I do not own the Fate Series or Lupin the Third.
Failure.
Arturia ran through the streets as she heard a voice, or more accurately multiple voices, whispering into her ear.
Failure as a human.
Failure as a woman.
Failure as a false man.
Failure as a husband.
Failure as a father.
"Get away from me!" Arturia cried out, swinging at the source of the voice only to simply chop a harmless black and white firefly in half. Her limbs felt like lead and her blood like fire. Her abdomen stung, and it took all her strength to move her legs and swing Excalibur.
And yet the voices continued.
Failure as a knight.
Failure as a king.
"Stop it! STOP IT!" Arturia screamed as she swung sloppily at the voices, the mocking voices that sounded both male and female, young and old, familiar and unfamiliar. It was as if the whole world was jeering at her. She wished more than anything that she could silence them. She actually couldn't remember a time where she hadn't heard those voices mocking her. They'd always been there… Mocking her ever since that day.
But all she killed were butterflies.
Failure as a hero.
A King of Failures.
"Enough! Begone, you damned demons!" She shouted angrily, for she knew that it was true on some level. She felt as if it were true, wanted to believe that it was the truth, yet was repulsed by the accusations all the same.
"Children! Children come along now!" An elderly voice called out, causing Arturia to halt and turn to see a teacher sitting in front of a board.
A board that had a picture of her in full armor, looking majestically into the horizon, Excalibur in hand.
The teacher smiled despite having a beak… and the head of an owl. The children shared the teacher's features. But that was natural, wasn't it? Arturia's head pounded as she watched the teacher clap his hands to get the attention of the class.
"Come now, children from all across the globe. Open your books so that we may learn the tale of King Arthur!"
"No, please don't." Arturia called out to the teacher, walking towards them. "They do not need to know…"
"After all, we must celebrate the best of times and how King Arthur brought it about and ended it."
"Do not talk about that!" Arturia cried as she attempted to move her legs… only to see that they were sinking into the ground. How foolish. She should have brought boots or a boat to get through this. "It was always possible for it to continue!"
"Let us celebrate and sing praises to the foolish King and the time we'll never have again!"
"Yes teacher!" The children hooted out in response.
"Please stop!" Arturia yelled, but they kept on ignoring her pleas.
She had to stop them, but she could not move in this muck. As they began reading her legend out loud, she bent over and expelled the contents of her stomach. She watched in morbid fascination as they sunk into the muck out of view. She looked up and noticed that whatever color was on these modern buildings was melting off like ice cream. Lifeless and barren, just like the age she was in.
Arturia cried out as she then began to move to the right, each step bringing her up. The voices were gone, which made the task a bit easier. She stabbed Excalibur into the muck in an attempt to bring herself up to solid ground. She turned back to see that the teacher and students were now gone before leaping up. She had to get away. The area was that of a swamp.
What was she doing here again?
"It had something to do with Lupin the Third…" Arturia hummed to herself. "We were battling… I think I inhaled a drug…"
But no, that could not be right! She was the ideal king! Other than the occasional mug of wine, Arturia never did anything that brought her joy. She needed to follow and be an ideal King. All the time. She wasn't allowed to indulge herself, no matter what she wished for it personally. She had to uphold her ideal.
And yet, a part of her was saying that is what happened.
But before Arturia could think any more on the matter, she noticed everything was spinning. Spinning and spinning, the stars and ground becoming a blur. Arturia giggled at the moon which remained in place. The moon just couldn't decide whether it was an owl head, a butterfly, or a flower! All of which were black and white! How amusing! Her dizziness grew and grew until she landed on something hard.
It took her a second to realize it was the ground and not the stars.
Arturia groaned as she placed her hand on her head. "The world is spinning…"
"As it always has, father."
Arturia looked to her right to see Mordred, clad in armor with helmet covering his head from view. "But that can't be right." Her mind argued. "Mordred is dead. We ran though him with the lance. His blood and guts spewed out from both ends while we watched the life drain from his eyes."
And yet, here he was.
"Ah, Sir Mordred." She greeted her knight as an old friend as she shakily got to her feet. "What are you doing here?"
"On a quest." He provided curtly. "It is difficult, but I am doing it under your name so it is more than enough to bring me pride. The barbarians are trouble though. But they provide a good enough fight."
Arturia felt sickened by that statement, especially the later part. "I wish we did not have to kill them. If only they saw reason…"
"And what are you doing out here, father?" Mordred tilted his head. "Are you on a quest as well?"
"Yes!" Arturia shouted, looking around. "I am on a quest to slay the great thief Lupin the Third! He has brought about much grief, and personally challenged me! Thus I must defeat him! My pride as the King of Camelot depends on it!"
"Father… You'll never be able to defeat him as you are now."
Arturia looked up, ready to chide Mordred for doubting his King…
Only to stop as she noticed something.
