When I managed to return to the inside of the school, everyone was celebrating. Well, most of them, Bort was still trying to avoid his fans, but they keep following him everywhere he went. Shirou was cooking fish and vegetables over an improvised grill, with the Admirabilis sisters and Caster helping him. They looked like a family...
By just the smell, most of the Lunarians and Berserker were already drooling, and their faces illuminated when they started to eat, crying tears of joy after each bite. Even the shadow servants and Assassin seemed to be having a good time.
I... had been waiting a long time to eat Shirou's cooking, but at that moment, I felt like I wouldn't be able to taste anything. I made myself present with a smile, and then discretely disappeared into the upper floors. I just walked aimlessly, but I ended up going to the places where Ghost had been the most, his room, the long recovery facility, and the library. I finished my walk entering the room where Sensei was resting. I sat on the floor next to him, in a way that someone who peeked through the door couldn't see me behind the table. I extended my arm and grabbed his hand. I breathed slowly and tried to keep my mind distracted, but I couldn't avoid remembering Ghost. I knew he will return, and reassured myself that even if he wouldn't remember me, we could make new memories together. But even knowing that, my chest hurt and I couldn't stop crying golden tears.
—Se-sensei... please... —I murmured between heavy breaths.
Then, I heard a familiar barking approaching, and I hurriedly cleaned my eyes and tried to regain my composure. As expected, Shiro the dog appeared and jumped to my face, trying to lick me all over.
—Awww, I thought you have forgotten about me —I said, hugging him.
—Oh, so this is where you were hiding —Antarc said, taking me by surprise.
—I-I'm not hiding; I just needed a place to rest for a moment. It has been hectic since we went to the ocean. I'm not even sure how many days that took us.
—Well then, do you mind if I accompany you?
—No... not at all.
We stayed on silence for a few moments, I kept playing with Shiro the dog until it got tired and went to slept at my feet.
—Do you... think the Lunarians could help us fix Sensei?
I turned to look at him with wide eyes. The idea hadn't crossed my mind, mostly because I didn't wanted to think of both Sensei and the Lunarians at the same time. They needed him to go to their afterlife, so they will be willing to help us... but I feared they could do something to him while they were on it. If they repaired him just to fulfill the purpose of praying them away, they might ignore all his other functions. Even if he was fixed... if he were to choose to not pray for them, they might retaliate against us, going back to their attempt to use our grinded dust to decorate their moons. I didn't know how to explain all of this to Antarc, who surely wanted to see Sensei as soon as possible. Fortunately for me, at that exact moment, Cairn appeared.
—What are you two doing here? Shirou has been asking for you all night —He said, slightly irritated after having to come and look for us.
—Ah, is that so? Then I'll go see what he wants —I said while getting up, trying to put on a smile—, thank you.
—Wait. Is... —he made a long pause—... Is something bothering you?
—Eh?
—You wouldn't be hiding here without a reason. And that's more or less the smile Lapis did when he was hiding something. Ghost was your confident, wasn't him? I'm his successor, so if anything is bothering you, you can talk to me... at least until he comes back.
—Ghost will never come back —I find myself saying, with a cold tone.
Hearing it from my own voice made me shudder, and before I knew, a blade had emerged from my shoulder towards the ceiling.
—Oh, shoot, I almost lost control for a moment... —I instinctively grabbed the blade and started pushing it inside of my body.
It wasn't made from my gold alloy, but it dissipated once it was inside me. I turned towards Cairn, who understandably had stepped back and had a horrified expression on his face.
—I'm sorry, I'll go to cold my head, forget what I said —I said, in the most calm voice I could muster.
I walked towards the door and tried to leave, but he got a hold of my wrist.
—What do you mean forget about it? What do you mean by saying Ghost will not come back?!
Another blade popped from my chest after hearing him, but I managed to get a hold of it before it extended too far. I breathed deeply.
—Mantis said... that the while we will have our brothers back, they will not have any of their previous memories, they were damaged by being grinded and exposed to space, or something like that.
—What?! —Ghost said, with a furious tone on his voice.
—B-but even if they lose their memories, they'll be back! —Antarc said, attempting to cheer both of us.
—Yeah... I tried to tell myself that, but... it still hurts, so I might have not said it properly. As I said, forget what I said, Cairngorn.
He seemed frustrated, but nodded. I thought of asking them to leave me alone for a moment, but if I were to be left alone with my thoughts, I would probably explode in a storm of blades as before. The only thing that was keeping me together was pretending everything was fine. So I went to the party and did exactly that, smiled and chatted, ate a lot of food, and even tried to cheer up Antarc and Cairn, who were now carrying the weight of the truth. I'll have to tell the rest about it too, but not that night. The party went until so late, that everyone involved agreed on taking half of the next day to rest and recover. After the noon, with the help of Eucci and Jade, we set up a table in the middle of the hall where we would formalize our alliance and plan our attack against Franny.
—Good afternoon, I'm Phosphophyllite, I'll be representing the Lustrous as well as acting as mediator of this negotiations.
—I'll represent the Lunarians —Assassin said, Aechmea was at her side, with Cicada and Mantis standing behind them.
