'Add honey as the water boils, and then when the steam begins to rise from the pot, you serve the tea filled with green leaves.'
This was the chant Olga recalled as she brewed tea on the stove, watching the water boil within the black stove pot.
It was the recipe she recalled from when she first moved in with her uncle after the death of her parents in that timeline; back when she was first informed of her parents' death when she was recovering from that bus "accident" — she hoped Swartz was burning in hell for his demented schemes - it didn't occur to her right then and there what happened, not when her dear uncle promised ice cream for the innocent young girl she was all those years ago.
It wasn't until she first slept at his house that it hit the child Olga just what she lost and then spent practically all night crying her eyes out.
In the middle of her grief-fueled bawling that her dear uncle, ever patient and kind and understanding to her for years on end, gently guided her down the stairs to the kitchen and served her the best tea she's ever had and will have, happily teaching his little niece his special secret recipe for making it with all the love and care in the world.
Love and care her own father never bothered to show her, if it ever existed. Love and care which persisted even when those 'dreams' — fuck Swartz and every single one of his insane ambitions - that she stuck with until destiny came calling in the forms of a cryptic herald and a Ridewatch.
'Uncle…are you okay right now?' Olga somberly wondered in her mind, 'Even if you didn't achieve your dreams in this world as well, are you happy with how things went in your life in this time and place?'
The loud burst of steam coming through the pot's head snapped her out of her thought.
"Well, can't have them waiting for too long." Olga sighed as she grabbed the handle of the teapot and carefully laid it on the serving tray along with six white cups each with a single mint green leaf at the bottom, a small silver spoon for each cup, and a bowl full of sugar cubes with a longer silver spoon laying within it.
With both hands, Olga carefully carried the tray out of the kitchen and into the cafeteria of Chaldea, strolling almost casually to her destination of a huge round table that held five others waiting for her arrival.
Ritsuka, Mash, Da Vinci, and Goredolf all stared unblinkingly as the previously dead Director of Chaldea laid the serving tray on the table, their expressions being a mix of complete bafflement and confusion at who was before them, something that Olga seemingly had no awareness of as she gave each person on the table their own cup before filling each one to nearly the brim.
After Olga finished pouring her own personal cup of tea, she gracefully took her seat on the inner bench of the table, picked up her cup and took a sip, letting out a sigh of contentment.
Once she was done, Olga lifted her head up, blinking at the shocked expressions pointed directly at her.
"Is something wrong? Do you guys not like tea?"
"ARE YOU A GHOST?!" Goredolf screamed before Da Vinci quickly covered his mouth.
The white-haired woman tilted her head in thought, pursing her lips before giving her answer.
"Well…I did become a ghost for a short while. Does that count?"
The choking sounds the older blonde man made was palpable, much to the clear distaste of the one covering his mouth.
"Please keep yourself in check Mr. Musik, as the sight of you spraying saliva all over my hand isn't something any one of us would like to witness, especially from a man of your considerable status." Da Vinci chastised him for his unimpressive reaction before addressing their thought-to-be deceased savior. "I apologize for his behavior, we haven't trained him yet," she joked at his expense.
"No worries, I probably deserve that sort of reaction," Olga laughed quietly. "I suppose you all want to know how I came back."
"That would be much appreciated."
"Well…" She thought of the best way to paraphrase things without getting too confusing. And given what she went through since they last met, that was indeed a tall task to handle, "You know what happened to me at Singularity F, right?"
Mash - now in her civilian clothing - swallowed audibly while adjusting her glasses, the memory of her death all too visible in her mind's eye, "Yes. Professor Lev— or as his true identity was, the Demon Pillar Flauros —revealed who he was and the role he played in the bombing before…"
"Before he killed me…" Olga calmly finished for her, recalling the same events. "I never expected him to be a traitor… or not one I suppose. He would have to have been on our side to be a traitor, wouldn't he?" Did she even know the real Lev Lainur? Was there any point at which that man was honest besides the moment he revealed his true colors and intent? "Anyway, that was the last thing I remember… of my life as a magus."
"As a magus?" Goredolf parroted, carefully lowering Da Vinci's hand from his mouth. "Explain."
