"Okay, just what the hell is this?" For a few, long seconds, no one said a thing as we formed a loose circle around the mysterious object. Drake huffed finally, and gingerly nudged the plushy with the toe of her boot. After getting no kind of reaction, Drake planted her hands on her hips as she bent down slightly to take a closer look.

"Hm, it looks like a child's toy. An ugly one at it, too. Even I could saw something better while drunk," Drake said. I activated my own commlink.

"Doc, please tell me that we're not surrounding your little magic anomaly….are we?"

"Unfortunately, it is. That's the potential familiar, alright," Roman said rather hesitatingly. Even he, with all the environmental data that he was collecting and analyzing, seemed to be in a mild state of disbelief.

"It really does look like nothing more than a plush toy," Mash said. I grunted, narrowing my eyes. Something I had come to quickly learn during my short time working at Chaldea: don't think that anything is as it seems. Hell, for all we know, it could be working off of something like a Servant's Spiritual Mode, therefore disguising its true shape and signature.

Suddenly, I started to develop the uncomfortable feeling that the item we were surrounding was somehow looking at us. Or rather, at a few certain somebodies.

"…I feel a really creepy gaze right about now," Euryale said, frowning as Asterios bent down to allow for the small Archer to step back onto solid ground. Mash nodded, a bead of sweat starting to trickle down the side of her head.

"Me too," the pink-haired girl said.

"Same," Jeanne added, fidgeting in great and obvious discomfort. Drake quickly looked up with a grimace.

"You as well? So, I'm not the only one, then." The quartet of females remained silent at that for a few more seconds, and I swear that if someone had dropped a single blade of grass, one would have heard it hitting the ground.

Finally, the stare-off was ended when Asterios roared softly, picking up the plushy and shaking it around rather violently. The Greek Berserker was glaring at the item with narrowed eyes, as if it had grievously insulted him or something.

"Wah! What are you doing?!" The same voice that had led us to finding the plush could be heard. My eyes narrowed further as I realized that it had come from the plushy.

"Senpai, Senpai!" Mash said in disbelief to an equally-shellshocked Ritsuka. "The unknown object is talking."

"Talking plushies are rare, last I checked," my friend remarked blandly.

"Hmm, maybe we should dissect it then?" I said, half-jokingly. To my mild horror, I saw that Mash was actually taking a moment to contemplate the idea. She then gave me a nod.

"Dissect," she said, before looking back the unnamed object/person. "You're right, Jacob Senpai. That's a pretty good idea."

"No, it's not!" the thing shouted in a mixture of indignation and panic.

"Are you friend or foe?" Jeanne asked sternly, while Asterios finally stopped shaking the thing. Instead, the Greek Berserker was holding it by one of its 'legs'. I couldn't help but sigh under my breath. Once again, the defenders of humanity were involved in a slap-stick comedy of some sort.

"Huh? Hey, that's my line!" Asterios growled menacingly, and the thing somehow managed to gulp nervously. "I'm sorry. I think we can be friends. We have no intention of harming you."

"We?" I said. Before it could reply, I heard the sound of branches being broken underfoot, coming from up ahead. Instinctively, our Servants quickly summoned their weapons and assumed defensive positions around us. I held my breath as a white woman with pristine white hair stumbled into the clearing. All of my instincts were screaming that she was a Servant as I quickly made some observations of her.

The newcomer was tightly gripping a bow that was crackling with magical energy of an intensity that seemed to dwarf even Mordred's Noble Phantasm. She was dressed in some sort of white material that I originally thought was trimmed with some sort of archaic red fabric, before realizing that it was an untanned animal skin. Perhaps a stag or a bull? Her pale, blue eyes were blazing with anger as she shouted angrily, drawing her bowstring with a notched arrow already in place.

"Servant!" Mash called out, rather needlessly, as she jumped in front of Ritsuka, while Mordred and Jeanne did the same with me. Still dangling upside down from Asterios, the unknown thing somehow began waving its upper appendages frantically.

"Wait! They're not enemies!" The voice said, before it made a startled noise of some sort. "Pugyuru?!" It went as the female Servant (no doubt of the Archer class) launched her arrow. To my shock, the plushy was yanked out of Asterios's fist before being impaled against a tree with an arrow lodged in his neck.

