SHE NEEDS HELP?
Lighthouse sits quietly cloaked inside a small cul-de-sac space-time pocket only a sail-hour away from Al Hazard. The path forward is deliberately not opened up yet, but a hairline-thin connection is kept open between the pocket dimension to the Bureau world. Through this impossibly small channel Lighthouse maintains its communication magic with Naval Intelligence's mission control.
"JTF has informed the 48-hour countdown will start at-" The Senior Mission Operator tells captain Lowran the designated time.
"Understood. Are the marines getting ready?" Asks Griffith.
"Yes, captain. They are boarding right now."
Sitting in his captain's chair, Griffith drums his fingers on the armrest. If no words of so-called Malware's success reach him by the time the countdown ends, Lighthouse is to enter Al Hazard and establish a covert travel path for the marine battalion. After that...
Throughout his career sailing for Naval Intelligence, he's played countless waiting games. But he can already tell now. The next period of 48 hours is going to feel the longest. Like an eternity.
#
.
Fate wakes up damp thanks to the early morning drizzle. Lying sideways with a little clone girl in her embrace, she shivers as the breeze from the sea grazes over the ruined ground of the Staging Dock.
She feels the warmth of Teana's body on her back. Turning her head, she notes Teana is still sleeping, which is a feat of its own given the situation they are in. Fate then notices the little girl in her arms is cold. And rigid. Fate gasps and sits up. There wasn't much she could do to stop the internal bleeding except comforting the little kid afraid of what's to come. But obviously, that wasn't enough to keep the girl alive. The little has sister passed away during the short hour Fate fell asleep.
Fate spent the entire night tending to the wounded sisters. Combat wounds were gruesome, but something Fate is used to. She cast the rudimentary healing spell she knew whenever no one was looking. When she couldn't do that, or the injury was beyond her basic healing magic, she had to contend with the first-aid measures that would only delay the inevitable unless proper medical treatment was administered. She went scavenging what's available in the dock worker's town. Medicine cabinets were raided, curtains and bed linens were torn, and furniture was smashed to be used as splints...
Those girls who miraculously survived falling from the high altitude were having it rough. Fate is afraid not many of them are going to make it unless they get professional help very soon.
The clone sisters, understandably, felt the safest near the gate at the Staging Dock, and thus have moved the wounded to the ruined facility. That meant Fate and the group of sisters helping her had to make multiple trips to the town to fetch whatever they needed for treating the wounded girls. She doesn't remember how many runs she made during the night, but her aching body tells her she made more than enough trips.
The Staging Dock area is packed with the Alicia clones. The town west of the facility is none the better. The girls are devastated. Many are sitting on the ground, heads hung low, wet and cold, tired and hungry.
Fate stands up and slowly surveys the area. She knows the Bureau has surrounded the Dock and the town in a few kilometers wide semi-circle. She can spot the flight mages patrolling the sky; Voltaire's imposing presence difficult not to notice.
"The 48 hours countdown kicked in two hours ago." Zafira whispers settling himself down by Fate's feet.
"So, they won't attack?"
"As long as these girls stay put, Princess won't attack."
Fate turns her head towards the gate. She has made her mind up. When Malware or whatever it's called fails, she must go. She will need to convince the girls first, but she will manage it somehow and bring the sisters back to Al Hazard, to safety. There she will confront her mother. There will be no more fighting in Vaizen. She will go if it comes to that. Even if it means leaving everything and everyone she holds dear behind. Nanoha will understand. Vivio will understand. This has to end.
But then again, Fate doesn't really wish to go, so she hopes the sister with the polka dot ribbon makes it work.
#
.
Red Ribbon takes a deep breath and walks into the throne room.
"You! You again! Why it's only you coming to tell me anything?" The old mother yells at the clone girl, who waits for her mother to calm down a bit.
"Mother, the girls are afraid to bring disappointing news."
"And you are not?"
Red Ribbon does not answer. Precia glares at her for a while but then leans back on the throne.
"So, what is this another disappointing news?"
The senior Alicia clone takes another deep breath.
"Mother, we've lost it all. We have nothing left but the portal."
Her mother jumps up in disbelief, shocked.
"But we've sent more girls!"
"It didn't matter." Says Red Ribbon matter of factly, although it is a lie. No girls were sent to Vaizen.
"Then send more! Send everyone!" Precia Testarossa is furious.
"Mother, it still won't matter. We are past that point."
"Why you... you!"
The old woman angrily picks up the fake flower from the table. She is about to throw it in rage at the masked clone girl, but she stops mid-motion. She puts it down and slumps back onto the throne. She sighs and asks weakly.
"What's happened to us?"
Red Ribbon does not answer but takes out a small tool from her pocket instead. She begins to undo the bolts on her mask. Precia watches with her mouth open, blinking, trying to comprehend what this piece of shit girl is daring to do. With a clang, the mask drops onto the floor, revealing a sad face.
"Mother, a great many sisters have died."
Precia tries to cover her eyes with one hand. The other points at the Alicia clone, trembling.
"Put... it... back... on! You are not...You are not my Alicia!"
"Many sisters have died. Hundreds." The red ribbon girl slowly approaches the throne. "And thousands more, if we keep fighting."
She comes to a stop before her mother. Precia Testarossa is looking left and right, trying to avoid seeing the sad face that oh so reminds her what Alicia would have looked like had she lived. The senior Alicia clone continues.
"Mother, we don't mind dying for Alicia's sake. We love her. We love you, mother. We will die thousands times for you and Alicia!"
She leans in.
Precia Testarossa gasps, her head turned sideways but eyes glancing at the face closing in on her. The teen girl's face is crying with tears.
"But, mother, we die in the hope that someday, somehow, it will amount to something." She points at the black datapad on the small table next to the throne. "And it did!"
Precia Testarossa looks back and forth between the datapad and the face in front of her. The red ribbon girl is pleading. Screaming, the frail mother discharges attack magic, that hits her girl point-blank. To her confusion, Red Ribbon doesn't even bat an eye. The unmasked face is full of sorrow. Precia tries again but the clone girl just winces the pain off.
"It's nothing compared to what the soldiers have thrown at me."
The red ribbon girl gets on her knees.
"Mother, this everything has been about Alicia. Not about you. Not about winning the fight. It's all Alicia." She points at the datapad on the small table. "We can't win, mother. That thing is her only chance!"
