-1:02am, Tenth day of the Grail War
-Amelias PoV-
"Sleepy…"
Amelia smiled down at the purple haired girl standing beside her and briefly let go of her suitcase to kneel down to her eye level gently resting her hand on the girls head as she did so,
"Sleep. New bed. Soon. Happy?"
She mentally winced again at her broken Japanese but Sakura seemed to understand her regardless and smiled at her nodding happily,
"Happy! ….No more…. bugs right?"
For the briefest moment Amelia felt her murderous intent almost leak out but she managed to shutter it in time so as not to scare the girl. She gave her a confident smile,
"No more Bugs. Ever."
Sakura let go of her tiny suitcase and stepped forward to wrap her small arms around Amelias neck as she hugged her tightly as a few happy tears trailed down her face. Amelia wrapped an arm around her as she cried into her shoulder, about to offer more words of comfort when her travel phone started ringing. She frowned as Sakura let go with a small pout, wiping her eyes on her sleeve and clearly annoyed, as she saw it was Micheal calling,
"Well did you- ….Hello?"
She frowned as nothing but wind noise came over the phone for a few seconds before she heard a woman sobbing,
"-URNED HIM! AMELIA HELP! PLEASE! I-"
Amelia shot upright feeling a fear she only ever felt once before which was the moment when Micheal entered his coma as she heard Jeanne Alter on the other end sobbing,
"Get back to the house! I'll be right there!" She shouted into the phone as Jeanne hung up her end of the call. She whirled on her heel about to reinforce her legs and sprint away when she remembered Sakura. She quickly knelt down about to explain only for the child to give her a look of pure determination,
"Help. Micheal. Go now."
Amelia nodded, cast a bounded field to conceal them both with her as its centerpoint, and after grabbing both Sakura and their suitcases, reinforced her legs to run back outside the airport cracking the tiles under her feet in the process. She quickly found the Valet area knowing she needed to find a fast car and odds are she'd find what she'd need where all the rich people had their cars parked.
Her eyes landed on a silver sports car and she beelined for it casting a spell onto it to force it to unlock. She chucked their suitcases into the tiny area behind the drivers and passengers seats and set down Sakura who immediately got into the passenger seat and buckled herself in,
"Go. Very Fast. Okay?"
Sakura gripped her seatbelt with both hands and nodded her jaw set determinedly,
"Don't stop. Ever."
Amelia grinned at the girls response and quickly made her way to the drivers side, popped the door, and spent a few seconds familiarizing herself with how it worked before she placed a finger over the keyhole, shot some mana into it, and turned on the engine. She suddenly heard shouting from nearby and noticed security guards jogging over. She revved the engine a few times, popped the clutch, and then gunned it out of the parking space immediately hitting the clutch again to drift before she reengaged the clutch as she sped out of the parking lot.
I need to give Desmond a raise.
She thought as she remembered the racing lessons she had had him teach her after the incident with Micheals 17th birthday. She smiled wryly as she got onto the motorway and shifted gears again as the car roared like some kind of beast and shot forward. She spared a glance for Sakura who had her seatbelt in a death grip but otherwise was masking her fear excellently before she refocused on the road as she wove her way through the cars on the highway back to Fuyuki.
~~~~~~~~
Amelia did her best to not push the gas pedal through the floor as she raced back to the house. She had been halfway through the airport when she had gotten the call from Jeanne and heard her sobbing on the other end yelling something about burning Micheal. She knew the girl wouldn't lash out at Micheal like that which meant that something else happened and Amelia intended to find out what. She drifted around the corner onto one of the streets of Fuyuki. Even with the windows closed she could smell ash in the air and flicked on the cars headlights to see better as blue and red flashing lights continued to flash behind her,
"CAN YOU NOT." She yelled as she activated a spell and caused a wall of stone to erupt behind her. She heard the sound of tires screeching and what sounded like a crash but pushed it from her mind as she shifted into a higher gear and accelerated even faster. She glanced to her right and saw Sakura still clinging onto her seatbelt like a lifeline. Amelia grimaced and her eyes locked onto the turn for the street the house was on.
