The fire blazed around her, incerating and tearing at her flesh. There was nothing holy about it, no divine retribution. It wasn't punishment for her being a heretic, not the kind levied by God, anyways.

Just mortals using the name. Abusing it. And yet, God let them. One of His greatest saints...

Thrown away like loose garbage.

The flame ROARED. It screamed alongside her, raging and lashing out like her own blades, an extension of her hatred.

She fed it. It devoured.

Rouen burned, the hearth of her rebirth as an avenging, purging conflagration. Those who tried her, judged her, burned her, those who watched and did nothing, those who gave her useless tokens, they all burned.

The cross in her grip snapped, split in two.

She didn't hear their screams over her own, over the fire.

It still ate at her. She knew that the rags they had dressed her in had burned away, and at this point she couldn't have been anything more than a charred corpse. But she was still standing, burning, hating. This fire was her weapon, and the price it extolled was her armor.

The black, flaking, flesh morphed and hardened, rebuilding her and cocooning her in its protection. It molded into obsidian armor, clanging against itself and adding sparks to the flame each time it crashed into itself. She felt her skin return, her hair, her eyes. Her senses. She felt each step she took as it seared the ground, sending up smoke.

By the time she had fully come to, Rouen was gone, an ashen graveyard of bodies and foundations. The tower they had held her in stood, blackened. The fire had receded into her, but she still shed sparks with every step, venting a stream of flame from the cracks in the metal every few seconds.

One mission smoldered in her, as clear as a divine calling.

"God... you wouldn't do this. Bring back your saint to burn the world? Don't make me laugh." The blasphemy rolled off her tongue before she even had time to consider what she was saying. "You cruel, uncaring bastard."

"You're right," a male voice responded. A voice she recognized. "It wasn't God. Not quite, anyways- I don't believe this 'Holy Grail' is truly divine in nature, but it may be."

"... Gilles?" She turned towards him, the magma under her armor burning brighter to catch his silhouette. Tall, robed and hooded. Of course he would have to hide himself, coming to her execution.

"Yes, dear Jeanne." His smile widened.

'-SEVENHEROICSPIRITSFILLTHEHOLYGRA-'

"Hey, Jeanne?"

A gentle hand on her shoulder pulled Jeanne out of the storm of foreign information rioting in her brain. Her breathing steadied and she pushed herself up to see Ritsuka kneeled in front of her. The self-proclaimed goddess and another girl Jeanne hadn't been introduced to yet looked over his shoulders with varying degrees of worry.

"Y-yes?" Jeanne winced as her parched throat resisted her swallowing.

"Focus on my voice. We think you've gone through something called an incomplete summoning-"

"Summoning?" Jeanne asked as another bolt of pain shot through her head.

'Summoning: the act of pulling a Heroic Spirit from the Throne of Heroes and contracting with them as a familiar, primarily for a Holy Grail War.'

"What's happening to me?!" she lunged forward, grabbing Rituska by the collar, pleading. "I-I don't know what any of this means!"

It wasn't Ritsuka's voice that responded, nor the voices of the two women behind him. Another voice came from nothing. "Hiii, Jeanne! Before you start thinking you're going insane, I'm not another voice in your head! I'm the amazing Da Vinci-chan, but we can do introductions later!"

'Servant: Leonardo Da Vinci, invent- ERROR. INFORMATION NOT FOUND. INFORMATION NOT FOUND. INFORMATIONNOTFOUND-'

She could hear her own voice muttering, "Information not found…. Information not found…"

The peppy, disembodied voice came back. "First of all, you're doing amazing, sweetie- I know this must be hard for you, and we're here to help you through it! Your Saint Graph is damaged, and isn't fully assimilating the information the Grail usually provides. This is probably compounded by your Ruler class, which by its nature includes a lot more data."

"Rulers are… neutral, moderating entities…" She knew that. Information found.

"We can help… stabilize you, as it were." Another voice, male. "It won't make everything make sense, but it'll keep it from, erm, affecting you to this degree. If you're willing to enter a temporary contract with Ritsuka."

Unfamiliar alarm bells blared in her head, adding more chaos to her already fragmented mind. 'RULERS ARE NEUTRAL MODERATORS. CONTRACTS CREATE A CONFLICT OF INTEREST. REFUSE. REFUSE. REF-'

"I'll do it! Just tell me what to do!"

Jeanne felt a wave of relief wash over her as the red light faded. Something about her new connection to… Fujimaru was his name, right? She wasn't familiar with names like that. But as her mana, or whatever the projected people called it, stabilized, the tension in her body began to release unbidden.

"Welcome to the team, Jeanne," Fujimaru said with a smile.

Her head felt quiet for the first time since she woke up. The extra voice… she could tell it was still there, but silenced. Muted, maybe. She couldn't tell, but she finally felt like she could think.

So she took a deep breath, pushed her frazzled hair back (she would have to redo the braid), and asked the same question that had been on her mind since this started.

