MAKING IT BELIEVABLE

Teana is visiting Jail Scaglietti as agreed previously. She takes her time reading through the first draft, and it looks impressive as is. Now it just needs to be padded up a bit.

"This looks good. Now we need it peer-reviewed. At least two… or three, I think."

Dr. Scaglietti grimaces. As much as he hates to admit his work is a fraud, there is no way any self-respecting academic would volunteer to peer review this work of fiction.

"I'm sorry, but who's going to write up a review paper on this fraud?"

"You, of course. Make it credible." Teana answers casually. She adds with a smile. "Please."

Scaglietti stares at the Enforcer mouth agape. Now, this is pushing things too far.

"You mean I write a fake paper discussing my other fake paper?"

"Not a fake paper. Three fake papers."

Teana stands up and gets ready to leave. She checks her breath once more; mint. She had berated the Agents for not restocking her mouthwash in the usual container, and when she arrived today, a week later, there was a colorful selection of mint, strawberry, industrial oil, and lime ready for her to use. Not that she looked forward to throwing up after a long-distance jump.

She turns to see Scaglietti pulling his hair out.

"You pull this off, I'll make sure your Vaizen house gets a pool. I promise."

.

Signum is moving out of the hangar, taking her division HQ staff with her. Hayate stands there with arms crossed, grumpy.

"I'm not happy you are leaving your Raptor regiment behind." No Princess likes to have her general go out to the battlefield with only half the available force. But when Signum says the Raptors are staying by the Princess, the Raptors are staying by the Princess at the Terminal. Last night, Signum's sword, Laevatein, was brandished and the Corps HQ people shut their mouths up, despite Hayate's protest.

"It's bad enough you actually came to the war zone." Signum shakes her head dissatisfied. "I'm not leaving you here defenseless."

With that, the Wolkenritter general gets on one of the many armored carriers parked in front of the hangar. Rapid Response division HQ moves out, heading eastwards to set up closer to its own units.

.

And so, Hayate spends the next week carefully setting up her forces for a counterattack. She lures the enemy, pulling Rapid Response back little by little day by day, conceding two small towns in the process. The clone army slowly advances in a straight line towards the Terminal, spreading along a long horizontal axis spanning forty to fifty kilometers. Unbeknownst to the Alicia clones, Signum leaves Anvil and Punchkid behind, screening the invaders some distance from the north, undetected, ready to come down and cut the enemy in half any moment.

In the meantime, Hayate sends her 2nd division to south, which then makes a wide arc heading towards the coastal industrial zone, running parallel to the main axis of the enemy advance but in the opposite direction. Hayate hides the division some distance from the actual industrial zone. There it would wait for the go signal from the Princess.

During all this the flight mages fly to and from the front line, occasionally coming back from a battle with one or two less in numbers. Nanoha, grounded, would sit at the corner of the hangar, now Hayate's Joint Task Force HQ. She listens to the comms and reads status displays while her fellows fight above the front line. She is visibly nervous with wild eyes, biting her nails, shaking, and it gets worse and worse day by day Hayate begins to seriously worry about her friend. From time to time, especially when the shouting and screaming in the comm indicate her flight mages are having a bit of trouble, Nanoha would grab her dirty combat jacket and tries to rush out the hangar only to be forcefully halted and put back on the stool by Hayate and entourage.

Hayate doesn't know what to do. The White Devil has been fighting the clone girls since the hour zero; she should not be seeing the raw faces behind the masks. To make it worse Nanoha is not the only friend troubling Hayate. Strategic Arms is frothing in their mouths. At first, they thought it was a glitch in their asset location tracking system. After days of maintenance, update, reboot, and bug hunting, they have finally come to realize Fate indeed is on the other side of the front line; not answering their calls. "At least you could have told us!" They yelled at poor Reinforce for some reason.

.

Thanks to Hayate, Precia Testarossa spends the week on the edge of her throne. The girls are clearly making progress, but not as fast as she'd like. But then again, not too slow to the extent her patience is tested.

She carefully observes what's happening in Vaizen. It's obvious to her the Bureau soldiers are trying to buy time, only giving grounds when they have to. Turns out they have to anyway. At first, she thought they are buying time for their reinforcement to arrive, but she has seen none. It is clear then the soldiers would not be able to hold a position even if they wanted to. Her girls reaching the Terminal is inevitable. That is something assuring. She just wants it to happen a bit more quickly.

#

.

The last batch of the civilians at the Terminal jumps through the gates. And at last, there is none left.

On the other section of the long platform, troops start to arrive through the arrival gates.

