Chapter 11: Wag the Dog
Subaru made a fist and opened her hand again, feeling the armoured gauntlet flex smoothly as if it was a part of her, the heavy metal nearly weightless on her arms. An immature thrill of exhilaration made her grin, which she tried to hide quickly. Unfortunately, Teana noticed it.
“God Subaru,” Teana scowled. “Stop grinning like that, it’s getting weird.”
“But Tea, look at what I can do!” Grunting, Subaru spun and punched part of the mountainside, blasting pebbles and head-sized chunks of rock down the incline and off the cliff edge. The sudden loud explosive move made Teana and Shamal both jump.
“Idiot!” Teana yelled. “Are you trying to scare us into falling off this damn cliff?” She brushed dust off her pigtails and glared.
“Aw, are you still mad that I traded in my artillery gun for this?” Subaru teased, although she kept her tone light. Teana’s love for guns but stubborn refusal to learn how to use them was a touchy subject for the prickly redhead.
“I think you’re an idiot,” Teana muttered, huffing and turning her back on Subaru to follow Shamal, picking her way carefully along the narrow mountain path. “The Angels are incredibly vulnerable to guns since only one of their members has a personal barrier and they have no healer anymore—you could do a lot of damage, but
no, you’re more interested in cool weapons...”
That argument had been exhausted after a couple days of furious haranguing between the Wardens, but Subaru had refused to give way. Confused and frustrated, Teana still hadn’t forgiven her for it. Shrugging, Subaru said offhand, “It was awkward to use and kept getting in the way at close range. I’m better with my fists, anyways.” When Teana gave her a doubtful look, Subaru held up her hands as if she was about to box and made a few mock jabs, causing Teana to give her the
You’re an idiot Subaru glare instead. Belatedly, Subaru grinned and said loudly, “And it just looks
cool! Plus hey, Shamal, didn’t you say that it used to belong to some famous person or another?”
Shamal winced and chose not to answer, pointing instead to the adjacent fjord jutting out into the ocean. “There! Do you see it?”
Zooming in telescopically with one eye, Subaru spotted a glint of blue in the rock face. “I see it, it’s embedd—”
WARNING—OVERLOAD. Magical sensors damaged. Optic shutdown for protection.
Subaru yelped when she caught a glimpse of a blue-column erupting upwards into the sky before her visual sensors triggered her eyelids to shut, protecting her magical sensors from destruction.
That must be an incredible amount energy—
“SUBARU!”
Something smashed into the ground at her feet, throwing Subaru off balance and into the open air. Blindly, she shouted and slammed a hand into the cliff, dangling by one arm as she heard the sound of a fight begin above her.
Optical activity resumed, specialty functions disabled for damage prevention.
N.S.-ADMIN—OVERRIDE.
N.S.-ADMIN—All sensors, seek vitals: TEANA
Subaru grunted, hauling herself back up onto the path and continued climbing to the top while seeing through the rock to the heat-signatures flitting around on the summit. Her specialty sensors locked onto Teana’s vitals, reading no damage, to her relief. Bounding up the last few metres, Subaru popped up and nearly lost her head to a stray yellow scythe-blade shooting past her ear and ripping a gouge into the fjord rock on the other side of the small inlet.
Fate was clashing with Shamal, their fight oddly humourous as Shamal tried to hit the elusive and fast Angel with magic-bolts while Fate hurled random attacks blindly in the hopes of hitting something. Some of them Shamal dodged with difficulty; others missed entirely. Fate’s dog was panting and snarling as she guided her master around expertly.
Subaru was glad she didn’t have her gun anymore—the strategic move would have been to shoot the dog. Instead, she let out a battle cry and charged forward into Teana’s fight with Nanoha, catching Nanoha’s downsweep with her gauntlet. Teana slashed through that opening, causing Nanoha to cry out before she broke free and danced back, a bloody tear through her shirt. Lunging, Subaru caught one of Nanoha’s katanas with her hand and shoved the girl with her other, throwing Nanoha into the air to hit the ground ten feet away.
“Subaru, keep doing that,” Teana instructed as she came up beside her, knives in hand. “I’m not fast enough to get close, she’s too good for me at middle range—hit her hard then throw her back, okay?”
