Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or Fate Stay Night, any resemblance to any other Fairy Tail or Fate Stay Night fan fiction is coincidental and plagiarism is not intended. No flames please, constructive criticism only.
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Lucy was bored. A couple of hours had passed since she kicked Shirou down that hole and sealed it up before engaging Archer in battle. Well, it hadn't been much of a battle, not really a fight either. It consisted of Archer trying to dodge the guns she had summoned from the Gate of Babylon which neither Archer nor Shirou was capable of tracing. Without her reality marble, she was no match, the fight lasted half an hour and that was only because Lucy tried to drag it out for as long as possible. Eventually, she used some miscellaneous chains to restrain snarky faker.
The next hour and a half had consisted of Lucy tormenting Archer in increasingly creative ways. But now, finally the screaming had stopped and Archer was no longer moving. She was still alive, and certainly not dying but now she just wasn't reacting, so most likely the sheer pain and torment inflicted on her had finally sent her unconscious.
"You lasted an hour and a half, I really expected more from you, but I suppose it can't be helped." Lucy sighed before snapping her fingers causing the chains holding archer to vanish back into the Gate of Babylon in motes of golden dust causing Archer to be unceremoniously dropped to the ground in a heap. "Well, judging by the fact that the palace is no longer shaking I suspect that Erza's battle with her counterpart has finally concluded, so I suppose I'll just have to wander around and find something interesting to do."
With that Lucy put her hands behind her head and began to walk forward, idly kicking Archer into a wall as she went past. Eventually, her footsteps grew quieter as she turned a corner and vanished from sight.
Upon being sure she was gone, Archer let out a quiet groan which dissolved into weak coughs. She rolled over and cracked open her eyes to see Coco standing above her with a worried expression.
"Are you ok Archer?" She asked looking her over.
"I need you to take me to the infirmary," Archer told her through coughs.
Coco nodded and heaved Archer up, unfortunately, due to her short stature she couldn't lift her up completely and was forced to drape the taller girl over herself and walk.
"So what happened exactly?" Coco asked.
"She tortured me." Archer replied "She wasn't interested in killing or wounding me at all, she just inflicted pain. Apparently, she has a Noble Phantasm for inflicting pain without causing wounds, yet another toy of hers."
"So, what do we do now?"
"Now, I get some rest."
"But what about her?"
"There's nothing we can do about her at the moment. When I've recovered, I'll try and track down my counterpart, if I can fix my reality marble I might stand a chance of defeating her, especially as she doesn't seem like she'll make the same mistakes again."
"I hope Captain Knightwalker is ok," Coco said after a few moments of silence, as they began to approach the infirmary.
"So do I." Archer said, "Because if Saber beat her we're really In trouble."
"You sure do know a lot about them don't you?"
"I encountered them in the Holy Grail War in my previous life," Archer answered as Coco pushed open a door and laid down Archer upon one of the beds.
Almost immediately the medical personnel began fussing over the red-caped Archer, readying different tools and medicines. Coco then began to back out of the room.
"Coco." She stopped as Archer called her name and turned to look at her. "Keep your head down, this is only going to get worse." With that, a nurse drew the curtain blocking her from view.
Coco heard Archer curse at one of the nurses who harshly reprimanded her in return. Eventually, she left and decided to take Archer's advice, to find somewhere to hide until things calmed down.
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"Ow!" Wendy groaned upon awakening, pain throbbed through her body. "Where-The King!" She suddenly sat up only for pain to jolt intensely through her body causing her to flinch.
"Careful, the transition to this place has hurt you," Shirou warned her.
"Shirou, what is this place?" Wendy asked, but she received no answer as Shirou was just as confused as she.
Looking around she saw she was in a large cavern. Her attention was immediately drawn to her hand which was clutching something very hard.
"A gold coin?" Wendy turned over the coin, but she didn't recognise the markings on it. Looking she saw the whole floor was covered in mounds of these coins with the occasional jewel scattered about peeking out of the mounds of treasure.
"There's magic energy in the air." Shirou pointed out.
Wendy confirmed it, as she realised she could now feel her sky dragon slayer magic again.
"But why? We can't use our magic on Edolas like we can on Earthland, but here it feels kind of like home." Wendy said looking down at her hands which tingled with magic energy.
"The King called this place the Ark," Shirou said. "It's possible this place is some sort of Noble Phantasm that isolates the inside from the outside world somehow."
"Actually this place is closer to a Reality Marble, than a Noble Phantasm." A loud yet gentle voice whispered causing both Shirou and Wendy to jump.
They looked to the source and saw a girl sitting on a large stone altar in the middle of the cavern hugging her knees. She white hair and tanned skin with tribal-like lines of pale skin across her body. Black sharpened nails like claws on each of her hands and her eyes were crimson. The largest piece of clothing she wore was the bridal-like veil atop her head which went down to her waist, an extremely short miniskirt adorned her waist, with a black undergarment clearly visible.
