Hello my eager readers. I have returned once more from obscurity in an attempt to bring you an epic tale of drama, suspense, action, romance, and whatever other genre I can attribute to it. I've been sitting on chapter 5 of this thing for two months and in an attempt to get me to get off my ass and write, I have decided to post the prologue. So far, I have no set update schedule since I work full-time and also like to have a social life.

This is a rewrite of my first Fanfiction story "Convergence", which I stopped writing in January of 2015 due to a loss of inspiration and real life being a most sadistic bitch. Now, I've changed quite a bit since then. Finally graduated college, moved to a new city, got a new job, and have pretty much overhauled my social priorities. I daresay if college me were to take a look at where I am now, he would not recognize me at all.

In keeping with these changes, there will be language and adult situations, so if you're simply incapable of reading bad language or haven't grown up, please exit the fan fiction now and go back to your college safe spaces or whatever (don't get me wrong, I'm a raving, soulless liberal, but I also believe that exposure to different ideas, no matter how stupid or offensive, is a means to educate oneself).

Bit of a long prologue but it's necessary. It's going to be split into two parts. It also introduces characters that will be important later on. There are some changes from canon that you'll notice. Necessary for my story.

I do not own The Familiar of Zero, Zero no Tsukaima, Fringe, or any other franchise I may cite in this story. If I did, I'd be travelling the world.

PROLOGUE

September 21, 1986, Brussels, Belgium

NATO Headquarters

In a room at NATO Headquarters, a young scientist was in the midst of preparing a presentation that could either ensure his continued career, or destroy it entirely.

His name was Dr. Robert Dreyfus, a certified genius with an IQ of 196 and arguably one of the greatest scientific minds alive.

He and his compatriot, Dr. Nathan Scott, also a certified genius, had both studied at Harvard before being contracted by the US government at the height of the Cold War.

The field of the duo's experiments ranged from quantum physics to genetic engineering, propelling them into an unknown (at least to the public) relationship with the U.S. government to advance its most scientifically innovative - and sometimes ethically questionable - research projects under the heading of fringe science.

One of these fringe sciences were attempts to unlock the powers of mind manipulation. The 20th century was full of reported acts of alleged pyrokineses, psychokinesis, electrokinesis, telekinesis, and other paranormal activity, however most proved to be hoaxes. Despite this, the two scientists spoke with dozens of people around the world who claimed to have developed supernatural abilities for a brief time.

The oddity was that many of these people developed them at specific times, only to lose their "abilities" within hours. And they claimed this happened at least twice every year. Desperately seeking any sort of pattern to the mystery, Dreyfus and Scott came across a remarkable discovery:

The victims only gained their abilities during solar eclipses.

This mystery baffled the two scientists, as they sought to answer why. Over the course of their research, they came across anecdotal accounts that suggested that mysterious occurrences during solar eclipses were something of an increasing occurrence, with strange events being reported more and more frequently throughout the 20th century.

Of the most notable examples were tales of military equipment and in some cases, even soldiers, vanishing into thin air. Of course, the respective militaries of these countries vehemently denied these accounts or refused to comment altogether, but they intrigued the duo nonetheless:

There were reports of an American soldier going AWOL in the middle of a firefight in Vietnam, with his squad mates describing him being sucked into a "giant green hole" before vanishing…

A German Panzer Division who'd watched one of their tanks disappear during an eclipse…

Another German division who'd watched one of their Flak 88 guns disappear during the same eclipse…

And most importantly: a flight of Japanese Zeroes which had disappeared into an eclipse with only one plane returning and the pilot describing another world with two moons…

This increasingly common occurrence had intrigued Dr. Dreyfus and Dr. Scott, especially the possibility of another world on the other side, a curiosity that they further delved into under the influence of psychedelic drugs.

Figuring they had nothing to lose, save for several thousand dollars and their reputations, they launched a probe into an eclipse. The results were the reason the two scientists were in Brussels presenting their findings to a group of generals…

"…our success as a species thus far can serve as an example of our ability to achieve that, which most can't even imagine" spoke Dr. Dreyfus, looking at the generals before him. "But what you must understand is that as scientists, we must embrace every possibility. No limitations. No boundaries. There is no reason for them" he concluded, taking out a file with photos.

