Disclaimer: I own none of the characters from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha and it's sequels, I'm only borrowing them for awhile. This story will have yuri aka girl/girl romance, so if that is not your thing I'd suggest skipping it.
It began, as many things do, with something that was never meant to happen. An accident in magical research killed untold numbers of people, including the daughter of the head researcher, Alicia Testarossa. The death of her daughter coupled with crippling grief and sorrow drove Prescia Testarossa mad, leading her into dark magic and sketchy research.
Looking for any method to save her daughter Prescia found the legends of El Hazard, a place where ancient lost magic existed. A place of wonder from children's stories, Prescia came to believe that it existed and possibly could be reached. Studying the rips in reality that came about from powerful Lost Logia she decided those openings were a possible route to El Hazard.
Acquiring the technology of Project: Fate Prescia created a seemingly perfect copy of her daughter Alicia, whom she named Fate. With her daughter's memories Fate should have been a true copy of her daughter, but Prescia hated the girl unreasonably. Creating a familiar named Lilith she had the woman train Fate to be a aggressive, dangerous warrior-mage, knowing she's need such a thing for her purposes.
Transporting her daughter's corpse with her Prescia went to her new headquarters, a 'island' powered by a strong Lost Logia. She sent Fate to a backwater world called Earth to find the 'Jewel Seeds' she needed for her plan, also powerful Lost Logia. The girl was somewhat successful but was troubled by a rival, Nanoha Takimachi. For failing to capture all the Jewel Seeds Prescia whipped Fate, unknowingly helping drive the copy away. Fate allied with Nanoha and other enemies, ultimately destroying Prescia's home and leading to her and Alicia's corpse falling into a rift, never to be seen again.
Or where they?
Magical Atoner Lyrical Alicia
One
The young woman appeared on Midchilda via the standard teleport gates, around the year 2998. She looked human, as far as anyone could tell, if possibly a bit young to be traveling alone. At best she might be in her late teens, a slim blonde dressed in a simple black bodysuit, a cape fluttering around her. The security didn't react because, at that time, there was nothing for them to react to. She seemed like many visitors to the planet, a country girl come to see the sights of the 'big city.'
She checked into a hotel, paying with a mix of currency that was positively antique, then went to several museums and institutions. Police later retraced her steps to the memorial for the victims of the Testarossa incident, and discovered she had downloaded casualty information and other data. She visited libraries and downloaded much of the history of the past thousand years. She finally ended up at the Time Space Administration Bureau museum, where things got VERY odd.
Debriefing Session, Officer Hank Middens, Security Head for TSAB museum.
Interviewer: Can you tell us what happened on March the twenty fifth?
Officer Hank Middens: We didn't do anything wrong, did we? I thought we handled everything that went wrong totally by the book.
Interviewer: We're just trying to get a feel for what happened, Hank, Can I call you Hank?
Hank: Yeah, sure. Go ahead. [Subject sits up, drinks coffee.] We were monitoring a tour group going through the old TSAB buildings, when we first noticed something odd.
Interviewer: Odd?
Hank: You gotta remember, most of the stuff in the museum has some historical value, but it's not really valuable. The uniforms, equipment and even the weapons are all far out of date, now. The systems in the security were keyed to mostly conventional robbery, with a few special systems for certain items. It was the alarm on those special ones that went off.
Interviewer: Alarms on the Devices, correct?
Hank: Exactly. According to our sensors, several of the devices were responding to some kind of outside influence. In my office I switched to security screens in that section of the facility, where I saw a blond haired girl, probably in her teens, glowing as she stared at the case containing Raising Heart and Bardiche.
Interviewer: The devices that belonged to the legendary Nanoha Takamachi-Testarossa and Fate Testarossa-Takamachi?
Hank: That's them Now in theory, neither device should have worked for a thief anyway. They were intelligent, one assumes they'd say no.
Interviewer: But if they were stolen they'd at least be worth money to a crooked collector. So you sent the security bots in?
