Dark Princesses, Crow’s Wings and Hero’s Broken Dreams
Title: Dark Princesses, Crow's Wings, and Hero's Broken Dreams
Rating: M for Mature. For sexing, violence and other lovelies.
Pairing: Rin/Archer, eventually, mentions of Shirou/Saber here and there.
Warnings: Spoilers for Fate route and YOUR MOM. Okay, stuff taken from notes from Tsukhime 2.
Summery: A dark princess, out of boredom, wishes to challenge her sister, the White Princess. To do so, she'll rain havoc on the mages of the World, with one Tohsaka Rin and Aozaki Aoko caught in the Middle. Can one Counter Guardian and his former Master save each other, or will magekind, along with the rest of the world, be drug into ruin?
Okay, before you guys get any farther in this, this was written when I'd just seen the anime and starting through the Fate Route. It's an old fic, a dead fic, but LunarLegend saw it on the TVTrope's web page and since the Old BL is dead and the other place it was posted on had random moon runes on it. So he wanted to read it and it's apparently kind of legendary so . . . Boom, here it is. (There's I think ten long chapters so . . . I'll post them all.) And I'm pulling all of these from LJ.
Prologue
Sister Mary Ortez shuddered at the endless black eyes staring at her from the gilded iron cage in front of her. The giant crow’s iridescent feathers gleamed in the candle light as the huge bird shifted restlessly in his cage. The bird kept staring at her with those pitiless eyes before it began to caw fiercely, ebon feathers bristling as large wings brandished wildly.
Mary’s eyes widened as the gentle golden glow of the candles shifted to a horrid, hellish red. The pale glow of the room shifted into that sickly ruby glow. Soft giggling echoed the stone walls as Mary extended her hand.
The Black Key appeared in her right hand and she wrapped her hand around the handle. With her left, she grabbed her robes and jerked hard and away from her body. White light encased the dark fabric as it shifted and reformed to a shield. Clad in shorts and a tank top now, the nun took a stance with her giant silver shield and the Black Key.
“Caw caw!” cried the crow as the wings flapped even harder, beating against the cage in the stillness other than that childish giggle.
Raven hair that seemed to absorb the light around it topped a young teenage girl’s face that smiled up at Mary with golden eyes. Her white dress swished around delicate ankles as she approached the warrior nun. Those golden eyes bore into Mary, setting her still and she realized that it was quite silly to hold the Key and the shield, wasn’t it?
Both clattered loudly to the floor.
The pretty girl smiled, flashing pointed hands before her left hand darted out.
There was a sickening sound of the wet squelch of flesh giving, the crunch of bones breaking and then the subtle pop of a hand breaking free.
Sister Mary Ortez’s mouth floundered open and shut like a fish’s before she fell over the young woman, who supported her easily with the arm rupturing through her sternum. Blood spilled to the floor in scarlet rivers, forming tiny pools on the stone floor that reflected the hellish glow all around them. The pouting crimson mouth opened and lengthening fangs shredded into the bronze column of the Sister’s throat.
Within moments, the limp body was shoved to the ground and the princess practically floated to the cage.
She pressed her pale hands against the bars with a wicked smile. She tilted her head at the bar and the crow continued to shrill loudly. Its feathers ruffled as it cawed and flapped its wings. She ripped the cage in half with those small hands and grabbed the crow.
She tossed it into the cooling body. She turned around, long raven hair sweeping behind her, and watched as the crow’s body shifted and reformed. The dark princess clapped her hands at the tall man in black standing before her.
“So, Gransurg Blackmore, who’s side are you on?” she asked as she looked up at him.
A muscle ticked along a sharp cheekbone as black eyes narrowed at the teenage girl staring up at him and grinning with a blood stained mouth. He swept his cape behind him and lowered himself to his knees. His head bowed. His teeth were clinched.
“Yours, Your Highness,” he said with a hiss.
Princess Altrouge Brunestud, elder sister of Arcueid and princess of the Dead Apostles, master of Primate Murder, practically beamed. She patted his hair and asked, “So, wanna destroy the world?”
London, England
Mages’ Association
Six Months After the Fifth Grail War
“All it does is rain in this damned country,” an annoyed female voice grumbled as she shook said raindrops out of a large red umbrella. She propped the umbrella against the door and took her hip length black hair in her hands. With a grimace, she twisted water out of her hair and shook it out. The ends immediately began to curl themselves once more. She brushed her hands over the sleeves of her red turtleneck, short pleated skirt and even brushed water off her silken black thigh highs. She shook beads of water off her brown loafers and cursed in her native language.
Beside her there was a cheerful giggle as another voice replied, “Well, yesterday, it was foggy.”
Tohsaka Rin scowled at the short, compact blonde standing beside her and snorted, “It just rains and is foggy here. It’s been months since I’ve seen the sun.”
“It’s England, the land of rain and fog, what else where you expecting?” the blonde answered with a grin that lit up her hazel-green eyes.
