Characters / Game Theory (Lyrical Nanoha)

This page lists characteristics of canon characters that are specific to this fanfic (along with original characters, naturally). For the original versions of the characters, please see Lyrical Nanoha.

NOTE: As Power Games is ongoing, this page contains unmarked spoilers for Game Theory.

---

Main Characters

Nanoha Takamachi

"At first it was like a story, and I was the heroine and helping people and saving a little girl's life. But now… everything's complicated"

Nanoha was just an ordinary third grader, until one day she got Magic Powers. For the most part, this Nanoha isn't much different from the original version - until she good-naturedly changed sides and decided to help Fate and Precia obtain the Jewel Seeds. The girl who was canonically a hero became a criminal and a huge threat to the TSAB.

In Power Games, six months have passed and she's now living in hiding with Fate's family. When she learns her mother's been attacked, Nanoha immediately prepares to return home.

Tropes befriended by Nanoha:

• Badass Adorable.
• Big Damn Heroes: Saves Tiida from one of the out of control defense mecha of the Garden of Time, and then Linith from Lotte after that. Her attempt to do this with Arisa doesn't go as well.
• Boxing Lessons for Superman: Nanoha learns staff fighting from her sister so that she can use her Device as a melee weapon in magical combat.
• Break the Cutie: See the quote page. Chapter 13 of Game Theory really drives home just how badly the events have shattered Nanoha.
• Child Prodigy: She's even one compared to Fate, who herself is one to the TSAB.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: This causes her to join Precia.
• Conflicting Loyalty: More than once Nanoha has been forced to choose between Fate and Yuuno, which causes her no end of grief because they're both her friends.
  She’d have to thank him the next time she saw him. And then smack him for sealing Alicia like that. And then apologise for letting him think she was dead. It occurred to Nanoha that her feelings regarding the boy who’d introduced her to magic were probably a bit more confused than was wise for someone working with an organisation that wanted to arrest her.
• Crippling Overspecialization: As mentioned by Linith; Aside from some skill in shields and binds, Nanoha's best talents lay in being a mobile Wave-Motion Gun with her bombardment-type spells. Certainly useful in some situations, but useless if stealth is necessary. It's the reason Vesta has power over illusions.
• Faking the Dead: End of Game Theory
• Fatal Flaw: Throughout the story, Nanoha ultimately believes that courage, good intentions, and the power to make those intentions into reality can solve anything. She's wrong. And the worst part is she doesn't realize she's wrong; when she makes a mistake she rationalizes it to think it wasn't so bad and that the fault was with herself, not her beliefs. And then there's her Chronic Hero Syndrome...
• The Fettered: Nanoha lives by her sense of justice and it drives her to join Precia.
• Fish out of Water: On Schzenais.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Sanguine.
• Good with Numbers: Is said to be the top of her class in mathematics, which propels her aptitude with Magic.
• Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?: When Arisa accuses her of having a crush on Fate.
  “Anyway," she added after a moment’s thought, “... she's a girl. Girls get crushes on boys, not girls.” She nodded, secure in her logic.
• Hazy-Feel Turn: Nanoha joins Precia in this story. Both Precia's group and the TSAB are sympathetic, with plenty of reasons to fight each other.
• Heroic BSoD: When one of her attempted improvisations with magic she didn't understand nearly killed several people.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Despite being called the opposite by her mother. She believes Precia when she's told the TSAB, and particularly Chrono, are evil. Unfortunately she takes Dark Is Evil and Spikes of Villainy too much at face value.
• I Just Want To Stay Special: The TSAB threatens to permanently take Nanoha's magic away from her if she keeps helping Fate. The notion absolutely terrifies her.
• Innocent Prodigy: In contrast to canon where she was Wise Beyond Her Years.
• Instant Expert: The speed at which she excels at Magic frightens Yuuno.
• In the Hood: She added one to her barrier jacket. She's yet to actually use it, but it's Vesta's favorite spot to ride in.
• Keeping Secrets Sucks: Having to uphold The Masquerade with her friends causes Nanoha considerable stress.
• Last-Second Chance: A truly heart-breaking example; once Precia's plan to reach Al Hazard has guaranteed success, Yuuno tries to plead with Nanoha to abandon her and go back with the TSAB, since the very reason Nanoha joined Precia is now complete. Nanoha opts to go with Precia.
  • Same thing at the end of Power Games. With Precia dead, she feels she has to stay with Fate to ensure that she and Alicia are taken care of.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Nanoha is very reckless with magic. This has serious consequences when one of her improvisations goes horribly wrong at a crucial time.
• Like a Duck Takes to Water: This was suggested in canon, but in Game Theory it's made clear that Nanoha has freakish natural talent in magic...especially since she had no exposure to magic beforehand, like nearly everyone else in Dimensional Space.
• Like Mother Like Daughter: Guess where Nanoha gets her magic from?
• Little Miss Badass.
• Love at First Punch: After receiving a solid 'befriending' from Fate, all she can think of are those beautiful eyes. Culminates in a Held Gaze where Nanoha chooses to abandon everything and everyone she's ever known to stay by Fate's side.
• Must Make Amends: Plans to do this to all the people she's harmed.
• Naïve Everygirl: Where she starts...
• Not Quite Flight: Nanoha herself is fully capable of flight, but she re-enacts Mei's barrier platform plan to help Tiida's squad get up a few floors. Her attempt goes much smoother.
• Our Hero Is Dead: Nanoha and the others appear to fall into Imaginary Space, but it turns out to have been a ploy by Precia to throw the TSAB off their trail.
• The Pollyanna: Even though she knows the world is not an idealistic place, she still clings to her ideals.
• Skilled, but Naive.
• Sore Loser: Nanoha does not like being outdone.
• Spanner in the Works: Nanoha could be considered a triumphant subversion. Her efforts to recover the Jewel Seeds had the potential to completely ruin Precia's attempt to revive Alicia, and in fact she did stop Precia's plan to go to Alhazred. However, that is because Nanoha's influence allows Precia to create an even better plan to revive Alicia, which succeeds.
  • In Power Games Nanoha derails one of Precia's plans before it even begins. After she receives Linith's initial report of the events on Earth, Precia hopes to keep the information away from her daughters and the familiars as she does not want to get herself or Alicia's protectors involved. As Precia begins to make her plans, her daughters and the familiars receive a message from Nanoha giving the very information that Precia did not want them to know. This forces Precia to bring everyone to Earth.
• Superpower Lottery: Nanoha's untrained AA rank, sheer innate mana power and natural instinct for Magic are said to be almost freakishly unnatural and come up once in a generation.
  • There is speculation about the exact origin of her abilities from both the characters and readers - and there are some hints that there's more to it than simply random chance. Regardless, it's definitely from her mother's side.
• Tragic Hero: In the end, she goes with Fate and Precia to Imaginary Space, as she ultimately feels they need her. Subverted though when it turns out they weren't going into Imaginary Space after all...
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: As Heidi realizes, Nanoha's gone through far too much for a girl of her age.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Nanoha has the raw power of a AA rank mage, but lacks proper training at first.
  • Actually, she has a AA rank in spite of her lack of training. Her raw power is more in line with an S rank mage.
• Unwitting Pawn: The poor girl not only gets manipulated by Precia, but after Precia dies, Jail mercilessly manipulates her.
• Villain Protagonist: After joining Precia, though you could argue she's closer to an Anti-Villain Protagonist.
• Was It All a Lie?: Doubts Yuuno this way a few chapters into the story.
• Was It Really Worth It?: Yes. Yes it was.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist:
• Wise Beyond Their Years: Downplayed. Nanoha is noticeably less mature than in canon, although she is still quite mature for her age.
• Worf Had the Flu: It's noted that Nanoha had been drained from traveling before she fights Vita, and her abilities were delayed since she was anonymising her magic to hide from the TSAB.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Nanoha mistakenly believes her world plays Magical Girl tropes straight. Game Theory does not.
  This was nothing like any of the stories she’d read, where the bad guy was obviously bad, and the good guys were obviously good, and the heroes always won and everyone was happy.
• You Can't Go Home Again: After joining Precia.

Fate Testarossa

"This is something I can do. Must do. And I can't allow you- or anyone else - to stop me from protecting my family. Do you understand?"

Unlike in the canon works, Precia actually accepted Fate as her second daughter. As a result of this, Fate was somewhat less of a sad character, and more driven than ever to save her "older sister". Another side-effect of the change left Fate more open to negotiate with Nanoha, which resulted in her recruiting Nanoha to Precia's cause.

After the events of Game Theory, the Testarossa family goes into hiding on Schzenais. Upon learning that Nanoha was attacked by Vita, Fate immediately decides to return to Earth to help her friend.

Tropes associated with Fate:

• Anti-Villain: Like in canon, but different. Fate is still a kind-hearted and determined girl, it's just that she now has no reason to switch sides.
  • Anti-Villain Protagonist: It's as much Fate's story as it is Nanoha's, particularly in the opening chapters.
• Big Little Sister: To Alicia. Amusingly, Alicia thinks "big-little sister" sounds weird and that "little-big sister" might work better.
• Big Sister Instinct.
• Berserk Button: Doing anything to endanger Alicia in front of her is a bad move.
• Buffy Speak: When she was really tired.
  Fate: … yeah, that's one of… thingies.
• Child Prodigy: To the TSAB. Nanoha is likewise a Child Prodigy from Fate's perspective, as Nanoha had even less time to grow into her magic than Fate did, but was nearly as strong.
• Child Soldier.
• Combat Pragmatist: And how. See the main page for details.
• The Dragon: To Precia.
  • Co-Dragons: She could also be considered this with Linith.
• Faking the Dead: End of Game Theory.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Melancholic.
• Guilt Complex: Part of Fate's character is that she blames herself for things that aren't necessarily her fault.
  • In the ending of Game Theory, she says it's all her fault that Nanoha had to abandon her family to help hers, but Nanoha and Arf both tell her otherwise.
  • In Power Games, she blames herself for failing to prevent Zest and Quint from reaching Precia at the climax of Game Theory, which even Precia tells her is nonsense.
• Hates Being Touched: Notable in it's absence; unlike her canon self Fate doesn't seem to have any problem being touched. This probably has to do with a better upbringing.
• Heroic BSoD: For a certain definition of heroic; this technically happens to Fate when the story begins, and Precia actually sends Fate into one in Chapter 3 just by insinuating Fate isn't working hard enough.
  • In Chapter 9 of Power Games she shuts down after Linith's death and starts staring at a wall. She quickly gets better when she hears the Wolkenritter are on the attack.
• Little Miss Badass.
• Noodle Incident: She mentions at one point that she found out the hard way that food that tastes good to a familiar isn't nearly as appetizing for a human.
• Not a Morning Person: According to Alicia.
• Other Me Annoys Me: Well not quite annoyed, but Fate's baffled by Alicia's excitable behavior and struggles to recall if she was ever that hyper when she was first made.
• Poor Communication Kills: A triumphant aversion; unlike in the canon work where Fate had little to say to Nanoha, in this fic she actually explains her motives, which prompts Nanoha to chnage sides.
• Tactical Withdrawal: In chapter 9 of Power Games she tries to communicate with Signum when she realizes that Signum is going through what she did. However, Fate is forced to leave Signum behind when the Mariage attack.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Fate is noticeably more gentle to Nanoha than in the original work, especially in that Fate takes Nanoha to a safer location and helps to ease her pain when Nanoha suffers from the explosion seen in episode 6 of the actual series. Fate's actions strengthens Nanoha's belief that Fate isn't all bad.
• Tyke Bomb: Precia raised Fate for the express purpose of being her agent in the quest to revive Alicia. Unlike in canon, however, she was not mistreated in any way that would potentially diminish her loyalty to Precia.
• Undying Loyalty: A defining part of Fate's character. She's loyal to her mother, loyal to her sister, and seems to be developing this same loyalty to Nanoha - to the point where she even starts to adopt some of Nanoha's ideals.
• Unstoppable Rage: When Yuuno inadvertently incapacitates Alicia, Fate flips out.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: As in the original series, Fate is still determined to earn Precia's love. The circumstances are different this time however; Fate is fully aware she's a failed clone of Alicia, and strives to make herself useful in a different way. She does eventually win Precia's approval. It's the last thing Precia says to her before falling into a coma.
• Younger Than They Look: Physically, Fate's nine, but she's only existed for about three years. This is a result of her being "born" with a six-year-old body.

