The moon was high when Caster stood on the cliff above the road that Saber and her Master would be coming along and where the other servant would also appear. It was all too easy for her to trick both servants into an illusion.
Her topaz eyes looked at the moon again to see that it nearly time for the two servant meeting.
She cast a spell on the road so that Saber would not interrupt the battle between her and other Caster. Caster then transported herself to the road where the madman would appear. A minute passed when an unfamiliar presence made itself known. Caster focuses her eyes back onto the road. She could make out the figure of the other Caster on the road, waiting for Saber to come.
She moved to the edge of the cliff, Caster took a deep breath before proceeding forward with her plan.
"This man who's maddened by his desires, allow them to become reality. Weave and fabricate his desire into an illusion," Caster commanded her spell.
There was a brief moment before the sound of screeching tyres could be heard from up the road.
From one of the corners of the road came a silver Mercedes-Benz at a ridiculous speed. It continued at its fast-paced speed before stopping abruptly a couple of meters in front of the other Caster. The silver Mercedes' doors opened and Saber and her master stepped out. Both of them made their way to the front of the car, coming face to face with the other Caster. Saber stood slightly more in front of her master to protect her from the unknown servant.
The other Caster bowed to them crossing one of his arms across his body.
"I have come for you, my sweet and holy virgin," he said as he bowed.
"Do you know this man," Saber's master inquired.
"I've never laid eyes on him," She answered honestly.
During this exchange of words Caster sneaked behind the silver car, waiting for the moment to launch her attack.
"Oh no!" The other Caster cried out. "Are you saying you've forgotten my face?" he desperately asked.
"Forgotten you?" Saber repeated, stepping forward a bit. "I've never met you in my life. You mistake me for another," Saber told him.
The other Caster grabbed his hair and let out a small scream. "It's me, Gilles de Rais!" He cried out again, putting his left hand over his heart. "I have prayed for your resurrection and have been waiting for a miracle to reunite us. To that end I've come all this way to the end of time, my Jeanne," Caster rambled.
During his madden rambling the other Caster let loose his true identity. Gilles de Rais. That name fills Caster with a sickening hatred. She read about his heroic deeds during the Hundred Years War and his fall from grace, as well as the tale he supposedly inspired Bluebeard.
"Who is Joanne?" Irisviel asked.
"I don't know your name, I insure you. Nor have I any idea who this Joanne might be," Saber told him.
"No," Gilles whispered. "No, you've can't of forgotten, not your former identity," He asked.
"As you have deemed it fit to give me your name, I must in keeping with the chivalry code give mine. My name is Artoria, the heir to Uther Pendragon and King of Britain. I enter this battle in the Saber-class," Saber told him.
"Oh no! It's so very sad! She lost her memory and gone completely insane!" Gilles cried out once again. Gilles started screaming to God about how cruel he was while Gilles was hitting the ground with a fist.
Caster took this opportunity to trap Gilles. She abruptly cut off the illusion of catching Gilles off guard by this action. Using the moment of confusion to trap him. Caster uses the hair that she had placed around where Gilles stood, trapping him in a cocoon restraint.
"What is this!?" Gilles screamed.
"My trap. You have fallen right into it, Monsieur de Rais," Caster told him.
"Who are you!? What did you do with my fair Joanne!?" Gilles screeched.
"I'm Caster and Saber wasn't there. It was all an illusion that I created so I could kill you," She told him.
"You liar! I am Caster of this Grail War!" Gilles screeched. "And how dare you use my fair Joanne like that!"
"Sorry to inform you but the Grail has decided to allow two Casters to be summoned in this war," She informed him. "As you can guess, there can be only one of us," She stated.
Gilles screamed and struggled against the hair-brand restraint. Caster raised her right hand, calling the ends of her hairs to it. Once all the ends had gathered in her hand, she gave them a good old tug, tightening the hold of the cocoon. Gilles was still able to breathe properly but the hold was unbearable.
"Who is your Master?" Caster questions him.
"I will never tell you who my Master is! You Witch!" Gilles continued to screech.
Caster stood unaffected by Gilles screeching. She wrapped her hair around her hand and once again tugging on the hair, making the cocoon even tighter. Gilles now found it hard to breathe. He began to struggle even more against the restraints.
As Caster was about to talk again, she felt a presence of something about to attack her. Caster quickly jumped out of its way and activated her clairvoyance. Her clairvoyance shows her that something else would also try and attack her. Caster pumped mana to her feet, this would allow her to jump to have more power to it. She proceeded to jump onto the side of the cliff.
