Alright, there are a lot of reviews. I'll do my best to cover what I can. Thank you to everyone who left a review.

runeIt99: I still need to get through Extra... I included Hakuno there because realistically, she could have easily taken the spot aas recepticle as well and I wanted to mimic the choice between a male and femal recepticle. Maybe once I get more familiar with Hakunon's character I can try tackling those omakes. Thank you for reading!

MordredBestGirl: First of all, based name. Mordred is, in fact, one of my favorites. Secondly, yeah I kinda fumbled the ball there with UBW Shirou (I should probably get this out of the way but this is a universe where both grails and the moon cell exists. I wanted a Shirou with experience fighting as a master) and I'll definitely do better. Fun fact about Nikke though, the first ever Nikke fic on Archive of Our Own was called "Hero of Victory" and it was about Kiritsugu taking the place of the commander. It was also written by yours truly. I should probably rewrite it, though. It was a bit of a mess. Thank you for your review!

palver7: That's probably my 4 am brain. I'll see if I can get around to editing it. The female recepticle was Kishinami Hakuno.

dragonathan35: I've made it a point to keep the two power systems as seperate as possible. The logistics of merging them would be really weird without moon cell bs. I'm just trying to find a balance between creative liberties and those who want explanations for everything. But I do completely agree with you.

Pqmihn: Did you really just ask me to get a beta before saying "by the root?"

Chapter 2: Recovery

"—coordinates sent out from the space station?" Shirou awoke to a male voice. He felt his body ache and his head spinning, so he decided to let himself get his bearings before revealing his consciousness to those around him.

"They're here and alive. Isn't that what matters?" A female voice replied. While the male voice sounded serious and tired, the female voice was chipper and optimistic, something Shirou wasn't all too used to hearing.

"His pulse is there, but it's pretty weak. You should probably do CPR," The male voice then said. Shirou felt a gentle sensation on his neck. It stayed for a few seconds before leaving.

"W-why me?!" The female voice, now identified to belong to a woman named March, whined. "I've never done something like that before! Dan Heng, you do it!"

Shirou's eyes snapped open just in time to see the rapidly approaching lips of a man. Shirou held his hand up, but someone else managed to shove him out of the way at the last second.

"Hey! They're awake!" March said with a bright smile. She had short hair and eyes that seemed to have multiple colors. The man, Dan Heng, had messy, black hair and green eyes. Shirou took a deep breath and stood up.

"Hey, are you alright? Do you remember your name?" March pelted the questions at Shirou as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

"Emiya Shirou," The Wrought Iron Magus replied. "And you are?"

"Dan Heng," The man introduced himself before turning to his comrade. "And this is March 7th."

"I can introduce myself," March said with a playful pout before turning her attention back to Shirou. "This place was attacked by an Antimatter Legion. We got an SOS signal from Lead Researcher Asta so we rushed here."

"Antimatter Legion?" Shirou parroted. His head was then filled with knowledge. It was a lot less than he expected, though. Just a few pictures and brief descriptions. It seemed the Moon Cell wasn't all too familiar with this place.

"Just a few goons owned by Destruction. Nothing too big. You're lucky that the Lord Ravager wasn't among them," March shrugged her shoulders. "You shouldn't worry about them. We'll take care of everything, alright?"

"What can I do to help?" Shirou then asked. March's face changed to one of concern.

"You shouldn't have to worry. Researchers like you shouldn't be put in harm's way," March shook her head. "Just stay behind us. We'll lead you to the master control zone."

"But…" Shirou trailed off. He knew he was going to fight whether or not March wanted him to, but arguing now would just waste time. "Alright. I'll follow your lead."

"Go ahead and take him, March. Arlan lost contact around here. I'll go investigate," Dan Heng said. March smiled and nodded.

"Just stay safe, alright?" March said. Dan Heng nodded before slowly and methodically walking out. She then turned her direction towards Shirou. "You should probably take that bat over there. The Legion are crawling through this place like an infestation. It would be best to have something to protect yourself, but you'll be safe if you stay behind me."

"Yeah," Although Shirou was almost certain there wasn't a Mage's Association in deep space, he wanted to make sure that his magecraft wouldn't be too out of place. He walked over and picked up the bat. Somehow, the bat was considered deadly enough to be slotted into Shirou's reality marble.

I guess it'll make a decent weapon, Shirou thought to himself as he turned to March. "I'm ready to go."

