Blood Calls To Blood
Chapter 3
“VIVIO!”
“FATE!”
Fate jerked involuntarily to the sound of her name, but hearing Linith’s equally frantic cry jolted her out of her own shock.
As a fighting mage, Fate had been drilled in knowing exactly how much strength to use when throwing any object in any direction, and still know precisely where it lands. She dove and rolled across the pavement, snatching up Bardiche mid-roll and burst into the air, transformed.
“Lightning Bind!” Fate didn’t stop there, pointing Bardiche at the bound and snarling Linith. “Plasma Lancer!”
Ten arrow-bolts materialized behind Fate, shooting towards Linith and striking with an explosion of golden sparks and lightning, tearing a screech from the mountain cat’s throat.
Linith collapsed, her whiskers singed and her head drooping to the ground.
“Fate?” Chrono cried.
She had already crossed over to Karel’s side, checking the limp boy’s pulse. “He’s alright. A few gouges on his neck, but his spine feels solid.” Somehow, Fate kept her voice from trembling. “I’ve captured Linith, but Vivio and my clone both disappeared into the portal.” She took a breath to steady her shaking. “Admiral, I request a relief force to come and pick up the prisoner and Officer Cadet Harlaown, and for permission to pursue the second target.”
“We’re sending in a relief force,” Chrono answered, “but you cannot pursue.” Quickly, because he knew that she would respectfully tell him to stuff it and go after her daughter anyway, Chrono elaborated. “You need a Jewel Seed to pass through, remember?”
“The TSAB vault has—”
“More than that,” interrupted Chrono. “The portal’s backlash as it closed took us by surprise—it fried some of the
Claudia’s systems. Zetec did manage to find the quadrant of space the portal led to before the systems crashed, so we’ll head there now.
Keep a close eye on the prisoner—the clone may make contact, and we can use that to track her.”
Unlikely, Fate despaired—Precia had a gift with familiars, but her mother had never seen them as anything but a tool. Tools who had no value other than what they were made to achieve for their master.
“Fate.” Chrono’s tone was low, as soft as Fate had ever heard from him. “We’ll find Vivio, I promise.”
It was probably an empty promise, Fate knew. How many of them had she herself made in the past to weeping parents?
But she believed him.
She had to.
**O**
Vivio was in a Heaven in Hell.
Tall cathedrals and spires rose from the crumbled streets, the buildings glinting with glass and jewels and marble, their tops jabbing into a red-clouded sky. The ruins of huge golems and other unidentifiable objects littered the street, their exteriors crusted over with rust and metal dust. If this was Al-Hazard, then Vivio found herself suitably awed and apprehensively reverent.
Either apocalypse had struck this amazing city, or the horrors the gilded surfaces had hid finally broke through to the surface. Whatever the cause, Al-Hazard was ruined, ghostly with the eerie silence of the battlefield grave.
Uncle Yuuno would be so jealous—
Fate-mama! And the cl—
Vivio froze when she felt the warm sizzling curve of a scythe touch her throat.
“Don’t move,” a quiet voice ordered from behind her.
“Please…” Vivio said, trying to keep her throat from moving as much as possible. After their trick, she didn’t want to test this Fate’s temper. “Please…can’t we talk?”
“
I’ll talk,” Fate said coldly, although her voice wasn’t quite as stoic as she was pretending to be. “Put your hands slowly behind your back and give me the Jewel.”
Vivio swallowed, twitching as the motion made Bardiche’s blade nip into her skin. Even if she could manage to compute the teleport coordinates by herself and actually open a dimensional portal, she’d need a Jewel Seed to make it through without being swallowed into the abyss of dimensional space.
Fate-mama would never kill anyone.
But…
The blade jabbed into Vivio’s neck, a sharp line of pain stinging under her chin.
“Now.”
…this
wasn’t Fate-mama.
Slowly, Vivio raised her hands, then put them behind her back. She could guess at where the doppelganger was standing and try a surprise attack, but if Vivio was a fraction off or too slow, she may end up headless. Hadn’t they been taught never to give in to criminals? But they’d also been instructed to do anything they can to stay alive…
Vivio opened her gauntlet, letting the Jewel Seed lie on her palm.
Lightning quick, it was snatched out of her hand.
“Now banish your Barrier Jacket, and throw your device to the side.”
“I can banish my Jacket, but I need my device on me,” Vivio lied, glad that Fate was behind her. No matter how hard Aunt Hayate tried to teach her, Vivio’s face always gave away when she was lying, although she had mastered her aunt’s sincere, seemingly guileless tone. “It helps me keep a health condition in check.”
No response from behind her.
Come on, Vivio prayed—hopefully some god would hear her.
