Disclaimer: I do not own Fate/ Stay Night or any of its characters...
A/N. The Dark Saber portrayed here will not be the cold executioner from the Heaven's Feel arc of the series. I'll try staying more true to her character in her second route. Also take note that the routes are not continuations of each other. EDIT: Minor alteration to the opening due to a major error on my part. You have my thanks, Radriel.
Fate/ Stay Night: Alternate Routes
Scenario Two: SABER ALTER
By Traingham
Arturia Pendragon. King Arthur. The emotionless king. The tragic heroine.
You know the stories, don't you? King Arthur and the round table of knights, the legendary sword Excalibur, and the wars that were fought by the great king? The tales that are found in books today are quite romantic. They speak of glory and the peace that the country luxuriated within under his rule, but most of all they speak of the sword that started it all: Caliburn, the sword that stole away everything from a young knight by the name of Arturia Pendragon. There is always more than one side to every story and while we were given the romance, we were spared the reality, for you see, to rule over a country you must not be human. That is to say that you must not embrace the weakness of emotions because they set limitations and laws that all humans abide by. To rule you must not love, you must not fret, you must not dream, and you cannot cry. Arturia was warned about the rule before she stepped up to pull the sword, but she did so anyway. She did so for the sake of her people, because she had more love for them than she did for herself, and so King Arthur was a great ruler. What more did the country need from their King? She sacrificed all she had to them; her body, her heart, and her soul, but that was not enough. They wanted what little was left beyond the mask. They wanted her to give it all and when she refused them, they betrayed her. They were oblivious to the laws that she was bound to as ruler and turned their backs on her, 'The Emotionless King'.
Saber's memories were a plague to me, more often than not, during my first few days together with her as her master, and even now despite the time she has spent as a part of my new family. It saddens me every time I am forced to watch that beautiful girl hunched over her sword on that bloody hill. For all of her efforts to bring joy to her people, she was left to face her death alone, and even now when I see her from afar I feel angry because no matter how hard I try to make her wounds disappear, history is written in stone.
That tragic knight will always be...alone...
"Emiya."
A vein bulged on Taiga's forehead.
"Yes, Rider?"
"Your omelet was delicious."
"...Thanks... I think."
"Here...cut me a portion of yours."
A vein bulged on Illya's forehead.
"Rider, get your chopsticks away from me! You already finished yours!"
"But I want some of yours."
"I cooked them all the same, okay? What difference will it be for you to have some of mine?"
"The fact that its yours."
A vein bulged on Tohsaka's forehead.
"You're becoming even worse than Fuji-nee. Wait until lunch comes around if you're so hungry."
"I detest waiting for things. Give me a slice of your omelet now."
A vein bulged on Sakura's forehead.
"Rider...g-get back...hey, I'm serious."
"Just a piece, Emiya...that...is all I desire."
"But I've...barely eaten my-st-stop that!"
"Don't make it...hard on yourself, Shiro-"
Saber, finally having seen enough of the spectacle that Shirou and Rider were making in front of all the other occupants at the table, set down her eating utensils and slammed one hand down to get their attention. The position that they both chose to freeze on did not make a favorable sight in the blonde knight's eyes, with Rider practically falling over Shirou, one hand pressed against his face while the other reached for his plate, and the young man doing his best to keep her away, his right hand yanking her black blouse over her stomach while his left was preoccupied with gripping her wrist to prevent her from snatching his omelet. For everyone at the table, mainly Sakura, the sight was something quite unfamiliar simply because of the fact that it was too familiar. That was to say that a week ago, Shirou and Rider would not have been this comfortable around each other and now the two were falling all over each other, literally.
At breakfast time Rider would casually steal the spot beside Shirou, a place that Illya had claimed as her respective seating arrangement. In the pale girl's eyes that alone was enough to warrant severe punishment without any chance of forgiveness. The extra servings of rice that were usually reserved for 'Taiga', alone, had suddenly become available for the plum haired servant to fill her own bowl. For Fuji-nee, the only solution that she saw to ending the new arrangement was death. Tohsaka's private magic lessons with Shirou had suddenly become a little less private, with Rider and Sakura sitting in the corner of the room watching them. The pig-tailed magus found herself reflexively pointing a finger at Rider every time she happened to pass her by in the hall. Sakura wasn't liking how Rider would sometimes wake up the next morning with new reserves of mana that she had not provided her with personally and with nothing being reported of suspicious murders on the local news as of late, the junior was tempted to cancel her contract with the servant.
Arguably, Saber was taking Rider's sudden attachment to her master most personally. The list of reasons could have gone on for a few sheets of parchment, but the most prominent reason of them all was by far the simplest point. To state that point, Shirou was her master. Fate made it so that they would be bound together, not Rider and Shirou. When the fight for the Holy Grail was still raging, she was the servant by his side, not that treacherous dominatrix fiend. What her and Shirou shared together was something that could never be matched by something as shallow and baseless as mere lust. Apart they were incomplete and together they were one. She was his sword and he, her scabbard. You did not just write this stuff! This was something that the laws of the universe had planned even before their existence, so there was absolutely no way that Saber was going to let Rider walk off with her master's heart and soul before her very eyes!
