Disclaimer: I do not own the Fate franchise it belongs to Kinoko Nasu and Type-Moon. Nor do I own the Resident Evil franchise, it belongs to Capcom.

For the Future

Chapter 17

Angelica had failed.

Well, that wasn't entirely true. Yes, the Messiah had been destroyed, and with it the plan to accelerate Humanity's extinction to a controlled outcome, but that much had been predicted and planned for. So long as he could secure Sigurd and Brynhild, then the plan was still in motion. Humanity still had a future.

Likewise, while the Great Powers had brought the T-Virus outbreaks under control, and had been alerted to Messiah's existence, even at its end the crisis still worked in his favor. All the Great Powers, and even the Mages Association, had their attention drawn to what was left of Umbrella as well as Messiah's ruins. It wouldn't last long, and they would look further out soon enough, but he had ample time to salvage what could be salvaged from Angelica's failure.

That, and the crisis had left cracks and fractures all over the world order. Cracks and fractures he could exert pressure against, and bring the whole rotting edifice of the Human Order come crashing down. In a way, this was even better than the previous plan, with the irony if not the poetic justice of letting Humanity's own self-defeating nature destroy it.

And through destruction, rebirth. A new world where dreams could flourish under a glorious new dawn.

But that future might still die stillborn. Not without Sigurd and Brynhild, or for that matter, Yggdrasil.

Darius Ainsworth blinked as he arrived at the Doors of Hel, and found the vault unlocked. Snarling, he picked up the pace, reality buckling around him as dolls crawled out of the shadows to cover his flanks and rear. First, a pale woman with platinum-blonde hair and blood-red eyes encased in blackened armor holding a sword with a similarly-blackened blade, runes glowing an ugly red. Then a white-haired man wearing a half-broken helmet along with a suit of armor that bled shadow. And finally, a young man cloaked and hooded in black, and one who didn't seem to walk or run as much as he floated along the ground.

They raced down the central corridor of the Vault of Niflheim, which led straight to Nidhoggr's Lair, doorways periodically branching sideways along its length. Each was sealed by doors engraved with runes, strong enough to endure against anything short of a nuclear weapon, an A-rank Noble Phantasm, or their equivalent, and each and every one of them remained sealed.

That confused Darius, as it was clear someone had breached Niflheim, and yet they had no interest in the contents of the stasis chambers and data-tombs. The confusion was brief, though, as it became clear the intruder was going straight for the greatest prize of them all.

Darius spat a word, and reality shimmered, allowing him and his dolls to traverse multiple kilometers in an instant. They emerged at the heart of Niflheim, at Nidhogg's Lair itself, suspended above a boiling pool of magma that bubbled up from the hotspot burning through from the very heart of the planet, and built around one of the Roots of Yggdrasil. A colossal and strangely organic-looking spine of blue-white crystal, it glowed with pale light and gently sang a song that even Darius had barely managed to begin deciphering even after centuries – or was it millennia, it was so hard to tell sometimes – of study.

And there the intruder was, an Oriental-looking woman wearing a red top and black elbow-length gloves over fitted black pants and matching boots. Too late, Darius realized he and his dolls had been led into a trap, as glowing arcs of golden light shot in their direction from a quartet of machines hovering around them. The arcs formed a cage around them, before flashing and forming an impenetrable sphere.

"No…not impenetrable…" he breathed as he watched his dolls striking at the sphere to no effect. Neither Ryuunosuke-Gilles' foreign magic nor Kariya-Lancelot's hands could gain a purchase on the sphere, or even Irisviel-Altria's Excalibur Morgan. "…this is…severed space…but…how?"

Then he blinked, and refocused on the woman standing amidst Nidhoggr's Lair. "Who are you?" he demanded. "What do you want?"

"Wong…"

"What?"

"My name is Ada Wong." The woman replied. "As for what I want…I already have it."

She picked up the case at her feet, cryogenic markers and attachments hinting at what was inside. "NO!" Darius shouted, folding space with his hands and trying to pull open a breach in the bubble of severed space he'd been trapped in. "YOU WILL NOT TAKE THEM FROM ME! YOU WILL NOT STOP ME! NOT LIKE THIS! NOT NOW! NOT WHEN I'M SO CLOSE!"

Ada laughed. "Actually, yes." She said, while pulling out a remote with her free hand and pressing a button. "In fact, I've done all that. I've taken your precious super babies, I've stopped you just like that, right here, and right now. So, goodbye, Darius Ainsworth. It was nice meeting you."

