AN: Did you miss me? "Have a Little Feith," nope, not Prince John either. "klim770," I'll probably change those names later…but they were for ease of identification at the moment. "Rubberforumfree," if I feel comfortable enough to do so, yes. For those who asked, the difference between mainline and Alter in this is basically that one didn't hide their gender, and that same one was more heavy handed in dealing with problems. "Cole shiryu," he will die, just not yet. "94mr3," I'll stick with Joan, it's what I learned, and it's easier than writing Jeanne. Time to start it up.
Speech
Thought, magical communication
Higher Being (i.e. Demon, Grail, ect) speaking, Berserker Class talking, Scene/POV change
Higher Being thinking
Interlude: Meet your servants Part 2
Naruto's Soul Scape: Second Memory Sphere
The blond opened his eyes and took in the memory he had arrived in. He was in a small rural village, judging from the architecture and garb he would guess during the Medieval period of European history. Children were laughing and playing, and adults were going about the business of keeping the community running.
His perspective was that of a young girl, barely in her teens. He soon realized this was Joan's memories. His contemplation of the idealic village scene was broken when a French sentry rushed into the town shouting that an English column had been sighted heading their way.
For a second it was deathly still, but then the village burst into a flurry of movement as they tried to evacuate. It was commendable how fast they managed it, and how little they actually took…Just what was irreplaceable to them. They headed towards a wooded hill that would conceal them, and managed to get themselves hidden within the trees a minute before the English arrived.
They weren't anything out of the ordinary, infantry in gambesons and four knights in plate. It was obviously a raiding party, a fact reinforced when they started breaking into homes and piling valuables onto carts. When they had picked the village over for the best parts, they burned it to the ground before returning the way they came. This episode solidified a hatred for the English within Joan.
After this his perspective jumped around, showing him various scenes of her life. Ranging from when she first received her mission to save France, to her first true battle at Orleans. From the March to Rheims, to the skirmish that cost her own freedom…And finally her death at the stake. She died with no regrets. At least none she was conscious of.
Which puzzled Naruto as he was thrown out of the memory sphere, as far as he knew, only those with strong desires could be called forth to fight in the Grail War. So how did someone with no regrets wind up as his servant? He thought hard on it. But he could not think of a valid reason why, at least until he looked at it from the other side.
What reason would HE summon her for? Obviously there was something here to learn. He didn't use a lance/gun combo like her, though now he should be able to as well as her after living her memories. The more he thought, the less it made sense…Until it clicked. She wasn't there to teach him how to fight, or how to lead, but rather, to reinforce what his teachers had already told him to go forward, and never regret his actions.
Committing that lesson to heart, he selected another orb; and was whisked away into another of his servant's lives.
Third Sphere:
The first thing he saw was rolling hills and emerald green grass. Then he heard the sound of weapons clashing. Focusing in on the fighting, he saw a bored looking woman beating a fully armored knight was a wooden training spear. While he hadn't gotten a good look at her fighting style, it was obvious this was Scathach.
The spear woman was far more skilled than the knight, and within seconds the knight caught a spear tip through his throat. The knight stopped mid motion, and collapsed to his knees as Scathach withdrew her spear with a disappointed sigh.
This would not be the last display of skill he saw. Hundreds of knights and warriors came to fight her…none were successful. This unbeaten streak and her reputation found her several potential students. One of whom would go onto become the Hound of Ulster, Cu Chulainn.
She however, despite her fame and prowess, just wanted to find someone able to best her in battle, or more accurately kill her. She was weary of the world and everything, believing her life not worth living. It was a view that clashed strongly with Naruto's own, and he privately promised himself to have words with the Irish heroine about not holding her own life in high enough regard.
The thing that struck him beyond that was that from her memories, it should be impossible for her to exist in the throne, as the original Scathach still resided in the Land
Of Shadows. He didn't want to contemplate the chaos the two would cause in their clash if they ever met.
After that realization, he arrived back in his own soul scape, and selected his next orb, one of scarlet and gold.
Fourth Sphere:
The ancient city of Roma rose around Naruto as he faded into the memories. This Rome had yet to reach the zenith of its power, but still the city was beautiful, and there was an underlying feeling of strength here...Like a beautifully embroidered velvet glove, over a steel gauntlet.
Soon though he was whisked away to the Imperial Palace, where he bore witness to the mother of his Roman servant poisoning her, as a warning not to defy Agripina. His blood boiled at the act, much like it did any injustice he saw.
