Disclaimer: I do not own the Fate franchise it belongs to Kinoko Nasu and Type-Moon.
Different Fates
Chapter 10
The snow blew along with the strong breeze, dark clouds heavy with more snow hiding the stars and Moon above. A party of twelve figures cloaked and hooded in white cautiously but quickly crept up a hillside, and then threw themselves flat just below the crest. The team leader made a series of hand signals, and the magi drew their mystic codes, except for two women who quietly drew a pair of swords from behind their backs.
The team leader held up a hand, and then folded down a finger. And then another…and then another…and then another…and then another…and with a bright flare of light courtesy of a spell by another magus, the team of magi ran up and over the hilltop and through the snow-covered trees beyond.
"Deadfall…" a magus said a few minutes later, getting up from where he had been examining a recently-fallen tree. "…looks like this area's a bust too."
"It sure seems that way." The team leader said with a sign. "I'll send a message back, in the meantime someone get a fire going. We'll hold here until we get new instructions, so we might as well get some light and heat."
There were murmurs of agreement, and after several moments a fire had been started and the magi were throwing their hoods back. The wind had died down, not by much, but the trees around them broke up what wind there was. Sakura Tohsaka sheathed her sword back behind her back, and held gloved hands out closer to the fire.
"It doesn't really help all that much." She commented, and a few other magi laughed in agreement.
"Shame we can't have anything to eat…" Anika Freiin von Derfflinger said, fishing out several chocolate bars and passing them out before opening one herself. "…something hot…"
"Well look on the bright side baroness…" one of their teammates said. "…once we're done here its Christmas once we get back."
"Christmas is actually the day after tomorrow…" another magus observed. "…I can't wait to get back home with the family."
"That's assuming we don't get pulled on extended search duty." The team leader said as he came back closer to the fire. "Normally Poland is the Church's area-of-responsibility, but the Communists have so fragmented their network in Central Europe that it's become a de facto Association AOR. And after that little stunt those Deep One cultists pulled during the winter solstice a couple of days back, if we don't find and put them down soon, then we've all got egg on our faces."
"No wonder lords are leading search parties." Sakura murmured.
"And we get Lord El-Melloi II." Anika said. "I wonder if we'll get to see him in action."
"Can he even get down on the action?"
"If he couldn't, then would he even go out on the field?"
"Point…I'm just saying though that the Lord El-Melloi II isn't really…well a fighter, and more an academician."
"True…well we'll find out soon enough. Hey watch this…"
Anika pulled out a thermos, opened it, pointed a finger inside, and then put the tiniest amount of prana through her crest. Steam began to hiss out of the thermos. "Is that…?" the team leader asked with a mix of disapproval and hope, while Sakura and the other magi looked at the thermos as though it was a priceless treasure.
Anika grinned and winked. "Just a little pick-me-up…" she said. "…a mouthful won't really hurt us or our ability, hell it might actually help us."
"Oh alright…" the team leader said, projecting and reinforcing a small cup and holding it out. "…one shot each, got it?"
"Right, right…"
Anika began pouring out shots of warmed wine to her teammates, and then stowed the thermos under the watchful eyes of the team leader. "Cheers…" the man said once he was sure no one would be getting seconds, and they raised their cups in turn and drained them.
"Ah…!" Sakura gushed, stretching out her body in satisfaction as the warm fluid burned into her stomach. "That hits the spot!"
She blinked and then noticed that Anika was looking at her, and had in fact been looking at her for a while now. "Is something wrong?" she asked, and Anika blinked and looked away with a soft chuckle.
"No…" she said. "…sorry about that, I guess I spaced out there for a while."
"Oh I see…no problem then. Oh hey, the skies are clear."
Eyes looked up at the sky, and a couple of magi whistled in awe. "You don't get to see stars like that in the city." A magus said. "Out here though…"
The magi sat silent around their fire, more than a few faces craned upwards to regard the glittering lights in the sky, but after a moment Anika found herself again looking at her friend, taking in the starlight gently being reflected in the clear blue of her eyes, the flickering shadows of the fire playing over her slender form, and the way her short-cut black hair gently framed her face...
