Summary: After the disaster that was the Agartha Singularity, all personnel in Chaldea knew to be on the lookout for the figures distinctly involved in the matter. Columbus? Banned. Scherezade? On lookout with the rest after sincere apologies were given. Drake? Was being controlled, so no fault. Wu Zetian? She had the fortune of being summoned before the disaster, and thus not given fault for what had happened either. Penthesilea, though? Everyone knew she wasn't allowed for reasons, so when she eventually arrived in the Wandering Sea, the Servants took up arms.

Even the most resilient of Masters would break eventually. One Alter watches and reflects.

Note: This was written to help deal with the feelings I had when starting the Amazoness event in NA, as well as my own conflict with Penthesilea as a whole. I had the misfortune of reading about half of Agartha, and adding in the complex toxic work situation I found myself in at my first job, her starring event with the Amazon analogy left a definite sour taste in my mouth. So this chapter is my way of working with it and showing how actions have consequences.

The themes for this chapter are, in order: (1) What You Want to Do from No Game No Life: Zero, and (2) the track titled No Color from No Game No Life. I found these pieces helped better convey the emotions I wanted to put into this.

Warning for implied triggers. If you do not enjoy such content, please skip this chapter.

Otherwise, please enjoy.

Day 29: Closer, Yet So Far From Despair

Everyone knew after Agartha that there were a few Servants that could never be allowed in Vy's presence again. They couldn't risk her breaking down, especially after that time. No one could forget how much she cried, how much she clung to Mash, Da Vinci, and Robin like a lost child with Agartha's resolution. Even Astolfo, D'eon, and Fergus — all Servants Vy knew from the near beginning of her journey — were still nursing their own consciences over what had transpired.

It didn't make the possibility that one of those Servants — one in particular — could still come to the Wandering Sea months after the fact any less probable. Any less foreboding. And when it eventually did—

"Queen of the Amazons, Penthesilea. I have come in answer to your summons. First, let me say: should Achilles be here, bring him out. If you are hiding him from me, I will—"

Well. Let it be said that when the Queen of Amazons herself caught sight of her target lingering over Vy's shoulder, all words were lost and fears were realized in what should've been a normal Summoning Session for more materials.

"ACHILLES!"

All it took was a split second. Achilles was pulling out his spear, Vy was jumping in front of him with her arms outstretched as Penthesilea took out her armored claws, and someone definitely threw a smoke bomb.

"Who — LET ME GO! ACHILLES IS MINE! I WILL NOT ALLOW ANYONE ELSE TO KILL HIM!" Penthesilea's snarling was almost indecipherable after that, devolving into angry growling as the smoke cleared. With the smoke gone, everyone could see her being restrained by the older Da Vinci, Chiron, and Hektor all at once. A few feet away, the smaller Da Vinci was making a face near Mash and Sion's sides, disappointment and shock shining in her blue eyes. Opposite of her, Achilles was pointing the Diatrekhōn Astēr Lonkhē at the former Berserker of El Dorado, face set in grim determination as his free hand was taken up by Vy's shoulders. Vy herself was still standing in front of Achilles, fear frozen on her face as she kept her arms up to protect him. In front of her, Atalante Alter, Robin Hood, and Arturia were all raising their respective weapons against the thrashing Penthesilea in a visible threat — all to protect their Master. "ACHILLES!"

"Penthesilea…" was all Achilles could say in response to the new Berserker's screaming, and Vy shivered under his grip. "I'm sorry."

The apology, while sincere, merely flew over Penthesilea's head as she continued to thrash in the hold the others were keeping on her, and Robin tossed a disbelieving glance back in Achilles' direction just as Arturia readied Excalibur. "What did you say to her—" left him in a huffed breath before his gaze fell onto the frozen Vy, and Robin then adequately held his tongue.

"ACHILLES! ACHILLES! YOU FOOLS, LET ME GO, I NEED TO KILL THAT MAN! LET ME KILL HIM! I NEED TO KILL HIM!"

"P— P—" started leaving Vy's lips almost like she was a broken record, and before anyone could say anything else, the others made the decision for her.

Chiron merely made eye contact with his former student once before tossing his head towards the smaller Da Vinci. "Rider!" he called out with a grunt, ignoring the thrashing Berserker in his arms. "NOW!"

