Recollections of a Lost Age

Chapter 6: Second Wind

Xx~~*~~xX

"Hayate!" Vita shouted, as her bind spell faded, torn as to her course of action.

She couldn't attack Zanth, not while he had Hayate's body, but she couldn't just float here and do nothing! Especially after the way Hayate had save her from her own grief and madness; there had to be a way, if only she could just think of it...

The hammer knight and the two unison devices continued to stare at Hayate's red eyes, then were further stunned as her hand shot into the pouch and pulled out a collar, activating it and snapping it onto her neck. Almost immediately, her levitation was canceled, and she began a free-fall drop to the ground below.

"Hayate!" Rein screamed as Vita dove, catching her mistress.

"Shit, what did that bitch do!?" Hayate demanded in that strange dual-voice similar to the one Vita used earlier. "Why can't I gather any magic!?"

Vita raised an eyebrow in confusion as she landed and set Hayate down, realizing she couldn't detect the woman giving off any mana.

"That collar is one of Shari's magical devices," Rein explained. "It's a special AMF lock for locking down dangerous mages; the AMF is fairly powerful, but short range and directed specifically to disrupt the control of mana flowing out of the linker core. Hayate planned to use it like this."

"So she's harmless now?" Agito wondered, looking over the unisoned Mistress of the Wolkenritter. "Wait, an AMF cancels a unison, doesn't it?"

Rein smiled slowly. "Normally, yes. But Shari made adjustments to it, due to her work on the unison devices, in case they were ever needed against a unisoned target.. It locks the unison device inside the body, making it work like sort of a prison."

Zanth/Hayate forced herself out of Vita's arms, reaching up to try and take the collar off, but it was obviously not that simple. "Damn damn damn! Get this thing off me!"

"I don't know how," Rein insisted despairingly. "I think only Shari and maybe Hayate know."

The collared and unisoned mage pointed at Vita. "You, get this off! I know you can do it, because as you claim so much, you can destroy anything. Do it, or I kill your mistress here and now!"

"Alright!" Vita growled, moving around behind to look at it. "But I have to do this carefully. I won't hurt Hayate."

"Fine, but make it quick," Zanth/Hayate snapped.

x~~*~~x

Hayate's eyes slowly opened as she floated in a familiar shifting green void, recognizing being here before. This was part of her hastily-formed plan, and although risky, she felt it was worth a shot, based on what Rein had told her. She righted herself and looked around, wondering how to proceed, but the choice was made for her.

"How do you get this collar!?" Zanth demanded, his voice echoing from everywhere.

She allowed herself a small smile. "Whatever do you mean? I promised you my body. I didn't say what condition it was going to be in."

"Don't toy with me, woman!" he snarled back, materializing in front of her. "I could kill you with a thought!"

She crossed her arms over her chest and dared him. "Do it. With the collar in place, you wouldn't be able to cancel the unison; you'd die in here with me."

His fast twisted in calm anger, but he got her point. "Fine, stay in here. I'll get the collar off, and then enjoy picking off your precious knights, one by one." He turned to leave.

"Is that what you really want?" she asked, her voice changing to something more soothing and warm. "That's probably what Zanth would want, but what about you?"

He paused for a moment. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Hayate sighed as he disappeared; this wasn't going to be as easy as she thought.

x~~*~~x

Hayate's now-red eyes flashed open, and she growled with anger as she sat up, taking note of her state. "You still haven't removed it."

"I could smash it right now, but it would take out you and Hayate at the same time," Vita informed him, hefting Graf Eisen, then smiled grimly. "But you know I won't do that. We have to get the collar off in a slightly gentler way."

"Or you could just let Hayate go," Rein beseeched her possessed mistress. "I know how lonely it must have been for you in there."

"Shut up!" Zanth/Hayate spat at her. "Let's just get going back to your technician so she can remove this damn thing."

Agito's look of disbelief was obvious. "What the hell do you mean, lonely!? The bastard tried to kill you and the rest!"

"Clarius told me that he actually isn't Zanth," Rein explained.

"Shut up!" Hayate nearly screamed, jumping forward to grab the device, but Rein dodged and floated up higher.

