Fanfiction of a fanfiction, that's about right. A snippet, an omake. Anyone who read the related fanfic might able to tell easily lol.
It's kind of related to the earlier omake, so i just going to post it here.....*rolls*
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The blade sinks into the attacker chest, to be exact, his heart. She instinctively thrust her blade deeper. Her desperate move to survive has succeed. This attacker, single handily killing all 30 men strong of her escort, only sparing her. Dealing with such monstrosity she cannot hope to survive the onslaught herself but again she is not exactly a normal person, she is the king of Britain, known as King Arthur. She has to give a fight even the situation seem hopeless because she know if she fall here, her country will soon follow.
Both of the attacker hand slumped weak on his sides, and the black and white oriental shortsword fell from his hand and planted on the ground. His body now slumped onto the slender build king and letting out a hissed groan. Arturia still in state of shock, she did not move from her position and still supporting the attacker weight with her sword.
"Ah......i couldn't stop you even now, eh. I guess a failure is a failure after all...." the attacker said in weakened voice
Arturia know that gruff voice very well. Now she is stiffen hard. She cannot believe it if the attacker is him. The person who attempted on her life, no , it cannot be him, it is impossible. She look again at the attacker face, covered with helmet and an small opening for the visor. She cannot see any facial feature from there. Her hand shaking but she brace herself and proceed herself to unmask the outrageous attacker. She lifted the helm and first he could see bronze tanned skin. Her inside screamed so hard on the fact but still she hoped that it is not that person. Then she saw a familiar face shape, lips with blood runs from its side, nose, the unique eyes and finally the white gray hair as he remove the helmet. He looks at her with that steel coloured eyes which gradually losing it's light and a small sad smile but somehow a nostalgic hint behind.
"Archer....Farran?! Why?! Why are you doing this?! " she almost yelled
Arturia now stricken with grief, a very deep one. She though she could trust him with even her life but now he is in front of her, dying in attempt of her life.
Archer coughed more blood and his body is weaker and slumping lower. Arturia spontaneously putting her left arm on his back, try to support his body from falling over but the sheer weight now buckled both of them on their knees.
"Heh, this is so like you. Does not matter now and then, you are the same no matter how" Archer said
"I trusted you....." she said
"I trusted you even with my life, my secret......"
"But if even you doing this, means i am a mistake after all....."
Archer coughed harder and said
"No, your highness, far from a mistake. I tried to stop you from condemning yourself. I did not have a plan, so i had to do this. I guess it does not work, well that expected from a shitty plan anyway."
"Farran....i do not follow you here." Arturia replied
Archer looked to her eyes and said
"You are relentless, unstoppable and determined on every path you choose to take. You always look grandly, brilliantly, beautiful. You are everything and ever i strive to be."
No, i am not. I am far from it. My has done many mistakes and now my country in brink of ruins
Arturia did not say a word and she grits her teeth hard as she feel she is nothing like what Archer said just now.
"Then i failed even to become like you. I also fail to save you on first time then i still fail to save you this time. I am sorry Arturia, i am hopeless after all. Karghhh" Archer coughed more blood. His condition getting worse now.
"Stop! You wouldn't last long if you keep talking!" she said
She take a peek on his wound and it was confirmed a mortal wound. There is no way saving him now. He is on borrowed time now. She gritted her teeth hard, again.
"I am nothing like what you said.......do i remind you of someone else.....?" she said in low voice.
Archer carved a small smile on here bloody lips.
"I do not, you is the one i talk about. No mistaking about it, your highness."
Arturia frowns, she still cannot believe it
"Oh king of knights, i ask you one thing. Do not take that path i have taken. You are definitely not a mistake, you are a great king, o' Arturia Pendragon. Do not regret the path you had taken since you have carve the legend on your own........" he continued
Archer body starts to fade. Glimmering lights surrounding him. Arturia shocked as she witness the phenomenon.
"Archer Farran, what are you........." Arturia asked
"This is the path you will end up if you took that contract, Arturia. You will become humanity cleaner with no will and suffer for all eternity like i do. A Counter guardian, beast of Alaya." Archer answered weakly
"You are one of the magical phenomenon that Merlin mentioned. But....."
"Do not take the deal. Do not seek the Grail. You do not need it." Archer cuts her short
Arturia fall to silence, her face hung down. Archer wanted to comfort her but it might turn to worse. He not good on farewell too so probably it was for the best.
"No..."
Archer heard her muttering
"Why...."
He knows that she had many questions from that word and he could not answer her.
Suddenly Arturia gets close to him, wrapping her slender left arm around his massive body and she buried her face on her left shoulder.
"Please, don't go...."
Archer surprised hearing that but he is familiar with that tone. She falls to her rare vulnerable state. No one but Archer have seen it, even Merlin.
