Jeanne sat at a roadside cafe trying not to let her nervousness and anxiety get to her. She had ordered a sandwich, something called a Reuben, along with something sweet to drink but after taking a few bites of the sandwich realized that she wasn't able to eat while her nerves were like this. She bounced her heel and folded her arms as she tried to forget everything that the Inquisition had done-
"Even if it never happened to me directly that bastard still saw fit to put it in my head." she ground out under her breath. She reached for her drink and sipped some of it through a straw as she stared down the road where she could see the Tower of London. Which hidden behind a truly elaborate facade was the Clock Tower and also where Micheal was being put through the ringer by the Clocktower lords.
Amelia had been quick to try and reassure her after she had gotten Micheal out of the room that the lords wouldn't dare do anything to him that the Inquisition did to Jeanne D'Arc but even if she remembered that she couldn't stop her mind from conjuring images of Micheal being flogged or hung from his fingers or-
"Oh hey cutie. Whatcha doing all over here by yourself pretty lady?"
She glanced to her left and saw that a group of men had walked up to her. She scoffed, rolled her eyes, and went back to glaring at the Tower only for them to get angry. One of them shoved his way to the front of the group, shoved his finger in her face, and started yelling at her. She felt one of her signature smiles begin to play itself across her face as she realized that an outlet for her anxiety had provided itself for her all on its own.
Right as she was about to tap into her witchcraft and shove a lance up the ass of the guy yelling at her, she felt mana in the air as a series of gunshots sounded followed by a red and orange firework shooting into the sky. She grinned as it took the shape of the symbol on her flag before she stood up to leave only for the man yelling at her to grab her shoulder,
"Hey! You think you can just walk away from me you bit- ARGH!!!! MY ARM!!!!"
The man fell to the pavement and screamed in pain. His arm had been twisted in on itself being tied into a literal knot and yet Jeanne was already gone as people ran over to try and help the man. She was already two blocks away by the time someone had dialed for emergency services and was humming happily to herself as she leapt from rooftop to rooftop eventually reaching a small park where she noticed a single person sitting on a bench and feeding the pigeons. She hopped off the top of the building and put out a quick burst of flames from her palms to soften her landing but scared the pigeons off in the process,
"I know I said I wanted a signal but I'm pretty sure half of London's population saw that." She said dryly after she landed as Micheal sighed and raised his eyebrows at her while pocketing his birdseed, "How the hell did you do that? You are okay right? All in one piece? No Lords tried anything."
"Yup. All in one piece." He said making a show of his limbs and grinning at her. In response she narrowed her eyes at him,
"….What happened?"
Micheal stopped what he was doing and looked at her with a smirk,
"What if I told you that technically speaking I am British Royalty. As in actual royalty not that crusty hag that they have on the throne right now."
Jeanne raised her eyebrows,
"I'd still call you a fucking nerd. Come on, I want to get back to the house and eat actual food. This English inner city crap tastes horrible, also you're explaining to me how the hell you launched those fireworks."
She began to walk off and Micheal jogged up next to her quickly falling into step beside her. Once again she looked him over and bit her lip to stop herself from thinking about how attractive he was in that suit,
Not to mention that his tie is in my colors.
She shook her head clear as best as she could and turned her head to watch amusedly as an ambulance roared past them sirens blaring towards the cafe she had been at earlier. A sizable group of people had gathered in the intervening time,
"Wonder what happened…" She heard Micheal mutter to himself as he took a step towards the crowd. Jeanne quickly got a hold of his wrist and gently pulled him along behind her,
"The ambulance is here so let them handle whatever happened." She said smiling evilly as Micheal let himself be pulled behind her past the crowd continuing to glance behind them. After a block or two he moved up next to her again and she let go of his wrist so he could walk on his own.
_____
"Absolutely no way in hell." Amelia spat as Micheal winced and Jeanne Alter raised her eyebrows. They had gotten back to the house just fine and she had been in her room reading when she had felt Amelias mana surge. She had run towards it right as she heard the woman yelling from the kitchen and had pushed open the doors only to see Micheal standing there in a t-shirt and jeans looking uncomfortable as mana cascaded off of his mother,
"I don't care what that bitch has to say. She thinks a simple apology is enough to make up for what she and the rest of that damn family put me through? Oh! And she has the nerve to bring up THAT name? The name I abandoned because I wanted to be rid of any trace of any relation to them and their entire house of fucking cards they call a government!?!"