Yuuno Scrya

"I just feel helpless...Like (Nanoha)'s in trouble, and on the wrong side, and I can't do anything to help her or convince her otherwise"

An Adventurer Archaeologist who initially partners with Nanoha in their search for the Jewel Seeds. The arrival of the TSAB complicated matters, and a few too many innocent things kept from Nanoha drove her to doubt him and join Fate's cause. After that, Yuuno was forced to work against his friend and former partner. Vesta seems to particularly enjoy chasing him.

In Power Games, Lindy asks him to advise a covert TSAB team on Earth.

Tropes associated with Yuuno:

• Attack Reflector: Pulls a variation in Chapter 8 of Power Games. He uses a barrier to deflect an attack into the ground, releasing debris. The barrier then deflects the debris into the attacker.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: Yuuno's greatest ability is his mind.
• Badass Bookworm: His knowledge of ancient technology comes in handy against one of the Garden's constructs empowered by a Jewel Seed.
• Bearer of Bad News: To Nanoha's family along with Quint, explaining Nanoha's (apparent) death.
• Butt-Monkey: Yuuno has the worst luck in this fanfic, either being chased by various large cats repeatedly or getting lost in the city. One of the author's infodumps even forces him to dress up. In ferret form.
  Yuuno: What did I do to deserve this? Dammit, this is unfair! Somebody, somewhere, somehow, is punishing me for something I haven’t even done yet!
• Child Prodigy: While it hasn't been explicitly mentioned, he's more skilled than some mages who are years older than him.
• Demoted to Extra: Initially a primary character alongside Nanoha, Nanoha's defection after the first third of the story sees Yuuno losing a lot of camera time by comparison.
  • Part of this is also due to the cast expansion that occurred at the time.
• Embarrassing Nickname: "Mousey."
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Phlegmatic.
• The Heart: For the TSAB, being the most emotional member and the one most desiring to get Nanoha to change sides again.
• Hero Antagonist: After Nanoha changes sides.
• Heroic BSoD: When Nanoha once again chooses to go with Fate, and (apparently) enters Imaginary Space.
• I'm An Archaeologist, Not A Dimensional Cruiser Engineer: In his narration.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Has a subdued example of this trope when he nearly kills Alicia while trying to seal the Jewel Seed keeping her alive.
• Not Now, Kiddo: The other TSAB officers partially ignore his impassioned speeches about the Garden of Time and how amazing it is throughout chapter 12 of Game Theory. They do pay more attention when he says he might be able to read a map of the place.
• Open Mouth, Insert Foot: When asking Nanoha how her father got his scars, Yuuno says that he's only seen wounds like that on dead bodies. He immediately realizes that he couldn't possibly have phrased that worse.
• Poor Communication Kills: Keeping a few harmless secrets from Nanoha causes her to doubt him in later chapters.
  • In the final chapter he tells Nanoha that Precia doesn't need her help anymore while also saying that Nanoha will risk her life by going with Precia - which causes Nanoha to believe that Precia would need her help because it's dangerous.
• Superpowerful Genetics: His ability to transform into a ferret (which is unique to him and never explained in the canon material) is explained in fanfic as being a result of this trope.
• Took a Level in Badass: Gains a Device in later chapters proves instrumental in sealing away one of the Jewel Seeds.
• Wise Beyond Their Years/Acting Your Intellectual Age: Usually.

Arf

"(Fate) also wants to apologise for using so much force. Please understand, we can't accept failure in our mission."

Fate's trusted Familiar. She's largely the same as in canon, except a bit less worried and more easygoing as a result of Fate's somewhat improved circumstances in the fanfic.

Tropes associated with Arf:

• Animal Jingoism: Averted; Arf and Vesta get along well together.
• Barrier Warrior: It's explained in that Arf acts as Fate's shield, which makes sense given that Fate's durability is her weakest trait. In Power Games even Signum is caught off guard by Arf's barriers.
• The Brute: For Precia's group; being a Barrier Warrior and a wolf, she's the most prominent member of the group, physically.
• Buffy Speak: "You're the one with the geniusness and… stuff."
• Establishing Character Moment: More like Establishing Differing Characterization Moment; Arf's encounter with Nanoha at the hot spring, where she threatened Nanoha in canon, is considerably less antagonistic in this fanfic.
  • Took a Level in Kindness: In general she's more accepting of Nanoha right from the start. By the end she outright states she's family.
• Fantastic Foxes: An All There in the Manual infodump says Arf is genetically more of a fox than a wolf.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Leukine: Arf has a relatively well-rounded personality, especially once she starts interacting with Nanoha and Vesta in addition to Fate.
• The Generic Guy: To an extent; Arf serves as an emotional center for the foursome of Nanoha, Vesta, herself and Fate. She counterbalances Fate's seriousness and Nanoha and Vesta's impulsiveness.
• Noodle Incident: She once made Fate a mud pie as a gift. Arf made it without understanding what a mud pie is, implying that she gave Fate a literal pie made out of mud.
• Only Sane Man: She has shades of this in later chapters, compared to Nanoha and Vesta. In the final chapter of Power Games, she's the one who has to restrain Fate from attacking Yuuno on site.
• Sleep-Mode Size: A standard familiar ability, she uses it in Power Games to be in the same school class as Alicia.
• Team Mom: Actually enforces this trope in public; because Nanoha and Fate are both minors, Arf's ability to take the appearance of an Adult comes in handy.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Ramen. Fate often berates her for trying to sneak it.
• Uplifted Animal: The source of her Undying Loyalty to Fate in this fanfic.
• With Catlike Tread: Arf's attempt to sneak past Fate to get at the ramen probably would have gone better if she hadn't been humming a song about ramen.

Vesta

Vesta was a brave kitten. Great sagas would have been written about her deeds, had any of the humans been intelligent enough to recognise and acknowledge them for what they were.

"No...You're not my kitten. You're my master, which is a billion times better and more important."

A simple Monster of the Week Mega Neko from the original series, Vesta takes Ascended Extra to the extreme by later becoming Nanoha's familiar to help her cope with her feelings of loneliness. A semi-original character for the fanfic.

Tropes associated with Vesta:

• Action Girl.
• A God Am I: Played for laughs when Nanoha makes Vesta her familiar.
  Vesta: I can open closed doors with my hands! She has made me into a god.
• Animal Jingoism: Averted; Arf and Vesta get along well together.
• Ascended Extra: Remember the cat that found a Jewel Seed and got huge and then we never saw it again? Same cat.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!
• Badass Adorable
• Battle Butler: Her outfit seems to invoke this.
• Big Damn Heroes: Attempts to pull this off to rescue Linith from Lotte. It kind of works, since Linith is rescued by Nanoha.
• Big Eater: She claims it's only a side-effect of being wounded. Later, we find the things Nanoha has seen Vesta eat include "grass, a pureed blend of pear and tuna from one of Alicia’s cooking experiments, a two-day old dead vole, several tufts of Arf’s fur and one of Nanoha’s own training shots".
• Blinded by the Light: Vesta can use her illusion skills as a magical flashbang.
• Buffy Speak: In both her dialogue and her narration. For example, she says that Shiro is "A little like (Nanoha). But bigger and more square. And a boy.", Fate is "the evil dark human of evil," and her magic is "electric shooty bolts of doom."
• Calling Your Attacks: She often does this for laughs. Vesta pounce!
• Captain Obvious: Occasionally.
  Vesta: … I'm fairly sure evil glowiness is bad, mistress.
• Catgirl
• Cats Are Superior: She seems to think this. And among cats, she's superior!
• Chekhov's Gunman: Big time.
• Cute Kitten: In her cat form.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Prefers to wear dark colors.
• Didn't Think This Through: Attempts to hide from Linith by turning invisible. It probably would have worked better if she wasn't covered in paint and tracking paw prints everywhere, however.
• Dual Age Modes: Like most familiars, she can become a young child, an adult human, a kitten, or her war form.
• Dumbass Has a Point: Vesta is the one who gives a key insight in the final battle of Power Games. Though said insight amounts to Nanoha shooting something really hard.
• Expy: Word of God states that appearence wise, she's one to Seras Victoria.
• Familiar: She's Nanoha's.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Vesta combines the positive aspects of Sanguine with the negatives of Choleric: she's very easy-going and excitable, but also can be arrogant and quick to anger.
• Genki Girl.
• Hates Baths: She is a cat.
• I Meant to Do That: Vesta does not make mistakes! She just magnanimously demonstrates what not to do for the rest of us mere mortals.
  • Never My Fault: Vesta hardly if ever actually owns up to it when she makes mista - demonstrations of what not to do.
• Insane Troll Logic: Played for laughs; if something happens to exist in such a way that causes her difficulty, such as paint being impossible to easily clean by licking off, it's obvious that whoever made it has it in for poor defenseless kittens.
• Mama Bear: Try and hurt Nanoha with her around. Or Linith.
• Master of Illusion: She can make herself and others invisible, blind people, and create phantom attacks. It's meant to contrast Nanoha's overly flashy and totally unsubtle fighting style.
• Motor Mouth: Jeez. The girl can work herself into epically long talks if you let her.
• Monster of the Week: What she was at first.
  • Mega Neko: Her canon self is actually the trope image.
• Ninja: Aleph describes Vesta as being similar to this: Nanoha is a ranged fighter, and her style of combat is very flashy. To counteract this, Vesta fights at close range and is a Master of Illusion. She's meant to be there when Nanoha requires a stealthy approach to solving problems.
• O.C. Stand-in: In canon, she was just a cat. Uplifting her as Nanoha's Familiar left the author with a wide blank canvas to draw on.
• Panthera Awesome: Her war form.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: Vesta uses these on Nanoha. It works.
• Purple Prose: Her narration parodies this.
• Scarf of Asskicking: She keeps it tucked closely around her neck, however.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: Vesta tends to go uncharacteristically quiet during the more dire scenes. Most notably the end of Chapter 13, where she doesn't say a thing.
• Sixth Ranger: The last member to join Precia's team.
• Sleep-Mode Size: A standard familiar ability, she uses it in Power Games to be in the same class as Alicia.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Vesta has a rather inflated sense of her own self importance, which is played entirely for laughs.
• Spanner in the Works: An inversion, though not exactly an example of Unintentional Backup Plan. Precia's study of Vesta was one of the reasons she abandoned her plan of going to Alhazred in favor of reviving Alicia another way.
• Spiky Hair.
• This Is Gonna Suck: Says this word for word in Power Games chapter 10.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Cat food.
• Uplifted Animal: It's the source of her immense gratitude and loyalty to Nanoha.
• Undying Loyalty: To Nanoha.
• Unreliable Narrator: She's a kitten. Enough said.
• Walking Spoiler: She used to be, before Power Games came out.
• Why Did It Have to Be Water?: She really hates water in all its forms.
• Wolverine Claws: Has the Laser Blade version.
• Younger Than They Look: She's actually only a few weeks old, but can appear as an adult.