“Let’s do it!” Subaru cheered, slamming her fist into the palm of her gauntlet—which hurt a lot, she discovered the hard way. Then they had no more time for planning—Fate and Nanoha had regrouped, and were launching a new attack.
“Subaru, call for Chrono and Reinforce!” Shamal yelled as emerald circles sprang from her hands, spheres of power building up around her. The fight had drifted towards the fjord where the Jewel Seed blazed and crackled with energy, although now the battle turned into a sort of “keep away” game. And the worst part was that the Angels were succeeding, even though they were outnumbered.
Fate slashed a wicked crescent stroke at Subaru’s face, and the cyborg barely caught the blow on her armoured gauntlet to save her head. The sizzling yellow scythe cut a chip off the gauntlet, knocking Subaru back. But it was a good thing that she didn’t need anything more than a thought to send messages.
Connect: Chrono Harlaown (Cellular device)—message: Jewel found at Kjerag, combat in process. Bring Reinforce.
Fate’s dog—Arf?—barked and brought them sideways away from Subaru’s lunge, and Subaru tripped over Fate’s backhand sweep. She hit the ground and rolled, nearly falling into one of Shamal’s spell-nets aimed at the fast-dodging Nanoha. A heavy kick into the side of Subaru’s head left Nanoha shouting in pain and Subaru stumbling straight into the spell-net, winding her for a moment before Shamal dissipated it rapidly.
“Stop the Angel!”
Hesitating for a moment, Subaru watched the fight between Teana and Nanoha, worried. Then a bombardment of spell-fire rained down on them, guided by Shamal and forcing Nanoha to abort her attacks. Subaru saw a purple teleportation triangle spring up on the ground nearby, and saw a blue one appear as well.
“Incoming!” She shouted, then continued pursuing Fate. Running hard, she zipped up to Fate before her guide dog could react in time. A punch to the gut caused the Black Angel to gasp and fold over, but Subaru had to dodge the fangs of the viciously snarling dog. Slamming a knee into Fate’s chest, Subaru knocked her down and crouched on the blonde, pining her down. Arf’s jaws closed over Subaru’s wrist, biting down and yelping when her teeth hit metal but doggedly refusing to let go.
“Arf!” Fate cried, struggling underneath Subaru, swiping blindly with her weapon and craning her blank eyes towards where the Jewel Seed sparkled, letting stray bolts of magic into the environment in its active form.
“Get off!” Subaru panted, shaking her arm. She should just bring her gauntlet down onto the dog’s skull—instead, Subaru grabbed the dog’s middle and wound back, throwing the howling Arf as far as she could.
“What did you do to her!” Fate lost it, Bardiche’s eye erupting in lightning bolts of energy that shocked Subaru mercilessly.
“I just…” Subaru gritted her teeth and wrenched Bardiche from Fate’s grip and tossed that away too. “…tossed her aw—AY!” She yelped when Arf ran back and leaped at her, trying to sink her teeth into Subaru’s neck, her weight making it hard for Subaru to balance properly and not crush Fate beneath her. Subaru seized Arf by the scruff of her neck, only strong enough to do that because of her robotic strength, picked her up and tossed her away again.
“God, your dog’s mean!” Subaru hauled Fate up and smashed her into the ground, trying to knock her unconscious. “I thought guide dogs were all gentle—” Suddenly, the ground beneath them turned into a yellow teleport circle, making Subaru freeze. The golden light flared and Subaru leapt out of it before the teleport was completed, hurling Fate out as well in case the teleport was to someplace nasty.
The Jewel Seed—Subaru could see it not ten metres away, lodged in the other side of a crevasse. The Black Angel was coughing and disoriented, searching for her weapon, and Shamal, Teana and Chrono—
where was Reinforce?—were keeping Signum and Nanoha—
and where’s Carim?—occupied…
The last Jewel they needed to complete their dreams…
“SUBARU!” Nanoha yelled, causing Subaru to turn her head reflexively. The brunette had knocked Teana’s weapons aside and executed a powerful, perfect forward kick, slamming Teana backwards and off the cliff edge.
The world simplified itself abruptly.
Relative altitude to next surface: 820 metres.