Rin snorted, “The occasional ray of sunlight here and there.”
“Dude, it’s England, which is why it’s awesome,” the blonde said as she shook out her pony tail.
Rin sighed, “Because you’re American, you tend to romanticize England, that’s why.”
“Come on, don’t you love the pubs and stuff? And how people talk here?” the bouncy blonde asked as she linked arms with Rin.
Rin replied, “The food is abysmal at best and I can barely understand what people are saying.”
“See, Rin, you need to go out with us some time,” the other teen replied as she guided Rin down the polished hallway.
Rin looked at her slightly bedraggled reflection in one of the many glass cases they passed. There were tiny dark circles under her eyes and her hands occasionally shook while she handled her stones. When she wasn’t at the Mage’s Association finishing her proper mage’s training, she was at home, lost in her thoughts and her stones. And haunted by a redheaded moron of a boy, she snorted sadly as she shook her head.
She closed her eyes and amended, And a man with eyes like steel and silvery hair.
After Shirou and Saber destroyed the Grail, Saber went back to her own time, leaving Shirou alone. He stayed in Fuyuki City to finish High School and probably become some epic hero saving people in his innocent way. While she had been called to England to finish her mage’s training.
Where she had met the bubbly blonde American Lea Murphy. Lea was the only other mage at the Association who chose to use gemstones as a focus for her magic, except her gemstones were raw crystals and uncut. While bubbly and somewhat absent minded on the surface, get something she could focus on and it made her Rin’s friendly rival at the Association.
At least when it came to information studies, when it came to practical usage, Rin had the blonde.
Not that there was anyone worthy after Rin had fought in the last Grail War, but Lea’s coloring reminded her of Saber and her naivete reminded her of Shirou so Rin let her hang around. Rin was absently listening to her prattle on about things. Lea said, “Seriously, you should come clubbing with us, there are some awesome places to have some fun.”
She then nudged Rin and said, “Maybe you can find a nice guy to help charge your mana . . .”
Rin stiffened and glared down at the smaller girl. She said, “I would not do something as important as charging mana with some random man I met in a London club. I’d choose another magus and nothing less.”
“Yeesh, sorry Rin . . .,” Lea mumbled as she fumbled with the citrine pendent around her neck.
Rin sighed and petted her shoulder, “It’s not your fault. I’m particular of who I’d share myself with.”
“Actually, she’s smart to be careful,” a deep gravely voice said behind her, sudden warmth at her back and ghostly fingertips resting on her shoulders.
She easily stepped forward and flicked a lock of hair from her shoulder as she turned to face her impromptu shadow. Icy blue eyes narrowed as a slow smile spread over a thin, arrogant mouth. The teenage towered over Lea’s slight height, but he wasn’t that much taller than Rin. He leaned forward, putting his eyes closer to her level, the edges of his ever present black duster sweeping forward to brush her skirt.
He continued in that thick, forced deep voice, “One wrong step can have your mana sucked into someone eyes, right Tohsaka-kun?”
“Yes, this is precisely why I would not attempt do any magic with someone such as yourself, Yukisato,” Rin said with arch sweetness and a tiny grin as she stepped closer to Lea and linked arms with her again.
Yukisato tilted his head and snorted at Lea. “Well, little crystal wielding mages are safe, aren’t they?”
“And easier to work with. Your lack of talents would hinder a magus of my caliber, while Lea, because she’s an Earth based magus, is excellent to work with despite her more raw qualities,” Rin continued as her smile grew and sharpened, “And no matter how much you excel at simple book work, you can’t touch her raw power.”
Lea blushed and looked down at the rings adorning her small hands. Rin gave him a feline grin and said, “Well, we’ll see you in class, Kurokawa-kun.” Then she started to guide Lea briskly down the hallway.
Lea whispered once Yukisato was out of earshot, “Yukisato Kurokawa scares me. Damned shadow mage.”
“Sure, shadow magic looks impressive, but it really is useless. It’s good for defense, but in actual combat? I’d shatter him,” Rin said as she cracked her knuckles.
Lea snorted and rolled her eyes. She said, “Not all of us are good at throwing curses and stuff.”
“Natural talent,” Rin said with a tiny grin as they walked to class together. However, her shoulders were increasingly getting tense. Lea opened the door and a scant few pairs of eyes, including Yukisato’s icy blue ones, turned to them.
Lea let the raven haired magus go as she took her seat to the back of the class. Rin, however, marched up to the front and took her desk right in front of the teacher’s. She looked up and expected to see familiar scattered rune stones and a few German spell books littering the surface that marked Adolf Shriber’s desk. Instead it was wiped clean save for one old steamer trunk resting on top.
She turned to the one person sitting beside her and he smiled, warm grass green eyes lighting up. She asked, “Where’s the Further?”
“Dinna know, but the Old Man hasn’t been seen since two nights ago,” came the lilting, burring reply.
Rin frowned and asked, “That’s odd, usually Further Adolf is generally quite predictable.”
