Disclaimer: I do not own the Fate franchise it belongs to Kinoko Nasu and Type-Moon.

Ayame/Zero…NOT

Part I

"Ah…it feels good to be back."

Ayame Emiya stretched her arms overhead while walking down a street, all of her thirty plus years weighing down on her…well, not really. Maybe ten years ago it would have but now?

Well, prolonged use of magecraft of any sort changed one's body, usually on a genetic level, attuning one and one's descendants to their specialization in magecraft. In a way, it gave one reason why magi were so asinine about their bloodlines, not that it – or any other reason for that matter – justified how all too many magi were apathetic assholes to say the least or complete monsters that would make Doctor Mengele or Surgeon-General Shirou Ishii blush with envy.

More to the point though, the more profound one's magecraft was, the more it changed one's body. Magi-turned-vampires were the extreme example of that, where they had come to embody their mysteries to the point that they stopped being Human at all, though there were less extreme examples as well.

One of those was Ayame: after decades of using fairy magic, her eyes had mutated into a weak form of Mystic Eyes of Enchantment, complete with gold-colored irises where once they'd been blue. Not that she minded of course: one less reminder that she had originally been born of the accursed Tohsaka lineage.

And her hair: what had once been a bleached white had turned blonde, much to her irritation. Her father, Kiritsugu Emiya had once described her bleached white hair as like the snow, so for it to turn blonde out of her continued use of fairy magic was an annoyance to say the least. That said, she didn't do anything about it either, despite the temptation.

It might annoy her patrons and allies, after all. Not a wise thing to do.

However, the best change that use of fairy magic had given her was that it somehow delayed the aging process. Despite nearly being forty, Ayame looked no older than twenty-five, and she got the feeling that would be the case for a long while yet…much to the irritated jealousy of her blonde and brunette relatives/nemeses, who while capable of using magic to live longer, could not actually prevent the aging process from showing.

At least not without, as Lord El-Melloi II once described it, "becoming guinea pigs for anti-aging potions". Those were notoriously unreliable, which explained the lord's description.

That…or perhaps because they'd had children in their late twenties, it made them look more matronly far sooner than they ought to.

A gaggle of teenagers walked by, whispering among themselves and looking approvingly at Ayame and her witch outfit. "Wow, look at that." One of them whispered. "A Marisa Kirisame cosplay."

"It's very good too." Another one said.

"No kidding," a third said. "And Touhou? Man, that franchise is a legend. Even though the creator's been dead for a while now, it just won't go away."

"I hope not." The second teen said. "I couldn't imagine legends like Remi, Reimu, or Yukari just fading away…"

"Cosplay?" Ayame thought to herself with a sad smile. "Well, I guess it's a good enough an excuse to go around dressed like a witch…Illya…"

Sighing, Ayame turned a corner and feeling her stomach grumble entered the closest café. Looking around, she found the café interior to be rather old-fashioned, the floors paneled in wood, and the round tables and their sturdy chairs also likewise made from wood.

The bar counter also seemed to be made from wood, and the wallpapered walls decorated with ornamental plates, displays, and even paintings. Small ones, but paintings still for all that. Together with the deliberate-seeming, smoky half-light of the interior, the café had a charming, old world air to it.

Compared to the sleek lines and sharp geometries typical of twenty-first century architecture, this was a breath of fresh air.

A waitress approached, bowing to welcome Ayame in. Ayame bowed back, politely. "Table for one, please." She said.

"Of course," the waitress said. "Over here, please."

Ayame followed, sitting at the designated table, and after a couple of moments the waitress returned with a menu. Bowing, she then left Ayame to consider the offered options. Ayame perused the menu for a few minutes, and then closed it.

Gesturing for the waitress, the young woman arrived with pen and paper to take Ayame's orders. "I'll have a roast beef sandwich, and an iced coffee." Ayame ordered, and the waitress nodded while jotting down Ayame's orders.

"Very good, ma'am." The waitress said. "That's one order of the roast beef sandwich, and one order of the iced coffee."

Ayame nodded, and the waitress nodded as well. "Very good, ma'am," she said. "Your orders will be ready within ten to fifteen minutes."

Ayame nodded again, and with a bow, the waitress took the menu and left.

Something was wrong.

