Everything had been going so well...until that weird 'Berserker' guy showed up. Rider sent the guy flying into the containers, and wouldn't you know it? He hit him hard enough that the one directly above her started to fall.
Right. Where. She. Was.
She had absolutely no idea what the hell was going on, but she wasn't about to get crushed by several tons of metal and who knew what else.
She leaped out of the way, only to enter the view of everyone else.
Eyes wide open, she vaguely noticed the shock on Saber and Irisviel's face.
"Who is this?" snarled the hidden figure who had been ordering the Diarmund cosplayer around. "How did you get past my bounded field?!"
Rhea snorted.
"I hate to break it to you, Mr. Cactus, but I could hear the sound of fighting from the beach near the port. I was here in time to hear the big guy's rather amusing attempts at recruiting everyone else under his banner. Though really Saber, there is a limit to how much admiration for a historical figure should go. I have absolutely no idea where you found armor, much less historically accurate ones, but it's a bit much," said Rhea dryly. "Besides, I didn't peg you as a serious cosplay fan."
Saber looked confused by that.
"What's cosplay?" asked Irisviel.
"Costume play or 'cosplay' is a hobby where people dress up as their favorite characters or figures and pretend to be them. It's pretty popular, especially in fairs where people pretend they're back in the middle ages, complete with mock sword battles and everything else," said Rhea cheerfully. She turned to 'Lancer'. "I have to give you kudos though... not many people would use Diarmuid Ua Duibhne as their base, rather than Cu Chulainn. Even if King Arthur is the most famous of the Celtic legends."
Lancer seemed openly amused by something, though she had no idea what. Iskander seemed to have realized her mistake as well and was openly trying to hold his amusement in.
It was that moment Berserker reminded them of his presence, as he roared. He took a nearby pole and threw it at Rhea, who stared at him in shock.
She managed to dodge in time, even if she fell flat on her ass.
"What was that for, you jerk!?" she demanded.
"Lancer...kill the witness."
Lancer looked at her apologetically. Saber turned to Irisviel with a torn expression on her face. Irisviel shook her head sadly.
Rhea had the uncomfortable feeling she had stumbled into an 'invitation-only' battle between different competitors...except this one apparently had a strict policy of leaving no witnesses.
Amusement at the amount of cosplay going on or not, she wasn't about to roll over and die.
The surprised expression on the cosplayer's faces as she dodged Lancer and Berserker's attempts to kill her only seemed to grow the longer she evaded them.
It was a near miss from Lancer that made her get serious.
"KNOCK IT OFF!" she roared in annoyance. And without a second thought, she unleashed her special chains around the two trying to murder her.
Dead silence, as Rhea tried to calm her breathing down. It was broken by a rather surprising source.
"Mongrel...who dared give you permission to use those chains?!" snarled the blond man on the light pole with golden armor. Countless ripples formed behind him, each armed with a sharp implement of instant death.
An odd wave of nostalgia crossed her mind, before she forcibly shook her head.
"I don't see how it's any business of yours, your majesty," she snapped.
A sword launched at her, his eyes looking at her with absolute fury.
That weird feeling of deja vu was getting worse...more to the point the light headache she had was developing into a full blown migraine.
For the first time since meeting her 'father', Enkidu spoke up.
"Perhaps I should try reasoning with him. If this goes on too long his rage will be too difficult for anyone to deal with..."
Rhea didn't think too hard on the matter. In spite of the change she was still dealing with jet lag, among other things.
She conceded control of her body to the spirit she was bonded to thanks to the ritual.
Words could not describe the shock on everyone's face when Gilgamesh launched another sword...only this time instead of evading an expression of calm indulgence appeared on her face as chains blocked it.
"You have not changed a bit, my King," said Enkidu with amusement. "Now allow me to answer in kind."
No one could believe what they were seeing...a mere slip of a girl who had no business in the Grail Wars...was fighting one of the strongest Servants and was actually able to match him blow for blow.
There was no mistaking the expression on Gilgamesh's face though. His rage had turned to delight after a few moments of the odd change.
The girl suddenly turned into a bird, and flew off.
Gilgamesh let out a bark of laughter, before dismissing the others entirely and vanishing himself.
Everyone else...was confused and rather bewildered, with no idea of what the hell just happened. More than a few of them would be nursing migraines (and a subsequent hangover) trying to rationalize what exactly occurred.
Rhea didn't think twice when Gilgamesh appeared in her tent without even asking. She chained him up, much to the amusement of Enkidu.
