#Anyway vita is back and vita is of course very nice and hopefully she does vita things and it'll be fun

[godisasimp]

Oh fuck yeah Vita is gonna troll people again.

[snickerl]

Elixir Vitae

AU XF fanfic set around the time of IWTB.

A/N: Thank you, guys, for your kind comments. You've earned yourself the next installment.

Find previous chapters here: Chapter I

Chapter II

After a restless night in my comfortless motel room and a hasty coffee in the morning, I'm back at the clinic to see her, only that I don't have any idea how to keep a low profile.

I'm contemplating which unsuspicious words to say to her when I hear Dr. Pratt call me, "Mr. Mulder!" He's waving at me on his way over to where I'm standing, still indecisive about how to approach her.

"Dr. Pratt."

We shake hands.

"How did your conversation go with your wife yesterday?"

"Oh, good. Really good, I suppose."

"And you're here to see her again?"

"Uh, yes. I hope that's not a problem."

"No, not at all. She seemed very upbeat and in a good temper at our late afternoon therapy session. The chat with you did her good."

"I was hoping it would."

I don't know what it would've done to me, had he said that our conversation had disturbed her that much that I should refrain from talking to her today.

"Just keep in mind that her mental condition is sensitive. You mustn't confuse or unsettle her. Don't try to induce anything. Her memory has to come back naturally and at its own pace. If you put the words into her mouth, she won't be able to differentiate between what she remembered herself and what she was told. It could be devastating for her."

Above his metal-rimmed spectacles, Dr. Pratt throws me a serious look which urges me to nod in understanding.

"I got it, Dr. Pratt. I'll be cautious not to undermine her healing process. It's just that I missed my wife terribly those past three months. I was afraid I'd never see her again. Now that I found her, I can't just sit in my room and wait for her to remember me."

I get a compassionate pat on the shoulder.

"I understand, Mr. Mulder. I understand you very well. If you're looking for her, after our morning group she said she wanted to go for a stroll around the pond. You might find her there."

"Thank you, doctor," I say and am already on my way.

It doesn't take me long until I spot her. The clinic park is not very big and her red hair is reflecting the early day sun. Scully's by the little pond, watching a mother duck with her little ducklings. She doesn't see me coming, so I make my presence known with a silent cough.

She looks up and smiles. "Hey, Fox! It's you again!"

Alright, the short-term memory seems to work just fine.

"Yeah, hi, it's me again."

I grin. Stupidly, I suppose. I hope my face doesn't show how much I missed her last night when I was lying in my bed all alone, terribly cold because she wasn't there to warm me.

"Where's your wife?"

Darn, I have to lie to her again, and I feel a sting of guilt because of it.

"She, uh, isn't feeling well. Doctor Pratt ordered bedrest for the remains of the day."

"Poor thing. I hope she gets better soon. Doctor Pratt is my attending physician as well. He's a good therapist. Your wife is in good hands."

Her genuine concern for this woman, who doesn't exist but is, in fact, she herself, troubles me.

“I know," I answer and push the lump back down my throat which threatens to suffocate me.

She doesn't seem to notice my uneasiness, her eyes are back on the duck family.

"Aren't they cute?” She's thrilled by the fluffy feather balls bustling around. “Look how the little ones follow their mother everywhere she moves."

She breaks a few crumbs off a bun she pulls out of the pocket of her jacket and throws them into the water.

"It's from the breakfast buffet," she whispers conspicuously to me. "We're not supposed to take food out of the dining hall, so...shhh," she puts her index finger to her mouth, "don't tell anyone!"

"My lips are sealed," I tell her with one hand up in the air as if I was put on oath.

She throws me a satisfied smile, casting more crumbs at the ducks that swim toward them cackling loudly.

"See that tiny one over there?"

She points to a dark brown duckling, somewhat smaller than its siblings.

I nod.

"It's the smallest. I bet it was the last one to hatch, and now it's still too slow to get any of the crumbs because the others are snatching all of them from under its nose."

She clicks her tongue.

"C'mere little baby duckling, I've got something for you."

Her voice is smooth as silk as she's trying to draw the little bird toward her. When the duckling swims in our direction, she throws a few crumbs in front of its tiny beak.

