A Change in Eden

Most people who get kidnapped to other worlds are taken by Gods or beings much like them. I was taken by an amoral secret group of idiots trying to 'save' the world. I honestly thought I was stuck until they wiped my memory and dumped me in an alley to further there goals until my cell collapsed and I found myself facing a giant in white.

So yeah, this is an interesting idea. The premise is that, during a random trip to nab some more lab rats, Contessa accidentally crosses into a world thats basically ours and kidnaps the protagonist. She doesn't bother to look around since shes only interested in getting said labrat so never finds out about Worm and then they completely lose access to said world. The protagonist is slated to be used for an experiment, but before that can happen, an earthquake destroys part of the Cauldrons labs and drops the protagonist into a hidden cave system. What he finds down there is, well, keep reading. Enjoy!

Chapter 1

You know, theres a very good reason why you shouldn't take short cuts down dark alleys at night when its raining. Of course, most people will just have a run in with a mugger or something equally mundane, if unpleasant. Me? I ran into a woman in a hat. I didn't think anything of it at first, just walked right on past, right up until she grabbed me from behind and clapped a stinking rag over my mouth and nose. The next thing I knew, I was being dragged through a glowing doorway as my consciousness faded.

I woke up in a small cell made of gray metal panels and with a large, metal door. The only furniture was a small, narrow cot, a toilet, sink and shower behind a privacy screen and a single light that illuminated the room with a uniform glow. I slowly sat up, rubbing my aching head as I looked around as I tried to figure out what in the world was going on.

I groaned, slid off the cot and stumbled over to the door on legs that felt like they were made of rubber. Whatever had been done to me clearly had not entirely worn off yet. I lent against the cold metal and banged on the door as best I could.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" I called weakly.

There was the faint sound of something moving on the other side of the door.

"Hello? If somes there, can you let me out? I don't know why I'm here, but I think theres been some mistake."

"No, no mistake," said a woman's voice from the other side of the door, "I'm sorry Marcus Knight, but this is where you need to be. For what its worth, I am sorry, but take some solace in the fact that your sacrifice will serve to bring us one step closer to saving the world."

"Wait, what?!" I yelped, "Hey, thats...come back!"

The person on the other side of the door ignored me, leaving me with nothing but the sound of her footsteps walking away.

I'd like to say I took the revelation I'd been kidnapped as some kind of sacrifice well, but we all know that would be a lie. I won't go into detail, but I don't think anyone can fault a minor breakdown, considering the situation.

After that, I was left alone with my thoughts. Sort of. It seemed that whoever was keeping me here was both extremely good at reading me and willing to keep me content because they provided me with a fair amount to do. Books, games and good food, anything I wanted, but not a way out. Guess they didn't want their sacrifice to be too sad or something.

I tried to get out, of course I did, but the cell was built way too strongly and competently. I couldn't even scratch the walls and eventually I just...gave up. There wasn't anything I could do and they didn't even open the door to drop off the gifts. They just appeared whenever I turned my back.

I quickly lost track of time in the cell, nothing they game me seemed to have an accurate clock, and eventually I even got sick of waiting for something to happen. I didn't really want to be a sacrifice of course, but I was starting to wonder what in the hell was taking so long. You'd think you'd wait until you actually needed a target to kidnap him after all. Makes it much less likely that they'd escape.

I sighed as I dropped my arms to the bed, letting the book I'd been reading fall to the floor with a thump and covered my eyes with my hand.

"Fucking hell, I'm so bored," I moaned, "I want to go for a walk damnit!"

I tilted my head to the door and raised my voice.

"Come on you assholes, just come and get me already!" I shouted, "Anythings better than this boredom!"

I wasn't really expecting a response and I certainly wasn't expecting the room to start shaking. The tremor was so sudden that I nearly fell out of bed, only barely catching myself before I faceplanted on the metal ground.

"What was that?" I asked, "An earthquake?"

As if in response, the ground shook again, this time much harder. There was a loud crash from somewhere else in the complex, followed by even more as the shaking intensified.

