Monomyth

The Refusal of the Call, Part One

"Soon afterward she had a little daughter who was as white as snow, as red as blood, and as black as ebony wood, and therefore they called her Little Snow-White. And as soon as the child was born, the queen died."

Lancer backed out into the yard, spear raised warily, and Weiss followed him. Good. An old storage shed was no place for a fight. Outside was much better. Room to maneuver, fresh air, lit by moonlight, a (hopefully) worthy opponent. She had already arrived late, and she wasn't about to fall further behind.

"What's going on?" her "master" said, struggling to his feet behind her. Ugh. Clearly she was going to have to explain to him how these things worked. She had specifically told him not to talk. "Who are you? Where did you even come from?"

She ignored him. "Lancer," she said. "It looked like you were in the process of finishing off this person before I arrived. Did he put up much of a fight?" She studied him as she spoke. Lancer's spear was a simple weapon with no moving parts and (probably) no surprises, and so came with a spear's strengths and weaknesses. He had greater range, but if Weiss could close in beyond his weapon's strike zone, she'd have the advantage.

"'Fight' isn't the word I'd use," Lancer replied. "He could take a hit, though, and I have to respect that."

Weiss nodded. "It seems he has taken more than one. Perhaps he should tend to his own wounds and not interfere with the battle between two individuals far beyond his abilities." Lancer himself was another problem. Getting in close was a reckless move, and it depended on how much faster she was than her opponent. Of course, if he knew the difference in their Agility stats, then he might adopt a more defensive position.

Lancer grinned. "You're absolutely right. A Master should let his Servant fight the War he was summoned for, and not micromanage every little thing he does, either."

Was he bringing his own relationship problems with him to work? Hardly professional.

He struck, a thrust straight for her face. She tilted her head to the side and dodged, narrowly avoiding gaining a second scar. He followed with a flurry of attacks, forcing her to parry. So that's how fast you are. She could work with that.

She formed a glyph at her feet, boosting her speed with a bit of lightning Dust, and she attacked. She ducked under the point of his spear and breached his guard, but before she could strike he brought his weapon up vertically and spun it like a windmill. He deflected her attack just in time, and on the follow through brought the butt of his spear crashing against her hip, sending her—into a dignified and graceful cartwheel.

Right. Not quite how she was hoping it would turn out.

"Nice rune work, by the way," he said. "I have to draw them out like a sucker, but you can cast them like, well, a Caster." He frowned. "You didn't take that cheap Double Summon skill, did you?"

She shrugged. "What if I am?" Despite her bravado, she was nervous. How much did this man know of her runes? Did he respond so quickly because of his unparalleled reflexes, or did he know what her glyph would do when she cast it?

She'd have to fight smarter. If runes wouldn't help her, she'd turn to Dust. Weiss thumbed Myrtenaster's revolver back by two slots to ready the gravity Dust chamber, and used the most underhanded tactic she knew: patience.

Lancer grew tired of waiting and attacked. Thrust. Typical. Thrust. She dodged, stepping back to stay just barely in his range. Lancer finished with a wide, sweeping thrust, more to knock her off balance than to do any damage.

Perfect.

She blocked his spear, holding her rapier so lightly it would have been knocked out of her hand if she weren't imbuing it with gravity. Instead, the Dust completely reflected the spear's momentum, throwing Lancer off balance. Weiss switched to ice Dust, drove Myrtenaster into the ground, and froze Lancer to the ground in erupting ice crystals.

"Crap."

Before he could recover, Weiss formed six more glyphs around him in a hexagon, and launched into an omnidirectional attack. Up-down-left-right-front-back, Lancer frantically tried to block, but his feet were frozen and his movement hindered. Most of her hits barely landed, but she got at least on good, clean blow in right through his side. She had expected Lancer's Aura to shield him, but Myrtenaster came back covered in blood. Eew. Maybe he had taken the Enhanced Regeneration trait instead of Aura Shield, but still … eew.

Lancer broke himself free of the ice and smashed his foot into the ground to break off the residue. "Well, I wasn't planning on using that kidney soon anyway," he said. "As for you, little Miss Saber, not a whole lot of people combine weaponry and rune magic like that, and I've only ever met one better."

Weiss made a face. "I doubt that." Unless Winter had come too, and what sense did that make?