The Enforcers and the Agents of Vaizen's Executive Office sigh, relieved. They congratulate each other, patting each other's back on the job well done. They walk out to the lobby to make sure no one is left behind. The vast empty space is filled with a surreal silence giving the Bureau workers eerie sensation. Vaizen's troops are milling about in anticipation. Their assigned duty in supporting the evacuation is now completed. Their families and neighbors out of harm's way. The soldiers are eager; it is now finally the time to head to the front line and show the invaders whose home Vaizen is.

The commander of Vaizen Defense walks into the Joint Task Force HQ. He easily finds Hayate; she is hard to miss.

When he had first heard some spoiled brat from Midchilda requested his Vaizen defense be placed under their command, he was furious. Then the details started to trickle in; that brat turned out to be none other than the famed Yagami the Bookworm. He no longer was mad. The Vaizen commander was honestly impressed to see a whole freaking battalion from Midchilda arrive the very next day, when his own corps, the first party who is actually being invaded, just managed to mobilize only a handful of units. Yagami had, years ago, published a paper in the officer's journal calling for what can only be described as today's Rapid Response. He read it with great interest and seeing the actual manifestation that is Rapid Response roll out on Vaizen's plains, he felt a little envy.

It's not that he did not want his own Rapid Response, nor did not see the need for such a unit. Lieutenant general Yagami, appropriately nicknamed Princess, was just simply pampered to the brim; no other commanding officers in the multiverse enjoyed the level of funding and resources Capital Defense enjoyed. Maintaining that level of alertness was just too taxing, and the Bureau had simply decided if it was going to spend that much money it would spend it on the Capital. He did not hold any ill feelings. Just a bit of envy as a fellow professional in the same field of work. Besides, Yagami has proved again and again she is capable of her job. Thus, he was OK with reporting to a fellow three-star general who now holds the title of the JTF Command and the martial law command. On the personal level, this spoiled Princess was just so entertaining to watch no matter how many tantrums she threw.

"Commander Yagami, civilian evacuation is complete." He reports to the fellow three-star general who's at least twenty years young than him.

Hayate looks up from a report she has been reading.

"At last! What's your force status? What can you give me?" The Princess demands.

The Vaizen defense is going to have its already mobilized units back from the evacuation duty. He tells her so.

"They are from all over the place. Nevertheless, I can put together an ad-hoc division right now. And then one more in a week as we continue to mobilize." He points up at the sky, through the large hole in the ceiling which is now covered with a thick opaque tarp. "In the air, though… What we have out there now is all we've got."

"Hmm…" Hayate scratches her chin. There isn't much she can do about the Bureau not having enough flight mages. Not many people can fly, and of those who can, only a fraction of them are willing to join the Air Armament Service, let alone complete the training.

"I also have the expeditionary force dispatched from the rest of the worlds. A regiment strength in total." Hayate says to her counterpart, practically offering him to take it. The man nods in appreciation.

"If you don't mind, I'd like to have them reinforce my division." If his makeshift division is not going to have a good unit cohesion, then he at least wants the numbers.

"As you wish. I want you to go up north and relieve Anvil and Punchkid."

With the two battalions back from their hiding up north, Signum would have her personal shotguns back in her hand, ready to shred the enemy when she eventually is ordered to advance. The makeshift Vaizen defense division would crash down from the north at the same time. Overall, Hayate just needs one more thing to be cleared before she can let her hunting dogs loose; Al Hazard.

The Vaizen Defense Corps commander excuses himself and goes to sort out his forces, leaving Hayate alone. She waits till the man is a good distance away before calling Chrono.

"Chrono-san, where is my Al Hazard solution you've promised?"

Judging by the expression on the hologram face, Hayate can tell Chrono is not yet ready to deliver.

"Sorry, Hayate. It's almost done, though. Teana is applying the finishing touch."

"Teana? What's she got to do with it?"

"She's supervising the production." Chrono tries to remain as vague as possible. "In the meantime, I've got to figure out the delivery method."

Hayate scratches her cheek, slightly annoyed. She does not understand a single word this man is saying.

"What the hell are you giving me?"

"I can't tell you now, but-" Chrono hesitates before adding. "Consider it a time bomb."

#

.

Deputy Director Harlaown ends the comm. He is leaning against a console sideways while his staff is busy doing their jobs. There is a mission underway; orchestrated by the operators sitting in the control room deep inside the Naval Intelligence Directorate facility.

The Senior Operator has been waiting for his boss to get off the comm.

"Sir, unmanned insertion is ready to proceed on your go word." He reports.

"Are the sensors online?"

The Senior Operator gestures towards a cluster of displays hovering at a corner of the room.

"All sensors are active and on the secure datalink."

Chrono nods and gives a thumbs up.

"Aye, sir. Drone boat immersing right away." The Operator turns and gives two thumbs up to the room. The many heads that were turned in this direction collectively turn to their own consoles. Lots of buttons are pressed almost at the same time.