She shifted again and drifted onto it right as she felt a huge amount of mana approaching from somewhere ahead of her. She activated her mana sense and knew it was Jeanne Alters from the feeling alone. She breathed a sigh of relief, turned one final corner, and drove the car up the curb and onto the front yard as she hit the brakes to stop in the middle of the front lawn right as an explosion of dirt came from the back yard a few seconds later. She kicked open the door to the car, ripped open the front door, and heard Jeanne's sobs well before she saw the woman as she entered the house.
"Jeanne!" Amelia yelled as she walked to the living room, "Bring him to the living room. Now. I want to get started as soon as possible."
Amelia slammed open the door to the living room and took some stones out from her bag. She flicked them each into a corner of the room and immediately the room started sizzling as it was disinfected and sterilized. Jeanne came in carrying her son as she cleared off the coffee table before taking him from her and laying him down onto the smooth wood. She glanced at Jeanne who seemed to be hyperventilating as she hugged herself. She narrowed her eyes,
"Jeanne…. JEANNE ALTER."
The ashen haired woman flinched and snapped her gaze to Amelias.
"I know this is sudden and rough but I need your help. Go to my car. Open the trunk and pull out the bag with the red cross on it. Bring it back here. I'll get Micheal stabilized as best I can in the mean time. Don't just stand there woman! GO!"
Jeanne blinked, nodded once then twice, and ran out of the room as Amelia looked down at her son eyes tracking over him. She sucked in a breath at what she saw. It looked at first glance like a series of burn scars were placed at random on his chest.
She narrowed her eyes and leaned down, infusing her fingertip with mana, and began to trace the burns noticing something was off right away. They weren't burns so much as collections of concentrated mana that was somehow a mix of Micheals and Jeannes mana as well as a third mana that she didn't recognize.
Jeanne's mana being mixed up in these marks is odd due to the fact she would never willingly hurt him but where would this third mana have come from….
She traced the mana as best she could and frowned noticing that it was eerily similar to mana she knew she had sensed before but for the life of her she couldn't remember when or where,
Which is worrying because I remember every source of mana I've ever encountered thanks to one of my own attributes. Which means that something or someone has meddled with my memory, or worst case scenario, one of my attributes.
She put two fingers onto one of the marks and pulsed it with a bit mana only for her eyes to widen as she sensed that Micheal was trying to pull in her mana through the mark. She quickly took her hand away and rubbed her fingers against her thumb as that feeling of having her mana drained persisted for a few seconds,
Okay so its not a burn mark or any kind of injury then. If that was the case I'd sense the damaged tissue but instead all I sensed was a…. Hunger of some kind. As though this third mana was… actively trying to draw in mana from his surroundings.
But-
but that wouldn't make sense. Micheal's human through and through so he shouldn't be able to draw in mana like that.
Her train of thoughts were cut off as Jeanne got back, her metal heels gouging into the floor boards as she skidded to a stop. She nodded and refocused on treating her son as the Servant placed the bag where she had instructed and then seemed to cave in on herself,
"Good set it here to my right. Then I need you to take a deep breath, calm down as much as you can, and tell me what happened as best as you can."
Jeanne starting forcing herself to take some deep breaths as Amelia pulsed every mark on her sons torso feeling that same hunger and the same mana from every one. After a few seconds,
"Is he going to-"
"I believe I told you to calm down and tell me what happened. Whether or not he is fine is based entirely on that. They aren't burn scars, if thats what they were to begin with, and they aren't from your flames as far as I can tell."
She heard Jeanne suck in a sobbing breath and glanced up to see her fall back into a chair and bury her face into her hands as she shook from renewed sobs of relief. Amelia looked at Micheals face and reached up to pinch his cheek,
Micheal Lafaire. You have no idea how much this woman loves you.
Amelia smiled as she finished tracing the marks frowning as she mentally went over the results before standing up to go to her medical bag to get out what she needed. As she did this Jeanne managed to calm down enough to look at her as she put on a medical mask and gloves,
She went back to Micheal and bent over him before noticing that the Servant was starting to spiral in on her own thoughts. She sighed and looked at her meaningfully,
"Talk to me Jeanne. I can't help him if you don't tell me what happened."
Golden eyes flicked from her to Micheal and then closed as if it hurt to remember,
"We fought Caster tonight… a little over two hours ago. I spent as much time as I felt I could trying to shake off anyone who might be trying to follow us…. and I used my noble phantasm to kill Caster."
Amelia paused,
"What does your Noble Phantasm do and how is it powered."
