I'm just going to go with Because it's Always. And on another note, I have a title!
Spoiler for Ether Liners Day 1-2:
It's probably best for me to see what's going on myself. I can always question Fate later. Immediately, I charged down the stairs and pushed open the doors. Fate let out an 'eep' before yellow colored binds wrapped around my wrists and ankles. "I'm sorry but I can't let you interfere, Yagami-san." I frowned.
"Interfere what?" I questioned as I turned my head to stare at her. She looked nervous. I wasn't surprised that she knew I was a mage. We did sit beside each other for awhile now and I had a decent amount of magical energy. I turned back to the fight that was going on outside. "I may not be a trained mage like you but I do know the basics. The number one rule for mages is to keep hidden right? I don't think starting a magical fight at school is a good way to keep a low cover. The Bureau is pretty strict about that kind of stuff isn't it?" I smiled. I could practically hearing Fate going pale.
"W-will you not contact the Bureau if I tell you what's going on?" she asked.
"It might improve your chances," I answered. It wouldn't be too good to lose my advantage so easily and the faster I get out of these binds the sooner I can go help Yuuno. While I'm not sure how great he is as a mage, he didn't seem like much. I couldn't help but frown slightly. My life had become so unusual that the transfer student being a mage didn't surprise me at all.
Or maybe because it was one of the biggest cliches in anime.
"Have you ever heard of the Holy Grail War?" I shook my head. "A long time ago, a couple of mages had found a way to get the Holy Grail. In order to decide who would be worthy enough to have the Grail, they invented the Holy Grail War system. Seven mages would compete for the Holy Grail, they would be called 'masters', and each master would summon the spirit of a legendary hero. These spirits would be called 'servants'. Those mages had everything set and were about to start the first Holy Grail War when tragedy struck. One of the remnants from the Holy Grail War are the Class Cards."
"Tragedy? What happened?"
"Even I don't know. Anyway, mages can still use the Class Cards to summon servants. Alicia and I are doing our best to collect those cards but we wouldn't stand a chance against a legendary hero so Alicia summoned her own servant."
"Okay, but why are you collecting them? And how do you know about the Holy Grail War in the first place?" She paused.
Fate opened her mouth. And immediately shut it when we both sensed mana being gathered. This time it was on a completely different level then before. I immediately turned my head to the battle. The ball of black magical energy caught my attention. It seemed familiar, but there was no way for me to have seen it before. The binds disappeared just as the black ball of destruction descended.
Luckily, I was out of it's range. Or rather, the mage purposefully stopped the spell from expanding and engulfing the school. Once the 'Diabolic Emission' cleared, it left behind a card stuck in the ground and an unconscious Yuuno.
The spell's caster, who I assumed to be one of the legendary heroes Fate was talking about since any ordinary mage shouldn't have that much power, turned her head and glanced at me. Something about it sent shivers down my spine. "Damn it Caster! You should have warned me first! What am I going to do now?!" Alicia yelled angrily at the mage. That wasn't the mage's real name was it? I knew enough English to know the name 'Caster' for a mage was just...
No, now wasn't the time to think about trivial things like names! First off, why was Alicia so mad? I turned around to face Fate. She looked exasperated and had her hand on her face. "The barrier... they knocked down the barrier!" Fate grumbled.
I blinked. Now that she mentioned it, I didn't feel the barrier anymore and I could hear the sounds of students chatting. No wonder Alicia was angry, she was going to have a tough time explaining this situation. I sighed. "I'll let you off the hook right now but I'm definitely to get more answers later. You better be prepared!" I ran over to Alicia and 'Caster'.
Hopefully it didn't look too suspicious that I ran out so soon. "Testarossa-san, what's going on here? Who is that woman you're arguing with? And why is Scrya-kun on the ground?" I asked sounding as innocent as possible.
"Ah! Yagami-san! I didn't see you there," Alicia replied obviously trying to buy herself some time to come up with an excuse. "Well, you see..." Other students began to take notice of the situation outside and stared at Alicia expecting a suitable answer. "It's just that... well, um..."
"All of this is just a misunderstanding," Caster said suddenly. "I'm Alicia's servant, and she forgot her lunch today and like a diligent caregiver, I came here with her lunch. That's when I bumped into the person you called Scrya-kun and both of us fell to the ground. He um... touched me when he fell and I overreacted. When he wakes up I must apologize to him."
Damn that Caster. Her cover story works, the pause and the accompanying blush that came to her cheeks were just too perfect. There was just one little flaw. "Oh I see, what a kind servant you have Testarossa-san. May I ask where that lunch is?"
Caster tensed for a moment before she smiled. "Right here," she reached into her jacket and pulled out a bento box that was neatly wrapped in a blue cloth.
Another point for Caster. But I wasn't going to lose so easily! "That's good, I was worried it might have been damaged in the fall. If you don't mind me asking, why are you wearing such a strange cosplay outfit? The wings look very real as well, where did you get them?"
She didn't even flinch. "I'm a huge cosplay fan. I was in the middle of trying on a few outfits when I noticed Alicia forgot her lunch. And thank you, I worked on these wings myself. It took awhile to make them look realistic but I'm glad I did a good job on them. Now if you excuse me, I still have things to take care of at home. Please have a good day at school master. It was a pleasure to meet...?"
"Yagami Hayate and the pleasure is mutual. And your name is?"
"Caster, and I'm certain that we will meet again," she winked before dropping the bento box into Alicia's hands and running off leaving Alicia with her eyes wide and mouth hanging open.
Damn, I wasn't even able to get a single point from that conversation. It was a complete and utter failure. Oh, right Yuuno was still on the ground. I moved over to him to see if he was still alive. An attack like that was just overkill, I'm not even sure if an ordinary mage like me could survive something like that. I checked his pulse, he was alive, his pulse seemed normal.
In his right hand, a small red jewel laid in the middle. It had a few cracks through it. I picked it up and examined it. Something was odd about this jewel, but I couldn't put my finger on it.
"Come on, I'll help you get him to the Nurse's office," Alicia offered as she put one of Yuuno's arms over her shoulders. I quickly did the same.
"You have a rather interesting servant," I said idly as we headed over to the nurse's office.
"Ah, yes. Mother has some... interesting tastes when it comes to servants," Alicia replied. "I hope Caster didn't hit him in the head too hard." The rest of the trip was spent in silence.
We dumped Yuuno into a bed and headed off to class. I'm sure the nurse will be able to take care of him just fine despite the rumors about her. They're probably just rumors though, some of them are just plain silly. But now wasn't the time to think about things like that. I had a decision to make.
I could go see what Yuuno knows after class, or corner Fate and get the rest of the information on what she and Alicia are doing. But maybe I should see how Vita's doing, she did say she was going to check up on those Bureau mages. Hopefully she didn't get in too much trouble...
Sighing as he left the blacksmith's shop, Lyos couldn't help but grimace at both the price and the time it would take to fix his sword. Two days wasn't bad, but he felt almost naked without his sword.
He wouldn't say that he was naked without his sword though, at least he still had his Holy power, and thanks to Zelgadis, he could form it without Banisher, it was just harder to pull off. Sighing, he wondered what else was going to happen today.
"Well, I never thought I'd see you without your sword." Lyos' eyes widened and he spun to see that same woman in a dark hooded cloak from before, only this time, she was leaning against the wall to the blacksmith shop. "I take it that you met someone who didn't like it?"
Lyos grumbled at the memory. "I'd rather not remember it." That Luke guy was good, and that spell he used, it still bugged him. "But, honestly, something's felt wrong since I came to this city."
"Indeed." She nodded at him. "Though, considering how banged up your sword is, I'm wondering what could have caused it to become damaged like that."
Lyos grimaced and turned away from her. "Some jerk named Luke and that spell of his."
"Really?" For some reason, she sounded both surprised and interested at the same time. "He wouldn't happen to have spiky hair, a female companion and know an interesting spell, would he?"
Lyos twitched. "Yeah, that jerk! He just... GAH! He just pisses me off for existing!" Spinning to look at the woman, he blinked as she wasn't there anymore. "...Where did she go?"
(---)
Zelgadis sighed softly as he listened to the old couple that complained about how things had changed for the worst all of a sudden a little over a year ago. "I see, thank you." Leaving them, he resisted the urge to sigh again. It was the same story, over and over again, things had been going good, then suddenly the king made sudden changes that no one could figure out what they were for and life got extremely hard. Heck, Zelgadis had heard people saying that if the rumors of people willing to take up arms against the king were true, then most of the people would join.
It almost made him wonder why people even bothered to live in this kingdom if things were so bad.
Then again, he really couldn't judge, he did stick with Rezo for years, even after his grandfather had turned him into a Chimera. Looking at his hand, he gave it a squeeze and closed his eyes. Even if he lived to be as old as Rezo had been, he would never be able to fully pay Arf back for all that she did for him. Even if it wasn't completely real, the fact that he could feel flesh instead of rock was more than he could ever hope for.
