I was about to knock-out some guards when I heard them.
-"…this stuff detects magic?"
-"That's what the boss said, and blood too!"
Inching a bit out of cover, I saw a glimpse of a complex runic array.
Damn, there goes out my tracing.
-"What about blood? Everyone got blood inside."
-"Don't be stupid, the boss made this himself. If so much a drop touches the ground, it will sound the alarm."
Damn, damnity damn and root be damned!
Retracing my steps, someone bumped onto me. Her sky-blue eyes made me remember Fiia's and..
-"Beloved?"
I scratched the nape of my neck.
-"This is awkward. I was going to go inside and get you out. The guards sad you were taken hostage."
At this she bristled like a cat.
-"Those backstabbing no-good mercs will rue the day they double-cromhmmom omp!"
"What was that?"
"Huh?"
Fiia's muffled trashing went unheard while I body hauled her back to cover.
"You escaped only to get caught? Rookie mistake. I expected better from you."
She blushed from toes to hair.
-"Babb-baka. And what are you doing here?"
She stepped closer, Personal-Space wasn't in Fiia's Speak.
"Heard I was taken captive and came in time to avoid some ruffian taking liberties with me, my beloved?"
Dodging amorous hands was getting difficult without attracting undue attention, so I took the initiative and whispered in her ear.
-"Marry me."
Fiia . Exe stopped working.
Reinitializing.
Nope….still crashing.
I knew I would get flack later on, but couldn't resist. Taking a bite on the top of her ear shook her out of her stupor in a hurry. When a torrent of blood that ejected from her nostrils, I knew I fucked up.
BLEEEERRRGHH! BLEEEEERG! BLEEEEERG!
INTRUDERS! ALARM ALARM!
Taking that as a cue to get out of dodge, I took hold of her and booked it. Taking a knife to shank some guards we made a mad dash over a balcony, landing heavy behind the gate.
-"Beloved wait!"
She pointed to a guard with a broken nose and untied shoelaces. I'm pretty sure I gave myself a facepalm-induced concussion.
-"All stations stand down! False alarm! Dimitry fucked again…"
-"Fuck Dimitry!"
-"Return to your stations and make sure the hostage is nice and tight."
A hand took me by the belt and hoisted me closer.
-"Beloved-"
I whispered as hard as I dared while scanning the doors around us.
-"A YES would be enough, no need to consummate it here and now!"
Batting her hands away, I started making way towards the fence which I previously cut. Again, my companion saw fit to get a hold of my belt.
-"Beloved, wait! I need to fetch something!"
Making use of my full height, I stared her down.
-"We are getting out now! There isn't anything irreplaceable there, I can get you guns, now let's move."
Impulsive Fiia worried her lip. THAT spelled Trouble with E of Explosions. She wobbled in place, the ecchi-bloodloss was getting to her.
-"They harvested my mana…they.."
Taking time to give her a proper pat down, I found scars on her arms, neck…
-"They removed your circuits?"
A testament of her resolve, she meet my gaze and held it, even as her hands started to shiver.
-"I understand if you …want to call it off…now that I am useless….broken"
A raging fury blossomed in my breast, Tizona screaming against the injustice. It took all my willpower to held her at bay, for right now she didn't need an incantation, barely an excuse to dispense her brand of Justice.
Tizona was the ideal of a hero, a crystalized mystery. Her power stemmed from HIS legend, a man who was Brave, who was Loyal. And above all, his legend was about a man who strived to be Just. That same legend now screamed at my soul, demanding to be unleashed.
-"Where. Are.YOUR. CIRCUITS?"
Her eyes blazed with harsh blue, tempered steel meeting my own.
-"By right of conquest, if you find them, you can keep …you can keep my circuits. But keep them, burn them, I don't care! Just don't let THEM have it!"
The searing flame of a traced noble phantasm scorched the air.
BLEEEERRRGHH! BLEEEEERG! BLEEEEERG!
INTRUDERS! ALARM ALARM!
The gate guard's radio cracked to life
-"Again Dimitry?"
-"Kill the bastard!"