Anika looked away blushing and looking into the fire, and sighed softly. "Just what the hell am I doing…" she thought. "…I shouldn't be thinking things like that."
The blast of magical energy shredded the crawler's tracks, and the machine slewed to a halt on the ice and snow-covered road. Magi rushed forwards, white cloaks flapping in their wake and hoods thrown back, even as the people inside the crawler rushed out.
Or rather…dog things rushed out, if dogs were hairless with raw, reddish skin, no eyes, and with a mass of bladed tentacles whipping out and around off their backs. The magi went to ground, opening up with elemental attacks and other, more esoteric spells, but prana just broke against the things like water breaking against rock.
Two magi went down gurgling, their throats ripped out while another was literally ripped to shreds. A magus drew his azoth dagger and using reinforcement was able to move quickly enough to brain one of the dog things. "Physical attacks…!" he shouted. "Use physical…!"
His words ended in a scream as three of the dog things pounced and tore him apart. The magi charged, engaging in melee while another spoke an aria and sent a wave of flame against the crawler. The crawler itself was left largely undamaged, but three Humanoid figures rushed out screaming, wreathed in flame. The magus put them down, and then turned to his fellows.
Out of the original twelve-man team, only five of them were left. "Bloody bastards…!" he snarled, kicking and spitting on one of the cultists' corpses. He gestured at the crawler, and gave a shout. "Find out where these bastards came from, where they're going, and anything else that might be of use. Move it!"
The other survivors moved to obey, rallying to an immediate point of authority given that the team leader was among the dead. The crawler was scorched from the elemental attack, its coat of paint blistered and peeling, and the interior badly-singed, but it was intact. An ugly statuette that hurt to look at was located at a place of pride on the dashboard, and one of the magi grabbed it and threw it outside where it smashed to pieces against the ground.
They rummaged through the compartments and crew spaces, but it wasn't until they found a map folded inside a compartment that they could say they found something worth their losses. "And a couple of those were heirs of minor branches of prominent families…" the new leader thought darkly as he conjured a small sphere of fire to provide light to read with. "…if this mission isn't satisfactory, I imagine there's going to be a few reprisals being lined up by those families as individual initiatives. I don't really care much for these lunatics but…"
The image of a village on a tropical coast somewhere going up in flames flashed through his head, while beret-wearing mercenaries opened up on fleeing hybrids with automatic weapons. And mercenaries being mercenaries, they'd probably leave the corpses or some bits and pieces of evidence lying about for the mundane authorities to find, which would cause no end of trouble.
"Okay maybe not…" he thought as he continued to study the map, a finger tracing a highlighted route on the paper. "…they'd be vengeful, but not stupidly so. They'd probably attach some of their own to ensure secrecy, along with other measures. Still, individual initiatives in cases like these ought to be avoided…ah! Here we go!"
The man turned to one of his teammates who'd come back holding a gem he'd fished out of the dead team leader's clothes, and which they'd use to relay information back to base camp and Lord El-Melloi II.
The jeeps roared through the snow as they thundered towards their destination, while aboard the lead vehicle Lord Waver El-Melloi II was shouting into a two-way radio to be heard over the roar of the engines. "Yes, I know that!" he shouted. "No I don't care, just get here as fast as you can! Yes, yes, no, absolutely not…will do."
He put the radio down and wiped some snow off the edge of his goggles. He picked the radio up again. "Listen up…" he said. "…alpha team and sierra team you go in from the front and draw away as many of them as you can. I'll take the command team and break into that temple of theirs from the rear. You get that?"
"Roger!"
"Roger!"
"Roger!"
"Don't worry guys…" he said. "…the rest of our forces are already on their way to join up with us."
He sat silent for the next several minutes, and then his team's jeeps broke away to circle round to the rear of the temple, which was located just a few minutes' walk away from a cliff overlooking the Baltic Sea. No doubt sacrifices were hurled off of that cliff…and Waver was going to put an end to that.
A brief pang struck his heart as most likely the villages in the surrounding provinces were probably infiltrated, and the resulting purge of his mission would see most if not all the residents dead. But then again…these things were a threat to all of Humanity. And he'd be damned if he let them just go as they please.
