Chapter Text
The sad truth about forming bonds with Servants is that no matter how close-knit they may be, all it takes is the right blow and the whole thing will crumble away.
They could not be exactly called a family at all, but Gudao finds he can apply the same logic to Chaldea’s ensembles of Servants. Human interactions are tricky like that. It only takes the slightest bit of mistrust for bonds to break, and once inseparable companions will drift away with no one bothering to bring them back, or even become mortal enemies as a result. Even those who can see what is going on are often powerless to prevent it.
Well, Gudao knew all this. He had seen once inseparable Servants fall apart to infighting and bickering. He’s also seen many of them willingly burn themselves without even being prompted to because they couldn’t stand to stay any longer within the enclosed space of Chaldea, and all it took was something minuscule for the seed of mistrust to grow within them. Most of the time, Gudao can’t even blame them—there were Servants who simply could not stand the boredom; some others, on the other hand, would prefer it if they had been summoned or paired with their significant others or friends; with some others, bonds were simply not strong enough to make them care—which is also fine, it's understandable, even if some of those Servants who burn themselves willingly also end up coming back a few weeks later.
He also knows that he would be damned before he let it happen to him.
He’s not sure in which category Archer Gilgamesh falls on—all that he knows is that Caster’s more volatile version thinks of him as a despised thief, someone who has taken away something precious from him, and no amount of talking will ever move him from that judgement.
The first few days since Archer’s summoning had been… troublesome, to say the least. Gudao can’t understand why Archer thinks of him as a burglar, though—as far as he’s concerned, he’s summoned Gilgamesh through legitimate means. Chaldea’s equipment was high-end for sure, but Gudao is not sure science has gone as far as to develop technology able to sever or rewrite a Servant’s contract.
But there was no talking to him. A whole year passed since that summoning, and the fact still remained that Archer still thought they stole him from his Master through illegitimate means.
He cooperated with tasks to the extent he didn’t wish to get burned, but other than that he refused to mingle with the rest of the Servants and refused to accept them as his new Masters. He only seemed to accept to heed their commands to the extent that not listening to them could translate into banishment, but Gilgamesh refused calling Gudao his Master, saying something about already having a Master of his own, a consort, the only one in the universe that he will ever acknowledge as such.
Gudao got a headache trying to parse the real meaning behind Gilgamesh’s outbursts, so he stopped trying to understand them after a while—although that didn’t mean he didn’t stop trying to appease him.
Both he and Gudako thought this Gilgamesh would just… calm down with time—after all, it took Caster a lot of wine (and also a lot of property damage from that time when he decided his room was too small for a King as brilliant as him to sleep inside) to properly accommodate to Chaldea, so considering Archer was supposed to be Caster’s fickle and much more immature version, they expected that kind of troublesome behavior to be doubled or tripled.
Things didn’t get any much better since then—in fact, Gudao can attest to the fact that things just seemed to have taken a turn for the worst since the Moon Cell’s Singularity popped up from nowhere.
If Archer was a golden, towering danger back then, now he seemed to be dead set to kill something—irrational to a point they’ve never seen him be, and the worst thing was that neither he or Gudako could tell if they would be safe from his ire if something brought him to cross that hot edge between just being pissed off and being murderous. Of course, there was always the option of just burning him and get rid of this headache, but Gudao wasn’t that fond of the idea; other than being irrationally pissed with the world around him, they couldn’t say Archer did anything wrong.
Gudao remembers the SE.RA.PH Singularity as if it happened yesterday, mainly because of how hard it was to keep him in line. Archer refused staying back in the sidelines with the rest—even though Gudao already had enough Archers that adding another would simply leave him with an unbalanced team, he threatened him to include him as well, and of course not knowing what else to do to calm him down Gudao allowed it to happen; a sufficiently pleased Gilgamesh was a Gilgamesh that didn’t go around touching machinery he’s not supposed to or picking up locks to doors he’s not supposed to open.
