Paris burned.

Far, far out in the countryside and green outskirts of the city, sunrise came early in a red sky and a black fume that pillared into the air. The sacrifice of this early day was the sprawling Kiske estate, which flames was in the process of wholly consuming, shattering glass, collapsing stone, burning portrait memories, melting silverware, torching fine oak, and roasting away life entirely.

Ten minutes earlier, a young man of spry 16 years, handsomely French blond haired and blue eyed, had been sleeping soundly in his four-poster bed. Next thing he knew, clad in nothing more than sweat-streaked white linen, rushing down flame-lined halls, shouting.

"Mother! Mother, where are you!?"

This he screamed through the bright yellow flames that licked up everything throughout the estate, hoping to ascertain the fate of that which was most dear to him. A portion of the roofing collapsed, forcing to narrowly slide to a halt at the sudden dead-end, shielding his face from singeing sparks.

He heard a familiar woman's voice holler his name down another passageway. He immediately rushed after, each shouting at the other to keep their positions in checked.

He slammed through a pair of heavy double doors that led into what was normally his father's study, though it appeared that the lights that illuminated the circular chamber containing the heavy oak desk in the center and countless glass cases of memorabilia were out. The only things he could properly were faint shapes and silhouettes eked out by the flames behind him, of which included an older woman clad in little more than a satin nightgown.

"Mother!"

The young man embraced his parent quickly before fiercely ordering.

"We have to get out of here!"

"No, my son! There is something you must do first! It relates to your training as a magus!"

His body stilled in shock. The Kiske line was always intertwined with swords and sorcery, but the latter was a fiercely kept secret, known only by the few that practiced those ancient arts themselves.

"I knew this fire was strange... but an attack? But the Mage Association prevents that-"

His mother interrupted sternly, having no time for naïve prattle, "There is more magic in this world than just the Mage Association!"

"Then what are they here for!?"

"The heirloom weapon! I just know it!"

He gritted his teeth in irritation, but decided, "We need to get you out first, mother!"

The woman threw her son's hands of her shoulders, "I can get myself out! My son, as the youngest in the family, and of age, you must protect the weapon first! It cannot fall into greedy hands! Especially those of a magus! You must find it and do whatever it takes to keep it away from them!"

"I'm not leaving you!"

She wouldn't have any of it, and began shoving her boy back into flames, "I can take care of itself, but the weapon cannot! Do this as the next knight! GO!"

And he found himself obeying, as per tradition. He dashed through the burning passages and flaming artworks and cindering roman columns. At the end of a hall, there should have been a pair of doors, but now it was just flaming wreckage he jumped over into the large hall that was was being as roasted as everything else in the mansion. Suits of armor blackened and coats of arms dissipated into ash.

None of this was paid no heed, compared to the vertical glass case in the center. Driven downward into the base by its white blade, the longsword was a bizarre design, with it's fat oval royal blue hilt and pommel, divided into two blue cylinders.

Leaving nothing to etiquette, the young man found a burned out heavy lump of wood, grabbed it with both hands and hurled it at the glass casing. Grabbing the handle of the weapon like some modern excalibur, he was somehow both surprised and not that it was metal cool to the touch, untainted by heat and flame.

Magic steel.

I just need to get it out of here-

The rubble surrounding the doors exploded, tossing debris over his head. He turned around to see the cause of the disturbance.

Past the flickering hot air, he could see little more than a smallish figure drowning in a large bone white cloak, hood poured over its face, leaving a lower jaw and a firm line of a mouth. In its petite hand, it held a long rod that ran into a rectangular double-edged blade, cogs and whirring machines running down the center, four lifeless yellow gems inlaid into the middle of the weapon longer than its weilder was tall, yet held with no effort.

"You," it said, "Hand over the Jinki."

"No!" The young man returned, grabbing the magic sword with both hands. His blue eyes narrowed at the impending.

Just remember your training...

The small attacker simply raised its blade into the air.

