IV.

Louise had lost consciousness, for how long she didn't know, shortly after Rider had activated his Noble Phantasm. When she awoke Rosa was no longer in her arms and Berserker was lying in a mangled heap on the ground several yards away. Rider was standing a few feet from his fallen enemy, still gazing into the cloud-darkened night sky. From this Louise understood that she had only been out for a handful of seconds and was comforted by the fact. She raised her head out of the puddle that had gathered around her fallen face and noticed that Rosa, apparently more conscious than she had thought, had made her painful way over to her fallen Servant.

By all means Berserker should have been utterly destroyed by the attack and already dispersed back to the Throne of Heroes, but because of their madness induced tenacity, or sheer stubborn will, they were still somehow managing to barely stay materialized. Though their eyes were now incapable of sight, they could still hear that Rosa had managed to drag herself over to them. "You are here... my Master." The words were weak and pained, but still tinged with that note of affection they had always reserved for Rosa. "Good. They did not... did not harm you then. With my de... defeat... they have no reason to. I know the young lady... well by now. At least... I think I do... She will do you no harm..."

"Berserker..." Rosa's voice was equally quiet and affectionate. "Don't leave me. Please. I need you."

"Oh, my Master." A smile lit Berserker's mangled features. "It is not... Not I you need. The one you've really needed... needed this whole time... is that young lady. All I was able to do..." Tears were slowly dripping from the Servant's blinded eyes. "...Was watch over you for... for a time. I now know that my purpose was... to keep... you safe..." Their voice was growing quieter with each word. "until... you found... her..." With this final word the Servant fell completely silent. Their face dropped into the gathered rainwater below and they sat still and mute for a moment. Slowly a gold light emanated from the body of the Heroic Spirit, and motes of their being, like sand blowing away in the night air, drifted off to disappear amongst the falling rain drops. With a final flash, their whole body dissipated, and the last of their magical essence ascended into the heavens.

Rider had turned his back to the tender scene when he had noticed Rosa's approach. He had won the battle, but that gave him no right, he felt, to intrude on their final goodbyes. He didn't see then that, after sitting still over the now empty spot that her beloved Servant had only moments before occupied, Rosa had stood up with a strength that surprised even her. She looked around, feeling in that moment more lost and confused than she had for some time. The first thing her wide and staring eyes settled on was her knife which Louise had earlier wrenched from her grip. She then saw Grimaud who was finally coming around after being knocked nearly unconscious earlier.

It was then that she once more heard the crazed urging of the imagined Cornelius resound in her mind. The maddened state Berserker had entered, and the considerable cost of mana it required, was no longer present to cause the unexpected equalization of Rosa's mana stores that had denied the Tulip so completely, and it was once more tightening its grip on her spirit.

"Urgh, aaaaghhh!" Rosa screamed, her mind a cacophonous mixture of her lamentations at the loss of her friend, and the enraged ravings of her lost lover's false spirit. She tripped and tumbled, more than charged, across the wet pavement and scooped up her discarded weapon.

Rosa's pained cries had fully brought Louise back to her senses just in time for her to see the confused young girl continue her unsteady advance towards the prostrate Grimaud. Rider too had been awoken from his reverie and also realized the danger of what Rosa was doing. He looked around on the dark street for several seconds before his eyes fell on that which he sought. His pistol, the one Berserker had earlier batted from his hand, was laying in a puddle a dozen feet away from the chevalier. He dashed towards it, scooped the weapon into his grip, and leveled it at Rosa. It was too late though, the young woman had reached Grimaud and was with one arm holding him up, between herself and Rider like a shield, and with the other was pressing the knife to his throat.

"You, monster, bastard, monster, killer!" Rosa was raving again, much in the way she had when Louise first met her.

"Rosa!" Louise, having pulled herself onto one knee despite her weakened state, called out to the other woman. "Rosa, stop. You don't want to do this."

