The White Devil of the Moon Chapter 3

[bissek]

Disclaimer: I do not own MGLN or Sailor Moon

The White Devil of the Moon
By Bissek
Chapter 3
How Not To Make a First Impression

The floor of the Crown Arcade was empty. After double-checking that her exit would not be seen, Luna activated the control that would make the Sailor V machine move away from the hidden staircase, allowing her to leave. She had been stuck in the command center for an entire week, and she was sick of it. She wanted fresh air, fresh food, and humans willing to stroke her fur. She also needed to tell the Senshi about what had happened to the princess, and since she didn’t know how to set up the teleconference mode on the communicators, she needed to speak to them in person to brief them all at once.

Luna snuck out of the arcade and headed to the residence of her ‘owner’, Mamoru Chiba. Her enemy already knew of the connection between them, so no further harm could be done to her plans by associating with him. It didn’t take long for Luna to make her way back to her home. Fortunately, Mamoru always kept a window open for his ‘pet’.

Mamoru was quick to notice that Luna had returned.

“I wasn’t expecting you to turn up, Luna. Has something happened?” He asked.

Luna nodded. “That girl who kept us from contacting the princess is more than she seems. I fear that she has her own sinister designs on the princess.”

Luna then began explaining her conclusions in more detail.


Mamoru was outraged by what Luna had discovered. His princess was being held as a brainwashed prisoner of a Dark Senshi? The Dark Senshi was seeking to block all attempts from the true Senshi to contact the princess so that she wouldn’t awaken and break free? This was something that he could not allow to stand.

Mamoru didn’t know much about his own past. He had blocked out most of his memories after the accident that killed the rest of his family. The slowly awakening memories of his previous life were more concrete than his memories of his current one. There were times that Endymion actually seemed more real to him than Mamoru Chiba did. As a result of this, he had come to the conclusion that if he managed to fully awaken his past self, he would be able to discover who he was in his current life. And the key to doing this lay with the person who Endymion had centered his life around: Princess Serenity.

He could still recall all of the times that Serenity had snuck down to the Earth, first to spend time on a real world rather than a magically sustained artificial habitat, and later just to see him. He remembered dancing with her the night they were to be officially betrothed. And he could remember her screams of grief as he died in her arms when her birthday celebration turned into a catastrophe.

Mamoru would not permit his beloved princess to face the tragedies of her previous life in this one. He would free her from the clutches of this Dark Senshi, and thwart Beryl’s plan to keep them apart. Then they could be together again.

Luna was planning to inform the Senshi of what she had learned at their next meeting. That would be in two day’s time. Mamoru had no intention of waiting that long. He would begin hunting his enemy tomorrow.


The sun rose upon Tokyo. People across the city began to rise from their beds and begin their days. Nanoha wasn’t among them. Despite her long-ingrained habit of waking at dawn or earlier, she was staying in bed. Her back hurt too much.

She wasn’t sure why beating such an easy game had merited such a riotous response from everyone else in the arcade (The only real difficulty she had was that the machine, like virtually all arcade machines, wasn’t designed to be used by someone who was left handed). Or why the second highest scorer hadn’t even managed to get a sixth of her score. But the enthusiastic congratulations of the observers had been rather painful for her.

If only she had taken the time to study some healing magic. Then she could have done something about her aching back. But then again, she was also forbidden from using magic any more than absolutely necessary for the time being, so she couldn’t have healed her back even if she knew such a spell. And unfortunately, Fate didn’t know any spells for healing people, either.

The blankets shifted as Fate got out of the bed. Nanoha groaned and turned over.

“Good morning, Nanoha.” Fate said.

“Morning.” Nanoha grunted.

“Are you okay?”

“Don’t want to get up. Back hurts.”

“Alright, just lay back. I’ll go get breakfast.” With that, Fate left.

By the time breakfast was over, Nanoha had decided that she wasn’t up to walking around the city that day. So Fate and Aruf headed out to see the sights while Nanoha remained behind to rest.


Tuxedo Kamen stalked the streets of Azabu Juuban, searching for the Dark Senshi. With Luna travelling with him, he could track his enemy down directly, rather than just hoping he crossed her path at some random point. It wasn’t long before Luna found the trail he was looking for.

He was in luck: his enemy wasn’t travelling with the princess. There was no risk that the Dark Senshi would try to harm the princess rather than allow her to go free. Here was the perfect opportunity to eliminate his beloved’s captor. He produced a rose and carefully took aim. Tomorrow he would be reunited with his dearest Serenity once again.


The night streets were deserted, but something had put Fate on edge. She fingered Bardiche nervously. She wasn’t sure what was setting her off, but years of work as a TSAB enforcer had left her able to tell when trouble was coming. The flicker of something coming towards her quickly in the corner of her eye confirmed that instinct.