Gudao wished Archer had found the source of his angry moods in that Singularity, because he could tell that leaving empty handed only made him more unbearable and—worst of all, paranoid. His encounter with the Moon Cell’s AI had already been bad enough, but now he seemed to be sure that said AI was keeping pertinent information from him.
Gudao was sure, or at least he wanted to think, that the presence of Gilgamesh’s friend would help calm him down and see reason.
It… actually didn’t, and Archer Gilgamesh remained not seeing reason at all. Gudao even expected Gilgamesh’s reunion with Enkidu to be something heartwarming if not a little bittersweet in the same way it had been with Caster, but Enkidu just looked at Archer with a befuddled look on their face, and said ‘you’re not supposed to be here’—when Gudao had expected that to be Archer’s line, not theirs.
Well, at least Enkidu (as well as ludicrous amounts of wine) kept Gilgamesh from picking away at Chaldea’s foundations or drive Artoria to that certain point of madness where she wouldn’t mind committing war crimes for the greater good—the greater good being burning Archer to a crisp and make sure he could never be summoned back.
It wasn’t much, but it was something.
As it seems, whatever was making Archer Gilgamesh unhappy to the point that not even the mere idea of making Emiya’s (‘Faker’ for short?) or Artoria’s life a living nightmare would put a smile on his face is much more complicated than anything Gudao and his limited imagination could think of—and if that wasn’t bad enough, Enkidu, Gudao’s trump card, doesn’t seem to want to share with him the reason as to why the younger version of their friend is acting like such a pain in the ass. The most they have afforded to tell him was something the meaning of which he’s yet to properly decipher: I wish I could help you, Master, but I am afraid this is not something I can assist you with. My friend shall only know peace when his Master is returned to him, alive, and no amount of talking will move him from that belief. If you wish to speak with him despite my advice to stay away, however, he is... well, he is in the training grounds as we speak. But seeing how he thinks of you as a despised burglar, I really must insist you should not come too much close.
Gudao has tried to find counselor in every Servant he had in good authority has known Gilgamesh at some point of their existence, only to come to the very disheartening conclusion that the only Servant that has known Gilgamesh well enough to know how to deal with his bad moods and who also didn’t harbor any sort of bad feelings for him was Enkidu themselves—so yeah, there went that plan.
His pursue to find a way to cool Archer down had come to such a stupid point that even his sister Gudako saw the need to step in and tell him that he shouldn’t worry about Archer Gilgamesh nearly as much as he was, really—first, because he was a piece of shit who didn’t deserve that amount of caring, and second, because he was just having what the experts call ‘a sadgirl summer’ and an ‘insane girl autumn’ era all at once, or in other words the male equivalent of listening in the shower to ‘All The Things She Said’ slowed reverb. Gudako said that this was normal, and that he eventually will come down from it and enter his ‘girlboss winter’ era.
Gudao doesn’t know what that even means and he swears half the things his sister says are not even supposed to be language.
In any case, he has also tried to extract information from Caster Gilgamesh, with whom he had a much stronger bond (or at least he wanted to believe so) and was likely to know what the hell was wrong with himself, in the most subtle way he could—alas, now Gudao has the feeling that directing Caster’s attention to whatever was the source of Archer’s distress just ended up being counterproductive, because Caster, a previously uncaring spectator to Archer’s PMSing rampages, has now developed a newfound fascination with finding the root to all his younger self’s problems.
Gudao would be an idiot if he didn’t notice the way Caster would linger whenever Archer was privately discussing something with Enkidu inside the training grounds when all other Servants had left, or how Gudao would sometimes catch him trying to look into Chaldea’s databases in search of something, and of course Gudao was aware that Caster knew where they kept the other Masters in cryo—well, in fact, Caster has known since the moment he was first summoned here that Chaldea was one big lab, the only difference between then and now was that despite knowing this, Caster has never put much interest in whatever experiments, past and present, unsavory or not, have taken place there.
