Chains; Chapter 1

Authors Notes: I just recently watched Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works and I loved it. I'll admit that I'm not all that knowledgeable about the Fate universe but I would like to give this idea in my head a shot. If anybody sees any glaringly wrong details or mistakes in my writing you can message me and I'll be sure to correct them.

I got inspiration from a certain Noble Phantasm that looked awesome in the show. I'm pretty certain many of you will know what it is after looking at the title of this story. There will be some liberties taken in regards to this weapon that some may not like. I'm hoping that the changes I make will be so amazing that you'll forgive me haha.

Now we begin. I hope you enjoy the story.

*Start*

Weak. That's all I have ever been. That must be the reason even my own family hates me.

Father wasn't shy about showing his hatred for me. I never fully understood why he hated me so much. Was it because I looked like my mother? Did he hate my personality, or is it because when he saw the scars littered across my back he felt guilt for what he had done?

Mother left a long time ago. It's almost as if she could see how weak I was before everyone else could and left before she even had to deal with me.

There's no reason to think about them now. The man who called himself my father is dead. I just watched him die with my own eyes, swallowed by the raging inferno that trapped him. Never shall I be weak again due to that man's actions. He hated me with his dying breath. I could see across his face as he burned. The way he scowled at me with disdain when I refused to help him. It was the one moment in which I could remember where I didn't mind being weak in his eyes.

All my life I've been held down by my weakness. My weakness that prevented me from standing up to my father. My weakness to prevent my mother from leaving. It's a weakness that I hope to destroy.

The smell of ash hits my nose and interrupts me from my thoughts. I look around at the burning trees as I continue walking through the park. Bodies are strewn across the grass as I struggle to not step on them.

I hear screams in the direction I'm heading warning me to turn back but I still cannot turn around. Through the smoke and flames, I can feel it calling out to me, reaching for me. All I have to do is keep walking through the rubble and it will show me how to survive. How to shed the weakness in my heart and become strong.

I don't know how long I walked until I came upon what looked like a river of blood that seemed to permeate the air with a sense of malice. It was then that a voice thundered across the area.

"You child! What is it you desire most in this world?" a voice that seemed to originate from the river asked.

A shiver wracked my body when I heard it. A wrongness that shouldn't exist was held within that voice. It's tone indicated it was happy that it had found me.

It didn't matter to me what this thing was or if it was good or evil. All that mattered was that it could help make me stronger. Strong enough to destroy the weakness inside me.

Shakily I walked towards the river and stared defiantly within its depths"I...I want to be strong! I want to be stronger than everyone! Everything! I don't want to be weak ever again."

"Hahahaha...Really? Strength is what you wish for? Don't be naive child! strength cannot be given. It must be earned through the sacrifice of pain and blood. Are you willing to make that sacrifice?" the voice seemed to make the very air shimmer with dread.

I ignored the feeling and spoke back "Yes, I'll do whatever it takes to never be weak again."

"Very well. I'll give you the strength you desire. I'll give you the strength to take on the Gods themselves! Let's just see if you can survive it."

As the last word left his mouth the flowing river in front of me suddenly stopped. Slowly six small tendrils of that cursed liquid rose from the ground and started their path towards different parts of my body.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. I would not run. I would not show weakness. From this point on I will show everyone that they were wrong. As the tendrils of power were just about to hit me words came forth from my mouth from seemingly nowhere.

"The chains that held me are now mine to wield."

Pain. Searing pain. More so than anything I have ever felt. It started in my chest. One tendril violently stabbed into my sternum and with it came the feeling of fire in veins. It felt as if my blood was replaced with molten iron as it started circulating through my torso.

"It's been fun kid. I'll be taking my leave now, my time here is finished. I'm sorry to say that you will not survive. I gave you strength but you're just too weak to use it. I knew from the start that you wouldn't survive the transference of power. I just wanted to see you writhe in pain." with those final words its presence left the area. Almost as if it weighed the entire park down.

An anger rose within me at his final words. Even as the remaining five tendrils ripped through my skin at different points along my spine I did not waiver. Even as the fire raging under my skin increased tenfold I did not waiver. Even as it felt as if my very skin would melt off any second I did not waiver.

Finally, I could see the tendril in my chest leave my body along with the feeling of the five others leaving my back. They acted like snakes that have finished injecting all their venom and were now done with me. They retreated back into the river but still left me with an unimaginable pain.

I repeated the same words in my mind that I previously spoke like a mantra. The words that held a power in them, very much unlike the voice of the river that spoke to me. The power within them was different yet equal. Instead of a feeling of malice they brought forth a feeling of omnipotence. A feeling of control that deeply resonated within me.

"The chains that held me are now mine to wield."

The excruciating pain lessened somewhat, or was it that my resolve strengthened?

I closed my eyes for but a moment and when I reopened them I could see someone running towards me. .

"I found someone. I can save someone." I looked up at the now identified man as he sounded overjoyed to have found something alive in this midst of this destruction.

A pain filled gasp left my lips as the pain in my veins continued. I'm not sure how much longer my body could handle it. My strength was waning as it felt as if my body was degrading on the spot.

Before I knew it a golden light began to appear above me. I half expected some sort of angel to appear and whisk me off to God knows where. I groaned then not only from the constant pain I was feeling but from the horribly bad pun I just thought of.

I brought my attention back to golden light and noticed a shape start to appear. I could see traces of blue running along golden walls. Just being in this objects presence alleviated some of my pain. I had no idea what, or how he was doing this but if these were my final moments then I couldn't complain that they were in the presence of something so beautiful.

"I'm going to save you." The man said. "You will not die. I won't let you die". He said this with such conviction I could not help but believe him. I looked up at him with a hope that he would somehow help me with this pain. Hopefully, he'll help me overcome it.

As I looked down at my chest I could see red lines that looked like veins faintly glowing red under my shirt originating from the wound in my chest running along the expanse of my body. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the man studying them as well.

It was then that the object above me fully came into being that it started to lower down to my chest. I could do nothing but watch as it came into contact with my skin and kept going as if there wasn't skin, bone, and muscle blocking it.

I couldn't feel any change in my body until the object was totally encased by my being. Only then did I feel a sort of pulse originating from my center that seemed to cool my veins and spread through my body until there was only a slight aching heat along my spine.

Even though most of the pain was gone I could nothing but slowly close my tired eyes as the last vestiges of consciousness escaped me. Before I drifted into sleep I looked up at the smiling man with a smile of my own and said three words that caused a small frown to replace his previous facial expression..

"Make me stronger."