Broad shoulders slumped and her classmate ran a hand through his thick, curly chestnut brown hair. He replied, “Aye, I know Rin-lass, he’s like clockwork, but . . . the trees are talking.”
“What are they saying, Drustan?” Rin dropped her voice to a whisper as she leaned forward to the burly Scottish mage.
Drustan’s green eyes narrowed as he answered in his lilting purr, “Carrion crow, not graced by the Morrigan, pecking, gathering.”
“Why are you Druids so damned cryptic?” Rin sighed as she rubbed her forehead, “Talking to you is like trying to read the sun.”
White teeth flashed against a freckled face as he laughed, loud, true and boisterous enough to make his whole body shake with mirth. His eyes were glinting like emeralds as he reigned the laughter into happy chuckling. His smile was as honest as the rest of him as he mused, “And why are you so literal, lass?”
“Because with you poking in the trees and things, Lea’s head in the clouds and because Yukisato is an ass, someone has to be,” Rin replied with a flick of her hair.
Drustan’s eyes grew hazy as he leaned forward, their faces inches from each other. While not handsome, Drustan was honest and heavily grounded. He did everything to its fullest from something simple like eating lunch or something complex as jerking a full grown oak tree from dead ground and making the land thrive again. There were no half measures with the Scottish Druid magus and his smile was enough to make most girls weak.
And Rin desperately wished to be attracted to him, but she couldn’t.
She even asked him on several dates since they started class together.
The first date had been a fancy restaurant. She’d dressed up in something she’d half hoped to wear for Shirou, fixed her hair and even worn make up. He’d cleaned up as well, even scrubbing out the ever present dirt under his fingernails. He’d ordered hagus and she poked at it and proclaimed it toxic. She proceeded to demand why people of Great Britain had such odd eating habits. He had shook his fork at her and retorted that Japanese eating habits weren’t any better, but she liked Earl Grey tea, didn’t she?
They had laughed and he walked her home. They hadn’t even held hands. He didn’t even attempt to kiss her when he told her good bye at her flat.
Their second date had been more fun, his choice. He took her hiking on the Moors. He pointed out animals to her and told her their names. He even made a rose bush bloom to put one of the white blossoms in her hair.
She tried to kiss him then, to forget, or to perhaps feel something other than drowning obligation and loneliness, but he’d simply stopped her. He had put those big hands on her shoulders and looked down at her with those oddly wise eyes of his. He then turned and pointed out a murder of crows on the Moors before stepping behind her, breaking the moment.
Walking back to his archaic off-road vehicle Rin had sulked just a little. After all, she was pretty and powerful, and why didn’t he want her? There was no Artura or . . .
She shook her head at the memory, remembering the question that Drustan asked that day that still haunted her.
“Ah, Rin-lass, why does such sadness lurk in your eyes? What did you lose that was so important to you?”
Rin had snorted at the time and spun out of his reach, flicking her hair back almost defensively. She retorted that the trees were gossiping. She hadn’t lost anything, after all, she was at the Mages’ Association, only where the most talented and powerful mages went to study, wasn’t she? She’d lost nothing, but gained a future, she’d told him.
Yet she looked down at her left hand and clinched her fist as she looked at her now pristine and flawless skin there.
It burned, a momentary flash of pain that overwhelmed her and almost sent her still. Physical and emotional loss overwhelmed her and she looked at the back of her hand. Her eyes burned with unshed tears as the once familiar marks flashed then faded away.
Her Archer was dead.
If he was just a Servant, then why did she feel so damned hollow?
She wanted to stumble to the ground, sob out her frustration, but the deep, shuddering pants of Saber and the heavier, masculine grunts of Shirou steeled her. She clinched her fists at her sides and spun around. Exhausted, emerald green eyes peered out of a delicate, heavily flushed face and golden-brown eyes, like fine sherry, peered at her imploringly.
She’d mourn later.
She had obligations to fulfil and people she cared about to save.
Just as Archer did, despite the odds, she’d keep going and then mourn later.
“We Earthlings are just a wee bit different than your type of magus, that’s all,” Drustan replied with a wink, his voice snapping her back into the present.
Rin lifted an eyebrow and asked, “Aren’t you Earth types suppose to be more grounded?”
“I am, Lea’s not, but then again, Lea works on the ethereal too. She might be a synergist, but no one’s proven that yet,” Drustan answered with a broad shrug.
Rin turned to look at the pony tailed almost mousy blonde reading a romance novel in one of the back desks of the mostly empty classroom. The raven haired mage cocked both eyebrows and asked, “What do you mean no one’s proven yet?”
“Lass is even purer than you are Rin,” Drustan said with a wink, “Well, in body anyway. In mind she’s as pervy as a randy lad.
Rin snorted, “And all of her talk about going to the pub and get laid.”
“Being untouched doesn’t stop anyone from being randy, Rin-lass, you know that better than anyone,” Drustan teased with a grin.
Rin flushed and said, “Do the trees tell you all of this?”
