Apparently, I needed to vent. Badly. And I chose Fate because... I don't know why I chose Fate. I didn't even decide that this applied to Fate until I started typing.
Spoiler for Air:
When they ask you how you survived living with your mother for so long, the only answer you give them is a blank stare.
Because honestly, you don’t know. You weren’t even trying to live, really, at least not the way they define living: you didn’t laugh or smile, you didn’t love anybody (except maybe Arf)—you didn’t feel anything, and to be honest even when Nanoha saved you, you still don’t feel anything.
When they persist in asking, making it clear they won’t leave you alone until you give them an answer, you tell them the simple truth. “I just kept breathing.”
A whip cracks and blood sprays the air; dimly, you wonder if it’s yours, and then you wonder why you have so much blood to begin with. It’s so easy to drift away during these times, focusing on your heartbeat, your breathing, your pulse…
You wonder what would happen if you willed your heart to stop. If you held your breath just a little too long, or didn’t take a new breath.
It frustrates you and annoys you, greatly, because there’s no hard to understand logic behind what you told them. You didn’t feel anything to live, to be honest, you still have a hard time understanding what feelings are and why they’re considered so important to live, because you lived without them for a rather long time, barring the occasional guilt, frustration, the wish to make Mother smile again.
In the end, all you had to do was breathe. In and out, in and out, over and over again.
But they don’t understand. Even Nanoha, when she tries her best, can’t understand that, and she’s your best friend.
Sometimes you think the only one who truly understands in the woman whom you now call “Mom”; Lindy Harlaown listens to you vent and smiles, and you see a trace of sadness in her eyes.
Once you turn to her and ask, “Am I wrong? Is living supposed to be about emotions, about feeling?”
Her smile becomes sadder.
“No. To live, to exist, the most we all need to do is breathe.”
You lay on the floor in a puddle of dried blood; you know Arf is frantically trying to reach you, but Mother sent her out alone on another Jewel Seed hunt. You wonder if maybe it’s just an excuse to get her killed, an excuse so you bleed to death.
Your body twitches weakly, your breathing soft and ragged, but you close your eyes. Like before, it floods you; the breathing sensation, the pounding of your heart and pulse, so rhythmic, so familiar, so soothing. It makes you relax and you don’t even realize it.
You wonder what would happen if you let nothing but absolute silence flood you.
You wake up, aching and groggy, in a hospital bed when you’re fifteen. You’re confused and disoriented; your vision is blurry, and you blink several times to clear it. “N-Nanoha? Hayate? Why am I…”
“You weren’t breathing.” Hayate isn’t crying like Nanoha is as she clings to you, but the tears glisten in her eyes. “We came up to check on you when you didn’t answer our calls, and you were on the floor. You just stopped breathing.”
You blink again and frown. “I did?”
Nanoha lifts a tearful face to look at you. “You don’t remember, Fate-chan?”
No.
No, you honestly don’t.
You were just breathing, like you always do, like you always did back then. Perhaps you held your breath just a little too long, or perhaps you forgot to inhale…
Or simply chose not to.
How strange.
“I’m sorry,” you whisper, but Nanoha keeps crying.
The darkness rushes in, but it doesn’t pull you down, it doesn’t drag you or engulf you or swallow you whole; it embraces you, it whispers seductively in your ear, and it feels so soft, so warm, like a lover. It’s everywhere, it’s all you see, all you can feel, and it’s so… right. You feel as if your whole life, you’ve been waiting for this one moment.
Breathe out…
Because eventually, even just breathing becomes difficult.
If there was one thing that Subaru Nakajima was proud of, it was being part of the New York City Police Department. Being the daughter of two famous detectives, it was expected from her to continue in their footsteps and because of such thoughts, going to the Police Academy was the only option for her. In all truths, Subaru didn't really care; she have always intended on joining the police force. After graduating from the Police Academy with high marks, she was immediately offered a job at the New York City Police Department and contrary to belief, she was accepted because of her excellent performance at the Academy. But there was another reason as to why she joined the NYPD and worked so hard; it was to seek the murderers of her mother. When she was younger, her mother died during an investigation, and after that event, she began to seriously consider joining the police force and not because everyone told her so. She wanted to continue in her footsteps and find the culprit who took her mother from her. To Subaru, being a Cop for NYPD was definitely a very big deal.
Unfortunately, after 4 years, Subaru's lack of patience might have finally cost herself a job.
“HOW THE HELL DID YOU BLEW UP HALF A BLOCK OF THE COMMON SQUARE!!?”
Subaru flinched. She was definitely in for it.
Spoiler for Author's Notes:
I decided to go straight to the part where she is suspended instead of a flashback like last time. But the middle of the first paragraph is bugging me for some reason...
Anyway...a little better? Don't hold back.
RadiantBeam and I are going to steal everyone's thunder again...
Just kidding.
Day in the Life
Chapter 24
Surprises
Expect all chapters from here on out to be multi-post chapters...
Then again, you probably figured that out from previous chapters.
Spoiler for Surprises:
Walking into Shari's office early in the morning, Teana blinked as she was suddenly glomped by Teela, who was shaking slightly. "Teela?"
"Master!" The small blond trembled and hugged Teana tightly as Teana rubbed the small device's back.
Teana looked at Shari, dressed in her usual suit and lab coat, who was looking on helplessly. "What happened to her?"
"I'm sorry, she just got so nervous that she didn't want to do anything. I told her that the scans were just normal, I do them to Rein and Agito all the time, but she didn't want to do anything without you around."
Teana nodded and rubbed Teela's back some more. The small device was in a simple small nightgown still. "Teela... Come on, Teela... It's okay. The scans don't hurt." She turned her head and looked at Subaru, who had followed her to the office.
Teela just trembled and held on to Teana tighter.
Teana felt her heart ache. "... You've been hurt before, haven't you." It wasn't a question.
Teela nodded. "Yes..."
The emotions on Shari's face ranged from worried, to horrified, to furious, and back to worried in the space of five seconds. Teana nodded quietly to her before speaking to Teela again. "I know it's hard to believe, but Shari's very sweet," she said gently. "She won't hurt you, Teela. We just want to make sure you're working properly so you and I don't have any problems when we Unison again."
"But..."
Subaru walked up and rubbed Teela on the top of her head softly. "Hey, it's okay, Teela. It doesn't hurt at all." Her eyes widened as she pulled out Mach Calibur. "Actually, Shari, could you do a scan of Mach Calibur? I think that our timing is a little off lately."
Shari nodded as she took the device, easily seeing what Subaru was trying to do. "Okay. Teela, just watch. This is the same scan that I would do to you, Rein, Agito or any other device, okay?" She smiled as the small girl turned to her, looking at her with teary eyes.
Shari grimaced mentally, she really wanted to know who had hurt the girl so much. Maybe Teana had made them pay a bit back on that mission. Putting Mach Calibur onto the table, Shari pressed a few buttons and smiled as the machine did its job to scan the Intelligent Device, showing how it was operating and any other hidden problems. "Hmm... I don't know Subaru, I think the timing's just in your head." She blinked as she read over Mach Calibur's latest data. "Or not... I think I'm going to need to reinforce the frame slightly, your rate of growth is insane, keep going and we're going to have to double the weight just so that you don't go rushing down the street at Mach 10." She said lightly, getting an embarrassed giggle from Subaru.
"See, Teela? She's only going to ask you to lay down while she scans you."
"She wants me naked." Teela said, her face turning red.
Shari blinked and chuckled. "Well, if you want, I can put up a small curtain to keep you covered while you get scanned if it's embarrassing."
Teela nodded softly. "Please?" She blinked as Teana gently pulled her away, smiling softly at her. "Master?"
"She won't. I promise. Shari would much rather be run over by a car than harm anyone." Subaru reassured Teela, who nodded slowly.
"O...Okay." Teela said as Shari went and got a small screen for modesty purposes and put it up in front of the scanner as Teela floated behind the screen and pulled off her clothes slightly.
"Okay, now, just lay down on the table, this won't hurt." Shari smiled softly as she saw Teela's outline nod and do just that. As the scan worked her over, she turned to Teana. "So, you're her master now?" Seeing Teana nod, Shari frowned softly as she looked over the diagnostics she was getting. "How? If she's a Unison Device, she shouldn't have too much compatibility, if any, with a Mid-style mage."