Hank: [Sighs] Which might have been my big mistake. I sent a full squad in, better to be safe than sorry, right? That's when things got crazier. Bardiche exploded out of it's case and flew to her, shifting into some kind of scythe. The security bots attacked and she toasted the squad, literally in minutes.
Interviewer: So you evacuated the building and sent in your two remaining squads?
Hank: And even went in myself with my Device, Ronin. I tried to contain her while the bots attacked, but she busted out of the force field and knocked me silly. And...
Interviewer: And?
Hank: I can't swear to this, she had clouted me upside the head pretty fierce. But as the woman was leaving it looked to me like Raising Heart burst out of it's case and flew over to her, as if it didn't want to get left behind.
Interviewer: Thank you, Hank. You did as well as could be expected against her.
Debriefing Session Ends
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Samuel Accord was a good cop. He didn't consider himself the brightest or most clever detective, but the thin, wry man was determined and cunning, and had worked through any number of cases successfully. That was why, when his chief told him he was getting assistance from the TSAB, he was less than thrilled.
"Why are we letting the TSAB muscle in?" Sam demanded of his captain flatly, his thinning brown hair falling into his eyes.
Veronica Aston-Martin was a intense, black haired officer who had risen from the patrol to being Captain of this station. She was smart and knew how the political system worked, though it was said that patronage had little to do with her current rank. The fact that she filled out her uniform nicely and had blue eyes that could stun a grown man at five feet were both bonuses, more or less.
"It was the TSAB's own museum that was robbed," Veronica said, "it's understandable they want in on it." She sat back calmly, "Supposedly they're sending in experts on those devices, too. Could come in handy while investigating, hmm?"
"Maybe," Sam grumbled. He knew they were going to end up yanking the case out of his hands, he just knew it. Knowing he wouldn't get any satisfaction from the boss he headed back to his office.
Sam felt a twinge of alarm as he saw people in his office, hurrying down the hallway to reach the small room. Going inside he looked the four over, noting that there were three women and a man, all in TSAB uniforms. The tallest was a woman with pink hair, wearing the uniform of a TSAB colonel. A man with blue hair was the next tallest, then a blonde haired woman and what looked like a teenaged redhead. All three wore captain's uniforms, in intelligence, medical and tactical divisions.
'That's a awfully large amount of rank for a simple robbery,' Sam thought grimly, opening the door and walking in.
"Detective Accord," the pink haired woman smiled slightly, "pardon our waiting in your office, but we were anxious to get started."
"No problem," Sam said in a distinctly unfriendly tone.
If the pink haired woman minded, she didn't show it. "I am Signum," she waved to the others, "and these are my associates Zafira, Shamal and Vita."
"Nice to meet you," Sam said politely, then blinked as the names registered from his research into the stolen devices. "The Cloud Knights?" he blinked.
"It's so nice to be recognized," Zafira looked faintly amused.
"Yes, we are," Shamal smiled, the busty blonde having taken a seat in front of the desk. Sam was trying very hard not to notice her uniform skirt riding up, but it was a effort.
Sam sat down behind his desk, waving the others to their seats. "I can see why the TSAB sent you," he conceded, "you've actually fought both those Devices, right?"
"Yup," the teenaged redhead agreed with a faintly sad smile. Vita swiftly shook it off as she added, "And we really want to know who took them."
Zafira sat down too as he asked, "Do you have any leads?"
"Not as many as I'd like," Sam admitted. "The battle scrambled the recorders in the museum, so we have no visual identifications. We have a description we're passing around to local hotels and and the Customs department, hoping for a hit."
"What about the legitimate trade in Lost Logia?" Signum wondered.
Sam nodded, "We've got officers checking out auctions and other venues, just in case."
"What's the description?" Shamal asked curiously. "Has anyone made a composite image yet?"
"We're working up a composite from security and visitors to the museum," Sam said. He had practically memorized the description and could rattle it off with ease. "Human female, age between ten and fifteen years old. Blonde hair tied up in two ponytails on either side of her head. Cute face, wears black swimsuit and a cape."
