Chapter 45: Little People

-VERTEX FOUR: 8.36679-

Uminari City

Aoizumi Forest

Plans. Tactics. Strategies. With her wounded body still incapable of harnessing most of her former power, everything counted on Nanoha Takamachi putting her mind to use. Okay, she thought, trying to remain calm and slip into "warrior Nanoha" mode, as she had in the past. Okay, she thought again, scanning the battlefield. They were on level terrain, a blasted stretch of the park burnt to the ground by the tank's fire. No viable cover within a square kilometer save for the wreckage of the tank, and no weather conditions to take advantage of, either; the night was clear and bright, without a single cloud.

The enemy, Hadenya, was guarding a prisoner inside a Merry-Go-Round pod, whose identity and status were uncertain. Hadenya was from Vertex Three, and used to fighting Precure, which meant she must be an experienced hand-to-hand combatant. Her being an Infantry Commander supported that hypothesis... she was someone trained to be sent right to the front lines on foot. Hadenya was confident enough to take on the five of them at once, and strong enough to not only survive Blossom and Mami's destruction of the tank, but to tear her way out of it with her bare hands. Tremendous physical power and endurance, that much was certain. As for what other abilities she might have...

Blossom, Nanoha thought, opening a telepathic channel to the group.

Tsubomi Hanasaki, Cure Blossom, let out an "Eep!" of surprise and inched backward, keeping her eyes locked on Hadenya should she try to take advantage. Y-yes, Ma'am? came the reply, tinged with more than a little nervousness.

You recognize her, right? If you can tell us anything about how to fight her...

Blossom swallowed and tightened her grip on her Tact. I didn't really fight her, I just saw her going up against Precure 5 before Marine and I had to run. She took on Milky Rose single-handed...

And how strong is Milky Rose?

Really strong.

Not promising. Nanoha knit her brows together and spoke to the group. All right ABCs, pay attention, please. Blossom, you have the most physical strength and the most familiarity with her, so I'll need you to be our primary engagement.

Er... roger, I'll try my best.

Mami-san, Kyoko-san, stay on Blossom and back her up. Try to target the enemy's knees and calves. A body that big and heavy should need a lot of leg support.

Mami Tomoe and Kyoko Sakura nodded at each other.

What are my orders, boss? thought Minako Aino, Sailor Venus.

You fall back with me, and prep for long-range fire. We're going to hit her with a barrage, but we'll need time to charge it. You're my shield in case all else fails.

Roger that. Venus smiled grimly and brandished her chain. Don't worry, I'm an old pro at bodyguarding.

Everyone, coordinate your strongest attacks with the group if you can, but if you have a clear shot and an opportunity to take her down, don't hesitate, thought Nanoha to them all. And don't worry about the pod or other collateral damage, I'm casting a WAFF to shunt us to a safe dimension. Stand by, be ready to execute the plan on my signal!

Ahead of them, Hadenya's painted lips curled into a sneer. She moved to cover the organic pod holding their comrade, raising her fists in an upright boxing stance. "Well, ladies? Why so quiet all of a sudden? Surely you're not thinking of trying to escape?"

"Now! Raising Heart, Wide Area Force Field!" At Nanoha's command, the world undulated and briefly turned greyscale, the pod and tank wreckage turning thin and insubstantial before vanishing altogether. Nanoha and Venus drew back, Blossom and the Puellae Magi pounced...

*****

For all the many times she battled the forces of evil and darkness, Blossom didn't consider herself a fighter. Someone like Cure Black, now there was a girl born to fight. Rough-and-tumble, athletic, never-say-die... Black had the necessary qualities in spades.

Blossom, though? She fought out of necessity. She fought because they needed her to, whether it was against the Desert Apostles, Dead End, or whoever or whatever else. She was aware that she wasn't like the other Precure leaders. Nagisa, Saki, Nozomi, and the rest, they were exuberant, extroverted, always charging ahead and full of energy.

Not her. She was the odd one out: the timid, bookish type who preferred a quiet day tending to her flowers to anything involving running around exerting herself, or doing sports. Nothing against those who enjoyed them, but she could never imagine herself playing lacrosse like Nagisa, or softball like Saki, or even cheerleading like Miyuki... all those crowds, all that noise. No way. Participating in Erika's fashion shows taxed her nerves quite enough. Fun, absolutely, but exhausting.

Since coming to accept her shy, quiet self, Blossom felt happier and more at ease than when she was trying so hard to change. She was now content to be someone different from the other leaders, someone who proved her strength in different ways. The urge to run and hide when something scary reared its head was long gone. Did that mean she was now comfortable with fighting? No and no. She could hold her own and take down the bad guys, sure, but that was only when she had to. And right now, she had to... that didn't mean she liked it. She didn't, not at all.

Mami and Kyoko were little but streaks of red and yellow in her peripheral vision as she charged Hadenya, shouting a battle cry which she hoped was at least a little bit intimidating. The legs, Nanoha said. She had to focus on Hadenya's legs. Bulky, stocky slabs of fat and muscle like sides of ham, with feet squeezed into a pair of cherry-red pumps. A direct hit to her calves might knock her off balance... but she would be expecting that, wouldn't she? Better to try to fake her out. Thus resolved, she curled her hand into a fist and threw a wide, obvious punch in the direction of Hadenya's midsection. Hadenya took the bait; she moved to catch her fist, but Blossom went low, dropping into a slide and just missing her thick fingers with their gaudy rings and horrible yellow-painted nails. She struck out with her heel and connected with the calf with a dull, dense thwack. The impact set her nerves twanging from heel to skull; it wasn't just fat after all, the woman was solid as a rock. Hadenya wobbled but did not fall. Snarling, she pivoted and made to catch Blossom as she came out of her slide...

The blast of a matchlock rifle caught her square in the face. Coughing and sputtering, burned and blackened by soot but still going strong, Hadenya broke off her attack on Blossom to swat the offending rifle away. That left Kyoko free to lunge from behind, aiming a horizontal slash at her shins. Again Hadenya stumbled but stayed upright... her arm swung wide, connecting with the shaft of the spear when Kyoko raised it to block the blow.

A sharp clang sounded as her rings bounced off the shaft. "Damn! You little weasel!"