"Well… I am not a hundred percent sure yet but I might have been reincarnated in another timeline," Olga slowly revealed, waiting for their reaction. Surprisingly (outside of Goredolf looking confused), none of them didn't believe her, so she carefully went on, "In that moment of being thrown into CHALDEAS by Lev or whomever he truly was, I experienced multiple deaths in rapid fashion, dying over and over again while seemingly living through so many potential lifetimes that I barely have any recollection of at the moment…all except for one particular life in one particular timeline."
"I see. What was your life like in this other timeline?" Da Vinci inquired. Despite being a woman of logic, she seemed to trust her word and went along with it. "I presume the powers you've displayed were acquired in this other life?"
"Ye… yes," Olga nodded slightly in shock before explaining further. "I remember living a whole childhood in this other life. It was as a normal human without any sort of magecraft but I remember it clearly." Mostly anyway. "But then, sometime after I turned 18, I found this weird watch before a prophet from the future named Woz told me it would be a special day for me."
She was skimming over some details, some of which may be very important but for now, she told them the bare necessities.
"In my other life, I was… what's the right word… chosen?" Yeah, that sounded about right, even if it was to be an insecure madman's battery puppet. "I was chosen to be a queen of time and awakened the powers of Zi-O." Olga paused to see if everyone (besides Goredolf) was still following her. Since they hadn't raised a question yet, she assumed they were. "There were more people from the future who came to my present. Some of them were friends, some of them were foes. They were all trying to change the future because it was not exactly the greatest of places." The former categories anyway; the Time Jackers wanted to change things for their own reasons, only to turn out to be puppets to be used by Swartz as well. "But long story short, Zi-O's powers were immense and I took my place as the Queen of Time… before I gave it up."
"And then you ended up here."
"And then I ended up here," Olga confirmed. "I'm not sure how it happened either but before I knew it, I woke up in the snow and remembered my original life in this timeline too. I came here to Chaldea to find answers but…" She ended up stumbling onto yet another attack on her father's greatest work. She just had the worst luck, didn't she? At least she managed to do something and saved it this time.
For the most part anyhow.
"That…sounds like a lot to have gone through." Da Vinci stated after a long bout of silence, sympathy clear across her face and voice, "Just from the sound of it, you must have experienced a lot in that timeline, haven't you?"
"Trust me when I say that you don't know the half of it." Olga sighed leaning back slightly, tilting her head back to look up at nothing in particular, "But such is the life of a Kamen Rider."
"Kamen Rider?" Risuka spoke up for the first time, "You mean that IXA guy you had guard us? And those brown soldiers Koyanskaya mentioned?"
"Yes."
"What exactly are Kamen Riders?"
What exactly is a Kamen Rider, indeed? When it came to how it all started, then, of course, it would be a hero of justice. However, time, as it always did, marched forward, bringing with it change, a change that also applied to what it meant to be a Kamen Rider. From detectives to shady lawyers to mad scientists to outright mass murders, its definition quite strayed away from how it all began with the first.
And here she was, acting as the face of its entire history, for all of its good and all of its bad.
"If Heroic Spirits are those that are known as legends by history…then Kamen Riders can be considered those who create the legends remembered by it."
"...That's not really an answer."
"Well, it's the best answer I got right now unless you wanna hear the really, really long one." Olga gave an almost helpless shrug, "I'll be happy to explain it all to you later, but I do believe I'm owed a bit of an explanation since I know for a fact that you've been through a lot too since we've last met as I have no idea what a Demon Pillar even is. So tell me…"
Olga leaned in eagerly, amber gold eyes twinkling with curiosity.
"What have you all been up to since I died?"
Around the massive round table sat seven individuals with several more standing behind them. These seven were the ones behind the invasion of Chaldea, having sent the trio of Kirei, Koyanskaya, and Anastasia to do the deed as they dealt with the bigger but no less important target. The seven had succeeded and planted the seeds that would grow to become the Lostbelts, bleaching the world of Proper Human History in the process.
Every step of the plan had gone without a hitch… except for the most important part— "What do you mean you Chaldea wasn't destroyed?"
"Just as I said, Chaldea's disappeared but definitely not destroyed," the holographic Koyanskaya reiterated, slower this time as if she was addressing a particularly slow child. "As both the priest and the little ice queen would back up, Chaldea up and vanished before we got rid of everyone."