Precia is taken aback. She knows the girl is right, but she was so close to reaching Infinity Library. 'Unlimited knowledge!' She pushes the girl aside and stands up. Hunched over, hands covering her head, the mother paces around the room groaning, tormented.
"Mother, please! Sisters are dying!" The red ribbon girl is shouting. At this point she is desperate.
Precia puts a hand up blocking the girl. With her head in her hands, she walks back and forth, muttering to herself. A wave of rage rushes through her body. Then disappointment, followed by indecision. For the first time in decades, she doesn't know what to do, lost.
"Mother, we have it in our hands!" The clone girl is insistent. The old woman snaps and glares at the fake Alicia. Then seeing Alicia's face, she realizes she's not lost. There is nothing to decide because everything, whatever she does and does not, is about Alicia.
"Mother, please-"
"Yes." She comes to a stop. The old mother straightens up to her full height, head held high, eyes focused with a purpose. "Yes, you are right." She faces her girl.
"Bring your sisters in. I need help with the preparation."
#
.
Half a dozen clone girls walk into the dimly lit backroom where Alicia is sleeping. Red Ribbon hands out memos filled with symbols and drawings prepared by her mother.
"What happened to your mask?" One of the girls asks.
"We don't need it anymore." The red ribbon girl declares. Her sisters gasp. One of them fumbles with the mask, toying with the idea. She decides to keep it on for now.
In the middle of the room, next to Alicia's container, Testarossa is going over Scaglietti's procedure while copying symbols and magic patterns for her girls to replicate.
.
Teana massages her sore face in silence. With her puffed eyes, she sees Fate squatting on a large piece of Helios wreckage, eying the gate, nervously biting her nails. Teana feels a bit sorry for Fate for what is going to happen to the sisters in Al Hazard. Her eyes wander around the Staging Dock, damp with the rain, gloomy with the depressed clone invaders. Teana recalls the last meeting she had with Dr. Scaglietti. It was when she was visiting him to receive the final draft.
"The procedure is in multiple steps." The evil genius said then and pointed at a section of the wall of text. "At this stage, things likely start to go wrong."
"Likely?" Teana asked, to which Scaglietti just shrugged with a 'Hey, don't complain to me.' expression.
"You gave me a big margin of error; I can't help it." But he was clever. He made it sure things are guaranteed to go wrong at some point.
.
Precia Testarossa draws a large magic circle. The girls are drawing symbols and lines on the walls, on the container, and on the floor, referring to the memos prepared by their mother. Red Ribbon looks up when someone taps on her shoulder. The old woman shakes her head, points at her memo, and corrects the mistake the girl has made.
Having done her part, the red ribbon girl picks up the presents she had brought and laid out in front of the container, but the mother stops her.
"It's alright. They won't affect the procedure."
Red Ribbon appreciates and puts the presents back on the floor.
.
"She's a smart one. And cautious." Teana remembers Scaglietti saying waggling his finger. "No way she's going to proceed without having planned a revert procedure for each and every step."
"Ah... those types. I know such people." Teana commented.
"And I pretty much know what those revert procedures will be, so that's where I hide my big 'Fuck You.'"
Teana sneezes, feeling chilly. Her eyes have moved onto the sky to the west where the Bureau flight mages are circling about; not really doing anything to harm the girls, but threatening, nevertheless. She wonders what's happening in Al Hazard. If Scaglietti's big 'fuck you' actually materializes, Teana is sure the news will enrage the girls here. And they sure will be mad at her.
.
Precia reviews the works done by the girls. She goes over each and every little thing very carefully. When she finds mistakes, she's not mad. She corrects them herself. And when everything is finally in order, she takes a deep breath. She gently caresses the glassy surface of Alicia's container. It's about time her little daughter wakes up.
.
Having nothing to do but wait, Teana lies on her back. The drizzly rain is annoying as heck, but she feels she deserves it.
"So, when things start to go wrong, she will revert back step by step." Scaglietti said. Teana didn't quite follow but encouraged him to go on.
"Reverting back a step won't solve the problem, but it will show a sign of improvement. But then, bang! The reality hits; She will realize continuing will trigger a catastrophe."
Teana gulped and asked what's going to happen. The doctor gave her an evil grin. He's giving Precia Testarossa a choice. Whichever she chooses, the war will end.
.
The revival procedure has started. Precia refers to the datapad, says the incantations, channeling and manipulating the magic of Al Hazard.
A large magical circle has been drawn on the floor. Along its circumference, five smaller circles are spread out surrounding the large one. Each small circle contains an element Testarossa has prepared; a flame, a floating ball of water, a small heap of earth, a twirl of wind, and one little Alicia clone.
Precia Testarossa says the incantation and processes the datastream from the flame which flickers. She processes its information and the very definition of its manifestation, and transfers to the wall where it is temporarily recorded among a section of drawings and symbols on that part of the wall; the relevant part glowing in flaming red. She repeats the process with the water, the wind, and the earth. When it's her turn, the little masked clone girl nervously fidgets.
"Don't worry. You will be fine." Says the mother in a rare kind voice, which makes the girl even more nervous.
As her mother says the magical incantation the little girl feels a tingling sensation of being watched. It feels as if the multiverse is poring over her, the fabric of space-time trying to learn who she is. What she is. What makes her her. The little masked girl shuts her eyes in fear. Soon the sensation fades away. She opens her eyes and turns around to find her section of the wall full of complex symbols and lines and shapes glowing in electric yellow.
"You've done well. You can step off now." The mother smiles at the little girl, who complies. She jogs to the corner of the room where her sisters are standing, watching. They pat her head for being brave.
"Now I need to concentrate, so be quiet."
Precia Testarossa closes her eyes and inverts the Al Hazard magic in her head. The girls gasp as the smaller circles on the circumference of the large one start moving. The circles glide over the line and enter inside the large magic circle. The elements have traveled along with their respective containers save for one vacant circle where the little clone girl previously occupied. Precia opens her eyes and carefully shifts the entire circles set across the floor such that the vacant small circle is occupied by Alicia's container. Now the real work begins.