But that wasn't the thing that stuck out about her the most. No, she was tall, very tall, about sixteen metres tall (52 feet) or so. Seeing her and feeling the power radiating from her was dizzying to Wendy, it was like nothing she had ever experienced before and so she blurted out the first question that came to mind.
"Are you a giant?" Wendy asked without thinking.
This earned her a harsh look from the woman causing her to flinch.
"No, I am not giant." She replied with annoyance. "I am a Titan."
"I'm sorry." Wendy bowed her head apologetically. "I wasn't thinking and the Dragon who raised me, Grandeeney told me about giants once, she had some friends who were giants and well…I'm sorry."
"It's fine." She seemed to relax before changing the subject. "Tell me, how is it you came to have two souls?"
"You can tell?"
"Indeed your spiritron readings are different from most humans, in your case, it is as though someone has simply tried mashing two souls together and stopped partway." The Titan stated, at Wendy and Shirou's blank faces she sighed and explained. "Spiritrons are quantum particles that form the substance of the soul, in your terms."
"Substance of the soul," Shirou mumbled putting an incorporeal hand to her chest.
The titan woman was strange, both Wendy and Shirou could tell how powerful she was. She was far beyond humans or even servants in terms of power. Yet she seemed gentle, not at all like a monster that deserved to be trapped in a place like this.
"Is there a way out of here?"
"No, if there was I would have used it and destroyed that man long ago." The Titan stated with anger in her voice.
"Oh, I see," Wendy said sadly before realising something. "I almost forgot, what's your name? I'm Wendy Marvell and this is Shirou."
"You may call me Altera." She introduced herself shyly.
"Ok, Altera. By that man do you mean the king?" Wendy asked.
"The king is dead," Altera replied shortly.
"Dead? But I don't understand."
"To be exact the King whose soul that body belonged too died, he died ten years ago, the same time we came here to Edolas," Altera explained. "The day we crashed down to this world."
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Meanwhile, down in the tunnels which ran below the royal city, Mystogan was leant against the wall having activated the last lacrima. He was resting and trying to catch his breath after explaining his plan to Gray.
"So, let me get this straight." Gray started. "At noon tomorrow, the king is gonna slam the lacrima containing our friends into Extallia, the home of the Exceeds, who are talking cats like Happy and Carla, right?"
"Yes."
"The explosion from that will awaken the Holy Grail which will suck up all the remaining power in Edolas and which will give it the power to grant any wish at all. Which the King is gonna use it for himself."
"Correct, perhaps before he might have used the wish to save Edolas's magic power, but since that night ten years ago he changed completely. Into someone, I couldn't even recognise as my father anymore."
"What happened ten years ago exactly?" Gray asked curiously.
"I wanna know that as well, it seems like all this crap started then," Gajeell stated nodding his head in agreement.
"I can't tell you exactly how this change happened. But I do know, that Ten years ago something fell from the sky at night. At first, people thought it was a meteor but my father took a contingent of soldiers and the Royal Architect with him. The Exceeds had gotten to the object first, so my father or the thing posing as him, slaughtered them all." Gray and Gajeel's eyes both widened in shock at this. "The official story was that the heat and magic energy of the object had incinerated them. So my father had the object store below the palace in a special containment room never to see the light of day again. Then, he executed all of the soldiers and workers who helped to transport the object, accusing them of treason."
"He killed his own people just to keep this thing a secret?" Gajeel asked with disgust.
"So what about that architect guy?" Gray inquired. "Why wasn't he killed?"
"He had a terminal illness that was killing him anyway, that coupled with the fact that the king needed him for more construction projects made him untouchable," Mystogan explained. "He built the room to contain it, as well as the Anima control chamber. Also, Erza Knightwalker has the disease as well, in exchange for keeping her alive through the best treatments, meaning that the king thought Knightwalker's father would never dare betray him."
"So if she has this disease why is she still alive?"
"Our treatments back then weren't very good. The better treatments were expensive and could only really keep someone alive. Around the time supplies of it ran low and there was only enough for either father or daughter, obviously, he chose his daughter. Eventually, Edolas developed better medicine that could stave off the worst of the disease. We also found out that the Exceeds had a cure for the disease for years but had always refused to share it with 'mere' humans. As you can imagine she's never taken kindly to that and has held a grudge ever since."
"So she's all for this destroy the Exceeds plan." Gray sighed shaking his head.
"Alright, but one thing's bothering me, where did this Holy Grail come from anyway?" Gajeel asked gruffly. "If Edolas could make something that powerful why wasn't it done before?"