Fate activated her barrier jacket and brought up a shield. The incoming object pierced through the shield, only to stick into her cape. She glanced briefly at the projectile. A rose? Strange choice of weapon. Still, it had been able to penetrate a hastily cast shield spell, so there was some power behind it. If she had taken the hit entirely on her jacket rather than her shield, it could have hurt.

A man jumped down from the rooftops at her, swinging something as he dropped. Fate raised Bardiche’s axe form to parry. The man, dressed in formal evening wear for some bizarre reason, kept trying to press the attack, swinging wildly with his cane. It wasn’t much of a contest. Fate’s attacker clearly wasn’t very focused, rendering any actual skill he had meaningless. Even if he had been thinking clearly, he was hardly in the same league as Signum, who Fate had sparred with periodically for years. Within twenty seconds, Fate had knocked the cane out of the man’s hands and then reversed her swing to club the man in the head with Bardiche’s blunt side.

The man dropped to the ground, dazed and unable to rise. As he fell, Fate saw Aruf return with a rather familiar cat clamped in her jaws. Fate looked down on the captive animal.

“Before, you were just an annoyance. But this is a bit much. Attacking an officer of the Bureau is a serious offense. But since I’m not on duty, I’m feeling generous. I’m willing to give you three choices. First, you can go home and leave Nanoha and me alone to finish our vacation in peace. Second, you can try to provide a coherent explanation for your actions, after which I will pass your story on to my superiors if you can convince me that the situation warrants TSAB intervention. Third, you can try to bother me again, after which I will allow Aruf to use you as her personal chew toy. Which is it going to be?”

The cat whimpered painfully, clearly not seeing what the difference between being Aruf’s chew toy and what was going on at that very moment. Aruf spat the cat out. The bedraggled, slobber drenched feline gasped for breath, then looked up at her nemesis.

“You won’t get away with this. We will free the princess from your clutches.” The cat snarled.

Fate scratched her head. “I’m sorry, but I have no idea what you’re talking about. I don’t know any royalty.”

“Don’t play dumb with me! You’ve been blocking us from contacting the princess this entire time!”

Realization came to Fate. She sighed. “What could have confused you to the point that you’d mistake the daughter of a restaurateur for the daughter of a monarch? I’ve never seen a familiar act so peculiar before in my life. If you want, I can try to get some help for you. Once you’ve been healed properly I’m sure you’ll be able to remember who your real master is.”

The cat’s eyes widened with horror at Fate’s offer and it started backing away, hissing in anger. Fate took that reaction as the rejection it was and continued.

“You people are clearly too disturbed to be allowed to keep running around. I’m going to have to take you in. If you submit quietly, you will be permitted to testify in your own defense.” The real problem was what Fate was going to do with these people. Since this was an unadministered planet, there wasn’t a base or patrol ship nearby that she could drop them off on, and she didn’t have any place that would serve as a holding cell. Fate supposed she could keep them chained up in a basement somewhere until a patrol ship could pick them up, but that would still require her or Aruf guarding them until said ship arrived, which could take days. Which Nanoha would notice. Which would negate the original purpose of this exercise – to keep Nanoha’s recovery from being disturbed.

Fate’s musings on how to contain her prisoners caused her attention to slip from the one who had appeared to been disabled. The man in the tuxedo had roused somewhat, and had managed to get a hold of another rose. Fate saw the motion and started to turn towards her attacker. The rose missed her, but caught the collar of her cloak, going through it and continuing into the brick wall behind her. The cat took advantage of the distraction to flee, Aruf on her heels.

Fate tried to move forward to secure the man, but found that the rose had effectively nailed her to the wall. Not wanting to get within range of Bardiche again, the man turned and staggered away, leaving Fate to pull herself free of the surprisingly strong piece of foliage. As Aruf returned, reporting that the cat had slipped away by going into a crevice that the larger animal couldn’t pass through, Fate resolved that she would try to convince Nanoha to change vacation venues after the wedding. And to send a report in so that an enforcer team could contain that cat before she developed an unhealthy fixation on someone who couldn’t defend herself.


Luna seethed as she found her way back to Tuxedo Kamen’s side, trying to shake off the dog slobber all over her coat as she did so.. How dare that girl shrug her off as a broken construct? Her, who had once been one of Queen Serenity’s personal advisors? She didn’t know what this TSAB was, but they would learn that the Moon Kingdom was more than the childish fantasy their agent so glibly shrugged them off as. And to so glibly offer to ‘fix’ her so that she would stop ‘mistaking’ the princess for her ‘real master’. Luna was certain that the ‘doctor’ that the witch planned to call in would just brainwash her into another servant.

