A GHOST IN A STRANGE LAND

CHAPTER 8

It was amazing how much sheer pandemonium a single word could unleash.

"Divine". The survivors of Chaldea heard that word and went crazy. Panic, thankfully, was restrained where it was showing its ugly head. This small handful of people who had been lucky enough to survive the explosion had been through the wringer in the past few days – and were likely sleep-deprived from double and triple-shifts enough that they were more than a little bit numb at this point. That this bombshell had dropped right when they thought their work was, for the moment, done, probably helped a bit. The panic response was, to use a modern term – bluescreening.

Poor Roman was TRYING to restore order, bless his heart, but he'd never been taken the most seriously by, well, anyone in Chaldea. Even the tale of how he had put the fear of God into Beryl after the stunt the man had pulled with Mash was believed to be embellished in the telling.

(It wasn't. If anything, the tales didn't do it justice, she knew, she'd sat in on that meeting to make it very clear that Roman wasn't the only 'parent' Mash had, and who would take strips of flesh out of Beryl if he EVER pulled something like that again.)

But most saw Roman as the friendly doctor – something of a slacker, addicted to his virtual idol, but not someone to take too seriously. Which meant that Da Vinci had to break out one of her noisier inventions to get everyone to quiet down for a second.

BWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNGGGGGGGG!

"CLEAR THE ROOM, PEOPLE! If you aren't a Servant, the Acting Director, or nearly seven feet tall and sculpted like a statue one of my Renaissance counterparts would have created, OUT OF THE ROOM!" There. Hopefully enough people had stopped covering their ears by the time she started yelling. And if not, well, she'd float them out of the room.

"Jay, don't EVEN START! If you're still in this room by the time I raise my head, I'm giving you to Da Vinci for two months, with a blank check to do whatever she wants with you. Guinea Pig, Crash Test Dummy – she could tell me she used you for spare parts and I'd still sign off on it." The tall New Zealander sheepishly lowered his hand. Roman groaned, his hands buried in his head, which was currently lying on his desk. "In fact, I'm not even risking it. You and two of your gym buddies go pick up Fujimaru, I'll escort the lot of you to the infirmary. Anyone else who isn't out of the room by the time I stand up gets a month with Da Vinci, same terms I just promised Jay."

Really, it was almost a stampede how quickly they cleared out. She'd be offended, if she hadn't gone to pains to play up the 'mad' in her scientist persona. It kept people on their toes.

Roman gave her a nod of thanks as he passed her by, then paused. "Can I trust you to take care of this, Da Vinci? The Acting Director should be the one to handle things like this, but this Acting Director is also the only real doctor we have, and…."

She patted him on his shoulder. "You go do what you do best, Roman. Save the girl…any lives you can save today are a net win for us. Let your consigliere handle this."

The look he gave her was dryer than the Sahara. "You're just going to keep calling yourself that until I give in and accept it, aren't you?" He sighed, long having grown numb to her antics. "I miss the days when whatever headaches you were causing for me were my biggest concern. Just don't make any agreements that I wouldn't sign off on, and let there be a Chaldea for me to come back to." With a weary wave, he joined the trio of gymbros as they carefully stretchered Fujimaru up the stairs. Da Vinci gave them a wide berth as they hurried the girl out of the room, before slowly descending the stairs to the trio of people who had survived a Singularity.

Mash, at least, was happy to see her, but that was to be expected – she'd had at least a hand in raising the girl, after most of the rest of the scientists had declared her a failure. Cu Chulainn was checking her out – and she couldn't blame him, she WAS the epitome of beauty, after all. At least that was familiar for the Irish Servant – but seeing him as a Caster was…unexpected, but would be useful in the long run. Another Caster class was just the thing to help get Chaldea back on its feet – Territory Creation and Item Creation were ideally suited for repairs, and Chaldea needed repairs and reinforcement in the worst possible way.

And then there was the god in the room.

Tall, and showing that there was apparently some truth in the saying 'built like a Greek God' – (eat your hearts out, Donatello and Michelangelo, Da Vinci has an actual Greek God to sculpt!), and clearly so far out of his element he'd need a telescope to see it. The glower that he was directing at her was proof enough of that. The patience he'd shown in the Singularity was clearly running out – and that hadn't seemed like it had been the most abundant of resources to start with.

Best to be as direct as possible.

She gave a delicate, formal curtsey, her skirt flaring up enough so that she didn't have to bend over too far to take it in hand. "Best we see to the formalities, first. Kratos, was it?" A grunt of assent. "My name is Leonardo Da Vinci, Caster Class Servant of Chaldea. I have a laundry list of titles and responsibilities, but for our purposes, the only one that concerns us is that I'm essentially Assistant Director in extremis, at least until things calm down and we can see if anyone else is more suited for the position." The eyes watching her were wary, but the axe was still on his shoulders. So far, so good. "As such, I've been empowered to treat with you on behalf of the organization. I would like to offer you the benefits of our hospitality, for as long as you choose to remain under our roof."

Delicately, she extended her hand, and waited.

She wasn't waiting long. A massive hand, easily dwarfing hers, wrapped itself around her wrist, and squeezed – gentler than she had expected, honestly, but she supposed he might be more conscious of 'pretty little girl' over 'Servant', or he was just being careful. "I accept."

