"Seems like you're in quite the dilemma," Zelretch said calmly as Haruka shrieked in shock, falling backwards and onto her butt. "I don't have something on my face, right?"
"Who are you?!" Mordred growled, summoning her armour and sword, but Kairi quickly waved her down.
"Wizard Marshall!" He exclaimed. "What are you doing here?!"
"I came to check up on Haruka. Oh, but I'm only staying for a few minutes or so. I may have interrupted a certain parallel world's Lorelei Barthomeloi's rant when I teleported here."
Kairi sweatdropped. "That's beyond dangerous…"
"Anyways, I did hear your last few words, Haruka. You intend on saving Sieg even though it means he'll be without Siegfried's heart and a stronger body?"
"What about it?" Haruka groaned. "I have no idea how to get him back to Chaldea and he won't be the Sieg that Jeanne and Amakusa know. Even then, I…"
Zelretch nodded. "Since you're doing quite well in this war, I'll help you out. Consider it a bonus along with your quartz."
Haruka's eyes shone. "Thank you! But what are you going to do?"
Zelretch reached into an alternate space and pulled out a vial with a mysterious glittery substance. "I anticipated you would probably do this, so once Sieg arrives, make him drink this. It will strengthen his body as well as restore the memories of his counterpart. He won't be able to utilize Siegfried's abilities or gain Command Seals, but I think he'll be able to help you out quite well."
Haruka eyed the vial. "What exactly is this?"
"You don't want to know. The Second Magic is highly complex." Zelretch tossed the vial to Haruka, who scrambled to catch it. "If I'm not mistaken, Saber should be returning quite soon, so I'll take my leave. I'll return once the war is over." And with that, Zelretch disappeared, leaving a dumbstruck Kairi, Mordred, and Haruka.
"I wasn't dreaming, right?" Kairi said cautiously.
Haruka would have replied had Arthur's voice not spoken in her brain just then.
Master Haruka! Call me back, right now!
E-eh? But Haruka quickly got over her shock. Okay, okay! By the power of my Command Seals, I order Arthur Pendragon to return to my side!
Haruka's outermost Command Seal flashed red before vanishing, and Arthur appeared in front of his Master, carrying a pale boy with him. "Master!"
"Where's Karna?" Haruka asked as she helped the homunculus sit down.
"He's battling Siegfried."
Master, I should return by myself within the next 5 minutes. If I do not return by then, call me with a Command Seal .
Be careful!
Haruka nodded. "I just received a message from him." She knelt down in front of the boy, putting a reassuring smile on her face. "Hi there, my name's Haruka. You're completely safe here, I guarantee that."
"What do you want with me?" the homunculus asked softly.
"It is up to you whether you want to help me or not," Haruka said. "However, I want you to drink this. It will strengthen your body and give you a longer life. We will talk afterwards since you will most likely be disoriented. It won't kill you, trust me."
The homunculus cautiously took the vial from Haruka, uncorked it, and tipped the contents into his mouth, grimacing at the taste but swallowing. His eyes widened before they rolled up into the back of his head, and he fell unconscious.
"Was that supposed to happen?" Mordred asked.
Haruka quickly placed her fingers by the boy's neck to check for a pulse. "He's just out of it. We'll talk later." Checking the time on her phone, she held out her hand. "Time to call Karna back. Karna, by the power of my Command Seal, I order you to return to my side!"
Karna appeared with a flash of light, looking just the slightest bit concerned. "Jeanne figured out your identity, King of Knights."
"Well, that's not good," Haruka muttered. "Do you think she knows he's contracted to me?"
"I doubt it," Karna said. "We should have left the Black Faction quite confused and apprehensive about the future. They now think there is a third party to this war, and they should be proceeding more cautiously than usual."
"That's the good news then," Haruka sighed. "You guys weren't hit by anything, right? Like Vlad's stakes?"
Karna and Arthur shook their heads.
"Then keep your Craft Essences for now, I'll give you better ones later. For now, we should just rest, I think." With that, Haruka flopped onto a mat and closed her eyes. "Someone wakes me up when Sieg wakes up. You guys can do whatever until then." The sound of her soft breathing filled the air not long after.
Karna, Arthur, and Mordred exchanged glances. "I will go scout around Trifas," Karna said quietly.
"I'll stay here with Mordred then," Arthur responded. "I hope you will not run into any trouble, Karna."
"I will not." Karna dematerialized.
"Master, what're you gonna do?" Mordred asked Kairi.
"I was going to sleep. But do you need me for anything?" He asked.
"No. Go sleep."
"If you say so."
Arthur and Mordred gave a final glance at the sleeping homunculus before silently agreeing to keep guard outside the mausoleum. They both dematerialized in a burst of light.
All the while, the homunculus later known as Sieg slept, new memories and old mixing within his mind.
The mausoleum's silence was broken by a very cheerful ringtone.
"Kimi to (hai!) issho ga ichiban (iei!), suki yotte motto gyutto ne~ kimi wo (hai!) atarashii basho e to (iei!) hippattecchau ruranra! okurenai de ne~"
Kairi sat up with a surprised yelp, dropping his bone tools. "What the hell is this music?!"
Karna materialized, spear at the ready, before he realized it was Haruka's phone and reached over to shake her awake. "Master, your phone is ringing."
Arthur and Mordred materialized as well, both staring at Haruka's phone in awed disbelief.