"She kind of forced it." Teana said and rubbed her hair softly. "I was actually apprehensive about it, to be honest. How is she?"
"...To be honest, I'm surprised she's still alive." Shari muttered. "There's a lot of damage done to her."
"Really?" Teana and Subaru both looked at the screen, their eyes widening as they saw the damage done to her body.
"Yeah..." Shari sighed. "Whatever you did to her on the way back kept her alive." She looked at Teela, who was peeking out past the curtain nervously. "It'll be okay, Teela. You'll have to stay here for awhile, but I think we can get you fixed up really fast, Teela."
"Okay..." The small Unison Device didn't sound happy about it, but she accepted it.
"What did you do to her?" Shari asked, glancing at Teana. "She should have been killed the minute she canceled the Unison with you."
Teana winced. "I just... I kept telling her how I'd bring her home and introduce her to everyone."
"Hmm..." Shari blinked, that didn't... Her eyes widened slightly. "Teana, did you feel slightly sore, tired, drained or hurting after she canceled it?"
"Um, yeah, actually, I felt like I was about to pass out from when she canceled it, and I felt sore all over too."
"I don't know, but maybe Teela was absorbing some of your life to keep alive." Shari shook her head at Teana's stunned look. "If you two had kept it up longer, you would have both been in danger. You're lucky."
Teana was stunned. "Unison Devices can do that?"
"If they aren't strong enough on their own or Unison with someone who can't match their styles, yes, it isn't uncommon for them to absorb their partner's lifespan." Shari sighed. "I'll need to do a more detailed check on her, it might happen again if you Unison."
"Oh." Teana blinked. "Well, that's not a problem--"
"Yes it is!" Subaru yelped.
Both Teana and Shari looked at her as she trembled. "Subaru?" Teana blinked a few times at her lover. "We needed to Unison there. I was hurt, Ginga was hurt, Teela was hurt. We might not have made it out of there if we hadn't unisoned.
"That's not what I mean!" Subaru cried. "What will happen if you have to Unison again?"
Teana blinked. She hadn't thought of that, honestly.
Shari sighed. She hated to be the bearer of bad news, but... "In all honesty, until I can figure out exactly what makes Teela tick, any Unison she does with Teana will probably shorten Teana's lifespan to compensate for her weakness and the meshing of the two styles."
Teana looked at Shari, then at Subaru, and sighed. "Would you excuse us?" she asked before grabbing Subaru's collar and dragging the girl outside, where they could talk privately and not scare Teela.
Teela looked at Shari nervously and gulped. "I... I didn't mean to hurt master like that..."
Shari shook her head. "It's okay. We'll find out what's wrong. I'm hoping that it's just because you were hurting so much and if you're healthy it won't hurt you two again."
"But..."
"It's fine." Shari smiled. "We'll figure it out, okay? Don't worry about it."
---
Teana dragged Subaru as far as a deserted corner before she let the short-haired girl go, scowling at her. "All right, what's going through your head now?"
Subaru took a deep breath and tapped her fingers together. "Tea... you... You know how I'm different than you are..."
Teana blinked as Subaru talked to her. "Yeah, I know that, it's no big deal."
"YES IT IS!" Subaru screamed, getting a startled look from Teana. Subaru never yelled like that, ever. "Tea... I... I can live far longer than a normal person... I can only age if I take treatments... If I stopped taking aging treatments and kept up maintenance... If Ixy slept for 1000 years, I'd still be there when she woke up."
Teana felt the tremor run down her spine, but she fought to ignore it. "So?" Her voice was soft. "Subaru, whether I Unison with Teela or not, I'll die. It'll just happen sooner if I do."
Subaru teared up and trembled. "I don't want to go without Tea... If... If you die... Then... Then I'll be alone." She looked away and Teana nearly missed what she whispered next. "Alone forever..."
Teana hesitated. She wasn't good at this comforting thing; it came to Subaru much more naturally than it did to her, but seeing Subaru like this, she knew she wanted to try. She stepped closer to Subaru, gently cupping her cheeks so she was looking at her. "Tea?" Subaru asked.
"... You're... you're really scared about this, aren't you?"
Subaru took a deep breath and hugged her girlfriend. "I... I'm scared... I'm scared of being alone.... All alone with no one around me." She closed her eyes and trembled. "Unless... Unless I get killed or my systems malfunction badly, I don't think I can die." She buried her face into Teana's shoulder as the orange-haired girl held her gently. "I... I don't want to be alone, Tea..." She sniffled softly.
"But... if you're taking aging treatments...?" Teana was confused as Subaru shook her head softly.
"They... They don't help me die, just physically age slowly so I can pass off as normal." Subaru pulled back and sighed as Teana blinked at her. "I'm a coward, Tea..."
"Subaru?"
"I don't want to be alone... But... I'm scared... Scared of actually being dead." Subaru shuddered slightly and took a deep breath. "I don't want to be alone, but I'm afraid to just go and die... Just a coward."
"You're not a coward," Teana said softly. "I don't know anyone who actually wants to die. It's just something we have to accept."
"I... I can accept it... But, Tea..." Subaru sighed and took a step back, before starting to pace. "If I died helping to save someone or doing something that made people's lives better, I could accept that. But... I... If I died and was gone, then I couldn't help people... That... That scares me the most."
"So then why are you so scared if Unisoning with Teela kills me?" Teana asked. "If I died that way, I'd die helping people, too."
"I know... I know..." Subaru took a deep breath. "I... I'm scared... Scared of... Being alone without you..."
Teana blinked. "Subaru..."
"I mean, I'm scared of dying, but... It isn't so bad, you know, because I know there will be other people there waiting for me when I die. If you die now, I..." Subaru's voice softened. "I'll be alone."
Subaru shook her head. "I'm sorry, I'm being confusing, aren't I?" She looked down to the ground and sighed softly. "I'm just so afraid of being alone."
Teana had never been good at offering comfort. It wasn't the way she was built, and for her, it was hard to express. Swallowing hard, she gently stepped closer and hugged Subaru tightly. "Subaru, I can't promise I won't die," she whispered, tilting her head back to look up at her lover. "If I have to Unison with Teela and the problem hasn't been solved, then I'll Unison with her. But I won't leave you alone." Her eyes promised it, holding Subaru's steadily. "For as long as I can, I'll never leave you alone."
"Tea..." Subaru said softly and hugged Teana tightly. "If... Just promise me that if you can avoid it, you won't hurt yourself."
Teana nodded and smiled softly as Subaru grinned at her. "Sure, I, Teana Lanstar, will do my very best to come back after every mission so that you won't be alone anymore." She wasn't surprised as Subaru hugged her tightly. "Okay, should we go back to check on Teela?"
Subaru nodded and the two went back into the room.
Shari smiled at them as she saw them re-enter. "Welcome back. I was just looking over Teela's vitals here, Teana... I'm not sure what, I'm going to need a second opinion as well as Rein or Agito here to double-check this, but I think that Teela should be alright soon enough." She smiled at the small blond that was still behind the curtain. "I still don't know how she could unison with you so well, she told me that all her previous users were Belkan-style mages and she couldn't unison very well with them."
Teana frowned. "Were the Unisons forced?"
From behind the curtain, Teela moved her small shoulders in a shrug. "Well... that bad man, he always made me Unison with someone... sometimes it was painful and I didn't want to do it, but he wouldn't let me cancel the Unison until the mages had finished their contract with me."
Teana blinked. "The bad man?"
"He never told me his name, he always had a grin on his face, and he had this woman that looked like him nearby. I never got a good look at anything really." She said helplessly. "His grin scared me."
"It's fine, Teela." Teana frowned. "Can a Unison actually be forced like that? I always thought it was a mutual thing."
"It's supposed to be mutual." Shari said, shaking her head. "But there are cases where the unison isn't mutual. Generally if the will of the user or the device isn't high enough, they're completely taken over by the other one. However, I don't know how you could force a device to link up, honestly, but if someone did find a way to do it, they could exploit it for all its worth. However, it seems that forcing a unison with a device causes undo stress to the device and damages it pretty badly." She nodded to Teela. "Right now, Teela should be fine, just needs to get her body recovered and she'll be alright. Regular check-ups of course." She winked at Teela, who turned away as her face turned red.
"Don't tease my partner, Shari," Teana said lightly.
"You're no fun..."
Teela blinked. "Partner?"
