“Weren’t me and Tea and Nanoha-san and Yuuno-san somewhere else just now?” Subaru asked Vice and Alto.
“Where?” Vice asked, looking perplexed at the odd question. Subaru had the occasional eccentricity, but…
“A Non-Administrated world?”
“When?”
“Just now?”
“No.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah.”
Subaru looked away from Vice, her eyes seeking out Alto’s for answers, but the other chopper pilot looked just as confused as Vice. Seeing no answers there, Subaru looked about, adjusting her eyes and making sure this wasn’t some elaborate prank or something before turning back and attempting to explain.
“Everything just changed,” she said.
Considering her state of mind, though, explaining wasn’t really possible for her now.
“Subaru, we’ve been sitting in the commissary for the past half hour,” Alto told her.
“Really?”
“Well, I don’t understand how you could get the two places confused,” Vice said.
Alto looked at her watch, and almost yelped. “Subaru, you’re gonna be late for your briefing if you don’t get moving!”
Now Subaru looked even more confused. “Briefing?”
The two chopper pilots shared a look before Vice spoke up again. “Are you sure you okay, or are you just trying to get out of answering my question?” he asked, looking suspicious.
“… I’m fine,” Subaru lied, looking all to the contrary as she dropped her spoon into her bowl and got up. “What question?”
Vice and Alto could only look at one another and wonder what in the world was going on as Subaru departed.
==========
“Almost two weeks ago, a reconnaissance team discovered these ruins on Non-Administrated World #42, with what appears to be an unaccounted for Lost Logia set near an old Belkan dimensional transfer array,” Nanoha explained to the group gathered in the darkened briefing room. Her hand pointed to a large holographic screen detailing images of the ruins, and the aforementioned Lost Logia contained in them. “Due to the nature of these ruins, Yuuno-kun has accepted a request to—“
“Nanoha-san,” Teana interrupted, looking uncomfortable as Hayate, Nanoha, and Yuuno all turned their attention to her. “Haven’t you already briefed us concerning this matter?”
“I was just gonna say that!” Subaru exclaimed, sitting ahead of her at the table.
“Teana?” Nanoha questioned, looking confused.
“We’re supposed to go with Yuuno-san to make sure a Scarlett Dragon doesn’t attack and wreck the place, right?” Subaru interjected before Teana could respond.
“Well… yes,” Nanoha said, looking at the combat cyborg.
“We just did that,” she replied matter-of-factly.
“No we haven’t,” Yuuno denied, shaking his head.
“No, I’m sure we have,” Teana said, coming to Subaru’s defense.
“Teana, Subaru, this is what this briefing is about,” Hayate said, giving both girls suspicious looks. Did Subaru somehow convince Teana to try and pull a prank here?
“I distinctly remember sitting here, listening to Nanoha-san talking about Scarlett Dragons and… storms of some kind,” Subaru said, frowning uncharacteristically. Why couldn’t Nanoha-san and Commander Yagami remember this?
“Geo-magnetic storms, yes,” Nanoha said, nodding. “I was just about to explain that they might set off the Scarlett Dragon population.”
“There you go!” exclaimed Subaru. “How would I know about that?”
Nanoha frowned. “Maybe you read my report on the matter?”
“Maybe she read your report?” Teana scoffed, knowing fully well how Subaru loathed dealing with mission reports.
“I’m telling you guys, we’ve done this before!” Subaru argued.
“I have to agree with Subaru, this sounds way too familiar to me,” her best friend agreed.
Before any of them to continue, a holographic window opened up in front of Hayate, displaying Griffith on the screen. “Commander Yagami, ma’am, we’re detecting an incoming dimensional transfer,” he explained. “It’s headed straight for the base.”
Hayate nodded. “I’ll be right there,” she said, closing the screen and getting up from her chair to depart. Nanoha and Yuuno followed suit, leaving both lower Stars members to glance at each other before following after their commanding officers.
They quickly arrived on the roof, where a large summoning circle had appeared on the helipad, nest to the nearby choppers.
“It’s Captain Vita and Lightning Team,” Teana said, garnering her looks from Hayate and Nanoha.
“Fate-chan and the others aren’t due back from their mission for another two days,” Nanoha said.
“Fate-san will be injured,” Subaru said, frowning.
Within moments, six figures materialized within the summoning circle, revealing them to be Vita and the entirety of Lightning Team: Fate T. Harlaown, Signum, Erio Mondial, Caro Lu Rushe, and her dragon companion Friedliche. Fate was favoring her arm and leg, which were both wrapped up in stained bandages.
“Fate-chan!” Nanoha cried, rushing over to her friend as Hayate looked over at Subaru and Teana, her expression all-too-suspicious. Subaru returned the gaze evenly, shrugging.
==========
“What do you make of all this?” Hayate asked as she and Nanoha strode down the hallway.
“I’m not sure,” Nanoha responded.
“Lightning Team’s early return was a result of an accident,” Hayate said, glancing up at the ceiling. “A machine unexpectedly exploded next to Fate-chan and the shrapnel went right through her barrier jacket. How could Subaru and Teana known what would happen?”
“Both of them claim they have memories of the mission to Non-Administrated World #42,” Nanoha said, shrugging.
“A mission that isn’t even scheduled for another six hours,” Hayate said.
