MGLN: Future Tense
Chapter 36: Before I Sleep
Xx~~*~~xX
"Material-S," she found her lips saying without her consent.
[This is wrong,] the thought echoed over and over in her hazy mind, but she wasn't quite sure why. [This isn't the way it is supposed to be... I don't think... is it?] If it was supposed to be different, then how were things supposed to be? If she was just a simulation, then she shouldn't have a mind and personality of her own... shouldn't she? [Why would the Book of Darkness give...]
And all of a sudden the connection was restored in her mind and a name bubbled to the forefront; someone who had been in possession of the book not long before. "[Precia!]"
"[Too little, too late,]" came the elder Testarossa's confirmation in her mind. "[I knew you three would follow me, so I devised this trap. I warned you not to follow. Enjoy your new reality.]"
Laughter echoed in Nanoha's mind, albeit fading in volume as if the source were moving farther and farther away. But with that first connection made, all her other memories came flooding back, including the knowledge of what she had to do. However, she still found her body unresponsive.
PREPARATION OF PHYSICAL BODIES COMPLETE. PROGRAM UPLOAD COMMENCE... ERROR, ANOMOLOUS DATA DETECTED. REINIATE NON-ESSENTIAL DATA PURGE...
"[Fate-chan, Hayate-chan!]" Nanoha sent urgently.
"[Nanoha, what do we...]" Fate started to say, before a new voice entered their minds.
"[Nanoha, Fate, Hayate, if you wish to free yourselves, then you must not give up,]" came the strange female-sounding telepathic voice. "[You can escape. The book will not let you go unless you give it what it wants. Do that, and your path will be opened.]"
Within the nearly-unseeing eyes of the two girls in front of her, Nanoha could see a glimpse of consciousness. Each had heard the voice, and although she still couldn't move, Nanoha could almost get a sense that she wasn't as mired in this predicament as she first believed. But how to break free? The voice told her to search within, and thus she closed her eyes.
And suddenly found herself staring at her mirror image once more.
"I was waiting for you," her double greeted her with a small, mocking smile. "Though why you're here when you know what must be done, and what you still have to do, means you're still an idiot. We both know what needs to be done."
"I don't..." Nanoha started to say, then realized she did indeed understand and stared at her mirror image, almost awestruck by the implications. "You aren't a creation of me holding back like Agito thought... you're the result of me changing who I am. Back in that cave with Uno, when I lost my way, I subsumed an important part of myself because I felt I couldn't live that way anymore."
She could see the guilt she had been hiding over not only Uno, Neyra and Agito, but also those like Caro, Shamal and Zafira; those that lost their lives in the years previous. She felt like she had failed them all, that only if she had lived, she would have been able to save them. That somehow the way history had turned out was her fault. She blamed herself, telling herself that if only she had been stronger, or acted less naively, that none of this would have happened. In response, she had hardened herself against the pain, reigning in her emotions, in the process, denying who she was.
"I
am Nanoha..." she realized softly, feeling her eyes begin to water. Shortly thereafter, she could hear a sharp sniffle from Fate and a muffled cry from Hayate, and for a brief moment, she wondered if they were going through something similar.
The smile disappeared off her double's face, showcasing a distinct lack of emotion. "Close enough. And now we're stuck and we can't free ourselves... unless we separate. Don't worry, I won't take much; just things that you won't miss, and a name you no longer need, now that you've figured out who you want to be. It's time for you to go."
Without waiting for a response, Seikou reached out and pushed... and Nanoha felt a horrible tearing sensation, as if her body was being forced in two directions simultaneously. And then it was over and she felt light while she drifted upwards. A quick glance down revealed the version of herself with the the black barrier jacket, who didn't even bother to look up; Nanoha realized there was no reason to.
And to her right and left, she found a golden-haired Fate and a brown-haired Hayate, their physical appearance back to normal; they had also apparently left parts of themselves behind in order to escape. Smiling, they took each others hands as they continued the ascent, the blackness of the void eventually giving way to blinding light.
x~~*~~x
"What the hell?" Teana declared from the doorway, surveying the scene before her. "What happened?"
Yuuno chuckled darkly, drawing her attention even as she noted the shrinking white glow in the middle of the room. "Our past, present, and future, all wrapped up into one."
Teana walked over to him, checking his wounds. "Yuuno Scyra? Why are you here? What happened?" She glanced over at the body slowly disappearing in the middle of the room. "And what's going on with Carim there?"
