Just going to say it to everyone, there are some changes to the timelines to allow for the unification of both Fate Grand Order and Fate Stay Night into a single timeline. What changes those are will eventually be revealed. If I revealed every plot point and twist early on, who would read the later chapters?

To all those wondering about Roch and his place in the Grail War, RAFO (Read And Find Out)! It will come out in later chapters.

And we finally rejoin the plotline. YAY!

Also, thanks to star, who in his review pointed out that I had spelled Fujimaru as Fujimura last chapter. That has now been fixed.

Check List Item 5: Eat Your Food without Disturbance

Chaldea, Antarctica

The holographic screen spun as the focus oriented upon a young woman with pink hair, a large shield, and purplish-black skin-tight armor that flared out into a metal mini-skirt below a vertical opening on her stomach.

Well, at least someone thought to wear armor. Shirou drolly thought as he put down his tools to move closer to the screen. Even if she left herself open to gut-wounds, at least someone is taking defense into account. It was rather surprising how many people, Dead Apostles who lived in the Middle Ages, magi, and everyone else forgot that armor protects the body from blows. Even plain armor meant that Shirou had to use to either use a Noble Phantasm to punch through the armor or target an unprotected part. Of course, with the weight and speed of the swords that he shoots, it was a moot point- but it was the principle of the matter.

The young woman, named Mash, smartly responded to Roman's inquiry in the form of a report. "This is Mash Kyrielight, a member of A Team. At this time, I've completed the shift to Singularity F. My sole companion is Ritsuka Fujimaru. Mind and body both intact. Rayshift compatibility, Master compatibility both satisfactory. Please register Ritsuka Fujimaru as an official researcher."

Shirou saw in the background afar off from any of the flames licking the buildings, a young Japanese man. Another Japanese man huh? Japanese, or any Oriental for that matter, was rare in the Chaldeas. Shirou had been one of three before the bomb. Now Ritsuka joined the small group of Asians here. Except one had been killed in the explosion and the other was a Master rendered mortally wounded from the explosion, so the group had shrunk instead of grown.

Dr. Roman sighed in relief. "So Ritsuka also got dragged into the Rayshift, huh? I'm impressed you didn't "lose your existence"" I'm really glad. Also, Mash… Of course, I'm glad that you're safe, too… But what's up with that outfit? It's shameless! I didn't raise you to dress like that!"

Shirou glanced aside at Dr. Roman. He didn't look old enough to have a daughter. Maybe Mash was the product of a teenage indiscretion?

Mash protested Roman's scolding with a blush on her face. "I transformed into this! I couldn't protect Senpai wearing Chaldea's uniform." She seemed to relax in both body and speech from the highly tense state she was in at the beginning of the conversation.

Really? Shirou could see armor helping to protect but he has fought in an apron before. The revenge seekers had interrupted his dinner preparations. Ruined his cheesy cod fish dinner too. He had been looking forward to it… Although why they thought that using magecraft to throw the fish, cutting board, and knife at him was a good opening move, he had no clue.

Dr. Roman frowned in confusion. "What do you mean by transformed, Mash? Did you hit your head? Or was it that…"

"Dr. Roman please be quiet!" Mash yelled, interrupting the Doctor. Calming down after a glance aside to her Master, she continued, "Please check my condition. I think you'll understand the situation better."

Dr. Roman glanced aside to the other holographic screen as his fingers manipulated the keyboard beneath his fingers. "Your physical condition? Who-Whoa, whoa, whoa, WHOA!" he exclaimed "Physical strength, Magical Circuits, everything's improved! You're not so much a human, but -"

"Yes, I'm a Servant."

Shirou started. He had met Mash before and she was not a Servant. Well, she could be an Assassin class Servant, they were supposed to have Presence Concealment. If she had Presence Concealment, then she would have slipped by his nose. She was wearing armor, true, but he had met weirder Servants like the samurai-like Assassin at Ryuudou temple or Rin's Archer who preferred melee.

In that case, Shirou gave a level stare at the image of the girl in armor and the Japanese Master, in that case, she might have been the person who placed the bombs. It would explain how she was still alive and why her Master was the only Master who they could contact. In which case, this sabotage was possibly a plot to get rid of a rival, hidden among the casualty list. Or to get rid of a superior in hopes of getting a promotion.

He really didn't need the additional complications in trying to figure out who had planted the bomb and if they were going to attack again while trying to restore Chaldeas before humanity was destroyed.