"It's considered polite to knock," she commented.
Gilgamesh glared at her and she stared impassively back.
"Where is he?"
"If you're referring to Enkidu, he's resting. He lost the ability to manifest physically after what happened."
Seeing Gilgamesh's intense interest Rhea explained while she made some tea.
"My mother was desperate to have a child, and because of my father's limited ability to have any, she decided to do something...reckless. She went into the research department and found a ritual to summon a 'greater spirit', though the paper was too damaged to know what sort of spirit would be called. There was also a small jar of clay that had strong magical properties when tied to earth-based druidic rituals."
"Get to the point, woman."
"I'm getting there. She combined a fertility ritual with the summoning ritual in the hopes of tying the spirit to the unborn child, and becoming a mother. As you can see, it worked...there was, however a slight issue."
"What issue?"
"The summoning ritual she used was a modified version of the spell to summon Servants, and the catalyst she used was apparently the remains of Enkidu, though highly degraded. As such, she had inadvertently tied your friend into my body, along with the soul. He manifested as a Servant long enough to keep me alive when a mass murderer attempted to kill me over a ridiculous self-fulfilling prophecy...but the effort of keeping me alive has worn down his ability to come out as a Servant twice. So as a compromise, he is forced to use my body as his own. In a way I'm both his 'daughter' and his 'reincarnation'," she said calmly. "That fight with you yesterday night wore his reserves out, so he went into a recovery mode. He should be able to appear in a few days, so long as I don't get into any more fights."
Gilgamesh let the new information sink in. In a rather roundabout way, he did have his friend back.
"How many of his abilities can you use?" he asked.
"All of them, however some of them I have never used...such as his ability to borrow from your treasury. When he told me where those weapons came from I decided against ever using it because I would be borrowing without permission," said Rhea immediately.
"Why should that bother you?" said Gilgamesh.
"I'm British. Politeness is bred into us," she said dryly.
"Hmph. I suppose I shall allow you access to my treasures, if only to insure Enkidu does not end up taken out by some mongrel," said Gilgamesh.
Rhea made a rather polite curtsy.
"Thank you, my King," she replied. "If you're hungry I could cook something, and I can have one of the elves I bonded to fetch some of the better wine stocks from the many estates my father's family have lying around. They're not doing any good sitting on shelves taking up space."
Gilgamesh looked appeased at that, and sat down with an arrogant smirk.
"I shall allow you to entertain me, woman."
"My name is Rhea, my King."
Hearing the imperious hoot, Gilgamesh's eyes went to the magnificent white owl that flew inside, only to settle on the chair he was sitting in.
"Hello Hedwig. Have a fun trip?" said Rhea cheerfully.
Hedwig hooted with all the regal manner of a queen, before giving Gilgamesh an intense stare. Rhea was immensely entertained by the stare down between the King of Heroes and the "Queen" of Owls.
The two locked eyes for several long, entertaining moments before Gilgamesh deigned to allow Hedwig onto his shoulder.
Rhea rather wanted to laugh at the sight, because she had always known Hedwig was a true Queen among birds.
She felt a measure of pride when Gilgamesh complimented her cooking. She knew he was rather finicky about the quality of what he ate...and at least someone would get some enjoyment from those wines her ancestors had laid down. She didn't particularly care for them in the least and the stasis charms were starting to wear thin on them.
She wasn't surprised in the least to discover Gilgamesh was now a regular visitor in her tent...it wasn't like Tokiomi had any control over him to begin with.
Saber tensed when she saw Rhea. Irisviel, however, lit up.
"Hello Rhea!"
Rhea beamed at her.
"Hello Iris!" she said cheerfully. "Are you out shopping as well?"
"Irisviel," hissed Saber.
She should have been more worried about herself.
"Say Irisviel...doesn't Saber look rather stuffy in that bodyguard outfit? I mean she is a girl isn't she?" said Rhea.
Irisviel's eyes gleamed the second she caught on to what Rhea wasn't saying.
"You know, I think you're right," said Irisviel.
Saber had a horrible premonition of doom heading her way, and she had no idea why. At the same time, Kiritsugu suddenly developed a massive headache of epic proportions.
A few hours later...
"Irisviel, no!" said Saber mortified.
"Come on Saber, where's the harm?" said Iris, her eyes laughing. She was having far too much fun.