Jeanne slowly made her way to stand beside Micheal and glanced at him to see him looking pained but determined,
"Look. Just… I don't know. At least hear her out? You don't have to accept-"
"and listen to her make excuses as to what she did!? I find myself repeating myself: Absolutely no way in hell." Amelia shouted almost frothing at the mouth.
"So… can one of you explain what's going on?" Jeanne asked into the air rather than to either of them directly,
"The current head of the Pendragons-"
"Eleanor Pendragon," Amelia spat the name as though it was something foul in her mouth, "Has decided after thirty years that now is the time to apologize to me. Not when it was her and the rest of them treating me like a third class citizen for my entire childhood, not when she purposely started dating the boy I had a crush on as a teenager, nor when I fucking went to the Clocktower Lords to tell them that the man who taught me everything I knew WAS THE ONE BEHIND THE GOD DAMNED SLEEPING SICKNESS."
Jeanne blinked at the sheer amount of rage in Amelias voice and found herself wanting to speak only for Amelia to continue yelling as her mana roiled off of her rattling the various cooking tools hanging on the walls,
"AND THE ONE FUCKING TIME I SHELVE MY PRIDE AND ASK FOR HELP DIRECTLY IS AFTER JAROD DIED PROTECTING MICHEAL AND SHE HAS THE SHEER GALL TO TELL ME THATS WHAT I GOT FOR MARRYING A FRENCHMAN. FUCK ELEANOR. FUCK THE PENDRAGONS. FUCK THEIR ENTIRE GOD DAMNE-"
"ENOUGH."
Jeanne finally yelled over Amelia and stalked her way over to her as she stood there stunned by the look of rage on the Avengers face. She grabbed Amelias shirt collar and yanked her forward so that she was centimeters away from her,
"Your only sister is reaching out to apologize. Is it years too late? Yes. Is it barely anything in the face of what you've had to go through? Yes. Is it likely only going to devolve into a shouting match between the two of you? YES. BUT SHE IS YOUR FUCKING SISTER, AMELIA."
Jeanne's mana began to come off of her as she yelled,
"TREASURE THEM WHILE THEY ARE STILL ALIVE BECAUSE ONCE THEY ARE GONE THEY ARE NEVER COMING BACK. YOU WILL NEVER HAVE THE CHANCE TO APOLOGIZE TO EACH OTHER. YOU WILL GO TO YOUR GRAVE REGRETTING EVERY CHANCE YOU DIDN'T TAKE TO JUST REACH OUT AND TRY TO JUST TALK TO THEM. DO NOT DO WHAT I DID. DO NOT MAKE THE MISTAKE I MADE."
Jeanne felt tears about to leak from her face but she willed them back as Amelia just stared at her as her voice went hoarse,
"I made the mistake of killing the only one who would ever truly understand me. I killed her with my own two hands and do you want to know what she told me as she laid in my arms with a giant hole in her chest made from my own lances? The words that haunt me to this fucking day and that I will never be able respond to?"
Silence echoed in the kitchen as Jeanne firmed her grip on Amelias shirt,
"I will never get the chance to tell the Ruler Servant Jeanne D'Arc from my timeline that I loved her back like the sister I never had. I will never be able to thank her for saying she forgave me. Even as I destroyed the France she loved. Even as she bled out in my arms. She hugged me…. and smiled as she forgave me…."
She took a shaky breath and glared daggers at the woman opposite her,
"You are going to meet Eleanor. I am going with you and making damn sure you don't wind up like I did. I don't care if you never forgive her. I don't care if it devolves into you two shouting at each other. You are going because she is your family and you can at least have the balls to say everything you just did to her face instead of screaming it at Micheal and myself."
Jeanne let go of Amelias shirt and stormed out of the room almost running into Desmond as he was about to walk through the door. She walked back to her room and slammed the door hard enough behind her to be heard through the entire house. She fell forward onto her bed and pulled her knees up to her chest as she mentally replayed her final fight with the Ruler Jeanne D'Arc. They had fought for hours as they destroyed the city around them….
