*DING DING DING DING*
Agatha groaned as she buried her head deeper into her arms, trying to get way from the sound that was drilling into her tired brain. "Just five more minutes…" she muttered as she tried to get back to sleep. Unfortunately, the alarm apparently was not built to heed her commands (something she would have to fix in the future), so after a few moments her arm stretched out in the direction of the noise. After some blind groping her hand finally slapped down on the offending object, blissfully silencing it. She let out a sigh of contentment and settled back into unconsciousness.
Or at least she did until something smacked her on the nose.
Agatha bolted upright, hand griping her face in pain. "Ow! Son of a-!" She cut herself off as she blinked and looked around. She was only half surprised to find that she was still in her workshop, having fallen asleep at the assembly bench. Light was streaming in from a nearby window, the morning light helping chase way some of her fatigue. That said, there was still plenty left; falling asleep on a stool was not the most comfortable thing to do, and the fuzziness of her memories of last night was making hard to figure out how much sleep she had gotten anyway.
She let out a sigh and started to glance around the room, trying to see how much progress she had made before she fell prey to her mortal failings. However, a bit of movement caught her eye and she glanced down at the bench in front of her to see a sphere. It was metal, brass colored, and about the size of a baseball. It wasn't a smooth sphere, but rather looked to be made out of a series of locking plates. Agatha hesitantly reached out and picked it up, turning it over in her hands. Vague memories of last night began to surface, and following a seem she moved her thumb over a particular panel and pressed.
The sphere unfolded in her hand, the plates pulling back to form arms, legs, and a torso. In an instant there was a tiny robot standing on her palm resembling a stocky human with no head. Instead it had in the center of its round body a large blue optic, which turned to look up at her expectantly. There was a long moment of silence as Agatha looked at the little robot, feeling vaguely uneasy as it shifted its weight from foot to foot. Eventually, it decided to take the initiative.
*BRRRIIIIING!*
"Err…" Agatha finally managed to get out. "I don't suppose I told you what I made you for last night, did I? Or give you speech capability?"
*CLACK CLACK!*
"That's what I thought." The blonde sighed out as she set the bot back down on the bench. This sort of thing hadn't been a problem for years. Though her memories of the time right after the fire were a little muddled, Kiritsugu had told her of how she used to sleepwalk for the year or so after he brought her home. This wouldn't have been a problem if she didn't also have the tendency to sleep build as well. One time she had woken up in the backyard next to a giant trebuchet-like device whose sole purpose seemed to be the launching cans of soup cans into low orbit, and she hadn't the faintest idea why. She guessed later that it somehow involved ending world hunger via rapid sub-orbital soup delivery (heated to serving temperate by the forces of reentry), but that was just speculation.
She moved over to her computer and started to scroll through her recent activity, trying to see just what she had been doing. If she had programmed the little guy, she would have left a log of exactly what she had uploaded into him. She could then look at the code to figure out what he was supposed to do, so long as she hadn't-
She paused when she found the correct batch of files, marked under the name project_dingbot. She pulled out the software architecture diagram and stared at it for a moment before an explosive groan passed her lips. "Oh god, I've made another black module."
Agatha was always quick to point out that she didn't really consider herself a computer scientist. Of course, this would baffle most people looking at her work considering she made very versatile robotics in many shapes, sizes and functions, and she had a great deal of knowledge on programming. One could just point at any one of her little projects involving A.I. and ask how she could think that. To which Agatha would reply (sheepishly) that she cheated. Using genetic algorithms.
Genetic algorithms were a process in computer science to find the answer to something – whether it be a particular outcome, a function, or even another program itself – using natural selection as a model. It was used in cases where you knew what you wanted, but weren't sure how to get there. The algorithm would at first generate a bunch of results at random, and then pick the one that was closest to what you wanted. Then you discarded the rest, and generate a new set of results based on what was picked the last time, and again pick the one that was closest to what you wanted. This would continue for however many thousands of iterations until you got something that was close enough to the answer you wanted in the first place.
This was pretty much how Agatha 'programmed' all of her A.I. She rented server time from university computers to basically 'grow' her programs and algorithms, and she had an almost uncanny knack for picking and modifying the right heuristics for getting the results she wanted. She had made several software 'modules' this way, and combined them in different ways to get more complex A.I behavior.
