Disclaimer: These are works of purely speculative fiction. It is not intended to infringe on any rights by any of the companies and/or individuals involved in the production of any series mentioned here. Fate Grand Order and all the franchises and series associated with it, are owned by Kinoko Nasu, Notes Co., Ltd. and their affiliates. Similarly, Fire Emblem Heroes is owned by Nintendo Co., Ltd. and their affiliates.

I DO NOT OWN THESE FRANCHISES.


Sister Fanfic: Serious Side Reels - A Grand Order of Heroes Sidestories


"AWOOOOOOO"

The distinct sound of a wolf howling echoed across the forest. The reverberations were so ethereal, so supernatural, that it almost felt like it was welcoming the full moon.

The lone, eerie howl nearly caused Gudao's to drop his marshmallow into his fire. Luckily, he managed to catch the stick in time before it fell into the roaring campfire.

"Are you okay, senpai?" The concerned voice of one of his companions, the lilac-haired demi-servant Mash, asked him. She wasn't alone, as his other companions were focused on him, even the cute and ever-present Fou was roused from his sleep at the commotion.

Seeing all eyes were on him, Gudao felt a small rush of blood heat up his cheeks and he let out a nervous chuckle, "Yes, I'm okay, the sound just caught me off, guard."

This was not the first time he's been forced to camp in the wilderness and experience nature at its most raw. In the first singularities, he had been forced to camp in the woods at night. Wolf howls were common, but it was never a concern, since he had his allies to protect him, plus it was more of an awe-inspiring sound that added to the experience of sitting under the stars in front of a campfire.

Before coming to Chaldea, his only camping experiences were from middle school, and it wasn't until Orleans that he realized just how little experience those excursions actually gave him.

"Do you not have wolves in Japan, Gudao?" Lucina asked, her own marshmallow already charred and ready to eat, but it was being ignored by the blue-haired swordsman's concern for him.

"No, not really." Much like the dodo bird, the Japanese wolves were wiped out in Japan long ago. They are, for all intents and purposes, extinct. He thought he had gotten used to wolves and monsters howling at night, but somehow, this particular howl just seemed off. It was as if something deeply ingrained in his being was uprooted from the ground and left exposed to the elements.

"Well fear not Gudao, while wolves may be scary beasts, you have nothing to fear. You have a nice fire and a group of overpowered spirits and warriors to look after you. Not to mention the best shot in the West protecting your flanks." Robin Hood, who was leaning on a nearby tree trunk, said with a slight smirk.

"I resent that statement, bow boy! If anyone here's the best shot in the West, it's me. Don't worry, Master, I'll be sure to drive a hole in any mangy mutt that even sniffs in yer direction." Billy then pointed at Paul, "and if any of 'em buggers get too close, you can always count on Pauly girl here to cut 'em down with her axe."

Paul Bunyan just looked at Gudao with her fists clenched and a determined look on her face and said, "leave it to me."

Gudao smiled at the enthusiasm of the young heroic spirit and patted her head, "I'll be in your care then."

The young girl preened under his touch, it was surreal to see how much she loved getting spoiled like this despite her legend of being descended from the manliest man in all of American and Canadian history.

Suddenly, his watch lit up and the hologram of Romani appeared before him.

"Wolves are the least of our problems, we still need to figure out how we're going to get Sita out of Rikers Island."

"What is this Rikers Island like?" Rama, who was currently seated around the campfire with their group, said with a neutral tone. His upper torso was covered in bandages, particularly around where his heart was. The bandages were mystic codes that slowed the curse of death Rama was currently affected with, however, it still only slowed it down, not cured it. For that, they needed to either destroy Cu Alter's Gáe Bolg, kill Cu Alter, or reach Sita in Rikers Island.

Romani sucked in his breath before saying, "you're not going to like it."

Rama took a moment to think about what Romani said. Clenching his fist, he asked, "I will be okay, so please explain."

"Very well. If you insist." The doctor cleared his throat.

Oh boy.

Gudao recognized that look on Romani's face. It's his "world history teacher" face he makes when he is about to start reciting history.

"First thing you need to know is that Rikers Island is considered one of the United States' most notorious and inhumane prisons. It has a reputation for being a place where corruption and mistreatment of inmates are common."

"As the name states, the prison itself is located on an island. The only way to enter is through a bridge connecting the island to the mainland.

The island belonged to Abraham Riker, or Ricken as he was also referred to, in the 1600s and stayed with the family until the 1800s when it was sold to the government until it became a military training ground during the civil war, and eventually was remodeled into a prison. Since then, it has remained in operation until the present day."

"An island with only one access point, how troublesome." Geronimo said, "but not impossible to infiltrate. Continue."

