Chapter 4: Orleans . . Or Not
"Are you sure we can't keep them in medical observation for a couple of days?" Dr. Roman pressed as the human contingent of Chaldea assembled in the command room. "They Rayshifted with their bodies. Not the proper spirit only method we'd intended to use. There is no telling what kind of side effects that might have had,"
"I appreciate your concerns, Romani, but we don't have time. We are in a very bad situation, and we need to get on top of it." Olga-Marie asserted. With that, she swept into mission control, which had been mostly repaired thanks to Da Vinci's magecraft. "Is everyone here?"
"Mash is currently in a medically induced coma, and so is everyone who didn't just die in the explosions. But everyone who's awake and alive should be in this room. Raise your hand if you're not here?" Dr. Roman weakly joked.
The thirty-odd occupants of the room were silent, save for a stifled cough.
"Sheesh, tough crowd. Well, Director, begin whenever you're ready,"
"Right. Well, a certain rumour has been circulating, and unfortunately so far as we can tell, it is true. Whoever our enemy is, this King who was pulling that fake Lev's strings,"
"Are we certain that Lev was an impostor?" Da Vinci weighed in. "He did say he'd been 'stringing you along for years', so -"
"He was fake!" Olga-Marie bellowed. "But his words, so far as we can tell, were true. The complement of this base are, to our knowledge, the only surviving humans remaining on Earth,"
Gasps and low murmurs ran around the room, several expressions contorting into panic.
"But we still have a chance! So far as we can tell, this destruction of humanity in fire has come about as a result of temporal distortion. This means that it can be reversed!"
The crowd quietened at her gesturing, and she continued. "To be quite frank, the details are over my head, but according to our resident genius Da Vinci, our enemy has done this by creating Singularities at certain points in history. We don't know how many of these there are but the Near-Future Observation Lens SHEBA has already identified three of them. The first three Singularities that we have managed to lock onto are in Orleans, France, the year 1431, Rome in the year 64 AD, and the Pacific Ocean in the year 1577."
"Since I know most magi can't tell their dynasties from their dysentery," Da Vinci took over the narration, and pouted when no one laughed. "These are all crucial points in history. Orleans in 1431 was a key point in the Hundred Years War between Britain and France, when the Saint Jeanne d'Arc was executed. 64 AD was the Great Fire of Rome. Finally, 1577 was the year Francis Drake began his circumnavigation of the globe, the height of the Age of Exploration. Affecting the outcome of any of these events could have catastrophic implications for human history. Therefore, much like the Fuyuki Singularity, these need to be resolved. That's where our Masters come in,"
All attention swivelled to Nikki, Tyler and Era, and the four Servants lounging around them. Tyler choked and coughed, not expecting the attention, while Nikki remained blasé and Era all but preened.
"Nikki and Tyler. No one wants to ask this of you when you're still recovering, but you're the best we have and you've already established successful contracts with Servants," Olga-Marie began. "You represent -"
"Oi! Just those two? What about me?" Era demanded.
"Era," Dr. Roman took over the conversation. "It's bad enough that we're asking a pair of students to save the world. You're eleven. There is no possible way we're letting you go to one of these dangerous Singularities,"
"I can handle it!" the young girl hotly protested. "I did fine in the first Singularity! Or at least just as well as those two did!"
"We don't need you to do this. Two Masters is enough," Olga-Marie interjected. "It's . . please don't make me responsible for the death of a child," she begged.
Something in her eyes must have gotten through to Era, because she faltered, and grumbled. "We'll see about that,"
"With that settled," Da Vinci declared, "we haven't been able to discern much about the Singularities, but it looks like the one that's most stable is Orleans. By 'stable', I mean that we can do a partial scan for strong magic signatures, and Orleans has the fewest of those, so relatively speaking we expect it to be the safest of the three Singularities. Which brings me to the mission briefing!"
"Ahem," Olga-Marie nudged her aside with an indignant look. "Yes, the mission briefing. Tyler, Nikki. Servants. We believe that each of these Singularities also has an aberrant Holy Grail within it that is sustaining the divergence from history. Presumably, they were planted there by Lev or his unknown co-conspirators. Naturally, your primary objective is to disable the Singularity by removing the Grail and returning it to Chaldea. Or destroying it. Whatever works. However, under the circumstances, we have a secondary objective!"