I blinked, my alarm turning into abject confusion as my gaze shifted rapidly from the impaled familiar to the Servant in rapid succession. I was also starting to feel the urge to throw my arms up in the air and scream my frustration but managed to squash that possibility.

The (apparently crazy) Servant stomped past us, her gaze focused on the plushy. "Did you cheat on me again, darling?!" She said, her teeth tightly clenched. "Despite! Having! ME!?" Now within arm's reach of her companion (I think? Lover? Magically powered sex toy?!), she violently yanked it free of the arrow, tightly clenching the offending thing. "I'm at the limit of my patience! Come on, it's time to punish you! Again!"

"What? How am I the first one to get hit?" The Servant raised the thing threateningly over her head. "Wait! Wait! There's been a misunderstanding! I really was staring at their breasts and legs, but…I'm sorr—Pugyuru!" The cry was muffled as it was slammed face-first into the bark of the tree. She started to repeat the action several times, splinters of the tough bark starting to fly off to the sides from the force of the impacts.

"U-Um…" Mash said, looking quite uncomfortable, while Euryale, Jeanne, and Drake all watched the violence impassively, clearly unamused to have confirmation that the thing had, indeed, been perving on them. The unnamed Servant whirled around angrily, paused in mid-swing.

"What?" She snapped. "Don't interfere in a lover's spat! It is a civil matter! Civil court!" Not bothering to wait for an answer, the Servant resumed her case of domestic abuse.

Swallowing softly, an extremely nervous Mash looked over her shoulder at the rest of us. Her purple eyes were wide, and she made me think briefly of a confused puppy with that look.

"Master, what do we do now? This is the first time I feel at a loss." She paused, grimacing slightly before continuing. "Ah, no, when we met Black-whatever earlier, I felt like this too. One bad thing after another. In this era, everyone apparently has a few screws loose!"

"Since when did my life become some sort of a two-bit sitcom?" I groaned, and Rits patted my back sympathetically. Did I somehow manage to acquire Chulainn's E Rank luck in the past twenty-four hours or something?! I took a deep breath and counted to five before exhaling softly.

"What's your True Name?" I asked politely, channeling my inner Mash, so to speak. The Servant paused again, looking at us. This time, her anger seemed to morph into mild curiosity, and she peered at me.

"Wait, you're a human? Both of you?" She asked, gesturing at Ritsuka as well. "Are you both Masters?"

"Yes. I am Jacob Aronson, and this is Ritsuka Fujimaru."

"It's a pleasure to meet you," Ritsuka said, bowing slightly and somehow managing to not sound forced. Wriggling out of the now-distracted Servant's death grip, her apparent companion, name still unknown, waddled over to us clumsily. It looked up at us. After a momentary stare-off, the stuffed animal thing nodded.

"Jacob, and Ritsuka. Okay, thank the gods, it looks like we finally got to meet some respectable humans and Servants. Let's see…okay, first, this summon is for a Holy Grail War, right? Does that make us friend or foe? Is the busty girl with the shield single?" At that last question, several things happened in rapid succession. First, his (assuming it is a he at this rate both by the voice and unfortunate mannerisms displayed thus far) companion slammed a fist onto the top of his head, eliciting another weird-sounding yelp.

"Don't go causally mixing questions up like that!" She roared as Mash both blushed and let out a startled squeak. Rits actually snarled softly at the offending thing, catching me and the others off-guard. Inside though, when I had recovered, I was internally cheering slightly. Looks like that stone-head of his was finally being chipped away at.

Shaking my head and clearing my throat, I looked back at the odd couple before us.

"Sort of. We're here to repair the world by fixing this era," I said. "Mash, would you mind explaining?" Having recovered by now, and giving Rits a soft, gentle smile, the Demi-Servant nodded. Taking a half-step forward, she quickly began explaining everything we knew, though making sure to not go too in-depth with the more minor details.

When she had finished, the two newcomers nodded. The stuffed animal went first. "I see. Now I get what's going on, or at least, more or less. Call me Orion, by the way." Orion….Orion….why was that name feeling familiar to me?

"Huh," Orion's companion said softly, tapping her empty hand to her chin thoughtfully. "So, this world is really endless? Eternal?" She asked sweetly. Mash shrugged slightly.