In front of her, walking towards her from the trees, were the knights and citizens of Camelot. All of them glowing as if they were coming from heaven. All of them smiling. In the front were her knights. Lancelot alongside Guinevere, Sir Kay with Sir Galahad, Merlin… everyone was there.
Each of them looked so happy.
Arturia felt tears flow from her eyes. "My friends… My Knights… My people…" Arturia dropped Excalibur as she stepped forward. "Oh, it is so good to see you all again! How I've missed you! I missed you all so much!" Arturia broke into a sprint, and she cried with a smile on her eyes with her arms outstretched. "Oh your smiles… I'm so happy you are happy! I only need your happiness and prosperity to keep going! I've sacrificed so much to give you both…" She reached Lancelot and Guinevere…
Only for her to go through them, as if they were fog.
"No…" They continued to go forward, past her and not even acknowledging her. "No! Please don't do this!" Arturia ran after them. They were heading to a wall, tall enough that it might as well reach Heaven. "I-I know you thought I didn't understand how you felt! But I did! I could! I-I just…!" Lancelot and Arturia's friend and Queen went past the wall. "Please! I can change! I will laugh and be merry again! I won't wear the cold mask! I will be your King and brother instead of just your King!" Next was Sir Kay and Sir Galahad. "I thought it was for your benefit! Please! I'll be whatever you want me to be!" Then the rest of her Knights and the citizens of Camelot disappeared into the wall. "Please don't go! Come back!" Arturia went to the wall, pounding on the stone as sobs erupted from her throat. "Please!" But it was no use. Her fists could not seem to break it, no matter how much strength she put into them. She sunk to her knees as she pounded on the wall, sobbing.
"Please don't go… please don't leave me… please let me join you…"
"As I said…" Mordred's voice returned to her ears. "You won't be able to defeat Lupin the Third as you are."
The wall then cracked, and broke. Arturia screamed as she tumbled down into a white void, spinning and spinning as she went. Dizzier and dizzier...
"To defeat Lupin the Third… You must see the world as he sees it."
xxXXxx
Saber tumbled through white nothingness for what seemed like hours. She couldn't tell because time seemed meaningless. A second felt like an hour. A minute a day. An hour was most likely going to be an eternity. She wanted to scream, but it felt as if the whiteness would pour into her throat and silence her permanently.
Eventually though, she landed.
But the floor beneath her was text. Or text which happened to float in the white nothingness.
The text was thus: Thou Shalt Love Thy Neighbor.
From the bible. Arturia did not question it. She was simply thankful that now there was a floor. She walked forward, swaying side to side. Something was not right. This was not right. This couldn't be reality… Could it?
That thought frightened her, and thus she ran. Religious dogma was written underneath her, acting as her floor. Then she noticed that now there was text to her left.
"A-Are those laws?"
Yes, they were indeed. Laws from different constitutions, defining how a country should be run and what rights would be granted to its citizens. Arturia then gasped as she saw to her right were both the lyrics to country's national anthems and studies as to human nature.
Then came the noise.
Voices of different sexes and ages and nationalities spoke with the same authoritarian tone. All of them loud, all of them telling them some version of the following:
"Do as you're told. You may not do some things but you can do other things. Don't question the status quo but believe in your right of independent thought and action. You are not a slave but be ready to submit yourself to those in positions of power. You are part of a group, and breaking away means you are insane…"
"Stop it! Stop it!" Arturia screamed as she covered her ears, trying to drown out the voices. How could anyone listen to any of this? It was madness! She would lose her mind if she was forced to keep listening.
She attempted to jump up, but gasped in pain as her head smashed into something solid, and she crashed back onto the ground. She groaned and clutched her head while looking up, and gasped at the text.
The Legend of King Arthur.
Arturia ran, but felt the walls closing in. She breathed in and out as she felt the walls closing in. She crouched as the ceiling grew closer and closer. She gasped in fright as she was reduced to crawling, with the walls as well as the ceiling and floors converging together and suffocating her.
"I-I can't go on! Not with all these restricting me!"
Was this supposed to be how Lupin the Third felt? Did he see these laws as they were? Unhealthy, stiffening, and maddening?
If so, how did he escape?
She then looked forward, and saw something. A golden cup, shining brightly even in this white void. Something was pouring out of it. Whether it was wine or blood, Arturia could not tell. The black and white owl with red eyes perched on the cup gave a hoot as it flapped its wings.
Arturia knew that was it. That was her key out of this hell!
Thus, she grunted as she pushed on. She ignored the crushing feeling and continued to crawl. It eventually got too much, and it felt as if she could not move.
"No! I need to reach it!" Arturia glared at the Grail, and the owl continued to stare at her with predatory interest. "I can't… I can't let these stop me!"
With a scream, Arturia felt her muscles ache and groan as she pushed. Her skin felt as if it were tearing and her muscle fibers snapping from the strain. But after a minute of pain, she launched herself forward. Her right hand outstretched, reaching towards the Grail as it came nearly within reach…
...Only for the words that she had previously freed herself from to wrap around her limbs like chains.
