They were all on the plane to Fuyuki. It still irked him that Illya was being brought into such a dangerous situation. But each time his daughters little hands wrapped around her mothers with childish adulation on her sweet face his heart swelled.
Seeing her daughter play cute little games for children with her family and Saber brought a smile to his face. Seeing all this made him calm. Because Illya was close to him and her mother. So close that he could always protect her. So close that-
"Dad? Where did A2 go?"
That dead hollow look in his eyes that came from his childhood came back again. His smile and optimism: gone.
*plop*
She reeled Pod back in again. This might just be the toughest thing she's ever fished.
Who knew how difficult it would be to go fishing on an airplane? It was a good challenge though. Tougher than anything she's ever faced before.
She stood above the cockpit and relaxed on her hard light chair, feeling the wind rustle her hair and brushed it away if it obscured her vision.
Timing Pod's falling speed at an angle while this plane went at five hundred and fifty miles per hour wasn't easy. So for the first few tries she screwed up placing her bait. Her bait being Pod.
"Yeah..." She sighed around the cigarette in her mouth. This was where it was at. No sounds to rely on. The most extreme test of her ocular devices that she's ever experienced. No android's ever stress tested their visual systems this much before, which made her smile around the cigarette.
Kind of made her wish she was modeled with a rougher face in mind. Even when dirt caked her face she still looked pretty damm pretty. She didn't mind that. She was just self-conscious enough to know her habits really didn't match her looks.
She barely saw the tiniest off colour patch of water disappear and quickly started inputting commands to pull Pod up. To an outside observer she didn't do anything at all. But the relation between a Pod and an android was something that didn't need gestures. Words between the two was shared simply to save time on hacking the other and finding the intent.
Certain commands from her Plug-in Chips exacerbated that effect, letting it know when to fire and what to charge. As Pod finally went airborne again she could see that pulled up an odd fish that she never saw before. But now that Pod came closer she saw what it actually was.
"Hypothesis: Junk."
"Of course its junk. Why the hell is an antique rocket launcher here? Well whatever." She cast him out to sea again. The rocket launcher turning into pure light and storing itself for her to pull out and sell later.
She reformed her hard light chair into a recliner and leaned back on it as far as she could.
Why couldn't she get a shark?
The situations were very different for Saber and the family in the plane however. Little Illya wanting to play pattycakes with A2 while the rest were scanning the room as the rest of them began scanning the room.
Kiritsugu already had a plan in mind, already had a suspect.
"Caster." He could Saber nod out of the corners of his eyes. Only a Servant of magic could do this. No guns. Maiya had them all and was delivering to them to the stronghold.
He didn't have to watch with any measure of focus to see what happened next.
The passengers roared and screamed as Illya and Iri sat there with slack jaws. He wasn't any different.
It took a few seconds to process what he was seeing properly. He could barely hear it over the sounds of all the other passengers yelling but he heard A2 from somewhere above him.
"A whale!? How much is this gonna sell for Pod?"
He understood it now. He understood what it meant to have Golden Rule for a skill.
But when the plane reached Fuyuki he was going to find out how wrong he was. Kiritsugu didn't know the Golden Rule at all, but he was going to understand.
For now he just set about hypnotising the passengers into forgetting what had happened and focused his attention of gaining a stockpile of the more expensive things in his arsenal.
He couldn't wait to get out of the plane. But he wondered why anything would bite Pod at all.
It happened a few more times, resulting in him having to do it again, his darling of a wife took over sometimes as well. His daughter was done with her games and eagerly watched for any more catches.
Seeing this kind of made him want to take it up too. Although...he would feel a little insecure when he thought about this if he ever took up fishing.
When they finally touched down Berserker wasn't spotted until they finally reached the limousine he arranged for his family. But that didn't matter. He was no where near the limousine or his family.
No one would know that he was the master of Saber. And although he hated it, the mother and daughter being Masters in this war would take all the attention off of him. He hated this, but for the future he was okay with it. Saber or Berserker would function as a guard dog for his family.
He gave up on his family once. But never again. That, above all things was something he'd be willing to die for. He made for the manor that Maiya was sent to and emboldened himself to fight against the past itself in order to change the future.
For A2 and Saber however things were much more simple.
Illya had taken the spotlight in their little group and played around. This time she did so from her mothers lap. A2 stared. She got away with it from being in the passenger seat, but she knew she had to stop looking at some point.
She was just thinking about the kids. About Pascal...about the village children. The children whose cores were-
"Unit A2 is-"
"Quiet Pod."
"A2?" The mother and daughter duo looked at her.
"It's nothing."
But Illyasviel wouldn't let it go quite so easily. She narrowed her eyes and hummed at her. Just as A2 was about to turn around and look at the road again Illya spoke. "Ah! Mama! Berserker needs an oil change!"
A2's hair beat the driver in the face with how quickly she turned to stare at Illya. Irisviel spoke up. "Oh my?" She turned to look at A2. "Is this true Berserker? We've never really had the chance to talk so we don't know how androids work."