"I've been called worse!" said Kyoko with a snaggletooth grin, backing out of reach of another swipe.

Boom. Boom. Boom. More rifles thundered at irregular intervals. The air grew thick with gunpowder smoke, spent casings littered the blackened soil. For all the shots Mami took at her, the numerous burn marks she collected didn't seem to affect Hadenya much at all. She stood sturdy as she lashed out at Kyoko, trying to get a grip on the spear shaft as it danced and weaved in the hands of her opponent. As she scrambled to find footing, Blossom thought she heard Kyoko laugh.

She came up next to Mami, summoning and firing off one rifle after another at the larger shape glimpsed through the gunsmoke. "Blossom," she said. Her face was set and calm as she pulled another trigger and bent out of the way of a left hook that came close enough to flutter her golden curls in passing.

"M-Mami-san," Blossom panted, opting to duck rather than dodge. "I don't think your bullets are working!"

"Don't worry," said Mami. "I know what I'm doing. Focus on drawing her attention."

"Got you!" roared Hadenya in the cloud. Both her hands closed around the spear's shaft, and Kyoko made a noise of alarm. Hadenya pulled, yanking the spear toward her and Kyoko along with it, so startled that she barely saw the woman's skull descending toward hers. Their foreheads collided with a crack, from which only Hadenya emerged unfazed. "Heh. You're a slippery one, I'll give you that."

"Won't..." said Kyoko through clenched teeth. Her eyes slipped in and out of focus for a few heart-stopping seconds. "You won't get that chance again!" The shaft of the spear split apart into segments linked by chains, the spearhead moved like a viper and slashed across Hadenya's forehead. Kyoko snatched back her weapon, drove the blunt, weighted end into her enemy's stomach, and bounded away while Hadenya wheezed and clawed blood from her eyes.

Sakura-san, are you all right? Mami said through the mental channel.

Think so, came the reply, a tad hazy. I'm wobbly, that might have been close to a concussion. The bitch hits hard, and she's built like a brick shithouse...

Mami's brow wrinkled. I've noticed. Blossom, switch out and give Sakura-san time to recover. Keep the enemy distracted.

Roger! But what about you?

Just be ready to pull back out of firing range.

*****

The concentric rings of Raising Heart's targeting systems scanned over the largest shape within the gunsmoke haze, darting back and forth to track its movements. Nanoha's finger rested against her Device's trigger, rock-steady as she made minute adjustments to her aim. There was no question of using a Starlight Breaker, even with the safety limiters in place. The backlash from the mana burn would put her in the infirmary again; there weren't enough mana particles in the air yet, so the spell would be fueled from her own limited supply. An Accel Shooter would have to do, but her aim had to be perfect. Accel Shooter required the caster to remain still for its duration, guiding each of up to twelve bolts to track their targets. In the old days, that would have been child's play. Now, though...

Before her, Venus stood in a wide stance, casting a shimmering golden barrier over them both with one splayed hand. The other was raised to the skies, index finger extended. Wisps of golden light circled her fingertip like a dance of summer fireflies."[Don't worry,]" she said with a smile, looking back over her shoulder and seeing Nanoha's concern written on her face. "[Do your best, give as much juice as you can.]"

Nanoha tried to smile back, and found to her surprise that the expression came out genuine. Venus's support had a remarkable effect on people; no wonder she was so suited for her position among the Senshi as second-in-command. "Of course I will."

Inside the cloud, the waltz of battle went on. Circling back to the front, Blossom launched a blitz of high-speed punches and kicks, hammering Hadenya's crossed forearms in search of an opening. The Nightmare woman's endurance was as formidable as her strength; despite being burnt in a dozen places and bleeding in a dozen more, there was no noticeable effect on her speed or her stamina. She soaked up damage like a sponge, and the wild grin she sported left no illusions about her confidence. It only faded when Blossom's foot slipped past her guard and scored a devastating roundhouse right to her cheek. Hadenya's neck twisted ninety degrees as she spun, tottered, fell...

"Attagirl, sprout!" Kyoko's voice shouted.

Blossom said something in reply that was too faint for Nanoha to make out over the sound of another volley from Mami's rifles.

Good, Nanoha thought to herself, grimly satisfied. You're wounded and outnumbered five to one. Now stay down.

Blossom touched back down to earth and charged for another knockdown blow while Hadenya regained her balance. A quick staccato of knuckles on flesh... Hadenya roared and swiped drunkenly at her, but Blossom soared up and back down again just as quickly, delivering a heel drop to the back of her neck. Crack. Hadenya's eyes crossed, she groaned...

The counter, when it came, was swift and vicious: Hadenya reached up and seized Blossom by the ankle, hauling her into her line of sight. Upside-down and dangling, Blossom shrieked and took a wild swing, to no effect.

"Dammit! Mami, cover me!"Kyoko charged back into the fray, and Hadenya swatted her aside like a troublesome gnat. The rifle fire that followed splayed out across Hadenya's broad back and shoulders as she turned, blowing holes in her blouse but doing little else.

"Heh," she said, eyeing her prey with a sneer. "Nothing like a nicely pressed flower." One of her hands curled up and drew back, a vortex of wind gathering around it. Her fist drove into Blossom's stomach as the other hand let her drop...

It was akin to being hit by a cannonball. Blossom's body bent almost double around Hadenya's fist, contorting in the instant before the shockwave launched her backward. She was visible only as a pink missile, an indistinguishable smear of bright color that only snapped back into her correct shape when friction brought her to rest in a long furrow of disturbed earth and ash at the rim of the crater.

*****

"[Blossom!]" The cry of horror came from Venus. The agony of whether to stay where she was or tend to her teammate was plain as day in her synthetic voice...

"Venus, she'll be all right!" said Nanoha before she could move. "Hold position!"

Venus didn't move. She maintained her charge, her teeth gritted so hard that they were in danger of breaking. "[I know, I know! But that... that was brutal, and she's just a kid...]"

"She'll be all right," Nanoha repeated. "She's done this before, and so did you when you were her age. We have to trust in her. Hold position, and be ready to fire."

