A GHOST IN A STRANGE LAND

CHAPTER 16

Avenger's head jerked to the side, staring at Jeanne with wide eyes. "Wait, Jean? As in our motherfucking brother JEAN? That's who I summoned?"

The Servant laughed. "Oh…..so you know my meatsuit? That would explain why he's so worked up….shrieking things like 'Run Jeanne.' 'Don't let him catch you, Jeanne'. 'He's going to kill you, Jeanne'." He cracked his knuckles. "Not that he's wrong." He took a step forward, only to find his path barred by the Leviathan Axe.

Kratos stared down the unknown Servant. "You will not touch her." A spirit, possessing the body of another - every day in this Singularity showed there were many things about Servants that had been neglected in his lessons. "Who are you, that steals the face of another?"

The Servant laughed uproariously, his body leaning back, ever so slightly. "Don't recognize me, do you? I suppose I have changed since we last met…..but you….." His eyes narrowed. "You're the same. I wonder how long it's been since you killed me?"

Red was beginning to leak into the corners of Kratos' vision. "Who. Are. You?"

A sneer. "As blunt as ever. You make my brother look cultured in comparison." He took a step back, deliberately out of the range of Kratos' Axe - and, more tellingly, beyond the reach of the Blades of Chaos. "Let me show you."

The Servant closed his eyes, and seemed to concentrate. For a long moment, nothing happened, then, his form began to ripple and change.

The vaguely aristocratic clothing melted away, replaced with more rustic leather leggings and cloth tied around his hips - and only that. He wore no boots, no shirt, nothing above his waist. Previously clear flesh erupted in a riot of patterns, as a sprawling network of tattoos sprang into being. Blonde hair darkened until it was brown, and lost its thin and fine nature, instead becoming short and thick. And finally, hair sprouted on a formerly clean-shaven face until it formed a matted beard, a handful of beads tied into the strands.

Kratos felt his blood run cold. "...Baldur."

The Spartan's voice broke whatever spell had caused the Servant's form to change, and like a bubble popping, his body snapped back to what it had been when they had first laid eyes on the man. Baldur took a deep breath. "Can't manage it for long, but it's getting longer each time. Soon, this body will be completely mine."

"How?" asked Jeanne. "How are you here, and in the body of my brother? You're not even FROM this world - it should have been impossible for you to be inscribed on the Throne of Heroes…..much less to be here as a Servant!"

Baldur shot Jeanne a look of contempt. "I have no idea. The last thing I remember was lying in the snow like so much trash after your friend there got in the way of a family squabble and snapped my neck. After that, nothing but darkness - for how long, I don't know. But then…I heard a voice."

He stared right at Avenger. "HER voice. Begging for an enemy of some 'mighty warrior' to come help her fight her battles. So I answered. It looked like the void between realms, except there was a tear, getting smaller by the moment, and the voice was coming from the other side of it. I made it in right before the thing sealed itself up." He grinned. "Then, I was in this body, and I could feel…EVERYTHING!"

Baldur held his arms out, almost….shivering at the play of air across his skin. "I had only JUST gotten it back when you killed me, old man. I might hate you the most for that - not for killing Dagsetr, not for what you did to Magni and Modi, not for the prisoner you stole, not for you and your brat of a son leading me on a chase all across Midgard, and not for getting between me and my mother, no….to kill me after I had FINALLY broken the curse she put on me…no. That, you are going to BLEED for."

He scowled. "Of course, it wasn't just me in there. There were two other souls I had to deal with first." He smirked, cruelly, as Jeanne's face twisted in pain. "Oh yes, it's not JUST your brother in here, girl. There's this world's version of me. Credit to your brother, wench, he didn't go down first or easy. He actually put up more of a fight than my other self did."

Baldur spat to the side. "Coddled little weakling went down with less fight than a child. But from what I've seen of his memories, it's no surprise. HE had a mother who ACTUALLY loved him, who didn't take EVERYTHING from him while claiming she was 'protecting' him. And it wasn't just her….everyone loved him, to the point where he never had to get his hands dirty, or even work for a single thing in his life. He didn't suffer, not like I did. So when I threw the first punch, he showed me his belly like a broken wolf pup. So…disappointing."

"Your brother at least fought…..for all the good it did him. He's still fighting now, beating his fists bloody on the cage I've got him in, trying to move a mountain with his bare hands." He leaned his head to the side, cracking his neck. "Not that it'll stop what's about to happen."

Kratos' hand tightened around the haft of the Leviathan Axe. "Is revenge truly so important to you? Before, I told you it would bring you no peace. You could not let go of your hatred once, and you found only death in the end. Would you find the same a second time?"

Baldur cackled. "Oh, that's the thing, I'm not doing this entirely for the blood price you owe me. There's a man in green who had all manner of questions for me after I was summoned. Who you are, what you are - now that I see you, I see some of the things the All-Father believed about you weren't quite right, but I was happy to tell him everything I could. And he made me an offer. You see, there's a bounty on your head, 'Kratos'."

There was a shimmering heat-haze around Avenger, as her rage was causing her body temperature to skyrocket. "So that's why you stabbed me in the back…it wasn't that I was a poor leader, and you didn't give two shits about how I was treating my Servants. You just wanted the bounty. What did that fucker promise you?!"

"Oh, I'd have torn your arm off regardless. The Aesir don't answer to some uppity peasant. You deserved to die just for thinking you could order me around. And those Command Seals had to go once our mutual friend told me what they could do to me."

He raised his right hand, and an intricate pattern, similar to the tattoos that covered his body, flared into life, angry and red. "I'll put them to much better use. But to answer your question, when I deliver the god's corpse to Lev, I get to keep the Holy Grail I tore out of you, to make sure I won't go fading out anytime soon. And then, once they're sure he's dead, they're going to open a portal for me, and let me go back home, where I can finish that conversion with my mother."

Romani made a short, choking sound of disbelief. "That's impossible. Only one person can use the Second Magic. You can't be telling me that ZELRETCH is behind all of this?!"