Ride past the sorrow and the loss, unburdened by regret, an example for others to follow, all the way to those legendary shores…just like you once did my king…
…I will be an example to my students and those who look to me for leadership.
And then maybe someday…just maybe…I will see you again, at the gates of the morning…
"Lord El-Melloi…?" the radio crackled, and he picked it up.
"What's wrong?" he asked, his eyes fixed on the distant bulge of the dome-like structure of the cult's temple.
"There's a helipad here."
"What…?"
"A helipad…you know where those windmill-flying things, helicopters or something the mundane Humans have, to land and take off from…"
"I know what they are, but they have…alright everyone keep an eye out. These bastards just might call in some help."
"Yes sir, I'll pass it along."
"Will do…"
Waver put the radio down and several minutes later got off the jeep as it came to a halt, the rest of his command team rushing through the snow to the rear of the temple. In the distance they heard the sound of shouting and even a couple of explosions in the distance.
One of them thumped a fist on the structure as they reached it. "Solid sir." He said, and Waver rolled his eyes.
"Get back…" he said while pulling out and uncorking a metal test tube. He tipped it and mercury poured out, pooling at his feet. "…fervor, mei sangius!"
The mercury immediately rolled up into a sphere, and silvery blurs slashed through the air before a semi-circular segment fell inwards. The crash made everyone wince, and one of his magi looked at him.
"They probably heard that."
"No shit genius…" Waver said as he stepped over the makeshift entrance, Volumen Hydragyrum rolling along beside him. The interior of the temple was warm and humidly so, and divided with wooden dividers into makeshift rooms and galleries. A pair of AKM-totting cultists rushed down the nearest intersection and gaped at the cleanly-cut back of their temple. And then with roars of righteous fury they raised their weapons.
Silver flashed through the air and they fell headless.
"Scalp…!" Waver ordered, mercury tendrils lancing out in multiple directions and giving him a feel for the place's orientation. "This way…!"
He rushed off followed by his magi, Volumen Hydragyrum happily rolling along and keeping up with its master. And a good thing too, as the cultists being hybrids gave them some degree of magic resistance and a factor in avoiding magical detection. Unfortunately for them, Volumen Hydragyrum detected vibrations to find its targets.
"That thing is handy sir." One of the magi said as it tore apart a group of tentacle-sprouting hybrids which tried to get the jump on them.
"In more ways than one, my friend..." Waver said smugly. "…fervor, mei sanguis!"
The mercury exploded and then twisted into a forest-like construct that caught the…thing's punch and threw it back. It looked Human, except it was ten feet tall, had pink skin and was completely hairless with a lizard-like tail and tongue, and was of…indeterminate gender considering the less-than-modest nature of its priestly attire.
The thing screamed words at them, the words causing all of them to cringe as fire burned through their magic circuits, their innate magic resistance struggling to shunt the mental strain. A mundane Human would have been left insensate already. In fact of them was down on his knees, bleeding from the eyes and muttering what sounded like a Wiccan prayer over and over again.
"What the hell are you doing?" Waver shouted as the things moved inhumanly fast and avoided his attacks. "Help me out here!"
Fireballs, lightning bolts and curses flew through the air, but the thing avoided most of their attacks. A curse slammed into the thing's midsection, leaving a small pockmark that briefly leaked multi-coloured ichor before it healed. The thing began to laugh, causing everyone who could hear it to feel their hair beginning to rise on end at the sheer wrongness of the sound…
…and a fireball exploded in its face.
"Why don't you just die monster?" one of the magi spat, and Waver narrowed his eyes. The explosion hadn't really hurt it, in fact he doubted anything short of a five-count magical attack would, but based on their data physical attacks might work.
He swore loudly as the thing ploughed through Volumen Hydragyrum's auto-defence system, the force of its leap cracking the ground beneath where it had stood. Razor-sharp claws that would have eviscerated him sparked impotently against a sheet of high-pressure mercury, but in dodging to the side Waver tripped and fell through a divider into an adjoining section.