“Nay, the murder of crows that lurk outside your flat for bread crumbs did,” the Scot admitted with a chuckle.
Rin moved to smack his arm, when brilliant blue light flooded the room.
Chapter One
Rin placed her hands on the desk and concentrated. Energy poured from her arms to her fingertips and she infused the desk with it. The wood surface shimmered and light spread across the center of the desk and slid to the edges and down the legs of the desk. As the light traveled over the wooden desk, it transformed the surface into shining substance like steel. She slid the now lighter piece of furniture in front of her and ducked behind it.
“Mo Chreach!” Drustan shouted from beside her as she saw him dive behind the Further’s desk from the corner of her eye.
She, however, peered over the side of her reinforced desk at the tall woman standing at the back of the classroom.
The woman, maybe ten or so years older than Rin, stood with a tiny smile on her pretty face and a long finger pointed at the class like a gun. Energy like sapphires blossomed at the woman’s finger tip and cast a blue glow over the entire classroom. Her insanely long red hair whipped behind her like a banner as she cocked her thumb as she was pulling the trigger.
Yukisato let out a scream as he fell into his shadow and vanished right before the glowing beam of brilliant azure energy hit. Lea squeaked and fumbled with the ever present bag around her neck and pulled out a small black crystal. The redhead turned to her and shot out another bolt of that brilliant blue energy, this time in a blazing ball, at the squeaking blonde.
The small girl flinched as she pressed her hands over her crystal. She yelped as the magic ball hit the warding shield she haltingly erected. Rin frowned as she rolled up her sleeves and canted her fingers. The mana came to her quickly and easily as the silver lined black power cackled around her finger. It made her skin tingle with warmth as she let the curse build.
She poured more and more power into the Gand before stepping out from behind her desk. As the elder magus whirled at her, Rin shot the Gand at her. The redhead gracefully jumped out of the way and launched more bolts of that blue energy at Rin. Rin rolled to the ground and fired more Gands at the redhead.
The redhead smirked as Rin rolled to her feet. Rin ran her hands over her thighs and focused. The muscles grew thicker and stronger as her bones became even lighter. She hunched her muscles and jumped as the redhead fired at her again.
Rin frowned as she twisted her body and pushed her feet off the ceiling. She shot more rapid Gands in succession, the black bolts of power occasionally meeting the blue. She flipped and landed gracefully on her feet behind the redhead. The redhead spun to the ground with her leg extended.
Loafers left the floor as Rin jumped away from the jeans clad leg. Blue eyes met aquamarine and the redhead positively smirked at Rin. The younger sorceress looked the redhead over from her pretty, fine boned face, crystalline sapphire eyes, long flowing red hair and, most importantly, the glowing lazuline power floating in her palm. Rin scowled and said, “Aozaki Aoko, I presume.”
“And you’re Tohsaka Rin,” Magic Gunner, Miss Blue, one of the Five Great Magic Users existing today. A mage so powerful that she could defeat a Servant singlehandedly if she so wished. And she was currently grinning at Rin as if the younger magus did something cute.
Drustan snapped, “What the bloody hell’s going on here?”
“Is it safe?” Lea squeaked.
Yukisato appeared from a shadow and smoothed a lock of his dark violet hair from his face. He sneered, “What is the meaning of this, woman?”
“She was testing us, you arrogant twit,” Rin huffed as she flicked her hair back from her face.
Yukisato folded his arms over his chest and snapped, “And who is she to test us?”
“Cach, shut yer mouth Kurokawa before she blows it off,” Drustan said, “She took us all on and we cowered like wee babes.”
Aoko placed her hands on her hips and amended, “Well, save for Tohsaka. She passed my test, the rest of you failed miserably.”
“I don’t know how to fight like that! I just heal and increase mana, I’m not like Rin,” Lea protested softly.
Aoko’s azure eyes flickered over the blonde and said, “You’re a synchronizer. You’d better learn to defend yourself or every moron who has just an iota of power’s going to come after you.”
The pony tailed head bowed as she fidgeted with the leather bag around her neck. Rin watched as she slid it back underneath her purple T-shirt. Yukisato snickered darkly. Drustan’s hands curled into fists as he looked at the shadow mage.
Rin folded her arms under her breasts and waited until Aoko advanced towards the shadow mage. She held out her palm and blasted him. Yukisato screamed as he was sent flying across the classroom. The shadow mage collided into the black board with a heavy thud. Rin pressed her lips together to still the chuckle bubbling in her throat.
“And you ran like a coward into your own shadow, so you shut the hell up,” Aoko said as she walked to the Further’s desk.
Drustan ran a hand through his hair and asked, “What happened to the Further, I mean Sir Shriber? The Old Man’s always here.”
“I don’t know where the Further went, so that’s why I was called here. I’m not a teacher, but Headmaster O’Rourke seemed pretty concerned. Not to mention, I owe the Further Adolf a favor,” Aoko answered as she sat at the desk and reached for her traveling case.
