A Not So Evil God In Fate/Grand Order

"Jeanne! Jeanne wake up!" After waking up from that dream, what awaited her was the sight of Mash shaking her body with a worried expression. Quickly getting up she started panting, greedily breathing air like it was the best thing one could hope for.

After calming herself, she took a deep breath and spoke to the Servant in front of her, "I'm fine, thank you for worrying about me. It was just a nightmare." She felt bad lying to her, even if what she saw from her Master's memories really looked like a nightmare like those she used to have when she was alive not many days ago.

"Are you sure you are fine, Jeanne? You were crying in your sleep." Mash asked, wanting to make sure everything was alright. Jeanne seemed surprised at her words. Touching her face, she noticed it was indeed wet.

"It's nothing, really. But I appreciate your concern." Jeanne smiled, though with her red eyes because of the crying, it only painted a sad sight.

It was no wonder she felt that bad, she experienced everything his Master went through like it was her own experience. The pain, the guilt, the disappointment, everything. If anything, the Saint of Orleans now understood why her Master never smiled and always showed a cold front.

Mash nodded, a little unconvinced. But she wasn't going to pursue the topic further if Jeanne felt uncomfortable with it. "Okay, I will go wake Senpai up and then we can depart again." She said turning around but before she could go she heard Jeanne's voice from behind.

"Um…Mash, do you know where Master is?" She asked with a little anxiety on her tone. Something that fortunately (for her) the pink-haired girl didn't notice.

"If you are talking about Kuro-san then he went to a nearby lake with Ar—I mean Saber to get water." She explained to Jeanne before following with a question, "What do you need him for? I can call him on my way to where Senpai is if you want." She asked, wanting to help Jeanne if only a little.

"No, no! It's not necessary, I just wanted to ask him something that's all!" She said while waving her hands from side to side in embarrassment before running towards the forest.

"Right…" Mash didn't know what to say before she remembered she didn't tell Jeanne the direction of the lake but realizing that she could sense Artoria's presence she threw her worries to the back of her mind and concentrating on the task at hand. Waking her Master!

Meanwhile, Saber and Seth were filling some buckets made out of wood they managed to make by cutting down one of the trees in this forest. They were silent the whole time, when it was time to return, however, Saber decided to break the silence. "What do you want? Surely you didn't follow me to spend quality time." She asked in a cold tone.

Seth looked at her, red eyes piercing into golden ones, before answering. "I wanted to know. When we fought in Fuyuki, you clearly knew my identity. How did you figured it out?" He wanted to ask this question before but he hadn't got the chance. It was not because he forgot about it, nope, definitely not.

Artoria sighed, "You can be quite an idiot sometimes. I just asked the Grail. I didn't want to face an unknown enemy who could potentially ruin my plans." She said before returning her gaze to the path ahead.

"You used a supposedly all-powerful wish-granting device just to ask about my identity? And you call me an idiot?" To say Seth was bewildered would be an understatement.

"Humph, I wouldn't have used it if it weren't for you. What's the problem if I use it to gauge the strength of a future opponent? A King must know his enemies before marching to battle." She said, a little dissatisfied with his expression.

"I have already said this to you, a King is nothing without the support of his people. You were fighting alone so you shouldn't have thought as a King but as a warrior instead." He reprimanded her like an a.d.u.l.t would a child.

"I don't want to hear a sermon coming from you about how to be a King. You have no right to make fun of—" She raised her voice before Seth interrupted her. "I'm not making fun of the way you reigned nor your morals as a King. In fact, I think sometimes is necessary to rule with an iron fist like you did." He said, at this point Saber was listening attentively to him without her realizing.

"But…you are trying to compare us and that's where you are wrong. While we both were tyrants, you still fought for your people and in consequence, they fought for you. Whereas I just wanted to enjoy the suffering of the people under me, if I waged war against other lands to expand our Kingdom, they followed me out of fear I would kill them, not because I was a King worth dying for." He patiently said to her.

"In a sense…I guess you were a better King than me, if the word -King- ever applied to me." After finishing the last part, he looked at Saber who was equally looking back at him with her eyes widened.

Artoria, without breaking eye contact, said. "I see… You don't seem that displeasing to the eyes anymo—" before being interrupted by Seth's temporary Servant, her expression morphing into one of annoyance, for what reason, she didn't know.

"Master! There you are!" Jeanne came out of the bushes with leaves all over her body. It seemed she traversed quite the path to get here.