"Ataúd." She said to her weapon.

It replied, "LANCERO DEL FOTÓN."

And despite the orbs of crackling energy that collected above his attacker, the boy became a true knight in that instant he charged towards destruction, fueled not by courage, but by duty.

And Paris continued to burn, smoke rising into the night sky.

Person With Many Aliases Presents:

"Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha: G-Gear"

A Magical, Lyrical Adventure

"Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha" series property of studio Seven Arcs

Original Characters and concepts property of author Person With Many Aliases

Duel One: Kickstart My Heart

In Uminari City, sometime in the early morning, a cellphone haphazardly lying amongst the covers of the bed came to life, activating its alarm and waking its haggard owner. A feminine hand groped for the snooze button, though only succeeded in knocking the phone of the bed on its first try. The second time she managed to do it properly.

For Takamachi Nanoha, somethings changed, and some things looked like it would do its damnedest never to, even after 16 years of living, and seven of those as an official TSAB tactics instructor.

Before the mentioned trained warrior could return to the indulgent bliss of sleeping in longer, the phone jingled again, this time from a phone call. The magical girl since 3rd grade could easily guess who it was from.

"Myhhggh... Fate-chan... you know what time it is?"

"It's nine in the morning, Nanoha. You sure are taking advantage of this holiday leave aren't you?"

"I'm just trying to enjoy myself... haven't felt this comfortable in months. What in the world drove you to wake up this early when we just got here yesterday?"

"I just have good habits."

"Ha. Ha. Ha." Was the grumpy reply, before the bedraggled girl continued, "I wish you would have stayed over here..."

"Sorry, but I had to see Mother and Arf-"

"Don't worry about it..."

"How about this? I'll come by Midori-ya later this afternoon, then we can go see how the city's changed while we were gone, together."

"That'd be great, Fate-chan... I'll see you then."

"Right! Don't spend the whole time 'till then sleeping."

"Don't worry..." Was the last thing Nanoha said, before her eyes shut again.

It was a good two more hours later than Nanoha had reasonably cleaned herself up and propped her hair into what was quickly becoming her "classic" sideways ponytail. Entering the kitchen, she halloed her mother, of whom she was slowly looking more and more like.

"Ah, Nanoha-chan. You're awake. Is work that hard?"

The mage gave a little sheepish laugh before explaining, "Not hard... just long."

"Well, either way, Kyouya, Miyuki, and your father have already gone to Midori-ya. I made a little breakfast for you, though. You can catch up with them after."

"Thanks!"

As she chewed her way through her mother's amazing (as usual) scrambled eggs, her ears picked up on the international news that was plaing on the TV on the other end of the room.

"...Continuing in a rash of bizarre fires breaking out in cities across the world, a small motel in Los Angeles was completely consumed by fires in the middle of the night. Strangely, reports show that all the cases have consistently shown signs of the fires being caused by electricity. The fires first began in Paris, and continued on through Europe, and into America on an obvious path. Authorities are under the assumption that the fires are being caused by a serial arsonist of some sort, and airport security has been tightened..."

"Scary." Was all Nanoha could say, though somewhat casually due to the distance between her and the reports, "You think this arsonist would come to Japan? It's not far from America."

Takamachi Momoko gave a wifely giggle, "I'm sure that if this person ever came, our heroic magical girl will stop him, right?"

Nanoha's face caught fire.

Fate T. Harlaoun arrived within the Takamachi owned cafe not much past the time she allowed. Clad in a simple black dress that turned into class on her, she came cheerfully with a hello, a familiar petite red and orange pooch on a lead.

And of course, Nanoha was present and was lending a hand to running Midori-ya with uniform apron.

"Nanoha!"

"Fate-chan!"

And the two gathered each other's hands very happily, Arf's diminutive body yapping in place of her normal speech, given that a talking dog would be a very odd thing for the regular customers, as much as she wanted to. Nanoha turned to her father.

