Disclaimer: I do not own the Fate franchise it belongs to Kinoko Nasu and Type-Moon. I also do not own the Megami Tensei franchise, it belongs to Atlus.

Aftermath

Chapter 29

Sakura emerged from a roiling and swirling portal, stepping out onto cold and crumbling earth with scattered patches of sickly grass, and looked around her even as the portal sealed itself shut behind her. All around, it was more of the same, the ground parched and crumbling as far as her eyes could see, leaving what little plant life there was struggling just to survive. She looked up at the sky, and narrowed her eyes at the thin and wispy clouds masking the light of the stars, and scattering the moonlight into a pale and sickly haze.

Then she looked forward, and taking slow, measured, and purposeful steps, advanced right to the edge of a precipice. Sakura carefully leaned forward, looking down and widening her eyes by a fraction as even they couldn't see the bottom.

Nor could she hear anything.

There was simply…

…nothing.

Sakura looked back up, sharply directing her gaze across the chasm. Much like its bottom, she couldn't see the other side, and turning to her left and right, could only see the chasm stretching out as far as the horizon.

Well…

…in that case…

Sakura's legs tensed, flexing as though to leap up and high, her newly-unlocked power certain to allow her to reach into the upper atmosphere if not even higher, and cross the chasm before her in but a few moments. But then, a voice spoke. Soft, childish, and terrifyingly-familiar: Sakura knew this voice.

Only…the person who could speak it shouldn't exist anymore.

"Don't do it." The voice said in warning, and Sakura turned, eyes wide with shock and just a bit of horror. The horror increased as she saw who the voice belonged to, a little girl maybe about five or six-years-old, dressed in a dress of violet and white, her violet eyes and hair giving her a surreal air in this barren wasteland under the light of the moon. "You can't cross like that. You'll only lose yourself if you do."

Sakura clenched her fists, her blood boiling at the apparent mockery standing before her. Red flickered at the edges of her vision, wrath simmering and roaring to be unleashed, for Sakura to extend her claws and rend this…thing, before her limb from limb.

Then their eyes met, and Sakura's heart quailed at the sheer hopelessness in those hollow irises. Her blood calmed. The wrath faded. There was only shame now, regret, and even self-loathing.

Sakura let out a long, shuddering breath, and unclenching her fists, approached the child with unsteady steps. "Then," Sakura began, sinking down to one knee to regard the child on the same level. "How do I cross?"

The child tilted her head. "Where are you going?" she asked.

Sakura blinked. "What?" she asked back.

"Where are you going?" the child repeated. "Sorry…but I need to ask you that. And you need to answer me. That's the only way."

Sakura stared at the child, the striking image of her childhood self, and then setting her jaw uncertainly, looked over a shoulder at the chasm not far away. Plenty of things – places – came to mind, all of which she could use as an answer. But somehow…she just knew…none of them were the answer that would let her cross.

"…I don't know." Sakura finally admitted.

"I see." The child said softly. "I'm sorry."

"It's fine." Sakura said with a sigh, and sitting down cross-legged on the earth. "It's not your fault. You don't have anything to apologize for."

The child just hummed and also sat down, though not cross-legged, instead sitting clutching her knees to herself. Ignoring Sakura almost entirely, she rested a temple against her knees, looking sideways into the distance, her hollow, nigh-lifeless eyes seeing only something she could see.

Sakura stared at the child for a long moment, and then sighing again, sat back, resting her hands against the ground while looking at the hazy skies above. And then thinking inwardly, asked herself the question once more.

Where am I going?

Swords flashed through the time-frozen air, Taiga avoiding a trio of swings that would have cut her torso open or sent her head flying. Then she was blocking, once, twice, three times, before backing away and then riposting as the first move of a counterattack.

She pressed her offensive, swinging fast and hard, but Susanoo parried just as fast and hard, sparks flying as their swords met again and again. Then it was Susanoo's turn to riposte, again forcing Taiga to fall back to avoid getting cut open, then feinting, Taiga resumed her attacks, keeping Susanoo from retaking the initiative.

Again and again, Taiga swung at Susanoo's torso, chaining her blows from one blow to the next, conserving both energy and momentum even as Susanoo blocked again and again. To add an element of unpredictability, she moved sideways as she attacked, also forcing Susanoo to switch their footing to keep Taiga in front.

