trans_9 | Surprising Reunions

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Surprising Reunions

There had been plenty of time to rest and recuperate following the defeat of the Nightmare King (crew arguing on the omnicomms aside), but Nanoha was never one to let herself relax for too long. Even if there wasn't anything immediate that needed dealing with, she was back in her office in the Jedi Temple to review the events to try and better understand them.

But her thoughts kept returning to the cryptic comm conversation she'd had with Rein. Why had the cheerful little Unison Device suddenly acted so formal? She couldn't shake the feeling something was wrong.

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Reinforce, for her part, was confused by Nanoha's reactions; the girl asked after the cause of her distress as though it were not obvious, and made nothing of the time since they'd last spoken, when if anything Nanoha should have experienced the longer subjective time apart. As with her other questions, though, speculation as to the answers when she knew so little about her circumstances just led to useless bouts of circular reasoning. The best way to have her answer was simply to find Nanoha and ask her.

She'd found her way to the Jedi Temple easily enough with public information, asked after Nanoha once there... and almost missed her regardless. The shade, the false Saint, had said that Nanoha was its 'mother', led her to believe she was older... but then it had attacked her, and she hadn't known what to think of anything it had said. The idea certainly hadn't found enough purchase to keep her from being surprise when she realized that the young woman in the room she'd just passed shared an older, but distinctly similar face with the girl she'd known.

With a slightly surprised "Ah..." the Book turned and entered the office. "Nanoha?"

If she thought about it, Nanoha would have realized that the voice sounded slightly odd - even from Rein's "full-sized" form. But she wasn't really paying it much attention, running on autopilot as she replied, looking up from her desk. "Oh, hi Rei--"

It was Reinforce, all right. Just not the chirpy Device.

"R-Reinforce..?!" Nanoha managed despite her surprise, quickly standing up from her desk and taking a few steps closer to the woman. They'd defeated the Nightmare King - but was this some vestigial vision? No, it couldn't be; this was real, and she was sure of it.

"That... is that really you?!"

Reinforce blinked, confused by Nanoha's obvious surprise. It was her, but she acted like the hadn't been expecting her...

"...yes." She was about to say 'I just wrote you' when she realized that the reaction made a lot more sense if it was her appearance that was unfamiliar.

"Is this... not the form you were expecting?" she asked hesitantly. Who knew what could have changed in the years that separated them?

"No!" A beat. "Well... yes. Sort of. It - it isn't the you that I was..."

But, come to think of it, why was this so impossible? If Vivio were from years after her time, why couldn't someone be from before it? "You're... the original Reinforce from the Book of Darkness. That's really you, isn't it?"

"Yes..." she repeated. "The original? So Hayate gave her device my name after all." She smiled at the realization. "Is that who you thought I was? She is already here?"

And yet, she had a nagging feeling, Nanoha's surprise was still a little greater than made sense. "...is something wrong?"

"No, it's just that," Nanoha said slowly before pausing. "It's... been a really long time since we," killed you? Defeated you? "last saw you. The Book of Darkness incident was over ten years ago."

But her face turned into a quiet smile nonetheless. "But I guess time doesn't mean much here on the ship, does it? People can come from the future or the past! So I guess I shouldn't be so surprised."

"It's good to see you again, Reinforce. You were right - the smaller you is here, too. I'm sure she'd love to meet you!"

"A long time?" Rein started. "What happened?"

Hayate had been close to the girl, and they had both planned on joining the TSAB... it seemed to her that something unexpected would have had to come up for them to have been separated for any great length of time.

To be honest, Nanoha was feeling a bit confused. Did Reinforce somehow not remember what had happened? Did she not remember Hayate's tearful goodbye? Was she maybe taken from before all of that?

"Well... um. It wasn't long before you returned as Reinforce Zwei - I don't think anything could have kept you all away from Hayate for too long, right?"

Reinforce felt the same; just when she'd finally found some relief in a familiar face, everything was getting confusing again.