Romani went ahead and did so. Pulling up his archived internet files, he gave vivid descriptions of what occurred inside the prison. The extreme violence between inmates, the corrupt COs, and the Rat problem.

Romani finished his history lesson with a self-satisfied expression on his face.

"Aside from the inmate violence, that just sounds like a normal dungeon to me. Actually, it sounds much better than some of the dungeons back home." Corrin said as she ate her marshmallow, which looked like a lump of lit coal, without so much as flinching. Had he not known she was part dragon, he would have been surprised to see that.

"Even so, we must hurry and rescue her. Heroic spirit or not, no innocent person should be falsely imprisoned." Lyn countered.

"Ah, sorry I didn't mean it like that!" Corrin said with a guilty look on her face.

"No, it's alright Corrin. You were only making a logical comparison," Rama assured the girl. "truth be told, I am glad Sita is imprisoned rather than the alternative. That means we still have time to rescue her before her execution date."

"Oh yeah, I keep forgetting that the idea of modern prisons is a foreign concept to you guys. Well, now that Mebd is in charge, I think it's very likely to serve the same purpose as a medieval dungeon." Romani looked back to his computer screen and scrolled down with his mouse, "Huh, that's interesting…"

"What is it, Doctor?" Mashu asked.

"Apparently, the guy who killed John Lennon was imprisoned there."

"Who?" Lyn was the one who asked, but Gudao could see all the girls from Zenith were also confused, not that they could help it.

"John Lennon was a member of the Beatles, a rock and roll band from the UK that started around the 1960s."

"Doctor, please focus and give us practical information." Mashu said dryly, "as interesting as this history lesson is, I doubt this information will be useful for our mission at all."

"Right, sorry. Well, back on topic, there are few ways to enter the island, " he lifted four fingers, "through the bridge, by boat, by air, and finally, by teleportation using those tomes the mages from the other world use. Let's go over them and see which are the most feasible."

"You can cross off boat travel from the list. Although we can try and find a way to find a boat to take us there, we'd be sitting ducks to enemy fire." Geronimo pointed out.

Gudao decided to join in the conversation, "Same with flight, we don't have any flying servants with us."

"What about Gilgamesh, doesn't he have a plane in his Gate of Babylon that could fit all of us?" Mashu asked him.

"Mashu, did you forget what his majesty Gilgamesh told us?" Gudao deadpanned at her.

She seemed confused at his statement, until her eyes widened, "Oh. Nevermind."

He was very explicit and clear about what it would mean to summon him.

It had to be as a last resort.

He was the King of Heroes and Gudao was sure asking him to be their ferryman to cross an ocean would be something that will end with one of them getting skewered for even bringing it up.

"Okay, that just leaves teleportation or just going through the bridge," Romani said.

"Teleportation is a bit trickier. While we can enter the dungeon, we have no idea how many enemies are inside that place." Lucina blew off the fire from her charred marshmallow, "We could get lucky and teleport in an empty room, but we could also easily end up being trapped in a room filled with enemies." She carefully took a bite from her marshmallow, because, unlike Corrin, she was just a normal human.

"That just leaves the bridge, honestly speaking, it's not looking much better. Crossing the bridge will make it easier for us to get trapped by enemies on both sides." Robin Hood said, "but that also allows you guys to take advantage and funnel the enemy forces. Much easier to fight a horde of enemies when they come at you in a straight line."

"And when we break through, we just have to do our best to locate Sita as fast as possible. Once we make contact, we can use teleportation to get out and make our escape." Lucina followed up after she finished with her marshmallow and was reaching for another.

"Hmmm, that seems like our best shot, so I say we go for it. What do you guys think?" Romani asked the group, to which they responded with sounds of agreement

"Now that we have that plan sorted out, we need to talk about the next part. But before that, does anyone have any other questions?"

Gudao noticed a tiny hand go up in the corner of his eye. He looked at Paul Bunyan who seemed to be looking kind of nervous.

"Yes, Paul?" Geronimo asked the little girl.

"Um… C-can I go to the bathroom?"

The serious mood they had going on during their discussion deflated and the camp chuckled at the unexpected question.

Geronimo didn't chuckle but he was showing a mirthful expression on his face, "Yes, you may. Just make sure to take a spotter with you." Paul barely acknowledged what was told of her as she bolted from his side and made her way into the woods.

"I'll go with her." Lyn proceeded to go follow the young girl who had been struggling to hold in her pee.

0-0-0

Meanwhile, in Chaldea, a certain mage was shut inside her room.

The rooms Chaldea provides all come in the same plain white and gray colors. No personality, no warmth, just a sterile, boring, and soulless design that mirrors the rest of the facility. Many Heroic Spirits don't have much in terms of personal possessions but the same could not be said about all of them and especially not the hero summons.

