God Does Not Own This World

"The supergate is activating. Repeat. The supergate is activating," came the shipwide announcement. "All hands to battle stations."

Immersed in the cosmology section of the TSAB's online encyclopedia, Carter snapped back to reality and shifted mental gears with long practice. The Ori were here. The ambush was set. Carter stood up and grabbed the small blue cube that was her Device.

"Unraveller Exalt, set up," Carter commanded.

It was still amazing to watch it happen. The way the small cube exploded in shards of light that somehow solidified into some kind of programmed pseudo-matter, forming the exotic gauntlet-gun shape around her hand and arm. The light flowed up her arm and covered her body. Her simple borrowed clothes were dimensionally displaced, and the Device wrote her Barrier Jacket into existence.

"Damn, that never gets old," Carter enthused.

She burst out of her assigned quarters and ran, holding in a grin at how fast and easily her Barrier Jacket's physical enhancements let her move. It was no Atanik armband, but then, there were also no negative side effects, and no time limit.

Carter emerged on the bridge just in time to hear a tech announced, "Enemy warship disembarking."

"Arc-en-ciel, charging," Chrono declared tonelessly, staring intently.

"Second warship disembarked!"

"Fleet status," Chrono commanded.

"All ships report targets aquired. Arc-en-ciel volley cycle initiating."

"Third warship disembarked."

The dozens of ships of the TSAB fleet were all lined up directly behind the supergate, each charging their arc-en-ciel in turn. As soon as the supergate shut down, they'd fire in turn through the inactive annulus.

"Fourth warship disembarked."

"Supspace sensor sweeps! The lead ship has seen us! Enemy ships are breaking formation!"

Chrono didn't waste time. "Break out into secondary firing formation!"

Their view of the back of the supergate slid sideways as the Arthra strafed left, lining up on the their designated target.

"Enemy ships one and three have a firing solution!"

"Arc-en-ciel, firing - gah!" Chrono exclaimed.

Homura Akemi had appeared out of thin air on the back of his command chair and caught his hand before he could hit the firing control. Carter blinked. There'd been nothing. No shimmer of illusion, no crack of displaced air, the girl was just suddenly there, black hair flowing and bronze shield gleaming.

"Enemy one is firing, all hands brace for impact!"

Chrono twisted around with a snarl, "Akemi! What the - "

Homura shoved his hand into the firing control, and the view went blindingly bright as the arc-en-ciel fired. When the light died down, Homura was gone.

"Status!" Chrono barked.

"Sir! All... all enemy ships destroyed. Our arc-en-ciel blast and the enemy beam weapon collided and interacted. The destruction somehow chained through the other three ships as well."

Chrono blinked.

"Fifth warship disembarked!"

Chrono shook himself. "Arthra to fleet, begin firing rotation."

"Sixth warship disembarked. Sir! Enemy fighters! Four squadrons came through with the sixth warship and immediately scattered."

"All space-rated combat mages are clear to dispatch."

No one was quite sure what had just happened when the last of the Ori forces were destroyed and the supergate finally shut down. Madoka Kaname and Homura Akemi were the names at the center of the babble of confusion. Some were baffled. Some were angry. Some were awed.

Once the supergate was sealed away, analysts went into a frenzy over the records of the battle. For a while, no one could quite decide if the young couple ought to be arrested or awarded service metals.

Back at headquarters, the girls themselves were extensively debriefed. Their story of living through the battle dozens of times also caused a lot of contention. This time mostly over which branch of the TSAB got to aggressively recruit them.

In the end, the two of them turned down all the offers, except one. Homura took the Contract Mage exam so, no matter where Madoka went, Homura could stay and fight by her side.

The office was spacious, all clean lines and glossy surfaces in pastel blue, white, and grey, in contrast with the lively clutter occupying Lindy Harlaown's expansive desk. The admiral herself stood as her three favorite S-rank mages strode into her office, and returned the three salutes she received.

"So, what was it you girls wished to see me about?" Lindy asked.

"Admiral, there's a situation we'd like to bring to your attention," Hayate began.

Nanoha nodded seriously. "I received a letter from home just before the mission. According to my family, three weeks ago, Earth was invaded by a race calling themselves the Fae."

Lindy's eyebrows went up in surprise, and she immediately asked for details. "What's the status of the conflict? Is your family alright?"

Nanoha and Hayate exchanged a look, and Hayate said, "Well, that's the thing. According to the Takamachis, the Fae's invasion is kind of ambiguous. There hasn't really been any conflict, in the sense you mean."

