Fate/sixth apocalypse

"An archer named Gilgamesh" Elizabeth says dryly "Norah used all of her command seals to boost his mana supply and even then Gilgamesh ripped apart his reality marble. The only thing Booker got out of the fight was a single shot that did little to no lasting damage and his name" A tear falls down Elizabeth's face "Its almost laughable. I get to see my father again for the first time since I watched him die and I only get a weekend to talk to him"

***

The caster mused "Are you sure? I think I can change that quiet quickly"

Rider didn't smirk. " I'm quite sure of that."

***

Troy was silent. He wasn't terribly good at comforting people, so he didn't really try, just did his best to look sympathetic.

The voice started to sound a little pissed "My grasp of this language is not the best I admit but you have no right to comment filth"

***

Elizabeth wiped her tears away "In any case we were waiting for you three to come back to discuss strategy"

"The Grail gives Servants perfect fluency in any necessary language. As such, you must be rather out of sorts to lack that ability. So, Caster, what makes you think such a flawed Servant as yourself is really worth listening to?" Now Rider smirked.

***

"Well, what do we know first?"

Chain sprouted from the barrier and bound Rider tightly to the floor "Insult me again and the next few moments will be very painful for even one such as yourself"

***

"His Noble Phantasm allows him to summon an infinite amount of blades. Each of them have the same power as a normal Noble Phantasm"

Rider, "her" body forced into a kneeling position by the chains, regained her neutral expression. "So, you have some plan to control me. Are these chains it?" She doubted it. Even if Caster was somehow not speaking fluent Russian, she was powerful enough to trap Rider. Which was no small feat in itself.

***

Troy's jaw dropped. "Wait, what? Hang on, can he fire these in multiple directions at once?"

"No they are not" Caster came from the shadows with a gleaming knife "This however is the plan"

***

"From what I saw he could only fire from behind him but I don't see why he can't"

Rider recognized the knife for a Noble Phantasm...but she didn't know what exactly it was. "You expect me to be afraid of a simple knife?"

***

"Okay...uh, Chrom, Arturia, you guys can feel free to chime in, just so you know." Troy liked to think he was no slouch in the intellectual bits of battle tactics, but those two had lived and died pretty much in battle. If they had anything to offer it was almost certainly worth listening to. "He can only look in one direction, though, right?"

"Yes you should be"

***

"Yes de doesn't have eyes on the back of his head" Elizabeth says

"If thats the case then the simple option would be a distraction from in front and a strong attacker would attack from his blind spot" Arturia says

"A good and simple plan but whoever is the distraction would be dead or dying very quickly" Chrom says bluntly. Chrom opens his mouth to continue but there was knock at the door "Who's that?" he asks

"I don't know" Norah says "We're all here"

Edward makes his spear from the ground and goes to open the door. He opens the door with his spear raised at the person standing in the door frame. He was an old man wearing blue and gray robes "Perhaps I could be off assistance" The man says

Arturia nearly trips herself in shock "Merlin!?!" she says

"What we'd need is somebody who is fast enough to dodge all those Phantasms...wait, who just showed up?" Troy's train of thought visibly self destructed as he made for the door.

***

"So stab me and get it over with."

Merlin comes in and bows to everyone in the room "King of Magic Merlin at your service"

***

Caster opens the barrier just enough to get he arm through and then stabs Rider in the heart with the Noble Phantasm

Troy's jaw dropped. "Holy shit. Seriously?" Merlin was literally the greatest mage of all time, bar none. It made sense that he'd be summoned...but Troy hadn't exactly expected to meet him.

Then again, Troy hadn't expected two Saber-class Servants answering to him, either - one of whom being a female King Arthur.

***

Rider didn't react initially - pain was something she could tolerate, given that the heart that had just been stabbed was a false one. But something else had happened, something...odd. It seemed that the connection between her and her Master was...wait, that was impossible, wasn't it?

Merlin nods "I am the only one in history with the name and title of Merlin"

"King of Magic its been a long time" Chrom says

"King of Exalts" Merlin responds "So you two came to this plane? All we need is Robin and Lancelot and we can fight over nothing like old times"

"As much as I would like to chat old friend" Arturia says "You came here for a purpose correct?"

