A/N Notes: A warning to all readers:

THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS GIANT WALLS OF TEXT. BE VERY AFRAID OF THE GIANT WALLS OF TEXT, BUT CARRY ON WITH THE STORY. IT'S FOR YOUR OWN GOOD I SWEAR.

Outside the City Borders/April 7th, 2010/12:30 PM

Merlin couldn't believe what he was hearing. A world of demons, of spirits… Merlin knew plenty of people who believed in a divine creator, he himself was once an okay Christian, but recent events in his life had shaken his belief. Even with all the magic going on, and with the evidence Sansion's book had shown him, he still had his doubts about a traditional "heaven." But now, what did he really believe?

"Merlin, you okay?"

He looked to Giacomo, who had just spent the last… half hour explaining his ancestral home to him. He shook his head. "It's all just… hard to believe. Even with all the magic, I found all the things you talked about… hard to believe. But now… I'm still wrapping my head around this."

Giacomo nodded, then tilted his head in thought. "I think I know what could get this stuff off your mind."

"What?"

"Where are you from? Scratch that, who are you, really?"

Merlin paused. "That," he said slowly, "I guess, is the several million dollar question. Very well, since you told me your story… I guess I'll tell you mine." He cleared his throat, then began his tale.

(Cue Kansas - Carry on my Wayward Son)

"When I was still among the living, I was born the daughter of a very rich man."

"Wait, daughter?" The shock on Giacomo's face was evident.

Merlin smirked. "I didn't always radiate this much testosterone, if that is what you are asking. But, yes, in life I was a girl. Admittedly, a very tomboyish girl. I loved kendo, rock climbing, sailing, all of those activities you don't usually associate with woman. It was probably because I knew my mother only a little. My parents divorced shortly after I was born. Which was probably why my father spoiled me constantly, now that I think of it. In any case, shortly after I was born there was the discovery of a long-lost alien civilization. It was the first definitive proof we had that there was life in the universe. As you can probably guess, these were very exciting times in our little multi-planet federation. And then we discovered why that alien civilization was 'long-lost'. There was another race of aliens, the Gbaba, who for some reason tried to eliminate all other life in the galaxy. Now that we had become a space-faring people, we were next.

"So, our government went into a state of preparation. This was the culture I was raised, you must understand this. This was life as I knew it. We always knew the Gbaba would visit us some time, and by visit I mean launch an attack, of course. We looked at the alien's technology to find as much as we could. What we couldn't find, we invented. I, being the tomboy that I was, decided to join the Navy. After I graduated the academy, I rose through the ranks until I had become a Lieutenant Commander, serving under one Commodore Pei Kau-yung. I soon became fast friends with him and his wife Doctor Pei Shan-wei, one of the ship's administrators. While this was all happening, it happened. The Gbaba arrived, albeit with only a scout fleet. Thanks to some tactical genius, we defeated them soundly, and we began to feel quite proud of ourselves. We didn't know back then that fleets was only a 'scout' fleet. So a few years later, the whole armada showed up. Obviously, we couldn't take them. They were too advanced technologically wise and there were too many of them. The only advantage we had against them was that we adapted quite quickly, while they seemed incapable of it. However, that only delayed the inevitable.

"So, a desperate plan was created in order to preserve humanity. One that required perfect planning. Two ships carrying volunteers along with some small military ships were set up as bait. When the Gbaba moved in to attack them, they jumped into hyperspace, at which point another fleet would arrive from hyperspace at their exact location, precisely at the moment of time when the first ships left. This deception actually worked against the Gbaba, and they most likely assumed that the first ships had suffered a malfunction trying to activate their hyperdrives. Thus the first ships escaped, and the second wave of ships… tried taking the Gbaba down with them. I was on the second wave, and apparently (although I wouldn't remember this, of course) I died with the rest of the crew. That's not the end of my story, however, and I will get to that.

"That first wave spent 10 years in hyperspace. That's faster-than-light travel, for 10 years, when most ships only spent about a few minutes at most traveling those speeds. This was to ensure that wherever we finally stopped, we would be as far from the Gbaba as we could. But that wasn't all. The first ship stayed, the second ship spent another 10 years traveling in hyperspace. Where they are now, I have no idea. But let us focus on this first ship for a second, shall we?

