VIII.
"What," Louise thought, "had been my plan?" Had there been any hope that defeating Lancer and letting Madame Fenix live, that the embittered mage would simply give up her plans for vengeance and destruction and allow punishment for what she had done to be administered? Hardly. Had she hoped that her and Ali could have subdued and imprisoned her so that she might be forced to face judgment? This too was unlikely. Ali was none too concerned with sparing the lives of his enemies, and Madame Fenix seemed the type who would sooner die than let herself be taken in by her enemies. Had Louise planned to kill her, and would she have been able to do it? Would she have been able to pull the metaphorical trigger with the ease with which Maria had pulled the literal one?
None of it hardly mattered anymore, she was dead now, but Louise couldn't help but ask herself these same questions over and over as she stood over the dead body of the elder mage who had held so much hatred in her heart. The young mage did her best to lay Madame Fenix comfortably on her back before crossing the arms of the corpse over its body.
"I'm sorry, Madame, but I don't think I've made your acquaintance." Ali was eyeing the Juge suspiciously as he interrogated her.
"You don't know me." Maria replied coolly, the gun in her hand, though not leveled, was still held at the ready. "But your little girlfriend there does."
Louise seemed unperturbed by the Juge's needling as she turned her head slightly in the other woman's direction, though only the patch of her blinded eye faced her. "Madame Juge."
"As in Juge d'Instruction?" Ali asked, surprise and caution evident in his heightened tone.
"Juge d'Instruction, Maria Badeaux, at your service." Maria casually pulled a cigarette from the box in her shirt pocket as she spoke. "I've been on the trail of the person responsible for all of the hotel attacks and other similar incidents these past few weeks. My information had put me on the track of an individual who had taken up residence in the catacombs and that same information led me here." Maria paused for a moment to fiddle with her lighter and take a long drag before continuing. "And judging by what I've seen and heard since I got here," She gestured with the gun towards the dead mage, "I'd say I found my woman."
"And you executed her without so much as a warning." Louise's words were quiet, though the juge still heard them, and were hardly accusatory. She was still grappling with the idea that there was little else that could have been done regardless.
"The perpetrator was considered too dangerous to attempt to bring her in alive, I made the choice I had to." Maria's reply was incredibly casual given the nature of the discussion.
"I was unaware there were magical elements concealing themselves within common law enforcement." Ali said casually.
Maria raised an eyebrow at the comment. "There aren't, not so far as I know of anyway."
"Oh," Ali's eyes narrowed. "Your involvement had just led me to assume-"
"Don't get it twisted kid," Maria cut him off as she released a long casual puff of smoke. "I got involved with magic here almost by chance. But after what I've seen, I think I'll be happy to leave most if not all of it behind."
"Indeed." Ali replied.
A series of lines of magic, like glowing blue threads, extended from Ali's fingers and wrapped themselves around Maria's throat, chest, and arms, pulling taught as the mage twitched his digits. Before Maria even realized what was happening, before she could question the young man, before she could even cry out, there was a horrific crunching sound as Ali pulled the wire-like magic towards him, the threads all tightening with impossible strength and swiftness.
The lit cigarette tumbled from the Juge's limp hand as Ali released his magic, Louise only becoming aware anything had even happened when she heard Maria's dead body crumple to the floor. The young woman turned around in time only to see the last of the magic dissipate from the end of Ali's outstretched hand. It took only a few moments for her to understand what had happened and she was instantaneously on her feet.
"What have you done?!" Louise shouted.
"Pardon?" Ali turned to face Louise, a look of genuine confusion on his face. "I have held to one of the most important rules of magic society. Those who are from without must be eliminated, they cannot know of magic's existence. You know this just as well as I do."
"She had just helped us defeat Madame Fenix! She was of no threat!"
"And what a wonderfully noble thing for her to do with her final moments." Ali replied arrogantly. "Really you're making far too much of a stink about this. That was the last loose end, we've won, my dear!"
"We've what?" Louise looked skeptically at Ali for a moment. "How have WE won anything?"
