6

Chapter 6: Chapter 4 Day 2 (cont)Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Thankfully, the drive from the battlefield to Trifas is a short one- only twenty or so minutes. I take the opportunity to open a portal on the hood of the L90 and step through in order to get to work on prepping the food. While honestly, I could probably just throw sandwiches or something together in seconds, I'm going to hedge my bets about the future and get to work on making an apple pie, just in case my words actually got through to a certain catgirl. With my speeds and cooking cheats, mixing the ingredients to form the pastry base for the tart takes all of a minute, as does slicing and peeling the apples themselves. As I wait, I also get to work on the sandwiches- whipping up some mayonnaise, cutting slices off beef and collecting the greenery to go in the sandwiches. By the time we've reached Trifas, the apple pie is in the oven and the sandwich hamper is ready.

Actually getting out of the portal proves a minor inconvenience, as apparently Servant telepathy doesn't cross dimensions like that. I eventually just stick my hand through the portal and quickly wave. Artoria seems to get the message and pulls over and, after a quick look through to make sure no-one is around, I exit the portal. I'm not sure what Jeanne thinks of all this, but hopefully we don't look too goofy. Once I'm back in the car, we enter Trifas, taking a somewhat roundabout route to avoid the old district, with its outlying graveyard where Mordred is based. As far as I recall, in Trifas they spent a lot of the day inside, venturing forth mostly at night, but I'm still going to do my best to avoid running into that mess before everything is ready. Artoria parks the car near a public garden, and we all sit down on the grass, near a tree big enough for me to open another portal on its trunk.

I do what I can to set up the tart, and then head outside, picnic hamper in hand. Artoria's visible loss of composure when I came out of the portal bearing a basket of food is as distracting as it is endearing, and certainly caught Jeanne's attention.

"So, where would you like to begin?" I ask Jeanne, setting down the basket between us all.

"To begin with, would you mind explaining your situation? You seem, on the surface, to be a Master and Servant of this war, but as Ruler I can tell this is not the case."

"And I'm going to guess that you don't have any Command Seals for Artoria either, right? Though your Name Discernment still works."

Jeanne, nodding, takes a small bite to test the food and has a similar reaction to Artoria's first bite. She clearly has to restrain herself from just inhaling the whole basket at once; while she's clearly hungry, I imagine our conversation would be difficult to conduct with chipmunk-cheeked Jeanne, as fun as the image is.

"Ok. I'm effectively wandering around between worlds, finding turning points in those worlds and intervening- hopefully for the better. One of my abilities is to recruit or summon people from the worlds I visit to accompany me."

"So you summoned Saber independently of the Grail. What are your intentions in intervening in this War? Do you have a wish you feel must be granted?"

"Oh, no. I don't really care about the Grail itself, or it's wish. I'm mostly here to try and recruit people, while heading off any potential catastrophes the war could bring about."

Jeanne, surprised at my answer, turns to Artoria.

"And you also have no wish for the Grail?"

Artoria pauses her eating, then nods. "I feel no need to pursue the Grail myself. I have already come to terms with my past and possess no truly outstanding personal desires."

Jeanne returns to my last sentence; "You mentioned 'potential catastrophes'. Might you clarify what you meant?"

"Right. So, I'm fairly sure there are three main problems this war could cause. The biggest one is why you were forced to possess Laeticia- the Ruler of the previous war, Amakusa Shirou, is still active. He's the leader of the Red faction, and his presence interfered with the Grail's normal Ruler-summoning process."

This news seems to stun Jeanne into silence for a moment before she can reply. "Why would he position himself as a Master? Rulers should have no wishes for the Grail."

I shrug. "The Einzberns, as usual, tried to cheat the war. In the Third War they summoned a Ruler as their Servant, getting one with a Wish. Unfortunately, his wish is going to have severe unintended consequences that he's refusing to acknowledge, but we can come back to that."

Jeanne looks like she doesn't want to move on from Shirou's whole deal that quickly, but there are other things to at least bring up before the whole conversation becomes about Shirou.