You’re like Fate-mama, with a soft, marshmallow heart…you’ll buy it, come on…
“Do you give me your word that you won’t try to run?” Fate finally asked.
Vivio didn’t even have to lie. She wasn’t going to run away. “Yes, I swear.” She let her Barrier Jacket fade in rainbow ripples, getting to her feet once Fate had removed the blade.
“Walk,” Fate ordered, shifting Bardiche to its shooting form. Without a Barrier Jacket any kind of shooting magic would be crippling, so Vivio meekly obeyed, stumbling a bit down the wrecked street.
“Um…hi,” Vivio said, glancing over her shoulder at her captor. “My name is Vivio, Vivio Takamachi.”
“Nice to meet you,” Fate replied automatically. Any version of Fate-mama was unfailingly polite, it seemed.
“Um, in a way, I guess I’m your daughter?” Vivio scratched her head. “Or maybe like a niece? I’m Fate-mama’s daughter, and you’re her…er…”
The young Fate sighed, her shoulders slumping slightly even as she filled in, “Clone?”
“It’s not a bad thing,” Vivio said, half-defensive and half-annoyed at the self-deprecating tone. “My brother is a clone, and so am I.”
“You’re a clone too?” Fate stared at her, shocked and interested. “Of who?”
Vivio winced sheepishly. She should have expected that question. “Ah…Olivie Segbrecht.”
Fate frowned, her mind clearly working over the name. Like usual, Vivio could tell the moment she had worked out who that was, as Fate’s eyes widened.
“The Sankt Kaiser?”
“Yes,” sighed Vivio, kicking a small chunk of rock with a shoe. The rock clattered and struck a heap of drones, causing something to glow eerily. Or it could have just been her imagination. It was probably her overactive imagination reminding her of all the books she’d read about Lost Logias, and the fact that she was now stuck in the real-life version of…
…Actually, the irony there was that the usual saying ended with “of Al-Hazard”.
Instead of gushing, Fate’s face turned contemplative, her deep red eyes distant as she mused over something.
“If you’re the Sankt Kaiser’s clone, then do you have her memories too? Genetic memories, I think they’re called…where you remember what they did, and how they felt.”
“No, I don’t.” Vivio tilted her head, observing Fate. “And you? Do you have Alicia’s memories, or…”
Something closed in Fate’s expression, and the lightning mage gave Vivio a little impatient prod in the back with Bardiche as if to move them along faster down the street as well as move through the current conversation to its end. “It doesn’t matter—Enforcer Fate’s memories were Alicia-nee-san’s too.”
“…Alright.” Vivio managed to stop herself from adding a childish
If you say so. She wasn’t sure how it would matter, if this Fate had her Fate-mama’s memories or Alicia’s, but Vivio had the feeling that it did matter somehow.
The area darkened suddenly, and Vivio looked up as the blooded sky boiled over with deep purple clouds, casting long shadows on them.
The street was rising up, and there were fewer crumbling buildings around them as they walked on. At the top of this small hill towers staked out the corners of a glittering palace, the tall arches and jagged walls making Vivio feel very small and vulnerable as she stared at it from within its shadow.
What kind of kings had ruled this land before Al-Hazard fell? The entire city looked like a collection of relics from a creative, glorious race, but then why had this utopian-like city fallen into such ruins? This eerie crystalline and stone palace gave Vivio the shivers.
She couldn’t help thinking about the wild speculations that Al-Hazard had been a land of
gods.
What powers did Precia Testarossa find here? What could Precia
do with those powers?
Vivio shivered again.
“It wasn’t like you thought.”
Twitching at the sudden statement from the quiet Fate, Vivio turned her head. “Sorry?” Vivio asked, puzzled.
“From earlier,” Fate clarified as they approached the great crystal gates of the palace. “I’m not ashamed of being a clone. I already knew—or thought—that I was Alicia-nee-san’s clone.”
“Then why the weird reaction?”
Fate hesitated for an instant, having second thoughts about confiding to a stranger and an enemy, but she had brought the topic up again because she clearly had wanted someone to confess to. “I thought that I had been born as Alicia-nee-san’s sister…her twin. But now, I’m just…I’m just that other Fate’s clone, I have part of her memories…” She trailed off as the tall gates opened, the hinges complaining their use in a series of high-pitched screeching.
The hall loomed dozens of meters above their heads, the large space adding to the chill that hung heavily in the air. Vivio hugged her arms to her chest as goosebumps rose on her skin. A soft hand patted her cheek as Kris snuggled closer to her neck.
Their steps echoed in the emptiness, the sounds travelling down the corridor and disappearing in the blackness hundreds of feet away. Through an open door to Vivio’s right she caught sight of a massive throne hall, gleaming with broken glass and crystal strewn on the gold-tiled floor before they moved on past.
