A GHOST IN A STRANGE LAND

CHAPTER 23

"Senpai….why didn't you tell me you were going to try running?"

CHALDEA CAFETERIA

It was late - the cafeteria was nearly deserted when Kratos entered it. He scanned the room, and was unsurprised to see the two men had already arrived, and were waiting on him.

"Kratos!" Cu waved his hand, grinning from ear to ear - and acting as though the room was more crowded than it actually was. Even then, he and the other man sitting at the table would have been distinctive, even were the room filled to capacity.

The wave and the shout were entirely unnecessary, but to ask Cu Chulainn to be otherwise would be like asking a fish not to swim.

Kratos settled into a chair at the table, exchanging a nod with the other man seated there. "It is good of you to join us, Kratos," said Chiron, the other man in question, his equine half hidden - as it had been for most of the week since the Servant had been summoned. "When I suggested we sit down from time to time and compare notes on how our various students were doing, you seemed hesitant to agree."

Kratos grunted. "Being a teacher…it is not new to me. My son, with Ragnarök approaching, had to be trained. But it is not something I have a vast amount of experience with." He laid his hands on the table. "And I made many mistakes with him. I wonder if I am not repeating those as I attempt to teach Mash."

"Hey, you've got more than me!" Cu smirked. "About all my experience comes from the other end - being put through my paces by my slavedriving witch of a Teacher day in and day out on the Isle of Shadows. And from that perspective, I think you're doing alright with the lass. She's soaking up what you have to teach her like a sponge."

"Regrets come part and parcel with being a teacher - any kind of teacher." Chiron sighed. "For all that I am lauded for my successes, it is the students who fell short - either by cruel fate, or their own shortcomings, that occupy my thoughts the most. Even those who achieved the greatest heights and ascended to the Throne…..for all their glory, their lives were so short."

"Achilles made his choice, same as I did." Cu rapped his knuckles on the table. "A short life, but an eventful one. And from what chatter I've had with the guy on the Throne, I think he'd make the same choice again, same as I would."

"Yes," Chiron's smile was fond. "Peleus' son is not one for looking back - only forward, to the endless horizon. An admirable trait, but one that makes him much more eager for a lesson of a more physical bent, rather than sitting still and hearing his teacher drone on."

Cu shook his head. "And on that somewhat melancholy note, what are the two of you drinking?" He waved his hand over an assortment of bottles. "I brought the good stuff for our first one of these little sit-downs - none of that pisswater in the cans. You'd be better off drinking those soda things, they'd at least taste better than that swill." His finger began darting around to the various containers. "I've got some Jack, some Jim Bean, something that Jay character claims is 'authentic New Zealand mead' - and if that isn't a weird combination - and a couple of wines recently liberated from a couple of Clock Tower Mages with a little too much fondness for gambling."

Chiron shook his head. "We are drinking your winnings, then, Caster?"

Cu laughed. "Only some of them!" He popped the cork from one of the bottles, and poured himself a generous amount. "Jay actually donated the weird New Zealand mead stuff. But the rest, yeah, you're spot on." He lifted the cup to his lips and swallowed deeply, with a contented sigh. "No proper Irish stuff, sadly, but hopefully we'll get a chance to visit my homelands before all of this is over. Then I can show you a REAL good time!"

Kratos selected one of the bottles of wine and poured himself a small amount. "On our journey to fulfill my wife's last request, my son and I discovered a great trove of items from across the world beneath Tyr's Temple." He held the glass up and inhaled the scent of the wine. Certainly more pleasant smelling than he had been expecting. "There, we found a bottle of Lemnian wine….it was…..pleasant….to be able to share a bit of my homeland with my son."

He sipped at the wine. Acceptable, if a bit sweeter than what he had grown up with.

"Achilles grew fond of that wine over the course of the Trojan War," said Chiron. "He was apparently a frequent sight around the campfires of the Spartan soldiers there." He peered at Kratos. "I take it then, that you hail from that part of Greece?"

Kratos took another sip of his wine. "I was once a Spartan. Many, many lifetimes ago." Before Ares. Before years of mindless rage. Before Pandora's Box. Before Zeus. Before…..

Before many things.

Cu was already refilling his glass. "So, Chiron, how's it going with that spitfire of a Master you've got?"

Chiron seemed to be taking the more moderate approach that Kratos was, swirling his drink in his glass. "Well enough. She was able to get out of those braces today - the continual healing from being in them, and the handful of things I was able to do to help speed the mending of her legs seems to have worked - there was no permanent damage, thankfully. In a day or two she might not even need the crutches anymore." He smiled. "She and Mash are having a little celebration of their own, now."

RITSUKA FUJIMARU'S ROOM

Fujimaru was frozen, Mash's question still echoing around the insides of her brain.

"Did…I do something wrong?" Mash's voice was quiet, and it was breaking Fujimaru's heart. "Or do you just not trust me…"

Shit. So we were having this conversation. Wonderful. Good job, me, what's next on your brilliant plan, going to go kick some puppies?

She turned to Mash, who was adorable in Fujimaru's borrowed PJs (because her innocent little kohai didn't have any, as she slept in the nude - who knew? Guess it really was always the quiet ones…..), scooped up Fou and handed Mash the animal.

"Here. Fuzz therapy until I can get my words straight." She flopped into a chair and thought…..really thought about what she was going to say.

"It wasn't about trust…not really," she began, carefully choosing her words. "Or you in particular, really. I just….." She sighed. "I was stupid, and some part of me KNEW I was pushing myself too fast, trying to do too much before I was ready. I got the riot act from Roman, Da Vinci, and Avenger for that…and Chiron gave me a pretty stern lecture about it as well - that one might have hurt more given he never even raised his voice."

(Recklessness has its place, my student - but never when you are safe and healing. In battle, if the choice is between your arm and your life, or your arm or the life of a comrade, the decision is easy. Similarly - and this is a lesson I have had to impart to more than a few of my students - there is a time when, even as much as it may chafe, you must sit still and do nothing but think of your well-being, for the future. Because there are always battles to come in lives like ours.)

Yeah, she'd had a bad few days, and all of it was entirely her fault. Thankfully, everyone involved seemed to think the issue was done with after they'd had their say, and weren't hanging it over her head - it was a welcome change.

Helped keep her from dwelling on it as had been her wont back home. Amazing what a difference that made.

(Having a supportive teacher also made a big difference.)