"We don't know for sure, actually," she admitted. "Even if this era is, I believe it will still vanish if its outer framework is gone. And if that happens, we'll be defeated, and if that happens—"

"Human history will end, and we all die," I finished bluntly. The female Archer's shoulders slumped slightly, looking a bit forlorn at that tidbit of information.

"oh, poo…" She said with a disappointed sight. Orion crossed her arms, conveying an expression of disbelief, and dismay, perhaps.

"Oi!" He shouted, waving a stuffed club he had somehow managed to summon (because magic). "You were thinking that you wanted to live in this world forever and stuff, weren't you?" Orion demanded in an accusatory tone. His companion blushed slightly.

"Oh!" She exclaimed, giggling like a schoolgirl, with a pleased smile. "Guessing what's on my mind…It's like we're in love…how lovely~" Orion groaned, dragging an empty arm down his now-battered and dirtied face.

"If I have to live in an eternal world, I'd prefer to die in hell." The woman stomped one of her feet angrily, pouting as she bent down towards Orion, her free hand resting on her hip.

"Fucking Christ almighty…" Drake cursed under her breath, and I nodded towards her mutely. I wanted to run away from this train wreck of a duo, and yet, I wanted to stay, morbidly fascinated with this…scene.

"Ritsuka Senpai, Jacob Senpai," Mash said, and we looked at her. "Those two people…or is it one person and one thing? Anyways, there's something weird about their relationship," Mash said.

"That's one way of putting it," I added dryly as the two continued bickering. I waited for a moment for Mordred to laugh or add a snappy comment of her own, but it didn't happen, and I repressed another sigh. God damn it…

"What is it?" The unnamed Archer snapped, suddenly looking at Mash. Apparently, the white-haired Servant had overheard our comments. "No matter how any of you look at it, Darling and I are the best couple of the Servant world," she declared proudly. I blinked. How in the nine circles of hell could she actually believe in those words?! Orion hummed next to her, rubbing the side of his head with that toy club of his.

"From a third-party perspective, it must look strange for a woman to be talking to a plush toy..." Mash coughed awkwardly.

"I see," she said, one of her eyelids twitching slightly at the lie. "Each person has their own tastes. With that aside, could the two of you possibly help us?"

"Hmmm, what do you think, Darling?" The woman asked Orion. The thing stared up at her for a few long seconds, before throwing his stubby arms up into the air.

"You ask what I think, but with humanity about to be exterminated. We have no choice but to help, you big-breasted idiot!"

"I'm not an idiot! I'm a goddess!"

"Quiet, you useless goddess!" Orion roared backwards, leaping upwards and hugging himself to her shoulder with one arm, while the stuffed club he held was swung back and forth across her right cheek. The self-declared 'goddess' shrieked in dismay, trying to pry Orion off her.

"Ah, it's DV! This is what you call domestic violence, right?"

"I don't think that this counts as being such," Ritsuka said flatly, and I grunted, covering my face with my free hand. I can't believe that I was about to say this, but I was actually starting to wish that Blackbeard of all people was here instead of these two.

"This is too much," Euryale sighed, a look of repulsion on her face. Ah, right, seeing as how the gorgon was also a goddess, the display of another must not be the enjoyable sight for her. "Someone, please put a stop to this…"

Thankfully, that someone was Drake. Raising a clenched hand, the pink-haired pirate coughed loudly into it, putting an end to the vaudeville act we were being subjected to. Both Orion and the Archer looked at the pirate as she warily eyes the latter.

"By the way, Lady Goddess…what's your name?"

"What?" Asked the person in question, before exclaiming softly. "I'm Artemis."

"What?"

"What?!" Mash said, louder than Drake, and sounding more horrified and shocked.

"Fou?!" Her companion said from his perch on her shoulder.

"WHAT?!" Doctor Roman roared over the commlink. This was one of the twelve gods of Olympus? The all-important pantheon of deities of Classical Greece? The ferocious and cunning Goddess of the Hunt?! I looked at Euryale from the corner of my eye, curious to see the reaction of the other Greek Archer present.

The gorgon's jaw was hanging open, and she looked to be in a daze of some sort. I honestly couldn't blame her. A now-worried Asterios nudged her slightly from behind, finally rousing her. Other than shaking her head, though, Euryale kept silent.

