Fate 1961 – Part 6
A Fate/ series fanfiction
Moscow, USSR Russia
Zhidan Makiri, head of the Makiri family, was patiently waiting in the richly decorated living room. Sitting on a satin couch and a whisky in his hand, the blue-haired mage was enjoying some quiet time before his host arrived.
News of the american tragedy had spread throughout the world, and he could not feel anything but satisfaction at the idea that he had caused this to happen. As a consequence to their Servant's demise, which was powered through TV broadcasts in and out of the nation, many people had experienced a strange sickness in the Western side of the world. Scientists were branded as liars when trying to propose wrong explanations for something they didn't -and couldn't- understand, while the authorities of the capitalistic powers were confronted by their own population for their multiple crimes. TV was accused, and many tech-oriented companies already had to shut their activities for a while.
All the better for their side of the chessboard, he thought.
As he rejoiced internally, the leaded door opened to let her host enter. Avangard Eudocia Persevnet, head of Soviet Magical Regulations, took the seat in front of him and bowed her head politely.
"Thank you for making the trip, dear associate.
-It is I who should thank you for receiving me in the very center of this nation's power, miss Persevnet."
Accepting the compliment, the lady poured herself a glass of whisky as well, before crossing her legs and straightening her back.
"Our leader is immensely happy with our victory over the imperials. He would have liked to come and meet you personally, of course, but his schedule cannot be shortened any more than it already is.
-There is no harm, I understand perfectly.
-He insisted that I congratulate you for providing us with the artefact for summoning the king of Corinth, as well as the knowledge for making him into a Berserker-class Servant. Reports have shown that the Archer of America was no match against him.
-Well, that's natural. I provided with the best of the best !
-Yes, yes..."
She took a sip of alcohol her face losing her smile slightly.
"However...
-Hm ? Is there a problem ?
-Berserker has died."
Shocked, Zhidan stood up.
"But that's impossible ! With the mana of all of the soviet union behind him, and his Undying-type Noble Phantasm, he is invincible-
-Furthermore. Out of his three recorded battles, he lost his life to the last and let his opponents go the other two times.
-What ? What about that Archer ?
-She did die, but to another Servant."
Avangard rested her glass on the table, her face now as cold as ice.
"Our leader has been more than satisfied with your input, and has recognized your value as an asset ; however, he has also realized how flawed your strategy had been. You know what that means, I'm sure."
Armed guards entered from every corner of the room, and pointed their guns at the head of the Makiri family. Recognizing their emblem, sewed on their clothes, as the executioners from Magical Regulations, Zhidan panicked.
"W-wait, hold there ! This whole thing wasn't my idea ! I just relayed the catalyst from Leonhart from Clock Tower ! He's the one who told me about Sisyphos's aptitudes !
-Oh, have you not heard ?"
Avangard raised her hand.
"Leonhart died a week ago, in a trainwreck."
Dropping her hand in a sharp movement, she covered her glass, as to not let any blood fall in it.
Antartica, Einzbern residence
After killing the young homonculus, the corruption from Cocytus had resorbed and the building had been restored to its original state. Having enevloped the corpse in a sheet and let it rest in the next room, Cecil had opened her Bounded Field to let Lancer and Not join Saber and her.
Lancer had recovered most of his energy, but Not was still in a critical state and hadn't regained consciousness in her human form. Saber had informed them that telepathy had been reestablished, although in a limited form, as she worked on rebuilding the vital functions of her string-made body.
Cecil was tired, for the past days had been intense fighting and thinking without interruption. Retiring in the library, she started going thourgh a few of the books left open by Caster in his research. Piecing together the clues, she finally arrived at the conclusion that the Servant she did not have the occasion to meet was not only dangerous, mad, but also disorganized, and she had made no progress on the War front. With a sigh of frustration, she sent the book she was currently holding through the room, and laid back in her chair.
Poor Die, all alone and soon she'll turn to dust...