"Other than Red Ruler, you have Black Caster Aviceborn's desire to build his Eden super-Golem, and the danger of Black Lancer Vlad being forced to go full Dracula. The last probably isn't a problem; Vlad himself would rather die than go full Vampire but Darnic, his Master, would Command Seal his Servant into vampiredom if it meant they might win the War."

"I will investigate the Black Faction to see if what you say is true, but if it is then I thank you for your information. And about Red?"

"Shirou has decided that humanity is suffering pointlessly and should be Saved. To be fair, he put a lot more work into working out the mechanics of his 'Salvation' wish that others might. He's decided that the best he can do is to have the Grail incarnate the Souls of all humans in order to remove any suffering and death and anything else. It's a plan that by all rights would work, but he doesn't understand multiversal mechanics enough to know that his wish would doom the whole timeline." I give a quick rundown of Quantum Timelock mechanics, though some of the technobabble seems to go over Jeanne's head.

As I finish talking, I notice Jeanne is just sitting still, eyes closed and sighing. I guess it might seem overwhelming at first. She mightn't even buy my multiversal-mechanic objection to Shirou, but she has the standard bullshit Nasu "Servants Shouldn't Change Modern Humanity" 'protagonist philosophy' so she'd oppose Shirou's Salvation plan anyways. Still, I guess it's time to throw Jeanne a bone.

"Would you like to ally with us in dealing with these?"

Jeanne opens her eyes and, apologetically, replies. "A Ruler must remain neutral. I cannot directly ally with you."

"I mean, we aren't actually a proper Master or Servant, right? We're completely independent from this War, and are mostly in it to stop catastrophes, just like you."

Leaning forward to grab another sandwich, Jeanne bites into it, seeming to consider the offer. "Even so, as long as you intend to act against the official participants of the War, directly allying with you would not be proper."

Yeah, I saw that coming, but that's why it was a lead up. "Fair enough. How about this; you don't need to ally with us at all. If you want, I can freely host you and keep you up to date with our movements and if you ever need support or muscle- say in dealing with Shirou or if Vlad goes full Vampire, I'd be willing to help gratis- like how a Ruler can request Servants help them as required, but without any need for Command Seal payments or anything."

"That…is more palatable. To begin with, I will first investigate your claims regarding the nature of Lancer and Caster of Black- Black has at least shown a willingness to talk with me, and then later look into the situation of the Red Faction. If all you have said is true, I may take you up on your offer."

"Great!"

Glad diplomacy seems to have succeeded, I relax and begin to outline the various Masters and Servants of the War- their quirks and desires, which Servants would likely help Jeanne and which would hinder her. Despite a number of objections to her moral philosophy, Jeanne is the Apocrypha Servant I trust the most in this War- she has no dark secret or selfish wish, and with Sieg joining us by tomorrow getting her emotionally hooked seems like a problem that'll solve itself. With all that, I don't feel the need to hold back much information. Except about Mordred. That's still a bit of a sticky topic. I do tell Jeanne that Red Saber and her Master escaped Shirou and that they are both pretty reliable, which causes Artoria to stir briefly, but I don't go into more detail on that front.

Just as I am winding down my info-dump, I feel the approaching presence of a Servant. We all move to rise, but the tension visibly leaves Artoria and me when we recognize the presence. It's no real surprise that Atalanta managed to find us so fast- speed and tracking is pretty clearly in her wheelhouse, after all. As Artoria turns to Jeanne to explain the situation, I head back to the kitchen to refill the basket and finish up the apple tart I'd begun preparing. Looks like that'll be needed after all.

-

Seconds after I exit the portal, still-warm pie in hand, Atalanta emerges from the treeline and walks up to where we're seated. I greet her with a smile and offer her a seat on the blanket, which she declines, and a slice of apple pie, which she hesitantly accepts and stares hard at before biting into. From her reaction, it's another great success.As Artoria and Jeanne start biting into their slices, with Artoria's gaze fixed intently on Atalanta's lion ears, it feels like the stacking cooking powers was an amazing decision. After finishing her slice, Atalanta winds up taking a seat after all, seemingly just to get closer access to the pie on the blanket, where she grabs another piece.

"Atalanta, glad you could join us."