Teana nodded and smiled as Teela turned to face her. "Yeah. Like Cross Mirage. I'm not your master, I'm your partner. We're equals."
Teela blinked again, slowly; she'd never heard that word before, at least not applied to herself. "Equals."
"Yep. Which reminds me." Teana smirked. "No more of this 'Master' business. Everyone calls me Tea. You're no different, okay?"
Shari giggled softly. "Well, you three can be here all day if you want, Teela needs to stay though. I'm going to make a few calls..." She turned to Subaru. "As for Mach Calibur, just come back in about three or four hours, the upgrades should be done."
The two nodded and Teana looked at Teela, who shrugged her tiny shoulders. "It's okay... Tea..." The small blond smiled softly. "If you have something you need to do today."
"I promise that I'll be back, Teela." Teana said softly as Subaru moved to the door. "I'm going to go visit my old teacher and see her and her family, okay?" It had been a long while since Teana had seen Nanoha, Fate and Yuuno and had been curious as to how they were doing. That and Subaru wanted to see Sora, Isamu and Alicia again. Teana couldn't believe just how much Subaru gushed when she talked about the infants.
"... Tea?"
"Yeah?" Teana paused as Teela looked at her.
"Will I get a chance to meet your teacher?"
Teana blinked, then smiled slowly. "As soon as you're done here, I'll take you to meet her," she promised. "Her babies are adorable."
As Teana and Subaru left, they heard Teela asking Shair what babies were.
"I'm glad that you have someone to help you. I just hope that she wasn't hurting you." Subaru said as the two got on Teana's motorcycle. It used to belong to Vice, but he had given it to Teana after she had gotten her Enforcer license.
Teana shrugged. "Who knows? I think they may have to do some tests with me unisoned with her to know for certain."
"Eh? Unisoned Tea?" Subaru's eyes sparkled. "I want to see that!"
Teana rolled her eyes as the bike roared to life and the two drove down the streets, heading to Nanoha's house. "We'll see, hang on!" She smiled as Subaru hugged her tightly and gunned the motor, accelerating fast as she weaved through the traffic.
(---)
Opening the door, Nanoha smiled at her two former students. "Subaru, Teana... How are you two? I haven't seen you two in so long that I thought you moved away on us."
The two laughed as Nanoha let them in. "I just got back from a mission last night." Teana smiled as she, Subaru and Nanoha went into the living room, the orange-haired girl blinked as she saw Dieci in the living room, bobbing some string above the infants heads. "I didn't know Dieci was here."
The brown-haired girl smiled at her. "Well, as long as the boys don't start glowing pink, I think I'll be okay."
Nanoha rolled her eyes. "I'm sorry I blasted you so hard that you thought I was a devil too."
Dieci shrugged and went back to playing with the babies. "You needed to save Vivio, I was trying to stop you, that's all there was to it."
Nanoha smiled despite herself. "Thank you for understanding, at least."
Dieci shrugged again.
Subaru raised a brow. "How often do you come here to play with the kids, Dieci?"
"I don't know... whenever I feel like it."
Nanoha laughed softly and smiled at her. "Dieci's actually a great help. I've been working pretty hard to try and get back into shape lately, so it's nice that I don't need to worry about Sora, Isamu or Alicia too often."
Dieci shook her head. "And you heard Lindy-san, that working too hard isn't good for at least another month. You've still got a lot of milk to give the boys."
Teana chuckled as Nanoha blushed and laughed nervously. Walking over to the babies, she smiled softly at them. "Hey, little guys. You three are lucky, you have the strongest mothers in the world." She then waggled a finger at them. "But you better be careful, otherwise your Nanoha-mama might blow you up if you don't listen to her."
"Teana!" Nanoha yelped, exasperated as Teana looked at her with a smirk on her face. "I have enough time trying to convince Vivio and Fate-chan to stop telling Sora and Isamu to worry about me blowing them up. Honestly, blow your friends and family up once and they never forgive you for it."
"It's such a wonderful experience," Teana joked with a laugh, blinking as one of the babies--she assumed it was Sora, she honestly wasn't sure yet--looked up at her before latching onto her ankle. "Ah, hello there.'
Nanoha chuckled. "He wants some attention. Sora gets bored very easily."
Teana shrugged and sat down, easily lifting the boy into her arms. Subaru grinned and followed her, and Nanoha smirked. "You know, sometimes I think you just visit for the babies."
Subaru grinned up at her and didn't bother to deny it as she picked up Isamu.
"So what have you two been up to? It must have been important if you didn't take the time to visit your old teacher."
"I just got back from a mission last night, you weren't around when I went on the mission, so I didn't get to say goodbye to you." Teana said as she rubbed Sora's back, the little baby squealing in happiness.
"How did it go?" Nanoha asked, smiling as she watched her sons get picked up and played with by her former students. Dieci, not needing to give the boys any attention, turned to the girl and started giving her more attention, playing with her and causing her to giggle and laugh loudly.
"Pretty good, honestly, found out where some new Intelligent Devices were being shipped from, blew up some bad guys, found a unison device and found out what it's like to unison with someone, found out that Signum's rather scary on the battlefield and..."
"Wait... A unison device and unison?" Nanoha's eyes widened as she thought about all that she knew about unison devices, which, sadly, wasn't too much. "But don't you need to undergo a lot of testing to see if you're compatible?"
"She... Kind of forced it, actually." Teana said nervously as Nanoha looked at her worriedly. "I'm okay, I'm okay. I think that I saved her life by doing so."
"Still..."
"See, Tea? I'm not the only one who worries about you." Subaru pouted at her girlfriend, who rolled her eyes and kicked Subaru in the rear lightly. "Hey! What was that for?"
"For worrying too much, you'll get wrinkles."
Watching them, Dieci couldn't help but chuckle as she turned to Alicia. "When you get older, try to find someone who doesn't want to kick you in the butt."
Alicia giggled and cooed happily, clinging to Dieci. The brown-haired woman couldn't really tell, but she liked to think the baby could understand what she was saying in her own way.
Nanoha frowned. "What do you mean by she forced it?"
Teana started to squirm. "Well, she was really close to death when we Unisoned, and she was trying to stay alive instinctively... apparently she was draining some of my life to keep the connection."
"Unfortunately, I don't know too much about that." Nanoha shook her head. "I take it that she's getting looked over right now?"
"Shari's giving her a total look-over right now, actually." Teana shook her head. "Teela was just hurting so badly that I think she just wanted it to end, but she didn't want me to end up getting badly hurt to save her."
"Teela?" Nanoha asked.
Teana blushed at that. "Uh... that's what I named her. When we found her she was in a cage, and she didn't have a name, so when we Unisoned I thought it would be a good idea to name her something... I couldn't just call her 'you' or 'Device'..."
Nanoha smiled at her, nodding as she crossed her left arm under her breasts and squeezed her right arm. "I'm glad she found someone like you to help her then."
"EH?!" Subaru's voice perked up as her eyes widened. "N...Nanoha-san!" She pointed to Nanoha's left hand, seeing two rings on there that she hadn't seen before. "Are... Are those engagement rings?"
"Sharp eyes," Nanoha said with a laugh. "Yes, they're engagement rings."
Subaru's eyes lit up. "So then... you and Yuuno-san and Fate-san...?"
"Yeah, we are." Nanoha couldn't keep the smile off of her face if she tried. "We were going to have the wedding on Earth, but then Miyuki-nee got shot on a job, and I didn't find out until later." She sighed and shook her head.
"So, when's the date?" Teana asked as Sora gripped her shirt, squeezing it.
Rubbing the back of her head, Nanoha chuckled softly and shook her head. "We haven't set an exact date yet... But I think I want it in the spring. I don't know about Fate-chan or Yuuno-kun though, when they want the wedding."
"Where are Fate-san and Yuuno-san, anyway? I know Vivio's at school, but I'm suprised they aren't around." Teana was slightly confused as she looked around the house.
"Yuuno-kun has to work and Fate-chan's just visiting her mother right now." Nanoha suddenly grinned as she looked at her babies. "And Amy's going to have another child too, so Fate-chan is going to get more nieces or nephews soon, and Alicia, Isamu and Sora are going to have playmates too."
Subaru giggled softly as she bounced Isamu in her arms gently. "It seems you and Fate-san having children got everyone else interested in having children." Subaru laughed softly as Nanoha giggled at her.
