Story: Fate/Stay Night Zero (chapter 7)

Authors: Demon Eyes

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Chapter 7

Fate/Stay Night Zero

By Demon Eyes

Disclaimer: Type-Moon owns these forever cool characters not me.

 

Part VII

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(Saber’s POV)

 

“Arg.” I don’t know when I lost my consciousness but I just wake up now. I feel strain on my arms for some reason and when my senses come back to me, I find that I have been tied up with chains on the walls. I try to pull at them but it does not take me long to find that they are made with sorcery. I stop on that attempt and decide to study my surroundings. Inspection of the room tells me that it is wide but not so high. The luck of windows tells that this is underground. I look at the floor and I can not believe what is in front of my eyes. There are caskets upon caskets on the ground all the way to the other end of the room leaving only a long narrow space that leads to up going steps.

 

I try and look harder into these wooden cases to make sure but my eyes do not deceive me. Inside these boxes, there are people inside. They are no longer people though as it is only with their forms that you can tell they were once people. Their bodies are decayed to the point of looking like artificial models of art. Their skins are turned black and their flesh dried to the bone. Strangely, the eyes are still present and some hair. It is almost as if they were still alive as I can still hear their voices crying out in agony. “What is this place, a burial chamber?!” I can not help but voice my shock. It is now that my nose decides to make me aware of the smell of the air in this room.

 

There is no way of me to block the smell out and it is a very unnerving smell. Rin would call it a stench. Oh no! Rin. I left my master out there in the open and wounded. What if there was another master or servant watching us apart from the King of Heroes and they did something to her?!! I have to get out of here. I have to go to my master. I try to summon Excalibur but nothing happens. I try again and still nothing happens. I remember now that the chains had spells cast on them. I force myself to stay calm. But of course my captors would not leave me in just chains if they know me. Gilgamesh knows me and he would not be so careless as to leave me just like that. If I can’t get out, then at least I will try to do something else to either let me know my master is alright or to contact her.

 

This gives me a great idea. I am not sure how it works but if I were to make a mind contact, there might be a chance that I will be able to talk to my master and see how she is doing. I close my eyes to concentrate less on the smell and my surroundings and more to my intentions. ‘Rin. Rin. Can you hear me? Rin.’ I wait a little more for a reply but nothing comes. I call her again but no reply comes still. I then concentrate on my manna and try to feel her instead. Every servant is deeply connected to their master upon summoning and we can fell each other from anywhere. Now panic starts to come over me. I can not feel my master’s presence. I can not contact her too. Were my thoughts true? Did some other participant in this war come after her when I was not there with her?!

 

This is really making me a little angry and the fact that I can not do anything makes me more upset. As I am thinking of something else I can do than losing my limbs, a hole opens up in the ceiling about fifteen meters in front of me. I see now that the darkness has given me a wrong sense of distance before. This room is very long and wide. A person starts descending the stairs and now I am sure that I am in a basement of some kind. The golden hair and red eyes that seem to shine in the luck of good lighting gives his identity away to me. He is Gilgamesh, the King of heroes. This time however he is not wearing his body armour, instead he is normal clothes that looks to me in the colours of dark almost black with a few white stripes in his shirt. His leggings are black. He has his hands in his pockets as he nears me.

 

“Ah I see that you are awake my precious. Good timing too. I was getting bored.” He stops just a few breaths away from me, searching me for something. I think of my master however and I am not concerned of this madman’s actions. “Release me at once. I must return to my master’s side.” I try to get free forgetting that I have tried that action before and have failed. “So sorry Saber but I can’t do that. You are the only thing of interest that is not in my possession yet and now that I have the chance, there is no way I will let you out of my grasp.” He smiles un-interestingly and raises his hand from his pocket to bring it to one side of my face. It is as cold as his favourite metal would feel I think and I flinch at his touch.

 

I see his eyes darken a little but I am still trying to summon my sword. He somehow senses my efforts and smiles again. “I guess I should tell you now so that you should forget about escaping.” He paces a little and though he looks to the dead around, his expression shoes no change. It is as if he is walking in a field full of beautiful flowers. “You are probably thinking that those chains have magical enhancement on them?” I am not sure what he is trying to say but if it is not that, then why can I not break free?! I do not think I am as weak as to be held captive by these weak bindings. I turn to the chains and back at him. “Of course they are. How else would I still be held by them?” He throws his head back and laughs a little out loud. Why is that funny? “Sorry to break it to you but you are that weak. The chains have no magic on them.” I gasp at that. Could this be the reason why I can not summon Excalibur?