.

In the Vaizen orbit, a Sail Force vessel, about the size of a large bus, manipulates the space-time fabric. Like a small but dense steel ball sinking into a pudding, the drone boat enters the dimensional pathway between Vaizen and Al Hazard.

.

The mission control goes into a frenzy as a loud alarm blares in the room.

"Sir, passive mana sensor is overloading!" An operator reports, shouting over the noise.

The Senior Operator is about to tell the man to remotely turn off the sensor, but Chrono stops him.

"Leave it on! The whole package is expendable. Don't worry about the boat, milk out every last drop of data."

Several heads turn his way hearing this order. A very expensive piece of magical technology is going to be fried. Welp, if the acting director says it is expendable, it is so.

"It wasn't like this when I was coming back on Helios." Chrono notes. "She must be channeling Al Hazard into the path."

The sensor operator punches a button on his console.

"Going optical, sir."

A large display on the wall shows the visual feed from the drone boat inside the pathway. It is a chillingly dark space, filled with bright golden orbs.

"Aw shit… surveillance orbs!" The Senior Operator cusses.

"This is not fair!" Chrono laments. "She will see us coming, but we won't be able to detect anything beyond the visible range."

The Senior Operator agrees with a nod.

"If it's like this, our marines will blindly land on a trap."

The beeping noise intensifies.

"Something is happ-"

The optical display shows the space being filled with the dark violet light Chrono saw just before Wolfram went down. Then suddenly all data feeds from the remotely controlled boat go offline. The drone boat is dead.

"Well, shoot… Talk about an overreaction." The sensor operator scratches his head. "She does that to a mere drone boat?"

Chrono glares at the large display showing nothing but static. The marines will not be landing on a trap because they won't even make it to Al Hazard. The Vaizen - Al Hazard path is definitely not a safe route for a reverse invasion.

"Compile whatever data we gathered. CC to both JCS and JTF."

With that Chrono stomps out of the mission control. He calls his lieutenant and tells the man to arrange an appointment with the Bureau Security Adviser. Now is the time for Chrono to present his product to the decision-makers. Thankfully Teana had called in earlier to tell him she got the final draft from Dr. Scaglietti.

"I'm applying the final touch for the delivery part." Said Teana. Whatever that means.

#

.

Chrono and his mother Lindy sit at a coffee table in the middle of the Bureau Security Adviser's office. On the opposite side sits the Adviser, listening to the Harlaowns.

Chrono had some hours until the appointment with the Security Adviser so he paid a visit to his mother to ask for her support. The Chairwoman of Joint Chiefs of Staff decided to tag along to offer a holistic view on the future of the ongoing war in Vaizen. Chrono has also asked Teana to join, but since she is busy supervising the final touch on Scaglietti's work she can only attend via video conference; her face hovers next to Chrono, but she mostly keeps silent.

"-so basically we have confirmed Testarossa is capable of repeating her attack on Wolfram at her will." Lindy summarizes. The Security Adviser is clearly not pleased with this information.

"What if we take another route? From somewhere, not Vaizen?" He asks.

"That would require relocating our active units." Lindy explains. Up to now whatever units up and ready have all converged on Vaizen, because Hayate needed them there. Unless the Bureau musters up another force group, those of the Joint Task Force in Vaizen have to be the bulk of the invasion force, but because the Vaizen - Al Hazard path is not safe they'd first have to be shipped to the invasion staging in some other world, which in turn is possible only after Vaizen is secured.

"Which doesn't favor us in terms of schedule. Even if the marines establish another pathway and secure a beachhead-" Chrono chimes in.

"Once Yagami clears Vaizen, we'd have to jump them to the staging, put them on ships, and then sail undetected, which in its own is a difficult task…" Lindy continues. "By the time Yagami reaches Al Hazard, it is very likely we'd have a new batch of the clone army in Vaizen."

The Adviser scratches his head. This is getting a bit complicated.

"What are our options?"

Lindy and Chrono exchange glances. Their win condition is to neutralize both Al Hazard and Vaizen within a small window of opportunity because the Bureau cannot leave Vaizen defenseless against the possible reinforcement of two hundred thousand Alicia clones pouring out of the gate. The Bureau has to muster up a sizable force that can either relieve Hayate of the Vaizen duty or invade Al Hazard in her stead.

"But I expect that will take months?" The Security Adviser reads the mood.

"Either way, yes." Lindy nods. "That'd be two to three months for mobilizing a force strength equivalent to what we currently have in Vaizen."

"That long for a mere corps sized force?" The Adviser is surprised. Something is not right here.

"Not a corps, sir." Answers Chrono with a sigh. "Sir, we are talking about a force equivalent to Capital Defense's strength. The problem is…" He clears his throat. What he is about to say is a very uncomfortable truth. "The problem is Capital Defense is just too munchkin."

