(Washington, Senate meeting)
"Well my friends, it appears that Chaldea has gotten away from us," the Dictator stated to the stony gathering in front of him. "That said, as I have good evidence that Medb was permanently defeated, it is safe to say that the 'War of 1812' has been won."
"This is little comfort, as the Chaldeans will simple undo our 'victory'. Which as I recall, you said they would, should we fail to seize the Grail from them. Which you have," replied one of the senators bitterly. Not even one of his detractors, either.
"With the disruption of the Pillars subsiding, it is clear to me that even with the loss of the city, the war will still be won. There will be some damage, not much. Nor casualties. Normally I wouldn't be able to speak of such future things, which is more proof that the Pillars were playing us all in a fools game fighting over a sinking ship."
"So what now?" another of them asked. "If what you say is true, there will just be an end, what then?" Ah, this one was a skeptic.
"If you mean the details of how history will play out, that's up to the people there and then. If you mean here and now... I will resign the dictatorship."
"Isn't that a bit hasty? Even if we take it that Medb is gone, that doesn't mean the Celts will just give up."
"Ah, I do understand your caution. Fine, I hadn't intended to go into this, but as I was summoned here by your desires to win the war, having done so I can no longer stay. As I don't know how much longer I may have, I think you will consider it understandable that we put these affairs in order," he lied.
Though the Dictator was reasonably certain that the Singularity would end before a week had passed, Helena's departure meant he had a very finite timeline before the magecraft system sustaining him from the Washington leyline fell apart. As this was something he had kept a secret from them thus far, there was little reason to disclose it now.
Yes, if they had known he was dependent on her they might have refrained from chasing her out when it became clear that she could not pull off a feat like defeating Chaldea single-handedly. But they would also have been second-guessing him at every turn as they clearly distrusted her. In such a case, they would have quickly lost the war, which he couldn't allow despite them.
"Before I depart the floor, might I suggest that we call for a victory celebration? My directly-controlled units will continue on their guard duty, of course, but all the soldiers should get a bit of a break."
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(Somewhere in the wilderness of America)
Having to deal with the frustratingly but understandably distressed Celts, Bazette, Caster Cú and Sétanta were happy to take off on their own after 'relaying' a number of hold position orders to Medb's commanders. Said commanders were not at all surprised by this, as it seemed they were all still expecting the Braves to initiate any following pushes by surprise.
"Medb actually put together a rather sturdy force, didn't she?" Sétanta commented as the trio made for a leyline which Caster Cú had previously scouted out to make camp.
"She's had some experience, yes," the Caster replied. "Though in this case she's been micromanaging a lot so they don't have much of a long-term perspective outside the broad arcs she's given them."
"That's thanks to your magecraft communications, isn't it?" Bazette asked.
"They were an enabling technology, sure. But I wasn't planning it for her. Not my job."
"Right, right. Since we're on the topic, how about showing us some of your runes while we have the time?" was the Alter Ego's follow up.
"Eh? Is there a particular reason to get into that right now?"
"Why not, she's still 'alive' it seems, and as you said, Servants like me are a bit less fixed in our Spirit Origin," Sétanta supported Bazette, probably out of curiosity more than anything else.
"Hmm, well there's no real reason not to try," the Caster mused. "After all apparently Scáthach took up mentoring heroes again after being recruited by Chaldea."
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(Several days after the the Pillar Battle)
(Chaldea, outside the Rayshift Vault)
da Vinci rushed down from the Command Room after getting notification of the completed reverse Rayshift and turning over control to her second. As the processes between that and actually opening the Vault door took some time, she made it there just as the operators were opening the way.
"That was quite a long one, huh?" she welcomed back the Masters cheerily.
"Longer than when we were in London, sure. But I'd say on par with the Romans," Gudao replied precisely.
"That's true, though this go around surely had a bigger battle," Gudako added.
"Yes, well that's all true, but this isn't the best time or place to get into it, you know?" Chloe spoke up.
"Right, right. Ok, first thing's first, the Grail. Please tell me you didn't drop it in the void on our way back," Jeanne quickly sprang into her Ruler duties.
"Let's see." As Gilgamesh came over to take her arm away from Chloe, Sasaku focused for a few seconds before extracting the de-energized Grail fragment and handing it over to the other Ruler, who took custody of it.
"That should probably go into observation before any of those tests you wanted. da Vinci?" Martha reminded the group of the discussions they had of this issue in the days since the end of the Pillar Battle.
"Yes, we have repurposed one of the experiment Vaults to handle that. I'll show you the way, might as well check that everything is set up properly there with the subject installed."
