The inside of the Metaworld was strangely quiet when the Legion arrived at last, having been transported through the portal it had been inadvertently sucked into after all the chaos with Oguba's magic. Despite possessing very little of its original fighting power or battle armour, both of which had been all but wrecked by those two Bureau mages, the cyborg had still retained some hope that it could prevent Grylmark from destroying the superior program. There was nothing wrong with the Legion's cognitive circuits, after all, and it knew that there was no feasible way for Grylmark to reach the Metaworld without the use of any of the other available portals.

And yet...

Alarm registered within all connections in the Legion's internal mainframe when it saw the remains of the superior program before it. Each of the compact supercomputers which functioned as a part of the superior now lay burnt black and broken to the point that they were almost unrecognisable. Thick mounds of ash layered the area in-between huge clusters of ripped and shredded wires. Upon closer examination, the Legion discovered that the ash was the leftovers of a number of high-voltage electrical fires which had broken out, now died down along with the source of the malfunction.

Several explosions had taken place within the precious core where the superior program was most vulnerable. Mercifully, the memory banks remained secure and undamaged but they were of no use without a medium to store them. In time, the forces of the Metaworld would drag them down into a void of emptiness to be lost forever.

The Legion ran a brief check for any data that remained within the superior program's circuits, as hopeless as it might seem. The human part of the cyborg, the minority, deemed it as a terrible waste. Crucial information regarding the activities of Red Scorpion and the strengths and weaknesses of the TSAB had all been carefully stored within the core of the superior program. And now...everything had been lost, unable to ever be recovered save through the passing of long years of hard work and dedication.

But no...not yet. A glimmer of hope remained, a tiny opportunity that the Legion had almost missed. The cyborg could detect no sign of life within the Metaworld besides itself. Even Srethis...the lizard should have been here too, after passing through Exoria's portal. Perhaps Grylmark had killed Srethis as well. It didn't really matter in any case.

The Legion was a soldier of Red Scorpion, through and through. From the moment of its creation, the cyborg had followed the orders of the superior program, knowing no other way to exist. Without the superior...without any orders to follow...its purpose for existing was taken away from it. Grylmark's actions had had a greater effect than the summoner had truly realised.

Working systematically, as if there was no reason to hurry, the cyborg opened out a single panel in the side of its neck, exposing a tiny circular hole. Green light shone from the inside of the opening, shining down onto a particular section of the superior program, untouched by the destruction that Grylmark had unleashed upon it.

"Decrypting memory bank data," the Legion said, as terrabytes of visual information flooded into its own memory banks. "Defragmenting corrupt files for manual process. Selecting most recent time period before termination of data. Yagami keycode: deciphered. Transferring into visual communication for recovery. Playback of data: executed."

The image of a young woman appeared in the air before the Legion, fuzzy and out of focus, a holographic nondescript face showing generic features. Appearance was not important, but information was.

"Message recorded: ninety-five seconds before complete termination of program," the superior program's voice sounded from the hologram's mouth. "The following message will be automatically wiped from the memory banks after playback as per security protocol under Lady Yagami. Authentication complete: message reads as follows."

The image of the woman suddenly became static as the data switched to aural playback only. "My Legion," the recording began. "This is the end of Red Scorpion."

Although the cyborg had only been programmed with a limited number of emotions, the humanity it did possess had sent anxiety racing across its circuits like mad. The Legion leaned forward in anticipation, taking in every single word as if it meant the world to it. In theory, that was not too far from the truth; there would only be one hearing of the message.

"I am unaware of how much of this you know, my Legion, but we have been betrayed from within. Grylmark was sent to us for the sole purpose of terminating me completely. At every turn, Oguba had insisted that we trust him – meaning that either Oguba has also been manipulating us, or that Oguba too has been playing into Grylmark's hands. In either case, it is clear that we have made the mistake of trusting Oguba as well.