"Gentlemen, I would like you to take a look at this. These are pictures, captured from probes that Dr. Scott and I launched on rockets, directly into solar eclipses. What they reveal is something remarkable"

The generals seemed baffled. The pictures depicted farm fields and vast open countryside, much like one you'd find on Earth.

"A parallel world, just like ours. But less advanced in some areas" he explained.

The generals eyed them with curiosity, skepticism clearly visible beneath their professional demeanor.

"Now where it gets interesting is what the video footage we received reveals" he turned to the television behind him.

The screen showed a flash of light, the probe descending quickly before being yanked by its parachute. Below it lay a lush landscape. Above, two moons hovered, one blue and one pink. Cycling through the cameras, one showed something. Four figures closing fast. As they approached it became clear what they were. Humans, riding some sort of winged beast. The humans circled around the probe as it descended. They were wearing what looked like plate armor.

Then one took out what looked like some sort of sword, pointed it at the probe, and fire exploded from the tip. The flames bathed the probe as they burned through the parachute cord. With the probe now in freefall, the humans and their beasts seemed troubled to keep up. The probe cut out as it impacted the ground.

The generals' faces were ones of confusion as Dreyfus continued.

"Now, we have launched a few probes into these eclipses and the scenes seem to play out in a similar fashion. The probes vanish at around 45,000 feet in a flash of light and reappear somewhere else. Gentlemen, we have here an alternate world, populated by humans, who have somehow unlocked the ability to manipulate the powers of the mind. Or what some might call: magic. " said Robert, replaying the video and bracing himself for skepticism.

A few of the generals chuckled. One looked thoroughly irritated though.

"Dr. Dreyfus, if you asked us to come all this way for some drugged up fairy tale you and your colleague have concocted—"

"If that video isn't proof enough, General, I'll simply ask you to follow me outside. I can show you something even more remarkable. If you're not satisfied, feel free to discredit me however you wish" Robert interrupted.

The general seemed to consider his proposal before relenting.

Heading outside to the roof of the building, Nathan was waiting there with what looked a window on a tripod.

"Dr. Dreyfus. Generals" he greeted simply.

"Dr. Scott" replied Robert. "Gentlemen for the last few years, Dr. Scott and I have been conducting various experiments regarding this other world. So based on our findings, we developed a window of sorts. A way of looking into this neighboring world. And that, is why we're asking for funding."

"This window works by capturing errant photons from the world beside ours. The window essentially stretches the membrane between our worlds, and allows us to see their image, from our side."

"You're going to make some sort of alternate Brussels appear?" asked one of the generals.

"It's already there, General Mitchell. At all times. Right in front of our eyes. We just can't see it."

Turning on the window, Nathan moved to the side as the generals saw the image of the Brussels skyline turn into what looked like a medieval city. It was beautiful in its own right. A large castle dominated the new skyline. Panning the window around, large sailing ships seemed to be flying around the castle. A few humans seemed to be riding those same beasts from before. Below, people milled around, going about their daily business, unaware of the humans from another world, watching them in astonishment.

"Gentlemen. You are looking through a window into another world"

October 10, 1986, Frankfurt, Germany

EUCOM HQ

Despite their best intentions, Dreyfus and Scott's discovery of the world they christened Avalon had been classified beyond Top Secret, albeit to very vocal objections from the duo.

"The people deserve to know they are not alone! There is life out there other than our own. Granted it may be a different dimension but it exists! It proves that we as a species are not simply a fluke!" cried Robert, arguing his case in the office of EUCOM Commander, General Jeffrey Pelt.

"Imagine everything we could learn from these people! Lighter aircraft! Stronger buildings! We may even find a way to learn how these people can do the things they can!" supplied Dr. Scott.

"Dr. Dreyfus. Dr. Scott." countered the general. ""While I can see the merits in your proposal, making it public could severely jeopardize our advantage over the Russians!"

He moved to stand and came to face the two scientists.

"You've been based here in Europe for the past few years. You know how serious the threat of the Soviet Union is. Now granted, they may be on the downswing, which is why we see no reason to change things."