"My country is falling apart. All things take on wrong turn. I don't care who or what you are. Whether you with me or against me, i do not care either. You seem to know what goes wrong and maybe....just maybe we can fix it. Please, i beg you......please stay."
Archer do not know how to answer that but it does not matter, he is already on the death's door.
"Your highness, even that is an order, it was a tall one. I could not survive this wound. I am beyond saving." he said
"Are you not some kind of powerful spirit? You could be healed from this kind of injury? Something could be done right? Tell me what i can do!" she replied with a hoarse voice probably she could not hold the sorrow anymore
That does sound stupid, even she admit it. She know by now he cannot be saved by something short than a miracle. Even these days miracles are hard to come by but she had to cling onto something, no matter how small the chances.
"As you already know, your highness. Your holy blade is one if not the most powerful magical artifact ever existed and it could bring death to magical being, even the powerful ones such as a heroic spirit if they let their guard down. My spiritual core is already done for and i dont have noble phantasm or even ability to save me from this situation, unfortunately." Archer said
She expected that, her proud holy sword, symbol of her rule as King Arthur has taken the life of one of her important, precious person.
Precious?
"I am sorry.......I'm sorry..........I did not meant to.......i did not want to kill.........."
She said frantically and she buried her face deeper on his shoulder.
It's pained Archer to heard that, it was not her fault. Again he out of words and time to comfort her. He moved himself to take a look on her face. Her face was full with pained expression. Seem it almost break her apart.
"It is fine, for i has raised sword against King of Britons, King Arthur. Anything short of death would not do justice, whatever the reason is." He said in almost steely cold voice.
Somehow that snapped back Arturia from her shaken situation. Now she look much more calm.
"Good, just remember not to accept the contract......" he said
"But Farran, contract of what? Ah........Farran?"
She shocked when she saw the light around Archer intensifies and he is fading in accelerated pace now.
"Guh"
Archer have a lot to say, even he should not. Again, he is running out of time. He lift his bloodied right hand and touches her cheek. She flinches a bit but did not avoid it. He rubs on it gentle and trail of blood smears her cheek. He hated seeing his blood ruining her beauty but he wanted to feel her, probably for the first time after eternity.
"What i am about to say won't make sense to you but i am going to say it anyway because somehow i wanted to be selfish." he chuckled
Arturia did not say anything. She just nodded and smiled weakly on the dying counter guardian face as he still tried to make light of the situation.
"Saber, i do not regret meeting you. The two week of war we had been together had teach me many thing. I though it just a fleeting, immature, foolish feel of a teen but i was gravely mistaken."
Arturia is overwhelmingly surprised when she saw Archer face. She saw a tender face with a small smile but ridden with melancholic, sadness and regret hint behind it.
"I love you, Saber. Ever since the first time i saw you on the summoning, i am already fallen for you. I am sorry for my incompetence, i am sorry i cannot save you back then and even now. I am sorry, Saber........"
Something inside her cracked when she heard that
"Held your head high on what good you have done, as your way of king is not a m..........."
"Farran, wait! What was that? Saber? Who? Farran!" she asked while she grip tightly on Archer
He fades and completely turn into dust of light that flies to the sky.
"Archer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" she shouted all out her lungs.
He completely disappeared. Her sword that lodged in his heart earlier fall on the ground with a thud. The weight she supported earlier is gone and her hand that was holding his body now supporting nothing but emptiness as air can be.
What was that?
Was that just a dream?
She looked around, the carnage and death around her.
She looked on her sword, the blood is still there
She touched her left cheek, she feel wetness and warmth. She looked on her fingers and it is blood, his blood.
She start breathing heavily.
It was not a dream.
Her breath become shorter
What Archer said earlier did not make sense, on the first time at least. Then she recall about the thing called counter guardian. She does not remember much about her old teacher rambling but she did recall one thing, that thing suddenly become clear on her mind.
Outside the bound of time
She is breathing erratically now. Then she recalled the name Archer said, Saber. She was not sure if he meant that for her but she never remembered being called like that. A term rings on her head.
Counter Guardians.
Archer said he is one of them. He is definitely proficient with bows. Archer Farran......Archer......? It is a class name?
She stared on his sword. Her holy sword Excalibur that she still holds tight. She recalled again about a contract, humanity cleaner, counter guardian and then the name, Saber. It is always associated with sword. It hits her again when she remember him said about about contract and her.
No.
It could not be, impossible.
The crack grows.
She do not want to admit it but somehow deep inside her, it feels all is on the place. He also mention about meeting her, on his teens? How could that possible, she could not remember meeting that unique, one of the kind of person on her entire of life. Then it rings again on her head.
Outside the bounds of time
That context, it all makes everything in sense. He meet her after she become some sort of guardian and now he is also one of them. He fall in love with her during that the first time they met?