"What the hell? No-"
"She's lying mama! We need to go outside into the big city and explore!" She gestured with her arms as she spoke over A2 as loudly as she possibly could. "Stop the car!"
"Yes Madam." The Einzbern homunculus that was driving the car pulled over immediately. Irisviel looked a little guilty but didn't do anything to stop what was going on.
"No! I don't need an oil change I-" She went silent before opening up the door and getting out. "Fine, whatever. If you want to walk around town that badly, sure." Illya beamed at her. "Just don't take me to a gas station all right?"
They all left the car except for the Einzbern homunculus who staffed it. Multiple combat maids who had weapons hidden under the seats. "We will meet you at the manor Ms. Irisviel."
It was only when the limousine pulled away and went onwards that Saber finally asked questions as Illya and Iri lead them around the town.
The Heroic Servant dressed in an all black business suit turned to her. "I didn't expect you to say yes Berserker."
Long hair, dyed blond this time turned to face Saber, revealing A2's face. "It was obvious what she was doing. She would have hounded me otherwise. God, why's every kid I ever met so pushy?"
Saber smiled. She was finally getting to know Berserker at the very least. They hadn't ever really conversed at all, being summoned right when the Holy Grail War was about to begin didn't leave them with much time for chatting. Now that she thought about it they had probably traded only a few sentences to one another.
She knew Irisviel more than the person she'd be fighting alongside with for the duration of this Holy Grail War. It didn't help that they were placed on two extremes. With silence from Kiritsugu and too much conversation from the mother and daughter. Illya and Iri had a way of distracting from the more serious points of a conversation. Not that such a thing was bad, to know someone you had to melt the ice. But some parts had to be broken.
To truly know someone you needed to find out the most horrifying parts of their history with a solemn conduct. Just as you needed to simply spend time with them and do the smallest things.
She glanced at the family and smiled a bit more forlornly. She shouldn't really talk about friendship. She was a king, she was afforded no such luxuries. But as she thought about her reign as the king of Britain she glanced at A2. There was something to be envious of right beside her. Kings are not allowed to let emotion rule them. To be trapped in a yolk of iron...
She carried on the conversation as Illya pressed her face into the glass of a sweet stores display window. "Still Berserker, how did you attain so many Noble Phantasms? And the uh...hair dye?"
"You mean the swords and all that? I just found them really. Don't know why they came with me since they're not really the stuff of legend at all. All I know is that they're ancient and reinforced to hell and back." She quickly held up one parts of Angels Folly to her chest before digitizing it again. "Some of them are supposed to be parts of mythological beasts though, so I guess that might do it." She summoned that white blade again. "Hell, I never even used this one as much as 2B did but I've got it. The only thing I can come up with is that Wretched Weaponry did something to them. You couldn't toss your sword like a boomerang and not lose it unless you were something like me. Actually, now that I think about it, we were probably built with that feature in mind. It'd be pretty stupid if you lost your weapon. So I suppose its an integral part of my body."
Saber looked at her from her seat on the ferris wheel. "I see. The only reason their with you is because you were designed to not lose them. Your concept is your Noble Phantasm." She kept an eye on Illya and Iri who were in one of those spinning teacup contraptions. "No. That's not it. Perhaps an actual magus could explain it better."
A2's light blue hair blew in the breeze as she looked to the distant horizon. How did she dye it so fast?! "Well, whatever it is I'm glad I have it. It'd be a pain to fight bare handed."
Pod popped up from the back of A2's neck, having sequestered itself away under A2's shirt. It would have looked pretty ridiculous if her long hair didn't cover up what was happening.
"Proposal: Since it has been established that A2's Noble Phantasms are tethered to an EX Phantasm located in her body, care should be taken to avoid being hit or affected by a Noble Phantasm of an equivalent rank. Unit 2B had lost the weapon designated as; Virtuous Treaty when she activated her Black Box."
"Sure, whatever." They got back to the bottom of the ferris wheel and got off to meet the Einzbern family.
"A2, Saber! Look at what we got! We filled a stamp card! C'mon, let's get the prize!" As they walk away, unprepared for the chaos that this night would bring another alteration is spotted in the timeline.
As Kiritsugu readied his weapons after watching watching the video footage of Assassin dies he reloads his Walther.
"About two seconds. I've gotten slower."
"Yes." Maiya replied.
He puts it back in the case with a delicate touch and remains silent. "Illya weighs less than that Walther." He whispers it out loud. "And yet...she is already eight years old." He hunches over it.
Again. Its come back to haunt him again. He can't stand it. That Illya is so...
He stands up suddenly and gets ready.
These small moments of punishment that he's had to store away are affecting him. Illya is here, its for this reason he's got his Walther. At any moment now she might be attacked. It was his duty to strike out preemptively and stop such a thing from happening.
"Maiya. Bring what you need. The Grail War is starting tonight"
"Yes sir."
P.S: College is starting soon, just to let you know. I also have no drafts for future chapters...I...also have not finished watching Fate/Zero.