 

“Oh well, there is an explanation for that. You can feel it, can’t you?” I am getting more puzzled. What does he mean? It seems that he has seen my face as he looks down and shakes his head and sighs. “We cut off, or more precisely, corrupted your magic circuit. You of course know what that means don’t you?” I am very alarmed by this not because of my condition but of what will happen to my master were we to get attacked. I can not go up against any other servant’s Nobel phantasms like this. My master would lose, I would lose. What would become of my goals? I have to do something but right now I don’t have enough mana to do anything. Rin will think of something. She is clever. All I have to do is go to her and she will do something but I alone can not see my dreams to fulfilment.

 

I need Rin to get the Holy Grail and see my wish granted. I need to think of a way to get to her first though. For that I need more time and I must know of what is going on here and what happened to these people so that I can report to Rin. “What is this place and what happened to these people?” I try to make him talk and I am sure that he will. He is that way; I don’t know why I think this but I he seems the kind to talk a lot. He looks around him some more and I see realisation come to him. “Ah these. Poor kids, they were the survivors of the last war. Kirei stripped them of their mana and fed it to me. This is how I was able to stay in this plane for all these years.” These were children?! On close inspection I see that they indeed were children. I feel quite ill to my stomach and struggle not to get disturbed more.

 

This is really not helping me come up with solutions to my situation. I am instead forced to hold down my anger to what these people did to these children all for the sake of the war. I am certain that were they to get a hold of the Grail, the lives that they had wasted so carelessly would not even cross their minds. I have seen many people die in wars during my life but this was very different from that. My comrades and enemies were grown men who knew the consequences of going into battle. These were children who had not even known their reasons of living. “Why did you accept such cowardice ways? You are the King of heroes and yet you stand by and let your master feed you mana through these means!” I had heard of stories of the king of Heroes. My mother and father used to tell me different stories about him.

 

He was the reason why I decided to shed my feminine duties and become a king. A person the whole nation, no, all the Kings of all nations looked up to. I aimed to be that person that leads not only their people, but puts peace and trust into other kings too. It is that reason that I want more than anything to restore trust and peace in my people first before I continue on my real dream. A dream to be a King of all heroes. Seeing the present King standing here, his purity tainted by the souls of younglings, I am even more fuelled to more than him. “You see, once I get the Holy Grail, I am to regain my throne. My leadership and kingdom is forgotten but not for long.” I see what he wishes of the Grail now but why really does he need me? “If all you need is to get your kingdom back, then I am of no use to you, why are you holding me?”

 

“I told you didn’t I, ever since ten years ago. In the last war I asked you to marry me and I am still aiming for that too of course. You see, every great King has a queen and I want you to be my queen once I rule over my throne.” This is really making me angry. He thinks I gave up all the dreams young girls like me have to become a great people’s king to be married off to him?!! “I will still say what I said back then. I refuse. Just as you have your dreams, I also have mine and I will not stand aside and see you stop them from coming to realization.” He seems like he is going to get angry but seems to come to an understanding as I study his face. He then asks me a question that I find I have no answer to, yet.

 

“If you need the Holy Grail, join me then and I will share its glorious power with you. With you by my side, nothing could ever come between us.” I tell him that I don’t need his help to get the Grail. I have my master that I trust, with her we will win this war for sure. “Why do you insist on this human so much? I know your class is the most obedient but in the last war you were not as tamed as you are now. Why do you insist in being under a weak human’s leash like this?! You don’t belong with them, with her. You belong only with me. I am the only one who is worth to own you, no one else.” I am getting tired of him referring to me as an object but for some reason I can not seem to bring myself to correct him.

 

“Fine, be that way. All I have to do is get rid of her and you won’t have any other excuses. I should’ve killed her when I had the chance but I can still kill her now. Only you stood a chance to try and defeat me but since you are at my mercy now, I can do whatever I want.” He turns and starts walking away towards the exit. I won’t ever forgive him if he does anything to Rin. “Do not dare harm her. If you do something to my master I will...” But I am cut off by his high voice and what he says leaves me shaken and ashamed of how I had let this happen. “What should I bring you back as a present? Her fingers? A foot or perhaps the whole body? Whatever you want I will bring it.” My body feels the act itself and reacts. He leaves while laughing at his ideas. I am shaken that I have ever been. I can’t not let Gilgamesh get to Rin. I know that if I were to go with him, I can fulfil my dream but I just don’t want to do it with his help.