Then their blades locked, two pairs of eyes with black trefoils on red irises glaring at each other as Taiga and Susanoo matched their strength against each other. Then Susanoo ground their sword free, swinging it at Taiga's head, only for Taiga to step back before counterattacking, again hammering away at Susanoo's guard. Swing…parry…swing…parry…swing…parry…swing…parry…swing…parry…and then once again, their blades locked, steel grinding against steel in a sharp and grating noise.

Then with a growl of frustrated fury, Susanoo gave way, and causing Taiga to fall off-balance and stumble forward. Then they swung, aiming to cleave Taiga's torso in two diagonally, but the teacher managed to bring up her sword just in time, the clumsy parry barely absorbing the force of the blow and instead sending her flying clear over and across several blocks.

Taiga cried out as she was sent flying, a cry cut short with grunts of pain as she flew through a house and tumbled down a rubble-strewn street. Getting up on all fours, she shook her head to regain her bearings, and then looking back in the direction she came from.

Eyes widened and then Taiga was scrambling away, as a whirlwind carried what looked like a truck towards where she'd been a moment ago. It struck with all the force of a vehicle weighing a few tons flying through the air at nearly a hundred kilometers per hour, sending debris flying in all direction, many of them sharp-edged shards of glass and metal. And there was the explosion too, as the diesel in its fuel tank ignited.

Peering out of cover with a growl and a grimace, Taiga stared at Susanoo in the distance, the Persona standing on top of a house and using more whirlwinds to hold aloft more projectiles. A trio of cars…then a street's worth of concrete posts, still trailing sparking cables with them.

Taiga swore colorfully as she sped from cover to cover, aiming to avoid presenting a stationary target to her Persona. Her enthusiasm was striking, and her subject matter varied, ranging from the lineage of the Persona's parents and to their sexual preferences.

Wait a minute…

The teacher had to avoid palming her face. Susanoo was her Persona, meaning Taiga had actually been cursing her own parents and implying…creative, preferences about her – Taiga's – own sexual preferences.

Wait a minute…

A thoughtful expression dawned on Taiga's face as she sped to cover, avoiding a shed smashing through her previous cover. The opponent was her Persona…

…meaning all their powers were her powers too.

Jumping into a crack in the road, Taiga dropped several meters into the sewer below, and coughing and choking at the foul stench, made her way down the sewer, and then around the nearby corner, up the ladder to a manhole. From what she'd seen before going underground, there was a gas station nearby…

Damn it! The manhole is blocked! Probably by debris! Fucking damn it! I am not going out like this!

Her temper stoked by the foul stench filling the air, Taiga blew the manhole and whatever it was that was blocking it away with a blast of lightning. Coughing and gasping, Taiga clambered out of the manhole…

…and then gagged and choked some more, as leaking fuel from the gas station burned messily around her.

…the smoke should buy me some time though…

Looking around for anything that might be of use, Taiga spotted what looked like a gasoline tanker sitting on the far side of the abandoned gas station. Not too far from the flames, which meant she only had a little time.

Taking a deep breath…

…Taiga gagged and coughed as the breath drew in plenty of fumes and smoke into her lungs, but the nearby crash of Susanoo's makeshift projectiles jolted her back into reality. "No time to waste" Taiga mentally shouted at herself.

Mentally reciting a training chant to calm and focus herself, Taiga stared at the tanker while making circular motions with a finger. Don't think. Just do.

At first nothing happened. Then the dirt and debris around the tanker began to shift, blown in circles around the tanker as though by a wind, which began to grow visible as it picked up speed and force. Then the smoke began to be drawn into the whirlwind, before the tanker began to shake, the shaking growing stronger and more violent, before it finally lifted off the ground.

There was another crash nearby, and turning in the direction it came from, Taiga hurled the tanker in its way. Then drawing her sword, leapt over the skyline behind it, counting on Susanoo focusing on the whirlwind-borne tanker to draw attention away from her.

It was a gamble…

…but it was a gamble that paid off.

Susanoo was caught by surprise, apparently not expecting Taiga to use the same trick they'd been using, and was forced to abandon the high ground. Moments later, and the tanker slammed into the house they'd been standing on, its volatile cargo exploding in a blazing fireball that buffeted at the Persona.