Baldur blinked at the projection of Romani for a second. "You must be Romani. Lev wanted me to tell you that, once we're done with this backwater of a land, they're going to come for your Chaldea, and burn it to the ground. Everyone you know is going to die screaming…..though I see the girl he said you think of as a daughter is here. You might want to turn away…..what I'm going to do to her isn't going to be pretty."

Mash paled, and took an involuntary step back, and Kratos felt even more red bleed into his vision. "Odin is dead. Asgard has been destroyed - Ragnarök has come and gone. The realms threw off the tyranny of Asgard - there is nothing left for you there."

"Odin, dead?" Baldur laughed in Kratos' face. "Even if I can now see you're no Giant like I thought you were, a weakling god like you could never kill the All-Father, much less my brother - who you'd have to kill to get to Odin. Tell a better lie if you're trying to get me to spare your life." He took a step forward.

The next moment, he was in front of Kratos, fist screaming through the air.

Kratos slid aside, the punch narrowly missing his face, then leaned back from the follow up body hook Baldur threw. A jab, and a fast, short elbow were also avoided in quick succession.

Baldur's fighting style did not seem to have changed, despite his new vessel. Like before, he still swung wildly, with openings everywhere. Before, when they first met, Kratos had been rusty - years of peace had dulled his instincts. Not to say Baldur hadn't been a formidable foe - the blow he had landed at the start of the fight had rocked Kratos harder than he had ever been - but Kratos had been a very different person then.

That was not the Kratos of today, who had fought off Freya for three years straight during Fimbulwinter, then had led the combined armies of the realms against Asgard.

Even if he couldn't harm Baldur permanently, he could kill him, temporarily. He had broken the god's neck and dropped his body off a cliff in their first encounter. It had bought he and Atreus time - and doing something similar here would do the same. Time to kill his dragon, maybe even time to resolve this Singularity.

He stepped back, avoiding a haymaker that would have taken his head off if it had connected, then planted his foot and swung the Leviathan Axe, putting his full strength into the blow.

The axe glanced off Baldur's skin - no, it failed to even touch him, being deflected before even reaching the man.

Off-balance, Baldur's counter took Kratos right in his chest and blasted him across the ruined town, his body digging a trench in the ground.

Baldur's mad laugh chased him across the span. "Surprised? Expecting to just snap my neck and leave me as carrion again, until I healed? It seems my mother in this world was less of a failure. She actually figured out how to make a spell that could protect, without taking away any feeling from the person she was trying to protect." Baldur's form loomed over Kratos. "And while I can feel EVERYTHING…..you can't touch me. Not with your axe, not with those blades of yours, not with anything."

Kratos pushed himself up from the ground, mind working furiously. Once, Baldur had hit him harder than he had ever been hit in his life - at least until Thor reset the scale. This Servant was weaker than that, but powerful all the same. And the difference in strength meant little if Kratos could do no harm to his enemy. "The land dying. Your doing."

Baldur's grin was sharp enough to cut. "Put it together, have you? A little of mother's magic, twisted up just so, and amplified with that Holy Grail I took from that half-dead failure that you picked up. Or did you think my mother wouldn't teach her darling boy the magics of her people?"

He strode across the battlefield, slowly. "So, this won't be like last time. No mistletoe to break the spell. No way for you to hurt me - you can dodge me for as long as you can manage, but that old body will get tired, and fail, and then I'll beat you bloody. And let you watch as I tear your allies apart, one by one." He cracked his knuckles. "Only then will I let you die."

Kratos seized the Blades of Chaos from his back and sent them screaming through the air - but, as expected, they too failed to even scratch the Servant, instead slowing as they approached Baldur, then flying away into the opposite directions, almost randomly. Growling, Kratos pulled the Blades back to his hands. He had expected as much, but to see it…..

Baldur sneered at the Spartan's growing frustration. "Anything more to try? You still have that Berserkergang of yours. You can wear the bear-shirt if you think it'll help…I'll rip it from your body all the same."

No, Spartan Rage would likely be as useless as his weapons. Draupnir could possibly blind him for a moment, but the opening it would create would be meaningless, with no way to harm him.

"FUCCCCCK YOU!" A gout of flame washed over Baldur's form, to little effect. Avenger blinked, stunned that her fire had done nothing.

"So eager to die, are you?" Baldur didn't even turn his head to look at the Avenger. "Or are you just in a hurry to see that freak of yours again?"

It was a wonder that Avenger's armor wasn't glowing white-hot from the sheer incandescence of her rage. "You….don't GET to talk about Gilles like that!" With an incoherent cry of fury, Avenger poured forth a tidal wave of fire, an endless stream that washed over Baldur. It was impressive, the magnitude of it.

It was also completely pointless. From where Kratos stood, he could see the fire parting before Baldur. Even the heat seemed to not affect him in the slightest.

Baldur turned to face the Avenger, then took a step. Then another one. Almost deliberately, he began walking towards her, his pace mockingly slow. By the time he was halfway to her, the flames she was emitting were white. By the time he was almost upon her, they were almost blue. Then his fist cracked into her, and she was sent flying back, landing in a heap.

In a flash, Jeanne was standing over the body of her clone, flag raised, eyes narrowed. Baldur laughed. "Going to try your hand, 'Saint'? Believe you can somehow fare better than that pitiful copy of yourself?"

"Whether I can or not is irrelevant. You have the Holy Grail - to save France, to reverse all this senseless death and destruction, you must fall….." She gritted her teeth. "...regardless of the fact that you bear the face, and soul of my brother."

Baldur snatched her flag from the air before she had even fully swung it. "So this is the power of that nailed god Vlad was always speaking of? Pathetic." Savagely, he backhanded Jeanne, blasting her to the ground atop Avenger. He raised his foot and brought it down on the Ruler's head.

Or tried to, as, at the last second, Mash slid in, interposing her shield between the vulnerable bodies of the two Jeannes. Baldur's eyes widened fractionally.

