Chapter 7.
The Illegitimate Mage, Rosa
I.
Gabriel felt extremely out-of-sorts, not quite sure of where he was going or why. Though the extremely active and excess-oriented Parisian nightlife did tend to have that effect on the young and reckless members of its community, and despite Gabriel's many flaws and inability to recognize when he was at his limit, this time felt altogether different. Yes, he had done a few tabs of acid along with some pills an unknown fellow handed him, and perhaps chased them with a half-dozen or so shots, but he had felt like his usual invincible self up to that point. Despite having been thrown out of the club for his violent and antagonizing behavior, Gabriel remembered it as an amicable parting of ways with his good evening companions. He had been on his way to another club he regarded as fond of his brand of lively and spirited hi-jinks when he'd met a young girl- no, that can't be right. There had been... Gabriel's mind was everywhere all at once.
There hadn't been a girl. He had just left the club and started walking. Where was he walking? There was something he was looking for. The young lady had told him- what young lady? Why did he think there was a woman involved? He hadn't yet run into a young woman in a strange military-like uniform. He was looking for a woman. Yeah, that was it. He was on the prowl for a pretty lady to spend the end of his night with. Gabriel stroked his poorly maintained and unevenly cut goatee as he continued on. Yeah, that was it, time to find a good girl fit for a good-looking guy like him.
Considering the teetering drunkenly pace Gabriel set, it wasn't hard for Louise to keep up. The hypnosis usually made people a little slower in their movements, but this man was also strung out on numerous substances. Gabriel's own questionable lifestyle had helped the spell hit him with full force on initial casting, but the other chemicals interfered with the spell as it was active, causing the target to float in and out of influence on occasion. Louise wasn't too worried about it as he was working so far, and any lucidity only lasted moments, her removal of her own existence from his memory had made a full break nearly impossible.
Gabriel had been an easy enough mark. Louise had traveled north a few miles, having read the nightlife of Paris was a little more active there, and found him being thrown out of Le Caveau de la Huchette, a somewhat popular late night spot. She decided to tail him a bit and make sure he was alone before confronting him a few blocks away on the Rue de la Harpe. He had been so out of his own head from everything he'd imbibed in the club that Louise didn't even have to pretend to initiate a conversation before she had him in her hypnotic grasp. From there she imprinted a description of Rosa in his mind and sent him walking. If he found her, Louise and Rider would spring their trap before any harm could befall the young man. If several hours passed without incident, Louise would free him from the hypnosis and leave him to wallow in the myriad hangovers drink, drug, and magic all collectively had in store for him.
-"Master this is ludicrous. This is far more north of where you met her before. There is no guarantee that she'll appear here. And this man is frankly embarrassing. He's clearly incapable of holding his drink, which as a true gentleman myself, I find utterly pitiful."- Rider, in spirit form, was making a point of voicing his dissent in regards to the plan every few minutes. He was not one for silence at the best of times, and he felt that this was a situation he needed to be vocal about as much as possible.
Louise responded to this last outburst the same way she had responded to the few before it: Absolute silence. She was not in the mood to continue arguing what she considered a moot point, as well as not wanting to let Rider constantly pick the time and place for their arguments. She needed focus anyway, concentrated as she was on feeding strands of mana into Gabriel to help maintain his current state.
-"Very well. But I warn you, my patience for this farce wears thin..."- Rider had prepared more dissent to voice, but before he could, something caught the collectives of eyes of himself, Louise, and Gabriel.
Now on the Rue Hautefeuille, Gabriel found his gaze pointedly drawn towards a young woman walking the opposite direction on the other side of the street. She was attractive, sure, but hardly the type he usually went for. He preferred more club-looking girls, but this chick, with the long backless dress and opera gloves looked like she'd be more at home in some quiet sit-down restaurant than hitting the town with him. But something about the girl drew him towards her. He just felt that this was the kind of girl he was looking for. Not in a meaningful, metaphorical sense, but the girl he was looking for right now in this moment. He'd been told to, given instructions to find her. Why was he given instructions? Who was telling him to do things, telling him to find a specific girl especially? No, he needed to find her. He needed to talk to her. Tell her... something. He needed to get her attention. Had to find out something about her.
Gabriel, faster than he had moved in the meandering that had led up to this point, slid across the narrow street to bar the path of the young woman. She at first seemed to not notice the inebriated man now blocking her path, and tottered to the right to go around him. Gabriel, his thoughts still swimming and confused, but knowing he needed to speak with this woman said the first thing that popped into his mind. "Hey bébé, where you going?" Smooth as ever.
The woman made a sort of grumble before muttering under breath as a reply. "Name's not bébé..."
Gabriel positioned himself in her path more completely, and leaned down near her face. "Sorry bébé I couldn't quite hear ya down there, petite little thing. Wanna speak up?" Oh yeah, this was going perfectly, Gabriel wasn't going to be lonely tonight.