Bardiche’s head nudged Vivio’s shoulder, stopping her next to a set of carved doors. The slight hominess of the patterns made Vivio guess that this must be a bedroom of some kind, maybe even the chambers of the ruler.
Fate put one hand on the doors where they met in a nearly seamless line. Her brow was furrowed slightly, and her lip curled slightly where she was biting it.
“It just feels like…just a little…” Fate struggled to find a way to voice her thoughts, a mixture of dejection, sadness and what Vivio thought was fear in her face. Vivio couldn’t move her gaze away, transfixed on the vulnerability. Quietly, almost guiltily, Fate said, “…like I’m just a replacement for her.”
The bedroom doors rumbled, swinging open slowly and releasing a cold draft that made Vivio shiver, and shiver again when she looked into the room.
**O**
It only took three minutes and twenty seconds for the relief force to arrive. Fate knew this because she had been checking her time display every ten seconds between pacing along the alley, checking Karel’s vitals and exchanging looks with Linith, who was still bound with lightning rings. The mountain cat familiar had regained consciousness minutes earlier and was currently quiet, curled up on her bound paws as much as she could in a predator’s crouch.
Despite having the same name and the same animal form, Fate could immediately tell that this was not
her Linith. This Linith had a youthful strength while Fate’s Linith had had a mature intelligence.
A different guardian for a different purpose.
“I knew a Linith too,” Fate said quietly to her. Linith began to growl, but Fate continued. “She took care of me, and taught me magic.”
The rumbling growl in Linith’s throat lessened slightly.
“Please,” Fate appealed. “Will you help us help her? If the solution does not harm anyone, I promise that I will do anything in my power to help.” She knelt down, keeping a respectful distance away from Linith’s claws. “In my childhood, I had to search for the Jewel Seeds for Precia as well, and Mother hadn’t been…easy…on me. Will you help?”
Linith eyed her with narrowed green eyes, her ears flat against her skull. “You,” she said finally, drawing her lips upwards to expose white fangs, “are not my Fate.”
If only Fate had brought Arf with her—maybe Arf could have talked this Linith into acting for the good of her master. But more than that…Fate wanted the old familiarity, to have someone who understood and had lived out that part of her life with her.
Some who could remind Fate that this was not her past…That she was Fate T. Harlaown and
not Fate Testa—
“Fate-chan!”
That voice…Fate looked up, and sure enough, she saw Nanoha descending from the sky towards her. Nanoha landed with perfect precision right next to Fate, smiling her uplifting smile that never failed to raise Fate’s spirits.
“Nanoha, how did you—”
“Chrono-kun asked me to come, so I came.” Nanoha glanced at Linith, then at Karel, who was picked up by the two officers who had come with Nanoha. “How—”
“I’m sorry, Nanoha,” Fate interrupted her, hanging her head and staring at the ground. “I shouldn’t have gotten so involved with her, or else I would have noticed Linith moving, and then Karel wouldn’t have gotten hurt and Vivio wouldn’t have vanished. I’m so sorry...”
“I heard,” Nanoha said, but rather than sounding disappointed Fate heard worry in her friend’s voice. “But I trust you, Fate-chan, remember? I know that you’ll find a way to get Vivio home safely.”
“Then why are you here?” Fate asked, confused.
Nanoha smiled softly, switching Raising Heart to her other hand so that she could clasp fingers with Fate. “Chrono-kun called me for
you. If you need someone to talk to, someone to give you a hug, someone to watch your back in a fight—I’m here for you, Fate-chan.”
And just like that, Fate felt the miserable anxiety drain away. Nanoha reminded her of what she had gained over the years, and even if what Fate had now wasn’t what she had hoped for when she had been a lonely child, she loved it. Fate T. Harlaown had moved past regrets, and she felt almost sheepish for having forgotten that.
All she did in return was squeeze Nanoha’s hand and say, “Thank you.”
Nanoha’s smile widened and she squeezed back, and Fate knew that her oldest friend understood.
**O**
A king’s bedroom was nearly as large as the
Claudia’s bridge.
The walls stretched upwards twice as high as a normal room, and the pillars extending from the walls provided surfaces for ancient tapestries to hang from. The metallic hues made the room feel cold although the floor itself radiated warmth. A massive bed had been shoved into the corner, untouched, while the rest of the furniture clustered at the center of the room.
Vivio knew that she was gaping like a beached fish as she stared at the massive tank laid on its side, the glass vibrating slightly with a low hum and emitting a dim light.
The young girl curled up in a foetal position wasn’t another Fate.
This was
Alicia.