*****

It wasn't like fighting Witches, or Wraiths, for that matter. There was no trickery, no bizarre behavior or quirks to try and decipher, no ever-shifting Labyrinth to worry about. This was a straightforward brawl against someone with little aim but to cause as much harm as possible, someone capable of dishing it out in spades. It shouldn't have been this hard... Once again, Kyoko wondered what the hell this woman was made of, shrugging off Precure strength and rifle blasts and spear wounds. Hadenya barreled through the gunsmoke cloud like a charging ox, fingers reaching for Kyoko's neck. She weaved to her left, and one of Hadenya's nails grazed her shoulder as she passed, leaving a long red line that swelled with blood. Kyoko thrust her spear, jabbing the point into her upper torso. She heard and felt the impact with Hadenya's rib, so how was it that she just kept going?

Sakura-san, said Mami in her thoughts. We're almost ready to fire. Clear the area.

But Blossom's still—

I'm... here... Out of the corner of her eye, Kyoko saw Blossom rising from her furrow, pale and sickly and wheezing for breath, half her uniform frayed and caked with dirt. I'll... join in...

Christ, flower girl, how the hell are you alive after that?!

A weak mental chuckle. Precure, was her only reply.

Well, if they were going to fire, they were going to fire. Kyoko's Soul Gem spat ruby sparks as she called out: "Rossa Phantasma!" Each spark materialized into a mirror image of herself, all splitting off in different directions. Unlike the AMP-enhanced version of this spell, they were mere illusions with no solid form, so it wouldn't take long for the big lummox to determine which was real. If the combined strike was ready, though, it wouldn't matter. Hopefully.

"I'm going to enjoy crushing you, you little—!" Hadenya's hand passed right through one of the duplicates. It only took her a moment to round on the next.

Kyoko seized the opportunity. She took a flying leap to Mami's side, and saw her smile as she clicked her fingers. Each spent bullet that littered the battlefield burst into a glowing yellow ribbon which coiled around Hadenya like an angry snake, rooting her to the spot. Red-faced and spitting with fury, she flexed and heaved with both arms... and incredibly, Kyoko saw a few of the ribbons tear and snap. "Uh, Mami?" she said aloud. Her smile faltered. "I think you guys better hurry the hell up!"

"Noted!" She wasted no time, casting two score more ribbons at Hadenya all at once. Another dozen coalesced into a long, cylindrical shape... a matchlock rifle like Mami's other weapons, but one big and long enough to be mounted on a battleship. The cannon rotated into position, its half-meter barrel tilting to point at Hadenya where she struggled.

Twenty-five meters away, Nanoha's spell circle flared beneath her feet, casting her in a pink glow. Venus dropped her barrier and raised her arms to the cloud of stars now gathered at her raised fingertip, the AMP on her choker surging with power. And at the rim of the crater, Blossom braced herself on one knee, both hands clutching her Tact.

Kyoko grinned. This was more like it. It was going to be a hell of a light show.

"Precure Pink Forte Wave!"
"Accel Shooter!""Tiro... Finale!"

Still mired in ribbons, Hadenya dropped into as tight a crouch as she could manage given her limited movement, reducing her profile as Mami's cannon exploded, discharging a golden orb from its red-hot barrel. A huge, luminous flower bud erupted from Blossom's Tact, followed by a fusillade of twelve sizzling bolts from Nanoha.

Only then did Venus let loose her cloud of lights, with a vast sweeping motion of her arms like an orchestra conductor. Her synthetic voice rang with a musical resonance: "[Sing proud, Comeback Tour! Venus Topaz Storm!]" All the motes of light were like shooting stars as they rocketed into position, six meters directly above Hadenya's head. They hung there suspended, they flashed bright... and the heavens opened, a downpour of hundreds of shining meteors hailing upon their target. Hadenya jerked and spasmed in a frenzied dance, unable to escape as the orb, the flower bud, and the twelve bolts all converged and detonated in unison.

A flash of flame, a punishing wall of heat, an eruption of ash and soil, a titanic roar, and a shockwave that rippled the earth beneath their feet. The assault caught Hadenya dead in the center of the fireball and its resulting mushroom cloud.

*****

"[It's a direct hit, Master,]" said Raising Heart over the echoes of the blast.

"Thank goodness..." Blossom moaned and sank fully to her knees.

Still Nanoha waited. For the other worlds she wasn't as sure, but her Vertex's magic was meant to disable, not kill, except in the rarest of emergencies. Like with Viluy, said a nasty, smirking inner voice before she could suppress it. There was still a piercing guilt and a dark swirl of conflicting emotions in the pit of her stomach whenever that thought came up. No matter what a monster Viluy was, no matter the necessity of the moment, a life was a life. If Dead End's soldiers and commanders could survive to pay for their crimes, she would make every possible effort to see that they did.

There was still a heat signature within the blast zone, one apart from the rapidly diminishing energy of the bombardment. Nanoha's eyes flicked to her readout. Little movement, steady pulse, but her dimensions were... "Everyone, hold your position!" she shouted. "Kyoko-san, barriers!"

"You gotta be kidding me!" Kyoko sputtered, but she did what she was told. Four walls of interlocking chainlink burst from the soil, surrounding the shape.

No reason to leave anything to chance."Restrict Lock!" said Nanoha. Wheels of pink light shone through the darkness. They found the target's wrists and ankles and pulled tight, hauling her out of the smoking crater and into plain sight.

*****

"What... the... fuck?!" Kyoko whispered in a mixture of awe and disgust...

The thing that Hadenya had become was a bizarre, garish figure with twice the bulk of a few seconds ago. Two and a half meters tall, her yellow body rippled with the muscles of a prizefighter as she struggled in midair. Her thrashing shook her wild mane of purple hair, styled into three distinct tufts at the front in a shape reminiscent of a maple leaf. Her face and skull were elongated into a pseudo-beak, still sporting lipstick though there seemed to be no lips to speak of. That beak curled—somehow—into an all-too-familiar sneer, the red stripes framing her features crinkled as she narrowed her eyes—both her irises and sclera were now shades of green—in an expression of squinting glee. She pulled at the rings holding her suspended, and dust and ash fell from the masses of red and blue feathers that she wore, an outfit like that of a carnival dancer. "Nice," she said, apparently unconcerned about her position. "You forced me to transform. I'm almost proud."

