CHAPTER 23:

FATE/GRAND ORDER

The next morning, Olga-Marie called for a meeting for all essential staff, at least those who survived without major injury. This meant not just Harry and his group of Masters and Servants, but also Waver Velvet and Grey, along with Da Vinci and Roman. Those who couldn't come were listening to what was to come on the PA system.

In the lecture hall, meant to hold the Master candidates and a few extra staff, was a little over half full now. Only a couple of dozen staff were left alive, not counting Harry and his group, along with Waver and Grey. Harry had noticed the looks Grey was shooting her ancestor, and he hoped their first proper meeting would go well. Hermione, Roman, and Da Vinci were standing on the stage, to one side of Olga.

Olga, after everyone was seated, cleared her throat. "I should start by restating our situation. As of yesterday, 80% of our staff died. In addition, the vast majority of Master candidates are either dead, or, thanks to the cryostasis function of the Rayshift Coffins, frozen in a critical condition. Unfortunately, reviving them will be an arduous task that we lack the resources for. And we have confirmation, as much as we can, of the incineration of the rest of the world. We sent drones to the edge of Chaldea's magnetic field. The entirety of this planet's surface is being consumed by fire, a holocaust that has not been seen since the Hadean Eon, I suspect. Chaldea and its inhabitants are all that is left of humanity and its history. And we have been crippled by a traitor within its ranks, Lev Lynor, who claimed to be Flauros, a Demon Pillar out of the Ars Goetia."

Uneasy and anxious murmurs filled the room, but before they could get any further, Olga then slammed her fist on the lectern. "But Flauros, and whatever 'king' he serves, made a fatal error! They wished to see us suffer and struggle, drown in the enormity of our task, so they only crippled us, not wiped us out! Lev Lynor forgot that Chaldea was created exactly for this scenario! CHALDEAS, SHEBA, TRISMEGISTUS, LAPLACE, FATE, all these systems and more were created to one end: to safeguard the history of the world! And that is exactly what we will do!"

She had their attention, Harry noted, and Olga continued. "My father, in many ways, was a great man. But what you did not know was that he was also a madman, someone who had a plan in place to pervert the purpose of the Grand Order, to supposedly safeguard the Human Order, but in a way that would have been insane! I am not my father…nor do I have any desire to be now. I know many of you do not think highly of me. But I do intend to lead this organisation to the best of my abilities. And I cannot do so alone. I need each and every last one of you to work together, and not just with each other, but with those we intend to recruit." She looked to Harry and the other Masters and Servants. "Masters and Servants, come up here, and stand behind me, please."

As they did so, Olga continued. "FATE has now proven to be a success. Researcher Mash Kyrielight is now a Shielder Demi-Servant, and acquitted herself well in the Fuyuki Singularity. In addition, we have two versions of Arturia Pendragon, or, as you know her better, King Arthur. And we also have Oda Nobunaga, the warlord of Japan's Warring States Era. These Servants have answered the call to fight for humanity. Others will come soon, and we hope to have them work on our behalf, not just fighting in the Singularities, but helping out around Chaldea where possible. Some of these Servants may be of historical or mythological figures with storied pasts, so I ask you, give them a chance to prove themselves, as we cannot pass up any willing helping hand, not if they're more of a help than a liability."

Olga then turned to the Masters. "Harry Potter. Barghest. Delphini Potter. Melusine. Ritsuka Fujimaru. Mash Kyrielight. Arturia Pendragon. Arturia Fae. Oda Nobunaga. The fate of history itself lies on your shoulders. It's a heavy burden, but you are the only people able to Rayshift into the Singularities for now. If we are able to revive any of the other Master candidates, then it may yet ease your burden, but for now, we only have you. Are you willing to fight for the past, present, and future of this world?"

Harry didn't see it, but he knew everyone with him nodded almost simultaneously. A tired smile touched Olga's lips. "…Thank you," she said quietly, before she turned back to the audience of staff members.

"Some may know this already, as they were in the control room monitoring CHALDEAS, but we have detected no less than seven sizeable Singularities, though we also believe that minor but significant Singularities are appearing in the wake of these seven. We are yet to confirm the exact times and locations of these Singularities, but they occupy key moments in history, and were warped out of place to destroy the flow of history, and the Counter-Force cannot seemingly rectify them."