All the blood drained from Vivio’s face when she saw the woman sitting beside the tank, caressing the glass as if the woman imagined that she could actually touch the girl inside. A woman with long grey hair and sunken purple eyes—Vivio had seen pictures of her while she had been smiling and happy.
She was smiling now.
Precia Testarossa…
To Nanoha-mama, she had been an enemy. To Fate-mama…she had been “Mother”. So what exactly did that make her to Vivio? It had been easy to listen to Fate-mama’s forgiving memories when Precia had just been a name instead of a reality.
Vivio’s first thought was,
Vivio Takamachi—your mamas beat Precia once, so you can’t do any less. And her second was,
This is my grandmother!
Precia stirred, pulling her eyes away from her daughter with effort to look at the open door.
“Who is this girl?”
Vivio stumbled as Fate nudged at her shoulder with Bardiche, a clear prompt. “Officer Cadet Vivio Takamachi, ma’am.”
“Takamachi…” Precia repeated, musing over the name. Vivio couldn’t read her expression, the nervous tension making her twitchy.
“She’s one of the TSAB officers who tried to stop me on Ruwella,” Fate supplied.
“Hm.” Precia looked at Vivio. One of her hands paused in its slow stroking of the glass and adjusted a small blanket that was draped on her lap. She didn’t look very well, and Vivio wondered why. Maybe she could use that to her advantage—she still had Sacred Heart, and if she could outmanoeuvre Fate she might manage to get away far enough to hide. But there was no point in running if she couldn’t find a way to teleport back, or if Uncle Chrono hadn’t sent anyone after her yet. Besides, even as Vivio looked back at Precia and saw how the woman coughed wetly into one hand, she couldn’t forget the sight of her Fate-mama collapsed in a hole punched into the pavement from a cross-dimensional attack.
She’s dangerous.
“I know you.” Precia’s eyelids lowered, her expression shifting from bored attention into something that made Vivio shiver. “You’re that girl-mage who destroyed my Garden.”
“That’s my Nanoha-mama,” Vivio declared, blushing at the hint of self-deprecation that had slipped into her proud retort.
“I thought that you said Enforcer Fate was your mother,” Fate said from beside Vivio.
“Fate?” A slow, crooked smile spread across Precia’s lips.
Vivio swallowed, fighting to keep her knees from shaking. “They’re both my mothers.” Should she be telling her captors such things? TSAB protocol said that she should only tell them her name and her rank, and nothing else. However…this was her
grandmother, in a way. And also her…whatever this Fate’s relation to her was. This was her…her
family.
“You’re Fate’s daughter?”
Next to her, Vivio saw Fate flinch slightly—a twinge of hurt in her face at hearing her name used that way?
Vivio nodded.
Precia regarded her closely, then smiled, her face softening. “Then you’re my granddaughter, aren’t you?” She pointed at the chair across from her, placed at the foot of Alicia’s glass tube. “Have a seat.”
“…Thank you, ma’am.” Nervously, Vivio stepped forward and perched on the edge of the chair, locking her hands on her lap around Kris to hide her unease, and so that she could quickly transform if needed.
Fate didn’t sit. “Oka-san, I have to go save Linith. The TSAB captured her before we could escape together.”
“Sit by Alicia for a while, Fate.” Precia leaned back on the couch, letting the cushions support her weight. She held up a hand, cutting off Fate’s confused protest. “Don’t worry, Fate—Linith can take care of herself.”
Vivio saw Fate acquiesce and sit on the floor next to the floating Alicia, whispering something to her sister. But she had been watching Precia the whole time, and Vivio felt a cold shock at the odd languid expression on Precia’s face as the old woman said satisfactorily, “We don’t have to worry about Linith.”
**O**
Nanoha would have liked to hug her Fate-chan, but the sound of a hoarse gasp behind her interrupted the moment. She had only seen Fate’s face go that pale once before, and would have never wanted to see it again.
"What's wrong?" Fate cried, rushing over and waving a hand to dissipate the binds around Linith, who had shifted from her cat form into that of a young woman, sprawled out on the pavement. Nanoha bounded over too, and was about to reach out for Linith but the cat-eared familiar groaned, managing to sit up weakly.
Linith glanced down, a small sad smile on her lips as her bangs hid her eyes. "Ah, so that's it then." She put a trembling hand on her chest, her fingers already ghostly translucent. "The contract is done."
“What?” said Nanoha.
"You're disappearing?" Fate exclaimed, her face anguished. She reached out a hand but stopped just before her fingers touched Linith's shoulder.
"It's done," Linith said quietly, her breaths coming slower and slower. Nanoha made a small distressed sound in her throat, and caught Linith's hand as it fluttered weakly at them. The dying familiar's touch was cold and tingling, like touching pure magic as her physical body turned back into the magic that had given her a second life.