"Blossom," said Kyoko, "you didn't tell us we'd be fighting that! The last time I saw a bird that ugly, it was trying to kill me in a pizza parlor... What the hell is wrong with your universe?!"

"I—" Blossom didn't have an answer for that.

"Kyoko-chan, right?" Hadenya looked in her direction and grinned, her avian features taking on a vulturish cast. "So you're the one who used to be such good friends with our dear Sayaka-chan."

Any desire for levity dissipated as Kyoko bristled. Her throat grew tight. "Shut up."

"She's our Commissar now, did you know that? She's making sure everyone stays loyal and follows Master Joker's rules. Takes her job very seriously, I might add. What a good little soldier... no wonder Master Joker likes her."

"I said shut your hole." The spear was pointed in the direction of Hadenya's throat before Kyoko was even conscious of moving it. Maybe it was a lie, hell, it was probably a lie, but every mention of Sayaka's name twisted the knife in her belly a little more.

"Sakura-san—" Mami began.

Still Hadenya talked. "I don't know, I just hurt who they tell me to... but if you ask me, I think Sayaka-chan's going to go far with us. Farther than she ever did with you, clearly. Just look at the evidence: she hasn't gone Witch once in all the time she's been with Dead End. What's your record, Kyoko-chan?"

Kyoko's vision blurred and went red around the edges, her blood sizzled in her veins. "Bird," she hissed between gritted teeth, "if you know what's good for you, you'll stop talking while your lungs are still inside you."

"Sakura-san," said Mami again, harder this time.

Now Nanoha joined in: "Kyoko-san, please calm down. Once we transport the prisoner to the TSAB, I'm sure we can—"

"Shut it, all of you!" Why didn't they get it? Why was this happening? Now, of all times... Something snapped within her, and her Soul Gem dimmed as Kyoko slammed the spearpoint into the ground. It burst back out inside the barrier, its razor edge hovering above Hadenya's neck.

Hadenya raised an eyebrow. "Touched a nerve?" And she flexed...

In an instant, Kyoko realized her failure and hated herself for it. Damn it, damn it all. Helpless to stop her, she could do little but stab wildly with her spear and pour power into her barriers as Hadenya snapped Nanoha's binding spells like twigs. She was upon the walls before she could touch ground. Her long fingers worked into the chainlink, and she parted it like someone walking through one of those bead curtains at the fancy restaurants... Another spear, she had to make another spear, the other one was still out. "F-fuck!" she breathed, trying to concentrate...

And in an eyeblink the bird-woman was upon her, millimeters from her face, green eyes wide with mad glee. "Tsk, tsk," she said. "Little girls should watch their language. Let's wash your mouth out." A huge hand clutched her skull, she barely had time to breathe before she plunged straight down—

*****

So close. They had been so close. Nanoha scrambled for Raising Heart's trigger, while inside the crater, Hadenya's reign of terror began anew and worse than ever.

"Sakura-san!" Mami's cry was barely audible over the retort of her rifles. More bullets pinged off of Hadenya's feathered skin... Switching her grip, she took hold of two barrels and charged the monster grinding Kyoko's face into the barren earth. Uncaring about strategy, unable to see anything beyond her target, she sprung high and hammered the back of Hadenya's neck with the stocks of her weapons. Each hit struck home. Hadenya groaned in annoyance, spun around, and held up Kyoko as a living shield. A slight hesitation was all she needed; it was likely that Mami never saw the giant's free hand coming. Hadenya's fist burst through Mami's AMP's shield barriers and smashed into her face like a runaway freight train. Mami went down, spouting blood... and in a sickening coup de grâce, Hadenya delivered one more savage hit with Kyoko's unmoving form, using the smaller girl as a bludgeon. Both of them collapsed in a heap, and Hadenya turned to find her next victim...

"[Crescent Beam!]"

"Divine Shooter!"

"Blossom Shower!"

Sparkling beams of pink and yellow light splashed in a wide dispersal across Hadenya's body. Leaving the fallen Puellae Magi behind, she strode slowly out of the bombardment crater, wearing that hideous smile. Each hit slowed her and made her flinch, but that was all. "Shall I tell you the first thing I did after I was revived, ladies?" she cackled, holding up an arm to absorb the brunt of the assault. "I gathered all of your little brainwashed friends that I could find, and I had them all hit me with their strongest attacks until I couldn't take it anymore. And the next day, as soon as I could move, I did it again. Bit by bit, I built myself up until I could stay standing while they blasted me with all their Friendship Lasers and their Sparkle Shooters and whatever else. And I did it again until I could walk through the fire, and again until I could run... "

"Nanoha!" Blossom shouted as she channeled more of her energy into the whirlwind of cherry blossoms bursting from her palms. "You have to run, you're the only one who might get away! Call the Lighthouse, tell them we need to pull out! I'll try to buy us time!"

"[I'm with her!]" Venus charged to Blossom's side. "[Nanoha, go!]"

"I don't..." Beads of sweat broke out on Nanoha's forehead, anxiety gnawed at her insides. Again and again she cast Divine Shooter, firing off orb after orb, guiding their bolts to blast Hadenya from every angle she could think of, every possible humanoid weak point: joints, tendons, muscles, even her eyes... but Hadenya simply kept coming, powering through them all. "I don't... leave my team... behind...!" Her body swayed in place; already she felt the effects of taxing too much of her limited mana too fast, that weak, queasy, light-headed sensation that she so hated...

"Here I come, ladies!" Step by step, Hadenya advanced through the storm of energy, cackling as their power parted for her like water. The air grew thin and dry, ionized by heat and pressure. Still she grinned, still she laughed.

"[Dammit! Crescent Beam Shower!]" Dozens of Crescent Beams burst in a cascade of light from Venus's fingertip. The renewed assault pushed Hadenya back a few paces, but only a few. Singed feathers fell from her body, many more shed from from her ruffs and cloak, tossed to and fro by currents of pressure but refusing to fall.

It was when Blossom noticed that the feathers were not only hanging suspended but beginning to glow that she called out a warning to the others: "Venus! Nanoha! Watch out!" Her Tact whipped the air, a hastily-constructed barrier sprouted from the jewel on its tip.

