A/N: After some thinking, I have reworked the previous chapters to replace Taiga's presence with Rin. You guys did make a fair point; I did want to involve Rin later; sorry about such a drastic reversal in policy, but I want to thank you all for watching out and helping me not lead this story into a dumpster fire. I'm already thinking about how to repurpose the plot device I had in mind for Rin initially. For new readers, a previous iteration of this fic had Taiga.
I have made this chapter "longer" than the others to apologize for making this later than I wanted. Apologies for getting this later than I would have liked, school is coming back into session soon, and a few other problems are piling up in real life, so I have doubts that I can maintain the chapter-per-week schedule I would have liked; I'll try my best so here's hoping.
Also, please! More constructive criticism can go a long way for me, especially since this is my first fic; thanks!
Guest: I considered it, but Spartan-IIIs (on a relative scale) are much less morally dubious than the II's were. Furthermore, it gives me a lot less time to explore the Insurrection.
Guest 2: Here it is!
yangn33: Glad that you've enjoyed the story so far.
I've done a mini rework of early human space history in the Halo Universe because I don't find it very interesting. I won't lay it out, but I'll sprinkle bits and pieces.
Anyways, expect us to remain in Illya's POV for the next few chapters. As usual, I do not own Halo (owned by Microsoft) or Fate/stay night (owned by Type-Moon); they belong to their respective owners as this is fan work.
Reach
Months had passed since their kidnapping, but Illya's resolve persisted. She had noticed the collective endurance of the trainees continued to improve rapidly, with those who once struggled with the early morning run now efficiently partaking in it. As for the lessons being taught by Artificial Intelligence, it seemed that she did fine enough, but she wasn't a genius regarding history or strategy.
Saber-san, on the other hand, was a different story, especially when it came to combat before the modern era; she seemed to be well honed when it came to tactics, with Déjà even commenting that she seemed to be incredibly skilled in understanding the battle tactics of the Dark Ages of Europe. If only she knew.
This was particularly amusing when they got to the Dark Ages of Europe unit and touched on the apparently "apocryphal" existence of Camelot in modern-day Somerset. She remembered witnessing the passion flowing in Saber-san's eyes as she tried to argue with Artificial Intelligence about the existence of Camelot and the Battle of Camlann.
If she was candid, she didn't know who won that argument in the end, as it seemed as if the AI brushed away Saber-san's ideas as fantastical and not rooted in stringent scholastic discourse and analysis. She watched as Saber-san silently fumed as Déjà finally shut her down, a fist silently curled up by her side.
Illya felt a pang of sympathy as Saber-san dejectedly retreated from the attention of the AI, who continued her lesson on the fall of the Roman Empire. She didn't know how it felt for her existence to be denied. She was supposed to be a hero of history, but her tale had been lost to legends. Did the world remember her onii-chan in history?
In her heart, she knew the answer. The engine of humanity continued moving forward long after her onii-chan and herself had passed away. They had colonized Mars and reached distances thought unobtainable. She wondered what had happened to the rest of the Einzbern family. Had they followed the route of many other things mystical and had simply ceased to exist?
She shook her head. It was useless to persist in such thoughts. The von Einzberns were on their last legs by the time the Fifth Holy Grail War came about. Driven to desperation in the Fourth and Fifth Wars. If they still existed, five hundred years later, she did not doubt that the remnants had continued to seclude themselves in their castle in Swabia.
Ergo, she believed that the von Einzberns had no actual means of bothering them this far in the future. So she need not worry about it. Though, something had been bothering her since her rebirth: the surname she had been reborn with, Ryuudou. It sounded familiar as if it were mentioned at one point in her past life. Maybe her onii-chan would know better in this department.
"Illya? You still there?" Saber-san waved her hand in front of her eyes. Illya did a double take before shaking her head and looking confused at Saber-san.
"What?" Illya snapped with a barely suppressed volume. She was incredibly concentrated on other matters, after all.
"The machine is starting her next lesson," Saber-san said factually. The former servant's eyes darted to the AI, who seemed to have been transitioning to a new lesson from her previous one regarding logistics.
