirage. That's how it always knows where I am.
She could throw Cross Mirage down and make her escape, but that would deprive her of her only weapon. Then again, it wasn't as if she could use it anyway with no magic inside it. Did she dare risk it? It would ensure that she'd be completely defenceless against all other enemies in this world, but it would save her life and get the Manticore off her back...
Tiana hesitated, remembering what Nanoha had always told her about being reckless. She mustn't take unnecessary risks. She had to think and...
But that's being reckless whilst you're with the members of your team. It's so you don't endanger their lives with your own selfishness. I'm alone. I can be reckless by myself if I want to! I've only got my own life to lose!
Now the only question remaining was whether she had the guts to throw away her only weapon to save her own skin.
The Manticore thundered towards her at a slow but unyielding pace, ripping up huge chunks of rock and earth at every step. A circle of fire burnt the land black for several metres around its massive form, adding the illusion of lengthening its looming shadow into one of extended darkness. Smoke poured off the rocks as its second head rained frost and ice from the skies, obscuring part of its body as it advanced.
Tiana gulped and decided that she didn't have the guts after all.
With the stench of smouldering earth creeping after her, she turned tail and began to run for her life, as fast as she could.
The sounds woke her up, a steady pounding which began as the drum of a painful headache and gradually grew into the clashing of machinery. Blue light twinkled before her eyes as Nanoha blearily raised her head, metal biting painfully into her side. She called out faintly, but there was no one there to answer. Fate was gone. She grasped out for supports and found nothing to hold onto.
The backs of her knuckles scraped against the inside of the elevator. Yes, the floor was rising...she was going up. She had been in the elevator for quite some time, considering it had taken her about fifteen minutes to stir completely.
Nanoha felt worry brush at her, claw and tug at the edges of her mind. She was worried about the others and how they were faring with Red Scorpion, had they encountered any opponents yet. She was worried about Fate down below – though the last half hour seemed pretty hazy, the noise from the lower floors of the tower was that of combat. She'd recognise the energies of Bardiche anywhere. Somewhere down there, Fate was fighting – to protect her.
Nanoha also had no recollection of stepping into the elevator. That was the greatest cause of worry right now. She remembered the voice that had called out to her. She remembered moving her body forward to investigate. But at no point did she remember stepping into the elevator itself.
Ever since Fate and I stepped into this tower, my mind has been feeling fuzzy. The last remember is hearing that she had something to tell me, and...and then warning me not to go in, and then...
She opened her eyes all the way and saw the blue light of Oguba spilling out into the elevator in a mad rush.
With a yell, Nanoha flung Raging Heart up to protect herself instinctively before realising that the light was coming out of Raging Heart itself. The light made it hard to think, distorted your mind, made you question events from before. Was that simply Oguba's nature, perhaps, or was it deliberate?
I've got to get out of this lift. Oguba's essence is flooding out of Raging Heart. It's going to drive me mad -
Nanoha glanced down and saw that the blue light was not only coming out of her device...it was coming out of her skin. Seeping out of her body, squeezed out in small amounts as if from a sponge...and the more of it that exited her body, the clearer her mind became...
So Oguba was still in my body after all, Nanoha thought, backing away against the cold wall of the elevator as far as she could go. Everyone thought it was all right when I recovered after my ordeal. We thought that Oguba was completely contained in Raging Heart. But that wasn't the case after all, was it? There must have been a trace of him left in me – in my mind, through the dreams I had...slowly affecting me over time...
As the blue light curled around the elevator like cigarette fumes, Nanoha started to remember specific actions she'd gone through with recently. Actions which had made sense at the time, under Oguba's influence, but which now seemed irrational and not moves that she would have made with a clear head.
Trusting Oguba so easily and taking its powers for granted, even when the transition through the time portal had crippled their group. Going after Vita with no actual back-up plan – and with a group of only six people, with still incomplete information about the members of Red Scorpion. Failing to dispatch communicators between herself and the rest of their group. Ignoring Fate's warnings to her. Attempting to go after the power source in Red Scorpion...on her own, before Fate stopped her.