She nods to Red Ribbon, who steps up and puts the flame out and then steps back. Precia concentrates, saying another set of magical words. The fire section of the scribblings on the wall blinks rapidly as the magical system tries to understand what is missing from the completeness of the given elements, and what should be done about it. A humming sound starts to resonate from the symbols on the wall, and the noise gets more and more intense as Testarossa filters and processes and channels Al Hazard's magic into the system. And then with a loud sound of something being ripped apart, a violet flame appears inside the small empty circle. She hears the girls gasp. The mother turns her head their ways and smiles a little.
"It's working."
She nods to Red Ribbon again. The senior clone girl removes the ball of water hovering over its assigned small circle. Precia initiates the self-learning process again, and the magic system tries, assesses, and correctly concludes it needs some water. A tiny cloud forms hovering above the assigned circle and rains tinier droplets of water onto the floor.
"Erm... mother?" Red Ribbon points at the small circle assigned to the fire. The flame has disappeared.
"It's alright." The mother assures the girl. The fire has done its part and is no longer needed.
'What a useful girl.' The mother notes. She eyes the clone girls at the corner. They would make nice sisters for Alicia, indeed. So devoted. So caring.
.
"You are evil." Teana said to Scaglietti. The evil genius had just explained to her how he's giving more than she asked for.
Teana shivers as she recalls the conversation. Her eyes once again fall onto Fate. The nervous first-ever Alicia clone is pacing around, glancing at the gate every now and then, worried sick.
Teana shakes her head. She feels sorry for having lied to her boss. She feels sorry for that girl with the ribbon on her head. She feels sorry for the innocent clones in Al Hazard. They don't know what's coming.
The mass neutralization of linker cores as proposed by Fate is never going to happen. It has never been the intention from the get-go. The true goal of Malware is something more sinister. Something that even Scaglietti thought it was too much. But then again, he himself added his own evil to the plan to make sure the war ends.
"Whatever Testarossa chooses, you get what you want. Besides... I'm already in jail for being evil." The doctor said, tapping on the final draft of the core document of Malware. Teana remembers the uncomfortable guilty feeling she had when the doctor leaned across the small table.
"Now let's talk about you, Enforcer. Are you really going to do this? Willingly and knowingly? To a little dead girl and her grieving mother?"
"The burden will be mine. Not Fate's. Not yours." Said Teana then. Before leaving Teana had to make sure.
"Now, what do you say if my boss comes asking?"
"I blame the margin of error."
.
Red Ribbon holds her breath, looking at the small mound of earth that has appeared out of thin air. She looks at the other elements. There is a miniature cloud raining water. And the tiny tornado which made the girls woo and ahh in awe. She isn't very comfortable with the missing fire but overall it really seems the magic is working as supposed to, which isn't exactly what she was told by Fate onee-chan. This puzzles her a bit; she and her sisters are supposed to fall unconscious, seriously weakened. But on the other hand, if Alicia really does wake up, it's good so. There wouldn't be the need to continue the fight.
She can tell mother is excited, too. The mother prepares for the stage which she said will take some time for the system to complete. Mother said no matter how potent Al Hazard's magic is, life is a complicated thing to figure out. It's a concept a bit too difficult for Red Ribbon to understand, but her mother just smiled a bit and assured everything is going to work out.
Precia Testarossa takes a deep breath and says the words. According to Scaglietti's report, the system took some long minutes to figure out the secret of life for a single cell organism. He suggested it could take hours, or even days for larger targets. Precia is willing to wait, but it would be very nice if there are some signs of progress. She watches the container intensely. Something. Anything. 'Give me the sign.'
A loud gasp from the girls at the corner startles her.
"Mother, look!" They point at something behind Alicia's body. Testarossa walks around and she, too, gasps. A tiny violet flame has appeared inside the container, bouncing around, and is burning the dead girl's body whenever it comes in contact. The preservative liquid inside the cylinder starts to boil, much to everyone's horror.
"Don't panic! Stay calm!" The mother tells the girls, but she herself is shaking and sweating. Clearly, the system has misjudged what needs to be done. It has summoned the missing flame instead of breathing life into Alicia. 'It's OK. I'll just revert it.' It pains her to see the flame burning her dead girl in tiny spots here and there, but she can treat the burns once the tissues are back alive. The priority is to get rid of the flame.
She deletes some symbols drawn on the floor and does a complicated reversal incantation on the fly that otherwise would have taken a full university faculty a month to calculate. Precia Testarossa is indeed a genius after all.
The reversal step results in the liquid stop boiling, which is a good sign. The bad sign is that the preservative liquid is gone; it simply disappeared. Her precious Alicia falls to the bottom of the container like a rag-doll. But the tiny flame is still there. In fact, there are now two of them, bouncing around inside the cylindrical container. The girls are now panicking, shrieking and crying.
"One more step. One more-"
She quickly reverts one more step, muttering a phrase of magical words, urgently modifying the symbols and shapes within the magical circle. In the middle of the process Testarossa abruptly stops. She gasps, eyes wild.
"Wait... Oh, no, no, no!"
Precia Testarossa once a prominent scientist has meticulously checked every little thing. Scaglietti's paper had no flaws. His theoretical framework was impenetrable. It was a work of a genius verified by an actual lab-scale experimental data. The only reason why nobody was able to upscale it to human-sized specimens was because there was no power source that met the requirement. Testarossa had her advantage because she had what was needed. And now, working the steps backward, she has realized. This whole paper was specifically designed to fail her and her only.
The paper assumed the required power input to be something universally available but just hugely amplified to an impossible degree, and Testarossa based her verification of the theory assuming the same. However, while doing the reverse calculation on the fly she caught the glimpse of the hidden trap. The magical circle and the resulting system are rigged to have the fire element, the flame, go missing at some point as long as the procedure is performed using Al Hazard's ambient magic. The parameters specific to Al Hazard were set just at the fringe of the spectrum it would have been impossible for anyone to detect. The grieving mother hyperventilates. This is too much for her to actually believe, but she has to accept the fact. Scaglietti has designed the system such that it would summon the missing fire back into reality no matter what; on Alicia's dead body.
"Why you crazy evil-" Precia curses the mad man.
And now she sees it. Scaglietti has made this because he knew exactly who will be performing this magic and where it will be performed. The Bureau knows who they are fighting against and what her goal is! What's worse is the evil monster has placed an interpreter in the magic circle. Precia's revert instructions, no matter how she twists and bends and modifies them, are set to be interpreted by the system in the only way it knows.