"And Orion?" Mash finally asked. Artemis beamed, picking up the thing in question and squeezing him tightly between her breasts.

"This is my one and only love, Orion!" I finally realized why that name had sounded so familiar to me. The only mortal male that Artemis would hunt beside. "I knew that he was going to be summoned, and I got so worried that I couldn't help but come as his substitute!"

"I, I see," Roman said numbly. "By lowering her divinity, it allows for her to be summoned as a substitute Heroic Spirit. It's rare, but this isn't the first time such a thing has happened."

"Yeah, and because of her, I was turned into this," Orion said, gesturing at himself. "By the way, I'm infinitely close to useless. I can't live unless I totally depend on Artemis for, well, everything." The goddess in question smiled and giggled, sounding rather vapid and further ruining the image I had held of the Greek goddess.

"You can depend on me even more, Darling," she said in a rather flirtatious tone. Orion just groaned.

"I want to be independent," he whined. Before another round of bickering could begin, Mash, bless her heart, coughed loudly.

"Then let's fight together." I swear that something just shattered. I think it was some of my sanity.

…Mash, you're going to doom us all…

The two conveyed their consent to Mash's suggestion, and that was that. Mash, not realizing my internal dismay, continued speaking. "Now, we need dragon scales to fix our ship. Do either of you know where there's a nest of wyverns on this island?"

"A wyvern nest, huh?" Orion asked, humming as he scratched his 'chin'. "Well, you're just in luck, then! Follow us."

Almost an hour later, and we had moved further inland. The grass and forest gave way to dried and scorched earth and large rocks. The ground was littered with animal bones, and to my disgust, there seemed to be a fair, though smaller, number of human bones mixed in as well. At the opposite end of where we stood, there was a rather large cave.

"This place has all the signs of a dragon nest," Orion said quietly as he stood on Artemis's shoulder. We had gathered around a particularly large rock to both protect and hide us while we discussed our next move. "That cave is their nest, just so you know." Artemis gave off another airhead sounding titter.

"Darling, so smart!" She said in a sing-song voice. Mash nodded, maintaining her serious nature. Still, by this point, I had noticed that there were some cracks starting to form from Drake's actions. I owed her a drink later.

The Demi-Servant summoned her shield, and Mordred, Jeanne, and Artemis readied their own weapons. Drake cocked her pistols, an eager and adventurous look in her eyes. "Master, Jacob Senpai, stay here with Orion, Euryale, and Asterios."

"Okay, Mash."

"Stay together, watch out for each other, and good luck," I added, once more cursing my injury. Suddenly, a loud roar echoed from the cave and across the plain, and wyverns began to fly out of their nest in a flurry of green, red, and black scales.

"Okay, Servants," Mash said rather energetically. "Let's go hunting!"

Mordred snarled angrily as she beheaded what felt like her fiftieth wyvern with a single, brutal slash from Clarent. The rage roiling around inside her was only slightly tempered by the violent act, and the blonde knight sneered under her helmet. Her actions were hurting Jacob. She could see it clearly in his eyes.

Damn him. She like—loved—him, but he also managed to make her feel vulnerable.

She hated that. Vulnerable meant weakness. Weakness meant defenseless. Defenseless meant pain. It was a brutal lesson her mother had drilled into her every day of her mockery of a childhood.

A part of her kept whispering reproachfully in the back of her mind about how she was acting like a dumb brat, but she ruthlessly smothered it down to the best of her abilities, the Knight of Rebellion instead focusing on killing as many of the wyverns surrounding her as possible.

The sooner the number of estimated wyverns were slain, and their scales collected, the sooner they could leave. More importantly to her, it would mean that she could finally take the head of the bastard who had dared to harm that which was hers.

Mordred snarled silently as she pushed deeper into the fray. The battle progressed in a blur, as she lost herself in the euphoria of battle. Unfortunately, like always, it didn't last long enough for her.

Soon, lull of sorts occurred. All the wyverns that had rushed towards them had been slain, and at least thirty black wyverns were waiting to be harvested. "We're halfway done," Mash said, breathing rather heavily, her bang sticking to her sweaty forehead. Next to Shieldy, Drake was reloading her pistols, looking equally sweaty.