Amelia pulled a jar from her bag, opened it, and then got some of the jelly onto her fingers that she then rubbed onto the marks. The jelly glowed a bit and then seemed to set in place as Jeanne inhaled a shaky breath,
"My Noble Phantasm is-"
"Breathe. We're not going anywhere and my son is not dying on my watch. The more clearly you explain the better I'll be able to treat him."
She nodded and after a few seconds,
"Do you know how… Avenger Servants fuel their powers?"
Amelia hummed a negative,
"I.. don't know if its like this for other Avenger Servants but I get all of my explosive power… from my emotions and battle lust. The stronger either or both of those are the stronger my flames and combat abilities are. My Noble Phantasm is no exception. Its supposed to be fueled by my hatred for… Everything that Jeanne D'Arc went through. Its an amalgamation of the very flames that are both the ones that burned her to death while also being the very flames I use when I fight. However it doesn't have to exclusively be my hatred for that. Any potent or strong emotion could be used as fuel for my powers."
Amelia hummed a bit to show she was still listening before she paused as a thought occurred to her,
"You said any potent or strong emotion right?"
She heard a confirmation before she looked up at the Avenger Servant who was staring at Micheal her eyes full of worry,
"Did you use the emotions from that night as fuel?"
She winced and seemed to hesitate before nodding,
"It was the only thing more powerful than my hatred for Gilles at the time."
She said quietly as she clenched her hands into fists in her lap,
"I needed to take out both Gilles and his Noble Phantasm in a single blow… So I used the feelings of… all of that night as fuel for my own noble phantasm. It… It did the job. Gilles de Rais is dead and gone but…"
Amelia smiled at her as her golden eyes filled with worry as they looked at her son,
"While yes, connection between various things is a core part of magecraft theory, I don't think your feelings for my son made him like this. If anything I'm more worried about you since I would expect that using those feelings as fuel made them 'burn hotter' to coin a phrase. How much worse is it right now?"
Jeanne fell silent and looked at Micheal as Amelia waited,
"It feels like I have a knife thats both red hot and ice cold in my chest where my heart would be and it just… keeps twisting."
"So worse than the night of."
She stated more than asked,
"...Yes. Much worse."
Amelia blew out her cheeks at the quietness in the Avengers voice as she shook her head,
"As both a doctor and someone that cares about you I'm ordering you to not use your heartbreak as fuel for your powers ever again. The heart, even if you don't physically have one as a servant, is deeply connected to our brains and psychological states so if using your heartbreak actively makes it worse then that is the last thing you need to be doing. I don't fucking care if you think its the 'last available option' Jeanne."
She took off her mask and gloves as she gave the other woman the kind of stern look she would give to unruly patients to make them behave,
"There is always an option that doesn't involve you hurting yourself or those you care about. Remember that."
Jeanne looked up at her and nodded silently.
"Okay good. Now we need to wake him up." She gestured at her sons chest, "This wouldn't have happened if it was just your Noble Phantasm. He'll be able to explain and he will explain as soon as I wake him up."
Jeanne visibly deflated upon hearing it wasn't her fault but then narrowed her eyes at Amelia,
"Wait. Amelia… how are you going to wake him up-"
She reached into her bag to pulled out a long plastic tube. She split it down the middle and then shoved the broken ends of both halves into Micheals nose as Jeanne yelled in shock and jumped up out of the chair as Micheal shot awake,
"WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT."
"Smelling salts. Now calm down-"
"Wait. I'm home. Is Caster-"
"Dead. Now calm dow-"
"Why the fuck am I shirtles-"
"MICHEAL LAFAIRE YOU WILL SHUT THE HELL UP OR I SWEAR I WILL BEAT YOUR ASS INTO NEXT YEAR."
Amelia shouted causing both her son and Jeanne to jump. She massaged her temple and fell back into a chair of her own,
"Explain those marks on your chest. Now."
Micheal glanced down and he face went pensive,
"Just… tell us the truth Master…. please…." came Jeannes voice quietly and Amelia watched as Micheals face went from pensive to physically pained in half a second.
As though the sound of Jeanne talking like that hurt him more than any physical wound ever could. Amelia glanced from her son to Jeanne and then back, suppressing a knowing smile as Micheal started explaining.
