Fate/Grand Order Alternative

Prologue: End of an Era

A feeling like a shock to his system aroused the young man from slumber, his speckled dark blue eyes shooting open without a hint of grogginess or blurred vision, his eyes immediately registering the page of a book over his eyes, one word sticking out on it: Flauros.

"Ugh… I feel asleep, didn't I?" The young man grumbled to himself as his left hand moved up and grabbed the book as he sat up, clapping the thick item shut, the cover reading "Ars Goetia", the young man placing the item onto the pile of several other books stacked up near the couch he was laying on, sighing as he ran a hand through the loose strands of white hair topping his head, ruffling the strands to get them to fall about as they usually did, the almost translucent loacks managing to stand out against his snowy pale skin. "How long has it been?"

Though as his hand slid into his pocket, he stopped for a moment. That feeling of shock that had woken him up, something about it was still lingering in his mind.

"Something's up? Here? How?" The young man sighed as he moved off the couch, his eyes scanning around the expansive library around him, stacked high shelves of books stretching to each end of the room and lining each wall, leaving study spaces like the one he was in strewn throughout the spacious room that stretched up to a second floor with even more shelves lining it's walls.

Sighing to himself again, he grabbed the white jacket that he'd discarded onto a nearby chair, loosely throwing the item on and leaving the paired belts of the chest to hang loosely like the rest of it,pulling back his jacket's sleeve a bit to reveal a wristband, swiping it over the pane, al ring sounding as a message ran across it.

Thank you for visiting, Eil Coltheart.

"That has got to be the most redundant thing about this place." Eil muttered, stepping out from the quiet but warm space of the library and into the cold, steely hallway of the rest of the facility, the window that came immediately before him revealing nothing but an expanse of pure white as far as the eye could see, the feeling instantly changing from something welcome and familiar, to cold and business like, added only be the deafening quiet he was surrounded by.

The facility known as Chaldea. Tucked neatly away in the mountains of Antartica, away from any prying eyes not belonging to the Mage's Association or the UN, moving underground and into the mountain it was built into itself, a place where, in a true oddity of their time, both magi and scientists gathered in a joint effort, something that typically didn't happen in their world.

"If the time is right… then those reyshift experiments should be starting about now." Eil put a hand on his chin as he looked at the time on his phone, probably one of the few modern-day devices in this facility brought in from the outside world, at least belonging to a mage. They weren't typically the most tech savvy types, though Eil was something of an exception to that often-true stereotype. "Well, Marie's gonna be pissed off enough as is… might as well barge in and watch. Maybe I'll find out what that shock was."

With a curt turn on his heel and barely putting his right hand in his pocket, his eyes briefly turned to the slight reflection in the window, his eyes drifting down to his right hand and the mark on it, a deep red in color, shaped as a sword surrounded by parallel wing shaped marks, then shoving his hand deeper into his pocket and proceeding onward.

The walk was devoid of anything but the occasional echo of his footsteps, though as he got closer and closer to the memorized location of the central command room, the buzzing feeling that had persisted since he woke up began to get stronger and stronger, going from a mere buzz in the back of his skull to a nearly splitting headache, enough to get him to slump against the wall a bit as he put a hand over an eye, the feeling still there but dulling to an annoying throb, his arm slumping down and hanging loosely as a drop of sweat fell from his face.

"I didn't catch something did I?" Eil muttered, clapping his hands to his cheeks a bit to straighten himself out, but he also couldn't deny he suddenly felt several times hotter than before, which made no sense since the facility tended to be on the cooler side even if someone were to turn the heaters on… rather, it felt like something in him was burning, screaming at him from within, "Seriously, what the hell?"

Looking up as his hands slid down the thin sides of his face, he looked up to see the tag on the door above to read "Central Command", marking he'd ended up where he wanted to be. Swiping his wrist band again, the door slid open with a smooth sound, Eil moving up the steps leading into the control room, which was abuzz as uniformed staff members darted around and tapped away on the panels in front of them, a blue glow emanating into the chamber from the windows before it.