"But….that's not really here nor there for what you're asking, Mashie." She hung her head. "I think on some level I knew I was doing something I shouldn't have been, and I knew you'd try to stop me. So I asked Avenger, since she seems to live and breathe 'fuck the rules, I do what I want', though I wasn't thinking that at the time. Because…..all I was really thinking about is how far behind I've fallen, and how you've grown so much since I last saw you."

She met Mash's eyes. "I mean, you climbed a giant skeleton and bashed its head in! You! Who was struggling against normal-sized skeletons not two weeks ago, and you rode a giant skeleton to the dirt and ground pounded its head into mush! That's like, so awesome!" Her eyes dropped to the floor. "And that's not even touching that you fought Heracles, some weird Archer, and King Arthur - we really need a better name for her since we know he's a she now - all in a row, and won, and that's before you got any training from the resident god and the feral but good-looking Celt around these parts! Don't make me start poking those proto-abs you've got going on again!"

(Mmmmmmm….Mash tummy.)

Mash was blushing - any other time and she'd feel her heart going 'dawwwww' at the cuteness, but things were way too heavy for her to revel in embarrassed Mash. "I….it…..Senpai, I didn't do those things alone."

"No, you had help….meanwhile, I was no help in Fuyuki, for all of the five minutes I was even upright." She held up a hand. "Yeah, I know, hardly my fault, or yours that an actual Servant got the better of someone who's barely a Mage, the Director, and a newly-minted Servant like you - we could have come out of that a lot worse. But that wasn't what I was thinking when I was telling myself I needed to do something to make up for all that time I spent sleeping. All I was thinking was how little I've managed to do so far compared to how much happened without me."

"So…..and I can't believe I'm saying this, but the issue here isn't you, it's me." First time saying that in her life and it wasn't even being used as a cliche way to hurry a breakup. She supposed normal had long since left the building that was her life. "My home life…wasn't great. You've heard Tanya rant about how rough it can be to not be the Heir - and that's from someone like her who can at least manage some decent Magecraft. It's about a million times worse when you're seen as barely better than a mundane, like I was."

She smiled a bitter smile. "I mean, why do you think I was so eager to sign up for some mysterious organization and fly halfway across the world to….wherever we are now? It certainly wasn't for the good chance of dying in the past like I almost did."

"Senpai…."

"Don't pity me, either. Yeah - I've got issues, issues I'm working on with my Horse Psychiatrist, because who knew that that was a field he had expertise in? Then again, given some of the headcases he trained, I guess it shouldn't be surprising. The stories he's told me about Jason….." She shook her head. "Getting off topic. Point is, while some of my issues aren't my fault, there's more than a few that are entirely of my own doing. And getting over those is one of the steps on my way to be a real hero…..or so my teacher says."

She looked up, and suddenly her world was white fuzz. She made garbled noises as she took the squirming Fou from Mash. "Fuzz therapy, Senpai. You looked like you needed it."

The hairs she was still spitting out were telling her to be annoyed with her kohai, but the grin on said kohai's face was too adorable for her to even consider the thought. That, and Fou's ears were just as soft as ever, and skritching was an excellent way to bleed off animosity. Devious little beast, and more devious little kohai.

Truly she was in a Den of Evil.

She felt….a little better, having gotten that off her back, and that meant she was about to ruin what had returned to a companionable air with her next words.

But Ritsuka Fujimaru was DONE running away from things, dammit.

"Mashie…are YOU ok?"

CHALDEA CAFETERIA

"I swear, if I didn't know I was drinking with a centaur and an actual GOD, I'd think the two of you were lightweights," griped Cu, as he filled his glass again - Kratos had lost count of how many times the Irishman had needed to refresh his drink. Cu leveled a glare at the two of them - albeit a glare that lacked any form of anger. "If you two are waiting until I pass out so you can draw on my face or something, you'll be waiting a long-ass time. They haven't made a Servant or a god who can drink a Celt from the Ulster cycle under the table."

"I never cared much for drink, Caster," said Chiron, rather mildly all things considered. "Or, at least, I never had the love of it that the rest of my kind did. It was yet another thing that set me apart from my brethren - beyond the circumstances of my parentage and my immortality, of course. But I was always much more controlled, where they were wild with abandon in all the aspects of their lives. Not that there was anything wrong in living that way…it was simply not my path."

He smirked - a sly grin that spoke of mischief. "However, we would need much more than this paltry amount of spirits to affect me - as Achilles and Heracles both learned, to their dismay the mornings following their attempts to out-drink their teacher."

Kratos took a small sip of his wine - still nursing the first glass he had served himself. "The Lemnian Wine I partook of with my son was the first spirits I had drunk in….many, many years." He closed his eyes, and he could almost see it, feel it….. "After I left Greece, I lived a simple life with my wife in the woods where our cabin stood, and contact with others was….not even infrequent, it simply did not happen." That changed with Faye's death and the shattering of the Protection Stave that had encircled their land - all by her design.

"We drank water from the river, or juices made from the crops we grew, or foraged from the forest. But spirits….." He shook his head. "Neither of us had the knowledge, or the resources to devote to such things."

Wine, and other, stronger drinks had been a frequent companion in his younger days - both before and after his pact with Ares. Looking back on it, it was no shock that he felt very little desire to indulge, even among allies as he was here.

"Bah," scoffed Cu. "No fun at all, either of you. I was raised drinking harder stuff than this - and I don't think my Teacher HAD anything that didn't pack a mule's kick in her home. Probably another form of 'training' for her - damn old hag." Despite his words, his smile was fond. He leaned back in his chair, limbs sprawling out. "So if we're not going to proper drink, then I guess we tell stories."

Chiron set his glass on the table. "If you would not mind, Kratos, I would hear of your meeting with the Jason of your world."

Kratos grunted. "I met Jason when I was seeking the Sisters of Fate. Zeus had betrayed me, and Gaia claimed they possessed a way for me to avenge myself upon him. When I arrived at their island, there were many others there, seeking the Fates, as I was."

Theseus, Icarus, Atlas, to name a few. And the last Spartan…..the only survivor of the retribution that had been unleashed upon his home for his actions.

"When I came across him, Jason was already mortally wounded - he had fallen in combat with a Mole Cereberus," Cu was clearly mouthing 'the hell is a MOLE Cerberus?', but Kratos ignored him. "I slew the beast, but he was not long for the world. Before he passed, he told me he was seeking the Sisters of Fate to undo his parting with Medea and his children."