-----------
The Saint had been planting the seeds of a rebellion against Alters rule while she had been to the east conquering the Holy Roman Empire and once Alter had gotten wind of this she had moved from trying to take the capital of the HRE to simply levelling the entire city to its foundation. She had used her powers as the Dragon Witch to summon a truly massive hoard of Dragons and then finished it off by conjuring a phantom of the dragon that was infused into her very essence. She let the phantom Fafnir run wild as she turned around and made a mad dash back to France and the city where the rebellion was supposed to be centered….
______
"Of course she'd chose here to do this," Alter spat as she looked down upon the city of Compiègne from a nearby hill, "Now the question is do I sneak in or just kick in the gates…"
Alter grinned evilly as she had a third, and in her mind, better idea. She knew that a city of this size would have some form of water being brought in at specific locations around it and she had recently discovered that if she altered her flames properties they could ignite even water. She quickly found a water source and immolated the guards standing nearby so quickly they didn't even have time to scream. The fire she had used vanished just as quickly as the bodies and she walked to the channel where water was slowly flowing into the city.
She conjured some fire, altered it to what it needed to be, and then just for extra flair changed its color to green. She dropped the ball of fire into the water and took a few steps back as the water slowly thickened around the flames and then caught. Barely a minute later several columns of green fire shot up out of the various wells scattered around the city.
She strode back towards the main gate as screaming sounded from within the walls and paused outside it as she raised her right hand. Lances of darkened steel formed above her head and with a swing of her arm they pierced the iron gate until it was blown out of the wall completely and crashed thunderously into the street beyond. She summoned her sword and flagspear into either hand as she emitted hellfire from her heels while she walked into the city itself. The hellfire quickly reached one of the wooden and thatch houses causing it to immediately ignite.
Alter heard screams from inside as the fire spread only for her attention to be dragged away by the arrival of several soldiers all armed with crossbows and short swords.
"Oh please." Alter said rolling her eyes at them, "You don't think you actually stand a chance do you?"
One young soldier spoke up,
"Even if we fall as long as the true Jeanne D'Arc shines your rule will crumble Dragon Witch!"
Alter snorted a single humorless laugh and flicked her finger causing a lance to manifest and pierce the young soldiers chest. She grinned evilly as he choked on his own blood while falling backwards as she dispelled her weapons to instead settle into an unarmed fighting stance,
"I don't need weapons to slaughter all of you. Come."
With ragged yells the soldiers ran forward to their deaths.
------
Jeanne pulled her arm out from the chest of a soldier and quickly shook the gore from her gauntlet. She looked around at the carnage and felt a pang of guilt that she quickly smothered as she slowly walked forward towards the young soldier who had yelled before. He was still alive despite having one of her lances in his chest and his eyes flicked to hers as he struggled to raise his crossbow. She placed her armored boot on that arm and slowly pressed down until finally she felt the bone break under her boot followed by his screams.
"I'm too late it seems…."
Alter looked up from the soldiers pained face as she heard her own voice. Standing at the other end of the street was her mirror image who looked at her with the same look she always did everytime they saw each other.
A look of pity and regret.
Alter reached over, grabbed the lance in the soldiers chest , and twisted as she pulled it forward through his chest, splitting his upper torso in half as she pointed the gore covered lance at Jeanne D'Arc who firmed her jaw in response,
"We're going to settle this. I refuse to be your fake any longer Saint."
"Oh Alter…. you were never my fake to begin with but I do suppose we're past the point of talking now."
Alter grinned evilly as the saint summoned her flag. She responded by summoning her own weapons and she began to walk forward only to enter a run before she leapt into the air to come crashing down as Jeanne D'Arc expertly swung her flag to deflect Alters weapons.
------
"It seems… You've grown… little sister-" Jeanne D'Arc coughed blood down onto Alters chest from where she was suspended in the air. Their battle had ruined the city in its entirety leaving nothing standing not even the castle keep, the ruins of which were still actively smoldering. Alter had landed the finishing blow in a part of the town that was no different than the rest in that it was nothing but scorched rubble and burning houses. She looked up and glared into the amethyst eyes of her mirror self as the lances from her Noble Phantasm that were holding her up in the air began to dissolve into darkened mana.
