-Micheals PoV-
"We can leave as soon as you want to."
Micheal said trying to keep his voice calm and his face neutral as he mentally kept flashing back to how he had found her. Laying motionless in a puddle of her own blood, her hair caked with dirt and grime, her weapons blunted, her armored corset caved into her stomach, and all the while she wouldn't respond to him yelling her name or shaking her or-. He wrapped his fingers around his wrist and gripped it tightly to remain in the present and looked at his Servant to see her giving him an odd look,
"We… should probably stay for a bit. The Church is neutral ground so we should be safe here for the time being."
Micheal nodded silently and made to stand up when he felt a hand around the wrist he had been gripping. He looked over at Jeanne Alter who looked at him with a soft smile,
"I'm fine now. Really. I… don't think I can fight anymore though. Also, before my fight with Berserker-"
"You did not 'fight' Berserker, girl. You barely survived him and only with my help since I was kind enough to signal to your master where your half dead body was."
Micheal turned his head towards this new voice and watched as a man in golden armor formed out of thin air. He firmed his lips,
"King Gilgamesh."
He bowed his head and gently gripped Jeannes fingers trying to signal her to do the same. After several seconds Gilgamesh scoffed and Micheal felt mana before seeing a golden portal open on the floor out of which a golden throne came out. Gilgamesh sat down and laid his cheek on his loosely clenched fist clearly bored,
"Mongrels."
After several seconds of silence the King of Heroes sighed,
"I would like to remind you Mongrel that you already me owe one favor for signaling to you where your worthless servant was. I am however… intrigued as to what you might do or say to convince me to give you two more favors."
Micheal blinked and looked up confused,
"I was only planning on asking for the one more, your grace."
"Enough with the brown nosing. You are the winner of the previous Holy Grail War so have some spine."
He firmed his jaw and looked Gilgamesh in the eyes as the other man's lips curled into a smile,
"Thats better. Truly the victor should stand as such. Now before you ask I have a question for the both of you."
Micheal saw Jeanne lift her head at that out of the corner of his eye before refocusing on Gilgamesh. He knew he would have to wait for the King of Heroes to ask the question but something bothered him about apparently needing an additional third favor. They sat there until a golden portal opened inbetween them and Gilgamesh out of which floated a glimmering golden chalice that floated in the air. Micheals jaw fell open as Jeanne sucked in a breath,
"Yes. The Holy Grail. Not the mockery that this ritual is based on. Every treasure in the world is mine as the world is my garden. I tolerate you mongrels sullying it because without all of you it would be far to boring and yet this leads me to my question to you both."
Micheal looked past the grail and into Gilgameshs red eyes. He maintained his stare for several seconds before Gilgamesh huffed and the Grail floated back up into a portal,
"If someone were to come into your garden, that you had cultivated and maintained for thousands of years, and set it all ablaze. What would your reaction be?"
Micheal frowned and thought for a few seconds before,
"Rage."
He turned and looked at Jeanne who was staring off into a corner of the room,
"Blinding, incandescent, rage….. You know about Solomon then."
Gilgamesh sneered,
"Yes… 'Solomon'." he chuckled a bit as though the name was a bad joke, "'Solomon' has decided to turn my garden to ash in order to fuel his ritual and yet did not think to ask me for permission to do so. As such he must be punished for his transgression. Saint, ask for your second favor and I shall tell you the terms with which I will grant it."
Micheal firmed his jaw,
"I would like a potion with which I can restore my servant to full strength."
Gilgamesh gave him a look of disappointment,
"I just showed you the true Holy Grail and you would ask for a potion instead?"
He cleared his throat,
"I would not ask for a treasure like that without first earning it. I cannot ask for the Holy Grail-"
"You mean you won't ask for the Grail… and yet you are still greedy enough to ask for something at all…. What is your name Saint?"
Gilgamesh stared at Micheal as he felt those red eyes pierce into his very soul while wondering why the King of Heroes was calling him 'Saint' when his Saint origin was gone. He firmed his jaw,
"Micheal Lafaire. I go by Micheal."
Gilgamesh narrowed his eyes at this and stood up to walk over to stand in front of Micheal,
"Stand."
He stood up and realized he was almost eye level with the King of Heroes. They stared at each other for a few seconds before Gilgamesh narrowed his eyes and spoke, his voice firm,
"What number are you?"
He blinked,
"Excuse me?"
Gilgamesh rolled his eyes and smacked Micheal across his face with the back of his hand causing Jeanne to yell only for golden chains to wrap around her to hold her in place. Micheal shook his head and looked back at Gilgamesh,
"What numbered Saint are you Lafaire? Don't make me ask a third time."
"I was number XI."
Gilgamesh went completely still as Micheal watched his eyes glow ruby red before he laughed,
"I trust you are not lying to me mongrel. The eleventh Saint? Truly?"
Micheal massaged his cheek and frowned as the King of Heroes continued laughing,
"That was the name of the origin I was given. 'Saint XI'. The same origin I burned to enter the grail to cleanse it in the 4th holy grail war."
He blinked as a thought popped into the front of his brain,
"Wait- If I cleansed the grail then-"
"Then why is the city like this?"
Jeanne asked, finishing his question for him. They looked at each other and then at Gilgamesh who was slowly calming down. He looked at them both, his eyes glinting with mirth,
"The eleventh Saint…. What are they thinking…," He looked at both of them and smiled cruelly. The golden chains wrapped around Jeanne vanished right as a crystal bottle with a golden stopper fell out of another portal that she caught with a yelp. Inside of which was a blood red liquid that seemed to glow from within,
"Your potion. Drink it and be grateful."