"I think you absorbed a part of him when the real Zanth was in the book," Rein continued, sadly. "Most of him was wiped when Reinforce sacrificed herself, but she didn't take everything. What was left behind in Hayate's Linker Core, which was later transferred back into the book along with the spells that remained. Hayate created me from the remnants of Reinforce's personality, but not everything was used."

"STOP IT!" Hayate cried, trying to jump up to grab Rein.

"So who is that?" Vita asked, confused. "Parts of Reinforce and Zanth?"

"And mainly one other," Rein said sadly.

Without warning, Hayate howled in anger and frustration, and suddenly took off across the top of the building, catching the three girls by surprise. They started after her, but they were too late to stop her as Hayate scooped up a broken piece of pipe, and began jamming it on the collar. Before the trio could reach her, the collar cracked, and then broke as Hayate pulled it off, then took to the air, staff and book appearing in her hands.

"Resound, horn of judgment!" she chanted, then pointing her staff. "Ragnarok!"

The blue beam of magic impacted the spatial barrier upward at a 45 degree angle, and at first it seemed like it was going to hold. Then cracks appeared, and it shattered, causing Vita to curse; making the barrier so wide gave them a good fighting space, but also made it weak enough for Hayate to punch through it.

"We have to stop her from getting back to the city!" Vita shouted, forming a couple of steel balls between her fingers; she might not be not be able to directly harm Hayate, but she could alter her path with some well-guided shots.

Rein realized what Vita was planning, and prepared her own spells, coordinating with Agito; Hayate could do a lot of damage if she got back to the city. Plus, she had to have faith in her mistress's plan; Hayate would accomplish what she had to, they just needed to give her more time!

x~~*~~x

"I know you can hear me," Hayate remarked loudly, still floating in the green void. "You must be wondering why I'm not fighting you, and letting you have full control of my body."

"If it's about the collar, you can forget it!" came the deriding voice. "I've destroyed it, so I can now use your magic to destroy your knights!"

"I know you don't really want to do that," Hayate replied, crossing her arms over her chest. "Rein told me before I came over here." She paused to see if he'd respond, but he didn't. "I can't imagine how long you were in here, locked away. And I don't know your story, but I'd like to learn."

There was another long pause, before the voice laughed. "And what do you think you know about me?"

"You want a family," she said softly. "Because you lost yours. Your mother died when you were young, and you felt your father was too busy on his project. You became sickly, and there was nothing he could do for you, except one thing: give you life in the book, hoping one day he could bring you back."

"You're speaking nonsense!" he spat back. "You're just guessing and making up things up!"

Hayate shook her head sadly. "We're joined, so I can read your feelings; and now that Rein has shown me what too look for, I've been spending my time in here probing some of your thoughts. The real Zanth must have locked you away, and erased all memory of you from Reinforce and the rest of the Wolkenritter. You were useless to him, but he couldn't or wouldn't delete you."

He finally materialized in front of her, but it was no longer a dark-haired older male in front of her, but a younger boy of about 15 in a plain, faded, blue robe, his head completely shaved. There was anger there, but now Hayate could detect a trace of sadness in his facial expression.

"It no longer matters what you think of me," he said, his voice now sounding younger, his pitch-black eyes beginning to leak "Father condemned me to a life of solitude in this book. I suffered while I was alive, and then suffered in a different way within in this book! He ignored me in life, and couldn't even let me die in peace!"

Hayate held out her arms and began to kneel down in front of him. "I know. My own life wasn't very fair to me, either, and sometimes I wondered how I could go on. But I found friends who helped me, just as they can help you."

"Forget it!" he spat at her, slapping her hands away and morphing back to the older version with black mustache and long hair. "I'll kill the knights and that miniature abomination you created. I'll completely eliminate what father worked to build!"

"And then what?" Hayate asked him softly.