"Grylmark revealed to me who hired him to kill me," the superior program continued, its voice beginning to break up. "You will not believe me as first, but you must, or you will not survive. The person who employed Grylmark to bring down Red Scorpion was no other than our former leader and creator...Lady Yagami-sama."

Involuntarily, the Legion's jaw tightened at this news, but forced itself to remain still. The machine inside it struggled to suppress the human emotions that were running riot throughout its body.

"I cannot know why she did it, my Legion, but that is the truth." The voice of the recording was becoming weaker and weaker, and the Legion was forced to amplify the sound to hear much more. "Listen now to what I am about to tell you, for this is what is most important. These are my final orders to you, my Legion. Your human side will want to go to Yagami-sama, to seek her out, to find her and perhaps even do her violence despite the gifts that she gave to us. You have not experienced your human side at the height of great emotions, and you may find it difficult to control.

"My Legion: you must resist." The female voice of the superior program had become stronger again, as if making one last effort to make herself heard. "You must not go to Yagami-sama. You must live your life for your own sake, without orders – with free will, as humans do. Humanity is a powerful concept, my Legion, and even I have underestimated its resourcefulness." The recording began to crackle again, filling up with static and becoming incoherent. "Do not...do not let humanity control your actions...you must break allegiance with Yagami-sama. Do not look for support within the House of Yagami as you have done in the past...they will...kill..." Another crackle of static, and then the recording became clean again. "The residents of the House of Yagami are even more loyal to her than we are, and far more dangerous...you must...you must not trust any one, my Legion. Stay...stay away...keep safe...keep Exoria safe..."

The message came to an abrupt stop, turning into an irate buzz of wordless noise in the Legion's ears. The hologram of the young woman became active for just a few more seconds.

"End of message," the image said. "Deleting."

The Legion didn't wait for the memory banks to do the job. It had already disconnected, both technologically and spiritually, if such a thing was possible for a creature of its genetic pattern.

For a long time, the cyborg stood there in the same position without moving. Minutes passed by, seeming like an eternity – but in the Metaworld, such minutes could already have turned into hours. Time was the same no matter how you tried to classify it.

The superior program had been right about one thing: the cyborg could feel its human side taking over. The Legion had felt it from the moment it had set foot inside the Metaworld and seen the results of Grylmark's handiwork. They were powerful, complicated emotions of the like that the cyborg had never experienced before. It had always known about its human side, but knew that humanity only comprised a small percentage of its existence. And yet...to feel such urges now, feelings which even threatened to override the last orders of the superior completely...

Rage. Hatred. Sadness. Desperation. Loneliness. Isolation.

A desire for revenge.

The Legion was not personally acquainted with any of these words, having never really experienced them in a practical way. It knew, however, that they were all experienced by humans, and knew the meaning of each word only as a standard definition, just like a blind person knew what it was like to see. With every second that the cyborg remained standing, time energy washing over it agonisingly, each of these emotions became more pronounced and emphasised. The Legion realised it had never truly known the real meaning of any of these words. It knew them now.

"Humans are dangerous," the Legion said out loud, three words spoken in a dimension in which it was the only living creature in the universe.

No. The pain...kept coming. It hurt. Why? the Legion wondered. Why should it hurt? Was it the pain of the past battles with the Time-Space Administration Bureau? No...there was no further damage to any of its functioning circuits. Then why? How could you feel pain just by thinking – and from inside, of all places? Would it be wiser to stop thinking altogether? But that, too, would be dangerous.

Do humans feel like this all the time? the Legion thought. Exoria was always displaying her feelings, though she fought to hide them. Did she feel like this? Does Yagami-sama feel like this? Do...do the people I have been fighting, the entire Bureau, do they all feel like this?

The time energy of the Metaworld sprang away from the cyborg as it moved itself forward unexpectedly. A slow reluctance was present in its mind, yet born of decision and determination. A purpose...and not just in following orders, but disobeying them.

"This is impractical," the Legion said to no-one. "Humans are strong to bear such pain throughout the whole of their existence. Superior-san, I say now with regret that I am unable to comply with your final orders. I...I cannot go against my humanity."