Jeanne nodded, uncorked the bottle, and drank it all in one go. She began to glow gold and she stared at her hands while looking down at herself as the glow faded,
"I... Feel stronger than before…"
Gilgamesh grunted and turned his attention back to Micheal,
"Thats two favors you owe me now, Saint. Lets hear your third request seeing as I'm in a good mood."
Micheal thought for a few seconds but couldn't come up with anything. He was about to say as much when he had an idea,
"Is there a way you could change my body so it can produce mana on its own again?"
Jeanne gasped while Gilgamesh scrutinized him for a few seconds,
"Not as you are now no. It would be the equivalent of granting you an entirely new body and given whats ahead of you it would only be a hindrance. That advice I offer to you free and without strings."
Micheal thought some more and then Jeanne spoke up,
"King Gilgamesh… am I allowed to ask for a favor on Micheals behalf?"
They both turned to look at her and he watched as her eyes lingered on him before turning to look at Gilgamesh who seemed to appraise her,
"You want me to give him his Saintdom back. Am I correct?"
She nodded silently as Micheals mind froze. Right as he was about to ask what she meant the King of Heroes shook his head,
"I cannot give back what was never lost in the first place. Saintdom is not an origin or anything else you modern magus might think of. As for what it is and represents I will let you figure it out. I will entertain one last request before this third and final favor vanishes into the wind like so much smoke."
Micheal thought for a few seconds and then,
"King Gilgamesh. What is my Divine Constructs final form?"
The King of Heroes turned to look at him seemingly pleased,
"Are you asking to know what it is or for me to grant it to you?"
He shook his head,
"I only wish to know what it is. Thats all."
Gilgamesh hummed and held out his hand palm up. Micheal summoned his version of Blessed Hellfire and placed it into his hand only for him to frown. He turned to look at Jeanne,
"Your half as well."
She summoned her version and handed it to the King of Heroes grip first. He weighed them both in either hand and briefly mana came off of him while he frowned,
"Intriguing… I've only ever-"
Gilgamesh suddenly stiffened in place and his head snapped to look at the ceiling as the mana coming off of him spiked causing Micheal to move in front of Jeanne protectively. After a few seconds Gilgamesh shuttered the mana coming off of him and chuckled darkly muttering something that Micheal couldn't hear under his breath before he turned his attention back to them as they stared back. He handed Micheal his Blessed Hellfire back first,
"The final form of both of your sides is one only one of you will fundamentally ever use more than once. Saint. Your final form will be revealed when you need to make a single shot upon which Everything You Hold Dear Hangs. I advise you to not miss."
He handed Jeanne's back to her as Micheal stared at the pistol not understanding,
"Dragon Witch. Your… third form is not the final form yours has. The fourth, and final, form will show itself soon to you but in a way and form you don't expect. Go with your instincts."
Micheal looked over as Jeanne took her version back and looked at it pensively before Gilgamesh clapped his hands,
"Your third and final favor from me, Saint. I will, however, be calling in one of those favors now."
Micheal gave Gilgamesh his full attention and the King responded by nodding approvingly,
"Go to the Greater Grails cavern and put a bullet through the man in green with the tall hat. I don't care where just be sure you hit him. The more it hurts him the better as he offends me by his very existence and I wish to send a message."
Micheal nodded and put away Blessed Hellfire,
"I'll get it done."
Gilgamesh nodded and then smirked before dissolving into golden particles,
"Good. Farewell Mongrels."
~~~~~~
"Is it just me or was Gilgamesh surprisingly… nice."
Micheal stated more than asked as they left the underground room and began to leave the Church. Jeanne hummed an agreement,
"Surprisingly so. I would have thought given Sabers account of that Banquet that he'd be more… arrogant. Which, I mean, he definitely was but it felt like…"
"Like he was constantly distracted the entire time. Did you manage to hear anything when he suddenly looked at the ceiling?"
"Nope," Jeanne shook her head and popped the 'P' as they passed by a kitchen which made her pause and backtrack a bit, "...Micheal~?. I have an idea…"
He looked back, saw her grin evilly, and sighed before smiling and walking back to help her loot the churches kitchen. They found several packs in a nearby room and loaded in as much food and water as they could along with some seasonings like salt and pepper into two of them. Satisfied with their haul, and noticing the happy smirk on her face, They hefted their packs and continued walking the underground hallways. Right as Micheal could feel his Servants irritation at how long it was taking they found stairs and upon reaching the top of the stairs found a ladder bolted into the wall which led up to a trapdoor in the ceiling.
"I am going first. The last thing we need is you getting your head taken off by Archer."
Jeanne said flatly, glaring at him after he had suggested he would go first. Micheal frowned,
"And what about you then? What if you get your head taken off?"
She shrugged and looked away,
"Then you'll find some way to carry on I guess. Look-" She said looking back at him with a face that made him pause, "If I die nothing changes. I'm a Servant. You can just summon someone else to take my place. If you die then…"
She trailed off and flicked her eyes away but not before Micheal could see the hurt in them. He sighed and adjusted his pack on his shoulder as he looked from his Servant to the trapdoor above them.
I want to tell her I don't want her to die or take that risk in the first place but I get the feeling thats the last thing I should say due to what it could lead into…
He shook his head clear of the usual thoughts and memories that he now associated with his feelings for the woman standing next to him. He refocused, blowing out his cheeks,
"How about this. We pop the trap door and I put out a smokescreen that we then use to get up and away. That work?"
She narrowed her eyes at him,
"And where the hell are you going to get something to make that much smoke with?"
