So, having finally started watching the first half of Fate/Apocrypha, I finally feel confident enough to start a fic for it. I actually posted in the usual forums a number of challenges, hoping I'd do them myself one day...but when the time came, I found myself unable to do them as is, at least the way I wanted to. One particular story I wanted to do had a Harry/Eve pairing, and another had a Harry/Atalanta one, but the latter didn't work out as well as I wanted. However, salvation came from two sources.

The first was a challenge by DZ2, who posted the 'Prodigal Son' challenge, where James, Lily and the real Child Who Lived were in hiding, training the true Child Who Lived, and having abandoned Harry. This is actually in the background of this story, and as I find it hard to bash Lily, she's in a coma in this story.

The second was from Lupine Horror's Reinforced series of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha crossovers. What that is exactly...well, I shouldn't spoil it for those who are yet to have read them, but those who have will understand what I mean when you read this.

So yeah, I'm doing another WBWL fic, but it seemed to fit, it got my juices flowing, and, well, here it is. I hope you enjoy. And I intend to bring out more Fate/Apocrypha crossovers in the future, and, hopefully, ones with Fate/Grand Order and Fate/Extra...


DUM VIVIMUS, VIVAMUS

CHAPTER 1:

SUMMONING

Harry Black looked at the summoning circle he was about to use, and grunted softly in satisfaction. He was, admittedly, taking something of a risk doing this. It was, after all, outside the purview of his orders, and he knew Clock Tower was reluctant to send him to Romania. It was why he had been left out of the fifty-man squad sent there to try and assassinate Darnic Prestone Yggdmillennia (fuck that name(1)), because they thought he was likely to act outside of orders. Which was odd, considering Padfoot was going there. As it was, given Darnic's pompous missive sent to Clock Tower, Harry feared that those Enforcers would meet a sticky end. He hoped Padfoot wouldn't be amongst them. His true father.

As it was, he was sent to Switzerland instead, to intercept Yggdmillennia's agents from gaining a catalyst. They probably couldn't intercept them all, but preventing as many catalysts that could be used to summon Heroic Spirits and have them act as Servants from falling into Yggdmillennia's hands as possible was a good thing. Which was why he was now on the outskirts of Geneva, having succeeded in his mission.

Harry could see what this was, a form of shuffling sideways, to prevent him from taking his revenge. True, he could understand that from a clinical, detached point of view, but he needed to make sure that he was dead. The man who had screwed over his life. Who'd left him with a mark when Harry refused to bow down after learning the truth. Subconsciously, he touched the burn scars marring much of the right hand side of his face.

That was the day he learned who his friends truly were, when most of Hogwarts turned on him, and lauded the true saviour. Sheep. Even Ron had turned on him, albeit out of anger for the trap that was the Department of Mysteries, and even then, it wasn't out of malice but stupidity. By the time Ron realised the truth about the matter, Harry wanted nothing to do with him. Or Neville. Hermione, Luna, Remus and Sirius…they didn't turn on him. They didn't discard him like the trash everyone else made him feel like when it was revealed he wasn't the Boy Who Lived, not even a natural born child of James and Lily Potter…just a Homunculus clone of the real one, Charles Potter. A copy. An imitation. A fake. Used to distract Voldemort while Charles got trained.

And yet, in the aftermath, the public demanded to know why James and Charles (Lily being in a coma, and only found shortly after Voldemort was defeated for good: she was currently in Clock Tower) hadn't acted sooner. Dumbledore had died, and Snape, eager to poison the well, had aired every bit of dirty laundry he could about Dumbledore and James, even as he was sentenced to the Kiss. And the Potters disappeared…only to resurface recently in Romania, being the only wizards of note in the Magus clan known as Yggdmillennia.

Seven decades ago, Darnic Prestone Yggdmillennia had joined the Third Holy Grail War (of the ones held in Fuyuki, before the Grail War spread across the world) as a Master. He'd actually collaborated with the Nazis, particularly with their occult branch known as the Thule Society, to wipe out the other Masters and steal the Greater Grail, taking it to Romania after betraying the Nazis. There were rumours about that for decades, but it was only confirmed recently. Now, Darnic and his clan, which was now made up of rogue Magi (for the most part), had made a declaration of secession from Clock Tower, and with the Greater Grail behind them, they certainly had the power to back that up.