"Meraviglioso!" Good old Sacred Hospitality, JUST enough of the supernatural world took it very seriously, and she had thought a literal Greek God would as well, given the tales of King Lycaon and his fate for violating it. "Just one more small piece of business, Cu Chulainn, is there any reason you should be with our patient when that spell of yours breaks?"

The Irish Servant scratched his head, considering. "Shouldn't be, spell SHOULD break on its own without needing any input from me. If it doesn't, or if things go bad, I can pop over there in Spirit Form, but whatever medical mages you have will be more useful than me, unless you just need more hands."

She smiled sunnily. "Then, if you'll all follow me, we can have a seat somewhere much more well-appointed than, well, here," she gestured about herself, indicating the ruined command room. "And have ourselves a bit of a discussion." She cocked her head to the side, just a touch. "If there are no objections?"

None were forthcoming, so she set out, Mash falling into step beside her, which let her steal a couple of glances at the girl's new set of armor. She made a mental note to run a battery of tests on both Mash herself, and the new toys the girl had gotten since awakening as a Servant. While she found the Demi-Servant experiments that Lord Animusphere had conducted repulsive, she had been summoned far too late to do anything about it except pick up the pieces – and that meant 'Take Care of Mash'.

In other circumstances, she might have wanted to give them a bit more of a tour of Chaldea, but her workshop was located only a few minutes' walk from the Control Room – something she had been very insistent upon after her summoning, so they didn't have much time to take in the sights.

But her workshop took their breaths away, she could tell. Even the big one managed to drop his stoic front when he took in the breadth of it all, and she checked off 'impress an actual god' off her bucket list. Not an item on the list she'd ever expected to actually cross off, but she'd also not expected to hear that her name had been used for the leader of a team of mutant superheroes – so really, anything was possible.

The world was, and continued to be, truly, a wonderful place.

Speaking of said god, it seemed like something had caught his attention. "A forge…" he rumbled, indicating the somewhat old-fashioned forge she had installed in one of the corners of the room. "You are a smith?"

"Among other things, yes. But please, sit, sit! I don't get to play hostess as often as I'd like, always too busy. Can I get you something to drink? I can make a fantastic cup of coffee, Roman swears by it, but my tea is JUST as impeccable."

"I wouldn't say no to something stronger, if you have some to offer," said Cu, a hopeful expression on his face, slouched in his chair.

"Tea, please," said Mash, the girl seated primly in her chair, the picture of formality.

Kratos, for his part, was nearly overflowing the chair he had chosen – it would hold his weight and many times greater, but she would likely need to build a larger chair for the man to use in the future. "I do not know of the drinks you have named. What are they?"

Oh, silly Da Vinci, getting so excited to have guests that you got ahead of yourself. Not a Servant, so he didn't get that ever-useful information package from the Throne. Note to self, get started on a program to bring time-displaced Greek Gods up to speed on the 21st Century. "While the base does have a supply of spirits and other alcohol, I'm afraid they're going to be rationed for the immediate future – so I can't offer you anything of that nature today, Cu."

"Tea's fine then."

"Good, good." She turned to Kratos. "And my apologies, I should have taken your situation more into account – unless you travelled much further afield than you said, you wouldn't have ever run across either of those drinks before. Coffee is a bitter roasted drink, mainly prized for the caffeine – that's a stimulant – in it that helps fight off sleep and fatigue. A good number of the people in this base practically run off it. But somehow, I don't think that drink would be quite what you're looking for. If you would indulge me, I can make you a simple chamomile tea. It's a calming brew, and I think we'd all like calm heads for today, after so much excitement."

Kratos nodded his head in acquiescence, and Da Vinci glided over the part of her workshop where her culinary experiments were conducted. "Then, it'll be just a moment to get the water boiling, if I can impress upon your patience just a bit longer."

Thankfully, like everything in her workshop, her tea kettle was a work of art, both functional and physical, and it was singing its tune in the blink of an eye. It was only seconds later that she was filling four masterworks of cups with boiling water, letting the leaves steep, and then serving her guests like a proper Florence lady.

Larger cups may need to be an item for the future, she thought, as she watched Kratos handle her delicate creations gingerly, the cup dwarfed in his massive hands. Just another item on an ever-growing to-do list.

Tentatively, he sipped at his tea, Da Vinci watching him over the lip of her own cup. A small noise, then he took a larger sip. "The taste is…soothing." He considered the liquid in his cup. "It is unlike anything I have ever tasted."

Da Vinci gave him one of her sunniest smiles. "I'm glad you seem to like it. All three of you are welcome to call on me anytime, if you get the yearning for some more tea brewed by a genius." She took a sip of her own Earl Gray, pinkie extended just so. "And as much as I would love to make small talk with an actual Greek God, as well as Ireland's Child of Light, I believe we have business we need to discuss, so I'll just shelve the small talk for another day."

She set her cup down, and steepled her fingers before her. "Now, Kratos, you were promised things in return for your help resolving the Fuyuki singularity by Olga Marie – specifically, that Chaldea would do everything in its power to get you back to your home." She frowned. "Unfortunately, that's impossible for us right now."

Something dangerous flashed in the man's eyes, and she held up a hand (conveniently, the one wearing her clockwork gauntlet – just in case) to forestall any forthcoming outbursts. "Please, let me explain." At his short, curt nod, she lowered her hand (and letting the energies she had been subtly gathering in the gauntlet dissipate). "This isn't because we're looking to renege on the deal we made with you, but due to circumstances beyond our control. You heard the Director speak of a looming catastrophe, one that would wipe out all of humanity – she thought that calamity originated from the Singularity you all just came from, and that fixing that would stop it."