"ON IT!" The little Da Vinci screamed, rushing over with her skates to the nearest terminal to start typing in commands as Mash immediately equipped her Ortinax armor to jump in front of the entire legion of Servants flanking Vy's side. "BURNING IN THREE—"

"NO!" Penth continued to scream incoherently, her claws starting to wound the Servants around her as the older Da Vinci and Hektor winced. Chiron still kept his grip as tight as he could as the Summoning Circle underneath them all started glowing red. Penth's morning star, the thing that would've dealt a killing blow in another time, started to disappear first. "DON'T YOU DARE—"

"TWO!" Da Vinci continued to type furiously at the terminal in front of her, supported only by a simple hand on her back from Sion. Mash kept her shield raised in front of Vy as Penthesilea yelled like the beast she was. "ALMOST THERE!"

"NO! AAAAAAH!" The former Berserker of El Dorado's feet were fading next. "ACHILLES!"

"ONE! BURNING NOW!"

"ACHILLES!"

With that last yell, a flash of red was all everyone saw, and then Penthesilea, the former great Queen of the Amazons, was officially gone from the Wandering Sea. Banished. In her place was a singular gold prism, glistening brightly on the ground in contrast to the steady trickle of dark blood coming from the wounds the older Da Vinci, Hektor, and Chiron all accumulated from the Berserker's thrashing. Still, in spite of the blood, all the Servants, unharmed and harmed, let out a collective sigh of relief as the Ortinax armor on Mash hissed.

Mash turned her head, just a little, over her shoulder. "Senpai…?"

"P— P—" Vy was still repeating that singular syllable, her features pale enough to be sickly as her hands shook. "P—"

"Senpai," Mash said softly, dispelling her shield and removing her Ortinax goggles from her face. "The Berserker of El Dorado is gone now. It's okay."

As if the wind was stolen from Vy's sails, her arms fell to her sides just as her legs buckled underneath her weight, making Achilles yelp in surprise as he caught her in his arms. The other Servants immediately started dispelling their weapons to follow Mash's example, one after the other, just as Achilles gently lowered Vy to the ground, keeping an arm around her shoulders to cradle her to his chest. "M-Mash…" left Vy in a weak voice, tears starting to come into her eyes as the others quickly crowded her, brown irises wavering. "Mash…!"

"Senpai, it's okay," Mash said again, trying and failing to keep the tears from her own eyes as she fell to her knees to take Vy's nearest hand in both of hers. "I-It's okay now!"

"B-But…" The first set of pearly tears started to stream down Vy's cheeks, creating red streaks against her skin as she choked on her next few words. "Penthesilea nearly… nearly—" Vy then coughed into her remaining hand, squinting her eyes shut as her glasses fogged up from the next set of tears. "Achi and everybody—"

"We're all okay, Princess," Achilles interrupted gently from over Vy's head, using the hand he had on her shoulders to rub her shoulder blade soothingly. "We're not dead or anything. We're okay."

"There's nothing to fear anymore, Princess," Arturia added in the same quiet tone, dispelling Excalibur with a wave of her armored hand as she knelt to be at Vy's eye level. "We're still here with you."

"But that— that—" Vy's voice started to crack next, much to the surrounding Servants' dismay. (One could've sworn they heard a worn out and tired, "Little lady, you don't have to cry," from Hektor, but it was hard to tell.) "That doesn't mean it couldn't have—" A sob leaked out past the cracks in Vy's fingers as she put her hand to her face, shaking her head vigorously. "Not again, not again, not again—!"

Don't make me go through Agartha again!

"Mia bella…" the older Da Vinci whispered.

Robin proceeded to push through the crowd of Servants just as Atalante Alter got to her knees near Vy's side, a soft "mrrr" noise echoing in her throat. "Little sparrow," Archer said softly, placing his hand over Mash's and Vy's, "it's over. Agartha's long gone. She's gone. We won't let her come back. You don't have to cry anymore."

"U-Uuuuuu…" left Vy instead of a verbal response. No one could really blame her. Tears continued to trickle past her fingers and into her skirt and Mystic Code.