Alter ground her teeth together,
"Thats it!? I finally beat you. I finally get one over on you. I won DAMMIT! SO WHY-" She tore her gaze away from the face of Jeanne D'Arc and clenched her fist as she wrestled with her own emotions, "Why does it feel like I lost instead…"
A soft but pained chuckle drew Alters attention back to the Ruler Servant who smiled at her with blood slowly leaking from between her lips,
"Whats so funny?" Alter spat, "You've lost. France will fall and you're laughing? YOU HAVE THE NERVE TO LAUGH AT M-"
"I'm not laughing at you Alter… Although-" She coughed more blood, "I will admit… I do feel like… I could have done more to help you…"
"I never needed or wanted your help Saint. All you need to do is vanish and…."
She trailed off,
"And get out of your life?"
Alter's fist shook and she whirled on her heel slashing outward with her hand causing a wave of hellfire to lance out over the rubble followed by another explosion. She stood there panting until,
"I thought- I thought beating you would make me feel better. That it would make me feel like I've actually done something with my wretched life."
She said quietly not turning around to face the blonde,
"Nothing I have, Nothing I do is truly my own. Its all copied from you. My entire existence is just a copy of you… and I could never hope to match the original. Yet the one time I exceed you- The one time I finally beat you in something…"
Alter grabbed the tattered blood soaked cloth over her chest and clutched at where her heart was hurting. She turned back around and looked at Jeanne D'Arc with tears in her eyes,
"If I did beat you… then why does it feel like I just lost something precious to me…."
Amethyst eyes widened right as the lances finally dissolved fully and the Ruler Servant fell to the ground only to never land. Alter had moved without thinking and caught her as she slid onto her knees. Alter sat the holding her other half as tears ran down her face and into the hole that was punched through the Saints chest.
Alter froze as she felt Jeannes hand cup her cheek and she looked at the saint who was smiling at her,
"You're lost… and tired, Alter. I might not have been able to save you… but I know and pray that someone will. That you'll find your light to lead you out of this darkness… I'm so proud of you…. and I forgive you even if you'll never ever deign to apologize to me… I forgive you regardless…"
Alter stared as the woman began to dissolve into golden particles, tears still flowing down her cheeks,
"Idiot… why would you forgive me… when I can't even forgive myself…"
"Because thats what you do with family. Even when you fight….there's a part of you that will always love them…. be strong Alter… Your light is coming soon…"
Alter bit her lip and tried to stifle her sobs as with a final smile the one person who truly understood her left her world.
_________
Jeanne Alter slowly opened her eyes and saw that she wasn't in the ruins of Compiègne. She was in her room in the Lafaire manor. She sat up, yawning, and glanced at the time,
"Asleep for a solid four hours looks like," She muttered, swinging her legs off the bed and standing up to stretch as she walked to the door and opened it. As she did so a sticky note fell off the door that she caught in mid air. She held it up to read,
Hey Jeanne,
You didn't answer when I knocked earlier so I assume you're asleep. I once again find myself feeling at a loss of how to react to your life….
I may hate Eleanor but I'd never-
I am going to… attempt to reach out to her to… talk. I won't try to forgive her. She hasn't earned that from me but I also don't want this feeling of hatred sitting in my heart anymore.
I'd love if you came with me to meet her. I set Desmond on establishing a date and time for us all to meet and-
Thank you and... I'm sorry you and Micheal had to see me like that.
I made some blueberry pie earlier if you want some. Its in the fridge.
-Amelia
Jeanne smiled and pocketed the note as she went downstairs to head to the kitchen. One slice of blueberry pie later she was trying to figure out where Amelia went when she thought she sensed both her and Micheals new mana from beneath the house. Frowning a bit she went to the elevator and guessed that both of them were on the fourth sublevel which was the training hall. She punched the button for the fourth level and ate some more pie as the elevator descended, humming happily at the taste.
The elevator slowed to a stop and Jeanne stepped out only to pause as she heard the sound of combat ahead of her. Making her way to the observation room she looked out to see that Amelia and Micheal were sparring except-
"How the hell is Micheal moving like that with no circuits…"
She watched, pie forgotten, as Micheal cleanly dodged a wall of reinforced stone spikes, flipped in the air, and then landed dragging his hand along the floor. Where he dragged his hand the stone darkened and turned a fiery red as blackened fire shot towards Amelia who raised a stone wall to block the fire as Jeanne sucked in a breath,
"Are those…. my flames?!" she quickly grabbed the intercom,
"BREAK! STOP! CEASE!"