He didn't respond, but disappeared in anger again, opening up a large screen showcasing what was going on outside through his eyes, and Hayate instantly knew his intentions: he was going to allow her to watch as he destroyed the knights one-by-one.

x~~*~~x

Rein let loose a blizzard of ice and snow, managing to slow Hayate and divert her path, but they were still coming too close to the city. If they ever let up, the unisoned mage could probably fire off a shot and do a lot of damage; in that case, the Bureau would have no choice but to order them to take her down. Shamal had apparently already contacted the Bureau to explain what was going on, so there were enforcers gathering to contain the situation, but Rein had received assurances they wouldn't interfere just yet, unless Hayate got too close.

Then they would take her out at any cost.

Vita flew in with her hammer again, swinging and impacting Hayate's black barrier, but didn't stay connected long. Those black shields Hayate was putting up had some sort of damaging effect, that ate away at magic and physical objects that collided with them. Still, they had to keep up the attacks and slowly whittle away at Hayate's huge mana reserves; once depleted, Hayate would be a lot easier to deal with and the enforcers wouldn't have to get involved to stop her permanently.

"[She's getting too close!]" Agito cursed telepathically to the other two while launching more fireballs. "[We're not gonna stop her in time unless we attack more forcefully! We have to stop her!]"

Rein could see Vita grip her hammer tighter; Agito was probably the only one who could say that, because she wasn't originally part of the Wolkenritter. "[We can't, we have to give Hayate more time!]"

"[Agito may be right,]" Vita seethed, tears forming in her eyes as she launched a half dozen more steel orbs. "[Hayate wouldn't want more blood on her hands, which is what will happen when she reaches the city; her wide area spells will do too much damage. It's only the fact that we're keeping constant pressure on her, that keeps her from working up Hraesvelgr.]"

"[Vita, you can't!]" Rein begged, horrified.

"[It's my fault!]" Vita cried, diving to attack point blank again, her hammer growing in size. "Graf Eisen!"

"Zerstörungform!" the hammer announced, forming the large drill that was he strongest attack.

"I was waiting for that!" Hayate's dual voice shouted, pausing in mid-air and thrusting out both hands. "Bloody Dagger Storm!"

"Vita, look out!" Rein called, but it was too late.

Dozens of crimson daggers exploded from Hayate's hands as Vita began her swing. The little hammer knight twisted as the first few went past, tearing the shoulders of her barrier jacket, then put up a triangular shield to block a dozen others. But even more had arced away from Hayate and come in at Vita from all angles; in horrific slow motion, the two smaller girls watched Vita's body get struck from multiple sides, then begin to fall backwards as Graf Eisen shrunk back to normal.

Rein prepared to go after her, but stopped as Agito told her telepathically that she'd get Vita, and to stop Hayate instead. Rein recognized the logic in the statement, as she was currently between Hayate and the city, and thus in the better position to stop her. Bracing herself, she began to ready her next spell.

"Think you can stop me alone, little one?" Hayate sneered at her. "All by yourself?"

"She's not alone," came Signum's voice as she flew up to Rein's right side. "None of us is ever alone."

"The Wolkenritter fight as one," Zafira declared, floating up on Rein's left in wolf form. "As it has been since the beginning."

Rein's eyes widened, then noted they still looked injured. "Signum! Zafira! Why did you two come?"

Signum lifted Levantine into a horizontal position and smiled grimly. "You don't have to fight this battle by yourself."

"This fight is important to all of us," Zafira added, baring his teeth. "We'll save her."

The unisoned Hayate grinned with teeth bared, as dozens of crimson daggers formed around her. "Suit yourself; I was planning to come after you next anyway."

x~~*~~x

Hayate's hand clenched as she watched the screen showing Signum and Zafira dodging the attacks, but their movements were slowed by their earlier injuries, and they were obviously reluctant to attack her directly. She began to doubt her plan; was she wrong for what she was attempting to do? It seemed like the right thing, but if she failed, it wouldn't be just her family that paid the price.

"One down," the taunting voice came. "Which one will be next: the Blazing Fool, or the Guardian Mutt?"

"How about you join our family instead?" Hayate offered. "You don't have to be alone anymore. Your father is gone; even if you kill the knights, what then? What will that accomplish? The true answer is that you don't want to kill them. Even from the beginning, you wanted them on your side, that's why you used the remnants of Zanth to corrupt them, so you'd have a family again, after a fashion."