"So hot, so tired, so exhausted," the pirate grumbled. "Need booze…"

"The captain is such a slacker," Mini-Brat said mockingly, looking pristine as a result of just hanging back and watching. Having finished reloading, Drake glared hatefully at the Greek Servant as Mordred watched.

"Well, you've just been sitting back here on Asterios's shoulder."

"Well, that's fine. He's injured, and I'm making sure he doesn't delay his healing any further." Mordred rolled her eyes under her helmet, flicking Clarent to the side and flinging off the last remnants of blood from the massive blade.

"hey, hey, Darling?" Artemis called out, and Mordred instinctively scowled. If Euryale was annoying to her, Artemis was nerve-shearing (and yes, that was a phrase now). By Jacob, who thankfully was still safe, the one called Orion popped up.

"What?" He called out.

"Are there male and female wyverns?" Mordred paused, looking over at Orion. She hadn't considered that topic when they were in Orléans, and while she wasn't particularly interested in asking, she wouldn't pass up the chance to hear the answer.

"They have parents, but I've never heard anything about gender," Orion said with what appeared to be a shrug. Mordred's eyes widened slightly. Parents….?

"Parents?" Mash asked that very question aloud.

"Yes. Their parents are actually not of the wyvern subspecies, interestingly enough. Wyverns are born from their superior species, dragons. I guess that you can consider wyverns to be more of minions than children to dragons, though."

"So…are you saying that there's a good chance that a dragon would be close by a wyvern's nest?" Mash asked, looking rather pale.

"Probably."

"And if we keep slaying their wyvern minions, will they get angry?" Jeanne piped in, equally as nervous-looking. Orion took a moment or two to consider that possibility.

"Well, they probably won't forgive us…"

"Master…" Mash said as the ground began shaking slightly. Mordred spun back to the cave. A roar followed, and the thuds began to grow louder. Loose pebbles underfoot began to jump up and down soon, and Mordred tightly gripped the hilt of Clarent as a massive, red-scaled head appeared at the entrance of the cave.

"I think a boss battle is a given," Ritsuka said dryly from behind them as a full-sized dragon appeared. It unfurled its bat-like wings before displaying them in what Mordred assumed was supposed to be some sort of threat display.

"I have no knowledge about such givens!" Mash retorted nervously. The dragon let out another furious roar, before moving closer towards the cluster of Servants. Mordred activated her Mana Burst ability, relishing in the familiar and comforting surge of raw power flooding every fiber of her being.

Artemis fired a volley of arrows, but they seemed to do little more than irate the giant lizard. It launched a fireball towards the group, and Mash leapt froward. Crying out a battle cry, Shieldy slammed the item that gave her the nickname into the ground. "Lord Chaldea!" She cried out, activating and the cross-shaped shield absorbed the brunt of the attack.

Behind her, Artemis fired a half-dozen astral-looking arrows in rapid succession. Each one landed squarely on the beast's back, causing the red-scaled dragon to roar angrily and flap its wings while arching its back instinctively.

Quickly recovering from the pain, the dragon fired several fireballs into the air. Mordred tracked the fiery projectiles with narrowed eyes, but before she or Artemis could try to intercept them before impact, Mash and Jeanne activated both of their Noble Phantasms in unison.

The aerial attack resulted in a rather impressive-looking pyrotechnic show but otherwise did nothing to any of the Servants. Closing her eyes briefly, the Knight of Rebellion activated her Mana Burst ability before opening her eyes.

"That bastard's mine," she snarled softly, and the moment that the two defensive-oriented Noble Phantasm were dropped, she shot forward like a bullet. Rapidly closing the distance between her and the dragon, she skidded to a halt, kicking up a decent-sized dust cloud while Secret of Pedigree disassembled herself and revealing her rage-contorted face as the sides at the base of her sword expanded slightly.

Perhaps sensing the danger just as a familiar column of chaotic red energy began glowing from Clarent, the dragon roared again, before launching a column of fire towards her.

"CLARENT—" Finally, able to release every last drop of her anger and frustration in an extremely productive way, Mordred swung her sword forward. "—BLOOD ARTHUR!"

The familiar column of raw energy shot out of her sword, slamming into the fire being shot towards her. For a moment, the two attacks were kept at a standstill, each one trying to overpower the other. Then, slowly but surely at first, her Noble Phantasm began pushing back the pillar of fire.

