"Master, orders! Jason is--"
Jason's first dagger glances off the rim of her shield and clips Mashu on the top of her head. The second is blocked as she raises her shield fully, but cuts off her vision entirely, just as the Argonaut planned. He slips into her blindspot in a heartbeat and thrusts his xiphos past her guard. If it slips into the exposed skin of her armpit, she will lose a lung and likely cut a major artery.
Ritsuka will never allow that. So he catches it with one hand and holds it clear of his peerless Shielder. With the other, he slams it into the ground and churns the beach beneath Jason's feet with a work of magecraft, until it starts to consume the Argonaut bit by bit.
Jason's momentum dies. He is outmatched. Reinforcement magecraft is the product of a lesser age and will never match the works of Gods or great Sages, but with it, Ritsuka is stronger than Jason. In a contest of strength, the Argonaut will lose. So he does not fight strength for strength.
Instead, Jason pulls.
And in a breath, the Chaldeans lost their momentary advantage.
Ritsuka's head slams against Mashu's shield and he cries out in a daze. Jason drops his blade and pulls himself free of the quicksand onto the shield. He raises his own aspis, polished to a mirror sheen, and shines the blinding light of the sun and of innumerable bolts of purple lightning into her eyes. Mashu winces and blinks. The blindness will only last an instant, the spots a few seconds. But he only needs seconds.
Jason leaps, tossing small pots at the ground. Works of greek alchemy, they set the ground ablaze. A dazed Ritsuka and a blinded Mashu panic and try to escape or put out the flame. They run into one another, becoming even more confused, and expose themselves. Mashu gasps as Jason's dagger slips past her ribs and into her liver, which throws Ritsuka further off-guard as he quickly chants a healing spell. Still slightly concussed, and never being a natural fighter, he forgets that Jason is still there. The next strike will claim Mashu's neck. And then, it is over.
Except Kana disagrees.
She moves, a whirl of directed aggression. She sweeps her feet, and his feet fall out from under him. She strikes his wrist with a projected cane, and his aspis clatters upon the sand. She lets go, and Jason falls upon his knees. Helpless despite the knife in his hand, dismantled like a toy in the hands of cruel children, Jason can only look forward while Kana Tohsaka holds Asriel's blade against his neck. Any closer and she will draw blood.
"Surrender," she says in his ear, firmly and with no quarter. She may be stronger than him with Reinforcement, but this man nearly took down her brother and their Shielder with trickery and the tools available to him. He cannot be underestimated, she concludes. But she won't kill a hero. Not when he's clearly being manipulated. "Drop the knife and surrender the Grail, or I cut you."
Jason chuckles darkly. "As you wish."
He drops the knife, then grabs Kana's calf and leans back. She yelps as they both tip backwards and Asriel falls away from Jason's neck. Pain bursts out from the back of her head. And then the Argonaut rolls around and buries his face deep into her chest.
Kana loses it immediately.
"W-WHAT?!" Kana squirms and she screams. She thrashes as the sand grinds against her skin through the uniform. The sun is in her eye and the world is spinning. "GET OFF! GET--"
The weight lifts. Her vision clears. Jason is standing over her, Asriel pointed at her neck. Now she's at his mercy. Clever. "Surrender, young lady. Your mission is just but you will not keep me from mine."
"F-FUCK OFF YOU PERVERT! NO ONE HAS E-EVER--"
"Nothing is sacred in the face of victory," Jason says sadly. "It's a pity. You were almost a challenge."
And then Ritsuka slams two fists into his back. The first goes into the base of his skull. The second, the small of his back. He strikes hard enough that his impacts sound like thunderclaps. Jason vanishes in an instant and a distant sand dune explodes. His fists smoking, Ritsuka exhales and opens his eyes. He shakes his head and offers a hand to his sister, which is readily accepted. "You need to get your head on straight," he sighs as he pulls Kana up.
"Shut up, Rits! See how you like it when someone feels you up!"
"You don't get it," Ritsuka seethes. "That's the only way he can beat you. Don't let him. Freak out about it later, I don't care, but right now we need to beat - JASON!"