"No…" Arturia muttered in horror. They clung to her still? Or was she letting them restrain her? Was there a difference?
"Sorry, Arthur-chan." Lupin's mocking voice echoed from everywhere and nowhere. "But this is my tale, not yours. So no prize for you."
"No! It will be mine! I will have it!" Arturia shouted desperately before she felt the chains of society drag her down.
The king screamed.
"LUPIN…!"
She screamed as she spun and spun deeper into the white void.
xxXXxx
Arturia was almost grateful when the white void turned to pitch black.
The change managed to give her back some of her mental facilities. The ability to think somewhat straight, even for a second. Yes, she did inhale the strange drug that the owl men used and Kiritsugu now possessed. She inhaled and now the world is spinning and sinking, dizzying and shifting.
"But Mordred is real right? He has to be. He seemed so real…"
But then again, how the hell did she know? Arturia had barely even gotten drunk during her life. She had no idea how to handle the effects of drugs. She could hardly understand why people wanted to take them.
"You feel good for a second then terrified the next. Everything seems both joyous yet horrifying…"
No matter. She just needed to ride this out. Try to get a hold of herself then get back to reality…
Arturia landed on something hard yet shaky. She groaned as she got up, and saw ripples form beneath her. "When did I get onto the ocean?" Did she wander to the piers and fall off the ledge? This was bad. She needed to leave before she was spotted. Arturia lifted her left hand to wipe her forehead…
...Only to freeze when she saw it was soaked in blood.
Arturia looked down. The water… it was red too. Nearly black in fact. The blood of hearts, something Arturia had grown most familiar with over the years.
"Blood… a lake of blood…!" Arturia muttered in fear.
"Look up, father." Mordred's voice whispered in her ear. "Look up and behold."
"No. No please don't make me…" Arturia's mind was screaming, telling her not to look. And yet her head moved, as if controlled by another force.
Her eyes widened at the sight before her.
Submerged face-first in the blood water were knights clad in full armor, punctures in their armor with swords or arrows sticking out. They stretched all around her, several of which were headless and their heads with expressions frozen in fear or pain bobbing in the lake like apples. The land in the distance were mountains. But they were not made of earth and stone, but bodies. Bodies cut or broken or burned, limbs still attached or chopped off, and all of them lifeless. Black and white owls pecked out and ate their eyes while butterflies drank from the empty sockets and cuts like nectar from a flower. The moon was that of an eye, red in color and reminded Arturia of Irisviel. It bled, and the liquid flowed into the lake like a waterfall.
But there was one common thing in this hellish vision.
All the knights wore the banners and colors of Camelot.
"Thisisn'trealit'sthedrugit'snotrealnotrealnotreal…!"
Arturia screamed in horror and ran. Her mind racing in fear, filled with the images of dead knights, some of which she recognized from various wars and battles. All of them dead now, dead because of her and she could see their eyes accusing her and there was so much blood on her hand and she felt so sick…!
"Father, when was it you finally broke down? When did the burden become too much to bear?"
"I don't know!" She screamed out loud as blood splashed on her legs.
"The King I admired would never had fled at the sight of the mountain of bodies and lake of blood that was needed to create the kingdom." Mordred's voice was lifeless, as if stating a fact.
"I never wanted this! I just wanted… oh God, I just wanted to help my people!" Arturia then tripped and fell. She screamed at the sight of Sir Kay's lifeless body and crawled back. "Please, for the love of God free me from this hell!"
"Your knights also wished to help. They willingly spilled their blood into the lake threw their bodies onto the mountain of corpses for the sake of your kingdom. It was by their own free will, and yet you consider yourself their murderer."
"Please, Mordred… please just let me leave…" Arturia sobbed out as she brought her knees to her shear.
"I cannot do that." Mordred answered. "Only you can do that. You must free yourself."
With that, Arturia felt herself splash into the blood. She choked as she attempted to swim back up to the surface, but only kept going down. She felt the blood's iron taste as she went down, continuing to spin as she saw the silhouettes of those long dead.
xxXXxx
Arturia gasped as she fell out of the blood, and landed on solid earthly ground. She gasped and coughed out blood, bile, and saliva as she clutched the grass. The liquid dripped out of her hair, body, clothes, and armor onto the grass.
"Where am I now?" Arturia thought as she looked up.
It was the forest within Fuyuki, where she battled Lupin the Third previously.
"Did I wander into here?" She thought as she shakily got up. "Or did I just never leave?" It was so hard to remember or even guess. Her mind was still spinning. The only new additions to the forest were the white and black flowers, and the fog. But maybe they were always there and she never noticed.
She felt sick, and her abdomen still felt like fire. Her mind wandered to the hell she had just escaped from. It was worse than the sight of her final battlefield. It was a place where she saw that everyone was indeed dead. And it was all her fault. And for what? A kingdom that fell because of her own foolishness?