Illya simply replied with an, "Oh." Turning away in embarrassment from Saber-san, she immediately shifted her attention toward the AI in the room, carefully watching as the machine began bringing up images. Illya sighed as Déjà continued to the next topic of the day. They had yet to reach the Interplanetary Wars, but Déjà had been insistent on elaborating on the conflict that foreshadowed them, the Second Cold War.
The trainees marveled at the meticulous detail put into the holographic recreation. Suddenly, lines began etching into the holographic landscape. Carving out nations and polities. Even Illya had to admit that something was fascinating about watching nations being carved into the planet.
Déjà launched herself into an introductory lecture about how two power blocs had emerged to compete in the geopolitical sphere. Illya watched as many nations were separated into a yellow or blue-colored bloc, with some remaining gray. The AI elaborated that the gray indicated purportedly neutral countries in the conflict. Illya recognized the name of her German homeland, but it seemed that much had changed since her death.
Illya nonetheless braced herself for a comprehensive lesson with the AI. She was going to need it. After all, these history lessons were getting lengthier and lengthier as Illya began checking the clock in the classroom.
The obstacle course was relatively straightforward, though Illya swore that this one focused too much on the rope and her bare hands demonstrated that. They had turned red after being put under so much strain and stung heavily when she tried to use them. Illya shrugged off the pain, though; she had been through worse in her past life.
Glancing at the other children around her, it seemed that they had gotten their own hands as scarlet as tomatoes trying to scale a twenty-meter rope. Illya panted and continued procedurally climbing the string, with the only motivator in her mind, getting closer and closer to getting out of this hellhole. She eventually ascended to the top and began to see the rest of the course for herself. Of course, CPO Mendez had decided to make it harder. Was she even supposed to be surprised at this point?
Even after months, the lessons continued to surprise her in terms of complexity and difficulty. They seemed genuinely interested in making the most rigorous class of child soldiers, which Illya wasn't entirely keen on becoming a part of.
Pulling Saber-san up to the top of the tower, they began to plan accordingly regarding the next obstacle. At the bottom was a stack of plastic shields; ahead of them was a relatively narrow bridge wide enough to carry two or three people at a time. Her onii-chan pointed to the group ahead, who had decided to brave the little bridge with their shields.
They silently agreed to watch; it wasn't like they could intervene anyways.
As the group ahead began to pace across the bridge, it seemed that they triggered a defensive mechanism, with turrets shooting spherical projectiles hurdling toward each other offenders. It was a massacre. The boy in the front was the first to have been knocked off. The ball sent him straight off the bridge and into the water, awaiting him below.
Illya turned to her onii-chan, who seemed to be gritting his teeth in anger. She didn't blame him, given the amount of testing and pain to the children.
Putting her own feelings aside, she began to analyze the course and realized the entire point of it was team building. The turrets would be shooting from all directions, meaning that a successful team would need to quintessentially create a phalanx to defend themselves against the projectiles.
Explaining this to Saber-san and onii-chan, the three hastily obtained the plastic shields and began to advance upon the platform.
The first projectile struck Saber-san's barrier, but she shrugged it off, and they continued moving across. Then another hit onii-chan's, and suddenly a torrential swarm of projectiles began trying to breach their shielding formation, seemingly trying to find a way to transfer their momentum to one of them.
Thankfully, their plan seemed to be working, with few projectiles managing to touch them, with the ones that did end up hitting their bodies rather unceremoniously. It was strange. Even Rin's group was having no trouble crossing the bridge, though she noticed that it was seemingly more difficult for other groups to replicate her own group's success. While Illya wanted to attribute it to skill, she knew that the mental bond played a significant role.
To be quite frank, Illya was starting to get bored. Don't get her wrong, the projectiles were an excellent way to get the blood flowing, but admittedly the shock had long since worn out. As a result, Illya spent her time crossing the bridge, analyzing possible escape routes if they were ever trapped there during their escape attempt. Always being prepared for anything was a good motto to live by. Something her onii-chan consistently failed to do.
She found a couple. This facility had been built with numerous weak spots. One of the first things that caught her attention was a drainage pipe covered with a large slab of metal. Illya supposed that the trainers were betting that the children wouldn't be able to lift such a plate deep under the pool. They were right, but they were more than just children. They had magic on their side, at least; that was a general hope.