The moment Ayame left the café after her early lunch, her instincts began screaming at her that something had gone terribly, terribly wrong. Looking around her with narrowed eyes, Ayame didn't see anything out of the ordinary…at least at first.

And then things began jumping out at her. Small things…like that rather clunky cellphone a salaryman was talking into down the street, then the advertisement on a truck that passed by showing a corporate emblem that she knew had been changed in the early 2010s, and then there were the cars.

Or even the truck for that matter…they were all gasoline or diesel-powered, something that was no longer all that common in the First World – or even in the Third World – since the beginning of the 2020s, what with the Green Revolution leading to a boom in the electric automotive industry. "No…" Ayame said, as she remembered a certain café, which had…strange, reality-bending powers. "No…No…"

Ayame turned and looked up. Her worst fears were confirmed. The name of the café was Ahnenerbe.

"OH NO! NOT AGAIN!"

Ayame sat on a park bench, in a slump over getting sent flying – figuratively-speaking – across time and space again all thanks to patronizing a certain café. The last time that had happened, she'd had to wander through several timelines before getting back, and only with the help of a certain magician cum vampire.

Granted, most of those weren't particularly bad, except for that one timeline where for some reason everyone was acting like they were participants in a comedy gag, or that one timeline where Fuyuki had turned into something out of Silent Hill and where Ayame was cut off for some reason from the Reverse Side of the World…

Ayame shuddered at the memory, and at those…things, that came crawling out of the shadows in that timeline, chasing her across the ruined city until she could find the ruins of Ahnenerbe and be thrown across timelines again, if only to escape her pursuers.

Sighing, Ayame sat back. "Here we go again, I guess." She muttered to herself, pulling down her hat so that the brim shadowed her face. Closing her eyes, Ayame allowed herself to doze off for who knew how long, only to be awakened sometime later by a loud pop of displaced air.

It was past noon, and the park was getting hot. But there, sitting on the bench beside her, was a folded letter. Ayame stared at it suspiciously, and then looking around picked up a broken twig from the ground nearby and poked at the letter.

Nothing happened. Still cautious, Ayame picked it up and opened it to read.

Ahnenerbe again? Black and White, you need to be more aware of where you're going.

Zelretch

"Oh this is very helpful, thank you very much." Ayame snapped sarcastically…not that the magician wasn't wrong…which only made it more frustrating, of course.

There was another pop of displaced air, and another letter was sitting next to Ayame. Again, she poked it with a twig, and when nothing happened, she picked it up to read.

Busy with Dagon cultists right now. If I don't do this right, the Counter Force could wipe much of Southern Europe off the map at least, and at worst, this timeline could get time-locked. I'll come over and help out once I'm done here. In the meantime, a piece of advice: make the best of whatever situation you find yourself in. You never know what good might come out of it.

Zelretch

"Well…that is a good point." Ayame said, scratching at her head, before folding the letters and placing them in a pocket. Looking around her, Ayame got up, and walked over to an automated newspaper stand to see when in the world she was. She was still at Fuyuki obviously, but she needed to know more before she could decide what to do next.

Buying a newspaper, Ayame glanced at the date immediately. "December…1993…" she muttered before looking up in thought. "Wait a minute…1993…the war was in 2004…which means…

Ayame grinned, and folding the newspaper Ayame took her hat off and put it inside. She then reached further inside her hat, and pulled out her broomstick. "Time to make some magic." She said with a grin, and blasted off into the sky.

Ayame soared high and fast, over the skyline of Fuyuki City, past the urban conglomeration and then the suburbs, to the countryside just outside. There, at the outskirts of the city, loomed Mount Enzo. Atop it, sitting on a junction of no less than three ley lines, was Ryuudo Temple.

But Ayame's goal wasn't the temple, it was what lay beneath, feeding off the ley lines like a parasite, deep beneath the mountain: The Greater Grail.

Had it solely been a wish machine, it wouldn't so problematic. However, the Greater Grail had another, more sinister purpose. It's true purpose, in fact. And that was to function as a World Gate, when empowered with the energies of seven fallen Servants, to punch through the limitations of the World and open a path to the Root, the Origin, the Source of All Creation, [].

To reach it was the goal of all magi, an abominable goal for which they committed abominable acts, both on themselves and on others, even to their own children. To both Gaia and Alaya, the collective consciousness of the Earth and of Humanity respectively, it was a crime beyond all comparison to reach the Root, with Counter Guardians and other beings and individuals tasked with killing any and all who were but a step away from reaching it…

…and Ayame was among those.