He grinned and reached into one of the pockets he had attached to the webbing he was using for his impromptu bandoleer to pull out several cloudy crystal spheres that he had stolen from the Church's armory while waiting for her to wake up. Jeanne's eyes widened and she nodded at him,
"I'll blow the door. You throw. On 3?"
"On 3."
"1…."
Micheal tensed and adjusted the crystals in between his fingers.
"2...."
He glanced at Jeanne noticing not for the first time that she stuck her tongue out partially when she was focused like this. He shook his head and got into position as she gathered some hellfire into her palm,
"….3!"
She swung her arm up and launched hellfire up against the trapdoor blowing it to splinters right as Micheal flicked the crystals to impact just below the edge of the newly created opening. Immediately smoke billowed out from where the crystals shattered, flowing into the hallway they were in. Waving her hand in front of her face to clear the air a bit Jeanne pulsed with mana and jumped straight up and out of the opening leaving Micheal to climb up the ladder as fast as he could. He got to the edge, gripped it, and pulled himself out and into a roll onto the ground above in one fluid motion.
"Jeanne?"
Silence as he felt that worry along with the unbidden image of her with a bloody stump for a neck laying nearby flash through his mind. He grit his teeth, ejected the image from his mind, and tried to peer through the smoke only to see movement to his left. He was about to summon Blessed Hellfire when Jeanne came out of the smoke her face in a grim mask. She held an armored finger to her lips and grabbed his wrist pulling him along behind her and through a giant crack in the wall of the church.
They were only out in the open for maybe a second and a half between leaving the smoke and entering the treeline but that was clearly enough time as Micheal sensed Death and activated a witchcraft spell on instinct causing him to automatically draw in mana due to not having enough left from Avalon, immediately making himself nauseous and lightheaded, but reinforcing his body as he shot forward and tackled Jeanne several meters into the treeline, dodging a searing arrow in the process that would have struck through them both.
They landed within the treeline as the ground behind them exploded. He quickly drew in more mana, resisting the urge to vomit, and blindly deployed as many illusion and protective bounded fields as he felt he could around them before he finally pulled himself off of Jeanne and ran to the side to empty his stomach. Several minutes later he felt her hand on his back as it began to rub in small circles. He glanced up at her and saw her looking at him worriedly before he felt his stomach lurch and he quickly looked away.
~~~~~~
"So…. What the hell did you do?"
Micheal was sitting back against a tree gingerly sipping from a water bottle that they had stolen. He felt like his head head had been partially split open and for the briefest of moments wondered if he had imagined Jeanne asking her question as he closed his eyes and inhaled slowly still feeling that mana he pulled in churning in his core like a severe case of food poisoning.
"Micheal. What did you do."
He opened his eyes and tilted his head to look at her seeing she was sitting nearby with her legs pulled up to her chest and her arms wrapped around them as she looked at him worriedly,
"I-urk," Micheal started to speak only for his stomach to lurch. He closed his eyes and focused before speaking again,
"I… drew in mana. From the air."
He could imagine the various looks his servant's face went through in the next three seconds before she spoke,
"You are not to draw in mana or use magecraft or witchcraft or anything else until we're out of here. Got it? I will not tolerate any backtalk on this."
He opened his eyes a crack and looked over to see her openly glaring at him. He was tempted to say something funny back but the mana churned again making him wince,
"Got it. We should-urp. We should probably go back to the house. There should hopefully be something there to help…."
She nodded about to stand up before pausing and looking at him concernedly. He waved her off,
"Give me five minutes to get used to the leftover mana I pulled in. It honestly just feels like really fucking bad food poisoning but I can get used to it enough that we can move. I don't know the coordinates for the bounded fields I put up though so don't move too far away."
He saw her nod and adjust how she was sitting as she tucked her legs under her to sit down and lean back against a nearby tree. He closed his eyes briefly wondering if what he was feeling was a side effect of the ambient mana specific to Fuyuki right now or just what was going to happen from now on if he pulled in mana from anywhere that wasn't Avalon.
After a few minutes he managed to stand up, groaned a bit, and shook out his arms and legs as his Servant did the same. He nodded to her as she firmed her lips and summoned her sword while he dispelled the bounded fields one by one.
"Alright so what are the odds that Archer has been watching this entire time and just noticed the fields going away?"
Micheal asked as they walked further away from the church causing Jeanne to hum as she thought,
"Not likely. Not after what I felt right before I attempted to fight Berserker. Didn't you sense it?"
He shook his head,
"No I was too busy trying to post up with Blessed Hellfire to support you… for all the good it did. Why? What did you sense?"
She fell quiet as they walked for a while. He was content to wait on her and looked around the forest as he did so. After walking for a bit he looked at wrist to check his watch only to frown as he remembered he had left back in in Avalon,
"What?"
He blinked and looked over at Jeanne to see her looking at him,
"Just wondering what time it was is all…."
He looked to his right and saw the red glow of the burning Fuyuki through the trees
"….Hard to believe its been 10 years. I don't know how long its going to take to set in."
Jeanne hummed a bit and came over to stand next to him as they looked over at the red glow in silence. After a bit she chuckled, shook her head, and began to walk away,
"What so funny?"
She turned to look over her shoulder,
"I just had the thought of what if Desmond sold the house and someone was living in it is all. Trying to explain…. All of this to a bunch of normal people."
Micheal snorted a single laugh himself and jogged over to walk next to her putting a hand into his pocket. He arched an eyebrow and gestured around them with his other hand,
"And the odds of any humans being alive in all of this? Its been nothing but Servants out to kill us and undead as far as the eye can see."
Once again she fell silent only Micheal picked up on a hint of nervousness this time,
"….We are the only humans here. Right?""
Jeanne looked up at him, opened her mouth to respond, and then shook her head.
