Interlude 1: Start of a Story
Ah, you're finally here. Welcome, my old acquaintance. It's been a while since our meeting, hasn't it?
I'll be honest; I am both amazed that you're here and not at the same time. You're familiar with this plane of existence, are you not? I know that, despite being alive and from the modern day, succeed in doing what Mages that dedicated their entire life to searching for did not.
Hmm? I see, you were not supposed to be here in the first place… Yes, your soul was sent to that place. Still, this is a major achievement: you somehow "survived" and made your way here just for little old me. I'm touched.
Now then, where do we begin? At the start and go from there as all good stories go? The end and move backwards? Or maybe the middle and try piecing together what happened before? That last one was how I stumbled into this story but I'm sure you know that. However, that also let me start from the beginning too. Sounds complicated, doesn't it?
I suppose you deserve an explanation. In exchange, you tell me what you know, understand? There are a lot of blank spaces for me too.
From my perspective, it happened out of the blue. I was relaxing in my tower, but at the same time, I was doing my duty as a Servant of Chaldea. I'm sure you heard of it. Maybe my former Master mentioned it once or twice.
…Actually, I'd be surprised if he brought it up at all. From our encounter, I can tell he's still pained by leaving it.
Where was I? Oh yes, doing my duties as a Servant.
"MERLIN YOU SON OF A BITCH!" The furious shouting echoed through the halls of Chaldea, cursing the name of King Arthur's court mage. In any other place, something like that would warrant some sort of reaction from those who head (in this case, basically the entirety of the base). However, this was Chaldea where that sort of thing was common— especially when it came to Merlin.
"Apologies, I forgot that was a dislike of yours," Merlin tried to feign ignorance for whatever "mistake" he made but it was clear from his Cheshire grin he was enjoying it. What he wouldn't enjoy was the arrows being pelted at him but that's why he made himself scarce.
What did you say? No, I do not take pleasure in being an annoyance to others. That's simply absurd.
No, I am not grinning. This is just my resting face. Can I continue with my tale now?
Escaping out into the halls, Merlin wandered through the base for some time. He politely greeted all he passed by and while most did the same return, a couple scowled and didn't say anything. At least the versions of his Kings (excluding that Caster that was fond of Master who simply floated away) were cordial. He wouldn't say that was all that mattered to him, but Merlin wasn't going to deny it was nice.
Some time afterwards, Merlin found himself in front of Novum Chaldea's command room. He heard the sound of people talking coming from inside and while he'd usually walk off, he decided to grace them with his presence. Hopefully, they won't try killing him too.
Hey! I'll let you know I was one of the best Servants Chaldea had! Er… I mean I was a valuable member of the fighting force even if I didn't do most of the fighting myself. Every good battalion needs a support company, you know.
When he entered the command room, Merlin was greeted not by arrows or the likes (thankfully) but by a warm hello from his Master. His Master asked what brought him there and he answered, "I'm simply a victim of fate."
That response in turn got a snarky reply from the Head Technician about them being the real victims since Merlin was there.
"Why are you still mad over that comment? You are no longer a Caster anymore," asked Merlin. The technician replied that it didn't matter if she was a Rider or Caster, what mattered was Merlin still being a pain.
"Anyway, Merlin, nothing bad's happening, I hope? I heard Atalanta shouting." his Master asked.
"Oh, don't worry about that Master," the Caster tried to convince him it was nothing but most likely failed. He might have great charisma but it was impossible to lie through that. "I was passing through and decided to stop by. And what were you discussing?"
"Just some preliminary planning for the next Lostbelt," he answered. "It won't be long before we'd have to head there again."
What is a Lostbelt you may ask?
…No? Oh, that's right. You and my former Master encountered something similar on several occasions. I suppose I don't need to explain what Servants are either considering that particular event.
At the time, Chaldea was preparing to infiltrate the fifth Lostbelt. What happened there, we can talk another time. Back to the story.
As he wasn't part of the infiltration team, Merlin saw no need to dig deeper now. He could do that some other time. However, as he was leaving, someone called for him.
The Atlasean researcher told him she detected an odd reading on one of the machines within the bleached wasteland that was now the Earth's surface. It was still a long way before they at Chaldea would learn the truth of the white surface but that was for another time (again).
In any case, the researcher detailed where the energy reading was on the globe and requested Merlin to investigate using his clairvoyance. Had it been any other time, Merlin wouldn't give it much thought and ignored the request; however, he was not only in a good mood, but his curiosity was also piqued.
And so, with his abilities, Merlin used his vision to look into that part of the world. It was a breeze to locate his target. With only white as far as the eye could see, the two figures fighting stood out like a sore thumb (and Merlin was accustomed to sore thumbs in more ways than one).
The two fighters were in rather distinct armour that covered them from head to toe—one in a knightly chrome while the other in pink and black. For the next few minutes, the mage watched them duel presumably to the death, but he knew that it was the latter fighter who'd come out on top. He was clearly stronger and more skilled; the other warrior could scarcely land an effective blow on him.
The pink warrior also near-literally had a few cards up his sleeve. After cutting through a fireball from the knight, the pink one slid a card into his pink buckle—
Yes, yes, I know it's magenta… but calling it pink is more fun.
