Myrddin Emyrs was bored. The twelve year old boy had been sealed away such a long time ago that he had lost track of all time. He was pretty sure that his True Magic had even been reduced to magecraft. Really high quality magecraft, but magecraft nonetheless.
Hell, even his entertainment had been taken away about a hundred years after he had been locked away in this cave by that cruel woman. Some strange presence had been added to the world, keeping him from dancing about in the minds of mankind.
'So boooored...' The brown haired boy threw himself off the stone slab he had been lying on in a fit of childishness. The next ten minutes were spent furiously rolling back and forth along the pointed rocks just for the sake of the sensation.
And then he felt it.
A most familiar magical sensation, one that he had actually personally created, crossed his senses.
"THE BOY IS ALIVE! AGAIN!" Myrddin crowed. Leaping to his feet, the young boy swiftly rushed towards the rock wall that had kept him sealed away for that last few centuries. The wall didn't even last ten seconds when the Wizard activated all of his Magic Circuits to trigger his True Magic.
He wasn't going to miss his chance to warmly greet his chewtoy again!
Several scientists across nuclear facilities in the United Kingdom simultaneously went into apopletic fits when they detected their overall levels of energy dramatically dip. At around the same time, an equal amount of geologists in seismic stations across the same country collectively flipped their shit when a mountainside in Wales suddenly was shattered from the inside out.
For Myrddin, this was a Monday.
And half a world away...
A redhaired teenager summoned the King of Knights just as his own life had been about to be ended.
"...I ask of you, are you my Master?" Arturia Pendragon, once again having thrown herself into the Holy Grail War as Servant Saber, gazed upon the redhaired man lying on his rear. He simply stared at her as if enraptured by her mere presence with bright sherry eyes.
Something deep within her stirred as her emerald eyes met his.
"You're...really a knight? From the twelth century?" Shirou Emiya blurted, having somehow worked out of his state of wonder to just simply stare at the young girl in shock. How had such a slip of a girl blown away the monster that had hunted him down to his tool shed?
Saber thought the question was oddly specific, but her instincts - honed from a lifetime of battle – blared that a deadly enemy was approaching. Trusting in the faint connection she felt between herself and the teenager, Saber turned her back on the man and threw herself outside to do battle with her new foe.
'Hoo? What's this then?' Lancer, a blue haired man dressed in a skin tight bodysuit with striking red eyes, thought as he eyed the blur that shot out of the tool shed. The streak of blue and silver took on the appearance of a green eyed blonde in an armored dress. 'Saber?'
He remembered the speed she had used against him. Without another word, he threw himself at her with all of his speed.
Saber answered Lancer's charge by summoning Excalibur to her side. The blade appeared in her hands in an concealing burst of wind as it hide the weapon's identity from her enemy.
'Good to see I'll finally get a good fight out of this!' Lancer grinned once his crimson spear smashed into the Saber's weapon.
The moonlight vanished above as their weapons clashed. With each pass, more and more sparks of light were born. The metal of the weapons rang loud and clear in the night with the intense force the girl and man were bringing to bear against one another.
Lancer's excitement grew even higher as he found himself genuinely driven back by the petite girl.
Shirou gazed upon the battle in shock. The tide visibly turned on the blue haired monster that had been intending to kill him as both of the figures danced across his yard before him. No matter what strength the spear wielder brought to bear, the petite blonde was a step ahead of him as she parried his strikes.
"Guh!" Lancer grunted as Saber smashed her invisible weapon into his spear. Each of her strikes unleasehd a terrible amount of magical energy in their wake, tangible and deadly, as she brought all of her strength to bear against him.
With each of the blows, Lancer grew more and more furious with Saber.
"Coward!" The blue haired man finally had enough. Lancer flung himself backwards, hoping he had managed to move out of Saber's range with his retreat. "What are you trying to do by hiding your weapon!" Lancer shouted at Saber, face red from his anger.
Saber merely kept a cool expression on her face and charged at Lancer again.
The uncertainy of the range of Saber's weapon kept Lancer from accurately measuring the swordswoman's attacks.
In order to even keep pace with Saber, Lancer focused intently on his spear work. His striking speed went up in direct proportion to the amount his foot speed decreased as he met Saber head on.
For a while, Shirou almost thought that was it. The defensive position that the blue haired man had taken up was getting beaten down ruthlessly by a storm of blows unleashed by Saber.
Saber wound up for a final strike – full of might and killing intent as she swung.
'...gotcha!' Lancer thought, having weathered the attacks to get a feel for the general proportions of Saber's weapon.
"Don't underestimate me!" Lancer took advantage of the opening presented by Saber. His figure simply vanished before her eyes as he used all of his speed to to dodge.
The air cracked as wind rushed in to fill in the void where he had been standing.
Saber staggered, but completed her blow as she sunk her invisible sword into the ground. The earth erupted around her with the strength of her attack. Several smaller pieces of debris were sent fluttering about her body and blocking her vision briefly.
