All franchises featured herein belong to Rick Riordan, Masaki Tsuzuki, Kubo Tite, Kinoko Nasu, Isshiei Isshibumi and Go Taketsuchi. Except for those of my personal creation.
This may or may not remain a one shot depending on the time I have. You have been warned.
Authors Note: I was required to repost this and add this different addendum so people don't go in blindly into the story. This story is a FUSION crossover: this means that rather than the lore merging in an unexplained or vague way, or Nasuverse characters being dropped into a different universe, they operate within the confines of ANOTHER universe, and are thus subject to the "host universe's" rules, beliefs and traditions. While it operates the same way as the "Zelretch did it" fanfics, it doesn't take that premise into the story. The magi have always been here, in the Riordanverse, and as the Riordanverse has WAY FAR MORE to lose from Nasuverse lore overwriting its underpinnings, the story takes place in the Riordanverse with Nasu characters and their lore being a kind of "island" in the larger Riordanverse and operating the same way they've always done WITHIN their confines. Since this tale goes all the way back to the Origin of the Myths and magic themselves, we're going further than the lore of any given universe present in this work possibly can. In essence, Nasu lore exists just like how Egyptian Mythology from the Kane Chronicles and Norse Mythology from Magnus Chase coexist together within their own bubbles and when they meet, the results are pretty much HARD to PREDICT.
TL;DR Where Nasuverse and Riordanverse prove irreconcilable, the Riordanverse and it's lore takes precedence over it, because this is an story for casual Nasuverse fans and BIG Riordanverse fans. Sorry everyone, but now you can tap the back button if you don't like where things are going.
Another explanation: People have noted that even ignoring the power issues, the tone of the story sounds like a bashfic. To clarify, I follow and like both, so it's kind of hard to bash something I like (I do hate FGO though. It can rot in hell or be retconned when Bob Iger's Empire Where the Sun Never Sets takes over Type-MOON). HOWEVER, the ORGANIZATION depicted here has a VIRULENTLY ANTAGONISTIC relationship with the Clock Tower, and Kowalski is sourcing her stuff from books created by them, so it stands to reason her POV is going to sound biased and dismissive of the Clock Tower magi, which in my original lore are considered sub-human by the guys from my organization. This is neither good nor bad. The Magi spouse similar view about the "blind chickenheads" and "matched/igualados" from the OC Organization. The organization in turn, considers them "backwards neckbeards", "estultos (retards)" and "Perfidos (Perfidous, alluding to Britain, Clock Tower's HQ)" and as a whole, they believe the other is wrong. Truth is, however, because my organization was built with Riordanverse lore in mind, the Nasuverse probably is wrong because, again, the Nasuverse and Riordanverse break each other's rules with near reckless abandon. ONLY ONE OF THE TWO LORES CAN BE GENUINELY RIGHT, and it is, in this fic's case, the Riordanverse, because it does have dispensations for things like the Nasuverse lore to exist within it's greater confines.
So if it sounds like bashing, it's not Author-centric: it's how the lore works, because they hate each other, so the views Kowalski will profess here will naturally sound VERY biased by virtue of the relationship between these guys and their British counterparts.
...And it's easier to deny the gods exist or are too weak for the Clock Tower, than it is for the gods of the Riordanverse to suddenly lose all their power as Nasu lore would require for the crossover (or any crossover) to work. Finally, the idea of Akasha not being real was hardly an original concept, and writers have attempted it before (like in FateBlack Reflection. Check that awesomesauce story out).
With that out of mind, I must stressthe MST3K (damn you TVTropes) mantra: It's only an story. Don't start an internet backdraft for one thing just because it offends your sensibilities, especially when I've already told those who might get offended why they might beforehand and can now leave rather than "waste their time" here.
