Saber

1994

"Saber, I order you again. Destroy the Grail."

Arturia Pendragon stands at the top of the theater mezzanine her eyes glance to her master across the great room. She screams a deep and long wail. As a lion cub cries out looking for its lost mother. With one sharp blow everything in front of her glows white. And then she is greeted by the familiar dark of the afterlife.

How can I know a man, by three commands alone. Excalibur, my greatest weapon. My trump card, used against me by a man I would call master. The Holy Grail so close at hand and yet...

500 A.D.

Saber is standing at the top of a low hill. She is back in Britain, back at Camlann. A small figure stands before her, a young knight Saber beloved deeply.

"Father... is this what you wanted. I have destroyed your kingdom, killed its people. And you still do not call me your equal!" Her daughter Mordred looks up at her with hate and pain in her eyes. Mordred tosses off her helmet and Saber remembers just how similar the mother and daughter look.

I'm back here again? Ah yes. I see. The Grail has returned me the my final moment, the moment I made a pact with it to become a heroic spirit

"Mordred, my daughter. Can't you see, I would never want this burden placed on you."

I remember this. The pain in my daughter's eyes as I was forced to kill her. Why couldn't I understand her. Why did she take after me so closely that she couldn't understand me. Ironic, Mordred is just like me. She would have made a perfect king, as I did.

"Father... I..."

Sabers body reacts as it did before. Acting on instinct she uses Mordred's moment of insecurity as a weapon and drives her spear into Mordred's chest. As her guts spill out and her lungs fill with blood Mordred uses the last of her breaths to pull the lance forward and impale Saber on her sword.

I wish it didn't have to be this way either Mordred. But neither of us can be king. Even if that means I must go back and change the day I pulled sword from stone. Even if that means you'll never be born. I'm doing it for you, my greatest knight. My greatest treasure.

Mordred collapses backwards falling away from Sabers vision. As her eyes begin to blur she falls to her knees as the fading sun gives way to a cold emptiness.

I feel it now, the grail beckons me once again. How long will it have been... ten years... that feels wrong. Will that mean Kiritsugu is still alive, the last Master of the Holy Grail. But not its champion. Maybe he summoned me again early to make things right.

Saber clutches Excalibur once more and grimaces at the thought.

If he did then he is mistaken, I will not be his servant again.

2004

A young boy stares up at me, alone. This place feels familiar.

"Are you my Master?"