His face twisted in dislike. "No, it's true. And it's bringing up some seriously unpleasant memories." He shifted his stance and his spear exploded into red energy, rippling in the air. "I've been itching to use this all night, and if you really think you can surpass the Queen of Shadows, then you might even live!"

A gunshot rang out in the night, and Lancer's spear spun to block it, breaking his stance and interrupting his attack. "Seriously?" he said, turning. "Look, kid, do you mind? I'm in the middle of something! And do you want to see my Noble Phantasm or not?"

Ruby Rose stood on a nearby rooftop. When had she gotten here? Well, before Weiss, obviously, she was the last one to arrive, but how had Ruby found her?

"Not if you're going to use it to murder—Weiss? When did you get here?"

"Ahem."

"Uh, I mean, Saber! Who are you? I'm meeting you now for the first time."

"Wait," Lancer said. "You two know each other?"

"No," Ruby said slowly. "I just said that I was meeting her now for the first time. By the way, do you have some anti-bullet thingy? Because I've been shooting you all night and you keep on blocking me!"

"Oh, right," he said. "Protection from Arrows. It works on all ranged attacks."

Ruby's jaw dropped. "Really? That's crazy! My entire class is built around ranged attacks!"

"Well, if you don't like it, feel free to take it up with the Grail."

"Maybe I will!"

"Maybe it's designed to add a more strategic element to what would otherwise be a mad brawl?" Weiss suggested, keeping her eyes on her opponent. "If Lancer has an advantage against you, then he might decide to put off fighting you until after you defeat a Servant that has an advantage against him."

"Like rock-paper-scissors?" Ruby asked.

"Sure."

"Or it just means I need to find a work around." She unloaded her gun and put in a new cartridge.

It wasn't a gravity round Ruby fired next. It was a flame round, that exploded on impact.

"Argh!" Lancer blocked it, but it still burned him. "Oh, that's a cheap trick."

"And here's another one!" Ruby said. "Hey, Saber, wanna team up?"

"I don't know," Weiss said. "I was in the middle of a duel with him before you showed up and tried to steal my kill."

"I wasn't trying to steal anything! I didn't even know you were … I mean, if you want me to wait till you're done …"

"Okay, we'll team up, but afterwards, Archer, we are going to have a long talk about personal boundaries and how they relate to mortal combat."

Lancer jumped back to the far end of the yard. "Yeah, I'm done. As much as I'd like to end the first night of the War doing both of you at once, my Master gave me explicit orders to not have any fun. Literally, those were the prick's exact words. Even used a Command Seal." He hesitated. "Of course, if you two were to try to stop me from leaving, I would have no choice but to lethally defend myself." He waited. "What? No takers? Really?"

"Nah," Ruby said. "Saber's right. It wouldn't be fair to have us gang up on you. You should come back with a friend some time. It'll be more fun."

"Right," Lancer said. "Because friendship and fairness are what the Holy Grail War is all about." He vanished.

Well, Weiss had survived her first fight here. It wasn't quite a victory with Lancer still alive and mostly unharmed, but it was—Ruby tackled her in an attack hug.

"Hey! Get off me!"

"You made it! This is perfect! With you here we can find the others, do a mega teamup, and it's gonna be awesome!"

"Right, yes, that's wonderful, but I'm still trying to get my bearings. I only just arrived. So you haven't found any of the others?"

Ruby shook her head. "Nope. I only got here two days ago, and the only one I met besides you was Lancer, so at least no one took their spots yet."

Well, that was something. Yang would be easy to find, and Blake … Blake would probably find them. "You've been here for two days already?" Weiss hadn't been waiting for that long, but she knew better than most how malleable time could be. That meant that the others might have arrived weeks ago. What kind of chaos could Yang Xiao Long do in a week? Well, she'd deal with that later. "What are you doing here? Hunting down that Lancer fellow?" If that was the case, then Weiss had actually interrupted Ruby's duel.

"No. Well, kind of. We thought that Lancer might try to kill a random NPC we ran into earlier."

"I'm not an NPC," the redhead who had summoned her said, groaning and stumbling out of the shed.

"Hey, you're still alive!" Ruby said. "Good to see you again."