Haruka groaned and fumbled around blindly for her phone, her eyes still closed from sleep. Grabbing it, she hit the Answer button and pressed the phone to her ear. "Whoever it is, you better have a damn good reason to wake me up this early in the morning or else."
"It's noon, Haruka-san. I was calling merely to inform you that the Hanging Gardens of Babylon have been completed and that we will commence our attack tonight. If you wish to come over, now is the best time to do so," Amakusa's smooth voice intoned.
"Yeah, yeah, thanks for the information." Haruka yawned loudly. "I'll come over with Lancer later this afternoon, then. Please don't kill me or take my Command Seals, and—oh yeah, can you keep Shakespeare out of my way? I might accidentally kill him if he comes within my line of vision. High-school nightmares and all that."
"Noted. We anticipate your arrival then."
"Yeah, bye." Haruka hung up. "Well, my transportation's handled for the battle. Sorry, Kairi-san, you and Mordred are probably going to have to carjack a vehicle to get there yourselves."
"Wait, what's going on?" Kairi asked.
"The Red Faction's going to launch an attack on Yggdmillenia Castle and steal the Greater Grail tonight. This is the first and last major battle between the Red and Black Factions, so you and Mordred wouldn't want to miss it. In the original timeline, Jackie's rampage through the city with you fighting Fiore postponed the attack to tomorrow night, but since I gave her stuff to replenish her mana, she's no longer attacking magi. That reminds me, I'll go visit her today. As for what happens tonight… I'll meet with you guys in the Hanging Gardens of Babylon if things go as I planned."
"What else is going to happen tonight?" Kairi asked.
"Mordred's going to end up in a battle with Rider of Black—that's Astolfo, Sieg was originally going to interfere and Frankenstein pops up as well, but since Sieg's with us, that might not happen. How is Sieg, by the way?" Haruka asked, making her way to the sleeping homunculus. "He's still asleep."
As if on cue, Sieg slowly blinked his red eyes open. "Where… am I?" He rasped out.
"You're in the hideout of one of the Red Faction Masters. Do you understand the circumstances you're in?"
Sieg nodded slowly. "My memories are mixing together, but I believe I know what happened. This is another version of the Great Holy Grail War where I never received Siegfried's heart or Command Seals, right?"
"Smart," Haruka complimented. "If you remember any of our conversation last night, you should know I'm not affiliated with the Red or Black Faction even if Karna's my Servant. My name is Haruka Fujimaru, and I'm also from a different timeline. I was sent here to prevent most of the events that originally occurred from happening, and so far, I've messed with the timeline a lot. Siegfried is still alive, Karna is no longer with the Red Faction, and Jack the Ripper is guaranteed not going to kill any of us."
Sieg blinked. "If this is the morning after I was supposed to be saved by Siegfried, is the Red Faction due to attack Yggdmillenia Castle tomorrow?"
"No, they've moved up their schedule. They attack tonight. I'm hitching a ride on the Hanging Gardens of Babylon with Karna."
"I see… May I still join this battle? I may not have Command Seals or Siegfried's heart, but I still wish to rescue my fellow homunculi."
"If that's what you want. However, I want you to agree that you won't do anything stupid like battling a Servant, okay?" Haruka said.
"Agreed."
"Alright, I'm giving you some control over Arthur, then."
"Master?!" Arthur said, shocked.
"You're going to make sure he doesn't do anything stupid; plus you need an extra source of mana since I can't maintain both you and Karna when you're battling. Your task is to liberate the homunculi only, alright? I'll take care of the rest," Haruka said seriously.
Sieg nodded, knowing he couldn't do much with his current body. "Thank you, Haruka-san."
"This is for my benefit as well," Haruka said as she tossed a Craft Essence of a book to Sieg. "The Book of the False Attendant would normally transfer Command Seals to the owner but not the mana flow, but I tweaked it with Medea's help to reverse the original function. Arthur will mainly rely on you for mana, but I have the Command Seals. Arthur, I don't want you to use Excalibur unless necessary, so keep Volumen Hydragyrum on you. Since Jeanne already knows who you are, there's no reason to keep your identity concealed. Let everyone think the mysterious third faction Master made Sieg a proxy Master to control you. I want you guys at Yggdmillenia Castle tonight. I'll give Arthur instructions where to regroup, but it's most likely going to be in the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Do we all understand our roles?"
Everyone nodded.
"To recap: we're all going to end up on the battlefield and get out alive. I'm going to go pay Jack a visit; Karna, you're coming with me. Mordred, make sure you don't kill Frankenstein because she's a sweetheart. None of you target Jack as well, please. And yes, they may be enemies but the factions won't last long anyways after this battle. Arthur, keep Sieg safe and alert me if anything goes wrong. Kairi-san, good luck."
"Thanks for the information, Haruka," Kairi said, firmly grasping Haruka's hand and shaking it.
"You better make it out alive so I can spar with Father again," Mordred half-threatened.
"Mo-chan, don't be too hard on my Master," Arthur said, ruffling Mordred's hair. "But in all honesty, Master, please be safe."
"Thank you for your efforts, Haruka-san," Sieg said.
"Glad you guys all decided to join my crazy plan," Haruka said gratefully. "Later!" She disappeared out of the mausoleum, Karna following her.
"Now then…" Kairi said, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it. "Guess we'll wait a bit longer."