Precia Testarossa

"You may be of use to me yet, and... who knows? When Alicia wakes, she may be grateful for a sister. You are not Alicia, no. Not my daughter. But I will give you the chance to prove your worth to me... Fate."

The entire notion of this fanfic is that Precia is a little more sane than she was in canon; sane enough to realize that Fate is still an important asset and to treat her with the necessary care. Such a simple change in treatment caused an amazing shift in story...

At the end of Game Theory Alicia is successfully revived, thanks to Nanoha's interference and Precia's tactical genius. In Power Games Precia hopes to live in hiding for the little time she has left alive, but the actions of the Wolkenritter ruin that.

Tropes associated with Precia:

• Abusive Parent: Significantly less so than in canon, but it's been noted Precia can cause Fate to beat herself up more than canon Precia ever could.
• Always with You: Part of her Final Speech to Alicia in chapter 9 of Power Games
• Anti-Villain: Precia is much more sympathetic than in canon. Although she's still kind of a bitch.
• The Archmage: She has an SS mage rank (only Hayate can match that) for a good reason.
• Badass Bookworm: She's basically a scientist, but she's powerful and skilled enough to fight evenly against trained combat mages.
• Big Bad: For a given definition of Big Bad.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She may act pleasant, but...
  • Becoming the Mask: Although she does seem to have softened a bit towards Fate over the course of the story, at one point comforting her over Precia's own impending death. And her viewpoint in Power Games shows that it wasn't entirely feigned.
• Break Them by Talking: Precia does this to Fate when the story begins, and does it to Fate again in Chapter 3 by just essentially saying "Can't you work just a little harder? For me?".
• Character Death: She dies at the end of Power Games.
• The Chessmaster: Very much so. Precia takes little action herself because of her Incurable Cough of Death; almost everything she accomplishes is done by playing the other characters like fiddles.
• Faking the Dead: Precia sets things up to appear as if she and the others had fallen into Imaginary Space to throw the TSAB off their trail, when she had actually found a way to revive Alicia without traveling to Alhazred.
• Final Speech: In chapter 9 Precia isn't sure if she will wake up again, so she gives what might be one to her daughters and Nanoha. She's dead by the end of the story.
• Giver of Lame Names: Precia's ability to come up with names for her creations lags a bit behind her genius in other areas. She named the child created by project Fate, "Fate"; and her bardiche-Device, "Bardiche". The original name she came up with for the PMAM was the "Life-Maintaining Jewel Seed Implant," until Nanoha pointed out that it was slightly lacking in coolness...er, gravitas.
  • This seems to be genetic - Fate names her familiar "Arf", and Alicia names her doll "Dollie"
• I'm a Scientist, not a Mathematician or Device Meister.
• Incidental Villain: Precia's only ambition is to revive Alicia and keep her safe. Though she has no compunctions about doing anything in pursuit of that objective, she only does so if it furthers her goal, and she is perfectly content to live out the rest of her life with her daughter.
• Knight Templar Parent: Precia is perfectly willing to order assassinations if it keeps Alicia safe.
• Mad Scientist: Just a bit. She does think that research is her element; it's actually one of the few things we unambiguously know about her character.
• Manipulative Bitch: Mildly. She's good at manipulating people, but she isn't that much of a bitch to the kids.
• Minored in Ass-Kicking: Unlike most of the other major characters, Precia is not a dedicated combat mage, but she's so insanely powerful and so skilled with magic that it doesn't really matter. She manages to hold off Zest and Quint with the help of the Jewel Seeds.
• More than Mind Control: Precia's means of control are classical methods; measured praise for doing what she wants and condemnation for failing her.
  • The prologue reads like a case study in psychological brainwashing: An assault on the victim's identity and the associated incitement of guilt causes the victim to break down completely, which is then followed by an offering of help and a new identity for the victim.
  • She pulls another one on Nanoha as well: offering sympathy and compliments to open her up, revealing the innocent truth behind Yuuno to sow doubt in her heart, moving onto the TSAB and painting them as heartless and restrictive to coax her into acting against them and then finally appealing to Nanoha's sense of right and wrong and using Alicia to lead her into leaping headfirst into a Face–Heel Turn.
• Nice Job Breaking It Anti-Villain: In Power Games it turns out the destruction of the Garden of Time has reawoken the Mariage.
• Older Than They Look: Precia mentions offhandedly at one point that she could realistically be a grandmother if Alicia hadn't died. Nanoha remarks that Precia doesn't show her age, which seemingly flatters her somewhat.
• Power Degeneration: She's suffering from mana poisoning due to the fallout from the reactor explosion in her backstory, and her symptoms are exacerbated when she casts spells.
• Put on a Bus: She falls into a coma at the end of chapter 6 of Power Games. Linith isn't even sure if she'll wake up before her remaining life expires.
  • The Bus Came Back: She wakes up again in chapter 8...
  • Commuting on a Bus: ..and falls asleep again in Chapter 9...
  • Back for the Finale: ...and finally comes back in the final chapter. And then promptly subverted when it turns out it wasn't real.
• Pragmatic Villainy: In sharp contrast to her canon portrayal. This trope causes massive changes to the way the story progresses.
• Secretly Dying: Precia had carefully kept the knowledge of her fatal illness from Fate and Nanoha. The cat is out of the bag now.
• So Proud of You: Part of her Final Speech in chapter 9 of Power Games
• Spared by the Adaptation: Though she's still dying from mana poisoning.
• Tears of Joy: When Alicia is revived.
• Took a Level in Kindness: At the very least, she makes an effort to act pleasant instead of abusing Fate, so she's already miles ahead of her canon counterpart, and she does seem to get somewhat nicer as the story progresses.
• The Unfettered: Nothing will stop her from getting Alicia back, even if it means accepting Fate.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: The entire climax comes about as a result of her quickly and effectively working Nanoha and the TSAB's entrance into her schemes to her favor. And she succeeds.
• Your Days Are Numbered: By Precia's own admission, she has only a year or two left before she succumbs to mana poisoning.
  • It gets even worse; early in Power Games, she estimates that her exertions during the final battle in Game Theory left her with mere months remaining. She dies by the end of the story.

Time Space Administration Bureau

Chrono Harlaown

"No, that was not a native. I refuse to believe that. For crying out loud, she has to be at least AA-rank! And with a Device, to boot. Not to mention the magic she was using - I certainly don't see any Mid-style academies on this world, do you?"

Enforcer with the TSAB, Chrono holds the dubious honor of being most responsible for driving Nanoha to join Fate and Precia by badly botching his initial contact with her.

In Power Games he investigates the mysterious disappearance of all TSAB personnel in the world of Pihroea. The investigation turns the TSAB's attention to a world close to Pihroea: Earth.

Tropes associated with Chrono:

• Adaptational Badass: His Device, S2U, was upgraded with a cartridge system by Power Games.
• Beneath Suspicion/O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In chapter 9 of Power Games Chrono exploits his straight-laced reputation in order to bluff his way into a secure location
• Broken Pedestal: Learning that Graham was not only committing an illegal operation, willing to seal a nine-year-old girl who did nothing wrong, and tampered with his familiars in a highly unethical way that no doubt left dozens dead before he perfected, shattered the respect he had for the man.
• Child Soldier: Nanoha refuses to believe he's a police officer (Enforcer from the TSAB standards) because of this trope.
  • Improbable Age: Most people his age wouldn't be at that rank.
• Dark Is Evil: Nanoha believes Chrono is this from his black Enforcer uniform.
• 11th-Hour Superpower: Durandal, as in canon. In a twist he's not used to it, so he's not as good as he could be.
• Guile Hero: Amazingly taps into this during Power Games. When he suspects that there is a mole in the TSAB he asks Mei to cover for him while he bluffs his way into a secure location so he could look at some key files. Then when he realizes Graham is behind it he secretly sets up a power draining barrier before confronting Graham. Chrono's interrogation of Graham turns out to be a stalling tactic, allowing him to deal with Aria and Lotte. Not bad for a stuck up navy brat.
• Heroic Sacrifice: In the final chapter of Power Games, he gets eaten by the Book of Darkness in order to protect Nanoha and give her Durandal. In the end it's a subversion; Nanoha is revealed to have been absorbed instead.
• Insufferable Genius: He has some shades of this in his interactions with weaker mages and ordinary humans. As the story goes on he becomes aware of it, and even starts joking about it.
• The Lancer: He generally leads the ground actions when Zest is either not around or otherwise occupied.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: His actions bringing in Gil and ending the threat of the Book of Darkness are likely to have ramification.
  Chrono: “People’re going to remember this. I got a bunch of congratulations from Senior Enforcers, but I embarrassed the higher ups. And broke the rules. And didn’t report things properly. And assaulted a superior officer and his familiars and also a few people who tried to stop me. On top of the... uh, mess with Takamachi and the fact that she got away again, uh... well, if I ever got a ship of my own, it’d probably be a cargo ship.”
• Obviously Evil: From Nanoha's perspective. She doesn't like the all-black and Spikes of Villainy.
• Odd Friendship: With Mei.
• Poor Communication Kills: Chrono mishandling the initial contact between Nanoha and Fate, and then shooting up her home, ended up causing her to go to Fate's side for good. In his defense, he went with the information and odds that he had at the moment.
• Ship Tease: With Mei. Her sister even wonders about it.
• Spikes of Villainy: Nanoha seems to take exception with them. They're later mentioned being absent from his outfit, perhaps he's catching on?
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: He and Yuuno don't get along well at first, due to Chrono causing Nanoha to change sides.

Lindy Harlaown

"So, we're going to step in and help them out! And then bring them in for a nice long lecture on deliberately activating Lost Logia that they don't understand, even if it was with the intention of sealing them."

Flotilla Admiral with the TSAB, Lindy largely plays the same role as she did in canon; commanding the Asura.

Tropes associated with Lindy:

• Age Lift: She was rectonned to being 41 instead of 31 in order to avert Improbable Age. Of course that does cause...
  • Older Than They Look: There's really no indication in-story that she shows her age. Of course, she didn't in canon either.
• Beware the Nice Ones: She can be scary if pressed to anger.
• The Captain.
• The Chains of Commanding: Lindy dislikes having to stay on the ship while her subordinates are carrying out dangerous tasks, as her position of Admiral demands.
• Mission Control.
• Overranked Soldier: Toned down from canon. Lindy is a Flotilla Admiral, the equivalent of a Commodore, and her age has been raised by ten years, which put together makes her rank much more plausible.
• Stay in the Kitchen: Megane accuses Lindy of attempting to do this to her, and makes mild accusations of sexism as a result of it.
  • Informed Flaw: An in-universe example. Lindy demonstrates no signs of sexism, naturally, and Megane was heavily pregnant at the time. The stress of undertaking the mission ultimately put her into labor.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: She's not fond of Megane. She's actually relieved about the unlikelihood that Megane could assist in the Book of Darkness case due to her being on maternity leave.
  • She's not all that fond of Nanoha's mother either.