As he turned the corner, he blinked as he saw a tavern, before shrugging, he was a touch hungry. After he had sat and ordered, he looked around the tavern. What he found interesting was that it was mostly empty, except for three people huddled together in the corner, all of them were dressed in hooded cloaks. Even though his hearing was better than most people's, he wasn't able to hear what they were saying clearly. He picked up some words, but nothing concrete one way or the other. He would have ignored it, but what kind of group of people whispered to each other like that?
It was annoying, and it raised his curiosity slightly.
He ended up leaving shortly after finishing his meal, following after them at a discreet distance. When the small group disappeared into an abandoned building, Zelgadis smirked and wondered about how... Cliche things were. Heck, he was almost certain that the leader of some sort of crime syndicate was likely in there, if things were as cliche as he thought they were.
Slipping up to the door, which was open slightly, he leaned in to listen.
"...believe that we're doing this." One of the voices spoke up.
"You know why, right? What's happening with our bosses is completely asinine, and we all know it." Another voice, this one female, spoke up. "Our only way to make everything make sense is to do what he's telling us to do."
'He?' Zelgadis narrowed his eyes. Just who were they talking about?
"Does it really matter?" A slightly crazed male voice chuckled at the other two. "All I know is, boss has this entire country under his control. It was so easy..." He started laughing. "I mean, the real king can't be here, being a chunk of flesh right now."
Zelgadis's eyes widened, if the real king was dead, who was in charge of the country?
"Still, it's annoying that we have to hide until our plan succeeds..." The female trailed off. "Well, well... Looks like we have a SPY!"
That was the only warning Zelgadis got before the door was blown off and dark tendrils wrapped around his body, yanking him into the room with the three. Zelgadis's eyes widened as he saw the woman's hair extend from her hood to wrap around his body. "...You're..." That was the last thing he said before lightning was poured through his body, enough to make him cry out in pain before he convulsed and dropped to the ground, out cold.
"Now what?" The first male spoke up as he looked at Zelgadis. "Should we kill him?"
The woman shook her head. "We can't, he came with that Princess from Seiryuun, if he's dead, well, it would cause a problem for us, wouldn't it?"
"Well then!" The slightly crazed voice spoke up and grinned at Zel's body. "If we can't kill him, then we'll just have to use him, won't we?" Seeing the look on his face, the other two nodded, grinning as they advanced on Zel's unconscious form.
__________________
My fics Due to certain things, I am not here, find me over on TFF.
So to everyone having read the teaser for and is interested in The State of Affairs, I do plan on posting it on Fanfiction.net, since we all know you're not a real Nanoha author until you've pissed off the fanatics somehow.
So I ask to you: should I post the teaser as it is as a stand-alone prologue, or should I lengthen it out a bit before I post it?
I'm just going to go with Because it's Always. And on another note, I have a title!
Spoiler for Ether Liners Day 1-2:
It's probably best for me to see what's going on myself. I can always question Fate later. Immediately, I charged down the stairs and pushed open the doors. Fate let out an 'eep' before yellow colored binds wrapped around my wrists and ankles. "I'm sorry but I can't let you interfere, Yagami-san." I frowned.
"Interfere what?" I questioned as I turned my head to stare at her. She looked nervous. I wasn't surprised that she knew I was a mage. We did sit beside each other for awhile now and I had a decent amount of magical energy. I turned back to the fight that was going on outside. "I may not be a trained mage like you but I do know the basics. The number one rule for mages is to keep hidden right? I don't think starting a magical fight at school is a good way to keep a low cover. The Bureau is pretty strict about that kind of stuff isn't it?" I smiled. I could practically hearing Fate going pale.
"W-will you not contact the Bureau if I tell you what's going on?" she asked.
"It might improve your chances," I answered. It wouldn't be too good to lose my advantage so easily and the faster I get out of these binds the sooner I can go help Yuuno. While I'm not sure how great he is as a mage, he didn't seem like much. I couldn't help but frown slightly. My life had become so unusual that the transfer student being a mage didn't surprise me at all.
Or maybe because it was one of the biggest cliches in anime.
"Have you ever heard of the Holy Grail War?" I shook my head. "A long time ago, a couple of mages had found a way to get the Holy Grail. In order to decide who would be worthy enough to have the Grail, they invented the Holy Grail War system. Seven mages would compete for the Holy Grail, they would be called 'masters', and each master would summon the spirit of a legendary hero. These spirits would be called 'servants'. Those mages had everything set and were about to start the first Holy Grail War when tragedy struck. One of the remnants from the Holy Grail War are the Class Cards."
"Tragedy? What happened?"
"Even I don't know. Anyway, mages can still use the Class Cards to summon servants. Alicia and I are doing our best to collect those cards but we wouldn't stand a chance against a legendary hero so Alicia summoned her own servant."
"Okay, but why are you collecting them? And how do you know about the Holy Grail War in the first place?" She paused.
Fate opened her mouth. And immediately shut it when we both sensed mana being gathered. This time it was on a completely different level then before. I immediately turned my head to the battle. The ball of black magical energy caught my attention. It seemed familiar, but there was no way for me to have seen it before. The binds disappeared just as the black ball of destruction descended.
Luckily, I was out of it's range. Or rather, the mage purposefully stopped the spell from expanding and engulfing the school. Once the 'Diabolic Emission' cleared, it left behind a card stuck in the ground and an unconscious Yuuno.
The spell's caster, who I assumed to be one of the legendary heroes Fate was talking about since any ordinary mage shouldn't have that much power, turned her head and glanced at me. Something about it sent shivers down my spine. "Damn it Caster! You should have warned me first! What am I going to do now?!" Alicia yelled angrily at the mage. That wasn't the mage's real name was it? I knew enough English to know the name 'Caster' for a mage was just...
No, now wasn't the time to think about trivial things like names! First off, why was Alicia so mad? I turned around to face Fate. She looked exasperated and had her hand on her face. "The barrier... they knocked down the barrier!" Fate grumbled.
I blinked. Now that she mentioned it, I didn't feel the barrier anymore and I could hear the sounds of students chatting. No wonder Alicia was angry, she was going to have a tough time explaining this situation. I sighed. "I'll let you off the hook right now but I'm definitely to get more answers later. You better be prepared!" I ran over to Alicia and 'Caster'.
Hopefully it didn't look too suspicious that I ran out so soon. "Testarossa-san, what's going on here? Who is that woman you're arguing with? And why is Scrya-kun on the ground?" I asked sounding as innocent as possible.
"Ah! Yagami-san! I didn't see you there," Alicia replied obviously trying to buy herself some time to come up with an excuse. "Well, you see..." Other students began to take notice of the situation outside and stared at Alicia expecting a suitable answer. "It's just that... well, um..."
"All of this is just a misunderstanding," Caster said suddenly. "I'm Alicia's servant, and she forgot her lunch today and like a diligent caregiver, I came here with her lunch. That's when I bumped into the person you called Scrya-kun and both of us fell to the ground. He um... touched me when he fell and I overreacted. When he wakes up I must apologize to him."
Damn that Caster. Her cover story works, the pause and the accompanying blush that came to her cheeks were just too perfect. There was just one little flaw. "Oh I see, what a kind servant you have Testarossa-san. May I ask where that lunch is?"
Caster tensed for a moment before she smiled. "Right here," she reached into her jacket and pulled out a bento box that was neatly wrapped in a blue cloth.
Another point for Caster. But I wasn't going to lose so easily! "That's good, I was worried it might have been damaged in the fall. If you don't mind me asking, why are you wearing such a strange cosplay outfit? The wings look very real as well, where did you get them?"
She didn't even flinch. "I'm a huge cosplay fan. I was in the middle of trying on a few outfits when I noticed Alicia forgot her lunch. And thank you, I worked on these wings myself. It took awhile to make them look realistic but I'm glad I did a good job on them. Now if you excuse me, I still have things to take care of at home. Please have a good day at school master. It was a pleasure to meet...?"
"Yagami Hayate and the pleasure is mutual. And your name is?"
"Caster, and I'm certain that we will meet again," she winked before dropping the bento box into Alicia's hands and running off leaving Alicia with her eyes wide and mouth hanging open.
Damn, I wasn't even able to get a single point from that conversation. It was a complete and utter failure. Oh, right Yuuno was still on the ground. I moved over to him to see if he was still alive. An attack like that was just overkill, I'm not even sure if an ordinary mage like me could survive something like that. I checked his pulse, he was alive, his pulse seemed normal.
In his right hand, a small red jewel laid in the middle. It had a few cracks through it. I picked it up and examined it. Something was odd about this jewel, but I couldn't put my finger on it.
"Come on, I'll help you get him to the Nurse's office," Alicia offered as she put one of Yuuno's arms over her shoulders. I quickly did the same.
"You have a rather interesting servant," I said idly as we headed over to the nurse's office.
"Ah, yes. Mother has some... interesting tastes when it comes to servants," Alicia replied. "I hope Caster didn't hit him in the head too hard." The rest of the trip was spent in silence.
We dumped Yuuno into a bed and headed off to class. I'm sure the nurse will be able to take care of him just fine despite the rumors about her. They're probably just rumors though, some of them are just plain silly. But now wasn't the time to think about things like that. I had a decision to make.