The problem with this though was the code generated by genetic algorithms was pretty much incomprehensible to humans. There was once a story of an engineer who wanted to make a device that could tell the difference between two different tones using only 100 logic gates. He used a programmable series of gates with genetic algorithms to accomplish this, and he succeeded. When he actually took a look at the finished product however, he found that out of the 37 gates that ended up being actually used (amazing in and off itself) there were five gates that were active but weren't connected to anything at all. And yet when he tried removing them the device ceased to work, because as he found out later those gates were actually interacting with the rest via magnetic flux. No engineer would have ever thought of that, nor have any idea of how to modify it.
That was the reason Agatha never planned on showing anyone her A.I. code. It was a series of black boxes which she has linked together into a functioning product via guess work and intuition. It was completely unmaintainable from a software engineering standpoint and couldn't even prove anything interesting from a computer science standpoint. It was actually a little embarrassing, if Agatha had to admit.
She grunted as she looked back over at the little 'dingbot', who was currently mulling about on the workbench and poking at various tools and objects. Curious little thing, she thought to herself as she watched it pick up a wrench and heft it around. The module configuration for this one was almost completely different than any of her other creations, and it all was centered around the latest module she had created. Needless to say it looked like this one would have some quirks. If only she had bothered to leave some bloody comments for herself she would know if they were glitches or there by design.
She snapped out of her thoughts as the bot wandered over to the largest object on the bench, and stood a little straighter upon recognizing it. "Well, at least I got something concrete done last night." She said as she moved in and lifted her latest model of Death Ray into her arms. This one was a decently sized rifle, more or less a gunmetal cylinder with a number of dials lining the side and a cut out tops showing an array of LED lights. This one would be far more stable and manageable than her previous work.
She hefted it around to test the weight and looked down the sights as she pointed at various objects. She glanced at her shoulder as she felt the little Dingbot climb up on to it and look at the weapon expectantly, emitting a ringing sound as it did so. "Might be a little difficult to test," she told the robot dryly. "I mean, this thing still has a minimum power output that can punch through steel. It'll take some time to set up something that-"
She cut herself off as her sweeps of the room left her aiming at the workshop's clock, and her eyes widened when she noticed the time. "Oh crap, I'm going to late!" she yelled as she put down the weapon and frantically started organizing everything back to where it was supposed to be. When she soon realized the herculean task it would be, she gave up and made for the door. Then she remembered, headed back to the bench and put Dingbot down on it. "Sorry, there's no time! Just… do whatever it was you were made to do!" She then turned back and sprinted out the workshop shouting as she went. "Saber! You're never allowed to be my alarm clock again!"
The little robot watched her go, and for a few moments was still. Then its subroutines activated, intent on carrying out the last order it was given. It needed more direction, so it turned towards Agatha's computer and with a wireless command it accessed it. It sorted through the files rapidly, finding its goal in the form of numerous schematics, blueprints, and diagrams. It processed this information for a few moments before its plates crinkled a little, and anyone watching it would swear that it was frowning.
*WHIIIIRRRRR*
With some effort it climbed up the wall to a nearby shelf, giving it the vantage point to see out the window into the yard and all of the equipment therein. As it looked at all the devices and inventions in various states of completion, its 'frown' deepened. However, it stopped when it finally spotted what it was looking for: The large pile of raw materials Agatha had gotten from the shipyard.
*DING DING!*
Needless to say there was very little actual school work done by Agatha once she got to school. She spent most of the day researching legendary and mythological heroes, trying to absorb any knowledge that would be useful. She had never had more than a passing interest in myths as a source of inspiration, but for the first time in her life it looked like the finer details of said myths would be getting some practical application. Still, there were so many heroes of legend and before Agatha knew it the school day had finished and she and Rin were walking back to her house, their respective Servants in tow (though Archer remained invisible).
"Why can't we group at my house before we leave for the night?" Rin asked in mild irritation. "It seems like every time I met up with you we always go to your place instead."
Agatha rolled her eyes at that. "Yes, well, all of my stuff is at my place, and I can't exactly walk around with what would be classified as an extremely illegal weapon if people knew it existed. Besides which I want to drop this off." She said as she gestured to the wrapped up object she held under one arm.