Looking back at the road to see what had attacked her, she was greeted with a strange sight.
The creatures- if you could call them that- looked like mutant starfish. Caster couldn't make out much detail about the creators' appearance since the lighting on the road was poor. From the energy, their bodies were giving off they were some kind of demon.
Caster could feel the threads of her hair being tugged. She looked back over at Gilles, who was now struggling more intensely against her hair. Noticing that Gilles was trapped, one of the creatures jumped onto the strands connecting Caster to the cocoon while the other attached itself to the cocoon.
The creatures tore through the hair freeing Gilles from his binds. Once he was free, Gilles reached inside of his cloak and pulled out his grimoire.
"You witch! I'll destroy you!" Gilles screeched.
Caster's face became stern at the declaration of battle.
"If it's a fight you want, I'll be happy to oblige," she said.
Caster ran her hand through her hair, pulling out some of her white hair. The strands of hair wrapped themselves around three of her fingers. Pouring more mana back into her legs Caster then jumped into the forest next to the road. As she passes Gilles some of her hair wrapped around his ankle pulling him into the forest as well.
Back at the road where Caster had placed her spell for Irisviel and Saber, they came rushing down the mountain road.
Saber sat tensely in the passenger seat as Irisviel drove wildly around the corner.
"See! See! I told you so!" Irisviel happily said. "This car takes the turns really fast!"
"W-Well, that because your surprisingly a good driver," Saber nervously complimented Irisviel.
They came speeding over a bump in the road lifting the car and them into the air for a moment. This cause Saber a moment of fright.
"I know! You may not believe it but I practice all the time," Irisviel told Saber as she changed gears. "Of all the toys Kiritsugu has brought me over the years, this is my absolute favourite!" She confessed.
"Th-This is a toy?" Saber nervously asked.
Irisviel increased the speed, making the car go faster down the road.
"At the castle, I was only allowed to drive around the courtyard so, this is great!"
"Shouldn't we hired a professional driver?" Saber asked.
"No, that would be boring- I mean, it could be dangerous. What if the enemy were to suddenly launch attacked against us," Irisviel quickly bluffed out.
"Well, I suppose you have a point but-" Saber was interrupted when Irisviel slammed down on the breaks.
The car came screeching to a halt. Saber quickly looked over at Irisviel to see if she was fine -which she was,- before looking out of the window.
In front of the car like deer in the headlight, was a young girl about five years old. The small girl was dressed in heavy winter clothing despite it only being early winter. Her jade-green eyes were opened wide in terror, tears prickling at the corners of her eyes.
It was clear to Saber and Irisviel that the girl wasn't a servant or magus, just a normal girl but what was she doing all alone in the middle in the mountains at this time of time.
"Irisviel stays here, I'll deal with the girl," Saber told her stepping out of the car.
Saber made her way to the front of the car where the girl was, now facing her as she came around. The little girl cowered away from Saber when she reaches for.
"It's alright, I'm not going to hurt" Saber softly told the child. The girl meekly took a step forward then rushed into Saber's arms. "There, there," The servant reassured her. "What are doing out here so late," She asked.
"Chi was with Mama then she was here," the little girl told Saber before busting into tears.
Irisviel raced out of the car to the girl, gathering her into arms, whispering motherly reassure. The homunculus picked up the child and stood up with the servant following her. Saber jogged to the car to pushed back the front seat of Irisviel could 'Chi' in the back.
"Should we take her back to the castle or back to Fuyuki?" Saber asked Irisviel.
As Irisviel was replying, a large explosion came from the forest beside the road caught their attention. They turned to look at it. Dust rose into the air, it was around five meters long.
There was no doubting it was caused by servants.
Irisviel turned off the car.
"Saber!" Irisviel said.
Saber responded with a nod of the head before turning back to the child.
"We're just going to check out that explosion so please wait here until we return," She told her.
Saber picked up Irisviel in bridal fashion then proceeded to jumped down to the forest.
Once they out of site the 'Chi' disappeared in a flurry of purple petals.
Down in the forest, Saber and Irisviel rush through the trees trying the spot where the explosion had happened.
Saber had changed into her armour with sword in hand. It wasn't ideal for her to fight at the moment, not with her injury that Lancer had inflicted on her. But since the battle was happening near Einzbern Castle it must be investigated.