Kana's senses go wild. Her brain cuts the crap and acts. She whirls about. Sees Jason charging at them, Asriel in hand. In twenty seconds he'll cut them both in half. She moves where Ritsuka is rooted to the ground, pushes him down. Stupid. Should have fallen onto him. Gotten out of range, diverted threat to Mashu. Now she's still going to get cut in half. Twelve seconds.
"Kana-senpai!" Mashu shouts. Kana doesn't look, but she hears. A quick glance. Mashu's got Jason's xiphos in hand. She raises her hand. Mashu throws. She catches it. Nine seconds. She rights it in her hand, raises it. She can try for a parry. Six seconds.
She misjudged the angle. He'll glance off and still take her head. Her only option now is a mutual kill. Four seconds.
Kana commits. She aims for his throat. She thrusts.
Time splits sideways.
Asriel passes through Kana like smoke and finds no purchase. Jason's xiphos passes through her neck with no resistance. Jason stumbles when the mystic code keeps moving and it slips out of his hand. He is not used to the longer longsword-design of Asriel. Kana has no such concerns.
Time reasserts itself once the clash ends. Asriel solidifies itself inside Jason's neck and makes it burst with blood. Jason stumbles and gurgles as his head suddenly hangs by only meat and skin. Without a glance, Kana pulls her sword out and lets Jason land face-first onto the sand.
Only then does she turn aside and vacate her lunch.
"Thanks, Mashu," she says weakly once she's done. "I… didn't know you could do that."
Mashu nods, thankful to be of service. Ritsuka is not nearly so appreciative and chops her on the head the instant he hops onto his feet. "You idiot! Why did you push me to the ground?!"
"I was saving your ass, you ass! You're the one with healing magic!"
"How am I supposed to put two halves of you back together before you bleed out, huh?!"
"You're the good wizard, figure it out!"
"Senpais, please," Mashu says firmly with a sad frown. "There was no good option. We can discuss this later, right now we - GET DOWN!"
She throws her shield at them and sends them sprawling to the ground, just in time to avoid the deadly edge of a xiphos. Jason's body shudders as blood streams from his neck wound, until it closes on its own. He coughs, a mouthful of blood staining the sand. "Clever girl," he growls. "But that won't kill me. Medea, my love, has blessed me with an immortal body. You can't hurt me!"
"...Well, shit," Ritsuka mumbles. Mashu runs in with her bare hands and keeps him busy. "That usually works."
"Okay," Kana says. She raises her sword. She's going in. "New plan. You blow him up."
"I'll blow him up!" He nods as Kana rushes at Jason. "...Wait, I can't blow him up if you're there!"
"Give a signal, you idiot!"
"WHAT SIGNAL, THE EXPLOSION?!"
----
When they first clashed over the Nameless Isle, they were evenly matched. It was an unreasonable, unacceptable result to Medea, the Witch of Betrayal. She was older, wiser, the superior magister. She had suffered, toiled, lost everything to the whims of the gods. She had been betrayed by the man she loved - had been made to love. She was better. Deserved to be better. And yet, that lovestruck fool matched her at every turn!
The fire of Helios. The fury of Poseidon. Every spell, every trick, every act of cunning that Circe taught her and which she had clawed for herself, all of it was used. Fire and frost and furious, blinding light. Runes blanketed the skies, such was her fury, that it seemed that the entire sky had turned into violet lightning. All of it, to burn one insipid memory from existence.
And yet. And yet. Her younger self lives. And matches her, blow for blow. Lance for lance. Flame for flame. She glides with skill, truly mastering the wings of Hermes. They both incant, the words of the divine flowing impossibly quickly, as they begin their next clash in the skies above.
And here, Medea falters. She thinks she's won.
She casts first, age before beauty. Stepping into the realm of the divine, she holds time solid around her younger self for a single instant; unthinkable outside of a prepared Territory. But in this place, in this time, against this face, she will gladly break every rule she has to. And with all the time in the world, she prepares the final blow.
A second sun burns over Okeanos, like it did over Orleans. The beaches of this strange island become painfully bright as the winds roar and the ocean sizzles. And then at a gesture, it slams into the young Princess of Colchis.