For a moment, she hemmed and hawed in a very un-Da Vinci-like fashion, struggling over the words, to describe just how monumentally bad things were. In the end, she chose directness. "We were so, so wrong. The calamity's already happened."

Enter, stage left, the moment when you could hear a pin drop. Cu was, unsurprisingly, the first to find his voice. "Bull! Your little director said that this would wipe out all of humanity – A-L-L. I've taken my share of blows to my head in my time, but I'm pretty sure those were regular old humans I saw back there."

She smiled, sadly. "It's the truth. The base, and the handful of living humans inside only survived because of the protections Olga's father put together when he was building this place. Everyone outside, billions and billions – yes Kratos, humanity's grown like a weed in the centuries since your time – was reduced to ash, incinerated in a moment."

Mash could have posed for a picture to go by the definition of 'bloodless' in the dictionary. Cu had been in the middle of a retort, and was now struck speechless, his mouth hanging open. And Kratos…..

"Then, we have lost."

Oh, that 'we'. Not 'you', but 'we'. It seems she was right, and this wasn't as terrible a longshot as it appeared. "Not quite. Things are bad – about as bleak a situation as you could ask for, but there's a chance. It's a slim one, the smallest, most infinitesimal of a chance, but there IS a way we can set things right."

She took another sip of tea, both to whet her throat – though Servants didn't really need such things – and because a dramatic pause was called for here. "Olga – and by extension, all of us, we were working from an incomplete picture. There wasn't the one Singularity, one instance in time where our enemies had changed the path of history. There were eight."

She could almost literally hear the gears in Cu's head spinning. "Do you have any idea the kind of power you'd need to pull that off? Changing one instance in history is the kind of once in a lifetime feat that gets you a direct ticket to the Throne when you die. Doing it seven more times – and not getting ripped apart by Paradox, or stopped by the Counter Force, or any of a dozen other things that SHOULD stop that kind of thing from happening…." The look he gave her was three parts disbelieving, two parts terrified, and one part excited. "Lady, what kind of enemy are you fighting?"

Da Vinci threw her hands in the air. "I wish I knew! Whoever, or WHATEVER it is, it managed to turn Lev Lainur against us, and do so without raising the slightest suspicion in anyone. They've enough power to alter history in eight separate instances across the past, do so almost simultaneously – though that's something of an odd term to be using when we're talking about time travel, but it works for our purposes – and then somehow turn all of that into some spell or ritual that wiped out humanity in one fell swoop."

For a moment, words failed her. "The scale of it all….I'm not used to feeling small, not by anyone or anything. But this – it makes me feel tiny." She looked up from her hands, her eyes smoldering. "But for all their power, they made one mistake. They tried to take us out before we could try to stop them. And do you know what that tells me?"

They got it, she could see. Mash was just the first one to say it. "That…they're afraid we can stop them?"

Da Vinci nodded. "Got it in one, Mash. Good girl." A metal tin materialized in her hands. "Here, have a cookie."

Hesitantly, the girl reached into the tin and withdrew a cookie – chocolate chip, of course. "The boys can have one too, if they'd like." Cu wasted no time in grabbing himself a handful. Kratos was more tentative, oh, he took a cookie, but he took his time looking it over, turning it over in his hands. "It's a sweet – a baked good usually with some sort of ingredient added in – like raisins, nuts, or chocolate chips, like these. Just a little treat, or reward for the three of you, since I could see the light come on for all of you."

Kratos, as with his tea, took a small first taste of the cookie, then his eyes widened fractionally – which Da Vinci, if she was any judge of the man, took as quite the reaction. 'Introduce a Greek God to chocolate' – another bucket list item created and crossed off.

Ok, Da Vinci, enough woolgathering, there's still business to conduct, and Roman's counting on you for this. "If our foe was as all-powerful and omnipotent as they seem, the actions of a bunch of puny mages wouldn't bother them in the slightest. But it did – and that means we have a chance to stop them. Lev even let that slip when he was taunting you all, there at the end. 'The plan was unravelling' he said, so he had to intervene to set things right." She grinned, not her usual playful or whimsical smile, but a hard one. There were teeth.

She had lost friends today, and someone was going to pay, pay with interest for that.

"And if we can unravel one of their meticulously crafted plans, then by God, we can do it seven more times! And if we can do that, we can set things right, restore humanity."

"How sure are you of this?" The cookie, Da Vinci noticed, had vanished.

She shrugged. "It's a whole lot of conjecture and speculation based on what Lev said and how he reacted to you lot trying to stop him – but in this case, the simplest explanation seems to fit. They'd only defend the Singularities if restoring them could cause them some harm in some way – to the point where they sacrificed a very valuable spy to try to stop you from restoring the Fuyuki Singularity. Maybe they have others – and that's going to be a continuing worry for us all – but none could have done the damage that Lev did to us, and they burned that resource without a second thought to try to kill you all off."

Kratos nodded. "No, you are correct. The logic fits."

She took a breath. Now for the sell. "And that's where you fine people come in. I don't know what's going on with Romani and Fujimaru – I have to assume that if something had gone horribly wrong, he'd have called for me, or you, Cu. That, or he'd be rushing to put her in cryostasis like Team A and most of our other critically injured Master candidates – and he'd need me for that. So, for now, no news, as the saying goes, is good news."