It was a whirlwind from there, political bickering, fighting battles alongside her soldiers...An incident where she didn't care that a soldier had seen her nude…Her actions in the gladitorial arena. Then the Great Fire of Rome which led to the persecution of Christians, though at least in this version she wasn't "playing the fiddle while Rome burned" but had been organizing a response.
He felt a bit of admiration for this version of Nero; she was a true Emperor and Roman in the old pattern. But unfortunately, all good things come to an end. He witnessed her fall into despair at the rebellion in Gaul, and then its repeat...Which led to her deposment, and her suicide.
Nero was, and is he reflected, a complex individual, if there was a lesson for him to learn from her, besides how to command attention and the love of the people, it was to never rely on popularity. The masses are fickle, and will turn on those who aid them, or at least abandon them in their hour of need. While he would continue to believe that humanity was capable of immense good, this would be a warning he heeded to not rely on good natures.
As he was spat out of this orb, he wound up touching a black and red orb, and getting sucked in.
Fifth Sphere:
What he saw was a battle. By this point he was no stranger to the sight. Usually he was among the victors, but this time, he stood among the fleeing force. Their armor and weapons placed them in the "Dark Ages," then he caught sight of their banner, they were Saxons.
As he realized that he was drawn to the sound of horse hooves, and saw the charge of heavily knights…From the wrong side. It was rather unsettling to see lances being used by heavy cavalry to run down hapless infantry from the perspective of the infantry.
The lead figure was clad in black armor and riding dress, and upon her head was a crown, making her instantly recognizable as Queen Artoria. She was ruthless in the fight, not a single enemy she ran across lived, and she led from the front, he could somehow feel the esteem the men who followed her had.
She was the ideal image for a strong female ruler in that time. She was tough and ruthless, like a lioness defending her primacy. She was also an astute politician, balancing the egos and desires of her various lords without being weakened…and destroying those who stepped too far out of line. Though the Queen's skill in politics and war was counterbalanced by a ruthless willingness to sacrifice everything and anything for critical, and sometimes minor, advantages over the enemies of Britain…this cold hearted logic won her few friends, but it worked.
But for all her skill, she didn't see the one betrayal that ended her reign coming. Watching from a quasi-outsider's prospective he was able to see the signs, the knights were exhausted, and tired of the Queen's heavy handed ways. It all came to a boiling point when Sir Bors refused an order to lead an assault against an entrenched Saxon force to pin them in place.
After Bors' refusal three quarters of the army refused to follow the queen's command. A full-fledged rebellion broke out as the Saxons withdrew. The majority of the strongest knights stayed loyal. But by the end of the battle, the power of Camelot was broken forever. The grand army, the most powerful force in European history until the Hundred Years War, was shattered.
In the end, the regretful ruler abdicated, and handed her position over to her most loyal knight, Mordred, and went into exile. The queen died alone, and mourning her failure, wishing perhaps that her reign would have turned out better.
These memories upset Naruto greatly, but they reminded him of a fundamental truth. Everyone has a breaking point. Humans can only take so much, even if it is for the greater good of a nation, before their will shatters. And when a human breaks, they will attack that which broke them. But the blond decided he would talk with the dark clad monarch about this in private, he wouldn't share her failure unless given permission.
With that he was once again returned to his soulscape to select another orb. This time the sphere was one of pure gold.
Sixth Sphere:
The city that rose around him was a Bronze Age city, a bustling one at that. The citizenry were busy with their daily lives, their language was one he wasn't familiar with, but then he started to understand the tongue…he knew it was ancient Sumerian now. That meant this was Gilgamesh's memories.
He expected to be whisked away to the palace, and watch her daily ruling of the kingdom. Instead he found himself following a robbed girl, he estimated she was eight, as she ran from the guards with several loaves of bread in her arms.
From the reactions of the populace, this was a fairly common occurrence. And he could tell the guards weren't really trying to catch the girl. And knowing what he did of whose memories he was viewing he extrapolated that the guards knew this was Gilgamesh.
The young girl evaded her pursuers, and Naruto finally saw why his blonde haired servant stole the bread when she handed it out to a group of orphans. This reinforced his initial idea that her statement about being able to take Rin as a concubine was a test.
From there it was a whirlwind, much like before, of memories. He watched her ascend to the throne, and how she dealt with the corrupt officials in the government. Her creation of several orphanages around the city paid for out of her own pocket. The reforms to aid farmers in their work, as well as her other efforts to bring prosperity to the city state of Urak.