Another event that caught her eye was an emergency exit door linked to an evacuation staircase. If her onii-chan's intel was any good, the stairs attached to a garage housed vehicles like the "Warthog" and the "Mongoose." Militaries had not become much more creative regarding their nicknaming schemes, even hundreds of years later.
Illya began to ponder if busting out, guns blazing would genuinely be the wisest course of action here. Both Saber-san and her onii-chan knew how to drive. It would be the most straightforward of the plans and probably the most effortless setup. Her onii-chan had his "tracing" ability, which meant that he would be able to figure out how to use the vehicles of the future.
She ended up dismissing the thought as she stepped off the bridge and onto the next platform. Being quiet and precise would need to become their objectives. They were outgunned, outmanned, and certainly against the clock. Time was not on their side, but they needed to play their cards right.
Their fates were in the balance, after all.
After the latest obstacle course, the quadruple retreated to their hideout below a storage room. The four didn't have much time between activities but managed to carve at the wall enough. Before this arrangement, they had hidden in the vent system, trying to explore it. Unfortunately, some trainees got caught, and the vents were sealed up. No matter how many routes were closed, new ones continued to open themselves up.
Besides, the food that onii-chan cooked served as a reprieve from the depressing possibility that they might not escape. If Illya had to ask herself what was the best moment of her time here, she would answer it as the time that her onii-chan broke into the pantry and began regularly preparing food for the quadruple.
Said person crawled out of the vent system that they had managed to puncture and infiltrate, returning to deliver the good and bad news to them. Tohsaka-san asked the question that lingered above all of their heads: "Shirou. I assume you've found an exit?" The girl seemed almost desperate for answers. Despite the months that had passed, she still held a burning desire to escape this wretched facility, and so did Illya.
Illya's onii-chan yawned, "Multiple, actually." He laid out the first exit, the ventilation system linked with a rooftop HVAC system. They would start and crawl up the ventilation system, which he had recently cleared of sharp edges, fans, and loose screws. From there, they would be able to find a way down and slip into the neighboring forest, with the rest of the plan being to discard their clothing and blend into the population centers of Reach before they eventually escape the planet.
Saber-san notably frowned and interjected that they would have no way down and would have to run through a heavily guarded area. She also pointed out the guards were armed and, at the minimum, had tranquilizers. After a few minutes, onii-chan began to nod and acquiesced. Well, that was one path down.
He nodded and started talking about the second path. "If we go into the vents and take a right, going down around eight hundred meters, turning left, and then going left and down for around five hundred, we will find ourselves at the ground floor." Illya's onii-chan spoke with an aura of hope that she knew all too well, but she was still uncertain what he was planning.
Her onii-chan began to illustrate the plan by taking his finger and using it to trace shapes and lines on the metal sheets next to them, swiping off the dust. "I've checked. The ground under the foundation is entirely soil and unpatrolled." It seemed that he still had the glint within his eyes that indicated his desire to do something. But overall, this plan was definitely much better than the former. Especially considering they weren't marooned on the rooftop this time.
Saber-san raised a quizzical eyebrow at her onii-chan, audibly muttering, "This is too good to be true, Shirou." Illya didn't blame her at all. Surprisingly, an intelligence agency that had carefully executed the kidnapping and replacement of seventy-five children had made such a glaring security flaw within their facility.
It would be a lot more work, but he had discovered that the vents linked to a storage room on the ground floor and that after some more months of carving, they would be able to safely get everyone out in the dead of night. Illya's eyebrow visibly twitched as she realized what Shirou was thinking about doing.
"Months, onii-chan?" Illya asked her brother. It was a fair question, but she could tell that Saber-san and he wanted to save the other trainees. It was understandable, but Illya knew they didn't have a good chance, which would jeopardize all their work in the last few months.
A pregnant pause ensued before Shirou broke the delay with an affirmation, "A few months, so we can make sure everyone can get out. Every other alternative was either too dangerous or would be unable to accommodate enough people." This served to only confirm Illya's fears that onii-chan was trying to be a hero once more.
Tohsaka-san vocalized her concerns; it seemed she started trying to control her anger, which meant that it was only coming out through her backchat, "Emiya-kun, don't know how much more time we have here. How will you get seventy children out of here without getting caught?" Tohsaka-san delivered the statement in a condescending tone, but her eyes betrayed a modicum of resignation.
