Counter Guardian
Prologue
The Heart of Alaya
Disclaimer : I own NOTHING. Fate (series) material is not mine. It's just a FREE entertainment.
This place is a picture of war. No, massacre is the better term for it. Building collapsed, ground cracked, plants burned, blood splashed, the scent in the air is one who can make human disgust. Most human will probably sick when they smell it. No, they must be fainted. It is not something human can handle.
And in that picture, I am walking. I am walking in the middle of collapsed home, cracked ground, burned plant, and red land. The ground colored in red, the red of blood. Yet, even so, I see no human body in this city. I see no one, nor dead or alive, nor whole or pieces. But I can sense it, I can feel it. Their mission are completed and no one alive in this vicinity. So, where are the bodies go?
"Hey boss what are you doing here?"
One of my employees shouts at me. His word is rude, but still acceptable. He must be shocks. I almost never go to the field. I will only come to the field on some special occasion. It's not my playground, he may say so.
"I just come to see. What? You are unhappy about it?"
"Wha- of course not, boss. You are the boss, do what you want. We have the deal remember?"
"Glad you are know, Elvis."
He, Elvis Preasley, just throw up his hands when he hear my words. Elvis is one of my employees, I gave him one wish and his soul is bound to me. He can't say no to me because I am his owner. Still, I always think that Elvis wish is kind of unique in his time at least. Well, nowadays many people wish for the same thing like him.
"Where are the bodies?"
I look at him and ask for certain. It doesn't feel right to not see human body after a genocide.
"Just go straight and you'll see Emiya."
He is pointing to the way I was walking till I am facing him. I look at it. True, the scent of death is thicker there. But, there is something in his words that doesn't sound right to me.
"I didn't look for Emiya."
I never say that I was looking at Emiya. Well, it's true that I want to see him, but I never said it.
"Well, Emiya is with the bodies, like always. Just use him as landmark or tombstone. Geez, that person always pile our workload. Haah. But, It's weird huh? Why did he bother to do something like that when he is the one who killed them."
I see Elvis straight at the eyes. Of course I always know what my employees do. I am the one who employing them after all. But, his word doesn't humor me at all.
"Wow boss, please don't give me that glare. You know right that sometime you are really, really, scary, just like now. And you look absolutely more, better, in your usual face. So please, don't give me that look!"
I don't understand what he is saying. I am only looking at him, just like before, just like always. So why did he even afraid of me. There is no ground for his word.
"Ok, that is better."
The tense in his face is gone. I don't understand why he afraid, or relaxed. No, maybe I know why. It's just hard to decipher. I know, yet I don't understand.
"I'll go look for Emiya. You stand on guard."
I turn away and start walking. The rockstar only shrug and give some kind of acknowledgement. I am walking straight, there is nothing to say to him.
The road in front of me is broken. Some part of it is lifted and another part is shattered into crater. It's not an easy road, but it doesn't really matter to me.
I am looking around, building, vehicle, table, glass, there are many things here. But there is nothing alive. Plants shattered, animal slayed, human… well I can't see them anywhere, but they must be dead by now. That one is certain. It's our regulation to keep everything shut in. And so, there is nothing alive in this town. Or so I thought.
In the corner my eyes, I see something green, something which belong to live, something which belong to earth. I walk to it. I crouch and stare at it.
Green in the middle of grey, live in the middle of death, hope in the middle of despair, somehow it's really sounds poetic. If I am a poet maybe I will write a poem right here, right away. But unfortunately I am not a poet. I can write poem in any human perception. But, if I do it like that, it will never be my poem.
"Well, what are you doing here boss? Fancy of flower? I don't know that you are a romantic."
I hear a voice from my back, a woman voice, a familiar woman voice. Her voice is sweet. Every man must be enchanted by it when they hear it. Unfortunately to her, and fortunately to me, I am not a man.
"Dare, do you need anything? I believe your work has been done nicely. What business do you have here?" I ask her.
Virginia Dare is a nice girl and a good woman. She had been a good wife, friend, and mother in her lifetime. She never once regrets the deal with me. She said that if she doesn't make that deal, she never life at full.
Her deal is a simple one, one which is most common in my deal list. 'Save me.' Her word that time always resounds in my ears when she speaks. You can say that she is one of my few favorites. She is a bundle of possibilities. She is always growing, still growing even after her death. Even though she is not 'combat-type', she is one of my precious employee.