"I guess that's one way of looking at it." Nanoha grinned. "When we went back to Earth Shinobu-san was pregnant too, so you might be onto something with that thought, Subaru."
At that, Teana squirmed slightly. Subaru didn't notice, and Dieci was too busy playing with the children, but Nanoha saw it. Teana cleared her throat. "So, how is Miyuki-san, anyway? It feels weird to not see her practicing with her sword."
Nanoha sighed and grumbled softly as she sat down on the love-seat. "She's better, she'll be able to practice again in a couple of days, but until then, she's been working full time as Shamal's secretary for now." Plus if she had a relapse or something similar Shamal would be right there. Though, privately, Nanoha thought that Shamal just wanted to keep Miyuki all to herself.
"Really?" Teana blinked, surprised. "Shamal must be keeping her on a tight leash, then. Even when she was injured in the past, Miyuki-san always found a way to sneak down and get some training in."
"Yes, well..." Nanoha laughed. "Shamal hasn't let Onee-chan out of her sight since it happened."
Teana nearly said something as a call screen appeared in front of her. "huh? Shari? What's wrong? Is Teela okay?"
"She's fine! She's better than fine, but I think I might have found something out. You need to get back here." The scientist was practically bouncing from foot to foot as she looked at the screen. "I think I found out just why she could Unison with you even though you're a Mid style magic user."
Teana frowned. It didn't sound like anything bad, Shari was much too excited about it if it was bad news. "Okay. I'll be right there."
Shari grinned, then nodded and clicked the screen off.
"... That was weird," Subaru said slowly.
"Ah, looks like..."
Nanoha smiled and nodded at her. "Go, Teela sounds like a valuable partner and friend, Teana. I'm just glad you could come and see the babies."
Putting down Sora and Isamu back into their carriers, the two nodded to Nanoha and left the house.
(---)
Teana blinked as she saw Shari smiling at her as she came into the room; Teela, dressed in a small gown, was blushing hard as she poked her fingers together. "Shari? Teela? What's wrong?"
"Nothing, nothing. I don't know how, I don't know why, but someone did something I thought was impossible!"
"Shari?" Teana blinked in confusion as Shari nodded to the Device, who started to glow, a small wind coming around her as a bright green rune circle appeared at her feet. That wasn't unusual except...
"That's a mid-style circle!" Subaru's eyes widened as she gasped. "But, I thought Unison Devices were Belkan only."
"Apparently not, Teela here seems to be Mid-Childan style." Shari patted Teela lightly on the head. "Partially explains why her past Unisons caused her so much damage. Forceful Unisons are bad, but she was hurt so much that I didn't think it could be just that."
Teana scratched her head and blinked. "When the announcer said you were a Belkan device..."
Shari shook her head. "I don't think that he knew what he was talking about, or Teela here never used any magic outside of Unisoning. If I knew who could make a Device like this in the Mid-style instead of the Belkan-style, I think I would have to shake that person's hand for being such a genius."
"Well, that explains why we Unisoned together so well."
Teela rubbed the back of her head gently. "Everyone always told me that I was a Belkan style device, I thought my magic-style was Belkan... I didn't even know that there was a different style that was used other than Belkan-style magic."
Shari grinned and nodded. "It also means you don't have to worry about the life draining problem. Teela only did it the first time because she was trying to live. As long as she's strong enough, she won't tap into your life like that again when you Unison."
Behind Teana, Subaru let out a sigh of relief and smiled at Teela, giving her a thumb's up, the small device returned the gesture.
"So, is she still..?" Teana trailed off, causing Shari to sigh and nod.
"Still hurting, yes. It's going to take at least a day to fully recover, but the good news is, she's healthy enough to do a few tests now."
At the mention of tests Teela tensed and flew to Teana, gripping her tightly as she trembled.
Shari blinked, then winced. "Ah, sorry."
"Teela." Teana gently brought a hand up, cradling the tiny Device close. "Shari needs to run some tests just to make sure you're functioning properly. They won't hurt at all."
The Device looked at her with big, scared eyes, eyes that nearly caused Teana to wish that she had done more to everyone on that planet for causing her partner such pain. "R...Really?"
Teana nodded at her. "Yeah... They won't hurt. If you say they hurt, she'll stop, okay?" Seeing Teela nod and slowly relax, Teana smiled. "I can stay here if you want me to."
"Please?" Teela looked at her partner pleadingly.
"Yeah." Teana gently rubbed her head. "If you want to."
---
Miyuki sighed and rested her head in her arms, quietly sneaking a glance at the clinic doors. She knew Shamal was working in the back in her office, filling out some paperwork, the door closed. She snuck a glance down the hall, then eyed the doors speculatively.
Maybe I can make a break for it before she comes out and she won't hear...
She got up from her chair and took three steps to the door outside before Shamal's office door opened, the blond looking at her with narrowed eyes. "And just where do you think you're going? Not to train, I hope. You need at least two more days."
"You said that two days ago." Miyuki pouted at her.
Shamal's eyes stayed narrow. Sighing and grumbling to herself, Miyuki returned to the desk and sat down, wincing briefly. Her wounds were healing well, but occasionally they still stung; just to remind her of their presence.
"See?" Shamal frowned. "You're still hurt."
"Not as bad as my pride." Miyuki sighed and leaned back. "Can I at least do some light running?"
"Light for you and Nanoha or light for a normal person?" Shamal quipped back, having learned awhile ago that Miyuki definitely had Nanoha's work ethic.
Miyuki groaned. "Not fair, Shamal." She usually didn't mind the blond's overprotective ways, but lately she was getting the urge to do more and more with her wound healing; and as much as she understood Shamal's concern, she was starting to get annoyed.
"Sorry, but I know you... Or rather, I know Nanoha, I've had to order Fate to tie her down a couple of times in the past to make her lay down and rest when she got sick, I imagine you aren't much different." Shamal shook her head and sighed. "What is up with you Takamachis anyway?"
Miyuki shrugged. "Maybe we don't like being cooped up?" Despite her annoyance, she couldn't really feel angry at Shamal for it. "Honestly, Shamal, I've trained with worse injuries than this."
"And how many times have you needed a doctor to unison with a powerful device to make sure that you pull through an injury?"
"Okay, fine, but why are you acting like I'm about to suddenly fall over dead? We're so slow today, you don't have any appointments for three days, so what's the big deal, Shamal?" Miyuki really couldn't stand being cooped up and treated like a china doll, she wasn't that fragile, dammit!
"I'm not making a big deal." Shamal came out of her office and closed the door behind her, leaning against it as Miyuki glanced at her. "I'm understandably concerned. Having you go still like that beneath my hands wasn't a fun experience."
"Okay, I can accept that, and really, feeling my body going cold wasn't fun either. But you seem a little more worried about me more than you would be if I was just a random patient." Miyuki crossed her arms under her breasts. "So, what is up with that, anyway, Shamal?"
"Maybe because you aren't just a random patient?" Shamal shot back, narrowing her eyes again at that. She understood Miyuki's frustration, but it was annoying to realize that the dark-haired woman believed she meant so little to the blond.
"Isn't that breaking a few codes of conduct, Shamal?" Miyuki said, chuckling softly that trailed off as Shamal didn't laugh back. "Okay, okay, fine. So, why, just why are you so dammed protective of me? I mean, it's nice that you care and all, but... Isn't this a bit much?"
"I don't think so." Shamal barely repressed a shudder. She'd be perfectly happy for the rest of her life if she never saw Miyuki get hurt again, for any reason.
"Don't think so? Shamal, you won't let me go home unless you're with me. I'm nearly afraid to try to go to the bathroom sometimes because I'm afraid you might jump into the room and try to help me out." Miyuki chuckled softly as Shamal shook her head and blushed softly.
"I can't help it." Shamal resisted the urge to squirm. "I... I care about you a lot, Miyuki. Seeing you get hurt like that was hard for me."
Miyuki sighed and stood up slowly. "Look, Shamal, I'll be honest, this is getting annoying. I'm glad that you care, I do. But I need to at least run. It's been almost two months since I did anything more than hobble around the house. I need to do some exercise and sweat a bit."
Shamal tapped her chin before a thought came to her. "Well, let me close up then..."
"Shamal?" Miyuki blinked as Shamal smiled at her softly and took off her jacket.
"I think I'll join you." Shamal winked at the dark-haired, light blue-eyed woman. "I think it would do me some good too. Besides, this lets me keep an eye on you too."