That… was highly concerning. However, the leader kept a calm face and resumed the call, "And what of this masked warrior?"
"Besides being the one responsible for throwing a whole wrench in my operations, she called herself a demon queen before Chaldea disappeared off the face of the Earth. Since I don't think you lot were the ones doing that, I assume it was her own doing."
'A demon…queen?' The blonde man pondered the title for several seconds. It could have been a Servant of Chaldea that had not been forcibly desummoned but he didn't recall any famous figure in legends or history who could possibly be her true identity. The closest would be Oda Nobunaga but her appearance was already known and was certainly not the mystery warrior Koyanskaya described.
While he knew Chaldea was not going to go down easy, this was not what he expected. But then again, that was something he should have expected Chaldea to do— pull out an unknown trump card and remain in the game.
"If I may so respectfully add, I don't think the Chaldeans knew who they were either."
"Explain."
"They were just as confused as I was when she appeared," Koyanskaya continued. "There is a chance it could all be an act, it seems to me this Demon Queen as she so calls herself is not related to Chaldea. Or at least, not directly."
That information was more useful if barely. That meant whoever she was, she was a wholly unknown factor in everything. For now, the best he could assume was that the masked warrior was a Servant, only one that was not summoned by Chaldea themselves. Not an unlikely scenario as they themselves have done it but that begged the question, who did the summoning?
The Counter Force? Possibly.
An as-of-yet unknown third party getting themselves involved with everything? Unlikely but not out of the question.
But for now, they should focus on what they could do rather than question the possibilities.
"Are there any leads where they disappeared too?" He questioned but only got a short and sweet "Nope!" from the fox lady. "Then keep searching the area until you find something. It would be unwise to write them off entirely lest we all suffer the consequences." With that final word, he ended the call with Koyanskaya and let out a sigh. "Now then, where were we before being interrupted? How are you all setting up in your Lostbelts?"
"The Scandinavian Lostbelt is going as foreseen. I've already made contact with the King."
"I've done the same in my Lostbelt. But I must say, she's a lot different than I expected."
All around the table came similar reports, with the exception of the ones representing the South American and Russian Lostbelts. The former simply said it was going well while the latter said his Lostbelt King was sleeping. There were also some Stray Servants running around the Lostbelts summoned by the Counter Force but that was already to be expected. Regardless, everything else was going as planned and now all they had to do was grow their Tree of Emptiness and expand their Lostbelt's territory.
For now, they shall carry on their tasks as the former members of Team A— the Crypters.
Yet, as the meeting began to close and they went on their separate ways, a questioning thought kept poking into Kirschtaria Wodime's thoughts:
'What exactly is this demon queen trying to achieve?'
"Doctor Romani was King Solomon all along?! Who had his identity stolen by Goetia, Beast I?!"
"That's basically the gist of it without mentioning all of the details that involves." Risuka chuckled while bringing up his cup of tea, "Trust me when I say none of us saw that coming when it came to light."
"Here, here!" Da Vinci chimed in while adding sugar to her tea.
"I think even that is understating things." Mash supported on her end, nodding vigorously.
'Isn't that the truth...' Snarked a part of Olga in the back of her mind - a part that she couldn't be bothered to acknowledge at the moment given the mindblowing, earth-shattering revelations she had to process, if barely.
Seven Singularities. Demon Pillars. The Beasts of Calamity. Romani's true identity.
'Doctor Romani…' Where was he anyway? She didn't see him earlier. He was always a bit odd. While he was truly good in his field, Olga did notice the special treatment her father gave him. She initially assumed her father might have… but in the end, it turned out to be because Romani was his Servant all those years ago. Olga wished she had gotten to know him a bit better before everything went up in flames.
'At least he would have been more honest than that Flauros monster.' The white-haired mage spat in her mind in both equal parts contempt and sorrow. Contempt for the demon possessing the face of the man and spreading so much destruction in his name; sorrow for that very same man she never even got to know in the first place, 'Lev…if you never had your life snatched away from you…would you have supported me like Flauros pretended to do for so long or would you have agreed and sided with those under my watch about the kind of director I was?'
She wasn't blind. She knew what most of the staff at Chaldea felt about her leadership before everything literally blew up in her face. The worst part was that she couldn't blame a single one of them for it, as she was always two steps behind everything due to being thrust into a role she wasn't prepared for in the slightest and only got due to the death of an absent father.