"My name." She looked up revealing the twisted scar on her left eye to the reprobate. "My name. Isn't. Isn't bébé."
Gabriel cocked his dilated unfocused eye in confusion. Why was she so upset? Things were going great. Chicks love when you call them pet names during first meetings. He was supposed to find her. That's what the woman had sa- that's what he was supposed to do. Why would the chick he was supposed to meet be so mad at him? "Eh? What's that bébé?"
"My name. The woman he loved. My name is ROSA!" She roared at him, her true unhinged nature now on display, her knife and pick immediately in her hands, her sad eyes burning a hole in the young man's chest. Just as suddenly as Rosa's temperament had shifted, so too had Berserker appeared at Gabriel's side. With a single swift motion the Servant scooped his head into the grip of their long gangling fingers. The momentum on the motion sent the young man careening down a nearby alleyway. In time with Gabriel's violent departure from the space he had only moments before occupied, the Master and Servant duo followed quickly behind.
Louise had little time to react, Berserker's appearance being as sudden as ever. -"Rider!"- Calling out mentally to her Servant she was running in pursuit of they quarry as quickly as she could.
-"I'm on them Master! You make sure to extricate the young man immediately. I'll keep the
Servant busy."- Rider shifted out of spirit form, and with a blast of supernatural speed, flew down the alleyway ahead of his Master.
Rosa had Gabriel on the ground and was kicking him repeatedly in the stomach, each strike sending a strangled gasp of pain from the young clubber who was, at this point, quickly sobering up. Her weapons were drawn, but Rosa wasn't yet ready to kill him. The man she perceived as the reincarnated form of Boxtell needed to suffer. "Bastard! Monster bastard man! Kill you! Kill him! Killed him! Killed Cornelius! Monster!" The usual threats and insults rolled out of Rosa's crazed and enraged mouth. Berserker walked a tight circle around the scene, not wanting to interfere or participate, but wanting to make sure the young man had no means to escape.
"Hey, c'mon bébé... uugggh." Gabriel coughed violently as he tried to speak. "What's, ergh, what's wrong? Why you so mad?"
"GRAAAAHHHH!" Rosa brought the pick down, her restraint breaking under the weight of Gabriel's ridiculous words, and drove the weapon through his shoulder. The sound of the metal popping between the joints was a sickly accompaniment to the violence on display. She delivered one more swift kick into Gabriel's stomach that sent him tumbling several feet away. Rosa took a pair of stumbling steps as she raised the knife up, its polished steel reflecting the illumination of the nearby streetlight.
There was the sound of clashing steel and Rosa watched her knife go clattering across the dusty concrete. Rider stood at the mouth of the alley with his pistol leveled at the unhinged Master, smoke wafting from the hot barrel. The delay provided by Rider's intervention was enough for Louise to arrive on the scene, herself armed with catalytic stones in hand.
Louise, adopting her loftiest tone called out to Rosa, "Leave him be! That man is an innocent and has no part in the Grail War! You have no right or authority to end his life!"
Rider was aware of the irony inherent in Louise's statement, but decided now was not the best time to call her out on it.
"Well? Who is she? You know her? I don't know her. Who knows her? Does she know YOU Berserker?" Rosa echoed the same words she had said when the opposing Masters had first met. She seemed altogether uninterested in answering Louise's command, assuming she had even registered the proclamation in the first place.
"I do in fact know her. And you should as well, Master." Berserker stroked the metal encasing their chin as they looked Louise up and down, an expression of surprise and admiration crossing the visible parts of their features.. "I don't believe it. The young madame we met a few days ago. Not only are you a mage, but judging by your declaration earlier and the gentleman in battle garb with pistol drawn next to you, you are in fact a Master in the Holy Grail War. Marvelous." Berserker excitedly shook Rosa's shoulder. "Master this is one of them!"
"Hwat's that?" Rosa stood with one foot lightly pushing on the pick lodged in Gabriel's shoulder, still more interested in her quarry than the people who had dared to interrupt her pursuit of violence.
"She's one of the six. The other Master's we must defeat in order to be victorious." Berserker was trying their best to rouse Rosa's excitement in a more productive direction.
"Win?" As Rosa conversed with her Servant she absentmindedly pulled the pick out of Gabriel's shoulder, a trail of gore and a wet sucking sound accompanied the casual withdrawal of the instrument, before kicking him once more across the alley.
"Yes!"
"Win. I was gonna... win, the Grail?"
"Yes Master that's right. And with the Grail you can finally have your wish granted." Berserker was very pleased that Rosa seemed to be finally on board.
"My... Wish... That's right, I- ugh, I had a... wish." Rosa's hand shot up to her scarred eye as she crumpled to the ground, muttering her incoherent words. Of all the times for him to come. He never came when she was killing Boxtell. That was the important work he had given her, why would he interrupt that now? Unless...
