Fate Grand Apocrypha - Standard Bearers
Chapter 09 : Blade and Knives
Author's Note : This one took far too long, so I'm not gonna bother you with anything here this time.
Disclaimer : I don't own Fate, Type-Moon does.
-Chaldea Cafeteria-
An odd pair of Servants were sitting in front of one another, neither really enjoyed the company of each other.
"...Why are you sitting here again? I want to actually enjoy my meals, and I can't do that when someone as repulsive as you is sitting across of me." Artoria Alter asked as she took another bite out of her favorite food, a hamburger.
"I've got no other choices, dammit! Master's seat is already jam packed with those other girls, and I don't really wanna sit with the Saint and the brat." Jeanne Alter weakly replied.
"That is none of my concern, don't act as if we're cut from the same cloth. We may both be an Alter, but we couldn't be any more different."
"Please, just stop your stupid yammering, I'm not really in the mood for your sass." Jeanne Alter dismissed the remark from the other Alter, her voice lacking the usual vigor.
"Let me take a guess, you're feeling down because of that little Santa."
"...Yeah, I just... don't know what to say to the brat, you know? How am I supposed to react when a smaller version of myself suddenly appeared in front of me? I was born already an adult, I've never experienced what it feels like being a little brat."
"Forming a new relationship with someone born out of you, huh?" The altered King of Knights thought about a certain red rebellious knight. "I say just try talking to her, it might turns out well in the end."
"Easy for you to say! You don't really know what it feels like!"
"...I do actually. I handled something similar recently."
"You do? What, with that pipsqueak version of you?"
"No... Sir Mordred has been trying to approach me recently. Trying to invite me to have lunch."
'Huh? Isn't this...' Jeanne Alter recognized the method used by the red knight. "...So how did it go?"
"I accepted it of course, she offered to treat me, so there's no real reason for me to refuse."
"Wow, don't you have any dignity left? You're supposed to be a king, you know?"
"Free meal is free meal, being a king have nothing to do with that." Artoria Alter sternly defended her beliefs. "Besides, I'm more of a maid nowadays rather than a king. I'll just leave all those kingly duties to that Lancer version of me."
"Tch, rubbing it in, huh?"
"Anyway, I've been spending some time with Sir Mordred lately, and it's not as bad as I thought."
"What do you mean by that?"
"I understand her a little bit better now, I never really know how to... talk to her. We basically killed each other when were alive. I thought she might be holding some grudge from that, so I avoided her for Master's sake. We both serve the same Master, so teamwork is essential, and I don't want to let personal business interfere with our work."
"So what you're saying is, you both made up?"
"Essentially, yes. She was simply lonely, she was craving for affection and acknowledgment from me. Something that I never really gave to her when I was alive."
"Huh... I thought you were far too dense to realize something like that. You've been giving this unapproachable, cold-hearted aura, you know?"
"Hmph, I'm not ashamed to admit that I've been consulting Master regarding this matter. If someone here knows how to create and mend relationships, it's him."
"Heh, that's one thing we can agree about."
"I've wasted enough of my time telling that story to you. Have you found the answer you were looking for?"
"I guess so, I just have to confront my problem head on. If a dumb king like you can do it, then you bet your ass that I can do better!" Jeanne Alter stood up and grabbed her food-tray, intending to join the other Jeannes.
Before she could do so, Artoria Alter stopped her. "Wait!"
"Huh? What is it this time?"
"Your pancakes, give them to me. I'm not a charity case, I'm not giving my advice for free."
"Tch, fine. Take them, you damn glutton."
"Hmph, even a fiery dog like you know how to repay gratitude."
"Just shut your trap. In the first place, all of this happened because you became a Santa before I did."
"It was simply a long term plan to get you indebted to me."
"Yeah, no. You're not bullshitting your way in." The Altered King took a plate of pancake from the Altered Saint's tray. A satisfied smirk on her face.
"Alright, you may go now. I have no more use for you."
"Heh, I'll gladly leave if it means I don't have to see your ugly mug anymore."
The black King of Knights didn't say anything else to her rival. Only sparing a single glance at the retreating figure of the fallen Saint. A small smirk tugged on her lips, secretly looking forward to how the other Alter would handle her problem. But first, she have a new pancake to savor. As she enjoyed the delicacy, a small thought popped into her head. 'I wonder if Sir Mordred is free right now...'
And so, on that fateful day, Jeanne Alter took the first step to mend her relationships with her other selves.
A brief flash of light bathed the Avenging Saint, momentarily blinding the nearby spectators.
Mordred shielded her eyes using her gauntlet, still trying to find her opponent amidst the blinding light. "Coward! Using cheap tricks like this!"