"Well, my work has been done. But our works isn't done, is it? It probably can be solved faster if that red guy doesn't be so hypocrite and do all 'useless' things. But I can't really blame him, I simply can't."
She looks sad, gloomy. Her face is clouded and her tone is off. She maybe just reacts to some kind of hormone, well she may be not a teenager, but she is still a woman. Whether it's good or bad, hormones really take toll on woman.
But then again, she doesn't really have a physical body. So how did it happen?
"Do you like him?"
Once again, a concept that I know but unable to comprehend. Still, it's the best concept that fit her situation right now.
"What?"
Looks like she didn't hear what I said. I stand and look at her. I need eye contact to make my point clearer.
"I ask you, do you like Shirou Emiya?"
I repeat myself. This way she must be understands what I am talking about.
"Now, that's a sudden question. Why do you ask it?"
She dodges it. It is true after all.
"I'll answer your question after you answer mine."
She looks at my eyes. There is hostile in her eyes. One more evidence to count.
She sighed before answer me. "I don't know, to be truth I don't really understand. He is a good man, no, maybe the best man I ever met. But, if you ask me, do I love him or not? There is nothing I can give to humor you."
She looks at me, and there is regret in her gaze.
"Well, if we have physical body. I sure will chase him. He must be very good at bed."
She gives me a lust look, but I know that that look is false, façade. She is not an easy woman. In her life time, she gives her everything to her husband, a native people. She never really know any other man. Well, she married at fifteen after all. Not it really matter to me.
I crouch again and stare at the life. It's a simple flower, the kind which common to life in this places of continent.
"So, why do you interest in my love affair boss?"
Virginia asks me. I stay silent for a while, just wordlessly looking at the life in front of me. Virginian Dare is a patient woman.
I grab the flower and stand. Pulling it out to the root, and now he is death, die in a hand other than him. I clap my hand, something that I do because of reflex.
I turn around and look at Virginia. There is disappointment in her eyes. I wonder why.
"It's because you are my employee. To make sure all employees's emotion to be stable is my job, and lately his emotion is not stable at all. You may able to change it."
She is silent. There is something in her eyes. Is that confuse, or amazement? Looks like the mix of both. Either way, my business here with her is done. I walk to my true purpose. He must be still in his place. What he does is not an easy task, but I don't blame him. Our time table is loose after all. The next time he deploys maybe the next one or two decade.
After I walk a significant distance I turn around and look at for Dare. There is something I forgot to say. Fortunately, she is still in my eye-sight.
"Dare, there is something I forget to tell you."
I talk to her, simply talking to her. She is turning around and facing me. It makes our conversation easier.
"What is it boss?"
She is shouting, our distances simply make sound travel harder.
"If you can make Shirou Emiya yours, I'll let you stay in one chamber."
I state my intention. I don't need to speak loud, no matter how far it is she can hear my voice if I want.
"You must be kidding right?"
It's not weird to her to think like that. I never do something like that before, and maybe will never do it again. But I believe that it's a necessary pact. He is a valuable item after all.
"I am not. So make sure you make him yours, second to mine of course. For the time being, I'll connect your camber with his so that you can contact him easier."
"Yeah boss, sure. But what the point we are not human anymore."
Is she angry? Is she forgets who am I?
"Virginia, do you really think that I can't reproduce that kind of sensation?"
With that said, I am walking away from her, letting her swimming in her own mind. There is nothing that I need to say. Everything had been made clear. I need him, and she will make it's easier for him to fight in the future. She can put Shirou at ease.
-Interlude-
My walk to his place can be considered as a long walk. Its distance is thrice from my walk to Virginia Dare from border. The thing that I see in my way is not interesting at all. Only the repeatance of death. Death, death, death, that is the only thing that I see. And there is nothing attractive in death.
There is no life in this place. In the midway, not too far from Dare, I see a corpse. A dog which lost his halve, lies in the middle of street. That dog didn't die in peace, fear is clearly draw in his face. I don't know whether he is afraid of death or his killer. That is not my business.
From there on I see more corpses in my way, animal corpses, dogs, birds, cats, and any other domestic animal. After I reach eight tenth of my way, I start seeing human corpses, man, woman, children, everyone whom has been removed from my system. Their corpses are laying in the ground. Just like a doll which cut from their string.
"What are you doing here?"