"Some power in you, little girl. You don't seem to be the useless waste Lev said you were…"

Sweat was pouring down Mash's brow as she pushed against the strength of the Servant. "I…..won't LET you hurt them!"

Incredibly, impossibly, she managed to push Baldur back, managed to surge to her feet and knock him back, just a little.

Baldur stared at her like she was a particularly interesting bug he'd spotted, crawling across his meal. "You…aren't quite the utter failure Lev said you were. It's almost interesting."

Then he flew forward, sliding under her attempted counter, seizing her hair and kicking her, viciously, in the back. Mash tumbled forward, strands of her hair dangling from Baldur's fingers.

"It's almost a waste to have to kill you." he said, watching as the girl's hair fell from his hand, floating to the ground. "But Lev was very clear - you have to die, if only to make Romani suffer."

Medusa's voice rushed into his head. 'Kratos, we can't win this. We have to get out of here. ….there's a way we can escape, but you're going to have to trust me.'

Kratos tensed his body, watching, waiting for Baldur to make a move. 'What must I do?'

'Have Jeanne and Avenger astralize. I'll only be able to carry two of us….you'll just have to sling Mash over your shoulders, either fireman's carry or caveman style….horizontally or vertically, I mean. And I'll need a moment to call him - and even with how little regard he's giving us, I don't think Baldur will give me that moment if he notices what I'm doing.'

Kratos grimaced. A moment. He could do that. 'Gather Mash, make your preparations. I will give you your time.' Across the field, he could see Avenger struggling to her feet, her lips stained red. Jeanne was helping the Avenger up, her flag half-raised, but she too was hurt - and still torn. As much of a brave face as she was putting on, seeing a Servant with her brother's face was unsettling her.

Kratos seized the two similar, yet opposite threads in his mind, and sent. 'I will draw his attention. When I do, astralize. Medusa has a means for us to quit the field.'

The reply from Jeanne was the mental equivalent of a shaky nod. Avenger's reply was much more vulgar, but she too agreed.

Then, it was time for the distraction.

From within him, it erupted. The frustration of having to fight, yet again, after he finally thought he had found some measure of peace in the wake of Ragnarök. The isolation of being away from his allies, his son - for all that they had made a place for him, Chaldea was not his home. The difficulty in dealing with Avenger, in many ways a mirror of a Kratos that he had hoped to never see again. And the anger at seeing Baldur again, a man he did not regret killing, though he had truly wished for another way - but whose stubborn NEED for revenge had tied Kratos' hands.

Red washed over his form as Spartan Rage claimed him, and the Ghost of Sparta once again walked the Earth.

He could have crossed the battlefield in an instant, hurled a haymaker at Baldur, but he knew it would do nothing. He had to get Baldur away from the Jeannes, away from Mash and Medusa, and throwing ineffective punches wouldn't do it. So, if he couldn't touch the man….

…then touch the ground he was standing on.

Kratos' fingers sunk into the ground, and PULLED. The earth shattered, and before he could process what was happening, Kratos tore the very ground from beneath Baldur's feet, and hurled both him, and it, through the air.

If it was anyone else, that might have given them the moment they needed. But Baldur was immune to all threats, physical and magical, said a voice in his head that sounded like….well, a head. The fall would not damage Baldur, nor would crashing through the building that he had aimed him at. He would need to do more to buy the necessary time.

The ground shattered beneath his feet as he flew across the ruined town, smashing through the wall of the building where Baldur had landed. As expected, Baldur was completely unharmed, and waiting on him. Just to confirm, Kratos DID throw that haymaker, and received his confirmation when his fist could not so much as touch a matted hair on the Servant's head.

No matter.

Roaring, in a manner he hoped Baldur would take as impotent rage, Kratos threw a barrage of punches, each one more sloppy than the last. None came anywhere close to connecting, but they seemed to amuse Baldur, if his laughs were any indication.

Good. Every moment he was laughing in here was one moment he wasn't watching Medusa.

Kratos felt it, then. Medusa's string…thrummed, pulling on Kratos' very being, drawing on the magical energies of his divinity to do…something. Her Noble Phantasm, perhaps?

Irrelevant - whatever it was, it was time to depart, before Baldur grew bored enough to counterattack.

The red receded from his vision, as he seized the reins of Spartan Rage and wrenched it back into the recesses of himself. Before the crimson energy had faded from his form, the Blades of Chaos were in his hands, and were sent out wide, shattering through the support pillars of the building.

The building groaned, and Kratos lowered his head and MOVED.

Baldur's crazed laughter followed him out of the collapsing building. "Run all you like! This won't stop me!"

Kratos made it out of the building as the structure fully collapsed. Even with a glance, he could see how the falling timbers and stone shifted in their fall to avoid touching Baldur. But even if he was not buried, he would be hindered, for just a moment.

Hopefully long enough for them to make good their escape.

Kratos rounded the corner to where Medusa had been standing, and, for a moment, his footsteps faltered, as his eyes took in what the woman was astride.

It was white as the purest snow. Majestic wings greater than those of any bird stretched from its sides, unfurled, and ready to take flight.

Pegasus.

So this, then, was why she was classed as a Rider.

(How long, he wondered, had it been since that day he had leapt onto the winged horse's back and attempted to fly to Olympus, consumed with only one thought - to regain his powers as the God of War and make Zeus pay for his betrayal? Decades? Centuries? Or even longer? Sometimes, he wondered what became of the beast.)

Medusa's head turned in his direction, hand outstretched. "Get on! NOW!"

Kratos ran full out towards the winged horse, and did not even pause as he reached Mash, lowering his shoulder and hoisting her bodily without pausing for a second. Then, before the girl's surprised squeak had died out, he was grasping Medusa's hand, and she was swinging him up behind her.

From across the town, there was the sound of wood splintering.

Then they were in the sky.

A bellow of rage followed them out of the burning town…then, a moment later, a roar loud enough to cause the very sky to shake.

'Yeah, bad news, Kratos, but he's not letting you go that easy.' Avenger's voice echoed in his head, sounding almost subdued. 'He reaaaaaalllly wants you dead.'

