Fear of the beasts that lurked in the shadows, but also those outside the walls had dominated their lives for as long as they could remember. As they worked the day away, prayed to their deity, and slept after a long day, the unease of the day the world they knew could collapse at any moment never quite disappeared. The city-state had the weakest army in the lands—the weakest navy that sailed the seven seas. But worst of all, they were barely contributing to the empire. Should the worst happen, the Emperor's army— not even the Vormund —could or would protect them. Should war truly break out, they were an easy target for any of their neighbours with their superior military and technology, and everyone knew it. Many had fled beforehand, seeing the writings on the walls and running to the safety of other cities.
The true sons and daughters of Espérance stayed, ready to die within their homeland—but that didn't mean they wanted to.
Then the day they all saw coming finally arrived. One of the Vormunds broke down the flimsy walls like tissue paper, letting the mechanical soldiers march in and reduce everything to ashes. The brave souls who tried to stop the army were crushed under their heels. They didn't even care to take over—that's how little their home offered to the conquerors.
What did they do to deserve such a fate? Why did their Emperor— their worshipped Vormund —leave them to such a fate? They could only cry in sorrow and despair to the heavens at the futility they faced.
And their cry was heard.
From beneath the land, it emerged: the metal giant that slumbered beneath the soil, left to be forgotten by the passage of time. With a body as white as snow, it answered the silenced screams and avenged those who wished for a saviour—possessing strength that equalled the Vormund that led the invasion, it was only right to bestow it the same title as those forged by human hands long ago to surpass the heavens.
The horned beast... the Horned Vormund—the Horned Guardian. When it went to slumber once more, it would do so with the prayers of those it saved.
As the alarms died down across the halls of the Storm Border, Sakura made her way to the bridge to get the situation straight. When she came in— "—ject goes missing and then a minute Singularity suddenly gives off massive readings like this? It has to be in there for sure."
"But why? Who'd even steal it?" The Assassin heard Ritsuka's frantic voice reply to Sion as she entered the room. Besides those two, the others on the bridge were to be expected: Mash, Da Vinci, Goredolf, and the other Master that Sakura saw around from time to time. Besides them, RITSUKA and Vill-V were there; again, that was expected, but Mobius and the ELF Su as well, despite them having practically no ties to the stolen project as far as she knew.
"What's going on?" Sakura made her presence known by joining them in the centre of the room.
"Told you she'd show up," she heard Vill-V whisper to RITSUKA, who rolled his eyes. "Ahem. Turns out that the security was warranted; someone broke into my workshop early this morning and stole our project."
"And after that, our equipment picked up a Singularity and a pretty strange one at that," Da Vinci added with a sigh. "We couldn't determine what year or even where it is. It's just… there. That's why Mobius is here. With our track record, we thought that maybe—"
"This Singularity has something to do with our world," finished Mobius with a curious hum. "Unfortunately, it'd be impossible for us to figure out until we actually enter it. I don't have enough data to determine it quite yet. But from what we could tell, the passage of time within it is moving at a faster pace than outside."
And if it was their ruined world, Sakura had a feeling they all would be joining Ritsuka on his next quest. 'But not everyone is here…' The substitutes of the remaining five Flamechasers were, but Elysia's wish remained ungranted. She still had one question though: "Why did they steal your robot, Master?"
A heavy sigh escaped Ritsuka before he answered that he genuinely did not know. "Sure, I did base its appearance and even interior on the show but it has no combat capabilities. I know better than to have a weapon like that around here."
"And trust me when I say we made sure it couldn't do anything beyond walking and flying around," Vill-V confirmed with a frustrated sigh. "It's durable and can throw a mean punch but that's about it."
"Wasn't there a rifle?" Asked the other Master— Kadoc or something —questioned with a raised eyebrow.
Ritsuka answered that the magazines were empty. "And the sabres are glorified flashlights. Just concentrated light that couldn't cut through anything," he added. "Your guess is as good as mine for why anyone would want to steal it… Besides the obvious, of course." It was a giant replica of one of the coolest robots in fiction; why wouldn't anyone want it?
