The Situation

"Urgh...what happened?" Seth woke up with a big headache.

Remembering the hectic events, he looked around for the kids but found no one.

Everything around him looked desolated, the earth was black, and the sky dark, there was no sign of life. This place looked like the end of the world.

Getting up, he noticed something different. He was in his original form. His skin was a greyish black, he had dog paws for feet, long ears that were pointing upward, and a broad snout like that of a horse but a little thinner.

Golden armor covered his arms except for his elbows. Said armor also covered his waits and upper part of his chest, leaving his stomach bare. On top of it, he wore a blue and red Usekh collar, a type of jewelry used by Deities and people of high society in Ancient Egypt. A strange helmet that took the form of his head protected it and had holes for his ears not to get covered. Additionally, two horn-like blades extended from his cheeks to the back of his head. A tunic covered his lower half while the only armor was on his shin.

"Where am I...?" He was so confused. First, he was falling into the darkness with the other two kids. Now, he was a strange place with his real body, which didn't make sense.

'Sigh...I'm too old for this.' Knowing he won't find anything standing there, he decided to walk in a random direction.

Wherever he walked by, everything was the same, a land abandoned by life.

After doing the same thing for an hour, he found something for the first time, a lone tree. It was charred black like a thousand bolts of lightning hit it. Caressing it slightly, he could feel how despite death was all around, this tree still had life left. A mystery, he thought.

Suddenly, a cold gust of wind blew on his position. Looking past the tree, he saw a person sitting on a boulder, their back facing him. He couldn't tell the gender of the person nor their features as a dark fog was covering them.

"Were you the one who brought me here?" Seth asked the figure.

"..." The figure opened its mouth, but no words came out, it was weird, he couldn't guess anything like this.

"You can't speak?" Seth asked. The figure, still not facing him, opened its mouth again, but like last time, no words came out.

Even though he couldn't see anything more than a silhouette, he got the feeling that they were talking, just that he couldn't hear.

Scratching the side of snout, he spoke again, "You know I can't hear you, right?"

The fog began disappearing as the figure sighed, something Seth could hear this time. That sighed conveyed frustration, mild annoyment, and a little shyness.

Turning their head to meet Seth's gaze, for the first time, he heard their voice. "When are you going to summon me?"

Once the figure finished speaking, the world went black again.

──────────────────────────────

Raising his back from the bed abruptly, Seth woke up panting. Looking around, he seemed to be in some kind of medical facility.

Setting his gaze back on his body, he noticed his hands drenched in sweet. Not just his hands, his whole body was. Remembering the weird dream he had, Seth could recall the final words of the figure, but for some reason, their voice and face were a big blank for him even if he was able to hear and see them before losing consciousness.

"Oh? You finally woke up?" From his left, a strange woman with a mechanical arm and a puppet bird on her shoulders appeared.

"Yes..." Seth wasn't sure what to do in this situation, so he just answered her question.

"Hm..." The woman put a hand on her chin and observed him from different angles. "You look a little pale, and you are sweating too..." Saying till there, the woman distanced herself from him before speaking again, "I will call Dr. Roman, wait for a bit." And with that, she left.

Seth was left alone in the infirmary, with nothing to do; he just lay on the bed.

Soon the doors were opened, it was Dr. Roman who entered this time.

"Hi! How are you doing? Da Vinci told me you were feeling a little bad, so I came to check." Romani said with a smile as he approached Seth.

"I'm good, Romani. It was just a nightmare." Seth told the Doctor.

"Even so, I should check the state your body is in; you fought Saber almost by yourself after all," Roman said, checking something on a computer nearby.

"Hm...everything seems fine. You are exhausted, that's all," Romani informed Seth.

"I told you so. Anyway, how are the kids?" He could guess they were okay. Otherwise, Romani wouldn't be grinning like a fool right now.

"Kids? You don't seem that much older than them to me, though. Well, setting that aside, they are fine. They were here in the infirmary until five days ago." Roman replied.

Hearing this, Seth was surprised. "five days ago? How many days was I out?"

Roman put his finger on his chin and looked at the ceiling. "Let me see...today will be eight days since you arrived here back at Chaldea."

"Eight days?!" His eyes widened, he couldn't have slept for that long long, could he?

Dr. Roman crossed his arms and nodded like a chicken. "Yup! Your wounds healed fast, even the one on your neck, it didn't even leave a scar, that's surprising considering Saber's slash almost separated your head from your shoulders!" Roman said, surprise evident in his voice.

Continuing where he left, Romani added, "But it's strange though...your wounds healed the third day you were here, but you kept sleeping till now." He said with puzzlement. Considering his abnormal regeneration, he shouldn't have taken much time to wake up.

The realization hit Seth like a truck. 'So I was there for five days?' To him, it felt like he was there just for a few hours, but by Romani's worse, it seemed it was not that way.

"Well, now that you are here let me formally introduce myself, my name is Romani Archaman. You can call me Dr. Roman, Romani, like how you've been calling me in Fuyuki or just Doctor."

Seth nodded. "I will call you Romani, then."

Romani then proceeded to explain their situation more in detail about how they were an organization created to avoid the inevitable extinction of Humanity. Their four significant "Inventions," LAPLACE to monitor the past and help Masters with Rayshifting, CHALDEAS to observe the future, and SHEBA to understand with more precision the information given by CHALDEAS.

By Romani words, CHALDEAS needs SHEBA to observe specific time-space locations, such as Fuyuki, the place where they were before. And lastly, FATE. A system that permitted Masters to summon Heroic Spirits as Servants. To date, they have successfully summoned three Heroic Spirits. One of them being the woman who was here before, Leonardo Da Vinci. 'This world is messed up...'

"Who are the other two?" He just mentioned one, and that was the excentric "woman" who was here before.

