Disclaimer - I do not own Fate/ Stay Night or any other elated properties. This story is for entertainment only. Please Enjoy!
Chapter 10 - RIN
Rin fired a gandr shot at Blake's face and the diviner activated his pentacle shield. The shot slammed into the shield; shattering it and sending the man behind it flying backwards. Blake had gotten much better at using the shield and much more efficient, but sometimes he got the amount of mana wrong, which resulted in his current situation.
Blake stood up and dusted himself off; grinning like a mad man.
"Again." He said with his wide grin still intact.
Rin man had become a training nut. The second he got a grasp on his ability, he wanted to improve it with every spare moment. Rin even found him meditating with his deck on occasion.
The war had been oddly quiet. Her familiars had informed her that all the masters were in the city, but no one seemed to want to make the first move.
Rin was about to shoot another gandr shot at Blake when she heard Archer in her head.
"Rin."
The mage stopped her instruction and turned away from Blake.
"Take five." She instructed over her shoulder.
The man gave a frown but decided to sit down and meditate with his deck while he waited.
Rin placed her finger to her ear even though there was no physical earpiece.
"What is it, Archer?" She transferred back. "Were you able to terminate Assassin and their master?"
"Yes, Assassin and her master have met their end, but I find myself in a bit of a predicament. He returned. "Berserker and Einsbern showed up. I deployed "Chair of Observance" But I don't have long before they find me."
"Einsbern?!" Rin exclaimed in her message. "Why didn't you run?! You have to get out of there!"
Archer ignored her statement. He was running out of time. "Berserker is coated in hellfire and can be only be frozen by absolute zero."
"Archer-!" Rin was shouting out loud now, but he continued.
"Rider's Noble Phantasm should also be able to take her down, but I think absolute zero is our best and most available option."
"Archer!" Rin shouted. "Get out of there! Just come back!"
Blake's eyes had opened and he was now getting up to see what the shouting was about.
"I'm afraid I can't, Rin." Archer sighed. "Berserker is too fast and her abilities completely canceled mine out."
"Archer, please!" Rin pleaded. "I'll use a command spell to bring you here! Just hold on!"
"I know you all will find a way to defeat them." Archer chuckled.
"Archer!" Rin let out a frustrated growl and heald up her hand. Her command seals began to light up.
"I guess this is where my journey comes to an end. Good luck, Rin."
With that, Rin's command seals faded from her hand. It was proof that her servant was dead, but she refused to believe it.
"Archer? Archer come in! Archer?! ARCHER!"
Archer didn't respond. Then there was pain. Burning, searing pain. It seemed to consume her and burn away everything she was; as if she had been thrown into Hell itself. Darkness encroach on her vision.
Rin fell to ground, or at least she thought she did. There was nothing but the burning pain. It was as if she was burning alive. She screamed. That was all she could do. The pain overtook her. It robbed her of all reason. She could vaguely make out Blake running towards her, but he seemed to be running in slow motion. Finally, everything went black.
"Oh poor, sweet, weak, little Tohsaka." a sickly sweet female voice echoed. "Knocked from the board so early on in the game. Always the secondary character. So weak. So utterly pathetic. I guess the Tohsaka line wasn't everything it was cracked up to be. You bring shame to the remaining two great families of the grail. Your father would be so disappointed in what an utter failure his daughter turned out to be."
Rin felt herself sinking into a dark pit. "I'll show you some mercy though." A knife appeared next to Rin. "Take your own life before it is consumed by Hell itself. If you don't your soul will be torchered forever."
Rin felt it. There was no hope. Only darkness and burning nothingness awaited her. There was no way back. She wouldn't see her sister again. She had failed at destroying the grail. She wouldn't be able to help Blake realize his full potential. Everything she had done was pointless. Her life was pointless. She had failed everyone. She had failed at everything.
Rin reached out for the knife. She had failed. She might as well end the miserable failure she called her life. She had failed. She grabbed the knife and place it over her chest. She had failed. Maybe she'd see her parents again when it all ended. Probably not. She had failed.
Tears fell down her face. Einsbern won.