Getting back to the present situation, "Rider." While Saber managed to keep her voice as dignified as she had always maintained it, there was the undeniable hiss of venom when she spoke her fellow heroic spirit's name. "Take your hand off, Shirou." Another thing to add to the list, by the way. Rider was not allowed to address the young Emiya as 'Shirou' within her presence. That was just the way things went and the list of rules were going on in Saber's mind as she went along.
Rider's lovely lips curled into a subtle smirk, "Don't feel threatened." Her choice of words got Saber's eyes narrowing imperceptibly.
"You pose no threat." The blonde knight countered her with no inflection in her voice. "Just a nuisance."
"Well then," Rider allowed her weight to fall on the young man beneath her. Even Rin couldn't defend herself from a creeping blush as Shirou's face became buried between two mounds of flesh. He protested, doing his best to lift her off of him, but all that was muffled by her blouse, "Why so disturbed?"
Saber balled her hands on her lap, her knuckles cracking audibly.
Rin, seeing that a fight could possibly break out between the two heroes at any moment, nudged Sakura in the rib a few times. "Sakura."
"Y-Yes?" Sakura responded, her voice strained as the vein on her forehead bulged thickly.
"Call back Rider, would you?" Rin's eyes swiveled toward Saber for a moment to gauge the murderous intent that pulsed from her. If this kept up any longer, Rider was not going to be the only one in need of medical attention. Shirou looked as though he was suffocating beneath the sultry servant, his hands having fallen to his sides just a moment ago, twitching.
Sakura nodded stiffly before crying out, "RIDER!" Now, let it come to light that Rider was a very stubborn individual. Being one of the weakest servants of the Holy Grail War, she had developed a slight complex about her personal strengths and made up for them with sheer hot-blooded determination. She wouldn't back down in the most extreme of circumstance if she could help it, however, Sakura was an entirely different story. Observe how the look in her eyes immediately went from that of defiance to the unadulterated fear of a little girl caught in the sights of a most furious parent. Rider had become the poster girl of fear at the drop of a few seconds.
"Off of him?" Rider asked her mistress with a sheepish smile. When Sakura didn't even bother to provide her with an answer, the dark servant slid off of the young Emiya and sat properly, her head turned away from him as though it would have been a cardinal sin to do otherwise.
"Guh." Shirou filled his lungs with relief once the weight had been lifted from him, however, upon regaining his ability to see the others at the table, he was met with looks that made him wish that Rider had not pulled away from him. Illya looked to be on the verge of shooting her eyeballs at him and Sakura's features had taken the loveliest shade of red, while Rin on the other hand just smirked at him deviously like a cat staring down a defenseless mouse. Of course, their looks only paled in comparison to the expression on Saber's face. She could have slapped him with full force and it would have hurt less than what she was doing now. The look she directed at him was cold and emotionless, much like the first night they met under the moonlight. In a word, untouchable.
"...Saber?" He said her name delicately as if saying it any differently would bring disaster upon him. "Are you alright?"
"I am disappointed in you, Shirou." Her tone was that of a mentor disapproving of a student's actions. "You have gone, too, soft."
"Soft?" Emiya's head titled to the side. "What do you mean?"
Saber's right eye gleamed dangerously, "Why did you not throw her off of you?" Her question caught him off guard. She wasn't really serious about that was she? If he threw Rider off of him, there was the possible chance of hurting her and his code simply went against that. His relationship with Rider had finally blossomed into something close to a dear friendship so that was something else he had to keep in mind. The tension between him and the cold servant had finally vanished and he never wanted it to return.
"I can't do that, Saber." He looked to his servant sternly, earning an equally stern glare in return. Well, at least she wasn't looking at him any differently than cardboard anymore. "Rider's a girl." His defense caused said servant to steal a glance at him. While Rider may have been one of the most cynical servants in existence, she had come to appreciate Shirou's integrity as a gentleman. Sure, she wasn't just a 'girl' as he so chauvinistically put. It would have taken more than a simple bump on the ass to get her sore and chances were, a pulled punch from her could send the next guy to the ER in a second flat, but it was the thought that really count.
"Shirou," Saber crushed the urge to roll her eyes at that comment, "Regardless of the fact that the war is over, she is still a servant before she is a woman."
"But she's a friend, too." Shirou shot back, and with a shotgun shell, too. His retort elicited quite the reaction from the other women at the table, whom were all admittedly more comfortable with Rider and Shirou remaining as mere acquaintances and nothing more. To deny that Rider had beauty was to stay ignorant of the truth. Any man that ever had the pleasure of catching a glimpse of her whenever she went grocery shopping with Sakura at the business district of town instantly melted into a pathetic puddle of lust. Shirou managed to remain neutral around her because of their twisted relationship with each other, but if those rough edges managed to be smoothed away through the healing powers of friendship, there was no telling how long it would be before Rider claimed him for herself.