The flames are bouncing around like mad, scarring her precious girl, eating the dead flesh. The clone girls are wailing, not knowing what to do.
"Mother! Do something!" The red ribbon girl screams, but the old mother hesitates. She looks around the room; at the horrified girls panicking. At the now unmasked senior girl with the ribbon. At her dear Alicia flopped down on the bottom of the container. She can't breathe. She's given a choice, but no matter what she is doomed.
Red Ribbon rushes to her mother and grabs the arms.
"Mother! Do something. Alicia is burning!"
Precia chokes, hyperventilating, shaking her head sideways in refusal. Tears roll down her cheeks and drop past the quivering mouth.
"Mother!"
Eyes shut tight, the devastated mother finally gives in. With a loud and long scream of a tormented inner pain, she completes the reversal step, which triggers the system to reevaluate what is to be done. The flames inside the container disappear like magic. The dead girl is safe. For now.
The mother opens her eyes and cries like a baby. She braves herself to face her girls.
"Girls, I'm sorry." She means it.
The magical system she has manifested in the room has accepted the revert instruction, and now reassess what needs to be done so things are in order. Clearly summoning the fire inside the fifth circle is not the desirable outcome, judging by how it was rejected. The building blocks have remained the same for the system to interpret. All it needs to do is reshuffle the possibilities and figure out what is needed to be done.
Rain firestorm down on earth so Alicia is dead.
The Ziggurat's roof blows off, the room's ceiling flying off to the sky as if caught in a tornado. The girls, shrieking in fear, are knocked down to the floor. Their mother falls to her knees, begging for mercy.
"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!"
From the large magic circle, a pillar-like massive magic discharge shoots upward to the sky.
Alicia's container shatters and the dead body tumbles out onto the now exposed floor. Red Ribbon rushes to and takes her sister into her arms. With frightened eyes, she looks up at the madness that is happening above.
With an earth-shattering crack, every single cloud in the sky turns to a burning blob of red flame; raining fire down onto the inhabitants of Al Hazard. A gigantic fireball falls down onto the now exposed platform that is the top of the Ziggurat.
#
.
A droplet of sticky human fat falls onto Precia's face and she comes to her senses after hours of being unconscious. She finds herself underneath a heap of smoldering layers of burnt corpses on top of her. The clone girls have burnt to death shielding their mother. Terrified, Precia Testarossa digs her way out of the heap gasping for breath. Charred flesh and fat stick on her robe and won't come off no matter how hard she tries to shake them off.
The roof is gone, and the walls have crumbled. Over the knee-high rubble that once was a wall, she sees her throne still intact in the next room, which makes her even more sad.
She looks up. The rain of fire has stopped but the clouds are still of gigantic flames. In the far distant sky, she can see the fire has joined forces with the Al Hazard's mana storm and is ravaging across the burning land.
She hears someone sobbing. At the edge of the now exposed platform, Red Ribbon kneels on the floor, Alicia in her arms, barrier in full deployment. The girl's shoulder heaves as she sobs and rocks her body.
"It wasn't meant to be like this. It wasn't meant to be!" She is muttering to herself. "She lied to me!"
Red Ribbon hears the approaching footsteps from behind and turns her head. The crying girl is devastated.
"Mother, she lied to me!"
The mother walks up to the edge, taking in the scenery of the clouds of fire in the sky and the burning land of Al Hazard and the countless corpses, charred, strewn over the smoking land.
A tiny hope rises in Testarossa's mind. Thank god not all girls are dead. She spots groups of survivors wandering around the smoking field. The mother watches the senior girls trying to gather surviving sisters. Their dormitories have collapsed, and the land is on fire and the sky is burning. To make things worse there is a firestorm approaching rapidly. Precia Testarossa bites her nails, watching her girls frantically digging.
'That's right. Go underground! Come on!'
Words must have spread. She spots other groups of girls doing the same. Quickly running her eyes across the field, she estimates some tens of thousands of her clone girls are still alive. For now. She closes her eyes and quickly prays thanks to... whatever. It's been so long she last prayed she has forgotten where to direct her thanks.
The devastated woman opens her eyes again and looks the other direction. On a distant hill, the cursed gate to Vaizen is still open. She is baffled to see some girls still manning the gate.
.
"She lied to me, mother. This wasn't supposed to happen."
Red Ribbon's voice grabs Testarossa's attention. The mother shakes her head.
"It was me who did this."
"What? No, she lied-" The senior clone is confused.
"I did this." The mother insists. "I chose Alicia over you girls."
The red ribbon girl is lost and doesn't know what to say.
'Mother did this?'
Not knowing what to do, she presents Alicia. Precia takes the dead daughter in her arms and examines the damage; The little girl's flesh is badly burnt in several places. The body is still somewhat intact, but there already are signs of deterioration. Something needs to be done very quickly or there will be no more Alicia.
"I'm sorry, Alicia." The mother weeps. She faces the clone girl, too. "You, too. I'm sorry. I burnt our home."
The mother is about to fall into a complete breakdown. Red Ribbon quickly stands up, wipes her own tears and comforts her mother. Somebody has to remain sensible. She needs to be in charge.
"Mother, we need to get you out of here." She checks on Alicia's damaged body. "Alicia needs help, too. Fast."
"No. You girls can't help this-" The mother shakes her head in defeat, but Red Ribbon grabs the old woman's arms.
"Mother, the Bureau people can! They can help!"
Precia Testarossa is startled.
"What? No. They won't help me. After what I've-"
"Mother, they owe me big." The red ribbon girl starts to lead her mother out of the ruined room. "I can make them help us. I will!"
#
.
The Vaizen sky continues to rain drizzle down well into the late afternoon. Fate and Zafira have noticed there is a commotion at the gate. Girls have gathered there, speaking to magical ears and mouth floating out of the gate. Some girls are crying. Some are furious.
"Mother is coming with Alicia..." Zafira perks his puppy ears and relays what he hears. "Something happened back home..."
"What else?" Fate inquires.
Zafira gives up. Too many girls are talking at the same time and it's just too chaotic. But one thing is for sure.
"Something happened in Al Hazard."
"So, it worked?"
"Sounds like it."
They notice an angry mob forming at the gate. The girls are glaring at Teana. A senior clone shouts something and the girls start to approach with their weapons drawn.