"The people aboard the first ship named the planet they stopped at 'Safehold', because that planet was our safest point. My dear friend Shan-wei was in charge of doing the terraforming on that planet, which she did quite well. Now, there was another important part of the plan. The colonists, those who would be living on the planet, would have their memories wiped so that we could regain our technology at a slow pace. We didn't want the Gbaba to detect any energy signatures around the planet, you see. But someone, by the name of Eric Langhorne, just had to obtain a god complex, and so he wanted to be worshipped. So he created this church called 'The Church of God Awaiting', where the administrators who didn't have their memories wiped would be 'angels' with him being the highest one of all. Kau-yung and Shan-wei, along with a few others, opposed this, believing that such an experiment would create only disaster. That's when Langhorne came up with his 'brilliant idea'. After all, don't all churches need some kind of devil?

"And thus, Shan-wei and her friends were forced to take the fall, so that Langhorne and his cronies could sate their desire for worship. However, and this is an important however, Shan-wei had a back-up plan. A plan that involves yours truly. You see, having a rich dad of course has it's perks. One of those perks was being able to get one of the latest models in PICA technology. So, she had a copy of my memories made before I was sent off to the suicide mission that she then downloaded in the PICA I had. And, thanks to another friend, she was able to get rid of that pesky government regulation that said that all PICA's must be programmed with a 10-day limit. Without getting rid of the limit, I would have been useless after little more than a week. So, once the ship had arrived at Safehold, she secreted this body away into one of the mountains she was terraforming at the moment. Along with enough futuristic weapons and supplies to sustain a small nation, but that's besides the point.

"After Langhorne had Shan-wei 'condemned', he of course killed her in cold blood, but not before her husband Kau-yung was able to snuggle in a pocket nuke into Langhorne's planning room and kill him and most of his associates. What happened after that and when I was awoken, well, we still don't know that. In any case, about 900 years after the ship had arrived at Safehold, I was awoken. It's quite… difficult, you know, to hear that you had died, and yet your conscience existed in another body, a non-biological one… it was disheartening. But I was informed by a recording by Kau-yung right before his passing what had happened and what my mission was: destroy that abominable church, reveal to the people the secrets of the past and lead them to the technology that humanity once possessed. It was an easier task that you think. I, thanks to my mechanical body was immortal and, compared to the muskets the people had at the time, bullet proof.

"I decided soon after waking up and doing a quick surveilance of the land, with how the current political climate was, that it would be better for me to become a man than to stay a woman. The people had regressed back a male-dominant society, and if I wanted to get anything done I of course had to dominate. Thus, Nimue Alban died and Merlin Arthrawes was born. Fun fact, the name 'Arthrawes' means 'teacher' in Welsh. And that was the role I had take upon: A holy man, with mysterious powers, who taught one of the most liberal kings, the prince of Charis at the time, how become more liberal and to 'discover' the various technologies throughout the ages. I believe that the foundryman, Howsmyn, would, if I had to demand a reward for the 'hints' I gave him, be forced to pay me the modern day equivalent of trillions.

"What happens afterwards… I don't really want to talk about. Needless to say, I became friends with all of these people, and so when I was suddenly ripped away from them and taken to another Earth, one still in the Age of the Internet, I went just a little ballistic. My purpose had been taken from me, I was making so much progress, we were taking it to the Church and doing well in that regard. So why had God or whomever seen fit to take me away from this life and place me in a situation where once more I knew no one and was an extreme oddity. I wandered the land after that, finally coming here, to Rome. Along the way, however, I discovered several… differences between my Earth's past and this world's present. On my Earth, there was no 'demon world', no 'Sailor Senshi', Duel Monsters was just a card game and Digimon… I don't even think we had media of Digimon.

"That's when my confidence began to work itself back into shape. So I wasn't the strangest man in the world! I could maybe join this little group of theirs, and help save humanity once more. Of course, with all that's happening here I decided that HERE is where I was needed, not Japan.

"And that's my tale, maybe not in it's entirety but certainly in it's completion."

(End Theme)

Giacomo was now the one having a hard time wrapping his head around something. "Wow, that's… wow."

"Indeed it is."