"We'll need to check the leylines to be sure but… I swear I felt a servant being summoned before Berserker charged me."
Micheals mouth fell open and he pulled out his hand to stare at his new command seals. Unlike the seals he had before, where they were a triple set of flames, these ones were a series of arched lines gradually shrinking in size. There was a red bruise-esque mark where he had used one of the seals before to restore Jeanne to full while the other two gleamed with that all too familiar red.
"So… There's another Master here? Which means…"
"We really did land ourselves in another grail war."
Jeanne finished tiredly as her shoulders sagged and she came to a stop. Micheal paused and folded his arms thinking quickly only to shake his head. He looked at his servant, put on his best smile, and gently grabbed her shoulder causing her to look up at him,
"Just means we need to survive this one too. Neither of us have any wishes left to grant right? So surviving is still a win. Remember?"
Jeanne's lips twitched upwards a bit before she sighed and turned her head away from him although he heard her call him an idiot under her breath. His grin widened,
"Come on. Lets get back to the house. I wanna see how much is still standing."
~~~~~~~
"Well. More is standing than I thought there would be if I'm being honest."
He said cautiously as they both stood on the street facing the house. The house itself was mostly standing aside from the left side of the place which was exposed to the open air and seemed to still be smoldering while the front yard was a mixture of dead yellow grass and still burning craters. From what he could see from where they were it didn't look like much of the place was left untouched by whatever had happened to the city overall although at least it was still standing.
"It…. Doesn't feel as good to be back as I thought it would be….."
He heard Jeanne say quietly to his left.
They had managed to get over to where they were safely enough even though Micheal swore he heard fighting in the distance at one point. He looked down and to his left at the Avenger servant standing beside him, her face a neutral mask, and then he sighed before his eyes landed on a specific spot on the driveway.
He pushed his way past the surfacing memories and inhaled before blowing out the air,
"Might as well see what we can salvage."
He walked forward, up the front walkway, and stood in front of the door before he noticed that Jeanne wasn't following him. He turned around about to ask what was wrong when he saw her hugging herself as she fell to her knees. He quickly ran back to her and knelt beside her as her breathing increased rapidly,
"Jeanne. Whats wrong. Talk to me. I can't help if you don't talk to me."
She shook her head and looked away from him still hugging herself. He frowned and looked around before he heard her,
"I'm sorry… I'm so sorry…"
He quickly looked back at his servant as she fell over onto her side and curled in on herself as she began to sweat bullets,
"JEANNE!!!!"
-Jeannes PoV-
Jeanne felt the all too familiar heat first except this time it didn't start at her feet. It was like someone had flipped a switch and she was instantly engulfed in fire. She thrashed, feeling herself hit something, as she screamed feeling the flames engulf her entirely. She didn't know where she was but she knew she had to get away. Get away from the fire that was killing her, the same fire that created her, that was intertwined with herself so intimately that she felt as though her own flames were burning her.
She screamed again as the heat and flames continued to burn her body and soul. She kept thrashing blindly and she felt herself connect with something again as she flailed unwilling to open her eyes and see the flames she knew would be there.
See the people that had lined up to watch her burn.
See the priest who had designated her a Witch and a Heretic.
See the same view she always saw in the nightmares that she did her best to keep from Micheal.
Then suddenly out of nowhere she was underwater. She felt the flames vanish and be replaced with the cool sensation of being submerged in the water she so desperately craved. She went limp and just let the water wash over her as she sobbed with relief that she wasn't burning anymore. Eventually she sensed someone was nearby and cracked open her eyes as she felt like every muscle she had had been worked over by a spiked hammer. She opened her mouth to speak but only a hoarse whisper came out. She looked through her squinted eyes and saw a ceiling above her
Why… does that ceiling look so familiar…
She felt water on her head and a soothing voice that seemed to gently caress her soul as the water flowed down her head to join the rest of the water that she was submerged up to her neck in. She closed her eyes savoring the sensation, tried to move any part of her she could, and felt tears of relief pool at the corners of her eyes as she felt every part of her that should be there respond like it should.
I'm… so tired but... who saved me from those flames….
She tried to open her eyes more to see who had saved her but even as she tried she felt sleep pull her into its embrace and she let it take her away. The next thing she knew was that she wasn't submerged in water but she wasn't hot or burning anymore either. If anything she was cold,
"What…."
She cracked open her eyes and blinked through the soft haze that was clouding them as she sensed she was laying on something soft. She opened her eyes further and as her vision cleared she saw a charred ceiling above her causing her to snap upright breathing fast as everything came back to her. Her gaze tore around the room she was in only for her to slow down her breathing as she felt confusion overtake her panic,
"I'm…. in my room? But-ah!"
She bit back a yell as she adjusted her hand and it touched something ice cold. She looked down and saw that where she had been laying she was surrounded by sapphires that seemed to glow from within with a cold light. She glanced at her hand and then at the rest of her to see she had dispelled her armor at some point leaving her only in a set of robes that she didn't remember putting on. It was at this point that she heard mumbling to her left that made her stiffen in place.
She looked over the side of her bed to see Micheal sleeping fitfully on the floor next to her with his back leaned up against the bedpost and Blessed Hellfire cradled in his arms. She pursed her lips as she realized who must have saved her from her episode as well as who she must have been hitting during it. She sighed and gently rapped her knuckles on the top of his head,
"Idiot saint…. Thank you. For saving me again."
She said quietly as she tried to shuffle off the bed without touching the sapphires only for Micheal to stir in his sleep and sit upright off the bedpost with a yawn. She froze as he slowly looked around the room before he stiffened, shot upright while twisting in place, and then suddenly his face was barely a couple centimeters away from her own. Her eyes widened at the same time his did as they both froze, neither one wanting to make the wrong move.