The lyrics of the bullying song that she had heard in her young years had come back to the surface of her mind. Shaking her head to make it disappear, she decided to take note of the current progress of the war, and all information that she had at her disposal.
The american Servant, Archer, had been defeated by Saber in duel and had definitely disappeared. The russian had summoned Berserker, who roamed the land with no purpose and no Master to guide him. Not had summoned Saber but, due to her condition, that contract had a time limit until Cecil transferred one of her Command Spells to the arachnean lady, leaving her with two. Herself had summoned Lancer, and they had briefly encountered Rider and his Master as he was chased by Berserker, only to be captured by the last Master, Calladius. And finally, Caster had now disappeared due to the death of his Master at the hands of Saber.
Results : Saber – two kills, Berserker -two unmatched victories, yet no kills. Archer was out. All other were standing with no battles, or had a losing streak of at least one.
And most importantly – Calladius. That mage had been into contact with her teacher and adoptive father, André Leonhart, for the sake of obtaining her research on paint creation magic. He had also kidnapped Rider, a man claiming to be Don Quichote de la Mancha, a character from Cervantes' work. Although he had used a strange winged-shaped sword to attack Not, his main attributes were his magical prowesses, able to alter her own Bounded Field from the outside and subjugate Rider's Master. According to Not, he was also at least 400 years old.
None of this made any sense to her. Too much information was piling up and not resolving to anything, and her brain was overheating with it.
In truth, none of that was any more complex that the usual plots she was tasked to take down. Soviets against Americans, une mage family against the other... The world she was leaving in left her with little doubt that all of this was just another ploy.
Wait, what if...
Her intuition kicked in. She had been presented with the war as a setting for two factions to fight out their grudges, once and for all. Then, when the rest of the war's actors entered the scene, her focus had shifted to survival, and the goal of the war was reported to the Grail...
But thinking about it, that didn't make any sense. Calladius knew about her and her research. He and Leonhart wouldn't have taken the risk of sending her to the field without a reason. From the very start, Calladius had another agenda...
The fact that he kidnapped Rider, too, was indicative. Although the possible uses for an additional Servant were numerous, Calladius did not seem like the kind of person who would need extras to fight in a war. Rather, he had a set purpose for him. Seeing as he managed to subjugate Rider's Master with ease, rather than a sign of great power, it could simply mean that he was already in the mysterious man's power. In that case, Rider may have been Calladius' target all along, going as far as making sure that he would be summoned.
She recalled seeing some notes left by Caster, about the Grail feeling absent in the support of Servants. As she had a meager understanding of the mechanics behind the War, she hadn't noticed this anomaly. According to the notes, it could be due to some form of time loop, but Cecil was not going to follow this path. She was simply not ready to inflict such pain upon herself.
Instead, she asked herself : "In what case could a Servant be summoned, without the Grail ?" Here in the Einzbern's library, she did not take long to find the answer she was looking for. Summoning could be done through many alternatives, but Heroic Spirits had to be related in some way to the Grail. Stray Heroic Spirits could appear due to the Grail's sole presence and summoning some only required a common feature somehow linked to the Grail. Additionally, all that was needed was a Holy Grail War member to activate the processus.
Unknowingly, it was Karl that started this process. Being from the Einzbern family who founded the ritual was more than enought to accomplish that purpose. As for the common point, she had yet to point what it was, but she knew very well what had been confused for the Grail : the two superpowers, the United States against the Soviet Union. With whole countries, maybe even two thirds of the world, that war could happen even without any actual Grail.
Cecil dropped the book, stunned by her discovery. All in all, this war had never been about the Grail or the fight between the East and the West. It had been carefully orchestrated in the shadows to serve the goals of Calladius.
The million-dollar question, now, was "what was Calladius' goal, and why did he need a mockery of the Holy Grail War ?".
The door to the library opened, and Lancer let himself in.
"Master ? Can I talk to you for a second ?
-Hm ? Go on.
-I know this is maybe not my place to talk, but why, in God's name, did you give a Command Spell to the one person who we were lucky didn't have any ?!"