Chiron was shaking his head sadly. "Foolish boy, to make the same mistakes in two worlds. At least he died trying to fix them, rather than being killed after a life of regret by his own ship."

"Wait a second - Kratos didn't say 'fix', he said 'undo'." Cu was staring at him. "Don't tell me the Fates of your world could travel in time?"

"The threads of Fate spanned all life and time. Should they choose to, the Fates could undo any event in the past at their whim." A touch of a growl entered his voice. "Had they chosen to use their powers responsibly, perhaps my homeland would have been a better place. But they abused their power - I know not how many events they affected for their own inscrutable purposes. Or how many people they simply erased from history."

"Erased…as in gone…?" There was not even a hint of playfulness or mirth on Cu Chulainn's face - he looked as shaken as Kratos had ever seen him. "Like, not turned into ash like all of Humanity outside of these walls, but just…wiped away without even a trace of having ever existed?"

Kratos scowled. "They threatened me with that very thing when I finally found them. To undo my existence. I was forced to kill them in self-defense."

Chiron too, looked like he could not believe what he was hearing. "And then, I expect, you turned their own powers to your own purposes - to settle your debt with Zeus."

"Yes. It was reckless and ill-conceived…..but I was blinded by my need for revenge. It had consequences I could never have considered - not that I would have cared had I known what they would be." Greece, ruined, possibly forever. Is it any wonder that, by the time Faye found him in the woods that would become his home, he was little more than a rabid animal?

Cu was shaking his head in disbelief. "Kratos, whatever you do, don't die while you're around these parts. Pretty sure the Throne would snatch you up in an instant for pulling a stunt like that, even if you weren't what you are."

Kratos gave a small snort. "I have no intention of dying before Humanity is restored, and I am able to return to my son."

Chiron's drink had been set aside, and he leaned forward with interest. "Your son - I take it you trained him in the same fashion you are training Mash?" A nod. "If I may inquire - from what little I saw of Spartan training from this world, it seems less harsh than I would have expected."

"I am not training Mash as I was - as I did not train my son that way either." He settled back in his chair. "The way I was trained was cruel…..while I believe flaws in myself led to the decisions of my younger days that I regret, I cannot shake the feeling that being brought up in a crucible such as the agoge may not have caused some of those flaws. Or amplified them in myself and others." He frowned. "While the skills I learned there have kept me alive all these years, teaching Atreus or Mash in that manner would destroy them."

Chiron was nodding his head. "Ah, the Nature vs Nurture debate." At Kratos' questioning look, he elaborated. "A philosophical debate that has spilled into psychology - the science of the mind in these modern days. The question being that is what makes up a person set in stone from the moment of their birth, or does the environment they are raised in determine it? Or, is it parts of both that make a person who and what they are, and how much?" He shrugged. "Truly, it is akin to some of the Zen riddles Sanzang is so fond of, questions without any true answer."

He picked his glass back up, but did not bring it to his lips. "For whatever it may be worth, from one teacher to another, I feel you have done the right thing. Training Mash as a Spartan warrior would be ill-advised. The girl, I feel, would endure the training to its bitter end, as she is terrified of failing - yourself, Chaldea, her Doctor Romani, her Master, truly, it does not matter, as she largely defines herself by the people around her - at least those she admires and values. But the person that would emerge from that training would not be Mash any longer."

"On that subject," began Cu. "Has she talked to you about whatever's bothering her since our last fight in France?"

QUARTERS OF RITSUKA FUJIMARU

The door to her room slid open, and Avenger tromped in, arms laded with a handful of boxes and bags, a bowl, and several canned drinks that appeared to be secured with duct tape, of all things.

"I brought snacks, Tanya recommended something called 'Pock-eyy' that's pretty damn tasty and….." She blinked, noticing how Mash and Fujimaru were staring at each other. "Oh fuck, what'd I interrupt?"

"I asked Mash if she's ok."

"Oh. WONDERFUL." Avenger dropped her bundle onto the table then flopped into a chair. "Guess we're not tip-toeing around it anymore."

"Senpai, I'm fine, really." And she sounded like she honestly believed that, too.

Fujimaru gave her kohai a sad little smile. "No, Mashie, you're not." She reached out and wiped some of the concealing makeup from beneath Mash's eyes, revealing the dark bags beneath them. "Not even going to ASK where you learned that trick from - if I find out one of the people on ice was hurting you and you learned to hide bruises because of that, I can't promise I won't contemplate murder. Before committing it."

Avenger was muttering something along the lines of 'be next in line behind you, Red.'

"But it's clear you're not sleeping well, and haven't been since you got back from France. And there's only one dark area of that whole mess in the reports." She reached out and took Mash's hands in hers. "I've been about as patient as I can be, Mash….and if I'm going to be different…better," she said with a roll of her eyes. "than the person I was back in Tokyo, I can't run away from this. My kohai's hurting, and you don't seem to be getting better, for all that you're hiding it well."

There was a long stretch of silence. "I won't push you more than this, Mashie….if you tell me you really need some more time, I'll give it to you. But I'm worried about you - we all are, aren't we Avenger?"

Avenger sniffed. "I'd just like to not have to walk on eggshells around you, is all. I pretty well know where I stand with everyone else - well, everyone who matters, but after I almost made you cry when you were showing me around this place, I ain't so sure. Nothing more than that." Suuuuure, Avenger. And she was the reincarnation of Isami Kondo. "But the big lug's been fretting over you as much as he frets over anyone. Even the snake's been dropping her glacier act some to worry in your general direction."

"Maybe…just telling us what happened might help, Mash," said Fujimaru with a shrug. "I haven't really had friends to help with this kind of thing before, but….that's somewhere to start, if you feel up to it."

Mash reached for Fou and hugged him to her chest, eyes closed. Then she sighed, and began to speak. "It was just so…terrifying. Being in the ruined command room, waking up in that burning city…..they were scary, but…I was so hurt that the first is like…..almost like a bad dream, until you show up, Senpai."

Fujimaru couldn't help it, she blushed.

"Once I found you in Fuyuki, and we linked up with the Director…the fear took a backseat to protecting the two of you. I had a job….a mission and focusing on it helped me push the fear away. Even when that Assassin hurt you, Senpai, Mr. Kratos and Cu showed up so quickly and then you weren't in immediate danger anymore - at least no more immediate danger than any of the rest of us. And I had them for the rest of the fights in that city….it's hard to be scared when Mr. Kratos is by your side."