"Looks like it." Zafira corrects himself. Teana sits up.
"They are coming to kill me, aren't they?"
"Yeah... Get out!"
Fate springs up. She points a hand upward and a bright yellow signal is shot into the sky.
.
Nanoha reads the signal from the sky outside the encirclement perimeter. It's in Kanji again. She lets out a cheer and gets on the comm.
"Princess, A signal from Fate. Malware worked!"
"Roger, White Devil." Reinforce answers in a calm voice. "We will have it confirmed soon."
.
Naval Intelligence's covert frigate Lighthouse springs into action.
"We dip in and look around. Nothing more, nothing less." Captain Lowran tells his crew.
The cul-de-sac path Lighthouse has been hiding inside extends the final stretch to Al Hazard. Soon a small gate opens; just large enough for Lighthouse to pass through.
"We going in, captain." An operator informs Griffith. The captain sits up in his chair and intensely watches the main display.
Cloaked, Lighthouse glides through the gate and instantly finds itself inside a gigantic cloud of searing flame.
"Holy fuck-" Griffith gasps at the sight of the world set in inferno. His sensor operator quickly zooms in the optics, and the Bridge collectively groans at the sight of countless burnt corpses littering the charred soil.
"Captain, do we deem this as... enemy neutralized?"
"Erm... yeah. Sure." The captain is at a loss what else to say. They never told him what to expect of Malware except that the enemy is supposed to be unfit for combat as the result. These clones... aren't going to fight anyone for sure.
The ship's system starts emitting alarms as the Lighthouse heats up. The Bridge crew turn their heads to their captain expectantly.
"Right. Get us the fuck out of this hell."
.
Fate flips her little golden badge that is Bardiche. The intelligent device instantly transforms into a polearm-like staff. Fate swings her magical staff, and the enraged clone girls are knocked back by an invisible force. Teana hops into Fate's arms to be carried princess-style.
"God, you really are heavy." Fate complains and staggers.
"You need some weight lifting, boss."
The Enforcers get up in the air. Fate flies as fast as she can with the added weight, but the clone girls are closing in fast.
"Grrr." Fate groans, gritting her teeth, trying to gain some altitude. She realizes it's not going to work.
"Teana?"
"Yes, boss?"
"Flap your arms a bit."
Teana is puzzled and looks at her boss's face. Fate becomes blur and Teana suddenly feels weightless for a nanosecond. The sensation of freefalling kicks in immediately.
.
A senior Alicia clone is leading thirty-some sisters chasing the escaping prisoner. She suddenly feels a chill running down her spine as a delayed reaction to... what? She has to stop, scared. 'What did just happen?' She tries to remember. For a split second, she saw the blurred image of a sister in front of her. The sister said, "Hey, stop." And... disappeared?
The senior girl is not the only one who has experienced this bizarre event. Each masked clone chasing that lying prisoner woman has had a sister appear before her, scornfully telling "Hey, stop." Some have been lightly tapped on the head with the staff... or so they think. It happened so fast and almost simultaneously to all girls, they are not sure what happened; not even sure what they saw and heard are real. They stop midair scared and wonder. Some have soiled their pants after this surreal and ghostly experience.
.
Teana is about to scream, but she again feels the weight in Fate's arms carrying her. Fate's blurred face has returned to normal and Teana no longer feels the sensation of falling. She realizes the scary experience has in fact only lasted a minuscule fraction of a second, but her senses are still catching up, lagging behind the actual event that has happened.
"What?" Teana's delayed panic sets in. "Did you just leave me up in the air all alone?"
"For a brief moment, yes." Fate doesn't deny the accusation. "But I've come back, haven't I?"
"For crying out loud, what if I fell and died?"
"I told you to flap your arms!"
"Argh!" Teana flaps her arms making Fate to wobble in the air.
She turns her head. The pursuers have stopped midair far back, puzzled and confused and scared, dripping wet stuff down their pants legs.
'Ha!' Teana scoffs. They will never know they've just experienced an extremely diluted version of a TSAB strategic asset in action.
.
"Didn't know she could use the mirage magic." Bug Boy comments from high altitude flying alongside the White Devil, ready to dive down to help the Enforcers should the need arise.
"That wasn't mirage." Nanoha corrects her Vaizen counterpart.
"What the hell do you mean?"
"Each and every one of them was Fate herself" Nanoha explains, grinning somewhat pridefully. "As I said, when she wants to go fast, she goes ridiculously fast."
.
Fate has crossed over the perimeter and enters Rapid Response's sector. She lands next to the division HQ's large command vehicle and drops Teana like a sack, much to Signum's amusement.
"God, I can't carry you anymore." Fate doubles down and wheezes.
Teana slowly gets up, moaning, massaging her back. She is offended.
"That hurt! In many ways!"
An armored carrier drifts into the division command post and comes to a screeching halt meters away from the two Enforcers. Subaru with an eye patch jumps out of the vehicle and rushes to Teana.
"Teana!" She hugs her best friend with her good arm. Subaru takes a step back and gasps at the sight of Teana's swollen face.
"What happened to your face?"
"I dropped her." Fate answers instead, still trying to catch her breath after carrying her junior officer all the way from the Dock.
"Fate-san? What's with your face?" Asks Subaru. She herself is not really in the position to ask other people about the state of their faces, but Subaru does it anyway.
"Oh! I forgot." Fate takes the head-masks off, making everyone go "Ooh~"
Signum steps in with two mugs filled with hot coffee for the Enforcers.
"Alright, Subaru. Regardless of what happened in Al Hazard, we still have a bunch of hostiles across the lawn. The fight is not over, understood?"
"Yes, madam."
Signum tells the Punchkid to return to her post, then turns to the ladies from the Office. Unfortunately for Teana, a motorbike is not available this time. Signum instead offers a personnel carrier to the Terminal, where the two Enforcers will be debriefed by the Princess.
#
.
The three marine landing ships settle down and open their bay doors. Disgruntled marines march out of the ships and head back to their tents, which fortunately have not been disassembled yet. The battalion CO announces they will be on standby once again. Their trip to Al Hazard is as good as canceled.
.
Hayate stands up from her desk in the hangar. She puffs her cheeks a couple of times and bobs up and down to pump up the energy. Reinforce, by her side, gives a thumbs up. Hayate presses some buttons and makes an announcement to all forces active in Vaizen.