Tiida Lanster

"So my training squad wound up with one juvenile delinquent, one pre-pubescent political activist, and one normal girl. You know, sometimes I wonder who picks these combinations out, and what I've ever done to annoy them."

A lieutenant in the TSAB, he commands the backup squad assigned to the Jewel Seed case. Also Teana's beloved older brother.

In Power Games, the incident on Pihroea is believed to have a connection to the Jewel Seeds, which causes him and his team to be redeployed.

Tropes associated with Tiida:

• Early-Bird Cameo: One of many characters who appear earlier than they did in canon.
• Heroic Sacrifice: He comes close, by distracting one of the defense mecha away from his squad. Nanoha saves him at the last moment.
• The Men First: Tiida tries to negotiate with Lindy to keep his squad out of the raid on the Garden of Time by pointing out that they're too low-ranked to be expected to participate in such a dangerous mission.
• Oblivious to Love: He completely fails to notice Rizu's massive crush on him. She finally works up the courage to confess at the end of Power Games.
• O.C. Stand-in: There wasn't much about him in canon. Here he's a fully fleshed out character.
• Promotion to Parent: He's been Teana's caretaker since their parents died.
  • Parental Abandonment.
• Put on a Bus: Gets horribly injured in chapter 8 of Power Games and sits out the final battles.
• So Last Season: He gets an upgraded Device with a cartridge system in Power Games.
• Tagalong Kid: He and his squad on the whole tend to fill this role for the TSAB: all of them are a bit out of their league, but still do their part.

Rizu Jhanashdi

"I-it's from g-growing up with Mei...You learn to d-distract… um… energetic children. It's not too hard once y-you know what sort of thing to say."

Mei's older, more responsible half-sister. She's The Medic of the backup squad.

Tropes associated with Rizu:

• Boom Stick: Unlike Heidi, her staff shoots closer-range, Shotgun-like blasts.
• Combat Medic: Her role on the team.
• Determinator: It's revealed after the fact that Rizu was "running on fumes" while doing some of her most impressive feats in the battle of the Garden of Time.
• Heroic Bastard: She was actually born from a brief fling between her parents. On the other hand, it's implied this sort of thing is normal in the TSAB.
• Lethal Harmless Powers: Rizu uses a spell meant to gather oxygen to assist someone who is having difficulty breathing to start a fire with concentrated gas.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: A somewhat lighter example than most, but when her squadmates are in danger, Rizu drops her usual nervousness.
• Minored in Ass-Kicking: She's a medic, not a combat mage.
• Original Character: She doesn't exist in canon.
• Put on a Bus: After her team is attacked, she misses out on the final battle of Power Games.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Blue to Mei's red.
  • Sibling Yin-Yang: She's the calmer one that balances her excitable sister out.
• Shrinking Violet: She's normally rather reserved.
• Speech Impediment: As her quote implies, she speaks with a heavy stutter and tends to pause mid-sentence.
• White Mage: She mostly supports her teammates with augmentation spells and healing.
  • White Magician Girl: Which makes her this.

Mei Ereignis

"… so I got dragged in to see the principal, of course, but they'd been leaving me out of stuff like that since I started aiming for the TSAB, so I could honestly say that I didn't know anything, and he had to let me off – though boy, was he unhappy about it!"

Rizu's younger, more energetic half-sister, also part of the backup team.

Tropes associated with Mei:

• Action Girl: She gets straight into the action.
• Aliens Steal Cable: During a break she decides to watch Star Wars. She likes it.
• The Berserker: She's from a Belkan berserker lineage (specifically from the Shutran Hegemony), which gives her a decreased fear response and greater power under stress and is the cause of her Leeroy Jenkins tendencies.
  • Blessed with Suck: Although this helps her cope much better with the stress of combat situations, it got her into a lot of trouble before she joined the TSAB. As Earth Scorpion put it, "a giant paper dragon, and a poltergeist in a supermarket, and demon submarine tried to eat me" is not the baseline state of human interaction.
  • In Power Games she's actually on a drug implant that let's her feel fear properly.
• Buffy Speak: In Power Games, she talks about being saved from "a giant horrible robot monster thing!".
• Character Development: It sort of happens off-screen, but in Power Games she's become a more well-adjusted individual. Being diagnosed with a Berserker lineage and getting proper treatment helps.
• Disappeared Dad: Her father died trying to hold off the previous manifestation of one of the Wolkenritter. Mei says it was a Senseless Sacrifice, and possibly even a Stupid Sacrifice caused by his undiagnosed berserker heritage.
• Fearless Fool: Due to being from a Berserker lineage. She gets better.
• Genki Girl: She's rather upbeat.
• Laser Blade: Her Armed Device is an energy sword and buckler.
  • Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: It comes in handy at times.
• Lineage Comes from the Father: Her berserker lineage does.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Mei is just a tad bit reckless. In Power Games she has become aware of this and is taking steps to prevent future recklessness.
• Made of Iron: The sheer amount of insane injuries she's survived is amazing; Like... less than that time I fell through the roof, or the time I was hit by the car, or that time I wanted to see what shooting myself with my own training shots would be like or... I'll stop talking. By all accounts she's Too Dumb to Live except she's also Too Tough To Die.
• Military Maverick: Thanks to her Berserker lineage, her military record had a lot of black marks in it. Averted later on, however, as after the problem was diagnosed she began receiving treatment, and her record was cleaned up considerably thanks to mitigating circumstances being applied to her black marks.
• Motor Mouth: Mei is very talkative.
• No Medication for Me: Averted, Mei is clearly having a better life thanks to her medication.
• Not Quite Flight: Mei manages this by creating barriers in the air and using them as stepping stones. While fourteen storys up. She was just lucky Chrono was there to catch her when she fell.
• Odd Friendship: With Chrono.
• Original Character: She doesn't exist in canon.
• Put on a Bus: After her team is attacked, she misses out on the final battle of Power Games.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Red to Rizu's blue.
  • Sibling Yin-Yang: She's the excitable one compared to her sister.
• Scarily Competent Tracker: In Power Games she's training to become an Outrider, which is partially this. (Outriders specialize in scouting and reconnaissance on worlds with low population density.)
• Shared Unusual Trait: One of Mei's eyes is much paler than the other, a characteristic of certain Belkan lineages. According to Word of God, Mei is a very distant relative of Einhart.
• Shipper on Deck: She encourages Rizu to pursue her crush on Tiida.
• Ship Tease: With Chrono. No seriously, at one point she thinks he's cute.
• Sky Surfing: She mentions she has a board she can fly with in Power Games. The details aren't clear yet.
• Weak, but Skilled: Her magic style, Kabupatenic, lends itself towards this type of fighting, although Mei doesn't quite qualify yet.

Heidi Zwischenfall

"I was involved in Representativist groups, which would have been a real problem for my mother if it had got out. It's the reason she let me go offworld for this, on the exchange programme and then… well, it's much easier for her if she has my older sister being nice and conformist and okay with the illegitimate oligarchy of entrenched interests in the…"

The fourth member of the backup team.

Tropes associated with Heidi:

• Action Girl: She gets in on the battles when needed.
• Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: According to Word of God, she's "built to a larger scale than most people" and is also taller than Tiida. She has the personality, too. That said, her hair is a pale blond.
• Boom Stick: Her Storage Device functions like this.
  • Sniper Rifle: Her specific role is being a sniper.
• Deadpan Snarker: Really starts to show in Power Games.
• Defector from Decadence: She was born to a position of privilege on her homeworld Schzenais. She hated the oligarchical political system there, and joined the TSAB at the first opportunity.
• Original Character: She doesn't exist in canon.
• Put on a Bus: Gets injured in chapter 8 of Power Games and sits out the next chapter and the final battles.
• So Last Season: She gets an upgraded Device in Power Games.

Zest Grangaitz

"(I'm not) the most reassuring of faces, no...I'm better at intimidation."

The Captain of the elite team. Unlike the Zest we know from StrikerS, this is the original Zest, as his fateful and deadly encounter with Cinque has not yet occurred (and indeed, may not occur).

In Power Games, Zest assists in investigating the incident on Pihroea.

Tropes associated with Zest:

• Dynamic Entry: He arrives to the fight in chapter eight by splitting the paper dragon in half with one blow.
• Early-Bird Cameo: One of many characters who appear earlier than they did in canon.
• Genius Bruiser: Zest can cut giant monsters in half with one blow, but he can also track a magical signature through dimensional space.
• Good Cop/Bad Cop: Bad cop to Quint's good.
• The Juggernaut: To Nanoha and Fate. He has the same S+ Mage Rank as they do in StrikerS, except in this story, they're still AA rank children.
• The Leader: For the TSAB's group; he's in charge of any field operation.
• Lightning Bruiser: He can keep pace with Fate in straight bursts.
• Named Weapons: Averted, Zest's device has still gone unnamed.
• No Social Skills: Not very good ones, at least. In his own words:
  [Zest] was not entirely at home with situations like this. It was not a problem which could be solved with appropriate amounts of violence.
  • And yet despite this he can tell Signum is having hang ups when they fight.

Quint Nakajima

"You're a brilliant young girl, your friend Yuuno thinks the world of you. Your heart is good, and you have so much potential. Please, Nanoha-chan, come up to the Asura with me and we can talk this out up there and let you off easily. I don't want to see your potential wasted like that."

A Warrant Officer in the TSAB, and a member of the elite team. In Game Theory she is in the process of adopting Subaru and Ginga, a pair of cyborg clones of herself that she rescued from a laboratory.

In Power Games we unfortunately learn that Subaru and Ginga were abducted while Quint was away during the Jewel Seed Incident. Quint herself is sent to investigate the Pihroea incident.

Tropes associated with Quint:

• Action Girl: Arguable the biggest in the series.
• Amazonian Beauty: The girls from the backup squad realize that Quint is quite built.
• Ancestral Weapon: Inverted: she uses the two Revolver Knuckles wielded by Subaru and Ginga Nekajima in StrikerS. However, her unnamed roller blades are not Mach Caliber and Blitz Caliber.
• Armor Is Useless: Averted: her barrier jacket takes the form of heavy plate armor, and she can shrug off attacks coming from NANOHA.
• Badass Normal: Compared to her Cyborg adopted daughters. She can freely use both of the Revolver Knuckles, which is something neither Subaru nor Ginga can do easily.
  • Heartbroken Badass: After Subaru and Ginga are kidnapped.
• Bearer of Bad News: To Nanoha's family along with Yuuno, explaining Nanoha's (apparent) death.
• The Big Guy: She takes this role in the story.
• Dual Wielding: The two Revolver Knuckles.
• Dungeon Bypass: Done twice so far.
• Early-Bird Cameo: One of many characters who appear earlier than they did in canon.
• Flying Brick: Averted; she's actually fully capable of flying unaided, but her armor weighs her down such that she finds using Wing Road to be preferable.
• Good Cop/Bad Cop: The good cop to Zest's bad.
• Gratuitous German: Her Revolver Knuckles have a German programming language. A standard feature of Armed Devices.

