Nanoha approached the large holographic screen and opened her mouth to begin the briefing.
“Alright, here’s the deal,” Subaru announced before she was even given the chance. “We’re all stuck in a time loop of some kind.”
That certainly got their attention. The three others present placed their attention on Subaru and Teana, both of whom were standing up together.
“However Tea and I seem to be the only one who realize it!” Subaru continued. “Now there’s this Lost Logia on Non-Administrated World #42, that shoots this magic beam at the transfer array. It uses the…”
Subaru fumbled for the terms and turned to Teana, a pleading look in her eyes. “It uses the dimensional barriers and the way the array travels through them for the effect. It’s powered by ionization.”
Subaru was nodding rapidly. “From the atmosphere, right! Which is caused by… ah!” she held up a hand to stall Tea, who was just about to fill in for her again. “I know this one! It’s caused by… magnets?”
“The geo-magnetic storm, Subaru,” Teana said patiently, rolling her eyes.
“Of course,” Subaru said, turning back to look at Nanoha and the others. Hayate opened her mouth, but she too was cut off as the cyborg continued.
“Anyway, we don’t know why none of you remember anything!” she explained quickly. “But I do know for a fact that there’s no point in having Shamal-sensei examine us again!”
Nanoha looked over at Hayate, who returned the gaze before looking back at Subaru and Teana, both of whom nervously awaited their response.
==========
Shamal lifted up the flashlight and turned it on, shooting the light right into Subaru’s eyes, who patiently waited for the doctor to examine both before she blinked away the discomfort. On the bed behind her, Teana was having her blood pressure taken, and further back a nurse was fussing over Fate’s injuries.
“I ask you,” Subaru growled, getting fed up. “What could possibly be in my eye that could explain this!?”
Teana looked ready to chew on the thermometer that was placed in her mouth.
==========
“So what do you make of all this, Nanoha-chan?” Hayate asked her friend as they made their way through the base.
“Well, Hayate-chan, when was the last time you heard Subaru use terms like ‘dimensional barrier’ and ‘geo-magnetic storm’?” Nanoha asked, shrugging.
“Good point.”
“And she actually used them correctly!” Nanoha continued, amazed at it. “For the most part.”
Hayate gave the other woman a sidelong glance. “You believe them, don’t you?”
“Well, I’m considering the possibility,” she admitted. “I mean, the more I think about it, if their right, the ramifications are huge!”
“And next time time loops, this conversation will haven’t even have happened,” Hayate noted, her shoulders sagging.
“I’m afraid so.”
==========
Yuuno quickly gathered up the last of his notes on the recon team’s findings on the ruins, and stepped out of his temporary office, and right into Subaru’s waiting hands, which gently pushed him back inside.
“You’re better off in here,” she explained.
“I was just about to look for you,” he mentioned as moved back, letting both girls in.
“I know,” Subaru said, halfway frowning.
Yuuno set the report down on the desk and motioned to a holographic window he had up. “I managed to translate a section of the west wall,” he explained. “It appears to be some sort of planetary history—”
“Yuuno-san!” Teana cut him off with a shout. “That’s very nice, but can we please focus on the altar!?”
“Why?” the archaeologist asked, adjusting his glasses.
“Bantam initiated the time loop by manipulating the symbols on the surface,” Subaru explained.
“Figure out those symbols, and figure out how to stop this!”
Oh yeah. Teana was really getting fed up with this incident.
“Just because someone can recognize symbols on a keyboard doesn’t mean they know how to run a computer,” Yuuno explained to the girls, very patient with them. Thanks to Arisa back on Earth, he’s had a lot of practice at putting up with fed-up girls. “If I can translate the rest of the text, I can put up some sort of context and be able to figure out what it’s supposed to do.”
“We know what it does!” Teana exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air. “It’s a time loop machine!”
“Well think about it,” Yuuno said. “Who’d build a device that loops time every ten hours?”
“Who knows!?” shouted the redhead, then continued in a quieter voice. “But that’s what it does.”
“But maybe that’s not what it’s supposed to do,” Yuuno pointed out. “I mean, for all we know, this may be an accidental byproduct of its true function.”
Before their argument could continue, a new screen appeared by Yuuno, displaying a series of text that he quickly read. He typed a reply and sent his message back, closing the screen.
“Shari has something on this.”
Hope in their eyes, the girls bolted from the room, with Yuuno quickly hurrying after them.
==========
“According to Subaru,” Shari began in the briefing room. “She and Teana witnessed a beam striking the old Belkan dimensional transfer array on Non-Administrated World #42, and then the resulting portal that appeared became energized somehow.”
Hayate, Yuuno, and both Stars and Lightning Teams were present for this meeting, listening to what the scientist had to say. “And then back here, at the exact same moment, the portal that appeared here experienced the similar effect.”
“Sounds about right,” Teana replied, nodding.
“Okay, so, if we really are under the influence of a Lost Logia, the effect is clearly being translated through the dimensional transfer array! So it’s simple enough to stop it!” Shari declared excitedly.
Signum and Vita were both nodding, understanding how the device worked—they could only transport things across dimensions one way.
“We just need to connect to it ahead of time using another transfer array,” Signum said.
“Right! A few minutes before this loop is supposed to begin again, we create a Belkan-style dimensional transfer to Non-Administrated World #42’s transfer array, and that way the beam can’t translate to this planet. It’ll get a busy signal, for lack of a better term.”
Subaru and Teana looked at one another. Could the solution be so simple?
“Let’s give it a shot!” Hayate exclaimed.
==========
“Let’s do this, Graf Eisen!” Vita shouted, readying her dimensional transfer.
“Jawohl!” the hammer Device replied, slamming a cartridge in. A blood-red Belkan magic circle erupted beneath the tiny Wolkenritter, in the courtyard that Subaru and Teana told them was where the transfer would occur. Back in the base, both girls, Hayate, Nanoha, and Fate stood watching through the window. Shamal and the others were waiting outside in case anything went wrong and Vita got hurt.
Vita concentrated, trying to complete the spell, and Teana and Subaru waited with baited breath. After a few moments, her eyes shot open with an expression of shock.
I can’t connect to the array! she yelled telepathically.
It’s like it’s not even there!
“What? That can’t be right,” Shari muttered. She opened a screen and ran a diagnostic on Graf Eisen, but the Device showed no problems—just an error message stating that the spell couldn’t be completed as the destination just wasn’t there.
Suddenly, ahead of Vita, a second Belkan magic circle appeared, bright white in color.
“Aw, crap,” Teana cursed, her shoulders sagging. Subaru groaned.
Energy blazed out of the dimensional transfer, stunning all but two of them. Hayate whipped around to look at the girls.
Subaru lifted a hand and waved goodbye, just as the light became blinding.
===flicker===
“… anyways, I’m sorry, but that’s just how I happen to feel about it,” said the voice of Vice Granscenic as light faded. “What do you think?”
Subaru fell back into her seat with a sigh, her spoon clattering into the bowl once more. Vice and Alto both blinked at the action.
“Ask me tomorrow,” Subaru sighed resignedly.