The Dark Senshi may have been able to defeat the Earth Prince, but she had yet to face the power of the true Sailor Senshi. They would be gathering for a meeting tomorrow, and Luna would see to it that the Senshi hunted down and destroyed this villainess. But first, Luna had to get the prince home. While he probably didn’t have a concussion, it was clear that he wasn’t in good shape after that axe blow.

Luna’s efforts to guide Tuxedo Kamen were interrupted by the distinctive sound of a communicator going off. The prince fumbled for the communicator, dropping it as it left his pocket. Luna walked up to the communicator and pawed it open.

“Luna?” Mercury’s voice came over the communicator. “Where’s Tuxedo Kamen? The Dark Kingdom’s come up with something new. We need all the extra firepower we can get.”

Luna winced. She had been so eager to free the Moon Princess that she had gone along with Endymion’s plan to face the Dark Senshi alone without considering the possibility that he might fail. And because of that oversight, the Senshi were now in danger. She wouldn’t make that mistake again. Next time, she would bring overwhelming force.

Luna looked towards Endymion and saw him clutching his head in pain. “I’m sorry,” Luna admitted. “But Kamen’s out of action for the time being. I’m afraid you’re on your own.”


Sailor Mercury cringed at Luna’s words. How had it come to this? All she had wanted in life was to get through school, get admitted to a good college, go on to medical school, and become a doctor like her mother. Then she had gotten a funny pen as a prize from an arcade game, the faculty from her juku had been replaced by monsters, and she found herself spending her spare time fighting creatures that had wiped out all civilization on Earth thousands of years in the past and apparently wanted to do it again. This wasn’t the life she wanted. And if she couldn’t figure out how to deal with the floating, legless, suit of armor, it would soon be over.

Her ice couldn’t damage it. Neither did Mars’ flames or Jupiter’s lightning. Venus’s beams were doing damage, but most of the power went into piercing the armor. Since they didn’t know where the thing was vulnerable, the minimal penetration wasn’t doing enough harm to matter. She had hoped that Tuxedo Kamen had some ability that would significantly hurt the thing, but he wasn’t available.

A crackling sound was the only warning Mercury had before the enemy launched a ball of energy at her. She dove to the ground, just barely avoiding the attack. If her hair had been as long as her colleagues’, the near miss would have caused most of it to burn off. As it was, she felt a painful tingling down her back as it passed over her and smashed into a wall.

Noticing that the near miss had rendered her unable to move quickly, the floating armor moved in closer, raising its blade to finish her off. Mercury desperately fired a blast of ice at her opponent, freezing its shoulder. The ice locked up the joint for a few precious seconds before shattering under the force placed upon it, giving Jupiter the chance to pull Mercury to safety.

So the armor’s joints could be iced over. That was something she could use. If only it had legs to take out, that would be more useful. It would also help if she knew what was keeping the thing up in the air.

The Mercury Computer chimed, announcing that it had finished its scan of the armor. Disappointingly, it didn’t include any data about what was in the armor or making it move. It was just an analysis of the armor itself, the alloy it was made of and its various chemical properties. Mercury glanced at the data, not expecting it to be all that useful, and then smiled as she saw how low the thermal conductivity of the metal was. She knew how to take the thing down.

“Mars! Hit the armor exactly where I do!” She called out. Then she launched a freezing blast at the center of the armor. A burst of flame hit the same point just afterwards, thawing and softening the frozen piece of metal. A second freeze caused the metal around the section to start cracking as the armor started suffering from thermal shock.

“Venus! Now!” Mercury yelled. A blast of energy struck the cracking metal, making it shatter. Mercury quickly saw the reason why they hadn’t been able to hurt the youma wearing the armor up to this point. There hadn’t been one. Nobody had been wearing the armor. The armor was some kind of robot, either completely autonomous or controlled by someone far away. A bolt of lightning from Jupiter crackled into the exposed machinery, shorting out the robot and making it crash lifelessly to the ground.

The four Senshi looked at their fallen opponent and gasped for breath. Something had changed with their old enemy, and if it hadn’t been for a design flaw, their latest creation might have beaten them. They needed something to change the equation in their favor, and soon. They needed the princess.


None of the Senshi had a social life active enough to justify acquiring traditional skills with makeup, but they had all been forced to learn the art over the past year nonetheless. It had been necessary in order to conceal visual evidence of evening spent out fighting monsters. Even those who could spend the entire day without seeing a relative still had to spend most of their typical day outside of the comfort of their home, so the burns, bruises, cuts and scrapes from battles would be noticed. Every single one of them had been using that skill on this day.