I could go see what Yuuno knows after class, or corner Fate and get the rest of the information on what she and Alicia are doing. But maybe I should see how Vita's doing, she did say she was going to check up on those Bureau mages. Hopefully she didn't get in too much trouble...
A)Talk to Yuuno!
B)Talk to Fate!
C)Talk to Vita!
Let's go with A. Should make sure the guy's okay.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rising Dragon
So to everyone having read the teaser for and is interested in The State of Affairs, I do plan on posting it on Fanfiction.net, since we all know you're not a real Nanoha author until you've pissed off the fanatics somehow.
So I ask to you: should I post the teaser as it is as a stand-alone prologue, or should I lengthen it out a bit before I post it?
Eh, I'd go for it as is. It's not so likely to get as ill recieved, because I bet a lot of people will think it'll eventually be NanoFate.
So to everyone having read the teaser for and is interested in The State of Affairs, I do plan on posting it on Fanfiction.net, since we all know you're not a real Nanoha author until you've pissed off the fanatics somehow.
So I ask to you: should I post the teaser as it is as a stand-alone prologue, or should I lengthen it out a bit before I post it?
Like I said before, I think the length is fine just the way it is and you can post it as it is to FF.net. The main point of it anyway is to deliver the whole aspect of Fate's affair, so I don't think it needs to be very long to do that. You can start out there and make the chapters longer as you progress.
Location: Place of rocks and trees, and trees and rocks...and water.
Age: 33
Quote:
Originally Posted by SilentOutlaw
Spoiler for Ether Liners Day 1-2:
SNIP
A)Talk to Yuuno!
B)Talk to Fate!
C)Talk to Vita!
I vote B . She should find out more of what's going on, and where all the battle lines are!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rising Dragon
So to everyone having read the teaser for and is interested in The State of Affairs, I do plan on posting it on Fanfiction.net, since we all know you're not a real Nanoha author until you've pissed off the fanatics somehow.
So I ask to you: should I post the teaser as it is as a stand-alone prologue, or should I lengthen it out a bit before I post it?
I think the length is fine as it is--as a prologue, it's short and sets up hints and drops the bomb nicely at the end .
And here is my plot bunny to my little Tangent last night, all typed up :
Spoiler for Spread Thin:
Spread Thin
“So, Fate…who will you spend your birthday with this year?”
“Nothing has changed over the past few years, Mother. With my family, of course.”
“So, that’s what you’re calling it now, huh?”
Fate sighed, keeping her eyes focused on her task. It was rude to ignore her Mother, but today was not a good day. And Mother had become more and more persistant over the last few months, until Fate could barely get through a day without hearing some remark from her.
“It’s good, this way. Why can’t you just accept that?”
“Accept the fact that after twenty years, you’ve finally come crawling back to me? That you’ve finally come to understand what I had meant, all those years ago?”
Fate stiffened, her hand pausing over her weapons kit. She always packed that last in her suitcase. Just standard Enforcer training. Not that she needed to follow her training so strictly where she was going, but years of habit were hard to break. “You don’t have to say it. I know. I’ll always remember.”
Precia Testarossa laughed, sitting on the edge of Fate’s workdesk, her red nails flashing a bloody reflection in the awkwardly placed sink and mirror crammed into the small warship room. Even being an officer didn’t get Fate a room larger than a glorified closet on the warships, but it wasn’t like Fate minded, normally.
But having her mother in the same room as her had been making the room feel more claustrophobic than usual.
Precia inclined her head. “A call for you.”
A holoscreen popped up right then over the desk, the screen blank and waiting for her confirmation. “Incoming video call, Location: Harlaown Residence. Caller: Amy Harlaown.”
“You know what she’ll be asking.”
“I told you, I know what I’m going to say.”
“You’re not going to wimp out, are you?”
“No,” Fate said angrily, slamming the top down on her suitcase. “Accept call.”
Amy’s smiling face flashed onto the holoscreen. “Fate-chan, how are you?” From the background noises, the kids were out of school—Fate could hear arguing and yelling coming from the living room door behind Amy, but as the tone of the inaudible voices was still in the harmless teasing zone, both of them ignored it.
“Well. How are you and the kids?”
“Karel and Liera loved the bicycles you got them—thank you so much for getting two blue ones; I think those two would have resorted to wrestling otherwise!”
Fate smiled slightly, her gaze drifting from Amy’s face to her mother, who was smirking, so far refraining from saying anything aloud. “It wasn’t any trouble. I’m glad they like them.”
“Lindy-san is coming over for the weekend.”
The room tilted suddenly—Fate grabbed for the desk chair to steady her weak knees. “Oh, Kaa-san is?”
“Yes,” Amy said, a hopeful light in her eyes. “So will you come home for your birthday? If you need to see Nanoha and Vivio, you could go see them today, then come tomorrow on the actual day? Lindy-san would love to see you again.”
Her breath caught in her throat for an instant. In front of her, Fate saw Precia open her mouth. “I’m sorry,” Fate said first, cutting her mother off. “I’ll be spending the day with my family.”
She saw Amy flinch, a mixture of hurt and anger in her face. Not as much on her own behalf, but on her husband’s and her children’s. And on Lindy’s. Fate felt a second twinge of remorse, but she didn’t like how Precia was rising from her seat, moving closer with a dark smile on her lips. “Sorry, Amy, I have to go. Good bye.”
The holoscreen winked out before Amy could reply.
“Now, that was just cruel of you.”
“Who are you to judge me?”
“Ha! You’re right. Besides, you’re not lying, huh Fate?”
“No. I’m not.”
Precia moved forward, and Fate retreated, turning to face the wall in a childish attempt to block her mother’s presence from her mind. But she could still hear Precia’s low voice as her mother said, “How ungrateful of you, to treat your second mother that way. Did I really teach you so well?”
“I guess you did, yes.”
Precia snorted. “I never thought you would put so much value on the lessons I taught you.”
Now it was Fate’s turn to laugh mockingly. “How could I not? You’re my mother, aren’t you?”
“Yes. Of course.”
“Incoming video call, Location: Supools Wildlife Preservation Base Camp. Caller: Erio Mondial.”
Fate checked the time display on Bardiche. Good, she still had time. “Accept call.”
“FATE-SAN!!!” Both Erio and Caro shouted delightedly, wide grins on their faces. Erio had grown again, but this time it looked like Caro had shot up a few inches too. Caro had cut her hair—Fate liked it. When had Erio gotten that scar by his eyebrow?
“Fate-san, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!”
She laughed softly. “You’re one day off, but thank you.”
“Erio, I told you we had to subtract 3 in the date conversion equation, not 2!”
“But that’s even better!” Erio turned to look at Fate, his eyes peeking earnestly through his red bangs. “You’re on leave right now, aren’t you Fate-san?”
They hadn’t caught her with a call while Fate was on break for a while. She couldn’t lie to them. “…Yes.”
“I managed to get time off, but Caro couldn’t…” Erio shuffled in place, sharing a look with Caro as she nudged him encouragingly. “So…could you come here to visit? It would be your birthday! We could celebrate?”
“I wouldn’t want to…” Fate froze as she felt the brush of Precia’s long hair at her back. She rotated in her seat, the holoscreen moving with her. “…impose.”
“No, you won’t be imposing!” Erio bit his lip. “We really want you here, honest. Will you?”
“Please?” Caro added, looking at Fate imploringly.
Fate took a breath.
She heard Precia cough once behind her.
“I’m sorry,” she told them both, smiling gently and doing her best to spread the motion to her eyes as well, so that it would look convincing. “I’ll be spending my birthday with my family.”
Caro grimaced briefly before putting on a pained smile, while Erio just stared at Fate forlornly, clear heartbreak on his youthful face. He looked stunned and hurt, before he also tried to smile. Fate was so proud of them. They’re doing well already without her.
“Well…” Caro coughed, giving her partner a worried glance. From the angle of her sleeve Fate knew that the pink-haired girl had taken Erio’s hand in hers off-screen. “Happy early Birthday, Fate-san…we’ll do our best to drop by anyway, okay? I’m sure the boss will understand, it’s such a rare chance, he’ll definitely be okay with it.”
“Okay then,” Fate answered mechanically, glancing over her shoulder again. Precia was leaning on the sink now, waving at Fate. Snapping her attention back to the screen, hoping that Erio or Caro hadn’t followed her line of vision, Fate said, “I’ll see you then. Bye.”
“Lying to your children, now?”
“Shut up.”
“Don’t talk to your mother that way.”
Fate’s hand twitched. She tucked it into a pocket.
“Really, how disappointing. After loving you for so many years, and this is how you repay me?”
Fate breathed in ten times, then walked over to her desk, delicately manuvering around Precia so that she made it into her chair without touching a fold of fabric or a lock of hair. She opened her drawer and pulled out a stack of white letters, shuffling through the envelopes.
“Have many of those, do you?”
“I’ve gotten to become a good letter writer.”
“In a time of holoscreens and video calls, you write letters?”
“Well, you know why I write letters. Don’t you? How could I have tried harder if you weren’t always there, getting in my way!”