BLAKE
Blake rushed down the stairs from the roof with Rin in his arms. The woman was burning up as she attempted to toss and turn. It was as if someone had set her insides on fire. It was almost painful to hold her, but one look at the obvious pain on her face made him ignore his own pain. He had to do something. Maybe Ben would know what to do.
The man kicked open the door to the apartment and ran in. Ben, who had been sitting down, in the middle of a magic circle, on the ground, bolted up as he saw Blake run in with an incapacitated Rin.
"What happened?!" Ben asked. "Did you do this?"
"No." Blake responded as he set Rin down on the couch. "I think Archer has been defeated. Rin's command seals disappeared and then she started screaming. She seems like she's in a lot of pain."
Blake was panicking. His female companion was writhing in pain and he had no clue as to what he should do.
"Is there anything you can think of that could help her?!" Blake asked. "We need to help her!"
"You said she lost Archer, yeah?" Ben asked. There was a certain detachment in his voice that gave Blake pause.
"Yeah, why?" Blake asked cautiously.
"Then we don't need her anymore." Ben said with an air of coldness. "A servantless master is just a hinderance."
"Are you fucking with me right now?!" Blake yelled. "She needs our help! Are you going to just abandon her?"
"No," Ben said. "But I am going to leave her life in your hands. Whatever servant that defeated Archer may know where we are now, so I'm going to fortify our defenses."
The occultist began to make cuts on himself and started drawing warding symbols around the apartment.
Blake cursed. He had no idea how he could save Rin. Her breathing was getting more ragged by the second. Pentacles couldn't save her, but maybe something else in his deck could. Maybe they could.
An idea began to form in Blake's head. The man picked up Rin and placed her on the ground. He then pulled out his deck and placed twenty-one cards around her in a circle. He then held his hand over the woman and began to chant.
"Oh Higher Arcana, I praise you for you are the balancers of fate and destiny. Please heed my call and act through my will. Reveal to me the ailment of her soul."
A card to the woman's right began to glow and shot into the diviner's hand. He looked at it and his heart dropped. It was "the tower" card.
He then set the card on top of her and spoke again.
"Please oh Higher Arcana, heed my will. Reveal to me the way to save her."
This time, a card to the woman's left began to glow and shot into his hand. He looked at the card and nodded.
Blake held the new card in his hand and called out, "Higher Arcana: Temperance!" And placed the card on top of "the tower".
The two cards began to glow with brilliant white light, all nineteen of the other cards began to glow along with them. Blake then placed all of the mana he had into the act he was performing and finally, all of the cards flew back into his deck.
Blake fell forward; bracing himself with his hands. That spell had taken everything out of him. If it hadn't worked. Rin was doomed.
The man looked up at the still unconscious girl and sighed in relief. Her breathing had evened out and she was no longer grimacing in pain. It had worked. The card had worked. He had saved her.
"So you did it." Ben observed. "Good going. How did you know how to-"
Ben passed out from blood loss. He had used a lot of his blood in his attempts to ward the apartment.
Blake sighed, picked Rin up, and placed her back on the couch. A peaceful smile was placed beautifully on her face. She was safe now. He had succeeded and now he wondered what else he could do with the tarot and Higher Arcana.
RIN
Rin was about to plunge the knife down into her chest when a bright white light began to shine above her. It wasn't burning, like fire, but warm and calling. It illuminated the darkness around her and dissipated the knife. It was the most comforting light she had ever felt. It called to her. It told her that she hadn't failed and that she still had more to give.
Rin's eyes widened as she realized what she was about to do. How could she of thrown everything away so easily. How could she turn her back on her duty as a mage. The light told her it was alright. It told her that darkness can cloud the brightest minds. She cast her eyes upward and began to rise once again.
Rin's eyes shot open. She was back in the apartment on the couch. She looked around in panic, but relaxed when she noticed that two other friendly presences were in the room. Ben was sprawled on the ground snoring loudly. His arm was bandaged but a bit of red had soaked through.
She heard a sigh of relief from behind her and she twisted to see a smiling Blake standing from the chair next to the couch.
"How are you feeling? Are you ok? You scared the crap out of me! What happened?" Sentence after sentence spilled from the diviner mage like a dam being broken.
