Nanoha FanFiction Discussion

[Nita]

Originally Posted by RadiantBeam

Random short is random, but hey.

Spoiler for Memory:

“You know, you should tie your hair back some time.”

Megane Alphine didn’t even jolt as Quint Nakajima plopped down next to her, simply took another sip from her cup of coffee and continued to flip through her report. “Hi, Quint,” she greeted.

“Hello. You didn’t respond to my statement.” Setting down her own cup, Quint gently caught a few strands of Megane’s hair between her fingers and gave it a light tug.

“You only say it every time you see me.” She didn’t even look at her friend, but her lips twitched slightly. “Why do you think I’d respond to you this time?”

“Ouch,” Quint murmured, but there was humor in her voice. She continued to gently twirl Megane’s hair between her fingers, a playful gesture between the two old friends. “I’m serious, though, you know? Your hair is so long. Imagine what you’d look like if you tied it back in a braid or a ponytail."

“And what would I do with my hair tied up?” Only paying half a mind to her friend, Megane grabbed her cup again and lifted it to her lips, taking a drink.

Quint blinked innocently. “You could always try seducing Zest…”

At that, Megane’s eyes widened and she choked on her coffee. She gagged and coughed, clearing her throat. “Dammit, Quint,” she wheezed out. “What makes you think I’d—“

The woman just flashed her a smile and gave her hair another gentle tug. “Please, Megane? At least once? I think you’d look nice with your hair up.”

Megane stared at her friend, then sighed and laughed softly. “After the mission, okay?”

Quint’s eyes lit up, but she eyed her friend curiously. “You won’t try to wiggle out of it or use Lutecia as an excuse to get home?”

“I promise.”

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Megane Alphine had changed little in the past eight years; the time in the tube had kept her relatively young looking, and she supposed on some level she was grateful for that, at least. It had all been so strange to wake up and know so much time had passed, to look at her baby girl and see a mature, quiet child in her place.

They were getting through it, the purple-haired woman mused as she flipped another page of the paper. Lutecia was adjusting well, and was in fact outside right now with Garyuu watching over her. Erio and Caro had come by to keep her company today, much to the girl’s delight.

Sighing, Megane brushed loose strands of hair out of her eyes and continued reading; her hair had been pulled back in the heat, a silky black ribbon tying it in a low ponytail that fell down her back. Normally the older woman didn’t bother tying her hair up at all, but the heat had become too much for her…

“I think you’d look nice with your hair up.”

Megane blinked as Quint’s voice echoed in her head; slowly, she lowered the paper to the table again, her hand going back to gently brush against the ribbon she wore. As the memory flooded her mind, she glanced at the picture sitting on her dresser.

The sunlight gleamed off the light, off the picture of their squadron before the mission—the mission that had changed everything, that had killed so many of them, Quint, Zest…

“After the mission, okay?”

After a moment, Megane gently picked the picture up, touching her fingers to it. Her smile was watery as tears swam in her eyes.

“Hey, Quint,” she whispered. “I tied my hair back. Just like I promised. What do you think?”

....

Also, it's incredibly short, even by my standards.

Spoiler for Author's Notes:

1. Was originally planning to do this short as something between Miranda and Lutecia, but somehow it became Quint and Megane instead.

2. When Lexa and I first started talking, one of the things she told me pretty early on was that the Lutecia avatar she was using here for ASuki was something she'd chosen to use because she'd liked my own Lutecia avatar, which I'd been using at the time. Obviously, I'm using one again, and for a moment I just had a feeling of "Heh, I wonder how Lexa would react if she could see this..." that pretty much inspired the whole idea for this short.

So touching ;A; The world needs moar Megane/Quint moments And I really love how you write about them ^^

@Satashi: I'll go with B

Edit: page claim for side characters gettin' some love

[DezoPenguin]

I hop in for half a second while the tea is steeping and hey, ficcage!

Originally Posted by RadiantBeam

Random short is random, but hey.

Spoiler for Memory:

*snip*

....

Also, it's incredibly short, even by my standards.

Spoiler for Author's Notes:

1. Was originally planning to do this short as something between Miranda and Lutecia, but somehow it became Quint and Megane instead.

2. When Lexa and I first started talking, one of the things she told me pretty early on was that the Lutecia avatar she was using here for ASuki was something she'd chosen to use because she'd liked my own Lutecia avatar, which I'd been using at the time. Obviously, I'm using one again, and for a moment I just had a feeling of "Heh, I wonder how Lexa would react if she could see this..." that pretty much inspired the whole idea for this short.

Awww, a short, heartfelt *sniffle* tear-jerker. Especially after reading the Author's Note. Which is, quite possibly, more of a tear-jerker than the story itself. I liked the story, though, particularly how you're able to so quickly establish the "best pals" kind of dynamic between Quint and Megane with just a couple of lines of dialogue.

Originally Posted by RadiantBeam

...

GAH! How do you do that?! One instant I think Auris is the cold bitch, and then Raven turns around and does something to make me think she deserves it! Dammit!

While I'm still back on Chapter 2 (I need to read BtBR 9 before moving on to Ch. 3 of "Crime"!), if I understand what deathcurse is trying to do with this story, your reaction means she's succeeding.

[Tempy]

oh my god it is Lyrical Days.

At last.

[Nanya01]

Beach Numbers is up on FF.Net

[deathcurse]

Daily Activity Log of Officers F. Testarossa and N. Takamachi

Not a new Log, sorry , but Jan. 4 is now posted on Fanfiction.net ^^. Don't mess with Momoko, but especially don't mess with her "kids"!

[isagrimorie]

Originally Posted by deathcurse

Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 of Crime Never Sleeps...

Minor Character #2 appears ....I'm not sure if I captured Lucino's personality right, but this is five years post-StrikerS, so maybe she changed!

Crime Never Sleeps
Part 4

Spoiler for Crime Never Sleeps, part 4:

Lucino Liile was like a carbon copy of all of Hayate’s Long Arch staff—cheerful, extremely competent at her job, and fiercely loyal to Hayate professionally and personally. Auris had tested her limited access by asking for different information on Gallant’s guard shifts and privileges, and despite Lucino’s slight jumpiness the young woman stood firm in her standard denial of Auris’ requests. The pale purple-haired woman also subtly deflected any probes Auris made about Hayate’s personal character by launching into stories about their experiences together during the Scaglietti incident at Riot Force 6, effectively answering the questions while remaining purely professional.

Auris could use a girl like her at the front desk of the NSIS—that would guarantee an instant patching up of any information leakages, she thought wryly as she listened to another Hayate Yagami legend.

“Here we are,” Lucino announced, handing her identification over to the guard on duty. “The Lieutenant-general should have sent her authorization over already.”

“You’re cleared,” the guard nodded, unlocking the door and ushering them in.

“If you don’t mind, I want to interview her myself,” Auris told Lucino as they checked in all their communication devices with the guards.

“Of course, you can lead—”

“I meant alone.”

A brief hesitation from Lucino before she nodded, clicking her heels and saluting. “Yes ma’am. Please call me if you need anything.”

“I will.” Auris watched her leave, then entered the small holding area, seating herself in the interview room. Long Arch wasn’t made for detaining prisoners for very long, so they only had a single interview room and the holding cells were small but more comfortable than most other locations.

The door on the opposite wall opened, and a single guard entered, leading a young girl by the elbow. The officer wasn’t heavily armed but neither was he over-confidant, just like any of Hayate’s staff. He pulled out the remaining chair for Raven Gallant, the girl whispering a thank you to him before she sat, staring down at the magic-locks on her wrists.

“Gallant, I am Director Auris Gaiz of the Naval Special Intelligence Service.” Auris didn’t expect the girl to even hear the titles and tags, and indeed Raven just nodded blankly in response. “I’m one of the officers investigating your case.”

“With Hayate-san,” Raven nodded, smiling briefly before she lost the smile and lowered her head again.

“Did Hayate-san come visit you often?”

Raven peeked up, her green eyes full of childlike candidness. “Yes, she comes every day. Even when I was at the other place.”

Auris clasped her hands together, leaning forward on the table. “I know that Hayate-san asked you some questions, but I was wondering if I could ask you some questions too, even if some of them turn out to be the same.”

Raven flinched, her shoulders curling in on herself. She sniffed, then seemed to calm down slightly. “Okay.”

“What were you doing that morning?”

“In the morning?” Raven glanced upwards briefly, then recounted, “I woke up late. Daddy came in and opened my curtains, telling me to get up, sleepyhead…and Mommy had made me Happy Face breakfast.” She whimpered, clearly losing memory of the peaceful morning. Auris knew that she wouldn’t be able to replace the image of her parents’ corpses whenever she looked back in her memory. None of them really ever did, that young.

“After that, what happened?”

A sob broke from Raven’s throat, and tears began sliding down her cheeks, faster and faster. “They killed them.” She couldn’t say more, just continued to cry. The door opened again and the guard came in, putting his hands on Raven’s shoulders with a father-like gentleness.

“Are you okay?” He asked her, crouching down and peering kindly at her face.

“Raven, do you know what you’ve done?” Auris said, ignoring the warning glare from the guard, who didn’t seem to care about ranks. “You killed twelve people.”

Her sobs stopped, and Raven raised her head, staring at Auris with lost eyes. “I know. I did it.”

“You killed a TSAB officer that day. You shot him to death.”

“This interview is over,” the guard growled, rising and helping the lifeless seeming Raven up. “The Lieutenant-general is going to hear about this!”

Auris rose as well. “Aren’t you sorry at all?” She asked, frowning. She needed to know…

Raven turned, looking at Auris through one blank green eye. “If he killed my parents, I’m not sorry at all.”

“Then Hayate and I,” Auris said coldly, “won’t feel sorry for putting you away like you deserve.”

The girl’s eyes widened and a tremor shook her small body. “Hayate-san?” Raven whispered, waves of hurt radiating through her trembling voice.

Auris glared back at her, a frigid smirk on her lips as she watched Raven be led away. “I promise you, we will find justice in this world.”

***

Auris skimmed through the early edition newspaper as she walked down the hall, balancing a cup of coffee and all her files in her other hand. A glimmer of light from underneath a doorway made her pause, then turn and enter the room, walking up to knock on Hayate’s office door, the outer office silent and empty.

The door hissed open remotely, and Auris raised an eyebrow. “Do you ever sleep?”

“I’m sorry?” Hayate asked, amused as she went back to her breakfast, the details of the Gallant case pinned to a bulletin board by her desk.

“It’s five in the morning,” Auris said, setting her things down on a free corner of Hayate’s desk and wandering over to examine the set-up of the evidence board. “Your light was still on at 01:00 this morning, and since you live off base it’s unlikely that you had gone home at all.”

“Your car left the parking lot at 01:15, and since you live on base you likely had a little less than three hours at your place,” responded Hayate, finishing off her pancakes. “Since you took your files home with you, I’m guessing that between showering and working, you didn’t sleep either.”

Auris chuckled, walking back over to Hayate’s desk. “And yet our first court appearance is at 09:00 this morning.”

“I sent this to Channel 8 today,” Hayate said instead, sliding a sheet over to Auris.

“Really?” She glanced at it, then separated a few pictures from her own papers and tossed it over to Hayate. “I sent those to Channel 32 last night.”

“I’ll send those to the Cranagan Press as well, it’ll give them something to fight over.” Hayate gulped down her coffee, pouring herself another from the coffee-maker set up on one of her cabinets. “Coffee?”