"It…," Micheal started, "They showed up….a few months ago. The morning after we got back from Bastille day I woke up and found a red line in center of my sternum. I thought it was just a blemish or that I had somehow injured myself but it never felt painful when I touched it or put mana into it. Then as the days turned into weeks and then months I noticed that there were more blemishes similar to the first one."
"Why did you never tell me about them?"
Amelia asked narrowing her eyes at the marks as Micheal winced,
"I figured that it must be some side effect of summoning an extra class servant and...I didn't want to tell you about Jeanne unless I had to." He said lamely.
Amelia turned to look at Jeanne who had collapsed backwards into her chair again at the relief she hadn't been the cause of the marks.
"Jeanne dear? A quick favor. Touch one of the marks and try to put mana into it."
Jeanne looked at her and firmed her lips as Amelia gestured at Micheal who's face flushed a bit. Jeanne stood up, dispelled her gauntlet, and came around the table so Amelia could see as she gingerly placed her fingertips onto one of the marks over his pectoral muscle. Mana pulsed off of the servant for a few seconds but nothing happened. She pulled her hand away and rubbed her fingers before moving back to her chair,
"You're right… They aren't from summoning me. I can… sense some of my mana in them for some reason but if I'm being honest any marks that would have come from my summoning would be burn marks or something related to dragons."
Amelia nodded and turned to Micheal who was watching them,
"Micheal what did you feel when she put mana into them."
He frowned and glanced down at his chest as he thought for longer than Amelia thought he would,
"As though….the marks were absorbing it…." He shook his head and looked at her, "Absorb is the wrong word. Its like it was taking in Jeannes mana and...converting it? I guess?"
"Into what?" Amelia prodded causing Micheal to look pensive again.
"...like an energy thats different than my mana, holy energy, or whatever the third one is."
Micheal said glancing down and poking one of the marks. Amelia leaned back into her chair thinking quickly only for her eyes to widen as she remembered something.
"Micheal. Do you remember what your attribute was?"
Micheal paused and glanced at her,
"It was 'Heaven/Hell' right? Whatever that means."
Amelia stared at the marks as not for the first time the oddity of what her son was able to do popped up in her mind. Mana and Holy energy were mutually exclusive. They fundamentally could not do anything than repel each other much like oil and water. Micheal, however, was able to not only use both in tandem but also combine them…. And now he had a third energy.
She closed her eyes her mind racing as Jeanne gasped getting both her and Micheals attention,
"If- Wait-," She started before slapping her cheeks and looking at Micheal, "Micheal try to only pull that third energy."
Micheal nodded and closed his eyes. A few seconds later the air in the room increased in tempature and Amelia smelled smoke. She watched as Jeanne got up from her chair again and stood in front of Micheal placing her finger tips over his heart with one hand and summoning a red and black flame in her other. The temperature in the room increased for a split second before the flame in her hand increased in size. Jeanne narrowed her eyes at the flame and then looked back at where she was touching,
"..Micheal what are you imagining right now to summon this energy." She asked quietly.
Silence and then,
"That I'm standing on the outer edge of a bonfire. Just enough inside of the area to feel a bit of warmth."
Jeanne narrowed her eyes and took her hand off of his chest. Immediately the flame in her hand reverted back to its normal state which she dispelled with a flick of her wrist. Amelia shook her head,
"You… seem to be able to… channel hellfire or something eerily similar to it."
Amelia snapped her gaze to Jeanne as she said this right as Sakura came into the room, saw Micheal shirtless, squeaked, and covered her eyes. Amelia sighed and looked at Jeanne,
"Jeanne would you mind taking Sakura to one of the guest rooms you all have? I'm thinking I'm going to need to impose on the both of you for while longer."
The ashen haired woman nodded hesitantly before looking at Micheal clearly worried. She bit her lip, shook her head, and then moved over to Sakura to kneel down in front of her. She said something in Japanese that Amelia didn't understand as Sakura peeked between her fingers to look at Jeanne before nodding slightly. Jeanne stood up and Sakura placed her hand into the black metal gauntlet as Jeanne led her out of the room.
After a few seconds,
"...Can I go put on a shirt now? Its chilly."
Amelia snorted a single laugh,
"Yes. Go put on a shirt. I think it would be less stimulating for a few of us."
He gave her a look before he walked out of the room. A few minutes later he had changed into pajama pants and a loose shirt. He came back into the room and sat down in one of the chairs as Amelia cleared her throat and looked at him,
"Micheal. You mentioned that more of these marks were showing up correct? Do you have any idea of when and how they did so?