"Yeah, you're spittin' fact, Squeaks," Avenger cracked open one of the soda cans, bits of duct tape still clinging to it. "We walked right into Castle fucking Dracula in the middle of the fucking night, which under different circumstances I'd have thought was about one of the stupidest plans I'd ever heard, but when you're rolling with an actual god by your side…..it makes the impossible seem almost doable."

"But I didn't have Mr. Kratos when I was fighting that Berserker. At first, it was just me, and I could tell I didn't stand a chance. But…he wasn't really trying to kill me. Not all the time, I mean."

Fujimaru felt her brow furrowing in confusion. "What do you mean, not all the time?"

Avenger had started on the Pocky. "Baldur put him under a Command Seal of some kind - we all saw it flickering over him when he pulled his Mashnapping,"

"Yes. He'd fight…not half-heartedly, because he could have still killed me if I'd made a mistake, but he wasn't putting his all into it. But always after a little while of that, the red would wash over him and he'd suddenly redouble his efforts….I don't remember much of that, I was so blind with panic to hold him off until someone came to help me." Fou was still being crushed to Mash's chest, her nose in his fur. "Medusa showed up and we fought him off for a little, but….."

Fujimaru nodded. "That much I know - the generators couldn't manage both her and Cu in the field, so she had to come home so Cu could go in." Her tone turned grim. "Which left you all by your lonesome, again. And that's where the big 'redacted' is written all over the report from the last Singularity."

Mash set Fou down, and reached for a soda can with trembling hands. Fujimaru reached down and popped the tab, and handed it to her kohai, who took it with a nodded thanks, then drank deeply from it. "He…..pulled out a sword once Medusa vanished - this wasn't some weapon he'd picked up from somewhere and…changed, like he could do to other things he touched. This sword felt like the Excalibur the corrupted King Arthur had, or Kratos' axe or spear, or Siegfried's Balmung, or….."

"You're babbling, Squeaks." Avenger tossed a chip to Fou, who had wandered onto the center of the table and was giving the various bags and boxes of snacks a good sniff. "But I'm guessing if he whipped a weapon out that was on the same level as grumps' two toys, that meant playtime was over?"

"Yes," Mash was crinkling the soda can in her hands. "He….was better than Saber was, as a swordsman. She was just using her Mana Burst to fly around the room and overpower us. He was using pure skill to get around my shield, to come at me from every direction he could, to try to kill me. Not that she wasn't skilled, but…"

"How are you still alive?" Avenger was using a stick of pocky to gesture with, jabbing the air with it. "You're not bad, but what you're describing sounds like it's WAAAAAAY out of your league. Sort of like how Charlie ended up being out of mine….by the time it was all said and done, I thought my best-case would be killing him while he killed me."

Her grimace grew in intensity, and no one needed elaboration on why that was. Avenger's growing worry that God was keeping an eye on her was well known by most of Chaldea at this point.

"I don't know," said Mash. "He could have killed me at one point, but just….slapped me across the face with the flat of his sword…like…."

Fujimaru finished her sentence for her. "Like we've all seen Cu or Kratos do to you when they're training you. Or like the other night, when they were fighting just to fight, and Kratos whacked Cu out of the air with his axe, instead of cutting him in two, like he could have." Ok, she needed some sugar to kick-start her brain. A good swig of some Pepsi and her throat was wet and she could feel her neurons firing with a shot of that sweet sweet combination of sugar and caffeine. "You don't think he was…training you?"

"I really don't know. I don't know anything, even who that knight was….." Mash chewed at her bottom lip. "But…he felt familiar."

Avenger was leaning forward in her seat. "That's the Servant inside you talking, I take, whoever the fuck that is?"

"I…..think so. I mean, it has to be." Mash's cheeks were puffed out in indignation. "Until two weeks ago, I'd never even seen a Servant before…I just wish I knew more about whoever this is."

[I'm still thinking. I know it might be a little rich coming from me, girl, but give me some time here.]

"Whoever it is, though, they don't feel as….distant, as they once did."

Math might have not been Fujimaru's best subject, but she could put two and two together as well as the next girl. "And that probably has something to do with your new sword."

Mash held out her hand, and the sword in question popped into being, still sheathed. "...the Berserker, after he slapped me with his sword, had the Command Seal reassert itself. Kratos made it there before he could attack, and we fought the Servant off together, for a little bit." She swallowed. "Right up until the Black Knight tried to steal Kratos' blades."

Mash was met by a pair of confused looks. Avenger was the first to ask the question on both of their minds. "Maybe I'm missing something, but….and?"

Mash was shaking her head. "Neither of you were there for it…..I mean, Senpai, you were, but you were in a coma and…" She laughed. "I'm babbling again." She took another sip of her drink, and calmed her breathing. "Kratos didn't have those blades when he showed up in Fuyuki. They followed him here."

You could hear a pin drop - or, more correctly, a certain creature that had stuck its head in a potato chip bag and was rustling about for scraps.

Fujimaru's mouth was very, very dry, and she didn't think even the rest of her soda would fix that. "Followed him…like…from HIS world?"

Mash nodded. "One night, alarms started blaring….Da Vinci told me it was the Summoning Chamber, that something was wrong. When we got there…..something activated the room without authorization….and then we saw something tear a hole between worlds, and his blades fell out of it."

"And…..just so I'm certain, this doesn't have anything to do with that Zeltretch guy I've heard my parents mention before?" She didn't think so, but it never hurt to be certain.

"No. It's some sort of curse…..he says the Blades are bound to him, that he can't be apart from them, even if he wants to." Mash bowed her head. "I really can't say more…..he told a few of us in confidence, and even then….." She shook her head. "I don't want to betray his trust in this."

Fujimaru reached out and patted her kohai on the head - degenerate headpats. "It's ok, Mashie. I understand. Kratos doesn't really know me from Eve right now, and Avenger well…."

She laughed. "Yeah, he'd trade me for just about any of the other Servants he had to work with from France in a heartbeat. Even the Pink Terror, I think. Might even pay them to take me."

Fujimaru cracked a smile. "So don't worry about it, Mashie, I'm not going to hold it against you for keeping his secrets for him - just like I'd hope he would do the same if our positions were reversed." Not that Mash KNEW any of her secrets, but it was the principle of the thing. "But to get back to what we were talking about, if those things really are tied to him by a curse strong enough to drag them across worlds, then I think I can guess that someone, even a Servant, trying to steal them would go badly for them."