Then was the betrayal she received from the one who seemingly supported her despite her incompetence supposed to hurt less, knowing that the man himself was never by her side in the first place.
Shaking her head to get rid of her increasingly darkening thoughts, Olga turned her head back at Risuka, who was just finishing up his cup of tea, "So what happened next at the Timeless Temple? When Romani - I mean Solomon, activated his Noble Phantasm?"
At her question, everyone's face became more somber, essentially answering her question. "He… sacrificed his place in the Throne of Heroes and disappeared," Ritsuka finally answered. "And because Goetia came from him, he would disappear too."
"Ah… I see…" So he was gone too… "So that was it? Romani died and took out Goetia with him?"
"Not immediately but yes," Ritsuka nodded, wincing a bit as he recalled having to fight the incredibly weakened King of Humans himself and just barely getting out of the Timeless Temple alive. "Then Mash came back to life and we returned to Chaldea before the Temple collapsed."
"…Oh right, that was what was bothering me." They did mention Mash taking the full brunt of Goetia's attack and disappearing. So she did die too. "But how did you come back to life?"
"I… can't recall, to be honest." While she was grateful for the chance to live, it did bother her somewhat that she didn't know how or why she was revived.
"I see." Was that why they were so accepting of Olga's story? Mash had already been resurrected; what was one more even if it was so fantastical? The proof was already in front of them anyway. "And the Inceration of Humanity was reversed after Goetia's defeat, I assume."
"Yes. That was a year ago now." So much has happened in that year but that was not important. "And now all of… this is happening."
The buyout and shutdown of Chaldea along with the following invasion with it culminated in the return of the Olga Marie Animusphere and their unlikely survival. Speaking of which— "Ms. Animusphere, is it safe to assume that you were the one to take us out of time?" Da Vinci asked.
"Yup, that was me. But…" Somehow, that act of saving Chaldea ended up in the Zi-O Ridewatch disappearing like the Grand Zi-O Ridewatch did when the Ridewatches broke. She didn't think using her powers like that would drain all of it but, then again, she did restart the world before getting sent here. Maybe it just took whatever was left after that.
'But doesn't explain why the world's timeline feels so… malleable in a way it shouldn't be.'
Her thoughts were interrupted when the Cafeteria room suddenly opened.
"Well, that should be everyone accounted for." Announced one Sherlock as he strolled into the room with his usual cool and analytical presence.
"Oh! Hello Mr. Holmes, I have a cup for you to fill your own tea with!" Olga greeted kindly, "Are you done counting for the remaining staff at Chaldea from the attack?"
"Yes, indeed. Fifteen out of nineteen managed to survive the attack from our new enemies thanks to your timely arrival Ms. Animusphere." The great detective confirmed while walking over to the round table where everyone was seated, "As well as…an unexpected add-on coming into play, though one not to our detriment, thankfully enough."
"And yet, another unforeseen variable comes into play." Da Vinci sighed while rubbing her temples and bringing her teacup to her lips in an attempt to soothe her growing migraine, "What could it be this time?"
Her answer came from a voice that sounded eerily identical to hers, albeit much more youthful and a touch more bratty.
"One you certainly are familiar with, my dear Leonardo!"
Da Vinci spat out her tea in a rather comical fashion as soon that voice reached her ears, while the rest of the table group looked wide-eyed at the figure that just hopped out from behind Sherlock in a dramatic manner.
Standing there was, in the simplest words possible, a younger version of Da Vinci, fists on her hips like a superheroine who just arrived to save the day.
"Hello everyone!" The younger doppelganger cheerfully greeted them with a wave.
"...Isn't it usually the other way around?" Ritsuka commented, still surprised by the sight before them. "Da Vinci? Care to explain?"
Da Vinci didn't explain immediately, shouting, "How are you awake?! You shouldn't be up until I…" She caught herself from saying too much and cleared her throat. "I mean, it's great to see you, me. Now why are you awake?"
"Dang, I didn't realize how rude I was," The younger Da Vinci tutted while shaking her head. "But I'm just as in the dark as you are. I was in my pod when suddenly, poof, I gained consciousness." The girl waved her hands up into the air as if showcasing her awakening, "It was as if time itself shifted around me to cause this occurrence!"