Another sip of tea. "If we're going to do this, plunge headfirst into seven more Singularities, and set history back onto its proper course, fighting tooth and nail every inch – because I don't think Lev and whoever he's working for are just going to let us have our way, an honest to goodness Greek God would be quite the thumb on the scales for us."

Gods, the man had a hell of a poker face, his expression hadn't changed in the slightest at her request. Note to self, teach him poker and watch him clean out the weekly poker game. Putting a pin in that thought, she looked the deity straight in his eyes. "I know it's a lot to ask of you, hell, it's a lot to ask of anyone, much less someone for whom this isn't even their world they're fighting for. And I won't try to play the 'oh, well, it's the only way you'll get home' card to try to force you into helping us – you made a deal with our Director, and we intend to honor it. Should we manage to resolve this issue without you, you'll still get your audience with the Wizard Marshall. You upheld your side of the bargain, and we intend to uphold ours."

For a long moment, Kratos said nothing, clearly mulling over his words. When he did speak, it was not what she expected.

"I have a son."

Da Vinci blinked, taken aback for one of the few times in her current summoning. Ok, and? For a brief moment, a vision of a mini-Kratos, bearded and grumpy, trailing behind the man in some Scandinavian wilderness played across her mind's eye, before she stuffed that back into a box. For later.

"After Ragnarök, he left on a journey, one that will take him far from Midgard. Suppose that when he returns from his journey, I am there, and when he asks me of our time apart, I tell him that humanity itself was threatened, but I refused to fight, merely sat and watched as others fought to save their world." He huffed a short breath, almost a laugh, or his version of one. "I started Ragnarök to protect him, though by then, Odin's tyranny over the Realms had grown beyond tolerance, and I had reasons to oppose him beyond my son's safety."

It was subtle, but there was a hint of true venom when he spoke Odin's name. The All-Father had to have done something to make things personal between them, and it looked like Cu had also picked up on that. Mash, the sweetheart, had her heart in her eyes as Kratos told his tale.

His thumb was unconsciously rubbing over the back of his right hand, where his Command Seals rested. "What kind of a father would face their son and tell them that, when faced with an atrocity on the scale you have described, that they refused to fight?" For a moment, the briefest of milliseconds, his stoic mask cracked, and he looked just so TIRED to her. "I do not WISH to fight. After Greece…..I lived in peace for many years, until….the day of my wife's funeral."

He sighed, the soft sound carrying an entire lifetime's worth of emotions. "But I will fight, will aid you in this battle. My son, when he returns to me, will carry a journey's worth of tales that I know will speak well of him. I wish to be able to say the same for myself."

"As well…your Director. She was brave, in her own way. She was worthy of respect. I would do this for her sake, as well."

Well now, Olga, you've got an actual god, in the flesh, willing to fight for you. You must have done some real growing up in that hell you were thrown into. Da Vinci's heart felt almost full to burst, she was so proud of the girl.

"Thank you for that, Kratos. For all the bravado I've been putting on, our situation is really about as desperate as it can get. Your help is appreciated – and I'd be saying that even if you were a boring, regular human being we pulled out of Fuyuki, and not the towering slab of chiseled, divine beefsteak you are." She grinned. "Not that I'm complaining at all."

For a moment, his brow furrowed, and she wondered if she'd overstepped some bounds (given everything that had been written of the Greek Gods, she hadn't expected one to find a little harmless flirting to be off-putting), before one corner of his mouth turned up in the barest hint of an expression that might someday grow up into a smile. "You remind me of another smith I know. She too is…..friendly."

Oh, she could NOT let a setup line like that pass her by. "Oh, my dear Kratos, I am no mere smith. In my lifetime, I was an artist, a sculptor, an engineer, an architect, and so much more. The term 'Renaissance Man' was created to describe me, and me alone! And since I've gone beyond the bounds of mortality, I've branched out into even more fields than before. Computers, nanotechnology, Magecraft, robotics – I am the Uomo Universale, and the world is my playground!"

She was just about to launch into some proper maniacal laughter, when a voice cut off her speech (She WASN'T monologuing – megalomaniacs monologued, megalomaniacs had delusions of grandeur. Universal Geniuses had grandeur, thank you very much.). "Please, don't encourage her. If you wind her up like that, we'll still be here, this time tomorrow, listening to her list all the ways she's great."

Da Vinci aimed a huff at Romani, if only for show. She'd known he was coming – Da Vinci was at least generally aware of where EVERYONE in Chaldea was at all times (and the number of names that had gone dark in her mental tally was something she would deal with LATER – right now Aunt Da Vinci had appearances to keep up), and whatever ire she would have directed his way was blunted by the fact that the poor man looked like ALL the miles of bad road.

"Doctor Roman!" squeaked Mash. "Senpai? Is she?"

The man in question collapsed into a chair, then blinked owlishly at the steaming mug of coffee that appeared in front of him, almost like magic. (It was – she HAD known he was coming, after all.) He took a long sip, then wrapped his hands around the mug, savoring the warmth. "She's stable, for now. The stasis spell broke just like you said it would – thank you again for that, Caster – and we managed to get her stitched up without any complications on that front. We were giving her a blood transfusion and were about to get her on an IV when everything went to hell."

