An AU for Fate/Zero. How very nice. And, even better, it's gonna be a high school AU. Thankfully, however, I've talked myself out of the love triangle that I was originally going to do. But, first thing's first, we have Morgan le Fay opening the story up for us. Enjoy.
Disclaimer: If I owned the Fate/franchise, Fate/Prototype would be released by now. Because only God knows how many times a day I watch that OVA.
"She has his eyes!"
Morgan stood at the doorway of her mother's room, listening, a silent ghost that could be neither seen nor heard. Across the hall sat another doorframe, spread wide open. Inside, Morgan's younger sister Morgause slept soundly. Morgan could just barely hear her softly snoring.
But that wasn't what she was focused on.
"I just can't stand to look at her anymore, Gorlois! She reminds me too much of him!"
The sound of her mother's voice was almost hysterical; Morgan could hear her sobbing and, just past the crack in the door, see her shadow leaning into her father's chest.
"Don't worry, Igraine," her father's voice was soft and reassuring, but also firm, telling her that things had to be done a certain way. "As soon as all of this is over, we can find a different home for her. That Einzbern woman has been particularly sympathetic, so she might be willing to take her."
Morgan turned away from the doorframe and looked farther down the hall, to where a door sat closed off to the rest of the house. Slowly, now hardly even listening to her parents as they spoke to one another, she walked towards the door. Her bare feet rubbed against the lush carpet silently, and she could feel her tiny, steady heart beat more and more quickly from within her chest as she approached.
Her feet stopped in front of the plainly painted door, and her mother's wailing became louder. Her father's voice became a mere backdrop to all the sobbing.
Her hand reached forward and grasped the golden handle to the door. She turned it, and slipped into the room.
The room was almost completely dark, the only light coming in being from the street lights just outside the window. From that light, Morgan could just barely distinguish the shadow of a crib in the corner of the room, so she walked over to it.
Inside the crib slept a tiny baby girl with small tufts of golden hair on top of her head. The baby's face, small and round, was almost completely still, with the exception of it scrunching up with a dream every now and then. One tiny arm lay at her side, the other rested on top of her stomach, which rose and fell with small labored breaths. With the help of a stool, Morgan stood over the edge of the crib and watched the baby girl for a few moments before letting an arm fall into it, and poked the side of the baby's face with her index finger.
"What's all the fuss about?" She pondered aloud. "You don't seem all that important to me."
Then again, she knew that there was more to it than what she had been told.
She sighed, and looked back to the door that she had closed on her way in. She could just barely hear her parents now. Her mother must have been calming. She looked back to the baby, whose arm was beginning to fidget.
"Do you know, 'Turia?" Morgan asked the baby sullenly. "Do you know why everyone's throwing such a big fit over you?" She waited a moment in silence for an answer that she knew would never come. "I guess not. You're just a stupid baby, after all."
The baby, Arturia, turned slightly in her sleep. Her eyes squeezed a little, and she moved her arms about, but then she stopped her movements. Morgan was able to catch her eyes opening through the lamplight outside. Tiny green seas, unlike any in her family.
Arturia's eyes scrunched for a moment, the way any human's would when looking through this little light, and her tiny face broke into a grin. Her arms lifted, as if trying to catch Morgan's face in them. Annoyed, the young girl flicked the baby's forehead with her index finger.
"Stop it."
Arturia's face contorted for a moment with a quick flash of pain, and then began to cry out, much louder than their mother had been only a minute ago.
"Dumb baby," Morgan muttered. "Crying doesn't help you, you know. Mother doesn't want you."
She felt a soft feeling of satisfaction with these words. She and Morgause had been receiving little attention these past few months; the fact that this thing would be out of her hair soon was pacifying, to say the least. Pretty soon, she thought, she and Morgause would have their parents back, and no other little sister would ruin that.
Arturia's wails became louder, and the sound of footsteps dragging along the floor could be heard from outside. Hurriedly, Morgan got off of the stool and ran into the closet at the other side of the room, just in time to hear the door opening.
The door closed, and Arturia stopped crying.
"Damn child," Morgan heard her father curse. "You're as much a nuisance as your father is."
He said nothing else. Morgan could hear tiny noises that must have been Arturia cooing. Such an innocent noise. So very unaware of everything going on around her.
Sneaking into someone's home... Stealing their parents... Making life miserable... Morgan couldn't stand it.
Soon, her father left the room. Morgan snuck out of the closet and took one final look at the baby that slept soundly in the crib once again. This time, there was a small blue blanket over her belly.
Morgan quickly snatched the piece of cloth, threw it to the floor, and went back to join Morgause in the land of dreams.
Author's Note:
Short, but I think it gets the job done, since Morgan will play a bit of a part in this story. I don't feel as if enough people try to sympathize with her in the Arthurian legends. Then again, I guess I'm a bit biased, since I read and loved I Am Morgan le Fay by Nancy Springer. Whatever. Please don't forget to review and tell me what you thought! Bye!