• Kung-Fu Wizard: And she's quite good at it.
• Law of Inverse Fertility: Quint is sterile, which she shows some degree of bitterness about. Fortunately, she can still adopt Subaru and Ginga. And offers to take in Hayate at the end of Power Games.
• Lightning Bruiser: She's too fast for Nanoha or Vesta to keep up with, and she can punch through Arf and Nanoha's barriers easily.
• The Mentor: Develops this way towards Mei.
• O.C. Stand-in: She's already dead by the time she appears in canon, so the development here fleshes her out.
• Put on a Bus: Due to injuries, she misses out on the final battles of Power Games.
• Rollerblade Good: Like Ginga, Subaru and Nove in canon.
• Sand In My Eyes: When discussing Subaru and Ginga's abduction, Quint says that some rain must be getting through the barrier.
• Team Mom
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Played for Laughs with her influence on Teana.
  Tiida: I want you to know what you've done. She's been putting low-friction barriers on the floor and skating around in her socks. This is entirely your fault.

Megane Alpine

"Your concern...is noted, and appreciated. But I will not be in any danger, and in the unlikely event that I am threatened, I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself with a minimum of risk to my child or my person. I will be remaining here to support my team."

The summoner of the elite team. She enters the story pregnant with Lutecia, and later gives birth due to early labor.

Tropes associated with Megane:

• Ancestral Weapon: Lutecia would later go on to inherit Megane's device Asclepius.
• Arrogant Summoner Woman: She has shades of this, as noted by Word of God. It should also be noted that she has some cause to be proud of her abilities.
• Blue Blood: She's descended from Belkan nobility, and is actually a Countess. The title doesn't give her much actual power, however, and the responsibilities involved with her title actually lose her money. As a result, she'd rather give up her position if she could.
• Demoted to Extra/Put on a Bus: After Lutecia is born she understandably disappears from the plot to care for her new baby. In Power Games she's at the Infinite Library, doing research while everyone else is fighting.
• Early-Bird Cameo: One of many characters who appear earlier than they did in canon.
• Literal Surveillance Bug: The most common way she uses her summoned insects.
• Mandatory Motherhood: She was urged by the TSAB to mother a child to ensure her bloodline-based summoning talents wouldn't die with her.
• Pregnant Badass: Deconstructed. Using her most powerful summon causes her to enter labor.
• The Smart Guy.
• The Snark Knight
• Stay in the Kitchen: Attempting to invoke this trope on her appears to be her Berserk Button, regardless of the fact she was pregnant at the time!
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Megane maintains an aloof persona with people she doesn't know or dislikes, but is quite warm to her friends.
• Support Party Member: Her role is to boost Zest and Quint and use her summons.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: She and Lindy do not get along.
• Tricked-Out Gloves: Asclepius, like seemingly all Booster Devices, takes the form of a glove with a purple gem set inside. It allows her to power up her allies and summon her insects.
  • Purple Is Powerful.

Lotte Liese

"I don't like fighting in war form...It's too hard not killing people; you can't use a lot of the strength, or the claws and the biting...And anyway, hands are useful, too. I have eskrima sticks, see?"

One of Gil Graham's two faithful catgirl familiars/adopted daughters. Lotte is sent to aid in the attack on the Garden of Time to replace Megane. She and her sister were Chrono's mentors. Still be one of the Masked Men in Power Games

Tropes associated with Lotte:

• Action Girl.
• Awesome, but Impractical: She notes that her war form is too large to properly use inside the corridors of the Garden of Time. She's not kidding.
  • Boring, but Practical: Having hands, apparently.
• Blood Knight: She doesn't like killing people, but she does seem to enjoy a good fight, as evidenced by the grin on her face when she engages Linith.
• Catgirl.
• Chekhov's Gun: Her war form, which was too large to use in the Garden of Time. When she uses it in Power Games it's...something else.
• Combat Pragmatist: Lotte was already well known for liberal use of binding magic in the second season, but she never used it to strangle someone, as she did to Linith during the battle on the Garden of Time.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Though not quite as early as some of the others.
• 11th-Hour Ranger: For the TSAB in Game Theory
• Genki Girl: Not much seems capable of getting her down.
• Kung-Fu Wizard: She's proficient both with magic and her weapons.
• Legendary Impostor: Although unconfirmed, it's implied that the Masked Man disguise is meant to evoke the legend of the Wraith, the supposed fifth member of the Wolkenritter.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: Power Games reveals her war form is some sort of monstrous hybrid creature due to her master chimerising her by tampering with her code.
• Nothing Personal: States this when getting ready to kill both Arf and Vesta for figuring out she was a Familiar.
  Lotte(as a Masked Man): ‘If it helps any, it’s nothing personal. But I won’t take offence if you disagree.’
• Terms of Endangerment: She almost immediately gives Yuuno the nickname "mousy". Which is exactly what he's called by Vesta.
• Weaksauce Weakness: Graham's adjustments have made her a mana hog. Disrupting Graham's mana weakens their power dramatically.

Aria Liese

Gil Graham's other familiar, Chrono's other mentor and Lotte's sister. Still one of the Masked Men in Power Games

Tropes associated with Aria:

• Catgirl
• Early-Bird Cameo: As with Lotte.
• Legendary Impostor: The Masked Man disguise is suggested to be an impersonation of the Wraith - or at least the common perception of the Wraith.
• Weaksauce Weakness: Graham's adjustments have made her a mana hog. Disrupting Graham's mana weakens their power dramatically.

Gil Graham

A TSAB admiral originally from Earth. The Lieze sisters are his familiars, he's a close friend of the Harlowns and he's secretly Hayate's legal guardian. Also the instigator of a secret plot to seal the Book of Darkness.

Tropes associated with Graham:

• Early-Bird Cameo: He is mentioned and appears in Game Theory well before the time his introduction would have been in canon.
• Foil: In-universe, the characters comment that Graham's story is a lot like Nanoha's - except that whereas Graham joined the TSAB, Nanoha did quite the opposite. The comparison is further deepened by Nanoha making a cat familiar. Also, Graham is willing to sacrifice one life (Hayate) to save billions, while Nanoha performs actions that puts billions at risk to save one life (Alicia). Late in Power Games we find that Graham also likes to mess around with spells that probably shouldn't be messed around with, and his plan doesn't really work out just like the plans Nanoha makes. Gray-and-Gray Morality keeps Graham from being a straight up Good Counterpart or Evil Counterpart to Nanoha, though he's more of a Good Counterpart in Game Theory and an Evil one in Powers Games.
• Graceful Loser: Upon being arrested, he surrenders all the information they are looking for and seeks to help Hayate with ensuring the Tome doesn't go mad again, ensuring that the Cloud Knights are saved.
• Non-Action Guy: He used to be a powerful mage, but now he's too old to fight. However, he still has plenty of mana for his familiars.

Nanoha's family and loved ones

Momoko Takamachi

"You've taught (Nanoha) well, by example. As have I. Have faith in your daughter, she's able to fight her own battles...Of course, I'd prefer it if she wasn't fighting them at the age of nine, but..."

Nanoha's mother. Like her youngest daughter, she has some innate talent for magic, though not as much....but it's still enough to freak Chrono out.

In Power Games she is attacked by the Wolkenritter, prompting Nanoha's arrival on Earth.

Tropes associated with Momoko:

• Ascended Extra: She's not really shown in canon.
• 11th-Hour Superpower: In the final battle of Power Games, she gets the Durandal. And after that it's subverted; this didn't actually happen.
• Like a Duck Takes to Water: Just like her daughter, she manages to pull off a spell similar to Starlight Breaker with virtually no exposure prior, in combat time. Zest points out that this is a freakish natural talent.
• Mama Bear: Despite not being nearly as powerful as Nanoha, she'll still run off to help her at the first hint she might be in danger.
• Missed the Call: Given that Another Way is an Alternate Universe of Game Theory, this is her position in life. Has lots of raw magical power, but missed any chance to actually use it because she was born on a world where there weren't any mages.
  • Jumped at the Call: At the end of Power Games, when she finally gets an opportunity to make a difference in the battle, she takes it, And then it turns out to be a subversion, it didn't actually happen.
• Poor Communication Kills: A mild example, but her device's translator broke so she ended up shooting a medic at the end of Power Games. He wasn't really harmed too much, but it did get her locked up in isolation.
• Spanner in the Works: Played with She stumbles across Hayate and Zafira in the hospital causing him to take Hayate and flee to their home. This turns out to be a good thing because the Mariage were coming anyway, so this kept Chikaze safe, it let Momoko alert everyone to the Book's presence right when it went off, and her meeting with Chikaze turns out to be influential in the ensuing battle.
• Take Up My Sword: In the Epilogue, Yuuno gives Momoko his Storage Device.
• Took a Level in Badass: In Power Games she shows off her abilities by taking out a damaged Mariage. Then she helps seal the Book of Darkness.
• Unreliable Expositor: When she's attacked in Power Games she first tells her family that she doesn't remember what happened. Later, she privately admits to Nanoha that she lied to them so that they wouldn't go out and get themselves hurt. In fact she tried to fight back against Signum. Emphasis on tried.

Shiro Takamachi

"Passively, we're going to get ready. Passively, we're going to go over what we know piece by piece, and prepare. And passively, we are going to make damned sure that the next time somebody attacks this house or a member of this family, they will regret it."

Nanoha's father. A trained swordfighter and ex-bodyguard.

Tropes associated with Shiro:

• Ascended Extra: Gets to fight off a Mariage in the final chapter of Power Games.
• Full-Contact Magic: Although he doesn't realize it specifically as such. He's trained his older children- and is now training his wife- to do it as well.
• Scars Are Forever: Has a horrific one on his chest.

Kyouya Takamachi

"Well, I hope you'll leave out the flashy transformations and speeches about love and justice...And wear a proper length skirt."

Nanoha's older brother.

Tropes associated with Kyouya:

• Ascended Extra: Gets to fight off a Mariage in the final chapter of Power Games.
• Big Brother Instinct: He doesn't hesitate to leap from a two story window at the prospect of coming to Nanoha's aid when she's in danger.
• Full-Contact Magic: Like Miyuki and Shiro.

Miyuki Takamachi

"If you really want to learn, I suppose I can teach you, but... Nanoha, if you get bored of this in a week or so and decide to do something else, I will not be pleased. If you really want to learn, you'll have to show me that you're serious about it."

Nanoha's older sister/cousin.

Tropes associated with Miyuki:

• Ascended Extra: Gets to fight off a Mariage in the final chapter of Power Games.
• Cool Big Sis: She provides advice to both Nanoha and Fate. She's rather miffed when she realizes they knew each other and she was providing advice for the exact same situation.
• Full-Contact Magic: Like Kyoua and Shiro.
• Happily Adopted: She's biologically Nanoha's cousin.

Arisa Bannings

"If you're just going to lie to your friends to keep them out of your business, then fine, Nanoha. If you want to keep insisting nothing is wrong while you sneak out at night and come back limping and covered in bruises, that's just fine. But don't mock us by pretending nothing's wrong."

One of Nanoha's two best friends. Arisa in particular gives her some grief when Nanoha starts into the whole Magical Girl thing. By the end of Game Theory she discovers she can do magic.

In Power Games she is attacked by Vita and gets her Linker Core drained.

Tropes associated with Arisa:

• Anger Born of Worry: She expresses her concern for Nanoha by shouting at her.
• Ascended Extra: After learning to use magic, she gets attacked by Vita in the first chapter of Power Games.
• Flash Step: "Ghost Step" (Arisa was a ghost in Triangle Heart 3: Sweet Songs Forever).
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Red to Suzuka's blue.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: She and Suzuka lead the TSAB to Nanoha and Fate.

