Disclaimers: All characters and locations belong to their respective owners.

A/N: A gift-fic to the members of the Nanoha forum on Animesuki, seeing as their fanfiction thread has reached past the 600 page mark. I read a post about writing a 600-word drabble for those six and hundred pages, so I took on its task and wrote this li'l guy up. Minus the note, it doesn't meet the quota, but that's alright because the word count hits six-hundred anyway (LOL).

The Depths of War

To Chrono Clyde Harlaown, war is a terrible thing.

He's seen many of its horrors, thing that would sow seeds of doubt in people's hearts; things that would drive the strong of mind to madness, force the brave of heart to behold their greatest, darkest fears and subjugate them to a universe of hellish nightmares and apparitions. He's heard of the after effects that would forever haunt the victim: of shifting eyes glossed with paranoia and shells of bodies once human, once full of the vigor of life and bright colors and the metaphysical spectrums that each defined their individuality.

To him, war is the destruction of one's inner peace, the bombardment of high majestic towers and sprawling castles carved from ivory and marble, sculpted with the foundation of love and pillars supporting morality, justice, and the core of inner truth -- the heart of society.

Or what could have been, had time and history not been so harsh. But it is not to be, nor is it meant to be.

Society is a melting pot of infinite destinies, infinite choices and infinite paths leading to ultimate fates. Whatever happens, it will happen -- if not by the Hand of God then by the Hand of Man; if not by Man then by Circumstance. And if not by God nor Man nor Circumstance, then by the Rule of Inevitability it shall be decreed so.

But Jail Scaglietti, oh Jail, that bastard excuse of a man! he has spun the Wheel of Karma. And lo, look at what he has wrought: The fury of a woman, who hell hath no scorn, roiling 'neath the surface that is her prosperity and youthfulness, culminating pressure and fogging stained glass windows and etching erroneous spider webs on the vertices of a spotless spinel heart.

A tinny cry for help and a roar of rage and agony are all it takes to call the Devil to her side and lend her his strength. Untapped, unbelievable raw strength.

The awakening of Heaven, Hell, and the Living World.

The wrath of Nanoha Takamachi, the Demon of the Bureau.

'And for that, you have sealed your fate, Jail Scaglietti,' thinks Chrono Clyde Harlaown as he prepares to board the S.S. Claudia. The time of decision is upon them, they who will close doors and open them to reveal the path that is to be and will inadvertently be taken. What awaits the men and women of the Time-Space Administration Bureau none can rightly say save the predictions that this battle, this war, will be long and arduous and emotional.

Blood. Sweat. And tears.

'For as long as the child cries in the dark and searches for light, her hope shan't ever die. For as long as the angel continues to beat its wings, the light shan't ever be snuffed.'

For justice, inner truth, and the love of humanity, the heart of society that should be all, that still beats within that chest--

--there just may be a chance.

'And it will be your downfall.'