Miyuki blinked, slowly, before she nodded. "Uh... okay."
She was confused; Shamal had never shown much interest in working out, persay, though the dark-haired woman knew she had to do something to keep a figure like that.
Either that or it was just part of being a former magical program. Miyuki honestly couldn't say.
She still felt confused.
It didn't take long before the two were at one of the gyms, both dressed in biker shorts and a tight tank tops as they stretched and gained some appreciative looks from the people around them.
Shamal twitched at some of the looks she was getting. "Do you always put up with this?"
"Unfortunately." Miyuki shrugged. She was used to it, honestly; one only could after being ogled like a piece of meat enough times.
Shamal shook her head and sighed, at least there was a lot of room to run around in the room they were in. "Well, shall we?"
"Of course." Miyuki smiled as the two started jogging around the track.
Despite the fact that each step caused flashes of pain through her body, Miyuki honestly was enjoying herself. It was always a lot more fun to jog with someone rather than alone.
Still, she wondered why Shamal was behind her more often than not. Oh well, at least if she fell, Shamal would be there to help her back up.
Shamal, for her part, was blushing as she looked at Miyuki. Those shorts were starting to get tighter from the sweat that was going down her body, molding them tighter to her rear. Why is she teasing me like this? Shamal wondered helplessly.
Miyuki lasted a good while, at least she liked to think so, before the pain became too much and she slowed from a jog to a brisk trot, and finally from a trot to a walk, grimacing.
Shamal was by her side in an instant, worried and relieved for the distraction. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing, hurts." Miyuki grimaced again and couldn't help feeling a little frustrated; it was always hard for her to work herself back into her previous condition after she'd been hurt and out of it for awhile.
"Well, I think your body is trying to tell you to take it easier." She smirked as Miyuki groaned and sighed. "See? Even your body agrees with me."
"Only because it's out of shape..." Miyuki panted and shook her head, she hated trying to get back into shape when she was out of action for awhile. Two months was too dammed long, in her opinion.
"It's out of shape because you're still hurt." Concerned, Shamal rested a hand on Miyuki's shoulder. "You need to rest."
Miyuki smiled sheepishly. "At least let me walk so I can cool down. My ego's already sustained enough damage." She could only imagine the kind of training she'd have to endure to get her body back to its former condition.
Shamal nodded and let out a breath. "Sure. I need to cool down as well."
Miyuki nodded, grimacing, she hated that her body was so out of shape...
She couldn't even imagine how bad it was for Nanoha or Fate right now.
(---)
Zafira, in wolf form, blinked as he looked over the Infinity Library. He didn't go by very often, but he was a bit bored and Hayate hadn't asked him to stick around, so he decided to see how Arf was doing. "What the heck? Did a war happen out here?"
Spotting the familiar, in her child form, covered in red stuff as she grimaced. "Arf? What happened?" He asked as she shook her arms gently. "Did a war happen?"
Arf shook her head and grumbled. "I am never letting anyone practice summoning here ever again."
"What happened?" He blinked and looked around as red goop fell off of a book shelf and splattered onto the floor.
"Someone tried summoning... There were killer tomatoes that attacked everyone." Seeing the look on Zafira's face, she nodded and groaned. "I swear, there are nothing but idiots around here some days."
Zafira blinked. "Killer tomatoes?"
"I dunno, maybe they were extreme vegetarians or something." Arf sighed. "It's going to take me awhile to clean this up, Yuuno's training with Vita again..."
Zafira blinked, then coughed again. "Then I'll help you," he said.
"Zaffy, you only use your wolf or adult form. You're a little big too--"
Arf froze as, before her disbelieving eyes, Zafira assumed a child form.
He was wearing black shorts and a black tank-top, reminiscent of his original uniform that he wore when they first met and fought, but it was on a smaller, thinner, frame. Honestly, Arf could put him next to Erio and probably swore that they were cousins, though his skin was darker than Erio's, his hair was white and blue.
"Wow, Zaffy..." She giggled. "Why don't you use this form more often?"
He rolled his eyes. "I prefer my wolf form, okay? Let's get started."
Arf muffled a giggle behind her hand and nodded, turning back to the library with a sigh. "Well... first things first. I need to get cleaned up myself, and we need to take the tomato gunk off the books, which shouldn't be too hard..."
Zafira nodded and started to work on cleaning the books. "Bleah... This stuff stinks." He grumbled softly. "How the heck did something like this happen anyway?"
"The way it always happens; someone read something in a book that they thought was cool and decided to try summoning it." Arf sighed. "At least the tomatoes weren't really dangerous."
Zafira nodded as arf disappeared for a few minutes. It didn't take long for her to come back, her skin and hair slightly damp, her clothing changed. "You keep spare clothes here?"
She shrugged as she helped him clean some of the books off. "Yeah, I do. Sometimes no one's home at all, so I just spend the night here. Fate and Chrono have missions, and sometimes Lindy got pulled to the office needing to help someone and Amy was busy sometimes, so I just spend my time here somedays." To Arf, it really was no big deal, she knew that Fate cared for her, but she didn't want to worry Fate, so she just spent her time in the library when not helping Amy to raise Karel and Liera.
Zafira nodded as the two went about cleaning the mess. It took a lot longer than they had both thought, even with various interns helping out. By the time they were done, most of the day was done and people were heading out for supper.
Arf slumped on one of the "floors" that existed, panting slightly. "I stink, I'm sweaty and I smell like wet dog." Arf was grumbling slightly about needing to clean this up when Yuuno wasn't around to help.
"At least the place got cleaned... Didn't you say that it needed to be dusted anyway?"
"Still annoys me that people are so stupid so often." Arf said with a nod and crossed her arms over her chest. "Come on, we need to get cleaned up."
Zafira frowned. "I'm not as bad as you."
Arf grinned at him. "True, but honestly, I just want to take you outside and see what happens when everyone sees your child form."
Zafira rolled his eyes, why was he not surprised? Still, maybe this wouldn't be too bad... He just wished that Arf didn't want to see the reaction everyone would have to his chibified form.
__________________
My fics Due to certain things, I am not here, find me over on TFF.
Hayate walked into the room and looked around, sighing as the scientists in the room ran around, comparing notes, looking at charts, graphs and other things. It wouldn't be so bad if the rest of the room wasn't such a horrible mess. Shaking her head, she smiled thinly as one of the scientists noticed her and motioned for her to come over. "Hello, General Yagami. I'm surprised you came so soon."
"You gave me a call about the devices, I had to come." She didn't know who this scientist was, she didn't take the time to learn, he looked like most of the rest, just with short brown hair instead of black like most of them. "What did you find out about these things?"
"They're interesting devices, that's for sure. There isn't as many as we thought. I think maybe fifteen at most, since we have eight here. But, the point is, these things have been made over the course of many years." He guestured to the one on the table in front of her. "This one, it's nearly forty years old, but this one..." He pulled out a device that looked similar to the other one, but had a different color scheme. "This one's only about two years old."
"So they weren't mass-produced then." Hayate muttered as the man nodded.
"Right. If anything, these things are closer to Storage Devices than Intelligent Devices. But, what I find interesting isn't that they can't make mana per-say, if they did, then what would be the point of making other Intelligent Devices, but they can actually super-compress, focus and heighten the usage of mana." Seeing Hayate blink a few times, the man chuckled softly. "Sorry. what I mean is... Well, do you mind if I use you as an example, General?"
"Not at all."
"Thank you. Anyway, you have a lot of power, and you can toss it around easily, but control, you lack a bit of that. Compare to the Ace of Aces, she has a lot of power, but a lot more control, so she can do a lot more with it, right?"
Hayate nodded, that was a pretty accurate analysis between her and Nanoha after all.
"Okay, these devices can draw ambient magic from around the user and focus it to such a point that they can take mages who are at most a C-Rank in power and have them throw around stuff that would give most B and even some A-Rank mages trouble." The man shook his head. "I don't know who made these, but whoever it was, was a genius. The newer models are better at it than the older models, but it still works that way."
"Genius, huh," Hayate murmured, thinking. There weren't many geniuses that could build this kind of Device, at least not without some prior knowledge to how the weapons worked and what adjustments needed to be made to reach their goal.
"At least I think so." The man shrugged. "The older devices weren't really that good, test models at best. Whoever built these things did it with the intent on making them better with each version." He lifted up the newest one. "To be honest, General, if someone like you had any of these devices, you could probably fire a Buster Beam that could reach from Mid-childa to Mau Gram."