Everyone waited as she paused for effect, which was not something that Olga-Marie had wanted to happen. Out of the corner of her lips, she squeaked in falsetto, "What's that, Director?"
As though someone else had just spoken, Olga-Marie continued. "I'm glad you asked. With Mash Kyrielight out of commission, we have lost access to the catalyst we used for the initial summon until such a time as she wakes up and can re-manifest her shield. Which, apparently, is the Round Table how did this become my life?" she all but sobbed.
"The second objective?" Tyler prompted, stifling a cough.
"Yes! Right! Without Mash or any other catalysts, we are unable to summon any new Servants. But the Holy Grails in the Singularities should be autonomously Summoning Servants of their own. Or might be being used by someone to intentionally summon Servants. Da Vinci also theorises that the Counter Force, in response to a Holy Grail spamming Servants, might summon stray Servants to combat the threat. So, your secondary objective is recruitment! If you get the opportunity, make contact and establish good relations with any stray Servants you encounter. Try to get them to agree to a contract with you. If we can recruit more Servants in Orleans, we can then bring them back here and have them lend their power to solving the other Singularities. Don't worry about energy cost, Chaldea's generators can handle it. Understand?"
"Yes ma'am," Nikki nodded.
"You got it!" Tyler agreed, then cleared his throat.
"This means you have to be nice," the former whispered to Altria.
"Yeah, yeah, sure. No promises if someone really pisses me off, though," the corrupted king retorted, arms folded. Nikki sighed and accepted that was the best she was going to get.
"Good. Well, if that's sorted, then -" Olga-Marie cut herself off as Tyler was overcome with another coughing fit.
"Ah, Tyler, my boy? Are you alright?" Dr. Roman fretted, rising from his seat and moving over to the Master.
"Y-yeah, I'm fine. Just had a weird tickle in my throat since we got ba-a-achoo!" Tyler suddenly sneezed, which was fine on its own.
Less fine was the bright orange gout of flame that splattered across the metal ground, leaving a spray of sparks and embers at their feet.
The room fell silent.
". . did that fire just come out of me?" Tyler faintly whispered.
To his credit, the head of the medical department recovered quickly. "Infirmary. Now!"
X
"Okay," Dr. Roman slid away from a terminal on his office chair and exhaled, rubbing his eyes. "I have figured out the problem,"
"Is this because of that fever I had before the Singularity? There aren't any fevers that make you breathe fire, right?" Tyler questioned.
"No, no, it's nothing like that. If I understand all this right - and I'm not confident I do - your little bout of flaming mucus is the result of three factors converging. The first, is that Noble Phantasm Georgios used on you. Or, should I say, that you let Georgios use on you, which was very irresponsible and I can't believe you were actually that stupid! It could have done anything to you! It did do this to you!" Dr. Roman snapped.
"R-right . . sorry, doc. He just looked like he needed it," Tyler apologetically offered.
"Just don't make a habit of it, okay . . still, that damn dragon slayer didn't explain his Noble Phantasm accurately. It didn't just manifest your spirit in the form of a dragon, it manifested your spirit and added the 'Dragon' quality to it temporarily. The key word there is 'temporarily', normally it should have worn off on its own after a day, with no adverse effects,"
"But," Tyler prompted.
"Factor numero two-oh!" Romani crowed, raising two fingers. "The Rayshift. There's a reason Rayshifting flesh is frowned upon, it basically takes you apart, transports you, and then puts you back together exactly as you were. Which is fine, if you're in a normal state of being, but you went and turned bits of yourself into 'dragon'. Thanks to the Rayshift, the process that would have turned those bits of you human again has been . . what's the word I'm looking for . ."
"Delayed? Lengthened?" the Master guessed.
"Hm, no, I'd say 'obliterated'. Yeah, that's the one. The process no longer exists. The bits of you that became 'dragon' are gonna stay 'dragon', permanently. To my knowledge there's nothing on this planet that can reverse the process, unless we happen to run into a Heroic Spirit with some kind of 'turn things into humans' ray or something. Which sounded a lot more impossible yesterday, I'll admit," Romani shrugged.
"So . . that's it? I'm stuck with a bit of dragon blood in me?"