"Except no one besides you knows what it is," Kadoc correctly pointed out. No one in Chaldea has seen the anime Ritsuka grew up on. However, Kadoc put the discussion back on track before Ritsuka could retort. "So someone sneaked onto the ship, into Alter Ego's workshop, stole a 40-foot robot, and got out without anyone noticing?"
"Actually, it's 65 feet—64.63 to be more specific," Vill-V corrected, her inventor pride flashing momentarily (even if she mainly copied something she saw) before she cleared her throat. "But yes, as absurd as it sounds, that's what happened. We found out the security cameras around my workshop were disabled so we can't even be sure what time precisely it was taken."
"And whoever stole it likely fled into the Singularity," Sion reaffirmed their theory. "We already ran a scan of the ship and unless one of them found a way to fool the system, all Servants are accounted for."
So none of them are responsible... probably. Their innocence still needs to be determined but right now, there was still the elephant in the room. "A true Singularity..." Unlike the minute ones Chaldea entered to collect more resources, this was a real one they needed to fix themselves. Their true first mission... "When do we head out?"
"A few Servants had already Rayshifted in as a forward team to collect intel—your allies, Pardofelis and Kosma, were among them. However, we have yet to get back into contact with them," Sion told her. "Ritsuka's group will be Rayshifting in an hour once he assembles his team."
"Naturally, the rest of us Flamechasers will be part of the team," Mobius stated. "I've sent the other ELFs to debrief the others, but this one—" she gave Su a pointed glare who just smiled back at her.
"Don't be so upset I was right that Sakura would come here herself, Mobius."
She continued to stare at him with suspicion before turning back towards Ritsuka. "I have to prepare a few things before the mission. If you'd excuse me—" Without waiting for a response, the Caster stepped out and headed back towards her lab.
"I should do the same; I've not done as many diagnostic checks as I normally would since we were so busy." Following her rival's lead, Vill-V left to return to her.
"What about you, Sakura?"
"My sword and I are always ready for a mission," she replied to her Master with a confident nod. "Who else will be part of the team?"
"Tenoch, Odysseus, and Europa were part of the recon team with Pardo and Kosma; as for our team, only Kintoki will join." Including Mash, that would be a grand total of 14 Servants—quite a lot but better safe than sorry, Sakura thought. "Kintoki doesn't know yet so could you do me a favour and tell him?"
"Understood. I'll regroup with you before the mission begins." With that, Sakura headed out to find the Berserker (and occasional Rider) to relay their Master's orders. An hour before the mission begins… An hour before they'll be heading back to a true battlefield for the first time since she was summoned. 'Time to fight once again… without her.'
The pre-mission preparations were quickly completed with some time left to spare until it was time to Rayshift. Frankly, Ritsuka would have preferred if they were rushing until the last second; he wouldn't have had the time to be more anxious if they did. Wandering the halls with his eyes on the ground was doing little to calm his mind. "Penny for your thoughts, Master?"
"Hmm? Oh, hey." Ritsuka glanced up to see his own face staring at him. "And Su too. You guys are done preparing too?"
"Yes, we were just heading to the Rayshift room," nodded RITSUKA before asking again what he was thinking about.
"You mean besides my favourite robot that we spent a couple of weeks building together getting stolen before I get the chance to fully test it out?" Ritsuka retorted mostly in jest. "I guess I'm anxious over what we might face in the Singularity." He was not a stranger to this type of anxiousness, but he usually did a better job hiding it.
"I must say though, building something like that went a lot swifter than one would expect," Su remarked as he effortlessly floated around the two Ritsukas.
"Well, it was mainly just a blown-up model." Forging and assembling the pieces was a cinch thanks to the Servants; the main difficulty was wiring things inside to allow movement but Vill-V and the others were more than excited to tackle that task. The ELFs, who were small enough to squeeze into the tight compartments, were less excited—except for his own ELF. Was it still faster than one might expect? Probably, but not that surprising or unexpected. "Su, will you be joining us too?"
"Of course. This is precisely the reason I came here."
"Su?" RITSUKA tilted his head in confusion at the ELF's remark but he only laughed it off and told him not to mind him. "But I am just as confused as you are. If whoever stole the mobile suit knew even the bare minimum about it, they would know it's just a giant toy. Not to downplay it, of course." As someone who participated in constructing the stolen machine, he was just as invested in it as uh… Not Ritsuka or Vill-V. Probably Mash.