"Excellent. Well then, we will do the usual debrief tomorrow. Everyone get cleaned up and I'll see you around." Gudao dismissed the group. Jeanne and Martha headed directly for the Vault, led by da Vinci, as the Masters returned to their own Rooms to wash up.
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(A couple hours afterwards)
(Sasaku and Gilgamesh's Room)
"Well, we have to hand it to you, that stunt definitely got their attention," Merlin spoke to the Chaldean Gilgamesh via Ruby's conference call feature. "It seems they have started pulling back from more causal involvement in Singularities."
"But that ambush group wasn't truly destroyed, was it?" Irisviel asked. "This seems like an over-reaction."
"Well, I would say you're right from our perspective. But they wouldn't have all the information as respawning Pillars may lack the memories of what happened since they left their HQ. At least unless they have evolved somewhat since the last time they were detailed in depth," the older Gilgamesh with the Void Support Group added. "At least until they get a better understanding of the circumstances, the face facts are a group of seven of them went in to ambush Chaldea and were wiped out."
"At the least, they are feeling like the burned hand," Chloe gave her own thoughts on the matter. "But it's completely likely that the uncertainty has blinded them, for the moment anyway. I wouldn't be surprised if they were to spend resources just trying to track you down specifically, be it as a potential threat or just to avenge their defeat."
"Well, given they seem to have taken their own path of development, it is not impossible they would begin acting emotionally like that," the Merlin joining them from the Shining Blue Galaxy mused. "All forms of intelligence seem to converge to similar patterns of consciousness. Fascinating."
"Never mind that, they won't have long more to either complete their Grand Plan, or we will have found the ways and means to take them out for good," Zelretch brought everyone back on track. "In any case, be aware that if they suspect your presence in a Singularity, they are likely to put some serious thought and effort in to kill you next time."
"Hmm, but how would they realistically tell one group deploying from Chaldea to another coming from any of our variants?" Gilgamesh questioned. "They seemed to have a very bad awareness when it comes even to telling a Master apart from a Servant." He looked down at Sasaku who was lying down on the bed next to his chair.
"They probably wouldn't," Merlin said confidently. "So it's really a matter of when they think it's you. They will drop the hammer on someone. It might be you, and really that's all you need to keep in mind, really. Just pass it on to the Masters for us."
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(A few days later)
(One of Chaldea's conference rooms)
"Ah, there you are," Marie looked up from her glass as the door opened to let Sasaku in. "We were beginning to wonder if you'd been caught up in something."
"No, thankfully everything to do with the Singularity has been resolved, Grail and all." The Ruler paused in the middle of sitting down when she fully noticed the newest member of their party. "How's everything been going for you, d'Eon?"
"There's a good reason for this," the Saber started abruptly, thinking that the girl was referring the dress that had previously only briefly featured in their shared adventure in America. "It wouldn't be even for Artoria if she didn't have one of her own knights in attendance."
"That would be, uh, hard to see happening since she's the Princess Knight," Sasaku replied unaware of the reasoning Marie had resorted to in order to get her way.
"Enough of those formalities," the Rider quickly stepped in before that line of thought could develop too far. "We're here to celebrate Artoria's recovery. And yours."
"Well, I had to 'recover' before we were even able to get back, but I appreciate the thought," the Ruler looked around the table before taking out what looked like an ancient sealed jar. "This is... well I don't have a name to put to it, but Gil said it was something like humanity's first wine."
"So, uh, he just has that around to break out?" d'Eon asked in confusion.
"Seems like it. In Chaldea at least. I should add that he doesn't have all that many Noble Phantasm-level things, but items like this just sort of show up." Sasaku shrugged. "It's like anything else we Servants bring around with us, you get it back after a while and a little magical energy."
"Hah. Like Blackbeard's stock of alcohol. Well his is limited to things he knows about. Honestly, I think part of the reason he takes requests isn't for the pay but rather to learn about new drinks so he can have them in stock," Artoria laughed. "I believe we have you to thank for him being able to pull out loads of French wines."
"Yes, well once they realized his repertoire could be expanded like that, Anne and Mary went around trying to get as much out that expansion as they could," Marie smiled.
"Wait, I assume he can't just read a massive list or encyclopedia of wines and..." d'Eon trailed off.
"Someone has to actually be around who had it to drink before," Artoria clarified. "Which is why there's a number of those un-named Celtic ones that Scáthach taught him. Though I assume if people other than her actually liked them we'd have tried to put some name to it."