She couldn't help but laugh at the complete worry he was expressing. It didn't seem to belong on his face. "Why do you seem more panicked than me? She giggled. "I'm the one who passed out."
Blake's face turned red, and he quickly turned away. "Whatever, it just would have sucked to lose an ally." The man sighed then looked back to her with a newly mastered face. "But really. What happened? You were yelling for Archer, and then you started screaming."
"Archer was defeated and I think Einsbern tried to exploit my connection to him in an attempt to kill me as well." Rin explained. "It felt like she briefly connected his and my pain receptors. This forced me into my sub-conscience and allowed her to utilize her negative energy to try and get me to take my own life."
"She can do that?" Blake asked in shock. "I thought Einsberns normally specialized in familiar magic."
"That's what I thought too, but this Einsbern seems different." Rin said as she began to think. "I've never heard of the Einsberns possessing the kind of magic she used tonight, period."
"Could it be someone posing as an Einsbern?" Bailey asked.
"It's not likely, but I wouldn't say it's impossible." Rin replied. "Maybe the Einsberns got ahold of new magic or maybe even a new mage. But Archer said she looked like an Einsbern homunculi. This is strange..." she muttered as she looked down.
It was at that moment that Rin caught sight of her blank hand, and everything that happened finally it hit her. Archer was actually dead. She was now a servantless master in the war. Rin cast her eyes down. The two men would probably just view her as a burden now. So much for her plans to destroy the grail.
Blake took in her sullen face and sighed. He hadn't had to deal with the emotional needs of others for nearly a year, but this girl seemed like she needed a friend.
The man knelt down beside the mage and put a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, everything is going to be alright," He smiled. "The three of us will figure out how to take down Einsbern and Berserker. Any play you got, we'll back. I just ask that you do the same in return, okay?"
Though Ben hadn't done anything to save her, the man had helped in his own way. If Ben hadn't really cared about Rin's fate, he would have just told Blake that they needed to move positions, instead of sacrificing a nauseating amount of blood to fortify their position. Ben wasn't a monster. He just wasn't equipped to help Rin.
Rin looked at his face and saw nothing but sincerity there. Instantly her doubts began to fade. No, they would destroy the grail and protect humanity. She could see it now. In the week she had been training him, he had grown exponentially more capable in his craft. Him and Ben would be valuable allies in the battles to come.
The magus smiled and nodded.
Satisfied that she was in a better headspace, Blake rose to his feet with his hand still in her shoulder. "Thank you for taking care of Assassin, by the way. Now Lancer can move around freely. We owe you big time."
Rin smiled up at him. "No problem, just don't get your servant cursed again, you idiot." There was no malice in her scolding, but he couldn't help feel guilty about what had happened to Archer.
Blake took his hand off her shoulder and moved to sit back in the chair. His shoulders were slumped and his eyes looked heavy.
"He looks dead on his feet," Rin briefly thought to herself. "He must have been keeping watch over Ben and me."
The mage reached out and grabbed his wrist. "Hey, why don't you get some sleep. I'll take over watch for the night."
"You still need to recover." Blake protested.
Rin rolled her eyes in the widest circle she could muster and sighed. "I couldn't sleep even if I wanted to. I have a lot of things to think over anyways. Please, just rest. I'll be fine."
Blake opened his mouth to protest more, but quickly thought better of it. "Fine..." he grumbled.
Rin got off of the couch and moved to the chair and Blake moved to the couch. The mage looked at the man in surprise.
"What are you doing? Shouldn't you go to the bed?" She asked.
"Nah, I'll just keep you company until I drift off." He responded.
Rin decided not to argue with him and let him do as he pleased. There was really no point.
After that, the two chatted idly until the diviner drifted off to his well deserved sleep.
A/N: Man that was a close one. Blake discovers a new capability, but at what cost? Who really is Einsbern? Is she actually an Einsbern? What secrets lie behind Berserker? I guess you'll have to keep reading to find out. If you are enjoying the story so far, please leave a review and tell me what your favorite part has been. If you haven't, then also write a review and tell me what I can do better. That's all for now. Thank you for stopping by!
-B
