Author's Notes

Hello, this is Captain Bell. Thank you for your interest in my work.

This story represents a difficult challenge for me, so I hope you find it enjoyable.

Traditional disclaimer: I do not own the Fate series or High School DxD.

EDIT: Since several reviewers have asked, I would like to state that Artoria and Issei do not share a romance in this story.

Let us begin.

THE RED DRAGON'S SABER

Chapter One: Waiting for a Miracle

Avalon, the Everdistant Utopia.

The final resting place of the legendary King Arthur is not a common afterlife, a return to the cycle of reincarnation, or even the Throne of Heroes to which incredibly accomplished mortals usually ascend. Outside the normal conventions of time and space, the Land of the Fairies hosts the Once and Future King's soul after her death. This magical place bears the same name as the sheath of the king's legendary sword, Avalon. The land serves as a reflection of Arthur's dream for a perfect kingdom, and according to legend it grants the weary monarch her well-deserved rest.

Artoria Pendragon does not receive much rest.

The oath of the king has been upheld, so Artoria is no longer bound to project the identity of the male Arthur Pendragon to anyone. There are no witnesses in Avalon for whom the lone human soul needs to play a part. The persona of the King of Britain has receded enough to make room for the girl she might have been, had Artoria never pulled the Sword of Selection from the stone. Still, while those two facets of the legendary figure's personality may be permanently intermingled now, a powerful wish of the feminine side dominates her mind: to be reunited with her love.

Artoria waits.

The just reward owed to Artoria after she fulfilled her duty as the king: a girl's right to live happily. This promise is what occupies Artoria now. The hero's reward, however, has been withheld for a long time. Regardless of what might be just, or what Artoria deserves, the girl's wish will only be granted to her by the occurrence of two separate miracles.

One must keep waiting, and another must keep pursuing.

Avalon offers a different kind of reward to the heroic soul with each passing second. The utopia around the girl can ease her mind and soul at any time. As a certain magus once told the future king, dreams are more beautiful if they stay as dreams. If Artoria ever allows it, even for a moment, she will be lulled into an eternal deathlike sleep by the enchantment of the domain she resides in. Within this rest Artoria will be spared all burdens and forever experience the peace she has always desired, all without the need to wait for anyone.

Artoria waits.

Artoria does not listen to the sleepy whispers of Avalon. The girl waits because she believes in her love. Even though the man does not know his miraculous reunion with Artoria depends upon them both, he will surely continue to pursue his ideals and reach her; this is the extent of the girl's faith in Shirou Emiya.

Though their acquaintance was short, the bond of a Servant and a Master can be greater than the best of friends, the closest of families, and even the most intimate of lovers. Through the ritual of Fuyuki City's Holy Grail War, Artoria and Shirou experienced each other's lives at their best and their worst, and they fought alongside one another in situations that could have destroyed them at any turn. At the end of the war, even though it would separate the two, neither could be true to themselves and not fulfill their duty to destroy the corrupted Grail before it killed humanity. Even so, neither could either one deny their love for the other by the end.

Artoria waits. No matter how many centuries must pass for her to see Shirou once more, Artoria will always wait.

Still, nobody ever said how the girl must spend her time while she waits.

"Asia!"

Artoria's green eyes snap wide open.

"Shirou?"

Although the king's indomitable will allows her to resist the temptation of sleep, she still spends most of her time in a slight daze. There are centuries to wait, after all, and no other denizens of the Faerie Land around to interact with. The lack of company is all the more reason why this sudden echo of a voice alerts Artoria to something being wrong. The girl did not expect to be roused by someone until the time of her reunion, but it takes only a moment for her to understand the voice she heard does not come from her beloved.

Artoria climbs to her feet from the soft grass which serves as her latest bed. She is garbed in an elegant white dress which covers her almost entirely, and her fine blonde hair falls loosely around her shoulders as she moves. Artoria searches around her, but only the same gorgeous and unoccupied natural landscape she has always seen greets her on all sides. The sea of grass set between distant mountains and far-off green forests offers no answer to the girl's current question.

The sunshine lights the fields beautifully, the gentle breeze and the sweet scents carried on it are unchanged from how they have been every time Artoria chooses to explore Avalon and enjoy its conscious pleasures. There is no sign of a disturbance, which is to be expected. Avalon is a realm separated from the rest of reality. No corruption, no pollution, and no curse from any land can possibly enter here. There is no such thing as an intruder in Avalon, only those who are allowed to exist there can enter.