Unfortunately, the only active force that meets the requirement is lieutenant general Yagami herself and her corps. Else the Bureau would have to form up and commit a significant portion of its entire force. Whether Hayate invades Al Hazard with her corps or not, someone must take over either of the roles; go Al Hazard or defend Vaizen in Hayate's stead. Despite the on-going mobilization in swing, getting that someone ready takes time, hence the problem.

The Security Adviser shakes his head.

"So to end this in a reasonable time we need Yagami fighting, and winning, on two fronts simultaneously?" He face-palms. This is ridiculous. "Let alone the fact that it's physically and magically impossible, how the hell have we allowed this kind of imbalance in our forces?"

Lindy shrugs.

"Well, it was all set and done before you were appointed, sir. She was called into the position precisely because the higher-ups wanted the capital to be impenetrable."

'In simpler words; they've overdone it.' Lindy decides not to add.

The Security Adviser fidgets with his teacup. He is not going to judge his predecessor's work, but something bothers him. Up to now, he has been under the impression they were outmatched in terms of force strength. The enemy is supposed to be equivalent to two or three TSAB Ground Armament Service corps. But if Yagami's Capital Defense itself is a munchkin equivalent to multiple corps…

'Damn it, that brat!' Whether intentional or not, Yagami has downplayed her own strength, and nobody told him about this until just now. He's been giving hefty allowances to an already rich kid. He shakes his head. As annoying as it is, it's not something he should tackle right now. Ending the war has all the priorities.

"So, what are our other options?"

"An alternative would be to solely focus on driving them out of Vaizen." Says Lindy with a frown. Even if Precia Testarossa somehow gives up on Vaizen she would, of course, keep trying to get to Midchilda. Then the Bureau would have to maintain alert status indefinitely, which is just too taxing.

"I don't really like this, because if there is a next time it will be in Midchilda." Admits Lindy with a sigh.

That outlook is enough for the Adviser to dismiss the idea.

"Next!"

.

"Ahem." Chrono clears his throat. It's his turn to offer an alternative solution.

"Sir, Executive Office, and Naval Intelligence have together developed a magic manipulation to render the forces in Al Hazard irrelevant."

The Bureau Security Adviser looks up with a bright smile.

"You have? Then let's get on with it!"

"No, sir. It's not that easy." Chrono answers. He is going to lay it out slowly. "It only works in Al Hazard because the main component required is the ambient magic in Al Hazard."

"Hold on. What exactly does it do?" The Security Adviser demands to know.

Lindy catches Chrono and Teana exchanging glances. These kids are hiding something, but she decides it is better she does not know.

"It is a mass neutralization of their linker cores. The idea was proposed by Chief Enforcer and we-"

"Excellent! Send it with the marines, and we are done."

"It doesn't work like that, sir." Chrono goes onto explain why it needs a substantial computational power in manipulating external magic sources. "We have nothing of that sort in a portable form."

"God damn it!" The Adviser gets it, frustrated. What's the point if it cannot be done?

"-so our plan is letting Testarossa do it herself."

The old man looks baffled. 'Wait, what?'

Chrono nods to Teana's floating face, and she finally breaks her silence.

"Sir, with the help of Dr. Scaglietti we have disguised the manipulation procedure as an academic paper reporting a lab-scale success in reviving a dead organism." According to Teana the paper then proposes and outlines the procedure to revive a dead person, which Precia Testarossa ultimately wants to achieve.

"You did what?" The Adviser's jaw drops. Teana goes on.

"The proposed technique is then peer-reviewed and criticized for its requirement of an impossible amount of magic source, which, again, Testarossa has in her hand."

This time Chrono is surprised, too.

"Sorry, you didn't tell me about this peer review stuff. Who did it?"

"Scaglietti himself. Under some pseudonyms."

"Jeez…" Chrono is impressed. He knew Teana is good, but this is just… mindbogglingly meticulous.

"Scaglietti is confident his papers are believable." Teana adds.

The Security Adviser puts his hand up.

"Look, two questions." How do they make Testarossa give up on the library and actually take the Bureau's bait? And how the hell do they even put this paper in the hands of Testarossa, who by the way is in Al Hazard?

"The answer to your first question would be commander Yagami." Lindy gives her opinion. "She holds so hard in Vaizen and makes the prospect of Testarossa reaching Midchilda more and more unlikely." Lindy thinks more about it loud. That would make Testarossa tempted to try it out. This can be done while preparing for the invasion. If it doesn't work, just invade Al Hazard as planned. But if it works they won't need to invade Al Hazard at all and avoid the subsequent issues and problems, potentially saving a lot of headaches and lives. What Chrono and Teana have come up with is not an alternative, but a part of a two-track approach to end the war. Invasion or mass neutralization, whichever comes first.