Kratos twisted his head around to look. Fafnir was right behind them - they had a small lead, one that didn't appear to be shrinking, but Baldur was a tracker - and a tenacious one at that. Merely running would not be enough.

"KRATOS!"

Mash's shield materialized in her hand, and Pegasus' flight dipped noticeably with the sudden addition of a massive hunk of cold metal, before the winged horse adjusted to the increase in weight. A second later, three impacts, so close together that they were almost one, glanced off Mash's shield.

"We're taking fire!" yelled the girl, desperately trying to shield them while still slung over Kratos' shoulder.

'It's Atalanta…..no one else could make those shots from dragon back like that.' Jeanne's voice was calm, despite their increasingly harried situation. 'I can see her from here, she's right beside Baldur on that thing's back…I recognize her, though I don't know how….'

Kratos snapped his shield into place, willing to take whatever extra protection he could manage - he had little hope of being able to spot one of the arrows in the night sky, but he might get lucky and deflect one on sheer chance. Again, he risked another glance behind.

No appreciable gain, either from their pursuers, or in their lead. But he thought he could just see it - a slight form standing on the back of the dragon, unconcerned with the speed at which they were cutting through the air, long hair billowing in the winds, a weapon that could only be a bow held in her hands.

As he watched, five more arrows were loosed from said bow, and this time, Pegasus was forced to dodge, as Mash's shield could not shelter them from every shot. The mystical horse did so almost effortlessly, weaving through the sky with a peerless grace - but by forcing them to evade, their pursuers made up ground. It was the merest fraction of the lead they held, but it put them that much closer to overtaking them.

And Atalanta was unlikely to run out of arrows.

"How long can you maintain the horse?" yelled Kratos.

Medusa laughed, though there was a touch of unease in her laughter. "With you providing me mana? Days! But they'll catch us long before I run out. We need a plan!"

'East!' Avenger's voice boomed in his head. 'Head east! If that really is Baldur, we need to find mistletoe! His bitch-ass spell can't have gone past France's borders! 'Me' even said she didn't see the blight affecting the land that far out!'

It was as good a plan as any.

For a desperate five minutes that seemed like much, much longer, they screamed through the night sky. Medusa stroked her steed's neck, whispering in his ears, praising him, soothing him, cajoling whatever extra speed she could from her mount. Pegasus, for his part, responded. He was a white streak amongst the stars, weaving through Atalanta's fire by the skin of his teeth, but always managing to avoid it.

But every evasion cost them, and the gap between them and the dragon shrank, little by little.

"Mash, left!"

Mash jerked her shield to the left, intercepting an arrow that would have torn through Pegasus' wing. Jeanne was acting as a spotter, apparently just familiar enough with Atalanta to be able to sometimes spot a tricky shot that was hidden in the blind spot of another shot, or one angled to catch Pegasus as he evaded another barrage. She didn't notice everything, but the few she had caught had been lifesaving.

"We should be coming up on Castle Csejte!" shouted Avenger. "If Carmilla was still around, we might have a welcoming party to deal with, but yours truly sent that bitch back to hell, so we should be…."

A pause. Probably only seconds, but it stretched into what felt like a lifetime.

"Are those fucking giant SPEAKERS?"

"HEY HEY PARTY PEOPLE!" A voice exploded across the night, easily audible despite the distance, and the wind screaming past their ears. "I'D LIKE TO THANK YOU FOR COMING TO DRAGON COUNTESS ELI-CHAN'S ONE NIGHT SPECIAL! AND WITHOUT FURTHER ADO, HERE'S MY FIRST HIT SINGLE, COMING RIGHT AT YOU!"

A crackling noise, and an inhaled breath. Then….

"SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

Kratos had, in his time, fought harpies. He had fought sirens. He had even battled History's Greatest Musician (though he would never speak of it, if he had his way). Sound-based attacks were nothing new to him.

This was worse than all of them combined.

The wave of sound hit them like a physical blow, Pegasus only barely able to stay in the air. Medusa was yelling something - what, he couldn't tell, over the assault on his ears. Mash was shaking in his arms - possibly whimpering, though he was as deaf to that as he was to whatever Medusa was saying. And the Jeannes…..

'Is this hell? Am I in hell? Look, God, I'm sorry. I was wrong. I had no idea you had this shit waiting on me. Give me another chance?'

'Oh Lord…..why hast thou forsaken me…'

They were handling it as well as they could.

The only bright spot was that Fafnir seemed to care for the cacophony as little as they did - and the barrage of arrows had stopped, as well. Whatever this was, it was something of a blessing - a reprieve in exchange for their hearing.

'Pegasus can't keep this up - not in the face of…whatever this is! I'm going to have to dive, hope that it's less bad closer to the ground, with some of the hills to absorb the sound. Hold onto Mash tight!'

Kratos tightened his grip around Mash's waist as their steed plummeted from the sky so suddenly one could think it had suddenly lost the power of flight altogether. But it was a controlled dive, one that leveled off as they grew closer to the ground. Trees, hills, flew by as they cut through the air. And Medusa was correct - the dirge was more tolerable closer to the ground, though it still was like knives in their brains.

Unsurprisingly, Fafnir followed. Bloody froth oozed from his jaws as his wings beat the air, ramming bodily through trees that the smaller Pegasus had to maneuver around, the impacts barely slowing the dragon.

'I'm detecting a Servant ahead!' Jeanne's voice cut through the pain in his skull. 'A strong one, too! Whoever it is, they're making no effort to hide themselves, they're standing out like a beacon!'

As they drew closer to the displaced Castle Csejte, they began to notice other details that seemed out of place, beyond the massive speakers that continued to emit noise.

Banners declaring 'showtimes' in several different languages hung from the gates.

Flashing lights in a variety of colors decorating the castle walls.

Two bright lights, pointed at the highest tower.

And the castle itself showed signs of recent construction - specifically, a somewhat rickety bridge extended from one of the smaller castle towers to a nearby hill.

Atop which perched a man.

