The Pledge

For the sake of this world… for what remains, for what is left… I have no choice… We have no time, no way out… except for this one. I… bid all of you farewell… perhaps for just now, perhaps forever… Holy Grails, grant my wish… Mahapralaya!

Florence

Another step forward… the weight upon her back… the promise she had made… she had to keep moving forward. On her back were two patients whose lives meant more than the world… in one hand she dragged another, and the other, much the same… These were the last survivors… of the old world… that had remained.

She grit her teeth, stepping forward and then stalling, nearly faltering against the tree. She stumbled, red blood staining her bandages from one of her patients. She slowly turned her head, towards Gudao… he was still in so much pain… even unconscious, she knew he had to be.

Florence Nightingale hated feeling this powerless, unable to save so many, unable to do better for her Master and for her patients, but she had to keep going… He'd left her with one final mission… she had to find it… whatever time this was, whatever this world was, she had to find civilization, safety.

The orange leaves fell from the trees… she recalled their names… these final four survivors, and their gruesome injuries… their heroic attempts to stall for time, any at all… to give him the time they'd needed to even have a chance.

Robin hood was being dragged by one hand, the archer having lost his cloak, and one of his arms… he hadn't lost his crossbow, amazingly, it was still stuck on the arm she was dragging him by, but he had a nasty head wound… and quite frankly, his injuries were the second least gruesome of her patients.

Avicebron, being dragged by her other arm… was down to only one functional limb. She was thankful they'd all been prosthetics anyway, but with both legs gone, and three of his four robotic arms, as well as his entire cape, she'd had to work fast to prevent the Caster's untimely death… he'd nearly died for them, and she wouldn't have allowed it!

The final servant, Hans, had the best case out of all of them. He'd only lost a leg and most of his clothing, exposing injuries that she knew were part of his saint graph. As much as she wanted to, nay, as much as it screamed to her to heal him, she knew she didn't have to power at this moment in time… she had to keep them alive.

The master… was among the worst. Gudao… he'd lost an arm and a leg, as well as one eye. He'd been gutted, burned and stabbed, quite frankly, those had already been treated… she just had to keep him from dying… and she would, she would! None of them would die on her watch!

Another step forward, all four unconscious men, the final servants… the final members of Chaldea… save perhaps that Berserker… if he'd survived his own Noble Phantasm's supercharged might…

As she walked… she recalled those final moments… something to keep her sane as possible… perhaps.

The vault in the Wandering Sea, the place were all the Collected Grails were stored… nineteen Holy Grails sat before them. Nightingale was working fast to bandage Robin and Hans, Avicebron was standing by the door, several golems flanking him, and one in front of him… while the Master was on her back, unconscious as Arjuna Alter stared at the grails.

"We've failed…" he muttered softly, Nightingale looking towards him as an explodison wracked the hallway outside… she tried not to think about it as Arjuna held up a small doll, carved out of wood wearing a tiny scarf… "And to think… I'd wanted to give this to him… at our success…" he said sadly, before throwing it towards her, her instincts letting her catch the doll easily with one hand, she didn't spare it a second glance as she shoved it in one of her medical pouches.

"Casualties are at ninety-eight percent… if you're going to do this, you need to do it now," she said quickly… it was sad that the final three fighting members of Chaldea… were a single Caster, a Berserker… and the final Divine Spirit, who's own injuries were worse than her own, but far from the others.

Arjuna raised his human hand, the nineteen grails all floating up, and circling around him as he turned his head to her. "I need a few minutes to prepare… buy me every second you can," he stated, and she turned, pulling out her gun and final caber, Avicebron remaining silent as he raised his remaining two arms, another explosion wracked the hallway.

The moments before hell were quiet as Arjuna worked his magic… to think their failure had been because of that final beast… Nega-Chaldea… it was almost silly, that they were such a threat that the Beast meant to announce the end was specifically capable of targeting, and destroying them… and yet the deeds of her Master rang true… he was the greatest threat to their plans… and he still lived.

The door was bashed inward, Avicebron ordering a golem in front of him as the door was flung forward, the golem catching it before throwing it back at the offending attacker, slamming whatever it was into the opposing wall. Avicebron raised his other hand, and a bullet flew out of the hallway, the arm getting shot off instantly, but he didn't falter, snapping his fingers as Nightingale pulled the pin on her caber, tossing it out into the hallway, the explosion going off and sending white creatures flying… the minions of that final Beast and Alien God.

A Servant rushed forward, a cracked man, EMIYA Alter, instantly, he was past a golem and on Avicebron, slashing at his legs, removing them from under the Caster, and tried to shoot him in the head as a followup, only for Avicebron to raise his final arm as he was falling, an orb of magic gathering in his hand… and he crushed it, another explosion going off as his broken body was flung back, nearly into Arjuna as Nightingale rushed forward into the smoke, zeroing in on the currently stunned Alter of the normally Heroic Archer and grabbing him by the throat. He choked as Nightingale forced him to the ground with one hand and shoved her pepperbox into his eyeball, pulling the trigger three times.

He fell slack as she ran towards Avicebron. "Do-don't worry about me…" he coughed out, trying to raise himself on his final limb, his mask cracked, his body partially singed, blood dripping out of him… she was instantly to work, despite his protests, the two golems instantly through the doorway and smashing through whatever they could, the final third standing to act as a barrier itself, arms outstretched as she dragged the Caster to her other two patients.