Rin lifted an eyebrow as she took her seat. She asked, “You call him the Further too?”
“So did the generation before me. What, you think you’re the first group to make a pun off that crazy old German’s name?” Aoko retorted with a smirk as she opened her case.
Lea fidgeted and asked, “Then what are we going to do then?”
“Talk about why you three failed the test and Rin passed,” Aoko said as she pulled out a notebook and a pencil.
Yukisato moaned and Drustan asked, “What about peeling the moron off the chalkboard?”
“It’s not like he’s doing anything useful, let him stay there,” Rin snorted, “He ran, at least you two stayed.”
Aoko smiled and said, “Hence why he’s plastered to the board.”
Yukisato pushed himself from the slightly cracked board and brushed his normally immaculate black suit off and headed to his seat. On the way he gave Aoko a scathing look and asked, “Then why did Rin pass while we failed?”
“She fought back, the rest of you hid or ran,” Aoko answered with a tiny shrug.
Rin crossed her legs and rested at her desk. Aoko’s true blue eyes met hers and Rin simply canted her head with a tiny smile. Aoko continued, “She saw me as a threat. She knew if she didn’t stop me that I’d keep coming after and therefore her secrets and possibly her power. Stopping me was the best course of action.”
“Even though in a real fight I wouldn’t have been able to keep up like that,” Rin said with a tiny frown as she tapped her finger against the desk.
Lea asked, “Why not? I mean, to me it looks like you were acting pretty badassed back there.”
“Oh, I’m not going to deny that I’m good, in fact, I’m quite good in all reality, the best one in this class room definitely, but Miss Blue is the Magical Gunner,” Rin paused as she met Aoko’s face, “And she was holding back.”
Aoko positively grinned as her eyes lit up at Rin. Rin folded her arms under her breasts and met the older magus’ azure gaze as Aoko said, “So where you, Tohsaka.”
******
The Vatican
“He escaped,” The seemingly young woman dressed in blue sighed as she rubbed her forehead, “First off, you let a neophyte nun as his keeper and then you act surprised when he escapes?”
She rubbed the bridge of her nose as the five older men in elaborate Cardinals’ robes looked away from her. She edged forward, hands on her hips as she glared at her so called superiors. She pointed and said, “He’s one of the twenty-seven original Dead
Apostles and you were planning to keep him as some sort of obscene pet?”
The youngest Cardinal cleared his throat and said, “Agent Ciel, you have no place to speak to us like that here. You should be thankful we let you continue on as you do, abomination.”
A muscle twitched in Ciel’s cheek as a Black Key started to burn in her palm, demanding release. She checked the urge and met his wavering brown eyes. She moved forward, her skirt flowing behind her as she stared hard into his eyes. “My former condition makes me a perfect candidate to hunt monsters, Your Grace. You would have lost countless resources if it wasn’t for me and my experience. However, this time? You really dropped the ball. Trying to bind Blackmore? How utterly stupid can you get?”
“Ciel, we made a mistake,” the eldest said as he raised his wizened hand to silence her.
Ciel spun to face him and said, “You bloody did. He’s a Dead Apostle with ties to the Mages’ Association. That alone makes him dangerous, but . . . He’s also one of the sodding Twenty-Seven Original Dead Apostles, standing in the ranks of Nrvnqsr Chaos, Stanrobe Calhin and The Forest of Einnashe.”
“That is why you’re going after him,” a hoarse female voice said from the doorway.
Ciel stiffened and her hands curled against her robes. She could feel the Black Keys hidden under there, but she made no move to grab them. However she did turn around.
Standing there was a cruel looking woman dressed in a simple black robe who’s eyes met Ciel’s. “I mean, it’s what you’re good for, right?”
Bitch, Ciel thought dryly as she met the eyes of Narbareck. However, Ciel smiled and replied, “That’s what your lot seems to think, right?”
Narbareck smirked and replied, “Well, since we can’t kill you, we might as well make some use of you, right?”
“Something like that, even though your faith is broken,” Ciel replied sweetly.
The older woman said, “Well, bind Blackmore. We could glean some information off of him, after all, he is an enemy of Altrouge’s.”
“I’m not making any promises,” Ciel replied as she made her way out of the chamber.
Her spine stiffened as she heard Narbareck snort behind her.
******
“That woman’s kinda harsh,” Lea whined as she rubbed her shoulder as Rin, Drustan, and Lea left the Clock Tower.
The rain had ended and the night sky was filling with a heavy fog. Rin wrapped her arms around herself as the wind picked up and whipped her hair back. Drustan said, “And mighty powerful. She probably has more magic circuits than the rest of us combined.”
“She only has one,” Rin said as the three of them walked to their normal restaurant destination after class.
Lea’s green eyes widened as she squeaked, “Only one, but the boom and the blue and the Ray of Death and stuff?”