"It's worth a try." Lindy concludes.

"As for your second question," Chrono takes it over. "Delivery remains the issue, sir. We can't simply drop it off somewhere and hope it miraculously finds its way to Testarossa's hands."

The fake academic paper and its supporting documents must get to Testarossa in a credible and interesting enough way. She has to be convinced this whole package holds some value worth having a look at.

"Do you have a plan?" Asks Lindy. She notes, judging by the expression, Chrono does not seem to have one.

"I do. That's what I'm working on right now." Teana answers instead. She has a plan.

.

Inside the Executive Office HQ, a large team of Enforcers and Agents is assembled in rows and columns of consoles arranged in one of its large halls, typing furiously into the machines under Teana's supervision. Occasionally some would stop to go over what they have written, or to argue with their colleagues about whether what they've done makes sense. Completed documents are sent to Teana, who reads them, correcting if needed. She then compiles them into a dossier documenting Jail Scaglietti's project. The documentation job is nearly complete. There remains one little challenge that requires some serious persuasion, and to do that she needs help from the higher-ups.

Teana carefully explained her plan and its reasoning to the Bureau Security Adviser and the Chairwoman of the JCS. They thanked her and let her go back to work. After an hour so, Chrono calls her at last.

"They agreed, Teana. Hayate is being notified as I speak."

"Good. Give me a couple of days to finish things up."

Teana ends the comm and returns to the backlog of charts and documents and letters that piled up while she was on the conference call. The finest of the Time Space Administration Bureau are having a field day making up fake internal memos and reports and meeting minutes. A legit Bureau solicited con and forgery carried out by the law enforcers.

.

"That's a high-value facility!" Hayate is fuming, yelling at Chrono's face hovering before her.

"No worries, Hayate. It's the Office's operation. You won't be held accountable."

"But still… " Hayate is at a loss of words. Chrono has just relayed an order from the very very top; to give up on a prestigious real estate. But more importantly, that means she has to move her hospital. Shamal is not going to like this.

#

.

A few days have passed and the war in Vaizen still rages on. Fate is watching the battle between her friend's soldiers and her sisters from a safe distance with Zafira by her side.

The clone girls have steadily advanced west. Fate is anxious because she knows only ten kilometers west from the front line is Caledfwlch factory. As much as she has confidence in Hayate, Fate is worried nonetheless. The girls are uncomfortably close to Shamal's hospital.

As usual, the fight is intense, but Fate has noticed something odd lately. There has been a slight shift in the intensity of fire from the Bureau's side. Not only that. The flight mages have been flying somewhat conservatively, disengaging and retreating at the first sign of trouble. It seemed as if Hayate has suddenly become extremely averse to taking casualties. So last night she asked Zafira what is going on. Zafira simply shook his puppy head and told Fate to stay out of it.

"They tell me some op is taking place, and you specifically are absolutely not to interfere." Zafira said to Fate with a stern voice last night. After that, no matter how much Fate pressured him to tell her more he kept his mouth shut.

An Alicia clone next to her has been surveying the sky for a while. She pokes Fate and points upward.

"We haven't seen her for some days."

Fate knows what the masked girl means. She has not seen Nanoha for days. At first, she thought Nanoha is just taking a break, but now the girl has mentioned it…

"The winged beast is still there, but not the flying devil." The girl turns to her sisters nearby. "Hey, have we killed her at last?"

Fate's heart sinks. The clone girls look at each other and shrug; they don't know. Fate looks down at Zafira inquisitively. He shakes his puppy head, to which Fate lets out a sigh of relief. As far as Zafira knows Nanoha is not dead. That's a relief.

A loud cheer echoing from the battlefield grabs Fate's attention. The Bureau soldiers are retreating yet again.

It takes her a couple of hours to reach Caledfwlch factory on foot. Fate feels humbled walking such distance. Before all this, for years, she was chauffeured around in the limo provided by the Office. For long distances, they would drive her to the nearest teleportation gate for her to jump, with another limo waiting on the other side. Sure, she did fly from time to time, but it was more as a hobby than an everyday mode of transportation.

Of course, she could just fly all the way to the factory, but no. She walks with the girls, her sisters, Zafira trotting alongside her. Simply by being there amidst these disheveled and smelly and battle-worn sisters chatting to themselves and laughing and everything… she could sense something. The feeling of togetherness. A family; Something she had not had as a kid even with her own mother.

Fate comes to her senses just as her group enters the Caledfwlch facility's parking lot. The place is deserted except for the Alicia clones poking around. Red Ribbon is there already, telling her sisters what to do. She points at a building and tells a group of clone girls to go check it out; see if there are some foods.