"History fulfilling itself," the older man stated cryptically in a solemn tone, and then decided to elaborate when Teana eyed him. "It's something Carim realized would happen to her eventually; her linker core, amplified by the moons magic, has created a subspace rift. Her body is being broken down and absorbed into it as pure data, where it will travel back in time, emerging at various moments in time where the fabric of space-time between reality and subspace is weak. The past Carim will pick up on these bits of information, which will be translated through her linker core into prophecies. In short, Carim is the one telling her past self about the future."
Teana stared at him, then shook her head. "That's crazy, but I suppose I've seen some pretty crazy things myself." A thought struck her, and she glanced around. "Wait, where is Jail and everyone else?"
"Precia killed Jail and Due," Yuuno explained, nodding towards a pair of corpses. "Nanoha, Fate, Hayate, and Precia all went back in time in a bid to change history," He paused thoughtfully, then shrugged and immediately winced in pain at the simple motion. "Or perhaps fulfill it."
The gunmage rubbed her temples. "Time travel? Wait, if this is even possible, and they went back in time and changed things, shouldn't everything be different now?"
Yuuno considered that. "Maybe it is, and we don't realize since we would have been changed to. Maybe any changes take time to propagate forward on the timeline. Or perhaps they created a new reality via a new branching timeline."
"Or perhaps they're all dead or permanently lost in time," Quattro mused aloud, drawing attention to herself, and then chuckled. "Perhaps this whole thing was doomed from the start. I must have gotten complacent over the years and lost my edge, to not have seen this coming. Ah well, back to the drawing board, as they say."
Teana's fist clenched at her side, and then she stood slowly, turning very deliberately toward the #4 cyborg. "Your days of plotting and scheming are over."
Quattro laughed again, wincing and hugging and arm to her stomach. "Why? Because I'll end up back in prison again? Because that worked
sooo well the first time." She smiled as if a thought just occurred to her. "Anyway, Hayate's rule is over and he rebels are going to take over, so you're out of a job. I hardly think you'll survive that in any command capacity."
During her little speech, Teana had slowly walked over to the other side of the room, one of Cross Mirage's guns forming in her hand. With little fanfare, she paused in front of the #4 cyborg and pointed it at her head.
"After all this time and all we've been through, and you're just going to shoot me?" Quattro taunted, raising an eyebrow "If you had the fortitude to do that, you would have done it long before now."
The gunmage's lips curved upwards ever so slightly. "You're right, in the past, I wouldn't have been able to do this. But that was then. This is now. Times have changed; as you noted, I'm out of a job, and thus there are no longer any regulations to bind me."
Yuuno turned his head away from the scene and closed his eyes, just before a single shot echoed in the room.
x~~*~~x
"My head..." Nanoha groaned, blinking her eyes open and rubbing her temples in response to a pair of hands lightly shaking her body.
She found a smiling, nine-year-old Fate gazing back at her; the one with golden hair she remembered from her youth. "About time you woke up."
Nanoha sat up on the padded couch and took a look around, finding herself in a dimly-lit decent-sized living room reminiscent of the Mid-Childa style. Outside the few windows drifted a familiar looking multicolored void that she had last seen when the Garden of Time was breaking up. However, the most curious thing was the vast number of clocks of every conceivable size, shape and style lining the walls, ticking away. The setting was almost too surreal, and she had to pinch her skin to see if she was dreaming. The sharp pain let her know it was real, although she was a bit chagrined to note that her body, like Fate's, still appeared to be that of her youthful 9 or 10 year old self.
And then she noticed a red jewel hanging from a strap on her neck, and her heart jumped. "Raging... Heart?" she questioned hesitantly, cupping it gently in her left hand.
"Yes, my master," came the familiar tone.
"It appears to be back to normal, as is mine," Fate stated, answering Nanoha's unspoken question, then held up her right hand to showcase a golden triangle. "I'm not sure why. Perhaps some semblance of our devices broke away when we did. That is, if any of this is real."
"Where are we?" Nanoha wondered aloud, allowing Fate to help her to her feet. "The last thing I remember, Precia had somehow trapped us. Or is this really all part of a simulation, too? I thought I had everything worked out, but I'm not sure I can really know what is real anymore."
"I'm not sure where we are, honestly," Fate admitted. "I woke up not too long before you did, and as you can see Hayate is already up. I do feel a bit refreshed from my nap, though."
Finding herself with a bit of renewed strength also, Nanoha glanced across the coffee table to Hayate, now a young girl as well, sitting on the couch. It looked like all of them had retained their younger bodies, but whether that meant that they had been de-aged in an anti-time stream, or whether their lives from the Book of Darkness incident onwards had merely been a simulation or illusion, Nanoha didn't know.