Speaking as if the dream hadn't existed, he asked, "What is it Ruler? Do you need me for something?"

Jeanne looked at her Master before looking at the annoyed Saber. 'Did I do something wrong?' She asked herself having no idea why Saber looked more annoyed than usual. Returning her gaze to her Master she spoke while fidgeting a little "Um…about that dream…" For some reason, she felt very nervous talking about this topic.

Seth sighed. "Forget what you saw. It will only bring unnecessary complications, something we don't want." He said before walking toward the direction of the camp but stopped as Jeanne was now standing in his way. Her expression wasn't one of nervousness anymore, but of resolution.

"No. I believe you will feel better if you just tell me how you feel right now." She said, waiting for her Master to answer.

Artoria was getting more interested in this "dream" they were talking about, however, she wouldn't ask. Not because she didn't want to know, but because the expression of Seth was getting darker by the second.

"Ruler. You saw it, didn't you? That already happened, nothing will change just because we sit down and talk about it."  He said, leaving no rooms for arguments. However, she remained stubborn and didn't move from her place. "If that already happened and nothing will change, I don't see any reason why you shouldn't talk about it."

At this point, Seth was getting fed up. Not bothering to call her as her class, he asked. "Jeanne, do you want me to use a Command Spell on you so you can stop bringing that up?" His voice was getting colder by the second.

"Then do it. That won't change the fact that I will do everything on my power so you can smile again like the child I saw in that dream." She said, not fazed by her Master's words. If anything, they gave her the courage to keep trying.

"…" Seth looked at her for a few seconds, his long hairs dancing at the rhythm of the wind. The atmosphere was deadly still, suspense filling the air before he opened his mouth to speak. "If you stay alive at the end of this Singularity, I may consider it. But should you speak of this again before that time comes, I will kill you myself. Is that clear?"

Although he asked a question, he didn't stay to hear the answer. Walking past Jeanne, he headed to the camp with Saber behind him.

Staying silent for a moment, Jeanne turned around to face the direction where her Master figure was barely visible before answering with a firm and resolute voice. "Yes!" Though whether Seth heard her or not, that was another matter.

After everyone was back at the camp they decided their next course of action. It was Jeanne who spoke, like nothing had happened, "We should cut through this forest and head to Orleans, it will be difficult to enter the city but we might obtain information from the surrounding towns and forts. I believe the town of La Charite is near. We would have to get information there if we don't want to get closer Orleans without knowing their forces."

"You're really calm." Fujimaru commented from the side, to which Jeanne shook her head.

"Not really. In fact, I'm panicking. Only the Lord knows what sort of atrocities the other me is doing right now, she is not in her right mind. Power and hatred can turn a person into a monster." She said and indeed. The more time they took to take down the evil Jeanne, the more people suffered at her hands.

"Wait a second, I'm detecting a Servant in the path you are heading to—huh? I lost it, it's too far away now!" Romani suddenly interrupted to give them startling news.

Not wasting any second, they hurriedly run toward the direction of the town. As Fujimaru was the only "normal" one in the group, Seth decided to carry him on his shoulders to save time.

The sight that awaited them, however, was fire and smoke filling the skies. The town looked like it was hit by an earthquake.

After being dropped on the ground by Seth, Fujimaru looked at the sight of the burning city, horror filling his eyes. "The city…is burning?" He couldn't believe it even if the proof was right in front of him.

Mash then asked Romani with expectation and fear at the same time. "Doctor, any life signature in the town?" Sadly, he said what she didn't want to hear. "Sorry, there's nothing left alive in that town."

"Alive that is." Seth commented, Saber raised an eyebrow before realizing what he meant.

Suddenly, a noise came from inside one of the houses. Jeanne, thinking it was one of the residents of this town who was still alive rushed at his direction. Kicking the door open, she found something that she wouldn't have wanted to see. A little girl, not older than ten, was being eaten by what looked like a soldier with his skin greyed.

Widening her eyes, she dashed at the soldier before slashing his back, giving him a deep wound. Not giving him any time to recover, Jeanne stabbed the soldier on his head making it disappear in ashes.

Turning to look at the little girl, Jeanne noticed she was standing. But now, she looked exactly like the soldier earlier. Gripping her sword tightly as if to find courage, she went toward the girl and stabbed her in the c.h.e.s.t. 'May the Lord keep you in his sweet embrace' she prayed in her mind while the arm holding her sword trembled. If she could, she wished she didn't have to do this.