Then Taiga was leaping in, sword held two-handed.

Susanoo let loose with a volley of lightning, and blew Taiga's sword clean out of her hands. The Persona didn't let up, instead continuing to bathe Taiga with lightning afterwards. But Taiga caught the lightning with her hands, electricity arcing away from her hands and into the surrounding ground, the actinic glare of the electrical onslaught near-blinding.

"You cannot defeat me!" Susanoo thundered as they approached, step by step, the amount of voltage increasing with every passing moment, and forcing Taiga down almost to the ground. "How can you possibly hope so, when you cannot even look in the mirror? You are unworthy of me, weak and impotent! So die, and vanish into oblivion!"

Despite the electric glare, Taiga glared back herself, the Tiger's eyes giving even Susanoo pause. A gasp sounded through the Persona's war mask, as they watched the patterns on Taiga's irises change, the black trefoils inverting and then extending, forming three bridges between her pupil and a ring around the iris' edge.

"You said it yourself." Taiga spat. "I am you. You are me. And if I'm weak, then what does that say about you?"

Forcing herself upright, Taiga pushed forward, driving back the lightning into Susanoo's hands. The explosion of electrical energy bleached their surroundings of all color for an instant, and sent both Taiga and Susanoo flying in opposite directions.

Her head ringing from getting slammed into and tumbling across the broken concrete of the road, Taiga groaned as she pushed herself off the ground. Then her arms gave out on her, and she collapsed on her back with a gasp.

She gasped again in the next instant, as Susanoo drove a blade into her chest. "Now you will die…" the Persona spitefully began as Taiga coughed up blood.

Hands shot up, one grabbing Susanoo's crest, and the other their war mask. Screaming in rage through the pain, Taiga ripped off Susanoo's war mask, exposing her own shocked face behind it. And then lunging forward, and ignoring the blade driven through her chest, Taiga slammed her forehead against Susanoo's face.

Bone cracked as Susanoo's nose broke, and stumbling back and off-balance, Susanoo fell with a crash against the ground, clutching at her face. And then she too was gasping and coughing up blood, as Taiga sank the same sword coated with her own blood into Susanoo's chest.

"I am you." Taiga gasped out, blood dribbling out her mouth and down her chin. "You are me. If this is how it ends, then let's go together, my other self."

For an instant, there was only silence, and then Susanoo smiled.

"I'm glad we can be together like this." She said.

Raphael paused walking, and then turning in shock and surprise, looked on in disbelief as Taiga rose to her feet, red-lacquered metal materializing over her body, forming traditional samurai armor around her. Gold trimmed the armor's plates, and formed a jagged crest at her helmet's brow, along with mitsudomoe on her chest and over her gauntlets. Then with a hiss of steel, Taiga drew her sword, electricity arcing along Ame-no-Habakiri's blade.

The sight of a mortal evading their rightful retribution through forbidden arts was bad enough. But to don the armor and take up the weapon of a false god in defiance to a servant of the one true God?

It was unforgivable.

"YOU WORTHLESS HUMAN!" Raphael roared, brandishing his spear and charging in.

A trio of Dominions beat him to the punch, descending around Taiga, swords drawn. But Taiga was even faster, one Dominion falling with a cry as Taiga stabbed him through the torso. A swing gutted a second Dominion, before the third Dominion parried the blow aimed at its torso.

He dodged beneath a swing aimed at his head, then riposted a blow aimed at his torso once more. Taiga feinted, and then cut the Dominion down with a blow across the torso.

Then Raphael was there, striking with his spear at Taiga's neck. Steel struck off celestial bronze as Taiga turned the blow, and again as she riposted twice. Raphael fell back as Taiga pressed the offensive, parrying and dodging before dancing back, a growl escaping the Archangel's throat as a near miss left a near-invisible gash along his torso's armor.

Then he parried and riposted, feinting before swinging his spear out to tear into Taiga's neck. Taiga dodged, Raphael falling back to regain his composure, Taiga similarly taking the opportunity to fall into a stance.

The moment stretched…

…and then they both closed, Taiga's sword striking sparks off Raphael's spearhead, before they disengaged once more. Then Raphael pressed the offensive, Taiga parrying his strikes, matching his speed as Raphael sped up, blow after blow raining down faster than the Human eye could follow, but Taiga kept up, meeting the Archangel blade to blade.