"And what exactly is that?" Saber asked, her tone indicating a fair amount of interest for some reason. The pair had stopped off at the school machine shop before they left for the day in order to clear out Agatha's locker, and the Servant had been acting a little strangely ever since she laid eyes on that particular item.
Agatha shrugged. "It was a project I was working on before this whole mess started. I couldn't really tell you more than that though, because I'm honestly not sure. It just… something I've been feeling the urge to make." She said will a small huff. "It doesn't really matter. I have other things to focus on at the moment."
"Indeed you do, though I have to wonder how… effective whatever you focus on might be." Rin remarked. "Don't get me wrong, I have not forgotten your Mystic- your device, but are you really capable of building tools that will be useful in a War such as this?
"Yes." Agatha replied flatly. "I might not make a habit of building things meant for combat, but for the first time in my life I have a reason to do so."
"And what reason is that?" Rin asked, tilting her head slightly.
Agatha felt some irritation at that question. "What do you think? Who wouldn't want their father back?"
It was a small thing, but Agatha noticed Rin's mouth twitch a little at that before she turned her head to look forward. It took the bespectacled girl a few moments to remember something she had heard a long time ago, that Rin lived by herself as both her parents were gone for different reasons. There was a long moment of awkward silence as Agatha tried to figure out what to say, but the words escaped her.
Eventually Rin spoke, but she still looked ahead as she did so. "Father… would have wanted me to do what is best for the family. Achieving the Root is far more important than any one life, even his own." She took a breath. "That is why he fought and died in the last War. And by winning this one I will give his death some meaning."
Agatha had nothing to say to that. Personally she didn't really agree with it, but assuming that Rin was telling the truth, who was she to judge the other girl's family's values. And even if Rin was wrong, nothing would be accomplished by calling her out on it. So she remained quiet, as uncomfortable as the silence was.
It stayed that way until they were in front of her property, at which point Saber's head perked up. "I hear the sounds of machinery." Saber said as her brow furrowed. "Master, did you leave one of your devices on when you left this morning?"
"What? Of course not, you must be hearing-" However, Agatha cut herself off when the sounds of hums, clangs, and metal on metal was reached her ears, and it was indeed coming from her backyard. Her concern rising, she broke into a run and skirted around her house to head straight to the back, fears that someone had broken in and bypassed her security dancing through her mind. However, when she rounded the house and the backyard came into view, she skidded to a stop and her jaw hit the ground.
Her entire back yard was filled with dingbots of various shapes and sizes, all bustling about with some activity or another. They swarmed over the tables she had laid out on her lawn, sparks from soldering irons and tiny wielding torches flashing every. Parts and materials were being passed up like an assembly line, and there was a constant stream of the little robots moving in and out of her workshop, carrying various tools and materials in and out. Also, in another corner of the yard she spied three of the things piecing together what could only be another version of themselves.
Rin came up behind her and let out a surprised gasp before it turned into something of a sigh. "You know, I should just start expecting this sort of thing with you, shouldn't I." She said flatly. However, she then noticed Agatha's growing expression of horror and concern crept into her voice. "Err… this is something you meant to do, right? And not your creations running amok as they please… right?"
Agatha could barely hear her, as she was too busy thinking Oh God I've recreated autonomous von Numen machines I've started the robot apocalypse what if they can build smaller versions of themselves which can build smaller versions of themselves and oh God I've started a grey goo scenario-
After a few moments of paranoia fueled speculation she final got herself back under control and did the first thing she could think of. "STOP!"
As one, all of the little robots paused in what they were doing and turned to Agatha, each one's eye staring at her expectantly. Agatha, not having expected that to actually work, stuttered with what she said next "Wh-what the hell are you all doing?!"
All of the little robots stared at her for a long moment before they, as one, turned back to keep doing whatever they were doing. Before she could start throwing a fit though, there was movement from her workshop, and what she recognized as the original Dingbot came scurrying towards her. It gestured in what she could only guess was an excited manner, and she hesitantly followed it back into her workshop. And again, her jaw dropped at what she saw.
"You… you built all this?" Agatha said in amazement as she looked at all of the devices and inventions scattered about the workshop. Her devices and inventions.