ALSO, important shoutout for "some" people: AMBICIONAD, SHURMANOS! VIVA ESPANA Y VIVA EL REY! ABAJO LOS PERFIDOS! XD
Also, backstory because the chapter will go confusing fast if I don't:
After the Hunters of Artemis are spirited, by mysterious reasons, to Europe, by their mistress, the goddess of the Hunt, Artemis, they are sent to scout around the woods of the Community of Madrid. Clock Tower enforcers, having detected anomalous magical phenomena taking place in the countryside and all the way to Castilla-La Mancha, are unable to find the source of the anomalous readings in the ambient mana, mostly due to the stubborn interference of Spanish government agents that seem to be deployed across the countryside and following their movements. Kowalski, during an scouting run further south than believed, runs into the Enforcers, who take an interest in her peculiar power signature and attempt to apprehend them. However, nearby Crusading Patrols manage to intercept the "British Invaders" and deport them back to the UK, whilst taking the wounded Hunter of Artemis back to their HQ at the Royal Palace of Madrid, where she spends a night healing and decides to stay around upon overhearing talk of the Greek and Roman Camps arriving soon, alongside the Norse Einherjar from Valhalla and agents from the world's major Egyptian Nomes, being summoned to a "young heroes summit" to discuss a threat that not only was predicted nearly 10,000 years ago, but will decide the ultimate fate of civilization on Earth for all time. Curious about the situation at hand, she asks, and is allowed to, stay the rest of the week, reading up on as much of the organization's history and findings and trying to cram it all in before taking the news back to her mistress. Unbeknownst to her, their Spanish adventure was not only planned, but will only be the beginning of the Hunters and Heroes final and greatest odyssey yet.
It had been approximately 33 hours since the last time Kowalski had slept in a warm bed. The white haired Hunter was in one of the poshest palaces in the world, right in the heart of Madrid, the European Capital of Literature. Sleep should've come to her almost as a side effect, but the Hunter of Artemis had still been too restless to sleep, despite the warm bed she did have. Even the fact that her fellow hunters, demigods from Camp Half Blood and Camp Jupiter, the Norse demigods and Valkyries from Valhalla, Pharaohs from the House of Life, a 17 year old Shinigami-slash-Soul Reaper, two renegade Alien Mages and even two God Slayers were all sleeping in the castle (and firmly on their side) didn't do much to keep the 16 year old's inquisitive mind from running twice as fast as her steps right now. And that wasn't counting the Cruciators, who were easily as strong as the demigods and just as capable as the Soul Reaper, but not nearly as fast to unnerve.
She had awakened in the library in complete shock and covered in freezing perspiration. Not cold, but actual freezing droplets that had turned to icicles on her skin.
She had been reading more on the nature of this Chaldea and this Clock Tower. Apparently, they were an organization of Magi nearly two millennia old, perhaps even more, but not consolidated until the Middle Ages; the same time the Crusaders were consolidated by Pelagius of Asturias and launched the Reconquista. However, what concerned her was not Clock Tower itself. The puny Magi were, as daughter of Hecate Lou Ellen, succinctly put the thing, 'way out of their league' against just the demigods, let alone children of Hecate. What worried her was what she read of the ritual known as the Holy Grail War that involved no real Holy Grail. Just for the kicker, the real one, able to grant one reasonable wish, was sitting in the Overseer's office, no longer able to grant wishes due to Jesus Christ having taken that power with him when he was apotheoized.
The worrisome thing was the tale of Servants. Apparently they were entities known as Heroic Spirits. These entities were basically cheap carbon copies of original heroes (which the Clock Tower erroneously believed to be their souls) stored inside a so-called 'Throne of Heroes'. Since the thing was inside the superstructure known as Akasha she realized they were looking for something that wasn't there. Akasha was, as Overseer Andrews, leader of the Crusaders put it; 'the biggest mass delusion since the idea King Arthur was a child or even a woman.' Almost certainly, the idiots instead actually reached into the many mythological afterlives and used the power of the Grail to create a replica modeled on the deceased thing. It would go to great lengths to explain why, according to Overseer Andrews, Hades had complained of numerous intrusions and how a 'retrieval spell' had been looking for Heracles, the immortal hero-slash-idiot of legend that was now an immortal god and even more of a prick. Since he was immortal, the spell had settled for a similar guy: a hulking gladiator from the bad days of Ancient Rome rumored to have twelve or so lives, and used that template to create the Heroic Spirit Herakles (misspelling courtesy of this latest tome having been written by a Japanese agent of the NWO instead of an actual English capable writer). Apparently, a cheap replica of Medea had also been created by extracting her essence from Tartarus. Brilliant indeed.
