~~Prologue~~
The shrine lies in ruins.
Scattered amongst the shattered buildings, the fires die down, as though choked by the thick plume of dust and ashes that rise from the site. Even now, this grey pillar slowly collapses, drifting downwards into a black pall for the remains of the fallen. And in the distance, breaking through the unnatural silence, mournful sirens wail, providing a fitting dirge.
Admist the wrecked courtyard, there is a perfect circle of untouched ground, ringed by rubble and blackened earth. Sitting there is a woman clad only in a torn white rag gently cradling a bloodied boy. Her face caked with blood and mud, is a perfect death mask, completely empty of expression, only marred by two discoloured tracks trailing downwards from dull eyes that stare vacantly into the heavens. She sits there, back painfully straight, the only movement being that of her right hand, slowly stroking the red hair of the head lying in her lap.
In contrast, the still form of the boy lying there is at ease, a beautiful smile gracing his lips. His features are open, almost joyful and one would have thought that he was but sleeping if not for the horrible wounds that no longer bled all over his body.
"Shirou."
A word falls from the woman's lips and the hand stills. It seems like a trick of the light, but it seems to be waver, colour leeching from it into translucence before suddenly resolidfying.
"Shirou." The hand slowly traces his jawline even as her eyes gaze ever upwards. "Why?"
A golden light appears high above her and slowly descends. Her face twists and tears pool in her eyes.
"Why?" A hint of pain and despair stains the word and she suddenly collapses bonelessly over him, her long mattered hair hiding their faces.
"I do not deserve the grail. My wish was born out of selfishness, and cowardice." She continues, anguish burning in every word, tears flowing continously. "I failed you as your sword, as your shield... and you?"
She chokes. "You saved me. "
A hand slams the ground and her voice rises with each word. "You died ... oh WHY! WHY DID YOU DIE FOR ME?"
Her hand stops. "Why. Why did you die... For a failed... "
She weeps freely now, even as the golden light descends on her. "Someone like you should have been King."
Her fist clenches and her head rises. She gazes at the light and bites her lip. "These times are not for someone like you. They would give you a bitter draught like that of Archer. And I... while I do not deserve a happy ending with you but... I wish..."
Her voice drops and she bends down and kisses him, holding his body close even as her form wavers. "That you were High King in my place."
As the sound of her words die away, she vanishes and the light above explodes into a gigantic pillar connecting the earth to the heavens. The earth shakes and the hill simply disappears.
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Arturia huffed. The nerve of that man!
Snarling at the fleeing figure, she struggles to catch her breath as she gets to her feet. Damn it. He is not even breathing hard. It isn't fair for a man who spends the whole day having fun to run faster than me!
She scowls remembering the events that had led up to this situation. It had been two days ago when Lord (HAH!) Merlin had swept into Lord Ector's Hall in Dyfed. There, he had been warmly welcomed by her foster father even as the ladies-in- waiting had quickly vacated the area. That … she frowned searching for an appropriate word, ah yes. That Fool had declared in appropriately grandiose manner that it was critical that he take her on a “Training Journey of utmost importance”. She had been so excited then and had in a moment senility completely forgotten how absolutely annoying he was, immediately asking when they would leave. That Charlatan had told her that they would leave within the hour and to quickly go pack and she had just run off…
She heaves a sigh. In her defence, she had been rather frustrated with losing to Kay every SINGLE TIME ever since he learned that damnable technique… no that was unworthy of her. She is happy that his hard work had paid off, it’s just that she seemed to have hit a wall with her progress lately. She had hoped that Merlin would have been able to help, given how much he knew about teaching war. However, in the three days they had taken to reach the Hanging Stones, there had been no insights or progress.
Merlin had kept making cryptic statements that were of no help at all. In her darker moments, she even wondered if he was making a fool of her and enjoying her misery. She kicked at the ground disconsolately. How is she to help her country defeat the Saxons and restore peace to the lands if she is stuck at her current level?
In bladework, she still surpassed her brother and other knights but well… that was all. She still could not manage control over the winds around her beyond channelling it into a blast. Merlin keeps telling her not to worry but she is already almost 15 years old! She is the heir to the throne of Britain and how can she unite her people if she could not lead them in battle?
She blinks, te.. no. That was just dust. She swiftly rubbed the droplets away, checking if Merlin was around. No sign of him. She really cannot understand why he believes so much in her. She takes a deep breathe and reigns in her emotions… and is promptly knocked over by a shockwave.
What was that? She wonders sitting up and sees a pillar of light in the centre of the Hanging Stones where Merlin … had… gone.
“DAMMIT MERLIN!”
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The first thing that comes to mind when conciousness returns is the last thing he saw. Her.
She had been crying and he wanted desperately to tell her not to cry. That she would have her wish. That he was happy. For he had, at the very least, managed to save her.
He pauses.