He looked down at his torso,
"Right. Well I noticed...about a month the first one showed up that they were getting bigger everytime Jeanne drew mana from me or I used my own mana. They finally stopped growing and wound up looking like this...a few days ago."
Silence reigned in the room until,
"So...it is my fault then." Micheal whipped his head around to see Jeanne standing in the doorway looking horrified, "Its still my fault you look like that. My fault that you don't… That you have those marks."
Jeanne choked back a sob as Micheal opened his mouth to say something only to close it before looking away. Amelia rolled her eyes, stood up, walked over and grabbed the back of Micheal's shirt, reinforced her arm, and tossed him at Jeanne who panicked and managed to catch him,
"Amelia what are you doing! He's injured and its my faul-" Jeanne yelled as Amelia looked at the back of her sons head and cut off the servant.
"Micheal, hug her."
Micheal immediately straightened up and wrapped his arms around Jeanne holding her face to his chest. She struggled a bit but eventually wrapped her arms around shaking as she let out what emotions she felt she could into his shirt,
"I- I was so worri- I was so worried that- That I had burned you-"
Amelia nodded and got up to leave as Micheal muttered comforts to the sobbing servant but caught her eye asking a silent question. Amelia smiled and nodded,
"You've got this Micheal. Comfort her. Let her know its okay. I'll be in one of the guest rooms with Sakura for today. Then I'm heading back to France with her tommorow. When this is done and you're back home I want to run a scan on your circuits. When I was tracing the marks I sensed something was off about them."
Micheal narrowed his eyes at this but nodded turning back to Jeanne as Amelia cleared her throat. He looked at her again,
"Take care of her."
Amelia watched her son nod and then turn his attention back to Jeanne D'Arc Alter. She smiled and shook her head as she left to get her suitcase from the car.
You're in luck Jeanne. Now all you two lovebirds need to do is admit you love each other.
-Micheals PoV-
Micheal held Jeanne until she couldn't endure the physical contact anymore. She unhooked one of her arms from around him and gently pushed on his chest to get some space between them. She took a shaky breath and looked up at him. Micheal's felt his heart lurch seeing the raw pain and fear behind her eyes. He swallowed nervously, about to make a light joke to defuse the tension, but decided against it knowing that they needed to have the talk they had been putting off for several days now. He took a deep breath,
"Jeanne Alter. We… need to talk. About…. what happened."
Micheal internally winced at how perfectly still she turned at this. He desperately wanted to hug her again. To let her know that he didn't mean any of that in the way he thought she thought he did. That he did care for her… but now wasn't the time. He didn't know if there ever would be but god dammit he would make one at some point.
Jeanne took a few steps away and reached up to grab her upper arm with a hand. Metal groaned under her grip as she closed her eyes and breathed slowly,
"We…. aren't going to get another chance while the war is going on… Are we?"
Micheal shook his head and moved to the sofa as Jeanne sat down on the chair opposite him. He paused and had a thought,
"Jeanne… if you're okay with it. I'd like you to sit beside me while we have this… talk." He said quietly. She looked at him and opened her mouth before closing it to wordlessly move over to sit beside him on the sofa. Micheal stared at the table he had been laying on as he felt the cushion next to him sink down. He took in a shaky breath,
"I'm sorry."
He paused and turned his head a bit to look at her out of the corner of his eye as she seemed to be physically fighting herself to get the words out,
"I'm sorry for-" She paused and ground her teeth together, "I'm sorry you're stuck with me for this war. I'm sorry I'm not a better servant. One you deserved to summon. I'm sorry I'm so… useless at everything beyond fighting. You deserve better than me."
Micheal physically fought his urge to turn and look at her directly. He swallowed,
"I need to clear some things up it seems." He said carefully. He didn't know if Jeanne was looking at him but he knew if he turned his head fully to look at her he'd not be able to get the words out,
"I have never once regretted summoning you. Ever."
"But-"
"I don't care if there are 'better' servants because there aren't any. They aren't better because they aren't you. When I held you while you were dying in the Orleans singularity we both agreed to meet each other again. We made a promise to do that. Remember?"
He heard her hum a yes,
"Do you know what the chant is to summon a servant? Its a remarkably simple spell all things considered yet you can add things to it to affect the stats or even the servant themselves."
