Disclaimer - I do not own Fate/ Stay Night or any other related properties. This story is for entertainment purposes only. Please Enjoy!
Chapter 20 - BLAKE
Blake was not doing well. He had lost track of how long it had been since he had been captured. As per their agreement, Einsbern came in several times a day and forced him to study the tarot book she had. Then she she would boost his power until he blacked out. Each time he awoke, the process would repeat.
He felt like he was losing himself. The pain that the boosts inflicted on him, chipped away at his soul every time he was put through them. He'd even wake up to find blood all over his hands. He hoped that it was his own. Einsbern could make him do anything while he was unconscious.
The door creaked open and one of Einsbern's homunculus servants came in. The red-eyed maid came up to the chair that the diviner was strapped to and set up a small circular table with two tea cups and a pot of tea in front of him. Another servant came in with an elegant looking wooden chair and promptly left with the first.
The moment the two servants exited the room, the white-haired horror of a woman strode in with her signature giggle. She said nothing as she sat down and poured tea into both of the cups. She proceeded to put sugar into the one closest to her, and when she was satisfied, sat back and waved her hand. The bindings on Blake dissipated instantly.
"You know," Einsbern chided. "If you resisted less, it wouldn't hurt as much."
Blake picked up the tea in front of him, took some in his mouth, and spit it in her face.
Einsbern sighed as he fell out of his chair; pain shooting through his brain. It had gotten so much worse since it had first graced him back in her apartment.
"Say the words, my pet," Einsbern sighed.
"I...truly…apologize...my dear...mistress…" The diviner forced out. He did his damnedest to make sure that each word dripped with resentment. The pain dissipated and he got back into the chair.
The homunculus gave another sigh. "I'm getting awfully tired of this, pet. You say those words as if you hate me."
"Eat shit, bitch," Blake spat back. Pain split through his head again and he found himself back on the floor.
"Say the words," Einsbern rolled her eyes. "But from now on, say them like you mean them."
"I truly...apologize...my dear...mistress," He said with venom once again. The pain in his head exploded to another level. It was like nothing he had ever experienced. It felt as if someone had shoved a power drill into his head and was holding down the trigger. He let out a scream.
Einsbern clicked her tongue at him. "I said, "like you mean it", pet."
"Fu...ck...you…" Blake struggled out. The pain intensified even more, as if the drill head had increased in size.
"The more you keep this up, the more it will hurt." Einsbern repeated herself. Then she laughed. "But I do find it amusing that you think you can resist me forever."
The pain was too much. His vision was fading. He had to hang on, so that Einsbern could send him to Ben and Rin. He needed to hold on. That meant he had to shelve some of his pride.
"I...truly...apologize...my...dear...est...mistress," he struggled out with all the sincerity he could muster.
The pain evaporated in an instant and he struggled back to his chair; dripping with sweat.
"Very good, pet!" Einsbern clapped. "Now do you get it? Resistance is futile. You are my pet, for as long as your life may be. Are you not happy to have a mistress such as myself?"
"I'd rather eat cyanide capsules like cereal, honestly." Blake muttered.
"You really are feisty." Einsbern laughed. "I'll let you have that one, but that is only mercy for the news I'm about to give you."
"What news could you have, that I would want to hear?" The diviner sassed. "Scratch that. What news do you have, that I would believe even a word of?"
"Oh, you know, the usual," Einsbern smiled and said casually. "Sunny all day, traffic, "gas leaks" in the city. That sort of thing." her smile grew wider. "Oh, and the murder of Rin Tohsaka."
"What?!" Blake burst. Rin wasn't dead. She couldn't be. She was too powerful to go down, especially now that she had Lancer. She couldn't be dead. It wasn't possible.
"Interested now, are we?" The woman teased. "Yes, Rin Tohsaka died in a "fire" last night. It was such a tragedy." her face wore fake sadness. "Her friend, Ben Conners, perished as well. It was so so sad."
No, Rin and Ben couldn't be dead. They wouldn't fall to a fire. They were mages. She wasn't telling the truth. She couldn't be. They were alive. They had to be.
"You're lying!" Blake shouted.
"Aww, you're in denial," the homunculus cued. "That's so adorable, but you should be able to tell now. You do realize that you were bonded to the Tohsaka girl, correct?"