Anger. Hurt. Isolation. Vengeance.

The Legion wasn't even sure what the last one meant, but it seemed to be pressured at every point in its mind at the same time. Surely an ordinary human did not feel like this. Surely Exoria did not have to bear with such torment. What kind of existence would that be to live like that?

I still have a purpose, the cyborg thought. Unfortunately I cannot obey the superior program even now, and she is no longer here to reinforce her orders upon me. I will follow my humanity, and my humanity urges me to go now...to Yagami-sama.

Yes. The Legion felt a new rush of emotions clogging up its circuits just by thinking it. Something pleasurable and wonderful...Pride? Enthusiasm? Excitement? It seemed strange to feel in such a way, but as long as the feelings were not harmful, then the cyborg saw no harm in letting them fill its body.

The first step would be to exit the Metaworld, which the Legion had no trouble in doing with a minimal amount of magical energy, even in its weakened form. After that, however, it would be on its own, permanently.

Exoria said that she was going back to Yagami-sama. She is going back...to the person who wanted to destroy Red Scorpion. She will not receive a warm welcome. Perhaps she will even be killed on the spot for coming back, especially since she failed to kill Hayate of the TSAB.

It was also likely that Grylmark would be heading in a similar direction, the Legion surmised. The summoner would want to return to his employer for payment, after all. Yes, despite the pleas of the superior program, this had to be the best choice of action. The Legion had made its decision.

Following Exoria would not be too difficult. Here in the Metaworld, many different portals would link up with each other at the boundary. It was only a matter of honing in on Exoria's particular portal – the Legion just had to make a specific check on the size and scope of the time-path to travel upon. Exoria's magical trace was very unique, too – the cyborg should be able to track a route through her own portal within ten or twenty minutes. There was no rush. You could only perform such a trace within the boundaries of the Metaworld, however. In any other place, experienced time magic would be required.

With its mind made up, the Legion turned away as the magic of the Metaworld dragged the superior program's remains down into everlasting darkness, and began to prepare the trace.

The world had gone bizarre in the eyes of Tiana Lanster. It had turned, twisted, lashed out at her and then gone all quiet again within a very small period of time. She was only just beginning to get used to it.

The sharpshooter had barely recovered from her ordeal with the Manticore before the portals had all started opening around her without warning, forcing her to seek cover within the wreckage of Red Scorpion's tower. Within seconds, it became apparent that not even this was safe as the ground opened up beneath her at every step, swallowing up the remains of the Superuser to take it into the abyss of lost time. The violent turbulent forces created by the vast number of portals threatened to destroy reality as she knew it. Tiana had no choice but to keep moving, darting from one place to another just to keep her head above ground, in a very literal sense.

Crippled with severe exhaustion and panicking constantly about her next move, Tiana had almost reached the end of her rope, with her body about to give out completely...when the portals had all started closing again. She have even less of an idea of what was going on or why, but had collapsed onto solid ground, just grateful to be able to take a breather.

Forty seconds later, a dead body hit the ground right in front of her with a crunch.

It seemed an age before Tiana could will herself to move. She was afraid to approach the corpse, fearful whether she would find Nanoha or Fate lying cold and still on the ground before her. As her heart rate began to return to normal, however, she finally summoned the guts to move her body at a crawl towards the person who had just fallen...

She reached the body and discovered it to be of a young girl, still in her school uniform. Brown-orange pigtails and two blue eyes gazed upwards unseeingly for an eternity. A face that Tiana had seen before, when watching past recordings of Nanoha's battles in her youth...

Nanoha? A young Nanoha? But how -

The skin of Takamachi's body abruptly turned black as night and began to disintegrate on the spot, flaking away from her bones and leaving only a skeleton behind. The grinning skull of a past Nanoha stared up at Tiana emptily before it, too, was transformed into dust. The departure of Oguba had caused generations of time to be accelerated through Takamachi's physical body within the space of a few seconds so that now nothing remained of her but ashes. Even the clothes had split up into worn fragments of cloth and rags, their appearance diminished by time.