Linith slumped, a weary sigh escaping her cracked lips. "So we have found it..."
"What have you found?" Fate asked, a mixture of frustration and compassion on her face.
"The means," Linith whispered, "to bring the young lady back. Not just the right Jewel...but...the means..."
"What do you mean?" Fate cried, but it was too late.
Nanoha felt all sensation between her cupped hands vanish, her arms falling uselessly to her sides as Linith disappeared, vanishing into nothing as if she had never been there at all. And she heard Fate groan, the sound an agonized whimper as the blonde collapsed on her knees, her head in her hands. Nanoha knelt and hugged her tightly, pressing Fate's bowed head to her chest.
"Not again," she heard Fate moan, before starting to cry.
"Fate-chan—"
“We
have to find them." Fate pulled herself up, pale and shaking. "You heard what Linith said...Mother found the
means. Linith didn't disappear when I handed my clone the Jewel."
"Vivio," Nanoha breathed, feeling cold as the realization sunk in. "The means is Vivio."
**O**
“You’re very quiet,” Precia commented, “for a girl who is meeting her grandmother and aunt for the first time.”
“By aunt, you meant Fate-chan, right?” Vivio dared to say, smiling slightly. “We talked a bit earlier already.”
Oh…it probably wasn’t a good idea to bait Precia. But nothing happened, or at least Precia acted like nothing had happened.
“Aren’t you curious about your lost family?”
“Kind of,” Vivio conceded honestly. She looped her ankles together, swinging her legs slightly. “Why were you so cruel to my mom? Fate-mama?”
Precia looked disapproving of the question, her lined brow furrowing, but she didn’t appear too angry. “Cruel? You must be mistaken.”
“Um…I doubt it.”
“I wanted to make her strong.” Precia sighed, and the sense of theatrics made Vivio more doubtful of Precia’s answers. “It’s a pity that she had been swayed by weaker associations. Besides, she was the second child—you don’t want to make the same mistakes with your children twice, after all.”
“Mistakes?” Vivio choked out, feeling frustration and incredulousness rising in her chest.
“Yes, you want to learn from your mistakes.” Her purple eyes drifted over to the clone Fate, who was still murmuring to Alicia. “I didn’t let my new daughter make the same foolish mistakes Linith allowed.”
“So Linith—this
new Linith—she’s your familiar, and not Fate-chan’s?”
“I said it already, didn’t I?” Annoyed, Precia coughed lightly. “I didn’t make the same mistakes this time.”
Arf had been the best thing for her Fate-mama, Vivio knew! Anyone could tell, especially when they brought it up to Arf herself, and just seeing Arf’s sad and self-guilt over things she didn’t have the power to do in the past told the story.
“Arf loved Fate-mama, when you didn’t,” accused Vivio. It was uncomfortable, speaking this way to an adult, to her grandmother, but Nanoha-mama had always told her to be honest about her feelings.
“That’s not the case now.”
Vivio squinted, holding Kris closer to herself. Precia didn’t
look like she was lying…and clearly, the clone Fate really loved Precia like a mother, so that means that it’s not a lie, right? “Do you love Fate-chan? But you’re using her like you used Fate-mama, to find the Jewel Seeds for you.”
“She’s doing it of her own free will,” replied Precia, glancing sideways to smile in that motherly pride way at the back of Fate’s head. “My Fate wants to save her older sister.” Precia turned to look at Vivio, her gaze intense and burning with passion. “Don’t you want to save your aunt? To save Alicia too…we’re all family, after all.”
Vivio hesitated. She looked over at the encased Alicia. The curled up girl looked exactly like her Fate-mama…of course, they had to be, since her mama was a clone of Alicia…and so was this Fate, but with Fate-mama’s memories. Three people with the same face, but they weren’t the same. But still, they
were all the same family…
“But we can’t,” Vivio said finally. “Magic can’t bring back the dead. Everyone knows that.” It was one of the first lessons any mage got—although of course, in elementary school they were taught that fact through fables and little stories and such. It was only through her reading in the Infinity Library that Vivio got to see what kind of trouble had been caused in the past by mages who tried to overcome that impossible barrier.
Precia Testarossa had been widely cited, in fact.
“Our
current magic,” Precia countered, smiling widely. She waved one hand about the air, the jewel at her wrist flashing. “But look where we are! Al-Hazard, the ultimate pinnacle of magic…where the ancients performed miracles that were nothing but ordinary feats to them. You saw the city—even ruined, look at what they had achieved!” She chuckled, the sound hoarse from her damaged throat. “Twenty years ago, I had decided to find the path
here because I knew then, just as I know now, that with the right kind of magic,
we can bring back the dead.”