"...they burnt his arms off, all the way to the elbows." Mash shivered. "He was in so much pain…..and then, I saw this sword lying in front of me." Mash was almost visibly shrinking into herself. "I…..I picked it up before I even knew what I was doing, and…..it felt like it'd been made for my hands. And then….I put him out of his misery." Her voice was a whisper. "I stabbed him in the heart."

Tears were leaking from Mash's eyes, and Avenger was alternately staring at Fujimaru and Fujimaru's kohai with a look that was getting increasingly panicked. 'Do something about this!', the look screamed, 'Because I'm shit at this!'.

Like she was any better! She was always the one BEING comforted, at least until she learned to bottle things up long enough to break down in private. Still, she couldn't just let her kohai crumble in front of her and not do SOMETHING.

Once more into the breach, she supposed.

Gently, carefully, she stood up and put her arms around Mash, not tightly, but firmly enough to let the girl know she was there. That seemed to really open the floodgates, and Mash began to ugly cry, clinging to Fujimaru.

"I….I don't even know why it's affecting me like this…." she said, between hiccuping sobs. "He was trying to kill me….and I was terrified every second I was fighting him, so why…why…..?"

"Was that your first kill, Mash?"

Mash looked up at Avenger through a tear-stained face, and a nose leaking snot. "No…..I killed skeletons in Fuyuki, and Dead and Wyverns in France, I…."

"So it was your first human kill, then." Avenger nodded. "I stole Carmilla from you, you were scrapping with her when I butted in. Me and 'me' got Dracula, and you didn't get one of his Brides. Everyone else in Orleans was accounted for by the rest of our crew. And Wyverns and undead aren't really people…..killing a person, it's…..." She heaved a breath, and drew her knees up to her chest. "They say it gets easier…..but it was never hard for me, but I was just some murder doll Gilles cooked up and turned loose on France, doped up on a diet of grudges and revenge. I never even thought what I was doing was wrong, given what I thought France did to me."

She gave a bitter laugh. "Only France never did shit to me. And I think of all the people I killed and I wonder if they're going to be waiting on me whenever I check out." She shook her head. "It would be the perfect way to end the joke of my little story."

Sanson's face - and the righteous anger on it - was an image she couldn't get out of her head.

She reached out to Mash, her (human) fist lightly bonking the girl on the head, before her hand opened and she awkwardly ruffled the girl's hair. "Squeaks, don't even let yourself get any more used to this shit. You don't want to end up like me. And dollars to fucking doughnuts that big grump would tell you the same thing."

"Have you talked to him about this?" asked Fujimaru. "He was right there for it, and…..yeah, Avenger's not wrong when she says he's probably seen some things in his time. He…well, he's not really good at this talking thing, but he might have some advice." She managed to keep a straight face while saying that, which, to her, was an accomplishment. Still, she did sort of believe her words. The advice Mash might get would be gruff as a grizzled mountain man, but it would be well-meaning, if nothing else.

Mash's sniffles were beginning to subside. "No. He promised to listen when I did, but…I just haven't been able to. I wanted to get everything straight in my head, first, but….."

"None of it is making sense, is it?" Mash nodded, and Fujimaru rubbed her kohai's back in slow, comforting circles. "I don't think it will, Mashie, not until you know who your mystery Servant is."

"I just…." A sniffle. "...it's like I don't even know where I begin and they end sometimes…"

"Preachin' to the choir, Squeaks, if there was any choir that would take me." Avenger's head was resting on her knees. "At least you probably don't look like the Servant you're sharing headspace with. I get to look like 'me' for the rest of eternity and constantly have other Servants mistaking me for her. It sucks for all of us, honestly, you, 'me', and me. We all got a raw deal. Maybe even for that jackass inside of you - not like he asked to be stapled to you like that, either."

Can't let that downer of a line linger. "Are you feeling any better, Mashie?"

Mash was wiping at her eyes. "I think so, yes. It feels better to not have all that bottled up anymore." Avenger, of all people, produced a handkerchief and handed it to Mash, who noisily blew her nose with it.

"Anytime you need to talk, Mashie, we're here." She debated it for an endless second in her mind, and then said to hell with it. "We're…..friends, right?"

Mash's eyes were bright. "Of course we are, Senpai!"

Ok, that's it, her resistance couldn't hold up in the face of adorable Kohai like that. Time to hug the Mash again. "Avenger, get your butt in here!"

"Not happening. Hugs ain't my thin…ACK!" Mash quickly cut the Avengerian Knot by simply yanking the stubborn Servant over to where she was quickly enveloped by their arms.

CHALDEA CAFETERIA

Kratos shook his head. "No. I continue to wait for her to be ready to speak of it…but each day that passes leaves me to wonder if I should not simply ask her."

"Would be much more what I would do rather than wait, but well," Cu shrugged. "Never had much patience when I was alive, and things didn't change much when I got to the Throne."

He reached for the bottle and frowned when he felt how light it was. He still poured the remains into his glass. "So, Kratos, what's your thoughts on the other Master we have?"

KRATOS' CHAMBERS

THE PREVIOUS EVENING

The chime at his door was unexpected. Only Da Vinci had set foot on his doorstep, once and only once - and the circumstances of that had been…..unique.

Still, the rules of hospitality required he answer the knock.

The door slid open, and there, standing in the frame, was the girl. Fujimaru.

"Hey," She was meeting his gaze firmly, trying desperately not to shrink in on herself, and doing a passable job of it. "Mind if we talk for a second? I'll try to make this quick, I figure you're tired after running Mashie ragged…if you even get tired."

Kratos stepped aside, a curt jerk of his head indicating she should enter - which she did, hobbling into his quarters.

"Mind if I sit? Doctor's orders are that I try to stay off my legs if at all possible."

He pulled a chair from the table and slid it across the floor to her, which she wasted no time collapsing into. He remained standing, as she quickly glanced around the room. "I guess I was expecting more furs or something, but it's not really like you brought anything with you other than the clothes on your back and your arsenal, so…"

"Fujimaru," His use of her name caused her to startle. "What do you want of me?"