"I'm sorry," Hayate spoke almost so softly that Nanoha could barely pick it up. "It's like I'm waking up after a long nightmare, and can think clearly again. It scares me that I nearly let my emotions destroy me. It was my decisions that led to the Bureau being what it is, and also my choice to transfer the data Reinforce left in my linker core in order to reconstruct the original Tome of the Night Sky. I let Precia manipulate me every step of the way when I should have known better. None of this would have happened if it weren't for me. And when Rein... sacrificed herself to save me, I snapped and leapt through the portal in anger. "
Fate and Nanoha quickly glanced at each other, and then took up positions down on either side of Hayate, each taking one of her hands.
"It's not entirely your fault, since she fooled all of us," Fate soothed softly. "I'm just as guilty for the way things went. I could have spoken up at any time, but I went along with everything, so I failed myself and you. If it hadn't of been for Nanoha...."
"And I could have tried harder to talk," Nanoha added reflectively when Fate trailed off. "I almost feel like sometimes I feel that force is the only alternative, so I suppose we're all guilty of something." She leaned back and sighed. "I just want to know what is real and what isn't. Were we really in a simulation? Did the past 50 years actually happen? Or was everything that happened since we were 9 years old merely false memories?"
"Everything is as real as you believe it to be, Nanoha Takamachi," an older female voice answered. The three girls' gazes were drawn to the living room entryway, where a familiar woman with white hair stood. "Reality depends greatly upon one's own belief and point of view."
Hayate leaped to her feet, mouth hanging open. "Rein... force? But how?" Hayate took several steps towards the long white-haired woman, as if daring it all to be some sort of trick or illusion.
"I am, and I am not," Reinforce replied with a bit of sadness in her tone, holding out her hand, which Hayate attempted to take but passed right through. "I am merely a projection from your linker core, taking this image for ease of familiarity and conversation. A final program left by the original Reinforce to be activated in the event that all the information left in your linker core was downloaded to create a new Tome of the Night Sky, and if you lost control of the book. Both of these conditions have now been met."
Hayate's head lowered a bit, before coming up as she regained control of her emotions again. "But what did you mean about everything being as real as we believe it to be? That doesn't make sense; reality is reality. Either something is an illusion or it is real. We just want to know which is which!"
"Are you saying your feelings for your friends are false?" the image of Reinforce asked.
"What?" Hayate quickly answered, taken aback, quickly glancing at Nanoha and Fate. "No! At least, I don't think so. They're my friends. I just don't want to be misled again!"
"Perhaps you could try to explain more?" Nanoha suggested tactfully, sensing the back and forth wasn't going anywhere. "Because we don't understand; who are we? Who am I?"
Reinforce turned to Nanoha and regarded her thoughtfully. "For the past several months, your reality was that you felt like Nanoha, correct? And yet other people told you that you were a clone. For Fate and Hayate, their reality was that you had died. Fate herself has two realities where she is both Precia's daughter and a clone of Alicia. None of these realities are wrong; merely different, intersecting each other. Your memories are as correct and real as you belief them to be, for it is belief that shapes your reality. Nanoha, you yourself shaped reality when your belief led you to save Fate and Hayate from their own realities. In other words, reality, much like time, is relative compared to your point of observation. When each of your subjective realities converge, it forms an objective reality."
"But if we believe our memories to be real, then how does that resolve what happened to us?" Fate questioned.
"Precia has her own reality as well," Reinforce answered, her expression becoming slightly melancholic. "And the Tome of the Night Sky is a powerful reality-affecting tool. This is how it can be reformed again even after total annihilation. Using that, Precia altered the path of your reality to converge with another, to an alternate reality where the defense program was not destroyed. To break free required you to leave parts of yourselves behind, like taking one's foot out of one's boot off when it becomes mired in quicksand. By guiding you here, I have severed your connection to that reality so you are in no more danger."
Nanoha shook her head, having trouble following the entirety of the conversation, and decided to try a different angle. "Where are we now?"
"You are in what might be called an island in time," she explained, spreading her hands and causing a large holographic image to begin forming above her head. Red lines traced back and forth, tangling around each other like so many pieces of string. "In all of space-time, subjective realities and time-lines twirl around each other, branching and combining at various points to form objective realities. Those timelines and realities that are similar tend to gather and twine more tightly around each other, creating a space in between them. If you think of it in terms of a spool of yarn, with the threads representing each timeline, then the cylinder in the middle would be where we are. It is merely an empty part of time and space that I guided you to, an island in the midst of a raging river."
"So that was you who spoke to us," Fate realized as the image above them faded, then folded her hands together while she thought out loud. "Then if I understand correctly, that's why the voice of the book referred to what happened to us as a simulation. Precia must have transferred all the information of what went on in our reality to that particular Book." She clenched her fist. "But that means mother really is still out there."