Merlins expression hardened "You are right, My king" Merlin turns to Troy "My master has told me to come and assist you in anyway I can against the servant Gilgamesh. He and my fellow servant under his command would be here as well but they are on business"

In the distance everyone could see a huge explosion "That is probably it" Merlin says "I have seen Gilgamesh in battle and I think I can assist you on your plans. I can create near perfect copy illusions of every master and servant here, that should give us some advantage"

***

Caster smiles "Trust me when I say, that next few moments will not be to your liking"

***

Artem fell over on his desk. He looks at his hand and sees his command seals start to fad "What?"

Troy suddenly had some mild misgivings about this. Merlin's Master seemed too ready to hold his cards in reserve. He hadn't shown himself or this other Servant of his.

Then something occurred to him. He turned to Elizabeth. "Those things you create, Tears , how do they work?"

***

"What exactly..." Rider stopped midway through the question, having arrived at the conclusion herself. Her connection to her Master was gone, severed as neatly as though it had never been there, and with it a significant portion of the main that sustained her.

"There sort of like doors" Elizabeth says

"Huh?" Edward asks "I spent my entire life going through complex magical equations and that explanation didn't sound like anything interesting"

Lindile takes his staff and hits the short Lancer over the head "Let the lady finish before you voice an opinion"

"Anyway" Elizabeth continued "My tears are possibilities, someone or something that was created by the choices someone or something made. I can see every single door and every possibility, and as such I can pull things through the doors into our reality. In life I was used as a battery to power the sky city Columbia, until Booker came and set everything right"

***

Caster looked at her hand "Aren't they lovely?" she says showing the command seals

Rider looked surprised, then shrugged. "Alright, so you've taken my Command Seals. I suppose that makes you my new Master?"

***

"So, going back to the door thing, where can you open these doors exactly?" Troy asked. If this worked like he thought it did, they might have a weapon that could hurt Gilgamesh.

"If the shoe fits" Caster says

***

"Just about anywhere" Elizabeth says "It really doesn't matter where I am or where anything else is"

"I doubt you went to all that trouble just to leave me here...Master." Rider's implication was quite clear; let her out of the chains.

***

"Mkay. So then, would it work if you pulled open a tear right in Gilgamesh's face to, say, Hiroshima? Mount St. Helens? The heart of the sun? A black hole?" Troy listed off some things off the top of his head.

Caster let Rider out of the chains "Now come there are some people that would like to speak with you"

***

Elizabeth blinks "Maybe the first two but it would take some time and a lot of mana to pull something like that off"

"I doubt that Gilgamesh will stand still for that long just watching" Chrom comments

"True..." Troy said, clearly thinking and rethinking as fast as he could. "So we give him a reason to. Or we pull a Rommel. Attack once, then retreat to lure him into position for a nuke to the face. Can we do that?"

***

Rider obeyed. She didn't care much that she had lost her old Master...her new one, by all appearances, was a full order of magnitude more powerful. So much the better. Most Masters tended to view Servants as tools or weapons. In Sharur's case, it just so happened to literally be true.

"With the speed of my king and Chrom along with my magic such a thing would be simple" Merlin says

***

"Before we meet everyone, your name would be?"

Troy clapped his hands together. "Well, let's go find ourselves an ancient Sumerian murderer then. Chrom, if you would?" Chrom, in Spirit Form, was faster than Arturia could be...and Troy wanted Arturia to hang around in case Gilgamesh found them first.

***

"I am Sharur, once the living weapon of the war god Ninurta. I have been summoned as a Rider-class Servant." Sharur said.

Merlin fads into sprit form "I will remain by my king and her masters side till the time comes"

Chrom nods and leaves in sprit form as well. Elizabeth goes up to Troy "I assume you need my help?"

***

"A living weapon as a servant, that is interesting" Caster says walking. The two servants come up the stairs and go into a secret floor on the mansion. On the floor Lancer and another caster stood talking but neither could hear what it was about

"If you need to set up things for that Tear we should get started. First thing is a location - obviously we don't want to level half of Fuyuki...somewhere outside the city or harbor would be optimal." Troy produced his phone and looked at a map. "Yeah, the harbor's best. Wind will blow anything left over from the Tear out into the Pacific. Which means we need a boat...a barge or something with plenty of space for magical apparatus.

***

Sharur stayed silent, until curiosity got the better of her/it. "And your name?"

"How big of a boat do you want?" Elizabeth asks

***

"You can call me Madea"