When the dust settles and the light dims, Medea remains standing. Sizzling. Burnt. But these are only superficial wounds. The Princess is none the worse for wear.
The light that punches through the Witch's chest is proof enough.
Medea hits the ground, leaving an imprint in the sand. She gasps for life, a cantrip on her lips to stem the bleeding, but her younger, love-lost self is upon her, one hand tightening around her neck. The other holds her staff high - and it is then that the Witch sees her folly.
Pain Breaker. The abolishment of all injury, pain, and defect. Her Noble Phantasm.
"You lose," her younger self finally says. "Jason will have the Ark."
She struggles. Hatred burns in her chest. That, and sizzling cauterised flesh. "You… Will doom us…"
For the first time, the Princess quirks a smile. Around them, the sands bubble and churn. Bits and pieces of blue grey dragon bone begin emerging from deep beneath the earth. Without an opponent, her final spellcraft has been completed. "We are already doomed. By him."
Medea wants to ask more, but the light is already fading.
The last she sees is the sun glinting off a whirling golden axe.
----
Herakles is the greatest Hero that Greece has ever produced. The Son of Zeus, reviled by Hera and cursed for the sins of his father, he struggled against many trials throughout his life to absolve himself of Hera's hatred and, later, the deaths of his first family by his hand. The Twelve Labours of Herakles, each an impossible task for a lesser man, would make him a legend amongst legends. His death, burning to death in a bid to escape the agony of the Hydra's poisoned blood, would make him a god.
His first clash against his other self alongside the Minotaur, Asterios, was something of a disaster. The Herakles of the Argo, fully bolstered by his madness, had the strength of the divine and was impossible to reason with. Asterios died dragging him to the bottom of the ocean, and yet he lives now, thanks to his immortal body, earned by completing his labours. Labours he has completed too, but the blessing of which he does not have.
What he does have, however, is perspective. His dull yellow eyes seem furious, and his stony expression sells that lie well, but in truth that is simply how his face is. No one has ever said Herakles looked like a happy man. Most of the time, he was not. But he was sharp, perhaps one of the sharpest minds that Greece has ever produced. And everything he saw, he learned from.
He was summoned as a Berserker for the Fifth Holy Grail War, then by Chaldea for the Grand Order. His existence in the Fifth Heaven's Feel was driven by fury and consumed of all reason. His alternate under Jason's command is much the same. But he was not. Madness has no hold over him, not really. Sometimes, it comes forth, nearly drowns him. It does well to sell the illusion. But in truth, Herakles, Son of Zeus, has been coherent from the first day, only acting the brute to sell the illusion of being a brute.
An illusion he will dispel today, by utilising a skill that he has no right to know in this form.
When he fought his alternate, amidst the woods and hills and mountaintops, he saw sorrow. He felt great regret and guilt. Regret that he could not save his friend, and guilt that he had to oppose the restoration of humanity. Herakles of Chaldea took these regrets and guilts into himself, for these were his feelings as well. Jason may be a fool, a womanizer, and a weakling, but he is his friend. Friends help one another.
He is no exception.
Herakles of the Argo dies five minutes after the final, great clash of crews begins. He dies instantly, his body mangled by a hundred blows that happen nearly simultaneously. He dies with a stoic nod, one of his eyes returned to amber before expiring, passing on the torch to the most reliable man he knows: himself.
His return from the other side of the island takes two minutes. Even for one like him, blessed with speed and agility and strength like none other, it takes time to travel. He is not his father. He cannot travel upon lightning bolts. But he does his best.
When he arrives, he finds his friend and niece, Medea, nearly slain by her younger self. He steps in immediately, axe whirling. He and Medea were not especially close in life, but they were kin, on the Argo and by their divine parentage. He gave her refuge after Jason abandoned her and was in turn betrayed by her, and that made her his responsibility. Even in death, she will remain his responsibility.
He roars. His words shake the trees and rumble the earth. His attack, nine attacks performed simultaneously, will shatter it.
The younger Medea is splattered in an instant. Everything above her forehead, below the elbows and above the knees are turned to mush in an instant. She flies backward and lets out a silent breath as she expires.