"Why? Why did you show me that?!" Arturia shouted to the heavens.
"So that you can begin seeing your own personal chains."
Arturia turned her head to see Mordred by a tree, staring at her from behind his helmet.
"My… chains?" She questioned, and Mordred simply nodded.
"Indeed. You have chains of your own. Chains that you placed on yourself out of a sense of guilt."
Arturia then heard dirt move, and felt something grip her ankle. She looked down, and saw a hand of bone gripping her.
"But what you saw before was not the only chain."
Arturia's eyes widened as a groan echoed out and a skeleton crawled out from the earth.
It was wearing the armor of a Roman.
Arthur…!
An unearthly, hateful howl came out of the lipless mouth.
Arturia kicked the corpse away. It broke once it hit a tree, then burst into butterflies.
Then she heard more groans, and turned to see rising out of the ground were other soldiers. All of them enemies of Camelot that she had slain. The French, the Romans, barbarians, knights from other kingdoms… All of them rising from the ground, in various stages of decomposition.
All of them staring at her with hate, even those with no eyes. All of them with rusted yet sharp weapons on hand.
How dare you!? They hissed as one. How dare you, only now that your kingdom is ashes, regret our deaths!?
"So this day has finally come." Arturia muttered wearily. She did not question it, and willed for Excalibur to come to her hands.
But it did not come.
"What?"
Arturia had to jump to the side to avoid the swipe of a rusty sword. She grabbed the handle of the blade while punching the Roman corpse away. As soon as she pried the dead man's hands off she blocked a strike from a spear.
She remembered now. She dropped Excalibur earlier, but it should return to her shouldn't it?
Why wouldn't it return?
Arturia rolled to the side and swung her sword. Four corpses were chopped in half by her swing.
But they still mocked her.
Little King of Knights…
…Had the greatest of kingdoms…
…Slain hundreds of men without a second thought…
…And only now does she have the gall to say her actions were at fault!
How could we be slain by such a brat!
Arturia grunted as she blocked three more swords held by undead Knights as the ones just killed turned into butterflies. She pushed them off then chopped off their heads, but had to jump back as arrows hit the area she was formerly at.
Was it true? Was she just a foolish child that only blamed herself after her toys were destroyed? No it could not be true, but doubt welled up within her.
Arturia ran at an undead soldier hiding behind a shield. For every one she killed, two took its place. She needed to keep up the pressure if she wanted to stay alive.
Her sword, if it was Excalibur, would have broken and ordinary shield as if it were paper.
But her sword was not Excalibur.
Arturia's eyes widened when she saw her sword imbedded itself into the shield, but not pierce all the way through. "Shi-" She did not get the opportunity to finish that thought. The undead knight swung. Its mace hit her abdomen, breaking her ribs as she was flung back several feet and landed face-first on the ground.
"H-how? My armor should have taken most of the force!" Saber coughed out saliva and blood as she looked down.
She was not wearing her armor. All that she was wearing was a glorified dress.
Then she felt bony hands wrap around her wrists and ankles. She looked around and saw an undead soldier holding down each limb, while the others cheered raising their weapons.
"Perhaps… this is proper death for me." Arturia thought wearily. "I've killed so many… sent so many good men to their deaths, pushed others away by trying to be the ideal King, and through my decisions destroyed the finest kingdom in the world."
Perhaps it was only appropriate that she was killed by her regrets.
"Oh what a joyous day!" A loud, cruel voice echoed out as thunderous steps echoed in the air. "I can finally settle the score!"
Despite the hands pinning her down, Arturia looked up to see the rotting corpse of a man ten feet tall, green decomposing muscles bulging but still torn and showing the skeleton underneath. His belly was torn open, guts and pieces of intestines hanging out. His loincloth was the only piece of clothing on him, and in his right hand was a massive broadsword.
She remembered him. It was the Giant of Mont Saint Michel, a bloodthirsty brute who murdered men and raped women until they died.
"I knew I smelled something different about you when we met. But I never thought the King of Knights was just some scared woman in tin armor!" Toothless lips sneered. That just pisses me off!
This was the one who was going to kill her? She regretted his death?!
"Well I'm glad we could meet again Arthur!" The giant raised his sword overhead. "Now I can split your skull in half, and laugh as I have fun with your corpse after!"
No!
No!
If regretting her past actions meant she had to regret killing men like him, then it was not worth it!
In fact, how could she regret killing these men? Perhaps they were good men simply fighting for their lord or what they believed to be right, but they knew and accepted their path in life. Just as she did, whenever she entered the battlefield she thought only two things:
"I don't want to die."
"I will do as I must for my kingdom."
Perhaps that was also what her Knights thought. They threw themselves into bloody battle after bloody battle for both themselves and their kingdom. They did so out of choice, not because she forced them. They had followed her out of choice and only wrapped it around honor.
If that was the case, then she could not regret their deaths or the deaths of her enemies.