Darius screamed in hate and fury, the four machines generating the bubble of severed space floating closer together, Darius realizing too late that they formed a single massive machine. "ADA WOOOOOOOOOOOONG!" he roared, his last sight of the Chinese woman waving at him with a mocking smile.

Then the Monolith of Perpetual Solitude slammed shut, the cuneiform markings and the Star of Ishtar on each face flickering and then glowing steadily with golden light. "So much for that." Ada said before pulling out a smartphone and starting a video call.

It took only a few seconds to connect, and even shorter for her current employer to answer. "Yes?" a blonde man sitting at a desk asked, an urban skyline in the daytime visible through the window behind him.

"Mission accomplished." Ada replied without preamble. "I have the embryos of Ainsworth and Einzbern's super babies, and Darius Ainsworth has been imprisoned in that monolith of yours."

"Excellent news." The blonde man replied. "Evacuate at once. We'll need to secure them all, to say nothing of tying up the loose end you're currently in."

"You sure about this?" Ada said. "I mean, Ainsworth was crazy, and so was his plan, but still…to use a twelve-kiloton nuclear device? It's not exactly…subtle, is it?"

"A fair point." Her employer conceded. "But you are deep enough that even a twelve-kiloton detonation should go unnoticed, and no fallout should reach the surface."

"True…" Ada said before looking around her, particularly at the glowing 'root' behind her, which reached to vanish into some kind of…layer, of cloudy light that shrouded the ceiling. If it even touched the ceiling at all, that is.

More to the point, there was something…about the root, that made her feel ashamed about even the thought of destroying it. It would probably grow back, true, but still. In the end, though, Ada just shook her head. She was a professional, and she would do what she was hired to do.

"Understood." She said, pressing another button and causing a knee-high contraption nearby to start regularly beeping. "Locator beacon engaged, standing by for teleportation."

Even as she said that, she felt those strange sensations, of weightlessness beneath her feet, of falling into bottomless depths, and popping in her ears, that came with teleportation. Then there was a flash of light, and she was gone, along with the case containing the embryos, and the monolith holding Darius and his dolls.

All that was left was a large and heavy device built around a sphere of plutonium, smaller wedges of plutonium arrayed around it. A timer steadily counted down thirty seconds, its beeping lost in the bubbling and rumbling of the magma below, and the soft and sad song of Yggdrasil nearby.

And when it finally exploded, all the world knew of it was a brief and slight earthquake in the hinterlands of Iceland.

The Sun shone down bright and warm as Yggdmillennia's flagship An-12 landed at a private airport in the countryside several kilometers out from London. Quickly taxying to a halt, ground crew rushed to service the plane, including a mobile staircase to allow the passengers to disembark quickly and safely.

"Oh wow…" Sakura remarked at the sight of who was with the College of Law personnel present. Or rather, who was leading them, as it were. "…Lady Barthomeloi's come to greet us in person…"

"…more like worrying…" Juvia grumbled.

"Now, now," Celenike soothed. "There's no need to be so pessimistic. We saved the world, uncovered the conspiracy, and even rooted out the origins of the global viral outbreak. Just stay calm, present the facts, and all should be well."

"If you say so…" Juvia began, only to abruptly trail off as Lorelei inexplicably appeared right in front of them. And then as if they were moving in slow motion, she stepped past, raising her right hand, the limb encased in alchemically-forged metal, and delivered a haymaker to what appeared to be a colossal eyeball pulling itself together into thin air behind them.

There was a thunderclap of air getting displaced, this close causing the entire kill-team to collapse clutching their ears, and to Sakura, what sounded like a mindless scream of pain and terror, one which vanished into an infinite distance. Somehow, she just knew that Angelica Ainsworth wasn't coming back ever again.

Not this time.

Not after being dispatched by the Supreme Magus of the Modern Era herself.

It was…humbling.

Sakura had killed Angelica twice, first by cutting her in half, then later shooting her with the Zarathustra Cannon. Granted, it was only the barest sliver of Zarathustra's full power, but Zarathustra drew its power from the condensed remains of a Divine Spirit.

And somehow, Angelica had managed to pull herself back together from that, even if it had taken her so long that Sakura and her companions had managed to get back to London before Angelica could make another attempt at their lives.

But a single blow from Lorelei Barthomeloi was enough to finish her off once and for all.

Belatedly, Sakura realized she'd barely even seen Lorelei move. Had Lorelei been gunning for her, she knew she stood no chance whatsoever.