“Please.” Auris watched Hayate fix their drinks, seating herself. She had come to become very familiar with this chair in the last few days, it was grossly uncomfortable. Auris wasn’t sure if Hayate had set it out special for her or if she kept it in her office all the time, dissuading people from lingering. It seemed odd, for Hayate’s personality…but maybe that’s what the couch behind her desk was for. Brisk business, then comfortable conversations?

“Are you sure you’re ready for today?” Auris flicked her pale brown hair out of her eyes, settling her glasses. “I don’t think you’ve ever encountered these TSAB courts before.”

“I’ve been on the other side of the panel before,” Hayate joked lightly, sipping her coffee. She had to know that Auris had problems with that aspect of her past; so she must have made the joke deliberately. Auris made a note to keep a careful rein on her emotions while keeping her body language casual. Hayate finished with a more serious, “I’ll be fine. This is only testing the waters for both sides, after all.” She picked up the official court summons, glancing at the names of the participants. “Do you recognize who the defendants are?”

“No, they’re probably expendables,” Auris said. Noticing Hayate’s look, Auris elaborated. “You’re a big name, and mine is now infamous. The brass isn’t going to risk having other respected officers get torn down in a courtroom over such a media-driven case. To tell you the truth, I half-expected Harlaown—Chrono Harlaown, that is—to volunteer for this case anyways. He seems to have a history with situations like this one.”

“How could he, when everyone knows that he was the former NSIS director?” Hayate replied, ignoring the pointed comment hidden in Auris’ statement. “Conflict of interest would be too high.”

“Did you know that Admiral Leti and Admiral Lindy were privately approached by certain High Council members to help Gallant with this case?”

“What?” Hayate’s composure slipped. “Which ones?”

Auris gave her a look, shaking her head with a smile. Really, Hayate should know better than to ask. Hayate sighed and shook her head. She breathed deeply, then inquired, “Why didn’t they take the case?”

“They just said no,” Auris told her. She expected Hayate to ask incredulously something along the lines of “that simple?”, but Hayate only nodded and said, “I see.” A frown threatened to twitch onto Auris’ face. So, Hayate had planned for that too. Is her motivation simply to get me to owe her one? Or is she trying for something more complicated?

Hayate rose, stretching and stifling a yawn. “So, what’s in the paper?”

Auris looked down at her forgotten newspaper, flipping to page three. “Daily News, third page; there’s a small bit about the case, a mostly neutral blurb about what the Gallant case is about. Did you send them this tidbit on controversy in the TSAB ranks about the case?”

“I might have,” Hayate grinned, but she only looked tired instead of amused.

“Are you sure that’s wise? You’re setting the public’s expectations up—they’ll be expecting something dirty and bloody from us today.”

“And you think that it won’t be?” Hayate held something in her hand—Auris guessed that it was her Device from the glint of gold chain that hung through her fingers.

Honestly, Auris said, “It’s not what I would have expected from you.”

“I’m usually predictable?” Hayate chuckled, opening her window to let in some cold morning air. She hung on the windowsill, inhaling deeply. “I should try harder.”

“You should try to sleep a few hours,” Auris grunted, skimming over their arguments one more time. Was Hayate shooting down all of Auris’ attempts into figuring out her odd behaviour on purpose or by accident? “Even if it’s just testing the waters, the first day will set off the media-storm. We need to be at our best.”

“I’m young, I can survive a few nights without sleep,” Hayate quipped, her eyes twinkling.

“Are you saying I can’t?” Auris said dryly.

Hayate laughed and walked back over, tucking her device back into her pocket, her hand lingering over the spot. “What a cold glare. I’ll see you at 09:00.”

Spoiler for Author's Note:

Sorry that it's short ! The next part goes into the trial, so I didn't want to have it cut short...

Heehee, title reference....

My biggest worry was, is Auris too cold or Raven too unsympathetic?

Am I missing something? Maybe I should re-read it but my sympathies never left Raven.

I kind of found Raven's blank eyed, coldness to her unapologetic killing of her parent's murderers plausible ...or I just watch too much Tarantino

Unfortunately, Auris only continues to annoy me in Quattro levels proportion...

On the other end of the spectrum I heart everyone in the Long Arch crew.

[Mae]

I haven't actually read all of lyrical days yet, but I'm sleepy so I will finish it later. I do wanna participate in the voting though... Since Nanoha has so little affection in her meter, and despite the fact I like YuunoFate, I will vote A

[Nanya01]

Originally Posted by Satashi

@Everyone who commented on Lyrical Days:

Erio was going to gain affection, actually. Not romantic affection, but if he survived and got enough affection, he would have accepted Yuuno's offer to move in with him, which in turn would have boosted Nanoha's affection as they kind of did a "parent" thing with him. But he died, so his story arc of dating Caro, getting away from his street gang friends, and learning how to be "normal" is now obsolete. Sorry, but I warned the people who played before you guys about it, and they didn't listen :P

Hey!

I wasn't here at the time when you were writing this originally. I would have wanted to save Erio. (Well, now, at the time, maybe not. :-/ Go fig.)

BTW...

I know it'll lose but...

I C what you did thar!

Sorry, couldn't help it.

[deathcurse]

Originally Posted by sniperk

Okay. Why the hell am I seeing a little girl laughing evilly in jail cell right now?

Originally Posted by RadiantBeam

It's all part of DC's evil plan.

Me? Make evil plans?

Originally Posted by isagrimorie

Am I missing something? Maybe I should re-read it but my sympathies never left Raven.

I kind of found Raven's blank eyed, coldness to her unapologetic killing of her parent's murderers plausible ...or I just watch too much Tarantino

Unfortunately, Auris only continues to annoy me in Quattro levels proportion...

On the other end of the spectrum I heart everyone in the Long Arch crew.

I'm trying to get a mixed reaction from people, so I'm glad I seem to be both making Raven unlikeable and likeable at the same time .

Hmm....Quattro got Buster'd by Nanoha, wonder what Hayate will do to Auris?

[sniperk]

Originally Posted by deathcurse

Hmm....Quattro got Buster'd by Nanoha, wonder what Hayate will do to Auris?

I don't think that's a good idea, seeing the tendency of the people in this series have to be blasted into befriendment (is that a word? oO)

Oh, well, at least will be another one in Hayate's pocket this way.

[RadiantBeam]

Originally Posted by deathcurse

Me? Make evil plans?

Don't try to deny it! I know I'm starting to rub off on you.

[sniperk]

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4

DECISIONS

Chapter 5 - Siege

Spoiler for Chapter 5:

The silence in the control room was funeral and the tension, as the saying goes, could be cut with a knife. Only beeps and keying sounds could be heard. Fate was displayed on one of the monitors beside the commander's desk, dressed in her Impulse Form Barrier Jacket while standing on top of a building in the middle of the city. Nanoha, along with the three forwards plus Signum, were on another monitor looking at a countdown clock in front of them. It now read one minute and thirty seconds and counting.

Vita was in the lounge area, trying to figure out what was happening. Having been kicked out of the briefing room by Nanoha and Signum didn't help her get any less nervous. Vita understood why she had to stay in the base. They didn't want a repeat of what happened during the peace conference when all field combatants were sent to guard it and the base was attacked amidst all of it. Backing out of a fight was something that the redhaired hated doing. She could very well go there and smack whatever Scaglietti had prepared for them, if there was anything, but now she was tied to the base. The clock now read one minute and counting.

Teana was fiddling with a book in front of her, while lying down on her bed in the dorm, trying hard to memorize the text, but she lost count of the times she caught herself staring at the clock. She knew that they wouldn't let her participate in this mission, even if she was briefed on it. She couldn't do anything about it and that made her feel even more restless. Forty five seconds were still on the digital clock.

Subaru fiddled with her fingers, eyes darting to each person inside the chopper and at the clock. Erio was restless in his seat, shifting his position almost in synch with the clock. Caro reached to her squad mate's hand, grabbing it, and tryed to calm herself as he used his thumb to caress the back of her hand. Thirty seconds on the clock were still ticking.

Shari gulped hard. Her hands would wave back and forth nonstop, inserting command after command in the panel. Alto was with her hands lifted a little over her keyboard as if she was a pianist waiting to start her solo in a classical piece, her eyes glued on the screen before her. Lucino was typing away on her keyboard, checking and double checking again and again if all the sensors were working, trying to second guess if a reading would be missed. Fifteen seconds still waiting to pass by.

Hayate leaned forward on her chair as the seconds passed. The map of the whole Clanagan region, almost half of MidChilda, was on the other wall. She skimmed every inch of that map with her eyes, trying to somehow predict where the scans would locate the signal she didn't want to wait for. She didn't want to think that Scaglietti had prepared this beforehand, if he really had such a countermeasure planned. Maybe they all had given him a little too much credit. He was a madman, but even in his madness he was still a genius. Hayate hated to admit that, but it was the truth. Five long seconds in the clock.

Four.

Three.

Two.

One.
----

The knight was receiving a few guests in her office that day in the Saint Church. Being a member of the TSAB in a de-militarized zone, she was used to her office being used as a neutral room for conferences between disagreeing leaders of planet members. She wasn't required to stay in the room, hearing them discussing about industrialized goods and exchange information about routes with more security to transport them from one planet to another, but the good nature and upbringing of the blonde made her stay with her guests until the meeting was over. In this particular reunion she wasn't needed as a mediator since the parts weren't on bad terms with each other, but even so, she stayed there, paying attention to everything and voicing her opinion when prompted to do so. It was in the middle of this that a call from her brother appeared in front of her. The blonde was sure that she had redirected her calls to Sister Schach before the meeting started so there could be only one way her brother reached her without passing through the nun before. An emergency call.

"Gentleman, if you don't mind, I need to answer this." Upon seeing the men nod to her, she pressed the button and the green haired man appeared in the monitor.

"Hello, my dear." Verossa started, realizing that she wasn't alone. "I finally finished my duties and now I can finally do what we were waiting for through all these years." He said, a serious tone in his voice.

Carim's eyes narrowed slightly before turning into a gentle smile. "Oh, really. Could you remind me of what it is?"

"What else would it be? We can finally wed, my dear." He said, smiling.

Carim's eyes widened and then looked at the faces of the others in the room, then back at the screen. "Oh, what good news. Finally we can be together. What date do you think it would be better?"

"I don't know, my love. I think the best would be as soon as possible. I want to let Chrono and Hayate know about this fast. I can barely stand the wait anymore." Carim's expression changed slightly, shocked, but only a handful of people would notice anything on her demure. The men in the room were feeling somewhere in between annoyed and glad as the both soon-to-be-married couple spoke to each other, seemingly not caring anymore about the place they were at.

"Oh, Darling. Please, let me at least prepare my gown for the ceremony." She said nervously closing her hand on a fist below the table.

"I can't wait anymore. I'm going there immediately. I'll send a message to Hayate to meet us at the Church. See you soon, my dear." He said as the window closed and she looked at the others in the room.

"Please." A few tears starting to roll down her cheek. "Forgive my darling for his interuption in such a important meeting and for my lack of composure at the moment. I need to tell the news to a great friend of mine, immediately." The others nodded and she dialed again.

----

Nothing. Several minutes later, and nothing happened. No signal on the screens, no reaction on the sensors. Nothing at all. The three Long Arch operators scanned and scanned again and again in a fruitless effort to detect something that wasn't there.

