Disclaimer: I do not own the Fate franchise it belongs to Kinoko Nasu and Type-Moon.

This Cannot End Well

Chapter 16

"Do you think it'll stick?"

Rin and Sakura sat in Fort Yggdmillennia's mess hall, the remains of their meal sitting on the table between them. Next to Sakura, Little Rin cheerfully ate her umpteenth bowl of ice cream, largely uncaring of the conversation between her big little sisters.

"I hope it does." Rin replied. "You never know…I never know. But of course: I know how stubborn I can be, and you saw it too."

Sakura chuckled and shook her head. "If it does stick, though," Rin mused. "Well, it's not as though our relationship is part of a quantum timelock. So, it might just lead to a better timeline, where the events of my own timeline never happened, but the versions of me and you there are able to reconcile without too much trouble. Maybe it might even butterfly away the events leading to our presence here."

"Hope springs eternal, eh?" Sakura asked.

"Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment." Rin remarked in her turn, before shaking her head. "No…I shouldn't think like that. In any case, we've done all we can. Moving on…what do you plan to do after all this?"

"You mean," Sakura clarified. "After we fix this whole fractured timeline thing?"

"Yes."

Sakura made a sound of disgust. "I'm tired." She said. "I think I'll take a leave of absence, and go take a vacation somewhere sunny. Spend a month or two just lazing around in a hotel room, walking the beaches at sunrise and sunset, maybe win or lose a few hundred thousand dollars at a casino. Miami, maybe?"

Rin laughed. "Yeah, I get what you mean." She said. "Though, if you really want a vacation, why not come over to my timeline? I'd introduce you to my – our – sister and her family. They really want to meet you, you know, and I'm sure they'd give you a warm welcome. After that, we can go take a family trip to the beach, and just have fun."

"Beach barbeque…?" Sakura mused questioningly.

"I don't see why not." Rin said with a smile, and Sakura smiled.

"I'll think about it." She said. "In any case, we shouldn't count our chickens so soon. We still have to fix this whole mess, after all. And even after we do that, well, I still have to apply for a leave of absence with Lord El-Melloi."

"True." Rin admitted. "And I might also have to check in with Master Zelretch about bringing you over, though I'm sure he'll sign off on it."

"We can hope…"

Sakura trailed off as alarm sirens began to sound around the fort, followed by Caules barking orders over the loudspeakers. "Looks like Matou's about to make another incursion." Rin said, getting to her feet. "Shall we help out? It'll help our stomachs settle after our meal, and then we can head out immediately afterwards."

"Sounds good to me." Sakura said, also getting up before looking at her little big sister, who inhaled the last of her ice cream before grinning a cream-smeared smile at Sakura. "Want to have some fun?"

"Oh, yeah!" Little Rin said, floating up into the air with crimson irises, electrical currents sparking and crackling over her arms and hands. "Let's have some fun!"

Meanwhile, even as Rin, Sakura, and Little Rin were helping defend Fort Yggdmillennia before heading out (again), Tom was…

…well, he was having the time of his life. And honestly, what red-blooded, God-fearing, freedom-loving American wouldn't when they were able to reenact American folk hero and Vietnam war veteran John Rambo's exploits?

A rock thrown with a reinforced arm shattered one of the blades of the helicopter carrying Shinji above the Fuyuki skyline. Immediately, the helicopter began to stall, spinning out of control through the air as it spiraled down to the ground.

"AAAAAAAAAAAA-!" Shinji screamed as he was tossed against the door, which opened between the G-Forces and his own weight, dumping him out into the open air. It took him several seconds to fall through three kilometers of open air, screaming all the way before landing with a splat against the ground below.

Ironically, the pilot managed to bring the helicopter under control and make an emergency landing.

Too bad for Shinji, though. He really should have worn his seatbelt.

Then again, it would have made molesting and raping his newest 'partner' awkward at best, and impossible at most.

Somewhere in the vast multiverse, a bunch of violet-haired Demi-Servants felt the echoes of fate across space and time. "Karma." Parvati murmured.

"I completely agree." The child version of Kama responded before her adult version nodded.

"Likewise." She said.

