CHAPTER 6:

PRISONERS OF FATE

The next day, Harry had taken Medusa out to do some shopping with Sakura, while Kariya manned the library in case someone showed up. The Grail War had more or less started, with Assassin apparently falling to Archer, and Kirei Kotomine seeking sanctuary at the church. Harry knew it was a set-up, not because Tokiomi or the Kotomines told him, but given their collusion, and the weird Noble Phantasms of some Servants, he knew better than to assume. The fact that assumptions had his godfather end up in Azkaban didn't help. No, Assassin was still alive, he was pretty sure of it.

It was by sheer coincidence that they bumped into Saber and…not her actual Master, but presumably a proxy, shortly after finishing their shopping (mostly clothes for Sakura and Medusa, along with books and toys for the former). Harry didn't know the blonde European girl in the severe suit was Saber at first. Not that she wasn't striking enough amongst the Japanese, with golden blonde hair, green eyes so much like his own, a beautiful if somewhat androgynous face. The slender girl appeared to be in her late teens, maybe her early twenties at most.

It was the young European woman accompanying her that drew his attention: an albino with white hair, extraordinarily pale and flawless skin, and blood red eyes. Utterly and inhumanly beautiful, like Medusa. But the albino looks were characteristic of a number of the Homunculi provided by the von Einzberns. And they were chatting away in German rather than Japanese. Harry cast a Translation Charm discreetly (having learned Japanese by now) on himself, and heard the blonde say, with what sounded like a British accent with a touch of Welsh, "…interesting marketplace. It is even more crowded than my time."

"The Grail didn't tell you that much, Saber?" the albino woman asked, her accent definitely German.

"No, but…Irisviel, we are being watched."

Shit, Harry thought. And Sakura's here. Not to mention we're laden down with shopping bags. As the blonde woman, Saber, turned to look at him, Harry knew he was in trouble. In English, he said, "We're not here to cause trouble."

Saber peered at him, before Irisviel suddenly recognised him, and then spoke quietly to Saber. After a moment, the blonde woman relaxed slightly. "I see," Saber said in English. "You are Harry Potter?"

Harry nodded. "Can we take this conversation somewhere else?"

The two women nodded, and soon, they made their way out of the shopping centre. Thankfully, there was a park nearby, and they made their way swiftly to it, Harry setting up privacy charms discreetly as they halted. "So, you are the one in charge of the Black Library," Saber said. "My Master was far from pleased with having to sign the geas contract." There was a strange undertone of satisfaction to that remark, suggesting that she didn't get along with her Master.

"You mean Kiritsugu Emiya? I bet he wasn't. You seem to know my name already. This is Sakura, my daughter. And this is Ophis."

"That's the Heroic Spirit you somehow summoned without it being counted as a Servant," Irisviel said in accented but fluent English. "Kiritsugu and Elder Acht were tearing their hair out, trying to figure out how that happened." She giggled slightly at that.

Harry held up his hands for them to inspect. "No Command Seals. And I don't know how it happened, only that it did. Ophis will be enforcing the sanctuary rules. So, you're the Saber Servant for this Grail War. Nice to meet you."

Saber smiled, and shook his proffered hand. He noted that, despite her relatively petite frame, her grip was strong. Then again, she was a Servant after all. "A pleasure to meet you too."

"I am Irisviel von Einzbern," Irisviel introduced herself with a smile of her own. "I'm acting as Saber's proxy Master for this Grail War on behalf of my husband."

"Surprising to see a Saber, and such a beautiful and courteous one too, summoned by the likes of Kiritsugu Emiya," Harry remarked. He didn't miss the scowl that came across Saber's face. And Medusa's lips thinned ever so slightly, even if she recognised that his compliments were not just well-meant, but intended to flatter the Servant. It might not work, but there was the old saying that one caught more flies with honey than vinegar.

"We do not see eye to eye," Saber said bluntly. "However, his dream is one I believe in too, which is why I will fight for the Grail."

Irisviel, meanwhile, was kneeling down in front of Sakura. In Japanese, she asked, "Sakura, is it? I have a daughter too, a lovely girl called Illyasviel. You'd get along well with her."

"Maybe one day we can meet her? Maybe we can play?" Sakura asked tentatively.

"Maybe," Irisviel said with a somewhat sad smile. Harry had to wonder why. She looked up at Harry. As she stood, she said, "I heard a lot about you, Harry Potter. It is heartening to meet someone like you in my life. You are like my husband in many ways." She held up a hand. "Not in the obvious way. I know the man behind his reputation, a man who strives for peace, to help others. Though I daresay you are more like Saber."

"Probably," Harry said, more than a little offended by the comparison. "Can I give you a warning though, to pass onto your husband? Well, a request and a warning. The request is that you avoid targeting the Masters of Berserker and Rider. The Master of Berserker is a very old friend of mine, and the Master of Rider is her boyfriend. The Servants are fine, I'd rather they weren't killed, but that's the point of this tournament."