"What?" a choked voice asked.
Sam looked across the desk at four people who looked like they had seen a ghost. He leaned forward as he intently asked, "What?"
Signum cleared her throat, her expression troubled as she said, "You researched the users of Raising Heart and Bardiche, yes?"
"Read the files," Sam conceded, "is there something..."
"Can I borrow your terminal a moment?" Zafira asked politely, turning the computer mounted on Sam's desk towards him. He typed a few minutes, "Nodding as he murmured, "The files you got lacked images. Of course." He hummed a moment as he work,ed, then turned the screen to Sam, "Look at this."
Sam studied the image, realizing that it largely matched the description he had. She was maybe younger than described, and there were metallic gold highlights added to the black costume, but witnesses might have missed those.
Reading the attached name Sam yelped, "Fate Testarossa-Takamachi?!"
"She was just Fate Testarossa at the time," Shamal said mildly, "but yes."
Sam sat back, his thoughts racing. "Do you seriously think it's her?" he had to ask, looking at the group of four.
"No,." Signum said flatly, "I know that Fate is dead, I was there when..." The woman seemed lost in a memory, then shook it off, "Clearly someone knew about Bardiche's users, and tricked the device somehow."
"A clone, maybe?" Vita guessed. "I wouldn't think Bardiche would respond to someone just disguised as Fate."
"Devices link to the mind, too," Sam noted thoughtfully. "Even after a thousand years or so, you'd think Bardiche would recognize it's master," he mused.
The group bounced ideas around for nearly half an hour, and as they talked the more impressed Sam got. These people weren't just marking time on a assignment, they were passionate about the situation. Understandable, too, when you considered that it was items belonging to their friends that had been taken. They were just roughing out a more complete map of where their mystery girl had gone, when one of the junior detectives knocked respectfully on the door.
"Come in," Sam called. He smiled at the tanned, pretty young woman with brown haired, "Detective Olivia Fiat. I had her calling customs stations earlier."
"We've got a hit," Olivia said as she waved the printout, then added apologetically, "but I don't think you're going to like it."
Sam took the printout, scanning it then cursing softly. "She not only took a gateway off planet," he handed the sheet to Signum, "she jumped across dimensions, too."
"Which drops this right in the TSAB's lap," Vita noted as she looked the paper over. "World Line 2207? Why does that sound familiar?"
Zafira smiled wryly as he mused, "We tended to gate there fairly often, remember? It's where our mistress Hayate chose to retire."
"Crystal Tokyo," Shamal murmured, "oh dear, oh dear oh dear."
"All right, why is this world a problem?" Sam wondered, feeling suddenly glad this case might not be his problem anymore.
"This world is a bit like Mid in that it has many people of power," Signum said dryly, "rather like our mages. But unlike Mid they don't track their mages and such."
"That doesn't sound good," Sam conceded after a moment.
"Finding her is going to be like looking for a needle in a haystack," Shamal sighed, using one of mistress Hayate's favorite phrases by accident.
"We'd better get to it," Vita said briskly. She looked at Sam, "Can we get the data and files transferred to our office?"
"Will do," he agreed. He looked at Signum, "Uhm, could you tell me how it all works out? I hate leaving a case like this..."
"Will do," Signum agreed, knowing how that felt.
To be continued...
Magical Atoner Lyrical Alicia
Two
Thankfully, it's was close to the usual time when the TSAB sent a delegation to that world line. Ever since their first contact in the twenty first century, they had kept in touch with certain powerful beings on that world. Part of it was being polite, making sure the two organizations wouldn't come into conflict, and part of it was pragmatic. They knew the beings they met were VERY powerful, and keeping an eye on them was just prudent.
The light cruiser Akira was assigned to that mission, and Signum used her and her team's seniority to bump the representatives who were going to the meeting. The trip itself only took several days, some of which they spent mingling with the crew and the rest Signum used to refresh herself on the world in question.