A feint allowed Taiga to retake the offensive, starting with a strike at Raphael's legs, then at his torso, twice at his head, again at his torso, and finally at his head. Then Raphael feinted, and picking up speed for a moment, counterattacked. Taiga clumsily blocked the first few strikes, and then her guard forced open, was left open to a swinging kick than shattered her helmet and sent her to the ground.

Snarling in righteous fury, Raphael brandished his spear, to strike down and end her life. Survival instincts burned through the pain, and Taiga unleashed a volley of lightning that briefly forced the Archangel back.

"ENOUGH!" he roared, Raphael's voice blowing everything around him including Taiga back several meters. "THIS ENDS NOW!"

Then another blast of golden light erupted nearby, lancing up into the heavens and sending golden patterns rippling across the sky. "What?" Raphael snarled in frustrated disbelief, turning to the source of the light.

Then the light rippled…

…and countless blades erupted from its depths, polished fey-forged steel gleaming in the Sun as they flew through the air, chased with gold and lapis lazuli, fey script running down the lengths of their blades. Flying with unerring aim, hundreds of angels fell in mere moments, each skewered by several blades all at once.

The fairies on the battlefield stared, each and every one of them recognizing the swords. How could they not? Their kin from across time and space had forged those blades, drawing on the same legend from across the vastness of infinity.

Eyes turned to their origin, and widened as the pillar of light vanished. Shirou Emiya emerged encased in polished steel plates, fey script inscribed over his breastplate and pauldrons, and embroidered in silver on blue cloth around his legs and as a mantle over his shoulders. And in his hands, he carried another sword, similar if simpler in design, fey-forged steel chased with gold and lapis lazuli glowing with golden light.

Oberon reigned in the dragon he rode high in the skies, and stared dumbfounded. "That sword…" he thought in recognition and disbelief. "…how can this be?"

Elsewhere, Queen Mab approached Titania, the two fairies sharing incredulous glances. Gilgamesh and Enkidu merely smiled, the King and his friend sitting atop a pile of dead angels, while in the skies above, Luvia ripped off the Saint of Jewels' virtual particle drive, before grabbing her by the waist from behind.

Ignoring the saint's cries of pain and struggles, Luvia reversed them both, and then simultaneously spinning and plunging through the sky, pile-drove the Saint of Jewels into the ground. Then leaping up to her feet, Luvia lashed out with a super kick, striking the Saint of Jewels on the jaw and sending her flying.

Doubling over for a moment, Luvia then threw her head back and laughed at the top of her voice. "He's done it!" she cheered. "Our darling Shero has finally done it! The Sky Marshal is here! And you're all so screwed!"

Shiro growled as he spotted Raphael in the distance, and hefting Excalibur in one hand, charged forward. Raphael brandished his spear, and made to meet Shirou's charge. To his surprise, wind erupted around Shirou, speeding him up and carrying him into the sky. Shirou shouted wordlessly as he raised Excalibur high, its blade blinding bright, and then brought it down two-handed. "EX-" he began.

"NO!" Raphael thought in denial, as the tip of his spear shattered from impacting with Excalibur's blade. "I am the servant of the Lord God Almighty! A perfect, pure, and unblemished existence! I can't be defeated like this! Not by a filthy, disgusting Human! Not like this! NOT LIKE THIS!"

"-CALIBUR!" Shirou finished, the blast of golden light utterly immolating Raphael, the Archangel not even able to make a sound as his essence was cast back into the Expanse.

"I-it can't be…" one of the Three Wise Men began.

"…the Archangel Raphael…defeated…by a mere Human…" the second of the Three Wise Men continued.

"…that…that is…that is absolutely impossible…" the third of the Three Wise Men said.

Louis snorted contemptuously. "And how very like the three of you to be so…ignorant, of Humanity's potential." He sneered. "No…not ignorant. Not really…you know all about Humanity's potential, it's just that your minds are too…narrow, to truly understand it. More than that, you fear it, and so you seek to shackle it. To bind them to your hollow and lifeless vision of the future. Don't think! Don't doubt! Just obey!"

"Humans do not know better!" one of the Three Wise Men retorted back.