The most visibly injured was Mamoru, whose flaking makeup exposed an enormous bruise that made him look like somebody had clubbed him with the blunt side of an axe. Makoto actually commented on that, only to learn that he really had been clubbed with the blunt side of an axe.

“We can’t go on like this.” Rei groused. “That robot the Dark Kingdom sent last time was a lot tougher than the youma we normally face. If they had sent more than one, or if all four of us hadn’t been there, we would have lost.”

“We need something to strengthen our side, or we need to slow Beryl’s forces down. I don’t think we could take them if another one of those robots shows up tonight.” Makoto agreed.

“And I doubt either of those will happen without us awakening the princess.” Rei concluded. “What did you learn from your meeting with her, Minako?”

“Let’s see. The most likely reason you couldn’t sense her in a reading is that she managed to get a full-time job right out of junior high and has been out of the area at that job ever since.” Minako started. “She’s only in the area now because she’s taking a vacation due to her older brother getting married soon. That could be a problem for us – once the wedding is over, she could very well end up going back to her job, ending up far out of our reach.”

The Senshi shared worried glances at that. While none of them could think of a job that could be gotten without even a high school diploma that they’d want to accept, the implications of their princess abandoning her destiny to return to some low-paying menial job on the other side of the country weren’t good.

“On a more positive note, if we can awaken her, she could very well help us turn the tide. She tried out the Sailor V game and beat Ami’s score on her first try.” She continued.

“How high did she score?” Makoto asked.

“One million points.”

“Is it possible to get a score that high?” Ami wondered.

“No. The game surrendered at 999,999. I recall Artemis saying that the game couldn’t be beaten; it would just create more levels the further you go.”

“That’s right.” Artemis confirmed. “The only way to beat the game is to max out the score counter. I didn’t think anyone would even get close to actually doing that.”

“However, if the princess does awaken soon, there will be one problem if she tries fighting alongside us. She apparently hurt her back recently, and still hasn’t recovered.” Minako continued.

“And I think I know who’s to blame for that.” Luna announced. All heads turned to face the moon cat (who was stuck in a pet carrier to keep her shed hair from getting over the others).

“Who would that be?” Makoto demanded, flexing her fists.

“The princess’s ‘friend’ is anything but. She’s been actively interfering with every attempt we’ve made to contact the princess. I arranged for the princess to receive a communicator as a prize from the Sailor V game, and her ‘friend’ confiscated it almost immediately. After I made one call and discovered that the princess no longer had the communicator, that communicator went completely off the net. Along with the information that Ami was able to gather while staking out the hotel where the princess is staying, I can only come to one conclusion: That this Fate person is a Dark Senshi, who is holding our princess as a brainwashed prisoner.”

Rei and Makoto looked enraged at that statement, a sentiment shared by Mamoru. Minako, Ami, and Artemis looked more dubious.

“Don’t you think there could be an alternative explanation?” Artemis asked.

“Like what?”

“Like maybe she just doesn’t want her friend getting into trouble while she’s still recovering from a recent back injury?”

“She threatened to feed me to her dog!”

“You have been following her around for some time. I could see why she wouldn’t like that.” Ami pointed out.

The argument continued. Luna refused to consider the possibility that she might be wrong, and despite Ami, Minako and Artemis poking holes in Luna’s arguments, Rei, Makoto and Mamoru all decided they agreed with Luna. It was ultimately a symptom of a far larger problem.

None of the five humans involved in protecting Tokyo from the youma had enlisted voluntarily. They had all been forced into the role as the result of being stuck in the middle of a youma attack and being fortunate enough to acquire the means to defend themselves. The five of them had all come from different walks of life, and had very little in common besides a non-paying career that none of them had wanted to go into and which they all wanted to be able to give up with a clear conscience. Once that happened, it was quite likely that they’d all go their separate ways and never deliberately cross each other’s paths again.

Given that, it was understandable that Rei and Makoto would want there to be a simple answer to the current difficulty they were facing in their unwanted profession. Just remove the princess’s captor, and the princess would awaken. With the princess awakened, they could take the offensive against Beryl. Once that was done, they could end the war and spend their nights sleeping instead of running around the rooftops in skimpy fukus.

Despite the tempting urge to take an easy answer and hope it would solve their problems, Minako didn’t accept Luna’s theory. She had spent an afternoon with Nanoha and Fate. If Fate had been manipulating Nanoha’s memories to make her think she was an old friend, she had gone through a lot of effort. It was hard to believe someone would invent a fake memory as inherently absurd as losing a volleyball match by knockout. In addition to the apparent level of detail in those allegedly fake memories, Minako had also seen the look on Fate’s face when Nanoha collapsed. She couldn’t believe that Fate would deliberately seek to harm Nanoha, even if she had some ulterior motive behind associating with the girl. Ami agreed on that point, having examined the footage of Fate’s evening flight and noting the loving expression that Fate used when gazing upon the princess. While she might not be doing what was ultimately in the princess’s best interests, it seemed likely to Ami and Minako that Fate was doing what she personally believed to be in the princess’s best interests.