"And the warning?" Irisviel asked.

"The Master of Assassin, Kirei Kotomine, is obsessed with your husband, dangerously so. That's as much as I can safely say. Though if Hermione and/or Waver are killed by your husband…reputation or not, after this Grail War is over and I am freed from my obligations, if he isn't dead beforehand, he will wish he was. And if he targets Sakura in any way, using anyone outside of the geas, I won't bother waiting until the end of the Grail War to come after him." Harry made sure to discreetly cover Sakura's ears when he made the threats.

"…I'll be sure to pass that on, Harry," Irisviel said, her look pensive. "I am sure he won't do that."

Saber looked unconvinced. "You have my personal word, Harry, that unless my Master uses a Command Seal to enforce an order, I will avoid targeting those Masters."

"Good. I'm sorry to say such things, but I know his reputation, and unlike a good chunk of mine, I know his isn't founded on hyperbole. But mine still has some small basis in fact, if only because I had to live up to the hype, and I look after what few friends I have. It was a pleasure to meet you both. I hope we can meet again, and under pleasant circumstances."

"As do I," Saber said, shaking his hand again, as did Irisviel.

"I hope you can meet my husband, Harry, and see that there is more to him than his reputation," Irisviel said, with a sad smile. It could have been an oblique threat, but Harry knew that the Homunculus actually meant it in a more positive manner. She truly loves him, he thought. There must be something in him that is loveable


Kariya looked up when they re-entered the Black Library. "Hey, you're back. Anything interesting happen?"

"Yeah, met the von Einzbern delegation, minus a certain infamous mercenary," Harry said. "Thankfully, they seemed unwilling to pick a fight. How Kiritsugu Emiya managed to get a hold of a wife and a Servant respectively like them…"

"Them?"

"Medusa," Harry said in Parseltongue, "could you please take Sakura to somewhere quiet to read?"

Medusa nodded, and then said, "Sakura? Could you please come with me?"

"Okay, Miss Medusa," Sakura said. She was a smart child, and recognised when things needed to be discussed in private. While inquisitive, she understood boundaries, and Harry, while he sugarcoated things by necessity of her youth, tried not to keep her too much in the dark.

After they left, Kariya ran a hand through his hair. "The Magus Killer wasn't there?"

"Thankfully. But his Servant and wife were there. The Servant is a Saber, a blonde-haired young woman with green eyes. She was dressed in a business suit, but I guess that's a disguise. She had a British accent, even a hint of Welsh. I would have thought she would have been astralized, though."

"A few Servants can't," Kariya said. "Sometimes, it's due to a cock-up in the summoning, but other times, it's due to an innate property of the Servant. I don't think the Magus Killer makes many mistakes, so I'm guessing the latter."

"What's more, she seems to be on bad terms with Kiritsugu. I guess she's one of those types who's into honour and chivalry," Harry said. "The wife is a Homunculus by the name of Irisviel von Einzbern. Albino, white hair, pale skin, red eyes. She's acting as Saber's proxy Master."

"Probably knows some magecraft, enough to defend herself," Kariya mused. "The von Einzberns are even more arrogant than the Tohsakas, but they're one of the best families in the field of alchemy and the creation of Homunculi. The old worm told me that the core of the Grail was originally their finest Homunculus, Justeaze. He's probably the only person alive, apart from any Dead Apostles, who can say they've met her. He used to wax lyrical about her. I think he had a thing for her or something, it's hard to tell with that decrepit old bastard. The von Einzberns must've created her as his little trophy wife to keep him tied to them. They only bring outsiders in to marry when they need fresh blood, most of their offspring are Homunculi."

"They have a daughter, apparently," Harry said. "Maybe there's more to Emiya than being a cold-hearted hitman."

"You going to tell Tohsaka anything?"

"Of course not. Assassin's death was most likely a Pettigrew-style trick, so he's probably being used as a scout. They could find that information out themselves through him. If Tokiomi asks me, I'll give him the bare minimum. He probably knows quite a bit through his spies already, anyway. I'm more worried about Kirei Kotomine. The guy's got this obsessive nature to him. Why the hell the Grail chose him as a Master three years in advance, I've no idea. But for some reason, he's obsessed with the Magus Killer, and he's a killing machine himself. Risei's such a nice old man, colluding with Tokiomi aside, so how he raised someone like Kirei is beyond me."

"Not all psychos have bad parents," Kariya said. "I've covered a lot of this shit in my time as a journalist, and I have to tell you, some are born, and some are made."

There was a sudden cry in Parseltongue. "WHAT?!"