"We've received a report Al Hazard cannot send any more reinforcement. It's time to clean up Vaizen. Pummel them down. Drive them into the sea. Pulverize anyone who dares to stand in my way."
.
The Staging Dock comes under an intense artillery barrage. The masked invaders cower in craters and behind covers, but they keep the perimeter defense up, shooting back at the Bureau soldiers trying to break in.
.
The Dock worker's town is none the better. Its outer defense has collapsed, and the clone girls have taken positions inside the houses for their final resistance. Armored vehicles move into the town to be greeted with streams of deadly magic flying out from windows and street corners. Troops dismount, taking covers. Intense house-to-house fights break out in the residential area while the flight mages rain death down onto the streets.
.
An armored vehicle stops as it comes under attack from the house it has just passed. An intense flame starts to rise from the interior and a group of soldiers climb out dragging their buddies on fire. They take cover when a hail of deadly magical javelins come their way. Another vehicle comes to a stop at a nearby corner, and its squad of soldiers dismounts. They yell across the street demanding to know where the attack is coming from. The first squad shouts and points at the house. The newly arrived vehicle starts firing at the windows, Vtoom! Vtoom! Vtoom! And the javelins stop flying out the windows. Soon two Alicia clones limp out of the house helping a bleeding third girl. A few steps on the ruined front yard, the bleeding one collapses dead. The remaining two try to run across the street, but they explode under the focused fire by the Bureau squads. But then the soldiers are shot from another house, and the second armored vehicle explodes. The soldiers rush into the house. Immediately the noise of firefight, cursing, yelling, screams of pain, rings out from the two-story residence. There is an explosion on the upper floor followed by a dead silence. Minutes later the soldiers walk out of the house, helping their wounded. A group of clone girls attacks them from the air, decimating the soldiers. The clone girls are in return wiped out by a flight of Bureau mages who dove down from above. As the flight mages fly away to another section of the town, a column of armored vehicles rolls through the street past the smoking wreckages, as if the carnage strewn across is nothing new to see. An ambulance picks up the casualties and rushes out of the town as fast as it can.
.
In the meantime, Precia Testarossa and her red ribboned clone girl are flying in the dark pathway, the latter carrying the damaged dead Alicia in her arms. The exit approaches closer and closer, shining with magical light, wobbling and pulsating. Muffled noises seep through the gate as the two approaches. Then with a woosh sound, they are through.
#
.
Exiting the gate, Precia Testarossa stumbles over a torn leg that has lost its owner. She is startled by an explosion some hundred meters away.
"Mother, please be careful. Stay close to me!" The red ribbon girl shouts over the noise. She looks around trying to find a safe place for her mother and Alicia. It wasn't like this when she left. This place has in the meantime become a hell. She grits her teeth. Home is burning. And our foothold in Vaizen is burning, too. 'Is there any place where we are welcomed?'
A senior clone who has been taking shelter in the nearby crater turns her head. Her eyes go wild upon seeing the mother. She stands up, arms flailing, shouting something which Testarossa can't quite make out over the noises.
"What are you saying?" The mother shouts.
"-go back! Go back!" The senior girl ups her volume. "It's dangerous-"
Other clone girls also have noticed the arrival of their mother. They are frantically shouting; "Go back!", "Take cover!"
The senior girl climbs out of her crater.
"Mother, It's not safe-"
A gigantic clawed hand the size of a truck swipes across the girl, cutting her to ribbons as Voltaire sweeps across the ground flying low. Precia Testarossa gasps. The beast ascends into the sky in search of the next prey. Another explosion not too far rains dirt and organs and limbs down on the horrified mother.
.
From the sky, the flight mages have noticed the newcomer.
"That must be Testarossa! Notify the cannon battery!" Bug Boy is ecstatic to finally have the chance to punish the leader of the invaders. He makes a wide turn, readying to dive onto the gate. He screams into the comm.
"All units, Testarossa sighted at the gate! Testarossa at the gate!"
He scans the sky to locate the White Devil. He needs her firepower, but, where is she? His search is interrupted by the comm from Rapid Response HQ. It's that Agito girl.
"Shells are in the air. Three salvos. Flight units, clear the course!"
Bug Boy leads his colleagues to a higher altitude.
.
Precia Testarossa is disoriented and in shock. She whimpers and winces at every sound of explosions. Her eyes aimlessly wander across the field; her girls are taking covers in craters and behind wreckages, occasionally hurling deadly magic out at something unseen in the distance. She murmurs not remembering teaching them such magic. She hears a whistling sound and notices the ribbon girl panicking.
"Mother! Take cover!"
"Wh-what?"
Red Ribbon quickly lays dead Alicia on the ground. She then forcefully pushes her mother down right next to Alicia. The senior girl throws herself on top of the two with her barrier fully deployed. Eyes closed in fear and in desperate hope she screams.
.
The flight mages wait for the cannon strike to end. The ground immediately before the transdimensional gate explodes as a set of magical rounds lands almost simultaneously. The resulting smoke and dust cloud block the view, but Bug Boy can still make out the bright flashes of the shells going off. Something isn't right. The magical cannon rounds seem to be exploding well above the ground. 'No matter.' He shakes his head and keeps counting the salvos.
"-two... three! Dive! Dive!" Bug Boy shouts into the comm.
The flight mages drop altitude, nosediving, throwing everything they have unto the target zone. With a deafening roar, Caro's Voltaire discharges his death rays to join in the effort.
To everyone's surprise, all the attacks bounce off to the sea.
.
On the ground, Red Ribbon's ears are ringing from the explosions. Her body aches from tensing up before the imminent death. But she's still alive. She notices something is pressing hard on her head. The clone girl opens her eyes, surprised she's still breathing. She turns her head to see a hooded person crouched on top of her, pressing down her head hard with one hand, two long ribbon tails flailing in the wind.
It's the flying devil.
The devil is looking up at the sky where the attack came from, one hand held high with the staff which has deployed an impossibly thick barrier. The flight mages floating on the other side of the barrier are watching the scene with baffled expressions.
The red ribbon girl clenches her teeth and frees herself by rolling to the side. She quickly jumps up with her scythe ready to kill, glowing and buzzing in electric yellow.
"You! Why you!"