Hopefully, the other two Senshi wouldn’t do anything too reckless before they could figure out a way to get Fate to understand that the princess had to fulfill her destiny.


After a few days of rest, Nanoha’s back had recovered enough to allow her to go out again. Considering how close it was getting to the date of Kyouya’s wedding, the timing was rather fortunate. So she and Fate were taking Aruf on an evening walk. Things were going fine until Aruf froze and started growling.

Nanoha looked around and saw a cat peeking out of an alley. For any other dog, that might have been a reasonable explanation for that reaction, but Nanoha knew Aruf. She had spent a considerable amount of time around Suzuka’s numerous cats without ever having any problems with them, so why would she react like that on seeing a cat now?

Then Aruf pulled her leash out of Fate’s grasp and chased after the cat.. That wasn’t something Aruf would normally do. Nanoha wondered what was going on, but reassured herself that Aruf would return. Then she heard Aruf howl in pain. Something was definitely wrong. Fate ran to see what was going on. A moment later, Nanoha heard a crack of lightning come from the alley. Nanoha knew there was trouble. She maneuvered herself to a position where she could look into the alley.


Luna had been waiting for the Dark Senshi’s pet to come by. The dog had reacted to her presence just as she had anticipated. As the dog came after her, Luna darted into the alley and hid behind some trash cans. Now it was time to spring the trap.

The dog followed into the alley. Sailor Mars stepped out of the shadows at the far end of the alley. The dog started sniffing for its enemy, not realizing that there was another enemy waiting for it. Luna grinned triumphantly as a wave of heat passed her hiding place and the dog howled in pain from being struck with a fireball. It served the mutt right for using her as a chew-toy.

The Dark Senshi came into the alley after her pet. Seeing the dog wounded and the apparent perpetrator at hand, she prepared to fight. This was when Sailor Jupiter dropped from the rooftop behind the princess’s jailor. The plan had worked. The witch was now trapped in a narrow alley between two Senshi.

Attacked from two directions, the Dark Senshi called up a shield in each hand to block the incoming spells. The shields held, but they were noticeably damaged from the blows. Oh well. It didn’t matter if the Senshi couldn’t breach her defenses on the first shot. Their enemy was trapped, so they could always keep firing until the shields broke down.

That was when Luna’s plan broke down. A burst of pink light flashed in the alley, and Jupiter’s lightning stopped coming. Luna peeked out from her hiding place to see what happened, and gaped at what she saw. Jupiter was down, not seriously harmed, but knocked down and just as surprised as Luna at who had done it.

Standing above Jupiter’s fallen form was the Moon Princess, who was now looking angrily at Mars. The princess pulled something out of her shirt with her left hand and started to speak.

“I am the one who has been given a mission.” She recited.

Luna gulped. While she didn’t know what the princess was saying, it sounded like some kind of spell. Mars also started backing away, realizing that who it was that was standing against her.

“Under the contract, release these powers.” She continued.

Why was the princess seeking to harm her Senshi? Why was she siding with her captor?

“Winds to the sky, stars…” The princess fumbled, apparently forgetting the next part of the incantation. Before anyone else could react, the Dark Senshi darted towards the princess, grabbed her, and flew up to the rooftop. The dog then transformed, turning into a woman with canine ears and tail, who ran towards Mars, and proceeded to punch the girl who had tried to set her on fire out. Then she flew off after her master.


“Let me get this straight,” Sailor Venus said. “Two members of the Sailor Senshi, champions of love and justice, just attempted a backstreet mugging.”

Two Senshi and one moon cat looked down rather shamefully at that description of their attempt to free their princess.

“And that’s not even the worst of what you did with your little scheme. You could potentially have cost us any hope of awakening the princess.” Venus continued.

“What?!” Luna exclaimed. “We were just trying to free her from that witch!”

“What you intended doesn’t matter. You forgot that even if your theory that all of the princess’s memories about this Dark Senshi being manufactured is true, she doesn’t know that. What Nanoha saw was two people she’d never seen before in her life attacking one of her oldest friends. You could very well have convinced her that the Senshi are her enemies.”

A look of horror spread across three faces as they realized exactly how much they had screwed up.


