Thanks for the feedback regarding this new version of my Fate/Apocrypha crossover. I'm actually a lot happier with it than I was with the original, given that the characterisation is improved, thanks to some added scenes and even a whole new chapter. Plus, Tamamo is, admittedly, more interesting to write for than Eve, though Eve will have her day. This also helps me with my potential Fate/Extra crossover, as it means I have done a Harry/Tamamo pairing, and can concentrate on Harry/'Umu!'...I mean, Nero, Harry/Altera, or a threeway pairing (Altera is adorable in her own way: I may not have played past the first story arc of Fate/Extella, but I have looked at the ending on YouTube, plus, in the Valentine's event of Fate/Grand Order, she shows up as 'Choco is Good Civilization' XD ).
Anyway, this scene was, admittedly, difficult for me to write, but I think it's necessary for Lily and Harry to clear the air somewhat, as well as show that their relationship, while strong enough, is also a bit on the rocky side due to their respective issues, particularly on Harry's end. And while I'm not sure whether Tamamo has Item Creation as a skill, I'm fudging it here as her having a low-level Item Creation, maybe D or E rank. I just needed a plausible way of Jackie having a new costume beyond Transfiguring the old clothes.
In any case, I've done 7 chapters of this story so far, so keep an eye out for it being published as a full story soon...
LOVE AND WAR
CHAPTER 2:
RECRIMINATIONS AND REVELATIONS
Lily Evans was angry. No, she was furious. She had gone off to track down Hyouma Sagara and stop him from doing what he intended to do, leaving her son to his own devices. Admittedly, that had been after what had been their biggest row since she came out of her coma, so she had to have expected him to do something stupid and reckless. But going to confront Yggdmillennia's forces on his own took the cake!
"…And now, you're trapped in the Great Holy Grail War!" Lily snapped at Harry, concluding this particular part of her rant.
"So? Waver was 19 when he fought in that auxiliary Grail War!" Harry retorted. "He came out just fine!"
"Which was due to luck, and the fact that he summoned a powerful Heroic Spirit in Iskandar!" Lily yelled. "Grail Wars have a high mortality rate for Masters, Harry. You know this."
"Yeah. So I've just got to make sure the deaths are all on Yggdmillennia's side! I've had enough, Mum! You keep holding me back! Stopping me from doing what I know I can do! And aren't you a hypocrite, when I can see you've got Command Seals on your hand as well?!"
"That's beside the point!"
"No, it isn't! I had to face Voldemort three times, as well as a Hungarian Horntail and a fucking Basilisk, long before I found you in the Department of Mysteries! I'm capable of fighting by myself! More than capable, and yet, you won't recognise it!"
"You sound so arrogant, so very much like your father!" Lily snapped, only to realise she had crossed a line.
And then, his eyes narrowed in fury, he crossed it right back. "And you sound very much like Snivellous. A mother should support their child, not hold them back!"
"Not when they want to commit suicide in the name of revenge!" Lily yelled right back.
"I'm not going to kill myself, just anyone in my way!" Harry shouted.
"And if I get in your way?" Lily asked in a dangerous tone.
"Well…I thought we loved each other…but I guess that was a lie, like everything else," he said, the painful barb hitting home, before he stormed into his room in the hotel suite they had rented, and slammed the door shut loudly. She nearly stormed in after him, but didn't. Emotions were running high, and while their relationship was good, she would like to think, there was an undercurrent of resentment over how he felt to be sidelined during missions, never allowed to go solo.
There was a reason for that: Harry was probably one of the best examples of a Homunculus outside of those created by the von Einzberns of Germany. Many Magi would give anything for a chance to vivisect him, and there was certainly a price on his head from many corners, ranging from a number of the Blood Purists back home, the ones who managed to survive, to Yggdmillennia itself. A part of it, true, was due to a bit of maternal coddling, overcompensation for not being there for most of his life, as well as trying to give Harry a normal home life, especially after what he went through at the Dursleys (Vernon, Petunia and Marge were now…guests of Zelretch, though thankfully, Dudley had turned his life around, and had recently begun work as a physical trainer for the Enforcers).