On the screen, Mash continued her version of events. "I don't' remember how it happened, but it seems I have survived by fusing with a Servant." She furtively, for less than a split second, glanced aside to the Japanese man next to her before rushing on, "To investigate and resolve Singularity F, a Servant was provided in advance at Chaldea. This Servant lost its Master in that explosion and was doomed to vanish. But at the last second, he offered me a contract. In return for the abilities and Noble Phantasm of a Heroic Spirit, he wanted me to eliminate the cause of this Singularity."

Was that even possible? Wait, hadn't he read an article about that about 8 years ago? Something hypothetical about a hybrid Servant-human mix… It was written by a Lord of the Clock Tower but that was all he could remember. It wasn't able to help him reach Saber.

However what Mash said had the flavor of a secret. Maybe a lie, maybe not. Maybe something not said. His experience working with Rin at the Clock Tower had done him some good in politics. At least enough to recognize when there was something going on behind the scenes. Still didn't stop Rin from kidnapping him whenever he talked too long with someone of high rank. It wasn't like he was going to stab a high-ranking magus until he had to save someone. Just because he did so once didn't mean he was going to do so again just by talking with them.

Dr. Roman mused almost to himself. "A Heroic Spirit and a human fused… A Demi-Servant? That's Chaldea's sixth experiment. I see. So it finally succeeded, huh? Does this Heroic Spirit still have his consciousness?"

Mash glanced down almost like she was ashamed. "...No, he gave me his combat abilities then vanished. He never revealed his True Name even at the end. So I don't even know whose Heroic Spirit I am… …Nor what kind of Noble Phantasm I'm holding." She shifted the shield. "At this point there's too much I don't know."

Nor do I know. Shirou thought. The shield was separated from him by time and space not to mention that it was a defensive weapon. He couldn't get a good read off of it from here. If he was able to cast Structural Analysis on it then he might be able to copy it to his Reality Marble but considering that he was separated from it by a decade, half the world, and a completely different state of matter, it was a little too far.

That being said, he almost emphasized with the girl. He hadn't been told who Saber was for quite a long time into the war. It was only when she unleashed Excalibur on Rider that he realized who Saber really was.

"Hey, look at the bright side," Roman consoled Mash. "Not every Servant who gets summoned is cooperative. Now that you're a Servant, this is in our favor. After all, you're completely trustworthy. Ritsuka, it looks like you're the only one who Rayshifted there safely. Also, I am sorry. Forcing you into this without any explanation. I'm sure you're full of questions but try not to worry. You've already got a powerful weapon. Humanity's most powerful weapon - Mash."

Shirou's eyes narrowed at insinuation that a Servant was a weapon. They were people. He refused to accept that Servants were only familiars. They were as much a person as anyone else despite having superior capabilities to mankind.

"I don't know about 'most powerful.'" Mash grumbled. "I'm the one who gets blamed later."

"Now, now, as long as Ritsuka understands that's what a Servant is, it'll be fine." Roman cheerfully brushed past Mash, ignoring Mash's displeasure at his dismissal of her complaint even as the screen flickered for a split second. "But Ritsuka, while Servants can be reliable allies, they also have a weakness. They disappear without their magical energy source. Their Master. I'm still analyzing the data," Roman waved towards the other screen filling up with data. "but it's indicating that Mash has become your Servant. Meaning that you're Mash's Master. She's the first Heroic Spirit you've entered a contract with."

Ritsuka blinked in surprise and bemusement before catching some of the meaning of what had just flown by him. "Mash's master? Wait! What do you mean Master? I don't understand how or what-" he cut off as he saw the red symbols on the back of his hand. The screen flickered again.

Shirou wondered if this was how Saber felt when she first contracted with him all those years ago. Ritsuka was looking at his Command Seals in confusion much like Shirou had in that shed when he became a Master in the Fifth Holy Grail War.

Shirou moved Ritsuka down the list of potential candidates for the enemy that bombed Chaldea. Ritsuka obviously knew nothing about Masters and Servants. So he was either a hypnotized victim, a low-level peon without complete information, or a very good actor. But right now, he seemed to know nothing about Fuyuki's Grail War. So he was another innocent caught up in this hostage situation.

Roman sought to assuage Ritsuka's confusion. "Right, I don't blame you for being confused. I never explained what Masters and Servants are to you, anyway. Now's a good time, I'll explain it to you in detail. The current mission has two new goals…"

Mash once again interrupted Dr. Roman. "Doctor, you're breaking up. 10 seconds until the connection is lost."