Tall, armored in silver and black, with long hair billowing in the wind, and a glowing sigil pulsing on his exposed chest.. A massive two-handed sword was held in his hands, pointed at the sky.

The screeching suddenly died out, leaving their ears aching.

"ARE YOU ALL HAVING A BLAST? I KNOW I AM! BUT, I'M GOING TO HAVE TO HIT THE PAUSE BUTTON FOR A SECOND. YOU'RE A GREAT CROWD, BUT WE'VE GOT SOME GATE-CRASHERS TO OUR PARTY, SO YOUR FAVORITE IDOL'S GOING TO STEP ASIDE SO SECURITY CAN ESCORT THEM OUT. SIGGY-WOOGY, YOU'RE UP!"

"That's motherfucking SIEGFRIED!" Avenger's voice held a note of panic. "DIVE! BANK! Do SOMETHING, but get us the HELL out of anywhere in between him and that fucking dragon on our tail, NOW!"

Medusa had barely pulled on the reins to bank Pegasus to the side when, from behind them, there came the shriek of the purest rage. Across the distance, they could faintly hear cursing as Baldur struggled to rein in his mount.

On the hill, the man clenched his hands around the hilt of his blade, and then took a step back, setting his feet firmly into the ground. He twisted the grip, and even across the distance, all watching heard an audible click, and saw a flash of light between the man's hands.

Medusa was pulling the reins hard, urging Pegasus to the side - Baldur had lost all control of Fafnir, who had eyes only for the man standing on the hill, no longer caring about his former quarry, who were desperately trying to keep from being caught in the middle.

The man's mouth moved. Impossibly, his voice carried across the night.

"The evil dragon shall fall, and the world will reach its sunset….."

"SHITSHITSHITSHITSHIT! GET US OUT OF THE LINE OF FIRE!"

"I am TRYING!" Medusa kicked her heels into the winged horse's sides, and Pegasus dove even lower, barely skimming over the ground.

"I shall bring you down!" The blade of the sword erupted into a torrent of magical energy, a beam of light extending from his sword, piercing the clouds.

He raised his sword above his head, arms tensing, as Fafnir drew closer, and closer.

Then, he brought his sword down.

"BALMUNG!"

Power exploded from the sword, a beam that dwarfed the first exploding from his blade. A torrent of pure magical energy screamed across the distance in the blink of an eye.

They got out of the way, but only just barely. Even then, proximity alone was enough to blast Pegasus from the air, sending him crashing to the ground - had Medusa not dropped them to the point where they had been almost touching the wilted grass, their fall would have been much, much worse.

Fafnir did not fare so well.

The Servant's Noble Phantasm crashed against its antithesis and reacted. Foul, polluted blood rained down on the soil of France as Balmung's released power carved into Fafnir's flesh. The dragon's shriek of pain caused the landscape to shake from the sheer power of it.

Then, it was over.

Fafnir hung there, still alive, but horribly wounded. Siegfried had flayed a good portion of the dragon's chest and flank almost to the bone - but somehow, Fafnir still had enough strength to maintain his altitude, blood pouring from its wounds.

Across the impasse, Siegfried drew himself back up, and observed his handiwork. "Hmm."

Balmung was raised again, pointing to the sky. Once more, armored hands twisted, and an audible click could be heard.

Fafnir shrieked, and went berserk with fear. Wings beating almost so fast they couldn't be seen, Fafnir turned and fled. Baldur's cursing vanished in the wind as the dragon drew farther and farther away.

For a long moment, Siegfried held his stance - then lowered his sword, and nodded.

Kratos picked himself up off the ground. "Injuries?" he yelled, casting about the area in which they had crash landed for the rest of his group. He himself was barely even banged up - compared to some of the falls he had taken in his time, this was little worse than tripping over a root in the forest.

"I'm ok, Mr. Kratos!" replied Mash. "You took the brunt of the fall, and managed to shield me against the worst of it. Thank you!"

Avenger popped into being. "I'm fine. Can't really take a fall in Spirit Form, but that was cutting it WAY too fucking close. I'd rather have my gums scraped than be smack dab in the middle of Siegfried and Fafnir again."

Medusa was kneeling by her steed, gently stroking its sides. "I am unharmed, but Pegasus strained a wing in the fall." She carefully ran her fingers across the wing in question, tension in her body every time the horse whinnied in pain at her touch. "Shhhhhh…you did so good. I'm going to have to dismiss him to let him mend - I should still be able to call on him for my Noble Phantasm, if need be, but he won't be able to carry us again until he heals."

"Well, I suppose that answers the question of who YOU are, then."

The voice came from above them. Almost reflexively, Avenger ignited a ball of flame and sent it upwards, illuminating the clearing where they were huddled, and exposing the speaker.

She was seated on the edge of a nearby hill, white-stockinged legs dangling in the air as she looked down on them. She appeared young, a girl on the cusp of adulthood, but not quite there yet. A strange green robe was wrapped around her form, while long hair a shade lighter than the robe blew in the wind. A simple fan was grasped in her hand, being tapped in her palm as she observed them. All in all, she would have been the picture of a noble maiden, if not for the white horns that sprouted from her head.

"Strange though, we hadn't heard that the famous Gorgon had been summoned by the Dragon Witch." Her head tilted back. "Now, we have been busy getting the gecko's castle ready for her concert, but I think we would have heard of the Pegasus putting in an appearance in France. And that still begs the question of why Fafnir was chasing you…curious, wouldn't you say, Dragonslayer?"

"Yes, lady. When last I had occasion to cross paths with the Dragon Witch, she and Fafnir were aligned." The knight, Siegfried, if the Jeannes were correct, strode into the clearing, blade held in his hands, but not yet raised. "By all appearances, it appeared that Fafnir was chasing these people…..one of which, I can say with some certainty IS the Dragon Witch."

Avenger glared at the man, but managed to keep from raising her spear at a look from Kratos.

"Though she has seen better days," continued the man. "The other two, I don't know…but I believe you can feel it, as I can, lady. That man is a god."