Illya was the first to voice her distress, "You mean...you're comfortable with her now?" The pale girl pointed as Rider without a care in the world about how rude it was to do so, "Her? HER?"
"S-Sempai and Rider...are closer now?" Sakura was not comfortable with hearing this. Having Tohsaka, Saber, and just about every other girl at her high school as competition was bad enough, but now her own servant was a threat to her loving future with Shirou Emiya? She would not have it! She worked, too, damn hard for the one she adored above all else to be stolen away from her.
Rin brushed a strand of hair away from her face and sighed with an expression of boredom, "This was bound to happen anyway. Emiya-kun is just, too, friendly for his own good." She looked to Saber and attempted to lighten the mood, "Right, Saber?" The blonde servant was possibly the only woman she was willing to share Shirou with; the rest of those girl could shove it. After all, Shirou Emiya was under her rightful claim. With Archer no longer around to be her servant it was Shirou's duty to step forward and take responsibility.
Saber's response was to stand up and turn her head to the side with her arms crossed, "I'm excusing myself." With that she left the dining room through the east hall. Assuming from past experiences with an angry Saber, she was either going to take a bath in peace or heading to the dojo to let off some steam.
"But Saber..." Shirou stood up as well, bringing a bit of hope to the pig-tailed magus. He was actually going to chase after her like a real man. He was finally taking the proper route for once, but... "You haven't even finished your onigiri." ...it was too much to ask for him to come to his senses now, right?
"Shirou!" Rin growled, getting his attention.
"What?" He regarded her quizzically.
What was he still just standing there?
"Are you dumb?" She almost lunged at him from across the table.
Taiga, however, was more concerned about another particular issue and wasn't about to let things go any further without addressing it, "Shirou!"
Shirou turned his attention away from the fuming magus, "Yes, Fuji-nee?"
The teacher stood up, an authoritative air surrounding her. "I'll only allow your friendship with this 'Rider' to continue on one condition!" She balled her hands into fists and held them at her sides before shaking them like a spoiled child. "You're not allowed to give her any privileges over ME! I'm the number one woman in your life!"
And they all just...stared.
[ The Emiya Dojo... ]
Upon entering the dojo quietly, Shirou was appreciative of how predictable his servant was. There she was, meditating in the far right corner of the dojo in Japanese form, with a peaceful expression on her face. Perhaps she had gotten over what happened at breakfast earlier? Honestly, he had not expected her to react in such a way to his friendship with Rider in the first place. Of course, that alone proved how dense he was about the nature of her response. One would assume that the young Emiya would have already figured out why the gorgeous knight had decided on staying with him, as opposed to returning to her own time to face her death as she had originally planned. Unfortunately, he was still up in the clouds about it and it was taking all the will power Saber had within her not to wait for him to turn in for bed so that she could strangle him in his sleep.
"...Saber?" He called her name softly.
Her left eyebrow twitched, "Shirou?" She did not open her eyes.
"Yeah, it's me." He boldly came closer. "How are you?"
"I am fine."
"Oh," His relieved response annoyed her for some reason, "You kind of scared me back there. For a moment I thought I'd done something wrong."
Saber opened her eyes, "Something wrong?" She asked, her tone bordering on mocking him, "Whatever gave you that impression?"
"Well..." Shirou brought a hand up to scratch the tip of his nose nervously. The aura that his servant was emitting didn't do too well to keep him calm in her presence. "...you seemed angry. I've, uh, never seen you leave your plate behind before, and Fuji-nee took what was left of your onigiri, which is probably your favorite part of breakfast in the morning. It got me worried, so I felt like I needed to apologize." His observation of her eating habits, as well as stating his worry for her got the heat burning in her cheeks.
The lovely knight kept a victorious grin from forming on her lips. "I...I suppose you know me well, Shirou."
"O-of course!" He nodded.
"Then you understand my feelings in regard to Rider, correct?"
"You don't like her, do you?" He inquired hesitantly. "But...why?"
Saber averted her eyes, "It isn't that I hold any particular dislike for her." Or rather, she did, but she wasn't going to come out and just tell him that. She had an image to keep around her master and she didn't want it to be tainted with trivial matters such as the one they were currently discussing.
Shirou blinked. "Then what is it?"
"I feel that it is more instinctive than anything else." Saber replied, considering her words. "Aside from the fact that she and I have been mortal enemies in the past, she reeks of a foul darkness. I wouldn't even go so far as to accept her as a hero, regardless of her status as a heroic spirit."
"Darkness?" Shirou thought back on his first impression of the servant, which probably didn't help matters since it wasn't a very good one. Being stabbed through the arm by someone wasn't exactly opening bright new possibilities of love and companionship in the back of one's mind. "Er, I can see how she bothers you. I mean, it feels like she treads a path of blood whenever she's around, but...Rider is different now. She really has changed with Sakura as her master."