Dr. Roman's eyes scrolled across the monitors as he started typing rapidly. "Huh, so SHEBA's output is unstable because we switched to the backup generators?" He shrugged even as his hands continued flying over the keyboard. "Oh well, I'll brief you later. Both of you, I'm getting a strong leyline reading about 2 km from where you are. Try to get there somehow. That way, it will stabilize our connection. Listen, don't do anything reckless, will you? I'll try to bring the power back up as soon as we get the gener-"

The hologram cut out, the image into the burning Fuyuki vanishing. The small bird's-eye-view map of Fuyuki had a network of glowing blue lines that matched what he remembered of Tohsaka's map of the leylines of magical energy that were inside the borders of Fuyuki. A big blue dot showed the location of the 48th Master and there were brighter blue dots where leyline intersected.

Roman sighed before swiveling in his chair to face Shirou, who was standing next to the acting Director. "Sorry Shirou, I knew I asked you to help guide them, but until they get a Leyline Terminal set up, can you wait? I need to look over this data first to make sure there is no detrimental effects on Mash – oh and Ritsuka too - but until then, take a break and have some lunch. Tom has the paging system up and running now so if you finish lunch early, can you work on the generators until they call us back? I think Nadja and Boris is working on the nuclear reactor right now."

As Shirou walked from the cafeteria counter, right now only manned by two of the cafeteria ladies since the third had been assigned to help in the repairs, he observed the other employees.

There was the gardener and fish farmer sitting over at that table in the corner. While neither were magi, they were here keeping a steady supply of fresh food since both Directors had wanted Chaldea to be self-sufficient in case of emergencies. It didn't hurt that fresh food picked on the day it ripened was better than imported food.

Shirou nearly snorted. Englishmen. Their country didn't have many good native foods, which explained Saber's like for his cooking. He found that the average traditional English dish was rather bland for his taste but that foreign restaurants were rather common. But you could still expect the Lords of the Clock Tower to be food snobs.

Well he wasn't complaining. Eating good food was its own treat and one day he would be able to make some for Saber when he joined her. But for now, he had lunch.

Today's lunch was fish and chips with a nice garnished salad and tartar sauce. The English did like their fish and chips. At least he could look forward to the curry tonight. He was still trying to determine what were all the spices they used for it.

He could have used structural grasp but that would be like cheating. He wanted to be a good chef not a chef that cheated. Your food wasn't worth it if you used magecraft to force it to be good rather than your own skill.

Besides, while his prana reserves and efficiency had grown since the end of the Grail War, he still was only above average in terms of power output. Skimping and saving his power for emergencies was merely common sense. Especially when he had no guarantee that the saboteur would not strike again.

Shirou was still on a doctor's orders diet of light meals and drink liquids slowly. Wasn't the first time he had been on a diet as ordered by a doctor, especially after he started his adventures. The first couple of tries he had made at crafting Elf-shot had laid him up with the elven curses running throughout his body.

But he had persevered. It helped that elf-shot was a mixture of enchanting onto a weapon and casting a spell simultaneously. Which was something that was alien to any human magus but Shirou had his Reality Marble. It took care of the crafting while he focused on making his magic circuits put out a good imitation of the Fae mystery.

The result of his studies really didn't reflect in the mysteries he had though. He hadn't learned many new spells over the decade since the Holy Grail War. But he did get something else out of it.

His Reality Marble's weapons that had been made by the Fae were cheaper to project. As he had gained in knowledge of how the Fae, their minds, and their magic worked, the cost of replicating their crafted weapons decreased. His most recent estimate was that he now wasted 8.5% less Prana than when he had first projected Caliburn.

As Shirou sat down at the table next to Aidan Farmer, Chaldea's farmer, and Caleb Fisher, Chaldea's water manager and fish farmer, he noticed the glances that the other employees shot at him. Something was going on. Even Aidan and Caleb were shifting uneasily around him.

Well, first things first, he needed to have lunch. He was still healing from the explosion in the central powerplant.

Saying a brief, "Thanks for the food." in his native Japanese. Shirou grabbed a fried fish and popped it in. Not bad. Above their usual quality for fish and chips.

"So, how is your day going?" Shirou started off. No need to not be friendly.

"Fine." Caleb grunted. He wasn't a talkative fellow.

Aidan snorted. "We had to investigate for sabotage in every part of the farms and waterways. What do you think?"

"Ah," Shirou nodded. "Judging by the fact you are eating, I would presume that nothing was poisoned?"

Caleb gave him a look. It was a very expressive look. In fact, Shirou had seen him carry on entire conversations just giving certain looks. It wasn't the award winner for most awkward conversation but it was the runner-up.