Hayate was resisting the urge to sigh in relief. She had the feeling that something was happening. Something big. She couldn't justify it tough, but she stubbornly stayed on her seat, eyes still on the monitors. Even when she felt the restlessness of her subbordinates she continued there. Waiting.

A wait that soon rewarded her. Not in the way she wanted though, as a signal was picked up and a red dot appeared on the screen.

"AMF concentration detected." Alto almost screamed, declaring what everyone in the room could already see.

"Coordinates being calculated." Shari echoed to the other. A few moments later. "Coordinates are..." She trailed off as the red dot seemd to multiply on the screen, first were several, that turned into dozens, that turned into hundreds.

"Sensors are working properly. It's not an error." Lucino voiced from the other side.

"Run the illusion pattern breaking code you guys used to discover the false units on the day we rescued Vivio." The commander ordered to the others, and soon enough, the number of points in the screen started to decrease until three of them remained in the end. Hayate frowned.

"The three points are real. We have visual." Shari said as three pictures appeared on the monitors. The entrance for a cavern in the far east point of the map, a rundown building in the lower part of the screen and an island in the middle of the west sea. "Deploying survellaince searchers." The bespetacled girl said.

Hayate's frown deepened as she looked at the two Aces in the monitor. Now what?

"We don't have time to think up a plan. We have to investigate the three places." Fate said. "I'll go to the far east point. I'm the fastest between us."

"I'll go with you, Testarossa." Signum voiced, behind the other.

"Okay. I'll go to the island. The forwards will go to the urban point." Nanoha informed.

"I'll send Vita to back you up." Hayate finished. "Vice-kun, drop the forwards on the third point." He replied instantly as his device announced the opening of the main hatch of the chopper.

"We're getting off." Nanoha said, as she and Signum jumped and darted in different directions.

"Just remember," Fate warned in the open channel for all of them. "Whatever happens in those places, don't destroy the storage systems. We may need the data." She said, as she remembered that Project F had the memory transfer system. If they could scan the data of Jail's memorys then they could put together the answers that the mad doctor refuse to give to her. The others nodded at her. She cut the link and started flying to her destination.

As soon as the squad captains took off, Vice warned the others still inside the chopper. "You'll be alone in there, kids. Take really good care."

A little after Vice dropped them they found themselves in front of a two-story building. "Is this the place Shari?" Subaru asked through the comn link.

"Yes." There was static in the image and the sound was blurry but understandable.

"The concentration is strong there. Be careful, we don't know what you'll find in there." Hayate informed.

The three saluted. "Yes, sir." Then Subaru turned to two younger ones. "Let's go." They both nodded and entered the building.

There was no door in the doorframe and the windows were gone; just shattered glass on the ground. Subaru entered first, slowly followed by Caro with Erio guarding the rear. They looked around the first floor and found nothing out of the ordinary. They moved further inside the building to the stairs and up to the second floor. There was a big hall, with all windows in the same state as the ones in the first floor but nothing else aside from a few broken chairs.

They climbed back down again, looking for something that they had missed the first time they passed through the floor, but the search was fruitless. Subaru was getting more and more restless with every step they took. The pink haired summoner was nervous too and the red haired lancer seemed unfazed by the situation and only followed the two ladies, alert to his surroundings.

They walked to the backdoor and when nothing was found again, Subaru groaned. "Damn. What the hell? There's nothing here. Where is this AMF coming from?"

Erio put Strada on the floor, supporting himself with it. "Is it a dud?"

Caro lifted her hands, trying to feel the magical waves in the vicinity, and trying to read them. "I'm picking up a faint signal." She declared as she pointed to the backdoor. "It's coming from there." At this the blue haired girl opened the door and they saw a backalley, with the building next to it casting a shadow on the place. "There." Caro pointed to a manhole in the backalley.

Subaru walked to it and opened it. The three of them instantly felt the AMF getting stronger. "Well, I think we found what we were looking for."

"Let's go." Erio said, as he jumped inside the manhole, followed shortly after by the two of them.

----

Chrono took his seat in the bridge of the Claudia, still digesting the information he got from Yuuno. He closed his eyes and felt his body jolt and tremble as the lack of sleep caught up to him and he realised that. He opened his eyes immediately, frowning. Now wasn't the time to sleep. "Laika." He called one of his operators.

"Yes, sir?" The blonde woman asked.

"Can you ask someone to bring me a cup of coffee. Black. No sugar."

"Are you okay, sir?"

"Yeah. Just lack of sleep." He put his hands on the guards of his chair and leaned his head back, closing his eyes again. Now what? Nanoha could be considered Vivio's mother, but since she had no recollection of the events, this shouldn't bother her. Was it really necessary for her to know about it? She already had her daughter with her, and was happy with her. She was supposed to continue that way, if Verossa hadn't discovered that information. Chrono waved his head and opened his eyes.

No. His sense of duty wouldn't allow him to continue to lie to his friend. It wouldn't let him just brush aside the fact that the culprits behind all what happened six years ago were free. And if he was going after those bigshots, he would need to turn the whole situation public. Without Nanoha's consent he couldn't do that, as it would turn her life in a living hell. He got up from his seat at the same time that one of the clerks came with his coffee in a tray. He thanked the woman and gulped the drink at once, feeling the hot liquid burning his throat. "I'll be in my office." He said, getting out of the bridge and walking down the corridors of the ship.

When he was a few paces away from his office a call flashed on his side.

"Hello, Admiral Chrono." The blonde started as soon as she noticed the man.

"Hello, Knight Carim." He greeted the woman before starting to voice his thoughts, still walking to his office. "I did a little research on the subject and I'm still not-"

"I have wonderful news, my friend." Chrono stopped at once. The tone in the other's voice wasn't something that he was used to.

"Really?" He examined the woman's face better through the window. She was... crying?

"Yes. My dear Verossa finally proposed to me." She said as he noticed a sob from her. His eyes widened and shortly after he frowned, increasing his pace towards the room. He opened and took a seat on his table.

"And when will be the wedding?" He asked, noticing that she wasn't alone.

"Darling says as soon as possible. He's coming here to see me."

"Really?! But it's so sudden." His eyes narrowed.

"Yes, it is." She said cheerfully. "It's a wonderful moment." She emphasized.

"It really is." He got up and started to pace about in front of the window. "But how about the honeymoon? Have you decided on a place yet?"

The woman seemed to think for a moment. "I didn't really. They say that Mau Gram is a wonderful place for newlyweds. Some prisioners there worked very hard and transformed the place into a incredible resort. I heard that the tea leaves this time of the year are the best."

"I see." He forced a smile while sitting on his chair again. "I need to let Hayate know of the news then."

"Oh, don't worry, Darling is already taking care of that."

Chrono sat back against the chair. "Thanks for telling me."

"No problem. Bye." She said as the window in front of him disapeared.

He shot up from his desk again and dashed out of the room. Moments later he was already at the bridge again, sleepiness all but forgotten. "Prepare for depart immediately." He said as he sat on the captain's chair.

----

Fate got to the entrance of the cave a few moments before her pinkhaired friend and squad companion landed a few feet behind her. "Long Arch, I'm at the cave."

"Copy that." Shari answered. "Nothing has changed in the area since we found it."

"Okay." She turned to the other, then nodded. "We're going in."

"Roger." The bespectacled operator answered again.

They didn't notice anything out of the ordinary in the cave's entrance. No alarm was set off and no trap was triggered. The humidity on the walls was heavy and the air damp. A few of the walls had fungus growing in it, and spiders' web danced in front of them. But there was a really great concentration of AMF in that place, and the more they got into the cavern, stronger it got. They walked a few more steps and found a pit, seemingly excavated in the rock by artificial means, not by the hand of mother nature.

"Let's go down." Fate floated in the air and started to descend, being shortly after followed by the Belkan Knight. When they landed, they noticed a door in one of the walls. The place was illuminated by two lamps on each side of the door. They walked to it and it opened as soon as they got in the range of the sensors. Each jumped to one side of it, weapons drawn. When nothing happened they looked inside of it and found a corridor, with several openings in the walls, like a gallery. The blonde took a few steps inside, peeking at each side of the corridor. The corridor was arc shaped, like the one she had seen in Scaglietti's hideout. One side ended a few feet from the door, and the other went further and she couldn't see the end of it.

They walked through that corridor a few more steps, until they saw that a cave in blocked the passage further. "Bardiche." Fate called for her device.

"Yes, sir."

"Show me the layout of Scaglietti's last hideout." The device blinked a few times as a series of windows appeared in front of her. After examining them a few seconds she closed the windows and walked a few more steps, then jumped and stood hovering. "Signum, give me some space." The pink haired nodded and floated to side. The blonde started to concentrate various energy balls around her. "Photon Lancer." The energy balls form transform into daggers. "Phalanx Shift." The daggers launch themselves to the ground creating a cloud of dust and magical smoke as each explode against the floor. After the dust cleared they could see an opening in the floor. Fate looked at her companion and then floated down the opening to reach the floor below.

They were in a large room with walls identical to the ones in the first floor, but the gallery in the walls were occupied by several immobile drones that only projected the AMF field. It didn't take long for her eyes to adjust to the low light of the room and see the green liquid in a cylindrical shaped glass few steps away from where she landed in the center of the room. In the far end she saw the steps that would go to the first floor with the rock closing the way up.

Signum descended too and immediately walked to the cylinder. She found a control panel behind it. "I guess we found what we were looking for." Beside the control panel were a few equipment and windows.

Fate walked to the cylinder and looked inside, seeing only the green liquid and a few bubbles form at the bottom going up. It didn't seem like that place was better guarded. "Maybe this was abandoned once the cave in occured." She voiced her thoughts.

The Belkan knight frowned. "Maybe. Let's report this place."

"What is it, Signum?" Fate asked when she noticed the Belkan Knight with a doubtful look on her face.

"Doesn't this place look like a decoy?" She said, walking around the equipment in the center of the room. "There's a lifepod and some machinery, but nothing more. It looks more like a deposit than a lab to me."

Fate looked around and came to the same conclusion. The place didn't have anything else inside, just the aformentioned. "Not to mention it wasn't guarded at all." She said again. "We'll ask Shari to scan these to see if she can get some data on it." The blonde said pointing to the equipment. "Lightning one to Long Arch. Come in." Before she could call in again, a window flashed on her side with a waiting call from her brother.

----

The three forwards were in horrible shape. After fighting their way down the lanes and alleways of that building, they had finally got to what was more likely the door to the place they were looking for. Subaru rubbed her left eye, trying to dry off some of the excess blood that was now closing it without much success. She groaned and decided to let the matter go. Tapping her pockets she found that she still had four full magazines to reload her knuckle. If worst came to worst she still had her combat cyborg mode to enter if necessary.

She looked at Caro, who was in a little better shape than her, but was still battered. Several times her shield had saved them during this little expedition. Her right arm was bleeding, and Kerykeyon had a crack in it from a unlucky shot that one of the drones had fired at the cyborg and she deflected in the direction of the pink haired summoner. Kerykeyon's autoshield wasn't enough in the AMF enviroment they were in at the moment, and part of the shot hit the device directly.

"Stars Three to Long Arch." Subaru said after they reached what seemed to be lab with lifepods sprinkled all over the walls. Various humanoid figures in each of them, each different from the other. Some were children, some adult, some were teenagers, others had one or two limbs less, while others didn't had skin. The cyborg shivered at every glance she did at the pods. "Stars Three to Lond Arch. Come in, Long Arch." No answer.