I stepped over their charred bodies, and fetched the radio. Turning around, I faced a gaping Fiia, her jaw undone, eyes trying to negate the existence of a noble phantasm in front of her.
-"How? I, Luvia, I, we, but how?"
I handed one radio to Fiia while she reluctantly tore her eyes from the impossibility and inspected the guns. The looting yields a well-cared for Scar H with holo-sight and plenty of ammo.
-"WHERE?"
I couldn't help it, the mystery was channelling its fury across my existence, I was a vessel for its wrath.
-"The white tower, the alchemy lab was there."
A beacon lighted on the destination, tugging at my chest. This time, unlike when Rin's was taken, I didn't fight it. Letting the strange forge guide me, I opened a path, gunning straight to the lift.
BLEEEERRRGHH! BLEEEEERG! BLEEEEERG!
INTRUDERS! ALARM ALARM!
A gaggle of disgruntled mercs exited the lift when we closed in. Fiia's wavering aim only taking 5 of the 7, but that suited me just fine, for I wasn't in the driving seat anymore and Tizona needed to vent her frustrations.
Choppity Chop, Goon1 and Goon2 are gone.
Punching the panel for the top, I saw my companion struggling to reload, her hands wrecked in tremors. Twice she missed the magazine release, which for someone with her training was preposterous.
-"Evvven without magic, I will be useful to you, beloved. This I promise."
The sheer bravery radiating from her words, mixed with fear and being greater for it, stoked the inferno raging in my chest. For bravery wasn't the lack of fear but the mastery of it. In a moment of madness, I traced another Tizona, this time willingly.
Usually, her sheer presence would make it almost impossible for another copy to materialize, but the resonance with her history begged to be birthed here and now.
It felt weird. It felt powerful. It felt right.
Fiia's eyes shone with hope, her glottis dry swallowing nonstop.
-"Be be beblll…HolyRooo…How…"
I took her right hand and placed the copy on it. The effect was instant.
Gone was the slouch and the heavy breathing, instead Fiia now radiated the aura of a woman on a mission.
The ding heralded our arrival, the doors opening to a reception of gunfire.
I dashed in, batting leaded flys aside with an ease that scared even me. Fiia was hipfiring and each trigger pull was dead on.
One guy with a blue towel on its head started making sigils and a shield manifested around his location. In quick strides, I darted forward and the spiritual weight of a noble phantasm shattered his shield and his mind.
Fiia's shots now found purchase on the ex-shielded guys, rendering the whole room silent with her loud weapon.
-"There! He took them!"
I spotted an enterprising fella rappelling down the window and jumped down. Never say that cardio isn't important!
The rope was chaffing against the wall, poor guys sweating bullets while he rappelled one handed, the other around a wooden case full of golden runes.
-"GET AWAY! LEAVE ME ALOOONEEE"
Stabbing the blade on the wall, I, nay, WE descended to a halt, for again, Tizona got a vote on this whole shebang.
-"GIVE."
Haven't I already said it was creepy? In case I didn't, for the record, it was creepy.
He jumped away, the rope giving way with the friction, unravelling even more with the sudden jerk.
-"If I give it to you, do you promise not to kill me?"
I eyed the box and gave a solemn nod, parallel to the wall. He chucked the box my way, eyes wide and dripping gallons of sweat, the drops taking a long fall fifty stories down.
-"FIIIIAAAA"
A quick slash and the rope came undone, the bugger's eyes widening comically as he stared up to Fiia's toothy sneer.
Going up took some parkour, a lesson that Uncle took pains to teach me. Pains, real pains with no meds. Well, he taught me and I got the pain, but you get the idea.
Arriving at the top, Fiia's laboured breaths came to a halt when I climbed over the balcony. Her traced copy of the legendary blade dispelled in motes of mana, and she crumpled. From the floor, she eyed the box which contained her flesh and spiritual organs, dry-mouthed and open-eyed.
-"By rights, it's-it's yours, Bel..no, Emiya. By right of conquest, it's yours, Emiya."
She lowered her head and offered me her rifle.
-"Broken as I am, I know I am worthless, but I beg of you, let me fight by your side I wil- ekkkk!"