"As her? She is... was only meant to supersede my unison functions. She was to be her own person."

Had it somehow turned out differently? She didn't see how that could be...

"Oh, she is! She's pretty different from you in a lot of ways, but... she still has your loyalty to Hayate-chan."

This was strange. How could Reinforce have possibly known about Rein? "But how do you know about her in the first place? You were, ah, gone way before she showed up."

"...gone?" They appeared to be getting to the crux of the differences between Nanoha's history and her expectations... but it didn't sound very welcoming. Certainly, she was not in the best condition and had not been for some time, but aside from the last warping of her unison functions that had made traditional unison impossible, all were agreed that her condition was improving...

Nanoha's shoulders drooped a little bit. Even ten years later, she remembered just how hard it had been to watch Hayate's reaction to Reinforce's goodbyes. "...I'm sorry, Reinforce - I don't know how to tell this easily. But... after we defeated the virus infecting the Book of Darkness, you told us that it would just start all over again. You asked Fate-chan and myself to destroy you once and for all, so that Hayate-chan could live in peace."

"But you also promised that you'd always be with her even after we did what you asked us to do, too."

"That..." she shook her head. "Isn't what I remember. The resurgence of the defense program was a possibility... was reality, and I considered such a solution at that time, but it was not necessary."

Truly, then, there was not just time lost between them but something else. Some difference in events. What would necessitate destroying herself, so much that Hayate and the others would agree?

Well, she didn't know how to take that. If how Nanoha remembered things wasn't how this Reinforce remembered things, then...

"Now that I think about it," she said slowly after a moment's pause. "The people here are from a bunch of different universes and realities. Maybe you're not from the timeline that I remember? Do you think it could be that?"

Reinforce shook her head, not a denial but a statement of helplessness. "It is as good an explanation as any..."

The others, of course, dealt with the possibility that the memories were incorrect. Nanoha brainwashed by the ship, her own damaged systems conjuring up some final dream for her in death... but they were not in a good position to test such theories, so she saw little point in bringing up alternatives.

Especially when, with that mystery confined and most of the resulting confusion done away with, she could get on to the question she'd come here to ask.

"Have you heard anything about Hayate?" The topic brought a certain forcefulness into her otherwise quiet voice.

"Not yet," Nanoha sighed, and from the expression on her face, that lack of news of Hayate was probably wearing on her more than she'd have liked to admit. "But... they said they saved important and powerful people, and people who were close to us. So if you and the other Rein are here - there's no one more important to you than Hayate-chan, right? I'm sure she's in the pods asleep."

"I see." She closed her eyes, there was the subtlest of changes in her posture... but a great tension had lifted. It was not certain news, but compared to what she'd heard or assumed thus far, it was incredibly welcome, and came from someone she trusted.

She looked around the office, which hadn't gotten a second glance when she'd first arrived. "It looks like you've been working hard here."

Though of course, she'd gotten that impression from reviewing comm records, not the office. Still, the office was a symbol of her present high station. "You're comfortable supporting the ship's aims?"

"It's been pretty busy for the past month or two," Nanoha admitted, "What with the Nightmare King and all. This is the first I've had time to relax a bit in weeks. But, it was important work, so I don't really mind." And of course, her 'relaxing' looked oddly like doing more work.

To Reinforce's question, though, she nodded. "I am. I feel like I can trust Stacy, and if there's even a chance that we can stop the Ohm from destroying more worlds and ruining more lives, I think we should take it."

Reinforce considered for a few seconds, then smiled wanly. "I will have to trust in your judgment, then."

At least following Nanoha was not, strictly speaking, a blind trust. It had its foundation. Reinforce was much, much older than her... but often as not, even when Nanoha had been only a child, it had felt as though their positions were reversed.

Nanoha looked at her for a moment before nodding with a quiet smile. "Thanks," she said warmly, and she meant it. "That means a lot to me."

"...it's nice to see you again, Reinforce. It really is."

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