"Shut up!" he cried back, his voice reverting to that of the young teenage boy. "I'll really kill them! You saw it with Vita, and now I'll take out the rest!"

Hayate's heart rose into her chest as she saw Zafira dodge a bit too slowly, and several red daggers graze his body. Signum was counterattacking, but Hayate could tell they were also not going full out; despite the easing of the "master" programming, they were still devoted to her as close as any family she had ever had, but that also gave her an idea. She could struggle against him to take control, but that wouldn't solve the underlying issue; she needed to do this a certain way.

"Normally, you wouldn't stand a chance against them, even with the book," Hayate told him. "You know they are holding back; in fact, you're counting on it. Why is that?"

The voice barked out a short laugh. "Don't toy with me; your precious knights still think they can save you. You believe that kind of bond will make everything better, but it doesn't! You're just hoping it does. Sometimes that idealism really can't save you!"

"And sometimes it can," Hayate replied softly. "You don't know until you give it a chance. Wouldn't you like someone to care enough about you, the way my family does about me?" She held out her arms again as she spoke to the void. "You have proof of it in front of you; you just need to take my hands."

There was no response.

x~~*~~x

"Signum, look out!" Rein cried, throwing all her magic into Signum's barrier to block the powerful Ragnarok beam.

Miraculously, it held, but Rein knew it was only because she was unisoned with Signum at the moment. Hayate's spells had an added edge to them that worked to dissolve shields and barriers, and only her magic could seemingly counter it. Still, Signum wasn't in the best of shape, although she was trying not to show it; her speed was slower, and she was rationing her magic.

"He's going after Zafira again!" Rein noted with alarm.

The Guardian Beast had maneuvered behind Hayate during that last attack and had switched to human form, in an attempt to physically grab her from behind to prevent more casting, but the unisoned target had seen it coming and put up another stinging barrier then repelled him. In his weakened state, he was easily repulsed and knocked away. Signum and Rein dove for him, while sending Levantine out in snake form, creating a bladed tornado around Hayate to keep her in place for a short while. But they realized they wouldn't reach Zafira in time.

However, Shamal did, grabbing him in mid-air and attending to his wounds while smiling grimly. "I thought you guys could use some backup."

"Why!?" Hayate's unnatural voice demanded with fierce anger. "Why won't you pathetic morons just go away or die!?"

"You don't know us too well," Signum, lips turned upwards slightly, but her face firm as she confronted the possessed Hayate. "We are the Guardian Knights who gather before our mistress, she of the Night Sky."

Shamal released her patient as he came back around, and took up a posture at the 3 o'clock position from Signum, with Hayate in the center. "As long as our mistress exists, our souls will never extinguish."

Zafira floated up behind Hayate, on the opposite side of Signum. "As long as we have life in our bodies, we will stand by each other."

"We will always exist before our mistress, Queen of the Night Sky, Yagami Hayate!" Vita exclaimed, her hair crimson red and her barrier jacket orange with red highlights to indicate she was unisoned with Agito at the moment. She flew up to complete the four-way formation that surrounded their target.

"Ah, that's right!" Agito added eagerly. "He can't stop all of us!"

"Why you do you keep struggling!?" Hayate's dual voiced strained, tears appearing in her eyes as her right hand went up. "Is that master service program so strong, that you can't help but be puppets to this girl? Just leave me alone or die already!"

"[Look up!]" Rein cried out in alarm telepathically to the rest of the Wolkenritter, noting the black ball of crackling magic above them and how close they had drifted to the actual populated city. "[If he releases that Diabolic Emission spell here, it'll take out a decent chunk of Clanagan!]"

She canceled the unison and floated out of Signum. "Stop! You don't have to do this! I was shown you are, and I know you probably felt Clarius abandoned you, but he was only concerned about you. He couldn't heal your sickly body, and he couldn't bear to lose you, that's why he placed you within the book. He really did care about you! Your mother's death, and your sickness, hurt him greatly."