"Yes, but you didn't let me get to the third part, and why it's becoming a problem in the first place. If I rounded up, I could call you maybe two percent dragon? Definitely not enough to matter. Except that you went and contracted with a Heroic Spirit who contains a little thing called a Dragon Reactor Core," Dr. Roman gestured at the window in the door, where a nervous Saber Lily was pacing outside.
"I don't know what that is," Tyler admitted.
"Basically, she has the mana generation of a dragon, and as a side effect also the trait of 'dragon'. You know Pokémon, right? Think of it as all her magic is Dragon-Type,"
"You know Pokémon?" was Tyler's main takeaway from this, as he folded his arms and raised a knowing eyebrow.
"That's not relevant. Thanks to your contract, her Dragon-Type magic is bleeding back through to you. The dragon bits of you would normally remain dormant, but with her magic in your system, they're getting power that you shouldn't be able to give them and turning on,"
"Right. So, what is that going to do to me?"
"I have no idea at all," Dr. Roman raised his hands defensively at the irritated look Tyler was shooting him. "What? You're one of maybe twenty people to ever Rayshift in the world, and considering we've never before seen Saint George as a Servant you're probably the only human ever to get hit with his Noble Phantasm. The data to try to predict what'll happen just doesn't exist. Really, all we can do is monitor you and hope for the best,"
"I see," Dissatisfied but realising there was nothing more he could hope for, Tyler stood. "One last question. Can I still Rayshift to Orleans and help solve the Singularity?"
"As far as I can tell, there's no reason you shouldn't. At least, nothing I can put my finger on besides a general bad feeling," Dr. Roman admitted. "But there's something you should be forewarned about. The majority of the 'dragonisation' is in your spirit. The proper Rayshift procedure that we'll be using this time projects your spirit as a body into the Singularity, rather than sending your actual body there. For as long as you're in the Singularity, you might find the dragon bits are much more pronounced than they would be otherwise. What exactly that'll look like, though, I couldn't tell you,"
"Right. Well, thanks for the warning. I'll remember it if I find myself with a tail when I get there," he weakly joked.
"Heh. Well, the Director said she wanted you ready to Rayshift as soon as I could give you the all-clear, and nothing short of impending death would let her accept not giving you the all-clear. So, I'm not thrilled to say this, but go see if Da Vinci's ready for the next Rayshift yet," Dr. Roman instructed.
"Wait, we're going today? But we only just got back from Fuyuki, and," Tyler glanced at the clock. "Is it really only half past four?"
It was only seven and a half hours ago that Director Olga-Marie had been giving a briefing on the mission. Only six hours since he'd summoned Saber Lily. Only one since they'd gotten back from Fuyuki.
His life had turned entirely upside-down in less than a single nine-to-five shift.
"Ah. Yeah, that's a good point. It's been a long day already, everyone deserves some rest. The residential wing's just down the corridor, did you get a room assigned to you after all that?"
"Of course, I've been here since yesterday," he mumbled.
"Good, well how about you go find an unoccupied room for Lily out there to sleep in, then settle down and get some rest? I'll go talk to Olga-Marie and make up something about you needing to sleep off some medicine and not being ready to go until tomorrow, okay?"
Tyler blinked. "You'd really lie to your boss just so I can get some rest?"
"You're not the only one," Dr. Roman stifled a yawn. "Everything's been very stressful today and everyone's tired. The Director, though, is the sort of person who'll just keep beating her head against a brick wall until she collapses, and she expects everyone else to follow suit. This is half me using you as an excuse to get some downtime of my own. So don't feel too grateful or anything, okay?" He winked.
"Hah. You got it, doc. See you at dinner?"
"Oh, right, the excuse won't fly if you show up to the cafeteria tonight. Send Lily to bring you some grub, kay?"
"Ah, right. Got it," Tyler hesitated at the door and glanced at one of the other beds. "How's Mash?"
Dr. Roman winced. "Well, she's alive thanks to you and the others, which is honestly amazing. As for when she'll wake up or if we can heal the damage to her legs? I've honestly no idea. All we can do is wait and hope,"
" . . I understand," With that, he left.
X
"Oh, uh, Era, can you stay a moment?" Olga-Marie asked as everyone left the briefing room.
"Yes, Director?" the young master grumpily asked, Sita hovering over her.
"You're the only reason I'm still alive," she admitted.
". . Huuuh?"