Blake's eyes were wide. "Bonded?"
"Yes. Bonded," Einsbern said with disgust in her voice. "Close your eyes and picture her."
The diviner did so.
"Now reach out for her mana signature." She continued. "You should be familiar enough with it."
He reached and reached; desperately searching for any sign of Rin's signature. He stretched his mind to every point in the city and the areas around it. He searched. Where was she? He searched. She had to be there. He searched...
But she wasn't.
All he found was emptiness and cold, black, darkness.
His eyes snapped open. Einsbern was telling the truth. Rin was dead. Ben was dead. That meant that no one would break him free. No one would save him. The woman he cared for and the man that was his best friend were both...dead.
He felt it.
He felt it as all the fight left his body. He couldn't even cry. He wanted to scream, but he couldn't. He thought he could vomit at any moment. His friends were dead. The people he cared about were dead. Everything up until now had been pointless. His life was pointless. This world was pointless. How could he create a world where the people he cared about could smile freely, if the people he cared about were dead. His dream was pointless now.
"Now now, my dear pet," Einsbern cued as she walked over and pulled him into an embrace. He didn't have the strength to struggle anymore. "It's ok. I know it hurts, but I can make it all go away. I am here to help you."
"How.." Blake managed to get out. His chest hurt. His gut felt twisted. He hated the way he felt. He hated this pain in his heart. "How can you make it go away." He hated this world.
"Submit your mind to me completely," Einsbern whispered. "And I'll make the pain go away forever."
Yes. He didn't want to feel pain anymore. He didn't want to hurt. There was no point in resisting anymore. There was no point in fighting back. They had lost. He wanted relief. He wanted death.
"I…" There was no point to anything anymore. So what if he destroyed the grail? So what if he was the hero? He'd have nothing left besides that fact. His life would have no meaning anymore.
"...submit…"
Einsbern pulled away and smiled. "Good boy."
Blackness took his vision and he fell. He fell aimlessly down. Down into the darkness. Down into the depths of his mind. He fell and fell. Deeper and deeper he went. He fell until a dim light began to shine beneath him. He fell deeper still. The light engulfed him. It stripped him. It seemed to wipe away his very existence.
When Blake opened his eyes, he didn't find himself in the room he had just been in. No. He now found himself in a broken wasteland, with nothing but dried cracked dirt. The air stung in his throat and the atmosphere seemed to press down on him. The world was a dark one, with only a moon to light it. This must have been his purgatory. This must have been his punishment for failing the world.
The man began to walk. This would be his hell.
RIN
"Rin," Ben called. "Hellooo! Earth to Rin!"
Rin jumped. She had been spacing out again. It was weird, she had gotten a strange feeling just now. Maybe it was Blake. She made a mental note to check their bond later. It had been a day since Schrodinger had made her offer to Rin. The magus had one more day to decide what she would do and she would be lying if she said she wasn't tempted.
"Sorry, Ben," she sighed as she rubbed her face. "What were you saying?"
"Man, are you ok?" The occultist asked. "You've been out of it a lot lately."
Annoyance twinged in the magus, but she shoved it off. He kept asking her if she was ok, and her answer hadn't changed.
"You really need to stop asking me that." She sighed.
It had been three days since Blake had been taken. They had been forced to remain in the apartment and do nothing until Blake returned. Lancer had told her that the only way he would allow her to leave was if she used a command seal, and she knew that Blake would be upset if she wasted something like that. Of course she wasn't "ok". Was Ben, himself, "ok"? His best friend had been taken, and he was acting as if nothing had happened at all.
"Sorry," Ben laughed nervously. "Force of habit, I guess." When she didn't say anything further, he continued. "Anyways, I need your help on a certain spell."
Rin's interest piqued. "What kind of spell?"
"During the fight with Lucien, I died." Ben said with a shiver. "I know you saw. I want to put a fail-safe inside my body so that that doesn't happen again...or at least make it harder."
The magus motioned for him to continue.
"There's a type of magic that goes along with my occult magic." Ben explained. "It's higher level and higher risk. It's called possession magic. It would allow me to become partially possessed and use the life force of the spirit possessing me to protect me from dying. That way, if I were to die, it would be the spirit that went instead, and I would heal from lethal wounds. For this to work, I'd need to inscribe myself with wards to maintain control over my body, but I can't do that by myself. If I have the concept right, it would be close to creating a magic crest."
