CHAPTER 22:

LICKING WOUNDS

The Rayshift retrieval, thankfully, was a success, if only barely. Ritsuka and Delphi had fallen unconscious, and were swiftly rushed to the infirmary, though the others followed. Each and every one of the Masters had some injury, even if in Harry's case, it was minor. But Melusine had a badly-bruised throat from Lev's attack, while Barghest intended to be examined for any side-effects from her transformation. Mash, at least, managed to remain free of the crush injuries she had suffered prior to her becoming a Demi-Servant, even if she transformed back to normal.

The infirmary was filled with the injured, and Ritsuka and Delphi were laid out on an examination table, as Hermione, Waver, and Grey looked them over. "Mild magical exhaustion," Hermione said after casting a diagnosis charm, to a nod from Waver. "A few bruises and other minor injuries, along with physical exhaustion and the after-effects of a very rough Rayshift retrieval. They'll both be all right, they just need some sleep. Dr Roman, we'll leave them in their rooms for now, okay? We need as many beds in here as we can."

"Got it," Dr Roman said, having hurried down from the Command Room when they were rushed here. "Help me check the others before we send them to their rooms."

Hermione nodded, bustling over, and casting the charms. "…Mash, you seem fine, thankfully, though you're definitely going to be feeling it tomorrow. We'll do a more intensive physical once we're not so hectic. Melusine…your throat is healing, but we'll keep you here for a few minutes, just in case. Barghest…some magical exhaustion, and the area around your horn where the corrupted Saber injured you still seems to be healing. But there's no serious injury."

Harry noted how all-business his old friend was. "Hermione, how bad is it? I mean, this whole situation?"

"Not now, Harry," Hermione said. "I need to focus on saving the living before we can think about the implications of an apocalypse destroying human history! I thought Lev was just an ambitious Magus, but…I was listening to the feeds from the Singularity as I worked. A Demon Pillar, right out of the Ars Goetia! And he was amongst us the entire time!" She shook her head. "I'm sorry, but I need to concentrate. We'll talk later…"

After Delphi and Ritsuka were placed in their respective rooms, with Mash watching over Ritsuka, and Nobunaga watching over Delphi, Harry, Barghest, and Melusine were with their remaining Servants, the two Arturias. They were in Delphi's room, in the corner. Saber was looking at Barghest. No condemnation was in her emerald eyes, just a stern questioning look. "Barghest," she said, "you said you would explain. So, tell me…how did you come to serve my sister?"

"An alternate version of your sister," Barghest corrected.

"Please, let me explain that, Barghest," Caster Arturia said. On her nod, the Caster said, "Morgan was like me, once upon a time, a saviour known by the title of Avalon le Fae, and chosen by the very land of Fae Britain to bring it salvation. We were not truly siblings, at least in terms of blood, though in a way, I was her younger sister, created to succeed where she failed, or rather, knowingly discarded her duties. Not that I can blame her for discarding her duties, in hindsight, given the amount of times the Fae betrayed her. It's acting tyrannical that I blame her for, and even then, her life was something of a tragedy, where so much potential for good was turned to evil." Caster Arturia looked away. "I fear I could have gone down the same path, something our corrupted self showed is too possible."

Saber Arturia nodded in solemn agreement. "I agree. All people have the capacity for good and evil, and…I have made more than a few choices people would see as evil, depending on their perspective. Certainly inhuman."

"By the time I was born, Morgan's rule had been ongoing for centuries," Barghest said. "I was brought into her service after defeating the foes of the Caterpillar War, two centuries ago now. In gratitude, she dubbed me Tam Lin Gawain, though that in itself was a means to hold back the Bestial Calamity I was doomed to become, one of a number of great calamities that was to befall Fae Britain before its final end. I thought it a great honour at the time, and I was led to believe I was to protect the people of Fae Britain. I will admit, I committed many bloody deeds under her aegis, deeds I may never be able to atone for, but I believed in protecting the people, from monsters and treason. Yet…one day, I learned Morgan would gladly let the people of Fae Britain perish, as long as she remained to rule over even an empty land. That is what prompted me to betray her, to open my eyes to my own sins. But I soon saw many of the Fae murdering the humans. And I lost myself. Yet I found myself reborn in this timeline, a second chance. Maybe I do not deserve it, with all the blood on my hands. And yet…I intend to strive to atone, even if it takes me my entire life."

Saber Arturia looked at her, her expression inscrutable. Barghest then knelt. "Arturia Pendragon…King of Knights…I can understand if you mistrust me because of my link to Morgan, even if it's an alternate version of her. I can understand your mistrust if I'm a Fae, or a monster, or a bloodstained knight. But I ask for a chance to earn that trust, to fight by your side. I refuse to swear myself to another liege ever again after what I did under Morgan…but I still wish to fight as your comrade-in-arms."