Suzuka Tsukimura

"You're been a little down lately, and you're distracted all the time. And you've been zoning out, like just now. Is someone wrong? If something's worrying you, would you like to talk to us about it? We might be able to help."

Nanoha's other best friend. While more cool-headed than Arisa, Suzuka is also hurt when Nanoha keeps secrets from her. Like Arisa, she discovers she can do magic by the end of Game Theory.

In Power Games she is attacked by Zafira off-screen and gets her Linker Core drained.

Tropes associated with Suzuka:

• Ascended Extra
• Energy Absorption: Her Energy Vampire spell. Also a Triangle Heart 3: Sweet Songs Forever reference.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Blue to Arisa's red.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: She and Arisa lead the TSAB to Nanoha and Fate.

Hayate and her friends and family

Hayate Yagami

"Okay, ready? First off, the most important thing is to notice that there are zombies. That’s really crucial. Underline that."

A certain girl in a wheelchair that Game Theory steadfastly refused to name until the very end. When a Jewel Seed activated in a hospital and reanimated zombies, Hayate was protected by Chikaze, Nanoha and Fate. The end of Game Theory revealed that the dimensional quake caused by the destruction of the Garden of Time summoned the Wolkenritter.

In Power Games, Hayate's situation is mostly the same as in canon, although she now has a friend in Chikaze. She's also doing research on zombies in case they attack again.

Tropes associated with Hayate:

• Buffy Speak: When attempting to give her opinion on what Signum being a mother would be like.
• Cheerful Child: She acts kind of like an older Teana (see below).
• Early-Bird Cameo
• Fighting from the Inside: What she does in the final chapter of Power Games. Well, less fighting and more telling the magic construct to stop fighting already.
• No Name Given/The Trope without a Title: In Game Theory. But even the author admitted she may as well not have bothered.
• Psychic Nosebleed: The dimensional quake in chapter 4 causes this to her. Except it's not a nosebleed.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Since the hosptial incident, Hayate has become worried about zombies attacking again. So she's doing research by watching all the zombie movies she can. This turns out to be Foreshadowing the appearance of the Mariage.

Chikaze Yoshida

"What I really miss is dairy stuff. And meat. Man, I’d kill for a beef bowl. Or... like, some kind of pasty thing just packed with cheese and beef and pork and chicken and... sorry. I’m not keeping food down too well, so I’m hungry"

An girl with Leukemia who is suffering through her chemotherapy treatments. She saved a certain wheelchair-bound girl from zombies created by a Jewel Seed and befriended her.

In Power Games, she visits Hayate at her house and is aware of the true nature of the Wolkenritter. In fact, Shamal is helping her with her illness. Chikaze is also learning magic and helping Hayate's zombie "research".

Tropes associated with Chikaze:

• Buffy Speak:
  Chikaze: Say something the people who spoke it would have said! Like, something magical-alien-y!
• Cheerful Child: As long as her disease doesn't come up.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Not definite yet, but seems very likely. Besides the whole friend-to-Hayate thing, she's also magic-sensitive.
  • In Power Games, Fate and Nanoha stumble across Chikaze again while looking for the Wolkenritter which may potentially set them up to meet Hayate. This culminates in the final chapter where her friendship with Hayate lets her weaken the Book of Darkness.
• Determinator: See below.
• Establishing Character Moment: Shoving a zombie down the stairs to save a wheelchair-bound girl, despite being a cancer patient undergoing chemotherapy.
• Heroic Bystander: Her Establishing Character Moment above.
• Honor Before Reason: She herself can barely walk due to her cancer and chemotherapy, but she still didn't hesitate to save a girl she didn't know
• Identical Stranger: In Power Games Chikaze claims that a nurse mistook Signum for her mom. The trope is promptly subverted, see Resemblance Reveal below.
• Original Character
• Resemblance Reveal: An unusual example. Chapter 4 of Power Games explicitly reveals that Chikaze looks a lot like Signum. Shamal thinks it's very likely that Signum's current appearance was shaped by Hayate's subconscious perception of Chikaze.
• Sweet Tooth: Averted, she's been given a lot of sweets with artificial sweeteners due to her chemotherapy, causing her to be sick of sweet things. She just wants dairy foods now.
• The Watson: She's very interested in learning about the Wolkenritter, and asks them questions such as how far back their memories extend to, or how they learned Japanese. This conveniently answers those questions for the reader.

The Wolkenritter

"The Cloud Knights of the Book are ancient and powerful combatants, highly experienced in their respective roles and entirely willing to kill, unlike the TSAB. They are not opponents to take lightly."

The Guardian Knights of the Book of Darkness.

Tropes associated with the Wolkenritter collectively:

• Awesomeness by Analysis: As the result of hundreds of years of accumulated combat experience, the Wolkenritter are extremely good at analyzing their opponents' abilities and tactics.
• Disney Death: They are seemingly killed by the Mariage, but the Book preserves them after their death, as in canon.
• Entertainingly Wrong: According to one of the author's infodumps, the Wolkenritter assume that the reason the Book has caused destruction in the past is because they failed to feed it fast enough.
• The Fog of Ages: The Wolkenritter can't recall much past the last couple centuries.
• Hold the Line: Die to the Mariage while protecting Hayate.
• Metamorphosis: In this setting, the Wolkenritter take different forms each time the Book manifests, based on their current master's preferences.
  • It's believed Signum's current appearance is based on Chikaze.
  • Shamal claims that Vita is usually the tallest of the Wolkenritter, and she believes that Vita's current appearance comes from Hayate's desire to have a friend her own age.
  • Shamal suspects that her appearance was based off of Hayate's perceptions of her mother and her nurses. She later comments that she's usually appears younger than the rest of the Wolkenritter.
  • Zafira doesn't seem to be based on anyone, but it's not surprising he's big and strong.
  • Finally the character called "Reinforce" in canon has the appearance of an older Hayate, with different hair and eye colors.
• Omniglot: The Wolkenritter acquire the linguistic knowledge of their masters through the Book, and consequently can speak over forty languages.
• Red Baron: Each of the Wolkenritter have acquired a number of titles by which they are widely known and feared.
• Super-Toughness: As mana constructs, the Wolkenritter lack most of the vulnerabilities of human physiology.
• Willfully Weak: The Wolkenritter are explicitly holding back to avoid killing anyone, due to their promise to Hayate, which constrains their tactical options a fair bit, since much of their arsenal is highly lethal. However, when fighting against non-sapient beings to whom the promise doesn't apply such as the Mariage they can use their more deadly skills, and the difference is very noticeable.

Signum

"An intensive draining would probably keep her in hospital until everything is over, one way or another. And pay her back in part for trying to kill one of our number. Just be sure not to kill her. We may be violating the spirit of her orders, but we will not violate the letter."

"A knight’s honour demands only one thing – to win, and bring your master glory!... Where is the honour in failing your master through stupidity and leniency given to an enemy without reason? Where is the honour in shaming your training by leaving an opponent alive to kill you later?"

The leader of the Wolkenritter. Signum attacked Momoko to drain her Linker Core, which ultimately sets off the chain of events that leads to Nanoha becoming aware of the Book of Darkness being present on Earth.

Tropes associated with Signum:

• The Comically Serious: Signum's reaction to Hayate's zombie obsession milks this for all that it's worth.
• The Dreaded: Momoko is terrified of her. Understandable, really.
• Identical Stranger/Resemblance Reveal: See Chikaze's section.
• The Leader: Of the Wolkenritter.
• My Master, Right or Wrong: Her philosophy in a nutshell. Signum adheres to a Belkan honor code that prioritizes fulfilling the will of her Master above all else. This is actually a source of internal conflict for her, as she is failing to live up to the spirit of Hayate's wishes.
• Not Quite Dead: In the revised version of chapter 9 of Power Games, Vita thinks that Signum was killed by the Mariage but then she shows up alive and well to protect Hayate...at which point she dies again.
• Rain of Arrows On Fire: One of her attack spells.
• Red Baron: Known as The Blade in Power Games.
• Run or Die: Momoko stresses this to Nanoha, in regards to Signum.
  • As does Precia to Fate.

Vita

"Don't tell anyone else to do this, you hear me! Stupid cowards who spend more energy running than they would fighting back and making it hard for them and me!"

The first of the Wolkenritter to appear. Vita attacks Arisa for her Linker Core, and battles Nanoha when she comes to Arisa's aid.

Tropes associated with Vita:

• Berserk Button: She doesn't seem to like people who flee from battle. (Then again, time is Linker Cores.)
• The Big Guy: In role, if not appearance.
• Gender Bender: Most of Vita's past incarnations were male.
• The Juggernaut: She powers through everything Nanoha can throw at her in their first encounter.
• Luminescent Blush: After reciting a love poem to Hayate.
• Red Baron: Known as The Breaker in Power Games

Shamal/The Wraith

"But even if you smile a lot, you don’t laugh very often. It’s mostly just with Chikaze that you take the time to... hmm... let yourself be a child. It’s nice for us to watch you having fun like that."

"There is a Belkan proverb... 'Show me a medicine, and I will show you a poison'. I am the medicine and the poison alike."

The healer of the Wolkenritter. She also is shown to be the assassin and spy of the Wolkenritter, known as The Wraith.

Tropes associated with Shamal:

• Adaptational Badass: In the canon material, Shamal was a sealer, protector and healer. In Power Games, she appears to have added the role of hacker, and she's capable of using Klarwind to create magic Razor Floss, with potentially-deadly results. Her ability to pull out Linker Cores from anywhere is also shown to be much more dangerous. Word of God also says that Klarwind's wires can also function as a cartridge loader.
  • And then in Chapter 8 of Power Games, we find out she's also The Dreaded Wraith of the Wolkenkritter.
• Attack Reflector: Shamal uses a combination of an AMF and a mana condensation spell to absorb bombardment spells and then reply in kind.
• Beware the Nice Ones: "Show me a medicine, and I will show you a poison." And Shamal reminds us how scary her abilities really are.
• The Cracker: Just a bit; she's capable of hacking Devices at least.
• Deadly Doctor: A non-evil example. Shamal is both healer and assassin, medicine and poison.
• The Medic: A little more pronounced than it was in A's.
  • Combat Medic: Or rather, Assassin Medic.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: The Wraith, or Killer.
• Pressure Point/The Paralyzer: Evokes this with her spell "Tiefer Schlaf" ("Deep Sleep"), which is applied by Klarwind's wires touching a point on the target's neck.
• Razor Floss: Klarwind has this ability, which Shamal uses to devastating effect.
• Red Baron: Appropriately known as The Healer. And The Wraith.
• Red Herring: The Wraith is initially implied to be the Book of Darkness's Master Program (Reinforce) before it's revealed to be Shamal.
• Shrouded in Myth: As the Wraith.
• Two Aliases, One Character: In Chapter 3 it's explained that there are records of a fifth member of the Wolkenritter, called The Wraith or Killer. Chapter 8 reveals that this Wraith is actually Shamal.
• Underestimating Badassery: Poor Mei. She and her friends find out just how dangerous Shamal is much too late.

Zafira

"Do my ears detect the strains of poetry? From you, Vita? I thought you hated that sort of thing."