"Can I-"

"Take a break? No need to ask. Go talk with Fate."

"Thanks!"

And like that, the two girls filed themselves into a little booth, discussing everything under the sun, and possibly beyond it, as was the case of their missing 'Ace'.

"It's too bad Hayate-chan couldn't come with us." Nanoha sighed.

"You know she's on a Lost Logia case with her family at the moment?"

"Yeah... what was that world she was going to?"

"Aklumar. She's taking a ride on the Lancelot."

"I just hope we can have a proper get-together soon." The white mage eagerly wished, "When was the last time?"

"Last year, after that mission with that case."

Both of them also darkly thought of The Airport, but decided against bringing it up, though the cold flashing across their eyes was all that was needed. But enough of black humor.

"Fate-chan, how's Lindy and the others?"

"They're getting along well. Chrono is still very happy with Amy. Lindy however..."

"What?" Nanoha worriedly asked, mind already projecting possible issues. Fate noticed, giggled, and waved it off.

"It's nothing serious, I just was thinking how funny it is how she's dealing with her current desk job. She said she retired from active duty to get away from the excitement, but I think she's starting to want it again, now that she's seeing all the paperwork..."

Laughter. Bright blue eyes turned to the puppy-like familiar, "And have you been taking care of Lindy as well?"

Arf eagerly nodded. Her master caught Nanoha's attention again.

"I heard from mother that they built some sort of ferry system while we were gone. You can go from one end of the city to the other by the bay now."

"I heard too! You want to try tonight?"

Fate smiled, "Dinner at six, and then we go?"

Nanoha returned a cheeky grin, "It's a date."

In the forests guarding Uminari City's borders from the hills on the other side of the wood, a white cloak, cowl, and dark staff tied to it, fluttered about, searching, seeking, and completely in futility. Just skimming the tips of the high pines, the figure craned her head in every direction, hoping to see signs of life below amongst the thick trees beyond the regular wildlife. But with every pass for the past half hour, no sign of the quarry turned up. Sighing, it swung back to a particular location, shyly trembling.

"Aaroniero Arleri-sama... I could not locate him. He's probably in the city by now." Came the feminine mumble.

White gloves rubbed at a bleach white surface as if it were a chin, and as if it itself were thinking

"Interesting. We did not expect him to be able to escape pursuit so continuously..."

She bowed deeply at the waist, "Aaroniero Arleri-sama! Forgive me! I failed you again! P-please! Give me one more chance! Ever since the first time I failed to capture the Jinki, I've been unable to live with myself, to not meet your expectations! If fail you this one more time, I'll see to it I personally-"

It laid its hands on her shoulders, stopping her immediately.

"Phoenix Entierro, our Phoenix Entierro. You push yourself too hard for our sakes. There is no need for these sorts of actions. We have all of eternity to try, and try again, until we have success."

"...Yes, Aaroniero Arleri-sama."

"Now, raise your head with pride and determination."

She did, eyes firm with dedication to a cause.

"Go into the city when the sun falls from the sky. Yours is a small body that attracts lesser attention compared to us. Seek out the Jinki and its wielder. We will wait here, in case you have need of us."

"Yes, Aaroniero Arleri-sama."

As he watched the foreigner swallow the last of the purchase from behind the cash register, Takamachi Kyouya quickly decided he had never seen a more hungry customer in his entire life. It was one thing for any customer, to eat a lot, but for one to eat an entire cake, without even stopping. Well, that was pretty impressive to say the least. Then again, wasn't there something about westerners being big eaters or something...?

"Thank you for the meal."

Then again, Kyouya was torn between whether the customer's bottomless stomach, or his near perfect (though a little too formal) command of Japanese was more intriguing.

"No problem at all!" Kyouya cheerfully returned to the blond, a man probably not much younger than himself, though he looked pretty independent, traveling alone with little more weather protection than his clothes and the tan overcoat he wore.

"Are you new here, mister?" Kyouya politely conversed.