"Gentlemen, the Russians are suffering economic woes the likes of which they may never recover from. Additionally, with their war in Afghanistan going against them, they may never recover their credibility either. This is the closest we've been to the end of the Soviet Union. If they were to get wind of this, they might find a new purpose. It could be the beginning of another space race!" Pelt continued. Moving past his desk, he sat down behind it. "Now I have orders from the President. He's ordered anything pertaining to Avalon classified beyond Top Secret."

"Now… the soldier in me wants to reach Avalon as soon as possible, make sure they're not a threat to us, maybe find something there that can ensure my country's continued security in the coming century. But as you've said, it's impossible short of sending someone through the eclipse and hoping they make it."

"I understand your enthusiasm. But until I know, and the United States Government knows that they don't pose a threat to us, you two keep your mouths shut."

"You may continue your research into Avalon, and maybe, just maybe, one day you'll find a way to realistically get us there. On that day, we'll consider whether this…" he gestured to the pictues of Avalon

"…gets released to the public. In the meantime, your work is to remain strictly confidential. Am I making myself clear, Doctors?" finished Pelt. His tone left no room for further argument.

"Crystal" replied Robert, resigned. Nathan said nothing and merely left the room.

Research into Avalon continued well past that fateful day with the creation of an official research team to further study Avalon, designated SWORD (Sentient World Observation and Research Division). Officially, the group never existed, comprised of members from the NATO countries' intelligence agencies and militaries.

Though proceeding at a slow pace, due to the fact that the now designated Interdimensional Viewing Portals could only transmit visuals of life in Avalon, SWORD now had extensive knowledge of the only inhabited lands in Avalon, a continent known as Halkeginia. Lip readers brought onto the team managed to isolate bits of conversation and a bigger picture of the state of things was constructed.

The team's primary focus was to understand the use of magic, however that proceeded at a dismal pace. Other knowledge gleamed from the portals however allowed them to study Halkeginia's governments, politics, geography, and to a limited extent, current events.

The similarities between Europe and Halkeginia defied logical explanations and even the brains behind SWORD were at a loss as to how the primary countries spoke similar languages to and shared the past names of Earth's European countries.

By 1997, the group consisted of a team of 24 people from the NATO countries. Most of their efforts were going towards finding a way to cross the barrier between dimensions.

However, research stalled when Dr. Nathan Scott went missing in 1998. The disappearance hit Dr. Dreyfus particularly hard. Dreyfus briefly threw himself into his research before abruptly quitting the team and moving back to the US. This ultimately had the effect of reducing the research team in Europe to a mere handful.

With research into Avalon at an all-time low, nobody was prepared for what was to come.

While progress into a means of getting to Avalon had slowed, the small team had managed to come up with a way to detect the exotic energy that permeated the solar eclipses.

It was through this means that they began uncovering something unnerving.

Beginning in late 2006, energy spikes began popping up all over the globe with particularly high concentrations in Europe and no concurrent eclipses to explain them. Soon thereafter, unexplained events began occurring in areas with particularly strong spikes. The first were minor, small earthquakes, lightning storms, and small cracks forming in the ground.

However, in May 2007, a particularly high spike was detected in southern France. Shortly after, it was reported that a large swath of forest there had simply died for no reason. Only two months later, another large spike was attributed to an earthquake in Spain measuring 5.4 on the Richter Scale. Soon, other events were happening across the globe and the research team was tasked to capacity in keeping up with them. The final straw occurred when an airliner travelling from New York to Frankfurt encountered a freak lightning storm over the Atlantic and later reported having been thrown off course by several miles.

With the world's attention fixed on the War on Terror and the Middle East and the NATO intelligence communities working overtime on spinning the occurrences as natural phenomena, these occurrences received little attention. However the big-wigs in the intelligence community knew that something was happening in Avalon that was causing all these events. Something very serious.

SWORD was officially restarted and given massive amounts of funding to find a way to Avalon, find the source of the spikes, and stop them.

Over time, more countries were brought into the fold until SWORD was comprised of researchers and operatives from every hemisphere. Being dominated by NATO, China, Russia, and other countries considered "expansionist" or "potentially dangerous to Avalon" were left out of the alliance, though the higher ups knew it was only a matter of time until the secret got out.