After a few seconds he slowly moved away from her until he was standing up fully. He ran his fingers through his hair and inhaled shakily as Jeanne felt like a jackhammer was going off in her chest while she tried to mentally erase the brief scent of him she had gotten. She held a hand over her chest and breathed out a shuddering breath as she tried to calm her nerves only to notice that Micheal was pointedly not looking at her.
"What."
"Um… Not sure how to say this..."
She blinked and tilted her head at him as he motioned with his hand to reach back behind her neck. She frowned and reached back, feeling her hair as she normally did, except it… kept going down. She felt her fingers glide through her hair until they met the surface of the bed where she felt more had pooled beneath her and then pulled her hand forward, catching some of her hair inbetween her fingers. She pulled it out further, her mouth falling open in disbelief as the end fell off the bed and almost touched the floor,
"Its almost a meter and a half long."
She looked at Micheal who had closed his eyes and breathed in as if to steady himself,
"Your… robes changed as well and complete honesty: I don't know where to look that doesn't make you hit me and call me a pervert."
She looked down and it finally registered properly that her robes had changed from the tattered and burned cloth that she had before into ones that were clean and bright purple. She quickly got off the bed, not caring about the sapphires, and stood upright in the room as she felt like she was at full power again. No, it felt more like she was as powerful as she was when she had been the Dragon Witch. She looked herself over, noting more details about her robes such as the fact they had changed into more of a backless and shoulderless dress than what they had been before.
She tried equipping her armor and in a flash of brilliant embers she gained several centimeters in height as heeled and armored sabatons formed up to her mid thigh while she gained scale-maile plating around her hips. Chains manifested around her shoulders and connected to a section of fabric that covered the tops of her breasts and was attached to an armored gorget that sat comfortably around her throat. She reached up to touch one of the chains that ran down between her breasts and then looked at Micheal wide eyed,
"What… changed do you think?"
She asked still a bit shocked as she manifested her gauntlets onto her arms to see that those had changed as well. Experimentally she swapped to her third form of Blessed Hellfire and hummed happily noting that they had transformed to fit her new gauntlets as well. She looked herself over again while waiting for him to respond,
"My guess is Gilgamesh's potion did something. Thats… not what I want to talk about though."
She looked at him, noticing that with her new sabatons her eyes were level with his mouth, and she looked up to see him looking at her seriously,
"What… happened back there in the driveway? It took everything just to get you to cool off. You were literally smoking and flailing and screaming and-" he paused to take a breath to calm down, "The only way I got you to stop was by carrying you into the bathroom then filling the bathtub with water from the reserves we had under the sink. I cooled it as much as I felt I could without giving you hypothermia before submerging you up to your neck. The sapphires I got from what was left of my room and thankfully I had already loaded them with a cold spell."
She blinked and felt guilt slam into her as she remembered what had caused her episode. She wondered how to best explain how the near continuous heat around them had been causing her mental issues the entire time they were here, something that the potion she had been given had only made worse. She opened her mouth to start, wincing at how much of a sad excuse for a servant she had to be when she saw Micheal shake his head,
"You can tell me later. I just need to know this: Are you okay and are you going to be okay?"
She breathed a sigh of relief for not having to explain for now and nodded to him,
"Yes. I'll be okay but… We should probably get what we need and get to the Greater Grails location so you can fulfill the favor Gilgamesh called in before it possibly happens again."
He nodded and was about to leave her room when she decided to ask,
"Micheal?"
He paused and turned around to look at her, eyebrow raised, as she clutched the hem of her robes and felt her face heat as she tried to look at him. Eventually after opening and closing her mouth a few times she managed to get out her question as she looked at him properly,
"What… Do you think?"
He turned around fully and her face heated more as he looked at her not understanding before it clicked in his mind what she was asking. His face turned red and he rubbed the back of his neck as he looked her up and down before looking away.
"You…. You look really great. Honestly. Erm…. I… have to go-"
"Yes go- Go check or do what you need to do…"
He turned to leave again,
"One more thing."
She winced at the softness of her voice and briefly hoped he didn't hear her only for him to stop in place but not turn around. She momentarily thanked whatever made him not turn around because she wasn't sure she could have gotten what she needed to say out if he was looking at her,
"Tha- ...Thanks. For saving me."
She said as Micheal straightened up and she saw a blush quickly reach his ears before going away just as quickly,
"Anytime you need it, I'll be there."
She hummed an okay and he finally walked out pulling her door closed behind him. After a couple seconds she managed to make it back to her bed, dispelled her armor to leave her in her new robes, and fell on top of it feeling her emotions war within her as she laid there and felt guilty for smiling as happily as she did,
"He thinks I look great…."
She laid there for a minute or two before she sighed and sat up her eyes catching her hair as it pooled beneath her. She idly took one of the ends between her fingers and held it in front of her face as she frowned,
"I'll actually need to look into where to get more shampoo and conditioner if this is how long my hair is going to be from now on…."
She muttered before getting off her bed once again marveling at how complete she felt as she walked around her old room to find anything she might need to bring.
"Doubt any of my clothes made it not that I'd want to put them on given what everything is like right now," She muttered as she rifled through her dresser drawers and then went to her closet pulling open the door and looking inside to see all her jackets had been lightly singed. She took a step back and shook her head,
"Anything of value I'd have left in the workshop but-" She paused feeling Blessed Hellfire briefly pulse as she swore she saw something flash from inside one of the drawers in her desk. Frowning she walked over to her desk and hooked her fingers into the indentation to pull open the drawer in question to see her journal sitting where she had left it all those years ago. She plucked it out of the drawer and flipped it open to the most recent entry as she leaned back to partiall sit on her desk,
November 18th, 1994
So…
Dammit.