Not enough. The feathers gleamed and sizzled with heat, orienting to point quills-first at the party. Hadenya clenched her fist, and they fell like a volley of arrows, a dozen studding Blossom's shield. It held for the second round, stopping the numerous quill points inches from her body, but the third broke through it altogether, and the fourth that followed riddled Blossom's elbows and knees with deadly sharp shafts. The Tact slipped from Blossom's numbing fingers, her legs buckled beneath her. "V-Venus..." It seemed to take forever for her to fall.

Venus didn't hesitate. Taking the lead as she always did in times of crisis, she stepped in front of Blossom's paralyzed form, shielding her with herself. Her face hardened with determination, she allowed her beams to peter out—"[Venus Love-Me Chain!]"—and hurled the end of her golden chain at Hadenya's neck in their wake.

"Oh hoh!" Hadenya sidestepped the chain easily, brushing off another half a dozen bolts from Nanoha's floating pink orbs with nary a blink. "Really, now, what was that supposed to—"

Venus smiled a grim smile with no pleasure in it. At a flick of her finger, the chain's end looped back and flew over the bird-woman's shoulder from behind, curling and drawing tight around her neck. "['Oh hoh' yourself, Big Bird,]" she said as she tugged on her end and cast a another Crescent Beam through the links...

And Hadenya screamed as holy energy coursed through her body, scouring her to the bone. "Why... you...!" Veins stood out like steel cords in her neck as she clawed at the chain, randomly firing off more knife-like feathers in her rage. Though she thrashed and strained, Venus held on, digging her heels into the soil and refusing to give her adversary an inch. Back and forth, the chain alternated between slack and taut at shorter and shorter intervals, a rodeo rider versus a frenzied bull. Hadenya's eyes bulged from their sockets as she reached out to grasp the chain with one hand, which smoked and sizzled on contact. "Do... you know..." she growled, her speech distorted by the chain's strangling embrace, "... why you shouldn't... use a chain..."

Venus paid no heed. Every iota of her energy was focused on stopping Hadenya, on protecting Blossom and buying Nanoha a little more time.

"... on someone..." said Hadenya, choking out the syllables one by one. "On someone... bigger... than you...!" She heaved with insane strength...

Venus's feet left the ground. The chain was now a flail with her as the striking head, and the world became a demented carnival ride, a nauseating fog of smeared color as she whirled in circles, clinging to the chain for dear life. A banshee shriek of wind howled in her ears, her palms burned with the effort of keeping her grip, centrifugal force tore at her like the fangs of an angry beast. There was no letting go, and there was no hanging on... if she held, it was only a matter of time before she either slipped or Hadenya used her leverage to launch another attack. Releasing the chain would send her hurtling far away from the battle, leaving Mami, Kyoko, and Blossom defenseless and no one to protect Nanoha. A vicious stalemate, but if she was destined to fall either way...

Venus said a silent prayer and unleashed all her remaining energy. Dozens of pencil-thin Crescent Beams shot from her fingertips, raced through the length of the chain, and saturated the behemoth's body. She lit up like dawn, residual beams shone through each finger, from behind her eyes, and inside her throat. Hadenya's face contorted with pain and rage as she seized the chain with both smoking hands and yanked it downward.

Venus's first collision with the ground was brief; she hit it so hard that she bounced a foot in the air. Blackness claimed her before she could land a second time.

Panting for breath, Hadenya unwound the chain and tossed it aside. Her muscles spasmed and twitched with the effort. She took one plodding step, but found the second halted by an unexpected weight around her ankles. "Eh?"

There was a pink figure covered in ash and dirt trying to latch onto her left leg. Blossom had dragged herself through the earth on her elbows and knees despite the feathers paralyzing her, and she glared at Hadenya with undying defiance, an utter refusal to give up, deadened limbs or no. "I'm not..." she wheezed, "... gonna let you... hurt anyone else...!"

For a moment, Hadenya seemed impressed. "You little people just don't quit, do you?" When Blossom responded by making another useless half-grab for her ankle, Hadenya stomped on her back until she lay still.

"There," said Hadenya. "One more left. Are you gonna be difficult too, Nanoha-chan?"

No answer.

"Hmm?" Nanoha wasn't at the rim of the crater anymore. There was no sign that she had run away, either. She looked up...

There was a pink sun hovering ten meters above her head. It was gathered at the tip of a magic wand that now looked more like a wicked, high-tech javelin, the point of its blade a ruby flame of solidified mana. Particles of pink light drew into that sun, it pulsed and swelled in size with the turning of Nanoha's spell circle... "Restrict Lock," she intoned. "Maximum power."

Once again, the pink energy wheels snapped around Hadenya's wrists and ankles. "You think this will stop me?!" she laughed, gathering her strength for one more burst. "Maybe you didn't notice, but your lasers can't even—"

"Strike Flame," said Nanoha. She fell like a comet from the heavens, Raising Heart's mana blade aimed dead center for her enemy's skull. All her energy, all her mana not diverted to her shields, all focused into this one attack. Going all out, like the old Nanoha used to do... before her mana shortage, before the surgeries, before the Gadget Drones crippled her. Halfway down, Hadenya tore out of the wheels locking her wrists in place and raised both arms above her head, trying to catch the blade before it hit. Let her try, Nanoha thought to herself. Her team, her mission counted on her. Everything in this one shot, everything that she was...

Impact. Hadenya caught Raising Heart's spearhead between both hands, the point millimeters from her eye. Her beak twisted into a sneer of victory... which lasted until Nanoha called for the second part of the spell.

"Divine Buster!" Nanoha screamed. "SHOOT!"

At point blank, Raising Heart fired, bathing Hadenya's entire upper torso in a blistering torrent of power. The earth just behind her erupted in a miniature volcano as the spell struck it, blanketing both combatants and the four fallen Lights in a fresh layer of disturbed soil. Hadenya was driven to her knees, but she still hung on, defying all logic... Nanoha clenched her jaw and pushed herself harder, harder, sacrificing her shielding altogether to keep the beam sustained a little longer. Fall! she thought desperately. Come on, fall!