"Wait, there's still one more thing you haven't told me."

"What's that?"

"If you were born a woman… did you ever feel like, I don't know, some part of you was actually a man?"

"You mean whether I was a FtM Transgender?"

"Yes."

"No. I will admit though," Merlin said this all causually, "that you look pretty attractive to me."

Giacomo gulped. "Um, I don't know man, I don't walk those streets-"

"I know, I know, I shouldn't have poked fun at you, but yes to a degree I am still attracted to the male sex although being in a mechanical body really… represses that. That's why I haven't dated in almost a millenia, besides the whole 'in a deep sleep' thing."

"Well, I'm just glad that I found someone I can relate to."

"Indeed, Giacomo, indeed. And let us both hope that nothing major happens to soon."

Unfortunately for Merlin's optimism, such thinking was… impractical.

In the nearby town of Ciampino/3:27 PM

Anna-Lisa De Luca looked out across the town, admiring the view much like she usually did. She was in her 50's, and as such was, to put it mildly, getting old. Even with modern medicine, she looked far older than most people her age, but she didn't mind. The old age was worth it in order to experience peace and prosperity for the rest of her life. Her children, now with children of their own still visited regularly, they had all decided to live closer to Rome, to feel what it was like to live in a big city rather than a small town. According to them, the various neighborhoods they all lived in were nice and friendly.

However, they passed on rumors to her. Rumors of creatures, aliens, coming in from the sky. They never experienced it personally, and so didn't really believe it, but she had learned when they had been but babes that some outrageous stories… were often true.

She had been a soldier, if you could call her that, before she had married and given birth to her kids. Anyone familiar with comics would have called her a 'superhero'. That was her job, and her now-lost husband's job. They had been a crime-fighting duo, bashing in the heads of the Mafia and other various criminal scum. But her husband's downfall was that he took the 'Batman' approach to superheroism: No powers, no magic, only human mind, muscle and memory. She too initially did the same, working out to improve her physique, taking criminology classes in order to solve the crimes committed by her foes...

...Until she found something, apparently fallen onto her lawn, twenty years ago.

Twenty Years Ago...

That morning she had been preparing breakfast for their family, while still trying to do the laundry in between. As anyone who has tried to do this can attest to, it didn't really get either done. She also had to deal with the kids, who had been too young to be in school yet. It was… quite stressful, as you could imagine. So when something went BONK across the window, she was just a bit too busy to hear it. Thank the Lord for the distractive potential of children, whoever.

Her eldest daughter, who had just turned 4, ran to her. "Mama, Mama!"

She turned to her, trying to keep the anxiety off of her face. "What is it, darling?"

"Something hit the window!"

"It did?"

"Yeah! It's on the lawn now!"

She went outside to investigate. What she saw confused her. Lying on the ground beneath the window was a blank white mask. She could tell it was a mask based on the ovaloid shape, but she did not know what it was for. It had no details on it whatsoever, indeed, it looked like someone's school project that they had forgotten to finish. But it couldn't have come from someone's house, her home was on the edge of town, the forests were behind her, forests which she and her husband, as per their duty, meticulously scouted on a regular basis. Their last 'check' had been just last week, so she doubted that it was some sort of villain's property they had dropped while spying on her. She put on the mask to see if it would fit her face for anything (good masks were hard to come by).

But what happened then was still to this day too beautiful to describe. The mask had granted her powers beyond man's wildest dreams, literally in this case. It transfigured her, transformed her, in both mind and body. Thus she became Fata Di Ciampino, the Fairy of Ciampino.

The present day…

But that was all in the past. Her husband was dead, having pushed himself too far. Her kids were grown up and had moved away. And she, despite her town's pleasant community, despite the beauty of the view she had from her house porch, was still alone. Loneliness, however, would prove to be an advantage in the coming moments.

She heard the man approach before she saw him, but she could sense the malicious intent in his presence. He had orange hair and beard, and a hunter's stare was in his eyes.

This… was her ill-fated meeting with the man, nay, the creature known to us as Angau.

He smiled when she saw him. Her face tightened her frown further at his expression. This man was trouble. Trouble without remorse.

"Well, good day to you, mam."

"What have you come here to do to me?"