And then, there was his singleminded obsession with revenge on James, and possibly Charles. Once more, she cursed James for what he did to their family, and to herself. To Charles, he spoiled and pampered him, twisting his mind and body, making him buy into that messianic BS of the Boy Who Lived. To Harry, he abandoned him, and when he turned up again, showed his displeasure at Harry's refusal to simply obey him by leaving those burn scars on his face. The fact that James managed to use Amortentia on her to make her his willing lover just made things even more personal.
Lily sighed as she looked at the Command Seals on her hand. According to that old fossil Rocco Belfeban, Assassin of Red was the first Servant to be summoned on their side, by Shirou Kotomine. And now, the Red Faction had a second Assassin, one originally intended for the Black Faction. Jack the Ripper. She had sent Jack the Ripper out on a brief recce, so that the Servant wouldn't get the wrong idea during the argument and try to kill Harry.
"I'm a failure of a mother," she muttered quietly, after spending some time in dark thoughts.
"I'm not sure I would say that."
Lounging around on the…lounge in front of her was Harry's Servant. A Caster. Harry had already let slip that this was Tamamo-no-Mae, the infamous courtesan of Emperor Tobe of 12th Century Japan, said to be a kitsune or fox spirit. And despite her rather saucy way of dressing, the expression on the Caster's face was serious. A little angry, but not truly hostile to Lily. In truth, she looked more sad than anything.
"Your failure, Mother-in-Law, is less in your parenting as a whole, and more in particular things," Tamamo said. "Even while Astralized, my ears hurt from the screaming, and fox ears are pretty sensitive, let me tell you. I've put him to sleep with a little spell. I'm not saying my husband lacks fault. I understand why you don't want him to fight. But it's inevitable now. I chose to answer his summons, instead of that fatso. Gah! Not sure I would have liked him as a Master. I feel the need to wash my foot after punishing him for his insolence."
Lily chuckled, despite herself. The fact that Gordes Musik Yggdmillennia would most likely be singing soprano for the next few years was amusing. He and the other Yggdmillennia goons had been sent to the local branch of the Magus Association via Portkey, and the authorities, including those at Ise Shrine, notified about the near-theft of one of the Imperial Regalia. Plus, Tamamo's grimace about needing to wash her foot after kicking Gordes in the groin was hilarious. She needed the hilarity after what happened. And not just after the argument, either, but after what she witnessed.
She'd gone to a penthouse apartment in this city, one rented by Hyouma Sagara, an Yggdmillennia-affiliated Magus. She'd been accompanied on the mission by the infamous Kiritsugu Emiya, who was mostly retired these days, having become burnt out by his job, and only being saved from suicide by a young boy called Shirou, who had been orphaned by a Dead Apostle rampage through Fuyuki. Raising a child gave him a reason to live, and he had settled down with Shirou as his adopted son, and Maiya Hisau, his frequent assistant and lover, as his wife. However, Kiritsugu agreed on occasion to take certain jobs, and this was one of them.
Sagara had been delivered a certain artifact stolen from the Black Museum at Scotland Yard, a knife said to have belonged to the infamous serial killer Jack the Ripper. Earlier this night, he had also called a certain escort agency, paying for the services of one of their prostitutes, a young woman called Reika Rikudou. Lily had sprung into action, bursting through the door as Sagara, as a climax to his summoning (which was starting up), intended to kill Reika with the dagger.
But even as Lily used a Banishing Charm to knock him away, the summoning came to an end in a flare of light, and Jack the Ripper returned to existence. The infamous serial killer who had killed five prostitutes in London's East End, and may have killed more. Sagara made the mistake of gloating, before ordering Jack to kill Lily and Reika, not noticing that the Command Seals were not on his hand, but on Lily's.
In the bloody aftermath, Lily debated whether to remove Reika's memories or not, before deciding not to. Instead, the young prostitute had been sent with Kiritsugu, as he and Maiya were probably the best protectors for her in Japan. Yggdmillennia might come after her in revenge, though they knew better than to send someone after the Magus Killer, not while they were preparing for the Grail War.