"Madame Fenix is dead, so even if our Servants haven't dispatched her troublesome Lancer by now, she's not long for this world and, as I said before, I handled the Assassin. And you yourself took care of Caster." Ali slowly walked toward Louise as he spoke. "We've won the Holy Grail War. We are the only two left, all that remains is for you to use a command seal to order your Servant to remove himself and everything will be over."
"Why are you so sure that I would agree to that? What possible reason could I have for submitting to your request?" Louise instinctively adopted a slightly more defensive stance as Ali closed the distance between them.
"Oh for the love of- Would you just stop this already!" Ali burst, his cool and collected exterior disappearing almost instantly. "If I win I can give you anything, EVERYTHING, you could ever want! Why do you push back against me so completely!?"
Louise almost blurted out something that would have likely driven Ali to some rash act, but chose to suppress the thought. "You keep saying that! Why are you so sure that you have all the answers to my problems?"
"Because I have the answer to ALL problems! I was nothing, you hear me, nothing! The brink of which your own father's actions pushed me to, mind you. But I forgive, I can ignore that you are his progeny. For you see I now have access to wealth and power that eclipses his own!" Ali's arms spread wide as he extolled his apparent virtues.
"Wha-" Louise was unable to finish.
"When I received my Command Seals, when I joined the Holy Grail War, when I summoned my Servant, that all changed. His wealth is my wealth. His connections and genius are mine to use. Do you understand what having control of someone like him means for me?"
"Perhaps I would if I knew who he was." Louise responded with more audible sarcasm than she had intended.
"He is one of the most genius men to ever walk the earth! He is also perhaps the most wealthy! It is an endless treasure, the Treasure of Spada, his Noble Phantasm allows him access to uncountable billions in today's money."
"Spada?" Louise asked, shocked. "You can't mean-?"
"I do. Don't you see, he is The Count of Monte Cristo! And I am Master of such an individual!" Ali was almost giddy with excitement as he continued. "Your Servant dies, I win the Grail War, and with my wish to the Grail, I keep him here, with me, forever!"
"What?" Louise could tell Ali was growing almost hysterical, but even she was surprised to hear that his wish was to force the continued manifestation of a Servant. "But doesn't the Grail also grant the wish of the Servant? What if that comes into conflict with what your partner wants?"
"Oh it does." Ali's tone was almost impressively flippant. "But I can assure you that he will come around when he sees what I have to offer for him."
"You seem so certain of that, my Master." The voice that sounded from the stairway behind Ali was laced with all the vitriol and anger it could. Though he did not shout, and though he was several meters away, Saber's voice was clearly audible to both Louise and Ali, as was the tone of disillusionment present in it.
"Well now, Saber, you must confess," Ali's tone was shaken, but still surprisingly assured given the circumstance. "Your whole idea of going back and avoiding your fate, I mean giving up being a hero entirely, it's rather absurd. What would the world be without The Count of Monte Cristo?"
"What indeed, would the world be, without The Count of Monte Cristo." Saber's words seemed to drop from his mouth with a real weight. "It's true, for his fate, my fate, seems to follow me everywhere I go."
Something was changing in the air suddenly, Louise couldn't place it, but she could feel it, like the flow of mana around them had shifted, and the air tasted almost metallic.
"And do you know what his fate is, my dear Master?" Saber's face was in shadow as he was almost doubled-over, yet a sickly smile was still evident on his features. "The fate of Edmond Dantes?"
Louise was sure of it now, something was changing. She could feel that the wind had suddenly reversed direction, instead of blowing past her, flicking her hair back, it was now flowing from behind, and swirling almost towards the Servant. The smoke, or at least something that looked like it, seemed caught on the unnatural air currents as it pooled and spun around him.
"It is his fate, always, to be betrayed. Betrayed by everyone, betrayed by the world, by those closest to him."
"Saber I really think you're looking at this all wrong, you really don't-"
"BETRAYED AND USED!" Saber cut him off. The Servant was nearly bent in half, his arms wrapped around his prostrate form, his hands bent into almost claw-like shape. "And you are no different than all the others, my Master. Why would you be, for this is my fate!"