Rin, who had followed her to the edge of the shed's door but not entered, peered in nervously. "So… would you mind informing the less crazy of us what's going on with all your mechanical familiars?"
"They… they built things I had on file." She replied, and a quick glance at her computer showed all of the schematics files playing across the screens. Her gaze started to dart around the room. "Why, there's the makeshift neural network I had always planned to integrate into my computer! And several portable terminals with a variety of interfaces!" She turned and looked in a different corner. "Look, there's the high rotation mechanism I was going to use for turrets! And they finished my Omni-Material 3d printer!" She turned back to the bench. "And 5 more copies of my Death Rays! This is amazing! This is incredible! This is-" She cut herself off as she looked closer at said Death Rays, and noticed that the frames were still open, and key components were missing. "-incomplete."
Dingbot somehow managed to look sheepish before it pulled itself up onto the bench and up to the computer. When it got close, the screen changed to her models of her various Death Rays, and one opened up to zoom in on its Degeneracy Reactor. Dingbot threw up its hands helplessly at that, and Agatha understood.
Rin on the other hand was still left in the dark. "Ok…" she said slowly. "That still doesn't explain where all these little things came from."
Agatha regarded her creation as she spoke. "I needed help building things, so I built a helper." She said, finally understanding the purpose she made him for. "I told him to do what he was supposed to do, which he took as 'build all the things I don't have time to build'. But I have so many of those that he needed help himself, so he built helpers of his own and gave them sub-tasks. But then those helpers needed help doing sub-tasks and… well, you can see what happened." She said with a small chuckle. "But it looks like they still have some trouble with the more complicated stuff."
Dingbot looked crest fallen, and Agatha couldn't help but pet the small robot reassuringly. In truth, a small part of her was glad that they couldn't replicate her work completely. She didn't care to render herself obsolete. "In any case, you guys are going to be an amazing help in the next few weeks. Just… don't make any more of you than there are right now." Her original creation (which she mentally decided to dub Dingbot Prime), let out a ringing noise in acknowledgement.
Rin on the other had a small frown on her face as she stared at the multitude of little robots mulling about the yard. "You have created a familiar that can make more familiars… albeit of lesser quality each time it would seem."
A quick glance showed that she was right, and Agatha could pick out three distinct 'generations' of the dingbots beyond the Prime. The first and most well-made were mostly round, though they were geodesic hexagons rather than proper spheres. The second generation was cubes and rectangular prisms, with a lot more variance in shape. The third… well, patchwork was the best word that could describe them considering some weren't even symmetric. Agatha grunted. "Yes, well, I'll consider that a positive for the moment considering I had no idea they could do that in the first place. Then again there is a slight chance that they'll figure out how to fix that, at which point it will be a few short steps until they spread and mankind is made extinct in the face of their mechanical might." She paused for a second. "But on the bright side, they'll probably worship me as a creator goddess and there will be no humans left to blame me for killing everyone!"
"…Are you sure you're not a magus?" Rin asked, her eyebrow twitching.
"Quiet you." Agatha said before turning back to her creations. "Anyway, this is great and all but we do have a patrol to get to. I'll be taking the completed Death Ray, and you guys hold down the fort till I get back."
Before she could move to leave however, Dingbot Prime tugged at her sleeve and pointed at something. She looked and found a stand, and on it… Agatha grinned to herself. "On the other hand, you guys step out for a moment. I need to get changed first." Rin and Saber were confused by this, but they did as they were asked and stepped out. A few minutes later Agatha walked out after them and was greeted with incredulous stares.
Whatever the others had been expecting her to be wearing, it certainly wasn't what they saw when she existed the shed. The thick pants and work shirt were understandable, but she wore some kind of mechanical leg braces, and on either side of the tool belt at her waist there were spools of high tensile wires attached to launchers of some sort. The bandoleer strapped around her chest had an odd assortment of wires running between the various pouches, and a pair of goggles rested on her head. She wore knee and elbow pads, and of course in her gloved hands she held one of her Death Ray rifles.
"Like it?" She said with a smile. "It's an urban explorer outfit I designed a while ago. With a few modifications to accommodate a field terminal and a few extra tools I might need."
"Your attire seems… very complicated." Saber finally settled on, her brows creasing. "Are you sure that you are not taking more than you need?"