“She knows how to wield that one circuit in ways that probably none of us could, even myself,” Rin answered, “Compare her to a sniper versus a novice with a machine gun. That fool could fire until he’s well out of bullets but never actually hit you because he has no idea what he’s doing. However, the sniper could nail you from dozens of yards away because they would. Technically, Drustan has more magic circuits than me, but who would you deem more powerful?”
Drustan’s smile was bright as he answered, “You’d own my sorry arse, Rin-lass.”
“Exactly, because I have an innate ability to know how to exactly use what I have to its best advantage. I’m still learning, but Aoko has even more innate ability than I or anyone else in this generation, or even the past four generations ever did,” Rin said as she moved closer to Drustan. Lea was creeping to his free side as well.
The Druid Mage smiled at them both and asked, “Are you lasses cold?”
“Freezing, and you’d better do something about it, Druid,” Rin warned.
Lea clapped her hands together and said, “Oh, make the pretty fire! Make the pretty fire!”
“Anything for you lasses,” Drustan laughed as he cupped his hands together. Simple red and gold flame appeared between his palms, illuminating Drustan and Lea’s faces and spreading warmth from the huge Druid. Rin held her hands out before it with a smile.
“I do so adore it when men are useful,” she said as she remembered grey eyes and a tiny smirk as a warm cup of tea was pressed between her chilly palms when she first woke up.
She shook her head and kept walking. She took a deep breath and Lea giggled but Drustan’s eyes met hers. He moved the fire a little closer to Rin before clapping his palms together. Lea sighed in disappointment but Rin looked up at the Scotsman. She mouthed, “I’m fine.”
He frowned, his broad brow crinkling ever so lightly. Then his hot hands took hers and rubbed them. Lea’s eyes widened as she started to step forward.
“We’ll catch up, lassie,” Drustan said in his rumbling lilt.
Lea frowned and said, “Okay . . . I’ll go ahead and get us a table . . .”
“Thanks,” Drustan said with a flashing smile as Lea trotted off. Rin frowned at the giant Scotsman as he continued to warm her hands. He focused his emerald gaze on her, eyes she wished were steely grey and the fingers holding hers longer and more graceful than Drustan’s blunt workman’s hands.
Drustan asked, “Rin-lass, what still haunts you so?”
“It’s stupid and you shouldn’t ask such a personal question,” Rin snapped as she tried to jerk her hands free.
Drustan sighed and said, “You need to let it out, Lass.”
“I can’t,” Rin snapped, “I have responsibilities and I need to become a true magus. I don’t have time for stupid frivoling things like odd school girl crushes on heroic spirits!”
Drustan blinked at her and Rin sighed and asked, “Have you ever heard of the Holy Grail wars?”
“Lass, I’m a Druid, I pray to the Brigid and the Morrigan, Christ is something of a daft moron to me,” Drustan said with a tiny snort.
Rin snorted at this and stopped trying to fight, instead she relaxed slightly. She started to explain the whole Holy Grail War concept before launching into her sordid tale of Archer, Shirou, Saber, Gilgamish, Kotomine, Ilya, Berserker and Archer’s death to save them all. She sighed and said, “He was so damned arrogant. His last words to me where, ‘I can distract him, Rin, but can I kick his ass?’ Berserker was damned Hercules, and he was saying he could kick his ass . . .”
“Guys would say all sorts of daft things when pretty girls are involved, specially if they’re their Masters,” Drustan said with a tiny smile, “Sounds like he knew he was going to die.”
Rin sighed and said, “So I helped Shirou and Saber escape and . . . the Command Sigal vanished and I knew.”
“And you helped Shirou and Saber, dinna you?” Drustan asked softly.
Rin nodded and said, “Of course. Shirou is a moron and Saber was so weak she could barely stand.”
“Sounds like you have a wee bit of a crush on Shirou,” Drustan said with a tiny knowing smile.
Rin drew back her left hand and hit his arm. Hard. The impact reverberated up her arm and the side of her hand hurt. He chuckled as she glared up at him. “I am not that transparent,” Rin said with a snort and a small toss of her hair.
“And your daft lad fell for Saber, who it stumbles this little Celt’s heart to find out that mighty King Arthur was a wee lassie herself,” Drustan mused as he stroked her hair.
She leaned on the giant Druid and nodded. She sighed with a small sigh, “If you would have seen her . . . She was so beautiful, so strong and so tiny. This small girl wielded so much power and strength, yet she was kind underneath that royal exterior. And her eyes,” Rin’s cheeks warmed as she remembered Saber’s tiny cries as she licked her in time to Shirou’s thrusts. About sinking her fingers into liquid heat and rubbing until Saber’s vibrant eyes turned hazy.
Drustan’s chest rumbled as he chuckled. Rin looked up at him and smacked his arm again. “And how much have those damned crows told you?” she demanded with a frown.
Drustan’s eyes sparkled as he answered, “Silver bullet.”
She punched him and stormed off in direction of the restaurant.