How the fuck do I even write this shit down.
Amelia knows… I'm a servant now or rather she already knew but was waiting for me or Micheal to tell her. Apparently she pieced it together from a few different sources but…
She didn't find out in a way I would have wanted her to.
Micheal and I stormed the Matou Manor earlier tonight and… putting aside Micheals physical changes (such as how much hotter he is;Scratch that out later) we also rescued a little girl from… something I refuse to even write down due to how horrid and despicable it is.
We eventually got back to the house and-
I know that-
I'm such a god damn idiot
She looked down at where she had stopped writing all those years ago and gently brushed her thumb over the water stains where she had stopped writing because she wasn't able to see past the tears any more. She sighed, closed the Journal with a snap, and held it up between her fingers as it began to smolder before it caught fire to slowly turn to ash. She watched the flames until they had consumed the journal entirely and then pushed away from the desk to figure out where Micheal had gone when she felt Blessed Hellfire pulse again directing her back to the desk.
Alright.
What the fuck do you wan-
She had turned around and paused as perfectly centered on her desk was a carved purple and black jewel that she stared at while Blessed Hellfire pulsed again and she felt it prompt her to pick it up. She slowly reached out and gingerly wrapped her fingers around the jewel as she felt it pulse in time with Blessed Hellfire. It was about a 3cm wide carved sphere but she knew one thing for sure as she held it up to the light coming through a crack in the ceiling,
Its beautiful….
She stared at the gem as it caught the light and seemed to glow from the inside out. She had no idea know what kind of gemstone it was or what cut it was but what she did know is that no normal gemstone would have a pattern like this inside it or be shot through with gold like it was. The inside of the gem was a spiral pattern that seemed to spiral in different directions depending on where the light hit.
The spiral doesn't seem to have a start or ending… It just seems to loop into itself.
She lowered the gem from the light and thought for a few seconds before making a decision,
"I'll ask Micheal later when- ….Right. I'm…. trying to get away from him for his own sake… and my dumbass asked him if he thought I looked nice."
She grit her teeth and slammed the heel of her palm into her forehead as she felt her mana roll off of her in response to her anger only to pause as the gem sitting in her other hand lit up slightly. She held up the gem again and put some mana into it which made the spiral inside begin to glow as it lit up along each line. She frowned and put more mana into it watching the spiral light up more and more only to then feel the link she had with Blessed Hellfire activate at the same time the spiral glow completed itself.
"What-"
In a flash of blackened embers the crystal vanished and she felt the construct grow within her psyche. She quickly summoned Blessed Hellfire into her hand and noted that nothing changed with its pistol form. She swapped to the shotgun and then the shot-gauntlets only to not feel anything but the overall sense that Blessed Hellfire had grown stronger.
She put away Blessed Hellfire, causing it to vanish into the usual embers, and then examined her link with the construct. She closed her eyes and traced her link with it, frowning as she did so then opened her eyes and held up her hand so her palm was facing her as she remembered what Gilgamesh had said,
"'Trust my instincts'…. Okay then."
Going entirely off of her gut she summoned a palmfull of hellfire into her open palm only for her eyes to widen as instead of the normal red, orange, and black the flames sitting in her palm were a deep purple instead of red while the black seemed richer in its darkness. She stared at the flames in her hand and then extinguished them with a flick of her wrist as she held out her other hand and summoned more of those new purple flames.
"Did something about my flames change…." She muttered as she remembered her training under Merlin and how he had focused entirely on her connection with her flames and on a hunch she mentally looked at the part of herself that embodied her flames. Instead of the wrathful inferno she usually was met with she mentally stepped into a sea of simmering purple flames that went up to her knees. She walked through them and inplace of the searing heat she normally would feel, it instead felt like she was submerged in a warm updraft from the knees down.
"What…. Happened to them…"
She asked into the air as the purple flames continued to gently caress her legs. She bent down, stuck her hand into the flames, and felt her hand bump against something hidden in them. She wrapped her fingers around it and pulled it out to see it was the same gem she had found before.
"Are you… Is this my final form for Blessed Hellfire?"
A breeze blew by her, blowing her hair out to the side, as she looked away from the gem and around the purple sea. She let the gem dissolve into embers again and turned around to leave when she paused and looked over her shoulder as it finally occurred to her what had changed about her flames. It was so obvious that she could have smacked herself for not realizing immediately,
"...'Love', huh? Not… hatred."
She turned around and left the sea of purple flames behind her. A few minutes later she was walking out into the back yard to see Micheal staring at where the workshop used to be.
"Well," Micheal said flatly, turning around to look at her as she entered the backyard, "This sucks."
All she could do was nod silently as she looked at the smoking meter deep crater where the workshop used to be. She came up beside him and they both stared at the crater not quite believing that it was gone,
"Was- I mean- Did you-"
He shook his head and sighed,
"Honestly I would have liked to get some of the supplies Desmond had stashed in there but… well..."
He gestured at the crater and fell silent before turning around to go back to the house as Jeanne felt something shift in the air,
"Micheal?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you feel that?"
She turned to look at him and he turned around to look at her concernedly only for her eyes to widen as her combat instinct kicked into overdrive seeing a woman in white robes about to plunge a glinting knife into Micheals back. His own eyes widened as she shot forward using her hellfire plumes, immediately cracking the sound barrier, and summoned her sword to parry the dagger away from Micheal who had rolled out of the way. He summoned La rose d'Argent Noirci to fire off a crystal dart only for Assassin to vanish into smoke with a mad laugh before either of them could attack her properly,
"SHIT." Micheal yelled as he ran up to place his back against hers, "That had to be Assassin. How the hell- When-"
"We can worry about that later. We need to move. Now."