 

I feel that only with Rin I can get what I want without any regrets. I have never been in service with another master like her. I do not want to have any other master but her. I think of a way to repair my circuit but for it to be accomplished, I will need my master. I realise now that I can not do anything without Rin. My first task is to get to her. I am starting to pray that Gilgamesh has been damaged with the foul mana so much that he will decide to bring Rin here so that he might kill her in my presence when the doors open again. I look up and I see a head trying to look around for something. It stops at me and the body accompanying it comes down the stairs. It is Kotomine Kirei, the priest at a church and now I finally understand where I am. This is the only place of religious gathering in this entire city.

 

“Ah, so that was it? I should have known his idea of the ultimate prize was you.” He stops just where Gilgamesh was before if only a few cm back. “Nice to see you again servant Saber. Do you remember me?” He asks me in his deep voice. I have a lot of things I want to ask him, talk to him about but then I remember his relationship to Rin. I suddenly have a great thought of getting free. “Yes I remember you Kirei and I know you care about Tohsaka Rin, or you did. If you do not want her to be killed by Gilgamesh then help me get free from here and I will go save her. He is on his way to do just that.” I try to be calm but even I can not know why I am speaking with this much desperation.

 

He seems to think about it after his eyes widen a bit. I am certain that he was not aware of his servant’s movements or intentions but, “Oh? And you think that I will let you kill him to save a girl that has no use to me now?” he asks but I have no intentions of killing Gilgamesh without my master’s consent. We decided to face him later after more training. “I have no intentions of fighting Gilgamesh and even if I wanted to destroy him, I don’t have enough mana to kill him. As you remember in the last war her father was my master and he was a lot more experienced in magi craft than she is but I could not defeat him then. I can not defeat him now too.” He seems to in thought about this and I think that he knows I speak the truth.

 

But even though what I said is supposed to be technically true, I felt much stronger with Rin as my master than I ever did with Tohsaka, her father. I know that were I to face Gilgamesh in battle, I would not lose with Rin as my master. “If my master is unharmed then I will not kill him if I can and even if he were to kill her, then you would have my master’s command spell. Gilgamesh is safe either way. Now will you set me free to save my master?” I know that although he said he cares not for Rin, he does. Not in the father care but in the care that he has her in his plans. He needs her alive unless he would have not set me free. I know that he is protected by one of Gilgamesh’s great collections. A spell of some sort that he might have gotten from a great spell book and thus I can not touch Kirei. He knows it too or he would have feared for his life but he never made any mention of it. I make haste for the exit and as soon as I am out, I feel my master’s mana flow. I waste no time in going into that direction.

 

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(Rin)

 

“Please Emiya-kun, I need your help. Help me go save Saber.” I have been here for the last hour trying to get Shirou to help me go save my servant from the clutches of that arrogant Goldie but this Archer is really pissing me off. He keeps telling Shirou about staying in the dark until they are ready and other stuff and Shirou seems to listen to him. I want badly to go and sock him one although I know that it can only be done in my head alone. “Shirou, you shouldn’t concern yourself with the matters of other participants in the war. Help her now and she will come at us later.” See what I mean, if I still didn’t feel that kick the bastard gave me, I would show him. “A master stupid enough to let her servant be taken or more be sneaked upon without notice deserves to lose.”

 

“Archer, that’s enough.” Seems like Shirou is fed up with is servant’s attitude. “Tohsaka, how do you expect us to save your servant if this Gilgamesh is as strong as you say?” Damn it. I should not have said much about Gilgamesh. “Come on Emiya-kun, I will make it to you, I promise but please, help me save Saber.” I am getting more desperate as time passes. I am fearing for Saber. I have been trying to reach her but getting nothing in return. What if she tried to fight back and was killed?!! I look at my hand, at the back of my palm and find that the seal is still there. I guess Shirou sees me doing this and somehow understands what I am feeling and decides to help me. “Alright Tohsaka, let’s go save your servant.”

 

He stands up from the floor and I see Archer shake his head but he is smiling. I guess he too is getting used to Shirou’s selflessness like I did. He indeed is a wonderful guy. “Thank you Emiya-kun.” I stand too and follow them to the exit. “This is a suicide mission you know Shirou. It would really suck to lose even before we fought weakling out there.” He laughs as it seems that he has just got a very funny thought. “We shall go down in history as the stupidest pair to ever have fought in the war. Going up against the most feared servant from the start.” He shakes his head and walks on from behind me and Shirou. When we get outside, Shirou asks me to confirm where Gilgamesh resides. “Now you said that Gilgamesh’s master was the priest at the church right?” I nod and I see him exchange a knowing look with Archer who dematerialises and Shirou turns to me again.