He took a deep breath, his eyes unfocused, staring right through his coffee cup. "That Assassin, whomever it was, smeared some kind of poison on his daggers, it's like nothing I've ever seen before. The second we introduced foreign blood into her system, it went haywire, attacking the transfusion blood and ripping her arteries apart – we had to halt the transfusion and exhaust some of our emergency Mystic Codes just to keep her alive."

Mash paled, perhaps remembering just how close some of those daggers had come to her in that fight with Assassin.

"So, a poison means there's an antidote, right?" asked Cu. "Either one you have, or one you can make with all this fancy gear this place has, yeah?"

Romani drained his mug, then started as he noticed another full cup already waiting for him by the time he swallowed. Much as she'd like him to cut back on the caffeine, they needed him functional for at least a bit longer, before she frog-marched him to his bed and made him sleep for at least 8 hours – she'd take him staying in his bed for the majority of tomorrow, but she didn't think that even a genius like her would be able to accomplish that miracle.

There was just too much to do, and Romani had always carried a burden far too heavy for his shoulders.

"That's the working plan. The hell of it is, the poison doesn't seem to be actively attacking her system, as soon as we got her stable, it calmed down and stopped ripping her apart. All we can do is let her heal on her own for now, while we work on a cure." He didn't sound very happy to be saying that, but then, he wouldn't be much of a doctor if he did.

"Will she wake?"

Romani turned to Kratos, almost surprised that the man was here – it showed how mentally drained he really was, only just now registering that he was sharing a table with a god. "No idea. We're in truly uncharted waters here. If you made me guess, not until we get that poison out of her system, but comas don't run by anything resembling logic. She could wake up tomorrow, she could never wake up." He shrugged. "I just don't know."

Hoooo. She didn't like that tone of, not exactly defeat in his voice, but it was bordering on it. Time to be a good consigliere for her Don. "Roman, no doctor on Earth could have done better than you did today. You saved lives today – all while taking on a leadership role you were suddenly thrust into, and just now, you saved another life." She reached out and gave his hand a squeeze. "Once we get done here, send me everything you have on that poison, and it'll go to the top of my list. We'll have Fujimaru up and about in no time."

The weary smile he gave her, and the beaming, hopeful smile that blossomed on Mash's face made her heart feel full to bursting again. She just hoped she'd be as good as her words. She'd hate to disappoint the wonderful little family she had made for herself at Chaldea.

Romani pushed himself back up from his slump, and pulled another measure of fortitude from the bottomless well he seemed to possess. "So, please tell me you have some good news for me, I could do with some after the day we've had."

Da Vinci grinned like the cat that had eaten the canary. "Doctor Romani Archaman, please say hello to Kratos, who has agreed to help us resolve the Singularities, and reverse the Incineration of Humanity."

If Da Vinci's heart hadn't already swelled to many times its normal size, seeing the hope rekindle in Romani's eyes would have done it. She loved these silly little humans, she really did.

"Thank you, truly. You're probably getting sick of hearing it, but this means the world to us. Our list of allies are in short supply, and to get an ally like you – it's a miracle." He extended his hand. "I'd have said a 'godsend', but, well…"

Kratos gave a snort as he took Romani's wrist. "Be true to your word, and treat me fairly, and we shall have no quarrel, Doctor."

Romani gave the god's wrist an awkward shake, clearly having expected a handshake. "Deal."

"Then your enemies are now mine."

No wince from Romani when they broke the clasp, so Kratos must not have been taking it easy on her, constantly moderating his strength. Honestly, it fit – the man was wound tight, both with the solid discipline of a lifetime soldier, and a host of other emotions she had only the faintest of clues on.

The tales this man probably had to tell. She'd never been much of a writer, or novelist, to be more correct, but she'd love to record his memoirs.

Idly, she noticed the door to her workshop slide open briefly, then close again.

"So then, Romani. If Fujimaru's down for the count for the foreseeable future, what does that mean for our cute little Shielder?" she asked, going for the most pressing of the many questions before them.

"There's no way she could Rayshift and still receive enough prana to maintain her Servant Origin, not without Fujimaru Rayshifting with her, and there's no way in hell I'm letting that girl out of Medical while she's got anything but the cleanest bill of health a person's ever had." He frowned. "We're probably going to have to forcibly break the Master-Servant contract."

Cu blinked. "Wait, that's a thing you can do?"

"It was a precaution Olga Marie had built into our summoning system. It was mainly there in the event one of our Master Candidates summoned an uncontrollable, or outright hostile Servant, and either couldn't – or wouldn't use a Command Seal to force them to kill themselves." Da Vinci grinned wryly. "But it was also there as a safeguard against any Mage who started getting ideas about the pecking order and decided that maybe they should be the ones calling the shots, or were otherwise being a detriment to the operation of Chaldea in general. Take away their superhuman magical familiar, and suddenly they're a lot easier to throw in jail." Or bury in a shallow grave on the mountainside, but Da Vinci kept that thought to herself.

Cu snorted a laugh. "Yeah, if you got any scheming sorts like my last Master, I can see why you'd want something like that. Girl had a pretty good head on her shoulders."

"And on that subject. Kratos, could we see Olga Marie?"

He reached back into one of the pouches on his waist and withdrew the little sphere, handling it with all the care of a robin's egg. Carefully, he set it down in the center of the table, letting it rest on the cloth it had been wrapped in.