While Venus was dressing down her colleagues for their poorly thought out display of excess initiative, Fate was explaining to Nanoha exactly what had been going on behind her back over the past few weeks. Nanoha was rather upset that Fate had been hiding things from her, but was forced to concede that Fate’s reasoning was sensible – mainly because of how much casting a Divine Shooter powerful enough to knock the girl in the green skirt took out of her.

“Did they ever explain what they wanted?” Nanoha asked.

“Not in any coherent matter. I strongly suspect that the familiar those people were taking orders from wasn’t quite right in the head. I think we’re going to need to spend the rest of our vacation somewhere else if we’re going to get any peace.”

“Hmm… How about Kyoto? I’ve never been there.”

“That sounds good. Hopefully those people won’t try to follow us there.”

“We should probably send a report to the Bureau about them. They’re probably going to try to cause more trouble later on.”

“You’re right. I’ll write something up in the next few days. Given that your brother’s wedding is tomorrow, I don’t think I’ll be able to finish it before then.”

Nanoha smiled. “At least we aren’t likely to have any trouble show up at a wedding.”


Omake by Elvarein:

"Bu-bu-but! She's our Princess of the Moon!" Venus gasped out, trembling, staring at the glowing yellow blade resting at her neck that had just bisected a pillar. Oh my god. Oh my god I DON'T WANT TO DIE! I'm too pretty to die!!!

Fate slowly lifted her head, her hair falling away slightly from her face to reveal a face twisted into a horrendous snarl and eyes that seemed to glow. Glow, with the fury of a thousand suns, with the promise of complete destruction. The searing blade seemed to inch closer, if it were possible. She opened her jaws and...

There was a high pitch, half strangled whine and a sudden venting of yellow liquid with the accompanying stench. The girl's body relaxed and she fell into blissful oblivion.

Nanoha blinked and tilted her head slightly to stare quizzically at Fate who looked back with her normal serene expression. "I'm not that scary am I?"

She smiled back and laughed, her voice tinkling gently. "Never, Nanoha. How could you be, and besides, isn't that funny calling you the princess in the moon? Wouldn't you be a rabbit then, like the story your mother told us?"

Nanoha giggled softly and turned to face the other Senshi who are still stared at Fate, who was slightly behind Nanoha, abject fear in their eyes. "Now, could you please try again, this time with the truth?"

They shuddered and started babbling their guts out, as they completely stopped struggling in their bonds. Just as a tiny animal keeps completely still, praying that the predators are ignoring it. Behind Nanoha, Fate seemed to have acquired a glowing, burning aura from somewhere and the Senshi could swear that there was ominous music coming from nowhere.


A/N: Aruf isn’t badly injured. Familiars can take a good deal of damage.

The reason the Senshi were having trouble with the drone is because their attacks are meant to burn, freeze, and shock. Against something that doesn’t feel pain, those aren’t the attacks to use. They needed spells to pierce, cut, and smash.

Thermal shock, which is caused by rapid temperature change, is a real phenomenon. For an easy real-life example, drop an ice cube in a glass of hot water, and watch the ice crack while it melts.

[Spokavriel]

I'm glad its not literal but Luna seriously screwed the pooch in this one.

If they had full and unbiased debriefings with things being faithfully reported this wouldn't have happened. I'm kinda surprised that Makoto got caught up in it. After all the only one with personal contact going along with it is Mamoru and he admittedly had minimal contact before trying to attack on his own.

Their problems come down to too little frank and honest communication.

[frice2000]

The slowly awakening memories of his previous life were more concrete than his memories of his current one.

Sounds awkward. Not sure what to point at for you to fix but it sounds off.

Despite her long-engrained habit of

not sure if its engrained or ingrained. Upon researching the grammar a bit the rule is still flaky. Though I'm leaning toward ingrained as engrained seems to be supplanted and archaic in nature.

The cat whimpered painfully, clearly not seeing what the difference between being Aruf’s chew toy and what was going on at that very moment. Aruf spat the cat out.

I know Luna likes to jump the gun a bit but I would think she would have called in the other Senshi here before engaging the 'dark senshi' and especially when she realized that Mamorou was getting his ass kicked. I suppose Aruf interrupted any call for help but something along the lines of stopping a call might be appropriate. Like Aruf had a communications device when she dropped Luna to the ground as well. You make it sound like she doesn't have a communications device which I don't understand as in the previous chapter she attempted to contact Nanoha.

That this Fate person is a Dark Senshi, who is holding our princess as a brainwashed prisoner.”

OK 'dark senshi'. I don't understand how in cannon or here no one goes 'hey what about all those other handy planets in the solar system do they have senshi too?'. I don't understand how that's not a part of the conversation and I assume the Mercury Computer or 'control' or whatever you're going with in this story would have files on their existence which puts a nice different spin on this story.