"...Oh! That was me!" Olga stated, raising her hand up somewhat sheepishly, "In order to escape with everyone and to keep the building intact, I used my power over time to move us all a second out of sync with the rest of the world, making it so our invaders couldn't take us or Chaldea itself out due to being on different seconds in the same timeline." She may or may not have gotten the idea from a certain time-travel show she watched in her youth…
The younger Da Vinci stared at the white-haired woman as if she was looking at a ghost.
"...YOU LIVE OLGA?!" She suddenly exclaimed when her brain fully processed what she was seeing, pointing her finger at the white-haired young woman, "When?! How?! Why?!"
"It's… a long story. You really should've been here earlier." Olga was not really in the mood to retell her story again. More people in the room knew about it already while nobody bar Da Vinci knew who the child was. "I'm sure Da Vinci will completely fill you in herself once you two sort out…whatever is going on between you two. So who is she?" Olga asked the Caster Servant; she was pretty sure Servants could not have kids, so what was going on?
"Erm… to explain in as simplest terms as possible, she's a backup Rider-class body in case something unfortunate befalls me, with my memories of what has happened thus far to Chaldea uploaded into her mind, though you may consider us separate people, it'll be easier for everyone if you do so." Explained Da Vinci, albeit a tad exacerbated as she lowered her younger counterpart's finger. "I was keeping her in the Border this entire time."
"It was most definitely a surprise for me when she came tumbling out of the engine room," Holmes interjected, letting out a small laugh. "In any case, having a second genius's pair of hands will be a major boon for us. Now, it's best we focus on the larger problem at hand." Holmes's expression turned dead serious as he addressed the entire room, "Who is behind the invasion of Chaldea? And what is their goal?"
It was like the room's temperature fell by a few degrees, not as harsh as the Servant responsible for most of the damage but nonetheless noticeable. "Well, we have someone who could give us some answers." Da Vinci pointedly eyed the new Director of Chaldea, who has so far been quiet after his reaction earlier, clearly doing his best to process what has been revealed. "I highly doubt you were actually in leagues with the true culprits but do you recall anything odd about your secretary?"
"You mean that heart-breaking minx? Of course—" Everyone's face looked hopeful for a second. "—I do not!" Before becoming collectively crestfallen by Goredolf's answer. "It is more than shameful for me to say but she had me wrapped all around her little finger. Even buying Chaldea was her suggestion. I've never questioned anything and she was masterfully working for me with little complaints, that was the depth of our relationship."
As unbelievable as it sounded, it was undeniable Goredolf was telling the truth. He may have been an ass but he would have been killed by the men in black had Ritsuka and company not saved him. Koyanskaya being more than willing to kill him was the nail in the coffin for his innocence in the invasion.
"So that's our only lead gone," Da Vinci - the older one - quietly sighed while facepalming. "Ms. Animusphere, you wouldn't have an idea, would you?"
"Sorry, but I'm just as in the dark as all of you," Olga clapped her hands as she apologized. "Maybe it has something to do with me coming back but I have no idea either." Another dead end; that was just great.
"Mmm, then it seems this is something we shall have to revisit once we manage to get the building's systems properly online again." Da Vinci, the Caster Servant, declared, while clapping her hands together, "Shouldn't take more than a day as Ms. Animusphere's actions have made it so most of our technology is intact! For now, may I suggest we all turn in for the day, both staff and field agents?"
"Agreed. Quite a day it has been for all involved," Sherlock concurred with a slight nod, "I shall go inform the remaining staff to get rest, and afterward, help you - the both of you - to make sure everything is up and running again properly so we are able to operate to counter our new opposition."
The older Da Vinci simply nodded in agreement, while the younger one puffed up incrementally with pride.
"Was there any doubt? You have two copies of the greatest mind to come from the High Renaissance era. Such a task shall be less than trivial when up against such an unmatched force!"
"...Is this what everyone from home had to deal with back in the day?" Da Vinci the elder muttered under her breath, shaking her head before turning to Olga, who looked to be agreeing to with ending things for the day, "I know it might sound…inappropriate to say this, but will you be alright going to your old room by yourself? To my knowledge, no one's touched it since your untimely demise in Singularity F, so everything within it should be intact unless you would prefer…"
Olga politely raised her hand, "It's fine, though thank you for the consideration." She then gets up from her seat before giving a slight bow to express her gratefulness, "While this might be a bit too early to profess, I must admit that I am really looking forward to working with you all again!"