"Who knows?" sighed Ritsuka with a shrug. "The only thing I could take from them stealing it is that they knew less than the bare minimum."
"That's assuming they stole it because they believed it to be a weapon," Su pointed out. "For all we know, the thief stole it just because it was a replica."
"Hm… That's not out of the question." Another sigh escaped Ritsuka. "There's only one way to find out for sure and that's to locate it. Vill-V says she should be able to track it down the second we land within the Singularity. She insisted on having certain systems in place in case someone actually stole it."
"Really? Hm… I suppose that's to be expected after… That explains why she was as unbothered as she was earlier," Su muttered before shaking his head. "It's almost time for the mission to begin. Let's meet up with the others." With a small smile on his already small face, Su flew in the direction of the Rayshift chamber. After sharing a quick glance, the two Ritsukas shrugged and followed after him.
The plan was simple: upon entering, they would first regroup with the intel team. If it's confirmed the stolen "asset" was within the Singularity, they could try locating it first. If not, then they would carry on with their other objective of correcting the Singularity. "Although, I would not be surprised if it turns out those two objectives were one and the same."
"Don't even joke about that, Da Vinci," Ritsuka bemoaned at the Rider's poor attempt at humour. He didn't want to entertain the possibility that they would have to destroy the culmination of their efforts and hard work.
Of course, someone had to take issue with that plan—"Why are we trying to locate Master's toy first? Shouldn't solving the Singularity be our main concern?" Mobius gave both Ritsuka and Da Vinci an unamused glare at them prioritising a walking piece of metal over what she rightfully saw as a larger problem. Da Vinci's carefree reply only made her all the more annoyed.
"Don't worry too much about that. You'll learn soon enough everything will work out in the end as it always does."
"…I'm now questioning how Chaldea got this far with that sort of attitude," Mobius grumbled before heading to wait with the others.
"Hm… If it's her wish to figure out what makes you tick, then this is the best opportunity she's going to get just as this will be the best opportunity for you to truly see them in action," hummed Da Vinci with a wink. "Good luck, Master of Chaldea~" Her use of that title managed to elicit a short chuckle from Ritsuka.
"We'll succeed, you can count on that at least," Ritsuka smiled back at Da Vinci before turning around and heading for the Rayshift coffin. Time to begin operation and make true on that statement: 'Everything will work out in the end…' That prevailing thought echoed in his mind as he and Mash entered their respective coffins for their entry into this odd Singularity.
Unsummon Program, start.
Spiritron Conversion, start.
Should just be a routine operation.
Rayshifting in 3.
2.
1.
…Right?
All procedures clear.
Commencing operation.
…
…
…Beep beep!
"Rider, Berserker, other Rider! Tlamacazqui has finally arrived!" The eager cry of one Pretender Servant filled the underground bunker that had served as their base for the past several weeks. Now that the signal came that their Master had Rayshifted into the Singularity, all they needed was to reunite with him and—
"Wait, those coordinates… he's in the wilds." Odysseus was quick to realise the potential danger Ritsuka's group was in; even as a Servant, he was well acquainted with the strange monsters that roamed the unpopulated regions between the various cities within this Singularity. They had plans to procure more supplies, but this naturally took precedence over anything else; the others would understand. "I deeply apologise, but we need to rescue him first."
"Oh, I don't mind. I'm excited to finally meet this Master you all love to go on about~ Let's see if he truly is the type of person deserving of such a reputation."
A/N: I've now fallen into another rabbit hole. In the process of writing this chapter, I've consumed about 25 hours worth of Gundam content and even went out of my way to buy and build what is going to be the main mech of this arc. I've fallen into yet another hole that I have to do my best to crawl out of… which has always failed so far.
In any case, I'm sure some may be questioning why I'm suddenly tacking on mech into this story but I also spent the last week working on how Ritsuka and the Flamechasers would interact within the context of being caught dealing with mechs and a little something on top. I'm pretty sure you can guess what. In fact, it's be more than likely through Ritsuka's passion that they'd come to understand him more.
Either way, see you all next time!