It was not smoke, as Louise had thought, but black flames that swirled around and above Saber now, a cyclone of dark energy that engulfed him. He slowly stood as the cyclone overtook him. The air tasted harsh and oily on Louise's tongue, and it stank of a smell not unlike burnt flesh. There was a sound also, like wails of pain, filling the air, though they seemed to have no visible source. Even the mana in Louise's body seemed to burn as the spectacle continued.
"And therefore, your fate, my Master," Saber's tone was utterly mocking as he pronounced the words. This now upright shadow was devoid of detail, but a shape silhouetted against the spinning storm around him. A single red flame burned and flickered from where the Servant's left eye should have been. "Is the one reserved for all those who betrayed Edmond Dantes. For after all, there is only one thing such a man was truly known for, only one thing he could ever be considered." The shadow reached out its hand, palm up and fingers extended.
Ali felt a warmth on the back of his own hand, which slowly grew into a distinctly hot burning sensation. He looked down, all his effort required to tear his eyes away from the shadowy form of his Servant, and beheld as his Command Seals erupted into flickering black flames, the conflagration enveloping his whole appendage. His screams soon filled the air, mixing with the deathly howling that was growing louder and louder as he flailed around trying to put out the otherworldly blaze.
The shadow that was Saber clenched the outstretched hand and wrenched his arm sideways. As though that were a signal of some kind, the flames on Ali's hand extinguished, and his skin was surprisingly uncharred, but his Command Seals were nowhere to be seen. In time with the motion that had stopped the fire on Ali's hand, the cyclone swirling around the Servant had also dispersed. Curiously though, despite the absence of the obscuring flames, his form was still wreathed in darkness, nothing more than a walking shadow, save for the singular red flame upon his eye, and the visible fanged smile, a smile that chilled everything within Louise to ice and froze her in place.
"Do you know, my Master? What that one thing is? What the only thing that Edmond Dantes is?" The Servant stood, calm and stationary, turning over and examining one of his shadowy hands, the shape of which now almost resembled a claw.
"I-I-I... I really couldn't say." Ali managed to mutter the words through the mixture of pain and fear that was now running through his mind and body.
Suddenly the shadowy form of his former Servant was upon him, standing before and over him with an indescribable menace. "I am an Avenger." He whispered the last words, before his hand was plunging itself deep into Ali's chest. The sound of Ali's rib cage, bending, breaking, and then shattering was audible as blood poured down the blackened claws of Avenger. There was a crunch, and then the sound of meat being crushed in the grasp of an impossibly strong vice.
As the Servant lowered Ali's corpse onto the ground, the darkness that was engulfing him vanished, as though he had commanded the shadows to disperse away from him. The man that was left was not unlike the Edmond Louise had seen before, but his suit was a more wretched shade of green, and a long red cravat, like an eldritch tendril, hung from his neck. His hair was no longer cared for and tied back, but an unkempt mess that fell at odd angles all around his face. A hat with a medium brim whose color matched the suit, which Louise had not seen him wear before, cast a shadow over the upper part of his face, from whence the single red flame still issued.
Avenger rose and cast his gaze around the rooftop til his eyes came to rest on Louise who, despite the fact that everything inside her was screaming for her to run, felt unable to even move an inch, and was simply stuck in the defensive posture she had assumed earlier. The dark Servant seemed to take the form of black flame for an instant before he was suddenly standing before Louise.
"Fret not, young mage. Were it not for you, my Master's treachery might not have come to light until it was too late. If anything I have you to thank." He placed a gloved hand over his heart as he extended the other towards Louise. "I will spare you today by way of my gratitude. It is all I can offer as I am afraid we will have to meet again before this is finished. But I hope you can appreciate what I am doing for you. Au revoir, Madame Saint-Hermine. Hehehe-hahaha-HA-HA-HA-HA!" His laughter, more threatening than even his words, became a wretched note on the wind as he stepped off the ledge Lancer had created earlier and disappeared into the smoke-choked night sky.