Da Vinci had to restrain herself from climbing up on the table and going over the little marble with her (modified) microscope. Sure, she'd seen it though the visual, but this was an artifact from the Age of the Gods – and one from a completely different universe at that. The THINGS she could learn from it!

But she had to conduct herself with at least a modicum of decorum, so she contented herself with staring REALLY hard at it through her (also modified) glasses.

Romani was also getting a good eyeful of the glowing marble. "You said this was of Jotnar make? What more can you tell us about it?" He glanced to the side. "And would it be alright if Da Vinci took a closer look at it, before she vibrates out of her seat?"

Huh. And here she thought she'd managed to hide her twitchy fingers under the table.

"She may, so long as she is careful." The words had scarcely left his mouth before the little sphere was in her hot little hands, being turned this way and that. Paying her maniac examination little mind, he continued. "I know little of the object itself. I was told by one of the last giants that these were created to give them a place to hide from Odin's war against their people. They would give up their bodies, leave a field of corpses in Jotunheim for Asgard to find, and sleep within the stones," He frowned. "Until the prophesized Champion of the Jotnar appeared, and they would become his responsibility." A pause, as he struggled with his words. "My son."

So that meant his son was what? Half god, half giant? Maybe with something else thrown in as well? The mini-Kratos in her mind's eye suddenly gained several feet of height, and blue skin.

Kratos continued. "The keeper of the stones told me that my son passed them back to her shortly after she passed them to him. At Ragnarök, when it became clear that Odin would not stop, could not stop…..my son bound his soul into one of these objects, rather than kill him."

A grunt. "That is as much as I know of them. Though, the stone's keeper did say that my son managed to bind one of the sleeping souls into the body of a snake that had had its soul stolen – a snake that she claims grew into the World Serpent. So, it should be possible to save the Director."

"Fou!"

Da Vinci watched as Kratos' thought processes ground to an abrupt halt. Mash, too, reacted in surprise, but it was an overjoyed surprise.

"Oh, Fou, there you are! I was so worried about you!" Beaming, the girl scooped up the small animal and cuddled it to her face, as the fluffy cat-dog batted at her face and smothered her with licks.

Kratos watched for a moment, puzzlement furrowing his brow. "The animal. What is it?"

Mash turned her beaming face on the god. "Oh, this is Fou, Mr. Kratos. He's kind of like Chaldea's mascot!" She held the small animal out to Kratos, who simply stared at the squirming creature. Fou, for his part, sniffed at Kratos, almost disdainfully, then gave a full-body shudder, and took another, longer sniff of the man, its squirming having ceased. For Kratos' part, he looked over to Da Vinci (clearly showing that he knew who the biggest brain in the room was) for answers.

"Not really much more that I can add to it other than that. Fou's been here even before I was summoned. He's got the run of the place and seems to like Mash." She shrugged. "He's never been a bother, unless you count trying to beg for some scraps off your plate at meals."

"Fou fou. Kyu!" chimed in the beast, looking up at Kratos with wide eyes. The little animal was hiding it well, but it was just a touch wary of Kratos. Just another mark on the mental tally she had been keeping for her belief that Fou was a touch more than a simple animal, magical or not.

"I see." Whatever Kratos thought of the little beast, his expression was decidedly neutral. If nothing else, she didn't think his bacon would be in any danger from Fou.

Romani was halfway through his third cup of coffee – she was probably going to have to cut him off, soon. "Getting back on subject, Kratos, would you be willing to serve as a temporary Master for Mash, until Fujimaru's back up on her feet?" Seeing the man grimace, Romani made a placating gesture. "I know, I know, not something you feel particularly comfortable with, but I promise you, this would be a temporary measure only."

The frown did not leave Kratos' face. "I still dislike this power you ask me to have over another. But it would be foolish to lessen our forces when we are so few." He sighed. "If she will have me, then I will serve in this fashion, for a time."

Mash looked up from where she had been feeding bits of cookies to Fou, and nodded, a simple, warm, smile on her face. "I'll do my best, Mr. Kratos."

Romani drained his cup, looking a little confused that another one didn't materialize in his saucer. Da Vinci gave him a LOOK.

He rolled her eyes at her, but turned off the puppy dog eyes – he knew those didn't work on her once she had made up her mind. "Ok. With that settled, Mash, could I ask you to give Kratos and Cu a tour of the facilities? I'll see what I can do about scrounging up quarters for the both of them, and we can work out any lingering details tomorrow." He sighed. "There's still a lot we need to go over, and we can transfer the Contract with Mash then, as well."

Mash nodded, and quickly corralled the two men into following her, Fou cradled in her arms. As the door hissed shut behind them, Da Vinci and Romani shared a look.

They still had work to do.

CHALDEA CAFETERIA

10 MINUTES LATER

Once, the cafeteria would have been hard-pressed to hold the full contingent of Chaldea's staff. Different departments had to eat in shifts, to keep the room from filling to overflowing – and to keep from overwhelming the chefs.

Now, they could have doubled the number of people in the room, and still had room left to fill.

Romani bit back a tidal wave of despair and rage, both at their unknown enemy, and at himself, for failing to prevent this. Later, in his room, he could break down, vent out all the ugly emotions that were screaming to get out. Right now, he had a job to do as the acting director of Chaldea.