Just then, a girl in a red coat came running into the yard. She looked around frantically. "He's … he's not here. Did he not show, or …"

"Oh, he showed up," Ruby said. "But Saber and I drove him off."

"What, Saber? Saber's here?"

"Uh-huh," Ruby said. "Rin, this is Saber. Saber, this is my Master, Rin."

The girl named Rin gawked at Weiss. "You're Saber?"

Weiss nodded. "Naturally." She hated her already.

"But—I—who summoned you?"

Weiss flicked her sword to the redhead standing in the door of the shed. She really ought to learn his name at some point, if only because Master was a title she was never going to use. The redhead waved weakly. "Hey, Rin. You're in my yard."

"You summoned Saber?" Rin said. "I can't believe this! I hate you!"

Well, that was one point in his favor. He was still at negative two, though.

"What?" he said. "What did I do? I haven't had a clue what was going on since I saw you at the school! That Lancer guy tried to kill me again, then this girl named—Saber, was it?—Saber appeared in my shed and had a magic duel with him, and I haven't been this confused since the Manchester Cannon incident in sixth grade!"

Weiss turned on him. "Hold on, you summoned me on accident?" She was an accidental summoning? Forget negative two, he was at negative five.

The boy took a deep breath. "I don't think I've done anything intentionally all day."

"Oh," Rin said slowly. "So you're not actually trying to compete in the Holy Grail War."

"I still don't know what it is."

"I see." She was, Weiss decided, a snake, and she smelled blood in the air. Or were those sharks? No, sharks smelled blood in the water, snakes tasted blood in the air. Rin smiled. "Well then, let's go inside and I'll tell you exactly how much trouble you're in right now."

WWW

After relocating his dislocated shoulder (which turned out to be a lot less painful than he expected it to be), Rin began her infodump.

"Like I told you earlier, the Holy Grail War is a deathmatch. Every few decades, seven mages gather in Fuyuki City, and the last one alive gets a trophy."

"That sounds dumb," he said. "No offense, but why would anyone do that on purpose?"

Rin shrugged. "It's not for everyone, but victory means a lot of prestige in certain circles. The Holy Grail can even be quite useful under the right circumstances, but the real prize is bragging rights."

His head spun, and not just from the adrenaline crash. If this was how most mages thought, then that would explain why there were so few of them in the world. He glanced at Saber, who was pointedly not making eye contact, but he could feel her judging him. "And where did Saber and the other one, Archer, come from?"

"They're the weapons," Rin replied. "Each mage is granted a Servant to fight through, and the Servant exists in this world by siphoning off the Master's mana."

He made a face. "You make them sound like they're not even human."

Rin gave him a flat look. "You saw their fight. Did that look human?"

Not even close. But after the fight ended, Archer had started wandering through his house with all the wonder of a child, and that wasn't the sort of thing he'd have expected from a weapon.

He took a deep breath. "So basically, people I don't know are going to try to kill me until this is over."

"Not necessarily," Rin said, smiling. "Some people you do know might try it too. Assuming you don't quit."

He blinked. "I can do that?"

"Of course. You're the Master, not the Servant. If you don't want to compete, that's up to you."

He hesitated. "What's the catch?"

"People might call you a weenie in the future, but that's pretty much it."

"What about that Lancer guy? He still knows where I live."

"The Church is mediating the War. If you want to quit, it's one of their responsibilities to provide shelter for people who have no business fighting in the war whatsoever. Because seriously, Shirou, you don't. There are people from all over the world who have been preparing for this their whole lives, who actually want to be here, and that's not you. The best thing you can do for yourself is just walk away."

"Wait, the Church is part of this?" Shirou asked.

"Of course," she said. "The Church and the Mage's Association go way back to the point when they stopped burning witches. The priest here is a mage himself so, you know, multiclassing."

"Huh." So all these years he had been trying to learn magic on his own, and he could have just gone to church. Weird that his dad had never mentioned it.

A cry came from the kitchen. "Oh my goodness!" Archer said, rushing into the room holding a plastic jar. "You have cookies in the shapes of animals! Can I have one?"

Rin scowled. "Do you mind? We're trying to have a serious conversation here!"

"But … look at them," Ruby said. "They're cookies. And they're cute."

"Have as many as you like," Shirou said. The girl had saved his life already, so it was the least he could do.