A vortex of wind, a scattering of feathers, and a tremendous, shuddering blow to Raising Heart's shaft. The shock rattled through Nanoha's nerves, she blinked... and the other fist sailed through space, too close to deflect. The Divine Buster cut out as her Barrier Jacket's outer layer disintegrated; only the denser underplating saved her life. That same underplating fractured when both hands came down on her back in a double-fisted hammer blow. All her breath escaped her, she plunged to earth, everything went white and sharp and hot...

Hadenya reached down and plucked her up by the hair, dangling her several inches off the ground. And Nanoha stared at her with as much defiance as she could muster, refusing to give her enemy any more satisfaction.

"So this is the legendary Nanoha Takamachi," said Hadenya between ragged breaths. A cloud of steam rose from her singed feathers. "From the files about you, I expected so much more... You were a legend, they said. An ace, a prodigy. But now?" She leaned close. "Now you're just weak. Pathetic. Tiny. I trained so hard in hopes of fighting you... but I've got to say, Nanoha-chan, I'm disappointed. Without all your power, what can a runt like you possibly do?"

Nanoha said nothing. She kept eye contact with her enemy, even as the hand closed around her neck.

"So," said Hadenya. Her fingers began to squeeze."Since you can't fight me properly, and I'm under orders not to kill any of you... I suppose the only question left is: how much do I make this hurt?"

In the silence that followed, only Nanoha heard the words, delivered straight to her brain in a telepathic burst. They made her smile.

The words were simply this: Red Dog to Lyrical. I'm coming.

Three seconds later, a fork of lightning split the cloudless sky, a peal of thunder rang out along with it. Golden light slashed through both of Hadenya's wrists before either the sound or the light had a chance to reach her brain. Her hands went numb, and Nanoha fell from her grip... but she was never in danger of touching the ground.

Nanoha breathed a sigh of relief, nestling into the strong but gentle arms that held her, the warmth of a healing spell already filling her up inside. There were a few tears, too. Only one person got to see those, and it was that person who now held her tight, whose mere presence meant that everything would be okay. Smiling, she reached for the stern, set face of her partner. "Fate-chan."

"Shh." Fate Testarossa Harlaown skidded to a stop, the soles of her boots throwing up sparks. Her long black cloak swirled around them both like a living thing. "Don't move," she said. "I'll handle this trash."

Nanoha relaxed and let herself sink, ensconced in the barrier Fate provided... she would miss most of the following battle as she flitted in and out of consciousness, but when she reviewed Raising Heart's recorded footage later, she would hardly blame herself. In all fairness, it didn't take long.

"Oh hoh," said Hadenya, chuckling to herself as she flicked her hands to restore their movement. "Now I get it. You're Fate-chan, right?"

In reply, Fate brandished Bardiche one-handed, pointing her Device's axe blade at her foe without even giving her the courtesy of a full glance. Her eye narrowed... the black fabric patch that covered her empty right socket now bore an embroidered paw print sewn from deep red thread.

"Of course. It figures you'd look for revenge." Hadenya took note of the design on the patch and smirked. "You've lost your pet, haven't you? Had to put the poor thing down?"

Fate's fingers tightened around Bardiche's shaft. Still she said nothing.

"And you came to stop me from taking your precious Nanoha-chan, too. My, my." Hadenya sniggered. "I hope you'll put up a better fight than she did. Nanoha-chan's gone a little soft for my tastes."

Only then did Fate turn and speak to her opponent, low and soft but with an undertone of cold, empty rage. "You don't deserve Nanoha's full strength, or mine," she said. "Bardiche, Sonic Form."

"[Yes, sir. Sonic Form, get set.]"

Fate's Barrier Jacket flared as it changed, retracting and becoming slimmer, more streamlined. The cloak disappeared, withdrawn into her shoulders, and her skirt retracted into her belt, which straightened and tightened around her waist. Twin yellow mana fins sprung from either side of her gauntlets and greaves, like the wings of Hermes. Bardiche's axe head rotated, slimmed, and turned upright, then grew a wicked scythe blade of sizzling energy, half as tall as Fate herself. Clutching her Device with both hands, she dropped into a crouch, awaiting the first move.

*****

She couldn't help herself; Hadenya burst into mocking laughter. She had read of Fate Testarossa Harlaown, her exploits were nearly as famous as Takamachi's, but none of her research indicated that Harlaown was insane. Switching to her least-protected form? Perhaps losing her familiar drove her to madness. "You're... you're coming at me with that?" she said between howls. "Is this your idea of a joke?!"

"No." Harlaown's answer was so soft that Hadenya almost couldn't hear it.

Why, the puny little speck. "Suicide, then. You saw what I did to your friends, to your partner!"

Harlaown said nothing.

"Come on, Fate-chan," said Hadenya. "I thought you were supposed to be smarter than that. Don't tell me you're expecting me to hold back for you!"

"No," said Harlaown again.

"Well, then! If you're that eager to see Alph-chan again, I suppose..." Hadenya rushed her in mid-sentence, fists raised. This fight would end before it began, just one clean hit would finish it... "I can indulge y—eh?"

But Harlaown was gone, and the punch hit nothing but ether. There was only a snap of wind rushing to fill the void to show that the girl had ever been present. Hadenya came to a screeching, ungainly halt, something moved out of the corner of her eye... The scythe blade cut a swath across Hadenya's back from shoulder to hip, and ten thousand volts of electricity arced up and down her spine. Fighting through the agony with rage and adrenaline, she spun on her heel, snarled, and shot a volley of feathers...

Hadenya was not slow, far from it. During the course of this battle, she had proven herself to be astonishingly quick for her size. Strong, tough, and fast, a lethal combination. But all of her power was useless against someone who made her look like she was standing still. Again and again, Hadenya punched and kicked and fired her feathers at shadows. One clean hit, just one clean hit was all she needed! For each failed attack, though, there was another slash and another electric jolt to punish it. Four slashes, eight, sixteen... little by little, Harlaown whittled her endurance down, her damage compounding at an exponential rate. Every touch of the blade was like a taser. Harlaown was a living blitzkrieg, too fast to catch, to fast to touch, delivering a dozen blows in the time it took to throw one.