"I suppose so..." Saber paused before looking to him with an uneasy expression. It caught her master off guard, how vulnerable she appeared at that very moment. "...but does she have to be around you so much?"
"Huh?" Shirou stared at her without another word as his brain started cranking. He was sure that he'd seen this behavior from Saber in the past. Yeah, it happened around the time that Illya first joined the family. The little homunculus was practically his shadow, following him from place to place and demanding that he spend all of his time with her. If memory served him right, Saber had become quite irritable around that time because they were rarely able to meet as a result. It didn't take a genius to realize the reason behind her behavior. "Are you jealous, Saber?"
At his inquiry, Saber's usual method of denial kicked in instantaneously, "Jealous?" A furious blush colored her cheeks as she averted her eyes, "No, no, not at all." She cleared her throat and straightened out her posture. "I was only worried that Rider might have taken advantage of your kindness. People usually tend to."
Ignoring that last part of her excuse, he approached her and placed a hand atop her head. A first she raised her head to regard him curiously, however, once he started stroking her hair she closed her eyes as if coming to accept the affectionate gesture. "I appreciate it, Saber." He told her softly, feeling her shiver pleasantly under his ministrations. One small detail managed to bother him, though. It wasn't really all that important, but what was up with that standing hair strand? It just kind of stood there like an antennae and no matter how many times he ran his hand over it, it just wouldn't stay down.
"Weird..." Shirou felt his patience wear thin as the 'ahoge' popped up for the tenth time after his hand passed over it, almost as if to taunt him for trying so hard to lay it flat. "Um, Saber?" He called for her attention, holding her antennae delicately to gauge its stability. He faintly entertained the thought that she might have picked up radio waves with i-
"Yes, Shirou?" Saber responded to the sound of her name, pulling her head back to look up at him and-POP! Actually, no, it didn't sound anything like a champagne cork, but seeing it come off her head so easily was pretty much the equivalent in the young Emiya's mind. Understand this, all things had a particular place in life, no matter how insignificant some would seem. Taking something out of place was like tipping the scales in the balance of the universe, and the natural response of the universe when such an occurrence took place was to set things back in order. Take, for example, the 'ahoge' that now found itself in Shirou's hand. It was one of the defining qualities that made Saber who she was, even if she herself did not realize it. It simply had no place being anywhere else other than on the top of her head, so now came the problem...
...Saber had a dangerous coping mechanism...
The blonde knight suddenly allowed her head to fall back without warning in a most disturbing fashion, startling her master. From Shirou's point of view it was like watching a life sized puppet have its strings get snipped off by an invisible pair of scissors. "Saber?" He was on his knees in an instant, supporting the back of her head with one hand as he wrapped his other arm around her back before she could fall on her side. She was still breathing so the only explanation for her loss of consciousness was fatigue, but that was nearly impossible for her unless she had been engaged in some sort of epic struggle. Well...there was always the chance that she might have been running a little low on mana. It had been a while since they last recharged...ahem...
That...can't be it...right? Shirou felt himself beginning to sweat beads at the idea. Even if that was the actual case, it wasn't like he could just go on to replenishing her life energy in her current state. Just the thought alone was indecent enough, and getting caught out in the open was just an invitation to trouble he honestly could do without. "I don't think this could possibly get any more awkward." He said to no one in particular, looking over his shoulder out of nervous habit. When he turned his head back-Saber was there looking him dead in the eyes.
"Y-YAH!" He would have let go of her at that moment, had it not occurred to him that his rate of misfortune would quadruple if he allowed her to hit the floor by doing so. Even so, she probably set the record in bringing him closest to an actual death and that was saying something. "Geez, Saber..." He removed his hand from the back of her head to steady his pounding heart, "...you almost gave me a stroke."
Shirou stared at her for a moment and blinked. Why did something feel off about this?
Gold eyes stared back at him almost viciously. There was no expression on her face at all, but the look in those eyes were not complacent. No, what he saw staring back at him were orbs devoid of peace; far different from the eyes that Shirou had grown so fond of losing himself in. It should have come to his attention then, that the eyes he was staring back into were indeed, not that of his dear Saber. If memory served him well his servant's eyes were more like matching emeralds, not topaz jewels.
"Saber?" His instincts told him to back away and put some distance between them, but his arms would not budge. His servant's eyes appeared to have the same effect on him as Rider's mystical gaze, though the effects were not magical. No, Shirou was held still with terror.
"Why are you embracing me, Shirou?" With her flat tone it was hard to tell whether she wanted to know the motivations behind their position, or if she just wanted him to refrain from holding her. He opted to go with the latter since his arms had finally become responsive again. Being that up close to the blonde beauty was bound to arouse his male libido anyway and it didn't seem like the proper time and place for that.
"I'm sorry." He offered her a bow in apology.
"Weak."
He raised his head, "Huh?"