"Sorry, babbling. Nervous here. I'll get to the point." She drew herself up in her chair. "Tomorrow I'll be having my legs looked at by Roman, and from what Chiron tells me in the informal checkups he's been doing on me, I'll probably get these braces off - so assuming I don't mess myself up again, I'll be cleared for active duty…which means the next Singularity, when we find it."

She bit back a sigh. "Which means I need to figure out what you're expecting from me when the boots hit the ground." She looked up at him. "I'm assuming it's largely to follow your lead, keep in the back, since, puny human here, and keep an eye on Mashie and Chiron, since they're my Servants."

"You would be correct." While Kratos was still conflicted about acting in the role of a general again, he would do so to the best of his ability, regardless of how it had been thrust upon his shoulders.

"Ok. I just wanted to say I'm fine with that." Kratos gave a grunt of approval, though one that was quickly cut off by her next words. "...for now."

She continued talking, almost desperately trying to get the words out. "Chaldea can't….no." She shook her head. "I can't just expect you to take the lead and do everything in this…that's…..that's too much like how I was before I came here. Just drifting along and never really trying with my life. And what kind of place does that leave us in the event that, somehow, someway, you get banged up or even killed…..though I'd imagine you'd take a lot of killing to put down. I don't think you want me to be incapable of acting on my own if I have to."

He couldn't help but agree. "No. That would be…..inadvisable."

"Right? I know I'm much less likely to make it through this thing than you are since, well, you big strong god, me weak little mortal, but you never know." She shivered. "I came pretty close to cashing in once already - and while it doesn't sound like you had any real close calls in France, I don't expect things are going to get any easier."

She took a deep breath. "So…for now, I'm fine following orders - hell, I think I'll always be fine following your orders because you've obviously got more experience doing this sort of thing in your pinky than I do in my entire body. But I don't want to be…no. I won't be just a bystander like I've let myself be all my life."

She sat up straight. "I'm going to get better, until I'm capable of being a Master that can stand on my own - right beside a dang god."

She flushed, and began rapidly deflating. "So….any help you can give me on that front, would be appreciated. Because when this is all over, you're going to go home, and I don't think you'd want to leave things in the hands of a complete screw up like I am now."

CHALDEA CAFETERIA

"She is…..brave, in her own way." Kratos found himself in need of a small swallow of wine. "We have spoken little as of yet. And her speech is…..at times, incomprehensible." Perhaps that is why she got along so well with Avenger. "But she seems eager to better herself."

"On that, I cannot help but agree," said Chiron. "As a teacher, it is always a joy to have a student who is hungry to learn, and she is nothing if not that. Were there more hours in the day that I could spend teaching her…"

Kratos considered his words before speaking. "She has asked that I impart what aid I can during the campaigns. She is your student, I would not…"

Chiron waved his hand through the air. "Do not worry yourself - she needs the help." He laughed. "We all do, in truth. We sit here, two legendary heroes, and a living god, and still, the task that sits before us seems almost insurmountable, despite the great deeds we have to our names. And for a girl like her…no. I will gladly accept any help you can give her."

He considered for a moment. "Once her legs are more stable, I was thinking to begin working on teaching her to dodge. It is very unlikely she will ever be able to stand up to a Servant on her own, and we do not know when the good Doctor will locate the next Singularity. I would have her be capable of avoiding damage before that - learning how to defend herself can come later."

Cu was shaking his head. "It's not as unheard of as you might think, a human being able to go toe-to-toe with a Servant, at least not in my experience." Cu's frown grew deep. "The Master who summoned me for that aborted Holy Grail War where Kratos picked me up was a Seal Designation Enforcer - and a mean one at that, with a really nasty trick up her sleeve. She could have given a Servant a damn bloody nose, at the very least. Or so the guy who stole me from her said."

There was an ugly look in Cu's eyes. "And Kirei, bastard that he was, was still an Executor. Getting up there in years but he could still throw down. Don't know if he could have managed against a normal Servant, but he'd have made them work for it." Cu barked a bitter laugh. "Shame that he ran up against that corrupted Saber who blew through all his tricks and schemes without even blinking. Served him right. I only wish it could have been me who got to off him, but by that time I was halfway across the city, with every Command Seal Kirei could throw at me telling me to keep my head down and survive as long as possible."

"Still, it will be months, if not years of grueling effort for her to achieve the heights your former Master - and the thief who took you from her, reached." He shrugged. "And she is much more valuable than a mere Master in a Holy Grail War, all things considered."

"No, you aren't wrong about that," said Cu. "Best we do everything we can to keep the little lady alive - and that means teaching her to duck. When she's ready for a good workout, bring her by in the evenings, between the three of us, we can probably get her ready. And I know it'd be nice to have your help with the little eggplant."

"Agreed." Even were he training his son and not Mash, he would still welcome the aid of the legendary teacher of his homeland, never mind that this Chiron was from this strange world and not his own.

"Then, a toast." Chiron raised his glass. "To the beginning of a fruitful relationship, for both ourselves, and our students."

CHALDEA COMMAND CENTER

Doctor Romani Archaman blew out a long breath. Nothing. Still nothing. He had thought the Sengoku period - with as turbulent as it had been, would have been a prime location for a Singularity, but….nada. Not even a trace of unusual activity. Two days wasted.

He lowered his head to the surface of his desk, resisting the urge to bang his skull against the metal.

How long he just laid his head on the cool metal, he wasn't sure, but he was brought out of his self-recriminating spiral by the sweet smell of the ambrosia that was coffee.

He began to raise his head, hands already reaching for the cup. "Da Vinci, you're a lifesaver….." His voice trailed off as he realized it wasn't Da Vinci he was addressing at all.

The lines around Medusa's brows crinkled as he realized his mistake. "Medusa, I'm sorry. I just…..it's usually our resident genius who brings me coffee. Not that I mind the delivery, but…"

"Why am I here?" She shrugged. "Mash, Fujimaru, and Avenger are all having themselves a little celebration for the girl getting her legs out of those contraptions of Da Vinci's. And the three teachers are having their own little gathering. I find myself a bit…out of sorts, this evening, with little desire to read, and so I decided to check in here, and brought gifts along with my presence." She tilted her head. "How goes the search for the next Singularity?"

Romani groaned, wrapping his hands around the mug, feeling the warmth of the beverage seeping into his fingers. "No better than it has since we resolved France. The Sengoku period of Japan looked so promising, but…..nothing." He shook his head. "Less than nothing, even. Not even a hint of a trail."