"Here you go! Quick, before your brothers and sisters get scent of this private feeding!"

The duckling seems to understand. It snags a piece almost as big as its head without making any fuss, then swims in the opposite direction to nibble at it in peace and quiet.

"It's gonna make it," Scully says confidently.

"How can you be so sure?" I wonder.

"The small ones tend to be underestimated, but they're tough. Often tougher than the others."

"Just like you?" I venture.

She straightens her back, then looks down at her small physique and sighs, "hopefully."

Oh, Scully, if only you knew how strong you are! How unyielding and tenacious you can be!

If she remembered how she fought her way through a male-dominated environment for years and years, how she withstood the dark forces that tried to destroy her, how she managed to survive one misfortune in her life after another, she'd have a much greater deal of faith in her ability to master this crisis.

I do, but she's not aware of her strength, instead her self-doubts and insecurity are so palpable that I jump up from the bench and position myself in front of her. I have to break her free from this contemplative mood.

"How about a walk around the pond?" I ask her.

She looks up at me, squinting one eye as the sun is dazzling her.

"Yes, that would be nice."

"Let's go then. It'll take your mind off things."

She shows me a sweet smile and closes the gap I established between us by taking a few of my extensive steps.

I wish I could take her hand, but that's completely out of the question, of course. So we walk side by side for a while without talking, simply enjoying the other's presence. At least, I can say that for me. I enjoy every step I'm making with her beside me. If I just knew what to talk to her about.

"You know what really bugs me, Fox?" she eventually fills the silence with her lovely voice.

"That you can't remember what you prefer, Coke or Pepsi?" I venture for a joke and earn myself an eye roll I'm very familiar with.

"That I don't remember anything about my family. I am someone's daughter, but I don't remember my parents. Do I have brothers and sisters? Am I married? Divorced? Somebody's girlfriend? Am I a mother?"

There are so many sad answers to her questions that it makes bile rise up my food pipe, the only positive being our happy marriage. I could tell her how I proposed to her while we were on the run, barely a year after she dug me out of that rotten prison cell with Skinner's help. How it was meant to make a family of us, although without William we'd never be one really. We'd always be just a couple, not a family. Considering this I have to say that I'd have to give her sad answers to all her questions. She might want to keep her amnesia if she knew.

"Why isn't anybody picking me up here? Or at least paying me a visit? Does that mean there is nobody in my life who cares enough to be wondering where I am? To be noticing I'm gone in the first place?"

My heart crumbles to pieces. Am I really supposed to leave her in the dark about that? To let her believe she's not missed? Not cared about? Not loved?

"I'm sure there is someone desperately trying to find you, Kelly. I guess they just haven't found you yet," I simply have to tell her. "I'm sure this someone will turn up soon and everything's gonna be fine."

"If you say so," she says but doesn't sound convinced. "It's so much easier if you know what or who you're going through this for. The examinations, MRI's, therapy, medication. Your wife is lucky to have you, Fox. You come here every day to visit her. I wished I had someone who supported me like that."

I realize when I'm given a golden opportunity, and I'm eagerly seizing it.

"I could say hello whenever I'm here."

"Oh, no! I could never ask you to do that."

"You're not asking for it, I'm offering it to you."

"Wouldn't your wife mind?"

"She's...uh, resting a lot. My visits are always bound to be quite short. I can spend my time with her and still have enough of it to look after you. I don't know what to do with myself anyway. So, if you don't mind to have me around once in a while..." I trail off, holding my breath in anticipation of her answer. Hopefully, I don't sound bothersome or over-zealous.

"No, I don't mind. I don't mind at all," she says, and I try to subtly let the air out of my lungs.

"It's settled then," I conclude, "you won't think of me as a stalker if I pay you a short visit every day." I don't intend to keep my visits too short, though, but I don't have to tell her now.

"I will think of you as a very kind person, Fox, and I will be looking forward to your visit every day."

She sounds almost giddy and my heart bursts.

"Good."

Wonderful! Marvelous! Splendid!

I part from her more easily today than yesterday, now that I know that I will see her again tomorrow and that she's looking forward to seeing me.