“You can’t!” Vivio protested, perching on the edge of her seat. It felt better to argue when her feet were planted on the floor, since they had been dangling off the edge of the chair before. “You even mentioned it yourself in your earlier dissertations about familiars, Precia-san—that even familiar magic didn’t truly bring back the dead, but captures a soul right before true death to implant into a new body. Resurrecting the dead is impossible, and even if it was…” Vivio hesitated, losing her wind once she had drifted from evidence into opinion. “…dying is just another part of life. We have to learn to let them go.”
Precia tilted her head, the motion reminding Vivio of an eagle sizing up its prey. “And who taught you that lesson? Your
mother?” The mocking tone in her voice made Vivio scowl. Then something serious and very sane entered Precia’s eyes as she said, “If
you were dead, do you really believe that your mother wouldn’t do
anything to save you?”
…If Precia hadn’t asked her in that way, Vivio could have easily deflected it. But she was aware that Fate had given up pretending not to eavesdrop, and was watching her too, waiting for an answer.
They were a lot alike, that Fate and Vivio…both of them weren’t truly their mothers’ daughters, but yet at the same time, that family bond was there. Undeniably there.
Would her mamas do
anything to save Vivio’s life?
“…I don’t know,” Vivio admitted. Kris twitched under the pressure of her tight grip around his middle. “But if it was going to hurt someone, then I know that they wouldn’t!”
“Who am I hurting?” Precia asked mildly, smiling again. “Think about it, my granddaughter—all I need is the right Jewel Seed for Alicia. Rather than harming someone, I am restoring a life that had been stolen!”
Vivio bit her lip, trembling.
Precia did have a point…nowhere in the books Vivio read mentioned why it was bad to try and bring back the dead. All the literature seemed to agree that it was an impossibility, and most attempts had been a mixture of superstitious rituals mixed with sacrifices. But if Precia was right…if Al-Hazard technology could really revive Alicia without harming anyone…then was that the right thing to do?
“Rather than try to stop me,” Precia said, holding out a thin hand towards Vivio, her eyes keen, “Will you help me save my daughter?”
**O**
It took every ounce of Nanoha’s persuasive skills to get Fate to agree to retire for the night to her quarters. Neither she nor Chrono wanted to make it an order, since all that would do is load more anxiety and conflicting feelings on Fate, so Nanoha had slowly and persuasively coaxed Fate into getting some rest to be ready for a rescue mission.
She was glad that Chrono had Amy call her.
“Fate-chan, I’m kind of tired…join me?” Nanoha held up the covers to Fate’s bunk, having already curled up under the blankets and was propping herself up on one arm. The bed hadn’t quite been made with two people in mind, but they’d manage somehow.
Fate hesitated, pausing in her pacing. She had changed into—more like Nanoha had changed her into—casual clothes, but held herself rigid enough to still be in uniform. Apprehension flickered in her red eyes, and Nanoha fought to keep herself from blushing when she realized why Fate was hesitating; blushing would probably accidentally
confirm Fate’s thoughts! Nanoha tried to inject the warmest, most comforting and platonic tones into her voice as she elaborated, “I’m worried about you, Fate-chan—I think you could use some sleep. Please?”
Fate bit her lip, then sighed and walked over, letting Nanoha cuddle her close and stroke her hair. Without Nanoha’s asking, Raising Heart dimmed the lights down before flying to rest beside Bardiche on the bedside shelf.
They lay there in the dim room, silent.
“…Fate-chan? Do you want to talk about it?”
A sigh. “About what part?”
“Any part you want.”
“…”
“…”
“I know that I shouldn’t think this way…but I keep asking myself: What did I do wrong?” A wet tear dripped onto Nanoha’s neck as Fate sniffed, laying her cheek on Nanoha’s shoulder. “Why did Mother love Alicia and that clone, but not
me?”
Nanoha wordlessly began rubbing Fate’s back as the blonde trembled.
“Why didn’t Mother try to find me, if she had realized that it was alright to love someone other than Alicia-nee-san? Instead, she…she made herself another daughter to love. Nanoha, I would have forgiven Mother. I already have.”
“Yes, I know.”
“Why did she call her
Fate? I’ve been thinking and thinking about that, and I just don’t know. Mother…she had said that she hated me. She didn’t want to call me after Alicia, who she loved. But then why did she name her after me?”
“Maybe…” Nanoha paused, not sure if she should be speculating or not. “Maybe Precia wanted to be reminded of you.” She left it at that—knowing her own feelings towards Precia, Nanoha would probably extrapolate a more negative interpretation. That wasn’t what Fate needed at the moment.
“Nanoha,” whispered Fate.