Oh, and yeah… The Cruciators-slash-Crusaders had been the last remnant of the 'Illuminati' everyone feared so much. Go figure.
The bad thing was that these Servants were, for all their faults, really damn powerful. Apparently, doubly so than a demigod. Then came the worrisome discovery. The brief report she had read on Chaldea spoke of a ritual to summon not one, not Seven, but an ARMY of these things. Even with their numbers, Kowalski wasn't sure they could stop an army of fake heroes barreling through them and all hell breaking loose.
So that's why, after having spent all day with Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena and strategist extraordinaire, and Blaise Sainte-Garde, Cruciator boy genius and descendant of Napoleon (and, given his hair color, potentially a distant relative of hers), she had finally succumbed to sleep, only to find herself dreaming of the mayhem only dreams of demigods (or Hunters… they had to deal with dreams too) could have.
Thankfully, she hadn't awakened with anyone, having been left alone. She remembered staying after both allies turned in, which meant they couldn't laugh at her weakness. But when she left, she changed into the sleep robes and walking socks, ready for her bed only to realize sleep had become all but impossible.
So she had left for the office of the only person who could assuage her doubts on the future of this new mission and prophecy they were now stuck with. The most shocking thing was said person wasn't her mistress. The person was the Overseer of the Order instead. The man was the descendant of Jack Frost himself, and while he was a man of frosty appearance, his disposition was anything but. Not to mention, if someone knew more about these Heroic Spirits and how Chaldea intended to use them, they would be able to keep them from becoming a reality in the first place at best, or completely destroy them in a worst case scenario.
But curse the Sibylline Books for dooming them all after Apollo's fall from grace and return!
As she silently crossed the halls of the Royal Palace of Madrid, she noticed that despite the time, being 2 in the morning, there were quite a few revelers awake, probably due to similar concerns about what would happen the following morning and the day after tomorrow as well. There would be a ball to celebrate their last day there... And the start of their 'pilgrimage', the name the Order used for Quests and Prophecies. She didn't fancy the idea of dressing up, even if in a White Pantsuit and blazer designed for the Hunters by the Order. Still, their mistress would attend, and so they had to. Even then, the big issue to her was the Chaldea situation; they were basically trying to summon an army of undead heroes. As she had seen with the so called Heretic Gods, this idea was incredibly dangerous and extraordinarily risky, and she didn't think all of them could fight off a deluge of that magnitude. Even the Olympians were worried enough to send both Camps to Spain... And even if Zeus was afraid, that could only mean trouble for them. Or as Andrews said, 'disgrace. HIGH disgrace!'.
Before arriving at the long hallway connecting the rest of the Castle with the Overseer's study, she noticed the de facto leader of the newer generation of Cruciators talking with one of the alien girls. And she knew exactly why.
Amaranth Graves was the kind of boy that could make even the most boy hating hunter look up every once in a while, and Hunter Kowalski was no exception. The boy had, to make things even worse, become a Hunter of their own. None other to thank for this than her… or their, own mistress. Yes, even the goddess of virginity could fall in love (she knew the story of Orion and how their mistress had been pondering the idea of them being together before shooting it down as preposterous) and she was smitten over the sixteen year old boy from Sewickley. Even then, the most prominent thing wasn't his appearance. It was his power.
She had only seen him fight once. Thalia Grace had seen him fight dozens of times. However, the one time she did see him fight was a complete shock.
The boy had taken on their mistress, goddess of the hunt and an Olympian, head on and with little reservation, matching her with ease even with the power of her domain bolstering her capabilities. After a melee that lasted for no more than two minutes, the goddess had changed to a ranged strategy, shooting a volley of arrows at him so fast they seemed like a rain.