Why was the princess seeking to harm her Senshi? Why was she siding with her captor?

Venus says how stupid that was later I was about to say it's really stupid for Luna not to expect that and it's nice to have it pointed out. Surprised Makoto and Rei didn't even take that into consideration though.

Very nice story and nice chapter. Loving the conflict and how things are shaping up. Really nice work and I look forward to the next.

[PCHeintz72]

Wait... Fate had the 'creep' bugging Nanoha, and whom had magically attacked her. And Arf had Luna, the 'crazed psycho' whom had made threats against her and wanted to 'take Nanoha away', and she Let Them Go... Grrr... Not likely.

Even if she let them go... she should have looted Mamaru's body, getting any ID or magical artifacts, and maybe a few roses for examination and see if anything can be done to in the future more effectively block them. Take the cane, remove the mask, etc...

I did however like:

the implications of their princess abandoning her destiny to return to some low-paying menial job on the other side of the country weren’t good.

Bwahahaha...

“That’s right.” Artemis confirmed. “The only way to beat the game is to max out the score counter. I didn’t think anyone would even get close to actually doing that.”

Actually... this should have been an indicator something was wrong... Venus was supposed to be in command of the inners and the most tactically oriented, with Mercury the smartest. The princess should not have been able to beat a combat sim.

I arranged for the princess to receive a communicator as a prize from the Sailor V game, and her ‘friend’ confiscated it almost immediately.

A no brainer.

Then Aruf pulled her leash out of Fate’s grasp and chased after the cat. A moment later, Fate ran after her familiar.

Not convinced Fate would do this. She would know Arf had a reason, and has a mental link with her. And nanoha would be the higher priority.

who ran towards Mars, and proceeded to punch the girl who had tried to set her on fire out.

I think 'out' is in the wrong spot. try: who ran towards Mars, and proceeded to punch out the girl who had tried to set her on fire.

“We should probably send a report to the Bureau about them. If they keep doing things like this, they’re likely to get someone hurt sooner or later.”

The TSAB, based on past actions, are not going to care about a rogue group of mages on a backwater... they are going to care that a rogue group of mages on a backwater are attacking and attempting to kidnap "their* people.

The reason the Senshi were having trouble with the drone is because their attacks are meant to burn, freeze, and shock. Against something that doesn’t feel pain, those aren’t the attacks to use.

I would argue Jupiter's abilities are perfect against robots once they get past the shielding.

[Comartemis]

Okay, I gotta call foul on a few points here.

Fate's shield spells are designed to take hits way heavier than anything Tux Boy can put into a rose. A fully-cast Defenser was enough to tank a direct hit from Nanoha's Divine Buster in the first season, albeit barely, and she's since upgraded to Defenser Plus; even a hastily-made shield should easily be able to block one of Tux Boy's roses, and it shouldn't be hastily-made because Bardiche can raise shields on his own if Fate can't react in time. It would be more believable if you were to switch that scene a bit so that Tux's rose dispels the shield rather than simply breaking through it. Those roses are all-purpose problem solvers in the anime, they do everything from deflecting attacks to dispelling illusions and just about everything in between; if Fate notes that the rose carries a "dispel magic" effect, then that scene becomes a lot more believable than it was. Her reaction time is also a little unbelievable here; Fate can transform in a flash, but Bardiche should be the one casting the shield spell for her.

Second, Luna is still coming across as a complete moron, is that intentional?

The reason the Senshi were having trouble with the drone is because their attacks are meant to burn, freeze, and shock. Against something that doesn’t feel pain, those aren’t the attacks to use. They needed spells to pierce, cut, and smash.

Um... what? Drones are just glorified robots, even if they can't feel pain their internal components should still be damaged by extreme temperatures. A few billion volts of electricity should also do extreme damage against anything that isn't specifically hardened and massively insulated against electrical shock. Also if Jupiter's lightning has no effect on the drones, then Fate's going to be in a lot of trouble when she starts fighting them; pretty much all her spells are lightning-based.

Wait... Fate had the 'creep' bugging Nanoha, and whom had magically attacked her. And Arf had Luna, the 'crazed psycho' whom had made threats against her and wanted to 'take Nanoha away', and she Let Them Go... Grrr... Not likely.

Even if she let them go... she should have looted Mamaru's body, getting any ID or magical artifacts, and maybe a few roses for examination and see if anything can be done to in the future more effectively block them.

Yeah, Mamoru's attack on Fate is called 'Assaulting a Police Officer', and in the TSAB that gets you befriended at minimum, jail time at worst.

