Notes: First chapter of Aayla's arc, There will be a lot of thoughts and internal explanations this chapter. On the story!
3/3 chapters of Saber's arc

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Aayla's POV

She woke up for the 5th time that night.

The same scene kept playing over and over in her head as she looked over at Saber who was passed out on another couch nearby; The bloody omen on the wall and the knight's violated body hanging in front of it.

She forced her gaze away from Saber and tried to go back to sleep.

What does the force have against the poor girl?

Later that morning.

Shaking her head, she looked at the others that were waiting for Saber to wake up. They had thought about waking her up but decided against it. They did not know the girl's reaction time nor what her reaction would even be if they woke her up.

She turned back to Saber when the girl started to shiver and flinched in her sleep.

Saber's POV

Nightmare

Was it dark or was she blindfolded? Whichever it was, she couldn't see a thing.

She shivered from the cold as she stood there, forced to stand by the chains connecting her bleeding arms to the ceiling far above. She flinched when she suddenly felt hands hugging her naked body from behind and a head on her shoulder.

"Sorry to have kept you waiting but I was dealing with some intruders."

She gasped, "No! You didn't!"

"Didn't what? Kill them? Of course I did. They wanted to take you away from me."

"You bastard! I'll make you pay for what you've done!"

"Oh really?" snorted the man, "You don't look like you're in the position to say such threats now do you Saber?"

She responded by pulling on the chains and growling.

Gilgamesh slapped her, "How many times have I told you not to growl? It's not ladylike at all."

His hands trailed down her sides causing her to jerk away.

"You will pay for all you've done Gilgamesh" she screamed/cried as tears began to stream down her face at the loss of her friends.

"Now will I? You keep saying that but nothing has happened. So..."

He grabbed her chin and kissed her, "It doesn't seem like it."

She struck out with her foot, hoping to get a lucky strike but the chains on her feet were too short and she couldn't see to aim.

She felt a hand going up her bruised thigh and felt his breath on her neck.

No more!

Please... no more...

She began to sob.

No more!

She woke up with a scream.

Aayla's POV

Saber's breathing began to become heavy and her shivering increased.

"I think she's having a nightmare," said Blossom "We should do something, soon"

"I'll wake her up" said Aayla as she stood up.

"Ok Aayla, just be careful. We don't want Anakin trying to hurt herself if you get hurt."

"I know Ahsoka."

She kneeled down on the floor next to the couch that Saber was laying on.

She began reaching out with the force, trying to calm her down,

"Hey Saber, wake up, it's just a nightmare. You're fine, come on, wake up."

She put a hand Saber's shoulder and shook her lightly, "Come on Saber, wake up. It's just a dream."

Saber started muttering and flinched at something in her dream.

After a bit Riza and Hayate tried too but failed.

The brown eyed women had too become attached to the knight, almost everyone had. Renamon decided to try but was barely sitting when Saber woke up and screamed.

All three of them jumped and Hayate yelped and hid behind Riza.

Saber began to panic as the blanket restricted her movement.

"Hey it's ok Saber."

"Calm down. Everything's ok."

"You're safe now. It's just me and a few of the others."

Saber looked at her with wide, terror filled eyes.

What did he do to her?!

"Aayla-a? Ri-Ri-za ?Re-Ren-namon?"

Saber's voice was very hoarse.

The three girls nodded.

"It's ok S..."

Saber tried to get up.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!"

Kongo Renamon put a hand on Saber's shoulder causing the girl to flinch.

"You'll reopen your wounds if you get up" continued Kongo.

The blond looked at the bandages on her arms ((they were now free from the blanket) as she couldn't see the rest due to the blanket that covered her,(they cover 60%+ of her body)) before looking at Aayla.

"When we found you, you were badly injured. I tried to heal you but you kept screaming. The wounds had a faint black glow coming from them. Lorraine thinks their cursed."

She tried not to mention that they had been carved into her body.

"D-Damn it" muttered Saber.

Aayla was surprised that she had cursed.

"What?"