"Because the knowledge came from whatever possessed my father," Mystogan replied leaning back and closing his eyes for a moment. "Apparently the object that came from the sky was two things, the larger of the two was stored below the palace, but the other was something wrapped it, the architect told me that it was like a snake but without a head or tail. The king took it and somehow forged it into the Holy Grail."
"So whatever is using your father's body is the one who had the knowledge to the make the Holy Grail in the first place," Gajeel observed.
Hold the phone, you said we need to activate this thing by noon tomorrow when the Holy Grail will start sucking up magic power. But you said it only happen when the lacrima with our friends smashes into Extalia!" Gray yelled.
"My apologies, I wasn't clear, what I mean is, that when the lacrima without friends gets close to Extalia the Grail will awaken. That is what we need, it will drain Edolas dry of magic power if left alone. We can stop the lacrima from colliding with Extalia, there needs to be no sacrifice. Only when the grail is active can we use this magic circle."
"Alright, but what does this thing do exactly you haven't really said other than it will expose the king." Gajeel pointed out.
"Well, the king has a magical connection to the Holy Grail, you see the soul can influence the appearance of the body, you know how reincarnates have some appearance changes when they awaken?"
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure Erza had different coloured eyes before," Gray said with realisation. "And some guys from the Rune Knights said Lahar's hair was different before."
"The King's situation is similar, you see this parasite's soul would have influenced the king's physical appearance as time went on."
"And he woulda been busted, so he used the Grail." Gajeel realised.
"Indeed, so there is a connection between him and the Holy Grail it's not quite a wish, more like a powerful spell sustained by the grail," Mystogan said opening his eyes back up. "You see activating this circle years ago would have meant the appearance changes were negligible enough to be passed off, and he would've just remade the spell to disguise himself. But now years later I imagine the appearance changes are big enough that it will expose him in front of everyone when its neutralised."
"And everyone will turn on him." Gray nodded.
"Now that the lacrima points are ready, the next thing we need to do is go to the palace," Mystogan informed them before handing Gray a bottle of X-balls. "Gray, I need you to find Natsu, he's like down in the dungeons, set him free and give him an X-ball. He'll do his thing from there."
"Yeah, that idiot will probably pick a fight the whole palace," Gray said putting the bottle away in his pocket.
"Those are important Fullbuster so make sure ya don't take off your pants." Gajeel taunted him with a grin.
"Ah shaddup metalhead."
"The most important step" Mystogan cut in with a serious tone of voice. "-Is to make sure that by noon, the King is in the centre of the magic circle."
"And where is the centre?" Gajeel asked.
"The throne room, to exact the throne itself. We need the king to be on that throne at that time or we'll miss our window of opportunity."
"Alright, so what about you two?" Gray asked looking at them.
"I'll be hiding out near the throne room and Gajeel will join you in fighting the rest of the military," Mystogan replied. "I know plenty of hiding spots so I'll be fine by myself but I won't be much use in a fight."
"Ok, let's get going, does one of these tunnels lead to the palace?" Gajeel asked as he picked up Mystogan and heaved him onto his back.
"Yes. This way." Mystogan pointed down a tunnel, both Gajeel and Gray followed his directions.
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Lucy strolled down a rather heavily guarded set of stairs which kept going down, leaving a trail of unconscious guards in her wake. Her clairvoyance had led her down here for some reason. It was a rather dreary place with only to occasional light and no decorations at all. The place built entirely for purpose.
Eventually, she reached the bottom of the stairs, there was an open doorway to her left which seemed to lead into a crude infirmary of sorts with only a single bed. But before her, was much more interesting. The whole wall seemed to be made of an entirely different material than the rest of the palace.
"Lacrima?" She wondered aloud as she observed the light grey material closer. "An anti-magic lacrima that has been used to construct an entire room? Now I'm really interested."
So she pushed the apparent door into the room open and stepped inside, the door closing itself behind her. What she found was a large chamber in the centre of which was a gigantic black octahedron with shades of orange on it.
On closer inspection, she saw someone attached to it. It was a girl. The meat doll that she and Kirei had abducted and used to activate the Grail. The one the faker and Saber had come to rescue before the boy projected Avalon and defeated them.
Lucy walked closer. The girl had a strange tattoo encircling her neck and a large number of orange circuits which extended from her back across the lower part of the face of the octahedron.
"Ah, pseudo second magic is it?" Lucy mumbled to herself. "So you don't belong in this world. That's fine, I do so love spoiling other peoples plans."
Lucy plucked the prototype of Rule Breaker from the Gate of Babylon and gave the girl a simple tap on the neck. The tattoo quickly faded away the glazed look in her eyes faded as she returned to consciousness. She promptly fell from her place and onto her knees, coughing.
"Without that tattoo to hold you here in this world, you'll be leaving," Lucy told her causing the girl to look up. Her hands began fading away into motes of blue dust. "Back home with you girl, you are no longer need you here."