She looks up from her slice. "We tried to report about you to our Masters, but the Priest didn't let it happen. Said he'd handle those details. How do you know what you know, anyway?"

"You could say I have a single-use precognitive power that tells me what would happen if 'the White Faction' didn't intervene in this War. Everything from there is extrapolation."

Atalanta turns to Artoria, giving her a frustrated 'really?' look, which Artoria returns passively. "While it isn't completely accurate, what my Master is describing is a fair approximation of how he knows what he knows."

With a huff, Atalanta focuses on Jeanne. "And you? Can you explain what's going on in this War? Isn't it your job to keep things on track? What's going on with this renegade Ruler and the whole White Faction?"

Jeanne winces apologetically. "I haven't been able to investigate his claims, but nothing 'the Master of White' has said to me has been a clear lie. As far as I can tell, he's being honest about his information. As for the situation regarding your Master, I only found out about the condition of the Red Faction minutes ago, but it would explain the actions of Lancer of Red."

"Ok. Tell me about the Priest; what can he do? Does he have the extra Command Spells of a Ruler?"

I have to pause to think. I know he has more Command Spells than just Semiramis'- he uses them to prevent Jeanne's from working in the big Garden Assault, but how did he source them again?

"I'm... confident he doesn't have any Command Spells for Black, which means he doesn't have Ruler Command Spells for this War. However, by now I believe he'll have 'convinced' all the Masters of Red he has access to to hand over their Command Spells to him. I think he hypnotized them into believing the War was already won, and that they should hand their Seals over to him in his capacity as the War's Overseer? Though you should still be linked to your Master- he can't support that many Servants himself, and so he's keeping the Masters around and safe, just drugged out of their minds. Other than the Seals, he's a mid-tier Servant with two Noble Phantasms focused around Magecraft manipulation and self-strengthening."

Jeanne and Atalanta are both clearly paying attention, while Artoria is raiding the refilled picnic basket, already having been told most of this. After a bit, Atatlanta's expression changes, as if having a realization.

"Why didn't you just beat him?"

What. "What?"

"I don't know how, and I'm not asking how, but you have the parameters of a high-tier Servant and Saber over there is as strong. You obviously knew about the priest before meeting him, knew where he was based and his strengths. Why introduce yourself to him, warn him and give him the chance to send us after you? Why not just attack and defeat him before he could muster any resistance?"

I can feel Artoria's gaze fall on me, as if she were saying 'Yeah, we could have done that'.

"I…don't have a Wish for the Grail myself, so I wanted to talk to the participants who had wishes I might have supported. The intentions behind Shirou's Wish are...good. Great, even. It's altruistic and indiscriminately benevolent. It's just not going to work; it's fatally flawed in-"

I'm about to explain more, but Atalanta's already holding up a hand in a 'stop' gesture. "What do you mean his wish is flawed? How can it 'not work', the point of the Grail is that it grants Wishes."

I turn to Jeanne and give her a 'Do you want to handle this, or should I?' gesture.

"As Ruler, explaining about the Grail's wishes falls under my responsibilities." Here, Jeanne addresses Atalanta. "The Grail is, at its core, a pool of energy that the victor can use to achieve almost any wish they desire. However, wishers must possess some idea of what procedures the energy of the Grail would be used for. A generalized wish would achieve nothing. The Grail does not extrapolate or come up with a plan for how to use the energy to achieve the wish; that is the responsibility of the victor."

As Jeanne speaks, Atalanta's expression turns darker by the sentence. Her ears twitch, and I'm almost distracted from the dire seriousness of the conversation by how Artoria's eyes keep following them. "But what about my wish?! I'm fighting so that all children will be saved and raised with love! A wish granting device shouldn't require a plan, it should grant my wish!"

Here I step in, stealing a hypothetical from Apocrypha itself. "Ok, but how? Like, let's say a victorious Master wished to 'be the greatest living Magus'. Without specifying, this wish could result in anything from perfect circuits and a complete mastery of all magecraft to every other Magus falling over dead so the Master is the 'greatest living Magus'."

Atalanta throws her hands up, food abandoned at this point. "But what's the point, then? Servants aren't told this, so when I won the Grail what would have happened?"