"Well ain't this more than a bit busy?" Eil remarked, ignoring the sudden twinge he felt go up his spine, and the central chair of the command room shot around, Eil finding himself faced with a girl appearing to be around his own age of eighteen-years-old, her long off-white hair flared about in a few places, the left part on her head pulled back into a braid, some of the strands framing gold colored eyes, her attire an ensemble different than the uniforms of the staff, more like what Eil would call "a typical western magus" style.

"Coltheart?! Were have you been?" The girl snapped, her tone bearing obvious irritation added by the glare, Eil just sitting on the table like structure in front of the girl.

"Library. Ended up dozing off for a while. I'm guessing I missed something?" Eil said, fiddling with a particular bunch of his hair that stuck up like an antenna for a moment, the girl just huffing, "What? It's not like I did it to spite you Marie. Okay, maybe a bit. Besides it's just orientation, and I've been here for half a year."

"Half a year doesn't exactly excuse that kind of attitude now does it?" A man's voice said, Eil looking over to spot a man standing at the frontal area, the man dressed incredibly old fashioned with long black hair under a top hat, and Eil gave a small shrug.

"I don't see a point in hearing things again and again. Sorry if it doesn't get the point across, Professor Leff." Eil remarked, Leff just humming and turning forward, though Eil could swear he caught a smirk on the man's face as he looked away from him.

"So that's why there was an empty seat during the meeting." The girl, Olga Marie Animusphere, grumbled, her glare boring into Eil's side with all the intent of wanting to burn holes through him. While it was true Eil had been present in Chaldea for quite some time, the two had next to never gotten along. He was standoffish and carefree, she was stiff as a board and more than a bit commanding, matched by her role as the current Director.

Oil and water if ever there was something the staff could call the two young adults, if the somewhat exasperated air that had suddenly overtaken the room could say anything, though a sweeping glare from Marie was enough to get everyone back to their previous tasks with earnest.

"Yeah well too late for that now. Also I thought you'd be down on the floor, but, I guess the great commander's gotta oversee her soldiers eh?" Eil said, stepping down to the lower area and looking out into the space below, his eyes following to the source of the blue glow coming into the room, the structure massive and constructed of multiple rings, and within it a dark orb marked by darker colored constructions of the planet's land masses, "CHALDEAS seems to be going fine despite the dark look… remind me what it is we're making a mess over right now. It's that red light vaguely somewhere in Japan yeah?"

"Honestly…" Marie grumbled, placing a hand over her face, Eil craning his neck to look back at her, "Maybe if, for once, you actually showed up to meetings more than a few rare times you'd be more aware, but, fine. We have the Master teams on standby as we perform our first Rayshift experiment into Singularity F."

"Right right, that thing that popped up in, where, 2004?" Eil remarked, getting a nod, "And recalling the location… Fuyuki City… that would be during the Grail War wouldn't it? Why would a distortion appear there of all places? Hmm… maybe mom could tell me something more about it."

"Oh so you were paying attention during the briefing with Team A before this." Marie said, her tone biting while Eil just turned back around as he gave a small huff, "Also, considering your behavior, consider yourself taken off of this mission. Stay."

"Well ain't you in a bad mood. Wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?" Eil muttered, sitting down on the steps as he sighed, putting a hand to his head when that headache came back, "It's even more intense… feels like I'm in a furnace with how hot I am now… and it's like something is… right under us…"

"Hey, Coltheart are you alright? You're looking pale…r, and kinda flush. You need to see Dr. Roman?" One of the nearby staff members asked, Eil shaking his head as he lowered his hand.

"I'm fine, just a headache is all." Eil grumbled, waving the staff member down, though he felt a lurching feeling as his vision flashed, his eyes going wide when he saw himself beholden to the room being a flame, and the blue light emanating from CHALDEAS had become a glaring, burning red… but the flash just as quickly returned to normal, Eil lurching a bit as he leaned on the desk, "Maybe I should go see Romani…"

As Eil stood up though, his left hand that was supporting him clenched. The flash he'd seen felt illogical, far too sudden, the human sense of denial telling him to ignore it, that what he'd seen could have just been some kind of stress hallucination… but he knew better. It was like a gut feeling, a warning… the kind of thing he knew to trust.