They were holding her down, now quite literally.
As the sword came down, she spotted the Grail, glowing brightly in the fog.
Arturia wanted it. She needed it.
And she could not let these regrets stop her!
With a mighty roar, she flung her right arm to the left. The corpse holding her down followed, and was struck by the blade. It went through the corpse like butter, but it threw the weapon off course and embedded into the ground to Arturia's right. She repeated the action with her left hand and smashed the corpse on top of the blade. Before the Giant could react, Arturia dug her hands into the ground and rolled forward. The undead soldiers followed her and smashed against the Giant.
"What?!" The Giant shouted as he stumbled back, more of his rotting innards spilling out.
Arturia shouted as she ran forward. She felt something in her right hand, something familiar. She gripped it with both of her hands and swung. The Giant attempted to block with his giant sword…
...Only for Excalibur to break the blade as if it was made of wood.
Arturia did not stop there. She kicked with her right foot, breaking through a he Giant's left knee with a sickening crack. He fell down, and looked up. "But you were supposed to keep regretting…"
"Go back to Hell where you belong!" Arturia shouted as she chopped off the Giant's head. It tumbled down to her feet, and she smashed it with her left foot before it and the Giant's body became monochrome butterflies.
Arturia breathed in and out as she looked at Excalibur. It had returned to her, the moment when she let go of her regrets and refused to die to get the Grail. She could now fight off the demons of her past.
Arturia turned her body to the army of her regrets. "Come on then! If you wish to kill me, so be it!" Arturia pointed Excalibur at them. "But I will no longer hold back out of regret! You are dead because you were enemies of my kingdom. And I would kill you again if I had to!"
The army was silent for a moment before they all disintegrated into a flurry of butterflies, who then flew up into the night sky and became stars.
Arturia felt vertigo once again and fell back into the ground. The battle for her mind was taking much out of her. She felt tired, oh so tired, but…
"But you realized you can't give up, haven't you father?"
Arturia glanced up to see Mordred, or the hallucination of him. "Go away Mordred." Arturia muttered. "You're not real. You died on Camlann."
"And you hold no regrets?"
"No." She replied truthfully. "Not anymore. You decided on your own to betray me, and what had happened was a consequence of that. I decided on my own to stop you. And our knights chose what path to follow. That's all there is to it."
"Very good." Mordred replied as he reached up and took off his helmet. Rather than seeing her face on his head, Arturia saw that of an owl. "This world is not real father, but it can teach a man things. You saw the chains that bound Lupin the Third, and your own. And by shedding them, you are now free as he is." Mordred unsheathed his sword, brought it up to his neck, and slashed his throat. Blood splattered on Arturia as Mordred continued to speak. "Now go and be free. Experience the world as Lupin the Third does."
Arturia nodded and closed her eyes.
xxXXxx
Arturia blinked after she opened her eyes, and looked around.
The forest was now gone, completely blown away. No longer were there any soldiers from battles past, or dead knights, or reminders of previous failures.
Just a green field, with grass completely green and shined in the sun's rays. The sky was blue, oh so blue like the ocean water. The clouds stretched across the horizon, but did not show any signs of rain.
Everything was peaceful.
Everything was vast.
It was a land of endless possibilities.
Arturia noticed that she felt the grass underneath her feet, and looked down to see that she was now wearing a white dress but without any shoes. There was no armor, no signs of battle or of blood on her.
Arturia then looked at her hands. There were no chains on them. She could not see them being restrained by society as a whole.
Her mind and heart were clear, and now she had a world of possibility to explore.
Arturia felt a giggle rise from her throat. She then laughed, it was a laugh of joy and madness. A laugh of a free woman, rather than the laugh of one chained down by something. She laughed in celebration of being free from everything, free to explore the world stretched out in front of her unbound by the past or present or future. She felt tears of joy come out of her eyes as euphoria spread from head to toe, almost sexual yet not quite.
She then stopped laughing and looked forward. There was the Grail, open and waiting while shining its golden glow.
"I want it." She thought as she began running. "I want it, and it'll be so much fun getting it!"
After all, what could stop her from getting it?
She was getting it for her, and with the world now open to her she could laugh and play as much as she wanted before getting it in her hands.
Arturia then gasped and stopped, and felt something hurt on her right side. She looked down, and saw her white dress was now stained with blood.
"Oh right, that."
She then closed her eyes and fell to the soft ground.
No matter. She can continue her fun chase tomorrow.
xxXXxx
Saber gasped and wheezed in shock. She could feel cold sweat come out of every pore of her body. She could see the bright light over her, which made her a bit queasy as the world was still spinning.
"Saber, are you awake?"
Saber turned her head to her right and saw a silhouette of a man. "Who…" She squinted, and saw none other than Kiritsugu looking haggard and worn out.
The man who drugged her, and denied her victory over Assassin.
Her anger then erupted and she nearly leapt off the table. Kiritsugu didn't have any time to react before Saber grabbed him by the collar and slammed him against the tiled wall, the force cracking several of the tiles.