Reinforce nodded. "Working together with surprise on your side, you three will stop her after she passes her knowledge of the future onto her past self, and thus she will not have future knowledge with which to anticipate your actions. You have no need to worry about the defense and reincarnation programs, as those were two specific ones the original Reinforce did not leave in your linker core. This is the theory I have formed given the information I have analyzed."
"Because she can't warn herself of this particular ambush, if we engage her after she has passed on her future knowledge to her past self," Hayate concluded, then crossed her hands over her chest, pausing for a moment to exhale a sigh of despair over the fact that she now lacked a chest. "And I presume she considers us dealt with, with that final trap. Well, I was going to do that anyway, since she took my family from me. I have to get them back!"
Fate nodded in agreement. "And I have to stop mother. I have a feeling she has more planned than just Alicia."
"So, you know what what you have to do," Reinforce spoke once more. "Once you step outside this place, you will end up in the anti-time stream at the exact moment you left it, and you will be further carried back into the past. The anti-time stream is like a river that flows rapidly back to the beginning of time, much like the water of a river that rejoins the ocean after it's cyclic journey. You must fix a specific point in time and space from your past reality in your mind, in order to exit the anti-time stream at that point and avoid the alternate reality Precia tried to trap you in. By your calender in normal time, you left the anti-time stream in the year 0065."
"I know where my mother would have gone, too," Fate stated confidently. "There can only be one time and place."
Hayate stood, heading towards the door. "Well, let's go. We're not getting any older... or younger. Precia can't stop all three of us fighting against her. Now that I know what she did to me, I can use a bit of self-hypnosis magic to counter the subconscious fear."
"I would have wanted to stop my mother by myself," Fate admitted, moving to join Hayate. "But it would be best if I had your help and... Nanoha? Are you coming?"
The short-haired brunette had remained on the couch, her eyes closed in thought, but they opened again as she directed her gaze towards the Reinforce projection. "I just realized it, but you were speaking about us in the future tense, telling us what we would do. This has played out before, hasn't it?"
For the first time, Reinforce appeared a bit hesitant and perhaps even a bit troubled, while she admitted, "Given the information I have analyzed, that is highly likely."
"And even if we are successful in stopping Precia in the past, it will change nothing," Nanoha stated, looking for any sign, any slight movement from Reinforce to indicate that she was wrong; but there was none. "The past Precia will emerge in the future and begin the chain all over again. It's a cycle we've allowed to repeat." Her fist clenched at her side. "Well, that's not good enough!"
"Nanoha?" Fate questioned, an uncomfortable feeling in her stomach. "What are you thinking? Are you going to warn our past selves?"
Nanoha turned to Fate shook her head. "No. We got into this mess in the first place because Precia meddled with time. We just need to cancel out Precia's effect to return things to normal, but we have two specific points to correct. You two go into the past after the future Precia; with surprise on your side, you should be able to stop her without me. I'll have Raging Heart transfer the spacetime barrier spell to Bardiche so you can make the trip, but I'm going back to the future, about ten years. If I am successful, the timeline should be restored to the way it was supposed to be." She paused and allowed a small smile to form. "It finally hit me now, what Uno was trying to tell me about my death, and how Jail felt something was wrong about it."
"You're going to take the place of the original Nanoha and sacrifice yourself?" Hayate theorized, uncertainty creeping into her voice. "But that will create a time paradox. If the original Nanoha never dies, then you'll never be created!"
"Not entirely," the Reinforce program suggested. "I theorize from my observations that, from the moment you entered the anti-time stream, you began to exist outside of normal time. Any changes made now should not affect you personally, thus it is theoretically possible. You have your own subjective reality now, separate from the Nanoha of the past."
Hayate rubbed her temples. "This is all too confusing. I thought either that time was one consistent line, but instead of neat lines that branch off each other, all these explanations and that spool of yarn illustration make it seem like some sort of timey-wimey ball."
"But I thought we couldn't go back into the future since the anti-time stream runs backward," Fate wondered aloud. "Unless you plan to exist in normal time until it reaches the point you're looking for."
"That is possible," Reinforce concurred, but there was a hint of sadness in her tone. "Although she has limited personal time with which to work. I estimate no more than ten years, as my analysis of her body indicates she still won't survive long past the age she started from."
Fate glanced worriedly back and forth between the Reinforce projection and Nanoha. "What does she mean?"
"Remember, she's a clone," Hayate added with a heavy sigh, understanding, but also with a bit of shame written into her expression. "I didn't tell you, but the notes I recovered from Jail's lab showed she was made in a similar manner to Zest. I didn't understanding everything, but it was something about because the DNA taken from a dead body, the cells themselves knew they should be dead. A bit of genetic engineering was able to wind back the clock a bit, but Jail had been so far unable to overcome the problem."