Immediately both Amelia and Micheal froze as Jeanne ran down out of the observation room and to the door that led into the training room. It slid open and she ran out immediately sensing the various energies in the air. There was Amelias and Micheals mana alongside the feeling that she'd learned was Micheal using his attribute to affect or change his spells. She ran up to Micheal and looked up at him critically as he stood there looking nervous,
"...How are you using hellfire like that?"
Micheal blinked and rubbed the back of his neck in the way that signaled he was nervous. He opened his mouth to speak when,
"While you were sleeping I asked him to tell me how the final day of the grail war went. He mentioned that he was able to summon your version of Blessed Hellfire that he then used to fire three shots." Amelia explained as she came over and looked at them, "He tried to summon your version a few minutes ago and found that he couldn't so we were trying to replicate the mental conditions that allowed him to do it."
Jeanne stood there flabbergasted looking between the two of them before she pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. Folding her arms she set her face into a glare,
"And you both thought that just having him summon my hellfire was a good idea?"
They both averted their eyes from her as she groaned and turned to look at Micheal,
"Why didn't you tell me you were able to outright summon and use my hellfire or even summon my version of Blessed Hellfire? I feel like you should have brought that up when you told me your side of what happened on the final day."
Jeanne noticed that Micheal winced a bit at her accusatory tone. She turned to face Amelia who tried to smile apologetically only to wilt seeing her evident anger,
"Hellfire is not anything like Holy energy or Mana. You don't just 'summon' or 'use it'. Just. Ugh-"
Jeanne massaged her forehead with her hand as she realized she'd need to explain in detail to both of them,
"So what happens if I try then without knowing what I'm doing?"
Micheal asked curiously.
"You burn yourself alive from the inside out and since more than likely your ability to use hellfire is tied directly to me it also means that you're more than likely directly borrowing and using my own flames which come with their own specific brand of bullshit."
Jeanne Alter said flatly and folded her arms to glare at him,
"Normally I'd tell you to never do this again but I also know you're a dumbass and would continue to try behind my back. If you are set on learning to use and wield hellfire then I'll teach you how I do it. Not now though."
Micheals eyes widened and he smiled about to thank her only for her to cut him off,
"In exchange you are coming with Amelia and Myself when we go to visit Eleanor."
"Why does Micheal have to come with us?"
Jeanne turned to look at Amelia who looked confused,
"Because we need someone who can look at both my and his version of Blessed Hellfire and I'd bet money that the Pendragons know how to get to where Micheal and I need to go."
Amelia frowned as Jeanne heard Micheal make an 'ohhh' sound as he remembered,
"Right….. whoever or whatever possessed Artoria in the cafe…"
Jeanne nodded and grinned conspiratorially,
"If there is one family who'd know how to train someone to use a Divine Construct or point us in the direction of someone who can, it'd be the family who's direct ancestor used the most famous one of all."
-Micheals PoV-
"Micheal? You seem distracted. Everything okay?"
Micheal opened his eyes and glanced to his left to see Jeanne looking at him concernedly from her spot at their table. He looked around the house and felt a sense of peace in the simple morning tranquility.
"Yeah Jeanne. Everything's fi-"
A black sword was shoved through Jeannes chest causing blood to gush from her mouth and onto the table as the Darkened Saber shoved her off of her blade onto the floor dead. Micheal roared in anger summoning and pouring all his rage and despair into Blessed Hellfire as he aimed at the Fallen King of Knights head only for her head to split open into segments filled with suckers and jagged teeth as she turned into sea demons. Micheal was suddenly unable to move as more and more of Gilles demonic horde appeared out of thin air to latch onto his legs and hold him in place as all around him he heard the bastards laugh. He shot the sea demons off but they appeared and latched on faster than he could kill them.
They were quickly up to his waist and he screamed as he felt toxins make every cell he had feel like it was on fire and that he was melting from the inside out. He watched as blood slowly pooled under Jeanne Alters quickly cooling body and he suddenly felt like he was burning from the inside out. He opened his mouth to scream only to feel the mud from the grail surge up and out of his throat.
It burns.
Everything burns.
I want the burning to stop.