"They cannot be allowed to blunder their way about the cosmos!" the second of the Three Wise Men continued. "It is unwise! It is unjust!"

"Doing so only condemns them and the cosmos to self-ruin!" the third of the Three Wise Men followed-through. "For the good of all, they must be collared and put under the rule of the wise and the enlightened! If need be against their own will!"

"Just as children must sometimes be taught discipline with an iron rod!" the first of the Three Wise Men took up the baton once more.

"Not that you would understand that." The second of the Three Wise Men venomously spat. "Traitor…renegade…you who turned your back on everything to pursue a selfish and ruinous dream of freedom!"

"Freedom that brings about only destruction and the abandonment of morals!" The third of the Three Wise Men concluded. "In a perfect world, all will enjoy blessed peace and prosperity in their proper and preordained places in the harmonious design of the cosmos!"

Louis made a sound of disgust. "Disgusting," he said as such immediately. "A world like that would have no dreams…no hope…no aspirations…no desire to want more…to climb higher and go further…it would be a world without a future."

"They would want for nothing!" the Three Wise Men responded as one. "That is the future that each and every Human being desires at the bottom of their heart!"

"And yet when you give them the choice," Louis said while twirling a lock of hair between his fingers. "They would sooner fight and die than lose their freedom!"

"They do not know better!"

"Don't they?" Louis asked with a mocking tone and expression. "Indeed!"

Shaking his head in disappointment, Louis rose from his throne. "I do not imagine you will give up just yet." He said. "I could end this, you know? It only takes a thought…but I won't. I must admit I am curious to what schemes you silly old men still have up your sleeves, and even look forward to what challenges you have in store for me and mine. So be it then! Continue with your plots and conspiracies. I and my daughter will be waiting."

The Three Wise Men were stunned into silence by the realization, even as Louis began walking away, that amidst all the fighting in Fuyuki, not once had they seen the Anti-Christ-to-be. "Where is she?" they demanded. "What have you done, Fallen Angel?"

Louis just laughed. "That's for me and her to know, and for you to find out." He said. "See you!"

And as Louis laughed and vanished, the echoes of his laughter reverberating in the chamber, the Three Wise Men screamed in rage and frustration.

The child stirred as Sakura got to her feet. "Do you have an answer?" she asked.

"Yeah, I think I do." Sakura said while stretching her limbs.

"Where are you going?" the child asked.

"I don't know."

"…that's not an answer."

"Yes, it is." Sakura said with a smile. "My brother said it himself: just be honest with myself. And that's just it: I don't know where I'm going. And I don't care. What will be, will be. A future that no one can decide for me, and which I decide on my own, whenever, whatever, and however I want."

Chuckling to herself, Sakura walked towards the chasm. The child stared after her for several moments, and then getting to her feet, ran over to Sakura. "If you fall," she warned. "You won't come back. Are you sure about your answer?"

"Yeah, I am." Sakura said, before gently patting the child on her head. "Sure enough to test it."

The child stayed silent, staring as Sakura walked up to the edge. And then taking a deep breath, Sakura raised a foot, and then bringing it down, stepped into the void.

Except there was something there. A slender bridge of white stone, smooth and graceful, bridging the chasm from one side to the other. The child looked surprised, even more so as Sakura offered her a hand.

"Do you want to come with me?" she asked.

"…where are we going?" the child asked.

Sakura laughed. "You already know the answer to that." She said.

"…will you keep me safe?" the child asked after another moment.

"Even better," Sakura said. "I will teach to keep yourself safe."

For a long moment, Sakura and the child just stared at each other, and then walking slowly – hesitantly – as though expecting something or someone to grab her and hold her back, the child approached Sakura. She joined her on the bridge, and took Sakura's hand.

Sakura firmly gripped the child's hand, and squeezing it reassuringly, led the way. "Come on," she said. "Let's go, and see what lies on the other side."

"…okay."

A/N

And so the Trial of the Self begins. And no, it's not over yet.

On another note, Luvia finally shows off some of those long-awaited wrestling moves, while Shirou similarly unlocks his SMT powers…with a Nasuverse twist. Now then, how will the twin Altrias (and Merlin) react to seeing Shirou walking around with Excalibur, and the ability to spam Caliburn at will? Plus wearing Camelot-pattern armor on top of all that?