"I think… I think we need to get out of the control room. Now." Eil muttered, the staff members and Marie looking at him with confusion.

"What are you talking about? The experiment is about to start and you're telling us to leave?" Marie said, and when Eil glanced at her, his vision flashed again into a brief view of a violent explosion coming right from where she sat, Eil lurching a bit again as his vision returned to normal, "You really don't look well, are you sure it's just a headache?"

"So… this is the kind of thing dad was telling me about." Eil thought, standing straight again, "Look I know it sounds weird, but just trust me okay? Something doesn't feel right…"

"Really? After six months of basically avoiding people you're saying we should trust you on some weird feeling of yours?" Marie said, Eil giving a bitter chuckle.

"Yeah, stupid, I know." Eil remarked, standing up straighter as he felt some of the screaming pain ebbing away, "But, seriously, we need to…"

And that was when he felt some kind of ticking in the air, this dark presence suddenly looming in the air like an oppressive cloud, and he glanced back at CHALDEAS, gritting his teeth a bit.

"Man this makes no sense… but I was told to trust this kind crap! We need to go now!" Eil snapped, grabbing Marie by the arm, the girl giving a confused look as he pulled her out of the chair, "Everyone move now!"

Something about the urgency in Eil's words, despite the confusion in the air got the others to react as Eil began pulling Marie back towards the door, everyone rushing to move as he directed, and suddenly a shaking rocked the facility and got everyone to stumble, Marie's eyes wide as she stumbled while Eil kept pulling her back.

"Behind me now!" Eil snapped, the staff diving to the door in a sudden panic as Eil threw Marie behind him, raising his left arm, an image flashing in his mind of a heavy hammer slamming into burning red metal, the image of the sparks following with a glow coming across his left arm as he raised it in front of him while jumping back, "Scutum!"

As blue light flared from his hand, five small balls of light flew out from the pulsing glow on his arm, arranging themselves in front of Eil and those behind him as more dove to the door while the lights flashed off, leaving the glow from the energy on Eil's arms and the orbs, lines flashing along the orbs and then bursting out, a barrier flashing outwards and back as a dome, the same split second behind followed by another booming sound and the rocking of the facility, a flash coming from the outer chamber, flames rushing into the command room. Eil grimaced as the force of the explosion was stopped dead by the barrier while some of the staff scrambled out of the door when it opened, the force causing the barrier to crack all over, but it withstood it even as the one casting it let out a pained scream.

"Damn that hurts!" Eil snapped, the glow on his arm pulsing as blood began flowing down his arm, and when the blue glow faded, Marie saw that his sleeve had been downright burnt off and his skin was burnt to a raw red, Eil slumping to the ground as the flames from the decimated control room blazed, "Geez… that… sucks!"

"What the… what's going on?!" Marie shouted, coughing a bit from the smoke, and her eyes turned to CHALDEAS, going wide to see that the sphere had turned a pitch black, visible even among the falling rubble and raging flames, "What… but… why is… why is CHALDEAS turning red?!"

"Well… that gut feeling was right." Eil muttered, wincing as his attempt to use his left arm for support only invited an sharp pulse of pain added with what as already present from the burnt and bleeding limb, "Dammit!"

Eil snapped as he fell a bit, his vision starting to get blurry as he felt exhaustion beginning to weigh on him, sounds becoming dull like the panicked voices around him and the blaring sirens, the dark CHALDEAS in his vision, with just enough sight left to see the dark orb become a burning red as his vision finally went black.

"WHOA!"

Eil snapping awake and shooting up earned a sharp yelp from somebody next to him, the young man breathing a bit heavily as he looked around, immediately registering the space of the infirmary, wincing when he moved his left arm down, looking down to see that his forearm and hand were wrapped in bandages that were still a bit bloody. And all around him were other people on the beds and whatever else people could be laid on, an air of panic still around the room.

"What, happened?" Eil muttered, putting his right hand to his head.