Then, there was a loud crack. I looked up and paled as I saw a large crack appearing in the floor.

"That...can't be good," I said.

The ground shook again and the crack widened, spreading out across the floor as bits started to fall away.

"Ohhh shit," I muttered, scrambling to my feet and backing away from the yawning hole that was appearing in the floor of my cell, "Thats...really not good."

I turned, intending to start banging on the door, but before I could, the floor shook again, this time even harder, and the entire thing dropped out underneath me, dropping me into the deep hole that had apparently opened up underneath the floor.

"Oh SHIIIIIIIIIIIT!" I screamed as I fell.

I regained consciousness an undetermined amount of time later. I slowly sat up, looking around as best I could in the dark. The only light source came from the hole above where I'd fallen. A very, very long way above.

"How in the world did I survive that?" I muttered as I stared up at the hole.

I quickly shrugged off that thought. It wasn't really that useful right now anyway. I checked myself over, nearly crying out as I poked at my left arm. Definitely broken, but fortunately my legs were fine, if a bit torn up, nad I wasn't bleeding too badly. I was either really lucky or something caught me for me to have so few injuries after that fall.

Injuries now taken stock of, I looked around again, trying to get my bearings. I was in what appeared to be a cave made of perfectly ordinary brown stone, with a tunnel that went off in one direction, quickly vanishing into the darkness.

"That...seems a little too convenient," I muttered, "Oh well, not much choice in the matter."

I started moving, following the tunnel into the dark. It was that or stay put and, while neither option sounded that appealing, I'd rather take the option that might get me out of this mess.

I'm not sure how long I walked through the darkness, but I slowly noticed a faint light leaking from the around the next corner. I sped up slightly, hoping for a way out, but what I saw when I rounded the corner stopped me dead.

Instead of a way out, the tunnel opened up into a massive cave that was full of treasure. Mounds and mounds of gold coins, weapons, jewels, goblets and every other treasure you can think of, just laying in piles around the cave. In the center of the gleaming metal was a gigantic alter, similar to something seen in a Mayan temple, covered in a red cloth. And laying on top of the alter was…

I slowly looked up, my eyes widening in shock, disbelief and awe as my brain finally registered what I was seeing.

A titan, with what hair and dark skin was sleeping on the altar. She was so big, my mind almost refused to accept what I was seeing, not helped in the slightest by the utter insanity of just what seeing her meant. Because I knew who she was.

The White Titan of the Moon, one of the three weapons sent by the Evil Star to prepare for its arrival, Titan Altera.

But...that couldn't be it, right? I couldn't possibly be on the Moon Cell! It was fiction, nothing but a dream created to entertain!

I was so wrapped up in my thoughts of denial that I almost missed the being opening its eyes. However, I certainly didn't miss the ground shaking as the mountain began to rise. Her movements were so dignified and graceful that it was almost unbelievable. Not inhuman though. Despite her size and grace, her movements were entirely Human. The disconnect was rather jarring.

She blinked slowly, looking down at me through hooded eyes.

"Good morning," she said, "Who are you?"

I nearly swallowed my tongue at being addressed by the enormous being. For a moment, I hesitated, not sure if I should actually speak to something that was designed to destroy the world. On the other hand, Altera was pretty much the opposite of evil and had turned against Velba in the end. Plus, what else was I supposed to do? There was no way out of this place, other than back the way I came.

"I...Marcus Knight," I said.

The Titans face showed surprise for a moment, then tightened slightly in sorrow.

"Ah, of course," she said, "You are one of their victims."

Before I could react, she reached out and picked me up with surprising gentleness. She lifted me up to her face as she settled back on her altar.

"I am sorry for what you've been through," she said, "I know they weren't cruel to you, but you were still taken from your home without your knowledge or consent to fight in a war that is not yours."

I frowned. Something about her words went against what I was expecting. This wasn't the Titan Altera Hakuno encountered on the Moon Cell, this was something different.

"What are you talking about?" I asked, "Who are you?"