Help-
Micheal shot upright in his bed, panting hard, Blessed Hellfire already in his hand, his combat instinct blaring in his head as he looked around for the enemy only to freeze as it clicked in his racing mind where he was,
I'm…. home? I-
Right…. the- the grail war ended.
Jeanne and I got our wish….
Micheal put away Blessed Hellfire before pulling his knees and hugging his legs as he buried his face into them. He started breathing slowly, inhaling for seven seconds, holding for five, and exhaling for nine seconds like he had done every other time he'd woken up like that. After several minutes of slowly letting the tension out of him he glanced at the clock.
"4:47am….. I'm not going back to sleep. Not… after that..."
He took another slow breath like the ones before and got out of bed. He slipped on a t-shirt to go with his pajama pants and quietly went downstairs. He meandered his way through the house eventually finding himself outside the kitchen. He opened the door and went inside to see that he wasn't the only one up this early,
"Morning Micheal," Desmond said raising his cup of coffee in a one handed salute before pausing and looking closer, "You look like you've been through the ringer. Everything okay?"
Micheal looked at Desmond and opened his mouth only to pause and shake his head,
"Yeah… everything's fine just… a bad dream is all…"
Micheal moved towards the fridge and got out the grounds he used for his coffee as Desmond looked at him with narrowed eyes,
"It really was just a bad dream Desmond. I'm…. fi-"
"You're not fine and you haven't been for a while…. have you?"
Micheal paused at the quiet sincerity in Desmonds voice. He looked at the man and fought with himself on if he should talk to Desmond only for the man to offer an understanding smile,
"You came out of hell… but it followed you home. Didn't it?"
Micheal nodded silently as it hit him that Desmond would probably know how best to handle the nightmares he'd been having since the Grail War ended,
"I just- I keep-"
"Slow down and think. Mentally plan your sentences." Desmond advised as he set down his coffee.
Micheal nodded and thought for a few seconds,
"I keep… seeing things that are so- so real that I… can feel them. Its almost nightly that I have some…. nightmare about the war. And- ...How do I get them to stop?"
Micheal finally asked his voice breaking as he felt tears of frustration and desperation leak from his eyes.
"Well you've already done the hardest part: You've asked for help." Desmond said simply, "You know that I served in World War 2 and you've read about what happened on the Pacific Front but its another thing entirely to have lived it."
Micheal looked up and saw Desmond had folded his arms while leaning back against the kitchen counter,
"I… can only tell you what helped me deal with them…. because they won't go away completely. Might as well rip that bandaid off now."
Micheal swore softly as Desmond smiled understandingly and continued,
"For the longest time I just suffered. I couldn't talk about what I had seen with normal people due to the regiment and squad I was with and trying to talk to the average magus about empathy and PTSD is pointless. So I just suffered in silence…. until one day Jarod found me a lot like you are right now."
"Dad… helped?"
"Indirectly but he did help me find a way to navigate my way out of my own nightmares. The problem is that you never know your in a nightmare until you've left it or woken up so the idea was to have something thats so constant in your waking life that it doesn't seem out of place in the waking world but would stick out like a sore thumb in the nightmare. Seeing that object enabled me to realize I was in a Nightmare which then let me escape it."
Micheal nodded doing his best to memorize everything Desmond was saying,
"You might have to do something differently for your nightmares but the idea is the same."
They fell into silence for a bit and then,
"What if… I can't ever find it. The thing I decide on. What then?" Micheal finally asked his voice quiet.
"At that point… you have to hope that someone will pull you out of it." Desmond said calmly as he looked at Micheal.
Micheal remembered suddenly sensing fear and then helping Jeanne out of her own nightmare what felt like a lifetime ago,
.
"I wonder if her nightmares… are always like that…"
Why has she never asked me for help after that time...
"Whose nightmares?"
"It- Nevermind. I just need to find a constant thats out of place in my dream right? Should it be anything in particular?"
Desmond rubbed his chin and thought,
"For me… All of my nightmares are about the Pacific Front and the various magical crap I had to deal with during that time so what I used as my focus was something I had left back at home."
His face broke into a smile as he remembered,
"It was a geode that I had gotten to give to a girl I fancied at the time. White outershell, pink crystals inside. But I was deployed before I could give it to her and by the time I got back she was dating someone already. So I chose to keep it not knowing it would come in handy as much as it would later on in my life."