Hayate sweat-dropped heavily as she thought about it. "To be honest, I want those things registered, categorized and put in safe keeping until we know what to do with them."
"Of course, General."
"So, what's the key difference between the first model and the most recent model?" Hayate was curious, plus she could order the devices taken apart just to find out what make them tick and how they worked if it was needed.
"Just the ability to focus magic, honestly. Plus, there's some sort of data-gathering ability in them. It's shut off now, has been for almost two years now, but from what we've found out is that it was sending data back to whomever made it."
Hayate frowned as she thought about the current situation. New types of Devices, a new Unison Device, something that seemed to have been going on for longer than she had been alive? Something really needed to be taken care of and soon. "Thank you. Make sure that those are taken care of." She needed to talk to Lindy, Carim and Chrono about this.
(---)
Miyuki sighed in the shower as the hot water sprayed off the sweat on her body. "Urgh... Feels good..." She sighed out pleasantly as she washed her body down.
"Ah, Miyuki?" Shamal's voice was slightly uncertain next to her as the two showered down. "Are you sure this is safe?" She didn't mean to sound so nervous, but she was uncomfortable with this whole scenario.
"They're harmless, Shamal. At most, you just need to kick a kid's ass when he peeks in." Miyuki sighed in relief as the shower pounded on her sore body.
Shamal looked out of the shower down the locker room, grimacing slightly as she saw a clear shot of the door. "Fine, but why do they have to have the shower in plain sight of the door to the locker room?"
Miyuki shrugged, her chest bouncing in the water. "Meh, it happens, now just relax, okay? The worst they can do is take pictures or video. As long as you're not having sex with someone, there's no real problem."
At that, Shamal stiffened. She was suddenly immensely grateful that Miyuki wasn't a mage and therefore wasn't capable of creating a mental link to hear her; her thoughts, at the moment despite her best intentions, weren't very clean.
"You all right, Shamal? You just went real quiet."
Turning away as Miyuki looked at her curiously, the two missed someone slipping into the room. "Y, yeah, I'm fine, Miyuki, just don't talk like that suddenly." Shamal said with a blush as Miyuki smirked at her.
"Fine, fine... Here, let me wash your back." Miyuki said softly. "It's hard to clean, after all."
"Sure, thanks." Shamal said after a few moments of silence.
Miyuki was a little puzzled by Shamal's silence, but otherwise paid it no mind as she quietly slipped in with the blonde, adjusting to the change of area easily. Her body still ached slightly, but it was soothed by the water and she had an easy enough time of grabbing the soap and reaching for Shamal's back.
Only to pause, blinking, when she saw the scars lashing their way along the flesh. She blinked once, twice, before gently resting her hand on Shamal's back. "What happened here?"
Shamal winced slightly. "I thought those healed." She muttered, shaking her head and sighing. "Let's just say that to some of our former masters, failure resulted in being severely tortured... It's not so bad for me, Vita or Zafira... Signum though..." She sighed and slumped heavily.
"I thought you healed too fast to get scars back then?"
"The book only healed serious damage. Scars weren't serious enough for it to not bother healing us." Shamal said with a small shrug.
Miyuki was quiet for a long, long moment, and Shamal blinked. "Miyuki?" This wasn't the usual silence she was accustomed to when the dark-haired woman around. It was a cold, nasty, dangerous silence that twisted around both of them like a snake, coiling up as if it wanted very badly to lash out at something.
Shamal turned around and looked at Miyuki as the water sprayed down on the two. "Miyuki? Come on... Tell me what's going through your head right now." She said as she gripped Miyuki's shoulders gently.
The two never noticed as a camera went off, taking several quick snapshots of the two from around the corner, a door-less wall separating the shower area and the locker area provided a perfect hiding place for the peeping tom.
Miyuki blew out a long breath and closed her eyes. "What are the chances that some of your former masters are still alive?"
"Impossible."
"... Damn."
Shamal smiled softly at her. "Come on, I'm okay now. Hayate takes really good care of us. The past is the past, I'm fine now." She blinked as she turned to the side as something caught her eye. "Hey!" She yelled and rushed out of the shower, in time to catch the peeping tom taking pictures of them. "Just what were you doing..." Shamal trailed off as she noticed just who was taking pictures of them. "A girl?"
The girl was maybe thirteen or fourteen, had short green hair, wore glasses, black shorts and a gray t-shirt with a camera in her hand. "Yeah, I'm a girl..."
"Ah, good, now I can work out my frustration." Miyuki came over and gave the girl a light smack over the head. "I was expecting this from boys..."
"Ow! What kind of person hits a girl?!"
"A very frustrated person." Miyuki smirked. "Sorry, kid, today's not one of my good days right now."
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Don't hurt me!" The girl whimpered pathetically as Miyuki grabbed her wrist.
"All right, all right." With another sigh, Miyuki let the girl go. She wasn't mad at her, not really. "Just keep in mind what I said. There are people who do worse than this if they find you."
The girl whimpered at that. "W-worse?"
"Yep. I knew a woman who chased a peeping tom down once because she caught him and beat the life out of him." Miyuki winced. "Wasn't a pretty sight, especially since I was guarding her at the time. Had a hell of a time explaining that one." She held out her hand.
Understanding it and sighing, but knowing better than to complain, the girl passed her camera to Miyuki. Honestly, she'd expected much worse.
"Now, get out of here." Miyuki said as the girl whimpered as she left.
"Not bad." Shamal said as she sat next to Miyuki and gave her a towel. "If she tells..."
"She'd have to explain what she was doing and why she was taking pictures." Miyuki rolled her eyes and sighed. "Still, maybe she'll actually learn from this experience."
"So, what are you going to do with the camera?"
Miyuki smirked at Shamal. "I think I'll just keep it. Who knows? I might like looking at naked pictures of you."
At that, Shamal blushed brilliantly.
"But more than likely not." Miyuki set down the camera. "I imagine that would make you uncomfortable, so I won't do it unless you say it's okay."
To which Miyuki had resigned herself to the fact that Shamal would say no. They'd been on a date or two since the incident, but otherwise, not much progress had been made in that direction.
"Do you want to?" Shamal asked her, still blushing as she looked at the naked dark-haired woman.
Miyuki blinked and looked at the blond, surprised. She opened her mouth, closed it, and smiled nervously before she blushed. "If I said yes?"
"Well..." Shamal trailed off, blushing harder as she turned away shyly. "I think I'd prefer you having naked pictures of myself than someone I don't know."
"Oh?" Now Miyuki was blushing hard and really curious. "Well, I guess your friend/part-time secretary having naked pictures of you is better than a stranger having naked pictures of you," she joked.
Shamal nodded and chuckled. "I think we should get dressed and get out of here before you catch a cold, Miyuki."
"Sure, I guess." Even as she relaxed at Shamal's chuckle, Miyuki couldn't help feeling like she'd been cheated out of something; that at the last moment Shamal had done some serious back-pedaling.
"You okay?" Shamal blinked as Miyuki nodded and wiped herself down.
"Yeah, this is a little colder than I thought..." She trailed off and looked into the shower. "Drat, forgot to turn it off." She dropped the towel to the floor and went back to turn the water off.
Shamal blinked at Miyuki as she went to turn off the shower. "What was that all about?" She wondered aloud.
(---)
"Come on, Tea... I wanna see!" Subaru pleaded to her girlfriend, who was looking slightly nervously at her.
"But... Shari..." Teana looked at the scientist, who shrugged and smiled softly.
"I'm sorry, I want to see this as well." She chuckled and looked at Teela. "Teela's healthy enough to do it, so it won't hurt you."
Teana sighed and looked at Teela. "Do... Do you want to?"
Teela nodded at her. "Uh huh..." She smiled and floated up to Teana and reached out to her partner. "Unison... In!" She called out as she merged with Teana again.
Subaru's eyes widened as she watched as the wind itself napped up around Teana, her orange hair turned blond, her eyes green, as the wind lazily swirled around her. "Oh wow... Tea... So pretty!" Her eyes sparkled happily as she gripped her girlfriend's hands.
Teana smiled nervously at the look in Subaru's eyes. "Uh, thanks."
"Can you..."
"I'm not Unisoning so we can have sex!"
