Chapter 15.

The Avenger, Descending

I.

Not much later, Rider appeared at the top of the stairs from below and was taken aback by everything he saw. The body of Madame Fenix was something he'd hoped to behold, but not given too much to expect, and he was delighted to see Louise still alive and standing. But he was surprised to see Ali's dead body, and even more confused when he saw the corpse of Maria Badeaux.

"Master!" He called out to Louise as he dashed across the villa. "Are you alright? What... what happened here?"

"It's... it's Saber." Louise muttered. "That is, I don't know if he's really Saber anymore."

"What?" Rider was somehow now even more confused. "You're not making any sense. What happened to Ali? And where did the Juge come from?"

"I'll explain everything later," Louise replied, her words still stuck in her throat. She was only just now finding it possible to move her body again. "For now we should- Rider?" Louise asked her Servant with an alarmed tone. "What's wrong? You look... not well."

Rider had only noticed it when he nearly finished his climb back up the inside of the tower, but had momentarily forgotten when his worry for Louise had taken over. Now that he could be sure she was okay, he was once again aware of how exhausted he felt. It was a bizarre feeling for a Servant, to be sure. His breath was coming in labored and difficult, and his limbs felt heavy and unresponsive. "I think perhaps the fight with Lancer just took a bit more out of me... than I'd realized. Also, all those stairs you know?"

"That doesn't make any sense, you shouldn't look like... let me see the ring!" Louise didn't wait for Rider's permission, she seized the stone while it still hung from her Servant's neck. She tried to feel the flow of mana coming from it, but it was weak and irregular, coming in strained and erratic pulses. "The mana, it's not flowing right. It... Rosa!" Louise locked eyes with Rider. "We need to get back." Louise got up and swiftly started across the rooftop.

"Master, I'm hardly in any shape to-" Rider stopped as he turned to follow Louise and saw she had paused and offered him an outstretched hand.

"Are you still with me? To the very end of this?" She asked solemnly.

Rider smiled, and then, removing the necklace as he did so, knelt down before Louise. "Only as long as it is you, my Master," he replied, placing the necklace in her outstretched fingers.

"Then as long as you are my Servant, I am your Master. Until the end of this Holy Grail War."

"Until the bitter end."

There was a burst of red light, as magic lines traced across the surface of Louise's hand, a light stinging sensation causing the young mage to grimace slightly. When it had abated, she and Rider both beheld her full Command Seals once again present on the back of her left hand. It was strange, for Louise, that amidst everything that had just happened, despite her worry for Rosa, despite the incomprehensible terror of whatever Saber had become, that something as small as the sight of her Command Seals should give her so much comfort.

"How are you feeling now?" Louise asked Rider.

"Give it a minute." Rider said quickly, holding up a finger. After a short pause he resumed. "Much better. I didn't realize how nice a consistent and comfortable flow of mana was until I experienced that bizarre, overpowered, and irregular one. That is- I mean..." Rider became slightly flustered when he realized the implications of his words.

"No, you're fine." Louise had a smile that surprised Rider as she replied. "It took me a bit to adjust to her mana flow at first too." Louise placed the ring back on her finger. Its weight, much like the sight of the command seals, was another comforting sensation.

The duo returned to the bar level and beheld the looming stairwell, along with the empty void of the elevator shaft that no longer had doors or a lift to occupy it. Both gave a sidelong glance to the stairs, Rider recalling how rough it had felt just climbing a few dozen floors worth, while Louise worried about the amount of time it would take to travel down them, and that it was possible Rosa's condition would only worsen in that span.

Rider approached the yawning shaft and, after a quick look down its length, turned to face Louise as he held out his hand. "If Madame would allow me?"

Louise wasn't quite sure what her partner had in mind, though she was worried at one possibility. This moment's concern wasn't enough to stop her from taking his hand though.

Rider pulled Louise close and, holding his arm tightly around her waist, stepped towards the elevator shaft. "Hang on." It was the only warning Louise got before Rider leapt into the void. The duo plummeted down the narrow duct, Rider occasionally sliding his feet against the sides to slow their momentum. Louise, despite her instinctive feeling of terror, kept her eye riveted on the shadows that were constantly rushing past them, until the bottom of the shaft came into view.

Rider put the brakes on as hard as he could, his free hand and legs all pressing against the filthy metal wall. Just a dozen or so meters before they hit the bottom, the Servant kicked himself off the walls, bouncing back and forth from side to side until he landed with a heavy thud at the bottom.