An obvious struggle was taking place on Hayate's face as it lowered, then came back up, still tear streaked, but angry. "NO! I should have died! We should have all died! I can correct that now! DIABOLIC EMISSION!"

"NO!" Rein screamed as the spell was released.

x~~*~~x

He appeared before her as the child in faded blue robes again, his eyes haunting and somewhat empty. "There, I've done it. They can't stop it, and they'll die if they try. That's what it wanted, and what I wanted, so it's done. I don't care anymore."

Hayate glanced at the screens in worry as the ebony ball of her strongest area effect spell was released, with all it's destructive power enhanced by the unison. But she'd have to trust that to her knights to deal with, as she turned back towards the boy and noted that, somehow, the fight seemed to have gone out of him; what changed? She wasn't quite sure, but she felt she had an opportunity here.

She knelt in front of him and placed her hands on his shoulders to look him in the eyes, then leaned forward to wrap her arms around him, hugging him.

"Why?" his voice croaked. "Your knights are as good as done, and we will soon be as well."

"They'll fight to the last to protect both me and you, along with each other and everyone else," she told him. "Because you're a part of our family now."

"My family is dead!" he cried. "Everyone I knew is dead! The knights and I are just programs, fake people!"

"Shh, I can see it all now," she told him, actually visualizing his memories more clearly, now that he wasn't actively fighting her attempts.

She finally understood everything.

x~~*~~x

Rein flew rapidly towards Shamal, sending her plan to the rest of the Wolkenritter. The Belkan doctor met her halfway and they merged, then threw up her shields to try her best to deflect the sphere from expanding northwards into the city.

Vita nodded as she heard her part, and rapidly descended to the ground directly below the expanding ebony sphere while popping several cartridges. "Agito, let's do it!"

"I'll put every last bit of flame I have into this!" she declared forcefully, her hands burning.

"Gigantform!" Graf Eisen called, growing to many times it size as it also burst into flame.

"Megaton Hammer!" Vita cried as she slammed Graf Eisen into the ground, her whole body covered with a protective magical blaze.

The impact point exploded into light and flame, a spherical burning inferno of orange and red growing upwards to meet the expanding ball of dark magical energy coming down. Signum flew between them, grabbing the hysterical Hayate and tackling her out of the way a second before the two powerful forces met and shoved against each other. Vita's flame shield held just long enough for her to get out out of the blast zone, then she could only watch helplessly as her fiery explosion was fought a slow losing battle against the more powerful Diabolic Emission spell.

Shamal continued to struggle to hold back the wave with her large green shields, but they were slowly pushed back. "It's too much!"

"We have to hold out!" Rein encouraged her from inside, also straining to enhance Shamal's shields and keep them intact. "We can't let it reach the city!"

"I'm here!" Zafira, yelled, then roared, sending up dozens of white spikes from the ground to impede it's path, trying to hold it back. Most of them fizzled after a few moments of contact, but their added impedance was just enough.

"It's working!" Rein cried with joy.

Sure enough, the combination was halting the explosion, and even causing it to start to shrink, as the powerful magic behind the spell was spent. Vita's explosion under it was also withering, dissolving upwards, and in a few more moments, both spells had faded to near nothingness. Shamal and Zafira smiled and nodded at each other, then took off after Vita, who was heading for Signum.

When they landed on the street, they saw Signum kneeling, holding an unconscious Hayate's head in her lap. They spoke no words, but watched over their mistress in worry as Shamal began to run scans and call for medical backup.

x~~*~~x

He was a young boy, born to two loving parents, however the birth was difficult. It crippled the mother, and left the child sickly, but still, they loved him and tried their best to raise him. The father spent most of his time researching magic, trying to find a way to cure both his wife and his son, so much so, that sometimes the other two hardly saw him. The son grew a bit depressed over this, and even grew to resent him when the complications eventually killed his mother several years later.

The father tried his best to raise him alone, splitting his time between that and research. He even created a magical construct that looked much like his mother to help, and although it resembled her physically, it didn't have her personality. He had kept her body in magical stasis, working on transferring memories and personality, but it wasn't too successful. The new being began to develop it's own thoughts and feelings, but not as their mother.