Rin put a finger to her temple in thought. The concept seemed doable enough, but the execution seemed highly inefficient. It would be close to creating a magic crest, true, but not absolutely the same. All it would take would be for one of the wards to be damaged and Ben could lose himself. An idea came to mind.
"I could implant a gem, in your body, with the inscribed wards." She said. "It would then dissolve within you and basically merge the warding with your DNA. This would allow you to manage the possession more efficiently and there would be virtually no chance of the wards being damaged. The only drawback would be that you'd have to wait until the gem dissolved, but that's about it."
"You know," Ben said in awe. "I'm glad I asked. I would have just carved the wards into my body and called it a day."
Rin let out a sigh of exasperation. "Just show me the wards and I'll get started on inscribing them into a gem. I'll even overcharge the gem so that it will dissolve faster. I could use the distraction."
She didn't want to think about Blake. She didn't want to think about Schrodinger's offer, and she most definitely didn't want to think about Einsbern.
BEN
After Ben had showed the wards to Rin, she got started right away. The woman worked with a proficiency that, in all honesty, surprised the occultist, even though he knew it shouldn't. The woman was a high tier magus, after all.
Figuring his help wasn't required anymore, the blonde man decided to go for a stroll through the city and visit the areas where ley lines intersected. He enjoyed the energy surrounding those areas. It helped calm him from what he was feeling.
He left Fuddle with the woman to make sure their base was extra secure. He needed to be alone.
Unknown to Rin, he was hurting just as much as she was, if not more. He just didn't wear it on his sleeve like she did. Why wouldn't he be upset? His best friend was taken by someone he had trusted. It pissed him off. He hated Blake's plan, and he hated waiting around.
He soon approached the intersecting ley lines. This particular area was one of his favorites. It seldom had any people around, and it was wide and open. There was also a bench he liked to sit at while he soaked in the ley lines' energy, but as he got closer, he noticed that it was occupied by a woman with brown hair tied up into a ponytail.
When Ben's footsteps became audible to her ears, the woman turned and observed the disturbance to her peace. When her eyes fell on him, she sighed and turned back to where she was looking before.
The occultist moved to approach her, but when he came within ten meters of her, he felt it. He felt the death that swirled around her in a vortex of pain. He knew this magus well. He didn't keep up with many magi, but this one was one of the exceptions.
"Sooo...what's the Princess of Death doing in a place as peaceful as this?" He asked.
"I could ask you the same thing, spirit violator." She said back with no emotion.
A twinge of annoyance spiked in Ben, but he kept his cool. He wouldn't let her get a rise out of him.
"Well that was uncalled for," he muttered.
"Funny," she chuckled without humor. "I was thinking the same thing about your existence."
The annoyance turned to irritation. She really did not like him. She wasn't pulling any punches. Ben attempted to collect himself.
"Now stop disturbing my peace, before I decide that you're actually worth killing, just to keep it." She waved him off.
"What's your problem!" Ben finally burst. "You're awfully rude to someone you've never met before!"
The woman sighed and then looked at him. "You're right, I don't know you." She said plainly. "But I know your kind. You defile the dead and use them for your own twisted purposes."
"Says the princess of death!" Ben shot back. "Besides I don't use them without their consent. You know nothing about me!"
"Right," She said. "Death. I kill people. I don't defile the sacredness of their death. I honor it."
"It's two sides of the same coin, Princess." The occultist responded.
She let out an annoyed sigh and got up. As she walked past him she stopped.
"You're lucky that you're friends with the diviner and the Tohsaka girl." She whispered. "If you weren't, you'd be dead already. Please tell Frau Tohsaka that she has only one day left to decide, otherwise I will take things into my own hands."
Before Ben could get another word out, the woman vanished.
A/N: I'm really enjoying the direction my story has taken. In my initial draft, many events, in the product you are now reading, did not occur. I feel that I have definitely smoothed over many plot points, but I am certain that there are many more that I'm missing. For those of you who have been following the story and have taken the time to read up to this point, I want to thank you. Not many people, that I know, enjoy stories that involve OCs. I hope you all have enjoyed the aspects of both worlds that I have tried to include. Anyways, thanks again for reading, and I hope you continue to do so in the future!
-B