"Alright. We shouldn't dilly dally," March nodded as she turned to the door. "Let's get out of here."

March wasn't sure what to make of the researcher that she had stumbled upon. Even though he seemed a bit aloof, looking around at everything as if he was in some fantasy land, he was surprisingly astute. He carried himself like a seasoned trailblazer, always ready for a fight and with the way he held and examined the bat, it was almost as if he was treating it as a sword.

"Alright, I got it open," March reported as she stepped back from the terminal. The door opened before them, earning an impressed nod from Shirou. "Let's get outta here."

"I'll follow you," Shirou said. Shirou tentatively followed March down the hall and made a right turn.

"Shit!" March held out a hand, motioning for Shirou to stop. They were pretty deep into the base, so March predicted they had about twenty minutes before they would run into one, but it seems that wasn't the case. "I can't believe those crazy jerks made it all the way over here. I got this."

March held out her hand and a bow appeared. Her eye twitched as she summoned an arrow and pulled back on the string. The Glass Greatsword was still in development, so her Six-Phased Ice bow and arrows had to do. Before she could fire, however, Shirou had already closed the distance between Baryon.

"Shirou!" March called, her voice laced with concern. Much to her surprise, however, the void creature was sent flying to a wall, where it shattered to pieces. "Woah! That was awesome!"

"Stay focused!" Shirou shouted as he jumped back, dodging a blade from one of the two remaining scouts.

"Y-yeah!" March said as she aimed her bow at Shirou's attacker and fired, hitting the Voidranger scout head on. The creature staggered back before promptly being hit in the face by Shirou's bat. The scout's body was barely on the floor when Shirou was running towards the other enemy. March saw green lines move from his hand into the bat as he swung again. March almost gasped as she felt the air move from the force of the strike. The scout's top half was completely taken off and sent flying. Shirou didn't relax his muscles until the bottom half fell over and dissolved into particles.

"Shirou! That was… wow!" March bounded over to Shirou with an excited look on her face. "How did you do that?!"

"I just hit it," Shirou looked at March with a confused expression. "You summoned a bow out of thin air. What's weird about what I did?"

"That's because I'm a Trailblazer! I've been kicking butt since…" March paused, her smile momentarily leaving her face. "That isn't important. My point is that I've been doing this for a while. A researcher shouldn't be so adept in combat."

"I'm not a researcher?" Shirou scratched the back of his head. "Where did you get that idea?"

"Really? From what Asta told me, most of the people here are researchers, so I just assumed. My bad," March said with a good-natured smile. If he wasn't a researcher, then he was probably a part of the security team. In that case, it would make sense for Shirou to know how to fight.

"Don't worry about it," Shirou shook his head.

"Alright, let's keep going," March said. Shirou nodded and the two were off.

Shirou was surprised when he first saw March's weapon. It was completely made out of a special kind of ice. Despite being a conjured weapon, Shirou was still able to see its history. Unfortunately, it wasn't all that expansive. March had only been using her bow for about a year. While March was adept with it, Shirou could sense her dissatisfaction from what he had gathered from the weapon.

As the two continued to walk down the hall, Shirou ran through everything in his head. While March wasn't using magecraft, she was using some form of supernatural powers. When he realized that, he decided to test the waters with reinforcement. Since March didn't question it, Shirou concluded that having powers wasn't a rarity.

Maybe I can start using traced weapons next, Shirou thought to himself. Since March was able to conjure her bow and arrow with her ice, Shirou summoning weapons shouldn't be too far-fetched.

"Alright," March said as they entered a large room. Shirou looked around, taking all the unfamiliar sights in. "Looks like we can take the elevator there on the central platform. Do you know how to get there?"

"We can find out," Shirou said. HIs attention shifted to routing a path to make. There were a few Voidrangers in the way, but he could deal with them himself. Having March around would make things a breeze.

"You know, I can't help but wonder… that isn't the space station uniform, or even the security uniform. Do you even work here?" March asked. Shirou looked down to see that he was wearing his Homurahara uniform. He had been so engrossed in what was happening that he didn't realize some of the finer details.

"I don't," Shirou shook his head. It couldn't hurt to be honest. He thought about telling March about Kafka and Silver Wolf, but he remembered them talking about not wanting to be seen. "I honestly don't know how I got here. I just remember you and Dan Heng waking me up."