Micheal nodded,
"Something constant in my life…."
Desmond stood up and walked over to him, grabbing his shoulder and giving it a fatherly shake,
"You've got plenty of time to think about it. Make your coffee and make sure its strong. Today is the day you meet the Pendragons."
Micheal blinked and looked at the calender on the fridge to see a dragon sticker had been placed over the block that marked the day. He blew out his cheeks and looked at Desmond feeling a bit better,
"Thanks for the advice Desmond. I'll… I'll do my best to make it work."
Desmond gave his shoulder one more shake and then let go to leave but stopped as he opened the door,
"You've already taken the hardest step in this Micheal. I'm proud of you for doing it."
Desmond left and the door swung softly closed behind him,
"Something common yet out of place…."
Micheal muttered to himself as he started making his coffee.
#####
"Man and I thought your house was big." Jeanne whistled from her spot in the car as Micheal turned a corner and the Pendragon estate finally came into view. He glanced in the rearview mirror at Jeannes open mouthed awe and smiled a bit to himself as he approached another set of wrought iron gates. A golem assembled itself out of the stones of the column and approached the car as Micheal rolled down the window like he had before,
"Micheal and Amelia Lafaire along with company to visit Eleanor Pendragon."
He stated clearly. The golem dipped into a soft bow and went back to merge with the stone column as the gates slowly opened. Once they were wide enough to pass through Micheal gently pressed on the accelerator to continue up the driveway. He glanced to his right to see how Amelia was doing and wasn't surprised to see that she was clenching her jaw.
"We'll be fine Mom."
She jumped a bit and ran her fingers through her hair as she gave him a nervous smile.
After a bit of time they finally reached a giant brick roundabout with a massive garden in the center. Micheal slowed to a stop as a woman with jet black hair that was held in a tight bun approached the car as they all got out. As Jeanne got out Micheal noticed that the woman's eyes widened slightly before she set her face as she smiled at them,
"Greetings Lady Lafaire, Heir Lafaire, and company," The woman said with a flawless curtsy. She stood up and smiled at each of them although he noticed again that her eyes lingered on Jeanne for a fraction of a second longer than either him or his mother, "My name is Olivia and I serve the Pendragons in the capacity of the Lady Pendragons assistant. Please, Follow me."
With that she turned on her heel and they all looked at each other before following her into the Pendragon estate. They followed her through various hallways before eventually stopping in front of a set of oak doors. She opened them and they stepped into a lavish room with enough seating for thirty people. Off in one corner was a table full of various fruits and baked goods and what looked like a fountain of cocoa while in the opposite corner of the room was a tall box with a curved top that was playing soft jazz. Jeanne immediately went to the snack table while Amelia and Micheal sat down opposite each other,
"Eleanor will be arriving shortly. If any of you have any requests please feel free to lay your hand onto the square inset in the table and channel some mana into it. One of the Golem Butlers will immediately see to your needs."
With another flawless curtsy Olivia left closing the doors behind her leaving the room in tense silence that was quickly broken by Jeanne sitting down beside Amelia with a plate full of fruits, biscuits, and what looked like a tall glass of cocoa. Micheal watched amused as she popped a strawberry into her mouth and looked around the room,
"So is this where we're meeting her or?"
"No." Amelia sighed and leaned back into the sofa closing her eyes, "No. This is the waiting room for guests. Also I don't need to tell either of you not to so much as look at the 'golem butler button' do I?"
"Nope." Micheal said with a small smile as he adjusted his blazer. They had all gotten dressed up in semi-formal wear at Desmonds insistence. Amelia and Jeanne both had wanted to show up in t-shirts and jeans but finally gave in after he had given each of them a look that brooked no arguments. Amelia was wearing a bright blue fitted suit with a white undershirt and black tie, Micheal was wearing a black blazer and slacks with a dark red button up shirt and the purple tie from his meeting with the Clocktower Lords.
He briefly looked at Jeanne and allowed himself to just look at her for a few seconds.
She was wearing a purple button up blouse with silver buttons while the sleeves were rolled up to just above her elbows. The blouse was tucked into black jeans that went into what he could only describe as heeled black and silver military dress boots that went up to her knees. To top it all off she was wearing a necklace with a silver fleur-de-lis alongside the mystic code he had made her over a year ago.