Kariya and Harry looked at each other, before dashing to find the room where Medusa had taken Sakura to, a small library with a bunch of knick-knacks. Harry sighed when he saw Sakura having opened his trunk. While there was nothing actually dangerous in it (he kept those things in a far more obscure trunk), he usually had Sakura ask permission first. And in Sakura's hands were the familiar silvery folds Harry had known since his first Christmas at Hogwarts. "Sakura," he said sternly. "What have I said about taking things out of the trunk without my permission?"

"I'm sorry, Daddy, but I wanted to play hide and seek with Miss Medusa. I told her about your Invisibility Cloak, and she seemed curious, so I wanted to show her," she said, looking contrite. "Then, Miss Medusa hissed in Parseltongue when she saw it."

"All right, but you were still naughty, taking it out without my permission. No ghost story tonight, and no sweets for a while," Harry said.

As Sakura's face fell, Medusa gently took the Cloak from her hands. "The fault is mine, Harry. I asked Sakura to show it to me."

Harry said, "She plays hide and seek with it all the time. Sometimes, she takes it without asking me to try and pretend to be a ghost and scare me or Kariya. It's not the first time."

"The fault is mine," Medusa repeated, holding the Cloak. "And this…if my theory was not confirmed before, it is now."

"What theory?"

"This is one of the Hallows, the relics given to the Peverells by none other than Thanatos himself."

"Thanatos?" Sakura asked.

"The Greek god of Death. Hades was god of the dead, the ruler of the Underworld, but Thanatos was the one who caused the end of life, what you would call a Reaper in the West, or a Shinigami in the East. While mortals believed that the one to assemble all three of the Hallows would become the Master of Death, an immortal being, we on the Throne of Heroes heard a different tale. That the gatherer of the Hallows would actually be Thanatos reborn, or rather part of him reborn. When I test you with my Cybele, the Mystic Eyes Athena cursed me with, I was sure, and yet, I could not voice it. I had forgotten that you had one of the Hallows in your possession. And you've had all three once, haven't you?"

"What are you saying, Medusa?" Harry asked sceptically. "That I am a Greek death-god reborn?"

"In a manner, yes. You are not the entirety of Thanatos, but rather, the part of him that died to keep his love company in the Underworld." She walked over to him, and placed a hand on his cheek. "That is why you had those dreams, Harry. I believe that is also why your summoning of me happened. He…you promised me that we'd be together again." A slight trickling of tears emerged from her eyes, behind the glasses that were the transformed form of her blindfold, the Breaker Gorgon. "And now…we are."

Harry didn't know what to do at first. He was almost certain that he wasn't Thanatos, or a fragment of him, and that Medusa was clutching at straws. He'd be damned before he was a prisoner of fate or destiny ever again.

But seeing the woman in front of him weeping, a woman that had haunted his dreams for years, he realised something. He may not be Thanatos…but he cared about her, despite the short time in which he had known her. Medusa had gotten short shrift in her life, and for no good reason, other than the petty jealousy of a goddess supposedly known for her wisdom. Hermione would make a better Athena than Athena herself: Hermione had her faults, but she wouldn't curse anyone out of mere jealousy. Her own jealousy, anyway. She had used a couple of jinxes in response to the jealousy of others.

So, instead of denying Medusa, Harry embraced her in a hug. She stiffened, before returning the embrace. He gently ran his hand through her long hair, causing her to gently hiss, like a contented snake should sound like. The self-exiled Boy Who Lived, a girl adopted out by her father in order to avoid conflict over inheritance, the white sheep of a dark Magus family, and a cursed goddess brought into the modern world. A strange makeshift family…but that's what it was. A family.

As if to confirm this, Sakura said, "Does this mean Medusa is my mummy?"

Now that was a rare sentence. Gentle chuckles swept the room. "I wouldn't mind," Medusa said.

"And neither would I," Harry said. He wouldn't mind one bit…

CHAPTER 6 ANNOTATIONS:

So, Harry and company have met Arturia and Irisviel, and Medusa has finally revealed her connection to Harry. And it looks like they'll become a family…should they survive the Grail War.

Now, I know what you're thinking. No, Harry isn't immortal. Not in the Master of Death sense, anyway. However, I do have plans for him to have, thanks to him being a fragment of Thanatos, a Reality Marble that temporarily gives him MoD powers. But as with any Reality Marble, it's very draining, requires an aria (well, Harry does, as does Shirou and Archer), and if he gets too much attention drawn to himself, he'll probably get Sealing Designations slapped on him faster than you can say Unlimited Blade Works. Plus, its powers are pretty horrifying, so Harry is going to refrain from using it, save to help defend those he holds dear. He's still very much mortal.

Incidentally, for those of you who are wondering at Sakura's punishment, she canonically likes scary stories (even at the time Fate/Zero takes place!) and sweet things. Plus, Harry's a little leery of being too harsh with his punishments. He doesn't want to spoil Sakura too much, but neither does he want to be too lax with discipline.

No numbered annotations this time.