"I... huh? I... I do... don't?" Rosa was still quite confused, but it seemed that, even if only a little, Louise's words were having some manner of effect. Louise slowly rose to her feet, her scarred hand reaching out towards the woman to whom she had so quickly grown strangely attached.

"Stay back, Master!" Rider yelled to Louise. "I have a clear shot, if you get in the way I can't guarantee what will happen. The Servant slightly adjusted his aim, the barrel of the pistol pointed straight at Rosa's exposed head.

"Rider, don't!" Louise screamed, her voice colored with distress and alarm. "You don't need to do that, there's no reason for any more violence!"

"You tell me that, but look! Look at her! You're willing to let the blood of your friend, the blood of a man who has cared for you like he would a daughter, be spilled by her? Yet you talk of no more violence!?"

"Grrr, aaaagggh!" Rosa, her eyes squeezed tightly to the point of tears, her forehead red from the built up pressure, was trying desperately to sort out all the noises and voices that assailed her, both from within and without.

"Madame... Monsieur... if I may-" Grimaud stammered out weakly. He was not able to finish the sentence though, as his words had provoked Rosa to press the knife closer to his throat, a thin line of blood escaping from the shallow cut the blade had made despite the light pressure.

Rider, on seeing the blade move to enact the fatal maneuver, increased the pressure of his finger on the trigger. "You see!? You see her intent?" He yelled forlornly.

"And I'm telling you she won't do it! Lower your weapon! Threatening her is only making things worse!" Louise yelled back. The combination of anger, fear, and concern causing her voice to waver and tears to chase each other down her cheeks.

"And I am telling you that you are wrong in that! You are blinded by madness or love, I know not which, but it is confusing your senses! I know what must be done here!" Rider was now pulling the trigger in earnest.

"By this command seal! You will NOT harm her!" Louise, eye closed, her hand outstretched and wreathed in the red light of the forceful magic, aimed the inexorable brand at her Servant and, for the second time that night, impelled her Servant by that irrevocable spell.

Rider felt his hand twist violently as he pulled the trigger, the fatal shot flying harmlessly into the stormy sky above. "Master..." He said, his eyes wide with bewilderment, his voice more one of somber dejection than anger.

Louise, seeing her command spell had worked, immediately turned her attention back to Rosa who, though still tightly gripping both Grimaud and the knife, seemed more concerned with the battle that was raging inside her own mind than anything else. "Rosa," Louise said softly. "I know you can hear me."

Rosa, on hearing that voice that had already soothed her so many times, turned to look at Louise with an expression of desperate pleading, streams of tears mixing with the rivulets of rain that collectively ran down her face. "Louise..."

"That's right, Rosa, it's me. I'm here to help you." Louise took a slow and careful step forward.

"...Help... me." Rosa meekly replied.

"That's right. But I need you to do something for me. You need to let that man go."

"Madame..." Grimaud gingerly said from his position.

Rosa tightened her grip on the older gentleman as he spoke.

"It's okay, Rosa." Louise said reassuringly, taking another careful step forward. "He's not your enemy either. He's my friend."

"Your- uurgh! Your... friend?" Rosa's voice sounded confused, but her grip on Grimaud loosened, and the knife moved, even if only a few millimeters, away from the photographer's throat.

"That's right. And if he's my friend, then that means he's your friend too." Louise took yet another step. She was now only a few feet away from the two people for whom she held so much affection. "So you need to let him go."

"Louise." Rosa said, her voice no longer pained and confused, instead colored only by equal parts sadness and affection. "Louise."

"I'm here, Rosa."

"Louise!" Rosa screamed and, simultaneously tossing aside her knife and releasing Grimaud, she dropped into Louise's outstretched arms. Rosa crumpled into the other woman's tight embrace and began to sob loudly though, this time at least, her emotions were not filled with the discord and hate of the phantasmal delusions that haunted her. Here were only those powerful emotions all people are sometimes overwhelmed by; that heart-breaking mixture of sadness, relief, desire, and love.