"Big talk from someone who kept coating her sword with lightning." The light disappeared, revealing Jeanne Alter, now carrying her 3 katanas on her hips.
"Huh? What the hell did you do just now?"
Alter started unsheathing two of her katanas, their sharpness hidden by the thick mist. She then pointed one of them at the confused red knight. "Getting something that can help me subdue your annoying ass."
"What, you think getting some frail looking swords would help you beat me? Keep dreaming, dumbass!" In an instant, Mordred moved to swung the lightning-clad Clarent at her foe. Said foe no longer attempting to dodge, only blocking her assault at the last second using her twin swords. "Gotcha! I'll be frying your ass now!"
Before any electricity from Clarent could be transferred to the katanas, Alter ignited their blades with her flames, drastically increasing the temperatures of the katanas.
"H-Huh? What the hell?!"
Alter smirked. "Yeah, you're not the only one here that can do bullshit like that!" With the heat of her flames preventing any electricity from Clarent to invade her blades, Alter see no more reason to avoid it. She then increased the power of her swing, forcibly breaking up their blade clash. They both retreated back a few meters from each other. The thick mist quickly returned, once again hiding the presence of both combatant.
Alter created a small flame on her palm, then quickly extinguished it. 'As I suspected, I have better control of my flames as a Pseudo-Berserker. Must've been because I'm far more creative without some of that hatred breathing down my neck.'
She sheathed one of her katanas, and then pointed her pointer finger right in front of her like a gun. 'Without visibility like this, that musclehead have no other choice but to keep using her lightning to temporarily clear this mist...' A small condensed flames began swirling around the tip of her finger, gradually becoming bigger and bigger by the second as Alter gathered more energy.
Just as the flame reached the size of a bowling ball, a torrent of lightning erupted right in front of her, with Mordred being in the center of it. At that exact moment, Alter fired the flames from her finger, the blast heading straight to the center of Mordred's chest.
"There you are! Now I'll-GAH!" The Saber of Red didn't have any chance to react, not expecting her opponent to suddenly utilize ranged attack. A loud boom resounded, with the blast of flames melting through her chest armor and hitting her straight in the chest, sending the red knight off her feet.
Before the red knight could stand up once more, a stinging pain could be felt on both of her shoulders, causing her to scream in agony. The cause being apparent after she looked at the source : two katanas lodged on both of her shoulders, pining her down on the ground. "When did she...?"
As Mordred moved her arms to remove the two katanas, a third one were suddenly pointed right in front of her face. The presence of the wielder hard to make up with all the thick mist obstructing her vision.
"I told you I didn't have time to play around with you anymore."
"S-Shit, I-I guess you didn't fuck around..." Mordred said between her ragged breath.
"Contrary to me pointing this blade right in front of your stupid face, I'm actually being really patient with you right now. So clean the wax off your damn ears and listen up!" Her tone not giving Mordred any say on the matter. "I... AM NOT YOUR DAMN ENEMY!"
"Then who the hell are you? Mordred asked, her tone still laced with hostility.
"No time to explain in detail, just know that I'm not part of both factions. I'm just here to assist Ruler with apprehending that little serial killer."
"What a fat load of shit. You think I'm just gonna buy all that crap after the stunt you pulled on me?!"
Alter wordlessly flipped her last blade over and slammed it right beside Mordred's head, slightly unnerving the rebellious knight. "Believe in whatever the fuck you want..." She pulled the blade from the ground and sheathed it. "Just... go back to your Master while you still can. Those Black Faction punks will arrive here soon, and you're not exactly in the right condition to fight." She turned her back away from Mordred, her cape fluttering in the night wind.
"Uninclude! Berserker!" After uttering the words, the blades pining Mordred down from the sides disappeared into thin air, the golden Berserker class card reappearing on Alter's palm. She took a small glance at the Saber. "Y'know, you're not half bad, lose the recklessness and maybe you'll start kicking ass more often."
Mordred didn't say anything, only wondering why her opponent didn't finish her off.
'Hah, I'm one to talk. I guess it took one reckless bastard to recognize another.' Alter thought to herself. "The next time we meet, let's just sit down and talk. I can tell you a few things about your stupid old man."
Mordred eyes widened instantly. "Y-You knew my old man?!"
Alter didn't respond, turning the opposite direction. "...We're done here, piss off while you still have the mist as a cover for your escape." As the words left her mouth, the mist suddenly got even thicker, completely erasing any presence of the dark saint.
"W-Wait!" With difficulty, Mordred got back up from the ground, clutching her bleeding shoulders. "Damn, seriously, what the fuck is going on?!" The rebellious knight muttered to herself.