It wasn't until they sat still for a few seconds after landing that Louise realized she hadn't blinked for the entire descent. The young mage slowly closed her eye and then just as slowly reopened it as her equally halted breathing resumed.

"Are you alright, Louise?" Rider asked as he carefully released the young mage and lowered her to the ground.

"Fine." Louise said slowly as she got her footing back. "Just fine."

Rider hopped up the small distance from the bottom of the elevator shaft and wrenched open the doors that led to the basement level parking. He looked around cautiously, worried that more of the crazed citizenry might ambush him. However he then remembered that, with Lancer defeated, there was no longer a threat from any of the Parisians. Lowering his guard, the Servant turned around to help lift his Master up to the concrete floor.

The parking garage was relatively well-off compared to what they had seen from most of the city. It was still a site of chaos and destruction, with many of the few parked vehicles beaten and damaged. But there were far fewer signs of human casualties in comparison to the property damage. Louise had little time to ponder the destruction, as Rider had materialized his post horse and was already climbing into the saddle.
"Come, Madame." Rider said, once again offering his hand to Louise.
Louise blinked back into focus and took Rider's offered hand, the Servant scooping her up into the saddle and sending the steed galloping up the ramp that led to the exit all in one swift motion. As they rode through the wreckage of Paris, Louise came into contact with everything her victory over Madame Fenix had cost.
With the threat of constant attack lifted, Louise's ability to actually appreciate the state of things expanded. The broken windows, flaming car wrecks, and burned out skeletons of what were once buildings were bad enough, but the visible human carnage was far greater than she had before realized. In and amongst the twisted wreckage of each new crumbling building or crumpled automobile, Louise could see the equally twisted forms of those who had either retained their sanity and been labeled heretics, or who in their madness had lost their lives before the efforts of others defending themselves. It was perhaps for the best that each new horror flashed by as fast as the next one came, as it limited the mage's ability to linger on one casualty for too long, though the collective feeling of revulsion and shame still remained.
Everything she had seen that night, everything that had occurred in Paris since the Grail War started, only strengthened Louise's resolution. She refused to be part of the system that had allowed and encouraged the actions of people like Madame Fenix, a system that had created people like Ali and the brothers de Franchi. Her wish for the grail had already been decided, but she now knew what she had to do once the Grail War was over.
After riding in silence for some time Louise finally spoke up and explained to Rider everything that had occurred on the rooftop in his absence: the appearance of the Juge, her sudden defeat of Madame Fenix, Ali's even more sudden murder of her, and The Count's bizarre and horrifying transformation.
"But I don't understand," Rider said after a pause while he processed everything. "If Saber broke the contract with his Master, and then killed him, wouldn't that leave you the only Master and therefore the victor? And wouldn't he have simply resigned himself to disappearing by cutting off his own mana supply?"
"I'm not sure," Louise replied, her tone very shaken. "But something like a Servant forcibly breaking their own contract is so outside the realm of what should be possible, let alone something I thought could actually happen. With that, I have to assume there's more to it. Also..." Louise paused as she gave Rider a cautious look. "It's not the Masters who fuel the magical energy of the grail. It's the stored magical energy of the Servants who are destroyed during the ritual's duration. As long as the Servants remain, the grail can't manifest."
"Meaning that this Count fellow hasn't disappeared," Rider concluded.
"Meaning we will still have to face him," Louise agreed.
The conversation ceased as the duo rounded onto the Rue de Vaugirard, and then turned down the narrow alleyway that was Rue Servandoni. Louise was overcome with a mixture of concern and relief at the view that greeted her. There were no dead to be found and, though the damage to the surrounding buildings and the street itself was extensive, the signs of human violence were minimal, meaning little blood had been shed. Unfortunately what did occupy the alleyway was not as comforting a sight.
Rosa had crumpled to her knees and, though her open eyes indicated consciousness just as much as her ragged breathing indicated life, her gaze was empty and wide, as if fixed on some far-off view only she was aware of. Black ichor pooled around her bent legs, the thick viscous texture causing it to stick to her exposed skin as small rivulets of it ran down her cheeks from her tear ducts. A steady and sluggish storm of black petals drifted up from the ooze puddle, turned in lazy orbits around her, and dispersed into the night as they floated up and past Rosa.
Louise flew out of the saddle, not even waiting for Rider to bring his steed to a proper halt before she was tumbling across the ground as she scrambled towards the other young woman. With one swift motion Louise slid across the last bit of distance and wrapped Rosa in a tight embrace, her arms pulling the young woman close to her breast.
"I'm here Rosa, it's okay, you can relax now, I'm fine and the danger has passed." Louise tried her best to sound comforting despite her worry, but even then the concern was quite audible in her voice. She could feel herself shaking as she pulled Rosa closer. Louise tried to relax and focus on managing the stream of mana she was pulling from the other woman through the ring, to stabilize the flow so that Rosa's own transplanted and unnatural mana streams would also steady.
Slowly the ooze stopped pouring from Rosa's eyes, and the pool that had gathered dried up and dispersed. The black petals rose in fewer and fewer numbers until the last one disappeared on the night breeze. The young woman's breath became less labored, and focus seemed to return as the light came back into her eyes. Rosa blinked several times, her awareness of her surroundings slowly reasserting itself. "Lou...Louise?" She asked in a quiet and confused tone. "When did you get here? You okay?"
"I'm fine, Rosa. I'm completely fine." Louise pressed the young woman's head into her chest as she nuzzled her own face against Rosa's hair, reassuring herself as much as Rosa. "I'm even better now seeing you're okay."
"Started to get worried." Rosa responded, smiling as she wrapped her arms around Louise.
"Didn't know when you be back. Started to feel weak and weird. Magic, getting too strong. But kept fighting. Kept protecting home, like you asked. Had to be here for you to come back to."
"I'm back." Louise whispered. They held each other like that for a minute longer, before Louise carefully helped Rosa to her feet, and Rider helped them both inside.