Love
The crack spreads.
A common word but a strange thing to her. Arturia is alien to concept of love. She know what that words means but never know what it is like. Merlin always blabber about it but she could not have luxury on those as her duty as a king comes first. How can a man fall in love with her. She is a man in disguise with no feminine feature at all.
How does love feels like?
The crack grows larger.
Out of nowhere, she recalled her moments with Archer, from the beginning of their meeting. She was comfortable around him, even to the point that she was happy just talking to him. At some point he even complaint why she spend so much time with him but all of that was just a show, she was more than welcomed to meet him anytime. After sometime, she even felt safe around her and trusted him even with her secret. The odd feeling snowballed and then on that night she recalled. The night where they fall onto embrace on each other and his warm enveloped him drives her feeling more, to the point their faces are so close to each other and their lips almost...........
The crack spreads like a plague
Her sword completely dropped on the ground as she released her grip. Her body goes limp but both her palm is on the ground, prevented her from slumping on the ground. The revelations puts her to horror. She was in love with him, undeniably.
Why.
One could wonder, why Archer decided to tell his feelings before he disappeared. It was not something he would do normally. Perhaps he hoped that would solidify the reason she should not make the deal with Alaya? Perhaps his last chance to tell her something that took eternity for him to realize? Some kind of fulfilment? As if she did not make the deal, his job was already done and he would not in any circumstance to meet her again, even in another call of the Grail? As much he tried to be cold and devoid of emotion, he still had shred of humanity inside him. The notion that it was the final confrontation they will ever had or there was another force compelling him to make that silly confession? However none does that matters, because what he done has opposite effect on her. Which will cause the path back on it tracks. Some things already set in stone. The beginning of fateful meeting of King of Knights and Wrought-Iron Hero former self needs to happen.
Suddenly, her mind replays the scene of that earlier attack, vividly, each every frame of it. She felt something off during the attack but that recollection made it clear. Archer was never meant to harm her. There was no murderous intent from him at that moment. Unfortunately, the carnage and destruction caused by one man and instinct took over. It told her that she had to retaliate or die.
It broke, it shattered. One could call it rationality. Emotions engulf her with the force of a tsunami.
Why.
Droplets of water hits the ground. She clenched her hand hard. She looked up to the sky.
She screamed in pain.
She cries her heart out.
"Ridiculous!"
"Ridiculous!"
"Ridiculous! Nonsense!"
She screamed it out loud. She wanted to deny it but she could not. It was definitely love since it fits the rambling of her mentor about the subject. It was truly a beautiful feeling. It was her first time experiencing it, yet she had done something terrible, something unforgivable. She had killed the one she loved, with her own hand. Tears would not stop flowing from her eyes. She have not cried that hard for a long time of her life.
"Why it has to be this way, Archer?!" she screamed all her might.
music start- Manten by Kalafina
She pounded the ground hard. Her head fall on the ground. She just kept screaming and crying
Why this hurts so much?
Why this feels so much hurting than any battle wounds and injuries?
It almost felt like dying is better than this feeling.
Her memories with Archer runs nonstop in her head. The images and moment of her memories of him gradually picking up speed to the point it seem incoherent to her. Her memories runs like a video fast forwarded, in repeated loop.
My head hurts, please stop, it hurts.
It hurts, It hurts, It hurts, It hurts, It hurts, It hurts, It hurts, It hurts, It hurts, It hurts, It hurts, It hurts, It hurts, It hurts, It hurts, It hurts, It hurts, It hurts, It hurts, It hurts,
Painful, Painful, Painful, Painful, Painful, Painful, Painful, Painful, Painful, Painful, Painful, Painful, Painful, Painful, Painful, Painful, Painful, Painful, Painful, Painful, Painful, Painful,
Make it stop, Make it stop, Make it stop, Make it stop, Make it stop, Make it stop, Make it stop, Make it stop, Make it stop, Make it stop, Make it stop, Make it stop, Make it stop,
Both of her hand gripped her head hard and she let out a final sharp, piercing scream that felt like her soul escaped along with it, toward the sky.
One says that sometimes in order to protect the sanity or functionality of a person during a traumatic or horrific event, the human brain can go to such extreme that all the recollection of the event would be suppressed and no longer to be accessed by any normal circumstances. That is what is happening to her and her mind snapped.
The images and memories of Archer turned into pitch black, one by one. Every one of them swallowed by darkness. Arturia just stares blankly, emotionless with her lifeless eyes on the sky and her hand just slumped on her sides. As the last bit of her memories with Archer get swallowed by the blackness, her view spins into spiral and as she closed her eyes, she fall on the ground like a puppet losing it strings.