The flying devil turns her head, facing the clone girl with a curious smile. Red Ribbon lunges forward, screaming.
Nanoha casually catches and stops the sharp edge of the scythe with the free hand and then gently extinguishes the glowing magical blade. The red ribbon girl is shocked and takes a step back. 'Did she just-' Still crouched with the barrier up, Nanoha shakes the hand, wincing a little bit.
"Not bad." She checks her hand and winces again. "Really. Not bad." She looks up and meets the girl's baffled eyes. "Are you the girl? Fate-chan's new friend?"
"Friend?" Red Ribbon's mouth quivers in rage. "Friend?!" She shoots her arm out and points at the damaged Alicia.
"Look what she's done to Alicia! Friend?!"
Nanoha doesn't say anything. She stands up and waves to the confused flight mages in the air. She waves again and the mages reluctantly lower their weapons. Only then Nanoha turns her attention to the two bodies at her feet. She observes Alicia's dead body.
"Hello, Alicia."
The red ribbon girl is at a loss what to say. She wants to kill this monster. She wants to kill that lying Fate onee-chan. She wants to-
She hears her mother groaning on the dirty ground. She quickly helps the old woman up.
Precia Testarossa shakes her head, trying to focus. Her ears are still ringing, and the fear... She shakes her head to focus. Her eyes wander across the ruined Staging Dock once again, taking in the scenery of flames and black smoke and mangled bodies and blood and bits of charred flesh and... Yes, she is the one who sent the girls to fight here in Vaizen. But this is... 'All this time, they've been fighting like this?'
Her eyes come to a stop at the woman glaring at her. 'I've seen her somewhere-'
"Dr. Testarossa. Remember me?" Nanoha asks icily. She takes in the old face. Decades of desperation and sadness have left their marks on this poor mother's face, making Nanoha feel sorry for the woman.
At first, Testarossa is confused. Then she remembers.
"I know you! I know YOU!"
This is that little girl who had almost ruined everything. 'My, she's grown up' Precia notes. She also notices the uniform and the insignia.
"You work for the Bureau!" Precia throws herself at the White Devil's feet and clings onto the uniform. "Please! My Alicia needs help! Please help her!"
Nanoha scoffs. She looks around. The battle has died down, and the clone girls have gathered around the three, puzzled and curious, but cautiously keeping their distance from the much-feared devil.
Nanoha points at Alicia.
"SHE needs help?" She moves her finger, pointing at the surrounding clone girls in general. "Of ALL your girls here, SHE needs help?" Nanoha shakes her head, disappointed, upset.
"I thought I'd do the same... I thought I understood you." Nanoha's eyes lit up with rage. Veins popping up she screams at the begging woman. "She's DEAD! They are alive!"
"Don't yell at mother, you monster!" A clone girl snaps at Nanoha. The other girls join her, yelling at the flying devil for being rude to their mother.
Nanoha looks at them with a sad expression, at a loss what to say. She feels a pang in her heart. After all this, after what has happened, these girls are still... 'Good girls.'
.
A puppy trots onto the scene, attracting everyone's attention save for Precia, who at this point is on the ground tending to Alicia's dead body, rocking back and forth, whispering into the deaf ears. Zafira stops at the feet of Red Ribbon standing by her mother.
"Dr. Testarossa, I suggest you surrender."
The girls shriek in shock. It gets worse and they are absolutely terrified as Zafira transforms back to his human form. He opts not to salute the enemy but greets with a nod instead.
"I am captain Zafira. Of Rapid Response division. Dr. Testarossa, do you wish to surrender?"
The red ribbon girl gets in the way.
"One- one condition! No. Two! Two conditions!"
Zafira looks hard at the unmasked clone girl. The vertical lines of dried-up tears and the soot on the cheeks and the trembling grey lips tell him this girl has gone through some real tough shit very recently. He looks around the other girls, but nobody is challenging Red Ribbon taking the charge. Zafira moves his eyes down. Testarossa is obviously not in the condition to discuss things; she's too occupied with the dead girl. 'OK.' Zafira snaps to attention and faces the red ribbon girl.
"I'm sorry, miss. I am not in a position to discuss the terms. What I can do for now is-" He looks around at the girls. "I can ask my people to stop killing you for the moment. But I need you to do the same."
"If you promise you stop fighting." The senior girl demands to be convinced first. She notices the flying devil shrug.
Nanoha speaks into her comm. A few seconds later, the flight mages reluctantly leave the sky. Zafira has done the same, and the incoming barrages stop. In the distance, the sound of fighting is significantly reduced. The two Bureau soldiers look at Red Ribbon expectantly.
The senior clone girl nods to her sisters. They proceed to yell into floating magical ears. Soon the sound of fighting completely dies down.
#
.
There is a loud cheer and a celebration is going on in the JTF HQ. Hayate is talking to Signum's hologram face floating in front of her. She has to shout over the noise.
"I'd like to have an unconditional surrender, but I'm rather curious."
"I'm curious, too." Signum agrees. "I assume the first one has something to do with Alicia-"
"Whatever happened to her? What's the other condition?"
"I don't know." Signum shrugs. She is going to find out soon anyway. "Anyway, what's our condition?"
"Precia Testarossa is to be tried for all her crimes." Says Hayate with a determined face. She won't take anything less.
Signum ends the comm, saying she has to get ready to visit the gate at the Staging Dock. Hayate turns around and locates Teana just in time as she comes back from Shamal. The doctor has patched up the beaten face as best as she can and apparently has provided a spare gym suit for the Enforcer to change into while new uniforms are being arranged from Midchilda. Hayate motions Teana to come over.
"Yo, about this Malware-"
"Yes, what about it?"
Hayate looks around to check if anyone is listening in. She eyes Fate at a corner, on the console Signum has provided previously, busy with the mountain of requests and reports and invoices that need her attention. Works have piled up while the Chief Enforcer was away, and Fate has a lot of catching up to do. Hayate turns her attention back to Teana.
"What the fuck did you and Chrono do? Naval Intelligence is refusing to share the footage from Al Hazard, and that tells me Malware is not what I'm told it is."
Hayate looks hard into the Enforcer's eyes. All she heard is that she should not worry about any reinforcement coming from Al Hazard. The vagueness of the information was suspicious as hell. Teana fidgeting and nervously smiling with an incisor missing makes it even more suspicious.
