V.
It had taken every ounce of Rider's self-control, along with him constantly reminding himself that a lobby full of innocent bystanders was not the place for a fight, for him to not materialize and strike the other Servant down immediately. More so than her taunts, more than her threats towards him, and more even than her threats toward Louise, Rider had nearly lost his composure due to the fact that for the second time in as many days, he had recognized the face of one of the other Servants.
He was sure, though, that this time there was no mistaken identity as there had been with Phillipe for his king. No, this time it was the baleful visage, venomous words, and tar black soul that had all stirred his memory, and there could be no denying that Assassin was the woman he had known as Milady deWinter. The wretched creatures whose sheer sadism, and equally wretched deeds had driven Rider and his three friends to the breaking point, and forced them to elect themselves judge, jury, and executioner in the case of the conniving woman. She had not yet recognized him, but the instinctive hatred she proclaimed for him was completely understandable, as it was a mutual feeling between both Servants.
It had been necessary for Rider to spend a minute calming himself down, affected as he had been by the realization of Assassin's identity. Once he had regained control of his emotions it occurred to him how strange it was that she had been able to bypass Ali's bounded field when she left him. Fearing for his Master's safety, and having lost all patience for waiting, he made another attempt on the barrier only to find that he moved forward as if it were no longer there. He found this strange because, had Louise convinced Ali to momentarily drop the barrier, she would have mentally contacted him already. His concerns pushed Rider into action and, not wanting to lose any more time to his devilish opponent, decided to forgo the elevator and shot outside. Rider's superhuman Servant agility was more than enough to allow him to bound up the side of the building, kicking off balconies and outcroppings in the architecture as he scaled the towering hotel.
Louise knocked at the door which, almost immediately after the impact, opened automatically before her. The young mage stepped inside and saw Ali and Lord Wilmore sitting together at the table on the upper floor. The other mage gave an excited and undignified wave to Louise, an action which earned him a scornful look from his more proper companion.
"Louise, welcome." Ali offered a verbal greeting in addition to the physical one, and stood, beckoning her up as he did so. "Please, come up. Wilmore and I were just about to enjoy a cup of coffee and some refreshments. I'll have another place set for you to join us." Ali signaled with his hand to an attendant who seemed to materialize from the shadows of a nearby corner and indicated his wish to include Louise in their repast.
"Thank you, Ali. That is quite kind of you. Might I ask that you set another place for Rider as well?" Louise replied as she climbed the stairs up to the raised seating area.
"Ah, is your Servant here as well?" Ali asked. The question earned a curious and concerned look from his own Servant.
"Indeed, monsieur." Louise replied as she finally reached the place where the two men sat. She offered a slight bow, more an inclination of the head than anything, to Wilmore, who responded with an equally slight, but respectful, motion. "However he finds himself rather impeded downstairs."
"Oh, right. Of course. I do suppose my little security measure would make it rather difficult for him." Ali laughed to himself as he considered a biscotti he held in his hand. "It's a remarkable field, one of my best in fact. Would you like to know more about the method? You see-"
"Ahem! Master..." Wilmore cleared his throat loudly so as to interrupt Ali's ramblings. "I do believe that is enough on that subject. If you recall we, that is YOU, did invite her here for a purpose." His words were accompanied by a look that threatened a lecture that would surely come after Louise's departure.
"Oh! Indeed, Wilmore you are right." Ali, either because he did not note Wilmore's tone, or was feigning not to, turned from his Servant back to Louise. "Yes, let me just step away a moment and I can lower the barrier so that your cohort might join us."
The second Ali set down his treat on the plate beside his coffee, there was a loud snapping noise, like a tree cut down suddenly by lighting, and the lights throughout the entire suite went completely dark. The room was artificially illuminated for a moment as thousands of magic lines and runes that had been invisible after Ali had originally cast them, all glowed fiercely with a white hot light before blinking away into darkness. The trio found themselves in a darkness that would have been all enveloping, had it not been for the dreary shaded light of the overcast afternoon coming in through the large bay windows.
"Monsieur...?" Louise asked cautiously of Ali as she stared around in the gloom. "Was that how it was supposed to happen?"
"Well." Ali said, his attempt at sounding blasé audibly colored by concern. "That's odd for two reasons."