"Your response is weak." Saber repeated herself, her eyes narrowing upon him with a sharp edge. "I asked you a question. I did not tell you to refrain from holding me." She stood up on her feet and looked down on him as if she could lift her foot and crush him if she wanted to...and she did. Shirou's eyes went wide with surprise when her socked foot planted itself on the top of his head and forced his chin down on the floor. "Are you intimidated by me, Master?"
Shirou grunted, pressing his palms against the floor in an attempt to raise his chin off the ground, but her foot held him down so firmly that he found himself struggling in his bowing position. "What's...gotten into you?" He managed to turn his head so that her foot rested on his left cheek.
"Looking at you...I see my weakness staring back at me." Saber's voice became distant, staring down at him. At that moment he realized that she wasn't looking at him. She was looking past him, toward a memory buried deep within herself; a single passing moment that decided everything. "I stripped myself of that long ago." Her eyes regained their focus, piercing him deeply like a sharpened blade. "As you are now, you'll only serve as my shackle." She punctuated her last word with a rough shove of her foot, sending him flying backwards onto his back before turning her back on him and walking in the direction of the door. Her steps fell heavily on Shirou's ears who got back to his feet so that he could stop her from leaving. His instincts started screaming for him to cease his foolishness, but his stubbornness quickly silenced it.
"Saber!" He came up quickly from behind her and placed a hand on her right shoulder to stop her, however-
"I predicted as much." Her voice remained flat, but the young Emiya could feel the smirk on her face even as she kept her back to him. The first strike was an elbow to the chest, forcing him to release her shoulder in favor of the painful sensation that exploded where her blow connected. His vision fogged up with the oxygen cut from his system, his thoracic cavity seemingly breached by the vicious surprise attack, and he was left to gasp hoarsely as the dark knight turned to face him with an unreadable expression.
"Rash as always, Shirou." She clenched her left hand and looked to it as if to contemplate it before she pulled it back. "Though I've secretly admired that quality about you." And she let her fist fly at him, reflecting from his eyes like a rushing javelin, sent to soar in his direction until all that was left to fill Shirou's vision was blood-pressed darkness.
...
...
"...irou?...Shi...o?"
"...ugh." His right eyelid felt heavier than his left for reasons that his mind was too scrambled to sort out and the back of his head was resting on something warm and soft. He didn't remember getting back to his room to lay down, so what was going on? Why did he lose consciousness? "Hm?" The blur of color and light finally solidified and came into focus, giving him a good look at Rin Tohsaka's lovely countenance. With his mind as scrambled as it currently was, he wasn't sure whether to be pleased that his idol looked so worried for him, or ashamed that he managed to get her to show it so openly in front of his eyes...or eye since the other one remained shut for some reason.
"Rin..." He said her name in an awkward greeting.
"I personally don't want to be right about this, but...Saber did this to you, didn't she?" She apparently hit the nail on the head since her reply was a weak nod on Shirou's part. About ten minutes prior, the magus had bumped shoulders with the servant in question back at the house with no words of apology exchanged between them. Aside from the fact that it was abnormal behavior, seeing Saber anywhere that wasn't within four feet of Shirou was just blaring klaxon alarms. On a normal day one had to pry the knight off of his back with a crowbar if they wanted to spend a moment alone with him and even then, you'd have to beat her away with a magical stick, or bribe her with some of his home cooked food to keep her away long enough to get through a private conversation.
"What did you do to her?"
"I'm...not sure." Shirou answered her, honestly. "One moment we're bonding...and the next, she's disgusted with me."
"That doesn't sound normal." Rin observed.
"I could have told you tha-Ah!" He winced when he felt one of her fingers touch his right eye. "What was that for?"
"She sure left you with a shiner." The magus clicked her tongue. "And it doesn't look like this was inflicted through training, either. You really must have pissed Saber off for her to sock you one."
"That's the problem..." Shirou lifted his head up from her lap and sat up beside her before he went on to continue, "That woman...she wasn't Saber. It couldn't have been Saber."
Rin quirked an eyebrow at his remark and smirked with a bit of skepticism, "An impostor, then?" Her response made Shirou sigh.
"I get the feeling that you're not taking me seriously."
"I don't know whose side to take."
"I'm not asking you to take-" He stopped in mid-sentence to shake his head in irritation. He could not understand why she was being so uncooperative. "-She punched me, Rin!"
"I'm guessing there might have been a huge misunderstanding." Rin shrugged her shoulders. "Admit it, you're a klutz when it comes to handling a girl's feelings."
"And how would you know?" Shirou shot back at her without thinking.
"BECAUSE-" His retort caused suppressed feelings to boil within the magus and she almost launched herself at him, however, she cooled herself before she could give him a matching set of black eyes. "-F-Forget about it. Lay your head down on my lap again so I can take care of that right eye."