With another bow and an appreciative smile, the former deceased Director of Chaldea walked out of the cafeteria room and to her bedroom to turn in for the day, the eyes of everyone else in the room not leaving her back until it was on the other side of the closed door.
"...I don't know why, but I get the feeling that she hasn't told us everything about what happened to her in that other life of hers," Ritsuka admitted, breaking the silence left behind by Olga.
Much to his relief, everyone else nodded in agreement, with Mash adding in, "Whatever happened to her there, must have truly changed her in ways we haven't seen yet. Just, everything about her right now…she isn't the same woman we saw die in Singularity F."
"It wouldn't do well to speculate what did or did not happen to her when she became a Kamen Rider. I get the feeling she'll tell us on her own time when she's feeling more concrete about returning to her original lifetime." Da Vinci stated, believing that thought without a single doubt, although that didn't stop the curiosity in her eyes from being visible to all.
BAM!
She was startled out of her own thoughts and speculations when her younger counterpart suddenly slammed her hands onto the white round table, inserting her face right in front of her older self's, a mixture of childish frustration and determined curiosity Da Vinci was all too familiar with.
"Gah! Enough with being in the dark! I demand you tell me everything about Olga's unexpected revival! And don't you dare skip out on any details, Leonardo!"
The elder of the two's eyebrow twitched in annoyance, "Mother, father…what an unruly child you had to raise." She sighed before bringing her arms in a placating manner, "Alright, alright, no need to twist yourself over this. I suppose it starts a good while after she became eighteen…"
As she wandered the cold halls of Chaldea with no real destination in mind, Olga soon heard someone calling out to her. "Yes?" She politely asked as she turned around to see a pair of staff members approaching her with nervous looks. She couldn't immediately put their names to their faces but recalled them being one of the many that talked behind her back from before. "How may I help you?"
The two shared a look before taking in a deep breath and bowing— "Thank you for saving us!"
Their declaration took a second to fully register in her mind. '"…Huh? Oh, don't worry about that."
"Still, you deserve praise for saving all of us," One of them said. "Even when most of us used to…" The staff member trailed off, looking both ashamed and embarrassed for what they'd previously said about the former director.
"We want to apologize for that too," The other staff member interjected. "It was wrong for us to have said those things about you after everything you went through and especially now that you saved our lives. We wouldn't have blamed you if you left us to die for that."
"As I said, it's nothing." It was her job as a Kamen Rider to save everyone she could. And even if they gossiped about and insulted her in the past, that did not mean they deserved to die for it nor was such talk not unwarranted, given how things ended up under her watch… "I don't doubt that all of us would like to go back to the past and change how we acted, it isn't going to help us out of our current situation, is it?"
Olga goes forward and firmly claps her hands upon the shoulder of each bowing staff member, causing both of them to look up at her with stunned expressions.
"How about we do this: each one of us shall do our best to look towards the future and do better there, so we don't hold a grudge about how we acted in the past. Is that okay with you two?"
"Y-Yes!"
"Most definitely!"
"Good! I look forward to protecting this world's future with you all!"
With a gentle pat on their shoulders, Olga turned around and began to walk back to her old bedroom.
'I swear it: just like the hands on a clock, I will do my best to move forward to tomorrow and be better than I was yesterday.'
And another chapter done!
So, surprised that we're doing Da Vinci Caster AND Da Vinci Rider at the same time? I would like to think that few FGO fics do so. Let us know how these two dynamic and relationship is going this far and the ways one can see them develop?
As for those two staff members at the end of the chapter? It's those two from that manga that was insulting Olga behind her back only for Lev to come in and defend her. I do find it interesting how they will view Olga as she is now, especially since she saved most of their lives from that attack in this timeline, especially the ones who should have died like in canon.
FB: I did not expect that there were only 19 people left after part 1 :'( 8 surviving was not that bad in hindsight. BTW, if you see any sort of British spelling here and there, it was probably me forgetting to change it.
Like the chapter? Dislike it? Do tell and comment! Until next time!