"But it did work, though, right?" Teana fidgets.
Hayate shakes her head and waves Teana off. It seems she's not going to get any useful information out of this stubborn Enforcer.
#
.
It's evening, just before the sunset. The sky is stubborn and still sprinkles down drizzle as it has done the whole day.
There is a commotion at the ruined main entrance of the Staging Dock facility. The girls have formed a circle around someone, and the progression slowly moves to Precia Testarossa at the gate. She sits on small wreckage, holding Alicia in her arms. Red Ribbons stands next to her, shuffling nervously.
The girls make way for the delegation; Major general Signum, burning red in unison with Agito, is accompanied by major Vita and captain Mondial. In the air, the flight mages loiter within a strike range. Signum comes to a stop a few steps before the leader of the invaders.
"Dr. Precia Testarossa?"
Testarossa does not answer. She is too occupied with Alicia in her arms. The red ribbon girl steps up and says yes. Signum greets the senior girl with a nod. Zafira has informed her that a girl with a ribbon on the head is in charge.
"I am major general Signum. I command Rapid Response Division, Capital Defense Corps." She points inland. "You've been fighting me all this time." Signum sighs and pauses a bit. Yes, it's been long weeks of fighting. Now it's time for this to end. She continues.
"I come to discuss the terms of your surrender." Signum stops Red Ribbon and adds. "But before we start, I'd like to let you know that I have no authority to accept anything."
"Then why are you here?" The senior clone is obviously frustrated.
Signum smiles, which she does rarely.
"I'm here to assess whether your demands are worth relaying to my superiors."
The red ribbon girl digests this for some moment. So, there is someone even more powerful and in a higher position than this awesome burning knight. She remembers Fate telling her of a friend named Hayate-something. 'She must be it.' Red Ribbon concludes.
"Please keep in mind, though-" Signum continues. "For you, the alternative to surrender is... to die."
"We will surrender if you promise us two things." Red Ribbon begins to negotiate the fate of her sisters. Signum looks at the girl inquisitively and gestures for her to go on. The senior girl in charge takes a deep breath and makes her first demand.
"Alicia needs help."
"She's dead." Signum states the fact.
"No!" To everyone's surprise, Precia Testarossa butts in. "She will wake up!"
"With all due respect, madam-"
"There is a way! I know!" The mother is insistent, almost hysterical. Red Ribbon has to calm the mother down.
"She needs to be..." The ribbon girl explains. "Alicia needs to stay fit for when she does wake up."
Signum sighs and examines the damaged corpse carefully with her eyes. It is a sad sight even for a hardened warrior like herself.
"I'm not sure what can be done about the damages on dead tissues... but I'm sure we can prevent further deterioration by putting her into stasis. Would that be enough?"
Signum is taken aback by Testarossa looking up, beaming with hopes. It is so sincere and honest Signum feels sorry. 'I was supposed to shred this dead girl.'
"Yes! Yes! I can heal the wounds when she's back. Just make her stay, please. I will do the rest."
Signum moves her eyes and meets those of Red Ribbon. The girl is pleading, too. The Wolkenritter general sighs again and nods. She motions for the girl to move onto the next demand.
"You will also promise you won't hurt my sisters. We need foods, places to sleep, and..." The senior Alicia clone trails off as Signum's face distorts in an inner pain.
Signum is upset. Seriously upset. She was expecting something more... something worthy of being put up as a surrender term. What this girl is demanding is... It's so ridiculously pure and innocent Signum lets out laughter in disbelief. Just what kind of a life did these girls live so they feel the need to make such demands? It is so sad. Too sad. Signum comes to her senses and realizes she's making her counterpart uncomfortable.
"Is that your other condition for the surrender?"
"Yes! I won't accept any other-"
"Young miss, the Bureau doesn't bargain those things!" Signum snaps. "Those are automatically granted to you as your fundamental rights!"
The girls murmur among themselves. The red ribbon girl is clearly taken aback.
"I... I didn't know that! Nobody told us!"
"Because you never tried to talk to us! Look where we are now because of that!"
The girls go silent. The only sound is Testarossa whispering to dead Alicia "It will be alright, they will help you, it will be alright" again and again.
Red Ribbon hangs her head low. She has delivered her demands, and it's now the Bureau's turn.
"What will stop you from killing us all?"
Signum delivers Hayate's terms. One. No more hostile actions. Two. Handing themselves over to the Bureau's discretion, to which fair and just treatment will be guaranteed. Signum takes a deep breath before delivering the third and the last demand.
"Dr. Testarossa will be tried for numerous crimes she has committed against the Bureau and its citizens."
"What does that mean? To be tried?"
Signum pauses. She turns her head to Vita and Erio by her sides, but they shrug. Signum sighs and scratches her chin, trying to come up with a simple explanation.
"It means... we will judge whether she's guilty or not. If found guilty she will be punished accordingly." Signum runs over the sentence in her head again. That should not be too hard to understand-
"But-"
"No buts. Miss, I promise you the trial will be fair with no prejudice." Signum knows this for sure. As long as Fate is in charge... "And we will keep your mother safe... from herself. She will not be doing any more bad things."
The red ribbon girl thinks for long minutes. Finally, she turns to her mother.
"I'm sorry, mother. But this is for the best."
"It's going to be alright. They will help you."
It takes a second or two for Red Ribbon to realize her mother is talking to Alicia, not her. She sighs and gently and affectionally squeezes the mother's shoulder. She turns to Signum.
"We would like to surrender."
.
The delegation is heading back towards the main entrance where the heavily armed soldiers and personnel carriers belong to Erio's company are waiting. Signum has taken note of the girls following and looking at her in... awe? She is getting somewhat uncomfortable. It doesn't help Vita keeps looking back at the transdimensional gate.
"What is it, major?" Erio asks.
"That girl. With the ribbon." Vita looks back again. "I know her."
"You know her?"
"Yeah. She almost killed me on the hill that night."
.
"That's it?" Hayate asks once more to Signum's floating face. "That really is it?"
"Yes, that's it. That's all they ask." Signum repeats her answer with a wide smile on her hologram face.
Hayate jumps up and down, throwing punches in the air. She snatches Reinforce out of the air and kisses the little fairy. Signum's holo-face is laughing, enjoying the sight of her delighted Princess.
"Congratulations, Hayate. You've won the war."