"Excuse me?" He feigned a look of astonishment at this harsh question, before his familiar cruel smile appeared once more on his face. "Am I that much of an open book?"

"I've seen that look before. The look of a criminal, about to commit a crime that will not only profit him, but will be one that he can get away with. No risk, all reward. It's common among your type."

"Well, that explains why I haven't exactly gotten the ladies to fall at my feet before. At least, the living ones."

Despite her years of experience, she still shuddered internally at that statement. He really has no morals, does he.

"Oh, well, I don't really need the living ones anyways. I got a job to do, but this… this is after hours." He said that last part with the same slithering tone a snake would give before it devoured it's prey.

She kept up a brave face. No way in hell she was going to give this man what he wanted. "I ask again. What do you want from me? Is it my body? My life? My home, my property?"

"To a degree, your property. There is something in your possession that I desire to put to… better use. A certain theater mask, for example?"

Her frown turned to a look of disgust. "I've heard they make decent masks in hell. Are you sure you don't wish to take a visit there first?"

His dark grin turned sadistic. "I actually already checked there first. The salesman was okay, but I've heard that the Fair Folk are the masters of theatre craft."

She snorted. "As to your request, I say this: Not on your life."

"Oh, but my dear…" his eyes glowed with hellish power, "I've lived many lives, and have taken so many more."

Well, she thought, a fight it is then. She pulled the blank white mask out of her cloak and placed it on her face. Immediately, her ears elongated, her bones received strength and her hair grew long and was restored to its youthful state. Reality around her form seemed to… shift, and Angau could feel her power growing.

"That's more like it!" He shouted with a cheery snarl.

She pulled two swords out of seemingly nowhere, and the shift in reality grew more and more until it encompassed their surroundings, warping the plants and structures in the area.

This, this power, was the Wyld.

"The Wyld emerges, the stage is set," he began, "and all the players are ready. Then shall we not have this dance?"

(Cue Baten Kaitos Origins OST - The True Mirror)

She made no sound as she moved toward him, but her intent as she charged was clear: You have stepped too far. He laughed, knowing the inevitable end to this tragedy, but then the elf dissapeared from his sight and slashed his back. He grunted in pain. That wasn't teleportation, I would have sensed that. It just felt like, like she was always ther- AHHH, that's it! He nodded as he realized what she was doing. The Fair Folk and their theatre antics. Distance doesn't matter, scenes and acts matter. Got to remember that. He did his best to block her strikes from nowhere, but then reality shifted even further than it had…

...and a new scene stood before him.

(End Theme, Cue Undertale OST - 67: Oh My… )

He sat on a gilded throne, a pair of nubile women in his arms. They seemed to swoon in his very presence. Beyond them, more men and women pleasured themselves and each other in increasingly terrible ways. He took in this scene before him for merely a moment… before crushing the necks of the women he held. All of the others were too distracted in their own pursuit of pleasure to notice him slowly slaughter his way through them, crushing skulls, throats and, on occasion, hearts. It took him only a small amount of time to commit such a massacre, after which he made his way to the door, before the setting changed once more, but not before he saw a golden cup being melted down.

(End Theme)

He stood in a maze, one he could tell was quite large. He looked around him to notice all the different paths available. He shrugged his shoulders, then in defiance of seemingly common sense, used his hands to begin digging into the earth below him. He dug, and dug, and dug, until the ground beneath him collapsed and he fell, while a vision of a ring being smashed to pieces resonated in his mind.

(Cue Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney OST - Examination ~ Moderate 2001)

He now stood in what looked to be the jury room in a courthouse. Eight other people looked at him expectantly. One of them asked him: "Well, have you reached a decision?"

"A decision on what?"

"Is this man guilty or not? Have you even take a look at the evidence folder?"

He quickly thought through his options for a moment, before he smiled once more. "Yes, actually, I've come to a decision."

"Well, what is it?"

"I think… that you should put a sock in it."

And so, Angau helped the man put a sock in it. Of course, I doubt he will care if his foot's still in it, will he? And this he did to the man and everyone else in the room besides him. A familiar distortion happened, and a staff was broken over his knee, while he was still in transit.