It wasn't as if she had been controlled by another force completely. Her mind and voice were still her own. But it was if another consciousness had placed a suggestion to her, a strong enough suggestion which she did not question. Oguba's consciousness.
And everyone else trusted her and loved her enough not to question her. Or at least, not think about it too much, not when all their minds were focused on getting Vita back. Only Fate seemed to have noticed the change, because she was the one who spent the most time with her.
Why? Why would Oguba want me to do all those things? He's a Lost Logia, and yet...a Lost Logia would not push its will onto the mind of another human being, not any more than a machine would influence an animal. Which means...it isn't a Lost Logia. How? Didn't Yuuno research as much about Oguba as he could? Isn't that what he discovered?
Nanoha quickly stopped herself as the elevator continued to its near-infinite journey up into the sky. No. Maybe it wasn't Oguba's doing after all. Maybe it was the power of time-travel which corrupted it and made it this way.
But all of these actions, influenced by Oguba...they all pointed to one thing. Oguba wanted her here, on this side of the portal, within this land of limbo. Red Scorpion was connected somehow, but Nanoha had a feeling that they weren't one of Oguba's highest priorities. No...Oguba was more interested on her. And she needed to know why, before anything else went wrong.
The elevator reached the top floor and shot to a stop, throwing Nanoha to the floor in a shroud of blue light. The mist shuddered as she feel against it, reacting to her sudden movement, and rising to the ceiling. Oguba's essence continued to pour out of Raging Heart, though no more seeped from her body – it seemed that the Lost Logia wasn't inside her body anymore, which was something to be thankful about.
Open, Nanoha mouthed at the elevator doors as they continued to creak open a few inches at a time. I need to get out of here!
The blue mist curled into the features of a human being, shrinking into the face of a little girl with her hairs in pigtails who held a familiar staff in one hand. Holes appeared where her eyes should have been, and a jagged twisted grin spiked across the image of her face. The smile twitched and began to crack as the light shifted, giving off the illusion of a broken smile being shattered.
"Nanoha..." the apparition whispered, creeping towards her.
She swung Raging Heart hard at the mist, splitting the ghastly image apart, and sprang through the tiny gap in the elevator doors, breathing heavily. Behind her, the elevator began to rock and shake as if all power had departed it, and began to plunge downwards at death-defying speeds. There was no other way down from here.
Shaking, Nanoha ran for the stairs in front of her as more and more blue mist plunged out of Raging Heart's core, heading for the top of the tower. It was what Oguba wanted – but it was the only way Nanoha was going to get the answers she needed. There was an ethereal light burning at the summit, and she was going to find out exactly why Oguba wanted her to go there.
It had better be a good reason, she thought darkly. Because after that the only way I'm getting down from this tower is if I jump.
Laevatein's blade flashed burning red as it clashed hard against the imposing form of Ungore's dead arm, thrust forward by the alien's other clawed hand. At such close quarters, there was scant room for spells, and Signum found her opponent to be diving forward at her in a frenzy, its masked face dark behind its scarf as it darted from side to side to claw at her. Twice she'd been disarmed, and twice she'd managed to regain her ground and fight the alien off, but she could feel the desperation in her enemy as surely as her own determination.
She forced her weapon forward and lunged out with a foot to unbalance the creature, but Ungore had already twisted, whipping its remaining arm towards her throat. She sprang back as Ungore did too, so that they stood facing each other, breathing quickly with exertion. The dead arm hung limply from the alien's shoulder as if about to fall off. If they fought for much longer, it probably would. Signum made a sour face at the thought of it.
"You could save us all a lot of time," the Velka Knight panted, cleansing the fire from her sword as it reverted back to Sword Form, "and just get out of the way."
Ungore sneered with open derision."And hand back to you a valuable ally? I don't think so! If we hand your friend back to you, she'll join you and turn on us in an instant!"
"Yes, Vita probably will," Signum said patiently. "Which is why that would save a lot of time. The other mages of my group will be here soon to back me up." They had better be, she thought, because so far she hadn't found any sign of Subaru or Erio. "There's more of us than you are, Ungore. There really isn't any point in keeping this up."