"Hardly. I'd like to have my mechadendrite harness in case I need to do some serious construction on the fly, but it's far too unwieldy. I need to be able to move."
Rin rolled her eyes. "Regardless, are you ready now?"
"Oh yes." Agatha replied as she narrows her eyes. Time to see if she was up to spec.
It wasn't long before a plan was hashed out between the two masters. With her network of night drones over the city, Agatha had little need to move to search for a target. On the other hand, Archer pointed out that the main method of finding opponents in the Grail War that that Command Seals reacted with each other within a proximity of about 100 meters, as well as most Servants having the ability to sense each other. Given this and how Archer himself was more mobile, it was decided that Agatha and Saber would settle in somewhere and keep a digital watch while Archer and Rin stayed on the move. If an enemy Servant was spotted, two teams would move to intercept.
And so it was about an hour later Agatha found herself standing in the shadows of an alleyway near the center of the old district, tapping away at the haptic interface mounted on her arm while video feeds played on the lenses of her goggles. Still, while everything was going well so far Agatha couldn't help but feel a sense of unease. Part of it may have been the whole risk of death thing, but there was something else making her nervous. "I'm really starting to worry that we're going to be picked up by the cops." Agatha muttered as she cast another glance out towards the street from the alleyway.
"And whose fault is that, hmm?" Came Rin's false sweet voiced from the ear piece Agatha wore. "You could have gone out wearing something a normal person would wear."
"And leave myself with baseline mobility and no protection? No thank you." Agatha said back as she kept her eyes on the screen. "Besides which that still wouldn't stop Saber from being conspicuous."
The Servant next to her let out a huff. "There should be nothing wrong with a knight in full regalia in public." Saber said primly, her eyes remaining closed. The woman was current sitting on a crate the way a person might sit on a throne, her gauntleted hands resting on the pommel of her invisible sword as it rested tip first on the ground. She was the image of royal calmness as she waited patiently for a foe to be realized.
"Maybe, but I think you'd have better luck with that in this part of the world if you dressed more like a samurai instead." Agatha remarked dryly before a thought occurred to her, and she turned her attention back to the com. "Speaking of protection Rin, what about your own? I mean, do you have some kind of magic force field or something?"
Rin made a noise from her throat. "I am capable of generating something to that effect, but mostly I will be relying on my physical Reinforcement to stay out of the way. If another Master insists on facing me in combat, then I have my family Gemcraft to rely on."
Agatha paused for a moment. Her curiosity about the ins and outs of magic had been piqued again, but Rin had already shown reluctance to explain thing in detail. She didn't want to push her luck too much and have the other girl clam up entirely, so she thought for a moment before she responded. "Gemcraft? What's that? It sounds important." Agatha had gotten the sense that mages were a prideful sort when it came to their personal brand of magic, and Rin seemed to fit that descriptor. Though she wanted to ask about this 'Reinforcement', she opened with a question that played to Rin's ego.
And it seemed to work, as Rin let out a self-satisfied hum. "It is indeed. My family has long studied the art of storing spells and prana inside of gemstones for later use. This allows me to use complex and powerful spells in an instant."
Agatha arched an eyebrow at that. "That… sounds very practical, actually. Have other families developed their own method of accomplishing such things?"
"No, or at least none close to what I know of. My family has been studying this art for hundreds of years, and we have kept out secrets well." Rin paused for a moment before he tone became heated. "Except for that one family of lying thieves, but they're not important!"
Agatha was silent for a moment as she thought about that. Storing spells and magic energy seemed like pretty basic stuff in her book, and yet it seemed very few of these mages knew how to do it. She started to wonder why more mages hadn't tried to learn it themselves and build off of it, but then she remembered what Rin had told her. Too many people knowing about it makes it weaker. What a load of bollocks, she thought to herself. I really feel like they should have spent some time to try to find a way around that, all things considered. I mean, it's not like mankind hasn't continuously broken the laws of nature as civilization grew, so I don't see why the World-
Agatha stood up a little straighter as she realized something. "Hey Rin," she asked, her brow furrowing. "I forgot to ask before. This… 'World' you talked about, the metaphysical thing… were you referring to the fabric of reality or the literal planet?"