April 11, 2012, Brussels, Belgium

SWORD Headquarters

It was just after the morning watch had taken over monitoring duties at SWORD's Avalon event monitor when the alarm began ringing, indicating a new event.

"WE'VE GOT AN ENERGY SPIKE! IT'S HUGE! 900 RELS AND RISING!" yelled the monitoring agent.

"Alright everybody you all know the drill. Location?" yelled Director Reynolds above the confusion.

"Shit, it's right in the middle of Tokyo!"

"Hoshi" he yelled, turing towards the Japanese liaison. "Get Kutimura on the line. They probably detected this as well"

Tokyo, Japan

Akihabara District

A 17 year old Saito Hiraga mulled over his now nearly empty savings. He'd just spent close to 8500 Yen to repair his laptop.

"I gotta get myself a part time job" he mumbled, looking at his laptop. Giving a dejected sigh, he headed home. "At this rate, I'm never going to find a girlfriend".

As he walked along the busy shopping district he noticed a green oval hovering in front of him.

Brussels

"Reynolds, we have picked it up here as well. Are you seeing these readings?" asked the on-screen face of Kutimura, head of the Secret Division of the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office of Japan, or Naicho.

"These are some of the highest readings we've seen so far. We're reading it at 1300 Rels now and still climbing" replied Reynolds. "Do you have a visual yet?"

"The strongest readings are right in the middle of Tokyo. Triangulation is still ongoing. We're tapping into the local surveillance cameras. So far, nothing seems to be happening."

"With readings this high, anything could happen"

"I've already alerted the emergency services to… Wait… Something's coming up"

"Sir it's a breach! Energy levels are now at 2500 Rels and climbing. Consistent with those recorded during the eclipse portals!"

Reynolds paled. There were no eclipses due for at least three months. So how was there a portal opening?

"Kutsimura?"

"We're seeing it here too. An eclipse-like breach. We're trying to find it now. If this thing opens up on the surface…"

Tokyo

"Huh?"

Saito just stared at the green oval. No one else seemed to see it but him.

Moving closer, he poked it. It seemed to ripple.

Poking it again, it suddenly opened up and swallowed half his arm. He was alarmed when he felt it pulling him in.

"HUH? WAIT! LET GO! SOMEBODY HELP ME!"

Saito struggled to free himself from the vacuum-like grip.

The oval suddenly flashed, and Saito found himself being pulled through.

"AAAAAAAGHHH!"

His screams of went unnoticed by the surrounding crowds as Saito disappeared into another world, leaving no trace but his laptop.

The oval itself simply disappeared in a flash.

Brussels

"Energy levels falling back within normal parameters."

Silence reigned over the sensor room.

"What the hell just happened?"

That one statement seemed to encompass what the staff was thinking.

Reynolds simply stood there, stunned and confused. The readings they'd recorded had been the highest since SWORD began monitoring. He'd been expecting a major catastrophe on par with the 2011 Japan earthquake, which had recorded levels energy levels upwards of 1100 Rels. Any higher and the levels would match what was picked up with every eclipse.

"Kutimura, you seeing this? The readings are gone"

"We're seeing the same here. Background levels back to normal. I do not understand. These are the highest levels since last year. We're not hearing of any catastrophes, nothing seems to have happened." replied Kutimura.

"Keep me posted. We'll go over the data on our end"

April 12, 2012 , Tokyo, Japan

NAICHO Headquarters

It had been 12 hours since the energy spike and the Paranormal Research Division (PRD) of NAICHO had been going over the surveillance cameras in Akihabara non-stop. Being one of the busiest shopping areas in Tokyo, there were hundreds of cameras to go through.

One of the analysts had been going over a tape from a camera near an electronics shop when she spotted something remarkable.

"Hey, Inspector. I think you should see this" she said, calling over her superior, Chief Inspector Koishi Kutimura.

The Chief Inspector was the local head of the PRD and liaison to SWORD. Anything Avalon related that occurred in Japan or near its territory was reported directly to her.

"What have you got?" she asked walking up to the analyst's desk.

"This is the camera from the Ganju Electronics Store in Akihabara. I've got something… Well just keep an eye on this kid here"

Kutimura watched as a kid wearing a blue hoodie walked out with a laptop.