"Nightingale…" she looked towards Arjuna Alter, the Divine Spirit floating higher into the air as the nineteen holy grails all coalesced into orbs of energy, joining his normal five as an orb surrounded her and her patients. "For the sake of this world… for what remains, for what is left… I have no choice… We have no time, no way out… except for this one. I… bid all of you farewell… perhaps for just now, perhaps forever… Holy Grails, grant my wish…" he started, Nightingale giving him one final look as behind her, the hallway exploded into action, golem parts flying as white creatures tried to pour in, Kirei Kotomine standing behind them, a smug grin on his face… that quickly turned to shock and fear as Arjuna Alter zeroed in on the forces fo the Alien god.

"Mahapralaya!" he shouted… all the orbs flying into the air, vanishing… and everything went completely white… as the entire world was remade… by the Final Ebony's God's wishes on nineteen Holy Grails and his own might.

She drew herself out of that recent memory… when she had finally gotten the white out of her eyes, she had found herself standing in a cave, her patients all with her, if still worse for wear. She'd done all she could with what she had left… but she needed to find civilization… Whatever he'd done to make this new world, it was certainly abundant in mana… nor did she feel Gaia tugging at her being. If she didn't know any better, she would have assumed he would have made a peaceful world, erasing everything he could reach… and remaking it all. Nineteen grails was far from a small amount of power, and with the Alien God's descent… it was quite likely it too had befallen the same fate of everything else that hadn't been inside that one safe bubble he'd made for her and her patients.

Now was not the time for speculation, now was the time for survival. She kept walking, slowly trudging onward… until after twenty straight minutes, she heard something. Looking skyward, she squinted… her vision was much poorer than normal, so she could barely make out the flying grey… thing, seemingly heading towards her location.

She fought the urge to sigh in relief… and simply decided to gently set down Robin and Avicebron, pulling out her pistol and raising it into the sky, firing upwards a few times to try and signal the aircraft… and near instantly after doing so, whipping her head around as she sensed an intent to kill, pointing her gun at in and firing without hesitation.

Whatever it had been, its head found a bullet in it as her final two shots went into its body… she barely caught sight of the fading body… strange… as the aircraft sped towards her, rapidly turning and descending into a clearing slightly ahead of her. Pulling her pistol back on her belt, she grabbing Avicebron and Robin, hefting them as to no longer be just straight up dragging them through the dirt, and walked forward gently towards the aircraft.

By the time she saw the open door, she spotted a man with white hair, holding a cup of what seemed to be some sort of hot beverage, standing alongside a woman with blonde hair… she just walked forward… and started speaking.

"Four injured, most dead. I require medical facilities, I need to treat them," she started spouting, catching the blonde's surprised look as the white haired man took a sip of his coffee.

"Seeing a how you aren't in the best condition yourself, it seems best not to argue… come now," the man said after his sip, stepping back into the open door of the aircraft.

"Ozpin are you serious?" the blonde asked, and he just nodded… Nightingale didn't heed the blonde, she simply walked into the aircraft with all her patients in tow. The white haired man… Ozpin it seemed, was who she would speak to. But barely twenty seconds after she'd entered the aircraft, and the woman had joined them, blood already staining the floor of it from… herself actually, her patients were bandaged for the most part… she was still dripping quite a bit herself, but that was of no importance right now.

There was several minutes of silence as she laid all her patients in seats, strapping them into the seatbelts… before the white haired man spoke, Ozpin. "Well… it seems you have quite a story to tell miss."

"...Everyone else is dead," she stated simply, turning towards the man with just her head. "We are the final survivors of an attack upon our home. Our second Chaldea," she said softly, closing her eyes.

"Chaldea? What a strange name…" the man mused before speaking again… "Might I ask your name?"

"I am Florence Nightingale, nurse," she gave the simple, honest answer opening her eyes as the woman looked over the horrific injuries of her comrades with… a degree of what seemed to be disgust, surprise and pity. The man was far more neutral, even as he sipped from his cup of what was probably coffee. "I require information… where are we?"

"You don't know?" the woman asked, confused as Ozpin closed his eyes before speaking.

"Miss Nightingale… you and your companions were in Forever Fall forest, if that is your question… the other answer is… Remnant," Ozpin said softly, Nightingale's eyes going wide as Glynda turned towards Ozpin with a semi confused look, and Ozpin just chuckled, before closing his eyes and lowering his head.

"...You're quite late… Florence… you and your companions have missed quite a lot, faded into nothing more than the most obscure of myths passed down by the gods… I suppose it falls to me, from a time long, long, long ago… to welcome you… welcome home, to your new world…"

To say she was shocked… was an understatement… as she fell to her knees, something hot began to stain her face… It didn't matter they were late. It didn't matter what this world was, or what it had become…

They'd survived… and he'd managed to give them a chance to go onward… Arjuna…

"Thank you…" she whispered… perhaps to Ozpin… but more to a man she wasn't sure was still alive.

AN: A new idea that I had for a story, one that wouldn't stop nagging me... This time, the focus is with another Master, Gudao this time... and the final survivors of Chaldea from a certain Beast's assault. This time, it should be fairly obvious, that Remnant is a Remade Earth. Arjuna Alter, you good boy you. I hope to hear what you all have to say about this story and idea. But I will be clear, the surviving, and only Servants in this story, are the five shown. Yes Arjuna Alter is alive, but... he won't be around. Our Servants for this are Hans, Avicebron, Robin and Nightingale. Can't wait to see what you all say to review!