A few hours later, and Tom prowled through the night around a checkpoint manned by Matou thugs and hirelings. He scowled at the propaganda poster showing Shinji Matou in an ostentatious uniform with too much gold thread, to say nothing of a chest completely covered in medals. Then, ignoring the text in kanji and Cyrillic, Tom carefully drew a dagger, and waited for a guard relieving himself to turn before throwing it.

It flew through the air, turning end over end, before plunging all the way to the hilt in the guard's chest. The man fell dead without a sound.

Tom pulled out another dagger, and creeping around for a better shot, threw the dagger and killed the guard manning the checkpoint's spotlight. Of course, this had the spotlight abruptly pulling up, and drawing the last guard's attention. He quickly rushed over to investigate…

…and also fell dead, another dagger buried to the hilt in his forehead.

The following morning, Shinji was busy inspecting a fresh batch of sex slaves brought to his private yacht. A nearby closet shook, and the slaves whimpered. Smirking lasciviously and sadistically, Shinji walked over, slowly taking the door handles before abruptly pulling them open.

"Boo…AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-!" he screamed as Tom put a pair of twelve-inch daggers into his chest. Then grabbing him by the collar, Tom used Shinji as a Human shield as the young man's own bodyguards opened fire, riddling their own employer with bullets.

The very definition of ironic, as it was.

Dropping the dying Shinji, Tom pulled out a shotgun, and fired while aiming by instinct. A bodyguard screamed as he was blown backwards, while Tom pumped his shotgun. He fired a second time, then a third time, and finally a fourth time, killing a bodyguard each with every shot, then turned and killed the yacht's pilot as he came rushing over to check the screaming and gunfire.

Tom then rushed outside, as a speedboat carrying more Matou thugs and hirelings rushed over to investigate. Big mistake: Tom pulled out an RPG, aimed, and fired, blowing up the speedboat with a single shot.

Going back inside, he blinked to find Shinji gone, only a smear of blood leading out of the yacht's bachelor's pad and up to the upper deck. Hearing a soft thudding above, Tom pulled out a bayonet, and stabbed up, through the ceiling. Shinji screamed and collapsed, blood dribbling through the hole in the ceiling and over Tom's hands.

"How many times has Shinji Matou died?" he asked himself. "For fuck's sake, this guy's like a cockroach, he just will not die permanently."

Across time and space, another Demi-Servant felt the echoes in space and time, as well as a soul departing the mortal coil. Only, there was something off about this soul, causing Ereshkigal to scowl.

"I hate clones." She muttered while moving a piece on her chessboard. "They mess up my recordkeeping."

"For once we agree on something, Ereshkigal." King Gilgamesh replied while making a move of his own, and smirking at her. "Check."

Ereshkigal scowled harder.

Meanwhile, back to Tom…

…he was busted, but he didn't care. Not when he was going to town with his plasma-booted Vulcan Cannon, firing off six thousand plasma rounds every minute. An entire squad of twelve power-armored soldiers died in only a few seconds, before a cloak-equipped Matou assassin tried to backstab him, only for Tom to beat him to the punch.

Well, more like stabbing backwards without even looking, ending with the assassin having a knife buried in an eye all the way to the hilt.

Switching modes, Tom fired off tank round-sized plasma bolts, blowing up an office building's upper floors with just a few shots. It killed an entire platoon, with another squad following suit as Tom turned and raked the canal they were slogging through with plasma fire.

Another platoon tried to rush him, only for Tom to again hose them down with plasma fire.

"Yippee Ki-Yay, motherfuckers!" he shouted. "Be the best you can be! Or even better, be the best of the best of the best of the best of the few and the proud! OORAH!"

Yes, Tom was definitely having the time of his life. And across time and space, so was another Demi-Servant.

"War…ah, such glorious war…" Ishtar dreamily murmured as she lazed on a yacht with Siduri.

"My lady…" Siduri began, eyeing an approaching barge. "…King Gilgamesh approaches."

Ishtar scowled. Fun times were over it seemed. And just when it was starting to get good too.

She really hated that impudent mongrel of a god-king.

Rin and Sakura were on the move again. They got through Warzone IV quickly, not encountering either Gilgamesh or Caster, while their passage through Warzone V went unnoticed by the version of Rin there (or Shirou, for that matter).

Then they entered the next temporal zone…

…and were nearly killed when the building next to them exploded. And then the ones beside that, with everything else nearby on fire.