"Sh-She's r-right. It's a n-nam-mless 's p-part of his n-noble phantasm. It's going to take a long time for them to h-heal due to the c-curse. Tha-at is if he d-doesn't die."

"Die?"

"If he dies the c-curse will d-disappear."

"Oh… and I hate to ask this but do you remember what he did to you after the explosion? Or was there even one?"

Lorraine had paid more attention to the room than she had and noticed some burns and other things.

Saber closed her eyes and shivered, , "Yes, o-or at least most of it. The last thing I-I remember is hearing someone yelling my name..."

So she remembers being hung...

"And d-don't start blaming y-yourselves. A-Any of you. I-I knew something of the t-type would p-probably happen when l w-went with him."

"Then why did you go?! We could have fought him off!" Yelled Kongo.

"N-No you c-couldn't have."

"Yes we could have. Right girls?"

A bunch of yeses, you got its and other replies followed.

Saber shook her head that them

"Y-You've never seen a b-battle between S-Servants. They are f-far more e-explosive, destr-tructive and d-deadly than any other type of b-battle."

Rika butted in , "Have you ever witnessed a digimon battle? Those are explosive and destructive."

"Doesn't m-matter. G-Gilgamesh contains a-all the evils in the world within his body d-due to the g-grail's curse. He is i-insane, extremely powerful and kn-knows how to get his opponents to m-make mistakes."

"Try the D-reaper on for size, nothing damaged him. Nothing."

: Rika stop.:

: But..:

: Please stop.:

The blond just sighed and looked away, "If h-he comes back none of y-you are going to f-fight him."

Saber shivered.

"And you're not going with him again" said Suzie "I'm not going to let one of my big sisters get hurt by some meany."

She saw a slight smile form on the knights face.

"I-I will do whatever I n-need to do to k-keep you s-safe. I-I am n-not as imp-portant as y-you guys."

That struck a nerve.

"Now that's where you go wrong Saber."

There girl in question looked at her with a confused expression.

"You are just as important anyone else in this group. We will fight with you. We are a family now and that means we stand up for one each other."

The girl looked genuinely shocked at that statement, especially when the others nodded in agreement.

"A f-family?"

"Of course! Suzie and Numa call everyone, aunt, uncle, brother, sister or something similar to that, right? Did you think you were the only exception? Suzie just called you a sister didn't she?!"

At that point Numa must have decided to prove the statement as she sprinted from where she was standing with Suzie.

The young Twi'lek launched herself onto Saber's lap and hugged her.

The blond stiffened for a moment, a panicked and strained look in her eyes, before she calmed down a little and looked at the teal-skinned child.

Aayla couldn't help but laugh at the expression on Saber's face. She got a glareglare in return, but it was covering something up...

She just smiled widely before laughing again. She heard a few of the other girls laughing as well.

None of the guys were present nor was Master Ti.

Though they, Shirou most prominent, had wanted to help. but Aayla, Vivian and the other women had know better.

The presence of the guys would have hurt the poor girl even more.

What Gilgamesh had done to the Saber had almost certainly ingrained itself in the her mind; no doubt that she would have been very nervous, closed up and even violent if any of them had been there, especially Shirou. Though she didn't blame him she might unconsciously have pinned something on him, though she doubted it.

It saddened her to think that someone so selfless and strong had to go through so much and got so little in return.

She stood up and walked over to Numa and Saber and pulled them both into a hug. Again the girl flinched at the touch but slowly hugged her back, the others gradually joined in or stood back smiling if there was no room or they just weren't the hugging type.

"Th-Thank you. All of you" murmured Saber, the shivering blond had closed her eyes as she fought to keep her tears in.

She felt the group tighten around them as Saber finally broke down and started to cry.

The others retreated, letting Aayla take over. She was the best person for Saber at the moment, even better than Vivian. Vivian and Saber were like mother and daughter or sisters depending on the moon; They loved each other but ended up bickering over random everything.

While it was amusing to watch, right now that type of attention would not help at all, if anything it would make it worse.

She had noticed that the laughing earlier had made Saber stiffen before she shook herself.