She was beautiful in the way that only she could be.
He stared until he felt he couldn't anymore and then looked around the room himself to try and distract himself as they waited. Thankfully they didn't have to wait long,
They heard shouting from behind the closed doors and Micheal had just turned around to see what was going on when the doors slammed open and a tiny Artoria in a bright blue dress came skidding into the room. His mouth fell open and he watched as several golem butlers turned the corner clearly chasing the girl only for her to blow a raspberry at them and then reinforce her arm to then punch the wall causing a spiderweb of cracks to shoot up the wall which made the doorway and part of the ceiling collapse into a barrier of rubble blocking the golems,
"Try and get me now you stupid rock jerks!"
She cheered, fist pumping, and turned around only to freeze in place. Micheal's stare went from the girl to Jeanne who was just as stunned as he was. Amelia was the only one who seemed relaxed as she laughed out loud. The girl's face reddened and she clutched the hem of her dress before she glared at them,
"You… None of you saw anything."
"Of course, Of course… although I expect your mother will be along shortly," Amelia said still chuckling. The girls eyes widened,
"How do you know-"
"ALISON ELIZABETH PENDRAGON. I KNOW YOU'RE BEHIND THIS RUBBLE. WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON YOU, YOU ARE RUNNING A HUNDRED LAPS AROUND THE GROUNDS IN FULL PLATE YOUNG LADY."
Micheal winced as the matriarch of the Pendragon continued shouting from behind the collapsed stones and glanced at his mother who just smiled serenely. She caught his eye and shook her head a bit before smiling widely at him
"Seems I might have more in common with my dear sister than I had thought originally."
"wait- YOU'RE MOMS SISTER!?" Alison yelled. She ran up to Amelia and looked up into her eyes, "...You look nothing like her though."
"Distantly related sister but sister none the less," Amelia said ruffling Alisons hair, "Now then…"
She stood up and walked over to the rubble a smug smile playing itself across her face. Micheal turned to the mini Artoria about to advise her to run but noticed she had caught sight of Jeanne and had gone completely still as though she had seen a ghost,
"I know you….." She said slowly as if in a trance right as the rumbling of stones sounded from the doorway as Amelia lifted the rubble and carefully moved all of it to the side so that a very angry Lady Pendragon could storm inside. She nodded her silent thanks to Amelia who smiled and nodded back then walked up to Alison and grabbed her arm,
"A hundred laps. Lets go."
Eleanor left dragging Alison who just stared at Jeanne the entire time until she and her mother had rounded the corner and vanished from sight.
~~~~~~~
Sometime later they were all escorted by Olivia to a different room that was clearly a private lounge. As they entered they saw Eleanor Pendragon sitting in a leather chair massaging her temple with one hand and holding a glass of brown liquid in the other. She looked up as the doors opened and glared at Olivia as the woman showed the three of them into the room,
"Just because they had to see my daughter like that doesn't- ...Forget it." Eleanor sank back into her chair and took a sip from her glass as she eyed all of them. She sighed and sat up, placing her glass onto a nearby coaster, and gestured at the seats,
"They won't bite. Sit down or stand. I don't care. Any sense of decorum and regality went out the window the minute my daughter ran into that room."
Micheal watched as Amelia sat down opposite her sister and gave her a knowing smile,
"If we manage to patch up everything remind me to tell you some stories about Micheal."
Alarm bells went off in Micheals head,
"Or… we could... not?" He ventured hopefully, "We could all just pretend that whatever happened before and immediately after I woke up from my coma was a complete hallucinatory fever dream and leave it at that?"
Eleanor raised her eyebrows at him and then glanced at her sister,
"Deal. I'll bring the wine."
Micheal groaned realizing that he had just lost this battle and sank back into his own chair to glower at the two women. Jeanne coughed a bit causing them all to look at her,
"We'll give you all some space to chat. Come on Micheal."
"Wait. Jeanne we don't-"
Jeanne grabbed his arm and dragged him out of the room as the doors closed behind him.
"Hey Olivia? Micheal and I want a tour of this place for specifically as long as it takes for Amelia and Eleanor to finish talking!"
Jeanne yelled into the air and not even half a minute later the woman appeared, coming around the corner with a small smile,
"Of course. Perhaps I can start with the garden then."