“Almost two weeks ago, a reconnaissance team discov—”
“We’ve done this!” Subaru blurted out in the briefing room, tossing a folder to the table.
Hayate gave the girl a look halfway between disapproval at the interruption and amusement at the sudden outburst. “Subaru, we do this every time there’s a mission,” she said.
“I’m not talking about briefings in general, Commander Hayate, I’m talking about
this briefing!” Subaru explained. “I’m talking about
this day!”
All her outburst gained her was the blank stares of everyone else in the room, wondering if the girl had suddenly lost her mind.
“Subaru’s right,” Teana said. “Events are repeating themselves.”
“Since when?” Nanoha asked, putting a hand on her hip.
“Since we went to Non-Administrated World #42!” Subaru explained, almost fed up.
“We haven’t been to Non-Administrated World #42,” was Nanoha’s response.
“Yes we have!” she argued back, then pointed at the others. “‘No we haven’t!’ That’s what you were gonna say!”
“Of course that’s what we’re gonna say,” Yuuno reasoned, leaning forward on the table.
…
“Okay, bad example,” Subaru conceded.
“Subaru, I’m not quite sure what to make of this,” Hayate said.
Nanoha stepped forward. “If we’ve had this meeting before—”
“—then why are me and Tea the only ones who remember it? I know, that’s what you guys said last time!” Subaru cut her off.
“Well, I’ll venture a guess and say it has something to do with that Lost Logia,” Teana pointed out.
Nanoha looked back at the screen, looking rather unconvinced.
Subaru tapped at her wristwatch, looking at the time, and said, “And you’ll all believe us when Lightning Team shows up on the roof in… 4… 3… 2… 1…”
Hayate, Nanoha, and Yuuno looked about, as if waiting for something to happen. Nothing changed, and Subaru nervously looked down at her watch, tapping it to see if it was off.
“Lightning Team isn’t due back for another two days, Subaru,” Hayate said, frowning unamusedly.
And then the holographic window appeared, with Griffith’s flustered expression appearing within it.
“Commander Yagami, ma’am, we’re detecting an incoming dimensional transfer,” he explained. “It’s headed straight for the base.”
Subaru’s fist hit the edge of the table in frustration. “So close!”
==========
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.
“You’re not going to find anything,” Teana said flatly.
“We’ll need to wait for the lab results before we jump to any conclusions,” Shamal replied, jotting a note on her clipboard.
“The results will be negative!” Subaru complained.
Shamal only smiled. “Humor me!” she said, as Hayate and Nanoha arrived. “Well, Hayate-chan, I—”
“Commander Hayate, ma’am,” Teana interrupted, holding up a hand to stall Shamal. “I know you’re thinking of postponing the mission, but there’s no point. We tried it last time, and it didn’t work.”
Subaru accepted the thermometer that the nurse plopped into her mouth, already getting the idea that Tea’s argument will be futile.
==========
Once again, Subaru found herself headed to the commissary after Hayate had decreed their mission postponed. She had an idea, too, about what was going to happen. She gestured with her hands, ticking off the seconds until…
“Subaru, wait up!”
… Yuuno came down the hall after her, intent to discuss the explanation they once again tried giving to convince Hayate
not to postpone the mission. She sighed in acceptance of the inevitable and turned to face the archaeologist.
They halted by the intersection as Yuuno spoke. “I was thinking about what Teana said, about a beam coming out—”
“Four hundred pages of old Belkan script,” Subaru blurted, causing Yuuno to blink in mild surprise.
“… right. The recon team took images of the ruins,” he went on as he brought up the window.
“Looks familiar,” Subaru said, frowning. Guess speeding up things wasn’t going to save the poor guy. “But I’m not that great at translating stuff.”
“No, I understand, I was just thinking, if you could give me more details about the layout of the ruins, I could—”
And once again, Yuuno found himself slammed to the ground as a distracted Shari turned the corner, sending them both to the ground.
Guiltily, Subaru realized she probably should’ve moved him out of harm’s way, as Shari spouted apologies for the accident.
==========
Subaru knocked on the edge of the open door to Commander Hayate’s office, causing the woman to look up from her report as both of the lower Stars Team members entered her office.
“Any word from Shamal-sensei?” Subaru asked worriedly.
“We’re still waiting on the lab results,” Hayate replied.
Teana shook her head. “If we delay any more it’ll be too late, Commander!” she exclaimed.
“Too late for what?”
“To stop this mess from happening again!” Subaru nearly shouted.
“You realize, girls, this is a
little difficult for me to accept, right?” Hayate said, propping her head up with her arm.
“Hey, if it was just me, I’d agree!” Subaru said. “But what about Tea?! C’mon, is this the face of a crazy woman!?”
Tea blinked and gave Subaru a side-long look. Subaru swallowed and calmed down. “Bad example,” she conceded.
“Girls, what do you want?” Hayate asked, no longer willing to put up with this.
“We want to go back to World #42,” Teana informed her.