In less than a minute, Hadenya was reduced to covering herself in a vain attempt to escape the unending storm of Harlaown's assault. "You little bitch!" she bellowed at the black, yellow-streaked blur which was all she could see of her opponent. She paid for that; the next slash went through her tongue."Ugh... aaaaugh!" Her next insult came out as a slack-jawed, sub-verbal grunt. One arm fell and dangled uselessly by her side, numbed to the shoulder by the flow of electricity. Next was her left ankle, which collapsed beneath her weight... she scrambled on her knees and right elbow, flailing wildly with her remaining arm. "Gauh!" Voltage surged through her right wrist, and she fell face-down, not just tasting ash and soil but inhaling it. As she laid there quivering, ass in the air and three of four limbs paralyzed, Harlaown forewent the scythe altogether and landed a savage kick to the back of her skull at something that felt like mach speed. Surely the terrible noise made by the impact was her vertebrae shattering... In the slowing of time that accompanied the certainty that she was about to die, it did not escape her notice that that kick was the first—and probably last—actual injury of what had been a laughably lopsided fight. Everything else was done with the scythe's electrified mana blade. Did Testarossa do it this way on purpose? She supposed it didn't matter, she was dead anyway. At least, she thought, she wouldn't have to face Master Joker...

*****

There was an incredible sight waiting for Nanoha when she emerged from her fog of semi-consciousness. Hadenya, who withstood Accel Shooters, Crescent Beams, a Forte Wave, and a Divine Buster to the face, hung upside-down, encased in at least forty of Fate's signature cubic binding spells. Even more improbable, the juggernaut was somehow still awake enough to glare silent daggers at Fate... three Lightning Binds clamped her beak shut.

"Fate-chan...?" she whispered, looking around for her partner.

"Here," came the answer. She was crouched by Mami's side, applying a medical barrier. Fate's magic could stop the bleeding and reduce pain and swelling, but the Arthra's medical staff would still need to treat her. The others too, if they were even... "Raising Heart?" she said, clutching her pendant tight and praying. "Are they..."

"[AMP medical barriers were activated as per standard emergency procedures. Your teammates have been stabilized, Master,]" said her Device. "[All will make full recoveries.]"

"Thank you," said Nanoha. Now it was safe to breathe. "And thank you, Fate-chan, for the rescue."

Fate said nothing.

"Are you... are you okay?" It was a stupid question. Of course Fate wasn't okay. Fighting a war was stressful enough without the horrific grief she was still going through. And this was her first battle since losing her eye... Once again, Nanoha felt the toxic sting of guilt. Her weakness forced Fate to step in, when she should still be recovering with her family...

Fate looked over her shoulder, and smiled the same tight, wounded smile that Nanoha remembered from the immediate aftermath of the battle at the Garden of Time, when the twin traumas of the loss of her mother and the full, horrific truth of her origins finally had time to sink in. She had lied then, telling Nanoha she would be fine. This time, she didn't answer. She didn't have to.

"Fate-chan," said Nanoha. She tried to rise from her own barrier, she had to do something to help her.

"Don't move," said Fate. "A medical team will be here soon."

"Fate-chan, I'm sorry you had to—"

"Don't be sorry." She stood upright, turning away from Nanoha's worried gaze. "The only people that need to be sorry are this thing..." There was no need to clarify to whom she was referring. "... and everyone else from Dead End." She spoke as calmly and quietly as she always did, but there was an emptiness in those words, a lack of feeling that was completely opposite to the Fate that Nanoha knew. "Bardiche," said Fate, calm and steady, holding out her Device, "Scythe Form. Disengage all safety limiters."

Nanoha's jaw fell open.

Bardiche was slow to reply. "[... Sir, please reconfirm your request.]"

"I confirm," said Fate. "Disengage limiters."

Another pause. "[Warning: disengagement requires additional authorization with proper protocol.]"

"I grant full authorization," said Fate. "TSAB emergency protocol Red-Niner-Six-Omega."

"No." Nanoha climbed from her barrier and broke into as quick a run as she could manage. "No, Fate-chan..." She stopped. "You can't—" She stopped. Fate couldn't what? Couldn't be rid of an enemy that had proven herself too dangerous to live? Hadenya had been beaten, yes, but she had hardly surrendered. Her eyes still gleamed with murderous hatred for them both, and if they gave her half a chance, she would be at their necks.

Couldn't break the laws of the TSAB? The TSAB was in shambles thanks to Dead End, thanks to monsters like Hadenya. Even if they were at full strength, she and Fate both had been effectively AWOL for months now, they could hardly call themselves officers anymore. Standard operating procedure didn't apply anymore.

Couldn't... what?

Radiating terrible calm, Fate left Mami's side and raised Bardiche's scythe over her enemy, the blade now a razor edge of solidified mana. She really intended to do it. If Nanoha didn't stop her...

She ran. Throwing caution to the winds, she ran to Fate and hugged her from behind. "Please," she whispered. "Please try to think... is this really what you want?"

Fate tensed, but did not move. She said nothing.

"I—" Nanoha whispered. "I'm sorry, Fate-chan. You have every right to feel like this after what they've done to you, to us. But if you do it..."

"You killed Viluy to save me," said Fate. "She would have killed you, or worse. Is this any different?" Her logic was as plain as it was brutal.

Darkness churned inside her. Nanoha's throat grew tight. "Yes. Yes, I think it is. Fate-chan, I don't know how much you're hurting..."

"No you don't—"

"... but I know you, and love you too much to let you do something you'll regret. I know you would, Fate-chan. It may not seem like it right now, but you're not thinking straight."

"Then what should I do?" said Fate. There was no anger, no frustration, no sorrow, just that horrible empty calm.

"I... I don't know." It was the only honest answer Nanoha could give. "I can't stop you. All I can do is hope that you do what's right."

Silence. Seconds ticked by as the moon shone bright overhead... it was a glorious night, a sky without a single cloud underneath countless twinkling stars...

Slowly, Fate let the scythe drop. Bardiche returned to his resting state as a triangular jewel mounted on the back of Fate's glove. She knelt down, eye level with Hadenya, and released the binding spells holding her beak shut.

"Am I supposed to be grateful?" Hadenya laughed, just once, and spit at her.

Fate didn't move. "For your crimes against interdimensional law, you will be tried by the Time-Space Administrative Bureau on Mid-Childa," she said, her monotone slipping back into protocol out of habit. And then: "If at all possible, I will see to it that you spend the rest of your life in isolation on a prison colony."