Precia laughed, her low chuckling making Fate duck her head and count the letters again. “You’re worse than me. At least I was a bad mother to your face.”
“Incoming video call, Location: Takamachi house. Caller: Nanoha Takamachi.”
Fate quickly stuffed the letters under her bed covers, moving as far away from Precia as she could. “Accept call.”
Behind her, she heard Precia snicker. “Speak of the devil.” But thankfully, her voice was soft, so Fate didn’t think that Nanoha had heard anything.
“Fate-chan!” Nanoha beamed at Fate through the screen. She actually looked like she was relaxing—Fate had heard from Vita that Nanoha had been overworking herself recently, and no one could make her stop except for Vivio, at times. It was good that Nanoha was taking care of herself. Fate hated to see her looking wan and strained, as she had heard Nanoha was appearing often of late. “Did your mission go well?”
“We found the traffickers, and just finished all the trials.”
“So you’re free now?” Nanoha’s tone sounded forcibly casual, but Fate saw how her knuckles had turned white as she clenched at the collar of her shirt. Fate noticed these things about Nanoha. Some habits never changed.
“Yes,” Fate admitted.
“Good…” Nanoha hesitated, staring Fate in the eyes for a moment.
Shifting, Fate awkwardly glanced to the side, to make sure that Precia was still out of sight. If she stared hard enough, maybe she could goad Precia into staying silent a little longer.
“If you have some time, then Vivio wants to talk to you.”
Fate trembled, closing her eyes for a moment. She could feel Precia leaning in and chuckling into her ear.
“Fate-mama?”
Vivio was a little old to still be calling her Fate-mama, but Fate couldn’t make herself correct her. Even Precia stayed silent.
“Hi, Vivio.”
“Did you get the video of my graduation?”
“I did. Your speech was great.”
Vivio gave her a wide smile, her red and green eyes twinkling. “I think Sister Schach wanted to faint when I added that last bit, and even though Carim was trying to look stern I could tell she wanted to laugh. Sein was just openly laughing, it was really funny.”
“I’m sorry that I was on a mission during that time.”
“It’s…okay,” Vivio said, but she was clearly lying. She hadn’t even really been trying to hide it. “I understand. Fate-mama always has important things to do, right?”
Fate heard a tapping sound, and flicked her gaze quickly to the side to see Precia tapping on Bardiche’s form, where the time display would usually pop up.
“You can’t miss the time. If you do, you know what will happen.”
“I still have lots of—”
“Fate-mama?”
Vivio’s voice cut through the haze of Precia’s words, making Fate jerk back to look at the concerned young woman’s image in front of her. “Sorry…I’m sorry. I don’t mean to.”
“Liar,” Precia laughed terribly.
“It’s okay,” Vivio lied.
“Are you taking care of Nanoha-mama?” Fate asked. She tried to convince herself that it was only because she wanted to distract Vivio.
“Yeah,” Vivio said. “But I think she misses you a lot. Will you come home tomorrow?”
Precia taunted, “Will you?”
Fate’s jaw clenched.
“Fate-chan?” Nanoha had joined Vivio on the screen, both of them watching her with the same hopeful expression. Clearly mother and daughter.
“I’m sorry…” Fate hesitated. She looked up, meeting Precia’s eyes. Eyes that were empty and cold, unsmiling. “…I’m spending my birthday with my family.”
“We’re—” Vivio burst out, before Nanoha cut her off with a hand on her shoulder. She had a good daughter.
“Fate-chan, why…” Nanoha swallowed, her eyes gentle and begging. A shiver of cold bristled inside Fate’s stomach, rising up her chest. And indeed, Nanoha slowly asked the question they had always avoided before. “…why don’t we come with you? Then we can all celebrate your birthday…together.”
“Yes, isn’t the dear right? You can have everyone together, one big happy f—”
“I don’t deserve that.”
“What?” Nanoha asked, leaning forward to try and hear better.
Precia smiled at Fate. “I know. But you needed to say it aloud for yourself, didn’t you?”
“Nothing,” Fate said to Nanoha. “I’m sorry, it’s not…I need to go.”
“Fate-chan, I know you asked for space, but we want—”
BEEP! Fate turned off the screen. Any longer and she knew Precia would have done it for her, and the very least Fate owed to Nanoha and Vivio was to make those kinds of decisions herself.
“You know that they won’t understand.”
“What…what if they do?”
“Do you really think so?”
Fate sighed, putting her face in her hands. She was so tired. Did she think so…on some days. But not today. “No.”
Precia rose, waiting by the door. “It’s time to go.”
With a soft crinkle, Fate drew out the letters from under her blanket, shuffling through them once again. She laid them on top of her suitcase, then after a moment’s thought, turned them face down. Straigthening, she surveyed the room. A lifetime of travelling had given Fate the ability to personalize and depersonalize a room in minutes, and this room was thoroughly clean. Only her suitcase remained on the bed, with the stack of letters balanced on top.
“Yes.” Fate laid Bardiche down on top of the letters, letting her hand drop from her old companion. “Time to go…”
Beep. Bardiche flashed yellow.
“Don’t read it,” Precia warned.
Fate trembled.
“Don’t.”
“What if it’s important?” whispered Fate.
“There’s no time! If you give in now, your chance will be gone. You had everything timed out perfectly—are you going to give it up now?” Precia’s voice turned into a low, savage growl. “All your promises meant nothing, Fate?”
“I didn’t promise you anything!”
“Didn’t you? Ever since the day you took Nanoha’s hand, didn’t you feel the sting of an oathbreaker? You promised to be with me until the end—your own mother! And yet you just let everything we had—you, me, Alicia—fall away into memory.”
“I never forgot you. Never! You know it.”
“No, of course you never forgot me…you tried to be better than me in every way you could. But in the end? Look at you, Fate—are you any better?”
“I…I tried to be.”
“But in the end, you failed where I failed. And remember Erio’s face…you succeeded where I did, Fate. Congratulations.”
“I wasn’t always like that! I…” Fate ground the heels of her palms into her eyes, gasping. “Before…before, I wasn’t…”
“Few years too late for regrets, isn’t it?” Precia said snidely.
“You’re right.” Fate quivered. “…you’re right.”
“At least, now you have the option, right? If you still had her, you couldn’t be doing the right thing now.”
Blood welled on Fate’s lip—she had bitten through the skin. “Don’t say that…how could you say that!”
“Oh, by this point, you can stop lying, can’t you? You know that you’ve wanted to be with us many times, long ago. But she’d always held you back.”
“I loved her, Mother.”
“Yes, you did. And where did that love get her?”
“Dead.” Fate let her hands drop. She must look terrible, if her face was just as pale as her bloodless hands. “She’s always protected me from you.”
But her protector was gone. It always surprised Fate, in a dull, impassive way, how long Fate had lasted against her mother without Arf’s protection. In the end, though, Fate knew that she couldn’t hold out forever. And indeed, she had been right.
Precia had been waiting for her.
“Yes, Arf drove me away before. The others helped, a little, but she was the only one who truly knew what I was. Isn’t that right?”
“Yes.”
Silence. Blessed silence for a moment.
Silence had always been a double-edged sword with Fate. Hearing Precia’s voice always hurt Fate inside. But hearing nothing at all meant that there was space for old nightmares to drift into Fate’s head, whether she was sleeping or not.
Some days, Fate feared the nightmares more than Precia.
Thankfully, Precia spoke again, her voice soft…as soft as when she spoke to Alicia. “It’s for the best, you know.”
“I know. That’s why I’m doing it.”
Fate glanced one last time at the blinking message on Bardiche’s core before turning her back, opening the door and shutting it behind her with a decisive click.
“Alicia and I are waiting,” Precia said from beside her.
“I know.”
“At least now, you won’t have to worry anymore. You know where you stand, with us.”
“Hey, Fate?” A voice called suddenly from behind.
No one was supposed to be here! Fate jumped, shaking badly as Yuuno trotted up to her, carrying two thick texts under one arm. He must have been heading towards the teleport pad at the end of the hall by the huge glinting windows on the underbelly of the warship.
Precia had been right.
She should have left on time.
“What are you doing here?” Fate demanded, staring at him with horrified eyes.
“Uh,” he stuttered, startled at her vehemence. “I was picking up the reference texts we had lent Admiral Lowran for your last mission. Why are you still here? Weren’t you all given leave time?”
“I was finishing packing.”
“Oh.” Yuuno frowned at her, and Fate kept her face as blank as possible.
“I can’t believe you’re going to get caught because of him,” Precia groaned.
“I won’t,” Fate ground out.
“Fate?” Yuuno asked, pushing his glasses up and narrowing his eyes.
“Nothing. Sorry.” Fate took a half step around him. “I have to get going now.”
“Are you going back for your birthday with Nanoha and Vivio?” Yuuno inquired, a flash of emotion crossing his face as his body twitched, as if to follow her, but he ultimately stayed put. “They were talking about wanting to spend the day with you…”
Fate blinked distantly, her gaze drifting over to Precia again. Her mother was standing down the hall in front of the glass windows, watching Fate with intent purple eyes. They flashed red.
“I’m sorry,” Fate told Yuuno absently, walking towards Precia.