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Bedivere and his cavalry was send when the king's convoy was behind the schedule. As they get close to the scene, smoke could be seen from the distance and they rushed to the location. Smell of smoke, charred flesh, rustic smell of blood filled the area. Bedivere cannot believe what he has seen. Charred limbs and bodies, couple of huge explosive crater, corpse riddled with arrows. It was a horror scene and he fear with this kind of destruction, the king would not be alive but he hoped that miracles occurred and the king would survive this.
"Your highness, please answer me if you are alive!" he shouted
"King Arthur, where are you?!"
Bedivere running around, checking every place and digging under the corpse to find his king. His men already mobilized to search the king as well.
He finally found the king lying not far from him, motionless close to a pool of blood. Bedivere dashed to her place and pray that the king is still alive.
"Your highness, please be alive. The help is here, stay strong my king."
He tried to wake the king up but no avail. He checked his king body for any injuries or wound. There is blood on her armor, her face and some part of the clothes but there is none. Seem it was not his king's blood after all. He relieved when he saw the king opened his eyes.
"Bedivere? Why are you here?" King Arthur asked him
"My king? I have come to your aid. What have happened here, your majesty? It was a miracle you have survived this devastation. There was no one survived except you, my king." he answered
King Arthur looked around, surely a battle had happened here and the destruction was overwhelming. She looked puzzled instead.
"Your majesty?" Bedivere said, as he hope the king could tell him.
"I have no memory of what happened here, i afraid." the king answered, her face look troubled.
That was unexpected answer from the king. The magnitude of the battle was evident to be forgotten. He did check the king's head and there is no visible bruise too. Furthermore there was no enemy corpse around which is absurd, based on the look of the battlefield itself.
King Arthur saw planted shortswords on the pool of blood near the place he was unconscious earlier. A pair of black and white blade with some kind of oriental design on it. As she tried to get a closer look, the blade start to vanish, from the hilt.
Some kind of magecraft?
Still she cannot recognize the sword or even more the attacker. She turned around when she heard Bedivere get close to her.
"My king, i think it is very dangerous for us to stay longer. There might be enemies still around since there was no enemy corpse around." Bedivere suggested
"Very wise indeed, Sir Bedivere. Let's us make haste then" the king agrees.
So they leave the scene as soon as possible. King Arthur glanced on the remnant of the battlefield for the last time. The king shakes her head and still cannot recall anything in significance. Seem it was just another battle like her other previous ones before. King Arthur survives another day and fate lies the path that unknown to the king, yet.
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"Well, he failed but again that was expected, i guess"
Alaya metaphorically lies on Her metaphorically chair. She knew it all along, that Wrought-Iron Hero would not succeed. She going to be more surprised if he actually did it but again She already surprised that he manage to stay that long. A tome appear on Her metaphorically hand, floating on air. That tome is the record for Wrought-Iron Hero regarding the mission.
"Now, i wonder what will happen now~"
She spins the floating tome several time, then a metaphorically smirk appear on Her metaphorically face.
The tome burned into nothingness.
"It does not hurt anyone if they had no knowledge of it~"
Even Alaya have no power to change some things. The thing called Fate and Destiny. Even She does not know much about them but She knows one thing for sure. Something cannot be changed, whatever effort you put to change it, they will always stay the same. Means Alaya send him for what? He was doomed to fail on the very moment he accepted the mission.
Obviously for entertainment.
Seeing someone struggle just to change the outcome that already set in stone is endearing and fun, for Her at least. Wrought-Iron Hero is also one of Her favourite subject. He is unique, in a sense. A human rebirth from fire, caused by the Grail and even had his life turned over by the same reason. A selfless person wished to be a hero and ended up become Her personal slave, a Counter Guardian. His journey till his death was fun and it does not end there. Even in here, he continued to suffer and it is a lovely entertainment. Ah, that scene from various Grail war callings, still fun for Her to watch. Not to mention his connection to her might to be newest addition, Arturia Pendragon.
Alaya have Her personal archive viewer. It is safe to say it is kind of some kind of interactive "movie" media space. She have all records of Her Counter Guardians doing all kind of missions. Simply to say, She had recordings of all his Counter Guardians in action in the moment they are summoned, on Her tip of metaphorical finger. Not only that, the archive can view details on everything including the five senses, thoughts and also covers a very large area, as in very large in proximity of the Counter Guardian. Then again, most of her personnel are mundane, set aside a few which includes the Wrought-Iron Hero.
"I suppose that new record would stave me off boredom for awhile~"
She hums as She proceed to Her personal archive space to check Her newest additions.
*****
A/N : That is the end of it. Inspired by this story. Same for the first omake, only that takes place after THIS happened lel. Still don't have beta so sorry for my shit grammar 
. *hides in dark corner of the box*
Originally Posted by Imperial
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