Some voice is calling me from my back, a man voice, a very familiar man voice. His voice is coat with disgust and hatred. I am not surprised with his reaction. His hatred to me has been keep for almost seventy years. And those hatreds are never once weaken, never once. In fact, they grow stronger, day by day, mission by mission.
"I came to see."
He is staring at me with hatred, a very deep hatred. Between my employees, he is the only one who looks at me with that kind of hatred. Most hatred of my employees will grow weaker in years count, one or maybe two, the longest one beside him is a decade. He is the only one who keeps heating me, and I believe that hatred will never go away even after millennia.
"Do what you want."
He is passing me, carrying some kind of lump in his shoulder. I look at those lumps, those are human corpses, corpse of an old man and a teenage girl which probably his granddaughter. Useless thing yet I can bring myself to blame him. Virginia is right, I can't blame or angry at him. Even Elvis, the most impatience person between them, don't say anything when he does that. I am tailing him in silent, trying to not disturb him.
We arrive at our destination, the Ground Zero of this city. And now, that ground zero has become mass grave of this city's people. Dozens, or maybe hundreds, of soil pile act as their last bed. Those people must be laugh when they know that the one who make their cemetery is the very devil who kills them. Well, that will serve as their last comedy.
The ground zero of this city is place near a park. That park is a small one, so Shirou has to blow up the nearest building to make some space for more people. Of course, he has removed all corpses in the building first.
He is standing in front of the last pile which he dug. Carefully place the dead body near it, he trace a shovel and start digs the land. Okay, that can be counted as useless thing. Why did he bother shoveling the ground when he can just use his sword to make a crater? Human. I decide to ask him.
"Why bother dig it with shovel? You can dig faster with your swords."
I ask him, but he keep dig his hole. Second pass, minutes pass, when he already finish the hole for the old man he start digging for the teenage girl. Looks like I will never get any answer from him. I should ask Elvis later.
Shirou Emiya keeps digging the hole. He ignores my existence in this world. There is nothing trivial that I can get from him this time. I should get the thing that I really want.
"Shirou-"
"DON'T CALL ME THAT."
He snaps. He let go his shovel and let it disperse in the air. He glares at me with all of his hatred, a cold bloody glare. For a long time I know that his hatred is not like a fire. It's more like an ice.
"Emiya, why are you doing all this?"
I ask him the thing that I want to know. He was start digging a grave for all his victims after his second appointment. It's not a problem, but I want to know why he does all of this.
"Why even bother."
He pushes away my question. I should go further if I want to get my answer.
"Shirou Emiya, I demand you. Answer me, why are you doing all of this?"
He clicked his tongue. He can't ignore my order. Because he is mine, his bargain for power is already made for exchange of his soul. Even if it against his will, I can bind him to my will.
"Because that is the least thing that I can do for them." He answers me with disgust. "They may be evil, they may be disgusting, but they are still a human. Burial is everyone right. Whether it's a villain or a hero."
I look at him. Such a simple answers, is that really the only reasoning he has. I am not certain whether it's the only truth or not. And why did I am asking myself. I have uses my authority to do it. Whatever the reasons he gave, it must be the full truth.
I look at him, there is something he want to say to me.
"Alaya, what are you looking?"
Why he asking that?
"Nothing."
Yes, from the first time there is no such thing which I am looking here. From the first time I already know what is Shirou Emiya thinking. I only come here in a whim to state my curiosity. After all, I am the collective consciousness of human being.
"Alaya, why are even you looking?"
Why is he asking that? I already said that I am looking for nothing. Or, did he ask why I am looking when I already know the answer. Didn't I already said-
"I am not looking."
He stares at me. His gaze is more subtle this time. Feel that there is nothing to say, I turn around and start walking.
"Alaya, you may be the collective consciousness of human being. But mark what I said "You will never become a human being." That is why, you will never grow."
Of course I will never grow, I already complete.
He is back to his task, digging grave for his own victims. At distances I feel a presence, a familiar presence. Ah yes, that remind me. I forgot to say something to him.
"Emiya, Virginia Dare is talking to me that she wants to become your wife and I already grand my permission. You may disbelief me, but you shouldn't disbelief her. You are maybe my counter guardian, but I never thought you as my tool. Her wish is sincere, you must consider her as fellow human being, not as fellow guardian when she talks to you."
"Is that an order?"
Cynical as always.
"No, it is not. Just remember that she is woman. Treat her as woman when she talks to you. You won't disappoint any woman again don't you?"
I glance back and look at him. He is weak at woman.
"Tch, You."