“Yes?” she answered just as softly.
“If…if I had been her…if I had known that Mother had wanted the Jewel Seeds to try and save Alicia…”
“Precia didn’t want to
save Alicia, Fate-chan,” Nanoha had to interrupt. “She wanted to bring her back. Alicia was already dead.”
She felt Fate flinch.
Gently, Nanoha said, “What would you have done, Fate-chan?”
“…For my sister? If I had known, Nanoha…” Fate pushed herself up slightly so that they were looking at each other, her eyes a deep black-red in the darkness. “I would have done anything in my power to get those Jewel Seeds. Even if it meant…fighting anyone who tried to stop me. I probably would have hurt you, Nanoha. And I wouldn’t have cared.”
“You would have cared,” Nanoha said, brushing some blonde locks behind Fate’s ear. “Even if you had known about Alicia, you’re a good person, Fate-chan.”
“I don’t know,” Fate said in a small voice, her tone shaky. “If I had failed Mother, failed Alicia-nee-san…right and wrong wouldn’t have…mattered…”
“I believe in you.” Nanoha reached out in the dark and clasped Fate’s hand. “I believe in you, Fate.”
“Nanoha…if I was
her…if I had grown up the way she lived, then I might not have taken your hand after all.” Fate bit her lip, shame etched into her face like a brand. “I might not have let myself try to see your side of things, if I’d had something so important to fight for.”
Nanoha repressed a shiver.
It was exactly that truth that had Fate dread what Vivio would be facing.
She didn’t need Fate to finish her confession. The haunted guilt in Fate’s eyes told it all.
If I had grown up with Mother loving me…
For my family…
…I would do anything
they needed of me.
**O**
Vivio didn’t know how to answer.
So she dodged the question by asking one of her own. “Do you really think that it’s best for Alicia to bring her back? What if…
you’re the one who needs her more?”
Precia drew herself back, affronted. “This has never been about
me,” she practically hissed, her body twitching in agitation. “Alicia didn’t deserve to suffer for
my mistakes! She was just a girl…I would do anything to have traded my life for hers…” Sadness flooded into Precia’s voice, and Vivio knew for certain that it was not an act. “I lived my years, made my choices…but Alicia had her choices taken from her. I
will get them back for her.”
It shouldn’t be right…what Precia was doing just
couldn’t be the right thing to do. It was against the law. But…even though her Nanoha-mama had always told Vivio to be a good, responsible citizen, undoubtedly Nanoha had taught her that doing the right thing was more important than worrying about whether it was against the rules or not. All of Vivio’s aunts and uncles seemed to live by the same philosophy—Nanoha-mama had shown her way to all of them before.
Surely, giving a young girl another chance at life
had to be the right thing to do?
Didn’t Nanoha-mama give Fate-mama that same chance, fourteen years ago?
Vivio saw Precia smile, and she realized that her wavering conviction was probably written all over her face. Quickly she schooled her expression, but too late.
“Now that Fate has gotten us the Jewel Seed we need,” Precia said, waving a hand at the clone sitting on the floor, “All we need to do is find the correct method to infuse the Jewel into Alicia’s body.” A small coughing fit interrupted Precia, making Fate spring to her feet and quickly pour a glass of water for her mother. Precia gave her a small smile and drank, letting her breathing ease.
Vivio quickly sat back down—she had jumped up too when Precia had started coughing.
“Thank you, dear,” Precia patted Fate’s head, and the blonde smiled, her whole face lighting up. However, concern still shone in Fate’s eyes as she took the glass back from Precia’s trembling hand.
“This is absolutely critical—my poor Alicia…” Precia fixed her eyes on Alicia’s tank, the sickly pale light emitting from the glass casting a greenish glow across Precia’s face. “It’s been too long…We must make it work. I won’t get another chance.”
“From…” Vivio paused, trying to wet her dry mouth. “From what I’ve read about the Jewel Seeds, they fulfill the wishes of a living animal or person. I don’t think it would quite work for Alicia, since she’s…well…dead.”
“Yes,” Precia agreed bitterly. “But the theory should still be sound…the release of power from an invoked Lost Logia should be more than enough to provide the kind of magic needed to provide a new life. But I don’t think that there’s been a case of a Jewel Seed successfully merging with a human.”
Vivio frowned, working the problem over in her head. “I’ve never heard of any either, but it’s happened with Relics.”
“Relics?”
“Yeah. They’re Lost Logia too, but they’re compatible with people.” Vivio shivered, looking down. The memories were still fresh, even if most of the terror had been in her past. “Jail Scaglietti had told Lutecia-chan that the right Relic could revive Megane-san, who had been in a coma. Well, he might have been lying to her though…”
“But I assume that it hadn’t actually been done before?” Precia asked, sighing in disappointment.