Time Space Administration Bureau Report: World-line #2207
The TSAB first came into contact with this world early in the twenty-first century, when a criminal attempted to steal the Lost Logia 'Infinite Doorway.' The artifact was able to open a gateway to the previously unknown world, where the criminal fled. Enforcer Admiral Chrono Harlaown, Colonel Nanoha Takamachi and Colonel Fate Harlaown-Takamachi all traveled to #2207 where they encountered the guardians of that time-line.
Unlike in Midchilda where magical abilities are fairly common, there are a relatively small number of people born with such abilities in 2207. However, those that do possess those abilities are much more powerful on the average than those in Midchilda. Sailor Moon, as a example, appears to possess a power level rivaling Admiral Hayate Yagami and several of her allies have similar levels of ability.
Due to a misunderstanding partially caused by the subject's deceptions Chrono, Nanoha and Fate came into conflict with the inhabitants of 2207, however they quickly resolved their issues. Cooperating they captured the criminal and retrieved the Lost Logia, returning them to TSAB custody. At the same time a agreement was struck to maintain contact between our world lines, one that is maintained to this day. Annually we send delegations to their capital Crystal Tokyo as well as maintaining information exchanges...
"What do you think?" Vita asked, the redheaded teen sitting down beside her on a couch. She had started out even younger when they had been freed from the 'Book of Darkness' but had aged slightly in the past thousand years. Not enough in her opinion, but it was something.
"There's too much we don't know," Signum admitted as she tossed the report on a table in the mess hall. They had taken over a corner to talk and eat, and few of the crew wanted to intrude. "Why choose THAT Earth? Why copy Fate this way?" she threw her hands in the air, "Hell, why rob the TSAB in the first place? You could MAKE a Device like that, surely?!"
"All true," Zafira agreed. "It's a puzzle."
"At least you like puzzles," Shamal pointed out dryly. She looked over at Signum, "We arrive tomorrow. Have you decided to tell Crystal Tokyo that Raising Heart and Bardiche were stolen?"
"We'll have to play it by ear," Signum said honestly. "We've been asked not to reveal that by our superiors, but Crystal Tokyo has a pretty damn good intelligence service. They might already know."
"True," Zafira admitted, "Minako Aino is a frighteningly perceptive individual at times."
"Think we can get away with a planetary scan?" Vita asked curiously. "We could see if we could pick up either device from orbit."
"I'll suggest it to the Akira's captain," Signum said, "but only if we can make it look like it's standard operating procedure. We don't want to tip our hand too much."
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Signum smiled as the pink haired woman shook hands with Minako Aino, the diplomatic office crowded by the five women and one man standing there. "It's good to see you again," she added warmly, a slight smile teasing her lips. Her lightly armored costume was a mix of purples and pinks, including a barrier jacket and over skirt. She had decided to skip the TSAB uniform and wear her armor, hoping it might cut down on the formalities.
"You, too," Minako agreed, the blonde woman just a bit shorter than Signum. She wore a casual yet stylish dress in black, a traditional but respectful choice for this semi-informal meeting.
"So," Zafira asked, the muscular man in a black muscle shirt looking Motoko over, "you're the second in command of intelligence?"
Major Motoko Kusanagi smiled back coolly, pushing back her blue-black hair. "It's one of my duties," she conceded. The woman in her dress uniform looked at them thoughtfully, "And I understand that the four of you are a tactical squad?"
"Yeah," Vita nodded, the redheaded teen casually leaning up against the wall, "when the TSAB realized we weren't aging, it was felt we'd be better off assigned together." She hefted her mallet easily, it's red enamel going well with her red and black clothing.
From the look on her face Minako felt a twinge of sympathy for them, but she hid it well. "Well, I hope you'll enjoy your visit," she said mildly. She looked at them thoughtfully and asked, "Are there any issues the TSAB wanted us to address?"
Shamal smiled, the green eyed blonde looking quite lovely in her green dress. "Our biggest concern," she said like she and Signum had plotted, "is the possibility of Lost Logia either appearing in your world or leaking out from this one."
