trans_9 | Retrograde Motion [closed]

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Retrograde Motion [closed]

Deep in the ship, a winged shape moved. 'Reinforce' she was called by the rest of the ship, but she no longer knew that name as anything but an anomalous detail of her incomplete recollections of her time on the ship, too inconsequential - or too confusing - to dwell on. She was of the time, not very long ago at all, before she had been given that name. By design she was the administrative layer and user interface of the Tome of the Night Sky, but she was more than that: she was its will, its identity, so its name was hers as well.

And if she was its will, it was her body, no less than her human form. She had been content to leave it dormant in the ship's care until now, in the hopes that it might delay this day a little longer - or at least, this was the mold she now made the fragmentary memories fit - but now that the end was upon her there was no point in leaving it be. It was right that it be at her side... and she wanted the powers that lay with the tome proper, to grant Hayate's wish as best she could.

It did not take her long to find once she had set herself to it. Confusing as the ship was, the Tome was a part of her, and when she drew near it stirred, shrugged off its bindings, and flitted through the fabric of space to her side. And then she was back in transfer, heading back towards the City. To the traitor...

There was a flash of dissonance at that: she knew where to look for Nanoha because she had lived alongside her, hadn't she? She had betrayed Hayate, Hayate had wished...

It should have been a simple thought, 'the wish came first', before this chaos of other memories, but she could not form it. The wish was all she had, all she could do for Hayate before the end. It couldn't be dismissed so easily.

She shook her head as though to clear it, and there was a soft pulse of violet light that stole the color from the world as she neatly peeled a thin layer of reality away for her own. She had to work quickly, while she still had her mind...

[[So Rein's putting up a barrier space per her usual MO so she can have Nanoha (mostly) to herself. This takes place just after her ranting on the comms and is open to the Nanoha cast. Since the barrier is pretty big it'll just hit people wherever they are; she'll go find Nanoha and other people can look for them, if that sounds good to everyone.]]

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Nanoha's nerves had already been on edge from everything - Fate was acting differently, and Rein had been acting terrifyingly like her old self over the journals. But it was when the pulse of light passed over - no, through - the temple and set the world off-color, making her teeth tingle the way a Barrier spell always did...

...well, the aerial mage knew that something bad had happened. She tapped the jeweled pendant she wore around her neck. "Raising Heart, set up."

In a flash of magenta, she was clad in her Barrier Jacket, the familiar staff in her hand - and she wasted no time exiting her office, flying out of the Temple into the city. If something had happened to Rein, then she needed space to maneuver... just in case.

Nanoha floated in midair, eyes closed, trying to sense that immense magical power that there was no way to misidentify.

It was still a long ways off... but that was no guarantee of safety. There was a spike of magic and a golden glare as far across the cityscape, the Tome spoke a single word.

"Draupnir"

A great yellow lance of magic stabbed out, too slow to hit at this long a range, but when it had closed within a kilometer or so of Nanoha it split into a septet of lesser beams... and then those split, and their progeny as well, showering the mage with a storm of golden bolts.

--there. Nanoha caught the surge of magic a moment before that golden light pierced the horizon, and she was pretty sure she recognized that spell - in Hayate's repertoire, if not Reinforce's. It split, forming an impenetrable barrage of magic; Nanoha knew she couldn't just take the blow with a shield.

So she wouldn't let it hit her.

She dropped out of the sky in freefall, then letting her magic catch her and jet her towards Rein, twisting and weaving through golden rain, and detonating little spheres of her own magic in midair if any got too close. It was exhilarating in a way, dodging aerially like this - a part of her had missed it.

The last time they'd fought, Reinforce had been almost unbeatable. But Nanoha was far more than the little girl she'd been then.

Rein--! The telepathic voice echoed through the City. I don't know why you've become like this, but do you think this is what Hayate wants?

Whatever Hayate wanted, however, it wouldn't stop her from returning fire. "Axel Shooter." A barrage of magenta orbs sparked into being around her, and she flung them at Reinforce with a single command: "Shoot!"

More than her voice the telepathy itself carried the dark fury that had taken her, surging with an angrily-buzzing excess of energy.

Nanoha's bolts were familiar to her, only a variation on a magic she'd absorbed from her, and they spattered harmlessly of the the trigrammic shield that sprang into existence before her.

"Divine Buster." Intoned the Tome, and Rein threw an enlarged version of one of Nanoha's own spells back at her in a great rushing column of pink.

That's crazy! I wouldn't ever deceive her, and you know it! Is this really what you think will help? A shield flickered to life in front of Nanoha's hand as she decided to take the blow straight on, trusting in Raising Heart and her own magic to protect her.

And then the spell collided with her barrier, sending shocks and energy rippling down her arm - she gritted her teeth, willing the shield to hold... and it did.