"Yay!" Archer grabbed a fist full of animal crackers and started eating them. "Want one, Weiss?"

Rin turned. "Wait, do you two know each other?"

Archer looked around nervously. "I mean, do you want one, Saber?"

Saber (Weiss?) sighed. "You know, it's a good thing you don't have any secrets, Ruby. Otherwise you could get in a lot of trouble."

"Okay, okay," Ruby said. "Weiss and I went to school together."

Rin frowned. "In your past life or in the Throne of Heroes?"

"Actually, we just call it Beacon," Ruby said.

"The Beacon of Heroes?"

Weiss rolled her eyes. "No, just Beacon."

Ruby frowned thoughtfully. "I kind of like what Rin said better. The Beacon of Heroes, for people who have finished with the Signal of Heroes, found in the Vale of Heroes. Think we could get Ozpin to change the name when we get back?"

"Slow down," Rin said. "Get back? Did you two plan to come here?"

Ruby took a deep breath. "Okay, I'll explain everything. It all started a long time ago, in an Academy far, far away …"

FLASHBACK

"Alright!" Ruby said, leading her team out of the cafeteria. "The Super Awesome Food Fight was a resounding success, and now it's time for Phase Two of The Best Day Ever!"

"Oh, please," Weiss said. "Don't pretend you planned any of that."

Ruby opened her binder (that she definitely did not borrow from Weiss) and shoved it in her face. "Read it and weep. I admit that the S.A.F.F. was originally Phase Forty-Seven and scheduled for lunch time, but it was pushed forward a few hours. Now, we can move on with Phase Two, which was originally Phase One, which is …"

END FLASHBACK

"… and, well, here we are," Ruby finished.

Rin stared at her in horror, disgust, and denial. "What? You what? Are you telling me that you—you hijacked an ancient and revered magic ritual because—because you were bored?"

Ruby shuffled uncomfortable. "Well, it sounded fun. And I was right, by the way, it was."

"Debatable," Weiss muttered.

"I've been preparing for this my whole life!" Rin moaned. "I can't believe this nonsense."

"Well, enough of that," Ruby said. "Let's focus on more important things, like team attack names. Weiss and I already got one, but if you two ever want to do a combo spell, we've gotta call it something cool."

"What?" Rin said. "No! There will be no team attacks, because there is no team. Shirou here was just deciding to resign."

"What?" Ruby stared at him. "You can't quit! Then you'll just go back to being an NPC!"

Shirou hesitated and turned to Weiss, who had saved his life that night and had barely said a thing to him since. "Weiss? You're involved with this too. Do you have a preference?"

She looked away. "Do what you want," she said. "I don't care."

"After you break your contract with her," Rin explained, "she'll be transferred to another Master, one who actually wants to be here. This is best for her, too."

Weiss didn't exactly sound neutral, but Shirou didn't know how much he should read into her tone. Ruby wanted him to stay while Rin seemed to want him to leave, though the choice, ultimately, was his. To fight? To run?

Part of him wanted to stay and fight, but he knew that was stupid. Ever since Kiritsugu had died, Shirou had been waiting for the—the opportunity to become the hero that he had promised his father he'd become, and being chosen to fight in a mage-exclusive tournament was an opportunity in flashing, neon letters.

Or pulsating, bloody letters, he supposed, considering it was a death match. And, if Rin was any indication, was one full of mages who knew what they were doing, while Shirou had barely heard of the basics of magic. Besides, now that he knew about the relationship between the Mage's Association and the Church, all he had to do was talk to the friendly, neighborhood priest and he'd be set to learn more about magic.

Maybe it wasn't brave, but it was wise, and wisdom was heroic too, wasn't it? "Rin's right. I wasn't supposed to be involved with this in the first place. I'm quitting."

Ruby's face fell, Rin bit back a smile, and Weiss … Weiss was unreadable.

"Alright then," Rin said. "Let's go to church and get this over with. Come morning, the Holy Grail War will seem like nothing more than a bad dream."

WWW

A/n Another week, another chapter. Um, don't expect me to keep this pace up. I honestly don't know how I got this far. I bet it has something to do with all the encouraging reviews I've gotten from all the wonderful people who've been reading this. You're amazing, all of you. And a special thanks goes out to Magery for editing this chapter.