She opened her mouth and stayed so for a few seconds. Right. She had forgotten that Lancer was the one who warned her of Saber's condition, which led to this situation.
"...I can explain ?
-Please be more confident, and careful, with your response.
-Well, you were out and so was -is- Not, and Saber basically has a vampirism function, so I had no other choice but to buy his help with that. I also made him swear not to ask any questions, so he doesn't know you're the one who told me...
-I do now."
Saber left the shadow of the door where he had been standing, while Lancer facepalmed. Cecil bit her lip.
"Whoops.
-Oh yeah, you said it.
-I have several questions for you Saber. Where the hell did you come from ?
-The door. My turn, now. Is this related to your predicting abilities during our battle ?"
Cecil and Erec exchanged an embarrassed look, ultimately ending in Erec sighing and pulling a chair for himself.
"Fine. Let's start with my wish, that's going to be easier this way.
-Oh ? You're finally talking ?
-Shh. My wish for the Grail is kind of a weird topic for me to attack."
Cecil did not find it relevant to inform Lancer of her recent discoveries regarding this Grail. She was curious as to why her Servant had been so evasive about this.
"The truth is that I wish to lose my Noble Phantasm- no, that's not really it. Let's say "return it", would be a better choice of words.
-You what ?
-You heard me fine. Now I can start to explain. I'd rather not have to say all of this, but since you've explained yours to my Master, it's only right I return the favor.
-I appreciate it."
Saber,too, picked up a chair and sat down. The three of them looked at each other, and Cecil suddenly felt like an intruder in some important group meeting.
"My Noble Phantasm is called [Voice of Enide], and is a passive one. As you can imagine, it is related to my legend of asking my wife to accompany me during my travel while staying quiet. Yet as she saved me many times, it became the defining characteristic of my legend to be warned by Enide of threats I hadn't noticed. In turn, as a Servant, her voice still calls out to me things that I should not be able to know, as well as enhances my performance in battle predictions.
-Wow. Sounds amazing.
-I'm not of that opinion."
Saber looked quite displeased.
"That seems like a lot of unnecessary noise to hear constantly, if it truly is passive.
-I get what you're saying, but no, that's not my problem with it. I'm used to the whisper, and I enjoy hearing from her, even if it is only in a desincarnate fashion."
D'Artagnan looked to the side, a bit flustered. Cecil could hear him let out "complete opposites" under his breath, as Lancer picked up where he had left off.
"What I actually want, is let her voice return to her. That is the one thing that I regret most from my life ; getting into that argument with Enide. I don't want to be holding her voice captive forever as a Servant.
-Very romantic... But are you sure that it is her actual voice ? Is that not a made-up illusion, as part of a recreation of your legend ?
-I can't know that for sure. That's why I want the Grail -to find out, and separate from it if it is indeed her. I've not been a great husband to her, and she doesn't have to be put through all of this for my sake."
Cecil stayed quiet. She had gained a new respect for Lancer, after learning of his betrayal to King Arthur and Saber's analysis of his fighting style, she had started to think that Lancer may be a bad person after all, to whom the end justified the means. She was reassured to know that he was driven by something like love, and not spite or anger.
As for Saber, he shrugged.
"Well, that was still instructive. Now I understand better what your abilities are. You'd make for a pretty fearsome opponent, if you ever took it personally.
-Hah, that may just come before this is all done... Thanks to my Master."
Lancer glared at Cecil, who tucked her neck in her shoulders.
"Erm, while we're on the topic...
-What is it, miss Die ?
-I've made a few discoveries on the situation, at least I think."
She explained everything to the two knights, who looked depressed to learn of the absence of a Grail, but most of all alerted at her theory about Calladius.
"So he's the one behind all of this ? And specifically for Rider ?
-Well, probably not just for him. If he needed only Rider, he could have just used another method to summon him. The whole war is of importance, I think, us included.