"Tohsaka-" Shirou started, trying to convince her of his plan. Illya had her own doubts, and she was glad she wasn't the only one who held them. She turned to Saber-san to ascertain how the former servant felt about it. She could feel that the King of Knights wanted to follow through with Shirou's plan but also acknowledged its inherent problems.
Tohsaka-san seemed to be unconvinced, her temper visibly flaring, "Emiya-kun! You can't save everyone here. Seventy children sneaking through a vent? The noise will be enough to wake everyone up!" Illya could observe Tohsaka-san visibly shaking in a fit of anger barely suppressed by her own carefulness regarding her situation.
Onii-chan stayed silent, seeming to process what she was saying reluctantly. From his facial expressions, Illya could tell that it was generating a conflict within him. Abandoning the others was a question that weighed heavily on everyone's mind, but it seemed that Illya and Tohsaka both knew the reality here.
Saber-san interjected herself into the conversation, "Rin, Illya. This program is unjust; we all know it. We must ensure that it comes to an end. That the suffering ceases!" They all knew that Saber-san was right, but Illya knew deep down that they would be doomed if they tried to save everyone. The former servant's statement fell on deaf ears as Tohsaka continued to yell at her onii-chan.
After her tirade, Tohsaka finally calmed down a few minutes and rested her hand on his shoulder, "Shirou, please stop thinking about yourself." Onii-chan's eyes widened with the realization of what she was getting at.
With no verbal response from onii-chan, Tohsaka, with much difficulty, managed to deliver her reprimand with a straight face without any backhand insults behind her words, "Think about Illya. Think about how failing may steal her new childhood forever. Do you want to see her turned into a tool, a weapon? This may be our one chance." Illya turned to face Tohsaka when her name was mentioned, keeping silent and allowing Tohsaka's words to sink into onii-chan.
Admittedly, she wasn't a big fan of Rin playing this card on Shirou, but based on the look on her face, it seemed that it was her last resort. Illya didn't blame her for using it. Onii-chan had to realize the futility of his plan, as much as it hurt her to see him full of such conflict.
He eventually came to his senses and gave a great sigh of defeat, "I-I just…." He went silent as he began to think; after a minute, he decided to drop the subject. "Moving on, this leaves us with our third plan."
Onii-chan pointed to the dimly lit tunnel in front of him that led to the ventilation shafts. "Thankfully, this passageway is straightforward. Seven hundred meters that way." He gestures toward his left. Seven hundred meters? That was going to be quite a difficulty, and Illya finally understood why onii-chan was reluctant to use this route, given that too much could go wrong for a larger group.
He then elaborated, "From there, we will turn left and crawl another hundred meters." He paused briefly before elaborating, "This will lead us to where many of the pipes are junctioned. No guards at all. One of them leads out of the building; it is large enough to fit us."
"How do you know that it's not a gas pipe?" Rin asked, seemingly skeptical of how quietly they could pull this off. Shirou rubbed the back of his neck before answering her question.
"Well, the gas control valve linked to the pipe right next to it." Shirou simply replied, "I don't know what is inside that pipe, but it's better than nothing. Saber-san nodded, seemingly still hung up over the discussion on saving the others.
Illya then asked her onii-chan one of the other vital questions that plagued their collective minds: "Onii-chan, when will we escape?" Her face was dead set on her own brother, staring.
In the dead of night." Shirou looked at them, only a projected flashlight visibly illuminating his face, seeing their determination to complete their task. The die is cast; the only path is to move forward.
LOCATION: ERR, DATE: ERR / (See Page 31 of Reference Manual for Details)
They watched.
Their reunion was extraordinary, probably something with a one-in-a-million chance of occurring independently, given their circumstances. No, it was likely even more improbable than that, the likelihood of a bullet fired from seven kilometers away hitting a camel and having it travel through the eye of a needle. Yet here they were, despite all the odds.
They waited for a few others, though, who they would finally meet again after so much time. Kiritsugu Emiya and Irisviel von Einzbernn remained for their children to live, finally free from the Holy Grail War and the curses it had brought to them and others.
Irisviel, after being freed from the horror that was the Holy Grail after its destruction, had mentally prepared herself to watch as her child succumbed to the results of the terrible experiments conducted by the Einzberns. They had been given a front-row seat to watch yet never interfered in the lives of those they touched in one way or another.