"Well, the term refers to the concept of the planet Earth, but there's no real appreciable difference."
There was a long moment where Agatha was silent. She then took a long, deep breath before she spoke again. "Rin… dear…" she said with the tone she might use for a small child. "You do realize that there is more than just Earth, right? You do know that we've gone to the moon, right?"
"Of course I know that!" Rin replied in irritation. "What does that have to do with anything?"
Agatha just let out a sigh and shook her head. No imagination. "Well, I guess that settles it. I'm going to have to build a space station. Ok, let's face it, I was always going to build a space station, but now it's higher on my priorities."
She could hear the puzzlement in Rin's voice as she asked "Why in god's name would you do that?"
"So I can fix your whole 'have to keep magic a secret' problem. The World can't oppose magic if it's not being used on it. Hell, I'll let you come on board and we can pioneer space magic together."
There was a long silence on the coms, but it didn't take much imagination to see Rin gaping like a fish at this. It filled Agatha with a warm, fuzzy sensation for some reason. Eventually the magus found her voice. "Th-that's crazy! You can't just escape the laws of the World by going high enough!"
"According to your definition, and the fact that the planet is very small compared to the rest of the universe, I'm pretty sure I can." Agatha paused for a moment before she looked off to the side in thought. "I'll have to find the proper altitude though, might have to go all the way to high orbit. Would the damping effect drop off as the inverse square law? If it works like a field, probably, so many fields do…"
Rin sputtered for a few moments longer before she finally let out a sigh and started to grumble in German, though not quite low enough for Agatha to not hear "I've joined up with a mad girl. Why couldn't I have gotten some easily manipulated dolt instead?"
"Probably because said dolt would have been dead already by this point." Agatha replied back coolly in the same language.
There was a pause on the com before Rin replied. "I… didn't actually know you spoke German."
"As well as English, Mandarin, Russian, French, Latin, and a little bit of Arabic, if you were wondering." She said dryly. "I'm a polyglot."
Rin then said something she didn't catch, though by the tone of it she was saying something biting to her own Servant. Her voice then came clear over the com. "Yes, well, while your idea is certainly… interesting, you are far from the first person who gained the most basic smattering of knowledge of magic to have come up with an idea to 'fix' it. I doubt you have just discovered in a few days what we haven't been able to discover in thousands of years."
"Right…" The other girl said, knowing that Rin did have a point but not wanting to give up her idea just yet. So she changed the subject. "By the way, how exactly do new people normally 'gain the most basic smattering of knowledge of magic'? I mean, if you're so secretive about it and want as few to know as possible, how do new people learn magic?"
"They scrape together bits and pieces of lore and actual magical techniques that can still be found in mundane libraries and history. It's never very effective, but it can be enough for them to teach their children who will add to that knowledge, and so on and so forth. Almost all will start with formulacraft, as for all of its downsides it is fairly versatile and the least personally intensive in terms of prana."
Agatha hummed at that. "Formulacraft… the book you gave me actually mentioned that a few times." In addition to the information that the magic tome displayed about the Servants, it also had a section that related to the 'Heaven's Feel' ritual in general, including how to make the proper summoning circle. It was a very elaborate affair with several geometric patterns and old script she didn't recognize, along with a fair amount of equations. It wasn't too difficult to understand what was going on, but as the book assumed that one had basic knowledge on formulacraft, Agatha had no idea why or how all those lines and numbers were necessary. It was much like looking at calculus problems before you had learned algebra.
"Yes, formulacraft is a convenient form of magic for rituals, and this one is no exception. I have a fairly extensive selection of books on the subject for this, and other, reasons."
Agatha paused for a moment before she asked. "Do you think you could lend me one?"
Though she couldn't see her, Agatha could tell that Rin gave a start. "What? Why?"
"Well, like I said before, I need to understand something before I'm comfortable working with it, and by the sound of it this formulacraft is the closest to beginner magic there is. Odds are there's at least one book on the subject out there which doubles as a 'Magic for Dummies'."
Rin gave something that might have been a laugh before she said "Considering our circumstances, I'm not exactly keen to take you on as an apprentice at the moment. Though I admit that I would enjoy making you admit that you are in fact 'magic', as you so often put it."