The original Holy Grail War was a tournament of sorts. Seven Magi would summon Heroic Spirits to act as familiars. These familiars, once heroes from myth or history, were known as Servants, and they would fight to the end, until only one Master and Servant was left standing, and they would then grasp the Holy Grail, an artifact created by the von Einzbern family of Germany. It had a number of functions once fully charged. It could grant a wish to the Master and Servant left at the end of the Grail War, or it could, theoretically, access the Root, Akasha, the noosphere that lay at the centre of all, where all knowledge and power resided.

However, if what he heard was true, this Grail War, due to a mechanism built into the Grail to prevent collusion between the seven Masters, would be different: two teams of seven Masters and their respective Servants would be pitted against each other. Clock Tower's representatives would be the Red Faction, and Yggdmillennia the Black Faction.

Instead of joining the Ministry of Magic, which was exclusively for wizards, Harry became one of the few wizards to join the Magus Association, popularly known as Clock Tower. He'd trained and risen to become an Enforcer. He'd sweated and bled and wept under the tutelage of the likes of the infamous Kiritsugu Emiya, and the acerbic Executor Kirei Kotomine, who had come to Clock Tower on liaison from the Church. Hermione had become an assistant to Waver Velvet, a winner of one of the auxiliary Grail Wars who became Lord El-Melloi II, while Luna was Zelretch's assistant…well, enabler and sounding board. And Moony had been sent to Japan to investigate an Yggdmillennia-affiliated Magus by the name of Hyouma Sagara. He wasn't an Enforcer, but he often did odd work for Clock Tower, and he had contacts in Japan.

Harry looked over the ritual circle, running through the ritual in his head. For the origin, silver and steel. For the cornerstone, gem and the Archduke of Contracts. For the ancestor, my great master Schweinorg. The colour I pay homage to is Red. The alighted wind becomes a wall. Close the gates in the four directions. From the crown, come forth. Trace the three-forked road leading to the kingdom. Fill, fill, fill, fill, fill. Repeat fivefold, and when each is filled, destroy it. He nodded, satisfied.

He then set up on an altar a notebook, which included blueprints for something rather extraordinary. Something most people thought the realm of fiction. But in truth, it was real. It was why he was in Geneva, for Yggdmillennia's agents were trying to steal the notes of Victor Frankenstein, a real life scientist who had dabbled in magecraft and alchemy, using, amongst other things, cadavers as the basis of a Homunculus cyborg, known to history and pop culture as Frankenstein's monster. He'd stopped them, with somewhat excessive force.

He had felt sympathy for the monster, long before he'd even learned he was a Homunculus. Now, he felt kinship with it even more now than he did before. They were both Homunculi, conceived in hubris, rejected by their fathers, struggling with their own identities. So it was apt that, even though it would most likely be summoned as a Berserker, he would summon it.

He knew his superiors in Clock Tower would chew him out. They knew this was him forcing them to send him to Romania. But frankly, he'd heard the list of some of the potential Masters they were considering sending over, if the assassination squad failed. They were thinking of sending Feend vor Sembren, for fuck's sake, and while he was a good Magus and academic, he'd be eaten alive. He had higher hopes for Kairi Sisigou and Jean Rum, and the Gum brothers, Cabik and Deimlet Pentel, too.

But he needed to be in Romania. He needed to take down James Potter, and Yggdmillennia. Nothing else mattered.

Deciding now was the time to cross the Rubicon, he walked over to the circle, and placed his hand out. Pumping mana into the circle, he began the incantation, modifying it to include a Berserker's creed. "Heed my words. My will creates your body, and your sword creates my destiny. If you heed the Grail's call, and obey my will and reason, then answer my summoning! I hereby swear that I shall be all the good in the world, that I shall defeat all evil in the world! Then let your eyes be clouded with the fog of turmoil and chaos, you who are trapped in a cage of madness, and I, the summoner, who holds your chains! Seventh Heaven clad, and the great words of power, come forth from the circle of bindings, Guardian of the Scales!"