The kid walked up the street. Then the screen flashed and right in the kid's path a glowing oval seemed to appear out of nowhere.

The kid stopped to examine the oval. Curiously, none of the other passersby seemed to notice the glowing oval.

Suddenly the oval seemed to grab hold of the kid as he struggled to break free. Then he disappeared into the oval, which vanished shortly after.

"What the hell?!" cried Kutimura. "Play it again" she ordered.

The analyst complied and the two watched as the kid was once again sucked into the oval.

"Reverse and hold when the oval appears… There" she exclaimed, pointing at the time stamp on the video. "5:21:43. That's right after the first spikes began."

"Pull it up on screen one. Everyone. I want you all to watch this. I think we just found our breach."

The footage was once again played, this time on the room's large screen.

"Alright. Here's the deal. One: we need to confirm this was the only anomaly in Akihabara. That means team 1 keeps combing through the surveillance footage to see if anything else comes up. Team 2, I want to know what exactly we're looking at. I want theories on what that thing is. Scenarios, whatever. Remember, this is Avalon, so anything is possible. Team 3, I want you to identify the kid…"

"Oh no… That's little Saito" said a voice.

Kutimura stopped her briefing and turned. One of the analysts, Nara, stepped forward.

"You know this kid, Nara?"

"That's Saito Hiraga. He lives two doors down. His parents said he never came home yesterday. They filed a missing persons report earlier today"

Kutimura digested this information. This changed things.

"Alright, Nara, you're in charge of team 3. Compile everything we can find on Saito. The rest of you, you know your assignments. Someone find me that missing persons report. We need to get ahead of this before the public finds out" she ordered.

"Any videos of this oval thing are now top secret. Let's get to it people. Kimura, get ahold of Brussels. Let them know we've got a lead"

Brussels

Aprl 13, 2012

"So you're saying that this oval-portal-type thing was our breach, and that it picked up a teenager in the middle of the largest city in the world, and transported him to Avalon?" asked Reynolds incredulously.

"That's the working theory at the moment. This anomaly was clearly of an Avalon nature. It seemed to only be visible to him. In that case, we're lucky the cameras caught it at all" replied Kutimura.

"Indeed. Now the question is, where in Avalon, and is he even still alive?"

"That's the one question we're not sure of. Again, we're talking about magic, and this oval thing seemed to target only him. I'm going to out on a limb and say that something wanted him in Avalon. So I'm willing to wager he's alive somewhere on that world"

"The question then becomes: Where?"

July, 2012, Europe

It wasn't until nearly three months later that the question of "where" would finally be answered.

As they'd done since their inception, SWORD kept tabs on the political climate of Halkeginia.

With that, those at SWORD could only watch in despair as Albion was overrun by the Reconquista, and then set its sights on the small country of Tristain.

Even if they had the means to intervene, SWORD's primary mandate was to observe. Drawing inspiration from a particularly popular sci-fi series, they were expressly forbidden from interfering with what they saw as a primitive culture.

Still, they could only watch in despair through the window portals as a massive Albionian armada approached Tristain.

Just as all hope seemed to fade for the Tristanians, the most unexpected thing occurred.

Out of nowhere, a World War II era fighter plane appeared and engaged the Albionian fleet. Not just any fighter plane. A Zero fighter. One of the most infamous fighter planes of the war.

The Zero tore through the Albionians, ripping the dragon riders and several ships to shreds with its machine guns.

Then out of the blue, a massive explosion tore through the heart of the fleet, utterly vaporizing almost the entirety of the Albionian Navy.

The Zero fighter, having taken damage, was forced down onto a field.

On Earth, the SWORD surveillance team watching through the portal was speechless as out of the Zero fighter stepped none other than Saito Hiraga, the missing kid from Japan.

The discovery of Saito Hiraga's whereabouts saw the creation of a three-person team to monitor him. Over the next year, they watched as Saito and his companions, in an almost fairy-tale like manner, saved Tristain and in some cases, all Halkeginia, from one threat after another. For some reason, many major events in Halkeginian affairs involved him and what was later discovered to be the person responsible for summoning him in.

Due to their study, SWORD was aware of the Familiar summoning ceremony that occurred each spring. However, like the native Halkeginians, summoning of humans had not been recorded until Saito Hiraga's case.