All around them, the remains of several drones of various designs that they destroyed while climbing down to the place they were at. Erio was limping on his right leg, as one of the drones appeared seemingly out of nowhere and hit him hard on the leg before Subaru could help him. Part of his Barrier Jacket was torn by a misguided Blast Ray fired by Fried at some drones while he was engaging them. "Maybe the AMF is blocking the communication. Let's get out of here and call them again from outside."

"Yes, let's do that." Caro said while they got out of the place.

----

The Ace of Aces was flying faster than what should be safe for a human body. Her breathing ragged and her body shivering with the cold air hitting the parts that weren't protected by her Barrier Jacket. The sky turned into a omnious gray as the rain clouds started to hide the sun, but now she couldn't be bothered by them. She couldn't slow her pace. If Jail was about to be reborn somewhere she had to do something. She had to do everything she could so that his plans failed. The island came into her view. "Stars one to Long Arch."

"Proceed Stars one. We're hearing you loud and clear."

"I'm nearing the island. Nothing seems out of ordinary so far." She said a few moments before landing on the sandy beach.

"The readings are coming somewhere in the middle of the island. Proceed with caution. Stars two has taken off from the base. She'll get to your position in T minus twelve minutes."

"Understood." Nanoha said, as she floated again, slowly, trying to look through the treetops.

Few moments later she spotted what looked like an abandoned facility. She landed a few paces away from it, the surrounding ground covered by leaves, but below the dead foliage was sand. The grey walls of it were mostly taken by the moss until a few feet from the ground, where the tides washed them. She walked a few steps, holding Raising Heart in front of her. She got to the gate and tried to pry it open, but to no avail. She tried again, forcing a little more, but the gate didn't budge. She gave up and floated above the
wall and to the other side.

When she landed, a call flashed at her side, startling her. Nanoha looked at it again, noticing what it was, then took a deep breath to settle herself. She read the ID of the caller: Ralgo Kill. Why would the general call her at such a time? And how did he manage to call her directly while she was on a mission and her device was set to battle mode? She didn't have those answers, but decided to receive the call anyway.

She saluted. "General."

"Oh, good afternoon, Captain Takamachi." He said smiling at the girl.

"What can I do for you, sir." She said, still in salute. "As you can see I'm in the middle of a mission."

"Oh, I can see, but Captain I need you to take a look at these codes for a moment." The image of the General disappeared from the screen and it started to appear a seemingly random sequence of letters, symbols and numbers.

Nanoha at first tought that it was some error in the transmission, but strangely each character felt familiar, each sequence more engaging, each line seemed to have a meaning of its own.

A few moments later, the General appeared again in the screen. "So, Captain Takamachi..."

"Sorry, General." She gripped tightly on the handle of her staff. "I have something to do right now. I'll talk to you later." Anger rising in her voice, she took off from where she was.

"I'm sorry. I won't disturb you then." The General said, smiling.

----

"... T minus twelve minutes." Hayate heard Alto answer Nanoha. In the monitors, Fate and Signum were in the entrance of the cave, Nanoha was landing on the beach of the island and the forwards were entering the building. She was sitting on the edge of her chair when a message appeared on her table monitor. "A message from Verossa...?" She wondered out loud before reading the title. Invitation for the wedding. Hayate shot her hand at once at the monitor, opening the message and skimming through it fast then rereading everything that was on it. "Oh, god. Not now."

Reinforce, that was on her shoulder, read the message too. "Verossa and Carim are getting married?"

"Shari, call all teams back. Get everyone out of there." The commander yelled, ignoring the little device question.

"Wha..." Shari stuttered. "What's wrong?"

"Just do it." Then she reached for her communication link and started. "This is Commander Yagami Hayate to all Riot 6. I repeat, this is Commander Yagami Hayate to all Riot 6. Everyone get out of the base immediately." At that moment she was thankful for all the evacuation practice sessions she had done to the base's personnel. "Backyard and Support Staff use exiting points one, two and three. The rest of the staff use points four, five and six. This is not a drill session. I repeat, this is not a drill session."

The operators in the room were scared with the affrighted tone of their commander. "Commander Yagami..." Alto started, but was cut off.

"You too. Get the hell out of here. Hurry!" Hayate shouted at the three that were sitting in front of her.

"Communication link is down, Commander Yagami." Shari said, ignoring the command. "We can't call the frontline team."

"Forget it! Get the hell out of here, now!" She said as they scrambled out of the room. "Rein, call Shamal and Zafira. Meet me at the main gate."

The little silverhaired girl saluted briskly and shot out in the direction contrary to where Hayate was going.

The commander dashed to her office, entered and retrieved the documents that were on top of the table, then got out of the room and started to run in the direction of the main gate. When she got to the front hall she met with her two knights.

"What's happening?" The blonde asked.

"I just received the invitation for Verossa and Carim's wedding." Hayate answered as if the blonde understood what that meant.

"What?" She stopped in her tracks, stunned. "What does that mean?"

The brown haired looked at Shamal then breathed heavily. "Sorry, it's a code. Carim, Rossa, Chrono-kun and me created a code for talking to each other when things were bad and we thought that our conversations were being tapped through the comn links." She turned again to the door. "The message I received from Verossa meant that we are in deep trouble."

In that moment a loud speaker was heard outside the base. The dull gray sky roaring with thunder and lightining. "This is the TSAB's Special Unit to Riot Force's Six. You're under siege for breaking TSAB regulations. You're not allowed to leave this base until further notice. Anyone trying to leave the perimeter without permission will be shot on sight. I repeat, anyone trying to leave the perimeter without permission will be shot on sight."

Hayate was at the front gate, then backtracked a few steps as she saw the various choppers and aerial mages hovering outside the base, circling it.

"Anyone but the following are allowed to leave the perimeter." The voice came again, announcing. "Yagami Hayate and the Wolkenritter, Fate Testarossa Harlaown, Subaru Nakajima, Teana Lanstar, Erio Maondial, Caro Ru Lushe. I repeat, anyone but the following..."

"What the..." Hayate jumped as the rest of the Long Arch Staff came from inside the building. "Why are you guys still here."

"We couldn't get out. All escape routes are being monitored by them." Lucino said, pointing to exit.

"They'll let you pass. They only want me, my knights and the frontline team."

"And miss out on all the fun?" Shari grinned. "No way. I'm staying with you, if you want it or not." The other three nodded at that.

"Want me to go out there and talk to them?" The only man in the room asked.

"I think I said for you to get out of here. God knows what we are being accused of. If they bide by their what they said, you can get out without trouble."

"I can't do that. My mother would kill me, not to mention my conscience." Griffith said. "I'll go talk to them." And started to the door.

----

The redhaired Belkan Knight stopped midflight when her communication link with the base was cut. She wondered what was happening back there and thought about going back, but decided not to. It was probably a maintenance problem with the link that they would get over soon enough. She resumed her flying in the direction she was going before.

A few moments later she saw a pink dot in the distance, amidst all the gray clouds. "Nanoha." She called mentally. No response. "Oi, Nanoha." She tried again. She could already make out the features of her friend in the middle of the pink energy. She was flying faster than what was normal for her. Vita stopped midflight again, waiting the other to get near enough so she could call her with voice rather than mentally. The Belkan knight was starting to wonder if it was her comn link that was damaged rather than the base's.

"NANOHA!!!" She screamed as the Ace of the Sky passed by her, without slowing down at all. Vita was rather stunned by the way the Ace looked at her. In the split second that they made eye contact it seemed as if she was glaring at her. She took off after her, but could barely keep her in her sight as the pink energy got smaller and smaller.

----

They took him in custody. There it was. Anyone that would try to help the commander now would receive the same treatment. She turned to three other women in the lounge. "Get out of here. Don't try to help like he did, else you'll be locked up." She hissed at them. "That's an order."

When they made mention to not follow the order, Hayate slumped. The message came too late and she was trapped. She looked outside again and saw the gray sky change slowly, as a purpleish barrier was being formed around the base. "Great. Now we're trapped." Hayate knew that she could blast out of that barrier in one shot, but couldn't do it at that moment. She gulped hard, trying to think of something, anything to get her out of there and to the meeting point, the Saint Church, but nothing seemed to come to her mind.

Then she remembered that Teana was still at the base, or at least she hoped so if they didn't catch her when she was evacuatting the building.

"Teana, where are you?" She called mentally hoping that the gunslinger could answer.

"Inside the dorm." Teana answered. I didn't have time to get out before they started to announce who was supposed to be under siege.

Good. Go to Nanoha's room and take Vivio with you. Hayate already knew that the other was supposed to be resting, but that wasn't an issue at the moment.

Roger. She answered.

Hayate was thinking of what to do next when a sudden blast of pink energy shot the barrier, destroying a good portion of it, as the Ace of Aces entered through it. Hayate walked to the gate, waiting for her friend to come closer.

But something wasn't right. The men weren't attacking her. Reinforce voiced the thoughts before Hayate could process. "Nanoha-san wasn't on the list that they said that were under siege."

Hayate's eyes widened as the brunette landed on the road outside the main gate. Her head downcast, gripping hard on the handle of her device. The commander knew at that moment that something was definetly wrong. "Nanoha-chan..." She called weakly.

"I wonder..." The brunette said, head still down. "Where did I go wrong?" She started to lift her head slowly. "What did I do to deserve something like this?"

"Nanoha-chan, what are you talking about?" She took a step in the direction of her friend.

"Did you regret it so much when I destroyed Reinforce?" Hayate could see the part of Nanoha's face, the rest was covered by her bangs. Her cheeks seemed to have wet trails going down.

"Nanoha...-chan?"

"Did you hate me so much that you wanted to kill me?" She lifted her head more, but her eyes were still hidden.

"Kill you?" Hayate said surprised. Where the hell did that idea came from? "What are you talking about?"

"If it was a few months ago, I wouldn't have said anything and just let you kill me, you know? If it made you happy, I would willingly let go of my life for you. I thought that you were my friend." Raising Heart's tip started to glow a faint pink light. Hayate was stupefied. She didn't understand at all what was happening.

Behind her friend, she noticed that the choppers and the aerial mages were going outside the barrier.

"Blaster Second." Raising Heart called as two blaster bits appeared beside the brunette and a MidChildan magic sigil appeared on her feet.

"But now, Hayate-chan, I can't do that anymore." Nanoha looked fully at the commander, eyes red from the tears flowing endlessly. "I have a daughter to take care of now. I'm sorry Hayate-chan, but you'll need to pay for your crimes." She pointed her staff to Hayate. "Cristal Cage." The blaster bits flew in the commanders direction forming a pyramid. "Lock."

"Hayate-chan!" Shamal called from inside the building and started to dash, alongside Zafira and Reinforce, to their mistress.

"Holding Net." Raising Heart called, as pink energy net covered the three of them, holding them to the ground. The Ace started to walk in their direction when a sequence of steel balls hit the floor in front of her and she had to take flight backwards to evade them.

"Nanoha-chan!" Hayate whimpered from inside the cage.

"What do you think you're doing?" The redhaired Belkan knight got in between Nanoha and Hayate. "Nanoha!"