It was…terrifying.

It was also awe-inspiring.

That awe must have shown on her face, because Lorelei looked down at her with a wintery smile of amusement. "You're good, Murderer Blue." She said, sounding as she looked. "But not that good."

"…I will not dispute that, my lady." Sakura said after a moment.

Lorelei's lip curled with approval, that Sakura was intelligent enough not to debase admiration into sycophancy. Then she looked over her shoulder, at the carbonized scattering of charred debris behind her.

"A shame…" Lorelei mused. "…I believe that was the…G-Virus mutant, mentioned in Lord Yggdmillennia's reports. Given its appearance here and now, I had hoped it would have put up a better fight. But I suppose in the end it was just another piece of trash, barely worth my attention, much less the expectation of a proper hunt. Shame…such a shame…"

Lorelei sighed before turning her attention back to the kill-team who by now had all risen to their feet. "Congratulations on your successful expedition," she continued. "And while I originally planned to personally debrief you on arrival, given this recent complication we will continue with this at the Clock Tower."

"As you wish, my lady." Celenike said with a bow, the rest of the kill-team bowing with her. Then Lorelei was walking away…

…and a tall – at seven feet tall – Elf-like woman was approaching, surprisingly dressed in Edelfelt colors. She looked strangely familiar too, with Sakura and Juvia only recognizing her with a closer look.

Of course she was familiar. The Elf-like woman was Luviagelita Edelfelt.

"What…" Sakura began.

"…the…" Juvia continued.

"…fuck?" they finished in chorus.

Luvia scratched her head with a rueful glance into the distance, the movement looking strangely graceful. "Yes, well," she finally said with a cough. "The T-Virus had caused…minor complications, before my immune system managed to fight it off. And even with the vaccine, there was no reversing said complications."

"So…you're an Elf now…?" Juvia incredulously asked.

"…please don't call me an Elf." Luvia said, looking and sounding pained, her grimace growing as Juvia gave a crafty smile.

"Waver's one lucky bastard, isn't he?" she asked, and Luvia groaned.

"Please don't go there." She said, before jumping back with a yelp as Sakura reached up and touched her ear. It was long and pointy, sticking out of her hair like a leaf.

"It's the real thing." Sakura said in wonder.

"Of course it's the real thing!" Luvia snapped, a vein throbbing on her forehead. "Why would I pretend it's not the real thing?"

"Bedroom games?" Sakura and Juvia chorused, before yelping as an irritated Luvia reached out and twisted their ears.

"…fun fact," she smugly said. "Growing taller and getting longer limbs has its benefits."

"Alright, alright!" Juvia shouted. "We get the idea! Let go already!"

Luvia huffed in satisfaction as she let go, before looking at her twin and her cousin up and down. "So…Yggdmillennia uniforms…" she began. "…did you both join up or something?"

"No, we just got honorary ranks in recognition of fighting alongside Yggdmillennia against Ainsworth." Juvia said with a wave of a hand. "The uniforms came with them."

"They're pretty neat, though." Sakura said with a smile while striking a pose. "In all honesty, I could get used to this."

"I'm sure you could." Luvia said with a laugh before gesturing for them to follow. "Come on, I'll give you a ride. Will you be joining us, Lord Yggdmillennia?"

"No, I have some more things to discuss with Gordes here." Celenike said with a shake of her head. "I'll just join you at the Clock Tower later."

"Of course." Luvia said.

"It was honor to fight by your side," Sakura said with a formal Japanese bow. "And I thank you for your hospitality while in your care, Lord Yggdmillennia."

"As do I." Juvia said, albeit with a curt cavalry-style bow instead. "It will be an honor to fight alongside you in the future, Lord Yggdmillennia."

"No, it is I who is honored to have fought by your side." Celenike said with a bow of her own, cavalry-style, like Juvia. "Until we meet again, my friends. Live, and grow strong."

Sakura snorted and laughed. "So," she began. "In about an hour or so."

Celenike's lip curled. "About that much, yes." She said, the kill-team sharing a laugh before parting ways.

"…and it is the judgment of this board that Kill-Team Yggdmillennia has performed as expected of their mandate…"

Sakura tuned out the droning of the College of Law's pencil-pusher as the oversight board finished reviewing their actions over the past several days. It had taken hours, the review that is, the debrief constantly getting interrupted as the pencil-pushers pried at each and every detail while also questioning whether or not alternative courses of action could have resulted in better outcomes.