So whose voice is it?

"Let go of me!"

The voice yells again, its sound garbled. It is almost as if Artoria is hearing the call through water, though the words themselves are understandable. All around there is no source to be found. It is impossible for anyone to project their voice into Avalon, after all. Doing so isn't a matter of power or knowledge, the immutable laws of creation itself forbid any trespass. No matter what Artoria knows should be true, though, the girl can't delude herself into thinking she didn't just hear a young man scream out in desperation.

Artoria is sure this is not Shirou's voice that calls to her now, but she is surprised to recognize the masculine voice speaks in Japanese. The coincidence is a concern, if only because it makes her wonder if this voice does have some tangential connection to the Japanese boy she waits for.

"I have to save Asia! Let go of me!"

'Save?'

Artoria reels in surprise again. To save people is Shirou's reason to live, the only drive left to him after his trauma and survivor's guilt robbed everything else away. The voice Artoria hears now belongs to someone else who wants to save another with a nearly comparable level of desperation.

'But the voice does not come from anywhere in or outside of Avalon. It is coming from...'

Green eyes turned downward and gaze at the white-clothed form of Artoria's own body.

'... within me?'

It is nearly inconceivable, but also one of the only explanations Artoria can fathom for how anybody's words have managed to reach her in this place of rest. Someone out there, maybe from her own world, maybe from one of infinite parallel realities, is resonating with her very being. The pleas echo in her ears but do not actually reach into realm of Avalon itself. Through a connection Artoria can only now begin to guess at the identity of, her own body and soul now resonate with an outside source and produce the voice on their own.

Is it another version of her? Perhaps a King Arthur who had actually been born male? This guess is the most likely option Artoria can think of despite the language discrepancy, but the possibilities are technically infinite. Being outside of time as she is, Artoria theoretically has as long as she wants to think the puzzle over. To do so might even be a way to keep herself occupied for a while as she waits for her two miracles to occur. The idea of casual contemplation is set aside, though, when the voice begins to burst out even more desperately than before.

"Someone! Anyone!"

Artoria turns her eyes up and looks at the soft clouds above. She can tell the voice no longer calls out in despair, for the tone has changed. Now the call is one for help.

"Please save her!"

Artoria closes her eyes.

One must keep waiting. This is the role of the king who wishes to receive a young girl's happy life as her ultimate reward. Artoria will never turn her back on Shirou, not when she knows he will pursue her forever if he has to.

'But how can I ever face you again,' Artoria thinks as a fond smile graces her lips. 'If I don't try to help someone who needs to be saved?'

In all the incalculable variations of existence in the multiverse, one of them has managed to reach out to this Artoria in this Avalon with a genuine cry for help. The odds of such an occurrence go far beyond unlikely; unfortunately, the odds Artoria can find a way to actually offer her help to this unknown boy are even lower. Since she is already dead and has no magic to wield, King Arthur is nearly as trapped within Avalon now as all else is trapped outside of it. Deciding to help does not mean the girl has any means to do so, only the will to try.

It is to Artoria's benefit that she does not feel rushed. The convoluted flow of time between the dimensions means little while she is in Avalon, so she can afford to stop and consider her options. Artoria once more adopts the mentality of a king and thinks through what she has available to work with.

'Whoever called out was able to resonate with my being directly,' Artoria reasons as she crosses her arms. 'It is highly unlikely they are a mundane person for such a phenomenon to occur, no matter what the connection we share is. A magus, then, or perhaps a Heroic Spirit. Any type of supernatural creature would be more likely than an ordinary person.'

Artoria cups her chin as she opens her eyes to view the rich green grass at her feet. She contemplates further while using the scenery as visual stimulation.

'My only previous means of traversing parallel realities was my contract with the World,' the king reminds herself.

The World, the personification of Earth's reality, can grant great gifts in exchange for a promise to protect humanity after death. These bargains are the source of many legendary heroes' abilities. Though Artoria became a hero with only her own effort, a deal to enter the Throne of Heroes as an eternal guardian of humanity in exchange for the opportunity to retrieve the Holy Grail with her own hands led Artoria to become the Servant Saber in the Holy Grail Wars. Artoria hoped she could use the Grail to wish away all her failures, but Shirou made her believe changing the past would be a mistake.