Except for Aidan. Aidan was fluent in understanding Caleb. Just a guess, but it might have been from them both being non-magi but having worked in Chaldea's base for over 20 years now. Add to the fact that for efficiency's sake, the rice was grown in the same place as some of the fish were raised and you had the two running into each other all the time.

"Well the pipes beneath the control room and to the central powerplant are rather high in mineral levels but not a health risk." Aidan chattered on. "Of course, if you had planted the bombs you would know that."

Shirou in the middle of eating a French fry, sputtered and coughed. The coughing fit continued for a bit.

"You see," Aidan said to Caleb. "He didn't place the bombs, regardless of his dad being some serial killer."

Caleb gave Aidan a look.

"Well, yes he could be pretending or shocked that we figured out it was him but does that sound like him?"

Caleb contorted his face a little.

"If he was that good of a hit man, he wouldn't be here now would he? He would have left with his pay."

Shirou finished coughing. "What?"

He hadn't planted any bombs. Why would he-

Oh.

The Magus Killer.

His dad's reputation. The man who could kill even a magus that knew he was coming for them. Unstoppable, mysterious, unbeatable, guaranteed success, and your life is forfeit. Having his name be associated with Shirou's hadn't done any favors in becoming a hero.

Come on Dad, I know that you wanted to save more lives than you took but did you have to become the magus' bogeyman to do it?

"I knew that you don't believe it Caleb but asking hypothetical questions like that won't help us get in contact with the outside any sooner," Aidan continued his conversation.

Caleb actually grunted at that.

Shirou was surprised. Caleb rarely grunts. He would say the bare minimum to be polite and use brief noises as his emphasizers in conversations with people he was comfortable with. The last time he grunted, it was because his niece had surprisingly given birth to triplets. Cute kids too, judging by their baby pictures but their mother was more of a waif than a big woman that you would expect to be capable of giving birth to triplets.

"Well they're magi, Caleb. Unlike Shirou here they don't think like we do."

Another face.

"Well, Shirou at least can understand how we think, even if he believes in some of those crazy tales and thinks he can somehow join them. But that's not worse than our old neighbor, eh?"

A stare now.

Shirou wished that he could understand Caleb. Years of interacting with him and Aidan but he still needed a word or something to read Caleb's facial expressions.

But there was a sound of footsteps rushing towards them. It was faster than a person carrying a tray of food would go and no one else sat at their table. Shirou tensed up.

"You!" a female voice roared out.

Shirou didn't jump but he was wary now. Nothing good came of people roaring your name like that. Although, Taiga's yell was more of an indication that she was about to eat all your food again.

Shirou turned around to see Lyudmilla Bjolidarovna Baran, a black haired, slender average South-Eastern European. Her naturally olive skin color ignored the fact that most of Chaldea's researchers hadn't seen daylight in years. However, her dark brown eyes were fired up and more vibrant than he had seen her act before. Not to mention her anger seemed to be in control of this normally loud and active young woman.

"Why are you doing this? Why are you killing us!" She yelled.

Shirou blinked. What was she talking about? "Huh?"

"You're the Magus Killer's son! The successor to the Emiya name!" She yelled, her voice ringing through the cafeteria. "You are the one who killed Gilliah! You're the one who planted bombs and killed everyone!"

Shirou shook his head. "No! I didn't plant any bombs."

"Liar!" She yelled, face darkening with rage. "The Magus Killer specialized in using explosives. This has all the hallmarks of being his work!"

Shirou paused. Everyone in the cafeteria, as empty as it was with only a dozen people, was staring at him and Baran. Over half of the survivors of Chaldea were here. Judging by their expressions and the way they had been uneasy around him, they believed that he was the saboteur.

But they were wrong. Dad would never have attacked here unless it was to kill a traitor. He wanted to save humanity and attacking and interfering with the First Order would kill so many more than he could save. Dad would be more likely to kill whoever tried to hire him to attack here.

But they didn't know that. Dad was the magus bogeyman, the terrifying being who could bring death to any magus, regardless of ability, talent, or experiment. Magus walked with death but even they feared death when it struck seemingly at random.

What to do now? Shirou's mind raced. He couldn't persuade them that he isn't the one to plant the bombs because most of them already believed that he was the one to who planted the bombs. He would need to point them to the real culprit before they would believe his protestations of innocence. But he had no idea of who planted the bombs!

He could make himself into the scapegoat but that would be pointless. It would allow the real saboteur to move around freely, possibly create another tragedy, create a witch hunt environment, and impose needless restrictions upon him.