"Man you get up fast! You almost gave me a heart attack!" A voice said, Eil glancing over to see whoever'd yelled in shock sighing, a man with long, fluffy strawberry-blonde colored hair.

"Romani? Where've you been?" Eil muttered, Romani chuckling.

"Yeah uh, sorry… me and whoever could manage things were busy dragging injured people here. Things are one heck of a mess right now." The man said, Eil looking at his bandaged left arm, "Ah, that. That arm of yours was a mess. Your magic circuits nearly overloaded from backlash and caused blood vessels to burst, not to mention the burning. You should be fine but, well, if I were you I'd avoid using it for a while."

"Yeah well that's what I get for using a bounded field to block an explosion barely twenty feet from us." Eil said, Romani's eyes going wide, "There was an explosion in the control room, and I think somewhere else."

"Yeah, the reactor." Romani said, "Still, how'd you do that? When I saw the control room it was a complete mess! You'd have to cast a pretty strong barrier to block something that strong."

"I've got a few tricks up my sleeve." Eil said, putting a hand to his head, "What's even going on? How many people are even injured, this place is packed."

"Ah, well… about that…" Romani said, standing up, he and Eil looking out across the swathes of people in the infirmary, more of then giving groans or screams of pain as the medical staff and assisting machines scrambled around to try and manage them all, "It's… bad. The lower wings near the reactor are heavily damaged and we barely got enough power to keep things running because of it. The control room and CHALDEAS' chamber are just as damaged."

"And the Master Candidates were all set up in that chamber too." Eil remarked, standing up, Romani giving a cautious sound.

"Whoa whoa whoa! Should you really be getting up now Eil? You've been out for a really long time!" Romani said, Eil nodding as he adjusted his jacket.

"I'm fine. I can deal with an injured arm." Eil said, "What about everyone else who was in the control room? Did they make it out? And how's Mar… the Director?"

"Well… surprisingly a good majority of the control room staff is next to perfectly fine." Romani stated, Eil giving a relieved sounding sigh, "A few are missing but… other than that, I guess we have you to thank for getting them out… and as for the Director, well… she's fine, physically anyway, but, maybe you should just see for yourself."

"So she's not okay." Eil said, Romani giving a bit of an awkward chuckle, pointing Eil off to one of the curtained off areas, Eil stepping over and sliding the curtain open, peering in to see that Marie was sitting on the bed, her look being what he could only call shell-shocked.

Eyes wide and wavering to match likely racing, panicked thoughts, the girl's entire body was shuddering as she kept bunching the hem of her dress again and again, Eil wincing when he tried to lean on his left arm out of impulse, switching to his right.

"Marie? You doing alright?"

"Of course I'm not!" Marie snapped, Eil shutting the curtain behind him, Marie putting her heads in her hand, "Why did that happen? Those explosions, the damage… CHALDEAS turning red… what's happening? Why did it happen? What's even going on… Leff… w-where's Leff? He can explain this can't he? He was watching nearby, so maybe he could…"

"Lynor?" Eil asked, tilting his head, "Well, I didn't see him during the commotion… I mean he tends to avoid me anyway but well… Romani, is Lynor around, or is he checking things out?!"

"Uh… well…" Romani poked his head through the curtain, Marie raising a brow as the man showed a tense look, "The thing is, he wasn't among the Command Room staff who got out. Sorry Olga Marie, but I think he's… not around."

"What?! That can't be! He… Leff can't…" Marie murmured, her head slumping, "Romani, what's the situation?"

"That's uh, complicated to explain." Romani said, then his eyes went wide, "Crud! I need to get back to check on them! It's been a while!"

"Check on who?" Eil asked, but Romani already shot out of the room, Eil sighing as he put his uninjured hand over his eyes, then looking at Marie, "Well Director? You gonna go see what he's so antsy about?"

"I just… I don't know anymore." Marie murmured, "Just… do whatever you want."

"Alright then." Eil muttered, stepping out of the curtain, slowly flexing his left hand fingers, grumbling at the dull throbbing that came up his arm, sighing and shifting his jacket to make a makeshift cradle for his injured arm, heading out of the room, glancing around to see more staff members moving about the halls, weaving his way through those moving about until he got back to the entrance of the command room, the door sliding open with an easy press, and Eil found that the state of the room was, for lack of better words, like a bomb went off.