Thankfully, they'd been given an hour-long break after the debrief had finished, while the board deliberated.

Sakura blinked, and forcing a smile on her face, shook hands with the board members one by one after they adjourned. Once that was done, the smile dropped, and she let out a deep breath. "I'm so tired." She complained.

"Yeah, me too." Juvia agreed. "I think…no…I will disappear for at least the next four hours, just to soak in some steam at the nearest sauna."

"Thank you, but no." Sakura said with another sigh. "I have family business to attend to."

"We are family." Waver said while walking up with his wife.

"…does…being the husband of my second cousin make you family…?" Sakura asked, looking and sounding genuinely confused.

"Be nice, Sakura." Luvia said while patting Waver on an arm.

"Yes, Lord Edelfelt." Sakura said with another sigh. "Fine then…my sister's condition has worsened, no thanks to that…Demi-Servant, abomination that Ainsworth unleashed in Chelyabinsk. I have calculations to make, rituals to prepare, and various materials to acquire."

"Such as…?" Luvia asked. "We can help, you know."

Sakura didn't reply at once, instead looking at Luvia in a measuring fashion from the corner of her eyes. Luvia met her eyes evenly, and after several moments, Sakura gave in.

"Ice." She said, causing everyone present to blink in surprise.

"Come again?" Luvia asked, even as Sakura erected a bounded field around them.

"I need ice." Sakura said. "The older the better. Greenland ice should suffice, but only the oldest ones, around a hundred thousand years old. Antarctic ice would be even better, especially – again – the oldest ones, around a million years old last I looked up the records."

"Trying to get as much conceptual weight for your sister's anchor, I see." Waver observed.

"I am." Sakura admitted. "Everything else, though, I already have. Well, not all of it. I need a ritual space in Spiritual Invocation, plus time to put in the necessary effort. That, and specialist equipment from Mineralogy."

"What kind?" Juvia asked.

"…I'll let you know once I finish my calculations." Sakura replied before stepping forward and placing a hand on Luvia's arm. "I…don't disappoint me, please."

Luvia raised an eyebrow, before her expression turned offended. "I'm not like your parents, Sakura." She said.

"I certainly hope not." Sakura said unrepentantly. "But considering how my closest family turned out in the end – my sister not included – you can't blame me for being just a bit paranoid."

Luvia muttered a few choice curses in Finnish about Tokiomi and Aoi's incompetence not just at parenthood but at simple Human decency. "I understand." She eventually said. "But like I said, I'm not like your parents. I won't betray your trust in me on this matter. That's not how family is supposed to treat each other, for all that your parents thought otherwise. You're my cousin, and you've certainly proven that despite appearances you truly value your family and deserve a place with us. And you do. No matter your name, your appearance, you're one of us. An Edelfelt of Lapland."

"…the most elegant hyenas in the world, huh?" Sakura murmured before giving a sad smile. "Sorry, Luvia, but I'm not especially elegant."

"And I don't blame you for it." Luvia said, gripping Sakura's hand and giving it a heartfelt squeeze.

Sakura nodded, then looking once at Juvia, then at Waver, she nodded again. "Alright then." She said. "I'll put together everything I need. And thank you…in advance. When this is all over…then…well, we'll see. But I'll be sure to repay my debt."

"You won't owe me anything."

"Yes, I would: gratitude…loyalty, even."

"Then I'll be sure to prove myself worthy of it."

Sakura smiled, and Luvia smiled back.

A/N

Well…I guess this is the end. Just the epilogue left to go.

Ada Wong makes an appearance, because it'd be disappointing if she didn't. Ada being the hyper-competent spy/secret agent that she is, even if Darius had on paper overwhelming force, still managed to trap and neutralize him. Is it for good? Who knows?

I might come back to him in the future, to say nothing of Ada's – or this version of her – employer. Or for that matter, what they plan to do with Sigurd and Brynhild's embryos.

Elsewhere, of course, Angelica gets back up like the cockroach that she is, only to be put down for good by Lorelei Barthomeloi. Though, like I mentioned in a past chapter, whatever that thing Lorelei put down is almost certainly no longer Angelica. Not really. It might still have few strands of her DNA, but it's virtually something else, a genetic cryptid born of the G-Virus.

And finally, Sakura begins working on turning (Little) Rin into a guardian spirit, with a key material needed for her plans being ice. No, I didn't make those numbers up. Ice from Antarctic glaciers can easily go back a million years, you just need to look. That, and dig really deep.