"Vita-chan?" Nanoha smiled. A dry smiled, without any humour. "I know that you were forced to do it. Don't worry, I know that you guys always need to follow the master of the Book of Darkness. I'll make sure that you aren't imprisoned along with that traitor."

"Nanoha? What the hell are you talking about?! It's Hayate. Hayate! Don't you remember her?" Vita said, as she flew backwards and swinged Graf Eisen in Gigantform to destroy the Cristal Cage, without even looking back.

"Oh, I remember her very well. How much she must have plotted against me in all these years. If I knew I would probably let her do what she wanted." Nanoha sighed. "I'm sorry Vita-chan. I know that you guys can't do anything but protect your master, even if it's a deject of a master like her." She pointed her device to them, as almost a full magazine of cartridges are loaded in.

"Raising Heart." Reinforce tryed to call for the device. "Stop that. What happened to your master?"

"My master is my master. And I'll protect her no matter what situation is." The device blinked.

Hayate was a nervewreck. She couldn't believe that one of her best friends was attacking her like that. "And she's thinking that I want to kill her?" She thought.

"Divine..." Nanoha started to call at the same time that Shamal managed to undo the Holding Net.

"Klarer Wind." The blonde called.

"...Buster!" The Ace yelled. A blast of pink energy flew in their direction, being stopped inches away from hitting it's target by a green energy field protection.

"Stoooop!" Vita screamed as she launched herself in the direction of the Ace. "Rocket Hammer!" She called as her device grew even larger before colliding against Nanoha's shield, sizzling with the contact as she put more pressure in the blow. Seeing her shield about to be destroyed Nanoha flew back a few yards, and out of the range of the little one's attack.

"Frieren Fesseln!" Reinforce called as soon as she was in range to cast her spell. A swirl of blueish white enveloped the Ace of Aces, before it froze in a cacoon around the girl. "Nanoha-san, stop it, please!" The cacoon exploded in a pink burst of energy sending parts of it to all sides.

"Restrick Lock." Raising Heart called again, tying both Vita and Reinforce with pink strings of energy.

"I'm sorry, I really am." Nanoha said as magical energy started to gather from around her in the tip of her staff. "I'm sorry that you guys had to put up with such a horrible master."

Hayate was a shell of what she normally was. The confident and easygoing commander could only watch in disbelief as one of her best friends attacked her again.

"Starlight..." Nanoha started to call, as both Reinforce and Vita struggled against the binds holding them down.

"I can't stop a Starlight Breaker on my own." Was the grim thought that came to Shamal. "But I need to protect Hayate-chan at all costs." She pulled Hayate into her arms, then called for the guardian beast on her side. "Zafira!" The wolf growled and a series of white spikes shot from the ground creating a wall around the group. "Klarer Wind, please." The blonde called for her device and a green wall appeared in front of the spiked wall. "Maybe I can't protect against it, but I can at least deflect it."

"...Breaker!" Nanoha called as the energy gathered in the ball in front of her shot in the direction of the commander. The impact of the energy shot against Shamal's shield sent shockwaves through the ground in what seemed most like an earthquake.

Part of the energy bounced at the shield and was sent in disarray exploding far to the their left side, in a pink burst.

"Oh my god, noooooooooo!" The little unison device screamed as she saw where the energy exploded. It was Riot 6's dorms. "Viviooo!"

Spoiler for Author's Notes:

Oh, boy. Now they've done it. Poor Nanoha.

Just for the record, teasing is FUN!

Also, big thanks again for Raiser for proofreading for me.

[00-Raiser]

Originally Posted by sniperk

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4

DECISIONS

Chapter 5 - Siege

Spoiler for Chapter 5:

The silence in the control room was funeral and the tension, as the saying goes, could be cut with a knife. Only beeps and keying sounds could be heard. Fate was displayed on one of the monitors beside the commander's desk, dressed in her Impulse Form Barrier Jacket while standing on top of a building in the middle of the city. Nanoha, along with the three forwards plus Signum, were on another monitor looking at a countdown clock in front of them. It now read one minute and thirty seconds and counting.

Vita was in the lounge area, trying to figure out what was happening. Having been kicked out of the briefing room by Nanoha and Signum didn't help her get any less nervous. Vita understood why she had to stay in the base. They didn't want a repeat of what happened during the peace conference when all field combatants were sent to guard it and the base was attacked amidst all of it. Backing out of a fight was something that the redhaired hated doing. She could very well go there and smack whatever Scaglietti had prepared for them, if there was anything, but now she was tied to the base. The clock now read one minute and counting.

Teana was fiddling with a book in front of her, while lying down on her bed in the dorm, trying hard to memorize the text, but she lost count of the times she caught herself staring at the clock. She knew that they wouldn't let her participate in this mission, even if she was briefed on it. She couldn't do anything about it and that made her feel even more restless. Forty five seconds were still on the digital clock.

Subaru fiddled with her fingers, eyes darting to each person inside the chopper and at the clock. Erio was restless in his seat, shifting his position almost in synch with the clock. Caro reached to her squad mate's hand, grabbing it, and tryed to calm herself as he used his thumb to caress the back of her hand. Thirty seconds on the clock were still ticking.

Shari gulped hard. Her hands would wave back and forth nonstop, inserting command after command in the panel. Alto was with her hands lifted a little over her keyboard as if she was a pianist waiting to start her solo in a classical piece, her eyes glued on the screen before her. Lucino was typing away on her keyboard, checking and double checking again and again if all the sensors were working, trying to second guess if a reading would be missed. Fifteen seconds still waiting to pass by.

Hayate leaned forward on her chair as the seconds passed. The map of the whole Clanagan region, almost half of MidChilda, was on the other wall. She skimmed every inch of that map with her eyes, trying to somehow predict where the scans would locate the signal she didn't want to wait for. She didn't want to think that Scaglietti had prepared this beforehand, if he really had such a countermeasure planned. Maybe they all had given him a little too much credit. He was a madman, but even in his madness he was still a genius. Hayate hated to admit that, but it was the truth. Five long seconds in the clock.

Four.

Three.

Two.

One.
----

The knight was receiving a few guests in her office that day in the Saint Church. Being a member of the TSAB in a de-militarized zone, she was used to her office being used as a neutral room for conferences between disagreeing leaders of planet members. She wasn't required to stay in the room, hearing them discussing about industrialized goods and exchange information about routes with more security to transport them from one planet to another, but the good nature and upbringing of the blonde made her stay with her guests until the meeting was over. In this particular reunion she wasn't needed as a mediator since the parts weren't on bad terms with each other, but even so, she stayed there, paying attention to everything and voicing her opinion when prompted to do so. It was in the middle of this that a call from her brother appeared in front of her. The blonde was sure that she had redirected her calls to Sister Schach before the meeting started so there could be only one way her brother reached her without passing through the nun before. An emergency call.

"Gentleman, if you don't mind, I need to answer this." Upon seeing the men nod to her, she pressed the button and the green haired man appeared in the monitor.

"Hello, my dear." Verossa started, realizing that she wasn't alone. "I finally finished my duties and now I can finally do what we were waiting for through all these years." He said, a serious tone in his voice.

Carim's eyes narrowed slightly before turning into a gentle smile. "Oh, really. Could you remind me of what it is?"

"What else would it be? We can finally wed, my dear." He said, smiling.

Carim's eyes widened and then looked at the faces of the others in the room, then back at the screen. "Oh, what good news. Finally we can be together. What date do you think it would be better?"

"I don't know, my love. I think the best would be as soon as possible. I want to let Chrono and Hayate know about this fast. I can barely stand the wait anymore." Carim's expression changed slightly, shocked, but only a handful of people would notice anything on her demure. The men in the room were feeling somewhere in between annoyed and glad as the both soon-to-be-married couple spoke to each other, seemingly not caring anymore about the place they were at.

"Oh, Darling. Please, let me at least prepare my gown for the ceremony." She said nervously closing her hand on a fist below the table.

"I can't wait anymore. I'm going there immediately. I'll send a message to Hayate to meet us at the Church. See you soon, my dear." He said as the window closed and she looked at the others in the room.

"Please." A few tears starting to roll down her cheek. "Forgive my darling for his interuption in such a important meeting and for my lack of composure at the moment. I need to tell the news to a great friend of mine, immediately." The others nodded and she dialed again.

----

Nothing. Several minutes later, and nothing happened. No signal on the screens, no reaction on the sensors. Nothing at all. The three Long Arch operators scanned and scanned again and again in a fruitless effort to detect something that wasn't there.

Hayate was resisting the urge to sigh in relief. She had the feeling that something was happening. Something big. She couldn't justify it tough, but she stubbornly stayed on her seat, eyes still on the monitors. Even when she felt the restlessness of her subbordinates she continued there. Waiting.

A wait that soon rewarded her. Not in the way she wanted though, as a signal was picked up and a red dot appeared on the screen.

"AMF concentration detected." Alto almost screamed, declaring what everyone in the room could already see.

"Coordinates being calculated." Shari echoed to the other. A few moments later. "Coordinates are..." She trailed off as the red dot seemd to multiply on the screen, first were several, that turned into dozens, that turned into hundreds.

"Sensors are working properly. It's not an error." Lucino voiced from the other side.

"Run the illusion pattern breaking code you guys used to discover the false units on the day we rescued Vivio." The commander ordered to the others, and soon enough, the number of points in the screen started to decrease until three of them remained in the end. Hayate frowned.

"The three points are real. We have visual." Shari said as three pictures appeared on the monitors. The entrance for a cavern in the far east point of the map, a rundown building in the lower part of the screen and an island in the middle of the west sea. "Deploying survellaince searchers." The bespetacled girl said.

Hayate's frown deepened as she looked at the two Aces in the monitor. Now what?

"We don't have time to think up a plan. We have to investigate the three places." Fate said. "I'll go to the far east point. I'm the fastest between us."

"I'll go with you, Testarossa." Signum voiced, behind the other.

"Okay. I'll go to the island. The forwards will go to the urban point." Nanoha informed.

"I'll send Vita to back you up." Hayate finished. "Vice-kun, drop the forwards on the third point." He replied instantly as his device announced the opening of the main hatch of the chopper.

"We're getting off." Nanoha said, as she and Signum jumped and darted in different directions.

"Just remember," Fate warned in the open channel for all of them. "Whatever happens in those places, don't destroy the storage systems. We may need the data." She said, as she remembered that Project F had the memory transfer system. If they could scan the data of Jail's memorys then they could put together the answers that the mad doctor refuse to give to her. The others nodded at her. She cut the link and started flying to her destination.

As soon as the squad captains took off, Vice warned the others still inside the chopper. "You'll be alone in there, kids. Take really good care."

A little after Vice dropped them they found themselves in front of a two-story building. "Is this the place Shari?" Subaru asked through the comn link.

"Yes." There was static in the image and the sound was blurry but understandable.

"The concentration is strong there. Be careful, we don't know what you'll find in there." Hayate informed.

The three saluted. "Yes, sir." Then Subaru turned to two younger ones. "Let's go." They both nodded and entered the building.

There was no door in the doorframe and the windows were gone; just shattered glass on the ground. Subaru entered first, slowly followed by Caro with Erio guarding the rear. They looked around the first floor and found nothing out of the ordinary. They moved further inside the building to the stairs and up to the second floor. There was a big hall, with all windows in the same state as the ones in the first floor but nothing else aside from a few broken chairs.