Lily, however, was committed to the Great Holy Grail War now. Oh, she was hoping to be one of the Masters sent over, though she felt ambivalent about that. As much as she wanted revenge on James for what he did to her, she didn't want to die and leave Harry alone in the world, to say nothing of Remus, who was her new husband. Still, better her than, say, that pompous idiot Feend vor Sembren. He may have been a good Magus and academic, but she knew he'd be eaten alive out in the field. Look what happened to that pompous arse Kayneth Archibald, the late and very unlamented Lord El-Melloi. Kayneth was like Lucius Malfoy, only more skilled…but those didn't save him.
And now her son was. In fact, both of them probably were.
Lily knew that Clock Tower's hidebound higher-ups (not quite as hidebound as many wizards were, but still, there was the same conservative attitudes and snobbery) were reluctant to send her to Romania. It was why she had been left out of the fifty-man squad sent there to try and assassinate Darnic Prestone Yggdmillennia (fuck that name), because they thought she was likely to act outside of orders. Which was odd, considering Sirius was going there. As it was, given Darnic's pompous missive sent to Clock Tower, Lily feared that those Enforcers would meet a sticky end. She hoped Sirius wouldn't be amongst them.
"If you're worried about your son, then don't," Tamamo said. "As his Servant, I am his protector. If anything, I'm as worried about his wellbeing as you are. Physically and psychologically. But he wants to fight."
"That's part of the problem," Lily hissed quietly. Not in anger, but in dismay. "Dumbledore and James basically raised him as a weapon, albeit as a decoy. That he survived his first five years at Hogwarts was a damned miracle! I'm surprised he's not suicidal, and I mean beyond having a reckless disregard for his own life! That's just his father's genetics! No, I'm surprised, given the treatment Petunia and Vernon put them through, to say nothing of Snivellous or Dumbledore, that he hasn't tried killing himself. While I can't honestly say that I'm a paragon of mental health, not after everything, Harry is worse. I want him to have as normal a life as he can."
"Maybe he's not meant to," Tamamo said with a shrug. "I don't know. But…it's his choice to make. Like with me. I may regret how things turned out, but I never regretted making the choice to become a mortal entity. Just…try to have a nice sleep. Hopefully, you'll both be a lot calmer in the morning…"
Tamamo's advice turned out to be spot on. There was still lingering resentment and anger, but the majority of it had been taken away by sleep, and the three of them were currently waiting for room service. After some rather reluctant but still somewhat sincere apologies were made (Harry didn't apologise for summoning Tamamo, only for attacking his mother verbally, and she appreciated that much at least), Harry said, "So…I've only seen your Command Seals, not Assassin. And didn't you say they were Jack the Ripper? Isn't that…well, dangerous, considering that they were a serial killer?"
"I thought so too, but…I spoke to her while you were gallivanting about, and Jackie is…well, misunderstood. If you've gained someone claiming to be your wife, then I've gained another child, a daughter."
"Wait, what? Jack the Ripper was a girl?"
"Not exactly. Her chosen form is a girl. Jackie? You can come out now."
Shimmering out of the air, sitting on her lap, was a sight that she could tell disturbed her son. The fact that Jack the Ripper appeared to be a girl in her early teens at the oldest, and more likely to be pre-teen, was shocking enough. Jackie had a short, rough bob of silver hair framing cute features, marred by a couple of scars. Her golden eyes peered at them curiously.
Of course, what was even more shocking was her apparel, little more than a vest and what looked like a G-string. It was indecent apparel at the best of times for an adult, but on a child, it was utterly obscene, and she intended to find a way to change that. The holsters with lots and lots of knives didn't help, either.
"Heavens me, what is with her costume?" Tamamo huffed.
"I don't know, but I think the Throne of Heroes must be a sick and twisted mind to dress her up like this," Lily said. "Jackie, please put on your cloak."
Jackie nodded. "Okay, Mummy," she said, before her tattered cloak appeared, and she nuzzled into Lily.