"Saber!" Irisviel called out. "North-west from here, about seven to eight meters," She huffed.
"Yes, I know. There's a large amount of mana ahead. It must be the two Casters fighting," Saber concluded.
When they were about a half-meter away, Saber quickly grabbed Irisviel and dragged her to the side as a whip came crashing through the trees. It quickly receding, cutting through the dust it created revealing a young woman.
Saber stepped away from Irisviel turning to face the woman. Saber paused for a brief moment once she got a good look at the woman. There was a striking resemblance between the woman and her old friend.
Caster had also noticed that Saber had arrived on the scene, distracting her from her battle with Gilles for a moment. Caster was brought back to the fight when one of Gilles' demons attacked her, it was easily struck down by a flick of her wrist. Her haircut through it, leaving it in three pieces.
In the short amount of time their battle went on, Caster could tell Gilles only ability was summoning demons which matched up to his story. It was nothing special, anyone could do it given the knowledge.
Now the problem was to find where he was getting all his mana from to summon the mass amount of demons, that was most likely his Noble Phantasm as well.
Another hoard of demon attacked once again. Her claw-like whips tore through them, but it was one hoard after the another. That was trouble with these types of demons they are easy to tear through but the sheer amount was tiring. They were coming at her from all side making it hard for her to keep up.
One of the demons spotted an opening and jumped into it. It left little time for Caster to think up a counter-attack or dodge.
The demon was quickly cut down by Saber. She turned to face Gilles, she gave Caster a brief look before turning her eyes to Gilles.
Gilles looks shocked at his 'Joanne', why would she help a witch? He couldn't understand.
"My dear Joanne, why would you help this sinner? She has already condemned herself to the fiery pits of hell, there's no way to save her," Gilles questioned Saber.
Saber stared at Gilles in confusion. She had never met this man in her life before but he seems to know her and talk to her like they were old friends. Not to mention he called her 'Joanne', maybe he was mistaking her for someone else.
"Sorry you must be mistaking me for someone else," She told him.
"Don't bother," Caster said. "The man is insane. He wouldn't listen to you and he will denial all you say. He's in his own little world," She informed Saber.
"Be quiet you witch! Joanne, it's me, Gilles de Rais," he officially introduced himself to Saber.
"As I said, you mistake me for another. Since you have given me your name I must be keeping with the chivalry code give mine. My name is Artoria, the heir to Uther Pendragon and King of Britain. I enter this battle in the saber class," Saber introduced herself.
"NO! NO! NO!" Gilles screamed. "You have truly lost your memories! Or has this witch done something to you!" Gilles continued his mindless screaming.
"This is the first time I've met this woman and have told you I am not this Joanne you keep mistaking me for," Saber repeated.
"I do not know how to use memory alternating magecrafts," Caster confessed.
Gilles let out a scream of frustration as well as pulling out his hair.
"KILL HER!" Gilles commanded his demon familiars, pointing at Caster.
All at once, the demons jumped on Caster. They smothered Caster leaving nothing to see.
Saber immediately started hacking away at the demons to free the woman.
"Joanne my dear, why do you want to help that witch so much?" Gilles asked.
"That's none of your business!" She yelled at him.
Why did she want to help Caster? Was it because she looks so much like Merlin? Yes, that was definitely why.
Saber felt a bust of mana come from the centre of the demons. She jumped back to avoid whatever was coming out.
Caster's hair came cutting through the flesh of the demons like they were paper. Caster was unharmed by the demons.
"How are you unharmed by my demons!?" Gilles asked.
"I am just better a magus than you so it's easy for me to counter weak attack like that," Caster explained.
"Why you!?" Gilles screeched.
Both Saber and Caster release a strike destroying the rest of the demons around Gilles. Gilles seems to calm down somehow.
"I have forgotten what I truly came here for," Gilles mumbled to himself. "Since your heart has been seal so tightly my dear Joanne. I must take my leave now to make preparation to free your soul from the terrible prison of God's curse," He declared. Gilles bowed to Saber then disappeared.
The three women stared at where Gilles once stood, none of them like his parting words.
Caster was the first one to move, she took off the hair from her fingers and gathering them in her left hand. At the same time she grumbled under her breath 'I hate crazy people'.
Saber notices Caster's movement and stood ready to fight her.
Caster glance at Saber as she proceeded to write something on the palm of her hand. Irisviel and Saber both watched as the white hair burned away. Caster turned to face Saber.
"I do not wish to fight you," Caster told the other servant.