"Oh, thanks."

"But before we transport you... you're going to tell us how to open that pod safely."

That only made Hadenya laugh harder. "Sure, I'll tell you, because it won't do you a lick of good. The pod only opens if you can convince someone from Dead End to interface with it, and that takes pain, pain and willingness to defy Master Joker. I'm not willing to risk either, so it looks like you're out of lu—"

The electrified punch Fate delivered between her eyes rendered her silent again. For a moment, Nanoha was terrified that Fate would keep on hitting her, but that one punch was all. Fate's cheek twitched with disgust as she stood up and sighed. She didn't say anything, but the defeat in her eye was plain.

"Fate-chan, wait." By contrast, Nanoha's eyes were bright as she grabbed Fate's wrist. "I have an idea."

*****

Ten Minutes Later

"You want me to what?!" squealed Sailor Iron Mouse, clutching her tail tight in disbelief.

It wasn't hard to convince her to come. Iron Mouse was eager for a change from her weeks of mundanity at the Lighthouse, after all. Nor was it hard to explain things to her. The real challenge was yet to come. "Interface with the pod," said Nanoha. "Please, Iron Mouse-san, I know it's asking a lot of you..."

"Yes! Yes it is! More than a lot, actually!"

"... but if the pod still recognizes you as part of Dead End... that means you're the only one who can open it."

Iron Mouse's eyes traveled over the pod once more, and she shivered with revulsion. Going near the Merry-Go-Round or any of its components was something she never wanted to do again. Time had not lessened her disgust; this thing was part of a monstrous abomination, something that shouldn't exist. She preferred to pretend it didn't.

That was made more difficult when evidence of its existence was staring her in the face. A roughly ovaloid piece of it, grey and slick with moisture and smelling like oil and rot. Some poor Precure was visible through its filmy, translucent cover, her limbs buried in its insides, one of those awful, slimy, horseshoe crab-like masks was clamped over her entire face... It would give her the crawling horrors even if she were safely on the other side of the city from it. Or the planet. Or the galaxy. "I don't even know what I'm supposed to do!" she protested, stamping one foot for emphasis.

"To be honest, we're not sure either," said Nanoha. "All we know is that it's supposed to hurt... that's if Hadenya was telling the truth."

Iron Mouse cringed. "Why would you tell me that?"

"Please, Iron Mouse," said Blossom, the first to awaken thanks to her Cure form. The effects of her two grueling battles in one night were visible in the paleness of her skin and the prominent shadows under her eyes. She could barely stand, but, she said, there was someone inside that pod who needed to see a familiar face when she woke up. "She's suffering, and we need to get her out of there."

"I don't wanna suffer either!"

Fate shook her head. "Nanoha, this isn't going to work. Maybe we should try again with Hadenya..."

"I don't think you'll get any more out of her this time," said Blossom.

There came a strained chuckle from nearby. "You called?" She was awake again. "How cute. The answer's still... wait. Is that..." Hadenya tilted her head to one side, one of the few motions still available to her. Her eyes narrowed, then widened again with something like glee. "No. Don't tell me. This is the traitor?"

Iron Mouse shook in place and covered her ears, crouching down behind Blossom to make herself as invisible as possible.

Covering her ears didn't help to drown out the longest and loudest fit of laughter yet. "She was too scared and too stupid to face you, and you think she'll stand against Master Joker?!" A wild grin. "You all must be really desperate! You're more likely to get me to open the..." Hadenya's laugh petered out. "... pod..."

It made no sense, not even to Iron Mouse herself. She had nothing to prove, nothing to gain. There was a stranger inside the pod, not even someone from her universe. So what about Hadenya's laughter made her touch it?

"Iron Mouse?" said Blossom, unable to believe what she was seeing.

Its texture was revolting, and the feeling of things moving under its skin made her want to faint. Iron Mouse moaned in misery as tendrils of it reached up to encircle her fingers and pull her hand into itself... it was like being inside the mouth of a dead thing. Something hard and cold and merciless stabbed into her palm, drawing blood... She squealed and bit her lip, trembling while the whatever-it-was did its work, and the instant she felt the pod slacken its grip, she pulled away. There were bite marks in her skin.

"That's not possible." Hadenya seemed to be in a state of shock. "That's not possible! It must be broken!"

The pod reacted. Iron Mouse's offering, however reluctantly given, fulfilled whatever sick requirements it had been programmed with, for its grisly cover began to melt away, the shape inside stirred... One by one, her arms and legs came free of its embrace. The mask was last, peeling off her face and leaving hundreds of stubborn, clinging threads behind. There was a long, loud intake of breath... a weak, sheet-white hand reached over the side...

"Oh my God," said Blossom, lunging for the hand. "Iron Mouse, you did it! You did it!"

"I'm gonna be sick," said Iron Mouse, clutching at her palm.

"Easy, Iron Mouse-san, easy," said Nanoha, leaning over with a healing barrier spell at the ready.

At last, the pod disgorged its prisoner, worse for wear but alive... She wore a sky-blue dress as a uniform, with frills at the hem and shoulders which resembled spread wings. Her indigo ponytail had lost many of its signature swirled tips during her imprisonment. She heaved and almost slipped from Blossom's grip as her haunted blue eyes slid back into slow focus... "I..." said Rikka Hishikawa, Cure Diamond. It was the first word she had spoken in months.

"I've got you, Rikka-chan," said Blossom. "It's okay, you're safe."

"Where..." Diamond's voice was a raspy croak. "Where am I? What happened...?"

"Shh. Just rest for now, lie down and we'll get you some water."

Iron Mouse sat at the side of the empty pod, watching as the blue Precure returned to life and coherence. Her palm still ached, but the bite marks had closed thanks to Nanoha's magic. She had expected to lose her hand altogether, but this... this was almost bearable. A thought occurred to her, she spoke aloud to no one in particular. "Hey," she said. "You all beat the enemy three times in one night, saved the prisoner, and recovered the Rainbow Crystal without losing anyone, right?" No one answered. "Doesn't... doesn't that mean you won this one?"

It surprised her to hear Nanoha respond. After thinking it over for a few long seconds, she began to smile. "I suppose it does. We won..."

END OF CHAPTER 45

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