"Well, the founders set this whole thing up as a scam for Heroes; Servants weren't supposed to have their wish granted in the first place."

"What!"/"What?"

The burst of shock from Atalanta is expected, but Jeanne's reaction is more surprising. Though, I guess that Rulers probably wouldn't be informed of that little bit of information either, just in case they felt the need to reveal the whole scam to the Servants. Anyways, I go on

"The whole point of the Command Spells is to have the last Master order their Servant to commit suicide so that the Grail, having had 7 Servants die, can open a path to the Root. Or something like that- no Master has ever managed, so it's all just the theoretical planning of the founding families."

Atalanta's whole body is trembling in anger at this point. I should speak up before she explodes or goes Alter.

"But that's not to say the Wish-granting capabilities aren't real. Making a Wish on the Grail is perfectly doable, and the 'have a plan' requirement isn't that strict. Your wish wouldn't require you to personalize a solution to every child or anything like that, just come up with how the energy of the Grail would be spent. Shirou's flaw isn't that he doesn't have a plan, it's that his plan won't get the results he wants."

I launch into my explanation of Quantum Time Locks and the Tree of Time for a second time today, and again my technobabble washes over everyone like a wave, giving the Archer time to calm down. "-so even if he does succeed in getting his wish granted, he'd achieve Salvation for a hundred years or so, and then this whole timeline would be cut due to its divergence."

"But if what you're saying is true, then isn't it possible my wish would also 'diverge things' too far and just lead to the timeline dying?" Atlanta's free hand is tearing into the dirt besides her. The possibility that, no matter what, her wish won't work isn't going over well, but I'm mostly just happy she isn't just outright disbelieving me like Shirou did. I guess the goodwill I built up before is paying off here.

Artoria speaks up for the first time in a bit. "The fact that your wish is unformed means you may adjust it to avoid such a fate. Amakusa Shirou already has set his wish in stone, refusing to adjust it and prevent a catastrophe he will not acknowledge."

I reach out, and pat Atalanta on the shoulder lightly. "I mean, the Quantum Time Lock has leeway- it's just Shirou's wish that is exceptionally vulnerable to it; it'd completely change 'humanity', which is the big no-no. Still, if you'd like to workshop your wish, I'd be happy to help. And, while I can't speak for them, I imagine Artoria and Jeanne would be happy to listen also. Nothing about your wish is wrong, and from my perspective it's currently the most worthwhile wish of this War."

She turns to me, almost incredulous. "You'd be willing to help me form the wish I would only have after defeating you? Why?"

Oh, right, we never got around to that. Before I can answer, Jeanne speaks. "As I have already said, the 'White Faction' is not officially part of the War. While conflict with them may occur, neither Black nor Red would need to defeat White to claim victory."

"Yep. I said before that I don't have a Grail wish, but Artoria here wasn't summoned as part of the Grail War either, I summoned her to help with personal circumstances. Neither of us are actually concerned with the Grail itself. I'm honestly participating in the War mostly to scout talent to help me after the War is over."

Atalanta quickly catches where I'm going with this. "And the reason why you're being so helpful is that you want to 'scout' me. Is that even possible? Surely once the War is over and the Wish is made, all remaining Servants would vanish whether or not you 'scouted' them."

"Servants I recruit are Incarnated; they're actually the perfect recruits for me."

Jeanne nods in support. "As far as I can tell, while Saber is a fully functional Servant, she has no tie to the Grail."

Artoria also agrees. "In all honesty my own situation regarding Incarnation is likely more complicated than most, but I am able to operate without issue."

Atalanta goes silent, prodding at her pie with her fork. Eventually she speaks, slowly.

"It's a big decision, one I can't agree to immediately, but with everything going on in the Red Faction I am interested. But you would have to swear to actually fight for the Grail and win the War. You would have to back my Wish to the end, no matter who that made you fight."

I'm about to agree immediately but, through our link, Artoria sends a warning- that this would be a serious commitment, one that should be thought through rather than agreed to quickly. I send a burst of thanks back, and remain silent as Atalanta stands and stretches, looking up at the sky.

