A second chance was all she wanted – Chapter 1: The sound of Rain.
An old AU Caster/Shirou fanfic I started based on an idea for an unwritten path in the series. A what-if scenario on if Shirou came across Caster before Souichiro did. Never got around to continuing but it may happen yet. Excuses for terrible fail when it comes to nasuverse knowledge.
'...She hears the sound of rain.
It was a night without moonlight.
The surroundings were pitch black, and she wandered with an empty mind.
That is where she met him.
With bloodstained body and frozen limbs.
A chanced meeting that was more miraculous than any miracle.'
"Haah... hah..." The cloaked figure hunched over in the pouring rain, battling feebly against elements and fatigue alike. She staggered through the forest that surrounded Ryudou temple, caked in blood that was not her own, and mud from where she had tripped from when dizziness first assailed her mind. She cursed the darkness of the forest that shrouded all light from her, grasping at empty air and stumbling clumsily as if she were she a man dying of thirst in a desert. As the woman sought the support of trees to continue her faltering pace, curse was all she could do. She cursed the luck of having a pathetic pig of a man summon her into this world. She cursed the cruel new world she had been summoned into. And she cursed how she would soon fade from it in such a piteous manner, unless she was to find a new master within the next few minutes.
The servant known as caster had succeeded in killing her own master, and bought herself a short-lived bittersweet freedom with a heavy price. From the moment her master had summoned her, she had a feeling that she was going to despise this magus. It didn't take long for her suspicions to be confirmed. He was male. Another arrogant self-absorbed man with delusions of grandeur. Of course, he was an association magus, but he was still just another arrogant self-absorbed man. And men such as that were easily manipulated.
He was ambitious, and would wait for the war to come to him, rather than him take action. That in itself wasn't the grave error he had made, but the error of treating her as nothing more than a tool for his own gain. That was the way it had always been for Caster. He was just another Jason, but instead of blind love, this time she only knew a deep loathing for him as he regarded her with a cold eye, berated her for not being one of the stronger classes, and almost literally used her as a footstool. She bit her lip and smiled bitterly. That was all she could do while she plotted his downfall. Despite his distrust of her, she fully convinced him that she would be loyal to the very last. That she was his loyal 'tool'.
The first command spell she convinced him to use was 'but a practice', Showing him its benefits and none of its drawbacks. She brought him groceries, of all things, and it brought her joy that he was foolish enough to fall for her ploy. The second spell was perhaps the most abhorrent abuse of her powers to date. She was forced to create for him his own harem of young beautiful women from the nearby city, and so she handpicked them, and charmed them with her magecraft into becoming nothing more than puppets for his desire, shepherding them back to his distant home with a teleportation spell.
It was a horrible hypocrisy to wrong others in the same way she herself was once wronged, and it was definitely not an act she was proud of. When she returned her master resembled a spoilt child in a toy store, touching, marvelling, comparing. He revelled in the power he had over his 'subjects' and their broken minds. Caster deigned herself away from the abominable scene she had been forced to bring about, leaving before the debauchery began while seething with an anger she had not known since ages past, since she had before departed from the world of the living.
And then it came. The moment she had waited nearly a month for, a month that seemed an eternity. The third command spell. The pain that commanded her to do his bidding was almost an ecstasy unto itself. Having grown bored and tired of the same mindless drones that worked to satiate his every depravity, he eventually came to the conclusion there was one young, supple body around that had not yet been sullied. And yet it belonged to him, the mark on his hand clearly showed their contract. He licked his lips in anticipation as he loudly and clearly commanded Caster to come to his side. Perhaps had he worded his command differently, he could have enjoyed an ecstasy unlike any other woman in Fuyuki could provide before she gutted him like a pig.
"Caster, come here!" He commanded. And in a flash, she was knelt before his still unclothed figure, her purple lips made sickly sweet by the honeyed smile she bore beneath her hood.
"Please me." He continued, his lustful eyes boring holes into her robe, imagining the exquisite form that lie hidden beneath, his mind already imaging the lewd acts he would make his servant perform for her master. It was always about power for him. The thought of having such a powerful being at his every whim was almost exhilarating enough on its own.
"I said please me." The Master glared at the servant, far too slow to notice the last mark on his hand had faded away.
"No.. The pleasure is all mine. "The servant smiled. And dismembered him in as gruesome a manner as her spellcraft would allow. Oh, but she wouldn't kill him just yet.
He was a pathetic, writhing, whimpering mass of flesh when she drew Rule Breaker and strolled slowly up to the magus whose legs had just forcibly removed themselves. He begged and pleaded with her, even as she stuck her prismatic dagger deep into his shrivelled heart and tore it free unceremoniously. And she laughed, covered in the blood that had sprayed from his corpse. It was a hollow laugh of triumph, soon cut short as she was soon made aware of the grave miscalculation she had made as she felt herself grow heavy, and weary. Caster was not a class with the independent Action ability, and she could only last as long as the power she held.
She could only offer the women she had abducted a mournful smile and a silent apology as she left them behind, like shadows of her past self. It was small consolation that when she left, she would need to leave the spell to wear off to sustain herself long enough to reach the city, And that with normality restored, they would remember nothing. And so, she had descended from his retreat and took the only route there was to Fuyuki city from there, preserving her magical energy as best she could despite feeling herself weaken with each passing minute.
"Hah... Hahaha..." A dry laugh escaped Caster's strained throat as her failing vision finally happened across an unbelievable sight. It was light. Unmistakeably from a lamp post that overlooked a road. She had made it through the dark of the forest and toward the light through the clearing, just as she would soon fade from this world. She laughed at the dreadful irony, making it so far all for her to die once again in plain sight at the roadside. Her movements were little more than a crawl as she flung herself over the barrier and onto the concrete path that lay beside a placid road late at night. She laughed until her hoarse voice allowed it no more, and propped herself against the small barrier. It was still pouring with rain, she noted, tilting her head to focus her blurry vision at a starless sky. As her consciousness began to fade, the servant formerly known as Medea could have sworn her pointed ears had caught the sound of footsteps splashing through the rain.
"Hey...! Hey! Are you alright?"
And now a voice? It was most likely a last jest at her expense from the gods. The same cruel gods who had forever tormented her, and left her bitter and twisted.
That was what she thought, at least.