“I’m going to spend my birthday with my family.”
Spoiler for Author's Note:
.........DON'T WORRY, THERE IS A PART 2!
I had originally wanted to end the short here, with all the lovely implications that go along with it , but I was re-reading some of my reviews yesterday...and someone had said that reading my stories gave him clinical depression all the time , so I felt guilty and therefore I planned out a nicer ending to this story .
But I'm posting this part like this first (and give myself time to finish the extended ending ), just to show you guys where my original ending should have been, hehehe!
I vote B . She should find out more of what's going on, and where all the battle lines are!
I think the length is fine as it is--as a prologue, it's short and sets up hints and drops the bomb nicely at the end .
And here is my plot bunny to my little Tangent last night, all typed up :
Spoiler for Spread Thin:
Spread Thin
“So, Fate…who will you spend your birthday with this year?”
“Nothing has changed over the past few years, Mother. With my family, of course.”
“So, that’s what you’re calling it now, huh?”
Fate sighed, keeping her eyes focused on her task. It was rude to ignore her Mother, but today was not a good day. And Mother had become more and more persistant over the last few months, until Fate could barely get through a day without hearing some remark from her.
“It’s good, this way. Why can’t you just accept that?”
“Accept the fact that after twenty years, you’ve finally come crawling back to me? That you’ve finally come to understand what I had meant, all those years ago?”
Fate stiffened, her hand pausing over her weapons kit. She always packed that last in her suitcase. Just standard Enforcer training. Not that she needed to follow her training so strictly where she was going, but years of habit were hard to break. “You don’t have to say it. I know. I’ll always remember.”
Precia Testarossa laughed, sitting on the edge of Fate’s workdesk, her red nails flashing a bloody reflection in the awkwardly placed sink and mirror crammed into the small warship room. Even being an officer didn’t get Fate a room larger than a glorified closet on the warships, but it wasn’t like Fate minded, normally.
But having her mother in the same room as her had been making the room feel more claustrophobic than usual.
Precia inclined her head. “A call for you.”
A holoscreen popped up right then over the desk, the screen blank and waiting for her confirmation. “Incoming video call, Location: Harlaown Residence. Caller: Amy Harlaown.”
“You know what she’ll be asking.”
“I told you, I know what I’m going to say.”
“You’re not going to wimp out, are you?”
“No,” Fate said angrily, slamming the top down on her suitcase. “Accept call.”
Amy’s smiling face flashed onto the holoscreen. “Fate-chan, how are you?” From the background noises, the kids were out of school—Fate could hear arguing and yelling coming from the living room door behind Amy, but as the tone of the inaudible voices was still in the harmless teasing zone, both of them ignored it.
“Well. How are you and the kids?”
“Karel and Liera loved the bicycles you got them—thank you so much for getting two blue ones; I think those two would have resorted to wrestling otherwise!”
Fate smiled slightly, her gaze drifting from Amy’s face to her mother, who was smirking, so far refraining from saying anything aloud. “It wasn’t any trouble. I’m glad they like them.”
“Lindy-san is coming over for the weekend.”
The room tilted suddenly—Fate grabbed for the desk chair to steady her weak knees. “Oh, Kaa-san is?”
“Yes,” Amy said, a hopeful light in her eyes. “So will you come home for your birthday? If you need to see Nanoha and Vivio, you could go see them today, then come tomorrow on the actual day? Lindy-san would love to see you again.”
Her breath caught in her throat for an instant. In front of her, Fate saw Precia open her mouth. “I’m sorry,” Fate said first, cutting her mother off. “I’ll be spending the day with my family.”
She saw Amy flinch, a mixture of hurt and anger in her face. Not as much on her own behalf, but on her husband’s and her children’s. And on Lindy’s. Fate felt a second twinge of remorse, but she didn’t like how Precia was rising from her seat, moving closer with a dark smile on her lips. “Sorry, Amy, I have to go. Good bye.”
The holoscreen winked out before Amy could reply.
“Now, that was just cruel of you.”
“Who are you to judge me?”
“Ha! You’re right. Besides, you’re not lying, huh Fate?”
“No. I’m not.”
Precia moved forward, and Fate retreated, turning to face the wall in a childish attempt to block her mother’s presence from her mind. But she could still hear Precia’s low voice as her mother said, “How ungrateful of you, to treat your second mother that way. Did I really teach you so well?”
“I guess you did, yes.”
Precia snorted. “I never thought you would put so much value on the lessons I taught you.”
Now it was Fate’s turn to laugh mockingly. “How could I not? You’re my mother, aren’t you?”
“Yes. Of course.”
“Incoming video call, Location: Supools Wildlife Preservation Base Camp. Caller: Erio Mondial.”
Fate checked the time display on Bardiche. Good, she still had time. “Accept call.”
“FATE-SAN!!!” Both Erio and Caro shouted delightedly, wide grins on their faces. Erio had grown again, but this time it looked like Caro had shot up a few inches too. Caro had cut her hair—Fate liked it. When had Erio gotten that scar by his eyebrow?
“Fate-san, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!”
She laughed softly. “You’re one day off, but thank you.”
“Erio, I told you we had to subtract 3 in the date conversion equation, not 2!”
“But that’s even better!” Erio turned to look at Fate, his eyes peeking earnestly through his red bangs. “You’re on leave right now, aren’t you Fate-san?”
They hadn’t caught her with a call while Fate was on break for a while. She couldn’t lie to them. “…Yes.”
“I managed to get time off, but Caro couldn’t…” Erio shuffled in place, sharing a look with Caro as she nudged him encouragingly. “So…could you come here to visit? It would be your birthday! We could celebrate?”
“I wouldn’t want to…” Fate froze as she felt the brush of Precia’s long hair at her back. She rotated in her seat, the holoscreen moving with her. “…impose.”
“No, you won’t be imposing!” Erio bit his lip. “We really want you here, honest. Will you?”
“Please?” Caro added, looking at Fate imploringly.
Fate took a breath.
She heard Precia cough once behind her.
“I’m sorry,” she told them both, smiling gently and doing her best to spread the motion to her eyes as well, so that it would look convincing. “I’ll be spending my birthday with my family.”
Caro grimaced briefly before putting on a pained smile, while Erio just stared at Fate forlornly, clear heartbreak on his youthful face. He looked stunned and hurt, before he also tried to smile. Fate was so proud of them. They’re doing well already without her.
“Well…” Caro coughed, giving her partner a worried glance. From the angle of her sleeve Fate knew that the pink-haired girl had taken Erio’s hand in hers off-screen. “Happy early Birthday, Fate-san…we’ll do our best to drop by anyway, okay? I’m sure the boss will understand, it’s such a rare chance, he’ll definitely be okay with it.”
“Okay then,” Fate answered mechanically, glancing over her shoulder again. Precia was leaning on the sink now, waving at Fate. Snapping her attention back to the screen, hoping that Erio or Caro hadn’t followed her line of vision, Fate said, “I’ll see you then. Bye.”
“Lying to your children, now?”
“Shut up.”
“Don’t talk to your mother that way.”
Fate’s hand twitched. She tucked it into a pocket.
“Really, how disappointing. After loving you for so many years, and this is how you repay me?”
Fate breathed in ten times, then walked over to her desk, delicately manuvering around Precia so that she made it into her chair without touching a fold of fabric or a lock of hair. She opened her drawer and pulled out a stack of white letters, shuffling through the envelopes.
“Have many of those, do you?”
“I’ve gotten to become a good letter writer.”
“In a time of holoscreens and video calls, you write letters?”
“Well, you know why I write letters. Don’t you? How could I have tried harder if you weren’t always there, getting in my way!”
Precia laughed, her low chuckling making Fate duck her head and count the letters again. “You’re worse than me. At least I was a bad mother to your face.”
“Incoming video call, Location: Takamachi house. Caller: Nanoha Takamachi.”
Fate quickly stuffed the letters under her bed covers, moving as far away from Precia as she could. “Accept call.”
Behind her, she heard Precia snicker. “Speak of the devil.” But thankfully, her voice was soft, so Fate didn’t think that Nanoha had heard anything.
“Fate-chan!” Nanoha beamed at Fate through the screen. She actually looked like she was relaxing—Fate had heard from Vita that Nanoha had been overworking herself recently, and no one could make her stop except for Vivio, at times. It was good that Nanoha was taking care of herself. Fate hated to see her looking wan and strained, as she had heard Nanoha was appearing often of late. “Did your mission go well?”
“We found the traffickers, and just finished all the trials.”
“So you’re free now?” Nanoha’s tone sounded forcibly casual, but Fate saw how her knuckles had turned white as she clenched at the collar of her shirt. Fate noticed these things about Nanoha. Some habits never changed.
“Yes,” Fate admitted.
“Good…” Nanoha hesitated, staring Fate in the eyes for a moment.
Shifting, Fate awkwardly glanced to the side, to make sure that Precia was still out of sight. If she stared hard enough, maybe she could goad Precia into staying silent a little longer.
“If you have some time, then Vivio wants to talk to you.”
Fate trembled, closing her eyes for a moment. She could feel Precia leaning in and chuckling into her ear.
