He took in the night scene with both a heavy heart, and a sigh of relief. The situation, whatever it had devolved into, had finally been settled. Or, as settled as it could be in the short term.

He had talked to Hazama, convincing the man that, despite what it looked like, Shirou had absolutely no idea what was going on. That he didn't know anything about why a god of this world was interested in him - or at least, that's what he told himself.

In reality, he had the inkling that he knew the exact moment the eye of a god of death and destruction settled on him.

Of course, there was no need to tell Hazama that.

Following that, he did warn the lieutenant general about the dangers that the Apostle of Emroy could, and likely would, cause. A demigod was, historically speaking, usually screwed things over. Be it for themselves, or for everyone around them.

At least the man had listened to him without having to mention that she was specifically the Apostle for the God of Death. That would have been a conversation to have when he ideally didn't need to keep watch for said Apostle.

The same couldn't be said with Waver.

The man had come to the same, somewhat similar conclusion that Shirou did, and had calmly told him that 'if this goes to hell, then he sure as hell wouldn't be helping Shirou dig a mass grave.'

That Reines was continuing, and succeeding, in chumming up with the elves, was the least of his worries was headache inducing.

Now though, with the day over, and everyone going to bed, Shirou could appreciate the silence that had befallen the base. A peace that had been a long time coming, and one that he would savor every moment of.

Especially as thoughts of home made its way back into his head. With the arrival of Waver, his thoughts had started to drift back into the realm of magi. More specifically, of the magi he had left at home.

Rin. Sakura.

He knew that Rin could take care of herself. And that she'd make sure that Sakura would be safe. Of their safety, he had no worries.

It was the safety of everyone else around them.

From what Waver told him, everyone was basically out for blood. Whoever had any amount of power was ready to pounce on whatever they could, and knowing the general mindset of bitter old men and women, they wouldn't stop even if he was a world away.

They'd go after the most vulnerable, most easily accessible people around him.

If he were any other person, he might've been worried about the damage that these people could do. With Rin, it was more of how much it would literally cost.

He was already feeling the hole in his bank account from the sheer amount of gems she would be charging him for. At this point, it would genuinely be more cost effective to bring them over to this world. The only problem was convincing Rin to abandon her position as the Second Owner of Fuyuki.

Not something that she would easily do, unfortunately.

Still, the idea had merit, and given the chance to try and talk to her, he would do so in a heartbeat.

The acrid smell of a cigar entered his nostrils. A few, confident steps right behind him.

"Hmph. I should've known you would still be awake."

Waver stepped out from the shadows. While the lamps around the base provided more than enough light, said light didn't reach as far as the two of them were.

The battlefield.

The lack of light hid most of the damage, most of the carnage yet to be cleaned. The rain had done a lot to wash away the closest of the filth away, but the sheer amount of corpses still hidden in the darkness would make a grown man faint.

Neither Waver nor Shirou had that issue.

The both of them had seen a lot in their lives, and had likely seen more that the other was unaware of.

The only thing that Shirou felt, as he continued to stare out, was a feeling of helplessness.

Death. Destruction. Chaos.

He had sowed those things when he had killed these people. When he had shown just how outclassed the men and women of the Empire truly were. He knew that this had to be done. That if he hadn't, then these people would've killed everyone that they could with no remorse.

It was a sad, harsh reality. These soldiers and conscripts, some of which were simple farmers before all this, had died to prove his point. That the Empire couldn't beat them like this.

He had no doubt that they'll try again, as was the norm for the Roman Empire of his world. They would throw waves after waves at Alnus, and they might very well take it in the future, had it not been for him.

It was only a matter of when they would attack, not if.

And again, his thoughts came back to the what ifs. What if he hadn't used a Noble Phantasm, deliberately weakened or not? Could he have done something different then?

Then maybe, he wouldn't have left Rory Mercury into Alnus.

The Apostle was a wildcard beyond wildcards. Her mannerisms, her actions, even to the way she dressed, belied a monster that could kill them all with barely a flick of her finger. Even Shirou would likely lose against her, considering he had seen the punishment that the Apostle dealt out on the daily.

It-

"Oh, stop your brooding." Waver had stepped up next to him, his usual scowl on full display, "I can see you doing it - don't you dare deny that, Emiya, I've dealt with more stubborn students than you."

Shirou promptly closed his mouth.

"Good. Now, let me say something that I've been holding off of." With a drag and piff, Waver turned to look at Shirou. The Enforcer lifted an eyebrow, wondering what on earth the man had to say. Especially in the middle of the night like this.

It must've shown on his face, as the Clock Tower Lord nodded towards the general direction of the base, "Walls have too many ears."

"Ah."

"Right, so, back to what I needed to say." This time, Waver coughed and pulled out an envelope, similar to the one that had been his demotion letter, "To put it plainly, Atlas has come to some…cryptic conclusions about the nature of the 'Gate'. And yes, they called it a Gate, well before any of the reports of you reporting it as such." At this, Waver stared down at Shirou, his eyes as sarcastic as they could be above his glasses.

"Or they would've been, had you bothered to send any."