I'm relieved and full of hope for the first time in three months, hope that I will wake up from this nightmare eventually.

to be continued

[darkcloud-kcalifornia]

Blarg.  I’m supposed to be playing Santa on Saturday, and here I am with a sore throat and general bleh feeling.  Well, hopefully I’ll get better by then.  I can’t very well be Santa if I can’t Ho Ho Ho.  But anyway, in the meantime how about trying to self-medicate with sci-fi military magical girl anime?  This is StrikerS episode 11, “Riot Force 6’s Day Off (Part 2)”.

* Oddly enough this is listed as “Mobile Section Six’s Day Off (Part 2)” on Amazon.  I have no idea if the inconsistent title is their screw up or a Japanese original, but either way, I’m pretty sure that would have been an easy enough fix.

* We start off at the Saint Church with Carim talking to Chrono, who is now an Admiral, Captain of a ship called the Claudia, and married.  He looks weird without shoulder spikes.  Of course he isn’t exactly in his Barrier Jacket right now, so maybe he still goes needlessly spiky in battle.

* Signum shows up saying that negotiations have gone well, but before they can get to the next order of business they get the emergency call from Hayate.

* Back over to the kids, they all manage to meet up.  The little girl is still out cold, but Caro has taken the time to at least seal the case chained to the girl so they’re pretty sure that one’s signature is off the radar now.  But then they also aren’t blind and noticed the empty chain wrappings for a second case and are acting on the assumption something happened to that one.

* Oh joy.  Hayate informs Carim and Chrono that this is happening in a residential area, which means that if the stuff from the sewers other than the girl hits the fan, as it certainly will, they’ll have to worry about civilian casualties!  Yay…

* Shamal gives the girl a quick once over and says her vitals are steady, so that’s at least one worry down.  They’re going to evacuate her and the Relic on Storm Raider, while the kids are ordered to start an investigation.

* Shari gives the warning of Gadgets approaching from both the air over the ocean and from the sewers. Vita’s already over the ocean, so Rein is ordered to act as her reinforcement while Nanoha and Fate cover another sector of the sky, while Shamal and Vice make sure the helicopter gets out of there in one piece.  While they’re doing that the kids and Ginga are going to handle things in the sewers.

* Transformation sequence time, yay!  It really is one of the joys of magical girl anime.

* Kinda interesting that normally Devices that aren’t adorable chibis refer to others as “master” or “sir” or the like.  But when Rein and Storm Raider briefly talk the helicopter calls Rein “my friend”.  A show of Device comradery, maybe?

* Like many magical girls before her Lutecia can appreciate the drama of the high ground.

* The Doc’s assistant asks if Lutecia needs backup, but she’s sure that Garyu will be enough.  The assistant tells Lutecia they’ll make sure to make her a priority if it does become necessary before closing the vidscreen.

* Ginga calls the kids, and Tea tells her what sector they want her to cover.  Providing she can find her way there.  I mean, she’s got a map of the sewers and all, but it’s still dark and samey and full of poo gas.  Ginga transforms, but sadly does not get a sequence for it.

* Ginga informs Hayate that the life pod from the truck she had been investigating looked about the right size to hold a 5 or 6 year old.  The age of the girl they found.  And that something had definitely been dragged from the scene.  And Hayate has seen something earlier involving an artificial mage project.  Chances are high that girl was made, not born.  But then that’s nothing new for the Nanoha crew.  They’ll just have to give her even more hugs now.

* The artificial mage project is something familiar to Subaru as well, though not to Caro. Subaru explains that along with the cloning shenanigans of Project Fate, the Artificial Mage Project also involves subsequent injections and cybernetic enhancements to bring out the best in its “products”.  Tea chimes in that sane people don’t really bother with it, as besides all of the myriads of ethical problems in creating life and slave soldiers, there’s also the more practical concerns about the tech not being reliable all of the time, a definite problem when they’re injections and implants, and the cost of making a cyborg soldier is, to be blunt, ludicrous.

* …though on a separate note, it’s interesting that while many series that have both tech and magic have tech, such as implants, impeding one’s ability to use supernatural powers, while in this one tech is used not only as tools, but straight up magical enhancers in the body.

* It’s a little disappointing we don’t actually get to see Rein cut loose here.  It’s also disappointing that her Barrier Jacket involves one knee high sock.  I just don’t get “fashionable” asymmetry.