"WHAT'S GOING ON?" Rin shouted as she pushed herself out of rubble. "MATOU…?"

"NO!" Sakura shouted, rolling out of more rubble, but having gotten a clean look up at the sky. "LOOK!"

"WHAT?" Rin asked, before following Sakura's upraised hand and looking up. The blood drained from her face. "…oh my God…"

High above in the skies, from over a height of seven kilometers, over six hundred B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-24 Liberators lumbered over Fuyuki City. This temporal zone was only partly enveloped by warped space-time, with the seaward side clear and allowing American aircraft a clean entrance and exit to and from Japanese airspace.

Of course, once they hit the zone's boundary, the planes were disintegrated.

Only, they didn't know this. So, the United States Army Air Force assumed it was some sort of weapon, and ordered round-the-clock bombings of what part of Fuyuki they could reach to try and knock it out.

Whistling filled the air in a counterpoint to the low rumbling of the B-17s and B-24s' engines, as bombs fell to explode in blazing fireballs. Like most Japanese cities at the time, Fuyuki in 1945 was largely built from wood and paper, making it easier to destroy…

…and more vulnerable to the incendiaries the Americans sprinkled their bombloads with.

Screaming mobs filled the streets, men, women, and children running for safety. Anyone who fell quickly found themselves trampled to death, and while the Americans didn't deliberately target the fleeing civilians, they didn't care either if their bombs landed too close. Exploding buildings killed civilians by the hundred, killed by either the blast waves or left bleeding out on the streets.

Across the city, the Imperial Japanese Army desperately mounted a defense, a mix of 75 mm and 20 mm anti-aircraft guns peppering the skies above with flak. Not that it did much good, the B-17 and B-24 were too heavily armored, and while a lucky shot or two could take out a few engines, the B-17 and B-24 were also too well-designed. In fact, a B-24 could fly with only one wing.

Slightly more effective were the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force and their fellows from the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service. There were less than a hundred of them in the skies above Fuyuki, against nearly a thousand P-51 Mustangs. Even without such overwhelming numbers, the Mustang simply outmatched the Ki-43 Hayabusa most army pilots had to use, leading to a massacre – a Turkey Shoot, as the Americans called it – in the skies above.

That said, this made more than a few of the American pilots cocky, leading them to underestimate the few remaining Japanese aces contesting the air. And they flew the most advanced planes the Japanese had, like the Ki-84 Hayate, and the N1K-J Shiden Kai.

Too little, too late, but for overeager pilots used to shooting down green recruits in obsolete machines, that didn't matter, as one sadistic American pilot who toyed with a Ki-43 found to his dismay. First the tail, then the left wing, and then the right wing.

When the Japanese pilot tried to bail out, the American riddled the cockpit with cannon rounds, smirking as the burning plane fell from the sky. He banked hard, chasing after a Shiden Kai, and tried to take out its tail.

But the Shiden Kai did a barrel roll, causing the Mustang's shots to go wild. The chase continued, the Shiden Kai climbing with the Mustang hot on its tail, but then cutting speed, allowed the Mustang to overshoot. The American cursed, but it was too late. Lieutenant-Commander Tadashi Tohsaka, younger brother to Akito Tohsaka, Third Viscount Fuyuki, aimed by instinct, and fired all four of his 20 mm cannons, turning the Mustang to burning shreds.

One more star to the twenty-two he already had, for a total of twenty-three and counting.

Unknowing of their grand-uncle's heroism in the skies above, Rin and Sakura ran through the burning streets, and reaching the boundary, passed through to the next temporal zone.

"…okay, what the fuck?"

"Well, we're no longer getting bombed by…what the fuck?"

Rin and Sakura found themselves standing in…well, it was still Fuyuki, but it looked…abandoned. Desolate, even…and had been for centuries. The ruins were overgrown by grass and other vegetation, while others had been buried beneath the built-up dirt of time.

And…that was it. There was no one here. Oh, there were animals, birds flying to and fro above, while deer wandered in the distance. But, there were no people.

Sakura gingerly pulled out a Geiger Counter from Imaginary Numbers Space, which had Rin staring before she paled. "Wait…" she softly began. "…you're not thinking we're in the aftermath of a future nuclear war, are you?"