A rain he promptly deviated, deflected and whose last arrow he somehow handled with his own hands before rerouting straight towards the body of the now aghast goddess and knocking off her Circlet.
The less said about his elemental abilities, which had, in his predecessors' past, incinerated Barcelona, the better.
The good thing was the boy had a fairly amicable demeanor, and was kind and cool, despite his element hinting the opposite. He often had a knack for asking for opinions when it was clear he was right, and the fact he did so out of sheer modesty spoke tons of a gentle upbringing that had quickly earned him the fellowship, camaraderie and support of his new Sisters in Arms.
Yet he was still a complete enigma. For one, most demigods longed for a normal life or at least some peace. Amaranth? The boy was closer to the Hunters, if not above them.
The guy lived for adventure, and you could see curiosity whenever they saw something that would make demigods run away in horror.
So it should have been no surprise to her that he had a cousin which turned out to be something of an oddity. Apparently, the woman, redheaded, with long flowing hair and dark blue eyes contrasting his own Auburn locks and white gold gaze, was an 'Enforcer' for a kind of Multiversal Magical organization… then she decided to defect because her only family was the main target. Teana Lanster was just as much, if not more of an enigma than Amaranth was, and the only reason Kowalski believed everything she said was because as a Hunter she had seen enough crazy stuff to write home about and her story didn't seem as shocking by result. Also, Amaranth almost set fire to the hair of Lithyerses once, so when he asked them, Hunters, demigods, Pharaohs and all the other gangs of misfit heroess, to believe his cousin, they did.
But what were they doing at 2:44 AM on Saturday, in the middle of the Grand Staircase?
Amaranth sighed "It truly seems we are in a debacle," he started. "Tell me Tia, why does your girlfriend want me dead?"
Teana rolled her head, her crossed arms clearly sending the message she wasn't happy either "One, she isn't my girlfriend. Not in the way you and everyone else likes to imply at least… I... I am not like you. I don't swing that way, or both ways." She broke off briefly before continuing, rubbing the sides of her head, "Two, I already told you the orders came from Long Arch themselves. Also, for some bizarre reason, Hayate is really worked up. It might have to do with those Hucks... And an incident we had in the US, involving one of your friends and a pet of his in Nevada."
Now it was Amaranth's turn to roll his eyes.
"Those 'Hucks' as you call them were abducted by a mad scientist from THIS world and a few others!" He said, having heaved another sigh "One of the guys even lost his memory because he had a weird animalistic familiar eating his grey matter! They are OUR business! How am I supposed to feel about that?!"
"You should've let us deal with those issues… For one, they were our business too!" the girl started walking around, arms behind her back and hands clasped together "Look, I get it. They were guinea pigs, they were ill, you found a cure and you healed them, only to tell the guy-" she was cut off abruptly.
"Squall…" Amaranth interrupted, clearly unhappy with her words "That's his name… Or Veyron, if you will..."
"You had to be a complete idiot and ask 'Oy Vey! Want me to help you get home? I will happily help you do that! Yes, I will even take a picture of you and your angelic girlfriend once you return! No need to worry! Leave everything to me! Don't worry, the Bureau won't care either way, and even though I already have a platter full of cuh-ray-zee, I don't either!"
The auburn haired hero, clearly not amused more than anything else, tilted his head, clearly wanting out of this convo.
"You done?"
"Almost." Tia spat back. That was Kowalski's prompt to leave. This argument was going to be lengthy and her legs were already dragging her down.
As soon as she walked through the last hallway leading up to Mr Andrews door, she felt the temperature descend steadily. Finally, she knocked gently on it.
Out the door stepped an incredibly kind looking man in a grey suit clearly from the early 20th Century. His gaze was as warm as his welcoming smile and aged but understanding expression, and the cold suddenly left Kowalski's body. This was the man that could give her the reassurance she needed.
"Oh, Ms Kowalski…" he kindly whispered, minding the noise at night "To what do I owe this particular visit?"
The white haired girl went straight to the point.
"You aren't sleeping either. So perhaps you are also worried about the same thing as me." She confessed. "It doesn't let me sleep either".