The Titans face darkened slightly.

"Who am I?" she asked, "Thats a question that not even I'm entirely sure of any more. The being I was once is no more."

She sighed and closed her eyes, apparently thinking the question over.

"I was once known as the Thinker," she said slowly, "The people who use what remains of my body to battle my former partner refer to me as Eden. However, neither of those names mean anything. That being is dead, washed away by the life of the Human I possessed. I suppose then I am her. Attila...no, that name never suited me."

She opened her eyes and smiled down at me where I was sat frozen on her hand.

"I suppose then that you should call me Altera."

"I...did you say you were Eden?" I asked slowly.

Altera tilted her head slightly.

"Not any more, but once," she said.

"Eden...as in the Entity?" I asked, not entirely sure I wanted to know the answer to the question, "The space whale parasite that gives powers to the population of a planet to improve, then blows it up as part of its life cycle? How…"

Before I could ask the next question, Altera shifted, sitting up straight and fixing me with a look rather at odds with her soft, kind look she'd been wearing up till this point.

"How do you know that?" she asked, her voice cold.

I froze, a deep, primal fear gripping me as I realized just what a situation I was in. Even if she wasn't an Entity, she was still a giant and I was sat in her hand. She could crush me without even breaking a sweat.

Before I could muster an answer, Altera reached out with her other hand and pressed her fingertip to my head. I went rigid as I felt an icy coldness wash over me and memories of my life began to play back at high speed. It didn't hurt, but it did feel extremely strange. When my memories got to playing the Extella games and reading Worm, Altera paused for a moment, then pulled back her finger and looked down at me with a strange expression on her face.

"I see, so thats it," she said, "It seems that the Door Shard may have gone a bit outside its normal range to get you."

"So...I'm really in Worm?" I asked weakly, "But...how?"

"Truthfully, I have no idea," said Altera, "I believe that your reality should have been out of range of any Shard based power, but Entities have as little understanding of the enormity of the Multiverse as anyone they have fed upon."

There was a moments silence as I absorbed that.

"Alright, so I'm in Worm," I said eventually, "Got it, moving on."

I looked up at her.

"My next question is who or what are you?" I asked, "You said you were the Thinker Entity, but you talk about Entities as if you weren't one and seem way to...well, Human for want of a better word."

Altera shifted slightly.

"In truth, I don't know what I am," she said, "I don't think I'm an Entity any more, but I'm not Human either."

She sighed.

"Perhaps I should start at the beginning," she said, "It started around 60 years ago as the Warrior and I approached Earth. You know the basics, we encountered another Entity and I exchanged some Shards and I got the Path to Victory. I originally planned to use it to simply modal the optimal future for this Cycle, but I also decided to see if I could find the best way to achieve our goal. Unfortunately, what I discovered distracted me enough that I crashed. As you know, the impact sent a number of Shards that weren't supposed to be released out into the world. Among them was one of my core memory Shards, part of my core self. It wasn't enough to entirely put me down, but it did cripple me enough to allow the girl and her assistant to kill me."

She paused and shuddered, her free hand absently going to her neck.

"However, the vital Shard that had been thrown loose found a Host," she continued, "It didn't grant any powers, our central Shards don't have that capability, but it bound deeply to her because she was only a baby when she came into contact with it. Despite no longer being part of me, the Shard did its job and took in everything the girl experienced and the fact she was only a baby when she...Triggered I believe is the word, meant that the connection between the two was as close as could be. Everything she was became part of the Shard and when she died, it returned to me. However, I was basically dead, with my core personality Shards running on the equivalent of life support. The Shards return revitalized me, but it also caused the Human Altera and the Entity Eden to become one."

She looked up at the ceiling.

"I've been trapped down here ever since," she said, "My body is dead, my Shards no longer mine, the goal of the Entities now something I know to be pointless."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

She looked down at me and scoffed.