Before she could say a word the girl was gone, leaving Lucy alone with the octahedron which suddenly began arcing with orange bolts of electricity. It seemed that remove the girl had done something. It was then that she noticed a person-sized section rippling, almost like a doorway.
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On a bright sunny morning. Illyasviel von Einzbern awoke with a start in her bedroom. Before she could do anything however she was tacked by the floating form of the Kaleidostick Ruby.
"Illya you're back!" the magical device squealed joyfully.
"Hey, you got back just in time." Chloe also known as Kuro her 'cousin' stated. "We were about to contact mom and dad. It's only been a few hours since that creep got into your room and grabbed you."
"A few hours? Illya parroted. "It felt like much longer to me."
"You do look rather pale," Ruby commented getting into Illya's face. "Whoever he was, he managed to escape into a parallel world. Sadly alone I didn't have the power to follow you. Rin, Luvia and Miyu were about to come up with a plan to find you."
"Well, now that you're back we can call off the hunt. You need to rest." Chloe told her before turning away and folding her arms behind her head. "So lie down, while I go spend some quality time with Shirou."
That last part caused Illya to snap to full attention and so she did the only thing she could. She pinched herself hard in the leg. This, in turn, caused Chloe to react caused by the blood seal that forced them to share physical sensations. She fell to the ground crying out in pain.
"Ow! What the hell was that for!" "You're not going anywhere near my brother!" He's my brother too!"
The pair growled at each other and began bickering all the while Ruby was chuckling.
"Ah, Illya at least your bro-con tendencies haven't changed." The mystic code chuckled while snapping a few pictures to tease Illya with later.
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Wendy and Shirou had lost track of time trapped in this cavern. They spent most of it talking with the titan who called herself Altera. She'd explained her story, about being deployed by the Umbral Star to invade and destroy the Moon Cell which was apparently an incredibly advanced supercomputer that was millions of years old and far more advanced than anything built by humans.
Apparently, the Ark had originally been resting within the cyberspace of the Moon Cell but the thing controlling the King had managed to drag it out of cyberspace somehow and dragged it here to Edolas. All she knew was the king shortly after had begun trying to use the Ark to reformat her. In other words, destroy her consciousness and any sense of self leaving only her body as an empty shell. What the king planned to do beyond that was a mystery. Though they had a few guesses.
Though at first Wendy and Shirou had been intimidated they found that Altera was actually a shy and kind person. She had no desire to harm anyone or destroy anything even though that had been her purpose. So, for now, they had mostly been answering her questions about things on the outside mostly on about the world itself. She had data but nothing beat hearing about the real thing from those had experienced such things.
"So the Ocean is a massive body of water that's filled with all sorts of fish, sharks, whales, dolphins and other stuff," Wendy explained from her seat on a pile of golden coins.
"I see," Altera said with a curious tone. "Did you ever swim in it?"
"I remember once I passed by a beach on a job for Cait Shelter." Wendy recalled fondly "Carla taught me how to swim. She's really smart, it always surprises me how much she knows. I hope she's ok."
"Did something happen to her?" Altera asked tilting her head.
"Well, she disappeared right when we broke into the palace," Wendy answered sadly. "We were ambushed and when the fighting broke out she was just gone."
"I'm sure she's fine, you did mention that she's an Exceed after all. I'm sure she's trying to make her way back to you." Altera reassured her with a gentle smile.
Wendy was about to talk when the whole cavern shook violently, causing the treasure to shake and move, some of it pelting Wendy forcing her to cover her face.
"W-what's going on?" Wendy cried before feeling herself being lifted off the ground.
Altera had picked her up, to protect her from the moving treasure. Just as suddenly as the shaking began it stopped, causing the cavern to fall silent as the gold and jewels all settled into place.
"The terminal, that he was using has been disconnected, the reformatting has stopped," Altera exclaimed happily.
"So you'll be alright then?" Wendy asked equally happy that her new friend seemed to be safe.
"Yes, at least until he finds a way to interact with the Arks advanced systems again," Altera confirmed with a nod before looking down at Wendy.
"This cavern is such dreary place." A familiar voice commented snidely preventing Wendy from saying anything. "While I like the treasure the cavern and its lack of natural light brings the whole place down. Really who would live in such a place?"
"Who is there?" Altera asked guardedly, moving Wendy closer to her chest protectively.
"Lucy," Wendy whispered recognising the voice.
The golden girl stepped into the cavern, treasure clinking beneath her feet as she did so. She fixed her gaze firmly on Wendy and Altera.
"So this is where you ended up, Wendy, the faker and the walking apocalypse Sephyr." Lucy's voice did not have the jubilant nonchalant tone that Wendy had grown used too. But what frightened her more was the deadly serious expression she had on her face, there was no trace of any real emotion and somehow that scared her more than she suspected Lucy's anger would.