-What a happy thought. Regarding that Rider, as well... Although we heard him claim to be Don Quichote, I have doubts about this.
-Oh ? Why is that ?
-Well, first of all Don Quichote is a fictional character. Contrary to me, he doesn't have a life to back his identity up. Although there may be some form of explanation, it is still unlikely that someone as weak as the Japanese child that he got as Master could give form to fiction so easily.
-I guess... I didn't see him myself, so I'll trust you on this. Then, an impostor ?
-That would be my hypothesis, yes.
-Then we won't know anything about Calladius' plans without confronting him, I take it ?
-Yes.
-Great, just... great.
-Then we'd better get going !"
Not walked in with a smile, body covered in bandages... And only bandages.
"Okay, first of all, is this you team's thing to eavesdrop on every conversation ? And secondly, aren't you exaggerating a bit ? I thought only your back was hurt.
-Why, yes. As for my current appearance, I am trying a new fashion trend. Do you like it ?
-You like like you're fresh out of an asylum... Actually, it does suit you.
-I will take that as a compliment. Anyway..."
Not pulled a chair for herself, posing with an overdone attitude, while Cecil crossed her arms, her eyebrows twitching.
All four of them stayed silent for a while. Eventually, Lancer spoke.
"I see we're all eager to go.
-Absolutely.
-Yeah.
-I'm leaving."
Antartica, site of the first battle
Rider was starting to feel time stretching out, metaphorically and in actuality. He had tried freeing himself a few times already, but to no avail.
Still keeping up his uplifting attitude, he was internally quite unsure what outcome would ensue from his warden's ritual. That magic circle was worrying him quite a bit.
He knew for a fact that, had his Master regained his free will, he would help him, but he was not sure how to make him snap back to reality. Brute-forcing the fabric had been fruitless, and even his Noble Phantasm would be useless in this situation.
He had exchanged a few words with Father Wilde, but to no avail. Not only did the priest start ignoring him after some time, but he too was powerless.
Instead, Rider had decided to pass time watching the sky. Somewhat clear of clouds, night had been slowly approaching -too slowly for his taste.
He decided to take a peek. Unfortunately, as he activated his Noble Phantasm with a snap of his fingers, his hooded torturer had lift his head up and said something. He couldn't hear it clearly, and his memory instantly blurred out, but the main thing was that he was unable to make the jump.
Calladius readjusted his hood.
"Hm, that one was too close for comfort. And I'm running out of Words of Power, too... Maybe killing Leonhart was a mistake."
He took a look at his current work. The circle was nearing completion, and the only remaning task left for him was to complete the Holy Grail War... He called out to the teenage Servant, who had been still for the past hours.
"Avenger, come here."
The Servant stood up and walked to him, his eyes lowered. Calladius was satisfied to see that his tool didn't disobey.
"Tell me, Avenger. What is your deepest desire ?
-..."
Unresponsive, the Servant raised his head to fix Calladius, lost.
"Right. As I thought... That makes things simpler. Please find the remaining Servants for me.
-...They're here."
With a melodic accent, the Servant finally spoke in a young, fragile voice, and pointed his finger to the mountains. His gaze following the direction of his Servant's hand, Calladius grinned.
"Well, well, well... All is for the best, then."
Saber and Lancer were stood side by side, their respective Masters slightly set back. Cecil had vials of paint in each hand, and was looking at the scene of the ritual, rather than Calladius himself. Not, however, was focused solely on the man that had struck her down. Even though her demeanor was laid-back and unfazed, her eyes were telling a whole other story as to what her true intentions were.
What kind of setup is this... Cecil searched her memory, but couldn't find anything. The magic circle in itself was too large for her to grasp its purpose in a glance, but the striking element was the crucified Rider. She also noted the presence of Father Wilde, not making any sense of it.
At least now I'm certain that the Grail is a hoax.
That's a shame. I propose that we spend our frustration in destroying whatever is happening now.
Agreed.
Lancer readied his spear, and Saber prepared for battle. Calladius, however, looked annoyed.