I am start walking, there is nothing more for me to say.
-Interlude-
I am looking for Elvis, there is one last thing that I need to know.
Elvis is waiting for Shirou particular 'task' to end in the border of their parameter. It's roughly three kilometer from city's border. The city is surrounded by forest, so it's not a hard task. It's a long walk so I am warping.
Elvis is sitting on a tree root. Holding his guitar, he plays his old song. He looks happy with his guitar, something that I will never understand.
"Elvis."
I call to him. He is too stunned by his own song to hear me come.
"Hey boss, what's up?"
Easy going as always.
"There is something I want to ask you."
We don't need any chit-chat. I better finish what I want from him, faster better.
"Hmm, go ahead. Ask anything, I will answer as long as I can answer it."
He puts away his guitar and standing. Dust off his pants, he waits for me to state my question.
"Why did Emiya use shovel to dig the grave?"
He gives me a confuse look, and then start laughing.
"Hahaha, boss you sure ask something weird."
I honestly don't understand what he is talking about. After stop laughing he talk to me.
"Okay, so you ask why did Emiya use his shovel not his swords to dig the hole? Hehehe, you sure are asking a weird thing when it come to Emiya.
Well, consider it as the same when I use my voice to sing not my 'ability'. I can use my ability to sing just like an angel, but I never use my ability outside my assignment. You get it, right?"
"So, he doesn't want to use his power in other thing than job?"
I see, that is understandable. His power is not something that used for something petty like that. He may not have pride in his swords, but he is not a person who uses a gold toothpick to clear his tooth when he has a wood one.
"No boss, it's not like that?"
What?
"Basically it's a self-satisfaction. Simply said, he enjoys digging his victims hole while believing that he does something right. He feels some kind of satisfaction when he digs it with shovel. What the joy doing what you like fast, when you can stay long?
He maybe never admits it but he also doing it for his own sakes. Heck, he may say something like, "I am doing it for them." He is unconsciously lying to himself. But just let him doing it, or otherwise he will broken down. Heck, he is already broke enough. Don't make him broke anymore."
I keep silent, thinking about what he says. Self-satisfaction, human. After all the brag about his ideal, in the end he just a petty human who only thing about himself. Then again, this is just Elvis's perspective. Human are petty. Their minds are never the same. It's always changing depend on many factor.
Human mind are petty, yet those very mind that shapes me.
I begin walking deep into the forest. There is no other reason for me to be here. I'll go back after taking a stroll at this forest.
"Back already boss? Doesn't want to see the fireworks?"
Fireworks? What an intriguing code.
"No, in the end there is no point for me to see it. Just don't forget to follow the protocol.
"Okkey-Dokkey."
The protocol, after Shirou done with his particular tasks, they will execute the protocol and leave the earth back to Chamber of Guardian to their own room. Hem, did I forget something. Ah yeah, Emiya and Virginia.
"Hey Elvis I want you to do a job for me."
Elvis is turning around and looking at me.
"Boss, I am still in guard. If you want to do something in the opposite of the globe, please ask other guardian."
He give me a disappoint look. Human.
"That's not it." I make a throwing gesture to him and something is thrown to him from my hand. It's already exist in the middle of my gesture. "If Shirou and Virginia come back while holding hand, give it to them. If they are not, just throw it away. It will disperse by itself."
"Eh, I don't know you can do magic like Shirou. So, what is it inside here?"
Of course it's not like Shirou's magecraft. I make something, but Shirou is copying something. That is different.
"Their wedding ring."
If they really want to live in the same chamber they will need it. While I can easily connect their room, they will need some sign of bond to live together. It's also served as the recreation of their physical sensation. They will need it.
"Oh, Their wedding-, Their-WHAT?"
I walk away and let him whining by himself. Human are so troublesome, don't drag me in your personal problem!
-To Be Continued-
Firstly, I want to thanks Convergence-Eternal. Because without his encouragement I will not write this. You can call me petty, but I really am petty.
Secondly, that's all.
I hope I can continue write Counter Guardian.
Review please. TeeHee.
2nd installment.
Thirdly, if you know other works about Counter Guardian please tell me, also if you have suggestion about any other counter guardian, point it out to me and tell me why he can become the counter guardian. Just between you and me, I believe that counter guardian member is between one and two hundreds. I don't know the exact point. But it's impossible to me to make all those guardians.
Also, I want to state it again to make it solid. THIS IS A COMPLETE AU.