Blood That Flows

Prologue

Disclaimer: I own nothing, nothing at all.

So, I started this little crossover due to some ideas given to me on TFF. It wasn't meant to go beyond this one short. It's grown into a rather long fic.

Looking at her house as she came home, Nanoha wondered how she was going to explain why she took off suddenly. Well, that and the ferret in her hands. She doubted she was going to have to bring up magic. With the way her mother always commented on the way television shows made magic look so fake, she didn't want to know what her mother would do if she said she could use magic.

So, when her mother opened the door after her brother and sister interrogated her a bit, she gulped. Her mother's eyes seemed to glint slightly, before she smiled and patted Nanoha on the head. "Welcome home, Nanoha. And who's this little guy?" She looked at the ferret that was in Miyuki's hands, before petting him gently. "He's rather cute."

Nanoha smiled softly. Well, at least things didn't seem to be too bad. "He's the ferret I was telling you about earlier, mother."

"He's so cute!" Miyuki gushed over the little ferret. "Can we keep him, mom?"

"Now, now..." The older woman crossed her arms and closed her eyes. "He may be someone's pet, we can't just keep him for no reason at all."

"The vet he was staying at was blown up?" Nanoha chuckled as her mother nodded at that.

"That's acceptable. So, for now, we'll keep the little guy." She smiled at her youngest daughter. "But you need to take good care of him, Nanoha."

"I will! I promise!" She nodded to her mother and smiled.

"Good, come on, let's go inside and relax, it is getting late."

The next morning...

Nanoha stretched as she woke up. "Nnnngh... Morning, Yuuno."

"Morning, Nanoha." The ferret said to her. "Your mother's nice."

Nanoha nodded. "Uh huh. She's nice, and pretty and..."

"A mage." Yuuno finished, causing Nanoha to spin and look at him as if he was crazy. "I could feel it, she's very powerful."

"Nyahahahahaha... You're kidding, Yuuno. My mom's not a mage."

"Yes she is, Nanoha." The ferret nodded at her. "I thought it was weird that you had such strong power, but if your mom is that strong, it makes a lot of sense."

"My mom's just a normal woman, though she's really good with cutting things with that large knife of hers." Nanoha giggled and stuck her tongue out as she rubbed the back of her head. "But, powerful magic? Come on, Yuuno, you're pulling my leg."

Yuuno sighed softly, even as he explained how to use telepathy to Nanoha, he wondered why her mother hadn't explained magic to her yet.

"Dear?" Shiro looked at his wife, who looked up from cutting vegetables. "...I wish you wouldn't use that blade of yours so much."

She shrugged at that. "The kids think it's just a large knife, they don't know it's the dagger that I used to use to carve up bandits with. So, what's the problem?"

"How come you didn't say anything to Nanoha last night?"

She shook her head. "No... I don't think doing that would be for the best right now. Her heritage is waking up now. I'll let her grow into it a bit before explaining things to her."

Shiro sighed, it made sense to him, but still, he wanted to talk to Nanoha about what she was going through. "I imagine she probably has a lot of questions." His wife giggled at him. "What?"

"Oh, that look on your face." She practically purred as she put her dagger down and walked up to him. "It reminds me why I fell for you when I first got here."

He chuckled at her and stared into her eyes. "Can you drop the glamor?" He didn't mind his wife's blue eyes, but he wanted to see her real color again.

She closed her eyes and waved her hand by her face lazily. When she opened them, they had changed color from blue in both eyes to her right eye being red and her left eye being gold. "I don't really like this... It reminds me too much of how I got like this."

Shiro shrugged at that. "Hey, I'm not complaining. Besides, if it wasn't for you, I doubt I'd be here right now."

She sighed as he hugged her. Leaning her head against his chest, she just listened to his heartbeat. "I know. Doesn't make it any easier." She then looked up at him. "Besides," she grinned saucily at him, "if the worst thing Nanoha has to deal with is a thing that can blow up a clinic, then I'm not going to worry."

"Don't say that, you'll jinx it."

She shuddered and hoped that wasn't the case.

Blinking as she saw the ferret her daughter kept as a pet, though she was certain that it was something more than that by now, she wondered why he was here. She had come by due to an odd sensation she had felt, and she thought that her children wouldn't mind a ride home. Unless Shinobu managed to convince Kyouya with some of her cooking.