Silence from his right so he continued,
"I knew I wanted to summon you. Specifically the you that I met. Not any other version of you. Which meant that I had to alter the summoning spell a bit and add something to the catalyst."
He held up his hand and extended his index finger. On the side of it was a small white scar.
"Do you remember what the catalyst I used to summon you was?"
Silence for a few seconds and then quietly,
"...It was a fragment of the stake the real Jeanne D'Arc was burned on."
"Which means that I could have also summoned her and not you. So I needed something else to make sure that I got you. Want to hazard a guess as to what I used?"
More silence,
"You may not remember but the fragment was laying on top of red silk. That Silk I bled onto to use my blood as a supplementary booster. It took the better part of two months to fully dye and the entire time I had to hide the fact I was doing it from my mom."
Micheal curled his finger in to form a fist briefly before letting it go slack,
"I didn't care then what you could or couldn't do and I don't care now. I have never once regretted summoning you. Not then, not now, and I never will."
Micheal turned his hand over and stared at the two remaining command seals,
"I'd like to think that your wish isn't to disappear Jeanne."
"....."
"But I want to make sure that I'm doing right by you as you've done right by me this entire time. My wish for the grail remains unchanged: I want to reincarnate you so you can have the life you want to have. To do what you want to do. To meet the people you want to meet. I want you to have and be able to make those choices….but I also had the thought that if you truly wanted to vanish then my wish would be flying in the face of yours."
Micheal glanced from his right hand to stare at Jeannes gauntleted hand laying in her lap. His eyes widened as he saw drops falling onto the black metal and he had to stop his eyes from tracking up to her face. He instead focused his gaze onto her hand and continued,
"I want you to live…. and I want you to say you want to live."
"I- I don't- I don't-"
Micheal reached over and gently grabbed her clenched fist squeezing it a bit. In response she dispelled her gauntlet so his hand was directly on top of hers,
"You think you don't deserve to live?"
Silence for several seconds before in a voice even quieter than before,
"...yes."
"What if I wanted you to? That I wanted you to live the life you never got to."
Micheal said quietly firming his grip on her fist as she froze. Finally he tracked his eyes up to look at her face. Her eyes were wide and bloodshot while being rimmed with unshed tears. She was biting her lip as she looked at him,
"You…. want me… to live? ….Why?"
Micheal shrugged and offered her a lopsided smile,
"For no other reason than I think you should. There's no grandiose plan. No ulterior motive. Nothing beyond wanting to see you be free of your fate."
"But…..I-"
Micheal waited patiently for her to collect her thoughts,
"Is it… really okay to…. allow myself to want that?"
She asked quietly enough that Micheal didn't know if she was talking to herself or him. He decided to answer regardless,
"Yes. Its really okay."
He said just as quietly.
They went silent for a bit. Micheal gave her hand one final squeeze and took his hand off of hers. He looked away from her eyes and focused on one part of the wall,
"It'll take some getting used to I bet. Once you're able to stick around and choose for yourself what you want to do with your life but I do want to make sure though about this: Are you okay with my wish for you?"
Silence for a few seconds and then,
"I…"
He waited,
"I'd like to…. Try. At least."
He smiled still looking at the wall,
"Then say it to me. Tell me that you want use your wish to live the life you want."
He turned to look at her again only to see her face was one of shock. He smiled a bit wider,
"What is your wish...Jeanne D'Arc Alter?"
He could see fresh tears build in her eyes and fall down her face as her lower lip wobbled. She opened her mouth only for a choking sound to come out. She closed it, swallowed a few times, and then looked at him.
He nodded and gently asked again while reaching over and giving her hand a squeeze,
"What is your wish?"
She opened her mouth,
"I… My wish for the holy grail is..."
He nodded again and she swallowed firming her lips as she spoke more confidently,
"I want to live. My wish for the Holy Grail is to live. To be a real person with my own life that I can live however I want. To do whatever I want. To be my own person. I want to live."
"We'll make it happen then. Together." Micheal said firmly.
There are times in ones life where you see something that sticks with you for the rest of your life. It could be the sight of your first born child, The sun rising over a mountain range you just spent a week climbing, or anything else. These memories stay with you in perfect unspoiled detail for the rest of your life. You recall everything about it as though it was happening again right in front of you. From the time on the clock, the smells in the air, the feeling of your clothes on your skin.