"If I see your Command Seals glow or your lips so much as move, I will put my fist through your chest. Grail be damned." Saber growled out in anger, and Kiritsugu stiffened a bit. He got the picture. "You will answer my questions and only that. Any deviation from that, and I will kill you. Nod if you understand." Kiritsugu nodded, and remained silent. She glanced at his right hand and saw that it was now missing one of his Command Seals. "Where am I?"
"Hospital."
"Why?"
"You were bleeding profusely and not healing when I summoned you back, and were suffering from an overdose of the drug." Kiritsugu motioned with his eyes downward. "So I took you here. The doctors I hypnotized removed a kidney that was damaged with a gunshot wound."
Saber looked down. It was only now that she realized her upper body was completely naked. On her right side were stitches where Assassin had shot her previously. "I see." Saber looked back at Kiritsugu. "And what happened after I was incapacitated? By you, I might add."
"Assassin and Kotomine Kirei took Irisviel." Kiritsugu grimaced in pain. "Most likely because she's the container of the Holy Grail. Now they have access to it when it comes into being.
Saber looked down at that. Irisviel, the woman Saber had grown close to throughout this war, was now gone. And it was partially her own fault.
No, not just her own fault.
This man, who was her Master loath she to admit it, was also at fault.
"Final question." Saber leaned in close and asked, "Why did you let out the drug?"
"Because I was unsure of the possibility of you defeating Assassin." Kiritsugu answered without any hesitation. "If Assassin was drugged, then he could not kill you. If you were drugged, then you wouldn't do anything rash to jeopardize the possibility of me getting the Grail. And with Kotomine Kirei drugged and unable to fight, I would have shot him in the head and have been done with it."
"...I see." Saber spat out in disgust. So this man prevented her from coming even close to killing Assassin… simply because it jeopardized his plan? This man had absolutely no faith in her, despite him summoning her as his Servant? He could not simply wait and see and have faith in her abilities, and those abilities leading to a situation where Assassin very nearly fell to her blade?
She loathed this man, who she called her Master.
"You will now listen to me, Emiya Kiritsugu." Saber muttered as she glared up at him, and he nearly flinched. "I am going to keep researching Lupin the Third on my own. I will be doing so in a bar in the Miyama district. I am your Servant, and a very unwilling one at that. But do not mistake that for me being nothing more than a tool for you. I have now realized you neither respect me as a king or knight, let alone your equal. So this is what's going to happen: You will only contact me once you truly have Lupin the Third's location, and you will summon me in front of it. The next time we meet or discuss anything in length, it will be to defeat Lupin the Third once and for all." Saber set him down, and growled out, "Or with God as my witness, I will have your head. Honor and pride be damned."
Saber turned and picked up the top part of a hospital uniform.
"And do not think about using one of your Command Seals to make this not possible. Or I will do everything possible to ensure that I can let either Kotomine Kirei or Lupin the Third kill you."
She put it on and left the now speechless Kiritsugu behind. She did not care what he did after this. She said her piece, and by God did it feel good.
Now she would research and wait to see Lupin the Third, and the next time would be the time he dies.
Because now she understood how he thought.
She saw and experienced the freedom he praised so much.
And now that she could think and feel the way he did, she could kill him without anything holding her back.
xxXXxx
Zenigata placed his head on the steering wheel. "God damn it, Zenigata. This is another fine mess you've gotten yourself into…"
Beside him were the books from the Matou library, all of which he had gotten off the record. After seeing what he saw at Emiya's hiding spot, he had decided to do a bit of reading. When he could barely make heads and tails of all the magic told as pseudo-science, he looked into Kariya's journal.
An entry just a year ago detailed of how Kariya's was disgusted in how Tohsaka Tokiomi and his wife gave their daughter Sakura to the Matou's due to politics in their little magic cult, and that the procedure to groom her involved her being violated by worms over and over again. Kariya's would have none of it and went to his grandfather, (though based on other entries Zenigata knew that Kariya didn't consider the old man to be true family) Zouken, to free her. And the only way to do that was to give him the Holy Grail.
The Holy Grail was a treasure alright, but not the one Zenigata was expecting.
It was a magical wish-granting device, fought over by magicians every sixty years. It was created by three families: The Tohsakas, the Matous, and the Einzberns (finally linking the three, but that fact didn't relieve Zenigata's mind). To get it, they had to battle to the death with four other magicians by summoning heroes of the past, Servants, as their Masters.
Considering this has been going on for years and never made news, that meant there was a massive conspiracy in the works.
Zenigata hated conspiracies.
"You get me involved in too much crap, Lupin…" Zenigata groaned. Kariya's journal hadn't been finished after the entry of going to train to become a Master, so Zenigata didn't know how Lupin got involved. But knowing the punk, he probably discovered it during his years of hiding when he wasn't drinking fine wine and banging women. Of course a wish-granting device would be too appetizing for the thief, so he can waited until the War began. "That means he has a plan to steal it." And considering he went toe to toe with that super powered Arthur woman, some trick under his sleeve to stay alive.