"Words!" the alien screeched. "Words, bluffs, lies, all the same! I don't know how you made it past the Legion, but your petty words are lost on me, Bureau agent! I won't let you through!"
Signum frowned. "Who's the Legion?"
For a moment, Ungore hesitated. Its body relaxed, then tensed up again, its living arm reaching up to its dead shoulder instinctively, then letting go again. Its mannerisms spoke only too well of its own distraught temperament.
"The cyborg you met on the way here," the alien stammered. "It was guarding the way in. Nothing gets past them, oh no. You must have gotten sneaky if it really didn't see you. No other passages through."
"I haven't met any cyborgs," Signum said patiently. "I was pushed down a hole, and then I ran around for five minutes and found you carrying off my best friend in a giant ice cube."
Ungore twitched, touching the weapon at its shoulder again nervously. "Lies," it repeated. "Exoria said that all of Hayate's agents speak only lies. There are no other passages through. We would know about it!"
Signum gave up on trying to persuade the creature. It didn't matter anyway. "Never mind," she said. "You say you won't give Vita back. Then why are you keeping her alive? Why would you want to do that?"
Ungore gave a half-shrug. "We don't have to kill everyone who crosses our path."
"You're the kind of people who do, after what you nearly did to Nanoha." Instinct told Signum that she should really be concentrating on removing her opponent from her path with force, but what she was hearing just didn't add up. "So why are you so interested in her?"
The alien shrugged again.
"You don't know?" the Velka Knight said incredulously. "You're afraid of counter-attack from the Bureau? What's the reason?"
"I have orders from above to keep her alive," Ungore replied with an empty smile. "I follow them. And if you want to keep your friend alive, you'd better respect that!"
Signum shook her head in wonder. "So why do the rest of your little group want Vita alive? She went through the portal by accident. Why her?" She felt the silence sink in, as expected, and responded to that as well. "You don't know, do you?"
"I don't care to find out," the alien spat.
Or you don't want to ask, the Velka Knight thought inwardly. Out loud, she said, "If you don't know why you're keeping Vita with you, then do you know at least what you're fighting for?"
Ungore's lips stretched back upon its face into a grin. "Oh, oh yes I do, yes indeed," the alien chattered in a high-pitched tone. "I'll say this, Bureau agent. I don't care why Red Scorpion does what it does. I don't care how many of you live and how many of you die. I care about me, and I care about Srethis, and I've lived long enough to know what matters most: life! So I'll say this, Bureau agent, I'm fighting for survival! Hunzichille Prime!"
Caught off-guard by the sudden attack, Signum turned Laevatein onto the flat of its blade, catching the spell on her weapon. She grunted as it forced her back several steps, and somewhere far back in her memory she remembered that Ungore had used the same spell to destroy the lower floor of Vita's hospital wing.
"Hunzichille Beta!" Ungore shouted, advancing forward as purple energy thundered from the palm of its clawed hand, raking the air around the Velka Knight as she retreated quickly. The magic curled around into spikes before combining into one solid destructive ray.
Quickly, Signum whirled Laevatein round and met the second spell head-on. The reaction from the collision almost blinded her, and she was thrown back as the impact nearly disarmed her completely. Her fingers went numb from the sheer force, and she staggered back as smoke began to curl from Laevatein's hilt. This could be bad -
Ungore's eyes lit up as it drew further energy from its dead arm, violet crackling power overflowing out of its gnarled fist. The alien dashed forward, shooting forth in a hard punch which seemed to puncture the air itself, the impact spreading out from the floor to the ceiling.
"Hunzichille Omega!"
The combination of physical attack and spell caught Signum squarely in the chest before she could raise Laevatein to defend herself. Electricity and opposing magic shattered through her body, exploding in a chain reaction which threw the Velka Knight several metres backwards down the corridor to lie in a heap, motionless.
Slowly, Ungore wiped its one hand upon its other unresponsive one. "Three hits and done," the alien said, turning back towards the path ahead.