Considering it was quite literal he had to mentally kick himself for comparing the obvious.

The glass barrier between the command room and the lower area containing CHALDEAS was entirely blown out, the room was almost oddly undamaged besides the scorched look of everything around it, Eil spotting Romani at the active terminal in the central chair, the man tapping away at it. Though what grabbed Eil's attention more was the red glow coming through the blown out windows. CHALDEAS was burning red, and strewn about among the yet to be cleared rubble were dozens of pillar like structures, and with the flames finally gone, a very cold feeling was hanging about the air, and not just because of the staff grimly working furiously at the various systems in the room.

"So, I really did see that then." Eil muttered, Romani looking to him with a small edge of surprise, "Any idea what it means for CHALDEAS to be red like this? I know that when it's black it means you can't observe the future… so what the bloody hell does this mean? And what about the Masters?"

"Eil I understand the need for questions, but I don't have time to explain, sorry." Romani said, then tilting his head, "Well, okay I can at least explain that we've put the Masters still in their coffins into cryo-stasis since a lot of them are in critical condition."

"Isn't doing that without consent illegal?" Eil asked, then mulling on it for a moment, "Well, actually, I don't think it matters does it? Anyway, why the urgency? Is someone actually in the singularity right now or what?"

"Uh, yes, actually… it's complicated." Romani said, Eil moving over to the terminal, "Now come on… the connection was on and off but it was working… what's going on in there?"

"Mind me asking who is in there if all the Masters are on ice?" Eil said, Romani stopping for a moment.

"Well, not all of them as it stands." Romani said, Eil raising a brow, Romani then chuckling, "Ah ha! It's back on, alright! What's their status, I didn't go away for that long…"

"Uh… sitrep please?!" Eil snapped, shoving his way near Romani as the screen crackled, eventually projecting into a full view on the screen, Eil registering the area as the depts of a cavern, and his eyes went wide as he looked at it, "What the… that's the Greater Grail's cavern isn't it?! I mean I know the Singularity is in Fuyuki but…"

"Wait, how did you know that's what the place is?" Romani asked, a dull sound coming from Eil's throat.

"It's… complicated." Eil said, focusing more on the image as Romani focused it in, beginning to register the figures of people amid the chaos in the cave from the flares of fire and blasts of dark power while something else was stopping the dark blasts, "Come on can't we see more? Can you at least tell me what's going on?"

"Ah, right, okay, well, see, after getting into the cavern the Master and Servant we got in there, along with a Caster Class Servant who joined them earlier on, ran into a blackened Saber, King Arthur." Romani said, Eil raising a brow, "It was chaotic so I rushed back to see what was up in the infirmary but…"

"Yeah maybe you should've stayed here. Man there's so much stuff flying all over the place I can't see a thing!" Eil grumbled, he and Romani flinching when the series of blasts instead changed into a focused one, it stopping dead on what Eil could tell was as shield held by one of the fighters, but the distance of their viewing and the darkness of the cave made it hard to see, even as he squinted, "Wait… is that one running towards that clash?!"

"Huh?! What?! What is she thinking?!" Romani yelped, Eil watching closely as a glow started to form from the shield as the Master got behind it with the Servant holding it, Eil leaning in close and starting to zoom the image in himself as a magic circle formed in front of the shield that began pushing the blast back as a phantasmal wall formed, going from blocking the dark blast to directing it right back it's user, Eil and Romani staring at the screen in silent shock as a stillness came about the cavern, "Did… did they do it?"

"I think so… wait, no, Saber's still standing!" Eil said, the dust clearing to show the dark figure was still alive, but hunched over in clear pain, but the phantasmal wall began to fade, Romani yelping.

"Ahh! That's not good!" Romani yelped, Eil's eyes going wide as a dark aura began surrounding Saber again, their sword being raised high in preparation for another blast, but, his eyes caught another shape shoot past, a blue haired man shooting in front of the fading barrier, his staff coming down and causing flames to burst out beneath Saber.