“Fate-mama?”
Vivio was a little old to still be calling her Fate-mama, but Fate couldn’t make herself correct her. Even Precia stayed silent.
“Hi, Vivio.”
“Did you get the video of my graduation?”
“I did. Your speech was great.”
Vivio gave her a wide smile, her red and green eyes twinkling. “I think Sister Schach wanted to faint when I added that last bit, and even though Carim was trying to look stern I could tell she wanted to laugh. Sein was just openly laughing, it was really funny.”
“I’m sorry that I was on a mission during that time.”
“It’s…okay,” Vivio said, but she was clearly lying. She hadn’t even really been trying to hide it. “I understand. Fate-mama always has important things to do, right?”
Fate heard a tapping sound, and flicked her gaze quickly to the side to see Precia tapping on Bardiche’s form, where the time display would usually pop up.
“You can’t miss the time. If you do, you know what will happen.”
“I still have lots of—”
“Fate-mama?”
Vivio’s voice cut through the haze of Precia’s words, making Fate jerk back to look at the concerned young woman’s image in front of her. “Sorry…I’m sorry. I don’t mean to.”
“Liar,” Precia laughed terribly.
“It’s okay,” Vivio lied.
“Are you taking care of Nanoha-mama?” Fate asked. She tried to convince herself that it was only because she wanted to distract Vivio.
“Yeah,” Vivio said. “But I think she misses you a lot. Will you come home tomorrow?”
Precia taunted, “Will you?”
Fate’s jaw clenched.
“Fate-chan?” Nanoha had joined Vivio on the screen, both of them watching her with the same hopeful expression. Clearly mother and daughter.
“I’m sorry…” Fate hesitated. She looked up, meeting Precia’s eyes. Eyes that were empty and cold, unsmiling. “…I’m spending my birthday with my family.”
“We’re—” Vivio burst out, before Nanoha cut her off with a hand on her shoulder. She had a good daughter.
“Fate-chan, why…” Nanoha swallowed, her eyes gentle and begging. A shiver of cold bristled inside Fate’s stomach, rising up her chest. And indeed, Nanoha slowly asked the question they had always avoided before. “…why don’t we come with you? Then we can all celebrate your birthday…together.”
“Yes, isn’t the dear right? You can have everyone together, one big happy f—”
“I don’t deserve that.”
“What?” Nanoha asked, leaning forward to try and hear better.
Precia smiled at Fate. “I know. But you needed to say it aloud for yourself, didn’t you?”
“Nothing,” Fate said to Nanoha. “I’m sorry, it’s not…I need to go.”
“Fate-chan, I know you asked for space, but we want—”
BEEP! Fate turned off the screen. Any longer and she knew Precia would have done it for her, and the very least Fate owed to Nanoha and Vivio was to make those kinds of decisions herself.
“You know that they won’t understand.”
“What…what if they do?”
“Do you really think so?”
Fate sighed, putting her face in her hands. She was so tired. Did she think so…on some days. But not today. “No.”
Precia rose, waiting by the door. “It’s time to go.”
With a soft crinkle, Fate drew out the letters from under her blanket, shuffling through them once again. She laid them on top of her suitcase, then after a moment’s thought, turned them face down. Straigthening, she surveyed the room. A lifetime of travelling had given Fate the ability to personalize and depersonalize a room in minutes, and this room was thoroughly clean. Only her suitcase remained on the bed, with the stack of letters balanced on top.
“Yes.” Fate laid Bardiche down on top of the letters, letting her hand drop from her old companion. “Time to go…”
Beep. Bardiche flashed yellow.
“Don’t read it,” Precia warned.
Fate trembled.
“Don’t.”
“What if it’s important?” whispered Fate.
“There’s no time! If you give in now, your chance will be gone. You had everything timed out perfectly—are you going to give it up now?” Precia’s voice turned into a low, savage growl. “All your promises meant nothing, Fate?”
“I didn’t promise you anything!”
“Didn’t you? Ever since the day you took Nanoha’s hand, didn’t you feel the sting of an oathbreaker? You promised to be with me until the end—your own mother! And yet you just let everything we had—you, me, Alicia—fall away into memory.”
“I never forgot you. Never! You know it.”
“No, of course you never forgot me…you tried to be better than me in every way you could. But in the end? Look at you, Fate—are you any better?”
“I…I tried to be.”
“But in the end, you failed where I failed. And remember Erio’s face…you succeeded where I did, Fate. Congratulations.”
“I wasn’t always like that! I…” Fate ground the heels of her palms into her eyes, gasping. “Before…before, I wasn’t…”
“Few years too late for regrets, isn’t it?” Precia said snidely.
“You’re right.” Fate quivered. “…you’re right.”
“At least, now you have the option, right? If you still had her, you couldn’t be doing the right thing now.”
Blood welled on Fate’s lip—she had bitten through the skin. “Don’t say that…how could you say that!”
“Oh, by this point, you can stop lying, can’t you? You know that you’ve wanted to be with us many times, long ago. But she’d always held you back.”
“I loved her, Mother.”
“Yes, you did. And where did that love get her?”
“Dead.” Fate let her hands drop. She must look terrible, if her face was just as pale as her bloodless hands. “She’s always protected me from you.”
But her protector was gone. It always surprised Fate, in a dull, impassive way, how long Fate had lasted against her mother without Arf’s protection. In the end, though, Fate knew that she couldn’t hold out forever. And indeed, she had been right.
Precia had been waiting for her.
“Yes, Arf drove me away before. The others helped, a little, but she was the only one who truly knew what I was. Isn’t that right?”
“Yes.”
Silence. Blessed silence for a moment.
Silence had always been a double-edged sword with Fate. Hearing Precia’s voice always hurt Fate inside. But hearing nothing at all meant that there was space for old nightmares to drift into Fate’s head, whether she was sleeping or not.
Some days, Fate feared the nightmares more than Precia.
Thankfully, Precia spoke again, her voice soft…as soft as when she spoke to Alicia. “It’s for the best, you know.”
“I know. That’s why I’m doing it.”
Fate glanced one last time at the blinking message on Bardiche’s core before turning her back, opening the door and shutting it behind her with a decisive click.
“Alicia and I are waiting,” Precia said from beside her.
“I know.”
“At least now, you won’t have to worry anymore. You know where you stand, with us.”
“Hey, Fate?” A voice called suddenly from behind.
No one was supposed to be here! Fate jumped, shaking badly as Yuuno trotted up to her, carrying two thick texts under one arm. He must have been heading towards the teleport pad at the end of the hall by the huge glinting windows on the underbelly of the warship.
Precia had been right.
She should have left on time.
“What are you doing here?” Fate demanded, staring at him with horrified eyes.
“Uh,” he stuttered, startled at her vehemence. “I was picking up the reference texts we had lent Admiral Lowran for your last mission. Why are you still here? Weren’t you all given leave time?”
“I was finishing packing.”
“Oh.” Yuuno frowned at her, and Fate kept her face as blank as possible.
“I can’t believe you’re going to get caught because of him,” Precia groaned.
“I won’t,” Fate ground out.
“Fate?” Yuuno asked, pushing his glasses up and narrowing his eyes.
“Nothing. Sorry.” Fate took a half step around him. “I have to get going now.”
“Are you going back for your birthday with Nanoha and Vivio?” Yuuno inquired, a flash of emotion crossing his face as his body twitched, as if to follow her, but he ultimately stayed put. “They were talking about wanting to spend the day with you…”
Fate blinked distantly, her gaze drifting over to Precia again. Her mother was standing down the hall in front of the glass windows, watching Fate with intent purple eyes. They flashed red.
“I’m sorry,” Fate told Yuuno absently, walking towards Precia.
“I’m going to spend my birthday with my family.”
Spoiler for Author's Note:
.........DON'T WORRY, THERE IS A PART 2!
I had originally wanted to end the short here, with all the lovely implications that go along with it , but I was re-reading some of my reviews yesterday...and someone had said that reading my stories gave him clinical depression all the time , so I felt guilty and therefore I planned out a nicer ending to this story .
But I'm posting this part like this first (and give myself time to finish the extended ending ), just to show you guys where my original ending should have been, hehehe!
I am getting flashes now, of Roberta from the last major arc of Black Lagoon, and how she talked to a man she killed in her past as she went more and more insane over the course of the story. For the life of me I can't tell if we're supposed to think Precia is real or some figment of Fate's imagination (it's difficult to tell because of just how much detail you put into her words and movements), but it's a disturbing implication all the same.
Why do I get the feeling if Fate goes with Precia, she won't come back?
Location: Place of rocks and trees, and trees and rocks...and water.
Age: 33
Quote:
Originally Posted by RadiantBeam
I am getting flashes now, of Roberta from the last major arc of Black Lagoon, and how she talked to a man she killed in her past as she went more and more insane over the course of the story. For the life of me I can't tell if we're supposed to think Precia is real or some figment of Fate's imagination (it's difficult to tell because of just how much detail you put into her words and movements), but it's a disturbing implication all the same.
Why do I get the feeling if Fate goes with Precia, she won't come back?