He'd sent out a quick notification to every surviving member of Chaldea – there was to be a all-hands meeting regarding their current situation, the path forward, and a handful of other things, and attendance was mandatory. No joking language, like when he'd threatened to hand Jay over to Da Vinci's tender mercies earlier on – he'd invoked the non-compliance clause in their contracts for anyone who didn't attend without a VERY good reason.

His medical staff, for obvious reasons, were being excused for the time being. He'd give them the same speech at a later time.

He glanced over to Da Vinci, who gave him a little nod. Everyone was here – that meant he wouldn't need to track anyone down later and put the fear of God into them. That was something, at least.

He clapped his hands, silencing the small handful of whispers that had been circulating while they waited for everyone to trickle in. "OK everyone, before I get started here, there's one piece of business we need to attend to."

He held up a rolled piece of paper, causing a ripple of tension to flow through the room. Every single person there, even the non-Mages, recognized a geass scroll when they saw one. "Before I can say anything, I'm going to need every single person in here to sign this. What I'm about to discuss with you all covers things with a level of confidentiality beyond even the NDAs you signed when you signed on with Chaldea. This is a situation that is so far beyond top-secret that I don't think the words to describe it have been created in any of the human languages."

He looked over the room. "If you find that you cannot, for whatever reason, swear yourself to absolute and utter secrecy about the things I'm about to discuss, you'll have two options. One – you will be confined to your quarters for the duration of this crisis. You will be allowed no contact with any of the staff who have signed this scroll, nor will you be allowed to know about any of the happenings or state of Chaldea. Those four walls WILL be your world for the foreseeable future."

He took a breath. "Your second option will be that you will be allowed to continue your duties as normal. But, when we finally resolve this crisis, I will be turning you over to Da Vinci – or someone else, should we find a specialist in this field during the operation – and they will strip EVERY single memory you have of Chaldea from your mind – with no care to what condition it might leave you in. Don't misunderstand, we won't be trying to turn you into a drooling vegetable, but if we HAVE to, we will." Da Vinci's little cackle here was a nice touch, if unneeded. It seemed he was getting his point across fine without her little embellishments.

He gave the room a pleading look. "Please, understand, I'm not trying to be draconian here. We went back and forth on this, but neither of us could come up with a better solution. The Clock Tower CANNOT find out the secrets I'm about to reveal to you. The consequences for that could be as disastrous as the crisis we find ourselves facing now."

"Please, I am BEGGING you. Sign the scroll. For ALL our sakes."

There was some muttered discussion as the scroll made its way across the room, heads huddled together as various groups read over the exact wording of the contract. But in the end, when the scroll made its way back to him, every single person in the room had signed.

Romani took a shuddering breath. He really did have a good bunch of people here.

"Thank you, all, for being willing to put your trust in me, especially after all that's happened the past few days." He passed the scroll off to Da Vinci, and reached down to activate the holographic display on the podium he had had moved into the cafeteria for this meeting. "Those of you who were in the command center when we retrieved our team from the Singularity may have noticed that two new faces came back with Fujimaru and Mash – and that the Director did not return with them. And given how fast news spreads here, those who weren't in the command center have undoubtedly heard about it from a variety of different sources. First things first, Olga Marie Animusphere is alive, in a fashion. The blast that killed so many of us also killed her, but her soul managed to get caught in the emergency Rayshift with Mash and Fujimaru. Normally, this would have meant her soul would have broken apart upon return to the present, but we were able to find an object that could hold her soul in the middle of the Singularity, and, as near as we can tell, it worked."

Amazingly, it seemed like the news of Olga's survival was going over well, despite how little love most of the staff had for her – mostly due to her frankly poor leadership since taking over from her father. He supposed after so many losses in such a short time, the news of any survivors was something to take to heart.

"Da Vinci's currently exploring ways to craft some sort of body for her so we can have our Director back, but, in the worst case, we'll have to wait until the current crisis is resolved, and we can leverage some greater resources that aren't currently available to us."

Like tracking down the Red and, in Da Vinci's words, 'making her an offer she can't refuse'. And curse whomever thought to show Da Vinci the Godfather movies.

He pressed a button, and a still of a blue-haired man flickered into existence. "This is one of the two new additions to Chaldea – Servant Caster, Cu Chulainn. He was one of the Servants summoned for the Holy Grail War that had taken place in that Singularity, and has contracted with Chaldea for the foreseeable future. There's nothing else I need to say about him that wasn't covered in the packet you all had to read about Servants when you signed on with Chaldea. He likely won't be the first, or the last Servant you see walking Chaldea's halls. Neither he, nor what happened to Olga Marie, is why I had you sign that scroll."

Another button press, and the image of the Irish Servant was replaced by that of a tall, tattooed man. "This is. Meet the other stray we brought back from that Singularity. I'm sure everyone's already heard, but upon their arrival, I may have said something about getting a Divine Spirit reading. I was both right, and wrong in that regard."

Romani paused for the moment as he increased the image's size. "Everyone, meet Kratos, an actual Greek God."

Boy, if that didn't kick the hornet's nest. He almost wished for a gavel he could bang to try to restore order – but at least he had Da Vinci and her noisemaker. When the cacophony of that had stopped echoing in the room, he resumed his speech. "Understand that when I say a Greek God, I mean an actual, physical god – not a Servant, not an avatar, but a real-life deity, in the flesh."