Rhea, on the other hand, was taking pictures...though every so often she had to hand the camera to Iris because she was laughing too hard at Saber's expression. Saber kept giving Irisviel these betrayed looks, even though Iris got a few outfits of her own.
Finally it was time for lunch, and Saber felt horribly violated.
"Never again," said Saber.
Rhea snickered.
"And you! Why did you keep encouraging her!" said Saber to the girl.
"Oh come on Saber, it's pretty clear she's been cooped up her whole life. This is just a fun girl's day out for us...well me and Iris anyway, to enjoy!" said Rhea.
Seeing the curious gleam in Iris' face, Rhea cast a quick and dirty ward that she called the 'cone of silence'.
"There! Now no one will be able to overhear a thing about matters regarding magic," said Rhea.
"You're a witch!" blurted Irisviel with excitement.
"Iris!" scolded Saber. "That's not a nice name to call her."
"Actually it's the proper term for someone with a magical core. Remember how I said there was a small subculture that worshiped Merlin?" said Rhea. Saber nodded. "I was referring to the magical enclaves. Unlike Magi, witches and wizards form villages and coexist rather peacefully compared to the cutthroat nature of the Moonlit World. Or so I've been told. The goblins highly advised avoiding going near them when they found out why I had a Heroic Spirit permanently bonded to my core and sharing head space with me."
Dead silence.
"What?"
"Forgive me for asking this, but I would swear I misheard you. Did you just say that you have a heroic spirit bonded to your body?!" said Saber incredulous.
"Yup. Mum wanted to have a child, but her husband's seed was defective. So she mixed up three rituals and accidentally bonded the soul of a Servant to her future child. Since she was calling on an earth goddess to help her conceive, she was given a daughter."
"How can you accidentally bond a Servant to an unborn child?"
"Long story short, she found a ritual to summon a 'greater spirit' and some magically charged clay that had been used in druidic rituals from lines dating back to roughly the same time of Saber's reign. The clay's properties were heavily degraded, but still powerful. And the scroll with the ritual circle only said that it summoned a 'greater spirit'...there was no mention of it being a modified spell to summon Servants for those with magical cores."
Saber had a headache, but Irisviel was fascinated.
"So which Servant did she summon?" asked Irisviel.
Rhea's eyes glinted with mischief.
"Come on, you mean it wasn't obvious from the way my King reacted when I allowed him to take control over my body for a bit?"
"Your King?" said Saber, intent.
"He will only acknowledge Gilgamesh as his King and friend, despite the fact that Gilgamesh will only ever acknowledge him as worthy to be called his equal. After all, he was never truly human to begin with...and after the awakening I went under to handle his full power, neither am I. So in a way the Grail War's secret is safe...after all, last I checked you were only supposed to kill human witnesses who didn't already know about magic."
Saber relaxed at that. If the girl really did have a Servant bonded to her, then they really didn't need to kill her or erase her memories. If anything she was an odd outside observer who wasn't interested in the prize in the least.
"By the way Saber... this is for you."
Rhea pulled out a bag with the logo from a toy store.
"What's this?"
"Open it!" said Rhea cheerfully.
Irisviel watched with fascination as Saber opened up the gift...to find a lion plushie? Much to amusement and delight, Saber didn't scoff at the slightly childish toy...instead she blushed a little.
"Thank you. But how did you know I liked lions?"
"I saw you looking at it when we went in. Besides, as a former Lion myself, I can see the appeal in the creature."
"Former Lion?" said Irisviel.
"I was in Gryffindor before I had enough of the magical enclaves blatant stupidity. They tried to marry me to my own cousin, for magic's sake!"
"What's wrong with that?" asked Saber. The idea of marrying a cousin that was once removed wasn't too far fetched in her time.
"He had an ego to almost rival Gilgamesh, without the power or ability to back up his words, and kept running to daddy whenever he didn't get his way. Worse, the only reason they wanted me to marry him was because he had chosen to serve a mass murderer who styled himself as a 'dark lord', despite the fact that the idiot had never shown any inclination for wanting to join the opposite side to begin with. I would have been passed around as a communal toy and broken because of that old man's delusions," said Rhea darkly. If she could have, she would have spit in derision. "So I took what I wanted to keep and ran away. And I've never regretted that decision since. Besides, who wants to marry into a family who's name literally means 'bad faith'?"
Saber nodded in agreement to that. If someone had tried to marry her to such a man she would have declined or left as well. Especially if she had known that sort of fate was all that awaited her. Her respect for Rhea went up quite a bit at her sensible attitude.