******
“Am I really that pathetic?” Lea asked with a sigh as Rin studied the dart in her hand. She narrowed her eyes at the board and then hurled the dart at it. Her shoulders slumped and she snorted when it hit the second ring from the bull’s eye on the target.
Rin asked, “What do you mean?”
“About what Miss Aozaki said,” Lea sighed as she palmed a slim greyish blue crystal in her palm. The lined structure was familiar to Rin and not one of her favorites, yet when the small blonde was nervous, she always palmed that piece of kyanite. Even though it never picked up negative energy, it really didn’t do much else either. Rin would have preferred citrine, which never picked up negative energy but also enhanced one’s knowledge for creative uses among other things.
Rin sighed as she hurled another dart. She smirked as it almost hit the bull’s eye -Archer would have been proud- and turned towards the other mage. She smoothed her hair back and stated, “She was very right. You’re a synchronizer and for that to work you have to join with someone. Also known as sex. And, unlike creating mana with two willing partners, you don’t have to orgasm. Someone can rape you and get the same effect. So unless you want to get constantly raped, you’d better learn how to defend yourself.”
Lea’s grey-green eyes widened as her mouth dropped into an O. She fidgeted with her crystal and squeaked, “My abilities don’t work that way . . .”
“You don’t need to shoot Gands like I do, but there are other ways to defend yourself,” Rin snorted as she picked up her drink from her table. She sipped on her Shirley Temple before taking the cherry out and putting it between her lips. She pulled the stem out of the cherry and proceeded to idly chew on the candied fruit.
Lea asked, “How so?”
“Storing mana in your crystals,” Rin answered as she lifted her eyebrows in disbelief, “Which you can make them explode on contact.”
The crystal magus’ eyes widened even more and as she replied, “Really? Even I can do that?”
“Pure mana can be quite volatile, but I can show you how,” Rin said as she flicked her hair back.
Lea swallowed and squeaked, “You’re going to hold this over my head, aren’t you?”
“Of course, your marks are almost as high as mine, and I can’t let you get away with that easily, can I?” Rin replied with a wicked grin.
Lea’s shoulders slumped as she sniffled, “Manipulative witch.”
“Of course,” Rin said as she tilted her head up imperiously.
Lea snorted and then leaned over. She asked, “What’s going on between you and Drustan?”
“He’s a friend,” Rin answered as she swallowed her cherry.
Lea frowned and asked, “But . . . just before we got here . . . you two . . .?”
“That loo is even more horrific than Miss Blue on her monthly,” Drustan said as he leaned over Lea and picked up his bottle of Guiness. “Or what I assume to be Miss Blue on her monthlies . . .” He opened the green bottle and proceeded to down the beer quickly.
Rin snorted, “That is why one should use the facilities before we come here.”
“But this place does have the best fish ever,” Lea mused, “But really, you two an item?”
“Friends, Lea-lass, Rin and I are friends,” Drustan corrected as he placed his bottle on the table, “Good friends and nothing more, but if anyone hurts her, I’ll pound their arse to dust.”
Lea asked, “So you’re single?”
“Aye,” Drustan answered with a nod.
Lea grinned and said, “Awesome.”
Drustan’s worried green gaze met Rin’s and she smiled. “Bollocks,” the Scotsman muttered.
******
Kurokawa Yukisato watched as what he liked to refer to as the Rin-tachi scurried off to the pub they usually took dinner at. The giant Scot walked between the two girls, the stocky blonde and the raven haired temptress with her sparkling aquamarine eyes. Those same eyes he’d noticed when he had first walked into the Clock Tower and met the Tohsaka, the last member of that magus family.
The Kurokawa Clan was an odd one with legends of mixed blood in their family. It was rumored that someone of the Tohno clan raped his great-great grandmother years ago and it was that bastard child, not one of his grandfather’s, that represented Yukisato’s bloodline. Even through the demon blood was quite thin within Yukisato, there were times where he heard it whisper to him.
Like the moment he looked into Tohsaka Rin’s ocean colored eyes.
He’d become obsessed, and coming from such a dark family, he had approached her through challenges and insults. Yet each time Rin had come out the victor with a toss of those ebon tresses and a wicked gleam in her gem bright eyes. So the improbable temptress had filled his thoughts with those of possession instead of power, which was the whole reason he was here.
His father would have disapproved that he was straying from learning because of one simple Grail War participant who managed to survive. If anything, if he had found out that the Magical Gunner Miss Blue was currently acting as a substitute instructor he would have ordered Yukisato to take her -to impregnate her- by any means possible.
That was just the nature of the beast in the Kurokawa clan.
You keep what you take and what you kill and power is absolute either wielded personally or through secondary means such as a talented child.
However, he wanted to keep Rin for himself. Of course a child created out of that union would be powerful, but Rin would control him, no matter what. He knew that the instant he began their tiny tiffs against one and another. She saw it as almost playful, he saw that he couldn’t obtain her.
You just don’t have the means to do so yet.
Yukisato spun around at the voice in his head. He frowned and said aloud, “Who’s there?”
