[Moczo]

Originally Posted by Nanya01

...

I'm calling this part 10.

Spoiler for Changes PT 10:

A few days later...

Chrono looked at the screen and frowned softly. "So, with Nanoha's help, we managed to get nine of the Jewel Seeds. Combined with the six that aren't found, that means that the other girl has six Jewel Seeds herself." He turned to Amy. "Are you certain?"

The girl nodded at him. "Yes. All the remaining Jewel Seeds are not on the ground. Which means they can only be in one place..."

"The ocean." He sighed and grumbled about stupid planets having more water than they knew what to do with. "Still, nothing much we can do until they activate on their own..."

Or someone else activated them by force.

(---)

Alicia looked at Arf and sighed. "So, you and Fate got six seeds, huh?" When she nodded, Alicia shook her head. "Well, that's fine."

"Huh?" To say Arf was confused was an understatement, didn't Alicia need at least ten of those Jewel Seeds?

The woman had a sad smile on her face as she stood up from the table. "It's okay, Arf, I should have expected to fail once the Bureau got off its butt and came here." She had faith in Fate and Arf, but to go against anyone with full and proper training? She sighed, before shaking her head and smiling at Arf. "You and Fate did great. After tonight, I don't want you two going out to look anymore."

"Huh?!" Arf stood, her eyes wide as she stared at the woman. "All that work, for nothing?!"

"Arf, it's not that, I just don't want you or Fate to be badly hurt. If the two of you go against the Bureau, you will be."

Squeezing her hand into a fist, Arf growled slightly. "You'll see... We'll get four more by tonight."

"Arf, wait!" Alicia tried to stop the familiar, but she was already gone and out the door. "No..." A cold sensation welled up in her chest as she ran out of the kitchen. "Arf! Fate!" She stared as the two weren't in the living room. "Linith!"

"Lady Alicia?" The catgirl blinked as she saw her master's worried face. "What's wrong?"

"Go after them." Alicia shuddered, her face seemingly blue. "Something big is going to happen. For god's sake, stop them!"

Linith didn't need anymore motivation as she took off out the window, tracing after Fate and Arf's magic signature. Alicia had a weird way of knowing just when something bad was going to happen sometimes. This was one of those times, she was certain of it.

(---)

"What's going on?!" Arf yelled as she and Fate got over the site where they suspected the Jewel Seeds to be.

"I'm not sure." Fate grimaced as she and Arf were forced to dodge out of the way of twisters. "It's like it just started all of a sudden!" Still, if there were six seeds under the water, leaving them alone would be the worst thing in the world.

(---)

"Just what is she thinking?!" Amy gasped as she looked at Fate and Arf battle against the out of control Jewel Seeds.

"Did she activate them?" Lindy asked as she came into the control room.

Chrono shook his head. "No. They just went off on their own." Not pleasant, but it was better this way. "Still, it doesn't look like she has the situation under control, does it?"

"I'm here!" He turned to see Nanoha and Yuuno run into the room. "What do you want me to do?"

"Nothing." Chrono turned away to watch the screen. "We're going to let her handle this and you two will stay here."

"What?!" Nanoha was stunned, she couldn't believe it. Chrono wouldn't do something like this, would he?

"It's simple, either she seals up the Jewel Seeds and is worn out, or she fails, but bleeds a lot of power out of them. Either way, after she's done, we'll just swoop in and clean up the mess."

"Nanoha..." The brunette turned to the blond boy next to her. "Go. I'll cover for you."

"Thank you, Yuuno-kun." Nanoha smiled as she ran for the teleporter.

Chrono felt a quick build-up of magic behind him and he turned to look, his eyes wide. "What the heck are you doing?!" He yelled, but found himself unable to move forward due to a barrier that materialized in front of him.

"I'm going to go down there and help that girl before she gets killed!" Nanoha yelled as Yuuno finished the teleport and dropped her high above the battlefield.

"Sorry." Yuuno shook his head and followed after Nanoha.

"My, my..." Lindy shook her head. Who knew Yuuno was so skilled? 'Able to make a barrier, teleport Nanoha down and follow after her, without a device and through this ship? Impressive.'

Chrono grimaced and watched as Nanoha and Yuuno lent their aid to Fate and Arf. "Amy, send me down there." He didn't even wait for a reply as he ran to the teleporter.

Lindy sighed as she watched her son disappear. 'Clyde, if you were here, what would you do about your son right now?' She asked herself before turning to the view screen. "Amy, make sure to get them back here as soon as possible."

Amy nodded as they watched the events play out.