"Rosa. Rosa, darling, thank you so much for all you do." Rosa's back felt as though it were on fire as Cornelius spoke. "You've done very good killing Boxtell for me. But something more important is here now. It's one of the others. The others you need to kill. She's here now."
"She is?" Rosa's reply came in labored, rasping notes.
"That's right. Now go. Go my love, kill her for me." With these words Cornelius was gone once more, his phantom slithering back into the shadows to hide.
Louise and Rider exchange surprised and uncomfortable glances with one another, unsure of how to proceed with what they had originally thought would be a frantic battle, but had quickly devolved into another spectacle of an entirely different atmosphere. Berserker, noticing the confused expressions of their opponents called out to the enemy duo.
"I do apologize for my Master's behavior, this sort of thing happens from time to time. Here, one moment." Berserker held a finger up toward Louise and Rider to delay them as the masked Servant bent down to comfort their distressed Master. "Now now, my Master you must pull yourself together. We are in the middle of an important meeting and you really must present yourself accordingly. Come now, mother always taught me that we have to put away our sad emotions until our alone time. When we are before others we must be smiles and joviality. Even anger can be presented in a way that will not put a damper on the spirits of company."
Rosa slowly retrieved her dropped pick as Berserker helped her to her feet. "I'm, sorry Berserker. It was just, Cornelius. He... he wanted to talk to me. I-" tears welled up in Rosa's eyes as she spoke, "I just miss him so much."
"I know you do Master. And it will be just as I promised. We shall win the Grail War, and your wish to see him again shall be granted."
Whether it was because of Louise losing focus, being as consumed by the strange turn of events as she was, or by the shock from the excruciating pain he had been victim to, Gabriel had regained some of his self-control and was attempting to take advantage of all the confusion to slither away from the woman who had only just recently been his tormentor.
It seemed Gabriel's actions were all it took to bring Rosa fully back out of the inconvenient moment of clarity she was suffering, because the moment she perceived him attempting to escape she hurled the pick, lodging it deeply into Gabriel's back. The drunkard let out a shriek of pain and collapsed once more onto the ground as blood gushed from the new wound.
Louise took this continued attack on the civilian as the only signal she needed that battle was commenced. Wasting no time she charged and fired a trio of stones from her hand, bright beams of multi-colored destruction exploding from her grip towards Rosa. Before the attack could connect though, Berserker intercepted the magical projectiles, letting them explode against their own body with no visible damage.
And then, just as suddenly as they had appeared to guard the attack, and just as immediately as they had materialized in front of Louise the first time they met, the masked Servant was once again only inches away from the young Saint-Hermine, having abruptly popped up, their fist pulled back to deliver what would undoubtedly be a crippling blow to her. Berserker was not the only one who could protect their Master though, and Rider was quick to follow their example, throwing his weight against the attacking Servant, the two of them went tumbling across the alley, lashing out at each other in a disordered Servant melee.
"Go, Master!" Rider called out from the confused combat, "The other Master! Defeat her now! Before she gets the civilian!"
Louise was immediately back on the offensive, having shaken off the shock of Berserker's bizarre ability to emerge out of nowhere. She had to keep her promise to Rider, and this was her opportunity to claim her first victory in the Grail War. Louise charged toward Rosa, firing catalytic stones off in time with every hurried step as she closed the distance.
Rosa was on her guard now. She fled in the opposite direction Louise was charging from, leaping and rolling past the magical projectiles as they exploded around her. A quick final sliding dodge saw her reclaim the knife Rider had shot out of her hands. The moment the weapon was back in her grip, sickly black magic enveloped the blade. Rosa now turned to her attacker and began parrying the catalytic stones out of the air with the enchanted weapon. Louise was surprised that what she thought was an ordinary knife could deflect her attacks with such ease, and that Rosa could charge it with so much magical energy so quickly. She had little time to consider Rosa's magical capability though. The distance between the two mages was closing fast. Louise fired off a few more shots and then, knowing close combat was inevitable, focused her magic on forming her mana blade around her left arm. Rosa brandished her knife after knocking away the final ranged attack and then shot forward in a low run, driving straight toward Louise.
The Masters were moments from colliding as Louise leapt up and raised her arm, aiming to bring the blade down hard and shatter whatever defenses Rosa had. But just before her attack could connect, instead of meeting her in combat, Rosa slid across the ground, completely avoiding Louise and bee-lined for the injured civilian. Louise stumbled for a moment as she turned toward her retreating opponent. The time it took to redirect her magic from the blade on her left hand to her stones in her right was too great, and she was forced to watch helplessly as Rosa plunged the blade of her knife into the back of Gabriel's neck and out through his throat on the other side.