Disclaimer: I do not own Fate/Grand Order, or any related source material.

Chapter 1

Birth of Fire

The infant was screaming amidst the flames.

Flames had already enveloped the crib – a cheap thing made of plastic, leaving behind foul black smoke – and the thin cheap layers of fabric were already ablaze themselves, the nylon coverings slowly melting into the infant's skin. It was screaming and screaming and screaming, struggling against the wire that bound it to the blazing prison that was supposed to be a place of comfort.

Left behind the trash of an equally rotten neighborhood, this was undoubtedly the infant's death. But despite the heat, despite the smoke, despite the poison, the infant kept screaming, somewhere deep in its immature mind hoping for a savior.

Over the crackle of the flames and its own screams, it did not hear the frantic footsteps that answered the prayer.

To his great shame, Dhir had not realized that something was wrong until the foul scent entered his house.

It was not rare for infants to scream – when his own son Dhanvin was an infant, he would spend a good chunk of the day and night screaming his lungs out; once he learned how to crawl and later walk, he would use the same energy for getting into all sorts of trouble AND scream on top of it. So late into the night, when he heard those first cries, he assumed that some neighbor had a baby, and they would feed it or clean it up soon enough.

Alas, the crying did not stop. It got louder. It sounded… wrong. And then that smell came and…

He was just about to get up and check where the noise was coming from and what was up with the horrid smell when his son bust into the living room.

"Dad, dad, wake up, there's a fire!"

"What?"

"There's something burning next to the trashcans, and I can hear a baby!"

…What?

"Get the big bucket, now! And fill it with water!"

"Right!"

Dhir immediately got up and grabbed his keys, his son showing up with the bucket a few moments later that felt like eternity.

Without a word Dhir almost ran out of the door, immediately heading towards the sound of the cries.

He looked down. He almost didn't register the other neighbors waking up too. The shock was too great.

And then the infant reached out.

"Get me the bucket! Someone call the police! NOW!"

Everything felt like a nightmare.

Dhanvin had brought out the bucket just in time and doused the flames with so much water that the baby almost choked. But the smell remained. There was a crib. Melting. A blanket that was also melting. He tried to get the baby off but to his horror he saw wires that tied it down. In his desperation to pry them off he burned his fingers but he barely felt the pain. With terrifying clarity Dhir could see all the places where the plastic and the metal had melted on the infant: his arms, legs, stomach, around his neck…

One of the neighbors somehow had a fire extinguisher. Another brought blankets, someone else brought ice.

Kemar from across the street ran towards them and went even paler when he saw Dhir trying to get the baby off. A few moments – hours – later, he brought pliers to break it.

Somewhere, he heard a siren. Someone must have called the police. The hospital.

And that was where he was now, with Dhavin at his side. He could only pray, bless his luck that the hospital was nearly empty and they didn't have to wait, prey that the doctors could help the poor child.

The police had already come and gone, taking his statement, taking his son's statement, taking the statements of all the neighbors.

Dhir felt like he was in a nightmare.

Dhanvin looked ready to break something with all the strength he could muster. He could practically feel the heat radiating from him. Oh Lords, he was only six. Has he not seen enough already?

"Mr. Kahtoon?" It was a nurse, looking as tired as he felt. "Please come inside."

News.

Dhir got up, Dhavin following behind him. The nurse looked a bit reluctant to let his son in, but she did not protest.

She took them to a small office. Inside was an elderly doctor who looked like he had been aged by ten years. The pleasantries flew by.

"The child is stable for now. However, there are several problems… he – or she – may not make it."

The two blinked in confusion. "Wait" said Dhavin "can't you tell if it's a boy or a girl?"

The doctor looked down, as if the words were crushing him down. "The burns were too bad. We believe the child to be a boy, but… we'll need a DNA test to fully confirm…"

Dhir felt sick.

"The boy is approximately a few days old. We can't tell exactly when he was born. He has suffered third degree burns across his legs, arms, lower back, and stomach, as well as the… groin. There may be fourth degree burns as well. In many of those burns we have found traces of plastic and metal. There's a very high possibility he suffers from poisoning because of it. Your son is currently in surgery to remove the pieces, but since many of them are melted and then solidified, we may not be able to remove it all without worsening his condition…"

Some part of his brain must have been disassociating, considering the answer that came to him. "He's not mine… I just found him…"

The doctor looked at him for a moment without answering that. "…We also don't know how much smoke he inhaled yet. He is on oxygen right now, and he will be for the foreseeable future, but there's a very high chance he develops breathing conditions for the rest of his life."

The doctor kept going. About how the burns could affect his growth, that there was a chance for permanent damage and that the muscles may never develop properly. How he may have hormonal issues due to the location of some of them. How the toxins could possibly affect him as long as all that foreign material was in his skin. How he should stay away from the sun because it may worsen his condition. How he could develop eyesight issue because the heat may have caused permanent damage. He also mentioned something about albinism, which would only worsen his skin and eyesight problems and…

"Will he live?" That's all he wanted to know. That's what he needed to know.