Nanoha half-smiled, feeling strangely at peace, while Fate stared in horror at her. "It's okay, Fate-chan I've known for awhile that this body I was given was ultimately going to break down, but I only need ten years. I may not be able to heal the time-lines where this has been repeated, but I will fix our own and give everyone chance at a better future."
"It's okay, Fate-chan, I'll be fine, just like always!"
In that moment, Fate couldn't help but see the original Nanoha standing there, delivering a similar speech on that fateful day long ago. She clenched her eyes shut and lowered her head, but then felt a soft touch on her chin. When she opened her eyes again, she a bit surprised to see eyes just as watery staring back at her.
"Even if you do make it, well, you saw how powerful she's become!" Fate stated earnestly, her voice thick with barely contained emotion. "Hayate and I might be able to take her with surprise on our side, but you..." She trailed off, visibly struggling for the words. She wanted to go with Nanoha, but she also knew she was the only one with memories of Alicia, and thus the only one who could visualize the exact specific point in time; and unless they stopped both Precia's, the tampering with the past and future wouldn't be totally undone. She eventually huffed in frustration. "You always do that! So readily willing to take on things without thinking, just hoping it will all be okay!"
The brunette hugged the golden-haired girl on impulse. "Remember what I promised, that we would be a family again. When I succeed, and I will, our past selves will be back with Vivio again, along with Hayate and everyone else. We'll all be one big family again." She pulled back, her gaze taking on an expression that hinted of mischievousness. "And I think I'll have a surprise or two waiting for her. I promise you: I won't lose."
Hayate took the opportunity to hug Nanoha, "Then this isn't truly goodbye; somehow, we'll all see each other again."
"We're the best of friends," Nanoha agreed, pulling Fate back in so the three of them could share a hug altogether. "Somehow, we'll always be together, no matter what."
x~~*~~x
Precia stealthily approached the rear of the building from the cover of nearby trees in the backyard as the sun began to set in the horizon. In this well-off neighborhood there was enough space between houses that no one should notice her presence, but it still wouldn't do for anyone to actually see anyone here just yet. Thinking back on everything, she couldn't help but notice some differences in the conversation with her past self, but she was confident all the necessary steps were covered.
"Are you ready, then?" the older Precia asked her younger self.
An amused and congenial smile accompanied the response from the woman about to slip into the life pod. "After everything you've shown me, how could I not be? I am going to succeed, after all, because I did."
The smile grew a bit wider, as Precia recalled sealing her younger self within the capsule. It was done; she had passed on her knowledge of the future, just like her future self had once done to her. And in 50 years, Precia of the past would emerge, engage the plan, and end up going back in time to this moment as well, where she could do what the current Precia Testarossa was doing: saving Alicia right before the hydra reactor accident. And then, the mysteries of the universe awaited her, and she'd have all the time in the world.
It was almost too perfect, and no one would stop her now. The last annoyances had been dealt with via the reality trap she had prepared; she knew that, no matter what, they'd come through the portal after her, but she also knew they'd never see her little surprise coming.
Precia crept up to a window and glanced inside, the smile on her face turned softer and warmer while her heart jumped up several inches in her chest. Inside, a young girl lay on the floor, happily coloring a picture and humming, oblivious to the world as her little legs swung back and forth. Nearby, a familiar grey cat curled up, watching the little girl with minor interest, before yawning and settling its head down for a nap.
It was a scene that Precia was almost loathe to disturb, but knew she had to. The reactor accident would occur in less than ten minutes, and she had to switch Alicia with the preserved corpse that she had stored in subspace before that happened. The good news was that the hard parts were over; in a fairly short time, her plan would be complete. But in hindsight, she realized that her focus on Alicia, meant she didn't notice the trap until it was too late.
Dozens of binds snapped into place along her limbs and body, freezing her in place, and a split second later, a golden, crackling energy blade appeared at her throat while a familiar voice announced in her ear: "It's over, mother."
Precia's eyes narrowed as she tried to contain her shock; fortunately, her fake daughter couldn't see her face from her position behind Precia. "Fate, I am honestly surprised you managed to follow me here. How did you escape my trap?"
"That's not important," Fate replied evenly. "What is important, is that you stand down and tell me what you did to your past self. When and where did you take her? I suspect that you saved her when the Garden of Time was destroyed."
"What makes you think I will tell you that?" Precia answered calmly, testing her bonds. She could probably break them given some time, but that blade was close to her neck, and Fate's device was ignoring all of her telepathic commands which meant it wasn't Vulnificus. "Instead, you should release me, or else we'll all die when the reactor goes critical and overloads. The radiation that is released is what will kill Alicia and everyone else around, and despite what you think of me, do you really want her to suffer?"