The boy grew worse, and on his deathbed, his father lamented what had transpired and shared his breakthrough: a storage device in the shape of a book. Not just any storage device, but one that could incorporate a living person within, where they could live forever. The father transferred him in, along with his mother, to be the caretakers of the newly named Tome of the Night Sky. In time, he added four others, and the while the woman wasn't his mother, he was also no longer sickly, and he began to love his new family.

But then Zanth Le Ronne happened, an extremely talented pupil of his father's. He was designated to take the book next, but Clarius found out about his heart was dark, and sent him away to learn to temper it. Zanth, in anger, put himself into stasis. He couldn't match Clarius in magic, but he knew of the book's powerful reincarnation program, and thus he merely waited for Clarius to die, and for some time to pass. Then he awoke and claimed it.

In horror, the boy watched as his family was beaten, violated, and twisted to the whims of Zanth. Their memories of him were wiped and he was locked into the book, hidden and forever alone, unable to die and unable to escape. It was a form of revenge; Zanth wanted Clarius's only son to suffer, by watching the works he would perform using the renamed Book of Darkness. At the end of his life Zanth even incorporated himself into the book as a program before he died. Ages passed, as he witnessed horror after horror committed by following masters, and the atrocities the knight's and the Book were ordered to commit.

Then a young woman named Hayate Yagami became master of the book. The boy witnessed the knight's slowly return to humanity, vestiges of the kindness and caring that he knew from them re-emerging. But he was still locked in, and try as he might, he couldn't reach anyone. He could only watch them enjoy the life that should have been his, watching as they cared for the girl that should have been him.

Then something happened: the girl renamed the one that bore his mother's face as "Reinforce" and the corruption was temporarily halted. The defense program mostly destroyed, he again watched in horror as Reinforce sacrificed herself to take the corruption with her; but it also took most of the Zanth program with her, although unwittingly a small part of it managed to survive.

For a time, there was nothing else, as the rest of the book's programming had been incorporated into Hayate's Linker Core, including him, still locked in his hidden prison. Only once the new book was completed from the old vessel and everything re-downloaded, did the old shell personality program of the old Zanth approach him. It lacked power, but it could break his prison in return for his help in their shared goal: revenge. They were both doomed to rot in here, but together they could make everything theirs again; they could make everyone pay for abandoning them.

The boy agreed, and the two merged and waited, then saw their chance in a new being born from the book: Reinforce Zwei, made from remnants of the personality of the old Reinforce. They manged to get a small link opened between the book and her mind, as they worked over the years to increase their power, gathering up the unused remnants of the original Reinforce's personality. But the new combined being noticed there were complications, as Rein's mind seemed to be too well-protected for him to take over; he couldn't get in.

Then she was injured while unisoned with the hammer knight, and the protections briefly went offline. He went in and spent the next few years sneaking around, setting up his revenge.

But despite everything, the boy still remained, and a part of him still longed for a family.

x~~*~~x

"Your name is-" Hayate started to say with realization.

"NO!" he screamed, sniffling through his tears. "That's not my name anymore! I'm not him! He died all those years ago!"

Surprised, she pulled back a bit to look into his face, meeting his red eyes, cupping his face in her hands wiping his tears with her thumbs. "Then I'll give you a new name..."

"A n-new name?" he nearly stammered, surprised. "W-why? Just let me die, I'm useless."

"You're not useless, and you're part of our family now," Hayate told him, her white belkan triangle flaring underneath them as the green void around them faded to black. "You have a sad heart now, but you also have power and will, and so in the name of the Mistress of the Night Sky, I grant you a new name. One who breaks down any barriers or obstacles in our path from those that seeks to harm those under your protection, to erode the danger that casts a dark shadow, and to walk the dark places when no one else can... Enervate."

The black had faded from the boy's teary wide eyes, changing to red irises, as he stared at her in awe and wonder. Then he abruptly and suddenly clutched his head in pain.

Hayate wasn't expecting that, as she grabbed his shoulders again. "What's wrong? What's happening?"

He knocked her hands away and took several steps back, panting. "I still have... pieces within me... they don't like... this and want... to take control!"