Once the home front was secured, the army was the next to see improvement. Their forces were reorganize, and with the Queen at their head, Urak's army conquers vast swaths of Sumeria, creating one of the first empires in history.
All this success caught the eyes of several gods. All of whom she spurned and sent back with battered egos. Finally after one too many rejections by the proud Golden Queen, the great warrioress Enkidu was unleashed against her.
The two fought for three days and three nights, perfectly matched. In the end the two collapse, in exhaustion, though the two women soon start laughing. It is the beginning of a lifelong friendship.
This displeased the Sumerian gods, who unleashed the Bull of Heaven to destroy the empire of Gilgamesh. The Bull rampaged for seven long years; no mortal weapon could harm it...Gilgamesh and Enkidu tried again and again to stop it, but failed. Eventually, after countless failures, the two forged chains so strong that it stopped the bull long enough for them to find its one weakspot, and kill it.
Enraged at this act of defiance beyond all reasoning, the gods decided to punish the blonde queen by destroying her one friend, turning Enkidu back into the clay she was made of. This did not break the queen, as they believed; rather it sent her on a quest to conquer death itself.
They threw everything they could short of themselves at her to stop her. But they failed. The queen found the fruit of immortality, and devoured it. Gilgamesh then turned her attention to the gods who had so interfered with her life. She had only sought out the fruit to avenge herself upon the gods.
For over a hundred years, Gilgamesh hunted down and murdered every single god in the pantheon. Her new immortality allowed her all the freedom she needed to claim victory over her hated foes. She only spared the goddesses Ishtar and Ereshkigal, perhaps out of pity…or perhaps so when all was said and done her people would still have beings able to answer their prayers.
After her near genocide of the entire pantheon, Gilgamesh vanished, falling into a deep slumber on her world, her soul wondering the multiverse.
His lesson from this trip through his servant's memories was to value his real friends more than anything, something he already understood, but the value of the lesson wasn't lost on him. He also learned why several maguses had theorized why humanity was better off now that the "age of gods" was past, a valuable lesson in and of itself.
There were only three spheres left now. One that was blue and gold, another that was blue and silver, and the last was red and black. He took a second to decide, before selecting the blue and gold one.
Seventh Sphere:
He was riding on a horse, behind "King Arthur," who was clad in heavy armor. Surprisingly though, they weren't wielding Excalibur…But rather Rhongomynia, a holy spear/lance that gave more striking power on the charge.
A fact readily illustrated when she drove the spear through the armored bulk of a golem summoned by a Saxon mage battalion. The golem in question was thirty meters tall, and shod in steel, and yet the lance pierced straight through the armor.
The charge of fully armored knights against unprepared warriors, who had relied on the golems to stop the Pendragon Knights, was more devastating than the ones he had seen the "Dark Artoria" pull off. The Saxons were smashed utterly by the charge. Hundreds died in the initital charge's impact, with thousands more dying in the ensuing melee.
The Saxons withdrew, rather than be massacred, and were allowed. This version of "King Arthur" was obviously an ideal representation of chivalry. Much like the dark version, she held the awe and respect of her soldiers, so much so that none dared contradict her.
After the battle, much like before, it was a whirlwind of watching her govern and rule. She was fair and just, and ruled with a gentle but firm hand. The laws of the land were fair, but strictly enforced.
She was able to balance her knights personalities and goals, and the needs of her kingdom. Needed a bandit insurrection put down? Send Kay this time, and send Tristain to secure supplies for the army, and make sure he knew it was important to assuage his ego…Ect.
Indeed, even though they knew what the queen was doing, they loved her for it. The one dark spot on her record was her relation with Mordred, or rather how it ended. Mordred was her most loyal knight, no matter what the command was, the illegitimate "son" of this Artoria was the first to volunteer, and never complained. The silver and crimson armored knight was one of the most vigorous defenders of Camelot.
However, that ended at the battle of Camlan. Unlike in other timelines, Camlan wasn't the sight of a civil war…Rather it was the site of the final battle against the Saxons. It was a bloody battle, forty thousand Britons vs four hundred thousand Saxons.
Like always Artoria led from the front, her lance claiming numerous lives with each thrust. However this time the Saxons deployed dragons and golems en masse, even with the super human efforts of the Knights of the Round Table the Britons were losing. After several hours of fighting, Artoria was about to be killed by a silver dragon the Saxons had called forth.
She was a little too slow in getting out of the way; it looked like the "king" was going to be lunch soon. But ever loyal Mordred threw her liege out of the way, the last sight of the knight he saw was a smile on her unhelmed face as the jaws of the dragon snapped shut.