—We'll speak for the Admirabilis —Ondyne said, sitting next to Shiro.
—If you don't mind, Anchin-sama, I would like to represent the shadow servants —Kiyohime said, but for some reason, I suspected Andersen was behind it.
—And I'll represent myself —Berserker said proudly.
—T-then... I would like to be included as well —Caster spoke—, as a represent of humanity.
I was a little stunned by her words, but I remembered what he had been talking after we got back from the moon. She wanted to investigate about the humans trapped inside of the MoonCell, screaming desperately for help. She didn't feel comfortable bringing this up where the Lunarians might hear about it, and I shared her feelings, so she had to come up with something to explain herself in other way.
—I have been helping the Lustrous for a long time, so I ask in retribution the chance to allow me to revive the human race in this planet after we have finished with this conflict. I'll promise to watch over them and guide them to cooperate with the species that live here already.
—I accept that proposition —I said—, and I suspect the Lunarians will not have anything against it?
—Of course not, we also support Caster's idea —Assassin said, as expected. Having humans who could pray for the Lunarians will solve their problem without having to meddle with Sensei in any way.
—The Admirabilis also vote for it —Shirou said—, so long as you keep your word.
—Of course, Shero.
Caster smiled and sat alongside all of us. I couldn't help but notice Ondyne showing a bit of jealously towards her. We moved forward the meeting, saying what we wanted and what we will give to the alliance. The Lunarians reaffirmed their total surrender, asking only to be prayed away and be given the chance to take revenge against Franny for betraying them. The Admirabilis wanted their kidnapped friends and family back, as well as retribution for the damages. We Lustrous wanted basically the same thing, so it was established that the Lunarians will share their technology with both of us before they went "to the other side". The control of the moons will also fall under us once they were not longer here, something that I could use to give Caster access to the MoonCell.
Kiyohime asked for the shadow servants who would surrender to be able to be integrated to society or allowed to return to "the throne", if they wished so. I feel that I couldn't say no to her without facing some sort of punishment, but I manage to make her promise everyone who stayed would not harm neither of the other factions. Finally, Berserker just asked for a chance to fight and to feast as much as she wanted. Caster intervened to put a few limits on the "as much as she wanted" clause and Berserker ended up accepting it. With everything settled down, we all agreed on launching our attack the next day.
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I woke up, still on my cell, still on the moon. It wasn't too bad, my cell was in the very top of a tower and I could see the city changing every day bellow me, and the planet was always above me. I think it was because that moon was tidally locked, or something. Someone had mentioned it to me, but my memories weren't too good. I had been broken and fixed so many times. I couldn't even remember how long it has been since I was captured, or what had been the exact circumstances. In any case, I just resorted to do what had become my routine in that place, starting by stretching all my body. My agate legs were as flexible as always, but my arms had been bothering me for a while. I somehow remembered them being stretchier, and not made entirely of the gold alloy, but they might have changed them. Once I was done with that, I took a quick shower, and made myself presentable. I had even become accustomed to the white clothes that the Lunarians had given me. Then, I took a book from the shelf and started to read it, waiting until they would bring me something to eat. However, that day I was surprised when Saber herself had appeared on my door.
—You are being requested on the throne room —she dryly said, and started walking without waiting for me to reply.
I followed, until we reached the big hall. Almost everyone was already there, Assassin, Franny, and of course... Archer.
—Did you called for me? —I said, not exactly sure to who I should speak.
—Yes, thank you for coming, Phosphophyllite —Franny said, jumping to life—, today we have an spectacle ready for you.
She moved her hand and the ceiling of the room opened, letting us see the sky. Almost as if they had been waiting for it, three Sunspots started to manifest.
—T-they are...
—Yes, the alliance formed to defeat me.
—They came to rescue me?
—Oh, dear. They don't even know you exist —Franny said, with a slightly wicked smile—. Archer, if you might.
—W-wait, please! Don't hurt them!
—I have been waiting to meet up with them for a long time —Archer said, getting up. With just a gesticulation, dozens of portals opened and weapons started to sprout out of them—, this is just to welcome them. You'll get your chance to meet with them before I finish them.
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We appeared over their city on the moon and made the Sunspots visible only when it was absolutely necessary. We had most of the Lunarians and shadow Servants with us, as well as Bort, Cairn, the Amethysts, Yellow, Alexi, Shirou, Ondyne, myself, and of course Berserker. I had checked up thrice that Goshe and Morga hadn't followed us, somehow. I found a bit weird that Cairn had chosen to travel with Aechmea... there was something weird about how he was acting that morning, but I hadn't had time to talk to him. Once we were done with this, I told myself.
My head started hurting a bit, as I saw a golden glint coming from one of the buildings. Shirou also saw it and materialized his shield, just before we were hit by the barrage of golden weapons hitting us. We tried to split up, Shirou keeping three separated shields, but eventually the rush of weapons overwhelmed him and they started to break. One of the weapons went straight through us and pierced the statue, making our vessel to lose stability and spin out of control. The next thing I knew, we had crashed on the moon.