The Guardian Beast of the Wolkenritter

Tropes associated with Zafira

• Adaptational Badass: Zafira's gauntlets are Device-less cartridge loaders; he uses them to give himself a power boost.
• The Gadfly: Mostly because Hayate and Chikaze find it funny.
• Genius Bruiser: The most physically imposing of the Wolkenritter, and also the most knowledgeable about technology.
• Metamorphosis: In this setting, the Wolkenritter take different forms each time the Book manifests.
• Noble Wolf: Guardian wolf for Hayate.
• Red Baron: The Hound
• The Smart Guy: Possibly. When Vita shows him a video of Raising Heart he's able to tell it's likely specialties and the previous Device model it was based on.

The Book of Darkness

When your enemies attacked[...]the compound system known as the Book of Darkness took its mistress; Hayate Yagami, inside itself to ensure she was protected. This place is the heart of the tome; a virtual dimensional space at its innermost core. The exterior programs are engaged with ambient threats, and as such this is the safest place for you. I am, and am not, the Book. I am the Master Program; the watcher and weaver of spells who binds the rest together. The Guardian Knights, the Tome, the Defence Programs, the Master Core… all of these together are the 'Book of Darkness', and were once the Tome of the Night Sky.

A Lost Logia from Ancient Belka, and one of the most dangerous and destructive artifacts in Dimensional Space.

Tropes associated with the Book

• Adaptational Wimp: Somewhat. It appears weaker than the almost unstoppable force it was in canon. This has more to do with Nanoha and Fate having more allies, the Book experiencing Logic Bombs, Hayate Fighting from the Inside, and the presence of Jewel Seed-powered Devices. So it's not weaker, it's just everyone else is doing more.
  • A big case of this is that in the final battle, it doesn't go into it's One-Winged Angel form from canon before it's sealed. This is explained by the fact that the sealing was only an illusion.
• All Your Powers Combined: As in canon, but she even uses the Wolkenritter's weapons.
• Armor-Piercing Question: From Chikaze: "Am I a threat?" This causes the first of many Logic Bombs.
• Artifact of Doom: As in canon, though the twist is it's more visibly broken.
• Electronic Speech Impediment: Gets one in the final battle, due to Chikaze and Hayate asking some pointedly uncomfortable questions.
• Hesitation Equals Dishonesty: Hayate seems to think so when the book hesitates in answering her questions.
• Insane Troll Logic: When Hayate asks the Book to stop fighting, the Book explains that since everything is a threat, not fighting will result in Hayate's death...and the Book cannot follow an order that would lead to it's Master's death.
• Logic Bomb: Due to Chikaze's friendship with Hayate, the Book registers Chikaze as an "threat-ally-knight-undefined" which confuses it and causes it to leave Chikaze alone. Chikaze then asks questions and makes statements which cause more logic errors and distract the Book in it's battle. On that note, certain parts of the Book are literally incapable of realizing they're broken. Drawing attention to this just causes more Logic Bombs.
• Many Spirits Inside of One: As explained in the above quote, the Book of Darkness is actually made of multiple parts. Nanoha and company seem to be fighting one part while Hayate is talking to another.
• Metaphorically True: When Hayate asks about Chikaze the Book says there is no Chikaze present (in the extradimenional space Hayate is in). This is clearly not what Hayate wanted to know.
• Ominous Visual Glitch: When the Book transforms, it's physical form is unstable and prone to flickering, with parts sometimes appearing in two places at once.
• Villainous Breakdown: At the end of the battle, it's broken, sealed, and muttering to itself things no-one can understand.
• Will Not Tell a Lie: Claims it will not lie to Hayate. But see Metaphorically True.

Other Characters

Linith

"It's been two weeks, Fate. You're not expected to spend every waking moment on the job, you could stand to spend a little time and money on yourself."

Precia's cat familiar and Fate's mother-figure. She also fills the latter role for Nanoha in later chapters.

Tropes associated with Linith

• Beware the Nice Ones: Nanoha suspects this of her, and a later chapter proves her right.
  • In Power Games, she starts her attack on Vita by using a bind that would have broken her neck if she'd been human.
• Big Damn Heroes: Saves Nanoha from Vita early in Power Games.
• Catgirl
• Cats Hate Water: Weaponizes it against Vesta in chapter 11 when the younger cat tracks white paint around the Garden of Time. She reflects that it would be a lot easier to clean Vesta if she had her transform into her human form, but she doesn't suggest it to ensure Vesta takes the cleaning as more of a punishment.
• Combat Pragmatist: Chapter 13 of Game Theory firmly cements her as one, setting up a massive trap for the intruding TSAB. It fails, because they expected it.
• Evil Genius: She's in charge of everyone's training and coordinates the defenses during the battle of the Garden of Time. She has elements of being Co-Dragons with Fate, though.
  • Not to mention in Power Games she's the one disabling sensors by hacking into them. She even hacks into Raising Heart! (To give Nanoha more time to sleep, of course). And then later she actually manages to spy on the Wolkenritter.
• For Your Own Good: She's out to set a standard for this in Power Games; aside from the above-mentioned Raising Heart-hacking, she paralyses Nanoha's injured arm to ensure the girl doesn't move it around too much.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Kills herself to ease the burden on Precia and get rid of the remaining Jewel Seeds.
• Mama Bear: Is very protective of Precia.
• The Medic: Acts as one to Precia. It's kind of funny, given that in canon she would admonish Precia to take better care of herself.
• Mind over Matter: Linith seems to be very good at telekinesis.
• My Beloved Smother: A softer example than most, but she still sticks her head in semi-frequently to ensure Fate and Nanoha are well.
• Panthera Awesome: Like Vesta, she too can take the shape of a huge cat.
• Put on a Bus: Similarly to Precia, Linith goes inactive at the end of chapter 6 of Power Games. She wakes in chapter 8.
• Precision F-Strike: Mild example, but Linith is normally a very composed, polite character, so it's all the more noticeable when she swears after concluding that she may be dealing with the genuine Book of Darkness.
• Right-Hand Cat: Can be thought of as one. It says something about Linith's and Precia's relationship in this fanfic when Linith covers a sleeping Precia with a blanket and then leaps on her lap in cat form.
• Secret-Keeper: For the fact that Precia is Secretly Dying.
• Spared By The Fanfic: Canon Linith was a Posthumous Character...and All There in the Manual, to boot. However, in this fanfic she is very much alive. It's for the same reason Precia acts nicer to Fate; it makes no sense to waste a capable, versatile and loyal servant. She does die, but later than she did in canon.
• Team Mom: As Linith herself implies, Precia created her in part to fill this role.
• Trap Master: Linith seems to be skilled in creating magical traps.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Very, very averted. Linith tends to immediately resort to lethal or at least extreme force to defeat people she's in combat with.
• Your Days Are Numbered: When Precia goes, she goes too.

Alicia Testarossa

"And if someone mean did it, you and Big Sis and Arf and Vesta can beat them up and maybe make them say they’re very sorry and then they might join our side like you did with Big Sis and then I would have more friends and your mama would be better and everything would be better!"

Precia's daughter, deceased as the result of a horrible accident. Precia's motivation, as in canon, is to revive Alicia. At the end of Game Theory, she succeeds.

An alternate version of Alicia appears in the sidestory Another Way. This Alicia didn't die in the reactor explosion.

Tropes associated with Alicia:

• Achilles' Heel: Unsurprisingly, the Jewel Seed that keeps her alive is this. Although it gives her great power, anything that disrupts its functions is potentially lethal for her.
• Ascended Extra: Seeing as how she's alive again...
• Amplifier Artifact: Precia believes the Jewel Seed that keeps Alicia alive will increase her magical abilities. And it might also have other effects, see Child Prodigy below.
• Back from the Dead
  • Living on Borrowed Time: She's only kept alive through her Jewel Seed powered Promethean mechanism.
• Buffy Speak: When she's engaging her Child Prodigy skills. She seems to have knowledge without the correct words.
• Came Back Strong: Power Games reveals that she's a Child Prodigy with mechanics, which is potentially a side-effect of the Jewel Seed keeping her alive. In Another Way, where Alicia never died, she was only good at lockpicking.
  • She also manifests a Jewel Seed construct when she is in danger. Soon after, she manifests the construct at will.
• Cheerful Child
• The Chessmaster: Alicia shows shades of this, in the "Queen Bee of the school playgorund" sort of way. She humiliates Quattro when they first meet, and finds an unusual way to let Sein keep her pet lemur. Namely, she tells Uno that if Sein can't have her lemur she could adopt Wormy instead. Uno let's Sein keep the lemur.
• Child Prodigy: At age five she's capable of performing maintenance on Storage Devices, something Precia couldn't do at the same age. Girl takes after her mom, all right. She manages to give Nanoha and Fate's Devices a Mid-Season Upgrade over the course of a single night without any help except from the Devices themselves and the Jewel Seeds.
  • Precia herself isn't sure if this is an effect from the Jewel Seed or not. Notably, this trope does not apply to the version of Alicia seen in Another Way
• Fear of Thunder: In Another Way, Alicia has this. Ironic, given Fate's conversion affinity.
• Hair of Gold: Just like her sister.
• Guardian Entity: She can turn Dollie into a Charlotte-like Jewel Seed construct. She later says it's exactly like Dollie's Barrier Jacket.
• Imaginary Friend: Dollie, her doll who bears a resemblance to Rei Ayanami.
• Not-So-Imaginary Friend: Maybe. Dollie knows things. And can attack people.
• Last Episode, New Character: Although Alicia was present in stasis throughout the story, she wasn't really a character until the epilogue of Game Theory when she finally wakes up.
• Master of Unlocking: Carrying over fromAnother Way,Word of God is that she managed to hack into her mother's locked Device and then retrieved the Jewel Seeds inside of them in 30 minutes or so.
• Motor Mouth: To rival Vesta. Her mental dialogue, if anything, is even worse.
• Older Than They Look: Alicia's technically thirty-one. She just spent the majority of those years dead, which obviously halted her development.
• Put on a Bus: For many obvious reasons, she doesn't appear in the final battles of Power Games.
• Sherlock Scan: Pulls on one a Girl In A Machine. It's highly accurate.
• Spared by the Adaptation: In both Another Way and in Game Theory, although in the latter case it's more like brought back from the dead by the adaptation.
• Technopath: She has some form of this. Her Sherlock Scan mentioned above is implied to be caused by this. She also mentions that she hears things from the Jewel Seeds - and not the one installed in her body. It's also suggested Dollie has something to do with this.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Sneaking out to Earth causes her to instigate a full-blown Mêlée à Trois.
• Walking Spoiler: Back before Power Games came out, her character section was mostly white.

Teana (Tea) Lanster

"I found out where Auntie Sara keeps her cake! And I got some all by myself! With a chair Device!"

Tiida Lanster's energetic little sister. During Game Theory she stays with Mei and Rizu's mother while her brother is on his mission. Her appearances in the story are only during video calls with Tiida.

Despite having little impact in the plot (for now), her appearances are unforgettable, and she co-hosts the Previously on… Omake.