"It was that protective charm I took from you right before the bombs went off. Your big sister does good work, it completely protected me from the blast. I just, um, wanted to thank you. Even if you didn't really do anything," the Director refused to meet Era's eyes, scratching the back of her neck.
"Aww. You're welcome!" she beamed. "Does that mean you'll let me go to the Singularities?"
"Absolutely not!"
"I can do it, though! I can handle it! It's not like I'll be alone, Tyler and Nikki will protect me and so will Sita!" Era argued.
"That doesn't make it okay to send a child into a war zone!" Olga-Marie retorted.
"And what if there's no other choice?" Era quietly asked.
All the senior mage could say in response to this was; "Well, hopefully it won't come to that,"
X
Half an hour later, Nikki finally found her way back to her room - only to see Altria packing things into a box. "What are you doing?"
"Getting rid of this Ophelia person's stuff so that I've got space in here," the Servant easily replied.
"No, I mean, why are you in my room? Mine and Ophelia's room. Not yours!"
"Because Ophelia isn't going to be coming back for a while, and I want to bunk with you, Master. It's preferable to claiming a dead person's room,"
"And yet you plan to sleep in a comatose person's bed," Nikki countered.
Altria just scowled. "You couldn't have just called it a dead person's bed? I had a great comeback ready about how any bed I sleep in is a dead person's bed because King Arthur's been dead for centuries,"
The eldest Master's brows swept together. "Ophelia was - is - my friend. I won't have you making light of her situation,"
"Ah. That's fair. Sorry," the Servant admitted. "I would still prefer to share accomodations with you, though. If only so that I'll be here if you get attacked in your sleep,"
"I don't think that's likely," Nikki frowned.
"Don't you? You're a Magus, you know how that world operates. You don't think anyone on staff would tell themselves something like 'We've got two other Masters, it'll be fine if I kill one and take her Command Seals for myself. Once I've got Servants of my own, I can just order them to kill anyone who speaks out against me',"
Nikki opened her mouth to object. Then she thought about it.
"Yep, that's what I thought," Altria nodded after a moment with no counter, declaring the matter settled.
"But why you? Why not Astolfo? You know, my first Servant, who actually answered my summon?"
"Because if I recall correctly, there are taboos about a boy and a girl sharing a room unless they're family or in a relationship, in this era anyway," Altria pointed out.
"Yeah, but what does that have to do with Astolfo?" Nikki tilted her head in honest confusion.
Altria blinked. "You . . do know that Astolfo's a man, right?"
"No, she's - but -" She spluttered. "What?!"
X
Astolfo sneezed. "Someone must be talking about me. Also, not sure why but I feel like I should be doing something interesting right now,"
"Oi, stop daydreaming and help me set up the backup Coffins!" Da Vinci yelled at him.
"Right! Coming! Oh, by the by, I almost forgot but I kinda sorta need a new sword. You got any going spare?"
Da Vinci paused and considered the request. "I think there's something in storage that you might get some use out of,"
X
The morning dawned bright and early, or so the clocks said. Naturally, the sky was as grey and overcast as it ever was in the Antarctic mountain ranges that surrounded the observatory of Chaldea.
Not that this meant anything to the haggard zombie that shambled into the cafeteria. "Braaaaain . . is asleep," Tyler mumbled, pawing at the counter. "Need coffee,"
Once he'd had his caffeine fix, the Masters converged in the Rayshift room, where the soft blue glow of CHALDEAS bathed the room in gentle warmth.
"Everyone!" Director Olga-Marie's voice broadcast over the speakers. "I'm happy to welcome you all back. We all know what we need to be doing. Nikki, Tyler. Astolfo, Lily, and, uh, Altria. Into the Coffins! Rayshift technicians, prepare the uplinks!"
The three command staff of Chaldea watched the people below busy themselves with the minutiae, and Dr. Roman watched the vitals come online one by one.
"Ready? Excellent! I declare that now that we are here, the First Order has officially ended and the Grand Orders have now begun!"
"The what?" Nikki's voice sounded from a terminal, transmitted from the Coffin, and Da Vinci hissed into a microphone; "It's something she made up because she thought it sounded cool. If anyone asks, Fuyuki is now 'Singularity F', for 'First',"
"Ahem! Is everyone ready?"
"Coffins, standing by," Dr. Roman reported.