A holographic projection of the planet appeared, with a number of bright, pulsing dots at a number of places on its surface. "The clearest Singularity seems to be in France, during the Hundred Years War. However, we will not be able to send a team until SHEBA has finally fixed on the exact period of the disturbance, which will take at least a week unless we're lucky and our repairs accelerate the process. From there, the Singularities become increasingly unfocused and harder to pin down, though we can at least infer the periods and events of history they interfere with." She gestured, and the hologram, currently zoomed in on France, then moved to Italy, albeit with much of Western Europe shown. "The second clearest seems to centre in Italy, specifically at the time of the Roman Empire during the Julio-Claudian Dynasty." The picture then zoomed in on the Atlantic, though the Singularity seemed to cover much of the ocean. "The Atlantic and the Caribbean, during the 16th Century, a golden age of exploration and piracy. That is what the third Singularity interferes with."

And then, the next Singularity was squatting over a very familiar area. "South Britain, during the Victorian Era, most likely location, London," Olga said. Then, there was a shift to North America. "North America, in all likelihood encompassing the United States, some time between the 18th and 19th Centuries." The globe then shifted again. "The Middle East and Egypt during the time of the Crusades." And for the last time, it shifted, though not much, to the east. "Mesopotamia, during the Age of the Gods, at least four if not five millennia into the past."

Olga then dismissed the holographic globe. "In summary, our enemy is the mastermind behind a malignant form of history, one that has destroyed our own. A history we must fight! We fight for the survival of our history, and all the people in it, and not just of humanity! Barghest is a Fae, as is her Servant, and Melusine is an incarnation of Albion, in the form of a Fae! They have agreed to fight for us, not just for humanity, but for every sentient being in this world, human, Phantasmal, magical being or otherwise!" She looked out across the gathered staff members, and said, "That…is the Grand Order. Not just safeguarding the Human Order, but the Order of every living being on this world. We will not stand idly by and let the monsters responsible for this get away with this. Because if we don't…all life on this planet will go extinct. And I for one do not intend to go gently into oblivion!" She then stared at them all. "Will you?"

There were no cheers, but Harry could tell that Olga's speech had, if not lightened the mood, then motivated the staff. Their expressions had become more determined. "Then that is all, for now. You know what is at stake, what we need to fight. We begin that battle against that malignant history now. Those of you on duty, return to your stations. Those of you off-duty, rest up, and rest well. We'll need every bit of rest in the time ahead."

The staff took her words as the dismissal it was, and they filtered out. Once most were gone, Olga turned to the Masters and Servants, along with Waver, Grey, Hermione, Roman, and Da Vinci. "Well done, Olga," Hermione said gently.

"…Thank you, but…" Olga rubbed her forehead. "The enormity of this task…I have to lead Chaldea through this apocalypse, and with fewer staff. Thankfully, my father's arrangements ensured our food supplies wouldn't run out for at least a year, and that was with a full compliment of staff, though if supplies become an issue with more Servants…yes, I am well aware that Servants subsist on magical energy either from the Masters or the magical reactors we have, but…I'm rambling. Forget you heard that."

"Forget what, Olga?" Mash asked innocently, to weary chuckles all around.

"…Still, while it was a pretty speech…I'm still not sure if I'm up to the task," Olga said quietly. "It's one thing to know Chaldea's purpose is to safeguard history, and another to be confronted with such a brutal test. If I had Rayshift and Master compatibility, I would fight by your sides in a heartbeat. Instead, I am forced to lead from the rear."

"You can still lead from the rear and be a good leader, Olga-Marie Animusphere," Arturia Pendragon said, her armour being removed from her dress. "So far, I see that you are doing a fine job, for one so young, and thrown into an untenable situation. And there are many valid kinds of leadership, I speak from experience. If you need advice from any one of us, you have but to ask."

Olga chuckled. "Advice from some of history and myth's most noted figures…most Magi would be too proud to do so, especially if they consider them mere familiars."

Waver cleared his throat. "Director, while I do not have Rayshift capability, I do have Master compatibility. Servants could help with various tasks around Chaldea that automatons cannot. Logistical, security, or even just advisory. I could summon at least one Servant to act in such capacities. And Grey and I are willing and able to act in whatever support capacity we can do as you see fit."

"Thank you, Professor Velvet," Olga said. "Da Vinci, how many Servants can we summon at the present time?"

"Only one per Master, at least for the time being," Da Vinci said. "We need to get more sub-reactors back online before we can support more. True, we should be able to get enough back online to summon at least one more Servant per Master by the time we can get a definitive fix on the French Singularity, but for now, only Melusine, Waver, and Hermione will be able to summon additional Servants."