Now, I can't answer that until I post the second part . Where would the fun be otherwise?
I'm glad there's a disturbing feel throughout this fic . To get myself in the mindset to write it, I thoroughly depressed myself in an otherwise upbeat day! But like always, I love writing my creepy Precia moments!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rising Dragon
... you really know how to twist that knife, don't you, dc?
I vote B . She should find out more of what's going on, and where all the battle lines are!
I think the length is fine as it is--as a prologue, it's short and sets up hints and drops the bomb nicely at the end .
And here is my plot bunny to my little Tangent last night, all typed up :
Spoiler for Spread Thin:
Spread Thin
“So, Fate…who will you spend your birthday with this year?”
“Nothing has changed over the past few years, Mother. With my family, of course.”
“So, that’s what you’re calling it now, huh?”
Fate sighed, keeping her eyes focused on her task. It was rude to ignore her Mother, but today was not a good day. And Mother had become more and more persistant over the last few months, until Fate could barely get through a day without hearing some remark from her.
“It’s good, this way. Why can’t you just accept that?”
“Accept the fact that after twenty years, you’ve finally come crawling back to me? That you’ve finally come to understand what I had meant, all those years ago?”
Fate stiffened, her hand pausing over her weapons kit. She always packed that last in her suitcase. Just standard Enforcer training. Not that she needed to follow her training so strictly where she was going, but years of habit were hard to break. “You don’t have to say it. I know. I’ll always remember.”
Precia Testarossa laughed, sitting on the edge of Fate’s workdesk, her red nails flashing a bloody reflection in the awkwardly placed sink and mirror crammed into the small warship room. Even being an officer didn’t get Fate a room larger than a glorified closet on the warships, but it wasn’t like Fate minded, normally.
But having her mother in the same room as her had been making the room feel more claustrophobic than usual.
Precia inclined her head. “A call for you.”
A holoscreen popped up right then over the desk, the screen blank and waiting for her confirmation. “Incoming video call, Location: Harlaown Residence. Caller: Amy Harlaown.”
“You know what she’ll be asking.”
“I told you, I know what I’m going to say.”
“You’re not going to wimp out, are you?”
“No,” Fate said angrily, slamming the top down on her suitcase. “Accept call.”
Amy’s smiling face flashed onto the holoscreen. “Fate-chan, how are you?” From the background noises, the kids were out of school—Fate could hear arguing and yelling coming from the living room door behind Amy, but as the tone of the inaudible voices was still in the harmless teasing zone, both of them ignored it.
“Well. How are you and the kids?”
“Karel and Liera loved the bicycles you got them—thank you so much for getting two blue ones; I think those two would have resorted to wrestling otherwise!”
Fate smiled slightly, her gaze drifting from Amy’s face to her mother, who was smirking, so far refraining from saying anything aloud. “It wasn’t any trouble. I’m glad they like them.”
“Lindy-san is coming over for the weekend.”
The room tilted suddenly—Fate grabbed for the desk chair to steady her weak knees. “Oh, Kaa-san is?”
“Yes,” Amy said, a hopeful light in her eyes. “So will you come home for your birthday? If you need to see Nanoha and Vivio, you could go see them today, then come tomorrow on the actual day? Lindy-san would love to see you again.”
Her breath caught in her throat for an instant. In front of her, Fate saw Precia open her mouth. “I’m sorry,” Fate said first, cutting her mother off. “I’ll be spending the day with my family.”
She saw Amy flinch, a mixture of hurt and anger in her face. Not as much on her own behalf, but on her husband’s and her children’s. And on Lindy’s. Fate felt a second twinge of remorse, but she didn’t like how Precia was rising from her seat, moving closer with a dark smile on her lips. “Sorry, Amy, I have to go. Good bye.”
The holoscreen winked out before Amy could reply.
“Now, that was just cruel of you.”
“Who are you to judge me?”
“Ha! You’re right. Besides, you’re not lying, huh Fate?”
“No. I’m not.”
Precia moved forward, and Fate retreated, turning to face the wall in a childish attempt to block her mother’s presence from her mind. But she could still hear Precia’s low voice as her mother said, “How ungrateful of you, to treat your second mother that way. Did I really teach you so well?”
“I guess you did, yes.”
Precia snorted. “I never thought you would put so much value on the lessons I taught you.”
Now it was Fate’s turn to laugh mockingly. “How could I not? You’re my mother, aren’t you?”
“Yes. Of course.”
“Incoming video call, Location: Supools Wildlife Preservation Base Camp. Caller: Erio Mondial.”
Fate checked the time display on Bardiche. Good, she still had time. “Accept call.”
“FATE-SAN!!!” Both Erio and Caro shouted delightedly, wide grins on their faces. Erio had grown again, but this time it looked like Caro had shot up a few inches too. Caro had cut her hair—Fate liked it. When had Erio gotten that scar by his eyebrow?
“Fate-san, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!”
She laughed softly. “You’re one day off, but thank you.”
“Erio, I told you we had to subtract 3 in the date conversion equation, not 2!”
“But that’s even better!” Erio turned to look at Fate, his eyes peeking earnestly through his red bangs. “You’re on leave right now, aren’t you Fate-san?”
They hadn’t caught her with a call while Fate was on break for a while. She couldn’t lie to them. “…Yes.”
“I managed to get time off, but Caro couldn’t…” Erio shuffled in place, sharing a look with Caro as she nudged him encouragingly. “So…could you come here to visit? It would be your birthday! We could celebrate?”
“I wouldn’t want to…” Fate froze as she felt the brush of Precia’s long hair at her back. She rotated in her seat, the holoscreen moving with her. “…impose.”
“No, you won’t be imposing!” Erio bit his lip. “We really want you here, honest. Will you?”
“Please?” Caro added, looking at Fate imploringly.
Fate took a breath.
She heard Precia cough once behind her.
“I’m sorry,” she told them both, smiling gently and doing her best to spread the motion to her eyes as well, so that it would look convincing. “I’ll be spending my birthday with my family.”
Caro grimaced briefly before putting on a pained smile, while Erio just stared at Fate forlornly, clear heartbreak on his youthful face. He looked stunned and hurt, before he also tried to smile. Fate was so proud of them. They’re doing well already without her.
“Well…” Caro coughed, giving her partner a worried glance. From the angle of her sleeve Fate knew that the pink-haired girl had taken Erio’s hand in hers off-screen. “Happy early Birthday, Fate-san…we’ll do our best to drop by anyway, okay? I’m sure the boss will understand, it’s such a rare chance, he’ll definitely be okay with it.”
“Okay then,” Fate answered mechanically, glancing over her shoulder again. Precia was leaning on the sink now, waving at Fate. Snapping her attention back to the screen, hoping that Erio or Caro hadn’t followed her line of vision, Fate said, “I’ll see you then. Bye.”
“Lying to your children, now?”
“Shut up.”
“Don’t talk to your mother that way.”
Fate’s hand twitched. She tucked it into a pocket.
“Really, how disappointing. After loving you for so many years, and this is how you repay me?”
Fate breathed in ten times, then walked over to her desk, delicately manuvering around Precia so that she made it into her chair without touching a fold of fabric or a lock of hair. She opened her drawer and pulled out a stack of white letters, shuffling through the envelopes.
“Have many of those, do you?”
“I’ve gotten to become a good letter writer.”
“In a time of holoscreens and video calls, you write letters?”
“Well, you know why I write letters. Don’t you? How could I have tried harder if you weren’t always there, getting in my way!”
Precia laughed, her low chuckling making Fate duck her head and count the letters again. “You’re worse than me. At least I was a bad mother to your face.”
“Incoming video call, Location: Takamachi house. Caller: Nanoha Takamachi.”
Fate quickly stuffed the letters under her bed covers, moving as far away from Precia as she could. “Accept call.”
Behind her, she heard Precia snicker. “Speak of the devil.” But thankfully, her voice was soft, so Fate didn’t think that Nanoha had heard anything.
“Fate-chan!” Nanoha beamed at Fate through the screen. She actually looked like she was relaxing—Fate had heard from Vita that Nanoha had been overworking herself recently, and no one could make her stop except for Vivio, at times. It was good that Nanoha was taking care of herself. Fate hated to see her looking wan and strained, as she had heard Nanoha was appearing often of late. “Did your mission go well?”
“We found the traffickers, and just finished all the trials.”
“So you’re free now?” Nanoha’s tone sounded forcibly casual, but Fate saw how her knuckles had turned white as she clenched at the collar of her shirt. Fate noticed these things about Nanoha. Some habits never changed.
“Yes,” Fate admitted.
“Good…” Nanoha hesitated, staring Fate in the eyes for a moment.
Shifting, Fate awkwardly glanced to the side, to make sure that Precia was still out of sight. If she stared hard enough, maybe she could goad Precia into staying silent a little longer.
“If you have some time, then Vivio wants to talk to you.”
Fate trembled, closing her eyes for a moment. She could feel Precia leaning in and chuckling into her ear.
“Fate-mama?”
Vivio was a little old to still be calling her Fate-mama, but Fate couldn’t make herself correct her. Even Precia stayed silent.