"It wouldn't hurt to be sure." Sakura said, waving the Geiger Counter around, but it was silent. "Okay, so we aren't getting sterilized by just standing here. Next question: what happened here?"

"…I have absolutely no idea." Rin said before taking a deep breath. "But…now that you mention it, I feel…different…"

"Yeah, me too." Sakura said softly, and flexing her fingers in the air. "It's like…I don't know. I just feel so…powerful…"

"I'M SO ALIVE!" Little Rin giddily said, materializing before zooming off into the air. A sonic boom erupted just a few second later, as the vengeful spirit accelerated to over Mach 1 and reaching Mach 3 in just a few more seconds.

"…she's drunk." Sakura said in disbelief, watching as her little big sister zoomed around overhead. "And…the air…it's…it's so rich in mana…"

"…I'm getting a very bad feeling about this." Rin worriedly said. She pointed a finger into the distance, and fired. It was a simple spell, something she'd learned from meeting an acquaintance of her master, a fey witch born in the modern era, as impossible as that might sound, and which produced a heat laser.

Instead, the same amount of prana usually used by the spell actualized its mysteries in an impossibly-profound way, resulting in a gamma ray laser that glassed entire kilometers along its path. Both sisters stared at the devastation with open mouths.

"…don't even think about testing a quantum singularity." Rin finally said. "You'll kill us both."

"Telekinesis, then?"

"…fine."

Sakura waved a hand…

…and it was like setting off a bomb, leaving a dusty crater next to them.

"…Sakura." Rin began faintly.

"Yeah?" Sakura responded just as faintly.

"I think I have an idea that might explain this."

"Go ahead."

"Yeah…the city. It looks abandoned. Desolate, right? And our powers…they're so much more powerful…I'm thinking, what if we're in the far future, when Humanity has been wiped out, making us the only Humans and magi in existence?"

"…Conservation of Mysteries would mean all of Humanity's potential is now concentrated in us…" Sakura whispered, her mind going a mile per second. No, more than that, as she found herself able to study multiple lines of thought simultaneously.

Is this what it's like to be the King of Heroes? Or if not at his level, like a Human from the Age of Gods?

If so…how far have we fallen?

"…and all our mysteries are so profound…as in, True Magic-level profound…" Rin said. "…we need to get out of here before our enhanced abilities make us incompatible for when we return to our normal timeline."

"…agreed, but let's stay a bit."

"What?"

Sakura was already pulling out sensor equipment, followed by Sapphire, the one they took from Nagato. "We need to collect all the data we can get on this place…this, timeframe…" Sakura said. "…and if we can go back here someday, sometime…we can use it to our advantage…how fast and how better can we think in here…in fact, I think already know how to truly complete my path…yes, YES…YES! I…I know it…to think it's been staring at me in the face all this time…I know how to reach the Root via Null Space!"

Rin wavered, torn between the danger while also all but salivating at the potential this place represented. Here and now, they were as glorious golden gods, with all the potential and power of Humanity belonging solely to them. It wasn't just Sakura who was thinking faster and better, Rin was too, and she could barely keep herself from kicking herself at failing to notice all the flaws in her mysteries all this time.

Hell, a bit of quick thinking about what little she knew about crests, and she could already see how she could improve her own crest, and for when it would be time to pass it on. Her nephew would have less pain and trouble to contend with, that was for sure, and that was only after a few minutes in this place.

"…one hour." Rin said, already pulling out her own sensors. Sakura nodded, not wasting time with words, fingers literally blurring as her hands danced over holographic screens, eyes flicking back and forth between different screens multiple times per second, numbers and letters scrolling by at a rate that would normally require reinforcement to read.

Only she wasn't reinforced. And neither was Rin.

So, this is what it's like to be like Merlin or Medea? A magus from the Age of Gods?

No wonder she called me a little girl. If this was what being a magus was like back then, I too would look down on magi like I know them – and myself – to be today.

This is…AMAZING!

A/N

A bit of a filler chapter, and somewhat more lighthearted overall.

Tom's having the time of his life, while now you know why or how Shinji keeps coming back. If only thanks to various Demi-Servants breaking the Fourth Wall (or at least that's what I think it's called). I hope that's not a problem.