Even with that declaration Saber still held her blade out ready for a fight but Caster had no intention to fight her. Caster brought her right arm to her left shoulder and bowed before disappearing.
The two women watch confuse as the other servant disappeared.
"Did you know Caster?" Irisviel asked.
"I do not know Caster," Saber debunked Irisviel's idea. "I believe she was born after my death,"
Irisviel was now truly confused. What was that woman's connection to Saber and how did Saber know her if she had never had met her. Maybe all will be revealed when they got back to the castle.
"We better get back to the car. That little girl is waiting for us," Saber said.
Gilgamesh entered the room that he was using as his bedchambers during the Holy Grail War.
It was a large room with dark wooden wall panels. The carpet was ruby red. The curtains in the room were a deep ruby red with golden embroidery, the embroidery was small roses and rosebuds.
There was little furniture, there was a king-size bed with a canopy, a wooden dresser and a couch. The bedding was a plain scarlet red with matching curtains. The couch was a scarlet red chesterfield. The dresser was old fashion styled made out of mahogany wood.
Gilgamesh switched on the light, lighting up the dark room. The light revealed Caster waiting patiently on the couch with her hands folded in her lap.
He also notices that Caster had changed her clothes. She was now wearing a denim stonewash pinafore with a plain lavender scoop neck t-shirt, white stockings and peanut brown ankle boots. Her hair was in her usual style.
She looked like a normal teenager from the modern era.
"I hope you didn't wait long for me," Gilgamesh smirked.
"I wasn't waiting long," she replied. "I've arrived just before you returned from your engagement with Kotomine," She told him.
Gilgamesh sneered at her. How did she know about his visit to Kirie? He made sure that no one would know about the visit.
"Don't forget Archer, I'm clairvoyant. I foresee your visit to Kotomine," She explained.
He had forgotten about her little trick of hers. Gilgamesh moved so he was leaning on the footboard of the bed, which was opposite the couch.
"Any reason for your visit or did you miss being in my presence," Gilgamesh asked.
There was a brief pause as Caster took a deep breath through her nose.
"I came here to give you my answer to your proposal," She informed him.
Gilgamesh became more interested. He didn't expect that she would make a decision so fast, though he did have a good idea what her answer would be. He stood straighter to hear Caster's answer.
Caster also straightened her back and stared straight into his eyes. Her bright topaz eyes held a large amount of confidence in them. This was the right choice for her.
"My answer is no," Caster answered.
That wasn't what Gilgamesh was expecting. He thought she would accept his proposal to make sure that the Grail War would go smoothly for her. But the unexpected event would make his time in this era more enjoyable.
"I made a promised to my mother that I would marry someone that I loved," Soon as those words left Caster's mouth Gilgamesh busted into uncontrollable laughter.
Caster sat on the couch unaffected by Gilgamesh's laughter. She didn't need her clairvoyance to know what Gilgamesh reaction was going to be. With his large ego, he probably thought that she would of accepted his proposal. There were many reasons why she turned down Gilgamesh, the main two reasons were being the promise to her mother and her own happiness.
Like most noble mage families, her mother was put into arranging the marriage to keep the blood strong. Her mother's marriage was decent, her husband never hurt in any way but she wasn't happy. When her mother met her father, she found a slice of temporary happiness. Her mother didn't love her father but he was an interesting person with information that she wants, so they agree that she would carry his child. This led to her birth, which causes an uproar from her mother's husband's family. Let's say she didn't have a nice childhood.
Caster stood up from the couch ready to leave the Tohsaka residence, she was just waiting for Gilgamesh to finish laughing so he could say any last words.
Gilgamesh finished laughing and quickly transported straight in front of Caster. She was surprised by his closeness but she didn't make a move. Gilgamesh reached out to Caster's face, tilting her head slightly so she was looking into his eyes.
"It's been a while since I've laughed like that," He confessed. "I didn't think you'll be the kind to believe in true love," He mumbled. He moved closer to Caster's ear. "I guess I'll just have to make you fall madly in love with me then, Matilda," Gilgamesh whispered in her ear.
The way he said her name, sent a shiver down her back. It didn't settle well that Gilgamesh was now going to pursue her.
Gilgamesh bites the shell of Caster's ear causing her to jump. Caster pushed away from him then disappeared before him. Not before Gilgamesh got a good look at her reddened face. The sight of her brought pleasure to him. He was going to enjoy making the white-haired woman fall in love with him.