I hope that this chapter has good quality. Writer's block was giving me some trouble, but I managed to throw some things together. However, this chapter is kinda filler-ish. Does contain some fairly important stuff, though.
Earlier that night, Kennedy Monroe was a man who was ugly on the inside and outside. He was a fat man with brown hair that was in a combover and brown eyes. He wore a black tank-top, grey pants, and black shoes. He had a ten-foot pole up his butt at all times and given how mean he was, one couldn't help but wonder how he maintained a job as a teacher.
He was walking through an alley in the red-light district, a rather foolish decision. He was quite obviously drunk, if the horrid stench radiating from him wasn't enough indication. Monroe's drunkenness might have had something to do with his foolish decision of walking through an alley in the red-light district at night.
Overall, the fact that he indulged in such activities was further damage to his credibility as a teacher.
"You smell really bad."
Monroe looked to his side to see Assassin standing there wearing a black cloak over her regular clothes.
"Go away, you little s***." Monroe's voice was slurred because of the several glasses of alcohol he had consumed earlier.
"Actually, we wanted to talk with you." Assassin didn't even flinch at the fat man's statement. "You've been mean to Daddy. You hurt Daddy's feelings. And we don't like that."
"And even though Daddy doesn't want to do anything to you, we'll make sure you can't hurt Daddy's feelings anymore. So, we'll teach you a lesson because we love Daddy and he doesn't have to know who did it."
"Yeah? And what're you going to do, b****?" Monroe mocked.
Assassin drew two of her knives and smiled psychotically.
"We're gonna kill you!" she said cheerfully before lunging at Monroe.
Fate/new dawn
Chapter 3: A Casual Day
It was dark. It was a pitch-black void. There was nothing but darkness. Ian couldn't see anything.
'This must be one of Assassin's memories. After all, a Master's dreams will sometimes show them their Servant's memories.'
Then several different voices began speaking, all of them children.
"I'm cold."
"Why don't you want me, mommy?"
"I want to be warm."
"Why don't you love me?'
Ian jolted awake, accidentally waking Assassin up in the process. Marcus had purchased some clothes for Assassin the day before and she was currently wearing a white night gown.
"Are you okay, Daddy?"
"Yeah. I'm fine." Ian responded.
"Are you sure, Daddy? What's wrong?" Assassin said.
"Yeah. It's nothing." Ian lied.
"We should get back to-"
The alarm went off as if on cue.
"Nevermind."
Ian gotten out of bed and went to the kitchen. Ian found a note on the table from Marcus saying that he and Archer had to leave early. Ian turned the TV on and turned it to a news channel before going to make breakfast for him and Assassin.
"Just last night, another bizarre murder occurred in the city of Philburg. 50-year-old Kennedy Monroe was found dead in an alley. Reports say that his body was completely mutilated and his heart was missing. If you have any information on the killer, we urge you to report this information to the authorities."
Ian couldn't help but smile at the news report, but was horrified as soon as he realized what he was doing. He quickly suppressed whatever joy he felt from this. Assassin acted completely normal, hiding the fact that she was responsible for Monroe's death.
Ian brushed this off and went back to focusing on breakfast. It was Saturday now, so Ian planned on spending some time out in the city with Assassin. Psychotic or not, she was still a kid and Ian knew that she didn't have anything close to a decent life. To actually experience the type of things that most kids do is something that she needed more than anything.
After breakfast, Ian had Assassin go put some casual clothes on. Assassin came walking out of the room wearing a black T-shirt, blue jeans, and red tennis shoes. She for some reason, put her knife holsters on, but Ian requested that she remove them.
"But what if we run into an enemy Servant?" Assassin asked.
"The Grail War is supposed to be a secret." Ian responded. "None of the enemy Masters would be stupid enough to have their Servant attack us in broad daylight. I hope."
"And if we do run into issues, you can just summon your knives."
"Okay, Daddy." the small girl replied.
Assassin put the knife holsters back before Ian went to change into casuals and grab his wallet.
"Alright, first thing's first; ground rules." the black-haired boy stated. "Firstly, you will stay out of spirit form. There's no need for it right now."
"Secondly, no killing. Don't even talk about killing. Understand?"