TEANA:
Probability of injury: 99%
Probability of fatal injury/death: 84%
SUBARU-ADMINISTRATOR:
Probability of collecting Target (Jewel Seed): 75%
Relative importance of Target collection calculation: 92%
Probability of interception with TEANA: 40%—30%—14%—
Subaru ran, her brain computing angles as her heard pounded with fear and determination. She barrelled past Fate and leaped off the cliff, her newest trajectory calculating program spitting numbers at her, telling her that she needed a wider angle, that she didn’t have enough initial velocity, that she wasn’t going to make it....
None of that mattered—Subaru let out a yell, straining her body and praying that she could make that final distance.
Teana gasped as Subaru slammed into her, the blunette’s left arm wrapping around her waist as Subaru twisted them around in the air. All the air was forced out of Teana’s lungs again when the two of them collided with the rock face, blowing rock dust into the wind.
“S…Subaru?” Teana coughed, wiping dust from her face.
A torrent of coughs answered her. “Tea, are you alright?” Subaru asked urgently, panting.
“Can’t you see for yourself?” Teana said sardonically, but she put her arms around Subaru’s neck—to support herself, of course. “Yes, I’m alright. Are you okay?” They had made a crater in the cliff. Marvelling at the skill Subaru must have needed to catch her without breaking Teana’s spine while moving fast enough to blow a hole in solid rock in the process, Teana gave in to the urge to give her friend a brief hug. “…Thank you.”
Subaru gave her a weak grin, and Teana took a deep breath. Even though she knew that most of Subaru’s human, irreplaceable parts were protected internally, she couldn’t help but wince at the sight of Subaru’s blood dripping slowly over the stone and down the grooves in the cliff. “You’re an idiot, you know.”
“Yeah, I know,” Subaru smiled sheepishly. “But I couldn’t let you die over getting the Jewel Seed, right?”
Teana stared at her. “Over…getting the Jewel Seed?”
***
Being teleported by someone else was a different experience, Signum mused as they materialized back at Precia’s house. There was a trust involved, a willing relinquishing of control that was awkwardly difficult to do. In the past, she and Alicia had always teleported themselves separately, with Alicia usually carrying the extra passengers due to her increased power with Bardiche.
Alicia wrote her teleportation glyphs with a learned precision that had always seemed kind of strange to Signum. Once a few centuries ago, maybe Signum, Shamal and Vita had done the same, but after thousands of chances to practice the glyphs flowed from them with barely a thought. Fate created hers in much the same way, from an intuition that she trusted in confidently. A blind person, confident in something that required eyes to see!
The moment they appeared Nanoha had scampered off, just about bursting with elation. She was probably going to tell Precia the news, and reassure the woman that the Angels had regained their footing from the last disaster.
Signum, on the other hand, strode off immediately for Hayate’s room. She hadn’t liked leaving a comrade in that kind of state, and annoyingly concern had distracted her several times in battle. In a few quick seconds she had entered the crippled girl’s room, a flicker passing over her face at the scene inside.
“Hi Signum,” Hayate managed to say before a series of coughs took over again, her body shaking with the effort. Grimly, Carim handed her a glass of water, continuing to hold on when Hayate’s hand shook violently.
“Hello. Are you still nauseous?”
“Not really,” Hayate answered while Carim said, “Yes.” On the floor, Zafira paced back and forth, his tail swishing in agitation. Every few paces he would rush back over to Hayate’s side, a low whine in his throat as he nuzzled her blanketed legs.
Signum leaned against the doorframe, watching Hayate appraisingly as she stroked Zafira’s head and murmured soothingly to him before coughing again, falling back on her pillows as if she couldn’t pretend the strength to hold herself up anymore. “This hasn’t happened to you before,” Signum said bluntly. “What happened this time?”
Hayate winced and put a hand to her forehead. “I don’t know…I’ve, uh, been feeling a bit off colour lately…I think that this was just a little too much stress.”
“Just a little?” Carim said sharply. “You nearly had a seizure!”
“You’re exaggerating,” Hayate retorted, smiling. “I just got close to fainting, that’s all. This headache is really killing.”
“Why didn’t you tell me that using the Tome hurts you?”
“It’s trivial,” dismissed Hayate, turning to smile at Signum. “Did we get the Jewel?”
“Testarossa did,” Signum confirmed, settling her sword more comfortably behind her.
“That’s great!” Hayate exclaimed, but she rubbed her head again, her shoulders tense. “Where’s Fate? Oh, there you are,” she corrected when Fate knocked timidly on the door. “Come in, Fate-chan!”