"Mm," Atalante Alter growled, and the sound was enough to make Vy look up into the Berserker's yellow eyes as she ducked past all the hands reaching for the petite Master. With a flick of her lion ears, the Alter uncharacteristically pressed her nose into the little bit of Vy's collar she could reach, the same "mrrr" noise from before echoing in her throat. Everyone but Achilles gave Atalante Alter an odd look, and when this strange scene continued for a few seconds more, Vy's sobs stumbled.

"B… Berserker?" Vy whimpered, lowering her hand to rest it against the top of Atalante Alter's head, right in the space between her lion ears. "Are you…" she sniffled, "Are you trying to cheer me up by purring?"

Instead of a worded response, Atalante Alter continued to make the same "mrrr" noise, only louder this time as she ducked her nose further into Vy's shoulder. Her lion tail, hidden past her black skirt, matched her apparent mood as it stood up in the air with a slightly curved tip.

"…You silly Berserker friend of mine," Vy sniffled finally, but she was still smiling past the tears and continuing sobs as her hand started stroking the top of Atalante Alter's hair. "Taking advantage of how I've always loved cats…"

It was a good enough sign as is. Once Atalante Alter succeeded in crawling over and into Vy's personal space bubble for Vy to wrap her arms around the Berserker's neck in a tight hug, Vy pressed her nose into Atalante's hair to hide another sob. Instead of flinching away, the Alter merely purred louder, pressing her temple into Vy's neck as she was careful to wind her arms, claws and all around Vy's waist in return. Achilles didn't hesitate to raise his other arm to wrap it around Vy and Atalante both, leaving just enough space for Arturia and Robin to join in while squeezing Mash between them. The wounded Da Vinci, Hektor, and Chiron were some of the few that didn't join into the group hug, but they still extended what support they could with outstretched palms.

From a far enough distance, Sion was the only one who noticed and picked up the remnants of the Queen of Amazons, left staring at the Rare Prism like it was something possessed for a good second. "…More cleanup to do, huh, Da Vinci-chan?"

The tiny Da Vinci merely lowered her hands from the Summoning Terminal, giving Sion a wry smile. "That's how it is with Chaldea, Sion."

Over a cup of tea and wrapped in a familiar copy of a May King's green cloak in bed, Vy sniffled. "You're not… You're not going to ask?"

Atalante Alter, even with slightly wetter hair and matted fur (no doubt from earlier), shook her head, tail still raised in the air as her lion ears flicked towards Vy in consideration. "I do not have to be a longtime Chaldean Servant to know that Berserker hurt you, Master," she murmured, leaning in and lowering her head in Vy's direction for more pets if the Master needed the gesture to calm down. "Even if I do not have… well, the dexterity my Archer self does, I still have the perception to recognize a child who's been scarred in front of me."

Against the comforters, pillows, and many Servant-lent mantles that made up Vy's bed in Novum Chaldea, Vy startled, nearly spilling her tea if not for the tight grip she had on the teacup itself. "A… child?"

"Your scent carries it, Master," Atalante said in the same quiet voice, bending her head in Vy's direction again just in case. "While your scent is comforting to me due to being that of one that strives to live in the light, it's still a scent that carries so much pain that it shouldn't. Even for the last Master of Humanity." Past her bangs, Atalante's yellow eyes flashed with anger for the smallest moment before softening back to the gaze from before, a gentle "mrrr" echoing in the back of her throat as she finished with, "You didn't ask to be the last Master left to save everyone, did you?"

Vy's eyes widened at that, enough for the replica of No Face May King to slowly fall from her shoulders as she leaned back into her pillows. Past the red rims of her eyes, Atalante Alter could see the beginnings of tears form yet again before Vy ducked her own head to nod, letting one hand raise itself to press against one of Alter's ears. "…E-Even if I didn't," Vy started shakily, hair shading her face, "there's no one else now, Berserker. I have to. For Mommy, for Daddy, for Mash, for Dr. Roman, for—"

"Even if it's for the ones that you love, Vy," Atalante Alter interrupted with another shake of her head, "that does not mean pushing yourself to confront a wound that was never truly healed."

Vy stilled at that.