"A-Alright." He did as she directed him, failing to prevent the blush that crept up as he did. When he was settled in comfortably, he stared up at her wordlessly. Rin tossed back her hair and leaned over him to recite the simple healing spell, however, she felt that his gaze was beginning to bother her. She was sure that he'd given her this look before, a long while back and for some reason she found it annoying. It was as though he wanted to ask her for something, but his pride was getting in the way. Perhaps if she ignored him...
"..."
"..."
"I might need your help with this, Ri-"
"You're on your own."
...
...
With Tohsaka's refusal to pitch him an idea, Shirou found that approaching Saber might turn out to be more of a problem than he originally believed. Pulling the feather-like strand of hair out of his pocket to examine it, he found nothing remotely interesting about it. Sure, there was a small amount of magic lying dormant within it, but that could easily be explained by the fact that it had once been attached to a heroic spirit's head. Regardless, there was no doubt in his mind that removing it was the trigger to the transformation that he witnessed within the dojo, but how was he supposed to fix the situation? The simplistic solution would have been to find a way to reattach the strand of hair to the top of Saber's head...but that was impossible. Aside from the fact that Saber didn't appear to be willing to let him come within arms reach, hair didn't just restore itself to the root...
"Unless..." Shirou swiveled his eyes toward the house. "...it was a magic hair."
"You seem oddly focused, Shirou."
Startled by the unexpected observation, he flinched and turned his head very slowly. When he reached the limit of how far his neck could twist without snapping, he was greeted by a view of Rider's face. The sultry servant had apparently crept up from behind while he was examining the strand of hair, which said a lot about how comfortable he had become in her presence since that was usually next to impossible with her, considering how the smell of blood followed her like an afterthought.
"Oh, it's you, Rider." He let out a sigh of relief.
"For your own sake, I hope that wasn't a sigh of disappointment." Rider told him, her lips right beside his ear as she did. The sudden pressure of her flesh against his back made the young man hop forward and whip around to face her, a furious blush coloring his features. He didn't understand why she made such a habit of pressing her body against him, but he was getting the suspicion that she just got a kick out of the way he reacted to her pranks most of the time. Sakura couldn't be teaching her these things, so the only other suspect would have been Rin.
"Stop that, would you?" He told her, frowning peevishly. "What do you want?"
"Are you annoyed by me?" Rider's tone reverted to its usual cold manner, ringing alarms in Shirou's mind to lighten the mood before he made her his enemy again. God knows, he didn't need that again.
"N-No...it's just, it bothers me when you do that..." He explained.
"What?" She cocked her head to the side.
He blinked. "You know...press up against me." She was making this awkward for him on purpose, wasn't she?
"I was under the impression that it was something you appreciated."
His thought process lagged for a moment once her heard her response. "W-W...Well, it's not that I don't li...er, n-never mind that! Seriously, where are you getting these sort of ideas from anyway? Is Rin telling you to do these things to me?"
"No." Rider answered him flatly. "My actions aren't influenced by anybody. I merely observe you."
"Observe me?" He massaged the back of his neck nervously. "You mean...watch me?"
"In a sense."
"...In what sense?"
"You're asking me to reveal too much, Shirou." The barest of smiles traced the plum-haired beauty's lips. All jokes aside, every time she did that in front of him, he couldn't help but feel that he managed to uncover one of the world's rarest treasures. The journey to finding Rider's smile was a dangerous one, indeed.
[ Meanwhile, in the Dining Room... ]
Having lost another round of Othello to Illya, 'Taiga' was seriously beginning to question her own competence as a teacher as well as a grown adult. It didn't help matters that Illya did not bother to brag about how easily she kept on besting her. The girl merely nodded to her with the gracefulness of a professional and waited for her to set up the board for the next match. Was there anything that she shined in when compared to the rest of the women who had taken over the Emiya household? Her aptitude for combat withered before Saber's superior skills, her wit was like sweet cider compared to Rin's fine glass of wine, her cooking could hardly serve as an appetizer to Sakura's succulent feasts, and her looks...well, one look at Rider and that was the end of it.
A-And now this? Taiga felt her eyes tear up at the horrifying revelation.
Illya noticed her distress and asked, "Are you okay, Taiga?"
"GAH!" The teacher pulled at her hair in despair. "D-Don't call me that!"
The snow fairy grinned, "Oh, why not?"
"Because...it's unfeminine." Fuji-nee replied sheepishly as she traced circles along the surface of the table.
"But it suits you."
"I don't want to hear tha..." The evil grin on Illya's face gradually fell when the older woman stopped in mid-explosion to look at something over her shoulder. Twisting her upper body to see what was so interesting, the girl found herself mesmerized by what she saw. It was rare to see Saber attired in anything else other than the white dress shirt and blue, pleated skirt that Tohsaka had given her to wear since she had first become a resident of the Emiya estate, even more so since she no longer had any reason to summon her armor. On a few occasions Rin had even taken her to Shinto to go clothing shopping after having gotten tired of seeing her dressed in the same outfit day after day, only to come back with two bags of matching sets. When asked why she preferred the outfit so much over all the other choices she could have selected at the fashion stores, her answer was that Shirou had complimented how well they looked on her.