The foreign mister looked up and down a bit, silent for a few seconds before answering, "I am just passing through. I am travelling."

"Really? That's cool."

"Do you know of any hotels here I can stay at until I go again?"

Kyouya thought about it for a while, before answering.

"Well, I don't know any in particular, but I do know most of them are on far side of here, in the downtown."

"Oh. Do you know of any fast transportation to reach the downtown?"

Midori-ya's waiter gave grin before shouting into the back kitchen, "Shinobu, doesn't that new boat go direct there?"

"Yeah."

Kyouya turned back to his interesting customer, "Well, there's this new ferry that opened up. It goes direct to the downtown by skirting the shoreline. The place where the ferry docks at's actually pretty far, but it's definitely faster and less expensive than taking a taxi or something. Even more if you take on of the later night ones."

"Thank you."

As the mister left, Kyouya noticed the man picking up a long package he didn't notice before, long and loosely wrapped in cloth.

Through all his years of training, Kyouya's eyes instinctively assigned the parcel the label of "sword", and he tended to trust that sort of training.

Then the next question was, what was that 'traveler' doing, carrying a sword around?

Dinner for Nanoha and Fate, needless to say, had been wonderful, delectable, and probably a dozen other such words regarding their dinner, even if it was a little on the cheap side in a little diner. But it was a girl's night out. Or a date, if you put it Nanoha's way.

As usual, the Tactical Instructor dressed in modest casual, and the Special Investigations Officer in classy black, and somewhere in between it all, a red round gem hung from Nanoha's neck, while a triangular inset yellow crystal remained in Fate's purse.

They talked about everything, past, present, and future. Dreams, aspirations, annoyances, all through dinner, and generally enjoying themselves. Holding hands happily, they asked for two tickets onto the new ferry. It was good since they arrived not long after nine, when the ticket prices were lower.

The transit ship was a majestic, if not somewhat commercial, spacious, double-decked white thing, modern with two airfoils, and decked out with carpeting, cushioned seats, naturally all of this a mass-produced deep blue hue, and outer decks.

The two mages managed to find an empty corner of the upper deck towards the aft of the ship, watching the boat pass by the glowing buildings next to the shore amidst the other people crowding about. But despite that, the wonderful night was enough to disregard their existence for just solely Nanoha and Fate, comfortably next to each other by the railings, the very best of friends.

"Though Arisa keeps saying about how she's waiting to the day we start sleeping in the same bed." Nanoha sighed, "She seems to keep liking to make those jokes..."

Fate laughed, "Hayate told me about that. She offered to through in an emperor sized bed if she ever gets the chance."

"Mou..."

Fate smiled at the half-hearted whine, and silence overtook the two as they took in the majesty of the cityscape they toured.

And they would have continued if people didn't suddenly start massing onto the deck, mashing the two girls into each other and bringing out flushes from both (though both were at a lost what that meant).

Shouts and exclamations of shock and surprise, cameras flashing upward into the air.

"What's that!"

"Is that a person?"

"That's impossible! It's floating!"

Nanoha and Fate, in unison, craned up their heads in tandem with everyone else. Drifting down from the sky, arms folded, was a smallish figure wrapped in pitch white, cloak and armored dress fluttering around her surreality.

Nanoha's concerned face turned to her friend, now a mage of the TSAB.

Fate-chan!

I know. Wait first, we need to know what she's after.

It can't be anything good.

I know...

White heels clunked onto the lower deck, the figure completely unresponsive to the cameras and queries as she simply stood there, hood masking the upper half of her face, though her mouth was a single, professional line.

"Hey! Girl! How did you do that?"

"Who are you?"

"Is this some sort of show?"

The girl straightened her back and shouted onto the entire boat, "Ky Kiske! Reveal yourself! I know you're here! Surrender the Jinki!"

People looked around confused, as to who had such a strange name, what did he have to do with anything-

What's a Jinki? Fate and Nanoha frowned at each other, though they kept their question to themselves.