The older magus waved off the incoming excuses from Shirou, not too dissimilar to how he would try to call for silence during his lectures.

"Don't even start. At any rate, whatever it is, it was enough for Atlas to contact myself and Lady Bartholmeloi about a possible end-of-the-world scenario."

Had it been a normal, everyday person, perhaps Shirou would've started at the idea that the Gate could very well be world ending. It would've been reasonable.

Magi were not reasonable.

Most certainly not Enforcers. And even more so for Shirou himself. He had been witness to end-of-the-world scenarios more times than he could count now. It was just a fact of life that, when one was peering beyond the veil of normalcy, death was almost always just around the corner. The same could be said for world encompassing disasters.

As such, his only reaction as he took the sealed envelope was a tired sigh.

That he put a possible extinction event under his financial problems was telling him something.

Gods.

Demigods.

Humans.

During the Age of Gods, these three were perhaps the most common. Not in terms of sheer population, but rather, their significance.

The gods were seen as almighty, divine beings, who ruled with Authorities capable of shaping the very land that were deserving of every bit of faith that humans could give them. Modern, historical texts would usually depict the gods as nothing more than concepts given form.

Modern texts were wrong.

Then came the demigods, a fusion of mortal and god. A foot in each direction, never truly belonging to one side. They embodied the human spirit of determination. Of facing the odds and coming out on top.

Heroes.

That wasn't to say that only the demigods were the only ones to be heroes. It was just that, during the Age of gods, most of those who became heroes, especially in ancient Greece, usually had some divinity inside them.

That left humans. Unfortunately, the role of humans in this time period was usually relegated to one thing: victims. Victims of the gods and their inhuman thoughts, the unknowing, and sometimes knowing, cruelty inflicted on a people without any means to fight back.

Or, perhaps not even a god. The innocents could just as be victims to a demigod's ignorance, or just in the crossfire of a god and their mortal child.

Tragedy. That was what awaited the humans whenever one of the first two came along.

As Shirou read through the frankly short message from the Vice Director, he couldn't help but feel the pit in his stomach grow. In truth, the Vice Director didn't need to say anything. Atlas's message was more than enough, and coupled with what had happened earlier, Shirou knew that this was no coincidence.

"They are watching."

"Is it possible to close the Gate?"

The next morning, as everyone was eating a rather late breakfast, those were the first words that he spoke to Adrianne. The Grand Elder was helping herself to a soup of some sort, the kind of which Shirou couldn't be bothered to care.

"Pardon, Lord Emiya?" Adrianne blinked as the taller man approached her with a severe look on his face.

"The Gate. Is it possible to close it?" He repeated the words, his stare not backing down in the slightest.

"I am afraid I do not know." The elf, and several others, approached his side and gently nudged him, worried frown and all, "Are…are thoust alright, Lord Emiya? Thoust look unwell."

"I'll be fine, Lady Valliere." Shirou straightened his form, "I apologize for my unsightliness, and thank you for answering."

Despite what he said, Shirou hadn't a wink of sleep, having been thinking of the complications of three damn words.

The Atlas Institute. A part of the Mage's Association, based somewhere in Atlas, the exact location secured by some of the most powerful Bounded Fields around. They were mostly alchemists and whatnot, but it was their goals that went against the norm for magi, and resonated more with Shirou than he'd like to admit.

Atlas saw themselves as the preventers of humanity's collapse. They strove to be the 'saviors' of humankind. A noble goal, taken at its face value.

It was how they went about striving for that goal that rattled Shirou.

It was an open secret that, in the pursuit of humanity's future, Atlas had also created humanity's possible end. Seven weapons. Seven weapons with the capability of saving the world, but also had the capability to destroy them.

Not even Shirou knew what they truly were, only that they existed.

And now, that very same organization had just told him one of the most cryptic, and definitely not coincidental messages he had read. The organization that most definitely had clairvoyants in order to allegedly prevent the world ending disasters, were apparently somewhat late to deliver a single line? And to Waver of all people?

As much as he saw the man as a good person, there was no denying that his status was significantly less than that of the Vice Director, and yet, he had gotten a message, the same as her.

He didn't buy that all of this was some sort of coincidence.

All together, it all pointed to one figure in particular. The one person that likely had more answers than they'd admitted so far.

And now, as tired as he was from trying to find a solution that didn't result in him talking to that thing, it seemed that Fate had other plans. Waver joined him, thankfully, and in the back, he could spot Adrianne and several others following them worriedly.

"Oho? I was wondering when we were going to continue this conversation."

Rory Mercury smiled.

A/N: Alright, so, last week, I didn't post. I've already said why on the page linked below, but for everyone's information, I had uni finals to deal with. I still have a couple left for tomorrow, due to some scheduling conflicts. With any luck, I should be fine by next week. That said, I hope you all enjoyed the chapter!

If you like what I do and want to support me, check out my P-atreon at P-atreon•com(slash)Almistyor.

Thanks to my newest patron: namadnega.

And a special thanks to: Oliver vazquez, brutalcrab and Tassimo. Merry Christmas, to those that celebrate it!