 

“We shall need transport to get there as quickly as possible. I will give you a ride.” I am ready to ask him what he means to ride as I have never seen him ride anything before not even a bike and then I see it. He closes his eyes and looks in concentration. He speaks a few English words that I know sound like “Trace On” and then out of no where, a bike is being materialised near him. He looks pleased with himself and gets on. He starts it up and motions for me to get on but I am so awed that I stand there like a statue for sometime. “What the hell was that Emiya-kun?! That was so cool. How did you do it?” I ask him as I get on. “So sorry Rin, but I can’t tell you that. Archer would kill me.” We start forward and I wrap my arms around his waist for safety.

 

While we ride, my thoughts are on Saber. I am wondering what is happening to her in my absence. I don’t want anything to happen to her now that I know how important she is to me. I can’t believe too that I have fallen in love with her of all people. She is not a normal person that I might want to spend my life with. As much as she seems that way, I know that she is a heroic spirit that will return to where she is meant to be having had her wish filled. It is now that I see I know nothing about her. I don’t know the reasons why she is in this war. What lies inside that soul that is hidden deep within that body of a female warrior? I want to know everything about her. I want to see her. I want to be with her.

 

As I am still having realisations about myself, the bike suddenly stops and I can hear the strain from Shirou trying to control it. When we stop, I ask why we have stopped but Shirou does not answer me instead he looks on ahead. I follow his gaze and I know that I don’t need his answer. Being on the bridge as we are, the site in front if us is something to see. There standing mightily from end to end, is that damned gate of his. Weapons sticking out and all. I am starting to hate that thing. “There you are wench. I have come to put an end to your short miserable life so do yourself a favour and let it pass quickly. I will make it quick and painless.” His hands are in his pockets so I surmise that he commands everything by will. The swords come out at us first and Shirou grabs me and gets us out of the line of fire.

 

“You won’t get away that easily. Now die.” The swords change direction and come at use. “Archer.” Shirou shouts and Archer comes forward with those two swords I saw him with before. He deflects all the swords coming our way and I am awed. I think there are a lot of obstacles in our way to victory now. I wonder if we will be okay. No we don’t have time for this but there is no way I can go around Gilgamesh. We are on a bridge and he is blocking it all the way. He lets more swords loose and Archer is forced to quicken his blocks. “Oh? You are interesting. I think I will play with you a little before I get rid of you. Archer was it?” He brings his right arm over his left shoulder to grab a sword that comes; it seems, to his hand as if summoned. “This is my personal weapon. I will let you feel its steel as a fellow swordsman.”

 

It looks like no sword I’ve seen before. Where it is supposed to be sharp and edge, it is round like a pole instead. It has red trails on its black outlook instead of metal. The hilt is made of gold of course. He springs for Archer who in turn meets him half way in the air and blows are exchanged. I saw something falling and I look to see that it is one of Archer’s swords. I figure that he is fighting with the remaining one seeing as there is no pose in the battle and when the second sword falls, I am sure Archer is done for. Yet they still fight and when they come back to the ground for a second round, I see that Archer still wields the two swords. I remember the bike incident before and conclude that Archer has the ability to create things or make copies. This unsettles me for some reason but I don’t dwell on it for long.

 

“Cheh! This is starting to get boring. I will finish you off now and I will take the wench with me. Prepare to return to the spirit world.” Gilgamesh prepares himself to strike and I see that Archer too is not going down just like that but instead of doing what others normally would, were they to find themselves in his predicament, he immaterializes his swords and jumps on the railing of the bridge.

“I AM THE BONE OF MY SWORD”

“ENUMA...”

Archer materialises a bow and an arrow that first looks like a sword with a spiral blade but then shifts its shape into an arrow of light. Gilgamesh too is getting prepared and red mana is being sucked from nature itself and getting concentrated into his sword. He never got to finish his attack however as the wall of energy behind him is shattered and a figure springs forth from within. An angry roar of “Gilgamesh” is the first reason I know that it is Saber. She descends gracefully at the same time striking down her invisible sword towards a surprised Gilgamesh. He side steps her attack but not before receiving a cut first from her sword. He still looks surprised perhaps from wondering how Saber got free. He really didn’t think that he would hold her for all this time, did he? Who did he think she was, a house wife?!

 

I laugh out loud at that and as he disappears from sight, I run up to Saber my surroundings forgotten and I give her an embrace. “Saber, you are alright.” I am not sure if I cry or not but I feel really happy right now. I feel her putting her arms around me too and let myself get lost in her security.

 

 

To be Continued...

 

 

 

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