(End Theme)

The newest place he stood in was much more to his liking. It was a battlefield, and men on both, no, make it, all three sides were dying in droves. Man, this brings back some old memories. So, he decided to join in on the fun. He rammed his hands into people's chest, their heads, their other heads, it was such a delight for his sadistic mind.

And of course, when she tried to ambush him from behind, he grabbed her neck and threw her onto the ground. She raised her swords to defend herself, but he broke those with his bare hands. When he had done this, reality seemed to quake and suddenly, they were back at her house. Behind her lay the broken cup, ring, staff and sword. He nodded as he saw them, then pointed at the cup.

"The Trial of the Cup. The User's own pleasures are turned against them in order to distract them from their goal. Unfortunately for you, you got the wrong sources of pleasure."

He then pointed to the ring. "The Trial of the Ring. The trial-giver forces their reality on the victim in order to enforce their dominance. Their world, their rules. Sadly, it doesn't work at it's finest against someone who can really think outside the box."

He pointed to the staff. "The Trial of the Staff. The victim is trapped in a legal scenario that they have to maneuver around, but such maneuvering merely traps the victim more. A quick exit, however, usually does the trick."

He pointed to the sword. "Lastly, the Trial of the Sword. It is what you think it is, but sadly for you it is the area I most excel at."

He finally turned to face her. "How do I know all of this, you may be wondering? How can I, an orange-haired dirty little criminal, possibly understand the beautiful subtleties of such an art as shaping combat?" He chuckled, and then his body expanded. If she could, she would have gasped at seeing his true form, his true identity. "Elf, I am a master of all combat. There is not a method of killing I do not know. No murder made in the dark of night is safe from my watching eyes. I have learned magics your kind could never imagine solely to slaughter others in unique and interesting ways. I am death, nay, I am the Marquis of Sade's ideal, I AM… actually while spoil the fun? I'm sure it's much more interesting to be killed by an enemy you don't know then one you are familiar with. It's not the fall that kills you after all," he laughed darkly, "it's the pits of hell that wish to embrace YOUR CORPSE!"

Anna-Lisa De Luca would never see her children, or anyone really, ever again.

A few minutes afterwards…

The mask was bloody, but it was his. He held it in his hand, appreciating it's beauty. It was a weapon disguised as a piece of art. Though he himself couldn't use, and truly he didn't need it, there was someone else he knew who could perform her role well enough with such a weapon. He laughed, and laughed, even as he ran to see his next victim's terrified face.

%\%\%\%\%\%

Thus ends the tale of Anna-Lise De Luca, but the mask's tale has only just begun.

To give an explanation for what just happened beyond Angau's quick summary, how the Fair Folk do combat in Exalted is with actions in something called "Shaping Combat", where they use various plot devices and what not as "weapons". Anyone whose "health" in such combat is reduced to nothing is forced to do something for the victor, depending on which kind of Shaping Combat it is. Losing a Cup Combat prevents the loser from experiencing a particular virtue either forever, or if the loser is particularly powerful, a number of "tales" (I'm not going to get into how non-standard the Fair Folk's mechanics are, it's just too confusing, so let's just leave it at 'a number of tales'). Losing a Ring Combat forces the loser to perform a certain, completely doable task for the victor. Losing a Staff Combat makes the loser vulnerable to the three other types of damage. And finally, losing a Sword Combat forces the loser to give something important to the victor, such as rare artifacts, wealth and even the loser's soul (if they have one.) As you can tell, this is a huge, confusing mess so I prefered to get it out of the way as soon as humanly possible.

And yes, I've finally given Merlin's backstory for all of the people who haven't read the Safehold series yet. Again, you really should, it's quite great. Yes, Merlin was once a girl named Nimue, and yes that does bring in the whole gender/sexuality paradigm to the story. As if his being a ninja robot samurai turned agent of fate wasn't enough. However, do not even begin to assume that he's a Mary Sue. He's gone through more hardship than you, your parents and even your grandparents have gone through.

Also, as you probably noticed, Angau isn't human. Far from it. His "true form" will be revealed at the very end, and I do mean the very end, of the story.

I can't think of anything else to talk about, so I'll leave it at that. Thank you for reading, please let me know in the reviews what you think of the story and any questions you have, and I'll get back to you.

Signing off,

Critian Caceorte