"Coordinates locked on. Existence verification primed and ready," Da Vinci added.
"Good then!" Olga-Marie declared. "Let's save the world," With that, she hit the switch.
The computer's voice filled the air. "Unsummon Program, Start. Spiritron Conversion initiated in T-minus 60 seconds,"
Olga-Marie's lips twisted. "In sixty seconds, we will begin saving the world,"
For a moment, there was no sound save the impatient tapping of the director's foot.
"Spiritron Conversion initiated in T-minus 30 seconds,"
A shrill cry split the somber atmosphere. "Would you get on with it already?!"
"Rayshifting staring in 3, 2, 1. All procedures cleared. Grand Order, commencing operation,"
For the five Masters and Servants, everything went white. Astolfo whooped.
X
Tyler slammed into the ground, his face meeting the dirt. He slid down an incline, bounding off rocks and trees, before finally coming to rest in a bush.
He groaned in pain, and mumbled, "It's too early for this,"
Something poked his ass. "Oi, kid. Get up," the familiar voice of Altria demanded.
Tyler struggled to his feet, and suddenly Dr. Roman's warning about the draconic corruption of his spirit being made manifest in the Singularities flashed back to his mind. With a cold sweat running down his back, he looked himself over. As far as he could tell, his body was normal. "Uh, Altria? Does any part of my body look dragon-like to you?"
"Huh? Nah, you're the same as always. This about that dragon thing the kid me mentioned? Don't even worry about it, if it happens it happens but it hasn't so it probably won't. Speaking of, where're the others?" Altria looked around, and as if on cue a distant thump echoed through the trees.
"Ow," Lily mumbled. "Why did we all appear in mid-air?" she complained, sitting up as Tyler and Altria emerged from the trees to join her.
"Yeah, I wanna ask fluffy-face about that myself," Altria grumbled.
"I mean appearing in mid-air rather than fused with the ground is probably safer. But still. We're working for an organisation of wizards, surely we can find some flying broomsticks or something if this is gonna be a thing," Tyler grumbled, poking his communicator.
On cue, it flickered to life. "Stop reading trash like Harry Potter, no self-respecting magus has called themselves a witch or wizard in centuries. And I don't even know where that stupid idea about flying broomsticks came from, anyway. It isn't a real thing!" Olga-Marie snapped.
"Yes, Director. Sorry, Director," Tyler bowed in apology.
X
On the other side of the screen, Olga-Marie smiled. "Good, you can learn. Now, what's the situation? How do things look in France?"
"Well, nothing's on fire that we can tell," Tyler's voice came through. "We're in a forest. It's a pretty mundane forest. Also, it's just me, Lily and Altria. We're missing two,"
"Actually, that's a bigger problem than you realise. I'm picking up Tyler just fine, but I'm not getting a signal from Nikki at all." Dr. Roman frowned, looking over his instruments. "Damnit! Where is she?"
"Ah. Romani? Over here," Da Vinci beckoned him to another screen, which he slid over to.
His eyes boggled in disbelief. "Did she - but - how? I know she has a poor sense of direction, but . . how?!"
X
Nikki landed with a splash.
For the briefest second she cursed Dr. Roman for not warning her that she would be Rayshifting into water, then refocused on staying afloat.
"Here, Master, grab on!" Astolfo yelled, and the Hippogriff's foreleg reached down for her to cling onto. Holding on for dear life as the griffin lifted her out of the water, Nikki coughed up salty foam as Astolfo pulled her into the saddle to join him.
It was at that point that she looked around and realised this was not a river, nor a lake, but a seemingly endless ocean.
Her Mystic Code's hologram flickered to life, and Dr. Roman appeared with a distressed expression. "Nikki! I don't know how or why, but it looks like you, somehow, accidentally Rayshifted to the wrong Singularity!"
Staring out at the oceans of Okeanos, Nikki could only scream a string of words that would have to be redacted from the logs.
A/N
A/N
. . 'A couple of days', huh? I have no idea how this happened so fast. I guess it did end up being on the short side; I considered adding a dream segment or two but it feels a bit premature for the Masters who've been contracted for less than a day, and I don't really like the 'dream vision of the next Singularity' trope that dominated the preludes of Observer on Timeless Temple. Worst case, I'll edit something in later. Well, enjoy, all!