"Two?" Louise asked, worry in her voice this time.
Lord Wilmore's look hardened, but he remained silent.
"One, because I hadn't done anything yet." Ali said, taking a sip of coffee as he continued to attempt a show of nonchalance. "And two, because even if I had, I assure you I would not have completely demolished the barrier like this. That and I wouldn't have knocked out this floor's power at the same time."
"You seem awfully calm about this, monsieur." Louise replied, not sure if she found his apathy impressive or concerning.
"I'm a mage of barriers. My wounded pride in this moment is outweighed more by admiration."
"Admiration?" Louise was beginning to grow from concern to unease.
"Of course!" Ali took a small bite of his biscotti he had soaked in the coffee. "After all, this was clearly the work of someone actively attacking the barrier. I'm stoked- er that is, very interested to see who could pull off such a feat from outside its machinations."
As Ali finished, the room suddenly grew noticeably darker, a thick shade was growing deeper and deeper on the windows that afforded the light, as though a dark tinting was spreading across them.
"Ah! This must be them." Ali said excitedly, finally releasing his repast from his grip. "Lord Wilmore, if you please."
Lord Wilmore stood and a burst of black flames burned the cape and coat from his shoulders, leaving him in the vest and dress shirt Louise had seen him in during the battle with Rosa and Berserker. His gilded and ornamented sword was at his hip, though he immediately drew it from the sheath.
Louise had conjured her light ball as the encroaching darkness had thickened, and was also raising her defenses as she called to Rider. -"You need to get up here fast. The barrier is down and someone is clearly here with malicious intent."-
-"I am already on my way, Master."- Rider responded immediately. -"Be wary, Master. The enemy you face is one of the most dangerous we may yet meet."-
Louise was about to ask what he meant when Wilmore's saber flashed in front of her, the sound of slicing air accompanied by the discharge of several suppressed gunshots, the blade meeting the bullets in midair before they could strike Louise.
"This way, Louise." Ali said casually, indicating a door that led from the balcony into an adjoining room. "I believe Lord Wilmore can handle this well enough. We'd only be in his way." Saying so Ali placed a hand on Louise's shoulder to direct her through the door.
Louise recoiled only slightly from the presumptuous touch, but allowed herself to be directed into the other room.
Mordaunt had found breaking the bounded field from within to be incredibly simple, as his ample past experience had taught him it would be. He had detected the barrier being artificially raised and lowered for Leo de Franchi when he had visited, and had felt it impede his own attempted investigation early on. Mordaunt had also observed the way it utterly halted all Servants that were not Ali's own. He had, however, noted that the barrier behaved similarly for Louise as it did for Ali himself, that is, it molded a sort of bubble around them, allowing their passage naturally as welcome entities. It was weaker in its barring of mages than phantasmals though, and Mordaunt had been able to follow Louise's entrance, almost as following a slip stream behind her. Once in, he was no longer at its mercy.
The assassin was not unhappy to find himself alone in the main seating area with the Servant. He had set the stage to give himself every possible advantage, despite being faced against a Servant, and if Wilmore was here with him, and Louise's Servant hadn't arrived yet, that meant the other two mages were not terribly well protected.
Lord Wilmore held his place standing by the table, near-effortlessly deflecting the shots that came at him from seemingly every angle. "Your fire is nearly silent, and produces no visible flash, even in this enveloping darkness." Saber observed as he knocked another shot harmlessly away from himself. "It is an interesting use of magic, one that I don't know most mages would utilize."
Mordaunt felt a small sense of pride that his tactics were being complimented by a being from the Throne of Heroes. The half dozen TMP sub machineguns now floating around the room, which matched the model of what he personally wielded, were more for distracting the Servant than anything else, he had a few explosive tricks stashed away if a direct confrontation happened. He smiled inwardly, though not visibly, wondering how many of his tricks the Heroic Spirit could figure out.
"And you're a Master, not a Servant." Saber said again, slicing several airborne bullets in half. "So you don't actually move that fast. Again, you are effecting your firearms with magic, letting them operate autonomously about the room. Very clever." A smile, almost imperceptible, appeared on the Servant's face. "Yes, let me see more. If your Servant won't face me, it's only right you attempt to give me some sort of challenge."
