Swift Disclaimer: I do not own any parts of the Fate or Inuyasha franchises. This is purely for entertainment purposes; no profit is to be made as a result of this fiction.

Comments: I got it in my head to basically combine/reinvent a couple fictions I had involving my favorite fate character (Gilgamesh is the best king/hero) and favorite fan fiction hoe (Kagome is super easy to adjust to other worlds and is a good character in general imo) There will be parts of both that are taken from other fics. If you dislike that – you were already warned. There will eventually be some citrus, I will try to make note of it at the beginnings of chapters where it happens. It's rated M for that reason.

Hallowed Promise Chapter One: Bring Me to Life

"Without a soul, my spirit sleeping somewhere cold. Until you find it there and lead it back…home."

-Evanescence, Bring Me to Life Lyrics

Limbo.

Extinction, pure nothingness, undiluted emptiness…

The void within the black sludge of the grail was the abyss. The torment, curses, or tears would have been preferred to the purgatory of naught. It took the grail time, but eventually it found the best method by which to torment me. Nightmarish images, hellish agony meant little when compared to the vacuum of oblivion. The best method by which to torture me wasn't pain. It was to eclipse my soul, to forfeit my mind. It was the complete disregard of all things. Amnesia, not just of the world, but of myself. Nothing could glimmer if it lacked even a pinprick of light. Exhaustive unawareness ravaged my spirit until even gold began to rust.

The Sixth Holy Grail War –

The chill evening breeze made a poor neighbor to the trees, knocking inhabitants of the branches into the air where they settled on grass or pavement. Trampled over by the rushed footsteps of a figure darting glances along the vacant, shadowed street. A large canvas wrapped bundle was nestled into the crook of an arm as the figure slipped up to the door. The knocker rattled as it was pounded, shattering the quiet night. A muted cry of admittance from beyond came just before the door slammed shut followed by the click of a lock. Then silence enveloped the street again.

Inside the figure lingered in the entryway, glancing back out the glass to the side of the frame as if to assure the returned peace outside. Free hand pulled off a hat then straightened ginger hair, foot tapping lightly on the hardwood floor. A door opened nearby, streaming ribbons of light into the hall around a silhouette that hurriedly approached.

"Finally…" They both said at once. One a delighted exclamation, the other a disquieted murmur.

"Did you retrieve what I asked?" The silhouette spoke, a young woman slowly coming into focus as eyes adjusted to the new illumination level.

"Yes, this is what was you asked for." The figure handed the bundle over gingerly, pieces of dirt caked in the crevasses of the fabric raining to the hardwood floor. The thief wiping hands on their pants once they'd let go. "The owners hadn't noticed when I was there, but they probably will soon. It wasn't easy to get. I don't think I was followed, but I'd like to take my leave."

"Payment is in the mailbox outside." A wave over a shoulder as girl turned around. Carrying the bundle back toward the door she'd entered from. "Lock the door on your way out."

"Don't have to tell me twice." The figure slipped back out the door, eyes alert as their feet crinkled over the freshly fallen leaves, happy to stop only long enough to grab an envelope before taking hurried steps away from the home.

Basement of the Tohsaka Household –

Slow breathing. Fill the lungs deeply and then let the air back out. Repeat.

Keeping myself calm and steady was a large part of what I was about to do. If I wasn't careful, this could go exceptionally wrong. I opened my eyes to look at the room around me. The basement was glittering, gold, jewels, expensive pieces of art or technology were haphazardly piled into the middle of a large circle accented with arcane writing. Only one small area near the center where I would stand for the spell and place my catalyst remained free of the expensive paraphernalia. The circle itself had come with the estate, but the gold dust that had been settled into the grooves to essentially 'draw' the mystical icons had blown through most of the allowance I'd been given regarding the family inheritance money for the month.

Tohsaka. The name still felt foreign. I barely knew it, but I appreciated being connected to it. It had afforded me the chance to participate in a grail war. A chance to travel through the well again, to get back to my friends. It was the only drive I had left once I'd lost my family in the accident. If this shot at a wish was the only thing my father ever gave me, then I'd do everything possible to get it. Even if it meant cheating, stealing, or killing. What good had it done me to always do the right thing? What sort of karmic justice had ever come from my fighting against the darkness?

Walking to the center area I took the bundle with me. I carefully unwrapped the thick cloth the bandit I'd hired had brought to me, ignoring the patches of dirt still coming off the outside. It was what was within that interested me; I had to admit a morbid curiosity at the ivory colored bones and dust. I'd known what to expect, old journals of my half-sister had detailed out a lot involving the last grail war. That her friends had taken the removed right arm of the powerful Archer servant that had nearly destroyed the world. This was a risk, that I knew too. Yet, if I wanted the strongest servant then I had to use extreme measures. The former participants of the war that had owned these remains were sure to panic the moment they realized someone had dug into their garden, but by then it would be too late. I only had a few more minutes before I'd start the spell.

I glanced over the words again, reading it to myself as I practiced the movements. I'd gone through this countless times; I didn't really need the guide anymore. I hadn't been a magus long, but I'd been a priestess for many years. Calling on the power wasn't the problem, I had plenty of that. Using the spells of magi took more concentration than my priestess abilities. I needed though to remain focused, which I wasn't always good at.