But what was it?
Zenigata heard a knock on his window, and saw Daisuke with a lit cigarette in his mouth and bags under his eyes. Kid was probably freaked out of his mind. Zenigata opened the door and let him in.
"You get any sleep?" Zenigata asked as the younger man walked inside.
"No." Daisuke shut the door behind him. "Did you?"
Zenigata ignored the fact that Daisuke was still smoking. If it helped the kid calm his nerves, so be it.
"Would have, but I wanted to do a bit of reading regarding the case."
Daisuke gave him an astonished look and asked, "How can you be so calm about all this?"
Zenigata simply shrugged in response. "Kid, I've seen things. Things involving magic or conspiracies." Zenigata rubbed his chin in thought. "First time the two have been combined though…"
"I've never been so scared in my life." Daisuke muttered. "I mean, magic is real? And it creates super humans? What the actual hell?!"
Cops always reacted badly when encountering something on the job for the first time. It didn't matter if they were rookies of veterans. "You didn't tell anyone did you?"
"No. Who would believe me anyways? I hardly believe it, and I saw it! And we have it recorded on video!"
"Good thing. Because we're dealing with a conspiracy that's most likely hundreds of years old." Zenigata glanced at Daisuke. "They would probably silence is if they found out we knew anything."
"Oh crap. The notes we had on the murderer." Daisuke's eyes widened. "The ones I don't remember taking. Do you think they…?"
"We're dealing with magic, kid. Wouldn't be surprised if they knew hypnotism and how to use it." Zenigata was a bit pissed about it, but there wasn't anything he could do about it now. He had no leads on who did it, otherwise he would be breaking down their door now.
"So what do we do now?"
The answer came easy to Zenigata. "We keep quiet about it for now. Act like nothing happened. Then when we get an opportunity and enough evidence…" Zenigata grinned. "We bust this thing wide open. No way I'm letting these punks get away with something like this."
"You make it sound so easy…" Daisuke sighed.
"Comes with experience. I had a knack for uncovering conspiracies. Just ask Cagliostro."
"...And Lupin the Third?" Zenigata froze at the question. "I used to believe that the man was dead and was just a copycat. It was a rational assumption. But now… What if that is Lupin the Third? And he's the same as that woman? You saw how much damage he took after all…"
Yes, Zenigata did in fact see. Lupin took blows that would kill any other man. He went toe to toe with Arthur who had strength and speed beyond that of a human. By all rational accounts, Lupin should have been a stain on the wall.
And if he was the same as Arthur, then it meant Lupin might be one of those Servants.
But that was irrelevant.
"Magic or no magic, Lupin is Lupin." Zenigata stared out of the car. "And I've made it my life's mission to put that bastard behind bars. I'm not going to let technicalities, conspiracies, or even the very gods stop me from making that happen."
Indeed. It never mattered what danger chasing Lupin brought him. It didn't matter that he had to travel all over the world, or what scumbags Zenigata bumped into or what incompetents he had to work with before being forced to clean up their mess.
All that mattered was catching Lupin. And no amount of magicians or mystic beings could stop Zenigata from putting Lupin the Third behind bars.
"If you say so." Daisuke gave a weary sigh. "But be careful what you say. We need to assume that all the walls have ears."
With that, Daisuke exited the car and walked to the station. Zenigata sighed as he slumped on his chair.
The game was the same, but the playing field was different.
"So what'll be your next move Lupin?"
xxXXxx
Irisviel von Einzbern opened her eyes.
The first thing she noticed was that she was not in the shed at the house Kiritsugu bought for their newest base.
No, now she was somewhere unfamiliar. She could not tell where, only that the walls were stone and the floor was hard and uneven. There was a dampness in the air, and she could feel something wet on the bottom part of her body and hands.
"If only I could move my head…" She bemoaned silently. But no, she could not. Even with Avalon, moving her finger took all of her strength now with all but three Servants dead.
But she was sitting upright, her back against what felt like a wooden crate.
In front of her, sitting on a chair, was Assassin cleaning out his gun. But now he was wearing completely different attire, a black jacket with black pants and black shoes, along with a crimson red shirt and purple tie held down by a silver tie pin.
"Oh good! You're awake!" Assassin cried out with a cheerful smile. "I was gettin' kind of worried! You were real quiet for a while!"
"Where am I?" She questioned, only for Assassin to shake his head.
"Now, now. Can't go spoilin' the surprise!"
"But we're the only ones here."
"Well, I like to keep things a mystery to people who aren't in the know or don't need to be in the know. Makes things a bit more mysterious, don't you think?" Irisviel briefly thought that Assassin seemed to get a kick out of playing the 'mysterious and quirky thief' role.
"And why am I here?"