The man nodded curtly, though his expression had now become different… tired, exhausted even. He opened the door to let her pass and she took a seat in the ornate Louis XIV office, full of magical and mythological relics. In the desk, next to a silver plated Lumia, laid a wide parchment with a map showing various locations, the pen in the inkwell was charred, as if it had burnt from being set to fire, and a smaller page highlighted Antarctica. Finally, an open, aged journal laid open in the desk, though Mr Andrews closed it before she could see what was in there.
He sat down, taking a sip from his wine cup before addressing her.
"Would you like some tea or, maybe a tipple, if your mistress allows so?"
Kowalski ignored the question.
"Please Mr Andrews, don't change the subject." she objected "The situation is serious, isn't it? If so, what are we planning to do? Like, what's the real situation? What's really going on?"
The older man sighed, his expression furrowing and his back reclining in his armchair.
"After tomorrow, the place will be vacated. You and everyone. I am sending you to the Virgin Lands. Most of you will be safe there and will reunite with my associates. We will come up with a plan to fix all of this mess there."
"Mess… You mean Caldea?"
Andrews took the book off the table, feeling it would be a bad idea to speak openly when it was within a Hunter's reach.
"It's not just Caldea… It's everything. The world isn't long anymore. The dragons, the god slayers in Japan… Our return to the Council of the Factions after Cao Cao's horrific incident and uprising… Everything," he cleared his throat before continuing " Everything. The world's ultimate choice must be made soon, and what happens next will be decided by the election. If we reject one of the choices, we will all perish. This decision will ultimately open two paths for the world. In one we should finally be able to prosper and thrive. In the other, all will be lost. All fights, nada… all… for nothing…"
Andrews didn't stop there however, rapidly taking a book out of his desk's cabinet. He drew a pattern on the cover using a letter opener, before saying the words 'Vidi, Astra Vidi' and suddenly a screen showed footage of a battle. It was between two people she had already seen yet never met. One was Jason Grace, the younger brother of the Lieutenant of the Hunters and son of Zeus, and the other one the woman they had come to know as 'Arturia Pendragon' or in other words 'King Arthur'.
She watched how the two, the Servant and the demigods, moved across a clearing, trading slashes and dodging each other's strikes. Finally, the demigod spotted a lethal opening and struck with his Gladius, causing the Servant to fall on one knee. She remembered seeing that fight on a big screen when they were in America. A show of force by the Servant, but an unfortunate stain on their design.
Andrews sighed. He stood up, opening the door behind her.
"Look, Kowalski…" he started, clearly too exhausted by this point to keep the explanation session interesting "I cannot guarantee this won't end wrong, but I can guarantee that if you have any worries about how bad you are faring, I am afraid you're mistaken. I haven't met legends more capable than you. Please, believe me. You're in good hands. If there's anything you fear about Caldea, don't let it get under your skin. They are the easy part of the battle compared to what will be later on your hands. I trust you can deal with this."
The girl looked back at the screen and saw how the blonde woman, the one they called Saber, for her 'class' apparently, was rescued by a red headed boy with golden eyes sending a volley of swords down at Jason. When the dust cleared, Jason was intact save for some rips in his shirt and pants, but the targets were gone.
The hunter sighed for the last time that night. They had barely been speaking for five minutes and his explanation was short, but Kowalski felt like lead now. The explanation had been bad enough that even she knew if Caldea was really the least of their worries and Mr Andrews was so confident of this with everything going so far he wished to use the video as an example of how small they were when it came to Caldea's position in the threat department, then the only way she was going to be ready was by sleeping her head off.
So Hunter Kowalski returned to her room. Her worries had refused to leave, and her concerns had grown, given everything Mr Andrews had told her, but the scale of the problems was so vast her body gave up and she found herself drifting to sleep, this time with no dreaming involved, for which she was thankful.
Even so, once she woke up, she'd get a Jason alone and hear his thoughts. At this point, her mistress would share information only with her inner circle, and she wasn't a part of it.
Prying information was problematic, and more so from Artemis' cold fingers.