They climbed back down again, looking for something that they had missed the first time they passed through the floor, but the search was fruitless. Subaru was getting more and more restless with every step they took. The pink haired summoner was nervous too and the red haired lancer seemed unfazed by the situation and only followed the two ladies, alert to his surroundings.

They walked to the backdoor and when nothing was found again, Subaru groaned. "Damn. What the hell? There's nothing here. Where is this AMF coming from?"

Erio put Strada on the floor, supporting himself with it. "Is it a dud?"

Caro lifted her hands, trying to feel the magical waves in the vicinity, and trying to read them. "I'm picking up a faint signal." She declared as she pointed to the backdoor. "It's coming from there." At this the blue haired girl opened the door and they saw a backalley, with the building next to it casting a shadow on the place. "There." Caro pointed to a manhole in the backalley.

Subaru walked to it and opened it. The three of them instantly felt the AMF getting stronger. "Well, I think we found what we were looking for."

"Let's go." Erio said, as he jumped inside the manhole, followed shortly after by the two of them.

----

Chrono took his seat in the bridge of the Claudia, still digesting the information he got from Yuuno. He closed his eyes and felt his body jolt and tremble as the lack of sleep caught up to him and he realised that. He opened his eyes immediately, frowning. Now wasn't the time to sleep. "Laika." He called one of his operators.

"Yes, sir?" The blonde woman asked.

"Can you ask someone to bring me a cup of coffee. Black. No sugar."

"Are you okay, sir?"

"Yeah. Just lack of sleep." He put his hands on the guards of his chair and leaned his head back, closing his eyes again. Now what? Nanoha could be considered Vivio's mother, but since she had no recollection of the events, this shouldn't bother her. Was it really necessary for her to know about it? She already had her daughter with her, and was happy with her. She was supposed to continue that way, if Verossa hadn't discovered that information. Chrono waved his head and opened his eyes.

No. His sense of duty wouldn't allow him to continue to lie to his friend. It wouldn't let him just brush aside the fact that the culprits behind all what happened six years ago were free. And if he was going after those bigshots, he would need to turn the whole situation public. Without Nanoha's consent he couldn't do that, as it would turn her life in a living hell. He got up from his seat at the same time that one of the clerks came with his coffee in a tray. He thanked the woman and gulped the drink at once, feeling the hot liquid burning his throat. "I'll be in my office." He said, getting out of the bridge and walking down the corridors of the ship.

When he was a few paces away from his office a call flashed on his side.

"Hello, Admiral Chrono." The blonde started as soon as she noticed the man.

"Hello, Knight Carim." He greeted the woman before starting to voice his thoughts, still walking to his office. "I did a little research on the subject and I'm still not-"

"I have wonderful news, my friend." Chrono stopped at once. The tone in the other's voice wasn't something that he was used to.

"Really?" He examined the woman's face better through the window. She was... crying?

"Yes. My dear Verossa finally proposed to me." She said as he noticed a sob from her. His eyes widened and shortly after he frowned, increasing his pace towards the room. He opened and took a seat on his table.

"And when will be the wedding?" He asked, noticing that she wasn't alone.

"Darling says as soon as possible. He's coming here to see me."

"Really?! But it's so sudden." His eyes narrowed.

"Yes, it is." She said cheerfully. "It's a wonderful moment." She emphasized.

"It really is." He got up and started to pace about in front of the window. "But how about the honeymoon? Have you decided on a place yet?"

The woman seemed to think for a moment. "I didn't really. They say that Mau Gram is a wonderful place for newlyweds. Some prisioners there worked very hard and transformed the place into a incredible resort. I heard that the tea leaves this time of the year are the best."

"I see." He forced a smile while sitting on his chair again. "I need to let Hayate know of the news then."

"Oh, don't worry, Darling is already taking care of that."

Chrono sat back against the chair. "Thanks for telling me."

"No problem. Bye." She said as the window in front of him disapeared.

He shot up from his desk again and dashed out of the room. Moments later he was already at the bridge again, sleepiness all but forgotten. "Prepare for depart immediately." He said as he sat on the captain's chair.

----

Fate got to the entrance of the cave a few moments before her pinkhaired friend and squad companion landed a few feet behind her. "Long Arch, I'm at the cave."

"Copy that." Shari answered. "Nothing has changed in the area since we found it."

"Okay." She turned to the other, then nodded. "We're going in."

"Roger." The bespectacled operator answered again.

They didn't notice anything out of the ordinary in the cave's entrance. No alarm was set off and no trap was triggered. The humidity on the walls was heavy and the air damp. A few of the walls had fungus growing in it, and spiders' web danced in front of them. But there was a really great concentration of AMF in that place, and the more they got into the cavern, stronger it got. They walked a few more steps and found a pit, seemingly excavated in the rock by artificial means, not by the hand of mother nature.

"Let's go down." Fate floated in the air and started to descend, being shortly after followed by the Belkan Knight. When they landed, they noticed a door in one of the walls. The place was illuminated by two lamps on each side of the door. They walked to it and it opened as soon as they got in the range of the sensors. Each jumped to one side of it, weapons drawn. When nothing happened they looked inside of it and found a corridor, with several openings in the walls, like a gallery. The blonde took a few steps inside, peeking at each side of the corridor. The corridor was arc shaped, like the one she had seen in Scaglietti's hideout. One side ended a few feet from the door, and the other went further and she couldn't see the end of it.

They walked through that corridor a few more steps, until they saw that a cave in blocked the passage further. "Bardiche." Fate called for her device.

"Yes, sir."

"Show me the layout of Scaglietti's last hideout." The device blinked a few times as a series of windows appeared in front of her. After examining them a few seconds she closed the windows and walked a few more steps, then jumped and stood hovering. "Signum, give me some space." The pink haired nodded and floated to side. The blonde started to concentrate various energy balls around her. "Photon Lancer." The energy balls form transform into daggers. "Phalanx Shift." The daggers launch themselves to the ground creating a cloud of dust and magical smoke as each explode against the floor. After the dust cleared they could see an opening in the floor. Fate looked at her companion and then floated down the opening to reach the floor below.

They were in a large room with walls identical to the ones in the first floor, but the gallery in the walls were occupied by several immobile drones that only projected the AMF field. It didn't take long for her eyes to adjust to the low light of the room and see the green liquid in a cylindrical shaped glass few steps away from where she landed in the center of the room. In the far end she saw the steps that would go to the first floor with the rock closing the way up.

Signum descended too and immediately walked to the cylinder. She found a control panel behind it. "I guess we found what we were looking for." Beside the control panel were a few equipment and windows.

Fate walked to the cylinder and looked inside, seeing only the green liquid and a few bubbles form at the bottom going up. It didn't seem like that place was better guarded. "Maybe this was abandoned once the cave in occured." She voiced her thoughts.

The Belkan knight frowned. "Maybe. Let's report this place."

"What is it, Signum?" Fate asked when she noticed the Belkan Knight with a doubtful look on her face.

"Doesn't this place look like a decoy?" She said, walking around the equipment in the center of the room. "There's a lifepod and some machinery, but nothing more. It looks more like a deposit than a lab to me."

Fate looked around and came to the same conclusion. The place didn't have anything else inside, just the aformentioned. "Not to mention it wasn't guarded at all." She said again. "We'll ask Shari to scan these to see if she can get some data on it." The blonde said pointing to the equipment. "Lightning one to Long Arch. Come in." Before she could call in again, a window flashed on her side with a waiting call from her brother.

----

The three forwards were in horrible shape. After fighting their way down the lanes and alleways of that building, they had finally got to what was more likely the door to the place they were looking for. Subaru rubbed her left eye, trying to dry off some of the excess blood that was now closing it without much success. She groaned and decided to let the matter go. Tapping her pockets she found that she still had four full magazines to reload her knuckle. If worst came to worst she still had her combat cyborg mode to enter if necessary.

She looked at Caro, who was in a little better shape than her, but was still battered. Several times her shield had saved them during this little expedition. Her right arm was bleeding, and Kerykeyon had a crack in it from a unlucky shot that one of the drones had fired at the cyborg and she deflected in the direction of the pink haired summoner. Kerykeyon's autoshield wasn't enough in the AMF enviroment they were in at the moment, and part of the shot hit the device directly.

"Stars Three to Long Arch." Subaru said after they reached what seemed to be lab with lifepods sprinkled all over the walls. Various humanoid figures in each of them, each different from the other. Some were children, some adult, some were teenagers, others had one or two limbs less, while others didn't had skin. The cyborg shivered at every glance she did at the pods. "Stars Three to Lond Arch. Come in, Long Arch." No answer.

All around them, the remains of several drones of various designs that they destroyed while climbing down to the place they were at. Erio was limping on his right leg, as one of the drones appeared seemingly out of nowhere and hit him hard on the leg before Subaru could help him. Part of his Barrier Jacket was torn by a misguided Blast Ray fired by Fried at some drones while he was engaging them. "Maybe the AMF is blocking the communication. Let's get out of here and call them again from outside."

"Yes, let's do that." Caro said while they got out of the place.

----

The Ace of Aces was flying faster than what should be safe for a human body. Her breathing ragged and her body shivering with the cold air hitting the parts that weren't protected by her Barrier Jacket. The sky turned into a omnious gray as the rain clouds started to hide the sun, but now she couldn't be bothered by them. She couldn't slow her pace. If Jail was about to be reborn somewhere she had to do something. She had to do everything she could so that his plans failed. The island came into her view. "Stars one to Long Arch."

"Proceed Stars one. We're hearing you loud and clear."

"I'm nearing the island. Nothing seems out of ordinary so far." She said a few moments before landing on the sandy beach.

"The readings are coming somewhere in the middle of the island. Proceed with caution. Stars two has taken off from the base. She'll get to your position in T minus twelve minutes."

"Understood." Nanoha said, as she floated again, slowly, trying to look through the treetops.

Few moments later she spotted what looked like an abandoned facility. She landed a few paces away from it, the surrounding ground covered by leaves, but below the dead foliage was sand. The grey walls of it were mostly taken by the moss until a few feet from the ground, where the tides washed them. She walked a few steps, holding Raising Heart in front of her. She got to the gate and tried to pry it open, but to no avail. She tried again, forcing a little more, but the gate didn't budge. She gave up and floated above the
wall and to the other side.

When she landed, a call flashed at her side, startling her. Nanoha looked at it again, noticing what it was, then took a deep breath to settle herself. She read the ID of the caller: Ralgo Kill. Why would the general call her at such a time? And how did he manage to call her directly while she was on a mission and her device was set to battle mode? She didn't have those answers, but decided to receive the call anyway.

She saluted. "General."

"Oh, good afternoon, Captain Takamachi." He said smiling at the girl.

"What can I do for you, sir." She said, still in salute. "As you can see I'm in the middle of a mission."

"Oh, I can see, but Captain I need you to take a look at these codes for a moment." The image of the General disappeared from the screen and it started to appear a seemingly random sequence of letters, symbols and numbers.

Nanoha at first tought that it was some error in the transmission, but strangely each character felt familiar, each sequence more engaging, each line seemed to have a meaning of its own.

A few moments later, the General appeared again in the screen. "So, Captain Takamachi..."

"Sorry, General." She gripped tightly on the handle of her staff. "I have something to do right now. I'll talk to you later." Anger rising in her voice, she took off from where she was.

"I'm sorry. I won't disturb you then." The General said, smiling.