All he can do is continue declaring his innocence, preferably in the form of logic. Tohsaka made sure that he learned how to explain morality in terms of cost and benefit when he started working with Enforcers. Otherwise Shirou would have ended up fighting his co-workers as much as their target and the bystanders would die in the cross-fire.

"Dad sometimes used bombs, but if wanted to kill us, he would have targeted the life support systems! He wouldn't do something as clumsy as only destroying the generators and command center." Shirou raised his voice. He had to make it clear that he was innocent, otherwise

"Oh but you did more than that! You sabotaged all of the external communication systems! We can't contact anyone to ask for help!" What! But that would mean that the hostage situation was being addressed to the UN or Clock Tower, not Chaldea. Who is the target? This was just making less and less sense. "So fix it! Fix whatever you did right now!"

"I didn't do anything! I was down in the central powerplant when the bombs went off!" Shirou protested.

"And you were the only survivor!" She cried out, latching onto his defense. "Everyone else in the command center or powerplant died when the bombs went off! Even the Masters are closer to dead than alive!"

"Hold on, I was unconscious up until yesterday. I just got really lucky that the explosion didn't hurt anything vital." Shirou pointed out. He was losing the argument. Baran was more passionate and had better logic on her side. If this kept up, then all Chaldea would be paying attention to him and ignoring the real threat which could strike again and finish everyone off.

But his mind picked over what she had said. Communications were down? Despite there not being a bomb in the upper levels of Chaldea? There had to be a reason why the saboteur ceased all communications to and from Chaldea. They had been working fine up until the explosion. But with the bombs planted to target the leaders, why would they want to cut off communication? It would just make their position stronger to be able to show how much damage they could do to Chaldea.

Unless this wasn't a hostage situation? Was this an attempt by someone to wipe out the leadership of Chaldea in order to open up some positions for advancement?

Hostage or assassination. Hostage was bad because that meant that they were still in danger. Assassination meant that the threat was probably over but they had successfully shown that Chaldea, for all of its defenses, was vulnerable to attack. Not a good thing for an organization dedicated to the triumph of humans, when the world was full of entities hostile to humanity.

"Luck or planning?" Baran asked ominously, eyes narrowing. "If someone knew that the bombs were about to go off, then they could have defended themselves against it. And you didn't show up until after the basement powerplant was running."

"I was unconscious! I only recovered enough to get the only other person alive out of the room." Shirou defended himself. "If I had been in better condition, I would have saved more people."

"Saved? SAVED! We would have been just fine if you hadn't –" Baran yelled, voice raising as she continued.

"This is enough!"

Shirou turned towards the man who interrupted, a blond Englishman with dark circles under his eyes. He looked like he hadn't slept since the explosion went off. Shirou actually didn't know this guy. He was always busy tinkering with something down in the machinery area and never interacted with anyone else unless it was about his projects.

Shirou would have sighed. What is up with all these people who keep on pushing themselves beyond their limits? It was like Chaldea was overstaffed with the workaholics who never stopped to consider themselves.

"We need to fix Chaldea before we can get back to our work. You two arguing is just going to slow down the work." The man relentlessly argued his points, counting each point off on his fingers. "On the off chance that one of us actually did attack Chaldea, then they are trapped with us right now. If we do find a traitor, then we will have to guard that person, which means that reconstruction efforts will be slowed down even more. If reconstruction efforts take longer, then we can't return to our research projects. So shut up and finish lunch so you can get back to work!"

At that, the blond man stomped off towards the cafeteria doors, leaving behind silence as the entire cafeteria stared after him.

Baran shook herself and whirled on Shirou. "I won't let you walk around free, killing more people, Magus Killer! You better get ready to pay for all the lives you took!"

She stormed off towards the door, only to stop and walk back to her lunch, grabbing the tray and take it to the dish-washing counter before rushing off to the doors and leaving.

While all that went on, Caleb and Aidan finished their lunch.

"Well, good luck Shirou," Aidan patted Shirou on the back. "Hope you are innocent."

Aidan and Caleb took their lunch trays over to the dishwashing counter and handed it off to the dish-washing lady there before strolling off through the doors, heading back to work.

Shirou just took a quick scan over the cafeteria. Many people avoided meeting his eyes, including the kind old (Cafeteria lady). It looked like they thought that he was the saboteur or assassin.

Shirou sighed and ate another bit of fish.

The day just got worse. He hated days like these. They came by far too often.

Thanks to Eiskralle1 and shadyxlr for betaing this chapter.