All becomes irrevocably tied to this memory never to be separated by anything or anyone.
Micheals eyes widened as the morning sunlight slipped through the window to illuminate them on the sofa. It caught the shape of his servants tear stained face. He could smell the leather of the sofa and the now all too familiar scent of ashes and pine trees that he had come to associate with her. He could feel the sofa cushion shift under her as she turned to face him fully. He could see her gold eyes, still shimmering with unspent tears but filled with a fragile hope, as she truly smiled at him. It was the first time he had ever seen her smile like that and it struck him down to his very core like a bolt from Zeus.
Jeanne D'Arc Alter nodded, happy tears spilling down her cheeks as she smiled at him,
"Together then."
- 12:13am, Ninth Day of the Grail War-
Saber sat on the steps leading up to the wooden dias where the black crystal that was the unforged holy grail floated serenely. Excalibur Morgan rested within arms reach pulsing in time with both the crystal and her mana as she sensed Caster entering the grail. She closed her eyes and breathed in slowly, feeling the power coursing through her, and smiled cruelly.
She opened her eyes and stared at her blackened steel bracer, eyes tracing over the red lines that ran over and through it. She scoffed,
"'Enough power to change fate' was it Lancer? True I am more powerful now than I was before but…" She clenched her hand hard enough for the metal to creak and groan under the stress, "If all it took to save my country and kingdom was to let go of what few morals I had, To truly let my power run at full throttle from the start…. I can't say I wouldn't have tried."
She held out her hand and gathered her darkened mana in front of it into an orb. She compressed it down further and then let it expand in a single direction. The mana surged forward carving a red hot slash through the ground and obliterating everything in its way. She sighed and stood up, her armor rustling as she did so, and turned around to look at the crystal floating behind her,
"...The holy grail. The wish granting chalice…." She walked forward, dispelling the armor on her right hand, and gently rested her fingertips onto the orb. She felt the curses within simmering with barely restrained energy. She stiffened in place and her sword vanished from where it was laying to reappear in her hand as she turned away from the crystal surface, eyes scanning the area.
"Interesting….," She murmured as she fed mana to her magic core and prepped a mana burst as her core began to sing within her, "I doubt you would mount a frontal assault unless under compulsion from a command spell. Am I correct Assassin?"
Silence echoed through the room as Saber flicked her pale yellow eyes across her surroundings. Suddenly she twisted in place, dodging to the right, to avoid a dagger that had been thrown at her from behind. It embedded itself into the wood of the dias with a sickening thunk. Huffing, she strode over and plucked it out of the wood noticing that the wood it had sunk through had begun to turn a mottled yellow. She weighed the blade in her hand as men, women, children, and elders, all of whom were wearing the same identical skull mask, began to emerge from the various shadows in the room. All of them had some form of weapon drawn and were in combat stances. Waves of murderous intent flowed around her as she grinned evilly,
"Good. You'll be just enough entertainment to stave off my boredom."
Her arm twisted and the dagger vanished from her hand only to suddenly sprout in the middle of a child's skull mask. They fell over dead without a sound as every other fragment of Hundred Personas felt the impetus of the command seal compelling them forward in a suicidal frontal charge.
Saber fully activated her prepared mana burst and swung her sword at full power at the first enemies to reach her.
####
Saber ran her sword through the face of the woman with the blue hair, splitting the mask and her skull cleanly in half as the blade slid into the floor beneath both of them. As soon as she did so the walking corpses that had appeared with her shimmered in the air and vanished while Assassin dissolved into golden motes of light. She flicked the gore off her blade and eyed the room. It was a mess as was to be expected after fighting off a hundred enemies singlehandedly but she barely felt any change in her mana despite using as much as she did.
Her eyes locked onto the orb as the crystal began to melt away leaving a shimmering golden chalice floating in mid air as Assassin entered it. She strode over to it, navigating the remains of the battle, and stood in front of it. As she did so she heard a multitude of voices in her head and she narrowed her eyes as she lightly tapped the rim of the Holy Grail with the flat of her blade. Immediately the voices stopped and she grinned,
"As long as we understand each other then. I protect you, you grant me my wish. We both win."
The grail didn't respond.
Saber walked back to where she had been sitting before and sat down, laying her blade beside her once again.
"What I wouldn't give for a double bacon cheeseburger right now…."