"Don't forget Hinako," Hermione said quietly. "We can revive her as soon as we can, and we'll have another Master, this one from Team A."

"Wait, you can revive her?" Ritsuka hissed. "But I thought you couldn't revive the other Masters yet."

"…Let's just say Hinako is about as human as Barghest and Melusine are, and leave it at that for now," Hermione said.

"And what of Beryl Gut?" Barghest asked.

After a moment, Olga said, "…Sadly, the cryostasis function in his Rayshift Coffin has had a malfunction earlier this morning. And with the systems the way they are, we couldn't save him."

Harry raised an eyebrow, but didn't comment. That seemed awfully convenient. Maybe someone had a hand in that malfunction, not that he gave a damn.

Olga then looked to the others. "Well then…I think it's time to see what FATE has in store for us…"

They were led to the actual summoning chamber. A hologram of Lord Chaldeas appeared as Da Vinci began booting up the sequence at a console. "Now, while the initial summoning is free, so to speak, for further summonings, we can use a catalyst known as Saint Quartz, an exotic mineral that, until recently, has been only a curiosity of the Department of Mineralogy at Clock Tower. We have a substantial but still limited reserve, but we can use the leylines and material harvested from this very mountain to create more. What it is is a crystallisation of Spiritrons that can act as a catalyst for summonings, theoretically," Olga explained.

"The sad thing is, the way Marisbury explained things, it's basically like a gacha in certain games," Roman said. "You don't need Saint Quartz for all summonings through FATE, but it helps boost the power of the ritual."

Olga scowled at Roman. "You cannot trivialise an intricate magecraft ritual, one that has streamlined the process the von Einzberns, Tohsakas, and Makiris used for their Grail War, as something like a gacha! Especially as summoning Servants is a matter of life and death!" She closed her eyes and huffed. "Arturia Fae."

"Yes, Director?" the Caster Servant asked.

"Hermione told me last night that you gave Barghest a beacon of sorts, a catalyst that allowed you to be summoned. Given Melusine's fear of summoning this Aurora character, is there a way to negate that possibility?"

"…Yes, actually. I'm not sure that Lady Aurora ended up on the Throne of Heroes, though our Morgan, Baobhan Sith, and Vortigern from the Lostbelt did. I could block their summoning…or ensure that Melusine gains a specific Servant." Arturia Fae's expression lightened, a smile touching her lips. "In fact…I know just the Servant. I'm not sure whether it's possible to summon that specific version of her, but…if we do, we have at least a good Servant to support Chaldea."

"…Then do so, please," Olga said.

With that, Arturia Fae turned to Melusine, and began chanting softly under her voice. After about half a minute, she stopped. "Go ahead, Melusine."

"…Are you sure this will work?" Melusine asked.

"Not completely, but…if nothing else, it'll reduce the risk of summoning Aurora, Morgan, Vortigern, or Baobhan Sith, for now at least. Once we get more Servants to keep them under control, we can risk summoning them."

"Very well," Melusine said. She looked to Da Vinci, who nodded, activating the lines for the ritual, just in case.

Then, Melusine chanted, as the familiar spinning rings of light appeared, "Heed my words. My will creates your bodies, and your swords my destiny. Together, we forge the future of humanity! When all is naught, we shall be the guiding light! I hereby swear, I shall be all the good in the world, that I shall defeat all the evil in the world! Seventh heaven clad and the great words of power, grant me the power to lead the Guardians of the Scales!"

The rings snapped to the centre of the chamber, and an explosion of light filled the room. A diminutive form, with a strange contraption next to it, began to coalesce out of the light. A high-pitched, childish girl's voice, and yet filled with age, came from the figure. "Servant Rider has answered your summons. I ask of you, are you my…wait, what the heck?! Barghest?! Melusine?! And two Arturias?! And…!"

The figure was the size of a toddler, or a little older. She was dressed in a pink onesie-like outfit, complete with a hat with points that vaguely looked like cat ears. Her ears were pointed too, her face was cute, her hair pink and reaching down to her waist.

Barghest, however, spoke something, cutting off the Rider, in a language Harry recognised as being of the Fae from that Lostbelt, the same language Luna had used in summoning Melusine to this timeline. The Rider looked to her startled, before nodding. Out loud in English, she said, "Well, I wasn't expectin' this. Seriously, how the heck did you pull that off? I was being erased by the Counter-Force because of that timey-wimey stuff, and next thing I know, I'm here! Not that I'm complainin', mind. Just 'cause I knew it was goin' to happen doesn't mean I wanted it to!"