"A Noble Phantasm… who is it then?" Eil remarked, the young man giving a hum while Romani's eyes went wide as a giant made of wicker rose from the flames with Saber on it's head, the dark Servant's attempt at attacking only got the Servant grabbed and thrown into the giant's chest, Romani reeling back, even if it was only a video feed, as the giant fell onto the flames, the blaze turning into a torrent of fire that shot upwards and blocked out anything else they could see in the video for a few moments, a quiet coming to both the room and the cavern, (at least Eil guessed it did) "Okay… NOW I think they did it."

A heavy sigh of relief passed through the room, a few people collapsing and Romani leaning back heavily in his chair.

"Thank goodness! NOW I can contact them!" Romani said, pressing a switch, a ringing sounding for a moment before the crackle of the line picking up sounded, Eil checking the feed to see the only ones who remained standing where the shield user and the Master girl, and a ways off from them, some kind of golden glow, "Well done you two! I'm pretty surprised we managed to get visuals on this end!"

"One hell of a hustle we gotta say. You two had this entire room sitting here with baited breath." Eil said, looking to the call line on the side to check the name of the connected device, "Ritsuka Fujimaru… Candidate 48… so that's who made it through huh? Well, congrats to you then."

"Huh? Romani who's speaking right now?" A girl's voice answered, Romani managing to make the visuals focus as the line crackled a bit more, eventually a proper image appearing on a holographic panel, revealing the faces of a red headed, amber eyed girl and another girl in some kind of armor holding a shield with light violet (or pink) hair and darker eyes, Eil recognizing the latter, both girls going wide eyed as Eil leaned into frame of the communications.

"Eil Coltheart at your Service. And nice to see you're still kickin' Mash." Eil said, looking at the panel, "Guess with that sorted out the interference that was messing with this is gone huh?"

"Yeah, so we have a proper view. Geez that cave is huge though." Romani said, "Ritsuka, Mash, is there anything else or are we totally safe?"

"Yes sir, so far there's nothing." The violet haired girl, Mash Kyrielight, said, "Master and I are fine, but things still seem stable in this Singularity."

"Hey, Mash I said just to call me Ritsuka!" The red headed girl said, Eil giving a small snicker, "Master is too formal! Either way, Mash is right, nothing over here… the cave is dark and damp, and that ominous pillar thing is still here but that doesn't matter, right?"

"It's just the Greater Grail. The problem was the disturbance. I think it has to do with that crystal over there." Eil pointed out, but everyone stopped when they heard slow clapping, and at that same moment, the door into the room opened, Marie entering and bearing a confused look as she approached the central station.

"Anyone else got a bad feeling?" Eil said, the feed following Mash and Ritsuka as they turned around to the dark light emanating from above them.

"My, I never thought you both would get this far." A man's voice said, Marie's eyes going wide as she heard it, "This is an unforeseen element in the project that goes beyond what my tolerance allows."

"Professor Leff?!" Eil gasped, promptly getting shoved out of the way by Marie, who looked downright ecstatic to see the man on the feed, "AGH!"

"Leff! Leff you're okay!" Marie said.

"Hmm? Ah, it seems you're still alive too Marie." Leff said, Eil peering back in from the other side, a suspicious look on his face.

"Of course! I thought I was going to go crazy because of what's been going on, but with you still here, we'll find a way out of this, right?" Marie said, Eil glancing to her then back to the feed.

"Of course." Leff answered, but his tone had become markedly cold. ""I'm just so furious with all these unexpected events. Romani, I told you to come to the control room right away… and you, Coltheart and Olga… I planted that bomb right beneath your feet. I can't believe you're still alive… but, maybe I shouldn't be too surprised when a Zvezda is involved."

"He knows?!" Eil's thoughts ground to a halt from shock, Marie's eyes going wide at what was being said.