There was a brief pause as Fate considered that. "History records that Alicia died. If that is what it will take for all this to end, then so be it. We'll go out together with Alicia."
"Why do you stand in my way?!" Precia angrily demanded to know, her patience wearing thin. "I am just trying to save my daughter! If you stop me, Alicia will die. Is your hatred of me so strong that you will condemn an innocent?"
Fate's tone was almost emotionless. "I will do what I must to protect history. We don't belong in this time." Her tone shifted to more of an accusatory one. "And attempting to save Alicia isn't the only thing you have planned, is it? You took the Tome of the Night Sky for a specific reason."
"Give me my family back!" Hayate added, stepping out from the shadow of the trees at the fringe of Precia's peripheral vision.
"Ah yes, I figured there was at least one more, since the binds holding me are from more than one mage," Precia deduced, intrigued by how young Hayate seemed when the little girl came up to her and began to search through Precia's clothes. "But what makes you think I still have the book? Maybe I gave it to my past self?"
"No, she wouldn't need it, as she'll get one when she becomes you in the future," Fate countered. "I've figured it out; you needed its ability to analyze and copy magical spells and effects. Now that it has experienced the anti-time stream, it can duplicate backward time jumps. It's the perfect way for you to keep hiding, keep up on your research, drain life and who knows what else, all while also spending time with Alicia; who knows what other changes you could make? And don't tell me you hid it somewhere; you wouldn't let it out of your grasp."
Precia tensed as Hayate's fingers brushed over the device while thinking fast. It would only be a few more minutes until the explosion, so if she could just get free, she could make a backward jump to moments before, then the two girls would be done for and Precia would be free to claim Alicia.
"Found it!" Hayate declared triumphantly, removing the small pendant object from an interior pocket. "I can still sense Signum and the others inside it. I am attempting to reestablish ownership and control."
Feeling Fate relax slightly, Precia seized the moment, breaking her binds and elbowing Fate in the gut to knock her away, and then quickly body slamming into Hayate while snatching the pendent away in one smooth motion. As she rolled back up to her feet, she formed the book while several shots impacted her backside, letting her know Fate had recovered quickly. But she grit her teeth to withstand it as focused on quickly weaving the spell; she needed to be anywhere but here!
"She's teleporting!" Hayate screamed, leaping at Precia to try and reclaim the book.
Precia felt the magical energies complete and the twisting of space around her, but it felt heavier than normal. With a flash, the teleport ended and two smaller forms impacted her body, sending her tumbling to the metal floor while the book went skittering away from her grasp. In anger, she twisted and shoved a hand against one of the girls, releasing a blast of purple lightning that sent the Hayate flying away to strike a metal wall of the unknown corridor they had ended up in.
Fate, sensing her smaller size and musculature a disadvantage this in close, rolled away and picked up her dropped weapon, coming in again with a Haken slash. Precia leapt out of the way as the scythe gave her an impromptu haircut, then turned and exchanged a running barrage of Photon Lancer shots with her opponent, all the while heading for the book. Fate anticpated that and sent some bolts to tear up the floor between Precia and the book, forcing the older woman to leap aside..
But Precia wasn't done, and slapped both her palms on the ground when she landed, sending a large wave of electrical magic through the conducive metal floor and walls faster than Fate could react. She smiled in satisfaction as Fate screamed in pain and then crumpled to the ground, but Precia's grin was short-lived as she realized she had made a grave miscalculation.
In her haste to escape via teleport, she had envisioned a familiar place: the hydra reactor building. It was deserted at the moment since all the personnel would have been evacuated to the shielded section when the situation turned critical; that was how she survived the first time. And from the way the walls and floor of the corridor were beginning to tremble, it was just about to go up. She needed to get the book and get out of here fast. But she turned toward the book, only to find Hayate had just picked it up. Precia leapt for the girl, but Hayate's barrier snapped into existence and blocked her strike.
"Give me that, you fool, or we're all dead!" Precia snarled desperately. "This reactor is about to explode!"
There was a moment's hesitation on Hayate's face, before it became calm and determined, and she shook her head. "Hey, Fate-chan, we knew, didn't we? It's not fair for Nanoha to be the only one, and this is the only way we'll see her again."
Golden rings snapped into place on Precia's wrists and ankles, as Fate's haggard voice sounded from behind. "I think... we did. It's just as well; we've done too much to escape our own fates. I'm sorry, mother, but none of us belong in this world anymore."
Before the horrified Precia could open her mouth to protest, the walls and floor erupted with brilliant energies.
x~~*~~x
"Come with me if you want to live. I require you."