"...Saber?" Illya called the attention of the blonde knight when she casually entered the room, seemingly unaffected by Fujimaru's blatant staring. The heroic spirit did not respond to the sound of her name immediately, first walking to the fridge to open it and retrieve the wrapped onigiri that Shirou had saved for her from breakfast earlier before she even bothered to turn her head and regard the adorable homunculus.
"What troubles you, Einzbern?" Her tone was rather disinterested.
Illya frowned at the manner of her response, but resolved to ask what was on her mind anyway. "That's a new look for you, Saber. Is there any particular reason why you decided to change?" She was referring to the black, long sleeved dress she had on, with ruffles at the collar and sleeves, black laces tightened at the bust and a pleated skirt that fell just above the knees. Black stockings covered her legs, preventing any skin from being exposed below the skirt. Another noticeable alteration from her usual look would have been the black hair ribbon that she used to bound her hair in place of her normal blue one.
The barest of smiles crossed Saber's lips. "I've decided to accept my reality." Her reply made Illya narrow her eyes inquisitively.
"What is your reality?" She asked, cocking her head to the side curiously.
"That there is no hope for change." The dark night bowed her head in a brief moment of regret. "I cannot change what I've become, and to deny that is to deny the blood quaffed by my blade."
"Saber," Illya furrowed her brows seriously, "Do you really mean that?"
"I do not jest." Saber replied to her before taking a bite from the riceball in her right hand. They both remained standing in front of the refrigerator with their eyes engaged until Saber swallowed what was in her mouth and broke away to leave, but before she could make it out into the hallway again, Illya called out for her to wait. "I'll entertain a final question." Saber looked to Illya over her shoulder. "What is it?"
"Does this mean that you no longer consider yourself to be Shirou's servant?" Her final question appeared to have made the servant skip a beat, as she stood there for a pause before answering the question.
"...I will remain so until the day he decides otherwise." She disappeared around the corner of the doorway with her reply, leaving Illya to stand there with her arms crossed in disappointment. The pale girl huffed and turned her head to the side with irritation. For a woman who had supposedly come to accept her own reality, she sure was unwilling to let go of the hero from her fantasy.
"I figured as much." She grumbled just loud enough for Taiga to hear her.
"You figured what?" The short haired woman inquired, unsure of what to make from the scene that just unfolded before her eyes. "What just happened?"
"Well," Illya forced a smile, "It turns out that Saber-chan is a really greedy girl."
"I see now..." Saber said aloud to herself, munching on the last of the riceball in her right hand as she approached the house entrance. ...A deep realization has struck me through answering Einzbern's question. I still find myself bound to Shirou Emiya despite my claims of setting aside my delusions. What does it mean? Must I rid myself of that man in order to be true to myself? She slipped on her shoes and stepped out into the front yard, stopping in front of the door when she caught a glance of two figures standing side by side in her peripheral. Now, Saber understood that there was a certain etiquette to follow when certain things came to pass, like slugging an individual in the face for the sole reason of making a point.
Looking back on it, Shirou honestly deserved it, no doubt. He came from behind her after she made it clear that she didn't want him to get near her, and all things considered, she received a sense of satisfaction from doing it, too, but there was an unvoiced rule that decreed a cooling period after a personal conflict. So even though the sight of Shirou Emiya and Rider having a friendly conversation, alone, irked her on levels that were too personal to list, it was not her place to get involved. She didn't want anything to do with Shirou anymore, anyway...even if she still wanted to consider him her master. See, thoughts like that were complicated because they contradicted each other, and it disturbed Saber that her own logic was so twisted, but she was still walking up to Shirou and Rider even as such thoughts distressed her, and now they were both looking at her because they sensed her presence, so it was too late to back away.
Curses. Saber silenced the urge to run herself through with Excalibur.
"Saber..." Her name left Rider's lips like a personal insult. Shirou, on the other hand, stared at her with the eyes of a dear caught in the head-lights of a truck before the impending crash took its life. That was to say that first impressions were important to the development of a relationship and as far as those went, she seriously screwed any chance of intimate bonding between them, which was what she was going for when she punched him, but...why were her thoughts becoming so complex?
Finding no way to open the conversation, she followed Rider's example. "Rider..."
...Silence...
"Saber...where did you get those clothes from?" Shirou finally worked up the nerve to talk, finding her outfit a little distracting.
"That..." She stopped herself, "...holds no importance. Did I not tell you to be careful with her?" She inquired, gesturing to Rider without turning her head to look at her. Her question vexed the young Emiya, who had been under the impression that he was going to have to do the talking on their next encounter. This was...unforeseen.
"Should he not be cautious of you, instead?" Rider countered before Shirou could speak. "You did harm him earlier, did you not?"
Saber's eyes sharpened upon her fellow servant dangerously, "He told you?"
"No. I was observing when it happened." Rider shot back, getting Shirou's attention.