"I honestly believed you'd be just as susceptible, but maybe I should've known better with a child of those heretics being around… always so troublesome, those godforsaken stargazers who call themselves mages. Always putting their noses into business they have no reason to bother with." Leff said, Eil's uninjured hand bunching up into a fist, eyes turning to him in mixes of confusion, surprise, or shock, though Marie seemed the most shaken up by the sheer malice in Leff's voice. "And poor Marie… you see your CHALDEAS before you, yet you don't seem to comprehend what it's state really means, do you?"

"What? N-No, that's just a virtual image, right? It hasn't happened yet, what we're seeing is just a possible future isn't it?" Marie said, many looking back to CHALDEAS and it's red glow.

"Oh believe me, it is very much the truth!" Leff stated, "This is the result of your family's lunacy, scion of the Animusphere family!"

"What are you even on about you crazy bastard!" Ritsuka shouted, and as she threw a fist up, though Mash quickly rushed in front of her Master, "Mash?"

"As expected of the Demi-Servant." Leff scoffed, "You could tell I was a fundamentally different creature could you? Hmm… you know, I wonder… Zvezda boy, tell me, was your seeming sick spell also because of you being able to sense my true nature? Your family always was more than a bit strange, not that even something like that would amount to anything… and you, the 48th potential Master. I turned a blind eye to you because you held no promise. Why do humans always want to avoid the course of fate that is chosen for them?"

"I personally don't believe in fate… I think our destiny is something we shape ourselves. And besides, humans are kind of stubborn like that." Eil remarked, Leff looking to him in particular now, "We kind of have a thing against being told what we can and can't do, especially when it comes to our own lives!"

"I don't really have a good idea of what's going on but… who likes thinking their entire life has been planned out huh? What'd be the point of that?" Ritsuka said.

"A flawed couple of thoughts if ever there was any." Leff scoffed, then taking a stance, "I will introduce myself once more. I am Leff Lynor Flauros. I am in charge of 2017, tasked to dispose of your human race. You heard that properly, right Dr. Roman?"

"Professor Leff…" Roman murmured, Marie shaking her head.

"What are you talking about? Flauros? Dispose of humanity? Leff what are you talking about?" Marie snapped, and she flinched when Leff's cold gaze was turned to her.

"It is just as I said. My task is to dispose of humanity… but, I will give one final piece of advice to my previously fellow student." Leff stated, "The future has not disappeared: It has been incinerated! Chaldea is likely being protected by the magnetic field of CHALDEAS. But I'm sure the outside is meeting the same fate as Fuyuki."

"So… the reason we aren't able to make contact with the outside isn't because communications are down, but because there's no one outside to receive them." Romani observed, Eil's eyes going wide while Marie stumbled back.

"What? Incinerated? How? The mission was to investigate and prevent the change we saw… how did…. When did this happen? There's no way the outside could just be gone!" Marie said, Leff laughing.

"Unfortunately for your incompetent mind, you have no choice but to believe me!" Leff said, Marie flinching as if she'd just been struck, "You will not perish from becoming an evolutionary dead end, nor will you not be destroyed after engaging in war with other races. Rather, from your meaningless, your own incompetence, and because you have lost the favor of our King! You will burn away like useless waste paper, leaving behind no traces!"

"What… no… what's… why? Leff…" Marie murmured, her stumble back being followed by a gasp coming form the girl, Eil shooting over and catching Marie as she fell, the girl unconscious as she went limp.

"Marie? Hey, come on!" Eil snapped.

"Whoawhoawhoa! Why is the ground shaking?!" Ritsuka yelped, Romani shooting up a bit in his chair as the feed showed the cavern started to break and collapse.

"So, this Singularity has reached it's limit has it?" Leff murmured, "That accursed Saber caused me unnecessary trouble, trying to maintain this time period even while being awarded the Holy Grail."

"Wait… Saber kept the Singularity going?" Eil murmured, setting Marie against one of the consoles, "Someone get her to the infirmary, her room… ah, dammit I don't care!"

"Y-Yes!" A few of the staff said, picking up the unconscious Marie and leaving the room, Eil turning back to the feed.

"Leff… no, let's call you Flauros, what the hell are you own about? What's with this whole incineration plot?!" Eil snapped, slamming his hands down on the console, Romani yelping as the boy shoved his face in front of the feed.