Fate is a little surprised. Giving up this factory is a sure way to piss off a lot of people, including the Caledfwlch people themselves. Fate can imagine a lot of angry calls being made to some very important people. Shits will roll down the hill onto Hayate. As far as Fate could tell, Hayate and her soldiers were perfectly capable of holding this place. 'So why abandon it?'

She approaches Red Ribbon.

"Where are the soldiers? Have we won today, too?"

The senior clone shrugs.

"They had already run away before we arrived. I guess another victory for-"

A sound of firefight comes from inside a nearby building. Fate can tell the familiar sound of Strike rifles firing. They rush to the building. Fate notices the sign "Caledfwlch Research and Development, Vaizen". The sound of the fight abruptly stops. Shortly a group of clone sisters violently drags out a female in civilian clothing with long orange-brown hair. She is whimpering and begging for her life.

Fate's blood boils. Shamal has left this civilian woman behind. Absolutely unacceptable!

Puppy Zafira flares his nostrils, sniffing, and lets out a short whimpering sound, visibly disturbed.

"What happened? Who is this?" Red Ribbon asks. The girls throw the civilian woman down on the ground. Head hung low, the woman cowers on her knees but is tightly holding a black datapad at her chest.

"She was in there with some soldiers. The machine warriors." One of the girls reports. "We killed them all, but this coward begged and cried that we spare her, so..." The girl shrugs. This is the first time somebody has surrendered. "I didn't know what to do."

Red Ribbon, the senior on the scene, pushes the civilian woman with her foot.

"Why didn't you run with the soldiers? What were you doing here? Who are you?"

The woman looks up. Fate freezes in horror.

'OK, this girl with the polka dot ribbon seems to be in charge.' Teana observes. She quickly glances around and spots Zafira. Next to the puppy stands a tall girl with a broken mask, which only covers a small portion of the very angry looking face.

'OK, that must be boss. Did she fucking bolt that shit on her face? Ohmygod she cut her hair!'

Teana turns her eyes back to the ribbon girl.

"Please don't kill me!" She cowers.

A heavy kick lands on her back, and Teana almost falls on her face yelping in pain.

"Answer the question! Who are you?" Someone who sounds exactly like the ribbon girl yells from her behind.

"I work for the company! Don't hurt me, please! I work here. RnD Archive!"

The girls look at each other in confusion.

"What's a company? What's RnD Archive?" One of them asks on everyone's behalf.

This question seems to have caught Teana off-guard, Fate notices. 'Sorry, my sisters are a bit…They need schooling.'

Teana stutters with her answer.

"This… This place belongs to my company. Caledfwlch Techniques." The girls listen to her with curious eyes. Some try to pronounce Caledfwlch. Teana continues, gesturing towards the building she was dragged out of "We do stuff for money. I… I am in charge of the research records stored here."

Red Ribbon digests this information. She opts not to ask what the woman exactly means by doing stuff for money. What the senior girl understands is that this woman is a keeper of some important stuff.

"OK… Why are you here? You don't seem to be a soldier."

"I can't tell you. It's a secret."

Teana is immediately kicked in the stomach by a clone girl. She doubles down in pain and it takes her a while to recover. When she has regained her breath the red ribbon girl asks once again.

"OK, OK. Please don't hurt me." Teana begs, meaning it. It really hurts. "I'm here on a mission to retrieve a company secret."

"What about the soldiers?" Red Ribbon asks, pointing at the RnD building.

"What? No, they aren't soldiers." Teana explains. Those were Raptor droids sent by Caledfwlch as her escort; company properties. Not soldiers. Teana looks around pleadingly. Her eyes briefly linger on her boss, who looks super pissed. The other girls… thanks to their masks she can't make out their faces but she can at least make out their eyes are curious, intrigued, yet hostile.

"Please don't kill me!"

"Shut up!" Red Ribbon yells. She thinks for some seconds. "What's the secret? Why come now when your soldiers ran away?"

Teana is impressed with this girl. She asks good questions. Teana's presence in a combat zone where the Bureau soldiers have left is suspicious as hell.

"I told you. It's a secret-"

Teana cannot finish the sentence as she is kicked in the teeth. She has expected another kick in the stomach and was not ready for this. Teana falls and rolls on the ground in pain, whimpering. The clone girls force her up on her knees. Sobbing, she spits out blood and an incisor.

"Please! I can't tell you-" She sees a raised foot. "OK! OK! I will tell you."

Still clutching the black datapad, Teana answers the question, stopping mid-sentence to spit out blood every now and then. Apparently, to Fate's amusement, Teana is here to retrieve a 'big secret.' A secret so big the company can't even let the Bureau know that there is a secret. Hence, she and the escort droids moved in as soon as the soldiers left.