"Speaking of that, I recall she asked Shiki to take a look at her," Sasaku frowned. "Do any of you know what happened with that?"
"Oh that?" Artoria thought for a moment. "There was nothing special. After all, as a Servant she's as mortal as a Servant would be. It isn't her true form, after all."
"Hmm that's to be expected, really. After all, if she didn't want to be here then she wouldn't have been summoned in the first place, isn't that right?" d'Eon asked.
"Honestly I don't know if she thought it was possible to 'kill' her original self even though her Spirit Origin. Not that I think she agreed to be summoned just in the hopes of finding a way to permanently die." Sasaku agreed.
"Is it even possible to kill someone immortal by attacking a summon of them?" Marie asked. "That seems rather far-fetched."
"With abilities such as the ((Mystic Eyes of Death Perception)) it might be possible. Though perhaps simply outside of Shiki's current power level."
"Guess that's one way to qualify to be an Assassin-class," d'Eon wondered.
"A moment, please," Artoria tried to detain Sasaku as their gathering came to its natural conclusion.
"What's this about?" the other replied, not rejecting the request outright.
Artoria shared a brief look with Marie, who was in the middle of leaving with d'Eon in her wake. "Something a tad more personal."
"Fine, if you won't take too long." The two started down another of Chaldea's passage ways. "What's on your mind?"
"It's about d'Eon."
Sasaku just looked at Artoria quizzically until the Saber elaborated. "Marie doesn't want d'Eon to have this idea about having to follow her and all that."
"Oh, is that what's going on?"
Artoria frowned. "You can't have not noticed it."
"Is it really a problem?"
"Well it's not appropriate for Chaldea."
"You've lost me there."
"We don't have any subordinates one-to-another. Like with... Sasaki Kojirou and you. Or more accurately Agesipolis and you," Artoria half-explained, half-insisted.
"That's just our personal relationships, there's no rule there."
"No," Artoria agreed. "But it is, if not a precedent, at least setting a convention. And Marie feels on the wrong side of it."
"Ah." Sasaku nodded, catching on. "Even so, this isn't really... as you've pointed out, I'm just another Servant. You'd have to speak with the Masters."
"There's no way this would qualify," Artoria shook her head. "I know you know we don't go that far unless there's an actual problem."
"So there's no actual problem."
"I didn't say there was, I'm just trying to help a friend of mine."
"Look, all I can read of the situation is: Marie doesn't want d'Eon as a retainer, but he thinks it's totally natural. He doesn't act like a knight if she convinces him to wear a dress? Is this because it's linked to the non-knight parts of his story?"
"That's actually right. I hadn't actually considered the last bit, but perhaps Marie did."
"Well, you're the Princess Knight as I pointed out. Didn't you and the others all go questing together before you became a king? Putting aside that Marie didn't get into the same sort of position of command, even so she's in a state like yours, rather than one analogous to the King of Knights."
Artoria thought about this for a moment, her expression lighting up. "I think that's a solution. That was great, thanks !"
"I, uh, ok. Sure. Hope it works out for you." The Ruler had no real idea what the Saber's brainwave was, but was happy to leave herself out of it.
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Notes:
Some of my more liked FGO stories are the ones where the Servants are doing things "independently". Because while it's particularly obvious in cases like having 300 valentines, it's generally a lot, how much the Master is handling personally. And since most of the Servants are capable of mature thought, they should be handling a lot of things on their own. It isn't even narratively critical either, since there have been some stories where the Master isn't present, and the player still gets to be present, as it were (particularly FGO's summer event side stories come to mind). In this, even though there's two Masters, and they are better at the whole magecraft thing, and are also wearing the equivalent of multiple FGO Mystic Codes at once... they do a lot less, especially in combat where they spend a lot of effort staying out of it. This is because Servant-level combat is really deadly.
Chaldean forces might be weaker than they look numbers-wise (rolling around with six Servants in Singularities and Events) because A: they are individually a bit weaker than a Rogue Servant and B: one or more is usually safeguarding the Masters and C: opponents like Demon God Pillars or anyone souped up by an energized Grail just have massive power level advantages over any Servant. Their main advantages are A: they can swap fighters given the chance, and target good matchups, B: command spells, C: Chaldean Servants have a lot of experience in group combat vs other Servant-level enemies, also D: Chaldea likely has an information advantage thanks to frequently having access to things like (True Name Descernment) in both the standard form and Sasaku's version, if they have the right Rulers. Their fighters are also potentially swapped, if so the hostiles have to face new opponents.