Earlier, several minutes ago.
With Lily
Lily chased after the infamous serial killer, gaining some distance away from their previous location. The mist making it hard to determine her current location, all she knew is that she's still in the middle of the street of Sighisoara.
"Hehe, come on! Catch us if you can!" A voice echoed from the mist, clearly belonging to Jack.
Lily gripped her spear harder than before. Not liking the idea of fighting someone that she counted as one her closest friend. Sure, she may have fought Shadow Servant version of Jack before, but this is the first time she faced her friend in a real battle to the death.
She halted her movement as she finally found the infamous murderer atop the roof of a building, staring at her with a gleeful smile. "What's your name, friend?"
"...Lily"
Jack's smile grow even wider. "We're Jack the Ripper! Nice to meet you, Lily!"
"Likewise..."
"Let's be friend, okay?"
"Sure, I'll be your friend..." Jack's face grew hopeful for a moment. "Just as long as you stop your senseless murder."
Jack pouted at the reply. "Aww, we can't do that! Dismembering people is fun! Plus, we needed the food! Being hungry is not fun!"
"Please, Jack... I don't want to do this..." Lily pleaded.
"No! If you don't wanna be friend, then you'll be our food instead!" Jack announced as she disappeared from the roof. Lily narrowed her eyes at the familiar trick employed by the Assassin.
Reappearing behind Lily with her knives in hand, Jack prepared herself to backstab the Little Santa, but to her surprise, Lily suddenly turned her body 180° and swung her spear like a bat, forcing the Assassin to jump back to dodge the attack.
"Wow, you managed to find us! Not even that red knight lady could do that!" Jack stated, a little impressed with her current foe.
"..." Her opponent said nothing, eyes focused only on Jack.
"Then, how about this one?" Jack put her knives on her holster, and then she rummaged through her cloak, pulling out eight smaller knives, resembling a scalpel. She held each one between her fingers.
'This one is...'
Jack swung her arms twice to throw the scalpels, while Lily chose to not move from her spot, she simply spun her spear in front of her, deflecting them all.
Jack smiled at the action, giving the illusion that she's impressed by her opponent's ability, but Lily knew better. She continued spinning the spear, this time above her, deflecting two more scalpels that Jack has somehow managed to slip pass there.
Momentarily stunned at being discovered, Jack shook her head and dashed forward, brandishing her twin knives to restart her assault.
Lily threw her spear high up in the air, opting to use unarmed combat to deter the advancing Assassin. Jack tried stabbing her opponent multiple times, yet each attack were easily dodged. With every attack dodged, Lily watched her opponent carefully, waiting for the right moment to present itself.
Seeing the attack becoming gradually slower, likely from exhaustion. Lily quickly grabbed her opponent's arm, shutting down Jack's movement. Jack tried yanking her arms away to no avail, Lily's grip is as tight as a vice, completely stopping Jack's assault.
As a shadow were cast on Jack, she suddenly realized her opponent's earlier action, looking up to see Lily's spear coming down like a judgement from the heaven.
With her arms still being gripped by the Little Santa, Jack quickly positioned her legs on Lily's stomach, kicking her with all her remaining energy. Lily gritted her teeth, her grip slowly getting loosened, Jack managed to push herself backward at the last second, sending her tumbling on the ground.
The spear landed on the ground, stabbing through the very concrete. Lily picked it up and twirled it on her hand. "Had enough yet?"
Jack stood up and dusted herself off. "Y-You must be cheating! You're a cheater!" Jack accused, pointing at her opponent.
"No I didn't, you taught me all of that."
"We... taught you?" Jack asked, clearly confused.
Lily nodded, a certain memory playing on her mind.
-Chaldea Hallways-
A group of three children walked on the hallways of Chaldea. These three has been friends for quite some time now, with Lily being their newest addition ever since a certain Christmas day.
Jack the Ripper chatted away happily with Nursery Rhyme, discussing about their successful Rayshift mission just now.
Lily didn't pay any attention to her friends, thinking about her earlier fight. She was pretty helpless back there, needing Jack to pick up the slack. She sighed, feeling dejected about it.
Noticing this, the other two were naturally curious about their friend's condition.
"What's wrong, Lily?" Nursery asked.
"Did you have a stomachache?" Jack inquired, patting the Little Santa's shoulder.
"A-Ah! It's nothing! I'm just worried about my pudding stash, I don't want to let it get stolen again." Lily waved off the question.
The other two looked at each other for a moment, before turning back to look at Lily.
"Lily, if there's something bothering you, you know you can tell us about it. We're friends after all." Nursery reassured.
"Yeah! We'll dismember anyone that dares to hurt you!" Jack announced, brandishing her twin knives.