(---)

Fate looked at the girl in front of her. "Why?" When she blinked, Fate sighed softly. "Why help me? Aren't we enemies?"

Nanoha shrugged at that, the six Jewel Seeds between them floated harmlessly. "You aren't a bad person, you could have done a lot to me when we first fought, but you didn't." She smiled softly. "I'd like to think that we could be friends."

Before Fate could answer, blue binds wrapped around her and pinned her arms and legs to her body. "What the?"

"Fate Testarossa, you are under arrest." Chrono said calmly as he floated into the area. He looked around for her familiar but couldn't see her. "Where..?"

"How dare you!?" He heard her voice from behind, moments before a hard kick to the back of his head, knocking him off balance. "Fate!" Arf yelled as she flew to grab the blond girl. "What the?" She blinked, there were only three Jewel Seeds there. "Where are the others..?" She turned and saw Chrono holding up three Jewel Seeds between his fingers. "What the?" When did he get those? She growled as she watched him seal them into his device. "You..." They were one short, just one Jewel Seed short and these two had them! "Fate!" She turned to see that Fate had broken the binds. "We just need one more!"

Fate nodded. 'One more, then Mother will have all that she needs.' The blond girl took a stance behind Arf.

Chrono grimaced as he looked at them. He might have been skilled, but he didn't relish the thought of fighting two people as powerful as them. "Nanoha, Yuuno, I'll need some back-up." At least he could deal with the familiar or the master easily enough if the other one was distracted or fighting.

"Actually, you'll be handing over a Jewel Seed now." A new voice was heard as Nanoha and Chrono spun around to see a woman in a gray and white outfit holding Yuuno around the waist with long nails pointing towards his exposed neck. "Or this boy will be dead." The dead-serious look in her eyes had both Chrono and Nanoha stunned.

'Linith...' Fate couldn't believe that Linith would do this, but she was. 'Why?' She didn't want to kill anyone, she didn't think that Linith wanted to either.

"Well?" The familiar asked, her tone cold and sharp as she pulled her hand back to stab at Yuuno's neck. "Just one Jewel Seed and I'll let him go."

"We can't trust you." Chrono yelled and then grimaced. 'Gods, I sound like a character from some cheesy book right now.' Still, if she was still for a few more moments, he could bind her up and... "Urgh!"

"Not this time!" Arf yelled as she punched Chrono in the small of the back before grabbing him by his jacket and throwing him to the ocean below. "You!" She spun to Nanoha. "Just give me one of your Jewel Seeds and the ferret will be okay." When Nanoha didn't respond, Arf's face got a bit mischevious. "Or maybe you'll take me up on that offer to become my personal pet?"

Arf didn't know why Nanoha blushed at that, but it sure was weird, and kind of funny. If she saw that girl more often, she'd have to tease her more like this.

"...You'll let Yuuno-kun go if I give you a Jewel Seed?" Nanoha looked at Linith, who nodded.

"Just one and he won't be harmed."

"Put out." Raising Heart intoned as a Jewel Seed was released from the pink orb.

Nanoha grabbed the Jewel Seed with her left hand before throwing it right at Linith. True to her word, she let Yuuno go as she grabbed the Seed out of mid-air. "Arf, Fate, we're leaving!"

The two nodded as they all disappeared.

"How could you?!" Chrono yelled at Nanoha as he got close to them again He was so close to getting to the root of all of this, and she just GIVES up one of the Jewel Seeds like that?!

Nanoha ignored him and floated over to Yuuno. "Are you okay?"

Yuuno nodded and smiled at the girl. "I wasn't in any danger, Nanoha."

"Huh?" Nanoha and Chrono blinked as Yuuno blushed slightly.

"She told me, that she wouldn't hurt me, she just wanted the Jewel Seed, and those two to go with her safely, that's all."

"GAH!" Chrono felt like tearing his hair out. "Why didn't you tell us sooner?!"

"I was worried she might actually hurt me if I did tell you." Yuuno sighed as he looked at Nanoha. "It's okay, Nanoha." He smiled at her as he grabbed her hands, getting her to blink in surprise at him. "Thank you."

"Welcome." She smiled softly, glad he was okay.

Hooray for screwing with canon!

Heh... I begin to wonder if maybe Chrono and Yuuno weren't cut from the canon cast so as to avoid them someday making the situation worse like they did right here? Depending on how Alicia actually plans to use the Jewel Seeds, it's possible things just got really bad...

Unless the story ends with her successfully healing Precia, then everyone goes out for tea and cookies and Nanoha invites Fate to her birthday party. Hooray!