Agatha was about to retort when something caught her eye on one of the feeds. She zoomed in to an alleyway towards the western part of town, seeing two people in close embrace in the shadows. At first glance it looked like private, intimate affair, but something about the way the two moved seemed off to her. She typed in a command to adjust the night vision setting on the drone and-
Agatha drew a sudden, sharp breath, which Rin heard over the com. "What is it? Have you spotted an enemy Servant?"
It was a moment before the other girl said slowly "I… think I found a vampire."
Rin did not say anything for a moment, instead letting out a confused sound. Saber on the other hand opened her eyes and stood to face Agatha. "Can you show this to me?"
Agatha pressed a few buttons on her goggles and a projector light shot out of them, illuminating the opposite wall of the alley with the video. It was not the best quality as it was taken from a distance and the night vision was activated, but it was good enough to show a statuesque woman biting into a man's neck. She had hair trailing down to her calves and a blindfold of sorts over her face. In addition to her short dress, she also wore a pair of detached sleeves and leggings. The man in her grasp twitched sporadically, and Agatha realized with a sort of dull horror that she was watching someone slowly die.
Saber nodded grimly at this. "That is a Servant. She is consuming that man's soul for power."
Agatha's head snapped towards her. "What?! What do you mean that she's consuming his soul?!"
Saber continued. "Servants have the ability to consume the souls of mortals to refresh their prana reserves, and they do so through the act of drinking blood. Blood is the currency of the soul after all."
Agatha looked at her in horror for a moment longer before her face twisted into something harder. She then remember Rin and said into the com "Rin, scratch what I just said, it's a Servant. She's located about 10 blocks north east of the school. We're closer, so Saber and I are moving in."
Rin grunted over the com. "Archer and I are on our way. Don't do anything too stupid before we get there, Emiya."
Agatha grumbled at that and rolled her eyes, but she turned to her Servant and said "Are you ready for this?"
Saber stood tall. "I am always ready for battle. Let us make haste." Before Agatha realized it, Saber wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her close. Agatha could only let out a small scream before her Servant bounded into the air with her, leaping from rooftop to rooftop to their first battle.
Omake: For Her Honor
As the man leveled the spear and thrust it at her, a single thought went through Agatha's mind. I WANT TO LIVE!
Suddenly, the world erupted in light. Agatha instinctively closed her eyes, both at the light and in response to the oncoming spear. However, she felt nothing. Instead there was a loud clash, the sound of metal striking something. She opened her eyes to find someone else standing in the shed with her and the man in blue.
It was a man dressed head to toe in form fitting silver armor that shone like a mirror. The low light from outside the shed played off the medieval armor in such a way that the air around man wavered, almost like a mirage or reflection on water. Agatha could not make out any features through the closed helm, though the purple plume coming out of the helm added a splash of color to the ensemble. The only thing out of place was that the object in his hands which was blocking the spear, rather than a more traditional weapon, was a metal pipe that had been lying around her workshop, glowing curved lines of purple running up the sides.
There was a grunt and the armored man lashed out with the pipe with such force that it flung the spearman clear into the yard.
The armored man stood straight and turned to look at Agatha, and the girl was completely speechless. She had seen a lot that night, but the last thing she had expected to happen was to be saved by a literal knight in shining armor. There was a crystalized moment where neither of them spoke, and though she could not see his eyes through the slit in his helmet Agatha could feel the intensity of his gaze. Finally, a baritone voice echoed from the helm.
"Why?" The voice was… sad, almost lost.
Before Agatha could wonder about that, she heard the spearman's voice out in the yard. "What the hell is this bullshit!? Who just summons a Servant like that!?"
The knight let out a breath and turned back towards the yard, and his previous tone disappeared. "Apologies my Lady. I shall handle this cur." He said before he kicked at another metal pipe on the ground, launching it into his empty hand and dashing out of the shed.
Agatha blinked before she hurried to the doorway to see, and she found the two men already engaged in fierce combat by the time she got there. Like the fight she had seen earlier that night, the two were moving at speeds that defied normal human limits. It was also similar in that the knight in silver was duel wielding like the man in red had, but the knight moved far more acrobatically and quickly than the other man, spinning and flipping around the man in blue. There was also the fact that he was using simple metal pipes, which by all rights should have bent from all the force that was being put on them.