Irisviel watched as her son, though they had never met, considered him as her son, given they both shared a connection with Kiritsugu. He walked the path of becoming a hero and pursuing his love; all while determined to stay with Illya. Irisviel observed that Illya defied her expectations, and she did not perish within the months after the Grail War. But Irisiviel knew her daughter would be unable to continue.
That day eventually did come after a few years, when Shirou was betrayed by the people he had saved. She watched as he went to the gallows with only a smile, saying that his only regrets were that he couldn't spend as much time with his sister and that he couldn't save more people. Irisviel watched as her daughter died only a few hours later. Though it came out as a mutter, it was something that she could hear nonetheless. A singular point of contentment that she would be able to reunite with her mother. Irisiviel waited.
She had braced herself for the expectation that Shirou would not join herself and Kiritsugu wherever they were, given that he was endlessly pursuing Avalon. But one would not be guilty to say that she secretly hoped he would join her and Kiritsugu here instead of reaching Avalon.
To her infinite surprise, the universe seemed to have other plans for Shirou Emiya and his close friends.
It was a bittersweet revelation for Iri; she had been hoping to comfort her daughter once more, a small familial unification to heal some of the damage done by the Grail War to her family. Instead of that, Illya's soul had simply vanished after her death. So Irisiviel and Kiritsugu decided to wait.
Five hundred years.
As they waited for Illya to return, they watched as humanity continued to advance. Humankind began to establish permanent bases on the Moon and Mars, with the latter becoming as flush and green as Earth herself. They watched as magic fizzled out until magecraft was essentially a shadow of its former self. Society, time and time again, turns against itself. People did not change after centuries, fundamentally.
It tugged on both of them; it originated not from Gaia but beyond. On one of the many planets that mankind had settled. A planet is named after a phenomenon when the land was created when sediment accumulated where rivers flow. Alluvion is what it was called.
Irisiviel's questions were finally answered; the souls of Shirou and Illya had been born again. Both had been taken to relatively everyday lives sharing a loving family. Iri admittedly felt jealous when she watched Shirou and Illya showered with love and affection in their future lives. When she looked at Kiritsugu, she could sense his relief that they would be able to have a normal childhood.
As bittersweet as Iri was, she was at least delighted that Kiritsugu was finally smiling regularly. She was surprised that Saber had also been reincarnated but was pleased that she might finally get grandchildren.
That feeling would only last six years, as the three were kidnapped by the human government and forced into intense regimens that made the Magus Killer queasy. But Iri could see a mindset that was all too familiar, particularly in that Halsey woman. They watched as the trio eventually reunited with the Tohsaka girl, who was also somehow enlisted in the program.
Kiritsugu seemed impressed with how they were going about doing the escape plan, though he commented something about there being a more effective method. Apparently, there were multiple false walls within the installation. Both chuckled at the oversight that both ONI and the group had made. Yet, they both shone with pride as they watched them plan out and eventually resolve to implement the scheme.
Reach
Catherine Halsey grimaced at the latest reports of one of the escape attempts by trainees Jai-006 and Adriana-111. It was the fifth escape attempt over the last few months. Trainer Sanders and Trainer Edison had been hospitalized for injuries. The reports were quite grotesque; it seemed that Edison would be paralyzed for life from the waist down, and ONI had decided to reassign him to a desk job. Sanders was luckier, but ONI had been kind enough to pay him hush money to claim it was just a simple workplace accident. Getting back to the attempt, it seemed that they were getting more innovative; this time, they had managed to breach the perimeter of the barracks. What would happen the next time?
It was easy to blame it on the children, but she understood full well why they were resisting. After all, had she been in the same position, she likely would have done the same, analyzing every possible way out of the compound. It was a balancing act, after all. The children couldn't be too pliable; they lacked critical thinking and creativity. But an excess of imagination meant it would be near impossible to keep them under control and mold them into proper soldiers.
Halsey shook her head. Soldiers. They were still children, unlike the participants of the Spartan-I program. It was a wretched action with only a single justification for its execution. She would have never participated in this program if Insurrection's threat to the UEG wasn't so severe. Her mind wandered to the death and destruction caused by the war with the Insurrectionists. An entire uprising on Eridanus II that still was being actively suppressed, a nuclear explosive detonated, and millions dead. This scenario had been dictated to her and the rest of the Office of Naval Intelligence. An immoral war with only reprobate solutions left for both sides.