"It's been a cause for concern," Motoko conceded, leaning up against Minako's desk. "There are several types of device that we have that could cause the TSAB trouble, not to mention the disappearance of the legendary Raging Heart."
Signum stiffened, then made herself relax. Of course they knew, she had really expected nothing less of them.
Zafira made a face as the man sighed, "You heard about that?"
Raging Heart was a powerful intelligent device, a artifact created to assist a magic user in accessing and controlling magic. Resembling a small, red gem it had the ability to become a mage's staff, it's form changing as needed to activate various functions. Dating back to at least the twentieth century, Raging Heart was most famous for being used by Nanoha Takamachi, a incredibly powerful mage who made history with her accomplishments in the TSAB.
"Well, Raging Heart is one of the artifacts we tend to keep a eye on," Minako said to them quite unapologetically. "While it's not as powerful as local artifacts like the Imperium Crystal or Utena's power was, Raging Heart was a immensely dangerous item, and if it fell into the wrong hands it could be catastrophic."
"I have a question," Motoko asked mildly.
"Yes?" Signum looked at her curiously.
Gesturing with her hands spread wide Motoko asked, "How intelligent is Raging Heart? Would it refuse to work for someone who stole it?"
Signum looked thoughtful, "That's... a very good question." A question she and Shamal had knows was coming, too.
"Yes," Shamal nodded. "Personally, I can't imagine Raging Heart working for someone with bad intentions, but..." she shrugged.
"People with good intentions can still do bad things," Vita said with a grimace.
"Does anyone have any hints where it was taken?" Minako asked as the silence stretched out a bit uncomfortably.
"That's why we came a bit early this year," Signum admitted.
"Oh?" Motoko asked, already having a bad feeling.
Zafira nodded, "We think it's come here."
"Ugh," Minako made a face, dreading the kind of complications such a device could bring her usually well ordered department.
Signum gave her a sympathetic look, "If it helps any, we've been put on detached assignment here to assist in the search any way we can."
"I can also provide tracking data on Raging Heart," Shamal added.
"Thank you," Motoko said, her thoughts already racing to strategies on searching for Raging Heart. The problem was how far to search, if they couldn't narrow down which region the crystal was in, they could be searching the planet for years...
"And we tracked the item's arrival in this world," Zafira added, a slight smile teasing his lips. As the two women looked at him he added, "We should have expected it."
"Oh?" Minako asked.
Signum gave him a scolding look, "He has a odd sense of humor." Looking at Minako she added, "We're reasonably certain Raging Heart arrived in Asia, possibly even in the region formally known as Japan."
"Of course," Motoko smiled wryly, once again wondering why this region seemed the focus of so much trouble.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
The shining towers of Crystal Tokyo stretched towards the blue sky, gleaming like giant reversed icicles. The streets teemed with life, men and women hurrying from place to place or lingering in the many parks and courtyards, watching performances or listening to readings by authors and poets. Nearby the library a lively debate was going on, readers debating the merits of their favorite authors.
The blonde haired girl in a black one piece bodysuit strode by them, her expression determined as she mounted the steps. Her long golden hair was tied back in twin ponytails, one on each side of her head, the cloth used black like her clothes and odd cape. Her gloves and boots had pieces of what looked like ornamental armor, accented by a gold triangle on the back of one hand.
"Welcome to the Crystal Tokyo Public Library," the hologram popped to life, shimmering as she floated beside the blonde woman, "how can we help you?"
The young woman jumped a bit but recovered quickly, looking the image of a black haired woman over. "I'm looking for genelogical information," she answered, "particularly relating to dynasties descended from the twentieth century."
The hologram nodded eagerly, "We have the majority of that information available on our network, as well as hard copies in the underground levels." She paused, "Is there a family you're interested in?"
The blonde women hesitated a moment, "The Yagami and Takamachi families, primarily."
"Would you like me to guide you through a search, miss...?" the hologram trailed off.
"Testarossa," the blonde answered after a moment, "Alicia Testarossa."
To be continued...