Louise and Ali found themselves in the same all-encompassing darkness they had left as they entered the other room. Fortunately Louise's light orb illuminated the majority of the space, revealing that it was a well furnished guest room. A spacious bed dominated one end, while extravagant furniture of various functions and forms lined the other walls. The large window that faced the same direction as the main balcony had thick purple curtains drawn over it. Even had the linens been removed the window was covered by the same obscuring blackness that had sealed out the light in the room they had just left.
"We'll wait here in safety until Lord Wilmore finishes off that bastard who dared to interfere with our rendezvous." Ali said confidently as he absent-mindedly gazed around the room, his inquisitive glance making it clear he had never actually bothered to enter the apartment.
"You place that much faith in him?" Louise asked, still uneasy about the situation while she also noted the way Ali once again slipped in his manner of speech.
"Of course!" Ali replied as if it were the most natural thing.
"But you do not fight alongside him?" Louise said.
"And why should I? He is incredibly strong, and unmatched in skill and capability. Why should I risk myself when he is perfectly proficient to handle the situation?"
Louise opened her mouth to reply but was cut off by Ali crying out in pain as a quartet of large needles impaled themselves in his chest and shoulders. The other mage staggered as she turned to see where the attack had come from. As she did so her progress was arrested by a tall curvaceous figure standing next to her, who placed a hand equally presumptuous to Ali's on her shoulder.
"The audacity of men is unmatched, don't you agree my dear?" Assassin asked Louise, all her usual sadistic flair rolled into the words she delivered with a condescending and alluring tone. She delivered a sharp kick to the pompous mage that sent him, needles still deep in his flesh, flying into an extravagant armoire, the doors of which buckled under the impact. "That is why I never find myself actually attached to one, they always think they're so smart, so clever, when really," She said turning towards Louise, letting her hand trace from Louise's shoulder to her cheek. "They're just self-serving cowards."
Louise found herself looking into the deep blue eyes of the enemy Servant, eyes that held all the mysteries and dangers of the oceanic abyss whose color they shared. The lower half of Assassin's features were obscured by a black and gold fan that she held up coquettishly in front of her. She moved to draw back, but felt the sting of the Servant's talon-like nails dig into the top of her neck.
"Now now," Assassin chided playfully. "No reason to draw away from me. I just saved you from who-knows-what manner of advances of that incorrigible fellow." She indicated Ali's prostrate frame crumpled in the destroyed piece of furniture. The wounded mage let out a pained groan. "The least you can do is thank me. Us ladies, you see, need to stick together." She smiled wide with all the malice she could muster which, considering who she was, was quite a lot.
"Oh." Louise replied sarcastically. "Forgive me then." She mentally directed her light orb to place itself directly between the face of herself and her assailant. Assassin reeled back lightly from the blinding conjuration as Louise used the opportunity to wreath her leg in magic energy and delivered a swift blow to the side of Assassin's rib-cage.
Magically charged though it was, the mundane blow to a being like a Servant was still not enough. Though Assassin certainly felt the attack, and even crumpled slightly underneath its pressure, it was not the crippling strike Louise needed in that moment. The Servant tightened her grip on Louise's face, her nails digging in under the mage's jawbone, and flung the young woman across the room, where she collided with the wall, cracking the plaster, before landing safely on the bed below.
"Oh my." Assassin sounded more excited than Louise would have expected, though her wincing eyes and quivering lips showed equal parts agitation and arousal, "I was hoping you wouldn't be quite like that, but I guess you have the faults of your family, that stupid foolish pride."
Louise, though gathering herself from the pain of the impact, was still aware enough to note Assassin's words, and was caught off guard by the Servant's implication of knowing something about the Saint-Hermine family, a confusion which apparently showed on her face.
"Surprised? Don't be shocked to find out that even I know some things about your illustrious family. My Master was kind enough to share some delightful details with me," The word illustrious had been pronounced with a deep note of sarcasm and irony. Assassin was slowly crossing the room as she spoke.
Louise raised her hand to form a magical barrier, but a flick of the fan which Assassin held sent a needle flying straight into Louise's palm. The burning pain of the impact was intense, and the young mage dropped the limb to the bed as she cried out in pain.