Mordred could see the dragon's eyes widen, panic entering it. As the wind pelted her face, she felt that familiar, vicious smirk of hers appearing once more. All that anger, rage, hurt, and frustration felt like it was being burned away by her Noble Phantasm, as the column of chaotic energy drew closer and closer to the dragon.

The vile beast began to spread its wings, perhaps trying desperately to take to the air and avoid her ultimate attack. Fortunately for Mordred and everyone else, it was too late for the overgrown reptile. Clarent Blood Arthur slammed into the still-open maw of the dragon, and the head exploded into a rather gory mess. Thankfully, neither she nor anyone else was covered by the various organic matter and blood. The now-headless body twitched manically, before falling down to the side with an earth-trembling thud.

"The battle has ended, Master, Jacob Senpai," Mash said a few moments later, as the spastic twitching of the corpse died down. She heard the pink-haired girl sigh softly. "I've fought dragons before, but it never gets easier."

Heh, speak for yourself, Shieldy. This was what, the second true dragon she had slain? Honestly, the knight wouldn't be opposed to fighting against one perhaps a bit more often. They certainly were a worthwhile, challenging type of opponents for her to go up against from time to time.

"Oh, well, at least we now have enough scales now, don't we?" Euryale said. "I must say, that was quite fun. It's easy to sit back and see how things will pan out, but it's also fun to see people struggle up close."

Oh, so she wanted to see struggling up close, huh? Maybe later, Mordred could give the whiny brat a first-hand experience. Drake scoffed loudly as she holstered her pistols, clearly as unimpressed by the Greek Servant as she was.

"Thanks for that god-like opinion there," she said dryly, and Mordred couldn't help but snicker at that. The pirate then turned to Asterios. "You sure got noticed by someone bizarre alright, huh, big guy?"

"Hm."

"Think you're up for dragging this corpse back to the beach?"

"…Yes…"

Mordred stiffened as she felt a familiar presence approach her. She turned around slightly to see Jacob smiling at her with relief. She bit back a curse, her mind grasping at what to do.

"Well done, Mordred," her partner said, and she felt that familiar and heady rush of pleasure at being complimented surge through her body. She wanted to bask in it, to boast, but she couldn't. She simply nodded, and then turned around, walking back to the corpse of her fallen enemy.

She couldn't help but notice, and Mordred felt more than just a twinge of sadness and regret, the hurt look that overcame Jacob's face. Then someone else approached her when she got to the dragon's body.

"Mordred, do you have a moment?" Mordred scowled angrily at a stern-faced Jeanne.

"What do you want, Ruler?"

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why are you doing this? Giving Jacob the silent treatment?" Mordred felt herself bristling at the Ruler's words. What business of her was it? Glaring at the French Servant, Mordred said that very question to her in a rather pointed manner.

"Well, how about the fact that he is also my Master, and that I care for him, though in a different way than you do?"

"Drop it, Ruler. I don't want to talk about it."

"No."

"I'm warning you, Rul—" Before she could finish her threat however, Jeanne crossed her arms and leaned forward slightly.

"Jacob is going to want to talk with you tonight, Mordred. Please don't turn him away." Mordred scoffed slightly, but she didn't dismiss Rulers words. Instead, she gazed with narrowed eyes at her fellow blonde.

"Why are you so damn insistent on wanting to help?" Jeanne adopted a hurt expression, frowning softly.

"I thought it would be obvious by now, Mordred. We're friends. Or at least, I consider us as such." Mordred blinked owlishly at those words. Friends.

It was a word that she had heard quite a bit of, but aside from two or three instances, had never really gotten much of a chance to experience. The blonde knight finally just shook her head while rolling her eyes. Jeanne gave her an irritable look, but thankfully dropped the topic. Her arms were still crossed, though, and the Ruler wasn't budging.

Mordred exhaled violently, glowering at the saint. "You won't leave me alone until I agree to this, aren't you?"

"Nope."

"Great…." Mordred growled, gently pinching the bridge of her nose with two fingers. She gritted her teeth angrily, before releasing her breath in another violent huff.

"Fine. You can tell the idiot that I'll talk to him tonight." Jeanne smiled softly, her stance softening. "You've been spending too much time with Marie. She's rubbing off on you," Mordred quipped, wanting to have the last word at least. Jeanne merely smirked.

