Disclaimer: I do not own the Fate franchise it belongs to Kinoko Nasu and Type-Moon.

Fairies and a Haunting

Prologue

South America, Argentina

The Sun shone down from a clear blue sky, the latter stretching out as far as the eye could see from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Andes Mountains in the west. Below, the pampas was broken only by irregular patches of rough terrain, small rural communities linked together by dark lines of concrete and asphalt roads, as well as meandering streams flowing down from the mountains to the west.

In the distance, a plane could be seen flying off into the distance, steadily climbing up towards cruising altitude. Other flyers included flocks of birds going to and fro, as well as a black dot speeding fast over a hundred meters above the pampas. Closer inspection would reveal an impossible sight, a witch straight out of fairy tales, wearing a black and white dress under a black cloak and pointy hat, and riding a broom just to complete the fantastic scene.

For those who knew the world as it truly was, not a mundane and prosaic place in the thrall of the immutable laws of physics, it wasn't so impossible.

Magic was real, after all, and every fairy tale was rooted in a grain of truth. Witches and warlocks once did and still existed, although magic was not nearly as fantastic as most stories claimed it to be. In many ways, it was just as…ordinary, and unimaginative, as reality appeared to be.

It was also very dangerous, so dangerous that even among the practitioners of the arcane, there were those who did not devote themselves to pursuing the arcane arts. No, they instead devoted themselves to hunting their kind, those who would threaten everything and everyone, mundane or fantastic, Human and otherwise, simply to tease out the smallest scrap of secret and forgotten - perhaps even forbidden - lore for their own selfish ambitions.

This witch was one such hunter.

"You're sure about this, Sella?" Ayame Emiya telepathically asked her partner (though said partner would deny being such and instead describe herself as Ayame's retainer). "I just saw a plane flying off into the distance right now, and I'd hate to miss this creep."

"...confirmed, my lady." Sella von Einzbern replied in kind. "The most recent flight was for a…ah, a Chinese businessman with links to both legitimate and illicit enterprises, ranging from construction services and resource extraction on one hand, to Human trafficking and drug running on the other hand."

"...if I were my dad we'd be tracking that guy down to blow him up just as he lands." Ayame dryly replied. "But I'm not, and I've got enough on my hands without trying to deal with creeps like him. So, our target is the guy on the next plane, right?"

"That is correct." Sella said.

"Alright then," Ayame said, narrowing her eyes at a hill in the distance. "I'm coming up on the hill right where I'll want to be at when that guy's plane takes off. After that, it's just a matter of being patient, right?"

"That is also correct." Sella said.

Ayame hummed, dropping and slowing to land in a trot on top of a hill. Quickly patting herself down, Ayame pulled off her hat, then tossed her broom inside, the mystic code disappearing into the hat's depths as though it was bigger on the inside than it was on the outside.

Impossible, some might say. Not for magi and alchemists, it wasn't.

Then, reaching into the hat, Ayame pulled out a folding chair, set it up, followed by a small table and a cooler. Plopping herself down onto the chair, she opened the cooler before rummaging through the ice inside, and finally pulled out a can of beer.

"Ah!" she gasped as she took a drink of cold beer. "That's the life! Dunno why the Brits insist on drinking warm beer, weirdos…"

Sitting back, Ayame reached into the hat on the ground next to her, and pulled out a copy of Ultra Jump magazine. She might be in her twenties now, but that didn't mean she couldn't enjoy manga anymore. Besides, the next plane wouldn't be taking off for a while yet, and while she could just blow it up on the tarmac, that was a little too public.

Best to just shoot it out of the sky out of sight. Well, where she was out of sight. A plane turning into a ball of fire raining down burning debris would still be very visible, after all.

Pushing those thoughts out of her head, Ayame focused on enjoying the warm morning sunlight, the cool breeze, seinen manga, and a can of ice-cold beer. Considering her job involved killing people, she certainly deserved a chance every once in a while to kick back and enjoy the simple life, right?

Ayame was about halfway through the issue of Ultra Jump when Sella spoke up. "My lady," she began. "Le Coq's plane is about to take off."