"Sengoku…." Medusa pursed her lips. "That would be what is referred to as the 'Warring States' period of Japan?" Romani nodded, taking a long sip of his coffee. "It sounds…..messy. Chaotic. For some reason, I feel like I am glad we are not having to venture there."

"True. The first two Singularities were all centered around wars - the Holy Grail War of Fuyuki, for all that was a small, local thing, and the Hundred Years War of France. So we've been largely checking other war-ridden periods of human history - and Sengoku, being over a century of almost continuous warfare, seemed like an ideal time period for our enemies to stir up trouble, but…" He shook his head sadly. "I guess it's TOO obvious - if they only picked times of mass bloodshed, it would be far too easy to find them."

"And our enemies are not stupid," said Medusa, settling down into a chair. "Even their plan in France, for all that it did not work out as they expected, at least gained them some more information on Kratos than they already had. And, if we did not have Cu Chulainn, we would have been hard-pressed to defeat Baldur. It was a narrower victory than it appears."

"And Lev wasn't even there in person when we arrived." A current of deep, deep….not even anger, but rage churned in Romani's gut. "Sooner or later - and I'll bet it's sooner, we're going to see him again." Hopefully Kratos would be able to bring him back alive - because he had questions, many, many questions for the traitor - but he wouldn't lose any sleep if it had to be dead, in the end, for Lev Lainur.

As much information as he could probably squeeze out of the man, he was far, far too dangerous to be allowed to run around freely. He knew enough about Chaldea to cripple them, if he was so inclined. Da Vinci was running herself ragged, updating their systems and looking for any backdoors the man might have left in the base before he attempted to blow it to kingdom come.

"So what have you eliminated?" He peered at her. "Maybe a fresh pair of eyes - for all that mine are hidden - can provide a new perspective."

"There was a…..trace, or a thread, or a path, or whatever you want to call it, that led from Fuyuki to France. It was just a matter of following it through the jumble of time - that's why we found France so quickly." He frowned over his mug of coffee. "I'd almost think we were led to it, if I was a more suspicious man."

"Quite possible," said Medusa. "That Lev certainly took pains to intervene in what was already an interference by them and theirs - Avenger was clear that they gave the Servant Gilles the Holy Grail that began the Singularity itself. His failure in Fuyuki - or Kratos himself - seems to have gotten under his skin."

"Hopefully you're right, and it makes him stupid enough to make a mistake. He's got quite a debt to pay." So many dead - and they, unlike the uncounted masses of humanity, wouldn't be brought back with the resolution of the Singularities. "But France didn't have any such traces left behind. Lev must have visited Baldur only briefly, or took pains to hide his tracks. Or both."

He set his mug down. "So, once everything calmed down with the whole mess around Fujimaru, we started checking some really turbulent times. We started with the two World Wars, because, well, just look at the name. WORLD-WARS! But there was nothing there. Next was the Three Kingdoms period of China, which was equally barren for anything resembling Singularities. We then moved on to the Sengoku period, which is where you find me tonight."

His fingers played about the lip of his cup. "For a second, it looked like there might have been something there, some weird particles or something, but then on a second look, nothing. Must have just been an error with the scans. Nothing else popped up in the two days we went over that era with a fine-toothed comb."

"Hmmmm…." Her fingers drummed on the surface of the desk. "Certainly some of the more violent periods of human history - but no signs of our enemies there. I don't disagree that periods of sustained conflict are good places to look, but it does seem a bit…..too simple of a thought process."

Romani shook his head. "I'm starting to come around to that way of thinking myself. Next was going to be the Crusades, but I think I'm going to pivot to something else. Just not entirely sure what."

"I suppose it would be far too fortunate to find that they seeded a Singularity into the Greek era - as there are plenty of ways one could have destabilized the city-states of that time enough to cause history to derail." She smiled. "With two Greek Servants and a Greek god - though not one of this world, the boost we would get from the land itself would be considerable."

Romani was typing something into his computer. "That would be entirely too lucky for…" He paused. "Well, would you look at that?"

DA VINCI'S WORKSHOP

THE NEXT DAY

"Romani has found a trail, then?"

Kratos sat at the table, watching as Da Vinci continued to tinker with his shield - she was as yet unsatisfied with the performance of the protective field she had added to it, and continued to modify some of the minute bits within on a daily basis.

"It's too faint to even be called a trail, really," she said, eyes never leaving the sparking tool in her hands as it touched the metallic components she had installed within his shield. "Just a few lingering traces - the same sort of thing that we found in the wake of the Fuyuki Singularity's collapse. But these are even more scattered - Roman's got no clear direction to go in, so it's a coin flip - forwards or backwards." A bright spark illuminated her eyes behind the darkened visor she wore. "Or it would be if it wasn't already so far in the past that it'd be a struggle for our systems to push any farther into the past with any sort of accuracy. So forward it is."

Kratos wracked his brain for the scraps of history he had learned from Da Vinci - even now, approaching a month in this world, he still knew only fragments of the history of this place, an unavoidable issue when covering millenia. The earliest period of time they had covered had been….. "Do you mean…." he began.

"Yup," her lips smacked the p in that word audibly. "He found the traces in the Classical Greek era - what would translate to the period of your birth and life in your world, at least while you were in Greece." She shrugged. "And maybe currently, for you, since you don't really know how long passed between you leaving Greece and you arriving in your Midgard."

Greece. For a moment, he was hit with a longing so intense he was forced to dig the nails of his fingers into his palms in order to keep his thoughts straight. For all that it would not be HIS Greece, to see it again… "But the traces do not suggest a Singularity is there."

"Unfortunately, no," Her frown turned aggrieved. "And you can't believe how much we were hoping otherwise when we found those fragments, too. The home ground boost we'd get for Medusa and Chiron there would be considerable - and who knows what it would do for you, if what you've told me of how magic worked in your world, being tied to the land. Probably nothing, given it's not your Greece, but you have to admit, the idea of having an easy Singularity with a Super-Kratos tearing through it is a nice one."

She chuckled, and he found a small smile gracing his lips. "But sadly, it's not to be. Roman's moving forward in time, because any further back and we start brushing up against the Age of the Gods, and the mana density there…our instruments just can't handle that. And we have no idea how a modern day human like Fujimaru would take it, either. If Roman doesn't find anything in the next few hundred years, we'll have to put a pin in that one until later. If nothing else, we'll certainly be able to locate the Singularity if it's back farther than the Classical Greece, but going there…"

She shrugged. "That'll be out of the question until we can procure a few more Grails, at the very least. And I craft up something that will help Fujimaru withstand the mana density - though that should be trivial enough for a genius like me."