----

"... T minus twelve minutes." Hayate heard Alto answer Nanoha. In the monitors, Fate and Signum were in the entrance of the cave, Nanoha was landing on the beach of the island and the forwards were entering the building. She was sitting on the edge of her chair when a message appeared on her table monitor. "A message from Verossa...?" She wondered out loud before reading the title. Invitation for the wedding. Hayate shot her hand at once at the monitor, opening the message and skimming through it fast then rereading everything that was on it. "Oh, god. Not now."

Reinforce, that was on her shoulder, read the message too. "Verossa and Carim are getting married?"

"Shari, call all teams back. Get everyone out of there." The commander yelled, ignoring the little device question.

"Wha..." Shari stuttered. "What's wrong?"

"Just do it." Then she reached for her communication link and started. "This is Commander Yagami Hayate to all Riot 6. I repeat, this is Commander Yagami Hayate to all Riot 6. Everyone get out of the base immediately." At that moment she was thankful for all the evacuation practice sessions she had done to the base's personnel. "Backyard and Support Staff use exiting points one, two and three. The rest of the staff use points four, five and six. This is not a drill session. I repeat, this is not a drill session."

The operators in the room were scared with the affrighted tone of their commander. "Commander Yagami..." Alto started, but was cut off.

"You too. Get the hell out of here. Hurry!" Hayate shouted at the three that were sitting in front of her.

"Communication link is down, Commander Yagami." Shari said, ignoring the command. "We can't call the frontline team."

"Forget it! Get the hell out of here, now!" She said as they scrambled out of the room. "Rein, call Shamal and Zafira. Meet me at the main gate."

The little silverhaired girl saluted briskly and shot out in the direction contrary to where Hayate was going.

The commander dashed to her office, entered and retrieved the documents that were on top of the table, then got out of the room and started to run in the direction of the main gate. When she got to the front hall she met with her two knights.

"What's happening?" The blonde asked.

"I just received the invitation for Verossa and Carim's wedding." Hayate answered as if the blonde understood what that meant.

"What?" She stopped in her tracks, stunned. "What does that mean?"

The brown haired looked at Shamal then breathed heavily. "Sorry, it's a code. Carim, Rossa, Chrono-kun and me created a code for talking to each other when things were bad and we thought that our conversations were being tapped through the comn links." She turned again to the door. "The message I received from Verossa meant that we are in deep trouble."

In that moment a loud speaker was heard outside the base. The dull gray sky roaring with thunder and lightining. "This is the TSAB's Special Unit to Riot Force's Six. You're under siege for breaking TSAB regulations. You're not allowed to leave this base until further notice. Anyone trying to leave the perimeter without permission will be shot on sight. I repeat, anyone trying to leave the perimeter without permission will be shot on sight."

Hayate was at the front gate, then backtracked a few steps as she saw the various choppers and aerial mages hovering outside the base, circling it.

"Anyone but the following are allowed to leave the perimeter." The voice came again, announcing. "Yagami Hayate and the Wolkenritter, Fate Testarossa Harlaown, Subaru Nakajima, Teana Lanstar, Erio Maondial, Caro Ru Lushe. I repeat, anyone but the following..."

"What the..." Hayate jumped as the rest of the Long Arch Staff came from inside the building. "Why are you guys still here."

"We couldn't get out. All escape routes are being monitored by them." Lucino said, pointing to exit.

"They'll let you pass. They only want me, my knights and the frontline team."

"And miss out on all the fun?" Shari grinned. "No way. I'm staying with you, if you want it or not." The other three nodded at that.

"Want me to go out there and talk to them?" The only man in the room asked.

"I think I said for you to get out of here. God knows what we are being accused of. If they bide by their what they said, you can get out without trouble."

"I can't do that. My mother would kill me, not to mention my conscience." Griffith said. "I'll go talk to them." And started to the door.

----

The redhaired Belkan Knight stopped midflight when her communication link with the base was cut. She wondered what was happening back there and thought about going back, but decided not to. It was probably a maintenance problem with the link that they would get over soon enough. She resumed her flying in the direction she was going before.

A few moments later she saw a pink dot in the distance, amidst all the gray clouds. "Nanoha." She called mentally. No response. "Oi, Nanoha." She tried again. She could already make out the features of her friend in the middle of the pink energy. She was flying faster than what was normal for her. Vita stopped midflight again, waiting the other to get near enough so she could call her with voice rather than mentally. The Belkan knight was starting to wonder if it was her comn link that was damaged rather than the base's.

"NANOHA!!!" She screamed as the Ace of the Sky passed by her, without slowing down at all. Vita was rather stunned by the way the Ace looked at her. In the split second that they made eye contact it seemed as if she was glaring at her. She took off after her, but could barely keep her in her sight as the pink energy got smaller and smaller.

----

They took him in custody. There it was. Anyone that would try to help the commander now would receive the same treatment. She turned to three other women in the lounge. "Get out of here. Don't try to help like he did, else you'll be locked up." She hissed at them. "That's an order."

When they made mention to not follow the order, Hayate slumped. The message came too late and she was trapped. She looked outside again and saw the gray sky change slowly, as a purpleish barrier was being formed around the base. "Great. Now we're trapped." Hayate knew that she could blast out of that barrier in one shot, but couldn't do it at that moment. She gulped hard, trying to think of something, anything to get her out of there and to the meeting point, the Saint Church, but nothing seemed to come to her mind.

Then she remembered that Teana was still at the base, or at least she hoped so if they didn't catch her when she was evacuatting the building.

"Teana, where are you?" She called mentally hoping that the gunslinger could answer.

"Inside the dorm." Teana answered. I didn't have time to get out before they started to announce who was supposed to be under siege.

Good. Go to Nanoha's room and take Vivio with you. Hayate already knew that the other was supposed to be resting, but that wasn't an issue at the moment.

Roger. She answered.

Hayate was thinking of what to do next when a sudden blast of pink energy shot the barrier, destroying a good portion of it, as the Ace of Aces entered through it. Hayate walked to the gate, waiting for her friend to come closer.

But something wasn't right. The men weren't attacking her. Reinforce voiced the thoughts before Hayate could process. "Nanoha-san wasn't on the list that they said that were under siege."

Hayate's eyes widened as the brunette landed on the road outside the main gate. Her head downcast, gripping hard on the handle of her device. The commander knew at that moment that something was definetly wrong. "Nanoha-chan..." She called weakly.

"I wonder..." The brunette said, head still down. "Where did I go wrong?" She started to lift her head slowly. "What did I do to deserve something like this?"

"Nanoha-chan, what are you talking about?" She took a step in the direction of her friend.

"Did you regret it so much when I destroyed Reinforce?" Hayate could see the part of Nanoha's face, the rest was covered by her bangs. Her cheeks seemed to have wet trails going down.

"Nanoha...-chan?"

"Did you hate me so much that you wanted to kill me?" She lifted her head more, but her eyes were still hidden.

"Kill you?" Hayate said surprised. Where the hell did that idea came from? "What are you talking about?"

"If it was a few months ago, I wouldn't have said anything and just let you kill me, you know? If it made you happy, I would willingly let go of my life for you. I thought that you were my friend." Raising Heart's tip started to glow a faint pink light. Hayate was stupefied. She didn't understand at all what was happening.

Behind her friend, she noticed that the choppers and the aerial mages were going outside the barrier.

"Blaster Second." Raising Heart called as two blaster bits appeared beside the brunette and a MidChildan magic sigil appeared on her feet.

"But now, Hayate-chan, I can't do that anymore." Nanoha looked fully at the commander, eyes red from the tears flowing endlessly. "I have a daughter to take care of now. I'm sorry Hayate-chan, but you'll need to pay for your crimes." She pointed her staff to Hayate. "Cristal Cage." The blaster bits flew in the commanders direction forming a pyramid. "Lock."

"Hayate-chan!" Shamal called from inside the building and started to dash, alongside Zafira and Reinforce, to their mistress.

"Holding Net." Raising Heart called, as pink energy net covered the three of them, holding them to the ground. The Ace started to walk in their direction when a sequence of steel balls hit the floor in front of her and she had to take flight backwards to evade them.

"Nanoha-chan!" Hayate whimpered from inside the cage.

"What do you think you're doing?" The redhaired Belkan knight got in between Nanoha and Hayate. "Nanoha!"

"Vita-chan?" Nanoha smiled. A dry smiled, without any humour. "I know that you were forced to do it. Don't worry, I know that you guys always need to follow the master of the Book of Darkness. I'll make sure that you aren't imprisoned along with that traitor."

"Nanoha? What the hell are you talking about?! It's Hayate. Hayate! Don't you remember her?" Vita said, as she flew backwards and swinged Graf Eisen in Gigantform to destroy the Cristal Cage, without even looking back.

"Oh, I remember her very well. How much she must have plotted against me in all these years. If I knew I would probably let her do what she wanted." Nanoha sighed. "I'm sorry Vita-chan. I know that you guys can't do anything but protect your master, even if it's a deject of a master like her." She pointed her device to them, as almost a full magazine of cartridges are loaded in.

"Raising Heart." Reinforce tryed to call for the device. "Stop that. What happened to your master?"

"My master is my master. And I'll protect her no matter what situation is." The device blinked.

Hayate was a nervewreck. She couldn't believe that one of her best friends was attacking her like that. "And she's thinking that I want to kill her?" She thought.

"Divine..." Nanoha started to call at the same time that Shamal managed to undo the Holding Net.

"Klarer Wind." The blonde called.

"...Buster!" The Ace yelled. A blast of pink energy flew in their direction, being stopped inches away from hitting it's target by a green energy field protection.

"Stoooop!" Vita screamed as she launched herself in the direction of the Ace. "Rocket Hammer!" She called as her device grew even larger before colliding against Nanoha's shield, sizzling with the contact as she put more pressure in the blow. Seeing her shield about to be destroyed Nanoha flew back a few yards, and out of the range of the little one's attack.

"Frieren Fesseln!" Reinforce called as soon as she was in range to cast her spell. A swirl of blueish white enveloped the Ace of Aces, before it froze in a cacoon around the girl. "Nanoha-san, stop it, please!" The cacoon exploded in a pink burst of energy sending parts of it to all sides.

"Restrick Lock." Raising Heart called again, tying both Vita and Reinforce with pink strings of energy.

"I'm sorry, I really am." Nanoha said as magical energy started to gather from around her in the tip of her staff. "I'm sorry that you guys had to put up with such a horrible master."

Hayate was a shell of what she normally was. The confident and easygoing commander could only watch in disbelief as one of her best friends attacked her again.

"Starlight..." Nanoha started to call, as both Reinforce and Vita struggled against the binds holding them down.

"I can't stop a Starlight Breaker on my own." Was the grim thought that came to Shamal. "But I need to protect Hayate-chan at all costs." She pulled Hayate into her arms, then called for the guardian beast on her side. "Zafira!" The wolf growled and a series of white spikes shot from the ground creating a wall around the group. "Klarer Wind, please." The blonde called for her device and a green wall appeared in front of the spiked wall. "Maybe I can't protect against it, but I can at least deflect it."

"...Breaker!" Nanoha called as the energy gathered in the ball in front of her shot in the direction of the commander. The impact of the energy shot against Shamal's shield sent shockwaves through the ground in what seemed most like an earthquake.

Part of the energy bounced at the shield and was sent in disarray exploding far to the their left side, in a pink burst.