"You know the problem with pride? Especially the sort of unchecked, unearned, aristocratic pride of your father? It gets you into all kinds of trouble and just makes you all SORTS of enemies." Assassin had reached the foot of the bed now, and raised her foot to step up onto it. She walked across the sheets towards Louise, standing dominantly over the target of her verbal assault. "And you know what happens when a man like your father commits one too many crimes, makes one too many enemies, let's his pride blind him to his atrocities?" She bent down over Louise, letting one leg slide fully out from beneath the dress through the side-slit as she straddled herself on top of the mage. She placed one hand under Louise's chin, raising her face so as to look her in the eyes. "His enemies, even if they are enemies with each other, come together." Her words were getting quieter and even more malicious. "And they find a means of repaying unto him all the ill he has done them, all the things he did, heedless of the cruelty he knowingly inflicted upon them. And that means they find..." She looked back over her shoulder towards where her Master was still fighting Wilmore. "...find a being, just as cruel and malevolent, to repay that debt."
Louise had already started to suspect things about her father, his actions, and his intentions, but she was also going to be damned if she let a slimy creature like this talk down to her about the morality of the things he had done. Louise brought up her hand, still impaled by the needle and swung as hard as she could, driving the exposed point of the implement into the wrist of the hand that was holding her chin.
Assassin snapped her hand away in pain. "AH! You little bitch!" Her tone was just as playful and laughing as it was irritated. She slapped Louise's own hand down and pinned it to the bed by the wrist. "Don't think you're going to get out of this so easily. I'm going to have my fun with you before you die, whether you like it or not." The Servant dropped her fan and seized Louise's throat with her other hand and pressed her lips to those of the mage, forcing her mouth open with her tongue.
Louise tasted something almost sweet that quickly changed to bitter as the Assassin defiled her thus. She made an effort to push the other woman off of her, to break the wretched intimate contact Assassin was forcing on her, but the Servant's supernatural strength was too much.
Suddenly there was a sound like a large bird colliding with the window. The impact sounded two more times before the glass, along with the obscuring black magic that had reinforced it, shattered inwards. Assassin ceased her assault of the mage and looked up to see what had happened. She had nearly no time to react as a pistol shot rang out, and a ball exploded through her arm. The shot caused her to reel back and was followed by a powerful kick that sent her sailing off the bed. Rider stood on one side, the bed between him and his adversary, pistol in one hand drawn sword in the other. Light, once again allowed into the room, poured in and upon the violence that had been perpetrated, exposing it all to view.
"You said you had felt an instinctual hatred for me didn't you? Well look! Look upon me and know that it was not hatred, but fear you felt. Fear at knowing that I was come once again to strike you down, viper!" Rider shouted with all the contempt and loathing he felt for Milady, his decree born of nothing other than those feelings of hatred.
Louise rose, spitting and wiping her mouth with her unwounded hand. "It's about time you arrived." She said to Rider with a tone of reproach. Her anger was not at him, but at herself for letting Assassin back her so quickly into a corner.
"A thousand pardons, Master. There was some strange magic that reinforced the windows and barred my entrance. It took me a moment to break through." Rider replied gravely. He would have, at any other time perhaps, exchanged jests with his Master, but the enemy they faced right now was too much anathema to him to practice any joviality.
Assassin recovered herself and, prompted by Rider's challenge, looked for the first time closely on the features of the man who declared himself her nemesis. Upon perceiving who he was her features were at first of alarm and surprise, as though she dared not believe it was him. But her wide eyes quickly narrowed, and her agape mouth hardened into a teeth-bearing grimace, the mutual hatred they shared bright like a fire in her glare. "You!" she screamed. "You wretch! You bastard! How DARE you show yourself before me! How dare you stand in my way AGAIN! d'Artagnan!" Assassin snatched her fan from the bed and stood to face her most hated enemy.
"The only wretched creature here is you, Milady!" Rider retorted resolutely. "Your past crimes weren't enough, now you are so abject, miserable creature, that you place your disgusting hands upon my Master?"
Louise rose from the bed and took a position beside Rider, facing their shared enemy. Her mana blade burst to life as she stared down her attacker.
"Past crimes?" Assassin asked sarcastically. "Funny you should mention those, I was just relaying to your beloved Master all those of her father. I dare say by your metric he's even worse than I am. But what do I know? I'm just a miserable creature!" Her voice rose as she spoke, and at the crescendo of "miserable creature" she raised the hand that held the fan and, with a flick of the wrist, unfurled the ornament- the motion sending a flurry of needles sailing towards the Master and Servant.