Assassin stopped the cleaning of his gun and raised an eyebrow. "Come on, that should be obvious and I doubt a fine lady like you is ignorant about it."
Irisviel sighed. Of course, she was kidnapped for the Grail that dwelled inside of her. There was no other reason. Assassin wanted the Grail in front of him so that he could take it for himself. "I suppose it is."
Assassin continued on cleaning his gun. "Now trust me, Arthur-chan and your man put up one hell of a fight but they kinda had a difference in opinion and… things didn't work out the way either of them hoped. Now don't get me wrong, I love it when the people I'm up against trip over one another. But Arthur-chan was really, really close at punchin' my ticket before your hubby decided to do his thing." Assassin sighed as he stopped cleaning his gun and began putting it together. "Honestly, I dunno why you're with him."
Irisviel stiffened at that statement. "Kiritsugu…"
"Is a good man? I already heard what he's got in mind for the Grail from Kirei." Irisviel sucked in her breath. Assassin now knew Kiritsugu's wish? "I wouldn't call labotomizin' humanity all that great."
"How can you say that?" Irisviel accused, her anger pumping adrenaline through her veins and giving her the strength to speak in her husband's defense. "Kiritsugu wants to end the hate, end the pain, end all the things that cause human suffering!"
"Hate is a natural part of bein' human. So's greed, lust, jealousy, and all that jazz. Each and every other nasty emotion." Assassin continued to put his gun together, but was no longer smirking. He was dead serious as he did so. "Gettin' rid of that is like lobotomy on the collective human mind. You can't decide to just up and 'save the world' by gettin' rid of things that only come natural to humans. If the whole 'world peace' thing is ever going to happen, it has to be made by humanity as a whole rather than just one guy. Otherwise it doesn't mean anythin'. To be completely honest, I think you're husband had one seriously screwed up day and read way too many comics as a kid. His whole wish… it just screams of a kid who never grew up and never gave up his dream of savin' the world." Assassin then gave Irisviel a pitying look of all things. "Honestly, ya deserved better than him."
"I love Kiritsugu for who he is, no matter his faults. I understand him better than you ever can." Irisviel shot back with a glare. "Don't think you can just read Kiritsugu like a book. You will never understand what it means to sacrifice everything for the sake of others."
"You're right about that. I was never big on the whole sacrificin' for the sake of others thing. I'm more about taking what I want, and doing whatever pleases me." Assassin replied with a shrug. "Though to be honest, I'm just against his wish because gettin' rid of greed and lust would make my life extremely borin'."
Irisviel felt her anger rise up again at Assassin's selfishness. He would damn humanity itself for the sake of his own amusement. That was perhaps the lowest anyone could go. She wanted to say that, but found herself coughing. Every muscle, every bone, every vein in her body now hurt. She felt her heart beat, and felt the Grail.
"Please, not now. Let me see Kiritsugu one last time…"
"Wow. Kirei wasn't lying. This thing does give you pain." Irisviel heard a click, and a sigh of relief.
She looked up, and saw Assassin pointing his gun at her.
"That makes this a lot easier."
Irisviel moved her lips to form her final word.
"Illy-"
She did not finish, as a bullet entered her skull and exited the back. Her head kicked back as blood, bone, and brain matter splattered behind her and the gunshot echoed through the room. Her body then lurched forward, and it was almost as if Irisviel was praying with her hands intertwined and her body bent forward. But the blood broke that image as it dripped to the floor.
Irisviel von Einzbern, wife of Emiya Kiritsugu and mother of Illyasviel von Einzbern, was now dead.
Assassin sighed as he holstered his gun and stared at the woman's corpse. He did not react as a golden sheath came out of her body and clattered on the ground. He silently reached into his jacket's right pocket and took out a packet of cigarettes and a lighter. He put a single cigarette in his mouth and lit it before sucking in an air of smoke. He then blew it out with a sigh.
"Always hated killin' unarmed women." Assassin muttered to himself before getting up from the chair, turning around, and walking into the darkness.
There were still a few things that needed doing.
"Better get things set up for the grand finale." Assassin said, pulling his lips up in a smirk.
To Be Continued...
Note: New chapter out now with special thanks to Kiiam for his help!
I would like to note that I've never taken LSD or any drug equivalent to it (Nor do I say you should use it, but would also like to note that this is basically a fantasy drug blessed by a goddess in the Age of Gods created that makes people see owls and butterflies and flowers. All while making the world spin. And that's only what happens when you get a slightly above normal dosage.
So make of Saber's trip what you will.
My main concern was to have Saber go through some meaningful character development and move from being slightly loyal to Kiritsugu despite him treating her like some tool to completely taking the reigns of what she does. And also gaining more insight into what makes Lupin the Third tick all while going through the worst drug trip ever.
Berserk also helped out with inspiration towards some of these scenes.
Please check out the TV Tropes page and add whatever you find appropriate.
Please leave constructive criticism.