Realizing that she was useless in her current state, Agatha ran back into the shed and towards a trunk she kept in the corner. She threw open the lid and began frantically searching amid the various prototypes and mothballed projects for the item she was looking for: her Death Ray pistol.
Agatha ran back to the door, planning to give the knight some support, but quickly found when she got there that the two were moving too fast for her to get a clear shot. She stood still and bided her time, and when the moment came that the two split apart from another, she fired. The beam only clipped the spearman's arm though, and he somehow only suffered serious burns rather than disintegration. Still, 'Lancer' as the knight had called him, said something about being 'called back' and fled, launching himself over the wall of her estate.
Agatha stood in the doorway to the shed for a moment longer before her body slumped, and she leaned against the frame as she tried to compose herself. It was also then that she took the time to truly feel the injury on her torso. She winced as she clutched a hand to her midriff, a small amount of blood seeping through the fingers. The cut was relatively shallow, but the blow that had come before it probably fractured a rib.
"My Lady!" The knight said as he noticed the wound, rushing over in concern.
"I'm fine, I'll be fine!" Agatha yelled back, a little flustered... She turned to face man to get a good look at him. He had a bearing and regal presence which she had never experienced before, almost like he truly was out of a storybook. There were so many things Agatha wanted to ask and say to him, and she eventually settled on gratitude first. "Thank you for saving me."
The man bowed his head slightly. "Do not think anything of it, my fair Lady. Even if you were not my Master in this War, my honor would never let me abandon a woman in danger."
Agatha felt herself blush at that for some reason, and she looked off to the side for a moment to recompose herself. "A-ah, ok." She said before she managed to turn back to him. "Ah, sorry if this is rude, but… who are you exactly?"
The knight straightened in surprise before he made a noise of understanding. "Ah, of course, you must not have used a Catalyst. I apologize that proper etiquette could not be followed, but the enemy Servant needed to be dealt with first. However, I shall endeavor to introduce myself now."
The pipes dropped out of his hands, which then reached up to grasp his helm. In a smooth motion he removed the helmet, and long purple hair now flowed over his shoulders and down his back. As the man knelt in front of her, Agatha was greeted by the sight of a handsome, chiseled face, and a smile that did not reach his sad eyes. "I am Sir Lancelot, formerly of the Knights of the Round Table of Camelot, and your Servant Saber in this War, my Lady."
A few days later, a mountain outside of Fuyuki had a hole in it.
It was a surprisingly clean hole, a cylindrical bore through a section near the summit, with the insides still glowing red from whatever had passed through. If one were to line up with the hole, they would notice a path of sorts leading back down towards Fuyuki. It was a cylinder that cut through trees (that were now on fire) and an electrical tower (which had a hole of molten slag through the middle), before finally originating at a large shed in the backyard of a particular house in the old district.
If one looked through the large hole that was now in said shed, they would be able to see most of Saber's body, and in his hands one of Agatha's latest Death Rays, pointed directly where the wall should have been. If one looked for a moment longer, they would have seen Saber's and Agatha's heads slowly crane into view, their expressions both one of complete shock.
Agatha's head snapped around to look at the Death Ray in Saber's hands, looking at the glowing purple lines which now covered it. She couldn't have helped but hand one to him after he mentioned that he could turn almost anything he touched into his magic weapon, and was stunned by the result.
Slowly, a manic grin started to play over her face, and as she looked up at Saber the man shivered as he saw something intense burning behind those bright green eyes. "I'm going to build you all the things." She whispered in glee.
A/N: I really did try to get to combat with this one. Honestly, I did. However, things ran long and given how long it took me to get through my last chapter I didn't want to force it.
Anyway, it seems Agatha might not be giving up on magic just yet. Whether or not her idea would actual work depends on the specifics of 'fading mysteries', of which I've heard several different versions. Regardless though, whether or not that particular idea would actually work is out of the scope of fic… probably.
Oh, and as far as the omake is concerned after I had started writing this fic, I started wondering if the set up was a bit too... traditional, and what other Servant might be used to make things more interesting. I decided against changing what I had already written, but this was the idea I had for Agatha's alternate Servant. Yeah, it probably wouldn't have ended well... for Fuyuki.
Till next time.