"In more ways than one," she said, and the blonde knight felt a shiver run down her back. She summoned Secret of Pedigree back into place, and then she turned around before Jeanne could say anything else.

I waited anxiously for the evening sun to finish setting, and for nightfall to arrive. Seconds had become minutes, minutes into hours, and hours into almost eternity. I wanted to pace back and forth, but I knew that it would eventually end up driving someone crazy.

Medea had unexpectedly recovered some of her mana early and had therefore sped up the healing of my injury. Sure enough, a big ugly scar was revealed when I removed the sling, but I didn't let it bother me much. Honestly, I really was lucky to have lasted this far without similar types of injuries by this point. Besides, it felt good to have both my arms working again properly.

Having thanked her, I had watched as Drake's crew, assisted by our Servants, began to set up camp on the beach. At first I had been admittedly worried about the possibility of getting sand in my clothes, hair, and pretty much everything else, but Bombe had quickly explained the way the crew of the Golden Hind used to prevent that irritable outcome. It also helped that some of the tents were being pitched on more solid ground, and that the tents for Mordred and I were among that number.

Speaking of the Saber, that was the source of my current anxiety and overall restlessness. I was overjoyed to hear that Mordred had agreed to talk with me tonight. Still, like so many other things for countless others, it was the wait that was killing me. I had lost track of her when we had gotten back to the camp, save for one moment where I had seen her ad Mash discussing something with the Golden Hind's blacksmith.

I just had to keep myself content in the meantime that this while silent treatment thing was going to be over soon.

I watched as Drake's crewmates and a number of Servants who weren't setting up tents swarm frantically over the dragon corpse like a colony of ants. As it grew closer and closer to nightfall, only about half of the scales lining the headless mass had been removed. Lu Bu and Asterios were hammering away with the ship's blacksmith, but Drake had quickly informed us that it wouldn't be until tomorrow morning most likely that we would be able to start repairing and upgrading her ship.

We had nodded and accepted that. We had already suffered a minor defeat at Blackbeard's hands. None of us were exactly eager to repeat the experience. Therefore, the plan had been decided that we would have our vengeance sometime in the latter half of tomorrow.

That knowledge seemed to have egged on the band of veteran pirates, and when dinner time was announced, it looked like virtually everyone, Servant and non-Servant, was dying to get back to work. I suspected that many of our comrades were going to work as much as they could even in the dark.

Dinner passed by rather blandly for me, but finally it was time. I waited for people to start dispersing before I made my way to the tent that Jeanne had informed me was the one Mordred had claimed as hers for the night.

Pausing for a moment just outside, I took a deep breath, steeling my nerves while doing so. I had no idea how this was going to go, though I would pray that it would be well in the end. Then, I crouched down to enter the tent after announcing my presence and intent to enter.

Mordred looked up at me with an expectant yet resigned expression on her face as I closed the tent flap behind me.

"Jacob," my lover said with an unusual degree of calm in her voice. The first time I had heard her speaking to me since I was almost impaled. I breathed in deeply, sitting down across from her, before looking into those green eyes of hers.

"We need to talk."

Original Endnotes: And done! With those words, do you know what that means? A fluff chapter is coming up! I'm so excited to upload 66 now lol! Anyone else dying in anticipation to find out how it goes? Mordred killed her second true dragon! Party time! Did you enjoy the Mordred and Jeanne moment? Also, what do y'all think of the chapter?

How did you guys and gals think I did with writing Artemis and Orion? At the very least, I hope that you enjoyed the reactions to the various things that I wrote. God, they are...blech.

Now, it's time for the question(s) of the chapter! First up: Who here would love to see Fate/Prototype be made into a full-length anime series and not just that twelve-minute snippet you can find on YouTube? Second question: who was the better villain in the Third Singularity. Blackbeard or Jason?

As always, thanks for reading yet another chapter of The Will to Fight! I hope you enjoyed it, and I can't wait to read what y'all thought of the chapter and all! Have a great rest of the day, and see you in the next chapter!

Updated Endnotes 11/11/21: As always, the updated version of The Will to Fight can be found on Archive of Our Own, with Chapter 135 coming out on Saturday.