The box blindsided her and let off an OFF of air.
Tizona's wrath subsided with amusement, letting me use my own voice.
-"I only returned what was rightfully yours, Fiia, nothing more."
-"Wotan's beard, I do."
I blinked a couple of times, still coming down from the justice-high.
-"Come again?"
She took my hand, and spoke with finality.
-"My answer is Yes, I will marry you, my beloved."
That didn't go according to plan, but in the end….it kinda sorta worked, right?
When we reunited with Rin and Sella at the hotel, my wife opened the door and saw me with Fiia in my arms.
-"I can explain, I swear!"
Rin took in the scene and pinched the bridge of her nose.
-"I'm going to get grey hairs, I can feel it."
We entered the room proper and I described the situation with –
-"Wait! Did you pick a sample of the runic array?"
I scratched my nose.
-"No, why?"
-"Why? WHY? He has the gall to ask WHY WOULD YOU COPY THE RESEARCH-"
She took in deep breaths and repeated her mantra.
-"Rin is caaaaalm…Rin is caaaaaaaaalm."
Sella, tending to the unconscious Fiia, stopped for a second, then twirled her fingers around their head while giving me a cross-eyed look. I dared not to laugh with my bruised ribs.
-"Now, after you went barreling on their stronghold like a bull in a china shop, besides recovering her circuits, that I must repeat, you should have made her make a contract for them when you had the upper hand, did you find anything else?"
-"Before I couldn't summon a second Tizona, but now I can. I gave one to Fiia, that strentMUmHh MSHMMMm"
AIR!
Rin's lips smacked a deafening pop, her rosy cheeks contrasting against her jade eyes.
-"You. Can. Give. Away. Noble. Phantasms."
Her claws dug in my clothes, pressing her forehead against mine. The maniacal glee exuding from her frame was scaring me something fierce.
-"My trained monkey needs to see more tricks, then I can, I mean, we, yes WE, then WE can achieve greatness unlike the…."
I lost track of her grand plans for world domination or some such. While lil Ms. Cackle was chattering away, I looked over while Sella, homunculi-nurse-maid extraordinaire, restored Fiia's circuits. Their knowledge of bodies was second to none and the prognosis was good.
Taking the rifle I was going to propose with, I started thinking WHY they would need to remove her circuits. I mean….there are many uses for a compelled magus, a Geas and you got a nice tool. Taking a napkin to clean away Rin's drool, I continued poking at the problem.
-"Rin, which rituals demand the circuits of a twin?"
She spluttered to a halt.
-"This is basic Spellcraft! Any apprentice knows it! I refuse to readdress what passes for elemental education when y-"
I traced a Sweddish SemiAuto with brace and she cradled it to her bosom, not unlike a newborn babe. Turns out I created a gun nut.
-"Please, for me?"
She caressed the frame, the smooth finish, while hiding her blush.
-"Mmmmm. Maybe I could be encouraged to share my vast knowledge of the Arcane."
A traced leather holster later.
-"…then you have the Strengthening rituals, weakening the younger to add to the older." She idly played with the holster strap in front of a mirror.
"And a crude form of teleportation. Renowned for it is uselessness, only mentioned in academic trivia since it kills the donor."
Common knowledge holds that Gradation Air is useless.
-"Sly bastards, gotta love their arrogance."
It all made sense, disgusting amounts of sense. The knuckles in my hand popped left and right, and Mr Ibrahim was quickly making leaps and bounds on my ToKillList.
Rin's tiny hands covered my calloused paw.
-"It's not uncommon for magi to take part of the second twin in order to boost the heir. While I disagree with that practice, it's an open secret on the Clocktower that illness often befalls the younger."
I patted her head and wondered at her naiveté.
-"Think. If you are a megalomaniac going after a relic that has been guarded for millennia by, and I'm going on a limb here, a super awesome weird barrier, why would you stop at killing your in-laws to get past it?"
A truckload of bricks crashed unto her at once.
-"That's why Reinard was courting me. Saku, no, Sakuu, not my imouto…."
The game was on, and this time, it was personal.