"You two... Thank you." Lily said, a little touched by their words. Her friends huddled together to hug her.
"Besides, if you're really worried about your puddings, you'll be running there in no time flat. We know how much you hate seeing them disappear." Jack admitted.
"Huh? How did you know?" Lily asked.
"We saw the whole thing, silly. You were really mad about it back then."
'Tch, stupid future-me...' Lily grumbled, remembering that pudding thief incident.
"Now then, what's on your mind, Lily?" Nursery asked once again.
"Umm... It's about..."
-In front of Chaldea Simulator Room-
The door to the simulator room slid open, revealing Jeanne Alter and Musashi Miyamoto walking out from it.
"Well then, I look forward to that large serving of udon." Musashi chipperly said with a grin.
"Yeah, yeah. I'll get ya one tomorrow."
Musashi simply nodded and walked away, waving her hand.
"Alright, thanks to the training with that udon-obsessed swordwoman, I should be decent enough to handle two-swords at the same time." Alter hummed to herself. "Let's see what's next on the list..." Alter said as she pulled a piece of paper from her cloak.
Before she could read it, she could hear multiple footstep approaching. She glanced over to see who it was, revealing Lily and her friends. "Oh hey, it's the chibi-brigade."
"Future me, we need your help!" Lily suddenly shouted.
Alter raised one of her eyebrow at the sudden request.
-Inside Chaldea Simulator Room-
"So, you want me to just stand still and block your attacks? That's all?" Alter asked them.
"That's right, big Lily! Lily is not ready to do it yet, so we need you to help show her a demonstration!" Jack replied with a smile.
"...Don't call me that, squirt." Alter scowled at the nickname. "Look, I've been training here all day, so I'm kinda tired to do it now. How about another time?"
"Please, Alter-san... Lily needs it now. She really needs her big sister's help right now!" Nursery pleaded.
Alter smacked her own face with her palm. "I'm not her big..." She stopped her words when she saw the pleading look from the children. "Grr, alright. But only for three minutes!"
As Alter readied herself, a small thought popped into her head. 'I guess I could use this as my own training. Fighting an opponent that relies on their speed might be useful later on...'
For the next three minutes, Alter simply stood there and tried to fend off various tricky attack from Jack. Starting off with a simple scalpel throw trick, where Jack threw the scalpels on her hand, which was promptly blocked by the older Servants, what Alter didn't realize was the fact that Jack only pretended to throw all the scalpels at Alter. In reality, she only threw six of them as a decoy, with the remaining two being thrown as a follow up when Alter managed to block the rest. Jack threw the last two above Alter, precisely calculated to allow it to land on Alter's shoulder.
With the stab wounds on Alter shoulder impending her movement, Jack dashed forward to take a stab on Alter's chest, specifically on the heart, intending to end it as soon as possible. Alter managed to partially block it, redirecting the attack to her thighs instead, she slightly winced at the pain. Jack was about to try again, but before they could continue, the three minute timer went off. Stopping both combatant from resuming their battle.
"Ghh..." Alter groaned as she removed the scalpels from her shoulders. "Nice little sleight of hands you got there squirt. Almost got me fooled there for a sec."
Jack giggled at the praise. "Right? Right? It'll helps us dismember our prey!" She exclaimed proudly.
"No, you really did look like a fool back there." Lily commented bluntly.
Alter rolled her eyes."Yeah, yeah. You're welcome by the way."
"Are you okay, Alter-san?" Nursery asked worriedly.
"It's fine, just a little scratch." Alter said with a shrug. She turned to look at Lily. "Did you see all that brat? You need to get yourself accustomed to many cheap tricks like that during high speed combat."
"Hey! It's not cheap!" Jack protested.
"Yes... I understand now. Thank you, future-me." Lily said with a small smile. "Are you sure you're gonna be okay?"
"Ah, this? I'll just sleep it off and it'll be as good as new." Alter touched her shoulder to try to look tough, only to slightly wince in pain when she did. "I'll... be going back to my room."
The door of the simulator room suddenly opened, revealing the original Jeanne d'Arc. "Hey, Alter. Have you seen Li-" Jeanne stopped when she saw Alter's current condition. Before anything could be said, Alter already spoke up.
"Don't ask... and please don't tell that crazy nurse about this!"
"Do you want us to sew it up?" Jack innocently offered.
Welp, this is the first chapter that I managed to finish this year. Took me long enough huh? The conclusion of our current arc should be pretty close now. That is, if I could find the time to write it of course.
As usual, I'm still struggling when I write the fight scenes, but I did pretty alright this time... maybe.
I'll see you next time.