An Eternity Too Long
The two teenagers gave each other a look of longing before entering a loving embrace.
They both knew this would be the last time they would see each other, and yet…
"We'll meet again… So you would wait for me… Won't you Saber?" The red-haired boy begged under his sobbing
The blonde girl gave her a radiant smile before nodding as she dissolved into blue spiritual particles and faded away from the world, once and for all.
A distant land they dreamt.
The promise of the pair of the impossible lovers.
Stretching across time and space. A Sheathe in the form of a boy who dreamt of the salvation of all, and a Sword in the form of a girl who took up the mantle as the perfect king for her people.
Neither sought happiness for themselves, as long as the people they cared for were happy, both would be satisfied with it.
The wise old wizard said it the best himself
"You could hardly meet by any normal means. To make it happen, well… it would require two miracles. One must keep waiting, and another must keep pursuing."
It wasn't any different from wishing upon a star. The wizard tried dissuading her, yet...
No reply was necessary, this wish alone will not disappear even if it wasn't put into words.
Until the day when not visited by anyone, nor sought by anyone, would the image of the king disappear from the imagination of the people.
She would endure slumbering here forever with only this warm wish as a dream to nourish her.
The boy pursued his dream of becoming a hero of justice.
He helped without asking for anything.
Whether it was helping a grandmother to cross the road, cook for those in need and making them smile with his cooking.
Whether it is to help trauma patients, or simply making kids happy.
He fought endlessly, his body was merely a sword to fulfil his dreams.
Whether or not it was right or wrong, he'd save people regardless if they're good or bad.
Whether it is to sacrifice 1 for 1000, the answer is obvious even if he didn't want to.
From battlefield to battlefield, he survived them all to live another day to save more people.
The pain of having to choose a side when saving people, he knew that not everyone can sit at the table of happiness.
Even in terrorist scenarios, he had used his power to save the hostages, it doesn't always go well, be it that he was too late to prevent deaths, or subdue the terrorist fast enough and caused unnecessary deaths for his mistakes
Even if it all goes well, even if he managed to save everyone without any failure, even in that case he failed his mission, as if not the people, then the terrorist themselves would suffer.
He was a hypocrite, he who claimed to become a Hero of Justice, and yet in the end he still was the cause of the suffering of the few.
Those voices would never be heard just because they were standing on the opposite side of the justice he stands by.
Eventually, he was betrayed by the people he saved.
That fateful day, he sold his salvation to save the lives of people otherwise impossible to save due to his weakness.
Gaining the power of Heroes, he succeeded in preventing a nuclear meltdown, saving the lives of a hundred people.
Yet, due to this same miracle, he was hanged for. He however couldn't bring himself to hate them.
He lived his life with no regrets and died with a smile.
She saw greenery everywhere
Before her were the vast lush green expanse of the softest grass she'd ever seen
Clean water flowed along the streams, with a forest of trees in the distance.
The sky was a deep blue, it was clear, without any clouds in sight
The birds chirped beautiful songs in the distance, with calm wildlife surrounding her.
On the paradise stood a lonely figure, no longer was she clad in the armour she had for long. On her was simply a dress of pure white.
Her long blonde hair flows freely down her shoulders, no longer braided into a bun.
She simply sat there, waited for her love to one day come back to her.
Her sheath would always return to her...
...That slowly changed piece by piece
His journey as a Counter Guardian was completely different from what he had expected.
Yes, the Counter Guardians were indeed employed to save humanity, he should be happy that his dream continued even after his death.
However, the method of doing so repulsed him.
The Counter Guardians save people by killing people.
They are deployed to eliminate those who are related to an event that would cause disaster on humanity as a whole, and many of the time they were already deployed too late.
They had to kill, kill, and kill without mercy, whether they're good or evil, innocent or guilty, an adult or a child, there's no difference in the end, as long as they get the job done any methods are acceptable.
Each of these deployments scored him streaks in the millions, he knew that for each people he killed he would save many more, but it crushed his heart to do the deed.
How was this any different from what he did before?
Even so, he held out hope and told himself it would eventually end, his job will eventually end and everyone would be happy, he told himself he would eventually meet Saber back on her promise… but that never came
His ideals now betrayed him, he grew bitter and cynical, his endless deployments and cycle made him lose any hope left in his heart.
"Sorry dad, but I can't become a Hero of Justice." He looked down towards his red hands, bloodied with countless life he has sacrificed
"I'm just a killer." His dreams crushed, he resigned to his cruel fate
He would serve as Guardian of Humanity for the rest of eternity
The figure of a blonde-haired girl stared up at the sky.
Her face seemed to be in peace, yet behind her calm expression was an incurable pain beneath
Letting out a loud sigh, she turned to face the distant horizon.
"I'm still here… So come and find me."
"After all, you promised that we'd see each other again, didn't you Shirou." She muttered
Streams fell down her beautiful face, as the gleam of tears reflected off the light of the sun.
A wasteland of swords…
The lands are scorched, the sky full of smog…
Gigantic masses of cogs rotated and grated each other as if powering the forge known as Unlimited Blade Works…
The land planted with an uncountable amount of swords, in this world, they serve no other purpose as graves.
Be it of heroes of the past, or for each time he took himself apart to continue walking down the path with no reward.
The steel of his world was rusted, he's far gone to the path, now disillusioned.
Regretting the path he took, yet resigned to it.
"I'm sorry Saber… It seems I can't fulfil my promise." He murmured for the last time, his final star dimmed into obscurity
The hill of swords being the only thing left of him and where his grave lies.
In the end…
He could not change his way of living, and fell into eternal despair, his hands never holding anything.
And she was never rewarded and kept waiting even if she fell into the depths of insanity by doing so.
The impossible dream was never meant to be possible
And they both paid the price for their hubris
Author's Notes:
A One-Shot about the unknown Archer's route presuming it took a similar path to the Fate route.
I decided to write this because why not? It's not as if there wasn't already enough of these types of one-shots.
This story would probably fall into the depths of obscurity among the countless stories on this fandom, but even so it doesn't need to be rewarded with anything.