“No, we should all leave and let you get some rest,” Carim spoke over her. “You can chat in the morning.”
“Are you ill, Hayate?” Fate asked softly in alarm.
“Just a little dizzy, Carim’s just being a mother hen,” Hayate told her. She yawned and finished sleepily, “but I am a little tired…let’s catch up later, Fate-chan?”
“Of course,” Fate replied, frowning slightly when Zafira slunk up to her, taking her hand in his mouth gently and whining low in his throat.
Shutting the door behind them, Carim turned to Signum. “Are you all alright? Where’s Nanoha?”
“She’s reporting in to Precia with the good news,” Signum said. “We averted disaster, this time.” She glanced at Hayate’s closed door, then turned back to them. “Excuse me.” With no further explanation she strode off, her battered jacket shedding dust on the wooden boards.
***
Damn, Carim thought, glancing at the docilely silent girl in front of her, she was alone with Fate. As much as she wanted to leave, she couldn’t think of an excuse to go that didn’t sound too obviously like an excuse, and from Fate’s body language Carim didn’t have the heart to just ditch her.
Carim cleared her throat awkwardly. “Congratulations on getting the Jewel Seed.”
From Fate’s startled, unguarded expression, Carim realized that she had been the first person to say that to her. An intense sensation of pity and sadness hit Carim at that moment, and she hesitated before reaching over and putting a hand gingerly on Fate’s wrist.
“Really, you did a great job.”
“Not really,” Fate said with a self-deprecating half-smile. “It was only such a clean mission because Subaru chose to save her friend instead of getting the Jewel. She had me beaten when she separated me from Arf.”
“Fate, if you keep putting yourself down, it makes it kind of hard for us to see you truly, you know.” The sharpness in Carim’s tone startled both of them, a kind of older-sisterly admonishment paired with exasperation that made both of them silent for a while.
Then Fate turned her hand and squeezed Carim’s, her fingers finely shaped and with a sensitivity that seemed to deliver a lot more than just a comforting squeeze to Carim. “Thank you,” she said quietly.
“It’s nothing,” Carim muttered, feeling a stab of insensible guilt. Alicia was the one who saved her life, and Carim had loved Alicia in her own way, had keenly felt the debt that she owed to the Black Angel. She almost didn’t want to interact with Fate at all, even though she knew that it was silly and undoable.
Just like Hayate, Fate had a way of making Carim feel like their future in this cursed war could actually be wonderful.
False hope was just too cruel.
***
"Precia!" Nanoha shouted as she dashed excitedly through the hallway, knocking on Precia's workroom. "We got it this time! Precia?"
The door slid open two inches with a short hiss, and Precia's eye stared out of the gap. "Shh. Some of us are resting."
"I'm sorry!" Nanoha lowered her voice but she knocked again, getting the rest of the door open in response. "But Fate got the Jewel!" Absently, Nanoha noticed one of the far door panels in stand-by mode, the consol only lighting that way when someone had just closed a door before locking it. Had Precia been sleeping? She was too jubilant to care much, and Precia would want to hear the news as soon as possible anyways. "Isn't that great?"
Precia settled down at her desk, her long fingers tapping on her desk in boredom. "So?"
"So?" Nanoha repeated, her enthusiasm tempered in confusion.
"In my lifetime I collected three Seeds. For the short duration of Alicia's life, she also sealed three." Sighing and waving a hand dismissively, Precia asked, "So what for this one Seed Fate managed to claim? She can never match Alicia's achievements."
Nanoha couldn't come up with an answer for a few moments, so she shifted in place, brushing off some of the dust from their fight while taking the time to think. "Fate's doing her best. If we can get the last Jewel Seed, then the Angel will have won."
"You think that Alicia couldn't have?"
"No!" Nanoha denied ardently. "But...Fate is the Black Angel now."
"Trust me, Nanoha," Precia said, her gaze distant, an odd tone in her voice. "With Fate, our cause is lost."
A chill swept through Nanoha, and she had to consciously release her grip on her katanas. She believed in Fate, yet the foreboding conviction in Precia's words sent trickles of doubt through her resolve. Staring at Precia, Nanoha took a breath. She trusted Precia. She also trusted Fate. "We'll find a way."