"...Medea!" Jason, his friend cries out. "Medea, no!" He falls to his knees, aghast with grief. He will comfort him later. For now, Herakles grunts as he kneels beside the Medea he knows, Medea of Chaldea, and gives her unconscious body a small nod.
And then, a light burns in the Princess' chest.
She rises. Her limbs regenerate, her skull reforms, her hair returns in full lustre. He narrows his eyes. Her Noble Phantasm, Pain Breaker, was capable of incredible feats of healing. But it could not revive the dead. Which meant that she did not die when he struck her. Distressing. It means she has a means to sustain her past the partial annihilation of the Spiritual Core in her head.
Which must mean she has the Grail.
"What the--Herakles!" His Master, Ritsuka, looks at him in shock. A reliable boy, who only needs to learn the battle calm to utilise the enormous power at his fingers and the powerful intellect in his mind. He will do well. "You just… What in the… I-I thought you couldn't--"
"Ritsuka, focus!" His other Master, Kana, points at the Princess. A girl with a good heart, whose irresponsibility and fun-loving nature belies her incredible battle calm and talent on the battlefield. She will do well. "She's clearly got the Grail, so we need to kill her! Herk, do what you did but this time make sure you pulp her chest!"
He nods, but immediately time freezes around him. Even he, the mighty Herakles, cannot break through frozen space-time. Not immediately. Medea, the Princess of Colchis, then speaks with many voices. "You will do no such thing," she says. "You will betray my love no more, Herakles. You will die, he will claim the Ark, and we shall have paradise to wait out this annihilation."
The light consumes her body in full. Bone warriors emerge from the sands and throw themselves at his Masters. Despite Shielder's best efforts, they will be overwhelmed. Growling, Herakles gets ready to surpass himself yet again, while an ethereal golden Dragon starts imposing itself around the Princess.
And then a spear embeds itself in her heart. The light dies. Her warriors clatter into heaps. She falls to the ground like a ragdoll, and the Grail rolls out of her dress. Space and time release their grasp on him, but Herakles does not move. He just looks out to the Argo. Out to the man who saved him some trouble.
He nods once before resuming his vigil over the body. It may yet rise again.
It does not.
----
Jason sighs as he kneels beside the Princess of Colchis' pale body. Duridana is still stabbed through her body and forces her to lay sideways upon the sand. It is a small mercy that it lets her look at her beloved, one last time.
"...Why, Medea?" Jason asks, his voice a whisper. His thoughts are clear now. Clearer than they have been for a long, long time. "Why lie to me? Why bury me under enchantments?"
She smiles, a frail and wan thing. The young Medea does not have long. "You betrayed me before, my love… I love you, but the pain of betrayal… is too much…"
"...Fool girl." He brings her into a hug, raising her body up to his chest. "If you weren't so possessive and unstable, I'd never have abandoned you. Cutting up your brother was too much, Medea. Too much."
"Everthing I did… I did for love…"
"That is precisely the problem. That's why I had no choice, Medea." He grits his teeth and fights through the tears. "Dammit, that's why I had to… Damn the gods and damn you for making me do it..."
Herakles looms, his countenance solid stone and unmarked by emotion. But Jason looks upon him and smiles weakly. "Herakles, my friend… My Chaldean friend… Please, give me a moment. She's a wretched woman, but she deserves this, at least."
"He's kind of a shit person, isn't he?" Ritsuka mumbles.
"He's shirking all the responsibility but also somehow taking all of it," Kana notes with a frown. "I… am curious, but also disgusted."
"Just like my books," Mashu says, shaking.
"...Mashu, I'm reviewing your books when we get back."
"W-Wuh?! Kana-senpai, please!"
"No."
Herakles says nothing. It is his decision.
The Princess smiles. Tears well up in her eyes. "Jason… My love…"
"Medea…"
"...Your skin must be shed. Forneus will be unleashed."
David's eyes snap wide open the moment she utters that name. He snatches stones from the ground and hurls them at the Princess at once, but it is too late. Jason goes tense as she murmurs words of power into his ear, all the while the air begins to crackle with unworldly power. Jason drops her and rises to his feet like a marionette, clutching at his face all the while, screaming wordlessly. By the time her head snaps backwards from the impact, his skin has already begun ripping apart.