"Come now Marcus, you know as well as I do that staving off Entropy is impossible," she said, "So much death, so many civilizations, all destroyed for a pointless goal. And to make matters worse, I can't even do anything to stop the Warrior. He won't listen to me, even if I could contact him, and I'm no match for him in a battle, even if I still had access to my powers."

She snorted.

"I can't even leave this place," she said, "All I can do is sit here and wait."

"Wait for what?" I asked.

Altera looked down at me, a strange expression on her face.

"Wait for someone to find me," she said, "I can't do anything by myself and my Shards are mostly gone, but I'm still an Entity."

She reached down off the altar and picked up a small, for her at least, glowing crystal.

"I created this to create a champion with which to try and save the world," she said, "Of course, that was before I discovered I couldn't leave and nor could my Shards, but I kept it, just in case."

"What is it?" I asked.

Altera smiled.

"Its a Shard," she said, "The only one I have left, the strongest I've ever created. I have no idea what power it will grant, but it will put you at least on the Triumvirate level."

Her expression turned pained.

"I know its asking a lot, this world isn't your own after all, but I don't have much of a choice," she said, "I don't have anything to offer you, not even a way home since I highly doubt its possible to repeat the fluke that let Doormaker get there in the first place, but I doubt I'll ever meet anyone who can understand me better than you with your knowledge after all."

She sniffed and shook her head.

"You have no reason to help me, but I can't ask…"

"OK."

Altera blinked.

"I...beg your pardon?" she asked.

"I said OK," I said, "I'll help you."

Altera stared at me for a moment.

"A-are you sure?" she asked, "You know that your going to have to fight opponents and monsters unlike anything you've seen before."

I winced.

"I know that," I said, "But what else am I supposed to do? Like you said, its unlikely that I can go home, which means that I'm either stuck here until I either die or the idiots upstairs find us. Even if you can send me somewhere else, that wouldn't do anything since I'd still be on Earth Bet or somewhere close enough to get on the wrong side of the Golden Morning. Better to have to power to fight back and maybe help the world be a little less crappy."

I smiled up at the Titan.

"Besides, I never was very good at saying no to crying girls. Especially the pretty ones."

Altera's cheeks pinked slightly and she smiled.

"I've been stuck in this hole for my entire life and lived in a medieval world in the one before this one and even I think that was corny," she said, "But...thank you."

I chuckled and hopped off her hand as she lowered me to the surface of the Altar.

"So, what now?" I asked.

Altera reached down and placed the large crystal in front of me.

"Just put your hands on the surface," she said," I'll do the rest."

I did as I was told, noting with some surprise that the crystals surface was warm and seemed to pulse slightly.

"Just to warn you, this may hurt," she said.

She was completely correct.

Considering my past experiences waking up after passing out, I woke up feeling surprisingly good. I opened my eyes and found myself looking up at the rough ceiling of the cave. Guess it wasn't a dream then. Lovely.

I sat up and looked around, raising an eyebrow as I took in the change to the room. All of the treasure was gone, replaced by what appeared to be the contents of a tribal chieftains tent, complete with racks of fur, a number of rugs made of more fur, racks that looked like they were intended for weapons and a stall with hay that was probably meant for a horse. The altar was still dominating the center of the room, along with its occupant, who was sat with her knees up and arms wrapped around them, watching me with a worried look.

When she saw I was awake, Altera sat up straight and turned to face me fully.

"Ah, finally, I was starting to get worried," she said, "How do you feel?"

"Pretty good actually," I said, looking down at my hands.

I frowned and flexed my fingers as I noted that my skin had darkened, going from pasty white to a shade that was part way between my former tone and Altera's own skin. Not only that, but my clothes had changed, going from the gray jumpsuit the Cauldron had given me to a white bodysuit, similar to the one Cu Chulainn wore when summoned as a Lancer, but done in Altera's colours and patterns. The green, blue and red prism ran down the arms and the center of my chest and my legs were covered in red and black boots.