"Jack the Ripper…was a little girl, wearing some paedophile's fantasy outfit," Harry said flatly. "What the fuck?"
"Harry, mind your language in front of her, please. And she's not just a little girl. Think of her as a gestalt of the souls of children who fell through the cracks in Victorian England, the wraiths of children who died of hunger or murder on the streets of London…all of which coalesced into a single child who wanted to go back where it was warm…the womb." She stroked the girl's hair. "Hence why what she did to those prostitutes in London."
"We didn't like the bad man's mana," Jackie hissed suddenly. "It was all cold and poison, like the river, like the smog, choking us and burning us. But Mummy's mana…it was warm. We haven't been warm in so long. And she was protecting Miss Reika. So, we decided she would be our Master."
"Jackie's not inherently evil," Lily said quietly. "She didn't understand what she was doing was wrong, because the souls that made her up never lived long enough to develop any real sense of morality. That's why I think we can trust her. Besides, one less Servant on the side of the enemy is better than nothing, and while Assassins may be weak in terms of combat ability, they're still dangerous. Jackie has a number of dangerous skills, including the ability to erase information about her appearance and abilities from the minds of those she confronts, as well as an ability to summon a poisonous smog that enhances her main Noble Phantasm, Maria the Ripper."
"Scary," Tamamo remarked. "Do you want me to do something about those clothes, though? As a Caster, one of my skills is in Item Creation. I could potentially change her combat clothes, without affecting her ability to fight. How does that sound?"
Lily pursed her lips, and then looked down at Jackie. "What do you say, Jackie? Do you want new clothes?"
"As long as they're warm and easy to move around in, we're fine!" chirped the Assassin.
Tamamo smiled, before she waved a hand. The cloak around Jackie shifted and transformed, becoming a simple but warm-looking black shirt with a red hood. Instead of the ridiculously small underwear she wore before, she now wore leggings(1). Of course, she still had the holsters with a ridiculous array of knives and daggers, but that was par for the course.
"She actually looks a bit more like a normal kid now," Harry said. "Okay, so, what next? I mean, now that we've calmed down and all."
"We take a Portkey back to London to touch base with Waver and Rocco," Lily said. "Like it or not, both of us are stuck in this. I'm still not happy with this, but…"
Whatever she was going to say was interrupted by the chirruping of her phone, and she opened it up, to hear the distinct tones of Waver Velvet, sounding rather ruffled. "Lily, this is Waver. We only just received a report from Emiya about what happened last night. Am I to understand that you are now the Master of the Assassin Yggdmillennia intended to summon?"
"Yes, Waver. I'm sorry about not sending an email report myself, but Harry and I had a bit of an argument, to say the least. He was the one who intercepted Gordes Musik Yggdmillennia and his people at the Ise Shrine. However, in the process, he became the Master of a Caster Servant. I was hoping to discuss the matter in person."
"Very well. However, while taking Gordes into custody is a good thing, unfortunately, we've had bad news coming out of Romania," Waver said, filling Lily's soul with cold dread. "Only one Enforcer returned from Romania. Almost all of the others were killed by a Servant Darnic summoned, a Lancer or Rider that we believe to be Vlad the Impaler."
"…And Sirius?"
"He wasn't killed. In fact, he was captured. I'm sorry, Lily, but Sirius Black is in the hands of the enemy…"
CHAPTER 2 ANNOTATIONS:
Oh dear. Complications of all sorts have arisen, but why was Sirius captured alive? And Lily has Jackie!
Now, the argument was partly there to show that, despite Harry and Lily loving each other, they also have a lot of contentious issues. Harry's still got a fuckton of anger issues, and he sees what Lily's doing as coddling, albeit not without reason. It's unfair to blame her, but he also has a point, just as she does, but unfortunately, he got more than a little unreasonable, and she stepped a bit too far in trying to get him to back down.
1. If you want an idea as to what Jackie is wearing instead of her obscene costume in canon, look up DalkonCledwin's Type-Moon Anthology compilation of initial chapters. They have a cover picture of Jackie in a more age-appropriate outfit, which is what she will be wearing for this fic.