"What is happening?"

Fujimaru winced. "Well… we were hoping you could help us piece that together. We're pretty new to the area. You mentioned knowing the Holy Grail earlier- do you know anything about it, um, locally?"

Jeanne shook her head. She could still feel all of the foreign data in her mind, but without it screaming and fighting for control it was more easily parseable. "Vaguely? I've heard some of my fellow soldiers retelling stories of Lancelot-Grail, but haven't committed them to memory myself. I… the thing inside me, whatever it is, it's… it knows. And because of that, I know. But it is not my knowledge, I… this is so strange, this feeling. The Holy Grail that you're looking for is here, somewhere."

"We know that it's here," the blonde woman said, keeping watch over the creatures in the valley. "We wouldn't be here if we did not. Do you 'feel' anything helpful? Could you guide-?"

"Let's," Fujimaru interrupted, earning a glare from Ereshkigal, "change the question, actually. Ignore the stuff the Grail put in your head when it summoned you, I'm more interested in your experience, Jeanne. Could you tell me what you've been through so far?"

"It's a blur. I was captured, held alone in that tower for a week. I was… scared, angry. I tried to escape. I tried to escape. I broke my ankle trying to jump from the tower, but…" she moved her foot, smooth and painlessly.

She stopped for a long moment, deliberating over the memories she tried to push away as nightmares.

"I know I died. I know, but it feels more like a dream. I wish it was a dream. I was executed, I know I was, but then I woke up in a smoldering vineyard." She shuddered as she reached the point that felt real. "I awoke to… carnage and magic in my homeland, and felt like my brain was split in two yet still somehow missing pieces. I was terrified, confused, and lost. I saw things that I had never known before, yet knew them, and knowing them without knowing them scared me more.

"I also know that I am supposed to balance something that has gone awry." Jeanne stood, locking eyes with Ereshkigal. "I can guide you. It wants me to go south."

"Back the way we came, then," the Lancer muttered. "What a bother."

Standing up helped clear Jeanne's mind- now that she had a chance to come to terms with demons and starfish and dying, her battle experience kicked back into gear. It felt good, being in control of her own mind again. Her guidance didn't come from the Grail, not alone. It wasn't as alien or uncaring. His divine guidance… how she missed it.

"I want to help you drive back these hellspawn, Fujimaru. I can't stand back and let this happen."

Fujimaru nodded. "I promise you, we will stop this. You have our support."

Jeanne raised an eyebrow, more driven by the foreign knowledge than her own. "I appreciate it, Master. My banner is yours."

"Pleasantries aside," Lancer said, "the creatures below us are growing restless. It may be best to relocate."

Fujimaru clapped and grinned. "Quick introductions, then! Mash!"

Mash started, flustered, then quickly bowed to Jeanne. "My name is Mash Kyrielight of Chaldea, Shielder-class. It's a pleasure to be working with you."

"Lancer!"

"First you cut me off, then you have the audacity to address me so loosely? Fujimaru, you are pushing it…" she sighed and composed herself. "Greetings, Jeanne. I am the lancer-class servant, Ereshkigal, Mistress of the Underworld. I am a goddess, so know your- well, um, I guess we're both servants, even if you're a bit broken, so, I guess…"

She trailed off, muttering something like "I hate being rushed, I sound like an idiot." Jeanne pretended she didn't hear it clearly.

"It's a pleasure to fight alongside you."

And then it was down to business. "Enemy approaching. Your orders, Master?"

"Avoid fights where we can. Southbound. Doctor, can you mark the nearest southern settlement?"

"Already on it."

"Then let's get going!"

They managed to set up a camp in the forests near Jeanne's destroyed home. Two tents, one for Ritsuka and one for Mash, for now. Ereshkigal would take her tent later when they switched watches. She had told Ritsuka that there was no need to switch, that she didn't need to rest and could also keep her spirits on watch overnight, but he was insistent that she at least partially relax during the night. Something about constantly being on edge taking its toll.

She appreciated that as she sat by the fire, remembering the quiet nights in Babylon. The introduction of a new team member, a Ruler at that, someone so paradoxically weak that Ereshkigal couldn't help but worry about having to cover for on a battlefield.

Ereshkigal wasn't jealous that her Master contracted with another Servant, not at all. This was a contract of pity and necessity- they could not in good conscience leave this wretched half-Servant to struggle on her own. Ritsuka and Mash could not leave her, anyways. She believed she could but, well, what would be the point in that? Wasted life? No, of course she would help. She could leave her behind any time she wanted, after all.

Ishtar would tease her relentlessly about being a bleeding heart right about now.

Olga's spirit floated just above Ereshkigal's shoulder, taking in the scene while mumbling, "It's interesting. A Ruler-class Servant with seals usually indicates a Grail War gone awry, but… singularities aren't usually Grail Wars, per say. Not in the intended sense of the phrase. And an incomplete summoning on top of that? Is it because of the time period, then? Jeanne d'Arc... "

"Calling her a Servant is overstating her," Ereshkigal mentally chimed in. Jeanne still had the confused, fearful look she had before the contract, but she seemed to have calmed down a bit. "She's… like a fledgling spirit. Fresh."