Shirou saw his would be killer gracefully land several meters away from Saber. Lancer had a wolfish grin on his feet as he instantly reversed direction and bounded towards the blonde with his crimson spear raised for a death blow as he gave it his all.
'Saber...!' A warning bubbled up to Shirou's mouth, but it died in his throat as Saber instantly turned her entire body into a brutal motion as she swung her weapon to try and bissect Lancer.
'Crap!' Lancer's eyes widened as he tried to dodge.
A metallic screech echoed throughout the yard as the blue haired man somehow managed to raise his weapon in time. Both of the killing blows were canceled as Lancer was merely blown away from Saber.
'Damn, I missed.' Both warriors thought simultaneously, wishing they had managed to land that killing blow.
Lancer gently landed on his feet after being driven back. Saber merely raised her sword. The dirt clinging to its invisible surface flicked off in chunks.
"What's wrong, Lancer? It would not do your name credit if you just stand there. If you will not come, I can." Saber stared at the blue haired man. He silently returned her stare as he steadied himself into an attack stance.
Unlike the sharp, hungry smile he had been wearing all fight, Lancer's expression was now stony.
"You're going to come and die? I don't mind, but let me ask you this first: Your Noble Phantasm is a sword, right?" Lancer asked with a pointed glare, trying to accomplish the distasteful goal his false Master had been sending him around to accomplish.
"Who knows?" A hint of an arrogant smirk, learned from seeing it be used too much on her, crossed Saber's face. "It might be a battle axe or it might be a spear." Her emerald eyes glitter a bit. "It might even be a bow, Lancer."
'What a mouth on that lass.' Lancer's own stony expression faded away to a haughty grin.
"Keep talking, Saber." Lancer replied as he pointed the tip of his spear down towards the ground. His red eyes shone to match Saber's own.
'What is he doing?' Saber wondered.
Shirou, having experienced an attack after Lancer took that stance, recognized the threat of it more than anyone else. "Sa-!" His throat clamped shut as a quick flicker of Lancer's eyes in his direction and an intense burst of killing intent swept past Shirou.
"I have to ask since this is our first meeting...do you want to call it even?"
Saber was so stunned she could only gaze at him in surprise.
"...your Master is having a bit of a senile moment, I see." Lancer smirked over at Shirou, who was visibly glaring at him. "Mine is a coward. I think it'd be in both of our best interests to hold off until we're prepared." Lancer hopefully offered. If he could end it here, his geas from the Command Spell would break and he'd be able to give it his all against the petite knight before him.
A silver star appeared high in the sky.
Unfortunately, Lancer could already see the anger bubbling behind Saber's emerald eyes.
'Damn. Another one thinks I'm a coward.' Lancer thought, feeling a pang in his heart and fire in his belly from the actions that Kotomine were causing him to go through.
"I refuse. You will fall here, Lancer." Saber growled, feeling offended at the mere thought of backing away from a duel.
"I see." Lancer sighed, but quickly put on a disinterested airs. "Geez, all I wanted to do was check things out, you know? I didn't want to stay long once a Servant came out." So wrapping himself in the little bit of pride he had left after yet another failure – Lancer went ahead and lowered his stance. The air warped as magical power was swiftly drawn to his spear, Gae Bolg.
The air chilled with the removal of magical energy, which swirled around Lancer's spear like a whirlpool.
Saber readied herself, glaring at her opponent as she prepared herself for the Noble Phantasm that Lancer was about to bring to bear.
"...See ya. I'll take that heart of yours!" Lancer shouted as he jumped at Saber.
Only Shirou had enough time, seperate from the fight as he was, to gaze up as a new light source joined the moon in illuminating his backyard. His sherry eyes goggled as a silver streak of light, bleeding off more magical energy than a thousand of him could use in a year, came down in a collision course for the two warriors.
The back of his left hand furiously itched as he gazed up at the descending comet. Shirou's next words erupted out of his mouth on a level just beneath his consciousness. "Soul Resonance!" One of the three Command Spells, burned onto the skin of his hand, was consumed as a brilliant flash of golden light erupted from the depths of his soul.
A blast of crimson flames erupted out of Saber, shocking the knight out of her defensive stance as she stumbled backwards as Lancer thrusted his spear towards the ground. Words began to form on his lips, but he was interrupted as a smaller sphere of golden land slammed into Saber's back from behind, forming gold and silver wings of light.
Which allowed her to dodge just as the silver streak came crashing down onto the complex like the fist of god.
Rin Tohsaka gaped as she and her Archer, a particularly smug dark skinned man with white hair, arrived at the glassed out, cratered remains of the Emiya home. Rin simply collapsed on her knees, eyes empty as she stared at the remains of the home of...
Sakura's crush?
A decent guy at school?
Maybe, but...
He was...he was her...
"Wow. The Hound of Ulster just didn't take any chances this time, did he?" Archer's words were the straw that broke Rin's back.