“Hi, Vivio.”
“Did you get the video of my graduation?”
“I did. Your speech was great.”
Vivio gave her a wide smile, her red and green eyes twinkling. “I think Sister Schach wanted to faint when I added that last bit, and even though Carim was trying to look stern I could tell she wanted to laugh. Sein was just openly laughing, it was really funny.”
“I’m sorry that I was on a mission during that time.”
“It’s…okay,” Vivio said, but she was clearly lying. She hadn’t even really been trying to hide it. “I understand. Fate-mama always has important things to do, right?”
Fate heard a tapping sound, and flicked her gaze quickly to the side to see Precia tapping on Bardiche’s form, where the time display would usually pop up.
“You can’t miss the time. If you do, you know what will happen.”
“I still have lots of—”
“Fate-mama?”
Vivio’s voice cut through the haze of Precia’s words, making Fate jerk back to look at the concerned young woman’s image in front of her. “Sorry…I’m sorry. I don’t mean to.”
“Liar,” Precia laughed terribly.
“It’s okay,” Vivio lied.
“Are you taking care of Nanoha-mama?” Fate asked. She tried to convince herself that it was only because she wanted to distract Vivio.
“Yeah,” Vivio said. “But I think she misses you a lot. Will you come home tomorrow?”
Precia taunted, “Will you?”
Fate’s jaw clenched.
“Fate-chan?” Nanoha had joined Vivio on the screen, both of them watching her with the same hopeful expression. Clearly mother and daughter.
“I’m sorry…” Fate hesitated. She looked up, meeting Precia’s eyes. Eyes that were empty and cold, unsmiling. “…I’m spending my birthday with my family.”
“We’re—” Vivio burst out, before Nanoha cut her off with a hand on her shoulder. She had a good daughter.
“Fate-chan, why…” Nanoha swallowed, her eyes gentle and begging. A shiver of cold bristled inside Fate’s stomach, rising up her chest. And indeed, Nanoha slowly asked the question they had always avoided before. “…why don’t we come with you? Then we can all celebrate your birthday…together.”
“Yes, isn’t the dear right? You can have everyone together, one big happy f—”
“I don’t deserve that.”
“What?” Nanoha asked, leaning forward to try and hear better.
Precia smiled at Fate. “I know. But you needed to say it aloud for yourself, didn’t you?”
“Nothing,” Fate said to Nanoha. “I’m sorry, it’s not…I need to go.”
“Fate-chan, I know you asked for space, but we want—”
BEEP! Fate turned off the screen. Any longer and she knew Precia would have done it for her, and the very least Fate owed to Nanoha and Vivio was to make those kinds of decisions herself.
“You know that they won’t understand.”
“What…what if they do?”
“Do you really think so?”
Fate sighed, putting her face in her hands. She was so tired. Did she think so…on some days. But not today. “No.”
Precia rose, waiting by the door. “It’s time to go.”
With a soft crinkle, Fate drew out the letters from under her blanket, shuffling through them once again. She laid them on top of her suitcase, then after a moment’s thought, turned them face down. Straigthening, she surveyed the room. A lifetime of travelling had given Fate the ability to personalize and depersonalize a room in minutes, and this room was thoroughly clean. Only her suitcase remained on the bed, with the stack of letters balanced on top.
“Yes.” Fate laid Bardiche down on top of the letters, letting her hand drop from her old companion. “Time to go…”
Beep. Bardiche flashed yellow.
“Don’t read it,” Precia warned.
Fate trembled.
“Don’t.”
“What if it’s important?” whispered Fate.
“There’s no time! If you give in now, your chance will be gone. You had everything timed out perfectly—are you going to give it up now?” Precia’s voice turned into a low, savage growl. “All your promises meant nothing, Fate?”
“I didn’t promise you anything!”
“Didn’t you? Ever since the day you took Nanoha’s hand, didn’t you feel the sting of an oathbreaker? You promised to be with me until the end—your own mother! And yet you just let everything we had—you, me, Alicia—fall away into memory.”
“I never forgot you. Never! You know it.”
“No, of course you never forgot me…you tried to be better than me in every way you could. But in the end? Look at you, Fate—are you any better?”
“I…I tried to be.”
“But in the end, you failed where I failed. And remember Erio’s face…you succeeded where I did, Fate. Congratulations.”
“I wasn’t always like that! I…” Fate ground the heels of her palms into her eyes, gasping. “Before…before, I wasn’t…”
“Few years too late for regrets, isn’t it?” Precia said snidely.
“You’re right.” Fate quivered. “…you’re right.”
“At least, now you have the option, right? If you still had her, you couldn’t be doing the right thing now.”
Blood welled on Fate’s lip—she had bitten through the skin. “Don’t say that…how could you say that!”
“Oh, by this point, you can stop lying, can’t you? You know that you’ve wanted to be with us many times, long ago. But she’d always held you back.”
“I loved her, Mother.”
“Yes, you did. And where did that love get her?”
“Dead.” Fate let her hands drop. She must look terrible, if her face was just as pale as her bloodless hands. “She’s always protected me from you.”
But her protector was gone. It always surprised Fate, in a dull, impassive way, how long Fate had lasted against her mother without Arf’s protection. In the end, though, Fate knew that she couldn’t hold out forever. And indeed, she had been right.
Precia had been waiting for her.
“Yes, Arf drove me away before. The others helped, a little, but she was the only one who truly knew what I was. Isn’t that right?”
“Yes.”
Silence. Blessed silence for a moment.
Silence had always been a double-edged sword with Fate. Hearing Precia’s voice always hurt Fate inside. But hearing nothing at all meant that there was space for old nightmares to drift into Fate’s head, whether she was sleeping or not.
Some days, Fate feared the nightmares more than Precia.
Thankfully, Precia spoke again, her voice soft…as soft as when she spoke to Alicia. “It’s for the best, you know.”
“I know. That’s why I’m doing it.”
Fate glanced one last time at the blinking message on Bardiche’s core before turning her back, opening the door and shutting it behind her with a decisive click.
“Alicia and I are waiting,” Precia said from beside her.
“I know.”
“At least now, you won’t have to worry anymore. You know where you stand, with us.”
“Hey, Fate?” A voice called suddenly from behind.
No one was supposed to be here! Fate jumped, shaking badly as Yuuno trotted up to her, carrying two thick texts under one arm. He must have been heading towards the teleport pad at the end of the hall by the huge glinting windows on the underbelly of the warship.
Precia had been right.
She should have left on time.
“What are you doing here?” Fate demanded, staring at him with horrified eyes.
“Uh,” he stuttered, startled at her vehemence. “I was picking up the reference texts we had lent Admiral Lowran for your last mission. Why are you still here? Weren’t you all given leave time?”
“I was finishing packing.”
“Oh.” Yuuno frowned at her, and Fate kept her face as blank as possible.
“I can’t believe you’re going to get caught because of him,” Precia groaned.
“I won’t,” Fate ground out.
“Fate?” Yuuno asked, pushing his glasses up and narrowing his eyes.
“Nothing. Sorry.” Fate took a half step around him. “I have to get going now.”
“Are you going back for your birthday with Nanoha and Vivio?” Yuuno inquired, a flash of emotion crossing his face as his body twitched, as if to follow her, but he ultimately stayed put. “They were talking about wanting to spend the day with you…”
Fate blinked distantly, her gaze drifting over to Precia again. Her mother was standing down the hall in front of the glass windows, watching Fate with intent purple eyes. They flashed red.
“I’m sorry,” Fate told Yuuno absently, walking towards Precia.
“I’m going to spend my birthday with my family.”
Spoiler for Author's Note:
.........DON'T WORRY, THERE IS A PART 2!
I had originally wanted to end the short here, with all the lovely implications that go along with it , but I was re-reading some of my reviews yesterday...and someone had said that reading my stories gave him clinical depression all the time , so I felt guilty and therefore I planned out a nicer ending to this story .
But I'm posting this part like this first (and give myself time to finish the extended ending ), just to show you guys where my original ending should have been, hehehe!
That person is wrong because clinical depression is a pervasive thing and not something you can develop by reading a sad story Though I suppose it might turn dysthymia into a major depressive episode (yay University education!)
Though if anything, it looks like Fate is suffering from schizophrenia (funny the Criminal Minds episode I just watched dealt with this) what with halucinating Precia being there. Something does feel off about the whole thing, though. If she really was gonna go off and kill herself like this seems to suggest, I don't think she'd flat out use the "celebrating with my family" line because she wouldn't want to hurt the others in that way. Though I suppose whatever's going on in her head could influence her behaviour like that.
Of course I'm all for a happier ending. Is Yuuno gonna go after her and stop her before she does something she'll regret? I hope so
2011-03-30, 18:49
Author
. She should find out more of what's going on, and where all the battle lines are!
.
For the life of me I can't tell if we're supposed to think Precia is real or some figment of Fate's imagination (it's difficult to tell because of just how much detail you put into her words and movements), but it's a disturbing implication all the same. 
Though I suppose it might turn dysthymia into a major depressive episode (yay University education!)
), just to show you guys where my original ending should have been, hehehe! 