—and split himself into three duplicates that quickly went on to beat his opponent to the ground.
Merlin wondered whether he should intervene. That was his usual stance on things and he was only supposed to only investigate. However, something was telling him he should stop this—before the pink one did something he'd come to regret. He didn't know why at first… until he spoke.
"Now then… the finisher."
Suddenly, the odd feeling he had made sense but at the same time, nothing else did. After all, Merlin was just speaking to his Master in Chaldea a few minutes ago; why was he standing here in the wasteland now? And in some dumb-looking suit?
Merlin watched as who he believed was his Master stepped on his opponent's chest and raised his blade. A part of him still wanted to wait and see—after all, it couldn't possibly be him… until he spoke again.
"Sorry, Touma. If we had another path ahead of us, I would have chosen that future instead."
The grief in his voice was what convinced Merlin it was his Master, or at least a version of him. As his other Master brought down his sword to end his defeated opponent's life, Merlin only spoke a single word— "Stop."
After that, you know what happens next; I need not say more. All I can tell you is what I felt at the time.
To put it in as few words as possible, I was intrigued and saddened by what I saw of my Master. I know that one day, should he succeed in saving humanity again, he might want to return to a normal life. It would have been impossible, of course, especially in hindsight but seeing where fate led him… it truly is cruel, isn't it? Not just to him, but to you all as well.
But I'm getting ahead of myself; let me resume where I left off.
As you know, I managed to stop my former Master from slaying you and wished you both off. After that, my consciousness returned to Chaldea and I told our dear liaison… nothing. I saw no reason in telling her or anyone anything of what transpired that day. After all, it was still a possibility and the fewer people who knew, the better.
But I kept my eye out. I was invested in that potential future more so than I usually would be with anything. Seeing my Master nearly plunge into despair and what led to that was too tempting for me to ignore. And for the longest while, there was nothing. No future could be seen.
Until one day, the time came for him to leave. One day, Chaldea was faced with a foe unlike any other… for the umpteenth time. But this time… he didn't return from that battle. His final battle with Chaldea came that day, and he was lost to us in the blink of an eye. All he needed to do was hang on and believed everyone could pull him out without getting dragged into danger too…
Unfortunately for us, he'd rather throw away his own life rather than put those he held dear in danger. He let go and accepted whatever fate had for him. Everyone believed it to be death but not me. I believed his fate was something else.
I'll skip over what transpired in our world; it isn't relevant to us now. But in my tower, I kept watching and waiting. Half of me believed his path was now set towards the one I encountered all those years ago… and the other part of me believed he died. It would save him the pain his potential self went through.
Then one day, one half was proven right and the other wrong. What did I see, you may ask? Simple, I saw him. What allowed me to see him, going through what he did could be called a miracle but it was not. I'm sure you know why; it is the same reason you are here now. The same reason you were born and your story was written.
I'm getting ahead of myself again, aren't I? Allow me to step back.
One day, as I was watching the world and people living their lives, I saw it by pure happenstance— a rift between dimensions. A tear in the fabric of space-time caused by… well, you know. And through it, I saw my old Master, desperately trying to stop what was transpiring. Ah… I still remember his pleas that day.
We're supposed to protect people! Why do we have to fight?!
Stop! Please! Stop it!
Everyone… why…
It was the first time it happened as far as I'm aware. But that wouldn't change how much he must've suffered, to watch his own friends tear each other apart. Were any of them in the wrong? No, I believe not. If anything, my stance is the same as my former Master would later take. But there was little that could've been done by him or anyone. In the end, everything was lost and my former Master was left to weep in the ruins.
But not surprisingly, he didn't. He pushed through it and tried searching for the truth behind the first tragedy.
As for what happened next… I cannot say. The tear repaired itself and I lost sight of him. But that's where you come in, hmm? You may not have been there, but you are aware of everything that led to that point. So now then, why don't we swap roles and you be the storyteller, Saber?
A/N: …Yeah, so I wrote this while I was supposed to write the final part of the Ryuki arc. Sorry about that. Well, sort of good news about that, it has past the 10k word count mark and I'm nearly done with the central portion of the chapter. The beginning and end of the chapter are done, I just gotta finish up the big fight scene that has way too many characters in it (why do I do this to myself). In fact, I'm procrastinating so much on it that I wrote the beginning of the next arc already…
So while I procrastinate on the fight scene, I bring you the first interlude of Across the Kaleidoscope. I decided to throw this in cause… well, there's too little connecting things to the Nasuverse besides alternate versions of the characters. There's a lot of mystery I set up regarding the backstory of AtK so why not kill two birds with one stone and write a little side story about Merlin and my AR Saber talking about Ritsuka's past?
Just a simple one this time, just detailing a bit of Merlin's PoV of the flashback events of chapter 25 and I retconned a minor thing mentioned a while back but it's minuscule at best so it should be fine. The next interlude (which hopefully isn't the next chapter) will be a bit more lore-dumpy but I'll be excited to write it cause I get to do something new and actually flesh out one of my OCs beyond their arcs.
Anyway, apologies again for the massive delay, please leave a review and see you all next time!