The attacks became more and more brutal, and the military situation for the Colonial Military Administration and the United Nations Space Command became direr and direr. They were running out of suitable options and were now resorting to the worst of the worst. This is where the utilitarian part of her won out. Seventy-five children for millions of lives was a deal worth taking, despite all of its faults. It reminded her of a particular Italian philosopher from a millennia ago who wrote an entire book detailing how to best rule. It is best to be loved than feared, but if you cannot be loved, you must be feared. She was neither a philosopher nor a politician, but she knew that the Spartan Program would bring the Insurrectionists to their knees by making them fear the UEG.
Still, Halsey had never slept well since she decided to participate in the program. Maybe that was the punishment handed to her by the divine, wherever it was. She was no angel. She just knew that evil had to be done to finally bring humanity to order and peace. As much as she strode to portray a stoic and utilitarian person, she knew deep down that her heart ached with every evil action she did.
She looked up from her desk; she was glad that she had ordered the skylight installation. It strangely had a very therapeutic feeling to it. Neuroscientists and behavioral psychologists would naturally point out neurological patterns and evolutionary functions. Halsey knew this, of course, but she always had an almost mystical feeling. Watching the stars across the moonlit sky, she could feel so many emotions run through her: A desire for penance, a wanting for judgment, a wanting for answers.
Humanity had claimed to have conquered the stars, yet had they really? Had they simply only gotten closer to the great wonders of the universe? Stars lived millions and billions of years. The lifespan of all life was tiny compared to them. They dwarfed nearly everything made by man.
She turned off her computer monitor, which had displayed a report of the recent death of trainee Godfrey-118. He had suffered from cardiac death after a particularly strenuous exercise. Autopsy reports suggested that the boy seemed to have had a heart attack during the training, which is rare in children. Yet, in the program, they were pushing the bodies of even the worthy to the absolute limit. It was not an outcome completely unexpected.
Halsey examined the shining stars above her, seeking judgment from them. She remembered all their faces, not just John, not just Godfrey, not just the seventy-five, but all one hundred and fifty. Halsey pondered how much of a bullet those children had dodged by being passed over for training due to the constraints on the SPARTAN-II program. She wondered if her own heart could cope with even more ruined lives.
Perhaps her punishment was simply dealing with what she had done. It wasn't near the amount she deserved, yet she understood the scary feeling of watching oneself make more and more inhumane decisions. Watched herself as she became more and more like a machine, finding the path of least resistance.
Yet the starlight and the moonlight made her feel like a whole human once again. The light originating from fusion reactions of the unimaginable scale was cathartic for her. It was a temporary reprieve from the weight that she held on her back each day. Her heart was stone, yet it trembled in the face of the judgment from the stars.
Chapter Preview for Chapter Seven
"Doctor, trainees 004, 012, 015, and 094 have escaped containment," Déjà reported to her superior. Even though it was quite troubling, the AI always maintained an aura of serenity regarding these sorts of cases. Halsey did privately envy the machine sometimes. Feeling no emotional problems from morally questionable decisions? Sign me up!
Catherine Halsey gritted her teeth in frustration. Michael, Jai, and Adriana were already handfuls. Did she really need more?
"Déjà! Lock down the base; nobody gets in or out," Doctor Halsey ordered her digital assistant. The scientific prodigy furrowed her eyebrows. It was from one of the trainee groups that she least expected to have pulled off a successful escape from the barracks.
She did not doubt they would be found within the next few hours. They always are. Still, something was telling her that this one was different. She put that feeling aside, though; the project would not fail. She would not allow it.
Closing A/N: The Iri and Kiritsugu scene was just a little tidbit before anyone gets any ideas. I have no plans to integrate them into the actual story; it was just a tiny thing I decided to add because I thought it would be nice. And definitely not because I realized this chapter's main story would be shorter relative to the other chapters, but whaddya gonna do about it?
Sorry for closing this chapter like this; I'll make sure to get the escape chapter out as soon as possible. Given my luck, it'll take another two weeks lol.