Precia didn't even wait for a response as Due struggled to rise. Ignoring the nearby bodies of Regius and Zest, she stepped forward to easily plug the cyborg from the floor and sling Due over her shoulder. She then placed the already-dead duplicate body on the ground and took a step back while rendering the feebly struggling Due unconscious with a stun spell. Satisfied that all had gone as planned, Precia started her teleportation spell.
"Don't forget me," came a surprise statement from a voice behind her whileTwo arms wrapped themselves around her waist a split second before the cast completed.
It was too late to abort the group teleport spell, and thus Precia ended up the three back to her hideout, but something felt wrong. During the transit, she almost felt her body being torn apart; whoever had hitched a ride, was actively seeking to disrupt the magic with her own! It took everything Precia had to dematerialize back in her laboratory, but there was damage; she could feel the gashes in her skin and the pain in her chest that let her know she wasn't fully alright, but she couldn't let that slow her down now.
In one quick motion, she spun and grabbed her unwanted hitchhiker as pink magical explosions impacted her body. But Precia bore the pain and charged a point-blank Plasma Smasher, however moments before it went off, the barrier jacket of her assailant detonated and sent the two women flying apart to crash into opposite walls.
Shaking and struggling to rise, Precia finally got a good look at her attacker. "You! What are you doing here? You're supposed to be on the Cradle!"
"So we meet again for the first time, Precia," Nanoha mused, attempting to showcase that she was better off than she felt. She knew it would be dangerous to be that close to Precia, but she had no choice if she wanted to get caught up in Precia's teleport. "I'm afraid I can't explain, but I also can't let you carry out your plans. Once way or another, all this ends right here and now."
Precia growled with anger as she regained her feet, eyes narrowing at Nanoha's own painful attempt to push herself upright. "It doesn't matter; you will fail, I know this for a fact." She thrust her fingers outward. "Plasma Storm!"
Dozens of purple lightning bolts arced out from Precia's fingertips, seeking out their target. Nanoha barely managed a shield to deflect some of them while she ran, but several bolts struck her legs sending sending spasms of pain up her body while she tumbled to the floor. Through it all, somehow she managed enough concentration to guide two previously-launched Axel Shooter orbs in from opposite directions, forcing Precia to cut off the attack and shield against them.
With the acrid metal aftertaste of blood palatable on her tongue, Nanoha forced herself upright, using the wall as a crutch. She had conserved her magic while living in seclusion for the past ten years, as the stress of rapid spell use could trigger her body's breakdown, but she couldn't afford to let up now; her friends were counting on her to end this so everyone could have a future. She just needed to buy a little more time.
There wasn't much space in her lab, less than the Cradle's throne room, which meant she didn't have much room to maneuver. Still, she turned and fired a Divine Buster to match Precia's own purple beam and the two attacks canceled each other out with an explosion, filling the area with smoke. As Nanoha limped towards the door under the smokescreen cover, she had noticed that from the way Precia moved, the other woman was in a lot of pain as well. So the teleport disruption did have some effect; just not the total dissolution Nanoha had hoped for, although it did even things up slightly.
However, any hope that she could drag this out much longer went out the window as Precia appeared in front of her in a flash, batting Raging Heart out of her hands and tackling the smaller woman to the floor while seizing her neck with an iron grip. "I had planned to steal your magic and your life force a few years from now, but why waste time?"
Nanoha figured that was why Precia had a high resistance to her spells during the fight atop the Bureau spire, but she needed to focus on the here and now. As she felt the familiar sensation of her life and magic being drained, she managed to bring her hands up. "Solar... Flash!"
Precia released one hand to shield her eyes against the blinding glare, giving Nanoha enough leverage to kick the older woman off her body, however that last exchange had taken quite a bit out of her. She was still dizzy, not really even sure if she could stand, but giving up wasn't an option so she pushed herself upright with her hands. Precia was on her knees, although the way she waved her hands about indicated that the blinding spell had at least partially succeeded.
"This won't help you, my vision is already returning," she threatened, her hands finding purchase on a computer console next to a nearby wall.
"WAS complete, target located," Raging Heart announced from the floor nearby. "Beginning disruption program."
"It doesn't have to last long," Nanoha replied grimly, finding her legs unsteady as she tried to stand.
Precia paused, turning her gaze in Nanoha's direction when alarms began to sound. "What are you doing?!"
"I figured whatever facility you were hiding out in would have a reactor for a power source, just like the one on your Garden of Time," Nanoha explained, pausing. "I had Raging Heart find it and start an overload process. In a matter of moments, it will all be over, for all of us. None of us should be here."