Eyes wide with terror, Tiana backed away from the spot where the body had laid, blinking quickly as if the image could be blanked from her memory completely. Maybe she'd imagined it. Maybe it hadn't been Nanoha's face turning into dust. Maybe there have never been a body -

"Tiana! Up here!"

She turned round to see Fate floating in mid-air just above her. The Enforcer's face was lined with relief, her hand extended down to her.

"I'm so glad you're all right, Tiana," Fate said quietly, her blonde hair flying over the front of her face slightly. "I was really worried about you."

The forward's eyes shone. "You came back for me?"

"Of course. Didn't I say I would?" The blonde mage beckoned towards her. "Come on. Nanoha's up above – we have to keep together."

Tiana stared at Fate's hand for another moment before understanding came to her. "Wait – but – I can't - "

"You'll be fine," the Enforcer reassured her with a brief smile. "I won't let you fall, I promise. If you stay on the ground, you'll be in much more danger." The mage drifted forward and wrapped her fingers around Tiana's hand, the forward's gaze caught by her at the touch against her own skin. "Come on. It'll be all right."

Tiana felt Fate's arm wrap tightly around her waist, sweeping her up into the air as they flew higher and higher. The sharpshooter felt herself go into panic mode almost immediately, making the mistake of looking down as the ground grew further and further away, hanging onto Fate's arm for dear life. The Enforcer didn't seem put out by her behaviour, but simply smiled and kept on flying. Gradually, Tiana forced herself in a state of calm, putting her faith into the older woman. Fate wasn't going to let her fall. It was just like when she'd practised with Subaru in combining her techniques with Wing Road – it was something she had to get used to. But at such a high altitude, she couldn't help feeling some degree of fear.

The air rushed across her skin at high speed, breezing through her hair as Fate accelerated up towards greater heights still where Nanoha was waiting. It was then that Tiana became aware of the massive blue orb in the sky, a pulsing core of magic which moved and expanded with every second she looked at it. She squinted up at the orb and tried to figure out exactly what it could be, wondering if it was the cause of the sudden appearance of the portals from before.

"Nanoha," Fate greeted, the three mages re-uniting as one.

The Ace of Aces seemed different from the last time Tiana had seen her. She seemed stronger, somehow, with a greater sense of spirit and determination present within her than before. Presently, however, her expression was tentative and strained with worry. It was clear that the object of her anxiety was the pulsating blue orb above them.

"What's going on?" the forward asked nervously. "What happened with the portals and – and - "

Nanoha shook her head sadly. "It's a long story. Forget everything you've heard about Oguba so far, Tiana. The Lost Logia of time travel has been using us from day one – both us. Red Scorpion was never our real enemy." Her eyes were haunted by the prospect of failing everyone. "I...I'm lost at what to do. There's no way to defeat Oguba, and even if there was...we would have no way of getting home. We would be stuck here." She sighed. "I used Oguba's power to get us here in the first place. The only way back to Mid-childa would be by using Oguba's magic again. Unless any members of Red Scorpion with time magic have been captured..." She shook her head again.

Fate stared up at the expanding orb above them. "Is that Oguba's power? All of it?"

The other mage nodded. "We have to be very, very careful about what we do next. Those portals appeared all over this planet because Oguba went out of control. If that happens again...we will not be able to close them. Not this time." Nanoha thought about what might have happened if the portals had been let loose all over Mid-childa – a living planet filled with millions of people going about their daily lives – and shuddered. No, they had to work out how to finish this whilst they still -

"What is that?" Tiana cried suddenly, pointing up at the orb.

She wasn't referring to the orb itself, but to the shape of a person rising from the ground towards it. No, not one person...two...three people, all floating up into the sky at an incredible speed, rotating round in a shrinking loop as if trapped inside an imaginary tornado which led directly into Oguba's magic.