Tropes associated with Teana:

• Cheerful Child: Young Teana is adorable.
• Early-Bird Cameo
• Genki Girl: Genkier than Vesta, which is saying a lot.
• Hero-Worshipper: Towards Tiida, and Lindy to some extent. She also seems to think Quint is "really cool", to the extent of trying to emulate her, according to Tiida:
  Tiida (to Quint): I want you to know what you've done. She's been putting low-friction barriers on the floor and skating around in her socks. This is entirely your fault.
• The Nicknamer: She tends to call people by nickname if she can't recall their actual name.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: There are brief moments where she's not so cheerful and genki, usually when she talks about her parents or how she feels lonely when her brother is away.
• Parental Abandonment

*POWER GAMES SPOILERS*

The Mariage

"Rest now, my liege...Sleep until next we bring you offerings. We, your Mariage, will guard you."

A weapon system originating from the fallen Kingdom of Galea, composed of reanimated corpses. Unbeknownst to anyone, the destruction of the Garden of Time reactivated the system, and they subsequently began expanding their numbers and gathering a source of mana to reawaken their ruler. Their actions cause the TSAB to investigate Earth right when the Wolkenritter begin to gather Linker Cores.

Tropes associated with the Mariage:

• Action Bomb/Cyanide Pill: As in canon.
• Better to Die than Be Killed: A nearly captured Mariage decides to commit suicide by blowing a hole in it's own chest.
• Blade Below the Shoulder/Shapeshifter Weapon: Also as in canon.
• Dressing as the Enemy: Proving that the Mariage are not mindless mooks, the disguise themselves as the Masked Men in order to fool the Wolkenritter.
• Dug Too Deep: It's noted that previous Mariage outbreaks contained by the TSAB have been caused by archeologists digging up stray Mariage units.
• Early-Bird Cameo: They're canonically from Striker S Sound Stage X. Here they're active in the timeframe of A's.
• Feel No Pain: A broken arm doesn't even make them flinch.
• Hive Mind: As in canon. It's shown they stay in telepathic communication.
• Meaningful Name: Explained here.
• Night of the Living Mooks
• Our Zombies Are Different: Corpses reanimated via Magitek.
  • Artificial Zombie
• Outside-Context Problem: The last thing anyone expected was these guys showing up in Power Games. Amazingly, it was Foreshadowed with Hayate's zombie obsession.
• Sealed Army in a Can: And Precia accidentally broke them out.
• We Win Because You Didn't: After the Book of Darkness activates, most of the Mariage are destroyed except for a skeleton crew guarding Ixpellia and some damaged units. At this point, the Mariage re-prioritize and figure that if the TSAB defeats the Book of Darkness they'll go after Ixpellia next. So they decide to help the Book of Darkness win by attacking Chikaze, who is weakening the book. They fail.
• The Worf Effect: The Book of Darkness obliterates an army of them when it activates. The next chapter reveals they had sent almost all their units to steal the Book of Darkness. All that remained were some damaged units that went after the weaker participants in the final battle.
• Zerg Rush They take out the Wolkenritter this way.

Ixpellia

She ached all over. Her mouth felt as dry as a desert; her arms felt like something was jabbing pins and needles into them; her legs were useless lumps of meat. That was familiar. Yes, she thought in bemusement, that was familiar. When she woke up suddenly, it always hurt. Was it the awakening that hurt, or the pain that made her awaken? That she was less sure of.

A Dark Ruler of the now-fallen Kingdom of Galea, and source of the Mariage. Originally in suspended animation, she was briefly reawakened by the destruction of the Garden of Time which reactivated the Mariage. The Mariage are attempting to gather a mana source to fully reawaken her.

Tropes associated with Ixpellia:

• Artificial Human: All but stated by the narration.
• Early-Bird Cameo: As with the Mariage.
• Obliviously Evil: Ixpellia only has fleeting moments of consciousness, and the Mariage are basically machines fulfilling old programming.
• Puppet Queen: The narration implies something like this was going on in Galea.
  • Jail says she's really like an ant queen, instead of being a human queen.
• Sealed Badass in a Can: Well...more like sealed person that produces zombies.

Jail Scaglietti

"My name is Jail Scaglietti, my dear. And Precia is an old friend of mine. ... I'd be delighted to help."

When Precia falls into a coma during the aftermath of a climactic battle, Linith suggests Nanoha contact an old friend of hers for treatment. Who else would it be, but the Mad Scientist Big Bad from StrikerS?

Tropes associated with Jail:

• Early-Bird Cameo: He's just the latest in a long, long list of them.
• Exhausted Eye Bags: Sports these when trying to heal Precia in Chapter 9.
• Gender Flip: In some ways he's one to Precia - mostly by virtue of being a Manipulative Bastard.
• Giver of Lame Names: Nanoha wonders if the names of the Numbers are the result of this.
• Laugh Themselves Sick: Jail has this reaction when he learns Alicia installed Jewel Seeds into Raising Heart and Bardiche.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: He reveals that he helped create Fate - but he isn't Alicia's biological father. In fact, even he doesn't know who it is.
• Manipulative Bastard: Jail treats his cyborg Child Soldiers as his own daughters - which means they're all utterly loyal to him. When he meets Nanoha he offers to help her by setting a trap for the Mariage...at the site of an Alhazreadian ruin he was investigating. That the trap just happens to give him more data on the ruins is undoubtedly a coincidence. By having Tre befriend Nanoha, and by revealing to Fate that he helped create her, Jail is increasingly gaining control over two powerful mages. Just like Precia.

The Numbers

Nanoha swayed, feeling shocked. Tre… was a robot? Did that mean that all the other girls here were robots? That Doctor Scagletti was one too? That wasn’t possible! There was no such thing as...

...um. Drat. Nanoha hadn’t found herself going ‘that was impossible’ about magic in a while. She wondered how on earth they worked.

Jail Scaglietti's cyborg soldiers. In the time of Power Games the Numbers are all teenagers or young children. All of them view Jail as a father figure - even though he sends them on some rather dangerous missions.

Tropes associated with the Numbers collectively:

• Child Soldiers: All of them. Heck, Quattro is said to look like a four year old, and even she gets sent on missions!
• Cyborg: As in canon.
• Early-Bird Cameo: As of Power Games Chapter 9, Uno, Tre, Quattro, Cinque, Dieci, and Sein have appeared, while Due has been mentioned in passing. There's also Zero and Nulla - who in canon were Subaru and Ginga.
• Family Eye Resemblance: Nanoha notices that all of them have the same eye color as Jail.
• Transhuman: In canon they were already Cyborg Artificial Humans with unnatural powers. In the fanfic this is expanded upon to the point where the Numbers' unnatural abilities affect how they act. For example, Dieci doesn't look at the people she's speaking to because she doesn't need to use her eyes to see.

Uno

"The Takamachi girl is powerful, impulsive and conspicuous...Testarossa – all three of them – are wanted, and the Bureau will be looking for them...The familiars will shed everywhere, and the youngest one will be a bad influence on the girls and it will be impossible to persuade Sein she can’t have a pet if she sees others having them. Do we have to keep them?"

Eldest of the Numbers. Jail's top assistant.

Tropes associated with Uno:

• Awesomeness by Analysis: Her ability is to absorb and process large amounts of data.
• My Skull Runneth Over: Overusing her abilities taxes her implants, causing debilitating headaches.
• Neat Freak: According to Word of God, this is due to being Jail's Opposite-Sex Clone and inheriting some of his Infinite Desire compulsions.
• Only Sane Man: Nearly all of her scenes have her react to something crazy or destructive that someone else is doing.

Tre

"Last one to the ground’s a loser!"

Jail's top field agent. Described as an adrenaline junkie by Uno, Tre quickly befriends Nanoha...a friendship that Jail encourages.

Tropes associated with Tre:

• Feel No Pain: She can stop her pain receptors when injured.
• In Harm's Way: According to Word of God, she "lives for the next thrill and feels a constant push to improve herself". This is due to her being made from Jail's genes and inheriting some of his Infinite Desire compulsions.
• Odd Friendship: With Nanoha. In canon, Tre was not only an enemy, but also more opposed to Fate. However, both Tre and Nanoha are driven individuals who seek to better themselves.
• Robotic Reveal: She's damaged in Nanoha's first mission with her, revealing her robotic parts. Nanoha freaks out a bit, but quickly gets over it.

Quattro

"The new girl is being mean to me! And Sein’s being bad! And Dieci’s being...Dieci![...]She’s being friends with Alicia and they were mean to me and wouldn’t share and then Alicia summoned something big and horrible in the playroom and it’s not fair!"

One of the youngest of the numbers, Quattro is an accomplished illusionist.

Tropes associated with Quattro:

• Bratty Half-Pint: Quattro is both young, small, and a total brat to people.
• Improbable Age: She's described as looking like a four year old, but Jail still sends her on missions. Notably, Nanoha doesn't seem to think anything is wrong with this.
• Master of Illusion: Enough to get into fights with Vesta.
• Shrinking Violet: Quattro initially gives off this impression...
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: The truth is a bit different - though it's possible her shyness feeds into her brattyness.
• Well Done Daughter Girl: According to Word of God, she " is fixated on getting the approval of authority figures" and thus seeks praise from Jail and Uno whenever she can by helping them.

Cinque

Sein

Sixth of the Numbers.

Tropes associated with Sein:

• Ceiling Cling: She's introduced by popping out of the ceiling part way and hanging there.
• I'm Taking Her Home with Me!: She captures lemurs and other animals and tries to keep them as pets frequently enough for the other Numbers to complain about it.
• The Nicknamer: Calls Alicia "'Licia".
• Speech Impediment: She has a childish way of speaking and mispronounced words.

Dieci

"Cure for the Fun thing first? I don’t want to not have fun anymore."

Tenth of the Numbers, even though in practice it's more like the seventh. Dieci is a quiet and serious girl.

Tropes associated with Dieci:

• Blue Oni: Seems to be becoming this to Alicia's red.
• The Stoic: To the point where Alicia says Dieci has a fun deficiency.
• Super-Senses: Dieci can see things without actually looking at them, something Alicia immediately picks up on.

Zero and Nulla

"Grown-ups are only safe when they’re happy with you...I know what makes the Doctor happy. He likes learning things. He learned loads of things from looking at how me and Zero work and what we can do, so he likes us. That makes sense. Mrs Nakajima… didn’t."

Two girls rescued by Quint Nakajima during a raid on an illegal laboratory. By sheer coincidence, both girls were actually Cyborg clones of Quint. Quint decided to adopt them, and in Game Theory Quint discusses the adoption proceedings with her husband Genya. In canon, the adoption would have gone through, and the girls would become Subaru and Ginga Nakajima

Unfortunately this doesn't happen as Power Games reveals that the girls were abducted while Quint was away. They turn up as part of Jail's group where they have been given the names Zero (for the younger sister) and Nulla (for the older sister)

Tropes associated with both characters:

• Adaptation Name Change: Due to their abduction by Jail. It's not clear how permanent this will be.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Besides the Early-Bird Cameo, they're referred to several times before actually appearing.
• Conditioned to Accept Horror: A variation. Nulla feels that Jail treats her better than the scientists that originally made her. When Quint Nakajima is brought up, Nulla doesn't understand what Quint actually wanted, or how she would have made Quint happy.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Nanoha thinks the girls look familiar, though she fails to make the connection to Quint until Nulla mentions her.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes: Unlike in canon, they seem to be always on. Word of God explains that it's not that they're in permanent combat mode, it's that they're lacking a disguise mode.
• Tyke-Bomb: Both of them. Nulla in particular was forced to fight the other Combat Cyborgs before being rescued.

---