"Is that the extent of your abilities ? Brute force your way to victory ? I was at least expecting a lengthy explanation as to why you'd want me down."
Cecil stepped up. Calladius turned his hood towards her.
"Why, isn't that Cecil Die, my dear friend's protegee ? You're here just in time to see your wishes come true.
-What would you know about my wishes ?
-Why, everything. I've studied you since birth, you know.
-That's not creepy at all... But you wanted an explanation, so here's one for you."
Cecil took a deep breath, and let her intuition take control of her thoughts. According to her, she had seen all that she needed to know to understand the truth behind this mock war.
"Let's start at the beginning. This Holy Grail War is an elaborated fake, that you and my father set up by manipulating both sides of the Cold War, in order to trick the process of summoning Heroic Spirits. Your true goal was the summoning of Rider, which you ensured by taking control of his Master...
-Correct ! But you can do better than that.
-In order for this War to come, the summoned Heroic Spirits all had something in common with the basis for their summoning, that is to say the war between the East and West. I've thought about it, but I lack some crucial information about some of the other Servants... Archer and Berserker were summoned with the backing of the two sides, meaning they didn't need that common feature. Rather, they're the ones who set the feture in the first place..."
She looked at Calladius's Servant. She was surprised to hear that his name was "Avenger", a class she didn't know about. But examining his clothing, and profile, she could make up a theory.
"For example, your Servant is greek, right ? Just like Berserker.
-Good, good. Since you've made it this far, I'll grant you a point. What else ?"
Rider, thinking it right to chime in, shouted from the grid he was attached to :
"I, the Great Don Quichote de la Mancha, approves of your conclusions ! As the greatest detective around, allow me to share mine ! I will, here and now, reveal the identity of every Servant in this War !"
Saber winced, but Rider had somehow captivated the attention of everyone involved, except for Not, Avenger and the young japanese mage, still under hypnosis.
Rider, satisfied to have the attention of everyone, kept going.
"I've already told you my name, so let's move on to the deceased Servants first. Archer, be she at peace, was none other than Huckleberry Finn, the one and only child from America who dared oppose all of its society in the name of freedom !
Berserker, as you said, is the greek hero and king, Sisyphus ! Although Mad Enhancement impaired his cunning greatly, he was on who could cheat even death, and was revered as a great ruler who, in the service of his own ego, carried his people upwards.
Caster, now that's a tricky one... I didn't meet the man, but behold ! For I have received all that I needed to guess his identity. Indeed, the man before you who also happens to be the bad guy in this story walled him Alexander ! And also, that a Beast-class was involved. Using those two pieces of information, I managed to recall of that one individual named Edward Alexander Crowley, also known as Aleister ! An occultist, near-satanist and MI5-related mage of great importance to the 20th century.
Let's move on to the others ! Saber is obviously a musketeer, and with such a figure it can only be one of the famed Three Musketeers ! Or rather, four musketeers ?
-My name is d'Artagnan. Please do not lump me in this fable of a novel.
-Hm ? But that's such a good book... No matter ! I, Don Quichote, will ignore your input ! Let's move on to the knight over there. To be frank, I have no idea who you are.
-I'm not surprised.
-Let's end this brainstorming session with two of my most proud eureka moments, I said the identity of my torturer under the hood, and os his mysterious Servant ! That would be the clue for a dramatic ad break, but we don't have such luxury-
-Just get to the point, will you ?"
Not, impatiently waiting to attack the man who hurt her, still remembered her initial mission to investigate the mysterious mage. Saber and her agreed to attack as soon as they were done with their conversation.
"Ahem. Avenger, first, is surprisingly not an Assassin ! Who could have predicted that ? Rather, an Avenger is one linking with, well, vengeance. From greek mythology, many people avenged their close ones, but none of them had stories relying so heavily on this them than, you may be able to tell, Oreste from the Oresteia !"
Avenger twitched, but didn't move.