"What's the big secret?" One of the Alicia clones asks. She forcibly takes the datapad away from Teana. "Is this it?"

"No! Give it back!"

Teana tries to take it back but is punched on the temple. She once more rolls on the ground in pain, but again, is forced back up on her knees. Then, holding her so she doesn't fall, they punch her face again. Then one more. And once more. Fate winces at every whack! 'Just what the hell is Teana doing?!' She can see Teana's face is all puffed up and bloody with broken fat lips.

"Stop! That's enough!" Fate intervenes but quickly realizes that put her in the center of attention. "I mean… I want to hear what she says… Let her talk, please." She trails off.

The red ribbon girl takes the datapad from her sister and fiddles with it. Suddenly several holo-display of reports and memos and charts appear hovering in the air. The girls let out a collective 'Ooh!' and 'Wow!'

"Is this the secret? What's so important about this?" Red Ribbon asks.

Teana sways her head in dizziness, but she is stubborn.

"Secret means secret, you know-" Says Teana weakly through her broken lips. Fate steps up and smacks the back of Teana's head.

"Just tell us already! Do you want to die? You were begging for your life minutes ago!"

Squinting her puffed eyes Teana can make out her boss's angry face. 'I think this should be enough.' She points at the holo-displays floating in the air and speaks in the most defeated voice she can manage.

"It's our project record. We researched on bringing the dead back to life. That's why it's a secret."

Understandably the Alicia clones erupt in questions and loud shouting. Red Ribbon has to shout over the noise to silence her sisters and it takes quite a while for the girls to finally shut up.

"Bring dead back to life?" She asks Teana to confirm she has heard it right. The badly beaten woman nods. "You did that?"

"Not me. Our researchers."

"Can you wake up Alicia?" A little clone girl butts in with a question. Now Teana has to play it cool.

"Who's Alicia?" Teana feigns ignorance.

Red Ribbon contemplates this huge discovery. Something does not make sense to her.

"Why was this kept a secret? Wouldn't it have made a lot of people happy?"

"I don't know! That's what secret means!" Teana lashes out but quickly cools down. She points at the datapad. "Everything should be in there. Read it yourself. I don't give a fuck anymore."

Fate is internally face-palming. Now she understands someone in the Bureau wants these girls to have this datapad. That is clear. But Teana… what the hell?

The red ribbon girl fiddles with the datapad some more and manages to put the holo-displays away. She gestures for her sisters to get Teana up.

"You are coming with us, and you will read everything in here for us." Then she turns to the sisters and tells them to get back to securing the place because for now their goal still is the Terminal.

From a concealed position about five kilometers west of Caledfwlch factory, a small mixed team of Naval Intelligence operatives and Executive Office's Enforcers uses powerful optics magic to observe Teana being dragged away. The team leader gets on the comm and whispers.

"Control, Malware has been picked up."

The whispered voice of Mission Control's senior operator answers back.

"Roger. Handing over to Rapid Recon on the scene. Return to base."

The team silently moves out of their position, cloaking up. The Enforcers grumble in a whisper about their girl getting beaten up.

Zafira is walking with the group of clones dragging Teana away to the nearest town. His ears twitch for a brief moment; he is getting a message. Zafira scampers off away from the group. Fate tries to follow him, but he shakes his head before setting off alone.

#

.

A large convoy of ambulances and personnel carriers enter the Terminal facility. The vehicles come to a stop in front of a large hangar not far from the Joint Task Force HQ. Patients, injured soldiers, are unloaded and moved into the hangar, where a new makeshift hospital has been set up. Shamal gives some instructions to her staff, then stomps towards the JTF HQ. Hayate walks out with Reinforce tagging along. The doctor is furious.

"Twelve! I've lost twelve on the way!" Shamal snaps accusingly. "Many of my patients were not fit for travel, you know. I've got to re-stabilize them, but some are going to die from the shock."

"I'm sorry about this, Shamal." Hayate apologizes sincerely. Shamal's patients are, after all, her own soldiers.

The doctor sighs and shrugs, having vented her anger. She knows it was inevitable. The front line was getting too close to the factory for her comfort. The hospital was destined to be relocated at some point anyway. She brings out a list and transfers over to Reinforce.

"These are the patients I want out of Vaizen. They need specialized cares."

"I'll make the arrangement." Reinforce promises.

Shamal pulls out another set of documents, but notices a whiff of… She sniffs around Hayate.

"Are you smoking again?"

"Er...no, no. It's...the other guys. Not me." Hayate fumbles through her lie. Internally she is relieved Reinforce has not gone that far as to snitch on her to the Yagami household's resident doctor.

"Anyway…" Shamal hands over the pile of documents to Reinforce who struggles with the weight. "These are my complaints regarding one major Subaru Nakajima. She's been nothing but a nuisance."