Wait. Isn't he supposed to be dead? Why is it that he can feel the warmth of the sun on bare skin and the dampness of grass at his back. Why is it that he can feel a light rain falling on him and see the light of the sun through closed eye lids. And isn't it supposed to be the dead of Winter? He opens his eyes.
A clear blue sky with hardly any clouds, the sun shining high above and theres even a rainbow? He sits up and looks around and sees that he is in the centre of a ring of huge stones... Henge. Oh, a Henge is it? His eyes furrow. Where did that voice come from?
He freezes. Where is she? He scans the clearing again. Nothing. His heart clenches in his chest and he tries to stand. Tries. And falls over face first. He tries to push himself off the ground and stops, wincing in pain. It is not merely a matter of weakness. Feeling is starting to return to his body and his entire body aches.
He flops over, and ... a strangled shout escapes his mouth. Standing over him is an old man holding a staff peering at him intently. Before Shirou can say a word, the old man starts chuckling and rubbing his hands with glee.
"Fascinating, fasincating! I come with my ward on the dreary task of honouring a dead man and what do I find? A neww~~ toy!"
Shirou blinks and tries to speak. All that comes out is a strange wheezing sound. He frowns. The old man laughs in delight and pokes him with the staff.
"So Mr Toy, what is your name?"
He struggles to speak and another garbled sound emerges. The old man laughs still harder at the reddening Shirou.
"Merlin! What are you doing?"
That voice. His sight snaps immediately towards the voice and ... it is her. A little younger, legs still gangly, dressed as a boy with her hair in her usual bun and a sword belted to her side. Her eyes blazing with annoyance she strides towards them confidently. What is going on?
She suddenly stops and blushes before glaring at the old man. "Mer-merlin! What are you doing to that poor man? And why is he..."
She stops at that point, at a loss for words.
"Naked?" Merlin asks smirking. "Why at such a loss of words? He doesn't have anything you do not have."
His smirk widens. "Or.... do you see something you like?"
She sputters and points at Merlin.
A beautific smile on his face, he continues, whistling "My, my the youth of today are into such deviancy, your father Uther would be so...."
"Arturia." The words are a whisper but they have the same effect as a thunderbolt.
She turns completely pale and the look of utter shock on her face is just so cute that he can't help but smile. The edge of his vision is blurry, and the only thing that is in focus is her. Her mouth is moving but he cannot hear anything.
Shirou feels his smile widen even as he lets go.
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“Rejoice, Emiya Shirou! For your wish has been granted.”
He springs up, heart racing, looking around wildly, lips twisting into a snarl. “KOTO… Ilya? But…”
She is standing there, straightening up, a smirk on her face. She looks older and is clad in an elaborate and scandalously short white half-robe trimmed with gold and long sleeves that touch the ground. On her head is a crown of white and gold and around her neck is a long red scarf with symbols etched in gold on it.
“Ahaha! To fall for such a silly thing … I have such a useless brother.” She says, the smirk turning into a mischievous grin. He drinks in the sight of her, and feels tears coming to his eyes and opens his mouth to speak.
“Ow!” She hit him?! And where did the Tora-shinai come from?
“Brother. You are an idiot.” She frowns at him severely. “If you do not even love yourself, how can you love someone else? You are so selfless that you have become selfish!”
“Hwah?” Shirou does not understand, his mind flashing through what he could have done wrong… thwack! She smacked him again! And suddenly she is hugging him, hot tears staining his shirt. What has he done wrong?!
“You stupid, stupid brother! You died, saving your Saber… I died to save you, not her! Is your life worth so little?” She chokes out, amidst her sobs. Is my life worth so little?
He gulps, and slowly places his hands around her, rubbing her back gently even as she leaned in further, his thoughts racing. He breathes in, and speaks softly, awkwardly, “Ilya… you are not being fair. I do care for you, but when it happened, there was no time to think… and I would have done the same for you.”
Her sobbing slowly dies down, even as he rocked her gently, waiting for her to speak even as he looks around in growing bewilderment. The place is familiar but… They are on a hill, the sole feature snowy covered wasteland, marked with gaping holes and covered in swords of all kinds. He frowns, and realises that the holes feel more like missing pieces then chasms. He looks up and sees gigantic gears turning amongst fluffy clouds from which flakes gently drift down, shining where they catch the light of the setting sun in the distance. Again, there are those strange gaps.
A hand gently touching his cheek calls his attention back. Ilya pouting, her eyes still red speaks. “You are still an idiot.”
He laughs helplessly, and hearing him, Ilya allows herself to smile slightly. Solemnly, she speaks. “Brother, your Saber made a wish on the Tainted Grail.”
“Tainted?”
“Yes.” She breathes out, her expression somber, letting go of him and withdrawing.
“What caused...”