"That's all I have to say on the matter, although I'm surprised that the one and only Oreste was so unresponsive, given the play... Oh well. The main piece comes no-
-I think that's enough, actually."
Calladius made a move with his wrist, and Shun stood, uncovering his Command Spells. Seeing this, Rider started talking more quickly.
"So at first I thought of the one and only Emperor Palpatine, you know, because of the hood and all, but the skin tone didn't match, so rather...
-By this Command Spell, I order you...
-Anyway the main thing is that he is not a mage, I repeat, not a mage, good luck !
-Stay quiet."
The red sigil on Shun's body shone brightly, and a wave of energy hit Rider, muting him. Calladius sighed and turned back to his actual opponents.
"He truly is lucky that I need him alive... To think that would be the result of my plan.
-N-not a mage ?"
Cecil rested her chin on her hand. Now that she was thinking about it, not once did Calladius actually used magecraft. He had obtained information on her research and used it to alter a preexisting Bounded Field, which did require mana, but not Magical Circuits. Shuniji was under his control, but such a result could be explianed through simple hypnosis. As for his disappearing with Rider, it could easily be explained by Shun's aptitudes rather than his own.
Not shook her head.
"Impossible. We're talking about a many-years-old man, here. He is obviously a mage.
-Unless it is not his own doing ?
-Then how do you explain the magic circle here ?"
Not had a point. Calladius, amused by their uncalled-for debate, removed his hood, revealing his face for the first time. Calladius had dark skin, short black hair and grey eyes. He didn't look a day older than twenty, but his attitude was that of an old man. Removing more of his robe, he uncovered his chest, from which cyan-tainted lines were expanding around his torso.
Cecil gapsed, not because of seeing his chest, but because of the crest in the middle.
"That's...
-Your father's crest, yes. I lacked the magical circuits necessary to perform this ritual, so I "borrowed" them from him, as well as his crafted Words of Power. I'd ask you to say thank you to him, but with his death and yours soon, I doubt that would serve any point."
She strained her teeth. Although her father had been like any mage to his child, excessive with her, it was still a shock to see his crest gruesomely transplanted in another's body.
"Leonhart may have been a talented double-agent, but he was ultimately a fool. Trusting me was his demise. Even though he found a way to counter my curse, he was the only one to see me as a friend, I'm afraid.
Since I am a good sport, I will satisfy your curiosity and complete your reasonning myself. I knew that the American would not use a catalyst, and it fell to reason that Tom Sawyer would be picked up... All I had to do was plan for the summoning of a hero related to them, and who better than Don Quichote ? I hypnotized that fool over there, and made him use the book as his catalyst. It worked beyond my expectancies, as well, considering Tom Sawyer wasn't the one actually summoned.
As for the other Servants in this war... D'Artagnan, Alexander, and a knight from the Round Table. Two of them are linked to spies in some way or another, the perfect linked to this Cold War. As for the latter, I'm sure there is something about him that relates to this as well."
He's probably talking about my Noble Phantasm's ability.
Ignoring Lancer, Cecil pointed her finger at Calladius.
"Wait. Didn't you fail ? That Rider isn't Don Quichote ; he is an impostor.
-Oh... So you've noticed ? Yes, summoning the true Don Quichote, aside from being completely impossible, would also serve me no good."
Calladius started to approach slowly.
"You see, my objective has never been the Grail, or to start a full-on war between two countries whom I have no real affiliation to... My goal is much more complex. First, I use a book as a catalyst for a summoning. Then, let's say I develop the prototype of a machine that transcends human abilities, and hide it somewhere along with the book.
One day, in the distant future, the machine is discovered. That individual acquires a power far beyond any mortal could imagine, and is now linked to one book of some importance to them. What do you think would happen ?
Correct. I have manufactured, or should it be "will", a Heroic Spirit for this sole purpose. The core idea was your father's, and he's the one who developed the prototype in question that made this man into the Rider that it is today.
-A Servant from the future ?!
-Indeed. All of this for just one purpose..."
"Reaching the end of times."