Camille didn't know how long she had stood on the balcony and watched the destruction of Paris with an almost impressive amount of indifference. At some point the sounds of chaos and carnage and the sight of flames dancing through the night must have bored her because,without realizing it, she had gone back inside and collapsed onto the couch.
The night air brought the smell of smoke into the apartment. As it blew through the open glass door that Camille had left ajar upon her return, the rancid-smelling air would occasionally caress her cheek as she lay prone and senseless. It was only when the door that led from the outer hallway into the suite sounded that the mage experienced any kind of stir. She slowly rose from the couch and turned to face the entry hall, waiting to see Maria come into the room, having no reason to expect anyone else.
Yet despite the time she waited in silence, those few dozen seconds feeling like an eternity, no one appeared. She began to believe she had imagined the sound when she suddenly felt a presence in the room with her, one that emanated malice and the smell of burnt, dead flesh. Camille slowly turned her head around to face the shadows of the darkened room behind her, her emotions still incredibly dulled and unmoved despite the overpowering feeling of dread emanating from behind her.
As she finished turning she beheld a figure that was visible only because of the way it was somehow darker than the shadows that surrounded it. The only source of light was a small red fire that burned around the area of what may have passed for its head, though no real light seemed to emanate from the singular flame. Still unmoved Camille spoke to the shadow, "Who or what are you, and what makes you think I desire to have you stand before me?"
"You too have been used and betrayed," the shadow replied, its voice a mixture of sympathy and mockery. "Do not deny it. It is a scent I know all too well, and you reek of it."
"How dare you," Camille spit back. "It's well that Maria isn't back yet. I'd hate for her to see me lower myself to the level of speaking with a creature like you before I send you back where you-"
"She's not coming back," the shadow cut Camille off before she could finish her empty threat, "She was rewarded handsomely for the assistance she lent your sister and my old Master."
"What?" Camille's senses suddenly came back to her. Emotions that had fallen into oblivion resurfaced and she now finally found herself fearful of the creature before her. Not because of anything she thought it might do, but because of what it threatened to tell her.
"Her repayment, for being the one to slay the mutual enemy of all, was being cut down herself." A slight chuckle escaped the lips of the blackened Servant as he spoke.
"You-"
"Lie? Hardly. I have no reason to lie to you," The Count once more cut Camille off. "No. If anything I am the only one who WON'T lie to you now. As I said, we are alike. Used by someone, betrayed by another, and robbed of the last person we cared for. Yes, we are quite alike."
"And what then matters our similarity?" Camille fought back the tears that threatened to come pouring out. She may have given up nearly everything, but she still retained some of her noble pride, and she'd be damned if she let this vile being see her moved.
"Because we both seek revenge against those who have wronged us. We both desire, nay need, the same thing. Revenge for what we have been robbed of. Revenge for what has been done to us. I offer you a chance to obtain that." Edmond Dantes stepped out of both the darkness of the room and the shadows of his own making, becoming visible to Camille for the first time. "I offer you the ability to burn it all down around you." A twisted, wretched smile curled across Avenger's pale features. "I offer the flames of vengeance to you, my Master."