"…We are trying our best."

They let him see the infant in the ICU. Normally, they would only allow relatives, but… It went without saying that no such relative was available now.

The tiny bed inside the incubator was covered with a shiny covering like aluminum, and inside the boy was naked. Most of his skin was raw and bleeding, covered with salves, a drip solution going into his tiny arm. Dhir could make out black and shiny spots all over his, and his heart sank even further once he realized what those were. What little of his skin was untouched was an angry pink, but he got the feeling it would fade into a stark white – perhaps even whiter than the westerners. In his face was an oxygen mask that was so big on him it looked like it was trying to eat his face. His head was covered with a shock of white hair, surprisingly thick for a newborn and all that it went through. He was reminded of some rich fabric – silk?

"Hey, dad?"

Dhir looked down at Dhavin, taking in his boy's features more so than he usually did. His son was skinny at merely six, but Dhir could already tell he would grow to be strong, his already dark sin even more tanned from all the time under the sun, and his hair a shock of red that looked like fire; however, his long fringe did nothing to cover his piercing golden eyes. Heh, his boy would be a true heartbreaker one day.

"Are we going to keep him?"

"…"

Realistically, he knew it was unlikely. He was a single father living in a poor neighbor, getting a bare minimum of income from his ratty gym and the various other jobs he had. And the boy, he was going to need so much care… Gods, who was even going to pay the medical bills? There had to be some sort of subsidy for this, right? Could he raise the child the way he deserved?

But then he looked at the poor baby again and…

No. I won't be the next one to leave him.

"Yes. We're keeping him."

Dhanvin lit up. "GREAT!"

"Don't shou-"

"What we're going to name him!? It has to be something REALLY awesome!"

Despite everything, Dhir laughed a little. "Well, I have to think about it…"

"Come on, hurry!"

"Don't "hurry" me, do you know how long it took to pick your name?"

"You just picked one of my grandpa's names, right?"

"Yes. And we had to convince one to let us use the other! That took ages!"

Dhanvin burst into laughter, stirring a few infants from their sleep, and undoubtedly earning them a scathing glare from the overseeing nurse.

"Quiet down, son, you'll wake them up."

"Look, he's already awake!"

To his utter astonishment, the baby also stirred. His eyes struggled to open, but he managed it. It was still that vague colour that babies had before it settled, but Dhir was sure they would end up blue.

Heh. Maybe this kid would be a heartbreaker too, one day.

He remembered the old epic from his childhood, that every Hindu knew. Maybe- no. That man was indeed a legend with a similar start in life, but he was struck with misfortune time and again, meeting a tragic end on the wrong side of history. So that name was out.

They warned him so many times to keep the boy away from the sun…

"Aditya."

"Dad, everyone and their dog has that name."

"Yours isn't rare either, kid."

"Yeah, I know… Heh, he kinda glows under that lamp."

"Dhanvin!"

Little did Dhir know, his first guess at the boy's name was more accurate than he thought. And thus this was the start of a new life – it would be a life full of struggle and challenge, but already, he had the greatest blessing he could wish for. The unconditional love of a family.

A family that over time, would grow bigger.

Author Notes: OKAY, so here is a thing I wrote on a complete impulse. And I start it in SUCH a pleasant way. Damn.

Alright, so this here is an FGO reincarnation AU focusing on the India gang, somewhat inspired by LunaChi KuroShihone's Cafe of the Round. I know it's an oldie, but I read it somewhat recently and I couldn't get it out of my head. I don't plan on keeping the dramatic tone throughout the whole thing, mind you, and I do have some plans for where it's going...

It should have been posted on the FGO page, but honestly I just wanted more people to see it. And it doesn't really take place in Chaldea.

Anyway, baby set on fire is Karna. In his myth, his mother Kunti set his basket on a river, but well... this here is much worse, and the person who did it is a far worse person than Kunti. This WILL come up.

It's also partially because of the various things I noticed and read about FGO Karna's body. That black stuff? That's not a tightsuit, that's his SKIN. And the armor is born out of his own body. And he doesn't have nipples even though all other male characters designed by pako do have them, so this is clearly a deliberate choice. And then I started really thinking about what would happen if the whole "crib on fire" thing actually happened and well... Here is your dose of body horror. A trope I appreciate but don't really get to write.

The other boy, Dhanvin, is Ashwatthaman. And the father is not Drona (those familiar with the Mahabharata may have heard of him), but I gave him a similar backstory. Drona was extremely poor, and ended up mading a living training soldiers to provide for his son. So Dhir here is a poor gym owner.

Anyway, this is the setup. Things are going to get better for everyone, I promise.

For the record, I have absolutely no clue when I'll update next, I just couldn't stand the thought of this sitting in my files. So please, read and review!