The girl's lips thinned, and she snapped her fan out, and began fanning herself. "While I find lies abhorrent, I must confess that a part of me hoped you were lying just now." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "Then again, suffering does lead to a better karma in the next life…..what he went through in the bell might have been enough to see him reincarnate as the divine…but he's so hairy…..but look at those abs….."

"Please…..we are not your enemies." Jeanne materialized in a shower of gold, hands raised, and if the two Servants were confused, it was nothing compared to their reaction at her appearance.

"There are two of them. Two Dragon Witches." The girl peered down at Siegfried. "Why are there TWO Dragon Witches, Siegfried? You never said she had a twin." Her voice dropped, a dangerous tone creeping into it. "Did you lie to us?"

Siegfried shook his head. "No, lady. That woman is not the Dragon Witch. I do not know how I know, but I do know it. That is the Maid of Orleans herself." He frowned. "I do not ever recall meeting her, and yet…I would swear upon my honor as a knight that this is she."

For a moment, in his mind's eye, he thought he saw a boy - young, like his companion here, dressed in simple, yet finely made clothes, red eyes so earnest that they seemed to pierce his very being. Then, the image was gone.

The girl sighed. "More truth. This just keeps getting more complicated." She rose to her feet. "As you haven't made a move to attack us, can I trust that if I offer a temporary truce, you will honor it?"

Jeanne glanced back at Kratos who nodded. "Your terms are acceptable."

"Such a deep voice. And….he tells the truth…..I wonder…..could it….." Then she shook herself, and continued in a louder voice. "Very well. The lizard should be here shortly, and it will save us the trouble of going over this whole mess a second time…and possibly a third, when she doesn't get it the first time."

Both sides settled in to wait in a tense sort of stalemate. Medusa, with a few more soothing words, dismissed Pegasus, then strode over to wait by Kratos' side. The horned girl paid them little attention, idly playing with her fan - and surreptitiously stealing glances at Kratos. Siegfried, for his part, kept his eyes on them at all times - no hostility in his gaze, but not taking chances, either.

'Kratos, the girl keeps glancing at you out of the side of her eye.' Medusa's voice sounded in his head. 'Please tell me this isn't another one of your friends from back home."

'I have never laid eyes upon this girl before. If this was another Baldur, they would have identified themselves. My enemies were not the sort to hide who they were.' He pointedly tried not to think of the Gravekeeper, who had been Zeus in disguise, or the fake Tyr who had taken Brok from them. 'At least, most of them were not. Still, I do not feel hostility from this girl.'

Medusa glanced at the girl, who was pretending to fan herself, but was very obviously peering through her bangs at the Spartan, then back at Kratos, who was very pointedly ignoring the attention he was receiving, and pointedly raised an eyebrow at the man. Then she shrugged, and settled back to wait.

Within a few minutes, they could hear the sound of leathery wings beating the air. Almost immediately, weapons appeared in their hands, and their eyes leapt to the sky, expecting to see a flight of wyverns inbound.

"No, you can put your weapons down." Siegfried was shaking his head. "What you hear is our ally - she can fly, a little, though I do admit it does sound much like the wyverns that infest this land."

"You'd think she would have realized that arriving in such a manner given the pests flying around everywhere wouldn't be the smartest of ideas, but I suppose she has some ridiculous justification about how idols MUST always make a flashy entrance," griped the girl, rubbing at her forehead.

After a moment, the owner of the wings descended, landing next to the girl in the robe, and they got their first look at her.

Pink. So MUCH pink. Her outfit was drowning in the color - and that was the least of its crimes, to Kratos' eyes. It was covered in frills, ruffles, and other frivolous decorations - a row of roses (pink ones, of COURSE) circled her waist. Her shoes were impractical in both the length of the heels and the massive spike that sprouted from the toe (even kicking someone with the spike would be difficult, given its placement). Long gloves, also frilled at both ends, covered her arms.

And the hat. It was of a style of the hat that Lev had worn - if that hat had been blown up to four times its size, and been decorated by children that had been plied with too much sugar. Another row of roses was in attendance, and the brim somehow managed to stay up despite supporting a horde of stuffed animals.

And the girl herself was equally as outlandish as her clothes. Aggressively pink hair streamed down her back in a cascade. Her fingers more resembled claws - long pink ones (Kratos was beginning to sense a theme). And a long, serpentine tail lashed behind her - with a bow tied where the tail forked into two. A pair of black wings sprouted from her back, then folded themselves up and vanished into nothingness.

The only thing remotely martial in her aspect was the long spear she held in one hand, and even that was decorated with pink (Kratos was beginning to discover a deep loathing for that color) gems - seeming more like a child's toy than a weapon of war.

She strode to the edge of the hill and peered down at Kratos' group, hands imperiously on her hips. She blinked, then took another, harder look - then looked between the Jeannes, raising one finger, then a second, then repeated those motions.

Her cheeks puffed out as she whirled on the green-haired girl, grasping her by the collar. "Why are there TWO of them? Am I seeing double? Is my post-concert high so big I'm hallucinating? Explain, garter snake, explaaaaaaaaain!" She began shaking the girl, to her chagrin.

"Stop that, you." The girl swatted the pink menace's hands away with her fan, then took a step back, out of grabbing range. "We were actually waiting on you to arrive for an explanation - they've agreed to a temporary truce." She frowned. "And why are you still wearing that ridiculous outfit? You couldn't possibly fight in it."

The pink one sniffed. "Pfft, what if they were my FANS? They don't want to see boring regular Liz, especially not after such a great concert like that. They want to see Dragon Countess Eli-chan!" One of her hands flew up to her face, index and middle fingers extended, and Kratos swore he saw a little star flash into existence for a split second.

(Some part of him wondered if the din from earlier had broken his mind, and he was only now noticing it.)

'Liz' puffed out a sigh. "But you're probably right with your stupid cold-blooded snake logic. Better change." Particles of light poured off the girl, and the impractical outfit from before vanished, being replaced by something much more simple - though still ridiculous. A comparatively simple black dress, with the skirt flared up to where it was almost horizontal. With the travesty of a hat gone, all could see a pair of curling horns (pink, naturally) sprouting from her head.