"Hehehe, like you need to know brat!" Leff mocked, Eil growling, "Well then, farewell, Mash, Romani, Zvezda, and the 48th potential!"

"Flauros!" Eil shouted, but the man vanished in a blink of light, "Dammit… Mash, Fujimaru, are you two alright in there?"

"We're fine but, the cave is… no, the space was already unstable!" Mash said, using her shield to protect her and Ritsuka from the falling rocks, the red haired girl retreating further under the shield when a peek out nearly got one to fall on her head.

"Dr. Roman get us out of here! This entire house is coming down around us!" Ritsuka shouted, Romani already getting to work on the keyboard.

"Already on it! But, sorry, that place might collapse around you first! Anyway, it can still be salvaged if…" Romani gasped when the feed was suddenly cut, slamming his hand on the console, "Dammit!"

"Does that matter? If you can still pull them back then do it? They're all we got left right?" Eil said, Romani nodding.

"Yes, well, I mean there's you but… agh whatever let's hope this works!" Romani shouted, slamming his finger down onto the panel, and following a sudden spark, a blinding flash of light filled the room from the area below, Eil's attempt to look allowing him to register two forming figures before the flash ended, a dead silence coming over everyone and everything, "It… It worked right? Somebody go see if they're back!"

"I'll head down!" Eil said, dashing over to the lower end and clambering over the furthest station, Romani yelping as the young man launched off the terminal with a burst of light coming from his legs, a few more pulses coming from his feet as Eil stepped down the distance below and to the floor, moving into the rubble sticking about over the area, looking through, "Mash! Fujimaru! You awake in there?!"

"Fou!"

"Eh?!"

Eil yelped when something came barreling at him and struck him in the face, something clambering over his head before coming to rest on his right shoulder, the young man looking over to see some kind of small squirrel or maybe cat like creature with fluffy white fur had perched itself on him.

"Fou? You were with them?" Eil asked.

"Fou, fou!" The small creature directed Eil's eye one way with a move of it's head, jumping from it's perch and to the ground, "Fou!"

"Follow you? Right!" Eil said, following Fou through the bits of rubble a short ways, eventually coming across the collapsed forms of Ritsuka and Mash on the ground, the young man giving a sigh, climbing up the rubble he was leaning on, waving his arm, "Heyyy! They made it through! They're unconscious over here!"

"Really?! That's great!" Romani shouted, looking across the staff, "Alright, get some people down here to see how they are stat! We've got a lot of work to do from here on!"

"Well he's got that right." Eil remarked, sliding down the bit of rubble and sitting on another piece, looking to the two unconscious girls on the floor as Fou poked one of his paws on Ritsuka's face, "So these two managed to resolve a Singularity on their own huh? Heh… well if it's like that from the start we may actually have a bloody chance at all this!"

Eil chuckled to himself as he flopped back, wincing as his left arm got a jolt that sent a flash of pain through it, his eyes then turning to the burning red CHALDEAS, his eyes widening a bit as it's rotation revealed glowing marks at various points, seven in total.

"Seven huh? Hahahahaha… if that just isn't ironic to how Grail Wars function huh?" Eil murmured, sitting up a bit, "Seven Singularities, just like how there's seven main classes… things really have just started for us, have they? Also… guess I can finally stop making myself stay awake…"

A chuckle came from Eil's mouth as his body lurched a bit, flopping back again as he started feeling a weight on him, his closing eyes stuck on the burning image of CHALDEAS and it's seven lights before he slipped off into unconsciousness again, one final thought coming to mind for him.

"Just you wait Flauros, whoever the hell is doing this… humanity isn't done yet, count on it."

A/N

Well this is another thing that's been sitting on the burner for a good while now. If some of this hasn't been a clue then things ain't gonna quite be the same... then again I think a lot of GO fics tend to be like that, sorta. Yay for being free from game-play narrative restrictions! Now I already got an idea or two for Eil's first summon... but let's see what ya'll can throw out eh? If you've got questions, feel free to PM me. I'll try to be spoiler free about it. See ya next time, please review if ya' will!