There was a flare of crimson light, dazzling Harry temporarily, before it died down, revealing a figure crouched in the circle, smoke purling from the circle proper. He blinked, trying to see if the afterimage was interfering too much with his sight, or else he really had seen what he had seen. The figure stood, and peered at him curiously, its…no, her eyes partly hidden by a veil of red hair.

"Ungh?" she grunted, a question in the noise. Presumably she couldn't talk coherently due to the Mad Enhancement all Berserkers had, robbing them of their reason in exchange for power and tenacity.

Remembering the forms, he looked down at his hand, and noted the distinctive red scrawl of Command Seals. Holding them up for them to see, he said, "Hello…well, you weren't actually given a name, were you? I'll give you one later, I mean, other than Berserker or Frankenstein. I'm Harry Black, and I'm your Master. Pleased to meet you." He held out his hand to the Berserker, who looked down at it curiously. For a moment, he was worried that she wouldn't know what to do.

However, after a moment, she grunted in apparent satisfaction, a slight smile touching her lips, and she clasped his hand in her own, surprisingly gently. As she did so, he scrutinised his Servant. He was trying to reconcile the famous image of Frankenstein's monster with the young woman in front of her.

She could have been anywhere from her teens to her twenties, her skin pale and apparently flawless. She was dressed in something that could have been a wedding dress. Instead of the bolts the movie versions had, she had what looked like a collar, along with headphone-like apparatuses on her ears, and a unicorn-like horn of metal, a lightning rod, perhaps. Her face was cute, though mostly hidden by a messy mop of red hair. Barely visible from beneath her fringe were her eyes, mismatched, but not in a bad way: one was sapphire, the other golden. Her legs appeared to be metal prostheses. Oddly, she had the air almost of a dog, a curious hound trying to discern loyalty, as well as an element of shyness. Clutched in one of her hands was a massive mace, like a Tesla coil, complete with round metal ball.

"So…would you like a name? I mean, given that you've probably got as many daddy issues as I do, I don't think you'd like being called Fran or Frankenstein, right?"

The Berserker Servant shook her head vehemently with a grunt, before she ground out the very first word she had spoken to him. "Ber-ser-ker!"

"Look, that's what I'll call you when I need to. But…you deserve a name. I mean…I'm like you, a Homunculus. I was given a name, and a false lineage. My mother named me. She actually cared about me, by all accounts, even though I was a decoy. Not that I can know for sure, given what happened to her." This had Berserker's attention. Out loud, he mused, "Hmm…I think in the novel, your counterpart told your creator that he should have been his Adam. So…what about Eve?"

"…Eve…" Berserker rolled the name around on her tongue, before finally, she looked up at him. Once more, she gave him a slight smile, and nodded with a satisfied grunt.

"Right, so it's settled. Your name is Eve, not Frankenstein's monster," Harry said cheerfully. "A beautiful name for a beautiful girl." This made the newly-named Eve blush slightly beneath her fringe. "You know, it's a crying shame that you have Mad Enhancement on, Eve. If the novel was any indication, you were very intelligent. And I'd love to talk to you." He frowned when he remembered something Waver had told him, that, under certain circumstances, Mad Enhancement could be turned off temporarily, albeit at a reduction of a Berserker's stats. On an impulse, he reached out with his magic, and his finger, and poked her in the forehead. "Boop."

Eve recoiled, blinking beneath her fringe, before she said, "Hey, what was that for? Could you do me a solid and not…do…that…again?(2)" Her voice was a little rough and scratchy, and certainly soft, but other than that, it was the voice of an angel. And when she realised she was speaking normally, she blinked beneath her fringe in astonishment. "How did you…?"

"I've no idea. Just chalk it up to wizard magic being bullshit at times. How does it feel to be able to speak properly again?"

Eve gently touched her throat. Then, she began smiling. It was a small, tentative and sad thing, but it was a smile all the same. "Master, I love it."