Arturia Fae simply walked over, and picked up the diminutive Servant in a hug. "Let's just say I gambled, and we won. You want to introduce yourself?"

The Rider Servant was lowered back to the ground, and she then put her hands on her hips. "Sure! I'm the Fae who's a friend to brides everywhere! The name's Habetrot! Nice to meetcha!"

And with that, another step on the road to saving history was taken. Another friend from a timeline that never was ended up saved from oblivion. And Chaldea's forces were bolstered a little more.

They had a long, hard road ahead of them, a road that would lead them across time and the world. They would be fighting monsters, warriors, would-be gods and actual gods. And at the end of that road lay the mastermind behind it all, the dark legacy of King Solomon, Goetia.

But they would fight. They would rage against the dying of the light. But whether they succeeded…well, that's a tale for another time…

THE END…OF THE BEGINNING

CHAPTER 23 ANNOTATIONS:

So, there you have it. This was going to be the point where I finished this part of the fic almost from the beginning of conceiving it. Whether or not I continue into the events of Fate/Grand Order proper is another matter, but I hope to at least make a start on it at a later date. If not, well, it's a good part to end on, with the heroes finding their resolve to fight, and a surprise guest making an appearance. Thankfully, a brief rest was all I needed to get over the burnout long enough to complete this fic.

Now, Beryl Gut's death. I decided to have it done as an afterthought, so to speak. Beryl Gut was a liability, and considering his ability to detonate Sirius Lights inside his comrades in Team A, he could hold them hostage if he wanted to. Hermione pointed this much out to Olga, as well as his track record, and Olga decided to discreetly arrange a Popsicle Splat, as they used to call them on TV Tropes. An anticlimactic end, given that he deserves (even without the shit he pulled in the Lostbelts) a protracted and painful demise, but hey, at least now he can't hurt anyone anymore, especially the adorable albino Demi-Servant Kouhai he's got a yandere boner for. Seriously, Beryl, she's 16, you're, what, at least a decade her senior? What the fuck?

And then, the summoning of Habetrot. I always wanted this to happen, and for Habetrot to be shocked that Barghest has actually got a lover whom she hasn't devoured yet, and actually has massive bridal potential now. But her being summoned up to close the fic was something I thought up on the fly. Of course, I always intended to bring in the version of Habetrot from the Lostbelt rather than the one who can be summoned in-game. She didn't deserve to be erased from existence while suffering from cold iron poisoning. So now, she's got a second chance. Admittedly, I've played a little fast and loose with how she talks, but honestly, that's how I feel she talks.

Now, finally, this is the first Harry Potter crossover with Fate/Stay Night I have finished. True, it's actually more based in Fate/Grand Order, and if and when I do the sequel, it will be in that crossover category. But while I have many Potterverse crossovers with Fate/Stay Night (the category), this is the first such crossover of mine to be finished (though I have finished a story in the Fate/Grand Order category, Primordial Song, and have a few other non-Potterverse crossovers with the Nasuverse that are complete). I chose Fate/Stay Night for the relevant character tags, and because the first couple of acts of the story don't actually take place at Chaldea or in a Singularity or Lostbelt.

In any case, I hope you've enjoyed the journey so far. And if a sequel does eventuate, I will notify you. But until then, thank you.

Review-answering time! ZLC genesmith: Xiang Yu will be first cab off the rank for Hinako's summons, and I hope to use a variant of a scene I wrote for a sequel to Primordial Song that didn't eventuate. While still a Berserker, Xiang Yu won't look like a cyber-centaur anymore. However, Gao Changgong and Xu Fu will also be possible summons for Hinako.

The Disquieting One: I'm still not sure how to arrange that yet, but they will, as they get more Masters defrosted, do a rotation. The main Singularities will happen consecutively, but some of the more serious events will happen potentially simultaneously.

Vanessa Masters: I'm not sure what counts as cold iron, but it's an old weakness for Fae. Leonardo da Vinci became a woman by choice in the Nasuverse, so unlike a lot of genderflipped Servants, it's not because history or myth got things wrong. And Melusine is not a snake lady in this. She's a loli knight who is actually a loli dragon.

No numbered annotations this time.