==========
Shamal lifted up the flashlight and turned it on, shooting the light right into Subaru’s eyes, who patiently waited for the doctor to examine both before she blinked away the discomfort. On the bed behind her, Teana was having her blood pressure taken, and further back a nurse was fussing over Fate’s injuries.
“Okay, so you had just finished setting up the monitoring equipment, and… where was I?” Yuuno asked, having stopped by to check up on Fate.
“You were by the Lost Logia altar, examining the ruins,” Subaru explained before a thermometer was plopped into her mouth.
“You’re going to have to be a little more specific than that,” Yuuno said patiently.
“Bantam,” Teana spoke up. “That scholar guy was with you.”
“Yes, the other archaeologist the recon team encountered,” Yuuno said with a nod. “I had been looking forward to meeting him.”
“You did!” Subaru said. “You got along swell!”
“Anyway, at some point, a beam shot out of the ruins around the altar and struck the transfer array,” Teana continued, explaining for Subaru. “There was a blinding flash of light, and—”
“And then I was back in the commissary, eating my cereal,” Subaru interrupted.
Shamal frowned, and wrote down a few notes on her clipboard, just as Hayate and Nanoha arrived. “Well, Hayate-chan, I can’t find anything wrong with either of them,” she explained to them. “I’ll have to wait for the lab results for Teana and talk to Shari for Subaru to be absolutely sure, but both appear to be in perfect health.”
“Except for the fact that they’re remembering events that haven’t even happened,” Nanoha replied.
“But why just these two?” Yuuno asked his childhood friend. “Why not us as well?”
“Well, I’m not taking any chances now,” Hayate said disapprovingly. “Until we figure out what’s going on, I’m postponing your mission to Non-Administrated World #42.”
Subaru and Tea looked at one another, sighing. Just what was going on?
==========
Hours later, Subaru was walking off, intending to return to the commissary to get something to eat. Today had been too weird for her already. She was so certain that today had already happened!
“Subaru, wait up!” came the voice of Yuuno down the hall as he trotted to catch up to her. She stopped as he arrived, just at a T-intersection in the hallways.
“I was thinking about what Teana said, about a beam coming out of the Lost Logia,” he explained, bringing up some screens as personnel busily passed between the two of them. “The recon team took digital images of the carvings on the ruins. There might be some clue as to what’s going on, but unfortunately there’s the equivalent of four-hundred pages of old Belkan script, but if you and Teana could give me more details about the layout of the ruins, I could—”
Before he could explain any more, a distracted Shari Fineio came around the corner, looking at some papers on a clipboard and thus not seeing where she was going, and subsequently crashed right into Yuuno, knocking them both to the ground and sending paper flying through the air. “Oh, sorry, Yuuno-san!” the woman yelped as she pushed herself off of the stunned archaeologist. Subaru quickly helped him up with Shari, hauling him to his feet.
“Should’ve seen that coming,” the cyborg remarked with a nervous laugh.
==========
“So!”
Teana looked up from her plate of pasta at the sound of Nanoha’s voice, seeing her commanding officer take a seat across from her. “So?” she asked back, perplexed by the odd statement.
“Don’t you know what I’m going to say?” Nanoha asked, smiling.
“Actually, at this time we were already on the Non-Administrated World,” Teana clarified. “It’s all different now.”
“Ah,” Nanoha replied, laughing a bit. “I was thinking about what you told Yuuno-kun, about a beam hitting the transfer array at the ruins,” she said, explaining the reason for her visit.
“What about it?”
“After the flash, you said you found yourself back here at the base, and after that you were reliving past events leading up to the mission,” Nanoha explained, leaning on the table. “Maybe you’re not remembering the future. Maybe you were actually sent back in time.”
Teana arched an eyebrow at the older woman. “For what, six, seven hours?” she asked.
“It’s entire possible,” replied the Ace of the Sky. “Who knows what things a Lost Logia can accomplish? I’ve seen Jewel Seeds accomplish amazing things. So I was wondering—”
An alarm went up in the commissary, and Nanoha looked up in surprise, just as a window appeared with Hayate’s image on it. “Nanoha-chan, Griffith-kun’s detected another dimensional transfer headed here!, but everyone’s already back at base!”
“I’ll be right there!” Nanoha replied, standing up, as did Teana. They rushed out of the commissary, soon joining up with Signum and Hayate and Fate.
“What’s going on?” Fate asked as they arrived at a hallway overlooking the detected transfer site. She had new bandages covering her arm and chest, having just been released from the infirmary.
“Something seems to be amiss,” Signum said, frowning as she looked down at the magic circle that appeared. Soon, energy began to spray out from the circle, causing her to blink in shock.
“What is
that?” Fate demanded, looking shocked.
“I’ve never seen anything like that before,” Nanoha exclaimed.
“We have,” Teana said behind them, causing them to look back at her and Subaru, who had also just arrived with Yuuno. The light grew in intensity, and soon they were all blinded by it.
===flicker===
“… anyways, I’m sorry, but that’s just how I happen to feel about it,” said the voice of Vice Granscenic as light faded. “What do you think?”
The cyborg blinked, sitting up straighter and looking about wildly.
“Subaru, something wrong?” Alto asked, looking concerned for the other girl.
“Oh yeah,” she said. “Something.”