As Subaru pouted, Shari chuckled and stepped closer, examining the newly Unisoned partners. "Not bad, not bad," she murmured. "Wind based Device by the look of her, quite strong."
Teana nodded and smiled softly. "Very strong, actually. It's like I've got a radar in my head right now."
"Anything else?" Shari asked as she looked Teana over, before pulling out a scanning device and ran it over Teana's body.
"Nothing too much, except that I can actually see how air flows around me."
"Air flows?" Shari blinked as she finished the scan. "Okay, you can break the unison if you want to."
Teana nodded as their was a small flash and Teela appeared in front of Teana. "Yeah, I can literally see how air flows, moves and circulates around me, I guess it's a side-effect of that radar that lets me know where everything around me is."
"Impressive," Shari murmured. "Definitely strong, for a prototype."
Teela rubbed the back of her head softly. "Thank you." She blushed at the praise.
"So is she okay now?" Teana asked.
Shari nodded. "She still has some damage, but it's easy to repair and won't be much of a problem. I should be able to release her to you by tomorrow morning."
"Thank you, Shari." Teana smiled at her and rubbed Teela's head softly.
"Hey, thank you for bringing her here." Shari smiled at Teana. "Oh, and Subaru..."
"Yeah?"
"Mach Calibur should be good to go by tomorrow morning as well."
Subaru grinned. "Yes!"
"Just do me a favor," Shari sighed.
"What?"
"STOP GROWING SO MUCH!"
Subaru giggled softly and nervously. "Ah... I'll try to slow my magic growth rate."
Shari sighed and shook her head. "Just be more careful, okay. If you grow too fast we may need to redesign your Barrier Jacket or something."
Subaru just laughed.
(---)
"Okay, so maybe I shouldn't have run so hard." Miyuki grimaced in the cold air as she rubbed her wound through her fluffy coat softly.
"I told you," Shamal sighed, dressed in a black long coat. "But did you listen? No. I'm starting to think you Takamachis have a natural stubborn switch from birth."
Miyuki grinned at her. "I wonder what that means for Nanoha's boys, then."
Shamal shook her head and shuddered. "Don't say that." She knew it would be impossible, but she kind of hoped she would never need to treat any of Nanoha's children for nothing but an occasional sickness.
Miyuki chuckled softly, before laughing. "Oh, don't worry, I'm sure that they'll give you plenty of headaches in the future."
Shamal twitched and shivered. "No... Don't say that. Please! I don't think I could stand having to patch up Nanoha, her boys and you after getting seriously injured. I might just tell Fate to tie her family down just to keep them from doing anything."
Miyuki laughed again and spun around so she was walking backwards, grinning at Shamal. "With any luck, most of my serious injuries will happen when I'm on a job, so you won't need to worry about having to patch me up." Smirking as her eyes gleamed, she turned back to face front and kept walking, humming a soft tune.
Shamal blinked, stunned at hearing that. "What?" She was stunned, her eyes wide as Miyuki laughed at something. "What the heck does that mean?"
"Well, I could get killed on a mission, at least then you won't need to fix me up so often."
Shamal could only stare as Miyuki continued to walk, not even realizing she'd stopped. "You... sound calm about it."
Miyuki shrugged. "I'm a bodyguard. Death is part of the job. It's something I've accepted as a possibility. Dad and Kyou-chan are no different about it."
Shamal sighed and started walking again to catch up with Miyuki. "Hey... Miyuki..."
"Huh?" The woman turned to Shamal, blinking as Shamal caught up to her. "What?"
"I've got an unused apartment above my clinic. It's pretty big at least. Would you be interested in moving in?"
Miyuki blinked again, slowly, wondering if she was hearing things right. "Alone?"
"Well, if you want, I can move in too... I still live with Hayate... But haven't you said that you don't consider either Nanoha or your parent's houses your home? Maybe you need your own place?"
There was a long, long silence before Miyuki turned around to face Shamal. "Shamal, what exactly is going through your head?"
Shamal blinked. "Excuse me?"
"I get cut up, and you get overprotective like I'll step on a crack and snap my back. I make a joke about dying, you want me to move in. What exactly are you thinking?"
"...I..." She took a deep breath. "I care for you, Miyuki. Is that wrong?"
Miyuki softened despite herself. "Shamal, there's nothing wrong with caring for someone. But the way you do it... kind of..."
"Kind of what?"
"Gives me an impression that you... care a lot."
Shamal realized right then that Miyuki was trying to give her an escape; she hadn't once said the L word, though she could if she truly wanted to pin Shamal in a corner. But she hadn't.
Shamal took a deep breath, even still... Something Hayate said awhile back got to her. "...Yeah... I do care, a lot... And... It scares me, to care this much."
"So... why not just stop caring?" Miyuki blinked in confusion.
"I... I don't know... I don't want to stop though." Shamal took a deep breath and sighed softly. "Yeah, it hurts to care... But... After so long, so long of feeling nothing until I met Hayate... I think... I think I rather like it."
Miyuki slowly slid her hands into her pockets and wondered how to word this right before she finally gave up and threw caution to the wind. "Shamal, when you care about someone that much, that usually means you're in love with them. Usually."
She had been prepared, she thought she had been, the words were still a shock to hear. Shamal took a deep breath. "Miyuki... I... I don't... I don't know what it's like to be in love, I don't, I've only known what true friendship and family love was for the past twelve years." She was silent for awhile as Miyuki studied her face curiously. "So, I don't know what it's like to be in love with someone special alone. But..." She trailed off, closing her eyes and taking a breath. "I, I want to try... I want to try to learn what it is."
There was no response, and for a moment Shamal was afraid that she'd done something wrong, said the wrong thing, somehow offended Miyuki. She jolted as a hand gently brushed her cheek before lifting up to run through her hair, shivering but keeping her eyes closed; she didn't want to see Miyuki walk away, she didn't want to see her anger, she didn't...
Warm, soft lips pressed gently against Shamal's and made her eyes pop open, shocked. The kiss didn't last long before Miyuki pulled back, smiling.
Shamal smiled softly, nodding at her. "It... I rather liked it." She said with a blush.
"That... that sounds good." Miyuki didn't blush, but she looked nervous enough to make up for it. "Uh, about that apartment, I guess it won't be so bad if I'm... not alone..."
"Okay then, let's... Let's look at it. It might be a bit dirty though."
Miyuki's eyes widened slightly as Shamal smiled. "So, you will?"
Shamal nodded, smiling at her. "Yeah. Besides, Hayate's been trying to get all of us to expand our friends and find someone special. She'll like this, of course, she'll want us to visit a lot." She started chuckling as Miyuki smirked at her.
"You know, I think I could live with that."
Spoiler for Notes:
Please, don't kill me for making some mistakes on the devices stuff. *Hides* I did most of that. Don't blame RadiantBeam over any of it.
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My fics Due to certain things, I am not here, find me over on TFF.
Poor Teela... at this rate, all the cast is going to find a personal vendetta against Jail, and they'll have to line up to take shots at him. Chrono got his shot, now Teana will need a shot...
Let's try not to have all the crimes in Bureau Space being masterminded by Jail. I mean, there have to be plenty of other mad-scientist masterminds around, right?
<.< if anyone gets that reference, i'll do a fic request.
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For those that belittle their favorite characters, complain about pairings, complain about oversexed images. Stop, thank you.
Fear Anxiety Doubt is but a fad. The life of a fad depends entirely on the willingness to support it. Difficulty is a choice. Determination is a path. Your next great idea after your destination is the true goal.
Let's try not to have all the crimes in Bureau Space being masterminded by Jail. I mean, there have to be plenty of other mad-scientist masterminds around, right?
You;ve also got embezzlement and Bureau officers selling secrets, if you want to get closer to home...
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One must forgive one's enemies, but not before they are hanged.Heinrich Heine.
A-A mastermind other then Jail? W-What about this one? I-Its from my fic but expect not much fluff in it.
*snip* *snip* (@///////@)-Panic mode-
KYAAAAA! Don't read! Its embarassing! A lot of mistakes! A lot of mistakes! *destroy everything in sight*
*finally hide under the bed*
Spoiler for B@W pt.1:
Sounds of footsteps echo throughout the empty hallway, following the path of the red carpet. There were torches on opposite side of the stone wall each with antique designs not found on Earth. The slow pace of a woman and a girl of nine came to an abrupt stopped in front of a large wooden oak door.