"Ky Kisked! I've followed you all the way here! You cannot run or hide forever! We will find you!"

Still nothing. The girl sighed, and reached for the long rod that hung above one shoulder. Holding the pole high above her, she spoke clearly.

"Put down a funeral dirge, Ataúd."

"ACTIVADO, AMO."

People scurried away as the rod exploded into light, energy throwing the girl's cloak about her still body, while magic machinery affixed itself around the staff. In moments, the large rectangular blade was come to life as she hefted it with a few testing swings. She called to it again.

"Start the countdown."

"CONQUISTA DEL RELOJ."

The gem centered gear closest to the handle began to lazily spin, yellow dully glowing as if lit by a aged, dim light. She shouted again to the crowd.

"Did you hear that! The moment the first gear on this Engine Device is activated, and you haven't shown yourself, I'm sinking this boat! Do you want to be responsible for these people? I know you're here, listening to me! Show yourself!"

People started to shift uneasily.

"Miss, are you joking?"

"Is this some sort of stunt?"

"Maybe we should be calling security..."

The girl was silent and waiting, holding her massive blade above her, awaiting the appointed time. The gear continued to pick up speed and light with every moment.

Fate! We're not waiting any more! Nanoha desperately though, reaching for her neck.

Fate's features darkened as she reached down for her purse, I know.

But before the things like, "Raising Heart, please!" or "Bardiche, set up!" were shouted, a different voice called out.

"Stop!"

The two mages above the commotion stopped at merely their hands holding their silent devices, while people filed away, and a dusty looking western man approached the small girl. They apparently were aquianted with each other, as he merely glared at her.

"Leave them out of this."

"I will do whatever it takes to take that Jinki from you." She shot back harshly.

"...Everybody, step backwards." Ky Kiske managed to say. Everybody got the underly message, and quickly started to evacuate the deck, while those above continued to watch with morbid curiousity.

Ky reached for the wrapped object he held loosely in his left hand. The white girl blurred forward, massive Ataúd rising above her with both hands to crash down on the man. Gasping, Ky held up his concealed weapon with hand on either end.

Devices clashes, sending bolts of blue and yellow about everywhere. Nanoha and Fate looked on as the arcing bolts leapt onto the cloth, burning away Ky's weapon until the naked gleaming white edge was revealed, a sword unlike any on earth had every seen, save those who might have been somewhat acquainted with the history of magic.

"A device?" Nanoha couldn't help but visually dissect aloud, "But there's something wrong about it..."

Before the observation could continue, Ky grunted with effort before throwing the girl off, sending her stumbling back across the deck. The two regarded each other for an eternity, blades held aloft in ready stances.

Looking around nervously, Ky suddenly broke battle standards and rushed to the edge of the boat. Manipulating magic under his feet, Ky leapt and suddenly rushed through the air, glittering blue trailing and sonic circles behind him as he was launched towards the city.

"You're not escaping this time!" The girl hissed, and took to the air after him.

Two mages watched on, more and more horrified by the second. They looked at each other fiercely.

Nanoha! They're heading to the city! We can't let other people get caught in this!

You go chase them and try to break this up! I'll try to set up a field spell as fast as possible and join you!

The girls rushed back inside the ship, and managed to find an empty bathroom. It was horribly awkward procedure, but it had to be done in this situation where there were so many mundane witnesses.

Nanoha grabbed her necklace, "Raising Heart!"

"YES, MY MASTER."

Fate unearthed her hand held jewel, "Bardiche!"

"SIR."

A shout in unison.

"SET UP!"

What was asked was a for a short time of peace, but what visits us instead are new battles, against new enemies. But despite the unknown odds, we move forward to meet the infinite, unknown sky.

Duel Two: Holy Wars

Magicians, Knights, Ghosts, brace yourselves against the coming tide...

LET'S ROCK!

A/N: Short chapter, by my standards (5000+). I'll see if I can get more out next time. Until then.