"Oh…" March paused for a second. "Memory loss, huh? That sucks. Hopefully we can get you sorted once we regroup with everyone."

"Yeah," Shirou nodded his head. "Let's go. The sooner we get there, the better."

The two ran down the path, flaying through any enemies in their way. Shirou opted to continue to use the bat because he didn't really find a need to waste any mana on tracing weapons when the bat worked just fine.

Before long, they had made their way to the elevator. Shirou stood guard while March started to mess around with the terminal.

"Damn it…" March muttered as she took a step back and sighed. "It looks like someone destroyed the elevator terminal."

"What do we do now?" Shirou turned to ask.

"I don't know… I wish Dan Heng was here," March frowned as she looked at the terminal. "He's practically a walking encyclopedia. If anyone would know how to fix it, it would be him."

"Unfortunately, I don't know how to fix this one," The two whirled around to see the familiar form of Dan Heng approaching them.

"Woah! When the hell did you get here?" March asked as she jumped back, her eyes wide.

"Just now. I took an alternate route to get to the upper floor," Dan Heng explained as he turned his direction elsewhere. "I found Arlan. He's in the control room. Injured, but not fatally."

"Do you think he'll know what to do with the elevator?" March put a finger to her chin. "He is the head of security after all."

"Alright," Shirou nodded as he stepped forward to insert himself into the conversation. "We'll follow your lead."

Dan Heng nodded as he led the three away from the elevator. With Dan Heng's swift and precise spear, the Voidrangers proved to be even easier to take down. It didn't take long before they found themselves in the control room.

As they walked in, Shirou saw a man with tan skin and white hair. He had a scar on the bridge of his nose and entrancing amethyst eyes. Despite his aura, he was the shortest out of the four, being a few inches shorter than March.

"So, you're all together?" The man, who Shirou assumed was Arlan, asked as they approached.

"Yeah," Dan Heng replied.

"We're from the Astral Express," March added.

"If that's the case… Did Madam Herta send you guys?" Arlan rubbed his chin.

"It was a coincidence. We didn't expect the rare relic that Herta wanted to appear during an invasion," Dan Heng replied.

"Why is the Antimatter Legion targeting you guys anyways?" March asked, a frown forming on her face. "I mean, it's like they ignored the surface of the planet and just came after you guys."

"I… actually don't know," Arlan's expression turned somber. "They came in right after the security system failed. Honestly, it's pretty suspicious. Anyways, Asta immediately started the evacuation. I was supposed to cover everyone as they escaped, but it seems like I couldn't even complete that…"

"Don't be stupid. Your leg and hand were injured. There wasn't much you could do," Dan Heng assured the man.

"Everyone already evacuated so you did your job fine," March added with her usual, optimistic smile. "We should be focusing on getting to the master control zone and planning a counterattack. The elevator's broken, though…"

"Yeah, we shut down the elevators after the evacuation so the Legion wouldn't be able to follow them," Arlan replied. He paused before looking up at March. "Wait… if Lady Asta sent you to rescue me, then don't you have the encryption key?"

"Ah! She did give me some kind of card…" March said, looking down with a contemplative expression before patting her pockets. "Where did I put it…"

"You…" Arlan heaved a sigh.

"Found it!" March pulled a card out of her pocket and handed it to Arlan.

"I… apologize for March," Dan Heng put his hand to his face and shook his head.

"Hey! What does that mean?!" March pouted.

"Let's go," Arlan said. Shirou and Dang Heng nodded and made their way out, but March was still back in the control room with a pout on her face.

"What do you need to apologize for?!"

I've planned out the next few chapters and the start to this fic might be a little slow, but I assure you it will pay off in the future. I'm super excited to get this show on the road (I am way too tired to come up with a train pun) and I hope you follow me down this trail (nailed it). With that being said, please do consider leaving a review! I would love to read and reply to your thoughts. Also please join my Discord! I would love to talk to you all and answer all your questions! I talk a lot about my thought process while writing, so if you're interested in that, do consider joining. The url is discord . gg (forego the spaces) followed by a slash and CpVs7R8KXz. Unfortunately you'll have to type the rest of the url in manually because I'm not allowed to post links. If you want to read chapters as soon as they're finished along with a slew of other benefits, check out my Patron at pat reon dot com slash kfpisnotacult. They've already gotten the next chapter to this fic. Thank you for reading and I'll catch you on the flipside.

PS. Sorry for the extra notification lines are hard