"We'll see."
***
“What was that, Subaru?” Chrono shouted, slamming his hand into the dinner table, making the set-out utensils jump in a metallic chorus. “You were right there! If you had gotten the Seed, we would have had the fourteen Seeds that we needed!”
All Subaru did was shrug and repeat, “I made a judgement call, and I’m sticking to it.”
“Everyone,” Amy tried to interject, “why don’t we eat first? You guys had a long day.”
Shamal and Teana were pointedly shovelling food into their mouths, both from hunger and also desperately trying to stay out of the whole argument lashing across the table. Chrono looked angrier than ever, but he also looked torn, apologetic from getting so furious over essentially weighting Teana’s life over the realization of all their dreams.
“It wouldn’t have mattered,” Reinforce remarked idly, breaking a crab shell with a loud snap. Her red eyes danced as she said, “If you had gotten the Jewel it wouldn’t have mattered if Teana died or not.”
A blur of blue and white shot over the table, colliding with Reinforce and taking both of them into the wall in a shower of crashing metal and broken ceramics. Shamal automatically called out her magic, her hands glowing, but she looked at Chrono in indecision and alarm. The tussle was short before the outcome was clear, danger hanging on a thread of control that was fraying by the second.
“SUBARU!” Teana cried.
Subaru had Reinforce by the throat, her fingers locked underneath the smirking silver-haired woman’s chin, her other fist raised and solidly frozen in a promise of pain. Teana had never seen Subaru looking so calmly murderous—she couldn’t recognize her friend. A shrill of terror snaked up Teana’s spine, terrified to see Subaru’s fist sunk into the exploded ruins of Reinforce’s skull.
“Stop it!”
Heeding none of them, Subaru glared at Reinforce, her eyes coldly emotionless, as if all that was human in her had vanished in that instant. In contrast, Reinforce was chuckling, the sound garbled from the crushing grip on her neck.
“Did I say something wrong?”
Subaru’s fist trembled, and her eyes narrowed.
“Subaru!” Teana inched closer, looking torn between wanting to touch her and to dodge away, unsure of what Subaru would do next in her strange, silent rage.
Reinforce smiled, a bubble of spit rising in the corner of her lips from the effort of breathing and speaking around Subaru’s iron grip and weight pinning her to the ground. “Did you really think…that she had the same dreams as you? Or…did you think that you weren’t going to end up in the same place, in the new world?”
Subaru’s eyes flicked sideways at Teana, who looked at her helplessly. Teana didn’t know what she was supposed to get from that, or what Reinforce was trying to imply. She opened her mouth, but she had no words.
A moment later, Subaru surged up like a powerful rising wave and threw Reinforce aside into the table, blowing the wood into splintered chunks and knocking the last few dishes off to shatter on the floor. Turning abruptly, Subaru walked out the door, none of them trying or daring to stop her. Teana shook with nervousness and confusion, looking at the others, hoping to find an explanation or answer but finding none.
A change in demeanour flowed through the silver-haired woman sitting in the ruins of dinner table, and when Reinforce raised her head a different person stared out of her face. Reinforce’s voice came out like a meek child’s, but the same mad amusement hung around her body while she glanced at them with her deep, innocent crimson eyes.
“Did I say something wrong?”
***
"We should have a party!" Hayate bounced lightly in her wheelchair, appearing entirely healthy and fine. The only thing that ruined the image was Zafira's super-vigilant pacing beside her, his brown eyes mournfully worried, even when Arf licked his cheek playfully. Gesturing, Hayate continued, "It's the first Jewel Fate-chan won, so it's a great occasion!"
Nanoha was both amused and appalled to find them all gathered on the backyard porch half an hour afterwards, snacks and alcohol bottles stacked on the wooden walkway. Precia had vanished again, and Signum had tried to do the same but Hayate had caught her halfway out the door and somehow conned her into staying. Setting out some cups, Nanoha was in the middle of pouring when Carim put a hand over one of the cups.
"None for Hayate." She pined Hayate with an exasperatedly annoyed look.
Nanoha reached to pour another when Fate covered it lightly.
"None for me either," she said softly.
"We're all going to look like bad hosts at this rate," Nanoha remarked, only half-joking.
"No, it's not you. Hayate's ill, and I don't drink at all."