The soft, giggling child-like female voice spoke yet again, That’s cute, you want that girl who doesn’t want you. Who’ll never want you because she’s pining after a ghost she can’t touch again, despite her former mastery.
“Mind reading is very rude,” Yukisato said dryly as he adjusted his coat around him.
Out of the fog stepped a petite figure dressed in a flowing black dress with her long black hair flowing behind her. She focused ruby eyes on him and her skin was the color of moonlight. She almost drifted to him, a creature of fog and shadows and he watched her.
She stopped mere feet before him and looked up at him with those glowing red eyes. She tilted her head and asked, “Would he make Blackmore a good gift?”
“Well, if Blackmore changes him himself then the brat’ll become a bird,” a stream lined figure in black armor said as he appeared beside the girl in black. He held a wickedly sharp sword in his hands and red eyes gleamed beneath the helm of his armor.
A man garbed in a white breast plate but with a flowing red lined white cloak appeared beside the girl as well. He wore a tricorn hat at a jaunty angle and smirked at Yukisato. He placed his hands on his hips and said, “If not, I’d like to take him.”
“Well, that settles it then,” the teenage girl said as she put a hand on the man in white’s shoulder and smiled up at him. “You can have him, my White Knight.”
The black armored man asked, “What about Primate Murder?”
Red eyes twinkled as white shoulders shook as she chuckled beneath her hand. She answered, “Silly, there would be nothing left if I fed him to Primate Murder. He’d be a bloody smear. We want a magus Dead Apostle, right? To get things going.”
“Why do you care so much about the Magus Association anyway, princess?” the man in white asked with a sigh.
Her eyes narrowed and said, “Because it’s the beginning. Take out the Mages and the Church and she’ll come back to play.”
“You beat her once, why bother so again?” the Black Knight asked.
Yukisato glared and snapped, “What the hell are you three blathering on about?”
“Dear boy, we’re Dead Apostles, and you’re going to become one too,” the man in white all but purred as he moved towards Yukisato.
Yukisato snorted, “I highly doubt it.” He opened the door within his shadow and stepped into it. He was surrounded the somber greys, violets, blues and black that made up his shadows. He began to run through his world, but a hand garbed in white reached out before him and grabbed him by the lapels of his jacket. He cried out as he was jerked back into foggy London right before the man in white.
The princess giggled, “Aww, he thought he could get away. Have fun, Svelten . . .”
Svelten’s red eyes bore down on Yukisato. The young mage squirmed and pushed on the larger man’s shoulders before he was whipped around with his back against the Dead Apostle. He screamed as he was shoved down onto his knees with the vampire bent over him.
He yelped as his coat was lifted up ceremoniously away. He began to prey as his pants were ripped from his body. And he began to moan in ecstacy as the fangs entered his throat as the vampire lord took him.
The last thing he was truly aware of through the haze of almost painful orgasmic bliss and blood was the young girl’s voice asking, “Strout? Is that really suppose to go there?”
“Apparently so, the mage’s enjoying it,” was the embarrassed reply.
******
Drustan was feeling rather good with a couple of Guinesses in his system. He stood in the middle of two fine lasses and finally got whatever was bothering Rin out in the open. He studied the black haired mage thoughtfully.
Under all the pretenses, she was just a normal, if sometimes lazy and tomboyish girl.
A girl who had her heart broken and sacrificed something that no proper lass should.
Aye, he was quite fond of Rin, but it was a friendly, little sister fondness. Sides, the lass was too tiny. She’d break. Now, Aoko on the other hand . . .
Well, he was going to go toss off a bit of seed with his hand to the image of the impressive older redheaded magus attacking him as soon as he got to his flat and into the shower.
“You’re not paying attention,” Rin said, snapping his mind out of that particular vison.
Lea frowned at the piece of quartz in her hand and said, “I’m sucking ass at this Rin.”
“No, you have it in your head that you can’t do it so therefore you’re making yourself incapable of doing a task that would be quite simple for you,” Rin snapped as she slapped her hand over the piece of crystal in the blonde mage’s hand.
Drustan looked away with a chuckle and shook his head. He heard a soft caw above his head and looked up. He frowned at the crow looking down at him from the lit street light as they walked.
From the corner of his eye he saw Rin force Lea’s hand over her crystal. He dimly heard their conversation as he looked up at the oddly placed crow. Not that crows and London were a strange combination, just crows, despite being all black, were not nocturnal birds.
The crow’s black eyes met Drustan’s and he saw the quartz flash golden. He heard Lea make a joyous noise that always reminded him of a marmot as the crow bristled and cawed loudly. It flapped its wings furiously and cawed its warning again.
Frowning, he took each girl’s arm with his hands.
Lea’s eyes widened as she went, “Eh?” She was still holding her charged crystal.
Rin asked, “What the hell is wrong, Drustan?”
“I’m walking you lasses home, no questions asked,” Drustan said grimly as he propelled the girls to their flats.
Originally Posted by ItsaRandomUsername
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