* Reinforcements show up over the ocean for the Gadgets.  Elsewhere a girl in a purple body suit and white cape, with brown pigtails, shiny glasses, and a roman numeral IV giggles.  She is Quattro, using her special ability called Silver Curtain.  Apparently she’s an illusionist.

* The illusions are good enough to fool all of the sensors back at base.  There now seem to be hundreds of the things flying about, which makes hitting the real ones a bit difficult.  Granted, apparently Nanoha’s shield is strong enough for her and Fate to tank their missile fire, which is incredibly awesome, but this is still a problem.

* Fate tells Nanoha to get to da chopper.  She’s going to release her limiter and take them all out in a single burst.  Hayate calls them up and belays that.  While wearing her Barrier Jacket.  Chrono just sent permission for Hayate to release her limiter, so these things are about to get the full fury of the Queen of Night Sky.

* Chrono wants to make sure that Hayate wants to do this, as it’ll take a while for him to get permission to release her limiter again.  Also, because she’s in a populated area she most certainly cannot use her full force, so only most of the limiter is getting released.

* Ginga joins with the kids after they smash up the sewer Gadgets.  Meanwhile in the sky the base’s support crew, the Long Arch, link with Hayate to help her aim her spell.  Apparently she’s just not that good at it unless she’s with Rein.

* As Hayate proceeds to snow-nuke the airborne Gadgets into oblivion from her position above the base Giffith orders Shari to scan the areas Hayate is blasting to gather data on which units are destroyed and which were illusion, so they can hopefully differentiate them next time.  Smart thinking

* I have to admit, I would not choose to use dragon flame in a sewer.  So much methane down there.

* Subaru and Ginga pull off a decent dual tech, where Ginga occupies the arms of one of the big orb Gadgets so Subaru can punch through the thing’s armor and fire a Divine Buster on the inside.  Even if her Divine Busters aren’t anything compared to Nanoha’s, that’s still gotta hurt. Well I suppose not really as those things are just non-sentient machines.  But if it had a nervous system that would’ve hurt.

* Caro finds the Relic in a large chamber, only to get jumped by a stealth opponent.  Erio defects the blow just in time, but gets a minor injury in the process.  The stealth field drops, revealing an insectoid knight.

* Say hi to Garyu.

* While the kids look at their new opponent Lutecia sneaks up from behind and grabs the case before blasting Caro and Erio into a pillar hard enough to leave a crater.

* While Ginga tries to fight Garyu Subaru tries to talk Lutecia into dropping the Relic.  When that fails Tea uses her own stealth field to get close enough to put her light-dagger to Lutecia’s throat and make a more pointed argument.

* Magical flashbangs are pretty effective.  Especially when you can use telepathy to warn only your allies that it’s coming.  The kids are both blinded and deafened.

* Tea recovers quickly enough to take a shot at Lutecia’s head, but Garyu blocks the blast.  Points to Tea though, it broke a chunk off his armor. Exoskeleton?  Whatever.

* The caster of the flashbang is a little red haired chibi-girl like Rein named Agito.  She’s definitely got a lil’ devil motif in her design.  She also takes the time to strike some poses to magical fireworks.  Like, she actually generates fireworks to pose in front of while everybody stares at her. It’s a little cute… but still nowhere even close to as cute as Rein, so there!

* Agito tells Ginga and kids to bring it.  She’ll take ‘em all at once!  Whether or not that involves ankle-biting is yet to be seen.

 And that’s the end of that episode.  Technically this is yet another action cliffhanger rather than a proper episode end, but as it is the end of the (somewhat) named two-parter it’s time for final thoughts on that.  This two-parter provided some cute elements early on, but then contrasted them with the action and drama of part two.  Still, when it got to be time for the action there honestly wasn’t that much of it. Still, we got a few nice shots. Hayate exploding entire squadrons of fliers in multiple locations with a single spell.  The closer-than-point-blank Divine Buster.  Nanoha shrugging off missile fire.  We also got to see a few new antagonists with Quatro, Garyu, and Agito. Still, the episode has some interesting elements, but didn’t really feel like an actiony thriller as there was still quite a bit of exposition in here.  Mind you, exposition gives me things to mull over so I can’t complain too much about that.