Carim and Signum both took a glass, and Nanoha followed suit, the three of them toasting each other silently and downing the contents. None of them were particularly inclined to go for more, so Nanoha capped the bottle and put it aside, returning to sit beside Fate. Inclining her head, Nanoha asked in low, private tones, "Does it have to do with your accident?"
Fate didn't respond. Her hand shook as she petted Arf's head, her blank eyes titled towards her dog teasing the stiff Zafira and nipping his tail.
Nanoha kicked her heels back, thumping the wooden supports lightly. She waited a few more seconds, then said, "If I can ask—"
"Hey," Hayate interrupted, her expression blithely curious, "I'm wondering...what actually happens once all the Jewel Seeds are collected?"
"After all twenty-one Jewels are gathered, they'll disperse again," Fate told them, her hand over Arf's muzzle to gently hinder her from harassing the on-duty Zafira. "They only remained sealed for a short time after the last one is found. Eventually they'll break loose again and scatter once more."
"Then what's the point of collecting them?" Carim asked, aghast.
"Well, only once every one hundred years, is there a moment where the Jewel Seeds can be combined with the free magic that's awakened to open Al Hazard," Fate answered obligingly. "If they're not gathered by that time, the moment passes by...and the cycle is reset." She gave a crooked half-smile, wrapping her free arm around her knees. "So it happens over and over again, if the Angel succeeds."
"What happens if the Wardens succeed in changing the world?" Nanoha couldn't help asking curiously.
Surprisingly, Signum answered that. "They never have." She raised an eyebrow at the looks she received. "Not once. So no one knows."
"That's odd," Fate commented, her brow furrowing slightly as she turned in Signum's direction. "I swear I've read before about cycles when the Angel failed..." She shook her head. "I'll have to look it up again." Then she corrected self-deprecatingly, "
We'll have to look it up."
"Later," Hayate admonished. "Right now is relaxing time."
Nanoha refrained from pointing out that Hayate had brought it up in the first place, probably just to give Fate an excuse not to answer the question Nanoha had been about to ask. So she spoke deliberately, "I wonder if there's a way to destroy the Jewel Seeds for good."
Fate shifted, and her body language changed suspiciously while she chose to remain silent. She knew something, Nanoha knew.
A bowl dropped to the floor, spraying chips like scuttling crabs across the wood. At first Nanoha thought that Hayate was trying for a distraction again, but the pale, shaken expression on the paraplegic girl’s face axed that theory.
“Are you okay?” Fate asked, startled.
Silently, Nanoha and Carim began sweeping up the scattered chips, scooping them back into the bowl while Hayate shook her head. “Sorry,” Hayate apologized, her tone trembling. “I guess I’m not feeling as well as I thought—I’m a little tired. Do you guys mind if I go to bed early?”
“No, go ahead,” Carim replied, but she looked at Hayate in a way that Nanoha didn’t like. “I’ll walk you back.”
They left, shutting the door behind them. Fate sunk her fingers into Arf’s thick fur, her expression sad. Softly, Fate said what they were all thinking. “Carim’s going to say no to Hayate, isn’t she?”
“Carim’s just like that,” Nanoha said awkwardly, frustrated with her long-time comrade. “She keeps herself alone. But...” Sighing, Nanoha confided, “...she’s doing it for your friend. It’s really in Hayate’s best interest...and Carim’s.”
“You should never be ashamed to love someone.” Troubled, Fate turned away, her hand tensing in Arf’s ruff. Her hound buried her muzzle into Fate’s lap, growling lowly, protectively.
“We’re not the ones with something to lose,” Signum told them flatly.
“No,” Nanoha agreed. “Not when we don’t have anything left to lose.”
To her surprise, Fate ended the conversation, her melancholic question-statement eliciting only silence from her companions.
“But is that really true, for any of us?”
***
BEEP.
Dr. Ishida, this is Hayate.
I’m sorry that this is last minute, but…could we move my check-up to tomorrow afternoon? I think…I mean, it’ll be better and more convenient for me.
…
I’ve…I’ve been getting headaches now, and you told me to call you right away if that happened, so I am…and I’ve been dropping things, my hands jerk sometimes.
Please give me a call, thank you.
Bye.
BEEP. END MESSAGE.
2010-02-18, 20:11
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Author