She swapped from Blessed Hellfires fourth form to her shotgauntlets and punched straight down pulverizing the dry and brittle ground under them to create a smoke screen. She swapped back to her fourth form, grabbed Micheals wrist, and pulled him away and around the side of the house.
He quickly shook himself out of whatever thoughts he was in as his blade glowed gold and dissolved into dust which gathered itself around his right hand into three concentric rings. He nodded to her and she let go of his wrist as he extended his other hand and snapped his fingers. In the span of half a second, gold dust that she hadn't noticed gathered in the air forming a set of lances which shot forward and blew apart the locked gate.
They ran through the ruined gate and out into the front yard when she felt a chill run down her spine causing her to tackle Micheal across the street and into the yard on the opposite side as Archer rained arrows down onto their house reducing the building to the foundation.
She stood up quickly and hefted Micheal over her shoulder,
"Sorry in advance Micheal."
"Sorry for wha-WOAH."
She flooded her legs with mana as she ran away from the house and any other attacks as fast as she could.
~~~~~~~
"Ow..."
"Sorry but…"
Micheal gave her a look like she was being stupid as she watched him rub what was probably going to turn into one of a series of bruises,
"You move faster than I can right now and you did what you needed to do: You got the Master to safety. Although next time," He poked a spot on his torso and hissed a bit, "Try to carry me a bit more gently… Where the hell are we anyway?"
She muttered an apology again but latched onto the topic change as she stood up from where she was sitting and looked around where she had brought him. It was an old Japanese traditional mansion that she had noticed while they were running as having natural bounded fields. She had more or less kicked in the door as well to get them inside so Micheal could treat any wounds he might have had. She curled her fingers into a fist as she remembered how she had had to use one of her skills to temporarily gain the Minds Eye skill so she could evade Archers arrows.
Doing so drained her mana considerably but she could still fight if need be should she have to. She sighed and stood up,
"Woah, woah, woah. Where are you going?"
She looked at him and tilted her head,
"To go see what I can find? There has to be something in this place to eat and for you to treat any injuries with. I also need to bring my mana back up since I used a lot to snag that skill to dodge Archers arrows with which means I need to find more food since what we stole from the church got blown up along with the house."
Micheal grumbled but eventually looked away from her,
"Just… Be careful. This is obviously a magus house since there are bounded fields everywhere. Add into the fact that we're both somehow keyed into them already despite neither of us being here before and I smell a trap."
Jeanne hummed and summoned her Blessed Hellfire in its second form. She swung it around her hand, loading a shell, and smirked at her Master before she opened the sliding door and walked out. She pulled it shut behind her and let her confident facade fall away as her face fell into a contemplative frown.
He's right to think there's a trap of some kind. I just don't know who would have been able to key us into the bounded fields since they would have needed to have a good idea of both mine and Micheals mana signatures.
She shook her head and held out the shotgun as she began to explore the house. After a while she opened a door into a dark room so she summoned some fire, noting it was red and black again, and gently tossed it up to float and illuminate the room. As her eyes adjusted to the lighting she scanned over everything before eventually landing on what looked like an electrical box that was built offset from the wall. She walked over to it and looked it over noting that it had silver tubing coming off of a part of it that was then patched into more silver tubing overhead.
She frowned and looked more closely at the box eventually seeing a sticker that read [ONLY DIESEL] next to a knob of some kind. She twisted the knob and briefly panicked when it fell off the box to land on the floor with a clatter. As she reached down to pick it up she smelled something off and looked back up at where the knob had gone seeing there was a hole with threading on it. She picked up what she realized was a cap and gingerly sniffed the bottom of it wrinkling her nose as she did so,
"Diesel…. Diesel…. Fucks sake the Grail gives me everything but what I actually need." She ground out before she screwed the cap back into place and looked around noticing some red containers nearby. She walked over to them and nudged them with her foot noting that they seemed to filled with liquid.
"So we have red containers filled with liquid and a box in the wall with a sticker that says 'diesel'….. god dammit I can feel the damn answer on the tip of my tongue."
She swore and turned on her heel to go back to where she had entered. She summoned her sword and cut a set of three lines into the door frame with the edge of the blade so she'd know to come back later with Micheal before dispelling the hovering ball of fire and closing the door. Soon after that she found the kitchen, a master bedroom with clothes scattered everywhere, and a few guest bedrooms one of which gave her pause as when she opened the door she smelled for the briefest of moments some of the flowers from Avalon.
She slowly walked into the room noting that while it was a traditional bedroom, futon and all, there was a remarkable amount of items from the Western side of the world. She counted a few english style dresses hanging up in the partially open closet, and a bookshelf filled to the brim with books in English, French, and other european languages. As she perused the books she noted that about half of them were on legends and myths from around the world while the other half were about individual people. She even found one or two books on Jeanne d'Arc before she noticed one blank book that had a well worn spine. She plucked it off the shelf and flipped it open to a random page,
October 25th, 1994
I am once again wondering what the point of keeping a daily journal like this is. I didn't keep one when I was alive and I certainly don't need to keep one now but Irisveil insists that she have something to remember me by for when the war is over-
Jeanne blinked and felt her face burn as she closed Artorias diary with a snap and let out a shaky breath before putting it back in its spot on the bookshelf. She closed her eyes and paused for a bit before leaving the room and walking back to the living room that she had left her Master in.