The three people Tiana saw were of very different heights. One seemed to be a little boy with golden eyes and sandy hair. The second was a middle-aged man who looked like he could easily be related. The third...

Tiana recognised the third person in an instant. It was Grylmark.

"Who are they?" Fate cried, as the three figures began to spin around faster and faster. A wave of magic surrounded each of them, coalescing into a single point at the centre from which something new was beginning to develop. "What are they trying to accomplish?"

"It's Grylmark," Nanoha said grimly, surprising Tiana with what she already knew. "Oguba told me about his..."versions". He's split himself up into his past, present and future selves. He's brought all three of them here now. I think...I think he's combining his own power with Oguba."

So that's why he always called himself Grylmark the Third, Tiana thought as the orb in the sky began to expand at an accelerated rate, reaching forth to engulf all three Grylmarks revolving in the air above them. He was from the future. His third version. But why would he come here now and -

The three figures could no longer be seen; the size of the orb had amplified to the point that the top of the entire sky had been consumed with intense blue light. But the spinning movement of the Grylmarks had had a very noticeable effect. From the centre of the orb, a whirling, revolving motion had spread out across all of Oguba's power, set in motion to spread across the horizon. The air rippled with energy and began to crack, sucked in from above as the extreme pressure forced it round into an infinite loop. Magical power crackled across the giant hole forming above their heads, a hole which bled an intense white glow, an unstoppable maelstrom of power which began to rip away at anything that got close...

"A portal," Tiana said breathlessly. "He used Oguba to make a portal...in the sky?"

"That's not a portal," Nanoha replied, watching as the whirling storm continued to increase in scale and power beyond anything they had ever seen. Pretty soon, it would devour the whole of this world before caving on itself. "No portal is that big. We might call it a wormhole – a single passage to another reality or universe."

"There's a difference?"

The Ace of Aces closed her eyes painfully. "I only know this from what I saw with Oguba inside my mind. He has his own "versions", too. A portal will take you to any point in time or space in our own universe. A wormhole could potentially take you to another universe completely, though not too different from our own." The overwhelming suction motion was beginning to affect all three of them, drawing them higher against their will. "Oguba's information said that wormholes aren't meant to occur within planets themselves. They should only naturally occur within deep space. This...this could get messy..."

Tiana felt herself being pulled upwards, faster and faster, even though Fate wasn't flying in that direction. The pull of the wormhole was far too powerful to be resisted. It took up the entire sky and was halfway down towards the ground, where the entire planet would break apart and be sucked into the wormhole itself...nothing would be able to escape.

Fate managed a small smile. "There's no way of stopping it, is there?"

"No," replied Nanoha, her face a mask of apathy as she too was pulled upwards. The world around them was almost invisible, pouring in with white light. They could barely see each other's faces anymore as all three of them were drawn deeper and deeper into the wormhole itself.

"And no way of escaping the wormhole?"

"No," the other mage said bitterly, averting her gaze.

The Enforcer was quiet for a few seconds, her eyes damp and darkened by the pain of what she knew was coming. Then she said, "Tiana, let go of my arm."

"W-what?" The sharpshooter looked at her as if she was crazy. "Fate, wha - "

"You'll be safer with Nanoha where you're going. I can take care of myself." The blonde mage unhooked her arm from the protesting girl and propelled her towards Nanoha. "Nanoha, take care of Tiana. Maybe I don't know much about time travel, but I know enough to know that we could be separated. We might...we might not see each other again..." Her voice softened. "Nanoha, I love you. You'll never forget that, will you?"

Nanoha's voice was choked with emotion, her eyes shining. She reached out and cupped the other woman's cheek with her hand gently. "Fate, it's okay," she whispered. "We're not going to - "

Her voice cut out suddenly and the other two mages disappeared from Fate's sight completely as white light pierced across their faces. The touch of Nanoha's palm against her cheek had also vanished. Fate turned in panic as more of the same light forced her further upwards, pressurising her from all sides. She felt her defences crumble and the beginnings of despair begin to creep up on her mind. Angrily, the Enforcer forced it away and let her voice rip with everything she had.