The death of Mordred caused the Ruler of Brittania to gain new strength and vigor that she didn't know she possessed. Dragon after dragon fell before the enraged monarch. The wrath of Artoria rekindled her faltering army's moral, and they made one final push that shattered the Saxons.
Despite her rage, she kept to her code of chivalry and let them flee with their lives, to spread the word of their defeat. Indeed, this one fact saved England from invasion for another five hundred years, and when the Vikings invaded, they were beaten back by the newest generation of Knights of that time. Artoria didn't know that at the time though, she did find out after the fact.
She had brought peace and prosperity to her war torn nation, ascending to a state of deification. The sole wish this great ruler had was to properly reward Mordred for her loyalty.
Naruto was lost in thought for a long time, mulling over all the differences in that version of the tale of King Arthur, before he selected his next sphere, a red and silver one.
Eight Sphere:
The first thing he saw when he entered this set of memories was a six year old blonde in a red dress fighting a fully grown man in plate armor. The blonde was agile, and surprisingly strong for her age, but it was a hopeless contest. The knight easily brushed aside the girl, and inevitably disarmed her.
The knight had her dead to rights, but an older woman intervened. He instantly recognized her as Morgana Le Fey, which meant the young girl was Mordred in her early years of training. He knew that the witch could be cruel, one does not earn a reputation for mercy by twisting their child into an instrument to strike down their sister after all, but he expected Morgana to at least give a little praise for lasting as long as she did vs a knight.
Instead she slapped Mordred for failing to defeat the knight, and berated her for failing. This was only the beginning of the hell that Mordred's training encompassed. For thirteen long years, she was put through every hellish method of training her "mother" could conceive of. By the time the knight was fourteen she had already slain forty men in combat and knew how to survive the twisted and sadistic traps her "mother" used. When she was eighteen she killed a dragon by herself.
Upon the completion of that deed, Mordred sent her to infiltrate Camelot. Initially Mordred followed her "mother's" orders to the letter, but the longer she spent in Camelot the more of a sense of comradery she felt. For the first time she felt like she was worth more than just a tool to carry out her "mother's" will.
During her time there she became well respected by the populace, and trusted by her fellow knights. But no matter what she did, her "father" never acknowledged her deeds beyond that of a knight. Even so she was close to fully turning against Morgana.
But then the witch played her trump card. She played to her need for acceptance and legitimacy by claiming that "Arthur" would never allow her to take the throne, whereas if Morgana won she would enthrone Mordred, as the witch had "no desire for the throne."
This planted doubt in the knight, and it ate at her for months, until she finally approached her "king" with the truth. "Arthur" was seemingly uncaring, and said she would not be a worthy king. This shattered Mordred and threw her back into the waiting arms of Morgana and her plot.
Time flew by as she planted the seeds for rebellion. When the Lancelot affair came to light she hesitated, but still carried out the rebellion in its wake. Deep down though she still desired her "father's" approval; as such before Camalan she parlayed with the "king," trying to prevent bloodshed.
Morgana would have none of it, and conjured a snake. One of the rebels saw it, and without thinking went to kill it, thus sparking the battle. It was brutality made manifest. Comrade against comrade, brother against brother, father against son; thousands of noble Britons died, all over a misunderstanding.
The battle dragged on and on. But eventually Mordred came face to face with her sire, who stood atop a small hill of slain knights who had followed the newly named "Knight of Treachery."
The duel between the two was a grand one. The myths failed to capture the fighting properly, indeed words failed to describe it. In the end, none of that mattered, it ended with a double death; with Mordred having mortally wounded the "King" and having been run through on the spear of the lord of Brittania.
Mordred's sole wish was to have a chance to prove her "father" wrong about her worthiness, and receive recognition as their child. It was a tragic tale that made him angry, while Kiritsugu hadn't been perfect the man had tried, which was more than he could say for Morgana.
He was also annoyed at how the blue clad Artoria saber treated Morded. But he put it aside, he still had one last sphere to go though, that of said "King."
Ninth Sphere:
"If you take up the sword, you will lock your destiny to a path of pain and sorrow." Those were the words the wizard Merlin spoke to the, at the time, young Artoria Pendragon. The young woman hesitated for but a moment, before continuing on.
Certain in her path: "If that is what is needed to save this land, and its people, then I shall make that sacrifice." The legendary sword Caliborn came out of the stone with ease at her touch, starting the legend of "King Arthur."