'I severed the contract when I destroyed the Grail of my own free will.'

Artoria blinks her green eyes as a sudden, incredulous thought occurs to her. The girl turns her gaze skyward once more, her arms drifting down to hang at her sides.

'But the reason I have time to think about a way to help is because I exist outside of normal time. Somewhere out there, another Artoria is certainly still contracted to receive unlimited opportunities to find the Holy Grail.'

This train of thought is truly audacious, especially since there is no telling how the World might react, but the longer she tries to think of another option the more Artoria begins to accept she has no other tools available to her. Artoria's one chance to answer the mysterious call is to attempt to connect herself to one of the still-valid Heroic Spirit contracts of another King Arthur.

After a short time the girl puts one knee down on the grass and lays a hand on the fertile earth. To accept this risk is no small feat, but Artoria has always been decisive. She stares at the back of her hand while she crouches, her imagination running through the countless possible consequences of her plan.

"For this to work, you will need to be in a world where a Holy Grail exists, so the contract is valid," Artoria speaks aloud. Even though the girl's own voice is unlikely to reach the one who has unknowingly entreated her, Artoria still says her piece out of respect for the stranger's incredible feat. "I will also require a magic circle nearby, one suitable for the summoning, in order to reach you. If fate has truly allowed such an unlikely pathway to your side to exist, then I will take up the oath once more and fulfill your wish."

Her promise made, Artoria closes her eyes and shifts her mental landscape. No longer is she a girl in the peaceful utopia of Avalon, now she is once again King Arthur on the battlefield of Camlann. Artoria forces her mental state to resume its old form, one of a fatally wounded mortal who is frozen in time and waits only for the next chance the World provides to summon her to a new time and place so she may pursue her final quest.

Artoria makes herself susceptible to the influence of the World and allows the bonds of her old contract to take precedence in her mind. At the same time, the girl also focuses on the resonance of the voice as it echoed through her core in the hope she can influence the World's choices. Being pulled to a completely different place to seek a completely different Grail than the one she wants is a genuine risk, but the memory of Shirou Emiya pushes her to take this chance.

There is no action Artoria can take to make her more likely to reach her goal. Once more, all she can do is wait. Wait, and believe.

Fortunately, waiting is something Artoria now has a lot of experience in.

FATE

Artoria doesn't know how long has passed for her between when she began to submit herself to the old contract and now. The time could have been measured in seconds or years within Avalon itself. Artoria only knows something has changed when her body is suddenly no longer in Avalon. A sensation of absolute freedom from natural forces overtakes her before all her senses and consciousness become lost in a sea of stimuli no human mind is meant to perceive. Artoria has gone through this several times before, so she knows immediately what is happening.

King Arthur has been summoned.

Artoria's soul traverses the space between realities. She is brought forth by the two cooperating powers of the World and the Holy Grail of another dimension. These forces use an individual's call for aid as the trigger, and an available magic circle as the medium through which to express the ritual. Against all odds, King Arthur has been chosen to answer the summons of the boy whose voice reached out to her.

It is almost like fate.

'I'm going to go pass some time while I wait for you, Shirou,' the girl thinks with fondness as her body is transformed into a new, tangible form. 'Don't worry, I'll be back before you get home.'

Artoria bursts forth into a new reality with a final promise to always wait for her love, no matter where she might physically be.

FATE

A brief flash of brilliant light precedes the emergence of the fully-armored King of Knights. Green eyes, stern with intent, survey the new world Artoria finds herself in. Her keen tactical mind immediately catalogs what she can see into the relevant and the irrelevant.

Artoria has clearly been summoned into the middle of a conflict, and she is surrounded on all sides.

The girl prepares herself for what comes next. The situation she has been called into is dangerous and she lacks any context with which to discern the best course of action. The only question Artoria has time to answer after her assessment of the area and its occupants is complete is this: what will she do first?

After a moment of thought, the former Servant of the Sword finds no reason not to continue her previous tradition.

"I ask you..."

Chapter End

Author's Notes

This concludes the introduction to The Red Dragon's Saber.

I considered whether to include more in the first chapter, but I think this serves as a strong setup for things to come. Future chapters are likely to be longer than this introduction ended up being.

If the premise intrigues you and my writing was satisfactory then I hope you will continue to follow this story in the future.

Sincerely,

Captain Bell