But now, for whatever reason, he does. And not only that; if that was all there was to it, Gudao could hardly claim to be concerned about Caster’s newfound hobbies, but it’s also come to his attention that when the incident with the Seraphix oil ring took place and Archer demanded to be allowed into the team sent to dispatch the SE.RA.PH Singularity, Gudako overheard Enkidu half-heartedly chewing Caster off for something he must have done—what that something was remained to be a mystery.
Well, Caster getting invested with Archer’s problems was… curious, to say the least, maybe troublesome—but most strange of all certainly had to be Caster’s newfound interest for… technical wizardry. Gudao has often caught him getting exasperated with Chaldea’s tax records, that was true, and in fact Caster Gilgamesh pretty much micromanaged Chaldea all by himself, and though it was true that they mostly relied on Casters for their healing supports, Gudao never thought he would ever see the day Gilgamesh decided to actively pursue a career in science.
Good grief. Gudao has the acute feeling this will somehow come back to bite him in the ass.
Well, he’s got other things to get worried about now, because today’s summoning session has landed him with none other than the AI Archer Gilgamesh despised with such a burning passion one really had to wonder what did the woman ever do to him to inspire such ire. Pissing Archer off was laughably easy considering that normal—and sometimes even basic—human interaction could very easily turn into a personal offense to the King, but gaining his outright hatred was something else entirely.
As for the Servant herself… well, she is definitely peculiar, Gudao thinks vaguely as he watches her pose triumphally in front of him with that little grin that tells him she’s definitely up to no good. Then again, which Servant wasn’t peculiar in their own way? However, there are quite a few things Gudao could think about that settled BB apart from the rest.
First thing that came to mind was her nature; BB, unlike most other Servants that dwelled in Chaldea, was an Advanced AI that, in turn, was conceived as some sort of backup copy of a certain Nurse AI. Even more incredible was the fact that she used data from actual deities to infuse herself with and become unstoppable. Sure, she wasn’t quite the same BB from the CCC incident if his intel was accurate, but she still held some recollections from that time—BB mentioned she was surprised to discover that the Kiara from their timeline was actually a genuinely good person; let that also be a testament to the kind of people Gudao has to deal with on a normal basis.
Regardless, Gudao finds fascinating the fact that BB still seems to hold, at some level, some recollection of the incident that is now known as the CCC incident (otherwise, she wouldn’t have recognized Kiara at all, would she?).
This was probably more of a hassle than anything else—her presence here will, no doubt, send Archer into one of those pissed off moods of his, and to top it off BB also seemed to have a mind and an agenda of her own. Being a trickster by nature, everything she did caused more trouble than good was intended to bring; that much was obvious when he had to deal with her in her Singularity.
That didn’t mean, however, that there wasn’t, at the very least, some thought process in what she did.
Gudao is right about now learning about them in greater detail, and he finds that her motivation are… Ah.
“My Senpai was too much a good person for her own good,” she said almost wistfully, the same way Gudao would imagine a widow speaking about her late wife. It was a little… sad, when he thinks about the implications of such a thought. “When Senpai came along, for the first time ever someone was looking out for me. She was… someone I could actually help and protect, someone who wouldn't look the other way if something happened to me, or treat me like a ragdoll only because I wasn’t real. She was the first human to ever show me love."
Aha… This was getting kind of corny, though.
“…It’s only unfortunate that she didn’t just give up and break her contract with her disgusting Servant as I told her to, though. Had she at least been less stubborn and stopped kicking me all the way up to the Sakura Labyrinth, why I wouldn’t have had to do to all the terrible things I had to do for her sake!”
Gudao’s small, sentimental smile froze, like a body of water in winter.
Good grief.
Now he was starting to understand why Gilgamesh ever said this woman was insane.