"Well… yes. Jeanne died on May 30th, 1431. It's June 3rd of the same year. She's barely been dead for three days." She levitated down to sit next to Ereshkigal, turning the silence over as she seemed to consider her words. "I said that when she first introduced herself, remember? I- never mind."

"I may have been preoccupied with our new arrival, apologies." She hummed. "The length of death shouldn't matter to the Grail. It's asynchronous to the timeline."

"Unless this spirit was somehow caught before it got there."

Ereshkigal considered this. The blasphemy of keeping a soul trapped and broken… even a lost Grail wouldn't do that, right? Lev had already shown himself to be willing to trap Olga's soul outside of the afterlife for eternity, so this… this wouldn't be above them.

"Despicable."

Olga shook her head. "It's not a very good theory, I wouldn't waste the energy getting upset about something that's probably wrong." She leaned back, bracing herself with her arms even though her spirit body didn't require it. "I learned early in my career at the Clock Tower that necromancy and related fields weren't my best subject. Father made it clear I shouldn't be wasting my elective credits like that."

Olga's eyes drifted to the stars and lost just a little bit of focus. Ereshkigal let her wander for a moment.

"Hmp. Still." Ereshkigal let the fire crackle. She was aware of Jeanne's presence on the other side of the camp, leaned against a tree with her sword readily beside her. Servants didn't need sleep, but it was nice to 'turn off' for a little while. "Champion, what are 'elective credits'? I'm curious."

Olga's eyes refocused as she processed the question, then she smiled. "So, the great goddess wants to know about the educational bureaucracy? Well… The Clock Tower is sorted into schools of magic. Your crest usually decides your main school because that's… what your family is good at. I'm a practitioner of astromancy, as was my father. But some of the professors offer inter-departmental classes. Not many, and none deep or challenging enough to distract you from your main school, but you can learn the basics. I took a course on necromantical anatomy, for example."

"Interesting." Ereshkigal pondered. "So you were always an astromancer?"

"It's the magic I can do, yes."

"Do you like it?"

Olga stiffened. "I… don't know if it's about like or dislike. It's just the magic I have at my disposal."

Ereshkigal nodded. "I understand. May I ask that in a different way?"

The heiress hesitated, then nodded.

"Hypothetically, if you had a magic crest that was equally good at any subject, would you have still chosen astromancy?"

She shrunk in on herself as Ereshkigal spoke, pulling her knees to her chest. "I don't know."

The Lancer felt guilt settle into her stomach, realizing she had pushed too far. "What I mean to say is, we're alike in that regard- I mean, you're not divine, but gods and goddesses… we're assigned our domains at our creation. I do my job as goddess of the underworld well and with all my heart, and I'm very proud of that, but I would do anything for a week as the goddess of gardens."

Olga chuckled. "I would be what, the Champion of Gardens, then?"

"Certainly. It's a great honor."

She smiled. "Maybe. If you can manage to keep your plant back at Chaldea alive." She went as far as to laugh when Ereshkigal blustered at the challenge, but her weariness was obvious in her posture. "I think I'm going to retire for the night, Eresh. Thank you. You should go talk to Jeanne. Try to convince her you don't talk to yourself."

"I wouldn't worry about that, she's-" Ereshkigal looked over her shoulder and froze, locking eyes with a very-much-awake-and-slightly-concerned Jeanne, "-asleep. Shit."

"That language isn't befitting of a goddess, you know. But... I'll leave you to it."

Author's Note:

Uh. Hi. It's been... awhile. This chapter has been sitting as a mess of fragmented, unfinished scenes for over a year now. I, uh, graduated college. Got sick, got better. Got a job. The past bit has been... a lot. I almost just let this fade away, always thinking 'god with what time,' but every month or two I would come back to it, try to write more, and stay stuck and burnt out. So... sorry about that. I'm very actively moving my life back to a point where I can do things I enjoy, and this has been part of it. I'm very, very glad to have this chapter out.

It was a lot harder to address this story than the loose one shots I've been doing. Those were a night of inspiration, a day of editing, and boom it's out there. Afterlife was something I knew I needed to spend more on. More time, more heart, because this is my story. So I did- I spent a very long time on it. And now I'll spend an undetermined amount of time on the next chapter.

And, to emphasize how much these reviews mean to me, hermitfan- yours was the one that pushed this over the finish line. Kid you not. Reviews do a lot for me and I am so thankful. I would love to hear any thoughts on this chapter, and I hope to be with y'all again sometime soon.

Best,

Endy

PS: plugging my other one shots and loose fics, also the Circe chapters of Saga of Shirou's Summons. That's the kind of stuff I do when I'm not writing this.