"Your family is here, we'll fight it together!" she told him firmly, but with pleading in her voice, because she could sense what was coming.

"No, you can't!" he grunted through clenched teeth, seemingly getting it under control for a moment. "You tried once before, with Rein, which led to all this! I have to deal with this on my own!" His gaze softened a bit. "But... with luck... maybe I'll be back sometime soon to experience my new family..."

She took a step forward in distress. "But-"

He thrust his open palm at her and snarled: "GO!"

The Mistress of the Night Sky felt a pain in her gut as he faded from sight.

x~~*~~x

"Well, how is he?" Hayate asked eagerly, not taking her eyes off the small nude form floating in the jar.

Rein stood on the table, looking at the small boy; could he technically be considered her brother? She didn't know, and was still waiting for Hayate to explain. He had emerged from Hayate a moment before she awoke, then she had rushed back to the lab so that Shamal and Shari could fully examine him.

The Belkan doctor didn't look up, as she continued to have Klarer Wind run scans while interfaced with the lab computers. "I'm not entirely sure, but... he seems to be in something resembling a coma; there's no telling when he could come out of it. There appears to be some strange brain activity, almost as if..."

"What?" Hayate prompted, concerned.

Shamal finally looked up. "If he were one of my human patients, I'd think he had multiple personalities."

"You're not entirely off," Shari added quietly. "There are definitely at least two distinct brain patterns there now. I'm not sure why it's like that; I double-checked my earlier readings, and they only showed one."

Hayate finally sat back in a chair and exhaled. "I thought as much."

"I don't get it," Agito said, confused floated down to take a look at him. "Isn't he the bad guy? Can't we get rid of him now?"

Hayate shook her head. "We need to take care of him now, because he's one of us."

"Don't tell me you're thinking of trying to dive back into a subconscious again!" Shamal pleaded. "It was bad enough the first time!"

The Mistress of the Wolkenritter allowed herself a small smile. "No, a much I'd like to, the upper brass has vetoed that idea based on what happened; they don't want him taking over a powerful mage again. They actually wanted to destroy him, but I talked them into just keeping him locked up and under observation for now, saying that the data could be valuable for the Bureau's own unison device program. But really, I made a promise to myself, and to him, to take care of him from now on."

"Hayate, was I right, then?" Rein asked hesitantly, her eyes full of wonder..

"Will someone please explain what's going on!?" Vita demanded in exasperation, finally losing it. "I thought we went through all of this to destroy the little annoying bugger!"

"It's a long story," Hayate told her, sitting up, then gestured to the small male unison device in the jar. "But for now, I'd all like you to meet someone. Or perhaps it's more appropriate to say, get reacquainted with a member of our family."

"Reacquainted?" Signum inquired. "I do not understand. I don't recognize him; who is he?"

Hayate thought for a moment. "Well, we can get to that later. For now, his name is Enervate..."

Xx~~*~~xX

Author's notes:

Whew, finally done! When I started this, I actually didn't have much of a plot outline. Just a vague idea to create backstories for the Wolkenritter, explore some of the history of Book, it's creator, and its later corruption. Also, to do a chapter for each of the original members, but that was it. So, my lack of comprehensive notes made this a bit difficult for me, and had me run up against certain issues that I had to think about how to work around.

One of the main ones being the collar Hayate uses here. I had kinda planned to have her use it, but after writing it out, I remembered the end of strikers, where the Cradle AMF seemed to forcibly cancel Hayate's unison with Rein. Oops. So I kinda cheated with the plot device and modified it's function, and also didn't have it last too long.

Also, in talks with others, I got a better idea of the circumstances of Rein's creation, and the details of the device Reinforce left behind. While it seems to kinda counter some of the concepts I did in this fic, I felt I had some wiggle room to play around with. Hope it entertained a bit!

If you're curious about Enervate, and what will happen to him, you'll have to tune into "MGLN: Through a Mirror, Darkly." As I said, this can be read as a standalone, but I'm also placing it in my Crisis universe, so he'll come back into play in that sequel.

Until next time, and thanks for reading!