"Kyu! Kyu!" The ferret tried to get her attention as it ran around her legs before running back the way it came.

Sighing, she followed the thing, before gasping as she came across her daughter's downed form. "Nanoha!" After making sure that her daughter was alive, she sighed and shook her head. "You silly girl, what happened to you?" She had felt the magic distortions, but at the time it hadn't occurred to her to do much about it.

Yuuno blinked as she turned to look at him. "Kyu?"

"Alright you, you're going to explain what happened to me."

"Kyu?" He tilted his head. Better to act like a ferret than let his true nature get revealed.

That went out a moment later when Nanoha's mother held up a hand and a ball of pure flames materialized in it as she narrowed her eyes at him. "I can make these pretty small, I'm sure that I can burn only most of your body."

"I'll talk! I'll talk!" When the flames dissipated, he let out a sigh. "I was right though! You are a mage."

She grimaced slightly. "Sorceress, not mage, close though."

"Why didn't you tell Nanoha that you could do magic?"

She shook her head and concentrated, a white light appearing in her hands as she worked on healing her daughter's body. "It isn't something that everyone has. Even those of us born to parents of magic users aren't guaranteed to be able to use magic." She smirked slightly. "An old friend of mine probably had more potential than I did for using magic, but his memory was so bad that he could never remember any chants for the spells."

"But, what about..?"

"As for why I never told her, ferret, it's simple." She gave him a serious look that had him frozen in place. "There was never a need for her to know about magic. She didn't need to know that she had a lot of potential in magic, there's no dragons, or demons, or other things running around that would require her to use powerful magic, so I never told her about her heritage, nor did I teach her anything."

Yuuno looked at the woman as she sighed heavily. "But now?"

"I wish I had."

"Hey, it's okay. Nanoha's a fast learner, you could..."

The woman shook her head. "That's enough, now, explain what happened here and why my daughter was injured in the trees behind her friend's house."

After hearing the explanation, she sighed. "A rival, huh? Please tell me that she doesn't have an annoying laughter that chills you to the bones."

"Uh... No." Yuuno looked confused, wondering why she'd ask that. "Are you going to tell Nanoha that you can do magic?"

"Not yet." She shook her head. "Not until we go on our family vacation." She smiled at him and suddenly Yuuno felt very nervous. "Far less of a chance I'll accidentally kill someone with my magic."

Yuuno's jaw hit the ground, she wasn't serious, was she?

"You probably don't believe me, huh?" She smiled at him as she indicated her golden eye. "Trust me, using my magic isn't the safest thing in the world." She blinked as she put the glamour back up, her eyes turning blue again.

"I'll... Take your word for it." Yuuno stuttered a bit as Nanoha groaned and woke up.

"Mom?" Nanoha blinked at her. "What are you doing here?"

She shrugged at Nanoha. "Just happened to be in the neighborhood, honey."

"Oh..." Nanoha blinked, wondering how she was going to explain everything.

A few days later...

"So, did they go to sleep, Falin?"

"Yes, Mrs. Takamachi." The maid nodded to her as she smiled softly.

"Good." She smiled as Falin yawned lightly. "Why don't you go to bed too, Falin?"

"What about you, Mrs. Takamachi?" The maid blinked as she smiled softly.

"It's okay. Just get some sleep, I'm going to be up for a little bit, so don't worry." When Falin nodded, she sat in her chair and looked at Shiro, who was sighing softly. "She needs to know, dear."

"I know." Shiro sighed softly. "Are you sure though?"

"She needs to learn somehow, right?" He nodded at her. "Don't worry, I'm not going to teach her anything dangerous," she rolled her eyes as he snorted at her, "I've mellowed out a lot in the years, Shiro, it won't be like what happened in China."

"I know." He smiled at her and kissed her on the lips gently. "I'm more worried about Nanoha though."

"Go to bed." She rolled her eyes as she pulled a black cloak around her body. "We'll be fine."

"Maybe I should be more worried about the landscape?" Shiro muttered as he pulled away from her.

Laughing and rolling her eyes, she slapped him on his butt and shooed him off. "Don't worry about it." She smirked as he promised her later.