After a moment, Saber Arturia said, "Rise, Barghest." As the Fae looked up at her, the Saber Servant said, "I won't pretend that I am not concerned, even conflicted about this. And yet…I am not without faults myself, despite my efforts to present myself as the perfect king in life…or rather, because of them." She looked to Harry, her gaze solemn. "The King does not understand human feelings, Sir Tristain once rebuked me. And he was right. Or rather, I did not present why I made the decisions I did, nor did I try to understand others as much as I should have. My seeming inhumanity led to Camelot falling as much as the machinations of my half-sister did."

"That's why you thought you shouldn't be king?" Barghest asked.

Saber Arturia nodded. "But…in my timeline, many of my knights were Morgan's progeny. Your namesake as a Tam Lin, Gawain, was one of them, as was Gareth and Agravain, and for all their faults, they were still capable and valiant knights. Even my child, Mordred…her parentage disquieted me, given that she was a Homunculus child, born from Morgan seducing and raping me while I was temporarily transformed into a man. But I rejected her not because she was Morgan's child, but because she felt entitled to the throne, when in truth, she held few properties of a true king. How I treated her was one of many regrets I have, for before that day when she revealed herself, she was a loyal and capable knight. What is more, my counterpart, the one from your timeline, knows you, and seems to trust you."

Caster Arturia chuckled sheepishly, rubbing her head. "Well, for a time, I hated her. She seemed set to take away my version of Ector when we first met. But…after everything that happened…she helped me, and only her curse stopped her from helping us further."

"So yes, Barghest. Your paramour is my Master, but I will gladly fight by your side as well," Saber Arturia said. "I will be cautious, not just because of your former liege lord, but also because of your nature as a Fae, to say nothing of your transformation earlier. But I hope we can prove to be worthy comrades-in-arms, just as your Tam Lin namesake was to me. And the stakes are too great to have too much conflict amongst us. Whatever that creature masquerading as that Magus was, he and his master, this 'King', intends for the destruction of history, presumably to write their own in its place. Once, I had considered rewriting history myself. But I for one refuse to let these monsters do so, and to such vile ends."

"Good to know, Saber Arturia…actually, should we just call you Arturia Pendragon, and this one Fae Arturia?" Harry asked.

"Either way is fine." Saber Arturia then looked pensive. "Harry…Barghest…if I may, do you mind if I watch over Mash and Ritsuka? Ritsuka has been dropped into the deep end, so to speak, and Mash…I feel she could do with some kind words. I know you have a somewhat familial relationship with her, but…you wish to look after your daughter?"

Harry nodded. But as Arturia got up to leave, he said, "One last thing, Arturia Pendragon. You recognised Mash's shield."

"Indeed I did, but she needs to make it her own, so I will not be telling her what its original name is, nor its wielder, and I ask of you, for the sake of her growth, not to tell her, lest it hobble her growth. The bearer would have wanted her to claim it for herself, and she began that journey when shielding us from EMIYA's attack."

"…I understand, but I don't like it. I've had too many secrets kept from me during my lifetime for it to be otherwise. But can you tell us?"

After a moment, Saber Arturia nodded. "The shield's original name is not Lord Chaldeas, but rather, Lord Camelot. And its bearer was Sir Galahad…"

In the infirmary, Hermione, after hours of tending to the various living casualties of Lev's bombing, was tired and exhausted, to say the least. After helping Da Vinci deal with the more immediate dangers of the reactors going potentially critical, she'd been doing this almost non-stop. She only finished that work just now, with both Waver and Grey looking exhausted too, as did Dr Roman. And it helped as a distraction. Given what Barghest had said about the Lostbelts and Chaldea's involvement in them, she began to realise that this was the crisis that led to them, that caused Team A to become the Crypters. And with every word she heard through the audio feed being sent to her communicator earpiece, her conviction only grew. And she suspected she knew who this 'king' was behind Lev Lynor Flauros. Not Solomon…but Solomon's dark legacy. The Demon Pillar gestalt he had bound to his service in life, one she had learned about through not only Marisbury's memories, but speaking with Roman himself: Goetia.

Hermione shook her head, partly to try and rid herself of even a fraction of her fatigue. She couldn't dwell on the seeming impossibility of the task of confronting not only Goetia, a godlike being of diabolical power, but also changing history back to normal. She couldn't dwell on the lives Goetia had wiped from existence with the same attitude as someone wiping shit from their shoe would, not now. Too much was at stake to succumb to despair. And she, her friends, they had been all thrown into this mess, a worst-case scenario that made her worries about what befell Chaldea before pale by comparison, let alone Voldemort.