“I am sorry, but we have little time left. I cannot keep you here much longer today. We will talk more about it later. The important thing is that when Saber made the wish, it did not work quite as planned. I did my best, but…”
Ilya looks down, not meeting his eyes. Seeing the tension in her shoulders, he gently squeezes her hand. She looks up, flashes him a weak smile. “You are not quite complete… I had to patch you as best as I could. And that means…”
Trailing off, she looks down again. He sees her distress and while he really does not understand why she thinks that it is her fault or why she is even here or anything much for the matter. He knows that he does not want her to be sad. “Ilya, you did a wonderful job, I feel fine...”
“No. No you aren’t.” She shakes her head. “Tell me, what can you remember of Father.”
He pauses.
“I… his name is Emiya Kiritsugi and…” Searching his memory, he realises that he cannot quite remember anything before the grail war. He feels his breathing speed up. “I…”
“You are angry aren’t you.” Ilya whispers, turning away. He stops and opens his mouth.
“Don’t lie to me.” She interrupts, pushing him away feebly. Her shoulders are trembling he realises. “I… I should…”
He grabs her, and ignoring her flinching, and hugs her tightly, ignoring her protests. “Ilya. I do not understand why you think that it is your fault, or why you are speaking as though you are the Grail. Even if, somehow, it was your fault, why would I blame you? I am here, and even if I forgot some things, you did your best didn’t you?”
A pause. She nods timidly, completely still.
“Then, thank you.”
She looks up, startled, searching his face… and smiles. He breathes out a sigh of relief and stiffens when she leans closer. She touches her forehead to his, and says. “That’s why you are still an Idiot, little brother.”
He smiles.
A heartbeat. An eye twitches, “Wait, why am I the little…”
“No time,” She interjects, covering his mouth with her hand. “Saber wish sent you back in time to before she became a King. She wanted to spend more time with you!”
Shirou’s brain simply froze at the utter inanity of the wish. “What? That does not sound like…”
And before he finishes the sentence, he vanishes.
Alone, Ilya closes her eyes for a moment, the smile still on her lips. She wished that she could tell him more, but as the Grail Maiden she was bound by Saber's wish. She claps her hands once and smirks. “Well then, back to work. Ah, he is just no good without me.”
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Notes: The shattering and semi-amnesia of Emiya Shirou is supposed to be a plot point that will allow allow the Grail (Ilya to Meddle). I would have preferred to have this implied, but I have received feedback that this might be a little bit of a Deus Ex Machina and urgently need an opinion as it will affect the rest of the story. As you might guess, the Grail War did not end in one of the 3 routes we know of, thus setting up the situation here. Ilya found herself brought along for the ride when the wish was made.
The reason I brought Ilya in as the Grail is to help explain how Shirou has greater abilities due to his being remade to fit in Arthurian times better. Ilya was not able to reconstruct him completely using an imperfect form of the
Heaven's Feel, a fact reflected in his reality marble. I did take liberties with the Saint of Winter aspect of the Homunculous who became the original grail core. No SUPER or broken abilities are meant to be granted, he is able to speak the local language, has a similar capacity as the locals (otherwise he would get his ass kicked rather hard given the higher soul density in the past and all that) and MAYBE improved tracing skills from a jumble of memories taken from Archer(depends if I want to take the trouble to balance this ;p). He would also have the same knowledge of local customs just as Servants could tap on the grail to find out about the "present" customs. Finally, I wanted to give him a reason for Merlin to be interested in him ie Shirou is an almost perfected Homunculous of sorts.
However, I am not sure how viable or logical that plot-line will be. It might make things too easy. Heh. I might just remove most of it or just ignore Nasu-verse mechanics in writing the usage of abilities. Opinions please!
As for the World of King Arthur, while I will take some background info from Nasu on the knights and Kings, the majority of names places, etc will be taken from various historical/mythological sources and less of the French stories from which TM takes inspiration from. The map will roughly look similar to the one below:
The protaganists will first have to defeat the Saxons led by Osla son of Octa who was killed by Uther Pendragon, then expand Briton rule northwards. So expect some more authenthic names such as Morgan ap Pasgen, King of Powys, etc.
If you have any input on this, please feel free to contribute possible names of Kings as I am trying hard to do something like Stephen Lawhead!
Finally, I will be writing something more silly as an omake. It will parellel the current universe. In this version the grail decides that since the Wish is "Someone Like You" and not "Shirou" it decides to do so with Archer into a strange strange version of Camelot with Merlin getting him hitched to a Tsundere Saber, a Yandere Morgan/Morgause falls for him, a Guinevere who wants both Archer and Lancelot at the same time, a loli Nimue thinks he is her brother, etc etc
His knights of the round table are also more like Monty Python misfits with strange quirks and the invading Saxons are looking for the Holy Barrel of ever-lasting Booze and the invading Picts from the North are doing so because they want everyone to wear kilts.
The Grail manifests as his shoulder angel and devil with Ilya and Kotomine personalities respectively. What? Ilya isn't really an angel? Well too bad. The grail is corrupted and all that.
Whats a King Archer to do?
P.S. My first post after lurking. I always wanted my first post on a fanfiction forum to be a story ;p
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