She dusted herself off, then spun around to once again glare down on Kratos' group. "Ok, now that that's done, someone want to tell me what the hell's going on here?"

"Yes, we would all like to know that," said the green-haired girl. "Why is the Dragon Witch here, standing alongside the Maid of Orleans? Why was Fafnir chasing you? Why is there an incarnated god here? And, most importantly…." She drew herself up to her full height, her face becoming implacable and serious. "...would your name happen to be 'Anchin'?"

Liz stumbled, then recovered herself, and then whirled to glare at the other girl. "THAT'S the thing you think is most important? Not the twins down there, or Medusa, but your stalker fantasies?"

The girl sniffed, turning her nose up at Liz. "Obviously. And why are you NOT concerned about the fact that an incarnated god is standing before us…..and might be my Anchin."

Liz rolled her eyes. "I mean, DUH. It's obvious he's a fan! My singing was so wonderful that even gods are coming to hear me! It won't be long before I'm being asked to bring my act to the Other Side of the World!"

The girls' face was carefully blank. Her voice, however, was not. "You CANNOT be that delusional, you gila monster."

"At least I'm not already planning on ways to sneak under his bed, you moccasin."

The conversation devolved from there, as ever more childish insults began being volleyed between the two girls. Dimly, Kratos felt a headache coming on. "What….is happening?"

"I'm sorry. They get that way sometimes." Siegfried had walked up to the group as the argument on the hill ceased using any actual language, and was just two girls hissing at each other. "I came across them on the coast, defending Marseille from a host of wyverns and the walking dead. They were sorely pressed, so I lent my aid to them. At the time, I thought they were friends - and I still think they are. But sometimes…..this happens."

The two girls were almost nose-to-nose. Hair hadn't started getting pulled yet, but it almost seemed like it was a matter of time.

"You have been traveling with them ever since, Siegfried?" asked Jeanne.

The man nodded. "Yes. After I saw off the wyverns, Elizabeth there kept talking about how good of a 'bouncer' I would be, and insisted I accompany them. While I am unfamiliar with the term, a knight could not allow two young maidens to wander the wilds of France alone."

"And I love you for it, Siggy-Woogy!" Liz paused in her fight with the other girl to beam down at Siegfried, making an exaggerated 'heart' symbol with her hands. "Best. Security. EVER! You're going to be SO good at keeping the creepers at bay at handshake events!"

Kratos was speechless - the dragon girl was using words, but he failed to grasp their meaning. And from the looks of things, Avenger was equally, if not more, baffled than he was, while the rest of their group followed in their wake of confusion.

Siegfried scratched the back of his head, almost sheepishly. "As I said, I couldn't leave them to their own devices. Then, a day ago, we came across the castle here, and found it abandoned. We'd had some tentative plans of dealing with its owner, since she'd been raiding the coastal towns and Lyon for victims, but it was empty. So, Liz insisted we make it our base."

Avenger spat to the side. "Yeah, Carmilla's signing the guest register in hell. I fricasseed her yesterday. Traitorous bitch got what was coming to her."

The argument above them paused - or at least, one half of it did. The green haired girl continued throwing insults at the other, almost automatically, not registering that her opponent had stopped responding. Then, so fast it was like she had teleported, Liz was standing right in front of the Avenger, her eyes wide.

"Wait. Say that again. You killed that old hag?" Her eyes were boring holes through the former Dragon Witch.

Avenger, incredibly, took a half step back at the girl's sudden appearance, and the intensity of the gaze being directed at her. "Yeah, I did. What of it?"

Liz's eyes got somehow even wider, and began brimming with tears. She took a deep breath, and then flung herself at the Avenger, arms wide. "BESSSSSTTTTTIIIIEEEEE!"

She threw her arms around the confused woman, hugging her tight, and rubbing her face against hers. "I mean, it's not as good as if I got to deal with that horrible decrepit old woman myself, but I'll take it! Long as she's gone, I consider that a net win! OOOOOO, you've GOT to join my group! You've got that chunni/goth thing going on, it'd bring in a WHOLE new crowd for me! What can you sing? Tell me it's Death Metal! Please tell me it's Death Metal! Oh, another member! Even my frienemy/rival doesn't have a second member in her group! Take that, you Roman nutcase!"

As Liz continued to babble nonsense and badger the increasingly flustered Avenger with questions, never once relinquishing her hold on the woman, Kratos…..stared.

He opened his mouth, then closed it. Then opened it again. "What….is happening?"

Siegfried smiled, almost fondly. "I suppose there's little point in keeping it a secret, I see Ruler there has figured it out. The girl there is Elizabeth Bathory. She seems to be obsessed with being an 'idol'...whatever that is. It doesn't seem to hold the religious connotations the word did in my time. Mostly it seems to involve singing, from what I've picked up."

Mash blinked. "Wait….Elizabeth Bathory…you mean that girl is CARMILLA? The Carmilla we fought?"

Siegfried nodded. "A much younger version of her, yes. And…..be careful with that name, she doesn't care much for her future self."

"Who WOULD like that miserable old vampire wanna-be? Skulking about, bathing in blood, withering away like that." Liz huffed, still maintaining her deathgrip on Avenger, despite the woman's increasingly frantic efforts to escape. "I'm going to be young and cute and wonderful forever, and do everything I can to NEVER turn into her, and she hates me for it. And that starts with becoming the best idol the world's ever SEEN, alongside my new BESTIE!"

"But…..she's you, just like you're her." Mash looked confused. "And you're a Servant…..you won't age or change…..you can't become her."

"Oh, the salamander there isn't about to let something like logic get in the way of her beliefs." The green-haired girl had joined them on the ground, standing a bit behind Siegfried. "I must say, the Dragon Witch is being much more tolerant of her insanity than I had expected from her title."