[Spokavriel]

The Rose was clearly thrown before she summoned her barrier jacket much less cast the shield. Chances are it was actually past the shield before it formed and she was just giving the attack more credit than it was due. It could also be part of the author's way of showing Mamoron as having some use even with pointing out how much of a hopeless idiot he is with the rest of the encounter.

[Comartemis]

Yeah, except no. The author clearly states that the rose pierced the shield, which it should not be able to do (It also probably shouldn't "bounce" off the barrier jacket, come to think of it, try a different verb there or have it get stuck in her cape or something). Since the author doesn't indicate otherwise, Occam's Razor insists that we go with the simplest explanation.

Honestly, if Fate senses an incoming attack, her first reaction should be dodging, not blocking. She's a speed-oriented fighter and doesn't tank spells as often as she evades them even when she's not in Sonic Form. Her first instinct on detecting an incoming attack would most likely be to get out of the way simply by virtue of ingrained reflexes.

[Spokavriel]

Yeah I know. Just trying to say the only reason I could find to make any sense of it.

[Undeen]

Only thing I can say for rose boy's attack getting through is that it is designed specifically for piercing defenses rather than crushing the enemy. Unless he hits somewhere lethal, or the rose has an extra effect upon impact, it will be painful and debilitating at best, painful and annoying at worst. It only needs a fraction of the power to get through because all of it is focused at one tiny spot rather than trying to overpower the shield.

Then again,my knowledge of SM is limited mostly to Fanon (also I've never been a fan of Tuxedo Kamen) and my knowledge of Nanoha is even less.

Discussion on the physics of piercing a magical shield aside, I've greatly enjoyed this story and I'll keep my eye out for more.

[Comartemis]

Only thing I can say for rose boy's attack getting through is that it is designed specifically for piercing defenses rather than crushing the enemy. Unless he hits somewhere lethal, or the rose has an extra effect upon impact, it will be painful and debilitating at best, painful and annoying at worst. It only needs a fraction of the power to get through because all of it is focused at one tiny spot rather than trying to overpower the shield.

Not really, no. Your physics are sound enough, but while Tux throws his roses hard enough that the stock footage has them sticking in whatever they hit -- concrete for instance -- that's still nothing compared to a Divine Buster; those things start at smashing buildings and move upwards from there. And it's not stated anywhere that I'm aware of that the roses are "designed specifically" for anything, that sounds like fanon made up by someone trying to make Tux a little more useful in combat than he actually is.

[Undeen]

Well, I told you I'm not terribly familiar with SM canon didn't I? Though I recall hearing he was more useful/powerful in the manga than in the anime.

Doesn't really matter though, I still don't like him. *shrug*

[Comartemis]

Though I recall hearing he was more useful/powerful in the manga than in the anime.

Oh, far more useful in the manga. He got his own magic attack, the Tuxedo Smoking Bomber, sometime between the R and SuperS seasons (can't remember when exactly), so he had basic attack power on par with what the rest of the Senshi were using, and when he got the Golden Crystal near the end of SuperS he got powered up to Sailor Moon's level -- at roughly the point where she was capable of smashing planets and casually teleporting across the solar system.

[bissek]

I've just reposted the chapter with edits due to comments I've received.

I'm assuming Tux-boy's roses are a high-penetration weapon.

Superheating or freezing the outer shell of a robot might not do damage to the inner components. That's why Mercury had to improvise a means to break open the outer shell before they could take it down.

As far as the Senshi know, Nanoha just has a job that doesn't require a high-school education. It's not their fault that they don't know it's possible to be a professional magical girl.

[PCHeintz72]

Did a file compare of the revised version to the prior one I had already copied....

Another minor point:

Nanoha doesn’t even have the same hair color as anyone in the Imperial family, let alone a resemblance

Since Fate is not from Earth, would she even know what the Imperial family looks like?

Also, Tux attacked her in that battle with lethal intent 2 times. And the second, while she was pinned, she could have fired a energy blast at him with bardiche. Only reason I see her not doing so would be to not potentially dmage the city, since no containment barrier was up.

Heh... Luna (from fate's point of view mind you) Already has a fixation on someone whom cannot defend themselves.


New problem... if Fate is taking Tux as a more serious attacker... the Senshi are in trouble, I cannot picture Fate going light on them any more. She has tried reason, she has tried negotiation, she has tried warning them... They've made threats and now thanks to Tux's solo move proved they are at least potentially dangerous. So that alley battle later should have been even more nasty.

[bissek]

Fate lived in Japan for several years. She could easily have seen them in a news program and noted that none of them have brown hair.

And yes, the Senshi have just reached the limit of Fate's patience. If they even look like they're going to cause trouble the next time she runs into them, she'll go straight to Haken mode.