"Miyuki-nee recorded some news clips and sent them with her last letter," Nanoha explained. "The Fae have ignored all attempted hostilities, or rather, they have not shown any sign of retaliation for attacks aimed at them. Not even when China tried to hit their ship with a cruise missile!"

"What are these Fae doing, then?" Lindy asked.

In response, Nanoha summoned a holographic screen. It was a clip from a news show, showing a Tokyo street dominated by a flatbed truck. Up on the back of the truck, blocks of soil, stone, and concrete were packed in a row. Atop the excavated blocks sat something that looked as though a gorgeous flower had been wrought from human skin and flesh, closed up in the shape of an egg taller than a man. That clip was replaced by another, showing one of the flower-things opening just off a rice field, revealing a naked man covered by censor pixelation. Another clip, a hospital. An elderly woman that had flatlined several minutes past suddenly vanished in a flash of white light.

"Other than dropping an estimated billion of these objects, and building space elevators that they don't seem to be using, the general consensus is that the Fae are abducting corpses," Nanoha told her. "All the corpses."

"How peculiar," Lindy commented, frowning in thought. "Have these Fae explained themselves in any way?"

"Only in their initial contact message," Hayate said.

Nanoha nodded and pulled up another video clip. It was shaky, obviously recorded on a handheld camera. A murmuring crowd on a Tokyo street, then up, to a window in the sky. The image was of a stylized naturalistic landscape, and a horizon... there was no horizon.

"Is that a topopolis?" Lindy whispered in surprise, mentally adjusting her measure of the Fae's scale of operation drastically upwards.

A woman, wearing nothing, and unusual only in now normal she looked, appeared in the image, and spoke. "Greetings to you, the peoples of Earth. We are the Fae. We have looked upon your world, and seen its horrors. We have looked upon those horrors that are not of your making," a dramatic pause, "and we want to help."

Lindy watched the rest of it with interest, up to the end with the command to, "live on, forever after Earth."

"Encouraging," Lindy opined. "But also somewhat ominous."

"That's what I said," Hayate contributed.

"Since we will be ferrying Major Carter back to Earth anyway," Fate spoke up, "we'd like to retain the Arthra, go investigate the Fae-Earth first contact situation, and if possible, mediate."

"And if necessary, 'mediate'," Hayate said, making air quotes and shooting a grin at Nanoha.

Nanoha ignored the jibe with great dignity.

"I quite agree that this situation deserves attention," Lindy said. "However, despite our recent victory, the Ori now threaten us on a new front. We're already recalling ships from other missions, and we cannot afford to get involved in another large scale conflict."

Nanoha barely restrained a noise of protest. Lindy held up a hand.

"I will authorize your request," Lindy told them, and all three showed relief. "Just be aware that it is unlikely backup will be readily available, should you and the Arthra need it."

Nanoha saluted. "Understood, Lindy-san!"

Lindy smiled. "Is that all?"

The three girls nodded.

"You'll leave sometime tomorrow afternoon," Lindy told them. "I'll send you the details. Be safe, you three."

Fate drifted over and received a motherly hug.

An ice-cream shop and a double date. And it was a double date, even if one of the four girls was oblivious to the fact.

"Mmm! Try this one, Fate-chan!" the girl in question said eagerly. She held up a small spoonful and fed it to the quietly content girl next to her.

Swallowing the ice-cream from Nanoha's spoon, Fate gave her a surprised smile. "It tastes like the berrycake flavor from the Midori-ya."

Nanoha nodded excitedly. "It does! I wasn't sure, but you think so too, right?"

"Yes," Fate agreed.

Homura, meanwhile, nibbled at a teal-colored sample and made a face. "Salty."

Madoka giggled, noticing a bit of teal clinging to Homura's lip. Impishly, she leaned in, just barely grazing Homura's lips in a kiss before her tongue darted out and licked the ice cream off Homura's face. Homura, blinking in surprise at suddenly being licked, cracked a small smile of amusement.

"it's not all bad," Madoka opined. "Kind of a weird flavor, though."

"So," Nanoha said to them. "You were telling us about what you got up to in all those repeats..."

Madoka nodded. "Well, the first time I manage to send my memories with Homura when she reset, we just kind of... took a vacation. Eheh. Played around. Didn't take anything seriously."

Fate gave them a considering look. "I suppose I hadn't thought of it before, but Homura's spell does effectively create a private world, where there are no consequences for anything she does..." Fate trailed off, glancing at Nanoha with an unreadable expression. "You could trial and error your way through anything. Not just a battle."

Homura glanced away. "I... well, yes."

Madoka chuckled sheepishly. "Eh, funny you should mention that."

Nanoha perked up. "What did you do?"

"Well, there was something we kind of figured out during all those repeats," Madoka shared. "Something very important!"