They'd identified the summoner as Louise Valliere, the third daughter of an influential Tristanian noble family. Apparently, despite their differences, Hiraga and Valliere had become something of an item, since the two were never far apart, and Hiraga often risked his life to protect her.

All the while, the science teams continued their work on finding a way to cross over themselves. Thus far, their efforts had been fruitless. There had been progress on a theoretical device that could possibly keep open any breaches they found, but they had no means of creating a breach themselves.

Little did they know they would get their chance nearly a year later.

September, 2013, Somewhere in the French Countryside

Merde thought Marion Allamel. She was bored. No she thought. I'm bored as shit she corrected herself.

She and the other two that made up the surveillance team tailing Hiraga and Valliere were doing nothing but waiting in their modified van. Their two targets were inside a residence in Galia talking about something. Their lip-reading software could get bits and pieces of the conversations but she personally didn't care.

Most of SWORD were watching the events unfolding in Halkeginia very closely. Apparently, some fool had awoken a giant Ancient Dragon and it was tearing its way through the continent.

"I have movement" said one of the surveillance technicians. "They're stepping outside"

Sitting up from her seat, she watched the screen as the blurry picture of another world showed the duo walking outside.

They noticed the change in the group's faces. Saito, Louise, and their companions, including elves curiously enough seemed to have a renewed sense of hope about them.

The eavesdropping software typed out a few keywords it could discern from their lips.

Plan, window, fighter, world

Valliere then began chanting.

"What do you reckon she's doing?" asked her technician.

"Je ne sais pas" she replied.

Suddenly, their sensor array started going haywire.

"What the hell? I've got a reading! 500 Rels…. 1200 Rels and rising fast! Shit, get on the horn to HQ ASAP!"

In front of the summoner and her familiar, a portal to Tokyo formed.

SWORD HQ, Brussels

"Boss, you seeing this?" yelled the surveillance technician over the comms line.

"Affirmative" confirmed Reynolds. "The readings are off the chart. Now at 2100 Rels. Get me a target location, now!"

"Kutimura here. Energy spikes in Tokyo, Reynolds" interrupted Kutimura, opening her own communications line from Tokyo. "BREACH! It's a breach!"

"I want a location and eyes on that breach and I mean now!" he ordered. "Kutimura, mobilize whatever you've got!"

French Countryside

The surveillance team watched as Hiraga stepped through the portal into Tokyo.

Suddenly, Valliere shut the portal with a smile on her face and tears in her eyes.

"The hell?"

Tokyo

"Breach just sealed. Energy levels falling back to normal parameters"

Kutimura's heart was racing. So close she thought.

"Ohashi, please tell me we got a location" she asked rhetorically, already knowing the answer.

"Not enough time to triangulate. Best we got is a 3 km radius somewhere in North Tokyo"

Kutimura sighed. They'd been so close.

"Uh, hello? Did anyone hear us? This is Mobile 1 in France. Hiraga stepped through the portal. He's must be in Tokyo!"

Kutimura's head shot up. If they could find the kid, they might get some answers.

Saito paused in front of his parents' house. As his finger hovered over the door chime, he saw his runes on his hand.

A grimace crossed his face. He would return to Halkeginia somehow. No matter what.

"You've been gone a long time, haven't you little Saito? Still thinking of your little pink-haired girlfriend?"

Saito's eyebrows shot up, confused. What?

He turned to look behind him. A man and a woman in official looking business dress stood behind him. The man, he identified as his neighbor, Minato Nara.

"Those are the runes, aren't they? The runes of the Gandalfr?" asked Nara.

"H-h-how? What? How do you know about that?" asked Saito incredulously. Suddenly, realization struck him. They knew about Halkeginia. THEY KNEW ABOUT HALKEGINIA! Maybe they could help him get back!

"We know quite a bit about your recent adventures Mr. Hiraga" said the woman, finally speaking. "We might be able to help you"

Saito thought about it. His desire to return to Halkeginia was subduing his reason and suspicion at the fact that these two knew of Halkeginia. But he was still suspicious.

"I can see you're a bit suspicious, kiddo. Let's just say we've been monitoring your activities closely since you disappeared. We know about the Ancient Dragon" continued Nara.