"Forward would be….Rome?"

"Always nice to be reminded what an attentive student you are, Kratos." She nodded. "You're correct, forward is Rome, the empire that took over where Greece left off after it lost most of its power. A millennium and more of Rome."

One last spark, and she laid her tool aside, and closed his shield back up. "Even if Roman chooses to work at it from both ends, half the team looking at the Fall, and the other half the Rise, it'll take a considerable amount of time to scour all of it for a Singularity. And that assumes it's Rome itself, and not one of its neighbors - or neighbors who became vassal states - where Lev has decided to cause trouble. A constantly expanding empire like Rome had plenty of places for that. Carthage, Egypt, Gaul, Britannia, Hispania - any of them could hide what we're looking for."

"Then we must see that we are prepared, when the campaign is ready to begin."

QUARTERS OF MASH KYRIELIGHT

Mash fidgeted in her seat, unsure of what to say now that the moment was upon her. She'd made to start talking a few times now, only to have her voice fail her each time.

"Mash," his voice, unusually quiet, breaks her from her mind's frantic search for what to say. "You have been distracted all day - your attempts to teach myself and Avenger saw little success for it. Speak what is on your mind - I believe I am aware of what it is."

He turned to the side. "Why YOU are here, I do not know."

"Moral support, grumps," Avenger was sprawled in a chair across the room, idly toying with that gray box again. "Squeaks is going through some of the same things I'm going through about her identity, so I'm here to pick up the slack in that area. And because Red is tied up with her Servant and can't be here right now."

"Ok….I'm…..I'm just going to come out with it, then," Mash's hands knotted together, and her fingers began to fidget with nervous energy. "Senpai and Avenger already know but…I've not been doing particularly well since the end of the Singularity….." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "Since I killed that Berserker."

"I've been trying to sort everything out in my head before I talked about it, but….." She gave a sheepish little shrug. "Senpai noticed that I haven't been sleeping well, and she got me to open up about it…..and it helped. But…..she - and Avenger too - said I should also talk to you about it…..to see if you had any advice that would help."

Kratos thought for a long moment. "My son was younger than you when he was forced to kill another human." Barely three years ago, and yet it seemed almost a lifetime ago. "It was at the start of our journey to lay my wife's ashes to rest. We were trapped - surrounded by Reavers. Men, but barely that. Cannibals, ones who spoke of cutting the flesh from our bones while we still lived to eat it."

Mash looked like she was turning a shade of green. Avenger, on the other hand, looked enthralled. "I told Atreus to stand back - to kill Draugr or animals in the hunt is very different than taking the life of a man. But they were many, and one attempted to harm my son - in desperation, he was forced to kill him."

Kratos looked Mash in the eyes. "He was much as you are now, torn, unsure about his actions. At the time, I told him to close his heart to it. It was only later, during Ragnarök that I realized my words were wrong. Wrong for Atreus, at least. And I feel they would be wrong for you as well, Mash Kyrielight."

Two quizzical expressions met his eyes. "I was trained…..brutally. Taught to not think of the enemy as anything other than an obstacle to overcome. And….to a point, I agree with such. In combat, you cannot be distracted by anything when another is trying to kill you. You must always defend your life - and the lives of those important to you with every fiber of your being." Atreus, Mimir, Freya…and now other names were appearing in the small circle of those he would fight to the death to protect.

Kratos leaned forward, resting his elbows on his legs. "And if you must, you must fight to kill. Few foes can be reasoned with, and the Servants we will fight may have little choice in the matter. Wars - and what we fight is a war, are won by those willing to sacrifice everything."

"But you must not sacrifice what makes you human." He reached out, and tapped Mash on the forehead. "Your compassion, Mash….it gives you strength. A desire to protect. To tell you to close your heart to the suffering you see would rob you of what makes you yourself, just as doing so would have robbed my son of the empathy that makes him…." Unique. Special. At times infuriating. Wonderful. Better than his father in so many ways. "...Atreus."

"Mourn the Berserker, Mash Kyrielight, if that feels right to you." His face twisted into a frown. "Or the Servant within you, if you think that is where these feelings are coming from. I cannot tell you that it will not get easier to kill another, because….it does."

"Familiarity breeds contempt and all that," chimed in Avenger. "Not that it was hard for me. The people I killed….they weren't even really people to me, after what I thought they did to me. So it was easy for me, and from what you're saying, it sounds like it was easy for you with how you were raised." Avenger turned a glare on Mash. "So don't you let it get easy for you, Squeaks. If I ever think you're starting to act like I was, I'll smack it out of you in a flash, and I'll use my murder-arm for it, too! If the big guy doesn't beat me it, that is."

"I think…..," Mash nodded her head. "I think…..I understand what you're trying to tell me. At least a little."

Avenger was grinning. "You feel like you've got your head on straight now, Squeaks?"

Mash nodded. "Or, at least I'm getting there." She smiled. "Thank you both."

"Good," said Kratos. "For we have much to prepare for."

AUTHORS NOTES: I don't drink. Like, at ALL. Too many worries I'd be a very, VERY mean drunk and say all manner of things I keep tied up inside me. So any inaccuracies about liquor - the taste, the difference between types, etc - all can be chalked up to that.

Modified things with Kratos' meeting with Jason in God of War 2 a little so that they at least got to exchange some words, but left out the part of Jason trying to stab Kratos in the back that the novelization added. I like that GoW Jason wanted to turn back time to undo his mistakes with Medea, so we get this so Kratos can be aware of that, and pass that on to Chiron, possibly setting up things in Okeanos.

This was another largely freeform chapter with no real idea of an outline. I knew I wanted to have the teachers talk, to have Mash and Fujimaru have a couple of heart to hearts, and Fujimaru and Kratos to have at least one face to face interaction with no one else involved, but beyond that, I just let things happen as I typed them.

Next chapter, we begin Septem. Enjoy Traum, for those of you who are current. And luck on your rolls,there's a lot of folk people are interested in - Charlie, Kriem, DonQ, and Chunni Moriarty - who I will be trying for when he shows up because I love that evil old/young man. Also want a Kriem, but she's on the OTHER banner. WOE.

This chapter brought to you by Crazy Noisy Bizarre Town.