Jeanne glanced over at her clone, who was now being bombarded with suggestions for a 'group name', and asked what she wanted her group color to be. "Despite her name, Avenger has largely behaved herself since we had reason to make common cause with her."

The girl blinked. "THAT'S an Avenger?" She took another look at the other Jeanne, who was increasingly looking like she wanted someone, anyone, to save her from the tidal wave of pink that was still clinging to her. "It seems like there's quite a story there."

Kratos grunted. "The Avenger is our ally, for the time being, as we attempt to resolve this Singularity." An alliance he increasingly hoped did not last past the resolution of this age.

Siegfried stood up a bit straighter, if that was possible. "Then, you are here to save France? But from whom, if the Dragon Witch is standing alongside you?"

"We're from an organization in the future called Chaldea," stated Mash. "We were sent back here to get France back on the proper path of history….but a traitor from Chaldea also traveled back to this time, and gave the Dragon Witch a catalyst. She used it to summon an enemy of Kratos', who ended up turning on her."

The girl frowned. "That would explain her missing arm, and general condition. And I suppose her class." Her lips pursed, and her fan snapped closed. "Being betrayed like that by someone can make a person do….terrible things."

Siegfried's hand had reached up to cup his chin, as he considered Kratos' group. "It seems we have much to discuss. As you may have guessed, all three of us are Rogue Servants summoned by the land to fix the issues plaguing France. If you are here to resolve the Singularity, I believe that we should sit down and talk."

"You all should come to my castle!" blurted Liz. "We can hammer out the deets of everything, and then, after that, my bestie and I can have a sleepover! We can stay up late and braid each other's hair and talk about boys and tell each other secrets! And karaoke! Oh, it'll be SO much FUN!" The increasingly hyper girl began bouncing up and down.

Avenger's voice boomed into Kratos' head. It was a single word only. 'HELP!'

Kratos ignored her. "Your offer of shelter is acceptable." A shriek of pure betrayal echoed in his head.

They set off not long after that - thankfully the castle was not far from where they had landed. Avenger found herself unable to detach from Elizabeth, the girl sticking by her side as if she had been nailed there. Siegfried led the party, Jeanne just slightly behind him, the two talking softly, with a familiarity that seemed to fly in the face of this being their first meeting.

Kratos found himself escorted by the third member of the Rogue Servants, Mash and Medusa trailing just a bit behind him.

"So…..your name is Kratos then?" asked the girl, peering up at him through her bangs.

"Yes," he replied.

She tapped her fan against her palm, seeming to weigh her words. "Does the name 'Anchin' mean anything to you?"

"No," he stated, bluntly. "Whomever you think I might be, I am not he. I am not a god of this world."

"Not of this world…how….," she shook her head. "No, I'm sure you'll explain yourself once we reach the castle….has my Anchin missed me so he came from another world entirely to be with me….the passage to another world could have done something to his memory….."

There was silence for a moment, then Kratos spoke. "Your name?" The girl blinked up at him, startled out of her thoughts. "What am I to call you, girl?"

She blushed. "Oh, how rude of me. My apologies. I am Kiyohime, Berserker class Servant. I am pleased to make your acquaintance, Kratos." She bowed formally, somehow managing to make it look graceful despite continuing to walk.

Medusa's voice sounded in his head, a note of alarm in her voice. "Kratos….this is very, VERY bad. I'll explain later, but for now, never EVER lie to that girl. Not even half-truths. TRUST me on this.'

Kratos growled, low and barely audible. Not lying he could do…but as his relationship with Atreus had shown, half-truths were a habit of his he'd been trying to break, even since the many, many problems they had caused, both in the journey to spread Faye's ashes, and later, during Ragnarök.

After a few minutes of walking, and more glances at Kratos out of the side of her eyes by Kiyohime, they reached the castle gates.

Liz pranced to the front of the line, and swept her arms in front of her, gesturing at the castle. "Welcome, my guests, to MY Castle Csejte!"

AUTHOR'S NOTES: And the Lizard, Kiyo, and Siegfried join the battle. Honestly surprised that when I put in a line about Castle Csejte that no one twigged to the fact that Liz would steal that and put it under new management, with old management having gotten roasted by JAlter. Especially since we went through no less than FOUR Halloweens of Insanity (NA player - I don't know if the castle features in the Alter Ego SmoLiz Halloween we've got coming this year) that revolved around that damn castle. But that wouldn't be the first thing I've put in there that I expected to get some commentary that didn't, and won't be the last (I really thought someone would say something about Kratos having read the Art of War in his downtime at Chaldea). If nothing else, glad it flew under the radar.

Ah, Baldur. Odin's tool in God of War, and just stupid enough to be Lev's tool in the Nasuverse. I don't know if Goetia COULD use the Second Magic - I think probably - but it doesn't matter if he can or can't. All that matters is Baldur THINKS he can, and he's blinded by a need for vengeance against his mother enough that he can be led about by the nose.

I blame Marin Kitagawa calling her buddy Nowa 'Soogie-Woogie' for Liz's nickname for Siegfried.

It has a bit of awhile since I've seen Kiyo in the story, and the early writing in FGO wasn't the best for establishing her - and I don't think I've EVER used her in battle. Let me know if I'm terribly off in her characterization. Siegfried and Liz I have a better grasp of, given they've been with me since the tutorial gatcha, and I've got a handle on their personalities through their battle lines and such - and Apoc for Siegfried and our yearly Halloween torture from the Lizard.

I am a Nero fan - she's my waifu prime, so I know where I come down on the Nero v Liz rivalry. But man, if I didn't have fun writing the Lizard this chapter. I am fond of the little miscreant.

Apparently the cure for a sluggish writing pace is Liz, because damn if things didn't start flowing like a river when I started writing her.

I originally thought to end the chapter with Kiyo asking if Kratos' name was Anchin, but my muse wouldn't let me stop. So we got more. There's already been one 'fill folks in on the details' bit in this chapter with Jeanne, so this stopping point will let us brush past that somewhat, so we don't end up rehashing content too much.

Also putting up an informational chapter on Baldur, so look for that.