Her thoughts on what to do were interrupted when the infirmary doors opened, and Olga-Marie walked in. The crowded infirmary was hushed at the sight of their director entering, followed soon by Roman, and then murmurs started up at her stance. It was clear she was just barely holding herself together. Olga didn't have the best reputation amongst Chaldea's staff, due to her imperious manner and short temper, but Hermione knew the former was partly an artifice, born out of a desire to please her father by becoming a consummate Magus.

Hermione, with an instinct born of years of tutoring the young woman before her, indicated Roman's office, and led Olga into it. Nobody followed. Even Roman, known for his awkwardness in some social situations, kept his distance for now.

Hermione swiftly erected Privacy Charms, and then looked to Olga, noting her glistening golden eyes, even as her own moistened. A girl, now a woman grown, as close as a sister, an irony, considering Hermione and her parents were no longer on speaking terms. Hermione saw in Olga a younger mirror. Both had been only children and geniuses at that, yet they had isolation, and a desire to impress their parents and authority that was never repaid. Olga had lost her mother at an early age, and her father had all the warmth of the Antarctic landscape just outside, despite his outward affability.

She felt a little pang of guilt and self-loathing at rebuffing Harry when she was doing this for Olga, but they were still working on the injured at the time. They'd just finished doing what they needed to when Olga came around. The rest could be handled by Dr Roman and his people for now.

"…Who's at the con?" Hermione asked quietly.

"Da Vinci. She relieved me for now, had me get some rest. I…I…" Her voice caught in her throat, and, discarding her mask of a Magus, she flung herself into Hermione's embrace, and began sobbing into Hermione's shoulder. Hermione herself began rubbing Olga's back soothingly, even as she herself wept, allowing herself to open the floodgates, even only a little.

In that moment was sorrow and reconciliation, a catharsis of emotion that had threatened to overwhelm them in the face of the apocalypse. Two women, not sisters by blood, but now sisters in every other way that mattered. A bond had been renewed and affirmed, allowing them to draw on each other's strength, something they would need in times to come…

Delphi soon woke up, thankfully, and Ritsuka soon followed. The Masters and their Servants wandered out to the corridor ringing the entire facility, Fou perched on Mash's shoulder as he often did. Once more, they stared at the view, of the blizzard engulfing Chaldea. Only, now, it was like much of the landscape beyond a certain radius away from Chaldea was shrouded in darkness…tinged with red. Harry was sure he could even see lava coating the once snow-shrouded mountains in the distance.

And that's when it truly hit him. Billions of people were dead, wiped out by Lev Lynor Flauros' master. Voldemort, for all of his genocidal cruelty, wouldn't have wanted this, if only because he'd probably never feel satisfied without a populace to dominate. But whoever Flauros' boss was had no such compunctions.

The Weasleys, dead. The Lovegoods, dead. The Longbottoms, dead. The Tonks, dead. Bazette, dead. Waver's students, dead. The Emiya and Tohsaka families, dead. His friends, loved ones, and acquaintances, all dead, save for those who were lucky enough to be here. And if it weren't for Hermione and Olga, he and the others would have joined them, burnt away by this insane apocalyptic revision to history.

The enormity was overwhelming. It was one thing to hear of worlds being destroyed along with their people in fiction, or to hear of Barghest relate what Chaldea did to the Lostbelts to save Proper History. It was another to witness the reality.

For a moment, the despair of it all, the massive loss of life, the malice involved, the difficulty it would be to restore the world…it was too much. At first, Harry felt sorrow, deep sorrow. His breath hitched.

But then, an all-too-familiar flame was kindled within him. Anger, rage, fury. He'd not often felt this angry since his fifth year and the utter shitshow that was.

But a hand, a familiar large hand on his shoulder slowed the anger before it could burst forth. He didn't need to look at her to see it was Barghest. Another, smaller hand on the opposite shoulder was harder to identify, but he guessed, and knew he was right when he saw the reflection in the window, that it was Delphi.

He focused on the reflection, on the motley group standing alongside him. His adopted daughter, the child of two of his worst enemies. A young Magus thrown in the deep end. An artificial human now holding the power of Galahad. An incarnation of Albion, one of the most powerful Phantasmal Beasts in the world, in human-like form. One of Japan's most notorious warlords. Two versions of a female King Arthur, from two different timelines.

And a Fae refugee from another timeline. A gallant and strong knight with blood on her hands. The woman he loved, and who loved him in his turn. Who would stand by his side to the bitter end…and he would do the same for her.

Then, Delphi said, "Looks like history's been turned into one big dumpster fire. Gotta get ready to save it, huh?"

Harry chuckled, and while the sound had a bitter, sardonic edge to it, she was right. No matter how daunting this was, they weren't going to give up, not by a long shot. Too much was at stake.

And he wasn't alone, not by a long shot…

CHAPTER 22 ANNOTATIONS:

So, the penultimate chapter has come.

Just so you know, this isn't Hermione/Olga. Rather, it's Hermione/Waver.

No numbered annotations this time.