-Micheals PoV-
Micheal tested his shoulder and tried not to feel apprehensive about the house that his Servant had broken into for them to rest. He looked around the room that she had left him in, half expecting something to jump out at him from the corners of the room, before his gaze once again drifted to the partially used teaset that was sitting on the table in the middle of the room. He checked his mana again and winced a bit seeing how low it was,
"Below 20%…. Which means no more fighting unless I eat something…."
He groaned, wondering where Jeanne had gone off too, when the sliding door slid open and he had whirled around, summoning Blessed hellfire in his hand to aim at the person who opened it. Jeanne stood there eyebrows raised as she folded her arms and gave him a look,
"Sorry…" He mumbled as is put away the pistol only for her to shake her head.
"Can you walk? I need you to come look at something I've found. Also I… have an idea of who's house this is but that can wait until afterwards."
He nodded and stood up, motioning her to lead. She nodded and turned around leading him to what looked like a maintenance closet. She opened the door, held out her hand, and conjured some fire for them to see before tossing it into the air where it floated as it illuminated-
"A generator! Oh awesome okay- Now all we need is fuel and-"
"Over there in those red containers I'm guessing. The Grail didn't load info on this to me beyond… well…."
She trailed off and seemed to wince at something,
"No, no this is great! Can you make the flame brighter? If my guess is correct then we just need to load it with fuel and then we'll have power for a bit."
She nodded and he felt her funnel a bit more mana to the fire overhead causing it to shift colors from red and black to a bright orange-yellow,
"Thats as bright as I can get it."
He hummed and began to look over the generator in the light before finally finding the switches he'd need to toggle to start it. After refilling the fuel reserves and putting the cap back on he gingerly flipped the starting switches and breathed a sigh of relief when the various lights on it lit up,
"Okay good it still turns on. Now to just hold this down and turn this… Wait. Jeanne?"
"Hm?"
"Would you mind doing an area scan? It occurs to me that turning on the power might attract attention we'd both rather avoid."
She nodded and closed her eyes as he turned back to the generator doing his best to ignore his swiftly fraying nerves. He closed his eyes and breathed in and out slowly as he did his best to not let his servants new appearance mess with him.
She was already distractingly beautiful before but now….
He opened his eyes and looked over his shoulder at the other person in the room with him. His eyes traced over her in the light before he shook his head and refocused on waiting for her to give him the all clear,
"Its weird…."
He looked back at her as she opened her eyes and furrowed her brow to look at him,
"You'd think given the contamination from the Grail there'd be more… curses."
"What do you mean?"
He turned around and stood up as she folded her arms,
"When I think back to what the grail was like when it was cursed I remember what the mud felt like, the things it tried to show me as I fought Saber, and the…. Feeling in the air around it. Its entirely different now than it was then. What if… What if this is a different grail this time?"
He frowned and thought about it,
"We were the first victors in the war. So the grail's magic power would have been used up with our respective wishes… which means-," He blinked as the ramifications hit him, "Which means that Fuyuki as it is now isn't due to the Grail being corrupted. Its due to something else…"
"You're thinking someone wished for all of this?"
He looked at Jeanne and saw her disbelief written plainly on her face. He nodded,
"Think about it. We won, I cleansed the grail, we both made our wishes, and then the grail vanished right? There shouldn't have been anything left to get corrupted. The only other option I can think of for why the city looks like this is if someone tried to ignite the mana in the leylines."
"Which would just consume the city in fire leaving a smoking crater full of whatever the magical version of nuclear fallout would be. My question is, assuming you're right and someone wished for this to happen to Fuyuki… what was their end goal?"
They fell silent and then after a minute with their own thoughts she looked pointedly at the Generator behind him,
"If they have a way to generate power it would also mean they had a way to move clean water right? I'd kill for a shower…"
He chuckled,
"Right away Lady Avenger. Are we in the clear?"
She hummed a yes,
"Nothing within 250 meters of where I'm standing. Go for it."
He nodded and bent back down to kneel in front of the generator, held down a button, and turned a switch at the same time. Several coughs came out of the generator before it whirred to life and the lights back in the hallway flickered on. He breathed a sigh of relief,
"Okay so. Who's house do you think we broke into?"
Jeanne looked at him guiltily as he stood up and turned around to face her,
"I'm thinking this is Kiritsugus house… which means we are currently resting inside former enemy territory."
He blinked and stared at her,
"But- We're keyed into the bounded fields. When would they have-"
He mentally flashed back to something Saber had told him during one of the moments they were chasing Caster. How she had said she would convince Kiritsugu to key both him and Jeanne into the wards at least until their alliance to deal with Caster was over,
"...We've been keyed in this entire time?"
She nodded and turned to leave,
"More than likely. I'm going to go take a shower."
He nodded absentmindedly as he thought back to that half used tea set,
"Well…. Its a bit late but," he looked around into the empty room, "Sorry for the intrusion Emiya. We'll try not to touch anything we aren't meant to."
He bent back down to check how long it would be before the Generator would need to be refilled and his mouth fell open,
"Okay so…. One full tank of diesel equals….. twelve hours? Holy shit. You really didn't skimp out did you Kiritsugu…."
After checking the rest of the fuel jugs he figured they had enough fuel to fully power the house for about twenty hours. He nodded and left the room to explore himself,
"Given how much of a prepper Kiritsugu apparently is it would also make sense that he would have food stored somewhere. It would also have to be something other than MREs given Irisveil which means…"
He grinned,
"Which means he likely has an entire store room full of fresh food and produce assuming he had any amount of passing skill in ice and stasis magecraft."
He paused in the hallway as he heard water moving overhead and smiled a bit before trying to find the storage area while wondering what he could potentially make with whatever Emiya Kiritsugu had stashed away.