"Important?" Fate repeated.

"Yeah," Nanoha added. "About what?"

Madoka closed her eyes and smiled as though bracing herself. "Something about the two of you, actually."

Fate went pale.

"Huh? About the two of us?" Nanoha asked blithely.

Madoka took Nanoha's hand and looked her straight in the eye. "Nanoha. You are in love with Fate. Please kiss her already, because every day you wait, she suffers. And once you do that, take her back to the bed you've always shared, and let her make love to you until neither of you can move anymore."

Fate gasped softly to herself, a sound of relief in counterpoint to her growing blush of embarrassment.

"Eh?!" Nanoha exclaimed, spoon frozen halfway to her mouth

But the words had put the idea in her head. Nanoha blinked, head tilting to one side. Madoka giggled, imagining the thought bubble over Nanoha's head as Nanoha actually thought about kissing Fate as a girlfriend. Touching her as a lover. The spoon fell from Nanoha's numb fingers.

"Eh!" Nanoha exclamed, blushing hotly. "But we're both...!"

Madoka just gave her a kind smile as Nanoha realized she had been about to say something mindbogglingly dumb.

"Eh!" Nanoha whipped around and stared at Fate. "Fate-chan? Are we really like that...?"

Cheeks pink and heart thudding heavily in her chest, Fate nodded shyly, her hands twisting in her lap. "I always wanted us to be, but what you wanted is more important to me, Nanoha."

Nanoha gaped, unable to find words. Fate ducked her head, drawing in on herself. Nanoha sat back with a stunned expression on her face.

Don't worry, Madoka sent to Fate, making the other girl's head jerk up. She always reacted like this. Just give her a moment.

Sure enough, after a heavy silence, Nanoha furiously shook her head and turned to Fate, a severe expression on her blushing face. "Fate-chan... are you... really suffering like Madoka said?"

Fate actually squeaked. She opened her mouth to answer but the word stuck in her throat.

Nanoha's expression softened, and her eyes became big and shining. She reached over and cradled Fate's face in her hand. "Fate-chan."

"Sometimes," Fate admitted, "when I'm weak and selfish."

"Fate-chan!" Nanoha exclaimed, taking hold of Fate's face with both her hands. "Don't do that! All this time... You know I'd never want you to suffer in silence. About anything!"

Fate stared at Nanoha in wonder, then her beautiful red eyes dropped in shame. "I know."

Nanoha dragged Fate's gaze back up. "I never... I never even thought to think of it. Nanoha and Fate just are. But all this time I've been ignoring your feelings, and you've let me. I... I can't stand the thought! I can't... because... I love you, Fate-chan."

Their faces were only inches apart, cheeks tinged pink, eyes brimming with emotion as Nanoha held Fate's face in her hands. And then those inches weren't, and the two girls were kissing.

Well, sort of. Nanoha pressed her lips to Fate's rather awkwardly. It wasn't so much making out as a desperate promise of such things to come once she actually knew how.

Fate got past her shock and melted, moving her lips against Nanoha's. Once she'd calmed down a little, Nanoha learned quickly, trying different things with her lips until it just sort of clicked as her tongue tentatively brushed Fate's. A moan bubbled up from her throat.

Madoka snuggled into Homura's side and brushed away a tear. "That's so beautiful," she sighed happily.

"I know, right," Hayate said.

Wait, Hayate?

"Waah!" Madoka yelped, practically jumping into Homura's lap.

Homura caught her on reflex, but was startled nearly as badly and almost fell off the booth. Nanoha and Fate finally broke their kiss and returned to the world around them.

"Eh?" Nanoha said in confusion. "Hayate-chan, how long have you been here?"

"Long enough," Hayate said cheerfully. "My moe senses were tingling."

"Your what now?" Homura muttered flatly.

"It's about dang time, you two," Hayate told Nanoha and Fate. She smiled sweetly. "Now that you're out of denial at long last, I can finally seduce you into a Hayate sandwich!"

Nanoha and Fate stared at her, open-mouthed.

Hayate giggled demurely. "I'm kidding. Hehe. Your faces..."

Fate rolled her eyes and sighed, as Nanoha sputtered.

"So, mind if we join you?" Hayate asked, gesturing to where Vita was placing an order at the counter.

"Of course, Hayate-chan," Nanoha agreed. "Try that one. Me and Fate thought it tasted familiar..."

And so the group of magical girls enjoyed an evening together over ice cream, having fun and being living proof that badass and adorable go together like... two... going together really well... things.

(So, that's it for this tangent. From here, the story continues in Forever After Earth. Or it will, once I figure out where the heck to send Lyn for her Omake. Suggestions?)