"NO!" Precia screamed, unsteadily leaping for the staff. "This is my second chance to create a new reality for myself! You can't stop me!"
Nanoha somehow found the strength to get to her feet and tackle Precia, sending both women tumbling to the ground in a mess of arms and legs. As Precia tried to push Nanoha away, the latter threw the rest of her magic into a Restrict Lock spell that entangled them both. Precia struggled, slowly snapping the pink binds, but as the hard metal floor began to tremble beneath them, both knew she wouldn't free herself in time.
Nanoha allowed a grim smile to show. "I reject your reality... and substitute it with my own!"
Precia had time to cast one hateful glare towards Nanoha, as the ground erupted and consumed them both.
x~~*~~x
"Fate-chan, Hayate-chan!" Nanoha called out, running up.
Hayate turned around first, from where the two women stood at the edge of the yellow police tape. "Nanoha-chan! How is the cleanup on the west side?"
"Going smoothly, thanks to Genya's 108th batallion," the brunette replied, taking the space offered between her two friends and glancing down into the deep crater. "Quattro was secured, and I gave Teana and Subaru time off, but they both insisted on helping where they could."
Hayate made notes on the holo screen that followed her along, while Fate replied with a smile, "Erio and Caro were much the same. I think they learning to take after us much more than we expected. How is Vivio?"
"Recovering in the Saint Church Hospital ward along with Lutecia's mother," Nanoha responded, reflecting on her visit with her new daughter. "She is going to be fine; she's just exhausted and the Church wanted to keep her under observation for a bit. What is it you wanted to show me?"
"This," Hayate declared with a broad sweep of her arm, indicating the deep crater just beyond the yellow tape that easily spanned a hundred meters or more. "We're still not sure what to make it of it; none of Jail's drones were in this area of Clanagan's outskirts, nor did any of the Cradle's weapons impact here. From what we can tell, the explosion was internal, from deep underground."
Nanoha peered over the edge, watching as several engineers carefully descended into the hole, taking readings and otherwise analyzing the site. "And we have no idea what it was about?"
Fate shook her head. "None. Most Bureau personnel are dealing with drone cleanup and reconstruction, so we don't have too many bodies to spare for this, but our initial reports indicate... Nanoha?"
"I don't know," the brunette replied, rubbing her upper arms. "I just felt strangely cold for a moment, as if someone was walking over my grave."
Hayate studied her friend for a moment thoughtfully. "Well, it will be awhile before we have any idea. It's quite likely a forgotten power source or lost logia was buried deep underground here, and all the action above ground somehow triggered it's explosion. But we may never know what happened here."
Nanoha felt a cool breeze caress her cheek and run through her hair, but she strangely didn't feel cold this time. And as she glanced at her friends, they seemed to have not noticed it at all; was it just her imagination?
"Nanoha?" Fate questioned, noticing the expression on her friend's face. "What is it? Do you feel something else?"
The brunette glanced skyward for a moment. "I'm not sure. Do you... and this might sound crazy, but... do you two ever feel like you've done this before? Lived out another life?"
Hayate and Fate glanced at each other, before the former answered, "Sometimes. But then I remember how much we've been through already, and I realize it's probably because we've done more than any girl from Earth has. We've traveled the universe and fought many battles." She paused and smiled. "It's probably enough to make anyone feel old."
"And we still have many more years ahead of us," Fate added, allowing a fond smile to form as the three started back towards the helicopter.
Nanoha felt her own lips tugging upwards in response, her momentary anxiety fading. "I suppose you're right." She paused, causing the other two to stop and glance at her. "Promise me that, no matter what happens, we'll always be friends."
"Nanoha?" Fate questioned softly with a bit of concern in her voice, sharing Hayate's confused glance.
"I can't explain it, just promise me," Nanoha repeated more firmly.
"Of course," Hayate assured her, and then her lips turned upwards into a small mischievous grin. "Without you, I wouldn't be here today, so what would I do without both of you around?"
Fate felt the need to reach out and place a comforting hand on Nanoha's shoulder, as if to reassure the other woman. "I promise, too. No matter what, we'll always be together."
Nanoha nodded, satisfied, the unsettling feeling in her heart soothed. With confidence in her step, the trio headed back to Vice's helicopter that had brought Nanoha in and boarded. And as the chopper took to the sky, Nanoha somehow knew that as long as her friends and her had each other, somehow, everything would be okay, no matter what the future held for them.
Xx~~*~~xX
2011-05-30, 23:36
It just feels wrong to read a DC fic and not have a part of me dead inside (even if it's just a tiny bit for now)...
Author
, so nearly all my writing on her reflects that. 
. Please fix it! 
.......