Reinforce sighs.

"We discovered she's been trolling in Ginga's regiment channel, too."

"By the way, Shamal. Could you have a look at Nanoha?" Asks Hayate.

"Nanoha? Is she hurt?"

Hayate explains. Shamal is worried but shakes her head.

"That's out of my field, but I can have a talk with her as a friend. I dunno if it's going to be any help, though."

Hayate sighs. If Hayate herself could not talk sense into Nanoha, Shamal is not going to have any better chance.

"It's alright. You get back to your patients."

Shamal salutes and turns around, but jumps up startled with a surprised shriek as Subaru is right there in her face.

"So, can I get back to my guys? It's boring in the hospital." Subaru stands there expectantly, a bandage wrapped over her left face, her left arm in a sling. Her uniform jacket lazily rests on the shoulders revealing the ketchup stained tank top.

"Oh my god, you nearly gave me a heart attack!" Shamal tries to calm herself down. "As long as you don't go punching stuff with that arm you should be OK." Shamal seems to be glad to get Subaru out of her hospital. "Change those bandages every 6 hours. And don't come back, OK? Next time I'm putting you under tranquilizer 24/7!"

"Yes, doc!" Subaru salutes as Shamal walks off to her new hospital.

Hayate waits until Shamal is sufficiently far away before lighting a cigarette.

"Ahem… I will go say hello to Signum-san." Subaru enters the hangar but comes out again within a second.

"Where did she go? And what happened to the ceiling?"

#

.

The clones drag bloody faced Teana through the early evening streets of a town not too far from Caledfwlch factory which Hayate has recently conceded to the invaders. They drag the prisoner into a two-story residential house. The progression has gathered lots of attention, and the curious girls gather around the house.

Teana is dragged into a bedroom on the second floor and pushed down on her knees. The room is full of noise as the girls chat about this interesting prisoner. A little girl, clutching a bundle of clothes in her chest, wades through the bodies and comes in front of the Enforcer, who breathes heavily from the pain. Teana looks at the little girl with curious puffed eyes. 'So young…'

"Excuse me, are you from this world?" Asks the little one.

Teana looks up at Red Ribbon, who stands behind the little masked clone girl. The senior nods silently.

"Yes. Sort of…" Says Teana. She's actually from the neighboring world, but going into that small detail might result in another kick in the mouth. The little girl is delighted, her eyes behind the small mask beaming.

"Could you help me pick a present for Alicia-"

"Wha-?"

An older sister tries to pull the little girl away from the scene saying this can wait, but Red Ribbon snaps.

"Leave her alone!"

The masked clone backs off, leaving the small one in peace. Teana is visibly puzzled at this development. 'What is going on?'

The little sister unwraps the bundle she was carrying; producing four different girls' dresses.

"Which one do you think Alicia would like the best?" The girl asks.

"I- I don't even…"

Teana obviously doesn't know what to say. She looks at Red Ribbon, but the senior stands there in silence, seriously studying the dresses laid in front of Teana. The prisoner then turns to Fate only to be disappointed at the sight of her boss engrossed in the dresses as well. Defeated, Teana decides to ask some questions first. Maybe she can stumble upon something that makes sense.

"How does she look like?"

"She looks just like me." Says the little girl. "About the same size."

With her eyes puffed up by the previous beating, Teana looks hard at the little mask with a big red X on it. From behind the little one, Red Ribbon points at the simple yet elegant black dress. Teana hears Fate gasp.

"That one? Oh, no." Teana waves her both hands. "That's for funerals."

"Funerals?" The red ribbon girl asks.

"You wear this when someone you cared dies…" Teana pauses for a second. She wonders who will attend her funeral. Will she be remembered? She continues. "People gather to remember the good things about the deceased-"

"Oh really?" The little girl cuts Teana off, her voice excited. "Then let's give her this one. Alicia's been dead. I hope she likes it. Yes, she will definitely like it!"

Teana tries to protest this strange logic, but her voice is drowned by the other girls who cheer in agreement. Fate can't take it anymore. She gets on her knees and hugs the little one tight. Whispering 'Good girl, what a good girl.'

Red Ribbon steps up and gently pats the little one on the head.

"Very thoughtful of you. I'm sure Alicia will like it. But now, I need to talk to this lady." She looks around the room, addressing all the girls crowding the space. "Everyone. Please."

The clone sisters shuffle out of the room, leaving a group of Senior Clones. Fate lingers on, but they don't seem to mind. They hand over the datapad to Teana. One of them pokes Teana and gestures for her to start reading. Enforcer Teana Lanster, the mastermind behind this ridiculous scheme, currently undercover, summons the first document stored in the datapad. She starts to read it out aloud.