"Oh my god, noooooooooo!" The little unison device screamed as she saw where the energy exploded. It was Riot 6's dorms. "Viviooo!"

Spoiler for Author's Notes:

Oh, boy. Now they've done it. Poor Nanoha.

Just for the record, teasing is FUN!

Also, big thanks again for Raiser for proofreading for me.

With this chapter the fic has truely become awesome. Really kept me in suspense while I was proof reading it, almost making me fear what was coming next. If anyone hasn't been following this fic, I highly suggest you pick it up!

[Satashi]

A-IIIII I
B- II
C- I

Spoiler for Lyrical Days:

I got out of bed and got ready for the day by pulling on a pair of jeans that were laying on my desk chair and then claiming a green sweatshirt. Padding downstairs, I tried my best to avoid letting Fate know I was awake, but to no avail. The blonde caught me and before I could blink, I was sat down in front of what looked like a gourmet dinner. The smile on her face was really bright, and it was one of the first times I saw her really happy since the incident not too long ago that made her my housemate.

I reluctantly got the for prepared for the western style breakfast and poked a fried egg, amazed it didn't self-detonate at the prod. Ever so carefully I made a sausage link be cut in half and speared it, slowly bringing it to my mouth...

"Fate-chan, come play outside with me!" Nanoha's voice came from the window, making the blonde turn to look.

Taking the chance, I whipped out of my chair, emptied half the contents into the garbage can next to the counter, and made it back in time so Fate didn't notice. "Oh wow," Fate gasped, seeing half the food gone. "You must have been hungry!"

"I was, but I'm stuffed now," I stood up and smiled. "Thank you, Fate, I'm going to head into town now."

Nanoha, not getting a reply from Fate, peeked her head inside the house. "I need to go to town too, mind if I tag along?"

"Before that," Fate interupted me. "Have some breakfast, Nanoha." She loaded a plate and sat it down, beaming at her friend. Nanoha shot me a glance, to which I could only send a mental apology.

Fifteen minutes later, I was supporting a weak Nanoha walking down the sidewalk. Her face was tinted blue and one hand was over her stomach as she rested against me. "Are you sure you can make it?" I asked her softly.

"I just... need to walk it off..." Nanoha manged out, groaning as her stomach turned. Fortunately for the girl, being Fate's friend meant having eaten the food enough to grow an immune system to it, and she was back to her normal self by the time we got off the bus and into the shopping district of town. "So," she asked curiously. "What do you need to get?"

"Nothing really," I hummed out. "I was just going to ask you to go with me on my way out before you came inside. No plans, I just wanted to spend some time with you."

Nanoha stopped walking a moment and looked up at me with sparkling blue eyes. "A date?"

"Sure, why not?" I grinned down at her. "A date." To my surprise, she latched onto my arm happily and hugged onto it.

"Yay!" Her voice was suddenly very happy, and she was almost glowing now. " Let's--"

A.) Go shopping
B.) Watch a Movie
C.) Walk around

[00-Raiser]

If I recall correctly, Yuuno's pretty broke right now, so I say C!

[DezoPenguin]

Gotta keep doing my best to catch up with the backlog!

Originally Posted by RadiantBeam

So, now thanks to this I'll probably have to run to make it to my class today, but it was so worth it!

Spoiler for Bless the Broken Road: Crystera's Song:

*snip*, *snip* I say!

No real author's notes or comments this time around.

I think I'll start by congratulating you on searching through the thread to find all the other chapters for your links. That can't have been easy!

Spoiler for Long comments are long:

But on to the story...whoa! So we get the big "Revelation of the Villain" moment at the end, and the Forbidden Song's nature is displayed...

Spoiler for In case someone hasn't read it yet.:

I bet that given the earlier scene with the villain and her familiars, and the nature of the Forbidden Song, that lots of people believed she was Precia.

Loved the angel imagery with Fiasse's Crystal Wings. Yuuno's support of Fate and Fate's visit to Nanoha in the medical ward were nice; it sounds like there's going to be something there but it keeps getting cut off by the ongoing problems with Elise. Which, by the way, were played out nicely in the flashbacks and acted as a nice "bookend" parallel to the concluding segments.

Kuon got a good bit with Blaze, too. Plus, she's got a point; I wouldn't trust Fury to respect anyone, anybody, or anything if his emotions got hold of him. We've seen thus far that when his passions take over, only sheer brute force can control him, and therefore I'm sure he'd fling himself into the battle if Kuon was kicking Blaze's backside (which I rather hope she will).

I found two problems with this chapter: In the initial scene, Blaze and...darn, I can't remember if Glory or Fury is the leopard *blush*...are able to escape detection by Hayate, Zafira, and Arf, who are actively looking for them, without explanation. Hopefully there's a good reason for that, but it needs to be explained.

Secondly, in the battle with the Reflections, Fate's combat results don't make sense (I have no issue with Nanoha's, of course--it's entirely in character for her to double-clutch about using lethal force against something that looks, feels, and reacts like a human, and in her downpowered state a gun is what she has to use). Miyuki and Kyouya, without any magic at all, were able to successfully fight the Reflections, though suffering injuries while doing so. Fate, on the other hand, is an AAA+/S+ mage (somewhere in the range), who is considered one of the Bureau's finest hand-to-hand specialists and possesses a massive number of powerful non-lethal attacks. Of the entire cast of this fic, she's the most capable of handling a zerg-rush of Reflections. If she can't bring herself to kill them, well, there's always a Plasma Smasher or a Plasma Lancer or she could just start clearing space with Zanber Form or...well, you get the idea; her non-lethal attacks are more potent than anyone else's lethal ones and by no means should it be a handicap for her to not want to kill in battle since it's her SOP anyway. I recognize that the narrative calls for her to not be able to cover Nanoha's back so Elise is forced to do it, but I think that section should be rewritten to simply move her to another part of the battlefield so she's not available to protect Nanoha.

(For example, what if Kyouya and Miyuki got separated, so that somebody had to go pull the other one out of harm's way instead of them meeting the rescuers--Fate would be the obvious one to send since she has the speed and power to get there right now and Nanoha and Elise couldn't keep up with her, and the urgency of the situation would make them not want to try and hold her up.)

Originally Posted by Satashi

Spoiler for AlternativeS IX (Story End):

*sniptacular*

spoiler again please <3

I'll repeat my comments that I e-mailed to you previously:

Spoiler for Might as well stick with spoilering:

Very nice job with the surprisingly bittersweet ending. With all the audience's discussions and debate over pairings and whatnot, the obvious solution would to have been to pair up AltS!Alicia and AltS!Nanoha as AltS!Vivio's new parents, basically giving both of them the family that they'd longed for. Good work for you recognizing that:


1) AltS!Nanoha wouldn't view Fate and Alicia as substitutes for one another; she'd come to care for Fate, and Alicia is a very different person.


2) Alicia had formed an instant bond with Fate due to their identity as sisters. She didn't have that same bond with Nanoha, who is just one more stranger to her.


I think it took a considerable amount of courage as a writer to recognize these things and go with the tragic finish, Nanoha dead, Vivio with completely different parents, and Alicia on the run, a hunted criminal condemned to very likely never find the happy family life she dreamed of. I wonder how often in the future Fate will find herself asking "what if" about her own actions, since the emotional bonds she forged with AltS!Nanoha and Alicia ultimately were what led to their unhappy fates, since it was those bonds which drove the intensity of their choices.

[Rising Dragon]

I vote C for Lyrical Days.

Stupid character limit...

[Nya~n]

Take a walk and C where it takes you.

[kaname08]

As I was working on chapter 6 of my fanfic, a thought occurred to me and I was looking back on how I tried to give a hint with regards to a lemon that I planned on working on that sort of brought in elements from that second Spoonful doujinishi with regards to that "pill" idea. As I thought through it for a few minutes, I finally was able to come up with a certain...clue that will eventually lead to that.

This is what I had inserted for that small clue.

Spoiler for Clue into NanoxFate lemon:

“Good timing Shiro. Here are the notes to give to Nanoha and Fate,” said

Hayate, handing him what appeared to be a device that almost resembled a memory stick.

“Sure thing lieutenant, and…by the way…what’s with the box?” asked Shiro.

“Oh…this? Just a little something that I was thinking of giving to Nanoha,” replied Hayate.

At that instant, Shiro’s eyebrows went up. “Is that what I think it is?” inquired Shiro.

“What do you think it is?” asked Hayate.

“Somehow I got the feeling that you paid a visit to one of my cousins…the one that works at that adult store,” said Shiro.

“Yeah…Black Dragon X…I stop by there sometimes. I also told your cousin that you were working with us,” said Hayate.

“YOU TOLD HER WHAT?!” exclaimed Shiro incredulously.

“Calm down, calm down, Shiro. She was actually a bit surprised and told me to give you her regards,” said Hayate.

“She…didn’t tell you anything else…did she?” asked Shiro, now nervous which was evident from the sweat rolling down the back of his neck.

“She told me that you seem to like dominant girls so…” began Hayate.

“So…what?” asked Shiro.

“She showed me a couple of suits that she said might be suited to Fate and your liking,” finished Hayate.

At that point, Shiro just froze and stared at the lieutenant incredulously.

“No…don’t tell me…” began Shiro.

“Yup…that’s what’s in there. I bought a pair,” said Hayate.
Shiro then fainted on the spot.

“Are?” wondered Hayate, as she noticed that Shiro fainted on the spot, and tried to hold back her laughter.

Hayate then had to plug Shiro’s nose and mouth to get him to wake up. As soon as he regained consciousness, Shiro shook his head and blinked a few times before getting back up.

“You really like doing this type of stuff…don’t you?” inquired Shiro.

“It’s one of my odd hobbies,” said Hayate.

“Besides teasing your knights and your subordinates?” added Shiro. “I’ll take my leave then.”

“Oh Shiro…about those pills…” began Hayate.

He froze again before slowly turning back to face the lieutenant. “How’d you know about those?” asked Shiro.

“I asked Shamal about it and well…she told me that she gave it to you so…could you also give those to her?” asked Hayate.

Shiro then placed a hand to his face and groaned in annoyance. ‘Damn…I think I’m going to have a nosebleed.’

[RadiantBeam]

Originally Posted by DezoPenguin

In the initial scene, Blaze and...darn, I can't remember if Glory or Fury is the leopard *blush*...are able to escape detection by Hayate, Zafira, and Arf, who are actively looking for them, without explanation. Hopefully there's a good reason for that, but it needs to be explained.

Yeah, that one was rough. I originally had it playing out so that Hayate, Zafira, and Arf actually found Blaze and Glory (the leopard ) and there was actual dialogue and interaction between them. For the life of me, I honestly can't recall why I changed it so they weren't detected at all.... I might go back and try to rework it so it plays out how I wanted it to initially, it just doesn't feel right in the current version.

(For example, what if Kyouya and Miyuki got separated, so that somebody had to go pull the other one out of harm's way instead of them meeting the rescuers--Fate would be the obvious one to send since she has the speed and power to get there right now and Nanoha and Elise couldn't keep up with her, and the urgency of the situation would make them not want to try and hold her up.)

You make a good point (and I willingly admit that I have no clue how to handle Fate at all when it comes to combat scenes; she's much harder for me to work on than Nanoha), but in that scenario what would stop Fate from rescuing Miyuki and Kyouya from danger and then going back to help Elise and Nanoha? Getting stuck with a bunch of Reflections?