Rider and Louise both parried as many of the deadly projectiles out of the air as they could, though several still impacted the Servant. Knowingly or subconsciously, Assassin had directed the bulk of the penetrating cloud at Rider, giving him more projectiles to contend with.
Assassin spun backwards, further across the room from her opponents. The fan had shifted to take the shape of a small mask, though still in the same gold and black colors. The Servant bit the tip of the mask lightly, though the action was born more from frustration than anything else. "You always insist on being so difficult," she said bitterly.
Rider was already following her, not wanting to give her a chance to try anything that might put his Master in the path of further harm. He thrust his sword forward, an attack Assassin was forced to use the mask to parry, which prevented her from putting it on her face. Rider wasted no time, Assassin's pushing his blade down was like a switch that brought his other arm up, and the pistol in that grip discharged nearly point blank, the shot cleaving through the side of his adversary's face.
Assassin fell away from her opponent, blood flying through the air in a thick red circle as she twisted from the impact. She rolled across the floor before crumpling against the wall. She let out a hoarse and terrible scream that was one part pain, and so many parts all the myriad variations of anger and hatred that exist. "I hate you!" She roared at Rider. "A THOUSAND TIMES I HATE YOU!" Before Rider could react, she placed the mask upon her face. "I have been known by numerous names, and had still more lovers. No matter what name you call me, I am Milady!"
There was a sudden golden flash, which further illuminated the recently lighted room, that died away as suddenly as it had come. Rider, having recovered from the blindness first, looked with astonishment at where Milady had been. Where her golden ringlets, alabaster skin, and conniving features had been, there was now only dark hair, skin tinged rose and opal, an innocent smile, and trusting look.
"Constance?" He asked quietly, incapable of believing what he saw, but driven by some outside force he did not understand to think it possible.
Louise looked and saw not the terrifying Assassin, but the slim features, and loving expression of Rosa staring back at her. Much like Rider she found herself forced into a stupor by some misleading force, causing her reason and logic to abandon her.
"d'Artagnan." Said the false Constance. "I have something important to tell you."
"What?" Rider could hardly form a coherent response, so confused were his senses by the bewitching magic.
"She has left her," She indicated Louise with a nod. "With the same parting gift you found me with."
"No." Rider said suddenly. "NO!" He slashed out with his sword at the phantom of the woman he had loved all those years ago, but she merely vanished, blown away on the burst of air generated by his strike.
The vision of Rosa also vanished from Louise's sight at the same time Constance did from Rider's. In their place there was no one, Assassin too had disappeared.
Rider, having already gathered his senses, rushed to Louise's side, driven by the taunt Assassin had delivered through the phantom of Constance. "Master! Master, you are poisoned! Hurry!"
Louise came out from under the magic slightly slower than her Servant, but when she did she felt herself almost snapped violently back into reality by Rider's words. "What?" She asked, fear and confusion coloring her features which were, unbeknownst to her, quickly paling.
"She poisoned you!" Rider yelled, his voice choked with concern.
Louise then remembered the taste of Assassin's kiss, the sweetness that turned bitter. "It's alright, Rider." She said, sudden relief in her voice as she remembered something else.
"How is it alright!? I know her, she only uses the most deadly concoctions."
Louise, though she could feel herself weakening, smiled at her Servant and pulled a small bottle from her jacket pocket. "Because when one expects to dine with a fellow mage, one does not come unprepared." She popped the lid out of the small bottle and quickly downed the contents. "Her poisons may in fact be potent, but I doubt she can concoct anything stronger than what a conniving mage could create."
"You really are my Master." Rider said, his quickly relaxing features showing the relief he felt, and the twinkling in his eyes showed his admiration for Louise.
"We're not out of it yet I don't think." Louise said directing her gaze towards the door to the common area.
"Uuuurrrrggghhh..."
Louise and Rider both looked over to Ali where the groan had come from and saw the wounded mage writhing around in the rubble.
"Should we...?" Rider started.
"I'll stabilize him, you go see what's happening in there." Louise said, pointing to the door as she approached Ali.