Without warning, the door creak opened and luminous light emits from the large chamber within. The source was coming from thousands of candlesticks pilling neatly around the room. Cool air passed through the little girl making her shudder, she pulled up her white tattered shirt to get more warmth but the holes and shreds made it impossible. Not to mention the visible scars and bruises still fresh on her flesh.
She gazed at the room, the floor was made from marble tile, and there were huge windows with tattered red curtains circling around the room. An air of mystery and death linger the surrounding room indicating the presence of a killer. At the furthers end of the chamber was a King's chair with red curtains almost closing the vision of a person sitting clumsily on the golden majestic chair.
She couldn't see the person's face clearly even if she focuses her eyes. The woman grabbed the child beside her roughly and dragged her to the front. The girl didn't struggle nor flinched at the pain she felt. She was already used to the tortures and beating of this woman, it was a miracle that she survived every beating unlike her other sisters. Clones. All of them die due to the extensive amount of training and beating this woman gave, in fact it wasn't a training to her. It was more like her personal enjoyment in torturing her along with her sisters.
When they were closed to the king's seat, the woman practically threw the girl not far from the small steps of platform.
The person sitting on the chair shifted slightly. The girl could feel the cold and murderous eyes looking on her. It made her stopped breathing and her mind went blank.
"Is this the only clone that could survive your wrath, Precia-san?" the voice said, which was surprisingly sounds like a little girl.
The fallen girl, blond with burgundy eyes slowly lifted her head and stared blankly at the person sitting in front. She still couldn't see this person figure since she was enveloped by the darkness of the curtains.
"Yes, this 'thing' manage to survive but her magic and linker core is far too weak. We cannot use it in battles since she might fall in anytime. Do you want me to dispose of her?" Precia looked disgusted at the blond girl.
"Now, now Precia-san. You shouldn't be rough on my little creation over there." said a new voice, a male with long silver hair tie in a low ponytail appeared behind them. His white lab coat made him looked like a scientist.
Precia glared at the figure, "This thing is under my care Jail, and I can do whatever I want with it."
Jail shook his head, "Tsk, tsk, tsk. You should always take care of you're own tools well Precia-san. Who knows, one day that 'thing' might bite you back."
Before the arguments heated up, the girl sitting on the king's chair clapped her hands.
"Now, now. No need to fight with each other. Both of you are here to report to me about you're own progress remember. Please continue with it Jail-san. After that I'll be listening to your needs Precia-san." the childish voice said.
Jail cleared his throat, "My pleasure then."
"Project FATE has been progressing slowly as we speak. We are now entering stage three of the project."
Everything was progressing according to their plans. The true aim of this project was well hidden amongst the affiliates of TSAB and only the leader knew of its true objective. Precia and Jail simply followed orders from her. First stage was cloning; producing clones of Jail Scaglietti and Precia Testerossa were the first steps in initiating the project. Then they create fake memories imbedded within them and send these two clones to another dimension to collect data of Jewel seeds and Lost Logia. That stage was complete when the Precia Testerossa clone was found dead not far from the castle few months later, along with a child enclosed in a crystal tube, and the other clone, Jail Scaglietti, transmission signal suddenly disable, indicating that he was being caught or killed.
But that wasn't important anymore since they had more than enough data. The next stage, Stage two was the relocating and extraction of Jewel Seeds found in Al-Hazard. This was fairly difficult and it took almost a year to complete it. Al-Hazard was a very large continent with various magic creatures lurking around. Majority of them won't hesitate to attack no matter if their of the same kind or not. Their army of mages wasn’t their primary concern since Jail could create endless of humanoid mage. In fact the entire castle's maids were made by him.
Next was stage three, which was the awakening of the Book of Darkness, one of the most powerful artifacts across dimension. After the entity known as Reinforce, named by the Book of Darkness master, Jail and Precia took the liberty in making an identical copy of it with Jail's invention. Their leader then makes the final decision and soon, their own Reinforce was created by their leader's magic. This new and improve Reinforce, now serve their leader which she usually called her Meister.
The third stage however, "We have also collected all the Jewel seeds located in Al-Hazard. What's left now is the Jewel seeds that exist in another dimension. The amount of jewel seeds needed is 989 000, after collecting everything, we can proceed to stage four without any problems."
"Another dimension...Jail-san about that-"
"Yes, I've already investigated the specific locations of the jewel seeds where my clone once dwells. There are possible three locations and this includes Mid-Childa, Belka and Earth."
The figure sitting on the King's chair smiled happily, "As expected from you Jail-san. Prepare your drones and send them, we need to complete the project a soon as we can."
Jail nodded.
"Now Precia-san, are you sure you can't strengthen and enhance 'it's' linker core and magic? I'm sure with some training and medicines, we can make it a perfect weapon." the girl asked.
"I'm afraid that won't be possible. This specimen has a blind right eye. It's not perfect enough to be you're guardian."
"Not perfect...a failure creation I suppose." Jail said.
The wooden oak door suddenly opened and a female of long grey hair walked in. Her black wings fluttered behind her.
"Meister" she spoke, ignoring everyone gazed except one.
The girl sitting on the chair stared at the woman setting her right elbow on the arms chair, then lean her face to her open palm hand. "Reinforce-san, have you complete your mission."
The woman nodded, "The Northern part of the TSAB army has been annihilated. But judging by their movement, they are now preparing for counterattack to Al-Hazard."
Jail laughed, "Are they stupid, they will only walk to their own death soon."
"Fools, they will die under my wrath." Precia said.
The girl, being called Meister giggled, "If that so, lets have some fun with TSAB. Jail-san, Precia-san, Reinforce-san, please do the honors."
Precia was about to say something but the Meister cut her off, "Precia-san, if you no longer need this ‘thing’, then I'll have her. I think I know what to do with her."
Precia nodded hesitated and the three adults exited the room preparing for war once again. The chamber was silent as two kids stare each other. The Meister was still enveloped in darkness, hence the blond couldn't see her figure clearly.
"You're name, what's you're name? I can't call you 'it' or 'thing' forever." the dark figure asked.
The blond who was still sprawled on the floor looked down. She never did have any name except her serial number, 9872.
"I see, you don't have a name yet. Precia-san really ought to name you first before giving you away like that so easily."
Silence was the response. She didn't want to talk to the mysterious figure. She could tell by her childish voice that this was girl was at an age of ten or eleven. But the aura emitting from this 'little girl' didn't suit her voice at all. It was heavy making her harder to breathe, cold making her shuddered and deadly thinking that her stares could kill her anytime.
"Let see, what shall I name you?"
Her childish voice made her even more scarred. It was different compare to Precia. When it comes to the woman, she was scarred of getting hurt. But for the girl in front of her, each words she spat out and in each movement she made, made her feel small and aware of the death she was facing. Ironically, this was the only time she fear her own death.
There was a small thud, indicating the dark figure jumped off the golden chair. The blond hair girl tried to stay strong, but her heart race with accelerating speed.
"I know,"
The sound of descend footstep from the small platform made the girl wanted to run away but she couldn't as she felt the gazed paralyzed her every movement. Soon the footsteps stopped right in front of the blond. Red eyes carefully looked up only to meet a hand reaching out for her. Tilting her head slightly, she was met with slate blue eyes with brown hair tie to a pigtail.
"I'll name you Fate."
Silence. Stunned. It didn't feel at all. The murderous aura vanishes as soon as she stared at the child face. All the fear she felt disappears replacing a feeling she never knew she had, happy, relief and gratitude.
"Fate..." the blond girl muttered in disbelieved. In fact it was fate that she was created by Jail, it was fate that manage to survive all the tortures and beating from Precia. And it was fate that brought her here and meet the girl in front of her.
"Yes, Fate. Now, take my hand and fly with me. Because starting today, you will serve me and only me, Fate."
"You..." Fate reached up to her hand, the girl pulled Fate up, she was a few inch shorter than Fate.
"Oh, I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself earlier."
The girl giggled, Fate was far beyond confused now. This girl was acting like a normal ten year old. But few minutes ago she was acting like a commander discussing about battle strategies. Not to mention the three of them, Jail, Precia and Reinforce respected and fear her at the same time.
"My name is Nanoha, but most people always call me the Black Devil."
2009-10-13, 19:58
Author
For those that belittle their favorite characters, complain about pairings, complain about oversexed images. Stop, thank you.