Setting her sight to the door, she noticed her Master was looking at her while leaning on the doorframe. 'He saw me killing the girl…' Was the thought in Jeanne's mind. However, her Master didn't say anything, he just turned around before exiting the house.

"Stop being all depressed and kill the rest of the walking corpses, or do you want for them to still be in that state? Don't you want to free them in the name of your so called 'Lord'?" Seth said while decapitating a zombie-looking soldier without remorse.

Hearing this, Jeanne sighed but complied. Although she wanted to find another way to bring salvation to these poor souls than to kill them, time waited no one. She would send this poor tortured souls to Heaven before they suffered more, she reassured herself.

Outside the house Saber, Mash and Fujimaru were fighting against the hordes of undead. Saber without a change in her expression kept slashing the citizens that used to smile here before disaster struck. Mash was relatively fine, she kept pushing the undead toward Saber for her to cut. Fujimaru, however, was trembling. He didn't tremble because of fear, no… He trembled because for him, this was not different than to kill real, living people. Even if they were not alive anymore.

After half an hour, they had eliminated every undead in the town. The strange thing was, some undead didn't turn to ash after being killed, but remained as corpses. It may be because they weren't fully "transformed" but just in the process to. Of course, even in that state they weren't very different from a full-fledged undead.

When everything was over they met in the center of the town. Mash, noticing the depressing looking Jeanne, asked. "Are you alright, Jeanne? Do you need to rest for a bit?"

Shaking her head and trying to appear as cheerful as possible, she replied. "Yes, I'm fine—" But before she could continue, roars filled the sky. Looking up, they noticed another army of Wyverns.

"More enemies…and Wyverns to boot." Fujimaru muttered, having adapted to the massacre of the undead, albeit with difficulty. However, he wasn't prepared for what came next.

The flying creatures descended on the ground, completely ignoring the group's presence and started feasting on the corpses that remained like it was some kind of banquet. Unable to bear the sight, Fujimaru fell to his knees holding his mouth preventing the fruits he had eaten in the forest to leave his stomach. Sadly, the expression of terror in his face wasn't something he could prevent from showing.

"Are they…? Ugh!" Although faring better than her Master, Mash was still disgusted at the sight.

"No way! Are they eating the corpses?!" Dr. Roman sounded surprised from the communicator. Who could blame him, though? It was really something disturbing to look at.

Saber and Seth looked at this with indifference, it was not like they enjoyed the "spectacle" or anything. In fact, they were as much disgusted as everyone. They just had seen far worse things than what was happening right in front of them. Saber fought against barbaric people who drank the blood of her soldiers as if it was water in a desert and they used their bones as trophies to decorate their halls. While Seth…well, let's just say he saw all the evil the world has to offer.

"Stop it!" If there was someone who was the most affected after Fujimaru, then the answer would be Jeanne. These were her people, the people she fought to protect from the English army. Even if she resolved herself to kill them to end their suffering, she wouldn't allow those flying beasts to profane their bodies!

Dashing to the closest Wyvern, Jeanne raised her sword and slashed its legs. Although it wasn't enough to leave any deep wound due to its hard scales, it managed to distract it from eating the corpse in front of it.

Not leaving it any time to recover, she used the pointy end of her flagpole to stab the neck of the Wyvern were its scales did not reach, effectively ending its life. Once it was over, Jeanne dashed at the next Wyvern to keep them from eating more corpses.

Looking at Fujimaru who was on the ground, Seth kneeled to match his height. Putting a hand on his shoulders, he decided to give him some words of encouragement, even if he was not good with those. "Get yourself together, you will probably see things far worse than this in the future. If this is enough to get you like this, what are you going to do at that time?" Yeah…maybe he should've stayed silent.

Fujimaru, who was still breathing heavily, slowly but surely recomposed himself. 'Kuro-san is right…I need to be prepared for what is going to come otherwise I won't be worthy of being Mash's Master!' Slapping his cheeks until they were red, He met the eyes of the other Master who has been with him throughout almost all of his journey, his own eyes firm. (A/N: Fujimaru is like Ash, the only Pokémon –Servant– he thinks about is Pikachu –Mash–.)

"Thank you." Fujimaru said a simple thanks, but that thanks contained a thousand emotions of gratitude. Seth just nodded, a little proud the kid could recompose himself that fast.

After seeing he was okay, Seth materialized his spear once more and started cutting and piercing Wyverns left and right. To the current him, this was not challenge…he just jinxed himself, didn't he? Clearing his head from unnecessary thoughts, he started pulling aggro so as to light the burden the others had to face.