It was filled with banners of tanned Human hides, blood inscribing glyphs that hurt to look at. Waver got to his feet, cursing loudly as two of his men died screaming, hurling single-action and single-count spells that would normally take down most heretics at close range before the monster's jaws impossibly stretched and bit thirds of their bodies off. "Granger…!" Waver shouted at the only woman on his team. "Another fireball, now…!"
The monster grabbed the magus whose mind had broken earlier, the man positively babbling prayers for help that never came as the thing bit his head off. Then a fireball exploded against the thing, and it turned spitting and hissing towards the magus who'd cast the spell.
"Oh shit!" she shouted as she moved to run.
"Oh yes!" Waver said. "Fervor, mei sanguis…!"
Distracted with Granger, the monster didn't see mercury tendrils lashing out to wrap themselves around its neck and limbs, while others lanced out though and hooking themselves deep into the monster's flesh. "Just die already…" Waver spat, and made a sweeping gesture with an arm. The mercury tightened and tore the thing apart in a spray of ichor and flesh. "…burn it."
"Yes sir."
Waver watched as the thing's remains burned, and then glanced sharply in the direction of fast footsteps, which turned out to be a couple of magi. One of them sported a bloody bandage on a cheek while the other was sporting a black eye. "Sir…" the former said. "…we managed to nab a number of priestesses…they were ah…busy so we got them easy but…"
"But what…?"
"They're abandoning the dome."
"Everybody out…! They might have rigged the place to blow! Move…!"
The magi didn't need to be told twice, running like their lives depended on it – which they just might – followed by Waver and Granger. Volumen Hydragyrum happily rolled along of course.
As they burst out of the ruined front of the dome Waver spotted obviously-hastily-dressed cult priestesses bound and gagged as they were quickly herded out of the temple while in the distance he spotted a large mass of thickly-bundled people exchanging fire and magical attacks with the magi – the rest of Waver's forces – that pressed in from all sides. And then Granger was pointing up at the sky.
"Look…!" she shouted.
Waver did just that, and did a double-take. "Is that a Chinook?" he gaped. "Where the hell did they get one of those?"
And then a bright, laser-like beam lanced upwards and turned the helicopter into a ball of fire that fell out of the sky to slam and explode again on the ground.
"Bull's eye…!" Anika said triumphantly as she watched the helicopter explode, the blonde German magus standing in a shooter's stance with one hand held index finger pointed up at where the Chinook had been. And then Sakura slammed into her, driving her down to the ground…as a series of slugs flew through the air she's been standing in just moments ago.
"Are you crazy?" Sakura hissed. "These guys have guns! And you were just standing there as though you weren't suddenly illuminated!"
Anika blinked, her thoughts scrambled both by her avoiding death by a hair and the closeness of Sakura's face to her own. "Sorry…" she finally managed. "…and thanks…"
"No problem." Sakura said, getting off of Anika but staying prone and opening up with Gandr machine gun-like against the cultists in the distance. "They're breaking, but let's keep this up to the very end."
There was no doubt about that. With all hope of escape or reinforcement gone, many of the cultists were throwing down their weapons and holding their hands up in surrender, while others were going all out with the intent of going down fighting…and inevitably began shooting their former fellows trying to surrender.
"We've got them on the run lads!" a magus with a strong London accent shouted while waving a projected sabre in the air. "Over the top…!"
Anika and Sakura and a few others stared at him, but most followed his lead and charged forwards. "What the hell?" Sakura shouted. "This isn't the Somme!"
"So what do we do?" Anika asked.
Sakura muttered a few things under her breath, before opening up in bursts with her Gandr. "I don't know about you…" she replied. "…those things might not be very much affected by magical attack, but if someone wants to play WWI, then I'm staying put in my machine gun nest, thank you very much."
"Oh is that right?"
Anika fell silent as she aimed at a hulking, four-armed mutant and fired, the laser-like beam turning its head to mush. "I'll be playing markswoman then, if you don't mind." She said.
"No problem."
The two girls stayed put in their little nest up until the fighting came to an end, and the sullen surviving cultists were herded away while the magi burned the corpses of the enemy, recovered what could be safely recovered from the temple before burning it too, detonating the cliff and sending it crashing into the sea below, and then leaving as well.
