Death borders upon our birth. [CLOSED]

[scorchedchivalry]

Characters: Saber (Alter), Kariya Matou, and Jeanne d'Arc/Ruler
Setting: 48th Floor
Format: Prose, but will switch to action if preferred.
Summary: Saber had warned Kariya that she would kill him the next time she saw him and had given him some advice on how to prevent it. Now to see if he listened to her...
Warnings: potential for violence


Saber had not been right since the end of October, the end of that trick or treat candy hunt. No, she'd failed the one thing she'd intended to do and it was just another knife into her gut to know she'd failed as king again. It made it near impossible to keep the corruption, the taint of Angra Mainyu at bay, to not listen to the whispers of those evils, of the darkness feeding her rage.

So, Saber had taken to keeping herself away from others. When she found the new floor, the one with the gravestones, she wandered about them. Being on an unfamiliar floor, she was clad in her blackened armor, the red lines a lot more prominent than usual emitting a faint glow and the mark of the tainted grail has spread up her cheek. She was not okay, but she had no means right then to regain herself.

Eventually, a name on a stone caught her attention and she stopped before it. Silently, she looked down at the grave. Unmoving, she may as well be yet another forlorn statue in the graveyard.

Until someone else showed up...

Comments

[vermicompost]

Kariya wasn't in the best state. His condition had continued to deteriorate since he'd arrived, and the stress of seeing what had happened to others in the tower hadn't helped affairs any. He knew he was going to die if things continued as they were, but that didn't stop him from wandering. He felt restless. He wondered how Sakura was, what she was doing. Would he see her again?

When, in his travels, he found the graveyard, it appealed to him, for more reasons than one. It suited his mood: gray, gloomy, and contemplative. It was a strange, eerie place, like so many of the towers' floors, and the illusion of being outside was so convincing...

He was moving aimlessly, pausing to gaze at the graves, studying names. He stepped out from under the shadows of a crumbling mausoleum and stopped short. There was the unmistakable, dark yet glowing figure of Saber. He remembered her violence, her promise to kill him. He had no desire to confront her again. He took a step back, but his gait was slow and shuffling, not to mention clumsy, and it would take him a while to make any effective retreat.