"...Gah, how unsightly!" He turns to Herakles, a terrified grin upon his face. "Herakles! My peerless friend! It is because of your lack of action that she's been able to act all this while, so this is now your mess to clean up! Please, for all our sakes, stop this monster!"
Herakles grunts and nods. Jason turns to Kana and Ritsuka, while Mashu readies her Noble Phantasm in front of them. "And you, Masters of Chaldea!" Jason laughs, as eyes begin bubbling out of the tears in his flesh. "It was a fine battle! Fine indeed! You, girl, are a dangerous one! But know that I was sabotaging myself the entire time, from beneath her magic! Your genius is but small in the face of mine! Do you understand?!"
Ritsuka holds his tongue. Kana does not. "You're an asshole, Jason!" She cries out. "But dammit, I wish we got to talk longer!"
"If only, if only!" At last, Jason turns to face Medea. The Witch, who even now has to be held up by Atalanta, one arm around the Huntress' shoulders. Despite nearly dying, her glare is still as piercing as ever. "And you, Medea of Chaldea! Age has done nothing to lessen your beauty, but it has surely deepened your hatred! Please, forgive me! But otherwise, take this opportunity to kill me again!"
Medea, who has not the energy to do anything, just continues glaring at him. At this point, Jason is a mass of flesh, about to explode out into a Demon God Pillar. There is precious little time left, and far too much to do.
With what remains of his limbs, Jason roars to the heavens.
And then he is consumed. Silence reigns for precious, ephemeral seconds.
A God assumes his vessel, becomes flesh in this realm. It screams, the harrowing wails of a billion damned souls. Every single one of its eyes, from great red orbs the size of a man to the little spheres that spiral about its bone white body, turns to gaze upon David. David looks back, unbowed.
"Strike me down," he says calmly, "And I shall--"
The ground beneath his feet open up. David falls in, up to his hips, before it swallows up and crushes his lower half. Blood dribbles from his mouth before the stars fall from the heavens and detonate around his person. Nothing remains of the King of Israel.
And then, every one of those eyes turns upon Ritsuka and Kana.
"...Kana, please tell me you have a plan."
"Yeah, uh, I do? But they mostly relied on David and the Ark." Both of them look at David's disintegrating Spirit Origin, blink, and sigh. "Yeah, we don't have the firepower to kill a Demon God right now."
"I knew we should have brought Aunt Arturia," Ritsuka sighs.
"You knew no such thing!"
"Ah well, Plan B," Ritsuka shrugs. He cups his hands around his mouth and yells, "HEY! ORION! I'M CALLING IN THAT FAVOUR NOW!"
"Alright, alright, I'm going! Milady, we need to Noble Phantasm that God."
"Okay~ Tri-Star Amore Mio~"
From the heavens high above, a blue bolt descends with crashing speed and proves an old adage true.
The power of Love can do anything.
----
Everyone groans loudly as Kana claps at her own bad punchline. "Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all night!" She checks her watch briefly. "Except not really, because I'm tired and sleep seems really good right now." She glances over at Ritsuka. "What do you think, Guda?"
Ritsuka Tohsaka, who had been cramming ice cones down his mouth like he was drinking water, is too busy clutching his head in pain to reply. When she nods in comisceration with the smuggest look, he flips her off.
Kana chuckles, then gets her Servants to settle down. "No but seriously, though, Artemis kills Forneus for us. Big whooping Noble Phantasm explosion and everything. For some reason, the blast crater was shaped like a heart, but whatever. Anyways, we take the Grail, say some goodbyes, then Drake elects to go back on her voyage and Orion takes the opportunity to hit on her one last time." Her face goes flat. "Last I saw, she was still strangling him."
"He probably deserves it," Atalanta says bitterly.
"Next time," Arturia huffs, "You are bringing someone with an Anti-Fortress Noble Phantasm. And it will be me."
"...Yes, Auntie," both twins say.
"Good," Arturia nods. She sighs and begins nursing her cup of tea. "I swear, the two of you will be the death of me."
