Good day fellow lunatics.
Long time lurker, new poster here. I'd probably have kept lurking forever if it weren't because my brain got invaded by a particularly bothersome plot bunny, that wouldn't stop nibbling at my cortex until I wrote it down with prejudice.
And so I did.
But then another thought creeped in. What's the point of writing something if you don't post it somewhere. Sure it might be a piece of crap but at least someone, somewhere might point and laugh and have some fun at my attempts at creative writing. And that's all that matters.
A warning beforehad, there are one or two VERY heavy spoilers, so to anyone who is still halfway through Fate and doesn't know the big secrets yet, don't read it.
That said I believe most people here already know more about Fate than even Nasu does. Also, keep in mind I'm taking some creative liberties when writing this. Neither am I exactly a scholar in Fate S/N lore, just a dabbler, I dabble. As such some might disagree or even feel outraged at my particular interpretations of the characters.
Still here? Good, then wihout further ado I give you this.
[Standard Disclaimer: I don't own any of the copyrighted characters and blah blah blah]
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The pub was noisy, lively and had quite a cheery atmosphere, which was the main reason why Kiritsugu Emiya hated it. It was also practically under the nose of the Mage's association Clock Tower, which was probably the reason Zelretch had chosen it.
Kiritsugu found Zelretch easily enough, a large man with a wide shit eating grin and the largest personality in the whole place. He was playing darts and practically quaffing his pint, spilling more than he drank. After ten minutes of patient waiting Kiritsugu got fed up and gently tapped him on the shoulder. It was doubly irritating, because he was quite sure Zelretch had been aware of him the moment he'd stepped into the pub, hell, probably the second he set foot on London. He really wanted to give him a piece of his mind, but when Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg asks to meet with you, you don't tell him to go stuff it where the sun don't shine.
Zelretch left the dartboard to the consternation of the other players, since they were playing under the rules that whoever lost paid for the next round, and Zelretch had been both losing spectacularly and spending lavishly, but there were things he had to do. So he walked with Kiritsugu towards a remote table where they could have some measure of privacy after ordering a couple more pints.
“How are you doing Emiya?” he asked by way of small talk.
“Slowly dying from curse poisoning, aside from that, just dandy.”
“Hurm, I can see how being submerged in a flood of that pestilent goo wouldn't exactly do wonders for your health. Had any word from the Einzberns?”
“Not unless you count the usual death threats and vows to utterly and completely destroy me the moment they see me.”
“Yes well, that's to be expected, Jubstacheit is nothing if not proud. Also a senile old bastard. I'm a bit worried about the little girl though, I mean, growing up all alone under her grandfather's thumb, and taught to hate the name of Emiya. I expect she'll turn out to be one downright scary ruthless psycho. I'm sure her grandpa will be proud.”
“Did you call me just so that you could rub more salt in the wounds? Because if you're going to do so I can do that well alone on my own.”
“Ah yes, about that, there's the boy, how is that coming along?”
“I don't know what you're talking about.”
“Don't give me that crap, your new pet project, the kid you rescued from the fire. He's called Shirou isn't he?” Zelretch paused for a moment to take a long gulp from his pint and sighed as he put it down, then gave Kiritsugu a knowing look before pressing on. “You gave him the scabbard, you saved his life and at the same time cursed him to this whole magic crap. Now it's quite obvious you're grooming the boy to be your successor. A dick move if I may say so and utterly brilliant as well.”
“That's not it at all and you know it, he was the only survivor but he was dying, using Avalon was the only way I could save his life.”
“At first yes, desperate situations require desperate measures. I understand that all too well. But you didn't need to take in the kid, nor did you have to let him keep the scabbard. He's healed enough by now, you could take it out, sure the procedure is complex and extremely painful but it only entails a small risk of dying, and that sort of consideration never stopped a magus before from laying hands on such a precious object, it certainly wouldn't stop Zouken.”
“Zouken's a monster, barely human any more. And I'm not putting the kid through that sort of hell just so that I can have again some mouldy ancient treasure I can't even really use anyway. He's suffered enough already.”
Zelretch smiled at that. “Good, but you didn't deny the part about grooming the boy.”
“No I didn't. But it's not like I have much of a choice, as long as he has the scabbard in him, he's pretty much in the thick of it all, might as well get him ready for it.”
“You're not exactly going out of your way to train the boy, but I'm not here to discuss your teaching or parenting methods.” There was a sudden change in the timbre of Zelretch's voice, suddenly losing his devil-may-care attitude and his visage became sombre, reflecting the seriousness of the situation. “I'm here to talk about the whole fourth grail war fiasco.”
“I was there, I know what happened, fiasco is an understatement.” Kiritsugu dropped his head his eyes suddenly focusing on the table's grain, unable to hold Zelretch's stare. “I did everything I could, but it still wasn't enough. I didn't understand her, didn't want to, if only I had... ”
“I know, you're guilty of many things, but denial is not one of them, you know you were at fault, but you're wrong if you believe things would have turned out differently if you'd trusted her more.”
That got Kiritsugu's attention and he looked up, with a questioning look in his eyes. “What do you mean?”
“I mean that you got it wrong about her, sure she was noble, honest, brave, compassionate and beautiful. But she wasn't the right one for the job.” Now it was Zelretch's eyes that looked away from Kiritsugu his gaze seemingly lost into the distance watching something only he could see, and from what Kiritsugu knew of the man, that wasn't a figure of speech.
“The grail war has become something poisonous and vile, a thing of darkness and hopelessness. When she was summoned, it was with hopes that she could change that. A ray of light and hope in the darkness.” He paused and looked into his pint then continued. “She was a hero, not the hero we deserved, but the one we thought we needed. Nothing less than a silver knight, shining.”
“No, the grail war didn't deserve her, but it needed her, if only to show us that not even the purest light, can triumph against the tide of darkness the grail has become. What we deserve, what we need is something else, something that dwells in the darkness, that understands it, that has made it, its own, and yet defies it, not giving in to it. Something that manages to shine a single beacon of hope in the darkest depths.”
“What are you talking about?” said Kiritsugu wondering if the old man hadn't gone crazy and whether that'd make any difference at all.
Then he noticed the doodle Zelretch had been making on the table using the moisture from the cold beers.
It was shaped like a bat.
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And that's it. Nothing more than a plot bunny and a prologue for an idea that I'm actually scared of developing further, lest it turns into utter crap.
But then again, that has never really stopped fanfic writers.
What do you think?
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