The rookie Master for his part commanded Mash and Artoria to fight the Wyverns so they couldn't get to the corpses, something they managed to accomplish with the rampaging Master's help.

They all worked hard to kill as much Wyverns as possible. Once their numbers started diminishing, the Wyverns put their whole attention on the Chaldeans. With this, they didn't have to focus in keeping the flying creatures off the dead bodies and could fight at full force.

Different from the undead from before, the Wyverns weren't scattered across the town, so eliminating them took slight more time, only forty minutes. This was thanks to the Wyverns hard scales. Compared to human flesh, it was certainly more resistant.

After the last Wyvern was killed, Mash confirmed. "That was the last, there are no signs of enemies nearby. The battle is over."

"…" Jeanne stayed silent, seemingly reflecting on something. Noticing this, Fujimaru tried to get her attention. "Jeanne-san?"

Releasing a frustrated sigh, she spoke. "It's most likely the other 'me' who was behind this."

Seeing Jeanne like this, Mash intervened. "N-no…we can't be sure—" She said but stopped after Jeanne started shaking her head.

"No, I'm sure of it. The only thing I don't understand is…why? How much hate do you have to hold on your soul to do something like this? Even if in my last moments I was branded as a witch, I didn't hate the people who did that, I just prayed for them. That's why I can't understand the thoughts of this other Jeanne." She said with sadness on her voice, seeing all this chaos…all this destruction and to know it was caused by 'her' hands…it was just too much.

Just then, the voice of Dr. Roman came from their communicator.  "Wait a minute! The Servants that left a while ago are returning to your current position!" His voice had traces of panic all over it.

"What?! How many?!" Fujimaru asked, sharing Romani's panic.

"You must be kidding! There are five of them, and they are quickly approaching. That speed…are they Riders or something?" He shouted before remembering he had to do his job in ensuring the group's protection.

"You must run, you don't stand a chance against them!" He commanded. For once, he acted as a trustworthy 'leader'.

"But—!" Mash tried to protest. Saber and Seth shared a look before nodding, he grabbed Fujimaru and put him on top of his shoulders while she, dematerializing her sword, grabbed Mash with Shield included.

As much as Seth wanted to stay and fight. He wasn't sure he could protect the rest while fighting against that many Servants, especially if he didn't know how much powerful they were. If he had to fight someone at the level of Berserker without that shadow curse, things would get problematic.

"Thank you for the quick thinking, Kuro and Saber. Mash, I know you want to fight but there's no way you can fight an opponent that is several times stronger than you are. For now, let's retreat, any sane person would do it in this situation!" Although they didn't say anything, Seth and Artoria nodded at Romani's words.

Turning around, they headed to the direction of the town's gates. However, Jeanne stayed behind. Looking back, Seth eye's blazed with fury. "JEANNE! GET THE F*CK OUT OF THERE AND FOLLOW US! DO YOU WANT ME TO USE A COMMAND SPELL ON YOU?!" He didn't mean to scream at her like that, it was just that he didn't want her to throw her life away. Why was this girl so stubborn?! Did she have a death wish?!

Jeanne flinched at his words but remained in the same place. "No. I will stay, I have to see the other 'me' for myself. I need to ask her why she is hurting all this people."

Taking a deep breath, Seth looked at Saber. "Can you carry one more passenger?" Without waiting for her answer he threw Fujimaru at her and went back to where Jeanne was standing. Looking at her, he said—no, this was more like an order. "We are going to have a little chat after this."

Jeanne just readied her flag but there was a smile on her face. She was glad she counted with her Master's support. "With p.l.e.a.s.u.r.e!" She responded, unaware of the hell that awaited her.

"If you are going to throw your life away, might as well stay and see how you die." Just then, a cold voice came from behind the duo. Looking back, they noticed Saber was there, sword on her hand. Mash had her shield ready and Fujimaru was at the back, ready to command his two servants.

Facing forward while pinching the bridge of his nose, he released an exasperated sigh. "Really…is there someone who actually listens among you?" Although his words screamed frustration, he had a smile on his face. A smile only Jeanne could see as the other were behind him.

Jeanne gave a smile on her own. 'Really…you look better when you smile, Master." A new wave of determination hit her. Determination to return his Master to the person he used to be before he became the cold and unfeeling warrior he is now.

"It's too late, they are already here!" Dr. Roman said, and true to his words, four Servants mounted on top of a gigantic black Dragon stood in the sky.

The Black Saint was here.