"I'm going to need to get going to catch up with Achilles. I'll see if I can begin planning out my Wish and might talk with you later about it. Thanks Ruler, Saber, Reinhard."

"You're welcome. I'm fairly sure we'll all be staying around Trifas the war- I'll check by here some time every day if you want to leave a message or anything. While you head off to try and save Spartacus, feel free to take the last of the pie with you."

"...I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Still, you don't need to do that anymore, I'm convinced by now." Still, a slight smile graces her face as she leaves.

-

Shortly after Atalanta leaves, Jeanne also excuses herself. She says she needs to find a place to stay- indirectly turning down my offer to host her. Her last words are...not a warning, but just a polite notice- if Atalanta, or any other Servant with a wish for the Grail does join me, she would be forced to consider the White Faction as an official faction in the War, with all that entails regarding her neutrality.

And that just leaves Artoria and me. Currently, we have nothing planned until the Siegfried-Sieg thing tonight; removing Black's super-effective Dragonslayer Saber and getting a ridiculously useful ally in Sieg will blow the war wide open. So, for now, we're free and clear. Looking at Artoria, I'm again struck by her beauty, so...

"Hey, Artoria. Want to go on an afternoon date?"

"A date?"

I'm stumped for a second. Artoria had been operating in modern-day Romania without issue, so I had assumed the Grail infodump had- whatever.

"I guess you could call it courtship? The aim would be to take in the sights of the town while enjoying each other's company."

Artoria tilts her head, and wait is that a blush-

"Very well, Master."

-

On the other side of the city, in the graveyard's catacombs, a relayed message was just being read by a certain duo through a strange skeletal fax machine.

"hmmm...Berserker's still rampaging towards Black...wait, White's Master can… but… wait… ah crap."

"What's up, Master?"

Kairi Sisigou rubs his forehead.

"You might want to sit down."

"Nah" Saber of Red snatches the paper from Kairi's hands.

"Let's see...oh, fun....wait, that's…"

The paper falls from Mordred's hands.

"Father?"

"Hey, Sabe-"

"Shut up."

In the blink of an eye, Mordred is armed and armoured and heading towards the exit.

"Mordred, calm down"

"Calm down?" Red lighting begins to jolt from the sword. "You want me to calm down? When Father has managed to appear right in front of me?"

"You're gonna end up fighting your father anyway, right? It's not like anyone but you could defeat him. But we need to talk and plan first, and we can't just go out and fight in the day- your citizens would get caught up!"

Kairi's perfectly chosen words do cause Saber to stop and slowly turn away from the exit. However, when Mordred is seated again, it's clear that the mood is different. No longer is there a sense of amusement and, strange as it was given the environment, fun. Mordred's helmet falls away, but the rest of the armour stays, and the previously playful gaze is hard, almost looking past Kairi to some unknown place only Saber of Red can see.

"Very well, Master. I won't pursue Father immediately, but I'm warning you that when Father takes the field, I will be challenging him, no matter what."

Mordred's words make it clear that 'no matter what' includes 'even if doing so might risk you, or the outcome of the War'. Kairi sighs. Of all the Servants, why did White have to summon that one?

"That's fine, Saber."

Notes:

AN:

Just as a 'fun' fact, I'm fairly sure there's no canonical location for where Trifas is, and quite a bit of the info we do get is a little contradictory. According to the novels, it's at the very end of the Transylvanian Motorway/Autostrada Transilvania, and Jeanne hitchhikes from Bucharest along that road- which supposedly also has Sighisoara between the twelve-hour drive from Bucharest and Trifas. We also, in the anime, get a relatively clearish shot at the street sign that Karna hangs off when trying to kill Jeanne, and it has Baia at a right-hand turn off the road (supposedly the Transylvanian Motorway). Now, assuming Baia is Baia Mare, the twelve-hour drive from Bucharest to there kind of works, but that route doesn't even touch the Autostrada Transilvania. So whatever. I'm saying the Karna fight happened around Răstoci, and Trifas is somewhere SW of Șomcuta Mare. This doesn't quite work with everything, but I already probably put too much time into this so eh. If anyone has an actual canon location of Trifas, I'd like to know, just out of personal interest.