Assassin nodded.
"And finally, we need a cover name for you."
"Call us Jack." the white-haired girl replied. "We don't know our name but that's what most people called us."
"Okay then." Ian responded. "Let's get going."
"This is quite disturbing." Marcus said. "In more ways than one."
"Monroe was one of Ian's teachers, right?" Archer inquired.
"Yes. The most unpleasant man I've ever met." the CEO scoffed at the memory of his one meeting with the awful man.
"Honestly, I think there's a large chance that Ian sent Assassin after Monroe." Archer stated.
"That could be the case, however, there is also a chance that Assassin decided to kill him and Ian had nothing to do with it." Marcus responded. "I just don't know which scenario is true. I hope that this was purely Assassin's decision, not Ian's."
"You see, Archer, Ian takes a lot after his mother." Marcus sighed. "But Ian has one thing that his mother barely had; a conscience."
"What worries me the most is what might happen if Ian discovers that his mother wasn't as saintly as he thinks she was. Though he has mellowed out over time, he still will do anything to make his mother proud."
"You will have to tell him eventually, Master." said the Heroic Spirit of the Bow.
"I know, Archer. I know." Marcus' voice held a hint of sorrow in it.
Ian and Assassin stopped for lunch at a mall's food court. Ian had found that the small Servant was very shy in public, causing her to constantly stick to him like gum on a wall, for lack of a better metaphor.
"Yo, Ian." A voice called out.
Ian and Assassin turned to see a tall young man with tanned skin, brown hair, and hazel eyes walking towards them. He wore a black tank-top, light brown shorts, and black, white, and red tennis shoes.
"Hey, Leeroy." Ian said.
"Didn't expect to see you out and about." Leeroy said. "Who's she?"
"Be careful, Master. That girl is a Servant." Lancer warned.
"Her name's Jackie."
"One of your cousins?"
"No. He's our daddy." Assassin said.
"Wait, what." Leeroy replied, baffled.
"I have no idea why she insists on calling me that." the blue-eyed boy sighed. "Or why she refers to herself as 'we.'"
Leeroy noticed the Command Seals on Ian's hand. 'Command Seals. That girl's most likely Ian's Servant.'
"Can I pull you aside for a bit, Ian?" Leeroy asked.
"Okay." Ian stood up. "Don't wander off, Jackie."
Ian and Leeroy didn't go very far from the food court and simply just went into the boy's restroom.
"Okay, show me your hand." Leeroy whispered.
Ian complied.
"Command Seals." Leeroy continued whispering. "You are with Alpha or Omega?"
"Alpha." Ian said.
"That's a relief. It's be shame to have you as an enemy." Leeroy sighed in relief. "I am the Master of Lancer. I'm assuming that girl is Assassin."
Ian nodded.
"I'd show you Lancer, however, he's too…distinct. And loud."
"Your uncle said that Assassin is the only Servant that we needed before we had a full team." Leeroy stated.
"I have a question; would Romulus happen to be one of our faction's Servants?"
"Yeah. That's Lancer." the tanned boy nodded.
"Then I advise you watch out. Saber of Omega seems to be Remus and if I had to guess, he'll be looking for Romulus."
"Remus…" Lancer muttered, a sorrowful tone in his voice.
"I see." Leeroy looked down briefly. "Thanks, Ian. And good luck out there."
"Same to you."
At nightfall, Frederick James sat at his desk in his mansion. He was a man with a good height and build with a charming face, blonde hair, and blue eyes. He wore a black three-piece suit with matching colored dress shoes and a red tie. A white rose brooch was attached to the breast of the suit jacket, a memento of his late mother.
There was a shower of blue particles in front of his desk as his Servant materialized; Assassin of Omega. Assassin was a man with wearing a black bodysuit, an armored tunic and armored boots, with a mask and red hood hiding his face.
"Visalli and Saber were ambushed by Assassin of Alpha, but somehow neither of them can remember what they look like." Frederick explained. "This could make them a tremendous problem, so I need you to find their Master and kill him."
"However, if you cannot find the Master, simply killing Assassin of Alpha will do."
Assassin of Omega nodded.