Schooling her features, she turned to the door as she saw her daughter try and slip out the side door. "I guess Yuuno told you, hmm?"

"Ack!" Nanoha spun around and gasped as she looked at her mother. "I thought everyone went to sleep."

"They did." She smiled softly. "Walk with me, you too, Yuuno."

"Kyu!" The ferret bounded up on top of Nanoha's shoulder as the young girl followed her mother away from the building.

When her mother stopped in a clearing, Nanoha gulped slightly, she could feel it, a Jewel Seed was nearby. "Mother?"

The woman turned to her and gripped at the front of her cloak. "I need to show you something, Nanoha."

Nanoha's eyes widened, a pulse ran through her. "Ngh.. I'm sorry, mother, but there's something I have to take care of." She turned and ran, mentally apologizing for running out on her mother like that.

Sighing, the older woman shook her head. "Well..." She chuckled to herself. "Might as well see what it's all about." Dropping the glamor around her eyes, she took off after her daughter and the ferret, albeit from a distance. After all, if her daughter didn't need help, she didn't want Nanoha to think she was in danger.

'Pink...' She groaned while looking at her daughter fight that blond-haired girl. 'My daughter's magic is pink.' There had to be some sort of cosmic coincidence for this, there just had to be. Her left eye pulsed slightly and she grumbled. 'Sure do have a sense of humor, huh, Lady?'

Still, as she sat by a nearby rock, she could see her daughter's power, potential and strength, which was good, however, the lack of skill and any real spells was a problem though. Sighing softly, she waited until the duel came to an end. "Well, guess it's better this way." She chuckled to herself as she dropped her cloak and stepped out.

Fate Testarossa was about to claim her prize when the area lit up. Looking up, her eyes widened as several flaming projectiles were launched at her. Flying back, she idly noted that the girl in white had managed to get away from the attack as well. "Who?" She looked around, before stopping as she saw a woman with red hair, a red and yellow outfit wearing a cape and holding some sort of dagger, looking at her and smirking.

"M...Mom? What are you doing here?"

"Oh, I just happened to be in the neighborhood, honey. Now, why don't you let your old woman show you how a real magic battle should be fought?"

'At least that explains why she has so much magic.' Fate thought to herself as she floated in the air. Regardless...

"Photon Lancer."

"Mom! Look out!" Nanoha yelled, her eyes wide as Fate's magical projectiles were launched at her mother. Surprisingly enough, her mother did nothing but smirk at them as she raised a hand up. "What?" Nanoha stared in shock as the attacks bounced off of an invisible barrier that sprung up.

"Those attacks weren't bad, little girl, but I've known insane third rate sorcerers who could do better than that."

"Grr... Why you!" That familiar growled and ran up to Nanoha's mother, trying to punch her in the head. Her eyes widened as the redheaded woman ducked under the attack, grabbed her arm and pushed her body up, driving her head into the familiar's gut, before she was slammed to the ground. "Nnngh."

"Why don't you try that again, wolfgirl?" The woman said in a bored tone of voice. "This time, I'll make sure not to dodge it."

Rolling to her feet, the wolf growled at her. "Why you!"

"Arf, wait." The blond girl called out softly, watching, in a lot of shock, as the woman grabbed Arf's fist with ease, before squeezing it and bringing her familiar to her knees with a cry of pain.

"Please, is that the limits of your strength?" The woman twisted Arf's arm, causing her to cry out in pain as pressure was put on her hand and arm. "Girl, I used to have to fight trolls and ogres, and let me tell you something, the little bit of strength you have is nothing compared to them." Using her free hand, the woman tapped her chin. "Then again, my husband did teach me a lot of hand-to-hand after I met him." Suddenly she grabbed her dagger and swung it out, the blade of her weapon meeting the axe blade of Fate's weapon. "So, you're the one who hurt my daughter, huh?"

"Who, ngh..." Fate grimaced, her arms were shaking from the strength she was putting into her attack, but the other woman wasn't budging. "Who are you?"

"Who am I, you ask?" The woman smirked as she looked at Fate with her red and golden eyes. "My name is Lina Takamachi. But I used to be known as Lina Inverse."

So, there you go. Lina Inverse is Nanoha Takamachi's mother. MWAHAHAHAHAHA!

Canon is going to be LOTS of fun this time around!