His smile became more strained the longer he listened to BB ranting on and on. He doesn’t personally know who this Hakuno Kishinami is, but he pities the poor unlucky fool for whatever horrors she’s had to endure. From what little he has seen, the CCC incident didn’t look… quite pretty.
Well, at the end of the day, BB only seems to care about whatever befalls humanity insofar that by saving them every once in a while from certain extinction she’s somehow honoring the memory of that Hakuno Kishinami person.
…But even if it was on a whim… ah, that seems so problematic.
It really looked like that the only thing that would actually rouse her to real action was Hakuno, or her ‘Senpai’, as BB called her. Kishinami this, Kishinami that, Gudao is sure that the purple-haired AI would do about anything if she could use it as an opportunity to show off to that young Master.
If Gudao thought Archer was lip-tight about his Master-Consort, BB wasn’t really much more open than he was. She did mention that the memories she holds from that timeline are blurry and distant, as if they had happened millennia ago, so therefore he only knows the basic of basics from Hakuno’s origins. Then again, Chaldea’s library was huge, so maybe they could be able to salvage some records from the timeline she’s come from; maybe not much, but perhaps enough that he could try to put the fragments together into something more or less cohesive.
There are a few disconnected details from BB’s vague recollection of events that make him wonder, though. …A world without mana and a strange, brain disease affecting memories which had no cure? It could be worth exploring; by what he’s gathered, that parallel world of hers had everything for another demon to take interest in it sooner or later.
“…Well, of course, Senpai wasn’t alone. Had she been, perhaps I’d have had a chance to save her, but of course her very annoying and stupid Servant had to get himself involved where he wasn’t wanted and ruin everything. In the end, when you think of it, it was really all that bastard’s fault.”
BB’s hissing voice pulled him away from his musing.
“…What?”
Suddenly, BB’s energetic voice turned sullen and contemplating. A spec of some kind of dark, strong emotion could be seen swirling around her purplish eyes, Gudao distantly noting that that emotion was most definitely hatred. Pure, burning hatred, so much of it that Gudao felt compelled to run away and hide even when said emotion wasn’t even directed at him at all.
“All of this—this whole ordeal was his doing in the first place!”
But as BB prepared herself for what Gudao supposed had to be a raging rant, the young Master became suddenly aware of someone tall standing over her and blotting out the artificial lights overhead.
All around her everyone, staff and Servants alike, and including one wide-eyed Gudao, went very, very quiet.
“BB—”
“—She would have survived. She would! I would have found a way for her to live on if only that cretin had not got in my way! That whole disaster wouldn't have happened if it weren't for Gilgamesh poking his nose where it doesn’t belong—”
Gudao gulped.
“—I don’t think that’s very wise for—”
“—that vindictive bastard stole her away—”
“—focus, BB—”
“—And don’t get me started with that squirreling, problematic mutt of his! That treacherous beast,” she spat, “I really can’t believe he actually convinced my darling Senpai to produce him. Do you realize how hard it is to keep his thieving arse out of the Moon Cell? Every time, Master! Every time I disposed of him, he just respawned! And it seems like no matter how many times we up the security, the next week he’s made off with a weapon, an artifact or a box of jewelry or something!”
“—BB! You’re starting to scare—”
“—I swear I will kill him when I get my hands on him!” she raged. At this point Gudao doesn’t know who BB is supposed to be talking about anymore. "I will kill him, kill him, kill him, and bring him back from the dead so I can kill him some more! I will kill him so hard that he won't even be a memory anymore! I will—”
Then she noticed the many, many eyes of concerned Servants and Chaldean staff alike, each of them staring at her.
"What do you simpletons think you're staring at?" she shouted.
All of them suddenly found something else to look at.
Gudao clears his throat poignantly in an attempt to bring BB back to reality and make her realize she has other things to worry about than some random burglar Servant ruining her day.
Unfortunately, it was far too late for that.