At Seth's question, Romani turned to look at the computer behind him and started typing random buttons, making it seems like he was doing something.

"We don't know, only the old Director knew." Sweat started falling from his forehead. 'Please believe it, please believe it...!'

"I see..." 'Fuuu' Roman did a mental sigh, but then he remember something.

Turning to face him, he asked. "What happened to Olga—The Director?"

He pointed at the golden necklace hanging on his neck. "I put that woman here; it was the only option I had at the time—I have at this time. For the time she stays there, she will be sleeping. If we manage to secure a body for her to inhabit, then I can put her soul in it.

Roman seemed surprised at the necklace's ability, but he wanted to clarify, "I want to make sure. She will not suffer while she's there, will she?"

"She already suffered enough...I don't plan to make her suffer more. As I said, she will be sleeping. She won't feel a thing." He said, looking at the Doctor in his eyes.

Romani heaved a sigh of relief. "With that out the way, I wanted to ask you a question. What's your real objective?" With the question, his tone became serious.

"I was asked by someone to prevent Humanity's destruction. What does that person plan with this? I have no idea. But I will at least promise you this. I will do everything to ensure Humanity's survival, at all costs." Seth finished speaking. He didn't lie, Ra's task aside, he would protect them. Consider it the atonement of a +100.000 years old man.

The Doctor decided to take his sincerity seriously. "I will take you up on that. For now, rest. Even if it doesn't look that way, it's already night. Tomorrow in the morning I will come to check how you are doing."

Before he turned off the lights, he heard the bedridden guy speak one last time. "You should sleep too. You have bags under your eyes."

He just smiled, "Will do." and the room went dark.

──────────────────────────────

The next morning, Seth woke up at the sound of the automatic door sliding open.

"Looks like you are already awake," Romani said as he entered with a medical kit on his hands.

Seth threw the blanket covering him to the back of the bed and proceeded to sit.

Romani took a chair next to the bed and opening his kit. He prepared to examine his patient. Using a stethoscope, he checked for any abnormalities. Fortunately, there were none.

Removing his instrument, he smiled. "Well, there doesn't seem to be any problem." Seth just nodded.

"You should head to the kitchen. Your body needs nutrients after all the time you were sleeping. I will guide you there." Romani said and got up.

Seth followed and did the same. Walking by the hallway with Romani beside him, he noticed no one was walking through them.

Seeing Seth confusion, Romani clarified. "It was Dr. Lev—Lev Lainur Flauros. The bomb he planted cost the life of the majority of Chaldea's staff. Only nineteen are currently active; forty-seven Masters are in critical condition, so we put them into cryofreeze on their coffins, only Fujimaru was safe as he wasn't in the command room.

"Your situation seems pretty dire," Seth said with a slight tone of sympathy. As someone who suffered the consequences of betrayal, he could relate.

"Yeah...but the situation won't wait for us. We need to do with what little we have right now—Oh! Here we are." Roman said with determination before realizing they were already in front of the kitchen.

Entering, he noticed an ample space filled with tables and chairs, the bigness of the room amplified by the absence of people.

"Follow me." Romani then guided him towards the counter on the side of the room.

Getting near, he noticed a woman in his sixties together with a tan man with white hair. The only thing he could see was some kind of tight black bodysuit. But what surprised him the most was the familiar presence he was giving. 'Archer? What is he doing here?'

Noticing steps coming their way, Archer EMIYA looked up to see a black-haired, bare-chested man together with the Doctor approaching them.

He flashed a smile. "Hello, would you like to have breakfast?"

Seth felt weird. Were he and the Archer he fought in that city even the same? They looked like a different person!

Noticing Seth's confusion, Romani decided to enlighten him, "While they share the same Spirit Origin, they are fundamentally a different person. The Archer you fought in Fuyuki is not the same as him."

With this, even if it was a little confusing, he understood the general idea.

Archer gained an apologetic look. "I'm sorry for the problems that I caused you all."

"Don't worry about it." Seth just shook his head, not minding it at all. He knew better than to blame someone else for other's mistakes, even if that other was you.

"I would like something with as many nutrients as possible. I haven't eaten anything in the past week." Seth said, EMIYA just nodded, aware of his situation. His master has already informed him about his circumstances before.

"I would like a light breakfast, please," Romani said from the side, he had not eaten lunch yet.

"On it." EMIYA smiled before going back to prepare the food.

Seth and Romani greeted the old lady, too, as they went to pick a seat for themselves.

Ten minutes later, EMIYA came with what looked like a tower of food on the one hand, and a sandwich on the other. Placing it on the table, he told them to enjoy their lunch before going back to the counter.

Roman was surprised by the amount of food. "Are you sure you can eat all that?"

"I have been to a banquet or two. I can manage," The Egyptian God said cryptically.

"Okay...if you say so..." Roman wasn't sure, but he let it be. Finishing his sandwich, he got up.

"I've got to go. I have work to do in the command room and preparations to do for the next Singularity when we detect it." He said before going with his empty plate towards the counter, thanking EMIYA and the old lady, the Doctor left.

Now that he was not here, Seth looked at his right hand. Ever since he was face to face with Archer, a burning pain had been assaulting the top of his hand. He looked at it, but there didn't seem to be any injuries or the like. For some reason, though. It made him remember that place, or should he say, the words the figure said before he woke up.

After finishing his food, he did the same as Romani. He left the plate in the counter and thanked the staff. As he was nearing the door, he thought, 'Well, there is no use thinking about it. I'm sure I will find out very soon what this is all about.'

Before he could go out of the kitchen, the door opened, and someone he unquestionably didn't want to meet again, appeared.

"Oh...look at that, Senpai is here too" A cold, sarcastic voice came out from the figure.

As they said, when a nightmare ends, another begins.