"Then you know I have to get back there and stop it" replied Saito.

"Come with us and we might be able to come to an arrangement regarding that"

Saito eyed his neighbor suspiciously.

"How do I know you'll keep your word?"

Nara chuckled.

"Smart kid. Alright, I'll tell you this as a sign of trust. There's a solar eclipse tomorrow that'll pass about 90 kilometers south of Japan."

At this, Saito's eyes widened. Nara smiled and continued.

"You know what that means kiddo. That's your ticket back"

Saito thought about it, then nodded. "Alright, I'll go with you"

"Glad to hear it. One thing though, you can't tell your parents just yet. We've got a cover story for your absence that we need to go over with you".

SWORD HQ, Brussels

"I don't like it Kutimura. You're taking an awfully big risk here" stated Reynolds.

"Like it or not, it's all we had, Reynolds. He's a good kid. One of my guys put his ass on the line to vouch for him. The kid will be a useful asset in a place we can't reach. Plus, his little girlfriend might, if not portal us over there, then at least prove useful in finding a way for us to get to Halkeginia ourselves and put a stop to these damn anomalies" replied Kutimura.

Reynolds hated to admit it, but Kutimura had a point. The Aural Anomalies were still occurring at an alarming rate. This could be their best chance at finding the source.

"Besides, it's only a 12 billion yen fighter! We've got plenty of those!" added Kutimura, grinning.

"Keep me posted" muttered Reynolds.

The Next Day

Nyutabaru Air Base

General Tonagawa Hinoshi, base commander of Nyutabaru Air Base in Southern Japan was at his desk when the phone rang.

"Hinoshi"

Hinoshi's face scrunched up in confusion.

"Could you repeat that?"

Brussels

A Few Days Later

"Well, isn't that just cute?"

"Mobile 1, may I remind you that you are there to observe, not remark on Hiraga's wedding"

"Oh, don't be such a stickler Reynolds! Vraiment, zey are adorable!"

"Miss Allamel, I would appreciate if you kept your comments to yourself. We still have a job to do. Hiraga still has his end of the agreement to uphold"

Reynolds reflected on the past few days. Kutimura's plan would normally have had him relieving her of duty.

It had taken a great deal of convincing for him to go along with it.

The kid had been given an F-2 fighter and flown it straight into the eclipse. In exchange, Hiraga had told them everything he knew about Halkeginia and magic, including Void Magic.

Ultimately, he'd agreed that once the Ancient Dragon was destroyed, he would return with Louise to answer some more questions. In addition, he would provide intelligence as an on-the-ground asset reporting directly to Reynolds and SWORD. In keeping with their prime directive, he'd declined to send anybody else from Earth to Halkeginia, something which Hiraga was immensely grateful for.

As the jet flew into the eclipse, the science team poured over the data they'd collected from the plane as it passed through.

They'd measured the highest Rel measurements in history: over 4600 Rels in the void between worlds.

What had happened next had been all SWORD had talked about for the past few days.

Hiraga, flying the jet like an ace, unloaded the entirety of its payload into the Ancient Dragon, blasting away its protective shell.

Valliere had then followed up with the largest explosion he'd ever seen. Void he thought, recalling the files sent to him by Kutsimura. That's what that power is called. Hiraga said she was one of four who possessed it.

The massive Void explosion had utterly vaporized the Dragon. After landing the fighter near the Academy, Hiraga had proposed to Valliere. Which brought Reynolds back to what they were witnessing at the moment. And his previous line of thought on what came next.

Your crazy plan worked Kutsimura. Now comes the hard part. Waiting…

Waiting for Hiraga to uphold his end of the bargain.

And FINALLY that's a wrap on the Prologue. The story begins in earnest next chapter. Hopefully, I haven't missed anything and can finally stop this rapid-fire info dump style of writing and provide a bit more depth. If it feels rushed, I apologize, but I think everyone can agree they want to get on to the story itself.

Reviews = more inspiration to not give up on the story like I did last time!

Also constructive criticism helps me find any flaws I may have missed! That said, flamers will be forced to watch M. Night Shyamalan's The Last Airbender on repeat for all eternity.