"Hey, don't call me Master. We're not Master and Servant here. We're partners, Eve," Harry said. "Some Magi view Servants as just that, familiars to do their bidding, forgetting or choosing to ignore the fact that you were people once."

"…Even me?" Eve asked.

"Yes. Some people don't count Homunculi as, well, people. But…well, the line's pretty blurry. Now, we'd better get going. Someone may have spotted the flare when you were summoned, and I need to get back to London to report. So, Berserker of Red, Eve, I reckon this will be the start of a beautiful friendship…"


OPENING

SONG: I Want to Live by John and Korey Cooper of Skillet (opening to Fate/Apocrabridged)

As the opening chords begin, we travel through clouds, until we come to Trifas. As the rock chords start up, we go through the streets of Trifas, finding, walking along it, and lingering on each pair in turn, Kairi, Mordred, Remus, Jackie (dressed in normal clothes, as are the other Servants), Jeanne, the boy who, in canon, would be called Sieg, and finally, Harry and Eve. They then zoom out, showing the moonlit sky, with the title.

In a grave of roses, while the night is closing in,

My soul is so cold, but I want to live again.

We see Kairi and Mordred walking through a graveyard. In the polished obsidian of one of the newer, snazzier gravestones, we see, instead of Mordred and Kairi reflected, we see Arturia and a pensive Charles Potter reflected briefly. We then see Remus giving Jackie a piggy-back ride down a Romanian town's street, Jackie looking overjoyed, while Remus has a rueful smile on his face. As they pass by a shop window, we see Shirou Kotomine and Semiramis reflected briefly in their stead.

I know you'll come to me, I wait in misery,

I want to fight for this, save me from this darkness,

I reach for the light…

We see Harry looking into a mirror, seeing his younger self, so naïve…and behind him, the shadowy figure of James Potter, gripping his face, burning it, while behind James is the even shadowier figure of Heracles. A hand lands on Harry's shoulder, and he starts, only to find a concerned Eve looking at him. He turns to her, and they share a rueful smile. Then, we see Sieg reaching up towards a light…which vaguely looks like Avalon.

I want to live my life!

The choice is mine, I've made up my mind

Now I'm free to start again!

Eve and Mordred charge side by side at a couple of Servants of the Black Faction, with Mordred crossing swords with her father, warring emotions on both their faces, while Eve clashes with one of Avicebron's golems. Jackie rides on top of a car driven by Kairi and Remus as if it was the most metal pony in the world…and thankfully, she's not wearing the same outfit from canon. She leaps off it towards Astolfo, who blocks the attack with a comical look on his face.

The way I want to live, (To live)

And breathe (And breathe)

The way I want that's right for me…

Jeanne and the Homunculus canonically known as Sieg dodge Heracles' attacks, who himself is attacked by Atalanta and Achilles, only for them to have to dodge Vlad III's Kazikli Bey stake attacks, as Darnic and Vlad stand side by side.

I may not know nothing else,

But I know this, I want to live!

I know this, I want to live!

We see Mordred and Arturia supporting each other, badly injured, as they look up into the night sky. So too does James and Charles Potter, and Heracles. In the night sky are the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, and we zoom in on Eve and Harry alongside 'Sieg' and Jeanne confronting Shirou Kotomine and Semiramis, the former changing into his regalia as Ruler. As the song ends, Eve, Harry, Jeanne and 'Sieg' charge

CHAPTER 1 ANNOTATIONS:

So, there you have it, a WBWL fic mixed in with a Fate/Apocrypha crossover. The lyrics are for I Want to Live by Skillet, which I don't own, obviously. It's going to be one of many Fate/Apocrabridged references in this fic…

1. The constant complaint about the hard-to-pronounce Yggdmillennia name in Fate/Apocrabridged's first episode.

2. Now, Eve's turn of phrase may seem odd, but in the English dub, she's played by Sarah Anne Williams, who also played Tifa for Team Four Star's Final Fantasy VII Machinabridged. So, we're going to see the occasional reference to her character there, though Eve's going to be much sweeter than the Abridged Series version of Tifa…