"You were-why were you watching in the first place?" He asked her, mortified to be hearing this.
Rider placed a hand on her waist and swayed her hip to the side casually before answering, "Sakura-sama gave me the order to watch over you long ago. Up til now, she still has not rescinded that order."
"You just watched?" He asked, dumbfounded.
"I felt that it was a personal matter." Rider replied coolly. "It would have been rude to involve myself." She turned her attention back to Saber, "I am not sure what transpired between the both of you, however, any servant willing to hurt their master is not one to be trusted. From what I observed, he did not act against you so it was not self defense."
"You would not understand." Saber growled. "I have my reasons for pushing him away."
"You don't approve of him?"
"I cannot approve of him."
"Then why bother with one you cannot accept?" Rider pressed on. "Break your contract with him now and return to your own place."
"Rider," Shirou stepped in front of the sultry servant, surprising her, "I haven't consented to that. Don't go on saying things like that in front of me."
"You will get hurt again. You realize that, don't you?" Rider's voice came from behind him and he detected a hint of concern. Perhaps it was on Sakura's behalf that she would be worried for him, but he appreciated it nonetheless.
"I appreciate your concern, Rider. I really do, but...could you leave us?" He looked over his shoulder and offered her an assuring smirk. "I'll handle this alone." His request was met with an unreadable stare as Rider remained there for a moment with her arms crossed for a time, however, the look in his eyes must have convinced her. She answered his request with a slight nod and took a step back, dissolving into the breeze like vapor. Sure that she had respected his wishes, he turned his attention back to Saber. The air surrounding them must have gone cold, as a chill had gone down his back at the sight of his servant now that he was solely focused on her. She now felt distant and closed off and her eyes held no warmth for him as they once had. It almost felt as if she thought of him as a stranger.
He swallowed hard, gathering his courage. "Saber...you don't approve of me?" His question made her turn her head slightly as though it were a light slap to her face.
"...You are weak, Shirou." Saber said without a trace of emotion.
"Weak," She once told him something similar on their first few days together during the war, "I don't understand. What do you find weak about me?"
"You're naive, easy-going, accepting...forgiving." Saber turned her head to face him fully as she went on, "Those qualities have endangered your life in the past and they still remain with you even now. Have you forgotten that?"
"But, Saber...the war is over." He regarded her incredulously. "What are you getting at?"
"How long do you think this peace will continue, Shirou?" The black servant bared her canines, "You've only destroyed the Holy Grail of the previous war. There are many ways to produce another, and when that happens, what will you do?"
"...It hasn't happened."
"But it can and it will, and when it does come to pass the possibilities become endless. You are living with three potential masters, or have you so easily forgotten that?"
"They're my friends, Saber."
"For how long?" The knight questioned him darkly. "They have shown that their loyalties can be fickle."
"They had no control over that in the past. You know that." Shirou snapped at her.
"And fate can be so assuring."
"Who cares about that!" He scolded her. "Is that really why you're acting so strangely? Come on, Saber, that's just silly! I believe in them now, and even if another war began, I have you, don't I? We're an unbeatable force, aren't we?" He asked his last question with a forced chuckle.
"There is no...we..." She bowed her head.
The breath was stolen away from him. "...What do you mean?"
"I cannot bring myself to continue this." She turned her back on him and started off in the other direction. "Revoke our contract, Master. It was wrong of me to remain with you to begi-" She was stopped with a sudden jerk and she looked down at her left wrist to find Shirou's hand holding her back. "...Shirou..." Her tone was near to a snarl.
His voice came softly. "This isn't wrong, Saber. There's nothing wrong about us being together."
She wrenched her hand free and whipped around to face him, finally exploding, "It is wrong!"
"Why?"
"Because I cannot accept the idea of you!" She screamed furiously. "I cannot love! I have no right to give or recieve!" She threw down a fist as though she was striking down the very meaning of affection. "What right have I to smile? What right do I have to happiness when I've sacrificed it so many times that I cannot bear to recount them?"
"Saber?"
A tear rolled down her right cheek. "How can I hold you when my hands are stained with blood?" She brought a hand to her lips. "How can I kiss you when these lips have tasted the foul richness of slaughtered innocence? Do you have an answer for me, Shirou?"
"Because I love you." His answer came without hesitation. It was not a complex, or elaborate excuse. It was a simple declaration of his truest affections for her.
"How?" The question left her lips in a breathless whisper as she felt his arms wrap around her.
"I've told you before, I know about your past, Saber. I've seen your struggle in my dreams." He pressed his lips against her forehead and kissed her tenderly. "I've seen that girl on a hill of swords, facing death alone and unrewarded for her service to her people and I've shed tears in her place."
"...Why?"
"Because she deserved better. She was a radiant flame, fighting against the darkness and they simply blew her out. They lost their chance to see the beauty in her and..." He stepped back to look at her face, caressing her cheek gently.
"...I don't wanna lose mine."
DARK SABER, ROUTE ONE-GOOD END