"Oh, I see." Ayame said, closing her copy of Ultra Jump and tossing it back inside her hat. She took one more drink of beer before getting up, and stretching languidly like a cat. "Thanks for the heads-up."

"You are welcome, my lady." Sella said, even as Ayame pulled out a hexagonal mystic code crafted from orichalcum and engraved with fairy letters in lapis lazuli.

Then, reinforcing her whole body, Ayame's eyes zoomed in on the private airport in the distance, and the Learjet getting ready to take off on the tarmac. Her ears also picked up the sound of the plane's engines growing louder as they spun up faster and faster, until the plane began picking up speed down the runway.

"Showtime." Ayame muttered, stepping back and adjusting her footing on the damp ground. Her eyes continued to follow the plane down the runway, until it finally took off, wheels folding up and into the fuselage as it rose higher and higher in the sky.

Then, looking and pointing up, Ayame said a single word.

"METEOR!"

A beam of golden light cut through the air and up into the sky with the thunderous roar of violently-displaced air, and right into the path of the Learjet. So close there was no chance to evade, the beam incinerated the Learjet from nose to tail, moments before spilling fuel and out-of-control engines exploded in a colossal fireball that sent burning debris scattering for kilometers in every direction.

Ignoring the screaming alarms and sirens in the distance, Ayame put away her mini-elemental furnace while telepathically reaching out to Sella. "Assessment?" she asked.

"Jerome le Coq is dead," Sella began. "Along with his wife, Anna Louise le Coq nee le Potagere, as well as their children, Henri and Elena le Coq. The le Coq crest has presumably been destroyed as well, or at least critically-damaged, assuming Jerome le Coq's body was not completely destroyed in the plane's destruction. This should set back House le Coq's efforts to reach the Root between five hundred to one thousand years."

"Very good…" Ayame approved. "...a lot of things can happen in that time, including the le Coqs giving up on magecraft completely, or just dying out."

"Mystery may also fade away entirely in that period of time," Sella pointed out. "Or be rendered irrelevant by the coming of the Age of Will."

"So all's well that ends well." Ayame cheerfully said. "Hold on, I'll check in with the fairies."

"Yes, my lady."

Ayame held out a hand. "Glitter, Fairy Lights." she said, and with a soft pulse of gentle, golden light, a trio of fairies emerged from the Reverse Side of the World, dancing cheerfully before her. "Is it done?"

In response, the fairies danced wildly around her and over her surroundings, as though ascertaining that the magus who was so close to finishing a path to reach the Root was dead, before finally returning to her hand, and wordlessly pulsing a reply. "And so it is done." she said, smiling at the fairies which pulsed back at her before vanishing back into the Reverse Side of the World. "Four less greedy magi and French jerks in the world, no doubt for the better."

Ayame hummed before reaching out to finish her beer, then crushing the empty can, tossed it into her hat. It took only a couple of minutes to finish packing up, and then pulling out her broom before replacing her hat on her head, she flew off in the direction of Buenos Aires.

"Sella," Ayame began. "We're done here. We'll meet back at Buenos Aires, at that steakhouse you said we had a reservation at. We can talk about that issue you mentioned back home over dinner."

"Yes, my lady."

Ayame nodded, taking a moment to make sure the spell keeping her from being noticed by mundane eyes was still in place, and then picking up speed, soared higher into the sky and into the distance.

A/N

A magus so very close to reaching the Root and thus likely in possession of some really profound mysteries needs to die. But fighting him head-on is likely to be suicide, right? Not for an Emiya.

Just blow up the plane he and his family are on while coming home from vacation, without giving him a chance to even defend himself. Dirty, unfair, and dishonorable? Like fucking father, like fucking daughter.

Yes, after three long years, a proper sequel to my greatest fanfic yet, Purified by Fire, Dancing with Fairies. This shouldn't be long, though, since the writer's block was caused by trying to write something long and convoluted. So instead, we have something short and straightforward, centered around Ayame and Sella, about the ghosts of Tohsaka's tainted legacy.