All right, if this was how Rein wanted to be, then Nanoha would comply. "Exceed Drive, Ignition." Power surged through her body as her staff changed form and her Barrier Jacket elongated, power that hummed through the air around her.

She'd show Reinforce how she'd grown. "Divine... Buster!"

"This is not to help her. It is for her. In her name. In her memory." She spoke now that they had closed, voice echoing out across the still air of the barrier space.

She watched impassively as Nanoha switched her device to a higher-throughput mode. In those strange memories of her time on the ship she had been proud of the girl's growth. Growth when? It all made so little sense...

The attack, at least, was easy to respond to. "Balmung." Spoke the Tome, and an octet of beams raced out and around the path of Nanoha's shot and then converged on her from the sides, with impressive speed for having taken such an indirect path. At the same time she raised her own barrier. If this mageling could ward off her attack, certainly the reverse was true. So what if she could remember having recognized this power? She could remember having made it a part of herself, too.

Another attack that she couldn't defend against. Nanoha knew all-too-well that getting into a slugging match with the Tome of the Night Sky was a fight that she would not - could not - win. As soon as her spell had finished casting, she moved with blinding speed. "Flash Move."

The girl seemed to vanish, reappearing in front of the barrage, much closer to Reinforce than she had before - and Raising Heart was readied.

"Excelion..."

Power grew at the tip of her staff, swelling and boiling to an explosion point-- and then she vanished again. "Flash Move."

When next she appeared, she was much closer to Reinforce - and behind her. "...BUSTER!"

The second movement, undertaken even as a complex spell was processed and the necessary magic gathered, surprised her. It had not been within the girl's capabilities when she had absorbed her - and so it was successful, the deluge of pink mana washing over Reinforce's figure before she could raise a proper defense.

But success was a relative term here, and even though the blast reached her unimpeded by activated shields her armor still protected her, even from an attack that would crush the best-prepared defenses of any ordinary mage. She whirled furiously on Nanoha and charged, breaking through the side of the beam to swing a heavy fist at Nanoha. Closing with her, who was first and foremost of Belka, was not without its own risks.

Of course, when it comes to Belka Knights, there is one first and foremost who is dangerous at point-blank range. And good at interrupting fights.

Reinforce finds her fist hitting nothing else but Laevatein's scabbard, at the end of a long and rather recklessly fast charge by Signum into this Barrier. Signum looks, if anything, surprised herself. She was not expecting to see Reinforce Eins in this form again...ever, really, let alone in this time and place, and only her instincts kept her moving to make the block at all.

Nanoha saw that Reinforce had taken her attack head-on, and had started her own defensive preparations, but even as she moved to shield she knew it wouldn't be enough. She braced herself for a potentially game-ending hit, willing her body to hold together...

...but then in a flash of pink and red there was another. One whom Nanoha hadn't expected to see.

"S, Signum?!"

Her fist opened, grabbed hold of the scabbard, but before she could follow with another blow she recognized the one who'd come between them and stopped.

"General...?" Her voice was angry and confused. She was... yes, she was here. She knew that. But why had she stopped her?

"What are you doing?" In no time her voice had hardened; the words were flat, accusatory. This was not what she knew Hayate to want.

"I was going to ask you the same question. You're attacking a friend," Signum says, resolutely, staring directly into Rein's eyes and, for the moment, ignoring Nanoha. Reinforce's behavior (randomly attacking an ally) was far more unusual than Nanoha's (getting in over her head), for starters.

"What happened?" she asks, voice softening very slightly, even as she realizes suddenly she's standing here with a drawn sword facing her oldest comrade. This situation was very wrong.

Nanoha said nothing, though she leaned slightly back, putting more space between her, Signum and Reinforce. The mage knew that if anyone could talk sense into Reinforce other than Hayate, it was the old knight standing in front of her right now.

And if Signum couldn't, she was taking the opportunity to catch her breath. Just in case.

"She is a friend no longer. This is the fate our master wished on the one who betrayed her. Signum, I do not have much time left. Move aside."

She released the scabbard, fully expecting the knight would comply. This was her General, who had the utmost respect for her will and the will of their master. Signum should know her commitment for what it was...

Signum stands back, but she's not backing down.

"...even if we came here from different realities, you know full well Hayate wouldn't order any of us to attack Nanoha even if she personally stuck a knife in her, and Nanoha hasn't done and would never do anything of the sort," Signum says, voice tense and rapidly losing her calm demeanor. Everything about this situation was wrong.

Without taking her eyes off Reinforce's, she calls out, "Nanoha! Do you know what's going on?"

Nanoha shook her head in response. "I don't know," she admitted. "Rein's acting like she did back then! Fate-chan's been acting odd, too - there might be some magic at work on the ship that's making them forget things!"

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Retrograde Motion [closed]

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