“Well, actually, it has,” Vivio told her. “During the JS Incident, Jail…” She gripped Kris tighter and took a breath. “Jail had put one inside me, so that I could power the Saint’s Cradle for him. It…hurt a lot. But he did do it, and I think he did it to Lutecia-chan too.”
Precia went still. “
You had a Lost Logia placed inside of you…successfully?”
A chill went down Vivio’s spine. “Um…yes,” she said tentatively.
But Precia wasn’t looking at her any longer, having rose from the couch and was pacing in a limping, twitchy manner. Fate was clearly worried, but she didn’t seem to dare break her mother’s concentration on something.
“I see, I see…the girl has made it all so clear now…perhaps my method had been wrong…Relic or Jewel Seed, they are both Lost Logia, so maybe it isn’t the source but the way…” Precia’s hands quivered as she spoke to herself, clutching at her chest as if trying to contain her excitement or another coughing fit. “That may be why my previous attempts have all failed…not a matter of the human subjects, or the Jewel serial number, but my procedure was faulty…but how to correct it? A prototype, yes…” Precia stopped, her gray hair hanging in long limp strands before her face. Then she tilted her head, her purple eyes peering brightly through her hair straight at Vivio. “Yes…I should examine a specimen where the procedure was successful…”
Bam! Vivio tripped backwards over her chair, sprawling over the arm and rolling to her feet, putting space between herself and the eagerly watching Precia. “W…What?” she stammered nervously. “Precia-san…”
“I just need to examine you,” Precia said feverishly, smiling a falsely assuring smile. “It won’t hurt, I promise. You’ll help, right?”
“No, I think I’ll pass, sorry,” Vivio gulped. She stepped back involuntarily, and only realized that her retreating towards the door would probably set Precia off after the fully crazed fury exploded in Precia’s gaze.
“How dare you defy your grandmother!” Precia screamed, her staff materializing in her right hand. “Come back here at once!”
“Sacred Heart, SET UP!” Vivio yelled.
“How dare you!” shrieked Precia, staggering under the emotional outburst. “Fate, capture her! I won’t hurt her, it won’t hurt at all…it’s for Alicia!”
Fate had already been in her Barrier Jacket, so in the time that it took Vivio’s Barrier Jacket to fully form Fate had already took to the air, brandishing Bardiche.
“Arc Saber.”
Vivio tucked and rolled, letting the yellow blade arc over her and strike the wall. She charged straight for Fate, leaping into the air herself. Dodging two sets of lightning binds, Vivio attacked with a flurry of punches, hitting Fate’s auto-shield with some hits and being parried by Bardiche’s staff with others.
“Photon Lancer.”
Vivio closed in again, getting behind the forming energy spheres and so making Fate’s attack useless. Unlike her Fate-mama’s upgraded Plasma Lancer, Vivio knew that the shots from Photon Lancer only travelled in one direction, so she got in close and struck Fate with her armoured fists.
“Accel Smash!”
Fate yelped when Vivio slugged her in the stomach, barely twisting out of Vivio’s next attack and diving towards the floor. The room wasn’t large enough for Fate to loop her, so Vivio followed, cutting Fate off and launching a kick that nearly tore Bardiche out of her opponent’s hands.
“Just let me go!” Vivio cried as she seized Bardiche’s shaft with both hands, grappling with Fate. “I don’t want to fight you!”
“Then stop!” Fate pleaded.
“Blitz Rush.”
Vivio lost her grip as Fate vanished in a super burst of speed, zipping to the far side of the room in an eyeblink.
“No one has to get hurt, if you stop now!”
“I can’t!” Vivio readied herself. After seeing Precia’s sudden mood change, Vivio couldn’t trust anything Precia had told her.
Fate was going to rush her, get in close to use her scythe. With Alicia’s tank and Precia so close, there was no way Fate would risk using a shooting spell. Vivio could use that to her advantage.
Just as Vivio expected, Fate blitzed towards Vivio, Bardiche’s scythe form carving upwards towards her face. Vivio made a sharp crescent turn and thrust out one gauntleted hand.
A close range shot should neutralize her!
“DIVINE BUSTER!”
Fate immediately dodged, but the shot wouldn’t have hit her anyway.
Fate’s Sonic Move had moved her faster than Vivio had estimated. Her Divine Buster shot behind Fate’s fluttering cape, shredding the edge into black and red strips.
But the beam kept going.
Even this short range version had more than enough space in the small room to keep going at full power.
“No!” Precia and Vivio screamed.
The rainbow beam struck Alicia’s tank—and promptly exploded in a cloud of glass and fluid and smoke.