"NANOHA!"

If there was any response, she never heard it. Blinded and alone, tears running down her cheeks, Fate felt herself fall into unconsciousness, her body guided through the wormhole by the light as she was taken away to another time and place in another universe far, far away from home...

Vita, Signum and Erio looked upwards in rising apprehension as the light of the wormhole grew brighter and brighter in the sky above them. Driving off Grylmark the First may have meant that they had seen the last of Red Scorpion at last, but it had also given rise to a new phenomenon, once that none of the three mages was willing to confront. Vita, for her part, was getting sick and tired of this. It was just one thing after another. First the struggle to escape, then the long and bitter fight with Legion, then the portals, and now this?

"We're getting out of here," she said, already heading back down the corridor. "If that's another portal coming our way, I'm not going near it."

"That's not a portal, Vita-chan," Erio said seriously, looking frightened. "That's...that's far too big to be just another portal..." The forward raced after the Guardian Knight quickly to catch up. "Vita-chan, wait! What about Subaru? We still haven't found her!"

Vita hesitated in mid-step. Erio was right. No matter what was coming for them, abandoning Subaru was out of the question. But her own senses and intuition told her that the blue-haired mage wasn't in their vicinity at all – there were no other life-signs existing besides those of the three of them.

"I can't sense her magical field anywhere near," she said, turning around. "Unless...unless she's hurt badly, but we should still be able to detect her..."

Signum narrowed her eyes as she came to join them. "I cannot sense Subaru's whereabouts either. She could be elsewhere in the caverns...or the portals could have claimed her." She indicated with a flick of her head at the approaching danger from above. "We don't have enough time to perform a detailed search before that hits us."

The light was growing brighter and brighter, descending towards them at an astonishing rate. A thunderous rumbling told them that the ground up at the surface was being torn to pieces and sucked away into space, all over the entire planet. Being underground was no longer protection from the events happening up above – the wormhole was virtually drilling through into the subterranean chambers, engulfing everything it touched...

"Even if she's all right, where are we going to go?" Erio asked in alarm. "We can't go back up! The surface is being destroyed – we have to stay underground!"

"Erio, if we stay underground we're not going to last much longer!" Signum said harshly. "We have to find Nanoha and - "

Light burst into the entire corridor as the wormhole sucked away the entire roof of the cavern. Suddenly, they were no longer underground, because everything above them had already been torn away from the planet. The glow of the wormhole flooded through the mages' senses as they frantically stumbled forward, blinded and unaware of which way was which. Vita desperately reached out for a handheld and found none, tripping over a mound of rubble as she hit the floor hard.

Signum felt her way round the walls, even as they began to break away before her. By chance she was able to catch hold of Erio's arm and maintain her grip, keeping the two of them together. She had not been as fortunate in finding Vita, and could only hope that the other Velka Knight would be able to get as far away from here as possible. It would be all for nothing if Vita was captured again after they had only just been reunited.

Her foot kicked at something sharp, and Signum bent down to pick it up curiously, managing to do so with a superhuman effort whilst holding onto Erio. It was a sword, a two-handed blade which...wait. It was...it was the sword that had held Ungore's body down into the ground. Had they come that far down the corridor already? Her mage senses could detect no other lifeforms other than herself, Erio and Vita, although with Vita she could only sense a very faint magical field, which was probably due to distance. Ungore was no longer here in the caverns. Had the alien been taken away by the light as well?...The sword was simply a transformation of their arm. Why would it be left behind?

There was no way of acting on such thoughts. Signum and Erio were being taken away by the wormhole, separated from Vita as the light became brighter and brighter around them. They held onto each other for dear life, shutting their eyes tight against the seemingly-infinite world of white which threatened to take them away into unconsciousness completely...

A new time and place was beckoning for all of them. A new universe.

END OF PART ONE

A/N: Part Two of Lyrical Nanoha: Time Destruction will begin in the next chapter, which will also be a special chapter for various reasons.