"But…I mean….HOW?" That would be Meunière, cutting right to the heart of the matter.

He held up a hand to cut off any forthcoming questions, and chose to believe it was their respect for him as the Acting Director that got their attention, and not that Da Vinci was still holding her contraption, and had her finger hovering over the activation switch. "For all the mages in the crowd asking the same question Meunière is, and wondering about the end of the Age of the Gods, the Other Side of the World, and the rest of that, the answer is because Kratos isn't from our universe."

"We have no idea if the Kaleidoscope is responsible for this!" He had to yell, but managed to cut off any of the forthcoming chatter before it could begin. "From what Kratos told the Director, we don't think he is. From what she heard, it sounds like he's here because of something that happened in his universe, something that landed him here."

He gave them a moment to digest that, then continued on. "Now, for the good news. While in the Singularity, the Director managed to strike a deal with Kratos – help her resolve the Singularity, and she'd see about getting him back home. As all of you know, resolving the Singularity was only the first step – we have seven other Singularities to set right before this crisis is over, though she didn't know that at the time. So, while I was trying to save our only remaining Master Candidate, Da Vinci managed to pick up where the Director left off, and enlisted Kratos' help in resolving this crisis."

He grinned, seeing the hope that had blossomed inside of him when he'd heard the news from Da Vinci blossom on all their faces. After the hits they had taken, this was a sorely needed morale boost. "That's right, everyone. We've got an actual god in our corner."

He let them have their moment, the cheers, the hugs, the high-fives, and the gamut of other celebrations that burst forth at his announcement. He almost hated that he had to dump cold water on them so soon. "And that's why the Clock Tower can never, EVER know about this."

The room got real quiet, real fast. The mages were nodding, even those who had been somewhat hesitant to sign the geass looked like they were on board. The normal humans, on the other hand…..

"So, why all the secrecy, then? I mean, would it really be so bad if this Clock Tower found out about him? I mean, what the hells are they going to do to a GOD?" Of course it would be Jay. The man would argue with his own reflection.

Thankfully, he was spared from having to answer the question by a third party piping up. "Jay, you're not a mage, so you've never had to deal with them before Chaldea. The Clock Tower are BASTARDS. Absolute bastards, almost to a man." And there was Tanya, second child of a minor mage family, and well and truly embittered by her years at the Clock Tower. He still wondered how Lord Animusphere managed to lure her here, given her open loathing of the greater whole of mage society. Probably the paycheck – there weren't a ton of options for someone as low on the totem pole as her.

And, it looked like she was winding up into a good rant. "Those prats will slap a Sealing Designation on anything that catches their interest that they can't figure out how to copy – and a living, breathing god? They'd trip over themselves in their hurry to be the first ones to get a piece of that. Fuck me, they might even be able to play nice with each other long enough to actually get him sealed before they all resumed stabbing each other in the back."

"And that is why we can't let a whisper of this escape these walls. Kratos has twice warned us what will happen if we end up playing him false." Da Vinci looked around the room. "I'm a Servant, and I don't particularly want to fight a god. Do any of you?"

From the number of shaking heads he could see in the audience, it would appear that none of them did. "And that's why Da Vinci and I decided on this course of action. Please, don't take it as any sort of slight in the amount of trust we have in you. For something of this nature, we just cannot take any chances."

Whoooo. It looked it was going over decently well. He'd argued against Da Vinci on this, worried that demanding something like this, with morale as low as it was, was akin to lighting a powder keg, but she'd been adamant that once they heard his reasons, they'd come around. She'd been right, yet again, and he was likely to hear about it for the next week or two, until she was right about something else, or managed to build something breathtaking and had something new to crow about.

"So, do we have to, like, worship him or anything?"

Oh, thank you Jack, that was an excellent question to break the tension. "No clue. In the short time I've spoken with the man, he's never once even said the word 'worship'. All he said to me when we shook on the agreement was to keep our word and treat him fairly. Nothing about temples, services, or fattened calves."

That got a laugh out of the room. For Romani, it felt like the first time he'd laughed in an age. God, he was tired. Just a little more, then he could curl up in his bed. "I'm not going to forbid any of you from going near him or trying to talk with him. Just please, he seems like a very private person. If he tells you to go away, or you think you might be overstepping his boundaries, leave him be." His face hardened. "And, if he should start making unreasonable demands of any of you, let me, or Da Vinci know right away. From what little I've seen of him, it doesn't seem likely, but, just in case."

Romani wanted to believe in their savior, he truly did. But Kratos was a Greek God, a pantheon that could have posed for the picture to go by the dictionary definition of 'dysfunctional' or 'degenerate'. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst – though what he'd do if Kratos turned into a tyrant was beyond him.

Problems for another day. Take the win for now.

"All right, that's all I wanted to say. If there's any other questions, I'll hang around for about fifteen minutes – that's probably how long Da Vinci's coffee will last before I start nodding off on my feet. Everyone else – we've got an incredible task ahead of us, but you all know what you need to be doing."

"Dismissed."

AUTHORS NOTES: No Kratos POV this time – had to let the Da Vinci and Romani in my heads out to play to get a handle on their personalities, as well as introduce a couple of the minor side characters that fill out Chaldea's survivors (and Meunière, who being an actual canon character will pop up from time to time).

Next chapter will be almost entirely Kratos POV, as we see how the big lug reacts to the 21st century.