The room glittered, sparks of yellow reflecting from the trove of treasures I'd gathered. I wanted to leave nothing to chance, the likelihood of my success wasn't exactly high. After all, I was trying to summon a servant that was reported as destroyed by the grail itself during the events of the last war. Yet, I possessed his bones and that was an impressive catalyst by which to connect us. I bit my lip as I looked at the splintered remains and then shook my head to clear misgivings. It was too late to back out now, if I didn't summon a servant soon my seals would pass to someone else and the opportunity to return to my friends would disappear with them.

The records I'd studied stated that this servant did not take well to orders and I knew that meant dealing with them was dangerous. What was it all the reality television shows said? The bigger the risk the bigger the reward. I was aware of all the warnings, of the alarm bells ringing in the back of my mind, but there were facts that made the hazards worthwhile. He'd won, he'd won the fourth war, by Rin's description he should have won the fifth. The journal spoke as though it was luck alone that had kept him from success. That's the power I needed to get to the only people left I still loved.

My phone dinged in my pocket, time to begin.

Planting my feet slightly out so I'd move less I threw my right arm, hand open toward the sky, calling up the power within me. I knew I was strong enough, that I had enough personal mana to accomplish the summoning of an amazing Servant. The energy curled along the surface of my skin, crackling where my hair lifted from an unnatural wind. Will and focus allowed me to alter the flow of mana into the circle. The active mana fading into view as it curled into the lines and archaic runes, illuminating the room in a pale jade light. Flowing as liquid it slowly ebbed into the whole of the summoning area, then continuing to shift greedily over the gems, gold, and other treasures.

The void shook, a fissure appeared…

"Heed my words! My will creates your body, and your sword creates my destiny!" I spoke clearly, raising my voice as the breeze around me continued to curl through my hair. Papers rustled on the desk nearby and my small sheet detailing the ritual fluttered out of view. Several candles blew out but the illumination from the circle altered to a fiery orange as I continued the incantation. "If you heed the Grail's call. Obey my will and reason, answer me!"

Emptiness shattered from nothing more than a single distant glimmer. That mote of light infinitely greater than the emptiness around it spiderwebbed across the gloom. A broken mirror of golden rays shimmering some unperceivable distance away. Flourishing as it raced closer and surrounded me, the blinding illumination swelling into a sphere of heat and pain.

The glow was becoming more refined, the red ebbing away into a bright amber that centered on the bones in front of me. That had to be a good sign, though I couldn't get distracted with premature congratulations or the spell would fail. "Thou, the seven days clad in the Great Trinity…"

The words were obscure, simultaneously close quarters and out of reach. The smallest noise a din to shatter the chains of silence. Snapping back into reality was blinding, deafening, agonizing…yet what was there to do after countless years of isolation but embrace the suffering? I grasped the only moment that stood as any sort of definition in the void.

The ground cracked beneath the pressure of mana I poured into the spell. It didn't break the circle, so I continued, needing to yell over the din of wind that was curling through the basement tossing items away from the center or lifting them into the air. "…come forth from the circle of binding. King of Heroes!"

King?

Steam poured from the center of the circle. I was forced to cover my face to keep the hot air away, coughing and unsure if I'd succeeded as I squinted toward the bones. The earth shook again, and I still felt a drain on my mana from the casting. Then fingers grabbed my leg, in the mist it was difficult to make out everything, but I saw a white-knuckle just before a glimmer of auric dust and flesh covered it.

The cloth was harsh beneath my fingers, but it was real, -I am real-. My muscles ached, sending lines of electrical protest along my nerves. Yet, even if it had been a bed of thorns, I'd have still used it to crawl out of hell.

A second hand formed on my shirt, dragging my body downward to face narrowed crimson eyes.

Fractured memories slid through my mind as I used this girl as a grip by which to cling to the world. To drag myself away from the void. I had been gone, had lost myself, but was not forgotten. The terror in those blue eyes was also recognition.

This wasn't how a summoning was supposed to take place, my body and spirit both were strained from the energy still whipping around us, winds beginning to clear away the steam. I understood almost nothing of what was happening, or even if something had gone wrong but I knew absolutely whom I faced. I murmured his name as much in awe as in fear. "Gilgamesh…"

The whispered reverence of my name was all it took. I wasn't just a random ruler with a title somewhere in history. I am -the- King. No average ghost, I am the King of Heroes. The greatest of heroic spirits. My form was remade by this girl's call and heed it I would. Mongrel or not, I owed her a debt. Now I need only seal our contract, to escape the grail's nihility I still needed more power. I reached up to grab her behind the neck, bringing our lips together.

He was warm, warmer than I expected considering the last thing I'd predicted was for him to kiss me. My entire body felt as if it was being burned and I shoved him back before he could continue. That hurt! How was he able to just rip open my magical circuits like that?! My entire body tingled from the experience, as if the whole of me was about to go numb.

I could only stare wide-eyed at the golden-haired man laughing on my basement floor, surrounded by the mess of treasures I'd gathered for this purpose. Somehow, even off his feet there was a magnetic grandeur of the celestial being I'd called forth. Even in his mirth he held an innate majesty that captured my tongue…held hostage my resolve. My knees gave way, offering accidental genuflection to the spirit that had appeared.

I'd done it, I'd summoned the King of Heroes…

End Chapter

Whee, well that was fun to revisit and revamp. 3 Gilgamesh. Poor Kagome.

-Aura