Alter purred again, leaning into Vy's space to press her forehead into the girl's shoulder. "I only wish I said this sooner, before we met in that cold Lostbelt," the Berserker whispered, shaking her head. "You deserve to be saved just as much as any other wounded child, Vy. You shouldn't have had to shoulder this all alone."

And really, how cruel could the world be? Asking a single young woman — a woman who merely wanted to see her family and help the friends around her be happy — to carry so many Servants, the last resistance of Humanity, in trying to reclaim what shouldn't have been stolen? After saving the world once, after correcting so many Singularities, one after the other, even when she was tired and fatigued? Atalante wouldn't have wanted that to befall even that false holy maiden from the Great Holy Grail War.

No one deserved the weight Vy was still carrying on her shoulders. And even then, Vy seemed to not want to part with it. It was as if this weight was a part of her not even Mash could take away. What had Proper Human History come to, to ask her to bear the additional burden of destroying these Lostbelts?

All Atalante could say was that it was unfair. It was so unbearably cruel and unfair.

"That… that doesn't mean…" Alter could still hear another sob start to climb up Vy's throat as she visibly swallowed. "I-I wanted to let Penthesilea heal here, to let her be—"

"But you would still be letting her trample all over your heart when it inevitably belongs to that overconfident hero of a kid, a long lost King, a wandering Shielder, and a green Archer, would you not?"

Vy had no answer for that.

Atalante still pushed her head into the palm of Vy's outstretched hand, purring once more. "Even if the Queen of Amazons deserves a better ending than what Proper Human History has dealt her, Master," she finished with the same hum, "that doesn't mean you have to be the one to give it to her. Not after she hurt you in Agartha." Atalante sighed, folding her ears against her head as Vy's fingers brushed the top of her hair. Even a Berserker like her, in a different Spirit Origin, could not stop the chill climbing up her spine at the records of Agartha she found with the older Da Vinci. Threats of sexual assault, rape, slavery — it was all upsetting. Especially with someone as kind as Vy in trying to resolve it. "Even I cannot blame you for wanting to protect someone you love, more so when it's that overconfident hero you've allied with for so long."

A single large, pearly tear proceeded to show itself past the shade of Vy's ruffled brown hair, streaking down her reddened cheek to hit the nearest corner of blankets. Alter purred again once she heard the croaked, "A-Atalante…"

"Yes, beloved child," the Berserker whispered, raising her head to press a warm kiss to what little exposed temple Vy had given her in the heat of the moment. "Hush now. Don't cry. I'll hold the darkness at bay for you, even if I cannot stay in the light with you."

"B-But…" Vy sniffled, squinting her eyes shut past her blurred glasses. "But I still failed you and Penth—"

"No, beloved child. You never have. Hush your cries now. I'm here."

From the hallway across Vy's personal room, Arturia and Robin leveled Hektor with a singular look of matched discontent. The former King Arthur crossed her arms over the chest plate of her armor in time with the May King grabbing a lengthy stalk of mint to chew on with a face. "So," Arturia began first, giving the former Hero of Troy the same face as her Grailed Archer counterpart, "do you have any words to offer in your defense, Lancer?"

Hektor let his easygoing smile drop long ago, leaving him all the more winded and his back aching as he turned his head away from the two. "None," he admitted, shaking his head. "I admit, it was supposed to be a small prank. Something to throw my old enemy off guard. I wasn't expecting Master to summon her so soon, and I kinda did want her to summon Penthesilea just to make Achilles' life more of a living hell after everything he put me and Paris through…"

"And?" Robin interrupted around his stalk of mint, openly glaring at the Lancer. "Anything else?"

Hektor closed his eyes and let out a sigh, feeling the creaks in his bones. "Even an old man like me knows when I messed up. So you don't have to fish." He raised his head up to look at the ceiling, rubbing the back of his neck. "Even if I hate Achilles and how fundamental he is to our current day operations, that doesn't mean I want to deprive the little lady of what joy she can get in the hell we've found ourselves in. She loves him just as much as she does everyone else. So," Hektor cracked his neck as he lowered his gaze back to the two opposing members of Vy's Big Seven with a wry smile. "I'll take whatever punishment you two see fit. It's better than thinking about making one of the closest loves I've had to Troy cry again."