As a child or even as a teenager, she had not known, but as she had grown, she had learned and accepted the price, the quid pro quo requirement of being allowed to use the power of the fey. First, to hunt down and destroy those few remaining Dead Apostles born of the True Ancestors, mistakes of the past that had escaped the vigilance of the White Princess, second, to hunt down and destroy those magi whose actions would unwittingly lead the World down to destruction…

…and finally, third: to hunt down and destroy those magi and their works, who and which were but two or less steps away from the Root.

And there, before her, was one of them: The Greater Grail.

As she approached Mount Enzo, Ayame narrowed her eyes, already working on a plan on how to fulfil her responsibilities. It was a hard and thankless job, but if she were honest, she enjoyed denying the reason for existence of magi, both because she knew it was right to do so, and because it fulfilled everything her father had taught her about magecraft in a delicious irony.

Magecraft is a tool, but it's a tool that shouldn't exist.

As Ayame approached Mount Enzo, she pulled out a pair of glasses, their lenses shaped like stars, and put them on. Numbers and symbols flashed over her sight, and then homed in on a point on the mountainside.

Ayame grinned, and removing her glasses pulled out a hexagonal mystic code, made from orichalcum and engraved with fairy letters in lapis lazuli on both front and back. "METEOR!" Ayame shouted as she pointed the Mini Elemental Furnace at the entrance into the mountain.

A blinding blast of golden light erupted from the mystic code, and lanced deep into the mountain. As the light faded, Ayame tucked the mystic code back into her dress, and then flying up dove down into the underground tunnels. "Glitter, Fairy Lights." She said, fairies appearing around her and forming an invisible field that allowed her to tear through any bounded fields in their way to the heart of the mountain.

In a blur of gold and white, Ayame streaked through the rocky and unlit tunnels, the light of the fairies shining light on that which had not and should not know light, until finally after several minutes, they emerged in an underground cavern, and there before them, was the Greater Grail. A great sphere of golden material, near-perfect but for a cracked façade enfolding around several feminine figures gathered around a single point.

The air was heavy and shaking, the Greater Grail before them saturated with decades of prana leached from the ley lines, ready to begin another Holy Grail War. A silent snarl could be all but heard as the corruption in its heart sensed their presence, but Ayame ignored it, and simply summoned additional fairies.

They flew up and down, golden bolts lashing out and sending plumes of flame and molten rock flying as they severed the Greater Grail's connection to the ley lines, while Ayame flew straight ahead. "Falling Stars in Midsummer!" she shouted, crafting and throwing lances of light at the Greater Grail.

They pierced the sphere, destroying the statuary at its heart, and with a spectral scream the ruined statuary exploded with a blinding flash. Ayame peeled away while closing her eyes and shielding them with a hand, and heading back for the tunnel, picked up speed as the fairies returned to formation around her.

All around her the cavern was beginning to collapse, rocks falling down from the ceiling to the floor, as cracks spread across the dimming Greater Grail, bleeding black blood. And then, as Ayame entered the tunnel and sped away, it exploded, sending a wall of fire and superheated air outwards, and jetting into the tunnel after Ayame.

Ayame largely ignored that, focusing only on flying her broom, on getting out from inside the mountain, and back into the clear and blue skies outside. Casting a series of single-action spells, and adjusting her broom's mysteries, Ayame used the heat of the flames behind her to push her broom, upping her acceleration, but just as she could see the light of the tunnel entrance in the distance, the flames began to catch up, lapping at the fairy shield around her.

Encouragement flashed from the fairies to Ayame and she smiled grimly, the flames surrounding them as the light grew closer and closer…

…until at last, jetting out from the heart of the inferno, Ayame flew out into the clear sky at high speed, yelling and pumping a fist in triumph. Behind her, Mount Enzo shuddered and seemed to bloat, cracks and fissures opening up all over its form and jetting fire, before it collapsed in on itself, sending reverberations all around.

It was over. The Greater Grail had been destroyed, at least in this timeline. Heaven's Feel, would never be again.

Victory was sweet.

A/N

Another spin-off of Purified by Fire, Dancing with Fairies. Shout out to a certain film, kudos if you can figure out which one.

This will be a two, maybe three-shot.