Rhajat viewed the colors of the facility as offensive and used her magic to invert the colors into a darker tone.

The clean look of her room was now rustic and medieval. Barren walls were now lined with many tall cabinets cluttered with multiple magical tomes, artifacts, and pickled specimens.

Right now, Rhajat was sitting in front of her workstation, completely focused on her work.

To any normal person, what she was working on would be seen as a scene from a horror film.

A large sedated rat was placed over a shaman's talisman. On the opposite side of the table was a stuffed toy that looked like a rat.

"Alright, let's try this again."

She got up from her seat and grabbed a thin red metal spear leaning on the table. She placed its pointed edge over the rat's chest.

She took a deep breath and channeled bloodlust into the object, causing the spear to explode in a red flame.

[Gae Bolg!]

She raised the spear and stabbed the mouse in the heart, then quickly pulled it out and put it to the side. She placed the spear in its usual place and removed one of her gloves. Using her exposed hand, she touched the talisman under the stuffed rat and closed her eyes to help her concentrate on her magical energy.

The pentagrams drawn on the talisman glowed a gentle blue light. It continued to glow blue for a minute until suddenly it caught on fire.

Rhajat quickly smothered the flame with a water spell.

She looked at her specimen once more and noted its heart had stopped beating.

She clicked her tongue in frustration, "another failure." She took her fountain pen and wrote some notes in her notebook.

After finding out about the curse that plagued the demigod Rama and his wife, Rhajat had been hard at work trying to find ways to dispel the curse to help them.

She hit the library and tried to find a loophole.

All the texts she had read about the pair noted that the curse will continue to affect them regardless of where they are in the mortal realm. This means the only way they will be able to meet once more would be in the afterlife.

Despite being the most knowledgeable curse mage in many worlds, removing a curse placed by a vengeful, mourning goddess was simply out of her league with the tools and resources she had on hand and at home.

She saw no point in wasting time and shelved the issue for later, as the path to resolving it was much too complex and cumbersome to even attempt removing. Therefore, she tried to focus back on the more immediate curse.

The curse of Gáe Bolg.

Unfortunately, much like the prior, this curse was just as frustrating to remove.

She had asked Archer Emiya to make her a copy of the noble phantasm for her experiments. It took a lot of back-and-forth discussions between the two of them, but ultimately he gave in and let her have one. She had to admit, even if he wasn't much of a mage, his skills came in handy.

Since then, she has gone through dozens of methods and hundreds of rats, yet the conclusion remained the same.

Failure with little progress.

All she ended up with was a pile of dead animals.

Rhajat rubbed her eyes, she had stayed awake for days trying to solve this major issue with minimal success.

She could barely keep her eyes open and seeing she was not going to get anything done, she gave into her body's demands and relaxed her eyes for a minute.

The second her eyes closed, her body had already passed out.

0-0-0

Rhajat opened her eyes and found herself in her childhood home. The Deep Realms were a separate dimension where time moved at a faster pace than outside. This meant anyone who lived in this place could live out a whole lifetime at a much faster pace while residing in the realm.

Her mom and dad used to stay with her all the time but as the years went on, that became more infrequent.

The few times her parents came, she noticed they were getting more and more tired with every visit. There was a war going on outside her Deep Realm and it had been getting more and more difficult for her mom to stay awake when she visits.

So she decided to put a curse on her.

It was one of the harmless curses that she learned about that mimicked the feeling of drinking coffee or tea. It would give her a rush of energy, which she hoped would be enough to keep her awake while they played.

The day her mom came back, she placed the curse on her as a surprise.

That had been a mistake.

She expected her mom would be happy, and that she would thank her for what she did…

How naive she was.

She had been confused, why had her mom acted like that? Why did she look so scared? Why did she look at her with such eyes?

The answer was quite simple.

"Y-You really are the spitting image of your grandmother, Rhajat."

0-0-0

Rhajat wakes up with a start, her breath raspy and erratic as she had just woken from a nightmare. Which to Rhajat, it was.

"That dream again…" She usually never dreams, rather all she does is lay in bed and blackout. But the few times she does dream, it's usually one of her time in that place.

She took a moment to look at her wall clock and noted the time. "6AM… Ugh, I overslept."

She stood up from her chair and stretched her body. Her eyes took in her workstation and with a weary sigh, she looked away.

She needed a coffee break.

Without bothering to clean up the mess she had made earlier, she left her room in a sleepy daze.


Author's Note: I had a lot of issues trying to get through this chapter. I got a bit indecisive over how I should proceed and I had to scrap some parts out. I intended to keep Rhajat's time in Chaldea as a separate chapter but I felt it was better to just merge it into the crew planning the assault on the island

Sorry if this chapter was a bit slow, since I am using a different prison island, I need to give some exposition.

Thanks again for reading.