Gulping, Gudao watched in helpless awe as BB was stopped in mid-sentence as all-too familiar golden ripples materialized overhead, each one of them unleashing a set of heavy chains that coiled around her waist and then her arms, effectively restraining her.
Caught off her balance as she was, BB could only open her eyes in something resembling shock as she was lifted off the ground, entirely against her will.
With a yelp of surprise, her body twitched as she tried to strain against the chains, but Gudao knew there was no point in fighting those.
As BB thrashed and kicked and cried bloody murder at whoever was behind this heinous crime, a familiar figure strode calmly over them, wearing his perpetual smile with his arms crossed over his chest—and of course, half-naked as per usual. Gudao does understand Uruk is an arid place with extreme temperatures, and that it was better to wear as little clothing as possible; but there is absolutely no reason to do so here, in a base in Antarctica, other than to be a show off.
Gilgamesh tilted his head to the side. "Well, what do we have here. If it isn’t the Moon Cell’s AI herself, and my Archer self’s most despised and persistent antagonist."
Gudao tried to smile, and though he couldn’t see what sort of expression he was making, he could already tell it must have been strained. "G-Gilgamesh! What a surprise!"
Had he really been standing there spying them all this time?
Caster acknowledge his presence with a nod of his head, but otherwise he paid him no heed whatsoever. His focus was on his suspended captive.
"Oh, yes. A surprise, indeed. I was working on a particularly troublesome stack of complaint tablets when I was overcome with a hankering for an afternoon snack, and when I left the library to seek my amusement elsewhere, I heard shouting going on in the halls. Why, I believed one of your summonings had gone awry, so I came here to investigate." His eyebrows knitted together. "But lo and behold, when I arrived to see what all this shouting was all about, what I stumbled upon was not the grim sight of battle I had been expecting, but something much, much better. I reckon I overheard you two discussing something very interesting, and I'd rather have you two not going silent on me now."
Gudao took a few steps back, taking advantage of the fact Gilgamesh seemed to be too focused on BB to realize his Master was escaping. BB just looked nauseated—and a little bit resigned. She even stopped resisting the chains after a while.
"Tell me, then" Gilgamesh continued in a coo. "Who is this ‘problematic mutt’ whose ‘thieving ass’ you say you can’t keep out the Moon Cell, who is this 'Senpai' you keep gushing about, and how does this concern me at all?"
...Maybe leaving BB alone against the elements wasn’t the kind of thing he should have done as her Master, but then Gudao knew she was a big girl—if anything, and considering BB’s infamous track record of beaten up (and sometimes ‘consumed’) Servants and cheat exploits making her practically invincible, Gudao should be as much concerned about Gilgamesh’s integrity as he was about BB’s.
But he also had other things to worry about than Caster Gilgamesh possibly abducting the Moon Cell’s AI for a round of 20 questions (and furthermore, he didn’t want to get involved with whatever happened after this; how his Servants chose to settle their disputes wasn’t his problem unless it somehow involved putting Chaldea in danger).
Right now, while he escaped and pretended he saw nothing, Gudao considered BB’s vague retelling of events.
So… if he understood all of that correctly, and judging from BB’s testimony, Gilgamesh—Archer Gilgamesh, more specifically—was somehow involved with the CCC incident… and furthermore, maybe she had some clue as to what happened to his former Master.
Gudao let that piece of insight sink into his mind, trying to think about the ramifications of all of this and wondering if this was one of those things his sister likes to send to the ‘Do Not Process’ corner of her mind, as she herself calls it.
BB said someone ‘stole her Senpai away’; if Gudao had to take her words at face value, he was inclined to believe that that someone had been none other than Gilgamesh himself—otherwise, BB wouldn’t hate the man nearly as much as she did.
But if that was indeed the case, then…
…Why was Archer Gilgamesh eligible for summoning, if he already had a Master to begin with?
Where was this woman? Where could she had gone to?