"Start searching post-haste. We are up against an enemy who we cannot remember and might start killing our allies quickly if they aren't eliminated soon."
"Yes, Master." Assassin dematerialized and left to carry out his mission.
While Assassin went to complete his new mission, Frederick leaned back in his chair and began to reflect on his past.
That night was oddly uneventful despite the fact that Assassin of Omega was on the hunt.
An Assassin seeking to assassinate another Assassin.
How ironic.
Assassin of Alpha Interlude: Warmth
We watch the men as they go about their routines. Some stand around with guns, others are laughing, others are drinking. Still more are snorting or injecting while others are taking advantage of the whores and desperate. A lot of them are covered in tattoos and all of their souls have the same stink.
None of them are like Daddy.
Daddy is kind to us. Even though we smell a small bit of stink in his soul, he is not like them. Daddy wants us to be happy. And we want Daddy to be happy.
Not like the daddies from when we were alive. They drank and smoked in the bars, and they beat the whores and stayed away from their families, cheating on their wives.
Daddy is kind. He gives us food to eat that is good and not like the garbage we used to eat. Daddy let us share the bed, even if we don't need to sleep. We never had a bed before, only the alleys.
Daddy makes us feel safe.
Daddy makes us feel warm.
We never thought that daddies could be like this, like mommies, but that's okay because we like Daddy.
But Daddy's soul can't feed us. Daddy can't keep us here. So we have to eat other souls to stay. To stay to protect Daddy because Daddy makes us feel safe and warm.
"Gahk…"
"I, ugh… I can't breathe…"
"S-Someone! The door! Open…the door!"
They stumble and crawl and cry and choke as the Mist finds them and hurts them. We find the first one easy. The Mist tells us because the Mist is us and we are the Mist. We slit his throat, cut into his chest, pull out his heart, and then we eat it and his soul. And now we move on to the next.
"S***! It f***ing hurts! D***it!"
"H-Help! H-Help me!"
Even though Daddy was happy that we killed that mean man, we could feel that he was unhappy that both the mean man was killed and he was happy about it. So he mustn't know what we have to do to stay here. Daddy will be angry, even though we don't understand why he was happy and unhappy at the same time about us killing the mean man.
We're scared that if Daddy finds out, he'll hate us and be cold. And we don't want him to.
"Prana restored."
We just want to be loved.
We just want to be warm.
And there we have it; the most graphic scene in this entire fanfic. I hope that this winds up only being a one-time thing because blood and gore, though I kept it minimal here, is not my thing. Even if there might be as much death as Shakespearean play, I don't want to have them be so graphic that it causes me to raise the rating. That aside, I almost cried while writing the interlude because I really sympathize with Assassin. But, I am aware of her true identity and what she is, so I will try to play up the cute little girl part of her while reminding you guys that she is just as psychotic as she is cute.
Now onto the reviews.
Devin sands: Thank you for your suggestion. I will try to fit Atalanta in as Archer of Omega. While she did not make an appearance in this chapter, she will appear in the very near future. As for the questions you've PM'd me with asking why I had Ian summon the Assassin that he did, I hope this answers your questions at least a little.
ZenoZen: I kinda like your name, actually. Rolls off my tongue fairly well. Unfortunately, I will have to kinda just dodge this question because it's too spoiler-y at this point. That suggestion does seems like a good idea, though.
Anyway, I'm watching Fate/Apocrypha so that I can get a few pointers on writing this fic. I've gotten through the first two episodes and I like it so far. I know that the series is pretty divisive among the fans, but please don't hate me. Apocrypha's just left a good first impression on me and my opinion might change, so don't Flame.
One thing's for certain, though, I will probably love and hate Caster of Red/Shakespeare at the same time. His first scene is him barging into the church while demanding a horse and likely quoting Richard III, one of his own works, at the same time, informing Shiro and Assassin of Red/Semiramis that Berserker of Red is charging Yggdmillenia's castle, and when asked why Berserker is going berserk, he just smiles smugly! I actually love Shakespeare's works. Based on that and how funny I find his characterization in Apocrypha to be, I might just have him show up in this fanfic just to have that one character who is a massive joke.
So, leave a review. Constructive criticism will be accepted. Flames will be used to make s'mores. See ya!