Yelling like the two normally did could trigger something worse than just the slight, quick and 'small' reactions that they had triggered so far. They had been careless.

Aayla looked at the assorted group that was present and nodded her head. Getting the idea they moved to the other side of the room.

She hated what she would have to do next.

"I hate to ask this but could you please tell me what he did to you?"

Saber shook her head no.

"Please Saber... I know it hurts but I need to know if you need treatment."

The girl looked away before whispering, , "It didn't go that far."

"But he..."

The blond nodded a yes.

"Then what happened?" She asked in a whisper.

"He t-toyed with me."

"Toyed with you?"

What's that supposed to mean?

The girl nodded, "First he played with my m-mind; He laughed at me, made fun of me and said that I-I was one of his po-possessions. Then he toyed with me ph-physically; kissing me, beating me, torturing me and t-tearing off my clothes. Then he started t-to... to do other things that messed me both mentally and physically. Y-You guys came before he could..." Saber trailed off.

Oh Force no!

She pulled the shivering girl into a tight hug,"It's ok Saber. It's all over now. We're here for you, don't worry about anything. You're safe now."

Oh Saber! I'm so sorry! I know you would probably kill me if you knew I was thinking this but I wish I had stopped you somehow! You shouldn't have had to go through all this!

Please Force help her!

Saber finally hugged her back, burying her head in Aayla's shoulder and sobbing.

She rubbed the small of Saber's back, trying to comfort the broken knight.

Why? Why her? What has she done to deserve this?!

She looked up at the others, she too was in tears.

: Not right now guys. If she lets me I'll tell you later.:

She then she turned her full attention to her girl that was in her arms.

She ignored the pain in her back.

Saber's hug was slowly strengthening; it felt she was trying gradually compress her body.

She kept comforting Saber.

Right now she didn't care about anything else but the girl in her arms.

"It's ok Saber. It's ok" she repeatedly whispered into the blond's ear.

I'm surprised that she hasn't broke down like like this before before. After all that she's been through; All that she went through as a king, then in the wars and then here.

This was the final straw... And a horrific one at that.

As she continued to comfort the blond as she thought of how far the girl had come from when they had first met her to now.

At first Saber had been cold and distant to everyone but Shirou and she had still been a bit distant even with him.

But then she had opened up and started to show her true self; A proud, determined and strong willed girl that had a very happy and bright personality with an extraordinary amount of selflessness and loyalty.

Even if you combined everyone else in the group's selflessness you wouldn't get even a thousandth of hers, and it turned out that she was even more protective than Shirou.

After a while Saber stopped crying and fell silent. Aayla tilted her head a bit so that she could see the blond's face.

She had cried herself to the point of exhaustion.

Aayla smiled, Saber looked mostly peaceful for once.

The poor girl. I wish I could give you more than just give her a shoulder to cry on... I wish you'd let us fight for you... Even if it's only once. I wish you'd let us fight for you... Even if it's only one time. Just once.

She picked the girl up, you said he tortured you so I'm going to have Master Ti run a scan. Shouldn't be anything but I'd rather not take the chance.

The group of girls headed over to the infirmary.

Master Ti did everything; blood tests, heart rate, scans, x-rays,etc.

On the way there (as well as on the way back to the temple in the first place) Saber had coughed up blood. Plus her breathing was still pretty harsh.

When Master Ti got back to them they were shocked and disgusted; there were high levels of Sulfuric acid in Saber's system and that the burns were acid burns. Once Shaak had told those who didn't know what it was they all got mad.

"When she said she was tortured do you think this could be it? Or the result?"

"She was tortured?!" Yell Kongo.

"Saber said she was."

"I think it could be possible" said Master Ti.

"That Bastard" muttered Rika.

"There's nothing I can do for her due to the curse. She will unfortunately have to wait for it to dissipate on it's own."

They sighed.

Poor thing, thought Shaak as the girls left.

After that they went back to the house and finished up for the night. Saber was still out and Shaak said she probably would be for another day or two.

Notes: So that's chapter 20 for ya. I hope I got it right. See you guys next time!