I looked up as Altera put a mirror down in front of me, letting me see myself fully. In addition to my skin, my eyes had turned red and my hair had turned the same shade as silver as her and lengthened slightly with the black patterns of her 'vail', which was actually a part of her hair standing out starkly. The prismic headband she wore rested on my forehead, keeping my hair out of my face and glowing faintly. Finally, a black, white and red sash was tied around my hips, creating the impressive silhouette her stage three version had in F/GO.

All in all, I could have passed for a male version of Altera.

I frowned and closed my eyes, feeling my mind open and knowledge that definitely wasn't mine flow in. Without thinking, I lifted my hand and, in a flex of will, the Photon Ray appeared in my grip.

"Did you turn me into a Demi-servant or something?" I asked as I examined the Divine Construct, "Cus I'm pretty sure that this is a Noble Phantasm."

Altera frowned as she lent down to take a closer look at the weapon.

"I...don't know," she said, "I'm not entirely sure how I made that Shard and I certainly didn't intend for the result to be...this. However, that is definitely my old sword and I can sense the Star Emblem present on your body."

I stared up at her in disbelief.

"Are you telling me that you created what is supposed to be an impossible being by ACCIDENT?!" I spluttered, "I...you know what? No, I don't care. The Endbringers are already impossible, so making me a Demi-Servant should be par for the course. I'll take it and not look this particular equine in the mouth. I'm not riding a sheep though."

Altera snorted softly. I grinned and pushed myself to my feet, Photon Ray vanishing back to wherever it stayed when I wasn't using it.

"Alright, so I'm empowered, what now?" I asked.

"Now, I send you to Earth Bet," said Altera, gesturing to a door set into the wall that had a swirling, black portal set into it, "I'm...not entirely sure where you'll appear since I can't exactly test it, but you should be fine wherever you appear. You can return here whenever you need, so don't worry about needing a place to stay."

I nodded as I walked over to the portal and stopped in front of it. I glanced back at Altera and frowed slightly at the slightly sad expression on the giants face.

"Whats wrong?" I asked.

Altera jumped slightly.

"Oh, its nothing," she said quickly.

I wasn't convinced, but I wasn't about to push her right now if she didn't want to talk about it.

"Alright then, I'm off," I said, "I'll see you later Altera."

I jumped through the portal without looking back.

OK, so I think I'm going to leave this here, simply because I'm not sure where to go next. I have a few ideas, ranging from him smashing through the ceiling of one of Canary's consert venues, just in time to stop her from telling her asshole ex to go fuck himself, to crash landing in the middle of a Fallen commune and wiping them out when they try to pressgang him, leading to the PRT arriving to see him crush one of their Capes skull under his boot while surrounded by blood and fire. Which would you prefer and do you have any other ideas?

Leaving that aside, a few points. Number one, yes, his presence here and Eden ending up accidentally living as Altera was the result of my multiverse metaphysics doing weird shit. However, its not relevant and only needed to set up the story, so I won't be going into detail.

I really hope I did a good job of explaining what Marcus' outfit looked like. Side note, I chose the name Marcus because it comes from Mars. I thought it was kinda fitting.

I'm not entirely sure how the Demi-Servant thing works in its entirety and I really don't want to start getting bogged down in deciding how the rankings stack up, so I won't bother. However, I will say that Marcus has all of Altera's Skills, including a variant of Civilization Erosion that works on broken Eden Shards and can fix and upgrade them. He had to get SOMETHING from the fact that hes technically a Demi-Servant of Eden, not just Altera.

Obviously, Altera's bedroom is based on her home from Fate/EXTELLA and I even stole some lines from her introduction scene.

Question, and I can probably guess the response, but I'll ask anyway, but what do you think of the idea of some other characters getting turned into Demi-Servants. Currently, I'm thinking the Endbringers getting converted as a result of the Civilization Erosion skill interacting strangely with them and their connection with Eden, but I'm not 100% sure of the idea yet. I'm also not sure who I'd use, although the idea of the Simurgh getting turned into Jeanne or Liz tickles me for some reason. Let me know what you think!

And with that, I'm going to sign off. Don't forget to leave a review on the way out!