Hayate sighed, weighing her options.
==========
Light flashed as the dimensional transfer finished, and Subaru, Teana, Vita, Nanoha, and Yuuno appeared within the entryway to the ruins on Non-Administrated World #42. Already it was blazing hot, and as they stepped forward, Raising Heart chimed with a warning.
“A geo-magnetic storm is building,” came the smooth female voice from the red gemstone hanging from Nanoha’s neck.
“Be careful, my master.”
“That’s the Lost Logia right there,” Teana said, pointing ahead of them before headed down the steps at a brisk pace. She already had Cross Mirage set up.
“I wonder how it works,” Vita said, frowning as she followed her with the others as they made their way to the Lost Logia.
“Beats me,” Teana admitted. “We got interrupted when Nanoha tried to explain last time.”
The scholar Bantam came around the corner of the ruins, not noticing the returned Stars Team as he made his way to the Lost Logia.
“Freeze!” Teana shouted, aiming her Device at the man and causing him to halt in his tracks.
“Hello,” he said, holding up his hands.
“Whoa, easy,” Yuuno said, stepping out before them.
Subaru shook her head. “That’s the guy,” she pointed out. She had her mother’s Revolver Knuckle out as well, ready to clobber him if he did something funny. “He’s the one who started all this.”
Bantam merely looked confused. “I-I-I-I don’t understand,” he said, panicky.
“Whatever you did, I want you to undo it!” Tea commanded, her aim not wavering in the least.
“I didn’t do anything!”
“Tea, I don’t think he knows what you’re talking about,” Nanoha said, looking over at the young woman.
Do you think he doesn’t remember, Tea? Subaru asked privately, sounding unsure.
Tea’s frown increased. “Oh he remembers,” she said. “He was the one pushing all those buttons.”
“Please, I’m just an archaeologist,” Bantam explained nervously as he approached his bag on the Lost Logia altar. Tea’s aim followed him, making sure he wouldn’t try anything funny. “I’ve been trying to translate these symbols. I-I-I-I-I told the others who came before you!”
“You mean the recon team?” Yuuno asked. Behind him, Vita was frowning, and had Graf Eisen in her hands, making the other archaeologist only more nervous.
“Yes! But they, uh, didn’t point Devices at me,” he said, though Teana remained unconvinced. Panicking, he reached for his pack. “Look, I can show you my notes—!”
“Ah! Don’t you dare!” Tea said, jolting forward. The women kept their Devices trained on him as he stumbled to explain, even as Subaru moved around and picked up the man’s knapsack from the Lost Logia. “I’ve been making periodic visits to this world for some time now, my research is almost complete!”
Subaru pulled something out of the pack—a thin, metallic card, a Storage Device similar to the ones the Lieze twins used during the Book of Darkness incident.
“What kind of archaeologist carries a combat device,” Subaru demanded, looking ever like a mother who’d caught her child with their hand in the cookie jar.
“Um, I did, for a while,” Yuuno volunteered.
…
“Bad example,” Subaru conceded. She reached in and pulled out another device, like a PDA. Turning it on, she was immediately greeted with the image of a beautiful woman smiling at her. Bantam only got more nervous.
“What’s this?” the cyborg asked of the man.
“If you must know,” the man spoke, sounding defensive, “It’s a picture of my wife.”
The PDA suddenly beeped, and immediately, the Lost Logia came to life as the tablet buttons started moving of their own accord. Subaru immediately backed away from the machine, as did the others. Teana made a soft curse under her breath.
“Who did that!?” Vita demanded, as energy built up behind the group.
“Nobody did anything, Vita-chan, it engaged on its own!” Nanoha exclaimed.
“Well, turn it off!” Vita shouted.
“I don’t know how!”
“It’s drawing off energy from the ionization in the atmosphere!” Bantam blurted out, explaining the phenomenon. “There’s nothing Captain Takamachi can do!”
“… how’d you know her name!?” Teana demanded, readying a magic bullet with Cross Mirage.
“You told me!” he sputtered.
“No we didn’t!” Subaru shouted back. “Not this time around!”
Sighing, Bantam dropped his arms, as well as the act. “It doesn’t matter, you’re too late now.”
“How do you shut this thing off!?” Vita demanded, aiming Graf Eisen at him.
“Even if I knew, I wouldn’t tell you.”
“Nanoha, it’s building up some kind of charge,” Yuuno warned, looking back at the ruins behind them.
“Yuuno-kun, you know how to read this stuff, right?” she replied. “Try to shut it down!”
“Are you kidding me?” came his incredulous response. “I wouldn’t even know where to start!”
Behind them, a beam of energy lanced out of the nearest pillars, spearing through the smaller ones until it struck the array and activated it as Yuuno explained.
“It could take years to translate this, I don’t even have enough—”
===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?”
The spoon clattered into the bowl as Subaru dropped it, her palm quickly slapping against her forehead.
Alto blinked in surprise at Subaru’s sudden action.
“… It's just a question,” Vice grumbled.