"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" Rin screeched at Archer, sick and tired of his attitude at this moment. "Someone's dead because of us!" She knew that she was being ridiculous from the moment that Archer's gray eyes turned on her.
"Yes, and that's because he witnessed the battles, Master." Archer casually replied. "I'm sorry, but that's just the way it goes..."
But she just didn't give a damn.
Rin's vision briefly began to turn red at the edges as she desperately tried from making another stupid mistake. She wouldn't waste another Command Spell, despite the ever growing urge to order Archer to go and throw himself off a bridge.
Archer, knowing better than to say anything more, merely wondered what had happened in this incarnation of the Grail War. As far as his records had told him, Cu Chulainn had never actually needed to use his thrown version of Gae Bolg here...
The white haired man walked away from the quietly mourning Rin to poke around the glassed out remains of his home. A brief stab of remorse flittered across his mind as he considered just how overwhelmingly overpowered his past self must have been. He wondered if he had even been able to register his own death before it hit him?
Archer sighed, and in that moment, he spotted a collection of rocks and debris towards where the shed used to be. Curious, he made his way over towards the pile and reached for it. However, at the last moment he felt doom descend upon him.
"Incubus Chop!"
And with that, Archer was lost as a small boy erupted from beneath the bundle of debris and smashed the Heroic Spirit in the head with a glowing knife hand strike. When Archer collapsed to the ground unconscious, the boy proudly crossed his arms in front of his chest and nodded to himself.
Behind him, sheathed in a protective dome of energy shaped like a pair of white wings, rested Saber. In her hands, a shining blade with a golden pommel rested. The copy that had been granted to her by the Holy Grail War had been banished away in the presence of the original sword.
"Now, then...what to do with you?" Myrddin wondered, stroking his smooth chin as he gazed at the unconscious man at his feet.
…
Rin Tohsaka eventually came out of her daze to the sight of a beautiful blonde haired woman with bright green eyes. The woman, resplendid in a blue and white dress, was kneeling in front of Rin. Despite herself, Rin instantly felt infatuation for the other woman.
The blonde said something.
"Wha...?" Rin mumbled, confused and trying her best to fight down a blush.
"I said: Are you Rin Tohsaka?" The woman repeated. Her expression looked a bit annoyed.
"Y-yes?"
"Ah, good. My Master, Shirou Emiya, wants me to protect you." The woman helped Rin to her feet. "Until we can reverse what happened to him."
Behind the blonde, Rin could see a small boy in filthy rags playing with a paired set of black and white swords with a yin yang pattern.
"Wait...Shirou?" Rin screamed as she took the blonde's hands in her own. The blonde looked vaguely uncomfortable with the attention, but she nodded.
"Yes...uhm..." The woman paused for time. "You see, my name is Saber and well... my mentor enchanted a sword of mine a long time ago to prevent it from being shattered, and..."
Saber uneasily glanced back to the yard. Rin followed her gaze as well to see a twelve year old boy in dirty rags was weaving a set of swords. One was pitch black and about half his size with red vein like markings and the other one was pure white with a golden pommel.
"Itsortofgotsentient." Saber mumbled quickly.
"What..."
"It become sentient. And annoying. It somehow wound up inside your friend, so for the time being..."
"He is the bone of her sword!" The boy cheered, holding up the white sword happily.
Saber winced. "Must you put it that way?"
Rin blinked.
Blinked again.
"What."
Saber sheepishly toed at the ground. "It shouldn't take long to fix him..."
"I'm already investigating how to fix him back!" The boy announced happily.
"YOU LIAR! YOU WERE JUST PLAYING A PRANK ON THAT INNOCENT MAN!" Saber turned and roared at the boy, who yelped and laughed as he raced to the other side of the glassed yard.
"I never realized how much I missed you until now, Arthur!"
"Who's...?" Rin's mind caught onto the prank line. "Wait, where's Archer?" She glanced around the yard.
"Uhm...Myrddin may have broken your Servant too." A beat. "My most sincere apologies."
'Check please.' Rin woozily swayed on her feet.
"Ah...! Rin! Don't pass out no-...w." Saber sighed as she caught the dark haired girl as she swooned. Moments later, the white sword had managed to pry itself out of Myrddin's hand and floated over towards Saber.
It lightly patted her shoulder with its pommel.
"...thank you, Master." Saber sniffled. Why didn't that damn sword stay lost at the end of the last Grail War?
A/N: This story is named "I Am The Bone Of My Legend'. It's a goofy title for a goofy idea. Kiritsugu and Irisviel used Soul Eater's Excalibur as the item to summon Arturia back in the Fourth Holy Grail War. Amongst its hax powers, it grants healing in this idea (combining Avalon and Excalibur). So it goes into Shirou, who can turn sword for Arturia. I wanted to use my Myrddin idea here again, so he shows up as the one who kicks off all the weirdness with his magic.
I should have done this as Tsukihime instead...