"Bloody hell…" Waver grumbled as he sat in a helicopter headed back to Germany, from where he'd take a plane back to London. "…I went in with a hundred magi and came back with sixty, the remaining forty either dead or injured. And the dead include fifteen heirs and heiresses to prominent families. This is going to cause waves."
"Sir…?" Granger asked from where she was doing the documentation for the field report.
"No, it's nothing." Waver said as he accepted an offered brandy from Volumen Hydragyrum, now in 'her' maid form. "Just griping…"
"That's not healthy."
"Oh I know that."
"I meant the brandy sir. It's not good for your liver."
"And you don't have any vices, eh Granger?"
"None that hurt my liver, no sir…"
Waver just sighed and took a long drink. "Ah that's the stuff…" he said, and giving the brandy back to his mystic code which put it away. He then noticed Granger – the only other survivor of his command team – looking at him curiously. "…you have something to say Granger?"
"Any word on what's going to happen to those people?" she asked. "Apart from…well vivisection and all that considering we know so little about how the so-called Deep Ones and the Divine Beasts and True Demons they worship affect the Human body…?"
"Interrogation and conceptual analysis of recovered artefacts…" Waver said as though reading by rote. "…vivisection and other forms of physical analysis as you said…nothing pleasant Granger, it's probably best that you don't know."
"I…yes sir."
Waver sighed again and sat back in his seat. "Really, really…" he grouched. "…it's almost Christmas, and then I get roped into something like this. I lose men, and then I have to get involved in all the unpleasantness that follows a suppression operation. This has got to be the worst Christmas ever."
Waver turned his eyes to his only remaining teammate. "What about you Granger?" he asked. "Any plans for Christmas…?"
"Not…really…" she said evasively. "…I…I don't really have anyone to go home to, so I planned to keep busy over Christmas and well…I have a few…friends who don't have anything to do either so…"
"Is that right?" Waver asked, and he thought it over for a bit. "So you don't have anything planned?"
"No sir."
"No family to visit…?"
"No."
"I see. In that case, I'll have you tag along to the Archibald Christmas Party this year. After all the trouble I pulled you into earlier, it's the least I could do."
"Oh I…I wouldn't want to impose."
"Nonsense…" Waver scoffed. "…the Archibald family is rich and loves to show off. And it's a fact that celebrations always have some things left over afterwards. You wouldn't be imposing at all, especially since I'll have you as part of my entourage."
Granger's eyebrows rose at that. Waver had a reputation for little to zero tolerance for hangers-on and such. Anyone foolish enough to try – and there always were a few idiots – usually found themselves the target of his irritable self and always ended up asking for an apprenticeship transfer after a term or two. Only magi with a genuine desire to learn and to study succeeded in Waver's shadow.
"But…you don't have an entourage."
"I do now."
"I…yes sir."
"Don't worry about it." Waver said with a smile. "Just be polite, don't be opinionated, say what they expect you to say, and follow my lead. Do that, and you'll be fine."
"Yes sir."
"Now then…" Waver said while fumbling around in a bag pocket and producing a sleeping mask of black silk. "…if you don't mind I'll take a little nap. And I suggest you do too Granger. When we get back, you'll probably be rushing to prepare for the Archibald Christmas Party tomorrow, so get some sleep."
"Yes sir. And thanks for the concern."
"If you really want to be thankful, then actually take my advice."
Granger smiled and blushed somewhat before stowing her writing materials and the field documentation. "I suppose this can wait then." She said.
"Yes they can." Waver agreed while sliding the sleeping mask over his eyes. "And if someone gives you trouble for it, tell them I told you to put it off."
"I'll keep that in mind sir."
"Good."
A/N
I'm back! Sorry for the wait, but college calls.
Hmm…nothing really to say, this chapter is primarily setup and a means to introduce Waver in a badass way since while he won't be a Master himself he'll influence one of the Masters in the coming contest, but I didn't want him to just walk in out of the blue (outside of a humorous entry in an earlier chapter) so some background as to what he's up to lately might be useful.
Oh, and we're one year before the Fifth Holy Grail War. Sakura and Anika are fifteen, while in Japan Rin and Shirou are sixteen.