The closest legend to this version of King Arthur's reign he was aware of was that compiled in "The Once and Future King." There were still parts that differed, such as the "King" technically being a Queen…Merlin having to make an artificial penis for Artoria to get an heir…And Merlin being a nearly unsurpassed pervert, as well as several others.
They also got the "King's" time on the throne wrong, she ruled for only twenty years before Camalan occurred. Camalan was a harsh event for her. It had been preceeded first by the affair of her Queen and Lancelot, and Artoria's unwillingness to punish them, as she wanted two of her best friends to be happy…and also by Mordred's confrontation with her about the knight's parentage.
That last incident she somewhat regretted, but at the same time she had not seen anything ruler worthy in Mordred besides her strength…And it takes more than strength to rule well. Perhaps if the "king" had gone about it a different way, coaching and tutoring her "son," Mordred would have made a wonderful king…But she felt at the time that there was no time to do so. As they say though, "hindsight is twenty twenty."
Camalan itself was a bloodbath. All the heroic poetry and stories wouldn't be able to cover that up. Britain bled itself dry in a civil war it could ill afford. In the end Artoria and Mordred faced off on a mound of dead knights, mainly traitor. It was an intense fight, neither had the advantage…In the end it was a double death, both Pendragons dying at the other's hands.
This version of Artoria's sole wish was that someone else better suited would have become king. Naruto, despite not being pleased with how she ruled, knew that this was the height of folly. To erase her rule in favor of an unknown would not only purge one of the most iconic figures of Chivalry from history, but also her legendary knights and their deeds…For where else but Camelot would those knights have been able to accomplish as much as they did?
As he slowly woke, Naruto resolved to speak with his servants privately about what he saw…And help heal what wounds he could.
CHAPTER COMPLETE!
NEXT TIME: Day 2: Breakfast
Omake: Three months after the last one
Shirou sat behind a desk filing "paperwork," as he liked to call it. It had been three months since the Dothraki princess had crossed the narrow seas pursuing him, three months since he had to physically intervene and defeat both warrioresses.
He had thought that would be the end of it, but apparently he blundered into a Drothraki custom he wasn't aware of. Apparently defeated a khal, or khaliese in this case, gives you control over their forces, and in the case of a khaliese weds you to them.
Initially there was an uproar, after all it was a dishonor for the crown princess to wed someone in a polygamous relation. However the Baratheon princess was the one to put an end to that by pointing out that Targaryens had done so in the past.
And so he found himself wedding the two with no way to escape. The wedding went off without a hitch, well if you didn't count the after party. When Houses Tyrel and Dorne both mentioned having daughters old enough to wed him, what was more wives when someone already had two after all…Shirou really hoped they were joking.
The biggest surprise that night was when King Robert had handed control over Harrenhal to Shirou. That castle commanded a strategic position, and was the largest to exist in all of Westeros, in Robert's words "the perfect place to care for his daughter and his other new hellion of a bride."
Harrenhal would have been an issue to man if he just starting out…thankfully though the garrison stayed on, and the mercenary groups that pledged their loyalty to him came across the narrow sea to serve him again…plus a joint Baratheon Lanister contingent of guard. All told that was about fourteen thousand soldiers, and that was before the great horde of Drothraki he had inherited through wedding Dathrome, forty thousand riders and eighty thousand "camp followers."
They Drothraki forces were undisciplined, and that was priority one, making them disciplined enough to stay in Westros so they could serve their new Khal…He was strongly considering training them to operate like dragoons, keeping them on horseback, but if need be they would be able to fight well dismounted…as well as making sure they didn't raid and loot the lands under their protection. There had of course been push back, but defeating them in single combat had earned the dissenters' obedience if nothing else.
Time would tell if they would be ready when King Robert died to intervene in the war to prevent the white walkers from facing a weakened Westros. Now he just had to decide on a blasted sigil to separate the "modern" house Targaryen from the past one…A silver version of the famed dragon on a blue backdrop seemed to make the most sense.
At that moment, just as he finished filing for the new banner, his sister barged in. From the look on her face this was going to be another long day.
List of Revealed Servants:
?: "John of Nottingham," Prince Hector, and Cu Chulaain
Rin: Archer, Sir Gawain, and Assassin
Naruto: Artoria, Mordred, Lancer Artoria, Queen Arturia, Gilgamesh Queen of Heroes, Nero, Joan of Arc, Young Artoria, and Scathach
Shinji Matou(?): Unknown Knight, ?, and ?
?: ?, ?, and ?
?: ?, ?, and ?
?, ?, and ?: ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, and ?
Anyways, review please.